In this episode of the Building Great Sales Teams we have Neil Fairley. Neil Is a hustler in the truest sense of the word We get a chance to here his story from migrating to US and growing his company to an 8-Figure business. Enjoy!
We believe that great experiences build great leaders and great leaders build great teams; Neil Fairley is a prime example of that very belief.
Due to his parents being unable to afford the life he wanted, Neil went to work at a very young age and since then hasn't looked back. From starting on the street selling socks, owning a business, losing it all, migrating to the US and starting something new Neil has been a prime example of what it means to never give up. With a God given ability to quickly gain and ingraft knowledge from others, Neil has taken his experience in door to door sales, import and exports, marketing and a plethora of other ventures and has built and continuing to build a legacy and impact that will be immeasurable!
Neil's journey is the ultimate proof that success is not a straight line, it's a zigzag. He faced a lot of obstacles and challenges, but he never gave up. Instead, he used those experiences to grow and adapt. He is a perfect example of how perseverance and resilience can help you overcome anything that comes your way. His ability to learn from his experiences is what sets him apart as a successful entrepreneur. Neil's story is a major inspiration for all the young entrepreneurs out there, it shows that with hard work, determination, and a willingness to learn, you can achieve anything you set your mind to and leave a lasting impact on the world.
Key Points:
Connect with Neil:
Instagram -https://www.instagram.com/fairleyneil/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/instyle7171
00;00;44;57 - 00;01;12;01
Speaker 1
All right, guys, welcome back to the Building Great Sales Teams podcast. I am honored and excited to be here with Mr. Neil Farley. He is the owner and CEO of Turf Pros, as well as his own internal marketing company. And I met Neil through Adam McChesney. Right. He reached out to me via the DMS. He's leading my team and say, Hey, this is Neil, and he's been scaling like crazy and he needs some help with the sales program.
00;01;12;10 - 00;01;27;25
Speaker 1
And as I've been here the last couple of days, you know, Neil's a bit of a storyteller and as I'm hearing all these stories, I'm like, Man, I wish I had a mic recording right now because the thing that he is saying people need to hear, you know. So, Neil, welcome to the show, brother.
00;01;27;32 - 00;01;29;24
Speaker 2
Thank you. Thank you for the privilege of being here.
00;01;29;38 - 00;01;52;27
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And so I want to start with, you know, you're obviously a successful business owner. You've got an eight figure business. It's in the home services, which is a highly competitive market. Right. And, you know, some of the stories you were telling me, you have this like audacity, this hunger, this drive you know what I mean? Where did that come from?
00;01;52;27 - 00;01;54;34
Speaker 1
Can we go back to the childhood and see some of that there?
00;01;54;40 - 00;02;21;30
Speaker 2
Well, from my childhood or from college, all my friends went to become engineers, and that was one of my dreams. I wanted to be an engineer and my parents wasn't well, They didn't have enough money to send me to engineering school, so I had to get a job. So the first job I went down in the city. I'm from the island of Trinidad and Tobago, a Caribbean island.
00;02;21;51 - 00;02;43;22
Speaker 2
I migrated to the US 21 years ago. And so the first job I got was I got an A store in the city, right? So I went up on an Axis guy for a job and give me the job. And I said, okay, good, cool. So he told me, Hey, come here. So I went, Give me a duffle bag full of socks.
00;02;43;47 - 00;02;59;28
Speaker 2
And he told me, Go in the streets and sell it. I was going to shock. I was like, I thought I was good inside the store and started selling the socks. He said, Yeah, just take it outside, see ten for one, three for 25. I said, Okay, that's what you want me to do. I'll do it. So why don't any streets?
00;02;59;51 - 00;03;19;22
Speaker 2
By 1 p.m. was a big duffel bag. I came back and I sold everything out. He's like, How did you do that? You told me to do it. So I did it. Yeah, you can you say, okay, here's another bag. Go back and sell it. So I went out by 4:00, I came by, sold it out again. The whole two weeks.
00;03;19;22 - 00;03;43;39
Speaker 2
He did that to me. What he realized I was good at and feels he pulled me in the store and I became the manager of the store. That manager in the store gained real top level sales going on. So I realized that they were going to neighboring like they were going to New York, Miami. They were going to the Island Antilles, Panama and buying stuff and bringing it back to the Caribbean and some of that.
00;03;43;39 - 00;04;06;39
Speaker 2
I said, That doesn't look so difficult. I could I could I could do that. So I started doing that. I grew that company to be a multi-million dollar company and, you know, I started on the streets selling on the streets and got my first or second store to store. And I had some tragedy in that. I had my family involved in it.
00;04;07;02 - 00;04;22;32
Speaker 2
They did realize what it is that it takes to really run a business. And long story short, I lost everything I had. I decided to migrate to the US. So when I came to the US, I had a friend living in Colorado and she told me.
00;04;22;51 - 00;04;27;05
Speaker 1
Can I ask you what? Why? What made you make the decision to come to the US?
00;04;27;25 - 00;04;44;36
Speaker 2
I had a really good friend here that lives here, so we had a good relationship and she invited me. I had a what is it, a London. I was either good England or us. And she encouraged me like, Hey, come here. I'm going to a really good church and blah, blah, blah, and a senator come to the US.
00;04;45;02 - 00;04;48;11
Speaker 1
So that was a kind of a faith based decision at this point to.
00;04;48;25 - 00;05;13;09
Speaker 2
See this decision. And when I came here, me and my wife came here together and we were really small business. We didn't want to see business anymore. We didn't want to have anything to do with business. I got a job as a pole recording painter. She got a job, but Red Lobster, which as a civil and she went up the chain and became a manager of the store.
00;05;13;41 - 00;05;27;39
Speaker 2
So a couple of years passed by and while so there was a landscape guy, you know, what you doing? Landscaping. And I was talking to him one day and I say, Hey, that doesn't look so difficult to do. So I decided I'm.
00;05;27;39 - 00;05;33;32
Speaker 1
Noticing the trends. Yeah, you look at something, you reverse engineer it and you're like, That doesn't look so difficult.
00;05;33;37 - 00;06;05;08
Speaker 2
Yeah. So at that time, I had a minivan. I went to Home Depot, I bought a weed whacker, a more and a blue, and I started knocking doors and asking people to cut their grass. So while doing that, one day I saw a minivan pulled up with six people in it and they were sticking fliers on doors. There's a service in Colorado called Lawn Irrigation, where you break up the compaction of the lawns and you put fertilizer and stuff.
00;06;05;08 - 00;06;09;59
Speaker 2
And I picked up the the flier and I looked at it and I said, I think I could write something better than this.
00;06;10;21 - 00;06;11;58
Speaker 1
So I think I had to do that.
00;06;11;58 - 00;06;12;17
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00;06;12;34 - 00;06;14;25
Speaker 1
It doesn't look so, so bad.
00;06;14;36 - 00;06;41;58
Speaker 2
I rewrote, rewrote it, I picked up, I went on phone some guys and I started distributing the fliers and I started doing the same thing. So the reason I built that company up, I had a I did a no lawn cut for the lawn irrigation. I did a irrigation division, I did landscaping, added concrete, and I added a artificial things.
00;06;41;59 - 00;07;07;23
Speaker 2
But the first thing I added was Christmas lights. So the first year we started doing business, Winter was coming and I was like, Man, winter is coming. I didn't have the money to buy a plow and a truck in Colorado here. It take you at least $80,000 or $25,000 to buy a plow and a truck. And the problem with that is that the snow is very it's not reliable.
00;07;07;23 - 00;07;25;22
Speaker 2
You don't know when snow is coming or when it's not coming again. So I started to think, man, what am I going to do? It's a wintertime year. And I start thinking, I have a wind in my country. We do a lot of Christmas lights. You know what I should think about getting in a Christmas lights business? So I went on Google and I Googled.
00;07;25;38 - 00;07;49;49
Speaker 2
How do you start the Christmas lights business? I found a guy with a company name. We had Christmas lights the com. His name is Josh Trees. We became really good friends and we joined the conversation. He told me then, you know, it was was a great conversation with you on you know I really need somebody in Colorado. So I looked at him.
00;07;49;49 - 00;08;12;09
Speaker 2
I said, What do you mean? I said, Yeah, I need some. I say, You have the guy already. I'm your guy. I'm going to do it. So I learned to do the Christmas lights business. And at that point in time that the following year, Josh had a another large company, a marketing company, marketing for new films, and he got real busy with marketing for the new homes.
00;08;12;09 - 00;08;21;45
Speaker 2
And if you wanted somebody new to come into the Christmas Lights business, he would fly me out and I would train the people and I. I helped him tremendously.
00;08;22;01 - 00;08;23;18
Speaker 1
You're like a franchise trainer.
00;08;23;18 - 00;08;45;32
Speaker 2
Yeah, like a franchise treat. And so fast forward three years. No, One day I'm ticking down the lights because the how we do the Christmas lights is we provide the lights, the extension cords, the timers. We put everything up, we take it back down, we superset. It's like a full scale service we did. So we were taking on lights in January and Josh called me up and he said, Hey, Neil, how you doing, buddy?
00;08;45;32 - 00;09;04;36
Speaker 2
I said, I'm I'm doing good. I'm, you know, how are you? He said, Hey, I want to repay you for all the good stuff that you did for me. I said, Roof, you take care of me also. You know, you said you help me out a lot. He said, I want to build a website for you. I want my admin girl to build a website for you.
00;09;04;58 - 00;09;15;04
Speaker 2
I see a website for one. I said, You said many leads. I go, I closed the job and I don't see pointed in a website. They really have no interest in that, he said.
00;09;15;24 - 00;09;20;15
Speaker 1
So I want to point something out. This is the first time you didn't say, Hey, what you're doing looks easy. I should to do that.
00;09;20;55 - 00;09;28;39
Speaker 2
Yeah, you were doing it for me for a website because I wasn't really a digital guy in any way whatsoever.
00;09;28;42 - 00;09;29;52
Speaker 1
It was all hustle and bustle.
00;09;30;12 - 00;09;52;55
Speaker 2
You know? So that was a different territory to me. And he said, I want to tap into my web designer, contact you and build a website for you and Neil. Trust me, you're going to thank me for this one day. I said, okay, I'll do it. So Tabitha starts contacting me and asking me what algorithms and and questions I didn't even understand.
00;09;53;19 - 00;10;22;12
Speaker 2
So at that time, Facebook had just came out a little while. Facebook came out and I joined Facebook. And by the grace of God, I met some real high level marketers and I joined a group with them. Within six weeks of Capitol telling meetings, I was teaching her stuff and telling her what to do and implementing stuff. So I took I started doing a lot of digital marketing and it raised the level of my company.
00;10;22;21 - 00;10;51;54
Speaker 2
I started, look at my company, mostly gen company. I grew the company to have 55 employees in it. So one day, you know, while are doing the landscaping and the irrigation and the concrete work and all that, it had a big CEO meeting in Denver. I decided to go to the CEO meeting in Denver. So when I went to the CEO meeting in Denver, I made friends there and people start asking me things like, you know, how you measuring your marketing, you know?
00;10;51;54 - 00;11;09;05
Speaker 2
And I was like, What you mean measuring your marketing? It's called trucking and blah, blah, blah. And I learned a lot of stuff. Well, I made friends with what a top level SEO guy there. And he told me I told him what I was doing, like landscaping and irrigation and concrete. And he said, Have you ever thought about artificial turf?
00;11;09;34 - 00;11;31;33
Speaker 2
I was like, No, I've never I've never thought about artificial grass. And he said, I have a client that's doing it. He's doing really well. So we had a lot of chats and I came back home to tell my wife what this guy told me about. Do remember that time we had tokens of lawn cutting clients? Yeah, People were fixing sprinkler systems for.
00;11;31;33 - 00;11;53;23
Speaker 2
And I said, Hey, guess what? You're going to be doing business. She watched me and said, Like, what? Who is going to do that? Who's going to put artificial turf in the yard? And, you know, because everybody had beautiful lawns in Colorado at that time as to say, watch me, I'll make this happen. So I went back on Google and I said, How do you start an artificial turf business?
00;11;54;15 - 00;12;15;07
Speaker 2
And yeah, yeah, yeah, I think Google's like a Godman. Yeah. So I found a company named Bruce Green out of Dalton, Georgia, a manufacturer from the U.S., called them up and said, Hey, I'm thinking of getting into the artificial grass business. They said, okay, if you buy the grass, some us will train you in how to install the grass and everything like that.
00;12;15;34 - 00;12;35;33
Speaker 2
So I said, okay, cool. So we started doing artificial dress, but I got a job decent with the team, the trainers. At that time we had a lot of landscaping guys being one of my foremen and a couple of guys was doing the job. It took about the entire day to do about 700 square feet. Well, 650. So somewhere around it.
00;12;35;51 - 00;12;56;05
Speaker 2
At the end of the day, I looked at my foreman and he looked at me like, Why did taking so long? I decided, yeah, so long story short, we had a, uh, I started to push pretty tough, really hard. We became the number one distributor guy. We became really big in the artificial business for that company, Bro Green.
00;12;56;34 - 00;13;00;48
Speaker 2
So everything was going really good. We were getting good money for the artificial grass jobs.
00;13;00;49 - 00;13;07;12
Speaker 1
Let me ask you why. Why did you all become number one? Was it the marketing or marketing? Marketing systems.
00;13;07;14 - 00;13;13;19
Speaker 2
Marketing system? Okay, we had a lot of lead gen coming in and we were doing really good and the artificial.
00;13;13;25 - 00;13;15;02
Speaker 1
And they didn't provide anything in the.
00;13;15;21 - 00;13;23;00
Speaker 2
Body to solve them, nor did they want to teach us how to install it, but only marketing or religion. I brought it in myself.
00;13;23;16 - 00;13;23;44
Speaker 1
Fantastic.
00;13;23;45 - 00;13;49;09
Speaker 2
And so everything was going really good. We were making good money with had one of my salesmen comes in and tell me problems. I was like, What? What's the problem? He said, Somebody selling the exact same two for 25% cheaper than we are. Excellent. I was like, No way. That's impossible. No, we're. This can be possible. I did my due diligence and I found out the company started selling another individual.
00;13;49;09 - 00;14;11;41
Speaker 2
Look, I see him do so I call the guy up the orders of the company. And I said that was selling media to the manufacturer. And I was like, Harry, this guy is selling it to really cheap, right? You know, I mean, I have huge budgets At that time. I used to do a lot of print advertising and I did some Google buy a little more print advertising at that point in time.
00;14;11;41 - 00;14;18;49
Speaker 1
And by this time, you're already getting the green process price down because you're ordering so much. Yeah, yeah, I'm saying so.
00;14;19;23 - 00;14;37;40
Speaker 2
Bro Green is the company I used to buy from, right. And the guy to be, Hey, Neal, there's nothing I can do about it. And so I was I was disappointed. And then I, you know, I was like, wow. So I had to suck salt and drop my prices. That same year, my wife's brother was getting married in the Caribbean.
00;14;37;40 - 00;15;03;32
Speaker 2
We decided to go to the wedding, though my background was importation and exportation, like I told you, with the clothing stores and all that. So one of my friends was very wealthy there. He just acquired a company making a manufacturing stove and washing machines and refrigerator. And he said, Neil, I know your background is import export. I want you to go to China and source stoves and refrigerators and that kind of stuff for me.
00;15;03;52 - 00;15;15;42
Speaker 1
So now you're going back to a skill you learned from before being. Yes, from selling on the street. Yes. And you reverse engineering it. You know, you learn the skill. Now you're bringing it back.
00;15;16;00 - 00;15;32;06
Speaker 2
So I wasn't thinking about anything about import export. But you knew I was very good at what I did. So you asked me, could I source these suppliers and and get the product and everything? I said, okay, yeah, I could do that. I say, Are you serious? Because I'm a really busy guy. I have a lot of stuff going on.
00;15;32;09 - 00;15;51;20
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I went back, I came back to the States, did all my due diligence, I lined up the suppliers and everything. So I said A he called and I did everything. My buddy, he was called in and he said, Oh, I say, get needed to get signed up. The supply is I did everything for you and give me two tickets to go by Friday.
00;15;51;31 - 00;16;07;26
Speaker 2
So I didn't call him back Friday. I called him back to choose the and say, Hey, bro, did you get these tickets and everything for me? I'm ready to go. He's like, Man, I was really busy. I didn't have the time to do it. And he did that to me three times. MM hmm. And I was pissed. I was upset.
00;16;07;26 - 00;16;31;37
Speaker 2
I was angry because I put all this effort into getting this done. And so I started thinking to myself, Neil, how could you take a negative and turn it into a positive? So I went. I was going to this huge fear in a city in one. John Mm called Canton View. And I said, Why don't you see if there's any artificial turf manufacturers going to that show?
00;16;32;06 - 00;16;55;38
Speaker 2
So I checked the roster. I found three companies, two women were running two of the companies and a guy was running the other company. I started chatting with him. Chats were going good and they one night while talking to the guy on a Chinese social media name, WeChat, he called me bro. Is that what he said, bro? I said, What's up?
00;16;55;38 - 00;17;21;37
Speaker 2
I say, What's up, man? Yeah, well, that clicked us and we became really good friends. And I told him, I said, Hey, you know, I'm looking for a manufacturer to to manufacture to for me. So I decided I took all my competitor's stuff and I decided to go to China and bring in a mate too. There was a lot of money at that point in time, $90,000 for a cantina.
00;17;21;57 - 00;17;41;58
Speaker 2
I didn't have the money, but I knew I could speak in order to talk to people. And I knew marketing and I had a history of way. I did my print and how I was ranking on Google and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, and I I'm a Christian, so I went when I told my pastor my plans on the Sunday at church and he said, Neil, I want you to come in on Tuesday morning.
00;17;42;00 - 00;18;08;50
Speaker 2
We have a print meeting from 6 to 8 in the morning and I let all the elders pray for you. So after the meeting was almost finished, they called me up. Everybody laid hands on me and start praying for me. And I could never forget that day. While they were praying, I felt like a tangible, real like I saw it like two angel skin and anointed me and tell me go for it.
00;18;10;38 - 00;18;37;34
Speaker 2
So I the next two weeks I booked a ticket to go Beijing. One of the companies was in Beijing. I flew to Beijing. I didn't know anybody. It very intimidating going to be, as you could say, huge, huge city, huge airport. I met this company and in downtown Beijing and had a huge office, huge operations, and I started to pitch them and tell them everything that I could do in my capability.
00;18;37;57 - 00;18;42;25
Speaker 2
So this to me, they want me to go down to the factory and see the operations and all that.
00;18;42;56 - 00;18;43;51
Speaker 1
How did you deal with the.
00;18;44;49 - 00;19;03;14
Speaker 2
Of the guy, you little guy? You call me bro. He was a strange speaker. Some English. So it was translated. And so I went to the factory, I took the samples of me and I told them, I said, Hey, if you want to make this product for me, you know, I'll do business with you guys. Well, like I said, in fact, they did it.
00;19;03;57 - 00;19;27;08
Speaker 2
The dealer was $90,000. But by the time I was finished speaking to them and showing them my capability, I came back within 45 days of making that first trip. I had my first container landed on the ground here. Well, no, I don't even buy from that company anymore. We are still really close friends, but I have a.
00;19;28;03 - 00;19;29;13
Speaker 1
That opened you up to what was.
00;19;29;13 - 00;19;50;40
Speaker 2
Possible. Yeah. Oh, it opened me up to what's possible. And I actually buy from the largest manufacturer in the world right now. And the first are the second largest manufacturers. Any world. I'm a direct distributor for them and I started to buy from them. I went deeper into marketing. I believe in inbound marketing. I'm a real Google guy.
00;19;50;40 - 00;20;11;12
Speaker 2
I, I have while I was in the Caribbean, I did a lot of television ads. Read your ads, newspaper ads when I came to the U.S. and I learned about sticking fliers on doors. I mean, like I did it all like that. I did almost every I used to put a lot of signs, those bandit signs all over the place.
00;20;11;34 - 00;20;33;05
Speaker 2
And when I learned digital marketing, I realized with digital marketing, because somebody knows what he wants, what they want, and when they call calling, it's easier to sell in my leader or I put a lot of effort and time into developing teams to help me to bring in inbound leads. And, you know, I just kept pushing and growing my business.
00;20;33;28 - 00;21;11;38
Speaker 2
And, you know, we had a location when we started. We were in Colorado Springs. Only then we grew from Colorado Springs to a location in Denver. Then we operated in Houston for a while that I opened one in New Jersey that served in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. Now we have a location in Orlando and a Naples, and I just align myself with people that could carry me to a different level, not necessarily smarter than me, but, you know, do different verticals and to help enrich my life.
00;21;12;03 - 00;21;15;33
Speaker 2
And I just keep growing and pushing.
00;21;15;33 - 00;21;33;14
Speaker 1
So when Adam introduced us and it's an amazing story, by the way, I love it, and I've heard a lot of them or I've heard it in a lot more detail. Yeah. And it's a lot of fun the way you tell it. So but so we we met through Adam and we jumped on the call. We talked for maybe like 30 minutes or something like that.
00;21;33;14 - 00;21;54;54
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I remember it was very quick, you know, already major decision, you know what I mean? And then you engaged with me and. And then I started meeting your team. I met Rachel and Dean, your wife, and I was like, okay, I've I've got something really good to work with here. And one of the other things I noticed, I started following you on social media and you always talked about how God's blessed you in your life.
00;21;55;28 - 00;22;16;24
Speaker 1
And I was like, okay, instant alignment, right? And, you know, being a Christian business owner, it's not like we have a label on us and we don't walk in the conversation and say, Hey, I'm a Christian, you know what I mean? And so any time that somebody is vocal about that or forward about it, I love that because then I know, you know, there's alignment there, right?
00;22;16;51 - 00;22;33;40
Speaker 1
And whenever I'm looking at consulting clients, it's important to me that not only that there's some alignment, it doesn't have to be necessarily Christian, but there's alignment in terms of, All right, we're trying to make an impact here. They're trying to make an impact in the company. It's not just about the money. Right. Right. And there's some core value alignment.
00;22;34;18 - 00;22;48;15
Speaker 1
I know I'm not going to show up to Neil's office and us go through a whole day and bust our asses every day. And then Neil's going to be like, Hey, let's go to the strip club. You know? I mean, that's not what I need in my life, right? And so a lot of alignment. And then I noticed, like, your people are aligned too.
00;22;48;32 - 00;23;08;46
Speaker 1
Yeah. And so then I get out here in the first thing is your one of your office managers gives me a tour of the facility. And as I'm looking around, I realize like, Hey, Neil's just not a good salesman. He's not just a, you know, a follower of a Christ. Dude's got good systems, you know what I mean?
00;23;08;46 - 00;23;23;52
Speaker 1
Like, so, you know, in my head I'm like, okay, when we do this sales audit, I feel like they're going to be there already, you know what I mean? And maybe I'm just going to be building on top of that and handling it and everything. And so that was the first thing I recognized was like how clean your warehouse was, you know?
00;23;23;52 - 00;23;43;52
Speaker 1
And I've been in a lot of warehouses before. I've I've actually ran a crew that put up Christmas lights in the warehouse, just a mess. You know what I mean? It's not organized. It doesn't flow properly, you know what I'm saying? So that's one of the things that I appreciated right away. And then they start meeting your team and I'm like, his culture is on point, but you don't see core values on the wall.
00;23;43;52 - 00;24;10;27
Speaker 1
You don't see a mission statement anywhere. It's because of the hands on way that you run your business. You know what I mean? You know everybody's story. You know their family. You you know, you guys walk together in faith, you know? And so the culture here is amazing. But you guys have been strong arming, Right? And so, you know, after a few conversations and everything and then working with your teams, like, I'm very excited about the impact we're going to make here together.
00;24;10;56 - 00;24;14;17
Speaker 1
And then I'm also excited about telling the story, you know what I mean?
00;24;14;41 - 00;24;39;56
Speaker 2
Well, when I contacted you, I knew over weak points. I knew that we needed to create. Now, Google have worked great for us in the past, but things are changing is a trend in tremendously. And I had just hired a I just got Abraham as a consultant for two years. Yeah. And he teaches a lot about religion and how to get a lot of customers also.
00;24;39;56 - 00;25;00;45
Speaker 2
But delivering these yields, converting those leads to sales is a huge part of it and creating systems. And I knew we were weak on that. And I had looked at look at all of that. Well, I've been looking for somebody to treat my in sales. And when we had the conversation the first time, I thought you would have been a great fit for us.
00;25;01;03 - 00;25;09;14
Speaker 2
So that's why I was eager to get it going. I knew what I wanted and you know that. And it's all up, up Speed exceeded my expectations.
00;25;09;14 - 00;25;27;41
Speaker 1
I appreciate that. Yeah, no, absolutely. And likewise. So we've got a long journey ahead of us and we'll probably do another episode when we're done and see how everything went. Right. Right. But in the meantime, you got you have a lot of plans for your company, for your business. And it's not just turf. Can you talk about that?
00;25;27;56 - 00;25;49;50
Speaker 2
Well, tough is a really great business. We're a pretty large company. No, but at the end of the day, too, is e want. It's that are needed. So I started realizing like, hey, if the economy is a recession is coming, like, oh, it's coming right down. We need to think about different things. That's when you introduce me to Nathaniel.
00;25;50;17 - 00;26;11;09
Speaker 2
I know we had a great conversation and I decided to open a plumbing and drainage division, which we start. We opened already and we're going to expand on that eventually. I'm planning to bring in after the plumbing and drainage is going. I'm going to each HVAC and then I'm going to my electrical division.
00;26;11;41 - 00;26;31;14
Speaker 1
So I want to back up real quick and just tell that story real quick about Nathaniel. Right. And so he posted something and you and I both in Apex, he posted something, an entourage he basically needed somebody to talk to. I won't get into all the details in anything. So I reach out to him and basically what I find out from that is he's a undervalued employee.
00;26;31;34 - 00;26;47;41
Speaker 1
Right? And so he had a lot of decisions to make because he was in a really high paying position, you know, And it's hard to even if you're undervalued and you're not treated the right way, it's hard to go from that, you know, making six figures into another position where maybe you won't do that even if you are treated well.
00;26;47;41 - 00;27;07;07
Speaker 1
I mean, that's that's real, right? And so I realized he was based in Colorado Springs and I had just literally a week before had the conversation with you. And I'm like, you need to talk to Neal. And that not that he was going to end up working with you or anything like that. You just you need mentorship, You need guidance.
00;27;07;19 - 00;27;14;51
Speaker 1
And Neal's got roves of it, you know what I'm saying? So just have coffee with him and tell him what you're dealing with and maybe he could help you, you know?
00;27;14;54 - 00;27;31;40
Speaker 2
Well, the first time he came to me, we set up having a conversation for about 2 hours, and he was looking for a job with our company. I saw all the greatness in him. Yeah. And I showed him ways and systems that he could be better than he is. And I said, Hey, does it make sense coming to work for me?
00;27;31;40 - 00;27;52;02
Speaker 2
You have too much potential. And he got excited about it and I'm a guy I follow true my word. If I see him doing something, I do it and everything culture that he came from, it was just it wasn't good. It was very toxic. Yeah. And I'm telling him things and it's happening immediately. I said, This is happening.
00;27;52;02 - 00;28;02;32
Speaker 2
It happened. Websites coming, it came, you know, he was like, wow, wow, you know? Yeah. And it just worked out really good. Now I'm expecting greetings from him.
00;28;02;48 - 00;28;19;59
Speaker 1
Yeah. And then when I talk about alignment, that's what I mean. It's like, yeah, we can work together, we can do great things together. But because we are together, you know, how are we impacting other people, you know? And so that Nathaniel came from this relationship already, you know what I mean? I'm so excited to see what he does.
00;28;19;59 - 00;28;34;25
Speaker 1
So I just wanted to kind of tell that story, too, because, you know, we often think without money or without these skills, we can't make an impact. But just, you know, putting two people in the same room has amazing impact, of course, of course.
00;28;34;40 - 00;28;56;25
Speaker 2
So back I'm going to add each fact and I'm going to add electrical. Okay. For no. I also know a lot of factories in China. I go to I travel a lot, sometimes three. Before pandemic, I was going to China like three times a year. I'm expanding. No, I have manufactures in Italy. I have manufactures in Cambodia, Vietnam.
00;28;56;47 - 00;29;23;06
Speaker 2
So I don't know where it might end. I've been looking at electric charging stations. Yeah, I've been looking at electric cars, lighting manufacturers. I mean, there's a lot of I like dealing with manufacturers and finding new products and always constantly bringing new products like to bring this brought us to high level, but I think we are going way beyond that.
00;29;23;06 - 00;29;39;19
Speaker 2
And I don't know if stuff is the one thing that might be carrying us to the level that we want to operate. Who knows? I may get it, but I've become a distributor for a new model Electrical. I do, I do. I do know I'm open. I'm open. I'm not closed minded to see I'm doing do for it's still following.
00;29;39;19 - 00;29;42;51
Speaker 2
I'm doing plumbing and plumbing alone, you know.
00;29;42;51 - 00;29;55;26
Speaker 1
Yeah. And you're at that eight figure point where it's like, okay, we can pivot. You know, we have the manpower, we have the resources, we have the knowledge and skills to pivot, you know, and time is pivoting. It's adding, right? Yes. And that's yeah, that's the idea.
00;29;55;26 - 00;30;21;56
Speaker 2
Behind one thing. I really that that's helped me a lot in all my locations. We have five warehouses right now, private warehouses and we have three shared warehouses is I empower my people a lot. You know, all my managers, they're making a flat salary and they make a percentage of everything that comes in digital. I empower my people, a lot of the IPD people for more answering the phone.
00;30;21;56 - 00;30;37;35
Speaker 2
They got really good treatment, good pay, warehouse staff get good pay, the contractors get good. B I don't want it also. B You know, I mean, I want I want to uplift everybody that is on my team. I want everybody to be successful.
00;30;37;40 - 00;30;52;55
Speaker 1
You really convicted me in that, though, because we walked into your office and she takes us on the tour, which the tour was amazing, Right? And then we walk into the break room and it's like there's a grocery store in this break room, y'all. They have no reason to go to lunch because they got all the food that they need.
00;30;52;55 - 00;31;09;44
Speaker 1
You know, that's just a testament to one of the ways that you take care of your people. But I definitely wanted to highlight that. And you let us read into it, which was you kind of have a model here where it's not, Hey, I need to control the whole process from A to Z. I know what I'm good at, which in your case it's marketing, right?
00;31;09;55 - 00;31;24;48
Speaker 1
And so you create the lead, you create the customer experience, and then you let the dealer or the or the installer at that point take over, you know, and build their business on the back of your business. And that's been a model that's working for you a part.
00;31;24;49 - 00;31;46;22
Speaker 2
We didn't get to that. Part of the story is what I started it enough business. At that point in time, I had 55 employees were doing landscaping and I was just tired of it. I told you already podcasting before I started with my own minivan. Then I got a beat up F-150 and I got to beat up F-150.
00;31;46;40 - 00;32;02;30
Speaker 2
But my belief always is that if I take care of what I have, God is going to bless me with it a lot more. I would tell my guys, okay, when are you done working an evening? Go wash the truck down, clean it. They'll be like, We're going to clean this little truck full as they will just take care of it.
00;32;02;30 - 00;32;19;02
Speaker 2
Because I believe that if I take it, what I have got is going to bless me with more and more. Yeah, and I kept doing that. So when I started doing the tough business, I decided to get rid of the landscaping company completely. I took my four best guys and I said, Hey, you guys want to make money?
00;32;19;17 - 00;32;43;54
Speaker 2
The old said, like, Of course, Yeah. So I said, I'll teach you how to open your own businesses. I will sell you all my equipment and give you a time to pay it. And I made them all subcontractors. I really didn't want to deal with the blue color anymore in the day to day operations and that took all the stress level from 90% down to like 3%.
00;32;44;31 - 00;33;11;15
Speaker 2
So there's still is management and still struggle with it. But you know, I just didn't want that model anymore. And now with each location we don't have in hosting for installation, I have not I'm not interested in doing that anymore. You know, we are so empowering so many people's lives. I mean, the managers making good money, the assistant manager, the people who are answering the phones are making good money, the contractors, the warehousing people.
00;33;11;33 - 00;33;34;54
Speaker 2
So what I what I think what my call was is to empower people. And there's in such a good, happy situation, you do look to the left or right now if I could do that at ten locations, just see for example, I'd like to just take 10% for me. I'm good enough. I'm happy with that because at the end of the day, when I make life better for them, they make life easier for me.
00;33;35;21 - 00;33;37;45
Speaker 2
And that's the philosophy that we worked on.
00;33;38;06 - 00;33;40;18
Speaker 1
I love it because it's mission driven. It's purpose driven.
00;33;40;34 - 00;33;40;52
Speaker 2
Yes.
00;33;40;52 - 00;33;57;26
Speaker 1
You know, and that's what I talked about a lot. It's like I'm I meet and I consult with so many business owners and some of the things the reason the alignment isn't there and I don't end up working for them because they don't have a purpose. Yeah, and it's hard for me to work with someone that doesn't have a purpose because then I'm not fired up about what I'm doing there.
00;33;57;26 - 00;34;18;45
Speaker 1
Yeah, you do have a purpose, so it makes it easy for me to work with you with that. And so, you know, we've gone through the evolution here of, you know, your life to this point. And, you know, what's next is the different verticals that you guys can go into, kind of going back to the subcontracting the install team.
00;34;19;16 - 00;34;34;33
Speaker 1
So I'm curious about this piece because I just came out of solar and one of the biggest problems that I had was subbing the installing solar. So how do you maintain quality or how do you maintain the customer experience even though you're selling to another business?
00;34;35;07 - 00;34;59;40
Speaker 2
So how we really do that is the most important thing is to keep them. Okay, you get really good people, but if you that's why I have a I don't look at my business as a tough business was a lead generation business. Okay? If you could keep that subcontractor busy all the time and he does not have a doubt in his mind, am I going to get work this week among but again, next week, you know, so we keep our subcontractors really busy.
00;34;59;40 - 00;35;25;43
Speaker 2
We pay them very well, earning good money and at the end of the job they have to work the job. But he customer McNally custom is totally satisfied with it. And you sign off on a happy sheet and once there, that's how they get paid. Once they have to submit pictures, videos and the happy shit that the customers are still dissatisfied with it and we feed them so much work they don't want to go to the left.
00;35;25;50 - 00;35;46;44
Speaker 2
It is a problem that arises two weeks, one month, three months. They know they don't have to think about marketing, right? They don't have to think about getting an office. They do. All you have to do is every Monday morning way, every Friday evening, we send a list to them. Yes. Five jobs a week. I mean, like your overhead is really low then.
00;35;46;47 - 00;35;53;51
Speaker 2
Yeah, all you had to do and they're making good money. I mean, so that has worked really good for us really well, first.
00;35;54;15 - 00;36;04;35
Speaker 1
Tell me about the because that's a very tactical piece. Is that happy sheet? Tell me about that. Like habit, what questions are asked and what are you guys looking for from the installers to see the feedback from the customers?
00;36;04;53 - 00;36;26;21
Speaker 2
Well, the customer has to be present. They have to be present with the video and still have the installed installation team and or the foreman on the job and he has to walk the entire job with them, show them where he seems are holding the tactic down. Make sure there's no garbage, that everything is done satisfactorily for the customer.
00;36;26;23 - 00;36;27;27
Speaker 2
That's how the process goes.
00;36;27;40 - 00;36;38;08
Speaker 1
Yeah, I love that because you get instant feedback and you know, it's not just on your install, it's also on the whole process. You know, I imagine that's when the things come up that they're, you know, and.
00;36;38;42 - 00;37;05;12
Speaker 2
Their phone dings a couple of times and remedied it immediately. I thought, well, what really brought the happy sheet up is we got a couple chargebacks plus. Yeah. And you know, we were like installers, they're the homeowners. They do it now. And even if someone tried to do us it, there's a chargeback after and we certainly appreciate the credit card authorization form for the customer.
00;37;05;24 - 00;37;09;32
Speaker 2
We got our money back immediately. Yeah. So it was a good system we implemented.
00;37;09;58 - 00;37;10;59
Speaker 1
Yeah. That's fantastic.
00;37;10;59 - 00;37;11;56
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00;37;11;56 - 00;37;23;32
Speaker 1
Okay. So the last question I have for you, I ask all my guests at the end of the podcast. Yeah, What legacy do you want to leave behind?
00;37;23;32 - 00;37;54;14
Speaker 2
Empowering many individuals. And that's my, I think my mission in life is to empower people and leave this world with a memory. People would remember who Neil brought me up to what I am today. I'm empowered. That's that's what I would that's my dream in my life to empower as many people as I can to have a better life.
00;37;54;33 - 00;38;19;44
Speaker 2
I love it not financially, only because a lot of people I talk about with a lot of my managers, I have a wide range of experience in life from my days with my store to no. I have flown. I've lived in multiple countries, a lot of social interactions with different people. I had it all lost it, had it all lost it, made it back.
00;38;20;06 - 00;38;47;34
Speaker 2
I you know, I mean, I would be I'm sorry if you took a pause. I'm not scared by failure. If I feel it's just a challenge to me to get back up and get going again. I don't know where the motivation comes from. I really do understand it up to know, but. But feel is not an option. In my book, I always said if I came to America earlier, I would have been in a military go, Oh, listen, I've been in military.
00;38;47;47 - 00;38;57;17
Speaker 2
Yeah, because I have I am self driven. I want a very competitive, you know, I want to win. I want to win.
00;38;57;17 - 00;39;05;29
Speaker 1
So I would implore our listeners to love. The motivation comes from that purpose and lazy that you want to leave behind of empowerment, right?
00;39;05;36 - 00;39;06;15
Speaker 2
Yes.
00;39;06;15 - 00;39;29;58
Speaker 1
When I think about when I first started, you know, I had a similar motivation as similar purpose to be the business owner that I needed when I was 1920, 21 years old. Right. And so that was my purpose. And somewhere along the way I lost it, you know, suddenly I lost my motivation, you know? And so I love that the less you want to leave behind this empowerment, because it's very it's very focused.
00;39;29;58 - 00;39;33;12
Speaker 1
It's not all the things. It's one thing you want to empower people.
00;39;33;30 - 00;39;47;30
Speaker 2
Well, that even motivates me more. What I want when I help somebody and they reach to the level that it gets so satisfying to me and it makes me want to give out more. And I think that's what leads to my successes.
00;39;47;50 - 00;39;57;09
Speaker 1
And, you know, people don't want your motivation to be selfish, but it is when you get that that energy from that, you know what I mean? Like, it keeps you going.
00;39;57;18 - 00;39;57;41
Speaker 2
Of course.
00;39;57;41 - 00;40;02;11
Speaker 1
You know, So it can be selfish. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, as long as you're making the impact you want to make.
00;40;02;11 - 00;40;03;14
Speaker 2
Right, Exactly.
00;40;03;41 - 00;40;22;03
Speaker 1
And so, hey, I really appreciate you taking the time. We've had a long day and. Well, you've had a long couple of days. You know what I mean? Every one of these meetings just it does it drains you mentally, emotionally. And so thank you for jumping on telling your story. And I'm excited to hear about everything in 90 days on the next podcast.
00;40;22;07 - 00;40;27;34
Speaker 2
We will we will we will hit those expectations 100% or even.
00;40;27;54 - 00;40;28;31
Speaker 1
Let's get building.
00;40;28;50 - 00;40;37;20
Speaker 2
Good bye, everyone.
00;40;37;20 - 00;40;58;30
Speaker 3
Thank you for tuning into this episode of building great sales teams. Be sure to execute on what you just heard and let's get building. As always. Remember to subscribe and leave a review. Wherever you consume podcast, you can also head on over to building great sales teams dot com and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with everything that's going on with the podcast.
00;40;59;00 - 00;41;00;22
Speaker 3
See you next time.