The Business Lesson Most Contractors Miss | Matt Neal

What does it take to build a million-dollar business before 30?

In this episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, host Eric Winegard sits down with Matt Neal, Owner of Ballwin Tree Service, a fast-growing tree service company based outside of St. Louis, Missouri.

Matt shares how he grew his business to over $1 million in revenue, the lessons he learned from reinvesting too quickly, why marketing changed everything, and what young entrepreneurs need to understand if they want to build something real.

This conversation dives into entrepreneurship, risk-taking, digital marketing, discipline, addiction, ambition, and the mindset it takes to grow a service-based business from the ground up.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Matt built Ballwin Tree Service into a million-dollar company
• Why digital marketing helped drive major business growth
• The biggest mistakes young entrepreneurs make
• Why marketing matters just as much as skill
• How to know when a tree needs to be removed
• Why tree removal quotes can vary so much
• The risks of DIY tree removal
• How Matt thinks about reinvesting, growth, and opportunity
• Why now may be the best time for young people to start a business

Whether you're a contractor, home service business owner, young entrepreneur, or someone looking for motivation to start building, this episode is packed with real-world business lessons.

Learn more about Matt Neal and Ballwin Tree Service:
https://ballwintreeservice.com

Subscribe to the Gold Coast Podcast for conversations with entrepreneurs, CEOs, founders, and business leaders building real success.

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast Podcast. I am your host, Eric Weingard. Today I have another real cool dude here. Guy's built up a million-dollar business in a relatively short time. And this guy's going places for sure. He's young, he's hungry, uh, he's established, and he's committed to his profession. And he's a real genuine human being, the kind of guy that uh I think you're all gonna get excited to get to know. Matt Neal of Baldwin Tree Service outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Glad to be here. Awesome. Baldwin's Tree Service. That's right. From outside of St. Louis.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, right. That's right. Yeah, West County.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Okay. Now how now how far away from St. Louis is it?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Oh, so St. Louis is kind of funny because um it's not, it's it's basically two counties. So a lot of larger cities have um, you know, they're basically like one county that takes it. Uh but um it's you know, there's St. Louis City and there's St. Louis County. There's there's kind of a little bit of a cultural divide between the two. And there was uh but anyway, we're within St. Louis County.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Okay. What's the cultural divide in St. Louis?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

So there was um just recently there was a vote um to to combine the two, and it it barely didn't pass. It was like 5149 or something like that. And honestly, it's because there's most of the money is in the what is in the county, and uh there's not as many people, I guess, in the city. But basically, if it would have went through, it would have been people in the county paying to fix the streets in the city. Gotcha. And so there's kind of a um, I think maybe a sharper divide between the rich and the poor in St. Louis than there are than it is in other cities.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Really? Interesting. So the rich weren't trying to pay for the poor, is that that's basically, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

I guess so. Yeah. And I'm in the county and I kind of understand that we don't want to be paying, you know, it's it would raise our taxes. Yeah. Um, but I didn't vote for one way or the other. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

No, I you know, I don't I don't get like, do you get involved in politics at all?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Not too much, really. I mean, I'm just you know, aware I wasn't real happy about what happened uh about five years ago. Yeah, yeah, you know, uh across this country, but you moved to Florida here because of it. Yeah, and I respect that. Yeah. So uh, you know, as far as things like uh affecting us, I I think most issues generally don't affect my day-to-day. Yeah, and so I just try to focus more on business. Yeah, no doubt. No, I are you married?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

No.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

No, you're not married.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Single, handsome stud like you? Yes. But you got too many ladies, that's what it is. Sometimes um, so yeah, I think you know it's interesting because I I I say this all the time. I'm I'm not naturally like a super political person. Okay, you know, but when COVID- I think you're getting more political because yeah, you said that in a recent podcast.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

You're you're you're the same as a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

No, I am, I am, I am, and and my politics are like leave us alone. Okay, right? Like, like, you know, in terms of um, you know, taxation, in terms of uh, you know, being free to do business, you know, uh less regulation. You know, because what happened was when I was in upstate New York and Rochester, when COVID hit, I I just saw a lot of normal people get really weird.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

People that I thought were just like your old friends. Yeah, just really regular people just get really irregular. And it was just, it was, it was wild to me. It was so that was the first time I really, you know, and I'm like, wait a minute, they're telling me I can't do this and that and this and that. And I'm like, you know, the jab and all these sorts of things. And I'm a conspiracy theorist as it is.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

I'm already that's the last thing you need, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yeah, I'm a hardcore conspiracy theorist. Then this comes in, I'm like, what? A freaking uh a virus from China from the Wu Tang lab or whatever it was, right? Like it was crazy to me, and and and I um, you know, I was in a place in my life where I was getting out of a relationship. I didn't like the company I was working with, and it was just all perfect series of events. Time to go, time to roll, you know. So I got a new, a new girl, a new job, this one, and a new zip code, and and you know within a year or two. Within yeah, no, dude, within like 90 days. Wow, it was like bam, bam, bam.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Yeah, so so you have some aspirations on Florida yourself, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, I like it here a lot. Um, I've spent my whole life in St. Louis basically, and uh I love it there. There's uh there's a lot of opportunity there. That's where my friends and family are. Um, but I there's just something about this place that I think is unique. I think there's a lot more opportunity here than anywhere I've seen. Um I just recently I'd never been west of Kansas in my whole life, okay, until recently. Wow. And uh about five years ago I decided I wanted a sports car, okay? I went into the dealership, I bought uh I saw it, I was broke, but I I wanted more people. You wanted a sports car. You had no money in the bank. I was driving my sister's old car at the time. I gave her like a couple thousand dollars, which is like way more than it was even worth. Yeah, and that's what I was driving. So I I went in there and uh I talked to the salesman and uh he's like, What do you want? I'm like, I don't know. Just so we walk around, I saw the Lotus, it was the Avora at the time, and that was the Amira, which is a much more beautiful car. But anyway, I saw it and I decided that's what I wanted. And it took me five years until I got to a place where I could do it. Um once I got that car uh a few months later, I drove it all the way to California.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

So I was gone for 15 days. I saw, you know, basically the whole southwest of this country. Yeah. And when I got out there to California, um, I got to Beverly Hills, and uh honestly I wasn't real impressed with it, to be honest with you. Okay. Like it's beautiful, it's nice, but um, I think South Florida, in my opinion, is just a more I think it's just a more beautiful place. Just you know, maybe politically, I don't know, my my attitude's a lot better when I'm down here.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, well, so it's interesting you say that because I've always called Boca Ratone the Beverly Hills of Really? Of Florida, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Okay, so you wouldn't say that of Brickle or of uh No, no, no, no, no, no, no way.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Really? Yeah, this is Beverly Hills, okay, yeah, for sure. Okay, um, like um Taylor Swift house house her house is right there, and Travis Kelsey, and then uh Kevin James, yeah, who Kevin James is, Mark Wahlberg bought a house right down here. So it's like it's interesting. Cal uh they're picking this place for a reason. For sure. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Am I good on the mic here, the distance? Yeah, as long as you're uh if you just want to bring it up close to be safe. Yeah, you can kind of move it around with it if you want. Cool. You'll let me know if it's not reading or something. Okay, great. Yeah, you're good.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

And we can always edit things. So if you stumble on something, don't worry about it. Yeah, I'm sure I will, huh? Yeah, you're good. I will too. Don't worry about it. No, so keep so keep going. So describe the difference between how you felt out in California versus how you feel in Florida.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Well, honestly, I didn't spend that much time in California, so I don't um describe the difference in while you said Okay, you know what's funny? I drove down to uh I was literally in Beverly Hills, okay? And there was a Rolls-Royce dealership there, and I swear to you, that parking lot needed to be paved and the walls needed to be painted. Wow. It didn't look good. I mean, it looked like they were selling Rolls Royce's in the ghetto. I'm not joking. And I don't know why. I couldn't understand how if you sell one Rolls-Royce, that should be enough to paint and pave a parking lot, right? You would think. But maybe they're not moving. I don't know. I couldn't figure it out. I could not just understand why. And it was like maybe three minutes from Rodeo Drive. Once you get to Rodeo Drive, it's beautiful. Now you gotta give California this.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Okay. You're always seeing mountains. Seeing what? Always seeing mountains. Mountains? Yeah. Just about everywhere you go. You know, so you have that. It's always 74 degrees. There's there's lots of cool things to do. I mean, I love I I love California. Like if you gave me, like, I'd rather live in California than Kansas.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Really? I would rather live in Kansas. Wow. My best friend lives in Kansas.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Alright, let me rephrase this. I'd rather live in California than Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Okay, I haven't been there. Really? But I would probably choose Rhode Island. I mean, I've never been to Rhode Island. Yeah. Okay. This is a funny. Now, are you saying this because the opportunity in California?

SPEAKER_02 8:21

I think I think so. And I'm a big the weather's too important to me. The weather's too important to me. Really? Okay. Yeah, yeah. I can't where'd you grow up? Uh upstate New York in Rochester.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, it got cold up there, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Bro, it's brutal. Yeah. Dude, my buddies, my buddies from Rochester. Like, we we have this stupid text thread called Weather Wars. Okay. They'll text me, they're like, spring's a coming in Rochester, and then I'll go look at the weather. Dude, it's 39 degrees and sunny. And they're bragging because to them, it's been four degrees for two straight months, and now that it's 39 degrees and sunny, it's like a beautiful day. Dude, I'm miserable in that weather. Miserable. I hate life. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of like the cold. Okay. Each their own.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

You know, Missouri has uh some of the craziest weather in the country. Missouri and Kansas. Yeah. Because they're so far from the coast. We have uh, if you just Google Missouri weather, you'll see thousands of memes about how crazy Missouri weather is. It it uh changes day to day, week to week, probably more than maybe almost anywhere in the country as far as I as far as I know.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

I feel like Omaha is pretty similar. Yeah, Nebraska. That kind of area. Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

I don't know St. Louis at well. I've I've been there a couple times, you know, uh more like just a quick little business trip. Kirkwood? Sure, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think we have a business in Kirkwood. Awesome. Yeah, that's a good nice place. It is, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

My and uncle, my cousins uh live there for 15, 20 years. De Pair? Yeah. Did you get that right? Yeah, yeah. Oh, I've been cutting trees in De Pair. Okay, yeah. So how far is Ballwin from there? Oh, 15 minutes from De Pear. Okay. 10 minutes west, yeah. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

All right, okay, so oh. You know it. Oh you're out west. Gotcha. Okay, cool. Yeah. Then the county, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

No, that's messy. True is uh, yeah. It was important to have those people in my life. I don't think I could have done it without them.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Unpack that.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

I think a lot of people um take the you know the corporate route or maybe some other route because they don't know any other way. You know, about a hundred years ago, there was um one in six people own their own business. A hundred years ago? Yeah, maybe a hundred or the turn of the century. Some stat, right? Something like that. Maybe it's one in ten. Yeah, I don't know. Something like that. Okay, about one in six people own their own business. And uh today it's less than one in 40. So there's a lot of people who don't even really they're they've become so disconnected from the owners. Right? There's so many of these giant, giant companies with 10,000, tens of thousands or a hundred thousand employees or whatever it is, that um really don't understand the fundamentals of how a business operates, but they just kind of do their job. And if you're in, you know, these neighborhoods or these parts of the country that you you know you're not as close with owners or you know uh it seems like the only way out is to be a part of a company and and make a good check, right? And so for a long time in this country, you know, the thought was go to college and get a good job. And for a long time that worked. But um, as you can see today, because of AI and because of some other things, um, that's not things aren't working out as well for the college graduates as maybe they were 30 years ago. Yeah. Or even 15 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Yeah, I can see where you know the difference between me and you. I mean, dude, you're way ahead of the game. You're 31 years old.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

29.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

29, dude, you're oh my god. It shows you how bad my math is. But um, dude, you got a bright future. These next 10 years, you could build something big, dude. Like you're way ahead of the game. Yeah. And that's cool you had some business-minded entrepreneurial people in your family. Because, dude, all I observed was you know, my mother was a nurse, and it was always just stressed finances, you know, and sh she was stressed every single Friday, just waiting for payday. And she just always talked about how she never had a break, and you know, she never had any good luck. And if she can just get this additional um licensing and nursing, she could go from making X an hour to something else X an hour. But she always hated going to work. You know, she always hated the people she actually cared about the patients, you know. She really genuinely built bonds with the patients, but like, you know, her boss she hated, or you know, she would always get into fights with these other ladies and other nurses, and and you know, she was just miserable, you know, and uh you know, so I'm I'm glad today that I'm you know having a daughter in August that you know me and my wife are entrepreneurs through and through. So now my daughter will see you know entrepreneurial parents and hopefully she ends up like you and she's entrepreneurial, you know. So that's cool you had that.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

What happened? Who would you be if you didn't have that type of background? You who would you be if you didn't have that kind of support?

SPEAKER_01 13:18

You know, I might have tried it anyway, honestly. I might still be a business owner regardless. Um who knows? I I you know, I I can't predict.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Well, you sound like you had some knucklehead in there. Oh, what's that?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

That went 19, right? Oh, I'm selling pot. I mean, come on. I was already selling it. No, no, no, no, no, no, not the biggest. But I always had a little bit of uh I always liked the transaction, you know what I mean? And I knew how to I could make money doing it, and I always just you know, Monopoly was my favorite game as a kid, okay? And when we were in fifth grade, they asked us, uh, you know, put what do you want to be when you grow up? And people put all kinds of, you know, doctor, whatever. And uh I didn't even know, I didn't have the words to say it. So I said, uh, I want to own hotels. Because like Monopoly, right? The big red, I thought they were like one big house for one person. But anyway, so uh, and my dad said put entrepreneur, and that's that was the word I put when I was in fifth grade. Wow. I didn't know what the hell that word was. Yeah, I didn't either. That might have been the first time I'd heard that word.

unknown 14:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

I don't think I knew what it was until I was like 28 or something. Now, did COVID accelerate your business or did it slow it down?

SPEAKER_01 14:25

It accelerated a bit. Okay. Not not significantly, but it helped.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Okay, how did it help?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

A lot of people were inside, you know, working from home, and people sat around the house and started realizing their trees, you know. People the whole home services uh sector really kind of grew for a year or two. It wasn't anything crazy, but you know, we we saw a bump because of it. Did you see more people getting into it, more competition? I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Not sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I mean, I don't know what time period to compare it to. Yeah. So it's just, you know, what I lived was what I lived, and ten years ago it could have been easier, harder. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah. How so you so you basically have had it five years roughly?

SPEAKER_01 15:02

I've owned it for five, yeah. I've managed it for about seven or maybe eight.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Okay. So has the business grown the past five years? Oh, yeah, ton. Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah, we made a million dollars last year. Made a million dollars? Oh, top line revenue, yeah. Yeah, wow, good for you. Thank you. That's great, yeah. Thank you. Good for you. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. I was convinced we were gonna do it the first year because I was, you know, did the math. I remember uh it's four thousand a day for 250 days, right? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. And uh so I'm like, well, we made 2,000 in a day before. If we have a second truck, then that's you know, 4,000 a day. I feel like we should be able to do that next year without really understanding how many clients that is, and um to do that consistently over 250, not just a few days of the year, but to do that consistently throughout the year. So um anyway, I had my sister make me a poster, right? It said million dollars in 2018. Okay, and that year we made just over a hundred thousand. So it was like ten percent of my goal, and uh yeah, it took like f uh, I think about five or six more years of just growing gradually a little bit more each year until we finally broke that number last year, did one point two.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Good for you.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Good for you, God bless.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, you gotta keep growing too. Sure, yeah. And the reason I've kind of done the math on the market, I'm in uh West County, which is the best area for trees for a few reasons. Uh there's money, there's trees, and there's easy access. Sometimes, like in the city, alleys are tight, and it's just kind of harder to do the work. Um but there's and then like out in St. Charles area, there's just not as many trees are smaller, it's a lot of newer development and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

And the population density. Anyway, for those reasons, it makes my area really kind of the best area in St. Louis to own a tree service. And um, it's about a 30 to 50 million dollar market, and I think I want, you know, 20 to 30 percent of that market. Any more than that, and you start having to you're dealing with customers that are too price sensitive. I don't want to dominate that market, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to take the top of the market.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Yeah, for sure. So so what do you attribute so your business did a million dollars? How did you get to that number? Well what did you do differently last year that you didn't do three years ago to make a million dollars?

SPEAKER_01 17:11

You know, we've gotten a lot of referrals over the years, and it just kind of snowballs. You know, it's just a little bit more each year. And uh, you know, we've grown kind of linearly, you know, kind of exponentially, I guess, if you you know, want to put the dots on the line, I guess. But um yeah, we just uh our reputation has just continued to get bigger. We kept you know hiring more people and started to do a little bit. You know, we've done almost no marketing until very recently.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

Yeah. Our marketing was like less than three percent for the first I mean until two or three years ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Wow. Yeah. But you are doing like I just starting to.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

And that's what really we really kicked it up last year because of it. We grew 70% last year because we started marketing.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Is now is it mostly Google ads or meta ads that's taking? It's mostly meta.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Mostly meta ads actually it's entirely meta.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Entirely with meta. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

We've done a bit of Google in the past.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Okay. Yeah, good for you, dude.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah, we I always like to dissect marketing out of the city. Sure, of course, that's your business, right? You know, I was thinking about this today. Well, I was literally thinking about this driving over here. Like in the year You know, everybody says that uh you know, social media is a killer and you know, people are addicted to their phones, and I agree. And I also agree that it's harder for like a a person to you know, maybe compete in business today, like you know, just because you know, with cost of living. No, no, I just mean like the average 22-year-old to buy their first home is way more difficult today than it was 50 years ago, right? Um maybe, yeah. Well, depending on okay, yeah, sure. That's that's what most people say.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

That's what most people say.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

That's what that's what I'm saying. Most people say, but I'm along your thinking, I'm like, well, actually, actually, it might be easier because most of these 22, 23 year olds are I'm P-U S S I E S. I'm just gonna say it like that, and they don't really have that dog in them. And if you have that dog in you and you learn marketing, you don't even have to learn how to be an HVAC guy or tree stump guy. If you actually learn marketing, you could scale any of these businesses.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Yeah, well, you do need to know the skills too, obviously. No, no, I no, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

But I could hire a guy that knows the skills.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

So think about how crazy that is.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yeah, both parts, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I'm with you. I understand what you're telling me. Yeah, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

No, well, I mean, like, okay, so let's take 1980. If I wanted to build a uh a tree uh sure tree service business.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Omni started back, you know, roughly that year or something. I don't know. Yeah, so how do you how do you get new clients? Um, well at the time it was like uh the yellow pages, yeah, you know, and my grandfather was uh yeah, I think it was in the yellow pages, and he paid extra to have his name bolded in the yellow pages, and he said that mattered back then. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Yeah, and a lot of businesses you'll see are like rather than calling themselves zebra construction, they would call themselves A zebra construction to have the A in front of the yellow pages. Yeah, you know, but um yeah, but no, but I I I I agree. I think if you like today, if if you actually want to grow something, you know, with Facebook and with Google, like the accessibility. Specifically for yeah, okay your business, you know, like like for sure. Did you just sell a product on TV?

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Oh my gosh, yeah, you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

So it might be a good idea. It took a long time.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

When I was getting started, it was a lot of work, and it wasn't even that long ago, you know, ten years ago, I didn't understand the internet as I mean as far as SEO and things like that. I paid a lot of money to a lot of agencies that did not do a good job.

unknown 20:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Um, and that's how that that was back then. But um, yeah, anyway, so it was a lot of word of mouth, and it was a lot of you know, just meeting people. But these days, like uh I got a friend who owns a well a power was these young guys, right? They're like 20 years old, and they knew how to do the magic on the phone, and next thing you know, their phone is ringing almost as much as mine. I'm like, it took me eight years to get to this point, and here these kids make a few videos that, you know, didn't even go viral necessarily, but just put them at the top of the ranking. And now they're you know, they're gonna be making as much as I am within two years instead of within eight years.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

And I worked hard for this. I know an 18-year-old kid that has a I know an 18-year-old kid that has a car detailing business. Okay, scaled it to 20k a month all through meta. All through meta. 20 grand a month, 18 years old. While all of his buddies are going to college and getting a 3.1 in the first semester and then screwing off in the second semester and dropping out, you know, and second guessing themselves in their future, dude. He's making a quarter million dollars a year. He's 18 years old. And now he's like, hmm, can I scale this in other cities? Can I hire can I franchise this? Why not? You know, do a $25,000 franchise fee, take 10% of a company profit. He's 18 years old making a quarter million dollars a year. And you know, that to me, a quarter million dollars doesn't sound like a yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Not to you, but to an 18-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

It's absurd. Yeah. It's absurd. You know, I was making what, 30 grand when I was 18?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

You know? Did you ever have these days financially where like when I I was so jacked up financially at one point in my life that by the time I got to paycheck day, it was recovering my account from being negative.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

I've been there.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

You know, it's like it's like if you go negative $14, you get the $38 penalty, and then another charge comes in, negative $8, and it gives you another $38 penalty. So you're down a hundred bucks. So your $800 check that you get is actually only $700. You know, I had some I had some lean years, bro. Lean years. But I just kept hustling at sales, dude. I just kept hustling. I was like, I'm gonna.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Were you doing at that time?

SPEAKER_02 23:05

I had uh graduated from college. So I went into the military.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Yeah, I'm a Navy guy.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Okay, great. Yeah, and trust me. I almost went. I almost did it. Really? Yeah, I didn't. But uh anyway.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

You're cons where you could what branch were you considering?

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Navy.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Oh, no kidding. Yeah.

unknown 23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

You took the ASVAB and Yeah? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yeah, good for you.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

But anyway, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

No, no, I I um you know, so so when I was I didn't graduate high school. Oh, really? Didn't graduate high school. And I remember I remember when I drove home from the last day of high school, and I remember I drove home. I had no college planned.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Well, I say if what is this your junior junior year?

SPEAKER_02 23:41

No, no, uh senior year.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Like you finished all four years. No, I finished. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

But my I didn't have a diploma. Okay. Right. So you finished out, you yeah. But failed. Okay, okay. So I was I was actually a very good basketball player. What was I I was the quarterback of the football team. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

And like I wasn't I wasn't good enough to go play at University of Florida, but I was definitely college athletic worthy. Right. Okay. And uh I was such a punk when I was young, I was really aggressive, that they didn't even let me play on the basketball team my senior year because they were scared I was gonna like kill a coach or something. I was a strong, crazy young man, right? Not proud of it, right? So once I didn't play basketball, I I just had like no I was like, I'm not going to school, I'm not going to like no reason to be there. No reason to be there. Yeah. That was all I cared about. Basketball and girls. That was it. Yeah, you're competitive. Super competitive. And I and I think I went into depression.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

I think I went into a little bit of depress, and I'm not a depression type guy, but I definitely went into a little depression my senior year in high school. And then, you know, I remember when Were you playing football at the time? Yeah, I was a quarterback.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Oh, because football is in the uh is in the fall, and basketball is in the winter sport. Yep. I see. So you finish your football season and then couldn't play basketball. Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

So anyway, so I uh so I I just remember when I and this is why when an 18-year-old man asked me for a little guidance today, I always stop. Because I remember when I didn't graduate high school, I remember feeling very so uncertain about my life and future. And I remember bawling crying on my drive home. I mean, I mean hurling, like a little girl cuddling up, curling up with myself. And I really fell into drugs, lots of you know, promiscuity. I'll leave it at that. I was just whiling. I was going out to the clubs, and then I got a job bartending, and you know, and then I like the nightlife just caught me for like the next year. And I was like, man, this ain't gonna work. So that's why I joined the military. I was like, I need, I was like, I like I'm gonna I'm going down the path of a total dead beat.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

You know? And uh, but nobody shook me, dude. Nobody grabbed me and said, nobody said, bro. No, you weren't forced into the military. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

No, I did it like I did it almost like almost like I I just it's almost like ripping off the band aid. I was like, I better just go do it.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You had to. You had no choice. You had no choice. Yeah, there was zero choice.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Yeah because I knew, you know, one more month of this party, and I was on the verge of becoming maybe a drug addict. Sure. I was gonna have an overdose on ecstasy, I was gonna get a STD, I was gonna have a kit. Like I Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's time to get time to stop. Time to stop, time to stop, right? So I went into the military, and that really, you know, tightened me up for four years. Don't get me wrong, I was sure. There was still some maturation there. Of course. Okay. I'm not saying day one, boot camp. I'm like, oh, I'm totally mature now. But you know, then I got out of the military, and then everybody told me I had to get a college degree, so I went and got a college degree in psychology. Biggest waste of time ever. I got a four-year degree in two years. 21 credit hours, 21 credit hours a semester, 12 in the summer, six in the winter, got a degree in two years. You're dialed in. Locked in. Yeah. Psychoed. But that's what the military did for me. It got me into locked-in mode. And then I got a sales job at this company, and you know, I was only making $30,000 a year, and I still like to drink and party still on the weekends. I was like a weekend warrior. How old were you here? 25. Okay. Yeah, I was still a little bit more. Sure, I get you. Yeah. Yeah, I was still, you know. Okay. So listen, there's nothing. You can't get nothing by me, dude. All right. I've been there, done that, you know. And uh, but but I would, you know, I was just living still a little recklessly on the weekends, making 30 grand. And I'm what I'm seeing people in this company make 200 grand a year in sales, and I knew I I knew I could do that, but it took me like six, eight, nine months to get there. But I was broke as hell. When broke as hell, you know, living with my mom, having no money in the bank, driving a beat up car, can't take a pretty girl nowhere. You know what I mean? I couldn't, so then I turned 26 and like, you know, and then I remember getting my first like $10,000 check and commission. And from there it was a wrap. I was like, I got addicted to that feeling. And now it's much bigger than $10,000 checks, you know. So yeah, man, I've come on, dog. I've been through it. Want to hear another crazy crazy alcohol story? Okay. So my buddy had this truck. This is how bad my decision making was as a young man. My buddy had this truck, his name was Brian Hopper. He was my navy buddy from Alabama. He was wild just like me. And like the key was broke, like like the key to the ignition was busted. Screwdriver? Yeah, so you had to like drive, like, do this weird little move to drive the truck. And for some reason, I was driving the truck by myself one night, and he was like, Oh, Eric, hey, I'm at this bar, you know, come grab my truck and you know, come get me or whatever. And I said, All right, cool. So I'm hammered. You know, I probably did seven shots of Aka, and you know, I take the little screwdriver, I put it in the truck or whatever, and I and I drive into Norfolk, Virginia, where we were getting ready to go party and meet these guys. Dude, the truck just stops at the frickin' red light. It just stops, like the screwdriver's not working anymore, and I'm hammered. Okay, so I'm like, and it was literally a police car right behind me, and I'm like, oh no. Yeah, you ready for how smooth I am? You know what I did? Bro, I just opened up the door and just walked across the street like nothing.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Well, left the truck there.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Just left the truck there, just walked across the street, went into the cop was behind you. Right behind me, and watched you get out of the yeah, just what he and I just walked into the bar, and he probably thought I was just crossing the street. He probably didn't even realize the same.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Was there a car in between the car? Car was right behind me. Oh, directly behind you. Directly behind me. He might have been, you know, looking at his phone or whatever. Sure. But I just did it so casually.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Like it was normal. I didn't freak out. He just got out and I was probably dressed pretty nice. And I just walked across the street, and I went into the bar, and I, you know, I just ordered drinks like nothing ever happened. And my buddy Brian's like, hey, where's my truck? I go, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you know, I just I can't even tell you, dude. I did so many reckless, reckless things as a young man. You reckless. Like I'm lucky to be alive, lucky to not be an addict. So I remember I tried, I tried, um, what's that cocaine?

SPEAKER_01 30:45

No, I'm just kidding. No, money. Oh, too much. Bro, I've done everything. I've done everything.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

No, no, I'll tell you, I'll give you a crazy story. I'm just trying to make you giggle a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

But I remember this is this is how scary addiction is. Or this is how's the word I'm looking for? This is uh not risky, but this is how marginal. What's the word I'm looking for? This is how fragile addiction is. Okay. My I remember I was 23 years old, my buddy I was hanging out with, he goes, Hey, I have this oxycotton thing. And I was like, Cool, what is it? He's like, Oh, you swallow it, and it makes you feel really like cool. I go, All right, let's do it, you know? And I did it and he did it, and I remember I felt cool for like an hour, and then I remember afterwards I was throwing up everywhere, and then I was uh, you know, the next three days I hated my I felt terrible. And for me and my body, my body totally rejected it, and I was like, I'm never doing that again. That guy became a heroin addict for 20 years, still a heroin addict. So it's like that one. So I don't I don't judge I don't judge addicts because it could have been yeah easily. Yeah, easily. I I was I was risking risking it all. My body just rejected it. His his became obsessed with it. So that's why me as a father and and with a coming daughter, I I will be very much like I will lay down the law. It's not even worth trying it. You just do not know how your body will accept it or reject it. Yeah. Yeah. I got wild stories, man. I was a wild young man, you know. Um so but today, like, like what do you do? Like, what's your like what do you do to decompress today? Like when you're done with your work week, like how do you how do you get away from from the stresses of business?

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Um, I really love business, you know. I mean, it's like there's nothing for me more rewarding than being successful. And so, like, for a long time I felt like any other activity kind of outside of that was uh was kind of a waste of energy, right? So you can get uh you can get pleasure or whatever out of a number of different activities, but um it was almost like I was trying to uh I don't know if refine or uh make make more potent my uh my desire for business, right? For success. And so that's why I took a lot of other things outside. I kind of removed them from my life. Like I drank a lot too when I was young, and uh when I was 22 years old, I decided I was done drinking. So I didn't drink at all for five years. So I didn't touch it from the age of 22 to 27. And then uh, you know, I started drinking a little bit uh recently and then a little bit too much in the last year or so, and so I just quit again this year. So it's been three months I haven't touched it, and I probably may never touch it again for the rest of my life because I found that uh as much fun as it is, it takes away the fun from everything else.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

No doubt. No doubt. And and people gotta taste like that's why entrepreneurship is so great because there is so much fulfillment and satisfaction from it, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:00

You don't need much else, yeah. It is a drug. You know what I'm saying? It is, yeah, it's a it's a change, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's a healthy drug. They say a lot of the um best anything athletes, you know, were were uh addicts before, right? Yes, no Brian Rose? No, no, anyway. He quit heroin and started biking, and he said it was like he just couldn't get off the bike. Yeah, because he he was just got off the heroin, you know, and that bicycle was like the same thing to him or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Well but um I have a theory, and I don't know if I'm gonna sound crazy or not, but some recovered addicts make the best salespeople. You know, they I've I've witnessed this. They they need that stimulation, they need that hit, they need to feel that that Facebook alike, they do, right? They need that that check, that win, it's it's wild. That they need to the bell needs to go off for them. So sometimes addicts make the best salespeople.

SPEAKER_01 34:58

Recovery addicts, sure. Yeah, of course. Yeah, right. Yeah. Um sometimes though, you can uh if you get too too if you allow that to overtake you too much, you can you can kind of start putting the the cart in front of the horse, right? And you start making decisions that might not be best for you long term. And I think sometimes if you're too hyper ambitious, you it can make it hard to be patient. And sometimes you make decisions too quickly, you kind of jump the gun, and uh it can it can kind of hurt you in business long term. Um my friend Adam taught me uh he was an army guy, right? And he taught he was uh the term in the army is uh what is it now? It's uh slow is smooth, smooth is fast. I don't know if you've you kind of heard that same thing in the Navy, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

Slow, smooth, smooth is fast?

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Yeah, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. And so the idea is if you kind of go at it at the right pace, you'll make fewer mistakes and um you know, maybe actually get the job done quicker than if you try to, you know, hurry up too much and you know, drop the keys as you're trying to get in the door, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 36:02

Yeah, I think I think how do you feel about this? I think I think one of the smartest moves I ever made financially as a young man is when I started making money finally, you know, six figures plus.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah, real money.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

I I still drove the beat-up car, I didn't try to buy a watch, I didn't overextend on the apartment, you know, my apartment you sat back a little bit, yeah, for probably five years. Really? Oh, yeah, for five years, yeah, for five years, from age like 26 to maybe like 31, 32, you know, and then you know, I finally got to the point where I started making like a quarter million dollars a year, and I was like, I can afford a BMW now. And you know, I upgraded my lifestyle from there, but but unpack that. Like, do you think do you think that do you think when people start making money they start spending it too quickly?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Sure. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I've uh oh my gosh, I shouldn't say this. I've I've done over five million dollars in revenue, and I've never had more than forty thousand dollars in the bank.

unknown 37:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

As soon as I get it, I reinvest it. I'm already buying the next truck. I just bought a dump trailer two days ago. You know, I just every time, like I got I got a loan, I'm getting ready to pay off. And uh I'm gonna pay that off before my bank account hits 40 grand.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

I but that's so I don't think that's bad.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

I'm reinvesting a majority of what I make.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

But I buy a little dumb shit too occasionally, not too much.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

That's okay. We're you're you're living your life.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Not much, not much though, not very much.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Well, I so I have a watch this. So I have a rule. The worst case scenario, three months of payroll, expenses, liabilities in in the business bank account. I prefer six months. Yeah. Obviously, it ebbs and flows a little better.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Your approach is better than mine.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

You're like, you're like, I got I got 20 extra, let's invest. I love it. You know, but I don't but but once again, you're not buying it doesn't sound like you're buying too much stuff. I'm not wasting the money. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

But uh I'm reinvesting it too quickly. Or I have in the past. Okay. And the other thing I've done is I I um I put way too much in the uh equipment and trucks and operations and not enough in sales. So I was at the point where I had enough trucks and employees to make four million dollars a year, but my phone was only ringing enough, you know what I mean, to make a fraction of that. Yeah. And so then, you know, you know, I kind of got by, you know, I survived it, but uh I would have been better off with maybe a a truck or two less and maybe more uh clicks or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

I have a buddy, I'm not I'm not gonna name drop him, but I know a guy who's built up an eight-figure contracting business that would door knock and promise certain jobs, you know, 80k job, and he didn't have the equipment for it, and he said, You gotta give me a $40,000 deposit.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Go buy the thing and come back.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Go buy the thing and come back. Yeah, and then he would go to the uh Walgreens or whoever and say, Hey, $300,000 job, you gotta give me $150,000 deposit, go buy the equipment, you know, and just I've done it. He kept he kept and he left. I wrote it away.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Okay, I bought a chipper, okay. I couldn't even afford the down payment. Okay, but I wrote a check that I didn't even have the money, it wouldn't have cleared, but I wrote the check, I gave it to him, and then I took the chipper, I did the job and put the money in the bag, and then by the time it cleared, it was fine.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Yeah, yeah. No, but this is I love this. This is this is real entrepreneurial stuff, dude. Like, people need to hear this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Like, I'm not sure I recommend you know all the things I've done, but uh yeah, I don't know, maybe every circumstance is different. Yeah, I did what I did in my circumstances set, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Well, don't you think it's hard to do everything perfect and calculated and it's impossible, you know? Because it doesn't always work out in your favor, too. So sometimes you gotta risk it a little bit. Oh yeah. You know? I've had cli like I've had really good paying clients, like huge accounts, right? For us. And no fault of our own, something happened in their industry or their you know, like like I had a business, a really good paying client of ours, that we were getting ready, I believe, to make them a huge client. And there was this law that didn't pass in um in January in New York, so they really had to scale back with everything. And you know, yeah, I've had a dozen of those things over the past six months, and you just you can't predict that. So sometimes, you know, when when uh life, you know, gives you a tornado, you sometimes you gotta run for shelter, sometimes you gotta go out dancing in the tornado, bro. You know? You know what I'm saying? Sometimes you got to go dancing in the tornado.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Well, you were you were better able to handle it because you had that extra cash. I think so. For sure. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

But you never know. This whole thing could come crumbling down tomorrow, dude.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Well, but if you got six months of peril or whatever in the bank, then you got at least six months.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

I always say, I always say, People, I got asked this really cool question on a podcast last week. The guy goes, What would you do if everything came crumbling down? Like something, somebody embezzled money from it, whatever, something crazy, right? And I go, yeah, I'd be pissed and I'd be furious. I go, but I could build it back.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

I go, because number one, my skills that I've developed, uh, I can door knock on businesses if I had to. Bro, I'll go up and down Boca Ratona, knock on every door. You know, I told him, I go, I'll comb my hair, give me some hair products, comb my hair, I'll put my jacket on, throw my little tie on, give me a little binder, and I'll go door knock. I'm I'm not been you know, nothing is beneath me. And uh and I'll go I'll go sell business, you know, and then but also the reputation I have is so strong. And then the the contacts I have. My contacts are absurd today. You know, just in my cell phone, I I I probably could could text 500 people for any new business venture I'm doing, you know, so you can't take that away from me.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

I already know the answer to this, but uh, if you had to give up either all the money that you have and all the assets that you have, or you can keep that and you give up all the knowledge and all the connections that you have, which would you keep?

SPEAKER_02 42:31

That's a great question. And no, my skills and knowledge are you give up the money. Yeah, I would. I really would. Yeah, I believe you. You know, because um yeah, because once you you know, once you learn how to how to fish, you can always feed yourself, right? So it's like, what am I gonna do with a bucket of fish? You know what I mean? I need a I need a fishing rod, I need some line. You know what I'm saying? That got you hype. That's that's a spiritual one right there, you know, and it's so true. So it's like, so when you think about it like that, here I'll I'll give you another question. Would you trade places with Warren Buffett today to have his wealth and his age? Would you trade places with Warren Buffett to be worth billions of dollars but be 90 years old?

SPEAKER_01 43:23

I think the answer to that, right? A lot of people would say no because of his age, right? Because as a younger man you have more life experience. But honestly, I'm not even bullshitting, like for real. I think I would I would I would take the money. And I know it's the opposite of what you thought I'd say. And the reason for that is because Warren Buffett has so much money that he can make such an incredible impact on this world, it'd almost be like I'd like sacrificing my life, in a sense, to impact millions of people around the planet.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

But that was a great answer. You didn't say so I can get whatever he's worth to take that hundred. billion and go buy a bunch of Ferraris and go down to Mexico and get crazy with some ladies or whatever. No, I can that was a great answer. That might go viral as hell. Maybe that was if you like and share, huh?

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Or whatever they say, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

No, that was good. That was really good. Well I think um so to you, so the the reason when I asked that question, basically what I'm asking is, you know, is your bank account more valuable or is your health? Right? That's oh I see that's really what the question is.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

And obviously my health at 29 years old is much more valuable than for sure, you know, few trucks and for sure. My net worth is not anything crazy by any means.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

But what you said was good. You said that making an impact is more important than my health.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

That that's great. That's that's beyond honorable.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

You know are are you I think I would do it too. I think I would truly do it. You know a lot of people say what would you do if you won the lottery and they say oh I donate it all and then they actually win the lottery and don't do it, you know? I mean you gotta you gotta see when you're actually in that position. You know honestly I'm a lot less charitable than I thought I would be if I'm being honest with you. You start realizing oh my gosh I don't even want to say it. But like whenever like what $100,000 really is to you or to me or to a third world country the amount of impact that $100,000 can have to a person like us is you know it's another car. It's a you know whatever maybe a slightly bigger house not going to change your life. But you can change countless lives in a different part of the world. And I know it hits hard and we don't like to think about it because we're we're so selfish. Everybody is so selfish.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Well let me give you the flip side to that right like I don't think the biggest flex is a Rolex or uh the newest Lamborghini or Aston Martin You know I think a big flex is is are you trying to give your employees raises? Are you are you employing people and helping feed families and creating job stability for them and opportunity for growth for them. So you have employees right yeah yeah oh I love it.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Oh my gosh I love it.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Yeah yeah yeah yeah and and so you know the flip side is is a hundred thousand dollars rein because you're reinvesting back into your business it technically you could be employing more people and um you know helping them raise better families and being better contributors to your communities. So I I don't think you're being reckless with your money dude.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

I mean you might be a little bit of it with a couple you know a little bit not too I'm not too bad. Yeah yeah not too much.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

But nobody's a perfect spender but no you you get some good uh the biggest thing you got a good heart dude yeah thank you I appreciate that's good yeah it matters it just so you know that matters to me a lot like I the people that I interact with today or give time to if I I if there's not a soul in there I just I got no time for them.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

I appreciate that I can tell that I can feel that in you too oh good yeah yeah I mean I'm a small fish compared to a lot of the people you've had on your podcast you know but you've taken the time to invite me here to you know to help me honestly I mean when you're talking to me you said uh and I know you meant it you're like uh I'll tell you what we were talking about uh marketing and what you can do for a business and you said uh I'll tell you what I'll do you a favor and uh you can come on down get on the podcast and hopefully this will blow up and help your business and I knew I guess I'll I'd I'll tell it right I'll give you three grand to be here okay which is a drop in the bucket for you and it's something for me but it's not it's not crazy. It's fine. Yeah. Anyway uh but what it could potentially do for my business is we'll see. For sure. We'll see. It's one job. Yeah sure. Yeah. Well you just my point is it's a small amount of money. I knew you weren't doing it for the money that's my point. No you wait too because when we do go through these uh rapid fire questions Okay I might pass if I have to maybe yeah no no no I'll try my best to answer them if you know ready?

SPEAKER_02 48:21

I hope so can a tree fall with no storm?

SPEAKER_01 48:25

Oh yes for sure yeah sometimes the roots uh just over time decay you know and um yeah eventually they just they just go.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

They just go. It's got an expiration date right?

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Yeah just like people huh?

SPEAKER_02 48:38

Yeah what's the number one sign that a tree needs to go?

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Uh if there's decay in the roots for sure um or decay in the trunk. Um a lot of times uh you know the leaves die off the uh it might still be structurally sound and and uh you know hold up for for maybe years but if it's uh if you can see it's cracking particularly it needs to go and particularly if it's leaning towards the house or if it's an area that you know your kids play or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

Why are tree removal quotes so different?

SPEAKER_01 49:06

The cost. Um that's a good question. Uh well there's a range in in quality that's one thing you know I mean better quality companies pay their employees more and they have higher costs obviously so you can get uh somebody who's untrained or unqualified and pay them half of what my best climbers make uh $55 an hour and in that range and close to it. You know some are slightly less but uh yeah so if you're getting Alberto to climb your tree you I gotta pay him $55 an hour. Now if you got another guy who's why can't he be Kevin? Well you can call Kevin Alberto well that's his name that's a real person. Okay this isn't fictional sorry Dave he's gonna anyway um okay yeah so it's better people better equipment um better companies just know what they're worth they carry insurance and then another thing so that's one factor and then another thing is that uh because of supply and demand it's a bit like gas prices so a lot of times people want it done immediately and if companies have no work then they'll do whatever they got to do they'll negotiate they'll just try to get something on the calendar whereas another company if they're booked eight weeks out they're gonna give you their price to make profit. Okay the biggest mistake that homeowners make with trees they don't they don't remove them when they should you know you got a big dead tree leaning towards your house and you don't do anything about it. Remove it.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

And I you might not be able to answer this but if you have a tree that's leaning and cracking and might hit your house and you don't do anything about it, is it possible that insurance might not pay for the damage if it does fall?

SPEAKER_01 50:44

It's possible. Usually so uh it'll fall under one of two categories. It's either whenever a tree falls and damages something, uh insurance will cover what's called an act of God, which is what happens the majority of the time and uh this is basically when they just determine that there you didn't know about it or that there's no way of it's just what happened. It was just an after act of God. Now negligence is whenever you sh knew about it, should have done something about it and decided not to and that rarely happens even when people were negligent unless if it's like very obvious or clear sometimes whenever you have a tree that's leaning towards your neighbor's house and they say hey look you got to cut down this tree and they're refusing to do it you can document it and show them like look now your insurance isn't going to cover it anymore because if you choose not to you're being negligent. What happens if you don't remove a dead tree? It'll fall someday. Eventually I mean all trees do right okay I've had a bunch of tree issues so I'm I've witnessed this you know it could be 30 years after you would guess sometimes is stump grinding actually necessary? It's not necessary usually unless if you're building something or pouring a patio or something it's uh largely cosmetic and sometimes it gets in the pseudolateral or the foundation occasionally what's the most expensive tree job you've ever seen I bid one for $20,000 for a single tree just one tree and they looked at me and said oh it's a little less than the other quote we got damn they hit them with the 25? That was exactly it was it? Yep okay yeah 20 grand for a single tree some of them I've heard of them much bigger than that.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

I've heard of $50,000 trees before what what is it the tree itself or just the complexity of the job or both? Usually it's both.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Usually it's a huge tree a lot of times it's in the city or over power lines or uh houses.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

Are HOA tree rules helping or hurting homeowners?

SPEAKER_01 52:39

It's not a huge issue in St. Louis it's not a huge issue in St. Louis I was actually thinking that when I just out here it might be I heard things are stricter here in Florida anyway.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

What do you say to a homeowner that wants to do it themselves tree removal?

SPEAKER_01 52:52

If it's small maybe go ahead. If it's medium size I kind of look at the guy and see you know does this look like a guy that can handle it if he's a young athletic guy that and the tree's only 15 feet tall and maybe go for it, you know, but after a certain point uh it's time to call professional relax bo.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Yeah above a certain size or you know give some advice to a young entrepreneur looking to get into a tree stumping business tree removal business.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

I would put more emphasis on marketing. I know a lot of people who are skilled in the work but can't get enough jobs. And so um you know they buy a truck or a chipper and they're only working a day or two a week and they just they don't understand the marketing.

SPEAKER_02 53:38

The market or the marketing? The marketing.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

Wow interesting I think that's true of any business. I mean there's a lot of really good bakers that you know restaurants that oh I love that place but it went out of business.

SPEAKER_02 53:47

It's a lot of times it is marketing. So so your business grew by 70% last year and do you attribute it a lot of it to digital marketing? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Wow specifically Facebook ads uh those are large now uh to be fair uh last year we had a storm in St.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

Louis a couple of them we had some tornadoes so that was uh a lot of last year so you went from roughly 400 grand to a million dollars in a year because you implemented digital marketing uh well we went from about 750 to 1.2 okay okay my bad my math yeah I know yeah yeah but you went from 750 grand to 1.2 million and a big reason was because of digital marketing.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

Yeah cool good for you awesome I w I I wish more contractors I'm trying to get some content from you right now that's of course yeah you know um and I have a good company that's the difference because I've had companies I've had 15 companies over the last eight years probably or close to it and most of them uh just are not delivering the results.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

Yeah yeah there's um there's a low interpretation like any marketing or any job there's a low interpretation way to do it there's a high interpretation way to do it right uh like when you make a meta ads campaign or a Google ads campaign sometimes it's better not to put all the campaigns into one set sometimes it's better to actually make individual campaigns okay it's longer but it's most of the time it works out better.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

But sometimes people and marketing companies just want to say oh I delivered this whereas me and it sounds like the company you're working with goes no no no we want to get this right and sometimes it does take more work but you know um yeah sometimes people want the cheap way and it's like cheap the cheap way ain't always the best way dude and in fact it's usually the worst way not very often the cheap you know what I'm saying and you don't want to go treep cheap on a tree you know no like come on you're risking your daughter's life go watch some videos on that huh yeah yeah you're risking your daughter's life sure don't be a dummy yeah yeah well this is good man um do anything else you particularly want to touch on um I think now is if you're young I think now is the time to try to go into business and do something because uh I don't know that the opportunities that we have today will be available in five or ten years. Many of them maybe we'll have new opportunities.

SPEAKER_02 56:08

I don't know. Because of AI you're saying? Yeah yeah for sure yeah I mean eventually they probably will have a frickin' truck that drives up a Tesla that shoots a laser out to the tree and then it sends a robot arm out pulls the tree right out from the ground puts it into the truck slices it up and goes down to the next one and it finishes it in 14 minutes like who knows you know honestly it'll probably take longer than I longer than we think.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

Yeah um I was talking to uh it was my uh personal finance guy I guess uh like seven years ago and we were talking about self-driving vehicles and I said uh oh all this truckers are gonna lose their jobs and he said yeah eventually but it's gonna take a long time because first of all the technology's not there and then we need the legislation to get there and then they need to come off the factory lines and then the trucking companies need to buy them. So it's like this is going to take and that was seven that was a conversation we had seven years ago and we still have a shortage of truckers.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

So it hasn't replaced them yet.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

It might in the next seven or next ten who knows how long you were at SLS right the whole event yeah did you well yeah I just remember we're I don't know if we act did we meet at the event or was it it was PBDs. Well I met McKenzie at the event okay and then and then I kind of knew who you were and so I was uh and again that's how I learned how powerful this stuff is is I was on your website I was on your Instagram and I was watching you so I got like a sense of who you are and then whenever I met you about 24 48 hours later I saw you and boom you know what I mean no dude it's dude social media is crazy marketing is crazy you know um this is how powerful marketing is last night I'm at uh PBD's boardroom and there's 250 big time people there everybody's crushing it right and I'm with this guy his name is Mike Philshame shout out Mike he's a cool dude and his his he calls himself the Michael Jordan of Marketing okay awesome dude right here at Boca and I've met people around the country and I go Mike dude when I meet with other people around the country they're like oh do you know my boy Mike Philshame down in Boca I go you're kind of a big deal you know and and we're just chopping oh so this is the first time you've you've spoken together no no I no I I know him oh okay okay and and we're very friendly with each other totally different types of marketing so we're not uh competition but but I was just being honest with him you have a a significant name you know all throughout the country this guy walks up to me and he goes excuse me sir excuse me sir he goes uh are you Eric Weingard the CEO of Blue Moon Marketing and I go yes yes yes I am he goes yeah I I'm the uh uh managing member of the largest immigration uh law law firm in South Florida and I just want to let you know I I want to say thank you for all the marketing that you do because I show my entire internal marketing team this is what a real marketing team does. Look at his social media look at his website look at like we model our marketing after you and then Mike Mike looks at me goes who's the big deal literally you can't even make it up and it and it's like I'm joking like no I'm not a big deal but it's like it but it's it wouldn't happen without the it would have never happened without your page no way yeah no way no way so and it's taken me years just to you know I have like my my Instagram had like 1800 followers it kind of had like a little hack issue so I just I just start from the beginning oh jeez so now it's up to like 12000 again right so I whatever my TikTok has like 6000. Wow yeah my my my this this just went over 8000 on uh subscribers then our like Instagram for our company has like 8000 so it's probably like a hundred thousand and it's so micro but I so just my little micro visibility that I get here I can't even I actually can't fathom what it's like for a guy like PBD or you know just someone so recognizable it's he's got five hundred times more viewers than you yeah five hundred times five hundred yeah and and and people that religiously watch his podcast yeah you know yeah no it's it's it's uh and you're getting recognized I know I mean even occasionally you know it's cra you know yeah yeah yeah no it's wild uh I'm trying to think of other um you know like uh it's weird what the camera does because like I had these guys come in here the other day and and uh they're Oh like they treat you different yes yeah yeah totally do me a favor look into that camera all right and if somebody is interested in learning about your business uh live in the St. Louis metro area or because you're considering moving down to Florida and maybe building Boca Ratone Tree Service Boca Ratone Tree Service right but I'm gonna be your marketing company for that one um where where could where should they look you up?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

Hi I'm Matt with Ball One Tree Service. Uh you can find us at Ball One Tree Service on Instagram or Facebook or Matt Neal on Instagram or Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

Thank you for coming on brother guys thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast podcast make sure to like and subscribe give my guy Matt a follow to and forward this information on to someone that you uh think may find useful