In this episode I go deep into lessons learned this week, and how you can also get value from them!
Connect with me!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/js_shoez_/
X: https://twitter.com/Shoeinvestor2
TikTok: tiktok.com/@thewater_boy_official
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@justinshoemaker9582?si=DSsbCeNl1kgH3EKK
LinkedIn: Justin Shoemaker
In this episode I go deep into lessons learned this week, and how you can also get value from them!
Connect with me!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/js_shoez_/
X: https://twitter.com/Shoeinvestor2
TikTok: tiktok.com/@thewater_boy_official
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@justinshoemaker9582?si=DSsbCeNl1kgH3EKK
LinkedIn: Justin Shoemaker
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of the Harmony of Hustle. I am going to try to do my absolute best to do these podcasts literally every Sunday and try to download everything that's been going on this week or every week in the business. One of the biggest benefits that I want for this podcast and one thing I want to use it for is I really want to try and document everything that happens in the business so I can show as much in real time as I can what it's like scaling from zero dollars to, hopefully, 100 million dollars plus in a big business I mean in 10 years from now. If this just ends up being a diary on how I built the business, I mean that would make me happy and if I could just help someone along the way, that would also be a big win. I've been trying to do a lot of video content, but I'm starting to realize that the video format is just not where I shine. It's really hard for me to get good video content. A lot of the meetings that we have are confidential, and so it's just been kind of a headache and I think if I can just do a really good job at documenting what goes on during the week and then put it on this platform, then I will at least be able to download some of the conversations that I've had, and I'm going to try to record some of the clips throughout the week that I have in real time with me and the team so that way you can get some inside, look at some of the business decisions and things like that.
Speaker 1:So last week has been pretty crazy. We've been really, really busy this month. I don't know what it is, but our business we are a fourth quarter team. The start of every month for us seems to just be so slow, and then the last two weeks of every month we just crush it out of the park and hit all of our sales goals, which makes it way more stressful than it needs to be. So right now, that's one thing we're working on. I'm trying to figure out why is the lead gen so slow at the beginning of the month compared to the end of the month, and so I will be looking at that very, very closely in in the growing months.
Speaker 1:We just closed with Home Depot, so we're in six stores. I've been putting out a lot of content on my social media about that, and that has been incredibly stressful. We have been running around filling up the stores non-stop, but we finally started getting in the first few leads, and last week, obviously, some of my sales reps were getting used to trying to sell those type of deals. They're a little bit more difficult than a standard lead, mainly because the lead that comes in isn't super hot, it's not super warm, but the nice thing is you do have the brand recognition of being with Home Depot, so you get to leverage that a lot more, and it makes the sale a lot easier.
Speaker 1:As a sales rep, though, and as a water treatment specialist, you definitely have to do more work in the home. You have to build up the problem, you have to go through all of the testing, and you really just have to make sure that you build the value in the system, because obviously, we don't sell cheap equipment and our equipment is the best equipment on the market. But you got to show them why, and especially when you can go buy a system for 80% the cost at a Home Depot, you really have to make sure that the customers understand that the problems they have ours will fix for the lifetime that they're in their home. So I love the Home Depot leads. I know when I first started in sales in this industry, home Depot is what got me to my first $25,000 commission month. So I definitely love the relationship as a business.
Speaker 1:It's a little frustrating because they do take a massive chunk out of the deal. So it really does become a massive volume play because traditionally. So it really does become a massive volume play because traditionally you know you would get I don't know at least like a 20 to 30% net margins after each sale. With these, I mean I'm probably taking home 8 to 10% maybe. So it's a drastic change. I'm probably making half per deal on a Home Depot lead. The caveat to that is the volume you get is going to be so much bigger. So I do think it equals out. And with some of the moves we're making to making our own equipment and bring a lot of the manufacturing in-house, I think that will help.
Speaker 1:And then, with more volume, I'll probably be relooking at a commission structure for my reps. I have been paying my reps pretty high just based off the lack of volume, and I'll grandfather in the reps I have now, because one thing I hate to do is when you have a team and then you change a pay structure on them. That's never really fair to the individuals that have been your ride or die. So the team I have I'm obviously going to keep it so. That way they're not affected. But anyone that comes on in the future, if I can prove that with the volume they have they can still make 100K plus, because that's the goal. I want every rep that comes into my ecosystem to be able to make 100, 200, 300k a year in commissions or more. So if I can show by actual statistical numbers that they can do that and I can drop the commission rates to a point to where the business is able to recover some of those margins and grow a lot quicker, then that's something that I am looking at doing.
Speaker 1:Doing this, though, whenever you add complexity into the business, it definitely strains relationships. I have been very blessed to have a strategic partner in this, but it's funny when money comes into the picture, how it can make things pretty difficult, and luckily I have a really good relationship with the guy that helped me get the home depots and has been my strategic partner. So for me it's not really a problem right. There's a lot of trust built there and, uh, even though you know the numbers aren't, as you know, lucrative as I would like, because obviously the person that helped me get these contracts they got to get a cut as well. Right, it's only only fair.
Speaker 1:I think most people in this situation they didn't have such a good relationship with individuals they're dealing with. It could foster a lot of animosity, and one thing I have learned and it has paid dividends up to this point, it hasn't bit me in the butt yet is if you have good people in your ecosystem that are helping you build the business or working for you or employees, you never regret giving them a piece of the pie. Like if they actually do the work and they're good individuals, giving out some of the short-term equity or the short-term profitability can pay off in tremendous ways. I think the big risk and we're managing those relationships can become kind of an issue is when you do get someone that's actually not worth what they're giving you or what you're giving them. Excuse me, so I've had so many entrepreneur friends of mine who have talked about bad business partnerships they've had. Or the person just stole money from them or they didn't do any work, and that can definitely happen. So I think the power of being able to grow a business and scale is directly correlated into how well you can manage the relationships around you and actually have your thumb on the pulse of how good is that person for the business, because I'm learning more and more. The biggest jumps I keep having in the business it's never something that I've done Like I have driven sales. Last week I just closed one of my biggest sales in a while. It was almost $10,000 just for a couple of tanks and they had a lot of issues. So that was awesome to be able to close that, and it was a home advisor lead, which makes it even better, so that way the store doesn't take all my money.
Speaker 1:It's the people in the organization that have really driven the major successes, and that's something that I knew, I guess, as like a concept and I knew that from the military that obviously the team around you helps you become successful. That's one thing they teach you when you get into leadership in the military is your evaluations are no longer based off you. They're based off the people under you, and I'm seeing that materialize in a fascinating way with the business. So I'm sure you guys probably heard this before, but I'm the people you hire. If you can hire smartly, the better the business will grow and the less stressful it will be, and so my tolerance for allowing individuals that don't operate and don't meet my standard is getting less and less.
Speaker 1:Because I definitely have a bleeding heart in a way where I want to help grow talent and I want to help build people. But there's definitely some core competencies that people have to have to even make it worth your time, and before I didn't really have those as a barometer, I just kind of would let anyone come into the organization, I would try to build them, but I'm starting to find out that if they don't have the gear to at least self motivate and self learn and at least put an effort to put themselves in uncomfortable situations and take the direction that I give them, then they're probably not a good fit for the organization. After training, I'm setting new standards where if people aren't producing on their own, if we're not selling deals within three to four weeks, if we're not making something happen, I just let them go, because with the training that I've developed and everything that we have not to toot my own horn, but you can take my training, which is gonna be public here soon, and you can make 30 to 40K a month, your next month with that training. And that's not just me saying that, that's from just what I've seen. So I'm starting to take my ego out of it and if people just can't figure it out, then I just don't think they have that skill set or that gear.
Speaker 1:And because my resources are so limited, I really have to make sure that I'm really picky on who. Who was here at the beginning, and I had a different view even last year where I was like I just want to bring a ton of people on to help grow and scale. But I think that actually sets the business up for more failure, because you're building your foundation on a bunch of rubble instead of building it on solid granite or a really strong foundation. I want to build a billion dollar business. That's my goal. I want to be a market disruptor and I want to basically take over the market that Culligan has, and we're doing a lot of things to push in that direction.
Speaker 1:So I have now taken a step back and said, okay, I need to just make sure that my core people at the very beginning are actual killers. I need a bunch of legit killers and I can't have anyone that's not up to that standard be around, because, by the law of large numbers, the more people I bring on, the quality is bound to go down, and the only way to maintain that quality is to make sure the people that are at the top have that same standard, have the abilities to close, have the abilities to lead, and so that means I need the people who start with me to be those individuals. So I got to be more strategic, more picky, more strategic, more picky on on exactly how I allow those individuals to uh to, to react. So that's something I'm making a change on. Um, I'm also doing some more thoughts.
Speaker 1:This last week, uh, last week, was super stressful. Um, a lot of phone calls, a lot of reps. I need to build out the organization more because I am fielding every single phone call, every single customer call. It's just me and obviously my COO can take some of those calls, but especially when it's a sale call or customer call, like that's my wheelhouse. So I had Tom, um, tommy, I had Hunter uh, hunter Ballou on in a previous episode and he actually hooked me up with a good virtual assistant. So I'm pretty excited to start those conversations.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bring on a VA to start taking some of these phone calls, but also to manage our pipelines. We have a pretty big pipeline now in the CRM and one thing that my business has not been doing a good job of is capitalizing on lost deals, so deals that were a one leg or that needed follow up, or even deals that sold that haven't given us referrals yet. We have a huge, huge pipeline of installed deals that we haven't earned any referrals from, and I think a big part of that is right now in my business. I don't really have a customer success management built out. I don't have a person who all their job is is just calling clients, making sure they're happy, following up on them and continually trying to make sure that they're happy. The sheer volume of what I have to maintain right now doesn't allow me to be that person, unfortunately. So I'm looking next week to bring on that VA, which will also take a lot of that work off my rep shoulders and should help grow the enterprise value of the business and help all of us make more money, especially those deals that could potentially get back on for a follow-up appointment. There's a lot of revenue just sitting out there in the ecosystem that I know, if I can just get some people to follow up with, we will probably get some good deals off that. So, moving forward on that, also, you know did a couple investments last week into some of my sales reps. I paid for an Airbnb to have them go up and work in our new store locations, because it's a long way and right now it doesn't look like it's going to materialize, which is unfortunate.
Speaker 1:And I think as a business owner, it can be scary to take these type of bets sometimes, especially when there is no desired outcome. But here's the thing I have found is you never actually lose in that scenario, because if the individuals can't step up and they can't make deals happen, well then you didn't really lose anything. You just were able to find out if that person is the right person for those roles and where they can fit into, and you get to learn it at an accelerator rate, because obviously you let the people know like, hey, this is the money I'm putting in here. I need you guys to hopefully step up and be the people that can make get me a return on this investment that I'm putting into you, and if they don't, it's okay. So that's something that I've learned and right now the last thing that we're looking for is finding a marketer.
Speaker 1:So I've been doing some, some deep research into some big brands and liquid death caught my attention Last week. I'm sure everyone here has heard of liquid death and obviously, because I'm in the water space, I think it's pretty interesting because liquid death really and I don't know if anyone here has had it not to to hate on their product, but it just tastes like tap water, it doesn't take taste any different and they are able to build a really impressive brand in an industry or a skew I guess that is super oversaturated, I wouldn't say low margins, but I would say would be very, very hard to break into. And they did it by just having really, really innovative marketing. They had a really catchy logo, really catchy slogan and they integrated it really well into modern pop culture so Fortnite maps and funny Super Bowl commercials and things like that and really getting to the youth. So I'm starting to realize we have a.
Speaker 1:I can't talk too much about what it is yet, but I am building something that, if done correctly, will absolutely disrupt the industry. Yeah, and it won't be a new product per se, but it will be a new approach to current products that are out there, similar to what Liquid Death did for the water bottle space and the drinking water space. So I'm trying to do that for a similar product that's not similar. I'm trying not to give too much away, but it's going to probably take a whole year or so to develop this thing, and so I'm trying to really come up with interesting marketing ways and I think in the next few months I do want to bring on like a CMO and someone that can really help build that vision, because I'm learning you really have to put some thought into it and I think I have some good marketing ideas, but it really helps to have someone that knows that inside and out that can really help me build that new product.
Speaker 1:Because I really want that thing to hit. I'm going to throw some massive ad dollars towards it and I think it'll really help to make Clearwave a household name and I think that's what I need to do to take over Culligan. Just making my own whole home tanks isn't going to get it done. I need something that can reach a national audience and eventually my systems could do that. But fulfillment on that and the cost for that would be pretty hard, especially because of the plumbing required for these things. So I got some stuff in the works that I'm really excited to share with everybody, and I really hope I can get this thing live to to to really disrupt the industry. That's. That's the goal, um, and you guys will see it in real time. We'll see, we'll see how it works.
Speaker 1:Uh, so what else happened last week? So we just got registered with nasa and some other big organizations so we can start bidding on some of their government jobs, which is super exciting. Uhla, I do have some recordings of that. I'm probably not going to play those for a while, just because they were super dry conversations talking about setting up our accounts and the contracts, but if I get a good response from the audience and that's something people want, I will post them up. I will do whatever you guys want if I can give you value. And yeah, that's really about it.
Speaker 1:For next week, it's going to be kind of the same thing really going in, going to be focused on going into Home Depot's doing some more professional knowledge trainings. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you probably saw some photos of me training the Home Depot reps. That's part of what I do to make sure that they are incentivized to give out these test kits. And, yeah, I think that's going to be all of next week. Uh, we got an in-person training on monday, which is super exciting.
Speaker 1:Uh, boring admin stuff. I gotta get my my trucks redid and get all the tags and stuff redone, but that's really it. Uh, next week. It's now back to doing the boring work. If you guys follow alex hermosi, he always talks about doing the boring work is what grows the business, and that's really where I'm at. It's just generating leads and building this partnership with Home Depot, because if we can deliver with them, I think we will get many more stores, which means much more money, and that will then allow me to do bigger and better things and build brand associations with more people. And, you know, invest in crazy wild, in crazy wild ideas that could potentially pay off big time. So, super excited for that. Uh, I'll follow up with next week with any conversations or struggles that come up, but uh, yeah, that's all I have for now.
Speaker 1:Guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If this brings you value, I would love to hear about it. If there's things you want me to talk about, about the business or things you're curious about with the business, let me know. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Justin Shoemaker. I was one of the top water sales reps for Orbit Water quite a few years ago, and then I helped grow a solar startup from 600K to 25 million. I have now since started my own business in water treatment and am trying to grow this thing into a billion dollar business. So, with that being said, I'm going to sign off. Thank you so much for listening. Have a good day, guys. Bye.