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- [00:02]
A
This is to the Point a Rhino experience voted one of the top home services, marketing and operations podcasts. Cutting through the. And getting to the point. Hey, what's up to the Point, listeners. It's your boy Chris. We've got an exciting episode today. Why? Because Chad is not on here to interrupt everything and throw up, make us go sideways and probably make the podcast go longer than it should, you know, because you know how he likes to just talk non stop. Chad does. Our guest knows that pretty well. We've got Alyssa Rogers on the podcast today, who's vice president of Rogers Heating and Cooling out in South Boston. Not that Boston, Virginia. For Virginia. Way different market. Way different market. Much smaller market than Boston. An old beantown. I have excited to have you on the podcast.
- [00:55]
B
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
- [00:57]
A
Yeah, I know we had a really good conversation when I got to kind of learn a little bit about your story and kind of the come up with you and Joey and the business and like the vision and it's. It's an exciting one today because you're gonna have some doubters on this podcast today.
- [01:11]
B
I am a lot of doubters.
- [01:13]
A
And we're gonna just hit it head on. And. And I'm gonna be honest, I'm actually excited because we didn't really dig into. We didn't dig into the part that we're gonna have the haters, you know, the doubt. Not even haters. Doubters. Right. We're gonna call them doubters. We're gonna dig in that part because I'm curious to hear what it is too. And the downside to Chad not being on here is that vision that you have. He's passed that vision and I would love to have gotten his feedback on it. But since we're recording this the week of Thanksgiving, Chad is on the beach down in Florida with the family, know, having some Chad time. So good for him. Yeah, good for him. So I'm excited to have you on here as it sits today for the listeners again, Alyssa's vice president Rogers Heating and killing, about a $10 million business or so. You know, today I think 40, 45, you know, people, something around there, I think a staff rise. Did I get that right?
- [02:06]
B
Yes, you're right.
- [02:07]
A
Okay, cool. Also a podcaster.
- [02:11]
B
Yes.
- [02:12]
A
Yeah. And, but, but, you know, maybe not so much in like, our industry. Like, hey, like what I'm doing, it's more, it's different. And I, I understand what you're doing. It's called hello, hello. And I did watch a Few episodes. And I understand why you do it. You're very outgoing. But you know what's interesting is that it you kind of what you're basically doing is going around and featuring other local businesses. And the way I look at this is. So I also own some people, man might not know this. I also own and have owned for the last 14 years a an accustomed apparel company, a T shirt company. It's called the T shirts. One of the guys I grew up with, we were kids, our moms were best friends. Long story short, he had a business partner went into business with who made it one year and said, nope, can't do this anymore. And he came to me and said, hey, you want to own a half a T shirt company? And I said, not necessarily. And I said, send me your p. L. And I was like, oh, he's actually pretty close to like breaking even. And so I took it on and here we are all these years later and it's very successful business. It's cool. It's not like it's these big businesses that we're in. It's a small business but does really well. And one thing is it's, you know, it's a custom apparel. When you grew up in a small town like I did, you know, we're talking 70, 000 people. People are very loyal to your local shops. And. And so what we had done with that was he is a introvert. He's a creative, but he's an introvert. And he's not a marketing guy. Right. He. But he's a good, like, he's really good with relationships. When people come in. The thing that I had to do with him was push him to kind of go out into the community and help them. And part of what I wanted to do was go and interview other local businesses. It has nothing to do with whether they use us or not as a client. It just has everything that's going and featuring them and then growing it. And that in turn actually turns into referral business and things like that. So my assumption is that's a good byproduct of what you get by doing hello, hello in the community.
- [04:00]
B
Absolutely. And just to be able to showcase other businesses and get to know them has been fantastic. It's what I love doing. And then you're right. In turn, it's really brought us so much business and even it's been a great recruitment tool because I'll have current employees on sometimes and let them tell their stories. But then it really gives people an inside view of what we're doing here at Rogers, and there are a lot of people that contact us saying they want to be part of it.
- [04:28]
A
Yeah, man, it makes sense, actually. It's. It's a smart form of. It's another form of marketing, slash recruiting. Whatever you want to call it, you can kind of leverage it both ways. And it's. Yeah, I mean, it's. It's. The reason most people don't do it is because it takes time and effort and it's honestly in preparation and it's. Can be a total pain in the ass and distraction sometimes.
- [04:49]
B
It's. It's very true. But, you know, and I always tell people, I'm like, you know what if you love doing this, if you really love marketing and you love getting to know people, it's a great tool and it really doesn't feel like work, you know, if you love it, but don't do it unless you really enjoy it.
- [05:04]
A
Yeah, I think it's it. It. But it's a time suck. Right? Like, it. It's a commitment, but there's a reward for it. So, like, it's worth. It's no different than. It's just marketing. Right? Like, that's what it is. It's brand branding and marketing and. And. And when you live in a lo. Like a smaller town too, where you can go and feature other businesses and. And support them, like, that feels good too, right, because you're kind of getting back a little bit. So I'm going to jump right into this because I actually have a lot of questions and there's a lot and not a lot of time. As you know, we have an hour of this thing, you know, at. At max. We don't want to go past that. And I just want to jump right into this thing, so I'm gonna try and not mess up some of this stuff. So I'm gonna do a little bit from memory. I did some. Yeah, please do. Please keep. You know, I've up plenty on these things and said the wrong.
- [05:48]
B
Let's cut through the. And get to.
- [05:50]
A
Get to the point. So. So, okay, now Joey, your husband is. It's his. His dad that originally owned the. Started the business in 96. Right?
- [06:01]
B
Correct.
- [06:02]
A
26. Okay, so far so good. And then you guys came into the business in 2018. Yes. Okay. And took you. Did you at that time, did you take over from Joey's dad?
- [06:15]
B
Yes. January 1, 2018.
- [06:17]
A
January 1, 2018. Okay. And the size of the business on January 1, 2018 is what it ended.
- [06:23]
B
The year prior at 600,000 in revenue.
- [06:26]
A
$600,000 in revenue. You guys heard me say today it's 10 million bucks and growing and growing. So 10, $10 million. So we've seen a nice little increase there. So clearly you guys figured some out there and. And like, started to scale this business a little bit. And we. The interesting thing about this is, you know, you went to. I asked you if you went to college, you said you went to college and you got your mba, I think corporate education. Is it corporate education?
- [06:53]
B
Marketing. Yeah.
- [06:54]
A
Okay. And then we're in healthcare marketing.
- [06:57]
B
Yes.
- [06:58]
A
Like, not this. Not this world. Okay. So. So you're kind of. We're planning on doing this. Here you are doing this thing and not even in the same, you know, vertical or industry as. As you know, at least Joey's probably, you know, you. I guess when you're married, you're kind of in. Because you kind of have to hear all the things. But, like, this is what you're.
- [07:17]
B
I don't even know what a heat pump was. I had no idea what a heat pump.
- [07:20]
A
Oh, by the way, I used to ask. This is like, I'm glad you said that. There's whenever, you know, in regards to, like, digital marketing companies for home services, I'm like an og. I'm one of the old school dudes. And one. I used to ask as people started, like, coming in and being. I use air quotes, you know, home services, digital marketing experts. I would always ask them, hey, you ever want to find out if your marketing company knows your industry? Ask them what a heat pump is. Because people have no clue. No clue. We would teach our employees that. So that way if somebody went back and asked our employees, they knew the answer to it.
- [07:52]
B
Exactly.
- [07:53]
A
But you come into this world 2018, you know, now you and Joey were taking the reins and you're taking off this thing and now this is your life and you're in South Boston, which is less than 10,000 people population or somewhere. It's not a very big. It's small. It's very small. Now I gotta understand, what did you see in this business? You know, and like in you and you and Joey, that was like, okay, like, we could build something here? Like, this could be. This could be our career. Like, what was it that you guys are like, is this just circumstance? Like, this was the opportunity it came up? Like, what was it?
- [08:28]
B
I'll say in the beginning, it's probably circumstance. You know, Joey grew up in the industry with his dad starting the business in 96. And so Joey started when he was 12. And Joey likes to tell everyone that his childhood or growing up consisted of baseball and hip hop putting in P Pops. And so that's what he did. And he went to school for it and then went into the commercial side when he graduated Local community college here to learn that side and work on chillers for train commercial. And then decided to go back to the family business with his dad and kind of learn the ropes. And I was growing my career and I was climbing the corporate ladder. What I wanted to do, like that is that was my goal and it was working for me until Joey decided, hey, we have something here. I'd love to grow this business. And he came to me with, well, the way it was, it was kind of white vans, but they were wrapped like co op funds with Maytag at the time. And so Joey had people coming up to him asking if he could work on their like washer machine and refrigerators. And he's like, oh my gosh, I have to change this. And so he came to me with a band rap or a logo design. And it was terrible. It was so bad.
- [09:50]
A
Who knew he was a logo designer?
- [09:53]
B
Yeah, it was just so bad. And I was like, you really need my help. Like I, you know, like, this is bad. We have to do something different. And that's when he said, how about you come join me in growing this business? And I'm like, oh my gosh, are you serious? And so that's when the conversation started happening. I then researched great branding companies and the brand that you see here today is what we created and then the rest is history. I joined the business. And so a lot of it was circumstance and conversations and, and just a goal of running a great business in South Boston, Virginia.
- [10:31]
A
Got it. Okay. So I want to try and unlock some things along the way because here's what I want our listeners to know. I'm actually going to, I'm going to share the bhag. And if you don't know what a BHAG is, that's the big hairy, audacious goal. And this is what I want you to hear. And this is where the doubters are going to come in. Right? Because at the end of this rainbow of starting this business and there's a lot of story in between that we're going to get to, which is real good stuff that you're going to want to hear is there's a hundred million dollar goal. Rogers wants to hit this hundred million dollar goal. Now, mind you, I just, you just heard me say the market that she lives in that they are in is less than 10,000 people.
- [11:14]
B
Correct.
- [11:15]
A
Now, there's only a few ways you can scale businesses. It does take people to become customers, so there's that factor. But there's, you know, they buy multiple things, but there's still only so much you can do in a market. So clearly you have to expand. So I. But a hundred million dollar goal, you're sitting at 10 again, 90 more to go.
- [11:34]
B
Yes.
- [11:35]
A
And typically a percentage of market share. You never have a hundred percent market share ever. So there's only ever a chunk of market share you're gonna get. So I'm just like, really curious to jump into that. And I'm guessing everybody listening right now saying the same thing, like, abs, like, okay, now I understand why there's doubters, because that's a very unrealistic goal. It's a dream, and it's just a dream. And by the way, it'd be nice because, you know, when Chad and his brother took over Pete's business, they were like 4 million. And now they're, you know, north of 100 million bucks, but they're in a much, much larger area, like Indianapolis metro area. And then there's a lot of big, you know, little big. You know, there's a lot of big areas around it. You actually have a lot of small towns around you. There's not a lot of big areas. So it's like a. Definitely a steep hill to climb. So. But it starts with like, you know, you have the goal and, and I don't know what, you know, what gave you that goal. We're going to talk about it. Actually, I lie. I do know I gave it to you. I want their listeners don't know where it came from. And then we're going to work backwards from it. So. So I'm curious to hear it. And we're going to work through that. That's what I love this to be about is, you know, I want our listeners to be like, my God. Okay, this is. Now I hope that they walk away from this podcast or they stop listening to podcasts and they're like, oh, that actually starts to make sense a little bit. And then, look, let's say worst case scenario, you didn't hit 100 and you landed at 87. Oops. Oh, darn dang it. You know, so. So let's jump into that. And I actually want to unlock first. You know, you guys are, you guys are in business in 18. I mean, you're in this business. 18. Okay. You're starting to do something with the COVID hits. And you and I talked about this, that Kobe was actually a blessing for our industry and you got to be in an order taking position which is great for a lot of businesses and scale. And then you go through the after effects of those years where you have to start running these things again and you start to get back to the block and get tackling and you figured some things out like you know, can I actually scale these things if I didn't have a Covid type situation and like all this stuff. So you're figuring these things out. But one thing that you did do was that I, that I, I think is admirable is you didn't pretend to have all this stuff figured out. So you found some, some ways to like okay, well I don't have it figured out. You know, I, I don't, you know, I don't. Where do I go? Who do I, who can I ask for help? What can I do? You are a. Joey's the visionary. You're the integrator in the deal which is a very important, very supportive relationships to have that make these things work well. But I'll tell you, 100 million dollar goal sounds like a visionary to me. Yes, that's a hell of a vision. So, so let's work to that. I'm actually going to come back to the question I have but let just share with the listeners where you got that like how did it come about where you're like, you know what? We're gonna have a hundred million dollar, one hundred million dollar goal and I'm actually going to work back to a situation, a time, a moment when you could have done something differently but yet you stuck to that goal. You're spending thousands to make the phone ring, but if your CSRs aren't picking up or converting, you might as well light it on fire.
- [14:50]
C
And what are the largest businesses in.
- [14:52]
A
The country doing about this?
- [14:53]
C
They use Avoca, the leading AI platform in the trades. Hundred million dollar businesses like HL Bowman are operating with only nine CSRs because Avoca handles up to 80% of the calls.
- [15:07]
A
Plus Avoca follows up with your leads.
- [15:10]
C
Grades your CSR calls and helps you strategize.
- [15:13]
A
So my suggestion, go with the leading company, check out Avoca AI. That's A B, O, C, A. I click the link below.
- [15:24]
D
If you've been listening to this show, you'll know that I only talk about tools that actually help our team. And Bluon is, is definitely one of those. At Peterman Brothers, our techs are using Bluon every single day. It's become their go to resource. It really is like having a senior tech in your pocket. They can scan a unit, get all the model data, wiring diagrams, parts, and even troubleshoot. With Bluon's AI, we've seen fewer callbacks, faster fixes, and happier techs. And that's why I'm such a big believer in Bluon, because it actually works. So do yourself a favor, click on the link in the description and book a quick Demo with the BlueOn team to see it in action.
- [16:09]
B
Yeah, so it started with a million. When we took over the business, we were at 600,000 and it started with Joey pacing in our living room back and forth with his calculator in hand and calculating how, how do we get to a million? I have so much that makes sense.
- [16:25]
A
That one makes sense.
- [16:26]
B
Yes, it makes sense. At the time I'm like, wow, we are in South Boston. Like, how is this going to happen? But I've always believed in him and I have not ever seen Joey set out to do something and not achieve it. And so these goals along the way he has achieved. So he wanted a million and that's where it started. And then of course, as an entrepreneur visionary, you hit that million and it's like, okay, how are we going to. Okay, how are we going to get to three? And so you just keep moving through. And there was a moment where we were working so much and I wanted a vacation. And the only way I can really do that is to make sure that business is involved and it's on a weekend to get Joey to go. So I had, I was on social media and I saw a conference that was being promoted and it was in Miami on a weekend and it was about business. And that would be the 10x growth conference and so put on by Grant Cardin. And I said, okay, Joe, we've got to go to this. And we went to it. And I remember when we were on the way, we were on the way to the airport and we're talking about it and he's like, you know what? And at this time, we were only at about three and a half million in revenue. And you're like, okay, when was that? What's up?
- [17:47]
A
When was that?
- [17:48]
B
That was in 2021.
- [17:50]
A
Got it.
- [17:50]
B
Okay. And so we're on the way there and we're talking about, okay, if we can just get this business to 10 million. Much like the conversation we were having to get to one. It was the same conversation. If we can just get this business to 10 million. We'll figure out the rest later, but that's where we need to be. And then we go to 10 10x Growth Con in Miami for the weekends. And I'm thinking, I'm getting a vacation out of this. But what I didn't realize is my world was about to open to so many more opportunities into so much that I had never known about. And there were moments when we were sitting in that room at that conference that I looked over at Joey and I said, how did we get in this room? Like, how did we even get here? Because there were people that were thinking so much bigger than we were and they were achieving so much higher than $10 million in revenue. They were talking about hundreds of million dollars in revenue and some of them even billions. And so it opened our eyes and we left that. We're like, 10 million's off the table. It's going to be a hundred million.
- [18:55]
A
Okay, so right now you've got some Cardone haters that are thinking like, oh, okay, so now you got like a double whammy here. Of people are like, okay, that's a dream. It's not.
- [19:04]
B
I'm used to.
- [19:06]
A
And. And it's cardone. Okay, so. And by the way, I'm not gonna say I pushed on you when we were having that conversation, because I was like, I've heard, I've heard good, I've heard, but I've heard more bad than good. The difference is we're not talking about the same thing. We're not talking about Grant Cardone specifically in this instance. It's the event that he put on that opened up your eyes to others in the room and what they think they can accomplish. So it just kind of made you think bigger. So it was just the event that you attended. So you gotta give kudos, man. Like, if that's what unlocked it for you, that's what unlocked it for you. Now I would be curious to hear what those businesses that are trying to reach 100 million and a billion are, because my guess is they're not home services businesses. And maybe they are, but. But the billion, I'm not sure where that comes from. So, you know, but the fact is, is it unlocked something for you and Joey and you as the integrator? So, I mean, you talked about this. You know, my wife and I are very different. I'm very high risk, she's very low risk. I'm visionary, she's integrator. And she just, like you said, she believes in me, but she also is a. I Hate using this word, but I'm going to use it. She's a realist. And I like. I like to break through that realist, you know, narrative, because what's real to you is not real to me. Right. And I see, like, this other goal, but there has to be something that unlocks that for you to give you, like, the motivation and the mindset to, like, go and chase it down. And you, as the integrator, probably the lower risk one, somehow broke through that in that conference.
- [20:39]
B
Yes.
- [20:39]
A
And now you. You and Joey are aligned, you know, like, hey, welcome to my world. Yeah, we're. We're going for it. Okay. Okay, cool. So now you guys leave that you kind of. I mean, did you get any vacation in there at all? Like, even a little bit of it?
- [20:56]
B
We were all in. It was all in. It was a yes.
- [21:00]
A
Okay, so you leave. All right. You guys come back home or whatever, like, what are you doing? Like, what is it? Because again, now it's just a dream. It's just a dream. Unless you guys literally went back to the hotel room and started, like, working through it and stuff like that. The way that my ADHD brain. Brain works is as soon as I have the. The vision, I'm immediately trying to work backwards from it in my head on what makes sense to me. And then Anna has to say, none of that actually makes sense, but here's how you could do X, Y, and Z. And now we're kind of working through the architecture of the business together, but that's how we function. What was it for you guys? Like, you want. You go home now? What we whiteboarding sessions are we, like, what are you thinking about? Did it even take till you got home? Were you starting on before you left?
- [21:44]
B
I mean, of course, when you're at the size that we were at the time, you come back to a ton of fires. And so it was almost like you get back and you're fired up, and then you get back into the trenches of the business. And so the first couple weeks were we were having a lot of conversations about what we had learned. But at that event, we also met Natalie and Brandon Dawson. I went up to Brandon and I said, you know, hey, I'm Alyssa Rogers. I have an H Vac business. Because at that conference, they were talking about H Vac businesses and wanting to help them. And so I went and talked to him, and I met them. Very brief conversation, but a good one. And we just got back into the trenches. When we got back, and Brandon reached out to us a couple Weeks after the event, he said, you know, I've been trying to get in touch with you, and I feel like we can really help your business and. And so forth. So that's when the conversation started happening of, okay, we can actually have help in that. In that couple weeks too. We realized very quickly we had tried to do a lot on our own. And you can't get really big without surrounding yourselves with the right people and people that can help you. And collaborating is so important. And so that's what we learned at that moment. And it's like, okay, if we want to do this, we can't do it alone because we've never done it, but we have no idea how to do this. So we started having conversations with Brandon and we went to another event of theirs, and that's when we signed on with Cardo Ventures to help us with the plan of how to get to a hundred million.
- [23:25]
A
And was that a. Is it. Was there like a timeframe around that that you're. Is this like a. When you say signed on, what does that mean? Because so some of our listeners have no clue what that means.
- [23:33]
B
Okay, so what they have is, you know, you hear about Grant Cardone and 10X, and then there is another subsidy, and it's Cardone Ventures. And Cardone Ventures is run by Natalie and Brandon Dawson, and they help businesses scale and it's any business, so it's not H Vac specific, but they have what is called a platform program where they will reverse engineer your entire company and show you and provide you the steps on how to get to what your goal is. In, in our case, it was a hundred million or is 100.
- [24:10]
A
Okay, thank you. So. So now you're going down that path. And I agree, like, you know, you don't know. And, and that's a big number. And you have to have some help and start to unlock some things. And getting mentorship or coaching or anything like that is definitely helpful. Chad would tell you the exact same thing Chad's goal was. Or I know I can. I can almost recite what Chad would say is, I went to nextar and. And John Conway told me to do XYZ because that's what worked for him. So I did the same thing. I did. So, yeah, I guess now you're taking somebody else who's already done it and you get there and that gets you like another step closer. And then yet there's another way that gets you another step closer. And that's usually the path of how this goes now. Well, now question you guys, I mean even just getting to the 10 million dollar, I don't want to like blow past the fact that you guys in the 10 million, like in that market, that's a really great accomplishment. So like I want to, don't want to like overshadow that by this. But, but you and Joey have some defined roles in this thing and, and being husband and wife in business as I can relate, like we have our line in the sand. Right. Like I have my responsibilities and she respects that and she has her responsibilities and I respect that. And, and, and when you're trying to grow big and fast like it, there's some real risky things that have to happen, you know, and trust that has to happen and shit's gonna go sideways and you gotta be okay. Right. As a, as a family and also in business, you can't let the two overlap. How do you guys like draw that hard line in the sand so that way it doesn't impact your guys' relations, relationship.
- [25:51]
B
You know, we are both very driven individuals and we get asked this question a lot like how do you make this work? How does, how do you have a vision like this and still maintain a marriage and be parents to your daughter? That's seven. And it really is like we are. So we are all in to this. I trust Joey, he trusts me. And we have a lot of alignment conversations, often about what our current goals are, where we're at, what we need to do. But I mean, we are even to the point where we sold our house two years ago that we had, I mean, I'm talking our dream home that we thought was going to be, you know, we did it, we did this. And we moved upstairs to our office. So we live at our office. We renovated an apartment that is like 800 square feet and we live up there. And we are just all in on this mission of getting to 100 million. I've seen, and I know you'll talk about, you know, Joey and how I've seen deals in front of him and.
- [26:58]
A
We'Re going to segue into that next.
- [26:59]
B
Yeah. And he just is so there. Like he is there. I'm getting to 100 million. I've told him, I've heard him tell people that over and over again. A lot of doubters. So everyone listening that's doubting right now.
- [27:13]
A
Yeah.
- [27:13]
B
Can't wait to talk to you when we're there because it's going to happen.
- [27:18]
A
So. So you're making sacrifices is what I hear you saying, right?
- [27:21]
B
Yeah. It's a life.
- [27:22]
A
This is on life. And, and you're starting to make these major sacrifices, which is great for mindset, right? Like, because you are now acting on this plan, right? And. And making big sacrifices is part of the plan and will always be part of the plan at some level. So another major sacrifice is like you had said, I mean, you guys had started to build a nice business there in that market. Private equity recognizes it and says, here's a really good loi.
- [27:54]
B
Yeah.
- [27:55]
A
What's in front of you? So you. So Joey's sitting at the table. I got my, my loi right here. My paper. I'm wiggling right here. I got the pen in hand. And, and does he sign it?
- [28:08]
B
It's literally like that. You set it up perfectly. And he does not sign it.
- [28:13]
A
He does not sign it. You could become multi millionaires at that point and does not sign it. Yes. So, so that moment, like, I wanted the listeners to hear this, like you. It's right there. Papers here. It's a signature away from being multi, multi millionaires. And by the way, that's an incredibly successful story on its own. Incredibly successful story on its own and puts you in a whole other percentage of people that will. That will never, ever happen to. So, so you did that, and that's another major sacrifice. So you're starting to stack some sacrifices here. So you didn't do that together as a family. Right. Joey may have been one sitting there, but you guys didn't do that together as a family because you believe so much in this $100 million goal. Is that right?
- [29:00]
B
I mean, I always try to tell people, like we discuss. I mean, think about, you know, the conversations leading up to this. Oh, what is our. You're talking about your future. And, okay, what can we do with this? Like, what does this even look like? We've never, you know, had that much money before. And, you know, you have a sense of feeling really proud that you got to where you are at that moment. You have nervousness, of course, and you, you start. I mean, it's just like, if the lottery is a billion dollars, what would I do if I won the lottery? You know, like, what are you going to do with it? What's the first thing you're going to do? And so you're having conversations and you're trying to figure it all out. And one thing that Joey does not do is pull. When he's making a very large decision, he. He does not go around polling people on what he should do. He makes the decision on his own of what he thinks is best. And then he moves forward with it and he doesn't look back after. There is, there will no longer be, what if we did this? It's, I'm doing this and we're moving forward. And so in that moment, I thought he was going to sign. I really thought he was going to sign. And it came down to it and he's like, I can't do it. I cannot do this. And you know, I think there was a, something inside of me telling me at that moment, like, I didn't think. I, I'm like, is he really going to do this? I was questioning a little bit, but I mean, I had no idea. And so in that moment, he said, I'm not going to sign. I said, okay, all right, here we go, you know, onto the next goal. We're going to continue on in doing what we do. Life just got back to what it was before all of that.
- [30:41]
A
Okay, so now we're going to dig our heels in.
- [30:43]
B
Yeah.
- [30:44]
A
Because let me reiterate to our listeners. South Boston, less than 10, 000 people. Let's just say we factor in Lynchburg, Danville, Clarksville, all of it. Like, you're still talking 130, 140, I'm not sure. Somewhere around their population. Like, I don't know how you make up $90 million with that volume of people knowing you're not even going to get 40% of market share in these B or 30 market share. Like, it's still, it's just too hard to do it. And I don't care what, what kind of marketing that you do, how good it is. Like it's, there's, it's got to be a bigger plan. And now for Joey to have that kind of conviction either makes him insane or very, or very confident and, and that, and what his bigger goal is. And I wonder actually if it's really 100 million is the number, but if it's really money, a money mission, like is it, is it more about what he's able to push himself to or you guys to or accomplish? And that's the end goal of that accomplishment versus it being truly about the hundred million dollar number. And we've not had this conversation. So like I want to dig into this actual plan. Like, okay, I don't know if you guys are still, are you guys still doing anything with, with Brandon and Natalie or anything like that. Are you guys still involved in that stuff?
- [32:11]
B
So I, you know, appreciate them so much and they're a huge reason why I'm sitting here today. Even able to talk about this. And so we haven't worked with them in a couple of months. But that is nothing bad on them. It's just.
- [32:26]
A
I'm just asking because I'm trying to think about like, who. Who's your help Now I know you're also working with Chad and his coaching. Yeah. And that is somebody who is in it and who can certainly be helpful. Right. And. And Chad's very. I'd hate to pay him too many compliments, but he is very thoughtful on how to scale and grow these things. And he always leads with the call center side of the business and like, you know, works his way through it. But that's a good guy to be attached to. And you know, and his motivation is to legit, like he legit wants to help these businesses and that's something that he wants to leave a really good legacy with. So. So you have to still have that as you're scaling this thing. Right. And at some point in time, all the things that Chad gives you might not be what you need. You might need to move again because there might be. Now you've kind of like, okay, cool, I understand all the things that I've got from this to be able to scale this thing. But now I need to unlock a different part of my brain that maybe he doesn't give to you. And that's the reason you have multiple or circle or you have multiple mentors.
- [33:29]
B
Correct.
- [33:30]
A
So. So let's dig in. Like, you guys have this goal. Do you guys start taking some action? Like, do you have an action plan now? Maybe let's look at like the Cliff Notes version of this. Because there's no way we're going to dig into all the little details. But there has to be like this, this. Okay. In order to realistically even have a shot of getting there, we need to start to do X, Y, Z. Do you have that in place?
- [33:53]
B
Yes, we do. And that is thanks to Cardone Ventures. And so when I talked about that platform that they put together, it is when they take everything that you have currently in your business and they do an entire market stuff study and they provide you with. It's like a 400 page document of the. The way you can get to your goal.
- [34:18]
A
That gives me anxiety as somebody.
- [34:20]
B
It's a lot. It's a lot. And it's. And they go over it with you and they lay it all out there for you. And I think where people get stuck, they think that they can sign up for these things and get this. And it's the Magic bullet. And it's going to get them there, like, okay, I have it. Here we go. You know, now I don't have to do anything. And that's not it at all. You have to put in the work. They are not going to do it for you. This is your plan, this is what you have to do, and this is what you have to live by. And so since we've received that, we've, we've lived by it and we continuously go through that and see where we're at. And they go year by year of what you need to do and what markets you need to get into and what the market potential is for that. So, you know, we know we will never get to 100 million solely in South Boston, Virginia. We're going to have to regionalize. And we have that plan of where to go each year to make that happen and what that market potential is. And so the areas that we're going have much more market potential than the current one that we're in.
- [35:26]
C
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- [35:33]
A
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- [35:34]
C
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- [35:41]
A
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- [35:43]
C
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- [35:52]
A
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- [35:55]
C
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- [36:02]
A
Or costing you money.
- [36:04]
C
Just ask some of our clients like.
- [36:05]
A
Ken Goodrich, Ishmael Valdez, my boy Chad Peterman, and even myself.
- [36:10]
C
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- [36:38]
A
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- [36:42]
C
To the point listeners, listen up. What if the biggest thing holding back.
- [36:45]
A
Your business isn't marketing or hiring, but your bennies? The benefits for home service companies, a.
- [36:50]
C
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- [36:52]
A
Great techs and losing them to the shop right down the street. Basic Capital, our newest sponsor, is the only 401k built to actually put your team On a real path to retirement. Companies that switch over see higher participation, happier teams, and dramatically low turnover. Because your crew finally gets a plan that's a true benefit, not just a checkbox. Don't wait until your best people walk, make the move and click the link below to get 12 months with Zoom. 0 employer fees when you join basic Capital. So if we wanted to do some basic math, if you could, if you could go into nine more markets and hit the same $10 million number, well, then there's your $100 million goal. So then you have to work backwards from it to figure out what are the markets, what's the, like, what's the true market potential and what trades do I need to offer trade or trades do I need to offer in that market? And then you have to figure out budgeting. And you know, these things don't run themselves. You got to have good, you know, you have to find good leadership, which is something I'm going to get to like. There's GMs, like, things like that. And I think what's great about you being connected with Chad now, you flip flop from the business mindset to the actual trade business, running a trade business. That's that like Chad will tell you, and he and I have talked about this multiple times because we're doing it with our roofing company too, is we're not trying to be a behemoth in just one market, right. We're, we actually feel like we want to, we'll be big in Indianapolis. That's, that's my biggest market. But then we're going to go to Fort Wayne and South Bend and Lafayette and Terre Ho and we're going to start, you know, 10 to, you know, 15 million dollar shops here and there. And that's a more manageable business versus having a couple of huge major markets. And I think that if you asked him, he would tell you the exact same thing is that's how you can get there. It doesn't have to be the same place.
- [38:41]
B
And the bigger you get, you know, at us at one location, the more complicated it gets, truly, the more people you have, the more, you know, moving pieces to the puzzle. And it's just, you know, we found that you just go to these areas and you serve customers well. And also, you know, you talked about that big number and is it just the big number? But I always tell everyone, you know, since I started, I didn't know what a heat pump was, you know, and I just want people to know that there are so many opportunities in the Trades to do so many different things. It's more than just, you know, getting in a service van. And if that's, you know, we need that and we need that greatly. But there are so many opportunities and I just want to provide opportunities to people they didn't know existed. And so by opening these locations in other markets, you're providing opportunities to people to really grow a business and have that back end work taken care of for them and they can really focus on serving customers and serving the community. And that's really important to us.
- [39:46]
A
And you guys are multi trade. I know I didn't say it in the beginning. You guys are heating and cooling, but you guys also doing electrical and plumbing too, right?
- [39:52]
B
Yes.
- [39:52]
A
Yeah. Okay, so is your plan to kind of is to do all like all multi trade in each of these locations?
- [39:57]
B
That would be great. Yes.
- [39:59]
A
Got it. So what, where are we headed? Like where, where are we going this year in 2026? Like what's. Where, where are you headed to? Do you. I mean, I mean, makes sense that you would be that. Danville, Clarksville. Like, but there's got to be some other. Like even that's not enough. Like you're have to like really expand and you're like right along the border too. So I'm, Are you gonna, are you gonna cross state lines and go into. Yeah, I figured as much. So, so it starts to become a little bit more reasonable when you can break it down like that. When you look at this hundred million dollar goal and you say, okay, I got $10 million out of this, out of our current, you know, footprint, and I can duplicate that and ex market expert, you start to think about that way, it starts to become a little bit more reasonable.
- [40:44]
B
Yes.
- [40:45]
A
Or it's like when you're thinking like, oh, okay, that makes sense. And there's a whole like financial piece of this, like that. You have to be able to support these things financially. And probably the most important part is again, you're gonna have to find people to run these locations. And this is where many trip up.
- [41:07]
B
Yes.
- [41:07]
A
There's only so much talent out there, you know, that's actually capable of doing these things. And, and especially if you think about small markets, like smaller markets, it's just a smaller pool of talent to pull from. So do you have like a plan in place for that? Because you might have to incubate your own leadership, you know, to, to run these things. Like what's the plan, man? To try and find like good leaders to help actually legit, like pulled us off.
- [41:33]
B
Well Every single person on our team currently knows exactly where we want to go. They know we talk about it. We talk about goals often we know their personal, professional and financial goals and what they want to achieve. And we have individuals that have been with us for years. And we go back and we look at their goals and they have a goal of running a location one day. And so we talk to them. We opened our second location last year. It's been a year in November. And he came to us as a service technician and he's like, hey guys, like, I really want to run a location one day. Like, what do I need to do? And he started having those conversations with Joey and Joey was ready. He's like, okay, Lynchburg is next. Like, what do you think? Let's go scout locations. And they got him the truck one on a Sunday and rode around Lynchburg and found the perfect area. And now Brandon Frost, our branch manager of our Lynchburg location, he's been running it for a year and it's been super successful. And so it's the guidance and the communicating with our team the entire time. So our plan right now is we have a handful of team members that want it and they want certain locations and they know with those locations comes relocation. So we have a lot of conversations there because you got to be there and we find the right fit for them and we work them to that point and we have a whole plan for them of what they need to achieve, books they need to read, things they need to do, numbers they need to hit before they're even eligible to run a location. And so they're on that path for about a year.
- [43:13]
A
Got it. So here's what my brain immediately goes to. This is like a free flowing conversation with you. Having had many, many, many, many, many of these conversations and seeing like the positives, negatives and negatives of all of it. You're smart. You probably already thought about this, but it's. It's. Just because you're a great employee doesn't make you a great leader. Right? And you. So you have to have like something in place that prevents you from making that critical error that so many have made because it sets you back. When you do that, it will happen. It will probably happen because people are good interviewers too, right? And they can kind of make, you know, but. But if you're. If typically, if you're bringing somebody from the outside, that's where the risk runs in. If. Because you don't. Yeah. If it's internal and you do know the person and you have like your own, like, plan on how do you create them into being a leader or a manager or whatever it is you're trying to do. At least then you have some like, okay, we actually know the person. We've, we set the tone for what the training looks like and we're like creating our own person. It's just a lot. Sometimes it's just a longer process. Right. Because you have to take the time to create that person. So how's it going so far with new location? Is it going as you thought it would go?
- [44:28]
B
I mean, it definitely. You learn a lot and it's, you know, we grew up in South Boston, Virginia, and so we came into an area where a lot of people knew who we were already. And so when you go into an area, no one knows who you are, it's different. And I kind of like it that way because you form, you know, your own reputation. And it's been a really amazing to see a team member that started as a service technician now leading a branch and it, it's been successful. And of course there are ups and downs and things that have happened along the way, but it's, it's a really proud moment to see that happen. And then looking at 20, 26 and opening an additional location and hoping that one of our team members takes that and grows that to be even bigger. It's, it's really fun to watch, but nothing that we have done has been easy. It's so easy for me to come on here and be like, oh, you know, it's doing great. And it's like, there are days where I go to Joey and I'm like, what the fuck are we doing? Like, why are we doing this? Like, are you sure?
- [45:39]
A
I have plenty of those days. I have plenty of those days.
- [45:41]
B
Yeah. I mean, it's not easy. And you have so many bad days. I just had someone come to me, a leader in our organization come to me a couple of weeks ago and he's like, oh my gosh, today's been such a good day. And I'm like, please celebrate it because you don't get a lot of those when you're in leadership.
- [45:56]
A
Yeah, well, and listen, like, that's your first. That's your first, you know, location. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, you're, you're a second location first, you know, time branching out. So you are going to learn from it and it will get better. And I don't think they're ever easy, especially when you're greenfielding. It's it's, you have no brand equity. And, and so I mean, I, I, it's, it is crazy to think how I've dealt with it on the marketing side for so many years because I've had to help open in Greenfield so many locations where they, they rely completely on me to scale the business on marketing. And, and that's a lot of pressure. But I've always been honest and I'll just say I, I don't think what you're trying to accomplish in this market from me alone is going to get it done. But here's what I think we can do. And so I also think that this is when grassroots is like really important because if you need to build community, you have to do like that gnarly old school bnis, get involved in chambers and like doing some community stuff. And like that builds brand so quickly because you're kind of going and giving without asking for anything in return. And, and that's like community and building a brand. And there's no fast way to do that. There's zero. You just have to go in there and, you know, do the work. And so you can't have this unrealistic expectation of, oh, it's just going to grow fast. It's not. And, and you can only spend so much in a certain market to kind of help, you know, grow it. But, but you know, man, if you don't have those memberships, you know, and the, and the, you know, and the shoulder seasons, like shit's gonna be hard, you know, and you just got to go into expecting that that's the case. But what's nice is when you have a seasoned leader in, you've prepared them for these things, you know, yeah, this.
- [47:37]
B
Is what we've done. You know, when we started in 2018, we did not have a website and we had no website. We literally would set up tables outside of our office and we were next to a post office. So we would just like talk to people as they were going to the post office.
- [47:54]
A
That's actually a really great location if.
- [47:56]
B
You'Re by the post office. It was fantastic, fantastic. And we got so many customers from that. We got employees from that, like, hey, I see you just got off work. Where are you working? Like you want to learn H vac. And so we didn't have all the digital stuff to begin with. We didn't have a website until I think it was 2021. And so we just went out, we were at every single event. And I tell so many people that ask me, like, how did you get to where you are? Or what is your marketing strategy? And it's like they like to look at the competition and do the same thing. They're doing that's wrong. What are they not doing? And go there because you have to go out into your community. It's hard.
- [48:37]
A
Yeah.
- [48:38]
B
Weekends, nights, everything.
- [48:40]
A
Totally. Let me give everybody a good piece of advice. Whether you like it or not, it's the truth. So you're right. You have to do all those hard things, but there's a few key things that you can do that will help you kind of move faster. And we. Chad and I did this with Redbird roofing. It's fun. It actually was a little bit easier for me because in this instance, it's not my main. Like, I don't make anything off of Redford yet that will come. I get to implement everything I want to. Right. From a marketing standpoint. And I'm such a big believer in local growth. And so here's some simple things that you can do. We have our Redbird roofing fleet. We at least try to put three in a parade back to back to back. So that way you have to see those things. And the. If you. We put our bird mascot out there, great. If not, that's fine, too. We got dogs in the truck. All this other fun stuff, all we're doing, we just want them to see us in the community. And then when they go to the high school football games or the high school basketball games or whatever matters in your community. But in Indiana, those are two major sports, and everybody goes. And so we would do sponsorship with the teams if it's local, like, you're like your youth sports. I'm telling you, spend the 1500 bucks, $30,000, don't care what it is to get your logos on their jerseys, and you support these local teams, that stuff. Like, now you're hitting, like, all different levels in these markets, and people are starting to see your brand and your commitment to the community, and that's how you can start to build brand equity quick. That's organic, you know, and that has worked really, really well for us. And to make us look like a big fish in a small pond.
- [50:11]
B
Yes.
- [50:12]
A
And then we expanded, so we try to become five mile famous. Those are, like, basic things that you can do in addition to you going to the BNIs and the chambers and like, all that kind of stuff.
- [50:22]
B
Yes. And that's what we've done for years, and that's what we're doing in these other markets. And, you know, it's the stuff that like we've talked about is hard and you're in the trenches of a business and that's what we tell our branch managers too. It's like, look, you're, you're going to have some booths set up and you're going to be behind tables and you've got to be okay with that. And if you're going to run this location, you're going to run it and it's, it's going to take seven days a week and hard work to make it happen.
- [50:50]
A
Yeah. So one of our friends, Travis Ringy, sold his company Pro Skill. Him and his brother Tyler own Pro Skill. They recently started a roofing business a few years ago called Legacy. They're in my market. So we actually the market that where I live is a town called Anthem. It's way north. It's like a small town in the most northern like city suburb of Phoenix. But it's like a small town, it's very small town vibe which is why we live there. But those guys owned that market. Like if somebody went to our little Anthem Facebook group community page and said, oh, like it was pro schools, pros, it was all these guys, but they were like out there working it and they grew that thing to like a 20 million dollar business. Very, very, very small market and multi trade. But they hammered the community. Like everybody referred them in these social media groups because of how much that they did.
- [51:42]
B
Yep.
- [51:42]
A
And, and that worked really, really well. And what's crazy is when they exited the business and they weren't so involved, you started seeing other people popping up and now you never see them coming up as options in these groups. It just goes to show you how.
- [51:59]
B
Much community involvement matters and the consistency in it.
- [52:04]
A
Yes.
- [52:04]
B
You have to be consistent. It's not a, I mean I'm going to be honest, there was a year there where we didn't do a lot because we were definitely going through it here at Rogers. And you see a difference when you're not there. Someone else is going to take that spot or they're going to forget about you. And that's just the world we live in today.
- [52:23]
A
Okay, we are 55, zero minutes into this thing already and I still have about eight questions left that I'm never going to get to. Damn it. So I gotta trim this sucker down because there's another.
- [52:36]
B
There's a last do like a rapid fire, ask away. I'll answer very quickly.
- [52:41]
A
So actually there's, there's some things that, well, here's what I Think. I think we actually accomplished what I wanted to accomplish at a high level of making people, making the data say, okay, I can see it now. Let's see if you can actually execute on it. Right. And that's tbd. That's what, that's what this is tbd. But you can see it. I can see it as we sit here right now. Now, again, I've had the fortune of doing this hundreds of times at this point with other businesses and seeing it actually play out. So, so I believe in you. The battle is just having the grit and determination and perseverance, like, chase it down. And like Goodrich told you. What was a good, what was the advice that Goodrich gave you?
- [53:22]
B
Head down, get to work.
- [53:24]
C
That's right.
- [53:25]
A
Get the work, man.
- [53:26]
B
That's to the work. Yeah.
- [53:28]
A
And, and, and just, you know, keep going. So, so you have this, like, corner that you need to, that you have to turn. Right. Like, I think that there's this, there's also you, who can believe so much in yourself, but you gotta, like, turn this corner to start to believe it yourself a little bit more. Have you, have you turned that corner yet?
- [53:48]
B
Yes.
- [53:48]
A
Okay, you've turned the corner. That's a big step. There will be another one that comes, right? And then another one that comes. When did you, when did you. This is specifically for you. When did you realize that you were capable of far more than what you actually originally believed when you put this thing together?
- [54:09]
B
Oh, my gosh. It changes by the day. You asked me today, I'm there, right? Like, let's go. And it's really when I'm working on things that I'm passionate about. When you're growing a business and, you know, it's with your husband, you can sometimes put on some hats and that don't drive you. And I've done that a lot. I've lost myself a lot in this journey and had to get back on the right path and say, okay, it's not that I don't believe in the vision. I'm just not working on the right thing.
- [54:41]
A
Yep.
- [54:42]
B
And so we have good years, we have bad years, good months, good days, bad days. And so it really is a day by day thing. I just told my mom yesterday, she was asking me about something that we're going to do in a couple weeks. And I'm like, ma, I live day by day, like day by day. I focus on the day. Ask me in a couple weeks, I'll show up, I'll do what you need me to do, but I Live by the day. And that is how I stay so focused on the goal that we have. Because if I. Joey, he's looking five years from now, but I have to conquer each day. And that's how I get by and that's how I stay driven. Because I know I have to tell myself regularly, like, okay, what. Why are you doing this? If it's something I don't want to do, I'm like, I'm doing it because I need to get here.
- [55:29]
A
So. So our listeners. Do you hear that?
- [55:31]
B
Day by day, I never know what I'm walking to.
- [55:35]
A
That is my life. And like I say, even. Even when these businesses get big, I honestly think that you. And this is gonna. This is actually going to be okay. I'm gonna say this. This isn't gonna sound the way I are gonna. I'm not gonna mean the way it's gonna sound. I have way more bad days than good days.
- [55:52]
B
A hundred percent. Yes.
- [55:54]
A
And it's just because it's harder when it's bigger and you make more complicated. You're just trying to solve more complicated problems that aren't. You can't fix fast. Uh, but it's for. It's actually a good thing because you're solving the right problems to continue to scale and grow and maintain good clients. You know, satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Like all these things, but there's so many variables that play into it. And unfortunately, you start to. You have a lot of firefighting you have to do, and that takes over when you're. Especially when you're at the top. And by the way, when shit gets to you, you probably experience this. Any of you that's listening right now, her leadership stuff doesn't get to you. And it's like the easy to fix. It's always like the worst things that come and you have. You have to fix them. And, And. But it's all part of the process. And every single person goes through it. Everyone. I don't care what they say. If they tell you they don't, they're lying to you like that. The 100. We go through those things. So I can appreciate when you say day to day. It's like, I was. I did. I did a podcast with a guy named Brian Gottlieb, who Tommy Mellow introduced me to, who spoke at his event, who Monster Business had a. Wrote a book recently and rolled it out. And he was talking about how did. Did I. Does his employees know something he learned when they went to sleep that night if they had a good day or not had a good day. Like, we get that granular to know, like, they went. They left the office and said, man, I nailed it today. I don't have that for myself. Like, I can tell most days. I feel like, man, today was another challenging day. I've gotten used to it, but it wasn't a negative. And I. But I take it that way, right? Because I'm like, God dang it, hard day at this piece. Like, one smooth day. So when you get that smooth day and they do happen, you celebrate the hell out of those days. You're like, yes. The downside is, is when you're both in the business. Yeah. You're kind of hoping that you both have a good day. Same time. So. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. One more quick. One more quick question personally for you. What's the hardest personal sacrifice that you've had to make that no one knows about that you're willing to share? I'm gonna repeat it one more time to give you a second to think about it. What's the hardest personal sacrifice you've made that no one knows about?
- [58:16]
B
I. The first thing that I think about is my daughter because I have to make a lot of sacrifices. And I hope that she wouldn't say this right at seven, but, you know, there's a lot of things that I haven't been able to do. I haven't been able to go to the school and participate in a lot of stuff that she does. I make sure that she has all the resources. I'm her resource provider, and I can definitely make sure that she attends everything. She shows up on time. But I'm not going to be the mom that is part of the pta and I'm attending all the things and volunteering. And so that's a sacrifice that I feel like I've made as a mom. But I do have a lot of conversations with her saying, you know, there's a reason for this and we have a bigger purpose to. In a vision that we're going to achieve and we talk about goals and. And so. And then also when you are married to a visionary, you sometimes have to put some of your visions for your life to the side and support that. And I'm okay with that. But looking back, you know, it comes with sacrifices and not having, you know, Joey at everything and knowing our roles and understanding why. And so. Yeah.
- [59:36]
A
So did you wallow up a little bit when you said that?
- [59:40]
C
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- [61:01]
A
Yeah, a little teary eyed.
- [61:03]
B
A little bit.
- [61:04]
A
Feel it. Well, listen, because that's like a real feeling. And I think what's interesting about you saying that, and I appreciate you saying it, is I think we also carry a little guilt even though we know what we're doing is it's like, okay, here's, here's a perfect example and I appreciate you being honest about that. It's a very common problem that we all, that a lot of us have when we're scaling these things. You can't be at everything.
- [61:27]
B
Correct.
- [61:28]
A
I've been in business, you know, this is our 18th year and I've got four kids from 25 to 10. Okay. And they've all kind of seen our lives in different phases. Like my 10 year old daughter is like life was great. This has been like I, she hit the jackpot. My 25 year old would tell you something completely different. Didn't see any of that. But they all had sacrifices that, that, that I had to make or not make in that moment. Well, early in the business, my goodness. I was gone like nine months out of the year it seemed like, and I was missing so many things and I was doing all the things I said I wouldn't do to my family.
- [62:03]
B
Yep.
- [62:04]
A
And it took me a minute to learn on that. And unfortunately my oldest daughter Casey, who is a little badass who's in the air Force right now and intelligence is a very independent like strong woman. Like she is a super strong like and, and I'm proud of her that, that she did that. She got that from me. Now I Know how that impacted our relationship. And we kind of can do head to head, like, because it's like, she really, really needs me. Like, she needs my support and approval and all these things. And she. It took her a long time to actually tell me those things. And I created that. I created that problem. And so I caught it, though, and I was like, okay, I'm never letting that happen to anybody else. But she was collateral damage in that too. Now today, she understands. At 25, she understands and she benefits from that sacrifice. But it doesn't mean I don't carry guilt.
- [62:57]
B
Right.
- [62:57]
A
But the thought is, is that, like, you and Joey is the purpose is like, I'm doing. The way that I justify is like, no, no, I'm doing this because I'm trying to give you this better life. And we look at it from a resources perspective or a financial perspective or whatever. So, like, your heart's in the right place can, you know, have repercussions. And. And so I appreciate you saying that because that's heavy. And you ha. You do have to find some sort of balance in there. And as a kid who grew up, who. My dad never came to anything, I did, like, rarely came to anything, but I was a successful athlete and did, you know, And I. That stuff drove me to kind of being in the position I'm in today. And it's ironic, I'm wearing this little Boulder Creek wrestling shirt. My son's, like, first wrestling meet is today. He's a freshman and he's varsity, which is pretty cool. I wrestle too, but I'm gonna be there. My dad didn't make my friend, and my mom made everything, so. But they also weren't building businesses too, like, so. But we are building these things. And so I appreciate you saying that because you do have to find this balance in there too. And you have to have the open conversations about it. And Even though she's 7, you kind of understand a little bit of what's going on, you know, like, at that age. And so. But if you're open about it, they get it. Like, you just. You gotta talk about it. So I appreciate saying that. And listen, it's not like that's gonna get easier. It does. You know, it still is hard. Okay, now I'm gonna switch the. Switch the gears because now we're bumping up to an actual hour. Let's flip this thing. We're gonna end this thing on a high note. Okay.
- [64:39]
B
Okay.
- [64:41]
A
You hit the hundred million dollar mark. You hit it. What's that moment gonna mean to you personally, like, where does life go from there? You've hit it. Okay, close your eyes. You've got a boom. We hit it. I know. I've got that. We hit the goal. We're celebrating. We're excited. The businesses looks like this. Cool. You did it. Box checked. What's that moment mean to you personally?
- [65:05]
B
To me personally, it's, we did it. We can do it. And all of those people that doubted us along the way, you know, were there. And I, you know, I, as the realist, would be like, okay, Joey, what are we doing? Like, sign the paper now. Joey would be the one. Okay, how are we going to get the 200 million? Right? So I'm going to. I'm definitely. Okay, check. You know, we check the box. What are we doing next? Joey's gonna be wondering how we get to 200. So that's just how it's gonna be. But it will be a very great moment to celebrate with the people that were with us along that journey. Because, you know, to come back down to it, yeah, it can be funny to talk about getting to 200, but there are going to be people that were with us along that entire journey. And I cannot wait to celebrate with them because we know we can't do it alone. Like, we're not going to hit this goal alone. And I can't wait to see the people that are with us along this journey and celebrate it with them.
- [66:18]
A
Yeah, totally. Yeah, that's part of it. And I think it's really important. And this might sound cheesy to a lot of people, but it actually is true. I believe in this. I've had to, like, sit and visualize and try. And, like, I think where I have a really high EQ is I'm very emotionally connected to a lot of things and I can feel feelings. Like, I can feel moments. Like, I can visualize something and feel it, and I can let that feeling drive me. It's kind of like when sales makes a sale, they release this dopamine, right? And then that's what drives you to the next potential sale. Even though you might go through a grind. I have that and I feel those things and I feel it from. For people, even people I don't know. I can be. I can be proud of them and I can feel feelings. But I. I have. Like, every time I've had a goal, even since I was little, I could. I just would pretend I did it and the feeling that it gave me and I would chase that. I would chase the actual feeling in that moment. And, And I still do the same thing today. And, and that's a real driver for me. So I think it's important for you to be able to close your eyes and feel that feeling. And my wife. And my wife would struggle with that because we, you know, we aren't the same. But she. She can't. Like, she won't emotionally feel that because we're not there.
- [67:26]
B
Right, right. It's day by day. Chris is day by day.
- [67:30]
A
And. And again, you probably struggle the same way that she struggles with me because I am a visionary. Last question. This is for all the listeners right now who are. You know, you do have a goal, too, for 26. Like, this thing is December. Like, hopefully you got your shit together and you had a plan figured out for, for, for next year. And if you don't get it done in January or between Christmas and New Year's, get your ass to work and start putting at least so it's a pen to paper and figuring out, you know, if you want to grow 3 million, how many jobs does that mean? What's your average ticket? Work the math backwards and figure out what's it going to take to get it done. Then you can, like this. You've gotten the start at, like, the basics. But what's your advice? You give to another owner or leader, anybody who's listening right now, who wants to chase a bhag, a big, hairy, audacious goal, like, what's your advice to them? I mean, yours is huge and you're. And you're going after it. So you're on the way. What's your advice to them? To encourage them to chase it down.
- [68:18]
B
Number one, be true to yourself. You have to be true to yourself. Set a goal that you truly want. And as first we say feel, feel it, know it, know you want to achieve it. Surround yourself with the right people. You cannot do it alone. You have to have the right people in your life to achieve the big goals that you have for yourself. And you have to have stamina. And I'm going to go back to Ken. Head down, get to work, focus on that goal, and do it day by day. Win every day.
- [68:48]
A
I love it. So you got to go on there and listen. You got to go follow Rogers on social media, like, and you can follow their journey along the way. And you can, you can reach out to Alyssa, too, and ask her, you know, questions along the way. And, you know, and if you want to be. If you're following her just because you can't wait to see her Fail. You're an. But do that too. Right?
- [69:08]
B
I like those views too.
- [69:10]
A
Yeah, me too. Yeah, I'll take them all. I'll take them all actually. Interact, interact with.
- [69:14]
B
Yeah, come on. Follow me at what's the Rogers on social media.
- [69:17]
A
I got, I got plenty of haters like, and I don't even know why because I'm not an like, I'm like. But I, I don't care. Doesn't phase me. But I, I appreciate that and I encourage you listeners like this is, this was a great episode for a different reason for me is I'm so, so much like, like, like the Rogers here. And, and I love setting huge goals. You aim for the stars you hit and land in the clouds. It's a win for me. And any, if I accomplish that and you accomplish that, think about all the good that we've actually done along the way. I hope, I hope you've done a lot of good along the way with it because that's making like a real impact. And the 100 million dollar is just the number. It's just the byproduct of the actual real plan which is to have this kind of success and all the good and successes created for others along the way. Would you agree?
- [70:06]
B
Correct.
- [70:06]
A
That's it and that's the game I want to play. And when I hang up this at 50, which is another four more years for me, which is what I'm doing, I will not do this day to day stuff. Past that maybe, I guess we'll see. But as of right now, my mindset is like I'm out. I'll feel really good about what I've done and what I've accomplished and I'm still learning like I'm still learning how to be a good leader. Like I'm still learning how to be a better manager of people. I'm still learning how to be, you know, better at, you know, running these businesses and private equity and all the things I don't know. So I'm like a constant student. Goodrich teaches that all the time. Be a constant student. But I'm enjoying it right now. And it's never, I'm not driven by a number, I'm not driven by a revenue goal. I'm not like I have you put them in place because you have to from a financial, you know, the economics of the business has to be able to function and be profitable and all these things. It's just not what motivates me. Like I want to leave a legacy in this industry and I got some Work to do. You know, I got some work to do and I really want to set the bar. So when I exit they say, man, when it comes to like marketing, like this is the blue chip, like this is the top bar and that's what we need to work to. And if I can, if I can, peace out with that. Like I'm gonna be real good and that's my goal. I want to do it.
- [71:16]
B
So listen, I believe in you.
- [71:18]
A
I thank you. I believe in you. Congrats on the success you for you and Jill have had so far. I'm excited to watch the journey happen too. I'm excited that we got to, we were able to connect.
- [71:26]
B
Yes.
- [71:27]
A
You know, she has her podcast too. Hello. Hello. I don't know how much it's going to mean to any of you guys aren't local, but if you are local, listen to this thing, you know, connect with her and, but if nothing else, connect and watch the journey, you know, and see what she does. And, and she's not just you know, talking about it. She's going to be about it like they're getting. So thank you for giving me a little over an hour, you know, and coming on and sharing with the listeners.
- [71:46]
B
Thank you for having me. It's an honor.
- [71:48]
A
I'm, I'm excited we got to get you to a Rhino x one of these events.
- [71:51]
B
Like you're the person is it let us know. We need the invite. It's hard to get an invite invite to these things.
- [71:56]
A
It is hard to get an invite. Okay, I'm gonna write it down right now so I don't forget. I'm gonna send you a personal invite.
- [72:02]
B
Thank you.
- [72:03]
A
To attend. And, and my hope is it does the same thing at it did for you at 10x or at the Growth con that it does because you're gonna be surrounded by all the right people who know how to get these businesses there and they're like minded, just like you. So. Yep. And, and listen, it's. This thing's out, you know, this episode rolls out in December so hopefully you and your family have a, a great Christmas and a good happy New Year. And to all you listeners, the same thing. Listen, we went through a bunch of different things. If anything, I hope what this unlocked was a mindset for you and the sacrifice that comes with it and that you can accomplish these things, you know, and, and don't let a dream of yours be so far fetched that you don't think you can accomplish it because that's a waste of time at that point. Like come up with something that you feel passionate about, that feels realistic to you. Work backwards if it makes sense. Chase it down. Chase it down and go get it done. Why not? You got one life. Might as well make the most of it. You don't got to do everything, but you got to do something. No. Zero days.