Lighting for Profits - Episode 184

This week on the show we welcome, Vince Palasota is a serial entrepreneur with over 35 years in the Animal Health industry, known for turning ideas into thriving businesses. From leading Med-Pharmex to founding Cornerstone Animal Health, he has built companies across healthcare, technology, sports, and marketing. Currently the President of North America for Felix Vet and Owner of Inception Lighting, Vince specializes in branding, strategic growth, and exit planning. A Texas A&M graduate with an MBA in Marketing and Finance, he continues to drive innovation and business success.

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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 Emory 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.

So bully kicked your butt. I think the key factor here is trust. Here is your host, Ryan Lee. A lot. All light.

All light. Let's go.

Anyone else love exterior illumination? I freaking love this show

Anyone else love exterior illumination? I freaking love this, guys. We get to nerd out on lighting. We get to nerd out on business. Help get your business to the next level. I mean, what else do you want? Life. It's going to be a great show. If you're looking to start or grow a landscape lighting business or a permanent lighting business, you're definitely in the right place. Got an awesome show lined up for you.

Today we have Vince Palisoto with Inception Lighting discussing permanent lighting

Did you guys know we're trending as the number one, the number one landscape lighting show in Denton, Texas? I know it's hard to believe, but it is happening. So, excited, because today we got Vince Palisoto with Inception Lighting. And guys, we're about to level up. every conversation I have with Vince, is honestly transformational. He helps me think bigger, he helps me dream bigger. he's got a lot of good strategy, a lot of good insight, and, you know, I tend to learn best when I learn from others who are in places that I want to be. And, I'm excited to have Vince on because he's been in some pretty powerful rooms and, he's excited to, to share with us. So I'm excited to have him on in just a few minutes. Again, Vince Palisota with Inception Lighting. So if you're wondering about permanent lighting, which brand to go with, how to do it, how to. How to land these large municipalities, we're going to talk about it all. So I'm, excited to have Vince on today. before we have him. Come on. I gotta, I gotta.

Light It Up Expo is coming to Orlando next week

Guys, I'm so excited because we are a week out, we are a little lit, maybe a little bit over, but one week out, week from today, I'm flying out to Orlando. We are putting on Light It Up Expo. I am so excited. If you have not got your ticket, it's not too late. It's getting close. But get your ticket@ lightedup expo. Com. Listen, if you're looking to bolt on permanent lighting, holiday lighting or landscape lighting or you're in one of those industries and you just want to level up and you want to be in the room with people that are doing millions of dollars, come to Orlando. I'm telling you, you will not regret this. Light it up expo. com. one conversation, we're talking, one conversation is going to change your life and I want to see you there. We added a bonus day so I was advertising as like a two day event. But honestly it starts next Thursday, the 27th and IF, and if you already got your ticket, it's included. We're not charging anymore. 11, o'clock. Okay, 11 o'clock at tees off we're going to be meeting with vendors and networking and doing all that. We're going to give you lunch so you don't have to worry about that. 11, to 3 and then 5 to 7 on Thursday. So this is like the pregame and then the, the show kicks off on Friday. So we got a ton of stuff over the, over the next these three days. So want to see you guys there. Don't forget light itup expo. com. this is going to be transformational. We're going to look back on this a few years from now and be like that's when it started. I was in that room. I was at the very first one. Because this is going to be the place to be for anyone in the outdoor lighting business again. We got Vince Palisota coming on in just a minute. before I have him. Come on, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta get selfish because I just had this experience and I want to share it with you.

I think influence is the key to success in any business

and, and I guess to kick it off, I've been thinking a lot lately about how to be a better person. How can I serve better, how can I help, my clients, be better stewards of their domains and one of the most really overlooked skills I feel like. And it's not really talked about a lot. I mean you'll see a video here and there but is influence. You know, you'll hear leadership. But I think it really comes down to influence. And I honestly think influence might be the key to success. There's probably several keys, right? But really just like at the pinnacle, like if you have influence, think about this like what's the hardest part of your business? If you're being honest with yourself, what's the hardest part? And typically the answer is they reveal themselves, are like, some people are like, well, I need more leads, I need more sales, right? They need more money, they need more revenue, they need more capital. Well, what if you had more influence? Like, do you think your influence over others and your ability to influence their decision to move forward with you, to make the phone ring, to call you, to hire you, do you think that would help? Then the second thing, and sometimes it's the first thing that comes up, is like, my team members, my employees, I can't find good, good help, right? And, think about building a team, building a client list. How, how would, if you were better at influence, if you were more influential, do you think you could get your team to follow you? You, you think you could be a better leader? If you knew how to influence better, wouldn't it be easier to get more clients? If you knew how to influence better, wouldn't it be easier to get your team members to do the things that you're wanting them to do? Right.

To influence another human being, you have to know what influences them

So a few days ago, this was on Saturday. So just literally a few days ago, I had the opportunity to learn from Tony Robbins. And years ago, I didn't even know who Tony Robbins was. I heard the name, but I never really looked into him. and now I've had the opportunity to, hear, hear from him in person twice now. And both are like life changing events. This guy's got incredible energy. And, one of the things he said, I wrote it down, he said, to influence another human being, you have to know what influences them. And it's like very profound and very simple and basic at the same time. It's like, well, duh, if you want to influence them, you have to know what influences them. But when is the last time you ever thought about it? Like, really, you just think about what influences you. So let me ask you, anyone who has kids, do you have. I mean, my kids, My kids aren't listening right now. But if you have kids, do you have a favorite child like you? You're probably not going to say this out loud, but do you have a favorite child? Okay, you're not going to say that one out loud, but do you have one that's easier? Do you have a child that's easier? Well, I'm not saying that's your favorite, but we all have one that's easier. Okay. And that's the reason they're easier is, is because you know how to influence them. Like, you understand it without even really knowing it. Your subconscious, you know how to influence them because you're probably a lot like them, right? And so when you figure out how or what influences people, you can affect change. And really, it comes down to our state, okay? How we're feeling, our emotions and their state, how they're feeling and their emotions. Because if, if someone is not in the right state, it's really hard to influence them, whether they're a team member, a client, a friend, spouse, kid, whatever it else it is. So how do they feel? How do you feel? What energy are you putting off? If you want, if you really want to influence, someone, you need to create emotion, okay? And emotion is created by motion. So, so check this out. Tony. Tony Robbins says that, you know, there's basically like three elements. There's your state, which, which is like your emotions, your feeling, okay? Your state which leads to your actions. So whatever state you're in is going to dictate the type of action that you take, and then whatever action you take is going to dictate your result. Okay? So, pretty simple framework. Your state leads to your actions, your actions lead to your results. Well, in our state, just think of it as like, if you've ever heard Tony Robbins speak, he always talks about the state, but think about your state as like, your thoughts and your feelings, okay? If you're sad, that's your state. If you're happy, if you're playful, whatever it is. And most people, when they're trying to fix something, there's something going wrong, or they want to get a better result or whatever it is, they focus on their actions or they focus on the results. Well, that becomes very frustrating because we wonder like, why we can't get the result we want. Okay, we're going to have Vince on in a few minutes. I'm like, vince, why can't I get to the level that you're at? It's because I'm working on these actions and results. I'm not working on my state. And he broke it down, so, so simply. But, so I want to help you guys work on your state, okay? And Tony, explained two different ways that we can do this. Number, one is physiology, meaning, ah, like your environment. Okay, so like, are you listening to music? you guys listen to music. How does that make you feel? If you listen to like a really upbeat and just like, boom, boom, boom, like you're going to feel happy and excited, right? It's going to change your emotion. If you listen to like a, I can't remember that artist. But if you listen to a sad song, you're probably going to be sad. Like, there's those songs that control your. It just totally put you in a different mood, right? So if you want to. If you want to be excited and you want to be happy and you're depressed right now, guess what? You're in control. Like, you. You don't have to be depressed. You can go outside and go for a run. You can go for a walk, you can jump up and down, you can dance, you can turn on the music. You can control your state with your physiology. And then the second thing you need is focus, okay? So you're not gonna be able to influence somebody when they're in the wrong state. So you have to change their focus, and you have to change your focus. So let's say you're in a sales appointment, okay? And, we've all had this where you get. You get to. You get inside the home. Maybe it's a busy executive, busy business owner. I got 10 minutes, you know, Give me what you want. Like, what are the odds that you're really gonna influence them in those 10 minutes? Well, you have to change their focus. And in order to change their focus, because they're thinking about, well, my kids are coming over, and then we got to go to dinner, and then I got to close this deal, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Their focus is not on you. It was when they made the appointment or when their wife made the appointment or whatever it was, but their focus is not on you. And so you're not going to influence them if you don't change their focus to be 100% about you. And you do this by asking questions, because when you ask them a question, they have to think, and, it changes their focus from what they were focused on to. To now focused on you. That makes sense. So this is so genius. Think about this, because now you can. You can influence people now with this formula. Like, if you don't change their focus, you're never going to influence them. So this is amazing because now what it does is it gives you control. It empowers you to have control of your life.

Focus on your state, your emotions, your feelings. Because we know it comes down to physiology

Okay? Now, you know, there's a lot of people, they're like, well, you know, circumstance, and this happened. This. No, like, yeah, those things are going to happen, and they're going to try to influence us to be sad, to. To be miserable, to be depressed. But we get to control every single day, every single minute, our state, and we take the power back. Because we know it comes down to physiology, and we know it comes down to focus. So if you're focusing on the shitty things in your life and how bad you have it, you're not going to get out of that cycle. And if you're focused on like, no, I am great and I am capable and I'm going to do these things, then it's going to reveal itself to you. So, don't let your environment dictate your circumstance, okay? That's your choice. New state, new behavior. That's how this works. So, I want you to do this quick homework and you could do this right now, you could do it later, whatever else, but literally right now, what positive emotions that maybe you're lacking in life right now, and you know what fires you up, you know what, what you need to do to get unstoppable? Okay, but what positive emotions would, would make you unstoppable if you just had this one or two emotion, if you just needed more energy, if you just needed to be more playful, like when, when, when do people love being around you? Write down these things and create them. Because when you, when you get intent, intentional like this, you get to control the results of your life. And you're not focused on the results or the actions. You're focused on the inputs which are, your state, your emotions, your feelings. You get to control this, okay? And people say, oh, well, that person made me mad. No, you made yourself mad. Okay? They said something that then you let allow make you feel mad. So you're, you're in control. And that's what I love about this is if we get the power back and we're like, heck yeah, dude, I'm. I get to control my destiny. I get to control whether I'm successful or not. So, listen, you already have what you need within you. You already have everything. You're already a champion. You're already a winner. It's just inside you and you need to unlock it. So empower yourself. Write down these emotions that you need to feel to be unstoppable and then let today be the day you reset. You restart. As you can tell, I'm a little fired up. I'm so excited because I was getting a little depressed. I'm in Utah and it's freezing cold and it's dark all the time. I'm like, why am I so depressed? I'm not depressed anymore because I'm in control. It doesn't matter if it's dark all the time, doesn't matter if it's cold. I can stand up and dance right now. I can turn on music, I can control my state, which means I get to control my destiny, which I freaking love. So that's all I'm going to share with you for now.

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Let's, do this guys. You know, with this. A fixture is only as good as the source of light inside it. This light source is what your customers and future customers will ultimately see at night. This is going to result in thousands of dollars in return business for you, along with glowing referrals. Emory Allen believes every lighting professional shadow have access to the light source engineered from the ground up, dedicated to high performance when you need it most. Listen, at the end of the day, it's what's on the inside that counts. So take advantage of the world class customer service that Emory Allen provides and get 10% off your next order. All you need to do is email tomgmryallen. com. don't go to their website unless you hate money and like paying full price because he's going to hook you up. All you need to do is email tomgallen. com. mention lighting for profits, mention my name and you will get the hookup. Email tom gary allen. com. all right, guys, so, it's time. Let me know what you guys think. If you guys have feedback, on this, join my free Facebook group, Landscape Lighting Secrets. And if, if you empower yourself by changing your state and it affects you and helps you, I want to hear about it. I want to hear about the positive change that we're doing in the world. So join that Facebook group and, let me know how you're feeling.

Ryan: Welcome to the show, Mr. Vince Palisota

All right, guys, it's time. Let me know if you're ready. I know I'm ready. You guys ready to talk to Vince? Let's go. Maybe. Here we go.

Foreign.

Welcome to the show, Mr. Vince Palisota.

Ryan, how you doing, brother?

Oh, man, I'm fired up. Can you tell?

I love it. I love it.

It's great. you know, for me, everything is. I learn every day and, and I didn't used to be like this. I used to just let life happen to me. But I'm learning to just like. No, I'm in control of my life and, I'm fired up because it really, for me, everything starts with mindset. It starts with our feelings. It starts with our state. And you can't stop me.

I, tell my girls all the time, attitude's everything. It's, it's, it's absolutely everything. You know, if you, you think you're right, you're right. If you think you're wrong, you're right. You know, it's, it's you, you got to get up and have a little. It's you know, so many things in life are mindset so I love that attitude Ryan.

I love it man. Well, I'm excited for our conversation. I've enjoyed the conversations we've had in the past and I'm like man, I, I think I've been thinking too small after, after I talked to you I'm like I gotta, I gotta level up. So do it just me. Just do a quick introduction of who Vince Palisota is and we'll get started.

Sure. Hey, thanks for having me, Ryan. Vince Palisota serial entrepreneur I'm since I was seven years old so. And sometimes you do that out of necessity and sometimes you're, you're just born with. And I had a little bit of both of those in me. I I got in the lighting industry by accident. It was, I was really an investor in Inception Lighting. I was an investor in the product and you know I was excited to see what all the things it would do. My, my real background is in animal health drug industry and I'm currently the CEO of a large well it's going to be a large pharmaceutical company but it's a generic drug company for animal ah health drug company out of India. So had 14 startups, two have gone bad. I find myself talking about those sometimes because you know you learn a lot from those ones that go bad. And I didn't plan on owning Inception Lighting. It was just the when you're first to the game or you're really early to the game, a lot of roadblocks, a lot of. Especially when you're talking about technology. And this is 2000. We're talking about 2008, 2009 when we were putting our first permanent lighting up and had lots of problems. Lots of problems. And through a process of elimination my wife kept saying you're going to end up with this old maid card, aren't you? And we, I believe it's turned into a pretty lady. So I'm look looking forward to talking about that. So yeah, I got three daughters, seven sisters and I, I know about I know about the female and, and when to keep my mouth shut and when to say yes dear.

So that's awesome.

I've got three new son in laws m and so I'm excited about that. Finally got some boys in my life.

So that's just crazy. So seven sisters, three daughters. At some point you're thinking I've got to have a son or something. It doesn't happen. But now you got your three son in laws. That's cool.

There you go.

I'm so nervous, Vince. I'm so nervous because my oldest is 17. I'm like, this whole time I'm like, please don't get pregnant, please don't get pregnant. And then now I'm like, okay, she made it through that. Like, please don't, please don't get married. Like, please wait till later. Oh man, I'm gonna be calling you a lot.

I think you'll be amazed at how strong she will be and smart she will be because ah, when you have good parents that, that my girls have amazed me. So yours will too.

I love it. I'm hoping something wears off, you know, because some days I'm like, I think she'd rather not be here. That's good.

Inception Lighting was their first business. I think you guys were the first ones

Well, talk to us about, I do want to get into inception and the fact that I think, I mean you got your own patents and all this other stuff. I think you guys were the first ones but, to do the permanent lighting. But before we do that, I want to talk to you about. You said 14 startups. that's incredible. Two went bad. I think a lot of people expect their first business to be spectacular and like that, that's going to be the thing. And a lot of people listening to this probably got started in maybe like some, some of them got started in like window cleaning, pressure washing, some of it. Lighting was their first business. not, not, not everyone, but someone, they all got started in these smaller businesses and we expect, hey, this is going to be the thing. It's going to provide for my family forever. They're not thinking about 14 startups. What, what was your mindset when you started your first business?

Well, you know, I was seven years old and, and I was trying to make a little money on the side, on the playground and I was selling cinnamon toothpicks and gummy worms at at recess. And from there, you know, I started mowing, mowing lawns and, and I just learned at a young age you knock on the door and tell someone you want to work, you'll find an opportunity, you know, and if you'll work hard and you'll do a good job, you know, they'll pay you well and, and they'll, they'll recommend you to other people. You Know, so that was you know I was, I was raised by my sister from the time I was 5, she was 17, so young. She and my brother in law are my mother and father figure. they've you know, instilled you know, great work ethic in me. But they were just kids when they took me in. But one thing that they taught me is, you know, go do a good job. look a person in the eye, say yes sir, no sir. and it's just amazing at how people will refer you and you know, just let them know, hey, even if you mess up, hey, I'm here to, I'm here to fix it. And we can talk about a lot. Inception Lighting, tell you about a lot of mess ups. but man, I can also tell you about 60 cities that we've done now and, and those cities will, will give us a good recommendation because we kept coming back and fixing those things, you know, so, so yeah, that's

Ryan: Be careful about bringing partners in when starting a business

What was after, after you went to school you got, how many degrees did you get?

I, I got a degree in undergraduate degree in agriculture economics and I got an MBA in marketing and finance. So that's enough, enough for me. I went to work for Pfizer, ah, big pharma company right out of college and you know, I just found out early on, you know, as many entrepreneurs are, or high functioning ADHD carriers and you know, I had it before, it was cool. and you know it's when you, when you have adhd it's tough to focus on one thing. So I knew early on that I was never going to run up the corporate ladder and you know, work for a big corporation because that mindset just doesn't work. You got to stay laser focused on what you're doing. And so I knew at a very early age that I was going to own my own business. and I did not know I'd have that many startups. but I love it, I'm good at it and you know, I enjoy it. So it's a blessing and a curse. Gotta be careful with that. You got to have the right wife or the right spouse when you're doing it because as you know, it's a grind. You know, it is a grind. when you're writing your goals down, it's usually, you know, three times as much money and twice as long, you know, as you think it'll take. So.

Yeah, no, that's so true. I think most of us are not realistic. We're like oh, man. All I'd have to do is sell two jobs a week and I'll be a bazillionaire, you know.

Yeah.

And then you realize, oh, yeah, it's going to be way hard. Like you said, three times as much and twice as long. What, how did, how did you, when did you get to the point when or how, where you weren't just in the business? Like, everyone struggles with just being an operator and you know, we own our own business, but we're really just self employed. How did you crack that code to just be like, no, I'm just going to be the owner and I'm going to hire a team and I'm going to use my money instead of my time.

Yeah. You know, I'm probably, I'm probably not the best example of that. That's exactly what you should do. And I probably learned that, I probably learned that later in life, you know, and you, you learn. I mean, most people say, my gosh, how are you managing seven things at one time, Vince? And, I've not done a great job with that, Ryan, you know, and I would, I would really strongly suggest, you know, to young entrepreneurs to, you know, find out what your superpower is. What is that thing that you do better than everybody else? And you know, be careful about partners. Right? Be careful about bringing partners in. Partners can be hard. Family members can be hard, coming in as partners. You know, you know, set, set the, set the deck early on, set the rules, make sure that everything is legally binding and you've got things set up on how everybody gets out. I tell people there's only three reasons to take on a partner in a business, and that's one, you need the money. You know, if you need the money to start the business, you got a partner. The second one is if, if they have an expertise that, that you don't possess, then you got a partner, you know. And the third one is if you're a person that, doesn't necessarily enjoy, you know, success all by himself, he wants, he wants a group. Whenever you want to celebrate, you know, those wins in life, you know, outside of those three things, you need to own it yourself, you know, because, lot, lots of, lots of roadblocks, you know, down the road with, with, with partnerships. You gotta be careful and be smart.

Yeah.

What's, uh, you mentioned superpower? What's your superpower? I'm a visionary

What's, you mentioned superpower? What's your superpower?

Yeah, I'm a visionary. I can see things early on. my big, big, big Company that Failed was the predecessor to LinkedIn. We had a company called Merit Builder. And I knew it was the right thing. You know, a buddy of mine who actually, I'll talk about him a little bit, he started Alpha Collective with me, which is. Which is the, the organization that houses, Inception Lighting today. he, came to me with an idea. He said, you know, Vance, I'm man, I just got fired from my job, but I didn't do anything wrong. You know, I said, do tell. And he was like, you know, I. They shut our whole department down. But as I was taking all the plaques off the wall, I was taking all the, you know, the best employee of the year, you know, the, the friendliest. All the accolades he had on his wall, he's putting that in a box. And, you know, he just knew this was in 2002, 2003. He just knew that he'll never see those plaques again. No one would ever know that. He was great, number one. Number two, all the people in his office, he was not going to be able to take those people with him. You know, it's kind of pre Facebook. And he had the perfect idea. We called it Merit Builder. And, and we just, we were right. We were right. That was the superpower of vision to be able. He said that you should be able to connect with everybody you ever meet and their friends and 5, 6 degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon and oh my God, I bought it hook, line and sinker. And, you know, as a young investor, invested a ton of money and, and, we had a big deal with Mary, Kay Cosmetics, and they backed out at the last minute. And there the revenue model was going to be a dollar per lipstick salesperson per month across the world. And so they backed out. We ran out of dough. LinkedIn became LinkedIn. And. And so, hard lesson, hard lesson. But my superpower is being early sometimes. but really it's, it's. It's, bringing people together and helping them believe, you know, helping them believe in themselves. And, and that's one of the things that we're building at, Alpha Collective. Again, we can talk about that some. We'll. We'll display that at your. At your big, convention. But, we just think people need a. Not everybody can start a business. Not everybody. You know, they just need a little nudge sometimes. They just need a little confidence to believe that they can do it. And, And I believe in people and make m. And I believe in their dreams and, and try to help them be successful. So, that's really my superpower is, is you Know, helping other people and seeing, you know, you know, seeing good things in people.

People start businesses for a lot of different reasons, but typically it's freedom

So, yeah, we'll. We'll definitely get into that because I think a lot of people, you know, it's, interesting. People start businesses for a lot of different reasons, but typically it's because they're chasing freedom. You know, they're sick of working for someone else. They don't. They want to control their time. Then it's ironic because you know how it is. I mean, and if it's your first, at least three businesses, you. You're not. You don't buy back your time. You're like, you're chained. You're like, you're stuck in your business. You're. You have less freedom working for yourself than someone else.

No question. No question. Your time is. And the older you get, the closer you are to that other side, you know, and it's, you know, I'm 57, and, you know, you wake up like, how did that happen? I used to be the youngest guy in the room. I'm not any longer, you know, and. And the industry that I, that I work in every day is the animal health industry. And it's. It's been great to me. I've been in that industry for 35 years. And, you know, it's a, But now I walk away, man, I remember being the youngest guy here. I just got back from a convention in Orlando, and. And I wasn't the youngest guy any longer, you know, you know, it's. So you start questioning your mortality and your legacy and you know what? You know, so things have to be more important to you because your time is all you have left, and you have technically have less of it. So it's more. Your time's more expensive, you know, so you got to do things that matter. And, you know, if money is one of those things that we stack up the chips, and that might not be what you're chasing, but, you know, that's. That's how we judge things sometimes is. Is how successful you are. And, So, yeah, I'm with you.

So, some of these businesses that you've started, I mean, you said, you know, two. Two went bad, 14 or 12 went good. Some of these are like big companies. How, how much harder is it to build a. A, ah, big company, a big business versus a small one?

Well, it. It takes to. Takes the same amount of time. Right? You know, that's why you're finding. And if you've done any work in the private equity world or sold any companies before it's trying to get private. You know, the, the, the stakes have changed, right? I mean, we don't talk about, oh my gosh, it's going to cost a billion dollars to do this any longer. I mean, our company's 30, our country's $37 trillion in debt today. Now we're talking about things in hundreds of billions of dollars. And, and, and, and so when you talk to private equity guys about coming in and buying your business, they'll tell you it, it takes just, they want to invest more money, right? They want to best, best a hundred million dollars into something, right? Because if they're going to triple it, they triple that. Now they got 300 million. You know, if they're going to put 10, 10 million into it, they only have 30 million, right? And it takes just as much work, just as much due diligence. And so you're finding fewer and fewer people. I'm more of a micro investor and I'll invest. And startups, at a smaller level, of course, you know, but there's some of the stuff I'm looking at, man, they're like, vince, you're just not big enough for us to invest in you. We like what you're doing. You're just not big enough yet. I'm like, okay, let's keep growing.

You're going from animal health to Inception Lighting

Yeah, well, let's talk about Inception, how you got into it, because like you said, you've got this, animal health. You're going from like animal health to Inception Lighting.

That doesn't make sense, does it?

How did, how did that come to be? You started as an investor, you were just going to invest and you were going to stick to your own thing. You mentioned some of the challenges that Inception went through when you guys were launching. Tell us about that.

Yeah, so, so the guy who invented, and look, it can be argued, on, who invented the space and so on and so forth for, for sure. I can tell you in 2010, we, we did a 12,000, linear foot job in 2010. you can go to permanent Christmas, permanent Christmas lights dot com. And it's, you know, that's pretty early if you get that domain right. and that'll take you to what we're doing at Alpha Collective and Inception Lighting and trying to identify a hundred people across the country who really want to grow a real business. I got involved, I put some money together and put some money together with a couple of guys I played ball with at Texas A and M M and, and we thought we had a really good deal. There's a guy who started the company. His name, Scott Eddins. Scott Eddins was a great, great grandson of Thomas Edison. So there's a real story there behind this whole lighting thing. And, and, the, the guy was, exceptional athlete, was a very. At a young age, he started taking tennis lessons when he was 18. He, played in the U.S. open. tough competitor, but we just, we were early to the game and, man, we, we had a good idea, but, you know, just every problem that you can imagine from a technology. And I kept, you know, when's this thing going to be finished? You know, the technology wizard was always coding something. You know, when's it going to be finished? When's the code going to be finished?

And, and what year was this that you invested in it?

2010.

Okay.

In, 2010, 2000, early 2011.

So that's crazy to think because we're 20, 25. People are just learning about permanent lighting, you know.

Yeah, yeah. You know, I thought he had. You know, it's really interesting. so many contractors, you know, at that time would be like, I'm not putting that crap up. You're gonna put me out of business. This is what I do for a living. I put it up and take it down. I, I'd lease this stuff. I don't want anything permanent. And I'd quickly say, hey, well, well, where's your, where's your flip phone? And they would say, well, I don't have a flip phone anymore. I said, well, yeah, progress is progress. And I knew, you know, early on this was going to, you know, early on, and I, and I probably got a bad rap, you know, because we went and sold jobs because I couldn't find contractors that wanted to do it right? They, they just didn't want to do it. And so I had to go knock on doors and sell cities and municipalities, and then we would hire the labor to come and do it, you know, so, so we were early. We were early to the game, but really the, you know, for us, we were never right with the technology. And, and so, we met a guy. his name is Swapno Bora. And Swapno got, funded on season five of Shark Tank. And he was really the mastermind. he and his, partner vbo, they were the masterminds behind the technology and what we're doing. And, and really our, our real differentiation is, is going to be the long term, is going to be around, the technology side of things the AI piece of this safety and security 911 our technology today allows us. If you go to the city of Little Elm, technically today I could put a tag on your kids backpack, I can put a tag on your, on your dog and I can geolocate them anywhere almost in that city they walk. That's pretty profound when you start thinking about where we're so beautification is one thing. And now there's you know, 19 other labels, 19 other brands in the market. They all do a nice job. We believe most of those are probably infringing on one of the 37 patents in some form or fashion. And, and they'll all, you know, we'll, we're not shutting people down but we certainly you know looking at royalties for you know, the use of some of those patents. But, but that was really the background is, is I what I got really excited about. I believe that like in schoolhouses today you can walk in and say C reactive shooter and every, every light in that whole school can turn to blue. Right. That tells the kids it's very difficult to with a six year old. if one bell means fire, two bells means police emergency, three bells might mean you know, weather get a new teacher trying to corral a bunch of six year olds. But we do know red means stop, green means go and yellow means slow down. And that's a universal language. We know, know that so we can teach other things. We can teach the safety and security and 911 and emergency things. We can do that with lighting. And that's why I think we're in the, the early innings of a very long baseball game of the lighting and the RGB and the you know, rgbw.

MeshTech is developing technology that lets you control your lights without programming

so what do you, what do.

You mean by like the technology and AI? You mentioned like those briefly. Do you, do you know what you're developing or you already have it developed?

Sure, sure. Yeah, it's, I mean they rolled it out, Inception rolled it out today and meshtech rolled it out today with that being able to say hey, hey Siri, turn my lights red, you know without having to program it. Hey, you know, hey, hey, turn my lights off today at 4:00. You know, so, so that technology and there'll be other you know, AI that will, that will come into play there as well. So, so I think that's what's really sets inception in the MeshTech organization, away from most people because we have an ecosystem of products. We have roofline, but it also connects into landscape lighting. So Mr. 16s par 36 and by pin products, also bistro lights. And then we work with Minlion on about 40 of their products that connect into one app. So one app controlling the entire ecosystem of products. which is profound.

Do they have to be like, do you guys have your own landscape lighting lights or they can connect with any brand.

So we have our own lights. we have, we have our own lights. and, and the, the, oh, the computers inside each one of the bulbs. Right. So that's how they mesh together. It's a, it's a long range, one of the patents is on long range meshing technology. So we can, I don't want to say how far we can go, but I'll tell you how far we pitch that we can go. We can go a hundred yards. So two devices together and that's what makes it unique. So I don't have to have WI fi. I just need to have one of the, one of the locations to be turned on and then I can control an entire city or an entire complex. So that's where I'm spending most of my time is working with people who want to do townships, people that want to do cities, municipalities. I like doing it. I'm good at closing those things. It's usually do what you like. And there's a real story and there's a conversation that can be had. We also on a national buy board, which a lot of folks don't understand what a national buy board is. It's just the ability to not have to go into a bidding situation, you know, and, and most of those cities would love to hear that you're on a national buy board because man, that lady doesn't want to go through four interviews and four bid proposals either, you know.

So, so when you're on, you guys are on the national buy board, you're getting projects just a lot faster and easier.

We'll get them through the system because I don't have to go through a huge bid process with, in a high degree of probability. So you know, know there's, there's set pricing on what you're going to sell the product at, but not on what you're going to sell the labor side of the thing. So happy to talk with your guys at your show or, or anytime then give me a call anytime to talk to them about that. So, but yeah, that, I think that's where, you know, beautification is one thing. Doing a bunch of house is one thing. I'm Focused on people who want to be, intentional about, you know, I, I think the majority of the people say, oh, I'm out doing whatever my main job is. Maybe it's Christmas lights. And someone says, hey, do you have Christmas light? Do you have permanent lighting? Well, yeah, I do that too. And they forget their password and they forget all this stuff. I, I like to talk about being intentional about it, making it part of your business, making get up every day and talk to someone about it that you know, whether that's you. And it's a year round, year round opportunity. But you still got to change paradigms. There's still 80% of all that business is still done, you know, that last 16 weeks of the year.

Right.

And so we're trying to change that psyche and that mindset. And you know, I think that anybody in the Christmas light business, they should, whenever they send a bid out, they should send a bit out for their permanent product and also for their, their traditional product. Because if you don't, someone else is going to do that. I mean, this is not, this is not going away. Everybody's talking about it and you know, there's good money in it. And if you found a system that's, that's easy to put up and you find a system that doesn't give you as many problems. And we've had a lot of problems in the past. We feel like we're getting close to being bulletproof now. But man alive, I can sit down and tell you about a lot of problems. And sometimes when you're a pioneer man, you get shot, you just get shot early on.

So what, what is that? Like, what do you guys do? What did you do when that happened?

You, you just go, put your hat in your hand and you, you show up and you tell the customer, hey, I'm here, I'm going to take care of it. I'm, you know, my wife's on my ass about, you better not be on another roof. I'm like, actually, you better not be on another ladder. And I'm like, I'm not on a ladder, I'm on top of this roof. You know, so, and I think they, I think they appreciated at the time the owner of the company coming out and fixing things and, and, and being there. So it's not been fun, it's been a ton of money. but let me tell you, it's really cool to be able to call, you know, 60 of those cities and say, hey, we're getting ready to Spend a couple hundred thousand bucks, would you recommend these guys? And for them to say, yes, that, to me, that's profound, that's powerful. And, and, you know, hopefully that's where we're headed.

What are the size of some of these cities that you've done

What are the size of some of these cities that you've done, in terms of revenue?

So I think the. I think the largest one is maybe $700,000 in revenue. and, you know, I think that probably the average size is in the, you know, 175 to 250 range. But the beauty about that, and that's why we're trying to find people all over the country, you know, that says, look, we can go sell you a city. If I can sell you a city, you've got a home, right? You got a home. You're always going to be taking care of that customer. Someone's always changing a roof out that they need to, you know, they need you to come put their. Reinstall their lights. You know, there's always another, how come I, I'm off the square, I'm not on the square, how come I don't get lights as well? You know, so it just helps you grow from that perspective. So I just think if you have a major, major, you'll do five or six jobs for the city every year. I mean, the. There's a couple of cities now that have mandated that if you build a new building, you must put our lights on your crazy. That's pretty profound, right? That's. That's exciting.

Take the city of Conroe, Texas, and there's about 60 buildings

So, so how are. How are you getting. I don't think most people are going to be like, wait, how you're getting a whole city. Like you said, is it the town square? Is it, like what, the town hall? Like, what is. What does that mean?

So I said, you know, take the. Take the city of Conroe, Texas, and there's about 60 buildings there, and it's the entire downtown area. Or take the city of Grapevine, Texas, which is about 13,000 linear feet, of product. Or if you take a look at, like, Little Elm, Texas, which, you're familiar with, Ryan, being from here, you've got everything from the police station to the fire station to the city parks to the bell tower. and then once you get that, all of a sudden you get the La Quinta Hotel, right? And you grow off of that. Right? And I just tell people, if you want to. If you want to be intentional, you want to go land one of those. And I tell people, go get a gazebo, get A gazebo and then say, oh my gosh, I got this gazebo. Now get the ice cream shop and get the bank across the street. Now you've got a triangle, you've got our, you've got a, you've got a mesh that's working with our product and now it's just, just adding to that. And there's lots of ways to get that money. Okay. And we can help you with that as well. You know, I mean the government has money, they have art funds, they have funds, funds that and we have a city manager that works with us that is a retired city manager over 33 years. So he can help, he can help make those calls. he's he's written about 16 books, on doing, business better in municipalities. And there's probably, he's a keynote speaker, probably not anyone in the country that he can't pick up a phone and talk to the mayor, the city manager and help, help with those, those types of things.

So I would have never thought that there was 16 books on city planning and this guy wrote them all.

So he's a, he's, his name is Mike Conduff.

And keynote speaker too.

Yeah, he speaks all over the country, you know, and it was really interesting. People said, man, how'd you get all those cities? I'm like hell. Mike walked us into, he walked us into every single one of those guys. And they weren't just shaking hands, they were high fiving and fist bumping and hugging, you know. So when you're, when you do something for 33 years, you, you have a lot of young city managers, you know, underneath your tutelage.

That's really cool.

Ryan says 40% of male jobs in the United States rely on delivery

So obviously relationships are key and you guys have right now like opportunities, leads that you need installers, you, you need support around the U.S. right.

That's right. That's right. We, we're, I, I, I moved to a little different model with Inception Lighting. Started a company called Alpha Collective and it's a collective of micro brands. Right. That allows, you to, my gosh, we just started Outdoor Light and sound. So it's a sound system around, you know, pools and townships and things like that, coupled with outdoor lighting as well, you know. So I just think it's, I think it's tough. you know, I think people that can do things with their hands, I think AI in general is going to wipe out so many of our jobs. I think 40% of all of the male jobs, in the United States are they drive somewhere, you Know, they deliver something. That's a big number when you start talking about, you know, self driving vehicles, you know, that are popping up. So, so I just, I think the future is people that can work with their hands and know how to do things and know how to, how to sell and close things. The challenge with so many of those folks is they don't know how to get started. They don't, hey, how do I get a website up and going? How do. They'll go do the work? They're good people, they'll do a good job, they'll work hard, but it's just, just a kick in the butt a little bit and saying, hey, we can help you. And if I can help you close a big city, then you've got something to point to. Hey, you want yours to look like that? That's, that's, that's a difference maker and that's what we're seeing. So.

And that's what Alpha Collective is, is you're going to partner with these business owners to help them build their business.

Yeah. So, so what we're doing, allowing them to come in and like, own part of a territory. Right, you come in. So our models change to a point where, golly, you can buy the product cheaper. Right. And we're not making money off that, but there's a subscription fee to be a part of it. Or actually you're just buying zip codes up, you know, so, so there are other people, there are other people out there that can sell the product. No question about that. But we're going to work in those territories. You know, we got one gentleman, he was doing five or six, jobs a year and, and he said, hey, I want some help doing this. I said, what's, what's your goal? And he goes, I haven't really thought about it. I'm like, you're a strong man. You're in strongman competitions. You, you lift big boulders for that. That didn't just happen, you know, you, you, you had a goal and you started working out. You know, you got to have a plan. You got to, you got, you got to have a goal. And he got up, became intentional about it and his, he'll do 60 jobs this year. You know, that's a, that's a game changer from just a mindset that, hey, this is a part of my business. I'm gonna get up every day and do this.

So, so, yeah, well, going back to intention, I, I'm just telling you, I see it happen all the time. So, many of us, we, we. We start off with good intention, but then we don't have intention. It's like, I'm gonna start this business. Like, well, what is your goal? Most people don't know. Most people don't know what the trajectory is, and if they do, it's not big enough. It's like, well, then what? You know, you can get that done in the next six months. yeah, most people don't. Don't have that. What, what have. Did you have a mentor? Like, what caused you to have bigger dreams? What caused you to want to get to the next level?

You know, part of you. It's just a street kid growing up, Ryan, and, you know, just wanted to get out of, I want to give out of poverty. You know, I wanted to make something for myself. And I've, you know, always kind of had a little chip on my shoulder. And, you know, I, you know, I think my buddies will tell you, hey, what's Vince chasing? He doesn't know what he's chasing. He just wants to. He just wants to be the best at it, or he wants to be the best one at the bottom of the hole, if that's what he's doing. Digging holes, you know, so. So I think, I think just getting up every day and just having a sense of pride about what you're doing and, you know, the. Lots of things you can do every. Every day. So, I mean, why not get up and. And be the best at it? You know? And I think people undershoot how really good they are and how big things can be, and I think that's probably poor planning. You know, you just. Or, you know, if you just think about this. If 60. If you got a 60% better chance of accomplishing a goal just because you write it down, that's cheating. If you don't, you know, I mean that. That's absolutely cheating for not writing down what you're planning on doing, you know? and. And so I, you know, I think that's part of it. And then you start speaking that, hey, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. And then it'd be, you know, it has to become true. Right. Or else you're going to let a lot of people down.

Yeah, well, there. Therein lies the intention. I don't think most people write down their goals. I don't think they manifest it. I don't think if they're. You. You get what you focus on.

Ryan: Most people overestimate what they can do in a year

I was talking about that, you know, My. Before I had. I had you on. It's like, most people truly overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten. they'll try something. It doesn't work. Ah, doesn't work. Yeah, they might go to sell their very first inception job, and it doesn't work. It's like, oh, it was a dumb idea. I knew it was. It's like, well, yeah, that was one time. Like, if you play the long game, you will win. You know, you're this close to the.

Outhouse, and you're this close to the penthouse, Ryan.

Yeah. Because I love that. Oh, I love that phrase. It's. It's so true. I think about times in my life where I'm like, gosh, why am I doing this? This is the wrong thing. And, you know, a couple hours later, a couple days later, a couple years later, whatever it is, I'm like, man, I'm on top of the world now. This is insane. And I just think, yeah, most people aren't willing to. They're not willing to commit.

I think what you're doing really is, is, I mean, you're putting, you know, watch your podcast. I, follow you and, you know, you put a lot of a personality, people together in the same room talking to each other, you know, and, and I think, you know, this idea of, man, that's my competitor and I mean, there's plenty of business out here for everybody, you know, and just to have a mindset of trying to help others be successful. And man, what you can learn from other people if you just pick up a few things. Use what you want. I tell people, I don't charge you anything for my nonsense. All ah, my bullshit is, ah, you know, you get it for free. Use what you want, don't use what you don't want, you know, and, but man, you just have. You want people that are going to believe in you, people that are going to encourage you. And then you don't want to let them down, you know, so, But there's a bigger play here, you know, and it's being intentional. It's saving your money, it's investing your money properly and just trying to be around smart people. You know, they say you're the average of the five people that you hang out with, so, you know, hang out with better people. You know, what did you do?

Did you. You saved enough money on one of your first businesses to be able to invest in something else.

You know, I, I didn't I, I worked, I worked for 13 years for corporate America, and, right out of school, and then I went for broke, which, which I don't know that I recommend this. And, and the data will tell you not to do that. I, I, I started, a, ah, Buddy had a business, and I kind of went in with him, and I did it all on the come. I really thought I could do well, and I can make a lot of money. And, and the first six. And I was going to be all commission, and the first six, I was, I was really going after big deals. The first six months, I m. Didn't make a, I didn't make a quarter, Ryan. First six months. That's why I tell people you're this close to the outhouse and you're this close to the penthouse. I started wearing a tie to the office every day, and I needed that knot around my neck. And I think everybody thought I was interviewing for another job. And, you know, and my wife was like. I said what? She goes, why are you so stressed? I'm like, because I haven't made any money in six months. Not a quarter.

That's crazy.

And she's like, who cares? You're going to take care of our family. I know. That's why I say you got to have, you got to have the right partner, with you, that believes in you. The next six months, I made more money than I made the first 13 years in the business. So it's not a, Lot of people will say, man, everything Vince touches turns to gold. And that's not true. It's not true at all. I'm stubborn, and I cannot throw in the towel. So sometimes I should have thrown in the towel, and I hang in there. What's true is the first thing that I touched, I hit a real home run with. And when you do that, it gives you, it gives you a little, little step. You know, when you're walking around, you can invest in other things and, you know, if they don't go so well, it's not the end of the world. So, yeah, but I was close to, I, I was close to looking at another job to go have another job, right? So.

But yeah, so the first one worked out, but there was six months telling.

You to quit, no question. And let me tell you. And, the reason I wore that tie is I needed that. I needed that around my neck to, to say, hey, this is serious. This is, you know, work longer, work more hours, whatever it takes. Knock on more doors. So yeah.

What changed? You tied the, the knot tighter.

You know, I don't know. Sometimes the grace of God, sometimes, you know, you work. The harder you work, the luckier you get, you know?

and all of those are true, but there. What was it? Do you remember a specific door?

Yeah, you know, it was just. You keep your head down with the, the things that, I was focusing on. you know, I, I just needed to close one of those big jobs and this wasn't in the lighting. It's just a completely different industry. but, yeah, I, I had to close one of those big deals and once that happened, it was like the floodgates opened.

M. M. Vince started his landscape lighting business six months ago

It was like, this is happening. It's like I couldn't stop them from coming. M. So, yeah, but, but I, But I will tell you, I was, you know, I was. I'd worked for Pfizer and I'm thinking, man, maybe I'll call them back and see if they want my sorry ass. So. But, it worked out. Worked out for us.

Well, gosh, I love it so much because I'm just telling you, like, I remember starting my landscape lighting business so excited and, and I. There was months I couldn't pay myself, but it didn't matter because I was an entrepreneur and it was awesome. But then there became that time where all of a sudden I would get those emails and they're like, we're hiring a marketing manager. Salary 65,000. Like, damn, kind of sounds nice right now. Be done by five every day and just have a paycheck. and I powered through too. Like, I just know that 99.9% of the people would not have, they would have given up sometime within that six month period. But there was something driving you to push forward. that's just. I, love it. Man. I hope someone gets inspired by that. To know that like, just because what you're doing today, it didn't turn you in to a millionaire or billionaire or whatever your goal is, doesn't mean it's not like this is. Adversity is what we need. Like, we. That's what, that's what helps us grow. That's what helps us become stronger. And, and I'm hoping that someone listening today is going to be inspired by that for sure. That's crazy, Vince. I didn't know that story. Six months of hell to. To the promised land.

What's the relationship between Inception and Mesh Tech

I did have one question I wrote down and I. I've been meaning to ask you this. You, mentioned Mesh Tech. What's the relationship between Inception and Mesh Tech.

Yeah, so, so in Inception Lighting was. We came up with the idea, right? We came up with the idea of the tracking system, that basically looks like crown molding when you put it on a, ah, property. Right. and, and really the idea around, you know, permanent lighting and there's, there's some other, you know, it was really interesting when we first got started. We kept, I don't know what, what's going on in Utah, where you guys are from, but I kept having people saying, hey, I'd like a sample of that. I'd like a sample of that.

You know, we're in the Mecca. Like you're in the Mecca. This is like the heartland of permanent lighting, I'm telling you guys.

Yeah, so, so, so, Inception Lighting owns that patent. The technology side of the thing is owned by meshtech in Blue Hopper. So two different companies. I own part of meshtech, and I, me and a couple of guys own Inception Lighting. So they control the technology side of things and we control, you know, the tracking side of things and have our own brand in the market. So multiple, multiple brands in the market like Blue Hopper and I'm, I'm indifferent, on who you, the product that you sell. Blue Hopper is a great product. Inception, they're the same product. I think, I think the story there, it's, it's an ecosystem of products. And if you're going to have one controller that can control 40 different Menlion products, landscape lighting, floodlights, bistro lights and roof line lighting, I think what they built at meshtech is profound and I think that they're going to continue doing that and make that system better and better all the time. So when I found them, it was very, very important to, for me to partner with them because I think that technology is going to be the differentiator in what we do. Because when I talk to cities and you start talking about safety and security, security, and you start talking about 911 and you start talking about tracking of assets, there's different budgets that are available to you than beautification.

Okay, so the, the Mesh Tech and Blue Hopper is. They all do they own. Do they use mainly on or what's, what's that relationship?

No, again, they, they license technology to different companies. Right. So, so they license that that controller technology to the milion company. Yeah.

And then they have. Minlion has their own track. I'm assuming they do.

They, they've got their own tracking system. Inception has a tracking system is also, also that houses the, the Minlion Nugget as well. So, so four different house. So this spring will have the, the Inception fat track, we'll have the Minlion Nugget track. We'll have a skinny track for, you know, cheaper jobs around houses and around gutters and, and then we'll come out with, we'll have a product that is a downward facing product that's more similar to like the Omni product or the Jellyfish or Trim Light, some of those products. So, so again, one app that controls them all.

So when you say the technology, it's, it's obviously you have your own track, but like, you could use, you guys could all like the different manufacturers could have different lights or diodes, but using the same technology. Is that right?

That's right. You know, so if anyone's out there interested in, you know, those types of things, connecting. Because, our, our general idea is to be the control system, right? The control system, all of these things. So if there's folks that have lights and they want, this to work in this ecosystem, I'll get them connected to the owner of Mesh Tech and make sure they sit down and have a conversation because it's just another product that gets added to the, to, to the ecosystem.

That's awesome, man. Well, dude, I can't wait. Next week we're going to be hanging out in Orlando.

Yeah.

if you guys have not gotten your ticket, come ask Vince how much he made. after getting paid, $0 for six months. I'm excited to hang out, man. you're an inspiration. And, I'm, I'm working through my six months right now. I'm trying to level up my game.

I bet you're there, brother. Keep swinging.

No, I love what I do and I appreciate you coming on here and, and thanks for sharing your time, your energy with us. Really appreciate events.

Yeah. Hey, Ryan, thanks. Congratulations on everything you're doing out there.

Thanks you, I think. I really appreciate it.

Come to Orlando for Light it Up Expo next week

All right, guys, this is gonna be awesome. Come to Orlando, hang out with us. Light it Up Expo next week. Hang out with Vince. Hang out with Inception Lighting. It's gonna be awesome. See you guys next week.