December 22, 2023 • 57 mins
Who says success only comes with a degree? I'm Seth Mills, a business administration student who zig-zagged through different majors before finding my passion. And, joining me is Nik Dawson, a entrepreneur who traded traditional schooling after 10th grade for the thrilling rollercoaster of starting his own company. Together, we dig into our unique paths, debunking the notion that success only comes via traditional routes. Hear our personal experiences in education and the importance of adaptability in the age of readily available information.
Ever wondered about the trials and tribulations of starting a new business? We shed light on our entrepreneurial journeys, revealing the challenges, the triumphs, and even the less glamorous aspects of business like dealing with difficult clients and the significance of clear terms and conditions. We swap stories from our own experiences - me navigating the complexities of the pressure washing industry, and on being blacklisted from companies. Seth's also honest about the pressures of striking a balance between running multiple businesses while keeping up with full-time college commitments.
As for the future, we're not just daydreaming. We discuss our plans for growth and investment, considering hiring additional help, reinvesting in our ventures, and keeping our audience engaged. We also tackle the hurdles of residential customers and explore strategies for targeting commercial clients. Listen in as we share our candid insights and plans for the future on the AstroCraft Grow, Influence, Invest podcast. Our stories are testament to the idea that success isn't always a straight path, and the journey matters just as much as the destination.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Astro Crafts, grow, influence,
invest podcast.
I am your host, seth Mills, andjoining me today once again is
your co-host Nick Dawson.
Welcome back, nick.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Man doing a little bit better, are you?
Yeah, last week it was like,felt like it was a week and a
half and a few days and it'sbeen a week and it feels like a
few days.
Yeah, yeah, it's a week to weekchange.
Yeah, yeah, day to day changeRight Hour to hour change, it
just really depends.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So and today's episode, we're going to talk a
little bit about how we gotstarted and the two very
different but similar industriesthat we're in.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
And similar in the sense of service.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Similar, yeah, similar in the sense of service,
and I mean in a sense both ofus do exterior cleaning, or at
least you did.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, which I'm sure we'll get into that too.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, absolutely, and I am currently a college
student.
You are a 10th grade dropout,10th grade educated kid, yep,
and both of us have verysuccessful companies.
Now, yeah, kind of talk aboutthe disadvantages and advantages
of both.
So, yeah, what major questionhere, right off the bat.
(01:21):
I'm just going to ask what ledyou or what.
Why did you decide it was agood idea to drop out in 10th
grade?
You were homeschooled, correct?
I?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
was homeschooled.
So that makes it even worse tobe dropout, right?
I mean, if we're beingcompletely honest, it's like
you're at home, it's like whydid you I mean so in all honesty
dropping out when I was 16, butit was.
I was still more ahead incertain things.
(01:50):
So I mean, more than anything,I like to make it a joke, yeah,
just because I like to be funnyevery now and then.
So it's one of those where it'slike I don't want to ever and
maybe that's my either thesympathy side or the whatever
you want to call it.
I'm just to give either hope orto let people know that like,
(02:11):
look, ain't nothing wrong withcollege.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
There's nothing wrong with depending on what you're
going for See and not to beungrateful, right 100%, I'm
going for it.
First it was business, I know.
At first it was cybersecurity,then it was computer engineering
, now I am a, I'm going into mysenior year.
(02:37):
I'm a year behind.
I'll be a fifth year graduate,but now I'm going for business
administration because obviouslyI figured out what I want to do
, because you don't know rightoff the bat Exactly, no,
absolutely.
And see, I've always been very,very good with computers and IT
systems, but I learned veryquickly in college that I didn't
(03:02):
want to do it for the rest ofmy life.
Yeah, I would have beenmiserable, because working on
computers is, quite frankly, themost boring thing, or most
boring job, at least to me, thatyou can do.
So whatever you said, collegeisn't.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Let me rephrase.
Yeah, let me rephrase.
I don't think it's a bad ideato be in college if you are
wanting to.
I'm not sure what all businesscollege stuff entails.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Honestly, it's a lot of.
It's just you didn't go to highschool, you did online.
I'm assuming for the most part.
So in your experience, it wasmostly blow off right, it was
boring, and that's why I mean Idon't know, because I'm not you.
Well, we haven't talked aboutthis right?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
No, which will be cool because we'll definitely
get into it.
But like, yeah, for the mostpart it was a lot of online, it
was a lot of differentcurriculums and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
It was XYZ that you could look up, I'm assuming, on
Google.
Yeah, so it was it.
The reason I'm asking this iscollege is very much a.
You can look everything uponline and succeed.
You don't actually have to knowthe material and I will
probably get slammed by a lot ofpeople.
(04:24):
I am a very quick learner.
So if I don't understandsomething, googlecom, what is
the linear regression for XYZ?
I only said that because I justlearned it.
I don't remember anything thatI.
I and again I'm gonna getslammed because I Google
everything.
I don't remember anything Ilearned in the previous semester
(04:44):
, much less three and a halfsemesters ago.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So I guess for me, if you want to be a lawyer, if you
want to be a doctor, if youwant to be a psychologist, if
you want to be literallyanything that requires a degree,
go for it.
But I'm gonna be honest, goingto the doctor last week or the
week before going to the doctorand you're sitting there telling
(05:12):
them, kind of, your symptomsand you're looking at whatever
they're guessing.
They're either guessing or,like my doctor, goes in there
with his MacBook and he types inall of your symptoms, google,
and he's Googling.
He's got a degree, he's adoctor, but he still goes off of
that.
(05:32):
So I mean, if you're wanting adegree to get into something
that you really want to get into, go for it Well, and not only
that, but I've also noticedaccounting degrees, right,
business degrees.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Because you have to go through all the accounting,
you learn how to do it.
It's just there's so manyprograms on Google or programs
you can download and pay foreven that corporations, all of
your corporations are paying fora major accounting software to
where you just have to input thenumbers and it does all the
equations for you.
(06:08):
You don't have to learn that,right.
It's just like whenever he, alittle bit of older people, were
at school right, and this is afun one that I love because I
can say I do it Right.
The teachers always told usincluding me, and I don't.
You were homeschooled, soprobably not you, but my mother,
yeah, they always told meyou're never going to get paid
(06:30):
to look out of a window.
Well, I do window cleaning.
Now, fair enough, I literallymake, and I'm not afraid to at
least I'm not I'm not afraid toshare how much I make.
Right, I make on average two to$400 an hour cleaning windows
(06:55):
looking out of a window for aliving.
Yeah, that's 33 to 40%.
Actually, I think this year Ijust did the math it's like 60%
of my business is windowcleaning.
Yeah, looking out of a window,making money doing nothing other
than scrubbing a window clean,and I'm not hating on it.
(07:17):
Let me add that Absolutely notmy customer.
I love you guys.
There are expenses that comewith it, right?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I mean I you make that much, but you have the
expenses on top of that Gasinsurance employees.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I spent $4,000 on a window cleaning system.
It's not just scrubbing awindow right, you have systems
in place.
I have to maintain that system.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But $2 to $400 an hour, and if you know you can
make that you're not going to goout there with a sponge and
squeegee.
Exactly, and try and make thatwhenever you know you can make
more money, do more, do morejobs, make more profit if you've
got a better system.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Exactly.
I mean, you're always going toneed your traditional squeegee
and mop, right?
You're always going to need iton the inside of glass, on the
inside of homes mop and squeegee, not sponge and squeegee Sponge
.
Yeah, I mean same thing.
I mean, occasionally we have touse steel wool, which I'm going
to get flamed in the commentson any of the social media
platforms because they're goingto be like oh no, no, that's bad
, You're going to scratch theglass.
(08:19):
Steel wool is the hardest thingyou can use on a window to
clean it.
Quad zero.
So 0000 steel wool is thehardest thing you can use and
the only thing you should use.
You're not.
I'm not talking about yourburlopads that you get from
Walmart, right?
But yeah, so things like that.
They matter, especially in theprofit sector, because if I
(08:40):
could do window cleaning and doaway with my other two companies
, I would, but I can't and Iwon't because they all generate
income.
So, but going back to the highschool versus college, right?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Right.
So I guess for me really therewere.
I mean, I made it through allof all mathematics, everything
that you needed to know, which Ialways forget, the one with
(09:15):
shapes, geometry, geometry.
I Was told I would never needto know any of that shit.
Well, guess what?
I deal with a freaking bowl ofwater every day that varies in
size on every single person'sbowl in their backyard or their
swimming pool.
So I have to understand alittle bit about that, for the
chemical side, for the how torun your pump, how to run your
(09:37):
system.
So I mean it makes more sensenow.
But before, just like you said,you won't get paid to look out
of window.
You'll probably never need this, but I need it now.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So, with that being said, do you think that you
should have finished high school, or do you think that I?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Think it puts me at an advantage and a disadvantage
at the same time.
It puts me in advantage in thesense of I Tell everybody, all
my friends, I tell everybodythat is I'm growing up in my
circle, or family members,people who have kids, finish
high school.
Nothing else finish high schoolbecause you've got the trades
(10:18):
too.
That was what you want to say ifyou don't want to go into
college and you want to be a,you want to be a welder, you
want to do what?
Anything that could be trade Goto a trade school.
You're gonna learn way moreabout one thing as opposed to
learning All the stuff that youhaven't learned for business In
(10:40):
your college classes.
I mean, you're all over theplace learning about one thing,
whereas if you're going for atrade for welding, they're
putting your rest at work.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Right out the gate and they're helping you get a
job.
Yeah so.
I In.
I going to like an, anapprenticeship, absolutely, and
going back to go into thecollege side of things.
Being a college student, Iwould say yes.
I would say the same thingeither go to college or go to a
trade school, regardless, if youthink that it's going to help
(11:13):
you in the future.
I'm not a big backup plan kindof guy.
Right, I don't believe inhaving a backup plan or a plan B
or plan C.
I believe in having a plan Aand dedicating everything to it.
Yeah, because if you have aplan B or a plan C or a fallback
plan, you're going to end upfalling back.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, even if your backup plan is going to be, say,
the majority of the work thatyou get is from window cleaning,
your backup plan is not whatyou're going to do with a degree
or with whatever else is goingto be your other company.
And if that other one yourother backup plan is the other
company, you're going to be ableto supply your other company
with the other two or with theother one.
See, and so your backup plan Isit really a backup plan?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But it's Something to support absolutely well, and I
guess what I was getting back orwhat I was getting to with the
backup plan is I'm not going tocollege for a backup plan.
I'm not going to college to geta degree to To have something
to fall back on.
Say all three or four or fivesoon to be five companies that I
(12:13):
own Go bankrupt, right, orwhatever happens happens, right.
I'm not saying I'm going tocollege for the backup plan, I'm
not.
I'm not going to college to getthe degree to have something to
fall back on if that happens,which is very, very Minimal risk
to me if that happens.
(12:33):
You know, right now, becauseI've grown to such a large Scale
, well, I'm going to college,really, really and truly One.
I'm a first-generation collegestudent, right, so I'm trying to
make my parents proud.
Yeah, absolutely To.
It's nice to be able to say, ohyeah, I have a degree.
(12:53):
My dad very much slid under thewire when he Went to work and
the position that he's at now.
He very much slid under thewire.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And I'll get into that too on my my side of things
.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, just for perspective to Back into it
College.
I think there is an advantageand a disadvantage as well.
I am a full-time collegestudent.
I own three companies, fouropening in less than a month,
and so it's currently December12th, right, and I am.
(13:29):
I'm opening another company androughly like 19 days, 1920 days
, and so when that company goeslive, I'm gonna have to Go into
full Mode.
Right, I'm gonna have to gointo full grow this business.
I'm a full-time college student.
(13:50):
In less than 120 days, I open afifth company, or at least
that's the plan.
If everything goes and I'vetalked to you about this we may
be being partners in it.
I don't know at this point, andthat's fine if you're, we're
not.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Money's money man.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Exactly.
If it makes money, it makessense.
Yeah, and so that's twocompanies in the upcoming year.
I'm still a full-time collegestudent.
Go into school 12 hours to 15hours a semester.
Yeah, that's 12 to 15 hours aweek of my life now.
Granted, it's really notbecause I am a very quick
(14:25):
learner and I'm able to submitthings quickly, right, yeah,
with that being said, it's Stilltime out of my day that I'm
having to spend on college.
So that's.
That is very much thedisadvantage.
The advantage Okay, I have adegree to post on my wall.
I have a degree that I can sayoh yeah, I've gone For two
(14:46):
college for businessadministration.
I have the knowledge ice in alot of employers they're not
looking for the degree you got.
They're looking to see if youwent to college, if you made it
through the four to six yearsthat it takes an average person
to go through college.
I think right now, the averagein America is five years to get
through it.
Really, yeah, so I'm on average.
I will complete my degree onAverage, but that's also with
(15:10):
three companies under my beltright now.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and he was not necessarily an average.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's kind of You're doing better than However many
the whatever the percent wouldbe exactly, and I own three
companies in the biggest, one ofthe biggest competitive markets
in the United States of AmericaHouston, texas.
So, with that being said, Ithink it's an advantage because
I will have the degree and I'llbe able to say hey, I went to
school again.
(15:35):
Employers aren't looking forthe degree they're.
They're they're trying to seeif you had the guts, if you had
the mental power and if you hadthe willpower to go to school
for four to six years, or fourto five years, or however Many
years you went, if you got adegree, if you were able to go
through that amount of timethrough college.
(15:56):
Again, they're not looking forthe degree you have.
They could care less if it's adegree in science or animal
science.
They're wanting to see if youstuck with it, did the work and
graduated and Put in the timethat it takes, because if you
did, then that's an advantage tothe employer.
If you're not gonna start yourown thing, that's an advantage
(16:18):
to the employer by showing themyou stuck with a specific thing
For that amount of time.
Oh yeah, you're less of aflight risk to come into the
company, work for a year, getyour bonus and then leave.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So agree with that.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I think that's the advantage of going to school.
It builds your credibilityright or at least go to college
or a trade school.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
So I think I've given you a little bit of insight on
kind of how my Starting intothis Became, because absolutely
last week or a week and a halfago was with the two-year
anniversary of my company Yep,I'm 27, you know.
Like it, it took a little bitlonger than it did for yourself
(17:07):
being in college and everythingyou know.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So, yes, and no, I don't know.
Did you when you were my agebecause I'm 22, we've got a
five-year difference when youwere my age, did you want to
start your own company or wereyou thinking, were you the
classic 9-5 mentality work foranother company, grow that
company, work for them, collecta salary?
Or Did you have the mentalcapacity to say I want to build
(17:33):
a company?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So I had a 10-year plan.
I had a 10-year plan, nothingwrong with that.
I didn't know what I wanted todo.
So I was 15, turning 16, and no, take that back the summer
after my 16th, so I'm Into.
October is my birthday, so thesummer after my 16th.
(17:55):
It was about time.
You know, I'm fine, a summerjob, you're 16 years old, pick,
you know, figure that out.
And so my doubt at the time,which had a lot to do with most
of this he was.
He didn't grow up in the poolbusiness, right, but since I was
10 years old 9 years old he wasin the pool industry.
(18:16):
He was building pools.
He was basically doing thestuff that, for the people I
work for, do most of my work for, is builders.
Yeah, and so he was a builderand that was primarily all he
did.
Well, then he got hired on to amanufacturer and that's what he
does now, and he's been therenow for 15 years as of a month
(18:37):
ago.
So he's okay with a 9-5.
Yeah, he's good with that andwith the mountain of money he
makes, he should be okay withthat.
Yeah, you know, but just likeyou were saying a little bit ago
, he has a high school diploma.
He doesn't have a collegeeducation.
(18:57):
He doesn't very.
My parents do very few people inmy family do.
So it came time and he was like, hey, I Really don't want you,
he goes.
I want you to learn a skill.
I don't want you to learn howto push carts at a store nothing
wrong with it, but he goes.
I want you to learn somethinghands-on.
(19:18):
I want you to learn how to dosomething other than bagging
groceries or checking people outat the at the grocery store he
goes.
I want you to learn somehands-on.
I'm gonna have you work with myvery first employer and my
first.
When I was 16 and 17.
I worked with two differentguys, a repair company and a
cleaning company, and it waskind of like a 50-50 split.
(19:40):
I would work with the repairguy when he needed me and I
would clean pools like two orthree days a week.
Yeah, so that way I could stilldo school whenever I was doing
school at 16.
Sure, and so Started doing allof that and then it just I fell
in love with it.
As weird as it sounds, 16 yearsold, I was like I Think money
(20:02):
had a little bit of influence onthat as well.
Absolutely, but it like you'retalking 15 going to 16 and this
dude's handing you a hundreddollar bill at the end of every
single day that you go to work.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It's like On average that's three grand a month.
Yeah, if I worked every day andthat was at 16.
That was a 16 to a 16-year-old.
That's a lot of money, dude.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
A hundred dollars a week is a lot of money to most
16-year-olds, I mean.
So it was a matter of I was.
I learned both sides and I waslike I really like the repair
side.
I've always been.
I always like working on stuff,fixing stuff, putting stuff
together, and so I Worked withhim and a cleaning company.
I learned enough from thecleaning company.
(20:46):
He wasn't very good aboutexplaining Chemistry and stuff
to me, so I was like he was likeKind of fending for you, I'm
really surprised.
A lot of pools aren't like superfucked up right now, like
honestly.
But yeah, and whenever Istarted working with him
full-time 1099 which if I'd haveknown then I would have
(21:08):
probably been able to Switch itup to a Different tax bracket
just because of or not taxbracket, but a different form to
fill because of, yeah, howeverything was supplied.
Anyway, see something foranother podcast at some point.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I'm bad about that too.
But yeah, absolutely Definitelyfor another podcast.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But I'm bad about that with my guys too but
Regardless, I worked with himalmost five months to the day I
I learned everything aboutheaters, automation lights,
control systems, cleaners, Imean you name it.
If it had something to do withworking swimming pool, I was.
(21:46):
I was pretty inept with it,like I knew what I was doing.
Well, the whole goal and thewhole time I was with him, he
was like, just like the lastpodcast it was, I Know you're
not gonna be here forever, Iknow you're gonna start your own
thing.
There's, there's so many damnpools in this, you know, in this
state, in the city, absolutely.
(22:07):
And so he's like I don't careif you stay here, I want you to
start your own thing.
Well, me Not feeling likeeither, either a worthy to start
my own company she don't reallyhave to be worthy too but not
feeling like I was ready for it.
I was like, well, I'm gonna gowork for a company that does
full maintenance.
I Wanted to learn my tenureplan.
(22:29):
At that point, after workingfor him for five years, was I
want to Learn every single bitof this industry before I start
my company?
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So at what age did you decide to Eventually start
your own company?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
so If you're talking at 16, I Was planning so what
would that put me at?
Like 21, 22 Before, that waslike five years me working with
him.
I was like I want to learn alittle bit more before I start.
Yep, at that point I had put inmy head that this is pretty
much the industry I'm gonna bein.
I was like, okay, I'm gonnalearn how to how chemistry works
(23:06):
, to a T when I can explain itto anybody in layman's terms, to
.
I want to learn how to start upa swimming pool from scratch,
make sure I fuck up the plasteror anything in this woman pool.
Three, I also want to learn howto build a pool.
Those were the things that Iwanted to learn.
That way, if I did get into anyindustry of this or any part of
(23:28):
this industry, if I hiredsomebody, I didn't want somebody
to tell me something and younot know and me not know or
Questions.
That way, if somebody comes tome and they go oh no, I did this
, this and this.
No, you didn't, because I knowI've done it.
So it really was.
I went to work for a company,held their service side together
(23:50):
for about a year.
No room for improvement there,little bitty company that about
50 pools we were cleaning, ontop of about two to three
startups a week is not thecompany you're thinking of okay,
this was before that.
Then that company approached mewhile I was driving the other
(24:11):
company's vehicle and theywanted to hire me.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
One of the owners or Was it a manager that approached
you?
It was the owner, okay, of theother company.
Yeah, you're the one that I'mthinking of.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
The one you're thinking of, okay he called me
and Wanted to sit down fordinner when my naivety at the
time I had a non-compete yeah,but in Texas non-compete they.
But to a 21, 22 year old Barelykind of getting out and
everything.
(24:45):
Barely knowing and having abetter knowledge of everything
on the legalities, knowing howeverything really works, because
really there was no non-competeby the time I left, because
they dropped 60% of theirclientele for maintenance
whenever I left because theycouldn't maintain it themselves.
Yep, for, so I went to workwith them, started their service
(25:06):
side, so I know how to startthat, I Know how to do
everything to get it going.
So that's what intrigued them,to get me going with them.
So we started that up and Iworked for them for about a year
and a half, almost two years,yeah, yeah.
And Dude, at some point whenyou're like hey, you're the
(25:28):
manager, you're the maintenancemanager and you don't move up or
they don't get anybody to hireon To make it to where you can
manage, it kind of bottoms out,it bottoms out, you're still the
, you just the fucking pool boyat that point, You're a pool boy
with a new title exactly with acool fancy title that makes you
feel special, something to puton Facebook, and that's all it
was.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Because did it come with a pay raise?
No see, that's literally all itwas was something to make you
feel appreciated without Givingyou an incentive to stay,
exactly and at that point I wasdoing some side work.
Like we now know, a lot oftheir employees do.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
To make up for stuff that I couldn't get from that
company.
But I could have brought thatbusiness, but nobody came and
approached me to see how to growanything.
They were just like keepcleaning pools.
So After working with them, Ithen moved to God awful fucking
league city.
How'd that go with theexpectation and with the job
(26:26):
title?
I still have all the paperworkas a general manager.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Oh, we're like a superintendent.
See, I don't know a whole bunchabout your league city
Information, but man.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Okay, so we won't get into the personal side right
now.
That'll be for another time.
But, moving to league city, IGot hired on To build swimming
pools yeah, which was in myeighth year of the industry,
which I was like I'm on track.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So that I wanted that was your eight out of your
tenure now.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, exactly eight of my.
I wanted to be by ten years.
I wanted to have built tenpools which would have set you
at what?
Speaker 1 (27:07):
What age?
25?
.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, 25.
That'll put me at about 25,almost 26 by 26.
I should have, you know, builtat least 10 pools in my mind.
Yeah, absolutely so I moveddown there with my experience
and my knowledge of swimmingpools and my industry, and they
also hired a secondary guy to domy same job.
(27:32):
That was a manager at SubwaysSubway.
So, how they would shop.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Did you ever because I never heard about this Did you
ever find out why they thoughtthey could hire somebody from
Subway versus somebody who'sbeen in the years there in the
industry for eight years?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
So they hired both of us.
One because my boss at the timein League City was a he he.
He got in the industry way likeprobably four or five years
before I moved there.
So I've been doing a little bitlonger, but he's been building,
(28:14):
that's one thing he's got on me.
And so by the time I moved downthere they hired both of us.
Because during COVID was a hugeboom for the swimming pool
industry.
Yep, you couldn't go onvacation, couldn't go anywhere.
So if you were going tovacation, you were going to
vacation in your backyard withthe house.
So interest rates weredifferent.
(28:36):
You could refinance your home,add the pool in there.
So they were really in it atthe right time.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
So interest rates were like 2%.
Oh, dude, maybe they're likeone to two and a half percent, I
mean for a swimming pool.
That's unheard of.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Did you think about it.
You have a $500,000 home, youhad a $200,000 swimming pool and
you refied at 2%.
People were doing that all over.
Oh, yeah, so they boomed.
Well, they made a shit ton ofmoney.
So when you make a shit ton ofmoney, you spend a shit ton of
money, unless you're smart aboutit sometimes.
Yeah, so it was a lot of a.
(29:16):
Oh, I'm real good friends withthe bar over here and over here
and I'm good friends with theowner that owns this bar, or the
owner that owns this steakhouse, or, yeah, they found this guy
that was a bar hop, but no, inhis manager experience they
thought, oh well, we can hirehim to.
(29:36):
They never really gave me theopportunity to do that because
once I moved down thereliterally moved down there, had
an apartment, had a lease,brought everything that I own
down there, yeah, and prettymuch got it to where it was like
OK, well, we're going to, we'regoing to put you to, we're
(29:59):
going to have you do somestartups and some pool schools
and stuff, but you're also goingto build pools, yeah, yeah,
well, the subway guy buildingpools mainly only Well, one fuck
up because they had pulled meaway and another super.
That was supposed to be there,not the, not the subway dude
Said oh hey, man, you do that.
I've got this.
Yeah, major, fuck up on a job.
(30:20):
That got pointed back at mebecause I wasn't there.
Even though I got pulled awayfrom that point, they put me in
the service side.
So I was basically doing thesame thing that I did for the
previous company starting up aservice side.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
At that point I was at nine and a half years and you
I don't know, I'm just going togo on a guess here you were
like OK, yeah, no, I'm not doingthis.
And then that's when youbranched out, or bro.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I literally had a year lease and about nine months
later I moved away back toConroe Not when I met you to
whenever.
Yeah, this was before thecompany even started.
I was trying to make that extramoney doing a side job.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, because I remember I met you before you
even moved back to Conroe.
You were still living, livingin a league city.
You drove up for that job.
We met through a mutual friend.
Yeah, right, at three years agowe met through a mutual friend.
Or maybe four years, threeyears, it's about three years,
yeah, three years.
We met through a mutual frienddoing that side job for you,
(31:23):
main job for me.
That was my biggest job upuntil that point, right, because
I had just started my company.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
So from that point, whenever I was like dude, I
can't do this anymore.
One, I was working more hoursthan I am now for this other
company, making them a ton ofmoney.
Going dude, if I'm going to, ifI'm not going to build pools,
if I'm not going to do what Ireally want to do, I'm going to
start my own company.
So you're going to go and doyour own thing.
So December 6th 2021.
(31:52):
It was actually two weekssooner than I was wanting to
start it, but I was forced tostart it because I had no
employment at the time.
So you had to start it toobviously make income to make
income, live, to go live back athome from about two months and
(32:13):
still pay for my apartment.
So I didn't break my legs.
I was going to say did you everhave to break your?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
lease, or did you just pay?
The whatever it was, what wasit like?
1200 a month, 1400.
Oh, 1400 a month.
So you, you're out because ofthat company.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
You're out roughly $4,200 and just rent payments
for somewhere that I'm not evenliving, just to move back to
start something.
And thankfully I have workedout.
I had parents that were willingto Front money and invest and
(32:49):
invest and me even given someother personal past things that
I'm sure at some point we'll getinto because I'm not afraid to
talk about it, but some thingsthat my old man was high, strong
as hell whenever that happened,because he knew some of the
shit I was into but still wentout on a limb, made it happen.
He's been paid back 100% andnow some right and then some as
(33:14):
an investor.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
So, if I'm correct, they actually hold stock in your
company or shares, basicallythey, we all, me, my old man and
my mom.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
My mom pretty much runs the operations of
everything calls that come in,calls that go out.
She basically run taxes,everything.
She runs all the books andeverything.
But yeah, they both own apercentage of the company.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
If you don't mind me asking and tell me if you do, do
you still own majority?
Yes, okay, I was curious.
Yes, cause this is coming fromsomebody, because I own 100% of
everything I have across allthree companies 100%.
I've thought about takinginvestors in the fifth company,
(34:04):
not the fourth that's opening inJanuary, but the fifth company
that's opening in, hopefully,march or April.
I've considered you being 50,50 or 49, 51 partner, right.
I was just curious as far asthat standpoint goes with your
company, right, how much so ifyou own majority, what you do.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I have to go back.
I know I own majority.
I don't know 100% percentagewise.
I can't remember what theagreement was on that just off
the top of my head, but Icouldn't run it by myself.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, no, absolutely I mean just again.
We're not afraid to talknumbers here, but first year
balls to the wall Making oversix figures see, in first year
for me, I made less than sixfigures, but you also went, like
you just said, balls to thewall.
(34:58):
You were working every weekdayUm, minus holidays.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Um.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I did.
I was working six days a week.
You were working six days aweek.
I was not the smartest idea,but my first year I was working
maybe two, three days a week andI was making, I think, the
first year that I did, I thinkit was right under like 60 grand
or 50.
No, it was right under 50, uh,50,000.
(35:28):
Um, second, year college studentand as a college student, a
second year 60,000.
No, second year was 75,000.
Yeah, third year going intobusiness now, uh, I'll make six
figures again, that's as acollege student.
(35:48):
That's also only working onaverage.
I mean over the course of theyear.
I think that I've taken like atotal of this Isn't going to
sound good.
And this is not includingweekends.
With weekends I'm sure it'sover 150.
This is taken like 120 days off.
(36:08):
I mean three months of the yearI don't work, um, obviously
dispersed.
It's not like, oh yeah, januarythrough March I'm not going to
work.
You know, it's over the courseof the year.
But and then in January,january 11th Actually, my truck
went out of commission.
This year I did not have a truckfrom January 11th through
(36:32):
February 28th, actually 27th, Idon't remember if it was a full,
yeah, it was, it was a leapyear.
It wasn't a leap year, it was28,.
Uh, february 28th, uh, april,like third, I got my new truck.
So three months of this year Ididn't have a truck.
(36:53):
I was bouncing back and forthbecause at the time my dad owned
a Yukon.
Uh, I was using his, his car,because insurance, when it pay
for it, the manufacturer finallygot me into.
Actually, I don't even care.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I was gonna say I don't know what your legalities
are on it, but you GMC.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
I had a 2021 GMC truck with 68,000, no 67,000
miles on it and I had the.
Thankfully, we know the owners,or my family knows the owners.
My dad knows the owners of thedealership right that we bought
it from and the seven or eightdealerships that they own, and
(37:32):
so when we contacted thedealership, they knew already
what was going on.
The owner uh, we know all threeof the owners of the
dealerships.
They were very helpful.
They finally got me a loanervehicle.
So I went without a vehicle forlike a month and a half and then
I had a loaner vehicle and thenI got my new truck and then
(37:57):
about three months of owningthis new truck, the AC went out.
The truck went back to themanufacturer, to the dealership.
I was out of a month a truckfor about a month, but I had, I
know, about two weeks.
They were.
They were pretty quick becausethe owner of the dealership told
them he didn't even know thatthe truck was there.
He found out and he went downto the service manager and said
(38:21):
what the hell is this truckdoing here?
Why are they having anotherissue with another truck with a
different brand of manufacturerof truck.
The AC went out the they had toreplace the entire AC coil and
condenser in the the 2022 F 150that I drive.
So I I faced quite a bit ofchallenge this year.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Oh, three months without my truck, no doubt about
it.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Three months without a truck, three and a half months
without a truck, truly, if youcount the new truck going down.
Thankfully, whenever the newtruck went down, it was a week
before we left for a weekvacation over July 4th.
We left for the first throughthe, through the seventh or
eighth, and so I didn't need itthen and I didn't.
I really did need it the weekbefore, but I made it work Right
(39:10):
.
So and you're going to laugh atthis one it's going back to the
, the manufacturer, this week,tomorrow.
Actually, I'm for what?
Speaker 2 (39:21):
reason.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
The this is a minor one.
The tail light is hascondensation building inside
water, building inside of thetail light.
So, yeah, I'm going backtomorrow.
Hopefully it'll be a quick fix.
They should be able to say, ohyeah, it's warrantied, there's
no cracks, because I mean Ihaven't damaged the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Buy a Toyota.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Okay, mr.
Tailgate issues 67,000 miles intwo years old I was at 67,000
miles at two years old with myGMC and you know what happened
the engine went out.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
The engine went out and my tailgate's broken.
Do we want?
So?
Yeah, no, you faced all.
So I think I've asked you thisbefore, but I know the whole
deal with Best Buy, but whatended up getting you into?
Because it was pressure washingfirst it was.
So I mean I know your daddidn't pressure wash because I
(40:23):
mean I know a lot of my stuffcomes from like family and
people that I know absolutely.
What got you into the Pressurewashing window cleaning,
exterior lighting, what, whatgot you?
What got you?
What, what, what, what reallymade your gears go so?
Speaker 1 (40:42):
actually this.
I'll start from the beginning,because this was like I think it
was July, mid-july, right, andI was working.
I was working at Best Buymid-July like 2021.
Okay or 2020.
It was mid-July 2020 actually.
I was working at best buyersyeah during the middle of COVID
(41:04):
and man that year it was bad.
So I was working at Leslie'spool supplies when we met,
actually, or when I I don't knowif that may not have been when
we met, but it was when I wasworking at Leslie's pool
supplies that I met Ty.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
We met through Ty.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
So that same job that you came on to when you were
living at league city I came onto when I was working for
Leslie's pool supplies and I Ihad met Ty because he came in
one day to buy some stuff andand Obviously we both know he
for people who don't know, heowns a pool cleaning company.
And so he came across a job.
He was trying to start gettinginto building pools, remodel,
(41:52):
remodeling everything.
So I had been working forLeslie's for like less than two
months.
Mm-hmm, he came in.
I told him that that's wheneverI was like looking at pressure
washing and I'm like, becausethe Originally my grandmother,
it was through family.
My grandmother asked me to comeover.
(42:13):
It's stupid, it sounds sostupid right now talking about
it.
My grandmother asked me to comeby and pressure wash her
driveway and I'm like, okay,I'll get it done, you know just
a common household tour exactly,and she lives 45 minutes away
at the time.
She still lives 45 minutes away,but we're in a new house now,
(42:34):
so she lives 45 minutes away.
I go down there, I'm using thewand pressure washing or
driveway with my dad's garagepressure washer Nothing
commercial right, just aresidential pressure washer and
a wand and I'm like there's gotto be a way to do this quicker
and better yeah and so I look itup and I find a surface cleaner
(42:55):
.
And so what if Y'all don't knowwhat a surface cleaner is?
It's basically a round diskwith three spray nozzles on it
that Turns in a circular motionand cleans the concrete right,
it's one of those satisfyingvideos you find on tiktok.
Yes, and so I look it up, I'mlike, okay, I'm gonna buy one,
that way it makes it easier onme, because at that point I only
(43:17):
got done with like half of herdriveway Maybe and you could see
lines everywhere.
So I go home depot, buy it, goback, finish cleaning it and it
looks pristine, right.
And so I Start doing researchand I'm like, okay, you can make
money doing pressure washing,like I didn't know how much.
(43:40):
Just pressure washing.
I mean windows, like Imentioned on the previous
podcast, window cleaning can gofor fucking $200 to $400 an hour
.
Pressure washing the same thing, if not more.
Yeah, I mean there's, there'sbeen times where I've made a
thousand dollars an hour Onpressure washing, and that that
does not include drive time.
(44:00):
But there was one, one job thatI quoted and I'm very happy to
admit this if the customer hasan issue with it.
I, quite frankly, I love mycustomers, but I do not care if
they have an issue with meadmitting this.
Yeah within 15 minutes.
I made it $2300.
$2300 within 15 minutes, whichequates to like 7000 or a little
(44:24):
over 7000.
I don't know.
I'm sure one of the people inthe comments will.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
My 10th grade education heaven ass won't
figure that out right now.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, but I'm sure somebody in the the comments
will say, oh, you couldn't dothat simple math really quick
and you're in college.
Yes, I could not.
But uh, bank accounts isdifferent, exactly.
So I was making like 7000 anhour on that job and I'm very
happy to admit it.
Right, I didn't know you canmake that much amount of money.
I Printed some business cards,threw him down on to the gas
(44:56):
station at my local conveniencestore and, keep in mind, at that
time I was living in apopulation of like 1200.
My graduating class was like 80, one or 82 in high school I'm
coming from a population wheremy graduating class would have
been like 1200 to 1500 moved tohigh, a different high school,
(45:17):
through my business cards out atthat gas station.
At that time I had justgraduated high school, just
started college and I get a callfor a Storage complex and at
that time I'm like okay, cool,like this will be a couple
thousand dollars, like.
So I go, I join a Facebookcommunity.
I I post about it.
(45:38):
I'm like is there anybody inHouston that like can help me
quote this, help me do the work?
Blah, blah, blah.
I met a guy named James.
He is a year younger than me.
He is 21 years old, cool dude.
He helped me get get intopressure washing.
He's the reason that I am whereI am today and I am very happy
to admit that I'm proud.
(46:00):
There's been some like back andforth.
There's there's always drama,regardless of the industry or
workplace if you work forsomebody or you work for your
own.
There's been drama thrownaround, but I don't look into it
.
I mean, people put words intomy mouth.
People have taken the wordsI've said and twisted them.
I think at least on my end Ihave no hard feelings, and I
(46:22):
don't think he does either.
No, but he helped me get intothe industry.
He helped me grow my companyand he kind of taught me the ins
and outs right.
So I learned and I I did what Ineeded to do at that point I
would.
I went from Leslie's, I think Isaid there two and a half three
months, went to Best Buy againbecause I had worked at Best Buy
(46:46):
from 2018 to 2020.
Quit went to Leslie's, quit,leslie's then went back to Best
Buy.
Before you got black was beforeI got black.
Was it funny?
Funny enough, I'm almost ahundred percent certain because
I was told by one of my oldCo-workers I am also blacklisted
at Leslie's.
So I am blacklisted fromworking for two different
(47:07):
companies now and I'm 22 yearsold, forever getting a job at
those two companies again, whichis fine with me I mean, there's
no hard feelings, right.
But Because I'm not gonna beworking, at least it this may
again be my arrogance talkingI'm not gonna work for another
person in my life.
I would rather go homeless likeyou.
You're still.
(47:30):
Yeah, I'd rather go homelessthan Work for another person in
my life.
I Just because I love the moneyfactor and I also love not
having to answer to anybody.
When you have the the workmentality To go knock on two or
three hundred doors in a day, ifyou absolutely fucking out
there and I've done it, I'vedone it, I've completely done it
(47:52):
out of every hundred doors youyou knock, expect to land
anywhere from three to ten jobs.
Yeah, you land more than that.
Then you are Probably the topone percent of the service
industry.
Yeah, and for everybody who'ssaying that you can't knock
doors if you're in a specificindustry yes, you can.
(48:13):
Yes, you can.
Mine's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
For warranty, yes, well, not even warranty, but
pull stuff that's related.
Not everybody has a swimmingpool.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
No, but you can still go knocking, knock on doors.
You may not hit the three toten.
Google Maps, google Maps appsabsolutely, I use it.
Google Earth man oh, dude you.
Even if you're just starting apool cleaning company, you can
go knock on a hundred doors.
If you Select a neighborhoodthat has a lot of pools, you can
still land five individualcleanings if they don't even
(48:45):
sign up for monthly, and itmight sound sleazy.
As far as growing that, though,you can still grow it, because
that's that's how I grew my mywindow cleaning business for one
for starters, my pressurewashing business for two for
starters, and my Christmas lightcompany.
The Christmas light companycherished and and grew because
(49:10):
of the window cleaning and powerwashing company that I grew,
and I will say 60% of mycustomers today that return Our
doorknob clients.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
Maybe we just have a little bitof a different thought process
on the Certain things.
That's okay, but for me, if Iwas to start over and start
something as far as cleaning oranything like that, I Would go
to some builders.
I.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Would too.
And again, looking back on it,that's another part.
I mean, we've been recordingfor 53 minutes, so we're about
to have to end it here in thenext 10 minutes anyway, damn.
But If I was to do itdifferently For you, like you
said, builders contact buildersdirectly.
(50:00):
Right, I would contact anycommercial place around me,
because that's another thing in2024.
I am moving.
I'm about 75% residential, 25%commercial.
I am trying to move that numberas much commercial as I can and
(50:21):
reduce the amount of residentialclients that I have If I could
do that and again, there's beensome speculation in the market
because I put my trailer up forsale for pressure washing I'll
clear the air.
Right now I'm going to a 100%subcontracting model for
pressure washing, not for windowcleaning and not for Christmas
lights.
I am going to a 100%subcontracting model for
(50:47):
pressure washing in 2024 as ofright now.
If I could move my, if I couldflip the odds and go to 75%
commercial, 25% residential I doit on heartbeat.
There's some disadvantages.
There's a net 15, net 30, paynet 90.
In some cases I would ratherwait 90 days to get my money,
(51:09):
the money I know is going to hitmy account Within the 90 day,
30 day, 15 day period.
With residential, I have tochase my money down half the
time.
True, you don't have to worryabout it because your
manufacturer or not, you're notthe manufacturer, but you work
for a manufacturer.
They pay you within a setamount of time, right?
Speaker 2 (51:31):
90% of what I do is warranty.
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
So you get your money from the manufacturer, which is
a commercial entity.
You're not directly moat, forthe most part not directly
working with the end user, right?
You're a middleman, you'rethere to solve the issue, not
install the product.
Oh for sure.
For 90% of the time me, 75% ofthe time I am working directly
(52:00):
with the, the residentialcustomer, 100%.
They want an extra.
They want something thrown in,which is not a problem, don't
mind it.
Whatever I, 90% of the timeI'll do it for free.
The issue is the tickets aremuch smaller than res commercial
jobs.
They are a little bit moredifficult and picky, which isn't
(52:24):
an issue if you're paying foryour house to be cleaned or
windows or whatever to becleaned.
I understand being picky right.
However, at a certain degree, ifwe miss a cobweb or one in and
I'm gonna talk about a big one,I'm talking about one strand and
the customer comes out and oror one speck of dirt on their
(52:47):
house during a house wash, whenyou're washing the house and
you're washing the lower portionof the house, there's gonna be
dirt that builds up.
I have had about 20% of theclients that I did house washes
for it says, in our terms andconditions, we wash organics
only.
So your algae, mildew, stufflike that right, green, yellow,
(53:11):
black, whatever Dirt, believe itor not, and clay, believe it or
not, are not organic materials.
That is an upcharge.
They will come and talk to usand say, hey, look, and I am
very, very up front whenever Iwonder why you miss that dirt
Dirt uppernessed on my parentswindow right.
(53:31):
Right.
But the thing is is Customerswon't read the fine print.
So I make it very apparent tosay when I'm doing the quote
look, this will come off, thiswill not come off, this is an
upcharge, this is included, andthey don't they?
They either just skip throughit or choose not to listen until
(53:54):
after you're done with the workand then decide to come up with
a complaint.
So that's a Very long, likethree-minute conversation on why
I'm trying to move commercialonly.
If I could do that, then Iwould 100% keep my trailer.
I would completely or or sellmy trailer and build another
trailer.
Yeah, I'm still going to offerpressure washing through the
(54:16):
network of people that I'vebuilt.
There are two people that Iwill pick.
One is south of me and one isin the same location as me,
depending on where I get thework or what the scope of work
is and what it requires.
I will recommend, not onlyrecommend.
I will give the customerResidential or commercial a
quote with my markup on it andwith their price.
(54:38):
Yeah, they will be the onesthat go out and complete the
work Under my insurance policy.
So subcontracting is definitelygonna play a big part of my
company in 2024, but I'm gettingrid of a lot of a headache.
I'm just gonna be dealing withthe end user and it goes back to
that passive income, right,like we talked about in the last
(55:00):
episode, passive income is ascam.
I'm telling you right now apassive income is a scam.
Sure, I won't have to completethe work, but I'm still gonna
have to be sending everybodyinformation on hey, can you get
a quote for this?
And then sending that to theend user and then saying, hey,
this is the day you're gonnaneed to work, this is the day
that I Will be completing thiswork, or one of my partner or
(55:24):
affiliate companies will becompleting the work.
So that's that's kind of myplans for 2024 as far as growth
goes.
Another company that again I'mtalking to you about we can't
disclose because we're under aconfidentiality agreement yep,
but that's another one that wewill hopefully be able to talk
(55:47):
about within the next couple ofmonths, next couple of episodes,
once we all get it, or once weget it all figured out and and
yeah so I don't know.
I mean, what are your plans forgrowth?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
Man plans for growth.
I think, as of right now, IGuess, more than anything, I
really want my company to bemore of a brand.
I do kind of want, like you'resaying, the passive income, but
it being passive income is ascam.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Don't, do not.
Let's say that I want passiveincome.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
I want my company to be a brand more than anything.
Me too, I want it to be Atleast known local here in Texas,
if not further than that.
But I just want it to be known,something that can make money
without, whether it'smerchandise, whether it's the
podcast, whether it's whatever.
(56:45):
As of right now, my plan istalking with you on this next
venture, but, honestly, if I canget somebody that I can hire to
do Some of the server sidewithout cleaning pools, then
that's kind of really what I'mtrying to get at absolutely
whether it's a pool of school,whether it's a startup,
(57:05):
something just to keep peopleinformed.
So I think at the end of the dayI'm not a hundred percent sure
they might have to get back toyou on that one.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
No, absolutely.
We can definitely talk about itin a future episode.
So with that, thank you fortuning in to the Astrocraft grow
, influence, invest podcast.
I am your host, seth Mills,joined by your co-host, nick
Dawson.
Thank you guys for listeningand we will see you guys in the
next episode.
We we will talk about a littlebit of our growth and strategies
(57:37):
, on how we invested our money,or at least invested our money
back into the business, yeah,and how we plan to grow in 2024.
Stay sassy.
Welcome back to the Astro Crafts, grow, influence,
invest podcast.
I am your host, seth Mills, andjoining me today once again is
your co-host Nick Dawson.
Welcome back, nick.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Man doing a little bit better, are you?
Yeah, last week it was like,felt like it was a week and a
half and a few days and it'sbeen a week and it feels like a
few days.
Yeah, yeah, it's a week to weekchange.
Yeah, yeah, day to day changeRight Hour to hour change, it
just really depends.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So and today's episode, we're going to talk a
little bit about how we gotstarted and the two very
different but similar industriesthat we're in.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
And similar in the sense of service.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Similar, yeah, similar in the sense of service,
and I mean in a sense both ofus do exterior cleaning, or at
least you did.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, which I'm sure we'll get into that too.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, absolutely, and I am currently a college
student.
You are a 10th grade dropout,10th grade educated kid, yep,
and both of us have verysuccessful companies.
Now, yeah, kind of talk aboutthe disadvantages and advantages
of both.
So, yeah, what major questionhere, right off the bat.
(01:21):
I'm just going to ask what ledyou or what.
Why did you decide it was agood idea to drop out in 10th
grade?
You were homeschooled, correct?
I?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
was homeschooled.
So that makes it even worse tobe dropout, right?
I mean, if we're beingcompletely honest, it's like
you're at home, it's like whydid you I mean so in all honesty
dropping out when I was 16, butit was.
I was still more ahead incertain things.
(01:50):
So I mean, more than anything,I like to make it a joke, yeah,
just because I like to be funnyevery now and then.
So it's one of those where it'slike I don't want to ever and
maybe that's my either thesympathy side or the whatever
you want to call it.
I'm just to give either hope orto let people know that like,
(02:11):
look, ain't nothing wrong withcollege.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
There's nothing wrong with depending on what you're
going for See and not to beungrateful, right 100%, I'm
going for it.
First it was business, I know.
At first it was cybersecurity,then it was computer engineering
, now I am a, I'm going into mysenior year.
(02:37):
I'm a year behind.
I'll be a fifth year graduate,but now I'm going for business
administration because obviouslyI figured out what I want to do
, because you don't know rightoff the bat Exactly, no,
absolutely.
And see, I've always been very,very good with computers and IT
systems, but I learned veryquickly in college that I didn't
(03:02):
want to do it for the rest ofmy life.
Yeah, I would have beenmiserable, because working on
computers is, quite frankly, themost boring thing, or most
boring job, at least to me, thatyou can do.
So whatever you said, collegeisn't.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Let me rephrase.
Yeah, let me rephrase.
I don't think it's a bad ideato be in college if you are
wanting to.
I'm not sure what all businesscollege stuff entails.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Honestly, it's a lot of.
It's just you didn't go to highschool, you did online.
I'm assuming for the most part.
So in your experience, it wasmostly blow off right, it was
boring, and that's why I mean Idon't know, because I'm not you.
Well, we haven't talked aboutthis right?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
No, which will be cool because we'll definitely
get into it.
But like, yeah, for the mostpart it was a lot of online, it
was a lot of differentcurriculums and stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
It was XYZ that you could look up, I'm assuming, on
Google.
Yeah, so it was it.
The reason I'm asking this iscollege is very much a.
You can look everything uponline and succeed.
You don't actually have to knowthe material and I will
probably get slammed by a lot ofpeople.
(04:24):
I am a very quick learner.
So if I don't understandsomething, googlecom, what is
the linear regression for XYZ?
I only said that because I justlearned it.
I don't remember anything thatI.
I and again I'm gonna getslammed because I Google
everything.
I don't remember anything Ilearned in the previous semester
(04:44):
, much less three and a halfsemesters ago.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So I guess for me, if you want to be a lawyer, if you
want to be a doctor, if youwant to be a psychologist, if
you want to be literallyanything that requires a degree,
go for it.
But I'm gonna be honest, goingto the doctor last week or the
week before going to the doctorand you're sitting there telling
(05:12):
them, kind of, your symptomsand you're looking at whatever
they're guessing.
They're either guessing or,like my doctor, goes in there
with his MacBook and he types inall of your symptoms, google,
and he's Googling.
He's got a degree, he's adoctor, but he still goes off of
that.
(05:32):
So I mean, if you're wanting adegree to get into something
that you really want to get into, go for it Well, and not only
that, but I've also noticedaccounting degrees, right,
business degrees.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Because you have to go through all the accounting,
you learn how to do it.
It's just there's so manyprograms on Google or programs
you can download and pay foreven that corporations, all of
your corporations are paying fora major accounting software to
where you just have to input thenumbers and it does all the
equations for you.
(06:08):
You don't have to learn that,right.
It's just like whenever he, alittle bit of older people, were
at school right, and this is afun one that I love because I
can say I do it Right.
The teachers always told usincluding me, and I don't.
You were homeschooled, soprobably not you, but my mother,
yeah, they always told meyou're never going to get paid
(06:30):
to look out of a window.
Well, I do window cleaning.
Now, fair enough, I literallymake, and I'm not afraid to at
least I'm not I'm not afraid toshare how much I make.
Right, I make on average two to$400 an hour cleaning windows
(06:55):
looking out of a window for aliving.
Yeah, that's 33 to 40%.
Actually, I think this year Ijust did the math it's like 60%
of my business is windowcleaning.
Yeah, looking out of a window,making money doing nothing other
than scrubbing a window clean,and I'm not hating on it.
(07:17):
Let me add that Absolutely notmy customer.
I love you guys.
There are expenses that comewith it, right?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I mean I you make that much, but you have the
expenses on top of that Gasinsurance employees.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I spent $4,000 on a window cleaning system.
It's not just scrubbing awindow right, you have systems
in place.
I have to maintain that system.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
But $2 to $400 an hour, and if you know you can
make that you're not going to goout there with a sponge and
squeegee.
Exactly, and try and make thatwhenever you know you can make
more money, do more, do morejobs, make more profit if you've
got a better system.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Exactly.
I mean, you're always going toneed your traditional squeegee
and mop, right?
You're always going to need iton the inside of glass, on the
inside of homes mop and squeegee, not sponge and squeegee Sponge
.
Yeah, I mean same thing.
I mean, occasionally we have touse steel wool, which I'm going
to get flamed in the commentson any of the social media
platforms because they're goingto be like oh no, no, that's bad
, You're going to scratch theglass.
(08:19):
Steel wool is the hardest thingyou can use on a window to
clean it.
Quad zero.
So 0000 steel wool is thehardest thing you can use and
the only thing you should use.
You're not.
I'm not talking about yourburlopads that you get from
Walmart, right?
But yeah, so things like that.
They matter, especially in theprofit sector, because if I
(08:40):
could do window cleaning and doaway with my other two companies
, I would, but I can't and Iwon't because they all generate
income.
So, but going back to the highschool versus college, right?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Right.
So I guess for me really therewere.
I mean, I made it through allof all mathematics, everything
that you needed to know, which Ialways forget, the one with
(09:15):
shapes, geometry, geometry.
I Was told I would never needto know any of that shit.
Well, guess what?
I deal with a freaking bowl ofwater every day that varies in
size on every single person'sbowl in their backyard or their
swimming pool.
So I have to understand alittle bit about that, for the
chemical side, for the how torun your pump, how to run your
(09:37):
system.
So I mean it makes more sensenow.
But before, just like you said,you won't get paid to look out
of window.
You'll probably never need this, but I need it now.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So, with that being said, do you think that you
should have finished high school, or do you think that I?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Think it puts me at an advantage and a disadvantage
at the same time.
It puts me in advantage in thesense of I Tell everybody, all
my friends, I tell everybodythat is I'm growing up in my
circle, or family members,people who have kids, finish
high school.
Nothing else finish high schoolbecause you've got the trades
(10:18):
too.
That was what you want to say ifyou don't want to go into
college and you want to be a,you want to be a welder, you
want to do what?
Anything that could be trade Goto a trade school.
You're gonna learn way moreabout one thing as opposed to
learning All the stuff that youhaven't learned for business In
(10:40):
your college classes.
I mean, you're all over theplace learning about one thing,
whereas if you're going for atrade for welding, they're
putting your rest at work.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Right out the gate and they're helping you get a
job.
Yeah so.
I In.
I going to like an, anapprenticeship, absolutely, and
going back to go into thecollege side of things.
Being a college student, Iwould say yes.
I would say the same thingeither go to college or go to a
trade school, regardless, if youthink that it's going to help
(11:13):
you in the future.
I'm not a big backup plan kindof guy.
Right, I don't believe inhaving a backup plan or a plan B
or plan C.
I believe in having a plan Aand dedicating everything to it.
Yeah, because if you have aplan B or a plan C or a fallback
plan, you're going to end upfalling back.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, even if your backup plan is going to be, say,
the majority of the work thatyou get is from window cleaning,
your backup plan is not whatyou're going to do with a degree
or with whatever else is goingto be your other company.
And if that other one yourother backup plan is the other
company, you're going to be ableto supply your other company
with the other two or with theother one.
See, and so your backup plan Isit really a backup plan?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But it's Something to support absolutely well, and I
guess what I was getting back orwhat I was getting to with the
backup plan is I'm not going tocollege for a backup plan.
I'm not going to college to geta degree to To have something
to fall back on.
Say all three or four or fivesoon to be five companies that I
(12:13):
own Go bankrupt, right, orwhatever happens happens, right.
I'm not saying I'm going tocollege for the backup plan, I'm
not.
I'm not going to college to getthe degree to have something to
fall back on if that happens,which is very, very Minimal risk
to me if that happens.
(12:33):
You know, right now, becauseI've grown to such a large Scale
, well, I'm going to college,really, really and truly One.
I'm a first-generation collegestudent, right, so I'm trying to
make my parents proud.
Yeah, absolutely To.
It's nice to be able to say, ohyeah, I have a degree.
(12:53):
My dad very much slid under thewire when he Went to work and
the position that he's at now.
He very much slid under thewire.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And I'll get into that too on my my side of things
.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yeah, just for perspective to Back into it
College.
I think there is an advantageand a disadvantage as well.
I am a full-time collegestudent.
I own three companies, fouropening in less than a month,
and so it's currently December12th, right, and I am.
(13:29):
I'm opening another company androughly like 19 days, 1920 days
, and so when that company goeslive, I'm gonna have to Go into
full Mode.
Right, I'm gonna have to gointo full grow this business.
I'm a full-time college student.
(13:50):
In less than 120 days, I open afifth company, or at least
that's the plan.
If everything goes and I'vetalked to you about this we may
be being partners in it.
I don't know at this point, andthat's fine if you're, we're
not.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Money's money man.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Exactly.
If it makes money, it makessense.
Yeah, and so that's twocompanies in the upcoming year.
I'm still a full-time collegestudent.
Go into school 12 hours to 15hours a semester.
Yeah, that's 12 to 15 hours aweek of my life now.
Granted, it's really notbecause I am a very quick
(14:25):
learner and I'm able to submitthings quickly, right, yeah,
with that being said, it's Stilltime out of my day that I'm
having to spend on college.
So that's.
That is very much thedisadvantage.
The advantage Okay, I have adegree to post on my wall.
I have a degree that I can sayoh yeah, I've gone For two
(14:46):
college for businessadministration.
I have the knowledge ice in alot of employers they're not
looking for the degree you got.
They're looking to see if youwent to college, if you made it
through the four to six yearsthat it takes an average person
to go through college.
I think right now, the averagein America is five years to get
through it.
Really, yeah, so I'm on average.
I will complete my degree onAverage, but that's also with
(15:10):
three companies under my beltright now.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, and he was not necessarily an average.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's kind of You're doing better than However many
the whatever the percent wouldbe exactly, and I own three
companies in the biggest, one ofthe biggest competitive markets
in the United States of AmericaHouston, texas.
So, with that being said, Ithink it's an advantage because
I will have the degree and I'llbe able to say hey, I went to
school again.
(15:35):
Employers aren't looking forthe degree they're.
They're they're trying to seeif you had the guts, if you had
the mental power and if you hadthe willpower to go to school
for four to six years, or fourto five years, or however Many
years you went, if you got adegree, if you were able to go
through that amount of timethrough college.
(15:56):
Again, they're not looking forthe degree you have.
They could care less if it's adegree in science or animal
science.
They're wanting to see if youstuck with it, did the work and
graduated and Put in the timethat it takes, because if you
did, then that's an advantage tothe employer.
If you're not gonna start yourown thing, that's an advantage
(16:18):
to the employer by showing themyou stuck with a specific thing
For that amount of time.
Oh yeah, you're less of aflight risk to come into the
company, work for a year, getyour bonus and then leave.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So agree with that.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I think that's the advantage of going to school.
It builds your credibilityright or at least go to college
or a trade school.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
So I think I've given you a little bit of insight on
kind of how my Starting intothis Became, because absolutely
last week or a week and a halfago was with the two-year
anniversary of my company Yep,I'm 27, you know.
Like it, it took a little bitlonger than it did for yourself
(17:07):
being in college and everythingyou know.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
So, yes, and no, I don't know.
Did you when you were my agebecause I'm 22, we've got a
five-year difference when youwere my age, did you want to
start your own company or wereyou thinking, were you the
classic 9-5 mentality work foranother company, grow that
company, work for them, collecta salary?
Or Did you have the mentalcapacity to say I want to build
(17:33):
a company?
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So I had a 10-year plan.
I had a 10-year plan, nothingwrong with that.
I didn't know what I wanted todo.
So I was 15, turning 16, and no, take that back the summer
after my 16th, so I'm Into.
October is my birthday, so thesummer after my 16th.
(17:55):
It was about time.
You know, I'm fine, a summerjob, you're 16 years old, pick,
you know, figure that out.
And so my doubt at the time,which had a lot to do with most
of this he was.
He didn't grow up in the poolbusiness, right, but since I was
10 years old 9 years old he wasin the pool industry.
(18:16):
He was building pools.
He was basically doing thestuff that, for the people I
work for, do most of my work for, is builders.
Yeah, and so he was a builderand that was primarily all he
did.
Well, then he got hired on to amanufacturer and that's what he
does now, and he's been therenow for 15 years as of a month
(18:37):
ago.
So he's okay with a 9-5.
Yeah, he's good with that andwith the mountain of money he
makes, he should be okay withthat.
Yeah, you know, but just likeyou were saying a little bit ago
, he has a high school diploma.
He doesn't have a collegeeducation.
(18:57):
He doesn't very.
My parents do very few people inmy family do.
So it came time and he was like, hey, I Really don't want you,
he goes.
I want you to learn a skill.
I don't want you to learn howto push carts at a store nothing
wrong with it, but he goes.
I want you to learn somethinghands-on.
(19:18):
I want you to learn how to dosomething other than bagging
groceries or checking people outat the at the grocery store he
goes.
I want you to learn somehands-on.
I'm gonna have you work with myvery first employer and my
first.
When I was 16 and 17.
I worked with two differentguys, a repair company and a
cleaning company, and it waskind of like a 50-50 split.
(19:40):
I would work with the repairguy when he needed me and I
would clean pools like two orthree days a week.
Yeah, so that way I could stilldo school whenever I was doing
school at 16.
Sure, and so Started doing allof that and then it just I fell
in love with it.
As weird as it sounds, 16 yearsold, I was like I Think money
(20:02):
had a little bit of influence onthat as well.
Absolutely, but it like you'retalking 15 going to 16 and this
dude's handing you a hundreddollar bill at the end of every
single day that you go to work.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It's like On average that's three grand a month.
Yeah, if I worked every day andthat was at 16.
That was a 16 to a 16-year-old.
That's a lot of money, dude.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
A hundred dollars a week is a lot of money to most
16-year-olds, I mean.
So it was a matter of I was.
I learned both sides and I waslike I really like the repair
side.
I've always been.
I always like working on stuff,fixing stuff, putting stuff
together, and so I Worked withhim and a cleaning company.
I learned enough from thecleaning company.
(20:46):
He wasn't very good aboutexplaining Chemistry and stuff
to me, so I was like he was likeKind of fending for you, I'm
really surprised.
A lot of pools aren't like superfucked up right now, like
honestly.
But yeah, and whenever Istarted working with him
full-time 1099 which if I'd haveknown then I would have
(21:08):
probably been able to Switch itup to a Different tax bracket
just because of or not taxbracket, but a different form to
fill because of, yeah, howeverything was supplied.
Anyway, see something foranother podcast at some point.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I'm bad about that too.
But yeah, absolutely Definitelyfor another podcast.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But I'm bad about that with my guys too but
Regardless, I worked with himalmost five months to the day I
I learned everything aboutheaters, automation lights,
control systems, cleaners, Imean you name it.
If it had something to do withworking swimming pool, I was.
(21:46):
I was pretty inept with it,like I knew what I was doing.
Well, the whole goal and thewhole time I was with him, he
was like, just like the lastpodcast it was, I Know you're
not gonna be here forever, Iknow you're gonna start your own
thing.
There's, there's so many damnpools in this, you know, in this
state, in the city, absolutely.
(22:07):
And so he's like I don't careif you stay here, I want you to
start your own thing.
Well, me Not feeling likeeither, either a worthy to start
my own company she don't reallyhave to be worthy too but not
feeling like I was ready for it.
I was like, well, I'm gonna gowork for a company that does
full maintenance.
I Wanted to learn my tenureplan.
(22:29):
At that point, after workingfor him for five years, was I
want to Learn every single bitof this industry before I start
my company?
Speaker 1 (22:38):
So at what age did you decide to Eventually start
your own company?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
so If you're talking at 16, I Was planning so what
would that put me at?
Like 21, 22 Before, that waslike five years me working with
him.
I was like I want to learn alittle bit more before I start.
Yep, at that point I had put inmy head that this is pretty
much the industry I'm gonna bein.
I was like, okay, I'm gonnalearn how to how chemistry works
(23:06):
, to a T when I can explain itto anybody in layman's terms, to
.
I want to learn how to start upa swimming pool from scratch,
make sure I fuck up the plasteror anything in this woman pool.
Three, I also want to learn howto build a pool.
Those were the things that Iwanted to learn.
That way, if I did get into anyindustry of this or any part of
(23:28):
this industry, if I hiredsomebody, I didn't want somebody
to tell me something and younot know and me not know or
Questions.
That way, if somebody comes tome and they go oh no, I did this
, this and this.
No, you didn't, because I knowI've done it.
So it really was.
I went to work for a company,held their service side together
(23:50):
for about a year.
No room for improvement there,little bitty company that about
50 pools we were cleaning, ontop of about two to three
startups a week is not thecompany you're thinking of okay,
this was before that.
Then that company approached mewhile I was driving the other
(24:11):
company's vehicle and theywanted to hire me.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
One of the owners or Was it a manager that approached
you?
It was the owner, okay, of theother company.
Yeah, you're the one that I'mthinking of.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
The one you're thinking of, okay he called me
and Wanted to sit down fordinner when my naivety at the
time I had a non-compete yeah,but in Texas non-compete they.
But to a 21, 22 year old Barelykind of getting out and
everything.
(24:45):
Barely knowing and having abetter knowledge of everything
on the legalities, knowing howeverything really works, because
really there was no non-competeby the time I left, because
they dropped 60% of theirclientele for maintenance
whenever I left because theycouldn't maintain it themselves.
Yep, for, so I went to workwith them, started their service
(25:06):
side, so I know how to startthat, I Know how to do
everything to get it going.
So that's what intrigued them,to get me going with them.
So we started that up and Iworked for them for about a year
and a half, almost two years,yeah, yeah.
And Dude, at some point whenyou're like hey, you're the
(25:28):
manager, you're the maintenancemanager and you don't move up or
they don't get anybody to hireon To make it to where you can
manage, it kind of bottoms out,it bottoms out, you're still the
, you just the fucking pool boyat that point, You're a pool boy
with a new title exactly with acool fancy title that makes you
feel special, something to puton Facebook, and that's all it
was.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Because did it come with a pay raise?
No see, that's literally all itwas was something to make you
feel appreciated without Givingyou an incentive to stay,
exactly and at that point I wasdoing some side work.
Like we now know, a lot oftheir employees do.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
To make up for stuff that I couldn't get from that
company.
But I could have brought thatbusiness, but nobody came and
approached me to see how to growanything.
They were just like keepcleaning pools.
So After working with them, Ithen moved to God awful fucking
league city.
How'd that go with theexpectation and with the job
(26:26):
title?
I still have all the paperworkas a general manager.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Oh, we're like a superintendent.
See, I don't know a whole bunchabout your league city
Information, but man.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Okay, so we won't get into the personal side right
now.
That'll be for another time.
But, moving to league city, IGot hired on To build swimming
pools yeah, which was in myeighth year of the industry,
which I was like I'm on track.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
So that I wanted that was your eight out of your
tenure now.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Yeah, exactly eight of my.
I wanted to be by ten years.
I wanted to have built tenpools which would have set you
at what?
Speaker 1 (27:07):
What age?
25?
.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, 25.
That'll put me at about 25,almost 26 by 26.
I should have, you know, builtat least 10 pools in my mind.
Yeah, absolutely so I moveddown there with my experience
and my knowledge of swimmingpools and my industry, and they
also hired a secondary guy to domy same job.
(27:32):
That was a manager at SubwaysSubway.
So, how they would shop.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Did you ever because I never heard about this Did you
ever find out why they thoughtthey could hire somebody from
Subway versus somebody who'sbeen in the years there in the
industry for eight years?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
So they hired both of us.
One because my boss at the timein League City was a he he.
He got in the industry way likeprobably four or five years
before I moved there.
So I've been doing a little bitlonger, but he's been building,
(28:14):
that's one thing he's got on me.
And so by the time I moved downthere they hired both of us.
Because during COVID was a hugeboom for the swimming pool
industry.
Yep, you couldn't go onvacation, couldn't go anywhere.
So if you were going tovacation, you were going to
vacation in your backyard withthe house.
So interest rates weredifferent.
(28:36):
You could refinance your home,add the pool in there.
So they were really in it atthe right time.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
So interest rates were like 2%.
Oh, dude, maybe they're likeone to two and a half percent, I
mean for a swimming pool.
That's unheard of.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Did you think about it.
You have a $500,000 home, youhad a $200,000 swimming pool and
you refied at 2%.
People were doing that all over.
Oh, yeah, so they boomed.
Well, they made a shit ton ofmoney.
So when you make a shit ton ofmoney, you spend a shit ton of
money, unless you're smart aboutit sometimes.
Yeah, so it was a lot of a.
(29:16):
Oh, I'm real good friends withthe bar over here and over here
and I'm good friends with theowner that owns this bar, or the
owner that owns this steakhouse, or, yeah, they found this guy
that was a bar hop, but no, inhis manager experience they
thought, oh well, we can hirehim to.
(29:36):
They never really gave me theopportunity to do that because
once I moved down thereliterally moved down there, had
an apartment, had a lease,brought everything that I own
down there, yeah, and prettymuch got it to where it was like
OK, well, we're going to, we'regoing to put you to, we're
(29:59):
going to have you do somestartups and some pool schools
and stuff, but you're also goingto build pools, yeah, yeah,
well, the subway guy buildingpools mainly only Well, one fuck
up because they had pulled meaway and another super.
That was supposed to be there,not the, not the subway dude
Said oh hey, man, you do that.
I've got this.
Yeah, major, fuck up on a job.
(30:20):
That got pointed back at mebecause I wasn't there.
Even though I got pulled awayfrom that point, they put me in
the service side.
So I was basically doing thesame thing that I did for the
previous company starting up aservice side.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
At that point I was at nine and a half years and you
I don't know, I'm just going togo on a guess here you were
like OK, yeah, no, I'm not doingthis.
And then that's when youbranched out, or bro.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
I literally had a year lease and about nine months
later I moved away back toConroe Not when I met you to
whenever.
Yeah, this was before thecompany even started.
I was trying to make that extramoney doing a side job.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, because I remember I met you before you
even moved back to Conroe.
You were still living, livingin a league city.
You drove up for that job.
We met through a mutual friend.
Yeah, right, at three years agowe met through a mutual friend.
Or maybe four years, threeyears, it's about three years,
yeah, three years.
We met through a mutual frienddoing that side job for you,
(31:23):
main job for me.
That was my biggest job upuntil that point, right, because
I had just started my company.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
So from that point, whenever I was like dude, I
can't do this anymore.
One, I was working more hoursthan I am now for this other
company, making them a ton ofmoney.
Going dude, if I'm going to, ifI'm not going to build pools,
if I'm not going to do what Ireally want to do, I'm going to
start my own company.
So you're going to go and doyour own thing.
So December 6th 2021.
(31:52):
It was actually two weekssooner than I was wanting to
start it, but I was forced tostart it because I had no
employment at the time.
So you had to start it toobviously make income to make
income, live, to go live back athome from about two months and
(32:13):
still pay for my apartment.
So I didn't break my legs.
I was going to say did you everhave to break your?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
lease, or did you just pay?
The whatever it was, what wasit like?
1200 a month, 1400.
Oh, 1400 a month.
So you, you're out because ofthat company.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
You're out roughly $4,200 and just rent payments
for somewhere that I'm not evenliving, just to move back to
start something.
And thankfully I have workedout.
I had parents that were willingto Front money and invest and
(32:49):
invest and me even given someother personal past things that
I'm sure at some point we'll getinto because I'm not afraid to
talk about it, but some thingsthat my old man was high, strong
as hell whenever that happened,because he knew some of the
shit I was into but still wentout on a limb, made it happen.
He's been paid back 100% andnow some right and then some as
(33:14):
an investor.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
So, if I'm correct, they actually hold stock in your
company or shares, basicallythey, we all, me, my old man and
my mom.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
My mom pretty much runs the operations of
everything calls that come in,calls that go out.
She basically run taxes,everything.
She runs all the books andeverything.
But yeah, they both own apercentage of the company.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
If you don't mind me asking and tell me if you do, do
you still own majority?
Yes, okay, I was curious.
Yes, cause this is coming fromsomebody, because I own 100% of
everything I have across allthree companies 100%.
I've thought about takinginvestors in the fifth company,
(34:04):
not the fourth that's opening inJanuary, but the fifth company
that's opening in, hopefully,march or April.
I've considered you being 50,50 or 49, 51 partner, right.
I was just curious as far asthat standpoint goes with your
company, right, how much so ifyou own majority, what you do.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I have to go back.
I know I own majority.
I don't know 100% percentagewise.
I can't remember what theagreement was on that just off
the top of my head, but Icouldn't run it by myself.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, no, absolutely I mean just again.
We're not afraid to talknumbers here, but first year
balls to the wall Making oversix figures see, in first year
for me, I made less than sixfigures, but you also went, like
you just said, balls to thewall.
(34:58):
You were working every weekdayUm, minus holidays.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Um.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I did.
I was working six days a week.
You were working six days aweek.
I was not the smartest idea,but my first year I was working
maybe two, three days a week andI was making, I think, the
first year that I did, I thinkit was right under like 60 grand
or 50.
No, it was right under 50, uh,50,000.
(35:28):
Um, second, year college studentand as a college student, a
second year 60,000.
No, second year was 75,000.
Yeah, third year going intobusiness now, uh, I'll make six
figures again, that's as acollege student.
(35:48):
That's also only working onaverage.
I mean over the course of theyear.
I think that I've taken like atotal of this Isn't going to
sound good.
And this is not includingweekends.
With weekends I'm sure it'sover 150.
This is taken like 120 days off.
(36:08):
I mean three months of the yearI don't work, um, obviously
dispersed.
It's not like, oh yeah, januarythrough March I'm not going to
work.
You know, it's over the courseof the year.
But and then in January,january 11th Actually, my truck
went out of commission.
This year I did not have a truckfrom January 11th through
(36:32):
February 28th, actually 27th, Idon't remember if it was a full,
yeah, it was, it was a leapyear.
It wasn't a leap year, it was28,.
Uh, february 28th, uh, april,like third, I got my new truck.
So three months of this year Ididn't have a truck.
(36:53):
I was bouncing back and forthbecause at the time my dad owned
a Yukon.
Uh, I was using his, his car,because insurance, when it pay
for it, the manufacturer finallygot me into.
Actually, I don't even care.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I was gonna say I don't know what your legalities
are on it, but you GMC.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
I had a 2021 GMC truck with 68,000, no 67,000
miles on it and I had the.
Thankfully, we know the owners,or my family knows the owners.
My dad knows the owners of thedealership right that we bought
it from and the seven or eightdealerships that they own, and
(37:32):
so when we contacted thedealership, they knew already
what was going on.
The owner uh, we know all threeof the owners of the
dealerships.
They were very helpful.
They finally got me a loanervehicle.
So I went without a vehicle forlike a month and a half and then
I had a loaner vehicle and thenI got my new truck and then
(37:57):
about three months of owningthis new truck, the AC went out.
The truck went back to themanufacturer, to the dealership.
I was out of a month a truckfor about a month, but I had, I
know, about two weeks.
They were.
They were pretty quick becausethe owner of the dealership told
them he didn't even know thatthe truck was there.
He found out and he went downto the service manager and said
(38:21):
what the hell is this truckdoing here?
Why are they having anotherissue with another truck with a
different brand of manufacturerof truck.
The AC went out the they had toreplace the entire AC coil and
condenser in the the 2022 F 150that I drive.
So I I faced quite a bit ofchallenge this year.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Oh, three months without my truck, no doubt about
it.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Three months without a truck, three and a half months
without a truck, truly, if youcount the new truck going down.
Thankfully, whenever the newtruck went down, it was a week
before we left for a weekvacation over July 4th.
We left for the first throughthe, through the seventh or
eighth, and so I didn't need itthen and I didn't.
I really did need it the weekbefore, but I made it work Right
(39:10):
.
So and you're going to laugh atthis one it's going back to the
, the manufacturer, this week,tomorrow.
Actually, I'm for what?
Speaker 2 (39:21):
reason.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
The this is a minor one.
The tail light is hascondensation building inside
water, building inside of thetail light.
So, yeah, I'm going backtomorrow.
Hopefully it'll be a quick fix.
They should be able to say, ohyeah, it's warrantied, there's
no cracks, because I mean Ihaven't damaged the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Buy a Toyota.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Okay, mr.
Tailgate issues 67,000 miles intwo years old I was at 67,000
miles at two years old with myGMC and you know what happened
the engine went out.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
The engine went out and my tailgate's broken.
Do we want?
So?
Yeah, no, you faced all.
So I think I've asked you thisbefore, but I know the whole
deal with Best Buy, but whatended up getting you into?
Because it was pressure washingfirst it was.
So I mean I know your daddidn't pressure wash because I
(40:23):
mean I know a lot of my stuffcomes from like family and
people that I know absolutely.
What got you into the Pressurewashing window cleaning,
exterior lighting, what, whatgot you?
What got you?
What, what, what, what reallymade your gears go so?
Speaker 1 (40:42):
actually this.
I'll start from the beginning,because this was like I think it
was July, mid-july, right, andI was working.
I was working at Best Buymid-July like 2021.
Okay or 2020.
It was mid-July 2020 actually.
I was working at best buyersyeah during the middle of COVID
(41:04):
and man that year it was bad.
So I was working at Leslie'spool supplies when we met,
actually, or when I I don't knowif that may not have been when
we met, but it was when I wasworking at Leslie's pool
supplies that I met Ty.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
We met through Ty.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
So that same job that you came on to when you were
living at league city I came onto when I was working for
Leslie's pool supplies and I Ihad met Ty because he came in
one day to buy some stuff andand Obviously we both know he
for people who don't know, heowns a pool cleaning company.
And so he came across a job.
He was trying to start gettinginto building pools, remodel,
(41:52):
remodeling everything.
So I had been working forLeslie's for like less than two
months.
Mm-hmm, he came in.
I told him that that's wheneverI was like looking at pressure
washing and I'm like, becausethe Originally my grandmother,
it was through family.
My grandmother asked me to comeover.
(42:13):
It's stupid, it sounds sostupid right now talking about
it.
My grandmother asked me to comeby and pressure wash her
driveway and I'm like, okay,I'll get it done, you know just
a common household tour exactly,and she lives 45 minutes away
at the time.
She still lives 45 minutes away,but we're in a new house now,
(42:34):
so she lives 45 minutes away.
I go down there, I'm using thewand pressure washing or
driveway with my dad's garagepressure washer Nothing
commercial right, just aresidential pressure washer and
a wand and I'm like there's gotto be a way to do this quicker
and better yeah and so I look itup and I find a surface cleaner
(42:55):
.
And so what if Y'all don't knowwhat a surface cleaner is?
It's basically a round diskwith three spray nozzles on it
that Turns in a circular motionand cleans the concrete right,
it's one of those satisfyingvideos you find on tiktok.
Yes, and so I look it up, I'mlike, okay, I'm gonna buy one,
that way it makes it easier onme, because at that point I only
(43:17):
got done with like half of herdriveway Maybe and you could see
lines everywhere.
So I go home depot, buy it, goback, finish cleaning it and it
looks pristine, right.
And so I Start doing researchand I'm like, okay, you can make
money doing pressure washing,like I didn't know how much.
(43:40):
Just pressure washing.
I mean windows, like Imentioned on the previous
podcast, window cleaning can gofor fucking $200 to $400 an hour
.
Pressure washing the same thing, if not more.
Yeah, I mean there's, there'sbeen times where I've made a
thousand dollars an hour Onpressure washing, and that that
does not include drive time.
(44:00):
But there was one, one job thatI quoted and I'm very happy to
admit this if the customer hasan issue with it.
I, quite frankly, I love mycustomers, but I do not care if
they have an issue with meadmitting this.
Yeah within 15 minutes.
I made it $2300.
$2300 within 15 minutes, whichequates to like 7000 or a little
(44:24):
over 7000.
I don't know.
I'm sure one of the people inthe comments will.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
My 10th grade education heaven ass won't
figure that out right now.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, but I'm sure somebody in the the comments
will say, oh, you couldn't dothat simple math really quick
and you're in college.
Yes, I could not.
But uh, bank accounts isdifferent, exactly.
So I was making like 7000 anhour on that job and I'm very
happy to admit it.
Right, I didn't know you canmake that much amount of money.
I Printed some business cards,threw him down on to the gas
(44:56):
station at my local conveniencestore and, keep in mind, at that
time I was living in apopulation of like 1200.
My graduating class was like 80, one or 82 in high school I'm
coming from a population wheremy graduating class would have
been like 1200 to 1500 moved tohigh, a different high school,
(45:17):
through my business cards out atthat gas station.
At that time I had justgraduated high school, just
started college and I get a callfor a Storage complex and at
that time I'm like okay, cool,like this will be a couple
thousand dollars, like.
So I go, I join a Facebookcommunity.
I I post about it.
(45:38):
I'm like is there anybody inHouston that like can help me
quote this, help me do the work?
Blah, blah, blah.
I met a guy named James.
He is a year younger than me.
He is 21 years old, cool dude.
He helped me get get intopressure washing.
He's the reason that I am whereI am today and I am very happy
to admit that I'm proud.
(46:00):
There's been some like back andforth.
There's there's always drama,regardless of the industry or
workplace if you work forsomebody or you work for your
own.
There's been drama thrownaround, but I don't look into it
.
I mean, people put words intomy mouth.
People have taken the wordsI've said and twisted them.
I think at least on my end Ihave no hard feelings, and I
(46:22):
don't think he does either.
No, but he helped me get intothe industry.
He helped me grow my companyand he kind of taught me the ins
and outs right.
So I learned and I I did what Ineeded to do at that point I
would.
I went from Leslie's, I think Isaid there two and a half three
months, went to Best Buy againbecause I had worked at Best Buy
(46:46):
from 2018 to 2020.
Quit went to Leslie's, quit,leslie's then went back to Best
Buy.
Before you got black was beforeI got black.
Was it funny?
Funny enough, I'm almost ahundred percent certain because
I was told by one of my oldCo-workers I am also blacklisted
at Leslie's.
So I am blacklisted fromworking for two different
(47:07):
companies now and I'm 22 yearsold, forever getting a job at
those two companies again, whichis fine with me I mean, there's
no hard feelings, right.
But Because I'm not gonna beworking, at least it this may
again be my arrogance talkingI'm not gonna work for another
person in my life.
I would rather go homeless likeyou.
You're still.
(47:30):
Yeah, I'd rather go homelessthan Work for another person in
my life.
I Just because I love the moneyfactor and I also love not
having to answer to anybody.
When you have the the workmentality To go knock on two or
three hundred doors in a day, ifyou absolutely fucking out
there and I've done it, I'vedone it, I've completely done it
(47:52):
out of every hundred doors youyou knock, expect to land
anywhere from three to ten jobs.
Yeah, you land more than that.
Then you are Probably the topone percent of the service
industry.
Yeah, and for everybody who'ssaying that you can't knock
doors if you're in a specificindustry yes, you can.
(48:13):
Yes, you can.
Mine's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
For warranty, yes, well, not even warranty, but
pull stuff that's related.
Not everybody has a swimmingpool.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
No, but you can still go knocking, knock on doors.
You may not hit the three toten.
Google Maps, google Maps appsabsolutely, I use it.
Google Earth man oh, dude you.
Even if you're just starting apool cleaning company, you can
go knock on a hundred doors.
If you Select a neighborhoodthat has a lot of pools, you can
still land five individualcleanings if they don't even
(48:45):
sign up for monthly, and itmight sound sleazy.
As far as growing that, though,you can still grow it, because
that's that's how I grew my mywindow cleaning business for one
for starters, my pressurewashing business for two for
starters, and my Christmas lightcompany.
The Christmas light companycherished and and grew because
(49:10):
of the window cleaning and powerwashing company that I grew,
and I will say 60% of mycustomers today that return Our
doorknob clients.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
Oh yeah, a hundred percent.
Maybe we just have a little bitof a different thought process
on the Certain things.
That's okay, but for me, if Iwas to start over and start
something as far as cleaning oranything like that, I Would go
to some builders.
I.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Would too.
And again, looking back on it,that's another part.
I mean, we've been recordingfor 53 minutes, so we're about
to have to end it here in thenext 10 minutes anyway, damn.
But If I was to do itdifferently For you, like you
said, builders contact buildersdirectly.
(50:00):
Right, I would contact anycommercial place around me,
because that's another thing in2024.
I am moving.
I'm about 75% residential, 25%commercial.
I am trying to move that numberas much commercial as I can and
(50:21):
reduce the amount of residentialclients that I have If I could
do that and again, there's beensome speculation in the market
because I put my trailer up forsale for pressure washing I'll
clear the air.
Right now I'm going to a 100%subcontracting model for
pressure washing, not for windowcleaning and not for Christmas
lights.
I am going to a 100%subcontracting model for
(50:47):
pressure washing in 2024 as ofright now.
If I could move my, if I couldflip the odds and go to 75%
commercial, 25% residential I doit on heartbeat.
There's some disadvantages.
There's a net 15, net 30, paynet 90.
In some cases I would ratherwait 90 days to get my money,
(51:09):
the money I know is going to hitmy account Within the 90 day,
30 day, 15 day period.
With residential, I have tochase my money down half the
time.
True, you don't have to worryabout it because your
manufacturer or not, you're notthe manufacturer, but you work
for a manufacturer.
They pay you within a setamount of time, right?
Speaker 2 (51:31):
90% of what I do is warranty.
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
So you get your money from the manufacturer, which is
a commercial entity.
You're not directly moat, forthe most part not directly
working with the end user, right?
You're a middleman, you'rethere to solve the issue, not
install the product.
Oh for sure.
For 90% of the time me, 75% ofthe time I am working directly
(52:00):
with the, the residentialcustomer, 100%.
They want an extra.
They want something thrown in,which is not a problem, don't
mind it.
Whatever I, 90% of the timeI'll do it for free.
The issue is the tickets aremuch smaller than res commercial
jobs.
They are a little bit moredifficult and picky, which isn't
(52:24):
an issue if you're paying foryour house to be cleaned or
windows or whatever to becleaned.
I understand being picky right.
However, at a certain degree, ifwe miss a cobweb or one in and
I'm gonna talk about a big one,I'm talking about one strand and
the customer comes out and oror one speck of dirt on their
(52:47):
house during a house wash, whenyou're washing the house and
you're washing the lower portionof the house, there's gonna be
dirt that builds up.
I have had about 20% of theclients that I did house washes
for it says, in our terms andconditions, we wash organics
only.
So your algae, mildew, stufflike that right, green, yellow,
(53:11):
black, whatever Dirt, believe itor not, and clay, believe it or
not, are not organic materials.
That is an upcharge.
They will come and talk to usand say, hey, look, and I am
very, very up front whenever Iwonder why you miss that dirt
Dirt uppernessed on my parentswindow right.
(53:31):
Right.
But the thing is is Customerswon't read the fine print.
So I make it very apparent tosay when I'm doing the quote
look, this will come off, thiswill not come off, this is an
upcharge, this is included, andthey don't they?
They either just skip throughit or choose not to listen until
(53:54):
after you're done with the workand then decide to come up with
a complaint.
So that's a Very long, likethree-minute conversation on why
I'm trying to move commercialonly.
If I could do that, then Iwould 100% keep my trailer.
I would completely or or sellmy trailer and build another
trailer.
Yeah, I'm still going to offerpressure washing through the
(54:16):
network of people that I'vebuilt.
There are two people that Iwill pick.
One is south of me and one isin the same location as me,
depending on where I get thework or what the scope of work
is and what it requires.
I will recommend, not onlyrecommend.
I will give the customerResidential or commercial a
quote with my markup on it andwith their price.
(54:38):
Yeah, they will be the onesthat go out and complete the
work Under my insurance policy.
So subcontracting is definitelygonna play a big part of my
company in 2024, but I'm gettingrid of a lot of a headache.
I'm just gonna be dealing withthe end user and it goes back to
that passive income, right,like we talked about in the last
(55:00):
episode, passive income is ascam.
I'm telling you right now apassive income is a scam.
Sure, I won't have to completethe work, but I'm still gonna
have to be sending everybodyinformation on hey, can you get
a quote for this?
And then sending that to theend user and then saying, hey,
this is the day you're gonnaneed to work, this is the day
that I Will be completing thiswork, or one of my partner or
(55:24):
affiliate companies will becompleting the work.
So that's that's kind of myplans for 2024 as far as growth
goes.
Another company that again I'mtalking to you about we can't
disclose because we're under aconfidentiality agreement yep,
but that's another one that wewill hopefully be able to talk
(55:47):
about within the next couple ofmonths, next couple of episodes,
once we all get it, or once weget it all figured out and and
yeah so I don't know.
I mean, what are your plans forgrowth?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
Man plans for growth.
I think, as of right now, IGuess, more than anything, I
really want my company to bemore of a brand.
I do kind of want, like you'resaying, the passive income, but
it being passive income is ascam.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
Don't, do not.
Let's say that I want passiveincome.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (56:24):
I want my company to be a brand more than anything.
Me too, I want it to be Atleast known local here in Texas,
if not further than that.
But I just want it to be known,something that can make money
without, whether it'smerchandise, whether it's the
podcast, whether it's whatever.
(56:45):
As of right now, my plan istalking with you on this next
venture, but, honestly, if I canget somebody that I can hire to
do Some of the server sidewithout cleaning pools, then
that's kind of really what I'mtrying to get at absolutely
whether it's a pool of school,whether it's a startup,
(57:05):
something just to keep peopleinformed.
So I think at the end of the dayI'm not a hundred percent sure
they might have to get back toyou on that one.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
No, absolutely.
We can definitely talk about itin a future episode.
So with that, thank you fortuning in to the Astrocraft grow
, influence, invest podcast.
I am your host, seth Mills,joined by your co-host, nick
Dawson.
Thank you guys for listeningand we will see you guys in the
next episode.
We we will talk about a littlebit of our growth and strategies
(57:37):
, on how we invested our money,or at least invested our money
back into the business, yeah,and how we plan to grow in 2024.
Stay sassy.
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