August 18, 2023 • 50 mins
Immerse yourself in a thought-provoking dialogue between Corey Berrier and Christopher Scoville as they share their daily challenges and achievements. From recounting a spouse's flat tire ordeal to strategizing company rebranding, their discussion traverses diverse entrepreneurial terrains. Exploring financing tools, they discuss website integration and brainstorm podcast themes. They spotlight the innovative features of their financing solution, allowing consumers to comprehend costs seamlessly. The conversation then navigates toward high-ticket item financing, merging with Contractor Commerce, and the power of transparent online pricing. Amid personal anecdotes about tire mishaps and Christopher's career transition, they reveal the journey of his software company's growth. Discover how entrepreneurship, faith, and personal evolution intertwine in their narratives of honesty, innovation, and success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Successful LifePodcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier,and I'm here with my man, Chris
Scoville.
What's up, Chris?
Just sitting here boxing myselfand trying to get through the
day, brother.
So let's just pick up ourconversation'cause we were
having a really dope assconversation about always some
stuff that you're doing.
Always.
Yeah always in the green room.
That's where the goodconversation starts.
(00:22):
That's right.
So we started out with Chrishaving a Chris's wife having a
flat tire today and.
He handled it like a man andwent out and handled it after
four hours worth of waiting.
Well, you know, I had to do myFacebook posts and stuff like
that.
Of course.
Oh, this is great.
So when I get out there, what'sthe first thing that I did?
Fuck take pictures.
(00:43):
Right?
I'm like this and I'm, she'slike, really?
On the side of the road, on thesawgrass car's.
Right.
And I'm like, Yep.
I'm about to save the day like ajerk, but yeah, I saw it.
Here's the bottom line.
No matter how upset I got at theprice of the fix and the delay
(01:05):
of me having to Dr.
You know, it was hours.
My wife did not get an accident.
Nobody got hurt.
That's all that matters.
It is money.
Money is money.
I gave some money to somesomeone.
They're gonna take that moneyand pay somebody that worked and
then they're gonna go buysomething.
They're gonna give the money.
So the money will come back tome someday, but for sure anyway.
(01:28):
And at the end of the day, it'sjust life.
She's okay.
That's right.
That's right.
So look you've had some, you'vehad some changes, right?
I don't even know the changes,but I'm interested to find out,
'cause the last time we talkedyou were, well, I'll just let
you tell the story.
You've gone through a brandchange, right?
Or something along those lines.
(01:48):
Well, yeah, I mean, did we talk,so I retired from service
finance.
Did we talk about that?
We never talked about that.
We haven't done a podcast,right?
No.
No.
Alright, cool.
So we talked several times.
We haven't done a podcast.
Yeah.
I'll do a recap for those ofyour folks that might not know
who the hell I am.
Right.
So, who's this guy?
Right.
So, I've been in the industrylike a really long time.
I work with contractors.
(02:09):
It's all I do.
It's not a hobby.
This is what I do for a living.
I don't golf, I don't fish.
I work with contractors.
I love it.
It's my passion.
So I've been doing this morethan half my life.
I'm 52 years old.
I.
I know, I don't look it, youdon't look it all the
compliments.
But with all seriousness, myfather was an attorney and he
opened up Roscoe Constructionand I was in high school.
(02:31):
He built a custom home inBatavia, New York, and I helped
him do that.
And then at 19, when I finishedcollege I went down to South
Florida and started doing roofs,doing tie beams.
And then I was like, Think Iwanna get involved in the money
side of this deal, right?
So I became a mortgage broker,wholesale, construction, or
permanent side, and I was abanker for 26 years.
(02:52):
So I did man, unsecured, secured2 0 3 k construction to
permanent, always working withcontractors.
Our a c pace, commercial,residential heat locks.
Like I've done everything thatyou could imagine.
In the finance contractor space.
So it was only natural for me toretire two months ago.
When we launched, we've launchedand been building our software
(03:14):
company called Blue Pages Pro.
For those of you that haven'tbeen there, go check it out.
It's kind of cool.
Blue Pages Pro.
We built a software company overthe last two years, bootstrapped
no investors.
Ground up, right?
Didn't exist.
It exists.
Now we've got damn near 19,000members on the platform in the
United States.
(03:35):
We just signed a contract inCanada, so it's growing
exponentially.
So basically what happened is itgot to the point where the
company got so big that it wastime for me to retire from
service finance where I was thissenior vice president business
development dude.
And I managed like Owens Corningand Beacon and Lennox and stuff
like that, doing trainings andmanage.
So it was only natural for meto, when I retired, to build a
(03:59):
finance center within mysoftware company.
Why?
Well, dude, it's what I do,right?
Like I've been working withcontractors providing financing
solutions for 26 years.
I wasn't about to give that up.
So we built a financing center.
We got five lenders that webuilt in there, a multi lending
platform, if you want to call itthat.
(04:20):
So it's real simple for me to doa consultation with a contractor
find out what their specificneeds are for themselves.
And their customers talk abouttheir market, their credit
score, average ticket, what theysell.
Do you do good, better, andbest?
What do you install?
Like I ask all the greatquestions and then we line'em
up.
(04:41):
Either 1, 2, 3, or evensometimes four lenders so they
can actually help theirpopulation.
Right?
Because some people have live inareas where it's just all great
credit.
All my customers pay cash.
Sure they do.
Those ones.
All my customers, sure they do.
Meanwhile, they slide you inAmex, and that's not cash.
That's financing.
But anyway.
(05:01):
Then there's some places like Iwon't even talk about the areas
'cause I don't wanna hurtanyone's feelings that are on
this, but that just havechallenged credit, right?
That's people that are justsubprime, right?
There's even states that arenotoriously between 600, 6 49.
So if I've got some lenders thathelp that bucket and then lately
I've had to add mortgagesolutions to it, and here's a
reason why.
(05:23):
Cost of home improvementprojects is exponentially higher
now.
'cause the cost of goods, right?
That's right.
I do Down California are doing,and I finance everything.
It's not just roofs and windows,doors.
If it goes in and on around it,I finance it.
I even do commercial in 37states.
So you're flooring in yourkitchen and bath.
They're like 2 25.
(05:45):
That's not even, that's like ajoke.
In Florida, you can get awaywith a hundred thousand dollars
for flooring in a new kitchen,right?
$225,000.
California.
Your average high-end kitchen isa quarter mill man, so I had to
add some home improvement.
HELOCs, home improvementmortgage solutions.
(06:06):
To the mix.
So basically I hop on the phonewith contractors.
I do this, I shoot this shit.
My wife gets pissed.
She's like, I can't believe thatyou make money doing this.
I'm like, well, it's fun, youknow?
That's why this is what I do fora living and I don't play golf
or fish'cause I suck at thoseanyway.
I help.
Bring money to contractors sothey can give it to the consumer
so they can buy their stuff.
(06:27):
And then as we were talkingabout money earlier, the
exchange, it just goes in thereand out there.
And then we basically put thefinancing tool into our software
platform called BluePages Pro,which helps them connect,
convert, create morerelationships and close more
jobs.
So we embed financing solutionsinto this really cool website, a
micro site landing page thingthat helps the world go round
(06:49):
and round.
Who did you, who was, you know,I guess who is maybe the
competitor if there is one, butwho did you kind of take market
share from?
Just outta curiosity?
I don't think we really did.
So let's go into why I evenbuilt this thing in the first
place.
You've got your third party leadaggregators, okay?
So you've got people like AngieHomeAdvisor, Thumbtack,
(07:11):
modernize craft Jack, Theyaggregate leads and they got so
much money.
It's crazy.
Well, we know why they havemoney, right?
They sell leads.
They sell leads.
They got all this money toadvertise to people to say, Hey,
come to us and we'll fix yourhome.
And then they basically takethat data and then they resell
it over and over, right?
They churn data, third party nonvalid leads.
(07:33):
And I was like, well, that's notvery nice.
I said, What if I builtsomething that didn't charge for
leads A directory, right?
Right.
A national directory ofcertified pros Contractors that
have qualifications or evenbecome a certified pro.
What if I built a directory andI let the consumers go through
the front door and workeddirectly with the contractors
(07:56):
and didn't charge anything forit?
That's what we did.
We built a beautiful nationaldirectory.
It's gonna be in Canada as well.
We just signed a contract upthere.
So we built this directory thata consumer can go to Blue Pages
Pro, choose the asset that theywant, choose the zip code, and
vet the contractors within thatlittle local market on who they
wanna work with.
(08:17):
Here's the cool thing.
Algorithmically contractors thathave platinum, which has got the
new automated pre-qual system.
It's a financing tool that Ibuilt into it algorithmically
appear at the top.
'cause they have a coolfinancing thing with multiple
lendings.
The pro plans algorithmicallyappear under the platinum.
The light plans appear there andthen your base plans appear
(08:40):
there.
So there is a benefit forcontractors that are on the Blue
Pages, that are on the highestlevel.
'cause algorithmically they havethe better offers to help the
consumer afford the homeservice.
That kind of brings it alltogether, but we don't charge
for leads.
We wanna help contractors.
Build the sales finance tool,get it in front of consumers,
(09:02):
help'em connect, convert, createmore relationships, ultimately
close more jobs.
And that's why we built thisthing.
So that's the lead aggregatorside.
As far as competitors out therethat have directories, there's a
few like my friend Dmitri, he'sgot the director I, director ii.
Right.
(09:22):
Where he's put roofers and stuffin there.
So I, he doesn't charge forleads.
However, he does charge Xpercent on the job when it
funds.
Right.
We don't charge for that, by theway.
And then I think roofing.comkind of is a lead aggregator
type of a thing now where youcan go and so there are some
other directories out there.
I.
To cut back to why I built thiswith the exit strategy already
(09:45):
in mind, and I think that it'simportant for anybody watching
this.
If you wanna build a softwarecompany a sauce, you wanna kind
of pre-frame it like, what's thefuture state of my software
company in five years?
Do I wanna still be here runningit and grinding it and make it a
shit ton of money, or do I wantto exit?
Then go learn how to fish andlearn how to play golf, right?
(10:05):
So I literally built blue pageswith an exit strategy in mind,
and a goal that Zillow will buythis in three years for 1.2
billion.
Why?
Because Zillow needs this.
Because Zillow isn't in homeimprovement, but Zillow needs to
be in home improvement.
Why?
Well, because people aren'tmoving.
They're staying put in their 3%or two and a quarter or two and
(10:28):
a half, 30 year, and they'remaking home improvements.
So really with a Be Beautifulplugin to have this database of
50,000 certified pro contractorswith financing capabilities in
it, that doesn't charge forleads and it helps the
contractors around the platformbecause, They're first seen,
first sight of mind, offering,financing, helping the
consumers.
(10:48):
So the beautiful thing aboutbuilding the field of dreams, I
called it.
Was future state.
And when I built the softwarefrom the ground up, I framework
it that the map is on the leftand the contractors are on the
right.
'cause damn it all, when you goto Zillow, the map is on the
left and the homes are on theright.
So it's a natural fit that whenit's fix a home, right?
(11:10):
Find a home, find a realtor, geta mortgage.
Rent a home, fix a home, clickboop.
You're already in the flowbecause the map's on the left.
So I really did think it throughreally well.
And everything I do is when Icreate, I think of future state.
I don't think of just like rightnow, I'm thinking three years
down the road.
(11:31):
How company Camp showcasegalleries.
How important will it be for aconsumer to show, tell, and sell
and look at the projects ratherthan looking at a stale review?
Right?
Like, reviews are probably notreal anyway, but you can't fake,
you can't fake this.
When you click on the showcasegallery and 273 pictures pop up,
(11:54):
you can't fake that.
That's Bill from Hometown thatdid 276 pictures of the project,
of what it looked like in thebeginning, what it looked like
in the middle, and what itlooked like in the end.
And we call that show tell andsell because we want consumers
to look at the jobs that Billdid.
Because now they trust him,because they actually looked at
the work that he does.
They're not just looking at astale Bill was great.
(12:17):
Here's his five star review.
Anita, come on Anita.
So let me ask you this.
So if I go in and I'm looking atto remodel a, a kitchen, you
just mentioned that.
Yeah.
And'cause I'm doing,'cause I'mdoing it right now, right?
You were doing it last time wetalked.
That's pretty sure dear.
It's still going on.
So if I go in and I, if I go andI click the finance button, blue
(12:40):
pages and I'm gonna get, it saysyou're qualified for$50,000,
right?
Yep.
Yep.
And I.
A remodel and I'm going throughand I'm picking out what it is I
want to do.
'cause I'm there's an onlinetool.
Let's assume, how does that,does it spit out like, okay,
(13:02):
does it spit out monthlypayments?
Does it spit out the total?
How does that work?
Because the total, I imagine,would scare the out people.
Yeah.
That's why, you know, The bestcontractors are presenting at
the point of need or the pointof sale, right?
So let me illustrate.
So if I am a.
(13:25):
Do you wanna sell 50,000remodel?
Sure.
Okay, cool.
So, Mr.
And Mrs.
Smith we're here and I've donethe demo and I've explained how
awesome our company is.
I've showed'em our work.
I've show, tell, and sell.
They've explained, we explainedwhat the process is and how
great we are at it, and it getstime to put the contract down.
Well, I don't know if I wannaspend 50,000.
I wanna qualify for 50 isprobably gonna be 25.
(13:52):
So your want is 25.
That's your budget?
Yeah.
Yep.
25.
But I, so here's the AP p ssystem.
It's called the automatedpre-qual system that I built.
Okay.
This goes on a blue page, soit's gonna take the customer's
information, what their statedincome is.
No social security, by the way.
(14:15):
What their loan request is andthey're requesting 25.
No, 50.
They're requesting 50 but theythink they're gonna spend 25
either are, let's just say 25.
Okay.
Because I'm gonna show you howit works.
So let's say that they ask for25.
We already know it's gonna bedouble.
Who cares?
The system doesn't care whatthey ask for.
It's just the data.
So now I know what they make.
(14:36):
I've got their interim.
I'm gonna run a soft creditpull, and it goes through the
system.
And now I can pull out theircredit score, their debt to
income.
I've got margin integrity builtin there and I've got their debt
to income and they've asked for25.
Because he's got a platinumlevel color credit
(14:56):
classification 835 FICO and a25% D T I.
And I know that the contractor'smargin integrity is 10%.
And under these are dataintelligent points that I built
into it, by the way, so I'msorry if I'm speaking jargon.
It doesn't matter.
Here's the bottom line.
Within 13 seconds, it's gonnatell Mr.
Smith, you are qualified now.
(15:18):
The portal's gonna say you'requalified because we have the
data points.
When he goes to the lender'sportal for the application, now
we go to application to thelender portal lp, and he applies
another soft credit poll.
By the way, I still haven'tpulled their credit.
So the customer's really happybecause we haven't dinged their
(15:38):
Equifax, we haven't dinged theircredit.
We're just getting them to theapproval.
So now we go to the lender,we've got multi lending
platform, and we apply.
Congratulations, Mr.
Smith.
You're approved for$50,000.
Whoa.
I don't want 50.
That's fine.
I'm just letting you know whatyour max approval is.
Okay, good.
You know, because shit happens,right?
(16:01):
My granite counter was supposedto be 12.
Guess how much it cost me?
17 five wasn't 12.
Contingency, right?
So here's the cool thing.
Now we break it down and rereverse engineer this.
2 25 is gonna cost them$114 perthat two.
Let's say it's$238 per month forthat 25,000.
(16:22):
All right, Mr.
And Mrs.
Smith, I've got your, now we'vegot the contract.
Here's your contract.
It's$25,000.
Were you ready?
Here we go.
This is the best part.
Were you gonna be using yourmoney or would you like to use
some of ours?
Well, my AC went out two daysago after we talked, and I'm
curious if I can add that inthat 25.
(16:44):
Absolutely.
I mean, is this or into the 50?
I mean, yeah.
Is the general contractor an airconditioning engineer?
Can you sub it out?
I don't know.
Let's assume he can.
Let's assume he's a GC and hecan sub out the hvac.
So we got$25,000 for the remodeland we got another 10 for the
hvac.
We're at$35,000.
It's$114 per 10.
(17:06):
Congratulations.
Would you like to use your moneyor would you like to use ours?
How often does that happen?
It's a Salesforce how often, buthow often does it happen that
people go over what theyanticipate because of that 50?
80% of the time.
I figured.
I think so too.
Yeah.
Like think about how you buy.
Yeah, of course.
Hey, forget.
Forget we're even talking.
(17:27):
When you go buy a car, you havehigh expectations that you're
gonna spend X right, until youfind out that you got approved
for Y and then you do what youupsell yourself.
Like that.
You go from a freaking$605 amonth payment expectation to 7
49 in a heartbeat.
Because why?
(17:48):
Emotion technology.
You wanted the horsepower.
I did an article once years agoon how many.
Hellcats.
They or Chargers, challengers orchargers, whatever.
How many models?
How many models they made.
I did an article on this, Ithink it started at like SS X T
and it went up to Super Demon orwhatever.
(18:10):
Like they've even got break codelike.
They have like 33 models.
So you go in to buy the X Tbecause it's got the challenger
model until you go, well, whatare people gonna think of me
when I show up to theintersection in a six cylinder
car?
Shouldn't I really have one thatroars dude?
And you'll bounce yourself froma 605 monthly payment to 7 49.
(18:34):
Just like that.
And you don't care because why?
Well, here's why.
Because it's the monthly paymentthat you're really buying and
when it comes to anything That'sright.
Not, it isn't the number.
So my point when I'm doing salescredits for guys on financing,
when I say, Hey, Mr.
Smith, You're gonna do businesswith us.
You're in love with us.
(18:54):
Now it comes down to payment.
Look, were you gonna be usingyour money or would you like to
use some of ours?
And typically the consumers willgo, what do you mean use yours?
Well, we've got lenders overhere.
Matter of fact, I can let youknow what you're approved to
right now with a soft creditpull when it won't even affect
you.
And payments on this thing aregonna be anywhere between$114 to
$135, depending upon yourcredit.
(19:17):
We won't know until we do a softcredit poll, wanna move forward
and they're like, oh, geez.
Yeah.
'cause I don't want to take$10,000 out of the bank, right?
Especially these days andthere's no prepayment penalty.
Would you like that on a 12month, same as cash, no
interest?
Or would you like to pay it overtime with no prepayment penalty?
Which one of those two optionswill work better for you?
I'll probably pay it off in 12months, but let's just take the
(19:39):
longer one.
I would say so too because, andthen I would educate them on
what a default rate is, right?
Yeah.
So I wanna educate thecontractors that look, it's
fine, Mr.
Smith, if you don't, if you wantno interest and you wanna do 12
months, same as cash.
However, if you don't pay it offin 12 months, it's gonna default
to 17.99%.
(20:00):
Will that work for you?
Then you'd be quiet and they go,no, perfect.
Let me explain the program thatwe should give you.
Then.
This one's awesome, by the way.
This is real.
12 months, no interest, nopayment.
On month 13, it converts to a 7,9, 9, fix one 20.
(20:20):
That's$121 per 10,000.
So imagine this dude.
You buy the 10,000 airconditioner.
This is cool.
This is called a hybrid loan.
You buy the 10, the 10,000 airconditioner, and for 12 months
you look at your wife and yougo, you ready to burn it?
She's like, yeah, burn it.
And you burn the statement For12 months in a row.
(20:40):
No payments.
No payments.
No payments.
And a month 13, it converts to a7, 9, 9.
The payment's 1 21 a month andyou start making your payments
to pay your air conditioner off.
And then you sell your house insix months and you make, you
know,$355,000.
'cause you're in a great equityposition and you basically had a
free air conditioner for twoyears.
You know, like that's a hybridloan.
(21:01):
Those are super cool.
Now I like those.
And here's the reason why thisprotects the consumer.
If they don't make the paymentswithin a promotional period.
They, it's called defaults.
I hate that word.
It's horrible.
But anyway, it's real, it'struth.
By the end of the promo, that'swhy I cut promotional, period.
If you don't pay it off, itrolls over to a freaking
(21:22):
ridiculously high interest rate.
But these hybrids protect theconsumer.
I.
And the interest doesn't evenaccrue for a year.
So these hybrids are awesome.
So when I train contractors onhow to get financing, how to
offer it, how to sell it, get'emset up, put the lender in place,
train their team, get'emmotivated, market the hell out
of it, make more money, helpmore customers with
(21:43):
affordability, I always try toget them to put at least one or
two in the bucket in their offerto consumers because it protects
the consumer.
It also protects the contractor.
You know why?
When that customer in 18 monthsfrom now, or 24 months or 12
months from now, would get a17.99 or a 29% interest rate,
(22:05):
guess what they do?
They don't get mad at thelender.
Right.
They get mad at contract.
That's right.
'cause he ripped me off.
He's one that sold, he's the onethat sold.
It's so, you may think you have,you've made this customer happy
and they're giving you five starreviews and you're going out
there to do the AC tech thingthat you do twice a year or the
roof inspections.
(22:26):
They're gonna be happy until the13th month if you don't put'em
in a hybrid program to protectthem.
So, yeah, sorry if I'm talking alot.
That's what it's all about,dude.
Well, I know, but podcastsyou're supposed to, you talk, I
talk, we talk.
I just talked for, I just talkedfor 30 minutes.
(22:46):
You've probably been on a lot ofpodcasts where the host just
talks over to you and I justdon't do that shit.
No.
I was on one once where I wantedto get up and walk out, though
I'm sure.
Think the guy was snortingcocaine.
He was acting erratic.
It was facing Damnit.
Eric Damnit.
Eric Obra.
What the fuck was he?
Oh, it wasn't Eric.
(23:07):
I, no, I know that.
I know Eric's my boy.
I was on the phone with himtoday.
We were cutting it up.
He's such a good dude.
I was just with him in Houston.
I made him come have dinner withme after he spent like three
days doing really gruelingactivities.
I made him come have dinner withme and then I made him pay.
I think that we recruited a guywhile we're at dinner that he
(23:28):
could hire.
So it was kind of a wash.
Sounds like it.
But waiter was awesome.
I told Eric, I go, dude, youbetter hire this guy.
Or I'm gonna, you know, if itwasn't for Eric, I wouldn't have
got back in to aa.
Yeah.
Like it, you know, that dudereally turned, he really, he
spoke into my soul.
Yeah.
(23:48):
We talk all the time, man.
And you know, I was on his showsharing my story.
Right.
That's how I know you.
It was 15 years.
I was stuck in the, I was stuckin the dark for 15 years, man.
And I don't live in regret.
However, I.
How dare you say.
Say like, how dare you stealtime from your daughter and
(24:10):
sharing stories and helpingpeople, like I still was a good
human being, but how dare you?
Like how dare I do that?
Man, the, all the people thatare suffering and have had their
lives cut short and I was juststuck in kind of a dark place
for 15 years, but you know what?
The only thing that I can doright now, It's do what I'm
doing right now moving forward,because I can't go back there
(24:31):
and fix the person that wasstaring out the window paranoid.
No.
Only thing I can do is say, Hey,man.
Here's my story.
Do you need help Lena?
On me, man, I love you.
You can get through this.
I'm here to help you, but I can,like my wife is reminding me
that says,'cause I've been verystressed this week, kind of had
a bad week.
I'm not on, and she reminded meof why I am doing what I'm doing
(24:53):
with my business.
Why I took the risk, why wentall in, why burn the boats?
Why I walked away from a 350,000hour salary and went to back
town to Ground zero, building asoftware company up from
nothing.
Bootstrapped, no investors.
I want to help people and I wantto give back, and I've got a
passion to do this and I'm gonnado it.
So anyway.
(25:14):
Well, yeah, dude I get that.
It's you know, it.
Not everybody's like you and me.
Like not everybody's like, noteverybody can hold on to the
dream of building something.
The grind of building something,the constant ups and fucking
downs and smacks in the face,like it's a, it is, it's
(25:35):
something that, it's hard.
I don't give a shit what anybodysays.
Let me ask you, do you have agood circle?
Like do you have a guy that youcan call and go, bro, I'm
getting my teeth kicked intoday, man.
A hundred percent.
Yep.
You do.
I do too.
Yeah.
I have a really good group ofcircle and you know what?
I know that they're not gonnathink less of me as a man.
They're gonna go, bro, I've beenthere.
(25:56):
It's okay.
It's normal.
It's a roller coaster.
You're gonna get through it.
Keep pushing, keep climbing,man.
Like Joel.
So here's keep climbing.
So here's the thing though.
I've had that circle for a longtime, except for I wasn't
honest.
Yeah, I wasn't honest enough tocall and say I was getting my
(26:16):
tick kicked, my teeth kicked in.
Yeah.
I, my ego and my pride held onto the fact that I didn't want
people to know.
Yeah.
And that's worse.
Do you think that we are in a,and I'm not talking about fake
vulnerability, that was big inlike 2018, 2019, when everybody
(26:36):
was coming up, like Sean Whalenwas coming up with a story to
tell everybody about how hewanted a gun in his mouth, and
it was really big to be fake,vulnerable and really play off
of it.
I think that there's a movementhappening right now, number one,
I think Christ and God and Jesusand faith is coming into our
space.
Stronger than it's ever done.
But I also think that people arebeing really vulnerable and
(26:59):
honest now about, Hey man,things aren't that great.
You know, I'm suffering fromthis right now.
And I think that there's an excethere's some, a movement that's
happening.
'cause I've had more honestconversations with people that
are just like, bad month man.
It's all right.
And I see it and I hear it.
I love it.
We still know that those gurusare out there on the rented cars
(27:22):
all over.
They're kind of going down alittle bit.
Now, I think there's more peoplethat are just like, Hey, I'm
self-employed.
It ain't always fun.
It ain't easy.
But I know that I'm doing thisfor a reason, so I love it.
I had to stop, I had to stopfollowing all those people.
I had to stop.
I had to stop fucking with'embecause and back to your, let me
just, let me get into the Christthing really quick.
(27:44):
You know, I didn't even know.
I didn't know Christ.
I thought it was, you know, I'vealways prayed to God but
somebody pointed out somethingreally important to me.
They said, you know, everybodybelieves in God.
Everybody believes in God butit's your, and this is kind of
how he put it to me.
It's like, you know, you, yourego won't, will allow you to
pray to God, but your ego won'tallow you.
(28:05):
To, to kneel before Jesus.
And he was a hundred percentcorrect.
Yep.
And so I got saved, I don'tknow, probably three months ago,
something like that.
And it, you know, I can't tellyou that I'm not walking in the
valley of, millions of dollarssince that happened.
Right.
Lots of things have changed, butone of the main things that's
(28:27):
changed is I have the ability tobe honest with people.
Yeah.
And that is powerful.
Oh it's massive.
It's a, it's awesome becausethere's nothing better than,
it's like you sleep so well atnight'cause you're not living
this a fake imposter in imporeal people talk about imposter
syndrome.
I'm like, stop.
Right.
(28:48):
You're full of shit.
You're being, you're just, it's,you're not being an imposter.
You're being like real.
And I think that being real andsharing and helping is like kind
of, so it's like cool now Iagree.
It attracts a lot more, the,your circle's really an awesome
circle once you start beingreally honest.
And I find it really powerfulnow that if somebody isn't right
(29:09):
for me and I know it, I just get'em outta my circle now and I
don't even think about itanymore.
And sometimes I'll do it if Ifind that I'm following somebody
to not be a champion of them,and I'm following them to see if
I could poke holes in them.
I'll even separate myself fromthem because it's wrong for me
to do that.
And I don't know why I would goto that person's site to be
(29:31):
like, I wonder if he's doingwell or not.
And that's telling me, well, doyou want him to do well?
Are you a champion or are yougoing over there to see if he's
failing?
And I've taken some people outtamy life because it's wrong for
me to think that way about them.
Yeah.
And being totally honest, I'veremoved people my life just
simply because.
Person.
I don't care for the person.
(29:52):
They maybe don't care about me.
So look, let's, there's 6.9 ERs.
There's a lot of billions ofpeople out there.
We don't have to be in eachother's circles, but I don't
want to obsess and go look atyour page to see how well or how
horrible you're doing That doesno energy in anything good in my
life.
So I've been practicing a lot ofthat.
I learned that from Ed.
Millet, by the way, is you,we're in control of our circle.
(30:16):
We really are.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah.
I've met more people on fa dosocial media.
People are like, oh, socialmedia.
I'm like, no.
Like meeting you, meeting Eric,going and having dinner with
him, sharing stories, reachingout when I'm not feeling so
good.
There's a group of peoplethat've met online that I think
(30:37):
are gonna be my friends forever.
Like they're real people man.
And I'm just so blessed that Ihave social media'cause I've met
some really cool cats, man.
It's so fascinating the peoplethat, that, that will behind,
let's call it in the dms.
I did a post two or three weeksago that just talked about, you
(30:57):
know, I didn't really know who Iam.
I've, I'll have a face for you.
I'll have a face for the nextperson.
I'll just be a different personbecause I'm a great salesperson.
So to my, to I say that becauseit's not served me well.
'cause I'm a pretty damn goodactor.
So I can tell you things aregreat and you'll believe that.
Yeah, of course.
But that, that, that doesn't doany, that doesn't do anything
(31:19):
for me other than just push mefurther down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so I did a post it just, andI just kind of laid it out
there.
I mean, I really laid it outthere.
Worst thing I ever have in mylife.
And the people that have comeout from that, that are like, I
can't believe you put that upthere, but I've had this, or I'm
dealing with that, or I.
(31:39):
It's pretty fascinating.
And I feel like it's a, youknow, a blessing to me when
somebody can then share whateverthat thing is they're dealing
with me.
You're teaching someone else.
It's okay for them to let it gotoo.
Yeah.
I didn't think about it when Iwhen I went on.
And you're let, and then there'sother people that hate you for
it, by the way.
Oh, for sure.
But you know what, it's yourcircle.
(32:00):
Damnit.
It's your circle That's.
So when I came out and I told mystory about being addicted to
cocaine and drugs for 15 years,and I cured myself of it and
walked away cold Turkey manyyears ago and never looked back.
My mom watched a podcast where Ijust openly talked about it and
she was so upset, bro.
'cause yeah.
(32:21):
I told her that I had overcomeaddiction, but I never sat her
down and said, mom, here's whatI did.
It was from a Friday night tilla Sunday, and I was addicted,
and I never leave the apartmentin California.
I was working for banks.
Like I was a professional,banker that was addicted to
cocaine.
I never told her like the story.
She knew I over, she probablythought I was like smoking weed,
right?
And I stopped smoking weeded,right?
(32:41):
She called me.
She was so upset.
She's 76 and she's like, honey,what?
What will the people say back inwhere we grew up?
And I said, I don't care.
I don't care.
Hopefully some, I said,hopefully somebody wants a story
that's been through what I'vebeen through, and they know that
they're gonna be able to comeout on the other side.
(33:02):
'cause they have the power to doit and the people and the
support to do it.
Like, mom, this is what it's allabout.
We just lean in on people and wehelp people.
And she, at the end of it, she'slike, oh my God, that's
beautiful.
But man, she was really upset.
She's like, I'm embarrassed.
And what if the people find outfrom my church and I'm like, You
come from a different era, man.
Mom, I love you.
I needed to let this go.
(33:23):
I'm helping people'cause I'mhelping release it from myself
and not holding myself in ransomand in prison The rest of my
life I've had more people reachout to me and walk up to me at
trade shows.
And I just spoke down in Houstonfrom the stage and I said, we've
had a lot of people commitsuicide and I'm here.
And a guy walked up to meafterwards.
He is like, bro, thank you somuch.
He goes, I will reach out toyou.
(33:44):
So that person was hurting.
I don't know if I'd saved hislife, but I'd made an impact in
his life.
And he walked up to me, he goes,thank you so much for delivering
that message today.
I needed to hear it.
And he said, I'm gonna connectwith you and if I ever need
anybody, I'm gonna contact you.
(34:06):
'cause you said it was okay.
So I think I might have changedor saved someone's life.
And I didn't.
And it wasn't even, my mission,it was what God said through me.
'cause when I go up on stage, Ijust go.
So anyway, it's almost like yougave him a ace in the hole,
right?
He knows now he's got thenumber, he's got the contact
(34:26):
that if he needs it, and thatcould be all he needed.
That's it.
Just to know that there's oneperson out there that can call
that went through some reallyshitty shit.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude it's really powerful.
I love it.
Yeah, dude.
A hundred percent.
Alright, well we kind of wentoff in a whole different
direction than, well, I don'tanticipate anything.
(34:47):
I never know what's gonnahappen, but this is, dude, this
has been a great conversation.
So this will work your productjust to kind of wrap everything
up.
Your blue Pages will work forany contractor for the customer.
They really don't have to doshit, right?
They just have to put it ontheir no.
Contractors have to do the work,right?
So, okay.
Thank God they do.
(35:08):
Right?
'cause nothing should be easy.
That easy, right?
They still, we're gonna buildthis thing.
We're gonna teach you aboutfinancing.
We're gonna give you, we'regonna get you enrolled with a
lender.
We're gonna teach you how tosell.
You're gonna get a portal.
You're gonna get a mobile app.
You're gonna get digitalbusiness cards.
You're gonna have this tool thatwe call a Blue Page.
We're gonna integrate it to yourwebsite.
It's gonna be out there in thestratosphere, www.
(35:31):
But you still have to show upand work still.
Well, no.
I Let me, so I was just sayinglike, they don't have to do any
of the pay.
They don't have to, it's not apain in their side to have, this
is what, that's what I mean.
No, you just gotta do it.
But it's easy.
Seriously, let's be honest.
I'm glad you brought this up.
I could send an enrollment linkto somebody and it costs them
absolutely nothing to enrollwith a lender and it'll just sit
(35:54):
in the inbox.
Why?
Because people don't takeaction, man.
They need it.
They want it.
They know they have to have itbecause they got customers that
want affordability.
And I'll send the link to'em andI'll get'em inspired and excited
to do it.
But they gotta go in, they gottaopen it up and they gotta go
find their e i n number.
And when did we get incorporatedPhyllis?
(36:16):
I don't know.
I'll go get the folder.
Oh, ring okay.
Yeah, right.
So, oh, squirrel.
Hotdog in the hallway.
Yeah.
They still have to take action.
Right.
Once they take action though,I'm gonna make it happen.
Yeah.
That's what, that was the point.
I wanna make it clear that like,it's not a lot of work dude, for
(36:36):
a contractor, like, it's notlike you gotta do a whole bunch
of stuff.
It costs nothing to get enrolledfor financing except some
attention.
Right?
Like, and I'll teach you how tosell it.
And if you say, well, thefinancing programs have dealer
fees, no.
What we'll do is we'll take allthe ones that have dealer fees,
We'll get rid of'em and we'llgive you the five or six or
seven that have no the otherfees.
(36:56):
You can go to market with thatand then you'll fall in love
with financing.
And then you're gonna wannaoffer other different hybrid
programs that might cost thecustomer money.
They're like, well, I don't wantto pay the X number of percent,
but you're paying 3% or four,whatever it is.
The visa every time, like, yeah,so already paying.
Let's talk about that for a, Ilove, so you into Macy's and you
(37:17):
wanna buy your wife a purse.
Okay, and the purse is hangingon the wall.
Here's the purse.
That's the purse.
And you take it down and youwalk up to the lady and you put
it on the counter at Macy's andyou lean in and you look at the
lady and you go, I'm gonna buythat for my wife.
I'm paying cash today.
So here's the deal.
It says it's a thousand dollars,but I'm paying cash, so I want
(37:38):
you to give this to me for 700.
And the cashier, she's thisyoung, cute girl, and she's 19,
and she looks at you and goes,okay, that'll be a thousand
dollars sir.
That's my point.
So this purse from Macy's hasdealer fees built into it.
Here's the reason why.
They have no idea how you'regonna transact when you go up to
(38:00):
the counter to buy it.
Do they care that you're handing$700 cash?
Do they care that you're handingan insurance check?
Do they care that you're payingby a paper credit card?
Discover Amex, MasterCard, visa,apple.
They don't care.
The price is a thousand dollars.
Now Amex, this one is 3.25.
(38:24):
This one's 2.75.
This one is X.
This one's Y.
The credit card companies maycharge a different merchant fee
on that.
Let's say that they're all underthree.
It's already built into thepurse.
That's right.
So when contractors tell me, Idon't pay dealer fees, I, all of
my customers pay cash.
I say, cool.
(38:46):
Understand, we've got no dealerfree programs that'll work for
you.
But let me ask you a quickquestion.
Do you accept credit cards?
And they'll go, absolutely.
Been doing it for years, and Igo, awesome.
Because we have services forthat too.
But no, I'll say, How much areyou building into your retail
book now when you do creditcard?
Oh, nothing.
And I go, oh God.
(39:06):
So you've been stealing 3% fromyourself for all these years.
Why a hundred percent consumerspay for financing within the
price of the product?
Because financing is a productjust like a nail on a roof.
The nail is built into thecontract nails, products, shing,
tile metal financing is part ofthe contract price because the
(39:28):
consumers buying.
A product and within the productare things that cost money.
Financing is built into theprice because it's a product,
it's a means to get somethingdone so you can very easily as a
contractor build 10% into yourretail book.
You're selling air conditionerstoday for$10,000 without
(39:49):
financing.
On Monday, you sell the same airconditioner for 11,000.
And now you can offer 15programs that are under a 10%
dealer fee and stop losing moneyon credit card swipes, and
that's called zero costaveraging at the end of the
year.
Because if 80% of your jobs areclosed under a no dealer fee
(40:11):
program and you've built 10% in,you can see how you can get a
queue throughout the year atzero cost average.
At the end of the year, weclosed 80%.
On no dealer fee programs, weclosed 5% on programs that cost
5%.
We closed 10% on programs thatcost eight and 3% of the jobs
(40:31):
were at 10.
We are winner chicken dinner,man,'cause 80% of them closed
with that hire where you'remaking an extra thousand dollars
per 10,000.
Anyway, we do zero costaveraging to show the
contractors, this is how you doit and you don't lose money and
you keep your p and l superhappy.
That's it.
Yeah, but it, yeah it, butyou're you're exactly right.
(40:52):
You're a hundred percent,hundred percent.
This is a little dude.
I went, talked to contractorsjust like this.
You go into the, what you buy,the person, they start thinking,
they're like, everything's gotdealer fees, your gasoline, your
food, your grocery stores,because they don't know how
you're gonna pay when you get tothe register.
And they ain't gonna risk notmaking their dealer fee or
whatever fee.
(41:12):
Right.
They have to bake.
They have to bake it in.
They have to bake it in.
Everything's gotta baked in.
This damn water.
Had it baked in.
Yeah, for sure.
Oh, well anyway.
Yeah, dude, you're a hundredpercent right, so Yeah,
absolutely.
I agree.
Totally.
Alright, Chris, where can peoplefind you?
My man?
Where can they find Blue Pages?
I probably should probably getlike a link from you.
(41:33):
Yeah.
Blue.
Yeah, it's cool.
I'll send you a link orsomething.
And Blue Pages Pro.
Just visit the website andthat's us.
If you're on the social mediaslike Facebook, it's, I think I'm
under Christopher Scoville.
Can't miss me.
I'm balding, I'm ugly.
I don't really do the Instagram.
I'm under there, Chris Scovilleand then I'm on LinkedIn.
I've learned somethinginteresting with LinkedIn.
You go over there and just benice to people and have fun and
(41:56):
not be a stiff guy with a tie.
It's a lot of fun'cause theyain't used to it.
My engagement on LinkedIn isfire because I treat LinkedIn
just like I do the socialmedias, funny videos, some memes
every now and then, me beingsuper passionate, dropping some
F-bombs.
Sorry, Lord, like.
They're not used to it over onLinkedIn, and I'll get vice
(42:17):
president, senior vicepresident, C-suite level venture
capital.
People call me going, dude,you're crazy, but you got our
but you got our attention.
Let's talk.
Right.
So I'm crushing it on LinkedIn.
It's like Joey, it's like JoeyYaks freaking commercials.
Yeah, right.
You know Joey Yak?
Yeah, I know him.
He does the crazy contractorcommercials that are just
(42:38):
ridiculous.
But you can't help but to watch'em.
Who are some of your mentors?
Some of my mentors, well, ed andAndy were for years Yeah.
With ate.
Yeah.
Yep.
And then I joined, I moved overfrom there to Sean.
So Lance then.
Yep.
Yep.
And then I moved away from allof them.
(42:59):
Yeah.
I'm on that path.
And it's not that I haveanything against Ed, Andy, Sean
Brian Stewart, like I've gotnothing against any of them.
I think that I've gotten to apoint to a level where now I get
to go to YouTube and study,right?
Right.
Like some days I needmotivation, so I go to, you know
what I do for motivation?
(43:19):
Some days I wanna learn fromAlex for moey and I want to be
in completely inspired onsomething'cause he's very
knowledgeable.
Some days I need Ed.
In my year.
Some days I wanna go back to2017 or 16 and hear Andy.
I get to pick who my mentor isnow, but I'll tell you what I
have done.
I've eliminated a ton.
(43:40):
Yeah.
I've learned.
I've learned who's real, who'snot real, who's copying people,
who's regurgitating their stuffover and over again.
And it's really easy to see thefakes now.
And like Jay Abraham, I, I loveJay Abraham'cause he's so old
school and he doesn't even knowwhat it is to be fake.
Right.
Like Dan Kennedy.
Some of the guys that.
(44:02):
Just wouldn't even know whatfake means.
I like learning specifics now.
So I think I'm, after I'm donewith this year, I'm done with
coaching.
Yeah.
I li I listen to a lot of books.
You know, I spend.
I mean, I probably listen to atleast two books a week and I
always listen to'em twice'causeI have a d h, adhd.
(44:22):
And do you listen?
Do you listen when you work out?
Yeah.
Do you take note?
Do you take notes?
No, that's why I listen to ittwice.
So you'll work out and listen toa book?
A hundred percent.
My wife does.
She's like, how do you work outlistening to podcasts?
I go, this is the only way to doit.
Whatcha talking about?
Yeah, like music just seemedlike a, I listen.
(44:48):
You know, it's so funny, dude,like I've just shifted.
I've just shifted.
Like, I want if I'm not on acall, I wanna be learning, I
wanna be learning how to getbetter.
'cause shit's moving so fast,like, No, I need to be smarter.
I wanna be smarter.
And the only way I know how todo that is to listen to books.
Isn't it interesting, like whenI was in high school, I couldn't
(45:11):
care less about learning and I'mabsolutely do now and I'm
addicted to it.
Addicted.
I'm addicted to learning andpodcasts and it's weird.
I go through cycles where I'llbe listening and then like just
this last week, I've beenthrough some rough.
Some anxiety and some stressors,and I'm letting things get, and
I'm like, okay, I can fix this.
So I'm, maybe I'm praying alittle bit harder or I'm
(45:33):
listening to Elevation Church orI'm listening to the motivation
stuff and it's getting me out ofit.
Right.
And then next week I'll probablybe back up on my high level of
awesomeness and I'll be likeback listening to Alex Hermo
learning some business shit.
But I like the fact that I'vegotten dialed in on who I listen
to and who I learn from now.
It's cool.
Don't ask you about a book, doyou?
So do you listen to books?
(45:54):
No, I read'em and write notes.
That's why I asked you to takenotes.
That makes sense.
Alright, so I'm gonna give you abook next time.
And look, I think you'll, Ireally think you'll, you will
resonate with this book.
It's called, give It to Mebrother, I'll write it down
right now.
It's called Ragamuffin Gospeland you know it's, yes.
It's called Ragamuffin Gospel byb Brendan Manning.
(46:15):
And the gist of it is, You know,it's a guy just like me and you
who got to the top.
He was a preacher and ultimatelyfell.
Right.
And he talks about, he goesthrough, you know, it's a
biblical book for sure.
Yeah.
It's the most, one of the mostpowerful books I've ever read.
Muff Gospel.
(46:36):
I love it.
There's a, oh, you know, there'sa movie about it actually, so
come on.
There's also, yeah, there's alsoa movie.
That's excellent.
Oh, Google it.
Yeah.
Is it called, it's not calledRagamuffin Gospel, I think it
is.
Just look, Brendan Manning ishis, is the guy's name.
It, okay.
The guy I'm trying to think ofthe name of the song.
It's amazing.
Something.
God's amazing God.
(46:58):
I'd be amazing.
God, I can't.
I have terrible voice.
No, your voice is freakinghorrible.
Yeah.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout though?
No, but you really sound good,like you're a real good
salesperson, but your voice ishorrible.
How?
Yeah, it's not really good.
I don't know dude.
It's not very good.
Not very good at all, dude.
So it there, it's a song.
(47:18):
They play it in church all thetime.
Like what?
You'll know it's called AmazingGod or something like that.
I'll look it up.
Hear it?
Yeah.
When you hear it, it'll be like,oh yeah, I know exactly what
he's talking.
But this guy is the one thatstart that, that performed that
song or created it or whatever.
I would assume he's reggae'causeof rag.
No, he's got Oh, his rich.
Rich.
(47:39):
What's rich?
Ragamuffin is reggae though,isn't it?
Ragamuffin, it's ragamuffinlike, like, dish rag.
Sort of interesting.
You, dude, you really peaked.
You did a good job at hangingout there to get me all peaked
up on this.
So I'm, when we hang up here,I'm going to go look, I'm going
on the Google.
(47:59):
Good.
'cause that's one thing that youwon't find on the Blue Pages Pro
is about the That's right.
It'll be a good book, dude.
It really will.
I appreciate it.
I'll check it out.
Thank you my friend.
I appreciate you.
Thanks for having me on, man.
This has been really fun andenergetic and I needed this
today.
I appreciate that my friend.
Welcome to the Successful LifePodcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier,and I'm here with my man, Chris
Scoville.
What's up, Chris?
Just sitting here boxing myselfand trying to get through the
day, brother.
So let's just pick up ourconversation'cause we were
having a really dope assconversation about always some
stuff that you're doing.
Always.
Yeah always in the green room.
That's where the goodconversation starts.
(00:22):
That's right.
So we started out with Chrishaving a Chris's wife having a
flat tire today and.
He handled it like a man andwent out and handled it after
four hours worth of waiting.
Well, you know, I had to do myFacebook posts and stuff like
that.
Of course.
Oh, this is great.
So when I get out there, what'sthe first thing that I did?
Fuck take pictures.
(00:43):
Right?
I'm like this and I'm, she'slike, really?
On the side of the road, on thesawgrass car's.
Right.
And I'm like, Yep.
I'm about to save the day like ajerk, but yeah, I saw it.
Here's the bottom line.
No matter how upset I got at theprice of the fix and the delay
(01:05):
of me having to Dr.
You know, it was hours.
My wife did not get an accident.
Nobody got hurt.
That's all that matters.
It is money.
Money is money.
I gave some money to somesomeone.
They're gonna take that moneyand pay somebody that worked and
then they're gonna go buysomething.
They're gonna give the money.
So the money will come back tome someday, but for sure anyway.
(01:28):
And at the end of the day, it'sjust life.
She's okay.
That's right.
That's right.
So look you've had some, you'vehad some changes, right?
I don't even know the changes,but I'm interested to find out,
'cause the last time we talkedyou were, well, I'll just let
you tell the story.
You've gone through a brandchange, right?
Or something along those lines.
(01:48):
Well, yeah, I mean, did we talk,so I retired from service
finance.
Did we talk about that?
We never talked about that.
We haven't done a podcast,right?
No.
No.
Alright, cool.
So we talked several times.
We haven't done a podcast.
Yeah.
I'll do a recap for those ofyour folks that might not know
who the hell I am.
Right.
So, who's this guy?
Right.
So, I've been in the industrylike a really long time.
I work with contractors.
(02:09):
It's all I do.
It's not a hobby.
This is what I do for a living.
I don't golf, I don't fish.
I work with contractors.
I love it.
It's my passion.
So I've been doing this morethan half my life.
I'm 52 years old.
I.
I know, I don't look it, youdon't look it all the
compliments.
But with all seriousness, myfather was an attorney and he
opened up Roscoe Constructionand I was in high school.
(02:31):
He built a custom home inBatavia, New York, and I helped
him do that.
And then at 19, when I finishedcollege I went down to South
Florida and started doing roofs,doing tie beams.
And then I was like, Think Iwanna get involved in the money
side of this deal, right?
So I became a mortgage broker,wholesale, construction, or
permanent side, and I was abanker for 26 years.
(02:52):
So I did man, unsecured, secured2 0 3 k construction to
permanent, always working withcontractors.
Our a c pace, commercial,residential heat locks.
Like I've done everything thatyou could imagine.
In the finance contractor space.
So it was only natural for me toretire two months ago.
When we launched, we've launchedand been building our software
(03:14):
company called Blue Pages Pro.
For those of you that haven'tbeen there, go check it out.
It's kind of cool.
Blue Pages Pro.
We built a software company overthe last two years, bootstrapped
no investors.
Ground up, right?
Didn't exist.
It exists.
Now we've got damn near 19,000members on the platform in the
United States.
(03:35):
We just signed a contract inCanada, so it's growing
exponentially.
So basically what happened is itgot to the point where the
company got so big that it wastime for me to retire from
service finance where I was thissenior vice president business
development dude.
And I managed like Owens Corningand Beacon and Lennox and stuff
like that, doing trainings andmanage.
So it was only natural for meto, when I retired, to build a
(03:59):
finance center within mysoftware company.
Why?
Well, dude, it's what I do,right?
Like I've been working withcontractors providing financing
solutions for 26 years.
I wasn't about to give that up.
So we built a financing center.
We got five lenders that webuilt in there, a multi lending
platform, if you want to call itthat.
(04:20):
So it's real simple for me to doa consultation with a contractor
find out what their specificneeds are for themselves.
And their customers talk abouttheir market, their credit
score, average ticket, what theysell.
Do you do good, better, andbest?
What do you install?
Like I ask all the greatquestions and then we line'em
up.
(04:41):
Either 1, 2, 3, or evensometimes four lenders so they
can actually help theirpopulation.
Right?
Because some people have live inareas where it's just all great
credit.
All my customers pay cash.
Sure they do.
Those ones.
All my customers, sure they do.
Meanwhile, they slide you inAmex, and that's not cash.
That's financing.
But anyway.
(05:01):
Then there's some places like Iwon't even talk about the areas
'cause I don't wanna hurtanyone's feelings that are on
this, but that just havechallenged credit, right?
That's people that are justsubprime, right?
There's even states that arenotoriously between 600, 6 49.
So if I've got some lenders thathelp that bucket and then lately
I've had to add mortgagesolutions to it, and here's a
reason why.
(05:23):
Cost of home improvementprojects is exponentially higher
now.
'cause the cost of goods, right?
That's right.
I do Down California are doing,and I finance everything.
It's not just roofs and windows,doors.
If it goes in and on around it,I finance it.
I even do commercial in 37states.
So you're flooring in yourkitchen and bath.
They're like 2 25.
(05:45):
That's not even, that's like ajoke.
In Florida, you can get awaywith a hundred thousand dollars
for flooring in a new kitchen,right?
$225,000.
California.
Your average high-end kitchen isa quarter mill man, so I had to
add some home improvement.
HELOCs, home improvementmortgage solutions.
(06:06):
To the mix.
So basically I hop on the phonewith contractors.
I do this, I shoot this shit.
My wife gets pissed.
She's like, I can't believe thatyou make money doing this.
I'm like, well, it's fun, youknow?
That's why this is what I do fora living and I don't play golf
or fish'cause I suck at thoseanyway.
I help.
Bring money to contractors sothey can give it to the consumer
so they can buy their stuff.
(06:27):
And then as we were talkingabout money earlier, the
exchange, it just goes in thereand out there.
And then we basically put thefinancing tool into our software
platform called BluePages Pro,which helps them connect,
convert, create morerelationships and close more
jobs.
So we embed financing solutionsinto this really cool website, a
micro site landing page thingthat helps the world go round
(06:49):
and round.
Who did you, who was, you know,I guess who is maybe the
competitor if there is one, butwho did you kind of take market
share from?
Just outta curiosity?
I don't think we really did.
So let's go into why I evenbuilt this thing in the first
place.
You've got your third party leadaggregators, okay?
So you've got people like AngieHomeAdvisor, Thumbtack,
(07:11):
modernize craft Jack, Theyaggregate leads and they got so
much money.
It's crazy.
Well, we know why they havemoney, right?
They sell leads.
They sell leads.
They got all this money toadvertise to people to say, Hey,
come to us and we'll fix yourhome.
And then they basically takethat data and then they resell
it over and over, right?
They churn data, third party nonvalid leads.
(07:33):
And I was like, well, that's notvery nice.
I said, What if I builtsomething that didn't charge for
leads A directory, right?
Right.
A national directory ofcertified pros Contractors that
have qualifications or evenbecome a certified pro.
What if I built a directory andI let the consumers go through
the front door and workeddirectly with the contractors
(07:56):
and didn't charge anything forit?
That's what we did.
We built a beautiful nationaldirectory.
It's gonna be in Canada as well.
We just signed a contract upthere.
So we built this directory thata consumer can go to Blue Pages
Pro, choose the asset that theywant, choose the zip code, and
vet the contractors within thatlittle local market on who they
wanna work with.
(08:17):
Here's the cool thing.
Algorithmically contractors thathave platinum, which has got the
new automated pre-qual system.
It's a financing tool that Ibuilt into it algorithmically
appear at the top.
'cause they have a coolfinancing thing with multiple
lendings.
The pro plans algorithmicallyappear under the platinum.
The light plans appear there andthen your base plans appear
(08:40):
there.
So there is a benefit forcontractors that are on the Blue
Pages, that are on the highestlevel.
'cause algorithmically they havethe better offers to help the
consumer afford the homeservice.
That kind of brings it alltogether, but we don't charge
for leads.
We wanna help contractors.
Build the sales finance tool,get it in front of consumers,
(09:02):
help'em connect, convert, createmore relationships, ultimately
close more jobs.
And that's why we built thisthing.
So that's the lead aggregatorside.
As far as competitors out therethat have directories, there's a
few like my friend Dmitri, he'sgot the director I, director ii.
Right.
(09:22):
Where he's put roofers and stuffin there.
So I, he doesn't charge forleads.
However, he does charge Xpercent on the job when it
funds.
Right.
We don't charge for that, by theway.
And then I think roofing.comkind of is a lead aggregator
type of a thing now where youcan go and so there are some
other directories out there.
I.
To cut back to why I built thiswith the exit strategy already
(09:45):
in mind, and I think that it'simportant for anybody watching
this.
If you wanna build a softwarecompany a sauce, you wanna kind
of pre-frame it like, what's thefuture state of my software
company in five years?
Do I wanna still be here runningit and grinding it and make it a
shit ton of money, or do I wantto exit?
Then go learn how to fish andlearn how to play golf, right?
(10:05):
So I literally built blue pageswith an exit strategy in mind,
and a goal that Zillow will buythis in three years for 1.2
billion.
Why?
Because Zillow needs this.
Because Zillow isn't in homeimprovement, but Zillow needs to
be in home improvement.
Why?
Well, because people aren'tmoving.
They're staying put in their 3%or two and a quarter or two and
(10:28):
a half, 30 year, and they'remaking home improvements.
So really with a Be Beautifulplugin to have this database of
50,000 certified pro contractorswith financing capabilities in
it, that doesn't charge forleads and it helps the
contractors around the platformbecause, They're first seen,
first sight of mind, offering,financing, helping the
consumers.
(10:48):
So the beautiful thing aboutbuilding the field of dreams, I
called it.
Was future state.
And when I built the softwarefrom the ground up, I framework
it that the map is on the leftand the contractors are on the
right.
'cause damn it all, when you goto Zillow, the map is on the
left and the homes are on theright.
So it's a natural fit that whenit's fix a home, right?
(11:10):
Find a home, find a realtor, geta mortgage.
Rent a home, fix a home, clickboop.
You're already in the flowbecause the map's on the left.
So I really did think it throughreally well.
And everything I do is when Icreate, I think of future state.
I don't think of just like rightnow, I'm thinking three years
down the road.
(11:31):
How company Camp showcasegalleries.
How important will it be for aconsumer to show, tell, and sell
and look at the projects ratherthan looking at a stale review?
Right?
Like, reviews are probably notreal anyway, but you can't fake,
you can't fake this.
When you click on the showcasegallery and 273 pictures pop up,
(11:54):
you can't fake that.
That's Bill from Hometown thatdid 276 pictures of the project,
of what it looked like in thebeginning, what it looked like
in the middle, and what itlooked like in the end.
And we call that show tell andsell because we want consumers
to look at the jobs that Billdid.
Because now they trust him,because they actually looked at
the work that he does.
They're not just looking at astale Bill was great.
(12:17):
Here's his five star review.
Anita, come on Anita.
So let me ask you this.
So if I go in and I'm looking atto remodel a, a kitchen, you
just mentioned that.
Yeah.
And'cause I'm doing,'cause I'mdoing it right now, right?
You were doing it last time wetalked.
That's pretty sure dear.
It's still going on.
So if I go in and I, if I go andI click the finance button, blue
(12:40):
pages and I'm gonna get, it saysyou're qualified for$50,000,
right?
Yep.
Yep.
And I.
A remodel and I'm going throughand I'm picking out what it is I
want to do.
'cause I'm there's an onlinetool.
Let's assume, how does that,does it spit out like, okay,
(13:02):
does it spit out monthlypayments?
Does it spit out the total?
How does that work?
Because the total, I imagine,would scare the out people.
Yeah.
That's why, you know, The bestcontractors are presenting at
the point of need or the pointof sale, right?
So let me illustrate.
So if I am a.
(13:25):
Do you wanna sell 50,000remodel?
Sure.
Okay, cool.
So, Mr.
And Mrs.
Smith we're here and I've donethe demo and I've explained how
awesome our company is.
I've showed'em our work.
I've show, tell, and sell.
They've explained, we explainedwhat the process is and how
great we are at it, and it getstime to put the contract down.
Well, I don't know if I wannaspend 50,000.
I wanna qualify for 50 isprobably gonna be 25.
(13:52):
So your want is 25.
That's your budget?
Yeah.
Yep.
25.
But I, so here's the AP p ssystem.
It's called the automatedpre-qual system that I built.
Okay.
This goes on a blue page, soit's gonna take the customer's
information, what their statedincome is.
No social security, by the way.
(14:15):
What their loan request is andthey're requesting 25.
No, 50.
They're requesting 50 but theythink they're gonna spend 25
either are, let's just say 25.
Okay.
Because I'm gonna show you howit works.
So let's say that they ask for25.
We already know it's gonna bedouble.
Who cares?
The system doesn't care whatthey ask for.
It's just the data.
So now I know what they make.
(14:36):
I've got their interim.
I'm gonna run a soft creditpull, and it goes through the
system.
And now I can pull out theircredit score, their debt to
income.
I've got margin integrity builtin there and I've got their debt
to income and they've asked for25.
Because he's got a platinumlevel color credit
(14:56):
classification 835 FICO and a25% D T I.
And I know that the contractor'smargin integrity is 10%.
And under these are dataintelligent points that I built
into it, by the way, so I'msorry if I'm speaking jargon.
It doesn't matter.
Here's the bottom line.
Within 13 seconds, it's gonnatell Mr.
Smith, you are qualified now.
(15:18):
The portal's gonna say you'requalified because we have the
data points.
When he goes to the lender'sportal for the application, now
we go to application to thelender portal lp, and he applies
another soft credit poll.
By the way, I still haven'tpulled their credit.
So the customer's really happybecause we haven't dinged their
(15:38):
Equifax, we haven't dinged theircredit.
We're just getting them to theapproval.
So now we go to the lender,we've got multi lending
platform, and we apply.
Congratulations, Mr.
Smith.
You're approved for$50,000.
Whoa.
I don't want 50.
That's fine.
I'm just letting you know whatyour max approval is.
Okay, good.
You know, because shit happens,right?
(16:01):
My granite counter was supposedto be 12.
Guess how much it cost me?
17 five wasn't 12.
Contingency, right?
So here's the cool thing.
Now we break it down and rereverse engineer this.
2 25 is gonna cost them$114 perthat two.
Let's say it's$238 per month forthat 25,000.
(16:22):
All right, Mr.
And Mrs.
Smith, I've got your, now we'vegot the contract.
Here's your contract.
It's$25,000.
Were you ready?
Here we go.
This is the best part.
Were you gonna be using yourmoney or would you like to use
some of ours?
Well, my AC went out two daysago after we talked, and I'm
curious if I can add that inthat 25.
(16:44):
Absolutely.
I mean, is this or into the 50?
I mean, yeah.
Is the general contractor an airconditioning engineer?
Can you sub it out?
I don't know.
Let's assume he can.
Let's assume he's a GC and hecan sub out the hvac.
So we got$25,000 for the remodeland we got another 10 for the
hvac.
We're at$35,000.
It's$114 per 10.
(17:06):
Congratulations.
Would you like to use your moneyor would you like to use ours?
How often does that happen?
It's a Salesforce how often, buthow often does it happen that
people go over what theyanticipate because of that 50?
80% of the time.
I figured.
I think so too.
Yeah.
Like think about how you buy.
Yeah, of course.
Hey, forget.
Forget we're even talking.
(17:27):
When you go buy a car, you havehigh expectations that you're
gonna spend X right, until youfind out that you got approved
for Y and then you do what youupsell yourself.
Like that.
You go from a freaking$605 amonth payment expectation to 7
49 in a heartbeat.
Because why?
(17:48):
Emotion technology.
You wanted the horsepower.
I did an article once years agoon how many.
Hellcats.
They or Chargers, challengers orchargers, whatever.
How many models?
How many models they made.
I did an article on this, Ithink it started at like SS X T
and it went up to Super Demon orwhatever.
(18:10):
Like they've even got break codelike.
They have like 33 models.
So you go in to buy the X Tbecause it's got the challenger
model until you go, well, whatare people gonna think of me
when I show up to theintersection in a six cylinder
car?
Shouldn't I really have one thatroars dude?
And you'll bounce yourself froma 605 monthly payment to 7 49.
(18:34):
Just like that.
And you don't care because why?
Well, here's why.
Because it's the monthly paymentthat you're really buying and
when it comes to anything That'sright.
Not, it isn't the number.
So my point when I'm doing salescredits for guys on financing,
when I say, Hey, Mr.
Smith, You're gonna do businesswith us.
You're in love with us.
(18:54):
Now it comes down to payment.
Look, were you gonna be usingyour money or would you like to
use some of ours?
And typically the consumers willgo, what do you mean use yours?
Well, we've got lenders overhere.
Matter of fact, I can let youknow what you're approved to
right now with a soft creditpull when it won't even affect
you.
And payments on this thing aregonna be anywhere between$114 to
$135, depending upon yourcredit.
(19:17):
We won't know until we do a softcredit poll, wanna move forward
and they're like, oh, geez.
Yeah.
'cause I don't want to take$10,000 out of the bank, right?
Especially these days andthere's no prepayment penalty.
Would you like that on a 12month, same as cash, no
interest?
Or would you like to pay it overtime with no prepayment penalty?
Which one of those two optionswill work better for you?
I'll probably pay it off in 12months, but let's just take the
(19:39):
longer one.
I would say so too because, andthen I would educate them on
what a default rate is, right?
Yeah.
So I wanna educate thecontractors that look, it's
fine, Mr.
Smith, if you don't, if you wantno interest and you wanna do 12
months, same as cash.
However, if you don't pay it offin 12 months, it's gonna default
to 17.99%.
(20:00):
Will that work for you?
Then you'd be quiet and they go,no, perfect.
Let me explain the program thatwe should give you.
Then.
This one's awesome, by the way.
This is real.
12 months, no interest, nopayment.
On month 13, it converts to a 7,9, 9, fix one 20.
(20:20):
That's$121 per 10,000.
So imagine this dude.
You buy the 10,000 airconditioner.
This is cool.
This is called a hybrid loan.
You buy the 10, the 10,000 airconditioner, and for 12 months
you look at your wife and yougo, you ready to burn it?
She's like, yeah, burn it.
And you burn the statement For12 months in a row.
(20:40):
No payments.
No payments.
No payments.
And a month 13, it converts to a7, 9, 9.
The payment's 1 21 a month andyou start making your payments
to pay your air conditioner off.
And then you sell your house insix months and you make, you
know,$355,000.
'cause you're in a great equityposition and you basically had a
free air conditioner for twoyears.
You know, like that's a hybridloan.
(21:01):
Those are super cool.
Now I like those.
And here's the reason why thisprotects the consumer.
If they don't make the paymentswithin a promotional period.
They, it's called defaults.
I hate that word.
It's horrible.
But anyway, it's real, it'struth.
By the end of the promo, that'swhy I cut promotional, period.
If you don't pay it off, itrolls over to a freaking
(21:22):
ridiculously high interest rate.
But these hybrids protect theconsumer.
I.
And the interest doesn't evenaccrue for a year.
So these hybrids are awesome.
So when I train contractors onhow to get financing, how to
offer it, how to sell it, get'emset up, put the lender in place,
train their team, get'emmotivated, market the hell out
of it, make more money, helpmore customers with
(21:43):
affordability, I always try toget them to put at least one or
two in the bucket in their offerto consumers because it protects
the consumer.
It also protects the contractor.
You know why?
When that customer in 18 monthsfrom now, or 24 months or 12
months from now, would get a17.99 or a 29% interest rate,
(22:05):
guess what they do?
They don't get mad at thelender.
Right.
They get mad at contract.
That's right.
'cause he ripped me off.
He's one that sold, he's the onethat sold.
It's so, you may think you have,you've made this customer happy
and they're giving you five starreviews and you're going out
there to do the AC tech thingthat you do twice a year or the
roof inspections.
(22:26):
They're gonna be happy until the13th month if you don't put'em
in a hybrid program to protectthem.
So, yeah, sorry if I'm talking alot.
That's what it's all about,dude.
Well, I know, but podcastsyou're supposed to, you talk, I
talk, we talk.
I just talked for, I just talkedfor 30 minutes.
(22:46):
You've probably been on a lot ofpodcasts where the host just
talks over to you and I justdon't do that shit.
No.
I was on one once where I wantedto get up and walk out, though
I'm sure.
Think the guy was snortingcocaine.
He was acting erratic.
It was facing Damnit.
Eric Damnit.
Eric Obra.
What the fuck was he?
Oh, it wasn't Eric.
(23:07):
I, no, I know that.
I know Eric's my boy.
I was on the phone with himtoday.
We were cutting it up.
He's such a good dude.
I was just with him in Houston.
I made him come have dinner withme after he spent like three
days doing really gruelingactivities.
I made him come have dinner withme and then I made him pay.
I think that we recruited a guywhile we're at dinner that he
(23:28):
could hire.
So it was kind of a wash.
Sounds like it.
But waiter was awesome.
I told Eric, I go, dude, youbetter hire this guy.
Or I'm gonna, you know, if itwasn't for Eric, I wouldn't have
got back in to aa.
Yeah.
Like it, you know, that dudereally turned, he really, he
spoke into my soul.
Yeah.
(23:48):
We talk all the time, man.
And you know, I was on his showsharing my story.
Right.
That's how I know you.
It was 15 years.
I was stuck in the, I was stuckin the dark for 15 years, man.
And I don't live in regret.
However, I.
How dare you say.
Say like, how dare you stealtime from your daughter and
(24:10):
sharing stories and helpingpeople, like I still was a good
human being, but how dare you?
Like how dare I do that?
Man, the, all the people thatare suffering and have had their
lives cut short and I was juststuck in kind of a dark place
for 15 years, but you know what?
The only thing that I can doright now, It's do what I'm
doing right now moving forward,because I can't go back there
(24:31):
and fix the person that wasstaring out the window paranoid.
No.
Only thing I can do is say, Hey,man.
Here's my story.
Do you need help Lena?
On me, man, I love you.
You can get through this.
I'm here to help you, but I can,like my wife is reminding me
that says,'cause I've been verystressed this week, kind of had
a bad week.
I'm not on, and she reminded meof why I am doing what I'm doing
(24:53):
with my business.
Why I took the risk, why wentall in, why burn the boats?
Why I walked away from a 350,000hour salary and went to back
town to Ground zero, building asoftware company up from
nothing.
Bootstrapped, no investors.
I want to help people and I wantto give back, and I've got a
passion to do this and I'm gonnado it.
So anyway.
(25:14):
Well, yeah, dude I get that.
It's you know, it.
Not everybody's like you and me.
Like not everybody's like, noteverybody can hold on to the
dream of building something.
The grind of building something,the constant ups and fucking
downs and smacks in the face,like it's a, it is, it's
(25:35):
something that, it's hard.
I don't give a shit what anybodysays.
Let me ask you, do you have agood circle?
Like do you have a guy that youcan call and go, bro, I'm
getting my teeth kicked intoday, man.
A hundred percent.
Yep.
You do.
I do too.
Yeah.
I have a really good group ofcircle and you know what?
I know that they're not gonnathink less of me as a man.
They're gonna go, bro, I've beenthere.
(25:56):
It's okay.
It's normal.
It's a roller coaster.
You're gonna get through it.
Keep pushing, keep climbing,man.
Like Joel.
So here's keep climbing.
So here's the thing though.
I've had that circle for a longtime, except for I wasn't
honest.
Yeah, I wasn't honest enough tocall and say I was getting my
(26:16):
tick kicked, my teeth kicked in.
Yeah.
I, my ego and my pride held onto the fact that I didn't want
people to know.
Yeah.
And that's worse.
Do you think that we are in a,and I'm not talking about fake
vulnerability, that was big inlike 2018, 2019, when everybody
(26:36):
was coming up, like Sean Whalenwas coming up with a story to
tell everybody about how hewanted a gun in his mouth, and
it was really big to be fake,vulnerable and really play off
of it.
I think that there's a movementhappening right now, number one,
I think Christ and God and Jesusand faith is coming into our
space.
Stronger than it's ever done.
But I also think that people arebeing really vulnerable and
(26:59):
honest now about, Hey man,things aren't that great.
You know, I'm suffering fromthis right now.
And I think that there's an excethere's some, a movement that's
happening.
'cause I've had more honestconversations with people that
are just like, bad month man.
It's all right.
And I see it and I hear it.
I love it.
We still know that those gurusare out there on the rented cars
(27:22):
all over.
They're kind of going down alittle bit.
Now, I think there's more peoplethat are just like, Hey, I'm
self-employed.
It ain't always fun.
It ain't easy.
But I know that I'm doing thisfor a reason, so I love it.
I had to stop, I had to stopfollowing all those people.
I had to stop.
I had to stop fucking with'embecause and back to your, let me
just, let me get into the Christthing really quick.
(27:44):
You know, I didn't even know.
I didn't know Christ.
I thought it was, you know, I'vealways prayed to God but
somebody pointed out somethingreally important to me.
They said, you know, everybodybelieves in God.
Everybody believes in God butit's your, and this is kind of
how he put it to me.
It's like, you know, you, yourego won't, will allow you to
pray to God, but your ego won'tallow you.
(28:05):
To, to kneel before Jesus.
And he was a hundred percentcorrect.
Yep.
And so I got saved, I don'tknow, probably three months ago,
something like that.
And it, you know, I can't tellyou that I'm not walking in the
valley of, millions of dollarssince that happened.
Right.
Lots of things have changed, butone of the main things that's
(28:27):
changed is I have the ability tobe honest with people.
Yeah.
And that is powerful.
Oh it's massive.
It's a, it's awesome becausethere's nothing better than,
it's like you sleep so well atnight'cause you're not living
this a fake imposter in imporeal people talk about imposter
syndrome.
I'm like, stop.
Right.
(28:48):
You're full of shit.
You're being, you're just, it's,you're not being an imposter.
You're being like real.
And I think that being real andsharing and helping is like kind
of, so it's like cool now Iagree.
It attracts a lot more, the,your circle's really an awesome
circle once you start beingreally honest.
And I find it really powerfulnow that if somebody isn't right
(29:09):
for me and I know it, I just get'em outta my circle now and I
don't even think about itanymore.
And sometimes I'll do it if Ifind that I'm following somebody
to not be a champion of them,and I'm following them to see if
I could poke holes in them.
I'll even separate myself fromthem because it's wrong for me
to do that.
And I don't know why I would goto that person's site to be
(29:31):
like, I wonder if he's doingwell or not.
And that's telling me, well, doyou want him to do well?
Are you a champion or are yougoing over there to see if he's
failing?
And I've taken some people outtamy life because it's wrong for
me to think that way about them.
Yeah.
And being totally honest, I'veremoved people my life just
simply because.
Person.
I don't care for the person.
(29:52):
They maybe don't care about me.
So look, let's, there's 6.9 ERs.
There's a lot of billions ofpeople out there.
We don't have to be in eachother's circles, but I don't
want to obsess and go look atyour page to see how well or how
horrible you're doing That doesno energy in anything good in my
life.
So I've been practicing a lot ofthat.
I learned that from Ed.
Millet, by the way, is you,we're in control of our circle.
(30:16):
We really are.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah.
I've met more people on fa dosocial media.
People are like, oh, socialmedia.
I'm like, no.
Like meeting you, meeting Eric,going and having dinner with
him, sharing stories, reachingout when I'm not feeling so
good.
There's a group of peoplethat've met online that I think
(30:37):
are gonna be my friends forever.
Like they're real people man.
And I'm just so blessed that Ihave social media'cause I've met
some really cool cats, man.
It's so fascinating the peoplethat, that, that will behind,
let's call it in the dms.
I did a post two or three weeksago that just talked about, you
(30:57):
know, I didn't really know who Iam.
I've, I'll have a face for you.
I'll have a face for the nextperson.
I'll just be a different personbecause I'm a great salesperson.
So to my, to I say that becauseit's not served me well.
'cause I'm a pretty damn goodactor.
So I can tell you things aregreat and you'll believe that.
Yeah, of course.
But that, that, that doesn't doany, that doesn't do anything
(31:19):
for me other than just push mefurther down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so I did a post it just, andI just kind of laid it out
there.
I mean, I really laid it outthere.
Worst thing I ever have in mylife.
And the people that have comeout from that, that are like, I
can't believe you put that upthere, but I've had this, or I'm
dealing with that, or I.
(31:39):
It's pretty fascinating.
And I feel like it's a, youknow, a blessing to me when
somebody can then share whateverthat thing is they're dealing
with me.
You're teaching someone else.
It's okay for them to let it gotoo.
Yeah.
I didn't think about it when Iwhen I went on.
And you're let, and then there'sother people that hate you for
it, by the way.
Oh, for sure.
But you know what, it's yourcircle.
(32:00):
Damnit.
It's your circle That's.
So when I came out and I told mystory about being addicted to
cocaine and drugs for 15 years,and I cured myself of it and
walked away cold Turkey manyyears ago and never looked back.
My mom watched a podcast where Ijust openly talked about it and
she was so upset, bro.
'cause yeah.
(32:21):
I told her that I had overcomeaddiction, but I never sat her
down and said, mom, here's whatI did.
It was from a Friday night tilla Sunday, and I was addicted,
and I never leave the apartmentin California.
I was working for banks.
Like I was a professional,banker that was addicted to
cocaine.
I never told her like the story.
She knew I over, she probablythought I was like smoking weed,
right?
And I stopped smoking weeded,right?
(32:41):
She called me.
She was so upset.
She's 76 and she's like, honey,what?
What will the people say back inwhere we grew up?
And I said, I don't care.
I don't care.
Hopefully some, I said,hopefully somebody wants a story
that's been through what I'vebeen through, and they know that
they're gonna be able to comeout on the other side.
(33:02):
'cause they have the power to doit and the people and the
support to do it.
Like, mom, this is what it's allabout.
We just lean in on people and wehelp people.
And she, at the end of it, she'slike, oh my God, that's
beautiful.
But man, she was really upset.
She's like, I'm embarrassed.
And what if the people find outfrom my church and I'm like, You
come from a different era, man.
Mom, I love you.
I needed to let this go.
(33:23):
I'm helping people'cause I'mhelping release it from myself
and not holding myself in ransomand in prison The rest of my
life I've had more people reachout to me and walk up to me at
trade shows.
And I just spoke down in Houstonfrom the stage and I said, we've
had a lot of people commitsuicide and I'm here.
And a guy walked up to meafterwards.
He is like, bro, thank you somuch.
He goes, I will reach out toyou.
(33:44):
So that person was hurting.
I don't know if I'd saved hislife, but I'd made an impact in
his life.
And he walked up to me, he goes,thank you so much for delivering
that message today.
I needed to hear it.
And he said, I'm gonna connectwith you and if I ever need
anybody, I'm gonna contact you.
(34:06):
'cause you said it was okay.
So I think I might have changedor saved someone's life.
And I didn't.
And it wasn't even, my mission,it was what God said through me.
'cause when I go up on stage, Ijust go.
So anyway, it's almost like yougave him a ace in the hole,
right?
He knows now he's got thenumber, he's got the contact
(34:26):
that if he needs it, and thatcould be all he needed.
That's it.
Just to know that there's oneperson out there that can call
that went through some reallyshitty shit.
Yeah.
Yeah, dude it's really powerful.
I love it.
Yeah, dude.
A hundred percent.
Alright, well we kind of wentoff in a whole different
direction than, well, I don'tanticipate anything.
(34:47):
I never know what's gonnahappen, but this is, dude, this
has been a great conversation.
So this will work your productjust to kind of wrap everything
up.
Your blue Pages will work forany contractor for the customer.
They really don't have to doshit, right?
They just have to put it ontheir no.
Contractors have to do the work,right?
So, okay.
Thank God they do.
(35:08):
Right?
'cause nothing should be easy.
That easy, right?
They still, we're gonna buildthis thing.
We're gonna teach you aboutfinancing.
We're gonna give you, we'regonna get you enrolled with a
lender.
We're gonna teach you how tosell.
You're gonna get a portal.
You're gonna get a mobile app.
You're gonna get digitalbusiness cards.
You're gonna have this tool thatwe call a Blue Page.
We're gonna integrate it to yourwebsite.
It's gonna be out there in thestratosphere, www.
(35:31):
But you still have to show upand work still.
Well, no.
I Let me, so I was just sayinglike, they don't have to do any
of the pay.
They don't have to, it's not apain in their side to have, this
is what, that's what I mean.
No, you just gotta do it.
But it's easy.
Seriously, let's be honest.
I'm glad you brought this up.
I could send an enrollment linkto somebody and it costs them
absolutely nothing to enrollwith a lender and it'll just sit
(35:54):
in the inbox.
Why?
Because people don't takeaction, man.
They need it.
They want it.
They know they have to have itbecause they got customers that
want affordability.
And I'll send the link to'em andI'll get'em inspired and excited
to do it.
But they gotta go in, they gottaopen it up and they gotta go
find their e i n number.
And when did we get incorporatedPhyllis?
(36:16):
I don't know.
I'll go get the folder.
Oh, ring okay.
Yeah, right.
So, oh, squirrel.
Hotdog in the hallway.
Yeah.
They still have to take action.
Right.
Once they take action though,I'm gonna make it happen.
Yeah.
That's what, that was the point.
I wanna make it clear that like,it's not a lot of work dude, for
(36:36):
a contractor, like, it's notlike you gotta do a whole bunch
of stuff.
It costs nothing to get enrolledfor financing except some
attention.
Right?
Like, and I'll teach you how tosell it.
And if you say, well, thefinancing programs have dealer
fees, no.
What we'll do is we'll take allthe ones that have dealer fees,
We'll get rid of'em and we'llgive you the five or six or
seven that have no the otherfees.
(36:56):
You can go to market with thatand then you'll fall in love
with financing.
And then you're gonna wannaoffer other different hybrid
programs that might cost thecustomer money.
They're like, well, I don't wantto pay the X number of percent,
but you're paying 3% or four,whatever it is.
The visa every time, like, yeah,so already paying.
Let's talk about that for a, Ilove, so you into Macy's and you
(37:17):
wanna buy your wife a purse.
Okay, and the purse is hangingon the wall.
Here's the purse.
That's the purse.
And you take it down and youwalk up to the lady and you put
it on the counter at Macy's andyou lean in and you look at the
lady and you go, I'm gonna buythat for my wife.
I'm paying cash today.
So here's the deal.
It says it's a thousand dollars,but I'm paying cash, so I want
(37:38):
you to give this to me for 700.
And the cashier, she's thisyoung, cute girl, and she's 19,
and she looks at you and goes,okay, that'll be a thousand
dollars sir.
That's my point.
So this purse from Macy's hasdealer fees built into it.
Here's the reason why.
They have no idea how you'regonna transact when you go up to
(38:00):
the counter to buy it.
Do they care that you're handing$700 cash?
Do they care that you're handingan insurance check?
Do they care that you're payingby a paper credit card?
Discover Amex, MasterCard, visa,apple.
They don't care.
The price is a thousand dollars.
Now Amex, this one is 3.25.
(38:24):
This one's 2.75.
This one is X.
This one's Y.
The credit card companies maycharge a different merchant fee
on that.
Let's say that they're all underthree.
It's already built into thepurse.
That's right.
So when contractors tell me, Idon't pay dealer fees, I, all of
my customers pay cash.
I say, cool.
(38:46):
Understand, we've got no dealerfree programs that'll work for
you.
But let me ask you a quickquestion.
Do you accept credit cards?
And they'll go, absolutely.
Been doing it for years, and Igo, awesome.
Because we have services forthat too.
But no, I'll say, How much areyou building into your retail
book now when you do creditcard?
Oh, nothing.
And I go, oh God.
(39:06):
So you've been stealing 3% fromyourself for all these years.
Why a hundred percent consumerspay for financing within the
price of the product?
Because financing is a productjust like a nail on a roof.
The nail is built into thecontract nails, products, shing,
tile metal financing is part ofthe contract price because the
(39:28):
consumers buying.
A product and within the productare things that cost money.
Financing is built into theprice because it's a product,
it's a means to get somethingdone so you can very easily as a
contractor build 10% into yourretail book.
You're selling air conditionerstoday for$10,000 without
(39:49):
financing.
On Monday, you sell the same airconditioner for 11,000.
And now you can offer 15programs that are under a 10%
dealer fee and stop losing moneyon credit card swipes, and
that's called zero costaveraging at the end of the
year.
Because if 80% of your jobs areclosed under a no dealer fee
(40:11):
program and you've built 10% in,you can see how you can get a
queue throughout the year atzero cost average.
At the end of the year, weclosed 80%.
On no dealer fee programs, weclosed 5% on programs that cost
5%.
We closed 10% on programs thatcost eight and 3% of the jobs
(40:31):
were at 10.
We are winner chicken dinner,man,'cause 80% of them closed
with that hire where you'remaking an extra thousand dollars
per 10,000.
Anyway, we do zero costaveraging to show the
contractors, this is how you doit and you don't lose money and
you keep your p and l superhappy.
That's it.
Yeah, but it, yeah it, butyou're you're exactly right.
(40:52):
You're a hundred percent,hundred percent.
This is a little dude.
I went, talked to contractorsjust like this.
You go into the, what you buy,the person, they start thinking,
they're like, everything's gotdealer fees, your gasoline, your
food, your grocery stores,because they don't know how
you're gonna pay when you get tothe register.
And they ain't gonna risk notmaking their dealer fee or
whatever fee.
(41:12):
Right.
They have to bake.
They have to bake it in.
They have to bake it in.
Everything's gotta baked in.
This damn water.
Had it baked in.
Yeah, for sure.
Oh, well anyway.
Yeah, dude, you're a hundredpercent right, so Yeah,
absolutely.
I agree.
Totally.
Alright, Chris, where can peoplefind you?
My man?
Where can they find Blue Pages?
I probably should probably getlike a link from you.
(41:33):
Yeah.
Blue.
Yeah, it's cool.
I'll send you a link orsomething.
And Blue Pages Pro.
Just visit the website andthat's us.
If you're on the social mediaslike Facebook, it's, I think I'm
under Christopher Scoville.
Can't miss me.
I'm balding, I'm ugly.
I don't really do the Instagram.
I'm under there, Chris Scovilleand then I'm on LinkedIn.
I've learned somethinginteresting with LinkedIn.
You go over there and just benice to people and have fun and
(41:56):
not be a stiff guy with a tie.
It's a lot of fun'cause theyain't used to it.
My engagement on LinkedIn isfire because I treat LinkedIn
just like I do the socialmedias, funny videos, some memes
every now and then, me beingsuper passionate, dropping some
F-bombs.
Sorry, Lord, like.
They're not used to it over onLinkedIn, and I'll get vice
(42:17):
president, senior vicepresident, C-suite level venture
capital.
People call me going, dude,you're crazy, but you got our
but you got our attention.
Let's talk.
Right.
So I'm crushing it on LinkedIn.
It's like Joey, it's like JoeyYaks freaking commercials.
Yeah, right.
You know Joey Yak?
Yeah, I know him.
He does the crazy contractorcommercials that are just
(42:38):
ridiculous.
But you can't help but to watch'em.
Who are some of your mentors?
Some of my mentors, well, ed andAndy were for years Yeah.
With ate.
Yeah.
Yep.
And then I joined, I moved overfrom there to Sean.
So Lance then.
Yep.
Yep.
And then I moved away from allof them.
(42:59):
Yeah.
I'm on that path.
And it's not that I haveanything against Ed, Andy, Sean
Brian Stewart, like I've gotnothing against any of them.
I think that I've gotten to apoint to a level where now I get
to go to YouTube and study,right?
Right.
Like some days I needmotivation, so I go to, you know
what I do for motivation?
(43:19):
Some days I wanna learn fromAlex for moey and I want to be
in completely inspired onsomething'cause he's very
knowledgeable.
Some days I need Ed.
In my year.
Some days I wanna go back to2017 or 16 and hear Andy.
I get to pick who my mentor isnow, but I'll tell you what I
have done.
I've eliminated a ton.
(43:40):
Yeah.
I've learned.
I've learned who's real, who'snot real, who's copying people,
who's regurgitating their stuffover and over again.
And it's really easy to see thefakes now.
And like Jay Abraham, I, I loveJay Abraham'cause he's so old
school and he doesn't even knowwhat it is to be fake.
Right.
Like Dan Kennedy.
Some of the guys that.
(44:02):
Just wouldn't even know whatfake means.
I like learning specifics now.
So I think I'm, after I'm donewith this year, I'm done with
coaching.
Yeah.
I li I listen to a lot of books.
You know, I spend.
I mean, I probably listen to atleast two books a week and I
always listen to'em twice'causeI have a d h, adhd.
(44:22):
And do you listen?
Do you listen when you work out?
Yeah.
Do you take note?
Do you take notes?
No, that's why I listen to ittwice.
So you'll work out and listen toa book?
A hundred percent.
My wife does.
She's like, how do you work outlistening to podcasts?
I go, this is the only way to doit.
Whatcha talking about?
Yeah, like music just seemedlike a, I listen.
(44:48):
You know, it's so funny, dude,like I've just shifted.
I've just shifted.
Like, I want if I'm not on acall, I wanna be learning, I
wanna be learning how to getbetter.
'cause shit's moving so fast,like, No, I need to be smarter.
I wanna be smarter.
And the only way I know how todo that is to listen to books.
Isn't it interesting, like whenI was in high school, I couldn't
(45:11):
care less about learning and I'mabsolutely do now and I'm
addicted to it.
Addicted.
I'm addicted to learning andpodcasts and it's weird.
I go through cycles where I'llbe listening and then like just
this last week, I've beenthrough some rough.
Some anxiety and some stressors,and I'm letting things get, and
I'm like, okay, I can fix this.
So I'm, maybe I'm praying alittle bit harder or I'm
(45:33):
listening to Elevation Church orI'm listening to the motivation
stuff and it's getting me out ofit.
Right.
And then next week I'll probablybe back up on my high level of
awesomeness and I'll be likeback listening to Alex Hermo
learning some business shit.
But I like the fact that I'vegotten dialed in on who I listen
to and who I learn from now.
It's cool.
Don't ask you about a book, doyou?
So do you listen to books?
(45:54):
No, I read'em and write notes.
That's why I asked you to takenotes.
That makes sense.
Alright, so I'm gonna give you abook next time.
And look, I think you'll, Ireally think you'll, you will
resonate with this book.
It's called, give It to Mebrother, I'll write it down
right now.
It's called Ragamuffin Gospeland you know it's, yes.
It's called Ragamuffin Gospel byb Brendan Manning.
(46:15):
And the gist of it is, You know,it's a guy just like me and you
who got to the top.
He was a preacher and ultimatelyfell.
Right.
And he talks about, he goesthrough, you know, it's a
biblical book for sure.
Yeah.
It's the most, one of the mostpowerful books I've ever read.
Muff Gospel.
(46:36):
I love it.
There's a, oh, you know, there'sa movie about it actually, so
come on.
There's also, yeah, there's alsoa movie.
That's excellent.
Oh, Google it.
Yeah.
Is it called, it's not calledRagamuffin Gospel, I think it
is.
Just look, Brendan Manning ishis, is the guy's name.
It, okay.
The guy I'm trying to think ofthe name of the song.
It's amazing.
Something.
God's amazing God.
(46:58):
I'd be amazing.
God, I can't.
I have terrible voice.
No, your voice is freakinghorrible.
Yeah.
Do you know what I'm talkingabout though?
No, but you really sound good,like you're a real good
salesperson, but your voice ishorrible.
How?
Yeah, it's not really good.
I don't know dude.
It's not very good.
Not very good at all, dude.
So it there, it's a song.
(47:18):
They play it in church all thetime.
Like what?
You'll know it's called AmazingGod or something like that.
I'll look it up.
Hear it?
Yeah.
When you hear it, it'll be like,oh yeah, I know exactly what
he's talking.
But this guy is the one thatstart that, that performed that
song or created it or whatever.
I would assume he's reggae'causeof rag.
No, he's got Oh, his rich.
Rich.
(47:39):
What's rich?
Ragamuffin is reggae though,isn't it?
Ragamuffin, it's ragamuffinlike, like, dish rag.
Sort of interesting.
You, dude, you really peaked.
You did a good job at hangingout there to get me all peaked
up on this.
So I'm, when we hang up here,I'm going to go look, I'm going
on the Google.
(47:59):
Good.
'cause that's one thing that youwon't find on the Blue Pages Pro
is about the That's right.
It'll be a good book, dude.
It really will.
I appreciate it.
I'll check it out.
Thank you my friend.
I appreciate you.
Thanks for having me on, man.
This has been really fun andenergetic and I needed this
today.
I appreciate that my friend.
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