Lighting for Profits - Episode 167

This week, we welcome Eric Sprague who has over 25 years of experience in the home services industry, including roles as VP of Operations at a global company and owner of a successful cleaning and restoration business sold in 2018. He is the author of The Road to Seven Figures, a business coach, and the owner and Director of Education at Super Tech University, where he trains technicians and managers in soft skills. In his free time, Eric co-hosts the Blue Collar Nation podcast and enjoys skiing and biking in the mountains of Utah.

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We discuss everything you need to know to start and grow a successful landscape lighting business

Welcome to lighting for profits.

All Light, All Light, All Light. Powered by Emery Allen. Get rid of your excuses. Your number one source for all things landscape lighting.

That's where the magic can happen.

You can really scale a business.

We really had to show up for each other.

From lighting design, install, sales, and marketing.

You're a scaredy cat salesman, Kurt.

We discuss everything you need to know to start and grow a successful landscape lighting business. What do you think a hippo has to do with your business, Ryan?

Usually it's some weird childhood thing, some.

Bullying kicked your butt.

I think the key factor here is trust.

Ryan Lee hosts the number one landscape lighting show in Eden, Utah

Here is your host, Ryan Lee.

All light. All light. All light. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the number one landscape lighting show in Eden, Utah, of all places. I can't believe it's gonna be an epic show. Look, if you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business, you're definitely in the right place. We are here to educate, to motivate, to help you dominate.

The show is up to 71 reviews on iTunes and Amazon

Let's go, guys. Want to thank, you for your support. We are up to, like, 71 reviews, which I know when you have, like, thousands, you're like, 71. Who cares? But I'm just so proud of the show. I'm so proud of this community and, so grateful for everyone's support. And, if you have not given us review. Yes. I want to guilt you. I want to shame you. I want you to make you feel bad because of the value that we're adding, our guests are adding. Go hook us up. You never know what the world will do to you if you go and, do a good turn today. So give me that five star review on Apple or Spotify. We got an awesome show today, guys. We got mister Eric Sprague and Katie Harris. They are the authors of the road to seven figures. And, I'm thrilled to have them on because, you know, I think everyone's goal when they start a business is to get to seven figures. And, they've got this new book out that basically gives you the shortcuts, give maps it out. Like, here's what you need to do. Because there's so many different ways to. To do a business, and unfortunately, most people are doing it the wrong way. So I'm excited to have these guys on. They're going to be on just a few minutes again. They're the authors of the road to seven figures, which was, a goal of most business owners. And, unfortunately, most people don't even make it there. So, by the way, guys, we got a lot of people hurting right now. We, got. Had the recent hurricane. We've got another one coming up. Listen, we've got a large community of lighting professionals and, I'm not exact, exactly sure what I'm asking for or even what to do to help people. I've donated some money and things, but, like, I'm assuming there's going to be people that need, like, work over the next few months. M they might need to relocate. So let's step up as a lighting community and offer our hand in a place to stay or a place to work. again, if you have ideas, I've got my landscape lighting secrets group. It's a, ah, landscape lighting secrets on Facebook. and again, I don't, I don't have all the solutions, but I know that we can, we can work together. So, if you, if you are in need of assistance or you need a place to stay or you need to relocate or whatever it is, let's find a way to help these people out. So, you know, together we're definitely stronger. We've got an awesome lighting community. So let's, let's do what we can to help each other out.

Emery Allen provides lighting equipment specifically for the landscape lighting industry

All right? So I want to thank Emery Allen. You know what sets Emery Allen apart? Well, bulbs aside, they believe customer satisfaction should be the top priority. Always Emery Allen goes out of their way to ensure lighting professionals have access to the best light sources built with the highest quality components suited specifically for the landscape lighting industry. At the end of the day, it's what's on the inside that counts. So take advantage of Emery Allen's world class customer service. Get 10% off your first order. All you need to do is email Tom Gary Allen. com. now, it's important that you listen and follow instructions, because if you go to their website, you're going to pay more than you need to. And, if you just email tom g@emoryallen. com. he will get you account, your, you know, personal contractor account, get you the discounted contractor pricing just mentioned. You heard about them here on lighting for profits. Again, email tom g@emoryallen. com. to get that, homey hookup.

I challenge you guys to come up with a word that defines your year

All right, so, guys, in just a couple minutes, again, we're going to have, Eric and Katie. They are the authors of the road to seven figures. They've got, a lot of experience in the home service industry. And we're going to be talking shop. We're going to be talking business. We're going to talk, be talking about what are the key movers to get you to that seven figures in your lighting business. Before we have them on, I want to share something real quick. you know, I recently started working with a new coach and one of the first things we did was a new activity I'd never done before. He said, hey, choose a word that you want to basically define or make a priority over these next twelve months that we're working together. And I'd never really been asked that. I had to put some thought into it and I came back the next week and I said, okay, my word is focus. And this word is going to act as a filter for decision making. So as we define goals and define our trajectory on the things that I'm really trying to accomplish over the next twelve months as we work together, I chose this one word and it was focus. Now, I chose focus because I have a tendency to not focus and I have the tendency to want to do this and this and this and try all these different things because it's fun and it's it's fun, but it's not necessarily the best. Okay, it's just fun. And so maybe your word. I want you guys to do this exercise too. Just, do it on your own. But choose a word that you're going to use as a filter to help, you make decisions over these next twelve months. And this should be the focus, of your year. And so maybe yours is family, maybe it's fun, maybe it's exercise, maybe it's mindset, maybe it's abundance. we've got some authors on here, so maybe it's reading, maybe it's happiness. It could be anything. Like you get to choose your word. That's the point of the exercise. I'm just trying to give you some ideas. but choose a word that's going to kind of help shape your decision making so that when you decide, okay, I'm going to do this, well, does it pass your filter? Does it pass the sniff test of your word? So focus for me is huge because I'm saying no to like some really, really good things and I'm saying no to those good things to focus on the great things. I've been invited to speak. Turned it down. I've been invited to actually be part of businesses, like partnerships. Turned it down. These are really good things. Like in my past self would have been like, heck yeah, let's go. And I'm, I'm focusing on the things that I know I really need to do. And really want to do so, it's been extremely helpful for me. And, it's hard. It's hard. And so I want to. I want to challenge you guys to come up with a word that's going to help define your year. And if you want to share it, join the landscape lighting secrets Facebook group. It's free. Share it in there and we'll hold each other accountable. So, choose your word and make sure you're using that, really, every day, every week, every month to help you shape your life, shape your business.

What are you focusing on in your business right now

And so I was thinking, okay, what are you guys, like, my words, focus. So it's not your word, but I want to ask you guys, what are you focusing on? Like, what's the focus on in your business right now? And, you know, it's hard to give general advice because, really, you have different challenges at different levels of your business if you're just getting started out, versus maybe you're close to a million or you're over a million or 2 million, whatever it is. but I found I made this list of, like, four or five things that are things that if I was. If I had a lighting business right now, in the current state of the economy and with everything else that's going on, these are the things I'd be focused on right now. So I want to share that list with you real quick, and then we'll. And then we'll have Eric and Katie, join us as well.

The first thing that I would focus on is are you priced correctly

The first thing that I would focus on, and you've heard me say this before, is, are you priced correctly? Okay. And I love pricing for, so many different reasons. But one reason is because it's. It's. It. It literally is one of the definitions of leverage. And a 10% price increase. Okay. Just a 10%. I'm not asking you to go anything crazy here. Just a 10% price increase means that you're gonna add a minimum, probably 40%, if not 50%, if not a hundred percent, to your bottom line. And here's how I'm coming up with this math. Most businesses, I mean, most businesses aren't making any profit. They might think they are, but by the time they pay themselves, there's really not much profit left. But let's just say a business is making 10%. If they increase their price by 10%, that goes to nothing but the bottom line. So they literally just doubled their profit with a 10% price increase. Let's say they're making 20%. They raise their price by 10%. They're now going to make a 50% to that bottom line. So that's the cool thing about math and pricing and leverage is it's like one small input has this huge effect on your output, right? And that's, that's, ah, leverage. and I had a client recently saying, well, I'm already at the highest in my market. And my response wasn't like, that's awesome. You're, you're great. Here's a gold star. It was like, okay, well, raise it another $25 a light. Because until you're testing the market, until the market speaks to you and says no, this is the threshold you need to keep raising your price. And it's not just, a matter of one try. Like, if you go and raise your price by $25 a light today and you don't sell the job, that doesn't mean the market spoke and you can't do that. It might mean that your sales process is weak and it needs help. It might mean that you need to, change your targeting. Maybe you're not in front of the right people because, believe it or not, you might be losing deals because your price is too low. Okay? People are expecting a premium experience to cost money. So if it's too cheap that you're the red flag. You're thinking, oh, man, I can't raise my price. You can't lower it. Okay, so raise your price. I'd make sure you're really priced correctly. And this is so important because if you're not priced correctly, you can't do anything else. If you don't have profit, you're not going to fund the growth of your business. You can't do the next things I'd focus on. You can't afford to recruit high quality talent. You can't afford to advertise. You can't afford to do anything else. You can't afford to grow your business. So got to make sure you're priced correctly. That's, that's always going to be the thing I lead with. I'd be focused on that. Second thing I'd be focused on is my closing rate. Okay, You've got to be able to close these deals, guys. If you're not and you're instead saying, well, I need more leads, everyone, right now that I talk to, the number one thing I say, what, what can I help you with the most? What do you need the most help with? I need leads. And I'm like, do you like, how many leads do you need? Because they already, if you already have leads and you're not closing deals. More leads is not going to solve the problem. It's like pouring all this water into a bucket with tons of holes. Like, you just have to plug the holes. You don't need more water coming into the bucket. Right. And so work on that closing rate, work on your sales process.

Third one, high quality leads. Like, what's the point of getting a lead if it's not high quality

Do you believe that people really need landscape lighting from you today? Or are you like, ah, They don't need it. It's just a high priced luxury item that they'll get if they want. There's a difference. Okay. And there's a reason why I'll out close you. Because my mindset is better than yours. You can adopt my mindset. You can borrow it. You can borrow my belief. Right? Do what you got to do because your closing rate has to stay high. Otherwise those marketing dollars are not going to have as good of a return on your investment. You're going to cut off the marketing, you're going to go out of business, you're not going to make. You're not going to make it to seven figures like we're going to be talking about today. Third one, high quality leads. Like, what's the point of getting a lead if it's not high quality? I don't want leads. That just takes time to just waste time. Right? I want high quality leads. Number four, team member satisfaction. Like, what are you doing to keep your high quality team members? To attract high quality team members? Like, do you have culture? Does it even exist? Do people have to work for you? Is it a job or is it a career? Is it an opportunity for them to advance to maybe another company? you're not holding people hostage, you hear? and then the fifth one would be, I'd focus on my budget. It's like, how much are you allocating to growth? Do you even have a budget? Do you know what a budget is? Like, are you budgeting for advertising? How much are you budgeting for team members? How much are you planning for growth? Is. Is there any intention at all? These are the things I'd be focusing on, guys. and I know that was quick, so if you have questions, reach out. You can send me an email, you can tag me in our Facebook group. but those are the things I'd be focusing on today in the economy that we've got. And there are things that doesn't matter. If you're doing three hundred k a year or $3 million a year, that list is going to stay the same for me. All right, guys, I got it. Out of my system. I did it. I have all these things on my mind. I'm like, okay, every time I want to start the show, I just want to, like, talk and get this stuff off my chest. But I hope something. I hope one of you will take action, will take that into your business, and apply it and get some traction.

Eric and Katie join Ryan to talk about their new book

but now it's time to get to our guests. So let's get the music going. Let's get the show going. You guys ready? All right, here we go. Welcome to the show, Eric and Katie. What's up, guys?

Hey, Ryan.

How are you, man? I'm stoked to have you guys on here. Thanks for taking the time out of your day. The only. My only regret is I didn't check the mailbox. You guys were kind enough to send me, like, a pre order of your new book, and, I haven't read it yet, so now I feel guilty and all this stuff, but we've talked about the book, at least, and know some of the things. So, thanks for coming on here, guys. Really appreciate it.

Eric has been in the home service space since he was 15 years old

maybe if we could, do you want to just introduce yourselves real quick, where you got started in your careers and how we're connected today. You want to give us a start, Eric?

Sure. I've been in the home service space since I was 15 years old. I started cleaning swimming pools. I've been a mason's assistant, an electrician's assistant. I owned a restoration company. I've just always either run or been a technician. and we sold our cleaning restoration business. My college roommate was my business partner, Larry. He and I sold six years ago last month. And, then we started super tech university, which I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about later, but, yeah, look, these are my people, and this is all I really know. I mean, I went to college, and I remember Ryan. I would go to school and, like, you know, it's okay, but I was always like, I can't wait to summer so I can get a van and go back out. Like, that's how I felt. And, I think I'm just made to be here.

That's cool. Yeah, well, you know, it. You got a degree, but you still wanted to get back out there. That's how I was. It was like, I got a degree, but I was like, no, there's something about just being out there grinding. It was fun. It was fun at first. I'm not gonna say it was fun forever.

Yeah. I was gonna say, like, I don't want to be the field now.

Yeah, well, that's cool, man. Thanks for being on here.

Katie Harris is an accidental entrepreneur at heart

And Katie, tell us a little about you.

Yeah, you bet. Katie Harris. I am really an accidental entrepreneur at heart. I'm a journalist. That's where I started, is in traditional media. And then, the more I was in it, the more I just became fascinated with digital, everything digital. And I met my business partner in 2012. loved everything he was doing, thought he was so smart. So I left journalism and we started, an agency. I hated the word agency. We bought, calling it that for a really long time. And soon after that we had some clients in the cleaning and restoration space and started a second agency, spot on solutions. That's where I met Eric at twelve years ago. He was one of my very first clients. So I appreciate you letting me practice on you, Eric. We got good, we got really good working with Shamrock those first few years. and he stuck around and, and now twelve years later, we've been working with home service industry, in the home service industry and just love everything about it. When you were talking about the number one question we get is I need more leads. Like, that's what I'm talking about every day with people. How are you going to get more leads, how you're going to reach more people and then how you're going to turn around and convert that. And so, that's, that's how we met. And he sold his business. We kind of lost track of each other for a minute and then, came back on with super tech university and we've just clicked, I think at the heart of everything, the vision at my company is to elevate people in businesses. We do that through digital marketing a lot of the times, but it's a passion that Eric and I really share to be able to just get in the, kind of get in the mud with businesses and talk about the hard stuff and figure things out and realize that, you know, it's a hard road, but there's ways to make it easier and we love doing that. So that's how Eric and I have kind of connected and that's what led us to this, journey to write a book together.

That's awesome.

You both have partners in your main businesses

Well, you know, one thing you mentioned is you guys both mentioned it. You have partners in your main businesses and then you guys partnered on this, you know, co authoring a book. Talk a little bit about that. What's, what's key for a partnership to work? I think, that's one of those areas that causes a lot of businesses to fail. You guys have managed to actually make it maybe, maybe part of your superpower. What are some things that you've learned along the way?

for me, I grew up playing team sports, and when you do that as a kid, you start to realize, well, I'm good at this, but I'm not good at that. And somebody else is good at that, but they might not be good at what I am. And I just believe that if you can find the right partner who has offsetting skills to yours, you're much more powerful than trying to do it on your own. Now, look, you know, business partnership's not for the faint of heart, right? You can have a great partnership, but it's still challenging. I think every partner would say that. but I just figure that as a team, we can get there further and faster than me trying to go it alone.

Very cool.

Yeah, no, it's a great question, I think.

Spot on Solutions bought out its third partner in November

So. Spot on solutions. I had, I had three partner. I had two partners, right? Michael Johnson is my partner at get found first. He's been my partner since the beginning. And, and I think when I really look back and, like, what makes that partnership work for a decade, over a decade, like, we just have each other's backs all the time, right? It's kind of like, I mean, you know, you have your family and you love them, and you might have issues, right? But nobody else is going to have an issue with that family member. And it's just like that. You just have each other's backs. And, there's been a lot of times when he's like, hey, go on vacation. I got this, right? Or I've been like, you leave. I've got this. And so just being able to, I guess, really care about each other matters. at spot on solutions, we had a third partner. We're just kind of adjusting to a buyout there. So we bought out our third partner, who owned a cleaning and restoration company and was just really invaluable in helping us understand the industry. And he's who introduced me to Eric to begin with. And, you know, there was something really powerful about having a partner that lived in the industry, and then he, it's in his blood, right? He wanted to go back out and get back in the work again. And so we just bought that out in November. And there's a real dynamic that comes from having partners. But, I mean, if you get, you know, a decade plus, sometimes you're going to look at things of, what does it look like to buy out a partner? And how do you reframe things when that happens?

Yeah.

Katie is working with a digital marketing agency and she's managing partners

So, Katie, you know, you're coming from, ah, you got the digital marketing agency. Now, which did you, did you come up with another name besides agency?

you know what, we honestly usually just call each other partners when we're talking to our people. I'm like, we're just a partner. I don't ever want to be a vendor. I don't ever want to be an agency.

Yeah.

I want to be an extension of what they already have going. Because honestly, agencies suck. And I think that they have, they get a really bad rap. Right.

How do you, how do you work with, your partners to, you know, like, some of them really have terrible sales processes. Some of them, their pricing's off. And so you could, you could be, like, killing it for them, but if they don't close the lead, or maybe they close the lead but not at the right price, it's easy for them to come back to you and say, whoa, your stuff's not working. Or when it does, we're just not making enough money. How do you guys manage that relationship?

The first thing you have to talk about is the quality of the leads

Yeah, the first thing I think we always have to talk about is the quality of the leads. So, so often when you're working with an agency or you're trying to get more leads, you're talking about, you know, lead volume rather than quality of leads. And quality of leads matters. So that's, that's my first responsibility, is to make sure the quality of leads coming to somebody is good. And then we're going to talk about, okay, there's really three parts to marketing. We talk about this in the book, and that's reach, capture, and convert. Right. Every part of your marketing, whether it's traditional or boots on the ground or digital, everything you're doing, it's either going to be a reach tactic, a capture tactic, or a convert. Right. You're going to be trying to do one of those three things within that marketing. And so when we get to the place where it's like, hey, you're nothing. Closing these deals, number one, we always put call tracking on everything so that we can hear what's happening on phones. Right. And if we hear that they're not answering their phones, which is a really huge problem, or that they're just not closing them. Right. Man, we're quick to get on the phone and just say, hey, I want you to listen to a couple of these calls we've been listening to and have the conversations. Right. we're really quick also to partner with good coaches and send them somewhere. Like, I've sent a lot of people Eric's way and said, hey, you got to go sit down with Eric. And Eric's going to talk to you about your pricing or how you close or how you talk to people.

That's cool. I didn't even realize all this was happening until I launched landscape lighting secrets. And I was like, yeah, people, they just don't know. Like, they think their sales process is okay. You just don't know what you don't know. They think the solution is always more leads, more leads, more leads. When in reality, like, at least in landscape lighting, if, you know, the average ticks around ten grand, you don't need, like, 20 leads a week to do a million bucks. You only need a few a week to high quality ones to really dominate, you know?

Right. That's the same thing in restoration. You don't need a hundred leads. You need great quality leads.

Well, and you have to have a system to do it. Like, I'll give you an example. I have a plumber that I was coaching, and I know he was a newer business, but he'd been in the game a long time, family business prior. And he was just like, you know, I am spending so much money on digital to get leads, and I just have no bids, and I don't know what's going on. And he was at my office here in Ogden, and I was like, well, let's pull your service titan up on the big screen and take a look. And I pull in and I see that his CSR has let literally every single call go to voicemail.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Because she doesn't want, so want to answer the phone live. And then she listens and then decides what she's going to say and then calls back. Well, they've called the next plumber by then, so, you know, you have to have a big a to z system from digital all the way to conversion, you know, and a process for every single one of those steps.

I learned. I learned that the hard way. I. I was in a tree literally changing a light bulb. Missed a call, called the lady back. Hey, sorry I missed you. When can we come out? She's like, oh, we're good. We got someone coming. I'm like, no, but I understand, but I'll come out and give you another estimate. She's like, no, we're good. They answered their phone. At the time, our average job was only five grand. But I was like, oh, my gosh, I just lost 5000. My kids have to eat ramen again. Like, are you kidding me? And then I was like, oh, yeah, and what about the other one that never answered my call? And, like, quickly that becomes $100,000 in missed opportunities.

Oh. For Larry and I in the water damage restoration business, you know, I mean, we have plumbers referring us and, you know, the phone in our business was everything, right? You miss one call from one good referral source, that could be a million dollars a year.

I m always say, I say, whoever is answering your phones, whether it's you or somebody else, like that is frontline of sales. That should be your front line of sales. and I think any sort of marketing you're doing should have a call tracking number attached to it so that you can see. Number one, if you are working with somebody, it holds them accountable to, hey, what do the leads look like that are coming to me? Right. it also, I think it's one of the greatest training tools there is that's out there is to have call tracking recorded phone calls. I mean, if it's you, if you're a one man show, go listen to yourself and get better. Go hear what you sound like and how you're answering questions. And if you have somebody else answering your phones, use it as training. Right. Hear what's happening on those calls. Make sure that you're not missing opportunities to. To keep that front line of sales strong.

That's huge. You know, it's funny, because I'm hearing you say that, I guarantee 90% of the people listening right now are like, I don't want to do that. Oh, I don't want to listen to myself.

People cringe. People cringe at it. Right. And a lot of times you'll hear things like, I don't really like call tracking numbers, or I don't have time to listen to the calls. But, the people that listen, it does not take long before they're huge believers. And you see dramatic improvements in how people are answering their phones and what close rates look. Look like when they take advantage of that.

And I think they don't want to. They cringe because they know they're not good at it. You know?

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. That's why I jump in cold lakes in Utah

So, like, just fix it. Like you've identified the problem.

That's not going to fix the problem.

But you know what? Like, you're not good at things until you do them over and over and over. And so you can speed up that process big time by doing that.

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. That's why I jump in cold lakes in Utah.

Katie and Ryan wrote a book about how to be a successful entrepreneur

So, you know what? I want to back up a little bit, because I have about 10,000 questions for you guys right now. But what I want it, what I think we should do is follow the book, because you guys have, like, all the answers in the book that I'm about to ask you. give us just a quick synopsis. What's the format? What's the, like, why'd you guys write this? who should read it? And then I'll kind of probably start digging in on some of the questions there.

Yeah, we wrote the book because, look, you know, I coach, you coach Ryan. I coach, you know, in different verticals than you. And Katie's dealing with contractors every single day. So Katie and I were just always at trade shows, always eating dinner after the show, having conversations, like, if people would just do this formula, right, you know? And we, we had enough dinners where finally we're like, we need to lay the formula out, right? Because obviously not everybody knows, you know? So when we started writing the book, we really wrote it in four portions, four sections, right? The first one is just called you, because if you're, you know, 95% of all businesses, the United States never reach a billion dollars a year more in revenue.

That's crazy about that. 95%.

95%. So go walk.

We hate that statistic, honestly.

Yeah. You know, go walk down the street in your local town. If you walk by a hundred businesses, one of them is doing, five of them are doing a million bucks.

That's insane, right?

So we're just like, what's the first thing that you have to have to be a good entrepreneur? You have to be in control of you. You have to have the habits, the rituals, the temperament, the mindset, the executive function, which is all stuff that has to be learned. None of us are born with those. Some more so than others. So the first section is about you, the person, and the way that you need to live your life so that you can be a successful entrepreneur. I mean, if you have massive chaos in your life at all times, are you going to be successful long term? Probably not, right? The next part is about the business, just the general business skills, like you were talking about earlier. How do I sell? How do I build systems? How do I, you know, have run my operations? It's all of that stuff. Next section is marketing, which is predominantly Katie, because most marketing nowadays is digital, right? So you better be darn good at digital. And I do have a section in there about referral marketing, going door to door, because that's how we used to get work through plumbers, along with digital. And then the last one, you mentioned it in your monologue, is building a team. You can't, you can't get past very few people in home services. I can't name one, ever reach a million dollars with no employees, right? I mean, if you developed an app or a software company or whatever, yeah, you might be able to do that. But I mean, as far as service, I could never tell you. So if you're going to do a million dollars, you're going to have to become a leader and have a culture and have people want to come work for you.

The book is about people who are willing to play the long game

Cool. I love the format. I absolutely agree and love that you started with you. I think that's so. It's just spot on. It's not even creative. It's just the truth. It's just like, start with you. I wonder how many people are going to start reading that and go, okay, but where, where do I get to the real, like, if I had a book, they're like, well, where's the real secrets, you know? And I'm like, like, that's it. Like, most people just want to skip over and be like, well, let me just get to the business. That's the sexy stuff. Oh, the marketing. That's the sexy stuff.

There are no hacks in this book. There's no, like, quick fix, there's no b's. Like, whatever anybody knows, me, or Katie, for that matter, knows that we're pretty straightforward people. And it's like, there are no free rides, Ryan, in this, you have to go build skills, and whether you want to hear that or not, I don't know. But, like, that's, the book is about people who are willing to play the long game and build the skills that they need to have a long lasting business.

Here's the cool part about it, though. Like, I love the format of this book, and really, we tried to take what are we talking about every day and what has helped us grow multi million dollar businesses over and over and over. Like, what does that look like? And we just put it out there. And it's not rocket science, really. Like, I honestly, I'm a firm believer that if you've grown a million dollar business once and you've got that formula down, you can turn around and grow another one. Right? Like, because it's the same kind of processes, it's the same things that go into it, and it. It's exciting to be like, hey, here it is. Like, go follow this, like, wholeheartedly just go follow this. If you think it's not a big deal to pay attention to what you eat and how much you sleep, just test it, right? And see what a difference it makes. Because all through the book, that's what we're putting out there are the steps that we know make the difference. The crazy thing is, is they're not ridiculously hard. They're, consistent. They require discipline. Right? They require some focus, like you were talking about. But, man, if you're willing to do that, it's, it's totally achievable.

Yeah, well said. You know, I don't think people understand that. Like, and again, I haven't read your, I haven't read the book, but I've, you know, I've had several conversations with Eric. I, you guys are telling us what's in it now. Like, the blueprint is there. It's just, do you have the discipline? Do you, are you, are you really, like, do you really want this? Because if you do, just follow the steps and do the thing, and it doesn't mean it's easy. It might mean that you do the thing and you're like, well, that didn't work. What were they talking about? You know, I tried it. that didn't work for me. Well, maybe you need to try a different angle. Maybe you think you did it how they said you did, but you didn't. So I think that's a huge, attribute of a successful entrepreneur is are you willing to iterate? Are you willing to have discipline? Are you willing to focus? And if you're not, maybe entrepreneurship's not for you. You know, this is a, it's not an easy game. It's easier with guides like yourselves and with a book like this where you can follow it, but it still takes severe discipline.

You know, I always joke that entrepreneurship is an extreme sport, right? Like, it's. It's the most extreme lifestyle, to be honest. You're always, can I make payroll this week? How? I have a new competitor in town. You know, I'm not sleeping. I'm m stressed out about money or sales or whatever. I mean, we live in this for. Even when things are good, it's stressful, right? So, you know, if you're, you know, I don't know. I'm going to use a sports analogy. So if you're, you know, a professional, whatever sports person, you're going to take care of your body and your mind to perform. How is business any different than that? You know, if you're fueling every day with Marlboro Reds, monsters and doritos and sleeping 3 hours a night. And you know what? at the bar every day, drowning your sorrows. You're not going to make it. I mean, you might make it for a while, but that's not a sustainable lifestyle. And I see that in entrepreneurs all the time. You know, like, they've taken on these habits because they're stressed. Look, I've done it right. You know, I mean, a lot of the stuff we're writing about at the first chapter, the first section is, like, all the mistakes that I've made along the way.

That's awesome.

And, you know, it was when I realized, like, no, I need to be consistent. I need to get up at a certain time. I need to do these certain things to make sure that I'm good and in a good mood and that people will want to work for me and all that. Then things get better. Like, I had to get better before they got better.

Yeah, well said.

Like, Eric does a really fantastic job in that first chapter of the book. I think Eric, I think you're really vulnerable in it. And he talks about how he was like, I'm going to die if I don't change how I'm doing this, right? He ends up in the hospital, he ends up in the emergency room, and, all of a sudden, it's like, do I want this or not? And if I want it, I got to change something. And, to me, I mean, if all you did was read that first part of the book, you've probably done more than you've done in the last year to advance your business honestly, because I think it's that powerful.

Very cool.

80% of home service problems come from the field, Eric says

Well, Katie mentioned that, you know, people are coming to her because they, they need leads. When people come to you, Eric, at Super Tech university, what, what did they think they need? What, what is their number one obstacle or challenge when they're coming to you?

They come to me because of pain. Well, you know, I mean, look, we have two portions of super tech, right? I have coaching, and then I have the. The daily videos. Let's talk about the daily videos. Right? So we do three to five minute soft skills videos for field technicians, CSRde, estimators for, you know, and, you know, it's micro learning. Right, Ryan, it's just a little bit of drip every single day. Why are they coming to me? Because they're acting like a firefighter in their business. They're just running around in the field. I mean, look, we all know this, what, 80% of our problems when we own a home service business probably come from the field. You know, that's where the m majority of our employees are. They tend to be very technically oriented. And the customer service part and the overcoming objections and the, you know, if there's a problem, how to deal with that, that's, like, out of their purview to a degree. So we help train their team so that the owner, you can't, you know, you can't scale chaos, right? So if that person's running around trying to make clients happy all day long because their guys are screwing up or making people upset or whatever, they can't grow because they should be out marketing and selling and doing all the things that grow. So they come to me because they're pulling out their hair. They don't know what to do with the team. They keep trying to. How do I put this? They keep. Before they come to me, they keep trying to fix a human problem with a technical solution. Right? Like, Ryan keeps screwing up, I'm going to send him to yet another landscape lighting class or whatever, right? And it's like, well, maybe Ryan just needs to learn how to talk to clients a little better so that they're happier, right? Because our clients don't really know what we do or how we do it. They. They judge us based on how they feel about us, right? So we have to get technicians feeling good about our company. Larry and I grew our entire carpet cleaning and restoration business on service. That's why they come to us.

Okay, cool. Yeah, I think a lot of people miss that. And I imagine you hit on that. I mean, you. You actually just hit on, like, the four elements of your book. Almost the you section, the business, the team. Like, I have clients, too, that they're always talking about, man, so hard to recruit. It's so hard to get these high quality people that you talk about, and it's like, or sometimes they'll get them, and then they only last three m months. I'm like, listen, there's a common denominator here, and it's not your team, it's you.

Look, a person who does an amazing job of this is on this podcast, Katie. Katie got 75 employees, roughly. He has 75 employees in Blackfoot, Idaho. Right. You know, I mean, that's not like, downtown LA.

That's, like half the population, isn't it? It's like half the population.

It's got to be like 15,000 people.

It's rural.

Ah, we're in rural southeast Idaho.

That's awesome.

Yeah. So you go, you know, look, I go to Katie's fairly frequently. And like, when I walk in and look, I do on sites, Ryan, probably like you do all over the country. I go in and I know when I walk in the door, I can feel it in the air. This is a good culture. This is a bad culture. Even sometimes before I've met the first person, you can just, it's a vibe. I don't know how to quantify that, but it almost is never wrong. You walk into Katie's office, everybody there comes and greets you. Everybody looks happy to be there. Right. Doesn't mean Katie doesn't have issues or problems or whatever. But you know, Katie, how did you build that culture? Right, like that? and that was very intentional. I know you've put a lot of work into this.

Yeah, it was. I mean, here's the thing. You reach out for help when something hurts. And I feel like that's one of the secrets to business. If something just keeps hurting to the point you're like, I gotta fix this. Right? That's, that's when you do something. And our team grew really fast. Like, we grew fast. And I'd never managed a team of people before. I didn't know what I was doing. I was trying to figure out how to read a profit loss statement and make more deals and build a business and grow a team. And I'd never done those things before. And we had a really pivotal moment in our company, where I was just like, I gotta, every time I say something, people lose their minds and I don't know what's going on here. And, and I went and a good friend of mine, Justin Sifford, partner at Ylander recruiting company, says to me, he's like, well, what's your disc personality style? I'm like, I don't, I don't know. And he's like, let's start there. And so he did disc assessments on all of us that were there. And, and you know what? Three of us had, like, a dominant, influential di personality style. Every other person in my office that we had hired, complete opposite of us. Essie. And so all of a sudden, I started to learn about communicating with each other by personality style. And I went and got John Maxwell certified in person behavioral, consulting. And all of a sudden, now we've been doing it for about eight years.

Ryan: Understanding your own personality style can make a huge difference in sales

And it's a key part of our hiring and our training. But that was, that was a pivotal moment for us where we realized you got to understand your own personality style and then start to understand and respect each other's. And that I can't even speak enough about what a difference that made in our business at that point.

Ryan, ironically, roughly at the same time, unbeknownst to each of us, I was going to get John Maxwell certified just so I could learn how to run my team better. And we implemented disc, right. Katie and I never even spoke about it. We were both just searching for. I think both of us are searchers for right answers. Right. And we both came to the same conclusion that, like, this works, like, in super tech university for the technicians. And I used to do this on my own. We. We do a disc lesson every Wednesday. Because if my technicians understand the style of their client, our client, they can start catering their way of speaking, their pace. What the client likes to that client. What's that do to the client? It gives them the feeling that they're getting a five star service experience every single time.

That's, killer. I'm so glad we're talking about this, because, Eric, you mentioned the word Katie's been intentional. It didn't accidentally happen that she has this super successful organization with 75 people and all this. And I think, if I'm being honest, I thought that a lot of this stuff would just happen. Like, I remember thinking back in the day, like, oh, if I do this, this will happen. But it's not like it requires a severe amount, like, high intensity intention in all areas. And getting disc, you know, doing the disc assessments, getting Maxwell, certified. That's intention. Intention isn't like, you know, I'm trying to interview people right now. And that's how most of us did. It was just like, it seems like a nice person, or she seems nice, let's do it. And then you find out that there's different personalities. Everyone's not like me. Like, you get offended when I say, do this. Like, why are you crying? That doesn't even make sense. I just said, do this. And then you realize, oh, that they're hearing this, and all sudden your world opens up. And I'm only new to this. In the past, I'd say four or five years. And, like, my perspective has changed. And I'm like, holy cow, there's a whole nother world out here. And that's huge, because now, I love that you shared Eric, too, that it's not just your team members, but also your team members interacting with your clients to realize there's different types of clients out there. Some people are direct and it's like, dude, just give me the number. Let's go. And some people need the love, you know? Almost need to know their love language, too. You know, there's. There's a lot. There's a lot to it.

I mean, disk did more for not only my own ability to sell, but all of my team to sell, because all of a sudden, we're catering that sales message to the wants and needs of every individual client because we can read them.

Very cool.

It's like having the keys to the manual, or the manual, and the other side doesn't know it. You have to use it for good. Don't manipulate people. But it helps you communicate.

What's the most difficult stage of business? Like, zero to 500

What are, what are your, maybe this is a question for both of you. What. What's the most difficult stage of business? Like, zero to 500, 500 to a million? A million to two? Like, what do you guys think?

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. Business is never easy. I've decided that it's, you're always doing something right. It's either, like, I got to hire more people, I got to train more people, or I need more clients. I got to hire, I got to train, I need more clients. Like, you're just always battling those things. But I think there's definite, like, very clear speed bumps along the way. getting to that first million is hard. we talked about it. 5% of entrepreneurs get to their first million dollars, and I think that that first million is maybe one of the biggest challenges to get to. Once you get there, I think you can do things, pretty good. I think you're going to hit it again at about the three to $5 million mark. That's a really another place where. Okay, now, all of a sudden now I got to focus on systems, and you got to do things just a little bit different. And what got you here isn't going to get you there. And then I think 10 million is another that you're going to bump into, and, and you're just going to have a different set of challenges that you got to figure out. But that one, that three to five and that ten have big challenges that hit.

Yeah. Well, I guess the fact that you said 95% don't make it to seven figures kind of, I guess, is the answer is, like, that's the hardest because most people don't even make it to there to get to the next levels. But it's, it's unfortunate.

There's a reason for that, Ryan, because they, they get that entrepreneurial stall. It depends on the industry and a little bit what the ticket size is, but let's say right around that half a million dollars, they start running out of themselves, right? So the owner can do everything. They're involved in some way in shape or form and everything up to say that half a million dollar mark. And then all of a sudden they're going to have to train people, lead people, build systems, let go, which is the hardest thing for a lot of these people, right. And they just stall. They stall right there. So, you know, I don't think, I think for a lot of owners, you know, depends on, again, it depends on industry, but, like, it's somewhere, you know, like, they can get up to three to 600,000, you know, I don't think that's the hardest part, honestly, because that's just bootstrap, gut it out, make it happen. It's when they can no longer be everywhere all the time. That's the stall. Right. So I would argue that you have unique problems from, you know, let's just say a half a million to, like, 1.5. Because not only did I have to learn to let go, hire the right people, start to become a leader, but now I need more vans, bigger building. I have capital investment, but I still don't really have the money to back that up. So I'm going to be taking on debt. My answer would be somewhere from a half a million to one. Five.

Okay, maybe two. Yeah, I, I tend to agree with that. The zero to 500, still kind of fun because you're, like, in startup and building, you know, like, that's, that's the. Or starting is the fun. Building a business is not necessarily fun. It's like, can I give this to someone else now so I can go start something else?

What advice do you have for people to let go?

what, what advice do you have for people to let go? Because I do think that you could probably write an entire book on just letting go. Yeah. Because we're so addicted to, like, perfectionists, and we want it done right. And no one can do we. No one can answer the calls better than us and sell better than us and install better than us. How, like, how do we let go?

Except that they can.

Well, that's not what we think. So do I got to come get. Do I just come to you and you, like, hypnotize me and brainwash me? Like, how do I, how do I let go?

I'll defer to Katie first.

Okay.

You've got to let other people have an opportunity to learn and grow

All right, well, we talk about this in the book, right. Is knowing where you're at at different stages. Like, are you learning it? Are you doing it? Are you letting it go? So you need to be able to really look at whatever you're talking about, building your team or, you know, getting better with your numbers, whatever. Are you learning it? Are you doing it? Are you letting it go? Understand what you want that goal to be. And if your goal is to let go of something, once again, you got to be super intentional about it. And I always think, you know what? There are some people who might never be as good at certain things as me or my business partner. Like, my business partner is quite regularly one of the smartest people in the room, right? And I'm like, there's a lot of things that other people might not ever be as good at as you. However, if I have ten people doing what you do, I would rather have ten people doing it at 50, 60%, 70% skill level, but ten of them instead of just you, I'll take that all day long, right? Because that's scalable. That's got some. That's got some growth to it. And, no one person can do everything forever, so you've got to get to a place where you realize, you might not be as good at this as me. And I'm okay with that. Right? We often say, like, what am I okay with losing? There's some clients that I'm like, man, I don't want to lose you, but I got to let other people have an opportunity to learn and grow. And there's some clients where I'm like, this is not the place for you to go learn. Right? So that you have to understand, where are you at? What does that look like? And then you got to have an intentional game plan to it. But at the end of the day, if you can't figure out how to let things go, you're gonna stall out. You can't grow if you can't figure that out.

Like, why should someone let go? Because I think some people would say, well, I'm not okay with that, Katie. I don't want to give 60%. I mean, I built my business on my. On this. I'm here, I'm the owner at your house, you know, and now I have to lower my standard. Isn't that. Isn't that bad for business?

I think that there's things that we're just, like, inherently naturally good at. Right? And we count that, like, we want people to be right there all the time. I've seen people that I'm like, yeah, you're not as good as this person yet. But they get there, and they get there fast, right? You've got to have the opportunity there. People surprise me on a pretty regular basis. I'm just like, man, if I get out of the way, actually, I'm not as good at this as I thought I was. You know, that's, that's one of the biggest things, is you got to check your ego. Check your ego, because you might think you're all that, but as soon as you let somebody step into it, they're probably faster, smarter, more creative, more skilled, you know, get out of the way sometimes and check your ego.

Yeah, I like that.

Are you viewing your service business as an asset or a liability

I think too, Ryan, one of the things is that are you viewing this business as an asset, or are you viewing this as your own personal self worth? Right? So, like, Larry and I had this problem. Larry viewed, and it's a personality type, I think, to a certain degree, right? So Larry viewed our service business as an extension of his own being. So if anything went wrong, that means that my technician did something too, Larry. Like it was on purpose. Right? He would get very upset. You know, I always viewed it like an asset. It's just like, I own stocks, I own a building, whatever. I'm using this as a tool to drive income to me and create value for me, my employees. And then, you know, of course you need to do a good job and make people happy. But, you know, we're in the service business. Not everybody's going to be happy, right? So if we're going to take personally every single thing that goes wrong in our company, we're going to be a one man show. And, I mean, we're not going to.

Be a happy one man show.

No. And, you know, I mean, you have to ask yourself, why did I start a business? So did I start a business so that I could be on the truck 12 hours a day, six days a week? And, yeah, I'm making a ton of money, but my entire life is, is this thing, right? Whether it's landscape lighting or carpet cleaning or whatever, I never looked at it that way. It was like, I'm going to build something that's an asset that is sellable. I love that I keep it and other people run it, but I'm not going to be there. Like, I mean, it might take me some time to get there. It was the same thing after we sold Larry. I wish he was here. He would say the same thing. He had a really bad, identity crisis moment for about a year, because all of a sudden, the owner thing is stripped from him. He's just like, who am I? I literally never thought about it again. I just went on, next business. Cool. That was great.

That's probably the number one reason why it's hard to let it go.

That's what I mean. Yeah.

Because identity is so tied as entrepreneurs, our identity is so tied into everything we do.

It really is identity and passion. So we're usually passionate about the thing that we start, and that ties in that identity hard. So, yeah, I think that's, that's a huge thing for people to understand is like, if you can.

Ryan: Most people are not intentional about their business, right

I love that you guys keep using the word intentional, by the way, because it, like, that's, that's my biggest takeaway right now, is like, man, most people are not intentional. Like, have they really wrote down why they're doing their business? And is it just to get to seven figures? I mean, that's the, point of the book. But, like, why do you want to get to seven figures? So that your family can do what? So that you can do what? If you dig down into that, you'll realize your passion is just a tool to get you to where you want to be. And you don't have to take it personal when someone gives you a one star review like I used to do.

Yeah. Well, you know, Ryan, the answer for seven figures or whatever is not for everybody, right? Like, you might have somebody who has a business and it's mainly them, or maybe it's them and a helper, and let's say they're doing 400,000, but they have great margins and they run it out of their garage and they're making 200 grand a year for themselves or whatever, right? Like, they might be like, why would I change this for all the headache of trying to scale? And I would agree with them on that. If they're happy and that's what they really wanted out of this business, then that's what they should do. My thing is, and Katie alluded to the fact that I ended up in the hospital because of all the stress and all that. But you know what? That saved me because I was an emotional and physical wreck for six months and we never missed $1 because I had a team that was keeping making me money while I wasn't there. I think solo, preneurship is a very dangerous game. Because one thing goes wrong with you and you're done.

That makes me nervous.

I'm with you. That's one of the. My drivers, like, every day to, like, wake up and show up for my community because there's a lot of people that go from that four to 600 grand, they're going to read your book and go, dude, this is it. Seven figures. I'm going to go. They're going to implement one or two things. It's not going to work out, right? And they're going to retreat and go, yeah, those guys don't know what they're talking about. It's easier to just go back, but they're literally one incident away. And if you're truly passionate about, if your identity is tied to your business, you should want to over deliver and serve your clients at the highest level. Your family, your team members, your community. And if that's true, then you need to get to seven figures. You need to get to, you know, 2,000,003, whatever. You need to get to that point where you have redundancy in your business so that when someone gets sick, someone gets hurt, you're not back on the truck. Like, that's my ultimate goal for people. And that, that's like, the definition of freedom is you get to go to work because you want to, not because you have to. And unfortunately, at the four to, got to go to work every day.

When I think of that level, too, Ryan, because you're in it, right? You're doing the do, but when it gets bigger, now you get to work on the cool stuff. Like, you get to be more creative. You get to figure things out. Like, to me, as it get. We got bigger and bigger, it just got better because I'm, now working on the things that, to me, feel like real entrepreneurship. I saw Scott Molchan was here. Scott.

It's also fun. Like, it's extremely fulfilling when you get to a place where you can, you have the freedom to do some other things. So Eric's talking about you get to do some of the fun stuff. Well, you also. You get to give back more to your community. Right? You get to. You get to do things that you didn't have the freedom or the ability to do before. And it's extremely fulfilling. When you walk into our office, I talked about our vision is to elevate people and businesses. And there's a huge mirror when you walk in that, that's what it says. And at the end of the day, I mean, you gotta go lay your head down at night and be like, okay, am I gonna go do this tomorrow? Why am I gonna go do this tomorrow? You gotta have that purpose that drives it for us. It's that. It's like, I'm gonna go elevate people and businesses. And that's why the road to seven figures has become such a passion for Eric and I, because we actually really, really love helping people figure this out. Right? Helping. Like, when that light bulb comes on, when someone, we're talking to somebody and we're sharing some of these secrets, and that light bulb is just like, yeah, like, that's. That's the crazy coolest thing you can go do.

So cool. I I can't wait to read it because I already know I'm a fan. You know, like, I share a similar vision and business just gets easier. It doesn't mean that it gets easy because, like you mentioned, Katie, you have now systems and people and stuff like that. But I mean, the year I sold my business, we did 600 grand in repeat business alone.

You don't have that luxury when you're a small solopreneur. Like, it just, it's just not going to happen. And so now, all of a sudden, the impact on our team is better and greater and the community and our families, and it's just such, it's just so much more fulfilling when you can grow your business to a larger state where it's actually a business and you're not self employed. So I applaud you guys for taking action and doing the book, man. It's cool.

Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate that.

I'm excited to read it.

Eric and Ryan share their advice on entrepreneurship for listeners

I, guess as we close out, any final words of wisdom? maybe speak to your younger self, even 510 years ago, 20 years ago, regrets. This is your chance to confess. Is there anything that you'd share with the listener that can help them get some traction in their business today?

You want to go first, Eric?

Yeah, well, I mean, I. Yeah, I will. I think the first thing is get a coach. Like, you know, Ryan, you're in your space. Your coach, you know, thank you. Whatever space you're in, though, get a coach. Because that person has probably already lived your pain. They paid to make the mistake, so you're paying them to back to have it not made for you. Right. It's a fair trade. And why sit that you are going to spend ten x what you, what you spend on a coach? I mean, I certainly have. You're going to spend ten x trying to figure it out on your own.

Yeah.

If you even make it, you might not make it, right. And, you know, sometimes, you know, as entrepreneurs, one of the. We talk about this in the book, actually, you know, one of the problems with entrepreneurship is a lot of us, especially in home services, we start as a technician and go, oh, I would have done it this way, or I don't know why my boss makes these crazy decisions and he's making all the money, or she's making all the money and I'm not making anything. And if I had my own business, I'd do this. And then they don't really know what running a business is, so all of a sudden, they're no longer an employee, and they don't, they have no accountability to anyone. That's the worst part. So all of a sudden, they can get up at 09:00 a.m. and they can do this or that, and they start losing it because they don't have that person going, no, you need to do this and this and this and do it in this order. So if anybody listening doesn't have a coach for their respective industry, I think that's the starting point. Can I add one more thing real quick before Katie goes? This would be my. So that would be my first piece of advice. My second one would be start job costing every single job from the first day that you start in business and include yourself as you would pay labor. So let's say you're an owner operator. You want to put in in your job costing what you would have to pay to replace yourself. Yeah, you were talking in your monologue, Ryan, about, you know, getting a lead, showing up, and then, did we charge enough? Well, if you don't chart, if you don't, if you don't job cost, you don't actually know if you should charge more or not. Right. Because people like, you know, you know, what's your margin on that? Oh, I think it's good. And then I have them start job costing. They're like, holy crap, I'm not charging enough.

Or they're like, no, I make 60, 70%, and then they're broke. I'm like, you don't make what you think you make.

So I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, but that's, those were my two job costing and coaching, I think would be, I love it if I could redo it.

Both are great. I love those. All right, Katie.

If I go back, I would have put systems in place faster

All right. I'll give you two, too. My first one is I would have put systems in place faster, instead of just kind of doing it and figuring it out as I go. Like, I would have been super intentional about creating my systems right off the bat. Like, going back and trying to create systems after you already have a team and you have everything, is hard to do. So I would create systems quickly. the other one I would do is, honestly, I'd give myself a little bit more grace. I would recognize I'd just be a little bit easier on myself as I did it. Right. There's just such. This, Man, once we started building our businesses, there was so much drive to go do it and do it right and do it great. And. And we did. We did a lot of things really great, and some things sucked and we failed and we fell forward and it hurt. Right. And in those moments, I wish, like, if I go back, I would just. I'd be a little more gentle on myself and how I. How I handled those moments.

Love it. I love it. That's great.

What would your two pieces of advice be on job costing and pricing

What would your two pieces of advice.

Be if I could go back? I think, you know, I'm, like, addicted to pricing. I'd be like, job costing and pricing is my number one, is like, make sure you, you know that you. I guess how I'll say it is. Act like who you want to be, not like who you are today. So that includes not just your salary, but if you want to afford to hire a salesperson, well, you better put that in your overhead number somewhere.

Right?

Whatever you want to call it. Those. Those costs need to be accounted for. So why do you ask me to. That's my only one.

Told us to give one.

Later on, I'm gonna come up with two more. So I have three, but on the spot. That's. That's my biggest one, is honestly, just act like who you want to be, not like who you are. Cuz I always act. I acted like who I was for like 510 years. And I was wondering, like, how do these guys do it? How do they afford to do this and how do they afford to do that? It's like, well, duh. They just act like who they want to be. Like, you can't afford to do those things if you. If you're. If you don't have the money.

So Joe Crocera, who owns service MVP, kind of big in the plumbing, heating area, he just wrote a book called what should we do? It's about sales for home services. He has a chapter called leave your mother in the van. Right. Meaning don't bring your family's crappy money mindset into that bid.

I love it. That's so true.

Great, great chapter.

Well, you guys, that was awesome. I really appreciate you coming on here. I can't wait to dig into the book. how, if people want to get a hold of you, if they want to get a hold of the book. What's the best way to stay in touch with you guys and if they want more information with your companies and things like that?

Katie, go ahead.

Yeah, so you can go ahead and connect with me on, LinkedIn. Katie Harris on LinkedIn. Or you can find me@spotonsolutions. com and happy to, you know, get you a copy of the book, talk to you a little bit more about it. It's going to be up on Amazon this week.

Sweet. Love it. How about you, Eric?

Yeah, you can find me Facebook. Just my name, Eric Sprague. or you could go super tech university Facebook page as well. LinkedIn. Eric Sprague. And, my email is just Eric at super tech you. com. so if anybody needs anything or looking for a copy of the book, they can just email me. Okay.

you guys are amazing. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, your knowledge, your experiences. I learned a lot. I was taking notes, so, I hope everyone else was, too. You guys are amazing. Have a great week. Okay?

Thanks, Brian.

All right, see y'all. Keep moving forward now. You just got to implement all this stuff.

Do it.

See, everybody.