Patrick Pullan - Owner of Blue Ribbon Plumbing, A/C, Electrical

In this episode of American Operator, JC talks with Patrick Pullan, owner of Blue Ribbon Plumbing, A/C, and Electrical, about his unique journey from college student to dropping out and pursuing a career in plumbing. Patrick shares how he acquired his first plumbing company, the strategies he used to grow his business, and what he finds deeply rewarding about working in the trades. From overcoming early challenges to finding purpose in skilled work, Patrick’s story is an inspiring look at the power of following your own path in the world of entrepreneurship.

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Transcript

All right, team, welcome back to the American operator. I am here in Austin, Texas with the one and only Patrick Pullan I don't actually know if you're the one and the only, but the one and only I know that owns and operates Blue Ribbon.

00:00:39:02 - 00:00:41:04
Speaker 2
I have an identical twin brother. No, you don't, I do.

00:00:41:04 - 00:00:42:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, but not named Patrick, though, right?

00:00:42:13 - 00:00:49:09
Speaker 2
Or did they? Brennan. But a lot of people think I am. They'll see me out there and they're like, oh, that's not him.

00:00:49:11 - 00:01:01:20
Speaker 1
Okay, blue, we'll start off with a couple things, but on blue ribbon front, I mean, that thing is growing. If you look at the seven names, it's heating, cooling, plumbing, plumbing, electric. When you introduce your company, do you go through that Ford thing or you just blue ribbon?

00:01:01:20 - 00:01:02:13
Speaker 2
I usually just say.

00:01:02:13 - 00:01:08:07
Speaker 3
Blue ribbon, but like, are people calling us? We say all four traits we want make sure they're aware of. Yeah. The services.

00:01:08:12 - 00:01:26:18
Speaker 1
All the things that you all provide. Yeah. I'll tell you man, you all have there's so many things we're going to dive in today, but y'all have, y'all really kind of thread the needle, I think from a brand perspective on just how to how to. And y'all do it in practice. Have been y'all's HQ there in Bastrop where it's like, hey, there's definitely this is a pro-level team that's operating at this company.

00:01:26:23 - 00:01:44:19
Speaker 1
At the same time, it still feels very Texas. And, you know, down to earth and whatever that is. Was that something that when you first started this journey, was there something that you were mindful of, or is that something later on you kind of had to grow into and kind of make sure we didn't get either too sophisticated or too homebody about it?

00:01:44:21 - 00:01:50:13
Speaker 3
I think it just organically happened. Yeah. We didn't it wasn't like set out in stone that we were going to do it that way. But it just kind of happens.

00:01:50:15 - 00:01:53:14
Speaker 1
Yeah, blue ribbon comes from where?

00:01:53:16 - 00:01:54:05
Speaker 2
It was just a.

00:01:54:05 - 00:02:04:09
Speaker 3
Name we came up with. Actually, when I was moving out here, my dad and I, he was helping me move, and we were just shooting around names, and we were trying to find a actually were based around trying to find a domain name that was going to be easy.

00:02:04:11 - 00:02:04:19
Speaker 2
For.

00:02:04:19 - 00:02:22:04
Speaker 3
For branding perspective, but also kind of like expressed, you know, when you think of Blue Ribbon, you're thinking of like first place and first first and class or quality. Right. And so we ended up finding that the blue ribbon services domain was up for sale. And so we we snagged that. Yeah. And then verified that there was no blue ribbon cooling heating point electrical in Texas and then went ahead and and trademarked that.

00:02:22:04 - 00:02:30:20
Speaker 1
So it is kind of funny right. Like how many times, fairly big decisions from a business name comes down to is that name available for $12 on.

00:02:30:21 - 00:02:34:16
Speaker 2
Oh yeah, on Squarespace? I think we got it for like 1200 bucks or something.

00:02:34:16 - 00:02:36:16
Speaker 3
And we were shooting names back and forth.

00:02:36:16 - 00:02:37:15
Speaker 2
For probably I think we were we were.

00:02:37:15 - 00:02:43:14
Speaker 3
Someplace in like West Texas at this point, coming from California, I was like 12 hours into the drive and yeah, just ended up finding that one. We were like pretty.

00:02:43:14 - 00:02:48:05
Speaker 2
Happy with it. After 12 hours, who settled on and we're like, that'd be good. We like, you know, branding wise.

00:02:48:05 - 00:02:55:19
Speaker 3
Is pretty good. Then. Like also from like a marketing standpoint, like Google, like the ribbon is not an expensive keyword. Yeah. So it's easy for them to find us.

00:02:55:21 - 00:02:57:22
Speaker 1
Thoughtful about that too. Or is it just like, oh.

00:02:58:00 - 00:02:58:12
Speaker 3
It just kind of like.

00:02:58:12 - 00:02:59:13
Speaker 2
Click to like as.

00:02:59:13 - 00:03:00:12
Speaker 3
We saw the domain, we're like.

00:03:00:12 - 00:03:00:23
Speaker 2
Hey, yeah, there's a.

00:03:00:23 - 00:03:04:16
Speaker 3
Lot of different plays off of Blue Ribbon that we can definitely use for marketing perspective.

00:03:04:16 - 00:03:05:12
Speaker 2
So yeah.

00:03:05:12 - 00:03:06:02
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:03:06:04 - 00:03:25:08
Speaker 1
So talk to me about maybe especially for audience here, like how did you get into, into this world of the trades and maybe even more specific kind of on the nose, like you're not a for those who can't see Patrick right now, he's not an old dude. And nothing wrong with old dudes. Me and I just like he's a guy that you would say is in the prime of his career.

00:03:25:10 - 00:03:29:13
Speaker 1
But how did that that started quite some time ago. You getting into plumbing, right? Was the first thing.

00:03:29:13 - 00:03:44:12
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah. So my father's a master plumber. He's been magic plumber for in California for many, many years. He had his own plumbing company when I was growing up. And, when I was, 14, going into high school, he woke me up like, five in the morning. I was going to work, and that's how I got into the trades.

00:03:44:14 - 00:03:45:06
Speaker 3
And then,

00:03:45:08 - 00:03:45:15
Speaker 2
Was it.

00:03:45:16 - 00:03:47:04
Speaker 1
Like, no, no, like.

00:03:47:09 - 00:03:51:09
Speaker 2
It was not love at first. It was not an option. Yeah. I was going to work.

00:03:51:11 - 00:03:59:08
Speaker 1
What about that experience, like, as you were tagging along with him and kind of learning that that immediately sit with you is like, oh, this is what I'm doing. Or you were so naturally 14.

00:03:59:09 - 00:04:06:20
Speaker 3
I wanted to be playing like World of Warcraft with my friends and things like that that summer. You know, I think it's like 2003 or 2004 or something like that. Yeah.

00:04:06:22 - 00:04:10:15
Speaker 2
Yeah. No, I mean, it grew on me right after.

00:04:10:17 - 00:04:24:20
Speaker 3
After high school when his college started selling accounting and finance and then, like, started really learning about that industry and was like, I can make way more money as a plumber. You know, what the like same amount of work you have to put into this. And so I was again on a screw this one to go back to the trades.

00:04:25:01 - 00:04:26:05
Speaker 3
I never had an issue with the hard work.

00:04:26:05 - 00:04:27:15
Speaker 2
And it was it.

00:04:27:16 - 00:04:32:16
Speaker 3
Is fun doing like not sitting at a desk all day. You know, nowadays I sit at the desk all day.

00:04:32:18 - 00:04:34:03
Speaker 2
Try to get I try to get myself out of the.

00:04:34:03 - 00:04:39:20
Speaker 3
Desk a lot. But yeah, and nowadays I find myself in front of spreadsheets and finals and balance sheet a lot and full circle.

00:04:40:00 - 00:04:40:06
Speaker 2
Or.

00:04:40:06 - 00:04:44:20
Speaker 1
Giving you get the degree that I mean. So that was the goal at some point, maybe to be a CPA or go work. And yeah, I was.

00:04:44:22 - 00:04:51:16
Speaker 2
Thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah. Like going into into that world I've always enjoyed like the business side of that. I wouldn't say that. I say I always enjoyed the,

00:04:51:18 - 00:04:59:06
Speaker 3
Like the business side of stuff. So I definitely wanted to be on the business end of things. Because that's like one thing with my dad, too, is like, Tommy was,

00:04:59:08 - 00:05:01:03
Speaker 2
Like, you could be very good plumber.

00:05:01:03 - 00:05:11:07
Speaker 3
Right? And you start from business, you know, nothing but business, you know? So, you know, he he spent ten years being a very good plumber. And then when he entered a business, he's like, how to spend ten years with, like, learn how to be a business owner, you know? And so he's like, do you want to go that route?

00:05:11:07 - 00:05:18:16
Speaker 3
Try and learn as much about business as soon as you can. Be too intimate to not, you know. So, you know, you get to learn from those mistakes, right? Well, you can shortcut that.

00:05:18:17 - 00:05:23:08
Speaker 1
What was his story then? So like he ended up working in the trades from the get or was that also his.

00:05:23:08 - 00:05:24:07
Speaker 2
Yeah he's I think he started.

00:05:24:13 - 00:05:25:13
Speaker 3
And I don't call me on his age but.

00:05:25:13 - 00:05:26:01
Speaker 2
I think he started.

00:05:26:01 - 00:05:28:18
Speaker 3
Working in as a plumber when he's like 19.

00:05:28:18 - 00:05:29:16
Speaker 1
Okay ma'am. So pretty.

00:05:29:16 - 00:05:30:02
Speaker 2
Young.

00:05:30:02 - 00:05:44:00
Speaker 3
Yeah. So he was like 19. And so I want to say like 29. He was working as a plumber and then he started his plumbing business out of our garage before I was born in 1988. Okay. And then he saw that in 2008, 2009.

00:05:44:01 - 00:05:48:13
Speaker 1
We mean, he sold. So he grew that from a probably a single truck type thing. Yeah, that's how big.

00:05:48:14 - 00:05:50:16
Speaker 3
I was just doing a little under 40 million when he sold.

00:05:50:16 - 00:05:51:03
Speaker 2
It. Wow.

00:05:51:03 - 00:05:51:19
Speaker 1
Okay. So yeah.

00:05:51:20 - 00:05:53:14
Speaker 2
Chump change. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:05:53:18 - 00:06:11:04
Speaker 1
What did he, when you were growing up with him and you were running around on these jobs with him and stuff? What about? I know, of course, probably thinking, hey, this is May or may not be what I'm doing. Was there something, though, that as you watched him that you kind of remember very specifically as being like, that's pretty cool.

00:06:11:06 - 00:06:16:04
Speaker 1
Something that impressed you about just kind of his, I mean, did things.

00:06:16:06 - 00:06:18:00
Speaker 2
The overall operation by.

00:06:18:00 - 00:06:20:15
Speaker 3
The time I was like of age, you know, he everything.

00:06:20:17 - 00:06:21:12
Speaker 2
When do you think your dad or.

00:06:21:12 - 00:06:27:22
Speaker 3
Like he just goes off to work. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then like when he finally got to, like actually go to work and I'm like, damn, this is an operation, dude.

00:06:27:22 - 00:06:31:12
Speaker 2
Like you, you actually, like, do stuff. Yeah, yeah. Before it's just like that.

00:06:31:12 - 00:06:40:21
Speaker 3
But it's like, you know, then it's like, this is the business owner side of him, you know? Yeah. And so like, that was pretty cool to to see. Yeah. And so you get to start, then you start open your eyes and paying attention that kind of stuff. And then you're like okay yeah.

00:06:40:23 - 00:06:41:22
Speaker 2
I can do this. Yeah.

00:06:41:22 - 00:06:51:21
Speaker 1
This is my be where. So you okay. You get that. You going through college. You're learning debits and credits and all the things. Now what does that teach? Arts and things like that. You're doing all that. And then

00:06:51:21 - 00:06:54:02
Speaker 1
you decide in college that I'm going to be a plumber.

00:06:54:05 - 00:06:54:23
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah.

00:06:54:23 - 00:06:56:06
Speaker 2
It was like my senior year at college.

00:06:56:06 - 00:07:01:08
Speaker 3
I was there, like teaching you how to be like, a good employee at a big for at the big four.

00:07:01:09 - 00:07:01:20
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:07:01:20 - 00:07:02:21
Speaker 3
And I was like.

00:07:02:23 - 00:07:04:04
Speaker 1
No, no.

00:07:04:06 - 00:07:08:02
Speaker 2
No, there's like a visceral reaction. It was just like I was just. Cause I was just sitting there. And then they're telling you, like.

00:07:08:02 - 00:07:10:01
Speaker 3
How much you're going to make, how many hours you're going to work, what are you going to do?

00:07:10:01 - 00:07:11:07
Speaker 2
And I'm like, dude, like.

00:07:11:09 - 00:07:17:11
Speaker 3
I know plumbers making six figures right now, you know what I mean? Like they're telling me I'm like, I make six figures for like five, six years.

00:07:17:13 - 00:07:20:16
Speaker 2
I was like, no. So I was like, I'll just go back to the man.

00:07:20:16 - 00:07:22:01
Speaker 3
Like, I know the amount of work.

00:07:22:06 - 00:07:22:20
Speaker 2
You can just put a lot of.

00:07:22:20 - 00:07:27:02
Speaker 3
Work in the trades. Trades are really rewarding. Yeah. And so you go out there and you can learn pretty quickly.

00:07:27:08 - 00:07:32:02
Speaker 1
So you came back to me, what was step one then after you made that decision that you graduated college still. And.

00:07:32:07 - 00:07:33:09
Speaker 2
No, no, I didn't finish. No.

00:07:33:09 - 00:07:33:23
Speaker 1
You said I'm out.

00:07:33:23 - 00:07:39:10
Speaker 3
Because I'm out. I don't need no, no. I learned why I felt like I needed to learn and I at the degree wasn't going to help me in my trades career. So. Yeah.

00:07:39:10 - 00:07:40:00
Speaker 2
And that makes it.

00:07:40:00 - 00:07:55:02
Speaker 3
Kind of there. And then, yeah, I went back into trades, went into, planning entry and so was working on B2B side and sewer side and stuff like that. And didn't get back into the home services side of things for probably 5 or 6 years outside of that.

00:07:55:04 - 00:07:57:00
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah. I didn't start.

00:07:57:02 - 00:07:58:18
Speaker 3
Getting back and research until I moved out here in Texas.

00:07:59:00 - 00:08:07:18
Speaker 1
Did you did you decide, hey, I'm going to go kind of relearn this whole thing first and kind of go build back up or immediately or like as soon as I can be an owner. I'm doing that.

00:08:07:20 - 00:08:09:10
Speaker 2
No, I like went back.

00:08:09:10 - 00:08:22:12
Speaker 3
Into it and, you know, learned a lot in the in the five years on the B2B side because it dealt with worked with a lot of other plumbers, you know, got the rub shoulders some of the other guys that ran businesses on that side, you got to ask them questions for how they were doing things. You know, what was at that time.

00:08:22:12 - 00:08:32:15
Speaker 3
Right. Like, the tech stack really became like pretty imperative, like digital marketing was starting to take off. There's like when my dad, who had his company, was Yellow Pages, right? Like 90% of these retailer pages pick out big ads and yellow pages.

00:08:32:15 - 00:08:33:03
Speaker 2
You get a name.

00:08:33:03 - 00:08:33:22
Speaker 1
You're telling.

00:08:34:00 - 00:08:37:04
Speaker 2
ABC, and you have to have like the two big single pages, right?

00:08:37:04 - 00:08:49:19
Speaker 3
And like everyone always be like, oh, if you had the big full page, you're going to get all the calls, right? Yeah. And then like Google, PPC and all that stuff started coming out. And then you had guys are like blown up like that knew how to do that early. And so then like learning the digital side was was pretty imperative to.

00:08:49:21 - 00:08:52:03
Speaker 1
Did you did that come natural to you or do you go.

00:08:52:04 - 00:08:57:05
Speaker 3
Okay on marketing. Was it's still an ever growing thing, man. Like I'm still learning a lot about marketing every single day.

00:08:57:07 - 00:09:03:12
Speaker 1
If okay, I know we're jumping ahead a little bit, but like is your policy today? Let me just find an expert who's good at that. Or do you go okay.

00:09:03:12 - 00:09:05:06
Speaker 3
Yes. Yes okay. It's definitely.

00:09:05:08 - 00:09:06:01
Speaker 2
You want just go find.

00:09:06:01 - 00:09:06:11
Speaker 3
Out the guys who.

00:09:06:11 - 00:09:07:08
Speaker 2
That like and even even.

00:09:07:08 - 00:09:22:05
Speaker 3
Niched into. Right. Like you don't want to go out and find someone who knows an encompassing about digital, right? Like, like if you want to find a best PPC guy. Right. And then you want to find the best guy that runs Facebook ads and you want to find the best, like, social media person, right? Like that. That's how you basically feel like you're you're marketing essentially nowadays.

00:09:22:05 - 00:09:24:03
Speaker 3
Yeah, it's all fine that find the guys are niche in.

00:09:24:03 - 00:09:41:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. Because that's so diverse. Right. Like to just give a big sweeping like oh social media marketing and yeah, but hold on. Yeah. Those audiences are so different the way that plumbing no pun intended. Yeah. Yeah, it happens on those things is not it's not easy. Right. And you got to think about those. I mean, it's kind of like with it's probably like in your industry, right?

00:09:41:02 - 00:09:47:22
Speaker 1
Like, okay. Yeah, I got it, you know, do you want a residential plumber to also do full commercial? Who also is going to do like an entire aqueduct system.

00:09:47:22 - 00:09:49:18
Speaker 2
Like they don't. Right. Like it's all broken down.

00:09:49:18 - 00:09:54:15
Speaker 3
Two you got your new construction guys. You got your commercial guys, you got the residential guys. Very few like, even.

00:09:54:21 - 00:09:55:11
Speaker 2
A lot of, like.

00:09:55:11 - 00:10:03:16
Speaker 3
A lot of guys. The residential won't even touch new construction. Like, we'll do a little bit, like, commercial. But then you got your commercial guys that do all the big commercial stuff and, yeah, everyone's kind of nation that way too.

00:10:03:18 - 00:10:12:13
Speaker 1
Yeah. So talk to me about it. So you get there, you get you got to get your teeth there. When did you, when did you first become owner operator. When did you first kind of own your first plumbing business?

00:10:12:13 - 00:10:13:20
Speaker 2
When we moved out here.

00:10:13:20 - 00:10:17:16
Speaker 3
We started with air conditioning. Okay. Bought an air conditioning company.

00:10:17:18 - 00:10:19:21
Speaker 2
We tried. Yeah. So he he.

00:10:19:22 - 00:10:36:22
Speaker 3
Owns a business with me. Yeah. And, so he I wanted to get out of California because I wanted to start my own thing in California. And he's like, yeah, it's like anything else. Mean, like the 0 to 100,000 is very difficult. And even, like 0 to 1 million. So he's like, if we can can skip that, you know, because he's been on both the buy and sell side of things.

00:10:36:22 - 00:10:50:01
Speaker 3
He's like, we can we can get one, we can buy. You know, wouldn't be too difficult to do. Yeah. So we're looking for plumbing companies for a while and couldn't find any I can say Texas. Like there's just like none in the market. You know, there's still not a whole lot of foreign companies to sell in the Texas market anyways.

00:10:50:01 - 00:10:51:08
Speaker 3
But there is a ton of air conditioning companies.

00:10:51:13 - 00:10:53:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. I was like, okay, how hard.

00:10:53:01 - 00:10:53:18
Speaker 3
Could it be?

00:10:53:22 - 00:10:56:13
Speaker 2
And the same thing. You think so? But, from a.

00:10:56:13 - 00:11:14:02
Speaker 3
Technical standpoint, it is significantly more technical. Yeah. Than the plumbing side, like plumbing is like, is it flowing downhill? Is it leaking? Okay, great. Like fix right. And air conditioning. It's it's so comfort driven, you know. So it's it's it's it's very technical. Right. You've got electrical, you've got air flow, you've got refrigerant cycle, you've got all these different things that are combining with one.

00:11:14:02 - 00:11:15:18
Speaker 3
And from a technical standpoint, it.

00:11:15:18 - 00:11:16:07
Speaker 2
Took a.

00:11:16:07 - 00:11:18:12
Speaker 3
Little bit longer than I anticipated to actually learning that trade.

00:11:18:16 - 00:11:19:21
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah.

00:11:19:21 - 00:11:23:05
Speaker 1
So you get okay so y'all get it. So Hvac was available. Y'all come down.

00:11:23:05 - 00:11:24:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. So we started we.

00:11:24:02 - 00:11:28:12
Speaker 3
Started the air conditioning and learned that trade and took off from there.

00:11:28:12 - 00:11:30:22
Speaker 1
And like did you actually get to go get you got.

00:11:30:22 - 00:11:32:11
Speaker 2
Certified I always I, I'm.

00:11:32:11 - 00:11:32:23
Speaker 3
A masters.

00:11:32:23 - 00:11:33:05
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:11:33:06 - 00:11:45:09
Speaker 3
I'm very much like, dude in the truck first and foremost. Like like, ran a van, like when we started the company, like, like I was, I was in a van running van. Like, I was out there running calls, fixing air conditioners and selling air conditioners. You know.

00:11:45:11 - 00:11:55:05
Speaker 1
Give folks an idea of, like, they may have heard of master licenses. Just give folks an idea of what that means. What's important, like what it takes to earn. Just kind of give them a one down on what that means.

00:11:55:07 - 00:11:58:04
Speaker 2
It depends state to state, right.

00:11:58:06 - 00:12:03:09
Speaker 3
Like I tell told in California, they don't have anywhere near the licensing they do in the state. It's.

00:12:03:09 - 00:12:05:03
Speaker 1
Like, oh, Texas is way more strict on.

00:12:05:05 - 00:12:05:09
Speaker 2
That.

00:12:05:10 - 00:12:07:21
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah. California's is surprisingly how lax they are.

00:12:07:21 - 00:12:09:08
Speaker 1
That is surprising. Yeah.

00:12:09:10 - 00:12:11:00
Speaker 3
Texas is way more strict on that.

00:12:11:00 - 00:12:12:17
Speaker 2
And I, I'd say I.

00:12:12:17 - 00:12:20:21
Speaker 3
Don't call me on this, but I think the plumbing board here is probably one of the hardest playing boards in the US. It, no joke, will take eight years to get your masters license from start to finish and stage access.

00:12:21:00 - 00:12:21:05
Speaker 2
Just.

00:12:21:05 - 00:12:22:20
Speaker 1
Because you need that time in to see.

00:12:22:20 - 00:12:23:06
Speaker 2
That that's how.

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:24:10
Speaker 3
Much time they require. Yeah.

00:12:24:10 - 00:12:25:17
Speaker 1
Before you can even test, before.

00:12:25:17 - 00:12:26:22
Speaker 3
You basically get it. Yeah.

00:12:27:00 - 00:12:27:23
Speaker 2
Which is like almost a doctorate.

00:12:27:23 - 00:12:29:11
Speaker 3
You know, when you think about that.

00:12:29:13 - 00:12:30:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. Sure.

00:12:30:09 - 00:12:32:06
Speaker 1
You've seen yourself that way. Like I got an actor.

00:12:32:07 - 00:12:34:07
Speaker 2
Well I don't, I don't have the masters,

00:12:34:09 - 00:12:50:11
Speaker 3
Of plumbing in Texas. But I carry a master's degree in education is, the ear easier of the three to to get as a master license? A little more lax compared to the other ones. Electrical and plumbing both have, like, a, like a tradesman or a wireman. And then it goes from there to the journeyman and, the journeyman, it goes the masters.

00:12:50:16 - 00:13:00:17
Speaker 3
Air conditioning doesn't have that. They don't have, like, a tradesman journeyman progression. Okay. It just kind of like after four years, you can test for a masters as long as another masters signs off on the the hours.

00:13:00:17 - 00:13:08:07
Speaker 1
Yeah. And from an ownership perspective, having that Masters is pretty critical, right. It's it's really someone in the team having that.

00:13:08:07 - 00:13:08:17
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:13:08:18 - 00:13:16:16
Speaker 3
Someone on the team having the ability. You know, if you're the owner of the business, it's nice that you carry the license. You're not dependent upon the operation of a business for the trade that you're doing is being held by somebody else.

00:13:16:16 - 00:13:18:00
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. Well.

00:13:18:02 - 00:13:26:19
Speaker 1
Like, how has how has kind of grown up through the ranks, so to speak, in like getting a truck doing the work. Has it made you a better owner?

00:13:26:21 - 00:13:27:21
Speaker 2
I think,

00:13:27:22 - 00:13:31:22
Speaker 3
You can relate more to the day to day services that you're providing for the, the customer.

00:13:32:00 - 00:13:33:12
Speaker 2
But as well as the, the.

00:13:33:16 - 00:13:48:21
Speaker 3
You know, the day to day experience for the your employee too, like we're in the people business for the we're dealing with the consumer or we're dealing with our employees. But the technicians the field manager your number one priority, right. So they're out there making the money. And, you want to make sure they're happy. You want to get the customers happy.

00:13:48:23 - 00:13:49:01
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:13:49:02 - 00:13:50:16
Speaker 2
So being able to relate to both sides. Right.

00:13:50:16 - 00:14:04:23
Speaker 3
Like there's a lot of things we do at our company that in a lot of the companies don't, we provide a lot of the tools to the guys because, I've seen it firsthand in the field where someone doesn't have a tool to do a certain task, they won't sell the task. There's like, I'll have a tool do it, so I'm not going to sell this.

00:14:04:23 - 00:14:10:23
Speaker 1
Oh, so it actually isn't, it isn't uncommon in a lot of these shops to, like, you bring your own. You're bringing your own kit? Yeah.

00:14:10:23 - 00:14:11:19
Speaker 3
A lot of them want you to.

00:14:11:19 - 00:14:12:16
Speaker 2
Provide the tools.

00:14:12:16 - 00:14:22:18
Speaker 3
Okay. From us, we provide a lot of the tools because the same thing is, like, I don't want them to not be able to provide a service to a customer just because they don't want the tools. Yeah. You know, and so we do a lot of that kind of stuff for them.

00:14:22:20 - 00:14:29:14
Speaker 1
Okay. So you take you get your first Hvac there. How long before you decided to buy the next and what was the next?

00:14:29:16 - 00:14:33:06
Speaker 3
The next was air conditioning another air conditioning company. And it was a referral from the first guy. We buy.

00:14:33:06 - 00:14:34:13
Speaker 2
It. Oh, really? Yeah.

00:14:34:15 - 00:14:37:08
Speaker 1
Yeah. So yeah. Kind of owner sell to owners kind of thing, right. Yeah.

00:14:37:08 - 00:14:38:07
Speaker 2
And that kind of.

00:14:38:07 - 00:14:51:03
Speaker 3
Like was what chained up was we didn't necessarily set out to like, acquire a lot of companies. It kind of like required one. And then he told a couple of his other bodies and they're like, hey, I want to retire to you want to buy my business? We're like.

00:14:51:05 - 00:14:54:18
Speaker 2
Yeah, sure. Like because they're like, I was like, what are you gonna do?

00:14:54:20 - 00:15:01:15
Speaker 3
You know, you don't sell that. They're like, I was just gonna close it down. I was like, don't do that, please. Like, like I'll get the phone number, you know what I mean? Like.

00:15:01:17 - 00:15:02:10
Speaker 2
The book of business.

00:15:02:10 - 00:15:04:22
Speaker 3
Is you spent 20 years building this thing. You should get cash out for it, you know?

00:15:04:22 - 00:15:05:08
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:15:05:10 - 00:15:21:08
Speaker 1
Can you give me a little insight into an owner who might be thinking about that? Your dad, obviously. You kind of. You're live in all you've seen all aspects of that world. These guys and gals that owned these businesses that do decide to just. Hey, you know what? I'm just going to close up shop is the reason.

00:15:21:08 - 00:15:27:06
Speaker 1
Because they. You think the reason is because they don't think that they can even sell the thing, or they had enough savings, like, what's that? A lot of.

00:15:27:06 - 00:15:38:20
Speaker 2
Them don't even know it's an option. Why is it I don't know. And, I don't I mean, a lot of the ones, like, they're just old school men, you know, like, they're, I just I just.

00:15:38:20 - 00:15:55:03
Speaker 3
Think they don't think anyone's going to buy their, their company, you know? And so it's it was it's really not uncommon for the, like the first one we bought, he was saying, like, you know, other guys are just like closed doors. I was like, oh, man. Didn't like they could have sold it and got some money for it and be like, yeah, we didn't didn't know you could do that.

00:15:55:05 - 00:16:08:02
Speaker 1
It's fascinating. So when you when you told him this was it big surprise. Like, okay, well I don't even know what it's worth. Like can you talk about, like, how do you, how do you go to like, what do you buy this thing for?

00:16:08:04 - 00:16:12:19
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, for for us now, like, the way we look at them is, is we have, like, a pretty specific.

00:16:12:19 - 00:16:26:05
Speaker 3
Avatar we look for, and we look at them as, like, marketing acquisitions because we want to talk to them underneath the the parent brand for Blue Ribbon. We don't want to run them as individual brands. Yeah. So we look at them from like a marketing perspective. So we're like you know if it's doing X, number and revenue.

00:16:26:07 - 00:16:29:22
Speaker 3
Right. We want to try and get it for a certain percentage of that.

00:16:30:22 - 00:16:43:22
Speaker 3
So just like marketing, like if you were to say like your marketing spend is 10% of your revenue, right? Same thing. It's like, well, what do we feel like we can pay for this essential campaign? Yeah. Right. And then over a long, long enough time horizon, what do you think the bottle coming back to us is going to be?

00:16:44:00 - 00:16:49:08
Speaker 1
Yeah. When did you learn? Was that accounting or was that you operating for a while before you started?

00:16:49:08 - 00:16:50:10
Speaker 2
Think that was me? Yeah, we just.

00:16:50:10 - 00:16:52:11
Speaker 3
Stopped running for a while before I started thinking about that.

00:16:52:11 - 00:16:52:22
Speaker 2
Because before.

00:16:52:22 - 00:17:03:04
Speaker 3
We would value them, like based off like the, you know, that's the EA and things like that. And, and, you know, I was like, I was like some of those deals. I was just like, man, those I don't see those numbers working. Right. Like.

00:17:03:06 - 00:17:04:05
Speaker 2
Because like, some of these guys are like.

00:17:04:06 - 00:17:19:00
Speaker 3
We'll just use numbers, for example, like, they might be running a 30% gross profit margin, right? Like I'm not running a 30% of gross profit margin. So like then they're running, you know, they might have like very little assets. Right. You may have like old trucks completely depreciated. So like that fixed asset list is, you know, 50 bucks.

00:17:19:02 - 00:17:31:01
Speaker 3
Right. But then they want like all this money for the revenue. And it's like, well what am I buying? And like the trucks I have to go get new vans now, you know what I mean? So we started looking at it more from a, from a marketing perspective because like, we're just going to tuck them in. We know what our gross margin is going to be.

00:17:31:01 - 00:17:43:22
Speaker 3
We know what our expenses are. We know what it cost for us to send the van out to the out to the, to the house. Yeah. And then we just take a look at the revenue and say like, okay, like, what are we willing to pay? Like marketing wise? It's like, no different from, like, Google, right? Like if I run in like, PPC campaign, I want to see like five times multiple on that.

00:17:43:22 - 00:18:01:09
Speaker 3
Right? So yeah, 250 grand for billion dollars in revenue. Same thing. Like I'm looking at $1 million company, right? I can buy it for 250 grand, but you can say like, hey, like over five years, are we going to get, 5 million revenue from this? And we're like, okay. Yes. And I was like, what if I feel like we're going to worth to pay for this business?

00:18:01:09 - 00:18:14:06
Speaker 1
Yeah, you kind of learn to pencil a little bit differently based on the fact in your experience on that. So and also imagine that you're, you're coming into with a different confidence you because you've built this machine, right, that, you know, you have predictability and like how it's going to fit.

00:18:14:08 - 00:18:14:11
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:18:14:15 - 00:18:24:12
Speaker 1
What what would you tell somebody right now who is like I'm going to do that tomorrow. I'm gonna do this whole kind of roll of thing tomorrow. My first thing I'm going to do is do everything. What would you say?

00:18:24:12 - 00:18:25:17
Speaker 3
Oh, man.

00:18:25:19 - 00:18:32:15
Speaker 2
Be careful. Okay. Why? I would say like we did, I would say that because, like,

00:18:32:15 - 00:18:33:20
Speaker 2
our first the first.

00:18:33:20 - 00:18:45:17
Speaker 3
Company we bought, we did very well with it, like, like year today. Or I wouldn't say year to date, but, like, since we bought it to today, like, we're, like, at 13 times what we paid for it.

00:18:45:18 - 00:18:47:16
Speaker 2
And so it's killer, man. It was killer.

00:18:47:16 - 00:18:53:06
Speaker 3
Like our first year with it. We doubled the revenue and we didn't really do anything to business. Only the only difference I did was I got to every single call.

00:18:53:08 - 00:18:56:13
Speaker 2
And so for him, it works it well. But it's also like this, like, you.

00:18:56:13 - 00:19:09:20
Speaker 3
Know, my dad likes to tease me on this one is, it's like I, I thought it was a terrible deal when we bought it, I was like, you're paying way too much money for this business like it was. There's no website. 35 year old business, word of mouth, you know? No Google business page. I'm like, what are we doing?

00:19:09:21 - 00:19:11:03
Speaker 3
Like, why are we buying this? He's like.

00:19:11:03 - 00:19:12:00
Speaker 2
No, he's got a lot of calls.

00:19:12:06 - 00:19:13:10
Speaker 3
And I'm like, how do you verify this?

00:19:13:12 - 00:19:18:18
Speaker 2
He's like, you just told me there's a lot like, okay. And there's the guy that used to do his air conditioning to, you know, sell.

00:19:18:18 - 00:19:19:04
Speaker 1
That old.

00:19:19:04 - 00:19:22:14
Speaker 2
Handshake. So tell me. Yeah, so, so so we buy it. And I was like, that.

00:19:22:14 - 00:19:29:03
Speaker 3
Phone just rang, dude. Like, rang. And like, I hired five more technicians, and all we did was get every single call and we doubled the revenue.

00:19:29:08 - 00:19:29:22
Speaker 1
Wow, man.

00:19:29:23 - 00:19:33:03
Speaker 3
And I was like, okay, know, maybe I'm wrong on this one, right? And so.

00:19:33:09 - 00:19:37:03
Speaker 2
You know, learning experiences on that too. But I, I would say like that one started off really well.

00:19:37:05 - 00:19:40:18
Speaker 3
And that's not to say everyone we've acquired, is a winner. Yeah.

00:19:40:20 - 00:19:42:04
Speaker 2
Some of them will pay.

00:19:42:04 - 00:19:54:16
Speaker 3
More than what we think it's worth, just because it's like going to a new market, right? So, like, we went from bash up to ask me about a company in Austin. We didn't I didn't like what we bought it for, but it got us a foot in Austin. Right. And so at the end of day it's like, you know, we got our brand out there.

00:19:54:17 - 00:19:57:06
Speaker 3
We started marketing out there. And so there's there's upside that way.

00:19:57:09 - 00:20:04:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. No. How did you actually after you bought a couple of Hvac when was a plumbing next. At some point when was actually electrical.

00:20:04:16 - 00:20:05:06
Speaker 2
We bought an air.

00:20:05:06 - 00:20:15:11
Speaker 3
Conditioning company whose owner, was actually electrician by trade and then got into air conditioning after he was a master electrician. Okay. And so he carries a master electrical license for us. But.

00:20:15:11 - 00:20:15:22
Speaker 2
Electrical.

00:20:15:22 - 00:20:33:06
Speaker 3
Is on the residential service side of things is not as in demand as, Hvac and plumbing. The stance I've heard on that is like, you know, a homeowner needs, Hvac technician or plumber once every, like, two years, and then they'll need an electrician, like, once every seven. So you don't have as much, like, demand for the type of work for, for electricians.

00:20:33:06 - 00:20:43:04
Speaker 3
So we just kind of like when we acquired the company, say, hey, you might keep an electric license on board. He's like, no, absolutely. You guys can you guys can use it. And so we got some electricians on and we trucking along that way. And then and then after that we got, we got a public.

00:20:43:04 - 00:20:44:16
Speaker 2
Company with the plumbing. Yeah. Getting back to it.

00:20:44:16 - 00:20:47:06
Speaker 3
So yeah go back into plumbing and happy to get back into plumbing.

00:20:47:06 - 00:20:48:09
Speaker 1
Like do you like.

00:20:48:09 - 00:20:48:23
Speaker 2
Plumbing I.

00:20:48:23 - 00:20:50:14
Speaker 3
Love plumbing, yeah I like I like plumbing. Yeah.

00:20:50:15 - 00:20:52:23
Speaker 1
Give me a why. All right. Like like zoom in. Just more of the.

00:20:53:01 - 00:20:53:06
Speaker 2
From.

00:20:53:09 - 00:20:56:17
Speaker 3
Business standpoint. Plumbing is, is American.

00:20:56:17 - 00:20:57:11
Speaker 2
I tell you the one.

00:20:57:11 - 00:21:13:18
Speaker 3
Of the things I dislike about air conditioning is, is the, is the volatility of it. And the demand on the weather is like, you can be your revenue can drop off as high as, like 150% from the peak of summer to the, to the dead of winter. You know, I mean, because we're in Texas, like, people turn the furnaces on for like four weeks out of the year, right?

00:21:13:18 - 00:21:25:23
Speaker 3
So there's a good period of time where, like, there's not so much demand, but when you are in demand, like you have to try and get as many calls as you can in the summer, and then you basically need to kind of, you know, survive the winter. Whereas plumbing like I think our revenue only ever dips everything like, like 20%.

00:21:26:00 - 00:21:27:04
Speaker 2
Like stays pretty consistent.

00:21:27:04 - 00:21:40:17
Speaker 3
Very consistent. You know, from like from the peak summer to like like to the soldier season. But like we're always growing that department. So it's not like it's like ebb and flow of the based on the month of the month. Yeah. Like it's always going up. And I was just saying like it's a small percentage swing. So it's very consistent as far as far as revenue goes.

00:21:40:23 - 00:21:57:22
Speaker 1
Okay. Yeah. So when you when you think about how about the just the general personality of Egypt, how do you do. Okay. Let me let's go with this first. Yeah. Give me like how would you describe an electrician versus a plumber versus an air conditioner repair person. Like what's the general personas that make of these individual. Oh, did.

00:21:57:22 - 00:21:58:09
Speaker 2
All three of them.

00:21:58:09 - 00:21:59:05
Speaker 3
Always like to make fun of one.

00:21:59:05 - 00:22:00:21
Speaker 2
Another? But,

00:22:00:23 - 00:22:03:02
Speaker 1
Just friendly animosity or not fluid? Friendly.

00:22:03:04 - 00:22:06:12
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's. You want to say it's friendly, but, you know, they're always.

00:22:06:14 - 00:22:09:06
Speaker 3
They're always making fun of one another about, you know, doing different.

00:22:09:06 - 00:22:15:06
Speaker 2
Things. But I'd say like.

00:22:15:08 - 00:22:15:20
Speaker 2
They're really not.

00:22:15:20 - 00:22:16:12
Speaker 3
That much different.

00:22:16:12 - 00:22:17:04
Speaker 2
Like the.

00:22:17:06 - 00:22:33:17
Speaker 3
The technicians like good technicians on the Hvac side are really technical driven, like smart ones are like being able to troubleshoot. There's definitely a really good skill set. There's a lot of guys we bring on board air conditioning that, you know, the, the technical side like of troubleshooting doesn't click with them. Like being able to like trace circuits and things like that.

00:22:33:17 - 00:22:42:21
Speaker 3
Like it takes a long time for them learning. And I'm like, hey, I think you'd be better off in plumbing. You know, like, I think we should go, like, let's go. Let's bring you over to this department and and teach you digital plumbing, because.

00:22:42:23 - 00:22:48:08
Speaker 1
As an Hvac tech, you almost had to be into tinkering and engineering. Like, you kind of have to like this problem solve.

00:22:48:08 - 00:22:49:20
Speaker 2
You have to problem solve. Yeah. And it's the order of.

00:22:49:20 - 00:22:56:08
Speaker 3
Operations to like start at the top and go one, two, three, four, five all the way down to, to eliminate what's, what's probably causing the issue there.

00:22:56:08 - 00:22:57:22
Speaker 2
And but plumbing also it.

00:22:57:22 - 00:23:15:07
Speaker 3
Can be just as creative, you know, like how how are you going to plumb something here to there, you know, and, and just give you some things, technical side of things. But the troubleshooting aspect can, can throw guys for a loop. But electricians is surprising. Like the electricians like you think electrician. Electrician can troubleshoot really well. And in reality they're not.

00:23:15:07 - 00:23:17:14
Speaker 3
Like from our experience, the Hvac technicians are significantly better.

00:23:17:14 - 00:23:18:09
Speaker 2
Troubleshooters because.

00:23:18:12 - 00:23:30:04
Speaker 3
An electrical side, a lot of times it's like the pulling wire. Yeah, you know, and things like that. They're not like troubleshooting circuits too often. A lot of people are like, hey, you want power here? Or, you know, they want power. They're like, they're just going to our house or something like that.

00:23:30:04 - 00:23:32:02
Speaker 1
But it's more construction based, right?

00:23:32:07 - 00:23:35:00
Speaker 2
It's very much driven for construction. But that's not to say.

00:23:35:00 - 00:23:45:18
Speaker 3
Electricians know how to troubleshoot, but I'm just saying the vast majority of like, if I have a very strong troubleshooter and there's electrical issue, I'll, I'll send like I'll have known to my guys like get on the phone with the electrician, just make sure that like it's going good.

00:23:45:18 - 00:23:46:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah I.

00:23:46:07 - 00:23:48:03
Speaker 3
Know they're gonna try and figure it out.

00:23:48:09 - 00:24:04:18
Speaker 1
That's fair. Me well, you got, you know, excursions always surprised me. I guess from the outside looking in they always we get we have plumbers in our family. So that's where like we can't, you know, plumbers, oil and gas builders. Kind of like what makes it, the family there. But when it comes to electricians, no electricians. But I've always thought these folks gotta.

00:24:04:18 - 00:24:23:06
Speaker 1
And maybe this is, maybe this. You can validate this or not. They seem to me to have a little bit more of, like, risk tolerance, is that right? Or am I wrong on that? Just in the fact that, like, it seems like when it goes really wrong, it can be I'm sure things can go really wrong, but usually you're repairing a leak or something as a plumber or you're like, oh, AC don't work.

00:24:23:09 - 00:24:26:04
Speaker 1
This other one's like, oh, I just fried my body.

00:24:26:05 - 00:24:28:18
Speaker 2
I think it's I think it's anything else when you.

00:24:28:18 - 00:24:45:08
Speaker 3
Work around something as dangers of that for a long period of time, you get, comfortable with the with that. Right? Like, I remember I was talking to the guy, closed the master license for us, and he was telling me, like, back in the day, like for 80s, you know, it's powerful electricity. They'll kill you. He said. Back in the day, they would like, what their hand and smack it to figure out if it was 480.

00:24:45:10 - 00:24:46:12
Speaker 2
And I'm like, dude, you just would.

00:24:46:12 - 00:24:51:20
Speaker 3
Smack for 80. And he's like, yeah. And I was like, no, they're not. Don't you would never catch me doing that, you know what I mean?

00:24:52:01 - 00:24:55:22
Speaker 2
He's like he's like, yeah. He's like, you know, like there's old electrical books that they're like.

00:24:56:00 - 00:25:04:14
Speaker 3
Like back from like the 40s and 50s. Like if you want to figure out if it's 120 or 240, they would literally tell you, like grab the wire. And depending on how bad you got, shock. That's what it was, you know.

00:25:04:16 - 00:25:15:12
Speaker 2
And like no joke. Like that's how they would figure it out before multimeter and like like that's what he said because he said, you know, when he was doing electrical out like the oil fields, he's like, you know, if you don't have a multimeter and like I said, that's how you got to figure it out, you know?

00:25:15:12 - 00:25:18:03
Speaker 1
And I mean, it's just the days of the Cowboys.

00:25:18:03 - 00:25:19:08
Speaker 2
Me yeah, man. Yeah.

00:25:19:08 - 00:25:22:15
Speaker 3
Those guys are, but a little different back in the day.

00:25:22:17 - 00:25:40:16
Speaker 1
To zoom out a little bit and talk to me about just the the life of maybe forget owner and operator for a second just. Yeah. Why not. That can be a part of it. But I'm just curious, like, you've lived this life of working in a trades industry your entire professional career. Pretty much. What is that life like?

00:25:40:20 - 00:25:58:05
Speaker 1
You know, and maybe I'm asking this from a context. Have you got some folks probably listening right now? They're like in a cubicle at the moment and or just got through seven hours of meetings. Just curious, like, what about it drives you? What about it? Do you like what about it? Do you love.

00:25:58:07 - 00:25:59:14
Speaker 2
Some different every day.

00:25:59:15 - 00:26:01:20
Speaker 3
Is the thing is, like, it's, you know, you.

00:26:01:22 - 00:26:03:17
Speaker 2
For at least for our guys day to day is.

00:26:03:17 - 00:26:19:03
Speaker 3
They're running 3 or 4 calls a day. And so, you know, they get up and they, they jump the van and then they're off for the first call. And they get there and they, you know, sets whatever the problem is and present options and then go ahead with the repair. And that repair could be, you know, something different every day you go and you go into different.

00:26:19:03 - 00:26:20:09
Speaker 2
Areas of the of, of.

00:26:20:09 - 00:26:31:08
Speaker 3
Austin every day. Or like, I mean, we cover a pretty vast area. So it could be like anywhere, like, you know, you mean different people, different life stories, you know, talking to customers a lot. I mean, I've met a lot of color for people in my time, like in the houses and things.

00:26:31:09 - 00:26:33:01
Speaker 2
Interesting characters. Yeah. Like you, you.

00:26:33:01 - 00:26:38:07
Speaker 3
Meet celebrities too, from time to time. So, I mean, we recently did a celebration. It's not too long ago.

00:26:38:07 - 00:26:39:11
Speaker 2
Really? Yeah. Anybody you can.

00:26:39:11 - 00:26:40:09
Speaker 1
Mention?

00:26:40:11 - 00:26:51:18
Speaker 3
I don't know if I can. I mean, like, I don't I don't think they have an issue if I mention them, but I mean I don't know the legalities on that. I probably wouldn't. But he lives out in Bastrop, not too far from our shop. And okay. He he's, was on a popular show back in the day, and.

00:26:51:18 - 00:26:53:10
Speaker 3
Okay. And,

00:26:53:12 - 00:26:55:04
Speaker 2
I don't like they like it's the same thing. Like, I.

00:26:55:04 - 00:26:56:15
Speaker 3
Did a lot of work in LA and things like that, so.

00:26:56:18 - 00:26:58:05
Speaker 2
We, you just. Right. So it's like you.

00:26:58:05 - 00:27:00:15
Speaker 3
Run into folks, you know, and they're just, like, everyday normal people, you know?

00:27:00:18 - 00:27:03:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. They're not like, googling, like plumbers for celebrities.

00:27:03:14 - 00:27:04:17
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. There's not like.

00:27:04:17 - 00:27:09:21
Speaker 3
A company that's like, you know, making you sign and the A's and things like that. Like you don't talk about what you saw or hear, you kind of thing, you know?

00:27:09:21 - 00:27:13:18
Speaker 2
But they're still funny and they're just like, you know, just normal people. Right? So, like, I hate to, like, I always.

00:27:13:18 - 00:27:20:12
Speaker 3
Treated like normal people to, you know, a lot of times I try and act like I'm even like, hey, man, I work in a van. I don't know anything about whatever movies kind of Hollywood's going on, you know, at the time.

00:27:20:15 - 00:27:23:05
Speaker 1
And as I'm sure they appreciate that, I have to.

00:27:23:06 - 00:27:25:13
Speaker 3
I think they probably do, to be honest. Yeah, yeah.

00:27:25:15 - 00:27:26:10
Speaker 2
So let's get.

00:27:26:10 - 00:27:27:07
Speaker 1
A guy here. You're down.

00:27:27:07 - 00:27:32:15
Speaker 2
But yeah, they're there every day. Is, is is that man. Is it your changes. Right. It's challenging to you. It's also.

00:27:32:15 - 00:27:43:11
Speaker 3
Rewarding right. Like for me you get like that little dopamine hit too. Like when you're able to fix something or you're like, on the air conditioning side to figure out what's going on, you know, how to fix it, and you fix it and you're like, you know, I need to move on to the next call. And yeah, and things like that.

00:27:43:11 - 00:27:48:19
Speaker 3
And so it changes. Yeah. But like working on the van is also like not the most glamorous lifestyle.

00:27:48:21 - 00:27:49:23
Speaker 2
You know.

00:27:50:01 - 00:27:59:00
Speaker 3
Sit in a van for, you know, eight, ten, 12 hours a day and working and I would say like installing an air conditioner in the middle of summer in Texas in an attic is not the most favorable conditions.

00:27:59:00 - 00:27:59:20
Speaker 2
I just cooking.

00:27:59:21 - 00:28:10:08
Speaker 3
Oh, man. It's, you know, 130 out there and, you know, you go through a whole gallon of water before noon and, oh, it's, it's like working on a sauna for for a couple, you know, eight, eight hours. So it's not fun.

00:28:10:08 - 00:28:11:13
Speaker 2
And it's it's also like.

00:28:11:13 - 00:28:16:14
Speaker 3
The same thing with plumbers. I get a pump, something going the underneath the house, crawling around in muddy water.

00:28:16:14 - 00:28:17:13
Speaker 1
All the critters out there.

00:28:17:13 - 00:28:25:01
Speaker 3
Could be fecal matter too, in there. And so it's, you know, it's not for the faint of heart, but, you know, it has the pros and the cons.

00:28:25:03 - 00:28:30:07
Speaker 1
What do you think keeps the guys that are on in the guys on your team doing it?

00:28:30:09 - 00:28:30:22
Speaker 2
I think they all.

00:28:30:22 - 00:28:47:18
Speaker 3
Have different drives and motives, but, I mean, they get paid well, you know, ultimately, like, at the end of the day, like, if I have to go crawl around in fecal matter, I better get paid a decent amount of money to do it, you know, I mean, like, if I gotta go install an air conditioner in 103 degree attic, I better get paid this amount of money to do it.

00:28:47:18 - 00:28:50:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. So, yeah, I think it's I think.

00:28:50:01 - 00:28:51:09
Speaker 3
It's that, you know.

00:28:51:09 - 00:28:53:10
Speaker 2
The trades, it's swinging the other.

00:28:53:10 - 00:29:00:20
Speaker 3
Way around nowadays too. You know, we spent so long telling everybody to go to college, ignore the trades, and now they're in such high demand and there's not enough supply.

00:29:01:01 - 00:29:01:08
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:29:01:12 - 00:29:09:05
Speaker 3
And so, you know, wages increase when that happens. And so these guys are all making, you know, comfortable livings. But it's not like an easy living that by any means, you know, they're.

00:29:09:05 - 00:29:11:04
Speaker 2
Earning 30 it. Yeah. It's you know.

00:29:11:04 - 00:29:19:03
Speaker 3
It's one of those things. So you got to get like take care everybody. You know, tell my guys all the time like, dude, don't do anything stupid. You know, like, you know, stay healthy.

00:29:19:03 - 00:29:36:20
Speaker 1
Don't be no sassy bender. Yeah. Just because you get money early in the morning. Yeah. All that stuff culturally. Like, how do you think about Blue Ribbon in the sense of, like, how do you what are some non-negotiables in the culture that you said for the company?

00:29:36:22 - 00:29:39:06
Speaker 3
And we have a few that I have to think of them that came to my mind.

00:29:39:06 - 00:29:44:00
Speaker 2
But I say more so, like I tell every one.

00:29:44:00 - 00:29:57:10
Speaker 3
Of my guys, like, be humble and hungry, right? Like, don't ever, don't ever think you know anything. Like the moment you think you know everything about the trades today, you're going to get your ass kicked. You know, especially for air conditioning. I mean, that that trade is changing. Every year something new is coming out and plumbing really hasn't changed in like 100 years.

00:29:57:12 - 00:30:03:23
Speaker 3
Got new tools and things like that, different ways of installing things. And they've got, you know, more advanced water heaters and things like that coming out. But.

00:30:04:01 - 00:30:06:01
Speaker 2
It's just like, you know, just.

00:30:06:03 - 00:30:16:17
Speaker 3
Don't quit and keep working on the problem. Right? One of the things I hate is when guys get there and like, oh, I can't do this. And it's like, why? And I like, well, this is in the way, why don't you just try and like, cut this? I know I can't cut that. And it's.

00:30:16:17 - 00:30:18:05
Speaker 2
I do like when people.

00:30:18:05 - 00:30:28:08
Speaker 3
Have heinous of a solution for them. I provide a solution like provide a solution like figure it out like, come on, you know, so like I get frustrated when guys want to throw their hands up and try and have someone else do their job for them.

00:30:28:10 - 00:30:34:19
Speaker 1
You know, I think these are something you ask, how do you know if they're going to have that grit? Just stick with it because that is tough work.

00:30:34:21 - 00:30:37:13
Speaker 3
It's you don't you have to put them in the situation.

00:30:37:13 - 00:30:38:21
Speaker 2
Like if there's no amount.

00:30:38:21 - 00:30:50:00
Speaker 3
Of interviews you can do or questions you can ask to find out whether they have it. I mean, I've had there's plenty of guys, man is, first day on the job and air conditioning. Put them in an attic 130 degrees, and they're not showing up the next day.

00:30:50:02 - 00:30:51:12
Speaker 2
Oh, really?

00:30:51:14 - 00:30:58:02
Speaker 3
So they have plenty of time. So just, like, can't do it. Can't, like, work in that environment. I tell them all the time to that's a hey, man. Like, it's not uncommon, for you to.

00:30:58:02 - 00:30:58:12
Speaker 2
Throw up.

00:30:58:14 - 00:31:04:20
Speaker 3
Beginning the season until you get used to it. You know, like I said, it's like anything else after a week of get acclimated and then, it won't be as bad.

00:31:04:20 - 00:31:07:00
Speaker 2
It's still going to suck, but it won't be as bad. Yeah.

00:31:07:02 - 00:31:08:07
Speaker 3
You know, and that's I've had plenty of times.

00:31:08:07 - 00:31:08:15
Speaker 2
I've.

00:31:08:17 - 00:31:10:21
Speaker 3
Been, you know, laying on the floor outside.

00:31:10:23 - 00:31:12:17
Speaker 1
No lights, just trying to.

00:31:12:19 - 00:31:15:13
Speaker 2
You know, drinking Gatorade water. And I'm just like, you know, start the season.

00:31:15:13 - 00:31:16:10
Speaker 3
I'm like, dang, dude, this.

00:31:16:10 - 00:31:20:03
Speaker 2
Is feels rougher than last year. Yeah. But, I.

00:31:20:03 - 00:31:31:23
Speaker 1
Think that's important though that to tell folks. I mean, so from a when you do you have a hard time bringing talent in or do you find that you're at this point in time with Blue Ribbon where you generally find the people you need?

00:31:32:01 - 00:31:32:17
Speaker 2
We don't have a hard time.

00:31:32:17 - 00:31:34:20
Speaker 3
Finding talent necessarily nowadays.

00:31:34:20 - 00:31:37:11
Speaker 2
But it's also like,

00:31:37:13 - 00:31:53:15
Speaker 3
We're we're trying more so to, to produce more technicians. But I don't think the trade schools do a very good job setting them up for success. And, and then there's a lot of companies that do things differently. And, a lot of times it's like once someone's already been taught something the wrong way. Yeah. It's very difficult to teach that from them.

00:31:53:15 - 00:31:54:01
Speaker 3
You know.

00:31:54:01 - 00:31:56:23
Speaker 1
Talk to him about the trade schools. What's something you're finding there that.

00:31:57:01 - 00:31:59:09
Speaker 2
Seems like and so like, like for the air conditioning.

00:31:59:09 - 00:32:12:06
Speaker 3
Side of things, right. Like the trade school specifically teach them how to be a service technician. And so then when they come out of trade school, they want to come work for us. And they're like, I want to be service tech. And I said, okay, well, do you know how to install an air conditioner? And they're like, no, I said, you can't skip that.

00:32:12:06 - 00:32:17:18
Speaker 3
Sounded like, you know what I mean? Like, you have to at least be like an installer for like 18 months. Two years is what I like to say.

00:32:17:21 - 00:32:18:05
Speaker 2
Oh, they.

00:32:18:05 - 00:32:19:23
Speaker 1
Just want to do the kind of the maintaining.

00:32:19:23 - 00:32:21:16
Speaker 2
Yeah. They just want to like, learn how to,

00:32:21:18 - 00:32:24:07
Speaker 3
To fix the air conditioner, but they don't want to know how to install it. And I'm like.

00:32:24:07 - 00:32:25:09
Speaker 2
Dude, you can't skip.

00:32:25:09 - 00:32:26:21
Speaker 3
That vital step, man. I was like, every.

00:32:26:21 - 00:32:28:07
Speaker 2
Single very good.

00:32:28:09 - 00:32:32:07
Speaker 3
Air conditioning technician in the trades. Even the sales guys all started from the install department.

00:32:32:11 - 00:32:34:07
Speaker 2
Because you get very comfortable.

00:32:34:09 - 00:32:49:10
Speaker 3
Talking about like, like how the system works. Like, you get a very good understanding when you put it together, like how it all works and how it all works together. And, and the customers can see that too. When you talk about with the confidence like, I can do that, like this, problem. Right. So service technicians, I don't know how to put it together.

00:32:49:12 - 00:32:56:16
Speaker 3
You could tell the, you know, in their voice that they're not sure if they're saying the right thing or not. So the customer and the customer can feel that too, you know?

00:32:56:16 - 00:32:58:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. But then the problem is, is.

00:32:58:04 - 00:32:59:07
Speaker 3
They've been told from trade schools.

00:32:59:07 - 00:33:00:05
Speaker 2
That you're a service tech.

00:33:00:07 - 00:33:05:18
Speaker 3
And they're not going to accept an initial position because they think it goes in self-service tech. Then like sales guy and they don't want to go backwards.

00:33:05:22 - 00:33:07:09
Speaker 2
I'm like, dude, you haven't even had.

00:33:07:12 - 00:33:09:12
Speaker 3
One day in the career like you.

00:33:09:12 - 00:33:14:17
Speaker 2
Like you need to start at the bottom. Then the other problem with the trade schools too, is like they do a lot of.

00:33:14:19 - 00:33:16:06
Speaker 3
Focusing on the technical side of things.

00:33:16:12 - 00:33:20:12
Speaker 2
When in the home services space, it's it's, a lot of what we do.

00:33:20:13 - 00:33:33:01
Speaker 3
Is customers, right. Like 60% of job is communication. Yeah. And they don't do any type of teaching on how to communicate effectively. You know, whether it's with your team members or managers or even mostly the customers, they don't teach them how to talk to the customers at all. Right. And that's a.

00:33:33:01 - 00:33:33:12
Speaker 2
Vital part.

00:33:33:12 - 00:33:50:16
Speaker 3
Like being able to to walk up and ask customer the right questions and, you know, say like, you know, how long you've been having this problem, you know, and then did you buy this air conditioner? And what's the last repair that was done, you know, for the first time that were out there and, you know, and then just presenting options to a lot of these guys get very, very afraid of like presenting pricing to customers.

00:33:50:16 - 00:33:51:06
Speaker 3
You know.

00:33:51:08 - 00:33:51:22
Speaker 1
We kind of shy.

00:33:51:23 - 00:33:53:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. They get really shy about it.

00:33:53:06 - 00:34:06:19
Speaker 3
And so it's difficult. Right. And then you're like fighting this uphill battle with them. Whereas like if we produce them it's like first thing we teach them is like we're going to hire on our student, right? And we can always we can always teach the trade. Like it's not very difficult to like, learn how to do the trade just all the time and you'll figure it out.

00:34:06:22 - 00:34:12:06
Speaker 3
Yeah. But like having a great attitude and being able to, communicate effectively is really what we.

00:34:12:06 - 00:34:16:07
Speaker 1
Want to look for. How do you, how do you teach that you like do role playing or what is a role playing?

00:34:16:07 - 00:34:17:00
Speaker 2
Role playing. It's like.

00:34:17:00 - 00:34:24:05
Speaker 3
Anything else. I mean, like I tell people like, you can always tell when someone's a good way to write, like how many tables you think they've waited.

00:34:24:07 - 00:34:26:05
Speaker 2
Ten ton. Right. It's all repetition.

00:34:26:05 - 00:34:29:13
Speaker 3
Right? So it's like from a from a technician standpoint, if they're rolling 3 or 4 calls.

00:34:29:13 - 00:34:30:21
Speaker 2
A day, how long do you think I'll take.

00:34:30:21 - 00:34:32:05
Speaker 3
Delivery. Comfortable talking to customers.

00:34:32:05 - 00:34:34:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, a long time right. Yep. But if you go in like.

00:34:34:13 - 00:34:43:10
Speaker 3
If you're a waiter and you go, wait, I mean, how much I was going wait a night, you know, 30, 40, 50, right. You do that 4 or 5 nights a week, like the amount of customer interaction you're going to have is significantly higher, right?

00:34:43:12 - 00:34:45:05
Speaker 2
So it's difficult for us.

00:34:45:05 - 00:34:57:16
Speaker 3
When you bring a technician on that doesn't have very good communication skills. And then it's like, okay, the only way they're going to get good at that is by straight repetition. And so like, how do you even have to do that. It's like, well we have to, you know, we do it. You know, unfortunately. And of course nobody likes to roleplay.

00:34:57:16 - 00:34:59:07
Speaker 2
But for them it's very effective.

00:34:59:07 - 00:35:00:10
Speaker 3
Like it needs to happen.

00:35:00:10 - 00:35:03:10
Speaker 2
But yeah, I mean are they going to let me I'm like, I'd rather go hire.

00:35:03:12 - 00:35:04:19
Speaker 3
Guys from their waiting tables.

00:35:04:19 - 00:35:10:17
Speaker 2
You know? Yeah. Because like, you do a great job. Yeah, yeah. And I teach at a plum. I mean I've had guys, you know, and now, you.

00:35:10:17 - 00:35:11:21
Speaker 1
Know, at Patrick's hires.

00:35:11:21 - 00:35:20:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. The Applebee's starts hiring plumbers. Oh, it's like, you know, you go to your doorway table and you can tell when, like, a good guys, like a good waiter, you know.

00:35:20:06 - 00:35:23:20
Speaker 3
You're like, oh, man. Like that guy. That guy's not just talking about, you know, he's doing. Yeah.

00:35:23:22 - 00:35:24:23
Speaker 2
You want to make more money, you know?

00:35:25:00 - 00:35:42:06
Speaker 1
No. That's right. Yeah. They're really good at walking you into not walking. Yeah that sounds bad. But like kind of helping guide you into a conversation that the customer actually wants to have. They just don't know how to have it. And I think I had a I'll give you a quick story. I had a guy that I think this is a bad experience.

00:35:42:07 - 00:36:02:01
Speaker 1
We got something fixed. I knew there needed to be more work done, and I just it was at that point where I was like, I had I don't know if I want to roll more money into this thing or not, but it's weird. In the back of my mind, I knew I'm going to see him in probably 45 days, and I wish in some ways he kind of made me feel more comfortable going like, hey, I notice this other thing, we're already.

00:36:02:01 - 00:36:03:03
Speaker 2
Here. Yeah, that's a that's.

00:36:03:03 - 00:36:04:13
Speaker 3
A big problem. We have to.

00:36:04:15 - 00:36:05:06
Speaker 2
That's how like broke.

00:36:05:06 - 00:36:18:23
Speaker 3
Fix mentality. We always like to just stay in the trades. It's like there's a lot of companies that go out there and they just want to fix what's broken. And they don't want to look at like the big picture. Right. And they always like to vilify the larger companies that are like might go in there and say like like a doctor.

00:36:18:23 - 00:36:33:07
Speaker 3
I said, if I going to diagnose you air conditioner, I to tell you every single thing I say, what's wrong with it. Yeah, right. And you make the decision whether you want to replace it or want to repair it or whatever, whatever you want to do, it's air conditioner. It's up to you, right? There's a lot of guys that don't even they're just there to like, hey, this one thing is it's broken.

00:36:33:11 - 00:36:41:23
Speaker 3
I can see that all these other problems are there, but I'm going to bring it up. It's like, did you do a service to the customer? It's like, no, you didn't like most people want to know if there's something else going on. They don't have to see you. And like.

00:36:42:01 - 00:36:42:17
Speaker 2
We see it a lot too.

00:36:42:17 - 00:36:58:10
Speaker 3
Like some of the companies will car, like go out there on the call because system's like 20 years old and and I'm like, you know, when's the last time we, we were out here and they're like, oh, like three months ago. I'm like, what about that before that? Probably three months ago. Like before that three months ago. I'm like, so we've been out here like 4 or 5 times this year and they're.

00:36:58:10 - 00:36:59:10
Speaker 2
Like, yeah, why don't you.

00:36:59:10 - 00:37:00:02
Speaker 3
Just buy a new system?

00:37:00:06 - 00:37:03:17
Speaker 2
Yeah. Like well so and so said I didn't need one. I said, yeah, but a year like two.

00:37:03:17 - 00:37:06:23
Speaker 3
Grand into the repair costs, new ones like eight. So you're already 20% there.

00:37:06:23 - 00:37:08:16
Speaker 2
You know what I mean. Like like you could just you.

00:37:08:16 - 00:37:15:05
Speaker 3
Just lost two grand. We could have just got a new one. You want to see me for? You know, besides maintenance for like, probably 5 or 6 years for, for something breaks down, you know.

00:37:15:07 - 00:37:19:19
Speaker 2
Like, well, yeah, I wish I had that option right. But like, it's the same from a technician standpoint.

00:37:19:19 - 00:37:34:21
Speaker 3
Like if they were taught to just be broke, fix and just fix what's broken and don't bring anything else up, then they, they always, you know, they they won't. It's very hard to untrain that to say, hey, just like all the options, like most customers want to know, you know, it's like the same like Wi-Fi thermostats, right? Like, I don't know how many houses I go into.

00:37:34:22 - 00:37:47:09
Speaker 3
And it's still like the old school, like press a button thing. And I'm like, dude, you know, there's an app you can, like set the schedule. You can like, you can change the temperature from your bed. You don't even have to get a I, you can, like, leave the air conditioner off all day and then turn it on like an hour or two before you come home.

00:37:47:09 - 00:37:52:05
Speaker 3
So you're not wasting money. Like, would you like that? And like, that's fine. That's fantastic. I love that. It's like great.

00:37:52:07 - 00:37:53:14
Speaker 2
You know. Yeah.

00:37:53:16 - 00:38:00:17
Speaker 1
No, it's just and it's whether they know it or not, I think it's it's good. Selling is just helping people buy something they already want to buy.

00:38:00:17 - 00:38:05:00
Speaker 2
It's just presenting options to you, you know. And that's the thing is, like, there's so many products that we.

00:38:05:00 - 00:38:11:18
Speaker 3
Can, and so on, houses that, like, a lot of people don't even know about, you know, and so like for our technicians, just like, just have that conversation, it's like.

00:38:11:19 - 00:38:13:22
Speaker 2
I can ask them, like, you can search in the Wi-Fi thermostat.

00:38:13:22 - 00:38:15:11
Speaker 3
It could be an old dude. There's like, no, I was.

00:38:15:11 - 00:38:23:16
Speaker 2
Like, okay, that's it. Good. At least asked like, do you have water softener in the house? No. Okay. Like do you want one? No. Okay. Like, you know what I mean? Like it's very simple.

00:38:23:16 - 00:38:26:01
Speaker 3
Just like ask if they want something, but that asking part.

00:38:26:01 - 00:38:30:03
Speaker 2
Is a lot of them. Like this. I'm saying back to the waiters, right? Like how many good waiters you know there.

00:38:30:09 - 00:38:32:10
Speaker 3
When they walk up to the table, they're going to ask about appetizers.

00:38:32:11 - 00:38:39:18
Speaker 2
Always like, yeah, you know always. Hey my my favorite that fried calamari. You know what I mean. Like or even like, like beverages too. Like, they're very slick.

00:38:39:18 - 00:38:45:00
Speaker 3
On, like, you know, offering like, any of the signature cocktails, right. And then like, you're looking at your friends like, oh, should we try that?

00:38:45:00 - 00:38:45:16
Speaker 2
You know, it.

00:38:45:16 - 00:38:46:16
Speaker 1
Is for y'all. You know.

00:38:46:16 - 00:38:51:04
Speaker 2
It's it's the same thing, though. So it's like like for us, it's like they're just going in the house and letting them know, hey, we got all these.

00:38:51:04 - 00:38:52:15
Speaker 3
Great things that would definitely benefit.

00:38:52:15 - 00:38:56:16
Speaker 2
The house. And most homeowners want to invest in their home. Yeah, you know, they want to make things.

00:38:56:16 - 00:38:57:15
Speaker 3
Easier on them, on themselves.

00:38:57:17 - 00:39:12:20
Speaker 1
You know, they see it as a thing that they're not going to lose that investment on. It's here. They're using it every single day. What do you do when you maybe talk about the the school year said, no, I in this kind of I know goes right into some of the stuff we're already talking through. But just talk to us about that.

00:39:12:22 - 00:39:14:09
Speaker 2
Yeah. So we've got,

00:39:14:11 - 00:39:31:04
Speaker 3
A building that was on our lot in Bastrop that we used to run out of that we're gutting right now. We're turning into a full on training academy for for all three trades. And, we're just going to put them through our own program and teach them how we want the calls ran, how we troubleshoot and how we diagnose and how we repair certain things.

00:39:31:06 - 00:39:51:17
Speaker 3
And, just keep them all educated up to speed and same like air condition, like I said, like there's a lot of, things coming out. We just had to refrigerant come out, by 2029, all the system subsidy inverters. So it's, you know, pretty much computer boards on the back of the, on the condensers and, and then by 2030, I don't know if they solidify this or not, but they want us to get rid of the 80% furnaces and move straight to 96% furnaces.

00:39:51:17 - 00:39:56:19
Speaker 3
And, you know, it's just they're always mandating new things from the D.o.e. and EPA and so like staying up to date on that.

00:39:57:01 - 00:39:57:10
Speaker 2
But those are.

00:39:57:10 - 00:40:18:22
Speaker 3
Just like how to troubleshoot, how to diagnose and orders operations on that sense. And keeping it all uniform. Right. Like it's difficult when, we have a technician go over on a call and then the next technician that goes out there runs a call completely different right now that the, the the experience of the customer experience. You know, either the first call was a great call and the second one was a bad or another upset, or the first call was a bad one and the second one was great.

00:40:18:22 - 00:40:34:10
Speaker 3
And then they're calling and saying, why didn't the first timer on that call that way? You know what I mean? Yeah. And so it's like even same thing. It's like the first technician might they don't want to bring up all the other problems that they saw three months ago. And then this technician is bringing up the problems they saw that was been preexisting, you know, and then they're like, well, why didn't the first technician say, then it's like, you know.

00:40:34:12 - 00:40:35:20
Speaker 2
So it becomes a problem.

00:40:35:20 - 00:40:51:12
Speaker 3
Right? And so we would try and mitigate that by like saying, hey, this is this is how we run every single call on this is the way we're gonna run them. This is the information you take. These are the photos. It's the readings, you know. And all these options are present. And it's like anything else. Like we're not reinforcing anyone to buy anything, but, like, they want to know if there's something wrong.

00:40:51:12 - 00:41:04:05
Speaker 3
So it's like if we go to someone's house and say, hey, like capacitors week, it's outside of, you know, manufacturer specifications. It's so operational, but we can replace it now while we're here. And they're like now it's like, okay, cool. All right. And the next time we go out.

00:41:04:05 - 00:41:11:20
Speaker 2
Or like, hey, it's it's a little lower, do you want to do something like, nah, I'll wait till it breaks. Like okay. Like there's no, there's no, there's nothing wrong with that. But like on the flip side is like.

00:41:11:22 - 00:41:23:11
Speaker 3
You don't want customers to be upset when they're like, well, why didn't you tell me that? You didn't give me the option to decide whether I wanted to replace at that time or not? You just decided for me. Right. And so we always tell our guys, like, don't ever make the decision for the homeowner. It's the air conditioner, right?

00:41:23:11 - 00:41:27:16
Speaker 3
You're there to present facts. That's it. You know, let them decide on what they want to do. Yeah.

00:41:27:17 - 00:41:45:19
Speaker 1
It's and it's just good business. I mean, it kind of leans into we were talking about this before we kind of kicked live on this on this episode, but would I talk to you about this? And actually earlier today talk to another, another operator advisor on this same thing, which is this idea of, hey, you know, you can buy this company and just kind of it'll run itself.

00:41:45:20 - 00:42:01:05
Speaker 1
You can kind of just hang out on the beach and just kind of let it do its thing. I hear you saying, just based on what you've just said about, like, hey, man, you're you're constantly improving the process, the craft, the people, the talk tracks, all that stuff. There's nothing passive that seems about that.

00:42:01:05 - 00:42:02:09
Speaker 2
No, no, business.

00:42:02:09 - 00:42:07:14
Speaker 3
Is passive, man. Like there's nothing passive about a business. And I don't.

00:42:07:16 - 00:42:07:18
Speaker 2
I.

00:42:07:18 - 00:42:13:21
Speaker 3
Really don't understand when people think they're, like, going to buy this, like, boring business that's passive or something. They just like, especially in the trades, there's nothing passive about it.

00:42:13:23 - 00:42:17:05
Speaker 1
What are you guys from? I go, why is that a thought that's out there.

00:42:17:05 - 00:42:20:08
Speaker 3
No, no, no Guru's probably selling courses on telling people like how to do things.

00:42:20:08 - 00:42:28:01
Speaker 2
I guess I don't know. Yeah. No that's right. But I also think it's just like counterintuitive to that. Like, how many people want to.

00:42:28:01 - 00:42:29:16
Speaker 3
Make a ton of money and not work for it?

00:42:29:18 - 00:42:30:04
Speaker 2
That's right.

00:42:30:04 - 00:42:33:02
Speaker 3
You know what I mean? Like, I mean, like, how many billionaires you see are retired.

00:42:33:04 - 00:42:34:08
Speaker 2
They're still working. They're like 80 something.

00:42:34:08 - 00:42:35:14
Speaker 3
Years old working every day.

00:42:35:14 - 00:42:36:19
Speaker 2
It's like, well, they didn't they didn't make.

00:42:36:19 - 00:42:39:17
Speaker 3
$1 billion by not being workhorses, you know what I mean? And then it's like when.

00:42:39:17 - 00:42:41:08
Speaker 2
They get the.

00:42:41:10 - 00:42:51:08
Speaker 3
The money is just a byproduct of the work ethic. You know, they didn't then set out to be billionaires. It just happened from for the amount of work because they always striving to do better. Yeah. Right. And I mean some of them maybe just settle to be billionaires.

00:42:51:08 - 00:42:53:02
Speaker 2
But but at the end of the day though, it's like.

00:42:53:02 - 00:43:01:12
Speaker 3
That's what I'm saying. It's like, you know, like all these people want to, like make a bunch of money and like, sit around, do nothing. And I'm like, it's like, you're never going to make a bunch of money sitting around doing nothing. So like.

00:43:01:13 - 00:43:02:16
Speaker 2
I don't know any, any, very.

00:43:02:20 - 00:43:09:13
Speaker 3
Any anyone that's very wealthy that I've ever met in my life is like not doing something. You know, they're not just sitting around, like, enjoying their money.

00:43:09:16 - 00:43:10:02
Speaker 1
And like, they're.

00:43:10:02 - 00:43:11:15
Speaker 2
Just they'll have, like, vacation, like.

00:43:11:15 - 00:43:16:06
Speaker 3
Nice vacations and like, nice house and things like that. But they're like, if anything, that they're doing ten times more than what I'm doing.

00:43:16:08 - 00:43:20:09
Speaker 2
I'm like, damn, dude, I gotta keep going. Yeah, I gotta yeah, you don't realize it.

00:43:20:11 - 00:43:40:15
Speaker 1
And that's so funny because, you see, I mean, we have we can see businesses that have had a 30 year profitable, successful track record, get a new operator in that's lazy and not committed and into the whole passive income vibes. And then in five years it's out of business and you're like, well, how did that happen? What happened?

00:43:40:15 - 00:44:03:14
Speaker 1
Because like, these things are a living, breathing thing. It's like if you don't feed the beast and you don't tend to it and you don't hone it in, where else is it going to go back down? Yeah. How do you when you when you think about folks that are out there right now considering this, this craft of ownership operating, you know, doing both like what are some of the things you kind of hope they consider ahead of time before embarking on that?

00:44:03:16 - 00:44:08:02
Speaker 2
It's, it's a lot of work, man. Like at the end, like you shouldn't be going into this.

00:44:08:02 - 00:44:24:12
Speaker 3
Thinking that, like, this is going to be an easy task that you're like, I want like that. You're just going to be able to, you know, set on string my ties, you know, after a year of hard work or something like that. It's like, that's never going to happen. Like you're looking at like 24, seven work in like always on call managing people.

00:44:24:12 - 00:44:28:17
Speaker 3
And you know, it's it's it's an ever growing thing, you know.

00:44:28:19 - 00:44:33:03
Speaker 1
Where do you spend most of your time these days? Obviously in the office you said.

00:44:33:03 - 00:44:33:14
Speaker 2
But yeah, an.

00:44:33:14 - 00:44:34:14
Speaker 3
Office working.

00:44:34:16 - 00:44:39:04
Speaker 1
What are they like? What are the main focus points day to day that you spend most of your time around?

00:44:39:06 - 00:44:40:12
Speaker 2
Like checking in with my.

00:44:40:12 - 00:44:51:03
Speaker 3
Direct reports, my DMs. Making sure KPIs are where we're at. You know, making sure that we run a call, like a call by call system. So they're checking on what their their call the call managers, make sure the technicians are following what they're supposed to be doing.

00:44:51:04 - 00:44:52:10
Speaker 1
What is that call by call?

00:44:52:12 - 00:44:54:01
Speaker 2
So we run like, a call calls.

00:44:54:03 - 00:44:55:10
Speaker 3
System. So. So basically.

00:44:55:10 - 00:44:56:18
Speaker 2
It's it's our way of.

00:44:56:20 - 00:44:59:15
Speaker 3
Trying to.

00:44:59:17 - 00:45:00:18
Speaker 2
Our issues like a lot of.

00:45:00:18 - 00:45:14:16
Speaker 3
People see in the past, it's like if a technician goes like, we have no control over the technician in the, this area in the house, right? And so, like, again, like I just going back to it's it's very difficult. It's like the continuation goes in runs a call and then we don't know anything bad happen until the customer is calling us complaining or we get like a one star review or something like that.

00:45:14:17 - 00:45:14:21
Speaker 2
Right.

00:45:14:21 - 00:45:15:23
Speaker 1
They're going to self-report themselves.

00:45:15:23 - 00:45:20:20
Speaker 2
Right? Right. Exactly. Right. So but then it's also like we it's not not necessarily say.

00:45:20:20 - 00:45:28:11
Speaker 3
That like maybe it was a bad customer experience because a lot of times, like we go and look at the data on the call and like didn't fill out the forms they're supposed to, you didn't like, do the invoice number the way they were supposed to be.

00:45:28:11 - 00:45:30:14
Speaker 2
Like. So we we have like a system.

00:45:30:14 - 00:45:44:11
Speaker 3
There's a we took it from other companies that been successful with it. But like having a call a call manager, like a really good technician and kind of oversee a team of texts and hold them accountable to making sure that the processes are being followed. Their SOPs being followed on, on the call. It's like, hey, did you mention this?

00:45:44:11 - 00:45:51:10
Speaker 3
Or you mention that? Here's the options. Did you present these options? Like to check all these photos. Do they have, you know, how is the water heater? Do they have a water softener? Right. You know.

00:45:51:14 - 00:45:53:08
Speaker 1
Are they checking in with them every single visit.

00:45:53:08 - 00:45:53:17
Speaker 2
Or.

00:45:53:17 - 00:46:07:20
Speaker 3
Yeah yeah yeah during the call. So it's kind of like live like as they're going through the call, they have staff to check in with them on. And then like this becomes a very popular, way of doing things. So there's actually some software coming out that's starting to, to help with this, to make it easier for, for a lot of companies.

00:46:07:20 - 00:46:08:14
Speaker 2
The folks, to make sure.

00:46:08:14 - 00:46:10:02
Speaker 1
That they're kind of going through that checklist of.

00:46:10:02 - 00:46:11:15
Speaker 3
Things. Yeah. Yeah. Like in real time.

00:46:11:21 - 00:46:15:10
Speaker 1
Yeah. Wow. So, okay, you spent a lot of time with DMs. How many GM's do you have?

00:46:15:10 - 00:46:29:04
Speaker 3
I just have two GM's, one for each department. And my Hvac guy, John oversees both electrical and air track, and they have Jason, obviously, the plumbing department and they're pretty equal in size now. Yeah, they've just so many, technicians on that side. And then.

00:46:29:06 - 00:46:30:12
Speaker 2
And then just, you know, a.

00:46:30:12 - 00:46:52:14
Speaker 3
Call center, making sure that the numbers are sitting there. And then I've got, like, other projects we're working on. So like, right now we're working on getting, a new inventory system set up. So we're consigning all of our vehicles. So I'm working with our two van main vendors on that, and, and then, getting that set up on, on software and tracking that appropriately for the vendors and, and then, getting our training academy up and running.

00:46:52:19 - 00:46:53:01
Speaker 3
Yeah.

00:46:53:01 - 00:46:55:12
Speaker 1
How long before that training academy is up and running? You think?

00:46:55:13 - 00:46:59:20
Speaker 3
I mean, I'm I'm optimistic. And so I've been cracking the whip on it, but,

00:46:59:21 - 00:47:00:06
Speaker 2
We should.

00:47:00:06 - 00:47:10:02
Speaker 3
Have the demo done. Probably, like the end of the week. Well, maybe beginning next week and then. And then we're going to epoxy coat the floors. We should probably take a couple days and then, and then from there it's pretty much good to go, but.

00:47:10:02 - 00:47:11:12
Speaker 2
We're, we'll have to.

00:47:11:14 - 00:47:21:11
Speaker 3
Spray foam. We have framing up and then, and then I'll install the air conditioner. It's probably like four months, I would say, before, not for a four weeks before, before I like at least air conditioning. And so.

00:47:21:14 - 00:47:22:10
Speaker 2
Yeah, plumbing is gonna take a.

00:47:22:10 - 00:47:31:00
Speaker 3
Minute because it's going to be like a raised platform that we're going to build, like little bathrooms and showers and things. And, but it's also going to be, coincided with like, electrical because we'll be able to run electrical inside sheetrock and.

00:47:31:06 - 00:47:31:10
Speaker 2
Oh.

00:47:31:10 - 00:47:34:16
Speaker 1
You actually are going to have like this thing just a classroom. This is like a.

00:47:34:18 - 00:47:37:23
Speaker 2
Studio where people are, you know, working on things. We got a 30. It's a 36.

00:47:37:23 - 00:47:40:04
Speaker 3
Thousand square foot building. So.

00:47:40:06 - 00:47:42:11
Speaker 1
That's killer. And, you know, other people are doing that, or.

00:47:42:12 - 00:47:46:23
Speaker 2
There's a lot of other larger companies that have, something similar to it. That's sick man. Yeah.

00:47:46:23 - 00:47:47:14
Speaker 3
They're

00:47:47:16 - 00:47:48:20
Speaker 2
And so they've had great success with.

00:47:48:20 - 00:47:50:03
Speaker 3
But it's also same thing. It's like.

00:47:50:03 - 00:47:51:06
Speaker 2
There's other guys have.

00:47:51:08 - 00:48:06:18
Speaker 3
Went out and built Crane kind of like this, and they're like, yeah, we don't use it as much as we thought we were going to use it. Or we might like disband the program and things like that. And, for us at least, I think it's pretty imperative, to consistently always be recruiting and training and growing. And I think the technicians will like it, too.

00:48:06:21 - 00:48:09:15
Speaker 3
Know having consistent training process for them, you know.

00:48:09:16 - 00:48:10:05
Speaker 2
Is is also.

00:48:10:05 - 00:48:14:14
Speaker 3
The biggest complaint. Do you hear from them? It's like, why don't you do X, Y and Z? They're like, well, I don't know.

00:48:14:16 - 00:48:15:00
Speaker 2
It's like, well.

00:48:15:05 - 00:48:26:01
Speaker 3
You didn't know, like, okay, well let's get you in your train since it's like easier for like a non-negotiable too. It's like I walk you through this process. It teaches you how to do it. You sign off saying you know how to do it. So then when I ask you, hey, why don't you do x, y, z? You said you know how to do it.

00:48:26:04 - 00:48:29:03
Speaker 3
Yeah. It's not just like it's either incompetence or negligence. You know what I mean?

00:48:29:03 - 00:48:30:04
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. No, that's right.

00:48:30:07 - 00:48:33:17
Speaker 3
It's not incompetent now because I taught you so now you've been negligent on the on the process.

00:48:33:19 - 00:48:51:20
Speaker 1
No, I mean, I came you get we if you're open to it, I'd love to come down and see that thing. I know you walk me. I know y'all were announcing HQ. Yeah, but I know you've had that thing off to the side there. They would love to see you there. It reminds me of, like, we used to, like, build up these shoot houses like you, like, make a big house and you're getting ready to go in there and do some drills with and stuff.

00:48:51:20 - 00:49:07:12
Speaker 1
So it's kind of the same thing. Now you've built out this thing, when you're talking to have bathrooms and stuff. I was like, you know, I said, well, that makes sense. They have all the trades in house to go build this house. Which, okay, by the way, I'm always curious, is it when you working on your own house?

00:49:07:14 - 00:49:11:11
Speaker 1
Do you ever have plumbing issues and stuff? And you just kind of laughed at, like, I never have time to get it right.

00:49:11:13 - 00:49:12:05
Speaker 2
It's actually funny.

00:49:12:05 - 00:49:24:08
Speaker 3
Like my my plumbing manager was saying this of the day. He's had, I mean, he's a master plumber, for many years. And he had, one of his toilets was running, and he's like, I took a week for me to fix it is.

00:49:24:10 - 00:49:26:10
Speaker 2
You know, so, like, usually when there's something wrong with my own.

00:49:26:10 - 00:49:29:05
Speaker 3
House, like, I neglect the hell out of it because I'm, like, busy.

00:49:29:05 - 00:49:32:03
Speaker 2
Doing my, like, running a company, you know? So my wife would be, like.

00:49:32:03 - 00:49:35:16
Speaker 3
Yelling at me like, hey, we need to get this. Like, fix or that fix. I'm like, yeah, I want to get you on. I get, you.

00:49:35:16 - 00:49:37:03
Speaker 2
Know, I've had plenty of times where I'm.

00:49:37:03 - 00:49:39:15
Speaker 3
Just like, man, like, it might be easier just to hire somebody. I'll be honest.

00:49:39:15 - 00:49:46:17
Speaker 2
Like. And it just had to be, you know, like, I'm pretty, like, you know, like, I can fix a lot of things, but it's like.

00:49:46:17 - 00:49:49:02
Speaker 3
You know, we were doing cabinets and I was.

00:49:49:02 - 00:49:52:10
Speaker 2
Just like, man. Like, she's like, we can do them. And I'm like, yeah, that means I got a done.

00:49:52:10 - 00:49:53:10
Speaker 3
And then I was like.

00:49:53:15 - 00:49:54:00
Speaker 2
She's hired.

00:49:54:00 - 00:49:55:13
Speaker 3
Someone to do, I don't do the kind of like I could do the.

00:49:55:13 - 00:49:56:12
Speaker 2
Cabinets. But I was like, I don't want.

00:49:56:12 - 00:49:58:02
Speaker 3
To do the cabinets, you know what I mean? Like, yeah.

00:49:58:04 - 00:49:58:12
Speaker 2
I gotta.

00:49:58:12 - 00:49:59:08
Speaker 3
I gotta do the things I need to.

00:49:59:08 - 00:50:02:22
Speaker 2
Do. Yeah. But that's such a good point, though I think that's probably.

00:50:03:00 - 00:50:24:09
Speaker 1
That's probably happens quite a bit when you, when you when you think about where Blue Room it needs to be in the next, I don't know call it five years. What, what right now, now that you've kind of spent all this time establishing the foundation, getting a good, mix of the different services that you have in here right now.

00:50:24:09 - 00:50:28:12
Speaker 1
What's kind of your eye on in the five year mark.

00:50:28:14 - 00:50:28:19
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:50:28:19 - 00:50:31:00
Speaker 1
Maybe beyond that, but I'm just curious for.

00:50:31:02 - 00:50:34:06
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, like, ultimate goal is it's, get up to.

00:50:34:06 - 00:50:37:05
Speaker 3
Like, a hundred million. So, we've.

00:50:37:05 - 00:50:39:09
Speaker 2
Got we've got three.

00:50:39:09 - 00:50:51:16
Speaker 3
Locations in Austin, but we can kind of consider all of Austin, like one locations. We got Bastrop, Sam, Mark's Round Rock, and we kind of just call that Austin. And then we're down in San Antonio now, and so we're gonna start building up that market. And then, we're looking to get down in Houston and eventually into Dallas.

00:50:51:16 - 00:51:03:22
Speaker 3
And then once we're in those major cities, those are the ones we're going to focus on and try and build all those up. Yeah. And so you know, goals like 100 million don't know how long it'll take us to do it, but, you know, not like in any rush really.

00:51:04:01 - 00:51:07:12
Speaker 1
Because you're working breed. Right. So like to use like you would be doing this anyways.

00:51:07:14 - 00:51:08:12
Speaker 2
Yeah. People always ask me.

00:51:08:12 - 00:51:17:01
Speaker 3
They're like, you know, you could sell it and like, what do you do? And I said, I do. Honestly, I wouldn't know what to do. Like I'm always working. So like, I'd, I probably go crazy. I program my wife crazy too, you.

00:51:17:01 - 00:51:19:15
Speaker 2
Know, it's. Yeah. No way.

00:51:19:17 - 00:51:25:22
Speaker 1
Speaking of which, what what what do you do for fun when you're not running this company and turning wrenches and not fixing toilets?

00:51:26:00 - 00:51:28:12
Speaker 2
Not a whole lot, man. I, I try and go. I started.

00:51:28:12 - 00:51:35:12
Speaker 3
Golfing again. I was, I was on my high school, like, so, I wrestled for a long time and on, on the off season for wrestling, we you kept your ears.

00:51:35:12 - 00:51:36:01
Speaker 1
Good, man.

00:51:36:01 - 00:51:37:02
Speaker 2
Yeah, I, I always.

00:51:37:02 - 00:51:37:20
Speaker 3
Wore head gear, man.

00:51:38:01 - 00:51:42:04
Speaker 2
Because back back in the day this before like, the you series were popular, right? We used to think.

00:51:42:04 - 00:51:43:10
Speaker 3
It was kind of dumb that those.

00:51:43:10 - 00:51:48:15
Speaker 2
Right. Like, it was like, you're an idiot. Oh, if you're with the Clippers, it's like, oh, you got go. Yeah, yeah. I was just like like, cause you can.

00:51:48:15 - 00:51:54:12
Speaker 3
Get a drain and not be an issue and then like, you know, and then they kind of blew up and then now it's like a badge of honor to have those and.

00:51:54:12 - 00:52:00:13
Speaker 2
It's like, oh, well, guys, I missed that area. Like, but, but in the offseason we would,

00:52:00:15 - 00:52:08:06
Speaker 3
Coach coaching one is getting injured. So I thought it would be, beneficial to go play golf. And so I, I picked a golf again, like probably six months ago. It's been a.

00:52:08:06 - 00:52:14:06
Speaker 2
Little bit of that. How's it going? It's coming back. Yes. For sure. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Like it's one of those.

00:52:14:06 - 00:52:18:23
Speaker 3
Things is kind of surprising, like, that, it came back as fast as there was.

00:52:18:23 - 00:52:21:18
Speaker 2
You know, muscle memory, like, you know, you don't really forget, like, because, like.

00:52:21:18 - 00:52:28:10
Speaker 3
Golf, I think I was like, I don't play too bad. I'm like a, like a scratch golfer by any means, but I like, like 80 the other day, 85 or something.

00:52:28:10 - 00:52:29:03
Speaker 2
It's not bad at all.

00:52:29:03 - 00:52:34:16
Speaker 3
And, and I was like a spring kind of came back pretty quick and I just the feel of golf. But it's like, you know.

00:52:34:19 - 00:52:36:17
Speaker 2
Same thing with golf, right? Like, we just have to go hit two.

00:52:36:17 - 00:52:42:20
Speaker 3
Large buckets of balls. And then we had a good chip and we had a good putt. Right. And so like two buckets, two large bucket, two balls, you know, five days a week.

00:52:42:22 - 00:52:43:18
Speaker 2
It's a lot of balls. Right.

00:52:43:19 - 00:52:47:14
Speaker 3
And so like you get the muscle memory on how to do that. It's like anything else. The repetition is.

00:52:47:14 - 00:52:52:09
Speaker 1
Kind of funny. That works right. Everything in life is like do the simple things over and over again. Do a lot of it.

00:52:52:11 - 00:52:55:11
Speaker 2
It's it's it's something like like from wrestling too. It's like like we get like good.

00:52:55:11 - 00:53:09:17
Speaker 3
At like a certain we want to get good at something. Right? Like we come to practice. It's like, all right, we're doing 100 and the, you know, single lakes or 100 lakes or like, you know, 100 throws or whatever the case is going to be. Right? It's just like sheer repetition, right? We're just doing a lot of this until we get comfortable doing it and it just becomes second nature.

00:53:09:19 - 00:53:16:15
Speaker 3
Right. Seems like what I like to teach a lot of guys is like, go do X, Y, and Z, you know, a lot. Yeah, just do a ton of it.

00:53:16:20 - 00:53:18:03
Speaker 2
Yeah. But yeah. And then, I.

00:53:18:03 - 00:53:21:01
Speaker 3
Mean, I try and stay healthy. I work out for like six days a week.

00:53:21:06 - 00:53:24:18
Speaker 1
You feel like that helps you mentally to just kind of stay sharp with all the things you're doing?

00:53:24:20 - 00:53:27:14
Speaker 2
Yeah, probably. Yeah. But I've always.

00:53:27:14 - 00:53:27:22
Speaker 3
Worked out a.

00:53:27:22 - 00:53:30:06
Speaker 2
Lot. Just.

00:53:30:08 - 00:53:32:23
Speaker 3
Always been trying to strive to get back to the wrestling days.

00:53:32:23 - 00:53:34:18
Speaker 2
Like that was for the best I've ever been in.

00:53:34:18 - 00:53:40:08
Speaker 3
And then, like, I've always been trying to get back to that shape. You're never going to get back into shape because of the amount of working out we were doing at that time was insane.

00:53:40:08 - 00:53:40:23
Speaker 2
But yeah, and.

00:53:40:23 - 00:53:46:23
Speaker 1
You could eat anything, right? Yeah. Just like an incinerator. Like you've just all the different job that you had and coming in and building that.

00:53:46:23 - 00:53:53:10
Speaker 3
But then like, also cutting weight was also a problem too. Like I'm, we spread trash bags on and you come and spend to a cup and like, you know, have to drop like 15 pounds of water weight.

00:53:53:10 - 00:53:54:12
Speaker 1
Where you can lose weight by chewing.

00:53:54:12 - 00:53:55:22
Speaker 2
Gum. Yeah. So you chew gum.

00:53:55:22 - 00:54:01:01
Speaker 3
And spit into a cup with wearing a trash bag, running on a treadmill where you just try to get all the water out.

00:54:01:03 - 00:54:02:17
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah. And then you would, we would just.

00:54:02:18 - 00:54:05:06
Speaker 3
You know, honey and orange juice right before the match and.

00:54:05:08 - 00:54:06:12
Speaker 2
Then and then after the race.

00:54:06:13 - 00:54:07:23
Speaker 3
Day, if you had enough energy, make it through.

00:54:08:00 - 00:54:10:13
Speaker 1
In that weird then, like, it kind of makes you.

00:54:10:13 - 00:54:21:18
Speaker 2
Wonder, like, why are we even doing. Yeah. Why are we even doing? There's plenty of times where are we on the treadmill going? Like, what was that? Why am I doing this? And she quit, you know, what was your wrestling way? Oh, man. I was in high school, wrestled.

00:54:21:18 - 00:54:26:05
Speaker 3
From like 12 to 130.

00:54:26:05 - 00:54:27:08
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah.

00:54:27:10 - 00:54:31:02
Speaker 3
Yeah, I'm. I wear significantly more. More weight now.

00:54:31:03 - 00:54:48:13
Speaker 1
No, but I mean, I think yeah. Like, you know, well, I mean, I feel like all of us, especially we were athletes, they're, you know, back in the day, they're just life turns different. Yeah, I know we're closing in on time, but I just last thing on my brain and something that as we're as kind of we're really thinking about, like, why this thing called small business, which again, is hilarious.

00:54:48:13 - 00:54:53:02
Speaker 1
The name because this small business can be like 50 K a year or $30 million. Yeah, yeah.

00:54:53:03 - 00:54:54:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's a big swing.

00:54:54:09 - 00:55:11:08
Speaker 1
It's a big swing for those that have the right staff, who have the grit, who have like the humbleness, the hungry, the drive. Like what do you tell them about if they're maybe they never even consider this. What are some of the things you to leave them with and as to like maybe give it a maybe give it a look.

00:55:11:08 - 00:55:19:23
Speaker 1
Give this life a look. It may not be plumbing or Hvac, it might be just something adjacent to that construction. Whatever it is. Why consider this?

00:55:20:01 - 00:55:20:16
Speaker 2
I mean, it's rewarding.

00:55:20:16 - 00:55:26:05
Speaker 3
At the end for sure. But you definitely have to, like, love the building aspect of it, you know.

00:55:26:07 - 00:55:27:09
Speaker 2
And there's a lot of small.

00:55:27:09 - 00:55:35:04
Speaker 3
Business owners, men I meet that, like, build the company to a certain size, and then it's all flat, I'll tell you, like, I don't take any larger. Like I want to stop right here. Like this is more than what I can handle.

00:55:35:05 - 00:55:37:18
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's like in the economy.

00:55:37:18 - 00:55:44:09
Speaker 3
Like, there's there's always spots for those type of businesses. You know, I've seen very successful businesses that 3 million.

00:55:44:11 - 00:55:46:16
Speaker 2
I've seen just stay there. Yeah. It's a very, very.

00:55:46:16 - 00:55:52:16
Speaker 3
You know, profitable businesses, a 3 million I've seen $30 million, three, $30 million revenue companies that make $0, you know what I mean? Like, so.

00:55:52:16 - 00:55:53:03
Speaker 2
It just.

00:55:53:03 - 00:56:03:13
Speaker 3
Depends on, like, you know, your threshold of what you want to do, what you're trying to achieve with it. But I think it's rewarding no matter what. It's just a lot of work, you know, and it just depends. What you want to try to achieve.

00:56:03:16 - 00:56:11:18
Speaker 1
Is any of the rewarding stuff community based too. It seems like the small businesses have a much more stronger foothold in like the actual tangible.

00:56:11:20 - 00:56:13:04
Speaker 2
Effort from this, the more the.

00:56:13:04 - 00:56:26:20
Speaker 3
Reporting aspect is that the larger you can change with the employees. Right. Seeing some of these guys, like, you know, you can get them at like 18 to trade and they're, you know, debt free and, you know, buying houses at like 23. And like, I got a kid that works for us now that, started straight out.

00:56:26:20 - 00:56:27:16
Speaker 2
Of high school.

00:56:27:18 - 00:56:33:20
Speaker 3
And, and he, I think he makes probably six figures now with us. And he just bought a house, you know, and then it's like, you know.

00:56:33:20 - 00:56:38:13
Speaker 2
Sometimes I like I see a lot of kids that go to college coming out of college. And, you know, I don't know how many.

00:56:38:15 - 00:56:48:08
Speaker 3
That 100,000 of debt. And they're barely can get a 30 K a year jobs like your job, you know, and I was like, we'll come to the trades in like 3 or 4 years, probably make six figures, like, now,

00:56:48:10 - 00:56:50:15
Speaker 2
You know, and it's like, okay, like, you know what I mean?

00:56:50:15 - 00:56:56:10
Speaker 2
It's a great opportunity. It's just it's just hard work. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, from, from a, from a business standpoint.

00:56:56:12 - 00:57:12:16
Speaker 3
It just depends on what you want to find rewarding too. For me it's it's it's definitely like, with the employees and and seeing them grow and, rise the occasion. It's always nice when you have, like, you know, younger guys that can definitely become like managers at some point in their in their later like later on in the career and things like that.

00:57:12:18 - 00:57:12:23
Speaker 3
Do you.

00:57:12:23 - 00:57:15:23
Speaker 1
Identify that kind of early like, yeah, you can you can, you can.

00:57:15:23 - 00:57:16:10
Speaker 2
See it.

00:57:16:14 - 00:57:18:11
Speaker 1
What is it that you see.

00:57:18:13 - 00:57:23:18
Speaker 2
There's certain just like aspects of it like, and that's not to say like you don't ever like.

00:57:23:20 - 00:57:34:12
Speaker 3
Management also is a skill set. That's not like, like transferable, right. Like my best technician is not going to be a best manager, but my my best manager is probably not the best technician. You know what I mean?

00:57:34:14 - 00:57:36:03
Speaker 2
Coach and player. You know and but like a lot of.

00:57:36:03 - 00:57:53:04
Speaker 3
Technicians always think that like that's the next like progression is to like, you know go up to be like a manager and then like that's, you know, it's a completely different set of skills. And what usually makes someone a good technician is that, you know, there's this and, and they're usually like self-driven right to, to achieve. Like, you know, they always want to be like the best at what they're doing.

00:57:53:06 - 00:58:03:05
Speaker 3
That's not a manager you know. Yeah. Manager looking at that team's perspective, not looking at their individual performance. And so you can't take an individual performer and put him on a team and then think that team is going to do great. You know.

00:58:03:07 - 00:58:03:13
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:58:03:13 - 00:58:16:22
Speaker 1
It's that's a it's wise because I do think because you guys can, can go through your entire thing without ever being a manager and still continue to grow. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Senior tags or like they become kind of the.

00:58:16:22 - 00:58:18:08
Speaker 2
The even like the sales get.

00:58:18:09 - 00:58:33:04
Speaker 3
Like sales guys to man. Like you got like project managers that you know they can make 3 or 4, 500,000 a year. I know some guys like other parts of the country, there's only, you know, ten, 15 plus million dollars and air conditioning, you know, making, you know, seven figures off of that.

00:58:33:08 - 00:58:33:17
Speaker 2
Wow.

00:58:33:22 - 00:58:37:14
Speaker 3
You know, and you know, they don't want to be a manager.

00:58:37:16 - 00:58:38:23
Speaker 2
You know, the managers are.

00:58:38:23 - 00:58:44:23
Speaker 3
Usually not the one making that kind of money. Yeah. If anything, the managers are usually guys less than like the, than what the technicians are making.

00:58:45:00 - 00:58:46:07
Speaker 2
Because it's a skill set.

00:58:46:07 - 00:59:13:23
Speaker 1
It's a no. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. Teaching management and leadership is a skill set is super important. Well, Patrick, man, I appreciate what you said. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate you not only coming down here to HQ and, you know, chat with us for a little bit, but, you know, being, early on you, it was humbling for us to just say, like we were as we were trying to figure out who are the really great folks to kind of help this next generation of Americans like coming up, especially when we know there's a lot of there's a lot of talk and rhetoric out there that maybe isn't the healthiest.

00:59:14:01 - 00:59:30:00
Speaker 1
Yeah. We appreciate guys like you coming in saying like, yeah, I mean, I hope it buy some folks and just kind of, you know, share words, wisdom either through this form or just kind of like the good, bad and the ugly of everything that comes along with it, man. So thanks for one being an example out there. And then to, coming in and sharing your words of wisdom in your journey.

00:59:30:02 - 00:59:31:08
Speaker 2
Well thank you. I appreciate you guys having me on.

00:59:31:12 - 00:59:32:05
Speaker 1
Yeah, man.

00:59:32:07 - 00:59:33:07
Speaker 2
Thank you.

00:59:33:07 - 00:59:59:05
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