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- [00:00]
Rebecca Castle
Being in this male dominated industry and in the trades, people are always like, you know, you don't fit the mold. You know, and so being young, being blonde, being a female, I've kind of always been one of these people that challenged the status quo. And it was almost like it drove me harder when people have said, oh, you can't do that or you shouldn't wear that. So starting my own H Vac company from scratch and growing it very quickly early in my career, I went, I can do this. And if I can do this, I can inspire other people to do this.
- [00:28]
Narrator
And so Rebecca Castle is a visionary, growth driven entrepreneur, the CEO and founder of Certain Path. With more than two decades in the H vac, plumbing, electrical and roofing industries. She helps contractors scale profitable companies while also guiding leaders in business strategy, investment thinking and long term wealth building across the trades.
- [00:47]
Rebecca Castle
We're trying to elevate the industry. We're trying to also attract more people to it. What we're trying to do is say, hey, we can inspire you. You can be successful, you can achieve your dreams. You can have everything that you've ever wanted in your business. You, but you have to do.
- [01:05]
Ray Gutierrez
It spans the globe like a super
- [01:07]
Rebecca Castle
high cold Internet Elvis.
- [01:10]
Guest or Additional Speaker
Ready for me.
- [01:11]
Narrator
Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
- [01:15]
Guest or Additional Speaker
It's not over until I win.
- [01:18]
Ray Gutierrez
The Living youg Legacy podcast.
- [01:21]
Guest or Additional Speaker
For those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan Open Chicago was the lead. You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
- [01:40]
Ray Gutierrez
Welcome back to another episode of the Living youg Legacy podcast. For Inside Success, I am Ray Gutierrez. Joining me today is Rebecca Castle. We're actually moments away from filming Rebecca's Legacy Makers episode. So we're going to take this opportunity as essentially as a preview of you. Welcome to the show.
- [01:57]
Rebecca Castle
Thank you. I am so excited to be here.
- [01:59]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on. Clearly, so am I. First of all, before I even ask what you do, who are you based on just your frames, your shoes, your avatar, your everyday avatar.
- [02:13]
Rebecca Castle
I love fashion.
- [02:14]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on.
- [02:14]
Rebecca Castle
And I'm in the trades, so they don't really usually go together. I've always done that. And early in my career, someone said, do not look like you look right now. And I kind of, after hearing that went, you know what? I'm going to be me, even though I'm in the trades and I'm going to be a fashionista. My Grandma Veda inspired my fashion so very much about that. But I'm like, why not in the trades you got to have fun.
- [02:37]
Ray Gutierrez
I was just going to say I read that part of your script. Most of the time I don't read the scripts beforehand. I like to go in surprise. But you were, you were called tall and blonde. Are you tall and blonde?
- [02:46]
Rebecca Castle
I just want to affirm, well, maybe not naturally blonde. I am, I am tall. I am tall. And then obviously I always love to wear heels and it makes me even taller.
- [02:55]
Ray Gutierrez
Extra taller and extra blonder.
- [02:56]
Rebecca Castle
That's right.
- [02:57]
Ray Gutierrez
There you go. And how have things been going for you being extra taller and extra blonder these days?
- [03:01]
Rebecca Castle
Well, it's great. Now I will tell you, early in my career, being in this male dominated industry and in the trades, people are always like, you know, you don't fit the mold, you know, and so being young, being blonde, being a female. And so today it's awesome because there's so many more women in the trades now, so it's a little easier to feel like you're accepted. But I've kind of always been one of these people that challenged the status quo. And it was almost like it drove me harder when people said, oh, you can't do that or you shouldn't wear that. I even had someone tell me that you should lie about your age because people aren't going to take you seriously. You need to be older to be in the trade. Right. So today is great.
- [03:39]
Ray Gutierrez
Yeah, yeah. You would think, like we hear these stories within our tribes, but one of my favorite stories is Tim Burton himself. You know, he was a Disney animator and he drew a certain way and it wasn't the Disney way and basically said screw that. And then yada, yada, yada, nightmare before Christmas. And then he basically created his look. His, his, his, his energy. Talk about your tribe, your look, your energy and how folks are gravitating towards you and how you're actually keeping less than quality clients away because they just don't get it.
- [04:07]
Rebecca Castle
Yeah, yeah. So our whole goal and our whole mission at Certain Path is to build successful home service businesses. These are H vac plumbing, electrical, roofing contractors that are coming to us to know how to grow their business. And I think one of the things that we do is provide this very, very specific path, helping them understand what success means to them.
- [04:28]
Ray Gutierrez
Hell yeah.
- [04:29]
Rebecca Castle
Helping them achieve their dreams. I think when you represent and look like you're achieving your dream, it helps inspire other people to want to do the same.
- [04:37]
Ray Gutierrez
Absolutely.
- [04:38]
Rebecca Castle
So I've always, when I'm on stage, I'm wearing, I'm wearing the flashy stuff. I'm wearing the stuff that says, hey, this screams success. Our trades are often teased about, you know, joked about. I'm sure, you know, all of us can relate to the. The jokes about butt crack plumbers and things like that, but we have always, in the last 26 years, with what we've done, try to elevate this industry. So we're trying to elevate the industry. We're trying to also attract more people to it. It's a fantastic industry for people to be able to build a career.
- [05:10]
Ray Gutierrez
Yes.
- [05:10]
Rebecca Castle
Without having to go to college. They can actually get on the job, training paid for and make a wage. I mean, it's a. It's a fantastic thing. And so what we're trying to do is say, hey, we can inspire you. You can be successful, you can achieve your dreams, you can have everything that you've ever wanted in your business, but you have to do a system. You have to follow our program, our model, and those types of things. As far as my brand, I'm not usually the person that has to be in the limelight, have a fantastic group of people in Dallas, Texas, where we're headquartered. But I love to inspire more women to get into this business. I feel like if I can do it and if I can learn this, then anybody can. And it's changed a lot. It's changed. In 1999, when we started the first convention I ever went to, 400 men and three women. Right. The only good thing about that was the bathroom lines were great. Right. No bathroom lines. So not. Not a problem. But, you know, we go to our conventions today and there's hundreds of women. And so that's really exciting to me to be able to just inspire anybody who wants to build a great career to do it in the trades right now.
- [06:16]
Ray Gutierrez
Let's get real. Like, Rudy and I like to outbro each other. It's such a dude thing to do. But now when you're walking in, it's like fashion shoes. What you wear is how you feel. A lot of men don't kind of understand that. At least the successful men, they understand that. But with women, it's a completely different tier. Like, it's. It's almost like, gosh, it's almost like back to like our, Our, Our. Our savage ways where you would wear the makeup and you'd be laughing to each other. Talk about what it's like to not just be on stage, but the stage of life where it's like you're always on.
- [06:47]
Rebecca Castle
There's a stigma for Women to have to look a certain way and be a certain way. And you know, I've heard the saying, you can't have it all. And I'm a mother, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a CEO. And so I think from that perspective, it's all about mindset and then just owning who you are and accepting that and being okay that you're different or you're not the same and just really embracing your authenticity and what you bring to the table. And then also then understanding your weaknesses and surrounding yourself with people who can, you know, overcome those for you. So I think for me it's been an evolution. I can't tell you, in my 20s, I was always this confident. I think some of that comes with age. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. But definitely embraced just being me and being, you know, if I want to wear this, I'm going to wear this. If I don't want to be camera ready tomorrow, I won't be camera ready tomorrow. I was just in a plumbing truck last week. Right. So it's. And I was wearing a suit. So it's just all about owning who you are and being confident in it and then being able to encourage other people to be the same.
- [07:46]
Ray Gutierrez
What encouraged you to make the switch? Did you see a problem needed to get fixed or was it just low hanging fruit that you can just optimally, you know, grab?
- [07:53]
Rebecca Castle
I think it was maturity for sure. I think getting into this industry in my 20s and having people tell me, you're not old enough, you're not, you know, you're too blonde, you're too young, you're too this. Right. I think came with age. And then obviously confidence comes with success. So starting my own H Vac company from scratch and growing it very quickly early in my career, I went, I can do this. And if I can do this, I can inspire other people to do this, this. And so I think closer to my 30s, it just was more of a realization of I'm not going to be who anybody tells me to be. Yeah, I'm going to be who I'm going to be and then embracing that and then probably taking it to a little extra level because I needed to make up for lost time. Right, sure.
- [08:31]
Ray Gutierrez
So what's it feel like being on stage and what is your mythos? Where you're on stage, are you entertaining, are you educating, are you coming from like a theater background where it's like you want to hit your light, your mark and hit that beat and have that dramatic pause and like, aha, Kaching. Yeah, like you're. What's your mythos when you're on stage?
- [08:47]
Rebecca Castle
Well, our whole mission is to educate contractors and sometimes we're called a college for contractors. Right. So a lot of what we do is very educational, a lot of training, but then there's gotta be an inspirational piece to it.
- [09:00]
Ray Gutierrez
Absolutely.
- [09:00]
Rebecca Castle
These people work so hard. This is not the easiest industry to be in. We have a shrinking labor pool. And so, yeah, we're building relationships with these contractors. We're helping them build their business, but we're also there to inspire them to serve them and then to provide innovation for them and their businesses.
- [09:18]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on. How can folks, like, learn more about you and follow your journey?
- [09:22]
Rebecca Castle
So we have a podcast on YouTube, it's called the Successful Contractor.
- [09:26]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on.
- [09:26]
Rebecca Castle
We'd love. We have many, many episodes. It tells the stories of our clients, but then also tells the story of a technician in the field, you know, a call taker in the office. So we want to get everybody to have a perspective of what it's like to be able to work in a contracting business. They can go to our website, mycertainpath.com there's also all kinds of information. If you Google us on Facebook or Instagram and follow us on any of our social media. I know we're on TikTok too. So yeah, they can find out more that way.
- [09:57]
Ray Gutierrez
This is an essential role you're training for. Essentially. Of course, like, the only reason why I ask is because, you know, AI is around the corner while AI is going to be around the corner. But this is a job that cannot just be easily replaced.
- [10:07]
Rebecca Castle
Yeah. I think AI can make us more efficient.
- [10:09]
Ray Gutierrez
Absolutely.
- [10:09]
Rebecca Castle
Provide, you know, some, some definite economies of scale. Sure. But yes, we are a technician that's going in and home to fix something. And so it is very people driven. Lots of human capital it takes to, to do all of this. And while we can use AI tools, still need a technician to come fix your heating and air conditioning. Right.
- [10:29]
Ray Gutierrez
Tools to get there faster. Something needs to be there, delivered quicker. But the actual human experience is very much. You got to use the old fashioned way. You know, you got to be your car, you got to build your own shit there. That's. That's just amazing to hear. Gosh, what, what is the first thing that you do when someone starts onboarding onto the experience? Who is your. What is the common client, the common thread? Folks that failed out of college or failed out of life. Last chancers give us the whole gamut here.
- [10:54]
Rebecca Castle
Yeah, I mean, we have over 1200 contractors in the United States and Canada.
- [10:58]
Ray Gutierrez
That's great.
- [10:59]
Rebecca Castle
And they're all very different. But I would say our average size contractors that comes to us are probably in that, you know, two to $3 million range. They've finally got employees, and they're looking for that next step. And how do I grow my business? Having employees is hard. And so there's this kind of entrepreneurial thing that happens, and you go, wow, I was good at this by myself, and now I have to have other people do this for me. And so. But we have very large contractors. We have very small contractors. Really, the requirement is this hope and desire that you want to continue to grow your business. People who come to us, if they're not willing to change, not willing to implement, not willing to make some of the decisions that we're asking them to make, they'll probably not be really successful with our program. We've been really intentional about being very prescriptive. Not just telling you what you should do, but how to do it is a big part of our program. And so I think the contractors that come to us are looking for that next step. And then, you know, we have 10 and 20 and 50 million, $100 million contractors, too. And they're looking for something different.
- [12:04]
Ray Gutierrez
Right.
- [12:04]
Rebecca Castle
They're looking for management development, they're looking for consistency. They're looking for more marketing to build their brand. So it's kind of all over the gamut. But a lot of our contractors start out small, and then through their journey with us, it's great. One of our clients in Dallas is one of my favorite stories. He came to us in 2006, great electrician, and he came to what we call profit day, which is where they learn about who we are. And he said, look, I can do this. I really know I can do this, but I don't have the money to sign up. He said, I'm going to write you a bad check, but if you will wait two weeks.
- [12:38]
Guest or Additional Speaker
Wow.
- [12:40]
Rebecca Castle
And wait to cash it, I promise you it'll go through. So we did. We gave him a shot. He's got over 532 trucks on the road today. Going to do almost $200 million in annual revenue in one loca in one city in Dallas, Texas. So it's that journey that we're a part of, that transformation that's really exciting. And what we do.
- [13:01]
Ray Gutierrez
So that's nearly 20 years ago.
- [13:02]
Rebecca Castle
Yes.
- [13:03]
Ray Gutierrez
Now, 20 years later, he's clearly sitting on quite the asset.
- [13:08]
Rebecca Castle
Yes.
- [13:08]
Ray Gutierrez
But I feel like now he's a little bored now, like, what's the next step?
- [13:11]
Rebecca Castle
This guy's not bored. He wants to be the first contractor to get a billion in their home services in a single market, which is really interesting. So he's expanded not to just electrical, plumbing, H vac, garage doors, handyman. You know, it's really roofing. It's really amazing and what he's been able to build. But the foundation was this learning from others, this systems, this process that's hiring the right people. And then in our industry, this is a very daily business. It's every, you know, lots of, lots of calls in a day, lots of ways to screw that up. And so it's all about consistency and then measuring that from a scorecard perspective to say, hey, are we successful as a business?
- [13:51]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on. Yeah. The scorecard is so important. You want to gamify. You basically want. KPIs are so important. Like, especially for folks that respect deadlines, especially production. It's like the deadline is the law. Whatever it takes. Deadline. Like, you're not a software company. Unless you ship a game or a product, then you're a software company. Cool. What are we going to learn about you and your Legacy makers episode?
- [14:12]
Rebecca Castle
Well, I'm going to share with you a little bit about my story because it's very interesting on how I got into this. I did not plan to be in the Trace my whole career. I actually didn't even think that was possible, nor did I think I would be an entrepreneur. And so I'm really excited to be able to share some of that and then to be able to say to people, hey, if you really, truly have the American dream, anybody can own a business, anybody can be an entrepreneur. Takes a lot of hard work, takes a lot of persistence. You know, you learn from your mistakes. Can't tell you I haven't made a bunch of mistakes. I have. But then just really applying the knowledge and then moving forward was amazing. I got introduced to the opportunity out of college. I thought I was going to be an accountant. Didn't really love being an accountant and swerved into the trades. And so I'm going to share that story and I hope it inspired, inspires other people to go, man, I could do that too.
- [15:01]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. We're literally just going to hop into Village Studio and get that going. Until then, how can people find you again?
- [15:08]
Rebecca Castle
Yes. Mycertainpath.com or you can go to our YouTube channel, the successful Contractor.
- [15:13]
Ray Gutierrez
Right on. Cool. Well, Rebecca, it was an honor. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time and energy. We're going to hop into the interview session. And with that, this is Rebecca and I'm Ray Gutierrez. And we are inside.
- [15:23]
Guest or Additional Speaker
Success, Sam.