Why Most Service Businesses Never Hit $1 Million (and How to Get There) with John McDonald

John McDonald grew up in a single-wide trailer with no plan, joined the Navy, and eventually started FABTECH Solutions out of a Buick Lucerne with a toolbox and negative four thousand dollars in the bank. Today he runs a seven-figure service business and just wrote the book Million Dollar Service Startup to help other operators skip the decade of trial and error it took him to figure it out. In this conversation, Matt and John get into what it actually takes to build a service business that lasts, why answering the phone is still a competitive advantage, and the moment John realized he had to stop doing every job himself if he ever wanted to grow. They also swap newspaper route stories, talk about why the best employees don't always have the best resumes, and John makes a case for why college might actually require more self-discipline than the military. Follow John McDonald on Instagram @johnmcdonaldjr99 and grab his book Million Dollar Service Startup on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0bGXQ2sm Want more Matt in your life? Of course you do! (https://www.instagram.com/mattebertcc/) (https://www.facebook.com/MattEbertCC) (https://twitter.com/mattebertcc/) (https://www.tiktok.com/@mattebertcc) (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ebert-7169a5180/) Get paid while you learn on the job at Crash Champions: https://step.crashchampions.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm Matt Evert. I turned one collision repair shop into a multi-billion dollar business called Crash Champions. Now I'm sitting down with people who have also built great things so you can build something of your own.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

All right, Matt, excited about our guest today, John McDonald.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

He's going to be crashing the pod. He turned his company Fab Tech Solutions from a one-man operation into a seven-figure business. And he actually has a book he just wrote, Million Dollar Service Startup, which you guys will have the opportunity to talk about. But you and John had dinner last night. What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 0:31

We did. Yeah, great guy. Enjoyed getting to know him a little bit. One thing's clear right away in the conversations with him, you can see he truly loves people, wants to help people any way he can. Um that's why he wrote the book. Um, help people learn some things pretty quickly that it took him a decade to learn. So I'm looking forward to the interview today.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yeah, he's a perfect guest for Podcrash as we're all about championing people. So looking forward to this.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

That's right. So here we go, everybody. This is Podcrash. You spent some time in the Navy. Did you did that right after high school? Right out. And what made you decide to do that? What why'd you go that route? Great question.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

It was lack of direction. Okay. Everybody I knew was going off to college. I didn't have the grades for college. I, you know, didn't know what I wanted to do. I was gonna play basketball, but um, you know, I'm a little vertically challenged here. That wasn't gonna work out. And uh You can't play basketball either.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

You can't eat. I was the last one picked into class every time. Like I was that bad.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Um look, um, we've got our weaknesses, but dude, I didn't want to be left behind, man. And I was on a dirt road in that trailer, and I was like, this is not my life. You know, my dad raised five kids in this single wide trailer, and I'm like, what am I gonna do? And my buddies um that lived in that area were joining the military. And so I'm like, all right, what do I do? What do I do there? All right, met with a recruiter, take this ASFAB test to see how smart you are. And uh, what do you know? I scored pretty good. Okay. Um, uh, pretty good to where they said, hey, you can be an avionics technician. What does that mean? I don't know what that meant, you know. And um, avionics technician meant um you worked on avionics, uh, electronics on aircraft. And I'm like, wow, that sounds really smart. After I get out, that's what I can do. I felt like it was giving me some sort of direction. So I joined, and um, that was you know, brought me up here to Chicago for boot camp.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Spent how long in the Navy? Did five years. Okay. Yeah. What do you tell young people today that might be in that same position really don't know what they want to do? Because I feel it's so much pressure on a wow on an 18-year-old, 17-year-old to have their life figured out, know exactly what they want to do. So much. It seems crazy that that's when you have to have it figured out because how can you know?

SPEAKER_04 2:48

And and I I think about that a lot. Um, there's so much pressure because everywhere you go as a 17, 18-year-old about to graduate, hey, are you excited for college? Hey, are you excited for college? What college are you going to? Like this is the conversation we're having versus what do you what do you think you want to do? You know, what are you interested in? And I think it's societal where everybody thinks college is the answer always. 99% of 18-year-olds really know, hey, I want to be a doctor. Hey, I want to, you know, run my father's business. The rest of them, you know, let's give a little grace and say, start stepping in a direction. And that's what I did. I stepped in a direction. And uh, they need to know that it's uh not forever. We can change, you know, we can change direction at any given time. Even at my age now, I'm I'm like, hey, where do I take this? Where do I do that? And I realize, uh, especially after, you know, we had a conversation yesterday. I'm like, you know, I find myself 18-year-old me again every few years. Like, what direction am I taking this company? What direction am I taking um, you know, my following? And it's okay. And, you know, trust in the Lord and then step in that direction, and and here you go.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Oh, that's great. You did okay in the Navy, I think. You won an award Sailor of the Year on Eisenhower. That seems like a big deal. Yeah. What's it take to win that award? Is it a likability contest or wow?

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Yeah. You know, I had a lot of guilt behind that actually. Really? In that, yeah, yeah. And um I'll say this there's a lot that goes into winning that, right? There's, let's say, 6,500 folks on the um ships, uh, on the ship on an Eisenhower, which was a aircraft carrier. 6,500 people. And so to stand out in a crowd like that takes more than just passing a test or fixing something. And I was not the smartest guy to work on the equipment. We worked on SH 60s, radar jamming, we worked on the F-18s. And no, I was not on the flight deck either. So everything I did was really um, I'm in the front of a ship in an air-conditioned space due to the electronics, and I'm working on this box. Nothing really sexy about it. Okay. And so we would do this, but there were other people around that were smarter than me with that. But what did I do? I did the other things, the perception things. The I was ironed all the time, haircut every Friday. I still do that today, actually. And just the perception. And actually, that's what we teach our employees now is that the way you show up, how you do one thing is how you do another. And what I did in the Navy was I I kept my my boot shined, ironed. I talked to the right people and uh spoke to them the right way and showed up, you know. And that's that's the workforce as well. And you know, that's why I say I feel a little guilt because I didn't do nothing crazy. I wasn't the smartest guy. I just did all the pieces, most of the pieces.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Pay attention to the details.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

Paid attention to details, and I was consistent. Showed up on time, looked apart, yes sir, no, sir, do your job.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

We weren't a problem at all. Are we? Yeah, I mean so it interesting you said that. So I my next question was gonna be what did you learn there that maybe you still use in life today? Um, and it sounds like the being on point with how you appear, you you carried that into your company today.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

You know, people ask me, or people actually uh assume, John, you you you have this because you had the military. I'm like, no, I had a father that that that woke my behind up and said, hey, we're doing this, you're doing that. And and that was that. And so it wasn't exactly uh this can get very controversial. Um, I like to say this. Um, you know, being in the military, I'm not a recruiter, guys. I I'm I'm hear me out. I am I am not a recruiter. Okay. Um I'll say this the military gave me direction. And when I look at the folks that are graduating college, that's hard. They have to show up. They can they can get hammered the night before, but they have the choice to show up. If you get hammered the night before in the Navy or you you make a mistake or do something, you don't show up, you go to the brig, you get kicked out, nobody wants that. There's a hard consequence in the military for not performing. Yep. And so if you graduate college, if you do those things, uh to me, I look at that, not I don't look at your degree. I'm trying to think of all the folks that I know in my company with degrees, it's maybe half. And the point is that they all do this and they show up on time, they do these things. And these college folks, I think it's harder for them to go to college than it is the military.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Because if they miss a class, they can still they can still be okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

They have more free will.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:31

You know what I'm saying? Like I look at that like I had no choice. It was I I show up the next day or else you're in big trouble. You don't show up to class. What do you what do you do? You know what I'm saying? You show up the next day and you can kind of get away with that.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Okay. And then you've got then you've got the workforce where so you feel the self-discipline of getting yourself through college is harder than the force behavior in the military.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

I do. Is that controversial, you think? No, it's an It's an opinion on the Yeah, it's an opinion.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

I like I said, I wasn't in the military or college, so I have one of either.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

Look, I say it's I just I I I poo-pooed on college for a little bit, then I poo-pooed on the military for a little bit, and I'm finding out that you know, where the discipline really was, and it the military didn't give me the discipline. It it was part of the job, but I I had it already. Um, and if you don't, if you're not good with discipline, you'll find a way around things. You'll find a way to to gain weight in the military and still pass your whatever, you'll find a way. And I do think that, you know, whether it's the workforce or college, uh, you have to show up. Like, I mean, you have a choice to show up. How many times do you have young men, young women not showing up to work and you know, then get away with it? Hey, I'm sick, hey, I'm whatever. And next thing you know, it is like they're off to another job because they couldn't make it.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

I think it goes back to your statement and how you do anything is how you do everything. So if you're a disciplined person, it kind of carries through through everywhere. So what post-military, you got a job. I I don't know if he just had one, but what'd you do after the military?

SPEAKER_04 9:05

Well, I decided to get in the military. I was actually, it's a funny story. I was gonna be a recruiter for the military. For the military. Okay. And um, it was my daughter was born, I was off the coast of Iran, and um, she was born, it was 4 a.m. I was on the phone, I heard the crying, and I said, If I gotta change oil at Jiffy Lube, I'm getting out of here. Okay. And that was like the catalyst right there. And so hearing her cry really uh that got me over. Um, I'm not doing this in the military. I will not have to come back out to sea. So made that decision, and uh I started interviewing. And so there are military recruiters or there are recruiters, civilian recruiters looking for military folks. And I would go to these events, and uh because I was sale of the year, I was always put on the front of that list, I felt like. So I got to interview with a lot of great companies. Okay. I chose a small company in South Carolina that wanted to grow. And it seemed like I've never been to South Carolina in my life, you know, and I I went there and visited with my then wife and newborn, and I said, What do you think? And we picked up and we moved there.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

So that's great.

SPEAKER_04 10:18

It was crazy because I had no idea what I was doing. And it was, hey John, um, we need a service technician to work on machinery that fabricates metal. Sounds good to me. Yeah, I don't even think I Googled it, Matt.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

So you were gonna be the service technician, you're gonna learn uh learn on the job.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

All right, yeah. And must have caught on pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

It caught on well. Uh yes. I had the behavior and attitude, and then the technical ability came on the job.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

So from that came the idea to start your own company. And was that just an entrepreneurship in you that's always been in you or got a job doing what you're doing? You thought you had a better way than what you saw where you were working, wanted to own your own business. How'd you get there?

SPEAKER_04 11:10

You know, now that I'm older, I look back and say, there was the entrepreneurial spirit when I was younger. Okay. You know, when I'm delivering newspapers.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Yeah, I did the same thing as a kid, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:20

Well, did you go to the newspaper place and pick up newspapers and then ride your bike?

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Yeah, they delivered them to the house. I had to unbundle them, put them in a bag, put them over my shoulder, and then get it. Ride my bike or walk. Yeah. Uh so that's Yeah, my parents weren't getting out of bed to drive me out. You weren't doing that? No. So that's the classic uh newspaper story. Had to collect the money from each individual customer. How did you do that?

SPEAKER_04 11:43

What do you just knock on the door and knock on the door?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yeah, you give them a little tear-off receipt.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

What kind of money was it for a newspaper page?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

Oh, I don't remember. Good question. Yeah, it wasn't not so much that, but I mean it was just pennies a day, right? I mean, maybe 50 cents or something. I think the Sunday paper was a dollar. So, you know, like what would that be? A few bucks a week. They they had it and you'd collect from them once a month. But that's where I actually learned to use other people's money because the bill didn't come due from the newspaper for me for like 60 days. You waited for their money. So I got the customer's money first.

SPEAKER_04 12:16

Did you say 60 days? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

I think it was.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

Six paper times are crazy, huh?

SPEAKER_02 12:20

So it wasn't a ton of money to be clear. Like, what would what would it have been? A few hundred bucks at the most. Maybe. Um it was a lot of money to you then. Yeah. Kid, it surely was. That's a classic newspaper story. And mine was a little bit. For Chicago, you did that. Yeah, yeah. I had hiding spots in the bushes because the papers were too heavy to carry. So I'd get them to the area where the route was and hide some of them, deliver half. And then come back.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

How many newspapers are we talking? It sounds like a lot.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yeah, uh, it's so long ago I don't remember, but so so much that I put a bag on each shoulder and they were completely full. So I don't know how. And I think I pushed a cart on the Sunday paper days. I pushed a cart and hid the whole cart in the bushes. That's funny.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

So there there was a spirit back then, is what we're getting at. And I yeah, I'm looking back at it, and I I think this is the first time I'm gonna say this out loud. Uh, what I would do was I would ride my bicycle half the dirt road. It was a mile, exactly a mile from the from from my house to the end of the road where the newspaper machine was.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

Sometimes it would be broken. Yep. Sometimes I'd put the 50 cents in and grab all the newspapers and then go down the street and collect the money, sell the newspapers. So I stole from the newspaper. There it is, guys.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Yeah, you're a statue of limitation. Yeah, mine was a classic kind of yours was I didn't see it. Yours was the street hustle.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

Yeah, a little doing a little thing, but there was a statute of limitation on stealing newspapers, I realized. But um, what do you think the new newspaper route is now?

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Do they still have one? I don't know. I imagine it gets delivered like through some delivery service if you actually get a real paper.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Nobody gets newspapers. What I'm saying is, what is today's newspaper route?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Is it Oh, for kids? Yeah. Good question. I don't know if there's anything like it. My kids are nine and six, so they're not at the son this year's the year he starts taking out the garbage regularly, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

Hmm. I wonder what that is.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

I there's they need to work for somebody besides their mother, though. She has no concept of like like the simplest tax gets them tasks gets them like 20 bucks. So their mom's too nice of a boss.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

We're out of touch with what money does for people. But I wish there was more um young men coming up to the door. Hey, let me cut your grass.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Hey, let me do that. And I I just think about how far ahead when you start that way. I didn't start, you know, I had the military for five years, so I feel like that five years could have been given towards a trade or something or other.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

I get it. Um, you know, for me I didn't have it figured out either. I came into collision repair by accident, but it was the pushing the lawnmower around mowing yards, it was the doing farm jobs, it was the it was the delivering newspapers. So I think um from a farm job thing, I think those still exist today. We don't we don't live by any farms currently, so I don't know, but I bet you there's still kids bailing hay and oh yeah things like that. It's gotta be. Yeah. Maybe set asking this question a different way. Fab tech solutions, your company, what was the foundation of starting that? Did you have a new idea? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Let me get back to that. I um so became a service technician, learned how to work on this equipment, and then I got into sales when I uh felt like I could communicate. They noticed uh the ownership noticed I can communicate about equipment and I can such a valuable quality. Communicating. Oh man. So how do we uh you know that's a deeper question? Like, how do we teach our kids communicating, right? Get them get them in front of it.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

According to my wife, I'm still learning. I have a lot of work to do in the communication department, so I might get find it all the time.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

I might get in trouble with your wife, but I'm gonna say this tell her to have the kids going to Starbucks to order next time. Yeah, it's a good practice, you know. Get them to, you know, interact go in the grocery store and and do something. Hey, well, go ask them. What do I say? You know, all that stuff. I remember my first rejection. Now I think about this. I do want to get back to the question, but thinking about those newspapers, I remember somebody saying no, and it hurt. And I think like that just hit me when we were talking about this, that rejection as a 10-year-old or whatever I was at the time, like it hurt. Uh, just like getting punched in the face for the first time. But, anyways, I digressed to I was a service technician, learned how to do that for a few years, got really good at that, and then I got into sales, and now we have longer sales cycles, and uh the money was better. And then I was felt like I was being treated unfairly in that business. Okay. And uh I had to decision, I had a fork in the road. I was being offered positions with really good income. And when I look at that, I would say, but I would still have to deal with that, and I would still have to deal with this. And then I I thought to myself, I didn't want to work for anybody but this guy here. Okay, but I wasn't being treated fairly. I felt like I was gonna be maybe an entrepreneur, but I felt like that if I couldn't do that, I'm gonna do my own. I didn't do it on purpose.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

I didn't do it on purpose, I just led down that direction. And then once I made a decision to go out on my own, then it was like, okay, I make the decisions now. And I started with my toolbox and the Buick Lucerne, negative $4,000. Uh I say negative $4,000. I had $5,000 in bills the next month. I had $4,000 in my account. Yep. And it was time to go. And that was the first time that I was physically sick, white knuckling.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah, and a wife and and young daughter at home, right?

SPEAKER_04 18:08

Fresh divorce.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Two months old, just got custody of my daughter. She's four years old, and I got to make this work. Cause because I had a $478 mortgage, and I had uh a $2,000 Christian school bill the next month. And so I needed to make that work. Yep. And uh I was never late, so I grabbed my toolbox, started calling people up, and it's amazing what you do when you're putting the corner.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:33

So here we are, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Nothing like necessity for a little bit. Necessity is motivation. That's great. So it's a successful business now, doing great. Um, what do you contribute that to? Because not all businesses make it, not all businesses do great.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

Um, and not in fact, most don't. Most don't. And there's some good stats on that, but most don't answer the phone either, Matt.

unknown 18:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

We talked about that, right? Like I don't understand those businesses that don't answer the phone. Because if we ran our business that way, we wouldn't exist. How do you take it?

SPEAKER_04 19:07

Hey, I need help. Uh okay, I'll get back to you.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:10

That doesn't work. Um well, what do I attribute all that to? Is um when we answer the phone, sense of urgency. There's a sense of urgency that we carry. And I like to say aircraft down just because of my previous life. Uh, we've got an aircraft down, we're gonna bump you to the list, we're gonna get you up and running. Every time your machine's down, for every minute your machine is down, costs you a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

If a manufacturer goes down, Ford plant goes down, uh, anything, there's there's a dollar amount to that minute that it's down. And so if we're gonna be the fastest service organization in the industry, we have a system that is designed for that. That means we we don't have you filling out six pages of documents if you're a new customer. That means we're gonna we're going to vet you out quicker, we're gonna get you on board, you're gonna speak with the service manager, you're gonna have a service technician designated to you. And so the process is designated for it's designed for sense of urgency. Aircraft down. And so that's that's a big part of the service.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

I can see that being a huge key to success because this machinery that you're fixing is somebody's business. So, like when that equipment's down, their business is is shut down or limited to some degree. When you're when your car is down, can you work? Same thing, right? Uh for us, it's paint boosts. If the paint booth is down, paint boots get down. If the paint booth is down, you got a problem. I can't paint a car. So everything sits, right?

SPEAKER_04 20:32

So if it sits for a day, you lose X amount. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

If you had a technician be able to get to you within a few hours, then you have X amount of upset customers because you didn't meet their expectations. Then you then your reputation. Yep. So the service companies that service those forests gotta be on point, just like you described, or it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

It's gotta work. And that's the service part of the business. Now, I'm very strong on service because that's where I started. Now it's not the big sexy money of sales, but we have a sales department as well. And so most organizations in my industry um they have sales, and service is a necessary evil. We found a way to make the service department profitable through our systems and through our people. And so I love the service department, but our sales also performs because of our service department. What do they say? They say service um helps the first sale, but it makes the second sale.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

So on your website, I think you're you've got your philosophy on there of service first and sales. Is that what that's about?

SPEAKER_04 21:31

Service first, then sales. And it that came from a phone conversation. Uh was just yeah, we service first. You know, everybody wants to sell a machine until it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

As a consumer, I think that's awesome because I can't tell you how many things I've I've bought and and then they break, and then what? Oh like you know, and if the if the companies don't have a way of servicing them, it's it's it's a big deal.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

It is a big deal. And so um I will throw GMC under the bus. Right here, right now, for that reason. So I have my truck that is constantly in the shop. Every brand new truck I get, but I keep buying them, Matt. So maybe it's my fault. Maybe it's my fault. But you know, every truck I buy seems to go in the shop, but then I get um given a Buick little car loaner for six weeks. And anyway. Anyway, the service part of it is what's gonna sell what's gonna sell a machine. And that's why we sell. So the sales is almost the necessary evil.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

I was gonna say your sales pitch is almost like, look, we're not just gonna be here for the for the purchase. We're gonna be here to make sure this long term. Yeah. So we can make it. Oh make the sales easy.

SPEAKER_04 22:41

I I want the service business. I want to be in your shop for the for the rest of you know your your business, our business. Um we sell you a machine, we make X amount. Cool. But what about next year? You need preventative maintenance, right? The machine goes down a year after that, X, Y, Z. And when you need a new machine, we're here. Versus we sell a machine, we'll install it for you, and then call us if anything breaks, and then we're six weeks out. What is that? What kind of what kind of business is that?

SPEAKER_02 23:09

No, I you're doing it right. I think that's great.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

I think so. I hope so. Uh when I see the sales organizations and their numbers, I hate to compare myself, but you know, top line's not the same as bottom line, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Yeah. You need the top line to get to get some bottom line, but yeah, you it's how much you keep in the end that matters. It's keeping it. Yeah. So you wrote we've got this book in front of us here that that you wrote. Um you you wrote it because you saw a a pattern, I think, right? A lot of great technicians could can fix anything, but it doesn't mean they can turn it into a real business. Is that what you kind of observed? And is that why you wrote the book to help to help those that are great with the technical skills but not so great at creating a business out of it? Or what was the motivation behind the book?

SPEAKER_04 23:57

I read the book for a lot of reasons. I um didn't have any passion behind a book until about three years ago, and that came when I started gaining some success in the in the service department of our business. And I was being asked a lot of questions from, let's say, competitors or or other businesses. John, how do you do this? How do you do that? And I developed these systems and I was answering a lot of these questions. And so I felt the need to put this out and help because there are a lot of businesses that can't make it past a million dollars. And so hence the name of the book. And so I actually put in the book step by step. Like if we open this thing up, it's gonna say, do this, do that, measure this, right in the book. Like this is a 90-page book. We're not talking a 400-page book because John does audible and we're busy business owners, we're driving places, there will be an Audible at some point, but uh for now, 90 page book. You can read it in a night, maybe a couple nights, whatever, and you can actually gain something from it. This is not a fluff book that is just for vanity. This is this is direction. I want to make it quick and easy for a company who is struggling to make it to a million or deciding to get into business.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

So maybe an example, what's a what's a tip you give somebody in the book that you feel like is super helpful? Super helpful.

SPEAKER_04 25:23

Um a tip, uh, systems, right? So I would up front uh say these are the systems that we're going to uh one, we have to decide. One, we have to decide this is what we're gonna do. This is our target audience. We're gonna stick to this avatar, if you will. What does our client look like? If you're cutting grass, what does our client look like? This subdivision over here, let's focus on that. All right, we're not we're not doing snow, we're not doing landscape, we're gonna cut grass, and we're gonna create a system around that.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

What does a system look like? We're gonna have some custom relation management CRM. We're gonna have a CRM here, we're gonna have some marketing, we're gonna use, you know, XYZ marketing company or or email campaign, and then we're gonna have um a way for the service techs or let's say the the guys cutting grass to be able to check in and check out. This is gonna mitigate all the issues with payroll and personnel. This is gonna mitigate the issues with customers, it's gonna tie it all in. And now with AI, we can tie all these things in pretty easily. But if I'd have done that in the beginning, listen, I wrote the book because it's taken me 11 years to dial this in. Yep. I believe if you read this book within two years, you can you can take your business to a million dollars in the service industry.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Don't have to that's a great shortcut you're giving people as opposed to learning the 10-year way.

SPEAKER_04 26:40

I I instead of answering your question all the time, I want to put this out and I don't make a lot of money on the book.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Right.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

You know, I want to give back. I mean, this is really for the young man or the um the guy who's stuck at 200,000 a year in his business.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

So I learned that pretty quickly about you. You truly do want to help people. I I noticed that in our first conversation. Um, that's a big motivation for you.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

Yes. I think we're given platforms for a reason, our God-given gifts. And I'm figuring that out that uh whatever platform I've got, I want to utilize it the right way and to help people. And if not us, Matt, then who? Who are these folks gonna work for? You know, and so it's our job to give these folks the uh the best life possible. I love when one of our young employees is having a baby, buying a new house, buying a new vehicle. That feels better than me buying anything new.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, it's a great great seeing their lives change. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:37

You can buy whatever vehicle you want, but when they buy their their first new vehicle, man, that's great. I love that. I love that. So yeah, I really want to give back in that aspect right there. And I think this is teaching them how to fish, not giving them fish. I gave fish before. Yeah, and that doesn't help.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

I think it from what I've observed in you know, a little bit, people have to give up control in order to scale something. And so trusting other people, yeah, it seems to be a problem. You know, I've I've learned a long time ago that it might not be as good as I could do it, or it might be better than I could do it, but it's gonna be different. But you have to let like but even if it's 85% of how good I could do, um I can scale that. Whereas if I have to touch it, yeah, it's never gonna grow.

SPEAKER_04 28:26

So if it's 80, what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Oh, that's just uh to me, uh at our size now, it's setting standards and holding people accountable to them. Systems. And yeah, so it's the same when you're small, right? It's here's how we're gonna uh here's the standard we're gonna operate to, whatever, whatever number you're defining could be like let's use service in the response time. Like we're gonna respond to the customer, you know, from from phone call to when we're actually in there building service in the machine, yeah, we're gonna do it within two hours or within three, whatever the time is, and then you measure it and you talk about it. And uh, you know, and what I found is like you have to keep those standards consistent, you have to talk about them, and and people want to do good for the most part. I think it's a bad assumption to think people don't want to do well. I think people think they're doing well if there's no standard set, if there's no measurement, if there's no direction and they're just left to their own mind to decide they're doing good. There's no there's there shouldn't be a surprise that there's a misunderstanding if you haven't outlined it.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

Should never be a surprise. There should be expectations drawn out. I wish I did that in the beginning. There should be evaluations, these should be planting vision, if not quarterly and a monthly. That's what we've done now. We've embedded these evaluations to where it's it's gonna happen. You're gonna know where you stand. And what I realize is that if there's no vision, there's gonna be no drive anymore. And so we'll we'll ring this out for two years, and then you're gonna go find another job somewhere. You're not gonna feel appreciated, you're not on a winning team anymore. Everybody wants to be on the winning team. But if we go back a little bit where you were talking about 85%, you know, I I've always I've said 80%, I've heard people say 80%. I'm I'm even coming a little bit down a little bit, to be honest with you. But I'll say this entrepreneurship is the craziest thing in the fact that you work so hard to learn all these systems and processes and roles. And here I am, and I'm fixing this machine. I'm I'm in the service, now I'm in sales, now I'm in accounting, now I'm in marketing, now I'm in this, and now I've got to forget all of it. Now I've got to give it to somebody else. I gotta learn all it and then unlearn it. And I'm like, that is the worst thing for a man with an ego. You get what I'm saying? I'm the best marketer, I'm the best sales guy, but here you go. Take over my baby.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Yeah, but you can't be everywhere all the time. Like, so in order to grow, you have to create a way to scale.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

When did you realize that? How many years in business?

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Yeah, I think I knew it really quickly. Um I I was my situation was a little different because I had a partner and my partner was 20 years older than me. He didn't want to grow the business and he didn't want to retire yet. So I kind of had to wait. Okay. And so I was watching other people in the same industry grow their businesses and um take investment money and and go and acquire. And so I I was kind of watching it happen around me and thought I was missing out on it. So I wasn't I wasn't looking around thinking about oh, I need to I need to control every detail. I was looking around thinking I I need to grow to meet the marketplace where it's where it's gonna be and not stay small. Got it.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

What do you say to a young man who says, you know, Matt, you know, John, I don't like metal fabrication equipment. I don't like working on vehicles, I don't like anything uh like that. But um I don't know what I want to do. Maybe I want to be in business though.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

Um well do you have to like the trade that you're in business with?

SPEAKER_02 32:04

I think it's better if you do. Like it it if you hate it, like why would you want to why why would you create a world where you have to do something you hate every day if you don't have to? Like it's one thing if you're if you're if you're starving and you need to provide, like you'll do anything that you're you know, any job that's available. But if you're creating your own business, your own world, why would you create a business and something you don't like?

SPEAKER_04 32:31

I get what you're saying, but there's there is a line there where I hear, well, I don't like this and I don't like that. Um well do you like business? You know, when you know, let's let's talk about if you like business, because it, you know, whatever the trade is, it's a vehicle. And so did you did you love fixing cars, Matt?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Well, I did. So I still like I still like the sound of a body shop. I still like the smell of a body shop. I still I I still like it. Now I'm not good at it. I haven't done it in so long because um like these are keyboard hands now. Like that's funny. I haven't touched a tool in a couple of things. Zero calluses. Yeah, right. I haven't touched a tool in a long, long time. But I mean, to me, entrepreneurs are making something better or introducing something new. Um and so I I think you get excited about the solution you're bringing. Usually you're excited about a solution you're bringing to a problem. For us, we're helping people in a time of need. They've wrecked their car and it needs fixed. Um, and I'm excited about bringing a great solution to the the customer for for that problem and helping them in a time of need. For those that are entering a business and they don't, uh that's a crazy concept to me that I'm gonna go build a business that I don't like that I don't like what it does. There's a lot of why do that?

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Uh do you hate metal fab equipment? Is that why you asked that question? Fair question.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

Fair question. I guess I guess what I should have said was did you imagine? I didn't imagine, I didn't know what a metal fabricating machine was. Yep. And when I got involved with it, I uh got to use my hands. I mean, there are there were some things in it that I that I enjoyed. And I love hearing the guys' war stories and they're like, I fixed this and I did that. And I'm like, yeah, tell me more. I love that. And then I'm gonna go back to my laptop. You know what I'm saying? Like, I love hearing that stuff, but there's a difference between being the technician and being a business owner. And I didn't know that. You know, there's a lot of folks out there that start a business and they're a technician, right? The emith. And so they they go to do the job. I'm good at baking cakes, so I'm gonna start a cake thing and then realize that accounting, human resources, all these things right here. But again, it's problem solving. And so the entrepreneur, a true entrepreneur, is problem solving. So it doesn't matter what business they're in, they're gonna figure out that system. And that's what I fell in love with was that system.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yep, I got it.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

And so I'm I want to help the young men that are saying, I don't know what to do. And I I I'm I'm working this job, cutting grass over here, John, but I think I want to own something. And I would say, I would say, all right, well, if you think you want to own something, let's get 10 houses, let's figure out how to uh cut, you know, and then we'll get into the business aspect of things and see if you like that. You know, testing things out as a young man, I mean, that's the best time to do it when you have the least amount of responsibilities.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah, I I I get it. Um, I fell into this again by accident. So I didn't as a kid dream of being a collision repairer. That's what I'm saying. Like I when the problem introduced itself to me and then I went and asked and learned how to fix it, I liked it. And so then I never left it. Um if if I didn't like it, probably another problem would have had to come my way. And I you would have figured something out.

SPEAKER_04 35:43

You would have had a customer that came in and he was, you know, doing something else, and then you would have got involved. You'll find a direction. I just I I want the 18-year-old to know that uh it's gonna be okay. You just need to step in a direction. Staying at home or staying stagnant is the worst thing you can do. Communicate with folks, talk to people, take the job, see if you like it. If not, keep it moving.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Yeah. I mean, I I was in the food business for a while. Food business. I I I subway franchises. I thought that was gonna be a great because I wanted to own my own business so bad. I didn't, I didn't think I would be able to get customers. I was just a kid from a small town in Illinois. Uh if I opened my own body shop, I didn't know where I'd get customers from. Subways. Yeah, so I I thought a franchise would be a good thing to own for business. I had worked at McDonald's as a kid. Um, I'll never own a restaurant ever again. Yeah. No, not a business I want to be in.

SPEAKER_04 36:39

What do you think about the franchise? Um with restaurants.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

I couldn't make any uh like I I think to make money out of me probably need 50 of them. And um yeah, it's not for me.

SPEAKER_04 36:50

So I I poo-pooed on the franchise industry for a while, like the franchise model. Um, and I thought to myself, I'll make my own sandwiches 10 years in business. I'm like, wait a second, if I would have had all these systems in place now, everything that's in there, if I would have had that, you know, when I first started, would I have paid $500,000 for that if I had it? Probably.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Yeah, I don't hate on franchises. That's not what I just given my perspective like this. Like, yeah, I think you want a franchise if you number one, if if if if they've figured something out that you haven't yet and can benefit from it, um usually, you know, there's buying power in the whole group. So uh it let's use the example of that. Like if I were to open Matt's sub shop, like I couldn't have bought the food for the for what they charge me in franchise fees, I would have paid in in getting the food from the deals they were able to negotiate at scale. So um I I don't even think it was expensive when you when when you look at it that way. If I tried to do it on my own, I would have I would have had bigger costs.

SPEAKER_04 37:55

Yes. I I I was giving you my perspective from maybe 10 years ago of like this doesn't make sense to do a franchise, but now it makes sense to me why I would do that after having to create all that. I would have bought back maybe eight years of my life if that was a thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

Now I would say I think franchises are a bit of a problem for true entrepreneurs because you have to walk the line of the franchise, whereas true entrepreneurs often want to do it their way.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

I see a lot of this with guys I know that have franchises. Do you have a lot of franchises in your industry?

SPEAKER_02 38:24

There are, yeah. Um there's a there's a franchise group that's of decent size in our industry. Um, I wouldn't have gone that route because I wouldn't have wanted to do it their way.

SPEAKER_04 38:36

Right. And then as a franchisee or franchiser, you are you have to rely on them to uphold your name, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:45

And the reputation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Counting on everybody else. That would be really hard. Everybody else running independent businesses is affecting your reputation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

I'd I would struggle with that.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Yeah, like I said, I think the biggest thing for small business owners is giving up the control and depending on other people. I think that's the big like I used to obsess over a light bulb being out. Really? But with 650 locations across the US, if I lost sleep over a light bulb being out, I'd be dead because I promise you there's probably a hundred light bulbs or more out. As we speak, like I just had to give, I had to give up going crazy over those details because and they really in life don't don't matter. The details don't. The details always matter, but from a obsession and trying to get real stuff accomplished, yeah. If you get lost in that, you're gonna be stuck.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

I I tell you, I find myself looking at details now. I was on the uh um on one of the truck apps that we've got for the fleet, and there were um tires, and we're buying tires every week, and we're having bodywork done and whatnot. Uh, we've recently I I had a little uh fender bender thing. I'm gonna ask you for a for a little quote, actually. We're gonna do a live quote. I got a picture up here of a truck that I well is when I first bought it. It's three weeks old. Had a little fender bender. I wanted to get a free quote. Can you do a free quote for us?

SPEAKER_02 40:09

Yeah. You're gonna have to use an online app because if you ask me to estimate, I'm gonna be borrowing.

SPEAKER_04 40:14

I want your wildest guess on what do you think this would cost? Because it's a little fender bender. I mean, we don't get worked up in the detail. Oh man. What do you think? What kind of what are we looking at here? That truck's three weeks old.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Seven or eight grand.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

6,500 bucks. You nailed it.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

That fender cost me $6,500. That is a $2,800-pound.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

That's a heavy piece of equipment.

SPEAKER_04 40:35

That is a 2,800-pound piranha iron worker. We sell a lot of piranha iron workers. It bends, cuts, shears metal. Every metal fabricator has it bends the metal, all right. Ouch! Ouch, man, it hurts. So I got that. I got the iron worker for a really good deal. But now it's uh it's a very expensive ironworker now. So um, that is not how you strap down a machine. That was a one-strapper and it's very top heavy, and uh it slid on the strap, and uh I had to drive around with that bent up uh fender because uh let me see, probably about two months because the truck was so new that they couldn't get the fender for a while.

SPEAKER_02 41:16

And uh I'm I'm just sitting here proud that I got within a phone's throw of the real price. It's been a long time.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

That was pretty good. That that hurts. I I don't think I've ever shown this picture. Is it fixed now? It is fixed.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 41:30

It is fixed, but um, I drove around with that black eye for a while. Uh but yeah, I don't think that picture's ever been public.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Did you make money on that equipment when it was all said and done?

SPEAKER_04 41:39

Or still sitting in the shop. All right. Because I uh definitely uh I don't know, it's something almost.

SPEAKER_02 41:47

Well, you won't haul it like that again. Lesson learned.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

I won't haul it anyway. I'm not I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna be um a rigger or transport anymore. That's the thing about the entrepreneur. I'll just go get it. It's no big deal. It's you know, X amount of dollars. I couple miles down the road, throw a strap on it, and uh that wasn't the move right there.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

Oh, I have so many stories of mistakes and make you look, and that was dumb.

SPEAKER_04 42:11

Like you just that was an expensive lesson.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Yeah, I've read a few of those.

SPEAKER_04 42:17

But see, things like that is what helps me fire myself.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Yeah. When I I'm my biggest Yeah, you're worried about letting somebody else do something all the time. They probably wouldn't have done that.

SPEAKER_04 42:26

That's right. So for the for the young man, for the young man cutting grass every day and he can't hire somebody because nobody's gonna do it like him. Um, and then he gets sick one day and he has to rely on his number two. You see, it takes those things. And what I want to tell folks is that don't let it get that far. You're going to have to unlearn that you're going to have to fire yourself from that job. I fired myself from uh transporting. That's great. There it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

So it's interesting. A couple things like you've mentioned right out of the gate here. Um, communications, what you mentioned first, sense of urgency, I heard was the second thing you meant. And those are the same two qualities that I look for in our leaders. Like we can teach a lot of things, but if they don't have an inborn sense of urgency and don't have a desire to communicate well, like it doesn't work. Like it's super key.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

I keep it very simple. Keep it simple, stupid. I um behavior and attitude. Young man has that behavior of showing up, that attitude of I want the job, the check, the technical part of it, we will figure that part out. I I find this when I have young men uh come up to me, and uh whether it's the gym, the grocery store, whatever, and they, hey, Mr. McDonald, um, you know, can I can I apply for a position at your just the fact of them coming up to me and having that conversation, I think that's so huge. That showing me that you have initiative, it's big now. That is big. When I get a message online, hey, Mr. McDonald, love what you're doing. You know, would you have time to talk about a new position? If somebody's coming to, if a young man wants Come to work for you, Matt. Like, what are you looking for right off the bat?

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Yeah, you're looking for not the resume from a what have they done perspective. You're looking for the quality of person.

SPEAKER_04 44:09

I'm looking for eye contact immediately. I'm looking for the handshake. I'm looking for how do you present? Yep. And then the rest of it is like, okay. And not that I'm in that position now as much, nor are you. But if they, if a young man came up to you right now in the grocery store and says, Mr. Matt, I follow you. I love Clash. Yeah, I love Crash. Uh, I want to come to work. What does it take? You, you know what you would do? I'm going to go.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

Find a place for him to work.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

You, you would, you would, you would call somebody up and say, hey, this young man just came up to me. And so uh, I guess I'm gonna put a message to the other to the young men that'll watch this, is that if you just take that initiative to have that conversation, have the guts to come up to somebody and say, hey, Mr. Uh Ebert, I love what you're doing. Can I can I have a position? I mean, I look at that and I'm like, that's a lot. That's a lot for that young man to do. And he's gonna stutter his way through that. And I respect that. So um, you know, for the young men that are watching out there, take that initiative. It goes a long way to guys like us.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Yeah, because we, I mean, I'm sure for you, I was that person before once. You were, right? Right. Yeah. Uh same asking for for the first job, asking for the second job. That's exactly asking for that date. Yeah, exactly. There you go. Interesting now. Um, one of the ways we connected was through social media. So yeah, yeah. You know, it's something because in our company, we we can't afford like to do top of what mind awareness advertising. And so social media's been a strategy that and from that came this podcast and and other things. You have done really well in you know gaining a following in social media, interestingly enough, though not exactly for your business.

SPEAKER_03 45:47

Weird, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Um, and so do you think it helps though your business? And um how do you think about social media strategies and stuff as an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_04 45:58

Social media strategy is not an option, it's necessary. And what I've learned is that the quicker that your internal customer, little Tommy Mello quote there, your internal customer is your employee. The the quicker that they're able to see you and trust you and learn who you are, the easier it is to get them on board in turn with your customer as well. So what I've learned is it doesn't matter how I became renowned on social media. It doesn't matter how. They want to know that I'm a real person, I'm genuine. And if if that all checks out and you do that for a long period of time, you will get the following. You will get the people that want to come to work for you, you'll get the friends, you'll get, you'll get that. And so um, I was quite upset actually when I gained a million views on a barn dominion build, and I woke up and I'm like sleeping on my air mattress, and I'm like, I'm trying to grow my business, not this barn dominion, and I got all these people want to build this barn dominium. I'm not building a barn dominium. I'm tired of sleeping on this air mattress with eight bicycle patches on it. You know what I'm saying? Like I had to retire that mattress, but it had eight bicycle tire uh patches on it. Anyway, so it doesn't matter how, but it is very necessary. It is very necessary, and not just, and here's the other thing as we're evolving in the company, is it's not just necessary for me. Um, it's necessary for everybody in your company to carry their brand. And because they're not just working for me, you know, they want to know about this guy, this guy, and this guy, and this guy might be somebody else's flavor than than me. Maybe somebody doesn't like barn dominiums, you know, but they like this guy over here because he does something else.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

Yeah. And the other thing too that I've noticed about it, it makes you interesting too, from a perspective of like this conversation here. Like now for the next week, if something comes up on the subject we've been talking about, I have something to talk about because I had this conversation with you. Um, you know, you might not have wanted to get known for building a barn dominion, but you did, and that made you interesting to however many millions of people. So, like, it might not be your focus or what you're doing, but it's something interesting about you that a whole lot of people gravitated to.

SPEAKER_04 48:11

I'm pretty sure Noah fought God when he said build that arc. So the barn dominion became an arc, and now I'm like, all right, God, what are we what are we saying? So I'm gonna tell you something. I've listened to a few of your podcasts, and I know that you got in a wreck when you're 16. What kind of car was that? Everybody wants to know.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

So it was a it was a Chrysler laser, which is a Dodge Daytona, Chrysler Virgin of a Dodge Daytona. Yeah, so took out the side.

SPEAKER_04 48:38

I wish we had a picture of this.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

You're gonna have to show me. I want to see this. I think I have a picture somewhere. Yeah, my wife does. My wife has some picture of me looking stupid, leaning up against the car. So I have a mustache and a muscle. My father gave her, and I wish she would burn the picture. Oh my goodness. Um, she's got it.

SPEAKER_04 48:52

We gotta put this online. This is great.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

It's not making it online if I can help.

SPEAKER_04 48:57

Come on, I just showed you my data truck. Nobody's gonna want to do business with me now because that's all I have a picture of the car wrecked.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

I have that would be great. That would have been better. Right. Well, back then we didn't have cameras on our phones. You really had to I mean you could have done a Polaroid or you had to take pictures of film, but like you just didn't have pictures of stuff 30 years ago like you do today, because I mean guys didn't carry around cameras. No, I didn't. At least not guys I knew.

SPEAKER_04 49:26

It's probably not a proud moment. Not everybody drops an eye worker and takes a picture of it on their machine or their car. But so the Dodge, it was a like a uh what'd you say, a Daytona?

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Yeah, it's the Chrysler laser, which is a Chrysler version of a Dodge Daytona.

SPEAKER_04 49:40

So nice, nice.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

Yeah, turbo on it, it's a pretty quick car though.

SPEAKER_04 49:43

Yeah, it's funny because I was like, what kind of car is this? And I hear on the next podcast, I'm like, I want to know what kind of car this is.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Now, my very first car was a little two-seater 40 XP, which is like a two-seater escort, but I wrecked that one so bad it wasn't fixable. So brand is that? I was my a Ford. Yeah. So I was my own best customer for the first five years of my life.

SPEAKER_03 50:02

What were you dinging? What are we hitting? Deer? Anything and everything? Anything and everything.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Anything and everything, you name it. How about now? You still do it. Another car, a bridge, a ditch, uh you're not driving. I'm not driving this guy. Yeah, I wouldn't. Um I'm not a good driver.

SPEAKER_04 50:16

Man. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

A little bit of uh ADD and stuff kicks in at the wrong time. You're a texter.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

You're a texter and driver.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

Oh, I try not to do that because it's so dangerous. It's crazy dangerous.

SPEAKER_04 50:30

Yeah, there's a lot of technology now that um on fleet vehicles I notice where you know, not just cameras, but you can't do it. You gotta put your phone up. Yep. The Amazon guys, I think, they gotta put their phone up, so I think that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Yeah, so the texting and driving isn't the problem. You I used to be a lot more guilty of it. Now I don't want to hurt anybody. I don't want to hurt my, you know, I got I'm I'm at that point in life to where now you value life more than you did it. Like you take it for granted as a kid, right? You always think nothing's gonna happen to you. Yeah. Now I realize, you know, things can happen to you.

SPEAKER_04 51:03

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

Yeah. So before we go, how do we help people find your book?

SPEAKER_04 51:09

Listen, follow me on social media. Um, Instagram is a main platform. We've got TikTok, of course. Uh, if you dig deep enough, you're gonna see me dancing. Uh daughter got me on that TikTok and uh Facebook, of course, and um YouTube. If you hit me a DM, I'll try to get back to you regarding the book. You can find that on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

What's your social media handle?

SPEAKER_04 51:34

John McDonald JR99. You can find me a lot there. I'm sure you'll have links in the bio here.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

And uh and is your daughter hip to what you're doing? Is she is she embarrassed by it or is she proud of it? Oh, that's funny. She's proud now. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 51:49

It was a time she uh had to unfollow me. She did, huh? She unfollowed me, man. It was uh that hurt my heart, you know. She unfollowed me and then I got cool again, I guess. But she's my biggest supporter, I'm her biggest supporter.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

So we have a question that we always ask the guests on the podcast. Oh boy. Because we're all about championing people. Okay. And so if giving you the opportunity, if there's an individual you would champion, who would it be and and why?

SPEAKER_03 52:17

Ooh. Who would I champion? That's a tough question. I I should have uh looked this up before. Does it have to be an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_02 52:26

No. Doesn't. The easy one's your wife, but you're you you you don't have one of those currently. Uh we fell to that.

SPEAKER_04 52:33

You don't have to worry about we fell to that twice. Obviously, we're not gonna hide anything out here, buddy. We're good at some things. That's not one. I'll give you business advice, no marriage advice. Listen, um, obviously, I'm gonna champion my daughter first. And uh, you asked for one person, I'm giving you a couple. Obviously, my daughter first, where she's the first person in our family to go to college. She has a direction that she wants to go after, and she's figuring that out. And uh, so um it's my message not only to her, but to everybody that's in college. It's okay to figure out that it's not for you. It's okay to change your major, it's okay to try other things. She's trying this one thing. I fully support that. So very proud of her for doing that. She knows how to go find a job. She's looking for a second job right now because daddy's not going to pay for everything. It's too easy for us to steal our kids' struggles. Yeah. By what I mean by that is pay for everything. And and because we might have had nothing, we want to give everything to them. And so she's doing a great job of finding her own way. Very proud of her. That's uh that's tough, especially um, you know, you go to a private school where everybody else has their stuff paid for, vehicles, whatnot. Uh, she she pays for half her vehicle. Um, she's got to pay for a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

And so she's But as hard as it is, that's teaching her how to deal with life. Like it's a great. I mean, it's what you have to do, as much as you want. It's hard. You want to make it easy. It doesn't help them.

SPEAKER_04 53:59

Not at all. Stealing a struggle. And that's that's the way I say it is don't steal their struggle. If somebody asks me, hey, what do you think about this? And apparently, I do get some parenting questions, believe it or not. I just say, don't steal their struggle. The worst thing you can do is save them from that situation. They're gonna they gotta learn. They gotta learn that stuff. But she's out there trying new things, and uh, I'm I'm I'm very excited for her life because she's doing all the right things. Uh I say all the right things. She's doing she's not doing any of the major detrimental things that you cannot reverse, right? What are those things? You know, drugs, alcohol, whatnot. So very proud of her for doing that. She's gonna do great things. I've got two guys, um, my two managers in my business, my sales manager, my service manager, and they are taking on the world right now, and I love it. They are just knocking down doors, and we're we have crazy growth because of their momentum, and they've never had this position before. And so for them to um adapt and to be able to lead, I love that. I love that they what a thrill. Goodness gracious. When you get that Sunday text and I'm like, I smile, I'm like, you know, I enjoy your weekend, but I will answer this question because I I wake up business, I go to sleep business, and I try to respect their time. And you know what that's like. You wake up, this is what you do. Yeah, and so for have for them to be so excited on the direction of the business, like that that means a lot to me. That that gets close because I live that, not just my daughter. My my business is my new baby. Um, and so for them to care that much about their business within my business, I love that. I I just um I respect that so much. Excited for all of them.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

There's no stopping a strong team that's excited and winning.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

Oh man, the Patriots, everybody wants to be on that team, right? And now I'm just like just keep putting people in place, and that's the social media effect, right? Is where they see you. And so I'm real excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

So well, congrats on the success so far, John. I'm sure there's a ton more to come. Been great getting to know you a little bit and seeing how much you care and want to help people.

SPEAKER_04 56:01

Thanks for inviting me. The hospitality was great, and um, I can't wait to keep watching these shows, man. These are great.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks, Matt. I hope you enjoyed this conversation. If you want more podcrash in your life, which of course you do, make sure to like, follow, and subscribe to us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Catch you next time.