From Almost Fired to $4M: The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything with Josh Baca

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Welcome to Close it now, thepodcast that's revolutionizing the
H Vac and home improvementtrades industries.
Get ready to dive deep intothe world of heating, ventilation
and air conditioning.
We're turning up the heat onindustry standards and cooling down
misconceptions.
And we're not just talkingabout fixing vents and adjusting

(00:21):
thermostats.
It's about the transformativemovement that's reshaping the very
foundation of H VAC and home improvement.
We're the driving force,inspiring top performers who crave
excellence not only in theirprofessional endeavors, but also
in fitness, nutrition,relationships, and personal growth,
proving that we can indeedhave it all.

(00:44):
This is Close it now, whereexcellence meets excitement.
Let's get to work now.
Your host, Sam Wakefield.
Well, all right.
Welcome back to Close It Now.
Let's use radio voice for a second.
Chef Wakefield.
Here it is.

(01:05):
Creepy salesman voice on the line.
We're got a no.
Just kidding.
Stop being weird and start selling.
Everybody just have normalconversations with people.
So today I have.
I'm not just stoked andexcited like I normally say.
I have one of my oldestfriends in this.
In this game since I startedcoaching and training on the line

(01:28):
on the show today.
On the line.
And I am so excited to catchup, to reconnect Josh and I.
This is so.
For everybody that doesn'tknow, this is Josh Baca.
He is.
He's a total badass for one.
But our story is fun and itbounces around.
We connected originally lost,didn't really lose touch, but just

(01:52):
kind of life went different ways.
And the last little bit we'vereconnected and I've got.
Actually, before we get intoit, I've got one a huge surprise
because he was actually onJosh Walker's podcast yesterday.
J Dub, money maker.
What's up, Josh?
What's up, Jason?
Yeah, so this is kind of fun.

(02:14):
So I actually grabbed my capthat I got from Jason when I was
in Minneapolis at the at Champions.
So throw on my Masters of theHustle hat for a minute here and
so give you a huge shout out.
Jason got.
Got the hat.
So everybody, if you'rewatching on YouTube.
Go ahead, shout out J Dub.

(02:35):
Yeah, shout out J Dub.
So Everybody watching onYouTube like, like and subscribe.
But you'll see co branded fora second.
Got my close it now shirt, myMasters of the Hustle hat.
So tip of the hat to you, Jason.
You thank you.
Because you made me realizethat as long as I've known Josh,
he's never been on the show,which is you know, I apologize for

(02:56):
that everybody, because I havekept you from hearing one of the
most inspiring stories in thetrades and yeah.
So, man, so welcome to the show.
He is.
Let's see, let's give a littlebit of details here.
The official intro.
This is his two yearanniversary at peak home performance.

(03:17):
If you don't know, that isWeldon Long's company in Colorado
Springs and he is the numberone guy there.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
And so that's part of what,what we're going to talk about today.
So thanks for being on theshow, man.
Hey, man.
Thank you, Sam.
It is an honor, brother.
And it's, it's always fun,first and foremost and it's always

(03:40):
nice to get, get back in touchwith you and get to do stuff like
this.
We don't do it often enough.
We both realize that.
You hit me up.
You're like, josh, why haven'tyou been on the show?
I think it was my response, Iwas incredulous.
I was like, bro, you tell methis man told me, you tell me when
and where and I'm gonna bethere, bro.

(04:01):
Right?
Yeah.
Oh my gosh, I love it, man.
So let's, let's fill everybodyin, give everybody a little bit of
your, you know, highlight reel.
You know, how long you been inthe trades, what, you know, how,
how'd your roles progress, youknow, across the years and you know,
and how'd you get to where you are?
I mean that's, that's a reallycool story.
I know you told it yesterdayon, you know, a little bit on, on

(04:22):
Jason's podcast, but differentcommunity, a lot of different people
listen.
So love to hear your story again.
And then of course there's afew sections we're going to, to camp
out on.
Absolutely.
Well, first and foremost, iffor any of your listeners that are
familiar with Jason Walker andwhat he's done in the community,

(04:42):
you know, he, Wally, WeldonLong's his mentor as well.
So it's kind of a, it kind ofcomes full circle.
But I did episode 170 ofMasters of the Hustle.
That was the original episodeI did with, with JDub and yesterday
I was honored to do episode 304.
So first and foremost for, foryour listeners, when you guys get

(05:04):
a chance, check those two out.
That'll really help you get anin depth catch up on where some of
my origin story, if you will.
But for, for those that arewith us now today on the, on the
badass Close it now with,with, you know, the legendary Sam
Wakefield, we'll just say asfar as how I got started in the industry,

(05:27):
it was a while back here in,in Colorado.
There's a sheet metal unionin, in Denver called Local Number
nine.
And so there was a five yearapprenticeship program that I had
originally enrolled in.
And this is back, you know,before people were using CAD machines,
so we were doing hand layout.

(05:49):
We were old school tenors, sowe were hand layout using the Pythagorean
theorem and theory andparallel line development, radial
line development.
So we were creating these bigfittings for commercial buildings.
So you would get placed witha, with a commercial outfit, you
know, Southland Industries, RKMechanical, one of these big outfits.

(06:09):
And then, you know, we weredoing big downtown Denver high rises.
So that's how I kind of cut myteeth in the industry.
Was on the, on the tenon sideof it.
Sure.
And then I transitioned fourarms for days, right?
Yeah, yeah, man, this is.
You were really grinding back then.
You're with a lot of oldschool union guys.
So it was an interestingintroduction and baptism by fire,

(06:34):
if you will.
I eventually transitioned toresidential H vac.
So shout out to this trade andthis industry.
It completely saved my life, literally.
And I, I owe it.
I owe it everything I got andI love it.
And so then, and then juststarted building from.
From there.

(06:55):
Did take about a 10 yearhiatus out of the trade in between
that time and then got backinto it in 2016.
And then I think you and I meta few years after that.
Yeah, we met in 2019 wouldhave been.
Yeah, so April of 2019 is whenthe first closing out podcast went
up.
And it wasn't very long after that.

(07:16):
I think we originally connected.
Yeah, Good, good friend ofmine, Kyle Nelson, Shout out Kyle.
He was like, man, have youheard of Sam Wakefield?
And I'm like, nah.
He's like, man, you got tocheck them out.
That's exactly what I did.
I started listening to your.
Started listening to you.
And then I finally reached outjust because I was wanting to break
in to the sales side of it.

(07:38):
I was just struggling, man.
Didn't have a solid process orI don't know what.
I didn't know what the hell Iwas doing.
So he didn't even know whatyou didn't know at that time?
I was drowning and the lifepreserver was Sam Wakefield.
So I was holding on andclutching on.
And so when I finally got achance to talk to you, I was like,
brother, I need help.

(07:59):
And you were like, you've cometo the right place.
Me, man, with open Arms.
And I will forever be grateful and.
And loyal to that.
So I think I.
I reached back out to youshortly thereafter and I'm like,
dude, your help is working.

(08:20):
Yeah.
I'm implementing.
Was so laid back.
It was so customer centric.
It was, it was just so.
I hesitate to use the word gentle.
It was, it was firm, but it.
In its tone and tenor, it was gentle.
It was, it was the.
It was that embodiment, youknow, that.

(08:43):
That cadence that you embody,that, that Sam Wakefield just laid
back, you know, helpful, informative.
It's not rah rah, you know.
Exactly.
It's real digestible.
So it was easy for a guy likeme that was reaching and treading
water and reaching for help.

(09:03):
It was easy for a guy like meto hold on to it and, and then implement.
It was a.
It was a really nice.
And so that I say all that tosay anybody new to the industry,
new to the trade, that's.
That's might be struggling or,you know, trying to figure out some
stuff.

(09:24):
Sam's a good guy to getstarted with.
A thousand percent.
I appreciate that, man.
This is not scripted.
Everybody appreciate it.
Send me my money now.
Because you told me to say no.
I'm just kidding.
That's.
That's real spit.
Anybody that knows me knowsanything I say is.
It's fresh off the top of the dome.

(09:44):
And you know, it's.
It's coming from the heart.
Yeah.
Those that know me is, isyou're going to get stuff pretty
blunt and coming straight,straight off out the heart.
Word.
That's the only way to be, man.
Authenticity.
You can't.
You cannot fake it.
You cannot fake the authentic,Authentic, authentic approach.
Right.
Just when you speak from theheart, I mean, it cuts through all

(10:06):
the white noise.
Right?
100, man.
100.
And.
And clients that we serve knowthat other fellow tradesmen know
that other, other in homesales professionals.
We know that we're.
We're all humans first beforewe get into the trade.
So you.
You can feel that because it'san energy thing and authenticity

(10:27):
is.
It's.
It's something you can't purchase.
You can't buy it off of Amazon.
They're not going to deliverit to your home either.
Right.
Got it.
Or you don't.
Yeah.
And you and I instantlyconnected based on that foundation
of authenticity.
I was like, I came to you,open arms and vulnerable, talking
about my weaknesses, say, hey,about to get canned here.

(10:48):
Like I'm.
You got anything to con?
How can you help me?
I'm a Good friend of mine,Kyle, spoke on you.
Is this true?
Can you.
And you were like, yeah, youcame to the right place.
And I was like, well, we'll see.
And you were right.
I reached back out and I'mlike, damn, bro, that stuff works,
right?
Oh, that's funny.
So this is cool, because ifyou've listened to a lot of the episodes,
everybody.

(11:09):
So Josh that I talk about,this is his story.
We're reliving it.
And he reached.
It was funny.
We were kind of catching up onthis before this episode.
And I remember the exact placein Austin that I was at the time,
because I remember this veryspecific overpass that I was sitting
at a stoplight, looking atthis overpass, when my phone rings.

(11:32):
And I'm like, who is this guy?
And it's totally what he said.
He's like, man, you got tohelp me.
I'm about to.
They're about to can mebecause my numbers are so bad.
It was the lowest on the totem pole.
And yeah, man, it's what,three months later, he's texting
me and be like, dude, look,check it out.
I won the number one for the week.
Yeah.
Big, big breakthrough.
I was so excited and justenthusiastic to implement some.

(11:56):
I'm like, damn, dude.
Sam knows what the hell he'stalking about.
So that was your journey as a.
Selling tech at.
At your first company up in Denver.
And so.
And then, of course, you werethere for, you know, a couple more
years past that.
Yeah.
And so then you had a cooltransition out of selling tech into
what you're doing now, Right?

(12:17):
Correct.
Yeah.
Design consultant.
Which is.
And I'll never forget, too, Iremember I was working for a company
in Centennial, Colorado.
I was a.
A new green technician.
Barely had my Natecertifications, you know, just super
green.
And I'm chilling with a goodfriend of mine that I met there.

(12:38):
He's still, to this day a goodfriend of mine.
Shout out, Vincent.
And shout out, you know,Coolerado, he opened up his own little
company.
So shout out to Vincent.
And I looked over at Vincent.
I see these comfort advisorswalking in.
And now, mind you, this was abigger company, so we'd have meetings
in the morning with thecompany, wide meetings.

(12:59):
And lo and behold, about anhour into the meeting, you'd see
these comfort advisors comestrolling in wearing their chinos
and drinking, sipping on their coffee.
And they had their nice littlequarter zip polos on, just looking
like they didn't have a carein the world, right?
Just sipping on these Starbucks.
And I told Vincent.
I'm like, hey, who, who arethese cats?

(13:21):
Those are the comfortadvisors, right?
They.
Oh, these.
They make big bank whoopy woo.
And I'm like, really?
I'm like.
And I said to myself, andwhat, what do these dudes got that
we don't got, right?
Besides, they seem like theyhad everything, right.
Sure.
I'm like, nah.
I told Vincent.
I'm like, bro, that could,that could be.

(13:42):
These are just men, just like us.
They bleed just like us.
And I think I'm built to do that.
I want to do that.
Good luck, you know?
And I tried breaking throughfor a long time to get into that,
and it just.
I.
But I never gave up on that journey.
I kept knocking.
Finally I had to kick the doorin and get in.
And once I got in, be carefulwhat you wish for, people, because

(14:05):
it'll.
It'll.
It'll spit you up, man.
It'll chew you and spit youup, man.
Just so.
But I, I got in.
But if you could persevere, itcan turn out to be some of the best.
The best thing you can ever do.
Oh, 100%.
I love, love hearing this partof the story because that's the.
In fact, I'd love to camp outthere a little bit because there's
a lot of people that listenthat are either, you know, it could

(14:29):
be in several different placesin their journey.
They could be that sellingtech that's like, oh, they're seeing
the, you know, the, theadvisors come in and like, oh my
gosh, what do they have thatwe don't have?
Right.
And.
Or they could be working onthat transition, or they could be,
you know, getting.
Or maybe they started at thatadvisor role or project manager role,
and they're like, whoa, thisis a whole different animal than

(14:51):
what we thought it was goingto be.
So couple questions along the way.
Where was your mind?
So I love that you had theconcept that, well, they're just.
They bleed like we do.
Right.
Everybody puts their pants onthe same.
But the difference, of course,was, you know, where I want to go
with this.
Where did your.

(15:12):
What did it take for you to.
One to step into that role and mentally.
Right.
So what did you have to dointernally to recognize that one?
You already had an idea that,well, if they can do it, I can do
it.
But what did you have to workon along the way to actually prepare

(15:32):
yourself for the skills to get there?
Wow, that is such an amazing question.
So for me to answer that, I'dsay for me, originally, I was just
Enamored.
Enamored or taken back just bythe fact that, you know, here I am
grinding it out as a tech,putting in this work, you know, blood,

(15:53):
sweat and tears and trying tolearn this trade.
And, and it's not, it's not,it's not glamorous and, but it's,
it's righteous.
It's not glamorous, but it's lucrative.
But you really gotta grind andgrind it out.
But there's so many layers toH Vac, so I starting to see different
layers.
You got tune up technicians, right?
You got, you got CSRs up inthe office, you have advanced techs,

(16:18):
you have boiler technicians,you have selling texts, then you
have comfort advisors, designconsultants, owners.
Just all these layers.
So in the trade, you gotta dowhat I did and ask yourself, okay,
with the skills that I have orthe skills that I want to acquire,

(16:39):
I might not even know whatit's going to take.
But what's going to be my lanein the trade?
What's going to be the best fit?
How can I best serve this industry?
And in turn, the industry isgoing to serve you and your, your
dreams and wishes.
Well, I knew immediately thatmy role, even though I, I loved being

(17:02):
in the field, I love doinginstalls, I love working with tools,
I love brazing in line sets, Ilove sheet metal fabrication, I love
doing.
But I knew, nah, homie, I'm,I'm, I was built to be a design consultant.
I was built for sales.
Now you could, if you askedme, how do you know that?
I'd have been like, I don'tknow, these dudes are, I see these

(17:24):
dudes driving Porsches andthey got these wives.
I know that that needs to be me.
Whoopty Woo.
I was seeing the distraction,the glitz and the glamour, right?
The fame.
These guys are rock stars, right?
Somebody once said your, yoursalesmen are the, are the extreme
athletes of the business world.
And they always, always stuckwith me because you got athletes

(17:45):
out there, but then you got XGames, right?
Yeah.
The dudes that are the, thestraight up badasses, these are the
studs.
These are dudes creating flipsand doing tricks that no one, oh,
that's, he's never going toland that.
And this does all this andthen lands it and you're like, that's
why he's an X game gold medal stud.

(18:05):
So I was always drawn toward,okay, I don't want to be regular
schmegular.
This is just my vernacular.
My.
Not that anybody is.
I just in my own Mind, I waslike, you know, I'm destined for
greatness.
I just had all kinds of ambition.
They call it being full ofpiss and vinegar.

(18:25):
I just have any skill set ormindset to back it up.
So the transition was brutal.
Just.
So don't do what I did.
Learn from guys like me, like Sam.
That's why we got you on theshow, to, like, cover your mistakes
so people don't have to makethe same ones along the way.
We can, like, start on thebacks of giants, right?

(18:48):
Get with guys like Sam andJason Walker and Weldon Long that
have been there, learn from them.
Me, I just went in full blast,just taking all the damage that comes
with it, and then reached outto Sam, like, dude, I'm drowning.
You know, like, save me.
Like, you know, but you don'thave to do that.
If you, you can just.

(19:08):
If this is where you want tobe, you can be there.
Reach out to Sam, man.
Spend the money, invest.
Get involved in the trainingand learn it right?
And save yourself some.
Some blood, sweat and tears.
But either way, you do it.
Just.
Just do it.
You know, you gotta so.
And thanks.
And it's so true.
When you hire a coach, itcompresses time, you know, can somebody

(19:30):
get there on their own?
Absolutely.
You know, and I'm happy togive them the, you know, probably,
I don't know, five, sixhundred, a thousand books that I've
read to get there and, youknow, 15 years of conferences and
conventions and speakers andcoaches that I've hired and the hunt.
Literal hundreds of, you know,if you, if you think on, you know,
on average, it's a recipe for Success.

(19:52):
Everybody.
Invest 10% of your income intoyour own personal growth every year,
and you will not stay the same.
Your income will not staywhere it's at.
It will only go up.
So, you know, put together 19years of that at six figures a year.
We've got a lot invested.
Or you can compress time andjust, hey, what mistakes did you

(20:16):
make that I can, you know, Ican learn from?
But, so this episode's aboutyou, though.
Let's, let's.
Let's take it along.
Continue the path here alittle bit.
So you're, you're begincrushing it as a selling tech.
You're doing the thing, butyou got your site set on that.
You know, I call it projectmanager, you call it the design,

(20:38):
you know, design specialist.
All the.
It's all the same thing.
It's like different names.
Right?
But so how did you make that transition?
Because that's a really cooljump when you went from.
Because there's a lot ofpeople around the country that would
give their eye teeth to getthe opportunity to work at a company
that somebody like Weldon Longowns and does training in, in his

(21:02):
own company.
Of course it's going to be successful.
It's his own company.
So how did that transition happen?
And then tell us about yourjourney there.
Because, I mean, we talked alittle while back and, you know,
you were still on the climb, huh?
Yeah.
So that transition was, forme, it was brutal.
But I wouldn't trade it forthe world.
It was not easy.

(21:23):
I started voicing my.
And declaring my intentions early.
So I would go into the generalmanager's office.
I say, hey, sir, I know I'mjust, you know, tune up technician,
but I've sold more maintenanceplans than any other tune up tech
or you guys introduced thisnew water purification out of the
entire company.

(21:44):
First day out, out of all thedepartments, first guy to sell one,
right?
So I'm trying to show my initiative.
Oh, he hands me, he goes,okay, what are you trying to do?
I.
I said, man, I want to be oneof these guys.
I wanna.
I wanna be part of your salesforce one of your.
I wanna be your top sales guy, okay?
And from his perspective,probably hears that quite a bit.

(22:05):
So be prepared for that.
These guys, that.
And not everybody.
Not everybody's cut out forthat, right?
They see the glitz and the glamour.
They don't see the hard workthat goes into it.
And I do mean hard work.
As you mentioned, hours andout, right?
You're dedicating so much ofyour life, you don't see that, right?

(22:25):
So he hands me this case fullof DVDs, and it's this.
This bulletproof sales processby a guy named Weldon Long.
No.
Nice.
And so I'm watching this.
How long.
This is DVDs, right?
So I'm working all day,running my calls, and all night for
weeks on end.
I'm watching these DVDs dayin, day out.

(22:48):
So I come back to the generalmanager and I'm like, I'm ready.
He's like, ready for what?
I'm like, man, I'm.
Put me in, coach.
Learn the process.
I'm good.
I've studied this.
I could.
I'm ready.
I'm ready to get in.
Let me show you what I got.
And he goes, okay, cool.
Go down the hall, talk to this guy.
He's the head of our sales.
And I was like, what?
So I'm starting to realizethey're not just handing these spots

(23:11):
out.
Now I got to go talk to thissales manager guy.
The gate.
This guy.
And this guy was keeping.
He was the gatekeeper.
And I walk into his office,and I'm like, hey, talk to the general
manager.
He put me on game.
I started just putting in the work.
I've been living and breathing this.
I'm ready to show you what I got.
And the guy looks me up anddown, right?
He knew of me, but he didn'tknow who I was.

(23:32):
And he says, you know, Josh, Ijust don't see it.
Wow.
I.
I didn't even know.
Gut punch, right?
Gut punch, bro.
I'm like, you don't see it?
I.
You haven't even put me in fora play.
I'm all still on the bench,technically, once you put me in.
And then tell me if you don'tsay, how.

(23:53):
How could you?
How could you say.
And I was just like.
I took it personal.
I shouldn't have done that.
But I was like, oh, okay.
You don't see it.
Yeah, I just.
I just don't see it.
Then I realized, okay, this isgonna be harder than I thought, you
know?
So I had to revise my tacticfrom there and exactly what I did.
And that's why I realized,boy, this.

(24:16):
You gotta really.
Not only do you have to wantit and have the drive and the initiative
and be able to articulate anddeclare that, you got to know there's
more to this.
There's more.
There's different components.
Now.
You got to find a way toconvince others.
So I'm saying to myself, hewon't let me in sales because I'm

(24:36):
not selling myself.
I don't even know how to sell myself.
So then it dawned on me.
I don't know jack about sales, right?
DVDs, and this dude's a monster.
But I don't.
When it comes to doing it inreal life with another person, I
had nothing.
I had no comeback for that.
I had no rebuttals.
He was probably testing me tosee, okay, well, sell yourself.

(24:56):
And I.
I had nothing.
So that's when it dawned on melike, oh, this is real.
This is real.
This isn't just, you know,it's not just a game.
It is a game, but it's not aneasy one.
It's easy.
Everybody do it, right?
Right?
Let's camp out there a second,because I love this.
There's a couple things I wantto highlight here before we continue.

(25:17):
One is, you know, and you wereexactly right.
Anybody that I'VE ever hiredfor my teams, we would always narrow
it down to the top few.
And then the ones that Ireally wanted, I'd tell them, you
know, I just don't think it'sgoing to be a fit because I wanted
to see how they're going toone, what type of conversation is

(25:41):
going to happen after that andtwo, I wanted to see how they're
going to do with follow upbecause if they won't follow up on
their own application to me,then they're not following up to
my client.
So you're 100% right.
This is the test.
So everybody that's out there,will you that first know when you're
trying to, you know whenyou're wanting to get into the cells.

(26:03):
It's, it could very well bewhat's happening.
Let's, let's see.
Like the.
We'll see.
Prove it.
Right.
So big question though,because there's a major.
Now that you've lived bothworlds, you've been the selling technician
and you've been the advisor.
Let's.
This is something that I don'thear anyone really talk about.

(26:26):
Let's talk about thedifference in how, how not necessarily
how easy it is to sell, buthow the homeowner perceives you and
receives information as atechnician versus how they perceive
you and receive information inthe advisor role.
Because it's very different animals.

(26:47):
You can be a great sellingtech and sometimes just bomb as an
advisor or sometimes and vice versa.
Or sometimes we can use it togrow because it's almost like the
minor leagues because of thelevel of trust and rapport there.
So unpack that a little bitbecause you've lived through both

(27:08):
places.
Let's talk about like some ofthe differences there and what we
have to do in both roles to besuccessful because it's different.
No, you're absolutely right.
You hit the nail on the headwith that.
The skill set doesn'tautomatically translate from selling
technician to in home, projectmanager, sales advice, you know,

(27:32):
comfort, advisor, designconsent, whatever you want to call
it, they don't translate immediately.
So if you make the rookiemistake that I made and felt like,
hey, for, you know, atechnician based role, man, I'm crushing
it.
I'm getting some success insales and I'm not even in a full
sales role.
That just must mean I'm, I'm a salesman.

(27:53):
So put me in.
No, that was, I was a greenrookie mistake that I didn't even
know I was making.
And so when you are atechnician or a selling tech There's
a bit the way you're receivedby homeowners.
It's, there's a bit you're,you're, you're looked at.
Your credibility is almostinterwoven immediately because you're

(28:17):
there as an expert for one.
But when you go into a full ondesign consultant role and you're
running marketed leads, youmight just be, you know, this isn't
a homeowner that has beenusing your company, having a, having
a maintenance agreement withthis company, having a relationship
with this company that's seentech after tech year after year from

(28:39):
this company.
There, there's some built intrust and comfortability in there.
You have a relationship withthat client and it's, and it's, you're
more of a trusted advisor as atechnician because they know about
you.
Now I'm arriving at somebody'sdoor that has never met me in life.
They don't know where I camefrom, my background or anything.

(29:02):
And in an hour and a halflater they're going to be signing
over checks of upwards of$98,000, sometimes 45,000, 32,000,
15,004, whatever it may be.
How does, how do you bridgethat gap?
Right now you better bebringing tons.

(29:23):
Megatons.
Yeah, it's like blind date tomarriage proposal in four in an hour
and a half.
How do we get there versusyears of building relationships sometimes.
Right?
Exactly.
And so that's the differencebetween when you're little, taking
your BMX bike and jumping overa five foot ditch versus now you're

(29:44):
on a Kawasaki trying to clearthe Grand Canyon.
That's a great analogy, man.
I like it.
You better know.
What the hell?
Consider that one R andduplicate Robin.
Duplicated.
I'm probably gonna say that again.
R D, baby.
Yeah, you can have that one.
That one just came.
I told you, I freestyle.
That came off the top of that.
I've never even said that inmy life.
I love it.
To me that is because that's areal analogy.

(30:07):
You know, I was a BMX kid inthe 80s, I'd be jumping now.
I'm looking over this chasmwhich is the Grand Canyon and it
dawned on me like, oh, hey,hey player.
There's levels to this.
Oh yeah, you're definitelygoing to be going from the minor
leagues.
You know, you got E1 team andthen you have straight up the pros.

(30:30):
And the pros.
These dudes are accomplished.
These dudes are, you know, soyou got to find dudes that are going
to embrace you and you got tobe somebody Worth embracing, but
you're just not going to stepin and get an overnight sensation.
At least it didn't happen forme that way.
Yeah, it all is directlyrelated to the work and the attention

(30:53):
to detail and all the thingswe put into it right along the way.
So for everybody listening,I'm throwing this out there.
This is a total side note I'mworking on.
I found my new filler wordwith my crutch word, which is right
at the end of sentences.
So call me out on it if I.
If you hear me say rightagain, because I've made a commitment
to eradicate that from my language.

(31:16):
So quick lesson for everyone.
If you recognize that you havea crutch word, eliminate it from
your vocabulary, because itonly becomes distracting to the people
you're trying to communicate to.
I got a good way to eliminate that.
I had a buddy that he.
His crutch was more of a phrase.
He would always say, you knowwhat I mean?
After everything he said.
So he would be like, yeah,man, we're gonna.

(31:37):
We're gonna slide down to this party.
You know what I mean?
And then when we go there, ifwe do meet these chicks.
What we'll probably do, youknow what I mean?
And I pointed out to him, I'mlike, hey, bro, you keep saying,
do you know what I mean?
He goes, I am.
I go, yeah, after everythingyou say?
He had a brilliant response.
He goes, well, if you want meto get.
Stop saying that, just tell me after.

(31:58):
Every time I say that, justsay, yeah, I do now.
And so he'd say, hey, man,we're about to leave this party.
And I go, yeah, I do now.
And he was like, why are yousaying that?
I go, because you asked me, doyou know what I mean?
I do now.
So I was.
So what do you want me to say?
Every time you say, right,same thing will work.
I'll say.
I'll say, hey, you are right.

(32:18):
You are right.
There you go.
Nailed it.
That'll get you rid of thatcrutch in a heartbeat.
Watch.
Oh, I love this.
I love this so much.
This is good.
Because talk about real worldlessons here.
And I'm living proof, man,when you choose to be a lifelong
learner and you choose toalways be a student, you can learn
from anyone, anywhere, anytime.
And that's what keeps usdriving forward, is.

(32:41):
Keeps us growing.
And that's crucial, especiallyin this conversation.
It's really great how itapplies, because part of What I'm
hearing from you is you can'tjust get there and then you've arrived.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Even though as bad as we wantthat with the.
With the passion and soul inour hearts, man, you can't.

(33:03):
You got to put in the work.
Even in these podcasts andthis, These.
These.
These glimpses of national attention.
I mean, don't get it twisted, audience.
I'm speaking directly to youright now.
Nine out of ten times, I am exhausted.
On my third call of the day,I'm up in an attic, just smothered

(33:24):
in insulation, sizing out that attic.
How many square feet of insulation?
I've been on a call three orfour hours.
I've been running since earlyin the morning.
Sales meeting, call, call, call.
And I'm two hours away fromhome, and I just stepped on a nail,
you know?
And none of that matters, man.

(33:44):
I have a homeowner here.
It's got a massive solutionthat they need answers for, and they're
looking to me as an expert.
They've invited me into their home.
Why are they going to chooseme over four or five different contractors
and sign on the dotted linefor a $52,000 home h vac project?

(34:06):
Why?
Because it's all about the work.
That I'm up and I'm not scaredto get down.
And this isn't me.
All day, all day long, I'musually mess, dirt on my shoulders.
I'm in crawl spaces.
I got spiders crawling on myneck, you know, And I'm like, why
am I doing this?
It is not glamorous, but.
But people don't see that.

(34:27):
They.
They see the planes and thevacations and the cars and.
And, you know, and.
Which is fine, but don't getit twisted.
It is truly about the work.
And.
And you.
You'll realize that just likeI realize that.
And so it's going to weed outthose that are scared to do the work.
Right?
If you're scared to be inthose trenches, then you're not going

(34:48):
to achieve that level ofsuccess, you know?
And that's one thing about me.
I'm not scared.
I've had installers call me out.
Yeah, you sold this job, bro.
We can't get the line set outthe way you recommended it.
We'll do.
Oh, yeah, okay.
I'm so sorry.
Let me see.
You're at this address.
Yeah, we're here.
We're going to take a smokebreak because.
Yeah, you don't.
I don't think you know whatyou're doing okay.

(35:08):
All right, I'll call you back.
Boom.
I show up to the job site.
I'm right there.
I'm like, hold up.
Let's get down there.
Show me.
Show me where you were talkingabout where we couldn't run this
line set.
Yeah, you don't know whatyou're talking about.
You sold this, but this can'tbe done.
And then I just start bangingout the line set.
Yeah, and then you do itexactly as you described.
Homeowner comes out and seesthis dude polo'd up fresh to death

(35:32):
with a tool belt on and makingit work.
And now you got two installerswith a sitting there with a cigarette
in their mouth going, oh, damn.
The sales guy just.
He just ran the line set.
So it really.
The respect is going to comefrom, you know, really, really putting
in the work and really doingit, Not.

(35:53):
Not.
Not talking about it.
We talk on these podcasts andwe talk in the industry.
We're trying to encourage people.
But at the end of the day,man, you got to ask yourself, are
you a real grinder?
Are you a guy that's gonna.
Because now if you are, okay,you're built for this because that
means you have fortitude,intestinal fortitude.
You got consistency.

(36:15):
You still keep getting up andfailures and pain don't discourage
you.
Okay?
So now guys like Sam are gonnasay, okay, yeah, you want to be in
sales.
You shown some sales acumen, some.
A little bit of articulation.
You got some emotionalintelligence going on.
That's great, but deep, man,do you got that.

(36:37):
Do you got the mental fortitude?
Do you have guts?
You got the cojones.
That's.
That's that next level.
Can you follow up with me?
Are you going to say, hey,man, you know, and that.
That's a big component of it, too.
Now, if you got all that, thenget ready.
Your life's about to change,and you're here now.
If you don't, that's when youwant to reach out to guys like me

(36:58):
or Sam or Jason or Wally.
Then, you know, just titans inthe industry.
Not.
Not that I'm a titan in the industry.
I'm saying these guys are my mentors.
These are guys that I reachedout to, and they.
They help to refine that skillset, calm down the ambition, and
I'll outwork everybody.
Okay, I see that you're active.

(37:18):
You're fully active.
I get that.
Now we got to start workingwith the.
The brain.
And I can assure you this.
That's a much harder.
That's a different level of stress.
That's why I tip my hat somuch to you Sam, and guys like you
because it does look glamorous.
And people are like, oh dude,you're just flying around this country

(37:38):
in your polo clothes it nowshirts and man, you ain't but bro,
get it, don't get it twisted folks.
That's a mind every bit asit's a grind when we're and some
days I'd rather be in, in thecrawl space being the hero for the
homeowner that doesn't have todeal with the mental side of this
and and just is dealing withmy own battles sometimes that's those

(38:01):
days.
Now that I look back on it.
Sometimes those days arethere's more job satisfaction in
those days than there is here.
You got clients that'll tellyou point blank, just, you know,
they'll treat you like dirt.
You got to let it roll offyour back and hit that next call
and still execute on a high level.
Right, right.
That's what we're talking about.

(38:21):
Thank you for going through that.
So much of that too.
But, and you're exactly right.
The mindset is everything.
It's our belief system about ourself.
Do we think we're able or not?
Yes.
And you're right.
Grind culture is one.
We have to have an insane work ethic.
And you're right.
When I'm training, peopledon't understand.

(38:43):
They're like all you do is flyaround and talk to people.
Okay, so I'm in the gym at5:30, I'm preparing myself.
I get there, we, we coachfrom, you know, we're in the classroom
8 to 8 to 12.
And it's not just saying thestuff, you know, it's holding the
container of the room andmaking sure everyone is understanding
along the way.

(39:04):
And then we'll go straightinto ride alongs until, you know,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 at night I'm inthe crawl space with people.
I'm in the attic with people.
I'm in the basement with people.
We're sitting at the kitchentable, you know, working it out with
the homeowners.
And then I'm usually goingback to the hotel for, you know,
two to three hours to developwhat we're going to work on the next.

(39:28):
I have the plan but what wecontent created that day.
Now I'm going to put it intodocuments for the team to have the
next day to be able topractice with.
And so there's a level to thisas we grow, there's levels Right.
There's the.
There's the right.
Got to.
No more.
Yes, you are right.
Yes, I'm right.

(39:48):
That's the third one since wehad the conversation.
I've been counting myself.
So for everybody listening,this is how you do it though.
You make very conscious awareness.
And once you're aware, youhave to intentionally unsubscribe
from your awareness to notforce change in your own life.
So quick side note on thefiller word and how you correct it.

(40:09):
I love this.
This is cool because we'relike actively working on things while
we're discussing other things.
But in that levels of the growth.
Right the next.
You are right.
Yes, I am right.
In the levels of growth alongthe way, we realize we have more

(40:30):
capability inside of us thanwe ever thought possible.
Because each next levelrequires something new and different
and more of us that we didn't expect.
But once you get there and itbecomes your routine, it becomes
your habit, you realize, oh,maybe I do have more inside of me.

(40:52):
And so talk to us a little bitabout that because you've gone, I
know we've known each otherlong enough and I know your story.
You've gone through thattransition into these different steps.
But talk about it like that.
Tell us what was it like when you.
So you've been this role nowwith peak home performance for two
years, two year anniversary.

(41:14):
Tell us about that two yearjourney though.
Yeah, include the.
So the couple things we wantto know, tell if you're comfortable
with it, share some of yournumbers along the way and where your
mindset was along the way oflike, okay, what do I need to work
on next?
What am I working on next?
When did it go from, man, thisis a constant, daily, really hard

(41:39):
struggle to the place of,okay, I'm starting to get the hang
of this now.
I'm embracing it as this iswho I am.
And I know now that I don'tjust have an idea that I'm good at
this.
And because I'm working on itnow, I know what level of performer
I am because that's the placethat everybody wants to get to and

(42:01):
doesn't quite recognize it alot of times.
Yeah, and that's such a good question.
And there's so many layers tothat question.
It's a, it's an advanced question.
So I'm just being diligentwith my answers here.
It's.
It a lot of times is going tocome down to, you know, metrics and

(42:22):
I know this is going to sound,try cliche, passe, whatever you want
to say, but this is why wetrack so many our numbers.
This is why we write down goals.
So let me.
Let me show you something hereif I can find it.
I'm in my office.
But what you'll see here.
So when I got.
When I got to peak, I.

(42:45):
I was excited because now Iget a chance to work alongside and
with a good friend of minefirst and foremost, but also probably
one of the biggest mentors tome, which is Weldon Long.
And, you know, and.
And I had been watching Weldonand Drew and Gary for a long time.

(43:05):
Haven't met Mr.
Alex yet, but I've beenhonored enough to spend some time
with Drew Cameron.
Love that dude.
So if he's listening, shoutout Drew Cameron.
But.
So I'm excited to go overthere now.
Wally is.
He's.
Man, he's ornery.
He.
He propped me up so much, we.

(43:26):
So we met prior to me fullystepping foot on.
On peak soil.
And he's like.
He was flying out somewhere.
He's like, meet me at the hotel.
Let's chat.
And I'm like, all right, I'm there.
So we meet up, and he's like, man.
So we sit down and we're talking.
Like, you and I, we're justkind of riffing, talking.
And he's.
He's like, man, I'm excited.
You are going to be the sparkplug that this team needs.

(43:47):
So he kind of went into theteam, what he's trying to do with
the company now.
I'm starting to feel a littlelike, dang, man, Wally, a thousand
percent, like, believes in me,which he should.
But still, it's.
It's intimidating whensomebody, you know, that's been around
as long as he.
That has a wealth of knowledgethat he has is 100.

(44:08):
He's like, yeah, you know,telling you to your face, you're
gonna do this.
This is exactly what we needed.
I'm so glad to have you.
I can't believe, like, you'recoming over to be with me.
And I'm just like, really?
I can't believe I'm sittinghere with you.
So it was a bit intimidatingat first, but.
So he.
But what I didn't see on hisend of it is what he's telling the

(44:30):
team.
And he's like, look, we're.
I got my eyes set on a guyfrom Denver.
I've been talking to him for a while.
I've seen some of his numbers.
He's going to come in andrevolutionize this team.
And, you know, I don't want toput words in his mouth.
He may not have said it inverbatim, but in, in its essence,
this is basically the crux orthe gist of it.
And so he's saying all this.

(44:51):
So then I get, I get to thecompany and I have.
I was starting to hit my stride.
I wouldn't, you know, youknow, I'm not one of these dudes
that you see across the nationthat just has extraordinary numbers.
Right.
I'm in a market to where I'mrunning marketed leads in the state
of Colorado.
We have certain climate.
We have four seasons.
We have certain climates.

(45:11):
So we're working within those parameters.
Like you, You've got to workwithin the parameters that you're.
You're given.
And I'm a, I'm, I'm a Denvernative, so I'm working with Colorado
Climate, and it's got its own climate.
We're primarily a heating state.
You know, we do have oursummer season, but we're not Las
Vegas.
You know, it's not 105.
Urgency isn't out the roof for us.

(45:32):
Exactly.
We gotta get.
And no disrespect to any, youknow, any of the tech there, Brent
Buckley or any of those guys,you know, I'm not taking nothing
away from them.
I'm just saying we don't havethat here.
We gotta, we gotta get downand straight up show the value and
we gotta, we gotta sell.
Absolutely.
And so, and you know, and Iknow those guys just hung out with

(45:52):
them and they'll tell you thesame thing.
They'll sell everybody.
Like, listen, we know noteveryone can do our numbers, not
because they're not capable,but because we just happen to be
in the perfect market.
Completely different company model.
All of these things that justhappen to line up to have a position
that's like the perfect sales unicorn.

(46:15):
So getting to know them andhearing that from them was, was exciting
and reassuring because it'swhat we have always known.
But they said, don't let thatruin someone else's viewpoint of
what success looks like.
Well said.
If Brett, if, if Brent Buckleysaid that, well said to him, and
it's so good to hear him say that.

(46:35):
But, yeah, so those things canplay on you.
But.
So I'm in this state, I'mstarting to my stride, I'm starting
to, you know, you giving mesome tools, I started implementing,
so I.
Starting to see some semblanceof success on certain levels.
You know, small wins arestarting to stack.
Confidence is starting to grow.
Starting to wrap my Headaround the technology and the interpersonal
skill set that you're going toneed to be successful in this trade.

(46:59):
But now I get a chance totransition to a different beast.
You know, this is WeldonLong's company here in Colorado.
And the journey for me,getting to him, getting on his radar,
that's a whole nother story.
That's why I encourage you tolisten to these other episodes on,
on Jason Walker's podcast,because you'll get that backstory.
But the sake of time here.

(47:19):
So now I'm transitioning in.
So I arrive at his company and.
And people are like rollingout the red carpet and they're.
And, but they're like.
And we want to hear what yougot to say, man.
Like, I'm somewhere.
Or is this guy.
Yeah, who is this guy?
And I'm like, oh, dear Lord.
And so I'm feeling pressure now.
You're going to, you're eithergoing to buckle or you're going to

(47:41):
rise to the occasion and bewhat you're destined to be.
And I was faced with that reality.
Sure.
He just threw you right in thepressure cooker, right?
You're in the pressure cooker.
Now.
I'm driving from Lone Tree,Colorado, clear down to Colorado
Springs every day meetingswe're building.
And mind you, we're in theprocess of acquiring another local

(48:03):
company in town that was selling.
And so we're paying off a tonof their debt and onboarding 40 new
employees and then moving to adifferent location and all that that
entails and handling it whatappeared to look like from the outside,
looking in flawlessly.
And that's what we wanted itto look like because we were putting

(48:25):
in that work.
So.
But there's a lot going on andin the midst of this, I'm having
to learn everything new at anew company.
Two different lineups of asfar as equipment.
So there was pressure.
So you, you're either going torespond to pressure when you get
pressed or buckle.
Cuz I was getting pressed andI applied pressure back.

(48:45):
And it all starts with numbersand metrics.
And I'll just give this an example.
I had never broke 3 million in sales.
Man, that was a big number forme to try to break and I was determined
to try to get, get to that.
But every single day I'd bewriting down my goals on a daily
basis.
I knew that I love this.

(49:07):
And I have every day, justover and over that I'm gonna hit
like you.
Every single day.
I would sit there and ph,write it out and write it Out.
So for everybody that's justlistening, Josh is showing me his
page where it's written overand over and over what these goals
are.
Do you.
Are you comfortable sharingwhat you wrote on there?

(49:29):
Yeah.
So, for instance, this was.
This was 116 of 2024.
I wrote 3,000,117, 2024, 3 mil.
Just writing it out on a dailybasis, staring at it, and being similarly
focused on a goal.
Now, now I got to make that translate.
Okay, so what do I need to doto achieve that?

(49:51):
That's.
Writing it down is one thing.
What does that look like on adaily basis?
So one thing that Wally wouldalways teach me is what are some
habits consistent and inalignment that affinitize with my
goals?
Right.
Well, what's something thatsomebody that had never hit 3 million
in our market in Denver,Colorado, as a fairly still relatively

(50:12):
new design consultant, what'ssomething that he's got to do to.
To achieve 3 million?
Well, you know, how.
How are you treating your clients?
More importantly, how are youtreating your co workers?
Right?
Are you coachable?
Are you approachable?
And more importantly, how areyou behaving and acting when nobody's

(50:36):
looking?
That's a big one.
That's.
That's a big one also, too.
You know, how are you not onlynow absorbing new information and
at what rate are you absorbingit and are you willing to absorb,
but how are you nowimplementing that?
And this is a big one, too.

(50:57):
How are you executing on high,elite levels when, man, you're.
When you just ain't feelingit, Right?
Maybe you got into it a littlebit with your wife, right?
Maybe.
Oh, now I'm saying.
Right.
Okay, so, yes, you are right.
Yeah, I know, it worn off on me.
But such a good crutch,though, because it's a good.

(51:19):
It's a.
I like that crutch.
But.
So, yeah, these are things.
What if you're not.
What if you're sick?
What if you got a tinge ofCOVID that you're getting over or
the flu?
Or what if you're justphysically exhausted?
What if you're not eating correctly?
What if you're not hitting the.
Who has time to do all this stuff?

(51:39):
Elite performers.
Fine, homie, that's who.
We all have that 24 hours.
And again, this is trite,passe, cliche, but you can hear it
a million times.
We all woke up today breathing.
So we're alive.
And we all have 24 hours intoday's day.
Today is my Sunday, my day off.

(52:00):
Did a podcast.
Yesterday was in the officeyesterday, closing deals.
On my way home in the car,rushing home to get on this platform
with Sam.
You just make the time.
You don't complain about it,and you start to embrace the work,
the stress, if you can startto embrace that.
But that's what I'm talking about.

(52:21):
It comes down to implementingthese things.
So the transition I wasstarting to make was, okay, now I'm
put, I'm getting put inposition by my mentor who's a guru
in this industry.
What's my response going to be?
You know, and we're humans, sonaturally you're nervous, you may
have some self doubt, you mayhave a little bit of insecurity,

(52:45):
you know, and you're, you maynot be declaring this or broadcasting
it, but you're human, man.
You have that.
I'm just everybody else, man.
I have those as well.
But on the other hand, okay, Idon't have too much time to think
about those.
Now it's time.
And you're gonna hear me saythis a lot.
Time to get active.
Active is when, is when you'renow getting pressed and now you gotta

(53:09):
square up and demonstrate.
And that's what I do.
So I'm like, okay.
And so I started getting active.
I'm one of those dudes that,that will get active.
And I started breaking records.
I, I think it was, you know, Icame in a, in a transitional period,
but I put on a demonstrationwhere I had the other design consultant

(53:31):
saying, dude, what do you doin this situation?
What are you doing in the home?
How are you closing these numbers?
So I started doing that.
Then I had to get face to facewith the realization that driving
from the Springs, putting in afull day's work, and then trying
to come home and stay awake onthat drive up Monument past in the,

(53:53):
in the trials and tribulationsof Colorado winters wasn't the safest
thing for me to do.
Sure.
Then I had to sit down with mysignificant other, my lovely wife,
and say, babe, what do youthink about moving from the beautiful,
you know, Parker HighlandsRanch, Lone Tree area of Colorado,
the picturesque,quintessential Colorado town?

(54:16):
You got the best of both worlds.
You're close to the beautifulRocky Mountains, but you have all
the best dining and, andshopping in the area to slide down
to Colorado Springs right on.
The plane there in the middleof all this.
Let's pack and move.
What?
Thank God I got a gorgeous partner.
That inside and out, that waslike looking at the positive and

(54:39):
saying, it's beautiful down there.
Let's Go if, if you're.
Because she's seen my entireclimb and ascent.
So she not ease a believer.
So she's like, she's beenthere from.
The beginning, from the beginning.
So she's like, I'm okay, good.
Now we made the move.
That's when I was able toreally dig in, settle down and again

(54:59):
now really get active.
And so started putting it down.
And now on top of all that,who can we bring with us?
So you have other team membersand other team members and I was
going over this with somebody today.
You have to keep that in mind too.
You got all these differentpersonalities and people that you're
working with.
How are you treating them?

(55:21):
Are you embracing them?
Like Sam embraced me when Iwas reaching out, you know, when
I wasn't getting nationalexposure, I wasn't hitting any big
boy numbers.
I was still trying to find my way.
Guys, guys like that, thatreach out people are going to remember
that because so, so let's saythat, that I move and I go to like
next gen and jump on that teamwith Ish and Mark and, and I'm not

(55:44):
that I'm not doing that.
I'm just saying, let's saythat I.
Hypothetical, right?
Hypothetical.
Well, it'd be fair if guys atthat company, can you imagine one
of them picking up the phoneand calling down to Colorado Springs
to Wally's company and say heyyeah, Josh Bach is coming down here
and we're fairly certain he'sgoing to do some big, he's going
to fit in.
But let me ask you this, howwas he to work with?

(56:06):
Well, what is, I want to hearfrom his co workers, I want to hear
from the shop manager, the kidthat was doing all that work.
I want to.
How did he treat that guy?
This is real talk right here.
How did he treat the gal thatran all the permitting.
How did he treat the gals inthe office on a day to day basis
when he was in the, in, in the building?

(56:28):
What was the feeling leftwhen, when he was talking to people,
how did they walk away feeling?
You got to keep that in mind, man.
You got to keep that in mind.
So you know, do you wantpeople saying, oh yeah, this is one
of these prima donna, justsuper big headed ego monsters that,
that you know, at the expenseof everybody else thinks he's a stud

(56:51):
and a rock star now man,that's my worst fear in life.
You never want to be that.
You want to hear like heyfrom, from our office people to the
people that stock shelves to,to, to Our other fellow design consultants,
to our lead generators, to ourcoordinators, to the, to the owners.
Man, that dude was a pleasureto work with.

(57:12):
So I'm gonna admit that wasreally my homie.
Everybody in that office has astory about when they talk with him
on a daily basis.
They look forward.
And you can see it, you cansee it when I go into the office,
man, I'm getting daps.
I got special handshakes withpeople because I'm loving everybody.
I truly love this industry andthis life and the people I work with.

(57:35):
Yes, truly, I really love them.
And all of them, I've kickedit with all of them.
I've had people at my companyon all different levels have their
wives come over and come kickit with me and my wife.
We'll go bowling, we'll actstupid, we'll go out to eat, we'll
go to comedy shows.
Just.
I'm just a normal, I'm just anormal ass dude at the end of the
day, straight up.
And that's what you're goingto hear.

(57:56):
So that's another component ofit too.
And I told this to somebodytoday, one of our lead gens, I said,
you have your clients and howyou treat them.
And I have handwrittentestimonials and video, but you also
have your internal clients.
What does that mean?
Those are your co workers, man.
Those are the people that arewith you on a day to day.
So if you're not helping themcome up as well, bro, what are you

(58:19):
doing?
You know you ain't a rock star stud.
If you, if you're, if you'repushing everybody down to say, look
at me.
So you want everybody to bewith you and come with you and feel
like you're approachable andstraight up.
I'm as approachable as theycome because I, I know, I know where

(58:39):
I come from and it ain't.
And in a place of glamour andglitz, I'm that dude that just is
hanging out in that attic.
Struggling, sweaty, wet.
I lit the attic on fire.
Now I'm jumping on the fire totry to put that out because some
of the RX11 chemical flush andthen I accidentally lit that on porches.
So now I'm looking around andthe attic's on fire.

(59:00):
Oh, I got, I got a choice here.
Burn down the house or jump on it.
I jumped on, mothered it.
You know, I'm that idiot.
So I ain't nothing special.
I'm that cat.
I made mistakes like that.
You know, I've oversizedsystems, you know I've made a million
mistakes.
So at the end of the day, I'mlaughing at myself just as hard because
I realized I'm an idiot.

(59:20):
But.
But I got love and heart and.
And I'm gonna treat everyone Iroll with the same way I treated
them from the beginning, fromthe second we first talked.
Fast forward to now.
All the success that you'veever achieved and that you're on
the precipice of achieving,you still ain't never once changed
the way you've treated me orthe energy that you've came at me

(59:44):
with.
It's always the same.
It's always laid back.
That's Sam Wakefield, laidback dude, just hustling.
Hey, Josh, I'm sorry wehaven't kept in touch, man.
Why haven't you done my podcast?
Well, that's on you said.
Oh, you're right.
That is on me.
I apologize.
Let's get you on.
Okay, let's do it.
You never once changed.
That's authenticity.
And to me, that's what Irespect above all.

(01:00:06):
There's nothing worse thanmeeting one of your heroes and finding
out the dude's a douchebag.
At this point, I haven't.
That's so true.
I haven't experienced that.
And not that I can't or that Iwill, but I haven't experienced that
yet in this trade.
When I met Drew Cameron,that's Drew Cameron as hell to talk

(01:00:28):
to, me and him were damn nearin tears going over some of our stories
and what had happened, youknow, with He's Cameron and sons
and his brothers and hisfamily and some of the losses that
he.
And he damn near.
He died, came back to life and.
And then I'm chopping it upabout some of the things I am hearing.
Next thing you know, me andhim are smoking a cigar in tears,
drinking whiskey like, damn,what's going on?

(01:00:48):
That's H Vac, baby.
That is HVAC in a nutshell, man.
That is.
That is hvac.
This, the story is sobeautiful, too.
And thanks.
Thank you for, first of all,for being so transparent and vulnerable
with us in this conversation.
I honestly, I had no ideawhere it was going to go.
I just knew we were going tohave a great conversation.

(01:01:09):
But some of the things that you.
That you've really emphasized.
I can hear the transformationin your language.
One of the things I actuallywrote down before we even started
on my notepad is confidence in language.
And I wanted to highlight that.
Everybody, listen to Josh.
Go back and now listen to theway he speaks.

(01:01:29):
And the certainty andconfidence behind his language.
It didn't matter what we'retalking about.
When we first started workingtogether, that was not there.
Not at all.
It was very different.
And I can hear your growth inthat, which is so first of all, huge,

(01:01:49):
huge shout out.
You've put the work in and Ilove to see it.
But pay attention to that,everybody, because as we hear his
story of his journey acrosstime, there's so many things that
we talked about.
The craziest part and thecoolest part of it is we didn't really
talk about.
Well, I learned this wordtrack and I learned this script and

(01:02:13):
I learned this line.
And this was the magic bullet.
This is what did it.
You know, getting to hangaround Wally.
I learned the.
The super secret scriptingthat he doesn't give to anybody else,
but only keeps us in his own companies.
No, that's not what happened.
He grew.
He grew as a person.
Yes.
Had confidence in who he isand what he did and made a decision
of where he wants to go.

(01:02:34):
And man, this is a cool moment.
So I'm grateful that it justhappened to be on your two year anniversary
at Peak, which is super, supercool today.
I'm going to make sure that weget a teaser about that today, but
this podcast won't drop for alittle bit strictly because I'm backlogged

(01:02:55):
on some recordings.
But this, the date ofrecording is February 21, 2025.
So that's the commemoratecommemoration day.
But man, this has been such agood conversation as we're thinking
of.
And for all of the techs outthere that are considering and wanting
to move into the salesdepartment, do not hear this as we're

(01:03:18):
telling you not to do it orit's too hard.
Hear this as it's just goingto take more work than you thought
you were that was necessary toget there.
And the work really is internal.
That's where the work is.
Yeah.
And that wow it.

(01:03:41):
And again, trite, passe,cliche, but truer words have never
been spoken.
It's an internal battle, youknow, and I don't usually name drop
books, but there's two thatwere instrumental in part of this
metamorphosis was one is egois your enemy and the other one is

(01:04:02):
the slight edge.
I've literally listen to thosetwo books countless times, man.
If you can, if you can embracethose two books, do yourself a favor.
Ego is the enemy.
And just look throughouthistory where great, great men that

(01:04:26):
have accomplished amazingthings have fallen due to ego.
Ego will not help you out anyin this process.
And I know that'scounterintuitive when you look at
some of these rockstar designconsultants throughout the nation
because they're flossingaround and they're brand new Corvettes
and, and you know, I love Wally.

(01:04:47):
The guy's a total car guy andhe, you know, when his, when he sells
a huge multi million dollardeal that he closed for a huge multiple,
his treat to himself is abrand new Ferrari.
And I love that because he'searned it.
And I love cars too, and I'mguilty of buying expensive cars too.
But at the end of the day youthink, oh, these are egomaniacs.
Nah man, you're getting loston the distractions.

(01:05:11):
Because the real part of it isto achieve any semblance of success
in this industry, you got to push.
Ego is not your friend.
It, you got to put that asidein any, whether you're aspiring,
whether you've arrived and,and achieved some level or some semblance
of success, or whether you'rea flat out st dud in the industry

(01:05:32):
like a Victor Rancor, some ofthese, these dudes that are up here
hovering in the stratospherelike Wakefields, right?
It doesn't matter.
At any one of those levelsyour ego will betray you and you
want to get more in depth on that.
Just read ego is your enemy.
And then the slight edge.
The slight edge encapsulatesall that we're talking about.

(01:05:55):
None of this, this quant,this, this theory of there's this
quantum leaps.
That's a misnomer, it's a misconception.
There's no quantum leap.
I didn't leap and jump to this.
No way.
Mind, I'm not even here yet.
I'm just getting started.
But there's the slight edge.
It's that drive and thatimplementation done on a daily basis.

(01:06:20):
The power of consistency by welding.
Pick that up.
Consistency, Consistencyselling by Weldon Long.
Pick that up.
I promise you that is theslight edge.
We got nothing that you guysdon't have, that you don't already
know and that you don't haveaccess to.
We all have a supercomputer inour pocket, our iPhone or Android.
Right?
We all have that.

(01:06:40):
Absolutely.
We've all got YouTube, we'veall got Google, we've all got all
the podcasts in the world, right?
So, so what do we have?
Just that slight edge thatwe're willing to listen, implement
put in that it's just theslight edge compounded over years,
right?
Compounding interest, effectover years.

(01:07:01):
That's what we have now.
If you can harness and embrace that.
That's what Sam's speaking towhen he says, I'm hearing a Josh
Baca on a different level.
It's the same Josh Baca.
It's just the slight edge yearafter year.
And we sit down three yearslater, and the contrast between when

(01:07:21):
we first talk till now isclearly evident.
But it was all achievedthrough the slight edge advantage.
The tips and tricks that youshowed me in the beginning, that
I immediately took to andimplemented, that's the slight edge
that got me to that next level.

(01:07:42):
And then that took me to thenext level, and it took me to where
I'm at now, and continuing toimplement that will take me to where
I'm going to be in the future.
And it's the slight edgewithout the ego involved.
And it's confusing becausepeople will see my Facebook post,
my Instagram post, and you'regoing to hear rap music and rock

(01:08:03):
and roll, but that's the.
That's the genre and theplatform to do that.
That's racing time.
That's when you've grinded allsummer long, you've cashed those
big checks and you've put inyour family in position, and then
you get.
You get a chance on socialmedia to flex a little bit.
And that's why I don't hate on anybody.
That's flat.
I love it when I see dudesgetting into their Lambos and, And

(01:08:25):
because, man, but.
But I, I am under no illusionthe amount of hard work that it took
to get there.
Because in the trades, youain't get.
You ain't getting there.
Like Ishmael Valdez, man, whenI see him in the Phantom in the Rolls
Royce, I.
I give them props because Iknow, man, I couldn't even imagine
the work that it took to getthere and the people he's helped

(01:08:48):
and he's handing out bonuschecks to his office people.
I'm like, go ish.
I hope to meet him one day andjust dap him up.
I'm not on his nuts, but I'mgonna tell him, hey, bro, straight
up, props to you for what you do.
You may not know me and, youknow, I might not even be a blip
on your radar, but I've beenwatching you for years.
And so.
So I give props where props is due.

(01:09:09):
I'm not a player hater.
I'm a congratulator.
I love this.
That's the type of cats I like to.
To get down with dudes thatare grinding Whether you're an installer,
I'm right there with you, dog.
I'm in that attic installingwith you.
Or in that crawl space, I'minstalling with you.
If you're a tune uptechnician, I'm right there with
you trying to keep all yourfilters from getting crushed in the

(01:09:30):
back of that van.
You got to take piss andyou're on the highway and you're
like, oh man, I have to pissin this bucket back here.
I'm with you and all thestruggles you got to do.
I'm with every one of younational sales trainers that are
starving, haven't seen yourfamily and haven't caught a good
workout in days, but are stillputting together your next day's
sales plan for the company that.
That paid you already to bethere and dealing with the stress

(01:09:52):
that that entails.
I'm right there with you and.
And I'm going to alwaysmaintain that same energy, bro, to
the best of my ability.
Now, do I have off days?
Yes.
Do I have missteps?
Yes.
Day.
I said I.
I screwed the pooch on that one.
I could have done that better.
I blew that call.

(01:10:13):
That's okay.
We all have those.
Don't even trip, homie.
Have that.
Like Jason Walker was sayingyesterday, have the short term memory
because you do get kicked inyour teeth.
I have way more failures andadversities and challenges that I
did not handle successfully orwith grace then I have successes.

(01:10:33):
My successes are 10 of it.
But you see all of that on myInstagram, my Tick Tock page and
all that.
You see the 36, 000 views andon one post, I just got lucky on
that, man.
That's this much of it.
The grind is what I embrace.
I.
I like the work and becausethe work, that's what's behind that

(01:10:53):
10% of those of those videosthat you see.
So can't.
You can't get it misconstrued either.
Make no mistake, man.
Sam puts in the work just likeJason does, just like Wally does,
like any of these guys do.
And I promise you this.
I.
I promise you I put in the work.
So if you're doing that, propsto you for all of those that are
putting in that work.
And you know it.

(01:11:14):
Maybe nobody else is seeing it.
That's all right.
We're with you.
We are.
We're with you.
Thank you for.
I could not have wrapped thisepisode up any better than that.
So I'm just going to add onthat hats are off to everybody out
there that are.
We feel you we hear, we feelit on a heart level in a way that

(01:11:37):
only somebody who's done thework can understand.
And that is the difference ofthe slight edge.
Right.
I would add one more book intothat, into that list.
We've got Ego is your enemy.
The slight edge.
I love Ed Mylett's book, thePower of One more.
Power of one more.
If everybody can do one moreand whatever it is, you can.

(01:11:59):
If you're knocking doors, youcan knock one more door.
If you're asked, if you're inthe objection cycle, you can sit
through one more objection,one more squat, one more.
Push up, one more pull up, one.
More push up, one more rep.
Or one less donut.
Exactly.
One or one.
Exactly.
It's one more.
Or.
Or two.
If we're.

(01:12:20):
This is important.
We could do a whole notherepisode on, like, the power of positivity
and how we frame our.
Our words in our language.
Tell your wife you love herone more time today.
Oh, super huge, Right?
Instead of one less donut, one more.
Healthy choice.
Right.
Geez.
Right?
Telling your wife, tellingyour kids, telling your family you

(01:12:40):
love them.
Yeah.
One more time.
Because there are some timesthat that's not guaranteed.
I've had recently, people inmy life at a moment's notice, unexpectedly,
are all of a sudden not there.
And I wish they were, becauseI would tell them I love them one
more time.
But we have to keep the main thing.

(01:13:00):
And the main thing is, like,our focus and just that, growth.
If it's not 1% better todaythan I was yesterday, can I be half
a percent better?
Can I be a quarter of apercent better than I was?
I will start a podcast.
We're going to call it theFully Active Podcast.
Let's crush it.
Dude, you got this.
You got this.

(01:13:21):
That's it.
So good.
Such a good conversation, man.
If everybody find.
Find Josh's Instagram, what'syour Instagram handle?
That way everybody can follow you.
Great question.
I don't even know.
Hold on.
That's how.
Hold on.
I said we've got it right here.
It's not hard to find on.
I'm on Instagram, I'm on.

(01:13:43):
I'm on Tick Tock and I'm on Facebook.
I don't even know my handles.
That's how green I am.
To the.
To the.
Here you go.
I've got it.
So on Instagram, it is atjosh.baca.716.b a c a dot seven one
six.
Yes.
Go follow his Instagram.

(01:14:03):
Yep.
On TikTok.
On the rest that I'll makesure to get those from him.
Put them in the liner notes.
Yes.
But you'll be able to.
To connect to him from there.
Watch what's going on.
He's a.
He's a rock star.
He's a top performer becausehe's put in the work to get there.
And heck, we could do a wholeepisode about what you've done to

(01:14:23):
which the extra work you didto surround yourself and get in the
room with people like Jason Walker.
Like me when you just randomlypicked up the phone and my phone
rang out of the blue and it'sJosh one day, like to be able to
get in the same room with Wally.
We are the average of thepeople that we spend the most time
with.

(01:14:44):
That's it.
Success leaves clues.
We just have to adopt thehabits successful people do.
Then we can start getting theresults they get also.
It's incredible how that works out.
So, yeah, real spit, man.
Thanks for being on the show today.
It has been a pleasure.
I'm so glad you made it.
Won't be the last one for sure.

(01:15:04):
I'm ready.
It was my honor to be herewith you, bro.
Absolutely.
So make sure to tell the wifeI said, hey.
It's been a minute since wetalked also, and for everybody out
there, we could not haverecorded a better episode that truly
emphasizes the way that wealways, always, always end this show

(01:15:24):
out, which is you go out thereand work to become someone worth
buying from.
You've been listening to theClose it now podcast.
Our passion is to diveheadfirst into the transformative
movement that's reshaping thevery foundation of H VAC and home
improvement and at the sametime, covering fitness, nutrition,

(01:15:48):
relationships and personalgrowth, proving that we can indeed
have it all.
We hope you've enjoyed the show.
If you did, make sure to,like, rate and review.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, find the website@closeitnow.net
find us on Instagramherealcloseitnow and on Facebook

(01:16:10):
closeitnow.
See you next time.
Sa.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}From Almost Fired to $4M: The Mindset Shift That Changed Everything with Josh Baca