Within six to eight months, the business actually doubled. Then it tripled. I had to get three different accountants to keep up.

Mike Church

Owner, Church Creative Flooring

Industry

Flooring / Home Improvement

Location

Finger Lakes, NY

Products

Radio

Church Creative Flooring didn’t start as a flooring company. Mike Church inherited a business that sold furniture and carpet out of a 6,000-square-foot showroom in the Finger Lakes — a generational hand-off that came with its own history, its own habits, and its own ceiling. Mike saw a different future. He bet on flooring, bet on radio, and the business he took over became something his family hadn’t imagined.

Within six to eight months of his first radio campaign, business doubled. Then it tripled. The showroom that once split its floor space between sofas and carpet samples is now devoted entirely to flooring — hardwood, luxury vinyl, tile, every new product category that has redefined the industry in the past decade. A new building followed. Church Creative Flooring has been in it for thirteen years.

Financially it’s a burden, but it’s well worth it. I’ve been advertising too long to stop now.

The proof, for Mike, has always been anecdotal in the best possible way. Customers walk in and tell him they hear him constantly. Contractors mention it. Neighbors mention it. And when a schedule change pulls his spots off the air, people notice that too — they ask where he went, when he’s coming back. That kind of ambient presence in a community isn’t something you can manufacture with a one-week push. Mike has learned that the hard way through watching others try.

“If you advertise a week, you’ve only dealt with a week’s worth of people,” he says. The math is simple, even if the patience required to live by it isn’t. Mike has stayed consistent through slow seasons and busy ones, through a flooring industry that has exploded with new product categories and an installer shortage that has become an industry-wide headache. Through all of it, the calculus hasn’t changed.

I gotta have the name out there. The moment people stop hearing you, they start forgetting you — and this business runs on being remembered.

He’s particular about how that name sounds when people hear it. Mike is pushing to get back behind the microphone himself, recording his own spots rather than relying on produced, polished alternatives. There’s a reason for that. The Finger Lakes is not an anonymous market. People know their neighbors. They know their business owners. When Mike’s voice comes through the radio, it carries a different weight than a commercial that could have come from anywhere.

The tagline has stayed constant too: the world at your feet. It fits. Church Creative Flooring sits underneath every room it works in, underfoot in homes and businesses across the region, and Mike has spent more than a decade making sure that when someone is ready to think about their floors, his name is already there.

I hear you on the radio constantly — that’s what they tell me. And when I’m not on, they ask when I’m coming back.

He has no plans to stop. The flooring category keeps moving, new materials keep arriving, and staying relevant in a market this active requires more than a good showroom. It requires presence. It requires repetition. It requires the kind of long-game thinking that most businesses talk about and few actually practice.

Mike Church practices it. He’s been at it too long to quit.

Interviewer: You've been advertising with us for a long, long time. Why is it well worth it?

Mike Church: Because I get a lot of feedback — people say they hear me on the radio constantly. And when I'm not on the radio, they wonder when I'm going to be back on. So thank God you're here.

Interviewer: Any stories about people who came into the store saying they heard about the place on the radio?

Mike Church: Most of the feedback I get is when I'm out — I'm out a lot, at dinners and events — and that's usually when I hear from people about how awesome the ads are. I'd say that's a good source for getting information out there, as well as advertising, and I stand by it 100 percent.

Interviewer: If you had a friend opening a new business and they said, hey, Mike, I hear you on the radio — would you recommend it? What would you tell them?

Mike Church: I would tell them yes — that's the way I got started. And I'd tell them to get launched that way. People love hearing the owner, or whoever the manager is, speaking on the radio about whatever they're advertising — their products, their business, whatever they have. That personal connection means a lot.

Interviewer: Why do you think it's important to have the owner or manager on the air?

Mike Church: How else are you going to get your name out there? You can't use print anymore — very limited distribution. The radio is all over the place. And you've got to keep in mind, there are people working around here 24-hour shifts, and those companies have the radio on constantly. How else are you going to get your name out there if you don't do it?

Interviewer: What has radio meant for your business?

Mike Church: When I took over from my family and started running it on my own, a friend of mine worked for the radio group, and that's when we really launched into radio advertising in a big way. Literally within six to eight months, the business actually doubled in size from what I was used to. And then right after that, it actually tripled — and it's been launched ever since. I had to hire three different accountants just to keep up with the business. We remodeled the whole showroom — I made it strictly floor covering instead of furniture and carpeting. We made the old store in the plaza, which was 6,000 square feet, all flooring only. Then once the plaza changed hands, we built the store I'm in now — 6,000 square feet — and I believe this is my 13th or 14th year here. The flooring industry is just exploding with all different new products, and the only way to succeed is to stay on top of all that, which we do by going to seminars constantly and updating ourselves.

Interviewer: A lot of businesses advertise for just a week here, a sale there. But you're on pretty consistently. Why do you think that's important?

Mike Church: You've got to be consistent. If you advertise for a week, you've only dealt with a week's worth of people. If you're on there all the time, people who didn't hear you in week one — maybe they were on vacation — may hear you in week two, three, or four. I think the proper way to do it, if you're starting out, is at least a month straight, then section it off from there. But the more you're out there on the air, the more people are going to hear you.

Interviewer: What do you think stands out about your commercials?

Mike Church: "We put the world at your feet." That's a very big thing. And of course, I did all my advertising myself originally, which was a success. Now there's a jingle — "Church Creative Flooring, but the world at your feet" — and I will say, I did not sing like that. But it's the jingle they have. Eventually we'll be going back on the air with something more personal, where customers hear the actual owner of the business. I'll create my own ads rather than just running a generic commercial spot. That's probably what we'll start doing after the first of the year.

Interviewer: When you first started shelling out money for advertising, was it a little scary at first — wondering where all the people were?

Mike Church: Honestly, it really wasn't that bad, because of the fact that the sales had doubled, so I was covered. The business just got too big too fast and we were scrambling to catch up — I didn't have enough crews working for us. Trying to get installers is a continuous problem no matter what industry you're in.

Interviewer: Why will you continue to advertise with us?

Mike Church: Because if I didn't advertise, what was I going to do? I've got to have the name out there. And basically, I'm hoping I'm only advertising for myself and not for the competition. I mean, we'll see what happens — but the name recognition keeps us relevant, and that's what matters.