Homeless to $3M: A Plumbing Owner’s Comeback

Speaker 1 Forrester launched his plumbing business in 2022, doing $500,000 his first year as a sole proprietor and doubling his revenue every year, hitting $3 million in 2025.

Speaker 1 And the craziest part of it all, just a few years earlier, he was homeless.

Speaker 1 Hear his story, how he battled back from drug addiction and living under a bridge, to taking the leadership lessons from rehab and applying them to lead his team of five plumbing pools.

Speaker 1 So, Cale, not too long ago, you were freaking homeless in the streets, and today you're running a successful plumbing business. You're going to do what, $3 million this year?

Speaker 2 We'll do $3 million this year.

Speaker 1 Dude, first of all, congratulations. That's freaking rad, right? It's not too often that I get guys on my show that have lived on the streets, been in the lowest of lows, that have like just, ugh.
So

Speaker 1 give me a little bit more of that. So obviously there was like a huge transition, something that like sparked, like changed you.
If I remember right, you were like living underneath a bridge.

Speaker 2 I was living underneath the bridge in a place of

Speaker 2 town west or downtown Tulsa.

Speaker 2 And that's just kind of where I called home. It was the closest place from the hospital that I had just AMA'd myself out of.

Speaker 1 What does AMA mean?

Speaker 2 Against medical advice.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 All right. All right.
A little bit of a rebel.

Speaker 1 A little bit of a rebel. Okay.
I like it.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I was in a, I got a, I got found by some police officers in a part of Tulsa that was not friendly to be in, just beaten.

Speaker 1 Dude, how many times were you arrested over the years?

Speaker 2 So many times.

Speaker 1 Like, like I was not a good addict.

Speaker 1 I'm assuming so, right? Like living under a bridge, you can't be a great one. No, no.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's a lot of, you know, farmhouse wives that are addicted to drugs, and they're pretty good ones, right? Undercover. They don't know.
So you were under a bridge.

Speaker 1 So, dude, how many times? Like, is it 10, 20, 40? What was it?

Speaker 2 Well, it's got to be at least 10. I would give at least 10 times, 10, 12 times.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. And how long was that for?

Speaker 2 As far as the...

Speaker 1 Like, how long were you living homeless?

Speaker 2 Oh, gosh. I was at least a year.

Speaker 2 I was a year on and off the streets. because if you consider homelessness, also living in trap houses.

Speaker 1 What's a trap house?

Speaker 2 So it's the place that

Speaker 2 has no gas, has no electric, has no water.

Speaker 1 So we're talking cardboard. Yeah.
Yeah, whatever. Tents,

Speaker 1 something, something on the side of the street.

Speaker 2 A flooded out basement in a.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, it's a house. It is a house.
It's a house that you broke into. Yeah, but it got it.
Boarded up house. Lots of them structures.
Lots of them in Detroit. Got it.
Yeah. And few in probably Tulsa.

Speaker 1 Yeah. All right, guys.
Got it. You know, so I think you know this, but I spent a couple of years in Oklahoma.
Yep. Yeah.
And Oklahoma is a fun, fun place.

Speaker 1 Interesting, lots of drugs. Yes.

Speaker 1 Like I remember sitting in this house of somebody's in

Speaker 1 Choctaw, Oklahoma. And she's like, these forests, you can smell the meth cooking.
I was like, dude, what is going on here?

Speaker 1 Oh, man.

Speaker 1 There's always like just some funny jokes from Oklahoma that I remember. Like, did you know that the toothbrush was invented in Oklahoma? No, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, otherwise it would be the teethbrush. Fair enough.

Speaker 1 Dad jokes, dad jokes. I'll take it.

Speaker 1 Just joking. But no, Oklahoma's got a sweet place in my heart.
So you're sitting homeless for a year underneath a bridge. Like, what does day-to-day life look like?

Speaker 2 Day-to-day life looks like going to a gas station, asking for dollars from strangers,

Speaker 2 going to where my sister worked, which was a short ways away.

Speaker 2 And you're walking. Yeah, walking.
Yeah. And she's a waitress there, so I know.

Speaker 1 You got like a backpack. Like, are you packing stuff around? You got stuff sitting underneath the bridge.
Like, what does your personal possessions look like?

Speaker 2 Eyeglass case.

Speaker 1 That's it. That's it.

Speaker 2 Because that's where you keep your tools for the lifestyle you're living.

Speaker 1 I mean, and we're talking meth. We're talking what?

Speaker 2 A connoisseur of all flavors. It didn't matter.
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Anything to get the next high. Anything,

Speaker 1 downers.

Speaker 2 Just got to escape reality.

Speaker 1 You know, it's crazy. The fact that I even know what like uppers and downers, I've never had a drug in my life.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But I had this, this college course I had to take where they educated me on like drugs. I'm like, what? Like, you want me to get into this? I don't know.
I don't understand what this is.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's crazy. Okay.
So

Speaker 1 you're...

Speaker 1 You got your toolkit. You're going.
You're doing your thing.

Speaker 1 You beg for a few dollars. You go to where your sister works.
What's happening there?

Speaker 2 Just getting a free meal.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 You know, know, getting a free meal and then asked to leave.

Speaker 1 So you had some people that were like concerned about you.

Speaker 2 For sure.

Speaker 1 Which

Speaker 1 not all homeless people do.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You know, I still, there's still a connection to

Speaker 2 family that I had and tried to maintain.

Speaker 2 But it was in their, they just, they, they grew to where, which they needed to, to, to get their distance because it was, it's painful for them, too.

Speaker 1 Hey, guys, it's Chris. If you're finding value in what you're hearing, go ahead and like and subscribe.
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Speaker 1 Now, let's dive back in the show.

Speaker 1 So, let's back up.

Speaker 1 What got you there?

Speaker 2 Like, got me to the streets. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Just life choices. You know, there's a,

Speaker 2 it's followed me my whole life where I'm a quick starter, but I couldn't finish, you know, so being directionless, not knowing

Speaker 2 what I wanted to do with my life, and then being in a small town and small community community to to not to not have that that answer

Speaker 2 The only thing left to do and you said it yourself in Oklahoma, there's a lot of drugs, you know So while all my friends went to college or or to work the workforce and stuff I the party never kind of ended for me So how old are you when you tried your first drug?

Speaker 2 Oddly enough I was a late bloomer if you count alcohol 14

Speaker 2 But but turning to the harder stuff was was 21.

Speaker 1 Okay. And you served in the military? I did before then?

Speaker 2 No, That was my escape from my drug use. What I thought was going to be my escape from drug use was joining the service.

Speaker 1 And what did you find? More drugs in the service?

Speaker 2 No, I actually found a purpose. I found a purpose and I found a calling.
I was a great soldier.

Speaker 1 So no drug use while you were in the military?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 But towards the end. Okay.
But towards the end. And that was kind of my exit.

Speaker 1 And what branch of the military?

Speaker 2 I was in the army.

Speaker 1 Okay. Thanks for your service.
How long were you in?

Speaker 2 I was in for from 2011 to 2016. So not a super long stint.

Speaker 1 You had what, a five-year stint? It's like four or six. Okay.
I think. Got it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Any deployments or anything?

Speaker 2 Yep. Served in Afghanistan.
I was a 240 Bravo gunner on a trail vehicle.

Speaker 1 Okay. Sounds dope.
I don't know exactly what that means, but dope.

Speaker 2 Glorified, cool way of saying that I pulled

Speaker 2 security for

Speaker 2 some convoy missions.

Speaker 1 So gunner sounds like you were just on a freaking 50 cal.

Speaker 2 240 Bravo is a large, you know, machine gun. It's not the 50 cal, but it is, you know,

Speaker 2 it's pretty sweet. Okay.

Speaker 1 Sick. Belt Fed? Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. I need me one of them.

Speaker 2 You got to know. You got to understand that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Dude, I have a few guns myself. Are you a gun guy? I'm a gun guy.
Got a handful of them? Yeah.

Speaker 2 All right. Just a few things.
Nice.

Speaker 1 I got more than my fingers and toes, so we're chilling. Cool.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Washington State, Open Carry state.

Speaker 1 You know, there's a lot of people on the west side that wouldn't agree, but you know, here we are. I love that.

Speaker 2 Oklahoma constitutional carry.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 2 you don't even need to have a license for it.

Speaker 1 Yes, sir. Love me some okies.

Speaker 1 Okay, so you're in the military, you come home.

Speaker 1 You have a kid?

Speaker 2 So I actually met his mom while I was in the service. Okay.
You know, she's from Kentucky. So, yeah, so, you know, back brought her to Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 That relationship lasted all of 15 months, just enough to get married, have a kid. And then I, again, felt when I came back home, just back to the drugs for no reason.

Speaker 2 Just immediately. Just immediately.

Speaker 1 Yeah. So you started, though, in Afghanistan? Was it opioids or what was it? Yeah.
Because that's a big home of the opioid, right?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. And hashish.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Funny story. The home that I bought was about to be sold to the bank because they were behind on their back taxes.
The previous owner

Speaker 1 grew poppy flowers and was selling them as decorative poppy pods by the pound.

Speaker 1 And they were number one on Google, which, by the way, is legal to do until you mash them up and give them to an undercover cup in a form of tea.

Speaker 2 So that becomes a little different.

Speaker 1 That becomes a little bit different. But yeah, that's a...

Speaker 2 Technically altered this plant.

Speaker 1 Yeah, crazy. But yeah, opioids, man, those things, they have destroyed a lot and destroyed a lot of the society.
They have. So you got back into that game, come home.

Speaker 1 How long before and shortly thereafter?

Speaker 2 Shortly thereafter, you know, the wife's gone. You know, she's not, we're not in the same household anymore.

Speaker 1 And it's because of the drugs.

Speaker 2 It's because of the drugs. It's because of the drugs.
You know, you promise

Speaker 2 being a man of your word and stuff, whenever you build yourself up in a woman's mind, you know, like, I'm going to take care of you. We're going to have a family, all those things.

Speaker 1 And then you don't follow through. And at this point, you're in the trades or no? No.
Okay. What were you doing for day-to-day work? You just living on that nice, uh, like,

Speaker 1 did you have uh, what's it called where you were uh released medically or whatnot from not anything like that?

Speaker 2 I just stopped showing up.

Speaker 1 Just stopped showing up, yeah. So, how were you living?

Speaker 1 Uh,

Speaker 2 you know, I, it's kind of an ego check, too, man. But, like, realistically, I was living off my mom and dad, and she was working.

Speaker 1 And you were how old at this time?

Speaker 2 God, I hate to say it. I think I was about 25.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, 25, 26.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 So, yeah, man.

Speaker 1 Living in mom's basement. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Wife is making money. She's like, I'm out.
Yeah. Peace.

Speaker 2 Peace.

Speaker 1 You got a kid.

Speaker 2 Got a kid. Got a boy.

Speaker 1 What made you say, hey, instead of living in mom's basement, I want to go live underneath the outside?

Speaker 2 So I guess realistically, what happened is whenever you venture to town so often, And eventually you can't get a ride back home, you're kind of just there.

Speaker 1 Because you're cooked. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You're just stuck. And then and then the pursuit, the pursuit of the, of the drugs becomes the, the most pressing matter.
Yeah. You know,

Speaker 2 so not needing to go back home. I just got all night to figure out how I'm going to get the next one.

Speaker 1 Did you, did you ever feel like, man, I kind of like it out here on the streets better than going home?

Speaker 2 Never, not one day at all.

Speaker 1 You know, I had a friend that was homeless in Salt Lake for three years.

Speaker 1 And sometimes he, like, by choice was like, no, I don't want to come home. Yeah.
Like, I want to be here. This is actually like my place.
Yeah. And it's kind of interesting.
I thought that was,

Speaker 1 he since has been clean for 10 years or whatnot. But yeah, he went through some pretty rough times getting there.

Speaker 2 Yeah, good. Congratulations and good for him.
I love hearing that. That's a true success too.

Speaker 1 But yeah, so you're, you're there. You're, you're turning to it.
What changed?

Speaker 2 So again, I didn't live, you know, eventually stopped living at home, but there became that pivotal moment to where for me,

Speaker 2 because nobody gets to dictate what your bottom is. You You know what I mean? It's not this physical place, the bottom for me.

Speaker 2 I found that it's more of a spiritual thing, you know, the feelings of self-degradation, whatever that is for you. And some of us have a higher tolerance for pain than others.

Speaker 2 And I finally found my moment and my spot whenever I wasn't allowed to come back home, you know, because there was always that time where I could go back to my mom's house.

Speaker 1 So you said, mom and dad were always like, hey, we love you. We're good Christian folk.
We're going to take care of our son. Yep.
And then

Speaker 1 something clicked and said is done almost caused my parents divorce didn't know it you know those are those are the nighttime conversations dad dad was pissed mom was what oh yeah dad was done we're done here so your dad was like we're not doing it and your mom was like no let him home yeah got it yeah good for him yeah i mean that's that's exercising the good masculine energy yes that we need you know we lack in 2025 good, rigid, masculine energy.

Speaker 1 And the reality is you need the yin and yang. You need the balance between between the masculine and the feminine.
Too many masculine have gone towards the feminine.

Speaker 1 Too many feminine have gone towards the masculine. And we like, dude, good on your dad.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I give him a lot of credit, my mom too,

Speaker 2 for having, you know, like, again, like I say, you know, that distance that they needed to do to create safety for themselves. The biggest thing that I ever, I stole from my parents.
Of course.

Speaker 2 But the most hurtful thing that I ever did to my mom that I took from her was her peace of mind.

Speaker 2 You know, is your child going to be okay? Yeah. You You know, where is he at tonight? Yep.
That's got to be devastating. I couldn't even think.
I have a kid now. You've got five.

Speaker 1 Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So they cut you off and then you're like, so what clicked?

Speaker 2 I think it was that moment.

Speaker 2 It's so crazy, too, how

Speaker 2 things kind of line up. And not to get too

Speaker 2 involved in it or whatever, dig too deep on it.

Speaker 2 But what I found for myself and my experience thus far in life is the more I fought against or I, the more I tried to pursue that drug, the more roadblocks would be put in my path. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And the more doors over here were opening up to not do it anymore. Yeah.
So I was actually on my way to my mom's house to

Speaker 2 just show up on her for her to pay me to leave.

Speaker 1 You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Like one of those things. Like, just get, get out of here, 10, 20 bucks, whatever, just leave.
Yeah, yeah. Kind of thing.

Speaker 2 But we got pulled over.

Speaker 2 And I had it in my mind too, because we're in a field, we're in Oklahoma. So they're like, I could,

Speaker 2 this is a big cop. I could outrun this guy.
You know, I could just open the door and run because I know whenever you run me, my name and stuff, I'm going to go spend a few nights somewhere.

Speaker 2 But I didn't do it. Just, again, there was like

Speaker 2 just a voice that happens. It's not up in the mind.
It's kind of in the chest.

Speaker 2 It was like, don't do that.

Speaker 2 And I found myself in jail. And I made one phone call.
And it was to my mom. And it wasn't for her to bail me out.

Speaker 2 It was just for her, again, that peace of mind that I spoke about, for her to know that I was okay.

Speaker 2 I was probably going to go to prison, but not to worry anymore. And I don't need you to come get me.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Because I was done. I was just done.

Speaker 1 You had hit the bottom. Yeah.
I was there. You know, and it's so interesting about like the swing, right? You got to like when you finally hit the bottom, it allows you to bounce.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, allows you to bounce back up in the other direction, where it's just you're always like flirting with that bottom.

Speaker 1 And so, good on your parents for like creating that hard bottom for you and allowing you to

Speaker 1 fail, essentially. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And so you go from there and how long do you spend in jail?

Speaker 2 Oh, gosh, it was eight months between two counties. Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 I had racked up a whole lot of grant.

Speaker 2 I'm not a cool addict. You know, I didn't have, I'm not a hard hitting guy.
It's grand. You can look me up.
It's grand and petty larcenies.

Speaker 1 Petty theft.

Speaker 2 You know, I'm stealing stuff from Walmarts and trying to pawn it at the pawn shops.

Speaker 1 Dude, in Portland, they would have encouraged you.

Speaker 2 they would be like dude 900 please take it yeah but you know hey entrepreneurial spirit you know I always managed to get the next one off me you know so uh but yeah no it was uh and there was that moment you know made the typical jailhouse prayer like I'm done I'm done with this life I'm done with doing this I need your I need your help and guidance you know what does that look like and it just I started you know falling in line with some and then shortly thereafter, you met your person.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.
How did you guys meet?

Speaker 2 So we're the typical don't do this rehab romance.

Speaker 2 You know, I was pursuing her. She was acting like she was.

Speaker 1 So when you talk about rehab, was it true rehab? Because you went to prison for nine months. That's got to be some level of rehab, right?

Speaker 2 Correct the language a little bit. Okay.
Again, I've never been to prison.

Speaker 1 Okay. Jail.
I've been to jail. County jail.
I get that.

Speaker 1 I know. There's a thing.

Speaker 1 It's a thing.

Speaker 2 I want to take anything away from anybody that's been.

Speaker 1 yeah i did a long haul in county which is pretty hard time you know get wreck yep so at least you weren't out in uh arizona where county jail they put you they dress you in pink and you live in the desert

Speaker 1 kind of fun yeah but uh sounds like

Speaker 1 sounds like a good time

Speaker 1 yeah

Speaker 1 um but yeah so so you go and you do that time I got to assume that's some level of rehab for you from a standpoint of like you're cut cold and then you went to rehab shortly thereafter or yeah I got so this is the way for me is that, you know, again, like I said, I was in the army and I just kind of stopped going.

Speaker 2 I was a good soldier, though. I was a good soldier.
All my command always said the same. You know, I could follow an order, follow direct charge.

Speaker 2 So they gave me, when they discharged me, it wasn't in a negative light. Yep.
So I got blessed and got to go into

Speaker 2 what's called veterans treatment court. And this, it was so crazy, too, because I'd never thought about rehab.
I was going to prison. I was like, I was good.

Speaker 2 I was just going to sign my time, do my thing, and and get out. And I told that judge that, too.
And she looked at me and she said, son, don't throw your life away.

Speaker 1 You got this available.

Speaker 2 What about treatment?

Speaker 1 I was like,

Speaker 1 oh. I didn't know the option.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I did a 90-day stay in a treatment center.

Speaker 1 And that's where you met your lady.

Speaker 1 That's where I met Brittany. Awesome.
That's so cool. So What was it about this experience that you've been able to draw on and apply to what you're doing now with your plumbing company.

Speaker 1 Because you launched this company about four years ago, initially chucking a truck,

Speaker 1 doing your thing, do a 500,000 year one as a one-man show, selling it, installing it, doing the work, right?

Speaker 1 And you've almost doubled in revenue every single year for the last four years. Phenomenal.
What was it about?

Speaker 1 being homeless, going through rehab and everything else that has been able to influence what you're doing now? Because obviously you're doing something right.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I truly believe that it's, it's, first and foremost, getting clean was the, was the first step in that process of getting clean.

Speaker 2 Like you can stop using drugs, but you also, you got to replace that with something. Yeah.
You got to figure out what that thing is. And I found that in a fellowship, you know, a group of men

Speaker 2 and it was, you know, walking the same road as me, but had found their way out. And I, and it was really simple, which that's the secret.
It's so simple. Just do whatever they're doing

Speaker 1 and then that'll work because they've been cleaner longer than me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So like in business, it's kind of the same strategy as

Speaker 2 follow the people that have found success where you want to have success.

Speaker 1 So get addicted. Be right to business.

Speaker 1 Don't do business. Not me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, business one over.

Speaker 1 Go full in, all in, addicted personality. Come on, baby.

Speaker 2 There's a level of that that I carried with me, though, from the addiction. It's like whenever I get bought into something, I'm all in.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You go all in. Dude, there is something to be be said about addictive personalities.
Yeah. Right.
Like

Speaker 1 for every strength, there is a weak part. Right.
And vice versa.

Speaker 1 You can create with a hammer. You can also destroy.
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1 And so like, like understanding that these things that have led to terrible things are actually the things that can make us be incredible. And so being an addict, going and finding your people.

Speaker 1 seeing these mentors or whatnot that have walked the same path. Yep.
Yep. Pretty phenomenal.
Oh, yeah. And so like give it like give us a little bit of the journey.

Speaker 1 So you go and you work for somebody else and you're in the trades or whatnot. And I know you and Dylan met along the way.
This was what, five years ago? Five years ago. Yeah.
So tell me about that.

Speaker 1 Like how did, where did you guys come across each other? Was it any event?

Speaker 1 What was happening?

Speaker 2 You want to fill that?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I was speaking. It was during COVID.

Speaker 1 There's a trainer that I trained with that had a speaking at like a trades event. It was in Vegas.
I think it was right when

Speaker 1 the casinos started opening back up.

Speaker 1 Everybody was bundled up in the houses for 18 months.

Speaker 1 Everybody wanted to get together. Like, dude, I hate my computer screen.
I hate looking at myself in the mirror.

Speaker 1 It's time to shower. Let's go.

Speaker 1 Trying to grow a company, but you're trying to do it by yourself because nobody else. So it was like the first event.
post like COVID. Yep.
Everything's open again. I had an offer to

Speaker 1 speak at one of these events. And that's where I met Kale, where I was a plumbing salesman kind of talking.

Speaker 1 I guess my claim to fame for him was that I was doing $3 million a year.

Speaker 1 $3 million a year. And I guess it was, for me, it was just normal.
Oh, God, in my eyes.

Speaker 1 But it wasn't common around the rest of the country.

Speaker 1 And so you guys immediately connected. And like, what was it about each other? It was like, man, let's.
Let's keep working together, keep mentoring together and, you know, building something together.

Speaker 2 Man, i've said it a hundred times i'll say it again it's uh i'm about building relationships in life and in business and if if you if you carry yourself with with with being genuine like who you are your true value always lies in being yourself and you could read that from dylan across the room yeah and and that and being a plumber you know i'm a plumber that's respectful yeah you know what i mean we're the best trade around yeah yeah you heard me electricians uh so so getting to hear dylan from the stage and the success that he found And you could see the room.

Speaker 2 He says his claim to fame in my eyes is 3 million plumber or whatever, but that was the whole room was HVAC owners that had just acquired a license. And they hear Dylan talk from the stage about that.

Speaker 2 And none of them can figure out how to get their plumbing department into a gear to drive revenue and perform and be profitable.

Speaker 2 So they didn't even give him a chance to kind of do his thing. They're just throwing questions at him and stuff.

Speaker 1 They want to know all about it. How's this guy, how's this guy generating 3 million in plumbing, man? We can only do that in HVAC.

Speaker 2 Yeah. You got to be a liar.

Speaker 2 So I approached him after he finally got off stage, got his number. And I've never been, I mean, heck, you know that now.
I'm not afraid to text or talk or shoot a message and stuff.

Speaker 2 You know, I don't care who you are.

Speaker 2 If I meet you and I get access to you, I'm going to talk to you.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's, it's, it's so interesting to like look at like your both your failures and your successes.

Speaker 1 Obviously, there's there's some like core aspects that are leading to your success one the fact that like

Speaker 1 you you want help you ask for help you you're looking to other people to mentor you or whatnot and and two like when you see something that works you do it yep right and and that i think is probably the hardest thing for most business owners that are kind of capped out it's because

Speaker 1 They want to figure it out themselves. There's a little bit of ego that's like, dude, you know, I'm the man.
I can do this. I'm already doing enough greatness here.

Speaker 1 And so then they failed to, you know, implement like, I mean, looking at your story, like you, you did like a huge rebrand. Tell me about like how that rebrand really, when did you rebrand?

Speaker 2 Oh, it's been over 18 months ago now. Okay.

Speaker 1 Tell me like what you did from a rebrand standpoint. Like, did you change your trucks, your logo, everything? And like, and what impact?

Speaker 1 Cause this is a really key thing for anybody that's watching from the trades is just like really understanding and owning a brand is so imperative to building a good local company.

Speaker 1 And so, yeah, walk us through that a little bit.

Speaker 2 So I think the whole thing too about the branding process is that it's, it, it is absolutely more than just a logo. It should be.

Speaker 2 It should evoke for me that I found it is so true because you can listen to the people talk about it, but it is a real thing.

Speaker 2 And I always knew that I wanted to carry my story, my beliefs and my values from life

Speaker 2 into what I'm doing today. And so that rebrand process was, it was like 18 months long.
It was not, it was an investment for sure, but I wish I would have done it sooner, you know?

Speaker 2 And the whole transition to that was

Speaker 2 how to speak by just being seen, what it is that I do, what it is that we're capable of, and the value that we can put into your home.

Speaker 2 And I think we nailed it. I think who we chose and the direction that we went, we absolutely nailed it.
We changed vans. We got more vans because we were able to buy more vans.

Speaker 1 Stationery, business cards, shirts.

Speaker 1 All the things.

Speaker 2 I mean, envelopes, you know, yard signs, door hangers. I just got some stickers done for some,

Speaker 2 because we're going into the winter. So I thought I had a great idea.
And I was like, man, we ought to get those insulated outdoor spigot covers.

Speaker 2 They have some at Home Depot. But

Speaker 2 that are burgundy, like our, like our, our brand colors. And I was like, we got a sticker kind of custom made slapped on there.

Speaker 2 And I said, every home that you guys go to from now on, I don't care if they buy anything.

Speaker 1 Go give them a free.

Speaker 1 you put them on yeah you don't even ask them if they want to put them on love it yeah love it it's like owning the magnet on the fridge yeah yeah that's awesome so uh i mean clearly you're an implementer like you learn something uh

Speaker 1 and and you go and you implement you've been able like i said double revenue uh what have like been some of like the key decisions and changes that you've made over the last four years that have that have driven those numbers

Speaker 2 sales process

Speaker 2 understanding your numbers for anybody starting i'm the world's world's worst at KPI trackers you know I didn't I just I'm a good communicator I'm a great communicator actually that's why you know I think the first step that you have to do in doing any kind of a business is you you you need to be able to sell it you got to be able to and sell shouldn't have a negative connotation how can you communicate the value you're giving somebody absolutely and i was able to do that uh so that Getting that as a process, a well-rehearsed thing that you can give to the next guy down from you needs to be.

Speaker 2 We got binders. We have three-ring binders.
Love it. That is the sales flow process, step-by-step, how to dispatch your stuff.
I mean, simple, stupid. You can't mess this up kind of thing.

Speaker 2 Parts list, all kinds of stuff in these binders that are assigned to the vehicle, not the guy. I love it.
So it doesn't matter what vehicle you go into. Right.
You have this binder.

Speaker 2 It is the Mastin's manifold.

Speaker 1 Perfect.

Speaker 2 So doing things like that will help your team become successful. And you got, you, for me, what I'm finding is letting go of the control pieces and actually trusting somebody, you got to verify too.

Speaker 2 Trust, but verify. Yep.
To take that on.

Speaker 1 So I know you're, you're really big into health and tracking things like that. You wear the aura ring.
Like, we're not even sponsored, but I'm happy to like shout it out because it's freaking rad.

Speaker 2 And mine's beat up because I refuse to take it off when I work out.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Same trick every day. Same, dude.
I want to track, dude. I've been wearing this thing three and a half years, dude.
And it's been phenomenal. I look at that thing every single day.
Every day.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm resilient AF.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And I think that's just a good indication of like how you got to run business, right? Like you need to know all your key indicators across the board. We call them impact metrics.
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1 Just the things that move the needle. How was my sleep? How was my health? How was my sales? What was my closing rate?

Speaker 1 How many leads did we generate today?

Speaker 1 What was the revenue, gross profit margin, net profit? What does our monthly nut look like?

Speaker 1 How do we get to break even what product should we potentially be expanding into what would that look like to our bottom line so on so forth what's our next three four five key hires to be able to go and grow yeah like and and you know too often guys in your revenue range because you guys are going to close what about three million this year we'll do three that's sick um too often in that range we call that a level two business and in the level two and level three I see this all the time is just entrepreneurs trying to make decisions by gut feel.

Speaker 1 Gut feel matched with what I call bank account accounting. And essentially what bank account accounting is, is there enough in? Can I afford it? Right.

Speaker 1 And that is the most, that is the most terrible decision you can make because, man, how often are a lot of these guys sitting on deposits from another customer?

Speaker 1 It's not even cash that can actually be recognized or they're not tracking the accounts receivable correctly.

Speaker 1 And I mean, dude, I've, I've seen guys that have completely wiped out and distributed out their bank account, and they still have $300,000 in work in progress.

Speaker 1 And it's like, dude, how are you going to fund that? Like, oh, you're going to do that with the next deal? That's called a Ponzi scheme. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
Yes.

Speaker 1 It's interesting. Dylan, always interested to know.
Like, so you've been in the trades, how long? 15 years now. 15 years and mainly in the sales side?

Speaker 1 Start off as an apprentice plumber.

Speaker 1 then worked my way up and then probably 10 years of that it's been selling. Awesome.
Awesome.

Speaker 1 So tell us, man, hitting 3 million in a year, like what, what are, what have you seen to be like a few, like if you could share with the world one or two principles that changed your life, got you to 3 million a year, what would it be?

Speaker 1 So what we, what we build here and everywhere that I help with is basically having a game plan, right? We're not going to in the houses

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 hoping to sell something and hoping to provide solutions.

Speaker 1 Like we have a set process or I have a set process that we built out to where we have a game plan of how the conversation is going to roll, what questions that we're going to go into, answers that we already are aware of.

Speaker 1 So we're not going in just blindsided. Like we have a plan every single call.
And I don't even think we do it. I don't even do it 100% of the time.

Speaker 1 I do it just staying consistent doing 70% of the time

Speaker 1 to allow us to be successful. Like I don't have to think.
I don't have to think about rebuttals. I don't think about questions.
I don't have to think about how we're going to do things.

Speaker 1 I already have it written down and had a plan of how we're going to do it every single time, every single call.

Speaker 1 So it's just just mindless, right? So it's rich, wash, repeat method of how we're doing it. Yeah, there's absolutely nothing beats a process, right?

Speaker 1 And, you know, of course, you're going to have those different unicorns that can be able to like, hey, I don't follow the process and I close this much or whatnot.

Speaker 1 But the reality is you can't recruit all unicorns, right? Like

Speaker 1 you got to, you got to build unicorns and you build them by getting C and B players and training them up to be A's. And frankly, at the end of the day, it's all about having that nice quality process.

Speaker 1 Well, Well, I think going back to the branding that it's, yeah, we're considerably in the trades we're $3 million now, but we're branded with the sales process that the same as a hundred or twenty million dollar company.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 we are small now, but we're doing the exact same things that they're doing, at least in the sales process. And we look like a bigger company.

Speaker 1 So I think when the brand changed and there was a confidence aspect of it, like we have the matching polo with the matching hats, with the matching wrap, right? That it

Speaker 1 instinctive just changed. The revenue just jumped,

Speaker 1 doubled when that happened, right? Because like the technician is now confident that they have the matching logo, the shirts, the hats, the truck.

Speaker 1 So now they're, they even see it, that they were even more confident to provide those premium solutions, not just the chuck in a truck on a coming in a white truck anymore. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Like it was, it was a night and day difference. I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 1 Now, Cale, along the line, have you always been a higher price product, 55, 60% gross margins, or did you change that along the line?

Speaker 2 It's always stayed pretty consistent for myself. Cool.

Speaker 2 I'm a big personal budgeter. Yeah.
So being mindful of where I spend money at and who I spend it with

Speaker 2 has always been very cautious. And I've never used my company like it's a piggy bank.
Yeah. You know, so.

Speaker 1 Amen, man. That is like one of the most key principles that I hit home with entrepreneurs all the time.
It's like quit robbing the growth capital from the business to fulfill your personal ego.

Speaker 1 And like the watch, man, wait for the exit.

Speaker 1 Wait until you go and sell this thing.

Speaker 1 You ain't that cool because you made 200 grand. Like

Speaker 1 that's a good job somewhere else.

Speaker 1 So, dude, good on you for reinvesting. Like you've obviously done a lot of the big moves, spent the money on the branding.
you're hitting 25% net margins. Like what's the goal from here?

Speaker 2 So the goal from here is to keep pushing it.

Speaker 2 Like I want to back engineer 6 million because I can do it safely, you know, or securely without blowing out my team that I currently have, without blowing out any capital that we currently have put back.

Speaker 2 We can grow into six over a 12-month period

Speaker 2 and back engineered that of like how many we have to hire.

Speaker 1 Why not 10?

Speaker 2 I mean, you know, if we want to talk about getting a little bit more out of personal safety zones, you know, it could be done.

Speaker 1 Why not 15?

Speaker 2 Dude, now you're just flirting with Dana.

Speaker 1 So I am a firm believer that any startup company can get to 15 to 20 million year one.

Speaker 1 I am a firm believer and do that without outside investment. Yeah.
I like I believe that you can cash flow that. I've seen it.
I've done it. I've done it.

Speaker 1 And I, and I, just for anybody that's watching this, like

Speaker 1 our goals are too small. Our goals are too small.
And I know all the excuses that come in, like, well, I don't need that much money. I'm like, you know, I'd be good with $5 million a year.

Speaker 1 I'd be good with 10 million. No, that's bullcrap.
That's literally just

Speaker 1 you trying to self-sabotage. so you don't hit your full potential.

Speaker 1 And the reality is, is like, if you have a great product, you have a great service, then why wouldn't you want to to be able to go and do it unlimited and impact the most lives possible, the most employees, the most customers, the whatnot?

Speaker 1 Like, dude,

Speaker 1 we owe it to the world

Speaker 1 to bring our product and service. Like imagine if Jeff Bezos did not follow his dream.
Yeah. Like, dude, how much worse would our lives be if we didn't have Amazon available at our fingertips?

Speaker 1 That'd be miserable.

Speaker 2 Dude, dude, right?

Speaker 1 Like, dude,

Speaker 1 I live 15 miles out of the country, right?

Speaker 1 And outside of the city. And like, dude, I can have Walmart delivered to my drawer.
I can have Amazon delivered the next day. Like, my life is better because of Jeff Bezos.

Speaker 1 And a lot of people hate on him because a billionaire. I'm praising that man's name, dude.
He, he has created so much value. And had he like stopped of like, I just want to deliver books.

Speaker 1 Right? Yeah. Like, how much were and like, I honestly believe that as great business owners, we have a moral obligation to grow and deliver as much as humanly possible.
Because

Speaker 1 why wouldn't we want to bless the world? Right. And

Speaker 1 that's why I, dude, as a believer in Christ, like, I believe that the ultimate calling in this world is to be an entrepreneur. I think it's the closest Christ-like thing that you can ever do.

Speaker 1 It's a value creator.

Speaker 1 And, and, like, the, to create is such a wonderful blessing. And so like, I love to challenge guys of like, why not more? Why not more? Why not more? And I'm not talking about for the cash.

Speaker 1 Like cash is like the ultimate magnifier. If you're a good dude, you're going to do great things with more cash.
That's true.

Speaker 1 And if you're a bad dude, you're going to do terrible things with more cash. And so like, we need more good people with cash.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And, and, you know, when I see and hear your story and it just like inspires me, like I, I shared with you, you know, before this is like, you know, dude, I had a, I had a, I had a friend this last week that I got a Facebook message from, from his sister telling me that he's gone.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I was heartbroken.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 just

Speaker 1 the fact, like, he worked with me back in 2013.

Speaker 1 saw the capability that this guy had in drugs just ruined his life.

Speaker 1 And I see guys like you that have overcome it.

Speaker 1 Like, dude, what a message, what an influence. So why not more? Yeah.
You know, and, and so that, that would just be my challenge to you today, man, is like, think bigger. Yeah.
Think bigger.

Speaker 1 Not do more. It's think bigger because, you know,

Speaker 1 Kale, if I asked you right now, I said, dude,

Speaker 1 I need you across the street tomorrow. How are you getting there?

Speaker 2 However, I need to.

Speaker 1 How would you get across the street if I just...

Speaker 1 What's that? I'll walk there. You'd walk there, right? Why not the jet? Why not the jet? Why wouldn't you take the jet across the street?

Speaker 2 Just across the street.

Speaker 1 Just across the street. And if I said, I need you in New York tomorrow, how are you getting there?

Speaker 2 I'm taking your jet.

Speaker 1 Why aren't you walking?

Speaker 2 Because it's so far away.

Speaker 1 All right. The key thing when we set big goals is we think of different tools to get there.

Speaker 1 And when we think small, we only ever ever think about the small tools. So my challenge to you today

Speaker 1 is like, let's say something big, dude.

Speaker 1 Get after it. Set a New York goal, a London goal, something that only will allow your mind to use the jet.

Speaker 1 And so

Speaker 1 that's just my encouragement to you today. Brother, I appreciate you making the trip out from Oklahoma.
Both of you coming from Dallas.

Speaker 1 That's huge.

Speaker 1 I want to give you the opportunity to share with the world, like if

Speaker 1 there was one message that you could share with the world from a spiritual side, a business side, whatever it is, I want to give both of you guys this opportunity to share it. What would it be?

Speaker 2 I think the highest aspiration of the human heart is to reach out and change the lives of someone else.

Speaker 2 So if you're going to like to your entrepreneurial spirit and like you speak of, I believe wholeheartedly in that, the growth of my company will affect the lives of the people that work for me and that affect the lives of the people that choose to do business with me i appreciate that thank you

Speaker 1 dylan mine is

Speaker 1 not only do it for you but do it for everybody else like if you have that entrepreneurial spirit and you can push there's other people that need to be pushed right change other people's lives change we talk about changing the three four guys that we have lives like change their lives if you don't want to do it just for yourself do it for them like they they need it too they need to be pushed and

Speaker 1 and if you have the driving force force to do it and the energy to do it,

Speaker 1 you can change not only yours, but everybody else's lives around you. Amen, brother.

Speaker 1 I can say there is nothing more fulfilling knowing that you are helping and assisting and putting the food on the table for thousands of employees or customers or providing an incredible service or product.

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 1 that is the ultimate aspiration.

Speaker 1 And one of the reasons why after retirement, I decided, I said, I got to launch next level because I believe that the way that I can change the world is through entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1 Entrepreneurs hold the golden ticket. People come in thinking, hey, I need a paycheck, got an opportunity.

Speaker 1 And if we can show them how to be better human beings physically, economically with their associations and their spirituality, like we will change the world way faster

Speaker 1 than any president or governor or local PTA council member, whatever it is.

Speaker 1 we hold that ticket. And I would just encourage that to anybody that is watching this show, take full advantage.
Guys, I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 We're going to have their contact information in the notes until next time.