The Gold Coast Podcast
Hosted by Eric Winegard, this show dives deep into the stories behind South Florida’s most driven entrepreneurs, business owners, and community leaders.
Each episode uncovers the real challenges, lessons, and victories that define the Gold Coast business landscape. Whether you’re a startup founder, established CEO, or simply passionate about growth, you’ll gain valuable insights, strategies, and inspiration from those shaping the region’s economy and culture.
The Gold Coast Podcast
Here's Exactly How To Double Your Business | Jason Rich
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What if you could double or even triple your business… without working more hours?
In this episode of The Gold Coast Podcast, Eric Winegard sits down with Jason Rich, Partner at Paradise Plumbing, Air & Electric, to break down the real strategies behind scaling a business from the ground up.
Jason shares how he confidently takes businesses in the $1M–$8M range and rapidly grows them using systems, marketing, and data, and why most business owners are completely overlooking the biggest opportunities sitting right in front of them.
From CRM and customer data to marketing strategy and operational systems, this episode is a masterclass in turning a small business into a scalable, sellable asset.
If you're an entrepreneur, contractor, or business owner looking to grow… this episode will change how you think about your business.
What You’ll Learn:
How to scale a business from $1M to $8M+
Why most small businesses fail to grow (and how to fix it)
The power of systems, processes, and structure
Why your customer data is your biggest untapped asset
How to use CRM, marketing, and automation to grow faster
The difference between running a job vs building a real business
How to turn your business into something valuable and scalable
📍 Connect with Jason Rich:
Paradise Plumbing, Air & Electric: https://paradiseplumbingandac.com/
YouTube: @a1paradiseplumbingaircondi216
Instagram: @paradiseplumbing_ac
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParadisePlumbingandAC/
🎙️ About The Show:
The Gold Coast Podcast, hosted by Eric Winegard, features real conversations with entrepreneurs, business leaders, and high performers, focused on growth, mindset, and building something that lasts.
👉 If you got value from this episode, make sure to like, subscribe, and share with another business owner.
Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Gold Coast Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Weingard. Today we are blessed and I'm honored to have a wonderful young man here, very successful man, uh as a partner in a business called Paradise Plumbing Aaron Electric, right down here in South Florida. And I'm excited to get into his story. Welcome to the show, brother.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. Uh Rare Blue Moon Marketing has got us out here doing a podcast, and I'm just so excited to be here and sharing what we do and how we do it and what gets me excited to wake up every day and chase what we're what we're building.
SPEAKER_02I would love, love to be able to help non-entrepreneurs become successful entrepreneurs.
SPEAKER_00That's exciting stuff. I have a couple of small businesses that I interact with today, where like I, you know, my one buddy has a sole proprietorship car wash company, you know, mobile detailing. He does crazy IM work, but he hasn't nailed, you know, I drew him on his CRM, I drew him on website, on like Google Business. Like these are the things we need to do to create something that's worth something one day. Beyond a process that adds truck number two and three and four, and then I have another small HVAC company and like me interacting with them, watching them move. Like for me, I thrive. I could take any business between one and eight million, yeah. You know, top line, and double it, triple it, like confidently. Tell me how systems and marketing? Yeah, I mean systems and marketing, one, the data is the king. The biggest thing I feel like these small businesses are doing is they're overlooking the data they already have, or they're not compiling it, like they're not collecting all of their customers' names, phone numbers, emails. They're not staying connected with that story, they're not marketing to them. And so for one, it's like go in and just like one of the early stages of paradise for me was like I went in and I'm like, guys, we have so much opportunity where we're already at.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And we're worried about the next call, we're worried about the next lead we can buy. And like the existing customer is gonna convert so much better, they're gonna refer so much stronger, you're gonna get so much more pull-through work from just serving them better. And so, you know, it's the basics of going in and putting digital systems in place. Hey, do we have inventory flow? Do we have, you know, GPS tracking per se? Do we have safety precautions? Because a lot of bottom line loss is, you know, safety process, losing on the job. Um, but yeah, just you could go in and you could almost pull their marketing budget. It's likely underspend. So it's likely probably two to four percent, if that, on these small companies.
SPEAKER_02What's that number that you should be?
SPEAKER_00I uh we say it loud and clear. Yell it eight to twelve. You know, always is maintain. 12 is growth. I think, you know, if you if you want to maintain and do small growth, consistent small growth, I think eight, you know, is gonna get you there. But nowadays, I'm finding in the current market too, especially in home service, it's just getting more expensive. It's getting more expensive to grab the customer. I was just writing down a stat. I mean, there's 115,000 contractors in the Tri-County alone. We're all wanting the same business. Yeah, you know, and so we we really have to nail down like, hey, what avenues are working? Where are the ROAs at? Where does it actually make sense to be spending dollars? Um, I've seen massive shifts in LSA PPC. That's changed a lot in this last season.
SPEAKER_02Are you as a plumber doing LSA?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I was really stoked. Um, I was big, I got into Google My Business very early. Yeah. Uh I was uh one of the things that excites me is the most is I remember when Google My Business was less focused on reviews and it actually showed your view counts. And that's how early on, you know, Google My Business was for me. It was exciting. Like, all I wanted was to get to a million views because it used to show your views, and it was a very different setup than it is today. Um, but I got into LSA right behind it. LSA was like I was very early. They were doing uh background checks through Pinkerton back then. Yeah, um, it was I got in right around it came out you know 2005, 2010, but home service space hit it around like 2018, 2020, and we were right there on 2018. I was one of the first contractors in the area on LSA. Our lead cost was like 20 to 40 dollars, yeah. And now that's triple, quadruple. Yeah, you go into PPC, it's two, three, four hundred, you know, depending on you know how things are flowing for the for the time periods, and so LSA is just it's been a massive game changer for us.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it's interesting, it's interesting because uh so you're you guys are a different level. You know, when I when I talk to a small, I'd be curious to hear your opinion on this. If you're a plumbing business not even doing a million dollars a year, and LSA, I mean so the numbers can be$200, right? Am I is that yeah, it could be. Is that would you argue that that is sustainable or unsustainable for a business doing 600 grand a year, a plumbing business?
SPEAKER_00I think that it definitely makes sense to have an LSA presence. We find that LSA is although at times the ROAS might not be as strong as a PPC lead when you can land them, your cost is definitely quite significantly lower. We are a very healthy business. We range today from like$45 in our electrical space uh for those LSA conversions to about$78 to$80 in our plumbing, our air conditioning space. So still very affordable leads. I think that even as a small company, um you're gonna have to have that presence. The Google Map Pack is just too vital to not be in a sponsored place. Um you gotta get it there organically. Reviews number one thing we pitch at Paradise. Uh we're over 5,000 five-star reviews. We really, really, really take the time to get Mrs. Smith to tell the story of what she experienced and why the specific technician that served her was the right solution for her home. And so if you can compact those reviews with an LSA presence, I truly believe no matter what size you are, definitely makes sense to have that presence.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, I love you're you're preaching to the choir. No, trust me, I'm I'm gonna use this for some of our ads. You know, this is great. I love what you're saying. Um, yeah, because I, you know, I talk to businesses, you know, all different sizes. I mean, I, you know, I work with an HVAC company in New York that does about 18 million, but then yeah, I work with a local plumber that does 600 grand. And, you know, sometimes there's this element to marketing too, and I'd be curious to hear your opinion on this. Like, I'm not saying, I'm not saying you don't want a ROAS, I'm not saying you don't want good numbers, right? Good return on your investment. But even if, let's say you're just getting a one-to-one ROAS, you know, you're spending 10 grand a month and you're only getting 10 grand a month back, I would argue there's still massive value there because if if you're constantly pumping um especially video content on meta, Instagram, and and it's uh video-based ads, like, dude, you're still building your brand. Massively. Massively.
SPEAKER_00Massively. And it's crazy because you know, a part of our our conglomerate that we're a part of, um, there's different markets and different customer base that really dictate the type of marketing these different companies are doing. And so we look at one branch, maybe up in Jacksonville, where uh they're a hundred percent branding play, very little LSA, very little PPC, massive radio push, massive push, because they're in a residential homeowner market where you know you're dealing with Mr. and Mrs. Smith who are home, they're in their single family houses, and you're dealing with that true one-on-one relationship. We come into South Florida and we find that it's a little bit of a different market. A lot of property management, a lot of HOAs, a lot of landlord tenant situations, uh, a lot of condos where you're ultimately working for you know the building as opposed to the direct homeowner. Yeah. And so we find, you know, that lately the LSA PPC world is becoming a little bit less effective than it was four or five years ago. It's been a little bit, it's still very effective, still very much needed to be a part of the mix, uh, but we want to be in that branding play. We're we're diving into direct mail heavy. Uh, we want to know about hey, does billboards and does radio make sense for our next seasons? Um, and then presence. How do we add location? We just signed a lease, you know, in uh Riviera Beach. It'll add us about 30 to 50 new zip codes so that we can go from Palm Beach Air Uh Palm Beach International all the way to about Hope Sound. And so that's branding is absolutely needed.
SPEAKER_02You know what's funny about uh direct mail. So I have a partnership with a direct mail company up in Stewart. Have you ever heard of My Living Media?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, have you? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh they do pretty good. It's a$20 million direct mail piece company. And I think what's happened with direct mail is I think it, you know, our mailbox was getting flooded, right? And a lot of people went to the internet, right? So there was this perception that all all the all the traffic now, all the eyeballs are online, right? And what happened is I believe it's as simple as this. I think everybody stopped doing direct mail advertising or very little. So now, whenever I go to my mailbox, it's not this big stack anymore. Bro, it's two things.
SPEAKER_00Even Val Pack slowing down, I feel like like things that I always had in the mail, less newspapers, less on the back sheets of where I'd flip over the grocery magazine, and all of a sudden now there's the the ads on the back. Yeah, I feel like it truly has slowed down a bit, and it's a massive opportunity.
SPEAKER_02No, no, that's my point. Yeah, so it's like, so it's kind of like when somebody zigs, you gotta zag a little bit because I've talked to some of these clients and they're like, Yeah, first week I got a freaking remodeling job for 80 grand. I'm like, what the heck? I I know this one. Uh I don't know if they would be mad if I said their name. I will say it because it's a good story. Have you ever heard of the Thirsty Turtle?
SPEAKER_00Potentially.
SPEAKER_02Thirsty Turtle. It's just like a sports bar. I think there's a chain of them. There's like seven of them, I think. The guy flat out told me, I think he spent, I feel like I'm doing like marketing for my living media right now, but it's fine. I think he spent about$24,000 a year, like two grand a month in some direct mail piece. And I think it was like, I don't know, 20% off your order over 50 bucks, something like that. And I forget what they call them when they cash it in, like not receivables or resent redemptions or something to that effect. He we tallied it up and he had$386,000 in business from direct mail. From direct mail, a freaking restaurant. So it's kind of like I think what I think what we're tapping into here though is you got to know your market, right? Are you in Jacksonville? Are you in Palm Beach County? So I do think the marketing mix and the way you go about it is gonna be different based based on your demographics for sure.
SPEAKER_00Who you're trying to reach? Yeah, what's your ideal customer? Yeah, what's your ideal job when you all get said and done? Who do you actually want to attract? You know, and that's that's been a big, a big focus point for us. You know, obviously it's it's becoming a tougher market. Costs are rising, revenues are consistent growth for great players. You know, when you're a really great player in this industry, I think, and and in any of these industries, I think you still have a great opportunity to grow, but there's not really a lot of room for mediocreness. You know, we talk about 2026 being the year where like you really have to have it together if you want to win right now. It's not, you know, it's a it's a high cost market, whether labor is high cost, whether insurance is high cost, vehicles high cost, like there's just a high cost, you know, to do business successfully right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you know, you want to protect the consumer. And that's one of the biggest reasons why our partnership was so so beneficial was we got a competitive advantage through buying power, through stronger systems.
SPEAKER_02Unpack the partnership. I I'm a little unfamiliar with that.
SPEAKER_00So um Paradise is 1991. My dad started the company. Um, he kicked it off. Uh he was a plumber growing up, he got his master's license. Um, he couldn't get into the union up in New York, so he came down to South Florida because you know, industry was booming, it was growing. Um and so he came down, he started Paradise. Uh, we were a plumbing company initially. Around 2012, he added on air conditioning to the business. And so we we went into that realm. And I was in the business from about 2009. I was a young kid. I would go to the business every day after school. I would serve most of my summers in the business growing. It was just something that I was really fond of being a part of. Um, and you know, me and my dad talked many times about like, hey, what's the long term here? What's the goal? You know, you've been in this business for 40, 45 years. It's taken up a lot of time and effort. You've put a lot of hard work into it. Where do we want to go with this? And so, you know, we talked about tons of different pieces of the business, and ultimately we said, hey, let's go, let's go find partners. Let's find a partner so that you can work towards retirement and I can carry the, you know, the name forward, the legacy forward of paradise. And so we went out to the market. Uh, roll-ups right now are as a very popular thing. A lot of different industries rolling into you know private equity and and different pieces of how they're they're becoming a part of these bigger conglomerates. And so uh we found a partner, it's Legacy Service Partners in 2022. Uh we decided to to go forward with the partnership. And since then, the business has just thrived. You know, it's just thrived. We've had about 70 to 80 percent growth since 2022. And so it's been super exciting to see them come in and help us just improve technology. I talk about efficiency, it's uh it's crazy how much waste, you know, is able to get removed from the business to allow it to serve better. And I think the ability to find better people is truly there. You know, we're we're there's 29 companies a part of this uh roll-up or nationwide. And so we have a lot of just benefits from the platform, you know, whether it's a recruiting team, technologies, systems, and so they've really come in and allowed the business to just be relieved of a lot of the administrative things. You know, and at times as contractors, our best job is uh going out and doing great plumbing, great air conditioning, great electric. Um, but the administrative side to these businesses can be a burden for contractors. They're not the best at marketing or recruiting or you know, how we should do uh payroll systems or pay plans, etc. And so they've just come in and and really helped paradise be relieved a lot of that.
SPEAKER_02I hear um this is the most common theme that I hear in contractors in general is the recruiting space. Do you have any advice for something that they helped you do differently that you would recommend to some plumber in Scottsdale, Arizona?
SPEAKER_00You know, one is we when we have the multiple branches, we win the power of relocation. Anytime any one of these individuals wants to be in a different area of the nation, we try really hard to push them to go to another, you know, partnership branch.
SPEAKER_02Oh, so you're recruiting nationally, too.
SPEAKER_00They are, yeah. And most of our leadership team at this point has come from out of state. So our our plumbing manager that actually allowed uh my dad to fully retire came from Virginia. Our HVAC manager from Virginia, our current general manager came from Colorado. And so from an internal leadership team, they're coming nationwide. Um, but we just even had a uh a gentleman who was up in New Jersey. He was working for a plumbing company up there, and he came, he wanted to move to South Florida. And they said, Hey, Paradise is a great place, go down there. Locally, we we we do reward our employees for finding referrals. Um just like in marketing. I I love this data. You know, a referral 86% of the time is gonna be the highest way you're gonna convert a business is a referral. Great experience. Let a customer tell another customer. And so we reward our our team members for finding new team members, and that's my most powerful way of finding talent is these guys all know each other. Every plumber has five to ten other plumber friends, every electrician, every AC guy. And so, like, they they need to you need to create a culture that wants them to be at the business. And if you create a great culture and a great place for them to go home and grow, and then you reward them to go and bring their friends and their colleagues to come and work. I think there what more could you go to the ask for?
SPEAKER_02You have a like I almost want to call it almost like a grassroots focus on it, but grassroots is so valuable still, you know. It's like um, you know, it's funny, not funny. You you mentioned something because I was hammering my account managers about this this week. Hammering, okay. Like Eric not being a nice guy, hammering, okay, because you know, we have two sides to our company. We have our sales side, you know. Yes, we have inbound leads, they respond to those leads. Yes, we do cold outreach, right? Yes, we do networking, yes, I sponsor events and all these kinds of things. So there's already an inherent pressure on a sales team to grow the company. But we have this gigantic book of business with all these happy clients that love doing work with us, that sometimes we're we're just putting the stress on the sales team to just bring more clients in. And I don't care how good of a marketer you are or plumber you are, there's a natural level of churn because people move away, people die, people downsize, people there's all that whatever it may be. Whatever it may be. You know, I had a business that uh a law changed January 1st and it completely destroyed their plan, right? You can't there's a natural level of churn. So, so it puts this inherent pressure on the sales team. And I basically told them, I want to separate these companies. I don't even want you to look at our sales team's numbers. We need to grow our company with our existing client base, right? Because yes, you can upsell them, never upsell them something they don't need, right? So it's like, and so I hammered my team and I basically told them, I said, hey, give uh, you know, give our clients some incentives. Just say, hey, dude, if you could help me out with uh, you know, handful of referrals, you know, we'll we'll waive your rate next month, or we'll give you this, or we'll give you that, like incentivize a little bit, right? And I also tell them to phrase it like, hey, we're a we're a family business, you know, we're we're we're we rely on word of mouth the referrals too. If you could help us out with some referrals, that would be great. And and they got a ton of them. Ton. A ton, right? So I agree with you. It's like sometimes, um, you know, sometimes sometimes that foundational taking it's business is simple. Taking care of your clients, doing excellent work. Yep, that's the first thing you said. Do excellent work. Sometimes, I'm not saying you got to give them a discount, but sometimes if they don't, if they're not happy with work, you know, maybe say that's okay, no worries. So sometimes you you need you need to do a refund just to protect your reputation. It's like okay. Always. I'm good with you, right? It's all good. Don't want any problems, you're good. Yeah, right. It sucks, but I almost look at that as like my marketing investment.
SPEAKER_00My uh one of the strongest things about our brand is our guarantees. Like we take it so serious. 100% customer satisfaction guarantee money back is like there's no teetering that. There's it's black and it's white. It's we will do whatever it takes to make sure you are happy. And if you aren't happy, you can have all your money back. On all of our new installations, we do a 12-month money back guarantee. If someone buys a new air conditioning system from us and at 11 and a half months they say, hey, I'm absolutely not happy with you. We'll take the machine out, we'll write you your check back in full, and we're gonna make sure you're happy every single time. I drill it on. Yeah, I even go as far as so, like, one of the biggest things that breaks my heart is an upset client that doesn't let you make it right. That just it hurts me because I want to make it right. I'll do whatever it takes. Um, and I I've found something that's been working for me is I I certify mail every client that I can't get a hold of. So I literally go to the extent of like, hey, I'm going to get mail that's going to reach you because I want you to know that I want to make it right. Here's my cell phone number, here's how you get a hold of me. Will you please give us the opportunity to go back? And so, like, the guarantees to me is just such an important piece.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's such an important piece. The existing customer base is so strong. It's so strong. We I found one of the biggest reliefs for me this year is I got to come out of the general management role and I got to go into business development role and get out and just go and serve our customers better. And the amount of accounts that just will stop using you for whatever reason it may be, it could be so small, it could be a hundred dollar reason, it could be something large. And you get back out in front of them and you get you spend some time with them, you stop by, you go see them in person. And it's just crazy the compounding effect it has on bringing them back, on the fact that there was just one small thing missed. And you know, you just want it, you find it out and it's sky's the limit.
SPEAKER_02And and sometimes it's so so easy. It's like, oh god, I go tackle that right now.
SPEAKER_00I had one where you know, the property management company, the customer was upset about a hundred and fifty dollar bill. Apparently, our team told the property management company they need to pay, they were responsible to pay. But over a hundred and fifty dollar bill, you take a six-figure account that loved working with you, and it's like if you didn't stop by with that box of donuts to come say hello and check how they were doing, you wouldn't get that piece of information. And so that existing customer base is such an important piece for me and in this BD role I'm on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I got a cool story. I had a guy who um he's a good account and he uh he wanted to cancel. And I was shocked. I was like, what are we how are we possibly messing this up? This guy's he's kind of an easy account, right? I go, he's a sweetie. So I I I emailed him, I said, Hey man, I go, can we talk this through? I I I really just wanted to do a fact-finding thing. Like, where did we go wrong? He goes, Yeah, I'll talk to you. And I got on a call with him, and uh, you know, he told me this simple little thing, and I was like, We can do that. I'm like the the account manager, I don't know, just in this case didn't decide to go above and beyond, little frustrate me a little bit, right? Um, I said, No, I I will do that myself. I'm happy to do it. Yeah, I said, and and he goes, Oh, okay, well, I'll stay on with you. I go, okay. So you know what I tell him? You're gonna die. This is how crazy I am about keeping people, retaining people. And yeah, I said, dude, I Here's what I want you to do. He lives up in uh New York, um, Saratoga Springs, New York. Awesome dude, Keith Collins. I tell him, I go, dude, uh, I'm gonna pay you first class flights. I said, I want you to fly down here. I want to, I want you to hop on the podcast. I'm gonna put you up in the hotel. I'm gonna take you to dinner. Um, I'm gonna take you down to Patrick Bad David's cigar lounge, right? And that I'm a part of, right? The super cool exclusive cigar lounge in Fort Lauderdale. And I go, and that's just for you giving me another shot. Comes down here, we hit it off even more. He's the sweetest guy ever. What a wonderful guy. We go, we have dinner, boom, boom, boom. And as he's here, he goes, Oh, by the way, I want to upgrade to all this other stuff with you. And I, you know, so now he became a bigger account. He blasts us all over social media. He he said, five people that I was honored and blessed to meet this year on December 31st. Oh, wow. Eric Weingard was one of them.
SPEAKER_00That's a blessing. You know what I'm saying? It just goes to show how important it is to just give it a your all just take care of people. Yeah, yeah. No doubt. We live on the our, you know, we have four core values and like customer first, whatever it takes. Yeah, you know, we start with do what's right, customer first, whatever it takes, pride in your work and being reliable. If we do those four things and everything we do, we're just gonna throw it.
SPEAKER_02No doubt.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, every time. The customer is such a vital piece of the business. Well, to I tell everyone in the staff, like, guys, I I don't pay the paychecks. Our our team legacy doesn't pay the paychecks. We work for the customer. We have to be there when the customer wants us to be there. We have to serve them when they want to be served. Like, that is ultimately who we all work for. We all have a boss, and it's the customer. No doubt. Yeah, you know, and I get fired up about that because I love serving people. And so by serving these people and giving them these great experiences, it's just so rewarding.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Business, um, let me let me ask you this. How do you handle this? Not to put you on the spot. How do you handle the the unreasonable customer?
SPEAKER_00It's a tough one.
SPEAKER_02Um, and and listen, a lot of business people are watching this. Don't worry, I don't think you're gonna burn your reputation, but I think this is something we all deal with is the unreasonable customer. Like, you know, so I own Airbnb's, and a lot of times I can sense the unreasonableness when they're trying to get these refunds, hour one, and and they're really just trying to play the system. How do you handle the un you're we're talking to the entrepreneur now? Yeah, how do you handle the unreasonable customer?
SPEAKER_00I think one thing to remember from the beginning is not everybody is your customer. It is tough to start that way. It's probably not what the consumer wants to hear first, but not everyone's the right fit. It's gotta be a good fit for them, it's gotta be a good fit for the business. We try really, really, really, really hard to make the customer happy, even when they're being unreasonable. When we, you know, we get it all the time. I fix a leak in one area of the house, now they have a leak in another. Hey, that was your fault. We snake a drain, we pull out wet wipes, or we pull out, you know, feminine products, we pull out what, you know, build up grease, sludge, it backs up again two, three days later, they have roots in the line, it's cracked, it has nothing to do with the fact that I gave them a temporary solution. So we run into this in our industry all day, every day. It's it's there's no science to dealing with the unreasonable customer other than just pouring over, you know, kindness, consideration. You know, you you know, we talk about empathy a lot. We just have to empathize with them and help them understand, like, hey, I I know what it's like to be in your shoes right now, and we want to do everything we can to make it right. We do our best to educate them, provide them a solution, and you know, at the end of the day, we're gonna try very, very hard. And if we can't, you know, hey, I'm happy to offer you your money back, and we're just not the right fit. Just consider maybe calling someone else in the in the future. And it's really hard to get to that point. You it really hurts you to tell a customer, hey, maybe we're not the right fit. Here's all your money back, but hey, it it just didn't work out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, and that's not easy. I usually find being assertive, because I listen, I still I'll get on the call and I'll say, Listen, is it like I'm happy, let's talk it through. Usually I find when when you're assertive like that, I think the worst thing you can do is be passive about it. Just let it let them you have to address it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you gotta address it. It has to be addressed. We have to have closure, yeah, and we have to shake hands when we're done.
SPEAKER_02That's the big especially with reputation.
SPEAKER_00They're gonna go tell the internet how they felt. And so for me as a business owner, I'm thinking about preserving the reputation that we've spent 30 years building. And a reputation could spend 10, 20, 30 years to build, and it could be gone in a day. And so, like, for me, I'm always thinking about, you know, three people have to win the customer, the company, and the employees. We have to all three have to win in all these situations for everybody to be successful. And like, we have to do whatever we can to protect the entity. And so, really, it's about hey, like, we have to find closure here. I can't leave you hanging. Yeah, I gotta know that you are either agreeing that we're not the right fit, and this is what we've done to resolve and make you happy so you can go on, or we've found a solution that's workable for both of us and we go forward because a hundred, they say uh what a review is gonna have a hundred to two hundred views per review. So we, you know, we talk about in every monthly meeting. One one-star review to 10 one-star reviews is telling a hundred to two thousand people that we suck. Yeah, and that just that creates a more expensive marketing plan, which creates a more expensive customer cost, it makes it harder on the technicians, you know, and so it's very a negative reputation is massively impactful to the entire business systems, and it creates negative effects for everybody impacted by the business when we don't preserve it. And so it's it, I think the most important piece is like you have to find a way to deal with the unreasonable customer and end it as healthy as you can.
SPEAKER_02They they have all the power on Google, an unreasonable customer has all the power on Google. You know, it's interesting. I would like to see Google take on this because I've had disgruntled employees. I'll give you an example. I had an employee who was sober for 10 years and he relapsed on drugs on the job with me. And I told him before I hired him, I said, Hey, I have a no-strike policy. I want this to work, I don't think anything will happen, but I just got to let you know if it if it occurs, especially on the job, that'll be termination. And he was great for a few months, and I ended up having to terminate him. Okay, I felt bad for him. So he starts going on all these Google review platforms with all these different organizations that we work with saying all these crazy things about us, and fortunately, he basically just copied and pasted the same thing on all these platforms. So obviously, it was very easy for Google to see, oh, this is erroneous, right? But I don't like how Google gives the customer all the power because if I want to right now, I could just write the most damaged slander.
SPEAKER_00Anybody, anybody, it's hard. I on a day-to-day basis, I'm trying to like it's so hard when the review doesn't match a customer profile, when the review names don't match who you serviced, trying to find the reviews in the system so you can go back and make people happy. One of our core policies that we have is uh we follow up with every customer, so positive or negative, we call every customer that we interact with. And the vision was always just like, man, if I can get to them before the fuming bit builds and and blows up, that like I'll be in the best place possible to try and resolve it. Yeah, but my bit, you know, I you're trying to figure out, hey, is a competitor just jumping on my page because they want to try and push me down, it's hard times. Is this a legit customer who's upset? And reporting reviews is not always 100% successful. You know what I mean? When people go on and they slander certain things or they say things that aren't within Google's guidelines, I'm very big on going in and reporting reviews based on if they're legit or not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then when we determine that they are legit reviews, we we do everything we can to go and attack them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, it just Google the customer has so much power. We talk about Google Yelp goes even layers deeper. You know, that's a mafia out there. You know, they're pulling down good reviews for people that aren't using their app, they're keeping every single negative review, even for the people that don't use their app. Um, but unfortunately, I you know, I'm a big believer in Yelp. It's a tie, it's tied to the iOS systems. Apple and Yelp are are interlocked, their mapping system maps to Yelp. It doesn't map to any Google findings, so you have to be willing to go and support, you know, that world.
SPEAKER_02Do you find Yelp being influential in South Florida?
SPEAKER_00Very, I think it's a massively overlooked tool. You go through endless contractor pages and they're gonna tell you they're boycotting it and they're just hurting themselves. Like, I don't care if it works in your favor, it's what the consumer's gonna use to find a provider. And if you don't keep as equal reputation there, although it's harder, and they're gonna pull down all your good reviews and they're gonna keep all the bad ones, and you're gonna have to go get 20 good ones to keep five of them. Like, you have to fight through those worlds.
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately, especially on Google, it's it's really like I would just call it the honor system. It's they're just, you know, um, they're basically just saying, if you did business with them, write a review on your experience. I like Airbnb a little bit better because at least Airbnb hears both sides of the story, and and there has to be a proven transaction that this occurred. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so it's kind of there's also I want to say TripAdvisor might be a little similar too. There's a couple of apps where if you don't uh Turo is an example, you know. If I rent a lot on Turo, you get the opportunity to write a review, they get to write a review about you, and we we all have our own profile, right? And it's actually one of the most interesting things to me is when you look at the other reviews, a consumer or bashing people.
SPEAKER_02The batcher is a basher. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, so like there should be like I wish maybe maybe I don't know, but it would be nice if they were if they were gonna write something damaging for no reason or proof of receipt, something. Something.
SPEAKER_00My biggest one of my biggest pain points is we do free consultation for the most part. Yeah, so the only consultation we can't do for free is an H VAC diagnostic. It requires tools and time. But plumbing, if we can see it with our eyes, we show up no charge to the customer, we look at the problem, we give them a price, if they like it, we do it. If they don't like it, we leave no charge. It blows my mind that a consumer can go on and say, I'm a terrible company when all I took was your time and I did it within the time you asked for. And like you're going on there and you're bashing me over price. Like, I don't love that my iPhone is$1,500. But if I want that iPhone, I need to go buy that iPhone for the price that they sell it at. And that's the price that that business needs to be at. And so it breaks me when I do free estimates, when I send when I drive a two or three hundred dollar cost to my company to go and serve you, and I didn't charge you a penny. You just didn't, we weren't the right fit, and then you bash me. That's a painful one.
SPEAKER_02I got a another story. So I I met a guy on a very popular podcast. Do you know who Bradley is? Do you foul Bradley?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Dropping bombs. Yeah. So we run a bunch of his marketing, and I was on his podcast about a year ago. It's a big business podcast out in Vegas. I met a dude there, super cool, has a business. So we had this like connection, right? We're like, oh, you know Bradley, I know Bradley. And uh, so then he hits me up like a month later, he's like, Oh, Eric, you know, I'm really trying to build my coaching business. Like, can you run my marketing? I go, Yeah, I go, dude, let's sit down, let's see what you need. You know, I want to make sure I do the right thing for you. And uh, my team, I kid you not, I was like, hey, this guy's I literally pulled my team aside. I go, I like this guy a lot, he's super cool. I said, just go nuts for him. Literally pretend it's my dad. I really like this guy. Okay, they go absurdly above and beyond, and he just stops his credit card, he starts telling us we're not doing what he likes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then uh, and then he tells this other guy that you know we're a non-sophisticated marketing company, all this nonsense. So he started telling people about you know something that we did, which is just all nonsense. And then I text messaged him maybe a month ago or so. I just said, like, Merry Christmas, whatever it was. And I said, Hey man, no hard feelings. And he goes, Oh, Eric, I was just going through a bad time. I'm really sorry, and you know, this and that, and you know, I I changed my business direction. I just don't want to go that course anymore. But my so the part that killed me about that was there was a relationship, you know, I went above and beyond, and damn, he told somebody to protect his feelings. Yeah, yeah. And where he was in life, he told somebody that we were, you know, incompetent or whatever. Now, fortunately, that other organization knows how competent we are, but I I think the ones that sting me are when it's like, I thought we were cool. Like, come to me, come to me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just call me.
SPEAKER_02Come on, I'm your dude, you know, and I'm probably too accessible. I texted my whole team today, by the way. I did. I said, don't give out my cell phone number anymore. Uh, I am gonna make it a because it's gotten to the point where it's it's we got it's I can't do it. Yeah, uh, it's not that I don't want to talk to people, I will make special cases, like hey, I will talk to them, but there's also just team members that are in positions to serve that client better. Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_00They're they're more equipped, they're more aware, they have more tools and quickness to make a better experience. Whereas the amount of time it may take me to get down to the hey, what happened on this instant? What do we actually need to do? My team member probably could have solved it, gotten them their money back, gotten a guy back out there, you know, whatever it is for us. And so we try really hard, just let's empower our team. That's what they're here for. That's what they're great about.
SPEAKER_02How do you handle that? How do you handle the person that wants you to always come out and do the you know it it's tough, you know.
SPEAKER_00You always you see that thing where, hey, so-and-so wants you to call, you know, and you're just like, you know, you you take that breath and you're you know, like there's a and you know which ones are gonna be five minutes and you know which ones might be 25 minutes and which ones aren't gonna end anywhere, and you know, but you know, at the end of the day, um I was built on roots of treating others how I would want to be treated. And so like I try really hard to to just use good discernment. Ultimately, it's our job as leaders to use discernment to know what's prioritization, to know what needs to be addressed by ourselves, what needs to be delegated to the team. When you need to be assertive through that delegation, hey, I'm gonna ask you to call this customer, and you need to help them understand why you're the right person to serve them, and they don't need me. And there's times when you have to know how to pivot to that. And then there's ones where, hey, that is a 20, 30 year client. Hey, that is a a customer that's you know, I probably need to speak to to retain that relationship. And so yeah, I think discernments are just such a big piece of being in leadership. You gotta know how to prioritize, you know. You can't do it all, but it's very important to know which pieces you do need to do.
SPEAKER_02And just hearing you talk, you you you you got it, you you got it all covered. I could tell what's next for you? What is the next move?
SPEAKER_00Um, so right, I I hope to impact paradise forever. That's very clear for me. I was I was born into it. Um, there was many days eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at my office, slept out there many nights. Um, there was nights where we just ran calls all night because we had to we're a 24-7 business. We don't close. So we're 365, 24-7. Uh, we take three to five hundred calls between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. a month. So like it's a large amount of volume um that's coming in in the in the nights and weekends. As long as I'm always impacting paradise in some way, that's very important for me. Um, I want to help people, I want to help people grow. I told people for many, many years as the general manager, if I'm not helping you get to where you want to go, then I don't deserve to be in this seat. Like it is, I take that very seriously. You guys are trusting us with your families, with your careers. We need to know that we're moving you to where you want to go. Yeah. What's next? I want to continue to impact people. So I think about business coaching. I think about uh public speaking, I think about just anywhere I can go and help people understand that if we are consistent, the compounding results of hard work will outbeat just anything else. There's nothing that's gonna be showing up and doing what we do day in and day out. I have so many young people and people around my age where they're talking about their fifth job and their sixth job and their seventh job. I've been at Paradise 17 years. I've sat in every seat in the company. I was able to get to a partnership level because of serving the business day in and day out so well. And so, like, I just want to figure out how to do that um for more people. I want to go out and make disciples, I want to be a light for the Lord. You know, that's who we're ultimately working for.
SPEAKER_02Praise God.
SPEAKER_00And uh how do we go and how do we how do we just help people grow? How do we use the experiences we've had? Um, I've got the joy of I was uh on the pro wakeboard tour for a while. So I got the joy of being in some like crazy like sports worlds. I got the joy of watching a business go from um, it was about a two million top line business when I joined. We will close maybe about 18 million this year. We did 16 and a half last year, so I've got to see a business really grow. I got to build a data deck and help a transaction take place at a young age. Not a lot of people will go through that, you know, till later on. And so now how do I take the injuries that I've gone through as a uh as an athlete, the worlds I got to see outside of the business world, transitioning to business focus um and growing and loving um, you know, people in a culture. And now how do we go and do that even bigger? And so, like it's just such a blessing to be here today on the podcast. Yeah, um, getting a little bit of that going. Yeah. And um, I'm really excited in the years to come uh to just see how it transpires.
SPEAKER_02You already got my brain spinning. Like, I wonder not to put you on the spot, but God, I almost think we could host an event for young entrepreneurs contractors and entrepreneurs, for sure. You know what I'm saying? And because, you know, I grew up, just so you know, mom on welfare. Like, I'm you know, and I was a lifelong employee, and so I I started my journey late. You know, I started my journey at 40.
SPEAKER_0040 years old. Yeah, bro. Dude, I was listening to the podcast. That's crazy. You know what I'm saying? You said, hey, I'm gonna try.
SPEAKER_02I strapped up, bro. I was like, you know what? I gotta, yeah.
SPEAKER_00The amount of people that you know, I I'm 30, I turn 31 next month. I'm a younger guy. Yeah, um, but the amount of people that come to me and like, man, we're old, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we are not even getting started. Like, this is the warm-up. 40 is the starting point. Like, that is just the top of the prime. Like, and so I just dude, there's there's there's so many young individuals that just need to hear that doing the same thing day in and day out and working hard, working for the Lord, like you give them these small pieces, and man, you you'll see them light up.
SPEAKER_02I have man, we could talk offline, but I've been looking to really do some events, but and you know, even just a few hundred people in the room, and it could, but I've been trying to think what what are what are the four or five speakers that should be there that could really help that entrepreneur that's doing 800 grand a year that wants to I think you can get up to tell me if you disagree, I think you can get up to million, a million dollars kind of off of like your circle, word of mouth, and you can kind of muscle it, but to get past you know, a million to three million, you know, you gotta put some systems into place, be a sophisticated marketer. Um, but I but I have an attorney friend who's really successful at helping people save their money too. So I've been kind of thinking about this like panel of people, maybe it's like the industry-specific entrepreneur like you, two million to eighteen million. Yep, you know, that speaks for itself. I'm the sales and marketing and business development guy, but I can always relate just, you know, the with your endorsement of how important marketing is, they would listen to me how important it is to do these things. And then maybe this attorney is the guy, hey, once you start making your money, you got to start thinking like this because you know, people are trying to take it. You know, it'd be kind of like a cool little bit.
SPEAKER_00I was just at an event, it was the Aspire event, and there was a bunch of famous speakers. And the one uh key guy that was talking about taxes, you know, there's the three segments there's create, there's keep, and there's multiply. And so, like, that's great. We're you know, contractors, great creators of money, not always the best keepers and not always the best multipliers. You know, the marketing and sales system, great multiplier. Know how to take someone that knows how to go and create money and help them create more money. And the lawyer, you know, the CPA, the tax guy is hey, he nails the keep side. How do we actually keep the outcomes that we're generating? And not, yeah, you know, there's a lot of people that will give a lot of money back at the end of the year that could be dumped into the growth of their business, that could be dumped into marketing, that could be dumped, and and the the return they would get would be astronomical. I have a small business that I've worked with. He uh was doing about 500k in revenue um in 2019 when we got involved, and he's love he's enjoyed keeping it small, five-man team, doesn't want to spend a lot of marketing, but he's at like a 1.3, 1.5 million dollar top line, and he's capping out. And we're talking about all the things you know. We do about a million and a half a month, and he's doing it a year, and he's just like, dude, you just did my whole year and a month. And I'm like, We have to do marketing, yeah. Like, we have to. You can't decide that you're gonna spend no money and grow beyond these levels, like, you have to be Willing to give me 1%, 2%, 4%, something. We have to go to Google. We have to do a basics. Like, we can't do nothing and want a different result. I used to tell my dad all the time, like, definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Insanity. Definition of insanity.
SPEAKER_00We have to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so very much I would love to get in front of any group of young individuals. And I think they just love to hear real stories. You have a really real story to tell. I appreciate it. Like, and you're in the journey of a crazy story.
SPEAKER_02I'm in the I'm in the tornado. Oh, I know. I'm still going for it. I know. It's nowhere near done.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so we're the same. Like, we won't we envision uh we're 75 people today. We envision 150, 250 people. You know, and so like we have a massive vision that we are just getting started. To me, this is like very much. I say this very carefully, but we joke a lot of times. We say we do 15 to 16 million by mistake. Like we have so much upside that when the actual next level of systems and process and procedures gets rolled into these this business, man, we could serve so many people.
SPEAKER_02I love what you said too, and and I don't want to keep you, we try to keep this to 45 minutes or so, but I love what you said. Um, because the employees that work with you, they're I I believe they're investing in you and they're putting their belief in you, right? They're investing their time, their emotions, right? Sweat equity, right? And they want to grow too. So I believe to that entrepreneur that's has five people working underneath him, it ain't just about you, dude. Yeah, it ain't just about five families. You got five families looking to grow, looking that dude who's making 50 wants to make 70. The guy makes 70 wants to make 90. They have dreams too. Yeah, they may not be cut out for or want the stress of ownership and entrepreneurship, but they want to grow. They want to grow. And they're putting their belief in you that you're gonna help them. So it is your duty to grow your company. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00Leaders create more leaders, right? And so, like for me, it was that big every company meeting, every month, we bring the whole staff together. And first thing, guys, if I am not helping you get to where you want to go, then I don't deserve to sit in this seat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like the leader has to have that mindset to say, hey, like, I will sit in this seat, but I it's my responsibility, you know, to carry us, carry us forward. You know, and so like I love that, I love that opportunity. What better thing to wake up for every day than to know not only are we taking care of, you know, we go to 120 houses a day, not only are we going to 120, 150 houses a day, but man, we're we're taking care of 75 families. And that was always one of the biggest things that I I felt rewarded about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, and then just to to continue to be a light to that. Um, I just had one of uh my team members, it was very uh unexpected. Uh, he came into the business, and three, four weeks into the business, he had outperformed almost everybody. He came from the northeast. We love guys from the northeast. We're hustlers, bro. And I wrote to work you so pumped up. And he said, Jason, can I say something to you? This is on the work messenger. And I was like, What's up? And he's like, I have God, like I have Jesus. I don't know if you do, but I could tell you if you had him, you you you could understand. And I'm like, bro, you like that fires me up. But for an employee to do that, really just it made my brain spin a little. Like he said, Hey, in a company where I'm performing really well, I just moved my family, like this is how I provide for my livelihood. And some would say that's taking a risk to put job aside for a moment and pitch something bigger, and like that was so rewarding for me. And so I love when you know the internal team is like-minded, and you could just see those guys are they're just different. Yes, you know, you could just feel it and you can see it.
SPEAKER_02Shout out to us north or northeasterners. We like to put our suit on and get to work. We're hustlers, we're grinders. Dude, do me a favor. This was a lot of fun. All right, and I want you to come back on one day, okay? Because we're gonna build a studio, come back on, and I'd love to just keep hearing your journey and story and everything. Because I'd like to tap into you more too next time. I'd like to get to know you a little more. We just kind of got talking, marketing and stuff. We gotta do the same.
SPEAKER_00I want to hear about the service. Okay, you know, thank you for that. There's no higher honor than serving your country, yeah, and that's massive. So I would love to hear just Steven, how did that play a role into this company and to the leader that you're being for the company? And just what were those core, you know, like I think back to my dad and the core things he taught me that allowed me to build this version of myself. And I just would love to hear about what the service did.
SPEAKER_02You know, when I went into the service, I kid you not, I was going down the wrong path, and I grew up without a father, so I had no one could like tell me what to do. Yeah, right. I'm a strong dude, so like it takes a guy like that to be able to tell me what to do, right? And um, you know, so I was, you know, just tough to deal with. And but I knew I needed some mentorship, I knew I needed leadership, I knew I needed structure, I knew I needed discipline. I didn't have it. Yeah, so I was like, I'm going to the military. The Navy and the Marines were right next to each other, and I go, I'm just going in. Knocked on the doors, Marines were closed, knocked on the door, Navy was open. So sign me up. Literally, that's how I did it. So, but when I went in, um, I think what I I think really what I learned there is that um, you know, just how you how you tackle every day. You know, you you wake up early, no matter what, you get your ass up, you get your workout in, you shave. I don't shave anymore. Um, you know, you get dressed and you get dressed nice. Yeah, your shirt is ironed, your pants are ironed, your shoes are polished, you know, and you're at the job, ready to salute at 7:15. And there is a camaraderie with the guys, you know, you're with the boys, you know, you're working your ass off and and everything. But I I think the biggest thing that I learned out of the military was I was I was partying and I was reckless and I was lazy. I like to work out, but I was kind of lazy. I was I was enjoying the nightlife more than anything. But really, that structure and discipline of how to tackle each day, and I had my fun on the weekends, don't get me wrong. We we were crazy, we had our fun. Yeah, but important, but we were locked in, you know. And then there was a period where you know, when we went to go grab Saddam Hussein, which is crazy because I was in the military from 99 to 03.
SPEAKER_01Oh wow, right?
SPEAKER_02So, dude, we were working for nine months straight, and I'm sure you've had periods in your life like this nine months straight, 16-hour days, seven days a week, non-stop, you know? And so, you know what else that taught me? Hard work ain't shit. Yeah, it's I think we're kind of meant to do it. Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, like like don't get me wrong, hippies and all this sort of stuff. It's fine. You want to go do I like to work, I feel good working, I like being on a podcast. I want to go talk business today, I want to wake up early. So I think what the military taught me is to, you know, I think there's a negative connotation around the grind, but it's almost like the grind is where I feel rested. Yeah, I'm at peace in the grind. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00So many seasons where you know, my neighbors, my friends waking up, we all live in the same area, and they're like, Jason, where are you? I'm like, what do you mean? I'm already at work. And they're like, yo, it's five, 5:30 in the morning. I'm like, yeah, I'd have TMs call me, dude. You're emailing me at 4:45. Is everything okay? And I'm like, dude, I'm fired up. Like, I'm just excited. Yeah, you know. I got back from running a bunch of you know, just cold pitches yesterday in person, and I I don't want to leave the office. I just I was like, I gotta email all these people. Like, I don't want to wait for tomorrow, you know. I just you get fired up.
SPEAKER_02This is a little too fired up. Last thing I'll say. There was this one time, so I try to get to bed around like 9:30 time. Like, just because I try to get a good night's rest, because I do wake up pretty early. This is about two months ago. You're gonna die. So a lot of times I go to bed at 9:30, 9:45, and I'll wake up unfortunately on my own, 4:15 sometimes, and I'm just kind of up. Yeah, I'll, you know, go in, catch my emails, and I'll try to wake up with the dogs, have a little espresso, wake up before I go to the gym, right? And I'll do a little prayer usually. That's actually the first thing I've been doing now is about a 20-minute prayer. Sometimes it's almost like uh I'll just do it on YouTube to kind of help guide it through me a little bit, put my headphones on. Anyway, I start my day. Dude, this is about two months ago. I fell asleep around 9:30 and I woke up. I was like, I'm ready to go. I'm gonna crush today. Bro, I go over the go over to the espresso machine, hit coffee. 11:45. It's the same night. Like, I'm so fired up that I slept from 9:30 to 11:30. You just woke up and you're like, let's go. It's time to tackle tomorrow. I got went to work. You had to. I had to. I was just I was bro, I had already had some espresso in me before I realized it. So I woke up the same day, bro, ready to tackle the next day. You gotta do it. Do me a favor, look into that camera. Tell them uh if somebody wants to learn about paradise uh plumbing and air conditioning, where can they find you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh you can find us online, paradisesfl.com. Uh, our office is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. You're always welcome to stop by and see us. Um, and as of March 1st, we'll have an office in Riviera Beach. Uh, we'll be serving the northern Palm Beach. So give us a call, 954-563-0110, and we're open 247 365 to serve you.
SPEAKER_02Guys, thanks again for tuning in to the Gold Coast Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Weingard. Uh, make sure you give us a like, subscribe, and share this with someone who you find uh who you think will find some benefit from it. We'll see you again.