Transcription
All right, what's up? And we've got Andrew Rampula here, aka semi niche famous Twitter celebrity talking about pressure washing and Christmas lights on Twitter or X now.
Um, Andrew, how old are you?
I am 21. Just turned just turned 21 a couple weeks ago. I'm legal now.
Okay, cool. Yeah, legal drinking age, but it's been getting bred been getting bred in the pressure washing space since you were what, 19?
Um, a little earlier. I I when I first started was uh 17 and then um I kind of worked around school and then I went full-time 19.
Okay, cool. So, this is you you get a chance to brag here. I'm asking you to brag. So, you're 21 now, right?
Yes.
Okay. What are you doing in revenue in your pressure washing and Christmas light business combined in 2025?
That's a great question. I don't know. We're gonna see. I'm shooting for a million. um between Christmas lights, softwashing, um and then a little bit of info as well. But my main thing is Christmas lights. That's where I'm putting all of the attention. The softwashing is uh at this point kind of just more of a lifestyle thing. Just give me some extra income every month. Um but I love Christmas lights, man. That that's my thing. That's that's what we're going to take to hopefully eight figures.
Yeah, dude. I love that. Okay, cool. So, the cool thing is you and I have a lot in common. Like I'm a I'm a Christmas light guy. That's how I got my start in all of the trades. So, this will be super fun. But I like to look at like this through the lens of who who's watching. So, I know that the pressure washing isn't as exciting to you as the Christmas lights, but I'm going to start with the pressure washing.
Let's do it.
Okay. So, walk me through right now the pressure washing business. You started when you were 19. Let's just start there. I saw like on your Twitter and stuff you talk about you turned $70 in pressure washing equipment into 170 grand when you were like 19. So, walk me through, let's start with like how did you start that and get it going and then I want to fast forward into what does that market look like now? Cuz I think the pressure washing market has changed.
Okay. Uh but please, you have the floor.
Absolutely. Yeah. So, when I first started, I started with literally $70. I was a um and this is this is going back to when I was 17. So, I want to kind of briefly touch on that and then we'll go to when I went full-time at 19. Um, but I started with literally $70. I was a dead broke high school student. Um, I gave the whole drop shipping thing a chance. I gave the SMMA thing a chance. You know, your stand your standard uh online money, bro, right? I went through the whole Iman Gajy uh funnel and everything. Um, but it got to a point where I was just dead broke trying to make the agency thing work and I was like, man, I need more money to buy more information is what I was like. I just I just don't have enough skills. I don't know what I'm doing. I want to pay for more courses. So, I actually saw a Tik Tok um that said you can make a $100 an hour pressure washing. And I was like, I could do that. Like, I have a pressure washer. I That's more money than I'm making now. Like, I was I was busting tables on the side for like 15 20 bucks an hour. Like, shoot, I'll take 100 bucks an hour all day, right? Um so, now I still hold this paradigm now, but especially when I was uh just getting started, speed was everything. So, like I saw that next day I was out hitting the pavement. Um, and when I when I grew up in high school, like door to door was was all I kind of knew. Like I would go we had this uh food drive thing for one of our AP classes and it was like I think every hundred like food cans you got got an extra point on your on your class. I was like, "All right, how am I going to make this outrageously productive for me?" So, I was like, "I'm going to go and knock on every single neighbor's door and ask them to give me food cans." So, I did that and then I boosted. I got like seven extra points on my AP grade. I was like, "Let's go. Let's go." So, I was like I was like, "All right."
Thus, the hustler the doortodoor hustler was born.
Exactly. I was like, "If I could do that for food, like I could do that for pressure washing." So, I went out the next day. My dad had a pressure washer in his garage. Um, and and this is what I preach like just like scrappy business when you're first getting started. Like, like you you see guys, and we'll talk about this later, but you see guys like blowing 10, 20, even 30 grand on a new rig and then it goes up for sale a month later. Like, well, the pressure washing doesn't work for me. like I'm getting out of the bit, you know, like like that kind of thing. Like, no, you don't need that, man. Like, yeah, you can do that, but you don't need it. You have no skills. Um, so I started with $70. I went to Lowe's to buy a surface cleaner. And that that was it. That was all the money I started with. And I borrowed my dad's pressure washer. And I bet I'm going to get a bunch of comments. Oh, you know, I don't have a dad that has a pressure washer. Go to Facebook, bro. Go to Facebook and get a used one for 150 bucks. Go to Lowe's, rent one for a day for 40 bucks. like if if you're the type of person that's like hearing that and making excuses for yourself, not going to make it. Um, so I I bought a $70 service cleaner. I hit the pavement. I started knocking doors and my first three days I made 500 bucks. And at that time, that was the first major paradigm shift for me. I was like, "Wow, dude. Like, if I can do that in three days, like [ __ ] like oh my god." You know? So it was that I continued to do that for another like week or so. Um, and then I was like, "How else can I drive business?" And I was in a bunch of local Facebook groups. I was like, "What if I just post it in one of these groups and like see if anyone needs pressure washing?" And this was the first major point of like of luck for me because the post was terrible. Um, it was literally just like a couple sentences like, "Hey, I'm a uh I'm a senior in high school. I'm trying to save up for college. I'm offering pressure washing services." And the post absolutely blew up. Like if any of you are on social media, you know that feeling when like you you post something and it just starts to take off like it's that like rush of adrenaline like man like what is this going to like what is this going to turn into?
All right so technical difficulties but we got you back now. Uh so you said you posted on a Facebook group and got lucky you can pick up from there.
Awesome. Yeah. So that was kind of the first stroke of luck. I think I think that wasn't any skill. That was like I was in the right place at the right time. Um and that and that Facebook post just blew up. It was like really simple. It's just like, "Hey, I'm a I'm a senior trying to save up for college. Um, does anyone need any pressure washing services?" And the post just went totally viral viral. And anyone that's like on social media kind of knows like that that first like video that like starts to pick up and that kind of like rush of adrenaline. And it was I remember sitting I was out at my family's place at Long Island. I remember just sitting on the counter just like seeing all the leads come in and I was like, "Oh my god, like this is going to this is going to be a lot of money." And I was texting my dad. I was like, I have like five grand in the pipeline right now. He's like, all right, let's see where it goes, you know. And uh and I ended up doing nine grand that first month, like just under. It was like 8,700 or or something like that.
As a 17-year-old.
Yeah. As a seven as a 17-year-old. Yeah. And I was like, oh my goodness. Like my first month, I was like, what? Like, what did I just find? You know, one of those things. Um and then I I did my senior year of high school and I didn't work at all during that and I was like, all right, we're going to run it back for the summer before I go to college. Um, and that summer I did like 30 grand and that was like the next thing. Like, okay, this wasn't just like a fluke. Like I can actually make money. Um, and it got to a point where like I was making $250 an hour washing houses. And I I was talking to one of my buddies. We were out having like a sleepover or something. I was like, and I told him, he's like, "Dude, that's more than my mom makes an hour and she has a doctorate." I was like, "Yeah, it's funny."
I was like, I was about to say like, "You're making more than some of your friends parents as a 17-year-old."
Yeah. Yeah. And it was crazy, man. It was crazy. Um, it just at the time it was like I've never seen anything like that. It was just that that huge just like limiting belief just totally broken. And that was my first kind of like breakthrough cuz I've seen like, you know, I was making a couple grand a month or whatever from from agency. Um, and I I was I had no skills. I was terrible at delivering results, right? But that was like the first kind of like money that I actually made. I was like, "Wow, this is insane." Um, so I I really wanted to to uh take a gap year. Um, my parents were super against it. We got into like a big fight and I ended up just sucking it up going to college. I did a semester.
Where'd you go? Where'd you go?
You okay? Yeah. Um, so I did a semester and dude, I just couldn't stop thinking about pressure washing the entire time. Um, and I was like, you know, [ __ ] it. I'm dropping out. So I dropped out. Um, and man, I had the biggest chip on my shoulder because I I did really well in high school. Um, you know, there like there was a lot of sort of like expectations on me to like, you know, go be a lawyer, go be a like something like prestigious, right? And I was like, I'm dropping out to to start a blue collar business, you know? Yeah. So, tons of comments from like family and friends, not directly to me, but like I heard through the grapevine like people talking and it's like, dude, biggest chip on my shoulder. So, of course. So, the the only thing I was concerned about for for that first year was just proving everything proving everyone wrong. Um, which, you know, take with it what you will, but it it worked, right? You know, if you if you have a negative motivation, dude, run with it.
Um, so that's actually really interesting. Uh, I want to stop on that for a second because I've actually talked about I've talked about that in a video before early in my career. I was like anger motivated. Like I'm going to give the big FU to everyone who told me this was a stupid idea. You know, like that was really a that was a common thread for me early. And if I go back, I probably like just knowing where you're at as like a early 20-year-old kid at that time, like you don't know any better. So like people now and like in our positions now, like now I'm 29. I'm like, uh, that's not really what drives me anymore. And I almost like look, like my knee-jerk reaction is to like look down on that. And then I remember, no, that's exactly what motivated me when I was in my early 20s because you don't know any better. Like I feel like that's okay at that moment. But I think like guys get that get further along like look down on it. But it's like no, that's the like lens that I could see the world out of at that point. Like the buddy at my at like that was hanging out with my buddies from college that was like Steve just refuses to get a real job, you know, and now he still like works at retail, you know, like he's working retail as like a 30-year-old. I'm not trying to [ __ ] on that. But I'm just saying like if I objectively look at that now it's like you just you're just winning because you just stayed in your lane and did it where you don't even care about that guy anymore. But at that time when they're [ __ ] on you and you don't have any of the proof to be like hey you know suck on this. Yeah. It is motivating like you have to have that chip. So anyway I just I thought that was and there is nothing wrong with that. I'm a big advocate like if you have fuel, it doesn't matter what what it is. Like use it. Like if you're angry, if you're upset, like use that. Like that is that is you will never have that again. Like use it and and and milk it to its fullest potential because it will propel you to very far places. And and and you're right, people do look like kind of down upon that and it's like that's the wrong way to you know, you're not in it for the right reasons. You just you don't care what everyone thinks. Who cares, man? Like like use that for the time that it's there.
Yeah. Yeah. Because you don't have the like proof yet to yourself that the otherwise motivating things take over. So like now I have like working models with 30 employees and a home service accelerator has nine. It's like I have that to motivate me now. Like those are like more meaningful. But at that stage where it's you against the world, you don't have that. All you have is like a few people doubted you and you got no bread. Like that's the only option.
Exactly, man. Exactly. So, I say run with it. I And obviously, like you said, like there's different motivators now. Um for me at this point, like it's kind of twofold. I'm I I was an athlete in high school. Um and I continued it like a little bit in in college, just continuing to train. But like that I'm I'm big on competition. Like I like to win, right? And if you like to win, like that's like business is a sport that you can play for the rest of your life.
Oh yeah. And you set the rules, right? So I'm a big advocate for that. Um, no, dude. I love that. I love that. So, okay. So, then you you you dropped out of school, I'm assuming, is where we're getting to.
I I dropped out of school. Yeah.
Okay. And, um, man, I remember that the first time I dropped out like that that January and February before the season started, it was like all of the emotions. It was all of it. And like looking back at it now, it was like, all right. Like, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was all of the emotions. So, I was like, "All right, we're going to use all of this and just hit the ground running come March." Um, first month we did 17.5K. Second month we did 18.5 and then third month we did 41k and then we finished that six-month season off um right around $170,000 in softwashing sales those first six months full-time. And that was like all right like I got something here. Like we're we're good. Like I'm I'm out of survival mode. Um I went from like broke to like 50k in the bank in like 3 months. And I just felt like on top of the world. I was like this is this is great.
Yeah. What were your margins back then when you were staying pretty lean by yourself?
Dude, they were awesome. They were um that first month our net margin was like 80 85%. And but don't get me like I'm I'm I'm an owner op at that point. Like I'm doing everything. I'm doing the marketing. I'm doing the sales. I'm I'm out there washing. But like who car like who cares, you know? Um but yeah, margins the from that 170K um was right I think probably over 60% probably closer to 70. When I look at back at the the P&L from 2023, um it was 60% with Christmas lights included, but the Christmas light margin was like 30%. So that dragged it down.
Yeah, because you bought all your product in year one. So that hurts.
Yeah, exactly. Um Okay. So it ended it was super profitable. Um and I was super stoked, right? And um at that point, I didn't have the um the $70 pressure where I I actually had an actual rig that I put together um in January. It was like a 5 and a half gallon a minute on a on a trailer with like a 12vt pump. Um and we and we just we cranked um like March or not March, May we had a couple 3K days. We had a 4.2K day which I was like, "Holy crap." Um from the one five and a half gallon a minute and yeah and it just kept going from there but yeah started super scrappy. I didn't start with money.
Okay, cool. And then when did you add Christmas lights to the equation?
Yeah. So I I I have kind of like a funny story with the whole school thing. I ended up going back to college um after that season because I was like I am I I'm like I had a fantastic summer. All my friends are home from school. I'm working with my best friends. Like I was kind of like living the dream in my head, right?
Yeah, you're making money. You're hanging out with your friends. You're buying everybody appetizers at the restaurant.
Exactly, man. You know, um and then I was like, "All right, I have two options here. everyone goes back to school and I'm just kind of like stuck here in my small town in New York with like nothing to do. I feel like I'm gonna be pretty pretty miserable. Um, so it was like the decision like I can either make a lot more money if I stay here or I can make a little bit less money but have experiences that I can only have as a 19-year-old. And I decided to do that. I went back to my college town. Um, and I sac I did sacrifice like a lot of money for that. Like probably at least like a hundred grand um Yeah. Oh yeah. from that decision from just like you know turning off softwashing at August you know I three months um but that was like a sacrifice I was willing to make um I'm a big advocate for like experiences and like there like just living life like the money will always come right but I I like living and just and creating dad lore right um so I decided to go back and then
Wait, wait, wait. What did you say? Creating dad lore?
Like stories as a dad. Yeah, man. Like you tell your kids.
No, I like Adlord, dude. Oh, yeah, brother. Okay, sorry. Keep going. I didn't I just know people listening would be like, "What did he just."
Um, so it's like I ended up taking September um pretty much off. I was like, I want to settle into school a little bit because I'm taking classes again now. Um getting used to like going back to school. Um, so I took September off and I was like, "All right, I can either open a new location, softwash here," which the market in Tallahassee is kind of just terrible. Um, or I see all these people doing Christmas lights. I can just do that. So, I was like, "All right, we're just going to do Christmas lights." Um, I tried it out. I didn't start till like end of October. Um, and then we started to hit some traction like end of October and November. And we ended that season um just under 50K in Christmas lights, which not impressive by any means, but it is impressive. Convincing convincing people as a 19year-old or 20-year-old, I guess, at that year, depending on what he was, to give you $50,000 in two months to hang Christmas lights is impressive. Don't let the internet warp you. Like for every one story like you, there's about a thousand guys that don't even make 10 grand in the same amount of time period when they start out. So I don't want to hear that.
Um, yeah, man. But we ended up and that was part-time while at school and I was like, okay, like at that point I was like, this is the business. Like this is it right here. Like the Christmas lights thing. Um, so we did that and then do you want to go into like kind of the rest of the story or?
Yeah, please. Yeah, keep going.
Um, and then I had another semester at school um in the spring. So, I I I didn't really we didn't really start full-time with softwashing till May. Um, so that was kind of just like creating more Dadlore, having fun. Um, did a little bit of part-time softwashing with one of my buddies. Um, in like March, April, I subbed some stuff out from some guys back home. Um, and I was like, "All right, we're going to hit the ground running with softwashing as soon as I get back." Um, so that in May we did 55 grand. um which was best month for us yet. I bought a new rig um a really nice I spent like 30 grand on it. Like a really nice eight gallon a minute, all the bells and whistles. Um and we did we did well that that summer we we were coasting between like around like 40k a month. Um and it got to a point in like July, August where I just fell like into like just a bad place. I just felt super out of alignment. I felt like I I didn't really know what I was doing. And I was like, I don't really know if I want to be doing this. I don't love the business. Um, so I took August off and I was like, I I really just want to sit with myself and kind of feel what I want to do cuz I just I have no direction right now. Um, and August was like one of the worst months, dude. It was just terrible. I was like, I have no idea what I want to do. Um, and and I I this is something that I feel like a lot of people don't do enough is just sit and think and really like sit with your emotions and just just think like take days to just think. Um, like a lot of people are just go go go and just don't take time to like step back and kind of analyze. Um, so I did that and I was like, I don't really I'm just going to do Christmas lights for one more season and see where that takes me. Or not one more season, just like the next season and just see where that takes me. Um, and we did that and I fell back in love with business. I was like, we did 165K last season and I was like, this is awesome. I love everything about this. I like I like working 14 hour days with this. I'll get up at 7 am and we'll just rip it all day with the boys. I [ __ ] love it. Um, and at a point I was like, "All right, I have two businesses here where I'm like, one I don't like and one I love, right?" And I was like, "Okay, I'm I'm gonna kind of um analog an make an analogy to the gym." In my brain, I was like, "I love working out my chest and triceps. I love"
You don't like doing legs?
I hate legs, brother. I hate it. I show up to the gym, I skip exercises, I don't like being there. And as a result, my legs aren't as big, and I don't enjoy leg day, right? So, like I was like, and the thing is like you don't have to train legs in business. Like there's no one holding a gun to your head. You got to train legs or you're not going to look good. So, I was like, let's just let's actually enjoy life. Let's enjoy business. Um, and that's the point I'm at now, like just trying to do things I love. I love Christmas lights. Like I said, I want to take that as far as I can go. Um, okay. And I've had and Twitter has been absolutely gamechanging for me. I have the best people in my corner. Um, I've made incredible connections and we're kind of in a position to take this really big, which I'm super excited about. Um, that's kind of the point we're at now. This season, the soft flushing for me, like I said at the beginning, was is more just like a cash flow thing. Um, just kind of like stack money in the bank. Um, fund the lifestyle and Christmas lights is going to be the big play.
Okay. I love that. So, and I I actually it's refreshing because like, you know, I talk to literally hundreds of guys like you every month. Uh, it's refreshing that like you're completely okay with just being like, "Yeah, the softwashing numbers like aren't overly impressive because like I can at this point I can just smell it on a dude like when they're like embellishing numbers to try to like sound cool just cuz I do this for a living now like in the accelerator and this." So, it's refreshing. But just like so everybody can kind of understand because you built it. You're obviously really good at marketing. We're going to get into that in a little bit. But like what are you guys just going to do like 10k all organic a month on pressure washing? Is that pretty much what you do year round now?
So the goal is to be around like 30 to 40. Um Oh, not not like I'm not like shutting anything off, but like Yeah.
Okay. But you don't you're not trying to mega scale that like you are Christmas.
Yeah. So last year was was under like I was spending all of the money back into the business like all of it. Um Yeah.
Now you're actually taking profit.
Exactly. Yeah. The first year was super profitable. Last year I was just reinvesting everything. Um, and the goal was to like scale it to like 80 to 100 20k a month, hire a project manager, hire an office manager. Um, and just have like that be sort of like, all right, we're going to do a million dollars a year. Um, and I'm going to be relatively removed. Um, but at this point, it's like I I can coast at 30K a month with one guy um, relative like with a couple hours a day. So like this, it's just a different frame that I'm kind of operating with now. Like, hey, I'm okay with with where I'm at. I'm not going to try to push it to 60, 70, 80k a month. And that's okay. And that's something I really had to battle with a little bit like you know.
Yeah. No, I like that. So, I want I love to take this moment and like pull back the layers for somebody that's listening to actually get actionable steps. So, you're doing 30k a month in your pressure washing business right now. How are you acquiring leads? What's your average ticket? Give me your average ticket first and then how are you acquiring leads?
Average ticket is right around a grand.
Okay, cool. So, you're doing 30 jobs a month.
Uh, yeah. We we season hasn't started yet, just so everyone everyone's aware.
Yeah, but I mean in what? May. Um, we're we're starting up in April. This this April.
Okay. So, you'll do 30,000 a month. You've already got the data from last year to know that you're going to hit that with ease. How are you generating leads?
Yeah. At Do you want to know like at this point or in the past?
Uh at this point now, like current version of you because you know this is the smartest version of you that's ever existed. What's what's the current?
Well, right now, luckily, we have a huge customer bank. um not just from previous jobs but from like thousands of leads from Facebook in the inbox um people that have expressed interest. So I can just run a rehash campaign and it just money kind of just pours in.
Explain a rehash campaign to a listener.
So anyone that has any express any sort of interest with them with us um remarketing to them. So on so you you upload your customer database into Facebook, you create a custom audience and then you're force feeding your ads down their throat.
Exactly that. And then just like um SMS and email campaigns.
Perfect. Okay, cool. So, you'll do both. So, you'll retarget them with within native Facebook because like you only have to spend $20 a day to do that. It's like nothing. Not even that. Uh and then you'll retarget them through are you do you use go high level as your?
Okay. So, then you're retargeting them through your CRM with SMS and email. So all of the work you got you did in the last two three years to generate quality leads, you go back and you retarget them to get the ball rolling off the ground just to start the season.
Exactly. Yeah. And and that's what that's what I do at the start of every season is I I literally just sit down for two days and I text every single person that has ever contacted me and it's just an easy way to just generate like 10k in like three days just like that and we get the ball rolling. Um, I la I literally just launched uh ads last night. And the cool thing is like now that we have like the pixel is conditioned, I just press on and I already have I I've had four leads since last night. Um, you know, two estimates sent out. I have one set for tomorrow. So like things are easy once you've, you know, been in the game for like a little bit.
Yeah. Okay, cool. Actionable. Facebook, Instagram. You're running Facebook and Instagram ads.
Yeah. So, so the the the acquisition strategy that I use that I teach to anyone that that comes to me is Facebook is the lighter fluid, right? Facebook is super easy and super quick to just get a ton of interest coming through the door. And then I like to use all of the um the backend stuff like Google business reviews, search engine optimization, and that's kind of the wood in the fire, and that's what gives us long-term and sustainable growth. So I and it's a little bit less profitable on the front end when we're running Facebook, but then all of the money comes on the back end and then especially with repeat customers year-over-year, it turns into a very profitable machine. And that's the acquisition strategy I've used for my softwashing company and for Christmas lights and it just absolutely prints.
Yeah. But you're still profitable in your still rorowaz profitable in Facebook campaigns.
Yeah. We're we're between like seven to 15x.
Yeah. That's a big range just depending on the time of the year.
Is a Yeah, depending on the time of the year. range and I also get better at tracking too. Like last year my were a mess.
Okay, perfect. Yeah, I mean yeah, my numbers were terrible up until like basically maybe two years ago.
Okay, I love that. So, and then when you're running ads, because someone listening is going to want the technical stuff. I'm a technical guy. Are you running video ads or still image?
Of course, brother. Both or which one? Video. Um video is the big thing and that's something we cracked last year. I know you do you do something very similar but that that took us to the next level was just video ads getting in front of the camera um and just showing face right y um and especially for Christmas lights that like I I think Christmas lights this year was a huge breakthrough and I was like wow like we really have the acquisition dialed down I was like we've done it with softwashing but I don't know I don't know if I could replicate this every time and then we did it with Christmas lights at like a 10x scale and I was like like this is it. Um yeah that's funny that's what I get I get 10.87 87 on Facebook. Yeah. Last year. So we spent like 10,800 and got back like I want to say it was like 111 something like that roughly. U so yeah I mean that's that seems to be the case. Christmas is definitely an easier business to be rorowaz positive in for sure.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I love that. That's super actionable. Do you put much effort into the organic side of things in those businesses socials at this point?
No. That's gonna be something that I really want to hit hard for especially for Christmas lights this year is having like an actual following on um on Facebook and Instagram and building like an actual audience because that's own it's like like quasi owned traffic like you still kind of are renting from Facebook and Instagram like actual owned is is email. Um but still like you have an audience that you could just remarket to for $0. Um which is super super powerful and that's something I want to really hit this year in addition to an actual mailing list too. I see the local newsletter thing that just popped up and I'm like, man, like I never even thought about that. That's great. So, we're going to be hitting that as well.
Yeah. No, I love that. Okay, cool. So, Facebook's your basic top of funnel, but then you're putting a ton of emphasis into the GMBB, the Google business, all that jazz. Do you run any Google Paperclick for softwashing?
Not for softwashing. And I know I for Christmas you will for Christmas I did, but I didn't put a ton of It was sort of like um I I hired a guy. I was like, "Here, take six grand and just do what you want with it." And and I I don't even know what the return was. Like I was bad about that.
Oh yeah. But dude, you got to you got to hardcode it into go high level to tag it. It's super easy to track once you set it up. You know, who cares? If you were profitable, you were profitable. Yeah. At a certain point, the tracking like getting so like militant about tracking lead attribution. like at a certain point in the business becomes almost like the guy who needs to take a 45 minute ice bath, say affirmations in the mirror for 45 minutes every morning, journal, write 2,000 words to the point where now it's 1:00 p.m. and he hasn't started his day for his morning routine. That's like the guys who like get overly obsessed with data. At a certain point, it's like what money went into the bank account and what money went out. Like that's that's it. So, dude, that's super cool. So, okay, for the Christmas lights now, this is your baby. give everybody a rundown because a lot of my audience is Christmas light guys obviously.
Okay. Right. Like that's kind of how I started. So, um, temporary lighting, lease model, lease model, bro. I I get so heated with the with the lease versus the selling. Like is there I was like like why are you selling the lights? Like the whole business is the lease model. You build the inventory. They're sticky because they don't own the like I don't know. I I hate selling lights. I know some guys have a lot of success with it, but like I I'm a huge advocate for leasing.
Yeah. There's a guy in Houston that does multiple M's a year. I think he's one of the biggest residential installers in the country on the sales model. But when you talk about the operational machine that he has, you'll realize that like the owner op who's trying to convince you that he's the sales model is better for him. And then you look at like the only guy I've seen make the sales model work is like probably one of the most operationally efficient entrepreneurs in all of the home service space as a whole. Like he has like proprietary in-house tech for his operations, his tracking, like stuff that every other Christmasite installer would never even dream of. I agree with you 100%. Like these guys that try to act like the sales model is the only way are like they're just terrible sales people. They're terrible to marketers and they're terrible salespeople because I've ne in Phoenix specifically, I've never seen a sales model company get to year three ever. All of us, like all of the guys who have scaled to close to a million in my market, which is a pretty good Christmas light market, are all leasing model. Every single one of them. Now, some guys are cheaper than others, that's why they don't get to a million, but uh yeah, majority of it is that. Has that been your case in your market, too?
there. Um, so when I the la this season that we just did, but the previous season we were there were like two or three companies in our market. Um, there was one there's one huge company who is a a lawn care company and they suck. Every every single person that I'm not going to name drop just in case they watch. Um, but every single person that I have contact with, they're like, "They suck. I hate them. They're" And I was like, "Wow." Like, but there's no other because there's only three companies. There's barely any other options for the people to go. Yeah. Um, so they they absolutely suck and and they sell, but they sell crappy lights, too. Um, and then there was one other company, um, who is actually a friend of mine now, and they're kind of going a different direction. Um, they're they're going into a different business. Last year, there were like seven other companies that popped up. Um, one of them that sells, um, and I don't think they're going to be around very long to to be totally frank. A lot of pe a lot of things that one of the things that a lot of people don't realize is that leasing is actually a value ad for the right client. The cheap clients that you don't want want ownership over the lights. They're like, "Yeah, we want to we want to be able to price shop around and make sure we're getting the best rate." The people that you want, the wealthy clients, they don't want four boxes of lights sitting in their garage. Like they don't want and they don't want to worry about coordinating it.
No, they don't. and they don't want to leave it out and have to put it like like the value ad is that it's white glove and we take care of everything for you. We've replaced the lights. We can switch them out if you want. You don't have to touch a thing. Like that's what that's what your your ideal client your ideal avatar is looking for. And if your marketing is like you know positioning is like the sales like like we sell the lights to you like the the right clients usually don't want that.
No. No. I actually so so real quick a quick funny thing like because I just remember this one conversation with someone who was like I was like on the fence between us and another company um that was considerably cheaper too. They're like five it was we sold them at like 1,300 um and the other company came at like 7 or 800 but we leased them and they uh they sold them and they ca they went to us because we leased the lights. They're like I don't want to deal with that. I don't want
Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny, like you're exactly right. And then what we see in our market and what you'll start to see as your market matures. I've got like 50 installers in my market, if not more now. So our market's really mature. Yeah. But what's interesting is what you'll see people say is as your market keeps maturing, you'll get more calls every year saying like, "Oh, I bought the lights last year. Now I can't get a hold of him this year." And no one will put them up. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And then Yeah. They call us like, "Can you hang these lights for us?" were like, "Hell no, we can't touch those things, but we got to we we can do ours." So, yeah, because like these guys, in my opinion, as someone who scaled up to we have 30 employees now, all by the books, two 1099 sales guys, and then a bunch of installers, leadership positions, office staff, all that. So, like mine's a working machine now. And I can tell you, like for anyone listening that's not at, you know, we're going to do a million this year, last year we did 800,000 in a two-month period. You don't understand how expensive running the business is at that scale until you get there. Like until you get to where you have three or four vehicles on the road and you go get workman's comp for 28 employees that are W2s. You go get commercial vehicle for a temporary Christmas light hanging business. You think the insurance companies like to ensure that? No, they don't. And so like what happens is these guys go, "Oh, I could sell it for $6 a foot this year. Then next year, of course, I'll hang it for $2.50 a foot in labor." And then the next year comes around and they're like, "Oh, but now I have a second crew. I need to pay for this vehicle. I'm financing the truck. The truck payment's $500 a month. The insurance on top of it 280, 300, 350, whatever." I mean, honestly, my insurance is like $4.90 a truck or something like that. Just absurd. And so that's what happens is these guys fly too close to the sun. They price for the current state of the business, not where the business is going. And they build an entire book of business of dog [ __ ] and then go out of business and now it kills the market. Because the thing that sucks for you and I is people think that that's the market. So they paid somebody $5 a foot to buy the lights and they're like, "Yeah, can you hang them for $2.50 a foot?" And you're like, "No, I'm hanging them for $11 a foot with my product." Yeah. Exactly. It's pretty frustrating, man. I frust um last season and it was a 30% margin. So, like you take that 30% margin and when you scale, if you don't own the lights, you have to pay for you have to use that 30% for all of the the the payroll, like you said, the mo the insurance, everything that finances growth comes from that 30% margin. And that gets that dwindles very quickly. Like I like you can't you can't pay for growth. Yeah. On that, right? Growth is expensive, especially in Christmas lights because it's capital intensive. And the other thing too is like if you really want to scale, like you're in year two or three, you don't even have sales guys yet. You don't even have commissions to pay to sales guys. You don't have an office staff that's just a flat wake up every day and set $200 to $400 on fire before the day even starts. You're not you don't have a scaled ad spend. Like there's so much stuff that comes up to get to that next tier that assuming the thing that's frustrating the thing that was frustrating for me but it's kind of funny looking back now is like this is your so this next season will be our sixth year and the funny thing is I every year for the last four years been like oh yeah I'll just take profits this year but then you get in it and you're like no why would we not keep growing like we're a business and so like last year I spent another like close to a hundred grand on product because like we grew from 49 90,000 to 800,000. So like that product's expensive and like the new vehicles, the new ladders and every vehicle, all the other stuff. It's like financing growth is expensive. And so that's why I'm like obsessed with telling these guys too, like if you think you're going to grow this business to anything, charging five, $6 a foot, you're absolutely cooked. You will not grow it. I'll see you in three years when you're out of business. Like Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's just a lot of time people are selling out of their own pockets. But are you
Guys, do you get into the permanent light game at all? Are you sticking to just temporary?
That's a good question. So, I'm I'm sticking to just temporary for now. Um, and the the the main reason for that, it's not anything like I don't think it's a I'm sure it's a fantastic business model. Just looking at it, it looks awesome. Um, but I'm at a point where I kind of value location independence like a little bit more than I do having like an operate like a a perm lights operation that that does really well. Um, so my thing right now is like I'm slowly kind of scaling out of the softwashing. I'm looking to maybe sell next year or bring on an operating partner that kind of runs the day-to-day. Um, but I I value being able to to travel and to live where I want more than I value more income from like the perm lights where I I think like I contemplated starting roofing as well. And I was like, I can build a huge [ __ ] roofing business, right? Like I could do that and it and it will kill and I will make a lot of money. However, like I said before, like I'm a big advocate for for playing the game how you want to play it. Like there are no rules. Like you create them. So like play however you want. And and that's where I'm at now. Like I'm just playing how I want. Like I love like I'll I'll batten down in Tallahassee for three months and make just a [ __ ] ton of money. And I love it, right? But the rest of the year I'd prefer to just kind of, you know, be able to go where I want.
Yeah. No, I love that. Okay. So you said you want to do a million in temporary lighting this year, correct? Um total with softwashing and and with softwashing. Okay. So, you'll do what? 400,000 in softwashing, 300,000 softwashing? Probably like three. Um Okay. I'm It's only like between like April and like like July, August. Okay. So, what's the formula to get that 700 from temporary lighting? How many vehicles are you running? Uh what's the strategy? All that jazz.
So, my goal for um templates is half a million. Um okay, that that's what I'm shooting for. Oh, and then the info info is the other 200,000. Got it. Okay, cool. So, 500,000 for Christmas lights. Let's hear it.
Yeah, cool. So, average ticket um and I I ran the numbers for like where I want to be um down the line. And I was talking with one of my mentors and he's like the big problem you have to to solve because I I want to exit um way down the line. It's like the big problem you have to solve is how do you install 6,000 installs in two months? Like that's the problem I love. Like I'm I'm a problem solver. I grew up like like coding and doing like cool like fun project. Like I love solving really complex problems. I was like, "All right, like that's that's it right there. How do we do this? How do we install 6,000 installs in two months? Like who do we need to hire? Um, and really it's just personnel. Like who do we who do we need to bring in to the company?
6,000 installs or 600? 6,000. That this is not for 500. Oh, this is long long term. This is longterm. Got it. Long term. I want to do like 15 million in Christmas lights. Okay, cool. We ran the numbers for like what like what I want to exit for and like what what we need in terms of like a a multiple and like what what I need to be in topline. So like five years down the line, whatever it is, like how do we how do we solve for this?
Yeah. You're pricing for your future self. You're building for your future self. Like you have the end goal in mind. Exactly. Yeah. So, in terms of this year for 500K, um acquisition is pretty much solved. Um like we we have all of the campaigns. Like I'm not worried about that. Um the the thing that I think is going to kind of take us to the next level this year is just on the conversion side with appointment setters and salespeople cuz the actual fulfillment a lot of times this is a bottleneck um for a lot of people especially as you scale. I have a [ __ ] killer on my team. Like we we I talked about this in the DM with you. Um just an absolute killer. And I think it's similar to to your partner. I don't remember his name. The big the Yeah. Um I have a Dylan and he's just a killer. Like we can install 10K a day with with three guys without a without an issue. So this this season my plan is is two crews. Um hopefully last season our our average ticket was 2,200. So hopefully getting that closer to 3K. Um, so even with like a $2500 uh dollar average ticket, that's 200 installs um divided by like 60 working days is just over three installs a day. So I was like like running the math like that's that's more than doable.
Yeah, dude. That's pretty dead on with our with what we model too. Yeah. So it's refreshing because like your numbers your numbers make sense. Yeah. It's a math game. That's a lot of Yeah. Yeah. So like Yeah. Our our model's very similar. So we shoot for 15K a day. 60 working days, but in reality, we know it's going to be about 55 with rain and, you know, issues, whatever else. And it's pretty much dead on. And the cool thing for you, too, because I've been because you've been in Christmas business for three years now, right? Uh, two. This will be your third year. This will be my third. Yep. Yeah. And so, the cool thing for you, and I can just kind of get you excited about is your average ticket will continue to go up. Yeah. Like it absolutely goes up because every year that you do a good job, it's people that come back with more trust and they do bigger and better. And it's just like for us, our average ticket was like gosh, I don't have the numbers in front of me anymore, but it was like first year was I want to say like 1,800, second year was like 2,200, third year was like 26, fourth year was like 32, and then fifth year was 38.
Okay. Yeah. So, you've gone exponentially up. Yeah. But we've built like you've been to Arizona once. Yeah. Right. So, we built like we are the name in Paradise Valley in Scottsdale. So, like we have athletes, celebrities, like we have Fortune 500 CEOs. We have a Fortune 500 CEO that's residential job is 31 grand. I saw that, man. That's crazy. Yeah. It's like you might as well be doing a hotel at that point, you know? Yeah. We do like the W hotel, but like what what happens isn't like it's cool because like it's cool to hear because you're like I I don't think I'm old like I don't think I'm like a boomer compared to you, but like I'm eight years older than you. Man, like it's really interesting cuz like I wish at, you know, 21 22 I had like forward thinking that you do now cuz I was so like in the moment, how do I make money now? I never thought about what 3 years from now, 5 years from now is going to look like. And it stagnated growth a lot for us. Like we should have been doing 800k in year three if I had like the mindset that I have now and like the understanding we have now. But that's just part of the game. So, it's super cool to hear you like younger like already having like that that kind of mindset and idea because what happened to us is like I think that the guys that win like we could talk about ads all day long. We can talk about sales all day long. We can talk about different structure, operational structure all day long. The underlying factor of the guys that win is they don't get distracted and they do the same thing and optimize it year over year over year over year while the other guys in their market go chase the new shiny red toy and the new woman in the red dress all the time. It's like dude the guys that are winning now cuz I remember talking to guys three years ago that were in the same year that I was doing the same revenue and like they have stayed at pretty much the same revenue because ad costs have gone up and haven't grown at all. And a lot of that was due to the fact that they just were not forward thinking at all. They weren't thinking about their future selves. They're just like, "How do I make money now?" So, dude, it's super super dope. I I bet I'm I'm going to call the shot for you. You'll be doing permanent lights within two years. You think so? Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz like Yeah, I I think so. I think you'll do it. I think you'll do it like we are. And I think you'll go you'll look at it as more of a commercial play and then you won't be able to resist. That's my prediction. I I might be wrong. I might be wrong. We'll see. But Yeah. Yeah, dude. That's super cool.
So, okay, tell us, do you want to talk about your info product real quick?
Before that, I want to touch on another thing um that you mentioned with like the the forward thinking. A big thing that's like um really helpful for that is being out of like what I call like survival mode. Um like I'm at a point now where I've almost like totally detached from like my bank account. It's like I don't I don't care what's in there anymore. Like right now, I care what's in it in like five years. Um, but that only like that that wasn't the case for a very long time because it's like I was very much so like how do I make money now? How do I like stock away and stock away and stock away, which is good, but like you you get scared to spend and you get scared to take risks, especially when like your like livelihood is kind of dependent on the business, but when you when you detach and when you view business as a game and you you're not so emotional about it, that's when you when you just break through. Like that's like I think that's the biggest thing with business is learning to manage yourself and learning to manage your emotions and detaching from from all of the emotional like things that are just like eating you away and viewing it as a game because when you when you take a thirderson view and you look at it and like cuz you you I'm sure you've experienced this and I'm sure people that have wa are watching have experienced this like someone will come to me and like asking like like how do I scale like how do I fix this problem? And I'm like, "Oh, like duh, like XYZ, like you just do that." It's like, "Well, like why don't I just think like that with my own business?" But it's cuz your your emotions are tied to it and it's like it's your livelihood and it's your baby and and you you have a you have clouded judgment. So you don't you don't make the right calls. But when you're able to detach and like view your business as if it was someone else's, it's just a whole different paradigm. And like I said, you could just view it like a game and just take the necess like like for example, if you're like in like I don't know a first-person shooter type game and it's like or like any sort of game where you're like you have to spend like 5,000 tokens to like upgrade to the next vehicle to upgrade to the next gun or what whatever it is. You're like, "Well, I have 15,000 tokens and the 5,000 is going to make me an extra 30,000 tokens." Well, obviously, right? Let's let's make that play. Let's hire this. Let's do whatever. But when you're in the weeds, it's a lot more difficult, dude.
Yeah. It's funny. on the group call for Home Service Accelerator, I use that analogy. It's like it's just a big RPG video game. Yeah. You're just leveling up, man. Like it's like Yeah. And it's it's it's really true. I think I think the big thing for younger guys especially, and like again, I don't have a hundred million dollar business either. I'm just talking about what I've seen in my own experience has gotten me to this point and what you've probably experienced similarly in your business is like in the beginning, I cared so much about was in the bank account because I wasn't making enough. one that I really cared, but two, I was living out of the business bank account for like the first 2, three years. And so like I never was able to make big moves, buy an info product, uh go get a mentorship from somebody that was killing it way bigger than me, uh like all sorts of these buy vehicles because I was spending everything that was coming in because I was like, you know, trying to keep up with the Joneses or whatever else because these guys that are owner ops were like I think the business is at its most vulnerable point when a guy's starting out when it first starts to make real money because the lifestyle creep comes in like pretty much immediately cuz you've been like pinching pennies, pinching pies, pinching pennies. And then for the first time, the business bank account has 100 grand in it. And you're like, "Oh, I can go buy a Rolex now." Like I can go finance this crazy Tesla or like something like that. And then these guys wonder why they don't grow at all between like year 2, three, and four. It's because like you're emptying the bank account. Like you still have a job at that point. You're you're choking the business of oxygen.
Yeah. Exactly. So you can fund like what's not even like that fancy of a lifestyle. Like what's really funny and like I'm sure you experienced this too. Uh I think I was I think we were DMing about this on Twitter for a little bit is like what's so funny is if you get the if your thing is travel, right? Like if you're if you're like thing you really want to do is travel. If you get the business to a point where it's like a cranking marketing machine and it's spending like a decent amount on paid ads and you get an MX gold card and it's like four times points on any paid ad, your travel is free. Like I haven't paid for a flight or a hotel in like two years now just off of credit card points from the business. So it's like most of these guys want that and I'm like dude you don't even have to spend your actual money on that when the business gets big enough. Like you could just like literally survive off of smart credit card.
I'm glad you you brought that up there because that's pretty funny. I I like compared to other guys. I don't. But like in my mind, I live a great lifestyle. I travel. I stay at really nice resorts. I fly first in business class and I don't spend a [ __ ] dollar. I just I flew back from Europe on Sunday. It was a $15,000 flight that I spent 100,000 points on. And like that's it. I see a [ __ ] fivestar resort for for 90,000 points. It's all free. Like you said, like it's all free. Like you can have a sick lifestyle traveling and it's free just because you're spending money on the business.
Yeah. Exactly. And so like it's we're not saying that to flex. I'm saying that as like people get start the business to buy a certain lifestyle. And a lot of the time like a lot of young guys sub 30 their thing is they want to travel. Like they want to have location independence like you talked about. And I'm not saying that to flex and Andrew is not saying that to flex. He's saying that like you get the business to a certain scale all of those travel things are figured out. Like if that's your thing, it's figured out. Yeah. Like dude, yeah. I'm the same way. Like I would never dream. Like I don't even think I would pay for first class on most of these flights. I just have so many points because like I mean you see my ads you you see my ads on Facebook all the time. Even Home Service Accelerator alone. Like that's spending like 15 $20,000 a month on ads. Like that's a h 100,000 credit card points just about every month over just that. So it's like Yeah. It's just it's funny dude. It's it's that's super cool.
Um, okay. And then you have an info product. You're going to teach guys how to do build pressure washing and Christmas light businesses. Is that what it is?
Yeah. So, we're we're putting together a beta program right now. Um it's just going to be 13 students and then we're just my goal is to just kill it for these 13 students. Just get a ton of testim testimonials. Um because in my mind, like the pressure washing thing is a pretty cool business. Like you can make 30 to 40k a month. It's not going to be easy. Like I'm not going to like portray it as like, oh, you're just going to kick back and like have this passive income. Like you're going to eat glass for a little bit. It's the opposite of passive. Yeah, it's for sure. But like you can make 20 to 25k a month profit um off of this like you know you have one or two employees and it's just a it's a great it's a great business and that's what I've done and I'm like man like I don't have the aspirations to you know take it to to 80 to 120k a month have this multi-million dollar pressure washing empire. Um, but a lot of people and uh the problem too when you get to a certain point is you don't realize that like people don't like not everything is just like obvious or like second nature like it comes to like like when you've been in the game for a little while. Like when I'm talking to some people like even my one buddy Dylan like he has a pressure washing business and he he asks me questions sometimes and in my brain it's like obvious well well yeah you just do XYZ and he's like oh you know but like those things aren't like second nature to people who are just starting or like under you know 20 30k a month and I'm like I'm just going to take a I'm just going to make a blueprint and I'm just going to give it to people and and cool and I because that that's how I got started too like I I forget that like I got started from info and I got started from watching people online um And I'm not going to pretend like I have like, oh, I just want to help people, you know, like I I do really want to help people. I do want to see people succeed. Um, it's also just a great business model as well. Um, but we're we're starting up um a beta program, like I said, um just 13 students, get a bunch of testimonials, um and rock with that. Teach people how to make 40k a month pressure washing.
Yeah, dude. That's dope. That's super cool. Yeah. And like uh if you if you get people results, like who cares, right? Like I I was the same way. Like I paid for an info product for Christmas lights 5 years ago and it like completely changed my life. So it's like you ever see those memes like the midwipit meme where it's like the idiot and then the middle is like the angry mad person and the last one's like a Jedi. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? I think that like that is a perfect example of who buys info products and like buys courses. It's like the dumbest people in the world buy courses. The middle pack intelligence who think they're really smart don't and say every course are like info products a scam and then the smartest and most successful people like the Jedi and that meme buy info products and courses. Like I see Tommy Melo talk about like he buys mentorship and coach and coaching and everything all the time. I'm like if a guy that built a 200 something million dollar business did it I think I can probably benefit from something like that too. Yes. And this isn't just to plug info, but what what people like don't understand sometimes like we live in the best time ever. Like imag like no other time could you simply find someone online and pay them to show you exactly how to do it. Like you you just like success is super [ __ ] simple. It's not easy, but it's super simple. You just pay someone and they show you how to do it. Like that that's it. Like you can just shortcut your way to the top because people have done it and they're willing to show you how.
Yeah, exactly. And like that's where I I don't even really consider Home Service Accelerator an info product because like we do a lot of handholding and like teach them how to run ads and like build it into their businesses and stuff like that. But it's really interesting because like we've helped like 250 something people about it now in like the last basically year through home service accelerator. And the funny thing that we've started to have to say on the call is like every single thing that you're going through in this program is like the boat is just put in the right direction. You still have to row. Yeah. Like you still have to row. And the other model is like paying an agency or something to do everything, but then you're just going to you're just going to lose all of your profit and usually, in my experience and your experience, like get dog [ __ ] results from some guy who took an Iman Godzy course and, you know, is charging you $2,000 a month to do something you can learn for free.
So, dude, I I mean, I get it. That's that's super cool. I'm super stoked for you. I'm I'm excited to hear the uh to hear how the Christmas season goes. Um that's okay. The last thing I want to do and like in five minutes or less like I want you to explain let's say I present you a 20-year-old right now. Let's just say I actually go middle 20s. Let's say 25-year-old right now. They're working a 9 to5. It's so 25y old person working a 9 to5. They don't have a lot of savings. They say I want to start a pressure washing business with the info you know now. So, they want to start a Jeez, dude. That dinging is Yeah. It's nerve. No, you're good. So, 25-year-old wants to start a pressure washing business now. Not a lot of savings. With the info, you know, now, what do you have them do in order? Give me like two or three bullet points. Like, what is like the main non-negotiable thing they have to do?
It's cool. the first thing and and I know this sounds kind of like high level and like wishy-washy but really just like upgrading like the way you think um and actually believing it is possible and because it it's difficult but like the problem that especially like the reason zero to 10k a month is so difficult. It's not the actual it's just there's so much um so many paradigms that you have that are just wrong like you don't view the world correctly. Um, and that takes a lot of time to rewire, especially when you're 25 years old and you've just you've seen some things through like a lens and a lot of times you just don't believe things are possible. Um, but I say the first step is just kind of taking a leap of faith and kind of it sounds like super again wishyw believe that is it is actually possible and act in accordance with that belief. Like you see people doing it, you can do it too. Like like no like these guys aren't any smarter than you. Like you just have to go put in the work. So that's going to be like like step one.
Too. Like like I said before, you can get started with pretty much nothing. Don't spend 10 20 30k on a rig. And if you're, you know, 25 years old with a 9 to5 um and you're like, you know, kind of broke or whatever, like I'd probably get a 4 gallon a minute. It's like $800 or $900. Get a downstream injector um for like 50 bucks and you're off to the races. And now you can softwash houses for $250 an hour. So you have really bare bones equipment that you can get for under $1,500 bucks. If you're really on a really strict budget, you can do it for under $300 with a pressure washer for 150 bucks off Facebook and a couple smaller things. And then when you are broke, you usually have more time than money, right? So, I'm not going to say start spending $100 a day on ads. I'm going to say go hit the pavement, go learn the messaging, go learn the sales, go knock on doors, post in fake Facebook groups. My first 40k from pressure washing, I touched on earlier, was from five Facebook posts and like 200 doors. five Facebook group posts, like not completely free. The post averaged $9,000 in revenue per post. So, you can just do that and it's free, right? Like you could just do that and then you have the equipment for under whatever, like $1,500, under $300, and you can just go do jobs, man. Like, go on YouTube, go look up how to softwash a house, go practice on your mom's or whatever. Um, and it can be a weekend thing. Don't don't, you know, jump off and and quit your 9 to5 when you have absolutely zero skills. But you can make, you know, a grand a day on the weekend. So, you know, two 2K a weekend times four. You can make an an extra eight grand a month just working weekends. And then once you're like, hey, we're a little bit, you know, I kind of know what I'm doing. Then go quit your 9 to5 and take it full-time.
How you doing? I don't I like it. I like it, dude. That's good. That's that's it's really that simple. Like, it really is like Yeah. All of like the e Oh, I need an EIN. I need to go on legal zoom. I need to just let that come to you. Inspiration. The the thing I I tell people be in the beginning is is focus on IPAs, income producing activities. Making a website isn't an income producing activity. Filing an LLC, doing all this like things that like make you feel good don't actually bring money in the door. Like your only concern when you're broke when you're just starting is making money. Like don't spend five like five days on a website. Like I made my first two like that first season with softwashing Christmas lights. I had no website. Made 220 grand with no website. Just a Google like you don't need it. like you like like it's just again like I said it's mental masturbation. People like to feel busy but it doesn't actually bring money through the door. So folks I like that. I like that.
Okay, last question. I like I've started to ask everybody this. Do you vividly remember the first person who ever gave you money to do a home service business of any kind? I do. Yeah. All right. What was it? Give us the 30 second story for everybody reme like even guys that have been in business for 30 years. Everyone remembers their first time someone exchanged them money for the business that they created out of thin air. What was yours?
It was my neighbor down the road. Um, and I knocked on her. It was this really old lady and I was like, I'll wash your walkway for 40 bucks. And she was like, okay. And I did it. And my pressure washer actually broke during that that first job. And I only got like one square of of the walkway done. I was like, "Hey, sorry. Like, I can't do it anymore." She's like, "Okay." And still paid me the 40 bucks. I was like, "Thanks." Yeah. I mean, that's I guess that's $40 service, so I guess you got what you paid for.
It's awesome. I I love asking that question because it doesn't matter like anybody everybody that I talk to, no matter where they're at now, they remember the first person that exchanged them money for like this concept that they thought about from thin air and it Yeah. You know, that's so cool. But all right, dude. That's super good. We'll have you out in Phoenix and we'll do it in person one and go a little bit more in depth and uh all that jazz. But I appreciate you hopping on, dude. This was super helpful for people. I love it.
Absolutely, man. Thank you for inviting me.
Yeah, of course, man. I'll talk to you soon.
All right. Peace.