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Successful Life Podcast
The Successful Life Podcast, hosted by Corey Berrier, is a globally recognized show that ranks in the top 2% of podcasts worldwide. It offers expert insights tailored for contractors, focusing on business strategies, sales skills development, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the industry.
Successful Life Podcast
From Policing to HVAC: Derek's Journey of Strategic Partnerships, Family Prioritization, and Business Resilience
What happens when you mix the grit of policing in Hollywood, Florida, with the resilience needed to run a family business? You get Derek from Climate Experts, our guest for today's episode, who's unflinching in the face of adversity. From navigating the murky waters of a 50/50 business partnership to restarting his business alone for the sake of his family, Derek's story is a testament to the power of decision-making and prioritization.
Have you ever found yourself on a high-speed chase, adrenaline pumping through your veins, only to later trade your badge for a toolbox? Derek takes us through his thrilling days as a former police officer, where he stood on the precipice of life-altering decisions, to his current role as a business owner. The journey wasn't easy, but it was his unwavering dedication to his family that led him to prioritize his wife and children over everything else.
Strap in for the rollercoaster ride as Derek takes us through the importance of strategic partnerships in business, underlining his relationship with Home Depot and his experiences with expanding his services. He leaves no stone unturned as he talks about the power of social media in building relationships and, most importantly, shares his insights about the drain industry. Join us for a riveting episode that navigates the ups and downs of family business, strategic partnerships, and the essence of prioritizing what truly matters.
https://www.facebook.com/derek.cormier.31?mibextid=LQQJ4d
https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/
Welcome to the successful live podcast. I'm your host, corey Barrier, and I'm here with Derek. Is it Cormor, cormier, cormier, damn, oh, you're not the first person.
Speaker 2:It's not your name.
Speaker 1:What's up, derek? How are you Good? How you doing? Good man, you know you got a pretty fascinating story and I'm really excited for you to get into that today. I'm just curious if you could just tell everybody a little bit about your company's name and where you are and all that good stuff, so everybody knows who we're talking to.
Speaker 2:Yes, my name is climate experts. We are in Melbourne, florida, that's in central Florida. Do HVAC right now? I actually just got my plumbing license to be adding on plumbing, so I just went through a rebrands sort of be climate experts are plumbing and electric.
Speaker 1:Sweet. So you're doing electric now, or is that something that you're adding on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, we're doing small stuff we don't need permitting for, but we're adding that on as well, so I'll be getting that license myself also.
Speaker 1:Awesome and all right, so let's, let's. You're not too far from Cape Canaveral right?
Speaker 2:Nope, yeah, we're right, we service Cape Canaveral. So you know we're all the rockets go off. You know we've SpaceX. You know we service that whole area of space coast. That's why it's called the space coast was what we service. I know Kelly Slater's from here, cocoa Beach, so we're about an hour from Orlando Disney World, so we're in a great location.
Speaker 1:I would say so. I don't know if it's because of Disney World, but you know I love that place, but damn, they've kind of met sideways, haven't they?
Speaker 2:I think so, yeah, I'd say so.
Speaker 1:I think I heard a figure the other day, maybe yesterday they it was like 800 and some, I think it was 800, and some million dollars they've lost and I can only speculate why. But, dude, like they've just, it's just different. It's just different than what I thought it was Very different, 100%. Yeah, yeah, you think it's always been that way.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I mean I've noticed it go downhill. I mean, because I'm from this area, they just have been downgrading. You know everything about the. You know like the fast pass system used to be really good. I mean that was a you know their season pass holders that used to take care of them, kind of like maintenance members. Right, like they'd agree they can care of season pass holders and then getting a good fast pass system and because that's what you do, it was same with the maintenance plan. Right, you want to go in the maintenance plan because you want fast service. Right, you want to pay more. It's like a platinum member, like the Delta platinum, like man, you're a special member to them. And like I think that's where Disney fucked up. They're not taking care of like, they're just like new customer and they fucked the whole system up like get better and charge more. So when people go there, it's a one of a kind of experience, not some shitty thing that everyone can go to. That's right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's actually. I didn't know that much of that part of it. I was thinking more along the politics side of it, I mean the you know, just some weird shit has come out and we don't have to get into that, but like some weird shit has come out and, like you know, it's kind of hard not to look at. I'll be honest with you. All right, dude, so tell me, you started, you started your company around 2016,. Something like that. That's kind of where this thing started. Let's just start there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I started this company in 2016,. You know, by myself single truck. I know my dad's from the general contracting side, so you know I noticed it was difficult for him to get business. People weren't really doing role models as much. So I said to him hey, this is a trade, it's a specialty trade. People always need AC.
Speaker 2:In Florida, it's mostly 90 degrees here, you know, but 60% of the year, so you've got, you know, some of the highest humidity you know in the United States. So I said to him hey, you know, why don't you get into this specialty trade with me? We'll start to sing out 50 50. And I started taking calls off of Craigslist. You know, $29 service calls, just like our own vehicles. And as we started growing it, I brought my brother on to work with us and my cousin and we kept it pretty tight. We kept it family and, you know, up until about 2019, everything was going you know pretty well, other than some issues with 50, 50 ownership, which I'd never recommend anybody, especially with family, especially with family. I don't recommend working in any business owner structure with family and I don't recommend you ever go into a 50 50 partnership 49, 51. Someone has decision making capabilities, because anytime we came to a big decision, it was an argument and we didn't move forward.
Speaker 2:And then I wouldn't right, no, and then I would just force it forward, which then we get the results, and then he'd be like, oh yeah, I knew we should have done that, even though he bought it all the way. It's just a bad business move to do 50 50 in any aspect. Someone's going to have to have the total decision making power or your business will not grow and move forward, or it's going to have a hard time growing, moving forward up until 2019,. It came to a point where it wasn't working out with me and my dad. He wasn't looking to do the same things I was. I wanted to build a business that ran itself, something that was branded. You know, caught in into now, but it's branding. You know everyone could see us. You know everywhere, everywhere, throughout the state. You know our branding that I made I actually made it myself. It's this big, strong Jack Penguin on this giant blue van. His name is chilly too, so you can see us away, our vans like the only color. This huge Jack Penguin on it, right, like it's, he's our mascot.
Speaker 2:And you know my dad wanted the other side of business with a lot, which a lot of contractors want. Right, you own this white van that's not branded so you can hide. You don't have to pull permits. Spend as least amount of money right, do all the work yourself, because you can't trust anybody else. You want to make as much money as you can right, get cash as much as you want so you can hide from the IRS. So that's the side that my dad wanted to run it, because that's what he was comfortable with, because he didn't trust people, he didn't trust employees, he didn't trust customers and he was always just in it for himself.
Speaker 2:And I knew that wasn't sustainable because I would have to be in the field my entire life, like he's been, and I would not grow up around my family. I had two little kids at that time, my wife and I honestly don't think that's success if you're making a ton of money but you can't spend it with your family and nothing's meaningful at the end of the day. So 2019, we had a serious talk, we sat down. I told him that can't do it anymore and I restarted the business, got rid of everybody my cousin, my brother, started again myself, january 2019. And from there re-grew it the way that I wanted it to. Within the first year we went from 300 grand the previous year in revenue to a million and then we doubled every year since then and this year we're looking to do 6.5 million in residential HVAC only. And you know we've doubled in growth in revenue every single year while maintaining at least double digit profit. We try to maintain around 10% profit minimum. You know, throughout that time Did you have any experience?
Speaker 1:going into this in 2016? I mean, did you, did you send? Your dad had a remodeling slash contractor, did you go into this because you had experience like with him growing up, or how did that work?
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, growing up with a dad on the contracting business. You know, every summer, from 10 years old I worked, you know, my summers with him on construction jobs, framing, doing tile work, electrical. I mean I could build a whole house from the ground up. I know how to do it all. Unfortunately, I do all my own work in my own house. I have to. You know, at 19, after I graduated high school, I started running crews for him. The Hurricanes just killed us over here on the East Coast during that time, back 2004, 2005. So I ran some crews for him. They wanted me to kind of get into management and help run that company business. I ran from that. I didn't want anything to do with that. I became a police officer in South Florida, hollywood Florida. I was a cop there for five years so I saw some serious shit. I was right between Miami and Fort Lauderdale Street.
Speaker 1:Cop there, tell me just tell me some of the something that you saw, give me an idea, just paint a picture of some of the craziest shit that you saw. But I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2:I mean, every day I was pulling my gun out. You know this was a dangerous area. I mean you know you had streets where you know you had multimillion dollar homes on one side, the other side's motels crack, you know, probably, motels crack, you know prostitutes, it's just you know. And that's where I worked the east side of Hollywood and you know typical day, you know I always had an arrest. You know a lot of drugs around that time. Everyone was big into the oxycodone. So all the people from like up north, like Minnesota, would drive down to the pain clinics in Hollywood and they would shop because they can go to multiple pain clinics to just keep getting oxys and then you go back up north and sell them for a ton of money. So like it was just rampant with like drug dealers and oxycodone and it was huge and because of the pain clinics you didn't have to go to a doctor, you can just keep going to pain clinics. So a lot of drugs, a lot of you know crime there.
Speaker 2:You know I had a scenario where there was a carjacking and I fortunately never had to shoot anybody. But the closest time I had to shoot somebody was a carjacking where it was tourists on vacation from Canada and it was middle of the night, like you know 1 am and you know, call got put into dispatch. I show up on the job. One of the doors is open. I see this older gentleman getting kicked out of the passenger seat onto the middle of the street. I come around the passenger side where there's a female and he's trying to rip us to the purse out of her hand while he's in the car. I have my gun drawn, I pull her out of the car, he comes at, grabs my gun and then we're wrestling on the floor as he's got my gun, I'm on top of him and he's trying to take my gun and I'm Lily at the point, ready to shoot him in the head. And I've got families even though this is 1 am Cause this was a loud thing, this isn't a pretty bizarre. So people are starting to come out while they were sleeping and I got families on the side of the road watching this happening and luckily I was able to wrestle my gun back from him and just start beating them up till I can get them in handcuffs.
Speaker 2:But guy was on drugs, he didn't feel a thing. I had cop after cop and we had like linebacker cops. We had guys that were like NFL football player type cops coming up here trying to get this guy in custody and hitting him and trying to get him in handcuffs and he just was laughing at the pain, taser laughing at it Like it was a joke to him. So like from afar, if you watch this, it looked like police brutality. But this guy's trying to take the, take our guns. He's trying to fight us. He's not getting in handcuffs. You know ended up taking him to custody in the next day. You know he was a mess, but that day he didn't feel a thing cause he was on drugs. But you know I had to.
Speaker 1:What was he on? Do you know PCP? I knew it, I knew it. I don't know anything about PCP, but I've. But from back in the day I would hear these stories about people getting shot four or five times and they keep walking in. What is pH? What is that PCP? I think it's an amphetamine.
Speaker 2:It's like a powder and I think it's speed a little bit. It just I think it amps up your adrenaline levels to where you just don't feel anything. Your body's just like a train. So I mean, it's not a common drug that you see people take but on you do. Those are the guys that are like running through fences, just like the beanbag shotguns boom. They're like, they're laughing at them and I've seen that, you know, time and time again. Like I said, hollywood was a big place for drugs. So we had a lot, of, a lot of crime down there and it wasn't like, you know, maybe California where everyone's doing cocaine, or it's like it wasn't. It was like the dirty stuff, you know, crack. There was a lot of crack in Hollywood, like just people smoking with their crack pipes, like the dirty shit, you know.
Speaker 1:And then the pill mails.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and then the pill mill. So yeah, you had to be a tough cop to work in Hollywood. Like. Their training Was kind of like the military. You know that you had six months of training where they hazed you. They told you they wanted to fuck your wife, your girlfriend, your piece of shit. They put you through training. They made you carry the logs. You had to fight. You had to fight each other. They want to get you to quit. They didn't want you to because they didn't want someone as their backup. That wasn't gonna be able to protect their back properly and it wasn't. You would never see a fat cop at Hollywood, like, never. Like. You literally had physical fitness Requirements, like where you're seeing that nowadays in some departments. And that's why, when I got out of it at the five years mark because you know they weren't really handling the budget well and you know they froze our raises and then ruin the pension that that's why I ended up leaving.
Speaker 2:I went to another police department local here by where I'm out in Melbourne and you know it was just sad, like just cops with their stomachs on a steering wheel. We're on a traffic stop and they take five minutes to get out and I'm already out with my gun, as you know, because I was a cop doing a ride-along and I'm like what is this? And then we go and we do building clearing and like I building Clear, even if it's an alarm, like there's a there's a person there with a gun, so I'm clearing the mic you know my levels with my gun out and this person's just do the do Flashlights, not out, just like running through here. I'm like, nope, I'm not risking my life working with people that aren't trained, that don't take this seriously, because where I trained it was a military outfit. If a Hollywood cop came to save you, like you're getting saved, like people didn't want to mess with Hollywood cops, like they went through if they were looking to go because they knew that we were gonna cause some damage to you.
Speaker 1:So what? What convinced you or what made you think that was a great idea to get it? This sounds awful. There's zero chance I would sign up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you know, after being offered to run the construction business. You know, melbourne, florida, here it's a beautiful place to live, right, it's a beautiful place to raise a family, but when you're 18, 19 years old, you know, it's not really a great place for women. There's no culture here. You know it's a small towns. You know I kind of wanted to get out of here and not meet everybody out that I went to high school with, you Know. So number one I wanted to get out of here and go to a place that was a little bit busier.
Speaker 2:Number two is I've always been the type of person that was big into leadership, protecting people. You know I was always the friend that, like, didn't drink and drive, like I watched them. If there was a fight, I'd take over the fight and I would make sure I handled it. You know I always wanted to make sure I was the oldest brother in my family. I always wanted to make sure that I could protect people. And you know my cousin was going to school for law enforcement and he said, dude, you should go and become a cop and, like, south Florida, they're gonna, they're gonna pay you full-time in the police academy, you don't even have to pay For it and you get to drive a car as fast as you want. You get to carry a gun, a cool tool belt. You know it's a good life experience. So I was like, fuck it.
Speaker 1:What was going through your mind when you had that gun pulled on the guy that had his hand on it that had to be me. A spec got it hidden, forbid. That happened now because Lord have mercy be a whole different set of Issues. I can't imagine what was going through your head at that time, like, yeah, how did you? Yeah, I guess, how did you not shoot the guy?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, he was probably 18, 19 years old, you know, so I knew he had a lot of life ahead of him. I know people make mistakes. You know I dealt with a lot of people with a lot of problems, you know, and at the end of the day, a lot of cops don't have empathy for people, Right, you go to that job, they put a shield on. They're like yep, I'm at work. You, I wasn't like that. You're a human fucking being. If I pull you over and you're rushing the work because you're a doctor and you got to go to an emergency, I'm not writing a fucking ticket, I'm not doing that. If I pull you over and you have a little bit weed weed on you or something, I'm like just throw that in the fucking grass and say, hey, stop doing this shit. You know, yeah, there are human beings that I'm dealing with, right. So I think that's what makes a great cop, and I don't think there's enough training around leadership and empathy and understanding people and not just judging in, because if you're in fear mode 24-7 as a cop, you're gonna fuck some people up because you got a lot of tools on your tool belt that you can really take. I mean you could literally fucking handcuff someone taking the jail and ruin their whole fucking life. So I took that seriously. I don't think people take it seriously enough.
Speaker 2:So when I was, you know, holding that, you know I gun at that person's head as they're trying to pull away from me. He's saying shoot me. I realized he Must have something going on to where he wanted to die himself. I don't think he wanted to kill People or kill cops. I think he just want to do whatever you could to die, and a lot of people do that. They'll try to get sure and I also Peripheral vision see little kids in the side watching this shit happen like within fucking a feet of me, if I believe this kids brains out. They get to see that all and they're fucking traumatized by that. So I just made sure it took whatever fucking needed to take for me to Subdue this guy and I just made that decision, that split-second decision, to holster my gun and just say we're gonna do this the old school way.
Speaker 2:And I think that's what you do as a cop is you put your life on the line and you got a. You got to be able to risk yourself for the People and if you're not ready to do that, you're not gonna be a good fucking cop. I said to myself I'm gonna risk my life so I don't have to shoot this person, to head in front of these fucking kids and kill this person. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to subdue this person so they have another chance. I had to be strong to make that fucking happens. You know what? If I died in the? In that process, I chose to become a cop. So it was a risk that I agreed to make when I became a cop. That's not me. If I died, wasn't my life wasted? I chose to make that agreement.
Speaker 1:It makes sense. I mean I appreciate you saying that. I mean that it says a lot. I was having a conversation with someone the other day asked you know, if I, if I were a cop, I'd probably real tempting to be. You know, you find you know $30,000 on a drug dealer. I can imagine how tempting that would be To just say, well, I'm just gonna shove that in under the seat or whatever. I don't know. But you know, I would imagine that temptation is pretty strong when you come across it. Maybe not for you, but I would imagine the cops will get paid shit. I think it's crazy to me how little cops can pay as much. I just think it's crazy.
Speaker 2:I agree. Yeah, I mean there's definitely situations. I mean you got so much power right. I mean you could literally take someone's livelihood away from them or arrest them. You know right, like you can you have guns. Like you, you have so much power. It's easy to know overuse that power. But you know what there's consequences. Just like is for regular people like IA, internal affairs. They don't fuck around like they will fucking got you. They will. They will make sure you go to jail even longer than a regular person because you sign the oath to have this responsibility. So the state attorney's office, they love going after cops. They're not on your side, they love it. They like it makes them happy that they get to go after you.
Speaker 2:You know, I think everybody knew that at my department because actually right before I got hired there was a big Sting that went through where these cops at Hollywood actually were driving these. Because you can do off-duty detail when you like protect security. Protect like I did. You like they're off-duty, like we would do of shopping malls or something. They wanted security but they wanted a cop. You know, because we had dispatch, they were doing an off-duty detail where they were helping these moving trucks where they were full of drugs and they were helping them move them through Hollywood. So that had just. The FBI had just arrested them and they were screwed. So that just happened. Probably a Year before I got hired they actually thought I was an FBI plant. When I got hired they were trying to make sure I wasn't an FBI plant because my uncle was the FBI agent and you know they were worried that was still going on. But no, everyone at Hollywood Was shook from that incident. So nothing like that was happening where we're at.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, I never really thought about the power. I really you know I've been arrested, don't get me wrong I've never really thought about from the, from that perspective, that you just gave. So thank you for that, I appreciate that. And then we kind of got off the beaten path a little bit. All right, so let's go I want you to talk about. You know, look, I've worked with family businesses. I've worked with father and son, I've worked with brother, and I can't think of a great situation that. I can't think of a situation that I've been aware everybody got along, everything was great, they were making a bunch of money. I just can't. So you dive into that just a little bit the conflict of maybe between you and your dad or brother or cousin or whoever, or maybe all four.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think you're right. I also don't know too many people that run successful businesses. The dynamic is really has to be the perfect dynamic for that to ever work with family and, like I said, definitely never 50-50, that's just could be a dumpster fire. But I know with my dad, most family businesses, the dad starts the business. Right, he's done it for 20, 30 years. The new young buck son takes it over and, following dad's footsteps, but wants to do it a new, different way. Right, new perspective. That's the classic you know line. That's not what I did.
Speaker 2:I started this thing by myself and I brought him into the business and I came from the HVAC side. I was a service tech several years and he didn't have the HVAC experience. I was a license holder. You know he was basically working for me even though we were 50-50. It was definitely an interesting dynamic because people see, you know father or son, they think it's the dad, right, he looks older, right. They're like, oh, he must be in charge and I didn't need that, right. I need that satisfaction. Even today I don't walk around like I'm the boss, like I ever went on a job, just checking I'm a tech, right, like I don't need that satisfaction of I'm the boss, so I let him take that right and people be like, oh, you did a great job in the company. They'd always be talking to him. I'm like, cool, yeah, I'm glad he's finally getting some kudos.
Speaker 2:But what I noticed is that a lot of parents aren't used to having adult children. They don't know how to deal with adult children. Right, it's a hard dynamic. It's like you taught this person everything they needed to do until they become adult. How do I interact with this fucking person now, especially now that you get to work with them? So, especially now that they're the license holder, they could technically be your boss. So it was a real hard dynamic for them.
Speaker 2:Because the reason my dad owned his business for 30-something years is because he didn't want to work for nobody. He was the lion. He always had to be the one on top to make all the decisions. So now he was pretty much handicapped. If I wasn't there, he can only do the work. Right, he was just good at the job. He didn't know how to manage, he didn't know how to plan, he wasn't a business owner, he didn't know KPIs. So it was real difficult for him. He kind of hid from it. He let me do it all, right. So I was working 80 hours a week making contracts, uniforms, branding, marketing, right, like getting us aligned with customers. So we had accounts set up that were reoccurring.
Speaker 2:So his defense mechanism to that was to hide right, like it wasn't going on, to just focus on. What he was focusing on was the work, right. And so I think I made sure I brought that to him to the table, to him, like hey, like this isn't what an owner needs to be doing, like these are all the owner tasks. What are you going to be doing out of those tasks? I need you to at least do 50% if you're getting paid 50%.
Speaker 2:And when it came down to him actually looking at what needed to be done and just like, for example, like QuickBooks invoicing, you know he'd sit down, he'd try one invoice and he'd say, fuck this, there's got to be an easier way, I don't want to do this. And then I would say, ok, well, that's an owner task. So why don't we change the structure to where you're 49 on 51 so I can start moving some of this shit forward and start hiring some people? And that's where it came down to him, not wanting to hire anybody, only trust in family, not wanting to come outside that scope, and at that point I wasn't ever going to be able to have the business that I wanted to wear. You know, it was worth something, it ran by itself, there was processes in place, and so that's really one of the bigger determining factors of why I'm like listen, I can't be partnered with someone that's that far from the vision that I have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like I hear all orders this day, people that absolutely should know better, that are still using paper and I'm like dude, what the hell are you doing? What are you fucking doing? They don't, they can't, they cannot, they can't see it. They just they don't want to see it, but they just do it. Super smart people, really smart people, but they just their mindset is stuck at a certain level that I don't know that they'll ever get past them and it sounds like that's a lot what you were dealing with.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, definitely. So what was the breaking point? What was the point where you said, all right, fuck this, I got it. I've got to do something different and I got to figure out what that is.
Speaker 2:So definitely the breaking point was. So I had my first daughter, sophie, and was born in 2016. And then my second daughter, hazel, was going to be born in 2018, near the end of 2018, september. As I said, I got rid of everything in 2019, january so but by this time my wife with the first baby had no help, right Like I was working 800 hour weeks, like she just did it all, just handle it all. And I said this time's gonna be different. I'm gonna at least take a couple of weeks off for help, cause we got another kid. Now, too, we're having another baby. So I said I just need a few weeks to help her out. And I said you know, what we're gonna need to do is hire an office manager, because all the shit I do you can't do, you don't want to do it. You told me you don't want to do it, so we need an office manager.
Speaker 2:So I listed the position on Indeed. I got a lot of interviews 15 of them. He wanted nothing to fucking do with it. So I was like, whatever, I'll do all the work, found someone really good. I think they wanted to make like 40 grant year, like nothing, huge for a fucking office manager. And nope, I ain't doing that. And I said, okay, well, what's your plan when I'm going on for these four weeks, like what's your plan? Well, I'll just have your mom do it all. And I'm like, really, I was like, okay, send her over. So I start showing her some of the base level tasks.
Speaker 2:Funny enough, same shit happens. I don't dear, this is too much. I haven't experienced an office manager. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here. I'm like no shit. This is why I'm trying to hire somebody. So then they're like you know, hey, well, we're only willing to pay someone 12 bucks an hour. I'm like $12 an hour for fucking someone that's an office manager, that's someone that works at McDonald's. You're fucking crazy. I said I got someone, great, I'm ready to hire her. I've already went through all the fucking candidates and I said we're either doing this or there's gonna be a problem. And they said, yeah, we're not fucking doing this.
Speaker 2:And that's where it came to that point of like, all right, I went into business with my dad, which a lot of people do. Is we wanna help our families? Right, I wanted to help my dad retire. He's been in the construction business working his ass off his whole life and he able to plan his retirement right. So I said I'm gonna bring him into the business, not cause I need him, I didn't need him. I could run this by myself. I don't you know I have been since we stopped.
Speaker 2:I did this to help him retire and what I realized is I was putting my father before us, putting my own family, my wife and my kids. And I think everyone thinks you can always make everybody happy. Well, you fucking can't. The day you realize you can't make everyone happy, the day you fucking start becoming yourself and you start becoming a lot happier, so I'm putting my dad first. That's fucking wrong. And I started putting my wife and my kids first and I said, well, I'm not doing this to my wife and this is to be done, and if that's not the case, then I'm done. And that's when I called them up and I do a meet me at the office and it hurt ways.
Speaker 2:How hard was that? That was definitely a very difficult time. That was back then. We had very small office and a square box of an office and you know we sat down and expecting it, cause I've always fought for it time and time again and it's definitely a hard emotional thing for him, cause I've always been there for them, no matter what.
Speaker 2:But I had dealt with the pain of what my wife and kids had to deal with for so many years that I knew what I was doing, you know, was meant to happen. So, even though he was in pain and it was a difficult situation for him, I knew it was going to be better for him in the long run because guess what? He could go start his own company and run it exactly like he wanted to, with no and wraps dry, cash only. And you know, he didn't even need me right. So like running the business that I wanted to run and he was. So we were fighting each other constantly. So it's just like the second someone had the balls to like say no, this is not working, like that can. Then I let him succeed in what he wanted and I could succeed in what I wanted. So everyone looked at this like, oh, that happened, your dad, that's terrible. Oh, my goodness, that's the worst thing. No, it wasn't. It was fucking better for both of us.
Speaker 1:Probably less stress.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're both happier.
Speaker 1:Right, yes, yeah, so I started over a 2019. Now did your brother? He decided to do what you're really used to, cause I think you mentioned your brother and cousin. I think you got him, yeah, or maybe I was speaking to the conversation.
Speaker 2:So my brother um has an opportunity because he's a, because he worked under me and my dad and he always kind of felt like, uh, the other wanted to kind of have some ownership, you know. And um, he uh started with my dad, uh, and that split happened. He saw the opportunity to become management right, he wanted to be an owner, right, people think they want to be an owner until they become an owner, right, owner, wear the special shirt Like that'll get ready. So, um, that will, uh, my cousin who, uh, you know, really do an installs for us. The second that I was out of the business, he fucking quit and ran for the hills. Because my dad's that old school contractor that when something goes wrong, he's throwing fucking hammers, he's punching holes through walls, he's saying get the fuck over here and fix this. And my cousin couldn't deal with that without me as a buffer, like I was the buffer where I could speak to you like an adult, like a human being, and explain to you what I'm looking for out of this situation. And my dad's not like that. So my cousin, the second I was gone, he puts in his notice and he quits. Funny enough, my dad and brother are still doing it. Today he's got his own HVAC business here at local.
Speaker 2:The thing with the white trucks, right, like small jobs. They do everything themselves. They have no employees. But my dad's, you know, 70 years old, working in 150 dereatics, you know, working outside. My brother hates being an owner, like he doesn't want to do it. He's getting his degree in security, so like they're just living through the motions, man, there's no planning, there's no thought behind this and a vent catches up with you. You know I don't believe in working hard, I believe in working smart. Working hard is amazing. I love people that do that. But if you just work yourself to death, what's the fucking point?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they look at Steve Jobs. I mean, he's a perfect example, right? He was, you know, died early of cancer and you know, I think one of the last things he says, he just wished he would have done things differently. I don't remember specifically what he said, but essentially that's what it was, yep.
Speaker 1:So I'm on up a lot of times in that same spot where you just grind to make money and, at the end of the day, like you miss vacations, you miss all kinds of shit for the sake of the business, right, yep? And you know, up to the point where I don't know you know I'm not again up to the point where I've regretted a lot of that, but I know that it. I know that if I keep doing the things that I, you know, if I keep doing that, eventually that's what's gonna happen, you know, and is it really worth that? I mean, I don't know, I'm not there yet, but, like, based on most people have gotten there, it's not worth it, right? So you started over 2019 and then, so where are you? You know, basically, damn, probably almost negative, because you had to pay out money and didn't you have to take out a loan and all that shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we'd go so we didn't really have anything of a business, right, we had no maintenance plans was $300 grand. You know that year our business not looking on the books right, you know how this in your small business and you try to make your financial report look like you did negative so that you don't have to pay taxes, but when your company's not worth shit, it's like right promise I got $500 grand in cash.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not on the profit and loss sheet. Well it's there. It's like no, it's that. So the business wasn't worth anything.
Speaker 2:Cool vehicles we had $10,000 in permit debt because my dad didn't wanna fucking close permits because he hated the government, so lost all the employees. I had $10,000 in permit debt and the one new vehicle we had we had one high-taught Nissan. I gave it to him because I said it was my dad and I wanted to help him out, so I gave him that vehicle. I was left with some shitty like 2,001 van with like 300,000 miles on it, 10,000 in permit debt and no employees. So I restarted it truly, if not from scratch, lower than scratch, because I had, like I said, that permit debt.
Speaker 2:And it's funny, that office manager that I had interviewed that I liked. After we went through all the bullshit and we closed everything out, we signed all the papers, I hired her and I didn't know if she was gonna come back because she knew what was going on when I was trying to interview and all that. But she's still here with me to this day, for five years. She's still here. She'd been here for five years. She was my first employee from when I restructured everything and it's funny, she tells that story too to a lot of our employees here, so it's like a redemption story there, but yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, so 2023,. You didn't have shit in 2019. Where are you at today?
Speaker 2:So today we've got about, I think, 25 employees and we are budgeted to do $6.5 million in revenue. Our profit is trending and that profit around 10% Because we're working on growth. Right. We've been doubling every year. That's keeping profitability with growth. Right, when you're growing your company, profitability gets affected, right? You put a little bit more into branding. So we've been HVAC-only residential since then.
Speaker 2:I've been watching the trends of how much it helps to be a multi-trade company. So I just got my, took my trade tests and plumbing and I'm getting my plumbers contractures license. So that's going through. I should have that in the next couple of weeks. So we've already done the rebranding for climate experts, air plumbing and I'm going to be getting electric as well.
Speaker 2:And we actually just got into three Home Depot stores, which I know there's a love-hate relationship for some people with Home Depot, but they're not going to be the majority of our business, but it's just a strategy to keep moving forward with the way that the economy is going. So I don't buy into the news and all the bullshit and I don't let them, I don't let any of that information affect my fucking day. Right, like I'm going to make my own opportunities, whatever the fuck, the conditions are out there. I'm going to work with them whatever, with whatever they are, with how everything's been trending, with people spending money, and I've just been like, all right, that's just strategy I need to figure out. So boom, home Depot. So okay, we need to get more doors and stand more doors. Plumbing Boom. We've been doubling our growth since 2019 in revenue and profitability and employees. We still continue to plan on doing that, no matter what the fucking economy does.
Speaker 1:All right, I do what you dive into Doing this with Home Depot. Really, it's eyeballs right. It's almost a marketing experience, Exactly what it is.
Speaker 2:You nailed it yeah.
Speaker 1:But see that makes complete sense to me.
Speaker 2:We're using their marketing dollars for us. Right, that's all we're doing because they spend so much on marketing. Right, they're on national TV. Everyone's spending money on billboards and all these things. Yeah, that's a good investment you might get a return on your investment. But I'd rather do it through Home Depot. Let them do all the marketing and I'm going to get the customers from that and sure, home Depot takes a percentage off of all your deals. But mark your fucking price up. Sustainable customer. Mark your price up, and that's.
Speaker 2:I think what happens with a lot of business owners is we kind of get, and then we're in the United States of America, everyone's do it yourself, fix yourself entrepreneurship. It's hard for Americans. Kind of like co-op type shit. Right, we're like fuck you, we're going to beat you. Right, we're competitive. We're like you can beat everybody, right.
Speaker 2:So that's something that I had to learn. Relationships are really important. No one, the right people is huge. As I started learning that, as I started growing, I'm like you know what I need to learn to utilize these resources to my advantage. So Home Depot is a resource. I need to use this to my advantage, and I truly did learn that through NextStar, being a part of that group of contractors.
Speaker 2:There's a thousand HVAC, plumbing, electrical contractors. It's an amazing group. I go to these big events with them. I meet hundreds of contractors and you know what. They're all willing to give you free fucking information. And I visited shops Like I visited a sky, heating and plumbing and Oregon Travis is the owner there and they're like a $25 million shop and I mean he'd show me his whole organization. I ran with his people and I learned so much from that. I visited shops in Orlando, coral Springs. The whole reason I got into the Home Depots is for a contractor, greg, that owns our plumbing in Coral Springs and he was a Home Depot contractor and he just gave me the right person's name and I worked my way into that Home Depot for the past year and a half. And it's about relationships, man, and I think that's what a lot of contractors you know, or business owners. I feel like they fail because they just try to do it themselves and compete and it's like dude, no, learn to make a relationship, I'll refer shit to other HVAC contractors and they'll refer shit.
Speaker 2:To me. It's weird and my employees are like what? We're going to refer commercial work to them and they're going to refer as residential? Shouldn't we just try to start a commercial division? No, I don't fucking want to be a commercial.
Speaker 1:I don't want to Strategic partnerships. Look, nobody builds anything by themselves. You don't see anybody that's done anything in life. You don't see King Goodrich saying oh yeah, I'm the only one that built this business, right? That's just not how it works. You have to have partnerships, you have to have strategic partnerships. It's just like you know.
Speaker 1:I've just partnered up with a guy that does. He's arguably the number one guy in was in Australia that does drains, right, I don't know that much about drains, but I think it's really interesting that he knows everything about drains and anyway, it just makes sense. It just makes sense, period. Anyhow, yeah, dude, if people could open their minds and I'll tell you, you know, even if somebody were to come to visit your shop, first off, it depends how that conversation went. But secondly, most people aren't going to do a damn thing with that information whenever they leave. It's like these events people go to, they take a bunch of notes, they're all in and they don't do jack shit with it, right? So that's why people don't mind giving you the information, because most likely you're not going to do shit with it anyway. You just happen to be one of those 5% that did.
Speaker 2:You're 100% right. Yeah, that's exactly what happens. You know, I've been to a lot of events too. I mean, I try to go over six year. You know just, and you know what. My goal at those events isn't to completely change my business or become these fucking people. My goal is just to take one fucking thing away.
Speaker 1:I just want to learn one thing.
Speaker 2:You know, if I can learn one thing, and then I can prove one thing, one thing and like actually keep that going, like you said, like long term, then I feel like that I wonder I'm not trying to become their businesses because it's fake. And you said one side of it where they don't do shit. They're like they're writing down the notes. They're like, yeah, we're going to do all this shit. They come in, one bad thing happens. They're like, well, fuck it, I forgot it all. And that's one trajectory. Another one is that they try to copy what another company does to a T where they try to be that exact other company and you're not even that. You're not that stuff.
Speaker 2:And I think that's really important with companies. I'd say one of the most important things that I learned is you got to know who you are as a person and as a company, because if you don't know what your morals are, you're going to do some fucked up shit. You're going to do the type of shit that you see out there in the world and you're like how did this person do this fucking thing? Because they don't know who the fuck they are really. And you got to know what your core principles are, what your core values are, what your guiding principles are, what your mission statement is and your vision.
Speaker 2:Who are you? What does the employee of climate experts? Who are they? Who should they be? What trade should they have? What's the mission of what we are trying to accomplish here? And where the fuck are we going? If you don't know that stuff, if you don't have that stuff written down, if all of your employees don't know what it is, then you're going to have people that are cowboys doing their own fucking thing and then, when you just try to change them up, make a bunch of changes and become somebody else, it's fake. You're going to feel fake as shit.
Speaker 1:That's right. It's like when people say well, I've heard this countless times. Well, how did you come up with your pricing? Well, so and so down the street is charging this, and I'm like do you know how much money they started with? You have any freaking idea, anything about them other than that's what they're charging? You don't know their processes, you don't know shit, but yet you're basing your pricing on their pricing. You can't wonder why you're failing. That's why you're failing. Yeah, you nailed that it's a context.
Speaker 2:You nailed it. I mean you don't know what their overhead is. They might not pay benefits. It's like pricing is a strategic calculation you do based on your overhead, right? You based on your overhead, you based it on what your margins are going to be, on your gross margins. You know when you figure out what your gross is going to be, what your marketing, that's based on your stats. If you price based on somebody else and they've got a completely different business and expenses, you'll go out of business even with the same prices.
Speaker 1:Then yeah, 100%. Just think about this. There are manufacturers that give special rebates to certain people and, depending on how much you buy, or whatever the case may be, that one thing could determine whether that one thing could be the difference in your price and their price, and that could sink you, that one little thing. It's insane to me. People don't know any better. I don't think people are stupid. They just don't know. They just don't know what they don't know, and there's a lot of people that never get it.
Speaker 2:Well, that's where the best practices groups come into play and, like I said, I mean there's different ones out there, but that's why I like Nextstar, because you know, nextstar is a member owned organization, so there's no one making a killing off this, right. The money stays with Nextstar. So there's no CEO that makes a ton of money off of Nextstar, right, they're all elected officials that are running Nextstar. So what I like it's a system built for contractors where you can figure out your pricing with their little calculation tool and you can actually have it be accurate, right? You could do a business planning workshop for the whole year and you know exactly how many leads you need. You know exactly how much you need to spend on marketing. You know exactly how many calls you need, right. What is your conversion rate need to be Like it's a pre-built fucking system, right, like. You can either try to learn this the hard way and fucking just like, do it with paper and pen, right, or you can kind of look for resources that already exist and just start utilizing them right away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I yeah, and I'm sure a lot of contractors. I'm not paying a fucking organization to tell me how to run my business, Like I'm not giving them a bunch of money so they can get rich and fat I don't pay shit.
Speaker 2:I don't pay a dollar. Let me tell you how. So they're dues. They're set up with strategic partners to where you get rebates back. So every dollar that I buy with Goodman, every dollar that I buy with Reem, every dollar that I buy with Service Titan, I get 5% back. I fucking make money being a Nextdoor member. I pay $0. I actually make money off of it because of the rebate program.
Speaker 2:So, like I hear people say well, I've heard Nextdoor, your first year, it's 30 grand for the year. If you buy enough equipment, you get enough rebates. It costs you nothing Like right, there's strategic partners. So I hate when people are just like well, I heard this, dude, do some investigation. Stop believing the news and everything you fucking hear. You're letting those people run your fucking life, dude. And I hear people I heard this. I heard Nextdoor this much money. Dude, explore it yourself, right. Pick up the phone and call them Right. Yeah, I heard Carrier, shady equipment. I heard this. Like, dude, every situation is different. The Carrier in fucking Minnesota could be terrible and the Carrier here in Florida. You have an fucking idea. Explore it on your own.
Speaker 1:Stop believing everything you hear, that's right, people are lazy, they just don't want to do it. They don't want to do the work, but that's when you pay the price. That's when you pay the price. Well, dude, this has been. I've really enjoyed this conversation, like I. I think your story is just tremendous and I think for people listening it's in so important because so many guys were where you were with your, you know, with your dad, and a lot of those guys don't ever get out for whatever reason, and so hopefully some younger people hear this and think twice about doing that, because most likely it's not going to turn out well.
Speaker 2:I would recommend to anybody that's in a family business that is considering leaving. Right, it's a unhealthy, toxic environment or there's some unhealthy control things happening. You know, I'd highly recommend to look at it like as if it's a regular job. Right, would you work for that boss that wasn't your dad? Right, would you work at that company If it wasn't a family company?
Speaker 2:Just take the family equation out of it, cause I've learned family isn't just blood. Right, some people that are friends are better family members than the actual blood. So recommend look at that business that you're in with that family member and tell yourself would I put myself in this situation any longer if this person wasn't family? And if the answer is no, figure out, just screw that other person over. It doesn't have to be the most negative thing in the world, but figure out a way to get out of that and there's a way that both of you can win at the end. Right, it doesn't have to be like, hey, fuck them, I'm going to write them off because, like my station today much better than it was before, because I made the hard decision to and both of you are happy.
Speaker 1:Right? You're still both doing the same shit you were doing back then, except for it's just in two separate places.
Speaker 2:That's it. I'm the business that I want, he has the business that he wants. We don't have to talk about business when we see each other. Now they get to just enjoy the fucking kids. Right, we've learned. We just don't talk about it. Right, like, I'll refer some shit to him, he'll refer some shit to me, like we just we've learned that like it's both to Alpha to work fucking together and that's fine. Like, that's like how the manager that you just don't mesh with it's not doesn't have to be personal. Like it's because you guys are already family, right, like out of that fucking equation.
Speaker 1:That's right. Well, dude, we're going to keep on doing.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm not a big social media guy. Um, I I spoke, you know they could find me on Facebook. Um, uh, or I'd honestly recommend following our social media page Um climate experts. Um backslash climate experts. They see? Um, we put really good content on there. Um, that manages it. Um, if you ever want to, she kills it. On social media dude, most social media companies are putting like pictures of puppies and fucking like bullshit. Like her shit's good, it's real photos. Um, it's a great 10. I think she does a really good job. So you know, if you're ever curious to check in somebody else you know out on social media. On HVAC um experts, ac.
Speaker 1:On Facebook All right and then website real quick. I guess climate experts that's climate experts, accom, climate experts, our website.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm not really super big on social media but, um, if anyone ever wants to reach out to me, like I said, um or he helps help with the contact, like I said, I don't like to put myself out there too much Um, joining a next member and, um, you know, collaborate on some ideas, you know, but I'm always willing to mentor a business that needs help. So, I mean, if you're through it and you need some ideas and need some help, you know, like I said, uh, you know you can reach out to Corey and I'm sure he can message me and I'll give you my cell phone number and I don't mind having a chat.
Speaker 1:Awesome Dude. I appreciate that. It was great Me and I, like you know I don't just say this like I really thoroughly enjoyed conversation. But you know, I don't know what. You never know what you're going to get whenever I bring people on, that I don't fucking know. You just never know. So I do yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're like.
Speaker 2:Hey, who said a fucking problem? People are probably going going off the rails right, like you're probably. They're probably going for topic up here, you know yeah, and you're on the fucking they're.
Speaker 1:they're doing it when they're fucking sale phone and they're in their warehouse and like God damn dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, I I. I've watched some of your podcast stuff. I think you do a great job but um, but no what you're doing is um I've seen some of your posts where you know you're being vulnerable um, the strengths it's, it's more meaningful, right? You're going to get more real interactions through that because you're going to build relationships and you don't have to be so salesy if you know people just go with you typically because they like you and they know you. So I think what you're doing is good.
Speaker 1:I'm just figuring out who that person is. Yeah, you know, I mean I I've. I haven't had a drink in almost 10 years, uh, but I just stopped smoking weed in November not November, I was a lie March. Um, I'll be a November, but you know it, just you know, and I have no problem with people smoking weed and I really didn't think it was an issue for me. But spiritually you just disconnected me and so I'm really just figuring out, like you know, I really don't have to fucking be anybody but me. Yup.
Speaker 2:It's a weird thing.
Speaker 1:You know, it's really, really and I think it's interesting that you mentioned that a guy reached out to me. Um company actually did you? Did we interact with HVAC masters of the hustle? Is that where you saw this?
Speaker 2:No, it was. Uh, it was the profit rocket group.
Speaker 1:Victor's group. Okay, well, you know Jason, though right, or you know okay.
Speaker 2:So he just started an HVAC company in.
Speaker 1:California Right, did you know that? No, which one did he start? Well, he started. Let me back up. So he and him. And uh, do you know how he is? Or? Uh, well, long you probably do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know well than long yeah. Okay, so yeah yeah, ball guy's been in industry for a while. It's good sales, that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. And so he, he said, partnered up with a guy in California and and and joined his organization and their uh three partners. Now, well, that guy, you know, I don't fucking pay attention sometimes.
Speaker 1:I mean, I knew that they did that, but I didn't pay attention to the company, I didn't. So this guy out on here, he had made a comment actually DM me about that, that very you're talking about and I said, well, we scheduled a call. I had no idea who he was, but I'm open to talk to whoever and he said, well, you probably recognize the logo and I'm like I don't really. He was like, well, jason Walker and he I and just partnered up that I brought them into my company, that it was just fascinating. And I've built such a good relationship with this guy. He was like I. He was like I want, I've been wanting to find somebody to do something with that like for me, and like to talk about the shit you talked about in your post, because most people don't talk about that, and so I'm going to start a podcast with the damn guy. I think that's a good idea. I think so too. I think so too.
Speaker 2:I think it's definitely needed. Um, basically, contractors, dude, those are the fucking toughest guys out there and like the hardest fucking shells.
Speaker 1:So if you can talk about that shit, yeah, Well, I mean, you know I don't people you've told this story to you may have told parts of it. I don't know. Have you gone into this much detail with people? Um, yeah, so you're holding me thing back. It's just, you know, just don't everybody want everybody to know the fucking business. But when you're in an environment like this it's a little bit easier, I think, to have that conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, I think this is definitely a nicer environment to, because it doesn't feel like you know, I'm going to judge you. You know, I think you, I think, set up the questions well too. You know, like you know, I think um sometimes podcasts the person that's presenting will talk too much about your story, which is going to alter what the person that you're interviewing is going to say or how they're going to feel. So I think you did a good job at um, given some insight on like your perspective, but not going crazy into it, because I think that's another reason why people might not share stuff because they're getting engaged, that you might judge them so much about you and then they're like all right, maybe I'm not going to share this part of it. So that's probably part of why you know I was able to tell a decent amount of the story to you.
Speaker 1:Good, that means I did my job. Well, my man, I know we. I don't even know what time it is. Jesus, I appreciate you speaking. It's just knocking this thing out, Um, but when it comes out and I only have one ask if you go on and do a review on my, on Apple or whatever the fuck you listen to that's beneficial.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll do it for sure. Yeah, no, I definitely. I'll have a couple of people leave some reviews on there. Dude, that'd be great. I'll try to get you like five or 10. Dude, that'd be great. Yes, sir, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate it as well. If you need anything, hey, whenever you start your drain stuff, reach out to me, because that guy was telling you about. He like he brought next to our short cutting things. This could do a shortcut for you in a heartbeat and, like most don't do well with drain Uh, they just don't make a lot of money. In fact most of them don't make money at it. But he's got a process that any you know like. Anyhow, it'd be worth you having a conversation with him. Appreciate it. You got to do. All right, do you need anything? Just reach out. All right, brother.
Speaker 2:Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1:Thanks there, thanks.
