The Roadmap to $1M: How I Achieved Seven‑Figure Success with Mark Mcnally | Ep.97

Summary

Built Online Podcast Episode Summary: "The Roadmap to $1M: How I Achieved Seven‑Figure Success with Mark McNally | Ep.97"

Release Date: April 21, 2025

In episode 97 of Built Online, host Cody McGuffey sits down with Mark McNally, a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully navigated both traditional HVAC services and the dynamic world of direct-to-consumer (DTC) online businesses. Mark shares his inspiring journey from humble beginnings in Belfast, Ireland, to achieving seven-figure success in the United States. This detailed summary captures the essence of their conversation, highlighting key discussions, insights, and actionable takeaways for aspiring entrepreneurs.

---

1. Mark McNally's Journey: From Belfast to Entrepreneurship

Mark McNally opens up about his early life in Belfast, Ireland, where his parents instilled a strong work ethic by juggling multiple jobs. At 26 years old [02:26], Mark and his wife Charlene made the bold decision to relocate to the United States, specifically Florida, with minimal possessions—just one suitcase each. This leap of faith set the foundation for his entrepreneurial spirit.

Notable Quote:

“I just wanted to take the leap and see where it took us. And, you know, what if we did that?” — Mark McNally [02:26]

Shortly after arriving, Mark secured a position with Joe Briquetto's air filter company in Florida, thanks to Charlene’s grandfather’s connections. This role marked the beginning of his journey in the HVAC industry.

2. Acquiring and Growing Local HVAC Business

After six months in Florida, Mark moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he continued his career in HVAC, eventually taking on a management role. Over 12 years [07:21] with FSI Mechanical, Mark honed his skills, completed night classes in air conditioning, and developed leadership qualities that led to the acquisition of the company in 2019.

Key Acquisition Details:

• Revenue at Purchase: $1.3 million in gross sales [09:10]
• Purchase Price: Just over $1 million via owner financing [09:15]
• Employees: Initially around 15-20, managing significant contracts with public schools, medical facilities, and restaurants [07:17]

By implementing strategic changes—such as relocating to a new facility and upgrading company vehicles—Mark and his partner Tim successfully tripled the company’s revenue over seven years without increasing the workforce.

Notable Quote:

“We pretty much tripled, you know, all of that. The great thing about it is we didn't do it by tripling the employees.” — Mark McNally [13:05]

3. Launching Filters Direct USA: Innovating in Air Filtration

The evolution into an online business began during the COVID-19 pandemic [18:25], when heightened awareness around indoor air quality highlighted deficiencies in existing air filters. Recognizing an opportunity, Mark leveraged his technical background in 3D design to develop an eco-friendly, reusable air filter.

Product Innovation Highlights:

• Problems Addressed:

  • Ineffective low-cost filters that allow debris through.
  • High MERV-rated filters that restrict airflow, stressing HVAC systems [22:11]
  • Environmental waste from traditional filter materials.

• Solutions Implemented:

  • Created a plastic reusable filter frame paired with replaceable inserts, reducing environmental waste [24:02].
  • Ensured filters were durable in moist environments, catering to industries like mushroom farming and hemp cultivation.

Notable Quote:

“We wanted to make sure we have a product that... keeps the home healthy and keeps the people in home healthy.” — Mark McNally [22:11]

4. Marketing and Growth Strategies: Embracing the Creator Mindset

Without a substantial marketing budget, Mark assumed the role of the company's face, personally engaging with social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok to promote Filters Direct USA. His hands-on approach involved creating and sharing content that resonated with a broad audience, leading to organic growth across 32 states [27:33].

Effective Strategies:

• Content Creation: Tailored content for each platform to maximize engagement.
• Customer Interaction: Leveraged feedback from home shows and direct customer interactions to refine product offerings and address pain points.
• Recurring Revenue Model: Employed service contracts for regular filter maintenance, ensuring steady income and customer retention [16:36].

Notable Quote:

“If the interesting video has got enough in there to pull someone in and tempt them to buy, then I got to just keep doing some more of that.” — Mark McNally [29:34]

5. Overcoming Challenges: Persistence and Adaptation

Mark candidly discusses the challenges of expanding an online business, notably the longer-than-expected timeframe to achieve profitability and the critical importance of marketing expertise.

Challenges Faced:

• Marketing Hurdles: Underestimating the time and resources needed to effectively market the product.
• Operational Costs: Managing manufacturing and fulfillment internally, which initially strained financial resources.

Learning Experiences:

• Importance of Marketing Foundations: Realizing post-launch that established marketing channels could have accelerated growth [38:27].
• Advisory Utilization: Engaging consultants like Sherpa Collaborative to bridge knowledge gaps in e-commerce and direct sales [26:18].

Notable Quote:

“It takes longer than you think... building the marketing foundation would have been better.” — Mark McNally [38:27]

6. Future Plans and Commitment to Social Good

Looking ahead, Mark aims to secure angel investors to scale Filters Direct USA further. Additionally, he emphasizes giving back to the community by partnering with organizations like Tidy Ocean, which removes plastics from oceans and creates jobs in impoverished areas.

Social Responsibility Initiatives:

• Eco-Friendly Practices: Manufacturing filters from recycled materials to minimize environmental impact.
• Partnerships: Every filter subscription results in the removal of a pound of plastic from the ocean [34:32].

Notable Quote:

“It’s a twofold thing. They remove the plastic for recycling, but they also provide jobs for poverty areas that don’t have much work.” — Mark McNally [34:32]

7. Advice for Entrepreneurs: Focus on Marketing and Persistence

Mark offers valuable insights for those aspiring to start their own businesses, stressing the importance of understanding marketing and being prepared for a lengthy growth process.

Key Advice:

• Invest in Marketing: Prioritize building a robust marketing strategy early on.
• Stay Persistent: Accept that success often takes longer than anticipated.
• Leverage Industry Knowledge: Use your experience within an industry as a springboard for ownership and innovation.

Notable Quote:

“You have to know how to sell it. You know, marketing is a big, big challenge for anybody out there that’s got a product.” — Mark McNally [38:27]

8. Rapid Fire Highlights: Personal Insights

In the rapid-fire segment, Mark shares personal preferences and reflections that offer a glimpse into his character and work ethic.

• Favorite Business Book: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz [37:35]
• Work Ethic: Operates a four-day workweek to maintain work-life balance, dedicating Fridays to relaxation and family [40:16]
• Traits: Described as the hardest worker and remains humble despite business success [41:39]
• Definition of a Creator: Someone fully committed to their craft, consistently producing and nurturing their brand [43:47]

---

Conclusion

Mark McNally's story is a testament to the power of resilience, strategic thinking, and the willingness to adapt. From his initial foray into the HVAC industry to pioneering an eco-friendly DTC product, Mark exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that Built Online aims to inspire. His journey underscores the importance of internal knowledge, effective marketing, and a commitment to social responsibility—key takeaways for anyone looking to build and scale their own business.

For more insights and to follow Mark’s journey, visit FiltersDirectUSA.com and connect with him on social media platforms using the handle @MarkMcNally.

Transcript

[Mark McNally]

One of the goals I had was, okay, if we're not spending a lot of money on marketing, we don't have that budget yet. I've got to be the face of the company. I've got to get out there and be comfortable with social media, creating content on Instagram, TikTok, you know, all of the platforms. And that was really what helped us get some exposure across the country.

[Cody McGuffey]

Welcome to Built online. I'm Cody McGuffey, and this podcast is all about one thing. Building the business of your dreams. Selling art, teaching classes, starting a blog, launching a brand. Whatever your passion is, we show you how to turn it into real income. I created Ever Be to help anyone with a dream start and scale business.

[Mark McNally]

Ever Be, Ever Be Ever be Ever be Ever be, Ever be.

[Cody McGuffey]

We now serve over 800,000 creators all across the globe. On this show, we bring on real entrepreneurs who've done it. They share their secrets, they share their failures. The exact steps that you can take to get started. What if you can get one golden nugget out of today's episode? And it's the breakthrough that takes you from just dreaming to actually living a life on your terms. At Everbee, we believe that every human is a creator, and every creator should own a business.

[Charlene]

Mark, what's going on?

[Mark McNally]

Not much. Cody, thanks for having me.

[Charlene]

Happy you're here, man. Thank you for coming on. I. I'm excited to talk about your businesses, your life, your story. You own. You own two main companies that I'm aware of. Right. And one of them is not an online business, and it's a traditional H Vac and refrigeration company. That's how you describe it, right?

[Mark McNally]

Yep, yep, yep. Local H vac refrigeration and air filtration as well. We do a lot of air filtration.

[Charlene]

Beautiful. And then you also have this other business which is totally online business, which is called filters. DirectUSA.com.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah. Yeah, that was a interesting switch up from a local service company to, you know, direct to consumer product. So, yeah, a lot of. A lot of challenges along the way.

[Charlene]

But it's been great on both. Ups and downs on both. Both of those businesses trade offs on both sides.

[Mark McNally]

Absolutely, absolutely.

[Charlene]

I'm excited to dive deep on those things, but first, I think it's important to, like, share, like, a little bit of background about your backstory. From what I know, you come from humble beginnings and also a lot of struggles and trials to get to where you are today. So would you mind sharing with everybody else and myself, tell us your story?

[Mark McNally]

So originally from the north of Ireland, a town called Belfast. That's kind of where I grew up till. Till I was about 26. And, you know, mom and dad both work very hard, two jobs, and kind of showed me the work ethic that I have today. And, you know, looking back, I thought that that's just normal for. To work that hard and, you know, do multiple jobs. But now I kind of realize that it's kind of the symptoms and the pathway to entrepreneurship. You know, I kind of refer to myself sometimes as the accidental entrepreneur, because I thought I was just working hard, you know, doing multiple jobs. But really, it was setting me up for the future and diving in to be an entrepreneur. But I met my wife, Charlene, in Belfast. She's from there also, and things were going really good. We had our first child, Kristen, back there, our first home, our first car. Like, lots of firsts and, you know, set up for success. But we traveled a couple of times to America. My wife actually had dual nationality, so that kind of helped us with the transfer over. But we just rented out our house one year, and we just packed a suitcase each. I mean, literally one suitcase each, and left everything behind, all the furniture, everything we owned. And we said, let's go to America for six months and. And see what happens. And, you know, it's very emotional leaving everybody because, you know, you grew up with them, your family, your sisters, you know, everybody. But we just wanted to take the leap and see where it took us. And, you know, what drew you.

[Charlene]

What drew you particularly to us? And then where did you land also?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah. So, I mean, that was definitely a lot to do with my wife, because she'd been back and forth in America more than I had. But then we did some traveling together, and we experienced it just on vacations and. And I just looked very intriguing, you know, I remember, you know, seeing so many different small businesses and so much opportunity just on the vacations, like, all right, we have to try this out. You know, I don't want to live in regret thinking, what if we did that? But we landed in Florida first. You know, when you leave Ireland, which is a pretty cold country, and we didn't really know many people other than just my wife's family, but her grandparents, Charlie and Ann, they had a holiday home in Florida. So naturally, coming from Ireland, like, all right, let's go to the sun. Let's go where some palm trees are and get a bit of sun. But, you know, I never forget on the plane, we were thinking, all right, what are we going to do when we get there. Like we've got somewhere to stay for a couple of weeks and a little bit of savings, but we've no jobs. Like literally we had nothing lined up. And I remember just thinking, I don't care, honey, I'll just work at McDonald's, like whatever it takes. And again, not that that's a bad job, but just I felt like that could be an easy one to get into because there's so many McDonald's in America right on every street corner. But luckily, day two, my wife's grandfather Charlie, he had connections down in Florida and say, listen, got this air filter company guy that needs a helper, you know, are you interested? I was like, yeah, sure, no idea what a friggin air filter is, but I'll go talk to him. And we sat in a restaurant, a diner in Florida, in Coral Springs, and I met one of the first influential people other than my dad. An instrumental guy in my life was Joe Briquetto, and he had an air filter company. And he looked across the table and said, hey Mark, you're a pretty short guy. You know, this job requires carrying a ladder. Can you do that? I was like, yeah, sure, you know, I've carried a ladder, I've climbed a ladder. I was kind of laying because I really hadn't done that much of that. I was working in an office back in Ireland, but he hired me on the spot and worked with him for six months. And then my wife wanted to move up to North Carolina because some of her family moved from New York and that's where we came up. So Joe called another air conditioning company up in Raleigh, North Carolina and just said, I've got this Aries kid, he's been a really great worker over the last six months. Do you have anything for him? And he didn't, but he interviewed me and he gave me another job on the spot. So I don't know if the Irish accent that always got me across the.

[Charlene]

Door, but how old were you at this time?

[Mark McNally]

I was 27 years old.

[Charlene]

Okay, so like, so not like super, super young, but also like, yeah, young enough to like you. You're willing to jump in addicts, you're willing to do anything. Yeah, you have this just.

[Mark McNally]

It was weird for me because I'd never really hopped around jobs like in Ireland. I think I had two jobs my entire, you know, 26, 27 years old. So that wasn't my mentality of kind of moving through jobs quickly. But when I got that one in Raleigh, you know, that's the one I've been with for, you know, over 18 years now, and eventually moved my way through the ranks to, from a filter maintenance guy to learning about air conditioning, helping run the business. And then in 2019, me and my partner within the company, we purchased that mechanical company. Local mechanical company. Yeah. FSI Mechanical that we still own today from the old ownership. Yep.

[Charlene]

Wow. How big was FSI Mechanical at the time? Like, that's the H Vac company. Right. So you and your partner are you. You and another guy are working inside this company?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah.

[Charlene]

How many years were you working at that company, at that before you bought it?

[Mark McNally]

I was there for 12 years.

[Charlene]

Okay. So, yeah, it's a good amount of time.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah. Within those 12 years. I mean, I started from the very beginning just changing air filters in a truck, then doing maintenance, and then I wanted to go learn more about that trade, so I went to night classes, you know, while I was working during the day, I would come home, I'd go to night class to learn the trade with air conditioning. And then, you know, I thought I was going to be a technician at one point, but thankfully, the owner of the company, Dave, he kind of saw more in me and said, all right, Mark, you're kind of having an ability to gravitate and pull people together in a team, and they listen to you, even though you're one of the new kids on the block. And he pulled me into the office to do more of a management role. And, you know, I definitely challenged him on that a little bit because I thought, hey, you know, I got to set myself up for my future. I've got to learn how to be a technician and learn how to repair. But thankfully, he had a bigger vision in mind and knew that I was better at management, and that kind of brought me into the office helping him, and eventually he stepped aside, and me and my partner, Tim, were running the entire thing at one point, probably about 1520 employees total, but handling some of the biggest customers in the state. You know, from public schools, charter schools, you know, medical facilities, restaurants, Just. We did it all.

[Charlene]

Wow. What? So 15, 20 employees, I imagine. I'd be curious, actually, to how you think about the business valuation versus the revenue per employee, the profit per employee for that type of business. It's a little bit different than an online business, for sure, just because the margins are less, but also the volume of dollars is typically higher. Right. Can you give us a ballpark or an understanding of what you purchased for that. For that business, if you're wanting to share? And also Revenue amount, like anything that you can kind of help us grasp.

[Mark McNally]

So the company at the time was probably doing about 1.3 million somewhere in.

[Charlene]

That range in revenue.

[Mark McNally]

That was gross sales. And in 2019, we had the company valued and we purchased it for just over a million, which, you know, looking back, was kind of crazy for me because, you know, I came from very humble beginnings and I didn't have much money even at that time in my bank account, certainly not half a million dollars. But knowing that there was a way to structure it where you could still purchase a company that you work for from within, because some of the older ownership wants to move on and maybe they can't get the market value for someone to just come in and purchase the entire thing and, and write him a check for it. So we did an owner finance, which was better for both of us because then we were able to purchase the company from within the profits of the business over a period of time. And obviously it was on us to, to grow it from, you know, that revenue to better. And, and that's what we did over the last, you know, seven years. We've owned it, so it's been great. And there was different levels of it. So we had a filter division, we had a maintenance division, we had a service division. So three different types of people, three different types of skill sets, lots of different personalities within it. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges running a service business is just understanding your people and knowing that you can't treat them all the same, even though in a perfect word, you'd like to think like that. But everybody's got their own challenges. You know, one's a family man, he's got kids. He's got different struggles than a young guy that doesn't have kids. I mean, you just have to know them a little bit. Not so much all about their personal life, but just know what kind of person they are and you know how to, how to sympathize with them and handle any issues that they have so they can be a great employee.

[Charlene]

For one point, you said 1.6 million in revenue when you purchased it for about a million, right?

[Mark McNally]

One point. 1.3.

[Charlene]

1.3. And then I imagine EBITDA or profit on on 1.3 is like probably 30. So it's around. Or maybe even less. Maybe 20 to 30. Is that same about ballpark for.

[Mark McNally]

It was. It was a lot less, especially in our industry. You know, back then it was around prob.

[Charlene]

Around 10%, 130 grand in profit per year and you're paying one, about a million dollars for that business. That's like a 10x10x multiple on the profit. Is that, was that standard at that time or is that you knew you were paying a premium because you were getting good terms with the owner finance?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, yeah, we kind of knew, you know, we knew we were getting a, you know, a deal on that. You know, it was the current market value. So we didn't pay any less than somebody else who would have come in. But the owner finance structure definitely helped us and we kind of knew where we could take it. You know, we, although we were running the business, we weren't really involved with the finance part of it much, and we had some thoughts of how we could make this better. So as soon as we took it over, I mean, we just hit the ground running. We moved out of the facility we were in. We rented a brand new facility. You know, again, scary move because you're taking on more rent and on all that. But, you know, we just knew that we want to set up for success. We want our people to love the environment they come to work at. So part of that was moving us out of an old facility and putting us in something new, starting to get new vehicles, new trucks. Because when an employee comes to work, you know, he jumps in that vehicle that he's in. That's his office. He's in that for the day. I don't want him to be breaking down every other week. I don't want him to worry, am I going to get to work? Am I going to get home to my kids schemes? Because this old, old vehicle I'm driving is not reliable. So that was the next thing that we really implemented very quickly was let's get our people in something CF reliable so they enjoy coming to work.

[Charlene]

How many years? So it's been seven years since you since you purchased the business. Yeah. How have you and your partner done financially as far as like growing it? That's your job, right? Is your main job is like, to grow the business now to make sure that you've made a good investment. How have you guys done?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, we pretty much tripled. You know, all of that.

[Charlene]

Congratulations.

[Mark McNally]

The great thing about it is we didn't do it by tripling the employees. You know, we wanted to keep the size that we had because we still consider ourselves a small business. You know, everyone here is the 10x and all that. Well, 10x doesn't always have to be, hey, let's 10x everything. Let's get a bigger building Bigger staff, bigger revenue. There's lots of ways that you can focus on growing the business where you can just make sure you're. You're profitable better. You know, within the CM people, in fact, we. We have less employees than we did when we purchased the company.

[Charlene]

No way.

[Mark McNally]

But. But we're doing three times as much revenue than we did before.

[Charlene]

In your three divisions, did you end up cutting off one of those divisions and just focus on two or one? Or what did you end up doing to triple and also stay the same size? What. How did you make that decision?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, so, I mean, no, we, we today we have all three departments still, and, you know, we've definitely grown a little bit in each of them. But one of them in particular, the filter division, that's one where we have grown a lot more. You know, especially in our area, we had a niche thing where we could provide our filtration to businesses, but also provide the labor, the service people to go and actually change them. You know, which was very helpful to, like, public facilities, you know, educational facilities that just didn't have the manpower to do it. You know, they weren't doing it on time.

[Charlene]

So, like, here's an. Like an example. I wanted to bring this home for the filter. So I understand it too. Literally, like a school down the road, they have a huge H vac system, of course, and in that H vac system, they have how many filters? 30, 50, 100.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah. So it depends on the size of scuba. A school could have anything from a hundred filters to 300.

[Charlene]

Okay, so 150. Let's call. Let's call it 200. 200 filters for a school. And they have to change these filters every quarter, three months.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, typically every quarter is. Is recommended. Some do it every two months, but a lot of these schools just didn't have the labor in the school to even do it every three months. So if we got an opportunity to go in and say, hey, let's come in and do a free inspection, and we want to look at what you're doing and give you a better plan, we would go in there and find filters that hadn't been changed in years. Which is shocking to hear as a father of three kids. Knowing that my kids may have been in these classrooms and just breathing this unhealthy air all the time, every day. Is it any wonder people are getting sick all the time from school? You know, it's not always the kids sharing illnesses. Sometimes it's the actual environment they're in.

[Charlene]

So that. That, that actual department has Actually been the majority of growth. I imagine the profit is much higher on that specific thing because one, filters are much less cost than it is a full H vac unit for cost of goods sold. And then two, the labor is fairly. It doesn't need extremely, like, probably skilled labor for this.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, exactly. You know, you don't kind of have to pay the premium for that. Skilled labor that knows how to repair. And they're harder to find as well. In this industry, it's not easy to find a good skilled technician. So when it comes to the maintenance and the filter division, we were able to pull in guys that are, you know, any background. They could have been working at a restaurant, or they could have been working, you know, as a mechanic or oil change and, you know, facility. And when we say, hey, we'll bring you in, we'll train you up, and we'll pay you very well to just change filters, I mean, it's been a great success for us.

[Charlene]

And also recurs, if you get an account, it recurs, like, every quarter. In theory, it recurs every quarter, and.

[Mark McNally]

That'S the way we've set our business up. You know, a lot of air conditioning companies, you know, have it where they're more reactive to repairs or emergencies. We wanted to have a good base where we have recurring revenue, so we have service contracts. We have recurring visits to do recurring maintenance, and therefore, we have recurring revenue every, you know, every month. So that's crucial for a business like ours, where you're not having lows and highs throughout the year, where you're either having to lay people off because it's hard to find good people to begin with. You know, when you start laying them off because work dried up a little bit, you know, you just. That's just not a good model. So we have enough work throughout the year. It keeps steady revenue, steady work. And then all the service calls that come in on top of that is just extra. You know, it's extra work, extra revenue. But during COVID you know, obviously things slowed down for everybody, especially, you know, a business like ours where a lot of the industries we were servicing all went home and they shut down the businesses. Now, thankfully, we were still essential services, so we were still open and handling whoever was still running their operations. Funny enough, back then, it was a lot of pizza places. People ate a lot of pizza during COVID which is not surprising, but we had a big account that we just signed before that happened. So we were really, you know, helped through that period from those pizza places.

[Charlene]

That we still do how much do you guys. How much revenue comes from new installs? Like new, like residential H vac or is it purely commercial that you guys focus on now?

[Mark McNally]

So we only do commercial. We don't do any residential at all. And we don't do any real new construction or new. You know, we would do a lot of switch out. So if a customer wanted to switch out their air conditioning unit, we do that, but we don't do like a new construction build up from the ground.

[Charlene]

But you know, and also, only, only commercial. Like, no residential. Like if it's a single family home, you're not touching it. Like, you'll just turn that customer down.

[Mark McNally]

Exactly. Yeah. I never really wanted to get into residential. It's too saturated. You know, it's a lot of. A lot of mistrust in that industry, unfortunately. A lot of air conditioning guys upselling stuff that the customer doesn't need. Which was surprising to us to then jump into the residential market in the middle of COVID Because what happened was we had a lot of our customers would call us and say, hey, you know, we're starting to bring people back into the office or the facility, but we need better air filtration. You know, they wanted to improve it. You know, now it's top of their mind because they're more conscious about the indoor air quality. You know, we were always that way, but neither thinking about it more. And that's when the light bulb moment went off for me. You know, when that call came in, multiple calls, I was like, all right, we have to figure out a better way to make this product and provide it for homes. Because a lot of times that's the new office. People have moved out of the office. Working from home. Will they ever go back to the office? Maybe. But the home is now becoming the new office, and therefore they're running their air conditioning more. They care about indoor air quality more. So that set us off on a path to create our own air filter, because we already knew about it. We were, I would say, the experts in this field. Not just air conditioning, but air filtration. So we went on a path to invent our own. And that's what we did with Filters Direct usa.

[Charlene]

Beautiful. Great transition, because I did want to start diving into Filters Direct USA now. So this product, you actually, you actually invented this yourself. You. You and your. Your partner.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. As soon as, you know, that thought came into, how did I. How do I do this for homes? You know, I had a little bit of background with 3D design and art and design back in Ireland when I went to community college. So as soon as that happened, I'm, I'm drawing sketches out, I'm designing, I'm doing prototyping. You know, we're kind of spitballing some ideas on how we could do this and make it more eco friendly, more healthier for the home. And you know, we started taking those prototypes to, you know, local companies, local plastics manufacturers to try to figure out how do we actually get a working prototype. And we even, you know, shipped one over to China to see how they would do with it. And they made a great product. But you know, Tim is from North Carolina, born and bred. And obviously I'm an immigrant from Ireland, but this is my new home. I have my kids here, they're all American citizens. And we just wanted a make it here, you know, first of all in the US but the further we got into it, we were like, we could make this in our own state, we can make it in North Carolina. And then eventually we can make it ourselves. Like, why do we have to outsource? We've got enough room of our facility to make this thing ourselves.

[Charlene]

So you guys are making it yourself?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, we're making it ourselves. We're, we're fulfilling ourselves. Like everything happens when an order comes in. We, we fulfill it from our facility in garner, North Carolina. We ship it from here to, you know, any state in the U. S. Now I think we're doing, we're in about 32 states in the U. S. Now.

[Charlene]

Wow. I want to talk about the product and then move into like the business aspect of it too. Because a lot of people are, when they want to understand the product, listening to this, but also they want to understand like the move into this business because many people listening to this want to make that move that you've successfully done. And also they have ideas, they're creative and they have, or they have an online business they're trying to scale, which is what you're, you're doing too. So for the air filter, I'm looking at, for example, one. The 12 by 12 by 1 home air filter. MERV. MERV9 if I'm saying that properly. What, what, what problems did you see with the existing product in the market and that you guys were using every day and installing that you wanted to solve with your product? Like what made it different?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, sure. So there was a couple of major things with the filtration that's out there right now. One is the cheapest on the market. Right. Anyone that goes to the Store and buys the cheapest air filter they can find either because their air conditioning guys say, well, you got to put the cheapest one in there because you want good airflow. But the problem with that is it's not a filter. It just lets so much airflow, but it lets everything else through as well. So those are the filters you can hold up. And it's like a fiberglass. You can see right through it. So that was one issue with the filters on the market. The other issue was the more expensive filter. And especially during COVID everyone was pushed to do MERV 13, you know, go up as high as you can on the MERV rating to collect the small particles. But the problem that was that restricted too much airflow.

[Charlene]

It's hard on the H vac, right?

[Mark McNally]

It is, yeah. It puts a struggle on the air conditioning. And when, when air in the home or facility gets stagnant because it's not moving, that creates more health issues. So we wanted to make sure we have a product that, that tackles both. It wants to let the air condition debris so that's healthy, but it also is a filter that stops and kills bacteria and all that to keep the home healthy and keep the people in home healthy. So that was the balance between both that we had to come up with. But also make a product that was a little bit more eco friendly and less waste because all of those products are out there. They got the material in the middle, they got wire metal on the back, they've got cardboard. I mean, just a lot of waste, you know, a lot of wasted materials. So we wanted to come up with a product that doesn't have so much waste. And that's what we, what we did with our plastic reusable filter frame. So when we make this, this filter structure that the customer gets that free with the first order and they keep it. So then we send the refills, so we send the inserts. So it's just less waste on the environment.

[Charlene]

Beautiful. And your guys customers are. Who would you describe your customer? It's not commercial. It's. It's just normal consumers. Like somebody like me that owns a home, my neighbor, they would be customers. Is that correct?

[Mark McNally]

For the, for the most part, yeah. Cody. I mean most of this was designed for the homeowner. But we have had some industries across other states that have saw and say, wow, that would be great. Where I am, like I grow mushrooms and the filters we use just collapse because of the condensation, the moisture in the air. So the, the regular pleated filters Was, was disintegrating. And because ours is a plastic structure that just worked a lot better for them. You know, that could be the same for the hemp and marijuana industry that we're about to tap into, because same kind of situation. They're. They're using air filters, but they, they're in such a moisture environment that they can't use the regular cardboard ones without having to replace them so often. But, you know, it's definitely for the homeowner. You know, the, the challenges we have is that homeowners, they know they have to do this, but they never remembered to do it. And it's such an important thing that, you know, is. Is left out because it's hidden, right? They put it behind this filter grill on the wall or up in the air conditioning unit and they just don't remember. The home life is so busy. And I just had it, you know, literally yesterday. You know, it's. Quick story. So my, my wife's grandfather calls me. He knows I'm in air conditioning. He said, look, I don't want to bother you too much, Mark, but, you know, my heating's not working. And the first thing I asked him, I mean, he's 80 years old, lives with his wife, both of them are aged. But the first thing I asked him was, listen, Charlie, I know I own a filter company. You know, just go check your filters for me. That's the first thing I want you to do. And as soon as he came back, he says, oh, yeah, that thing's been in there quite a while. And it had. It's probably. It looked to me like it was probably a year or more in his home. And that's why his heat wasn't working. They couldn't get any air through a really dirty filter. So those are the kind of challenges out there that people forget about that they end up spending hundreds of dollars on an air conditioning call that could have been prevented if they just had that set themselves up on an auto delivery of a filter.

[Charlene]

Interesting. How's. When did you start this specific business? Filters Direct usa.

[Mark McNally]

So middle of COVID was the first path. Starter was right in 2020. It took us quite a while in product development and trying to get a working prototype. So we hired a local company because we didn't know much about direct to consumer. We didn't know much about selling a product like that. So what we did was hired a local consultant group called Sherpa Collaborative. And we knew some of the guys in the business, but we hired them for a year. They knew A lot about that. That world. And they were really helpful to kind of get us on the right path of getting prototypes made, coming up with the logos, just building a shopify to get us started. All of that was just really, really helpful to us, being that we're air conditioning guys that are running the service business and don't know anything about online. So anyone out there, I would definitely recommend, you know, don't be afraid to spend a little bit of your own money up front to get some consultants in, because it just puts you on the right path and maybe get you there a little quicker than what you would try to do on your own.

[Charlene]

How's business so far? How many of you guys sold ballpark or however you measure success in that business inspired the people who are like, I want to do that.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah. So, I mean, you know, we're. I think we just hit the 32 states last week, which every time I get a new customer in the state, even if it's one customer, I feel like, you know, it's a success because we don't spend a lot of money on marketing. So the fact that somebody in Illinois or Chicago, you know, California or Texas, you know, saw some content or something out there and went, you know, I love that. I wanna, I wanna jump on board. So we're. We're 932 states and we, we ship thousands of filters out a month, you know, to states on homes all across the U.S. amazing. The biggest challenge, I think, if looking back, you know, and if I wish I could have known there, what I know now, is that it takes longer than you think. You know, I thought after we have the product, we're making a bang, the floodgates open, we ship it all over the US and, you know, we're multi millionaires. Not that that's the goal, but it just takes a lot longer. The marketing is the biggest challenge is getting your product out there and making people be interested enough to say, yeah, I want to change from what I'm doing currently, that looks like a better product than what I'm currently using.

[Charlene]

Yeah, I completely agree. It does always take longer than what every time has always taken longer than I've expected. And then also for everybody else, seems like that's the truth too. And then also what you said about, you know, having the product is just one thing, right. Having a great product. Unfortunately, we live in a world where the best product doesn't always win. Yeah, I think. I don't like that. No one likes that. We think best products should always win. But the reality is distribution is more important than, than product a lot of times. And that's why we have bad products sometimes in your grocery stores and in our, in our convenience stores because they just have distribution. But then there's this amazing product in this mom and pop shop that they've been making for 20 years, but they just don't know how to distribute or they're not connected to the right distribution channel and see it every day.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, I mean, I had to definitely get creative. I mean, I've always been a pretty outgoing person, like to talk and, you know, one of the goals I had was, okay, if we're not spending a lot of money on marketing, we don't have that budget yet. I've got to be the face of the company. I've got to get out there and be comfortable with social media, creating content on Instagram, Tick Tock, you know, all of the platforms. And that was really what helped us get some exposure across the country. Because I think a few years back I did a video on Tick Tock. You know, some of it is understanding the platforms. Like, you know, I could do one post on Instagram, Facebook, but a totally different thing on Tic Tac to capture interest. And one video, I wouldn't say went viral, but it definitely went pretty big that weekend. And we got a lot of customers in other states from that video. So that was, that was really useful information to say, okay, this can be done on a small budget. If the interesting video has got enough in there to pull someone in and tempt them to buy, then I got to just keep doing some more of that.

[Charlene]

So it's amazing. You guys probably are not profitable with this business line yet. I imagine just considering all of the overhead that you guys are manufacturing, fulfilling yourself, like doing everything yourself, I imagine you're not profitable with this business yet, right?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, that'd be true, Cody. I mean, you know, everything we've done up to this point has been put back into the business, especially because we are manufacturing ourselves. So a lot of us is buying the next piece of equipment that makes the process smoother for us. So we've invested a lot into the manufacturing part of it. And this year, you know, we've definitely got some possible goals of taking it to the next level. So we've got it to this point where you've already been live for a number of years now and got a, you know, a good number of subscribed customers. But I think our next phase in this business is, is to bring in some angel investors and really, really skyrocket to the next level.

[Charlene]

So you guys are thinking about raising money?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, yeah. You know, again, it's not a world that I know of or knew of before getting into it. And we, we wanted to do it on our own and we have done up to this point, thankfully we business to fund, you know, the second one. But, you know, it definitely made us move a little slower because yes, the first one's profitable, but there's only so much you keep pulling out, you know, to fund the second one. So we finally got it to a point where it stands on its own. It's, you know, an operating, you know, company and direct to consumer product that's, that's working. But we want to take it to the next level now. So that's, that's the goal this year, is to show some angel investors what we've created here and bring some, hopefully some influential people on board. You know, I look at that in two ways. You know, we did, we did an audition for Shark Tank last year.

[Charlene]

Oh, cool.

[Mark McNally]

And one of the goals was that with that was we didn't really need the money because we'd already been operational. So even coming up with a valuation back then, I was like, I don't know, I don't know how much money we need, but I just want, you know, Lori or Mark Cuban or someone as the someone.

[Charlene]

Distribution.

[Mark McNally]

Distribution, exactly that exposure. And that's why we did it. So this time around, bit of both. Either someone that can help us with the funding part, but maybe someone that's more influential on. They, they're, they're good with direct to consumer products. You know, they smart on Shopify or they got a bit of marketing skills they can bring to the table.

[Charlene]

So beautiful. It's a really cool story and I think the story is still being written, which is beautiful. That's the best stories, right? It's like we're all writing our own stories, like we're midway through in a certain chapter. But where you guys have come and kind of where you're going, it's no question that you'll be successful. It's just a matter of. A matter of time. In fact, you already are. It's just a matter of.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, thankfully. I mean, it's great that we're now at a point where we can, you know, I've said it before, it's. It's great moving forward and everything is exciting, but the, the feeling of giving back is even better. So we did that last year. We kind of hit a point where we had Been profitable enough where he said, all right, we've, we can, we can start giving back and kind of help. The original idea we had is we don't want as much waste in the environment. Right. We have to create a product that doesn't create as much waste. And in fact our product is made from recycled materials which not a lot of people put a lot of value on. They're always thinking of recycling afterwards. You know, what if we can do it on the front end? So we actually partnered up with another company called Tidy Ocean last year and they basically remove plastics from the oceans and it's a twofold thing. One, they remove the plastic for recycling, but they also provide jobs for poverty areas that don't have much work. So it's a twofold thing. They create wealth, they create jobs, but they also remove a lot of plastics from the ocean. So now with every purchase of a filter, not just the first one, but every subscription order, we remove a pound of plastic from the ocean with that. So beautiful partnership and looking forward to seeing how that goes.

[Charlene]

Me too, man, that's, that's really awesome. I think anytime we can cut, we can. I think there's a book written on this I read years and years ago. Dave Meltzer wrote this book called Compassionate Capitalism. And I'm not even sure I forget exactly if this, this was in that book, but the title stuck with me of how can we use like capitalism to also benefit society. It doesn't have to be this, you know either or type of thing like you can. Capitalism actually is, if it's done properly, it's really, really good for the earth. It's really, really good for the world. It's really, really good for like bringing people out of poverty and all these things. I think it's just been abused in different ways. So anytime you can have your product linked to a social good. Yeah it, one, it makes us feel good as, as an owner.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah.

[Charlene]

Which is very important. Two, it makes the buyer, the consumer very, very good too because now their money is getting spread further. And three, like the actual thing is getting benefited like the social cause is, is, is improved.

[Mark McNally]

It's definitely a win, win all around. I mean, I, you know I said before, like considering myself the accidental entrepreneur. Right. I never thought I'd be here and don't look in the future saying I want to be a multi millionaire. Great. If it happens, that's fine. But that's never my intention, it's never been my goal. So it's not about just making as much money as possible. You know, have a good life. I have a great family, and that's most important to me. But being able to give back is, Is. Is a reward. A reward. And to me, I feel like a millionaire already when you're able to do that, because it means you've kind of got to a financial situation where you can't afford to give back with it, you know, hurting the business or whatever. And it's great to see, you know, my family, my kids, like, we travel a lot. My wife's really good about pulling me away from businesses because you get so caught up in it. And we do a lot of vacations together, but just my kids seeing my entrepreneurial path, and they've always been involved with it. Like, they'll come to home shows and do the shows with me, and I still do that. You know, I did two this year myself. You know, people think I'm crazy as the owner of the companies. Like, why are you doing a home show? You learn so much from the people that are at that show. Either current customers that will walk by and go, oh, Mark, we already subscribed. You know, I love it. Or just hearing the pain points from customers that are interested. Like, okay, so what is your main issue? Can't you find the sizes in the store? Are they overpriced? You know, do you not remember to change your filters? Just learning, you know, what is their pain points so that I can bring that back to my business and go, now let me multiply that online and, and post a video about, you know, those things. Because if one person thought that way, there's a lot of people out there thinking to see him. So, yeah, it's useful.

[Charlene]

Beautiful, man. I want to. I think it's a good time to transition over to the rapid fire question. So you ready?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, sure.

[Charlene]

What's your favorite business book?

[Mark McNally]

So I'm not much of a reader. Never really be much of a reader. But a couple of books that I've. I did do the audio version of it.

[Charlene]

You know, I'm a man. That's fine. That's reading.

[Mark McNally]

Driving on Vacation. Put the earpods in. And one of them that was extremely instrumental in our mechanical business was Profit First. You know, I had a lot of advice from people around me saying, hey, Mark, you need to read this book. You need to read this book. And I wasn't much of a reader, so I just kept putting it off. But especially funding the second company, you know, it got a little tighter at times, and I was like, all right, now's the time. Let Me, go read this book and see what it's all about. And I followed it to the T and it absolutely transformed the business. You know, without that, you know, it's a. It's a number one for anyone out there that is running a business and, and wants to be profitable first.

[Charlene]

Beautiful. What's one thing that you wish that you knew before starting your business?

[Mark McNally]

I wish I hadn't known how long it's going to take. Yeah. But, you know, I wish I had known that it doesn't just matter that you have a great product. You have to know how to sell it. You know, marketing is a big, big challenge for anybody out there that's got a product. I wish I'd have known more about the marketing side of things. I've learned a lot in the last couple of years, but if I had a, you know, put more focus on that in the beginning, then when I had my product and I'm ready to. To launch it and get it out there, I already had the foundations already in place, like the online ads, meta, you know, all of that stuff that works in the background. We kind of did that in reverse. So we had a product ready to sell, open the gates up, and, you know, haven't really done any marketing to actually show anybody it. So building the marketing foundation would have been. Would have been better.

[Charlene]

Beautiful. What's the worst advice that you've ever received about business?

[Mark McNally]

Oof. Worst advice. I would have to say that you have to go overseas to get your product made. I think everyone gravitates to that in the beginning, or maybe they do it because they think it's cheaper, but there's just a lot of different reasons to not do that. For us, most reason for it was we did it in a time of COVID where even if you had a great product made cheaply overseas, it was stuck on the water, it was stuck in the ocean. It was in a container that you had no ability to get to. So I would say that just because it may cost more to make it in your own town, in your own country, in your own home, it's worth it. You know, having the ability to have more control over it. Just, you know, don't be afraid to. To do that on your own.

[Charlene]

How many hours do you think you work on your business per week?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, I think as entrepreneurs, Cody, we never really shut off. Right. But I made a conscious effort in the last year to say, hey, we have enough structures in place. I've always been good at delegating and having good people around Me to help me run the businesses where I step away. And now I do a four day work week. Fridays is my day to wind down, either meet with other business owners, play golf, have lunch, breakfast, whatever. And the beauty about that is it means I can do it when it doesn't affect the family. So instead of using the Saturdays and Sundays to go play golf or to hang out with your friends, but that's the time that all the kids in the family want you, right? So I didn't want to lose that. So I made a conscious effort to say, hey, I'm going to the four day work week. Friday is the day for me and it doesn't affect the family. And then that way on the weekends we all, we all pull back together again.

[Charlene]

That's really, really cool and creative way to do that. I could see value in that. If your family and your friends and your customers had to get together and write an honest article or a blog or a book or something. Just a piece characterizing Mark's traits all about you. And they had to kind of explain who you were and the characteristics that you had, both good and also bad, like positive and also negative. What are some things that they would say?

[Mark McNally]

Oh, that's a good one, Cody. I mean, I know they would say that Mark's probably the hardest worker they know. They kind of seen me, especially in my neighborhood. We kind of got a lot of the same neighbors that have seen me from the beginning, working in that old beat up truck, changing air filters tonight where I am. But I think they would also say that he hasn't let it get to his head. Like Mark today is the same Mark that we knew that would kick back and have some beers with us in the cul de sac, play cards. You know, I still live in the same home that I, that I bought back in 2007. You know, I, I think that's what I would hope they would say is like Mark hasn't changed, even though his lifestyle has sounds.

[Charlene]

You sound like you put a lot of weight on your ability to stay humble and modest.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I definitely enjoy money and we do more, a lot more traveling to a lot more exotic places. But I definitely want to stay humble and you know, I even do things with my kids now that keep it that way. My daughter's 21, her first car. I did not buy her her car. She got a job, earned 50%. I came in with 50%. I put a bit more on, but around about that. And she has skin in the game. And now my son's about to turn 16, he's talking the same language, wanting the car. You know the rules, dude, get a, get a job, save some money. Whatever you might you make, I'll match. So he's already coming to me now, wanting to start his own little business. You know, just this week he's already talking about, all right, dad, I know I can go out there and car wash locally, detail cars, vacuum, whatever. I've got a business plan. I've already kind of laid it out. So he's all excited about it. Love seeing that because he obviously he's kind of got a little bit that from watching me. But now he realizes that, you know, even at 15, where a lot of people are not hiring a 15 year old, you can start your own. You can go out there and, you know, probably make more money, watch some detailing cars in the local communities than he would working at, you know, Sonic or any other. Yeah. Restaurant out there. So that's exciting.

[Charlene]

How would you define a creator who is a creator from your perspective?

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, I mean that, that, that word is definitely kicked around a lot because everyone I guess, taps into a bit of a creative mode now, especially with so much online stuff and people selling so much products. But I think a creator is more someone that just goes all in on it. You know, to me, if I see a creator online and they're a DIY home mom and it's not just, you know, they're doing one DIY project and that's it, they, they're all in on it. They, they're transforming their entire house and they're creating a lot of content around it. Like someone, to me as a creator is someone that just this goes all in on it. It's not just the Internet, quick Internet creation on their part. It's this is my brand, I'm a DIY mom. Or me, I'm the home air filter guy. Like if you're going to create, just go, go all in on it.

[Charlene]

And when you say go all in on it, like, you mean go all in on like creating content. Is it mostly content creation or can it be like you're creating air filters so you're a creator? How did you describe.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, the way I was viewed, it was more on the content side. You know, if someone was to go to my, you know, pages, they know right away just from all of my content that I created is around the air filtration industry. And you know, if anyone wants to be successful online and doing that, just be consistent with what your, what Your message is, you know, what, what, what are you creating? There's so many out there that are, they don't have that because they're selling multiple different products for a company. You know, they could be selling a bag one day or, you know, her product or a dog product, whatever. I think if you just stay in one land and be really consistent with it, that just elevates your, your, your, your brand a little better.

[Charlene]

Who do you think should be a business owner?

[Mark McNally]

You know, based on my background, I think, you know, I could say that anybody could be if they really wanted to. But it's definitely someone that is not afraid of hard work because it's not easy. It's very easy to go to work for a job, get a paycheck and leave and go home and shut off. So as soon as you leave that office, you're done thinking about it. If you want to get into business, you've got to be that person that knows that you're never going to shut off. That brain's ticking all the time because you're always thinking about something in your business, even when you leave it. So I think business is obtainable to anybody that wants to do it. And especially knowing my background, like I worked in a filter air conditioning company and eventually within, I bought it. So think about that. You know, if there's an industry you're working in, why couldn't you be the owner of it one day? You know, owners have to move on. They either sell, outsource, sell, or they a lot of times would like to sell from within because either they want to still be part of the business, either financially or whatever. So I would like to just say that most people that thinks it's not obtainable, like, believe a little more. It definitely is, Mark.

[Charlene]

Where can people find you, hear more about you, follow your story, go to filters, DirectUSA, like all that good stuff.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah. Website. Filtersdirectusa.com Obviously, I'm on, you know, a lot of social media. TikTok, Instagram, there's filterstrack USA, but also my personal, you know, pages. Mark McNally says exactly what it says on the tin. So they can find me on social media on instagram under Mark McNally. And you know, it is me. I'm the face of the company. I own the businesses and I'm the one doing a lot of the silly videos. But, you know, sometimes that's the way it's got to be when you're starting it.

[Charlene]

Amazing, man. Thank you so much for coming on, Mark. I appreciate you sharing your story and also wish you the best. Success already success, but also more success with both businesses. Appreciate you.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, thanks. Cindy, Cody, thanks for having me.

[Charlene]

Thank you, man. Talk to you soon.

[Mark McNally]

Yeah, you too.