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SPEAKER_01Well, that's a great question. And it was probably more of an evolution of thought because when I started the business, it was me just trying to figure out how to provide for my family if I was no longer uh in ministry. I had already been a part of the the vocational position for about 16, 17 years when I started thinking about opening a side uh business or a side hustle, as some people have said. And I had no idea for whatever reason, and we might need to unpack it today, but the idea that I could be a pastor and not in vocational ministry was a struggle, but I never stopped being who I was, where I was. And so it wouldn't matter if I was, you know, inside the church or meeting somebody on job site, I was the same person wherever I was. And so I didn't change identities from one location to another. It actually probably wasn't until the last, this is sad, probably six months to a year that I really understood that God had put a calling on me to pastor pastors through the idea of marketplace ministry. And so it's so sad to say it and confess it, but it took me a while to get there. And so I would say within the last six, six months to a year, it's been an evolution of me really diving in and asking myself the question am I marketing pressure washing pastor? Or is God calling me to be the pressure washing pastor? And I think after prayer, heart search, reading a bunch of books, I'm like, dude, you can totally be a shepherd inside of the marketplace. Where did I get this idea to begin with? And so that's what kind of brings us here today is me processing that question. And how did you earn this title, the pressure washing pastor? Okay, so that is a really good question. It's not something I coined myself, but I had a uh I had grown, we had grown as a pressure washing business to about a million dollars in Nashville a few years ago in 2020, uh yearly. And I had a call from some investors that said, Hey, can we invest inside your company? I said, I don't really need an investor. I need a salesman because I'm not a salesman. I show up on site, love people, and see what we can do to take care of their homes. And after that meeting, they said, Hey, would you be interested in joining our network? It's the largest gathering of seven-figure pressure washing companies in the country. It's called the BBB. Now, when I say BBB, most people think better business bureau, but it wasn't the better business bureau. It was three different B's, and I'm gonna say it with it. Don't judge me. I didn't create the network, I just joined it, okay? It was bourbon, BS, and business. I I don't drink bourbon, I hope I don't BS, and um, I'm a Nazarene uh from past, you know, so uh definitely not, but business was something I was interested in. So I joined that network, and as I started showing up, the other people in the room started saying, Hey, over there is the pressure washing pastor. And at first I was like, why are they calling me the pressure washing pastor? I didn't get it, but I never changed who I was where I was. And so whether I'm in the church or outside the church, when I say church, I'm referring to the four walls. I never, I was me wherever I was. And so the people inside this business group who was completely the three B's, you know, like as far as what they enjoy, and I love these guys, still a part of the group, they they named it. And then as I started thinking about what to do next, I said, why don't you draw, why don't you lean towards that term? And then God started doing the work of can you be a pastor and own a pressure washing business? So it wasn't a quick decision, it was something that they had mentioned to me.
SPEAKER_02So what is what is pastoring look like for you uh day to day in Brown's pressure washing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a great question. And it almost has to, you have to unpack what is the role of a pastor, right? And so when you unroll what what is the role of a pastor, is it to preach, is it to teach, is it the hospital visit, is it to do weddings and ceremonies? Sure. Um, yes, inside of vocational ministry. But you know, we haven't unpacked my story or shared anything about the root of this conversation. And if I can entertain you for a moment, just to is it okay if I of course do we have an okay? And so I real quickly on my testimony, my mom adopted from Kalamazoo, Michigan, into Nashville, Tennessee, where she was adopted in. Her dad at the age of 13 would go off to prison for the things he was doing to her. Her mom was addicted to pain medication and alcohol, toxic conversation, uh toxic, toxic um personality, home, environment. By the time she's 15, she gets pregnant with me from a dude named Frankie. Frankie uh had said he was 21, she was 15, said he couldn't get pregnant, but voila, I showed up. And when he found out that I was in the picture, he said, I'll pay for his abortion, but I won't be in his life. And so my mom first agreed, and then she just ended up saying, I can't kill this thing that's within me. And so when you start with your starting point, you realize that that my mom is so brave. Uh, if you think about a 15-year-old that has no context of a family or a home, I'd even asked her, Why'd you why'd you choose to give me life? She was in the story that there was no hope. And uh her her answer was this I had never loved anything, and I had determined if I could love anything, I was gonna love you.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry to say it like that, but um the heartbeat behind um the who and the what has to be known. And so um my story began homeless on the streets, uh, soup kitchens, cars, um projects, different dudes that my mom would live with. And we grew up all over the place. By the time I'm 17, I'm a drug dealer, Pothead High School dropout. And at 19, I get in a car wreck, and I believe God said, Joshua, you're wasting your life. It was a Tupac course song I was listening to is our heaven for a G, and I knew enough theology that there was no heaven for a person like me. And I showed up at the last night of a revival service right outside Winston-Salem, and I felt God say, I love you. And when that hit, I believed it and I responded by faith. I went forward, gave the pastor my pot, and gave God my heart, and I started trying to figure out what it looks like to be a godly dude. I'm now what I'm about to say is kind of the answer of what we're referring to. When I got saved, I believed to do whatever the institution was directing me to do. I showed up and I wanted to know what it looked like to stop looking at pornography, what it meant to be a godly man, how can I be a disciple? I didn't know or the word was disciple, but I ended up in Bible school. There I became, you know, ended up, I got my GD, got a pastoral ministry degree, Christian counseling, and then served inside the church. When you ask the question, what does pastoring look like all day? It didn't look like what I was doing 80% of the time when I was inside a vocation. I feel like a for me, okay. So if your audience is listening and so forth like that, I'm not suggesting what pastoring looks like for everybody. I'm just sharing what pastor looks like for me. And I'm going a long ways around to answer this question, but it it the root of it is this. In order to be a pastor, you have to be in a relationship with the great shepherd. And so the role of uh for me, what it looks like, is starting off every morning on my knees and just thanking God for giving me life, uh, spending time with his Holy Spirit. Because you can't give what you ain't got, but you can give what you do got. And if I'm going to be a shepherd or a pastor or a disciple maker, I have to make sure that I'm spending time with God so I can then uh give to others and then invite others to do what I'm doing. And so I feel like the role of a pastor for me is to model that which I want others to follow. And so the the thing of what behind me, it says pressure washing pastor. There's three things I've I've got listed here. It's create jobs. I feel like one of the roles of a pastor is to provide um for people. And so that's why I'm landing on uh if we're supposed to provide, uh, if if a shepherd is supposed to lead his sheep to greener pastures, I've got to make sure that my guys and girls are able to provide for their families. The next thing that I've got is make disciples. You make disciples by being a disciple and then have intentional ways to get there, whether it's leadership development, whether it's books, prayer, reading, but ultimately you reproduce who you are and you teach what you know. And so ultimately, discipleship or pastoring is me imaging the very thing that I'm inviting others to. And then the next one is serve the city. And so inside of our city, we wash widows' homes in Nashville for free. And we try to remind them that they're not forgotten, that they're loved. And so, long story short, the the way that I unpack pastoring is providing, modeling, and serving the the community around us. And that's kind of where what what I lean on. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it does. Um, to give us a bit of a clearer understanding as well. Could you also maybe give us a a story, uh, just a firsthand real-world example of what that one of your favorite memories in pastoring out in the workplace where you just walked away from that thinking that's pastoring?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And uh I there's a there's a bunch of examples, but it's really when you invite people to be a part of your team, and so we don't have uh employees, we have team members, watching them duplicate and become a disciple is this the stories. And so I can share stories where where we've had opportunity to pray for folks, and I know that's ambiguous to say that. Um, but one example would be last year. Um, one of our guys who've been here about five years at that time, he's washing a house, and he ends up uh going up to the home and saying, Hey, Mrs. Jones, I noticed that your ramp leading up to your front door needs to be cleaned. And uh, would you like for me to clean that while I'm here today? And she said, No, my husband passed away a few years ago. Um, uh, we won't be needing that anymore. And so he ends up starting to clean the house. And as he's cleaning it, um, he hears something say, give it to her for free. And uh he ends up cleaning the house, cleans that little ramp, goes up to the door, and the lady ends up bringing out the exact change, like in dollar bills and coins, wow, and and hands it over to Josiah. And Josiah says, No, today it's on us. Wow, and I know that sounds like such a small act, but for our guys to be cognizant and aware and listening to God and obedient, then he calls me up three days later and says, Joshua, I got an idea. It's a baby chicken, don't step on it. And I said, Okay. He said, What if we tried to wash every widow's house in Nashville for free? And I said, I immediately stepped on his chicken and squashed it. I said, We'll go out of business if we try to do that for free for every every person. But I remember Andy Stanley had shared inside of some leadership training, do for one what you wish you could do for everybody. And I said, We can't do it for everybody, I don't think, but we can do it for one. And so watching him mature, watching our team members mature, um, praying over folks. So now Washington Lidow's homes in Nashville is what we is is one of the identities we've stepped into and becoming that. Uh praying for people uh is become a normal standard. Um, inviting different um team members has become a a staple, leadership development and watching people grow. Um, those are all different pieces of the puzzle. And I could share different folks, but that would be an example is is watching folks. I'll share one more if I don't bore you too much, and it might be a good example for everyone to do inventory on. Is Josiah called me up four years ago and he's on site and a trailer broke in half, water spilling out, soap everywhere, and the trailer is literally bent in half on the on the customer's driveway. And when he calls me, he's like, Oh, Josh is gonna lose it. Like, so he calls me, invites me over. And this is in his, I wish he was here so he could share the story, but he has mentioned it, how it changed the way he views life is when I got out of the car, I had the biggest smile on my face. I put my hand on the shoulder and said, We're gonna get through this. This is not that big of a deal. And so when you when you have buried people, when you've gone through great tragedies, and then you help the folks that are you're surrounded with understand that the things that we think that are big just really ain't that big, gives us a perspective on life, on how to get through life when difficult times happen. And so those are a couple of examples.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Oh man, that's so powerful. Oh, and I love that story about the the widows and how that uh that model came to be, and that's that's really baked into your um your identity as a company now, right? Is taking care of the the widows. So good. Yeah, thank you. And and so now you are you're replicating this. This is too good to just keep in Nashville. So you're encouraging other pastors to from what I was uh hearing you say on an on another interview, there's a fairly low barrier to entry into starting a pressure washing company, which was something that was attractive to to you when you first got started. Um, what is the the model and how are what what are you doing for pastors now?
SPEAKER_01So this is what I'm doing. I I don't believe there's just one way to do things. And so the entry point for us is first a conversation to make sure that we're um helping the right people. And so the the first thing that we do is someone would just schedule an interview with me and I share my story and they share their story, and then we work from there based on their geographical location and what their personal goals are. And so for me, if I have the right person, we will work through what what financing, what um needs to happen to make their ministry in the marketplace a reality. But um basically the idea is this is is in my head, I thought you in order to be a pastor, you had to be in vocational ministry. I really didn't know that you could be a minister in the marketplace. And and so once I got this through my head, I started thinking, God, what do you want me to do with the rest of my life? We've you know on scale to do two million this year. Um, don't want to live for profits, I want to live for purpose. And he said, do for others what I've done for you. I feel very strongly that God is inviting me to invite other pastors by vocational folks who've left ministry and don't know what their next steps are to have a conversation with me and see whether or not we can launch a pressure washing uh company inside of their city. And they get our branding, they get our coaching, and they get our blueprint of how we grow. And I've been very intentional in creating a way to make that happen. The way I got into it was I Googled top five businesses to start with $5,000 or less. And uh and I found that you can take pictures of cats, you can clean chimneys, and then you can also start a pressure washing company. And so I started my company super cheap. I had a Honda Odyssey van. I put some stickers on the window, I took a converted boat trailer and threw a pressure washer, chemical tank, some reels on it, and I just started washing homes and loving people. And it started very small, but it's amazing how if you love people, you build relationships and work hard, you can grow a business. And so we're we're inviting to grow the largest brand nationwide with pressure washing pastors, and so ultimately we're trying to grow the Chick-fil-A of Brown's pressure washing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and so they pay a licensing fee, and then you help get them set up. And do you encourage them to um have the church own the pressure washing company as an asset, or does the pastor own it and it's more like his tent making, or how does that work?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a good question. Basically, we landed, we looked at all the different models to help this initiative take place and become a reality, and licensing made the most sense. And so it's a hundred percent whoever is the who that's going to get it started. And so for some folks, it's you know, so I've now been able to launch a few and have conversations going on. It doesn't look the same for everybody, and so for some folks, they uh are no longer in ministry and they have a little bit of money and they want to start up the business for themselves, and they are going to be the people that do the sales and do the cleaning. For others, you might have a financial investor, someone that's good with leadership development and in cast and vision, and then they have a couple of of kids or sons that they're interested in them doing the operations and them doing the sales. And so there's not a a one-way, one size fits all. It's me hearing your story, your stage of life, and then figuring out are you the right who that I want to be in a relationship with? And and at the end of the day, I could have taken this to a franchising, could have done it many different ways, but I've determined that I'm gonna find the right people and then invest in them to help them own their own pressure washing company in their city.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha. And and so when you say invest, like you are it's not just them paying a licensing fee, but you when you say you're investing, are you investing money or are you investing the know-how? What does that look like?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the cost for entry is so low. Generally, the franchising licensing agreement is somewhere around 40 to 50,000 to get a territory, to get a branding, and to get The manuals for us, it is a fraction of that for your territory. You got to have skin in the game. We've learned that if you don't have skin in the game, chances are you're not going to be playing the game. And so we need folks that are really committed. And then you purchase whatever equipment and marketing you need to purchase for your company. And you own everything. And so the coaching and the branding is all things that we've learned over the years. So we have weekly calls, we have life planning because we've learned that many pastors haven't learned how to set up a healthy work-life balance. And you have to know what to say no to, what to say yes to. And so we've thought through sales coaching, operation coaching, we handle the phones. And so we've created a way to save a new location, a ton of overhead where they don't have to hire somebody to answer the phones Monday through Saturday. We cover all that inside of the royalties. And the royalties don't even cover to be able to pay the admins until that company gets three, four hundred thousand dollars a year in order to make sense. And so our goal is to help someone get to that $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 spot where they are then able to grow the business and expand and so forth like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So why pastors? Why not just go after any anyone who shares your values?
SPEAKER_01Hey, thank you for asking that question. And really it's because I've learned that for me to work with someone that has had a work of grace inside of their lives, it are the right who's. And we're not trying to grow pro profits as much as we're trying to grow a missional community or uh ministers in the marketplace. And so I'm hoping I weed people out that are there to just make money because you know you can make money, but I don't want to invest my time, my energy, my resources, our brands and folks that aren't there to really create jobs, make disciples, and serve the city. And so I've got to make sure that, and I'm thinking that most pastors have been changed by the gospel, and they just may not have the tools or the awareness or the ability of know what's what step is next. And so it's kind of like coming alongside of them and then helping them go. Also, church planning networks are things that we're we're working with to create a way of saying, hey, if you're wanting to plant a church, why don't you know? And a lot of the church plan is they've already gone through assessments and they're the right people, they're the right who's, they're planning in a community, and then we can come alongside of them and teach them how to make money inside the marketplace as they create jobs, make stops, and serve the city in their community. And so quick answer, I talk a lot. Quick answer is the reason we want pastors is because we want stories of life change as a result of the work that we do. We're not trying to just focus on profits, we're trying to to to grow the mission and and be disciples inside the marketplace.
SPEAKER_02Got it. Well, pressurewashingpastor.com is the website. Anything you want to say about how people can get involved?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I appreciate that. Um, if anyone is listening and they're wondering about their next steps, I'd love to sit down to chat with you. Even if you don't end up going with uh pressure washing pastors, I'm happy to give direction or guidance because sometimes you're in a spot, you just don't know what direction is next. It's helpful to have somebody who can listen and can love and can encourage you in your next steps. And so uh feel free to visit us on our website and if it's and schedule a call with us.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Again, pressurewashing pastor.com is the website, and you've been listening to Joshua Brown, the Pressure Washing Pastor. Joshua, thank you so much for sharing your your vision, your passion, uh, your your uh your expertise with us today. We're all better for it. Thank you, Dan. Thanks for having me.
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