July 15, 2025 • 62 mins
Justin shares his entrepreneurial journey from math teacher to software sales professional to exterior cleaning business owner, revealing how a layoff turned his side hustle into a full-time venture.
• Started with just $4,000 investment and his wife's blessing to "go fail"
• Prioritized education by traveling to learn from industry veterans rather than figuring it out alone
• Discovered algae on roofs is a living organism eating away at shingles, requiring cleaning every 5-7 years
• Partnered with insurance companies who were looking to reduce their risk from unmaintained properties
• Built a custom pump system capable of cleaning 4-5 story buildings from the ground without ladders
• Broke his arm in a ladder accident, forcing him to hire and train others—accelerating business growth
• Doubled business in year two through networking, particularly through BNI membership
• Now considering vertical integration by acquiring a chemical distribution dealership
• Exploring development of a direct-to-consumer product to help homeowners properly clean exteriors
If you're facing algae streaks on your roof or need exterior cleaning services in the Atlanta area, reach out to Justin at myexteriorcleaner.com or find them on Instagram and LinkedIn.
#myexteriorcleaner
#heretohelp
myexteriorcleaner.com
#pressure#cleaner#clean#boats#BNI#algae#roofs#love#money#ladders#solutions#pressurewashing#pressurewashingsolutions#insurance#help
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
or, like we talked about earlier, algae streaks on
the roof.
So that is a thing of regularmaintenance.
Up in the Pacific Northwestthey probably look at us like
what are you even doing?
How do you not know?
But down here folks didn't know.
So you probably need your roofcleaned every five to seven
years because algae will show updespite what the shingle
(00:21):
manufacturers will tell you.
So all the green crap on myroof is bad, it's live and it's
eating your shingles.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
But you might be able to harvest it and use it for
some of your great cooking.
Alan, I think you can eat it,oh my God, or get it cleaned, or
get some mushrooms, justreplace a little bit of white
wine.
Send them to Scotland.
At least he's not saying we'regoing to put something on your
roof that's going to make itlast forever, which is some of
the things that have been comingout, and I've actually
interviewed some of these guyson that product and, yes, I'm
(00:51):
officially dissing it.
I think it'll give you a littlebit of life, but it's only
going to be a little bit of life.
It's not going to be thatforever.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It does give it a little bit more resilience to
the UV, but not for long Are youstarting to see, like if you do
somebody's roof and suddenlyeverybody else goes hmm, that
roof looks good and my rooflooks like crap.
Are you getting a lot ofreferral that way, just from
people?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Not enough to actually attribute.
Really it is still kind of new.
There's only, out of the 60roofs we cleaned last year, I'd
probably say 40 of them were oneinsurance carrier and I would
call that the proactiveinsurance carrier.
They're all going to come.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
It's seven.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, but it's not it's not regular.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
If you think about it , you don't think about your
roof.
A lot of times you don't thinkabout your fascia, you don't
think about your gutters.
I think about mine all the timeI look up at it and I'm like
wow yeah, well, that's whyyou're the one of one in your
neighborhood's gonna wash yourroof, and I know you're how is
their green up there?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
huh, then how's their green up there?
He?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
didn't know.
There was a solution and he'sdefinitely I didn't know.
There's a solution.
I actually bought some crap atlowe's and shot it up there and
it I think it was fertilizer,fertilizer.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help
guide you to avoid those traps,pitfalls and dangers that lurk
when navigating the wild worldof small business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
(02:27):
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
Alan, alan, alan, am I about tobe scolded?
(02:51):
You know, every once in a whilewe say don't leave it in the
green room and it's taken me 20minutes to get you to the damn
microphone so we can get on withteaching people about what
we're doing and how we're doingthings.
My God, alan, alan, you are mrchit chat, chit chat, chit, chat
, chat, chit chat, chit chatwell, you know why what?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
no, you know.
Shortly after I talked aboutmaybe we shouldn't be drinking
quite so much bourbon, on ourpodcast, our guest shows up with
a homemade kit for old fashions, with wellers and orange, the
cherries, the homemade simplesyrup and we and we said to that
everybody don't be a quitter.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Cheers, alan, let's get after it.
Justin, thank you for joiningus thank you guys for guys we
got a great episode.
Uh, got another in-personepisode.
Very excited about that.
Before I get started, man, ifyou haven't gone out there and
given us a review, love for youto go out there and review us.
Just read a couple new ones.
We got alan.
People are saying we're funny.
People are saying they'relearning.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's what we're after look out, you're not
reading the bad ones, right?
Hey, I'm skipping them over.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You know what?
Why is it always five or one,five or one.
You can never.
Is there any is there?
Does anybody ever do a three orfour?
Don't do that that, just dofives for us.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
We love you guys.
As a former math teacher, ithas to do with their number
sense.
They don't know that there aremiddle numbers.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh, perfect.
So now let me insult the entireaudience.
It's your number sense.
You have a number problem, areyou?
Numberism Great.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We're going to be a solid two.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, baby, we are a five.
I'm telling you Been out thereactually getting scheduled on
other people's podcasts.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's kind of a big deal now, chris.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Big deal, he's out there, we're getting out, there
Are you being selective or areyou just saying yes to everybody
, like the big whore that youare?
So I identify with that remark.
Yes, sex trafficking.
I'm podcast trafficking.
So I guess we need Christy DKufle to come back and save me.
That's right.
Come up there, she can pull youout, pull me, go undercover and
(04:49):
say, chris, just say no.
But I'm like I can't.
I love the shiny light, I likethat.
They said they had candy.
I wanted to go.
I had to go to the podcast.
So I did no selective uh, but Idid, um, I did help a couple
guys out.
New podcast uh went on there.
They're like I can't believeyou do that.
I'm like, hey, brother, I wishother people would have done
that in the beginning.
(05:10):
Uh, now we've got people youknow, obviously we're getting.
We're getting uh, five or sixrequests uh every two weeks.
It's averaging like one everyother day.
Right now people want to comeon so that's all.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Does that math work?
I think it does okay.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, thank you, and the mathposium begins.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'm trying to work on the fastest to three fingers.
There we go.
I got two pre-productionfingers already from Chris.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You did get it early, because I will say that he left
it in the green room and he wasbeing a little chit-chatty, a
little chit-chatty, so it's timeto get going now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
It's not about Chris, daddy, so it's time to get
going now.
It's not about Chris, so I feelbad.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
You should feel bad, and you know what we're going to
do right now.
We're going to make it backabout Chris.
We're back everybody.
What did Big?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Daddy do this weekend .
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Big Daddy put the big boat in.
The yacht is in and it tookfour people.
The pontoon yacht, that's right, but don't get me wrong guys.
It.
But don't get me wrong guys.
It is the Aqua Patio.
It has a crank and sound system.
I put the booster in there.
I can annoy everybody on thelake at one shot, because you
(06:13):
can get across our lake in about2.2 minutes, god.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
No, it's a little bit better.
That's why you don't go on alake in the Atlanta area on a
holiday weekend because ofpeople like you, that's right
baby.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So that's why I took my talents to north carolina in
the mountains.
Oh so I'm.
They hadn't heard of you yet,so I pissed it off.
All the fishermen who are attheir peaceful morning.
Bass are out, they're trying toangle, teaching their young
boys how to fish, and younggirls are getting in and they're
, and they're doing all that.
I come by, go rodneydangerfield right with the big
boat.
I got the big horn too, the airhorn.
It sounds like the whole trackwe're coming through.
That's me, the big daddy, theboat's in summer's here and we
(06:49):
are rocking and rolling.
I don't know when you guys arelistening to this, but we are
going to get this one goingright after memorial day well
and uh, speaking of which,what'd you do this weekend?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
well, uh, I didn't get to put my boat in.
I do piss off a lot offishermen, though, so we're in
the same boat figuratively.
On that one We've got aMastercraft.
We're a surf family, so we lovetheir water and the magnet mat.
So, but no, we.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Paul, you know you piss them off way more than I do
Absolutely, Because I'm atleast playing music.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
But we turn down their music, yeah, or our music.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But you, we turn down their music or our music.
Yeah, but you give them a boatwake that's going to knock them
right off their boat and intothe fish.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Pretty cool.
We try not to Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
But no, this last weekend wasprobably my wife and my last
time that we are going to go upand celebrate Memorial Day
weekend by going to the Indy 500with her father, who has been
doing it for the last like 30,35 years or something with his
(07:49):
fraternity group.
So they rent a bus.
We met them at quarter of fiveIndy morning, drove from
Cincinnati all the way to Indy,hung out with a ton of people I
think there were probably about40 of us, 50, somewhere in there
Hung out, pre-gamed, parkedright next to the stadium,
(08:13):
waited, ate some lunch.
They brought out the Blackstone, cooked a little bit.
Then we went up and we got tosee Indy.
My wife drew Erickson in thepool, which was pretty good, up
until the last like five minutes.
So she got second, which gother nothing, but it's better
than her father.
(08:33):
He pulled Andretti.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
He was the second one out, that's right All day,
because the first one out wasthe guy warming up his tires.
Yep, oh boy, how about warmingup your tires getting ready for
the Indy 500?
You're the odds-on favorite towin the whole damn thing.
And he slips and goeswhoop-de-dang, boom into the
wall.
Crash done over, race over.
He's crying in the cockpit onTV.
(08:56):
He gets out.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Haven't even dropped the flag yet.
No, they were just waiting.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Oh my God, that was.
You want to talk about failureto launch.
And so my brother, who is anindie enthusiast, writes that
was inexcusable.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
He's a professional driver and mark or sorry, brady,
tom brady stayed on the on thetrack longer than he did that's
right there you go.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I heard brady got booed.
He did nice.
Oh, thank god, I would boo himtoo, especially after the
Atlanta thing.
All right, let's get tobusiness, shall we?
Yeah, let's.
I love this, justin and yes, Iam jelly when it comes to going
to the Indy 500.
I heard it's a rite of passageand it's something that, if it's
in your family tradition, it'sjust something you always look
back on.
And, finally, I know a lot ofguys who've done it.
(09:37):
So it's definitely on the list,but my big hookup in NASCAR is
out now, so I'm going to have towait for another hookup.
I got to find more friends,yeah, you do need better friends
, you need way better friends.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I got pocket judges, we could introduce you to our
crew.
You just have to go toCincinnati before.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I have no problem with that?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Cincinnati chilly.
Yeah overrated Ouch.
I don't know why they put it inCincinnati you just alienate
swaths of people.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Let's do this Just like you in your boat, justin.
Yes, sir, let's get on the boatand let's go make some wakes,
shall we?
So, justin, you have myexterior cleaner.
You guys started this now goingon, you say two years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yes, yeah, we've been official for just a little over
two years.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
All right, let's talk about this entrepreneurial
journey.
So you were not an entrepreneurin the beginning, absolutely
not.
So let's talk about what youdid first, when you got out of
school.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah.
So I went to school, got adegree in math.
Did not want to grow up so Istayed in for my master's In
math, Also math teaching, whichled me to my first career.
So, and then I spent six yearsteaching down the street for my
alma mater over in GwinnettCounty.
Was great Swim coach, divecoach, phenomenal Kids were
(10:49):
great but realized I wasn'tthere for the kids.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I want to say thank you.
We don't do this often, but wedo.
Thank you for your service.
Isn't that the truth?
Because I know Alan's son is ateacher as well.
We know it.
We've had hunter cluthion also,who has started a school, runs
a school.
Uh, it's definitely a labor oflove.
You're.
You're not going to get richmonetarily doing what you're
doing, um, but you are going toget rich and fulfilled if you
(11:15):
find a passion and what's goingon.
Yeah, at least that's what wekeep telling ellen's.
All right, so you did it forsix years in high school level.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yes, yes, ninth through 11th grade math how fun.
Yeah, it was absolutelyterrific.
I volunteered to teach the kidsthat were having trouble in
math.
So, year after year, oh, so youdoubled down.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah.
It was a lot of fun, though.
I got to teach kids from 14 tolike 21, which was phenomenal.
They were a lot of fun.
You could banter back and forthwith them because they were
basically adults at that point.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, they get snarky Good sense of humor at that
point.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that's.
The saddest thing that I lostfrom my time in the classroom is
my quick wit.
I'd like to still think that Ihave wit, at least a little bit
maybe, but all the quickness isabsolutely gone.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
You mean compared to them?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Oh well, thanks, yeah , no.
So that went on for about sixyears.
I was training to be anassistant principal and then a
principal and I basically saw myretirement right in front of my
face, found out, realized thatI wasn't there for the kids or
their advancement anymore.
I was only there for my career,and made the decision that if
(12:28):
you're not there for the kids,open your space up for somebody
else.
So left that role and went intosoftware sales.
So started selling software tocar dealers.
You talk about double down.
I said I want to learn how tosell and I want to do it to.
The people that have to sellevery day know how to say no.
So um did exceptionally wellthere, top six in the nation,
(12:52):
rookie of the year.
They moved me out to Memphis.
I wanted to get back here.
Um unceremoniously left that jobwhen my boss asked me to and uh
uh and moved back to Atlanta,took a couple of other roles,
sold boats for a little bit,sold international finance
contracts, ended my tenure forsomebody else at the Oracle
(13:16):
behemoth so pretty phenomenalinstitution.
They definitely take care oftheir people.
Only thing I didn't want to doany longer is answer to
shareholders.
I wanted to answer to mycustomers and do what was best
for them.
So my wife and I started thiscompany March 23rd of 2023.
And one week later, oracle wentthrough a round of layoffs and
(13:42):
I was last hired, first fired.
So it was put up or shut uptime.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Oh, so you thought you were going to do this as a
side hustle, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That was the original .
Speaker 3 (13:52):
All right, let's get into that a little bit.
So obviously you've got if youcan't tell it already, the guy's
got a great sense of humor anda good gift to gab Clearly a
salesman in the wool.
You were selling the kids onmath and that math was cool.
You were hitting a hole.
I'm going back to the saturdayschool rocks.
Remember those?
Oh god yeah he was making mathcool, so cool, try so yeah,
(14:16):
please don't sing don't sing,chris, I am only a bill, all
right.
So capital bill, okay, all right.
So you got into sales.
So you guys said, hey, I getthis idea, let's start a
pressure washing business.
How would you come up with thatidea?
It's not a new idea, right?
It's clear people are washingshit all over the place.
We've had pressure washingfranchises on, we've had
(14:38):
pressure washing coaches on.
Over the three and a half yearswe've done this.
So what?
Why there?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, uh, actually, if I last another year, um, then
I think I become a pressurewashing coach and a trainer and,
uh, somebody that teaches onInstagram.
I'm pretty sure that's the thetrajectory.
I'm supposed to write aworkbook, um and no, um, but
sorry, no, so, um.
So originally it was a littlebit, because I had some
(15:06):
experience with it.
You know, pressure washing withthe dad, dad teaching you a
little bit of things here andthere.
It was fun.
It really wasn't that terrible.
My wife loved it because it waslow barrier to entry and so if
I failed we were out four grand.
So it really wasn't liketerrible, failed, we were out
four grand.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So it really wasn't like terrible.
Um.
So, for all our listeners, whenyou're thinking about a
business, just pick one thatjust doesn't seem that terrible.
Is that what I'm hearing?
So far.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I mean he is checking all the boxes of my yeah, did
you go?
Look?
I let's just say we went.
We had a little bit differently.
So I am so like wide-eyed.
Right here my wife says uh,you're gonna lose four grand.
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead gofail.
Thanks, honey, thank you, um,can you unpack me my lunch?
Yeah, baloney.
Now you don't get baloney, goout there and fail.
You get mustard and bread,that's you get all right.
(15:55):
So justin goes out with thislittle lunch pail and tries and
tries to get the four thousanddollar pressure washing business
going as a side hustle Allright.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
And then one week later it's this is not a side
hustle anymore, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, we, we launched the business, launched the
website, did the whole nine.
Um bought a CRM like orlicensed a CRM.
We were going legit, but alsoas a side hustle and then um got
laid off.
We looked at each other, we satdown and said it's put up or
shut up time.
So, um, I went out, reach outto all the folks in the
(16:32):
neighborhood, started poundingthe pavement and filled our book
in April and May, which was apretty phenomenal and then I
went.
What are all these peoplecomplaining about?
Why is it hard?
That's BS, don't worry.
August came and it really hurt.
Um, but what happened in August?
Uh, it's like everybody wentback to school and stopped going
(16:52):
outside and giving a crap abouttheir uh seasonality.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Ah, is that what happened?
Yes, I was waiting for that.
Okay, continue on season.
Even inlanta, there's thingscalled seasonality and the other
thing that you are, uh, on yourway to, and we're gonna get
into that.
So that's fall 23, correct,chris?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
chris would have been so pissed at you if it'd just
been a straight upward.
You know well this littletwinkle in his eye.
As soon as you said august,he's like aha, I was waiting.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, because there's another one coming.
I know it's coming around thecorner in a minute, but but so
all right.
So you hit august.
You're like man, this is uh-oh.
And so what was that uh-oh andhow did you react to it?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
yeah, the uh-oh was we went from a full book book
two weeks out, um, withoutreally any marketing dollars or
on the backbone of my websitethat was garbage, because I
don't know what I'm doing toabsolutely nothing.
And then we continued to reachout to the neighborhood.
(17:56):
Thank goodness, my wife'sfriends had some dirty homes and
trusted me to clean them andtidy them up so that so the wife
was listening.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Thank god, your friends are pigs.
Oh yeah, what's it?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
wow, well, she's not coming over.
For no, she's not, she's not.
I was thinking what a, what agreat partner, you know, she
just she is doing great.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
yeah, she just uh, you know, so you're reaching out
to your friends, are?
You doing this, all Facebookyou doing what?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
what were some?
Most of it was directly um textmessaging.
Wow, a lot of them already knewus or clearly knew us um, but
knew that we had started thebusiness and the fact that we
had launched and sustained overthe course of the summer.
It was like, oh well, maybehe's got a lot of the kinks
worked out so you had a logotruck, you had a good looking
rig, we had magnets um, we stillcarry magnets right now.
(18:50):
We're looking at um wrapping thebox truck in june.
Gotcha, yeah, yeah, this monthall right.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So, uh, you, obviously you dipped and you
figure out.
You got to do a little bit more.
Yeah, uh, I think lesson Iheard there is that word of
mouth is good, you want to grow,you want to sustain.
Word of mouth doesn't make ithappen.
Um, and with uh, people ask me,um, it wasn't on a podcast, it
was at a meeting.
Chris, I'm thinking aboutstarting my business.
What's the very first thing Ishould do?
I said get a google my businesspage if you're a local service
(19:19):
provider.
The website will come later,don't?
You don't need to drop 15, 20grand on a website.
You need to get that Google mybusiness page now, because it's
going to take you probably twomonths with Google to even get
it.
So you guys, get that.
You had that at least, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, yes.
So we had a Google my business.
It wasn't we weren't superactive on it, Um, but it was
live.
Uh, towards that fall westarted.
We got Google guaranteed,started running a couple in
terms of LSAs still didn't knowwhat I was doing Um, hired our
first marketing company.
That was terrific, Um, becauseI've never seen money get lit on
(19:57):
fire that fast, Right, Um, withabsolutely no return, Um, so
that was pretty cool.
And then the winter came.
So the winter came and it wentfull on dry.
So that was pretty difficult.
We tried to hit social mediapretty hard, tried to like
(20:17):
schedule some posts and do somelike slow burn activities, SEO
and things of that nature.
Didn't go quite well.
But then January came, Februarycame, jobs came, March came, we
doubled March, we doubled Juneor sorry, March, April, May,
(20:38):
June and we doubled the business.
More than doubled I think wedid two and a half X on first
year's revenue in our secondyear, um, which was pretty
phenomenal and I owe that a lotto I know you guys are huge
proponents of networking Uh, wejoined in November of 23,.
We joined a BNI organization,so you did a.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
BNI in your local and you are, you're, you're here in
the Atlanta area.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yes, yeah, we're just Northeast of town in the
Decatur.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Decatur area.
Got it Okay, so you're in theAtlanta area.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yes, yeah, we're just northeast of town in the
Decatur, decatur area.
Got it Okay, yep, and,thankfully enough, a huge shout
out to a owner of Squeegee Squadfranchise over in DeKalb County
, because he joined about a weekor two right before I did and
we do a lot of the same stuff.
He's better at windows, I'mbetter at roofs and the rest of
us are the rest of it.
We pretty much do pretty welltogether, um, and he said
(21:30):
there's enough business out herefor all of us.
We won't compete.
This will be great.
And so David and I have anexceptional relationship.
Um, I use him on jobs forwindows, he uses me on jobs for
softwash and reaching fourstories from the ground and the
whole nine.
Um, so it's uh, it's prettyphenomenal.
Um, but joined the BNIorganization about six months
(21:52):
later.
They actually asked me to bethe treasurer because our
treasurer was leaving, and sonow I, um am the.
I've been the treasurer for thelast year and a half.
Uh, and other than a little bitof marketing and hiring a
second marketing company, thatis the only real change in the
business that we've made sinceyear one, and we just keep on,
keep on growing.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So as you've grown, you obviously started out on the
wand, right.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I don't know if that's what they say.
You say on the tool yeah, Iwant to know when he blew his
first hole in somebody's housewith.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
you know, oops we actually specially purchased a
metal stencil to spray our logoon concrete.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Beautiful.
I love that because I did comeacross a years ago.
I came across a guy who lookedlike he was trying to put his
name in this guy's sighting andI was like and he's the guy's
like, what can you do with that?
I said look at it, laugh withyou, man.
I said I don't know.
I said there's no way I canblend that out.
I said I just I'm not apressure washer, but I can
(22:55):
replace your siding if you want.
If you can't get it back out,he goes can I paint it?
I'm like it's vinyl siding, man, I don't think so, nope.
So the answer was no, yep.
And he has a vital sign.
Oh my gosh.
But this guy just absolutelytore into this sucker man, it
was good stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
That's one of my favorite things to see.
So low barrier to entry meansthat a lot of people join it.
I love all the landscapers.
They'll do all of these greatthings, great things.
They'll have it all over theside of the truck.
And then the very last bulletpoint is pressure washing.
You'll see a painter.
Exact same thing, pressurewashing.
So what they don't realize isthat anything above ground we
(23:32):
use a soft pressure system, alow pressure system.
It maxes out at like threetimes your garden hose.
The only time that we use, orthe only thing that we use,
those pressure washer systemsfor, is to get height out of our
water.
It's not to apply with pressure.
So we rely heavily on chemical.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think I'm using my pressure water wrong, because I
just like blowing the crap offof things you like putting your
name in the yeah, you do, I knowyou know, come on it's power
you're feeling it so, uh, youstarted on the one, uh, and so
now, how many crews do you haveand how?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
when's the last time you actually had to go out there
and do one yourself?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
oh, like last week there, but uh absolutely last.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's right.
Two years into it and I stillget out there.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That's right yeah, so , um, we that's actually a fun
story is how I got off the truckwas, uh, last may I was setting
up my ladder.
It was a brand new ladder.
I was trying to be, uh, realballsy and move it away.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That I should not have you were jumping, it
weren't you?
You?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You hopped it.
I tried to put it on the secondstory but I didn't have the
leverage.
I was using one of thosegorilla ladders, the kind of
A-frame.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Oh yeah, yeah, those are heavy as hell too, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And so I had it all the way out, 28-foot full
stretch.
And I was on one end trying toget it up on a second story
ladder, like I'm a gorilla orsomething.
I have no strength.
I'm five foot seven.
I haven't been to the gym inlike three, four years, so I've
got nothing on that.
And then I went ah, you knowwhat, I could probably just put
it right here on the garagefirst, and so I rested on the
garage and then my thought wasI'll just hop up on the garage
(25:06):
and then do it again and move itto the second story.
So I take four steps.
I was only four rungs up Ladderslipped, I jumped, fell on my
left elbow and broke my humerusin half.
That was last May, so I had afull book and went well.
I think you call themChris-isms.
I had some expletives, thankyou.
(25:28):
You learned French.
Oui, fucking, oui.
Expletives, um, to, actually,you learned french um, we,
fucking, we, yeah.
So I stood up, cussed a littlebit, uh, got back in my truck,
drove to the hospital.
Um, wife still yells at me forthat.
Um, I've got a really funnystory if you really want to
picture it.
Um, but we.
That can be another one of howI actually got there and the
(25:52):
cluster that it was to actuallyget into the hospital.
But long story short broke thehumorous in half.
Um, it's fun when your x-raytech looks at you and goes, I'm
not supposed to tell youanything, but, uh, you really
fucking broke it.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
you really broke didn't need to go to school for
that one, did you be?
No, absolutely not so.
Clue, gin the tea that my legis right now, um but I don't
even know what it is.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
This is another.
Uh, thank god for being I.
So I had a, an excellent godson that helped me out for about
a week to fill in, and then ourproperty inspector, um, shout
out to Rick.
He has a couple of sons, um,but two of them that needed work
over the summer, and so I putthem on the truck and I rode
(26:40):
with them every single day.
Um showed them what to do, orshowed them, talked them sorry,
talked them through how to do it, how to do it the right way,
how to use low pressure, stillget all the dirt and the grime
off.
And that was my story for how Igot off the truck.
Once I went back to school, Igot back on the truck.
(27:01):
Now we've hired a couple offolks.
I've got a former vet that justcame home in March and he's
running my truck now.
Uh, we just promoted him lastweek to like lead tech, where he
is the guy.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
So everybody talks to him, so falling off the ladder
was a blessing in disguise.
Oh yeah, helped you scale sothat your scaling advice is hurt
yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, pretty much.
Uh, put up or shut up.
No, it's for me.
I have a I have a problem with,I have to.
I can't like slow into anything.
So I had to be fired.
Oracle had to fire me,otherwise it was going to be a
side business for life.
I had to fall off the ladder,otherwise I was going to be a
solopreneur for life.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Wow so yeah, when you say business trajectories have
a lot of ups and downs,ba-dum-pum, it happens.
But wow, but wow.
That is again a forced exit, aforced change.
So I would highly recommendeverybody, don't go break your
body.
Learn from this, but figure outhow to teach and coach to be
(28:01):
able to grow.
Back to what you were jokingabout earlier.
But that's how you grow.
So right now you've got onetruck rolling, you're running
around, you're figuring out theadvertising.
I take it that's kind of whereyour role is now.
Has it kind of moved to bookingscheduling, advertising guy?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, so we've been full operation, or I've been
full operations and sales likesince the inception, but now
it's it's gotten a little bithairier right, so now I actually
schedule people rather thanjust scheduling myself.
So there's more things to thinkabout.
But yeah, so, still fulloperations and sales.
I still say that my marketingexpertise is not what I would
use the word expertise for, sowe do outsource that.
We've got a company right nowthat we met through BNI.
(28:40):
They're doing pretty good forus running a couple of ads
focusing on SEO and they'rehelping make the phone ring,
Hopefully learning a little bitmore about that.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
What are your growth plans or growth path right now?
I'm assuming you're justresidential is we, do we do
commercial?
All right?
Um, so, as commercial, is thatgoing to be a bigger part of the
biz?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I built the system that I wastalking about earlier.
There are a couple of vendorsand dealers out here that build
systems that are not as reliablein general.
That will help you reach threestories kind of.
But we can clean four and fivestory apartment complexes from
the ground, and that wasstrategic from me.
(29:25):
So I found pumps all Canadianfound engines, pulled them all
together, built the motor, builtthe engine, built everything so
that it would consistently getfour to five stories all the
time, so that my guys can safely.
We want to be ladder free bythe end of the year or at the
end of 26, worst case, and so apart of that is making for
(29:47):
certain my guys can get anythingwithin the sight line from the
ground safely.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Think about that, alan.
You're going to be sitting onthe ground and you're like a
sniper.
He even said he's got a vetwho's working on this.
I mean you've got your wand andyou're looking up for it.
You're like hey, pigeon, takethis.
Is that what you're doing?
I mean, you're shooting waterup that high yeah, absolutely,
Well.
Water up that high yeah,absolutely.
Chemicals first I take it andthen wash them down yeah, so we
do things a little bitdifferently.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
We actually do start with uh water.
We use neutralizer all the wayaround on all landscape, wet all
windows, because you definitelydon't want any of that chemical
to sit on any of that.
It'll kill it, it'll it'llmurder landscape and it'll etch
glass.
So we do a fair amount ofproactive measures On the truck.
(30:31):
We say that hope is not atactic that we use.
So we make sure that there's aquotable yeah, so we make sure
that we wet everything down andthen we spray chemical, let it
do its business.
And where?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
did you learn all that?
I mean, you didn't get thatfrom dad.
No, no, dad actually taught methe exact wrong way.
And the history of the podcastis if Chris started a pressure
washer business, he would havewritten his name, he would have
blown holes in the house and heprobably would have etched a lot
of glass right, and then youwould have figured it out and 17
years later you'd have made aprofit 100% 17 years later.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So here you are Almost making a profit quarter.
Okay, thank you.
Hope is the what no.
Hope is not a tactic, hope'snot a strategy.
Yeah right, or as my dad saidwhen I was 17 hopes and wishes
are granted at disney.
If you want to get to work, yougot to get to work, you want to
make it happen you better writeit down and make a plan yeah so
(31:22):
how did you get that knowledge?
Speaker 1 (31:24):
yeah, so, uh, being that my background is education,
I wanted to make sure that Iknew what the hell I was doing.
Um.
So about three weeks in, when Iwas just spraying dirt and
hoping, um, I said this is notgoing to work.
It takes too long, thisabsolutely sucks.
There's gotta be a better way.
I did a fair amount of research.
I drove down to uh, roanoke,alabama, and actually got
(31:45):
trained by a guy that's been um.
He's been in the industry.
He's actually my age.
He's been in the industry sinceinception.
His father invented the roofwashing, roof soft washing
process back in the late 80s andearly 90s, when the asphalt
shingle companies changed overfrom limestone over to sand and
(32:08):
now algae can grow in it.
Those are the streaks that yousee on everybody's roof.
It's actually something liveeating your roof.
You need to get rid of it.
Um, his dad is the one thatinvented it.
I went and got trained by him.
Um learned a couple of thingshe was doing wrong.
Towards the end of the summer,we, um, we invested in more
education, more training of thatyear with another guy that's
(32:30):
been in the industry for 30years, went through his whole
online course.
Um, just to make sure that wewere fully beefed up, went to a?
Um pressure washer conference,got a little bit more in terms
of education, made sure, uh,that we knew what the hell we
were doing.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
So the teacher became the student.
Wow, and now going to be theteacher again.
Going to be the teacher again,so, okay, so August is coming,
yeah, absolutely.
What are we doing differentthan you did the first year?
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, so we've added a little bit more in terms of
networking.
Where you and I met, we havejoined a commercial real estate
networking organization that istied to everything commercial
real estate and so we're tryingto find and meet more folks
there partnering with.
We have found that we helpinsurance agents on the property
(33:19):
and casualty side becomesolution providers for this
epidemic that folks are runninginto.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Is that a pun solution?
Did we miss a pun there?
Solution.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Solution.
He's a solution provider.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You get it, I get it, I get it.
That folks are running into Dowe miss a pun there?
He's a solution provider, youget it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
It's pretty fun.
Yeah, I was actually takingnotes because I realized my note
taker wasn't working, so I gotto get these back on.
Oh, are you AI?
Now I'm your AI.
Just don't look at me.
I'm Chris.
All right, so he's a solutionprovider.
Yeah, the insurance.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I'm a pressure washing engineer okay, sure,
yeah, we, we try to.
Not you wash it fake, applystuff.
Oh yeah, no, my, my wife wantsto kill me all the time but I
just say I, I spray water for aliving, but yeah, so my wife's
gonna kill me because I justconsistently say that all we do
(34:14):
is spray water for a living, butall right, yeah, you skipped
over something.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You said um, that let's.
I want to get back to this.
So 23 august, whoops 24 you hada banner year that you said all
right.
So the rest of us are gettingour ass kicked in home services
because of all the pull forwardand the covid stuff was over.
You thrived through that, sokudos to you for doing that.
If that's really true, unlesshe's pulling smoke up my ass,
(34:38):
alan.
I, as you know, we talked tosome of these guys before.
I believe you um, no man.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
But well, there is something to be said about you
know, when 2008 hit, which Idon't remember, and we all just
face-planted.
If you started a business in2008, you could have a
trajectory.
That's me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That's probably what I would say.
So definitely not blowing smoke.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
No, you didn't, that's why I was joking, but
that's exactly the corollarythat I think a lot of people
might have missed.
So for us, establishedcompanies, when 20 hit, um, I
would, as I've told peoplebefore, I was staring at option
a, which is dude I'm out ofbusiness.
I mean, I went through thethree phases of truth.
I ignored it, I denied itvehemently, and then I finally
accepted it as intuitivelyobvious.
(35:24):
And then I'm sitting theregoing, um, nobody, I could not
sit there and go.
Hey well, people are living intheir house.
Now they're going to need yourhelp.
Yeah well, they won't let me intheir house.
So how am I going to help them?
We're done.
I mean, this is, I don't havesix months worth of payroll to
make.
And then I hear thegovernment's going to help me.
I'm like, yeah, that's, I'venever heard that Were the
government.
were you here to help?
(35:45):
Oh my God, I was able to keepthe doors open and then we
rocked it.
And then what happened was, in24, um, that all of the pull
forward work had gone away.
Um, people had done all theirhigh priority work on their
homes.
People had, uh, remortgaged alltheir houses.
People had already doneeverything they wanted to do and
now they wanted to get back totravel when they had taken care
(36:07):
of all this stuff.
They wanted to get back toexperiences and didn't want to
work in the houses.
So my 24 absolutely sucked, guys, and you want to go back, and
you can go back and listen to.
One of the episodes I talked toalan about is I was in a a funk
in the christmas time because24 just went so bad for me and I
knew it was going to happen,but I didn't act like it was
(36:27):
going to happen.
So kudos to you for growingthrough that to get ready
because you're on a pretty goodlong run now of what we're
hoping that in 25, 26,especially in the Atlanta area,
will be good.
But even in the U?
S, I think if you're in thehome services business, you're
in a good spot.
Yeah, um, it's not going to beoutsourced.
People are going to be lookingat it more.
There is going to be a hybridof work from home.
(36:48):
It's going to balance back outagain.
I think we're switching thependulum really hard back to
office and I think it'll startto swing back.
That's actually what I'mstarting to feel, because nobody
said it yet.
They're actually just allgetting pushed back.
So I think that's great.
That's why I wanted to makesure we came back to that and
hit this again.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
So no, I appreciate that.
Another huge shout out to mywife.
So while she gives me crap alot of the time and everything,
she fully supports this,especially after we made it
through the first like six yearsor sorry, six months, that's
okay.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I still think he's pulling smoke, yeah, and if
she's listening.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
If she's probably listening, she's probably proud
of him right now.
Do you have a sister?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
No, she doesn't a good friend.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
No, I mean, she's got terrific friends, but they're
all with houses cleaning dayaway, chris back, all right no,
so back to my lonely room no, wedid, uh, we did pretty well.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
But another thing that I think we coupled b and I
with uh, something I haven'tcoined or anything, but I'll
just call it a, give a factor,um, where, rather than coming
around and saying, hey I'llpressure wash your driveway, hey
I'll wash your house, oranything like that, do, do you
want this crap done?
We tried to take a morestrategic approach at what are
(38:11):
people really needing andwanting right now, and what we
found was that a lot ofinsurance carriers were trying
to offload a ton of their risk.
So trampolines that folkshaven't told them about.
Pools, that they haven't toldthem about limbs that are
hanging over a roof or, like wetalked about earlier, algae
(38:32):
streaks on the roof.
So that is a thing of regularmaintenance.
Up in the Pacific Northwest theyprobably look at us like what
are you even doing?
How do you not know?
But down here, folks didn'tknow.
So you probably need your roofcleaned every five to seven
years because algae will show up, despite what the shingle
manufacturers will tell you.
So all the green crap probablyneed your roof cleaned every
five to seven years becausealgae will show up, despite what
the uh shingle manufacturerswill tell you.
(38:52):
All the green crap on my roofis bad, it's live and it's
eating your shingles.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
So so god but you might be able to harvest it and
use it for some of your greatcooking ellen.
I think you can eat it, oh mygod, or get it clean with some
mushrooms.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Oh, just replace a little bit of white wine, uh
send them to scott.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
at least he's not saying we're going to put
something on your roof that'sgoing to make it last forever,
which is some of the things thathave been coming out, and I've
actually interviewed some ofthese guys on that product and,
yes, I'm officially dissing it.
I think it'll give you a littlebit of life, but it's only
going to be a little bit of life.
It's not going to be that uhforever.
It does give it a little moreuh, elasticity and a little bit
more resilience to the uv, butnot for long are you saying yes?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
are you starting to see like if you do somebody's
roof and suddenly everybody elsegoes, that roof looks good and
my roof looks like crap.
Are you getting a lot ofreferral that way, just from
people?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
not enough to actually attribute.
Uh, really, it is still kind ofnew.
Um, there's only, out of the 60roofs we cleaned last year, I'd
probably say 40 of them wereone insurance carrier.
Um, and I would call that theproactive insurance carrier.
They're all going to come it'sseven yeah um, but it's not it's
(40:06):
not regular.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
If you think about it , you don't think about your
roof.
A lot of times, you don't thinkabout your fascia, you don't
think about your gutters, Ithink about mine all the time I
look up at it and I'm like wowyeah, well, that's why you're
the one of one in yourneighborhood that's going to
wash your roof, and I knowyou're how is their green up
there?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
huh then, how's their green up there?
He didn't know there was asolution and he's definitely I
didn't know there was a solution.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I actually bought some crap at Lowe's and shot it
up there and I think it wasfertilizer.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Okay, I want to know how do you grow, how do you
train your guys to shoot fourstories and not like take an eye
out.
I mean that's got to be someserious talent, right?
Probably has a kick.
I know a little kick.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
It does.
It does Absolutely, becauseit's also 15 gallons a minute.
So your average pressure washerthat you buy at home is two,
three gallons a minute.
So we're talking like fivetimes when it comes to the
volume coming out.
That's why we look at formermilitary right, they know how to
wield guns.
Yeah, yeah, dugga, dugga, dugga, dugga, dugga.
(41:06):
No, so most of it's my oldteaching practice of you watch,
I do, you do, I watch by.
I can't remember what theactual thing is, but we just
slow roll it out where they knowwhat the hell is.
They know what's happening first.
They see it Right.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
So, uh, so what does success look like?
Is it four or five trucks?
Is it where you want to takeyour business?
Did you written it down,business plan where you?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
at um, that's one another one that alice would uh
kill me on.
I've not written any businessplan down at this point, which
is really stupid.
And alice in here, yeah, yeah,yeah, she'll tell you about all
of him in a room, and then wecan talk to her match game yeah,
and bring him out where's thecraziest place you've been,
Whoopi?
Oh, please don't do the matchgame.
She'll find out that shedoesn't deserve someone like me.
(41:56):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Now.
Is she in the business with you?
Is she actually working andhelping, or is she out there
working in a different job?
Speaker 1 (42:05):
No, she's in a different role.
She helps business ownerschoose the right benefits
packages, both for employees,property and casualty insurance,
business insurance, the wholenine.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Small business or large, large, okay, nice, all
right.
So there's your health benefits.
That's helping you, correct,definitely can't take that away.
And she is a big supporterbecause it's allowing you to go
chase your dream.
So you got us where we are.
We're talking about what we'redoing for that no business plan,
which is, which is guess, adefinite recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah, it's awful, yeah, it's horrible for me yeah,
so that's good.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Hopefully this has been cathartic for you, don't
you realize?
Just, not only it's your wife,but now alan and chris are both
telling you you're, you're sochris had a plan.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
his wife doesn't you love what he does?
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I mean, you know who's got a better gig, chris.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Can I?
Speaker 3 (42:57):
go live with your boat.
That's right, he goes to the.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Now we are doing the matching, yeah it's a bad thing.
No, we're looking at actuallysitting down and fully doing an
old school like actual businessplan, because I know that we
will actively need it.
Um, most of our business planat this point has been get
Justin off the truck, um, andcontinue to double.
(43:20):
So my first, my first line wasif we can continue to double for
seven to 10 years, we willreach our retirement goals,
which would be phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So you kind of have just a super simple one correct
Cause.
You're, you're, you're actuallylooking at your numbers, yeah,
you're comparing year over year.
You kind of know where you wantto be Right.
You just haven't made itofficial?
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, we haven't written anything down.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
So welcome to Disneyland.
So listen to your hopes andwishes.
Um, my, my biggest thing I hopeyou take away from this one is
get it written down, because ifyou do that, what you're going
to do is you're going to back upinto what it's going to take
from a marketing.
You now need to multiplyyourself in other ways, and
digital media is one way.
With the advent of AI andwhat's happening, google, for
(44:15):
the first time ever, has lostsearch share.
The chatbots are actually doingtheir thing out there, but in
BNI, in my case, I actually havethree people in my company in
BNI and I'm not one of them.
It's a weekly commitment, it's abig-time commitment, but it's a
great.
It's one of those things.
That's sweat equity.
You're doing it so as you'rethinking about that part, and
then it's the operational partof this, and then it's the how
(44:38):
do you keep those trucks runningand those four-story pumps
working?
And then just kind of rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat and
get that thing going.
So those guys at the time yeah.
Or you could look at it fromanother perspective.
If you don't have goals and aplan, you have nothing to fall
short of.
So you've always got that goingfor you with no expectations.
(44:58):
How could you not beat themright?
Right, he seems much happier,he.
He clearly is way happierbecause he just said I'm gonna
hit my retirement goals.
I'm like me too at 94, it's uhignorance.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
I am becoming more and more of a subscriber to that
.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Yeah, this has been great, very interesting.
I think we have talked aboutpressure washers and what's
funny is that we talk about whatyou said.
You said something that wasvery interesting.
You found your flock and you'vebeen playing in it and you've
been going to learn over here.
And then you realize, well, man, everybody's doing this.
Well, guess what man?
Everybody is over here.
(45:33):
And then you realize, well, man, everybody's doing this.
Well, guess what, man?
Everybody's not doing this.
And if you're listening to thispodcast, you're one of the very
few that are trying to investback in your business and in
yourself.
And you think, well,everybody's got a podcast and,
by the way, they don't know theway his name is most of them
suck.
His name is richard.
He doesn't have a podcast.
I found him.
Uh, he's the only one.
I know, there's only one.
But when you find that flock,you really think, oh.
And then you fall into thissyndrome of well gosh, if
everybody's doing, everybody'sdoing it.
(45:54):
Man, I got competition all overthe place and you realize, no,
the competition really is thepeople who aren't doing what
you're doing furthering youreducation and furthering your
knowledge and trying to buildthat system that can be scalable
.
It's just not happening, man,and I'll tell you what those are
.
The people are going to fail,not the justins of the world I
really appreciate that thank youthat helps
Speaker 1 (46:15):
yeah, thank you I was going to go into the closet and
like cry, but for a momentdon't do that yet.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
Thank you for yeah, I was going to say uh, so is it 2
, 30, 3, 30 or 4 30?
When do you wake up and pullyourself up going?
What the hell did I do tomyself?
Because I was just there lastnight 3, 30 in the morning
answering in fact, I got ittoday.
Why were you answering emailsat 3 30?
Speaker 2 (46:34):
I said I was up wow, you need to outsource that,
chris the pain and agony andanguish of starting my own
business.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
You let me know who I can offload that to.
That's the Trusted Toolbox,chris at thetrustedtoolboxcom,
if you'd like to buy a great,successful handyman business.
No, we're cranking, but no, Iwas not because I was wallowing.
I was up and I just couldn'tstop.
I was going to do this let's berespectful of everybody's time
and then I went screw it, Ican't get, I get it.
(47:06):
So I started firing off emailsso I could get answers when I
got to the office in the morning.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
That was a.
That's actually an entry toworking with Justin is.
I will work all the time.
It's always on my brain.
I will send you a text message.
I'll send you an email.
If it's outside of hours, don'tstress about replying, but I
needed to get it off my chest.
I needed to get it out there sothat I don't forget about it.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
And I need to what is the etiquette to that now?
Cause I mean, you know you'resupposed to be connected 24
seven, but you get a.
You get a text at 10 o'clock atnight.
Oh, I don't want, I don't wantto set the precedent that I'm
just sitting there waiting foryour freaking text.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
No, I would tell you, I actually do talk about this
in my own company is that wehave to set boundaries.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
And I'll tell you what if Chris answers a customer
complaint, that truly is not anemergency at 3 o'clock on a
Saturday.
I've now set the bar for mycompany that anybody who does
not respond at 3 o'clock on aSaturday afternoon is not like
Chris.
Therefore, chris is the onlyone who can solve my problem.
So what I've told everybody isthat you set the expectation if
not an emergency meaning thereis not a smell of gas, there is
not a leak that's going to takemy house away, there is not a
(48:17):
hole in my roof becausesomething fell through, we're
not an emergency service thenthat one waits till monday.
Um, you can send a text message24 hours later over the weekend
and I'll get back to you onMonday.
That's fine.
But if you don't get back tothem on Monday, then you have
not done what the TrustedToolbox and our Trusted Toolbox
way is about, and that is withinso many hours you're expected
(48:38):
to hear back.
And so we talk about email, textmessages and phone calls, and
we've tried to set that so it'smore standardized, and I would
tell you it feels like it'sworking better because it took
me out of the main primary, uh,solvent role because I was
jumping too fast instead ofletting my team take care of
something again.
Not everything we do is anurgency.
Just because a guy just etchedhis name in the side of a house
(49:01):
does not mean by sunday morningat eight o'clock he needs to
have his whole house resided.
No, you probably can live withit.
Yeah, it looks pretty silly,you're right, but you know, at
the end of the day it's just notgoing to hurt anybody if you
get it done in three weeks, notto mention do you want a rush
job?
Speaker 1 (49:15):
That was the problem to begin with.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Right.
So did you want him to finishhis name?
That's right.
What was?
What was his last name?
Nathanson, perfect, let me goafter it like peeing in the snow
.
So with the goal, you're goingto stay in the niches, bringing
the riches right.
You're going to stay inpressure washing commercial,
residential, stay in that niche,keep rolling with it, not get
(49:38):
that shiny object syndrome.
Is that what?
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I'm hearing.
I mean the answer to that isabsolutely yes, maybe at a point
yeah, so, um, I'm not sure ifyou guys are.
Are y'all familiar with AlexRamosi?
Have you heard that name?
Speaker 3 (49:51):
I've heard the name.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Okay.
So he talks about, orreferences, the woman in the red
dress from the Matrix a littlebit ago, and something he's
always talking about isentrepreneurs turn around and
they're always looking at thatwoman in the red dress and it's
pulling you a differentdirection.
Yeah, as you get bigger, as youmake a hundred grand, the
(50:13):
woman's wearing a hundred grand.
As you make a million, thewoman's wearing a million
dollars.
And so the the no typicallygets more and more difficult.
So at this point I'd probablysay I'm going to, I'll flip it
just for a moment.
I'll be that jerk teacher thatanswers a question with a
question.
Then so crates, so crates.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
He's going to ask us a question.
Are you ready, Alan?
You better be ready.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
I'm getting that breathalyzer.
I just amused myself with abill and ted reference.
Yeah, I've been prettyimpressed with it.
Thank you, that would be acrazy adventure.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
That was an excellent adventure, um, no, so we have a
couple of differentopportunities that are at our
disposable disposable right now,disposal right now.
Um, so one of our suppliers, orour dealer, chemical
distributor, whatever you wantto call them, um is privately
for sale right now and we wouldlove to kind of acquire that and
(51:12):
be a resource for training andeducation on the proper way to
do things and, um, help peopleout in a different way.
Um, or in addition to, and sowe've looked at potentially
acquiring a dealership.
Um, and then I have been.
I've got an appointment I thinkit's next week.
(51:32):
I've got to look at my calendarbut, uh, an appointment with a
third engineer to develop ourdirect consumer product because,
as Alan mentioned a little bitearlier today, um, he's probably
using his pressure washer wrong.
You probably only really need agarden hose and then you
purchase something that was onthe shelf, that was garbage and
it didn't really help you.
So we are in conversations withengineers to actually use my
(51:56):
expertise and knowledge todevelop a direct-to-consumer
product.
So should I, because they'readjacent, so should I, because
they're adjacent, because theycan potentially assist our
business, get distracted by thewoman in the red dress?
Or is it time for me to pivotbecause my drive is somewhere
(52:18):
else?
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Alan, I'm going to let you go first.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
My drive is somewhere else.
I feel like I've.
It's kind of like back when Iwas a math teacher.
I was really really good atmath and other kids weren't.
That really sucks.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
So you feel like you've mastered pressure washing
and now you're just kind ofwhat's next?
Speaker 1 (52:38):
I appreciate that.
No, I don't feel like I'vemastered it.
There will always be things tolearn, um.
But because I went through somany negative iterations on the
front end and had so manyhiccups and I was devoted to
getting a proper education fromthe vets in the industry and
they helped me learn a littlebit, but trip up on some other
(53:00):
things, I feel like my educationbackground, mixed with what
I've learned over the last twoyears, would help the average
Joe, the average Chuck on atruck, so that they are not
messing up, siding all over theplace and not ruining all of
these surfaces.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
So this is the classic scenario Do you stay,
stay in your lane, focus on whatyou're good at, what you know,
or do you diversify?
Is that not right?
Speaker 3 (53:30):
so I guess that one.
Um, so I could ask a couple uh.
So back to our mastermind group.
Let me ask a couple clarifyingquestions.
Let's go rapid fire because weknow we're coming to the end and
then I want to make sure we gotthe right question and then
we're going to go back andanswer.
That's what we do do in ourmastermind.
A couple of clarifyingquestions.
Would this the firstopportunity?
Would this be a verticalintegration to allow you to buy
(53:51):
product at a cheaper rate andalso sell?
Yes, okay, the secondopportunity where you develop
this solution, is it mechanicalor is it chemical?
Mechanical mostly, mechanicalmostly and would that help you
vertically integrate as well?
Um, are there two separateinitiatives at the same time?
(54:13):
Would it?
Would it be like that, or arethey the same people?
Speaker 1 (54:17):
uh, different people, potentially the same initiative
.
So my direct to consumerproduct would actually rely on
me becoming a dealership?
Um, because the chemicalmanufacturers that will allow
you to white label will notallow you to white label and
send everything not to adealership.
Speaker 3 (54:36):
So you'd have to work on two different initiatives at
the time with two differentsets of people to develop a suit
.
Yeah, Gotcha, All right.
So, um, let me reframe thequestion.
Your question is is should I dothis or should I stay in my
lane?
The question is should I pursueone or both or none of these?
So I think that's the questionI would ask, and then let's go
(55:00):
ahead and answer that.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, I don't know if we can answer it.
I mean, we probably have a lotmore questions to ask, but you
know, one is do you have theresources to be able to do that?
Speaker 3 (55:12):
I would say number one's, financial, that's one.
Number two, um, bandwidth,that's your time, because it
sounds like we're draining onyou.
Our number one resource, yeah,and then three, uh, would be
your team.
Would they have to be involvedas well?
Speaker 1 (55:29):
So answer to question one finances.
I never worry about thatbecause I know I can figure it
out.
I've got friends that are inM&A and we'll find the right
people if we need to.
I've got painful levels ofconfidence on that.
The remind me of question twoagain you, your resource, your
(55:50):
time.
Yeah, my bandwidth is alwaysstretched then, but I feel like
with the proper team, which Iknow will take more of the
bandwidth up front, I have ateam that is beginning to build
on the actual delivery side ofthe business and there's already
a team in place at thedealership, and so as long as I
could continue thoserelationships and or better them
(56:13):
, I actually feel like it willtake some stuff off of my plate
because I'll have people to handsome of the other items to the
admin.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
All right, and then back to your existing pressure
washing team.
You're saying you could buildthat up.
Speaker 1 (56:27):
We could we could absolutely build that up at the
same time.
I don't know if I feel rightabout building that and then
also being potentially mycustomer's competitor at the
same time, so it's very likelythat I would spend that down
while I um took on thedealership role entirely.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
So I don't like that one.
To be honest with you, I'mgoing to shoot straight.
You're right, I can't answerall the questions now.
I know we're coming to the end,but the quick analysis would be
I don't like going after two atthe same time because I think
it's going to stretch you thin.
I definitely would keep growingthat pressure washing business
If you sound like you've got avet and I don't know what it
goes.
But if you dangle the carrot,I'm going to give you more
(57:08):
opportunity and I'll give youmore piece of my biz and and not
necessarily you can give theman ownership stake without
giving an ownership stake.
Right, you can do it in nameonly.
Keep it, always.
Keep it in your name anyway, itdoesn't matter, and let them go
run their pressure washing.
You're you pilot, you're thebeta, you're the test site.
You're not competing againstthe people you're going to sell
this against, because with thestuff you're talking about, this
(57:30):
is opening up the region andthe country and potentially
worldwide, right, right.
So I like the idea.
With the, the chemicals, I thinkone of the things I would look
at between the two of them iswhich one you think you're
closer aligned with a solution.
Quicker.
It sounds to me like thechemicals and that's what it
sounded like to me too, and ifthat's the one, then I would
probably slow walk themechanical or the uh, chemical
(57:52):
slash mechanical one business,especially business to consumer,
because I I just was going toopen up a huge can of worms.
We can't but go back and listento mr wall storage uh, one of
our episodes with rich Richardtalking about how he had to
build his and then sell throughAmazon and the beast that
becomes business to consumer istotally different than the
business to consumer modelyou're working through that we
(58:15):
work through in my business.
So I like that staying closeand I actually would say give it
a green light.
I would go after doing it.
I would definitely put a lot ofthought around the contingency
of if my guys don't make ithappen in my current business,
which is paying bills andfeeding my self-worth and my B&I
.
I would also tell you thatyou're probably going to be done
(58:36):
with the treasure.
You're probably going to haveto slow down some of the
networking to do the other stuffyou're going to do and that's
going to impact some things.
So you've got to think aboutthe unintended consequence that
happens to the pressure-washingbusiness, which I think can be
avoided, can be mitigated Again.
Get your number one to become anumber one and then he gets his
(58:58):
team going and he can run intoa B&I meeting and he can become
that guy.
You can do some other thingsaround there, but it's up to you
to decide on that.
I like the idea, man.
I like that you're in thatunique position.
This is really cool and Iappreciate you turning the
tables and let's kind ofworkshop that a little bit here
on the small business safari.
But with that we've done ourtime, we've made it through here
.
Justin, thank you so much forcoming on.
(59:20):
I don't want to go through thefour questions because he turned
the tables on us and we killedit.
Baby, we probably didn't answereverything right.
You know what I didn't think.
I'll tell you what if weanswered anything wrong.
I challenge you, chris, at thetrusted toolboxcom hit me up and
we'll figure out.
We'll get justin better advice.
We already know a bunch of guyswho've been on, who've been in
this business a lot longer thanus, but I think justin has a
(59:42):
really unique opportunity thatsome of these guys would be
going to.
Ooh, I want to hear more aboutthat.
I know for a fact one of themwill, because I just got done
going back and forth with him.
He wants to get me back on thepod to talk to him for a little
while.
So this has been great.
Justin, how can everybody findyou my exterior cleaner and
connect with you?
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Yeah, so we have.
I mean, we've got the domainmyexteriorcleanercom, but then
you can also follow us on oursocial channels.
The handle is alsomyexteriorcleaner.
We're probably most active onInstagram and LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Dang it.
Making successful happen.
Making clean happen.
Cleaning roofs, like your algaeroof, alan.
Oh my God, you pig.
He could write his name in myroof.
I wouldn't even know.
I want to go over there and dothat.
Let's do it.
Hey guys, great story here.
Man, go listen to this one.
This has been good.
If you didn't learn something,then that's on you, because you
spent 45 minutes with us.
(01:00:33):
Maybe you put it at 1.25, whichis what I usually do.
You only spent 35 minutes withus.
But go out there, man Ratereview to check out our book,
because nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
We're actually getting somenotices, getting some books sold
.
People are buying your book,I'm not kidding you.
Yes, I'm getting royalty checks, baby.
Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the
Small Business Safari.
Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
Until next time we're out of here, your positive
attitude will help you achievethat higher altitude you're
looking for in a wild world ofsmall business ownership.
And until next time, make it agreat day.
or, like we talked about earlier, algae streaks on
the roof.
So that is a thing of regularmaintenance.
Up in the Pacific Northwestthey probably look at us like
what are you even doing?
How do you not know?
But down here folks didn't know.
So you probably need your roofcleaned every five to seven
years because algae will show updespite what the shingle
(00:21):
manufacturers will tell you.
So all the green crap on myroof is bad, it's live and it's
eating your shingles.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
But you might be able to harvest it and use it for
some of your great cooking.
Alan, I think you can eat it,oh my God, or get it cleaned, or
get some mushrooms, justreplace a little bit of white
wine.
Send them to Scotland.
At least he's not saying we'regoing to put something on your
roof that's going to make itlast forever, which is some of
the things that have been comingout, and I've actually
interviewed some of these guyson that product and, yes, I'm
(00:51):
officially dissing it.
I think it'll give you a littlebit of life, but it's only
going to be a little bit of life.
It's not going to be thatforever.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It does give it a little bit more resilience to
the UV, but not for long Are youstarting to see, like if you do
somebody's roof and suddenlyeverybody else goes hmm, that
roof looks good and my rooflooks like crap.
Are you getting a lot ofreferral that way, just from
people?
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Not enough to actually attribute.
Really it is still kind of new.
There's only, out of the 60roofs we cleaned last year, I'd
probably say 40 of them were oneinsurance carrier and I would
call that the proactiveinsurance carrier.
They're all going to come.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
It's seven.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, but it's not it's not regular.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
If you think about it , you don't think about your
roof.
A lot of times you don't thinkabout your fascia, you don't
think about your gutters.
I think about mine all the timeI look up at it and I'm like
wow yeah, well, that's whyyou're the one of one in your
neighborhood's gonna wash yourroof, and I know you're how is
their green up there?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
huh, then how's their green up there?
He?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
didn't know.
There was a solution and he'sdefinitely I didn't know.
There's a solution.
I actually bought some crap atlowe's and shot it up there and
it I think it was fertilizer,fertilizer.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Welcome to the Small Business Safari where I help
guide you to avoid those traps,pitfalls and dangers that lurk
when navigating the wild worldof small business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
(02:27):
and professional goals.
So strap in Adventure Team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
Alan, alan, alan, am I about tobe scolded?
(02:51):
You know, every once in a whilewe say don't leave it in the
green room and it's taken me 20minutes to get you to the damn
microphone so we can get on withteaching people about what
we're doing and how we're doingthings.
My God, alan, alan, you are mrchit chat, chit chat, chit, chat
, chat, chit chat, chit chatwell, you know why what?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
no, you know.
Shortly after I talked aboutmaybe we shouldn't be drinking
quite so much bourbon, on ourpodcast, our guest shows up with
a homemade kit for old fashions, with wellers and orange, the
cherries, the homemade simplesyrup and we and we said to that
everybody don't be a quitter.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Cheers, alan, let's get after it.
Justin, thank you for joiningus thank you guys for guys we
got a great episode.
Uh, got another in-personepisode.
Very excited about that.
Before I get started, man, ifyou haven't gone out there and
given us a review, love for youto go out there and review us.
Just read a couple new ones.
We got alan.
People are saying we're funny.
People are saying they'relearning.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's what we're after look out, you're not
reading the bad ones, right?
Hey, I'm skipping them over.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You know what?
Why is it always five or one,five or one.
You can never.
Is there any is there?
Does anybody ever do a three orfour?
Don't do that that, just dofives for us.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
We love you guys.
As a former math teacher, ithas to do with their number
sense.
They don't know that there aremiddle numbers.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Oh, perfect.
So now let me insult the entireaudience.
It's your number sense.
You have a number problem, areyou?
Numberism Great.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
We're going to be a solid two.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, baby, we are a five.
I'm telling you Been out thereactually getting scheduled on
other people's podcasts.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's kind of a big deal now, chris.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Big deal, he's out there, we're getting out, there
Are you being selective or areyou just saying yes to everybody
, like the big whore that youare?
So I identify with that remark.
Yes, sex trafficking.
I'm podcast trafficking.
So I guess we need Christy DKufle to come back and save me.
That's right.
Come up there, she can pull youout, pull me, go undercover and
(04:49):
say, chris, just say no.
But I'm like I can't.
I love the shiny light, I likethat.
They said they had candy.
I wanted to go.
I had to go to the podcast.
So I did no selective uh, but Idid, um, I did help a couple
guys out.
New podcast uh went on there.
They're like I can't believeyou do that.
I'm like, hey, brother, I wishother people would have done
that in the beginning.
(05:10):
Uh, now we've got people youknow, obviously we're getting.
We're getting uh, five or sixrequests uh every two weeks.
It's averaging like one everyother day.
Right now people want to comeon so that's all.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Does that math work?
I think it does okay.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, thank you, and the mathposium begins.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'm trying to work on the fastest to three fingers.
There we go.
I got two pre-productionfingers already from Chris.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You did get it early, because I will say that he left
it in the green room and he wasbeing a little chit-chatty, a
little chit-chatty, so it's timeto get going now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
It's not about Chris, daddy, so it's time to get
going now.
It's not about Chris, so I feelbad.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
You should feel bad, and you know what we're going to
do right now.
We're going to make it backabout Chris.
We're back everybody.
What did Big?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Daddy do this weekend .
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Big Daddy put the big boat in.
The yacht is in and it tookfour people.
The pontoon yacht, that's right, but don't get me wrong guys.
It.
But don't get me wrong guys.
It is the Aqua Patio.
It has a crank and sound system.
I put the booster in there.
I can annoy everybody on thelake at one shot, because you
(06:13):
can get across our lake in about2.2 minutes, god.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
No, it's a little bit better.
That's why you don't go on alake in the Atlanta area on a
holiday weekend because ofpeople like you, that's right
baby.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So that's why I took my talents to north carolina in
the mountains.
Oh so I'm.
They hadn't heard of you yet,so I pissed it off.
All the fishermen who are attheir peaceful morning.
Bass are out, they're trying toangle, teaching their young
boys how to fish, and younggirls are getting in and they're
, and they're doing all that.
I come by, go rodneydangerfield right with the big
boat.
I got the big horn too, the airhorn.
It sounds like the whole trackwe're coming through.
That's me, the big daddy, theboat's in summer's here and we
(06:49):
are rocking and rolling.
I don't know when you guys arelistening to this, but we are
going to get this one goingright after memorial day well
and uh, speaking of which,what'd you do this weekend?
Speaker 1 (06:59):
well, uh, I didn't get to put my boat in.
I do piss off a lot offishermen, though, so we're in
the same boat figuratively.
On that one We've got aMastercraft.
We're a surf family, so we lovetheir water and the magnet mat.
So, but no, we.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Paul, you know you piss them off way more than I do
Absolutely, Because I'm atleast playing music.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
But we turn down their music, yeah, or our music.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But you, we turn down their music or our music.
Yeah, but you give them a boatwake that's going to knock them
right off their boat and intothe fish.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Pretty cool.
We try not to Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
But no, this last weekend wasprobably my wife and my last
time that we are going to go upand celebrate Memorial Day
weekend by going to the Indy 500with her father, who has been
doing it for the last like 30,35 years or something with his
(07:49):
fraternity group.
So they rent a bus.
We met them at quarter of fiveIndy morning, drove from
Cincinnati all the way to Indy,hung out with a ton of people I
think there were probably about40 of us, 50, somewhere in there
Hung out, pre-gamed, parkedright next to the stadium,
(08:13):
waited, ate some lunch.
They brought out the Blackstone, cooked a little bit.
Then we went up and we got tosee Indy.
My wife drew Erickson in thepool, which was pretty good, up
until the last like five minutes.
So she got second, which gother nothing, but it's better
than her father.
(08:33):
He pulled Andretti.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
He was the second one out, that's right All day,
because the first one out wasthe guy warming up his tires.
Yep, oh boy, how about warmingup your tires getting ready for
the Indy 500?
You're the odds-on favorite towin the whole damn thing.
And he slips and goeswhoop-de-dang, boom into the
wall.
Crash done over, race over.
He's crying in the cockpit onTV.
(08:56):
He gets out.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Haven't even dropped the flag yet.
No, they were just waiting.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Oh my God, that was.
You want to talk about failureto launch.
And so my brother, who is anindie enthusiast, writes that
was inexcusable.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
He's a professional driver and mark or sorry, brady,
tom brady stayed on the on thetrack longer than he did that's
right there you go.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I heard brady got booed.
He did nice.
Oh, thank god, I would boo himtoo, especially after the
Atlanta thing.
All right, let's get tobusiness, shall we?
Yeah, let's.
I love this, justin and yes, Iam jelly when it comes to going
to the Indy 500.
I heard it's a rite of passageand it's something that, if it's
in your family tradition, it'sjust something you always look
back on.
And, finally, I know a lot ofguys who've done it.
(09:37):
So it's definitely on the list,but my big hookup in NASCAR is
out now, so I'm going to have towait for another hookup.
I got to find more friends,yeah, you do need better friends
, you need way better friends.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I got pocket judges, we could introduce you to our
crew.
You just have to go toCincinnati before.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
I have no problem with that?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Cincinnati chilly.
Yeah overrated Ouch.
I don't know why they put it inCincinnati you just alienate
swaths of people.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Let's do this Just like you in your boat, justin.
Yes, sir, let's get on the boatand let's go make some wakes,
shall we?
So, justin, you have myexterior cleaner.
You guys started this now goingon, you say two years ago.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yes, yeah, we've been official for just a little over
two years.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
All right, let's talk about this entrepreneurial
journey.
So you were not an entrepreneurin the beginning, absolutely
not.
So let's talk about what youdid first, when you got out of
school.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah.
So I went to school, got adegree in math.
Did not want to grow up so Istayed in for my master's In
math, Also math teaching, whichled me to my first career.
So, and then I spent six yearsteaching down the street for my
alma mater over in GwinnettCounty.
Was great Swim coach, divecoach, phenomenal Kids were
(10:49):
great but realized I wasn'tthere for the kids.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
I want to say thank you.
We don't do this often, but wedo.
Thank you for your service.
Isn't that the truth?
Because I know Alan's son is ateacher as well.
We know it.
We've had hunter cluthion also,who has started a school, runs
a school.
Uh, it's definitely a labor oflove.
You're.
You're not going to get richmonetarily doing what you're
doing, um, but you are going toget rich and fulfilled if you
(11:15):
find a passion and what's goingon.
Yeah, at least that's what wekeep telling ellen's.
All right, so you did it forsix years in high school level.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yes, yes, ninth through 11th grade math how fun.
Yeah, it was absolutelyterrific.
I volunteered to teach the kidsthat were having trouble in
math.
So, year after year, oh, so youdoubled down.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah.
It was a lot of fun, though.
I got to teach kids from 14 tolike 21, which was phenomenal.
They were a lot of fun.
You could banter back and forthwith them because they were
basically adults at that point.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah, they get snarky Good sense of humor at that
point.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, that's.
The saddest thing that I lostfrom my time in the classroom is
my quick wit.
I'd like to still think that Ihave wit, at least a little bit
maybe, but all the quickness isabsolutely gone.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
You mean compared to them?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Oh well, thanks, yeah , no.
So that went on for about sixyears.
I was training to be anassistant principal and then a
principal and I basically saw myretirement right in front of my
face, found out, realized thatI wasn't there for the kids or
their advancement anymore.
I was only there for my career,and made the decision that if
(12:28):
you're not there for the kids,open your space up for somebody
else.
So left that role and went intosoftware sales.
So started selling software tocar dealers.
You talk about double down.
I said I want to learn how tosell and I want to do it to.
The people that have to sellevery day know how to say no.
So um did exceptionally wellthere, top six in the nation,
(12:52):
rookie of the year.
They moved me out to Memphis.
I wanted to get back here.
Um unceremoniously left that jobwhen my boss asked me to and uh
uh and moved back to Atlanta,took a couple of other roles,
sold boats for a little bit,sold international finance
contracts, ended my tenure forsomebody else at the Oracle
(13:16):
behemoth so pretty phenomenalinstitution.
They definitely take care oftheir people.
Only thing I didn't want to doany longer is answer to
shareholders.
I wanted to answer to mycustomers and do what was best
for them.
So my wife and I started thiscompany March 23rd of 2023.
And one week later, oracle wentthrough a round of layoffs and
(13:42):
I was last hired, first fired.
So it was put up or shut uptime.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Oh, so you thought you were going to do this as a
side hustle, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That was the original .
Speaker 3 (13:52):
All right, let's get into that a little bit.
So obviously you've got if youcan't tell it already, the guy's
got a great sense of humor anda good gift to gab Clearly a
salesman in the wool.
You were selling the kids onmath and that math was cool.
You were hitting a hole.
I'm going back to the saturdayschool rocks.
Remember those?
Oh god yeah he was making mathcool, so cool, try so yeah,
(14:16):
please don't sing don't sing,chris, I am only a bill, all
right.
So capital bill, okay, all right.
So you got into sales.
So you guys said, hey, I getthis idea, let's start a
pressure washing business.
How would you come up with thatidea?
It's not a new idea, right?
It's clear people are washingshit all over the place.
We've had pressure washingfranchises on, we've had
(14:38):
pressure washing coaches on.
Over the three and a half yearswe've done this.
So what?
Why there?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, uh, actually, if I last another year, um, then
I think I become a pressurewashing coach and a trainer and,
uh, somebody that teaches onInstagram.
I'm pretty sure that's the thetrajectory.
I'm supposed to write aworkbook, um and no, um, but
sorry, no, so, um.
So originally it was a littlebit, because I had some
(15:06):
experience with it.
You know, pressure washing withthe dad, dad teaching you a
little bit of things here andthere.
It was fun.
It really wasn't that terrible.
My wife loved it because it waslow barrier to entry and so if
I failed we were out four grand.
So it really wasn't liketerrible, failed, we were out
four grand.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So it really wasn't like terrible.
Um.
So, for all our listeners, whenyou're thinking about a
business, just pick one thatjust doesn't seem that terrible.
Is that what I'm hearing?
So far.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
I mean he is checking all the boxes of my yeah, did
you go?
Look?
I let's just say we went.
We had a little bit differently.
So I am so like wide-eyed.
Right here my wife says uh,you're gonna lose four grand.
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead gofail.
Thanks, honey, thank you, um,can you unpack me my lunch?
Yeah, baloney.
Now you don't get baloney, goout there and fail.
You get mustard and bread,that's you get all right.
(15:55):
So justin goes out with thislittle lunch pail and tries and
tries to get the four thousanddollar pressure washing business
going as a side hustle Allright.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
And then one week later it's this is not a side
hustle anymore, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, we, we launched the business, launched the
website, did the whole nine.
Um bought a CRM like orlicensed a CRM.
We were going legit, but alsoas a side hustle and then um got
laid off.
We looked at each other, we satdown and said it's put up or
shut up time.
So, um, I went out, reach outto all the folks in the
(16:32):
neighborhood, started poundingthe pavement and filled our book
in April and May, which was apretty phenomenal and then I
went.
What are all these peoplecomplaining about?
Why is it hard?
That's BS, don't worry.
August came and it really hurt.
Um, but what happened in August?
Uh, it's like everybody wentback to school and stopped going
(16:52):
outside and giving a crap abouttheir uh seasonality.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Ah, is that what happened?
Yes, I was waiting for that.
Okay, continue on season.
Even inlanta, there's thingscalled seasonality and the other
thing that you are, uh, on yourway to, and we're gonna get
into that.
So that's fall 23, correct,chris?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
chris would have been so pissed at you if it'd just
been a straight upward.
You know well this littletwinkle in his eye.
As soon as you said august,he's like aha, I was waiting.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, because there's another one coming.
I know it's coming around thecorner in a minute, but but so
all right.
So you hit august.
You're like man, this is uh-oh.
And so what was that uh-oh andhow did you react to it?
Speaker 1 (17:35):
yeah, the uh-oh was we went from a full book book
two weeks out, um, withoutreally any marketing dollars or
on the backbone of my websitethat was garbage, because I
don't know what I'm doing toabsolutely nothing.
And then we continued to reachout to the neighborhood.
(17:56):
Thank goodness, my wife'sfriends had some dirty homes and
trusted me to clean them andtidy them up so that so the wife
was listening.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Thank god, your friends are pigs.
Oh yeah, what's it?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
wow, well, she's not coming over.
For no, she's not, she's not.
I was thinking what a, what agreat partner, you know, she
just she is doing great.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
yeah, she just uh, you know, so you're reaching out
to your friends, are?
You doing this, all Facebookyou doing what?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
what were some?
Most of it was directly um textmessaging.
Wow, a lot of them already knewus or clearly knew us um, but
knew that we had started thebusiness and the fact that we
had launched and sustained overthe course of the summer.
It was like, oh well, maybehe's got a lot of the kinks
worked out so you had a logotruck, you had a good looking
rig, we had magnets um, we stillcarry magnets right now.
(18:50):
We're looking at um wrapping thebox truck in june.
Gotcha, yeah, yeah, this monthall right.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So, uh, you, obviously you dipped and you
figure out.
You got to do a little bit more.
Yeah, uh, I think lesson Iheard there is that word of
mouth is good, you want to grow,you want to sustain.
Word of mouth doesn't make ithappen.
Um, and with uh, people ask me,um, it wasn't on a podcast, it
was at a meeting.
Chris, I'm thinking aboutstarting my business.
What's the very first thing Ishould do?
I said get a google my businesspage if you're a local service
(19:19):
provider.
The website will come later,don't?
You don't need to drop 15, 20grand on a website.
You need to get that Google mybusiness page now, because it's
going to take you probably twomonths with Google to even get
it.
So you guys, get that.
You had that at least, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, yes.
So we had a Google my business.
It wasn't we weren't superactive on it, Um, but it was
live.
Uh, towards that fall westarted.
We got Google guaranteed,started running a couple in
terms of LSAs still didn't knowwhat I was doing Um, hired our
first marketing company.
That was terrific, Um, becauseI've never seen money get lit on
(19:57):
fire that fast, Right, Um, withabsolutely no return, Um, so
that was pretty cool.
And then the winter came.
So the winter came and it wentfull on dry.
So that was pretty difficult.
We tried to hit social mediapretty hard, tried to like
(20:17):
schedule some posts and do somelike slow burn activities, SEO
and things of that nature.
Didn't go quite well.
But then January came, Februarycame, jobs came, March came, we
doubled March, we doubled Juneor sorry, March, April, May,
(20:38):
June and we doubled the business.
More than doubled I think wedid two and a half X on first
year's revenue in our secondyear, um, which was pretty
phenomenal and I owe that a lotto I know you guys are huge
proponents of networking Uh, wejoined in November of 23,.
We joined a BNI organization,so you did a.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
BNI in your local and you are, you're, you're here in
the Atlanta area.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yes, yeah, we're just Northeast of town in the
Decatur.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Decatur area.
Got it Okay, so you're in theAtlanta area.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yes, yeah, we're just northeast of town in the
Decatur, decatur area.
Got it Okay, yep, and,thankfully enough, a huge shout
out to a owner of Squeegee Squadfranchise over in DeKalb County
, because he joined about a weekor two right before I did and
we do a lot of the same stuff.
He's better at windows, I'mbetter at roofs and the rest of
us are the rest of it.
We pretty much do pretty welltogether, um, and he said
(21:30):
there's enough business out herefor all of us.
We won't compete.
This will be great.
And so David and I have anexceptional relationship.
Um, I use him on jobs forwindows, he uses me on jobs for
softwash and reaching fourstories from the ground and the
whole nine.
Um, so it's uh, it's prettyphenomenal.
Um, but joined the BNIorganization about six months
(21:52):
later.
They actually asked me to bethe treasurer because our
treasurer was leaving, and sonow I, um am the.
I've been the treasurer for thelast year and a half.
Uh, and other than a little bitof marketing and hiring a
second marketing company, thatis the only real change in the
business that we've made sinceyear one, and we just keep on,
keep on growing.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So as you've grown, you obviously started out on the
wand, right.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I don't know if that's what they say.
You say on the tool yeah, Iwant to know when he blew his
first hole in somebody's housewith.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
you know, oops we actually specially purchased a
metal stencil to spray our logoon concrete.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Beautiful.
I love that because I did comeacross a years ago.
I came across a guy who lookedlike he was trying to put his
name in this guy's sighting andI was like and he's the guy's
like, what can you do with that?
I said look at it, laugh withyou, man.
I said I don't know.
I said there's no way I canblend that out.
I said I just I'm not apressure washer, but I can
(22:55):
replace your siding if you want.
If you can't get it back out,he goes can I paint it?
I'm like it's vinyl siding, man, I don't think so, nope.
So the answer was no, yep.
And he has a vital sign.
Oh my gosh.
But this guy just absolutelytore into this sucker man, it
was good stuff.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
That's one of my favorite things to see.
So low barrier to entry meansthat a lot of people join it.
I love all the landscapers.
They'll do all of these greatthings, great things.
They'll have it all over theside of the truck.
And then the very last bulletpoint is pressure washing.
You'll see a painter.
Exact same thing, pressurewashing.
So what they don't realize isthat anything above ground we
(23:32):
use a soft pressure system, alow pressure system.
It maxes out at like threetimes your garden hose.
The only time that we use, orthe only thing that we use,
those pressure washer systemsfor, is to get height out of our
water.
It's not to apply with pressure.
So we rely heavily on chemical.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think I'm using my pressure water wrong, because I
just like blowing the crap offof things you like putting your
name in the yeah, you do, I knowyou know, come on it's power
you're feeling it so, uh, youstarted on the one, uh, and so
now, how many crews do you haveand how?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
when's the last time you actually had to go out there
and do one yourself?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
oh, like last week there, but uh absolutely last.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's right.
Two years into it and I stillget out there.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That's right yeah, so , um, we that's actually a fun
story is how I got off the truckwas, uh, last may I was setting
up my ladder.
It was a brand new ladder.
I was trying to be, uh, realballsy and move it away.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
That I should not have you were jumping, it
weren't you?
You?
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You hopped it.
I tried to put it on the secondstory but I didn't have the
leverage.
I was using one of thosegorilla ladders, the kind of
A-frame.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Oh yeah, yeah, those are heavy as hell too, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
And so I had it all the way out, 28-foot full
stretch.
And I was on one end trying toget it up on a second story
ladder, like I'm a gorilla orsomething.
I have no strength.
I'm five foot seven.
I haven't been to the gym inlike three, four years, so I've
got nothing on that.
And then I went ah, you knowwhat, I could probably just put
it right here on the garagefirst, and so I rested on the
garage and then my thought wasI'll just hop up on the garage
(25:06):
and then do it again and move itto the second story.
So I take four steps.
I was only four rungs up Ladderslipped, I jumped, fell on my
left elbow and broke my humerusin half.
That was last May, so I had afull book and went well.
I think you call themChris-isms.
I had some expletives, thankyou.
(25:28):
You learned French.
Oui, fucking, oui.
Expletives, um, to, actually,you learned french um, we,
fucking, we, yeah.
So I stood up, cussed a littlebit, uh, got back in my truck,
drove to the hospital.
Um, wife still yells at me forthat.
Um, I've got a really funnystory if you really want to
picture it.
Um, but we.
That can be another one of howI actually got there and the
(25:52):
cluster that it was to actuallyget into the hospital.
But long story short broke thehumorous in half.
Um, it's fun when your x-raytech looks at you and goes, I'm
not supposed to tell youanything, but, uh, you really
fucking broke it.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
you really broke didn't need to go to school for
that one, did you be?
No, absolutely not so.
Clue, gin the tea that my legis right now, um but I don't
even know what it is.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
This is another.
Uh, thank god for being I.
So I had a, an excellent godson that helped me out for about
a week to fill in, and then ourproperty inspector, um, shout
out to Rick.
He has a couple of sons, um,but two of them that needed work
over the summer, and so I putthem on the truck and I rode
(26:40):
with them every single day.
Um showed them what to do, orshowed them, talked them sorry,
talked them through how to do it, how to do it the right way,
how to use low pressure, stillget all the dirt and the grime
off.
And that was my story for how Igot off the truck.
Once I went back to school, Igot back on the truck.
(27:01):
Now we've hired a couple offolks.
I've got a former vet that justcame home in March and he's
running my truck now.
Uh, we just promoted him lastweek to like lead tech, where he
is the guy.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
So everybody talks to him, so falling off the ladder
was a blessing in disguise.
Oh yeah, helped you scale sothat your scaling advice is hurt
yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, pretty much.
Uh, put up or shut up.
No, it's for me.
I have a I have a problem with,I have to.
I can't like slow into anything.
So I had to be fired.
Oracle had to fire me,otherwise it was going to be a
side business for life.
I had to fall off the ladder,otherwise I was going to be a
solopreneur for life.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Wow so yeah, when you say business trajectories have
a lot of ups and downs,ba-dum-pum, it happens.
But wow, but wow.
That is again a forced exit, aforced change.
So I would highly recommendeverybody, don't go break your
body.
Learn from this, but figure outhow to teach and coach to be
(28:01):
able to grow.
Back to what you were jokingabout earlier.
But that's how you grow.
So right now you've got onetruck rolling, you're running
around, you're figuring out theadvertising.
I take it that's kind of whereyour role is now.
Has it kind of moved to bookingscheduling, advertising guy?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, so we've been full operation, or I've been
full operations and sales likesince the inception, but now
it's it's gotten a little bithairier right, so now I actually
schedule people rather thanjust scheduling myself.
So there's more things to thinkabout.
But yeah, so, still fulloperations and sales.
I still say that my marketingexpertise is not what I would
use the word expertise for, sowe do outsource that.
We've got a company right nowthat we met through BNI.
(28:40):
They're doing pretty good forus running a couple of ads
focusing on SEO and they'rehelping make the phone ring,
Hopefully learning a little bitmore about that.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
What are your growth plans or growth path right now?
I'm assuming you're justresidential is we, do we do
commercial?
All right?
Um, so, as commercial, is thatgoing to be a bigger part of the
biz?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, absolutely so.
I built the system that I wastalking about earlier.
There are a couple of vendorsand dealers out here that build
systems that are not as reliablein general.
That will help you reach threestories kind of.
But we can clean four and fivestory apartment complexes from
the ground, and that wasstrategic from me.
(29:25):
So I found pumps all Canadianfound engines, pulled them all
together, built the motor, builtthe engine, built everything so
that it would consistently getfour to five stories all the
time, so that my guys can safely.
We want to be ladder free bythe end of the year or at the
end of 26, worst case, and so apart of that is making for
(29:47):
certain my guys can get anythingwithin the sight line from the
ground safely.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Think about that, alan.
You're going to be sitting onthe ground and you're like a
sniper.
He even said he's got a vetwho's working on this.
I mean you've got your wand andyou're looking up for it.
You're like hey, pigeon, takethis.
Is that what you're doing?
I mean, you're shooting waterup that high yeah, absolutely,
Well.
Water up that high yeah,absolutely.
Chemicals first I take it andthen wash them down yeah, so we
do things a little bitdifferently.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
We actually do start with uh water.
We use neutralizer all the wayaround on all landscape, wet all
windows, because you definitelydon't want any of that chemical
to sit on any of that.
It'll kill it, it'll it'llmurder landscape and it'll etch
glass.
So we do a fair amount ofproactive measures On the truck.
(30:31):
We say that hope is not atactic that we use.
So we make sure that there's aquotable yeah, so we make sure
that we wet everything down andthen we spray chemical, let it
do its business.
And where?
Speaker 2 (30:44):
did you learn all that?
I mean, you didn't get thatfrom dad.
No, no, dad actually taught methe exact wrong way.
And the history of the podcastis if Chris started a pressure
washer business, he would havewritten his name, he would have
blown holes in the house and heprobably would have etched a lot
of glass right, and then youwould have figured it out and 17
years later you'd have made aprofit 100% 17 years later.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So here you are Almost making a profit quarter.
Okay, thank you.
Hope is the what no.
Hope is not a tactic, hope'snot a strategy.
Yeah right, or as my dad saidwhen I was 17 hopes and wishes
are granted at disney.
If you want to get to work, yougot to get to work, you want to
make it happen you better writeit down and make a plan yeah so
(31:22):
how did you get that knowledge?
Speaker 1 (31:24):
yeah, so, uh, being that my background is education,
I wanted to make sure that Iknew what the hell I was doing.
Um.
So about three weeks in, when Iwas just spraying dirt and
hoping, um, I said this is notgoing to work.
It takes too long, thisabsolutely sucks.
There's gotta be a better way.
I did a fair amount of research.
I drove down to uh, roanoke,alabama, and actually got
(31:45):
trained by a guy that's been um.
He's been in the industry.
He's actually my age.
He's been in the industry sinceinception.
His father invented the roofwashing, roof soft washing
process back in the late 80s andearly 90s, when the asphalt
shingle companies changed overfrom limestone over to sand and
(32:08):
now algae can grow in it.
Those are the streaks that yousee on everybody's roof.
It's actually something liveeating your roof.
You need to get rid of it.
Um, his dad is the one thatinvented it.
I went and got trained by him.
Um learned a couple of thingshe was doing wrong.
Towards the end of the summer,we, um, we invested in more
education, more training of thatyear with another guy that's
(32:30):
been in the industry for 30years, went through his whole
online course.
Um, just to make sure that wewere fully beefed up, went to a?
Um pressure washer conference,got a little bit more in terms
of education, made sure, uh,that we knew what the hell we
were doing.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
So the teacher became the student.
Wow, and now going to be theteacher again.
Going to be the teacher again,so, okay, so August is coming,
yeah, absolutely.
What are we doing differentthan you did the first year?
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yeah, so we've added a little bit more in terms of
networking.
Where you and I met, we havejoined a commercial real estate
networking organization that istied to everything commercial
real estate and so we're tryingto find and meet more folks
there partnering with.
We have found that we helpinsurance agents on the property
(33:19):
and casualty side becomesolution providers for this
epidemic that folks are runninginto.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Is that a pun solution?
Did we miss a pun there?
Solution.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Solution.
He's a solution provider.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You get it, I get it, I get it.
That folks are running into Dowe miss a pun there?
He's a solution provider, youget it, I get it.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
It's pretty fun.
Yeah, I was actually takingnotes because I realized my note
taker wasn't working, so I gotto get these back on.
Oh, are you AI?
Now I'm your AI.
Just don't look at me.
I'm Chris.
All right, so he's a solutionprovider.
Yeah, the insurance.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
I'm a pressure washing engineer okay, sure,
yeah, we, we try to.
Not you wash it fake, applystuff.
Oh yeah, no, my, my wife wantsto kill me all the time but I
just say I, I spray water for aliving, but yeah, so my wife's
gonna kill me because I justconsistently say that all we do
(34:14):
is spray water for a living, butall right, yeah, you skipped
over something.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You said um, that let's.
I want to get back to this.
So 23 august, whoops 24 you hada banner year that you said all
right.
So the rest of us are gettingour ass kicked in home services
because of all the pull forwardand the covid stuff was over.
You thrived through that, sokudos to you for doing that.
If that's really true, unlesshe's pulling smoke up my ass,
(34:38):
alan.
I, as you know, we talked tosome of these guys before.
I believe you um, no man.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
But well, there is something to be said about you
know, when 2008 hit, which Idon't remember, and we all just
face-planted.
If you started a business in2008, you could have a
trajectory.
That's me, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That's probably what I would say.
So definitely not blowing smoke.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
No, you didn't, that's why I was joking, but
that's exactly the corollarythat I think a lot of people
might have missed.
So for us, establishedcompanies, when 20 hit, um, I
would, as I've told peoplebefore, I was staring at option
a, which is dude I'm out ofbusiness.
I mean, I went through thethree phases of truth.
I ignored it, I denied itvehemently, and then I finally
accepted it as intuitivelyobvious.
(35:24):
And then I'm sitting theregoing, um, nobody, I could not
sit there and go.
Hey well, people are living intheir house.
Now they're going to need yourhelp.
Yeah well, they won't let me intheir house.
So how am I going to help them?
We're done.
I mean, this is, I don't havesix months worth of payroll to
make.
And then I hear thegovernment's going to help me.
I'm like, yeah, that's, I'venever heard that Were the
government.
were you here to help?
(35:45):
Oh my God, I was able to keepthe doors open and then we
rocked it.
And then what happened was, in24, um, that all of the pull
forward work had gone away.
Um, people had done all theirhigh priority work on their
homes.
People had, uh, remortgaged alltheir houses.
People had already doneeverything they wanted to do and
now they wanted to get back totravel when they had taken care
(36:07):
of all this stuff.
They wanted to get back toexperiences and didn't want to
work in the houses.
So my 24 absolutely sucked, guys, and you want to go back, and
you can go back and listen to.
One of the episodes I talked toalan about is I was in a a funk
in the christmas time because24 just went so bad for me and I
knew it was going to happen,but I didn't act like it was
(36:27):
going to happen.
So kudos to you for growingthrough that to get ready
because you're on a pretty goodlong run now of what we're
hoping that in 25, 26,especially in the Atlanta area,
will be good.
But even in the U?
S, I think if you're in thehome services business, you're
in a good spot.
Yeah, um, it's not going to beoutsourced.
People are going to be lookingat it more.
There is going to be a hybridof work from home.
(36:48):
It's going to balance back outagain.
I think we're switching thependulum really hard back to
office and I think it'll startto swing back.
That's actually what I'mstarting to feel, because nobody
said it yet.
They're actually just allgetting pushed back.
So I think that's great.
That's why I wanted to makesure we came back to that and
hit this again.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
So no, I appreciate that.
Another huge shout out to mywife.
So while she gives me crap alot of the time and everything,
she fully supports this,especially after we made it
through the first like six yearsor sorry, six months, that's
okay.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I still think he's pulling smoke, yeah, and if
she's listening.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
If she's probably listening, she's probably proud
of him right now.
Do you have a sister?
Speaker 1 (37:41):
No, she doesn't a good friend.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
No, I mean, she's got terrific friends, but they're
all with houses cleaning dayaway, chris back, all right no,
so back to my lonely room no, wedid, uh, we did pretty well.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
But another thing that I think we coupled b and I
with uh, something I haven'tcoined or anything, but I'll
just call it a, give a factor,um, where, rather than coming
around and saying, hey I'llpressure wash your driveway, hey
I'll wash your house, oranything like that, do, do you
want this crap done?
We tried to take a morestrategic approach at what are
(38:11):
people really needing andwanting right now, and what we
found was that a lot ofinsurance carriers were trying
to offload a ton of their risk.
So trampolines that folkshaven't told them about.
Pools, that they haven't toldthem about limbs that are
hanging over a roof or, like wetalked about earlier, algae
(38:32):
streaks on the roof.
So that is a thing of regularmaintenance.
Up in the Pacific Northwest theyprobably look at us like what
are you even doing?
How do you not know?
But down here, folks didn'tknow.
So you probably need your roofcleaned every five to seven
years because algae will show up, despite what the shingle
manufacturers will tell you.
So all the green crap probablyneed your roof cleaned every
five to seven years becausealgae will show up, despite what
the uh shingle manufacturerswill tell you.
(38:52):
All the green crap on my roofis bad, it's live and it's
eating your shingles.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
So so god but you might be able to harvest it and
use it for some of your greatcooking ellen.
I think you can eat it, oh mygod, or get it clean with some
mushrooms.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Oh, just replace a little bit of white wine, uh
send them to scott.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
at least he's not saying we're going to put
something on your roof that'sgoing to make it last forever,
which is some of the things thathave been coming out, and I've
actually interviewed some ofthese guys on that product and,
yes, I'm officially dissing it.
I think it'll give you a littlebit of life, but it's only
going to be a little bit of life.
It's not going to be that uhforever.
It does give it a little moreuh, elasticity and a little bit
more resilience to the uv, butnot for long are you saying yes?
Speaker 2 (39:34):
are you starting to see like if you do somebody's
roof and suddenly everybody elsegoes, that roof looks good and
my roof looks like crap.
Are you getting a lot ofreferral that way, just from
people?
Speaker 1 (39:44):
not enough to actually attribute.
Uh, really, it is still kind ofnew.
Um, there's only, out of the 60roofs we cleaned last year, I'd
probably say 40 of them wereone insurance carrier.
Um, and I would call that theproactive insurance carrier.
They're all going to come it'sseven yeah um, but it's not it's
(40:06):
not regular.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
If you think about it , you don't think about your
roof.
A lot of times, you don't thinkabout your fascia, you don't
think about your gutters, Ithink about mine all the time I
look up at it and I'm like wowyeah, well, that's why you're
the one of one in yourneighborhood that's going to
wash your roof, and I knowyou're how is their green up
there?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
huh then, how's their green up there?
He didn't know there was asolution and he's definitely I
didn't know there was a solution.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I actually bought some crap at Lowe's and shot it
up there and I think it wasfertilizer.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Okay, I want to know how do you grow, how do you
train your guys to shoot fourstories and not like take an eye
out.
I mean that's got to be someserious talent, right?
Probably has a kick.
I know a little kick.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
It does.
It does Absolutely, becauseit's also 15 gallons a minute.
So your average pressure washerthat you buy at home is two,
three gallons a minute.
So we're talking like fivetimes when it comes to the
volume coming out.
That's why we look at formermilitary right, they know how to
wield guns.
Yeah, yeah, dugga, dugga, dugga, dugga, dugga.
(41:06):
No, so most of it's my oldteaching practice of you watch,
I do, you do, I watch by.
I can't remember what theactual thing is, but we just
slow roll it out where they knowwhat the hell is.
They know what's happening first.
They see it Right.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
So, uh, so what does success look like?
Is it four or five trucks?
Is it where you want to takeyour business?
Did you written it down,business plan where you?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
at um, that's one another one that alice would uh
kill me on.
I've not written any businessplan down at this point, which
is really stupid.
And alice in here, yeah, yeah,yeah, she'll tell you about all
of him in a room, and then wecan talk to her match game yeah,
and bring him out where's thecraziest place you've been,
Whoopi?
Oh, please don't do the matchgame.
She'll find out that shedoesn't deserve someone like me.
(41:56):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Now.
Is she in the business with you?
Is she actually working andhelping, or is she out there
working in a different job?
Speaker 1 (42:05):
No, she's in a different role.
She helps business ownerschoose the right benefits
packages, both for employees,property and casualty insurance,
business insurance, the wholenine.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Small business or large, large, okay, nice, all
right.
So there's your health benefits.
That's helping you, correct,definitely can't take that away.
And she is a big supporterbecause it's allowing you to go
chase your dream.
So you got us where we are.
We're talking about what we'redoing for that no business plan,
which is, which is guess, adefinite recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Yeah, it's awful, yeah, it's horrible for me yeah,
so that's good.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Hopefully this has been cathartic for you, don't
you realize?
Just, not only it's your wife,but now alan and chris are both
telling you you're, you're sochris had a plan.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
his wife doesn't you love what he does?
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I mean, you know who's got a better gig, chris.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Can I?
Speaker 3 (42:57):
go live with your boat.
That's right, he goes to the.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Now we are doing the matching, yeah it's a bad thing.
No, we're looking at actuallysitting down and fully doing an
old school like actual businessplan, because I know that we
will actively need it.
Um, most of our business planat this point has been get
Justin off the truck, um, andcontinue to double.
(43:20):
So my first, my first line wasif we can continue to double for
seven to 10 years, we willreach our retirement goals,
which would be phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So you kind of have just a super simple one correct
Cause.
You're, you're, you're actuallylooking at your numbers, yeah,
you're comparing year over year.
You kind of know where you wantto be Right.
You just haven't made itofficial?
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, we haven't written anything down.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
So welcome to Disneyland.
So listen to your hopes andwishes.
Um, my, my biggest thing I hopeyou take away from this one is
get it written down, because ifyou do that, what you're going
to do is you're going to back upinto what it's going to take
from a marketing.
You now need to multiplyyourself in other ways, and
digital media is one way.
With the advent of AI andwhat's happening, google, for
(44:15):
the first time ever, has lostsearch share.
The chatbots are actually doingtheir thing out there, but in
BNI, in my case, I actually havethree people in my company in
BNI and I'm not one of them.
It's a weekly commitment, it's abig-time commitment, but it's a
great.
It's one of those things.
That's sweat equity.
You're doing it so as you'rethinking about that part, and
then it's the operational partof this, and then it's the how
(44:38):
do you keep those trucks runningand those four-story pumps
working?
And then just kind of rinse andrepeat, rinse and repeat and
get that thing going.
So those guys at the time yeah.
Or you could look at it fromanother perspective.
If you don't have goals and aplan, you have nothing to fall
short of.
So you've always got that goingfor you with no expectations.
(44:58):
How could you not beat themright?
Right, he seems much happier,he.
He clearly is way happierbecause he just said I'm gonna
hit my retirement goals.
I'm like me too at 94, it's uhignorance.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
I am becoming more and more of a subscriber to that
.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Yeah, this has been great, very interesting.
I think we have talked aboutpressure washers and what's
funny is that we talk about whatyou said.
You said something that wasvery interesting.
You found your flock and you'vebeen playing in it and you've
been going to learn over here.
And then you realize, well, man, everybody's doing this.
Well, guess what man?
Everybody is over here.
(45:33):
And then you realize, well, man, everybody's doing this.
Well, guess what, man?
Everybody's not doing this.
And if you're listening to thispodcast, you're one of the very
few that are trying to investback in your business and in
yourself.
And you think, well,everybody's got a podcast and,
by the way, they don't know theway his name is most of them
suck.
His name is richard.
He doesn't have a podcast.
I found him.
Uh, he's the only one.
I know, there's only one.
But when you find that flock,you really think, oh.
And then you fall into thissyndrome of well gosh, if
everybody's doing, everybody'sdoing it.
(45:54):
Man, I got competition all overthe place and you realize, no,
the competition really is thepeople who aren't doing what
you're doing furthering youreducation and furthering your
knowledge and trying to buildthat system that can be scalable
.
It's just not happening, man,and I'll tell you what those are
.
The people are going to fail,not the justins of the world I
really appreciate that thank youthat helps
Speaker 1 (46:15):
yeah, thank you I was going to go into the closet and
like cry, but for a momentdon't do that yet.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
Thank you for yeah, I was going to say uh, so is it 2
, 30, 3, 30 or 4 30?
When do you wake up and pullyourself up going?
What the hell did I do tomyself?
Because I was just there lastnight 3, 30 in the morning
answering in fact, I got ittoday.
Why were you answering emailsat 3 30?
Speaker 2 (46:34):
I said I was up wow, you need to outsource that,
chris the pain and agony andanguish of starting my own
business.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
You let me know who I can offload that to.
That's the Trusted Toolbox,chris at thetrustedtoolboxcom,
if you'd like to buy a great,successful handyman business.
No, we're cranking, but no, Iwas not because I was wallowing.
I was up and I just couldn'tstop.
I was going to do this let's berespectful of everybody's time
and then I went screw it, Ican't get, I get it.
(47:06):
So I started firing off emailsso I could get answers when I
got to the office in the morning.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
That was a.
That's actually an entry toworking with Justin is.
I will work all the time.
It's always on my brain.
I will send you a text message.
I'll send you an email.
If it's outside of hours, don'tstress about replying, but I
needed to get it off my chest.
I needed to get it out there sothat I don't forget about it.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
And I need to what is the etiquette to that now?
Cause I mean, you know you'resupposed to be connected 24
seven, but you get a.
You get a text at 10 o'clock atnight.
Oh, I don't want, I don't wantto set the precedent that I'm
just sitting there waiting foryour freaking text.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
No, I would tell you, I actually do talk about this
in my own company is that wehave to set boundaries.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
And I'll tell you what if Chris answers a customer
complaint, that truly is not anemergency at 3 o'clock on a
Saturday.
I've now set the bar for mycompany that anybody who does
not respond at 3 o'clock on aSaturday afternoon is not like
Chris.
Therefore, chris is the onlyone who can solve my problem.
So what I've told everybody isthat you set the expectation if
not an emergency meaning thereis not a smell of gas, there is
not a leak that's going to takemy house away, there is not a
(48:17):
hole in my roof becausesomething fell through, we're
not an emergency service thenthat one waits till monday.
Um, you can send a text message24 hours later over the weekend
and I'll get back to you onMonday.
That's fine.
But if you don't get back tothem on Monday, then you have
not done what the TrustedToolbox and our Trusted Toolbox
way is about, and that is withinso many hours you're expected
(48:38):
to hear back.
And so we talk about email, textmessages and phone calls, and
we've tried to set that so it'smore standardized, and I would
tell you it feels like it'sworking better because it took
me out of the main primary, uh,solvent role because I was
jumping too fast instead ofletting my team take care of
something again.
Not everything we do is anurgency.
Just because a guy just etchedhis name in the side of a house
(49:01):
does not mean by sunday morningat eight o'clock he needs to
have his whole house resided.
No, you probably can live withit.
Yeah, it looks pretty silly,you're right, but you know, at
the end of the day it's just notgoing to hurt anybody if you
get it done in three weeks, notto mention do you want a rush
job?
Speaker 1 (49:15):
That was the problem to begin with.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Right.
So did you want him to finishhis name?
That's right.
What was?
What was his last name?
Nathanson, perfect, let me goafter it like peeing in the snow
.
So with the goal, you're goingto stay in the niches, bringing
the riches right.
You're going to stay inpressure washing commercial,
residential, stay in that niche,keep rolling with it, not get
(49:38):
that shiny object syndrome.
Is that what?
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I'm hearing.
I mean the answer to that isabsolutely yes, maybe at a point
yeah, so, um, I'm not sure ifyou guys are.
Are y'all familiar with AlexRamosi?
Have you heard that name?
Speaker 3 (49:51):
I've heard the name.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Okay.
So he talks about, orreferences, the woman in the red
dress from the Matrix a littlebit ago, and something he's
always talking about isentrepreneurs turn around and
they're always looking at thatwoman in the red dress and it's
pulling you a differentdirection.
Yeah, as you get bigger, as youmake a hundred grand, the
(50:13):
woman's wearing a hundred grand.
As you make a million, thewoman's wearing a million
dollars.
And so the the no typicallygets more and more difficult.
So at this point I'd probablysay I'm going to, I'll flip it
just for a moment.
I'll be that jerk teacher thatanswers a question with a
question.
Then so crates, so crates.
Speaker 3 (50:38):
He's going to ask us a question.
Are you ready, Alan?
You better be ready.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
I'm getting that breathalyzer.
I just amused myself with abill and ted reference.
Yeah, I've been prettyimpressed with it.
Thank you, that would be acrazy adventure.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
That was an excellent adventure, um, no, so we have a
couple of differentopportunities that are at our
disposable disposable right now,disposal right now.
Um, so one of our suppliers, orour dealer, chemical
distributor, whatever you wantto call them, um is privately
for sale right now and we wouldlove to kind of acquire that and
(51:12):
be a resource for training andeducation on the proper way to
do things and, um, help peopleout in a different way.
Um, or in addition to, and sowe've looked at potentially
acquiring a dealership.
Um, and then I have been.
I've got an appointment I thinkit's next week.
(51:32):
I've got to look at my calendarbut, uh, an appointment with a
third engineer to develop ourdirect consumer product because,
as Alan mentioned a little bitearlier today, um, he's probably
using his pressure washer wrong.
You probably only really need agarden hose and then you
purchase something that was onthe shelf, that was garbage and
it didn't really help you.
So we are in conversations withengineers to actually use my
(51:56):
expertise and knowledge todevelop a direct-to-consumer
product.
So should I, because they'readjacent, so should I, because
they're adjacent, because theycan potentially assist our
business, get distracted by thewoman in the red dress?
Or is it time for me to pivotbecause my drive is somewhere
(52:18):
else?
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Alan, I'm going to let you go first.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
My drive is somewhere else.
I feel like I've.
It's kind of like back when Iwas a math teacher.
I was really really good atmath and other kids weren't.
That really sucks.
Speaker 2 (52:33):
So you feel like you've mastered pressure washing
and now you're just kind ofwhat's next?
Speaker 1 (52:38):
I appreciate that.
No, I don't feel like I'vemastered it.
There will always be things tolearn, um.
But because I went through somany negative iterations on the
front end and had so manyhiccups and I was devoted to
getting a proper education fromthe vets in the industry and
they helped me learn a littlebit, but trip up on some other
(53:00):
things, I feel like my educationbackground, mixed with what
I've learned over the last twoyears, would help the average
Joe, the average Chuck on atruck, so that they are not
messing up, siding all over theplace and not ruining all of
these surfaces.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
So this is the classic scenario Do you stay,
stay in your lane, focus on whatyou're good at, what you know,
or do you diversify?
Is that not right?
Speaker 3 (53:30):
so I guess that one.
Um, so I could ask a couple uh.
So back to our mastermind group.
Let me ask a couple clarifyingquestions.
Let's go rapid fire because weknow we're coming to the end and
then I want to make sure we gotthe right question and then
we're going to go back andanswer.
That's what we do do in ourmastermind.
A couple of clarifyingquestions.
Would this the firstopportunity?
Would this be a verticalintegration to allow you to buy
(53:51):
product at a cheaper rate andalso sell?
Yes, okay, the secondopportunity where you develop
this solution, is it mechanicalor is it chemical?
Mechanical mostly, mechanicalmostly and would that help you
vertically integrate as well?
Um, are there two separateinitiatives at the same time?
(54:13):
Would it?
Would it be like that, or arethey the same people?
Speaker 1 (54:17):
uh, different people, potentially the same initiative
.
So my direct to consumerproduct would actually rely on
me becoming a dealership?
Um, because the chemicalmanufacturers that will allow
you to white label will notallow you to white label and
send everything not to adealership.
Speaker 3 (54:36):
So you'd have to work on two different initiatives at
the time with two differentsets of people to develop a suit
.
Yeah, Gotcha, All right.
So, um, let me reframe thequestion.
Your question is is should I dothis or should I stay in my
lane?
The question is should I pursueone or both or none of these?
So I think that's the questionI would ask, and then let's go
(55:00):
ahead and answer that.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, I don't know if we can answer it.
I mean, we probably have a lotmore questions to ask, but you
know, one is do you have theresources to be able to do that?
Speaker 3 (55:12):
I would say number one's, financial, that's one.
Number two, um, bandwidth,that's your time, because it
sounds like we're draining onyou.
Our number one resource, yeah,and then three, uh, would be
your team.
Would they have to be involvedas well?
Speaker 1 (55:29):
So answer to question one finances.
I never worry about thatbecause I know I can figure it
out.
I've got friends that are inM&A and we'll find the right
people if we need to.
I've got painful levels ofconfidence on that.
The remind me of question twoagain you, your resource, your
(55:50):
time.
Yeah, my bandwidth is alwaysstretched then, but I feel like
with the proper team, which Iknow will take more of the
bandwidth up front, I have ateam that is beginning to build
on the actual delivery side ofthe business and there's already
a team in place at thedealership, and so as long as I
could continue thoserelationships and or better them
(56:13):
, I actually feel like it willtake some stuff off of my plate
because I'll have people to handsome of the other items to the
admin.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
All right, and then back to your existing pressure
washing team.
You're saying you could buildthat up.
Speaker 1 (56:27):
We could we could absolutely build that up at the
same time.
I don't know if I feel rightabout building that and then
also being potentially mycustomer's competitor at the
same time, so it's very likelythat I would spend that down
while I um took on thedealership role entirely.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
So I don't like that one.
To be honest with you, I'mgoing to shoot straight.
You're right, I can't answerall the questions now.
I know we're coming to the end,but the quick analysis would be
I don't like going after two atthe same time because I think
it's going to stretch you thin.
I definitely would keep growingthat pressure washing business
If you sound like you've got avet and I don't know what it
goes.
But if you dangle the carrot,I'm going to give you more
(57:08):
opportunity and I'll give youmore piece of my biz and and not
necessarily you can give theman ownership stake without
giving an ownership stake.
Right, you can do it in nameonly.
Keep it, always.
Keep it in your name anyway, itdoesn't matter, and let them go
run their pressure washing.
You're you pilot, you're thebeta, you're the test site.
You're not competing againstthe people you're going to sell
this against, because with thestuff you're talking about, this
(57:30):
is opening up the region andthe country and potentially
worldwide, right, right.
So I like the idea.
With the, the chemicals, I thinkone of the things I would look
at between the two of them iswhich one you think you're
closer aligned with a solution.
Quicker.
It sounds to me like thechemicals and that's what it
sounded like to me too, and ifthat's the one, then I would
probably slow walk themechanical or the uh, chemical
(57:52):
slash mechanical one business,especially business to consumer,
because I I just was going toopen up a huge can of worms.
We can't but go back and listento mr wall storage uh, one of
our episodes with rich Richardtalking about how he had to
build his and then sell throughAmazon and the beast that
becomes business to consumer istotally different than the
business to consumer modelyou're working through that we
(58:15):
work through in my business.
So I like that staying closeand I actually would say give it
a green light.
I would go after doing it.
I would definitely put a lot ofthought around the contingency
of if my guys don't make ithappen in my current business,
which is paying bills andfeeding my self-worth and my B&I
.
I would also tell you thatyou're probably going to be done
(58:36):
with the treasure.
You're probably going to haveto slow down some of the
networking to do the other stuffyou're going to do and that's
going to impact some things.
So you've got to think aboutthe unintended consequence that
happens to the pressure-washingbusiness, which I think can be
avoided, can be mitigated Again.
Get your number one to become anumber one and then he gets his
(58:58):
team going and he can run intoa B&I meeting and he can become
that guy.
You can do some other thingsaround there, but it's up to you
to decide on that.
I like the idea, man.
I like that you're in thatunique position.
This is really cool and Iappreciate you turning the
tables and let's kind ofworkshop that a little bit here
on the small business safari.
But with that we've done ourtime, we've made it through here
.
Justin, thank you so much forcoming on.
(59:20):
I don't want to go through thefour questions because he turned
the tables on us and we killedit.
Baby, we probably didn't answereverything right.
You know what I didn't think.
I'll tell you what if weanswered anything wrong.
I challenge you, chris, at thetrusted toolboxcom hit me up and
we'll figure out.
We'll get justin better advice.
We already know a bunch of guyswho've been on, who've been in
this business a lot longer thanus, but I think justin has a
(59:42):
really unique opportunity thatsome of these guys would be
going to.
Ooh, I want to hear more aboutthat.
I know for a fact one of themwill, because I just got done
going back and forth with him.
He wants to get me back on thepod to talk to him for a little
while.
So this has been great.
Justin, how can everybody findyou my exterior cleaner and
connect with you?
Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Yeah, so we have.
I mean, we've got the domainmyexteriorcleanercom, but then
you can also follow us on oursocial channels.
The handle is alsomyexteriorcleaner.
We're probably most active onInstagram and LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
Dang it.
Making successful happen.
Making clean happen.
Cleaning roofs, like your algaeroof, alan.
Oh my God, you pig.
He could write his name in myroof.
I wouldn't even know.
I want to go over there and dothat.
Let's do it.
Hey guys, great story here.
Man, go listen to this one.
This has been good.
If you didn't learn something,then that's on you, because you
spent 45 minutes with us.
(01:00:33):
Maybe you put it at 1.25, whichis what I usually do.
You only spent 35 minutes withus.
But go out there, man Ratereview to check out our book,
because nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
We're actually getting somenotices, getting some books sold
.
People are buying your book,I'm not kidding you.
Yes, I'm getting royalty checks, baby.
Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the
Small Business Safari.
Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
Until next time we're out of here, your positive
attitude will help you achievethat higher altitude you're
looking for in a wild world ofsmall business ownership.
And until next time, make it agreat day.
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