Tom Reber – The Contractor Fight founder helps contractors run a profitable company and create a strong brand and thriving company. He flipped the start of the interview around and started asking Chris how was able to scale a handyman business, then we settled in and talked about how to sell home services in the home. We talked about “Strategery” of building a business, through brand, consistency and execution. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
-----
GOLD NUGGETS:
(00:00) - Small Business Safari
(03:07) - Handyman Business
(07:47) - Midwest to Marine Corps and Sales
(20:57) - Branding and Advertising in Business Growth
(24:54) - Marketing Strategies for Long-Term Business Growth
(35:50) - Increasing Sales Through Proactive Customer Care
(48:01) - Rich People’s Mindset and DIY Fails
(55:16) - Success and Adding handyman Division
-----
Tom’s Links:
Website | www.contractorfight.com
-----
Books Mentioned:
Sell Unafraid - Tom Reber - Soon to be Published
-----
Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
-----
If You Loved This Episode Try These!
• How Jake Sapp Is Going to Create the Number One Beer in Georgia
• Out Running Bears and Business Growth Planning!
• 2024 Strategic Planning in Home Services
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
Tom Reber – The Contractor Fight founder helps contractors run a profitable company and create a strong brand and thriving company. He flipped the start of the interview around and started asking Chris how was able to scale a handyman business, then we settled in and talked about how to sell home services in the home. We talked about “Strategery” of building a business, through brand, consistency and execution. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
-----
GOLD NUGGETS:
(00:00) - Small Business Safari
(03:07) - Handyman Business
(07:47) - Midwest to Marine Corps and Sales
(20:57) - Branding and Advertising in Business Growth
(24:54) - Marketing Strategies for Long-Term Business Growth
(35:50) - Increasing Sales Through Proactive Customer Care
(48:01) - Rich People’s Mindset and DIY Fails
(55:16) - Success and Adding handyman Division
-----
Tom’s Links:
Website | www.contractorfight.com
-----
Books Mentioned:
Sell Unafraid - Tom Reber - Soon to be Published
-----
Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
-----
If You Loved This Episode Try These!
• How Jake Sapp Is Going to Create the Number One Beer in Georgia
• Out Running Bears and Business Growth Planning!
• 2024 Strategic Planning in Home Services
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
And you go out there and we actually told our we'd have our crew leaders who did the job go do the warranty call, because they already had a relationship with them and sometimes we'd say, hey guys, find something Right. Find something Right. If we painted the exterior of a house, you notice a window sill is you know, little you know, and that's probably going to peel in another year. Scrape it down, spot, prime it, recode it. Now the law of reciprocity kicks in and what we found is about 38% of the times that we got on site to do a warranty visit we got, we heard the greatest thing out of the customer's mouth, which was hey, while you're here, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1:And that kicked up additional sales for us.
Speaker 3:But it also welcomed to the small business safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountain top of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any of your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountain top. Alan, we're back, we're ready to rock this small business safari trying to bring you some fun. I coined the phrase edutainment. Is it yours and yours alone? No, I probably not, but I still go it from partless.
Speaker 3:Because I mean, probably I stole it. Bateman once again steals my shit. What can I do with that man? But I am excited about this episode. This is in my wheelhouse, as you guys know. As you've been listening, I'm in the home services space handyman remodeling and it's a wild world man. You know you have to choose to get in it and, frankly, I think you got to be a little nuts to do it and I left corporate America to do it. But guess what? We have another also nut with us today and that's Dr Tom Reaver, but he goes by Tom Reaver or Pastor Tom, however he looks. Tom, thanks for joining the show man, Looking forward to kicking around with you.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm grateful to be here. It's good to hang with him already having a good time. You guys have a great energy and I want to start this off right out of the gate All right, Chris, I got to know. I got to know. I know I'm turning the tables on you here because it's your show All right, let's do it but I haven't met many, very many handymen that are making money.
Speaker 1:Like seriously, like I've interviewed them on my show before. I've interviewed some guys that have talked about how, you know, trying to scale a handyman business is what drove them into bankruptcy, and you know. So it sounds like you've got something cool going on there. I might have to have you on my show to talk about that. But in one word or one sentence, what's the key for a handyman to make money? And I don't mean just making a living, I mean making putting some bank in their pocket and not killing themselves.
Speaker 2:Cutting to the core, all right, I would say one word.
Speaker 3:Nice job, tom. One word is going to be perseverance, but the sentence has got to be know your numbers, which I didn't. In the beginning I was getting my butt kicked. I know you talk about that all the time in your show and everybody, especially in the handyman. It's a connotation of cheap right? Yeah, this is. I'm not getting my house sited, I'm not getting my roof put on. I'm going to get three beds, but it's roofing, it's siding, it's a handyman. Hey, anybody can hang a hang a shade. Anybody can hang a ceiling fan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just need a couple screens replaced. Why is it 500 bucks, you know? Yeah, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, when I first started, there was always the land of Craigslist where you go. Well, this guy said it'll do it for 25 bucks an hour. I'm like go hire him, man, yeah. So right now, here's how we do it. It's 180 for our first hour, 84 an hour after that. But to scale, this is the hard part. It requires training and it requires a good CRM scheduling system behind you. So you know you can get a lot of money to provide a level of service, because even though the connotation of cheap with handyman people, people will sell I mean I've had people just call me and, bless me, write the hell out for 250 bucks. They're like I spent a lot of money with you. You're like, all right, you know what? Actually I'm not seeing the 250 either. If you want to give me 250, I'll take it. Yeah, that's a lot of money, but you have to deal with that and if you can't get your service down, you will get. You will get tanked.
Speaker 1:Well, and I appreciate you sharing that I like the first hour thing and then hourly after that, so it's got to be a trip charge.
Speaker 2:I think most people understand that I have struggled.
Speaker 3:It's funny with an electrician With an electrician.
Speaker 1:They people do it all the time. They don't Shit. I had Tommy Mello's company come and replace my garage door. The spring broke. We were pulling out of the driveway last fall and I hit the button and all of a sudden I just see the spring come like, shooting off the garage doors. We're leaving to go out to dinner and it was some company that he owns here in Colorado Springs because he owns everything in that industry, and they came out this is what it is for the first whatever to diagnose it. And then after that, by the time they were done, they didn't replace the whole door, they just fixed it. It was like 1600 bucks, we were done and I was happy to pay it because I needed it done. So here's alright. Last question, because this is your show.
Speaker 3:I love this. I just bring out Tom Turner's table.
Speaker 1:I am such a control freak, my God.
Speaker 3:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:No scaling with your people in a handyman business. I have always imagined it would be difficult because the level of skill a handyman has to have, you got to cover a lot of ground with being really good at a lot of things right when you know, versus when I had a painting company, we just painted right. You get really good at that. Like those that are really good at all the skills in the handyman thing generally go out and start their own business. So I always looked at is that, am I barking up the wrong tree or is that a real obstacle?
Speaker 2:You've got a lot of your lone wolves, but they all have their certain specialty. That's the way I feel it is, and so it's really kind of up to the people that are scheduling the appointments and your project managers. I'm paying attention, aren't I? You're doing good To get the right person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been listening. After two years, you finally figured it out.
Speaker 2:So I got done. Looking at my phone, I decided to see what you were talking about.
Speaker 3:The hard answer, the long answer, short answer, is skill-based routing, because that you hit on exactly what you, what people think Well, if you're a handyman, that means you're an expert in everything. Well, no, I don't know how to fix your roof, I can't fix your gutters and frankly now, having been in over 16,000 houses myself as an estimator, quality control, as a handyman doing some of the work, you don't know everything. I don't know where your box is and I've seen all different kinds of handles and doors and you know there's just crazy stuff, you see. So we call it skill-based routing. So what we do is based on the skill sets it's going to take, you know, and we break it down even further, not just carpentry and electrical, and then we quiz them on it, then we train them on it and then we figure out what they're best at. And so my scheduler has 18 guys scheduled and her job is to get the right guy to the right job on the right day.
Speaker 1:Love it. So, Chris, if people want to learn more about you and your business, where do they go?
Speaker 3:Thank you for coming on the Contractor Fight show. It's a formerly known as the small business safari. I can't help it.
Speaker 1:Like it's funny. Even at home, like any family, any of our kids walk in the room with a problem and I'm immediately like coach in question mode and my wife's like can we not do this now? Can you just like turn off at some point? I'm like I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Tom, I'm actually kind of enjoying it because there aren't ruining people that can get Chris to shut up Right. Yeah, this is hard, it is I know.
Speaker 3:You're showing great control. Oh my God, this was good. All right, tom, a little background. You're out of the Midwest, but did you immediately go into the Marine Corps out of high school?
Speaker 1:No, I originally from Wheaton, Illinois, outside of Chicago, but I know I was my cousin played football at Wheaton, Cool yeah Division 3.
Speaker 2:All-American, and then he had a cup of coffee with the Bucks. Cousin Brad, cousin Brad did. That's right, brad, who Emerson Would have been the 80s.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was, I was. I graduated high school at age seven. So yeah, I probably. He's probably buddies with some good friends of mine that that played on the Wheaton team. So I went to Wheaton North High School but I had, you know, got in Bill Connor and Keith Cody, some of those guys who went to Wheaton College. So yeah. I bet they know him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but they do. That's cool Anyway.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 3:So I grew up in Wheaton Illinois would you ask me All right, yeah, so I don't get them off on football, because I know also.
Speaker 1:You did, I was totally, yeah, I was like Coming out of high school.
Speaker 3:What was the? Game oh yeah, were you going to college. Where did you? Well, so I speak in football.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I played football. I ended up going to a Division III school called Quincy University down in Quincy Illinois, little school. I played one season there, and as soon as the season was over I dropped out of school because I realized I wasn't a college person. I actually couldn't stand anything about school, except the fact that I got to play football, and so I went back home I built decks, or no, I should say I dug post holes for my uncle's buddy.
Speaker 3:You're like everybody else in the industry yeah. I know I've got 40 years in the industry. I'm 42. No no, listen, man, when you're holding the flashlight for dad at six years old, or digging a hole at 18, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think I ever drove a nail once while I worked for that company. I think all I did was, like here's the address, go dig. And so I did that for a few months and I had worked for my uncle growing up. He was a painting contractor and worked for him a lot. But his buddy gave me a job and then, I don't know, a few months into that I woke up one day and I said I'm going into the Marines. And you know, that was it. So I did, I got out, went in and out of the Marines by 1992.
Speaker 2:How many years?
Speaker 1:Four years. So you know infantry, marine, desert Storm, all that good stuff you did.
Speaker 3:Well done, thank you. Yeah, thank you for your service. I was in college hiding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, air power is pretty cool to watch up close, I'll tell you that?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the yeah. So I got out of the Marines, went back to work for my uncle, ran his cruise for a while, ended up, I don't know. Just something told me I should move on, and I was playing at a band at the same time because all contractors and musicians right. So lone wolves, artists.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I, I'm a drummer and I was gigging probably five, six nights a week while I was painting for my uncle, and out till three in the morning lugging my drums around and then on the job site at 730. So that, long story short, I went and got a job at a carpet store as a sales guy and I was standing in one location all day waiting for people to come in and I knew nothing about carpet. That lasted like four days and I left there and I my first, I guess, real sales job was I was selling vinyl replacement windows for a company that you know. I later came to find out they were. It was a total scam. You know they, the telemarketer sets the appointment in the low income neighborhoods where they're all payment buyers and in you know, my first.
Speaker 1:I was there three, three and a half, four, probably four months. I was a top sales guy, like that, and but just the ethics of it, the integrity of it, was eaten away. It was you know who I was. That wasn't me. I didn't want to sell that way. I mean, I'm consolidating like 20, 30, $40,000 of medical loans into an $8,000 window payment. You know, to get the deal like crazy stuff like that it was. It was pretty bad and there was this whole story you had to tell people. You know, I'm not the normal sales guy.
Speaker 1:Work for my uncle, you know, and and really keep our our crews busy, and it was bad man.
Speaker 2:It was a scripted lie.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was a total scripted lie. And then there was the you ever heard of the sales technique, the shill and drop? No, that's what we were taught, the shill and drop. So, hey, we just want to keep our guys working here.
Speaker 1:So, chris, you know, I brought out the window display that was supposedly the high end window, right, and say that was 15 grand. And you're like, oh, there's no way we could do that. And then I would go well, you know what, let me, let me call my uncle Alan real quick, you know, because I think I think we're running a number of windows for an order that are these, and let me just see if I could just throw them on and they can produce yours and I could give you the $15,000 windows right For 7,000 books, or whatever it might be. And then I would literally pick up the phone and I would call the guy owned the company, his name was Mitch, and Mitch always answered the phone. He had all these sales guys out there. He'd answered the phone and on the other end and I'm like, hey, uncle Mitch, it's Tom, you know.
Speaker 1:And and yeah, so, hey, I'm here at Chris's house and you know, blah, blah, blah. You know, is there any, any way we can make this happen. And he's like yeah, if they, if they, let us know tonight, because we're running the line tonight, you know. Blah, blah, blah. That was the story Like it was. It was so many years ago, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Tom, that sounds awful Like when I had Chris up quoting me on my deck.
Speaker 3:All right, it wasn't exactly like that, but I would tell you, uh uh, Uncle Mitch was definitely part of the story. I said, you know what, Alan, since I'm the owner, let me see if I can't get this expedited for you, Let me give a call at one of the PMs. Make sure I can get this trex material put on the same load. I'll get you a deal I did.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:I love it there you go, it's true, though Am I the shill? Well, I did, I did.
Speaker 3:Nice. So thank you. How long did you last in that deal?
Speaker 1:I was there maybe four months and then, you know, I was a top sales guy. I woke up one day and I walked in and I just said, um, you know I'm, I can't do this anymore, I'm done. And they're like you're the top sales guy and I'm like, yeah, but we're lying to people. And, um, I had actually gone to a house I don't know how they did this, but I had gone to a house that was a next door neighbor. That was a that had bought our windows years before and my sales appointment was next door. And they, they saw me walk in with a window and they came over and they said are you from XYZ company? And I said, yeah, and they're like your product sucks and you know this other stuff. And we put him in a year ago, two years ago. Whatever was we've been calling, nobody comes out and fixes anything. The seals are broken. It was a total scam. But that was my first.
Speaker 1:I learned a lot of lessons in those those few short months. Like I, one of the one of the lessons I learned on accident was you need to sell like you're independently wealthy. Right, I always say market like your next meal depends on it, but sell like you're independently wealthy, like you don't need it. And one morning. So again they set these telemarketing appointments. I go down to Joliet Illinois, and I parked my truck out in the street. I'm walking up this driveway, I'm carrying the window display and I had been out. It was a Saturday morning. I've been out all night and this is like a 9am appointment or something. I've been all night gigging and drinking and you know, just not in good shape, so I talk about hungover.
Speaker 2:I was in the bushes before you ring the doorbell.
Speaker 1:You know, if he wasn't standing in front of the house I might have so, but not doors open. There's this guy's like 80 something years old, 80 column, 80 years old, standing in his driveway when the garage door meets the driveway, standing there is, hands are on his hips and he's walking up the driveway with my window and he goes. I told the girl on the phone don't send anybody out because I'm not buying anything. And by then I'm like eight or 10 feet from the garage door I can smell something's being cooked inside. I look down at my window and I launch it into his yard. I chuck the window into the yard, the display, and he looks at me and I go I don't give a fuck if you buy anything, but whatever you're cooking in there smells amazing. He goes that's my homemade turkey chili. Come on in, try it.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God, two hours later, two hours later in his basement.
Speaker 1:Two hours later, we're in his basement drinking Bacardi and Coke's, eating chili and signing a deal. You know so. So, again, the story was bullshit, but what I learned, like I said, what I learned is you can't be so. That was obviously an extreme example, but you can't be. So you know what is it? The Tommy boy scene where he's like here's my sale and I'm so desperate to have it and stuff.
Speaker 1:and I think so many sales people are, you know, they just, they just reek of desperation and I have to have this sale and and I learned that lesson.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I learned that lesson on accident.
Speaker 1:I learned it on accident, that is awesome, you know what?
Speaker 3:and that's one of those classic things where the mind was not connected. Let's face it, we've. If you don't drink, well, shame on you, because we're drinking as we do this, we're having a little, with a little bourbon while we're talking to Tom. But that's the thing like sometimes, when your mind is connected, you kind of play free, right. You kind of you're playing loose, like you're playing to win, not playing out to lose, and when you're selling, not to lose. Man, oh dog.
Speaker 1:This is also why I say you got a market, like your next meal depends on it because, as you guys know, the more leads I have coming in, the less give a shit factor I have on each particular one. But I remember days building our painting company and stuff. You know we were doing call it 300 jobs a year, sometimes up to four just depending on the year, and. But I remember those, those early seasons when winter would come in the Midwest and you'd stare at the phone just hoping it would ring and you know we would call into our office line and check the voicemail to see if anyone left a message and it's like we'd have like one lead come in in a week or something you know, and you just you're looking at that going oh my god, this is my only hope, and that's where the desperation comes out. So that's why I talk so much about build your brand.
Speaker 1:You know, I think I really think one of the solutions for every problem in business hiring, making money, profit, whatever you want to call it is is build your brand, like if people don't know who you are, they can't call you. If you don't know who you are, they can't work for you. So and it's amazing how much pushback I get from contractors on that. Man like I'm big on, just do the easy stuff, like your social media profile, your face, your personal Facebook profile, the number of guys that own a business that don't have the name of the business just in the about section. You know what I'm saying? Well, I keep business and work your personal life separate. I'm like you're not IBM, okay, you're Bob's whatever service in little town, usa you know, and if you're not going to be your own biggest fan, why should anyone give a crap about you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so true, because I mean that's how I built, so that's how I built my business from scratch, and that that was hard. I mean, I tell you know one of the things? I'm in an accountability group called the CEO group. We meet once a month and one of our lines is he looks at us and says you guys realize that you started your own business, and I argue that your job is harder than the CEO of Coca Cola, because we're here in Atlanta and I'm, like you know, coming from the corporate world. He's right, because I walked into a system and I just had to fix it. Here I'm starting something from scratch.
Speaker 3:And back to Tom's point when I started, I'm called the trusted toolbox. Well, I got the call saying, hey, I need a ladder. I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, we have ladders. What do you need me to come out and do? He goes no, no, I just need a ladder. I'm like, well, he goes we're hardware store, aren't you? I did not get this right, but I know it will. And then, and so you have to build your brand. I don't care what it is, you're right, because Bob's service company, that doesn't sell. But if you're going to be Bob's service company, you put it on your truck. You have a card, you put it digitally, you let people know who you are and then, guess what, when they're thinking about it for a minute, they go home to call Bob.
Speaker 2:Who has a ladder in their toolbox. I don't know. Is it dumbass, did you?
Speaker 3:say dumbass on the phone. Well, how about this? I got an email saying I definitely will not be using your service and I don't need any toolbox Like what. Oh my god.
Speaker 1:So I have you brought up like lettering your trucks and stuff it's. I've had contractors tell me they don't want to letter their vehicles because they don't want to get a bad review on Google.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see, that's that's selling. Scared, that is exactly. I'm like wrong mentality, that isn't that, that's a scarcity mentality, cuz you're right, cuz you. But I'll be honest, I have walked into my grocery store and I'm looking around. I got my trust in toolbox stuff on and I'm like, okay, do I know anybody? All right, I'm gonna come up and tell me how bad I am. But you know what? It doesn't happen. They don't do that, man. You know what they do. They come up and go hey man, your guys came out, did a great job. I'm like you just made my day, brother. Thank you so much. It's how it happens, right.
Speaker 3:You gotta get out of that mindset.
Speaker 1:Here's. Here's the thing we talked. We skirted over football a minute ago, a few minutes ago. When, when you're on a football team I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, guys, but last I check, everyone has a uniform and the team has a brand and it has a website, and it has, you know, cheerleaders. I want to peril cheerleaders.
Speaker 2:If you're lucky, we do you need to trust a toolbox cheerleaders.
Speaker 3:We're getting ready to do a home show. We need to. Actually, my buddy has told me he said you should run the mistrusted Toolbox pageant. Miss trusted, I'm like perfect, thank you. So you're right, uniforms. You hit on that right.
Speaker 1:I Mean if again, if you're gonna start a business, why wouldn't you wear it? Why wouldn't you drive it? Why wouldn't you? And I don't know. Maybe some guys are like oh, I don't want people to see me sitting at the bar, right, the the era I grew up in, that's what contractors did. Right after work. They went to the bar, you know um. But I don't know.
Speaker 1:I just scratch my head because it's the same guys that hop online and are like hey, is anyone else really slow this time of year? I haven't had a lead in six weeks and I've sold a job. One guy's like I haven't sold a job in three months, or whatever it was who posted in one of our groups and I'm like I said well, dude, I went to your. I actually took like 10 minutes of my life. I went online everywhere to look for them and couldn't find them anywhere. I said, well, not even free social media stuff. Wow, yeah, why. And then I'm like are you in? Please tell me? You're in something like a B&I group, right, or a some sort of net. Know what's that?
Speaker 1:I'm like Jesus, like you guys even try like, no, like, it's like, it's like it here. You know, I have this phone and it should be easy. Everything should be easy. It should just, you know, open a business and this thing should ring, instead of me having to learn how to be resourceful.
Speaker 3:I had a handyman come up to me goes. You know what, chris, how much you spend on advertising. I said, well, yeah, I spend three to four percent of my thing and it's actually really low. He goes you know, I've been in business for ten years and I've never had to advertise because I get word to mouth. And sure enough, about a year and a half ago he called me, even though we're in the heater of COVID. He goes hey, how are you guys doing? I still are cranking bro, it's cool. He goes he hasn't seen it slow down. I'm like no, huh, yeah, well, how's that word of mouth going?
Speaker 1:out and listen. You know I've I come out pretty hard on that from time to time, like I give the word of mouth only guys a bad rap, I think sometimes, and I want to. I want to set it straight here, man All right it's official.
Speaker 1:If you're just relying on word of mouth, I say you're stupid. Okay, I've usually said that If your goal is to scale and grow a business, you know what I'm saying. So right, where I failed to communicate in the past is the context of that comment is Listen, if you want to wake up, put the tools on and you enjoy that, and you, just you want to. You want to only make a hundred hundred grand, 125 grand a year in your pocket, 150 some years, whatever it might be, and Just hover above what I consider poverty Then. And you and, but you enjoy it. Right, because I get that. That's it's success. Maybe you have a spouse that makes a lot of money, you know, and you don't have to make as much of the business and you just want to kind of be left alone, and that's success to you. I'm all for that.
Speaker 1:But where I get bent out of shape is the guys that sit there and they go. I go. What's your vision for your business? And they've been in business three years, are doing 400 grand a year and they go. I want to build a four million dollar business or a ten million dollar business. And then you start having a marketing conversation or like well, you know, we just do word of mouth. I'm like dude, it ain't gonna happen. You're going to have to be become fanatical about Building what we or what we say, getting more eyeballs. You got to get eyeballs.
Speaker 3:Gotta get eyeballs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so of course I mean listen, your business might. It would be amazing if I don't know the 8,000 leads that come into the contractor fight a year or what other heck it is.
Speaker 3:We're all word of mouth, right, that would be great, I would love to spend zero dollars to get with you on there and I think the longer you're in business that percentage should go up.
Speaker 1:Like earlier I said, if we did 300 paint jobs a year, 250 of them were past clients, influencer relationships and referrals. Okay, the other 50 we were spending I don't know hundred grand a year to get or whatever it was.
Speaker 3:I just didn't do my 23 analysis. The cool thing about my business being a handyman and remodeler is that we do a lot of things around the house so I can get a lot of repeat business. Yeah, I get 40% repeat business. I get another 20% from referrals from satisfied customers and networking. I get another 20 from other contractors. So add up that is 40 plus 20, but so that's 80. Thank you for those of us driving on your car don't drive off the road yet. So I spent last year 300,000 for 20% of my business.
Speaker 3:Think about that. Yeah, like what, what are you doing? Did you could put that in your pocket? Well, not if you're trying to grow, bro, I right, I mean. But oh, that's what it came down to, because those repeat clients were from past marketing efforts, branding, doing this over 15 years. It's that build. And you know, of course, you know right now. This is one of the things I'm really hot on is people like, well, I bootstrapped it and I'm a million dollar a year guy after one year. I'm like that's awesome, good for you. But here I am overnight success. It just took me 15 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had to build a slow. Well, yeah, I mean you bring up a good, a good point, though I mean you're not marketing for their business today, you're marketing for the business for the rest of their life and all their referrals. Right, because I do it on a bad marketing because, yeah, if you just look at it, that 20% it seems like it's a waste of money, but you know, you multiply it out over the next 10 years, it's a huge amount of money. Correct? Yep, I understand.
Speaker 1:Chris, I'm gonna venture to say that in all of your marketing strategic, I've been waiting to use that word. I love it. You know what that's gonna be in the webster soon.
Speaker 3:I know it is because I've used it too.
Speaker 1:My guess is, somewhere in your strategic planning of your marketing and growing your business, you've probably had a conversation of this thing called lifetime value.
Speaker 3:There we go.
Speaker 1:Whoa, that's a big word. People just drop, drop the mic, like right there, like, and that's you know again, and I used to be this way till I got edumacated and um another word that's gonna go in pretty soon, it's actually edumacated it is.
Speaker 3:I think I think it's edumacated. Yeah, I think I think strategic edumacated should be in websters. I'm gonna valley because I can't use. I've used both of those all the time.
Speaker 1:But it's. It's easy to only think transactional right when your phone's not ringing a lot, sales are low. You know you're struggling. I get that, we've all been there. You're just going, I just need to cash a check and eat and do the work right. So I'm totally for that.
Speaker 1:But I think so many contractors, so many business owners in general, do do themselves a disservice by not really thinking of the long-term value of a client. And I, you know, like you, with handyman stuff, slam dunk, you could be in the house for a gazillion different things. Even as a painting contractor, we could come in and start with a powder room that we sell for 500 bucks, send a guy for a half at 80, paints it and over the next I've had this dozens of times over the next three to five years it turns into 20, 30, 60 thousand dollars of work, whether it's in that house, or they sell that house and buy the next house or whatever. There's gold in your database. So I think you know a lot of these guys do bigger additions. Kitchen remodels are like well, people only do a kitchen once every 20 years or whatever. I'm like, yeah, but Dude, what, what would happen? I mean, I don't know about you, but like Every time I turn around, there's something in our house that needs to be needs to be done.
Speaker 1:Right and even if my kitchen remodeler were to just check in, just pick up the phone two, three times a year, send a text and go Tom, how's the kitchen looking? Hey, you know it's looking great, but this crazy thing happened. Because it's just happened. We, we got some boards on the floor. They didn't do the floor. We got some boards on the floor that are kind of separating and stuff with the weather. You want to come look at it?
Speaker 3:I mean that would be the conversation like right, that's it, and you like sub it out. They could look me in the door, I don't care what they do Get me in the door.
Speaker 2:So I think a lot of people are reluctant to do that because they're afraid. When you say, hey, how's the kitchen looking? Oh, the you know the doors are falling off guilty?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm guilty that because we, you know, as we do it, you know like, uh, because I've had another guy recommend that at the year mark you should call and say, hey, just want to check on the bathroom that we did. Do you want me to come back and touch it up? And I'm like, oh, I can't do that because you know they're gonna hit me with it. He goes, chris. Every time I've done it, Not only did I touch up something for a half a day, uh, and then I sold them on another master bath or I sold them on the kitchen. You're like he's right.
Speaker 3:So that's why you gotta send. I mean, I, I've talked about this before I send once a month. Everybody gets a newsletter, you know. And then Now I'm gonna go back to mailing, because we were on such a heater after covid, I, I, I, I slowed back on the mail, but I'm gonna go back to it now because we're slowing down Um, so you see it trying to lean into it and do some other things and, um, you know, hopefully it'll work, you know. Back to my strategic. I don't know.
Speaker 1:So there's, there's two things. I think that if, if, if, contractors listen to this, if they implemented these two things, um, it's going to move the needle, all right, and most don't do this. We spend so much time fighting to get new customers, new leads, right, and we often neglect the people right under our nose that are in our database. You know, mrs Jones, who didn't hire you three years ago, is still in your database. Why is she not hearing from you, right? So, because you never know, maybe they hired a different company and it was a total shit show, and then you're still on the radar. So, however, two things. This first thing I got a GC in Milwaukee, and he's just one example, but this is pretty cool. This brought in an additional million dollars for him in top line revenue.
Speaker 3:Right this down, I'm 23. Dude, I'm poised. Look at this.
Speaker 1:So it's called a UIT, not a UTI, a UIT.
Speaker 3:OK, I know who's UTI, by the way.
Speaker 1:And I ripped the name off from my coach, so I got and I was doing them before I knew what he called them because we were doing these for years and then I adopted that name, but now I got to come up with my own name, so maybe we'll call them the uncommon touch or something I don't know Million bucks. Here's how it works. It is personalized. It is not like a bulk text or email, right, it's a text, and when I speak to groups, dude, I have or do workshops or do I have the people in the room do this? I was just in Florida a couple of months ago doing this and this kid I shared this thing and I go everyone, pull your phone out right now and send one and within 20 minutes this kid sold a $15,000 project.
Speaker 2:He's going in the audience. Ok.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm ready. So, real, simple, chris IT. Chris, it's Tom. We did your thing last year, last summer, whatever, I don't care what you think. We installed this. We did that, fixed your garage door. Just thinking about you. How's it looking? That's it. The goal is not to sell something, by the way. The goal is to stay on the radar, to show that you care and to eventually turn this into a sales conversation for when it works for people, because people buy when they're ready, not when we're ready. My painter here. I'm a painter, but I don't paint my own house. It's too hard. So this painter that I love. If they would send one of these to my wife right now, they would have $20,000 to $30,000 of work this week.
Speaker 1:It's better to wait what's?
Speaker 3:UIT stand for, though I'm going to turn it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, unexpected Intentional Touch. So it's unexpected, it's intentional and obviously it's a touch, and so this GC I was telling you about.
Speaker 3:Unexpected Intentional Touch.
Speaker 1:This is why we've got to come up with a new name. We need a new name because I'm thinking UTI Dolton.
Speaker 3:That's why I was struggling with that. But I don't care if you're a contractor or not, that is just business. Right there, man, right there. Listen to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't care. I mean, you sell cars, you sell websites, it doesn't matter, right? So, anyway, you send these and we've done these for many years, we've coached on these for many years. It's just a quick reach out, it's just going. Hey, man I was just thinking about, I was driving through your neighborhood, hey, julie, I was driving through your neighborhood and I was thinking about the deck. Last year we refinished and I know what a paint it was, meaning the history of the deck and all the other people that screwed it up before us. And it's been six months. How's it looking? Hey, it's looking great.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, I meant to reach out to you. This literally happened to me many years ago. I sent one of these in the month of August. Never heard from her. Her name is actually Stacy and it was a deck Week and a half before Thanksgiving. She calls my cell phone. She goes I am so sorry, I never replied to your text. She says and you're going to hate me, I have people coming next week and I need the whole house painted and I need wallpaper removed. And so the week before Thanksgiving she hands me a $30,000 job because I sent a text.
Speaker 1:Ok, guys, this is the power of this? Because here's why it's nobody does it. You guys, Nobody does it.
Speaker 2:I call it the hey buddy, hey buddy.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good name. You know what Alan Trademark that.
Speaker 3:Hey, buddy, hey buddy, hey. You know what Contractor fight? You can use that one. Thanks, man. So we'll deal with pride.
Speaker 1:So I was sharing about Bob the GC who sold a million at our event this past September. I'm on the stage, I have Bob's picture on the slide telling about this story and I'm like Bob, I hope you're OK if I share this and he just laughed and whatever, and the cold crowd's there and I share about this, I get off the stage, I walk off the stage, I walk by Bob, I walk up, give him a high five and give him a little hug and I'm like, hey, thanks for letting me share your story. He goes you're not going to believe this. I said what he says while you were telling the story. I sent a UIT and I just set my sales guy up and he's going out to talk to somebody about another $130,000 garage.
Speaker 3:Dear God, look at that man.
Speaker 1:And so we put a little science behind this. We've tested this for years. If you do this three times a day, ok, and what do we got About? 264. Call it 270 sales days a year times three. Call it 800 times a year. Guys, you're not going to go over 800.
Speaker 3:No Right and it takes.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm talking. You're sitting on the throne in the morning. You can send a few of these we call them 8 before, 8 and 5 after 5.
Speaker 3:It's 8 before 8. Like you said, everybody can send a text, right? I mean, it's pretty easy, especially in today's world. We call them dump texts. Well, we call them 8 before 8 and 5 after 5. Thanks, dump text.
Speaker 1:Ellen, you are like you are like you are on fire today. I'm just trying to consolidate.
Speaker 2:He had a great colonoscopy. He's all high up baby Woo. I'm just wondering about that.
Speaker 3:What we found is we still haven't got the number two.
Speaker 1:Yet, ellen, I know what we found is that about 5% of those convert into sales over the course of a year. 5%, huge number.
Speaker 3:That's 40 projects guys.
Speaker 1:Think about that, if you got sales guys, you're going to go? Hey, I need more leads.
Speaker 3:You know what? How about you go, take these 20 and just hit them with the text? So one of the guys I coach he month and a half ago.
Speaker 1:I'm like, dude, you got to get your people doing this. He's got his admin assistants doing it. He's got a couple different locations. So all the sales people, all the admin people and himself are all sending three a day as a company, because they got a database of like 12,000 or whatever it is, and he's like a week I think he's got what the heck is it. He's got eight people times three is 24 times 22 working days. He's sending at least 500 of these a month, every month, and within like two or three weeks they sold I don't know 80, 100,000 bucks collectively, just money. That's just sitting there, right? So the guys that are listening to this right now, driving on the road and you're like phone hasn't rang, you got to be proactive. Go on the hunt, go on the attack.
Speaker 3:You got to be on the attack right now.
Speaker 1:And again it's not like hey, you want to buy my shit? It's Ellen. Thanks so much for having us out to paint your first floor last year. I was just wondering how it's looking. You just care, right. And it's truly a genuine caring. So 5%. So whatever your average job size is, I mean, if you're 7,500 bucks and you got 40, that's 300 grand right there that you just manufactured out of nothing. Ok.
Speaker 3:Second thing I will say hey, do you make any money off this podcast? I'm like no, actually not sponsored.
Speaker 2:It's a good thing. It's a good thing. You have a second thing, because Chris is about to end the podcast and start texting people.
Speaker 3:I'm right, actually, I'm just going to grab my phone because I put it on. I put it on. Do Not Disturb because, all due respect, I want to show that I'm totally in and I'm totally flipping in right now.
Speaker 2:All right, number two I know what you're going to be on Monday oh it's about freaking tax boys.
Speaker 1:A lot of this is both these strategies or tactics are just about being uncommon and I think they're rooted in just being a good human being. Most companies I don't care what they are run from warranty work. Ok, none of us want. Like you said earlier, you don't want to pick the phone up and ask them because you don't want to hear bad news.
Speaker 1:So number of years ago with our painting business, I started doing what I call a warranty call. I'm like it's similar to a UIT but it's got more intention behind it. It's literally a warranty call and I'd call you up and at the time I think we were doing a one-year labor warranty or whatever it was right. One, two year, it didn't matter. You call probably I don't know three months before the warranties up and you go hey, ellen, it's Tom Tom's painting. We did your thing last year. Hey man, what's going on? Just checking in. Hey, I wanted to let you know that your labor warranties up in a couple months and I wanted to get your warranty visit set up and they're going to be like what's that You're like?
Speaker 1:Well, we come out, we put eyeballs on stuff to make sure everything's looking the way it should. There's no issues? And if there are there are problem and not yours, and you go out there and we actually told our crew leaders who did the job, go do the warranty call, because they already had a relationship with them. And sometimes we'd say, hey, guys, find something Right, find something Right. If we painted the exterior of a house, you notice a window sill is a little eh, that's probably going to peel in another year. Scrape it down, spot, prime it, recode it. Now the law of reciprocity kicks in and what we found is, about 38% of the times that we got on site to do a warranty visit, we got. We heard the greatest thing out of the customer's mouth, which was hey, while you're here, yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1:And that kicked up additional sales for us. But it also again playing the long game, the lifetime value, not just bam bam, thank you, and we're out of here. You are providing an uncommon service that really makes them feel like they're important, they're not just thrown to the side. I mean, I can't tell you. You guys have probably had this where they I hear the story will be better than me making a point. I go to this house lady wants me to paint it. I said to her. I said, hey, the paint job looks pretty good. Like who did it last time? And she said so and so and he was a buddy of mine and he had a gargantuan company. Man, good dude liked him, you know. And I said, well, why didn't you have him back? And she said, well, I was remember when they used to build like a little desk in the kitchen. Yeah, yeah, to the side a little desk and underneath Right next to the fridge, yeah, and then underneath there's a little.
Speaker 3:Nobody ever used this by the way we have it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that little strip. There was like a little strip of drywall that was tucked way up in there, you can't see it. She was cleaning the floor under there one day and she looked up and they didn't paint that thing, literally. And she says, well, they missed that and it just bothered me. And I said did you call him? And she said no, it was. I just felt it was stupid to call. I said so it bothers you, but you won't call. I said I know so and so he would come out here personally. We had like 100 painters and shit. Right, he had like he'd come out here personally and do it for you if you picked the phone up. So her reluctance to call kind of gave me this idea that we got to be on the hunt for this stuff and we got to be proactive because I guarantee you had. He called her and said hey Mary, how's it looking? She'd go. You know what, tom, this is the stupidest thing ever. It's really not. Yeah, chris, you're doing it right this is really not a big deal.
Speaker 1:I feel so stupid even saying this. But you know, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 3:But I hate to bring this up to you because you're the owner and I don't want to get anybody in trouble, and so that was it.
Speaker 1:There was a $12,000 job that I got. That he didn't get, you know, because obviously it's a stupid thing, but it meant something to her. Men are men enough to it, right? So that that was kind of the origin of this thing, and so we found that, you know, if I because what's the stat? Like 85%, if somebody's given you money once before, they're like 85% more likely to do it again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've heard that they had a good experience, right? Well, it's not. It's definitely more than 50% boys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we spend all this time trying to get new customers, new customers, new customers, which we should, but we don't love up on the ones that have already trusted us, you know.
Speaker 3:I had one contractor tell me you got to lean in. Yeah, you got to kiss the girl that's leaning in to you. That's like that's a good one. But back to repeat business. You especially I've had people say that I've had painters say this to me because, man, at least in your business you get repeat business. I'm like you can get repeat business too, man. I said you just got to stay there, right? I said you're right.
Speaker 3:My business, I wish all I did was plumbing. I wish all I did was painting. I wish all I did was electricity, electrician work. But we do a lot. But even if you do, you're still and I don't care if you're not in the trades and you listen to this if you're in your business, if you're not touching your existing customer base and giving them ideas, not selling your shit. Talking about new stuff, like I just put my newsletter on, I started talking about aging in place ideas because we just got introduced to a lot of new ideas that I implemented, actually in my own house, because I'm aging in place at 53. I'm aging a lot faster than most, but no, I mean. But when you're trying some of this techniques out, you're like man, this is really cool stuff everybody should have. So educate your customers, because we all want to sell to an educated customer right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, in, you know, education comes. I mean, you know I I started this whole content thing before I got out of the painting industry, in in, and I sold my half of the business in 2012 to my partner. Whole long story behind that, but we had for a couple years. We started at the time, blogs were really big and so we just kept writing blog after blog. That was educational, you know, because people go on to Google. I mean anyone listening to this right now, go in.
Speaker 1:If you're a kitchen remodeler, you know, or say you paint kitchen cabinets, go into Google and go kitchen cabinet painting and I guarantee you probably one of the next words it's going to auto populate is prices, because people are searching for that. Or which paint is better? Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams? Should I use flat or eggshell? How do I touch up a wall? Whatever your industry is, all those questions you get.
Speaker 1:So dude, we went on this. I went out, I went on the warpath of writing blog posts that just educated. I was like interior painting prices how much to paint a kitchen, interior painting prices, how much to paint a master bathroom? And it got to the point and we had pricing all over our website I shared with people our production rates and how we measure rooms and all this other stuff, how we figured up pricing. It got to the point where I would knock on a door. I had my little iPad with our program in it and I'd walk around and I'd hit dimensions and I'd hit buttons and I'd hold up the price. I go it's 5600 bucks. And one time I did this as husband and wife were there. They're on the other side of this kitchen island and I hit the button and I hold it up and I go 5600 bucks. She looks at her husband and she flips him the bird. She goes suck it, I win. They had a bet of how much it was gonna be.
Speaker 1:And she was within like 100 200 bucks and I said how did you figure it out? She says it's all on your website. So she did her own frickin estimate and then called us.
Speaker 3:So she's already price conditioning when you walked in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, educated.
Speaker 3:She'd already researched your company. She realized you put yourself out there. She saw your Google reviews, saw they were good, so you walked in. It's a sale. That's an educated customer. You're ready to rock and roll, tom? I could talk to you all day. However, I know you get back to making money doing your thing and we got to get everybody back. But we can't let you go without asking a few things. What do you got? Number one how does everybody come? How does everybody find you?
Speaker 3:Contractor fightcom do it, contractor fight. You see him on YouTube. You'll see him on the web, contractor fightcom. Check it out. I guarantee you you're gonna find something in there that will blow your socks off, because I love watching that stuff. I sampled it all the time. So let's get into the next stuff. All right, you ready what's a favorite book you would recommend everybody?
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, so many.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to pick one.
Speaker 1:I got to pick one.
Speaker 3:Come on, sales guy.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, be your own biggest fan. There's a book called Cell Unafraid that comes out in April of this year that I wrote.
Speaker 3:Cell Unafraid. Go out and check it out.
Speaker 1:Let's go Unleash your sales success through personal discipline. So there you go, that's the subtitle.
Speaker 3:So nice Cell Unafraid, All right you can give us another one of another. All right, we'll push that book.
Speaker 1:You know one of my favorite all time books is how rich people think. I don't know if you ever heard of this little green book, but I think we're. You know I grew up highly conditioned to be a broke dude. You know, just by my life and environment and this and that you know and self negative, self talk, and I just think I read that a number of years ago and I till this day I go back and maybe once a year I'll revisit. You know, half of the book or maybe read the whole thing. It's a real quick little read.
Speaker 3:It's a quick read, yeah, yeah, but it's been a little bit since I've read it, clearly because I've met rich yet and that's why I'm still doing these and I'm kidding Guys, go read that one. How rich people think All right, let's keep rocking, let's well, let's go figure out some other stuff. What's the favorite feature of your house?
Speaker 1:Or water feature.
Speaker 3:What do you got?
Speaker 1:We have a. We have two of them. We have, like a, these big spheres at the front of the house, three spheres that bubble water out. Oh wow, in the front and in the back we had so we live in a suburb here or a subdivision in Colorado Springs while we're looking for land to build on right now and so it's a release. It's actually a small space, but our landscapers name was Matt Heiner If you guys follow him on Instagram, the Yardist. He's a master at social media and does millions a year from social. That's why I'm sharing that as a value for your people.
Speaker 3:Done Yardist.
Speaker 1:So they built a. They built just a small water feature, but it's a 1500 pound metal basin that they had to crane in over the house to get into the backyard, and our dogs love playing in it and stuff like that. The next.
Speaker 3:I would have loved seeing that put that in there. There's a YouTube video, there's a.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna watch that that's awesome On Heiner Outdoor Living's YouTube channel.
Speaker 3:So yeah, nice, all right, it was a few years ago, yep. So one of the big things we're talking about in the small business safari is that customer service is King, and Alan and I are customer service freaks. Let's go. When you're out there and you're a customer, what is a service pet peeve of yours?
Speaker 1:When I'm a customer, yeah, um, in any environment, just as a customer anywhere, like anywhere you know you're.
Speaker 3:You're out there at the restaurant.
Speaker 1:We talk about restaurants quite a bit, or whatever what's it like, especially because it contractors.
Speaker 3:We gotta step our games up. People, man, you know what we used to get passes. All the time the passes are going away. We gotta get better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I think, um, I just really want to know that you give a shit Right.
Speaker 1:You know whether it's a host, whether it's the hostess at the restaurant, whether it's the server you have, whether it's the contractor you're working with, like you know what's the old saying, you know, picture. Everybody's got a sign around them that says make me feel important. I think that's what we all want, you know. We just want to feel like I, I like you guys, I like to spend money, right, so I'm going places to spend money. The least you could do is act like you're happy to see me.
Speaker 1:Amen to that Right and I think a lot of um, a lot of companies don't do that and I think they're missing out in all industries. I think they gotta level up the the trend. That's part of the reason, honestly, that I wrote sell unafraid, because I talk about that in the book. I talk about like acts, like you give a shit. I mean, listen, we, we had a. My wife and I got married in 2020. We've been together a number of years, got married in 2020.
Speaker 1:We were going to get married at this perfect place here in Colorado Springs, with the best views of the Garden of the Gods and all this other stuff. It was a slam dunk, like we were going there. We set the appointment, we walked in this and I tell the story in the book. The sales girl, um, greets us, sits us down at her desk, slides pricing pages in front of us and says which package do you want to do?
Speaker 1:Oh, and my wife and I looked at each other and I go on to share the story that and we settled for a a sub par venue down the road because I wasn't going to spend my money with somebody that didn't bother to ask us one question, right? Yep, we call my wife the queen. If she would have just said to the queen Lee, tell me about your perfect wedding day. Lee would have talked for an hour nonstop, walked around the property with her and said we want to do this and do this, and do this and do this. And then, sales girl, all she had to do was say, okay, well, to make all that happen, it's going to be X.
Speaker 1:Which is probably the premier package, probably the top of the line, probably right there, and you would have looked at me and said nothing, and I would have looked it back at her and I would have said, okay, done. But she just acted like it was. There was an arrogance, it was almost like it was a hassle for us to meet with us. You know what you walked into restaurants, and I don't blame her, though.
Speaker 3:I blame, I blame the management.
Speaker 1:I blame management and if I'm the owner of that, company.
Speaker 3:I am pissed because that's what I just trained her to do. That's, that just ticks me off. And that is we are customer service. Let's get it.
Speaker 1:All right All right.
Speaker 3:Last one Give us a DIY nightmare story. We're talking death, dismemberment, fire, flood, emergency services. Emergency services are always good. Yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 1:On my own.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, it wasn't. It wasn't life threatening, but I'm a painter, not a trim carpenter. And about 20 years ago uh, longer than that now, anyway, first house I ever bought I was going to do my own trim and so I trimmed out all the uh, all the doors, the door frames, the windows, everything, put new trim. I was all excited about it and, um, I think I've ever told anyone this Come on.
Speaker 1:I love this story Um it's get vulnerable time I'm standing back and I got a beer and my buddy came over and he walks in and he's we're leaning on against the wall drinking a beer, having a conversation and after about 10 minutes he goes. You know, you put all the trim on backwards.
Speaker 3:Hello Good.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, all my joints were tight, but I just had the trim turn the wrong way, man. I don't know what I was thinking? I obviously wasn't, and um, and we just lived with it. I'm like screw it, we're keeping it.
Speaker 2:I know, I know the same thing. I hung a closet door upside down I'm proud of myself until I came over for a cup of coffee.
Speaker 3:He's like you know that door's upside down, all right. I didn't have the heart to tell one of my friends who was very proud that he did that same thing, and he rolled around his outside. He said I had stole my door. Of course you could barely freaking open the thing and it was all out of plumb and I didn't want to. I didn't have the heart to tell him and I but he saw the brick mold backwards or inside out, like you guys just said, and I was like mm-hmm, yeah, he goes. What do you think? I said man, you know what I'm hiring, man, you know, you know, if you ever decide to put your IT job, I think you can do this. But you're right, because you're a contractor. You're sitting there like, hey, check out what I just did. He's like, hey, dumb ass, you just put it all backwards.
Speaker 1:Hey, we made it worse. We made it worse. It was like my I think my second year in business. We were super young company and I remember getting it done and going this wasn't that hard. And then I'm like we should add a handyman division where we do trim. Let's go, dr Tom.
Speaker 3:Reaver, patrick, tom Reaver, the contractor. Fight brought the heat, made you happen. Listen, everybody, I hope you enjoy this episode and if you didn't, that's on you. If you didn't learn something, that's definitely on you. You're driving around, go back, rewind this thing. You pick up some gold nuggets, get up that mountaintop. Let's hit that success button, make it happen.
Speaker 2:We're out of here. You're the man, Tom.
Speaker 1:You guys are awesome. Thank you, thank you.