From the Toolbelt to the Boardroom: How Keith Flores Built, Scaled, and Exited His Way to Wealth in the Trades

Keith Flores didn't climb a corporate ladder. He built his own from the ground up, starting with real tools in his hands and turning decades of blue-collar experience into a blueprint for business success that most people only dream about. With 30+ years in the trades and a track record of building, scaling, and exiting HVAC businesses at a high level, Keith brings the kind of insight you can't get from a textbook or a business school classroom.

In this episode, Mandeep sits down with Keith to unpack what it actually takes to go from technician to entrepreneur, and from entrepreneur to someone who builds companies worth buying. They get into the wealth-building conversation the trades industry doesn't have enough, why so many talented tradespeople stay stuck despite having everything it takes, and what separates the owners who build real value from the ones who just stay busy.

Keith doesn't hold back on the systems, the mindset shifts, the hard lessons, and the moments that changed everything for him financially and professionally. Whether you're just starting out or you've been running your shop for years and feel like something's missing, this conversation will hit different.

They also dig into where HVAC and home services are heading with technology and AI on the rise, and what business owners need to be doing right now to stay ahead without getting overwhelmed.

This episode is brought to you by Broccoli AI, helping trades businesses harness the power of artificial intelligence to work smarter and grow faster, and Grow Reviews, the reputation management tool built to help home service companies win more customers through the power of real reviews. We're grateful for their continued support of the Born For The Trades community.

If you've ever wondered what it looks like to build something in the trades that actually creates lasting wealth, this is the episode you've been waiting for.

Transcript

00;00;11;17 - 00;00;41;19
Speaker 1
Welcome to born for the Tree, the home service podcast. And today I'm your host, Mandy Burleigh. Today we have someone who didn't take the corporate road to success. He built it with his hands, his grit. And over 30 years in the trades as CEO and the mind behind God, Keith Flores has gone from blue collar beginnings to building, scaling and exiting businesses at high level.

00;00;41;21 - 00;00;54;28
Speaker 1
He's kind of guy who knows what it actually takes to create real world in the trades. And today he's bringing all of that knowledge here. So Keith, welcome to our show.

00;00;55;00 - 00;00;59;11
Speaker 2
Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it. I'm excited to be on here.

00;00;59;13 - 00;01;05;15
Speaker 1
Awesome, awesome. It's my pleasure. And I when I met you at at the event, I think it was epic event right.

00;01;05;18 - 00;01;14;06
Speaker 2
At F8 or H.R. I mean, I, I see everybody all the time at all of them. So, you know, you know.

00;01;14;09 - 00;01;33;16
Speaker 1
Yeah, it was it was nice, like, you know, seeing you at the event, it could be like epic or HR, but, amazing to connect. I've been following you on social media for such a long time. Like this podcast. Like, you know, a lot of, like, you know, home service owners, they are listening to this podcast. So let's actually, share your story.

00;01;33;16 - 00;01;43;13
Speaker 1
So take us back to the beginning. What did your early days in the trades look like? And what did you realize? This could be something much bigger.

00;01;43;15 - 00;02;04;15
Speaker 2
The early days or the early days where I was 12 years old and my brother in law, ran my dad, no uncle's company. And, he's still outside jobs because he didn't get paid much from what my uncle and my dad. And, he literally asked me to go and do a side job with them. I rode my bike over.

00;02;04;17 - 00;02;24;17
Speaker 2
We went over to this house, and he showed me, hey, go underneath this house for about on the ductwork. And, you know, I got it all done. And he comes over, shows me how to work back up, and I go back and do the next day, he goes, hey, we're wrapped up. So tomorrow, ride your bike over and I'll pay you.

00;02;24;19 - 00;02;44;03
Speaker 2
Yeah, he's a refrigerator and there's stacks of cash inside of his freezer, and he just pulls out 200 bucks and goes, here you go, kid. And after that, I was hooked. I was like, anytime, anywhere. Like, you ever need me, I'm there for you. And, that got me hooked. Like, I have 200 bucks, you know, two year old kid on a bike.

00;02;44;05 - 00;03;07;19
Speaker 2
Yeah, endless. From there, I just, you know, I still went to school and did all my stuff, play sports and stuff. But any time I had, like, a side job or if I was there for, you know, worked with them, and, I fell in love with the trades. I stayed with the family business for a little while and then got, you know, unfortunately, we had even now it's this day we let people down, you know, recruit.

00;03;07;21 - 00;03;26;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. And, they give me a signing bonuses. And, so I had a guy gentleman pick me up on a job one day and said, dude, you're a clean cut young kid. You know what you're doing. All right? You come install for me and, whatever. And he goes, no, I, I'll, I'll pay you, you know, a couple hundred grand a year.

00;03;26;24 - 00;03;28;12
Speaker 2
And I was like.

00;03;28;14 - 00;03;28;28
Speaker 1
They.

00;03;29;00 - 00;03;47;19
Speaker 2
Give you. I'll give you 20 grand signing on. Bonus. I'm 19, 20 years old, you know, I'm like, wow. I go back and I tell my dad and my brother a little, my uncle there, all I do. Are you kidding me? That snake oil. Don't don't fall for it. I said, well, I gotta you know, I want to give it a shot.

00;03;47;19 - 00;04;10;23
Speaker 2
I left and yeah, when I bought my first house right there in there, that was $20,000. My down payment on the house back then. So, it was so then from there, you know, I stayed with him for a long time, and he was a good mentor. Taught me a lot. Became number one of the nation. We were part of, was an air time back then.

00;04;10;26 - 00;04;32;18
Speaker 2
Number one in the nation for installations and then sales on installations. And then one day, we were slow. They asked me to, you know, to just go home for the day. And I said, no, no, no, no. Okay. So and so I ended up, going out, run a couple service calls for the first service call I go to, I end up selling a new system, and I didn't know how to sell.

00;04;32;18 - 00;04;47;24
Speaker 2
So I just call the guy up on the phone and said, hey, you know what was direct connect? I don't know if you remember this, but it was two way radio. Listen, I called him up and I said, hey, I got a client here that's interested in the new system. I don't have the price. What can we do?

00;04;47;26 - 00;05;05;20
Speaker 2
And we just started planning to come back up and not even knowing I was doing it. Yeah. You know, and I'm sitting there telling him I can get a probably better deal than that. I don't worry, don't worry, because I'm going to lock myself today and, I call it got back to the direct connect there hearing everything and, sold a job.

00;05;05;20 - 00;05;28;24
Speaker 2
I I'll never forget. I remember exactly where the house is to this day and, you know, doubled it. So, you know, they delivered the equipment out and, installed it, sold it, install it myself in the same day. And I have that right there. Just show, because that was, you know, commission, and piecework. So I was just like, wow, this is this is amazing.

00;05;28;24 - 00;05;47;25
Speaker 2
What about me doing? And, they kept me on for a little while doing that back and forth a little bit here and there, mainly me as a leader. But I kept on just like go wanting to do more. And, at one point, he just said, dude, you got to go into service because you're selling too much.

00;05;47;27 - 00;06;06;22
Speaker 2
And, that moved me from that to you know, kind of just like a lead supervisor. And we started doing teaching guys how to, you know, set up the call so I can just run a turnover. And, that's back in, you know, late 90s.

00;06;06;25 - 00;06;07;27
Speaker 1
Late 90s.

00;06;07;29 - 00;06;27;11
Speaker 2
Oh, wow. Yeah, we started teaching each other, you know? Hey, look, you be this guy, and I'll be that guy, and you go out there, you just. I mean, we are service technicians. We didn't know we were doing some sales process. We just were doing well. We were creating was like urgency. Like, hey, you want a second opinion?

00;06;27;13 - 00;06;49;20
Speaker 2
Let me get my fill supervisor out and then that and then it would be a fools Risers out there. Yeah. He's right. You should probably replace. It's probably not the right thing to do. Let me call my boss. So because I don't have pricing and get on direct connect and do everything role play over the phone back then, you know, it was it was just a different time.

00;06;49;20 - 00;07;11;16
Speaker 2
And we I really enjoyed it, I loved it, and within a couple years I was like, I it's time for me to go on my own. And, a lot of people got that know me know story about the Hvac God. Because during that time, me and Ken Starr were working together. I don't know if you know who that is, but you can you can start.

00;07;11;18 - 00;07;32;18
Speaker 2
Yeah. He used to own, down here at home on comfort. He, he sold on private equity recently. But back then we were just two young, dumb kids. And we literally walk across the parking lot. One day, I see he's got God, Jesus on the back of his van service man. I said, yeah, jeez. God. And then we just got to laugh about it.

00;07;32;18 - 00;07;58;04
Speaker 2
And then he bought me the God license plate. He got license plate. And after that, it's just kind of that God thing. But why I bring that up is because you know, being and became good friends throughout that time. And we decided to start a company together, way back when I was probably 25, 26. And, that lasted about four months, 4 or 5.

00;07;58;08 - 00;08;00;05
Speaker 1
Months, four months, basically.

00;08;00;07 - 00;08;20;00
Speaker 2
Yeah. We, neither one of us knew what we're doing. We knew how to sell. We knew how to install. We knew how to service. We had we went out and we got a little shop, but we just butted heads like he wanted full access on the account. So I wanted to get access to the kind of. So we started butt heads and we just we had jobs sold and, you know, couldn't get installs because I couldn't find out where he was.

00;08;20;00 - 00;08;46;02
Speaker 2
And he was doing his own thing, and I just, It's all right. I'm done. I'm going to start the buying stuff by myself. So I went out and bought, you know, ten trucks before I had, license, you know, security. Well, yeah. So I went out and about ten trucks, secured a building, hired staff, brought on service technicians, dispatchers, everything full blown.

00;08;46;05 - 00;08;53;29
Speaker 2
Got in my list because I knew I was going to blow through, get my license. No problem. Nobody told me I had to wait 6 to 8 weeks to get your license in the mail.

00;08;54;01 - 00;08;56;00
Speaker 1
6 to 8 weeks? Yeah.

00;08;56;02 - 00;09;19;27
Speaker 2
So now I have 6 to 8 weeks with. We have clients waiting for us. We have technicians. I had to take a second out of my house because now I got staff. I got to pay these guys. Just wait. Every day. We're waiting for a license. We're waiting for, like, finally and took off and, that, you know, catapults me because we went from 0 to 4 million in a year and we just kept growing.

00;09;19;27 - 00;09;31;09
Speaker 2
And I'm like, this group one machine, they, you know, kind of was really big and wanted that area. And Bobby for, I didn't know anything.

00;09;31;09 - 00;09;34;25
Speaker 1
I was that was, that was that California market?

00;09;34;28 - 00;09;52;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. California market. Bobby and I didn't even know what a PNL was at the time. You know, that's I don't know, I was, I moved up, I ended up going to work for that company that bought me and ran, you know, one of their locations for a while, enjoying it because those were my college years. Right.

00;09;53;00 - 00;10;23;17
Speaker 2
You know, I really excelled during that time and built a good name for myself and started doing some coaching. And now I don't want to say coaching or guru type stuff, but I really started getting into it and, that moving to the next level of, you know, people. So you look at the for me. So I would get percentages of the business and then yeah, it was it was a good, good learning experience and then, you know, probably now it's been five years and six years.

00;10;23;17 - 00;10;46;16
Speaker 2
I grew up company with a good friend of mine. Really quickly we went from 600,000 when, I stepped into the role to about 15 million. Wow. Within two years. Had a good exit strategy. We were talk with private equity, and I brought him a great offer, and he was just like, dude, let's keep going, man. We anyway, why do you want to go?

00;10;46;19 - 00;11;07;28
Speaker 2
And I mean, because after all the work, you know, that's like, I don't know, interesting work. And so my wife, you know, said, just walk away if you're not happy, walked away. Well, I mean, we got money. We're we're good. And, so I walked away from it. And now that company, you know, within a year went out of business because he didn't pay attention what I was doing.

00;11;08;01 - 00;11;16;12
Speaker 2
Yeah. Didn't know how to do business. And then, I started AC HomeServices, and I'm giving you a fast actually give it as fast I.

00;11;16;12 - 00;11;21;05
Speaker 1
Know you have done. I know you have done a lot like that's impressive. But yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah.

00;11;21;05 - 00;11;47;08
Speaker 2
No worries. Yeah. So then I went to, you know, I had an idea of what I wanted to build for, technology. I wanted some capital to keep it flowing. So I started at HomeServices, in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach area in California, and, built a total basically fund the. So the project I'm doing right now and, you know.

00;11;47;10 - 00;12;15;18
Speaker 2
This is, a life changing for me. I like building AC HomeServices is awesome because, you know, we got about, of the time I had a team about 15, 16 employees. Okay. We do no advertising whatsoever. In five years, we haven't laid off one person. And so we've always kept all we always busy. I'm on, you know, PCH right here in Newport.

00;12;15;18 - 00;12;36;29
Speaker 2
Er Corona del Mar, we call it luxury alley right here. So we do the jobs that nobody wants to do or can figure out. And what that means is like, very high end. We do all space Pac. We do, some jobs, have 15, 16 systems on the houses. You know, we come into the projects that other guys have screwed up on these multi-million dollar.

00;12;37;00 - 00;12;45;11
Speaker 2
What I mean multi-million, I'm talking 30, $40 million homes that nobody can figure out. We come out there and figure it out.

00;12;45;13 - 00;12;46;11
Speaker 1
Amazing.

00;12;46;14 - 00;13;09;20
Speaker 2
And with that, you know, being said, we started I started letting my two older kids start, like, once work in the field and running the guys in the field once work in the office, you know, office stuff and try to build that that'll, you know, let them give a little bit of freedom, an understanding. Yeah, of how to do what we do right.

00;13;09;25 - 00;13;30;15
Speaker 2
Sometimes invites me on a but I know I let them do some of these bigger projects and I'm like, hey guys, we, we we gotta look at this, this, this. But, it's been it's been cool to have my kids involved. You know, I know I don't have the luxury of, you know, stepping back a little bit from that.

00;13;30;15 - 00;13;53;19
Speaker 2
I had all the back and stuff, but, and when we have big projects, I'm the one that has to go out there and talk to, you know, the homeowners and really, really close the deal. But, you know, it's gotta be to step back from that and really focus in on a home guardian. And Home Guardian is like, you know, I do some M&A for private equity.

00;13;53;21 - 00;14;07;18
Speaker 2
But at that's been, you know, 2 or 3 year at at most it's mainly, guarding home, guarding the Guardians. And then you know, stepping into that role has been mind blowing for me.

00;14;07;20 - 00;14;37;07
Speaker 1
That's amazing. That's what a what a journey. Right. Like, you know, starting like, you know, from scratch and like, you know, learning like, you know, you're partners, you both partners or like, you know, butthead and and, that's amazing. That's a very, very impressive, journey so far. You have successfully built and exited businesses, one to most trades business owners like get wrong when building a company that's actually worth something.

00;14;37;10 - 00;15;03;01
Speaker 2
What do they get wrong? Yes, most of the time that I see, everybody's really well nowadays. Everybody's focused on maintenance contracts, right? Right. I still I still feel that there is a big need for maintenance contracts. But I think, you know, it's more of a cookie jar that's for business owners. Go wrong is like, that's that's my cookie jar.

00;15;03;01 - 00;15;19;27
Speaker 2
It's my company. I can I can take from the cookie jar. And I don't need to worry about, you know, me running that 5% or 8% because, you know, those are add backs later on. Well, sometimes, you know, you guys will look at that and go, that's, you know, can that business for one run on its own?

00;15;19;29 - 00;15;59;26
Speaker 2
Yeah. When you there, and you're drawing these big salaries for yourself or for your, your wife included on there, and you got all these other people on there that don't even work for the company. You know, I. There's, I've seen so many wrong things lately that, you know, we chatted a little bit before and, you know, one of the things that I really suggest for people is to look at and pay attention to who you're talking with and listening to, all and gurus and the guys that are out there that build these, you know, 20, 40, 50, 100, 102 hundred and $300 million companies.

00;15;59;29 - 00;16;18;17
Speaker 2
And then all of a sudden they exited within, you know, 40 years. And they're now they're multimillionaires and they and this and they're like, you know, dig a little bit, find the guys that have been around for line. And I'm not saying me, I don't have time for you anymore, but there's guys out there. I just had lunch with Leland Smith the other day.

00;16;18;17 - 00;16;54;08
Speaker 2
And, you know, we talk we talk probably 2 or 3 times a month. We have launched these. What's up? And guys like that very informative. They you know, those are the real, you know, goats in the industry. I love like, Candy Rich. He's another guy that you know. Oh yeah. Alan Craig is another guy. You know, there's a lot of guys out there that are, you know, who been very successful, you know, and got to be they're still tinkering around and the and most of them, you know, can get rich or Leland Smith, if you reach out to them, they'll don't talk to you.

00;16;54;08 - 00;16;55;24
Speaker 2
They'll have conversation, you know.

00;16;55;24 - 00;17;13;26
Speaker 1
Yes, they talk to you. Because if I have something because I'm good friends with like, you know, can if I have something to ask, I can just drop him a message and guess what? He's going to reply. Maybe in two hours, three hours the next day. But he's going to reply. That's the best part that, you know, they want to actually help you.

00;17;13;28 - 00;17;19;05
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, there's there's a lot of guys, I don't know if you know who Alan Craig is. He's a good friend of mine.

00;17;19;05 - 00;17;26;17
Speaker 1
But yes, yes, I think I think he's from Florida, too. I think he just wanted to be.

00;17;26;19 - 00;17;30;01
Speaker 2
Yes. He sold, his company. I'm sort of also into private equity.

00;17;30;01 - 00;17;37;26
Speaker 1
Yes. Yes, exactly. That's electric. When you mentioned like, you know, bulls eye what's coming in my mind and I think he has sold it to P.

00;17;37;26 - 00;18;06;17
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. United, United. You know there. Yeah. Group. Yeah. Yeah. And then I held the, I held the private equity side on those on two deals. Not his deal, but another exit for that. You know, there to, Nice. But he's he's another guy, that very analytical guy he owns. Now, I think it's five heating and air conditioning companies across us just ran people.

00;18;06;19 - 00;18;14;29
Speaker 2
He looks for the ones that are, you know, in the $10 million range builds him up to 20. And if his goal is to flip those ones out. Right.

00;18;15;02 - 00;18;17;09
Speaker 1
He's numbers guy. Numbers guy.

00;18;17;12 - 00;18;35;11
Speaker 2
Yeah. When you start switching and you switch your mindset like me. I'm not always right. Like I was even these guys, you know, when they come in in the office here and they talk to me here, I always tell, you know, our service techs and installers. If if you guys have a better idea, better option than me.

00;18;35;11 - 00;18;55;09
Speaker 2
Right. So tell us, show us, and then we'll go with it. And that's what's I think that's propelled me to where I'm at now is I've always been willing to change with the times. A lot of guys get stuck in their own ways and think their ways. The only way. That's the that's that's the wrong way to look at the business.

00;18;55;13 - 00;18;55;23
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;18;55;23 - 00;19;17;07
Speaker 1
You got to reach out. You got to reach out. Like, you know, a lot of people out there. Tommy Melo I think, you know that. Lance Backman If you know Lance Backman a lot of like, you know, Ken Goodrich. Landon. Landon. Right. I think Ken Goodrich and Landon started together. So it's always like, you know, good to reach out and see how they have done it.

00;19;17;07 - 00;19;35;21
Speaker 1
Like, you know, how you know you can do it. And I wanted to ask you this, like, worldbuilding. Right. You're a master of that wealth. Building in the trades remains an underrated conversation. What's the mindset shift that changed everything for you financially?

00;19;35;23 - 00;20;04;25
Speaker 2
Oh, God. You're you're talking to me at the wrong time right now, brother. I got millions wrapped up in, hardware and software. I think I think the month where it shifted for me, it was understanding that blue collar is not some, you know, second rate business where, you know, in my back to when I was younger, my, my family didn't want they wanted me to go to college and also so I didn't want to go to school, I didn't want to do college.

00;20;04;27 - 00;20;26;26
Speaker 2
So now, you know, I think what shifted my mindset was I started seeing, you know, I was making by the time I was 22, that's been going over 280,000 a year. Like, who do what, what industry with no debt, like what industry can you say that about that it's not. And then to be successful in the industry, you just got to surround yourself with better people.

00;20;26;26 - 00;20;48;29
Speaker 2
Just keep leveling up, keep building yourself up. I saw myself a long time ago and started chasing those people that I want, I wanted to emulate, and I saw that they were doing better than me. Right? Getting out of your comfort zone. And I had people telling me all the time, I'll get on the phone with them. I give them, you know, an hour or two and have a great conversation with where they're at.

00;20;49;01 - 00;21;04;26
Speaker 2
This. A lot of them were startup guys that, you know, doing $1 million or stuck in $1 million for three years or whatever it is. And I was like, hey, what? Here's some little things that I can give you. Here's some feedback. And then, a lot of guys will all of a sudden, next thing I know, they're on a plane.

00;21;04;26 - 00;21;40;00
Speaker 2
They're sitting in my office going, hey, how was I? Good. And I'm like, yeah, killing me right now. But, it's it's amazing. And so my mindset really changed when I started making, you know, those six figure numbers and started like being able to be very, very aggressive, and showing others how to do it. And so what, like everybody, you know, well, if you're not doing it, everybody should be doing it is how to build a company with your entire.

00;21;40;03 - 00;22;01;25
Speaker 2
And I learned that years ago from another guy. You know, I take my entire team, put it on dry erase board and say, how much does it cost to run this business? And then we start off with, you know, what's rent, what's workman's comp, what's insurance, what's what's the cellphones, what's the uniforms, what's the. And we just, you know, like next thing you know, every one of them will tell you we should be out of business right now.

00;22;01;28 - 00;22;18;11
Speaker 2
Right. Like they call this major number that once we done, isn't it? And I always go, yes, you know, you know why our prices are our prices. This is why we do what we do. It's it's pretty amazing to me. But that makes a huge difference. Yeah. Absolutely.

00;22;18;11 - 00;22;27;08
Speaker 1
No, I love that. Love that. Did you have to unlearn any beliefs about money or success that, you know came from your background?

00;22;27;11 - 00;22;59;29
Speaker 2
Yeah, I had to unload, you know, your net. So I remember my guidance counselor. I was such a I was such a wild kid growing up. I mean, I was very aggressive. I was very one of those kids, you know, just my. I don't even know how to explain it, but my guidance counselor, Mr. B, told me, Keith, you're going to be working as a plumber or heating and or, you know, construction guy the rest of your life.

00;22;59;29 - 00;23;23;10
Speaker 2
You're not going to amount to nothing, like, literally. And I, you know, I took that with, you know, really made me mad and, well, until I sold my first company, I didn't realize why I was so aggressive with going full force and understanding that there was an opportunity here. And I started seeing some of these bigger guys.

00;23;23;10 - 00;23;46;19
Speaker 2
This is before, you know, social media. So I start beating some of these bigger players and stuff, and I'm going, man, these guys are doing really well for themselves. And it just kept on urging me to do better and step out of my comfort zone. There's times like I'll be in, you know, Manhattan with a group of private equity guys, and I'm the only one that's college educated.

00;23;46;22 - 00;23;49;18
Speaker 2
All these other guys, you know, other than Harvard and Harvard.

00;23;49;18 - 00;23;50;17
Speaker 1
Stanford.

00;23;50;20 - 00;23;58;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. And and I'm like, my wife always laughs because I always tell, man, I'm nervous about going. They're the ones that called you. There's a reason for it.

00;23;58;26 - 00;24;01;17
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. That's true.

00;24;01;20 - 00;24;31;17
Speaker 2
So I think like I talk at colleges, high schools, trade schools. I tell everybody, you know, we're not going anywhere. Blue collar. We're 20 years from even close to being real. Like, I had lunch one day, polar lucky. Who is? And Andrew, all he's does defense contracts. He's, like, created an Oculus. He's like this very, very wild guy.

00;24;31;20 - 00;24;51;24
Speaker 2
He has company. He just started another company and grow up probably six years ago and just got a valuation of like hundred billion dollars. The guy is like, on another level, he's like 32 years old. But they were just talking about like how far away? Like blue collar trades are here to stay. There's no they're in retrofit.

00;24;51;29 - 00;24;53;14
Speaker 2
It's not going anywhere.

00;24;53;16 - 00;25;17;26
Speaker 1
It's not. And I think the best part is this is like, you know, recession proof industry, Hvac, plumbing, electrical. You saw that. Like, you know, what happened like in Covid or any crisis, any recession or economy downturn like this is something like, you know, recession proof industry. It's always like amazing opportunity is always there to actually make money.

00;25;17;26 - 00;25;20;25
Speaker 1
And serve the community. Right? It's always there.

00;25;20;26 - 00;25;23;24
Speaker 2
It's it's recession proof and pandemic proof.

00;25;24;02 - 00;25;27;18
Speaker 1
That's what he has been Demic proof too.

00;25;27;20 - 00;25;28;12
Speaker 2
We got to go.

00;25;28;12 - 00;25;32;06
Speaker 1
We were all I would say or I would say or I would say, plandemic proof.

00;25;32;09 - 00;25;34;00
Speaker 2
There you go.

00;25;34;02 - 00;25;58;14
Speaker 1
Hey, real quick, if you're in the home service space and you care about getting more calls, more jobs, and actually growing this year, don't skip this. First up, broccoli. This one's a game changer. While you're out on a job asleep or just missed a call, Broccoli's AI voice agents are answering your phones 24/7, cooking jobs, following up on estimates, and even dispatching techs in real time.

00;25;58;14 - 00;26;21;20
Speaker 1
No more misleads. No more will call you back. It plugs right into tools like service. Tie them and you can even match the AI voice to your brand. It's basically a full time receptionist team without the overhead. Check them out@broccoli.com. Next, grow nearby. This is where things separate because getting leads is one thing, but becoming the company everyone remembers, that's a different level.

00;26;21;20 - 00;26;47;01
Speaker 1
Grow nearby helps home service businesses dominate their local market with high end content, paid ads and real strategy behind it. Not random posting, not guesswork. A system built to consistently bring in qualified leads while building a brand that actually stands out. If you're tired of blending in and ready to become the go to name in your area, go to grow nearby.com and take a look and of course grow reviews because you can be the best.

00;26;47;01 - 00;27;10;00
Speaker 1
But if nobody sees it, it doesn't matter. Grow reviews helps you collect real video testimonials from happy customers, the kind that instantly build trust and close deals before you even show up. They make it ridiculously easy to capture and showcase those real customer moments that sell for you. If you want more trust, more credibility, and more boom jobs, head to grow reviews.com.

00;27;10;01 - 00;27;12;14
Speaker 1
All right, now let's get back into it.

00;27;12;17 - 00;27;39;07
Speaker 2
And you know what. Like one thing I'm noticing right now a lot of guys are backing off the throttle. A lot of of the local guys around me right here. I know across country people are going, hey, you know, it's slow too. You know, I made the announcement 35%. They're down. You know, everybody's like, oh, we're when those guys start stepping off the gas, that's when the big boys start playing ball and they go faster, harder.

00;27;39;10 - 00;27;59;25
Speaker 2
You know, because that's when the big boys start to overtaking markets and the little guys start losing their market. I yeah, I, the company that I used to be a part of that we were massive, you know, that's what we grew the most. We went from, oh God, I don't even know like 600, 600 million to 1 billion.

00;27;59;27 - 00;28;03;14
Speaker 2
Like. All right. And it was, 600 million.

00;28;03;14 - 00;28;04;17
Speaker 1
2 billion.

00;28;04;20 - 00;28;31;20
Speaker 2
Yeah. And it was because everybody was, you know, it's 2008, 2009 crash. I was there, the market crash, you know, and everybody is, oh, I'm not I can't do this anymore. You know, we can't market, we can't advertise. And these guys are throwing millions around for advertising. Millions around from and just dominating. That's what I mean. Truthfully, I think that's when Tim Goodrich really saw the difference for him.

00;28;31;22 - 00;28;54;12
Speaker 2
You know. Yes. Yes. Heating and air and he at sunset and get get. Well this is pre ghetto pretty good. This. Yeah. This is yes sunset and one of the branch the areas of Las Vegas. And he had these three companies and he went full throttle and he dominated. And then he picked up ghetto. And you see ghetto where it's

00;28;54;14 - 00;28;55;20
Speaker 1
Oh yeah. It's amazing right.

00;28;55;20 - 00;29;04;21
Speaker 2
Now. Yeah. Now he's got what is it, Ken, Jen or Jen? Can I give him crap about the name all to them? But, they get the generator, the generator.

00;29;04;23 - 00;29;08;09
Speaker 1
The generator you like? Yeah. Not right now. He is into generator, like.

00;29;08;13 - 00;29;13;20
Speaker 2
Yeah. It's almost. It should have been. Kengen. He's like, oh, man, I missed out on that analogy.

00;29;13;20 - 00;29;32;03
Speaker 1
Good. Yeah. Accelerator. Like, you know, I think I was at the event, not the, the one that we met, I think the prior to one. And he wanted, like, you know, my advice on the videos that, you know, they came out with, like, you know, very fancy commercials. So, yeah, I gave my feedback and I think they revised it.

00;29;32;05 - 00;29;56;07
Speaker 1
So, yeah, Kendra is a brand. I love that. Like, you know what he's doing. He has definitely impacted the home service industry. And Tommy Melo actually learned you know Tommy right. So I learned from Ken. Like Ken was just like you know I would say mentor. So yeah good good stuff. So you have mentored many people in the blue collar space.

00;29;56;10 - 00;30;03;18
Speaker 1
What's the most common thing holding talented tradespeople back from real success?

00;30;03;20 - 00;30;11;05
Speaker 2
It's easy. They're easy for it. The guys are too. Three. They're all. Everybody's always waiting for the right time. There's no, there's no.

00;30;11;09 - 00;30;12;24
Speaker 1
And there is no right time. Right.

00;30;12;26 - 00;30;37;01
Speaker 2
There's there's literally never been a right time to go after it. That the longer you wait, you see those like, little cartoon depictions and it's like, the guy is sitting there thinking about he's got his next idea for work, and then he ends up keep on thinking about it. Next. He knows he's in the grave like, there's never that right time with our technology, my technology company.

00;30;37;04 - 00;31;04;03
Speaker 2
Like, we keep on trying to perfect it, perfected. I'm like, stop. Let's just go. Yeah, we are good. Well, we can do this and we can add this. We get, you know, we can do this is Gen two. Gen three is an add on to that add ons. Yeah. So it's for me like I've never been afraid to just jump out in front of the bus and go for it and change trains, stay in front of that bus like so.

00;31;04;03 - 00;31;18;23
Speaker 2
And I've it's not always been successful like I've had failures. And that's where a lot of guys want to talk about. There is a lot of, you know, a lot of those sleepless nights where, you know, you, you don't know how you're going to make payroll the next day and you don't know what you're going to do. How are you going to put food on the table?

00;31;18;23 - 00;31;39;01
Speaker 2
But you literally, if you're all in it, I tell every guy that comes in, you can talk to me. So if you're not outlining, you're just tipping your toes in the water and you're just worried about the where the payroll is going to come from next or what's going to happen next. Is my van going to break down or whatever?

00;31;39;01 - 00;32;01;29
Speaker 2
Those stops are right. You're never going to be successful. You've got it. You got to go all in with it. And for me, like, I'm all right now, I'm all in on everything. I'm like, I see the future of the trades and what the trades need right now. And currently there's nothing out there doing what we're doing and we've secured patents.

00;32;01;29 - 00;32;22;17
Speaker 2
We secured, you know, all the IP, copyrights, trademarks and a lot of people don't realize even what we're currently doing, but we're we know the industry needs to make a shift. And we know the industry needs something new out there. Because the think about it, those the last time you seen something new that was like, whoa, what is that?

00;32;22;20 - 00;32;43;23
Speaker 2
You know, there hasn't been anything out there that's like, connected the contractor and the homeowner and kept them connected. And so, you know, currently right now, we're that was one of the things, you know, I threw some money out eight years ago. Bloom, you know, a half million dollars got nothing. I was like, okay, it's not not ready yet.

00;32;43;23 - 00;33;04;26
Speaker 2
And then come back to the table. You know, four years ago, five years ago and sort of threw some money at it, negotiated a good deal with the, you know, an engineering firm and now it's literally everybody asks me that same thing, you know, once, when is a good time? Which they start like, how much money do I need to play in or what's.

00;33;05;02 - 00;33;20;22
Speaker 2
Well, you know, how do I go out and get a car loan for a and not have to be the, you know, the the signer for it. And I'm like, dude, if you're just starting the business and you just got your EIA number, you're going to have to be the decider for the thing or you're going to have to do this.

00;33;20;22 - 00;33;42;09
Speaker 2
But until you build that relationship up and start moving, you just yeah, I see it over and over and over. The guys that fail, they going, yeah, it's because they were what ifs or the what if. What if this doesn't work? What if this doesn't? Let's scale back on this. Let's not do this. Let's not do that.

00;33;42;11 - 00;33;59;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. That's that's that's the thing. Like, by the way, when you mention right, like when you got your EIA and I'm officially actually announcing it, I got in today over the phone from IRA's. I just registered, my home service company. It's a pressure washing company.

00;33;59;20 - 00;34;00;20
Speaker 2
Congrats.

00;34;00;22 - 00;34;16;07
Speaker 1
Yeah. Thank you. So, what's what's like, you know, one piece of advice that you're going to give it to me. I run like, you know, digital. I do digital marketing for home services. But what what one piece of advice you're going to give it to me for my company in Tampa that I just launched.

00;34;16;09 - 00;34;35;05
Speaker 2
Develop good relationships with people that have lots of connections. And what I mean by that is I if I was going to open up because I actually I'm helping a, young gentleman right now with a, home washing business, like he started, went out, bought two vans, and he does pressure washing like the driveways. Yeah. So the houses and stuff.

00;34;35;05 - 00;34;59;21
Speaker 2
And he was like, I just need to know, like like what? What would you do? And I said, go find people with a lot of, you know, experts in that industry, high net worth individuals that have bigger homes that don't sit there with the pressure washing, pressure wash the their driveway themselves, or, you know, businesses that you got to go and sink your face out there and brand yourself very well, be very marketable.

00;34;59;23 - 00;35;16;01
Speaker 2
Go out there, don't be afraid. Go find, you know, real estate brokers. Yes. Those guys know everybody. You know, that's all they do. A real estate agent is really just a marketing firm, you know, and that's very cheap because they don't want to spend the money. So as a startup you don't have the money to spend for it to do.

00;35;16;01 - 00;35;35;06
Speaker 2
Doing PPC against all the big boys. So you got guys and for like you, my advice to you is, you know, everybody that's in the home service trades, I would go talk to every guy that's in your market that you know of. Hey, let's work something out. You know, if I come across an old air conditioner, I'll tell you about it.

00;35;35;06 - 00;35;48;20
Speaker 2
You like, vice versa. There's got to be some give and take, but I really like. I like going out and branding myself. Like a lot of people think I'm full of myself only because, like, the way I dress, I wear a suit. Custom suits every day.

00;35;48;23 - 00;35;52;04
Speaker 1
Yeah, always. I have seen you always in suits, custom suits.

00;35;52;07 - 00;36;11;21
Speaker 2
And all go out to, you know, job sites, go on a roof or, you know, go up in an attic in one corner. You're always like, what are you doing? Well, I worry about it, but it's that's my brand up there for years. For years, I've always liked wearing nice clothes. So either, you know, the past probably 15 years.

00;36;11;21 - 00;36;31;19
Speaker 2
20 years about, 20. Yes. But 20 years ago, I always wore nice clothes. But the past probably six years, I've got a tailor. He goes to my office or my house, and I really stepped it up to where everybody in this area knows me as the contractor that wear suits, because I. I drive a big F-150.

00;36;31;19 - 00;36;53;17
Speaker 2
Dooley. And then, you know, in a nice suit, they're like, wait, what's this? What's this guy do? And, but then a training thing. So for me, it's best for you to, like, literally, you don't need to have, like, some crazy brand logo on the side of your truck, but you need to have a personal brand where you're going out there and you're talking to people constantly.

00;36;53;22 - 00;37;00;06
Speaker 1
Relationships, like, you know, putting out yourself out there and brand brand yourself. Now, appreciate that.

00;37;00;08 - 00;37;20;23
Speaker 2
I told you, I call it being a brand ambassador. Like if you just like, you know how I grew that one company from 600,000 to 15 million was we went hired by six people, and we just bought on these little, Chevy. I forget what they were called. These little Chevy, first round with the logos on them.

00;37;20;29 - 00;37;37;27
Speaker 2
And all they did was drive around nice areas, you know, no foot traffic. And they were, like, dependable people, but they pass out like hoodies, hats, t shirts, whatever. Swag. Good. Say it. It's for that. Yeah. Consistently. And that's how we built the brand. So fast.

00;37;37;29 - 00;37;39;16
Speaker 1
Brand. That's amazing.

00;37;39;19 - 00;37;53;01
Speaker 2
I didn't go after PPC. I didn't go after like all this other stuff because I couldn't compete with those guys. Yeah, you have, you know, champions in my backyard. Like I'm not going to be able to compete with him. You know big.

00;37;53;01 - 00;38;09;20
Speaker 1
Dogs out there. Yeah. You don't have like you know that like kind of capital. Lot of like, you know fun to play with. Like, you know, advertising billboards. You got a brand and I think you're a brand yourself or like find ways to actually do the networking for it. Put your name out there. There are ways to do that.

00;38;09;20 - 00;38;11;14
Speaker 1
But I appreciate that. And it.

00;38;11;14 - 00;38;13;13
Speaker 2
Might. Yeah.

00;38;13;16 - 00;38;15;18
Speaker 1
Yeah. Go ahead. No worries.

00;38;15;20 - 00;38;21;05
Speaker 2
We do it. Stupid stuff. This was our Christmas coloring book.

00;38;21;08 - 00;38;23;17
Speaker 1
Love love that. This is great.

00;38;23;20 - 00;38;35;12
Speaker 2
So we did this for Christmas. But what we did was we did I don't remember how many thousands I had made, but I did it all off of ChatGPT.

00;38;35;14 - 00;38;36;00
Speaker 1
To.

00;38;36;02 - 00;38;54;28
Speaker 2
Know, I think I wrote it in there. Boom, shut it out. I put, you know, family photos in there, service trucks in there. And then what we did from there is like, I had my daughter goes to all the end restaurants around here and then ask if we can put this in the restaurant, because kids need come and we get two packs of coloring, color crayons.

00;38;55;06 - 00;39;15;05
Speaker 2
So they went out and that's what she did to this day. We walked into we walked into a restaurant probably three weeks ago. Some friends there, like the manager comes over, introduces himself to me and shakes my hand, sits us down, doesn't make us wait. There's a long line. We go sit down. And I was sitting around fast on on all of those guys, and we're sitting there talking.

00;39;15;05 - 00;39;27;11
Speaker 2
And also he goes, I just knew you were somebody. Go look. And he holds up the coloring book because I because I knew you were somebody. But look, that's you. That's a yes. But it was just him.

00;39;27;13 - 00;39;29;16
Speaker 1
Yeah. That would be nice. Works. That works.

00;39;29;16 - 00;39;33;06
Speaker 2
Yeah. We do that probably, six times a year.

00;39;33;08 - 00;39;38;06
Speaker 1
Six times a year. Like, you know, like maybe like one for Christmas, one for some other stuff.

00;39;38;09 - 00;40;00;00
Speaker 2
Easter. Thanksgiving. Just like 4th of July. And then we doing get away with it. Like. And the giveaways are stuff that my manufacturers will give me like a be like, I'll reach out to you, Calgon. We do a lot of stuff. New Calgon Dynamic Air Solutions. We do a lot of stuff for those type companies and we give away like right now, for three months in a row, we're giving away a new Calgon.

00;40;00;00 - 00;40;08;27
Speaker 2
You'd be like, and they, they give them to us and I guess to advertise for one to. So we put them out, we put do giveaways and they're this smart.

00;40;08;27 - 00;40;31;10
Speaker 1
Smart. That's amazing. That's amazing. I love that I think a lot of like, you know, home business owners, if you're listening to, this podcast, you got to actually implement this. This actually works great. It's like, you know, smart and you don't have to spend a lot of money. So my last segment there, Keith, is like, you know, technology technology is like, you know, changing the traits like fast fade.

00;40;31;10 - 00;40;41;25
Speaker 1
You see Hvac and home services like, you know, heading. And how should business owners prepare right now.

00;40;41;27 - 00;41;03;17
Speaker 2
Don't be afraid of the technology that's coming down the pipeline. A lot of guys are like resisting it. And, what's especially what I'm doing. So I created a dashboard for the home. Simplest way to explain is if you've ever got, OnStar or Fordpass or something like that, your car tells you everything that's going on before it goes out.

00;41;03;20 - 00;41;32;22
Speaker 2
Pre-Approved tires going low, headlights. Once the wiper fluid's out or going it going low. Like anything and everything about the car, your home tells you absolutely nothing. So we. I got engineers to create for me because it wasn't me. This, you know, we got a team of engineers. What we created was a dashboard for the home. The dashboard for the home gives you a full transparency of what's going on within the home.

00;41;32;24 - 00;42;14;06
Speaker 2
Every for every trade. And it keeps you connected to the client. So a true retention of. So on the dashboard itself, there's a digital dashboard. Plus you have an app, right? You put your own logo on it like it's for you. And if once you install it, that con that homeowner is directly connected to that, then that when the homeowner are going out of work because it's happened, I mean, we installed, what was it for systems on a home and we come back to do the service maintenance like normal maintenance guys, six months later, guess what?

00;42;14;06 - 00;42;17;03
Speaker 2
They had water filtration and tankless.

00;42;17;05 - 00;42;19;19
Speaker 1
Yeah, tankless.

00;42;19;22 - 00;42;28;28
Speaker 2
What about us? And they go, oh, we didn't know you did that. How many contractors out there get that? Well, we put the stickers on the, you know, your water heater.

00;42;29;00 - 00;42;29;29
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00;42;30;02 - 00;42;51;11
Speaker 2
We thought that was just to remind us that they put in the air conditioners. So right away, you know, I started seeing this. And so what our system does in this is there is different random systems that are out there, nothing compared to what we do, but ours stays in connection to the homeowner and the homeowner. And you can see real time and the contractor sees real time.

00;42;51;11 - 00;43;13;01
Speaker 2
So we're we're opening it on both sides. So the whatever you're seeing, the contractor seeing the homeowner seeing, we can tell you real efficiency. So like in my house we put in new systems. I think there are 18 series, 19 series, whatever they were. We installed Home Guardian in my home. All of a sudden, my systems were only putting out, I think it was like nine seer, ten seer.

00;43;13;01 - 00;43;32;17
Speaker 2
And I'm like, I called my son and I said, hey, do we need to adjust some stuff here at the house? And because on the back I showed how much like energy was pulling off, how much duct leakage we had, like it was telling my CFM, like the homeowner gets to see that too though, right? What's great about that is it sells itself.

00;43;32;19 - 00;43;33;11
Speaker 2
So the homeowner.

00;43;33;14 - 00;43;39;12
Speaker 1
Is that a device? Is that a device that like, you know, Hvac business owners, they can actually install?

00;43;39;14 - 00;43;49;25
Speaker 2
Yes. And it's only through we're only going directly to contractors. So we get us. You get on a case, us. No worries.

00;43;49;25 - 00;43;53;00
Speaker 1
So, yeah, please feel free to grab it.

00;43;53;02 - 00;44;15;10
Speaker 2
You're going to get a case like this. Yeah. This is our. This is our packaging right here. What about the screens on it? But I can show you the screen too. But you're going to get. No, see, there's no it's inside here. These notes, they is this the case keeps on going. And so these little notes which you'll see here.

00;44;15;13 - 00;44;18;05
Speaker 1
Yeah I can see the are.

00;44;18;07 - 00;44;42;00
Speaker 2
Have you know I built in machine learning and we can start reading everything preemptive. We can tell you static pressure CFM you're creating your water quality real time in the home. And what's great about that is homeowners see it, contractor sees it. Guess what? Your homeowner is going to start calling you saying, hey, I want this fixed air quality.

00;44;42;03 - 00;45;03;23
Speaker 2
Our air quality notes are like no other. And up for now, this is our air quality and they're magnetic and they have you can also screw up on, but that way you can move it around in the house if you want to check air quality. Yeah. What's great about this is we have fans built into Wow. So it's not like stagnant air that it's just reading.

00;45;03;23 - 00;45;26;03
Speaker 2
So only when the air conditioner kicks on then it's reading. Most of ours has a fan built in, so it's always circulating there. So you're not getting better. You know, all the way down to our city notes. You know, we have notes that. Here's your seat clamp. That's a normal seat clamp that everybody uses. This one goes on the big lugs.

00;45;26;05 - 00;45;57;10
Speaker 2
If you ever try and get like, Emporia. Emporia is a good one that I would highly recommend anybody. You try to put, you know, 18 of these inside a logical panel, it's not going to happen. That's how the size difference of, is ours. This is everybody else. There's just we thought with the contractor in mind, like me being a contractor, when I go out there and install this, and it's an hour and a half if you're slow, two hours.

00;45;57;10 - 00;46;02;08
Speaker 2
Ten. So, I mean, all the way down to this goes inside of your electrical panel.

00;46;02;10 - 00;46;05;29
Speaker 1
Yeah. What is the what is what is that.

00;46;06;02 - 00;46;27;14
Speaker 2
This goes in your electrical panel. And then you can hook up kind of. So you you're knowing everything that's going on inside the home real time. So we can tell you real time what your utility bill is. We can tell you real time when your compressors drawn high amps, your, refrigerators, your on high amps, what needs to go out, what's on the dashboard itself.

00;46;27;16 - 00;46;35;26
Speaker 2
It also is telling you that I can probably pull up. It's also telling you what your biggest energy consumption is.

00;46;35;29 - 00;46;50;07
Speaker 1
This is this is mind blowing. Yeah. I'll, I'll just like, you know, put you on this part, like, you know, this is I think I have like, what I've seen is like in a new way. So this is not even close to new way like that just does for each rack. Right. This is something beyond it.

00;46;50;09 - 00;47;13;16
Speaker 2
This will tell you before your roof leaks. This will tell you before your pull pump goes out. This will take. Yeah. Maybe you're not that contractor that can do everything, but you have contacts that do roofing so you can take a passive lead over to that guy, right? Yeah. To make you make network, that's a networking thing. But, like, it's, looking at my house.

00;47;13;16 - 00;47;16;23
Speaker 2
Let's see.

00;47;16;25 - 00;47;39;21
Speaker 2
Right now, today, I'm inefficient at my house. I can request a service. Or I can see on the dashboard I'm already getting alerts on my dashboard at the office because it's connected to my office, but it tells me what's costing me the most. Like I will tell you. Yeah, and then it will sit there and tell me all the other stuff.

00;47;39;21 - 00;48;02;04
Speaker 2
What's costing me. So my son was used for our today the dock because I live on the water. The docks cost me 44% today. My pool is my biggest one, my air handlers. So I always run an air conditioners. Right now, that type of stuff is like mind blowing to me. Water quality.

00;48;02;07 - 00;48;08;20
Speaker 2
Tells me how good my water is right now. Well, no, nobody's ever given real time water quality.

00;48;08;23 - 00;48;12;07
Speaker 1
Right? Yeah. You don't, you don't get that, like real time stats. Yeah.

00;48;12;10 - 00;48;30;28
Speaker 2
You don't get and it tells you, you know, where if you have any leaks in the house, you don't get any of that type stuff with anything that's out there. Let's see if I should just turn it off. So it's actually ramping up right now. So right now, like my one of my air conditioners is running a 4.8 series.

00;48;31;01 - 00;48;32;28
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah I can see that 4.8.

00;48;32;28 - 00;48;47;04
Speaker 2
So yeah. Oh sorry. Because it's ramping up but then it, it also will tell you all your CFM and all that stuff. So I didn't want to come on to promote this, but this is.

00;48;47;07 - 00;49;09;10
Speaker 1
No this is something I think home service like, you know, business owners, those are not like you know, listening or watching. They should they should know more about this because, this is something, you know, I always believe in, like, you know, promoting, you you have been doing such a phenomenal things. And in the industry, how can, like, your home service, owners, Hvac, plumbing, electrical.

00;49;09;13 - 00;49;16;23
Speaker 1
What's the best way to reach out to you to learn more about this? If you can share and we will link everything in the description.

00;49;16;26 - 00;49;43;24
Speaker 2
Yeah. So if you just want to do me have gone on Instagram very simple. You can find me on LinkedIn or you can go to HD Home guardian.com and you can do it. We have a website set up that you can, ask it a million questions or I'm always excited to talk about this because I think, this is going to be a total disruption.

00;49;43;24 - 00;50;14;01
Speaker 2
And the reason why I feel it's going to be a total disruption is because, you know, we've already met with CEOs at home, home warranty companies, some of the biggest homeowners insurance companies, SoCal Edison, you know, we reached out with them, had a conversation with them. Everybody wants and wants this information to better understand why their house is or why this neighborhood's doing this, why this is doing that, why systems go out, you know?

00;50;14;01 - 00;50;36;29
Speaker 2
Right. Most systems that are out there that tell you to change the filter, the reason why is to tell you to change a filter. It's a timer every six months, right? It's not it's not reading real information. You know, you might need to change it once a year. So. Right. That's the big difference in for homeowners things and contractors.

00;50;36;29 - 00;50;57;26
Speaker 2
I think that they got to understand that technology's coming. Be open minded to it. I get people all the time. And this is another thing for young young contractors. Business owners don't don't worry about what people say about you out there. Yeah, I, I could care less what people say about me. You know, I don't need the. Oh, you think you got this?

00;50;57;26 - 00;51;03;23
Speaker 2
You do this all you do. I'm like, you know what? Yeah. It just makes me look like you.

00;51;03;23 - 00;51;11;29
Speaker 1
Have a purpose. You. You have a purpose. You have a dream. Like, you know, you got to protect it, and you got to keep doing it, right? Well, regardless of what people say.

00;51;12;01 - 00;51;28;15
Speaker 2
Yeah, this is this is this is for me. You know, we went to market and checked it out, did a market test, and what would contractors pay for this and so forth, and what would they sell or, you know, the average was 5 or $7000, and we're coming in under $2,000.

00;51;28;18 - 00;51;29;29
Speaker 1
Under 2000.

00;51;30;02 - 00;51;31;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. For a whole home.

00;51;31;16 - 00;51;34;23
Speaker 1
And that's one time, one time investment, right?

00;51;34;25 - 00;51;44;25
Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah. And then you can actually well know how much the homeowner does not pay $9 a month for the fee. And then the contractor gets $3 back.

00;51;44;28 - 00;51;47;07
Speaker 1
Wow. That's that's nothing.

00;51;47;14 - 00;52;14;25
Speaker 2
That's nothing. So like Leland Smith was like, I'd give it to all 65,000 clients of mine and just give it to him. And then that way he's I mean, think about 6000 a month times three because he's getting three other guys. It's not bad. But he was also thinking the retention of because now you know how hard it is to capture clients and keep them and keep it on, like with you, because everybody comes out with the $29 tune up and all of a sudden there goes your guy, there goes your client.

00;52;14;28 - 00;52;36;23
Speaker 1
Yeah. And and it's so difficult to like, you know, okay, you provide all the services like, you know, it's difficult to just keep calling them or outreach. Now, you know, in the app like this homeowner needs this, right. They are having some filtration issue, Hvac issue or anything. Right. Whatever is there that app is going to tell. And now contractors are proactive and reaching out.

00;52;37;00 - 00;52;39;17
Speaker 1
Right. So that's the message here.

00;52;39;20 - 00;53;07;14
Speaker 2
It's pro but we're proactive not reactive. And we can handle any size house like 40,000ft² all the way down to 800ft². It's going to stay connected. And it's all wireless. We're not Bluetooth. We're not Wi-Fi for our own technology. But we can go through concrete. We can go through, you know, subterranean, to 900ft away. It's technically 875ft away, but I always say 900ft away.

00;53;07;17 - 00;53;27;09
Speaker 2
And, the great thing about that is, like, literally the installation process is so simple. QR code, you read it done. So you're connected to the head unit, you're good to move on. There's, you know, the hardest, the hardest. No, no full transparency. The hardest node to put in is the water quality. One, because you gotta use a cell.

00;53;27;14 - 00;53;44;19
Speaker 2
You gotta use a cell setup. Yeah. And put in a little line. That's it. And very simple. Everything else is super simple. And commercial buildings, you know, residential apartments. You can put one hand in and connect up to 4000 nodes to one head unit.

00;53;44;22 - 00;54;15;09
Speaker 1
This is this is impressive. I think I have done so many like, you know, podcasts and I think you are the first one that has like, you know, blowing my mind like, you know, I knew would you do what are you doing when I didn't know like, you know in depth that you showed me today all the tools and the technology that you have built, amazing, amazing meeting with you in person and on the podcast, we're going to link everything in the description so that, like, you know, contractors, those who are listening, watching so that they don't miss out.

00;54;15;16 - 00;54;40;27
Speaker 1
You know, I think it's a big opportunity in the trades right now. Definitely like, you know, reach out to kids. I love like, you know, kids like, you know, Instagram handle like, you know, God you can reach out and dimension isn't it HD like home guardians, right. Ask website and reach out there and, feel free to talk straight to, like, you know, kid is not like, you know that, you will get in touch with his team.

00;54;40;27 - 00;55;02;01
Speaker 1
He's willing to actually talk to you and walk you through. He's very passionate, what he has built. So. Yeah. And I want to thank our sponsors. Broccoli. Broccoli I doing phenomenal job in the trades when it comes to like you know I CSR like you know with the tax outreach and a lot of stuff like, you know, cool stuff.

00;55;02;01 - 00;55;18;17
Speaker 1
They have launched and grow reviews, instant texts and video reviews. Thank you so much. Like, you know, for the love and support and thank you for coming on my show. It was amazing. I think we're going to make it live next week. You will be all over the social media next week.

00;55;18;19 - 00;55;22;12
Speaker 2
Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate you having me on.

00;55;22;14 - 00;55;33;12
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely Keith, thank you again. And I'm pretty sure that we're going to connect again. Maybe I think we will do second podcast pretty pretty soon. Do you have a wonderful day. And thank you again.

00;55;33;15 - 00;55;35;11
Speaker 2
You as well. Thank you guys to you.