The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
The Business of Music: More Than Just a Dream | Jay Maurice
Step into the world of music entrepreneurship with our captivating discussion featuring Jay Maurice, founder of "Lessons in Your Home." In this episode, Jay shares the exhilarating journey of turning his passion for music into a successful nationwide business teaching music lessons. As he unfolds his story, listeners are invited to reflect on the passion that drives them and how significant relationships with students can lead to success far beyond just monetary gain.
Jay candidly explores the early days of his career, where he had dreams of becoming a rock star but faced harsh realities. He emphasizes that understanding the business side of music education is crucial for aspiring musicians and teachers alike. Learn how Jay created a thriving community around music by focusing on interpersonal connections, nurturing each student's unique talents, and fostering a love for music.
This episode is rich with insights about what it truly means to be a music educator in today’s world and how the simple act of teaching can create ripples of impact that last a lifetime. As questions about scaling a business and the importance of relationships in entrepreneurship arise, listeners will find themselves more engaged than ever.
Join our conversation to discover how to turn your passion into profit, understand the nuances of teaching music, and cultivate meaningful relationships with your students. Don't miss this chance to learn from Jay’s experience and take your first steps toward a successful music journey! Tune in, and be inspired! Please subscribe, share, and leave a review if you enjoyed this episode!
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
And you know the contract. You know I had written it up myself so it probably held zero weight in the legal world.
Speaker 2:They didn't teach you that in music school, did they no?
Speaker 1:they didn't. It's not part of the waiter.
Speaker 3:you know curriculum, so there's not a spot where you get no business sense whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. I mean I know how to upgrade your potato chips, you know, to French fries and upsell, but I don't know how to write a contract. But French fries and upsell, but I don't know how to write a contract, but I did, I wrote the contract. We didn't sign it and it was years later that he started his own business. Dick started, dick started his own business. And you know what? What a great lesson for me.
Speaker 3:Welcome 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 mountaintop 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 hitting 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 mountaintop. You, you, thank you. Oh boy, alan, we got to get going again.
Speaker 3:I got feeling the music. I'm feeling the love. I'm like I got to get going. I got to get going, going going Everybody. Do you love music? I love music. You know what? I think? Music actually gets my vibe going to where I want to go. Like if I'm doing a lot of work, I put some music on in the background and I like to do the blues. I'll even do a little pop. I like to go all around it.
Speaker 2:You're 70s, big hair rock though.
Speaker 3:I am. So I'm 70s classic rock, but I am a closet now out of the closet hair fan. Yes, I like all the hair bands. Um, I mean, I'm talking slaughter white lion I mean I could start to danger.
Speaker 2:Danger people are like do what they all had.
Speaker 3:Menacing names poison rat, poison rat, scorpions, all of my scorpion, my favorite first peachy, you know, back in the day out in the west coast they called them peachies, not folders.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, I had peachies. Yeah, with the athletic, the basketball players from the peach basket days.
Speaker 3:So I scratched out the squirt from my peachy baby. So we could go on and on about music. But music sets the vibe, sets the tone for a lot of people and they like it. And you guys are listening to this. Going man, where the hell is he going? Well, if you could make me more— that's what they always say when they're listening to you. You know what they always do say that, but here's where I'm going. That's why I'm here. I land the plane. Did you ever want to be a rock star?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:Okay, me neither.
Speaker 2:No, but I've always wanted to be able to just be in a band, maybe play the bass and just jam. I think the idea of just jamming with your buddies is maybe one of the greatest things you could ever do.
Speaker 3:I am trying to learn how to play the guitar again. I've had a lot of false attempts, um, but I've always wanted to play like like stevie raybon. Now, that's my favorite and if you, if you have to pick one, for me it's stevie raybon all day long.
Speaker 3:I mean, I just I get to see him in person. He was clean when he's playing and man he he just killed and he opened for joe cocker, who was even better. Oh, joe cocker, back in the day, what a lot of fun. But what are we talking about here? Well, how do you make money in the music business?
Speaker 2:you can't, you can't, it's impossible ah, totally, it's a labor of love oh contraire, my friends I have jay maurice on from lessons in your home french.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, because he's maurice jay maurice, oh contraire my friends, it's actually an italian last name, believe it or not. I know it sounds, but in Sicily, which is where some of my people are from, you do see the word Maurice, quite a bunch around the island. So I went to Sicily and I sure enough and we get to bond again.
Speaker 2:Absolutely A little Paisan thing going on here, and I am Picciolano as well.
Speaker 3:So all of my family was from the mountains of Sicily and people always. I remember asking my grandmother once Grandma, are we in the mafia? No, actually not. And I found out exactly what that meant. So if you watch Goodfellas, you know there are made men and then there are the guys that they pushed around all over the place, and so my grandfather made a very good living running his own business, and my great uncle ran a very good business running the food trucks, but I'm just saying I don't know how many sandwiches he sold. I don't know. It was hard to tell. But back to this. So we have Jay Maurice, the Sicilian, who got and made it in music. Jay, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Can't wait to start talking about your story brother.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys for having me. I'm super excited. Jay, hell to the show. Can't wait to start talking about your story, brother. Thank you guys for having me. I'm super excited Jay.
Speaker 3:hell yeah, man. All right, let's rock this. So, jay, what is the business you have today?
Speaker 1:The business I have today is called Lessons in your Home, and one way to make money in the music industry is to teach it, and so we've been teaching private music lessons since 1997, now going on 28 years.
Speaker 2:Wow 28 years, so you yourself are teaching Alan.
Speaker 1:Back in the day I was a teacher, so I haven't taught in about 16 or 17 years, but I started out as a teacher myself and I started out wanting to be a rock star like you guys were talking about. That's exactly how I got into this thing, to be a rock star. So what kind of rock star were you going to be? At the time I was playing music professionally. It was kind of the alternative Dave Matthews kind of error there and I was kind of into that singer, songwriter, but rock band kind of thing, so I'd say alternative rock and used to play all the clubs here in Atlanta back in the mid to late nineties and had a good time doing it.
Speaker 2:I had hair and I really did want to be a rock star even though I didn't succeed, and it just falls out and it destroys your dream. It does, but I'm wondering if I put a little more bourbon in his glass, do you think we'd get him to sing a little something?
Speaker 3:Well, so what was your instrument, or how many instruments?
Speaker 1:could you play. I am a piano player, so I played keyboards, played keyboards, I did some singing, but I'm not, probably won't be singing today for you guys. Oh, challenge accepted. Yeah, the bourbon could get me speaking, you know, it could get me singing, but primarily a keyboard player. I play a little guitar, but not really professionally and yeah, that's what I did.
Speaker 3:So you're, you're making, you're going for the rock star dream. So I also love the movie Mr Holland's Opus and remember this story is the story was Richard. Dreyfuss was going to be a rock star and had to take a temporary gig as a teacher in a high school and then fast forward. He retires from that school and they all celebrate him and he makes this amazing impact in people's lives. I cry like a baby after that one, every time I haven't seen that in a while.
Speaker 2:That is a good one.
Speaker 3:It is a great, it was a good movie and it really tells you that your impact, uh you, you don't have to be a rock star to make a huge impact on people.
Speaker 1:That's correct. Uh, I'll tell you a funny story about Mr Holland's Opus. My mother I was a kid when that movie came out and my mother wanted me to watch that movie and we're talking about Italian, italian families, right. So I watched that movie and I'm watching it with my family I think my mother, my father, my sisters are there and the movie ends. It was a good movie, right, it was great. He made an amazing impact on all these people's lives and a really great story.
Speaker 1:But my sister gets so pissed off because my mother showed this movie to me and she goes your son wants to hit it big in the music business and you're showing him how to be a music teacher. You're killing his dream. You know all these Italian women protecting my son, my son, my son, even though I was her brother, and that was the story on that one. So my sister got in a huge fight with my mom about showing me that movie, mr Holland's Opus. She didn't want to spoil my dream of becoming a rock star. And I was probably 15 or 16 at the time, maybe even 14, when that movie came out and had just started kind of playing and started getting into bands and that kind of thing, but it's terrific music and we do make a lot of impact on people's lives through teaching and it's a fantastic part of what I do. It's really what I love.
Speaker 3:So talk a little bit about what you have today in the empire, that is, lessons in your Home.
Speaker 1:Well, I will Thank you so much for that invitation to do so. We teach about 4,500 music lessons every single week throughout the United States.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is coast to coast. I was on your website and I saw Seattle and DC.
Speaker 1:All the way from Miami to Seattle. We're up in DC and Baltimore.
Speaker 2:Are you kind of the Uber of music lessons?
Speaker 1:I was Uber before we knew the word Uber. I wish I would have understood the Uber concept I was developing back in the day. Probably could be much bigger than we are today, but we work with about um 500 music teachers on our team each and every week, teaching about 4 500 lessons across the across the country, um, and we do that through nine major metro areas. Um, we even teach a lot of virtual lessons, so we are teaching really almost worldwide.
Speaker 2:Uh, especially during the pam if you're in the sticks and you're not actually physically there, you can do a virtual lesson we can.
Speaker 1:There's not a lot of huge call for that. Believe it or not, it's not a successful sticks aren't musical people people are not super interested at least my student base aren't super interested in taking virtually.
Speaker 3:Is he being like? So like there's ageism, right, you're picking on old people I am picking on. He's picking people who likes the country. He's countryism man, jay, who I did not pick you as a racist jay, oh my god, I try I try, all right. Well, we bring everybody on here. We open it up to everybody. You can send hate mail to chris at the trusted toolboxcom and I'll get it to jay maurice, I'll let him know about that, because he is picking on you country folk.
Speaker 2:I also saw you had a cool little video on your website. Oh yeah, the little animation one. And you know, instead of the totalitarian, slap your wrist and scream at you and practice. It kind of sounded like you're going to have fun with these lessons. So are you looking for a certain style of teacher?
Speaker 1:We are. So, first of all, we travel to your house, right? So our teachers are driving from home to home to home, and that old nun that used to wrap us with the ruler when we were taking our piano lessons, she doesn't like to drive that much, especially in traffic. So we are primarily you know, we have teachers of all ages, we're not ageist, but primarily our- teachers, so he has some standards apparently.
Speaker 1:But our teachers are, I would say, you know, primarily on the younger age range, you know, probably from 24 to 35, who are willing to drive from house to house to teach amazing kids and we really target market our kids students, you know, ages three to 12. We teach a lot of lessons in that category.
Speaker 1:Now we teach 74-year-olds, 75 year old, 75 year olds, chris, we would teach somebody as old as you are, I guarantee it. We come to the house here, we're sitting at the studio and, um, we can definitely bring somebody to your studio to teach you guitar.
Speaker 3:Get that dream alive is what I'm talking about oh, I think I'm getting sold right now on the podcast let's do that.
Speaker 3:All right, look at that. He's selling on the podcast right to me. Now. That's what you call an opportunist. I like that. So, jay, you, let's go back to how you got this thing started, were you? Uh you, you were doing your thing. You're on the bus, you're driving around, you're doing gig after gig. Did you have a corporate job that was feeding the income? Where you just are, you saying I'm doing this, I'm making it happen.
Speaker 1:Guys, when you have a degree in music. Um, when they give you your diploma, they also give you an apron and a notepad to take orders at restaurants. So I was working you want fries with that? Exactly right, they should have a class on how to be a waiter while you're at music college, because that's what you will do when you graduate school with a music degree, and that's what I was doing. So I was playing gigs, chris, but I wasn't making any money because it was original music and I was waiting tables on the side.
Speaker 2:I was actually waiting tables. Original music sound like.
Speaker 1:Oh we're going to have to do that, Do you guys?
Speaker 3:you know what? We'll have to get some deets in there and we'll we'll play it out on this, All right. So the Italian family said hey, Jay, you go off and go get a music degree, and then we're going to pay for that.
Speaker 1:Well, no, they didn't pay for it. Oh okay, we were dead broke. So we were that Italian family that got pushed around by the mafia. There you go, exactly my mother didn't want us to watch Goodfellas because it made Italians look bad. Okay, that's where we come from, so we were probably running from your uncle selling those sandwiches on the truck.
Speaker 3:No, you wouldn't run for him, but you'd go to him and see if he could run some numbers. I mean allegedly, Allegedly.
Speaker 1:To play the numbers. That's exactly right. So I'm waiting tables playing gigs and an old friend of mine calls up and forces me literally forces me to teach these. What do you mean? He forced you? Well, it was a female.
Speaker 3:Behind every great idea is a favor that needs to be paid.
Speaker 2:Seems to be a theme developing here Chris.
Speaker 1:So she tells me that I have to go teach these two kids. I tell her I'm not a teacher, never wanted to be a teacher, didn't plan on teaching, wasn't in my interest level. But she was a nice friend of mine and I agreed to go teach these two kids piano. The two children were children of two dentists and within a couple of weeks I was teaching the whole block, like they had spread the word, and I really love teaching these kids. In fact I still know them today my first student and his sister. One's a dentist, one's a pretty successful writer and they are doing very well in life.
Speaker 1:And I started teaching all the kids on this block in a very short period of time, stopped waiting tables on that particular day of the week and then, within a very short period of time, also had a full studio. Again, what do you call it? As a music teacher? You call it a studio. My studio was full, I was teaching. I quit the restaurant and had a waiting list of students. I'm teaching piano lessons because that's all where I'm really qualified to teach and I decide that this business is going to be called Lessons in your Home. That's the beginning.
Speaker 3:So that's the beginning, and that was in 1990? 1997. Right, that's when you started Lessons in your Home. And so now I'm going to do another movie reference. He is literally Jack Black in School of Rock. He is bringing the house down because in 19,. I don't know what it was like then, but you're right. In the 70s and early 80s, when I was forced to have to do music lessons, and one of them was piano, I had Mary come over and teach me. And what do we do? Dun, dun, dun, dun dun dun, dun.
Speaker 3:I'm not having fun. So did you make it fun? Then Did you start to see an angle? Then Were you going I'm a classically trained musician. I'm going to teach you the way I was taught, were you going?
Speaker 2:I'm a classically trained musician. I'm going to teach you the way I was taught. You know, whenever you ask him a question, the look on his face as he's thinking about the answers. Like which one should I tell him I?
Speaker 3:know, it's really funny I mean, I'm telling you, this is the guy.
Speaker 2:Guys, this might be the one you might have to go on YouTube and listen, but then every once in a while, because his facial expressions are priceless. I want to know what he's thinking before he actually tells us what he chooses to tell us.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking that you guys are a really good time, like, I'm really enjoying talking to you, and we spoke before we started the podcast and I was really excited about it. So I'm like, yeah, what story do I want to go with? And I also want to be real. So I am classically trained, you know, and it's what I did. But what Lessons in your home is about, and what it was about back then, even though I wasn't smart enough to realize it, it wasn't about the particular kind of music that I was teaching to the children. It was about the relationship that I was having with my students, and that relationship is extremely valuable.
Speaker 1:I, um, coming from a large family. I love kids. You know, like it's kind of like your cousins and your, you know, your older cousin comes and grabs you by the head, he gives you a noogie and you just you banter with your cousins all the time, and so I didn't know what I was doing, but I was just kind of being a family member to these, to these families that I was working with, um, and at the same time, I became part of their families as well. So that just like was so exciting my network of family members, my network of community members, my people. They were just great. I can't tell you that when I run into one of these families now that I taught 27 years ago, the hug is like you're seeing an aunt or an uncle or a lost cousin that you haven't seen in a while feeling.
Speaker 1:So it would be great if it was the music and I was teaching them how to play ACDC, which we did all sorts of fun stuff, but we also learned how to play. You know Bach and Mozart and some jazz as well. You know maybe some Stevie Ray Vaughan. But it was really about the relationship, the way we talk to children, the way that and it's not children, because we do teach adults as well, and I did teach plenty of adults it's about the way that you speak to people and about the way you care about people. And so I think the music is number two. It's number two actually on the success level. The first one is the relationship we form.
Speaker 3:That's a great point that everybody needs to file away a little bit. Again, back to Simon Sinek. Everybody loves to quote this what's your, why your? Why in 97 was my, why was I? Don't want to freaking wait tables anymore, I just want to make it big as a rock star that these guys can help me and I can build my rock star on the backs of children and just claw my way up.
Speaker 2:That's my why that's not a very altruistic why, Chris. Well, I'm projecting my why You're such a Machiavellian creature.
Speaker 3:Well, hey, let me tell you my why. When I first got started, I would do anything to anybody at any time. I think it's the real why?
Speaker 1:I mean, I think it's the real why all the time when we talk to young business owners? Why to, to you know, um, to make a means, you know means to the end. To get to that stage, I definitely wanted to be a rock star. Five years after I started teaching, I still wanted to be a rock star. It was only after some time that I gave up that dream. Um, it was only after some time that I gave up that dream, when I realized you know, I said when I wasn't smart enough to realize it back in the day when you realized how important the work was that you're doing. That's where you start to change Like, that's where it really starts to grow.
Speaker 3:And that's the big thing, I think and I've said this on other podcasts I go on there and say my why has evolved over time. I mean, my why in the beginning was absolutely to do everything to anybody at any time to make a buck. And now my why is A big boat. Well, don't forget that truck that pulls it, chris Jansen. No, right now I have 38 employees. I have 38 families that count on what we're doing and how we're doing it, and it makes a big difference.
Speaker 3:Oh those people, yeah well, the people on my way up the top, off the backs of my employees.
Speaker 2:Extracting more out of their wallet. But you can tell.
Speaker 3:So Jay just exuded exactly why people and this is why this has grown is that his why was? It was in there, but his mentality was the other way. He's like I mean, I realize it's a relationship. So now, if you grew your business, your culture starts with you at the top. So you're going through this, you, you, uh, you're doing your own coaching, uh, your own teaching. When did you decide to get somebody else to start to make money out of them?
Speaker 1:I'm at a local music store. A couple of my couple, the couple that owns the local music store. They've become accustomed to me coming in there and spending my money on material so I could teach kids in walks a lady. Her name was linda I don't know if I'm allowed to say her last name. Anyway, linda's in there and, um, she's talking to the owners of this music store saying that she wants to become a teacher, that she doesn't know how to teach music, but she'd like to do this because she's married.
Speaker 1:Her husband's, I guess, the main bread that's a sign from god and she wants to teach the house and they literally point to me across the store well, being a music thing, staying on the music thing, baby, let's keep going. God could be involved in this, he's definitely involved. And so they send her over to me and I start giving Linda students off my waiting list. That's how it starts. No intention of doing that, no direction to do that. We just start giving students to Linda. And then I met a couple other teachers. I liked Linda. I remember when Linda used to pay for my Corolla back in 1997 and 1998. Linda, I remember when Linda used to pay for my Corolla back in 1997 and 1998. And I thought, holy cow, this is great, she's paying for my car. And that was the beginning.
Speaker 3:You know that's leverage, right, I was leveraging my relationships to have Linda pay for a Corolla. I mean, it's going to be honest, so let's go back to this. So he sees an opportunity, he sees his opportunity right, Sees and seizes, keeps it going. But then what did he do? He says B's and C's, keeps it going. But then what did he do? He says, hey, Linda, I'm going to give you a competitor potentially who could steal everything you just gave her. And you didn't even think that way. You thought, well, no, I'm just giving her what I can't do. That's a really hard thing for a lot of us to do is to share with others in the sandbox.
Speaker 2:Well, okay maybe one guy? Yeah, I was going to say are we talking about others or is this really? Whose therapy session is this?
Speaker 3:Alan Please.
Speaker 2:I do realize it's yours.
Speaker 1:The Red Hot Chili Peppers said give it away, give it away, give it away, give it away. Now he's gave it away.
Speaker 2:Give it away.
Speaker 3:give it away now, Chris hates the Chili Peppers, I do. Why. Why would you hate the Red Hots? Not a fan. I love the drummer. That dude can kill it. I mean, it's a guy who played, so I have. I played a couple instruments as a kid, but anyway, okay. So yes, maybe we could start a band. We know what I played saxophone. Baby tenor, how do you play anything?
Speaker 1:cowbell maybe oh, I got a fever, I got a fever, more cowbell another reference.
Speaker 2:Let's go um so well, I got a question. All right, keep going. All right. So you have linda, and at the time, you're not really thinking, you know, do our theories jive? Do we have the same approach? So, at some point, though, you've created this culture. Where did that happen? When did you decide? No, this is what my business is going to look like, and I'm going to bring people on my team that actually fit what my vision is yeah, that's a great question, because when we were six teachers boom one it was zero when it was six teachers, we all.
Speaker 1:It was very easy to keep that culture under control. But you know, at some point in time you guys are how much bourbon have we had? We?
Speaker 2:haven't even got started yet. Man Not even a half a group.
Speaker 3:Wow, we can't focus. This is three years of yeah, jay is just too much fun. I mean, come on, we know it's going to be fun. This is a great episode. Everybody Keep rolling, are you sure?
Speaker 1:Oh, let's go. Okay, let's do it. So at some point in time, let's see when, was there an epiphany? One night I came home from teaching. We didn't have cell phones back in the day, right, I had a business phone. I had an answering machine. My wife used to answer the answering machine at home and one night she said the phone hasn't stopped ringing.
Speaker 2:Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Speaker 1:I don't know. So I start listening to the messages and I pick up the phone and I schedule a lesson. And I pick up the phone and I schedule a lesson. And I schedule a lesson, and I schedule a lesson. And in one night I scheduled 30 lessons. Okay, that's a lot for a few hours. And I said, holy shit, this thing's for real. Let's build a website, let's get you know. Let's get a phone number, let's get a business card.
Speaker 3:What year was that building a website? Let's go back.
Speaker 1:I think we built our first website in probably 2002, 2003, maybe, so he was on the other side of the internet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so those 30 calls are all organic. I mean everybody's just talking and they.
Speaker 1:I used to run a postcard campaign. I used to print the postcards myself. I had a cutter. I'm cutting the postcards. My mom and dad were stamping the postcards and I was such an idiot to not realize how crazy a 10% return was on my postcards. I used to send out 100 postcards and I used to get 10 students and I did not know that that was an unbelievable thing. All right, everybody.
Speaker 2:Now we need to see the look on Chris's face YouTube right here Go, All right everybody.
Speaker 3:Now we need to see the look on Chris's face YouTube right here. Go with me. What the fuck I mean 10%, dude. I was lucky if I got 0.1%. Really, oh my God. Yeah, back in eight. That's really bad.
Speaker 1:Chris, I know it is Because that faded, right.
Speaker 1:I mean the postcard thing faded. For me I think it was a unique card and it just kind of worked. The picture on it was ugly. Have you guys ever read ugly marketing books? It was an ugly picture, it didn't work, it wasn't flashy, but it was different and we started getting calls and so when I hung up the phone that night in the last call or it may have been too late to call people back I walked downstairs and talked to my wife and I said I'm going to have to stop teaching. This is different. I'm kind of thinking this is now.
Speaker 3:I'm thinking about the years, probably 04. So you're seven years in and you realize that you had Linda last name can't be said because she's a witness protection partner Absolutely. And do we have another teacher?
Speaker 1:that you also. Oh yeah, we had a good 15 teachers at that time probably 15, 20 teachers maybe so you had to become admin, absolutely, absolutely, and I said I'm gonna have to stop teaching. And then, six months later, I had stopped teaching and that was the end of teaching for me all right.
Speaker 3:Was that an easy transition to get out of teaching and and touching students? And I didn't mean it like that where are we going easy?
Speaker 1:easy on that. There was never any touching guys talking.
Speaker 3:We never yes, we never got weren, we weren't there. But was that a hard transition to get out of actually doing the work that you loved and then move to the admin, or was that something you're like?
Speaker 1:man, I'm feeling it. Man. Maybe you guys can relate, because I think one of the hardest things an entrepreneur does is realize that someone else could do what they were doing when they were a solopreneur just as well. And you're not the most important part of the cog have you gotten that? Never had that epiphany no never for you.
Speaker 3:Seriously, I swear to god, I think everybody else is an idiot. No, I'm joking, okay, of course. Yeah, I mean, my handyman can absolutely kill around the house. I mean they can write everything and I use kill, like, I'm talking, like, but they truly I talk. They are my artists, right? That's why my challenge to them every day is St Francis of Assisi said and we quote him again Are we going to use the F word this time?
Speaker 3:Not this time? Okay, all right, I can, because St Francis fucking Assisi said if you work with your hands, you're a laborer. If you work with your head and your hands, you're a carpenter. A lot of my guys felt like they were carpenters. With your heart, your head and your hands, you're an artist. I want you to be an artist every day, because what you do in a home is voodoo to those people that you do and you know how you're doing it, but they don't know what you're doing, especially in today's day and age, and working in people's houses, and so you are doing that. You were the artist, you were the CC, and now you were starting to spread the word. Are you falling out there?
Speaker 1:I think I'm there. I'm kind of deep into it. I just want to know. So did you have a hard time letting go of swinging the hammer yourself?
Speaker 3:No, that was easy. The managing part was hard for me to let go. So letting go and hiring my first general manager, a year ago here in Atlanta was very hard for me to do so. For me it was really easy to give up the technician stuff because those guys were better you were right Watching these people do the work in the home. You watching people teach other kids. You're like, wow, that's. And they had the enthusiasm. You're like, oh, I had that too, kid.
Speaker 1:Hey, son, I could have done that. I guess for me I uh, the harder part was not the admin stuff and and and taking control of that, it was giving away that relationship that I had with families. I thought that was really largely important.
Speaker 2:So you didn't hang on to a couple of them.
Speaker 1:No, I had to cut it off cold turkey. Plus, I had the. Uh, you know, I started having kids. I wanted to be at home with them and we teach after school. So, um, you know when? When I wanted to be home, when they were home, or at least have some ability to see them. All right.
Speaker 3:So your why started to evolve. So now your, your why became. You know what? I'm willing to give up that relationship because my why became I want to be there for my kids.
Speaker 2:Totally pretty cool, alan yeah, I'm not sure that. Why is the definition that simon cynic uses?
Speaker 3:I know I, but I'm using my own you know, your why is kind of fluid. My why is definitely fluid and definitely fungible. How many whys do we go through in a lifetime? I mean that's. I think that's another part when you your why is kind of fluid. My why is definitely fluid and definitely fungible, how many?
Speaker 3:whys do we go through in a lifetime? I mean, I think that's another part when you talk about what we're trying to get done and trying to accomplish. And again, that impact, that Mr Holland's Opus, because when I heard your story I'm like, oh my God, he is Mr Holland's Opus because you hit it. He is nationwide helping people and he's not just helping one kid, he's helping a kid who grows into an adult and then has kids and they go. You know what? Because I would tell you, every kid has to have a musical. I made my kids do it and everybody has to have a musical. I think you've got to have that outlet and we're missing that now because we're going to this video gaming thing, because they've actually said that you can be a better analyst, you can be a better engineer if you have the musical background.
Speaker 2:I've told you this story. You know about my father. Yeah, very much an authoritarian. I didn't have a decision that I could make my entire life growing up, except for one. Do you want piano lessons? I said no. So the one choice I got. I made the wrong choice and I have regretted it to this day I agree, because I had piano lessons.
Speaker 3:We had a stand-up piano and as a guy now who's in the remodeling business and doing all this stuff, I would tell you know what's going down. People are getting rid of their pianos and they go hey, can you donate this somebody?
Speaker 3:I'm like no yeah, I said it'd be better if you just broke it down. You could fire, you can use the wood for uh firewood and we can sell the uh. That's awful. It is horrible. Nobody wants a piano anymore because they have keyboards. Nobody wants a baby grand unless they're trying to show off to their friends. Nobody wants any of that. So I'm sure you see a different story, jay, but but when I see people remodeling now they have these standups and they're asking hey, can't you donate to a donated to a church or a youth center? And I'm like no, they don't want them.
Speaker 1:I can tell you guys, one of the worst gigs to be a salesman of is a piano. They last too long. Okay, my piano at home is a 1925 piano. It is a hundred years old this year. It has been rebuilt. But now that it's been rebuilt it's going to last another 75 years. You know so grandma had this piano. You know, passes it down and then and then the mom passes it down to the kids. And now you're remodeling their houses. They have a piano in there. I say hold onto it, give them lessons. You know that's right.
Speaker 3:Hey, everybody don't throw it away, Jay. It lessens in your home. So, Jay, as you continue to grow, you did the internet before the internet was cool. Well, internet was now not. It was cool because of the dot-com bust. I happened to be in consulting at the time. I hadn't started my biz. You're growing it, but you're trying to figure out how to grow it. When did you decide to grow it outside of Atlanta? That was exactly my question. That's a great question that I asked.
Speaker 2:No, it was just a routine question, but one that needed to be asked. So you grew it to a certain point in Atlanta where you can touch. I guess we're back at the finger.
Speaker 1:Can you teach him to play?
Speaker 2:guitar with just one finger. Well, it's funny, he brought up the question.
Speaker 1:You liked the question and I was thinking that that should be the next thing that I should share. You like the question and I was thinking that that should be the next thing that I should share. Yeah, so we're getting a lot of synergy here. There's a lot of, there's a lot of special things going on. They bring this all together Absolutely. So there's a lot of things going on this room. We built everything around people. Linda was a person.
Speaker 2:Roy, was the other team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't know where she is now, but we always built it around people. So when we the next school that we opened up was in Houston, Texas, why? Because there was a person there. There was a person there, an old friend, that said I'd love to do what you do with my wife, yeah, baby, did you guys catch that. I love it.
Speaker 2:Hey, I do now, right.
Speaker 1:So we started doing that all together, the three of us With his wife, and then sometimes my wife would come as well when we'd go to Houston. Hey, let's get swinging. You should have been at the recitals. They were a great time, and I just because that was one of the greatest lessons I learned in business when that guy stole my business model years later after we started it. He stole it, absolutely he did.
Speaker 2:He's one of my largest competitors.
Speaker 1:I'm sitting at his kitchen table and we're talking about the deal. You guys know this, you've been in business. And I said um, I don't want to mention names. I said how are you going to feel when I'm sending?
Speaker 2:Let's call him Dick. Okay, I like that. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So I said hey, dick how are you going to feel when I'm sending you these checks? Right, and because he was going to be what we now term our regional directors we have a regional director that runs every one of the cities that we work in. I said, hey, dick, I like that. Thank you. So, alan, I like you. Man, I appreciate that. Um, can I say that again? I asked him hey, dick, um, how are you going to feel when I'm giving you checks? Oh, what did Dick say? He said, jay, we are friends Cause. I said, and you know that there's another check coming to me in the same amount, you know, or a very large amount, for doing my share. And he said you are sharing this opportunity with my wife and I. We're all doing it together and, um, we're not going to have a hard time about this. I said well, here's a contract. Even better, and you know the contract, you know I had written it up myself, so it probably held zero um weight in the legal world.
Speaker 2:I didn't teach you that music school.
Speaker 1:They didn't. It's not part of the waiter.
Speaker 3:you know curriculum, so there's not a spot where you get no business sense whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly. I mean, I know how to upgrade your potato chips, you know to french fries and upsell, but I don't know how to write a contract. But I did. I wrote the contract. We didn't sign it and it was years later that he started his own business. Dick started. Dick started his own business and you know what? What a great lesson for me. So, like, that's awesome, right, because you get to learn about people, you get to learn about wins and losses, and and you get to learn about what to do next. So I'm actually I really don't regret that that that happened. I think it was a great lesson for me. It was a, it was a great way to move forward.
Speaker 1:And you know what? What would you have done different? Well, I would have had a lawyer draw up a contract Okay, good question and I would have understood what rights he does have. Because, as angry as I could be at Dick, the truth is I couldn't stop him from doing what he did legally. Really I couldn't. It would be like telling somebody that works at your hamburger shop that they can't open up their own hamburger shop. You can't stop somebody from there enough.
Speaker 1:And I don't think and I and I kind of know that he didn't really steal anything. He didn't solicit, which is the only thing I could stop him from doing right. He didn't solicit. To the best of my knowledge, every teacher we had on staff was still our teacher after he left. Every client we had that we used on staff was still our teacher after he left. Every client we had that we used to teach was still our client. So in hindsight the only thing I wish he would have done is my friend has said I don't like the direction this is going. I want to do it myself and because then he would still be my friend all right.
Speaker 3:So let's go back to that, because this is a big one. People talk about this. Well, I'm going to put a non-competing place. I'm going to get myself all correct. Guess what, guys, getting a non-compete does not for nothing from yeah, in fact, dick's coming after you, yep, and he's coming after you, and he's hard and he is going to make sure that it's not going to work.
Speaker 3:So so were you fueled by dick after that um, no, I don't hang on, alan, before we go, because this is an important point. Wait a minute. Yeah, that was huge. Hold on, yeah, yeah, no, because, because definitely not, alan. So I've had what. I can't tell you how many guys who worked with me and now have their own handyman business they can't even touch because, uh, touch where I'm at, because I'm. There's plenty of it to go around, like you just thought about. You thought about a theory of abundance. Right, you had the abundance mind mentality and you went that way. It is so easy to go the other way and get really big and figure out how to take out a couple of tires.
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you this Do you have anything proprietary now, though, that no, we really don't have anything proprietary.
Speaker 1:I will say my software. So we developed our own software. It was a huge point of growth for us. I would mention that would be like the second thing, Like we started investing in technology. We saw the operations going. I knew what we needed. We started investing technology. Everything exploded and yeah, you can't use my software.
Speaker 2:But so, for example, your piano teachers you don't necessarily have like this is, this is a culture we want and this is kind of how we're our philosophy on teaching kids.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure you can. I'm not sure you could have propriety on culture, can you no? But but no, I do not have. You can have propriety on culture, can you no?
Speaker 3:But you have it though.
Speaker 1:But no, I do not have books and materials. So we create an environment, we create a community right, and that's what we do.
Speaker 2:So if I become one of your teachers and I want to stick with hot cross buns, I'm fine and Chris can go Stevie Ray Vaughan right out of the gate.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and all of my teachers are independent contractors as well. Bond right out of the gate. Absolutely, and all of my teachers are independent contractors as well. So um they I can't dictate what they're teaching or how they're teaching it but you're not just feeding them.
Speaker 3:So let's go back to this Cause. Then we only got. We got 10 minutes left. So you're just not teaching them how to teach, but you're teaching them I'm going to give you leads, but you're not just being the lead provider, you're actually. You're given culture. I know you are. So how do you get your culture and your? I want that relationship. You guys got to develop that relationship with that client, that kid, that whoever's a student tell us how you do that.
Speaker 1:So we work on it more than anything else. It starts from the minute we interview that teacher, the minute we orientate that teacher. We do continuing workshops. None of the workshops we offer to our teachers are on how to teach their instrument, not one of them. We never teach a drum teacher how to teach drums, a guitar teacher how to teach guitar we never do that. They know. We teach them how to say hello. We teach them how to look somebody in the eye. We teach them how to respond to a normal, typical 10-year-old who's not practicing their instrument. But you have to go there each and every week and teach them. We teach them that that's okay Because, remember, guys like me we're weird, we're wacko.
Speaker 1:I practiced my instrument, I liked playing it, but our kids don't. You know, 99 out of 100 kids aren't like me. I'm strange. So they're normal kids. Their mom signed them up for lessons. They got an opportunity to play guitar, drums, violin, voice and what we do is we teach those teachers how to respond to a student who's not practicing and that the relationship is more important. So we have workshops on relationship. We have workshops how to respond to a distant child, because the kids are in their phones. Now, right, they're on the apps. They're not looking people in the eye, which is part of what makes us important, because we're interacting with them one-on-one.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's huge, I didn't think about that, right.
Speaker 3:Think about what he's doing. So he, he's creating this. So let's go back to these. You have 4,500, 4,500 teachers. How many have been with you longer than a year? Oh, a lot a lot.
Speaker 1:So, gosh, I would say probably over half of our teachers have been with us for five or more years.
Speaker 3:So don't kill that. So don't worry about that one, let's talk about this. So here we go, here he is, he's nationwide. How did I meet Jay? I met Jay because he's part of our mastermind group and he was in a different group than mine and I met him in a quarterly meeting and I was like man, this cat has it going on. Man, he's so cool, I know, but but think the. He's thinking about his business. And if you think about what he's talking about with his business, it can translate to any business. So why did you decide to join this mastermind group and how has that helped you with this? And I'm not trying to pitch Chris Hanks in the group, yes, I am, he's all you know that because he is.
Speaker 3:He is Yoda Well.
Speaker 1:I think as business owners, we learned that every one of us has the same type of problems, and the opportunity to share with one another and build a community of business owners is extremely enticing. I had an energy level that I hadn't felt in a long time. The very first time I went to one of our mastermind groups Like I wanted to run through brick walls, I wanted to like fly if I could, because, um, you're energized. You kind of get in touch with your um, with your why again, and you keep on touching that why over and over and over again and, um, what a beautiful thing. And then when you learn, I touched my wife.
Speaker 2:It's like how many times do you touch?
Speaker 3:your wife. But seriously, Alan, I mean, what he's saying is exactly what that group does for me as well as I get back in there.
Speaker 2:I mean they just give you an ass beating every time you're on the hot seat oh yeah oh, that is a win beneath the wings before.
Speaker 3:No, before we got on the call, jay has come to one of my groups because he's in a different group of our uh association. And uh, he came in. I said doesn't it suck to get the hot seat? And he went on the hot seat in one of our groups, yeah, and he had never been in our but you liked it.
Speaker 1:Well, when we met at one of those large meetings, chris was touching me, and so that's how come we got to be really good friends really quick, because it was a strong he's. It was a strong, you know, kind of touch and he's got a very firm grip you know what smart list I got you bateman.
Speaker 3:You know what? Come on, this is way I got you Bateman. You know what? Come on, this is way better than you. Come on Arnett, this is crap.
Speaker 1:No, but what a special group it is and I would encourage any business owner it doesn't have to be our group, it could be somebody else's group but to be around other business owners Because you're hurting yourself. If you're not, you have to learn from others.
Speaker 3:We've talked about this and, um, you know, again, chris, at the trusted toolboxcom, I'll give 30 minutes to anybody who wants to listen. You kind of, you know I'll. I'll. Anybody wants to talk about it, we'll talk about it. It's not my mastermind group. Again, I talk about this because people say hey, chris, how do I join your mastermind? I'm like, well, we're in Atlanta, number one, um, but the the group is amazing. And here's why. When I first started, no way. When you first started, no way. You had to teach lessons, you had to put bread on the table, bro, and then, of course, when you started, you weren't married. I started, I had like all this big money and I had kids in private school. I had to make bucks, man, and it wouldn't happen. But once you get there, it's a great great trajectory.
Speaker 2:When you look back on that, do you not realize how big of a dumbass you were? Oh and I'm speaking for myself too. Yeah, I know and I.
Speaker 3:I told jay about uh, we haven't talked about your story in a long time. We're gonna go back to the beginning of our episodes if you ever want to hear alan's story. Alan is an incredible business owner and I I've said this before, I'll say it again you're the most successful failed entrepreneur I've ever met yeah alan, would you do it again?
Speaker 2:I have succeeded and failed in both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds I got it all, but would you be a dumb ass again? I think that's just my nature it's so fun.
Speaker 1:It's fun to be a dumb ass. It's fun to try. You know it doesn't feel good at the time nothing happens.
Speaker 3:When you look back on it. Yeah, you know it's fun that we joke about it and I remember watching alan. It is nothing he could have done in 2008 to get out of this. There's just no way. I I don't care how smart you are, you can't be warren buffett. You can't be jeff bezos, you can't be steve jobs nothing in the business he was in gets you out of this. I don't give two shits about anybody says I don't care what consultant out there and you want to call me chris at the trusted toolboxcom, give me that hate mail because I want to hear it, baby. But there's no way, because I watched it happen and I sat there and I shed tears with him on this because I was like, oh my god, it's just you're, you're a great guy in the wrong freaking business, bro, and it just sucks. And here I getting started and I'm getting my teeth kicked in hemorrhaging money. I mean, I went from making money to Right.
Speaker 2:Every one of those is a check. Yeah, I'm just painting a picture for the audience. Thank you, okay.
Speaker 3:All right. So let's go back to Jay, shall we? Yeah, let's All right. So, jay. So here you are now. How? So? Here you are now. How have you? What are your plans? You're going to go Nate. You're going to go worldwide. You're going to go universal, you're going to go the whole universe.
Speaker 1:What are we doing? Yeah, we're going to grow. We're going to continue to grow. We're going to grow within each and every one of the cities we already work in. We're starting new cities and we'll be in Kansas City and Arizona within the next 12 months Phoenix and we're going to continue to grow and we're going to continue to help music teachers. That's what we're really doing. You know we haven't talked about music teachers, but we're really helping music teachers, young people who have passion. Right, they're studying music, they're playing music, they're gigging and they need an outlet and instead of driving Uber, instead of waiting tables, they can share the knowledge that they have, that you want to learn. You expressed that you'd like to play guitar, and that makes a musician feel amazing. When we can teach you how to play Stairway to Heaven and you play Stairway to Heaven for your wife and she kisses you like she hasn't kissed you in years, chris, can you imagine that kiss? Wow, that gives a great feeling to the person who's helping you. This kid can sell brothers, all right.
Speaker 2:You learned it. He didn't learn that in music school either. He did not.
Speaker 1:Wait. Well, I had to learn music to get my kiss.
Speaker 2:Okay, because this is not in the tractor of the women. I'm with you.
Speaker 3:I had to learn how to cook.
Speaker 2:I had to learn how to cook.
Speaker 3:Yeah well, yeah, we were rock stars. Jay learn how to cook. Yeah well, yeah, we, we were rock stars. Jay was a rock star. You know he's got a honey at home, you know? All right, everybody. Hey, jay, how can everybody find you? How can everybody find out what's going on? Do this thing absolutely so.
Speaker 1:My name is jay maurice. You google me. You're going to find lessons in your home, but you could also just look up lessons in your home anywhere will pop up on any browser you've got and give us a call. You won't reach reach me, but if you want to talk to me, just ask for me and they'll transfer you to me. You'll talk to whoever's locally at your school because we really are run locally by local teachers and in local regions, so give them a call. Lessonsinyourhomenet. The lessons is plural. You can gocom. You could spell it wrong. You'll find us online.
Speaker 3:I got to do the four questions, man, because I got to know Jay's going to answer this. Cat's so cool, let's do it. All. Right, jay, give us a book you would recommend to all of our listeners. Guys trying to scale a business, thinking they're going to start their own business, think they've got the world by the tail what's a book?
Speaker 1:I want to go avant-garde here. Let's do it, because I just reviewed this, the Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. Okay, this book has nothing to do with business. Do you like this, have you?
Speaker 2:read it, Alan. Oh, I just love the voluminous title.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so this Chris just went stoic.
Speaker 2:You know, what it reminds me of is have you ever been to Maple Street Biscuits? Yeah, yes. And then they have a question and that's how they call out your order.
Speaker 3:No, you've never seen that. No, I've never read that It'll be like your favorite superhero or whatever.
Speaker 2:And one day it was a book you'd like to read, and so I said the Complete Works of Ulysses S Grant, and that way they had to yell it out. So as soon as you said that the Structure of Scientific Revolutions. That would have been a great one, holy shit. Write that down.
Speaker 1:Write that down, bookmark it. It's a book that defines how we use the word paradigm now, and I love the fact that things are constantly changing. For business owners, the landscape tomorrow is not what it is today. So structure of scientific revolutions. We thought the earth was flat.
Speaker 2:So there's a business application to this, I think there is Okay, I love it.
Speaker 3:All right, I like it. What's the favorite feature of your?
Speaker 1:home. Oh, favorite feature my office. Because I bought the home from a wealthy lawyer when I wasn't so wealthy and he built a beautiful custom bookcase behind me, Nice. So when I sit in there and I do a call, like a zoom call, I feel like a God, a Greek God, sitting back there with this bookshelf.
Speaker 2:You have a lot of fake books in there.
Speaker 1:I only have books that I've read, so there's like eight up there.
Speaker 3:Nice. You know what, jay? We've Got to do a zoom call so I could have you go. Am I talking to God? Yes, chris, you are. Thank you, all right here. I thought it was going to be a 1925 piano, but all right, let's keep going. No, because he can do that every time, because he can tickle the ivory. He's got surprises. Well, the office looks out at the piano, all right. So, jay, we don't talk about this, but we do talk about this because we are customer service freaks, absolutely bigot, and we're on it. Let's go. What did you just say? We're big on it. I'm a bigot. I thought you just called me a bigot. No, no, I'm picking up new words for my daughter. So what is the customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out there and you're the customer?
Speaker 1:Being asked if I want something that they already know I need. Give it to me. Give it. Why do you ask? Why does somebody come by and ask you if you want more water, fill it up.
Speaker 3:Usually for me it's. Would you like another beer? Is it empty? Yeah?
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you, quit asking for things that we know that people make.
Speaker 2:That's a great question Asking the obvious.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just got done doing this with my guys and that's called because Jay and I were at a mastermind group. We had Victor Antonio come in and talk about sales oh yeah. And he, victor and talk about sales oh yeah. And Victor is a god when it comes to sales. He rocked it. Oh my God, unbelievable. Oh, I fall at the altar of Victor. Actually, we're going to get Victor here. The reason we got Victor to that one is because I came up to him and I got it on video. I said, scott, you got a video of this. I came up there and go look you, you're going to have to drive to fucking Atlanta and nobody there is going to listen to you, but you've got to come teach us how to do sales better.
Speaker 1:He goes with that sales presentation. Why would I not do it? I said, let's do it so you knew him before you brought him to the group.
Speaker 3:No, Hank's, introduced him and said Hank, he said, would you come? And I said, hank, is that what you just said? I said let me go over there and tell him how it's going to go down. Good, yeah, he's phenomenal, buy it for me. This guy was probably the best sales coach I've seen, since I mean I don't know man, I want to put up there with ziggler. I mean he was that. Wow, yeah, dude, phenomenal that good, yeah, this guy's got it going on what's his book?
Speaker 3:victor antonio? He's got four of them. Four, four, All right. Let's go back to Jay. You're a great speaker, All right. So give us a DIY nightmare story, Because I love working on homes and I wanted to know what you did, music boy in your home.
Speaker 1:Well, we finished our basement, okay. And when we bought the home, you guys have houses and you know your wife always wins, right. So we bought the perfect house for her, but not for me, because it didn't have a finished basement. And she said baby, when we buy this house? She did, she looked at me and she said baby, baby with the smoldering. Oh yeah, absolutely Cause you know, she got her way.
Speaker 3:She goes when you buy.
Speaker 1:When we buy this house, you can have the basement finished. And I looked at my real estate agent and I said how much do you think it will cost me to finish this basement? And the real estate agent said 25,000. And I said see how?
Speaker 2:see, I wasn't that bright. Now wait a minute. Chris is laughing because it's really cheap and you were going that's really expensive. So, baby, I'm in.
Speaker 1:I said it's really expensive but it's doable. So we bought the house. Three weeks later I had somebody come down there and it was an $85,000 quote back many, many years ago. So of course I went with the guy who gave me the $35,000 quote to do at least an $85,000 basement on a bad day. Great move, jay. Yeah, thank you so much. So smart. So after firing him we actually rehired him to finish it. There's a little story there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we didn't do it with a. They didn't pull permits. First mistake, like he didn't pull permits. And then the permit police came because my neighbor was pissed off that there was a lot of cars out in the driveway, or what have you? Your neighbor's is their name Dick, yeah, great relatives of my old business partner, dick Victor Jr so they had just drywed it and my wife and I were down there and we were just, it was beautiful, the basement was great, it was lovely. The permit police came in and they said gotta tear it all up. The contractor's there. He's like I'll open up any spot you want, just tell me where you want yeah right thing to do, yeah right, all of it they're like take it all the way down.
Speaker 1:So I look at the contractor and I said, hey, man, I feel bad because I knew that he wasn't pulling permits. Okay, I'm going to just be honest there. And I said I'll buy the new drywall, right? He said Jay, no, no, no, this is my fault. I should have pulled it. I'm going to pay for the drywall. I said I'll buy the new drywall. He said no, no, no. And used to be a. When my father was alive, he was a plasterer for the first half of his life First. And so I said you're not putting that drywall back up, are you? And they said no, no, no, no, we're not putting the drywall back up.
Speaker 2:It was like two by three strips.
Speaker 1:And so I walked down there the next day after the day after the permit guy comes and gives us a clean bill of health and they're starting to put the drywall up. So I said, hey, we're not doing it. I said I told you I'd pay for the drywall. No, no, no, no, you don't have to do that. So anyway, long story short, fired the guy and then, like a year later, the basement remains unfinished. A year later he hires somebody I know. She calls me up and says um, Steven, sorry about the way we broke up, you get what you pay for. You guys know that. That's why you should call the trusted tool, Don't you think you put?
Speaker 2:enough mud on used sheetrock to make it look good. I can.
Speaker 3:I can Should you, though, but no.
Speaker 2:Of course not why not Well sorry. Who cares? It's just mud.
Speaker 3:It's going to be safe he talked about. Let me tell you how I grew up. I grew up in a house where I had to learn how to plaster and then I had to go work on other people's houses because my dad says oh yeah, my son knows plaster you talked about drinking in college or work you're doing.
Speaker 1:No, I, I used to do it when I was a kid. Uh, again, are you talking about drinking in college, or all right?
Speaker 3:you know what? Nobody's listening more. So I'm gonna tell you this story. So I go to a college and, uh, I work in a machine shop. And then my dad would say, uh, anytime one of his friends would say, yeah, we just worked on that. He goes yeah, my son, I'll come over, we'll do it, and we'd work for beer. Well, he'd get the beer, I'd get nothing.
Speaker 3:And so I went to college, you know, and uh, playing football, doing the whole thing, come home on break and he goes, hey, uh, mr putra needs his his screen room, needs his sun porch done, and we're up in Michigan. I'm like, yeah, sure he goes. Yeah, we're starting at 8 am. I'm a college kid, by the way, and we're off season, so I was not used to waking up at 8 am anymore. So we get there. And this is back when we didn't have screw guns and all the fancy tools we have now and I had to hammer and I was missing everything. It was like one to the right, one to the left, one in the center. So if you're really, if you know how to drive, you know it's one set, two, drive, three, finish right.
Speaker 3:I was going one right one left one there and they're watching me and and, uh, and I'm because they they had me certain the ceiling. I am hung over as shit because I've been out that day before, because I just got back from college and so, uh, greg putra is his name says to my dad let's take a break, let's get a beer. And, uh, my dad looks at me and my dad has never had a problem with me drinking. I mean underage, whatever. That's the whole thing about the italian family, I think. And michigan, it was never a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was never true, what else are you gonna my?
Speaker 3:dad never, my dad never hit it, you know. So I never felt like it was a secret. You know, I went to college and it was a secret Like oh God Anyway. So we have a couple of beers, we get up there Chris is on a roll, baby. I'm like, boom, I'm hanging. I got my head up there, hair of the dog and all of a sudden you're striking the nails. Dude, I'm going one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. We get done and I'm sweating my ass off beers everywhere, you know whatever. And uh, greg looks at my dad and says that kid can hand, he can hang. I'm like I said that's called alcohol. It hits performance spreads. Wow, he goes, give that kid a beer, that kid can roll. I did. I like those guys put up like two sheets. I put like four. After that, that was but. But you know, back to your thing though, which, again, nobody's listening anymore.
Speaker 2:So it's no, yes they are because your stories are engaging and they are informative.
Speaker 3:This, this one, is enriching this one was so fun because we finished his sunroom and then we muddled it off and then I came back the next day and then we did the second coat and he finished because I didn't have to finish it. But but being a plasterer is really hard, my guys. Nobody knows how to plaster. I grew up having to learn how to plaster. That's a really that's an art, and then, by the way, that art's almost gone Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause sheetrock's not plaster right. No, yeah, because sheetrock's not plaster right now. Plaster is plaster, yeah, um, but I remember watching my father work. He did that stuff so seamlessly, so effortlessly, you know, even when we were dry, walling, like if I was doing a project myself. I'd be over there trying to put mud on that shit and he'd just come over and go get out of the way done.
Speaker 3:You're right, beautiful yeah, it's an art. You know again, that's what I talk about with my guys. You, you're artists, absolutely, they really are. And it's underappreciated because people like Jay always pick the lowest guy. Well, you said mistake.
Speaker 1:So the gold nugget is that, jay, he didn't say mistake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he didn't say mistake. Don't be like Jay.
Speaker 3:No, be higher quality Bullshit. I say be like Jay, right, what did Jay do are?
Speaker 3:oh that jay, I stay in there, oh, yeah, and then. Oh, by the way, I'm nationwide motherfucker. How about that? Huh, chris? Are you nationwide? Chris? Do you own a hotel with a helipad? No, and pickleball courts? No, he's got, he got pickleball court. Jay is doing the right thing. Man, lessons in your home, figured out? Do you have a summer cabin up in michigan? Well, it's funny, as he pulled up to the house. Uh, I don't have a summer cabin, michigan, but I can come to mine and we can go fishing. We're good, or I'll go to my in-laws. You got to get through the gate first. Well, all right, but you know what? Here's where I'm going to end. So you started with.
Speaker 2:Linda, we have one more question, don't we?
Speaker 3:Do we? I think so. No, we did it the other way. Now we're. Here's my question. When you first started, linda paid for your Corolla. Yeah, what are you driving now? A Chevy Silverado.
Speaker 1:Let's go big dog.
Speaker 3:You know what? You can't beat the dog out of it. Let's go. That's what I'm driving, because it ain't a Ford, motherfucker, that ain't a Ford, that's a Chevy Silverado. Hey everybody, have you heard?
Speaker 2:something.
Speaker 3:Oh, you want to be friends with Alan. It's Chris at thetrixertoolboxcom. Hey guys, keep sending me those emails. Keep reaching out to me. I love talking to everybody about what you're doing. If you're listening to this still, keep making it happen, because you know what. This day doesn't happen every day. It happens because you've got to have it every day after day after day. Get up tomorrow morning and solve a freaking problem. Let's get out of here. Cheers.
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