What If Your Business Could See What Customers See, Instantly? | James Hatfield

 What if your team could see exactly what your customer sees—without an app—and turn that video into a tight estimate, clean documentation, and a five-star review?

Summary:
James Hatfield, blue-collar founder and former KKR-backed CEO, joins us to unpack how LiveSwitch is transforming home services with a dead-simple, no-app live video platform powered by practical AI.

What started with a knock from the D.C. Chief of Police to reinvent 911 video evolved into a powerful tool for contractors: a simple SMS link that opens live video on any device. For home service businesses, that means remote pre-estimates that filter tire-kickers from ready buyers, real-time on-screen guidance that eliminates guesswork, and recorded sessions that shut down “he said, she said” disputes.

James walks through how a 30-second frozen-pipe clip can turn into a full scope of work—complete with CRM notes, timelines, materials lists, translations, and documentation—all powered by AI. Think of it as the Nextel of cameras with a built-in copilot. The result? Fewer wasted truck rolls, faster close rates, better prepared techs, and stronger margins.

We also dive into marketing flywheels and operational upgrades:
 • QR codes that drive repeat business straight to your team
 • Video reviews that boost your Google Business Profile
 • Open integrations with ServiceTitan, Jobber, and more
 • Pricing designed to feel like “a tank of gas,” not a tech gamble

Beyond tech, James shares lessons from building, exiting, and finding purpose again—plus the grit required to make payroll, protect culture, and keep people working.

If you run a handyman, plumbing, electrical, restoration, or moving company, this episode is a blueprint for using simple tools to win faster and serve better in a Prime-speed world.

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari

💡 GOLD NUGGETS 

• The 911 innovation story that sparked LiveSwitch
 • How remote pre-estimates increase close rates and eliminate tire-kickers
 • Turning 30 seconds of video into scopes, CRM notes, and materials lists
 • Stopping disputes with recorded documentation
 • Using video reviews to dominate local SEO
 • Why speed beats complexity in today’s customer experience

🔗 Guest Links

• Website: LiveSwitch https://www.liveswitch.com/
 • LinkedIn: James Hatfield https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-hatfield/

🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari

• Instagram | @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
 • LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
 • Website | https://chrislalomia.com

If this episode sparked an idea for your business, hit subscribe, leave a review, and tell us the one workflow you’d upgrade first.

Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!

Transcript

Banter, Ice Storms, And Setup

SPEAKER_03 0:01

How were you able to be a good partner for one of us here on the podcast? That's me.

unknown 0:09

Not a good partner.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Oh well, if you lift the other person's interest over yourself, you'll probably be doing better. Okay, that's not gonna happen. All right. So this partnership, this partnership is all about forgiveness and compromise. You're gonna have to forgive me that I don't compromise. That's what this is. Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

There you go. All right, now we're talking. We're getting closer. Still no. All right, on to the next question. No, I'm kidding. This is great. Obviously, uh, I begged Alan to come on this podcast with me four and a half years ago. The journey's been amazing. Uh, talking to a lot of people about the pod when they uh when people uh listen in, they're like, Well, you guys are just a little bit different than everybody else. I'm like, absolutely, that's what I wanted, man. And I said, and if it was just me, it would be boring as yep, that's right. So um, it would not be as fun. Oh, yeah. Sorry, buddy. Okay, now back to James.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Cindy, you can cut out the softness from Chris.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

That was enough. Yeah, I just showed a moment of weakness, Cindy. Cut that out quickly. Quickly. Get back to work. Damn it. Sleeves, get back to work. 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 extent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse to 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. Alan, are you ready to get going?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

We've already been going.

Show Intro And Audience Warmup

SPEAKER_03 1:51

We have been going. We got to get rocking and rolling, everybody. It is a great day if you're driving in your truck trying to make it happen today. Um, hopefully, you're not slipping and sliding through all the snow we had here in the U.S. A big snowstorm came flying through. We had a little ice here in the Atlanta area. Uh, for those who are overseas, um, yes, people in the south of Atlanta, south of uh the U.S. do not know how to drive in this shit at all. So just nobody knows how to drive in ice. Well, that's true. I mean, we had an ice storm. We did, but um, unfortunately, what happened is everybody down here is so petrified because we had the snowpocalypse. Go look it up. It's called YouTube. Snowmegedon. Snowmageddon. Uh, you can go look up an SNL skit, Saturday Live skit, which is awesome. Uh, yes, and uh we hit my escalade. I went to the safest. Go check it out. SNL skit State and Skokane. That's exactly right. But what happened was nothing had dropped. It the roads were as dry as it could be, it was 40 degrees, and I had people driving with their hazards on, Alan. Driving with your flipping hazards on.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Were they student drivers?

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Yeah, so inside joke here in Atlanta. You know if you slap a bumper sticker on your car that says student driver, everybody thinks that you're just not gonna bother with them. But uh, what happens is what do you do when you have two, then three, and then our all-time record with Alan was four, yes, and Alan saw four student driver stickers on the back of their car. Are you four times more exhibit? So, man, but we are not student drivers here. We are getting you guys up that mountaintop, man. We have some great success. Um, if you're listening and you haven't subscribed to the newsletter, our newsletter dropped. Um, we're gonna have a special episode coming out talking about the newsletter where I um gonna banter back and forth talking about strategies we can have for strategic planning for an annual vision.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Oh. Who are you who are you bantering back and forth with? That's you, big. Oh, I guess I ought to prepare.

Guest Intro: James Hatfield

SPEAKER_03 3:46

Wow, four and a half years. Okay, so we're just getting to know each other. All right, Alan, let's get to it. I'm feeling like we gotta switch over and get live. Let's do it. Like that? I did all right. Live switch, James Hatfield is joining us. He's like, What have I done? Welcome to the show. Have you done our fellow Ashvillion from Asheville, North Carolina? Welcome, James Hatfield, to the show.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Well, thanks for having me. What we'd probably say is I've put my foot in it.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Yes, you have he is from the south, and he says that's exactly what it is. I put my foot in it. You like he goes, What did I get myself into? Our good friend Matthew Eifert of Lighting Pros and has his own uh Pillars of Purpose podcast, which is also an excellent podcast if you guys want to check one out. Uh, he's a great man, a great person. And unfortunately, James got introduced to us, and we are neither of those. So we got to get going.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Like dollar cost averaging.

From Painting To Fintech And Exit

SPEAKER_03 4:38

Yes, that's what we're doing. Yeah, so you got a full dollar, and now you're getting zero. So 50 cents on the dollar's feel bad. All right, bad. James, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about what live switch is and how you get into all this.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I never meant to be in all this. I was a I grew up in the house my dad built, you know, and was born and worked on my with my hands. And I used to own and operate painting and power washing companies, and I thought I'd be doing that the rest of my life. I'm good with my hands. Um, so and now you're high-tech. I'm a high-tech dude now, and I never meant to be, ever.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

So let's talk about that because we talk a lot about, as everybody knows on the pod, you know, I got a handyman company and I went from the corporate world to putting my hands on things, and uh, and Alan also corporate world to start his own business. You went from working and you're like, okay, well, you know, your your clear path was just to own your own painting and pressure washing business. Hey, that sounds like a clear path to go. A lot of people were doing it to make some good money, have a great living. And you said, ah, let's not do that. Let's go, let's go try the high-tech world.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Well, I'm assuming that he noticed a need. There was a pain point.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yeah. Where it all came from. Well, I would go to my bookkeeper and they would speak English to me, and I didn't know a word they were saying because I didn't grow up with finance backgrounds. Like, that's not gonna be good for me. You know, I so I sucked it up and went to business school while I was running my companies because like I'm if I can't speak the language of finance as I'm running this thing, I don't want to run this thing into the ground. Like, I want to know if I'm making money or losing money. I don't want to just rely on somebody else to tell me. Um, and you know, hindsight's 2020. I probably could have just relied on somebody, but that's where I went. I went back to business school, learned the language of it, and I met my now business partner. He was running landscaping companies, and he was putting himself uh finishing up a degree at Duke University, getting his MBA, and he built this uh technology that you could take an income statement and balance sheet and run it through it, and it would tell you in plain language exactly how you're doing. And I was like, I love this. This is why I'm going to school. Like, I I love this. And he's like, Well, you want to try to sell it? I was like, Well, I can sell painting and power washing. I don't know if I can sell software. I don't even have a computer in my company. I mean, I've got Nextel Walkie Talkies, the yellow pages, carbon copy, you know, I'm I I have guns, you know, like paint guns and paint and water guns, you know, that's what I do. But I believe in this. Like I think this is the rest of my blue-collar folks would love this. And so because I had passion about it, and when you're passionate about something you and you got a mouth that won't shut up, uh, you might sell something. So I ended up joining with him, and we took that company from nothing, an incubator to Inc. 500 for three years, one of the fast-going companies in the country for three years, and we sold it uh to KKR, it's a multi-billion dollar company now.

SPEAKER_03 7:21

KKR, multi-billion dollar company. So, uh a little fun fact KKR was the original Barbarians at the gate, looked the book up, looked the movie up. They invented basically the private equity that we know today. They were the I guess you can call them the grandfathers of it because it was back in the 70s when it started. So you you guys got bought by KKR. Well done. That is like going to the pinnacle. Give him claps around the board, people. He's done it. Started it, planted the flag, truly is a successful entrepreneur. So uh what's that what's that like? Yeah, can you help us? Just tell us what's definitely not jealous, Alan.

Post-Exit Purpose And Philanthropy

SPEAKER_00 7:59

No, well, they don't tell you what it's like to sell a company when you like to work with your hands. Because when you sell it and they take it from you, then you go through like post-mortem. Like, what did I do? And and what am I going to do? You know, I'm not gonna sit there and do nothing. That's not me.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Sit on the beach, play golf, pina coladas. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

That's not where I come from, man. Like, I'm a builder of things. Like, I that's what you would expect. But then there's a whole like psychological thing. And I've been talking to a lot of business owners about, you know, I'm helping businesses exit and and and do well with that, but preparing them what it means for you mentally um when you sell something uh that you built and you've got your blood, sweat, and tears on. Uh, but we got into philanthropy after that. Uh business partner started an organization called Inmates Entrepreneurs. Uh, I came up here to Asheville and started a bunch of churches out here. Um, you know, I go into hospice and sing to people and different things like that. And then uh my business partner called me and after, well, he got on a TV show uh called um Free Enterprise on ABC television. That Inmates Entrepreneurs became a TV show. Um, and that again was not on my bingo card uh to see that. And he calls me and says, Hey, I bought a company. Um, I want you to come and let's do round two. And I was like, Well, I'm too young to hang up my boots, let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

So, Alan, I don't feel less than I don't know about you, but uh yeah, I want to do over. I need a boy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Another guest who's just way better than us.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

I mean, and giving back, uh he talked, you know, you talked about one thing's at hospice. I mean, my God. That's that is God's work right there. That is uh my mother was in hospice. Uh uh, that is just not an uplifting area you want to be in. No, those people are angels. They really are.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

No, they are. You want to see heaven on earth walk in there, and then I get to walk in with my kids and I got my guitar and we're singing around somebody, and sometimes I don't even make it into the room. They're gone. I say I'm the Walmart greeter to heaven. So um, you know, I'm gonna sing you one last one last song. And uh um, I don't know. I felt compelled last year to start one. Like I grew up not around religion, and I don't want to make this about religion, but like I grew up atheist. But like I just felt compelled. I've been around so much death that I was like, I think I gotta go in there. And on a church playbook, you're not gonna grow the the people, and you're probably not gonna grow your your money. So it doesn't make any sense. And I'm like, I don't care.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

Yeah, right. I don't care. It's not like you're gonna get repeat business.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

No, I'm not getting repeat business.

Enter LiveSwitch: What It Does

SPEAKER_03 10:22

I feel like I can laugh about that because now I am staying away from these jokes. I just want you to know I'm going official. This is where I I tell uh my daughter, I'm like, wives, am I right? And she goes, You better not be saying that on podcasts. I'm like, oh, okay. And you just did. I just did again. I said, and Ellen goes, I'm not biting. She goes, Yeah, Dad, you should never say that. I said, Okay, I won't again. Of course, I just did. All right, back to Jake's James. Uh, wow, just amazing work uh that you're doing got to what he's doing now. I know. Well, uh yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

What is he potted the table? Yeah, I'm gonna take my toys and go home. I don't even have any toys.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Taking my ball and go, I don't have to get your bourbon ready because I got a little bit of a long story long for you.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

All right, we're drinking ready to go. Top it off, right? All right, put it up, everybody. Turn it up in the truck. Let's listen.

Reinventing 911 And No-App Video

SPEAKER_00 11:11

So my business partner buys this company. I start, and it's all computer scientists, it's out of Vancouver, Canada. And I'm like, what did you buy? So I start meeting all these nerds, you know, and they're speaking English to me again. And I'm like, I don't know what they're saying. I'm like, but you guys gotta explain it to me like I'm five. Well, this company has been around 16 years, and we've seen our stuff and you used it and you didn't know it was us. Like we did the Super Bowl the last three years, we're gonna do it again next week. Um, MLB ballpark, if you go and scan a QR code and they put you on the Jumbotron, we powered that. Uh, we do stuff with like Department of Defense. Like, if you um like during COVID, we did we powered the NBA bubble, and you know, like WA wrestling, we filled up the uh Tampa Arena with screens and piped fans. And so how I got back into the trades, and I'm glad I did because this is where I belong, is I got a little knock on the door from the chief of police in Washington, D.C. to reinvent our nation's 9-1 phone call, as one does, right? So the idea was hey, everybody's carrying around three to five cameras in their pocket. How can we use this to stream to the police car, fire truck, or emergency medical so the guys can see what they're driving into? It's called situational awareness. So I woke up at like three in the morning about four years ago, and I was like, I got it. The cell phone that you have has three channels. It has a telephony channel when you're talking on the phone, it has a SMS text channel, it has a data channel. So when you call 911, you're on the phone. And so I was like, Well, I can go in through the text channel, and then from the text channel, I can get into the data channel. And when I get into the data channel, I can stream this video anywhere in the world. In this case, a fire truck, police car, emergency medical. And there's no app. And I had to come up with a way with no app because you don't have time to download the app when you're compromised. You have to make it stupid simple because when you're compromised, you can't think. So we found a way just to tap the text, you're in it, I connect it, and it's all tuned up for remote assistance. So the next question was well, who else can use this? No app, you see what I see. And I met this guy who takes care of the Tennessee Titans, the NFL football team, and he's been the FBI for 20 years. He does all the security there in the arena. And I'm talking to him and I'm showing him our emergency stuff, and he's like, Oh, this is um, this is pretty cool. But he's like, I got a stupid question. I'm like, what is that? He's like, Can I just text my guy across the arena when the trash cans fall over and he can show me that way I don't have to hop in my little golf cart? Because that would help me. And that's when I had this like Eureka moment of like, oh, this is like our I used to run my companies on Next Tel Walkie Talkies. I could talk to all my crews. I was like, this is this generation's next tel walkie-talkie with all these cameras.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

That's right. I agree. Because I FaceTime with my guys in the field to look at something, and I don't have to drive across Atlanta traffic, which again in Atlanta, it's the only city you can be in Atlanta and still be an hour away from Atlanta. Uh so instead of me trying to drive over there, they FaceTime me and you can get you can give them advice, expertise, and answers. But that's FaceTime, that's an app, that's on an iPhone. You're saying no app and you can do this.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

No app. I don't care what computer you're on, tablet, phone, and then um so our stuff, the way I explain it is imagine FaceTime. And there's this little thing that came out in the last couple years called AI. We wrapped it in like imagine FaceTime and ChatGPT got together, had a baby, and made it for the traits. That's live switch. This thing fixed my toilet yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

Okay, explain that.

The “Nextel For Cameras” Idea

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Yep. So we go in and we just had the ice storm, right? And um the my son comes over, he's like, Daddy, my the toilet's not flushing. So I go in there and I take the lid and I'm picking up and down the uh you know the internal parts because I've just figured, you know, the water wasn't going. And then I go down and undo the water and nothing's coming through. And I'm like, my guess is maybe we got a frozen pipe or something. And I've never had a frozen pipe in this house in years. So I'm I was like, I'm not sure. Of course, I'm checking for leaks everywhere. And so I grab our live switch, and we have all different kinds of ways to use it. This was this is the on-site version use that I'm talking about right now, is I clicked instantly record. I took a 30-second video saying, Here's my toilet. Like, I've tried this, I've tried that, I've tried this. We've just got ice, maybe it's frozen. Like, I'm not sure what's going on. I then go in and write a prompt that says diagnose and fix my toilet, and I run it. In about three or two couple minutes, you know, not too long, I get a report back and I copy. I was like, I gotta go back to work. So I copy and paste it and give it to my wife, who is not handy at all. And she just followed the steps, and she sent me a text back of a video, and she's like, We got running water.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

So I want to know what was it. You just got replaced. I know I think your your whole industry just got wiped out. No, no, oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:50

What was it? I'm dying to know what it was.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

So the system said, Hey, start putting some um space heaters up, get a um a hairdryer and start going against the wall a little bit. And and if that that doesn't do it, then it wanted her to turn off the water, unscrew, and just lightly turn the water on and get a bucket to see if the pipe was still going. But as she was heating up everything and doing um it had her like taking the dryer against the wall, uh hairdryer, and then boom, here comes the water. So we had a little bit of a frozen pipe.

AI Demo: Diagnosing A Frozen Pipe

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Holy cow. And this is live switch, not an app. But you're saying, all right, so um, if I have a handyman business, hypothetically, thank you. You used to apparently, right? Well, hang on. I I'm I'm all for the DIY, I'm all for the DIY, but you're saying, like, somebody could say, call the trusted toolbox or go to my trusted toolbox website and say, hey, now what? And you say turn on live switch and do this, and then AI would say, try these steps before you.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

So I sell this to the trades and not directly to people, right? So I'm I'm making your Iron Man suit. We're not gonna get rid of we're not gonna get rid of Tony Stark. You're still safe. Thank you. Thank God.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Because Tony, Tony needs a new Maserati.

Selling To Trades, Not Consumers

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yeah, so you're we're not getting rid of Tony Stark, right? But what I'm doing is I've I've got the video and AI uh for it. And like we're under the hood of Service Titan, Jobber, Job Nimbus, Albiware, HubSpot, all the rest. There's not many companies in the whole world that do live video, and especially live video with AI. I just happen to be the guy that came off the ladder, luckily, and was like, oh, I'm gonna come here and make this for my tradespeople first, right? And so this can do all kinds of stuff. So what happens if someone called the trusted toolbox and their toilet was not working or whatever's going on, right? I mean, what you do, sit there, you first thing you do is like, can I send you a text message, Mr. and Mrs. Future Customer? Yes. You send them a text right through your computer, goes to any kind of phone they have, they tap it, just like the 911 call, right? They show you and it's tuned up. Like on their end, it's the reverse of a FaceTime call. They see themselves large and you small, and we put up a um virtual background, and they can connect with you because the first thing is people buy from people they trust. And then you as a handy person, like having someone try to explain what's going on, murder, right? Unless they're handy themselves. But if they were, they probably wouldn't call you. So they're usually probably not handy. So now they can go over to the problem and you have laser guidance where you can go this way, go that way, hold still. It records the whole session. You can take remote photos, you can share your screen, all gets recorded in case they want to show their spouse, partner, friend, whatever, or you got to send it to insurance if it's a bigger problem. And then you can see everything, and then you can run an AI report on that entire session and whatever you want it to do. Uh, write my CRM entry for this because I've never met a contractor who likes to write a CRM entry. Uh, give me the budget, give me the timeline. You can tell it where you shop. Like I've got an electrician, it tells them three places it shops, it brings all the local for that job, it links to the local um Home Depot in his case. Anything you want, analyze me as a salesperson. Tell me how to fix this store. This thing fixed my HVAC system from a 30-second video the other day. So like oh, dude, when I okay, so I knew when I first we got into the moving industry first. This I had this mover, serious guy, puts on these conferences. I he's like my first home service guy. He's like, James, you're sitting on liquid gold. He's like, I'm gonna use this to save me a trip in the truck, especially driving across Atlanta, for a tire kicker who might not even do work. Two, if it's a small job, I can bid in my sleep. If I can see it, I can bid it, I can win it, and then I can just drive out and do the work. Or the middle layer is oh, that's a bigger job, you're worth the trip. So now I'm gonna come out there. Right. It's uh exactly.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Yeah, I mean your decision making is still now brought back to both of you. You you and the I think you just bought one of these. I think I I know, I think you just sold because uh he's he's I've I gotta get it with my software company. It's like, guys, you gotta put this in your software. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Yep. Well, I have an open API, so we can bolt it right under there.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

And oh boy, okay. All right, so uh listen to him talk tech. Yeah, I know that was cool. He said, I know he's uh he bolted. He flexed there, didn't he? A little bit just really casual. No, he doesn't have the Duke MBA, but he has an MBA, so he's showing off a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

He's got like somebody behind the curtain though that he's like, Can you do this? And you know, I do you've got nerds on staff.

Remote Estimates And Trust Building

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I have nerds. See, I can speak the language of the blue collar, like living on the ladder, but these nerds can't. So we actually send our nerds to some of our customers to work a day there because I'm like, you guys all have soft hands. Like, you need to go out there and like so we don't allow any technical talk in our program. Everything has to be dead simple. If it's not simple, we don't put it in because it won't get used. Like we design for my business partner and I'm people like it's where we come from. So um we can they can translate for us, we can translate for them, and that has been a really good marriage.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Um give it give us some more examples. I'm just Jones on some of these examples.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Which, by the way, if you go to his website, I think you have six testimonials or case, yeah, not case studies, but just different business, and a couple of them removers. I watched all of them, they were great.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

I've got tons more we don't even have up there. I mean, we got guys now, they were fun to watch. Yeah, it's been it's been really encouraging. I mean, I think some of the stuff that's up been most heartwarming is I got a sole entrepreneur. Um, he uh hangs TVs and puts speakers in, and it's just him in a truck, and he's in kind of a metro area like you are. He's like, James, you know the best thing about your stuff? He's like, I'm a single dad with a two-year-old daughter. He's like, I save two hours a day driving and I get to spend it with her.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

And I was like, Oh that's the awe moment on the that's the uh sitcom awe moment right there. So that tells me this is not prohibitively expensive.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

No, I may and I I mean it that way. Everyone's like, you should make it cost more. I'm like, no, it's already death by subscription. I deal with lots of folks that their business is small and they're trying to make payroll. Like I used to try to make payroll. Like if I couldn't make payroll the next week, I literally went out on the weekends and the door knocked to get jobs for my guys because I'm like, I'm not missing payroll, we're not working. We're eating good over here. And so it's just one of those things, like, yeah, it costs about as much as it costs to fill up your F-150 per month. And I'm going to save you tons of trips. Like, yeah, I don't want to make it expensive. I never will.

Recording, Disputes, And Documentation

SPEAKER_03 23:04

So the way it works is customer contacts us at the trusted toolbox. Uh so guys, we've maybe haven't talked about this as much, uh, but you know, I just got done running our monthly numbers. Um, we got over 500 incoming calls in a slow month of January, where it's slower here. Um, and then we do try to sell out of the office, and if we can't do it, then we send an estimator. You're saying that I get uh on the phone and the ladies say, Do you mind if I send you a text message to your cell phone if you're at home and you show me what you're looking at, and I can point you to these areas, we can talk about what you're trying to do, and then they don't have to have the expertise, although the ladies do um have some good expertise in the home. Then we run an AR report, and here's the recommendations. You can either DIY it um or uh based on our labor rates and what we do, it looks like it'll be a handyman for a half day to knock this stuff out, or can't figure it out, we're gonna dispatch one of our estimators.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

You're you're all over it. And then after you get out on dispatch, they they go out there, they take out the camera, they record everything, and now you're bringing YouTube into your business. So if you ever go to sell your business, you've got everything documented, not just by the words, because you can ask the system, hey, document this process, but now you've got all your jobs, especially if you go back to that same residence a year later. Now you can see other work that you've done. And you can like I can literally walk through my house and take a video of every room outside, inside, and I can how much to paint this house, how much to change out the lights. Like for our movers, you can walk around and say, This is going, that's going, this is going, that's going. It'll take the entire inventory. Give them the cube sheets, the weights, and packing materials for that job. It's insane.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Like here's how I knew so that's that that's happening via AI, or that's the person who's watching the video.

Pricing, ROI, And Time Savings

SPEAKER_00 24:45

That's the the well, the person is just there to hold the camera around and say, This is going, that's going, this going. The A, then you run an AI prompt. We have an 11-page prompt for the moving industry, and it listens to everything you said, watches all the video, and then creates the entire inventory, and you see pictures of all every piece as well. Because it takes them hours to do. And so we're just trying to save keyboard time, be a co-pilot, like to make sure you you have it right. But to your point, Chris, like then for some of your estimates, if they could see it from the customer's point of view, it might skip the trip and you might be able to sell it right there and then be able to get them out there. And you can your estimator can take that recorded video and give it to the technician who can watch it before they go out. So the worst thing is to get out to a job site and forget some of the tools you thought you didn't.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

If you would have seen it, you're like, you know, this is a worst case, you can just ballpark it, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Yeah. I mean, well, in fact, a lot of things for handyman, we do put a ballpark on it when we estimate. Sometimes we we do estimate it, but it's always, you know, you don't know what's behind the walls sometimes. But a lot of times that's the customer trusting you, and you're like, all right, I'm gonna let you open the wall up. And then when you open the wall up, it's like, oh my God, all the wood's gone. Yeah, it's gonna be more money. Okay. And that's part of our one of the things that struggles for us in AI is the it depends factor because we do so many different things. Um, but that being said, uh, this would eliminate a and start to build a lot of trust with people because we they just showed because a lot of times people call up and say, Hey, I just need you to change out a ceiling fan. All right. So, right now I want everybody to picture a ceiling fan. Um, now I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions. Is it in an eight-foot ceiling, a 10-foot ceiling, or is it in a vaulted ceiling? Um, I'm gonna ask you another question. Is it a two-story in the uh in your master great room? Um, okay, another question. Uh, is there a ceiling fan there today? Because a lot of people say say sometimes, I just need to change out a ceiling fan. Do you have one today? No, it's a light. Okay, well, that's a different charge because we got to put a different so there's a lot of questions you have to ask. So we actually have built those prompts through AI for our ladies, but you're right, AI could ask ask all those questions. But if you just showed me the picture, boom, analysis is done.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Yeah, pictures worth a thousand words and a video's worth ten thousand, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:57

So there's uh another component of this that at least I thought I saw on your website, which is uh you're recording conversations, and so I got the impression, and I'm sure Chris, this has never happened to you, but you agree on something and uh and then the customer tries to wriggle out of it or whatever. And so you've got it recorded.

Deep Integrations With Trade CRMs

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Yep, you've got it all recorded. You got an NFL instant replay. And if somebody not just says it, but let's say you get there and you fix the fan, they call you back and say, Your guy put marks on my wall. Well, hold on a second. I check the video and I say, Hey, like this is you holding your own phone before we even got out there, and the marks were already there. I'm not gonna be a nonprofit today.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

That is um actually that's that's a good one. And I and it's not that people try to do it nefariously all the time. I do think people do misremember the facts. Um, and yes, we have actually gone down because we do recall recordings uh in our and we use the recording call to uh say, well, as a matter of fact, you told us that you didn't want us to do that part. Um, and would you like me to play that back for you? And the lady said no. So um, so yes, it was an additional charge. Um, but yeah, I mean I think that's you're right. That that eliminates a lot of confusion because again, as contractors, we always think customers out there for the cheapest thing, customers out there trying to get something for nothing. But a lot of times there's you know, they're just misremembering things. And if that helps them, they go, Well, I guess that's it's what it is. I don't like it, but you're right.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

I'm wrong. So what I do a final walk around with my painting company, and sometimes people blame me for their gutters. I'm like, no, you just haven't looked at your house the same way now that it's beautiful. You know, now you now you're noticing the imperfections. Like you didn't see that when your house didn't look so great.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

You're right. So what industries right now are you focused on? Uh obviously moving is one of them.

Prompts, Copilot, And Flexibility

SPEAKER_00 28:40

Yep. Any home services. I have painters, plumbers, power washers, light guys, pest control, anybody in home services, I've got one of those are focused because it's so wide right now. Um, you know, I would say we've got we've got a big focus on movers, got a big focus on restoration, big focus on electricians. Um, but I've got all kinds of different deals that come in. I mean, we're growing like a weed. I mean, we've put we got thousands, thousands of users now. I'm hiring five to ten sales guys a month. I've been doing that last six months, like a foreseeable future. We're growing like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 29:12

It's been yeah, I I mean I uh this is guys, now I know why Matthew, yes, thank you, Matthew Eatford. He's always right, he is right. He's always wrong. He's another good person. I do feel less than uh than him. No, Matt, Matt, Matthew's a great guy. But uh, I know that's why he said, Chris, you really need to hook up with this guy because you're gonna love what he's saying, and I can see you saying, I gotta have this. I'm like, yeah, all right, buddy. And uh, I'm like, yeah, no, I'm like, yeah, I guess I gotta have it.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

And we've only just talked about sales, we haven't even talked about operations, marketing, repeat business.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

I mean, we're just getting warmed up. Right. So let's get warmed up. So, how else have you used it? And talking, you're talking about the sales part. How else do you use it?

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Operations, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:51

Yeah, keep going.

Operations: Tech Support In The Field

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Okay, you can, yeah. So operations. Uh, so when you get on site, you do a pre-walk around. If you can't figure the dang thing out, now you can have a senior technician talking to the junior technician. Like when I had my next Tel Walkie Talkies, I could talk to all my crews, but imagine one of the tech's like, Chris, I can't figure this out. Well, now you can be anywhere. You send him a text, and you're using it operationally to help your technician figure that out. Also, the tech can just document his the work before and after. And if they're getting stumped, they can even run an AI prompt. Hey, help me with this. I think it might be this. They just talk to it. The technician should just talk to it, and it the co-pilot is a really good word for this. So that's the operational side. Then when you're done with the work, we have QR codes that you can put on stickers and leave behind somewhere in the home. Right? So if you ever have any more needs around the house, all you got to do is scan this QR code, put in your name, take a video, whatever it is, any time of day, I'll get that video, my team will review it, and then when I call you back, we can just tell you what it's gonna be. Because we want to give the Amazon Prime experience. And we don't what I don't want people doing is Googling handyman near me when I've already worked for you, right? I'm your handyman for life, and I want you to tell everyone you know about it, and then stick these stickers up. So if a new tenant moves in or a new resident moves in, oh, I guess this is my handyman who knows my house. Yep. And then the final play at the plate is when you're done with the work, you can hit us. We have a star button. One of my power washers came up with this. Very cool. You they were like, Why can't you just connect this to my Google? So when you're done, you hit the star button, request a video review, and the customer gets a text, says, Hey, thank you for having us today. We enjoyed working with you. If you loved our service, can you leave us a quick 30-second or less video about your service? You can say, Oh, Chris and them, they fixed my light and they fixed my fan today. They were awesome. When you hit done, it goes right to your Google business profile. They can upload the video there, and a video is worth a ton to Google and the LLMs, and it usually keeps away the turkeys and the ding-dongs who want to like say nasty stuff about your business. Usually people who are really happy are the ones willing to do more of a quick video, like I love this company. Where are you publishing those video reviews? Oh, to the website. No, to Google, right to Google. Usually you just go claim your on Google Maps, you claim your business, and then it just guides the customer right through it because Google's where the money is.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Yeah, right. Yeah, trust me. Follow the money. Yeah, and we know where it is, and Google is listening. Um, I love that. Uh, I mean, everything about this so far. And you, like you said, you're growing like weeds, you're doing that. You said an open API. Uh, currently you've imp you've integrated with Jobber. Uh, that's one I that I caught that I know of. Uh Service Titan, everybody knows that one because they're the big behemoth. So is that underlying in all those systems right now?

unknown 32:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yep. We're in tons of different systems. And that way you can go right through Jobber and do this stuff. Don't even have to leave or service Titan. You can request call stuff from somebody, you can do a live call, you can request photos, and then it just shows right up under the hood, like in Jobber as an example.

Marketing: QR Codes And Video Reviews

SPEAKER_02 32:56

So I'm gonna exp expose how dumb I am about AI because we talk about AI a lot. Is the AI that you're using, is it so let's say Chris hires you, are we building an AI that's specific to him, or is it something that is a collective knowledge base from all of your service providers that are users, or is it just open?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

We leave it open for whatever you want to ask it. And if you don't know what to do, just go to ChatGPT or Gemini and say, hey, I've got this software that I'm using to analyze it. Can you create a prompt for me? And I mean, the more you feed, like in LiveSwitch, it's wide open. So you can tell it your rates, you can give it examples of contracts, you can you can tell it, you can and you can run different prompts on the same video. Hey, translate this to Spanish or vo vice versa. I know I want you to write a simple contract out. Show me the scope of work, write my CRM. Just tell it what you want, and it'll it'll do whatever you you want it to do from that video.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

But at that point, it's not proprietary or is it no? It's I mean it's both.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

No, you you can it and then you can reuse that prompt. So let's say you have one person in the company that loves writing prompts, and someone else in your company like barely wants to even touch tech. Now that what they can do is just tap the recorded video and then hit a button that says give me my CRM.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Wow, I just want to end this podcast and go figure out how to implement this one. So I'd love to keep talking, guys. But uh Chris is already Chris is already moving on. So this is live switch. You can go check it out. Live switch.com.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Live switch.com.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

It's pretty simple. That's where we started. We started simple, we're ending simple. We're not ending. I know. I want to keep going, but I really am actually a little distracted.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

Well, I'm because I want to figure out how to implement it. You're actually processing like me. I mean, this has blown you away, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 34:42

It has, yeah. I think this was uh this is really good. And this came from a Hatfield, not a McCoy. So we know what side we're on.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 34:50

So um love that you guys are doing this and growing. Uh, so where do you want to take the business?

Growth, Verticals, And Hiring

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Wow. Um, I want to touch more and more different pieces. Like I still have a big heart for the emergency response. I want to do something about all these school shootings or driving me nuts. We're probably not gonna arm our teachers with AK-47s, but I can put QR codes anywhere in the building and now everyone can scan it and we can stream it right to the police officers uh so they can see what they're helping out with with the school. That would be a dream. Uh, definitely clinical. I would love to put this on anything like if I got diagnosed with diabetes and I got my first insulin pump and I don't know how to use it. Well, scan the QR code, live connect, and we can walk you through it. Um, like or retail. Like I just ordered a new desk for my KEA and I can't figure out how to put the stupid thing together. Scan it, get some help. Insurance, put it on the windshield. Someone rear-ends me, scan it. Instant video, right to insurance. Like it's everywhere, man. It's everywhere. But I'm gonna hang out in home services for quite a while first because this is where I come from, and I want to really take on every home service first. Um, and we may not expand beyond that, but I have a feeling we will probably become a bigger company than the last one that we took to multi-billion dollar.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Um, yeah, it's sure I I yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

And then he's gonna be on the beach and playing golf.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

No, with no, I still think he's gonna go back and he's gonna have his kids singing, and he's gonna do like the Jonas brothers and have like how many kids you got? Four. Oh, dude, we got we got like a 70s rock band size.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

All right, they all play bluegrass music. All right, yeah, they all play bluegrass. We sing bluegrass. So I got banjo, fiddle, guitar, and they the part harmony. I mean, Hatfield, come on, Hatfield, yeah, bluegrass. That just has to be that be something. But right now you'll catch our uh live events at the hospice if you'd like to come by and cry uh at the event. Yeah.

Vision: Safety, Healthcare, Retail

SPEAKER_03 36:38

Yeah. No, I mean, I think like you said, that that stuff right there shows the heart that you've got uh and the passion. You know, you started out talking about that, and people I was just talking with uh two guys who said, So what what are the two things that you would say an entrepreneur has to have? I said, first you have to have passion for what you're going to do because the work we do is just flipping hard. And there are going to be times where you just want to go skip this, I'm out, especially making payroll. And I told them my story about payroll. You talked about door knocking. I'll tell you my story. I was in Atlanta and I had to get I had to get 20 miles, which is an hour and 10, to get a check. And the lady says, Well, I can, you know, you can just pick up the check tomorrow. I said, No, it's no problem. I'll pick it up today. Because if I didn't get that$5,000 check, guys weren't getting paid on Friday morning. I got there at 4 15 in uh Laurel Springs. Well, you'll know where that is. I had to drive all the way to the back of that stupid subdivision, driving 22 miles an hour because it's 20 was the thing, and the cops were everywhere in there. These little little rent to cops and these skating subdivisions. I got the check. I get out again, 20 miles an hour, and the bank closes at 4 30. And I got there at 4 29. They were going to close the door and I'm knocking on it, and I had to give them the check. And they're like, Oh, yeah, I'm like, really, I gotta put this check in if you guys don't mind. I don't want to tell everybody, hey, I don't think I'm gonna make payroll. Right. So I'm playing it all cool, right? But I made payroll, and that's what passion is. That's what stick to it is, and that's what fear does. I mean, that's where you got to keep driving because a lot of times fear drove me uh more than sometimes you know, uh expectations of being. I said uh so passion and fear.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Oh, okay. Yeah, we I call it the baby formula when you gotta make sure you feed the baby, you know. Yeah, you gotta do what you gotta do, like gird your loins and get in there, you know. Like go, I'm gonna go knock on doors. I'm going to get us jobs. I'm not having my guys sit. So like it's just yeah, that roof, that relentless pursuit to take care of your team, your community, and what we're doing because we try to make an honest day's work, right? So I I have gotten that t-shirt. Uh my heart is in what everything you just said, and I love that story.

Mindset: Passion, Payroll, And Grit

SPEAKER_03 38:33

Yeah, it's just I think you gotta have that. And uh, I think it's easy to say it to somebody. I think it's really hard to resonate with some until you've been there and done that. And I know you've been there, Alan. Uh, and you know, it's hard to really get people to do it because they think it's easy. You know, when we just got done talking about you just said, I mean, I think if I'm an aspiring entrepreneur, all I heard from James was start a business, play it, get an MBA, make and then sell a multi-billion dollar company. Nah, it ain't like that, guys. It's just a lot harder than that.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

There's no participation awards. Not that's so hard. Like we're stupid enough to do it again. And it's just because I don't know, we're stupid.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

Nah, you know, one thing that he does, it's an intangible, is he meets good people, and he I don't know, he recognizes that.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

Or uh yeah, how how were you able to be a good partner for for one of us here on the podcast? That's me.

unknown 39:31

But not a good partner.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

Oh, well, if you look at the other person's interest over yourself, you'll probably be doing better. That's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 39:38

All right, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

So, this partnership, this partnership is all about forgiveness and compromise. You're gonna have to forgive me that I don't compromise. That's what this is. Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

There you go. All right, now we're talking. We're getting closer. Still no. All right, on to the next question. No, I'm kidding. This is great. Obviously, uh, I begged Alan to come on this podcast with me four and a half years ago. The journey's been amazing. Uh, talking to a lot of people about the pod when they uh when people uh listen in, they're like, Boy, you guys are just a little bit different than everybody else. I'm like, absolutely, that's what I wanted, man. And I said, and if it was just me, it would be boring as yeah, that's right. So um it would not be as fun. Oh yeah, it's all right, buddy. Okay, now back to James.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Cindy, you can cut out the softness from Chris.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

That was enough. Yeah, I just showed a moment of weakness, Cindy. Cut that out quickly, quickly. Suburban talking again. Get back to work, get back to work. Damn it, sleeves, get back to work. So uh, what is your day-to-day function right now? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Educating. So I've I've been teaching um at different academies, and you know, I go and I I really I mean, I've been on 150 podcasts as a guest last year, really talking about AI for the rest of us. Really want to talk about demystifying it because everyone is on a different spectrum with AI. Some think it's gonna turn into Terminator and kill us all. Uh, some people can't live without it. And then there's other people that just if they are if they're honest and they're like they just procrastinate, like I don't really have time for that. Like I don't want to learn it, you know, or they don't want to admit that like they're kind of scared it might take their job or their career or like it it it it evokes some emotion of it. So I really want to demystify it and make it practical and tactical. So I spend a lot of time meeting with business owners, going through, and I personally still take calls um with anyone interested. You know, like I like to get in, be with my my people, so to speak. I'm I love it. Like I get to learn about their business, their background. Every entrepreneur and owner has a great story um about how they got into it. And I find that to be some of the most fun. So I spend a lot of time with the business owners and education. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

No, I love this, man. This has been a great episode, guys. Uh again, uh pick this thing up, James Hatfield Live Switch. James, how can everybody get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Uh LinkedIn right now is really easy. Uh just go LinkedIn, look up James Hatfield Live Switch, L-I-V-S-W-I-T-C-H, and uh I'll I'll spend time with anybody who reaches out. Uh I'll make that promise. Um, I love meeting people.

Day-To-Day: Educating On Practical AI

SPEAKER_03 42:03

Take it up on it because I can tell. Um, and honestly, don't take him up on it until I do. Um so get in line, everybody. James says, hey, I can't right now. I'm talking to Chris, big daddy, Lala Mia. Um, then you'll understand what's going on. But James, this has been awesome. I don't know if you had a chance to check our final four questions out, but I think you will figure this out really quickly. Lamb on me. All right. What is a good book you would tell everybody to read as an aspiring entrepreneur or part of our our group called the Adventure Team?

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Making money is killing your business. Gotta read it. Everyone talks about like working on their business, but they don't know how. Like I'm in my business. I don't know how to work on my business, but making money is killing my business teaches you how to freedom map and make yourself redundant. And that can be hard to do as a business owner because well, if I'm not around, thing ain't gonna run. That's a big problem.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

That's a big problem.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Because some tough times you might get something might happen to you, and that's not a good thing. Like, so to make a business, you gotta make yourself redundant. And I know that's scary as an owner, but man, what's scary to me is that if I go, my company's gone. Yeah, and that's not that's not the right thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 43:11

Yep. All right. Second question. What's the favorite feature of your home? My children and my wife, my family.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Because I my dad worked his tail off. You know, I didn't get to get to know my dad. So when I had my first, you know, I was like, I'm gonna be present. Like so, I work in the home, you know, and I I want to be around. And it goes by, you blink, and I got teenagers. I know if I blink again, I'm gonna have grandchildren, so I don't I don't want to miss it.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Yeah, I better not blink and have grandchildren. Kids are gonna get the problem right now, but um, but I would thought he was gonna say his recording studio. I thought there was gonna be some cool ass recording thing, but um, but still, man, playing the bluegrass, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

All right, uh, I gotta ask on the bluegrass. You actually do you actually perform anywhere besides doing it charitably?

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Yeah, um, my daughter is very talented. She was just uh playing on stage um with uh Steep Canyon Rangers. Same if you've heard of of them, Steve Martin. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:10

Steve Martin's uh that's the that was the backup band that him and Martin Short did their uh their group with. So Martin Short, uh Steve Martin, I'm dropping names for him right now, man. I'm gonna I'm killing. So great Netflix special, Martin Short, uh Steve Martin, and their band in the background, Bluegrass, because you know, Steve Martin plays the banjo, and he goes back with these guys, and it's this the Canyon Rangers.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Steve Canyon Rangers, they're fabulous, and so yeah, that my play with them. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

Are you familiar with Everett's music barn here uh in Sawani, Georgia? I'm not. It's kind of like the tiny grand old Opry version for Bluegrass, and it's been every Saturday night for sixty years. And it's in Savani. Huh. That's wild. Yeah. So Judy and I go there. You put you put uh you put a couple bucks in the coffee can that they've had there forever, and you hear two acts, and it's just awesome.

SPEAKER_00 45:02

I love that. Well, maybe one day my daughter will be down there. She's got a great voice. Yeah, check and course she'll be at Steve Fermarina.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

Look at that way she's going. The the story behind Everett's Music Barn is is something. And it really makes me mad. I didn't know about it a lot sooner after living here for 30 years.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

I'm starting to feel mad now. Okay. Yeah. And so back to back to angry.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

You're mine. I'm talking and you're not.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

I've actually been, yeah, I am. Uh really. Please, can we continue? It's about team, not you. I'm kidding. It's about you, and we know it. All right, fine. All right. So one of the things that we love to talk about is customer service. And you're you're you're just spewing it left and right, talking about how we can help customers more, but we're kind of customer service freaks. Kind of crazy about it. What's a customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out and you're the customer?

SPEAKER_00 45:46

But I gotta wait. I have no pay. Amazon ruined us all. There's this thing called Amazon Prime. Like everybody listens probably. And you here's the weird thing. You don't have to be an Amazon Prime user. You can wait a couple weeks for your stuff, but people don't want to wait. And when I have a problem at my house, like when the toilet wasn't working, I don't want to wait. I give it the way I have no patience. So it's all about a rate, and it's all Amazon's fault. So, like if you're a business owner and you're getting out to do your estimate, and the person is like, oh, don't bother. I already found someone. You only lost on speed. It's because we ain't got no patience. And so patience, man.

SPEAKER_03 46:20

That's right. You're right. We are an impatient society. You know, I I've often told people who are older than us, Alan, you know, like, hey, do you really want to go back to the old days where we had the black phones with the big long cords and uh and you had to go shh shh sh no you don't, you don't want to go back to that. It's too slow. Or get slapped around by your dad going, hey, go turn the channel. But maybe maybe that was me. I uh I was our remote control when I was a kid. So no, I don't want to go back to that.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Who needs a remote control and he got you? Get up there.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

And when you're done with that, go get me a drink. Give me that bourbon boy. No, I remember that.

DIY Nightmares And Lessons Learned

SPEAKER_03 46:56

But we only had three channels, so it wasn't like we were picking for much. Uh so back in the day. All right. Last question, and I love this one because we already heard one. Give us your greatest DIY nightmare story. Flame, flooding, house falling it on you. Something good.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Well, having been a business owner, I remember when it's not DIY, but I remember when paint sprayers first came out, and I was like, Oh, I'm gonna have to buy some of those. So I went ahead and got them. I was like, I just know this is gonna be a thing. So we got a couple of them, and I give them to my guys, and just like with any new technology, and I mean this new tool, we play with it first because we don't read the manual and I don't bother asking anyone how to use it. Like, that's just how I'm wired up. I don't know about you guys.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Man talk. Man talk. Hi, talking to us men.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

We just you know get the paint, plug it in, and go. And so we're spraying homes. Like, it's terrible. We're I mean, we we didn't clean it well, we were spraying roofs, it was terrible. We couldn't use the shields, like we're rolling and brushing, and now we gotta hold shields while we're on the ladder. It was awful for the first five homes. But then the last six, seventh, we were getting to be really sharp with it, and the product was awesome. And then we got so fast sometimes. We would go and just we pick up the paint, you know, put in the guns and go. And I would do the final walk around and check collection. And I remember getting out with uh one of the owners, and we're doing the final walk around, and I'm like, your house is shining like a diamond, man. It it was so shiny, and I was like, oh, I know what happened. You know, we picked up the paint, and my guys didn't look that they accidentally shot gloss, and we were painting on a cloudy day.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Oh, no.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

And we can paint, had to tell, I got to reprep it, so you didn't know it was shining on the cloudy day. I do the walkthrough and it's sunny, so I send the team back out. I'm told the owner, I'm like, you're not gonna have to wash, you're not gonna have to paint this house for like 20 years. There's so much paint on this thing.

SPEAKER_03 48:45

That was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

I was a nonprofit that day.

Takeaways, Links, And Closing

SPEAKER_03 48:48

Yeah, I got a nonprofit one for you. So back in the day when I first started, I did not do any pressure washing. Uh, but uh I needed to have that customer asked me to pressure wash the house. I said, sure, I you know, I don't do that. So I sent my subcontractor to pressure wash the house. I gave him the address, and I came out and we started doing the wood rot repair on the home. And I came out, I was taking a look. I'm like, huh, he didn't really clean this thing very well. So we're working, we're working. And uh the pressure washer sends me the invoice. I'm like, hey dude, uh, are you sure you did this? He goes, Yeah. I said, I'm out here. And I said, This is back before live switch. And I uh sent him a picture, uh, not through my phone because I couldn't do it through the phone, not when I started. Uh, when I got back to my house and I said, Hey, take a look at this. He goes, No, I didn't pressure wash that house. I said, Well, this is the house I told you to pressure wash. He goes, Oh, I pressure washed the one next to it. I'm like, uh-oh. So I go to the customer thinking I got an upsell opportunity to help them with their home. They blessed me out because we've ruined their house by pressure washing it because it was so bad the paint was just flying off. So I had pressure washed the wrong house. So I, you know what, every time somebody gives us a DIY one, I can probably want to. Yeah, you probably can. All right. Hey guys, we did it again. James Hatfield, live switch, changing lives, making things happen. Go check this software out. If you're in the home services business, I'll tell you what, I'm checking it out. It is definitely the way of the future. This is a practical AI implementation that won't even scare Alan.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

No, I'm actually embracing it. I know it. And and you can do it anywhere in the world, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:21

Anywhere in the world, and the universe eventually, once we get out in space. Well, we're taking it there. I think he's right.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Um you you you make a joke, but ET will want to call home and it won't be on telephony.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

Uh, that's right. It's gonna be on live switch. He's gonna do the video, he's coming through it. James Hatfield from Asheville, North Carolina. Thanks so much for coming on the show, guys. Keep making it a great day, make it a great week. We'll see you next week on the pod. Go check us out. Tell your friends we gotta go. Cheers, everybody. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Department. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world of small business ownership. And until next time, make it a great day.