← HVAC Masters of the Hustle
HVAC Masters of the Hustle
Episode #305-Compass Heating & Air
00:38:59
HVAC Masters Of The Hustle would like to welcome Rick & Jeremy into the Hot Seat on episode 305. On this episode we talk about the FEAR of starting your own HVAC company and the challenges that come with it. Compass bas been growing and after...
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- [00:03]
Jacob Moneymaker
This is H Vac Masters of the Hustle with your host, Jacob Moneymaker. Yeah, I'm a hustler, cuz.
- [00:32]
Jeremy McNabb
I'm a hustler. Yeah. What is up?
- [00:38]
Jacob Moneymaker
You are listening to H Vac Masters of the Hustle podcast. And here's your host, J Dub Moneymaker. And welcome to episode 305. And this podcast is brought to you by Nuva Thermostat. This is the thermostat made by the contractor for the contractor. You talk about branding on the thermostat, you talk about the light show, you talk about customer and client retention. This is the thermostat. That is the top thermostat. It's knocking all the other thermostats off the wall. My company at Royalty Heat and Air, we do it, we see other thermostats, we knock them off the wall, we install the nuva. And I'm excited for this episode as well because I got some of my really long term listeners of the podcast and I've been fortunate enough to not just become, you know, acquaintance, but good friends with them. I've been training with them for the last couple months now and I'm super excited because what they started is what a lot of you are fearful to do. You know, a lot of us talk big game, but when it comes to actually doing it and putting the work and making that sacrifice, this is going to be the podcast that's going to help elevate y'all get to the next level. Let's go ahead and welcome the one, the only, Mr. Rick and Mr. Jeremy, both the owners of Compass Heating and Air. Let's go.
- [02:09]
Rick
What's up, man? Glad to be here.
- [02:10]
Jeremy McNabb
What's going on? Look at that introduction.
- [02:12]
Jacob Moneymaker
Look at that. So we got McNasty in the house.
- [02:17]
Jeremy McNabb
Nasty time. That's right.
- [02:20]
Jacob Moneymaker
Let's go. So let's start with Rick. Rick, kind of tell everyone a quick highlight reel of how you got into H vac and then why become a business owner?
- [02:33]
Rick
So my story starts from right out of high school. I went to school with a guy whose dad owned a business and we worked there during the summers while we were in school, just helping clean out and getting out of school. I tried college for a brief period, maybe about six months, and decided, hey, you know what? This isn't for me. Let me try my hand in the trade. Went there, started from the ground up, you know, new construction, new construction, duct work. From there went into residential replacement, from residential replacement, went into service, from service went into sales and service from there went into Sales. And then from there, got into. Got into management. And then that's where. That's where I met Jeremy.
- [03:22]
Jacob Moneymaker
All right. And Jeremy, talk about your venture, your story. How did you become, you know, owner in H Vac?
- [03:32]
Jeremy McNabb
A little similar. High school, 16 years old. Stepdad owned the company. He did not have a license, so I had to drive for him as soon as I got my license, I was 16. Same way. New construction. He was always a two, three man outfit, though. I worked for him for about 12 years, flats. And we did it all. Every day. Every single day it was something different. New construction service, replacement, whatever it is. And then went out and got what we call in the state of Kentucky. Went and got my master's license, my contractor's license for Kentucky. Kentucky. Did it once. Did it once. I was about 27 until I was about 33. Didn't really understand it yet, you know, just was really working for a paycheck back then. Didn't understand, you know, where it could really take you, and then left that to become a CA. First CA role I ever had. And that's where I met Mr. Rick. And he was just bound and determined to do it again. I wasn't real thrilled, but he wanted to. So I was like, I guess we'll. We'll do it. We'll try it.
- [04:33]
Jacob Moneymaker
So. So how you now you're here now, you know, but before taking that journey, right. I mean, a lot of my listeners on the podcast been saying, hey, I want to talk to someone that's been just starting out. What's the fear like? Like, talk about the leap of faith of, you know, leaving what you're doing to partner up to start your own vision. Like, what was that like? Because, I mean, a partnership takes a lot of trust.
- [05:01]
Jeremy McNabb
It does, you know, and especially with the CA role, you know, the role I was in was just 10 only. And, you know, the money that comes with that, you know, it was terrifying to do this. And then Rick and I were actually part of another startup that only lasted for about three months. And we put all of our eggs in that basket and we went broke doing this. When I say broke, I'm telling you, Rick and I had $0 credit cards maxed. Rick's house payment was on hold. We only had one car between us. A car? No, trucks. We rented Menards trucks for installs. And I mean, we just pushed through and grinded through and I mean, yeah, it was terrifying. We. We always kind of had some plans in our back pocket a little bit, but, you know, you know, they never really came out because we just kept consistently selling jobs. And, you know, we pushed through and, you know, I mean, we made it. You know, we kind of. We put our mark last year, and we made it for sure.
- [06:01]
Jacob Moneymaker
So let me ask you, you know, one thing that you just mentioned, Jeremy, was what's the difference between the first round and right now? Like, you said that you guys were failing. Everything was maxed out. Like, what was it that got you through that barrier, got you through that obstacle and hurdle? And Rick, I want to hear from you as well.
- [06:24]
Jeremy McNabb
Well, so that's that. We were actually part of another startup that was not compensated cooling. We. We went out with. There was four of us total that started one, and it was just. It just did not work. Way different visions, especially from the initial conversations to, you know, what it turned into, it did not work. So Rick and I made the tough decision to go out and just do it ourselves. I mean, like I said, you know, I had the license, we were good there. And. And we just, you know, really, we just kind of focused and buckled down and kind of stuck to our values and, you know, and really just trying to get our tickets up and. And that's what we did. And we just, I mean, we hustled every which way. I mean, we bought jobs. We would, you know, buy jobs from people. I mean, we did everything it took to get us to where, you know, to even make it. I mean, we had. We survived the first year.
- [07:19]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah. What about you, Rick? Same question.
- [07:21]
Rick
Well, look, to clarify, you want to talk about loyalty, Jason? That guy right there, Jeremy McNabb, loyal to the end. Because I decided out of that four man crew that I was odd man out. I was. I was obviously going to have to leave. And lo and behold, he said, hey, if you're going, I'm going. So I said, okay, you believe in me, I believe in you. We'll go do it on our own, and we'll. We'll make it work. But he's right, man. We. We borrowed money from my dad to buy our first truck for 2,500 bucks. Paid that loan back and just kind of grew it from there. And so it's been. It's been a grind. It's been a day in and day out grind. And it was something that I always thought I never wanted to do, but I was never afraid to do it. And then now that we're this far into it, I couldn't see myself doing anything else anymore.
- [08:15]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah. Now, looking back at your first year with all the challenges and obstacles. What did those numbers look like the first year?
- [08:26]
Rick
Oh, well, we started. We started off halfway decent, but it's. I think some of that, too, goes to the amount of people, the friends that we've made in the industry that we've talked to, if their company couldn't help, maybe we could do it, you know, quote unquote, on the side, because we were a new business. So we cut our margins down just to make sure that we could feed our families and make our payments and, you know, just make sure that we could live. So the numbers started super small. I think our first month in business was like three or four or $5,000. Second month, it upticked a little bit, but that's when we really started putting boots to the ground, you know, going out, talking to people, going to home shows where we didn't have booths set up because we couldn't afford it, but walking around and just handing out cards.
- [09:15]
Jacob Moneymaker
See, I. I like that right there. Because a lot of people don't think outside the box like that. Right. So listen to that for y'all that are listening, that are starting up or in the process of starting up, or you're in that little funk where you're not making money or you're having problem being in our clients. Be different. Go out there. If you can't afford that booth for $3,000, 4,005, whatever it is, a thousand dollars, go walk around the home show, buy a $10 home show ticket, and still go meet the community. Right?
- [09:47]
Rick
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because that was. That was us. I mean, your back's against the wall. You're going to figure it out. And that's the great thing that, you know, I think that's one of the great qualities Jeremy really brings to the table, and I've kind of fed off of it, is he's shown me that we'll go, we'll do it, it'll get done. It's never a no. It's always a yes. We just have to figure out how. And so when we were. When the. When the home show came, I was like, well, you know what? We can't afford to be in the home show, but I can go to the home show. I know people that are going to be there. So I went and talked to some people that had booth set up, and then I walked around, just passed out cards to people that I had conversations with. And maybe it turned into something, maybe it didn't. I can't remember that far back now, but what's the worst could happen?
- [10:35]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah. What about you, Jeremy? You know, now that y'all have been progressing through your journey as business owners, what has been the biggest challenge that you felt so far?
- [10:52]
Jeremy McNabb
Where to put the money, where to put the resources. I mean, always. We started early with a TV campaign. We started about seven months in and went fairly modest at first, but then we got crazy with it, you know, I mean, we were doing, we did like a twenty thousand dollar Olympics package on our local news station. You know, I think we started off doing 3, 500amonth and got it up to 10, 11, 12 grand a month. And it helped. But I mean, that's always, that's the biggest one for me. I. Heat and air. I tell people all the time, it's not what I do anymore, it's who I am. You know, heat and air is easy. It's, it's figuring out how to get in people's homes. That's, that's the only, I mean, that's all that matters. We got the rest.
- [11:42]
Jacob Moneymaker
You get my foot in the door.
- [11:44]
Jeremy McNabb
Yeah, you get me in the door. We're good. You know, that's, that's easy. It's, it's getting there, getting the calls and it's scary, you know, and I, you get scared still sometimes, you know, I mean, there's days the phone don't ring still, but, you know, and I mean, but then the next day, you know, I could tell everybody, we're always a phone call away from $20,000. We're always a week away from $100,000.
- [12:06]
Jacob Moneymaker
So sure, if it's the right day, you're a day away from a hundred thousand dollars.
- [12:11]
Jeremy McNabb
Right? That's it.
- [12:12]
Rick
Right.
- [12:13]
Jeremy McNabb
For sure.
- [12:13]
Jacob Moneymaker
You know, I mean, it's, it's just really just what you're doing, you know, and so I want to talk about this real quick, so rewind. Talking about TV marketing and you know, being a newer company, I want everyone to understand you're going all in, looking big, right? You're reinvesting, you're taking your profits, you're throwing it back in. We've had multiple conversations about this. Talk about that, like, you know, reinvesting. Talk about why you chose that type of marketing and what the strategy was behind that.
- [12:51]
Jeremy McNabb
The salesman, the salesman at the TV station, he was better than we were.
- [12:55]
Jacob Moneymaker
He was better looking than you now.
- [12:56]
Jeremy McNabb
He was just better at being a salesman than we were. I would tell you that he was a great salesman. He came in and he closed us and that's exactly what happened. And he was very good at his job and he led the way and. And that's really, you know, that's how we got wrapped up in it so big. And it worked. I will say that he, you know, he knew what he was talking about.
- [13:14]
Jacob Moneymaker
I could I trust he saw the vision.
- [13:16]
Jeremy McNabb
He saw the vision. He wrote us it. He wrote us the commercial and jingle on the spot. We met him for drinks one time. He's already writing the commercial out, you know, sitting there having drinks with us the first time, you know, just excited as hell.
- [13:28]
Jacob Moneymaker
And what's your jingle sound like?
- [13:31]
Jeremy McNabb
Well, it wasn't really. It was just really what? Our. I shouldn't say jingle. More of our message.
- [13:35]
Jacob Moneymaker
Okay.
- [13:36]
Jeremy McNabb
Our commercial message, which is, you know, are you tired of all the same old heat and air ads with broken promises? Empty, you know, empty promises. So that's kind of. That's where we started off at, and it worked out well, you know, and I mean, we. We were pretty hardcore on the. On the message for tv. I mean, you know, we're spending so much money on it, we had to be like, you know, beat any competitor by 10%, you know, and we were doing. We were doing real sales. You know, we did a furnace promotion. It was every single furnace. Every single standard efficiency furnace was three grand for a little while, no matter the size, no matter where it was, whatever it was, we stuck true to it because we wanted to back up our message, you know, and just like we all see them, you know, everybody's got these commercials. Furnaces starting out at 2800 bucks. Well, you damn well know that when I get there, it's not 2800 bucks. So we stuck to it. We stuck true for a while, and it hurt. It was not fun. But we did it. We backed it up and, you know, and people respected it and, you know, and we got a lot of. We got a lot of support from it.
- [14:36]
Jacob Moneymaker
No, I love it. So let's talk about the name real quick. Compass. Why Compass?
- [14:43]
Rick
Oh, that's my fault. Or I should say that that's mostly me. We. With that first startup with those four guys, Jeremy and I were burned pretty good by one of them in particular. And to me, it felt personal because I was personally attacked because I put my family first and decided that I wasn't gonna, you know, I wasn't gonna sell my soul with no skin in the game, you know, that was another part of it, too, is he and I were. Were constantly being fed BS to just keep. Keep doing the work, because he and I were actually doing the work. We were the whole Reason that it was, that it was working to begin with. And I think they saw that. But once, once we were cut, cut loose from there, I thought, you know what, that I don't ever want to go down that road again. And so I'm gonna, you know, just. We burned the boats, we got the tattoos, and we decided if you can't have a moral compass, you don't have any business being in a business like this, because what are we all here to do, really serve the community. That's it. That's all. It's that simple. If you break it down in simplest form, that's what it is. And if you do that right, the money will follow. So if you can have some sort of moral compass, we're going to be fine.
- [16:06]
Jacob Moneymaker
Jeremy, let me ask you a question. What is your bigger picture of compass? Because one thing that you said when we first met or our first initial meet and greet on a zoom call, I loved what you said.
- [16:22]
Jeremy McNabb
Coming for you.
- [16:23]
Jacob Moneymaker
I'm coming for you. Right? And I love it. I love the competition, I love the confidence. Right. Talk about what you meant by that. But talk about what your envision is with what you're doing, your dream of big.
- [16:41]
Jeremy McNabb
You know, a lot of it is, you know, in all reality, I look up to you. A lot of you guys, you know, all the big boys, everybody knows who I'm talking about. You know, I've been listening to this podcast for years. It's just started a fire in me and I knew the love I have for this field, that you're not going to stop me. It's. There's no way. There might be people that are better than me, skill wise. There might be. I'm sure there is. That every, you know, I'm always a student. I don't know it all, but bet your ass you don't love this field like I do. I would die for this. And that's. And that's honesty. And so with that being said, I know where we're going. I. It's. It's not, you know, it's not even a vision. It's a. It's a path. And we're on the path and we prove it every day. And, you know, but the ultimate goal is, you know, love to be the 15, 20 million, you know, range 10 plus EBITDA. And, you know, I don't know at that point, you know, that's a lot of money to walk away from. We'll see where we're at, family wise, because that does come first. You know, we'll just see how that shakes out for us, what our kids look like. You know, our. Our kids are all getting into the preteens and, you know, and all the things. And if that's something, you know, and they. Something they take serious, I wouldn't take that away from them either, you know, and I'm sure Rick wouldn't either. So that's the determining factor. But the ultimate goal. Yes. Is to grow this, sell it, do it again, do it again.
- [18:17]
Jacob Moneymaker
You're young and dumb enough like me to do it again.
- [18:20]
Rick
Jason, how do you know. How do you not follow that guy into battle? You know what I mean?
- [18:25]
Jacob Moneymaker
Absolutely right. I mean, man, iron sharpens iron, I'll tell you that. You know, one thing that you were talking about is burn all ships. You know, I. Are all boats. I've read the book. I understand the terminology of that, but, Rick, can you talk about what it means to burn all boats?
- [18:48]
Rick
Well, it's. It kind of goes with the old saying, if you're gonna. How you do anything's how you do everything. If you're not gonna put 100 of your effort into something like this, you're gonna get what you get, you know, but if you're willing to go the extra mile and think outside the box, just like we did in the beginning, you know, we start. Started. We started negative. We didn't have any. Any equity. We didn't have any money. We were borrowing, we were begging, stealing, and, you know, anything we could from our family and friends. A lot of people in the. On the back end really pitched in and helped out, get us going to start it off the ground. And so what kind of would we be if we just turned around and said, well, it's not working. We're going to go do something else, you know, thanks, but no thanks. Sorry about it. So that, That's a big part of it, man. You gotta. The. The mental game is 90% of it. If you're not mentally strong enough to be able to withstand the bad days, then you're never gonna see the good ones. And Jeremy's got a quote that I love that I've adopted into my daily life, and it's not. It. You want to tell them or you want me to tell them?
- [19:59]
Jeremy McNabb
I don't know which one I got. There's a lot of quotes. There's a lot of stuff that comes out of my mouth. I'm not real sure.
- [20:04]
Rick
Well, the one. I'm not gonna let who I am today stand in the way of who I'm gonna Be tomorrow.
- [20:09]
Jeremy McNabb
Yeah, yeah. Be willing at any, any given moment to let go of who you are for who you're going to become at any given moment, drop it, walk away from boom.
- [20:24]
Rick
I love it. There's no truer, there's no truer saying, man, in this, you've gotta, you've got to move quick. You've got to be able to adapt and adjust fast. You know, you've. That, that's just what it is. That's. That's the life.
- [20:37]
Jacob Moneymaker
How long have you all been listening to the podcast?
- [20:40]
Jeremy McNabb
Oh, it's been two and a half years. When I first took my ca role, that's the first time I ever heard about it. You know, I, I didn't even know what hvac sales was until two and a half, three years ago. And, and what, what has the podcast.
- [20:57]
Jacob Moneymaker
Been able to do for you, Jeremy? And then same with you, Rick.
- [21:01]
Jeremy McNabb
I mean, just kind of like what. It's helped me build a vision, you know what I mean? It's gave me the confidence to think like, you know, it's, it's one thing if one person does it, but if 100 of you are doing it, bet your ass I'm 101st.
- [21:16]
Jacob Moneymaker
I love it. Yeah, I mean, he just. Is that, that boiled, you know, that fiery going? Yeah, well, I mean, you get that blood boiling, man. I feel the passion behind you.
- [21:29]
Rick
Yeah, you. Yeah. Imagine being in person, man. It's. You run through a brick wall for that guy.
- [21:36]
Jacob Moneymaker
What about you, Rick? How long you been listening to podcasts?
- [21:40]
Rick
I started listening to the podcast back in 2019 and I was a. I was a few episodes behind because. So I, I went back and just started from square one and started from one all the way up through and had been listening to it religiously ever since. And I was at a bigger, larger PE firm in a sales role with them. And I tell you what, man, it really changed the way I looked at the conversations that I was having with people. And that's the big thing. It's like I would leave a lot on the table just because I would, we would, we wouldn't talk about it. I would, I wouldn't think to even look or bring it up or even.
- [22:18]
Jacob Moneymaker
Ask what, what made you go in there with blinders on? Why, why do you think you went in there close minded?
- [22:26]
Rick
Maybe potentially probably just job title at that point. You know, I was probably five to six years, probably seven years in sales and it always just been H VAC sales. And that was the first opportunity that I had to sell multiple Trades, plumbing, electrical, you know, things of that nature. And I just. I was just laser focused on the H Vac. But. But I will say, after listening to you and implementing some of those strategies, once. Once I got over to the other place where he and I met, I think my largest single house ticket was like 49, 5.
- [23:05]
Jacob Moneymaker
And that was a little.
- [23:06]
Rick
A little bit of everything. H vac, whole home generator, dehumidifier panel upgrade, sewage grinder, pump. Like, you name it, we did it all.
- [23:17]
Jacob Moneymaker
Let me ask you, when you happily involved that homeowner with that ticket right there, how did it feel walking out? Like, how'd you feel?
- [23:27]
Rick
Yeah, it was surreal. It was like it. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Waiting for him to run out and grab me and say, what the hell did I just sign up for? You know, forget it. I'm not doing this. That's crazy. I just bought a Mercedes.
- [23:39]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah. A lot of people out there, I think, fear high average tickets to communicate about high average tickets. Right, Jeremy, Talk about why do you think people fear it?
- [23:54]
Rick
Or.
- [23:54]
Jacob Moneymaker
Or at least not want to have the conversation.
- [23:57]
Jeremy McNabb
No, I did. I'm super guilty of it. You know what I mean? Like I said, so you got to think. And that's the biggest difference now. It's why, you know, a lot what, me and Rick kind of go along so together. Because he came up in a different company than me a lot. A much larger company. A sales only company where I only work for small companies. It was either my stepdad or it was just me. So guess what we did all day? Fixed. We fixed all day long. We were just the heroes. The heroes. Well, guess where the hero gets you. More work, harder work, impossible work. Never really setting yourself free. And, you know, and I mean, and that's. That's what it is. So, like, when I stepped in the CA role and, you know, those numbers matter, I was always. Because I never had the confidence, I'm like, why would you do this? You know, what's the point? You know, And. And that's when I started listening you guys. And I had to. I had to shut that side off, you know, and I really did. You got it. And I think that's what a lot of the big companies know now. You know, the best salesman are the ones with the least technical experience. And that's a. That is so true. It's ridiculous because I've seen it both ways. You know, one of our very close friends came from selling roofs. And I'm gonna tell you, he beats me every Month. He absolutely demolished me every single month. He knew nothing about heating in there. Zero, you know, and here I am, a 25 year vet, been through it, had been cut every inch of my body and all of, and I've done every, every install you can ever possibly imagine. And he's just beat me to the earth because he's not as scared to have these conversations because he doesn't know any better. So, you know, and that's what, that's the difference. You got to shut it off. You have to figure out a way to shut it off because people still say yes, you know, and like, you know, and I mean, I think my biggest ticket when I was there, I think was like 36 grand. And they were ecstatic. They thanked me and was just so happy, wanted my number, wanted to text me and all the things, you know what I mean? We were like tight and you know, and so, and that, and that goes along with it too. And I tell a lot of people that, you know, especially when it comes to making customers for life. Nobody remembers you if they gave you 200 to put a capacitor on. I bet your ass they remember you to the day they die. If they spend $20,000 with you.
- [26:12]
Jacob Moneymaker
Oh, a hundred percent, you know, asking, you know, either one of you could answer this. What makes you all different than your market? I mean, if I was to drive 30 miles around your market, there's probably a hundred different contractors that could do the same. What makes you different? Why would I call Compass.
- [26:37]
Jeremy McNabb
Just like I said earlier, my love for the field. I'll die before I up a system for you. I mean, I don't care. I'll sit out there to the day I die till it's right. I don't care. You know, I mean, if you spend that much money with me, something's wrong. I'm there that day, that night, all night. I'll go get a new one. I don't care. It, you know, and that's our biggest thing. And you know, and we just shoot people straight. I mean, we put the problems in front of you, no matter what it is. If you can't get down to the furnace or up to the furnace, I'm taking videos, I'm taking pictures, I'm educating you. And that is always the biggest difference I always try to say is versus H vac people or sales people. We're just educators. So what I always try to do, I just educate you and let you make your own decision because I don't know what the best decision is. For you. And I don't care, you know what I mean? I just, it doesn't benefit me. It only, it's only benefiting you. And you got to have that mentality.
- [27:34]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah.
- [27:35]
Jeremy McNabb
So, you know, that's, that's what I pride myself on is just shooting everybody straight, you know what I mean? Showing you every inch of every problem, you know, and then you make your own decision and that way, you know, you feel good about it. I don't tell you to do anything. I put the problems for you and you tell me what to do.
- [27:51]
Jacob Moneymaker
Do y'all go in a call or an appointment with the mindset that it's already sold? Whatever you're going out there, do you go in there thinking that you got to teach and inform and educate?
- [28:02]
Jeremy McNabb
It's it. Every time. It's teach, form and educate. You got to. I mean, every time. No, no matter what it is, no matter if it's a two year old system, you know, we'll still look at it. We'll go, we'll go down the IAQ path, we'll look at every which way. I mean, I think there's always opportunity there, you know, no matter what it is, no matter what the age is. But, you know, that's the thing is, you know, knowing how to recognize those opportunities and educate and then go from there. But, you know, I mean, and then somebody uneducated, guess what answer there is no.
- [28:34]
Rick
Well, and I tell you what, coming up through. Coming up through too. I was always bad about talking to people. Like I was just, you know, crazy introverted. So I would always let my tools do the talking. And I think by doing that is how I learned to talk to people because then they would start asking questions. And so now that's a lot of how I approach, a lot of it anyway is I'll go in and I'll plant some seeds and we'll have some conversations and I'll show them some things and then I allow them to ask me for the next order or the next order of business or what would the next steps look like and then we can kind of go from there. So it feels very, very personal and it feels like they're just being educated and they're not being force fed something and they're not being oversold. And I think for me, that's what's always worked and that's what I think is the easiest.
- [29:28]
Jacob Moneymaker
I love it. You know, one thing that I want to talk about is as a growing company, okay, how is, how important is it to train and to keep the momentum going.
- [29:44]
Jeremy McNabb
That's my favorite thing. I mean, I, you know, I. All these hours we work and all these things that we do, I bet half of them on the phone running tech support all day long every day. I love it. I love to train people. And it's like I said, it really boils back down to, you know, my passion for the field. But it is. It's just. It's absolutely my favorite thing in the world. Um, and. But we have to, you know, and I mean, it doesn't matter how hard you work. It just matters how good you are at training is what takes you to the next level.
- [30:16]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah.
- [30:16]
Jeremy McNabb
Because two people, him and I, are never going to be able to do $20 million.
- [30:21]
Jacob Moneymaker
It's the people you bring on with you.
- [30:24]
Jeremy McNabb
Right. Well.
- [30:24]
Rick
And you always, you know, what's the saying? You always default to your highest level of training, you know, so that's. That's going to be your failure rate. Your default is your highest level of training. And so if. If you don't train, you're only screwing yourself or you're only screwing your employees.
- [30:40]
Jacob Moneymaker
Well, as you're growing, right. You're at that point where you're about to bring on more staff. How do you keep the culture right? How do you look for those people? What are your plans? What is your mission? What do you plan on doing?
- [30:58]
Rick
That's a loaded question. Go ahead.
- [31:06]
Jacob Moneymaker
I'll hand this one off.
- [31:07]
Jeremy McNabb
Yeah, I think. I think first, I think we're already, you know, we got a little bit of ace in the hole. I think our first CSR is probably going to be Rick's daughter. So that's kind of, you know, I don't know if it's really good or it's really bad, but I. You know, but she believes in it. She believes in him. I do know that. So that'll be pretty easy, I think. You know what I mean? Especially somebody that's the cornerstone of everybody that comes in. You know, every phone call that comes in is going to touch her. So I think that's a super important role. So I think with her, it's kind of. We're already kind of skipped through there. But as far as everybody else, you know what I mean? It's just going to be a lot. It's going to have to be with me personally, I'm just. I just like people, you know what I mean? I'm super friendly, and I make what I do a lot of fun. I make it a lot. A lot of fun.
- [31:55]
Jacob Moneymaker
You gotta have fun. With what? Yes, I tell people that all the time. It's like, why show up to a job every single day that you're burnt out and you don't want to be there? Like to me that sounds like a prison sentence.
- [32:09]
Jeremy McNabb
Yeah. And that's all we do. It's all we do every day. I mean we have a good time. No matter what we're doing, we're having a good time. And you know, so I think that's going to be, it is just kind of, you know, they're going to have to, they're going to have to be next to us for a while until I figure that out. Because you know, and honestly that's a question I don't know yet. Because that's probably my biggest fear right now. You know what I mean is what that looks like, what, what mass hiring looks like to bring that culture on. And that's where, you know, that's where I'm going to be a student. You know, I got your number in my phone so I hope you're not busy for the next few months or anything.
- [32:49]
Jacob Moneymaker
No, not at all. That's, that's why I'm, that's why I'm a mentor.
- [32:54]
Rick
I think one of the things, one of the things that we're really looking for is people that like people. You've got it, you've got to like people and be able to talk to people and be able to carry a conversation. The rest of it's easy. Like we could teach them H Vac, that's not a problem. But if they don't like people and they're not just genuinely personable, that's probably not going to work. So that's a type of person I think we're geared towards.
- [33:18]
Jacob Moneymaker
What are your guys's goals for this year?
- [33:21]
Jeremy McNabb
2025, 1.8 plus. Yeah, get them tickets up. Get them tickets up. We'll probably, I'd love to see. So last year, last year we had a two thousand dollar average ticket for the year. That's across all channels. That's, that was the average ticket for the company. We had a 2 is 2000 something average ticket for the year. And so but you know, this year install wise I'd love to be at a, you know, 900 plus or not install service, a 900 plus service ticket and love to be a, you know, an eight thousand dollar plus install ticket.
- [33:59]
Jacob Moneymaker
And I think differently Doable boys.
- [34:02]
Jeremy McNabb
Definitely doable. Definitely doable. 100, you know, so, and I mean like I said, the two thousand dollar average ticket was Service and install. That's combined. That's, that's. That's the whole company last year. So, so that was something that, you know, to me, that's something special already. You know, that was our first year. First January, January we pulled that off. That was, that was very special to me. So that's, that's the big goal. Get the tickets up, you know, still staying as students and just absorbing everything we can absorb and implementing, you know, and that's, that's the big one. And just putting everything into play as you're growing.
- [34:37]
Jacob Moneymaker
Right. I'm going to ask Rick this one. How important is it to understand your numbers and your KPIs really going through it?
- [34:45]
Rick
Oh, man, you. You really have to. You've got to be able to. To nail it down to this is because you're. If your cost. If you don't know your cost on anything, you're not going to know your profit. And if you don't know your profit, you're constantly going through the cycle of, you know, the bank account is here now. It's here now. It's here now. It's here now. It's here now. It's here. You live in a. You'll live in a land of chaos.
- [35:08]
Jacob Moneymaker
Yeah.
- [35:09]
Rick
And there's no.
- [35:10]
Jacob Moneymaker
And it's a cycling effect.
- [35:11]
Rick
Yeah, it's. It. Yeah. There's no rhyme or reason to it. And it doesn't make any sense. Well, you can't cut out the cancer and figure out what's working and what's not working. So then you just continue to throw against the wall and just see what works. Well, we don't have time or resources for that because we are personally funding this whole thing ourselves. You know, we don't have a big backer or a giant bank account or a trust fund, so we have to be more cognitive as to how we can stick and move and make sure that we maximize our dollar.
- [35:42]
Jacob Moneymaker
Love it. Well, as we're, you know, closing the podcast right now, we got listeners all across the nation right now that are tuning in. What would you like for them, Rick, to get out of this episode of H Vac Masters of the Hustle? And then I'm gonna ask you the same question, Jeremy.
- [36:01]
Rick
If. If you have a passion to do it and you believe in yourself, go for it. Because you. You'll either be successful or you'll be unsuccessful. And if whatever you believe, you're going to be right.
- [36:14]
Jacob Moneymaker
What about you, Jeremy? What would you like for the listeners to get out of this episode of H Vac Masters of the hustle.
- [36:21]
Jeremy McNabb
I mean, two things, really. I mean, my big one is, I don't want to hear your excuse. I don't want to hear not one, you know what I mean? Because I'm gonna tell you, there ain't there. What? Nobody further down than we were. It's just. It's just not real, you know? I mean, I'm just like. Well, long six years ago, I was living in a warehouse smoking a chicken bone all day. And that's a fact, you know what I mean? There ain't no excuse to go anywhere. And, you know, in my big thing, next one, you know, I would love. For me in this field, I always say all the time, there's no such thing as competition, man. You know? Like, I don't know when everybody's gonna get their head out of their ass and start working together, you know what I mean? If we all just work together, think of where we would go, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, that's the big one, you know? I mean, yeah, we could work. Work against the people doing it incorrectly if. If you just gotta battle somebody. But at the end of the day, who cares? Just, you know, if we come together, think of where we go.
- [37:16]
Jacob Moneymaker
I agree 100%. You know, I just want to tell you all, you know, Rick, you being a podcast listener for. Since I started 2019, six years. Jeremy, you being a faithful listener for three years, you know, I just want to tell you all from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a supporter of what I'm doing, training, you know, it's been a really fun venture the last month and a half, two months, being able to mentor you both and to really feed off your energy. You know, as everyone sees me on social media, I'm really high energy. And I always look forward to when I have an appointment or a zoom or a call with you all, because I know when I hang up, that energy that you guys bring is going to resonate to my day. So thank you very much.
- [38:07]
Rick
Now. We appreciate you, man.
- [38:09]
Jeremy McNabb
Yeah. No, you've done more. You've done more for me than you'll know.
- [38:13]
Jacob Moneymaker
Hell, yeah. Well, thank you, man. That's the point of this, right? Is to change lives and show people what's possible. And this is living proof right here. You take two individuals that were working for private equity firm companies. They took the leap of faith. They're doing it on their own, and they're gonna be tracking, and they're gonna be doing about 1.8 million this year. Mic drop until next time. Y'all take care.
- [38:40]
Jeremy McNabb
Late. Oh, no, Diamond.