Rebecca meets Lon and they build an empire of home services companies that lead to the best Contractor Coaching Program.

Dave Young:

Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick in business partner, Dave Young.

Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So, here’s one of those.

[ASAP Commercial Doors Ad]

Stephen Semple:

Hey, it’s Stephen Semple here with the Empire Builders Podcast. And we’ve given Dave Young the week off. So, he’s sitting back and chilling and relaxing and drinking drinks by some pool somewhere, I’m hoping. I’m really excited. I have Rebecca Cassel with me. And her story, when I first heard it was just one of these ones where I’m, “How is Rebecca, especially in the home services space for what she’s accomplished, not a household name?”

And for full disclosure of the business that Rebecca has now, which is certain path that does this amazing training for people in the home services space is a customer of ours. I’ve got a team of people working with Rebecca and their group to promote their business more. But one of the things that was exciting is when we got together for the day and you started sharing some of these stories, I was like, “This is an incredible journey that you’ve gone on, let’s face it, especially as a woman in the home services space.”

So, I guess what I want to do is go right back to that beginning when you first got exposed to the home services space. And please, don’t forget to tell the story about the wearing of the booties. That’s one of my favorite ones.

Rebecca Cassel:

Great. Thank you. Stephen. I’m excited to be here. I can’t believe it’s been 25 years of CertainPath. And obviously, we used to be Success Group International. And my story is unique. I graduated with an accounting degree, SAT for the CPA exam, thought I was going to go into public accounting and realized really quickly that I didn’t like it and was looking for opportunity to use my financial degree to help small businesses.

And I actually answered an ad. And this is okay, so ’90s, this is how you found a job back in the ’90s is a newspaper and there’s this amazing newspaper ad. And it did tell me exactly what the company was. But it said, “If you want to use your accounting degree or your financial experience, if you want to help implement systems and processes in a small business and help them operationally expand, this is the job for you.”

Such a cool written ad. I decided to pick up the phone and schedule an interview. And at the end of the phone call, of course, they give you an address and there was no way to Google it back then. And so, she’s like, “Turn here by the McDonald’s and then go down.” So, I was like, “Okay. Great.” And I really don’t remember if in that call I heard the name of the company because I was so excited that I got the interview.

So, I pull up for the interview and I quickly realized maybe I’m not in the right spot because on the sign it had a name of a heating and air conditioning company. I was like, “Well, surely, this is not the company that put the ad in the paper.” Because I just thought appearance of the building, the sign that was cracked, the weeds in the parking lot, did not screen professional, professional.

But I kind of thought, “Well, I got to go find out if I’m in the right place or not. And if I’m here, so it is.” So, I walked in. And you got to remember back then, this is when women were pantyhose and I was in my black patent heels and my gray suit, totally looking super corporate. And I walk into this little …

Stephen Semple:

Did you have shoulder pads in the …

Rebecca Cassel:

Yes. They both match [inaudible 00:05:03] and my briefcase. So, I looked all official. I walked in and there is a lady who’s smoking a cigarette, sitting behind this old walled paneling, 1970s looking office and stacks of papers everywhere. And I’m like, “Are you going to talk to me? I’m standing here.” And I quickly realize she was on a personal phone call and she waved me over to a chair in the corner that’s one of those old orange plastic chairs, half of the chair was broken off.

Stephen Semple:

Oh, man. It just gets better.

Rebecca Cassel:

Yeah. I’m sitting here going, “Wait. I’m so confused. Why this professional, really cool ad describe my dream job?” And I feel like I was walking into the Twilight zone. So, I sit down. I wait for her to finish her phone call and she says, “Are you here for the interview?” And my heart sank and I quickly realized I was in the right …

Stephen Semple:

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I’m actually in the right place.

Rebecca Cassel:

I’m just observing because I’m like, “Wow. Super professional, really cool marketed job advertisement.” And a gentleman comes out and he actually looks like he’s close to my age and he asked me if I would go into the office and I did. And he asked me a few questions. I had a resume. But I was like, “Surely, this cannot be the owner of this company.” I mean this … I would say as a kid, you know me in our early 20s.

And I quickly realized it was the son. So, then I got introduced to the owner and really cool people, just salt of the earth people who are really working hard, providing HVAC service, and they were looking for someone to come in and help them with their operations and get their systems and processes and their accounting in order.

And they had told me, they said, “We joined this organization and they’re the ones that wrote the ad and they’re the ones telling us that we need someone like you to help us fix our company.” And I said, “Do you mind if you can tell me the name of the organization?” And they did. And I said, “Well, how much did you pay to join this organization?” They said, “Well, it’s $25,000 upfront and then we have to pay a monthly fee and we have to go to training. So, this is a big investment for us.” And I was shocked.

I was like, “This is a scam. This is not for real. Someone took advantage of these poor people who are innocent trying to run their business.” And I just said, “Look, I don’t know if this is the right thing for me.” I thought I was walking into something different. We actually had a little bit more of a conversation. And I found out they did a lot of new construction where they were trying to get into the residential side of HVAC and that this organization that they joined was going to lead them down the path and that was going to help them know exactly what to do.

So, I kindly excused myself and said, “Look, I just don’t think this is for real, and I’m sorry that you spent this kind of money. But if I were you, I would rot.” So, I decide to leave.

Stephen Semple:

Which is wrapped in so much irony right now.

Rebecca Cassel:

Exactly. I decided to leave and the next day I got a phone call. They asked me if I would come back in for another interview. Like, “No. You don’t understand. This is really not what I thought I was going to do with my career. I don’t think that you could probably even afford me. I think this is the wrong thing.”

And they go, “Well, you talk to the person who is actually going to teach the class in Houston that we want to go to, that we want you to go to if you would take this job.” And I said, “Okay. I will.” So, I took the gentleman’s phone call and his name was Lon Cassel.

Stephen Semple:

So, there’s the beginning. Okay.

Rebecca Cassel:

And Lon had owned seven different heating and air conditioning companies and was a part of selling some of them to service experts in the mid-’90s and then had a passion for helping contractors. He had a consulting business. But at the time, he was doing some classes for the training organization that this contractor had joined.

And he said, “Look, I’m going to tell you right now, this is for real. This business really does help contractors. We give them a business model, a path, we give them training, we give them coaching, we give them everything that they need to succeed, but what they need is somebody to help implement all these things with their business. And if you come to this class, it will change your life.”

And I was like, “I don’t know. HVAC, I’m an accountant. How does this work?” He goes, “I guarantee you. You will see and you’ll understand, but you’re going to have to take a leap of faith. Take the job and get to the class.” So, I called the owner back and we did another interview. And I found out in the interview, too, that they really hadn’t been making any money.

So, then it made me even feel guilty about saying, “H...