From $0 to Multi-Millions: The Relentless Action Plan with Ryan Johnson

Summary

The WarPlan Podcast: Episode Summary
Title: From $0 to Multi-Millions: The Relentless Action Plan with Ryan Johnson
Host: Joshua Latimer
Guest: Ryan Johnson
Release Date: August 13, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of The WarPlan Podcast, host Joshua Latimer welcomes Ryan Johnson, a young family man who has remarkably built a multimillion-dollar window cleaning business from the ground up. Ryan shares his journey from humble beginnings to achieving significant business success, all while maintaining a balanced family life. This summary delves into the key discussions, insights, and actionable strategies Ryan presents, offering invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs.

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Origin Story: From Cleaning Windows in College to Business Success

Ryan Johnson's entrepreneurial journey began unexpectedly. Originally planning to become a dentist, Ryan found himself disillusioned with his college chemistry classes and turned to window cleaning as a part-time job.

Ryan Johnson [02:49]:
"So I started cleaning windows in college. I was probably making like maybe a thousand dollars a week cleaning windows or probably even less than that. But at the time, that felt like a ton of money."

Ryan's part-time endeavor soon became a primary source of income, prompting a pivotal decision to relocate his family to Phoenix in May 2019 after attending one of Joshua's workshops.

Josh [02:05]:
"Can you tell us about what happened?"

Ryan Johnson [02:49]:
"We moved because I felt this burning inside my heart that that was the right thing to do. We didn't know it at the time, but my wife was just barely pregnant when we moved."

This move marked the beginning of Ryan's relentless pursuit of building his business, leading to his first $10,000 month in January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Building the Window Cleaning Business: Strategy and Execution

Ryan attributes his business growth to simple, consistent actions rather than complex strategies. He emphasizes the importance of volume in marketing, particularly through the traditional flyer method.

Ryan Johnson [08:37]:
"It's about stacking the volume of it. We were doing 10,000 a month, my wife helping early, and then, over time, it turned into me and then my first tech helping, tons of volume."

Boots-On-The-Ground Marketing

Ryan's commitment to high-volume flyer distribution was instrumental in scaling his business. He highlights the necessity of relentless marketing efforts to ensure visibility and customer acquisition.

Ryan Johnson [11:22]:
"We were doing 10,000 a month, my wife helping early, and then, over time, it turned into me and then my first tech helping, tons of volume."

Josh adds that many entrepreneurs falter by not committing to sufficient volume, often stopping too soon or overcomplicating their marketing efforts.

Josh [09:51]:
"Maybe you don't overcomplicate something that's clear and simple. But did you do the two simple things? Well, yeah."

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Overcoming Challenges: Cash Flow Purgatory and Scaling Up

Ryan discusses the challenges of seasonal slowdowns, particularly Arizona's harsh summer weather, which initially threatened his business's sustainability.

Ryan Johnson [06:10]:
"We had to put out 10,000 a month. We had to put them on the same houses over and over, and that's when it starts to work. It can't not work."

Despite facing months where revenue barely covered expenses, Ryan's unwavering focus on volume eventually led to substantial growth, surpassing the $1.2 million mark by 2022.

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Transition to Coaching: Leveraging Success to Help Others

In addition to his window cleaning business, Ryan launched a coaching program that has rapidly grown, contributing to his overall business success.

Ryan Johnson [15:55]:
"I've learned as much about business in the last year coaching other people as I have growing my own business."

He emphasizes that coaching not only diversifies his income but also reinforces his own business practices, creating a synergistic effect.

Josh [18:58]:
"He's built a million dollar coaching business in just over a year. Having never done it for money. Insane."

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Business Insights and Advice: Keys to Success

Ryan shares several actionable insights for entrepreneurs struggling to scale their businesses:

1. High Marketing Volume:
   Consistently reaching out to a vast audience is crucial. For example, Ryan's method involved sending out thousands of flyers monthly to ensure market saturation.

   Ryan Johnson [31:01]:
   "The biggest things that I've noticed is just like one, low volume. So people think that they're marketing hard, but they're not."

2. Stamina in Marketing Efforts:
   Persistence is vital. Entrepreneurs must maintain their marketing efforts long enough to see tangible results.

   Ryan Johnson [31:44]:
   "The lack of being able to have stamina in marketing... they quit before they get results."

3. Long-Term Thinking:
   Focus on building a customer base that provides recurring revenue, such as service agreements or membership programs.

   Ryan Johnson [33:19]:
   "Most people do it until they're like 20k a month, but they're so focused on short-term gains that they don't think long-term."

4. Service Agreements and Memberships:
   Creating recurring revenue streams stabilizes cash flow and increases business valuation.

   Joshua [20:32]:
   "So yeah, having the coaching business like really motivated me to like, okay, how do we get now to 2 million and continue to grow?"

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Family Life: Balancing Success and Personal Life

Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Ryan has maintained a strong focus on family, emphasizing the importance of intentional time with his children and regular date nights with his wife.

Ryan Johnson [26:03]:
"One of the things that I've done is weekly date night like our life depends on it. We actually just went to a nice steakhouse and we were talking about this last night."

He dedicates scheduled time to his children, recognizing the profound impact of focused, distraction-free interactions.

Ryan Johnson [27:38]:
"Just the intentional time spent with them is really important. ... those 30 minutes to an hour just spent dedicated time with them makes a big difference."

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Overcoming Internal Barriers: Mindset and Belief Systems

Ryan attributes much of his success to a supportive upbringing and the absence of limiting beliefs instilled by his parents. Their unwavering confidence in his decisions provided a foundation for his bold moves.

Ryan Johnson [13:53]:
"My parents didn't have anything negative to say. They believed in me, they're like, okay, cool. Like that sounds good."

He discusses the importance of overcoming "Fear Overwhelm Procrastination Overthinking (FOPO)" to advance in business.

Ryan Johnson [13:53]:
"It's more about unlearning things to move forward than it is about learning new things."

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Final Thoughts: Encouragement and Future Prospects

As the conversation concludes, Joshua commends Ryan for his achievements and offers final encouragement to listeners.

Josh [45:16]:
"Follow his content. He makes it look easy. Everybody. And great inspirational story."

Ryan expresses gratitude for being featured and remains enthusiastic about his ongoing journey.

Ryan Johnson [45:46]:
"It's been an honor to be here and talk with you and stuff. So excited."

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Key Takeaways

• Relentless Action: Consistent, high-volume marketing efforts are essential for scaling a business.
• Long-Term Vision: Building recurring revenue streams through service agreements or memberships stabilizes and enhances business valuation.
• Mindset Matters: Overcoming internal barriers and maintaining a resilient mindset are crucial for sustained success.
• Work-Life Balance: Intentional time with family fosters personal fulfillment and supports professional endeavors.
• Coaching Synergy: Sharing knowledge through coaching not only helps others but also reinforces and enhances one's own business practices.

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Notable Quotes

• Josh [00:05]:
  "Your business is a mental war. Your success is a mental war. And making money is a game. And the game of money starts in your mind."

• Ryan Johnson [08:37]:
  "I have been blessed with the ability to go after my dreams. If I have a game plan and I know this is the next step, I'll go all in."

• Ryan Johnson [31:01]:
  "The biggest things that I've seen after coaching over 100 people is low volume and lack of stamina in marketing."

• Ryan Johnson [36:25]:
  "People want to say they're doing 20k, but they're actually doing more like 10. Net profit."

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Connect with Ryan Johnson

For those inspired by Ryan's journey and seeking to grow their own business, you can follow him on:

• Instagram: @RyanTheWindowCleaner
• Facebook: Search for "Ryan the Window Cleaner" (Note: Due to shadow banning, you might need to navigate carefully or seek mutual connections)

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Conclusion

Ryan Johnson's story is a testament to the power of relentless action, strategic simplicity, and unwavering mindset. His ability to scale a window cleaning business to multi-million dollars while maintaining a thriving coaching program and a happy family serves as an inspiring blueprint for aspiring entrepreneurs. By implementing the strategies and insights shared in this episode, listeners can weaponize their own minds and propel their businesses to new heights.

Transcript

[Josh]

Wake up. Your competition is asleep. It's you against the world. And if you want to win, we need to get a few things straight. Your business is a mental war. Your success is a mental war. And making money is a game. And the game of money starts in your mind. This podcast exists to help you weaponize your brain through advanced marketing mindset and money concepts. To have what others don't, you need to know what others won't. Your future fortune awaits. Welcome to the War Plan podcast. Hey, my friend. Welcome back to the War Plan Podcast. How the heck are you? I hope all of your dreams have come true, but if you're still working on them, keep your head up, that's okay. It takes time. Rome wasn't built in the day. And your dreams are like your miniature version of Rome. And you got to stack the bricks and learn the lessons and all the things. I have a special treat for you because I'm joined by my friend, Ryan Johnson. And when you interview people, you call everyone your friend. You're like, oh, my friend Bill and Sarah and no, Ryan. I've known him for years. He's a young guy, young family guy. He's built a multimillion dollar business from the ground up. He's been to my house in Michigan. He's also our poster child coach inside of our other thing that we do, and it's insane. He's making money, he's changing lives. He still dates his wife, plays with his kids. I think that's amazing. A lot of respect for you, Ryan. Thanks for coming on the show.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, thanks for the invite, Josh. I don't know if you saw. I actually tagged you on Instagram and I posted about coming on this show today and like, what it, what it means to me. I think you know this and we'll probably get into a little bit with my story, but, I mean, I was listening to the Quick Talk podcast before I moved to Phoenix.

[Josh]

That goes way back.

[Ryan Johnson]

You know, it was a part time thing in college and I had started cleaning windows like six months. I was like six months in my small hometown before I figured out I needed to move here. And so it's just full circle to be able to, you know, I was listening to your podcast. What is that? Seven years ago now? And. And to be on it now is. It's an honor.

[Josh]

Yeah, man. I. I actually did see you post that right before I hopped on here to talk to you. And it is cool, you know, and I remember if you want to maybe go with your origin story, you actually had A business like you said, part time in a certain market. You came to our house for an event that we did years ago, I think 2017 or something like that, maybe 2018. And then you switched locations because of something I said or something. Something about the total addressable market and the tam in your market being too small. And I think that's really interesting because you ended up uprooting your family, starting over, but then built a seven figure business really, really fast with this new found motivation. Can you, can you tell us about what happened?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. So just a little background. So I started cleaning windows in college. I planned to go to college to become a dentist and hated college chemistry class was just drove me nuts. Like I just felt like I was learning useless information. Obviously it's not useless but to me it felt useless. And I remember my, my professor just being. I just had a hard time respecting him for whatever reason and it just, I don't know, just hated it. So I had started cleaning windows and I was probably making like I don't know, maybe a thousand dollars a week cleaning windows or probably even less than that. But at the time that felt like a ton of money. Yeah, I actually moved before the automate grow sell experience. So what it was was you ran a event, an online event or webinar.

[Josh]

It was called oh yes Challenge, Close the Gap Workshop.

[Ryan Johnson]

You just did some. Yeah, you just did some quick math as far as like how you could figure out how big your business could get in your area or something along the lines of how many people in your area were above a certain income and then 10% of that is what would be like realistic to capture market share of or whatever. And I'm from a small hometown, it's like 2500 people. The whole valley is about 20,000 people. So probably could have grown a million dollar business there. You know there's million dollar H Vac companies and stuff there. But I just knew pretty quickly that it wasn't going to happen quick and it was going to be hard. Pretty low income, like a lot of middle class people. So this was, I think we watched that in. It was like mid May of 2019. Had that challenge which I don't, I could be wrong on. This has been a while. I'm pretty sure that was like a Tuesday. That Friday my wife and I went to look at houses to rent here in the Phenix Metro and then we moved the following Monday.

[Josh]

Wow.

[Ryan Johnson]

It was like. But as soon as you taught these things she, my wife came home that night. She had like a Job at a supplement company that she didn't enjoy. She was making like, minimum wage. And as soon as she got home, I was like, babe, we have to move. Like, we have to, like, it's not, it's not a choice because I just felt this, like, burning inside my heart that that was the right thing to do. And so we did. So that was May of 2019. We didn't know it at the time, but my wife was just barely pregnant when we moved. So the plan was for her to, like, get a job and, you know, she could work a little bit while I grew this business. And then she applied for a few jobs, didn't hire, so she decided to work with me. And then a couple months later, she was too pregnant to help. So that was my like, back against the wall moment is, you know, we're going through summer in Arizona, which is our slowest season, and my wife's pregnant, can't really help me put out flyers or whatever anymore. Although she did throughout the summer, but in the summer she was too pregnant to help. And so it was like, I got to figure this out. So I did. I think we had our first $10,000 a month. The. I believe it was the month my daughter was born, which was January of 2020, like right before the world shut down. And then 2020 is our first full year. By our third full year, which was 2022, we had done $1 million. We did like 1.2 million in 2022. So it was really just that back against the wall thing that just like, I didn't have any other choice, so I just had to make it happen, so.

[Josh]

Well, it was really easy though, right? Like, there's no challenges. You didn't write hard. You just did four hour work week. Is that how you built a million dollar business so fast?

[Ryan Johnson]

It's just right. I remember back then we would, my wife and I, we followed like Dave Ramsey, which I think Dave Ramsey teaches some cool stuff and some of his stuff is obviously not the best for, for business owners. But we did the little thing where we would put money in envelopes to pay for our bills. Yep, we did that when we moved. I didn't understand that our seasonality was going to be the opposite of most of the country where our summers were going to be really tough because we get Arizona monsoons. We get really bad wind and dust storms, and it's pretty bizarre. You can like see miles of dust coming at you in the distance in the desert. So our summers are really slow. And I remember towards the End of the summer, I think that August we had like a $2,500 month and we had had a $5,000 month prior in June I think. And I remember we put these, the money in, in these envelopes. We were trying to stay about six weeks ahead on our bills and I remember thinking like we had the money in there and I remember sitting down and thinking like we're gonna make it. Like we have six weeks worth of bills, we're gonna get through summer and we're gonna make it. Because before then I was like I don't know if this is gonna work. I don't know if I'm have to move back into my parents house, like go get a job somewhere.

[Josh]

But the math wasn't mathing.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, I don't, and I don't know how we made it because we moved with like no money hardly and we had more personal bills that month, that month of August than we brought in, in revenue. But somehow we made it work.

[Josh]

I love freaking stories like this because I mean there, I don't know where I want to start, but I love stories like this because it's real, it's gritty, it's fun to tell in hindsight, but when you're living it, not that fun. I know because I had a story like this. I was a pizza guy in the trailer park, had not like I get it. Walk me through like how you succeeded. Okay. Because there's something about that I've noticed with you specifically just to encourage other maniacs out there. There's something about like the level of action you take that's disproportionate compared to most people. I don't know if you're just crazy, if you just like to take more risk or something. But like you just do stuff. Even when you started coaching and like you hadn' coached for money and started like mentoring and training and you, you did it, you're consistent, you pushed it, you're killing it with that. And it happens so fast. And so this is a pattern with you. Is it possible to reverse engineer? What about you makes this possible so that people can learn from it? What do you think?

[Ryan Johnson]

I, I don't know. And I don't want to sit up here and tell you I'm you know, the greatest ever or whatever. I, I think one thing I've been blessed with like since birth is the ability to like go after my dreams. I just kind of need to know what I need to do, like if I have a game plan and I know like this is the next step I need to take, I'll go all in. So like early on for us it was your flyer method, which I now teach to all of my group. Handwritten price on the same houses over and over. 10,000 homes a month. Like I knew the game plan. So then it was, I adopted this mindset that I'm out putting out flyers or I'm cleaning windows and that's all I do with my time. You know, obviously I was coming home at 5 or 6pm and spending some time with my wife and. But during working hours, like that's literally all I did.

[Josh]

What's awesome about that is you didn't. Maybe you don't overcomplicate something that's clear and simple, that works. I think a lot of people do that. I mean you're working with a lot of small business owners now too and you can, you can give them like two little simple things and will turn it into 18 complicated things. It's like. But did you do the two simple things? Well, yeah, but I was thinking about the subsection. Three point inverse flux capacitor, reverse ball bearing on a second Tuesday of a full blood moon. What about that? And they're like in their head or something instead of doing the ugly basic stuff. Is that what you've seen as well?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. I mean even with that method, I'll give people like a whole training on it and then they come back to me and they're like, okay, I'm gonna do it, but I need to wait till my logo's perfect or like till the card is perfect. And I'm like, no, just launch version one now.

[Josh]

No one cares about your logo except your mom and that's it. Right?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. And obviously over time your logo is going to be important and like building a good brand is super important, but just getting started, like it really doesn't matter.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

So yeah, I would agree. Just like you just need to start with version one, get that out and then you know, by the time it's time to order the next ones, then we have version two ready and it's better and it looks better and it'll probably convert better. Get a lot more out of doing.

[Josh]

Just the other thing with like boots on the ground marketing, like the good old fashioned flyer method. You know, people get distracted with like AI this and fancy tool software automation this. And it's like the reality is, is if you have, like, if you, if you have a desire to build a million dollar business fast, that's all you need is one simple lever like that an analog old school boots in the ground, Boots in the ground method. You can do it with that. People just don't for some reason. But it requires great volume. Like, people pass out 500 flyers and think they did something. It's like, no, no. 50,000, like orders of magnitude more than you think is required. And you must have just been stacking the volume of it. Right. And then to. To. Because to hit that much, especially after Covid, there's a compound effect of that much volume of consistent marketing. It starts to pop. Is that what happened with you guys?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, we were doing 10,000amonth, my wife helping early, and then, you know, over time, it turned into me and then my first tech helping, tons of volume. And then, yeah, people hold onto them. Eventually they start calling, so. So that's when it starts to work. I think a lot of people get discouraged when, you know, like, they, like you said, they put out their first 500 and maybe they didn't get a call. That's why it's like, no, we got to put out 10,000amonth. We got to put them on the same houses over and over, and that's when it's going to work. Like, it can't not work.

[Josh]

Yeah, exactly. Myron golden says. He says that all work works. There's two types of work. The work that you do on it and the work that it does on you. And if you didn't get a goosebump, go rewind this and listen to it again. Because you didn't get what I just said. Because you become a different person by volumes of hard things. You know, our family slogan is do hard things. I have a huge poster on the wall over here. It changes you. I mean, do you think that's true? And don't just agree with me to agree with me on the podcast, but, like, are you leveled up right now because of the hard things and choices and grind that you did? Can you see that for sure?

[Ryan Johnson]

I think. I think for me, it goes back a long ways. Like, I. I played high school basketball. I coach high school basketball now. And I don't come from, like, an athletic family at all, but I was able to turn into one of the best high school basketball players in, like, in our division, in the whole state, because I just put in a ton of work. So that's one thing I feel like I've been blessed with. I don't know how to, like, teach this or train it to someone, but, like, once I get my mindset on something, I'm able To work hard and go get that thing. And then over time, as I've done that over and over, it becomes easier. And I think that's why, you know, our coaching business grew as fast as it did is because I had, you know, some guidance to what I needed to do and then just like worked hard to make it happen.

[Josh]

So yeah, I mean it sounds simple, but there's something profound there. Like I wish I could interview your parents at the same time as I'm interviewing you right now. Because there's something they did that set you up. And probably part of what they did was not installing a bunch of false beliefs and fear inside you. Because a lot of people, you'll start noticing it now. It's just like how hesitant they are to do very simple things. And it's because of weird beliefs. Childhood programming, FOPO as we call it. You know, fear overwhelm, procrastination, overthinking. I'm sure that you're a regular person that has FOPO too sometimes, but the degree at which some people have it is completely paralyzing. It's more about like unlearning things to move forward than it is about learning new things. In a case like that. What are your thoughts?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, I would agree. My parents, I think are a big part of it. My dad is 62, I think, and he has worked hard manual labor his whole life. Like up at 4:30 in the morning at work, hard manual labor till he comes home. So I think for me the hard working aspect comes from him. And the, the other thing I'm grateful for is like when I, you know, within a week decided we were going to move and bring this business here and start over, my parents didn't have anything negative to say. Maybe they had negative thoughts, I don't know. But because they believed in me, they're like, okay, cool. Like that sounds good. Whereas like for example, my in laws, it's a completely different thing. It's like, are you sure you want to do that? Like everything could go wrong. Or like multiple people that I talk to in the community like, oh, that's probably not going to work. Do people actually pay you to clean windows? But that's one thing I'm super grateful for. And now that you bring it up, it's just that my parents were like, cool, sounds good. Like how can we help you move? It wasn't necessarily like money from them or anything like that, but it was confidence from them that sure, you're a.

[Josh]

Grown adult, it's huge. Especially when you're not 100 confident like you are. But then like an hour later you're like, am I an idiot? Am I doing, am I ruining my life? No, I got this 100 and you like in this uncertainty, we need to borrow other people's certainty. So having parents or even people like in your mastermind or. That's why having a business coach can be valuable. It's like borrowing certainty. Borrowing certainty so you can move forward faster. Okay, well, tell me a little bit about this coaching thing. What's it been like for you and what have you learned so far from it? Working with other people. The good, bad, the ugly. You know, promoting yourself out there on the Internet and you promote pretty aggressively. Really. I mean, you're just out there doing it. What are some of the big lessons you've learned so far on that journey? Because you got another seven figure business with that now, which is insane. So unpack that a little bit.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yep. So it's happened a little quicker than, than I anticipated or, you know, didn't really know it was possible. We launched, I think we launched June of last year. So it's a little over a year. I've got a little over 60 people in the group now. Did a little over 80k last month. So on pace to be, you know, a seven figure business and continuing to grow up month after month. What I've learned from it, man. So one, like a lot of my time is spent now coaching others. I think I've learned. I've heard you say this before and I. And I've found it to be true. I think I've learned as much about business in the last year coaching other people as I have growing my own business. Just the way that people think and the way to deal with like different personalities. And you brought up risk tolerance earlier. I feel like I've always been blessed with like having a very high risk tolerance because I just don't care. Like, you know, if everything goes wrong, then so be it. But learning to like teach people who have a low risk tolerance has been rewarding to me. Like learning how to kind of get into their brains and what they're thinking and know how to best help them based on yes or they're at and what they're willing to do. I feel like it's just helped me to be able to learn how to communicate better. And then like, you're right. Posting a lot. We're spending like ten grand a month on ads right now. So there's a ton of like, I mean there's negative comments Every single day.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

You know, people calling me fat, which I'm not fat. So this is just like weird, weird stuff like that.

[Josh]

They're calling you fat. I'm in trouble when I start running more ads, bro, it's not gonna be.

[Ryan Johnson]

That's like, it's like common. It's like once a week I get a, I get a fat comment.

[Josh]

The Internet's not real. It's like, it's like, I don't know, it's. It feels like a video game kind of. I struggle with it. You know, it's always been hard for me because I actually do care what people think and it holds you back. And like, the less you do, the way that I'm not trying to not care is by viewing it as a video game full of NPCs and like every troll, you get like a point or a level up or something on my character or something. But yeah, that, that's kind of wild. When you, a minute ago you said you've learned a lot by teaching other people. I heard, I think it's an Albert Einstein quote. But he said if you can't explain your ideas to a six year old, then you don't understand them. And I think it's true that like, one of the best ways to learn is to teach. Because when you re articulate things that you know, you know them more after you re articulate them, it kind of forces you to like have mastery over something that you thought you had mastery over. And in my experience as well, I don't know if this happened to you. It also puts this positive pressure on you to like run your own core business tighter. And not that any business is perfect because none of them are, but it feels weird to talk about something that you haven't fully dialed here. And so it puts it. I don't know, there's like this beautiful tension. And you're making money, you're helping people, but it's still affecting your core service business probably in a good way, I would assume. What do you think?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. So over the last few years, our, our growth has been slower. In my window cleaning business, we went from like 1.2 million 1.35 to 1.5 over the course of like 2022 to 23 to 24. And I feel like having the coaching business has like, motivated me to take it to the next level and fix things. Like, for example, I started teaching everybody the flyer method that I learned from you initially. And then people started doing 20k a month from this lever alone. So I'M like, why are we not doing this in my business anymore? So I've like hired a flyer team. One of the big things I figured out, I've talked to you a little bit about this over the last like year is service agreements and like starting to sell like a membership program as a window cleaning company. And that's been like the biggest game changer. We April. This past April was one year since we launched our membership program. And we started April 1st with 61,000 on the schedule on April 1st for April and like 50 of that 60 was just service plans. So it's just quarterly biannual cleanings that were just repeating.

[Josh]

So are these, are they paying you monthly for this service agreement? Is that how it works?

[Ryan Johnson]

We could do that. We initially did did that, but it felt like it added a little bit of friction in the buying process because we had to like create a certain invoice and then send it over to them and then they pay it. So we've, we're just mostly billing at service. There's kind of a couple ways to do that and there are people doing it that way. But I feel like having the coaching business like really motivated me to like, okay, how do we get now to 2 million and continue to grow? And as I continue to grow this, it helps the coaching business and vice versa.

[Josh]

So yeah, yeah, so especially so you have over half a million dollars in like reoccurring pre scheduled work.

[Ryan Johnson]

So it's not 50 every month, it's at about 3:40 right now. 340k is our annual recurring revenue.

[Josh]

Yeah, that's pretty, pretty huge though. Because if you do want to exit your business, you know, you and I both know that matters. And that gives you an argument for a much higher valuation to have a little bit more stability baked in. Plus that's the way of the world. Like believe it or not, I'm not just saying this, but when I sold my cleaning company in 2015, one of the last big projects that I never fully finished because we sold was selling subscription window cleaning residentially. I thought it was like obviously the way of the future and like it sort of was. I think it would have been a little early then, but you know, we live in a Netflix, Amazon prime, you know, Spotify subscription world or having memberships. And now today I teach people like the importance of creating what I call a captive customer. And that's what you're doing. I think that's huge because when someone's a Diamond member or whatever or they get their punch card punched as Part of your subscription program, whatever. It doesn't matter how you lay it out in their mind, they've solved that window cleaning problem permanently. They're like, oh, that's solved now versus I got a flyer. It's cleaned once by. It's like, no, I'm part of this thing and that problem solved. So you create a captive customer, which is enormously valuable to your business. And so is that one of the core secrets you're teaching inside of your coaching now is how people can do that?

[Ryan Johnson]

For sure. It's like, it's definitely a thing that people are interested in. Something I've been thinking about for five years but just never implemented. Josh, have you heard of Green Mango Pest Control? Have you heard of that company?

[Josh]

I, I have heard of that. I don't know much of. Why, why have I heard. It kind of freaks me out that you said that. I know it. I don't know why I know it.

[Ryan Johnson]

So, so it's a, it's the largest pest control company in Phoenix and it's. They have a sister company that's a carpet cleaning company called Coconut Cleaning, which is where I learned from the owner there. I learned a lot of our like membership program we have based on what they're doing. Anyways, green mango, they 24 million a year in revenue. They just sold for a hundred million dollars. So the owner, Cameron bought in, had a hundred million dollar paycheck to exit, and the reason is they had 20, 000 people on a service agreement.

[Josh]

Wow.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. Doing 24 million a year in revenue. So I had a major, major buyout because of the membership program. And it's been normal in the pest control industry for, for years now. It just hasn't been normal in exterior cleaning or in window cleaning. So that's one thing that I'm working on is like making that normal. It just makes everything so much easier.

[Josh]

Yeah, man. Well, let's go more advanced for a second because if you're at 1.5 right now, if we can get your business and you're in a market big enough to potentially support maybe with a satellite location or something, what, 3 to 5 million window cleaning? Is that what you think?

[Ryan Johnson]

Probably even more, honestly. I mean, we're.

[Josh]

So if we can get to five though, and you have like at least a million in EBITDA or profit, what's crazy is like your business is worth nothing. When you started it, then you did a bunch of stuff. You hit 1.2, probably reinvested a lot in equipment and scale and growth and wraps and all that. So it wasn't worth a ton, but it had a foundation. But if you make like once your business has a foundation like that, you can make three or four serious moves in like 10x. The value of the company really fast. And private equity are buying service businesses like freaking hotcakes. It's like out of control. And that story you told me doesn't surprise me for the 100 million because I have countless stories like that. There's actually a guy on the east coast that's a friend of one of my friends that sold for almost 200 million. In the pest control business? No, he was in the lawn fertilization business. But it's the same business model. It's a low ticket subscription thing, tons of revenue and they're paying 20 or 30 x multiples if your E gets big enough. I think that's insane, right? Because how old are you, Ryan? You're like 17, right?

[Ryan Johnson]

I'm 27. So 27 off by 10 years.

[Josh]

27. It's amazing to think another friend of mine, Bennett Grove, he's been here at the studio, but he had a huge exit from his business. I won't say no much. I'm sworn to secrecy, but he was telling me like what it felt like when like a wire transfer hit his account. And it's like it's. It breaks your brain, right? It's like you do all these flyers and all this hustle and all this stuff above in your coaching, but if you get it to a certain level of profit, especially if you have service agreements, you don't have to work ever again. And you could be like 28 and a half or 30 or something. That's. Do you think about that?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, I don't really know what the end goal is. I, I would say the end goal may have changed over this last year with the coaching business blowing up the way it has and just the, the leverage in the. I think about it, I don't know. I don't know what my goal is or, you know, where it's going over the next five to 10 years. But it continues to grow and as it grows, it helps my coaching business. And I think exit at some point is probably going to make sense.

[Josh]

Yeah, I see, I see such a bright future for what you're doing. And it's one of my other favorite parts is your family guy. So tell me about your family a little bit. Do you guys have some cool family systems? How do you hold it all together? You have to play with your kids, but you're busy and you're working. What's that look like for the Johnson family? Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yep. So we've got our, our five year old daughter, her name's Layla. She just started kindergarten. So she's the one that was born right before COVID hit. We have a three year old son named Bentley. And then we have a May, June, July, August, 15 month old. Her name is Scarlett. So one of the things that I've done so one is my wife and I have weekly date night like our life depends on it. We actually just went to a nice steakhouse and we were actually talking about this last night because we spent like 300 on dinner last night.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

And I remember when we would go out to get snow cones and that was like a big treat for us back in the day. Like we, we did, we did good today and we made some revenue so we can go get snow cones. And then yesterday we, I mean we had a 300 dinner like it was nothing. But that's one thing we do is weekly date night. Like our life depends on. It happens. I mean if there's 52 weeks in a year we, it's 51 weeks. We're probably doing a date night. We might miss one a year. So that's the first one. I'll actually schedule time on my calendar to spend time with my kids. I'm not perfect at it and it sounds weird to even say that, like I'm scheduling in time with my kids. But for me, like just the intentional time spent with them is really important. And I've noticed that like they don't even want to spend a ton of time with me, but they do want to spend like focused phone away like time with me, you know, playing. And like for my son, maybe it's like we're just going and playing with cars or whatever he likes to do. But I've noticed just those 30 minutes to an hour just spent dedicated time with them makes a big difference, bro.

[Josh]

You know I'm obsessed with this topic, right?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yep.

[Josh]

Do you ever notice like the whole attitude, demeanor, energy, continents of your children changes just by doing that focus 30 minute thing? It's like, it's almost like it fills up their gas tank and they calm down and they're more polite and they're like, they just shift. It's crazy. The role of a father doing that. And again, it's not like you said perfectly. It's not, it's not about being proximity wise close to your kids for copious amounts of time. It's about like high Concentrated, focused, non distracted. Get into their world time. Like, I'll sit down with Judah. She's our seven year old. And we'll play Minecraft and just build stuff for an hour. And it's. It's amazing, right? But like it's her and us and talking about this and the weird thing we're building the cave we're digging and, or Legos or go throw rocks in the river. It's crazy what it does to me. It's like the biggest ROI thing you could ever do as a dad is what you just described.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. Especially our son Bentley. He's three. He's. He's been our. Definitely our most difficult child.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

Like constantly like hitting and scratching and like. But he does those things when he needs attention. So, like we're able to just go play with him. Like, he just acts better, he's happier. And I get super frustrated with him when he's always like hitting me and stuff. But then I real. When I remember, like, I just need to go spend some time with him. Like he just needs some time with dad or he just needs some time with mom. Like, it makes the biggest difference. So I'm not perfect at it. Still get frustrated with him. So get mad at him.

[Josh]

Yeah. Yeah, me neither. When my oldest is 18 now and when he was three is when I started doing, you know, Maverick Monday. All the those weekly days. I think it was the best family system ever. I agree on date night too. Are you guys doing any, like, family identity system stuff? You know, like having a family logo or core values as Johnson's or.

[Ryan Johnson]

We haven't. We probably should.

[Josh]

That's the next level. It's like create the Johnson Manifesto. Have you seen the Latimer Manifesto?

[Ryan Johnson]

I've seen it. Yeah.

[Josh]

It's Latimer Birthright is what we call it. But it's like, I'm a child of God. I am here for greatness. I will do hard things. I will read God's word. I like, it's got all these epic proclamations and you get your kids kind of like, I don't know. I think the whole thing's awesome. And really the purpose of business is to serve our families and serve the people we're called to serve. And that's the purpose of profit. That's the purpose of abundance, in my opinion. And by the way, my opinion's right. Just saying. Tell me a little bit. I want to shift a little bit and talk about. Based on your coaching experience so far the last year, I want to do like a lightning Round of what are people doing wrong? How can they get unstuck? What are some moves they can make, thoughts they can think, systems they can build, whatever to just move the needle. And I'm going to talk for 20 seconds more so you can prep your brain on this question that I'm blindsiding you with. But what do you say to just good hearted people fighting the good fight? It ain't working. They're struggling. Are they mismanaging their time? Is it they don't understand their numbers? What do they do? How do they increase their profit? What did they do? Should they quit? Should they get a real job? That's what some of these people are thinking. Give us some rapid fire, off the cuff advice for this person.

[Ryan Johnson]

I'd say the biggest things that I've seen after coaching, you know, 100 plus people, you always talk about how you've coached thousands of people. I'm past 100 now, so, so I can start saying that. The biggest things I think that I've noticed is just like one low volume. So people think that they're marketing hard, but they're not. Nobody knows them. And that's, that's the problem is they're just, they're just not getting in enough people's faces. A lot of them worry about like, oh, if I go put out that many flyers, people are going to call me and be mad that I littered on their door or whatever. So just like fear of things like that and doing too low volume. And then two, this is something you talk about a lot, but I see it over and over again is like the lack of being able to have stamina in marketing.

[Josh]

Oh yeah, like they quit the band before they get the record deal. It's like the marketing maybe was about to start working soon, but they start and stop and they're like epileptic in the way that they do it and they can't stick with it, right?

[Ryan Johnson]

So I tell people this all the time, like before you get to 20k, don't run Facebook ads. And everybody wants to. That's like what they want to do. They're like making five grand. They're like, oh, I should start running Facebook ads now. What people don't realize is most often if they're doing it right, they're not going to get a return quickly on Facebook ads. So the right way to do it is to run a foot and door offer that's hard to say no to. And you have a good upsell process in place and you have a good service agreement in place. And you're texting them every month for the next 10 years, getting them back. And that's where the value is. Like, I ran a report the other day in my CRM sales by Marketing Source. Over the last five years, since 2020, we've done over $2 million directly from Facebook. But our monthly ROI from Facebook isn't good. It's like maybe we'll spend 2K and we'll get 4K out and by the time we, I mean we'll expend more than that. But just as an example, by the time we go service it, we didn't make any money. But I think that's the biggest problem that most people do is they're not willing to like think long term because. Which makes sense. Like they don't. That's why I don't think that they should do it until they're, you know, 20k a month or so because they have a little bit of money to play with. But they're so focused on like, I spent 2,000, I booked for, I went serviced it actually lost money this month. But they're not thinking about, okay, this customer, we're going to sell them Christmas lights every year. They're going to be on a quarterly window cleaning. This customer is going to pass $10,000 over the next five years. And that's where the money is.

[Josh]

I feel like slow clapping right now. Yeah, I mean, amateurs focus on the front end, professionals focus on the.

[Ryan Johnson]

Yep.

[Josh]

So that's the classic trope. Have you ever heard that, like certain, is it Japanese or Chinese businessmen have 500 year business plans. Did you know that?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, I've heard that.

[Josh]

Like Google it, it's a real thing. I, I think it's kind of crazy to have a 500 year business plan, but at the same time it's kind of genius too. Like, if you're going to have a bias, don't bias towards today, bias towards the future, the legacy. You know, it's just so hard to do when you're like, it is, it is. And actually it's unreasonable to ask someone to do it too early. Like if they're in survival crisis mode. We just have to like put the fire out and like get started and build a foundation. So, you know, like the orphan. You heard me talk about orphan sons and kings.

[Ryan Johnson]

I don't think so, no.

[Josh]

Well, it's like, it's actually a biblical reference. But these business owners that are doing, you know, they're just scraping by and getting going, they have an orphan mentality and that's not condescending. I mean, I still have parts of myself that are an orphan right now, right? That's why I struggle with my weight. There's like, false beliefs. There's things, right, that aren't figured out yet. But when it comes to money, a lot of people have an orphan mentality. And so orphans can't think long term. They only think in terms of survival. And they think essentially 24 hours at a time. You know, it's like, how do I. How do I solve the problem right now? My tummy grumbling right now? Or how do I, you know, survive? You know, how do I not die or get eaten by the saber tooth tiger? Because that's what it feels like. Someone's trying to eat you every day. Remember when you first started your business? It's like you feel like something's running after you and you have to outrun it. And that's kind of normal. But then what happens is people graduate into a certain measure of security and comfort. I call that the son daughter phase. You know, think of the Israelites like when they were slaves in Egypt. That the slave part, that's the orphan. But then they got delivered by Moses and they lived in the wilderness for 40 years. And that's the son daughter phase, because they were actually protected in the wilderness. God totally protected them, killed the bad guys, gave them clothes, gave them food every day, like, rained down food from heaven. You know, talk about, like, manna and stuff. It's totally insane. And so. And they'd still complain. They'd wander out there complaining they didn't have to hunt, they have to get their own food, they'd have to make their own clothes. They had nothing was going to eat them. They're just chilling. And that's what businesses do when they get kind of. And like a. It's good enough rhythm for a long time. And like, what you step into and what I'm always trying to encourage people to step into is the king queen mindset, which is when you go to the promised land. The thing about the promised land, though, is it requires you to fight. It requires you to slay. There's. There's giants in the promised land. And people think like, oh, God is destined me for a great life. It's like, I agree, and you're gonna have to knock down some Goliaths to take dominion over it or it's not gonna happen. And I got way off track there and worked it. I'm passionate about that. And I think you're right. They need to think Long term, they need to think like a king. Right. Stop acting like an orphan all the time. What are your thoughts?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, I think that's why it's important that if the goal is to build a big business, to get out of that, like 500k a year spot as soon as possible. Because you get there and it's like, you can feed your family now, but you're probably only bringing home 50k on it. You know, people want to probably say that they're doing 20, but they're probably doing more like 10. Net profit.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

And it's a company, they have all.

[Josh]

Used trucks and they have to change one transmission per month and there's the rest of your profit, you know?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, exactly. But they get stuck right in that range and they stop growing. They're losing as many customers as they're getting new. And it just gets kind of comfortable. You kind of stop doing your boots on ground stuff that got you to where you're getting where you are. So that's why I, I tell, I just tell that to people all the times. They'll come in and maybe they're doing like 250 to 500k and I'll let them know, like, you're in the hardest part of business, in my opinion. Because early, like, it's hard, but it's like, exciting still. It's like I go out and I do this thing and then the phone rings and it like gives you this dopamine hit and it's like, exciting. Then you get into that range and it's like, oh, this sucks. You know, putting out flyers.

[Josh]

And Mike Dalkey calls it cash flow purgatory and that. Like. Well, I think with inflation, it's like the 300 to $600,000 range. But that's semantics. I'm just saying I agree 100% with the range you said. Mike calls it cash flow purgatory because nothing's really fully optimized. Like, you're not maxing out capacity you don't have. Like, maybe you have a shop that you're paying two or three thousand a month for, but you're not. Like, like you could do 4 million from that same lease payment of that square footage of a shop, but you're doing a half a million, paying the normal price for the lease. And so there's like inefficiencies, right? You don't have the opposite of whatever the economy is, the scale, whatever the opposite of that is. So it's like, there's lots of revenue happening, but there's no Money. And you don't understand why. And it's so discouraging that people just settle for less. They're like, all right, I guess I won't get a bass boat. I'm just going to be grateful for what I have. And they stop pushing, bro. They start. Do you have any older. Not older people, like they're old, but older people in your program? Like maybe 40, 50 year olds, 60 year olds that have had a family business for a long time and they're in that range. Have you. Have you ran across people?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, a ton of them. It's like, I would say it's probably the most common.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

Range where people are looking for help. Because early it's like they're figuring it out, you know, they're doing their thing. But you get in that range and it's like, whatever I've been doing is not working.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Ryan Johnson]

Like, I need to figure out what's next. So I'd say the most common.

[Josh]

It reminds me of another thing I'd like your opinion on. So sometimes I'll teach this, as I call it, units of pain. But like, I think you and I can both agree that, like, going from zero dollars to a half a million, it's really hard. It's like, takes tons of efforts, like pushing a rock up a hill. Right. Assuming you don't have a trust fund, you don't have an unlimited black Amex and mommy and daddy's money. But if you're just starting from scratch, it's hard. Right. Do you agree with that?

[Ryan Johnson]

For sure?

[Josh]

So let's label achieving 500k and all of the effort that got us there, we'll label that as like 82 units of pain. Like, it takes. It costs 82 units of pain to get this result. And I think what happens subconsciously is people falsely assume. Well, and they're doing this subconsciously. Like, oh, so to get to half a million was 82 units of pain. That means to get to a million will be 164 units of pain. I'll die at 90 units of pain. I'm just going to stay here. And that's kind of what's happening. But what they don't understand. And maybe you can elaborate on this, but it flips. It's easier to run a $1.5 million business than it is to run a $500,000. The units of pain go down and the personal profit goes up. It's like there's like this quit zone and then it flips. And it flips right around that cash Flow purgatory range at 5, 600,000, it depends. And they never get there, but they're like two feet from gold. What are your thoughts on that?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah, I mean, it makes me think of that. Everybody's seen that picture of, you know, the guy with the ax, and he's like, right by the gold and he quits and. Yeah, that's what I think of when I see a 500k business. Because I think a lot of times at that stage, like, you'd be surprised. I mean, you wouldn't be surprised because you. You've done this with thousands of people. But what surprises me still is how often somebody's in that stage and they've, like, never sent a text to their customer list. They've never sent an email out. They've never done any phone calls. They're just, like, waiting for their customers to call them, and then they're doing the same things they've been doing to bring in 300k a year and new revenue. But what they don't realize is they're.

[Josh]

Allergic to money or something. I don't know.

[Ryan Johnson]

But, I mean, it goes back to frap, right? Just increasing frequency. It's like, okay, how can we get a text blast structure in place? We're hitting these people up every single month. We're getting 5, 10k a month back on the schedule just by doing that. How can we start to sell these service agreements so that we're getting another 5, 10k a month stacked up on that? And that's how you easily go from 500k to a million. For us, it was. I knew I wanted to get out of that stage as soon as possible. So that first full year of 2020, we did 250. Next year we did 700 and. And then the next year we did 1.2. So for me, I feel like I didn't have to be in that cash flow purgatory spot for long because I just knew that I needed to move fast to get to where I wanted to get.

[Josh]

Well, you did it the right way. I tell people to do it the way that you did it, but, like, one out of 200 people do what you did, to be honest. And I've heard it said, stay small or go big. Don't go in the middle. And most of these people are actually living for decades in the middle, which is the hardest, worst part. It's actually awesome to have, like, a $100,000 business with, like, no staff and you're just an art and you make good money. You can make Your own terms, like, it's not really a business, but that's awesome compared to working a job, right? And then what you're doing is awesome. But that middle part, it's not that awesome. So like you gotta blow through that thing quick. Get it, don't let. It's like when you walk on hot coals. You just like, hurry up and get through it. Get to a million. Hurry up.

[Ryan Johnson]

You actually saw on my Facebook today, it was a year ago today. You probably remember this, we went and we stayed a month in Hawaii. This was really before I started, like, yeah, yeah. This is like right before I really started pushing the coaching business. Had a few coaching clients, but didn't like run any ads yet or anything. And I did that one. We just wanted to do that. But I did that mostly because I just wanted to see how my team did. It's like I've got all the managers in place. Like everything runs pretty well without me. How does it work if I leave for four months, for four weeks?

[Josh]

That's the truth.

[Ryan Johnson]

Came back more money than when I left. Everything went well. Like no major problems. Obviously everything wasn't perfect. Like there I was still needed, you know, for some questions here and there. But that was my like, sign that, okay, I've grown this, you know, seven figure, healthy business that pays me without me working and now I can move on to something that I enjoy doing. Or you can, I don't know, you could just chill at this point too. That's not what I'm gonna do. But I mean, at 1.5 you should be making 2,300k a year. Like you're good when you get there. Anything else above that's like, great, we can make more money. But like, you're good.

[Josh]

Well, and even with your coaching business, because you've, you've definitely invested a lot in ads, which, you know, isn't necessary for people that want to do 5,10,000amonth in coaching or something. But you're going big because you're a maniac. You're thinking long term. Because what's going to happen is there's going to come a time when you can just not do that if you choose. And it's just reoccurring revenue and you're helping people and it's just even more wealth for your family and your three kids. It's awesome. It's more trips to Hawaii. It's, I don't know, buy a bunch of bitcoin or something or some weird crypto or don't. This isn't Financial. But I'm just saying it gives you options and you're so young and this is just the beginning for you, Ryan. Like it's insane when I think about what you'll be capable of and what the 35 year old and the 45 and the 50 year old version of Ryan Johnson looks like. I think you're awesome. Super, super bromance happening here. I'm proud of you. How can people, maybe there's window cleaners listening to this and they need to sign up with your coaching yesterday. How do they get in contact with you? How do people follow you? Where should they go?

[Ryan Johnson]

I'd say the best thing is probably Instagram. Although I'm a little shadow banned on Instagram right now. Posting too much or I don't know. But like when somebody goes to follow me, it like tells them like you sure you want to follow this? Like make sure it's safe.

[Josh]

Really?

[Ryan Johnson]

Yeah. And it like locks me out of my Facebook. I had to pay somebody to like help me recover my Facebook account.

[Josh]

I'm a text Mark Zuckerberg real quick.

[Ryan Johnson]

Right. But just kidding anyways, Facebook or Instagram's good. So Ryan Johnson is a very common name on Facebook. Might be hard to find but we probably have mutual friends. It's a picture me and all like the reach window cleaning trucks or on Instagram at Ryan the window cleaner is just great way to get a hold.

[Josh]

Of me at Ryan the window Cleaner. Follow his content. He makes it look easy. Everybody. And great inspirational story. Brand new business directly into Covid pain and suffering. Massive volume of boots on the ground. Simple analog things. Stacked results. Hit a million in three years. Built a million dollar coaching business in just over a year. Having never done it for money. Insane. We're so proud to have you in our world, Ryan. And if you have a final word of encouragement or closing thought or quote, say it now and I'll let you go.

[Ryan Johnson]

Awesome. I just want to say thanks for having me on Josh. I don't, I don't think I have anything else but it's been an honor to be here and talk with you and stuff. So excited.

[Josh]

Sounds good. Take care everybody. Do you want to weaponize your brain and turn it into a money, money making machine? Consider joining Warplan Coaching. You'll get thousands of dollars in exclusive courses and training, a private community, a chance to come to in person meetups at Warplan Studios and access to myself for Q and A every single month. Want to know the best part? It's free. Plus we'll send you a private weekly newsletter full of money making tips and cutting edge ideas. Just go to warplan.com to sign up. Hey, I'm your biggest fan. Fan. I'm rooting for you. We'll see you next time.