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- [00:00]
A
Most exciting new idea come from what you don't know that you don't know. I was sitting out there and I looked at a roof and I was like, how there's nothing that exists to protect increase the lifespan of a roof. In the past 10 to 15 years, we threw away more shingle than the hundred years prior to that. Unfortunately, the quality is not increasing, is decreasing over time. I just dug into that right away and I was like, okay, let's figure out a way. And that's where everything started. Jonathan Duquette is the CEO and founder of Gonano Inc. A pioneering company transforming the roofing and construction industries through advanced nanotechnology. With his mission driven approach, Jonathan is reshaping the construction landscape while driving sustainability and innovation forward. The goal at Gonano is not to make as much money as possible. Our goal is to help as many people as possible.
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B
Is it like way more expensive expensive to. To do this like versus a regular roof? What's the lifespan on it? You know, is it kind of like solar panels that. Yeah, you got to invest in it, but then it's going to help you over the long term sort of thing.
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A
That's a really great question.
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B
It spans the globe like a super high cold Internet.
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A
Elvis Presley.
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B
Today Apple is going to reinvent.
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A
It's not over until I win. The Living youg Legacy podc for those who live to leave a legacy. Oh, that is sensational.
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B
Jordan Open Chicago with the lead.
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A
You said Paul is the fastest man on the planet.
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B
You can live your dream. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Legacy Makers. Sat here today with Jonathan and we're really going to talk about a fascinating industry and how he's revolutionizing an old school industry. A product that's been around for 100 years, creates a ton of waste and has a very unique product that I'm so excited to dive in. A true definition of the entrepreneur. Over 10 businesses, you know, massive success, track record, tons of awards grew, you know, over 200 dealerships already carrying his products and probably going to go worldwide. Right. I think one day, you know, like get it on every roof. So let's dive in. Welcome to the show.
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A
Thank you very much, Rudy for having me today.
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B
Yes.
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A
Legacy maker.
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B
My pleasure. So. So I think everyone can relate to this because nearly everyone on the planet thankfully has a roof over their head. Sadly, some still don't, but most people do. And, and as we mentioned, it's not really changed for decades. Right. So can you just tell everyone a little about the product now?
- [02:50]
A
Yeah. So basically Go. Nano is the first product that comes into the roofing world where we can rejuvenate asphalt. But not only rejuvenate, but really protecting the asphalt, but as well increasing the performance of it. So most of the shingle nowadays on the market will really fail quickly against hailstorm, wind or any other natural disaster. The big key difference here is that that we've been able to utilize nanotechnology so that we can penetrate the shingle with the nanoparticle, modify the shingle to make it two to three times more durable, but as well solid against natural disaster, which avoid costly replacement.
- [03:31]
B
It's pretty crazy because, you know, I've owned real estate since 20. I started investing at 20 into real estate. And I think every real estate investor's nightmare is when someone rings about the roof. You know, like people worry about AC in Florida. I'm like, that's nothing compared to a roof.
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A
Nope.
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B
You know, and yeah, you're right. Like, I didn't think about it until you said it, but it's, it's the same, especially in England, right? It's the same from Victorian times now on the roof. So how did this idea come about?
- [03:59]
A
The idea, it's really simple, you know, it's that it's not that simple, but it's a journey, right? It's most exciting new idea come from what you don't know that you don't know. I really like to talk about that because it's mostly the biggest blind spot of people, right? And I learned about nanotechnology when I. When in 2015 maybe something like that. I started working with different product in that industry mostly when it comes to window. But at one point I was sitting out there and I looked at a roof and I was like, how there's nothing that exists to protect increase the lifespans of a roof. So that's where like my idea really started. It was like. And I started digging and I saw, okay, over 300 billions of pounds of shingle are thrown away every year. In the past 10 to 15 years, we threw away more shingle than the 100 years prior to that because unfortunately the quality is not increasing, is decreasing over time. And that's why we're seeing so such a fast pace at which the shingle are being replaced. But not only shingle, but other roofing membrane as well. So I just dug into that right away and I was like, okay, let's figure out a way. I got my first grant with the national center in Electrochemistry in, in Canada. And that's where everything started. Basically it's that, okay, we have the proof of concept, all the research out there. Because there's a lot of research about the asphalt pavement industry. Right? Asphalt is everywhere.
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B
Yeah.
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A
But asphalt shingle is the only North American product. It doesn't really exist. It like outside of North America. So basically I just, okay, all the research come to the same thing. If you're utilizing nano silica in asphalt, it's going to help the asphalt. So I just came with the same ideology and we created a product to do that. And now fast forward over six years, we created new product, improve a product over time so that now we can even treat a 15 years old roof and make it better than a brand new shingle.
- [06:03]
B
And what is, you know, if someone's listening, is it like way more expensive to, to do this like versus a regular roof? What's the lifespan on it? You know, is it kind of like solar panels that. Yeah, you got to invest in it, but then it's going to help you over the long term sort of thing.
- [06:19]
A
That's a really great question. Most people will think, oh, it should be, it's probably really expensive. But it's not. Right. Especially when you're looking that the cost of roofing have just basically doubled in the last few years. Right. The cost for Nasval shingle roof was about five, six dollars a square foot. Now we are seeing up to eight, nine, ten dollars. Now with the tariff and everything coming in, it might increase to $12 a square foot pretty quickly. The goal at Go Nano is not to make as much money as possible. Our goal is to help as many people as possible. That's why we keep our pricing as low as possible so that we can help as many people. So to give you an example, most of our people, we just launched a new product that works really well at 85 cents a square foot for a roof. And we have product that might go up to $1.50, A$60,$80 depending on the states and depending on which type of roof we'll install it. But it depends pretty much on how many nanoparticle is in the product and for how long that product is going to work. Right. So we have product that will last for about five years, but we have can last up to 15 year with only one treatment.
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B
Wow, crazy. And let's talk about the expansion. Right? So you, you've already, you know, 200 dealerships, right. It's rapidly growing. How do you see the next five, 10 years?
- [07:42]
A
The next five, 10 years is going to be really, really, really exciting because I started the company six years ago, started it in Canada, in Quebec. Did it the whole thing by myself. Right. I was on the roof installing, trying to figure out how do you install that product. So I had to learn everything about the business before expanding. We started the expansion about three years ago in the US and since then we've just been growing really rapidly. Every year we double to triple or revenues. And the goal for the next five years really to become the leader.
- [08:16]
B
Right.
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A
Only the roofing industry, it's so huge. Like you said the beginning, everyone has a roof. So. And 90% of roof are made of asphalt in North America. So only that market, it's really huge. But we are, we also added new products. So we have a product for concrete as well. We have a product for wood. And our goal is to expand in other type of material over times so that we can become like the first or the reference when it comes to house or building protection in general.
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B
When it's almost like sustainability, right?
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A
100%.
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B
Yeah. If you can improve the rural source of all these, you know, like ingredients. Right. For a house, you, it's going to last way longer and create way less waste and environmental pollution.
- [08:57]
A
Yeah. Because construction is one of the biggest waste. Right. When you, you come out there and you destroy a concrete building, that concrete won't decompose somewhere. It's going to last in the trash yard for years and years come. Right. Hundreds of years. Yeah. So that's where like, hey, maintain what you have in place right now so that we can focus on. Yeah. Keep that building running. And don't think that, hey, the only solution in the future is just to replace. No, we can take care of that right now so that you don't have to do that in the future.
- [09:28]
B
Love that. So let's talk a little about your entrepreneurial journey too. I know you've had 10 businesses, you've been doing this a long time. You grew one of the biggest sales forces obviously in your earlier career. What are some of the entrepreneurial journeys you've been on? Businesses and lessons along the way.
- [09:47]
A
Saying a little bit earlier is you never fail, you only learn. I think that's the most important thing in business when you start. A lot of people were thinking that I was crazy doing what I was doing. Right. When I was 22 years old, I was making in door to door over $150,000 back, back in the day. It's over 10 years ago. So it was pretty good money for a 22 years old. Right. So that and then it's really learned where I learned. Okay. I have somewhat of a leadership. I grew a team of about 40 sales guys selling. We were sell about 600 products a week which was residential products. And. And then once that started after that like I don't want to go back to like working for someone else. So I decided to start a boxer company. Worst idea on the planet, right? It was. Our idea was looking at dollar shave clubs and being a model where hey, we can sell boxer at seven bucks. But it was just a bit like bad, bad business decision at the time. But I learned so much doing it because that's when you learn that it's not by being the cheapest that you really win. Because it was a subscription box, it was really cheap at the time. You could get customer for like $20, but when you're making only $3 of profit on a pair, it takes you a couple of months just to get that money back. So it's just not feasible. And I think a lot of people get into business by thinking too big too quickly. The main thing that people should focus when they get started is knowing what's my cost of acquisition, right. How, how, how much does it cost to acquire a customer and after that how can I map that in the future? And that's where most people fail is that they are not looking at the sales part and they're just looking at the sexiness of it.
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B
Well, yeah. And let's talk more about the sale. You know, the marketing sales side. The how do you grow, you know, growing such a big sales team. How. What did you learn about that? You know, sales. I was teaching most people, most entrepreneurs go free, free phases. Number one, they create a product, then they realize they got to market the product. Right. And then if some of them realize they got to build a big sales force behind the product, it's every big company on the planet has a big sales force. So let's talk about part three, the sales.
- [12:00]
A
I. I think most of the time, not in all businesses for sure, but the owner or actually one of the key person needs to be really good in sales because I see that so often. And people have great ideas but they don't know how to sell and they think someone else will able to sell it, but they don't know themselves how to sell it. So it's really hard to give like a pathways on how to sell it. So I think it's. It comes to about like hey. And that's why I'm telling people, younger people especially get started in sales as fast as possible. Don't try to build that business today necessarily if you don't have that experience. Go Go learn from people. Because the skills of sales takes time.
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B
Right.
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A
And sales is not only about like I, I hate when people is like, okay, we need to be pushy. There's a lot of tactics that only works when you have a bad product or bad service. Right. Because you need to push people over. The main difference here, for example, at Go Nano is that all our culture is like, hey, if you, you don't think it works for you, for example, a dealer that want to on board, hey, you're not certain, don't enter. Right. We don't have. The reason is that we have over 500 application a month right now for. From people to become part of Go Nano. So it's not like us. It's more about finding the Right.
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B
Yeah. The good ones.
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A
The good ones. And, and sales. When you start something that it's new like Go Nano, that doesn't exist, the selling is much, much, much harder.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Than selling something that already exists. Yeah.
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B
Once you got the brand authority. Exactly. But just to your point, I mean, that's a great one. Listening. Like, I, I've always said, you know, one of your first jobs, get a sales job. Like I was a personal trainer at 18 and I say, people don't think it's sales, but you have to walk. You have to walk up to someone, sweating in the gym, running on a treadmill and say, hi, you know, you, and try and spark a conversation. It's not like, you know, people come in the gym and say, I want to hire a trainer. That's like a tiny percent. And that taught me a lot about, you know, it's really communication skills and speaking with people and understanding their wants, desires, needs, what motivates them. And as an entrepreneur, like learning those things early is probably why you became a good leader and then built one of the biggest teams. Right? Is.
- [14:17]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. I mean people follows people. Like a lot of people try to make themselves. Like if you try to be a leader, it doesn't work. You need to be a leader. Right. I think that's the main key about it is that some people tribe. But like it's, it's not about, it's about being genuine. Right. Being who you are. I think if you show your value in what's important for you and it's not bs, then people will oblige to that and they will be like, okay, no, it's, it's kind of cool. I want to work with that person. Right. They see the vision, they see where you want to go and when you try to do the right thing, then people will come automatically.
- [15:00]
B
Yeah, I love that. So a couple more questions I want to ask you. We've talked a lot about your success, all the amazing things, you know, obviously wildly successful and hopefully going to keep growing and have this worldwide brand. Right. And every roof. Right. But I always love to ask because most of us are entrepreneurs and a lot of people listening might be on that initial journey where you were five, ten years ago, right. Give me a couple of the big failures and moments. You were like, oh my gosh. And you had to fight through it and what you learned.
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A
I will always remember when I was about 18, at that time I was trying to start a company in the database, right? It was like the era of Internet. And I was like, oh, that's where I need to go. So that's where I decided to go. But I totally remember being seated at the office and be like, I don't know what to do. Right. You're just there and you're like, what's the next step?
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B
Right.
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A
And that's, I think the hardest thing when you get started is that you don't know what.
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B
You don't know what. You don't know.
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A
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you don't know what to do next. You don't know what, what, what needs to be, what needs to happen. And that's, that comes from my, my, my point of view of that is because I was trying just to look about with money, right. I was trying to raise money, but that's so difficult because like you don't have the experience yet.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You don't have the knowledge about it. So you're just like trying to do what you see on TVs. And yeah, only about the success that are being talked about, but the reality that it's, that's 0.01% and raising money.
- [16:34]
B
Is like maybe in Silicon Valley it's easier, right? Pitching softwares all the time. But out of that it's very much like you gotta start at the grassroots and sell the product. And then when it get. Now you could raise money like that, right? But when you start, you gotta, gotta get it going.
- [16:48]
A
Exactly. So that's where the skills of sales becomes really important. But that's when I learned after that first business is when I went in door to door, right? I went in door to door. I was like, that's probably the best thing that I can do. For myself right where as well you will win the money that you work for. So that's the other thing that I love about door to door is that you go out there, you learn. But as well you're being you pay for the difference that you're making. So I like that idea. After that I decided, okay, I. When I started the boxer company, I figured out okay, I need to know a little bit more about marketing. So what I started to do is just start learning about everything that I could about marketing. And started at that time what I did is that I started working with Facebook ad. I knew a lot about how people were thinking about switching provider. That's what I was saying. Door to door, Internet, phone and television. That's what I was selling. So I was like, oh, let's create like a builder online where it's with Facebook ad. And it was like question that I was normally asking to the people. I just put them on the form. I was like, okay, how many TV do you have? Blah, blah, blah. So it was a full script, fill your information. And at the end of that it was like I was taking that lead and I was selling these lead to door to door people of either companies, right? If the person was with one company and was selling it to the other company. And at that time I was like, oh, that's kind of cool because now I know that okay, you can sell online. And what I love about that it was like, okay, when I had like a 40 door to door team people, I had to train them, I had to support them, listen about their story about their girlfriend and be like, like not only a coach for the business but as well a personal coach almost. So I learned a lot. And I was like, okay, marketing is kind of cool because you have someone that works for you 247 and you just have to push money. Now it's a little bit more complicated than it was back then. But I learned okay, it cost me at that time, I think a dollar for a lead and was selling it for 25 which was great, great margin there. But then I learned you can do that because now I receive season this is letter by these company that hey, you can do that. So I was like, okay, I can do that. But now I have the skills. So let's get started on the marketing agency.
- [19:03]
B
Yeah, well, once you learn, like for me too, you know, I got an ads really early when it started 10 years ago. And I always say it's a very like free. It's like a freeing skill. Once you learn, okay, I Can run ads and buy, buy the customers or the leads, acquire them. It's like the world's your oyster. You can start, you can sell ice cream, you T shirts, you can, you know, do whatever you want. Right. It's a very freeing skill. And I think sales is too. Once you get comfortable on the phone and selling and then building sales reps. Like there's so many entrepreneurs that don't master those two things and they just struggle their whole life and they, you know, I see them, they've been doing business 10, 15 years and they have a good product. They just can't figure those things out.
- [19:42]
A
Yeah, I mean the goal is not to be the best, right? It's just to know enough so that you can build, build your, your, your, your skills. I think a business owner, the biggest strength is not to be the best in anything, but just to know a little bit about everything so that you can just combine everything together and hire.
- [20:02]
B
For it, build the system, know if an agency's taken advantage of you, you know, jump in when you need to and busy periods. It's totally. Yeah, yeah. So last few questions, let's talk about the legacy side. Right. Like there's obviously part of it is really changing an industry. Reducing waste, I love that part. But what's the long term vision to you?
- [20:22]
A
So the long term, you know, my goal as an entrepreneur is to really change things long term. I'm not doing it for myself, I'm not doing it for like I'm really my, my goal is to help the planet, which might look really cheesy, but it's really important for me that, that I want to be remembered at one time, one day that I created good stuff. So right now what I like to say is that right now we're in the liquid business, but we want to go as well, expand a lot further than that. Right. It's really just the beginning. What's interesting with nanotechnology, when you dive into that domain, you understand that everything can be modified, everything can be improved.
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B
Like the future, right?
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A
Exactly. So there is literally, and that's what I love about business, when there is no limitation to where you can go. So the legacy of go nano will be that we help people across the world and we solve bigger and bigger problems.
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B
Like the health space, the construction space.
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A
I would love to go to more like building is great, but I would like to, at one point we have a division that it's more about really IRDs and developing really new type of materials and that could again go to space and that will be the longer term term vision. But again in business what's important is to keep the focus on and be like master what you are creating now. And that's what the other thing I had to learn really hard about being an entrepreneur. It's so, so easy to go this place and this place and this place and this place. Especially when you're in nanotechnology because you could go everywhere.
- [21:58]
B
Sure.
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A
But it's how can you keep the focus, build what you have right now in your hands and then after see what you can do once. That's really. Well, the way I see business now is really different than before. I see a new project has a new business.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And you need to treat every little thing as different businesses.
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B
They're always harder. You know, so many times I've tried to run so many things and every time I can run multiple things but one thing is always going to take off where I'm focused. You know, it's like as many times as you try and hire different teams and agencies, it's like the entrepreneur is like I always say, it's like you're the Michael Jordan. Right. Like yeah, the NBA team is good about you but when you're in the court and the game, it's just different experience.
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A
Yeah, exactly.
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B
Good. So you know, you talked a bit about that long term vision. I love that. And you know the great thing about legacy makers and what we do here is you know, those goals aren't weird or abnormal like they might seem to a normal person. You know, like I think everyone in whether you know, bigger or smaller scale, they have a big goal and a bigger vision to impact the world in some way. Right. And you know you're well on your way. So next question. A follow up to that. Someone's listening. They're inspired by you and your story and your journey and your big goals and ambition and they want to build their legacy. But maybe they're not quite there yet. What mindset tips might you give them or motivation?
- [23:19]
A
I mean for me, what I'm trying to let people know first is that first thing, do something that you feel good about. That's the first thing I hate when people say follow your heart, do what you love. That I don't believe because it's not true that you will like I love snowboarding.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I will never launch.
- [23:38]
B
I think you can still enjoy it, but it's not like your biggest passion.
- [23:42]
A
Exactly, exactly. But like you will have said to Jonathan 10 years ago, you will be working in nanotechnology. I will have told you that you're crazy. So for me is to be open to new ideas and to explore. And one of the problem right now in or generation, it's everyone wants to copy everyone. And there's a really good book that talked about that. It's zero to one by Peter Thiels. And basically he explained, like, you have the competition and you have the monopoly type of business. Monopoly type of business are 10 times harder to create because they don't exist. Yeah. And in competition it's much easier. So let's say the roofing space or the ice cream shop or the clothing brand, it's much easier to get started, right? Because you can just create a T shirt and it's just a logo that you put on top.
- [24:30]
B
And you don't have to educate the audience. Either they know about it.
- [24:33]
A
But what's going to be the struggle is grow that brand because then you have a lot of competitions and. Or it's either margin or it's going to be other thing that's going to.
- [24:43]
B
Come into play to fight for the brand awareness.
- [24:45]
A
So it comes to the idea of looking outside and being curious about what. What exists. Right. A lot. And that's what I was saying earlier, what you don't know that you don't know. And a lot of people. So you have what you know that you know, what you know that you don't know. And most people just take what they know that they don't know and what they know that they know. But what you don't know, you don't know. That's what's really complicated.
- [25:10]
B
Well, so what's funny too is that, you know, that's why mentorship and coaching is so great. And expertise. Because, yeah, when you come into new business, like me and you did when we were 18 or whatever, we didn't know all those things. Right. And I remember my first fitness business. I built this online course program 14 years ago, before anyone was really doing it. Spent all my savings that I made from my personal training on it. But then I had no clue how to market or sell it. Whereas now it'd be super easy. I just run ads. Right. But I didn't know that back then. And it failed after a year and I lost all the money I had saved from a year of personal training. But, you know, it's like hiring an electrician. You have no clue how to rewire the cables. He comes in or she comes in, it's, oh, yeah, you just take this here, do that. And then they walk out and they're done. Right. And I think we know that now. Like, if you want to do something big in business, you go find someone to help you that's already done it. But when you start, you. You're almost too scared to do that or don't know to do that.
- [26:06]
A
Yeah. And. And it comes back to you need to go out of your comfort zone. Right. A lot of people feel a lot safer behind their screen. Yes, you can buy a course, but if you're not putting any of the. The thing that you learn into action, you're gonna get. Get stuck and you're gonna blame everyone except you. So that's why I think it's really important that you put yourself in really difficult place because that's where you learn if you stay in your comfortable seat and like behind your screen. And that's what we're seeing a lot right now with new entrepreneurs that they don't know what's. What's about talking with people. Right. They think that everything can be done online, but it's not the truth.
- [26:45]
B
Got to get on a plane still. I say that a lot.
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A
Yeah.
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B
You know, you got to get on the plane. So last question. What, what might. What else are they going to get from your episode and where do they find you if they want to learn more?
- [26:56]
A
So you can always find me online. Jonathan Duquette. You will probably. It's going to pop up. I don't have a big follower because my point is more about building my business and not about building necessarily just my personal brand.
- [27:10]
B
Well, the roofers don't have big. My industry. It's kind of. You have to have it. Have Instagram.
- [27:16]
A
Yeah. It's starting. You know, there's a couple of influencer in the roofing space. It gets more and more out there. It's always a little bit. Yeah, it's different. But anyway, yeah. To the point is that my. My goal is to always help people and like when people reach out to me, I try to help them as much as possible. I try to do a couple of show here and here to do presentation and try. I still do like one in Montreal that they don't pay me. But I just go there just because I want to give as much as possible so that people don't do the same mistake. And after that to most people is just follow your heart and just do the right thing and you'll see that one day everything's going to come together.
- [27:55]
B
Love that. Well, there you go, guys. Another episode in the wrap and obviously, as you can tell, doing amazing things. Amazing story that we're going to dive into in the full episode, so make sure you check that out if you've not already. And as always, keep changing lives and subscribe and building a legacy. I'll see you guys soon.