Lighting for Profits - Episode 230

JC and Angela Chanowsky don’t just run businesses together - they build systems and engines that scale them. From leading Patriot Illumination and Cape Fear Pro Wash to transforming how home service businesses operate through Unique Genius, this power couple brings real-world experience, blunt honesty, and proven strategies to the table. JC shares hard-earned lessons from building industry-leading companies, while Angela breaks down the systems, automations, and people-powered support that help owners buy back their time and scale with confidence. Together, they unpack what it really takes to blend marriage, leadership, and growth - showing entrepreneurs what’s possible when couples learn to lead side-by-side instead of pulling in opposite directions.

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Episode Transcript

Welcome to Lighting for Profits. All Light, All Light. Powered by EmeryAllen

Welcome to Lighting for Profits.

All light, all light.

All light.

Powered by EmeryAllen.

Here is your host, Ryan Lee.

Ryan Lee: I'm excited to nerd out on outdoor lighting today

All right, all right, all right, let's go. It's the number one landscape lighting show in Wilmington, North Carolina. Gosh, I love Wilmington. I've actually been there. I actually went, to Wilmington, North Carolina for sales boost. 20, 23 maybe. that was cool. You like flying in, you see like a battleship and stuff. So, excited to nerd out on outdoor lighting today. I hope you guys want to make a lot of money and, hope you want to be reminded why we live in an awesome country and why we also get to operate in a badass industry. I'm telling you, the exterior illumination industry is where it's at. it's so cool. It's so cool, guys. We get to offer outdoor lighting to people. And again, like, people need it, of course. Like, if they don't have lighting, they're probably gonna, not be on this earth much longer because of a break in or something, right? But what's even cooler is people want it. It's like they get to experience it, right? And people will drop like 5, $10,000 on a vacation to Hawaii that lasts seven days. When they drop 10 grand on lighting, they get to experience lighting every single night for the next 10 years. It's a no brainer. So get out of your own way and stop thinking, oh, I don't know, somebody for lighting. Of course they're gonna pay. It's awesome. Stop overthinking it. excited, guys. I'm Ryan Lee, by the way, your host of Lighting for Profits, powered by Emory Allen. Thank you, Emory Allen. we are here to educate and motivate to help you dominate. Guys, in just a few minutes we got J.C. chinowski. he's going to join the show and we're going to talk about all things outdoor lighting. We're certainly going to talk about, his class. He's actually doing a pre show class at, Light it Up Expo. We're going to be talking about unique Genius, which I love the name, I love the, the feeling. I feel actually when I say unique Genius because I'm. Ever since I met him and Angela, I'm like, what is my unique genius? And I started to question that. It's like, yeah, why wouldn't you hire out everything else so that you can focus on your unique genius? So we're going to talk about that and how you can get a strategic partner in your business for not a lot of money. And you're kind of a no brainer situation. so lots of good things coming up on today's show. Want to remind you, I'm still hunting for 100 five star reviews on Apple and I don't know what's going on because I was at a conference a couple weeks ago at the AOLP and someone came up to me and he goes, hey, I want to give you a review. But I couldn't figure out how to do it. And on Apple, it's not easy. It's not like you just go to Apple and like lighting for profits and like give a five star review. You literally have to like scroll down. It's kind of weird, right? So thank you to the 92 of you that have figured this out. But I saw him do the review. It's still not there. Like, I saw him like put it in. He wanted me to write it. I'm like, I ain't writing my own review. I, know people do that probably, right? But, so I don't know, something's up. Maybe I do know more than 92 people. Maybe I don't, I don't know. Definitely, conspiracy, going on over at the Apple podcast, Apple app. but, but again we got J.C. chinowski coming on, to talk all things unique genius, all things exterior illumination. And before I have him on, I, when I, when I do the show, I got to get some things off my chest. There's some things I'm like, oh, wait, I got to talk about this. This is, this is burning. So again, I, I told you a couple weeks ago, I was at the AOLP conference and one of the things I had the opportunity to speak, actually twice, and it was kind of cool because I could build on like, I did like a, a mini session and then I built on day two, kind of built on that and stacked it on and did this activity. And it was epic. And if you missed it, well, that's on you.

What is the one constraint holding you back in your business

but, one of the things that I shared was this concept of constraints, okay? And specifically the theory of constraints. So let's just imagine for a minute that you are an auto automobile manufacturer and you built this weird car. It only has an engine, it has a chassis, and it has a steering wheel. Okay? Obviously there's more components to that, but it would be too hard of a story or an example to share with you if we didn't simplify it. So let's just say your factory can produce 28 engines every single day. You can produce 28 motors to this car every single day. you can produce one chassis every single day, and you could produce 256 steering wheels per day. The question is, how many automobiles can you actually manufacture, produce, and get out the door every single day knowing that you can produce. I should have picked numbers or written them down, but you could produce, 20, 26 motors a day, one chassis and 256 steering wheels a day. Well, the answer is one, because your constraint is you can only produce one chassis a day. So even if you figured out how to do more than 256 steering wheels a day and you figured out how to do 500, it doesn't matter because you can only do one chassis per day. Now, the reason I share this with you is because I want to ask you, what is the constraint in your business? What is the one thing holding you back that if you solved, you could now do more production, you could get more things done? Right? And so if you're in this automobile factory example and you're not focusing a lot of your efforts on how to get two chassis out, three chassis, four chassis, five, ten, twenty, a hundred, if you're not focused on how to get more chassis built, it doesn't matter. You're not going to be more successful than you currently are. And I've seen this time and time again in lots of small home service businesses, but specifically lighting businesses where someone has a massive constraint. They can only do one chassis a day. They've got this constraint, but they're focused on something else. Oh, hey, I heard about this really cool design class. Oh, I'm going to go to that. Like, that's, that's like working and building more steering wheels. Oh, I really, There's this awesome webinar on hiring. I'm going to go to that. Okay. These aren't bad things. Creating a steering wheel, creating a motor, they're not bad things. At some point, you will need that in your process. But it's not the one thing, it's not the one constraint that you actually need to solve in your business. So why in the F are you wasting time on pointless shit that doesn't matter? Like, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter forever. It just doesn't matter right now. Okay? So becoming a better lighting designer, if that's the one thing, then that's what you should focus on. But if it's not, forget about it. Right? And so there's so many distractions in this world and so many distractions online and in business, and people telling you, oh, you should do this. You gotta be better at recruiting, you gotta be better at training, you gotta be better at designing, you gotta be better at leadership, and you gotta be better at sales. Like, it's all a bunch of BS until it's not, okay? And so find the one thing in your business, the one big domino, okay? Line up a bunch of dominoes. And if you knock over the one big domino, what happens to the rest, right? They all get knocked over. And so you guys are, like, trying to solve stuff. That's like step 56. It's like, who? Who cares? It doesn't even matter right now.

What's your big constraint now? I have a surprise for you

So what's your big constraint now? I have a surprise for you because I happen to know the exact constraint. Now, I'm going to be wrong about 1% of the time, but for 99 of you, I know what your constraint is, because I am M. AI. I'm not even real. I'm in your head right now. This is a game. Like, you're. You're not even alive. This isn't in the real world. No. But the reason I know is not because I'm special, not because, I am AI. It's just because the show is called Lighting for Profits. Okay? I talk a lot about pricing, I talk about a lot about sales, right? But the show is called Lighting for Profit.

The number one constraint of 99% of lighting businesses is profitability

So what do you think the number one constraint of 99% of lighting businesses actually is? The number one constraint is profitability. It's profitability. I don't care what you think it is. It is profitability. Most businesses just simply don't make enough money to do the things that they want and do the things that they need. Okay? And that. And that is a problem. That is a huge problem. It is the problem. It is the constraint. It is the domino. And honestly, this is probably going to be a message that I preach until I die. Like, it's just. It's never going to get old because this is the problem of small business. Even if you've heard this before, even people that have heard it, you haven't mastered it. So I'm gonna keep saying it. And you might be like, oh, yeah, I know, I know, I know. It's like, okay, don't keep saying I know, I know, I know. Just master it and then you can move on to the next thing, okay? Because I'm telling you, like, my entire business and my entire life changed when I figured this out. And with profitability, you can literally have everything. Like, you. Your. Your mindset shifts from a scarcity mindset, man. I remember being here thinking, oh, man, I don't know, like, what if. What if it doesn't work out? What if I hire this person and. And they're. And they don't stay a long term. What if I buy this truck and I don't get enough leads? What if I. Whatever. All the what if out of. Out of fear, right? But when you start to make profit and you have extra money in the bank, it allows you to breathe, it allows you to change your focus from how do I make more money to how do I serve more clients? How do I serve the world? How do I serve the economy, right? And so instead of making decisions out of fear and scarcity, you're making decisions based out of clarity, out of confidence, out of abundance. And it's not like, well, if I do this, I can't have this. It's like, no, you. You can do both. I mean, profit, I'm telling you guys, is. Is the one thing holding you back. When you need more profit, you can just pull another lever, okay? You can make another offer. You go get another client. Profit is the thing holding you back. When you have money, literally, suddenly, you can solve all these other little small things that have probably popping in your mind right now that you thought was your constraint. Okay? So actually, last year, I needed an extra hundred K. I was like, there was this real estate deal, and I was like, oh, man, it's a hundred thousand dollars. And I was like, should I, I was gonna, like, pull it out of my ira, okay? And then I was like, no, you idiot. Why would you pull that out of your ira? You've worked your ass off. You sacrificed. Like that money was earned with your blood, sweat, and tears. Like, why would you pull that out of there? And so I decided, you know what? I'm gonna put my own methods to the test. And, I made one offer, okay? I literally made one offer. Some of you maybe saw it, some of you maybe didn't, but within two weeks, I made an extra a hundred K. I didn't used to have that mindset. I didn't used to have that belief, okay? I used to make decisions based out of fear. Like, I don't know.

I probably.

I don't know. 100k seems risky, right? And it is. But guess what? It's less risky the more profit you have. Because if you only have 100k and you throw that into a deal and it doesn't work, it might look stupid when it doesn't. But if you got other hundreds of K's, Yeah, you're still fine. You don't have to eat ramen.

When you have more money, you're allowed to take more risk

Okay, so when you have more money, you're allowed to take more risk. And in a lighting business, when you have more money, guess what? You could pay your people more. In fact, you want to know what the secret. Can you guys tell? I'm, on one today. Like, sometimes I just get pissed off. Fed up. I'm like, I'm going off on everybody, the whole world. No one's. No one's home right now. So I'm good. but you want to know what the secret to building culture? Everyone talks about culture, right? Core values, culture. How do I keep people? How do I find the good ones? Oh, this m. This economy sucks. You can't find good people. The secret to recruit to recruiting all Stars. You're, like, trying to find that person that can replace you in the field. Like, how do you find them? What is the secret? How do you retain them if you've hired them? Man, there's. How do you retain this top quality talent? You just pay your people more, okay? You pay them more than they think they're worth. You pay them more than you told them you were going to pay them. Now, there's other stuff, of course, okay? but I'm telling you, people will work really hard for a lot of money, okay? Stop trying to get your people to do a two day job in one day. Because you don't understand profitability. You don't understand your numbers. That sounds like a you problem, not a them problem. Pay them more than they're expecting. You want more leads, guess what? Spend more money. Direct mail, Google Ads, wrap your trucks, yard signs, Facebook, Instagram. Oh, well, I tried Facebook. It didn't work. Well, you didn't do it long enough. You didn't spend enough money. You didn't have enough money to support your vision. Home mag, rsvp, postcards, all of it. Okay, guess what? It's not all gonna work. But as long as you're doing enough and spreading it out, you're gonna win more than you lose. And whoever can afford to outspend their competition is going to win this game every single time.

Figure out who is your ideal client. Avatar, who are you trying to serve

So, last thing, you want better clients. Okay, well, start saying no. You don't have to take these clients on and you're going, well, I do. I don't have enough cash flow. Again, profitability. Serve your client at the highest level. Figure out who is your ideal client. Avatar, who are you trying to serve? Because you don't have to say yes to everybody. And Again, hard to do when you don't have any money in the bank. Take care of your client after they've given you the money. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. They work so hard. They pay for ads. They get a lead, they get a customer. Cool. All right, where's the next one? Wait, what about your existing one? Why aren't you taking care of them? What's the average lifetime value of your client? All, right. Because that's where the real money's made. That's when you get referrals, you get repeat business. Okay? It's called a client journey for a reason. A client journey doesn't end when they pay you $12,000 for a lighting system. That's just the beginning.

Profit is the number one constraint in 99% of your businesses

Okay, so I. Listen, I could go into any market right now and dominate, because I understand that profit is king, and it is the number one constraint in 99% of your businesses. The other people, the 1%, maybe 2%. All right, I'll admit it. I'm wrong. Okay? Your constraint is something else, right? But for most of you, the number one constraint is profit. Because when you have money, when you have profit, you can solve a lot of these other issues. And it's that one big domino that's holding you back. So when you figure this out, guys, I'm telling you, the game becomes so easy because everyone else is so bad at it. Everyone else is so bad at profitability. That's your constraint. So that's my rant. What do you guys think? I mean, if you disagree, who cares? It's my show. You can't even talk right now. But if you do disagree, I'm actually open. I'll probably argue, but, I do like different perspectives. all right. Where's my music? Oh, there it is. Hey, listen, friends, don't let friends install garbage lamps. If you want less callbacks, more referrals, and repeat business, stick with Emory Allen. Emory Allen makes premium LED lamps for lighting professionals who demand the best. Don't settle for less. Upgrade your designs and installations today with Emory Allen. Reach out to tom gmryallen. com to learn more and take advantage of their contractor pricing. Again, reach out to Tom Garber. His email is tom gmeryallen. com don't forget to mention that you heard about him, here on Lighting for Profits. And he will hook you up with that discounted contractor pricing. Don't go to their website. Just email Tom g@emeryallen. com.

Ryan Lee welcomes J.C. Chanowski to the show

All right, guys, now it's time. Are you guys ready to get J.C. on. I love hanging out with J.C. i want him to live in my house. Let's get the music going. What is up? What is up? Welcome to the show. J.C. chanowski.

Mr. Ryan Lee. How we doing, buddy?

I'm fired up, man. I love life, I love lighting, and I love profitability.

Dude, I swear, I'm so glad nobody could see me in the backstage just dying, laughing. Like, you. You just rip it. I mean, you speak the truth. I mean, you speak what people need to hear now, what they want to hear. it's probably not for everybody, but for people like me and yourself, it's what we want. so I appreciate the enthusiasm, the raw energy, the truth, and just being you.

Thanks, man. I. I appreciate it. And by the way, I hope it doesn't come across like I'm holier than thou. I know everything, dude. I'm trying to get ripped right now. And so, like, it's easy for me to, like, solve the profitability thing. It's hard to work on my physical body. So, like, to get motivated to be like, damn it, I know it's right. I need to go do it. Like, I get it. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's really. Certain things are easier for people. Some things are harder. So, like, for me to, like, want to eat healthy and go, like, I know I need to do these things, it's just hard. So I hope that I surround myself with people like yourself that, like. Like, I saw you the other day. I'm like, damn, dude, he's getting ripped. That motivated me. And you've always been ripped, but, like, something. You're like, next level. And it's like, okay, like, the days I don't want to go in, like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go work out. Like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna keep pushing myself because I want to be included in the winner circle. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It takes discipline. I mean, it doesn't happen overnight. You know that. I mean, there's gonna take a lot of failures to get to that level you want. but being surrounded with like minded individuals like yourself, myself, and having that circle to keep pushing you and keep you motivated, and that's why I love Angela. Like, you know, there's days where I'm just. I don't. I don't know what I'm saying here. I'm like, am I allowed to say, like, there's days I want to be a. And then she's like, like, just shut up and let's go. Get to the gym. Like, yesterday in New York City, she's like, get up. You are going to the gym. I was like, babe, I don't want to go. I'm in New York City. She's like, get the up. I'm like, all right, I'm going to the gym. So.

Dude, that's awesome. I love that.

Pat Clark: Shouldn't it be easier to build a business

Yeah, it. Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not right. Like, it. Usually resistance is a signal of, like, you should do that. And so it's funny because as humans, we're like, oh, resistance. I should back down like this. If it was, it should be easier. Shouldn't it be easier to build a business? Like, no. Like. Like, that's how we. Like, I literally determine everything. Like, if. If I go work out and it's hard, I'm like, okay, that. That means something's happening. I'm building a muscle.

Yeah.

You know, if it's easy and you're not really sore after, doesn't mean it's bad. It's just me. You're just not going to get growth.

Right?

Right.

Yeah. No good stuff, man. And you were talking. I. I had to pull this up real fast. I'm looking at my phone because I wrote this down today, and it was. Most business owners don't need more motivation. They need fewer responsibilities. And, you know, you're kind of talking about, like, they go out and they seek the books, they seek the audios, they go to the conventions, they. They pay for the coaches, and they have it all inside them. But they just got too much going on at once, and they just need to start letting that some of those things go to start dialing in those things. So that message you. You're speaking, it spoke the truth. And, like, I was, like, resonating with everything you're saying.

So, yeah, that's awesome. I know it's. It's hard because, you know, there. We're on a podcast right now. You know what I mean? Like, so. So does that mean you shouldn't listen to the podcast? And I'm like, hell, yeah. If that means that, like, you just need to go knock doors, jobs get booked out six weeks, and if this is distracting you, then turn this off. You know, like, find the one thing that you actually need and go do it. So now we just lost our audience and probably m not going to get to 100 reviews.

I did do my one review, though. So now you're at 93 or at least one step closer. It might be 94. By the time they add the other.

Guys, I know, I'm like, how long does this take? I'm impatient. Let's go.

It's a process.

you've been on the show before. We've hung out, we've done trainings, we've done stuff, lives. But just those that may not know you. Who is jc?

Yeah. So again, thanks for having me back. And, yeah, just got to have some time with you on Salt Lake, out there with the door Door Con crew. Just, a great, energy to be around you. And I always appreciate you from the first day I met you. I was a little intimidated back then, but now I can have real conversations with you because I'm not, not afraid to come up to talk to Ryan Lee or ask for help.

So weird. That is so weird.

but serial entrepreneur, like most people, I started in the nav back in 2004. And, prior to that I was going nowhere fast in life, so I just had to do something, get out, join the Navy when I was 23, 24 years old. Got out, became an entrepreneur in 2000, nine, which is the best year you could have started entrepreneurship in home, like any of the home spaces because, you know, the collapse of real estate and all that stuff. Why not? Who, who else would think, that's a good idea besides me? So I started the pressure washing, did that for a few years, went back to the Navy, realized that really wasn't what I wanted to keep doing Life. And then 2019, about two years after I started, Christmas Lights was on when I woke up. And I said, you know what, jc, it's time to, you know, stop playing and pretending to be an entrepreneur and actually become one. so I, I joined a mastermind. I got a coach, Pat Clark. He became my coach. I finally started hiring people. I got out of the way and started empowering people to do the things that I really suck at, but that I thought I was really good at, like sales and administrative. and the business grew. So 2019, we did about 250, maybe 300, then went to 500, 750, a million. I think we did 1.75 between the two of, washing and lights in 2023. And then, yeah, so I just had really fun opportunity, to be able to grow the business, scale it and, in a small market down in Wilmington, North Carolina. Like I said, it's really beautiful area. We've hosted, my wife and I, we've hosted two sales Boost, events with some incredible speakers like yourself showing up to those to help entrepreneurs, you know, get out of the way from being the bottleneck. And now really focused on Unique Genius, our strategic partner, AKA virtual, assistant company, with my wife and having fun growing that and helping business owners scale affordably and responsibly. and that's about it right now. That's kind of a nutshell, man. Other than traveling, like, you know, our main focus is helping business owners be the best version of himself.

Dude, I love it.

The intro to this podcast hits on everything that I want to unpack

All right, so that was actually a great intro because it hit it, like, hit on everything that I just want to unpack now. So that was, like, amazing. Is this scripted? Like, what's happening? I hope Angela's not listening because I, I heard you say a dirty word in there.

Oh, yeah, you said funny. It's funny because she doesn't say them too often. When she does, it's like, what, what did you just say? I'm like, Then I'll pull out the phone, like, say it again, say it again.

Well, we're going to talk about all these things. I was like, are we going to talk about travel hacking? Are we going to talk about building a personal brand on social media? Are we going to talk about how to find your unique genius or building a profitable lighting business? There's so many good things to go.

Down with the profits. We can get more travel hacks and then, you know, do all the things. So, I mean, it all leads to each other.

Mark was focused on building a business instead of building a job

Well, one thing that I've, I, I've just always admired about you is at some point, I didn't know you before you were who you are now. And I've. And that I shouldn't say that because I've seen a progression every year. Whereas, like, when I met you, JC 2021 or whatever is different than the one now for sure. But Even at the 2021 Mark was after you'd hired a coach, you'd gotten intentional. You were focused on building a business instead of building a job. Go back to that time when you, when you said you met Pat Clark or whatever. Like, what, what was the switch? Because I feel like there becomes a time where you either just get fed up and quit and go get a job. A lot of people do that, and nothing wrong with that. But for the people that don't want that, that are fed up and want to keep moving forward and get to the next level, what was going on in your mind at that time? Like, how did all that happen?

Yeah. And, I think this is common for most business owners. I hope I'm not alone in feeling this, but as we start, our entrepreneurial journey, we think we know everything. I mean we're the best at what we do. Nobody, can sell a job like I can do. Nobody can answer the phone and speak like I can do. Nobody can go do the work as fast and as a five star service as I can do. so I was stuck in my head thinking like, if it's going to get done, it's going to get done by me. Like nobody wants to work, nobody's gonna do jc, nobody's gonna do KP or Pro Wash. They're all just a bunch of losers out there. And anybody else who's built a successful business has no clue what they're talking about. I know everything. And I quickly found out that I was wrong. Like I am the worst person. As an admin, I, I, I'm good at sales, but I don't really enjoy doing sales. I'm a very high visionary. I think it was like a 98 I scored on the visionary integrator test. And I'm like an 80, somewhere around 80 something integrator. So I have this, all these great ideas, I just suck at executing and implementing them all. And that was like what I kept tripping over like all the time. Like, great idea, let's start it, we're not going to finish it and then go on to the next idea. And we just, I was stagnant, I wasn't growing. And I'm I'm on social media and I see Pat Clark who bring him up because he was the, really the catalyst for all this. And he grew up like me, you know, I mean he was poor. he's got a beautiful family. He's able to scale his business to seven figures in pressure washing, super humble, like always being vocal, trying to help people. And like you. The first time I talked to him, I sent him a message. I'm like, pat's not going to want to talk to me. And I sure enough, I sent him a message on Facebook Messenger. It's like January 2019. I'm like, Pat, I need help. He's like, give me a call. And I give him a call and he's like, what are you doing? I was like, pat, I don't know. He's like, well, what do you know about Conquer? I'm like, I don't know anything. He's like, all right, cool. You need to join Conquer. I'm Gonna be your coach. He's like, you're coming to sales boost in two months. Go ahead and sign up for that. I'm like, pat, you know what? You've done it. I believe in everything you're saying. I'm gonna do it. I didn't wait. I didn't go, you know, think about it. I'm not saying this is bad. I didn't go pray about it. and I'm, you know, I just, I'm a guy that if I, if I think it's right, I'm gonna do it. And Pat made me feel is right. So I didn't hesitate. I signed up for conquer right there. Pat was my coach. I signed up for sales boost, went out to that six weeks later, and literally like the whole trajectory changed right after that because I just broke the shackles, like the bottleneck. I broke the tip of the bottleneck and now everything's flowing. Pat's like, you got to increase your prices.

Cool.

You got to do packages, cool. You got to hire people. Awesome. So I didn't wait, I didn't hesitate. I executed. And if I failed along the way, that's fine, I'll figure it out. But Pat did it. Pat knew what he was talking about. So Pat can do it, then I sure as hell can do it too. And that's, you know, one thing that I see most business owners like where they fail is hesitation. Like, I don't know, like, you know, yeah, you built a seven figure company, but you know, yeah, you able to hire 20 people but like, you know, no, don't. But they did it. The wheel has already been made. It's already been molded. You don't need to remold this wheel. You don't need to figure out your own. You don't need to go try 17 different things to see which one works. If somebody's going to give you a blueprint and it's very successful. Now, I'm not saying it's going to work for you 100% of the time, but there's a good chance if you execute at a high level, don't hesitate, embrace failing, because there's a good chance you will fail along the way. You're going to get success along the way to do it. And that's what happened. Like, I just continue to, get, you know, increase our success and then I'd fail and I'd just get broken down real quick. But, I wouldn't wait a month or two months to get back into it. I'm back right There, like, an hour later, I'm like, all right, what did we learn from this? How can we improve on this?

North Carolina Chin says he empowered his employees to do what he wanted

How can we not let this happen again? Cool. Go. Next. And I mean. I mean, we were able to incrementally just increase and hire. And we went from. In 2019, we had three people. In the beginning of the year, I think we closed out of seven. And then 20, 23, we had 23 people. at, the height of our Christmas light, business, working with us. Now, part of it was me, because I'm a great visionary. I love culture. I love building teams. But the. The main part of it was the people I hired. And when I hired them, I empowered them to do what I hired them to do. I didn't hire them to micromanage them. I didn't hire them to look over their shoulders and say, yeah, you're doing this wrong. This is how exactly how I would do it. You messed up. Make it correct. because they were doing really good things, and sometimes even better than I would do it. I would just let them roll with it. I. I didn't want them to feel like, well, I gotta ask jc. And that's what happened with my operations manager in the beginning. He called me, hey, jc, how do you do this? How do you fix this? What do you do here? And I would never give him the answer, because if I gave him the answer, then he'd be waiting for me to give him the answer every single time. I'd say, hey, Joe, what would you do? And he's like, I would do this. And he's like, all right, cool. And even if it's a little bit different than I would do it, it was still going to get in the result we wanted. I'm like, then go ahead and do it. I never shut him up. I never say, well, I would do it this way, unless there was, like, an epic failure. And I didn't want him to get hurt. But I empowered him, and then eventually he'd stopped calling me. Then I'm like, well, Joe, you never call me anymore. He's like, well, I know what to do now. and it's just like us. We usually know what to do, but we're. We're afraid. We're afraid to make the step. We're afraid of failure. We're afraid to make the next M move because of the result that might happen. But how often, you know, do we do things and then we look back a year? I'm like, why was I so afraid to hire that person? That was so easy. Like, Now I hired 10 more people. Like, in, in that moment, it's scary and it's ugly and we're afraid, but really in the reality is, like, if we execute it and if it doesn't work, all right, we'll figure it out. But more often than not, it's gonna work out really good, and you're gonna be like, all right, well, that was easy. Now what's next? So I really think, like, just the execution along the way of Pat and then Michael Gregory being around you, the bbb, like, I just put myself around leaders and like, high executing business owners, to get myself out of my head to say, stop overthinking it and start doing it.

Well, dude, I. I just had this picture, like, pop in my mind. It's like this vision. It's like a vision I literally just did. But first of all, congrats, because not everyone has the courage to, to make those decisions. Not everyone has the courage, like, all right, he said sign up for the thing, go to sales boost, join the program. Like, you know, it's. It's probably not even 80, 20 rule here. We're probably talking, like, only the top 5, 1%, whatever, decide to do that. So congrats on, On. On doing that and the success that you've had so far. And I feel like, from what I know of you, like, you're just getting started. You know what I mean? So that's cool. But I had this picture just pop up in my mind literally, as you're talking, where I'm like, man, imagine someone else, or you 2019, and you, you hit this fork in the road, okay? And someone was out there, probably not named JHC Chinowski, but probably someone in your similar situation. They live in South Carolina versus North Carolina or Montana or whatever, right? You decided to take this path. You literally went toward what I call faith. Like, faith is a. Is a verb. It's an action word. It's not like, oh, I believe it's going to work, but I'm just going to hang around and wait. Like, you literally took this step. Like, I believe that this person in. In this person, probably more than me at this point, but I'm going to do this. Someone else had this. This path where they can go left and there. That. That path was hope. I hope it works. Well, hope to me, is not a strategy, right? It's very like, I just hopefully things will be fine. Like, no, they're not going to be fine. In fact, maybe they will be fine, but Is that what you want? Like, are you going to accept. Fine, are you going to accept average? Or, like, are you going to take action? So I literally just had this thought, and I thought, Damn, what would JC's life look like?

Yeah, I don't want to know.

Didn't do that.

JC: You're controlling a lot of what happens in your life

Yeah, like, what.

What would that. What would that life look like? And I. And I see what you're doing, and, like, the. The life that you're literally creating. Like, you are controlling. like, maybe not everything, but you're controlling a lot of what happens in your life. Right? And I'm like, man, there's someone else out there that didn't do that. Like, what does the JC look five, six years later that didn't decide to do the hard thing?

So, funny story. And like you, Ryan, like, we're very passionate, and it might come across as cocky or arrogant, but that's not the case. Like, you and I are very similar in a lot of things other than I don't like landscape lighting. You love landscape lighting, but I don't like Christmas lights.

I'm just doing a show called Light it Up Expo, and I felt bad for the Christmas.

But, like, you know, you're out there. You got this. This podcast, you put it on the show. You got all these incredible opportunities for people because you really want people to be success. And you. You have that energy. And sometimes we may come across as, like, you know, a little too harsh, but I promise you, it's because we want the best. And if we sit here and just try and hold your hand and tell you what you think you need to hear and not. Or tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear, like, you're going to be that person. So two years ago, I was at the airport flying home, and somebody saw me flying and said, hey, you got time to talk? I'm like, sure. It was a guy who started pressure washing right around the same time I did in 2009. This is two years ago now. So fast forward, what's, that 8, 9, 10, 15 years, whatever it was, 16 years. And, still on the truck, still no employees, still trying to figure it out. That was that the path, Like, I took the one. And. And I didn't say I hope, I said it will. And he's still hoping. Like, why? I mean, I get it. Sometimes it's scary. Sometimes it's a financial thing, whatever it is, but if you don't believe in yourself, then maybe you shouldn't be an entrepreneur. because if you can't believe in yourself, then nobody else is going to believe in it for you. And yes, I, I made some mistakes along the way. Yes, there are some financial repercussions along the way, but if I didn't have those, I wouldn't be resilient enough to continue on when I continue to fail throughout life. And I'm not gonna, like, today is not gonna be the day where I never have another failure going forward. There will be more failures. There might be a failure this week, there might be a failure next month, There'll probably be 10 more failures next year. And I'm fine with that. Like I always say, as long as nobody gets hurt and you fail, that's okay, because we can get through this and we can learn from it. But I'm not afraid to fail and I'm not afraid to talk about that. I do that on, on social media. I tell all the time, like when I do, when I'm down, when I'm bad, like, Josh Latimer always says, like, you know, people feel like they're over here on Lonely island. And I don't want people to feel like that because I was in your shoes. There's a good chance if you're going through a struggle right now. I went through that struggle too, where I was broke, I had no money in the bank. I didn't know I was gonna make payroll. the guy who I thought I needed had to let go and he quit. And then I lost my whole entire company in, in 2003. And it was literally just me in my office crying because I didn't know how to get through 2023. And then we still somehow did $900,000 in Christmas lights by literally hiring everybody brand new. And I wasn't afraid. Like, ah, at the moment I was scared. But I knew everything I've overcome in life, like, that's just one person for me to figure out to get to the next level.

Cool.

Got the one person, then we got the next person, then we got eight more people. But if I gave up every time I failed, I'd still be the 2019 version of JC and I sure as I wouldn't be talking to you right now.

That's, ah, crazy. That's such a good perspective, man. You know, this, this concept of failing, you know, failing forward. and, and I'm the same way. Like, I want people to know too. Like, dude, they're like, man, like, don't you ever like, have fear? And aren't you ever scared to get up on stage? I'm like, hell yeah, dude. If you got a heartbeat monitor, I just, like, I just look good because I've, like, practiced, right? But, like, the fear is real. I literally, I just have more courage than I do fear. I, don't know what to say. Like, and that's rooted in, like, I mean, there's, you know, start with why and all this stuff, but it's rooted in, like, listen, I believe in what I'm doing so much more than how I, how, how people perceive me or how I look. What if I screw up on stage? What if I screw up on the podcast? Like, it doesn't matter. Like, I know I'm going to. It's like, I, know I'm going to say something stupid. I know I'm going to say something I regret. I said douchebag the other day on a stage and a bunch of. Front of a bunch of professionals. I'm like, all right, I probably shouldn't have done that. But you know what? Like, no, I believe in the mission. Like, I believe in, like, what's possible here. So I'm not going to be so selfish that I let myself get in the way because there's a bigger job to do here, you know, and so you gotta have courage, guys. You gotta have courage and just know that, like, you're gonna screw up, you're gonna look stupid, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna get a one star review. You're not going to be the best trainer on day one. You're not gonna be the best leader, but you don't, you're not gonna win the game. What do they say? You miss a thousand or, 100 of shots you don't take or whatever?

You've got to come up with what is your dream

Like, you've got to be in their arena. You've got to show up and, and if you're like, no, I don't. I can just keep doing what I'm doing, then that's fine.

That's just.

Maybe this show isn't for you, right? Like, we're not trying to convince you of someone else's dream. Like, you got to come up with what is your dream? What is your trajectory? What are you actually trying to accomplish on this earth? And it's not just about making money. I mean, the profit is the, is the, the constraint. And then what? I mean, you, you're a beautiful example of it. Like, like, I'm like, when are you going to start a, like, travel hacking business? Like, send me the link. I freaking love it. like, as soon as you get home you're on another flight. I'm like, how is this happening? But that doesn't happen without profitability. So it's not about the money. It's about the experiences. It's about living your life to the fullest. And you can't do that unless you have profit.

Amen. Yeah. And I'm just, you know, you got. I mean, I'm freaking pumped right now, dude. I literally just got off a plane two hours ago. My daughter came home to. To go do this with you. And I'm like. Like, just. I'm ready, dude. I'm about to get out. As soon as we're done here, I'm gonna work out. Because, like, you got me going. Like, and. And I. I just feel it, and it just drives me insane. Like, you want to just go up and, like, choke people sometimes? Like, what are you doing? I mean, I see it all the time. And if you're listening and this is you, like, this was me, too, before. Like, stop trying to chase every shiny idea. Stop trying to go from group to group to group, product to product to product. Like, at some point you need to sit down, look yourself in the mirror, and that's a scary vision sometimes, to look at yourself in the mirror and start pointing that mirror and say, it is my fault. It is my fault we're not successful. It's my fault we can't hire people. It's my fault we can't keep people.

And.

And that's okay. And that. And that's something you just need to realize. But don't sit there and blame everybody else and think the next thing is gonna be the best thing for you when you haven't figured out the last 400 things. And I see it all the time in these groups. They just go and go and go, and they stay stagnant, stagnant. They try and spend all this money when they just stop and start realizing, why are you doing this? Why did you start a business? Because most time, it's. It's the glam, right? It's the Instagram. We got to get the seven figures. We gotta get the cars, we gotta do all the shiny things. We gotta look cool. And, like, when I hit seven figures in 2022, I think it was Michael Gregory, he's my coach. He's like, dude, you just hit seven figures and it's like, October or something. I'm like, oh, that's cool. Because I was chasing that for the wrong reason. And now I don't care about the numbers. Like, this year, we Did a lot less than we've done ever before, but we were extremely profitable. And that was way cooler. Like, it wasn't, oh, well, we still did a million dollars, but, like, I didn't even care, though, because we were extremely profitable, that the top number did not matter. Me, I don't give two shits what that number was. If there's nothing. The bang at the end of the day. but if you're listening, like, guys, you gotta just start executing. Stop waiting. There's not going to be a perfect moment. You know, there's. There's not going to be a bird that comes to your door, says, hey, right now's the time. Like, just do it. And it might be expensive, but I, I consider an investment, not an expense. It might hurt, it might take some time, but if you don't do it, what's the result of that? Like you said, you'll miss 100 shots you never take. Start taking the shots.

It's well said because I used to be on the side of like, well, how much does it cost? You know, Like, I don't know, it seems. Seems risky, like, to hire someone to buy the thing, to invest in your business, whatever we're talking about. Right? And then now I just like, well, how much is it going to cost me to not do it? Right. It's just, it's almost the same question, but completely different actually. And you start, you know, retraining your subconscious, like, man, life. Life can be fun again.

We were going to have Angela on, but she's out. I want to talk unique genius

we. I want to talk unique genius. And we were going to have Angela on, but she's out. I mean, she's out earning the money. JC's, you know, stay at home, husband.

Now and travel coordinator.

Yeah, yeah. Are you the. Can I hire you? Could you be my travel coordinator? I don't. Could I afford you?

Hey, that. That is my unique genius. I love it. It lights me up.

That's sweet.

Sometimes we get way too emotional when we're hiring, Ronnie says

Well, let's. What is unique genius? Like, what are you guys doing? What's new? What, what? Let's. Let's figure it out.

Yeah, I mean, you know, Angela started this baby, six years ago. And, she's on a mission just to help business, owners scale affordably and have fun doing it. And, you know, hiring is not for everybody. And, and sometimes we get way too emotional and when we're trying to hire somebody and that cycle of hiring, it can be a very expensive. And I. If you're listening to this and your first time hiring, you're thinking about hiring, maybe you've hired a couple People like, I don't think anybody really ever puts the value of hiring how much it costs to hire somebody like, and actually does the math on this. Because if you think about it like first I have to think of who the person is, then I have to write the job ad, then I have to post the job ad, then I have to review the applications, then I have to make the phone calls to try and do the phone interviews, then I have to set up the in person interviews, then I have to set up the interviews for them, show up, but they don't show up anyway. That's a lot of time that's elapsed. And then maybe you hire somebody, maybe it start all over again. You put them in, they quit a month later and they have to do it all over again. That, that's very expensive. Especially as a business owner. Like your time is not worth 15 bucks an hour. It should be worth 200, $500,000 an hour doing those high level tasks. so you know, what we did is we took away the friction from the hiring to be able to find high level virtual team members based in the Philippines to embed embody into your company. Usually typically within five days from the, you know, a week after you talk to Angela or Hildy and say, hey, this is what I'm looking for, this is the position I want to hire, this is what I expect. Typically three to five days later, we're already doing an in person interview with your person, your strategic partner, and putting somebody that's got experience and let's say you want a csr, which is probably our most common, they've got phone experience, computer experience. We're going to find somebody that has experience in the CRM that you're working with. so they're very already in depth into that. That's kind of hard to find, for business owners to go find somebody in your local neighborhood that's used to jobber or customer factor or house call pro. You don't just find that locally. so we're able to find really great talent in the Philippines that have some experience in that and at a low cost, put them working for your company as a full time employee 40 hours a week. you know, I mean start them off, doing phones, answering inbound calls, outbound calls, scheduling, invoicing, estimating social media, posting, basic bookkeeping, you know, some of the low level stuff that they can get started on so that you as the business owner can focus on the high level task. real quick, I'm going to Jump over. I mentioned earlier, in 2023, I lost everybody in my company while we're on stage. Ryan, I don't know if I told you this before. Maybe I did. While we're on stage, it was the last week that my office manager is working for me. So. Talk about failures. I meant that sales booth speaking about running a business. And my office manager said, I'm done. I'm leaving. I'm going to another company. And I'm trying to be motivated, fired up, knowing that, like, the woman who ran my office for five years is leaving me. I've got nothing after that, after she leaves, other than Ronnie, who m my strategic partner from, Unique Genius. But at that moment, I was like, well, I'm done. Like, I don't know what the hell I'm gonna do. I'm sitting here on stage, trying to be motivated, and I feel like a failure in the background because I got to leave here and go home to nothing, to my business. Well, I was wrong. I. I gave Ronnie the.

The.

The keys to everything. I said, ronnie, I've got to go in the field and work because I got a couple of the guys left, and I need you to do this for me. So, Ronnie, strategic partner in the Philippines. Every single phone call with a client, every single scheduling, every single invoicing, every single estimate, every single communication with our team in the field from the clients in April. The first time we've ever hit six figures in April, flawlessly executed, all remotely done from the Philippines with Ronnie. And, like, I knew she was awesome, but it was when I saw those final numbers, when I. I really, like. I was like, okay, the sky is the limit. Like, we can't just stop them right here and just give them the basic stuff. Like, they are so much more better than that and sometimes way much better than our team working here in the States. So, just a huge testament, testimonial to the success a virtual assistant, AKA strategic partner, can, offer you and your business to be able to get out of working on the biz or in the business. Work on the business.

Man, I. I still find it so surprising when I meet a small business owner. They run a lighting business, and they say they all say the same thing, but I'm still just shocked. I'm like, you still answer your own phone? And I'm like, I mean, I remember being dumb. I don't know. It's just like, why? Because, like, I literally. I was. I tell this story. I was in a tree changing a light bulb. I missed a phone Call. No big deal. I'd missed plenty of other phone calls, right? And people go, no, I answer all the calls. No, it's impossible. You're in a sales appointment, and you just answer the phone mid. No, you don't answer. They go, well, no, I don't mean I answer, but I call them right back, no. Okay, good. We're on the same page. You don't answer all your calls, right? And I. Same thing. I called the lady back. She goes, oh, no, we're good. We got an appointment with another lighting company. I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah, no good. And she's a nice Dallas lady, you know, I couldn't even get mad at her and yell at her. I was like, okay, see you. See you later. Bye.

No business owner should ever be answering their own phone

Our average ticket was $5,000 at the time. In my mind, I'm like, damn, I just lost 5,000. And then I started thinking, what about the other person? What about the other person? What about the other people? Because I call people back, but they don't always answer, so I never even got a hold of them. People don't think about this so quickly. It was 5, 10, 20, 50, $60,000 that I had lost, and I didn't even know about strategic partners. Vas. I mean, this was literally in, like, 2010. Right. And so now there is no excuse. No business owner should ever be answering their own phone. That. That is just, like, the. The biggest sin in the world. And these strategic partners don't cost. I mean, I even made the excuse, like, well, I can't afford someone because I got to pay them 50 grand a year, and I didn't have a shop at the time. So if I get a shop, that's going to be another two grand a month. So that's 24. So now, Mike, I don't have 75 grand to hire someone. Right? So even. Even if I was right, let's just say, like, the numbers are completely different now. You don't need a location. You don't have to spend 50 grand. I mean, we're talking a fraction to work with unique genius and get a strategic partner. But then again, you go back to, like, this. This. This position pays for itself.

Yep.

I, wouldn't say overnight, but within the first 30 days. Just. You just need one extra job out of it. Like, are you kidding me?

Yeah. I mean, as business owners. And I. I ask all the time that same question, like, how many calls you missed? Oh, none. All right, come on, now. Like. Like you said, if, Ryan, if. If I'M at a sales call with you or at a job like, hey, Ryan, let me show you around your house real quick and show you what the lights we can do. Oh, hold on, I got a phone call coming in. I'll be back in five minutes. Ryan, let me take this call. Like no, you're not doing that. Like you're letting go to voicemail. You're calling back later. You missed an opportunity. Like you had your one chance. Like you missed out. If you can't answer the phone now, you're probably not gonna answer the phone later. so you know, these business owners, they think like, oh, I'm the best, only I can answer the phone call, only can I do this only no, you're not the best person, you're not the best admin because you're probably not doing the right follow ups. You're probably not doing the right communication steps. You're not doing the happy calls to make sure the client's happy after the job's done, making them become raving fans and asking for referrals and reviews. Like there's so many different things that you're missing out on and all those opportunities lead to more profit. so it's not an expense paying for this. It's an investment in yourself to buy back that time so you can do the things that really are important. Like you spending 10 more minutes with a client to, to get that average ticket from 5,000 to $6,000 because you're able to show them another light fixture, whatever it is. Well, great. That's $1,000 right there. That's almost half their freaking salary for the month. Done, paid for.

One missed phone call is costing you way more than hiring a strategic partner

so like again, we need to do an energy audit, as Andrew calls it. Like what is draining your energy throughout the day. And for me it's definitely admin. That's the first thing that comes to mind if I ever started a business over, I don't care what it was, the admin would be the first position I'd hire from the start, ready to go, like just offload it right now and then you can go out there and do the networking, doing the sales, do the training, do the installs. But the admin's taken care of because again, if you work all day and you're owner, operator, and you're out there doing installs and you come home at 6 o', clock, 6 o' clock at night, you try and say hi to the family, maybe you get time for dinner and then you're back at the computer trying to do the Estimates, the invoice and the follow up, the social media posting for what it doesn't matter how much money you make, if you got no time to enjoy your family is something I realized seven years ago. Like my kids don't care about how much money is the bank account. My kids care about dad. Like they want to see dad, not see dad as he walks out the door and kisses him goodbye. So yeah, like thinking big and realizing that you are the bottleneck. Like you saying you answer the phone every time you're probably not. I know you're not. I know for a fact you're not. Like you're missing out on opportunities. And anytime the phone used to ring, I'm like, here it is dad, a million dollar opportunity. Like you just never know. Our biggest ticket on a residential call was like a fifteen thousand dollar call. If I didn't have somebody answering that phone call, they would have called the next company and like we booked it and did the install two days later for Christmas lights. It's back like six years ago. But just think about if I didn't have somebody answer the phone six years ago. Like that's 16, $15,000 we'd have missed out. So how much is one phone call really worth to you?

Oh, it's so good. Yeah. And I don't know, I think it's just a way for them to justify in their mind because I think in most small business owners heads it's like, well, my phone doesn't ring that much anyway, jc, it's, yeah, maybe I miss a couple, whatever, you know, it's like, well, why aren't you making the phone ring more? Because you don't have the bandwidth. Right. And you mentioned a lot of different things from social media to light bookkeeping to invoicing, like there's a lot of proactive stuff. I have a huge list of things that a strategic partner can do. Right. It's like they just haven't thought that far because it's easier to, it's easier to not go to the gym. It's easier to not work on your business in the short term. You think, eh, whatever, just stay comfortable. Right? But literally like that one missed phone call is costing you way more than hiring a strategic partner ever will. And besides, there's more stuff besides just answering phone calls. Like what if it's like I talked to someone and they're like, yeah, I answer the phone every single time when you call them back, what do you say? Well, yeah, but like do you have a script do you have a pre qualification process? Because there's just no way that you can go from like, dude, I'm just. Was in a sales presentation, the person told me no, or they got to think about it. I'm emotionally distressed. I'm exhausted. To like, hey, what's up? Thanks for calling. And like, let me just nail all the points on my script. Ah, so to your point earlier, these people that you hire are not, it's not that they're, they're not capable of doing it as good as you. They're going to do it better than you because it's their dedicated job and it's not rocket science. There's a script, there's a process they can follow that.

Yeah, absolutely. And, and it's, it's fun too, like listening to the calls and then like hearing the clients like, hey, whoever I talked to yesterday was incredible. Like, you should give them a raise or give them a tip. Like, they're a part of your company. Like, they're, they're literally embedded in your company 40 hours a week. And they, they truly, like, want to work for you and be successful with you. and it's just a, a trait or a quality that oftentimes we lack here in the US when we hire people, you know, they're full of excuses. They always don't want to take on more roles or responsibilities. They, they, they'll wait till last minute and do things. And it's just so, I mean, we get to go to the Philippines. We'll be back there in July, be the third time we've been out there. I mean, they're just incredible humans. They really want to be successful for you. They really want to grow personally and professionally with you. and, you know, some of our clients, they've had, you know, their same person for four or five years now. So, you know, as long as you have a business, there's still an opportunity for them. They'll be with you along the way.

Do callers need someone who speaks English well on the phone

I know a lot of people here, like, oh, Philippines. Like, what does that mean? Like, do they speak English? And if they do, like, can I understand them? Talk a little bit about. I'm sure you've heard that before.

Oh, yeah.

who are, who are. Who is the person having client communications?

Yeah, so, you know, we have different roles, that we hire for, and some people don't need somebody who's on the phone with a client. And the voice is not an issue or concern. We're going to find the expert in what they want. And that's all we're focused on. Some people want the csr, like myself, Ronnie. She's the voice of k Fear pro wash and patriot elimination. And I always say that people with a Boston accent have worse accents than some of the Filipinos over there. I can understand Ronnie better than I can understand somebody pocking a go in the bar. And, like, that accent gets a little thick sometimes. and they, they, like, from a very young age, they learn English. It's a very common, you know, I mean, they know. I don't know what the percentage over there that knows English, but almost all of them do. and everybody with unique genius, they all speak English. so, yes, it is very clear. they train their voices just like actors and actresses. You know, they. They work on that. So they could be on the phone with clients and not have that worry that, like, is this Tom from India? Or, I mean, Tom, I know your name's not Tom. Where are you from? Like, there's nothing worse than when you call Verizon or, or anybody, you're like, ah, Jesus Christ. I just want to talk to somebody in the u. S. When they call somebody from, you know, a company and they're working with somebody unique genius, that's the last thought they're gonna think. Like, they're gonna think, hey, Ronnie's like, in the office in Wilmington, North Carolina right now. so, yeah, that's. It's very important to us. And it's probably one of the biggest concerns we get is, you know, what do they sound like? And what am I going to get? No, like, if you want somebody, I say forward facing with the clients, then we're gonna get somebody that speaks very well in English.

Yeah. And I don't know if there's, like, studies on this or not, but I think people will justify whatever they want. But I feel like, again, this is just my opinion that if you call a company and the owner answers, you kind of already know that, like, this person's probably not. Like, they're probably gonna be late for the appointment. 15 minutes. I mean, if you've owned a house longer than, like, 10 years, you've dealt with all types of people, right? Where you call a company and they have a csr and all of a sudden, as soon as the appointment's booked, you get a text. Like, that feels really good. It feels like, hey, there's not just one bottleneck here. I've got a customer service person, I've got a salesperson, I've got an installer. Like, as Opposed to like the, the owner. Hey, yeah, sorry I missed the appointment the other day. Can I come back out? it's like, no, like, people don't want that. I mean, is that really the brand you're trying to create or is this going to help boost your brand? Because again, like, they're not calling the owner, they're calling the company.

Yeah.

Why are you so proud of answering the phone anyway?

Right, right. And, and that first impression is everything. Like, if you missed a phone call, all right, first impression is gone. If you're on a roof or doing an install and sweaty and freaking dying and miserable and you're like, hey, it's jc. how can I help you? Like, you already missed out the opportunity. Or have, that strategic partner in the office in a professional environment with their headset, on. Hi, thank you for calling Patriot Elimination. This is jc. How can I make your property shine today? It's warm, it's bubbly, it's inviting. The energy is high. I'm trying to sell you a five thousand dollar install. Like, I better be more excited than you to get you excited to be like, Ryan Lee's coming and he's gonna do the price merit on you and you're about to get sold. Like, you know, you want to get them excited to spend money with you. So you want to get that, that script down so that it's always the same. But they also know the tone of your company, they understand your product and they will do that. They learn about everything. They learn about the lights. I mean, we got clients, in roofing, H vac, electrical, lawn and landscape, bookkeeping, accounts, I mean, you name it, they're all over the place. So it's not like one size fits all. We'll get you somebody for your specific industry or whatever role you want. but again, they're with you 40 hours a week. And oftentimes I hear this, well, I don't have enough work for them for 40 hours a week. Do you get somebody part time? And the answer is always no. Because one, I promise you, if you actually sat down and think about the things that you're not doing that you should be doing or the things you could be doing better. Like that 20 hours quickly became 40 hours because you're just not thinking about it. You're just thinking about, like the real things off the, like, you know, a couple social media posts, couple phone calls.

Having an executive assistant can make a huge difference in your business

All right, great. There's so much more to get raving fans to ask for. Reviews, referrals, follow ups, all Those different things they could be doing. and then we only want one person working with you. So when Ryan, when we get somebody working with you, they're with Ryan all the time. They're not with Ryan. They're not with J.C. they're not with, you know, Michael, Michelle, because they, they want to be embedded your company, understand your culture. If I have somebody working me for 20 hours and they go to you for 20 hours, well, which voice am I coming into today? What's the tone? What's the culture? What am I supposed to be talking about? Which hat do I got to put on right now? So that's why we want somebody full time m working with you. And at the cost, at that point, it's the investment far aways outweighs the expense of what you're gonna be paying for this because they're gonna be making that money back from you within the, first couple weeks by doing all the things that you're not doing.

I'm laughing because it's so funny how life, works. But like, I tell all my clients one thing and then I'm like, wait, I gotta take my own advice here because they, I've told them all the same thing. Even before I knew about strategic partners, like hire a full time office manager. Well, should I just get one part time? I'm not that busy. I'm like, no, you, if you, if you weren't that busy, you wouldn't, you wouldn't have this, like, backlog of things you need to do. You, you think you won't keep someone busy for 40 hours. You, you need like 120 hours a week. You need like three people in the office. Right? But then what happened When I reached out to Angela, this was probably going on four years ago, now that we've had our strategic partner with you. I also said the same thing. I was like, can I just get like, part time, like 20 hours? She's like, no. And she said. You just said, she's like, no, you need them full time. And I'm like, yeah, I just don't know because, you know, I got, I don't really have that much going on or whatever. And then now we have two strategic partners. You know what I mean?

So, like, probably ready for three because you got so much going on right now.

No, I told her, I'm like, okay, this, like, right now, I, I need another one. I need an executive assistant.

So, yes, that, that right there is the power position for like, when you're ready to like, really dial Your life in and you got some of your systems in place in your office and the business is running smoothly, like having an executive assistant. As a business owner, Mikko is mine. Like, he is my right hand man. Like, he's got the same authority to make decisions that I do. I mean, he's literally designed a website for me. He's got overseeing the whole entire thing. He's got access to my credit cards, to my social media. I mean, every single morning, we're just doing like a data dump. Like, what's on the schedule, what's got to get done? I don't look at my emails anymore. And let me tell you, like, if you don't have to look at emails and filter through all the BS just to see the ones that you really need to look at, like, that is a huge energy save right there. Because, like, how many times you open up emails, like, spam, blah, blah. I don't care about this, like, wasting time. I'm making no money looking at emails that don't need to look at. so, yeah, executive partners, like, to own your life is phenomenal.

Mo: I'm building an app right now. And I give it to Mikko

All right, can you, can you just give me one in five days? luckily, I mean, so Darcy's been my assistant, but she's also our client success manager. And somehow she does both. And I'm like, this is ridiculous. Like, I'm gonna. I don't know how she hasn't quit yet. So I'm like, okay, I need whatever I need to do to make sure Darcy stays. We need to do this.

So I got two, two quick testimonials on my ea. one, I'm building an app right now. And again, huge visionary. Got this great idea, suck at execution implementation. Had the idea for the app, got the app app going, or the framework, done looking at it. And I give it to Mikko. He's looking at it. He's like, he comes back with all this feedback, like, PowerPoint, notes, pictures, everything. I go back to the app developer and Miko, wasn't available at that time. So I was showing him everything and he's like, who did this? I'm like, mo. Yeah. He's like, dude's really smart. Like, most people like, give me a fraction of this and no way how to execute or implement or what to do with this thing. So he's like out there just like, thinking for me, and so I don't have to even, like, take that energy away that I don't even have to figure it out. so he's incredible on that aspect. And then the other day we were doing an interview for somebody to take over, our social media management and building out a brand for. For, myself and Unique. And again, Miko's on the phone call and I'm always like, all right, Miko, what questions you got? Because I'm already ready to sign. Like, I. I told you, I freaking execute a high level. If I like it, I'm doing it. I'm just gonna go freaking do it. I didn't even care how much it was. I'm already doing it. But I'm like, all right, Mo, what do you got? And it's like he like, rips the shackles. Like, all right, so you got in this thing. It's a testimonial. And it took you so long to get to the 70, 000 followers for this guy. And like, that's five months. It took a lot, like, asking all these hard questions. And I'm just sitting there laughing my ass off. I'm like, mo, you're a freaking animal. And he only had one hour to vet this guy. And look at his, like, his portfolio and everything. And the, and the, the offer that he sent us, like, within one hour, he had all these questions ready to go. And I'm like, just laughing my ass. I'm like, miko, you're a freaking beast. And the guy answered the questions really well. but I was like, just a testimonial to Miko what he does because, like, oftentimes we're just tunnel vision as business owners and we don't have, you know, can't think of these other things because we're focused on one thing. And now I have my EA and he's thinking of the things that, like, I just don't see. So it's incredible having them part of my team.

That's awesome, man. All right, copy and paste clone. does Miko M Have like a twin brother? I'm not sure, but I need one now. That's awesome.

The landscape lighting one and the advanced Christmas light training one are full

All right, so, I want to wrap up two things. number one is Christmas, light. So we got the pre show class for Light it Up Expo with the. The landscape lighting one is full. The permanent lighting one and the advanced Christmas light training one are. They still have a few spots left. So what? this was cool. I mean, I was like, you're like, what do you have in mind for the class? I'm like, I don't know, stuff. Things. And you're like, all right, do you care if I throw something at You? No. What is it? So talk a little bit about what you're going to be talking about in the pre show advanced holiday lighting class.

Yeah. All right, so first, thank you. And one, Congrats for selling out the landscape lighting class. Phenomenal. I mean, years of weeks out, selling it out already. Huge testimonial to what you're doing. So if you haven't signed up, like, you're already late for the landscape lighting class, but we still have other great opportunities for you there. two, when you called and asked me to do this, what did I tell you? Like, I was like, Ryan, I'm like, one foot out of the Christmas light industry. Like, and the door's almost closed. I don't think I want to do anything in light in lighting. Like, I'm done. Done. And then you called. I'm like, God dang it, Ryan. and then you freaking got me back inside. The doors closed and the wreath is hung and the lights are up. So I'm back, baby. I'm back.

I literally, we talked that day, and I was like, oh, I. I started going through my Rolodex. Like, who's my backup? I knew you were gonna do it. And then after the phone call, I was like, he's not doing it. Yeah.

So, I mean, originally we talked about doing a beginning class, and, like, screwing a light bulb was easy. you know, there's plenty of opportunities for you guys to figure that out. And if you're showing up the Landscape Lighting Secrets or the Light Up Expo, most of you are probably more advanced and have some type of experience doing the lights and then install. I still. There's a ton of value to go to classes and trains, and there's plenty of opportunities out there, but I didn't want to take, this opportunity away from people to really just, like, shed everything that I have ever gone through from 2016 to this past year of, like, the growth, the success, the failures, the pain, the hurt, the hurdles, the fires, the hires. I mean, today I had a freaking client call today. Pissed off. Like, just yelling because a guy had to let go on Friday. Like, he just had a attitude, and he's out there just ripping off lights and breaking them on the ground. They're like, we've been with you for four years, and we've never had this type of, service. And. God, and like, all pissed off. And he's just throwing on the ground, he's cursing, and the office manager's like, oh, I'm so sorry. Like, trying to like, sweet talk him back and like, yeah, we're just upset, but go ahead and put us on for 2026 and put us on the payment plan as always. Like, you know, like, you know, there's always something. And I really just want to get deep. I want to get vulnerable. I want to, like, tell you guys everything. and it might not be for everybody. Maybe some of you guys just want me to sweet talk and tell you, like, it's going to be okay and we're going to get through this. You're going to do $120,000 this year. No, that's not what I'm going to do. Like, I'm going to talk about when I lost everybody in 2023. The I had to go through to get a team back up to still do $900,000, in Christmas lights that year. you know, the hiring, the firing, the obstacles you got to go through, letting go of control, getting the right people in the right place. I mean, this year we had two full time crews, only six installers out there, and we did 775, 000 in lights, with two full time crews. Then we had two guys out there doing go backs. Like, not many companies are doing that. And I'm not saying I'm the best out there. I promise you there's plenty of other companies out there that are way better than I am. I haven't met them yet, but they're out there. I'm telling you, they're out there. But I want to talk to you about the pains that I went through, the struggles. I want to, like, get deep. I'm going to give everybody a mirror. I want you to look in a mirror and figure out, like, what am I doing wrong? What can I do better this year to make our company more successful? And how you can apply that to your landscape lighting business, your permanent light business, and your Christmas light business or whatever other business you have. Because it all applies to everything across the board, not just landscape light. So we're gonna have some fun. We might cry a little. We're definitely gonna laugh a lot. to me, interactive, engaging. Ryan, I know you're gonna pop in. Angela's gonna be down there. She'll be speaking a little bit too. and again, it's just like, this isn't the, the Huya pep. Like, you can go listen to another podcast, get another audible book, whatever. Like, I want to get deep, raw and burnable. Sound really dirty. But, sorry, how deep? Let's not take, let's take that word out. We're gonna get really vulnerable with each other, and just break down the barriers and just. And just be humble and honest with ourselves on what we could be doing better this season, not only for ourselves, but for our team, for our family, for our community. and just see what growth really can look like once you dig deep inside yourself and build your team and empower them to do the things that you can. Can be doing better yourself.

I'm excited for the Light Up Expo. I can't be more excited

So I hope you show up. There's an opportunity for everybody there, whether you're just starting or you've been in business for a while. but I'm serious, like, everything's going to be open. If you have questions, I've got answers. I will not hold anything back. I'm not going to lie to you about anything. I'll tell you about every failure ever had along the way, all the struggles I've had, and all the success along the way, too.

I do. I can't be more excited. And it just. The way it came together is perfect because when you look at our classes, there's a lot of people who already know how to do holiday lighting. And so I'm like, yeah, wait, why are we teaching, like, how to screw in a light bulb? Like, why would we do that right now? The landscape lighting, there's a lot of people that need that. So we're gonna. We're gonna talk about those things. But with. With holiday lighting, no, they already know how to do it. They already know how to do 50 grand. They already know how to do 150 grand. Like, but how do you actually build a business, not a job? And. And I just. I don't know. I love your passion. I love your energy. I love where you're gonna take this. I have 100% complete confidence in what you're gonna do. Or I'm like, damn it. Like, how do I attend his class? Why does it have to be my show? So I'm trying to hire someone to run the show for me. So thank you for being really all in. And, I. I don't know, man. I. I am extremely grateful, for your support, for your friendship, for your willingness to come in and serve the lighting community because it's a community, and you guys have had insights now to other industries, roofing and solar and all these things. And I'm like, man, please don't leave us. Like, there's so many people here that are good human beings. they're not good business owners yet, but they're good operators. They're good people. They need our help. They. They need you. Like, they need your fire, your wisdom, your experience, your failures, your success. They need that. So, man, I, I just feel grateful that you're willing to stick around at least, at least one more month.

Yeah, yeah, one more run.

Yeah. So thank you, man. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, man. No, like I said, I love what you do for the industry. And then, like, it's truly genuine. I believe in it. And, I'm excited for the Light Up Expo. Please, if you have not got your tickets yet, don't wait for the last second. Like, that is just so frustrating to yourself. Like, if you know you're gonna go, just book the ticket now because that's your commitment. But if you keep kicking that can down the road, you're gonna have another excuse, another lie, another next year. Just, go ahead, get up, light it up expo. com and go buy that ticket now. Stop waiting.

I appreciate it, man.

Get your tickets now so that you can be at the hotel

Well, guys, get your tickets. I don't know the hotel, like, we already, like, met our, room requirement or whatever. So, like, you want to stay at the hotel. If you can't, don't make excuses. Like, if it's full and you have to stay at another hotel, don't be like, oh, I don't want to go. But, like, get your ticket now so that you can be at the hotel. And if you missed out on the landscape lighting class, who cares? There's like three more days of value. Like, you're gonna, you're gonna find value. Show up. If you are in the outdoor lighting industry, whether you're only doing permanent or only doing landscape or only doing holiday, I don't care if you're doing 200 grand a year or $5 million a year, there's value in this room. So stop waiting. come join us in that room. JC if people want to reach out to you, if they want to find, out more about Unique, Genius, and they're like, yeah, what have I been doing with my life? Why do I, why am I answering my phone still? What's the best way to reach out to you guys?

Yeah, I mean, Angela Chanowski on social, media, you can find me Jared Chanowski. I go by jc. so if you reach out to me, all my friends call me JC. I want you to call me JC and then unique, uh-genius. com can go on there and get your, fill out a link to get a discovery call. You'll get on the call with Angela or daughter Hildy, and we just want to talk to you. you know, not everybody is a client for us and we might not be, the business for you. So, we want to work through that and navigate. You know, if we are a solution for you, we'd love to work with you. And, if I don't hear from you, then I'd love to see you at, Light It Up Expo and just talk there, okay?

Love it, man. Seriously, thanks again for taking, time with us today. Appreciate you, man.

Yeah, buddy.

Stop hoping, start taking action. Do yourself a favor. Get yourself a strategic partner

All right, guys. Now the hard part. You just got to do stuff. Stop hoping, start taking action. Remember, faith is a verb. Go take the action. Go do it. Reach out to JC Reach out to Angela. Do yourself a favor. Get yourself a unique, or I guess a strategic partner so that you can be in your unique genius. Thanks, everyone. See you.