Ep 198 - "From Chaos to Control: A Founder's Comeback"

0:00 Hey bro, back in the saddle, huh? Man, yeah. It's been a minute. I'm getting, I'm not going to say it. I was going to make some kind of bad horse riding joke and I'm like, that's not worth it. Yeah, yeah. Back again. Boy, long time, dude. I don't even, I forgot how to put the old headphones on. Yeah. Well, so. I think all these things, headphones, earphones. Yeah, they're called cans. Yeah, whatever. Whatever you want to call them. Whatever. We've got a fun show. We've been wanting, we set out this year to do more owner stories. Yeah. And I mean, they're fun for us, but we've got some great feedback on other owners we brought on this past year. So we're going to do more of that. And Johnny G, good old Johnny G, was up to the task.

0:41 And Johnny, the interesting thing about Johnny is he was our very first consulting client. Yeah. I met him when I had a small coaching business pre-Floodlight. And essentially, he morphed from an executive coaching prospect into a full-on restoration consulting client and was the genesis of you and I forming Floodlight. So that's always fun. A little nostalgic for us. Yeah, that's right. Those are those kinds of friendships, really. They get built over time. It's just... It's kind of like putting on an old pair of shoes. It's just like, ah, it's just the old brother in arms. Yeah. So you hear about his evolution as a business owner and talk about some of his origin story that kind of shaped who he is and how he shows up and how that's changed.

1:30 Even just over the last few years, he's had a real... significant kind of transformation in how he looks at the business and how he handles himself. And so it's, I think there's something in here that probably most owners will have something they can grab onto and relate to. I mean, we tag into mental health and just the ramifications of that on decision making, kind of cautioning the business. I mean, we cover some territory, but the dude's just such a good hearted guy and he's, he's really had some unbelievably great success just as he's matured as a business owner and individual. And it's always just fun to talk with old friends. That's right. Let's go. Oh, and by the way, I should say, before we hang up here, if you know of a business owner, you have somebody that you admire in the industry that you'd love for us to get on for owner stories, just shoot us a DM.

2:15 You know how to reach out to us, Brandon Reese or Chris Nordyke on LinkedIn, and shoot us a message and say, hey, I'd love it if you get this guy or gal on. We'll do our best to get him on for one of these, for another owner story. That's right. Let's go. Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast? I can't tell you that react how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours. I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't. And I am not happy with it.

2:55 Well now, Johnny G, Johnny G, for those loyal fans that have been in the pocket with us now for some time, they may see this as a reboot. But for the rest of the world, you may not know it happened. So Johnny G, technically this is round two. We're going to call this officially round one. Welcome back to the show, my friend. Thanks for having me back. God, dude, I feel... I'm going to be real honest here. I'm feeling a little rusty. Are you? A little rusty, a little out of pocket. For those of you that have been hanging out with Chris and I for a while, we've had some different adventures running in the background. And boy, one has kept me busy. Burning the candle at both ends. Burning the candle, boys and girls. And so anyways, it's been a while since we've recorded.

3:36 We got to correct that. I blame Chris, but... Well, I've been looking forward to this. Johnny, I mean, a little bit of background for folks that are sort of new or whatever. Johnny was our very first client at Floodlight. And so... I think we have his fake $2 bill he paid us like framed somewhere. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And so it's really been fun to journey with you, man. And along the way, we've had a lot of personal and professional conversations and learned more about your story. And part of what prompted this, apart from just wanting to have you on to talk about your experience as a business owner... is also for you to share a little bit more of your story. Like you have a really fantastic RESTORY. I mean, it's a RESTORY of... Did you just say RESTORY? I guess I did. That was clever, wasn't it? Was that on purpose?

4:17 No, but let's roll with it. So to have you share your RESTORY with others... I mean, seriously though, it's a story in some ways of redemption. right? It's also like a huge story of achievement. And I mean, you're one of those American dream kind of guys, you know, really like you're living it out and yet it didn't start there. And so I just think it'd be really rad for you to kind of walk people through your origin story and what exactly you're up to today. And then Brandon and I'll just pepper you with questions as we go. But so Johnny, why don't you just open it up with how did Johnny get a start? And what's the origin story that Johnny gave, man? Man, I had a pepper pass, but we're not going to go too much into that.

4:58 A what pass? What do you mean? Pepper. We're not going to toss any salads here. Okay, Chris? Oh, my gosh. More fun than I was anticipating. Insider. A little insider. Yeah. Insider joke. All right. That broke the ice. That's great. Well played, Johnny. Well played. Yeah. I try, man. About 2014, I started my own construction company. And I did that for a few years. Me and my wife started it together. She told me, you know, you need to pay taxes and do the right thing. And I'm like, oh, man, I don't really... Why do I have to do that? Yeah.

5:39 And she's like, well, if you don't, you'll never have a company. Like, it'll just always be a thing. A side hustle. So I listened. Yeah. So I listened to her. And then, you know, we went and moved on. And we could never really break like $1.1 million. And I was like, what the hell? Even though $1.1 million was way more than I ever imagined making. That was a lot to me. And I remember the first check I got, it was like for $5,000. I was so stoked. Yeah. But I was like, okay, we got to figure something else out. And it was right around 2017, I met a guy named Justin.

6:20 He came on board. Man, he was probably one of my best hires at the time. He helped even mold things a little bit differently. We were, this was back when our HR department was a pair of boxing gloves and the shop floor. That's crazy. Yeah. So those are efficient. Those are efficient HR systems. Dude. Just not, not, not a lot of CYA. Direct discipline. Yes. I know, man. It was, it was intense. And we did that for a while, man. And he was like, you know, it's probably, if you want to grow, this is probably not the way to do it, man. He said, we should, we should rethink things. And about, it was a 2019 beginning of the year, um, We just came out of a good year, but it just wasn't good enough.

7:05 And I was just like, man, we got to figure something. I got this email from a restoration company that was trying to sell us on restoration. And he did his research. And I was like, what do you think? And he said, yeah, I think we should pull the trigger on it. So we did it. And it ended up doing good, man. Our first year was like 700,000. And then we were like, man, here we go again with this $1 million ceiling thing again. We better hire somebody that knows what the heck is going on. And then that's when we met you guys. And it was like a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. It was crazy. I was like, finally, somebody's going to tell me how to be a business person. Little did you know what you were trading for. Dude.

7:46 And the crazy part is I remember showing up to the meetings and I remember the feeling, because you guys would always hold me so accountable. If I didn't have what it was that I was supposed to have for you guys, I just remember the awkward, you'd look at me and say, so did you do what we asked you to do from last week? And I'm like, ah, well, why the F do you have us if you're not going to listen to us? Yeah, I think we did come out of the gate a little stronger with you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, I needed it, though. I was definitely one of those people. I needed it. We did great, man. It was fun.

8:26 We went from, what, like, I think our first year was seven, and we went with you guys. It was like... We went from 700,000 to like 1.7, like right away. And then it just kept going. I think we made it to like 3 million before we realized that we were missing another piece, like the puzzle. So we found one Tom Plummer. And I went out there and we checked it out. And I was like, man, this is pretty cool. I never thought about being a plumber before. And I always gave that plumbing work away, man. And like, you know, people call you and ask you if you do plumbing and you have to say no. And then you'd tell them, you know, on the phone call while you're a restoration company, well, we can come out and do that.

9:08 Well, they weren't interested. They wanted to figure out the plumbing first. And then after the plumbing stops being plumbing, then they'll talk about restoration. They needed to stop flooding first. So we just always lost those calls. And yeah, we were just like, you know what? It makes sense. It makes total sense. One of the biggest things, and then we were still in the thought process of that. I think one of the biggest things was, like the turning point for us was when we were at, it was during one of those polar vortexes It was a deep freeze for like a week straight. And we get this call from one of our property management accounts, and it's a pretty big one. And they said that the water made broken. They needed our help. And it's flooding. We get out there and we're like, where is this even coming from?

9:51 It's just like water pouring out of the cracks of the concrete inside of this brand new store. And we're like, okay, well, we got to call a plumber. And we just listened to this podcast that we heard about one time and all that stuff right before this. And I called 21 plumbers. And of the 21 plumbers, only four people responded. And of those four, one showed up. That happened on a Friday. And on a Tuesday, that one came out. So that many days later, and that was their emergency call. So that was their emergency response time. So they get out there. They get out there and they shut the water off. And when they shut the water off, they had to dig through ice just to get to the stop box.

10:31 So they shut the water off. Yeah. They get the water off and then they come out and a couple days later to repair the thing. And they ended up charging, now that I know what these things are, they ended up charging for a two-inch mainline. It was like $100,000. I was like, you got to be kidding me. You're like, I'm going into flying. Yeah, I was like, man, I'm in the wrong business. These guys were here for two days. Yeah. So needless to say, it ruined our relationship with the property managers because we referred them and they got taken for a ride. So we were like, we have to do something. We have to figure something out. I don't even remember that detail.

11:12 I forgot about that being a catalyst for that decision. Yeah. Yeah. And it was crazy because the way it happened was like... you know, you're coming in and you're the knight in shining armor, but then you realize that you're really not, you know, you depend on another company to, you know, have your back and do the right thing, but you can't control what somebody else does. We learned that lesson pretty quick, and then that was it. From there, I was like, we're buying plane tickets out to this place. We went out there. Man, Rocky was a character. And I went out there, and I was going to, we were really thinking about it, but then, remember they're telling us, they're like, man, to be honest with you, we, you know, we appreciate you guys coming out, but we have to vote you guys in.

11:53 And I was like, oh man, this is, this is, yeah, I was like, what the hell? I hope they pick us. I hope they pick us. But they ended up, they did end up picking us, man. And it ended up being a good thing. I, I, I mean, where we're at now compared to where we were at then, it's really helped a lot of things. For one, it's helped our restoration company a lot. We just took a phone call two weeks ago for a loss, a commercial loss. They would not have called... our restoration company, but they called our plumbing company. Cause we, it's so much easier. I can't even tell you, man, like when you go into property management companies and all these other companies and you're like, Hey, I'm John from one Tom plumber.

12:38 They're like, Oh yeah, come in. You know, this chair has been waiting for you the whole time. Like here, you want us, do you want a drink or something? You go in there as a restoration company, man, they're like, I'm in a meeting. Yeah. I'm going to immediately be alone. Didn't I tell you guys already not to come back? Yeah. So it's like such a different feeling, man. But anyway, this company called us. They had a water leak in their hotel. A pipe burst in their hotel. And it flooded the whole hotel. It was a $100,000 job that we would not have gotten had it been for the plumbing company. You know, the opportunities do come a lot more than they used to. We're always seeing mold. We're always seeing water damage. I mean, you're the first guy there.

13:19 You feel more in control of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, the biggest problem with plumbing, though, is the, I don't know if they're going to hate me for this, but the biggest problem with the plumbing companies, man, is, Plumbers are, they're really rare. And the issue is, is when you get a plumber, it is so hard to like break the bad habits of a journeyman plumber. And I say that in a, like, not every plumber is a bad, like, like, you know what I mean? But like most of the plumbers that I've interviewed or journeyman plumbers that I've interviewed, they, they want 80 bucks an hour, whatever. You know what I mean? They want the whole thing.

13:59 And I get it. They, you know, they, they've, they went through the classes. They, they did their, they put their 10, they got their tenure, but it's so hard to like, like teach them your values and your ways. Right. So we just stopped. We stopped. We stopped hiring plumbers with experience and we just have, you know, a certain amount of journeymen on staff that we've handpicked and we have a training facility. So we breed our own plumbers in a house. And we don't even look outside of that box anymore. We have a whole training facility here where our guys literally can absolutely do everything from everyday plumbing to drain cleaning all in this one facility. That's super cool.

14:40 That's not very old. You didn't do that very long ago. No, just recently a couple, let's see, we're on our second round of candidates. So this is our second class we've done. Our first class got out and there was a set of four guys in that class. Nice. Yeah. And it's so crazy because like, and this is how we see it now. So we hired a plumbing sales coach, Chris Fresh. We got to get him on the show. We keep threatening. He's scheduled. Oh, that's right. Is he? It's super fun. All right. And I sent you guys the picture to show on screen so you can see who the Chris Fresh is. You should like flip to it right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll have to. Yeah. We'll make sure. This is Chris Fresh. Yeah. It's going to show up later. Yeah, we're not that cool, Johnny. Calm down.

15:21 Oh, damn. All right, all right. So we hired Chris Fresh and, man, he took us. I remember he was like, I'm like, man, you know how I am, right? I'm like, I call him. I'm like, Chris, I need to talk to you. I got a problem, man. I don't know what's going on. The cash flow sucks. I don't tell him all the problems. He's like, let's see. He's like, oh, man, somebody's stealing money from you. And I was like, what? Oh, hell no. Team meeting right now. Which one of you is it? Who is it? Who did it? And come to find out, it wasn't that. What we had was a capacity problem. I had plenty of money. It was a capacity problem. So what happened was our guys, you know, our guys are doing, you know, six to eight jobs a day.

16:05 Can you imagine doing six to eight jobs a day? Wow. So we came up with a plan. Now our guys are doing, their average is like 1.9 or two, two and three jobs a day. No more. The quality is way better. We have more guys to do it because we have more, you know, we control our flow of guys now and we teach them in-house. So we, you know, we hire based on culture now. We don't hire for experience anymore. We just want a good person because, you know, we're putting these people in people's homes and, you know, I just don't want to guess. So our guys are pretty young, but they're sitting on a journeyman. They have to be with us for a year. We put them through school, all that whole nine yards, like actual school, plumbing school.

16:45 They give benefits and all the perks of all the greatest unions there are with vacation. That's pretty epic, man. And that picked up pace substantially over the last year. You really invested in that. Yeah, so in 24, okay, so from June of 24 to December of 24, we did not have our, we didn't hire Chris until November. But from there to there, we did 700,000, or no, 800,000 in sales. And then the next year, which was 25, we did 2.2 million.

17:26 Big jump. In sales. Yeah. And this year, I think we'll either do close to three or right at three. Maybe a little bit more. And we could do more. It just depends on how many guys we get in the flow. You know, I'm trying to get... I'd like to have like 10 trucks on the road by, in the next few months. So right now we have seven, seven trucks on the road. You're moving. It's incredible, man. Yeah, you are moving. That's right. But I wouldn't, listen, I would not have done that had it not been for Chris because he absolutely showed us, he's like, it's like, he has this like magic recipe, man. And he's like, and I don't want to give his secrets away. So, but like, yeah, don't talk for him. Yeah. So he has this like recipe, man.

18:06 He was like, this is how you do it. And he's like, what number do you want to get to? And I told him, he's like, here's the layout. This is simple. He's like, I'm not a very smart guy. He's like, but this is how I do it. He's like, I break it down. So it's simple. I'm like, oh, wow, that is so easy. Why did I not think about that? You're a freaking genius. Yeah. He won't take credit for being a genius. Yeah, what does he call himself? The plumber whisperer or something? Isn't there? Yeah, yeah. There's some kind of side channel there. But a great guy, man. By the way. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. All right, so I got to ask you some real questions. Now that you're telling us how rad at business you are, let's get into the nuts and bolts of this thing. So when you were making some of this transition from the early phases of the unnamed restoration company that you own, I don't know if you did that on purpose or not, but I'll follow your lead on it.

18:59 As you were kind of transitioning in the early phases of that and then onboarding this plumbing division, if you will, it's its own brand, but this other arm of your business... How were you balancing onboarding and starting something new while still maintaining this business that had been at this point, you're several years old. What were you doing to ensure that you didn't throw a hand grenade in the base business that you'd already put all that time and energy into? Yeah, no, so, I mean, I won't lie. Like, I kind of did throw a hand grenade in the restoration. Well, because I was like, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. I lost my drive for it because the unnamed company, I just wasn't feeling it anymore, man.

19:40 I had been thrown to the wolves, and I was treated pretty bad. So I was just like, you know what? I'm onto the—this is my new girlfriend. Yeah. But to be honest with you, I can't even take credit for it. I mean, I have such an amazing set of people, man. And I'm so blessed to call them my friends and my teammates. Justin, you know, I've lost some guys along the way that were great. Chad was amazing, man. He helped us at the beginning. my cousin Mikey, but Justin, and now we got, we got a bunch of good people, man, Liz, she's our rock star in the office. And then Josh, I mean, all these guys just put so much work into, they're so selfless, man, and I love it. But it's just, I don't know, like if I didn't have a team, what I'm trying to say is if I didn't have a team like that, none of this would be possible because you can't do this by yourself.

20:27 It's just not possible. Yeah. And my wife, super understanding. She's got my back through everything. If I didn't have that, I'd be toast. It's interesting because this is kind of insider a little bit just because we've known you for so long. I think for a lot of business owners, the relationship with our personnel, it can be tough to manage. There's a lot of give and take. There's a lot of ego checks, I think, for us as leaders to make sure that we can meet our people where they are. And I struggle. I mean, I definitely struggle with... There's times where I feel like I'm in the flow on that. There's times where I feel like I'm definitely out of the flow. But anyways, my point in saying all that is I've been kind of watching you, not only from inside the business when we were working together, but just over the years, kind of as you continue to develop and grow the business, and it feels like your posture with your employees has shifted quite a bit.

21:19 Like, I'm just thinking old days Johnny G, when I first met you versus where you are today. Like some kind of life happened in between there. And I'd like to kind of pull that out a bit if you're willing to. I'll do some context drawing and then you can tell me if I'm completely... Yeah. No, go ahead. Say whatever. No holds barred. No holds barred. Well, except for some. oh yeah yeah no salads don't toss any salads yeah we're not talking about salads all right so oh man are you building up the intrigue i kind of feel like it's one of those things like what where'd the meow thing come from was that you know right meow like yeah yeah yeah all right okay Are you a business that's under 5 million in sales and you're just now getting ready to try and scale your company up and hit some of those targets you've always wanted to hit, but now you've got to build a sales team?

22:09 Or maybe you just hired your first sales rep, but you don't really know how to manage them. Like, how do you manage, lead, train, develop a sales rep? Floodlight has a solution for you now. So we can actually assign your sales rep a turnkey VP of sales that will help them create a sales blueprint, their own personal sales plan for your market. They'll have weekly one-on-ones with that sales rep to coach, mentor them, hold them accountable to the plan. And they'll also have a monthly owner's meeting where they'll meet with you or your general manager and review the progress of that sales rep, their plan to actual results, what kind of performance improvement they're working on with them. Also let them know, hey, you might, they're doing really well. Maybe we should think of hiring a second sales rep. They're gonna have that one-to-one advice for you as an owner or senior leader on the team as well.

22:54 How great would that be to have a bolt-on sales manager for your one sales rep and it's only 2,500 bucks a month? If you're interested in talking more about that, reach out, let's grab some time and let's talk shop. Our floodlight clients this last year in 2024 generated over 250 million in revenue. Supported by, advised by, an industry expert who's owned and operated a business just like you. So take action. Don't kick the can down the road. Start with our business health and value assessment. And let's unlock the next chapter of your success story. So when we first started working together, Johnny, there was a little bit more just venom in you. Like when you would get frustrated with the situation or angry at something that you were experiencing or seeing in the business, that energy held.

23:43 That was hard for you to shed and approach every situation freshly. And it feels way different now when we interact with you. Like your behavior, your posture has changed there. What's going on? What am I experiencing? To be honest with you, you guys personally coached me. And not only business, but personally too. I didn't tee that up just for a disclaimer. I wasn't like... No. Yeah, no. Yeah. You definitely did though. You guys coached me and I would call, I remember I'd call you just for personal advice, man. You guys were a big mess when you guys had time, you know, like you're like, oh yeah, John, I'll take a, I'm on vacation, but I can take your call, you know, like whatever, yeah.

24:26 Morning coffee with Chris on Sunday. That was awesome. I've got quite a few of those calls. I do remember that conversation started with me on the toilet. Yeah. Nice. That's right. No holds barred. Yep. Yep. But really just like, like you got to want it, man. And I'm one of those people that I want to say that I'm self-aware and I, and I own my mistakes. Maybe not right away. Cause I don't think anybody owns it right away. Like no, not especially as a man, you don't want to be wrong. Yeah. Right. I struggled with, you know, my mental health was really bad for a while there. You guys were with me for that. I went through, I was 20, 2020 to 2022. You know, there was, I was battling those, that was the anxiety.

25:08 I had anxiety and panic attacks so bad. that it tore me down. It broke me down as a man. And I didn't even know what the heck hit me. I was like, what? I don't even know what's going on. You know, so I trapped myself in my house for, you know, two years. That just, it destroyed me. And I looked for counselors. I finally found one that they told me, you know, well, we can help. Because I was literally, I told the last guy that I called, I was like, you're the end of the road, man. There's no more people to call. Google ran out of names. After this, I don't know if there's going to be another call, to be honest with you, man. I was in a dark place, man. I not, I didn't like, I didn't want to die. Like I didn't want to die. Like I just didn't want to feel the pain anymore. Like I just didn't understand what was wrong with me.

25:50 And you guys were super accommodating. You guys helped me through that. That was, that's really helped. And my wife, man, like she, like Eve, although she didn't understand it and it was, it was hard for her. I got to give her credit, man. She, she really did. Like she was there a hundred percent. Like, Like never gave up. Like she got close, you know what I mean? Because that's hard for, you know, your spouse. Like you're like, please don't leave. Like, I don't know what the hell's going on. I feel like I'm dying. Like what the hell? Like call an ambulance, you know, like anybody's ever experienced it. That's what I was going through, man. And I just, you know, I went through that and then that really changed like my perspective on things. So then it humbled me enough to try to be a better person.

26:31 And then I went from that point in my life to... The road got rocky, you know, with me and my wife and we actually split up for a while. And almost, we came, I think we were like, maybe like, it was like 20 days away from actual divorce. We had the papers filed. We went to court. We signed the papers. Like the judge almost ruled on it. Then we found each other again, man. And she's my inspiration. And she's really, I mean, like, she's the one that's like, she's always in the back. You know, what's that saying? They say, behind every strong man is an even stronger woman. I really believe that, man. Because I feel like whenever I'm like, I'm about to do something, I say, yeah. Okay, let's go.

27:11 Like, is the wind in my back? Yeah, yeah. Are you good? Okay, let's go. Let's go. And she's like, yep, it's good. Or, you know, she's there to be like, and even though I don't like it, you know, sometimes, you know, I appreciate, I really do appreciate, you know, I owe it all to her and my kids for understanding. I have such an amazing family. I'm so blessed. I'm rich beyond anybody's wildest. Like, I have everything that I could ever possibly want in life. Like if I asked for anything more, I would just be a greedy piece of crap. Dude, I really do have everything. So I think that's really it. I mean, and then I put the hard work in, obviously, right? But it just... Can I ask you more about that?

27:52 Like the hard work side? Yeah. I believe your foundation did shift, right? Like you went through this experience that we saw from a distance that it clearly shook things up. But... At some point, like you said, there's work required. It's not just you go through a thing and you're a different person. You go through the thing and it drives some decisions or makes you feel like you're at the breaking point, the bottom, whatever. And you started to put in some work. What's the work? When you say that, what are you talking about? What did that look like day to day? Man, just showing up consistently every day. I've always gotten up early, but like, you know, I'd slack on my physical health, which ultimately cuts into your mental health.

28:32 So I'd slack on that and I had to really change that up. Being intentional with the things that I did and said, you know, like put my phone down when I'm at home was a big thing. knowing when to stop because I didn't know when to stop. You know me, I never stopped. It was just always I had to have something going on. So that was a big thing. I mean, really, other than that, it was just showing up every day. Going to counseling. Me and my wife go to couples therapy, marriage counseling quite a bit. So we stay adamant. We're adamantly in that. Man, I don't really know, man. Much other than that, just, I mean, you got to work harder. You got to show up every day with intention. And you got to be willing to change the things that you know are messed up.

29:15 I want to double click on this. I want to hang here. We're going to spy. Hang in the pocket. I kind of fingered you would. So I was like, dude, when are you going to take a picture? Johnny, you've heard Brandon and I talk about this before. And we've like spoken about this at conferences, but there's this idea that as owners and leaders, you know, There's certain sort of knee-jerk behaviors that we bring to the table present day that are anchored to things that have happened to us in the past or experiences we've had. Some cases you might call it traumas, right? Oh, yeah. Past work experiences. And like for Brandon and I, both of us have our own set of experiences from how we experienced our fathers, right? As an example, like our early childhood family culture and stuff like that.

30:01 And connecting those dots and kind of learning about those things has been really transformative for Brandon and I to recognize, okay, hey, this behavior, this natural reaction I have in certain situations. I see what you're getting at. Right? And I'm just curious for you to reflect on that, dude. And like, what have you learned about yourself? And where maybe some of the anxiety or the reactive. Maybe my origin. Yeah, maybe my origin story wasn't detailed enough. So rewinding back a little bit further, you know, I lived in Philadelphia when I was a kid where I grew up. And when I was a kid, I grew up with my aunt, my uncle, my mom and her husband, and then my dad and my stepmom and every household that I was in as a child, I was abused and physically and mentally, and it just was not fun at all, man.

30:51 And then I grew up in the hood in Philadelphia. And on my dad's birthday, I got shot in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun twice. Well, once in the chest, once in the arm. And I was just doing the wrong thing, being a knucklehead kid. This girl lived on our block, and we just came home from my dad's vacation for his birthday. This girl across the street says, oh, yeah, my... My boyfriend hit me or whatever. It was something like that. And we were like, oh, let's go find him. And I wasn't even supposed to leave the block. I was grounded. I left the block and went and go, knocked on this guy's door and said, hey, man, is your son there? And he's like, no. He's like, but you better get off my porch. I was like, ah, whatever.

31:32 I was like, how about you come out here and I'll beat you up? And I was a young kid. I was 14 years old. And I thought I could beat the world, man. And he slammed the door and I was like, yeah, that's what I thought. whatever I said and I took a few steps back at the sidewalk and I see the door swing open and I flash and then I was on the ground. I didn't know what happened. I'm like, what the hell? I get up and I'm like, what the heck happened? My hand's on my chest and I'm like, look up and I see another flash, but I realize, damn, I'm getting shot. I get, then that time, that time hit me in the arm. I get up and he's like, I'm going to kill you. And then like, out of nowhere, my friends came, grabbed me under the arms and ran me to, uh, my neighbor, the, the, the neighbor's house.

32:19 And, uh, put me on the ground, laid me on my back and put my feet up on a trash can. And they were like, I was like, I was looking up and I just remember like, they're like, stay with us. Ambulance got there. I just remember looking at the ambulance guy and I was like, man, I don't want to die. And he's like, just stay with me, kid. I was like, I'm so tired. And he's like, I know you got to keep your eyes open, man. You got to stay awake. And that's all I remember is just like, I just need to fall asleep. And I just, I thought, I felt like I was falling asleep. I just remember waking up in the hospital and, And my dad was drunk. He came up to the hospital and he's like, well, LJ, your blood really is red. I'll never forget that. And I was like, man, what a crappy thing to say to your kid.

33:01 You know what I mean? When he just got shot. But, you know, it is what it is. Take it with a grain of salt. I just, you know. It was in that moment I realized, man, I need to do something. But I got out of that situation, and all the kids were like, my new nickname, oh, he's bulletproof. He don't ever die. Nothing could kill him. And I just remember being like the coolest kid in the neighborhood because I survived getting shot with a 12-gauge. They were like... It was crazy. It was crazy. Dude, there's so much. I mean, that's just a hard story to just unpack. Thinking through all the different characters in that. Like that dude that answered the door and pulled a 12-gauge on a 14-year-old kid, regardless of what's coming out of his life.

33:45 Just in mind of how much... just trauma and ugly that was present at that time in that part of the... Yeah. He died since then. But, man, it was crazy. Like, I couldn't imagine shooting a 14-year-old kid for... I mean... Unless he's, I mean, somebody's threatening your life and they have a gun themselves, right? Obviously, you're going to protect yourself. It's you or him. I was there by myself at his door, like, bring it. Talking shit. He should have called the cops for sure. Yeah. He definitely should have called the cops. Or just punched in your smart mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Like, smack me up and take me home. I thought it would have whooped. That would have been worse than any shotgun. Yeah. Oh, man.

34:25 Like, hey, you got your son in his little smart mouth. boy. You know, one of the things that I remember you talking about Johnny on this though, is that you also have a heart for the guys and gals that, that are coming up. Right. And, and that maybe, maybe their lifestyle, their background, like those guys and gals looking for a second chance that, that means something different to you. Yeah. The people you want to talk about that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So where I grew up, man, and what I, you know, my past, I really, even, you know, I'll tell you this story real quick. But even like when we had, so I had an incident. I don't know if you guys remember this, but it was like early on.

35:06 And I went to this fire job. I spent so much time like with this customer and like getting the customer like, you know, ready for what was going to happen and all that stuff. And then another company came in and stole it. Do you remember this story? I think I do. Yeah, I think so. Ah, man. It's a weekend and I call this guy's company. It's a pretty big company, man. And I don't know what I was thinking. Again, this is before me, right? And I don't know what I was thinking. I call this guy and I'm like, I don't know who the F you think you are. He's going to steal my job, send you people there. I was like, I'll mess you up. You know, I obviously said more words than that, but... Where are you going to be? Where are you going to be next Tuesday? Where are you going to be next Tuesday?

35:46 I got something for you, bud. He's like, man, I remember what he said. He's like, yeah. He's like, you show up wherever you want, man. He's like, I'll tell you this right now. He's like, if you think this is how you're going to do business, he's like, you won't last long in this town. Yeah. He's just the old, old, like, you could tell. I mean, his company's been around for 40 plus years, man. They're an amazing company. I'd say that today, dude. They really are. They're, they're an amazing company, but I don't know. I don't know what the hell I was thinking back then, man. I was like, I'll punch owners in the mouth. It sounds like 14 year old Johnny. I know, man. And I really was too, man. I was like, I'd, I'd see a dude and I'd be like, I wish you would come in my shop.

36:27 I'll throw all your equipment right out the door. Yeah. They were like, man, he's vicious. I don't do that anymore, man. I don't do that anymore. I pay my guys to do that. I'm just kidding. I don't do that. We don't do that. Yeah, you got people for that now. I got people for that. I got a guy. No, no. Yeah, no, no. I don't do that shit, man. But no, you know, I look back at that, and it's kind of, it's really embarrassing, man. I know I laugh about it now, but... It's really embarrassing. I can't believe that some of the things that I did, even as an adult, man, I'm like, wow, what the heck was I thinking? But it kind of is what it is. I learned from my lessons and my mistakes. That's right. It's funny. Somebody sent me a post. Actually, I think it might have been my wife actually sent me this post, and it's this guy.

37:10 I don't know who he is. Could be famous. I don't know. He's not famous in my ecosystem. So anyways, this dude is just talking about like there's these words popping up on the screen. You know, the average new entrepreneur is 42 years old. The average artist that gets whatever opportunity is like in their 40s. Like they just go through all these things like in real life when you're off YouTube, like what really happens historically and by data is that all these things happen to people in that kind of very late 30s up into, you know, 50 years old, that time window. Mm-hmm. And I'm just thinking about how, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, how often I've felt like, man, if only I would have learned this earlier.

37:52 If only I would have understood this when I was a younger man. Or I feel behind. I feel late. And the reality of it is, I think statistically, is this is an age frame, late 30s to early 50s, where... the combination of life, time and grade, exposure to different relationships, different realities, seeing the world a little bit bigger than maybe you thought it was, it causes you, it's a catalyst for you to change and mature in so many meaningful ways, right? And it's like, I guess my point is, is that listening to a guy like you, for people that know the history, that kind of darker history, colored history... is not way, way, way, way, way off in the past. It followed you for a while.

38:34 You're in that age now where so much change is happening. Like that age catalyst, that experience catalyst is just making you into a fundamentally different man And the fruit of that change, you know, of you living out this new version of yourself is exponentially greater than anything you were able to create in the past, right? And I just see it. So that's kind of what triggered the question in the first part is... Like the Johnny I knew even a few years ago, super high strung. I mean, it was like chasing a fucking squirrel on crack. Like you just were constantly in motion and buzzing. And it felt like a lot of times just you were trying to outrun your own shadow.

39:15 And now you're just a different man. It's like you've slowed down a little bit. You're more intentional, like you're more comfortable in your own skin and the people around you experience it and watch what's happening to your business. Like what you've done in Wantom versus your restoration company, the hits, the misses, the startovers. versus what you've been able to produce now. Like, man, dude, I just want to affirm you for whatever it's worth. Like, it's obvious from my perspective. Yeah, I appreciate it. My goal, though, is to, I want to create, like, a program that really can give back. You know, like, when I was a kid, I didn't have any, like, resources. And even, I mean, small town Des Moines, Iowa, you know, like, we don't really have stuff for, you know, kids that want to do something with their life.

39:59 like before they decide, you know what, I'm going to go sell drugs, you know, because weed cards and all that stuff is really easy to do. It's like the, it's like the new hustle, right? It's a new crack. It's really, they really don't have nothing other than, you know, they can go to the union and stuff like that, but, but, What else do they have, right? So my goal is we're opening our second location in Cedar Rapids here in the next 30 days. My goal here is to, we're going to build the brand to a certain point, a certain EBITDA, and then we're going to, we plan on selling it, selling most of it. We're going to keep our main location, right? But this is going to be our legacy location. And then we're going to sell all of our other branches, take that money and put it to good use.

40:39 You know, I want to open up a facility where I can teach guys to plumb and teach them, you know, there's more money in the trades, you know, for service than there is anything else. You know, I mean... My average guy, my average plumber making $80,000 a year in the first year. I got guys that are making over $130,000 as plumbers in my company. Yeah, like, man, Justin, I've never paid anybody that much money. I've seen his thing, his year to date on January. And I about fell out of my chair. I was like, wow, I paid him that much? Yeah. holy cow. But it makes me feel good. You know what I mean?

41:19 Like, I don't know. Like it, like if I could just show that to people and like, look, you, you don't have to do those things. You can make more money and it feels better. You know what I mean? Like the Chris fresh approaches. Yeah. Yeah. The Chris fresh approach. We really adopted it, man. Always, always be, you know, he has this, the sticker. I don't know if you, it says always be closing, but it says it crosses out closing. It says serving, man. That's our motto. We've really lived by it, man. Yeah. We really do. We really live by that. And that's like, I'm religious, right? I believe in God and I go to church. I don't push my religion on anybody. I don't do that. It's not the type of Christian that I am. But, you know, I really believe that if you do good and you do things with intention and you do it for the right reason, you can 100% guarantee.

42:03 As long as there's hard work to back all of that. that everything that you want in your life will, will come to fruition. You just have to really put the hard work in and like, you can't be out there ripping people off. You know what I mean? Cause eventually that shit's going to catch up to you. And that's just, I really firmly believe that man. I, uh, I just rehired my very first employee. I can't, I want to tell you guys this. My very first employee that I ever had in my first company, I just rehired him in the plumbing company. And it felt so good. Like, you know, like when you're talking to somebody and they tell you stories of how you used to be. And you're like, yeah, no, really? That's how I was? Like, is that really? Dang, I didn't realize that I was that bad.

42:44 You know what I mean? Like, I hear it now and it doesn't even, it doesn't register that that's who, I'm like, who did that? Yeah. No, there's no way. Like, yeah, no, yeah, I remember this story. And we just laugh and joke. We have our morning meetings on Fridays, our culture meetings. And yeah, he tells stories about that stuff. But he's like so happy now. Like, whereas before, my goals were always the same. And I always wanted to give guys a home that they loved and they wanted to come to. But like, I just, I didn't have the right guidance, man, until I met you guys. That's really where my life pivoted. Dude, I want to hang in the pocket on that culture meeting thing. So one of the things that we did witness with OneTom is they have a production meeting of sorts, but they have this very specific Friday culture meeting.

43:30 Do you mind just kind of walking us through the principles of that? What you guys do? What kind of effect you've seen it have on your business and your clients? Yeah, no, I love it. We cook breakfast for our whole team every Friday. Usually I'll either order it or I'll cook it. And we just sit down for an hour, man. It doesn't matter what's going on in the world, what chaos has happened. I don't care how many jobs we have. We shut it down from seven to eight. And we don't talk about nothing but them. That's it. I talk about their goals. What are they doing this weekend? How did their week go? And I don't care about anything work. I want to hear about their personal lives. How's your kids? How's your mom? How's your dad? You know, what's your girlfriend doing today? You know, what you got planned for this weekend? And I always hold my guys really accountable, man, especially my men.

44:11 And I'm sure they're going to listen to this. They know that I'm not lying. I hold my men really accountable. You know, I want to see them be good men. We had a couple guys that I didn't think were going to make it. I'm not going to lie. And I look at them now and I'm like, dude, like we have a mentorship program in our company. And everybody gets mentored by somebody. man, it really has changed the way, because one thing men don't like to talk about is their mental health, you know, or what's going on or what's wrong or, you know what I'm saying? It's always, I'll be all right. I can handle it. It's okay. Yeah. I really hope my guys go, like, you know, what are you doing for your wives for Valentine's Day? Like, you know what I mean? Like, I was going to go get her flowers.

44:53 You know, that's not good enough, man. I want you to say something positive. Like, what are you going to do for her? Because just because you make the money doesn't mean that, yeah, you're the man, but... That's not enough, man. You got to give back to it. Not just once a year, neither. So I push these guys, man. I'm like, hey, so what's going on? How's it going? What are you doing for mama? I really hold them accountable. And a lot of that comes out then during the Friday culture meetings. And you're doing that. isn't it one-on-one? You're doing this as a group, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I hold people accountable as a group and not, so not in a negative way. So nothing negative happens on Friday, but like, uh, I don't hold them accountable in a group in a negative way. So if they did something wrong, I don't, you know, have that. No, no, that's not the time.

45:34 And if I do say it in a group, it's never, I never point somebody out. Now, if you point yourself out, then that's on you. You're going to get it. But, You know what I mean? If we're having a group discussion where it's a learning experience, then let it be a learning experience. Don't do that to yourself. Yeah, don't do that. I've had a couple guys do that, man, and they regret it instantly. you know, honestly, man, it's just really, we really take this serious, man. And we've had coaches along the way, you and Chris Fresh, and you guys both have changed our lives in so many ways and helped us in so many ways that it's been epic, man. It's been, I owe you guys all the credit. And my team, I can't take, I'm just here sitting in my chair with Larry Bird jersey behind me, bro.

46:19 It's so interesting, man, because... You know, I think that every time as leaders, we take on a different lift, it is going to stretch. It's going to require a different level of mentorship and leadership. And, you know, in full transparency, man, I almost hate saying this, but I feel like it's a commitment that we've made to the audiences. I'm probably in the... least confident state I've been in as a leader for a while. That's actually not a negative thing. So anybody that's hearing that, I want to just be really clear. I don't mean that as a negative. I just mean there's an element of kind of refinding the base and refinding where you can prioritize certain initiatives inside your business.

47:01 And with Floodlight, we had kind of gotten to a point where, and part of it was just the team membership as well, right? Where we're really able to spend a lot of time in kind of this higher level thinking, higher level kind of conversations with our team. And I'm finding myself right now a little bit out of sorts as we realign and kind of find base and find that footing again. Like where do we want to continue to incorporate and adopt these elements into the culture at the company? It's just a good reminder, man, if I'm just really transparent with you. It's a good reminder even for me. To hear you talking about a business your size, again, that's not negative, and how you right now, out of the gate, regardless of size, are committed to and leveraging culture and culture commitment right out of the gate.

47:51 And the profound impact it's having on your business is just really a great reminder. And we probably give ourselves ways out to not be committed to that and prioritizing it along the side, all these other kind of financial-based initiatives that we focus on. And I just really appreciate you sharing that and hearing that. And I needed that. Like, I need that reminder personally to make sure that I don't get out of lockstep with that commitment. You know what I mean? It's great, man. I have imposter syndrome, though. So it's hard. I think a lot about that.

48:31 And I'm just like, man, you know, I put a lot of work in, but you know, it's I don't like to take all the credit because I know that if it wasn't for these guys, like I'm going to make some of these guys millionaires. And then I don't know any business owner that is really saying that and really meaning it. I'm going to make some of these guys millionaires and then the rest of them I'm going to make really wealthy. The ones that are going to hang on are going to be the ones that go for that ride, man. I got a lot of really good, solid people in my corner, man, that would literally do anything for me. And I could call them anytime of night, day or night. And they'd be like, yep, I'm on my way. I'll give you a real quick story. I had a guy that I was like, I'm firing him. So it's a Sunday. And this happened just recently.

49:12 I was like, it's a Sunday. I'm like, I'm firing this guy. Hey, Josh, I need you to come in. I know it's your day off, man. And he answers the phone and it sounded something like this. Hello, what's up, Johnny? And I was like, you okay? He's like, oh, man, I'm fucking sick as a dog. I said, oh, man. He's like, why, what's up? What do you need? And I'm like, well, man, I'd feel bad asking for it now. you just told me you're sick as a dog. He's like, no, what's going on, man? I'm up. I'm up. I'm like, ah, you know, I was going to fire this guy, but you know, now that I found out you're sick, I'll probably just go out myself. I'm not going to fire him. And he's like, no, no, I'm getting dressed right now, man. I'm coming, I'm coming in. I'm like, are you sure?

49:53 Are you sure? And he's like, yeah, yeah, no, I'm sure. I'm like, all right, well, I don't know if that's a good idea. And he's like, no, no, no, man, I'm coming in, I'm coming in, I'm coming in. I was like, all right. I hang up the phone, call Justin. I'm like, I'm sitting in front of Justin. I'm like, man, he's coming in. He's like, John, I think you overreacted. This is what happened. He showed me what's going on. I look up at the board. I'm like, oh, yeah, let me call this guy back real quick. I call him back. I was like, yo, we're just testing, dog. I'm just playing. And he's like, what? I was like, no, no, I'm just kidding. I wasn't Tessie. I knew you'd have my back. But no, I told him the story of what happened. He's like, oh, man. He's like, oh, shit, I was already dressed.

50:33 I was like, man, I fucking love you, dog. Josh, any one of these guys, man, they would jump to whatever I needed in a heartbeat, man. And the same for their team. And that's the guys that I hire. I won't hire a guy in my organization if they're not like that. And if they are, we figure it out. I don't care how. They can be the best plumber in the world. I don't care. If they don't have that, they don't stay here. They just don't stay here. Well, I'll expose you eventually. Like, you could fake it. I mean, anybody can fake it. You can get past me. I've been tricked a few times. But I'm going to find out. You'll be gone. I've done it. Man, I've had Justin look at me like, yo, why did you just fire him, man? That was, we needed that guy. And I'm like, no, we didn't.

51:13 No, we didn't. I promise you, man, we didn't. but they trust me. They trust me. And I love that, man. I love that. They, that they trust me so much, man. Yeah. It's an amazing feeling. No, yeah. People aren't going to give you that unless you earn it. And clearly you've done a lot to earn that. Well, brother, dude, you know, not surprising, fun conversation. Obviously you're always great at being real and honest about it. And so we appreciate that. inevitably you're going to continue to do some really cool stuff and we're going to have to get you back on to talk about the new phase of, of what you're spending your time and then your Dion obviously. And, and then of course we won't let you out of our sites anyway. So yeah, no, I appreciate you guys.

51:55 Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for hanging out, man. Much love and respect. Always. Same to you. All right, amigo. We'll see you. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.