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The Wash Bros Podcast
Join The Wash Bros, Matt Jackson and Clay Smith, as they talk friendship, business, and how working together as owner/operators of competing businesses has helped them achieve even greater success.
The Wash Bros Podcast
Season 2: Episode 28: Back to the Beginning: Episode 1 of The Wash Bros Podcast
Two competitors who became collaborators share their unconventional business journey in the pressure washing industry. Matt Jackson and Clay Smith—the Wash Bros—reveal how a simple act of kindness (lending a surface cleaner) blossomed into a powerful professional relationship that has helped both their businesses thrive in the same market.
Coming from cutthroat car sales backgrounds, Matt and Clay rejected the toxic scarcity mindset that dominates many industries. Instead, they've discovered that supporting each other through knowledge sharing, accountability, and genuine friendship has created more opportunities for both of them. Their conversation tackles the realities of entrepreneurship with refreshing honesty—the sleepless nights, the constant hustle, and the challenges of maintaining quality while scaling operations.
The duo shares practical wisdom about what truly matters in business success: consistent marketing, exceptional customer service, and reputation management. They emphasize that technical skills (the actual pressure washing) are far less important than business fundamentals. As Clay puts it, you must "eat, sleep, and breathe" your business to succeed, while Matt adds that "if you pursue impact, income will follow." Their philosophy challenges the conventional wisdom that competitors must be enemies.
Whether you're in the home service industry or any entrepreneurial venture, this conversation offers valuable insights about collaboration, marketing, and maintaining motivation when business ownership gets tough. The Wash Bros demonstrate that even in a saturated market, there's room for multiple successful businesses when you focus on delivering exceptional value instead of undercutting the competition.
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powerwashingcoach.com
C3washpros.com
mattthedrivewayguy.com
Live from 864 Sound in Greenville, South Carolina. It's the Wash Bros Podcast, with your hosts Matt Jackson and Clay Smith.
Speaker 2:What's up, guys? It's Matt Jackson and Clay Smith and we are the Wash Bros. So we started this podcast from the 8th live from the 864 and we're just gonna kind of talk about our story, our friendship and how we started a pressure washing business together. So let's go, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 3:Matt glad to be here. This is something I know we talked about. For what? Six to eight months now yeah, I think so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So uh glad to finally be doing doing this. Um, talk about how we came together, how we kind of do business together behind the scenes. A lot of people are probably like what the crap? Like how is two people in the same industry, you know? How are they so close? How are they, how are they doing something like this? You know, I think it's something that I think you should want to see more of this around the country, around you know, even local. You know supporting each other, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, it's like small business. It's hard enough as it is. It's a solo sport. Entrepreneurship is one of those things. There's no workforce you have to go to to have supportive employees and bosses. You kind of like everything's on you so it can be overwhelming. At times it's hard to. It's hard to know what you're doing, if it's right, if it's wrong, and then like mentally it's bad. So that's why it's like I'd rather collaborate than be like a competitor to somebody right, right, right.
Speaker 3:So, uh, I know we've talked about it a little bit, but, uh, let's tell everybody, like, how did, how did? How did we meet? How do we, uh, how do we get linked up? It's kind of kind of a crazy story, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:I think it's a cool story. Uh, I mean, last year I was, um, actually ended up having an injury. That was not fun, so I was kind of out of the game a little bit. And then I noticed, uh, in one of these like greenville young professional groups I used to get a lot of like referrals in it and all of a sudden I started seeing this guy, clay smith, pop up. I was like all right, cool.
Speaker 3:Who's this guy right? Who's this new guy in town? Who's this rookie?
Speaker 2:it's like uh yeah I know I've been like kind of slacking on my marketing recently, like who is this guy?
Speaker 2:it's kind of like rubbing a little itch here right so of course I had to check him out, connected with him, and then we kind of sparked a conversation and then he's a cool dude, so we became friends. But I think the cool moment was I was stuck on a job and I was like man, I kind of had a piece of equipment break. It's going to kind of mess up my schedule. Then he kind of came through in the clutch, having never met in person, and offered me to borrow his surface cleaner, which is like how we clean our driveway. So instead of me dropping like 700 bucks and having to scramble to like figure out how to reschedule, I was able to kind of jump right into it and not have any delays in my schedule. So kind of like an act of kindness there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I think I think that night we met. I think it was at the home depot parking lot, the local home depot, right.
Speaker 3:So, uh, the first time the first time we had ever met it was. It was crazy. I mean, we spoke for, like I think we stayed until almost 11 o'clock that night in the home depot parking lot just talking man and I didn't know, you know, I I know a lot, knew a lot about business going into, uh, starting my own company, but I didn't know a lot about pressure washing and obviously you were, you were, you were there to help me behind the scenes. It really, I mean, you know, you know, I've given you, given you, some credit here and there, but nobody really knows how much you really helped C3 watch pros, right. So it's just crazy, it's just crazy to me. You know, going into this, you think you know I'm coming from the sales perspective A lot of people didn't really, you know, a lot of people didn't really work together. You know, as managers we work together but, as you know, when I was in the sales field it was cutthroat, you know yeah and it's good that we don't have to view each other that way.
Speaker 3:You know, even though, that we are competitors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know so um, yeah, exactly, and like we both kind of come from the same background, I was in car sales, sold toyotas for a little while and it is a grind. It's every man for himself and it's a super scarcity driven place. So anytime somebody's winning, you're, you're, you're kind of upset and you're like, oh, it's not fair. So to see somebody else come up in a, in a space where you are literally trying to compete with them, and then do, well, it's almost like counterintuitive to be like, hey, let's help each other out here, right. But again, I also believe in like kind of giving, giving back, and what you put out will come back, and karma and stuff like that, and it's just like, hey, you start out, it's brand new, I don't want somebody to make the same mistakes I made. It's like shortcut that learning curve but also have a relationship and a friendship that pushes each other. So you guys both grow together. That's kind of what we evolved into.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that uh, uh, you know, some the some of the stuff that works for you is not going to work for me and some of the stuff that works you know, vice versa, and, uh, you know it's a lot of trial and error and it's something you know.
Speaker 3:If I run into a to a hiccup, uh, you know it's like what do you think of this, matt? Or vice versa we, we, we don't kind of view each other as better than the other or anything like that. We just kind of work together. You know, we just try to build successful businesses together. So, uh, very, very exciting. I'm I'm super pumped for 2023. I mean, um, you know, doing what we did last year, um, together, really, um, c3 wash pros. I mean that, you know, know it's exceeded my expectations.
Speaker 2:I mean you know you're gonna need employees before you know to do to do six figures and you know in just a year it was.
Speaker 3:It was just nuts to me, like I said, it's, you know it, it's really mind-blowing to me. You know that I I was actually able to do it, but obviously it was with your help, a little bit right.
Speaker 2:So everybody helps out, though, like I have mentors, mentors, it's one of those things. If you're going at life or if you're going at business, especially alone, you're not going to go very far. I mean, if everybody you see is a competitor and everybody you see is out to get you, you're going to go back to having a day job pretty soon.
Speaker 3:What was the Davo?
Speaker 2:quote that we go by. Oh, I love. Quote that we go by. Oh, I love it. It's like I don't care about your opinion if I'm not asking you for advice, correct? It was like a reporter. That was like asking him, grilling him about stuff. He's like look, bro, I really don't care what you have to say. Yeah, and your opinion if I'm not asking?
Speaker 3:you for advice. Yeah, I mean, like you know, from the sales background coming. If you're successful, you're gonna have those people you know in the background that are you know, guess they're kind of what do you want to say? Maybe a little bit of jealous, like they're.
Speaker 3:Just I'm like bro, just put your energy towards making yourself better and making yourself more successful and, you know, start worrying about what others are doing. You know, um, I mean obviously, uh, that's kind of I mean we work together, so yeah too, and you can get like woo woo and think of like it's energy.
Speaker 2:So if you're putting out, if you're working for somebody and they have a brand and they have business coming in, say like sales, okay, if I can take everybody's business that's coming in, I may be successful, but I'm toxic and I'm just kind of taking advantage of that business. That's bringing the business as it is, versus when you're your own person, you kind of have to put out good value and good energy and have good relationships with people, because they can sense that kind of weird energy off of you if you're, if you're, I'm out to get this type of person. So I mean, the more I help people and the more like collaboration occurs and like friendships are made, the more money comes back to me.
Speaker 3:Right, right, and at the end of the day, it's your job to go out and get to work. The washing is the easy part. The hardest part is knowing how to run a business and being successful at it. The hardest part is getting work, being consistent with getting the work.
Speaker 3:You've got to do a good job for your clients. You've got to give them quality work. You've got to show value in your company. Mean, you got to do a good job for your clients, right. You got to give them quality work. You got to. You got to show value in your company. You got to provide value in your company or else they're not going to call you back next year, right. So you got. You got to be consistent. If you're not consistent, I mean you're really not going to get anywhere. And that's how you know within three to four years, what, what's the national average? They, you know. The small businesses, you know, with home services, they, they just don't last because they don't know how to do all that, or they don't choose to because they've made it very difficult for themselves.
Speaker 2:Right, you can hustle and force and like, bury your emotions the entire time and then eventually going to burn out because there's not a greater purpose behind what you're doing. Right, you're not there to serve, you're there to take.
Speaker 3:Right, right. And you know I have guys that call me all the time hey bro, what do you think about this? Or what should I do here, what should I do there? Or you know. And you know I'm just like, well, I mean, are you going to put forth the effort into doing what I'm telling you, or you know? Or you or you just call me to waste my time, like, yeah, I don't have time to. You know, if I, if I wanted to, uh, if I wanted to yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like do you want to listen? Or do you like my wife has a great quote. She's like okay, do you want me to tell you what to do or do you want me to hear you? Are you calling me to complain and be heard and have me try to acknowledge your problem? Or do you want me to tell you a solution that you're going to act on and it's going to actually change? Right, a lot of people aren't willing to take the information given change because they have ego problems. So that's one thing like how our relationship works. It's no ego. It's not like, oh man, like why you say that I'm going to do the opposite. Or like, why are you attacking me? Or like, oh man, you're, you're taking my territory. It's like that's a good way to look at things. I'm going to implement this because I see how it's working with you.
Speaker 3:So we're going to grow together because iron sharpens, iron Correct and although that me and Matt, I mean, we do have our disagreements, but we work through it. We're good, I mean. I think that's what makes us better, though, and sometimes, you know, matt may say something that I may disagree on. You know, earlier in the week and I may be laying in bed a couple nights later Damn, he be laying laying in bed a couple nights later. Damn, he was right. You know like, yeah, you know it's just.
Speaker 3:You know, sometimes it's at the moment, in the in the vibe, that you put out sometimes the way you say things may come out differently to make you having a different opinion, but then when you really sit back and think about something, it's like dang he was, he might be really on to something. There, you know, and and I think that's the problem with the, communication is a big key in this world. You don't have communication, you don't know how to communicate, you're not going to be successful. I mean, communication makes the world go around. If you can't communicate, then you know business probably isn't for you.
Speaker 2:You probably need to go back to nine to five, exactly it's like nothing personal, but if it becomes personal, then it's you're making it personal it's like business is business like have enough emotional intelligence and awareness in oneself to be able to take information as information and say that's a good idea. Let me think about that. That questioned me. I'm not gonna challenge it, I'm gonna try to adapt it and you know you definitely, you definitely can't be soft in this world either, man.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know what I'm saying. Um, I've always, like I've always had thick skin going back to the sales thing, but you had to have thick skin. If you didn't have thick skin and you know you're not going to be successful, correct, you know. So, uh, being soft, uh, at a, at a, you know, I just I've never really been soft and sometimes it gets me in trouble. You know, even with my personal relationships, um, especially, uh, I may come across the wrong way and sometimes I have to come back and say, hey, I really didn't mean it that way, it's just the way it came out you know, um, but uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's.
Speaker 3:It's definitely been a crazy ride, like just knowing our whole story. Man, it just blows me away and knowing how, far just off the this, the stuff that uh we've talked about, um helped each other out and the surface cleaning thing, um, it's just a great story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Again, it's kind of like a selfless act of kindness and I'm like all right, well, I get so many people, as you probably do, try to DM. You try to come in and be like either they're like pretending to be a customer and we call that secret shoppers where they're like oh, I need you to help me out on this, this and this. And then, like you said, the other day, you had somebody come at you about like, hey, send me your setup. So, instead of like coming at somebody honestly saying, hey, I'm trying to start a business, I'm coming to you because, like, I want to be kind of where you are. They try to be shady about it and then like come at you lying and it's like more taking as opposed to being like we're all in this together. Like you want to be bros here, you want to be wash bros here and then grow together.
Speaker 2:So it's like all about how you approach situations and I was like, hey, he came. I was like, hey, I'm, I'm a sales guy, I I'm doing stuff and I also I know there's always an ulterior motive behind things, but if you do it correctly, it's like this is some friendly competition that can help each other grow and, like we say, entrepreneurship is a lonely game. So it's like we're not in the same sales floor together, but we can still be competitive amongst our different companies. And then it's like hey, where are you, how are you doing today? It's like accountability, Right, Right.
Speaker 3:And you know it's it. I don't really view Matt as competition. It's just like I know that I'm going to take care of myself. You know that's the, that's the alpha male, I guess you would say. You know, like, uh, I've just, I've always been headstrong, I'm gonna go get mine. You know, um, it's like when we, when we first started my business, me and my wife, we, we were kind of on the edge about it. You know, but, um, I mean, I, I really I don't know how to say this like I had like the the little bit of fear, like that's not me, anybody that knows me from sales like fear, that's that's. You know I'm gonna get it. You know, like I'm not worried. Like covet, all that stuff hit when I was in sales. I still hit all my numbers. I'm strong as crap. I was gonna get it, no matter what. Whatever it took, I was gonna do it. If I had to go to people's doors and knock on their doors to say, hey, you're gonna buy this stuff you know, but you know, it's, it's, uh it.
Speaker 3:we were, we were worried about it really.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was, it was October, it was slow season which, if you don't know, that's the worst time to start a pressure washing business.
Speaker 3:slow season, going into slow season is when I started my business and um, and you know we were a little worried about it and I told my wife. I said, look, when I go into work at the car dealership I don't know if I'm going to make any money. It's kind of the same perspective. So if I'm consistent, I follow the sales process and I do the things that I need to do consistently, it'll eventually come. And sure enough, spring of last year it just popped man and you know really.
Speaker 2:I'm'm just blessed you know that that it all worked out the way that it did. Yeah, and again, like putting out good seeds, it's not about, okay, this doing this act in the moment is going to directly give me a result, but it's just like, hey, you're sowing seeds in the community, you're sowing seeds with your competitors and then eventually they're going to harvest and it's just like cool, you didn't have to help me out there or you don't have to help out other people, but you choose to do so and by doing so you get kind of like reward and and more business. You get like kind of favor given to you right, and don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3:I mean it wasn't easy by any, not by any means. I mean that's just the nature of business, but it's. It's almost like business is like so addicting and you get to a certain point you're like, dang, I've made it, but then you're like I want more you know, and everybody has their different. Uh, what do you want to say, like criterias or levels, or goals that they want to hit exactly but you're always trying to figure out how to make yourself better.
Speaker 3:You know and and and I don't you know I don't have like I probably have half the the equipment that most of these guys. But at the end of the day, it's really all about how you value your company. You sell yourself, you brand yourself. Do you do a good job? If there's an issue, do you take care of that issue? Do you go back and make sure that's taken care of? A lot of guys with home services, they'll do the work, collect the money and that's it. They don't care about you anymore, right, exactly? Um, so, um, I'm very big like on selling myself with reviews like that's. That's. You know, when I go out to eat, or, yeah, I'm looking at the store, I go out of town on vacation or something, I'm gonna look at the reviews to see if this place is good is to have good service, because you know if I'm spending my hard, hard earned money, obviously that's you want to go to a good cause?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's what I want to look at, you know yeah, um, but yeah, the the reviews have been big for me. You know, I highly recommend getting you know with anybody that has a business getting some kind of platform, something that sends out that direct link or something. You know when you do that work for that customer to get that five-star review, because that is, I mean, yeah, that's, that's freaking important to me. I mean that's, that's what I live by, like, I would rather have a five star review almost almost than get paid. You know, I'd almost work for five star reviews.
Speaker 2:That's actually a valid point because, like I'm at that point now in my business where I don't really care about the money coming in because it's like, okay, this is the assumed part.
Speaker 2:Then it becomes like the customer service, like have I gone above and beyond today? So what makes me happy is when I get home at the end of the day and if I've done four jobs or three jobs, I get like two or three five stars. I'm like that's a successful day and I think now I'm around like 250 range. But it's like I don't really care about chasing the money anymore. I care about chasing the five stars. That's not like a an ego vanity metric or anything. It's more of like hey, I did a good enough job and I impressed somebody today where they felt that they give me a, a review, because I mean, like most people, like yeah, sure, bro, I'll give you a review and yeah, never, never do it, never does it. So like it's like can you make a difference in somebody's day every single day? And that's kind of like a reward system for me that pushes me forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Like I'll, I'll. I'll look forward to more of reading my reviews versus going and taking a shower. Like a lot of people, when they get home, first thing I'm going to do is take a shower. Hell, I want to get on the couch and I want to read my reviews. You know, it's just a really good feeling to know that people actually just a really good feeling to know that people actually you know you do a good job.
Speaker 2:It just makes you feel good. Yeah, it's like are you seeking income? Are?
Speaker 3:you seeking impact?
Speaker 2:yeah and like if you if you pursue impact, income will follow yeah, yeah, most definitely yeah.
Speaker 3:It's all about you. You got to build a reputable business. If you don't have a reputable business, you're probably not going to last too long.
Speaker 2:You know, I just it is what it is yeah, especially in like the home service space or like right now with. So when COVID hit, everybody kind of shifted from like corporate America to more like entrepreneurship, whether it was like all the government money was given out and people were able to like kind of front load their business expenses on all that. But it was like a massive push for people to jump into, especially pressure washing. So like I've seen so many people jump into the game and I've only been in it since like 2018. So I especially pressure washing. So like I've seen so many people jump into the game and I've only been in it since like 2018, so I haven't been in this forever, but I've seen so many people come and go super ambitious, super hungry, and they all kind of have the same story like they hit it so hard and then they kind of fizzle out and then they disappear and then I say, oh, congrats, you got a new job.
Speaker 3:Yep, so yeah, yeah, it's a. It's definitely a grind, you know, and a lot of people like behind the scenes of business, like they don't understand like the overhead that goes into it. They're like you're charging me X amount of money and you're like you. They're like you make more than a doctor and I'm like, uh, no, no, sir, no, ma'am, that is not how it works, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, yeah, so my costs have gone up a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, inflation has kind of killed us right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then where I'm in, my business is more focusing on building out trucks, kind of scaling a little bit more. So it is like, okay, I can carry the torch, but in order for me to continue this growing at the pace that I kind of want to grow at, I'm going to have to trust somebody and offload it to somebody. So I have multiple trucks. And then it becomes like how do I screen employees? How do I know if they're good or they're just good at interviewing? And then I heard another quote that's like if they're good at interviewing, it means they interview a lot, which means they're probably bad at their job. It's so many new things you jump into in business where it's just like if you don't have a good foundation in your business whether it's like in the community, like your online presence that if you're really taking a risk and jumping into that new thing of like, oh man, I'm passing the torch to employees, it can really ruin you.
Speaker 2:I know like I talk about it with you all the time because we're both kind of in the same same boat as far as like hey, we like to have control over our business, and it's just like yeah I'm definitely a control freak yes, it's like me too to an extent. So to like, oh man, I'm gonna trust somebody and I was like I was an employee. I understand what the employee mindset is here.
Speaker 3:Yep, especially in today's world it's kind of like oh man, yeah, the nine to five. Yeah, just want to hurry up chasing paychecks in our business.
Speaker 2:it's like, hey, you have to have attention to detail, you have to care, you have to, like, be dependable. A lot, of, a lot of factors come into it, like, like you said, our work, the true, like cleaning is not difficult. Anybody can clean, yeah, everybody. But it's like, does it meet the standards that our customers are expecting from us and can they provide a similar experience that we could provide? So that's kind of the new challenge that I'm in right now. Right, right, yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 2:I'm a control freak, so I'm a control freak so I'm still trying to figure that part out.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I think that a good way. I was actually on the phone with someone this morning talking about the growing thing and we were talking about how would that work, how could you motivate your employees, how can you make them want to work? And going back to the sales thing once again, you know sales is very, very important and I think that you see that with a lot of successful business owners, like, if you don't have some kind of background in sales, like it's going to be very, very challenging. You know so. But anyways, going back to that, have like a sales motivating pay plan to your people to make them work as hard as you do and to grow in your business. So obviously, with them growing, you're going to grow even better.
Speaker 3:And obviously they're going to make a little more money with the commission or the salary plus commission. They're going to want to get more work. They're going to want to work as hard to get the leads that you are Exactly yeah, and and too, like, like you said, sales.
Speaker 2:I think that's a huge thing too, because so many people oh, I'm handy. I was told that I should start a pressure washing business because I know how to do handyman work. Oh, that's easy money. I see these guys out here doing it but like they don't know anything like right I, I used to do all this stuff by self. I know how to do everything. I mean I went to private school, went to private college, went to corporate America. So I was like, all right, well, I don't have the background of somebody who you would see in the blue collar space, but I'm able to learn it because the business and the sales and the people skills is my background, and I think a lot of times what we see in our industry is so many people come from the blue collar space and they don't necessarily have any experience in the business, the sales, the human interaction, which is where all of it is Right, right, and then like understanding motivators of people, is huge and that's kind of something I liked from our sales world.
Speaker 2:It's like when we were selling a car, some people were just price driven, some people were like well, I trust you take care of me, price-driven. Some people were like, well, I trust you Take care of me. And then some people were like I want to feel a certain way and the place I am now with trying to figure out employees and motivators, as you're saying, is alright. Does somebody want to feel like, just because my face is on my truck? But do they want to feel like, hey, I'm the face of your business on the ground and I have a sense of ownership and I am important? Or do people like you said, are they money motivated or are they just trying to get a job and then they want to go home? And those people that just want a job and go home, I'm like hey it just doesn't align with my business.
Speaker 3:Right right, they do the same thing every single day. They business. So right right, yeah, they, you know they do the same thing every single day. You know they have jobs. You know, like the manufacturers and stuff, that is not something I could do by the way, and that's that's why we both do what we do I love, I love the chain of scenery.
Speaker 3:And going back to the, the blue, you know you could kind of tell which guys in our industry, what field they come from, because you could tell like, uh, for instance, like yesterday I was in, I was in a neighborhood and I and I washed, I washed a house and I come out and I look to my right and I said, daggum, there's a yard sign pressure washing, house washing, gutter cleaning. And I'm just like they just do it all, don't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they do it all. They must be expert at everything.
Speaker 3:But it's like, okay, there's a yard sign and it says house washing, pressure washing or whatnot, and then I'm pulling out of this neighborhood, so I'm like that's not working.
Speaker 2:Man, you know you. You have a lot of.
Speaker 3:You know I think I think we've gotten kind of out of that age and and a lot of people are, you know, for our industry. Anyway, you know, I tried I'll be honest when I got into it I tried the same thing. It did not work correct like I'm.
Speaker 2:I'm a huge like marketing branding person. So this like this is what fires me up. Pressure washing is just like, whatever it's the product I sell, right, it's the easiest thing I could figure out to get out of my corporate america job that I didn't have to have a lot of money to start. So I mean I started with free equipment. So like we kind of were in the same boat of like all right, we're gonna scrap, buy on the equipment and then focus heavily on the social media and the marketing and getting ourselves out there, because that's both of our backgrounds. So like, like, like you're saying, like people buy $50,000 equipment expecting to make like $200,000 off of that right and have no idea how how business works or how the equipment or how the equipment works yeah, I mean we started.
Speaker 3:I mean I started from the, from a $200 pressure washer, from another northern tool, and I went through four of them. So, yeah, um, and then, and then I was at a what an $800 machine and then I made my way up to a $4,500 machine. So it's, it's a big difference. It really is, you know, but they all do the same thing. At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with equipment. You know, equipment is the last thing you need to worry about. I mean, the washing is so easy. I mean it's, a lot of people just make it too difficult. You know, with a mix and ratios and this, that and other, and I mean, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 3:I mean you, you gotta be careful, but it's uh, it's definitely not, not a hard job. The hardest part, like we keep going back to, is running the business. If you, if you don't, you know, if you, you gotta know how to run a business.
Speaker 2:you know, it's like people get in their own way. People get in their own heads. They try to be they. They coming from the sales world again, it's like are you productive, correct? Like are you spending 10 hours a day prospecting or are you just kind of wasting time thinking you're busy? And that was like something that was always harped into me. It's just like how much is my time worth right now? Like, whether you're dialing for dollars or you're emailing people or you're networking with people, it's just like everything you do you should put a hour how much am I making an hour? On your value of time, on your value of time. And you're like all right, if I want to make $1,500 a day, how do I break that down into an eight or a 10-hour day? Yep, like, if you force yourself into that kind of paradigm, you're not going to sit here and think about what the mix ratio is to be most optimized.
Speaker 3:That's all like when you're busy you don't have time, yeah, and and. And I can kind of tell the guys that are blowing me smoke you know, it's just always like the, the, they're worrying about the small things.
Speaker 2:I'm like look, dude you're worrying about the small things?
Speaker 3:yeah, you're obviously not busy enough. You're thinking about this stuff. You need to figure out how to get some business and get yourself busy right, because when you're busy you don't think about the small things, you don't think about stuff like that. You're just thinking about how to get more.
Speaker 2:You're hungry, you want to get more and and then everything else kind of takes care of itself. Yeah. We get stuck in analysis. Paralysis when we have too much time to think because we're not busy enough. It's like start becoming action focused and stop thinking yeah. It's like get out of your own way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean and that was the biggest thing for me Like okay, when it's slow, you know, when you know I sold cars. So when it was slow at the car lot, I would just kind of just chill out and not you know I'd make a few phone calls. But now, like I'm at home, right, you know we're home business. So I'm at home and I'm like man, nap sounds good, good, make me a peanut butter sandwich, eat a couple of fudge rounds, you know, but uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's like okay, I need to get productive, and that was the hardest thing for me was running my own business and not, you know, like screwing off and stay in productive no matter what. Ok, I got a slow day, but how am I going to win the day? You know you want, you want to be able to, you want to, you want to be successful enough. So I mean you know, you know what I'm getting at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like, if I'm slow today, what did I not do 90 days ago? That is getting me in today's situation, right? It's like, oh, it's slow today. The economy is bad. It's like, okay, I did not do something I should have done in the past, because right now I'm slow.
Speaker 3:Yeah instead of blaming it on everybody else, I'm finding a way to make myself productive and be successful.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's like, I mean, we both work out of our homes, essentially because we're like service-based businesses. So it's like all right, how can I make myself get out into an office, aka get on the road every single day from like a normal work week? I'm not going to say, oh, I work three days a week and this is like awesome because I have two days off. It's like, how can I fill my schedule? So it's like, in the beginning especially, it's like I want to leave, like when my wife leaves, and I want to come home when my wife comes home. I don't want to be like like, oh, I'm home all day long. This is great, right. Like you have to treat it just as a full-time job and you have to sell yourself enough jobs to get out of the house, yes, and then create momentum, like we always talk about. It's like, hey, action breeds more action. It's like, yeah, activity breeds activity that's the word.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's too early for that, but uh, but yeah, I mean it was like what august, september last year we had a little slow I think think you were busy August and I was slow August and then I was busy September and you were slow September.
Speaker 3:So, anyway, what that slow period? You know I'm like damn, what am I doing wrong? Matt's busy as hell and you know he's got all these jobs and I'm just like what am I going to do? I'm in a slump. So I mean I went to freaking, uh. I went to freaking, uh. I went to the post office and bought a bunch of snaps and just wrote freaking letters to people just to be productive you know, and you never know.
Speaker 3:They may read your letter and they're like oh yeah, I was at my dad's on sunday for dinner and uh, noticed that his house was there. Let me give him a call, or, or maybe his birthday's coming up and and, and I can buy it, that could be his birthday present exactly.
Speaker 2:You never know job I did, job I did yesterday. It was a daughter bought her mom, who was kind of a little elderly, couldn't take care of her house. She was like, hey look, how about I take care of cleaning the house and just arrange everything. It was perfect. It's not complicated. People make it complicated. They're too fixated on all the technical as opposed to how can we be people here helping other people? We have a product that fixes a solution which is a dirty house. It's. There's a million people right now in greenville that pressure wash correct. Like how are we being personal and and being top of mind to people and saying, oh yeah, you know what, I could get that cleaned?
Speaker 3:yep, I mean I had a lady. I mean I think a lot of people just make it too over difficult. Um, I was at a house not long ago. They said that uh, uh, they a quote. A sales guy came out and they were there for two hours trying to sell a job. And I'm like what the crap?
Speaker 2:We both came from the car sales world, so we know how that works. Yeah, yeah, and it's kind of 1980s.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we I mean we, I don't know I mean we make it pretty easy. I mean I had a lady the other day tell me she thought I was a gimmick. She saw one of my ads and she, uh, you know, I got to her quickly communication, and uh she's like, yeah, I thought you were giving, you made it too easy, exactly like. But she didn't tell me that until I was done with the job, like she just said, like you made it so easy, like I just didn't know.
Speaker 3:Like, yeah, if you were for real or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like our jobs are to make somebody's life easier, not hard. Yeah, we don't want to be the confrontational sales guy that tries to make like 500 more than we can on this job and close 10 just because we can't. Like people get too fixated in how much can I make on one specific job, especially when they're not busy, and I think that's the biggest thing I see in new people. They're like oh man, I make, I'm never going to do a job for less than that. That's like I'm above that yep. And then they do one job a day or they do two jobs a day and I'm like but you don't have the reputation, you don't have the work. What are you doing? You're technically not. You don't have enough value quote unquote to be able to do this.
Speaker 3:I mean, I went out, did some houses for free, just to do it just to get myself out there, get people taking pictures of my trailer Planting seeds. Yeah, just act. Like we said activity breeds activity. And let's be real here People in this world today are lazy man, so you want to make it as easy as you can for them, not difficult, they're not going to want to click on 10,000 things and fill out 10,000 forms just to get a quote and wait two weeks, and wait two weeks for a quote and then their house is already washed.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:None of us are truly that much different than the other one. Right, we all are pretty much a commodity. It's the. Where we step in is like what is our personal relationship with people and do they like us and how soon can we do it? It's like for me, usually like price isn't really that huge of an issue with people. It's like hey, you jumped on it, you have good reviews. Uh, you took care of it. Yeah, it's like strike while the iron's hot. Don't get hung up trying to like mislead somebody because they're gonna feel it they're gonna be like oh man, this is like weird energy, I don't really want to do it right. I think you and I both kind of have that same model of like hey, jump on something, get the job done, on to the next. It's like to the next people.
Speaker 3:People, especially business people, respect that like efficiency yep, I mean I think I've cleaned like 30 something houses this month.
Speaker 2:So yeah, just one of the next yeah, clay's talking about how, like, oh yeah, there's sales cycles and like he'll be busy and then I'm slow and then, like you came out january like a freaking rocket yeah, january was huge.
Speaker 3:I did zero dollars last january and, uh, we did very, very well yeah, I'm like man, you're putting up like some spring numbers, right? Yeah, we were close we were, but we were close to spring now it wasn't, it was spring number, it felt like spring, but it was spring in january, but it wasn't, like you know crazy crazy just wait, just wait till you get to spring spring.
Speaker 2:Spring is where it's at it'll be like oh, there's no more podcasts, I'm too busy, and that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah we're definitely going to keep this going on. You know, but uh, the uh, you know, and a lot, I think a lot of people like, as far as owner-operators, I think some of them get into it for the wrong reasons and don't realize what they're getting themselves into. I realized real quickly you've got to eat, sleep and breathe this shit. If you're not doing it, you're going to have to eat, sleep and breathe it, because if you don't, you're not going to be very successful. Absolutely you're not going to be very successful. Absolutely, yeah, you know, absolutely so, uh, but I will say, like you know, it's been a, it's definitely been life-changing for me and my family, like we've really come a long way so, yeah, it's like you, you shift to creation.
Speaker 2:It's like, all right, well, I'm not just reactively getting business and like, oh man, I hate my boss, I need a raise. Like oh man yeah inflation is so high they only give me 3%. Instead of thinking and complaining about everything, go out there and make a difference. And then, once you see how easy it is to truly make a difference, then it's like oh, this is super motivating, like I'm taking the reins and controlling life now, as opposed to like being a victim.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean it's like snowballs and you're like, oh man this is like almost too easy.
Speaker 3:Like when is this gonna like, when is this gig gonna wear up? It's like right, like yeah, yeah. Well, I think with our process and stuff it's we make it super simple. I mean, it's almost like a what, what do they call that book?
Speaker 2:it's like, uh, one of dummy pressure washer 101 or something for dummies. Yeah, I wonder if they have that book but uh, yeah, like I mean.
Speaker 3:So, going back to the owner operator thing, like sometimes, like my buddies and my wife, what the crap are you on the phone? I'm like trying to get business. So, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. You need to eat, sleep and breathe it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly because, like, if you say, oh no, I'm not gonna, it's the weekend, I'm not gonna check my phone, honestly you're probably gonna lose that job.
Speaker 3:Somebody, yeah, somebody, somebody out there is hungrier than you are. I can assure you that and uh, and going back to my buddy, I mean I was in Martinsville watching a daggum race and I mean I have a. You know I have a big passion for racing and you know my phone goes off. I'm like oh, crap, yeah.
Speaker 2:My phone's got my undivided attention for at least miss anything, but that's that's the value that I provide to my customer like, wow, thanks for the quick response and people love that. Oh yeah, and that's why your referrals are huge and that's why, like, word of mouth is like a huge driver for you and it's, and it's not a generic message, it's a personal message directly from me. It's not, you know, a virtual assistant, a virtual ai, whatever that stuff's going on.
Speaker 3:I'm sure I'll end up using it one day. You know, it's kind of like old people talking about text messages way back when when they first come out dude dude, I remember what, uh, I remember not long ago, uh, when was about 15 years, everybody started texting whenever I got my first cell phone. I remember running the daggum bill up like 600 bucks on text messaging and my dad was pissed and, uh he's, I don't understand why you text this, that and other, but that's how I taught my dad. Now we text yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:You know my guy, you know they, they, you know all the all your elders and stuff. They're just like, well, text message, uh, why don't you just pick up the phone and call them? But that's how they all communicate.
Speaker 2:Now, it's true, it's took over the world, it's true, and that's how we what uh 90 of dom sell jobs, absolutely, yeah, I, and I like it from a frame of like it's. It's essentially like a written document, right, like all right. Oh, yeah, call your customer. That's great if they have questions that are like beyond texting. But a lot of times it's like hey, I don't want to show up to a job, and then you're not there because you forgot Yep. And then you're disagreeing with me on the price because you forgot that too. Everything's in writing, it's. It's pretty much a contract, correct. So it's like and I mean, all day if we're out in the field, we're running machines. We don't necessarily have time to stop, be quiet, have a conversation for 30 minutes, no.
Speaker 3:so I have airpods. They help, but it's, it's yeah, you know it is what it is with those. But uh and in, and I highly recommend like if you don't have, If you're a home, you know a home service, you offer a home service to people. I highly recommend getting a CRM.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that was a freaking game-changer to me.
Speaker 3:I was pen and paper all year last year, oh yeah, and I mean I think I changed like October or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's been a daggum game-changer. That was one there that was helping me, so I was like hey, man, like I could save you probably a year, yeah, yeah, and he did he really did let's do.
Speaker 2:This is how I currently do it and this is what I've learned. Yeah, and this is like not only the money that I've like spent and didn't make, but all the opportunity that I lost. And like I, I started off pen and paper. I was like I'll just do facebook messenger. And then you're, like man, I had 150 customers with no email, no phone number, no first name, no address. And then you get to the point where, like I can retarget these people. I can, I can send them flyers, I can stay on them. I can say, hey, merry christmas, hope you're doing well. Like, keep me in mind.
Speaker 2:So when spring comes around, I'm your guy. So it's just like the value of having your customer list and to farm your current list. Everybody wants to hunt, but like there's so much value in farming, like I was going through my list, I have like 1500 previous clients. It's like I could farm that list and live off of that. But like everybody wants to just go out and hunt somebody new. But in our world, like you, you've taken a lot of customers that I've had in the past and I'm like, oh man, I've seen that I was like I wonder why they didn't call.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, c3 wash pros matt sees a picture uh picture of a house that I watched, he's like damn, that was my customer I was like I wonder why they didn't call me this year. Clay's already went hot shot in town, yeah, yeah, uh. And a lot of people you know going back to the, the farming, the people you know, a lot of people they're, they just want to go out and get something new.
Speaker 2:They're not willing to I mean you remember from the car business, it's like you gotta do the customers you gotta what you gotta.
Speaker 3:You gotta build the crop. I'm not a hunter, so I don't know what. You gotta build the crops so that the animals will come and you can get them right. I'm a city boy. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know either. I didn't really do. I was a fishing guy. I brought my Vente Starbucks in here, so yeah, yeah, I went to Waffle House this morning.
Speaker 3:So there's, there's a difference there but, but, uh, but, yeah, it's definitely. I think it's going to be a huge year. It definitely, uh, with spring clean is coming up, um, it's about to, it's about to wrap up pretty good, um, but yeah, yeah, it'd be cool.
Speaker 2:And I'm like it's cool Cause I'm just a little bit more advanced than you, so you're kind of tracking like where I was a year or so ago. So I'm like, all right, well, these are the pain points that I'm currently going through. This is something to like be on the horizon, I like be aware of.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I'm, I'm already like 10 steps ahead. So when it comes to me, I'm like dang, I already got this beat, it's so easy or like yeah, we push each other.
Speaker 2:Like you said, you started out super, super hot this year and I'm like man what is he doing?
Speaker 2:I was like man. I've been stuck in the owner-operator role so long that I haven't been hitting marketing as hard because I've been so overloaded with work and I'm starting to see that trajectory I have it's like I don't want to flatten out, I want to continue that upward trajectory. So that's a big motivator for why I'm I'm like scaling and getting off the truck because I'm like I'm tired of competing with this guy. He works harder than I do I do ask him.
Speaker 3:I try to work smart. Yeah, I'm already, uh, two, two jobs deep by the time matt gets out of bed. So, yeah, yeah, he, you know we all like to sleep later, get up early. It takes beauty sleep to get this. Yeah, yeah, but uh, but yeah, I highly recommend, like you know, if you're out there and you're struggling, I highly recommend asking for help.
Speaker 3:But just, you know, I have a lot of guys blow me up, so just I highly recommend not blowing, you know, just wasting someone's time. Like be serious and sincere about it and say, hey, I'm gonna fix my stuff, I'm gonna get my shit together, and it's okay not to know everything. I mean, I didn't know everything. Sometimes you have to put your ego aside. Be like, hey, man, I need some freaking help and somebody's gonna help you. I said, somebody that's successful in business is not gonna mind giving you advice because they're gonna go get theirs. They already know they're gonna get theirs. It's not gonna hurt them. Yeah, and a lot of guys with a big ego, they're you know, they're just like okay, well, you can buy my course, or you know this, that and that.
Speaker 2:That's my next move.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I mean we you already know we've talked about it a little bit I mean our process. I mean I'm an example of something that's worked with Matt's process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, but again, it's's just like understand who you are and then like apply it to you and then be personal with it like we both. Yep, you don't have your face on your shirt, but you essentially run it the same way correct, like yeah c3 wash bros isn't. Oh, what's, what's that mean?
Speaker 3:it's like oh, it's clay yeah, yeah, I mean so it's like you are your business.
Speaker 3:I've seen it a lot like I'll do something and then I'll see the guys that you know and I was about to say newer guys, but a lot of the guys have been in business longer than me. But I'll do something, and then you know some of the newer guys and then some of the guys that have been in business longer than me, they'll start to do the same thing. It's called swagger jacking, yeah, so, so I'm just like okay, okay, like I just try to like. Like I said earlier, you, you can't do the same thing that other people are doing, because it's not going to work for you most of the time. Absolutely, you got to put everything into your own spin you know if I wanted to be like mad.
Speaker 2:I could have made you know, I could have put my, my face on my stuff to brand myself but you know it probably wouldn't have worked for me, you know so yeah, and and I'm kind of the same way too it's like, all right, I've kind of played out what I've been doing to the point where, like people start kind of emulating it, which is flattery, obviously. It's like imitation is flattery. And then it's like, okay, how can I be visionary enough to kind of make my next move? It's like, how can I constantly stay ahead of where I am? Because, like like we were saying, if I'm slow today, what did I do 90 days ago? That is causing me to be slow today, and especially like with marketing and getting in front of stuff.
Speaker 2:There's like a sales cycle to getting attention and to closing business. So it's like, all right, how can I position myself for the next year, for 2023, 2024? Like, how can I like be that jump that I was from 2020 to kind of get into the spotlight, and then I kind of was on cruise control a little bit, and then you kind of came in and up the wave. It's like, how can I, how can I almost like reinvent myself again just to be fresh? Yeah, and it's like people don't stay fresh. It's like, oh, it's the same old boringness, and it's like sometimes you got to change it up man yeah it's like people.
Speaker 2:People don't necessarily care. Oh you, pressure wash my house, cool, like what's your price?
Speaker 3:it's like you're a nice guy, but like so is the the other 10 guys yeah, it's kind of like a good example would be like landscape and everybody can buy a lawnmower and say that they're a landscaper absolutely yes pressure washing is becoming the new landscaping so it's like yeah how do you compete in a commodity field?
Speaker 2:and you have to do it by, like, adding value and people are like, oh, what's that mean I'm, I'm a valuable. My mom says I'm valuable.
Speaker 3:I was like, yeah, but yeah, not everybody loves you like your mom does, or I don't have to advertise Word of mouth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I go off of word of mouth. I mean, this is a prime example of what happens when you don't push as hard. Correct, I wasn't running ads last year. I wasn't advertising and pushing as hard, just due to the fact that I was kind of flooded as an owner-operator I was leaning on and relying on, kind of got swooped up because somebody who's hungry and new and is like the new sexy guy on the block come in and took the business. Yeah, so I'm like I gotta have, I gotta have attention on my six, otherwise I'm just going to stay flat year to year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I mean you could have easily kicked me to the curb, but we're, we're kind of working together now. I mean it's just nuts, how that, how that works. You, we're kind of working together now. I mean it's just nuts, how that works. You know, I think that if we had a lot more of this in the world, I think that if we all worked together, kind of like how me and you do, I think it would be a lot better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fun. I mean, I came from sports.
Speaker 3:so it's like Working as a team. Yeah, it's like a team.
Speaker 2:A rival, but not really a rival, and it's like, all right, I could be like butthurt every day. I wake up and see that you get a job and I don't, and that's just going to put me in a downward spiral. And I'm going to go to that business Versus like, oh man, you got this many jobs booked in these awesome mansions and I'm doing like a cookie cutter house, like for a grandma. That's going to pay me like $70. Man, there's nothing wrong with that?
Speaker 3:What am I doing? Yeah, send the grandmas your way. The mansions are cool, though I love the bigger houses Um, you know some. Definitely it's like goals and makes you want to work harder.
Speaker 2:And cool thing about our world and anybody's in the home service space. Like you get to meet people. So like that to me is like the wins. Like hey, if I can like meet five cool people a day and have like a good 20 minute conversation with somebody and like almost pick, pick their brain, it's like, yeah, you get more successful because you talk to people and you can learn from these people. And they're like oh yeah, I have a business too.
Speaker 3:Like this is what I would do, especially with every uh. You know a lot of other business owners in different fields. Sometimes they can give you some advice that may put you on the next level.
Speaker 2:You never know who you're going to run run into or whose hand you're going to shake or you know like, okay, this may work in the food service industry, but I've never heard in the pressure washing space but if you apply it in the pressure washing space.
Speaker 2:That's completely revolutionary in that space and that's a great angle to look at things, correct. It's like you're. You're saying you did a video testimony the other day. Yeah, like that's. I don't see many people who do those and they do them like a lot. So that could be something. Yes, that could be something. That is like a future, because I I for me personally, I used to post like my google reviews and then that was great. But like you're taking a step up, making it more personable, putting your face on there and a video interview, so like we live in a video world nowadays. If you just put a picture up it's it doesn't carry the same weight. Like we're all post blind because we're on facebook all day. It's's like what's the most trendy reel, what's the most cool TikTok thing? Like. So if you're able to like kind of stay in in that like trend and then incorporate it with customers and be super like personal with it, that's going to be like the future of like oh, I don't care about how many Google reviews.
Speaker 3:Like look at all these like trustworthy people who have cool houses way cooler than my house that trust you and you seem like a cool guy yeah and that's kind of like where you take it and run with it right, yeah, I mean I'll lose sleep daily just trying to figure out like how can I be different than somebody you know?
Speaker 3:like stay on the right path. But how can I be different? There's just so many people out there that are trying to be clones of other people, correct? I want to be different and I think that's what a lot of my success has came from. You know, I'm not like the top notch whatever you want to call it pressure washer but I've done very well doing that.
Speaker 2:I was tired of using your four gallon a minute machine so I said I have an eight gallon a minute machine you can buy Right For a charitable donation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was awesome I was like that was a big step. You're too busy for using this 99 man man.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, I was killing it, man. You know I didn't have the nicest equipment, still don't. You know I had you know any of you pressure washing guys that are watching? I had a four gallon a minute machine and I was doing what? 20 grand a month in sales my first year. Yeah, I was like, come on, man, with a four gallon a minute machine, so, uh, doing three to four houses in a day even eight gallon a minute, bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so it's all about the equipment yeah.
Speaker 3:So matt was like hey, I think something's wrong with one of mine. Um, what was it? Yeah, I just spark plug popped out or something. I'm city boy, city boy and then matt giving back to me my mechanic's.
Speaker 2:Like you know, you have to change your spark plugs every little change.
Speaker 3:I was like, all right, I got 2,500 hours on this thing, or a thousand hours on this thing, sure yeah so going back to uh hey, you know, if you do good things to others or you help people out like it's, it's always going to come back. Karma's always going to come back, whether it's good or bad and um, so, like me, won't it matter what $200 surface cleaner, a piece of equipment. Matt offered me a great deal on an eight gallon minute and it has totally changed my business, like it was like a kid in a candy store when I got something Like you're moving up in the world it was like it was.
Speaker 3:It was equivalent to like me or you going out and buying like a like a brand new Corvette or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yes.
Speaker 3:Like it is like driving my f-150 versus a chevy yeah, or or getting in that four-cylinder mustang versus the v8.
Speaker 2:Well, my truck or my truck's the four-cylinder. Oh well, there you go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's a lot different, yeah exactly, yeah, but uh, definitely, uh, as far as, as far as our relationship goes, uh, I, I can't say that I have the same relationship with anybody that never have in business.
Speaker 3:You know, like, as far as business goes, it's always been a hey how you doing, but I'm trying to take from you yeah, f you like you're doing good, you know I want to, you know, or somebody will call and try to get advice and they're just really just trying to use you and you can feel it. You know those phone calls you get and you're like this guy's just trying to dag, I'm figuring out what the crap I'm doing and, uh, they're just trying to. I call them moochers, like they just like a mooch or a bomb.
Speaker 3:You know they'd rather take the easy way out versus the harder way and at the end of day it's only gonna bite them in the ass yeah, it's like hey, look, if you take like, okay, cool, we have a cooler friendship.
Speaker 2:But you actually take the advice and apply it. Yeah, so, like you, you're motivating me to continue forward because you're continuing forward. You have to have that symbiotic relationship, otherwise it's not going to work. If I tell somebody to do something and they don't do it, I'm not going to talk to them again because they're wasting my energy.
Speaker 3:We're reassuring each other that what we are saying, that we do works, yeah, proof of concept yeah, so you're seeing that? Hey, okay, it really does work.
Speaker 2:It just pushes you harder. And then it's like oh man, if you put up these numbers this week, I gotta step it up too. Versus like oh man, I'm good, I'm like, I'm set my ways, I'm good. It's like you always have to challenge each other, otherwise you're not going to grow yeah, you're never you're.
Speaker 3:You're never going to get any better. If you're just like I'm, stuck in my ways, I'm not going to change. I'm just going to sit here I'm not you.
Speaker 2:I'm living in the past. I'm living in my glory.
Speaker 3:You want to make it easier for yourself, like I had a phone call yesterday from another fellow press, washer Love him to death. But he's like yeah, man, I'm out selling jobs and I'm like oh well, but is you closing jobs? Yeah, you're closing jobs. I was like don't tell me what you're selling Tell me what you're closing. I'm out here washing houses making some money as an owner-operator. I would say 75% of us, or maybe even a higher number, are operators.
Speaker 2:I'd say a majority of people are just due to the fact that it's a whole different beast when you're running the business per se.
Speaker 3:In my eyes, if you're an owner-operator and you're out having to sell, you're really not making any money you need to do.
Speaker 2:How do we do it? We just, I mean it. I like to work smarter, not harder, and it's like I have a limited amount of time in the day and say I want to hit 1500 a day in my business yeah, I do all right.
Speaker 2:well, I'm gonna. My production is going to be during the working day and then between the working day I'm going to be doing my scheduling for the next day and the next day and the next day, and then I'm lining up my week while I'm essentially working, and then I come home and I probably have to do some of that stuff too.
Speaker 3:Right, you're still working. Yeah, you're working all the time. Yeah, yeah, whether you like it or not.
Speaker 2:But people get into it for the wrong reasons. On social media, you're not seeing everything that's going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah anyway, I was telling a very successful guy in um, our area not long ago. Uh, I was like you just can't believe everything you read on the internet. You know, sometimes you have to reassure people like just be careful, like you know, and uh, but coming from the the sales background that I come from, I'm just I've always had that wall up like just trying not to be sold. A lot of people just get sold on stuff and it's just like yeah seller be sold.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Seller be sold. And uh, anyway, going back to that conversation I had with a gal on the phone that uh was out selling, I'm like, dude, if you're closing jobs you're making money, but I'm working five days a week, I'm not having to get out there and sell people. And I told them I said, man, my customers come to me, I don't have to go to them.
Speaker 2:Again. I also think this is like the new age pressure washing. I mean, yeah, if I have a sales team of people and they're making a commission and they're landing me huge tickets because I have this awesome volume coming in, it's different.
Speaker 2:The stage that we're in. You're one year into business. You got to try to maximize your productivity Right and you got to figure out systems that you can do so and max out your day. It's like all right, well, if I'm doing everything myself, I can't be just wasting time during the day pretending like I'm making a lot of money when in reality I'm not.
Speaker 2:It's like don't tell me what you're selling, show me your deposits yeah, yeah, at the end of the day, if you're not, uh, if the money's not going into the bank account, it really doesn't matter, like your ego will tell you one thing, but like make sure you're keeping track of your books, make sure you're looking at your sales, and like we both come from sales backgrounds, so it's just like don't tell me, show me yeah, don't tell me, show me what, what I was.
Speaker 3:I said something this morning. I was like don't talk the talk, walk the, the walk, yeah. And the guys in my group love that crap. They're like dang, it's Happy Friday, you're on it today.
Speaker 2:I was listening to podcasts. The guy was like don't tell me. Like he's. Like my grandfather would get mad at me if I kept talking about something he says stop talking about it and show me. It's like, if you're going to keep talking about it, start showing me and then don't talk about it.
Speaker 3:Don't be the dog on the porch that just barks right, Exactly, yeah, we run into a lot of dogs too, yeah yeah, again, we're in a field that's low cost of entry, it's super easy, everybody's an entrepreneur, yep.
Speaker 2:And then they don't have the discipline or the care to go all in. And again, if you're motivated because you want to be seen as an entrepreneur, if you want to be seen as this, you're going to fail in business, correct?
Speaker 2:um you're going to burn out. I've seen so many people. They start so strong and like their facebook presence or their online presence insane. I'm like man, this guy's just like killing it and then they disappear and I'm like, well, what happened to him? Oh, he had. He like had an anxiety attack or depression.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, that's sad. But like why is he living kind of like an incongruent life with what he's doing? And like people are going at it the wrong reason and to me it's like all right, well, I choose this because I feel like this is like I'm on flow, I'm on purpose and then it becomes easy. Too many people are in it for the wrong reasons and they don't just kind of like lean into, like doing the right thing and then getting that like reciprocity from the universe. Whatever you want to say, yeah, it's like they're trying to shortcut life. You try to shortcut life, you're gonna have a hard life. It's like if you choose an easy life, it's gonna be hard, but if you choose a hard life it's gonna be easy. Yeah, perfect point there. Yeah, I read too.
Speaker 3:I read too many books yeah, I'm fortunately not a reader, I'm just uh, just to hang out and learn from myself. I'm just to you know, hang out at the racetrack type guy that's. That's kind of yeah, but you apply yourself, and then you're resourceful.
Speaker 2:So it's like, if you're resourceful enough to figure it out, it's like, hey, set your mind to something, do it, and then, like, figure it out, and that's kind of how I operate too. It's like, all right, I have the information, but like, unless it's like applied, it doesn't mean anything. It's like go out, jump out of the plane, then figure out the parachute on the way down yeah, figure out how to pull the chute. Yeah. It's like, all right, well, I've committed, like who do I need to connect with and that's how, like we have a good relationship. And then like, like, you build that network around you and you're like, all right, cool, I know, I know who to like reach out to to make it happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then you know, and then the networking thing is cool. Um, and a lot of people swear upon networking, but I'm a prime example. I have never into an actual formal, never joined a network in a group, never paid money for a networking group. But but you?
Speaker 2:actually network. But I actually network, yeah, because you're adding value to other people in the community yeah, and that's why every time I try to search pressure washing, your name pops up yeah, it's uh.
Speaker 3:like I said I'm, if anybody is trying to, I'm not taking away from you know any anything. As far as going to a networking, I think it's good. I think what they do in there is good, but I'm a prime example of one of those that didn't pay the money for a networking group Back to the whole energy putting out.
Speaker 2:If you're leading with value in everything you do and you're making impacts in people's lives and you're staying active and busy and staying in front of people, eventually you've created enough positive attention where you don't necessarily have to network.
Speaker 2:And like if you've been to a networking event, it's like so fake and so awkward and everybody's there to take. So like we like to flip that mindset and say, all right, well, how am I a good person? I can, I can help people by like making their day better, cleaning their house, and then like being a positive light to somebody, and then I get word of mouth and then people naturally gravitate towards me. All those like moochers that you would see at a network event that would pay to try to mooch, all come on, you like vultures, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then I so I've like just turn off your phone. Well, my thing is like if, if you're, if you're, if you're a successful business owner, you're not gonna going to have time, or if you're doing good, you're not going to have time to go to these things. Right, I wouldn't say like network Networking is probably for, like I would say, like newer businesses, not for your successful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're established.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're established because I get all the invites and stuff and it's just like man. I can't commit to that? I can't commit to that. I can't go to that. Like, how do these guys that been in business for two or three years or how are they able to go to these things? Like I don't know. Like I'm just I'm, like I'm too busy, like I'm, I got it even in a slow season, like I still wasn't able to go, yeah, I'm not understand how people go to this stuff.
Speaker 2:We're both kind of busy and no nonsense and we have boundaries, it's like all right, I'm so loaded during the day, probably more than I should be as far as like my business versus my personal life, right, and I don't want to talk to anybody after that. I was like, all right, well, I have enough friends. Like is this moving the ball forward with me making money or is this like somebody bleaching off of me?
Speaker 2:yeah and you and I both like to like, have, like we. We do networking via social media, so it's like all right, well, how can we leverage our time better?
Speaker 3:it's like people can follow us on social media and then I can have a hundred people or a thousand people networking me at time and they follow me on social yeah, and I I don't think, uh, I don't think a lot of people realize like there's just other ways, like you don't like going back to getting sold on things like the stuff. Believe in stuff you read on the internet. Some of that stuff works, you know that's. That's something you know. If somebody's selling you on something, that's something that works for them, that's something that worked for them. That's not something that worked for everybody.
Speaker 2:But you can learn from that. Yeah, but you also don't need to pay for that course. You can successful and say, hey, I have a good, I have a good relationship here. And then he said this and it really changed my thought process and I applied it and that's the big key word apply Right. It's like everybody knows how to do everything but they're too afraid to get their feet wet. Yeah, like you said, take a risk. Like you jump into business in the worst possible time and jump into business Like the rational mind would say, oh, no, don't do that.
Speaker 2:And then you keep saying that, and then you keep saying that, and then you never get into your business and then you never have to face kind of that adversity that propels you to like hustle and grind, like you said in the car business, where you're like, hey, it's a commission based job If you eat what you kill, so it's like man.
Speaker 2:If, like the perceived safety net of a job, I still have to eat what I kill, why can't I do this in my business? And then you get to the point in your business where, like, I have a reputation now I, I eat what I kill, but it comes to me, it's like I have people coming to me feeding me now, like I built this, like community around me that is sustainable, as opposed to like these people who are stuck in their jobs, like thinking that that's the better route and they're safer, and you're like, oh man, I just I like was able to walk out of the cave and saw, like those shadows aren't that scary? Like right, it's one of those, it's like the biggest thing like we're talking about.
Speaker 3:It's like get out there and like and then figure it out and I think, uh, you know, for for a lot of the newer entrepreneurs like you, like I don't know if you felt it matt like when you first got into business, but I feel like a lot of the guys like that are not even successful, like now, that, now that I'm looking on it, like a lot of the guys are like just trying to be negative, like you need to do this and you need to do that, and uh, I don't know, like it's really, you know, just saying, oh well, we're, we're saturated. I mean which? It is a saturated industry, but they're just trying to. It's almost like they're trying to talk you out of owning or doing.
Speaker 3:you know owning or press watching business, I guess because they're just, I guess they're just scared.
Speaker 2:They're looking at it as like a scarcity mindset, as opposed to like, hey, I'm here to create and it's a thing called market shift and like I came from tech sales and okay, there's, there's a limited amount of pie out there and there's hundreds and thousands of companies competing for that pie. What are you doing differently this quarter, this month, this day to get that piece of pie? And that's like the sales mindset, it's like all right, look, the world is not fair, so I'm going to go out and get mine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, if I don't know, if everybody was the same, like it's not gonna, it's just going to be boring, Like nobody's going to you, you you got to call.
Speaker 2:I mean, we've been saying this, the whole podcast.
Speaker 3:Like, you've got to pop. Like, if you want to be noticed, you've got to pop. I mean, I don't know what it. You know, you've got to put yourself out there and be different. Right, you've got to have some kind of crazy slogan, some kind of crazy design, some kind of crazy car, some kind of crazy something. Have Elvis on there.
Speaker 2:And hustle.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, elvis, pressure out there, but more importantly like be a good human being and hustle I'm gonna I mean man, I'm not starting another press washing business elvis press wash, dress up like elvis. I'm gonna trademark that, so nobody takes that from me. Go out to vegas, you could probably marry people out there too. Oh yeah, that would be great. Marry them out there at the marry you and clean your car.
Speaker 2:Clean a car too, yeah, and I might want to clean something else. If they're in vegas, oh gosh, it's awful some sh yeah yeah, some sh.
Speaker 3:I don't even think you can use SH out there Probably not. Sh is bleach, by the way.
Speaker 2:It's what we clean with Same thing. It's not bleach. It's our top secret proprietary ingredient for cleaning your home professionally.
Speaker 3:Yes, sodium hypochlorite is what it's called.
Speaker 2:Look it up Better than everybody else. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I think that pretty much wraps everything up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's good with me, like cool concept. We always talk day to day. So it's like, hey, we could like your network on social media, my network on social media. Like I'm kind of shifting from like all right, the challenge we like, to we like to go after challenges and like what pushes us. So like all right, this gets us out of our comfort zone. You both, we, like everybody kind of knows who we are individually Correct, so to like collaborate here, it will be super cool and we can like merge our, our, our networks together and then like create something really cool in the pressure washing space, or even like the local space.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe create some merch or something, if we get enough people interested, you know you never know. But but yeah, definitely something that we can get in here. We can clear other, even though we already do daily. But uh, and then maybe give some advice to some other local pressure washers or you know pressure washers across the country, or even if you're not a pressure washer, you know, small business, small business if you need some motivation, I mean we're gonna, we're gonna bring it.
Speaker 3:Man, uh, we got some good things in the works. Um, I think, I think this is gonna be a good for a lot of people in the area actually yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 2:I mean, like you and me, we both do jobs where you put in the AirPods and you're like man, what is what's 45 minutes? What's an hour? What am I going to do Like a little bit during this job? It's like hey, plug in, listen to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, definitely, but uh, uh, it's been good Been, a good episode one, matt, I'm glad we can make this.
