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December 15, 2023 35 mins

Ever wondered what it's like to operate a service-based business in the unpredictable climate of Texas? Join your hosts, Seth Mills and Nik Dawson, as they expose the gritty realities of being on-call 24/7, navigating the high seas of self-employment, and busting the myth of passive income.

We kick off the conversation by sharing our first-hand experiences of managing work calls outside typical working hours. You'll hear us discuss our survival strategies and how we've harnessed technology to streamline communication and operations. We then engage into a conversation about being a contractor who underscores the importance of nurturing relationships with manufacturers to drive mutual business growth. But brace yourself for a reality check, as we debunk the myth of a truly passive income source. You might be eyeing passive income as the golden ticket, but we're here to tell you that success still demands serious effort and engagement.

But our journey doesn't stop there. We take a detour to share our past experiences at Best Buy, spilling the beans on the toxic work environment, the relentless pressure of meeting sales targets, and the high employee turnover. You'll get a glimpse of the colossal markups on items and our experiences with employee discounts. Finally, we dig into the concept of success, exploring different routes to it. As a high school dropout and a college student, we have some unique stories to tell about our path to where we are now. Tune in if you're ready for an enlightening discussion on running a service-based business, the reality of passive income, and the pursuit of success.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Seth Mills (00:00):
Welcome back to the Astrocraft grow, influence and
best podcast.
I'm your host, seth Mills, andjoining me today is Nick Dawson.
He's going to be your cohost ona lot of the different episodes
that we've got, but let's goahead and jump on into it.
Man, how are you doing today?

Nik Dawson (00:17):
Hanging in there, man.
Hanging in there.
Yeah, you've been going.
It's been a.
It's been a week and a half.
Yeah, yeah, no kidding, andit's only been a few days.

Seth Mills (00:25):
Exactly.
Yeah, you've got a pretty bigevent going on.
You're homeless right now, so Iam homeless.

Nik Dawson (00:34):
You've already you've always got a home here,
buddy.
Well, I appreciate that I amhomeless.
I had to buy new clothes.
These aren't even really myclothes.
I had to buy more clothes so,but it's okay, it's all good.
We're looking on the positiveside of things, absolutely.

Seth Mills (00:49):
So, other than everything else going on, your
life, how's?
How's business been?

Nik Dawson (00:54):
Business is good.
We're kind of coming into thatseason where it's not the
typical things that we normallywork on, because we live in
Texas.
Of course it's hot.

Seth Mills (01:06):
for anybody that doesn't know, I work on swimming
and pull equipment and foranybody who also doesn't know,
the, I believe the hottest wehad this summer with heat index
was what?
125 to 130, something like that.
Yeah, so your heaters aren'tgoing to be an issue during the
summer.
Yeah.

Nik Dawson (01:19):
Most people aren't heating up their pools nor their
hot tubs.
Yeah, so this time of year isreally whenever it starts to
kind of pick up a little bit,for you know the two months that
we have a really cold weather.
So right now it's kind of slow.
My area is kind of slowcompared to the other guys that
I work with, but right now it'sI mean we're still making money
that's a lot of care about.

(01:39):
I mean you just heard the phonecall that we just that I just
had right before we started this.

Seth Mills (01:43):
Yeah.
So yeah, may or may not havegotten a behind the scenes
blooper, but hey man it's.

Nik Dawson (01:50):
It's one of those where it's 539 and still taking
phone calls, still taking workcalls, because that's part of
owning something.

Seth Mills (02:01):
Yep, and that's something I was going to talk to
you about.
How often do you get a phonecall past, even in the service
industry, I mean, normal workhours could be anywhere from 7am
to really like six to set todark.
Right now in Texas we'regetting dark around 5 36 o'clock

(02:21):
.

Nik Dawson (02:22):
So here's the issue that I usually deal with.
Okay, most of my clientele theywork from 7 in the morning to
like four in the afternoon, 4pmor 5pm.
Then they're driving home.
They're getting home from theirlong day of work.
I'm either still in the fieldor I'm back home at my own place

(02:42):
, when I'm not homeless, andthey're wanting to get in their
hot tub or they're wanting touse their lights, or that's the
first time that they're able todo anything with their swimming
pool, or I fix something andthen I call would you will?
How did it go?
It doesn't stop at 5 o'clock.
For me stops whenever they gethome and they check it out, and

(03:02):
especially during, like thesummertime, because the
summertime people aren't gettinghome.
They're checking their lights,they're doing anything like that
.
It's like 8pm, 9pm, I mean.
I've had phone calls all theway up.
I've had a FaceTime call from acustomer that I worked on one
time at 11pm.

Seth Mills (03:18):
I've got a similar story that I will share on the
podcast.
I'm not going to name names,but I will go through what they
texted me as well as my response, because I use Chad GPT for a
lot of my responses, justbecause it's automatic and they
can get a quick response.
Well, right, right, right, yeah.
So I got a text at 10.53pm on aTuesday night, tuesday before

(03:40):
Thanksgiving, and it was acustomer texting me because she
had called me.
For the sake of this, I'll callher Stacy.
Stacy had called me and saidshe said, hey, like, is this XYZ
company with Christmas lights?
I said, no, man, but we do, wedo install Christmas lights.
And this was on a Sunday.
And I said or a Saturday, itwas a Saturday because I was out

(04:02):
, it was whenever I broke myfoot, so it was that day.
And so we call.
She says that.
I said, hey, no, but I can getyou an estimate tomorrow.
Obviously, I break my foot anhour later or fracture my foot,
but regardless, for the sake ofthis conversation, broke my foot
, you can't do what you used toExactly.

Nik Dawson (04:23):
I still can't For the time being.
So I mean you may as well havebroke your foot.

Seth Mills (04:26):
Yeah, and it's been three weeks and I still can't
hardly walk.
Well, she texts me.
Obviously.
I text her Sunday and I'm like,hey, I need to reschedule, I
will be in contact with you byWednesday.
Tuesday comes 10 53 at night.
She texts me and she says Iforget exactly what she said,
but she was like and all capstoo, and I've never met her, so

(04:50):
I don't know if she's older andshe just I was gonna go with she
probably Accidentally hit thecapital, but it's all caps Hello
, please, can you get, can youget with me on my Christmas
night estimate?
And then it goes back tolowercase.
So I know she did it on purposeand it was like this is XYZ,
this is Stacy at XYZ address,and she was like we really need

(05:14):
a estimate.
Blah, blah, blah.
And so At the end she puts hername again, her number, and then
I hadn't responded in To like1057.
Well, at 1055 she texts me againwith her name and her phone
number.
Like you forgot it, like Iforgot within the last two
minutes that she texted me asI'm Over, I was in bed at that

(05:37):
point, right, and so my thing isis I have no problem with the
customer texting me after hours.
Nine out of ten times I willrespond unless I am Doing,
unless I'm busy, you know, yeah,or doing something.
And so I wanted a chat GPT andI will admit I was pretty

(05:58):
furious that a customer's taketexting me at 1053 at night on a
Tuesday night beforeThanksgiving, and I had already
said look, I will reach out byWednesday afternoon.
Well, I typed my response andthen I I go into chat GPT, or
like it's not chat GPT, but it'sa app on my phone that connects
to your messages or yourkeyboard, and I tell it to

(06:23):
rewrite it.
But in sarcasm, and Let me, letme pull up Exactly what it
wrote, because I mean, you gotto think about it.

Nik Dawson (06:30):
Nobody's thinking about your time.

Seth Mills (06:33):
Exactly, and so she texts me her name and number.
The second message within twominutes.
So it's 1053, then 1055, 1056.
I I was like I was trying I'mstill trying to figure out where
that other messages, because IDidn't end up sending it.
But I sat there for a solidlike well, three minutes

(06:55):
Debating on if I was gonna sendthe sarcastic one.
You know how it goes.
You know how it goes withcustomers, right?
So I'm trying to figure wherewas it?
It was November 21st, so hereit is okay.
So on this, bless you thesarcastic one.

(07:16):
So what I had originally typedwas it is 11 pm On a Tuesday
night.
We are closed and will not bereturning to the office until
after Thanksgiving, mondayNovember 27th.
We will be in touch with youthen.
This is an automated message,because I always add this is an
automated message Just so thatthe customer doesn't feel
attacked.
You know, yeah, but so sarcasm.
It was updated the message towell, well, well, what do we

(07:39):
have here?
It's currently 11 pm On aTuesday night, folks, just to
let you know we're closed forbusiness and I see I can't even
keep a fucking straight face andwon't be back in the office
until after Thanksgiving,specifically on Monday November
27th.
Yeah, we know you'll miss us,but don't worry, we'll be in
touch with you then.

(07:59):
And just so you know, thismessage is fully automated.
So I almost sent that just outof pure frustration.
You know, I Didn't.
I ended up sending somethingvery nice, but I still.
I still know well, it wasprofessional, but I still made
it a point like it's 11 pm, so Isaid our office hours have
concluded for the day, as it iscurrently 11 pm On a Tuesday

(08:19):
night.
And then, obviously, if you'regonna reach out to me and you're
not even a customer yet at thatpoint and you're gonna be
hounding me at 1053 at night, ifit would have been an existing
customer with an issue withtheir lights, I would have
hopped over to their house, Iwould have thrown clothes on,
got in my truck, drove over totheir house.

(08:40):
You're not even a customer yetand you're still texting me Like
you own my company.

Nik Dawson (08:49):
Well, you got to set some kind of boundary, because
if you don't have any boundariesespecially for I've never
worked on this man's pool andhe's wanting to know when I'm
gonna be there after I receivedhis stuff today no, it's after
five.
I still take phone calls afterfive.
But an existing customer minethat I've taken care of for the

(09:13):
last two or three years Reachesout.
See his name, I know who I'mtalking to.
I Want to help him.
He's respectful of my time andwhat I know.
But if he was anybody else thatI've been like, oh, leave me a
voicemail, talk to you tomorrowseeing I'm the same way,
especially so All of my closeclients.

Seth Mills (09:35):
I don't know if you have it set up on your phone or
not.
I have two different lines.
So all of my clothes actually,I have three different lines.
All of my close Contacts and myfriends and family are know my
personal phone number.
Everybody else who's just aclient for instance, here's one
of my mentors that will be onone of my episodes that just

(09:56):
text me randomly at 547 on aWednesday night, so Regardless.
But all of my close Contactsfor business, so my clients that
have been clients for a while,or the people I like, they have
my personal number.
They know they can call me,text me, whatever they need to

(10:19):
pass five o'clock past sixo'clock.
I normally set it as sixo'clock as business hours,
unless it's a holiday, then it'swhenever.
Well, so I guess.

Nik Dawson (10:28):
I Kind of try and keep those normal time frames,
especially if, say, we're goingto dinner, where, if I have a
family function or if I've gotsomething going on, but my phone
Goes into using iPhone, goesinto personal mode at 8 pm.
Yeah, same here.
I'm usually still in front ofmy computer at 8 pm, if not 9 pm

(10:52):
.
So I'm still in work mode,regardless of what time it is,
and sometimes even way laterthan that.
But if I'm there alreadyworking on what I'm doing,
somebody calling me to ask me aquestion or do something, I'm
still working.
So even if you want to considereight to eight or seven to

(11:13):
eight or six to eight, you'restill talking about a 12, 14
hour work day.
What's the difference if yougot to talk to somebody?
I mean it's just a matter ofyour relationship with customer.
Builder, installer, what's theword?
I'm looking for?

Seth Mills (11:28):
Distributor, whatever it may be, Vendor
somebody, yeah, yeah, no, 100%,so I don't know.
That just strikes a nerve forme.
As far as the customers who andagain you're much different
than me you work for a warranty,a big manufacturer, I work for

(11:51):
myself.
I don't deal with warranty, Idon't deal with manufacturers, I
don't deal with anything abroadon that spectrum.
So I have to chase the work, Ihave to get the work.
I spread my name.
Word of mouth has been a huge,huge success for me.
This year I have ran $0 in adsand did just as, actually better
, than I did last year in mysecond year of business and this

(12:14):
is my third.
But as far as chasing what?

Nik Dawson (12:22):
It's my two year anniversary today.

Seth Mills (12:24):
Congratulations brother.

Nik Dawson (12:25):
Hell yeah, I didn't even think about it till just
right now.

Seth Mills (12:29):
Nice man, but yeah, so I guess it's different in the
sense that I can pick andchoose my work, my clientele, a
little bit more freely than youcan.
Oh, 100%, because I know youcan kick back work orders back
out to the manufacturer.
But I know you don't like doingthat and it probably hurts you

(12:51):
as far as being well connectedto that manufacturer.

Nik Dawson (12:57):
Well, 100%, because every time you reject they can
see everything that you've done.
Not only that I understand 100%.
You have to chase it 100%.
The second that I'm redo acustomer for one builder.
Say they spend a milliondollars with this manufacturer

(13:17):
or $50,000 with thismanufacturer doesn't make a
difference to me, I get paidregardless.
But if I piss off any of themthey can call in and go.
Don't ever send Nick out thereagain.
Don't send them to any of mycalls.
That takes away anywhere from10 to 150, maybe 200 calls for

(13:40):
that builder.
So you have to like in yourtruck before we went and got
dinner.
That builder right there.
I met him two years ago.
I do probably 99% of his work.
I have to keep thatcommunication because he'll
spend probably just spitballinganywhere from $300 to $500,000

(14:01):
on pull equipment.
My best interest to keep himhappy.
I piss him off, I lose that.

Seth Mills (14:09):
Well, and not only that, but I hope that the
manufacturer that you work foror do work for you don't because
you don't work for them, butyou do work for them.
Right, that makes sense.

Nik Dawson (14:20):
They don't have their own employees to do the
work that I do.

Seth Mills (14:23):
Yeah, you're 1099.

Nik Dawson (14:25):
Exactly.

Seth Mills (14:26):
So you're self-employed.
By all matters of thedefinition, you are
self-employed.
You own your own company.
As far as having the goodrelations, I just hope that the
warranty manufacturerunderstands that.
I know that from justestimating.
I know they take care of youall pretty well, but I hope they

(14:51):
know that you guys also drivemore business in for them.
I don't know how that wouldwork for you all, but if they do
, I don't know if you all seeanything or if you can talk
about it.
I don't know if it'sconfidentiality.

Nik Dawson (15:06):
Not necessarily so I mean majority of the time if
they can't reach somebody thatworks directly for said
manufacturer or they're on await line for an hour, 45
minutes, two hours.
We're in a business where timeis money and money is time.
We got to get in and out Mostof my builders.

(15:28):
I've had multiple instanceswhere somebody's called me and
they've been like dude, can youhelp me with this?
I've been on the phone for anhour and a half on a hold line.
Two minutes later, oh, dude,it's working now.
Thank you, appreciate it.
That keeps them business, keepsme business and all my
relationships strong.
So it does definitely help andmakes them want to use me more.

Seth Mills (15:52):
I was gonna say, and it also drives you more work,
because every time you get awork order then you get paid.
So I understand that there,because once you have the
relationship, it doesn't justhelp the manufacturer, it helps
you personally.
As far as payment goes A littlebit of something that we had
touched on a little earlier,passive income I don't know how

(16:17):
you feel about it.

Nik Dawson (16:21):
The idea is great.
Maybe I'm just ignorant to thefact of how it works and how to
do it all.
I'm very hands on, so anything.
That's not where I'm physicallydoing the work.
I don't know how to do it.

Seth Mills (16:36):
No, and I completely understand that too.
I don't understand it either.
However, I will say that in myexperience passive I called it a
scam previously right.

Nik Dawson (16:49):
I still think you stirred up something, did you?

Seth Mills (16:51):
I did.
I think the TikTok commentswere flooded between two
different people.
Actually, there were over 20comments from two different
people, mainly one person, butfor the sake of this
conversation, I'll talk aboutthe person who didn't comment a
whole bunch on it.
So they set up a bleach supplyI'm not going to name the name

(17:16):
If you're watching this.
I'm not trying to call you out,I'm just having a conversation
about it.
They set up a bleach supply inHouston, right, because we are
out of Houston, texas.
And he was like oh no, I'mcompletely hands off with it.
It's completely passive income.
It's which I asked him okay, doyou pay bills?
Do you have any kind of contactwith the suppliers that supply

(17:42):
your bleach for your location?
Do you have to do any kind ofmaintenance?
Do you have to do anything?
Right, and he said no.
And I'm like in my head I'mlike, yeah, he said I have
people in my bed, I have peoplefor that, right, it's all
automated.
And I'm like you have to someway somehow.

(18:06):
You do still have to work, youstill have to put even if it's
minimal effort into coordinatingsomething.
You have to still be involved.
It's not 100% truly passiveincome for you unless you're a
franchisee and the franchiserdoes everything for you.
In that case, great, you've setup a location.

(18:27):
You haven't set up a truepassive income source for you.

Nik Dawson (18:32):
I guess that's my issue is like you can say it's
all hands off.
But I mean for me, if everybodycould just set up a Shopify or
buying stuff off of Alibaba orwhatever the hell it's called,
we'd all do it yeah yeah Tobring in 20, 50, 100, 250,

(18:54):
whatever they say out there.

Seth Mills (18:56):
I mean maybe you can , maybe.
I mean I know and like.
Another example that wasbrought to me is Jeff Bezos.
On my TikTok video Somebodysaid, oh, jeff Bezos, Amazon is
completely passive for him.
I said, okay, but he's still anexecutive, he's the executive
chairman of the board.
He is still going to be inthere every single day, maybe

(19:18):
not on location, but he's stillgoing to be getting reports
every day and still have to havehis hands dipped in it.
And they said, no, he doesn'thave to do any of that.
That's what he has people for.
I said I don't understand.
I don't know if you understandwhat an executive chairman does.
They run the company from theboard, right.
They still have to.
I mean, if there's a new CEO,if there's new COOs, any of the

(19:42):
top administration, peoplegetting replaced or even have
questions, they're calling theexecutive chairman.
So he's still very muchinvolved in it, right?
So the term passive income againit comes back around.
There's a brand new I don'tknow if you saw it when you were
pulling in because I know youdo a lot of work in here but in

(20:02):
my neighborhood there's a brandnew ice penguin automated deal
right Outside of the gate andhonestly, I don't know when it
was put in, because I go outthat gate every day.
Maybe I just looked past it,but that's the first time I saw
it was today.
I don't know.
But what's it called?

(20:22):
Because I remember when it wasjust woods.
But that could be called passiveincome.
But you still have the waterbills, you still have the
electricity bills.
Even if you get that onautomatic billing every month,
you're still going to bechecking it.
You're still going to beworrying about it.
It's still going to be in yourhead, one way or another,
whether you're worried about itor you're checking the profits

(20:43):
it's bringing in.
And even if you're checking theprofits it's bringing in,
chances are you're having to goand file the taxes with the
state.
You're having to go do thisthat you still have.
Even if it's passive income,which I'm still going to stand
by my words and call it a scamyou're still going to have
duties that you have to do.

Nik Dawson (21:03):
It's not 100% passive.
It can be maybe 50% passive.

Seth Mills (21:07):
It can be 90% passive.
There's still that 10% thatyou're going to have to work in
it.

Nik Dawson (21:11):
So I don't know.
It's not a matter of.
I think the difference betweenus and our generation now is
that it's a matter of okay, whatcan I do to do the least amount
of work, to make the mostamount of money and the quickest
amount of time?
Why can't I sit at home andmake $100,000 a year, $1,000 a

(21:34):
day, $300, whatever it takes?
It would be great.
Oh, it'd be fantastic, Trust me.
If that was the case, I'd bedoing it.
We both would.

Seth Mills (21:42):
Everybody we know would.

Nik Dawson (21:44):
I wouldn't be sweating outside.
Nope, I wouldn't be dealingwith all these customers like I
do.
And I say dealing withcustomers.
I love all my customers, but Metoo, but dealing with the day
to day.
If that was the case, man.

Seth Mills (21:56):
Dealing with all the expenses and everything in
between the customers and thefinished product.
And when I wake up out in themorning, that's what we mean by
dealing with customers, becauseit's not the customers that we
like.
We love the customers, at leastI.
I mean I can speak for both ofus when I say that.
I think I think you heard myconversation.
Exactly.

Nik Dawson (22:15):
Even though he was dragging on the conversation a
little longer than I wasanticipating, but still, I'm a
profession that I love, so Ilove talking about it and me too
.

Seth Mills (22:24):
So when, when we start with all of that, I mean,
man, it's it.
When we talk about dealing withcustomers, it's not the
customers that we're talkingabout.
We're talking about all the dayto day tasks and the, the
miniscule things that add up,because there's so many small,
small things that we have to doevery day that make our jobs so

(22:46):
much more tedious.
If that could be automated,dude, I'd oh, man, whoo, I'd fly
through the day, man, I'd bemaking double or triple what I'm
making, absolutely If I didn'thave to worry about all that
small stuff.

Nik Dawson (22:59):
Well, I mean, and I don't even know if I know, we're
kind of like all over the placeright now, but I mean, I don't
think that this takes away fromthis part.
But this is kind of the samething as your passive income.
Yeah, you could have somebodyelse doing part of it for you.
How many people in ourgeneration right now, or any
generation right now are willingto do what we're doing to make
your passive income work?

Seth Mills (23:21):
Exactly yeah.

Nik Dawson (23:23):
No, I know you've had some hiring stuff.
I've had hiring stuff where itjust you've got some.
I mean, for me it was a littlebit different because I knew
this is what I wanted to do 10years ago.

Seth Mills (23:36):
Yeah.

Nik Dawson (23:37):
Very, very rarely does that happen.
But 10 years ago I knew what Iwanted to do, so I put anything
and everything into this companyso that way my boss at the time
could take vacations, doeverything Me, take a little bit
of time but me help push thingsalong.
You can grow the company thatyou were at at the time.
But something I thought abouttoday, before we had this going

(23:59):
on, is, from the very beginninghe had the very like, the very
thought he had every what's theword I'm looking for.
He had every intention of mestarting my own company.
Never once did he go.
You're going to work for meforever.

Seth Mills (24:16):
See, and that's, I think, what makes a good leader
is they want their employees tobe with them for a good amount
of time, right, and train theirreplacement.
But they also see the growthpotential in their employees and
want that in.
Again.
It goes back to our generation.
There's growth potential inabout, I'd be willing to say,

(24:38):
70% of our generation.
The other 30% just want to sitand collect paycheck and there's
nothing wrong with that, right?
Yeah, there's nothing wrongwith that.
I mean, I pay very well.
My salary is $18 an hour forthe company I'm starting in
January.
Right now, for my company, it's$20 an hour.
So there's nothing wrong withsitting there and collecting a
paycheck.

(24:58):
But as a leader, you also haveto push your employees to do
better and, like you were saying, that's exactly what he was
doing, right?

Nik Dawson (25:07):
Well, his thought was and I think is everybody's
thought should be is if you wanta person to put as much effort
in going, hey, I don't want youhere forever.
I'd love to have you around,but I don't want you around
forever because if you can dosomething on your own to do what

(25:28):
I'm doing, to have a big house,big ass, you know truck, do
what you need to do to learnfrom me.
And for me I was like I don'tknow if that was reverse
psychology or not, but like forme.
I was like because I did both.
I worked for somebody for fiveyears, learned everything to
start a company, but I felt likeI didn't learn enough, so I

(25:49):
went and did other things.

Seth Mills (25:50):
Absolutely.

Nik Dawson (25:51):
So I mean working on just getting a salary, doing
whatever.
If they were to like, hey, wewant you to be around, but we
really want you to do your ownthing.
Maybe that's the wrong way oflooking at it as a business
owner, but at the same time,you're giving them more
incentive to do better.

Seth Mills (26:10):
Absolutely.
You're giving them an incentiveto learn on the job, continue
learning on the job and as aleader, at least in that
position and that role, you'rewanting them to continue to push
themselves, to thrive, whilealso growing your company, but
also knowing at the same timethat they won't be with you

(26:32):
forever.

Nik Dawson (26:33):
So, yeah, let them know that they're.
It's okay to leave.
It's okay to leave.
You're benefiting by learningall of this.
You're benefiting yourself byhelping benefit me now.

Seth Mills (26:47):
Absolutely.

Nik Dawson (26:47):
So for the long run it's going to do you better.

Seth Mills (26:51):
For the long run, you're going to succeed better
than I have, or at least mycompany has to this point.
Right, because once you havethat employee that pushes others
pushes to thrive and we'll getinto this in another episode
later down the road.
But I used to work at Best Buy.
I quit.
I worked from, I believe,either 18 or 19 through 2021.

(27:14):
So 2018, 2019 through 2021,right at 2021, when I started my
company and he knew that Iwasn't getting.
He just like your manager at Idon't know the name of the
company, but Something pullsurface.

Nik Dawson (27:33):
Yeah, exactly yeah.

Seth Mills (27:37):
But the issue that I had well or not issue.
But the manager at Best Buy andI can say Best Buy because
there's so many locations and heis now retired, so I don't
think he cares and, honestly, ifBest Buy is watching this, then
props to me, because I builtsomething that they're watching
right, but he knew I wasn'tgoing to be with the company

(27:59):
forever.
He actually, I don't know ifyou know this I'm blacklisted
for working for Best Buy everagain.
Congratulations.
Yeah, I know it's very much anaccomplishment, because I never
want to work there again, justbecause of the toxic work
environment and the corporate.
You know it was Anybodywatching this.

(28:20):
Do not go to work at Best Buy.
The salary or the hourly isgreat.
It's $15 an hour, at least whenI was working there, up until I
believe now, because I stillhave friends that work there.
But anybody who works or who isthinking about working at Best
Buy, there's Amazon, walmart'sbetter, target's better,

(28:40):
aliyahaba, no, but five guys,yeah, water, burger, taco Bell,
I don't know.
But don't go to work therebecause it's such a toxic work
environment and that's the otherthing.
I cannot stand a toxic workenvironment.
I think that it.
Anyway, you know what?

(29:04):
Anyways, as far as the toxicwork environment goes, it will
destroy the communicationbetween the staff, the managers,
the supervisors, because atBest Buy, they have managers,
supervisors, they have generalmanagers and then they have
regular staff or at least that'show it was in 2021.

(29:24):
And so when I quit and againwe'll get into it in a later
episode it was a quite a niceexit for me.
20 minutes after I quit I'm notshitting you.
I can post the screenshot onthe video podcast.
20 minutes after I quit, I geta screenshot and a text saying

(29:45):
what did you do?
A screenshot was a Best Buymanager at my location on
Facebook posting we are hiringimmediately.
If you walk in, about 95%chance you were hired on the
spot.
Hiring today, seriously, yeah,so I put them in a tight

(30:06):
position, but it was such atoxic again goes back to the
toxic work environment such atoxic and it wasn't because of
the staff that I was workingwith or my coworkers.
About 80% of them were amazingand so and I still talked to a
couple of them today they knowwho they are and they're the
ones that made it amazing, withthe exception of a few other

(30:28):
people who made it amazing.
Right.
I put them in such a tight spotthat they had to post and we
are hiring immediately onFacebook and I say I'm not
trying to let that get to mypride, but they posted it right.
And somebody else texted me andthey said hey, you were number
two in the region of Texas forsales and credit card

(30:54):
applications all year.
I don't know if that's why theyhad to hire people immediately,
because I mean I was definitelyI was, I was definitely I was
number one in the store, me andanother guy named I'll call him
Steve.
He knows who he is.
His name starts with an, a, awrong, yeah, a wrong.

(31:15):
Steve me and him kept competingfor number one in the the
region and number one and two inthe store.
So they I mean we werecompeting back and like neck and
neck one, two in the store, oneand two in the region.
We were going back and forthlike one month we were all.
One month I was number one.
One month he was number one.

(31:36):
We had all the districtmanagers, the managers, the
regional managers.
I don't know what that was, butother people.
I know other people Reaching outto us and and saying, hey, good
job, here's a gift card, a BestBuy gift card bonus, etc.
And at this point I don't careif I give out confidential
information as far as Best Buygoes, because at this point

(31:59):
statue of limitations right.

Nik Dawson (32:02):
But what's it like getting a gift card to somewhere
where you work?

Seth Mills (32:06):
It's really it's not great, to be honest, because I
mean, I've already bought what Ineeded from With my employee
discount, because we also gotemployee discounts, yeah, which
I'm not going to disclose howmuch that was, because I do
believe that was trulyconfidential information but it
it definitely didn't make mefeel all warm and fuzzy inside.

(32:28):
Yeah, if they would have givenme like a $50 Amazon gift card
or a $50.

Nik Dawson (32:35):
Whatever target, something to get you out of the
damn store that you're workingexactly.

Seth Mills (32:39):
So I mean it wasn't great and I can say this.
The markup on items, I hope Ican say it.
The markup on items, man, it isinsane.
It makes me want to open anelectronic store.
And again, like you said, we'vekind of gone all over the place
, kind of just introducing bothof us and like and our

(33:02):
qualifications and things we'vewe've had happen to us.
But, man, if there was anotherbusiness and that makes me think
even more so on what I'mopening in January If there was
another business I'm gonna getinto other than that one.
It's gonna be an electronicstore because the markup on
items through the roof Do it.

(33:24):
I mean there were a couple ofthings we didn't get discounts
on, right, and it was your majormanufacturers such as, like
Apple, sony, samsung, stuff likethat, but I mean 90% of the
stuff in the store.
Again, I'm not gonna get intohow much of a markup.

(33:45):
Man, I wish we were back then.
Yeah, I know shit.
I wish I needed all of thisstuff for the podcast back then.
It would have saved me a.
You know how much I spent on it.
I spent within the what thelast two weeks I've spent over
about thirty five hundreddollars getting everything
together for this podcast andit's still not perfect.
I mean the headphones, some ofthe lights.

(34:05):
You can see it in the top rightcorner above him.
You can kind of see the edge ohyeah, I know I need to get some
more equipment for it, but or atleast if you're watching the
video podcast, not the audiopodcast.
But Dude, that thirty fivehundred would have gone a lot,
lot further if I would haveworked for Best Buy currently.

(34:28):
It's crazy.

Nik Dawson (34:29):
It'd have been nice, it would have been, but I know
you got a meeting to get intohere soon or a phone call, so a
couple phone calls, especiallynow that I forgot but then
remembered that Two years, twoyears, two years.

(34:51):
Congratulations, brother,congratulations.
I'm sure I will have you on aanother podcast episode very
soon.

Seth Mills (34:57):
Thank you for joining me, and Anything else
you'd like to say, stay classy,I don't know.
Hey, stay classy.
We will see you guys in the nextepisode of Astrocraft grow,
influence, invest and we will betalking a little bit about how
we got started and what we doing, or what we're doing and how

(35:20):
far we've come.
High school versus A collegestudent, high school dropout
basically high school dropoutyeah, versus being in college
still, and kind of going backand forth on.
If Either of them had a littlebit of play to our success,

(35:40):
advantages, disadvantages.

Nik Dawson (35:42):
Absolutely.
People we work with or aroundthat We'll get into that.
Absolutely, I've got, I've gotsome fun stories, even from
conversations that I've hadtoday.
So yeah, me too.

Seth Mills (35:54):
So, once again, thank you guys for tuning in to
Astrocraft grow, influence,invest and we will see you guys
in the next episode.
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