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The Home Service Expert Podcast
The Operating System Behind America's Biggest Garage Door Company
00:39:40
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- [00:00]
A
What's the point of advertising or even getting into business if you don't know how to book the phone call? We get mad when a technician walks away with a CRM. But why not when there's a CSR on a lunch break and they miss four calls? It's hard to compete if you're paying for marketing. If you don't have somebody that's sounding great on the phone.
- [00:16]
B
My team doesn't execute well. I've heard that. I come back with this, well, who's on your team? The person I'm talking to is also on that team.
- [00:22]
A
Right. Nobody got into business to work harder and do all the work and work, be on call seven days a week and never take a real vacation.
- [00:29]
B
You're saying to me the thing that makes the most sense, which is you can't afford not to.
- [00:34]
A
All right. Welcome back to the Home Service Expert. Today I got John Hardy with me. He is a expert in business coaching. The garage door industry. Operations Growth Strategy, KPI tracking, Service and Optimization, Technician training and Vendor Buyer Group Management. Today's thesis is a one now is gonna cross the $400 million mark and garage Door Freedom exists to share the system strategies and lessons that made that growth possible so other garage door companies don't have to figure it all out alone. In this spotlight episode, GDF business coach John Hardy walks through exactly what GDF is, how the coaching works, what the Freedom framework looks like in practice and shares real member success stories. Whether you're a grocer company doing 500,000 or 5 million, this is a look inside the program that's helping owners across the industry achieve record breaking years. John, it's good to have you brother.
- [01:25]
B
Good to be here. Thank you, Tommy.
- [01:26]
A
Yeah, thank you. So let's just talk a little bit about GDF and just how you got started.
- [01:32]
B
You got it. So the opportunity presented itself were kind of aligned with me from my professional and personal side which is really trying to find a way to meet people where they're at to achieve their goals, whether it be personally or financially, professionally. And so this opportunity was something that I was doing my own deal as a business consultant, have a lot of history in the OPS world and was going back and forth between Utah and Arizona and I have family here and this presented itself to take a peek behind the curtain if you will with my brother being a big influence on my life. That said, hey, this guy Tommy Mello is down there doing some great things. He's a mover and shaker. At any rate, getting an opportunity to align with meeting business owners to achieve their goals is really what piqued my interest. And that's why I've been on board here.
- [02:20]
A
Yeah, no, it's great to have you, man. You're a great addition to the team. Years and years ago, I think it was Adam, Luke, Brian, almost everybody, even Elisa, they thought I was nuts. Why would we want to start training other garage door companies? But I realized that H Vac was training since the 70s, right? These garage door the IDA great for the industry, but it really, to me that's more of a technical training. It was like certification type stuff. They weren't talking about ebitda. They weren't talking about multiples, they weren't talking about how to buy vans and depreciation. They weren't talking about, you know, just helping companies grow. And I just remember getting attacked all over Facebook and all these other companies talking crap. And I'm like, we got to really raise the bar for this industry. And that's how gdf and they thought we were crazy. But then we've, we've got over 100 members and you know, we just had Vertical Track, right? And we signed up a lot of people at Vertical Track and the people that come in, they actually get it like the lights turn on. I think the first Vertical Track was like five or six years ago and people were like, this actually makes a lot of sense, like get the right logos, pay people the right way, get service. We were the first company on service side of the garage door industry. So, you know, a lot of the teachings have been through our mistakes. Let's just talk about the Freedom framework and walk us through exactly how we onboard these clients and exactly where we find them, where they are.
- [03:51]
B
So the framework is phenomenal and I think it's the premise of success really starting with the first one, which is the financials. There's a lot of business owners that were taxed or in some sort of trade and they found a way to do things better or different. So they thought and they create this monster, this monster that they need to find out how to make this machine, which is taking their financials and knowing where they're at and how to make scorecards against their measurables from a budgeting standpoint, from hey KPI to know your indexing against your oja. And so really trying to find out where the business owners are at from the, the starting of a new business to one that's operating at a high level. We can find out where you're at and meet you there.
- [04:33]
A
Yeah. Where do you think most people coming in? They always say leads, but really where are they struggling the most?
- [04:41]
B
That's a great question. And it, and it comes down to a couple of things. The first one that I find is really trying to find out how to navigate the daily operation to being very intentional with getting a result they're seeking. So operational soundness, KPI scorecards, SOPs, those types of things. Math. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Trying to find a way to go and achieve the results they're seeking.
- [05:04]
A
Yeah. I don't think most companies know gross profit. They don't actually know the profit they're going for. They don't have audited financial so there's no chance of them ever getting a loan. They don't know accrual verse, you know, cash. Right. And, and there's all these things that go into this stuff and it sounds really complicated but when you've got a partner like GDF to walk you through it and show you how to set up your Service Titan account, how to go in there and the levers that you could pull are just insane.
- [05:32]
B
Right.
- [05:33]
A
We, we've done it. We, we've been working with Service Titan now going on 10 years and the things that we've been able to do and manipulate and learn exactly how to get, for example, like John, the other John, right. Is like really good at service time as well. Configurable payroll. Right. That thing's really important. It spits out exactly what you should pay and it's actually accurate if it's set up correctly. So you talk about the biggest shift you see owners make isn't tax goals. Realizing they actually can change and being intentional with their time is the unlock. Talk to me about that. And what does that shift look like when it happens?
- [06:11]
B
You know, when you're talking to business owners and really trying to get an understanding of what their business is. Right. And my, my answer or my question to them is what is the fortress that your business stands for? What is the moat that you've built around your business? And do you know your competition? And the reason why that's important is because you can start to build framework on understanding. Can they articulate what their business stands for and can we help each other build a business that is able to grow around that? So the freedom framework we to talk about revenue. How do we drive top line revenue? Well, kind of this is going to be super redundant. But you don't know what you don't know. If you don't know your financials and you want to drive Top line, you could go bankrupt. You're not in business tomorrow if you can't say, hey, we do it with the healthy way to be very, very intentional. So stepping back and saying to our customers, our clients, hey, let's take a look. And how do we slow down and take a very, very intentional look at being able to find you and build a plan that works together with the Freedom framework.
- [07:09]
A
Yeah, no, it's. It's definitely like, I've seen companies that were barely scraping by actually making a ton of profit, and they're actually, like, having fun again. I could go member after member. That's like, I wouldn't trade this for the world. I got more vehicles than I've ever had. I don't work in the business. I work on the business. I get to pay the people more now. I give, you know, 401k. I'm giving more PTO than I've ever given and all the different things that come with that. And it's like, a lot of the businesses I've seen, for example, one in Canada, they've been doing this for, like, 40 years, and now they're finally starting to make. I think they're gonna make. I mean, it's millions and millions and millions of dollars of profit this year.
- [07:49]
B
Yeah.
- [07:49]
A
And before, they barely were scraping by, paying themselves a salary, but not taking any profit.
- [07:54]
B
Right, right. And I think I know the business you're referring to, Tommy, and what a great story. I mean, just somebody that's jumped on board, jumped in with both feet, really immersed themselves in really understanding the changes that need to be made. And that is.
- [08:07]
A
Yeah. James with Tedford is actually. And, you know, we could probably take a minute out of this podcast. Just we. We recorded what we did at the dinner at my house of him talking about this program, and I think we should play that right now, just because I love hearing these stories. And the goal is to get hundreds and hundreds of companies into this. More importantly, just, I don't care about the competition. Charge less than us, but you don't need to be half as much as us. Like, you can't do a spring job for $300 anymore.
- [08:38]
B
Right.
- [08:39]
A
Like, you can't sell a door for two grand. And people brag about it. That's the problem. They're like, we are so much cheaper than you, but yet they pay their people 1099. Right. There's. They drive used trucks. Nothing wrong with a used truck. That's how I started. But new trucks are much better for the company and better for the technicians. They actually got like they believe in the company more and that's their workplace is their truck. Right. So driving a used truck that breaks down all the time. We bought Don's garage doors in Denver and the guy's number one thing were do we get new trucks? That's all they cared about. So these things really matter. Walk us through what happens when a new member joins. What are the first 90 days look like?
- [09:16]
B
So the first 90 days really is a snapshot into really looking at an overarching goal, which is going to be a one, three year, five plan. Right. So the first 90 days is just kind of level setting with where they're at. And then we build cadence around a 30 day goal that is going to be aligned with the 90 days. And we do a touch base and at first it's a little more touch centric. We're going to have a little more one on one that's going to be maybe weekly or bi weekly. The problem we run into is we have an abundance of information at our discretion. And so when we start feeding the information, it's an execution level at that point. And so we build and map out a roadmap of how to go from here to here to here and align with the goals. That would be the overarching goal, which again, it would be in another 30, 60, 90 day plan thereafter to meet the one year goal, three year, five year goals.
- [10:02]
A
And so you've got John Baird, Crystal, yourself and Elisa.
- [10:05]
B
Right.
- [10:06]
A
And tell me a little bit about what each of you focus on.
- [10:10]
B
So John Baird, you had talked about it earlier and alluded to the fact that he is the CRM service titan. God, he is all things titan, but he's also very, very centric with the ability to speak CRM. So he can go into a business and say, hey, workiz, for instance, he can talk and speak the language of getting a business that can be set up through their CRM.
- [10:33]
A
Yeah, Workiz job or house call pro. Any of them.
- [10:35]
B
Exactly. Yes, he can talk that language. Crystal, she's part of our team and she does a lot of the back end with the rebates and vendor relations. So we also have vendor rebates that if you're with, let's say Amar and you come on board with us, she has the ability to work out, negotiate some rebates that you can get back quarterly. And so that's what she does as well. Alisa, not only is she the mentor to me, but she, she's a phenomenal leader on our team that does a Great job. Not only just speaking garage doors, but she can also advocate to build out plans and really speak to how we can grow every business that is in the garage door space.
- [11:11]
A
And you focus on kind of all of it.
- [11:14]
B
I get to. I guess I'm kind of the catch. All right. So I can speak a little bit more of the business acumen. I get the OPS piece very, very well. And so that's where I would come in and just really trying to find out how I can make myself more useful on the operational piece specifically.
- [11:29]
A
Ye we have a lot of breakouts each month. I know that there's different ones ran. A lot of them are Q and A for me that we do once a month. And they basically ask me anything and everything and I give them the honest to God truth. Last time we had Sophie come on, we talked about hiring and how we get. I mean right now, 70 new technicians in our training, 70 brand new technicians that never been in the industry. And so how do we handle that? And it's all internal. So we answered every single question, how we find them, how we vet them. And every single month there's something different like how do I stay out of the business and stay out of the way, how do we recruit A plus players, how do we do leadership training? What are we doing new with AI? All these different metrics we look at and they could ask anything.
- [12:13]
B
Right.
- [12:13]
A
But there's other ones too. There's special ones around hr, the special ones around this, around that. And so Kristal kind of rounds all that up. And then we also do talk to me a little bit about the technician training because that's where I feel like the companies grow the most is when they send their technicians to our kind of bootcamp.
- [12:29]
B
So the better your best training is. The one that we have that's coming up in June, this June. And I was able to go to the two previous, but the one that was just here, that was a mind bender for me. And the reason why I say that is really getting to see real life, real time. People that have been in the industry 30 plus years, 20 plus years, and through this journey of the better your best training, be able to step back and be humble enough to say, you know, I've been in this industry, industry for 30 years as not only as an owner, but as an operator or tech and state that they just didn't really know anything for 30 years and how they've been doing it was wrong. And it's not that they were doing it wrong. I think that they were Trying to state the fact that there's a lot to be learned from the better your best training and then also the feedback that comes from the owners if they haven't gone themselves, but also from the renewed vigor of the techs that come back, seeing the ojas go from wherever that and just shooting through the roof. Right. So there's a lot of testaments that come back or testimonials from other business owners that send their team that just speak greatness about their opportunities of being here. And it's a win all the way around, not only just for the person that gets to come here, but also from the owners that were able to invest in their time.
- [13:44]
A
Yeah, you know, it's not just opportunity job average, which is average ticket, but it's conversion rate. It's selling more service to door sales. Well, we kind of figured out as a company especially GDF as well is sometimes fixing an old door that's 20 years old and strutting it up. Not when the garage door is 268% return on investment. That's a stat from Copay. Right. It doesn't really make sense to fix this old door, at least offer a new one. You know, if you tell them you can fix it, they believe you could fix it. But have you ever thought about a new door? So you see service to sales, you see memberships go up, you see the average ticket go up, you see the conversion rate go up and you see the reviews with happier customers go up. So it's an overall better experience. Well, guess what happens? Technicians make a little more money, the owner makes a little more profit, they don't quit as often. So your churn goes down.
- [14:30]
B
Right.
- [14:31]
A
Turnover rate. And it's just a much better thing for the company. And I think it's better for the customer. I mean, our top technicians get the most five star reviews, they get video testimonials, I mean they're all over social media. We use those ads to create more jobs. You know, it took us seven tries, seven agencies, but we kind of figured out how to even make leads happen for social media. And these are the things we talk about with GDF. What KPIs do you track with members and how do you use that data to help them grow?
- [14:59]
B
So the first one I would look at is what you just touched on, which is conversion rate. You can get all the leads you want, but if they're not going to you, then where are they going? They're going to your competition. So I would absolutely take a look at the first and foremost is really getting in the middle of your conversion rate. That's really the best barometer. The second one is going to be really looking at your oja, what's your ticket average, and then really finding a way that you can measure against that, especially pre and post to better your best training. What are they doing differently? Are you offering financing? Are you offering the ability to talk about promotions, those types of things when they go through this? So really looking at your KPIs specifically and what you're trying to measure against to get the first things first, which could be number one. Again, not to be overly redundant, but absolutely, you got to get your conversion rate done. And then also looking at your basket size from where you're at, where you're going.
- [15:49]
A
You know what's interesting is I talk to a lot of these companies and I ask them what their booking rate is on the call center. And usually they have their wife and they're handling the call center. Maybe there's someone else involved, like an office manager, and they really don't know their booking rate. And we use Lace, there's Avoca, there's Same day, there's Broccoli. There's a lot of companies we help implement these. And what's the point of advertising or even getting into business if you don't know how to book the phone call? We get mad when a technician walks away with a zero. But why not when there's a CSR on a lunch break and they miss four calls and then they're booking. I've literally tracked this with companies. They're at a 55% booking rate. Service Tides average company this is two years ago was 45% booking rate. A1's at a 92% booking rate. It's hard to compete if you're paying for marketing and you're paying what we're paying on pay per click. And lsa, if you don't have somebody that's sounding great on the phone. My mom used to answer the calls in 2010 and she'd warm them up for me. She'd be like, man, that company's a great company. We definitely want to do business with them. And I just think that's looked upon like, it's like, yeah, we book a lot of calls. We go after every call, we book them. And I'm like, once you get the data, you realize, well, that was an out of service area, that was a parts call. Then they don't have any tracking system. Implementing technology really matters.
- [17:11]
B
Sure.
- [17:12]
A
Now what is the peer network how does the peer networking piece work?
- [17:18]
B
That is probably the most underrated opportunity within any business. So the best way to give that is your net promoter of how people view your company. And that is where you would say, if you're out there as Tommy Mello or as a business owner saying, hey, come work for me, and you have people that are looking and interested in being there and you show up to get an interview, you show up to see what the job site looks like. And those people are complete duds. They have a frown on their face, they don't look in the eye, they have low energy, if you will, that sends a message. And so when you don't have the right people representing you and your brand and your business, you're sending one way or another a message that your business represents. And so that net promoter score of really trying to find out how you hire is critically important to the growth and success of all your business. The hedges off that.
- [18:12]
A
I love it. You know, members, what's really cool is you find another member that's a million dollars above you and they made a lot of the mistakes through the process. And we've got members, I mean, A1's part of the membership, but there's members from 500,000. We've got some at 10 million. We've got them all over the place. Who wouldn't be a good fit for Garage door freedom?
- [18:38]
B
Well, somebody that's not willing to take coachability feedback. The first thing I find whenever I'm talking to either a new member or an existing member is just really trying to find out. I'll give you a good example. My team doesn't execute well. I've heard that. When I hear that, the first question I come back with is, well, who's on your team? And just seeing if they can articulate who's on their team and then really trying to get back to the five why's of I, which is the person I'm talking to is also on that team, right. And trying to find out how they fit into the mix. And so from the understanding of the question is, who doesn't? I guess if you just like to stay stuck and where you're at and don't want to really grow and build yourself, GDF probably is not for you. But if you're really trying to find a way to change your life and really manifest the dreams and visions you have, this is such a grand opportunity that we have to align with whatever those goals are and be a coachable player and take feedback. Right. And so when we talk about, hey, how can we go out and execute the biggest deficit, I find again is being able to execute direction that's been given. And it's just an agreement that we have. Right. Accountability partners. If you say you're going to do something, let's agree we're going to do it. Because that's where it makes my job, our lives a lot easier. Right?
- [19:55]
A
Yeah. Keep your commitments. I mean, if you're going to step in and you're asking for help, I've worked with a lot of coaches and the first thing I do is stay humble and say, look, I want you, you don't need to tell me what I'm doing. Right. I came and I paid you to tell me what I'm doing wrong and give me the hard truth. Right. And I think that's important. I think we do a pretty good job of that, of just saying, we know that this works. We know the more that you train. I talked to a company at gdf. They said they started training an hour and a half every morning. Just simple things like smiling.
- [20:22]
B
Yeah.
- [20:22]
A
And just asking for something on the way. Could I grab you something? It's just these easy, simple things to do, is giving options instead of ultimatums and really going through it. What are you offering first? Are you offering good, better, best or best better, good? And what changes the narrative? And when you practice every day, just like in a sports team, you get better. Right. But most companies, they say you're going to be in the field forever, I'm too busy. And there's so many things you could be doing, like not focusing on buying the cheapest openers from Home Depot and not focusing on your recycling metal and not focusing on how can I find more used trucks. It's focusing on how do I get the guys ready, how do I make them smile more, offer more. And when you do that, when you actually start making money, I mean, I've seen people that were going through divorce, they repair their marriage, they're around for their kids, they start being their soccer coach again and going to church and like all of a sudden their life turns around. Because life is tough when you're running a business and you're not profitable.
- [21:16]
B
Right.
- [21:17]
A
It's a grind and it's a seven day grind and nobody got into business to work harder and do all the work and work, be on call seven days a week and never take a real vacation.
- [21:26]
B
Right.
- [21:26]
A
And I think that's what GDF is trying to do, is trying to give people an opportunity to work together, to Be profitable. And people ask, well, why would you do this as A one? When you're training, the competition is. There's going to be competition all over the place. Competition never bothered me. It never. It never has, never will. I just thought, man, if the whole grocery industry moved up like the H vac, plumbing, electrical industry, oh, man, this could be great for everybody. Everybody could win.
- [21:52]
B
Everybody. Everybody wins.
- [21:54]
A
Everybody wins. And I'll tell you this. I mean, our, our management team at A1 really cares about this program. We pour a lot into it. That's what I want to get into is some stories. Can you walk us through some results, a specific story that you could think about? I mean, there's a lot of them.
- [22:09]
B
There are. And I'll start with one that's kind of in the works, but there's a lot of success stories. And the first one I want to talk about is a new member that just came on. They're doing about a million and a half revenue. And they're, they're. They've done it by just sheer muscle. And so just from an alignment standp and just understanding our call was something where you can hear a lot of grief, you can hear a lot of operational frustrations, and just being able to hear those sentiments, and it's nothing new, right? When you hear a lot of this, the echoes hold true to the resounding sound of frustration. And that's the operation. That's the grind you speak of. And so being able to hear that and saying, hey, let's step back now that we've got all this information, we're going to start with, do we know our numbers? How do we drive revenue? How do we understand that? The first thing I need you to do is really create a communication plan and really know and vet that. The fact that we are going in this direction and knowing the business that we're building together is something that we're going to stand behind. And so really getting through that conversation was. I mean, it's so rewarding to me because now as we got off the phone, we have three things. I give three things, and they're a narrow scope, right? The three things we're going to go execute very well. And the other things, you'll have to keep rolling. The plate's got to keep spinning. But nonetheless, we are very intentional with the. With these three things. And it's one of those that I find are so rewarding to hear. There's hope, right? The hope is, you know what? I've signed up this garage door freedom is more than I probably anticipated. It's a genuine, authentic, sincere partnership. And to hear the fact that there is a lot of resounding hope of really getting things to go forward, it just resonates with me. So we've had a great, productive conversation on that front and I have many more I can go over.
- [24:01]
A
Yeah, look, what's interesting too is I remember my cousin Ryan was in the business. He started a business in 2009 and he got involved and he ended up selling the company. But what was interesting is he kept around these people that kept getting in accidents. They knew how to do the business, but they were just, they never smiled, they always complained, they'd roll their eyes. And there was no other way for him. He's like, I gotta keep these old technicians that don't quit. But they weren't making really good money. And when we started working with them, they not only started making money, but he had to turn over a lot of them and a lot of people. This sounds really bad, but they come to GDF and within a year they've got a complete new staff. And the people are energized. They're excited, they're making money, they're happy, and they're getting five star reviews all over the place. And now there's actually dollars to put into marketing. So the company starts to grow. Then the first couple new trucks come and then all of a sudden they got a training center. And then all of a sudden the CSRs are trained properly and they're using service tight, right? And then that's when it's like I get the phone call and people are like, I was wrong. This is the best thing I've ever done.
- [25:06]
B
Yeah.
- [25:07]
A
And they're like, why? They still don't understand exactly why we're helping. But I'm like, this is just 101. Like, wait till the next dimension. The next dimension is like scalability. And the answer is never going to a bunch of markets. It's own your current market. And I tell a lot of people, why do you do residential, new construction, commercial? And then you started wholesaling. You know how many companies I talked to in the garage industry? I'm like, you're a $2 million company, you do all four, right? I mean, look at like a Vorta Tech or a miner. They're doing hundreds of millions of dollars focused on one thing. And same thing for residential. The big companies focused on the one thing, the same thing with new construction and the same thing for the wholesalers. They all could be a great business. But don't do all four of them. Right. That's where I think you get killed.
- [25:47]
B
100% agree. Major in the, major minor in the minors. Stay in your lane and maximize your potential there.
- [25:52]
A
It's hard because everybody gets paid differently just to do wholesale. You need cameras, you need trailers, you need a different insurance plan. Then when you do commercial, you need welders and you need a different truck setup. It's paid differently and you need OSHA qualifications. And then when you do new construction, it's accounts receivable. You need really good bookkeeping. You need like a good, really strong foundation on ordering. And it's really hard to be good at even two out of those four.
- [26:19]
B
Sure.
- [26:20]
A
I mean if you, you could master one, but I've never seen anybody be good at more. Okay, at 2, but nothing else.
- [26:26]
B
Sure.
- [26:28]
A
You know, I could talk about these stories too. I know a lot of these companies, but I find that when companies fall out of gdf, they're getting ready to go out of business. Almost like they don't want to hear it. They just don't know what to do. And they might have not been cut out for business. I hate to say that, but they probably go be better working for another company. I'm not trying to talk down to them, but they're not making money. When they came in, they don't show up to the meetings, they don't like solid feedback. And they're like, I'm not raising my prices. And you're like, well, how do you make money when you pay $100 for a lead? You pay your guy this your truck roll costs, this your price book. At least your gross profit has to be at least 45%. Right. And they just, they're like, I can't charge that. And I'm like, but you're still working full time, your company. And I love explaining to somebody how their business is valued. These are like the bare essentials. But it's tough for people to hear. GDF has a deep partnership with Servicetite and offers a garage door specific price book template for a company that isn't on Service Titan yet or is on it but not used to using it. Well, what's the value of having that built in support? Wow.
- [27:47]
B
The upside to having that is it's streamlined. Right. So you don't have to go figure it out. You have everybody singing out of the same hymnbook, so to speak. And you can have, you know your margins, you know where your gross margin is going to be. You're able to have business at A snap where you're able to have pure oversight and that complements potential orderings. You could complement that with perpetual inventory to keep your. You just know your costs, you know what your potential costs are. You know your fixed margins.
- [28:14]
A
Yeah, yeah. It tells you everything. It does everything. You can even control your PPC through Service Titan. That's something. I'm going to be mailing all of our competitors that bid against us. This is my marketing call earlier. I'm going to send them a letter and a video showing how bidding on our keywords and me bidding on their keywords. Actually the only one that makes money is Google. So we've learned through attribution through our Google Analytics platform that bidding against other garage door companies is probably not worth it. I'm actually going to get a hold of the CEO of Neighborly, who is the CEO of Precision.
- [28:49]
B
That's exciting.
- [28:50]
A
The buyers group gets access to vendor discounts. We talked a little bit about that. But how many vendor opportunities are there? Because the goal of this was always that you get the money back to pay for the program because it's super affordable. I mean it's the cheapest program I've ever seen in any best practices group.
- [29:06]
B
You know, the way you get your money back is just to go and really that's how you do it. Number one, not just executing the plan that we can set up on the business, you know, 30, 60, 90 day plan, but maximizing the rebates. You have Amar, you have virtual CFOs. You have so many different ways that if you get behind the offerings that are there, you get a quarterly check. And yes, it is a meager investment in yourself, in the business to get it back quickly. My goal is typically within 30 days. Excuse me, within Q1. If you haven't made your money back, you're probably not executing all the programs or yourself.
- [29:39]
A
Well, man, if you can't get the money back for the year in a week, then there's something major going on, something broken in the business. So tell me a little bit about Vertical Track. We just finished it up.
- [29:56]
B
Vertical Track was another aha experience for me, the feedback I've received from our members. In fact, we had a call today on our High Lift network. Excuse me. There was such a great outpour of feedback with a lot of inspiring direction. We had Robert Cialdini, we had Cameron Herold. Just some amazing people that carry a lot of clout. And the clout is really just being real with you in the business and being able to level set with really how do we do things better? It was just very inspirational. What a great conference.
- [30:34]
A
It was fun, man. One of the better ones we've ever had. And I really like, I've worked with Robert Chettiny and Cameron Herold, pay them. I've paid them 10 times more than a member pays just to work one on one with me. That's for the year.
- [30:49]
B
Yeah.
- [30:51]
A
So better your best tech. We talked about that. But these classes have been bigger. And the crazy thing is it's just like when a guy comes in that's worked for another company for a few years, usually most of the people come in like green. They've never done garage doors, but they're like, well, I don't need a full month of training in Phoenix. And then we get them here and they're like, can I please stay the whole month? And we do several days of training for technicians for other companies and we don't really need to teach. Some of it's operational, some of it's technical, some of it's sales, but really it's like how to be excited with clients and how to really take care of them and go above and beyond and make a once in a lifetime home service experience for that client to make them forever clients. And the last ones we've done have been pretty big classes.
- [31:35]
B
They've been huge.
- [31:36]
A
We've got testimonial after testimonial. People walking out of there, just the owners calling us, saying our numbers have tripled and we've got more five star reviews. And these guys are making great money now. So it's easy to recruit.
- [31:50]
B
Right. And let me just jump on that too, Tommy. So here's something that I would say that really was kind of a ripple effect across the team that was there. This last one, there's a rotation we go through and there was a teaching that talked about trying to get the homeowners that you're in front of to like you. Right. And trying to really kind of shore up the fact, like, I got to try and find a way to impress you. Well, the mindset shift is going from the fact that we don't need them to like us, we need to find a reason to like them. And when we find a reason to like them in their own place, in their own space, it makes them liking you much easier. And just that mind shift of being able to have that connectivity of, you know, I've been doing garage doors, I can continue to do this, but just that tweak. It seemed to have really not only had a resounding effect, but also so kind of hearing it back from the other side, it makes it exciting, you know, where they can have a way to really kind of relate to the customer and the clients.
- [32:49]
A
Absolutely. I love this man, a garage door owner, garage door company owner, who is listening right now and thinking, this might be for me. How do they know if they're the right fit and if they're too big or too small for gdf?
- [33:03]
B
I think if you're asking yourself the question, you're probably in the right space, because we are for you. If you're really serious about changing your game, changing your life, changing the trajectory of your business. Business, you've got to do something. You got to quit sitting on your hands, so to speak, and do something to take action. And take action today. I call it the Annie. Tomorrow, don't wait for tomorrow. You got to do it today. So if you're here thinking about it, you got to act.
- [33:27]
A
You got to go, well, what's the biggest objection you hear from owners who are on the fence?
- [33:33]
B
Too busy. It just doesn't make sense because they're too busy or they can't justify the price. And then as I hear that, it just resonates with me. It just. You're saying to me the thing that makes the most sense, which is you can't afford not to at this point, because it just is a defeating statement.
- [33:53]
A
You know, I'm saying this modestly. I'm very proud of a one we're going to do about 410 million is our budget. And the most important thing is there's profit in that equation. And we've taken everything and we answer all the questions. Luke gets on the call, our CFO sits down with companies and goes through their financials and gives them advice on leasing the vehicles versus owning them. Because accelerated depreciation because of the new Trump laws. Right, Right. And like these little things that actually end up paying you way more money in your pocket for stuff you're already paying for, or like a Wex card. Right. Like, you know, people aren't stealing gas from you. Because before I had Wex, I'm telling you, everybody's that lived in that household was getting their tanks filled up for free, and it was coming off of our dime. So once again, the people that embrace this program, and sometimes they say there's not enough big companies in here. There's not a bunch of $100 million garage door companies out there.
- [34:51]
B
Right.
- [34:52]
A
I wish there was more. That's the purpose of the program. What's the first step, I mean, how does somebody get started with garage door freedom?
- [35:02]
B
Two things. Number one, you talked about something that I want to touch on, which is there's so many things we offer, but there's an overarching discussion that is sitting with our network. Our GDF team is made up of really, really amazing business owners. And so we are selective also. We want to have people that are able to network. So if you're curious about, hey, how do I fit in? What do I do? We have people you can reach out to to, number one. Number two, vet us. You know, check it out, check and see if we're real. Then you can go to the GDF website. Check us out. It's garagedoorfreedom.com. yeah, check us out.
- [35:38]
A
And if they wanted to set an appointment, just go there and, yeah, you
- [35:43]
B
can find the link there with one of us. You have a schedule that's there for Elisa, John, Crystal or myself, and you can book a time with us and we can chat.
- [35:51]
A
All right, give me one more story that's like somebody that's been a member for a long time that just, you know, I've got a several. But go ahead and tell us one that comes to mind that you really like.
- [36:03]
B
I'll pick this one because I think the journey of this member has been a very, very real trajectory of a lot of business owners that are trying to figure out how to navigate difficult times. So this business owner had a business that he was doing okay with making money, found that his culture was really, really challenging. In fact, fact, it was not a real reflection of what he knew he needed to grow and scale. And so through the partnership with the GDF team, was very transparent with his concerns and really trying to find out a way that how to address tax, how to address CSRs, how to address everybody there to really get the alignment. And so through the coaching process, he ended up ultimately cutting bait with his entire team. Literally burned it down. And through the burn, through all of the crazy, was able to not only come back bigger and stronger, he is executing at a very high level his conversion rate. I mean, I don't know how many months Tommy and I would have to check this, but he says his conversion rate with this new team, they're so sturdy and strong with the belief and culture that he has created is upper 90s to 100% conversion with the people that he has in front of our customers. What a great success. Really dealing with a lot of adversity and overcoming those challenges to have a great, creative, winning story.
- [37:31]
A
I Love that. You know, I talked to Jack Tester years ago before we had gdf, and that was Nextar Network. And that's where a lot of my guys that mentored me kind of got their wings. And I asked Jack, when he was in charge before Julian, would you consider doing garagers? He goes, absolutely effing. Nothing. Not. And that's when that. That's how GDF was born. It was like there needed to be something, and the one rule they had was if you're still in the truck, you can't become a member. And I will tell you, I don't believe as a company, we should ever take anybody still in the truck. I. I was the guy in the truck. Right? In fact, I was still running calls pretty much weekly till 2012. So that was five years. And it's very hard to work on the business and build the CRM and really participate in the CFO work we do and really be a good leader when you're still out there. So it's just a tough spot to be in because you got no time to do the work. And that's The E myth 101. Work on the business versus in the business. And I'm not trying to tell people you're wrong for being in the truck, because we all got to get started somewhere. And there's nothing wrong with being in the truck. Like I said, I was in the truck. But it's just hard to grow a business. You're still kind of working the job, and it's what I call the first five years of sweat equity. You're gonna have to do that if you don't have money, and that's okay. I had to do it. I didn't want to go out and get a big SBA loan and have to borrow money. I'm gonna go learn the work. And that's why I look at everything from a technician and installer viewpoint, because I was in one. Working at 130 degrees in the garage.
- [39:03]
B
Sure.
- [39:04]
A
All right, John, close us out, brother. What's the final thought for the listeners out there?
- [39:09]
B
Hey, listen, if you're on the fence and not sure what to go or where to go with your business, don't hesitate to reach out. We've got a great team. We'd love to meet you where you're at and get a part of your success. So reach out garagedoorfreedom.com I love it, man.
- [39:24]
A
Well, thanks for doing this, brother.
- [39:26]
B
Thank you.
- [39:26]
A
I love the program. You're a great instructor.
- [39:28]
B
Appreciate it. Thanks, Tommy.
- [39:29]
A
Appreciate you.
- [39:30]
B
Appreciate you as well.