Speaker 0What's the password?
Speaker 1Don't talk about it. Be about it.
Speaker 0Welcome in to the two-of-the-point home services VIP room. Where we invite you, the listeners in to hang alongside some of the biggest, baddest and most successful VIPs of the home services industries. You never know, it surprised guests will show up next. So let's get this party started.
Speaker 2Hello and welcome, a little bit different voice doing the intro, first time or here, I'm your host Chad and he joined with my co-host Mr. Aaron Gainer and we are without the voice himself, no pun intended, Mr. Yano had a little procedure done on his throat and he popped on here earlier and trust me listeners. we wouldn't want him on here today. Or we would just to crack jokes, but we will bust his balls a little bit for not being here since he never misses an opportunity to bust ours. If we get busy and can't join in his little scheduled time slots given that he doesn't currently have a job. So, Aaron, how you doing, my man?
Speaker 3I'm wonderful man, um, Saturday to be here with our god of day, Josh Campbell man. I know Josh from back in the day came up from next hour with both of us, right? So excited to have him in here today, Josh, welcome. And, uh, God to hear Chris is okay. We'll scratch you voice, but he'll be back on his feet and ready to go in the next next week. So we'll miss him today, but we're going to have some fun today with a great guest, uh, Josh Campbell. So Josh, welcome to the show, my man.
Speaker 4Thanks, buddy. It's good to see you guys. It's cool to be on with a bunch of old friends. Love this.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's going on. Yeah, it was funny when Chris, if not much, when, yeah, when Chris told a, when texted Aaron and I or texted us separately or whatever and was like, hey, you guys going to have to do the show by yourselves. And I was like, oh, okay, well, like a lot of times, I don't know the guest before we jump on here. And he goes, oh, it's just, yeah, should be fine. I'm perfect. This lined up just perfectly. We could talk, we could talk for quite some time. So, yeah, happy to have you on, man. Um, excited for, uh, for our conversation, um, I guess those of you that don't know you, um, maybe give us a little bit of your background down in the, uh, DFW area, um, taking care of the great people of Texas, um, maybe give the listeners a little bit of background and then we can start jumping in.
Speaker 4Yeah, sure. Um, I'm the founder and, uh, of rescue air here in Dallas, Texas, um, We're premier air conditioning company. We service residential service repair replace plumbing generator. HVAC is our, you know, obviously rescue air. Me, I'm a third generation mechanical contractor. Really plumber my dad granddad. All of our families been in the trades forever, you know, I'm one of those dudes you went and Lincoln Tech Street all the high school and, you know, grew up going to Votec. I'm old back when they had Votec in high school, right? other stuff. I don't know. We did a private equity deal about two and a half years ago. Stuck around for about two and a half years as a founder and a general manager for two and a half years now. I'm just like in a founder's role, so I kind of steer culture and I don't know. Just coming here and trying to create a positive environment. Let's hand out what life's about right now.
Speaker 3My exciting match. And he did a deal, remember hearing about that. But why don't we jump back real quick just to give people a little bit of value about you? You've got a really interesting story if you don't mind telling a little bit. I've heard it a couple of times, like, all the way from what happened to you how you've been gotten into trades real quick and to where you got again, into rescue air and go. And maybe just give people a little bit about the Josh Campbell that most people don't know, right? The story of the, I had tied these good times because a lot of us go through that right and have to be able to figure that so maybe just share a little bit of that You know mine.
Speaker 4We might have to work into some of it if we really want to you know, I didn't ever want to be in the trades I grew up in the trades like there's a picture of me in the newspaper when I was like eight years old my granddad and I was working on a gas pump meter So our family built gas stations, and we did all the in-ground fuel tanks, and like a lot of hazmat stuff, but we've literally do everything. When I was a little kid, I was on job sites, running a shovel, I was like eight. And I was like, then that newspaper article in the Northern Virginia Daily, which had nothing to do with Northern Virginia. It's an interesting newspaper, but I'm originally from Virginia. and up in the mountains like Appalachia, more than Northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley. And if you went to a little gas station in Virginia, you probably had a 50-50 chance our family built it. And that's like the since like the 70s. And before that, my granddad's that was in the trade. So it's a whole run of these lenders. My middle name's Leonard. I watched those guys have these peaks and valleys all through my life and I remember you just growing up on a farm like praying I could get the hell out of that world that I was in. I was like I don't want to live like this. I didn't have air conditioning in my house growing up that tells you anything. We weren't or it was just like wildly conservative. Um, then we, you know, you're in a farmhouse is a big farmhouse, but like no air conditioning. I remember just staying awake all night saying this isn't going to be my outcome. I'm not doing this. These guys are, these are the grip pops and dad are all getting it wrong.
Speaker 2I'm getting, you actually, this is a picture of a top of me right here. That's my granddad's a character of home from like 1970s.
Speaker 4it's it's I'd say what it's it's a pleasant picture but like it's not because like he's got a phone in his hand you probably can't see it I should zoom in on it but like it's three in the morning and it says how like there's book there's a bookshelf behind and talking about all this stuff it said one of them says like how to get along with your kids and how working with family there's a star alarm clock that says three in the morning and he's on the phone in a recliner with a cup of coffee. I remember seeing that at their house and my mom and dad or like his kids had that made form like in the 70s. When he passed away it was the only thing I wanted and because it says so much about what I did not want in life. I was like I'm not living that life. You know there's peaks and valleys and all that stuff.
Speaker 3But ironically you don't want anything to do. You didn't have
Speaker 4Yeah, so I got suckered into the trades, man. I was in Votec and I was in Votec and I was pretty good. And like I competed in the electrical state wiring competition. If you've ever heard of one of these, the Virginia State Electrical State wiring competition. It set up all these boots and like 60 electricians, it's you who can wire it up, the fastest and closest to code. I came in second in the state. The moral of story, I went to a Lincoln Tech on a field trip with the Votec. And they administered a mechanical aptitude test. And I got a great score on it. I think it might have been a perfect score. And like, which hot air balloon rises faster, which you jump a launch farther. And I got a ride to this Lincoln Tech and being frugal and conservative. It's like, well, you got a free education here. And then the whole time I was sitting in Lincoln Tech up in Columbia, Maryland. I was devising my plan to escape. And I, but the day I got out of Lincoln Tech, my uncle, Mike, who's my business partner now, had already sold an air conditioning system to some police officer that he knew and Harrisonburg, Virginia. So I'm literally graduating at Tech on a Friday on Saturday. I had a manual trying to figure out how to install a split system by myself. And then, but then I got like, my cut was like two grand. And I was like, maybe even like $5,500 bucks, but like in 98, that was a lot of money. It was like, holy smokes, I was like, Ting it now.
Speaker 3I think I think after that I was sucked in so what happened that's there in a little bit of there So what yeah, that's great. What happened? So that's what happened now. You're in my skewer You grew rescue you went from there somehow you got to rescue her and you got the taxes and then you grew a big a business You sold it to private equity
Speaker 4Yeah, there's a gap there. Oh, I know, I, I, nine, 11 happened, right? And I've been working on going to school, working for the family business, and then I'd actually started my first company. So I've had this entrepreneurial mindset. I'd lay in bed at like three in the morning and I'd be, you know, is 100 degrees outside way into air conditioning. Some lot of wake. That just be devising plans like how to build real estate or something to, to like compound interest. I'm doing math in my head trying to figure out when I'm like 13, how to, how to like retire young and all these dream ideas right and then nine eleven happens in no one working family work family business and and I I got a call from the Pentagon the this contractor MCD and they're they were the biggest government con electrical cool subcontractor at the time and they called mask me to come work at the Pentagon, help rebuild and I think everybody knows what they were doing back then. You know, I was I was when nine after nine, 11 happened. It was five days after the plane hit I got the phone call and I was polishing my AR trying to figure out how to go kill terrorists and I'm lying and and I said, yeah, I'll do it. So I went up there and I stayed and helped rebuild the Pentagon for a year. That was terrible. I was just like the youngest junior project manager on site. I have clue as to on, I knew how to read blue prints that taken blue print reading classes and stuff and grew up doing that stuff. But so I did that for a year and I hated it. The government work was not for me. You get halfway through a Monday and I'd have my entire workload for the week completed. And I'm like, I can't do this. I mean, I'm stuck crazy. You guys know me. I'm busy dude. And I'm like, so I'd be walking around the Pentagon. I'll tell you a fun Pentagon story. If you look at the Pentagon, it's a series of rings, right? And I remember one of the places I'd go to in the center of the Pentagon, right, in the middle of these rings. There's this little cafe called Ground Zero Cafe. And you'd go in there for lunch. Like you could get outside, so to speak, of the building, but you were in the middle of the building. And I'd be in there eating lunch, and I remember when they told me as I was called Ground Zero Cafe. And I remember this old Pentagon dude was like, there's more nuclear missiles pointed at this one exact location than anywhere else on earth. I remember it's just like, you know, like, looking in the sky. It's one of you on thinking, like, I mean, like, I got my sandwich and I'm like, All right, this is not going to be my outcome. So I got to get it needed better play it.
Speaker 2So anyway, that's Ground Zero Cafe, the Pentagon.
Speaker 4But so I leave the Pentagon after a year and I went to an old, you remember there's old Dodge, Ram, cargo, vans, it were like 2,500s, but they're kind of miniature, and they had like orange light on the roof. So I go to an old equipment auction and I buy two of these things and I quit the pentagon and started an air conditioning company and it was called Campbell Mechanical and I ran that in Northern Virginia for 10 years and then after that I after about I started doing all this commercial work I was a hustler right I remember like I just started this company and I remember being like it was we get early winners in Northern Virginia and There was like early December snow on the ground. I'd drive around looking for job sites. And I found a job site and I'd see a job site when I'd just go up and ask who the GC was or who was running the project and I'd say, hey, Who does your air conditioning? I can do a better. I give me a chance and I just hustle man. I anytime I didn't have jobs that I was doing, I drive around looking for job sites. And I'd go to the job site and I'd find, and in those young, man, those, those contractors loved me. They thought it was the best things this light spread. They're like dude. So I mean, I'm like one of my best friends, Frankie is his dad Frank Barlow. I'm in Northern Virginia. I see this like warehouse thing going up. Now, pull it. It's snow and there's in this dude goes. I was like, hey, who's doing your air conditioning? He's like, well, I got this office. We're building one of these warehouse here. And this is on Saturday and he goes, you could be here tomorrow putting sheet metal together. I'll give you the jobs. I drove all over Hell and Creation, begging distributors to open up and give me metal. And then I was out there the next day. Hammer and tend together, running like trunk lines, and this old dude pulls in there and he goes, hey, dude, he's like Josh. You need to meet my son. He's first off he goes, what the hell are you doing here? It's a Sunday in the middle of winter and you're banging together metal in the sauce like you said to give me the job of a human or something. I didn't mean that and I was like, I didn't realize you'd actually show up. He's like, you need to meet my son. He's my son. He's more friends like you. So he's my best friend. He's been my one of the best friends since, but I ran that company like that for about a decade. I built a pretty big. I was one five six million a year and then oh eight nine ten came along and I, uh, people weren't paying their bills, especially the commercial work. And I had 650 grand an AR. In fact, then I didn't know anything like certain paths or next stars or clovers, these organizations, they existed, but nobody knew about them. So like all my numbers, I kind of made them up. Like every time I got a big paycheck, I just bought another double truck in the phone book. And nobody was, I couldn't get people to pay. And I remember I was just, I spent a day a week in court. I was taking business law classes that I'd already taken in school, trying to get freshened up. And I remember just one day I couldn't breathe and I was stranded on my couch. And this is after like three years I was spending a day a week in court, trying to collect. I had 650,000 they are on a $6 million company. You guys get it, that math doesn't work. And I, couldn't breathe and I remember I kind of like blacked out and I like came to and I was like I was at the airport at Dullis Airport and I was like trying to get a flight and they wouldn't let me fly anywhere and they're like yeah you can't fly um if they actually have a rule post 911 that like if you don't have a destination at least they differ period of time we can't sell you a ticket and I'm like really and I'm on the phone and my my girlfriend is was like, please just come home and I came back and I was like, I can't do this anymore. And she goes, you know, whatever we got to do to make a life change, let's do it. This is 10 year. It was, is a hell of thing. You know, you go to work and you do work and you and nobody pays you. And you do the job, you do everything right, you run it and come in the right way, and just getting, not being able to get paid for work, you did a hell of a thing. And I said, okay, cool. So I, I sold that company for peanuts. My uncle called me and I talked to him. He was from Northern Virginia. He moved to Texas with his wife, his girlfriend, his wife, ex-wife now. Anyway, I came down and I rode with him. And he was working for a big company called A number one here. And he was selling air conditions and selling tech for him. And I just, he's like, I only need to come see what we're doing down here. It's kind of cool. So I flew to down there, down here, jumped in a truck with him. And he saw his paycheck stubs in his truck. And I'm like, you're making like 20 grand every two weeks. These can't be real. There's a check stubs laying on the floor in his truck. And we started, I started seeing his process. And what he was doing, and how he was running calls. Then the owner offered me a job, so I left and moved to Texas to go work for them for everyone there. My wife came now wife. She said, yeah, let's get the hell out of here. Let's go. So we left another Virginia soul, my company for a little bit and then moved to Texas.
Speaker 3I know that's long story. Oh, yes. This is great. No, I wanted to hear. I think people don't know enough about that background. I know I spoke to you about me. Me and you've seen each other over the years and shared some stories. And I just saw you a couple of weeks ago with your son, which was awesome to see you with your son out of bed. He got on stage and your great father, obviously. So, let's, I know Chad's going to jump in here too, but I just got one more follow up on that. So, here we are. You get done, you get this job, you business, you look, you know, someone as all the struggles that happen, you go out, you're a great selling tech or a comfort advisor, and then you decide to go back in business.
Speaker 4You know, The catalyst really was about the first year I was there. I made like 250 or 300 grand, right? And I'm like, yeah, do this. Stop doing that business on your stuff. But like the whole time, as an entrepreneur and having ran a business for a decade, I'm looking at this company, this growing. When I got there, we were doing like 22 million by the time I left, we were doing like 35. And it's grown at this rate. And I'm like, looking at all this stuff, they've got, they've got this straightforward price guy. And they've got all these processes for how to run a call. And everybody knows all these metrics. My managers are talking all these numbers that I've never heard. I'm like, damn it. How do I not know these numbers? Where were they? And I realized they were members of SGI, which is now a certain path. It's like next time, it's like clover when they say. And I was like, I was just so mad that this was all out there. And I never knew about it and didn't have access to it. So I got it. I got after the second year working there, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't sit still. And I'm like, I got to start another company. And my uncle was working there and I was like, listen, dude, I'm gonna start another company. And I even talked to the owner of A1. He's still one of my best buds, James Green, it's great guy. And I was like, hey, I'm gonna leave start my own company. He's all supported, let's go. He's like, and I said, but when we start this company, the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna join this GI. That's gonna be the first move we make. And I was just bound to determine to learn all these KPIs and all this data and all these numbers that I didn't know. because I'd had all that suffering, I didn't have to have if I had, because I had the grind and the grit and the resilience, it's just, I didn't know what I didn't know. You know what I mean? I didn't know what you my gross margin should be or what a marketing budget should be. You know, you get it.
Speaker 0Yeah.
Speaker 4So we left in a local like in the company, it's not a company.
Speaker 2So Josh, I think we probably all three of us can look back at, you know, when when we first started and, you know, started getting all this training and all of this stuff and some of it we probably listened to and other things we kicked to the side like I held that's not important like we can we can do all of these things what are what are maybe the one or two things that like when you look back. from when you started. And obviously, you made the bold move to, hey, I'm going to join someplace that's going to like teach me how to do this. Right. Whereas I feel like I spent a few years kind of fumbling around trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do until someone finally told me this is what to do. Okay, cool. I can do that. What are the couple of things that like looking back like you're like, I wish I would have paid more attention or put more kind of effort into building that out and we would have been this much more successful.
Speaker 4You know, I'm crazy coachable, right? Like, like, I look at Tommy mellow, right? And I'm like, dude, he's, he is like, just a lifetime student. You know, it hadn't been cool to watch him grow. Like, you know, I thought like, when he did his deal and stuff that maybe he'd peaked. And I went to his event the other day and he just keeps getting better, man. I mean, the guy's smarter than he's ever been. And I'm like, I've kind of felt like I had a plateau there at the end of my first company. And I had plateaued. I was defeated and I was drinking and I had a panic attack. I'm like, I don't shake and I had a panic attack. And I think like, I James Green when I was at A number one air said, hey, he's like, Josh, you need to embrace some change. And I was like, calm me now. It's like, hold sideways about it. And I was like, what the hell is that mean? Like, I remember not even knowing what that meant. I remember going to my, and I remember going to SGI and they have a thing called executive perspective. And it was like the first day of executive perspective, they said, who knows what a KPI is? And I was sitting there and like I looked around the room, Uncle Mike knew. And I was like, I didn't know what a KPI was. And I was like, what's a KPI? And I was like, keep performance indicator. And I was like, I've got so much to learn if I want to crush it, right? And they recommended this book, The Dream Manager. And I read it. And it's a quick little book. If you haven't read it, it's a great little book. And I hadn't read a book since, maybe ever. And here it is in like 2014 and I'm reading and I read this book. It took me like it probably took me three months to read this book. It's 250 pages. But then I had all this stuff to work on. And one of the things in there's an exercise called right-it-make-a-dream book. Hell, have a right here. It's my, this is still the same dream book I've had since 2014. And one of the things I put in there was, build a $10 million company in 10 years. Just a random goal. It gets a $10 million in 10 years. And I knew that I was gonna have to keep growing. And after I started exercise and all the stuff I learned from the dream manager, I was like, damn. This is, and then, you know, also with, you know, all the stuff I was on in the SGI, the next year we joined next to her, I'm like, every time I go learn this stuff, I learn a little, do a little, do a little, do a little, it keeps working. So I got obsessed with that process, like reading books. If you look, I mean, like people come in there, they see these all of my bookshelf full of books. And they're like, you know, what's your favorite one? I'm like, well, what's messed up in your life, right? And I'm like, I need more information and tell you a good book to read. And, and then I was like, oh, if I learned a little dual level, and I got obsessed about it, and I just kept doing it, and I kept pouring it into my people, and it kept working. So I think that was kind of the catalyst, which is the obsession with learning and doing and repeating. And going to STI, going to, all, I never mixed an expo and never mixed a super meeting, never mixed any of this stuff. Meet all the people I can meet. Meet guys like you guys and just like, try to ask good questions. and get better, you know, have guys that hang out with dudes that are crushing it where I want to be and try to get where they are. Is that an answer to your question?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think so, I think the follow-up to that would be like, you know, I have come in contact with enough people who are at all the events who are, you know, reading all the books or we see them posted online and it's this that and the other, yet their five, ten years later than it was. Obviously that wasn't the case for you. You know, it hasn't been the case for really anybody on this podcast, which I think is great. But like what do you think that obviously in every good training talks about it like, you know, like, why would you give away all your secrets? It's like, well, because only about 2% of them are actually going to do anything with them. Like, what do you think inside of you has been that kind of catalyst for like, no, you said you're crazy, coachable. I consider myself like, I remember when I first joined next hour and it was like, whatever John says, I do. I don't ask questions. I don't do any of this. Like, what do you think about you, which made you like extremely coachable?
Speaker 4Do you remember that used to give away those tornado, like 1951 Retro tornado pins? They used to give away these really slick fuel pans, yet to put cartridges in them. I'd go to next R and I'd have a handful of these cartridges in my bag, because I knew I was gonna run the ink on my pen. I still have every single book. I have mountains and mountains of training books. I think even when I was younger, like when I was a kid my dad used to always tell us he's like I'm master electrical master mechanical master plumbing I'm master blaster I was like master blaster what do we play in like mega man or something I didn't understand what the hell master yeah it's explosive license like an unrestricted explosive and I think it's just always kind of been in there that like you know when I was at Lincoln Tech I was talking my class I think I was just so damn determined when I was a kid to like get the hell out of my situation and get to a better situation. I don't know where it comes from. Maybe it's DNA. Maybe it's I'm not sure. Maybe it's it's a result of seeing other people's failures. Have my own failures? I don't forget them. You know, I just I've keep my foot on the gas and I always have and I don't I don't know, man, I learned stuff and I grow. I just want to be really good in life, and I'm not really sure where that drive comes from, but I'll have to ponder that. Where's yours come from?
Speaker 2Yeah, so mine and mine's very similar. So I was, you know, did really well in school, did really well in sports. All of that said, I was never the best. like I wasn't the best student. It didn't come easy. I wasn't the best athlete. I was good, but not great. And I played with all these guys who were great in division one and, you know, all of this stuff. And it's like, you like want a piece of that. But you know that, like, my natural ability is not going to get me there. like I don't know. Well, coming into the trades, I knew very certainly I didn't know anything about what and the hell we were doing. And so I was going to have to take that same mentality of, you know, school. It was like, I'll stay up and study. I'm going to work hard. I want to get the best score on this test. I want to beat the person who supposedly the smartest or, you know, be, you know, a better athlete or whatever it was. And so like, I feel like for me, like it was just I know what I can control and what I can control is the effort that I put into this. And so effort, I can learn all this stuff. Well, everybody learned the same stuff in school, but people got different grades on test. And so it was like, well, the translation here is how hard I work, how hard I prepare. And I, to me, that's always been just kind of the ingrained piece of like, hey, this is what I can control and this is what I can do and I'll effort you all that every day of the week, I'm out there. I'm not regardless of what it is. Yeah. What about you, Aaron? This was fun. Yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah. I think, you know, I won't grade in school, so I won't top anything in school. Just so we're clear. Um, that was not an area in that I wouldn't mind. Yeah. I know. You know, as plumbers were, you know, we were four years or not at the top of class stuff. I'm not always competitive. I play sports. I play football, younger. I played all the sports. I love sports. I think I'm naturally just kind of competitive. And I think similar to many stories is like, I just wanted to get out of this situation. I was interventionally. I did not want to live the same way. You know, my mom was a good mom, but I just did not want to live in the same income, level of the struggles, all the stuff, right? It took a long time to get out of that. I had to go back and forth a couple of times, lost some stuff, gained some stuff. But eventually, once you kind of found the way, I realized that education was a pathway out while the trades were part of it, right? So learning the trade, learning the trade is an education. It's learning the tools, learning the master, how to master the trade, right? And then it moved on from there to how to master the next thing, the next thing in business. Cause that was my downfall early on as I just didn't understand business. And I think once I kind of found some models or listen to a business coach, like you said, like, when Jim Hamilton would tell me something, just did it because I was like, I don't know any better. And I'm kind of just a, you know, dumb plumber, you know, for lack of a turn I'm not saying that really up my own trade because I am, but I'm just I'm a plumber. I don't know any better. And I'm just going to listen with this guy. I have to say I'm going to go do it. And I think what happens a lot of times if people get too mixed up messages these days, they listen to too many different things. they're not sure. And at that time, there wasn't a lot of mixed up messages. It was really like the only person I talked to was my business coach because there wasn't all the other platforms and all the other stuff going on, right? So I didn't have to have competitive comments or just disagreements. I just did what he said. And I think it's great that all the information is available now. It's just sorting through it and then deciding something and do it. I think we were we are products of. what I think next star's mission was, right? We are all products of it. And we just followed the template and we went to work, right? And I think that can happen in any of these programs, by the way. The problem is a lot of times people don't fully commit and my belief is, once I fully committed, I was able to get the outcome, right? And because I was already competitive and I also came to a reality that I didn't know any better and I wasn't gonna let my ego try to be in the way just because, you know, I didn't know So I think over time, it just kind of fell in the place and just went to work. And just followed everything they said, and eventually, we evolve, right? We evolve in the next level of the businesses as that's gone on. So, but I think to answer the question, I don't know where it all comes from either. I think some of it's just built in the DNA, some of it is where you grew up, and some of it is just naturally, you just want to be better at everything you're doing every day and still learn. And I think a lifetime learner is important.
Speaker 4You know it's you said something you learn you say you learn something then you get to work I think the get to work side of it is where most are failing in is because they they learn stuff we're all learning stuff this I mean like what we do for a living the information we have information any of us share none of that's even new for the most part I mean if you're bullets fit my gun I'm shooting and and I I've never really if you just but you got to get to work. If people don't get to work on this stuff, I don't have a lot of pet peeves, but one of them is people call me and ask him for help all the time, and I'll pour into anybody any time, because that's how I got here. Just don't ask me the same question six months or a year later and tell me you're having the same problem and you still haven't hit the gas with the stuff I gave you last time and that's that's the only real pit pee by I'll coach you I just don't that's the same coaching and not take it you got to be coachable right and get the work.
Speaker 3Well, if there's a addition to learning sometimes in listening that has happened a lot, I've been through it. I think all of us have on this at point in certain points, right? Get addicted to it, but the problem happens is that people don't go to work, right? And I, so what I did, I'll just share some from me through my next start journey to and some of my membership. I spent about three years just addicted to everything learning everything on fly to any shop, anybody would love to come and then I stopped. And I went to work for a couple of years and I don't know if you guys kind of remember there for a little bit like I was involved with a lot and then you didn't see me anymore. For a while like I was around but not around like the worst.
Speaker 4Yeah, I just we can work here.
Speaker 3I went to work and I just went to work on everything I possibly could. I stayed in contact with different people that had relationship with and I learned and I checked in and I think people were always, lots of great members and people have always been open to help me and I think like your point I was very coachable but I went to work. And if I called somebody back later, I sure was going to call back to tell them that I didn't do what they told me or if I was calling a back I tell them what happened and why something worked or didn't work for me and what can I do to adjust it right and I think that's what most people want like all of us are open to coach anybody it's frustrating when. when you tell people do stuff and then they don't do any of it. And then they come back and start you're like starting over. So I agree the art of just doing has been a little bit lost. I don't say long. It might be unfair, but I because I don't want to say that for everybody's people, everybody, but I do think sometimes you've got to shut off all the noise focus and go to work with that.
Speaker 2But I think it's, I think what we're saying here is it's not that people are working hard. I always look at it as people if there's 10 things to be working hard on. They choose the three easy ones instead of the seven really hard ones that like listening to every call and making sure that we've got this dialed in and holding people accountable and all of these things that are actually going to build your business. where we got lucky is, and I'm just thinking back on like, you know, 2015 to 2020. Like, 2015 when we started like, there wasn't any talks of like, hey, how to build leaders in your companies and how to do all of this, you know, all of this stuff. It was like, no, you need to run the calls, but the best tech on the calls, they need to convert, they need to do these things. there's so many people that have and it's not their fault it's I think it's like information overload and you're also hearing it from like there you know have so many people that are like you know taken advice at like what now I remember those days and what we did there but like what I'm doing today like those are different things than what you need to be focused on at your where your journey is. And so like I think it's about like this stair step of like, hey, these are the things that you can go see a shop that's a lot bigger, but maybe find the one that's like 3 million bigger than you are. And go figure out how they got from where you are to where that that is. all the while you can still go look at the big ones to be kind of get that vision get those wheels turning like there's just different different like pieces of the puzzle that you've got to fit together properly or if you get one out of whack then it's like well we don't have any money to do all this other stuff. It's like well yeah no joke you're not looking any calls type thing.
Speaker 4We're a guy who's running on the streets and everybody's saying
Speaker 3Sorry, Josh, good. I'm what you're saying. What he's saying there, what did you do? Did you do that, sir? Did you go find shops like a little bit bigger, right away? I mean, I know we met very early in DC just she did it over time. I don't even know how we just stayed in contact random. I don't even really know how or why. We just hit it off and we just always stayed in contact. Obviously, you're a great guy. But what did you do as you sort of melt your long that journey to get a little bit more into that? What'd you do?
Speaker 4I think what I was doing was like, you know, All right, so here I'll tell you a little story like I was out on the the loading dock here yesterday morning and I've had a guy who's working for me is great guy good salesman and he's sitting there and he wants he keeps talking to me about starting his own companies like how do you might start that company I said I said listen when Mike and I started this company we we had zero we had no business whatsoever so we we went to like we joined the chamber of commerce we went there we told everybody We did like a home show and like every single customer I went to Mike and I both I mean, we probably had a $9,000 average ticket I mean, and this is just giving me a random to MC them. You guys talk about the quality of the calls or something I'm like shut up. We ran any stink and call we could and we did it at an elite level I got five five star reviews on everyone Nobody had it talked I was like this guy's names and I was like and what's last time you used your agenda card Why is your closing ratio? At him, okay, it's 60% right? Come on dude, you're closing it's 60% and this is on the main calls. I'm like, that's... I couldn't do work the way you do work right now. Your work ethics a problem. You need to slow down and take your time with customers. You need to do everything at an elite level. Like if you do everything at an elite level, you might just maybe be ready to go think about starting your own company. Like I was one of the best selling text that ain't number one here, and this is the time there, the biggest air conditioning company in Texas. and like I was so meticulous about every single thing I did. And I've been that way about the whole business the whole time. That's like I think the guys that win, are just anal and off the deep end about everything in their company being perfect and not making any mistakes and asking what the mistakes that you can make are and escaping the pitfalls. I mean, how many dudes do we know that one is add plumbing when they run in a $5 million air conditioning company? I'm like, you're not even running a good air conditioning company when I add plumbing. You should be a lead at this one thing you're doing before you try to do two things mediocre like come on like it and it should you know like when's a good time to add plumbing when you're a lead at air conditioning like when you're a lead. Not not and everybody wants to say well when you have this many calls or this much marketing is make customers sure that stuff's important but are you even a lead at what you do because now you're going to go run another average company. like and and and then and then you're just going to play a toe forever and he's going to be an eight million dollar company for the rest of your life with two trades and I guess maybe your ego satisfied but like did that didn't help your growth trajectory like I just I don't I don't get it I I like it to be elite at stuff that's all maybe I'm quoting jaco too much here
Speaker 3I think it was making the truth on that topic. I think that's a myth that people have done. I saw that coming up through the industry early on. That's why I stopped the plumbing for a very, very long time. And I think even when that, I think, Chad, when you're at our office, when we were growing the plumbing business only, I literally said, don't suggest that the peer group to add HBC or any other trade, we're going to do one trade, and we're going to own it until we're the best, right?
Speaker 2Um, and then I suggested that I suggested it in the worst summer of the industry. You kept calling me, God, why did you do this?
Speaker 3I talked to him. He's like, oh, I guess good. You should do it now. Don't worry. Memorial day. It'll be so hot. You'll be so busy. Nothing happened. I was like, nothing's happening. Like literally nothing.
Speaker 4Nothing so. We did these things. We did it for a long time before we added plumbing. We waited a long time. And then I bought a plumbing company. I was like, I'm not going to go hire some plumber. I'm going to plug a company in. And then I'm just going to massage it into being us over like it took about a year of massaging to make that company our company. The guys started seeing the wins and doing things right.
Speaker 3How like I think my I'm on a little bit of delay here or someone's going on this, but
Speaker 4We don't want 11 in HVAC and a good opportunity came to buy plumbing company up the road and we were running it but we were really like I was like 24% net at 11 and we are growing huge. We were retaining customers were retaining employees our culture was fantastic. go buy a plumbing company and I bought a really strategic one. I made the way I bought the company was smart, really smart, like a ran it co-branded for almost a year. We said, you know, rescue wear, if somebody called in on the Texas Green plumbing number, I said, you know, Texas Green plumbing, now a proud partner, a rescue wear. And that's, we didn't change anything. Didn't make the plumbers do anything, just, you know, let them get all their wins. But we went from 11 to 22 in one year. I bought a million dollar year plumbing company and just their database and being able to outbound to them and sell American-ditioning and sell our customers plumbing. We doubled that year from 11 to 22 and we did it really, really healthfully. You know, we were 4.2 EBITDA.
Speaker 3So that's amazing. Actually, that's, there's a good strategy right there
Speaker 2But again, all of that, all of what you just said is all blocking and tackling, outbounding to our customers, cross-selling, all of these things that get lost in the shuffle of how these businesses are built.
Speaker 4Yeah, yeah, and it's one more thing you got to go do and worry about when you have multiple trades like it's it's a lot to add a trade to your company people are so excited to do it and it's all ego I don't think or maybe they think it's an easy button either way ego or easy button they're both that ideas don't do he goes an easy button moves on your business
Speaker 3I had said adding trades is not easy. It's not as easy as that people think it is. If even if they're in the same domain, plumbing each back in electrical, they're just not that easy to do. They definitely shook our business up. I mean, we still grow, we dealt with stuff. But for about three to four years, it was, it was an interesting journey from being a plumbing only business that was doing around, you know, 40 something, 45 million dollars and plumbing a drain only. to adding in these other levels and are plumbing business and drain business still been growing. But they definitely shook some stuff up for us for a couple years trying to get those trades in. And they took a big, it took a financial hit, it took an energy hit, it took stuff. And I get worried for people that do it too early because I'm thinking, here we are dominating plumbing business with great margins, killing it with EBITDA, doing really well. And we have these trades in date. They suck you, they suck your profitability down for a while. They really unstableize your business structure. they take your attention away. So people do it too early. I mean, it's just really, okay, I mean, to put you into the bottom, right? Fast. So I think it's a great principle to make sure people will think about that or listening to the show thinking that a trade is going to save their business or adding this other trade will make me better. you know, there's a time for it. I'm not discouraging people from doing it. There's a time for when you want to kind of own the home for that old language that you see use around a next R2 and around many places, but I think it's a strategic move, right? It's got to be the right time that that vertical makes sense in your growth in your growth journey. So when you think about now, are you doing, do you guys do electrical now? Are you starting electrical? Or are you guys out in that chat or just not in the generator side of it?
Speaker 4That's the generator. That's all right. Just tell me. Yeah, we don't really mess around with the rest of it.
Speaker 2Josh, I think you put it perfectly to your point, Aaron, is it's not as easy as saying, oh, we're just gonna bring in another trade. You're running a completely different business. So if the business that you run isn't giving you enough headaches and enough stress and enough this, that and the other, maybe you look to create a new business under the same name. And I think the way that you did it is so apt, it's like, no, we were running two separate companies for a year until we felt like, okay, we have our arms around this, we can bring them together. And I think that that's true. I mean, you think about plumbers, electricians, all different. There's a lot of similarities, but there's also differences that you have to learn to master and learn to figure out.
Speaker 4We were probably a year before we even re-rap their trucks. Think about that. We ran a year before we wrapped the trucks, rescue air, and they we waited until they wanted it, like the plumbers were begging for it. until we could literally say that like every customer, we sent postcards, the dual branded postcards, all of our customers and all of their customers for a year. I was sending them monthly, that we were outbounding. We were, I mean, we called every single customer at least 10 or 15 times, I'm told them the good news. We put video everywhere about the deal. Like we made it such, and then by the time we did it, there was no confusion.
Speaker 3I think that people need to understand that as they move forward into these next chapters of their business. And I want to move forward into another part with your business of, you know, my Josh and to, you know, obviously you went to a private equity partner. I remember when we talked a lot during that time, me and you were back and forth a lot during that time. And I appreciate those conversations there. I learned a lot talking to you while you were going through your journey. But one thing is I think people here is all private equity and culture and I think you're able to adapt to moving into a private equity deal which I think you can speak to as much as you want or at least amount as if you want about that deal. But then the culture be all the move over all these things culture culture doesn't work these things happen. What it seems like you transition that very well, your culture from what I've seen from the outside and talking over the years has stayed pretty steady and strong. So maybe speak to about that transition in the organization because you're very open about it. So your employees know you know, it's not some secret thing, right? So maybe you can speak to that as maybe people into that next chapter now and what that looked like for you and how you handled that moving forward.
Speaker 4So it was December of 23, and when we closed, but I ran a full process, like a hired an investment banker, which is if you don't know an investment banker is pretty much for anybody listening, it's like a real estate agent for your air conditioning company, right?
Speaker 3So they go out and help you find the right deal.
Speaker 4So they put together a deck, and they build it, and but, you know, first thing I'd tell you to do, if you were thinking about on a deal, go read the private equity playbook. Everybody, this probably heard this one. seven times. And it's highlighted front to back. I could probably sell my copy that's got everything highlighted up in it. And then go read the art of the art of selling your business, read built to sell. There's a lot of things that you'll find out that they're looking for. You need to build your business away that inequity company or private equity company wants to buy it. and you can't get to personal or attached to the stuff that you think's important because that doesn't matter. It's the stuff that the buyer thinks is important is what matters, right? So build your business the way they wanna buy it. And if you go out and get run a full process and when you set out your deck and everybody gets to look at it, right? It took a year, it is a flipping grind. If you don't have a data room, I don't care who you are out here listening to this. Start making a data room now. Figure out what one is and build one. Because if you don't have a data room, it's going to take you a long time. And they're going to look for information for your data. Data that there's three, four, five, six years ago. That information, you might not even be planned on selling your business down the road. If you don't have this stuff accessible, they're gonna ask you for documents from the state from five years ago. And while you're trying to find all this stuff, it's gonna affect your ability to run your business correctly. And then they do a thing called retraining, right? And they'll change the valuation on your business from wherever you land on, whoever it is you wanna talk to. But we had those dinners and people came in here for they'd come visit our shop for a full day, ask all these questions in the conference. And then you'd have a big dinner that night. And it'd be a two or three day or a deal with each one of these companies that you were recording, if you will. And then you try to figure out who you want to get in bed with. And it was, we had 22 offers initially. We'll go down to 13, then 11. And then we finally got down to our bottom three. And I mean, The stress and anguish in challenge, how hard it is to run a full process to get top dollar is something special that I, it was one of the hardest years in my life. And, We married the right partner. I completely, I state, I've stayed on now as a general manager for two and a half years, post the old. And I really just did that because everybody told me I couldn't, and I was like, I can get along with these guys. Let me, let me prove it. All these other suckers out here, can't get along with God. I can get along. And it's been challenging, right? Because a lot of the decisions you make are about today. And today's money and answering, You don't do that stuff the way we used to. And a lot of this stuff that gets handed over to the private equity group is they're building up the platform. We're not the platform company. They're not nearly as good at a lot of things as we are.
Speaker 2You've heard these stories from everybody who's done equity deal.
Speaker 4The night mayors of it, you know, and people making it through your six months with it before they split from the equity company. I'm two and a half years. Yeah, about two and a half years post deal, you know, it was December of 23 and here it is June of 26 and I've had a good ride is best one of the best cities I've ever made I mean I've got legacy. wealth, if you will, I rolled a lot of equity back in. I think that's a really smart move. I think you're going to be married to it. So you can't get any ideas about going and starting another thing or buying a business up the road. That's those ideas are, you're going to have to kick that can for a long time. So it's going to buy a lot of your life. They don't just buy your company. They're buying a lot of your life away from you where you can't go do anything. But I think it's been cool. It's been a cool ride. I do it 100%. I do it the exact same thing I did again. I wouldn't change the thing about it. I saw something like that. It's true in my family's future. You know, my kids, kids will be in a good spot as long as I don't screw up my kids. You know, that's all another conversation. Let's do a podcast.
Speaker 3I don't think you're doing that. We'll talk about that later, but you give me a great book on legacy and I appreciate that when I saw you.
Speaker 4So I ordered a copy. I mean in the mail it to you. Yeah, I got it. I got it. Adia? My man, leaving a legacy, my buddy, Patrick McGee recommended that to me over lunch about a month and a half ago. And it's like the origins of charity and legacy. And it's got biblical references throughout fantastic book. Chad, you got to read this one. It's all right, wait a look at wealth and how you create generational wealth. One of the best books I've read though in just here.
Speaker 3I still listen man. Come on baby.
Speaker 2I still can't see you got to have you ready yet though.
Speaker 3I haven't yet. I just I always saw you a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 4This is three hour read. You read that book in three hours.
Speaker 3All right. I'll tell you what. I'm going to read you in the next week and I'll call you up. All right. I just want to make you want to call you up. All right. Now, all right. I noticed the chat's got a jump, because I don't know, but I got one final question chat. Have you got a roll? I'll wrap this question up here.
Speaker 2I'll jump and you finish this out here.
Speaker 3All right. Just great seeing you, my man. Can you see the money? Yeah. Yep. All right. So we've got to wrap up with the question that we've been asking everybody on the podcast lately is, what is wrong in the industry that nobody wants to emit?
Speaker 4Yeah. Gosh. I'm not trying to not get stoned. Man, how do I, I'm pretty direct and honest about things. What's wrong in the industry nobody wants to admit? I would say in the private equity side of the business is we don't, private equity can't look at and love our customers the way that we do. And I think that's how I built this thing. I made every customer promises, handshakes, that's how RRA was when he sold me a service title and he said he'd never, he'd never fail me and he'd always take care of me and he has. I think humanity is failing one another right now. If you turn on the news, everybody's against everybody. If you drive down the highway, you see people just not treat each other with respect the way we once did.
Speaker 2I think people would become too disposable.
Speaker 4I don't think we love each other enough. I don't think we have gotten our lives enough. I don't think we're praying enough for, I think what's wrong in our industry is that we, we don't look at our customers as human beings that we care about as much as we're looking at them as a ticket or a revenue or a number and they can see it and they can feel it. And I think it's why people cancel their memberships because somebody's always trying to sell on something or you keep reschedule in my membership because it wasn't the highest value ticket we had to go, you know, we had to, we had to lower our board the right way, right? And what did we, what did we say to a customer that we made a commitment to? And I think it's dirty and I think it's ugly and I think the sooner we get back to our roots, where we really take care of our customers, we take care of each other and I don't know what's going to correct this world. But I think I think the thing nobody's talking about is that nobody's treating anybody else is good as we once did and I think we need to get back to that All right, well great message man.
Speaker 3I appreciate it. It was awesome. Have any on here. I really appreciate it man I love the get a chance catch up was great to see a couple weeks ago and love your stories man here Oh, he's got great stories my man self. We'll talk soon my man. I appreciate it. We'll see you guys all next time fear
Speaker 0What's the password?
Speaker 1Don't talk about it! Be about it!
