This is Under Pressure, a podcast where we dive into the untold stories of entrepreneurs and business owners who have conquered adversity to achieve greatness. And now, here's your host, Nick Staton.

Welcome to another episode of the Under Pressure Show. I'm your host, Nick Staton. Today, I have the pleasure of having Benjamin Gregory on here. Benjamin, how are you doing today?

Nic Staton

I'm doing good. Staying hot. It's very hot lately. Staying hot? Yeah, it's crazy hot out here.

Benjamin Gregory

Yeah. You're in Kentucky, aren't you?

Nic Staton

Yep. Yeah, and it's... We've had close to 90 degree weather every day, but it's, that's not so bad with the heat index. It's pretty bad.

Benjamin Gregory

Yeah. It's about the same down here. It's 93, 94, got up to like 98 one day or whatever for a couple hours. Um, if you don't mind telling everybody a little bit about yourself and about your background and stuff.

Yeah, I'm a, like I said, Ben, I, uh, actually started a pressure washing business called power pro washing. It's been. Seven eight years now. Yeah, and I started off slow. I was just going out doing everything by myself and Then I finally decided to try to grow it a little bit and now I got three trucks. I got five employees It's going pretty good Yeah, nice.

So you're all w-2 or you're all still 1099 or what?

No, they're so they all pay taxes. They're all w-2s I I think it's illegal not to do that.

So yeah. How do you, how do you structure yourself on payroll or whatever? Are you salary?

No, I actually wait to the end of the year. And, um, my accountant decides how much I paid, how much that I pay myself. Um, he, I guess he works it out to how much is best, like as far as tech deductions. So I actually take money, but at the end. He pays me like a salary and it's based off how much we made that year.

I got you. So you just pay yourself at the end of the year. You don't, you're not paying yourself throughout the year at all.

Well, I, I take money, but it's not, it's not factored in until the end of the year.

Okay. Cause somebody else in a, in a post that commented on one of my things, I didn't really pay too much attention to it. They were like, uh, w two, all the employees, but not yourself. And that's what I was wondering if that's what you're doing.

Yeah, they, they it's, I think last year it was like, it was six figures, but

Um, cause what we're doing is we're, we're about to put myself on a payroll or basically, yeah. You know, making like things like $24 an hour. Well, yeah, it's good.

If you don't pay yourself in it, it kind of screws with you when you go to fire your taxes. It's good to show that money going out somewhere.

Right. So yeah, that's what we were doing. Um, what, uh, how did you start this business?

Um, actually it had nothing to do. I was actually living in my parents' house. Um, I knew I always wanted to own a business. Like I always had that dream, like ever since I was a kid. Right. And I was thinking, I was looking at things I could do is like, I had to do something. I was working at like a warehouse and I knew, uh, they was, So I always knew that they was more for me. I always had these dreams and I knew working at that warehouse wasn't it.

What were you doing at the warehouse?

I worked at a warehouse and they would bring shipments in and so the stuff would come off the truck. I would scan it and I would take it to where it belonged. So I guess I was in the shipping and receiving department.

Okay. So that pretty much led you on to wanting to do more. You knew that you had more, so then you found pressure washing?

Yeah, I was just looking around and with sales too. I was actually in sales in college and I knew that I could sell. So I thought, well, if I come up with business, I can sell for myself. And I knew a lot about chemicals and chemistry and biology. So it just kind of fit all together. It's like, I'm going to pursue this. I'm going to pursue exterior cleaning.

Right. Cause you're real big about all of that with the chemicals and stuff like that, getting everything right and allowing the chemicals to do all the work and. Yeah, no one, what, what cleans, what and what doesn't clean, what historic buildings and coasters and all kinds of stuff, because that's how I found you is, you know, uh, I started, I think it was in 2020, I revamped my company and. I don't, you know, I think you just started kind of posting some stuff, but I think in 2021 is when you did that, that roller coaster. Yep, it was. That's when I really started following along. I was like, this guy right here is doing some big shit.

I'm going to follow him. I guess doing that, it kind of put me on the map, I guess you could say. Oh, yeah.

And then finally, people definitely were like, oh, he's got some authority. This guy's up here hanging fucking 160 feet in the air, fucking roller coasters. Yeah, it was the P 40 to the tester.

I posted in the groups and I asked, I was like, has anybody ever cleaned a roller coaster? I put it in almost every group. Nobody had done it. And I saw that. Well, I guess I'm going to figure it out. I guess I'm going to do it. And I did.

Would y'all use some degreasers or something like that?

No, we used SH, but they had people there. It was every two hours they would test it, make sure it wasn't too strong that would react with the bolts and things, I guess. So they would just take a little strip, a coring test. They would test it about every two hours, make sure we were still low enough. I mean, it had to be low. It was like 0.8%.

Well, they thought it was, oh, the, it had to be, it couldn't be, uh, it couldn't be very hot.

Yeah.

Okay. I get what you're saying. I was like, how the hell is it going to get hotter? They're just going to keep on testing the big old buffer tank. Like I was going to get hotter over the hours.

Yeah. So they would test it. Uh, the first day was terrible. They was there like on the dot every two hours, every two hours, every two hours. And then like the third, fourth day come around. I don't even think they showed up the last day to test it cause they already knew that it was, it was going good.

But yeah, it was, it was experience. That's what's up. Um, what made you want to start your business?

I always knew that I had it in me. Like it was my mindset. I know you're real big about mindset. And to me, like any of these listeners or somebody even watching, your mindset is the most powerful thing you can have. Once you get that right, there's literally nothing that can stop you. So that's why I had a mindset that I was going to be successful. Like it was, I made this mental contract with myself. I was like, I'm going to do this. And it was like it was a switch ever since that I was like obsessed with it. Yeah. So every day I would research, I would study, I would go talk to people. And it would it would keep me up at night, too. I slept like two hours because it was in my head like, oh, I can do this. I can do this. And it still does not quite as bad, but it still does.

Yeah, it definitely does. You'll come up with all kinds of ideas. That's why I had to set up a timer and actually get it to where it'll shut myself off. And if I didn't, I'm constantly looking at my phone and I'll see that different apps got, you know, things on them. So then I'm always opening those and always checking. Well, now at 8 o'clock, my phone says, start winding down. You've got bed at 9 p.m. Then at 9 p.m., literally, you can open my phone, and my phone looks like there's not nothing on there. There's no emails. There's nothing. So then in my head, I'm like, well, everybody's done. There's nobody else to even talk to, Nick. Go to sleep.

It is tough.

It's that's actually super hard. I still find myself still thinking or whatever like oh shit, you know, I need to figure out this or whatever but I find it the more that I kind of, you know, give myself some kind of rest. Yeah. The better that I am when I am under pressure more, you know, cause we are under pressure pretty much every single day, especially being a business owner and especially wanting to have employees and stuff like that. It comes down to. finding jobs, fucking making sure, you know, the money is there that, you know, those net pays are paying and stuff like that. You know, just numerous fucking things. Your truck's breaking down.

Fucking awesome. But I mean, that's that's the fun of it for me. Yeah. It would kind of be boring if everything went right. Right. And it's actually I tell my employees this all the time that I have one guy that's going through a lot of mental, a lot of stuff at home. And I told him, I was like, you know, your life is like a game, like even as entrepreneurs, like. It's really like a game, you got moves you can make. There's always a way out. There's always a right answer. There's always something you can do to make it better. So it's like a game. You just got to make those right moves. You got to think about it. So okay, this is what I need to do to correct this. Okay, that broke down. So how are we going to fix that? Let's use this. So it's like you post all the time is chestnut checkers. Yeah. You got to put these pieces where you need to.

But it's always something still. We're going to mess up. We're going to make mistakes. And that's another thing that I'm learning as well, too, is when those mistakes and those mess ups happen, not to overboil them and overreact towards them. Just think of a solution. Because at the end of the day, that's out of your control on why that happened. But it's not out of your control on why you can't figure out how to figure out not to allow that to happen again or to continue. getting past that hump, not allowing it to deterrent you and go backwards. And that's my biggest pet peeve is, I can't understand people, and I never will, when they run into a wall or an obstacle in life, no matter what it is, they allow that to stop them or deterrent them to go backwards, where that was just a tester to continue to see if you wanted to go past that.

Absolutely. That's, that's the mindset with the Robin with your mindset is going to determine if you stop. If you quit, your mindset will determine if you're even remembered when you go when you pass away. So My mindset is I'm going, I'm keep going like things are going to happen. I'm, I mean, I promise you that'd be something happened tomorrow at a job. I promise there'll be something, but you just got to figure it out and try to put a system in place where it don't happen again. Right. And then just keep moving forward. And then eventually you already know what to do when things happen because it's already happened.

That's where SOPs and stuff like that come into play with people or whatever, because, you know, we've built these companies up. We've done a lot of things. We've made mistakes, but if we can teach that most of those mistakes down to other people that work with us, their mistakes will be lessened. It's not that they're not going to make mistakes, but when they make mistakes arise, those mistakes to those employees, allow them to learn from them. And if they're not learning from them, then, you know, they're not suited for this company or your company or whatever it is. But as long as people are learning from their mistakes and stuff like that, that's how growth happens and that's how companies stay together and people work together. Do you find it better that, you know, you, you leading and, um, showing these guys kind of, you know, the ropes of how you've done things. Is that helping your company with, with, you know, with the growth and stuff like that?

Yeah, I think so. I, I mean, I honestly think I'm kind of on the slow growth mode, but I'm growing at my own pace. Um, like I said, eight years, um, we have done over seven figures and we will do over seven figures, but. Some of these guys, they're like two years in and they have 10, 15 trucks, but that's them. I'm not, I'm not like, that's not me. I'm not comparing myself to that. And also I have four kids, so my, that's kind of my purpose. So I, but, but to answer your question, yes, it, uh, I think leading by example and me not freaking out when something happens and just say, Hey, All right, let's just do this. We'll figure it out. Don't want to happen again. I think it does kind of help them out in the long run.

Yeah. Go back to your thing about, you know, not having a lot of people and still making your margins large. That's kind of where I'm at as well, too. I'm not about having a shit ton of employees and then saying, well, yeah, we are a seven figure, you know, get up to eight figures or whatever. But yet we've got fucking 30, 40 fucking people that work for us. I'd much rather say that, you know, I kind of like a seven figure or a high seven figure, but yet I've only got 10 people that work for me.

Yeah, trust me, that's way better. It's actually way less headache too. But on the other hand, if you ever go to sell your business, I can see the benefit of having 15-20 employees.

But I think that's where they would come into play. Whoever, you know, say that your private equity or whoever it is that comes in and buys it out. They're all about systems and, and, and, and, uh, processes as long as the systems and processes are there. It didn't matter if they bought that company with 10 fucking people, they could come in and buy that company with those 10 people. But yet say y'all stay around for X amount of years, then they're going to turn it around and go and. add a lot more people because obviously they're about numbers where you were kind of faceted on that, that nest of like, all right, this, this 10 group right here can do this nice amount. But yeah, they come in and they're like, nah, we want 30 people that can fucking, you know, go way out here.

That's five times this model. Yeah, that's exactly. And there is a lot of Wall Street guys investing in service business now.

Oh, they definitely are. I had a buddy that had a roofing company that just got bought out for 35 mil.

Yep. So they're they're getting into it a lot. I get an email and a call like maybe once a week or once. I'm not ready to sell. But and they'll even tell me is like, These investors are looking at service-based business now a lot harder than they ever have because they see it's working.

Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. It's either going to go service-based like trades or it's going to go AI. And if you are not getting on board with either one of those and you're really not going to make no money, but if you can implement both of those, you're really going to jack up some fucking money.

That's right. Yeah. I believe that too.

I believe that 100% because everything else can kind of be, can kind of be robotic. You know, people working at McDonald's, people working at fucking grocery stores, all that shit. You working behind a desk, all that can be fucking AI'd, all of that. So at the end of the day, what really can't be AI'd is someone like me and you that's out here doing a service based business like pressure washing or whatever. Yes, they do have those robots and stuff like that, but that's still, that's not gonna, it's not gonna fully take over everything and you still need humans to function them.

Yeah, I don't, I don't see how that it could all be like, I don't, I don't know if, if any service business could all be plumbing and all of that definitely is not going to ever really be fully robotic or any of that or even robotic.

So I just couldn't see us being, I just couldn't see us really being too much more past like the drones and stuff like that. Yeah.

That's probably exactly why the Wall Street guys are starting to invest so much in service-based businesses. They can see that, they can see it coming, and that's probably exactly why they're doing that. I don't know what I would do if I sold. I love it. I don't know what I would do.

It would have to be enough to where I could fucking, you know, invest into like real estate and shit like that. And then just kind of just live around like that. But at the end of the day, I just have a hustle mentality and mindset. It's like I'm going to be building something.

Yeah.

And I really enjoy building this. So I really just want to focus on this and build this up and see where I really can take this. If somebody really came in and offered me a huge chunk of money and wanted it, and it was enough, and I felt like I could go off and go do something else, then yes, I'm going to go do that. But that's also why I'm opening up the light business. Then eventually I want to get really into the line striping business. And once I get into those, say somebody comes by as the pressure washing business, I still got two other companies. And you can really implement all our sales tactics into just about anything.

It does. It fits almost any service business. Like I'm I'm also doing the Christmas lights this year and I'm also doing the permanent lights. Right. All right. Actually, I want to have everything in place by next month. Like I'll like where I'm getting it from. I'm going to start sending out emails, but it's the same sales tactics. Like you said, it's the same customer list that I have too. I'm just going to email my customer list that I have now.

And that's what I'm doing. I've just realized that we had over 500 clients and I was like, shit. I was like, I just told my VA. I said, look, take an hour out of every single day. Write down all those names into like a spreadsheet and literally after you get every single one of them put into a spreadsheet, then turn around and start calling them. And then put on there that it went to voicemail or whatever. And then if you end up getting no's or getting yeses, then set up those appointments with me and then allow me to do the next steps to, to following up with those people. But I got a feeling, man, out of 500 people, we should pick up a good group of people on Christmas lights alone.

Yeah. You think, yeah, you think out of 500, there'd definitely be some, some that pick it up.

And where you, where you really have already got a step on that is they already like you, they already trust you. So they want to do business with you. Mm. And at the end of the day, I tell people all the time, just because we have the equipment that we have, that's just to help us finish our job and to do our job better and to not kill ourselves. But at the end of the day, me showing up with my trucks, nine out of 10, they don't give a fuck about my truck or about my equipment. I'm selling myself to them.

I'm huge. You've got to sell yourself more than you like. I posted all the time in groups, I was like, the equipment won't get you jobs. Which sometimes, yes, it might. But 90% of the time, you sell yourself. And if they like you and trust you, they're going to use you. That's all it is.

I've had a few people hit me up since we've got the beast that zeroed her and them saying, yes, we would like to have that out here just for the fact that they know that time is money. And a lot of people there again, don't want you spending a lot of time out there on their job site. So if they can turn around and find somebody that's fast and efficient, then they're going to go with that person that's fast and efficient.

Yeah. Now, yeah, that's kind of like the gray area is like you have these big trucks that clean out the bridges. Have you ever seen it? It's got all these sprayers and they drive under like the tunnels, right? I mean, if you got equipment now that that type matters and like the bees, but just for these housewashes and things.

None of that shit really matters, man. You could show up with that dinky ass shit in the back of a damn trailer falling apart. Fucking look like it's just dragging down the road. No, nothing really going to happen. You get there and clean it. All they care about is the results. Yeah.

Now that, that might make them go by and double check when you're done. It is good. Like I, it does go a little bit as building trust. If they see you in a nice truck. But at the end of the day, they like you.

I've seen some people, man, push some damn jobs. Those guys post on there and they're just like hopping out of a four door car and it's like, definitely because they sold herself. Like, yeah, you're not, you're, you're definitely not pulling up to that job and like, Hey, check out this shit. I'm going to wash your house. They're like, nah. Yep. You definitely showed up to that house, knocked on the door, and was like, hey, Susie.

When I started, I was embarrassed. I didn't want them to see my stuff. I was embarrassed. I went door to door. I did not take my equipment ever. I was like, oh, man, they'll never buy off me once they see what I have. But it worked out. I sold myself.

Shit, I've pulled up to people's houses in my damn F-450, decked out with all my stuff, thinking, oh yeah, this is gonna help me. Nah, I pulled up and the motherfucker said, dawg, you're too expensive.

Right off the rip, dude's like, nah, babe, he's too expensive.

Well, he probably had some other guy do it before that. I mean, I could see that happening sometimes, yeah.

That's happened a few times. Doesn't it? Yeah.

I just carry on like I'm oblivious to the fucking shit or whatever and just carry on with my stuff and then I give them their quote and I just never hear from them. I'm like, well, that was a bust.

There's definitely those out there. What's been the hardest part?

Probably

employees that care, um, or that care as much as I want them to. Um, that's probably, that's been the most challenging and I'm, I'm a little too nice to, I give people too many chances, I think. And that's burnt me a couple of times, but I'm getting a whole lot better now. Like, uh, most of the people that's with me now has been over a year actually. Trey's been almost three years. Aaron, my manager, worked with me for... He's been with you for over two years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've seen him twice at the convention.

Yeah. So, I mean, I'm getting there.

You're retaining, you're retaining some stuff like that. I think like what people like to say is you got like your, a players should be players and you see, but you want to retain more of the a and the B and then push the C's, but you want to give everybody a chance to see if maybe those C's turn into B's or A's.

Yeah. And I think, I think that's possible if you, if you're a good leader and you develop that good culture and. you also got to put something in it for them. They have to have a carrot dangling for them to want to do better. But I think it's definitely possible to take a C player and turn them into an A player. Not all of them. I used to think all of them could, but no. Right. There's some you just can't.

Yeah, some people you give a chance and give chance and you give chance and they just keep burning. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then you know, this motherfucker is an idiot. He's just going to keep on letting me stay.

Yeah, they do start taking advantage of it, like wanting rides to work every day when they have a car or a motorcycle and they still call you once you come pick them up. Had that happen a lot. Yeah, that's my dude. Ride your bike. It's not raining today.

Yeah.

No, come get me.

How do you how do you deal with being under pressure and stuff like that?

I like it. I like I'm I'm super competitive. Like I'm probably it's almost a problem. I'm so competitive. Right. But the competitiveness is when I get under pressure. It's like like I was saying, it's like a game to me. It's like they're there's a way to win. And I just kind of brainstorm about it and I'll try something. If that don't work, I'll try something else. If that don't work, I'll try something else and I'll just keep going until I get it. Honestly, pressure don't bother me more except talking on here. I don't like talking in front of people. But like as far as life pressure, it does not bother me at all. I really don't.

You get more and more confident in yourself and in your decisions.

Yeah, that's that mindset. If you believe in yourself, there's really nothing that can stop you.

Oh, there's not. There really isn't. That's what it really boils down to. There's two voices that we have. One of them is going to allow you to push forward knowing that you can, and that's how we came into this world. But as we grew up into this society and in this world, then eventually people started telling us that we can't do things and pushing their insecurities off onto us and us believing them. And then thinking that their opinions were right. But as long as we can find that person that we originally were when we came into this world that believed in ourselves and pushed ourselves and all of that. Because at the end of the day, you came in here, you didn't know how to crawl, you didn't know how to walk, didn't know how to run. So as long as you can learn how to crawl, learn how to walk, learn how to run, you can do that, implement that in everything. That's where systems come into play with everything in life, I feel like.

Oh, yeah. It does not matter what anybody thinks about you. It does not matter what my uncle like or these people on Facebook. It does not matter what people think of. Only thing that matters is what you believe about yourself.

Yeah. The conversations you have with that person in the mirror.

That's right. That's exactly right. And I'm real big about doing like a self-reflection, like I think, OK, I think of my thoughts, I think. I kind of check myself. And I always think I can do better. Like, I'm pretty hard on myself. So I always think I can do better. It's always me versus me. And then if you combine that with the belief that you have in yourself, with a purpose, there's nothing going to stop you. Like you can literally do anything you want.

See, that's, that's my I feel like one of my problems is is I'm so hard on myself. Then I feel like I can be that hard on everybody else. And I'm like, that's why everybody crumbles.

Yeah, that is true.

You can't be that hard as you are on yourself and let other people do. Cause it'll fucking crumble.

Damn. Sorry. That's absolutely right. They, we had our trucks detailed the other day and I'm super picky. when it comes to cleaning, like I have a business, I expect them. And Aaron came in, he said, he's done. He said, you ain't gonna like it. So I heard Aaron go out there and say, hey, Ben's picky now. I was like, you better, you're gonna wanna look at this. I went out there, he had streaks coming down my windows where he sprayed the top, didn't dry it and come down. But I just told him, I was like, hey, you know, this, like you gotta check yourself. You gotta check your work. Make sure it's right. Yeah. But he loved fixing it. It was all good. But I definitely didn't have him back after that.

Yeah, you got to find the right things to say. So there was one kid who came on and was working here. He was local. I went into a group thing or whatever, this chatty men thing, and was asking people if they needed any work that lived local. Because I don't live around here, so I don't know anybody. But at the same time, everybody that was commenting and wanting to work lived two hours away. I was like, that just ain't going to work. Picked up this dude that lived locally fucking was working at Applebee's and stuff like that and Gothic real, you know real quiet. Yeah, but I actually got him I opened up and started talking dude this motherfucker, bro 27 years old. I don't think he's ever done anything in his life because dude he couldn't fucking start a leaf blower and

I mean, there's people like that.

So I went to go help him. Right. And when I went to go help him, you know, you would think you're helping somebody. You're going to start it. You're going to show them that you're going to kill it. And then you're going to let them start it. Yeah. He was like, I still don't think I can. So then I started it again, but then I killed it again. He looked at me and he goes, why'd you just kill it? I said, man, because you need to start. He said, well, fuck this. I said, what do you mean, fuck this? I said, dude, I said, it's a leaf blower, bro. I was like, I'm not always going to be around you to start this. And you need to be like hundreds of yards away from me and it dies away. We need to know how to start the thing back up. And he's like. Bro, that's just, I just don't understand why you just did that right in front of me and just killed it. And I was like, I don't think this work is for you. But then my dumb ass still allowed this guy to stay working with me. We get out to Coca-Cola, this motherfucker falls asleep on the job. I spray the water at him because he was asleep. He wakes up and he's like, dude, why the hell did you just hit me with water? Yeah, you were sleeping.

Yeah, that's I mean, it's not for everybody.

He's really not. Yeah, the internet's made it look so easy to everybody. So then when they actually get out, you know, get maybe washing the house is kind of easy. That can be easy. At the end of the day, it can kind of be hard. Because yeah, there's different there's different levels to it. But when it comes to commercial and stuff like that and industrial, bro, you can't have that fucking little, I'm just going to go in here and fly and do this and do that. I don't work that way. You're gonna cause that fucking person so many problems.

Yeah. And most of the time it won't work out anyway, unless you're a, you know, at least a little something. Yeah.

No. Um, how are you managing with your mindset?

Like I said, I check myself every morning. My drive is like, there's levels I want to be at. When I wake up in the morning, I'm like, I'm getting it. I'm going to go get this. I was like, you're not going to outwork me. You're not going to outwork me. You're not going to outwork me. And then life hits, but it's always in my head like, oh, I got to do this, like slow and steady, make improvements every day, just keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. And in five years, you look back and you're like, holy shit, I've came a long way. Right. And I don't even feel like it in the meantime. But when you look back, I look back five years ago.

Yeah.

I've made a long way.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

I look at people like yourself and I feed off of stuff like that because that just tells me that you can do it, I can do it. I'm not the type of person that sees you doing it and like, well, I'm going to get jealous of what he's doing because I'm not out here doing that. No, that gives me motivation to go out and actually go hunt down those type of things. Granted, I don't do the same exact shit that you do, but I do other things that are big scale too as well. Yeah. You know, but I didn't really get that drive until I found guys like yourself and, and watch that type of stuff, you know, a lot of people hoarder that shit and they keep that shit in. So then when people start posting about it, you know, they get so offensive about it and want to, you know, make it to where some people don't want to post because of the way that they come.

Yeah. There's people out there that's like that, but what, what changed, what changed my life was my mindset realizing that all these super successful people are no different than me, no different than you. They're no different than any of the listeners. We're all the same, but the only thing that's different, I promise you, is their mindset. Once you get that mindset set, there's literally nothing that can stop you.

And all our destinations are different as well, too. That's why I say what you do and what I do is different. But if you really look at it, the structure of the way that it is, it's kind of the same in a way. So that's where along that I tell people all the time, I didn't really learn how to grow my business until I put systems in on my goats. And once I put the systems in on my goats and learned how to keep my goats alive, then I turned around and implemented those same systems into my business. And then that's when my business started basically taking off. But everything in life needs a system, whether it's a relationship, whether it's a marriage, whether it's a dam. Uh, business, you know, your personal life, whatever, build up a routine, a system and be consistent with that and always analyzing it and tweaking it. But never go and say, Hey, all right, I'm going to go copy Ben to a T because that's not going to happen. And that's where I learned with the goats is I went out to farmers and thought that I was going to copy these farmers and that shit didn't work. My goats were dying left and right.

That's exactly right. I mean, you, if, if, if you, I mean, you can copy it to a point, but at the end of the day, you're going to have to tweak it to what suits your, your strengths and weaknesses are different than mine.

So you got to take pieces from other people's things that are successful and bring them back to yours.

Yes. That's I mean, and literally anybody can do it, but it takes a lot of work. It takes a whole lot more work than people realize. But if you really want it bad enough, the excuses ain't going to matter. You're just going to get it anyway.

Yes, sir. What's been the best part so far?

The money. I mean, I went when I start when I said I had a dream, a goal. My goal was to have a nice house, to not live paycheck to paycheck, to be able to provide for my family. I reached that. I literally checked off every goal and dream I had when I started this. I didn't dream big enough. So now, once I reach that, you got to go up. So now I'm shooting for the moon. I got some plans that in another 10 years, I'm going to figure it out. You wait and see what happens in another 10 years. In another 10 years, it's going to be a whole different level. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I'm stoked to see what happens, man. You've come a long ways in just the short time that I've known you. But like you said, your mindset's just gotten stronger and stronger.

Yeah, that's the most important.

Like it's, it's one hell of a purpose as well, too. You have a family and everybody, you know?

Yeah. I can still remember when you is just starting out. And, um, I think you said you sent me a message. saying, keep shining that light. You're inspiring me or something. Yeah, I was with you. And then I've watched your you progress. And you talk about mindset all the time, so your proof matters.

Oh, yeah. Like Law of Attraction, if you talk about it, it's going to happen. If you have a negative mindset, the negative shit is going to always pop up. And, you know, even having a positive mindset, Negative shit's gonna pop up, but that's how the positive mindset comes into play that you over You just don't pay attention to those things. There's always gonna be distractions and always yeah, but You just gotta you just keep feeding yourself positive things and good things believing in yourself puzzle piece by puzzle piece knowing that you are on a chessboard and you're not playing checkers once again because at the end of the day Chess is where it's at. You want to have that king, that queen, you want to run the table.

And you can't get so down or I mean, it's hard. You make wrong moves sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes you feel like, oh, my God, do I really want to do this? And then that that's when that purpose comes in and that that mindset. Yeah. Well, OK, let's figure it out. But it's hard. There's definitely been times I'm like scratching my head and what am I? What am I? It doesn't last long. And then I think of my kids. I think of my goal I have for the next 10 years. I was like, let's go. Let's go. Yeah.

Yeah. That's exactly it. I mean, I always have those down days where I'm like, man, am I really doing this? Why the fuck am I sitting here doing this? And then I'm like, snap out of that shit. Don't you fucking think that way?

I promise you it's normal. I promise you everybody has those thoughts.

I don't know. I hope so. I talk to myself too, so I probably answer a lot.

I mean, that's good. It's good to self-talk and like all the positive affirmations. I do that all the time. And it helps.

Bro, if I didn't talk to myself the way that I do or whatever, nobody else is going to push me to do the things that I am. And I feel like if I didn't shit talk myself, I didn't tell myself that I was a bitch. I didn't tell myself that fucking Nick, you're way better than this. Why are you listening to other people's opinions? Keep on fucking pushing forward. Then I would never be where I'm at. Because honestly, I would have failed at the mercy of everybody else's fucking insecurities. And that would have been the devil winning. But God was sitting there saying, Nick, keep pushing forward. Listen to this voice. You are better than this. I'm telling you, there's better shit. You're just not going to see it today.

That's right. Yes.

So, I mean, and I feel like that's kind of how he works with a lot of us, you know, just about everybody. But a lot of people don't see that. And a lot of people want to sit here and say, well, God ain't real. All this shit. And it's like, bro, yes, he is.

It's the only way to reach your full potential. It's the only way. Once you get that part of your life figured out, all those negative opinions that you hear don't really mean nothing. Once you have that peace that God gives you, I could have a thousand people say, oh, that was stupid, blah, blah, blah. You shouldn't have done that. Oh, well, you're going to ruin that. I don't care. Yeah, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, it's not matter anymore. As long as my peace of mind knew that I was doing right, then that's all that cares.

That's all that matters. I don't care what anybody thinks. It does not matter. I know where I'm going and I know I'm going to get there.

I tell people this all the time. You could throw 90,000 people into a stadium watching the same damn show. Walk every damn person out coming out of that show and say, hey, what'd you see? What'd you like out of that? Every person's going to tell you something different.

Different. They will. That's right. They will.

So there's more ways than one to get somewhere.

Yeah. But I think that's paramount. Having faith in a higher power, believing in God. We that's really if that wasn't the case, we really wouldn't have a purpose. Like, I don't understand, like.

He lives in each and every single one of us. Absolutely. Definitely does. You know, that's why he died for us or whatever. So, I mean, he's he's definitely inside of us.

Absolutely. And we can draw some of that power that he gives us. And. Yeah, we can.

That's why you see some of these people doing some really, really amazing, talented things, and those people really, really believe.

That's true. There's a bunch in our industry that believes very strongly, and they're every single one of them really great people.

You can see Heath and all of that, you know, the things that he's done with his industry on, on that side with the, uh, with the pressure washing, you know, he's even built up the pressure washing side and then really blossomed into the damn building side. And ended up franchising all of those out to multiple different States all within a short period of time. Yeah. It comes down to believing in yourself and believing in your processes and knowing that what you. what you can do.

Yeah. And I think people. Absolutely. And he had enough guts to take a chance on it. I think a lot of people don't have enough like they're so afraid of failure. They won't take that chance. Thank God I took the chance on myself or I would probably still be working in a warehouse somewhere.

I feel I feel like running in the streets like I did or whatever and having to take the chances that I did when it comes to shit like this. It's like, oh, fuck, I'll take that chance.

I mean, yeah, it's not the other chances that were fucking worse.

It's a million dollars or like this and really nothing. But a lot of people won't even start their business because they're afraid. I promise you, I would rather try and fail and not try it all and then be 15 years looking back, Oh man, I really wish I would've tried that. No, I'm trying.

I'm afraid of, afraid of other people's opinions, like family. I mean, my husband told me that I wouldn't do shit. Well, that's the wrong husband that you got.

Yeah. It's not them going to be regretting it 15 years down the road when you didn't try, it's going to be you. So it doesn't matter what anybody says. If you got something you want to do, you better do it.

And don't push it off on your kids and try and get your kids to live your talents. Go out and go live those talents yourself. Yeah.

I got, I'm kind of mad. I didn't start this 15, 20 years ago. Like you're, you're still young and I'm holding my. I'll be 45, uh, like next week or a week and a half. 45. Yeah. So if I would have started this when I was your age, shoot, I don't know where I'd be, but I'm a late bloomer.

I guess it's all good. You still got plenty of, plenty of gas in the tank to keep on shucking, man. I'm just saying, you see the, um, A lot of people like KFC, the owner of KFC and stuff like that, and none of those guys really ever started till they were like in their 60s and shit. Oh yeah. Those names still carry on way past their, you know, they're not even living here.

Well, it's probably because if I would have started it when I was younger, there's no way it would work. I think God let me start it at the right time because the lifestyle I was living, there's no way it would work. There's no way there's just right, right.

You had to go through, we had to go through the shit that we had to go through, you know, life's gonna, it happens the way that it's supposed to. And if they would have gave it to us a lot sooner, we probably would have fucked it all up and not even been nowhere near where we're at. But we made a lot of fuck ups before we actually got to this. And then now we're actually being able to shine some, but nobody really sees all the fuck ups that we all made way before then they just see the shine. And then they're like, well, how'd you do this? How'd you get that? How'd you get this job? What, how are you pricing that?

And it's like, all the time, but what, If there is somebody out there that's having that problem, going through those mess ups now, or maybe had not the best year last year, maybe fighting some kind of addiction or something, I promise you that there's a way out. I promise you once you make that mental contract with yourself and you believe in yourself, it'll change your life.

Oh, yeah, definitely 100%. What are you the most excited about for 2024 or the rest of 2024?

Since we're already halfway through, I'm excited to start the lights, the permanent lights, the Christmas lights. I'm excited to we're going to Arizona. I'm pretty excited about that. I'm pretty excited about taking my team to the huge convention. I think I'm going to take four of them. to maybe let them see how things are on that side of it. Because last year it took Aaron, he was on fire. He was on fire when he got back. So hopefully he'll do the same and be on fire again. Yeah. Nice. And that's about it. Oh, I'm getting a gutter vac. I'm excited about getting a gutter vacuum.

You're getting a gutter vacuum? I've always thought about getting those. I just wasn't sure about it or not.

I don't know, but some of these houses and I'm getting a lot of requests for it. Some of these houses are like a 12, 12, three stories high. And I'm saying, man, if we had a vacuum, because our price is so high right now, a lot of people won't do it. But I'm getting lots of requests because if I have to go Three stories in the air or they have if they have to go three stories in the air Or maybe even try to walk that route to clean gutters. I'm gonna make it worth Wow So I'm getting one. I'm getting the sky back This is the one you have to have a generator it's got a 40-foot pole and a camera and stuff on it We'll see. We'll see if it works

Yeah, I need to end up finding out how you're getting those gutters clean the way they are using like a degreaser or something like that.

Yeah, it's uh, it's actually one that we make ourself when I see it's used convention. I'll tell you, it's kind of, it's kind of like, no, it ain't really a trade secret, but it's, I do have a lot of clients say, Oh, the last guy couldn't get it and you did.

The reason I ask that is because a lot of people here lately have been asking that, and it's like, well, there's tiger stripes, but they can only do so much for them.

Yeah, I will say that the chemical you want to use as the most actin-free is sodium metasilicate. It's a whole lot better than Obviously hydroxide, which a lot of them guys are cleaners will have hydroxide in it. That's the paint stripper too. That's what it sits on there long enough.

I'm just going to strip the paint. Yeah. You don't want that to happen. No, your shit pretty much.

You can put it on there and then y'all notice y'all kind of, yeah, just brush it, put it on there, spray it and it wipes off usually. Um, sometimes I've sprayed twice and Adam one out of every like 200. Um, it will take paint off, but that paint's already fried anyway. Like it would have came off with just a brush, but it does a real good job about not stripping the paint off.

Nice. So, uh, how can the listeners get in touch with you and find you on social media?

I'm on, um, pretty much only on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn to LinkedIn.

Big on LinkedIn. Yeah, I got me started on LinkedIn.

Yeah, I got started growing. I got like ten thousand one hundred followers on LinkedIn right now. Actually, a lot of my jobs, it just got hot. It was slow and it's hard. I'm probably sweating. I want to turn my AC back on.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

But it got slow. LinkedIn kind of went He died down the first year, but now it's blowing up. Like I'm getting, I'm getting a lot of leads on LinkedIn.

Nice. Nice. Well, uh, we'll go ahead and end it since you're getting, since you're getting hot, I'm probably glistening. You got a little bit of a glisten across your face. You're like, as soon as I get off of here, I'm going outside. Shit.

Yeah. Hopefully you don't mess it up.

No, it's not bad. But, uh, we'll go ahead and end that here, guys. I appreciate y'all tuning in for another episode. We're going to end that here. Go ahead and subscribe to all the platforms and continue listening. Peace.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. And remember, pressure doesn't break you, it makes you. Until next time, friends.