to help your lawn care business level up and
build a legit, thriving business and create freedom
for yourself. I am your host, Andy Wilson, and
today we are diving into a subject every business
owner faces, how to stop working in your business.
and to start working on your business. When I
first started out, I was on every mower. I trimmed
every edge. I trimmed every bush. I blew off
every sidewalk. But there came a point where
I realized if I wanted growth and if I wanted
to scale my business and take it to the next
level, I had to bring on people that would help
me fulfill my vision, help my dream come to pass.
So that's what we want to talk about tonight.
And tonight we have a very special guest with
us, Neil. He's from Voltage and we're glad he's
a guest with us tonight. Neil, thank you for
joining the Lawn Hustle. Yes, sir. Thank you
for having me on. I appreciate it. So what does
it actually mean to work on your business and
not in your business? Yeah, that's a great question
and Some individuals my answer differently obviously
we have a slightly different business models
But at the end when you run a business the business
of doing a business regardless of its services
or software or physical products ends up in kind
of the same conundrum in the growth cycle where
you move out of the I'm the guy who hustles,
I got things moving. I spent more time, energy,
attention and money than anybody else to get
where I'm at. And then how do I actually bridge
that gap between being the, you know, sole producer
into a multi producer and a replication of my
efforts, right? A force multiplier, as we refer
to it. And one of the ways I've found to get
myself out of that way is instead of employing
people, which I know is a way a lot of businesses
can run and maybe run more so in the services
industry, even though I'm more in the physical
product online space, is to train people into
those positions to empower them to become successful.
and then partner with them on areas of the business
where they have a greater aptitude for certain
parts of the operations or control or marketing
or finance or whatever. And as we've done that,
I spent the better part of my last 12 years.
training up people in our business model to work
with them one on one for 12 and 24 and three
years and four years and five years and get them
successful in a business. They understand how
to run. They understand the profit and loss,
the services, the support, the customers, the
business of doing the business. And then said,
hey, would you be interested in partnering with
me? You're a really great operator. You do these
things really well. We trained you to do them
really well. Would you partner with us? And that
has created an ability to incentivize individuals
out of their success, not make them an employee
of a system they tried to get out of in the first
place, but then partner with them in profit sharing
for the success of the whole company. And that's
allowed us now to have more than 20 million a
year under our control. And I have five operators.
and I'm training my daughter into one area of
that business right now at the ground level so
she can start working at 17 into the business
which is great because she's learning a skill
and a trade and something that she can you know
enter the business at the ground floor level
doing. and then empower them and whatever necessary
to do the job they know they need to do without
me watching over them, micromanaging them and
having to track every detail of what they do.
So to get out of me working in the business that
I started and did all the hustle and did all
the work and did all the activities, it took
years of finding the right people to train them
into the right roles with the right aptitude.
and then empowering them to do whatever is necessary
without me having to watch every minute of it
and then finding out they could be in a trust
situation and then letting them go and in essence
getting out of their way and it's taken years
to do that but in the end I don't have any employees
I have a lot of partners in my operations that
are incentivized by sharing well tell our listeners
what it is you do yeah Well, and it's probably
maybe a little bit different than some of the
individuals might have thought when we started
this conversation, because I'm actually in the
physical product world. We provide services and
support to some companies. We have our own products
and businesses that we run and manage in the
online space. We use the private label branding
for manufacturing products that we control and
own ourselves within trademark and intellectual
property. We sell them on multiple channels.
Amazon is one location. We sell on TikTok, Shopify.
We even sell in retail stores with some of our
products that have a mass retailing opportunity.
And so we brand and build those products, build
those businesses up. And the goal is to build
them to an exit and do it within, you know, five
years to hit certain metrics of run rate and
growth and then sell them off to a private equity
company that we helped form called Patriot Growth
Capital. So we're actually operating members
of that company. And it is a veteran -backed,
veteran -owned, veteran initiative to build these
companies up and then employ veterans into whatever
level makes sense to employ them and give them
opportunities for skill and growth. Tutelage
and then at some point, find out who could be
raised up to run the entire business and maybe
even acquire the business away from us after
five years of doing that mentorship. So that
kind of turns into business as a mission as we
grow and build these companies. That didn't employ
people for the purpose of you know supporting
veterans and then their community and their families
Well, we support our veterans we We thank them
for their service. We honor their service and
So I appreciate you doing that with the veterans
that that really Touches me. So thank you. My
father's a veteran. He was a two -tour Vietnam
vet served on a destroyer I didn't, unfortunately,
not have the honor of going. I wanted to be a
fighter pilot and I got rejected. As I'm six
foot five, that wasn't really the problem, except
for all my height is in my waist up. So when
I sat down in the F -16E training cockpit, I
couldn't, they couldn't close the lid with the
helmet on. So they're like, sorry, you're out.
I'm like, well, crap. Guess I'm going to college.
Which was a waste of time too. Anyways, I went
through three years of college and then dropped
out because I was a waste of time. So why do
you think so many business operators or owners,
whether it's in the service industry or the food
industry or wherever, why do you think so many
people get stuck doing the day to day instead
of the scaling? What I've typically found is
that there's this sense of Powerful ownership
that comes with the risk you took to get that
to a certain position and it becomes very difficult
to trust other people To deliver you may have
someone who sort of does a c -player game and
you really thought you hired an a player So now
you have to kind of make up for their work and
you're like, well that was a waste of time Or
you get yourself a B player and you're like,
hey They're gonna do really great and they're
definitely don't turn into an a player and the
problem with hiring an a player a lot of times
who could do a really good job is they usually
cost more than most people are willing to pay
for things they can do themselves. And so they
get caught in a bit of quagmire of I could do
this better and no one else can because I can't
find anybody else to do it. So really what they
have is a management by exception problem. They
have got their risk to reward ratio imbalanced
because then they think, well, if I pay this
person this much money, well, I'm not paying
myself that money anymore if I have to pay it
to that person. And so they don't see the forward
thinking opportunity. of which particular role
is most important in the business. And they get
confused in the business management, sales, marketing
and development role with the operations control
and fiduciary management roles. And they tend
to can't figure out exactly which one of those
roles they fit the best. And does that sound
about right to you? It's my experience. What
is up happening is they try to figure out that
they feel they're most comfortable in their risk
being the operator. When in actuality the challenge
of becoming someone who works on a business and
not in it is to get out of the operator control
It's to get into the business of growth development
and Forwarding the company so additional clients
or sales or marketing initiatives will come out
to create more Revenues therefore you can you
know hire more people and build the business
a little bit more and I would usually say that
it gets down to their risk to reward ratio and
It's sometimes out of balance or what systems
or processes have you put in place that allows
you to step back from the daily grind and work
on the business and not every day in the grind
working in the business? Yeah, great question.
A lot of people have heard of key performance
indicators. but they don't always understand
what they are or how to apply them. So it's an
older methodology, a little more corporate. What
I prefer is one called Objectives and Key Results,
what are called OKRs. And for each role in a
business, whether it's the operator, the business
development guy, the sales guy, the finance guy
or whatever, the role has a defined set of revenue
generating metrics. every role should be in a
forward revenue generating position or it simply
shouldn't exist. And you're like, well, man,
I'm just the one that mows the lawn. How am I
in a revenue generating position? I'm in an executable
operational position. It's like, no, if you've
done a great job, if you've engaged the person
and said, hey, could we come back again in two
weeks and do your lawn? If you said, hey, do
you any of your neighbors want to, you know,
get a long job, too? Could I speak to them? Then
you're in a revenue generating role. Right. So
every person has that opportunity, but I don't
think everybody sees them that way. So what objectives
and key results do is they say a specific objective
that should be accomplished by that role. And
then there are three key results that allow that
objective to occur, right? And the three key
results that should be defined should be relatively
simple, but each of them should align with the
revenue generating goal. So it would be how many
people, you know, you mowed the lawn in that
neighborhood, but how many other neighbors did
you talk to while you were there? That could
be a key result, right? Well, I'm going to make
an effort to speak to five additional neighbors
every time I finish a lawn in that neighborhood,
right? So they could set up certain metrics of
performance and then incentivize them that each
of those clients that come through. when they
hit those certain metrics on their peer review
every 90 days, they're going to get a bonus.
They're going to get a pay increase. They're
going to get something beneficial to the new
business that they generated because they took
that effort as part of their key result. And
if there's just three key results to my particular
objective of my role in the company. then what
happens is they know their objectives you only
have to manage that exception maybe 10 minutes
or 15 minutes a week because everybody knows
what those objectives should be they've helped
define those objectives so they're comfortable
understanding what they are what the language
is and what the output of that should be and
then they understand if they don't meet it the
real clear criteria is you have another week
to resolve you have two weeks to resolve any
issue with your objectives that maybe isn't mine
to resolve, but is yours to resolve as a part
of your role. If there's something I can do to
help you or you need solving that problem, you
know, we can solve that problem. Simply saying,
I can't is not an option, right? Saying, you
know, there's a problem to solve. What are we
going to do to troubleshoot it? I'll help you
through that process. And then I only need to
meet with that person, you know, for 15 minutes
each week and just say, Hey, what do you need?
How are you doing? Where are you going? And how
are you going to get there next week? And the
objectives should be laid out. And if the performance
is there, the person met their performance, they
know their goals and their outcome. I know that
they're doing the roles that are necessary to
provide that outcome. And they know they get
a bonus if they do. And they also know that they'll
self -correct if they don't. Because if they
don't correct in the next two weeks, then there
will be a situation by which we understand you
are now not fulfilling your obligation as an
employee or a contractor. And thus, you know
what the outcome will be. termination, right?
You have an opportunity to turn this or you will
walk yourself out of the business and it's a
non -conflicting kind of situation because you
both agreed at the very beginning, what are the
boundaries? All right, here are the boundaries.
So we don't go into this with any ambiguity,
we go into it with an understanding that this
is your role, here's what's going to happen.
If you're in the lead development role of opening
the doors and finding out new businesses and
you go along with each crew and you're out the
door trying to talk to those five people because
that's your job, then there's a particular criteria
that says here are the three key indicators of
your success role and you will receive a bonus
you know every 90 days that these roles are hit.
You were rewarded when the companies were awarded.
So I prefer objectives and key results because
they're a little more simpler they can be defined
by the individuals and it's very clear the boundaries
between positive and negative. So in order to
get your employees or your partners to that point
where they understand the objective They understand
the vision and the goal Do you have to spend
a lot of time in training employees To get yeah,
you would if you had employees and I did once
have 12 employees and we managed about 21 ,000
square foot of warehouse with those employees
and Quite honestly, you know that was a situation
that I'm gonna refer to as my crime of opportunity
It sounded really good Uh at the start and it
looked really sexy on paper, you know, oh yeah
warehouse blah blah blah We got these people
in all this trucks are rolling. It's already
great We're moving 10 trucks a week of semi trucks
through there and everything looks really good
And we actually ran that business to eight figures
But it was not as profitable as it should have
been and it came with a lot of problems and the
problems were that you know people When left
to their own devices a lot of times if they're
not the quality players, you know that you think
they are They'll tend to get in trouble or just
not do things or they tend to just earn their
paycheck and not move along And so I thought,
well, there's got to be a better way to do this.
So in my process, we changed it into a, you know,
I attract the right individual who's interested
in doing what we do. And then I spent 12 months
with them one -on -one to support that process
of their growth. And as I raised up people that
became successful, I just asked the members of
my business builder group who wants to train
with me on new members and all incentivize you
out of profits, you know, as we train new members.
And so I ended up with, you know, three coaches.
who are business builders who started with us
and built successful companies and built them
off of our playbook and our methodology. And
now they train along with us. So I basically
kind of backed myself out of the training role
and have inserted them into the meetings. And
they now train and work with the individuals,
answer the questions and deal with a lot. And
my job is just kind of hover over and make sure
everything is being needed. We have weekly reports
that are produced on everybody's status and their
individuals are now doing the ones that are doing
all the coaching every week, not me. And so with
that I backed myself out with people who know
the process became successful in our training
others on the success of that process and I get
to see how they perform and if they have any
questions they think come to us and they say
hey these are things we need to know or things
we want to be trained on or and I support them
in more of an exception rule so I've been able
to back myself out of that which has given us
a lead way to support a lot more. Well let's
take a short break and hear a word from my show
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to contact them if you're looking for a system
to help you operate your business. At what point
did you realize you needed to start building
a team instead of trying to do it all yourself?
If you're familiar with the Kiyosaki quadrant
at all, the four stages of individual growth.
Yes. Yeah. And OK, there, if you're progressing
through that process of an ultimate goal of becoming
a business owner, then you're going to find that,
again, the risk to reward ratio is going to change
as you try to grow that business. So as I started
to identify what are my key skills, what are
my key values to this business, it's tough to
balance the sales and operations, right? So what
I've discovered was really at the end of the
day, I'm the sales, I'm the front end, I'm the
marketing, I'm the engine that drives the business
development conversation and this kind of stuff.
That's actually what I'm really good at. It's
where I should stay in my lane. And then about
12 years ago, I met someone whose lane is operations,
who's became my partner. And over 12 years, we've
developed these businesses together because the
two components of who we are have made one person.
So it's almost a business marriage relatable
to my marriage, which has been around for 18
years now. And my wife is the other half of my
brain. So she's very different than me in many,
many ways. And she's a kind of a polar opposite
in some ways. But because of that, we balance
each other out because I'm more of like, let's
jump off the bridge and figure out, you know,
figure this out on the way down. She's kind of
like, no, we need to make a list before we jump.
Right. And these are the things we need. And
I'm like, well, OK, you know, my brain doesn't
operate that way, but I get it. And now they've
kind of figured out both her and my partner after
being together for so long. My business partner
has figured out, well, I'll just pack a bag and
have it ready. And so if Neil says jump, we jump
off the bridge and then I'll try to figure out
how to build out whatever it is on the way down.
put some guardrails around it and some guidelines
and make sure we don't crash. My wife has kind
of been that person too. And with that flexibility
to be who I am, I've pushed the boundaries of
things they would probably normally not do. risk
or think about or challenge in the business or
life. And they've come along and been expanded
that way. And because they're strong and make
lists and have a particular process by which
they execute things as individuals, they pulled
me back a little and said, Hey, what about this?
Or, Hey, I think we should go that direction
instead of this way. And I understand what you're
saying, but what if we did it that way? And because
I am now a big enough person to be okay with
criticism, I've been willing to accept them taking
lead on things that I thought maybe should go
one way, but they want to go a different way.
And I'm like, that's okay. We'll go your way
instead. I understand what you're saying. I understand
this risk. I understand that challenge. Let's
do it this way instead. And I think what you
do as you grow and you give that up to other
people, you actually move through those quadrants
with really becoming a business owner who is
allowing others to fail and be okay with it.
Let them challenge and figure out and not have
to control every aspect. And as I've done that
and gotten older, I've suddenly I realized that,
you know, there are many of those people who
when you give them that control, that trust,
they don't want to disappoint you. They're gonna
do anything possible not to and so the trick
then becomes to make sure there's a comfortable
place of open conversation and dialogue where
you don't shoot their ideas down and make them
feel inferior or whatever the case may be. Maybe
they're going a little slower, you could go a
little faster, that's okay because then they
start to make sure that they feel comfortable
telling you the truth and they don't make up
exaggerations and they don't try to just tell
you what you want, they actually give you the
real truth. And there's that area that I think
a lot of people get caught up in because they
feel like their employees or partners are lying
to them or not just lying point blank, they're
maybe just a little white gray area somewhere.
and they're like, well, that's not exactly, I
don't really feel good about this conversation.
I don't really think you're doing what you said
you were gonna do or I don't really understand
what's going on here because I feel like maybe
you're just trying to play me or you're trying
to tell me what I want and what I actually want
you to do is do it or tell me what I could do
to help you do it. And so business people can
get caught up in that. And just the last point
of that would typically be because you are putting
a lot of pressure on the person you're hiring.
to know everything about that job from the very
beginning because they have experience. And here's
what I'll tell you. Every person you hire or
engage has a level of experience, but it's based
on another rule book, not the one that you're
currently operating within. And so you need to
give them that space to teach them and train
them and mentor them into your space and away
from their previous experience before you expect
them to fully take it on. Does that make sense
when I say it that way? Yes, sir. That's good.
What steps do you take? to build that trust between
the business owner and the partners or the employees
to release them to do the job and trust that
they'll do the job. It's really just being the
first one to trust. then when something goes
wrong if it wasn't done maliciously and you don't
believe it was done out of you know like a malicious
intent to harm or change or a fiduciary responsibility
that was being negated but mostly it was either
just timing or a decision that maybe could have
been made a different way I think that you know
giving them that grace and that space is very
important to figuring out what level of trust
they end up with so I'm always a kind of a trust
first verify later situation and if I can feel
comfortable in that because it's my risk to allow
that to occur then I'm giving them a space to
show me what they're willing to do, what they're
capable of doing. The moment I realize something
has changed or something is no longer in balance
or I caught you in a lie, you're out. And that's
a very clear statement from the very beginning
of any conversation I have. And frankly, just
watching my people rise themselves out of challenges
and difficulties they faced building their own
businesses with us has shown me exactly who they
are. As they say, the cream of the crop rises
to the top, right? So I've been able to see that
that process work. And then the same way as I
homeschool my daughters with my wife and I see
my four daughters going and doing things and
growing up in their uniqueness of each of their
individual personalities, which sometimes this
cracks me up because they both came from us and
how are you so different? Right. And I see them
growing up. I see where some of them have challenges
with that. Some of them have challenges with
the gray area when they think they're going to
get in trouble for doing things. And others are
just very strong and want to go this certain
direction, but need wrangled in a little bit.
on the way they do things and at the end it's
just well am I gonna be willing to take the time
to sit down and have that conversation and manage
them instead of just saying well these are my
priorities I can't do that I don't have the time
so in changing this you have to change the language
if you're listening to this today you have to
change the way you think about the priorities
of your time energy and attention especially
that falls backwards into money why if I say
I don't have time to do something what I'm actually
saying to that person is you're not a priority
Right. You're not a priority right now. My priorities
supersede you or other priorities supersede you.
And you might as well just look at them in the
face and say they're not a priority. Right. Because
it's very difficult to come to the table and
say, you know, your all of my things supersede
yours in this way. And we have to change that
language because we actually can make the time
what we actually have as a time prioritization
issue. OK. We get busy. We got all these things.
We got a family. Got to get home. We got this
job. We got other things we got to get done.
And so we feel like we're constantly rushed because
really at the end of the day, we're simply not
prioritizing time correctly. We are putting some
priorities above others. And then, you know,
we're looking at time in a very wrong way. We're
seeing it as all scarcity when time is actually
in abundance. And if we can shift the way we
say this language, instead of saying I don't
have to do this, I say I get to do this. And
as I train my language into my builders and I
train that into my daughters, I don't accept
that language that says I can't. or that I have
to. What you do say is, you get to do this, because
your alternatives are, you don't get to do it,
you don't get paid, you don't get to do it, you
can do it somewhere else, or you just simply
change the language by which you empower yourself
to take responsibility for the things you're
doing, you're not a victimization of time, you're
not being victimized by it, we all have the same
amount of time, okay? in the day. We don't have
the same amount of time in life, but we all have
the same amount of time in the day. And so how
we prioritize that against certain individuals
or situations or family and work, you know, you
have to look at the way you speak that language
out. It will be an empowerment to your people,
your partners and your employees and your family
if you change the way you speak about priorities.
And if you don't have your priorities and time
management set as a business owner, you will
fail in everything we've talked about today because
that's the one area you can fail in as a business
owner. Well, I will never forget when I first
Sent out two guys to take care for some properties
for a day the next morning when we were at the
shop loading and Our little morning meeting that
we have They asked me did you drive by the the
houses we moved yesterday and look at the yards.
I said no I Trust you to do the job If there's
an issue, the homeowner will call me and we'll
deal with it at that point. I'm not gonna create
a problem if there's not a problem. I trust you.
So I wanted them to know that number one, I've
trained you. I've taught you everything I know
about doing the job exactly the way I would do
it. And if you did your job, then... the jobs
are done just like I would do them. So I trust
you. And I think moments like that helps build
that confidence between employees and business
owners to where the employee doesn't feel like
they're being micromanaged or that I'm looking
over their shoulder every day or following them
around checking jobs. So Yeah, and if you can't
hire an A player you find a B player and you
train them to become an A player Right suggested
ways you do that is you give them the trust capable
of becoming an A player And you find out how
far and how fast they can go or are there any
daily habits? That you have That helps your team
members do their job Yeah, I check in on everybody
every day How's it going? Good morning. How are
you doing? Is there anything you need for me
today? I personally get myself ready for the
day by walking four miles a day with my wife.
So a physical exercise, a decompression. I try
to always get at least six hours of sleep every
night so that I'm in a good mental state to take
care of myself. I've been a lot more physical
work on myself to prepare as I got a little older.
I'm 49. I'm not going to last forever. So. I've
been doing more things physically to kind of
control myself in both, you know mindset and
body and I'm down 40 pounds now because of that
and You know, I do a lot of mental and physical
control. I've live on a homestead of 50 plus
acres So I'm always out doing something physical
all the time In this property right and we love
I love my wood stove. We're out here in the Ozark
mountains So it gets cold and so I put a lot
of wood away Which means I got a cut and chainsaw
and drag and haul and do a lot of wood and now
girls are a little older So they'll help dad
now and it's time to you know, unload the wood
So I keep them busy with that too, which is a
part of just cross -training their physical side
not their mental too But it is a lot of mental
over physical and I know you know that firsthand
From your own personal experience right as mental
and depression can kick in when physical becomes
a problem And and so really yeah my coping mechanisms
are one of the biggest things I do in order to
maintain my support and being able to continue
to give as a dad one of the things I think as
a husband and a father and a businessman But
I think it crosses all of those things as a pattern
of behavior You will do in your home life what
you do in your business And if you're separating
the two of those things then you're basically
two -faced and you got to be careful with that
So for me as a dad and a father and a husband
is to show up and provide anything my daughter
and daughters and wife need ahead of myself,
right? So I get the last of things and I'm okay
with that because I'm a provider. I'm a hustler.
I do things for life and business. This is what
I do. But I want my kids to know that they always
have a priority. My wife is a priority. And then
what I get, you know, comes last and that's okay.
It just means that in the last, you know, like
all the opportunity of stuff you've created and
the businesses that have done well and everything,
I just, until the last five years, I didn't really
feel like even buying myself a truck. So, you
know, I got myself a new truck. But that was
only in the last five years. You know, things
that I got that I knew wasn't taking from my
family. And so I think that, you know, you prepare
yourself mentally to do these things, to be a
giver, to be a care provider. You put yourself
in the role of that as a man and you double down
on what's necessary to get it done. And then
you provide that same level of support to everybody
in your business equally by supporting them in
every possible way you can. And that should be
your reward. And so that has become my reward.
That's why I sleep good at night. That's why
I go to rest easy, is I know that people are
doing it. And I know they don't want to let me
down. And they know that I'm there for them whenever
they need me. And I just check in and say, how
are you doing? What do you need? Is there something
that I can help you with? And usually they're
like, no, we got it. And we'll let you know.
if we need anything, right? And that's good.
I trust that and I understand it. But I do a
lot of personal work on being able to let go
of those things, let going that fear, that risk.
And like you said, you send those two guys out
on that job. Well, what's the worst that could
happen? Well, they screw the job up. You lose
the client. Can you get another client? Yes.
Is it really something to cry over? Probably
not. Right. It's probably not. And so at that
point, if you're not going to be willing to do
that and you're not, then you didn't. You're
going to be that person. Again, we talked about
a minute ago who falls back and like, I'm just
going to do it all myself because no one else
can be trusted to do it. And you're going to
get stuck. I'm going to get stuck doing it by
yourself for the rest of your life. Well, you
said something there. You are in your business
what you are in your home. Yes, and that is so
good because I think a lot of people get confused
They want to be a good boss But they're not necessarily
a good father a good husband or they're a great
father Great husband, but they're not a good
boss And it's impossible to play both of those
field. It's mind -numbingly difficult the guys
I see that do it. I'm like you're wearing yourself
out just So with that being said, I think it
comes down to your mindset. What do you think
of your family? What do you think of your business?
Are you just a guy with a mower or are you running
a legitimate business in your community? And
so let me ask you. What is the biggest mindset
shift that has helped you go from a worker to
a business owner? I read a book once That really
kind of refocused my Concern about giving up
trust and financial and you know letting others
take lead It's called feel the fear and do it
anyways by Susan Jeffries And part of that question
I asked a minute ago came out of that and that
is, you know, what's the worst that can happen?
If you, in your moment, can put yourself into
what's the worst that can happen in this situation?
Accept that, understand it, think a way to deal
with it, even if it doesn't happen, you've already
sort of kind of prepared yourself mentally to
deal with it because you get to, not because
you have to. and to put yourself in that position
to say I will dedicate the time or energy or
attention or money or whatever is necessary to
fix it should it go this way and if it doesn't
go this way then we'll go that way and once you've
assessed that risk level then you let it go What
about everything? What if this? What about that?
What if this? What if that doesn't happen next
year? What if this doesn't happen next week?
Like people in business can get themselves caught
into this idea that there's a certain requirement
of things to happen in a certain time frame and
they get their mind all jacked up on what their
priorities should be. So I think the success
mindset and one that really pivoted for me was
the realization that to assess a situation is
to look at it for what it is. to see what the
possibilities of it are, fully negative or fully
positive, and then deal with it. And then realize
that if you're not willing to deal with that,
then you're never going to have the failures
required to get the experience that brings the
wisdom. And you can't get to the wisdom without
the experience. Learned how to become a father
and a husband through a very difficult divorce
in a marriage that collapsed and having to access
What was my problem in that relationship that
allowed that to occur and what could I do better?
And how could I be a better man a better husband?
Luckily didn't have children during that time
frame. So really it was mostly about well Why
did this occur and what did I you know have problems
with? To later on finding the love of my life
and getting married and having this wonderful
family event But then ten years after we got
married we ended up in a bankruptcy and had to
deal with that situation from a bad business
dealing that went south and, you know, got out
of whack really fast and had to go through that
bankruptcy process. And then, you know, what's
the worst that can happen? Well, I had $567 in
my bank account. I can tell you what the worst
that can happen. It is giving up, right? It's
giving up and never risking anything to see what
the reward potentials are. And I will never regret
that I've risked it all and gained all in the
process of living life. so that I could fully
say, I understand what that looks like. Those
who are still trying to understand or trying
to avoid that pain or those challenges will ultimately
end up meeting them head on. The difference will
be they simply aren't in the right mindset to
overcome it. It will overcome them instead. Well,
you will overcome or you will be overcome. So,
you know, that's basically the only two ways
it either gets better or it gets worse. But the
control of which one ends up being easier and
which one's being harder is you. Right. So my
realization was, well, this is crap. This is
embarrassing. I let my family down and my, you
know, I have friends and family that don't really
want to talk to me right now because I am that
thing that they think I am. And then they want
me to get a job and I'm not going to go do that
because I'm on the path of, you know, making
my life as a business and my lifestyle as my
family. And so I'm not just going to go back
and get another job. And the realization that,
you know, if I'm going to get this thing figured
out, I'm going to work my way out of it. So I
got to work because it wasn't any time to complain
well speaking of books I Read a book and I'm
reading it again. It's called the mountain is
you It's an excellent book if there's a problem,
it's me I need to be a better Boss, I need to
be a better husband. I need to be a better man
I need to represent my business better in my
community. Because when you're a business owner,
everything you do points right back at your business.
And that's why I try to tell people, they're
not just buying a yard mowing or they're not
just paying you to trim the bushes. They're investing
in you, your reputation, your goals. What you
want to achieve in that job so they're investing
in you and And the mindset, you know, it just
if you if you think you're a loser you've already
lost, you know Yeah, if you already come beating
yourself up you'll be your worst enemy. There's
no doubt about that Well, what else would you
like to tell us about? What your business is
what products you sale? Where people can shop
for your business products and Go from well,
you probably heard this thing called Amazon,
right? Yes So if anybody's shopping on Amazon,
you can check out my products there We have a
quite a variety of different products on there.
We've got a ice cream maker called the blizzy
which is doing extremely well after launching
here recently, which is super cool. It makes
ice cream on the countertop in 30 minutes or
less. You just pour the ice cream mix in the
top, you wait, and then you just pull the handle
and out comes soft serve. So people are absolutely
loving that machine. It's on Amazon. You can
make homemade ice cream at home in 30 minutes
or less. It's a super cool product that we launched
recently. We've got a coffee brand called Embrista.
For those who love coffee, which I do, we have
a coffee brand that sells a digital brew. a master
that has a built -in grinder and we also sell
an espresso machine that is doing it extremely
well if you like espresso. We sell bed sheets
in a company called Linen and Lane where we have
bed sheets in there that are amazing bamboo based
microfiber sheets so they're cool and they're
warm and that's also on Amazon and I could keep
going because we got like 12 of these that we
sell. We sell all physical products, manufactured,
created, developed, discovered, built, and sold
by us. in our different brands and we predominantly
sell on Amazon but also mention the other channels
we sell as well. We work under an arrangement
with those who want to do it with us in a 12
-month consulting agreement to help them launch
a brand. For those who might be aspiring entrepreneurs,
you can go to VoltageDM .com to check that out.
That's VoltageDigitalMarketing .com. And of course,
all social medias. If you look up my last name,
Twa, or go to Voltage, you'll find me on one
of the social medias where we're all over the
place. You can even check out my book, Almost
Automated Income with FBA, which is also on Amazon
as well. And there are, you know, development
of brands and product types that we launch with
the goal of specifically getting them out to
five years and exiting them. So everything we
build is built as a saleable asset from the ground
up from the very beginning. And so there's no
side hustle or hobby businesses here. These are
all, you know, true businesses with brand development
and multi products so that we can move them into
the market. And, you know, we have investors
lining up at the door to buy them. So. There's
lots of huge opportunity. I jokingly tell everybody
this is the second oldest profession in the world,
which is selling physical products. Everybody
knows what the first one is, right? We don't
sell those. But yeah, there's plenty of products.
And upside, it's a huge market. In fact, in about
15 years, according to market research from Bank
of America, Forester Research, even the Department
of Commerce, we're going to invert retail to
online commerce. So what is... Still a majority
of retail sales over online e -commerce sales
is actually going to flip. So all the movement
of product sales is literally moving online.
So there is this huge generational wealth transfer
that's happening right now. It started about
six or seven years ago. And through that time
frame, we saw hyper growth. as mobile purchases
surpass desktop for the first time ever in 2021.
So more people buy on their mobile phones now
than ever, which is giving them the ability to
purchase something anywhere and everywhere that
they want to buy something. And Amazon is a juggernaut
of sales machines. It's about 6000 units a minute
moving through Amazon's whole ecosystem. Most
people know about it as it arrives to their door
when they order things. Uh, we jokingly saying
my house, if my wife hasn't ordered something
in 45 minutes, Amazon calls her to find out if
she's okay. Uh, they're checking in on us, make
sure you're okay, Ms. Tua. Uh, stuff shows up
all the time and we use that infrastructure to
deliver our products. So we don't have to warehouse
them. We don't have to ship them. We don't have
to deal with the returns and everything else.
Amazon does that. And when I move it out to the
different sales channels, like our website, or
I go to TikTok with those sales channels, Amazon
also delivers our product too. So it becomes
a multi -channel. You know infrastructure of
planes trains and automobiles. It's a miracle
the dang thing even works as well as it does
It's a huge machine. And so we set that up about
12 years ago. We launched our first brand Got
to their first seven figures in sales around
2015 and built -in processes and standard operating
procedures. We eventually developed a software
to support the internal operations. We call it
Greenlight. It's advanced now through AI. We
have an intelligence data engine called Cayman
that we developed that helps us discover the
products using AI and Amazon's actual data that
we get from Amazon sales. So we understand exactly
the demand and what's in the market. And then
we follow a process by which we launch the products
into the market to find out which ones the market
wants from us. And when the market tells us which
ones it wants, we give them more product. And
it's a repeatable process and it's a scalable
process. You know, we've had business owners
and brands go to tens of millions a year in five
years or less. And it's a huge market of opportunity.
Sell everywhere in the United States because
it's a total, you know, we don't sell just locally.
We can sell products to people all over the country
through that infrastructure, which is super great
because it opens up that whole marketplace. It's
beyond local. So there's positive and negative.
I understand the local challenges with small
businesses and dealing with Amazon, for example,
or any online marketplace. We live in a town
of 1 ,800 people, so we try to support the small
businesses here that we can too, as well. There's
negatives to working with large companies, of
course. But there are positives, especially when
it comes to opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs
to build a company and build up a lifestyle business,
which is one of the things I've taught people
how to do because that's what I did. I built
this business up and I get to live here with
my family and homeschool them and live in the
country and live my lifestyle and have all these
businesses running online. So there's a tremendous
amount of opportunity. And how long have you
been in business? Let's see, this will be 18
going on 19 years now. In those 18 or 19 years,
as you look back from where you are today to
where you started. Yes, is there something you
would have done different to expedite success
You know, here's my problem with that if I changed
too much I May not have four daughters. That'd
be really sad If I changed too much, I might
not have found my wife if I changed too much.
I don't know where I'd be And I really like where
I am like where I'm in business. I like where
I live. I like so many things. And honestly,
there's a lot that I could go back and really
just rip off like 10 things that I, you know,
well, I don't want to change this. I dumb stuff
like, well, I wouldn't have sold a Bitcoin that
I had, you know, I might have invested in more
Amazon stock, you know, those kinds of things.
Right. I would have I would have tried to catch
on sooner when my business partners were stealing
money out of the back of the company and I didn't
even know it until I went bankrupt. You know,
those are things that I wouldn't but at the end
those are such tremendous lessons in life. That's
a so much Coulda woulda shoulda but ultimately
it created a much stronger person you see in
front of you as someone who has a lot more faith
than they used to have In life and business and
something greater than me as I believe in God
and Jesus Christ those are things that I know
that if I hadn't gone through those struggles
I wouldn't have found a way to be closer to God
and So, I don't know if I'm answering it the
way you intended the question to go, but for
me, I really wouldn't change a whole lot because
I really like wording it up. That's perfect.
I love the answer. I am a believer. I believe
in God. I believe He's my Savior. And I know
that if it wasn't for Him when I was going through
my throat cancer, that I would not be here today.
When the doctors looked at me and said you have
a tumor the size of a golf ball in your voice
box. It's wrapping around your vocal cords and
it is paralyzing your vocal cords. If we don't
get it out, you have two weeks to live. You'll
die in your sleep because the tumor will close
off your airway and you will not be able to breathe.
Wow, so I went to surgery not knowing if I would
ever speak again Because he told me there was
a great possibility that he would have to take
my whole larynx to get rid of it Wow But I went
to surgery Tears streaming down my cheeks Telling
my wife and my two small kids at that time. Daddy
loves you. I love you, babe You know not knowing
if I'd ever be able to tell them that again So
that was a very difficult, hard time for us as
a family, for me as a man, because, you know,
I wanted to be the provider. I wanted to be the
strong, the strong guy, you know, and so just
I just don't know how anybody can do life without
faith, quite honestly, business and most. examples
I would give and even my own and yours it just
doesn't operate without faith right I don't know
how you do it without faith quite honestly most
of my friends who run businesses that are you
know as the same or even larger than mine are
faith believing people they they don't walk in
the world the same way and I think they're successful
because of that and I know it has a lot to do
with just their faith and their belief of things
that are greater than what we can currently see,
and I honestly don't know how anybody can look
at the way things are, the way they could be,
and not examine it through the eyes of faith.
I just, I personally don't understand that. Right.
Too much fear, too much concern, too much unknown,
you know? And when you put all that aside, it's
much easier to focus on the things that matter.
Well, I had to pray, Lord, I believe. Help thou
my unbelief. You know, we all have those moments,
man. I had some unbelief moments, you know, I
did. Mine wasn't with my own health. Mine was
dealing with my wife who had a hysterectomy that
went sideways and when she was supposed to come
out of the hospital in the second day after recovering
went into a fight for her life. She died in front
of me and one time they had to she got overdosed
on morphine. by the doctor in the hospital and
that coded out and then they resuscitated her
in front of us and then she went into an emergency
surgery because she had a bleed from a carterizing
machine that failed to carterize and so she had
like six liters of blood up in her cavity which
were causing just extreme pain and so they tried
to solve that problem with the first surgery
and that didn't work so they went back to the
second surgery and that didn't work and they
were into the third surgery within 36 hours and
she coded out once on the table while she was
in there as well and they resuscitated her. And
so by the time I get down 36 hours later, I didn't
sure I had four small children under the age
of five and a young wife and a life that all
of a sudden for three days, I wasn't sure I wasn't
spending the rest of my life without my wife
and dealing with small children. Thankfully,
God, you know, healed her through that process
and took a year to recover. But I had to face
that moment where I thought, man, that's it.
I'm going to be a dad of four girls by myself.
That was a tough moment of faith. That was a
tough moment of recognizing what is happening.
I appreciate so much you bringing your faith
into the podcast because I think we need to get
that out there in the podcast community and share
our testimonies. I have a Facebook group. It's
called the Green Industry Prayer Group. to where
people can leave a prayer request or share a
testimony of victory. And you know, I just think
we need each other. And if you expressing your
faith on my podcast can help a lawn care guy,
you know, get enough strength to get up and go
to work tomorrow. It was worth it. Yeah, 100%.
That's our freedom, right? That's my five F's.
faith at the top and then you got friends family
finances and freedom without freedom of choice
you know uh what else do we have right we have
our freedom right at the end of the day and this
is our opportunity to spread that freedom right
yes sir absolutely well is there one piece of
advice that you could give our listeners to encourage
them yeah that's a big Question, one piece of
advice. I would just remind people that the mountains
they carry, you were supposed to climb. So you
have to figure out how to let those go. And typically
the process is to remember to leave your excuses
at the door. Your opportunity will start at the
end of your excuses. Oh, that's good. Get up
and go. That is so good. Well, I really appreciate
you being a guest on the show tonight. I'm very
honored. Thank you for having me. Your insight,
your wisdom, and your experiences has given our
listeners some actionable things that they can
set in place in their business to help them begin
to work on their business and not in their business.
you know, the trust issue that you talked about,
putting your faith in your employees or your
partners, you know, all of that just rings home
so well to our listeners because I'm sure there
are lawn care professionals out there that might
be a little hesitant to release the jobs to people
to do because they want to be They want to be
involved in every aspect. And so you have given
us some actionable things that we can do to help
us grow, to help us scale our business and to
be a better man, to be a better husband, to be
a better father, to be a better business owner.
And that's my desire. I want to be better. So
I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with us
your testimony and I'm so happy that God touched
your wife and saved her life and That your four
children can grow up with a mommy and a daddy
So I I am just grateful for everything that that
you shared with us tonight And we're gonna call
this a wrap And until we meet again, always remember,
the grass is greener where you water it. So thank
you for joining the Lawn Hustle. And I appreciate
you listening to our show. And we will talk again
real soon.