Seth Said It
Welcome to Seth Said It, the unapologetic podcast where real stories meet raw truths. Join Seth Mills as he dives into personal experiences, business growth, and the highs and lows of life’s journey. From lessons learned the hard way to the wins worth celebrating, Seth lays it all out with unfiltered honesty and a touch of humor.
This podcast is for those who value authenticity, aren’t afraid of a little controversy, and believe that growth often comes with a bit of discomfort. Whether it’s a deep dive into entrepreneurial struggles, personal growth breakthroughs, or just telling it like it is, Seth Said It is your go-to for real talk that inspires, challenges, and occasionally ruffles some feathers.
Tune in, stay curious, and remember: if it needed to be said, Seth said it.
Seth Said It
Beyond Traditional Success: The Mills and Dawson Approach
Who says success only comes with a degree? I'm Seth Mills, a business administration student who zig-zagged through different majors before finding my passion. And, joining me is Nik Dawson, a entrepreneur who traded traditional schooling after 10th grade for the thrilling rollercoaster of starting his own company. Together, we dig into our unique paths, debunking the notion that success only comes via traditional routes. Hear our personal experiences in education and the importance of adaptability in the age of readily available information.
Ever wondered about the trials and tribulations of starting a new business? We shed light on our entrepreneurial journeys, revealing the challenges, the triumphs, and even the less glamorous aspects of business like dealing with difficult clients and the significance of clear terms and conditions. We swap stories from our own experiences - me navigating the complexities of the pressure washing industry, and on being blacklisted from companies. Seth's also honest about the pressures of striking a balance between running multiple businesses while keeping up with full-time college commitments.
As for the future, we're not just daydreaming. We discuss our plans for growth and investment, considering hiring additional help, reinvesting in our ventures, and keeping our audience engaged. We also tackle the hurdles of residential customers and explore strategies for targeting commercial clients. Listen in as we share our candid insights and plans for the future on the AstroCraft Grow, Influence, Invest podcast. Our stories are testament to the idea that success isn't always a straight path, and the journey matters just as much as the destination.
Welcome back to the Astro Crafts, grow, influence, invest podcast. I am your host, seth Mills, and joining me today once again is your co-host Nick Dawson. Welcome back, nick. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Man doing a little bit better, are you? Yeah, last week it was like, felt like it was a week and a half and a few days and it's been a week and it feels like a few days. Yeah, yeah, it's a week to week change. Yeah, yeah, day to day change Right Hour to hour change, it just really depends.
Speaker 1:So and today's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about how we got started and the two very different but similar industries that we're in.
Speaker 2:And similar in the sense of service.
Speaker 1:Similar, yeah, similar in the sense of service, and I mean in a sense both of us do exterior cleaning, or at least you did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which I'm sure we'll get into that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I am currently a college student. You are a 10th grade dropout, 10th grade educated kid, yep, and both of us have very successful companies. Now, yeah, kind of talk about the disadvantages and advantages of both. So, yeah, what major question here, right off the bat. I'm just going to ask what led you or what. Why did you decide it was a good idea to drop out in 10th grade? You were homeschooled, correct? I?
Speaker 2:was homeschooled. So that makes it even worse to be dropout, right? I mean, if we're being completely honest, it's like you're at home, it's like why did you I mean so in all honesty dropping out when I was 16, but it was. I was still more ahead in certain things. So I mean, more than anything, I like to make it a joke, yeah, just because I like to be funny every now and then. So it's one of those where it's like I don't want to ever and maybe that's my either the sympathy side or the whatever you want to call it. I'm just to give either hope or to let people know that like, look, ain't nothing wrong with college.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with depending on what you're going for See and not to be ungrateful, right 100%, I'm going for it. First it was business, I know. At first it was cybersecurity, then it was computer engineering, now I am a, I'm going into my senior year. I'm a year behind. I'll be a fifth year graduate, but now I'm going for business administration because obviously I figured out what I want to do, because you don't know right off the bat Exactly, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And see, I've always been very, very good with computers and IT systems, but I learned very quickly in college that I didn't want to do it for the rest of my life. Yeah, I would have been miserable, because working on computers is, quite frankly, the most boring thing, or most boring job, at least to me, that you can do. So whatever you said, college isn't.
Speaker 2:Let me rephrase. Yeah, let me rephrase. I don't think it's a bad idea to be in college if you are wanting to. I'm not sure what all business college stuff entails.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it's a lot of. It's just you didn't go to high school, you did online. I'm assuming for the most part. So in your experience, it was mostly blow off right, it was boring, and that's why I mean I don't know, because I'm not you. Well, we haven't talked about this right?
Speaker 2:No, which will be cool because we'll definitely get into it. But like, yeah, for the most part it was a lot of online, it was a lot of different curriculums and stuff.
Speaker 1:It was XYZ that you could look up, I'm assuming, on Google. Yeah, so it was it. The reason I'm asking this is college is very much a. You can look everything up online and succeed. You don't actually have to know the material and I will probably get slammed by a lot of people. I am a very quick learner. So if I don't understand something, googlecom, what is the linear regression for XYZ? I only said that because I just learned it. I don't remember anything that I. I and again I'm gonna get slammed because I Google everything. I don't remember anything I learned in the previous semester, much less three and a half semesters ago.
Speaker 2:So I guess for me, if you want to be a lawyer, if you want to be a doctor, if you want to be a psychologist, if you want to be literally anything that requires a degree, go for it. But I'm gonna be honest, going to the doctor last week or the week before going to the doctor and you're sitting there telling them, kind of, your symptoms and you're looking at whatever they're guessing. They're either guessing or, like my doctor, goes in there with his MacBook and he types in all of your symptoms, google, and he's Googling. He's got a degree, he's a doctor, but he still goes off of that. So I mean, if you're wanting a degree to get into something that you really want to get into, go for it Well, and not only that, but I've also noticed accounting degrees, right, business degrees.
Speaker 1:Because you have to go through all the accounting, you learn how to do it. It's just there's so many programs on Google or programs you can download and pay for even that corporations, all of your corporations are paying for a major accounting software to where you just have to input the numbers and it does all the equations for you. You don't have to learn that, right. It's just like whenever he, a little bit of older people, were at school right, and this is a fun one that I love because I can say I do it Right. The teachers always told us including me, and I don't.
Speaker 1:You were homeschooled, so probably not you, but my mother, yeah, they always told me you're never going to get paid to look out of a window. Well, I do window cleaning. Now, fair enough, I literally make, and I'm not afraid to at least I'm not I'm not afraid to share how much I make. Right, I make on average two to $400 an hour cleaning windows looking out of a window for a living. Yeah, that's 33 to 40%. Actually, I think this year I just did the math it's like 60% of my business is window cleaning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, looking out of a window, making money doing nothing other than scrubbing a window clean, and I'm not hating on it. Let me add that Absolutely not my customer. I love you guys. There are expenses that come with it, right?
Speaker 2:I mean I you make that much, but you have the expenses on top of that Gas insurance employees.
Speaker 1:I spent $4,000 on a window cleaning system. It's not just scrubbing a window right, you have systems in place. I have to maintain that system.
Speaker 2:But $2 to $400 an hour, and if you know you can make that you're not going to go out there with a sponge and squeegee. Exactly, and try and make that whenever you know you can make more money, do more, do more jobs, make more profit if you've got a better system.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I mean, you're always going to need your traditional squeegee and mop, right? You're always going to need it on the inside of glass, on the inside of homes mop and squeegee, not sponge and squeegee Sponge. Yeah, I mean same thing. I mean, occasionally we have to use steel wool, which I'm going to get flamed in the comments on any of the social media platforms because they're going to be like oh no, no, that's bad, You're going to scratch the glass. Steel wool is the hardest thing you can use on a window to clean it. Quad zero. So 0000 steel wool is the hardest thing you can use and the only thing you should use. You're not. I'm not talking about your burlopads that you get from Walmart, right? But yeah, so things like that. They matter, especially in the profit sector, because if I could do window cleaning and do away with my other two companies, I would, but I can't and I won't because they all generate income. So, but going back to the high school versus college, right?
Speaker 2:Right. So I guess for me really there were. I mean, I made it through all of all mathematics, everything that you needed to know, which I always forget, the one with shapes, geometry, geometry. I Was told I would never need to know any of that shit. Well, guess what? I deal with a freaking bowl of water every day that varies in size on every single person's bowl in their backyard or their swimming pool. So I have to understand a little bit about that, for the chemical side, for the how to run your pump, how to run your system. So I mean it makes more sense now. But before, just like you said, you won't get paid to look out of window. You'll probably never need this, but I need it now.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, do you think that you should have finished high school, or do you think that I?
Speaker 2:Think it puts me at an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. It puts me in advantage in the sense of I Tell everybody, all my friends, I tell everybody that is I'm growing up in my circle, or family members, people who have kids, finish high school. Nothing else finish high school because you've got the trades too.
Speaker 2:That was what you want to say if you don't want to go into college and you want to be a, you want to be a welder, you want to do what? Anything that could be trade Go to a trade school. You're gonna learn way more about one thing as opposed to learning All the stuff that you haven't learned for business In your college classes. I mean, you're all over the place learning about one thing, whereas if you're going for a trade for welding, they're putting your rest at work.
Speaker 1:Right out the gate and they're helping you get a job. Yeah so.
Speaker 1:I In. I going to like an, an apprenticeship, absolutely, and going back to go into the college side of things. Being a college student, I would say yes. I would say the same thing either go to college or go to a trade school, regardless, if you think that it's going to help you in the future. I'm not a big backup plan kind of guy. Right, I don't believe in having a backup plan or a plan B or plan C. I believe in having a plan A and dedicating everything to it. Yeah, because if you have a plan B or a plan C or a fallback plan, you're going to end up falling back.
Speaker 2:Well, even if your backup plan is going to be, say, the majority of the work that you get is from window cleaning, your backup plan is not what you're going to do with a degree or with whatever else is going to be your other company. And if that other one your other backup plan is the other company, you're going to be able to supply your other company with the other two or with the other one. See, and so your backup plan Is it really a backup plan?
Speaker 1:But it's Something to support absolutely well, and I guess what I was getting back or what I was getting to with the backup plan is I'm not going to college for a backup plan. I'm not going to college to get a degree to To have something to fall back on. Say all three or four or five soon to be five companies that I own Go bankrupt, right, or whatever happens happens, right. I'm not saying I'm going to college for the backup plan, I'm not. I'm not going to college to get the degree to have something to fall back on if that happens, which is very, very Minimal risk to me if that happens. You know, right now, because I've grown to such a large Scale, well, I'm going to college, really, really and truly One. I'm a first-generation college student, right, so I'm trying to make my parents proud. Yeah, absolutely To. It's nice to be able to say, oh yeah, I have a degree. My dad very much slid under the wire when he Went to work and the position that he's at now. He very much slid under the wire.
Speaker 2:And I'll get into that too on my my side of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just for perspective to Back into it College. I think there is an advantage and a disadvantage as well. I am a full-time college student. I own three companies, four opening in less than a month, and so it's currently December 12th, right, and I am. I'm opening another company and roughly like 19 days, 1920 days, and so when that company goes live, I'm gonna have to Go into full Mode. Right, I'm gonna have to go into full grow this business. I'm a full-time college student. In less than 120 days, I open a fifth company, or at least that's the plan. If everything goes and I've talked to you about this we may be being partners in it. I don't know at this point, and that's fine if you're, we're not.
Speaker 2:Money's money man.
Speaker 1:Exactly. If it makes money, it makes sense. Yeah, and so that's two companies in the upcoming year. I'm still a full-time college student. Go into school 12 hours to 15 hours a semester. Yeah, that's 12 to 15 hours a week of my life now. Granted, it's really not because I am a very quick learner and I'm able to submit things quickly, right, yeah, with that being said, it's Still time out of my day that I'm having to spend on college. So that's. That is very much the disadvantage. The advantage Okay, I have a degree to post on my wall.
Speaker 1:I have a degree that I can say oh yeah, I've gone For two college for business administration. I have the knowledge ice in a lot of employers they're not looking for the degree you got. They're looking to see if you went to college, if you made it through the four to six years that it takes an average person to go through college. I think right now, the average in America is five years to get through it. Really, yeah, so I'm on average. I will complete my degree on Average, but that's also with three companies under my belt right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he was not necessarily an average.
Speaker 1:It's kind of You're doing better than However many the whatever the percent would be exactly, and I own three companies in the biggest, one of the biggest competitive markets in the United States of America Houston, texas. So, with that being said, I think it's an advantage because I will have the degree and I'll be able to say hey, I went to school again. Employers aren't looking for the degree they're. They're they're trying to see if you had the guts, if you had the mental power and if you had the willpower to go to school for four to six years, or four to five years, or however Many years you went, if you got a degree, if you were able to go through that amount of time through college.
Speaker 1:Again, they're not looking for the degree you have. They could care less if it's a degree in science or animal science. They're wanting to see if you stuck with it, did the work and graduated and Put in the time that it takes, because if you did, then that's an advantage to the employer. If you're not gonna start your own thing, that's an advantage to the employer by showing them you stuck with a specific thing For that amount of time. Oh yeah, you're less of a flight risk to come into the company, work for a year, get your bonus and then leave.
Speaker 2:So agree with that.
Speaker 1:I think that's the advantage of going to school. It builds your credibility right or at least go to college or a trade school.
Speaker 2:So I think I've given you a little bit of insight on kind of how my Starting into this Became, because absolutely last week or a week and a half ago was with the two-year anniversary of my company Yep, I'm 27, you know. Like it, it took a little bit longer than it did for yourself being in college and everything you know.
Speaker 1:So, yes, and no, I don't know. Did you when you were my age because I'm 22, we've got a five-year difference when you were my age, did you want to start your own company or were you thinking, were you the classic 9-5 mentality work for another company, grow that company, work for them, collect a salary? Or Did you have the mental capacity to say I want to build a company?
Speaker 2:So I had a 10-year plan. I had a 10-year plan, nothing wrong with that. I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I was 15, turning 16, and no, take that back the summer after my 16th, so I'm Into. October is my birthday, so the summer after my 16th. It was about time. You know, I'm fine, a summer job, you're 16 years old, pick, you know, figure that out.
Speaker 2:And so my doubt at the time, which had a lot to do with most of this he was. He didn't grow up in the pool business, right, but since I was 10 years old 9 years old he was in the pool industry. He was building pools. He was basically doing the stuff that, for the people I work for, do most of my work for, is builders. Yeah, and so he was a builder and that was primarily all he did. Well, then he got hired on to a manufacturer and that's what he does now, and he's been there now for 15 years as of a month ago. So he's okay with a 9-5. Yeah, he's good with that and with the mountain of money he makes, he should be okay with that. Yeah, you know, but just like you were saying a little bit ago, he has a high school diploma. He doesn't have a college education. He doesn't very.
Speaker 2:My parents do very few people in my family do. So it came time and he was like, hey, I Really don't want you, he goes. I want you to learn a skill. I don't want you to learn how to push carts at a store nothing wrong with it, but he goes. I want you to learn something hands-on. I want you to learn how to do something other than bagging groceries or checking people out at the at the grocery store he goes. I want you to learn some hands-on. I'm gonna have you work with my very first employer and my first.
Speaker 2:When I was 16 and 17. I worked with two different guys, a repair company and a cleaning company, and it was kind of like a 50-50 split. I would work with the repair guy when he needed me and I would clean pools like two or three days a week. Yeah, so that way I could still do school whenever I was doing school at 16. Sure, and so Started doing all of that and then it just I fell in love with it. As weird as it sounds, 16 years old, I was like I Think money had a little bit of influence on that as well. Absolutely, but it like you're talking 15 going to 16 and this dude's handing you a hundred dollar bill at the end of every single day that you go to work.
Speaker 1:It's like On average that's three grand a month. Yeah, if I worked every day and that was at 16. That was a 16 to a 16-year-old. That's a lot of money, dude.
Speaker 2:A hundred dollars a week is a lot of money to most 16-year-olds, I mean. So it was a matter of I was. I learned both sides and I was like I really like the repair side. I've always been. I always like working on stuff, fixing stuff, putting stuff together, and so I Worked with him and a cleaning company. I learned enough from the cleaning company. He wasn't very good about explaining Chemistry and stuff to me, so I was like he was like Kind of fending for you, I'm really surprised.
Speaker 2:A lot of pools aren't like super fucked up right now, like honestly. But yeah, and whenever I started working with him full-time 1099 which if I'd have known then I would have probably been able to Switch it up to a Different tax bracket just because of or not tax bracket, but a different form to fill because of, yeah, how everything was supplied. Anyway, see something for another podcast at some point.
Speaker 1:I'm bad about that too. But yeah, absolutely Definitely for another podcast.
Speaker 2:But I'm bad about that with my guys too but Regardless, I worked with him almost five months to the day I I learned everything about heaters, automation lights, control systems, cleaners, I mean you name it. If it had something to do with working swimming pool, I was. I was pretty inept with it, like I knew what I was doing.
Speaker 2:Well, the whole goal and the whole time I was with him, he was like, just like the last podcast it was, I Know you're not gonna be here forever, I know you're gonna start your own thing. There's, there's so many damn pools in this, you know, in this state, in the city, absolutely. And so he's like I don't care if you stay here, I want you to start your own thing. Well, me Not feeling like either, either a worthy to start my own company she don't really have to be worthy too but not feeling like I was ready for it. I was like, well, I'm gonna go work for a company that does full maintenance. I Wanted to learn my tenure plan. At that point, after working for him for five years, was I want to Learn every single bit of this industry before I start my company?
Speaker 1:So at what age did you decide to Eventually start your own company?
Speaker 2:so If you're talking at 16, I Was planning so what would that put me at? Like 21, 22 Before, that was like five years me working with him. I was like I want to learn a little bit more before I start. Yep, at that point I had put in my head that this is pretty much the industry I'm gonna be in. I was like, okay, I'm gonna learn how to how chemistry works, to a T when I can explain it to anybody in layman's terms, to.
Speaker 2:I want to learn how to start up a swimming pool from scratch, make sure I fuck up the plaster or anything in this woman pool. Three, I also want to learn how to build a pool. Those were the things that I wanted to learn. That way, if I did get into any industry of this or any part of this industry, if I hired somebody, I didn't want somebody to tell me something and you not know and me not know or Questions. That way, if somebody comes to me and they go oh no, I did this, this and this. No, you didn't, because I know I've done it. So it really was. I went to work for a company, held their service side together for about a year. No room for improvement there, little bitty company that about 50 pools we were cleaning, on top of about two to three startups a week is not the company you're thinking of okay, this was before that.
Speaker 2:Then that company approached me while I was driving the other company's vehicle and they wanted to hire me.
Speaker 1:One of the owners or Was it a manager that approached you? It was the owner, okay, of the other company. Yeah, you're the one that I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2:The one you're thinking of, okay he called me and Wanted to sit down for dinner when my naivety at the time I had a non-compete yeah, but in Texas non-compete they. But to a 21, 22 year old Barely kind of getting out and everything.
Speaker 2:Barely knowing and having a better knowledge of everything on the legalities, knowing how everything really works, because really there was no non-compete by the time I left, because they dropped 60% of their clientele for maintenance whenever I left because they couldn't maintain it themselves. Yep, for, so I went to work with them, started their service side, so I know how to start that, I Know how to do everything to get it going. So that's what intrigued them, to get me going with them. So we started that up and I worked for them for about a year and a half, almost two years, yeah, yeah. And Dude, at some point when you're like hey, you're the manager, you're the maintenance manager and you don't move up or they don't get anybody to hire on To make it to where you can manage, it kind of bottoms out, it bottoms out, you're still the, you just the fucking pool boy at that point, You're a pool boy with a new title exactly with a cool fancy title that makes you feel special, something to put on Facebook, and that's all it was.
Speaker 1:Because did it come with a pay raise? No see, that's literally all it was was something to make you feel appreciated without Giving you an incentive to stay, exactly and at that point I was doing some side work. Like we now know, a lot of their employees do.
Speaker 2:To make up for stuff that I couldn't get from that company. But I could have brought that business, but nobody came and approached me to see how to grow anything. They were just like keep cleaning pools. So After working with them, I then moved to God awful fucking league city. How'd that go with the expectation and with the job title? I still have all the paperwork as a general manager.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're like a superintendent. See, I don't know a whole bunch about your league city Information, but man.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we won't get into the personal side right now. That'll be for another time. But, moving to league city, I Got hired on To build swimming pools yeah, which was in my eighth year of the industry, which I was like I'm on track.
Speaker 1:So that I wanted that was your eight out of your tenure now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly eight of my. I wanted to be by ten years. I wanted to have built ten pools which would have set you at what?
Speaker 1:What age? 25?.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 25. That'll put me at about 25, almost 26 by 26. I should have, you know, built at least 10 pools in my mind. Yeah, absolutely so I moved down there with my experience and my knowledge of swimming pools and my industry, and they also hired a secondary guy to do my same job. That was a manager at Subways Subway. So, how they would shop.
Speaker 1:Did you ever because I never heard about this Did you ever find out why they thought they could hire somebody from Subway versus somebody who's been in the years there in the industry for eight years?
Speaker 2:So they hired both of us. One because my boss at the time in League City was a he he. He got in the industry way like probably four or five years before I moved there. So I've been doing a little bit longer, but he's been building, that's one thing he's got on me. And so by the time I moved down there they hired both of us. Because during COVID was a huge boom for the swimming pool industry. Yep, you couldn't go on vacation, couldn't go anywhere. So if you were going to vacation, you were going to vacation in your backyard with the house. So interest rates were different. You could refinance your home, add the pool in there. So they were really in it at the right time.
Speaker 1:So interest rates were like 2%. Oh, dude, maybe they're like one to two and a half percent, I mean for a swimming pool. That's unheard of.
Speaker 2:Did you think about it. You have a $500,000 home, you had a $200,000 swimming pool and you refied at 2%. People were doing that all over. Oh, yeah, so they boomed. Well, they made a shit ton of money. So when you make a shit ton of money, you spend a shit ton of money, unless you're smart about it sometimes. Yeah, so it was a lot of a.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm real good friends with the bar over here and over here and I'm good friends with the owner that owns this bar, or the owner that owns this steakhouse, or, yeah, they found this guy that was a bar hop, but no, in his manager experience they thought, oh well, we can hire him to.
Speaker 2:They never really gave me the opportunity to do that because once I moved down there literally moved down there, had an apartment, had a lease, brought everything that I own down there, yeah, and pretty much got it to where it was like OK, well, we're going to, we're going to put you to, we're going to have you do some startups and some pool schools and stuff, but you're also going to build pools, yeah, yeah, well, the subway guy building pools mainly only Well, one fuck up because they had pulled me away and another super. That was supposed to be there, not the, not the subway dude Said oh hey, man, you do that. I've got this. Yeah, major, fuck up on a job. That got pointed back at me because I wasn't there. Even though I got pulled away from that point, they put me in the service side. So I was basically doing the same thing that I did for the previous company starting up a service side.
Speaker 1:At that point I was at nine and a half years and you I don't know, I'm just going to go on a guess here you were like OK, yeah, no, I'm not doing this. And then that's when you branched out, or bro.
Speaker 2:I literally had a year lease and about nine months later I moved away back to Conroe Not when I met you to whenever. Yeah, this was before the company even started. I was trying to make that extra money doing a side job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I remember I met you before you even moved back to Conroe. You were still living, living in a league city. You drove up for that job. We met through a mutual friend. Yeah, right, at three years ago we met through a mutual friend. Or maybe four years, three years, it's about three years, yeah, three years. We met through a mutual friend doing that side job for you, main job for me. That was my biggest job up until that point, right, because I had just started my company.
Speaker 2:So from that point, whenever I was like dude, I can't do this anymore. One, I was working more hours than I am now for this other company, making them a ton of money. Going dude, if I'm going to, if I'm not going to build pools, if I'm not going to do what I really want to do, I'm going to start my own company. So you're going to go and do your own thing.
Speaker 2:So December 6th 2021. It was actually two weeks sooner than I was wanting to start it, but I was forced to start it because I had no employment at the time. So you had to start it to obviously make income to make income, live, to go live back at home from about two months and still pay for my apartment. So I didn't break my legs. I was going to say did you ever have to break your?
Speaker 1:lease, or did you just pay? The whatever it was, what was it like? 1200 a month, 1400. Oh, 1400 a month. So you, you're out because of that company.
Speaker 2:You're out roughly $4,200 and just rent payments for somewhere that I'm not even living, just to move back to start something. And thankfully I have worked out. I had parents that were willing to Front money and invest and invest and me even given some other personal past things that I'm sure at some point we'll get into because I'm not afraid to talk about it, but some things that my old man was high, strong as hell whenever that happened, because he knew some of the shit I was into but still went out on a limb, made it happen. He's been paid back 100% and now some right and then some as an investor.
Speaker 1:So, if I'm correct, they actually hold stock in your company or shares, basically they, we all, me, my old man and my mom.
Speaker 2:My mom pretty much runs the operations of everything calls that come in, calls that go out. She basically run taxes, everything. She runs all the books and everything. But yeah, they both own a percentage of the company.
Speaker 1:If you don't mind me asking and tell me if you do, do you still own majority? Yes, okay, I was curious. Yes, cause this is coming from somebody, because I own 100% of everything I have across all three companies 100%. I've thought about taking investors in the fifth company, not the fourth that's opening in January, but the fifth company that's opening in, hopefully, march or April. I've considered you being 50, 50 or 49, 51 partner, right. I was just curious as far as that standpoint goes with your company, right, how much so if you own majority, what you do.
Speaker 2:I have to go back. I know I own majority. I don't know 100% percentage wise. I can't remember what the agreement was on that just off the top of my head, but I couldn't run it by myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely I mean just again. We're not afraid to talk numbers here, but first year balls to the wall Making over six figures see, in first year for me, I made less than six figures, but you also went, like you just said, balls to the wall. You were working every weekday Um, minus holidays.
Speaker 2:Um.
Speaker 1:I did. I was working six days a week. You were working six days a week. I was not the smartest idea, but my first year I was working maybe two, three days a week and I was making, I think, the first year that I did, I think it was right under like 60 grand or 50. No, it was right under 50, uh, 50,000.
Speaker 1:Um, second, year college student and as a college student, a second year 60,000. No, second year was 75,000. Yeah, third year going into business now, uh, I'll make six figures again, that's as a college student. That's also only working on average. I mean over the course of the year. I think that I've taken like a total of this Isn't going to sound good. And this is not including weekends. With weekends I'm sure it's over 150. This is taken like 120 days off. I mean three months of the year I don't work, um, obviously dispersed. It's not like, oh yeah, january through March I'm not going to work. You know, it's over the course of the year. But and then in January, january 11th Actually, my truck went out of commission.
Speaker 1:This year I did not have a truck from January 11th through February 28th, actually 27th, I don't remember if it was a full, yeah, it was, it was a leap year. It wasn't a leap year, it was 28,. Uh, february 28th, uh, april, like third, I got my new truck. So three months of this year I didn't have a truck. I was bouncing back and forth because at the time my dad owned a Yukon. Uh, I was using his, his car, because insurance, when it pay for it, the manufacturer finally got me into. Actually, I don't even care.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say I don't know what your legalities are on it, but you GMC.
Speaker 1:I had a 2021 GMC truck with 68,000, no 67,000 miles on it and I had the. Thankfully, we know the owners, or my family knows the owners. My dad knows the owners of the dealership right that we bought it from and the seven or eight dealerships that they own, and so when we contacted the dealership, they knew already what was going on. The owner uh, we know all three of the owners of the dealerships. They were very helpful. They finally got me a loaner vehicle.
Speaker 1:So I went without a vehicle for like a month and a half and then I had a loaner vehicle and then I got my new truck and then about three months of owning this new truck, the AC went out. The truck went back to the manufacturer, to the dealership. I was out of a month a truck for about a month, but I had, I know, about two weeks. They were. They were pretty quick because the owner of the dealership told them he didn't even know that the truck was there. He found out and he went down to the service manager and said what the hell is this truck doing here? Why are they having another issue with another truck with a different brand of manufacturer of truck. The AC went out the they had to replace the entire AC coil and condenser in the the 2022 F 150 that I drive. So I I faced quite a bit of challenge this year.
Speaker 2:Oh, three months without my truck, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:Three months without a truck, three and a half months without a truck, truly, if you count the new truck going down. Thankfully, whenever the new truck went down, it was a week before we left for a week vacation over July 4th. We left for the first through the, through the seventh or eighth, and so I didn't need it then and I didn't. I really did need it the week before, but I made it work Right. So and you're going to laugh at this one it's going back to the, the manufacturer, this week, tomorrow. Actually, I'm for what?
Speaker 2:reason.
Speaker 1:The this is a minor one. The tail light is has condensation building inside water, building inside of the tail light. So, yeah, I'm going back tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be a quick fix. They should be able to say, oh yeah, it's warrantied, there's no cracks, because I mean I haven't damaged the vehicle.
Speaker 2:Buy a Toyota.
Speaker 1:Okay, mr. Tailgate issues 67,000 miles in two years old I was at 67,000 miles at two years old with my GMC and you know what happened the engine went out.
Speaker 2:The engine went out and my tailgate's broken. Do we want? So? Yeah, no, you faced all. So I think I've asked you this before, but I know the whole deal with Best Buy, but what ended up getting you into? Because it was pressure washing first it was. So I mean I know your dad didn't pressure wash because I mean I know a lot of my stuff comes from like family and people that I know absolutely. What got you into the Pressure washing window cleaning, exterior lighting, what, what got you? What got you? What, what, what, what really made your gears go so?
Speaker 1:actually this. I'll start from the beginning, because this was like I think it was July, mid-july, right, and I was working. I was working at Best Buy mid-July like 2021. Okay or 2020. It was mid-July 2020 actually. I was working at best buyers yeah during the middle of COVID and man that year it was bad. So I was working at Leslie's pool supplies when we met, actually, or when I I don't know if that may not have been when we met, but it was when I was working at Leslie's pool supplies that I met Ty.
Speaker 2:We met through Ty.
Speaker 1:So that same job that you came on to when you were living at league city I came on to when I was working for Leslie's pool supplies and I I had met Ty because he came in one day to buy some stuff and and Obviously we both know he for people who don't know, he owns a pool cleaning company. And so he came across a job. He was trying to start getting into building pools, remodel, remodeling everything. So I had been working for Leslie's for like less than two months. Mm-hmm, he came in. I told him that that's whenever I was like looking at pressure washing and I'm like, because the Originally my grandmother, it was through family. My grandmother asked me to come over. It's stupid, it sounds so stupid right now talking about it. My grandmother asked me to come by and pressure wash her driveway and I'm like, okay, I'll get it done, you know just a common household tour exactly, and she lives 45 minutes away at the time.
Speaker 1:She still lives 45 minutes away, but we're in a new house now, so she lives 45 minutes away. I go down there, I'm using the wand pressure washing or driveway with my dad's garage pressure washer Nothing commercial right, just a residential pressure washer and a wand and I'm like there's got to be a way to do this quicker and better yeah and so I look it up and I find a surface cleaner.
Speaker 1:And so what if Y'all don't know what a surface cleaner is? It's basically a round disk with three spray nozzles on it that Turns in a circular motion and cleans the concrete right, it's one of those satisfying videos you find on tiktok.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so I look it up, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna buy one, that way it makes it easier on me, because at that point I only got done with like half of her driveway Maybe and you could see lines everywhere. So I go home depot, buy it, go back, finish cleaning it and it looks pristine, right. And so I Start doing research and I'm like, okay, you can make money doing pressure washing, like I didn't know how much. Just pressure washing. I mean windows, like I mentioned on the previous podcast, window cleaning can go for fucking $200 to $400 an hour. Pressure washing the same thing, if not more. Yeah, I mean there's, there's been times where I've made a thousand dollars an hour On pressure washing, and that that does not include drive time. But there was one, one job that I quoted and I'm very happy to admit this if the customer has an issue with it. I, quite frankly, I love my customers, but I do not care if they have an issue with me admitting this.
Speaker 1:Yeah within 15 minutes. I made it $2300. $2300 within 15 minutes, which equates to like 7000 or a little over 7000. I don't know. I'm sure one of the people in the comments will.
Speaker 2:My 10th grade education heaven ass won't figure that out right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I'm sure somebody in the the comments will say, oh, you couldn't do that simple math really quick and you're in college. Yes, I could not. But uh, bank accounts is different, exactly. So I was making like 7000 an hour on that job and I'm very happy to admit it. Right, I didn't know you can make that much amount of money. I Printed some business cards, threw him down on to the gas station at my local convenience store and, keep in mind, at that time I was living in a population of like 1200. My graduating class was like 80, one or 82 in high school I'm coming from a population where my graduating class would have been like 1200 to 1500 moved to high, a different high school, through my business cards out at that gas station. At that time I had just graduated high school, just started college and I get a call for a Storage complex and at that time I'm like okay, cool, like this will be a couple thousand dollars, like. So I go, I join a Facebook community. I I post about it. I'm like is there anybody in Houston that like can help me quote this, help me do the work? Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:I met a guy named James. He is a year younger than me. He is 21 years old, cool dude. He helped me get get into pressure washing. He's the reason that I am where I am today and I am very happy to admit that I'm proud.
Speaker 1:There's been some like back and forth. There's there's always drama, regardless of the industry or workplace if you work for somebody or you work for your own. There's been drama thrown around, but I don't look into it. I mean, people put words into my mouth. People have taken the words I've said and twisted them. I think at least on my end I have no hard feelings, and I don't think he does either. No, but he helped me get into the industry. He helped me grow my company and he kind of taught me the ins and outs right. So I learned and I I did what I needed to do at that point I would. I went from Leslie's, I think I said there two and a half three months, went to Best Buy again because I had worked at Best Buy from 2018 to 2020. Quit went to Leslie's, quit, leslie's then went back to Best Buy.
Speaker 1:Before you got black was before I got black. Was it funny? Funny enough, I'm almost a hundred percent certain because I was told by one of my old Co-workers I am also blacklisted at Leslie's. So I am blacklisted from working for two different companies now and I'm 22 years old, forever getting a job at those two companies again, which is fine with me I mean, there's no hard feelings, right. But Because I'm not gonna be working, at least it this may again be my arrogance talking I'm not gonna work for another person in my life. I would rather go homeless like you. You're still. Yeah, I'd rather go homeless than Work for another person in my life. I Just because I love the money factor and I also love not having to answer to anybody.
Speaker 1:When you have the the work mentality To go knock on two or three hundred doors in a day, if you absolutely fucking out there and I've done it, I've done it, I've completely done it out of every hundred doors you you knock, expect to land anywhere from three to ten jobs. Yeah, you land more than that. Then you are Probably the top one percent of the service industry. Yeah, and for everybody who's saying that you can't knock doors if you're in a specific industry yes, you can. Yes, you can. Mine's a little bit different.
Speaker 2:For warranty, yes, well, not even warranty, but pull stuff that's related. Not everybody has a swimming pool.
Speaker 1:No, but you can still go knocking, knock on doors. You may not hit the three to ten. Google Maps, google Maps apps absolutely, I use it. Google Earth man oh, dude you. Even if you're just starting a pool cleaning company, you can go knock on a hundred doors. If you Select a neighborhood that has a lot of pools, you can still land five individual cleanings if they don't even sign up for monthly, and it might sound sleazy. As far as growing that, though, you can still grow it, because that's that's how I grew my my window cleaning business for one for starters, my pressure washing business for two for starters, and my Christmas light company. The Christmas light company cherished and and grew because of the window cleaning and power washing company that I grew, and I will say 60% of my customers today that return Our doorknob clients.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, a hundred percent. Maybe we just have a little bit of a different thought process on the Certain things. That's okay, but for me, if I was to start over and start something as far as cleaning or anything like that, I Would go to some builders. I.
Speaker 1:Would too. And again, looking back on it, that's another part. I mean, we've been recording for 53 minutes, so we're about to have to end it here in the next 10 minutes anyway, damn. But If I was to do it differently For you, like you said, builders contact builders directly. Right, I would contact any commercial place around me, because that's another thing in 2024. I am moving. I'm about 75% residential, 25% commercial.
Speaker 1:I am trying to move that number as much commercial as I can and reduce the amount of residential clients that I have If I could do that and again, there's been some speculation in the market because I put my trailer up for sale for pressure washing I'll clear the air. Right now I'm going to a 100% subcontracting model for pressure washing, not for window cleaning and not for Christmas lights. I am going to a 100% subcontracting model for pressure washing in 2024 as of right now. If I could move my, if I could flip the odds and go to 75% commercial, 25% residential I do it on heartbeat.
Speaker 1:There's some disadvantages. There's a net 15, net 30, pay net 90. In some cases I would rather wait 90 days to get my money, the money I know is going to hit my account Within the 90 day, 30 day, 15 day period. With residential, I have to chase my money down half the time. True, you don't have to worry about it because your manufacturer or not, you're not the manufacturer, but you work for a manufacturer. They pay you within a set amount of time, right?
Speaker 2:90% of what I do is warranty. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:So you get your money from the manufacturer, which is a commercial entity. You're not directly moat, for the most part not directly working with the end user, right? You're a middleman, you're there to solve the issue, not install the product. Oh for sure. For 90% of the time me, 75% of the time I am working directly with the, the residential customer, 100%.
Speaker 1:They want an extra. They want something thrown in, which is not a problem, don't mind it. Whatever I, 90% of the time I'll do it for free. The issue is the tickets are much smaller than res commercial jobs. They are a little bit more difficult and picky, which isn't an issue if you're paying for your house to be cleaned or windows or whatever to be cleaned. I understand being picky right.
Speaker 1:However, at a certain degree, if we miss a cobweb or one in and I'm gonna talk about a big one, I'm talking about one strand and the customer comes out and or or one speck of dirt on their house during a house wash, when you're washing the house and you're washing the lower portion of the house, there's gonna be dirt that builds up. I have had about 20% of the clients that I did house washes for it says, in our terms and conditions, we wash organics only. So your algae, mildew, stuff like that right, green, yellow, black, whatever Dirt, believe it or not, and clay, believe it or not, are not organic materials. That is an upcharge. They will come and talk to us and say, hey, look, and I am very, very up front whenever I wonder why you miss that dirt Dirt uppernessed on my parents window right.
Speaker 1:Right. But the thing is is Customers won't read the fine print. So I make it very apparent to say when I'm doing the quote look, this will come off, this will not come off, this is an upcharge, this is included, and they don't they? They either just skip through it or choose not to listen until after you're done with the work and then decide to come up with a complaint. So that's a Very long, like three-minute conversation on why I'm trying to move commercial only. If I could do that, then I would 100% keep my trailer. I would completely or or sell my trailer and build another trailer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm still going to offer pressure washing through the network of people that I've built. There are two people that I will pick. One is south of me and one is in the same location as me, depending on where I get the work or what the scope of work is and what it requires. I will recommend, not only recommend. I will give the customer Residential or commercial a quote with my markup on it and with their price. Yeah, they will be the ones that go out and complete the work Under my insurance policy.
Speaker 1:So subcontracting is definitely gonna play a big part of my company in 2024, but I'm getting rid of a lot of a headache.
Speaker 1:I'm just gonna be dealing with the end user and it goes back to that passive income, right, like we talked about in the last episode, passive income is a scam. I'm telling you right now a passive income is a scam. Sure, I won't have to complete the work, but I'm still gonna have to be sending everybody information on hey, can you get a quote for this? And then sending that to the end user and then saying, hey, this is the day you're gonna need to work, this is the day that I Will be completing this work, or one of my partner or affiliate companies will be completing the work. So that's that's kind of my plans for 2024 as far as growth goes. Another company that again I'm talking to you about we can't disclose because we're under a confidentiality agreement yep, but that's another one that we will hopefully be able to talk about within the next couple of months, next couple of episodes, once we all get it, or once we get it all figured out and and yeah so I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean, what are your plans for growth?
Speaker 2:Man plans for growth. I think, as of right now, I Guess, more than anything, I really want my company to be more of a brand. I do kind of want, like you're saying, the passive income, but it being passive income is a scam.
Speaker 1:Don't, do not. Let's say that I want passive income. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I want my company to be a brand more than anything. Me too, I want it to be At least known local here in Texas, if not further than that. But I just want it to be known, something that can make money without, whether it's merchandise, whether it's the podcast, whether it's whatever. As of right now, my plan is talking with you on this next venture, but, honestly, if I can get somebody that I can hire to do Some of the server side without cleaning pools, then that's kind of really what I'm trying to get at absolutely whether it's a pool of school, whether it's a startup, something just to keep people informed.
Speaker 2:So I think at the end of the day I'm not a hundred percent sure they might have to get back to you on that one.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely. We can definitely talk about it in a future episode. So with that, thank you for tuning in to the Astrocraft grow, influence, invest podcast. I am your host, seth Mills, joined by your co-host, nick Dawson. Thank you guys for listening and we will see you guys in the next episode. We we will talk about a little bit of our growth and strategies, on how we invested our money, or at least invested our money back into the business, yeah, and how we plan to grow in 2024. Stay sassy.
