Jared "The Plumber" Williams Money vs. Freedom: Finding Balance in Business

Episode Transcript
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Corey Berrier (00:01):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier,and I'm here with my man, Jared
Williams, otherwise known asJared the Plumber, and from my
research, Jared has done so manythings.
You've got a podcast called theJared Williams Show from

(00:21):
Fairbanks, Alaska.
You've been doing the tradesince you were 18 years old.
You've had some ups and downsand I think what sets you apart
from a lot of guys in theindustry one thing it doesn't
set you apart is you started outlike a lot of guys in the
industry from the field,thinking it's going to be simple

(00:42):
to open up a business and runmy own shop, and I guess that
was.
You're pretty surprised.
It is not that easy to run aplumbing business.

Jared Williams (00:52):
It is not that easy, that's for sure.

Yeah, yeah definitely, but you thought it
was.
You thought you know what you.
I don't know if you thoughtthis or not, but what a lot of
guys think is screw my boss,he's making all the money.
I'm going to strike out on myown and I'm going to make my own
money.

Yeah, and I'm going to be cheaper than
everybody else and I'm going tosoak up all the work and I'm
going to make a ton of money.
I'm just going to work formyself.
Who needs employees?
This will be so much better.
That's exactly what I thought,yeah.
And then, man, that is not whatI got and I I didn't have like
a that.

(01:31):
Those are my exact thoughts.
I remember sitting in thebasement my brother owns a
marketing company.
I remember sitting in hisbasement I was working on his
boiler from alaska we've gothydronic heating.
It's all oil fired hydronicheating.
It's all oil fired hydronicheating.
That was like probably 70% ofour work.
And I'm thinking.
I remember telling him dude, Ithink I'm going to go out on my

(01:51):
own.
He's like, are you?
And I said yeah, because I'mtired of making my boss all the
money.
Like my boss was I worked atfor a new construction company
and that guy's worth he's got tobe worth a hundred million by
now, I would guess.
And I remember just thinkinglike I'm working all day for
this guy.
They're paying me $41 an hour.

(02:13):
I can go out and I can bill.
I think at the time $120 anhour and I'm going to make twice
as much, three times as much.
And boy was I surprised.
I did.

I did not, that did not happen so, when you
struck out on your own what wasthe, let's say, the first, first
big hurdle that you ran into,what was the first, maybe even
massive hiccup that you ran into, so I kind of I looked like the
first time I struck out on myown.

It was a little bit of a different story.
I started a business doing thislittle side gig.
So up there we've got hydronicheating, we've got boilers and
we would do a lot of boilerinstalls right.
So we're pumping water throughpeople's homes and there's
different, there's like amanifold and zones and pumps and
zone valves and all that stuff.
And I saw this guy in a take-gomagazine.

(03:08):
He was pre-building theseboards and shipping them out to
people and I thought, hell, Ican do that.
And so I started making theselike pre-made boiler panel
boards where people would getahold of me.
They'd say, hey, I got thismany zones in my house, I'm
going to use this kind of boiler, build me a board and I would

(03:28):
go over a layout with them and Iwould pre-make everything,
pre-wire everything.
So all they had to do was slapthis board on the wall, slap
their boiler on the wall,connect the boiler to the board
and their zones to the board, doa little tiny little bit of
wiring and then flip the switchand everything would run
perfectly.

(03:51):
And I did that on the side and Iremember I was like man this is
, I can make so much money.
I was selling these boards forlike 4,000 bucks, 6,000 bucks, I
think.
My biggest one was like $14,000.
And I did that for like.
I did that for probably a goodyear and I remember at the end
of the year, looking at thenumbers going, man, this, I was
selling these for a lot of money, but this didn't make any money
.
This is, this is dumb.

(04:12):
And so I got this idea of likemaybe business is a little
harder than I thought.
And so when I went intobusiness the first time, I was
like, okay, I was working with aguy and I said, hey, I'm going
to start my own business.
And he goes dude, I want to doit with you.
And I was like, well, I hadthis little glimpse of like man,
doing this on my own was reallyhard.

(04:33):
Let me do it with a partner.
So the first hurdle I ran intowas just the hurdle of having a
partner.
That was we started going.
We were probably a year in andwe got involved with a bunch of
like some I want to call themremediation companies, guys who
go in after floods and fires andwhatever you call those and we

(04:55):
would.
We were working for these guysand man they were.
They were the cheapest of thecheap.
They never had their stufftogether.
They'd call us out to thesehouses and they'd be like, hey,
we're ready for tubs or we'reready for roughing, and they
wouldn't be.
And I was like, man, this sucks.
And we were working.
We were working our day jobsand then we were working after

(05:15):
work and then we were working onweekends and my partner
absolutely loved it and I waslike this is, this is not for me
, man.
I want to work less and makemore.
That's my goal.
I don't want to work more.
This is terrible.
This is not what I signed upfor.
I wanted some freedom.
The money was less importantthan the freedom to me.

(05:36):
I wanted freedom more thananything else.
So first hurdle I ran into wasa business partner.
We ended up calling that off.
I basically gave him thebusiness.
I said take it, it's yours, youcan have it.
He still runs it to this day,still doing the same kind of
stuff, working like a dog 24-7.
Probably makes decent income,but, man, not much of a life

(05:58):
there.

So it's interesting as this show has
evolved from.
You know, I started this showtalking about business and sales
and success and all the thingsthat I thought was important, or
really what I thought made upsuccess and what I've found and

(06:20):
it sounds like you found thisfar earlier than I did is
money's important.
You got to pay your bills right, you got to be able to afford
things, and that's just a partof life, yep, but it can't be
the most important.
No, it's only a piece of it.
It's only a piece of it becauseit robs.

(06:40):
It robbed me of really beingpresent.
It robbed me of the joys reallyin life chasing the money.
And do you find with a lot ofthe owners because you work with
a lot of business owners inyour group do you find that most
of them are just chasing thedollar, or is it?

(07:03):
Are they looking for somethingmore than that?

In my experience , most of them get in for the
freedom there's a lot of, andmaybe it's just because they
relate to my story, I don't know.
When I was looking at I wasworking 60 hours a week, making
100K a year plus benefits, andwhen I did the math I was like I
could work 40 hours a week andmake more money.

(07:29):
To me that was freedom.
It wasn't necessarily aboutmaking more money, it was about
working less.
And then just like the idea ofbeing in control of my own time
or in control of my own day andI could set my schedule.
You know I used to run a tonand I thought I remember having
the idea I'm going my schedule.
You know I used to run a tonand I thought I remember having
the idea I'm going to keep myrunning shoes, my running shorts
, in my van and I'm going to goin the middle of the day I'm

(07:51):
going to go for a run andnobody's going to tell me I
can't, and I never once did that.
To this day I've never gone outfor a run in the middle of the
day when I was in my van.
And so for me, like it's thisidea of freedom.
That's probably what I find themost with people is they want

(08:13):
the freedom and then when theystart getting into, oh crap,
customers are calling me.
Oh man, I got to handle thisbilling, I got to do all this
paperwork at night.
Hiring employees sounds like agiant headache.
It doesn't sound like freedomand this business starts to take
over their life and they losetheir freedom and it becomes

(08:36):
less about like.
At that point, I think that'swhen most people quit.
At that point they say you knowwhat?
Cause that's what I did.
I quit.
I got to that point twice and Isaid you know what?
This is not what I wanted.
I wanted freedom.
This is I'm making less moneywith less freedom.
I want at least the same amountof money with more freedom.
That would be better, but Ididn't get that.

(08:59):
Go ahead.
Oh yeah, I was just going tosay I think I think most people
quit there and if they don't, Ithink what?
Then what ends up happening?
Cause this is what happened thethird time with me is I found
the way to get the freedom Ifound I figured out how to
create systems and processes andprice myself properly and how
to hire employees and how to getthem trained up and how to get

(09:21):
them doing the things that wewant them to do and to create an
income.
But then that took over my lifeand I still lost my freedom.
So then it became about thischase for money and I lost my
health and I lost my freedom andmy relationship suffered and I
didn't.
I didn't actually get anythingI wanted.
I had one or the other right.
I figured out how to havefreedom working for myself, but

(09:44):
then I'd lose it because Ididn't have the systems and
processes, employees, I didn'thave the money end of it figured
out.
And then I figured out how toget the money and then I lost
all of my freedom, all myrelationships, all of my health,
everything else.
And it's this I don't.
I hate the word balance becauseI it's I don't.
I still don't understand how tocreate like a solid work-life

(10:06):
balance.
I put parameters on it, try tokeep it nice and neat, but it's
always messy.
But it took me a long time tofigure out how to maintain
health, freedom and still havemoney.
And I think when you can getthat together, that's when,
that's when entrepreneurship orbusiness, that's when it really

(10:27):
is like clicks.
You're like, oh okay, this isawesome.
This I can do.
Let's do more of this.

So when that clicked for you, let's say, I
like to say when, the wheneverything's working
relationship for me, sobrietyfor my job, everything flows and
I say it's like in flow, whichsounds a little hippy-dippy, but
the truth is, when things juststart to work for me, I don't

(10:58):
have to work as hard for them,them.
I feel like there's a level ofpeace that comes with that, and
I fought so hard to get to thething that I wanted and I fought
so hard to get the relationshipthat I wanted, and I think it's

(11:21):
kind of like a salmon swimmingupstream, like it just couldn't
really get any traction becauseI was in the way yeah and so
when you say health and and thethings that it affected your
relationships, can you dive abit deeper in there?
what do you mean by that?

so, and I like to think of everything in in
seasons is the best way for meto describe it is like there's a
time where you're probablygoing to have to push on your
business because it needs it,but we, what you have to
recognize is that it's just thetime.
It's like having kids.
Do you have kids, cory?
No, but I've raised a child.

(11:59):
They're a pain in the butt,right, yes, but and and they go
through phases like you got yourlittle baby, they need all your
attention super annoying.
And then they start being ableto walk and you can set them in
the living room and they playwith their toys and it gets a
little bit easier.
And then they get out ofdiapers and there's these

(12:19):
seasons to raising a child.
They turn into teenagers andnow they're a whole different
kind of pain in the butt andthen they move out and now
there's a whole nother season ofhaving kids and then grandkids
and all that stuff and your lifeis the same way, right.
So that's why the work-lifebalance doesn't really make

(12:41):
sense to me, the continualwork-life balance.
So I like to think of it inlike chunks.
Okay, I'm in a season of I gotto put my head down and get to
work and get this thing built sothat it can produce, and then
maybe I'll go back and be in aseason of health.
And what happened to me is Ipushed real hard on prospector

(13:05):
plumbing when we were buildingthat and I forgot about.
You don't have to totally throwyour health in the trash or
totally throw your relationshipin the trash.
And I was in a season ofbuilding and what I did is all I
focused on was building andeverything else went in the
trash.
I didn't spend time with mywife, I didn't spend time with

(13:26):
my kids.
I didn't like I stopped her.
I hardly ate because if I ate,I wasn't doing enough.
I was sitting at a desk all day.
If I ate, I started gainingweight and then your hormones
start to suffer and you startgaining weight and you start
losing muscle.
And there's a video you can gowatch.
It's on the Prospector Plumbingand Heating website,

(13:47):
prospectorplumbingcom, where Igo watch that video now to this
day and I'm like holy cow, likeit was right at the end.
I'd probably worked onProspector for like three years
when I finally filmed this videoand I am just like my cheeks
are sunken, my arms are supertiny, all my muscles gone and

(14:09):
and I didn't realize how bad itwas until like two years later
I'd moved.
Right after that video, I movedto Florida and I started hanging
out in the sun, I startedeating more food, I started
exercising, I went and got myhormones checked, got my blood
panels done, and I look back onthat video and I was like I told
him.
I remember telling my wife Ihave some pictures of when we

(14:32):
first moved to Florida and Iremember telling her why didn't
you say anything Like how, howwere you even attracted to that?
And she would.
She is very nice.
She didn't tell me that shewasn't attracted to that, but I
guarantee you she wasn't,because I was like a stick
figure.
But yeah, I guess in hindsight,looking back on it, I'm in a.

(14:55):
I'm in a phase now where I'mworking on a company, started a
pressure washing company herecalled dude wash, and I'm in
that phase again of building andI'm much more conscious of,
okay, I need to come to work andI need to work some days, but I
also need to make sure that I'mpacking my lunches, eating

(15:18):
healthy, exercising.
I don't have to gain 20 poundsof muscle over the next year
while I build this company, butI also don't have to throw it
all in the trash.
That's what more of a balancelooks like to me.

Yeah, jared, would you say that's really just
setting an intention and thenfollowing through with that
intention.
As you mentioned, you'repacking your lunch.
Like every day, I do the samething I pack.
I'm eating carnivore diet rightnow and I don't really know how
long I'm going to continue it,but right now I'm getting
incredible results, unbelievableresults, and so every day I

(15:58):
cook all my food.
I pack it because, well, Ican't trust food out there,
right, you can't go through adrive-thru if you're on.
I guess you could make it work,but I'd rather not.
And so it's a process.
But I know for me, I'm going tofeel better if I'm prepared
every day and I know what I'vegot to eat, I know what I've got
, I know the water that I'vepacked.

(16:19):
I drink a ton of espresso.
That's all packed, it's allready to go and it's a hour-long
process every night, but it'sworth it to me because I can
function.
I don't leave.
When I get to work, I don'tleave.
I don't leave until I'm readyto go home because I've got
everything laid out and I canutilize.
I can make up that hour that Ispend at night at work while

(16:43):
I've got everything ready to go,and I think it's just that
helps me to stay in flow withwhat I'm doing.
I don't like to leave.
And so you mentioned blood, yourhormone panels.
That's really important.
I take personally.
I take testosterone.
I do take peptides.
I think they're very importantif they're taken the right way.

(17:04):
And let's be clear Testosteroneis not steroids unless you
abuse testosterone.
That's not what we're talkingabout here.
We're talking about gettingyour blood work done every six
months, making sure your levelsare correct, seeing an actual
doctor that knows what they'retalking about, not just buying
some stuff from China or off theinternet or your buddy at the

(17:26):
gym, because you can mess upthose things.
But if your hormones are firingin the right way and your
levels are at the right way,you're at optimal level.
I used to own a hormone clinic,so that's why I'm really
passionate about this.
Oh nice, you can't go by whatthe insurance companies tell you

(17:48):
, because they're going to tellyou, as a man, that your
testosterone, if it's above 300,301, you're good to go, which
is a complete lie.
In fact, the AmericanAnti-Aging Association numbers

(18:09):
are between 9 and 1100testosterone levels, which is
vastly different than 301.

Yeah, so you got to find somebody that knows
what they're talking about.
Agreed, I agree, 100 the thedifference.
So for me I I started gettingmy blood panels done and I got
my blood work done and mytestosterone was like 250 or
something like that and over thecourse of a year of just
getting on testosteronereplacement theory and getting

(18:32):
that up in the between 800 and athousand, I probably put on
eight pounds of muscle in a year.
Just not even really liketrying.
I wasn't lifting heavy weightsall the time, but, man, it
completely changed my world.
I sleep better, I feel better,I look better.
In my mind it's game changer,game changer.

(18:56):
And then, yeah, and then I justgot some.
I'm trying to do a littlebetter at that.
So I just got some moreextensive blood tests done and
I've got this company.
It's really cool.
They, you go get all your bloodwork done, the most blood work
I've ever had drawn.
I was at the labs and the ladygoes have you ever passed out
before?
And I said no, why she goes,you're getting a lot of blood

(19:17):
drawn.
And I said, well, hopefullyyou'll catch me if I pass out.
But it was super cool, man.
I got like I don't know, amillion different things tested
and they take.
They make you a supplement listand they put it in these little
packs and all you have to do istear off a pack every day and I
got all the supplements that Ineed in one day, which is really

(19:39):
cool.
And I've got a year supplysitting at my house and then
they retest you every threemonths to make sure you don't
need anything else Super cool.
I like to like.
I've taken some of the thingsthat I've learned in business as
far as like systems, processes,simplification, and I've tried

(19:59):
to apply those in my personallife to help keep these things
in balance while I'm growingthis other company.
So like the idea that I can geta blood test.
Somebody will pre-pack all mythings into a little packet and
I don't have to rememberanything that I have to take.
I don't even know what's in thepacket.
All I got to know is I got totake that one packet.
Super simple, super easy.

(20:21):
I can do that every day, noproblem.
Like food we make food fordinner and we just double the
amount we make and I packleftovers and I bring those to
work.
I have a camper van that Idrive, with a refrigerator in it
and I keep turkey meat andcheese and tuna in there just in

(20:42):
case I don't have dinner.
Super simple I go out to mycamper van, I can whip up some
tuna, I can take turkey meat andput some cheese on it and I'm
good to go.
Those are the ways that I'mable to keep that stuff in check
, because business takes up somuch of your brain For me.

(21:02):
Everything else outside of that,I ha.
It has to be on my calendar.
I have to have a system for it,a process for it, or it doesn't
get done, even even like timespent with my wife or kids.
I got to put that on mycalendar.
It took me forever to learn howto live on my calendar.
That was that was absolute gamechanger for me.

(21:23):
The idea I teach in my in mycourse I tell everybody you guys
should go write down everythingthat you do in a day, like I go
to bed, like all the stuff youshould be doing, to all the
recurring stuff.
I got to go to bed, I got towake up, I got a shower, I got
to drink coffee.
I should be journaling in themorning, I should be going to
work or I'm working on thisproject, whatever you got going

(21:47):
on, write it all down.
And then I have them put it ina T-graph and they split it
between recurring tasks andone-time tasks.
And I said, now go put all yourrecurring tasks on your
calendar so that that stuff isset.
And what happens?
What happened to me when I didthis?
And what happens what happenedto me when I did this?

(22:18):
I realized, like, how littletime I actually have, how little
white space was left on mycalendar after all of just the
normal stuff that we have to doin your one-time tasks.
I have them go put it in aspreadsheet and they check it.
They either check it, automateit, delegate it, don't do it, or
I have to do this.
And then everything that youhave to do go put it on your
calendar and you'll see, likeman, I don't have time for much,

(22:40):
like I really have to, like Ihave to value my time and set
aside time for the things thatneed to get done, or they're
just not going to get done.
That's been absolute gamechanger for me.

Something also.
I think I realized this theother day.
I was thinking, all right, Ineed to.
I'm working with I'm thedirector of sales and business
development at Zoom Drain, or atleast this location, and so my
job.
I do a bunch of differentthings, but my primary job is to
grow the business, and so I'mdoing that through property

(23:15):
management companies, so on andso forth.
I thought the other day I needto email this person and check
something off the list, whateverit was.
I'm like I guess I could justdo that tomorrow.
And I realized here's what I'mdoing I'm putting this thing off
to tomorrow.
So I feel like I have somethingto do tomorrow when I've got

(23:35):
three other things that I know Ineed to do tomorrow.
And so I just thought that'ssuch, a, such a ridiculous thing
to think that I'm going to putthis off to tomorrow because
maybe I don't have a full daytomorrow, and so I got to put
this thing on there that I knowI could do today, but put it on
until tomorrow.
So I feel like I'm doingsomething tomorrow.
No, get it done today and thenfree yourself up for the thing

(23:59):
that you really need to be doingtomorrow, the thing that's
unexpected because they're goingto come for sure, but it also
frees up your brain to have thatspace to welcome that new thing
.

Yes, yep, I have a rule.
If it's like under five minutes, I do it right now.

Right now.

And then, if it's 10 minutes to 30 minutes, I
write it down and I have ablock of time on my calendar for
getting those things done and Ican say, like I keep a piece of
paper, I got it with me rightnow, I just have some paper and
a pen always with me and I'llwrite down the thing so that
it's written down and I canforget about it, freeze my brain

(24:40):
up again, like you said, andthen I'll get to it when I get
to that block of time.
And things like don Right, like, for me I can get a lot done in
a day because, number one, Iset aside time in the morning to
determine what it is that Iwant to get done today, like

(25:02):
what it is that I should begetting done today, and I'll
write those things down and thenthose are the things I do first
.
First, so when I get to work, Iwill come to work and I already
have a pre-made list, timeblocked out of my calendar, and
I'll say, okay, let's get thesethings done, and they're

(25:23):
typically things that are goingto move either my life, my
business or my relationshipsforward, or all three, and I'm
getting those done every day, ona daily basis and over the
course of a whole year, of justconsistently getting the things
done that are moving you forward, pushing you forward, making
you better.
Massive change, small, littledaily changes, but over the

(25:44):
course of time huge change.
And then check your email atnoon or 2 pm or whenever, like
nothing bad is going to happen.
I remember reading the four-hourwork week and a buddy of mine
gave that to me, probably one ofthe like the earlier books I
ever read, and I remember thepart where he says he checks his

(26:05):
email, I think once every twoweeks or something like that,
and he's like, yeah, sometimeswe might miss something and I'll
have to pay a fine or a fee orwhatever, but it's not the end
of the world, like my businesshas never exploded and he's
totally right.
Like you could probably checkyour email every other day or
every third day or once a week.

So, and the benefit of that is now, if you
let's just say I'm a, I check it70 times a day, which is
probably a reasonable number fora lot of people oh yeah, that
means that I'm going to react toyou every time you send me an
email.
So what does that tell you,jerry?
That means I've got Corey'sattention.

(26:49):
As soon as I send that dude anemail, he's going to shoot it
right back.
So you're now controlling mebecause I'm allowing you to
control me.
So by setting that parameter upat 12 o'clock or two o'clock,
it's also letting you know I'mgoing to hear back from that
dude 24 hours from now, notgoing to hear back from him

(27:10):
today.
And so really, what you're doingis for for me anyway, and I
don't do this.
I'm just going to be honestwith you, but the idea of it
makes sense.
I'm, if I train whoever it isthat I'm responding to, that
you're only going to hear backfrom me at this time every day.
You're not going to bother meall day long.
Nope, may take a minute.

(27:32):
It's a boundary.

Text messages on your phone, right like I'll
give anybody and everybody myphone number, but during the day
, if I'm in work mode on mycalendar, this thing is in on
silent.
It's gone.
All notifications are off andthe only way that anybody can
get a hold of me is through mySlack channel, and I only give

(27:54):
that Slack channel to one or twopeople.
I think I got three people thathave access to my Slack channel
and they know don't Slack me ifyou don't have to, and I don't
even have those notifications on.

So it's in the same realm here.
So you're on a pretty big,pretty big group on Facebook.
You also have a paid groupright, wealthy Plumber, yep.
So how do you have that?
If you don't mind sharing, howdo you have that structure to
protect your time, becausethere's a lot.
I don't know how many peopleare in there.
You would know how many peopledo you have.

Yeah, so in the Facebook group there's like over
8,500.
I think we have the largestplumbing business only Facebook
group.
I don't know why it justhappened.
It was a happy accident, butit's there.
And then in our school groupwe've got like 870-ish people in
there.

Yeah, let's just put the Facebook group to the
side.
Yeah, but the 870 people paywhatever.
They pay 99 bucks a month or ayear or something.
99 bucks a month Yep, okay, 99bucks a month.
So part of you must feel thatyou at least, probably when you
started.

(29:12):
Well, I owe these people somechunk of my time.
So how do you delegate thatchunk of time and delegate all
the I'm assuming all themessages, unless you set it up
to where you have explained howyou're going to respond back and
forth to people?
How do you manage that?

(29:32):
Because it seems like thatwould be a challenge.

It can be.
It can be at times so, and it'sdefinitely been a challenge
over the last year or so aswe've grown.
But I just treat it likeanything else.
There's a time block on mycalendar, like we've got Zoom
calls that we hold, so those areblocked off on my calendar.
I prep for those Zoom calls, sothat prep time is blocked off

(29:57):
on my calendar.
And then I even have timeblocked on my calendar just to
go in and respond to messagesand comments and things like
that and then so there's timeblocked and I respect that time.
I don't.
I live and die by my calendar.
If it's on my calendar, that'swhat I'm doing.
If it's not on my calendar, I'mnot doing it.
And then just developingsystems and processes to get

(30:25):
that stuff done faster, moreeffectively and more efficiently
.
So if we get 30 questions onthe same topic instead of
answering it 30 different times,I'll make a video and I'll put
it in the training.
So now when somebody asks thatquestion, I can just send them a
link to the training.
Things like that.

(30:47):
Yeah, simple processes, gettingother people involved man,
people could come in my groupand I know some stuff right.
I've had some level of success,but I'm not I don't know
everything, I'm not a super guru, know-it-all insanely

(31:07):
successful.
That's not me and so we'vecreated a community inside of
there where other people willcome in that have been in there
for a while and they'll startgetting involved with some of
these other people and createsubgroups within our group and
and that's probably really thethat's probably really the best

(31:28):
part is we've got 860 businessowners and there's probably 230
of them that are activelyinvolved in responding to
comments and sharing information, and so when you get in, you're
not just getting my knowledgeor my advice or my experience,
you're getting the knowledge andadvice and experience of 200

(31:49):
plus business owners 800 plusbusiness owners, and fostering
that community has been reallyhelpful.

So community is actually something that I wrote
down that I want to talk about,because for me, like I mentioned
, I'm in recovery and thatcommunity for me is one of the
most important things in my life, because when things go
sideways and I don't mean likepicking up a drink or a drug I'm

(32:17):
not saying that I'm cured byany stretch, but I had a drink
in a long time and I haven'tsmoked weed in several years.
So, like, the drink and thedrug is really not the issue
today.
The drink and the drug I meanthe issue really is me right.
I'll get in my own way, I'llscrew something up, I'll become

(32:39):
an egomaniac, I'll say somethingstupid or I go through a
relationship issue and thatcommunity that I have around me
my inner circle, if you will,like your group is unbelievably
powerful in those situations andI don't know if I'd be sitting
here today if I didn't have thattight-knit community, and I

(33:02):
think that's what you'rereferring to in your group.

Very similar.
I want to do a better job ofbuilding those connections for
people.
I just read a book.
Have you ever read the Tribe ofMillionaires?
I haven't, but I will.
That's a good one.
It's about a guy whose dadcreated this group called the
Tribe of Millionaires and hisdad ends up dying and he gets

(33:27):
involved and learns a series oflessons by going to the tribe.
The very last lesson he learnsis that, and one that I thought
was really interesting was thatyour life will be judged or your
.
The success of your life is ameasure of the quality of your
connections.
And over the last I've alwayspoopooed like networking and all

(33:52):
of that kind of stuff.
And over the last I've alwayspoo-pooed like networking and
all of that kind of stuff.
And over the last year I'vebeen like, just because of my
social media, getting lots ofviews.
I went from this plumbing guyplumber in Alaska to I go to
Pantheon and people are stoppingme in the hallway shaking my
hand and I'm like this is weird.
And then people reaching out onFacebook and wanting to connect

(34:15):
.
And here I am on CoreyBarrier's podcast and the
effects that that just buildingthose connections with people.
Like one, one in example, like.
One really good example of thisis I was going through my
Facebook group and I realizedthere's a lot of people from my
hometown in my Facebook groupand so I started going and

(34:38):
adding them as friends because Ithought, well, these people are
business owners.
I'm growing a business righthere in Pensacola.
I'm going to go add thesepeople.
And then I meet my neighbor.
He reached out and he said, hey, we should hop on a Zoom call.
Turns out we literally livelike if we were to fly to each
other's houses, probably a halfa mile apart, and so we've
started to build a goodrelationship with him.

(34:58):
He's a big networker.
He's like hey, let's go out tocoffee.
Hey, let's go out to dinner.
Hey, you should come over andhelp me slaughter my chickens or
whatever.
And I'm reluctant.
I'm like thinking like, whatdoes this guy want?
Like, what is?
Like I don't understand.
And what he understood is hejust wanted to build a
relationship.
He just wanted the connectionand my connection with him.

(35:20):
He's a very successful guy,grown lots of businesses, super
smart, his wife's super smart,and I have learned so much just
from being around that guy thatthere's things that I'm doing
now that have made me moneyalready that are probably going
to make me a lot more money inthe coming years.
That have saved me tons of timejust by going to coffee with a

(35:45):
guy, just by going to help himslaughter his chickens.
The the power of networking isphenomenal.
Another example I'll give youanother one.
All right.
I met Ellen Rohr right.
Yep, my social media allowed meto meet Ellen Rohr.
Ellen Rohr got me to be aservice Titan super ambassador

(36:06):
Still don't know what that means, but I am one and that allowed
me to get my pressure washingcompany on service Titan.
That never would have happenedhad I not done social media, put
myself out there, built arelationship with Ellen Rohr.
I wouldn't be on service Titanto this day.

Well, I can.
I can share a story about EllenRohr almost very, very, very,
very similar.
So I met Al.
I've known Alan.
I've been in and around theindustry for a little while now,
so I've known about Alan, but Inever really crossed paths with
her until I think it wasDecember of this past year, I

(36:49):
believe is when I finally metAlan face to face.
Now I've interviewed Al.
He's a good buddy of mine.
I really think he's a world ofAl Levy, but I just never really
had a chance to run into Ellen.
But I had a chance to meet herand I asked her.
I said you should be on mypodcast and we, I interviewed
her.
I've interviewed her againsince then but because of that

(37:09):
me sticking out my hand,introducing myself to ellen roar
she is the reason I'm sittingin this building right now.

Yeah, she probably said yes in two seconds
she did podcast yeah and then II reached out to her.

We were just talking, we text almost every
day and I just said she, shesaid hey, I think she said I
know that because she knew me inmy previous company.
She knew that we parted waysand she said I think she said I
don't know for sure if this isgoing to be a good fit, but I
think it's going to be.
I think it's a good fit.
I think he's looking for whatyou are and I think you'll

(37:47):
really like this guy.
And I just just interview withthe guy and talk to him.
Just interview with the guy andtalk to him.
And because of Ellen Rohrthat's why I'm sitting here in
the building of Zoom Drain rightnow because it was a perfect
match.
And she knew it was a perfectmatch hands down and it's been.
But you're right, it's when youbuild relationships with people

(38:12):
for the right reasons andsometimes you don't even know
the reason the chicken guy youdidn't really know why you had
to go.
You didn't know why you werehaving coffee with this guy or
why you were slaughteringchickens.

I knew why I was slaughtering chickens?
Because I knew how to slaughterchickens and he didn't.
Oh, fair enough.
Fair enough, I'll give you thecoffee one.

Yeah, because ultimately it feels like a waste
of time.

It does yeah.

Yeah, totally.
But it's the furthest thing ifyou're with the right person,
with the right intention, andthe intention is I'm just going
to sit down and have coffee withthis guy.
That's the intention.
See what he's all about.

Yeah, see what kind of knowledge he's got.
You never know yep, yep, andsometimes it'll be a waste of
time.
But, man, I've maybe spent Idon't know 20, 30 hours going
out to coffee over the last sixmonths, and it's that one
relationship has probably savedme I don't know years of hassle,

(39:10):
just being able to glean alittle bit of knowledge off of a
guy.
Totally worth it.
Huge, huge return on time,massive.

Yeah, yeah.
It's incredible and I get thatsame thing when I work with
people in recovery.
I do it because, honestly, it'sa very selfish situation in
recovery, because I'm helpingthese new guys, because it helps
me.
I'm not doing it, so they staysober, because, really, if they

(39:43):
don't stay sober, it's not myproblem.

Yeah.

But it does something for me that's almost
metaphysical or spiritual ormaybe both.
It's almost metaphysical orspiritual, or maybe both when I
freely give that time.
There's a guy right now inCanada.
I've never even met this guyand I spend 20 or 30 minutes on
the phone with him every singleday.
Yeah, because he found methrough a different podcast and

(40:12):
like connected with me through awebsite, which was just odd.
But now I've been able to helpthis guy through his
relationship because I wentthrough the same thing and like
I understand where he's at andthere's something to that.
That's just about as.
It's better than making a wholebunch of money in one day.

(40:35):
Don't get me wrong.
Making a bunch of money in oneday is great, but it's not
necessarily for me.
It's not fulfilling.
There's a dopamine hit, forsure.

Yep, but that's it.
Yeah, I think you need bothsides of that spectrum, like you
need the people that are closeto you, that are around you,
like your tribe you're the topfive people you hang out with,
right, you're an average of them.
You need to have those peoplethat are pushing you, or an

(41:07):
example to you of fitness,health, wealth, relationships,
whatever, to help pull you up,but also, like, like you said,
helping other people.
That's a huge.
It's a.
I look at it as giving.
You're giving your time, notjust giving your finances or
giving your knowledge.
You're giving some of your timeto this guy.

(41:28):
That's a huge part of living afulfilled life.
It's funny because, like I'vetalked to a ton of very
successful people and at somepoint the money is, it just is
what it is Like.
You have enough right For me.
I hit that point really quickly,like at like 250K a year.

(41:50):
I have more money than I knowwhat to do with, and so
everything else.
So then you start wondering,well, okay, why am I continuing
to be in business?
Or why do I continue to have acoaching program?
Or why do we continue to dothis podcast?
Or why do we go to events andtalk to people and meet people

(42:13):
and it becomes more about likeyou have to define a bigger
purpose than the money.
And I've talked to a lot of verywealthy people and it always
comes down to the impact.
At the end of the day, all ofthem reach that same point where
they say, okay, I've got enoughmoney, I have plenty of
resources, I don't need anythingmore.

(42:34):
So what am I doing?
What am I doing this for?
And they genuinely wanted tohelp people out and it took me a
long time to understand, like,why, like my neighbor, for
instance, why do you want tohelp me out so bad?
It's because to him, it's likeyou helping this guy out,
getting sober and helping himlive a better life.
I'm that like.
I'm that person.
To him, it's like you helpingthis guy out, getting sober and
helping him live a better life.

(42:55):
I'm that person to him.
He's made way more money thanme, he's way better at managing
his time than me, he's got verysuccessful relationships and now
he gets to help me achievethose things as well.
That's what being fulfilled is.

In the human connection with that portion too
.
Over the last four or fiveyears I think we've become a lot
of folks have become verydisconnected to human beings
Because, like we're sitting herenow, you do your podcast in
person, which I know is a muchbigger pain in the butt than me

(43:33):
doing it on Zoom.
But I would almost guaranteethat your conversations have
more connection than us lookingthrough this screen.

Yeah.

And I think it.
I was just listening to a show,a podcast, the other day.
I think it was the Diary of theCEO, and it was talking about
how men, especially, have becomeso disconnected from society.
From dating, from picking upgirls, to now they've moved over

(44:11):
to swiping left or right, andso the pornography portion of
that is skyrocketed, because mendon't know how to communicate
with women.
They don't know how to go intoa bar or to a coffee, wherever

(44:33):
you pick up women and have aconversation, because they're so
disconnected from human beings.
Yep, and that's really sad.

Yeah, between COVID and social media, yeah,
people live in a different world.
It's actually kind of like I'vegot friends that they'll come
over to my house and they'll beover there like this, and I'm
like, what are you doing?
You're at my house, man, you'rehere to hang out with me.
Like, throw that thing in thetrash, you don't need that.
Like pick that.
And those are the same kind ofpeople that that when they, when

(45:05):
they pick their head up out oftheir phone, they live in a
different world than me becausethey're so focused on Donald
Trump or politics or what'shappening in Iran or all this
stuff.
And I'm like, man, guys, if youwould just just throw that in
the trash, turn off your TV,don't watch any news, and just
take in the world around you,your life would improve a

(45:28):
thousand fold because it's notas bad as you think.
Like you're being brainwashedand you don't even know it.
It's actually pretty crazy.
I don't understand that.
I'm so happy I've never falleninto the trap of constantly on
my phone, living in a differentworld.
I have made a consciousdecision.

(45:48):
Like somebody said, we bombedIran or something like that the
other day.
I know nothing about it, I haveno clue.
They're like you didn't hear.
I'm like no, no, and I don'tcare, because we didn't bomb
Pensacola, florida and my viewout my window this morning
looked pretty good and I enjoyedthe sunrise and hanging out

(46:08):
with my wife and drinking mycoffee and it was awesome.
I don't need to know I live in amuch better world that's right
yeah, just because I curated itfor myself yeah, I do, I'm 100
with you.

I I know my dad is blown away every time I talk
because you know he's 75 yearsold, he watches fox news and
like I can't believe you didn'thear.
But I'm like like dude, I said,what difference does it make to
me?
He's like you got to knowwhat's coming and I'm like, do I
?
Do I need to know what's coming?
I really don't give a shitwhat's coming, because

(46:43):
whatever's coming is coming,regardless if I know about it or
not.

Yeah, I've got my guns.
I know how to shoot.
There you go Right.

Yeah, who shoot?
There you go Right.
Who cares?
And the whole idea.
Social media is one of thosethings where it's there for two
reasons.
It depends on if you're aconsumer or you're, if you use
it like for business if you're aconsumer.
They've got you right where theywant you, oh yeah.
But if you use it as a businesstool, you don't deal with any

(47:14):
of that.
And there's two and a lot ofpeople, a lot of people are
consumed, as they are theconsumer, and they don't view
this as a business opportunityor opportunity to well, that's
it a business opportunity,because that's what it is.

(47:35):
Yeah, business tool.

I don't think there's anything wrong with
consuming certain types ofsocial media, like podcasts,
obviously, sure Like somebodycan listen to this podcast and
get a ton out of it and it couldtotally change their life.
I will say, though, like shortsand reels and that kind of
stuff, throw that junk in thetrash.
I make most of my money for mycoaching program off of those,

(48:00):
and I can tell you like wecurate those reels to get views,
not to pass along valuableinformation.
It's to get real views, suckyou into our ecosystem and sell
you something.
As bad as that sounds, that'swhat they're for.

And yeah, but hold on.
So I'm going to challenge thatright.
All right, so to sell themsomething because you know it's
going to make their life better.

Yes, yes, it hands down a hundred percent
make their life better.
But if you were to just gowatch my reels and then go try
and run a business, you'rescrewed, screwed.
I cannot give you enoughinformation in 30 seconds for
you to do anything with.
All I can do is hook you in,pique your interest and piss you

(48:47):
off, or make you like me One ofthe two.
Right, that's it.
I would throw that stuff in thegarbage.
I would like people who doomscroll and just sit there on
their phone wow, that is a wasteof time, just quit like.
Those are the kind of peoplethey need to go right now and
all the stuff they got to dothey need to make a t-graph,
they need to go put stuff ontheir calendar and they'll go

(49:08):
crap.
I don't have time to doomscroll anymore.
I gotta, I gotta work on someother stuff during that time.

Yeah, and record how long you doom scrolled
yesterday and that'll be a realeye-opener for you, because the
idea is that you get stuckscrolling and it works If you
allow it to work.

It works.
Yeah, have you ever?
I remember I was at aconference one time it was a
real estate investing conferenceand the dude on stage said
everybody pull out their phone.
And so everybody pulled outtheir phone and he showed you
how to go get to your averagescreen time over the last seven
days and his was like four hoursand 45 minutes and I was like

(49:49):
holy crap.
And he said the average waslike seven hours.
And I'm sitting next to one ofmy good buddies and I said
what's yours?
It was six plus hours.
He goes what's yours?
Mine was like 40 minutes.
I was like holy cow.
How are you spending six hourson average on your phone?

(50:10):
That is insane.
I don't.
What do you like?
No wonder you don't have anymoney.
Like I'm not trying to be mean,but no wonder you don't have
any money.
You're spending six hours a dayon your phone.
How are you ever going to gomake money doing that?
It doesn't even make sense.
You're not even going to beable to get.
You're like your mind is goingto be so screwed up You'll never
be able to deal with anythingproperly.
In my opinion.

(50:30):
I would yeah, I would, handsdown, be very careful of the
time you like.
How you spend your time isreally the secret to probably
most everything.
It's how you spend your timeand and the people that you hang
out with and the people thatyou that you bring on board to
work with you those are that'slike the secret to success, in

(50:50):
my opinion.

Yeah, and how, how, when you stood, we talked a
little bit about when youstarted out, and you started out
because you wanted to make thesame money your boss was making.
Yeah, but now that shifted.
Do you remember when that kindof shifted for you, when the
definition of success went frommoney to that happiness and so

(51:13):
on and so forth?

Yep, yeah, I quit my job for the third time.
So I would start a business,run it for a year, look at my
P&L for the year and go justlook at it and say, well, I
worked less when I had a regularjob and I made more money, so I
should probably go do thatagain.
And then I would do that for ayear and then I would get tired

(51:36):
of working for people.
I was a good employee but I wasterrible at the same time
because I hated being there.
And you got to remember.
This is when I'm you know, I'mlike 32 when I first do this
until I'm 35.
And I've been plumbing andworking for people since I was
18, doing the same thing day in,day out, day in, day out.

(51:56):
I'm coming up on 20 years inthe trade and I'm thinking to
myself normal retirement's at 66.
And here I am, I'm 32.
I got a lot of years leftthere's.
I'm not going to make it.
There's no way Like I have to.
Something has to change.
There's no way I can do this orI'm going to be miserable.

(52:16):
And so the I did that withboiler panels, and then I did it
with my partnership and then Idid it on my own twice and then
the third time on my own when Ifinally I quit my job.
I was tired of working, the jobslowed down and I worked out of
the union hall and I went downto the union hall and I said

(52:37):
what else you guys got?
And they said it's slim.
I got nothing and I had nointention of going back into
business.
But I thought, well, I betterjust go work for myself.
And I remember I went on theinternet and I started Googling
because I remember seeing likeservice companies with 10, 15,

(52:57):
20, 30, 40 trucks and going Idon't know how they do that,
they must pay their guys, likenothing.
And then I started justresearching how to run a
plumbing business how, whateverand I found an online calculator
and I calculated how much Ishould be charging and based on

(53:20):
expenses, which was like mindblown, and I it came out to like
259 an hour.
Fuck.

There you are, yep, all right.
$259 an hour is where we wereat before the internet kicked us
out.

Okay, so you froze for a little bit.
So I calculated my prices andit came out to $259 and I was
charging $140 and I thoughtthere's no way, like nobody's
going to pay $259 an hour.
Now, mind you, I'm in Fairbanks, alaska.
There are no big plumbingcompanies.
There's nobody charginganywhere near that.

(54:33):
I think the most expensivecompany in town was $150 and the
opinion of them is that theywere a ripoff, like they were
crooks.
Right, and especially in theplumbing industry, like the
sphere that I was involved in,those guys were crooks.
They were terrible people.
And I looked at that 259 and Ithought I got nothing to lose.

(54:55):
And so I remember going to myfirst job.
It was easy for me to turn mybusiness back on, thankfully.
I had a GMB, I had a brand, Ihad a logo.
It was J-Rod's Plumbing.
At the time I had customers thatliked me make a few Facebook
announcements.
I'm up and running and he wantstons of stuff done, like a

(55:20):
whole day's worth of work, and Igive him a bid and it's
thousands of dollars and he saysyeah, let's do it.
And I was like holy crap.
And he comes back to me at theend of the job time to pay all
the work's done.
He said that works out to likealmost $300 an hour, right, and

(55:42):
I said, yeah, he goes.
That's expensive.
And I said, yeah, he goes.
You got me over a barrel,though, because you were the
only one that answered yourphone and I was like, huh,
interesting, he goes.
I couldn't get anybody else outhere.
And I said, well, sounds like Ido.

(56:02):
And he paid it and off I went.
And then I went to another job.
Guy called me out, called me onthe phone.
He said, hey, I need somebodyto come out and change my toilet
flapper.
And I was like, oh man, $250 anhour for a toilet flapper,
that's going to be an expensivetoilet flapper is what I'm
thinking in my head.
And I tell him.

(56:24):
I said, look, man, likehonestly, coming out just to do
a toilet flapper, for whatyou're probably willing to pay
for, it's not worth my time.
And he goes.
Let me tell you something.
I've called probably eightdifferent plumbers and they all
told me the same thing and I'llpay you whatever you want to
come out and replace my toilet.
Probably eight differentplumbers and they all told me

(56:45):
the same thing and I'll pay youwhatever you want to come out
and replace my toilet flapperand I was like, okay, I'll be
there in a few minutes.
And I went out and I justchanged his toilet flapper.
It was like 300 bucks and hepaid it, left me a five-star
review, was super happy, and Iwas like dang there's, I think I
figured out like a secret thatnobody else knows.
Like dang there's, I think Ifigured out like a secret that
nobody else knows.
Third guy called me.
I was five minutes down thestreet.

(57:06):
He had a water heater neededreplaced.
I quoted him 2,800 bucks.
He said go for it.
I got it done right then andthere At the end of the job he
asked me are you sure you'remaking enough money on this job?
And I said I'm positive, I'm ahundred percent positive.
And I was just blown away likethat.
That that worked.

(57:28):
And in a six month period, justby raising my rates and giving
prices up front.
I didn't give options or any ofthat, just raise rates, options
or any of that, just raiserates, prices up front.
I literally wrote estimates ona piece of paper.
No software.
I took payment throughQuickBooks, that was it.
That was my only software.

(57:50):
In a six-month period I did like$800,000 in revenue and stacked
away a ton of cash, bought morevans, rebranded my company, did
a ton of marketing and thatbusiness just exploded.
It was crazy.
That was the first realization.

(58:11):
It was like my whole thing.
I remember back in the day Iwould crunch the numbers and I
would say, okay, this guy costme this much money and so he
needs to bill out this much ofhis time at $120 an hour for it
to be worth it.
And it was like more time thanhe worked.
And I knew from my experiencethat I'm not going to bill out
all my time and I thought sothis just can't be done.

(58:34):
I don't know how these guys aredoing it, but it can't be done.
And then when I figured outthat secret of oh, you just have
to charge a lot or more thanyou think and you can because
there's people out there thatare willing to pay it because
most guys don't charge enoughand so they can't actually go
out and serve the customerbecause they can't afford to, I
was off to the races.

(58:55):
It was super cool.

Super cool One thing that and I know that a lot
of guys you obviously havefigured this out but if the
customer can't change the toiletflapper, it doesn't really
matter if it takes you fiveminutes or five hours.
They still can't change thetoilet flapper.

(59:20):
Therefore, when I think aboutthe plumbing industry, they're
calling you because they don'tknow how to do the thing.
If they knew how to do thething, they'd do it themselves.
Or maybe they just don't wantto do the thing, or maybe they
don't have time to do the thing,or maybe it could be all three,
who knows?
The point is is like it doesn'tmatter if you're billing out

(59:41):
time, that's fine, but reallyit's the skillset that they're
paying for.
It doesn't matter how much timeit takes and how much money it
costs.
If they can't accomplish thatthing because they don't have
the skillset, it's no differentthan me going to have heart
surgery.
I don't know anybody thatperforms heart surgery except
heart surgeons.

(01:00:02):
Yep, right, I'm not going tocall the guy down the street
that does foot surgeries to domy heart surgery, right, yep,
but so many customers will dothat.
And guess what?
If you've ever done businesswith a crappy contractor, you
and I both know you're stillgoing to have to call me and fix
it because he's not going to doit right, because he's got to

(01:00:23):
cut corners, so on and so forth.
You're not going to be happy,so you're going to pay him his
dirt cheap price, and you'realso going to pay me, so just
pay me to begin with.

Jared Williams (01:00:32):
There's customers that are okay with
that.
They're okay paying a lesseramount and getting a lower
quality.
That's fine.
What plumbers don't understandis we think that customers want
low price, high quality and theydo.
But we don't believe thatthere's customers out there that
will pay a high price for highquality and that's where we go

(01:00:52):
wrong.
Like there is a, there are somany customers out there that
are dying to pay you more tocome to their house and offer
them a better experience andthey just don't know who to call
.
And if you can fill that need,there's a massive need for it in
any any home service industry.
That need exists.

(01:01:14):
And if you can just put togethera good process where your phone
gets answered, you book them onthe schedule, you get out there
when you say you're going toget out there, you present them
with a price up front.
They are willing to pay you andyou get the work done like you
said it was going to get doneand it's good quality work.
They'll pay you all day longand they'll leave you five-star

(01:01:35):
reviews all day long and you'llhave a customer for life.
Because 99% of the guys outthere don't do that.
99% of the plumbers don'tanswer their phone.
They don't even know how togive a price up front.
They don't even want to go dothe job because they don't think
they can charge enough to makeit worth their time.
That's right, and yeah.

(01:01:57):
And so there's massiveopportunity to just raise your
rates and go do the work thatnobody else wants to do, and do
it well.

Corey Berrier (01:02:05):
You're 100% correct.
That's part of the.
I don't have a secret, like Iknow the industry and I know
that what you're saying isabsolutely the truth.

Yep.

And so the reason I've brought on about 850 new
customers, if you will, and whatI mean by that is I'm not
saying I brought in 850 peoplethat need services today, but
I've partnered with propertymanagement companies that have

(01:02:37):
all those people that arerenters and they're selling
houses, but primarily renters.
Well, guess what?
Renders are going to F yourtoilets up constantly because
they don't care, because they'rethe renter.
So I've brought all thesepeople in because I know the
need of having a plumber isalmost a good plumber is almost

(01:02:58):
impossible to find.
So I'm feeling a need that Iknow is there.
I just have to knock on thedoor.
That's it.
Knock on the door.
Here's what we offer, here'swhat we do.
We'll be there on time.
We won't overcharge you.
We'll make sure it's fair.
Sometimes we even have someprices in place.
It doesn't mean it's going tobe that way every single time.

(01:03:18):
But then it opens up the doorfor re-pipes and all kinds of
massive jobs.
But you've got to treat thosepeople the right way, because or
you're going to be just likethe other guys, and so that's
where my job comes in, is I'mgoing to nurture those
relationships and they're nevergoing to forget me, even if I

(01:03:39):
make a mistake, they're going tosay, well, if I've nurtured it
right, they're going to beforgiving, because there are
going to be mistakes, of course.

Yeah, people are used to that, used to mistakes
happening.
It's part of the deal, yeah.

Absolutely.
But my God, just show up, justshow up on time.
Just show up when you sayyou're going to.
That's half the battle thesedays.

Yeah, and then just charge them enough to where
you still make a profit and letthem decide if they want to use
you or not.
That's right.
There's people out there thatwill use you.
At the end of the day, there'smore than you think, yeah.

I'm always surprised, always.
So how do you?
Yeah, I'm always surprised.
Always in place, that couldhave been.
What do you?
How do you?
Follow-up's a big deal right.
Most, most people in the tradesjust are terrible at follow-up.
They don't touch back with thecustomer If they say no, they
just move on to the next leadthey're paying for, which is
ridiculous.
So how do you guys, what do youimplement, how?

(01:04:55):
Who do you use, or what do youuse to make sure those things
don't fall through the cracks?

Yeah, so for follow-up, we do some follow-up
in-house.
We do happy calls.
That's about the only in-housefollow-up we're going to do.
We try to do those as soon aspossible.
It'd be cool to do them beforethe technician is down the
street a ways.
It'd be cool if we could callthe customer and they say, oh no
, he left this tool here, or no,I wasn't satisfied.

(01:05:22):
We can call the technician andsay turn around, go back and
make that customer happy.
It's also another chance for usto get a five-star review if
the technician slipped up anddidn't get a five-star review.
So those are super important tous.
And then, outside of that, likewe're doing follow-ups with
currently we use a software, weuse Chirp to do our follow-up.

(01:05:45):
So it's all just automatedemails, text messages, all those
campaigns going.
We're working on getting some AIinvolved.
I haven't been a huge fan of AIjust because it seems AI-ish,
but it's getting very good andit's only getting better and
it's getting better very fast.
And if we can do follow-up andlike I think the whole world is

(01:06:10):
changing Like we've got, it'sgetting crazy.
Actually, like between a fewsoftwares we can say we can
integrate with Service Titan andsay, hey, we have a job here on
the map.
We can say we can integratewith Service Titan and say, hey,
we have a job here on the map.
Let's go do some, pull somedata and see how many homes
around this area are worth 500Kor more.
Let's pull those into anautomated cold reach out and see

(01:06:33):
if they want us to swing by andgive them a free estimate and
then let's use AI to get thosepeople booked on our schedule.
And let's also use AI to saylet's dispatch our sales guy to
all those homes in that area allat one go so that we're super
efficient on our sales guy'stime.
It's getting crazy.

(01:06:57):
I think people who are behindthe ball on AI or who refuse to
use AI they're going to get leftbehind.
If I can contact the customer,reach out to the customer and
interact faster than you can,I'm going to win the majority of
the business.
It's getting pretty crazy and Ithink it's going to be
necessary.
Like with the cost ofpay-per-click these days we're

(01:07:19):
like in pressure washing.
We're paying almost $200 for acall and we're literally the
only ones doing PPC here.
Right, we might have like twopeople spending very minimal
budgets.
We're the only big playersspending big budgets on pressure
washing and it's 200 bucks fora phone call and you can't

(01:07:41):
sustain that and not follow upon all that stuff all the way
through.
Otherwise your cost per bookedcall is way too high, your cost
per sole job is way too high,your customer acquisition is way
too high.
I think it's, I think follow-upis going to be.
I think follow-up and, justlike ai, automation on the back
end is going to be imperative.

What about voice?
Are you referring to some ofthis as voice?

I haven't gone down that road yet.
I've been opposed to it in thepast because, like, my idea is
like, as soon as all the othercompetitors are using AI, I'm
going to market myself, as wehave real humans that answered
the phone I love it are using AI, I'm going to market myself, as
we have real humans thatanswered the phone.
I love it, but it's going muchfaster than I intended, right?

(01:08:31):
So I don't think you're goingto be able to tell it's AI here
shortly.
We might be at that point now,I don't know.
At that point then, yes, 100%I'll use some sort of AI CSR.
I can see the CSR position Inmy plumbing and heating company.
At one time we had three CSRsfull-time doing follow-ups,
dispatching, scheduling calls,all that stuff.

(01:08:54):
I can see you'll be able to runa $10 million, $15 million shop
with like one or two CSRs.
Yep, that's right, yeah.

Because there is going to be a portion of people
and so I'm a part of an AIcompany that's slowly but surely
not becoming an AI companybecause it's just going so fast.
But we built the call center AIfor an HVAC company I was
working for, and the way wemapped it out and I'm not the

(01:09:28):
brain, I'm just the like Ibrought the idea, the scripts
right.
I'm not the guy behind thecomputer like building this
stuff, right, but we built itout to where, when let's just
say it's after hours and theycall, and there's other
companies out there that do thisnow and I think they've done a
really good job and we'veconsidered using one of them

(01:09:49):
specifically I haven't pulledthe trigger yet Anyhow so we
would get it to ask if it's amidnight call.
Wouldn't you rather talk tosomebody and get a call?
Wouldn't you rather talk tosomebody and get a call?
Wouldn't you rather talk to arobot and get a call book,
knowing it's going to be therethe next day at 8 am, opposed to
how everybody does it now,which they might get back to you

(01:10:09):
maybe by 8 am if you're lucky.
I think there's a lot of peoplethat are going to be willing to
have that AI conversation.
To have that AI conversation ifyou're up front about it being
an AI conversation.
It takes away the trickery ofit and then you can decide.

Yep, I agree, so I just hopped.
I have just had a conversationwith a company for AI text
messaging and we have an afterhours answering service and
they're good, but they're not myCSRs right, there's still
somebody else's CSRs.
So I always refer to it as theleast sucky of the sucky.
And they don't suck by anymeans, but that's a good way for

(01:10:57):
me to think about it.
They're not as good, so it'sthe least sucky of the sucky,
fair enough.
And he said well, why don't yougive the customer a choice Like
would you rather talk to, wouldyou rather have a phone call or
a text message?
And then, if this customer saystwo for a text message, then
you can use your AI for textmessaging.

(01:11:18):
And we get to go in and trainthis AI on a daily basis and
it's getting really, really,really, really like better than
my CSR.
It makes better text messagesthan my CR.
It's better at booking callsover text than my CSR, and so
now I'm saving money on my afterhours phone calls because I'm

(01:11:40):
not paying the answering service.
It's about 40% of the calls arechoosing text message over
talking to a CSR.
Yeah, and so it's just.
The whole thing is fascinating.
It's moving fast, like justgiving them the choice of hey,
would you rather a text or acall?

So I know you can't look at it from your
standpoint, but let's just takeyou as an example.
Which guy did you which?
Which which camp do you fallinto If you're that guy making
that call in the middle of thenight?

phone call.
Phone call.
But or what if?
If I got a text message, if I,if I hopped on the phone and it
said, or like, press three,we'll send you our online
scheduling link, I'd press three, yeah, and then I'd go to the
online scheduling link and I'mgoing to schedule online.

(01:12:31):
I'm definitely that guy.

All right.
So what if you're?
Are you still that guy?
If you're at Disney World withyour wife and kids, Are you
still the phone call guy?

Oh no, I'm the text message guy.

So I think it depends on the scenario where
you're at, what you're doing.
Midnight you're at home, butmaybe your wife's sleeping and
you don't really want to wakeher up, because that could be a
whole other set of problems.
Right, yep, agreed, fascinating.
Right, yep, agreed, fascinating.

Yeah, it's a fast-moving, fascinating world.
I think it's going to impact usa lot.
I think we need to be on it.

Yeah, I agree and I think honestly, the only
people that are protected fromthis AI revolution are people in
the trades.

I agree, but I think I feel like it's going to
get harder for new guys to startup.

Why do you think that?

Well, I think they're going to have to incur
these costs of like they're notgoing to be able to just answer
their phone anymore.
It's not going to be fastenough, it's not going to be
good enough, and so they'regoing to have to incur the cost
of getting ai on board earlierthan maybe they would have
earlier so that's a business.

So all right, let me rephrase the question.

All right, so let me rephrase the question
what you're saying like likeactual tradesmen out there doing
that's right, yep I agree, I100% are not protected at all.

They have to get on board.

They need to?
Yeah, and I think it's going to.
I feel like it's going tocreate a division between the
big guys and the little guys,and it's going to be harder and
harder to be a little guy Like.
And then I'm in pressurewashing now and there are no big
guys.
So what AI is doing now is it'screating a giant hole in the

(01:14:22):
market, like there's already agiant hole in the market in
pressure washing, where there'snobody doing it very well, and
now I'm going to be able toincorporate AI and all this
stuff and it's going to beimpossible to catch me for these
little guys.
It's going to be impossible tocatch me.
For these little guys.
It's going to be impossible.
And so I feel like we'll beable to sweep the nation really

(01:14:47):
quickly and take over the worldis how I view it better than
ever.
There's no competition.

So is this why the road from zero to 100
million is a thing?
Because of what we've talkedabout today, because of the
things that you know are hereand that you're utilizing, the
things that are coming?
Is that why you have made that?
Did I say that right?

Yeah, yeah, 100 million, yeah, the.
The reason I chose that goal isbecause in the past, thinking
small has held me back andcaused me to make small moves,
small decisions and move slower,and so this go around.
I said, screw it, we're goingto 100 million.
And it's not about the money atall, it's about it's about the

(01:15:36):
impact.
So, like in my plumbingbusiness, just watching, I feel
like I built a pyramid and I'mat the top of the pyramid, and
every time that pyramid getsbigger, right, it's more and
more people underneath that getto have a better place to work,
make more money, and then evenmy friends and family get
involved in that.
Like, my friends have betteropportunities, my family has

(01:15:59):
better opportunities, mychildren have better
opportunities, my grandkids willhave better opportunities all
because I made the decision tobuild something.
That's more about what it isfor me.
So just setting that a hundredmillion goal, it was a big
enough goal.
Somewhere I've never been.
I don't know how to get there.
It's going to require biggerthinking, bigger moves, and so

(01:16:22):
that's what I needed.
And then I purposely went andtold people that, so that I
couldn't come back on mydecision.
I couldn't say, oh no, we'reonly going to grow it to 30.
I couldn't say no, we're onlygoing to grow it to 50 or no,
it's too hard.
I quit.
I wanted, I needed thataccountability of hey world.
I'm growing this to 100 million.
Watch me do it.

(01:16:42):
And then I have no option.

It's like burning the ships to some extent right
A hundred percent, a hundredpercent, yeah, when you voice
something as large as that tothe world, you are being held
accountable now, and it drivespeople like me and you.

It does, and I'll tell you what.
So the accountability drivespeople like me and you Like.
I love proving people wrong.
If somebody tells me there's noway, I'm like watch me and I
will make a way there's, I loveit.
It's nothing more satisfying tome than as bad as that sounds
proving people wrong.
It's like huge motivator to me,yeah to me.

(01:17:22):
Then, as bad as that sounds,it's proving people wrong, it's
like huge motivator to me.
Yeah.
So there's that.
But then also saying, okay, I'mgoing to grow this to a hundred
million, like my.
We were talking about myrelationship with my neighbor.
That is the whole reason thathe reached out and we went to
coffee.
It was because I said I want togrow this thing to a hundred
million.
It showed him that I wasthinking bigger than my current

(01:17:43):
situation, that I had dreams andhopes and goals, and he loved
it.
Like the dream was so big thathe felt like he could get
involved and help me go there.
So I think, yeah, we could talkall day long about thinking
bigger it.
Just it does so much more thanyou even realize.

So I think it's probably ridiculous for me to
ask this, but obviously I wouldthink that you've read the Magic
of Thinking Big.

Oh yeah, that's a great book.
Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, because our minds are limited to the
knowledge that we have.
And if you can't so?
It's like I've heard this.
I certainly am not the one thatcame up with this, but if you
reach for the stars and you hitthe clouds, you're still way
further than you ever thoughtyou could be.

Way further.
Yeah, and it requires, like ifI was going, if I wanted to grow
a $10 million pressure washingbusiness, right, and I'm stuck
or I've got a decision to make,I'm thinking of it in a $10
million framework.
If I'm saying, okay, I'm goinginto a hundred million, I'm

(01:18:50):
thinking about this, thosedecisions early on, in a hundred
million dollar framework.
My systems, my processes, thethings that I build now are much
different just because my goalis bigger.
We're spending much more timenow building a solid foundation
to scale on than I would if Iwas only going to 10 million.
Yeah, so it's cool.

(01:19:12):
I enjoy it.
Makes it more fun to me too.

Agreed.
Yeah, I agree, yeah, I agree,and I think a lot of people just

(01:19:36):
I don't know if it'sprogramming from a small child,
where you know, you see yourparents make X, Y, Z and you
think, well, if I just make alittle bit more than them, I'm
successful.
But the reality is you're right,you just have to to be able to
attend the death walk.
I don't know if I told you that, but I'm not going to attend it
.
It sucks because here's why Iwanted to attend the death walk.
It's not about the 24 hours,right?
Nothing to do with the 24 hours.
Is that going to suck?
Yeah, of course it's going tosuck, but I've done a lot worse

(01:19:57):
things that sucked, yep.
But I've done a lot worsethings that sucked, yep.
But what I understood from thatdeath walk after I started
reading through it, I'm like oh,this is about building a
connection with so manydifferent people, because you're
not going to talk to the samedude for 24 hours.
No, you're going to move around, you're going to fall back,
you're going to get ahead andyou know, eventually you're or

(01:20:18):
as that process happens I'mguessing tell me if I'm wrong
you're going to be exposed topeople that otherwise you would
never be exposed to and you'regoing to be forced to have a
conversation with them, becauseyou all are sharing this journey
together, you all.
It's like you're my homie,because we're doing this thing

(01:20:40):
together and there's a bond thathappens there that you're not
going to be able to get througha screen or you're not going to
be able to get even over coffee.
It's just a different level ofconnection, nope.

Right, it's twofold.
It's that it's a differentlevel of connection, like
there's probably 20 peopleinvolved in the death walk.
It's a small level ofconnection.
There's probably 20 peopleinvolved in the death walk.
It's a small group of peopleand that was intentional.
You're going to talk aboutbusiness for an hour maybe, and
then you're going to talk aboutlife, and then you're going to

(01:21:15):
get so tired you're not going totalk about anything.
You're going to be walking witha dude and you're not going to
say a word to him, but you aregoing to feel like he's your
homie.
That's for sure.
Everybody there is going to behomies by the end.
And then also for me, I I havedone a lot of.
I used to run ultra marathonsin the past and so doing a
hundred milers and getting tothat point where you are asking

(01:21:40):
yourself why am I doing this?
Like there's no good reason torun 100 miles, zero and every
single race I've ever done.
I got to the point where I saidthis sucks, I don't know why
I'm doing this, and I wanted toquit, but I'm not a quitter.
To quit, but I'm not a quitter.

(01:22:05):
And so you force yourself tofinish and you're always
surprised at how hard you canpush, even though your tank is
empty.
And, for some strange reason,every time you finish, you have
this sense of accomplishment andthis newfound idea of how hard
you can push on things and howstrong your brain is.
And so, if I can pass thatalong to business owners because

(01:22:27):
my thing is is I hear him sayall the time this is so hard,
and I'm like you don't know whathard is, man.
So I'm going to show you whathard is.
I'll show you hard.
I'll show you.
I want to show you when yourknees hurt and your ankles hurt
and you're chafed and you'redehydrated and you're hungry and

(01:22:47):
is the worst, the suckiest ofthe sucky that you've ever
experienced, you're still goingto be able to walk and use your
mind to push you past thoseexperiences.
It's a it's a cool thing toexperience when you get to
experience it.

Yeah, yeah, I, I totally get it.
I totally totally get it.
Yeah, I hate that.
Has it already happened?
Has it already happened thisweekend, saturday July 19th.

Wow, that's amazing.

That's amazing.
Well, I think that.
Yeah, just super.
I can't wait to see what allyou post about it, and I think
all 20 guys will make it,because they'll push through.
And you're right, it gives youan example of how hard you
haven't been pushing to.

Oh yeah, definitely yeah.
Yep, we're going to do it everyyear, so you can come next year
, I'll be there you can mark mywords on that.

I'll be there like I love a challenge, dude, I
love a challenge and I will notquit, that's for sure.
Probably not gonna run an ultra.
Good, well, jared dude, I can't.
I can't thank you enough forjust spending this time with me
today and just having thisconversation.
It's been it's really been.
It's been really been impactfulfor me and I'm sure other

(01:24:09):
people are going to getsomething out of it for me.
I really, really reallyappreciate you and appreciate
the conversation today.
If people by chance don't knowwho you are, where to find you,
could you tell us where thatwould be?

Yeah, if they just search the Jared Williams
Show or Jared Williams Plumberon Google, I'll show up.
Search Jared Williams on any ofthe social media channels.
I'm there, perfect, yep.

My friend, I appreciate you, appreciate you
having me on.
It's been a great conversation,thank you.

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