September 1, 2024 • 20 mins
Welcome to the Phenomenal Business Growth Podcast! In this episode, host Jim sits down with Josh Vanderberg, a successful business owner in the cleaning industry, to discuss the transformative power of systems and community support in achieving business growth.
Josh shares his journey of working with Howard Partridge's Inner Circle, highlighting the immense benefits of regular coaching and accountability. He explains how implementing systems has not only streamlined his business operations but also allowed him to focus on innovation and creativity.
They delve into the importance of having a supportive community, likening it to a church where members uplift and learn from each other. Josh emphasizes the value of networking with like-minded individuals from various industries, all striving for excellence.
Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights into the significance of systems and the impact of a strong community on business success. Tune in to learn how you can transition from chaos to thriving, just like Josh did.
Stop Being A SLAVE To Your Business! Transform it into a Predictable, Profitable, Turnkey operation so you can have more Freedom in your life!
Get Your FREE Training Session Here -
https://phenomenalbusinesscoaching.com
To reach Howard Partridge: howard@howardpartridge.com
To reach the host, Jim Klauck: jim@theradiopitchman.com
Are You Interested In Getting Your Own Podcast? Jim Can Get You On The "AIR"!
Get Jim Klauck's Book - "The Radio Pitchman's Podcast Playbook" on Audible
Contact The Host Jim Klauck - Jim@TheRadioPitchman.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hi, Josh. Welcome to the Phenomenal Business Growth Podcast.
How are you doing? I'm fantastic, Jim. Thanks for having me today.
It's great to see you again. We've done some of this before where we've been
on podcasts and we get to see each other face-to-face often at an event like
Howard Partridge's Inner Circle events. sense.
(00:22):
Absolutely. Howard is one of those guys where I wish I'd had him in my pocket
15 years ago when we started the company.
It has saved me a lot of pain and heartache over the years, but thankfully,
we are working with him now and that is tremendous.
A lot of people say that, but I will say this though, better late than never.
(00:43):
So sometimes after you've gone out there and felt the pain and been the slave
to the business, this, it's then time to go hook up with Howard and untangle it all.
But sometimes if it's early on, it may, you know, you can't apply as much.
And, and I don't think it's that hard to deprogram someone who needs to get
(01:05):
out of all that stuff. Like I said, like a slave, right?
Um, so if you had started sooner, I don't know if you would appreciate it as much.
That's a really good point. And, you know, the story and the journey to Howard,
I think it had to happen the way it did.
Yeah. So it's been a couple of years now you've been part of Inner Circle?
Yeah, two or I think three years, two or three years been working with Inner
(01:29):
Circle, and it's been absolutely phenomenal.
What is your favorite part of it? Is it the community? Is it the regular coaching?
I mean, what is it for you? You know, I think, I think on a day-to-day basis,
one of the things that has the biggest impact is having the accountability of the ongoing coaching.
Um, having somebody who is going to hold me accountable as a business owner
(01:52):
to get the stuff done that I say, I'm going to get done, done.
Um, it's easy, you know, as, as we just certain personality of a business owner
that we like to, to follow whatever's flashy and happening right now.
And sometimes we miss the actual working on the business part of the business
and the systemization of the business so that it actually runs smoothly so we
(02:13):
can actually keep growing and not just stall out.
Vandenberg Clean, you guys are in the cleaning industry.
And really what's great about that is a lot of people, but not all,
a lot of people and companies that are involved with Howard's Inner Circle,
phenomenal business coaching, are from the cleaning side.
(02:33):
Howard started off in cleaning, in cleaning carpets.
Tell me a little bit about your cleaning business. So we are a cleaning business.
It's almost two separate businesses under one roof.
We have a janitorial business, which is about 85% of what we do,
(02:54):
and that's taking care of businesses on a daily basis, generally in the evening.
And then we have our rescom business
or our carpet cleaning business and and that's about 15 and
there we're taking care of you know homeowners and and their home and and really
two totally separate categories and and we are proud that you know in 2009 when
(03:15):
i started the company as a janitorial company 2010 we started our carpet cleaning
business we were iicrc certified from From day one,
it's been very important to us that we follow the program there.
And, you know, putting together the systems of the janitorial business,
we've run that really, you know, really fairly okay over the years.
(03:36):
And then the carpet cleaning business, I don't know, we just didn't have the systems.
And that's really where Howard came in to help us, you know, a lot over on that side.
And then overall operation of the company and sales systems.
I don't know how much we've talked about that, but the systems are really Howard's sweet spot.
Systems are so important. You could be the best carpet cleaner, the best janitor.
(04:01):
You could be the best electrician, plumber, HVAC person.
But just because you're a good technician doesn't mean you're a good business owner.
And it doesn't mean the business is going to operate in a system.
We often hear about McDonald's. that's probably got to be one of the biggest
systems, if not the biggest system in the world that people know of.
(04:23):
And when you go to a McDonald's, you have the consistency, but they literally
have millions of people working at McDonald's who came in untrained and they
train them on the system.
So anyone can pretty much make the fries, the burgers and serve the coffee and the Coke.
(04:44):
And I find that amazing. But when people are like, I don't know if systems will
work in my company with my employees or new hires, just think about the fast
food restaurants that we go to.
We go through the drive-through and we're going to get what we ordered and it's
always going to be relatively consistent.
And that's exactly the type of system that you incorporate.
(05:07):
Right. And, you know, it's the systems that make the business so that it can grow and scale.
One of the things coming out of COVID and coming out of COVID is really where
we found our huge pain point.
And it's like, hey, we've got to make some changes for both me personally and physically.
And, you know, just a lot of things have changed since COVID.
You know, it has driven me to become the healthiest version of myself that I've ever been.
(05:31):
And at the same time as that's happened, the business has become the healthiest
version of the business it's ever been.
Then it's forced us to realize, hey, we can't just run this as me every single
day, getting up and driving every single aspect of the business is unsustainable
at the scale we're at now.
And so we have got to have a system where we can put together.
This is how our managers are going to work. This is how we're going to work
(05:53):
on our marketing routes. This is how we're going to do the cleaning.
This is how a service call is going to go for the for the carpet cleaning team.
We're going to do this, this and this.
And it's going to go this way. And this is the system. We're We're going to
write the system. We're going to follow the system.
And it sounds, you know, it sounds like we're systemed out, but the systems
have actually made the work more enjoyable.
(06:15):
How is that? Because it sounds mundane because it's the same thing day in,
day out from system to system, procedure to procedure.
You know, tell me about that. What makes it interesting? Interesting.
Imagine the creativity that you would have as an owner if you came into your
business every day and the widgets are getting made exactly the same way, exactly the right way.
(06:38):
Everybody's making the widgets and you come into the business and you're like, hey, I want to try this.
I want to do this. I want to do this. If everything else is working out the
way it's supposed to be working,
that's actually going to give you as an owner the freedom to either create or
invent or explore new ideas because everything is running the way it's supposed to do.
(07:01):
So what you're saying is you can add innovation because the system is operating
well without you, the leader, the visionary.
Right. You have time now to step away and say, okay, this works.
What else can we do to put into a system to make it work? And maybe the first
(07:22):
thing we put into a system can be removed, and we have these other things we
can put in systems that will improve. Exactly.
Yeah, no, I like that a lot. What was the company like before systems? Just chaotic?
You know, I don't know if I would say chaotic, but it was me involved with every
single aspect of the company, right? So I'm running everything.
(07:45):
So it was very reactionary. It was very firefighter.
The first call I had, so I coach with Eric through the inner circle.
The first call I had with Eric, he said, Josh, what percentage of your job are you putting out fires?
And the answer was 90% of my job. 90% of my job was reactionary.
(08:06):
90% of my job was answering the phone and putting out fires.
And so we had to go back and we said, what systems do we need to put in place?
We need to change this. This needs to be less than 10% of your day.
Number one, our customers deserve it. Number two, our employees deserve it.
Number three, this is not sustainable for my health. This is not sustainable for my family.
I cannot go home at night and know that my phone's going to ring 50 times between
(08:30):
six and midnight, right?
Or that I'm going to be back out on the road because I didn't solve a problem before it happened.
Most small business owners that don't have it together, and most don't.
Most don't have procedures and systems.
Most have employees that are chaotic. The whole system's chaotic.
(08:52):
Um they're firefighters you hear
it all the time i i work 100
with home service professionals and i have to say some are less than professional
because you lose your professionalism when you're a firefighter in a small business
because you're not able to keep your wits about you and grow In a systematic way,
(09:18):
it's really survival.
It's kind of like you go back thousands of years, the human beings were just trying to survive.
There was no way to thrive. Really? There weren't, you know,
unless you were some emperor or something.
But most people were literally waking up, finding water and food,
(09:38):
reproducing and going to sleep and hoping the next day they were alive and they survived.
And so today, are you just surviving or are you thriving? And apparently you're thriving.
Well, yeah, I mean, that's a great point. Right now, somebody asked me the other
day, would you rather live as a king, as an emperor a thousand years ago,
(10:01):
or would you rather live as the average Joe today?
And the answer is clear. You'd rather live as the average Joe today.
But we bring those habits of we're going to get up, we're going to go out,
we're going to be the hunter-gatherer living in crisis every day until we take
a step back, we put together systems, and we start to allow ourselves...
To focus in and the amount of creativity and flexibility that comes from that is unbelievable.
(10:27):
Is it hard, or do you think it's hard, for someone who's been operating a company
for a decade, two decades,
in chaos, to get it all organized, put together, and move forward with procedures?
The entrepreneur dilemma is exactly that, right?
(10:47):
As business owners, we come in, we come out. This was one of the hardest transitions of my life.
I was the number one guy. Every single thing had to come through me.
It did not happen if it didn't come through me. I loved being in the middle
of it. My personality drives me to want to be the guy, right?
And so when we got through this and the system started working and my phone stopped ringing.
(11:14):
It took me. It took me some time to get used to that.
What do I do with my time? Now you have to, as the owner of the company,
as the CEO, as the leader, take a step back and say, okay, I am not the chaos guy anymore. more.
I'm the guy who has to drive this thing forward.
And it is a complete mind shift. One of the hardest ones I've ever had to do in my career.
(11:34):
For some people, they need the drug of chaos. You know what I'm talking about?
Some people say I work well under pressure. I love chaos.
I would never want to work from home and have my people work from home,
even though we probably could do it by remote because I need to be in the middle
of chaos and they love it. Did you love that?
(11:55):
I loved it until it was too much. At a certain point during COVID,
at some point, something needed to change.
Number one, I have a fantastic family and I needed to bring some stability there.
Number two, my health was not going to hold out much longer if I didn't.
And so we put systems in place, both in the business and I put systems in place
(12:17):
in my personal and health life.
And crazy, it's crazy how those two can correlate.
And I'm the healthiest, I'm healthier than I was when I was 25 at this point,
you know, and, and our business is the healthy it's ever been 15 years in and
it's running really well.
We have incredible team members. I have incredible leaders.
I have incredible technicians and, and it's because we've put the systems in place.
(12:39):
It's, it's systems around hiring. It's systems around leadership.
All of these systems build one, one another to create this, this amazing place.
You've obviously been very deliberate in what you're doing personally and in your business.
And every once in a while, I'm going to go back and say, all the time,
(13:04):
we need to step back and we need to look at our relationships,
our physical health, our mental health, the company, the employees,
where it's going, the customers.
There's just a lot there. But if we're always adjusting, right,
always calibrating, then we can go ahead. A lot of people back to the firefighters thing.
(13:27):
Every day they're putting out fires. They're just surviving and they're not thriving.
And I talk to so many business owners and I'm always curious.
I say, how much annual revenue do you do?
And they might say one and a half million dollars. I say, how old's your company?
22 years old. I said, how much money were you bringing in last year? One eight.
(13:53):
How about five years ago? We were a 3.2. Well, wait, wait, 3.2 mil. You're going backward.
Yeah. Or they say, well, we've been flat for five years. Flat.
It's because they're just keeping up, right? Keeping their head above water.
What kind of growth have you seen since you've implemented all this?
(14:17):
Well, when we, when we started with Howard, we were having a hard time breaking the two.
Um and now we
we have uh this year we're we're into the
threes yeah you know so that's
that's that's fantastic that's phenomenal
and and we've only been working like i said two or three years i
should have looked back and seen exactly when i started with howard yeah
(14:40):
and um it makes a difference howard
is an amazing guy i've known him for close to 20 years and
we've done a lot lot of things together he's introduced me to
great people like zig ziglar as well as
many other people and he's truly
a phenomenal person um just going to one of his events is uplifting i tell people
(15:06):
you know i tell people it's a community and it's like going to church and howard's
he He preaches, but it's great.
And he dances and he sings and it's like, right.
Is it not? I mean, it's, it's, it's a culture that you don't see in most conferences. Um.
You know, people are, are also encouraged if need be to bring their children.
(15:30):
Um, sometimes you'll see, you know, some, some younger people,
sometimes you'll see three generations,
you'll see an 18 year old kid and, you know, a 30 some odd year old and then
grandpa, and they're all in the business learning together, you know, networking.
Meeting other people in that community.
And there are hundreds and hundreds of members. So when you go to an event,
(15:53):
there might be a couple hundred people in the room, but there's three,
four times that, um, in the organization,
uh, Howard has a great following and people love him and, and they learn so
much from him and the coaches that are at phenomenal.
Can you say anything else about the coaching, you know, the frequency,
(16:16):
um, you know, how it helps you on a regular basis and what you expect in the future?
Yeah, I mean, the quarterly conferences are really wonderful because,
number one, you're going to meet a bunch of other people who are trying to drive
the mission the same way.
And it's not very often that you get that.
Without Howard, it seems very, very lonely. Only once you have Howard and you're,
(16:40):
you're doing the coaching and you're doing the conferences, Hey,
it's, it's only three months between when you see the next time when you're
hanging out with other people who are like-minded, who are trying to drive their
business to the next level.
It is, it's an absolute, um, it's an absolute community where you can call if
you've got questions, where you can go if you need some help.
And everybody is so generous with their time and so generous with their,
(17:04):
with their knowledge. And the great thing is, it's not like you're doing that
with the guy next door who's competing in the same market.
They might be in the same business, but maybe they're halfway across the country.
So you're totally free to share.
In some cases it's like being part of a franchise system so when you're a franchisee
in an organization you can share ideas amongst yourselves there are some similarities
(17:28):
because there's a lot of people in your industry that you can call on that are
within the organization,
not to mention some of the people who speak some of the coaches they're they're
in very similar Or had been in very similar industries as yours or others.
And I would say almost half of the individuals that are part of the inner circle are home service.
(17:54):
And then there's a lot of white collar in there as well.
Yeah, I mean, one of my first conferences, we had somebody who was a chiropractor
sitting at our table with us, you know, totally different industry,
something you wouldn't necessarily think would be at Howard's. Sure.
Sorry about the phone. I've got it on do not disturb. And then you've got,
(18:16):
you know, also at the same table, another carpet cleaner who's running a multi-truck operation.
And the opportunity to go see Howard's operation is incredible because he's
got a heck of an operation that he doesn't even have to be part of.
You know, Howard's flying all over the country. He's not running his business
yet. It's consistently running well and with predictable revenue.
(18:38):
And, I mean, having that kind of community is absolutely incredible.
Incredible i think maybe i got off the question there a little bit
but no it's no apps absolutely
so i'm gonna see you hopefully at
the next event in houston you
had mentioned and i agree with you they're quarterly uh it's a great opportunity
(18:59):
to get out there and network uh i just want to talk about that quickly the networking
aspect um and we covered it a bit but you know how important that is because
we've got people who may be in our industry, but others who aren't.
So I had talked about the blue collar and the white collar, almost a 50-50 mix.
(19:19):
What's nice about someone in your businesses is you might meet someone who is
a CPA or maybe they're an attorney and you're like,
like oh i i didn't know that maybe you
can help me with this so it it's
invaluable it really is a community
and a family and the thing is we all
(19:41):
start doing business with each other you know there's there's website developers
there there's seo people there there's credit card processors there you know
all these different people who you know now you're friends with so now you're
you're doing business with normally somebody who you wouldn't really know very
well to somebody who who's got the same mindset as you and you're friends with.
And like my coach had a very similar business to ours and they went to Howard's,
(20:09):
they did the whole Howard thing.
All of a sudden they've got a business that is so predictable and running so
well, somebody else wanted it enough that it was something that they sold.
And then they started another company and their new company absolutely benefits
everybody who's there because they're teaching soft skills now.
They are. Those two have known each other since they were roommates in college. Right.
(20:34):
Yeah. And they're a perfect match for companies like yours and Inner Circle.
And I just can't say enough about them and everyone else as part of the organization.
Josh, on that note, I want to thank you so much for joining me today on the
podcast. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Thanks, Jim. Thank you.
Hi, Josh. Welcome to the Phenomenal Business Growth Podcast.
How are you doing? I'm fantastic, Jim. Thanks for having me today.
It's great to see you again. We've done some of this before where we've been
on podcasts and we get to see each other face-to-face often at an event like
Howard Partridge's Inner Circle events. sense.
(00:22):
Absolutely. Howard is one of those guys where I wish I'd had him in my pocket
15 years ago when we started the company.
It has saved me a lot of pain and heartache over the years, but thankfully,
we are working with him now and that is tremendous.
A lot of people say that, but I will say this though, better late than never.
(00:43):
So sometimes after you've gone out there and felt the pain and been the slave
to the business, this, it's then time to go hook up with Howard and untangle it all.
But sometimes if it's early on, it may, you know, you can't apply as much.
And, and I don't think it's that hard to deprogram someone who needs to get
(01:05):
out of all that stuff. Like I said, like a slave, right?
Um, so if you had started sooner, I don't know if you would appreciate it as much.
That's a really good point. And, you know, the story and the journey to Howard,
I think it had to happen the way it did.
Yeah. So it's been a couple of years now you've been part of Inner Circle?
Yeah, two or I think three years, two or three years been working with Inner
(01:29):
Circle, and it's been absolutely phenomenal.
What is your favorite part of it? Is it the community? Is it the regular coaching?
I mean, what is it for you? You know, I think, I think on a day-to-day basis,
one of the things that has the biggest impact is having the accountability of the ongoing coaching.
Um, having somebody who is going to hold me accountable as a business owner
(01:52):
to get the stuff done that I say, I'm going to get done, done.
Um, it's easy, you know, as, as we just certain personality of a business owner
that we like to, to follow whatever's flashy and happening right now.
And sometimes we miss the actual working on the business part of the business
and the systemization of the business so that it actually runs smoothly so we
(02:13):
can actually keep growing and not just stall out.
Vandenberg Clean, you guys are in the cleaning industry.
And really what's great about that is a lot of people, but not all,
a lot of people and companies that are involved with Howard's Inner Circle,
phenomenal business coaching, are from the cleaning side.
(02:33):
Howard started off in cleaning, in cleaning carpets.
Tell me a little bit about your cleaning business. So we are a cleaning business.
It's almost two separate businesses under one roof.
We have a janitorial business, which is about 85% of what we do,
(02:54):
and that's taking care of businesses on a daily basis, generally in the evening.
And then we have our rescom business
or our carpet cleaning business and and that's about 15 and
there we're taking care of you know homeowners and and their home and and really
two totally separate categories and and we are proud that you know in 2009 when
(03:15):
i started the company as a janitorial company 2010 we started our carpet cleaning
business we were iicrc certified from From day one,
it's been very important to us that we follow the program there.
And, you know, putting together the systems of the janitorial business,
we've run that really, you know, really fairly okay over the years.
(03:36):
And then the carpet cleaning business, I don't know, we just didn't have the systems.
And that's really where Howard came in to help us, you know, a lot over on that side.
And then overall operation of the company and sales systems.
I don't know how much we've talked about that, but the systems are really Howard's sweet spot.
Systems are so important. You could be the best carpet cleaner, the best janitor.
(04:01):
You could be the best electrician, plumber, HVAC person.
But just because you're a good technician doesn't mean you're a good business owner.
And it doesn't mean the business is going to operate in a system.
We often hear about McDonald's. that's probably got to be one of the biggest
systems, if not the biggest system in the world that people know of.
(04:23):
And when you go to a McDonald's, you have the consistency, but they literally
have millions of people working at McDonald's who came in untrained and they
train them on the system.
So anyone can pretty much make the fries, the burgers and serve the coffee and the Coke.
(04:44):
And I find that amazing. But when people are like, I don't know if systems will
work in my company with my employees or new hires, just think about the fast
food restaurants that we go to.
We go through the drive-through and we're going to get what we ordered and it's
always going to be relatively consistent.
And that's exactly the type of system that you incorporate.
(05:07):
Right. And, you know, it's the systems that make the business so that it can grow and scale.
One of the things coming out of COVID and coming out of COVID is really where
we found our huge pain point.
And it's like, hey, we've got to make some changes for both me personally and physically.
And, you know, just a lot of things have changed since COVID.
You know, it has driven me to become the healthiest version of myself that I've ever been.
(05:31):
And at the same time as that's happened, the business has become the healthiest
version of the business it's ever been.
Then it's forced us to realize, hey, we can't just run this as me every single
day, getting up and driving every single aspect of the business is unsustainable
at the scale we're at now.
And so we have got to have a system where we can put together.
This is how our managers are going to work. This is how we're going to work
(05:53):
on our marketing routes. This is how we're going to do the cleaning.
This is how a service call is going to go for the for the carpet cleaning team.
We're going to do this, this and this.
And it's going to go this way. And this is the system. We're We're going to
write the system. We're going to follow the system.
And it sounds, you know, it sounds like we're systemed out, but the systems
have actually made the work more enjoyable.
(06:15):
How is that? Because it sounds mundane because it's the same thing day in,
day out from system to system, procedure to procedure.
You know, tell me about that. What makes it interesting? Interesting.
Imagine the creativity that you would have as an owner if you came into your
business every day and the widgets are getting made exactly the same way, exactly the right way.
(06:38):
Everybody's making the widgets and you come into the business and you're like, hey, I want to try this.
I want to do this. I want to do this. If everything else is working out the
way it's supposed to be working,
that's actually going to give you as an owner the freedom to either create or
invent or explore new ideas because everything is running the way it's supposed to do.
(07:01):
So what you're saying is you can add innovation because the system is operating
well without you, the leader, the visionary.
Right. You have time now to step away and say, okay, this works.
What else can we do to put into a system to make it work? And maybe the first
(07:22):
thing we put into a system can be removed, and we have these other things we
can put in systems that will improve. Exactly.
Yeah, no, I like that a lot. What was the company like before systems? Just chaotic?
You know, I don't know if I would say chaotic, but it was me involved with every
single aspect of the company, right? So I'm running everything.
(07:45):
So it was very reactionary. It was very firefighter.
The first call I had, so I coach with Eric through the inner circle.
The first call I had with Eric, he said, Josh, what percentage of your job are you putting out fires?
And the answer was 90% of my job. 90% of my job was reactionary.
(08:06):
90% of my job was answering the phone and putting out fires.
And so we had to go back and we said, what systems do we need to put in place?
We need to change this. This needs to be less than 10% of your day.
Number one, our customers deserve it. Number two, our employees deserve it.
Number three, this is not sustainable for my health. This is not sustainable for my family.
I cannot go home at night and know that my phone's going to ring 50 times between
(08:30):
six and midnight, right?
Or that I'm going to be back out on the road because I didn't solve a problem before it happened.
Most small business owners that don't have it together, and most don't.
Most don't have procedures and systems.
Most have employees that are chaotic. The whole system's chaotic.
(08:52):
Um they're firefighters you hear
it all the time i i work 100
with home service professionals and i have to say some are less than professional
because you lose your professionalism when you're a firefighter in a small business
because you're not able to keep your wits about you and grow In a systematic way,
(09:18):
it's really survival.
It's kind of like you go back thousands of years, the human beings were just trying to survive.
There was no way to thrive. Really? There weren't, you know,
unless you were some emperor or something.
But most people were literally waking up, finding water and food,
(09:38):
reproducing and going to sleep and hoping the next day they were alive and they survived.
And so today, are you just surviving or are you thriving? And apparently you're thriving.
Well, yeah, I mean, that's a great point. Right now, somebody asked me the other
day, would you rather live as a king, as an emperor a thousand years ago,
(10:01):
or would you rather live as the average Joe today?
And the answer is clear. You'd rather live as the average Joe today.
But we bring those habits of we're going to get up, we're going to go out,
we're going to be the hunter-gatherer living in crisis every day until we take
a step back, we put together systems, and we start to allow ourselves...
To focus in and the amount of creativity and flexibility that comes from that is unbelievable.
(10:27):
Is it hard, or do you think it's hard, for someone who's been operating a company
for a decade, two decades,
in chaos, to get it all organized, put together, and move forward with procedures?
The entrepreneur dilemma is exactly that, right?
(10:47):
As business owners, we come in, we come out. This was one of the hardest transitions of my life.
I was the number one guy. Every single thing had to come through me.
It did not happen if it didn't come through me. I loved being in the middle
of it. My personality drives me to want to be the guy, right?
And so when we got through this and the system started working and my phone stopped ringing.
(11:14):
It took me. It took me some time to get used to that.
What do I do with my time? Now you have to, as the owner of the company,
as the CEO, as the leader, take a step back and say, okay, I am not the chaos guy anymore. more.
I'm the guy who has to drive this thing forward.
And it is a complete mind shift. One of the hardest ones I've ever had to do in my career.
(11:34):
For some people, they need the drug of chaos. You know what I'm talking about?
Some people say I work well under pressure. I love chaos.
I would never want to work from home and have my people work from home,
even though we probably could do it by remote because I need to be in the middle
of chaos and they love it. Did you love that?
(11:55):
I loved it until it was too much. At a certain point during COVID,
at some point, something needed to change.
Number one, I have a fantastic family and I needed to bring some stability there.
Number two, my health was not going to hold out much longer if I didn't.
And so we put systems in place, both in the business and I put systems in place
(12:17):
in my personal and health life.
And crazy, it's crazy how those two can correlate.
And I'm the healthiest, I'm healthier than I was when I was 25 at this point,
you know, and, and our business is the healthy it's ever been 15 years in and
it's running really well.
We have incredible team members. I have incredible leaders.
I have incredible technicians and, and it's because we've put the systems in place.
(12:39):
It's, it's systems around hiring. It's systems around leadership.
All of these systems build one, one another to create this, this amazing place.
You've obviously been very deliberate in what you're doing personally and in your business.
And every once in a while, I'm going to go back and say, all the time,
(13:04):
we need to step back and we need to look at our relationships,
our physical health, our mental health, the company, the employees,
where it's going, the customers.
There's just a lot there. But if we're always adjusting, right,
always calibrating, then we can go ahead. A lot of people back to the firefighters thing.
(13:27):
Every day they're putting out fires. They're just surviving and they're not thriving.
And I talk to so many business owners and I'm always curious.
I say, how much annual revenue do you do?
And they might say one and a half million dollars. I say, how old's your company?
22 years old. I said, how much money were you bringing in last year? One eight.
(13:53):
How about five years ago? We were a 3.2. Well, wait, wait, 3.2 mil. You're going backward.
Yeah. Or they say, well, we've been flat for five years. Flat.
It's because they're just keeping up, right? Keeping their head above water.
What kind of growth have you seen since you've implemented all this?
(14:17):
Well, when we, when we started with Howard, we were having a hard time breaking the two.
Um and now we
we have uh this year we're we're into the
threes yeah you know so that's
that's that's fantastic that's phenomenal
and and we've only been working like i said two or three years i
should have looked back and seen exactly when i started with howard yeah
(14:40):
and um it makes a difference howard
is an amazing guy i've known him for close to 20 years and
we've done a lot lot of things together he's introduced me to
great people like zig ziglar as well as
many other people and he's truly
a phenomenal person um just going to one of his events is uplifting i tell people
(15:06):
you know i tell people it's a community and it's like going to church and howard's
he He preaches, but it's great.
And he dances and he sings and it's like, right.
Is it not? I mean, it's, it's, it's a culture that you don't see in most conferences. Um.
You know, people are, are also encouraged if need be to bring their children.
(15:30):
Um, sometimes you'll see, you know, some, some younger people,
sometimes you'll see three generations,
you'll see an 18 year old kid and, you know, a 30 some odd year old and then
grandpa, and they're all in the business learning together, you know, networking.
Meeting other people in that community.
And there are hundreds and hundreds of members. So when you go to an event,
(15:53):
there might be a couple hundred people in the room, but there's three,
four times that, um, in the organization,
uh, Howard has a great following and people love him and, and they learn so
much from him and the coaches that are at phenomenal.
Can you say anything else about the coaching, you know, the frequency,
(16:16):
um, you know, how it helps you on a regular basis and what you expect in the future?
Yeah, I mean, the quarterly conferences are really wonderful because,
number one, you're going to meet a bunch of other people who are trying to drive
the mission the same way.
And it's not very often that you get that.
Without Howard, it seems very, very lonely. Only once you have Howard and you're,
(16:40):
you're doing the coaching and you're doing the conferences, Hey,
it's, it's only three months between when you see the next time when you're
hanging out with other people who are like-minded, who are trying to drive their
business to the next level.
It is, it's an absolute, um, it's an absolute community where you can call if
you've got questions, where you can go if you need some help.
And everybody is so generous with their time and so generous with their,
(17:04):
with their knowledge. And the great thing is, it's not like you're doing that
with the guy next door who's competing in the same market.
They might be in the same business, but maybe they're halfway across the country.
So you're totally free to share.
In some cases it's like being part of a franchise system so when you're a franchisee
in an organization you can share ideas amongst yourselves there are some similarities
(17:28):
because there's a lot of people in your industry that you can call on that are
within the organization,
not to mention some of the people who speak some of the coaches they're they're
in very similar Or had been in very similar industries as yours or others.
And I would say almost half of the individuals that are part of the inner circle are home service.
(17:54):
And then there's a lot of white collar in there as well.
Yeah, I mean, one of my first conferences, we had somebody who was a chiropractor
sitting at our table with us, you know, totally different industry,
something you wouldn't necessarily think would be at Howard's. Sure.
Sorry about the phone. I've got it on do not disturb. And then you've got,
(18:16):
you know, also at the same table, another carpet cleaner who's running a multi-truck operation.
And the opportunity to go see Howard's operation is incredible because he's
got a heck of an operation that he doesn't even have to be part of.
You know, Howard's flying all over the country. He's not running his business
yet. It's consistently running well and with predictable revenue.
(18:38):
And, I mean, having that kind of community is absolutely incredible.
Incredible i think maybe i got off the question there a little bit
but no it's no apps absolutely
so i'm gonna see you hopefully at
the next event in houston you
had mentioned and i agree with you they're quarterly uh it's a great opportunity
(18:59):
to get out there and network uh i just want to talk about that quickly the networking
aspect um and we covered it a bit but you know how important that is because
we've got people who may be in our industry, but others who aren't.
So I had talked about the blue collar and the white collar, almost a 50-50 mix.
(19:19):
What's nice about someone in your businesses is you might meet someone who is
a CPA or maybe they're an attorney and you're like,
like oh i i didn't know that maybe you
can help me with this so it it's
invaluable it really is a community
and a family and the thing is we all
(19:41):
start doing business with each other you know there's there's website developers
there there's seo people there there's credit card processors there you know
all these different people who you know now you're friends with so now you're
you're doing business with normally somebody who you wouldn't really know very
well to somebody who who's got the same mindset as you and you're friends with.
And like my coach had a very similar business to ours and they went to Howard's,
(20:09):
they did the whole Howard thing.
All of a sudden they've got a business that is so predictable and running so
well, somebody else wanted it enough that it was something that they sold.
And then they started another company and their new company absolutely benefits
everybody who's there because they're teaching soft skills now.
They are. Those two have known each other since they were roommates in college. Right.
(20:34):
Yeah. And they're a perfect match for companies like yours and Inner Circle.
And I just can't say enough about them and everyone else as part of the organization.
Josh, on that note, I want to thank you so much for joining me today on the
podcast. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Thanks, Jim. Thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!