In this episode of The Huge Insider Podcast, JC Chanowsky, founder of Patriot Illumination, shares his journey from pressure washing and Navy service to building a $1.2 million Christmas light installation business in Wilmington, North Carolina. JC candidly unpacks the lessons he learned since entering the holiday lighting space in 2016—emphasizing the importance of training, coaching, hiring early, and building systems for growth.

He dives into practical sales strategies for service pros looking to add Christmas lights to their offerings, like leveraging existing customer databases, delivering emotional experiences, and never underestimating the power of persistence in landing commercial clients. With anecdotes, real numbers, and tactical advice, JC’s story is a blueprint for turning a seasonal service into a thriving business. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling to seven figures, this episode delivers actionable insights for home service pros looking to win the holidays—and their market.

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Transcript:

What's up everybody? My name is JC Chanowsky with Patriot Illumination in Wilmington, North Carolina, and I've been asked to talk about Christmas lights and share my story and experiences in the Christmas light industry. And if you're listening to this, then maybe you're either. Currently a Christmas light installer or considering doing it.

And I wanted to just talk to you about some of the wins and struggles that we've experienced since we started doing the Christmas light install business in 2016. And when I started it, I actually attended a trade show. It was for pressure washing. Probably the one, like the huge that you should be attending.

And I'll say that I didn't know that this was a service or an option. And 2016 social media was probably a little bit different wasn't as robust and. And everybody's face like it is now. So you really needed to get out there and make yourself vulnerable and talk to people and find information a little bit differently than we do today.

But I was grateful for attending this event and I will say that it transformed and changed the future of my business. I was, running a pressure washing business while working full-time with the Navy. So it was really like a, not really a hobby, but it wasn't a full-time commitment. So 2016, started Christmas lights got a little bit of knowledge about it, but didn't get my hand dirty, didn't get training, was able to install a couple houses, and then finally got to do some training the year after that, which highly recommend if you're, looking to install Christmas lights or even if you are currently installing Christmas lights, have never been to a formal training. Being able to see how others are able to install differently, maybe more efficiently will really change the way you view things. We only know what we know and if.

I taught myself how to do something, then that's the way I'm gonna do it until somebody shows me a better way. So that's why firm believer on constantly getting yourself out there, attending trainings, talking to people, networking 'cause. We don't wanna reinvent the wheel, but if there's easier, faster, safer, smarter ways to do things, then I'm all about it.

And we're gonna jump on board and go ahead and do that. Got the training done 2019, and 2019 I went full-time. I stopped working full-time in the Navy, so I went full-time into pressure washing full-time into Christmas lights. Got my first. Coach Pat Clark was my coach, attended Sales Boost and joined Conquer what used to be Conquer.

I don't know what it's now, but without those three things that happened all at once. Literally I think this was January, I signed up for Conquer Sales Boost and had Pat as my coach. I probably wouldn't be having this conversation with you today. Because who knows what path I would've been down. I was on the path of destruction, of knowing only what I know, and that is the best way to do things.

That is a completely different mindset from my thought process today. But grateful for that opportunity to, be coached by, one of the greatest in the industry is Pat Clark. And like I said, I went all into my business. I started hiring people, stopped doing everything myself. I got outta my way and made plenty of mistakes along the way.

I'll tell you that, that's don't sit here and listen to this and think that he did it right the first time because that's not the case. I did have fun doing it and I do have plenty of things. I look back and I'm like, that was stupid. But the Christmas light thing, it was just.

It was a perfect fit for me. I loved Christmas lights. I loved installing lights at my house. So it was an easy transition, had fun doing it. And I think I'm a little different than most business owners in the fact of how much I love Christmas lights. Like they call me Mr. Christmas because I'm. Always out there in a Christmas jacket, having fun.

I love hiring people and getting the right team. We've had incredible success with hiring people throughout the years especially seasonal helpers. And we've able to scale our company up to $1.2 million. And I'll say that, let's just say we started in 2019. That's when I went full time. I think at that time I was like.

$125,000. So to go from 1 25 and 19 to 1.2 in 2023. In a small area, we have about 350,000 population within an hour rate drive. So obviously we did things right and I'm not gonna say we did everything right, like I stated earlier, but we had fun doing it. We're able to grow it and been grateful to be able to share the story with a lot of other business owners out there's so that they can have success and fewer pains than I experienced, to be successful one, you need to be vulnerable.

And listen and just get outta your way because sometimes we think we know everything. And that was May, 2018. Like I didn't wanna listen to anybody. I knew everything. And how quickly I realized I was wrong. And once I was able to stop getting in my way and start doing the things that other successful entrepreneurs already doing, that's when we really grew.

And again. To get to seven figures as quickly as we did was a huge accomplishment, not just by myself. It was because of my team and I hired the right people and I didn't hold back from thinking, what if we don't get the jobs? What if the typical what if the economy's bad and if you, what if things you're gonna continue to hold yourself back from things you could be doing today.

My best piece of advice for you is one, get the training. The training is so vital and if you've got the training, go get more training and then train again. I can't tell you how many times I've been to different training events. I've been a trainer for Christmas light companies. I've trained probably.

I don't know, 700 different companies in group settings and one-on-one settings. And every time I go to a training to train people, I learn from them. Even if they're not currently installing lights, they've got great marketing methods and tactics out there, sales techniques. So there's always room for improvement no matter where you're at.

So I definitely recommend get the training, hire the right people, waiting till the last minute to hire an admin, to hire a, installer technician, whatever you wanna call 'em, is the worst thing to do. You want to plan ahead, and I see this as a big struggle is that they wanna wait till November when they're busy.

And that point, you're busy, you don't have time to train. I wanna project for future growth. And if you're thinking about doing lights, let's say. First year, $50,000. If you're second, third year, like two 50, $300,000 is awesome. I had one guy who I was able to coach one-on-one, and he did 200, I think it was $27,000 his first year, did install on lights, didn't start installing lights until November.

That's not the case for everybody. He was in a wonderful market and had marketing dollars to spend, so it was an easy transition for him with his current business that he was in. So it worked out great for him. He learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes as well. But having those numbers for first years absolutely incredible.

You gotta have fun doing this. This is not the. For everybody. It's very fast paced. We have roughly less than 90 days. Let's just say you start installing lights in sometime September, so you have September, October, November, part of December, and you have to be very efficient. You have to have crews that wanna work.

You have to know your pricing or else you're gonna just completely run yourself into the ground and not be profitable. You'll be broke your first year. You need to make your clients happy. This is a very emotional transaction. Christmas lights is uniquely different compared to whatever you're doing right now, whether it's pressure washing, window cleaning, if you mess up a house, pressure washing.

Sally, I apologize. We missed a spot in your house, and we'll be back tomorrow. Take care of that. No problem. We'll make everything happy. Great. Go back. Take care of that. No harm, no foul. If you mess up a Christmas light install, just think about that. They spent. Let...