I Built It — Then I Let It Go

What if the bravest move isn’t scaling harder, but choosing to close a chapter that works? Seth takes us inside the real math of momentum, walking through the journey from a truck and a Home Depot pressure washer to three sustainable service companies, 70%+ returning customers, and the decision to sell on purpose. This isn’t a highlight reel; it’s a candid look at the cost of winning, the pressure of expectations, and the freedom that comes from handing your customers to a better-fitting operator when the business needs outgrow your bandwidth.

We break down how execution—not hype—turned door knocking into a six-figure base, how smart diversification into window cleaning and holiday lighting compounded trust and lifetime value, and why sustainability can be a more honest milestone than constant expansion. The sale didn’t happen overnight; it matured over months, with a buyer already proven as a subcontractor and a focus on safeguarding service quality and reputation. Along the way, Seth confronts the identity trap of entrepreneurship, the pull of ego, and the quiet question that changes everything: if no one was watching, what would you choose?

Post-sale, the payoff was energy, clarity, and space to build again in a new industry with a better fit. The takeaway is simple and hard: peace is not laziness, timing beats ego, and success does not need permission. If you’re standing at the edge of “it works, but it doesn’t fit,” this story gives language and courage for the next right move. Subscribe, share this with a founder who needs it, and leave a review with your answer to the question—what would you choose if no one was watching?

Chapters

• 0:00 Choosing To Let Go
• 1:04 Selling Without Quitting
• 2:40 Proving It Works
• 5:20 From Traction To Sustainability
• 7:24 Execution Over Hype
• 9:05 Diversifying Into Three Companies
• 12:02 Service, Seasons, And Systems
• 14:15 Return Customers And Mindset Shift
• 16:25 The Nine-Month Decision
• 18:30 Ego, Identity, And Expectations

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

I didn't quit, I didn't fail, and I didn't walk away from entrepreneurship. Welcome back to the Seth Set It Show. I'm your host, Seth Mills. Today we're going to be discussing one of the hardest decisions that I had to make as an entrepreneur, and that was building something from nothing and then making the decision to let it go. And I know that sentence alone makes people, or at least most people, uncomfortable because in a world that worships growth, scaling, and never stopping, choosing to step back sounds like weakness. But sometimes nothing is wrong, and still something isn't right. This episode isn't advice, it's perspective. It's about what it actually costs to build something, what it feels like when success starts asking for more than you want to give, and why letting go doesn't always mean quitting. I didn't leave the game. Now, going back on what I just said, I didn't quit and I didn't fail, and I certainly did not leave entrepreneurship. I built something real. I built three companies and I chose to let them go. I chose to find the right buyer, I chose to negotiate their sale, and I chose to sell the companies not only to move me forward and give me momentum, but also to get the companies to where they needed to be. Because I knew that in my hands, but I I don't know everything. Nobody knows everything. And if you think you do, you need a reality check. But I knew that in certain areas my customers would be more taken, not taken care of by a larger company that bought me out, or by about it was about the same similar size, but their operations were were run much better than mine were. And I knew that they'd be able to take care of the customers that I had in my database, and on a recurring basis, better than I could have, right? So I didn't quit, and I certainly, like I said, didn't fail. I built something and I wanted to make sure that my customers were taken care of, as well as it was a point in my life where everything, excuse my language, but shit was hitting the fan in every single direction that you looked. And I have no regrets. I will not regret it because truthfully, that was the best thing that I could have done for myself to push me into other ventures and other things that I could progress in and not really have passion for, but have more opportunity for growth and scaling. And not everything is about growth and scaling, right? And so when I first started this company, I started with a pressure washer in the back of my truck, and it was a little DeWalt Home Depot pressure washer, and then I got into the trailer build, and then I stepped back from the trailer build, but this was all possible because I didn't quit and I didn't stop searching for success. Uh the the uncertainty at the beginning was very real. For the first year, I made like$12,000, and I had been working retail where I was getting like three or four thousand a uh uh per month, and so yeah, it was scary. You gotta take risks if you're getting into entrepreneurship, but that's how it all started, and then I built it into a six-figure company, and so it gained real traction, not only around my area or my local area, but I started doing jobs all over the greater Houston area, and I realized that it worked whenever people were starting to call me, and I wasn't having to go chase the work in the field knocking on doors, which I still did up until I sold the the company. We knock on five or ten doors on every direction of every job that we do. Uh, and I realized, okay, so I'm not having to do that. People are calling me. The customer base that I have at the or had at the time was sustainable, and it was driving my growth and driving my my profit and my my revenue margins. So I didn't have to. If I didn't want to scale it more, I didn't have to. I could be sustainable making six figures without having to chase work. Now, you gotta chase work. Don't get me wrong. I will I would never stop chasing work. I always chased work and I always chased more work and more recurring customers and uh renewals on those recurring customers. But what I'm saying is that's whenever I figured out, okay, this is gonna work, this is stable, this is providing me an income. What can I do now to either transition this to where I'm not in the field or sell this to where I can make a profit on the business and make sure that the the comp customers that I had and the reputation that I built was still upheld. And the the true story is success, it doesn't look like hype. It's definitely not luck, it's execution. You have to execute well. If you can't execute and stick to it, or execute and stay in it long enough for it to work, that's why I believe they say 90% of startups fail within the first, I believe it's first five years. And so it's not and by fail, they're like just going under and and closing the doors, not selling, not merging, none of that. It's they fail within the first five years. I believe it's 90%. Somebody can fact check me on that. I'd actually really appreciate it if y'all did. But the win wasn't just building it, it was making it sustainable. And my I guess when the success stops needing proof, your mindset shifts, right? And so that was the moment that I decided, okay, I'm not trying to prove anything to anyone anymore. I've built this, they can see that I've built this, and it wasn't about proving it to anybody other than myself. I wanted to prove it to myself that I could do it and then replicate it later on and just continue building. And so I started with pressure washing, then I got into window cleaning and created a separate uh company name for the window cleaning, and then when those die down between I'd say it starts slowing down end of October until I'd say early February, and really not until pollen season's over in the in the exterior cleaning business, so really not till April, but you have you make up for it in those months, right? Well, I was like, okay, so it's slowing down, and I'm seeing these other guys, they're doing Christmas lights, they're doing holiday lighting. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna go do that. So I open up a holiday lighting company, and then I ended up getting into permanent lights, and uh, if you're not familiar with them, they're like jellyfish lighting. And I was able to build all three of these companies off the same customer base and continue to get more revenue in each year for each company. Um, my my customer service, I'd like to say, was very, very high. I I valued customer service, I valued up until this day, I value customer service and replying to clients, responding to customers. I don't do it anymore because I'm no longer affiliated with the company. And so I had a customer reach out, and the the owner of the company now, or the the the current owner of of the company now, uh already knows that I I tell him if any of the customers reach out to me, but re they reached out and they were a little upset that I didn't respond. And one for all of the events that have transpired over the last 30 to 60 days or 30 to 45 days, I'm not in a place where I want to respond to people. So if I'm not responding to you, I'm sorry. I really am, like I and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I truly am sorry, but at the same time, I think that you need to kind of give me some slack, and anybody who's gone through what our family has gone through, you would tend to understand. But anyway, my customer service back to that. I got, I believe, over the last three years, year after year, I was at a 67%, a 69%, and I believe a 73% return in customer rate based off of my entire or my my total revenue was anywhere from like 67 to 73 percent of returning customers or customers who had purchased multiple things each year, and so that's when it came to my my mindset shifted. I'm not trying to prove anything anymore, I've proved it to myself, and that's what mattered. And then, like I said, growth became optional, it wasn't necessary. The customer base was sustaining itself, and there's a difference between ambition and obligation, and that's when I started asking myself about a year ago, so it's it took about a year, or I'd say nine months or so, nine to twelve months for the sale to finally go through after discussing and going back and forth and then finally getting into negotiations. Uh, and I will add this the new owner, he is a workhorse, he does not stop until the customer's happy. So if anybody's listening, you are in great hands. He is an amazing guy, and his his team, I've heard countless good things about uh prior to the the purchase of the business. He was a subcontractor, he was the only subcontractor that I called, unless I got into a really big bind and I'd branch out, but I'd always ask him and say, Hey, are you even okay if I asked somebody else to do this? And nine out of ten times, actually, I think ten out of ten times every single time. He's like, Yeah, I don't care. Uh but the quiet question that I kept asking myself was, do I want to keep scaling this? Or am I done proving that I can? And there's a difference between ambition and momentum that you're afraid to slow down, right? And so that's when I I had a little bit more of an internal tension going on, and I had my ego saying you're supposed to want more. I had my identity where the business becomes who you are. If you're in an entrepreneur, if you are an entrepreneur or in an entrepreneurial setting, the business becomes who you are. You are the business, and the business is you. And then I was also a little conflicted as far as the external expectations: family, peers, friends, uh, enemies, acquaintances. I don't have enemies, but people that dislike me and people I dislike and industry noise. And then I had a little bit of a realization very quickly that I'm allowed to choose differently than what everybody else does. Staying just to meet expectations is still a decision, and so that started taking a little bit of a different mindset again on me, and it wasn't an emotional or a reactive decision. I thought about it for nine months before I decided to do it, and I made it a very strategic sellout uh sale for me. I made it a very strategic sale for the both parties involved, and I timed it well, um, very well, actually. And I still have the skills, still have the experience and the confidence, which confidence you if you want to build your confidence, go start a company because it'll tear you down, eat you up, spit you out, and do it all over again, and you have nothing, you have nothing but your confidence to rely on. And whenever I decided to sell, I decided this is what I'm releasing is a chapter of my life, a structure, and a vision of myself. The the vision of myself was that company, and I I started it, like I said, with a truck and a DeWalt Home Depot pressure washer. I didn't walk away empty-handed, I walked away complete. And what made letting go or what letting go made possible for me was some forward-looking thoughts, and I was more optimistic than ever. It gave me mental clarity, and a big one was energy returning. Uh I think that everybody can say, and I'm not trying to play this often, and when I say all these things, I am not out of being an entrepreneur. I've already started another company, and it's been two months since I sold the company, and I'm already back in the game, just a different industry and a different, different line of work. Uh, and I'm still learning that every day. I'm staring at one of my kiosks over here and really not not enjoying it. But you know what? That's part of entrepreneurial ship is learning something new. And so it gave me more energy, and it gave me some more space to think long term. What can I get into now that nobody's in, or that not a lot of people are in, and what could be profitable? Where could it be profitable? And it gave me room to build something that's more aligned with me, and so my entrepreneurship didn't end, it it evolved. Uh, and I didn't leave the game, I just changed how I play it. And so a little bit of perspective for anyone that's still building and growing and scaling. You're allowed to finish things that work, you're allowed to build something, grow it, scale it, get it to where it's sustainable, and sell it. That is not a failure, that is a success story. That is not you walking away. That's you choosing that this is the end of the road for you. And honestly, for me, it wasn't just the end of the road for me, it wasn't the end of the road for the business for sure. It was just a new stepping stone for the name and the the brand and and the business as a whole, and so growth doesn't always mean adding and adding and adding. That's a very common misconception. Uh I I don't know. I just it's a very miscon uh big misconception that you have to continue to grow something even when you know it's time to let it go. And peace isn't laziness, peace is not laziness. Peace is one of the one things that you can control in your life, and if you don't have it, you might want to start searching for it. Uh I also learned that timing beats ego. If it's the right time, no matter what your ego is telling you, you're gonna end up doing it, and you're gonna feel a lot better afterward. And I'm not telling you to sell your company, I'm telling you, I that this is in regards to either selling, this is in regards to growing, this is in regards for everything. Success does not need permission. And I just I had a question come to me, and somebody actually asked me it. I think about it every day, and they said, and I and so I'm gonna ask you, if no one was watching, what would you choose? Because that gave me all the clarity I needed. And if I was still letting my ego control me, that gave me the all the clarity I I needed, and I'll ask it again if no one was watching, what would you choose? So just going back on it, I built three amazing companies. Built them from the ground up, scaled them, got them to where they were sustainable, and then I let it go. I sold them. And you know what? I'm pretty sure that's what they call a success story. And I respect both paths, let me add that. I do respect both paths. Uh I believe that there is a time where you have to decide what you want for yourself if you want to control the company, or if you want the company to grow. Uh, or if you want to sell the company, or whatever you want to do. I didn't let it go because it failed. I let it go because it worked, and because I knew what it would cost to keep pushing it further. Some chapters are meant to be built, finished, and closed with intention. I'm still an entrepreneur, still building. I just care more now about how I build and why I build. And if you're in a season where something works but doesn't fit anymore, you're not weak for noticing, you're honest. And with that, I will see you guys in next week's episode. I appreciate every single one of you for listening and anybody who's made it this far. I do greatly appreciate you. I am your host, Seth Mills, and this was the Seth Set It Podcast. You all have a great week.