Are you still on the fence about starting your own asphalt maintenance business? Or are you about to launch it, but you're getting cold feet because you don't know if you're doing the right thing? Or maybe you're in your second year and looking for ways to scale your sealcoating and crack repair business?
Then you're in the right place. Watch our “How To Dominate 2022” webinar to learn insights on how to start your asphalt maintenance business on the right foot, as well as how to scale your business with the right equipment and knowledge. You'll also get helpful business tips from our guests, John Bublich of Wyoming Asphalt Repair, Adam Chapman of Pad Pal, and Rob McKenzie of Black Max Driveway Sealcoating, and hear about their experiences in running an asphalt maintenance business.
Want to start your very own asphalt sealcoating business? Get our FREE 9-video Build Your Own Business Blueprint to learn about this pandemic-resistant and recession-resistant industry.
We have also included a transcript to make it easier for you to take notes, as well as find the resources we've mentioned in the webinar.
How To Dominate 2022 Transcript
Judd Burdon: What is going on, everybody? I'm so glad that you can tune in tonight. We've got some awesome value that we hope to share with you. What a journey! It's been over 22 years. Actually, it's longer than that. It's 23 years of being in the asphalt maintenance industry.
I was very young when I first started in the industry. I was actually 18 years old. No experience whatsoever. Had never raked asphalt, had never sealcoated — never done any crack repair. But I'm about to take you on a journey that hopefully will resonate with you and inspire you to build your very own asphalt maintenance business. But if it's not an asphalt maintenance business, hopefully, you'll push towards developing a business that provides you with the freedom and the dreams that will become a reality for you.
I'm sitting here looking at an old photo album, and it's such a time warp. It's like I'm Michael J. Fox going back in time for a second, but take a look at this photo. This is me and one of my guys that ran one of our trucks. It's a two-ton hot box on the back. Look at the other trucks. This was the very first company that I built. It was Imperial Asphalt Maintenance.
Let's go back in time to when I first started, and I'm super excited to bring you through this journey and hopefully, inspire you to build your very own company. We've got some great guests that are on who are not just customers of ours, but they've become good friends, too. I'm really excited for them to come on live with us to help answer any questions and hopefully give you some real meat around what it was like to start their own business, build it, and scale it.
We've got Johnny Bublich from Wyoming Asphalt Repair tonight, and we've also got Rob McKenzie of Black Max Driveway Sealcoating. I'm really excited to have them on. But before we go through to connect with them, let me lay out the way that things have unfolded for me.
I started my sealcoating business in 1999, and I built it from the ground up. I literally started with five-gallon pails and sealer brushes and went knocking on doors. I remember what it was like to knock on that very first door. The gentleman answered, and I was like, "Hi, my name is Judd Burdon, and I'm in your area. I'm sealcoating driveways, and I'm doing driveways for $250. It's a four-car driveway. I've got my sealer in the car and my sealer brush. It's going to take me about two hours to do the job." And he said yes.
I remember how it felt to get that first sale for my very own business that I was developing. It was the dopamine rush and the feeling of, "Man, oh, man. I'm building my very first business." The amount of pride and energy that I felt out of that was extraordinary.
And for any of you who've started your own business or who have built a business in the past, you know what that's like to get your very first sale and how great that feels. I grew that company very quickly, of course. I just showed you a photo there. We grew that company extremely fast.
Five years later, in 2004, I sold Imperial Asphalt Maintenance, and I moved to move to the Caribbean. We ended up with eight trucks on the road, and we had 36 employees. We were rocking and rolling door-to-door sales. We were doing McDonald's parking lots and commercial plazas.
We went from doing $250 jobs to $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 jobs, and it happened very quickly because there's so much demand in this industry. Asphalt is everywhere, and it 100% needs to be maintained to keep it safe and looking great.
When I sold the company, I ended up moving to the Caribbean because I really wanted to. I've always dreamed of living under coconut trees by the beach and wanted to go on a mission of helping people. I found my purpose and I wanted to help people create greatness in their life. I wanted to help inspire, motivate, and help them feel unstoppable. That's what I've been on a mission for the last 16, 17 years.
I built Asphalt Kingdom back in 2004 (asphaltkingdom.com), and we started putting out content on the website about how to maintain driveways and parking lots. It didn't take long for people to start connecting with us and asking questions about how to do door-to-door sales, how to build their company, what the right equipment would be to use, and what templates and tools and different things they needed to build their very own business just like I had.
I built a website, connecting with people all over the globe, primarily the USA and Canada. I hail from Montreal, Canada, but traveled all over the world. People started connecting with us, and I started sharing my knowledge with all of these people that we're connecting with.
And since then — from 2004 until now — there's this huge movement of paying it forward and being a lighthouse. That's one of the reasons why I'm here with you right now. I don't want you to just decide to build a business and then be on your own in the fog trying to figure all of this stuff out.
It's really important to me, and it's important to our whole team that you're getting everything you need to build, manage, grow, and scale your own company. We are passionate about that. We've built systems and tools to do that.
We know that starting your own business will help you achieve the freedom and the financial success you need to create a better life for yourself.
The question becomes, "What is that?" The other major problem with starting your own business is that the chance of failure can be very, very high. It really can. You don't want to do this on your own. You don't want to be alone in the dark trying to figure the ropes out and figure out what's right, what's wrong, and what's the right strategy to do a presentation door-to-door.
What's the difference between a residential sale versus a commercial sale? Where should my pricing be? What is my cost of goods? Truly understanding the profit analysis of your company, setting goals, all these different things can be overwhelming. So, the chance of failure is high.
Luckily, I have been there; I've gone through it. I've gone through steep learning curves. Asphalt Kingdom is one of our companies. I own several companies. But through this entrepreneurial journey, I've learned the ins and outs of truly being able to build thriving businesses.
We've got a lot of clients that have built successful asphalt maintenance companies that we've worked with, and that's what we're hoping to do with you as well. You'll have everything you need to succeed when you're with Asphalt Kingdom. Of course, you need the dedication, the passion, and the drive to do that. You can't just sit still and hope that things are going to happen by magic.
I want you to understand that I'm no different than you. The only difference is that I've spent the past four decades of my life developing businesses from the time I was a little boy to the time I am now sitting here at 42 years old. I'm literally in a position now where I've got the business packages, the training, the systems, the tools, the people, and the teams behind Asphalt Kingdom and within Asphalt Kingdom, as well as a network of successful customers that are constantly paying forward.
This is all going to allow you to succeed fast, and the chance of success is much higher. There are a bunch of hacks that I've used to help thousands of other people globally to be able to build their own success, which will make it inevitable if you follow through with it. I ask you if you had a step-by-step plan that you needed to launch and scale your business. If you had that.
If you had exactly the equipment and the materials that you need to break even on your very first order and then to reinvest in your business. And if you had the marketing and the sales strategies that set you from the competition. What would that be like for you? Think about that.
I'll tell you everything in just a minute about all of this stuff. But first, I need to explain truly why this business works so well and why you can succeed with this. You see, most contractors in the asphalt industry don't understand truly what it takes to achieve their goals.
They don't understand the depth of that. They go into business blind and wonder why they're not successful. They wait for calls and they sit there. They don't understand the framework and what's needed to achieve true success. There's a good reason why they should connect with us so that we can help them with that.
But a lot of people don't search Google and do what you're doing right now, which is sit in on a webinar like this to listen and to gain perspective. You're here right now and you're willing to learn, and that's the difference. Most people aren't here. So, you're already ahead of most people, straight up. Okay? You're way ahead.
I want to break this down into three simple phases for you so that this can be manageable for you. The first phase is understanding the numbers in your business.
If you want to make, let's say, $200,000 and you're doing $250 jobs like driveways, it's going to take you a heck of a long time to be able to achieve that goal. It's going to take 800 driveways, and the reality of it is you're not going to be able to physically do 800 driveways in a season.
We want to help you design a realistic growth plan and make sure you have the "GPS coordinates" that are set to keep you on course. That way, you're not going to be in the fog, trying to figure out what it is that you need to be doing from an average job value to hit your goals.
You need that clarity in your business no matter what business you're in. When that goal is set, you need to understand the true framework so that it's all one step at a time from then on. You follow the plan, you execute on it, and you'll succeed.
In phase two, you need to get the right equipment for the job. There are hundreds of products out there on the marketplace. I'm sure you've already been out researching. We are definitely in-house here. Know which ones you need to start no matter what budget you're working with. Okay? You can start with a five-gallon bucket just like I did and a sealer brush. Or you could get ahead and be successful more quickly by investing into, let's say, a 230-gallon spray system.
For people who have bigger budgets (in the $20,000 to $30,000 range), you can get big air-operated units, and start that way. But the bottom line is you're not going to waste money on things you don't need when you're with us. You're going to work with the things you truly need to get the job done right.
And you're going to use our experience to get you exactly what you need to get started, scale your company, and grow it effectively. Somebody who starts with a bucket will not work with a bucket from here on out. You're going to have an evolution of your growth in your business, and we're committed to working with you to do that.
Phase three is putting fuel on the fire with your marketing and the sales program. You see, when you're building your company (as you may have seen from a lot of our YouTube videos) we're really expressive in the way that we want you to have a powerful digital footprint. Many of you may have seen that branding video that I had done with Alex Lucic from Black and Yellow Pavement.
You're going to be hundreds of times more visible than your competition. You're going to get exponentially more business from that. We're going to work with you on making sure you're multi-channel present and that you're generating leads from that content that you're outputting.
We have videos, blogs, and step-by-step plans on how your company will become successful in the digital marketplace so that you're generating the leads that's needed.
Now, once the leads are in the door, it's time to close those sales, and then you're going to be on your way to collecting the money and feel what I felt that day when I did my very first job. That's something so special.
To summarize the three phases.
Phase one, you're going to uncover your goals and then work backward to create the plan to succeed.
In phase two, you're going to understand what you need to start strong and break even on your first order and scale from there with your re-investments.
And phase three, you're going to create the marketing presence you need to dominate your competition and layout the foundation for success.
Our company will help you with all of this, and we are here for you each step of the way.
In addition, as part of working with our company, you get access to all the resources, tools, and three hours of video content about building your own business blueprint content that we have on YouTube.
If you go through the YouTube playlists, you're going to see so much information, so many interviews of people who have been there, done that, and are growing their business, and you can take advantage of that. This community, this fraternity, this brotherhood, this team becomes your Asphalt Kingdom.
I'm here to help you feel as though you're not alone and to help you feel that you're unstoppable if you make that first step. It's truly the hardest step. There's no better time right now with this business.
It's recession-resistant, and it's pandemic-resistant. I know I say it all the time on social media and out there in interviews. I'm saying it — there's no better time to get started.
It's January 20th right now, 2022. It's going to be March before we know it, so you want to make sure to get all your ducks in a row right now and make sure that you're setting up for spring — a power-packed spring.
Whether you're starting a business for the first time or you're scaling your existing business, there's no better time right now than to connect with the circles that do exist — in the social media world and through our company.
We're always here to make sure that you have everything that you need, and that you have enough time to plan this out to learn what you need to learn and execute. At this point, your future is right in your hands, and it's really up to you how that future will unfold.
I figured that it would be great to have some guests on so you can hear it firsthand from a couple of customers that I respect and I've built such great relationships with. They've built successful asphalt maintenance companies.
I was also on the phone earlier today with Lance Phillips of Precision Asphalt & Sealcoating and chatting through Facebook Messenger. The guy has built a hell of a company. He started with a PowrLiner 850 Striping Machine, and he's got a warehouse filled with pavers.
He's got tankers, bulk tanks, and a whole lineup of equipment. He's growing the hell out of his business. I believe it's his fifth year in business, and he's just crushing it. Doing Walmarts, and FedEx’s, and just crushing it. But he's up on a hunting trip, so he couldn't join us today. But I do have two incredible humans that are going to be on.
I want to welcome Johnny Bublich of Wyoming Asphalt Repair to the show tonight. I'm so excited to welcome him. He is with us. Johnny, what is up, my man?
John Bublich: Judd. How is it going, buddy?
Judd Burdon: What is up, brother? You've been hunting, too, lately.
John Bublich: Yeah. We just got wrapped up with cat season. Now, I'm just kind of in my downtime where I'm just not really doing anything. It's kind of nice. I've been avoiding the cold outside. It's like in the single digits [as of late. I'm over that.
Judd Burdon: So, you got all cleaned up too, man. I usually roll a little scruffy, too. You don't have any scruff on tonight.
John Bublich: Well, no. It was during lion season, and I get rid of it. When I'm guiding lion hunter, that's the tip getter when you got a good beard. As soon as lion season is over, my wife wants me to shave it.
Judd Burdon: My wife asked the same thing. Johnny is the president and founder of Wyoming Asphalt Repair, and he started it just less than a year ago.
John Bublich: Yeah. I believe that's February is when I made that.
Judd Burdon: Man. Tell us a bit about why you decided to start the business. I know we did another webinar previously, but can you share why you started the business and what really pushed you to take the first step?
John Bublich: When I was 20 years old, I decided I was going to dedicate my entire life to the oil field, and so I did. I saved a pretty [decent] amount of money, and I stayed in it for 13 years. But when the pandemic hit, and we all got shut down, I decided it was time to start my own thing.
I didn't know what yet, what kind of business I was going to start. After thinking about it for a couple of months — I mean, it doesn't seem that long probably in perspective, but I've thought about it really hard for a couple of months.
I came up with asphalt repair. A buddy of mine suggested that I look into it, and he had never done it before. He just had the idea, and I started looking into it, and I came across Asphalt Kingdom and just kept steamrolling from there.
Judd Burdon: Man. I remember in the last interview, you were at your son's baseball game, I believe.
John Bublich: Yeah. In the time I spent in the oil field, I worked away from home a lot of it. I missed a lot of the cool stuff with my kids growing up. But now, I get to kind of set my own schedule and make it to those things.
Judd Burdon: What really helped you to be successful as you were growing? Last spring, you had a bunch of jobs, you did some pothole repair, and then you started to scale into bigger jobs and so on.
What really helped you to be successful? Was it just getting out there and doing it? Was there marketing? Was it word of mouth? Can you tell us a bit about that?
John Bublich: Well, I started with a pretty decent situation. When I first started, I hired a website designer right away and he got me up on Google. I was getting a lot of phone calls from Google and then right off the hop I bought a billboard in town on Main Street.
I'm pretty active on social media. I understand that pretty well, so I really attacked social media and did a lot of paid advertising. And then I just started going door-to-door on big driveways that needed sealcoating in places like NAPA and about crack filling work.
I just started hitting people up door-to-door. Through word of mouth, I got a good friend who's got a business right on Main Street. I made the offer to him. I said, "Hey, how about you pay for materials, and I'll get the job done? But you let me advertise all summer with a big sign on your property." And he's like, "Done."
He's my buddy, so I got to hook him up and he hooked me up with advertising. Just getting the word out there really did a number on my phone. It just rang nonstop all summer. I wasn't prepared for that.
Judd Burdon: A challenge was that you were unable to handle the number of leads that were coming into your phone and the amount of workflow that was coming in.
John Bublich: Oh, absolutely. My immediate problem became manpower because there's so much opportunity out there and jobs that I can do with just having some buddies. I found a couple of good guy guys to work for me, and once I found a couple of guys to work for me, then it really picked up. I could only do so much by myself.
Judd Burdon: Right. Let's say, with that being said, what advice would you give somebody who's just starting fresh this year? Where they're starting, let's say, in March and they're getting going. What would be the best piece of advice you could give somebody?
John Bublich: You asked me that once before, and I didn't know... How much time do you have? Do you know what I mean? Holy cow, you learn so much. The biggest piece of advice is just... Not to be cliché, but just hold together and just keep grinding because it gets tiring. It's not making money. These businesses are failing because they're not making money, it's because they're not managing it.
It costs me a little bit, but I have an enrolled agent who handles my important stuff. I have an accountant who handles my important stuff. It's like having the support needed and not trying to overwhelm yourself because it's like I'm also the talent. When we're sealcoating a job, it's like I have this sealcoating it. But at the same time, my phone is ringing and people are trying to book, bills are due, and checks need to be deposited.
My wife is a stay-at-home mom, so she helps out with depositing checks and making sure that things get done. But it gets big fast. That's what I wanted was to get big fast. That's why I attacked online and billboards and pushed the advertising. Have a plan, and be organized.
Judd Burdon: Yeah. There's no doubt that the demand is there: asphalt is everywhere. I'm in full agreement, man. Keeping things together is the key. A lot of people end up trying to do everything on their own because they're concerned about what they'll spend or cost is versus investment.
You speak about an accountant, or an office administrator, or a virtual assistant. Somebody that can help manage the flow and the things that might not need to be micromanaged by you to, in your head, save a dollar.
But instead, actually see it as an investment so that you can spend more time quoting jobs out that have a higher value that will get you to make more money, and maybe spending some time on what your cost analysis is with your accountants.
A lot of people speak a lot about revenue. "Oh, I made a million dollars this year." And it's like, "Okay. Well, what was your bottom line?" "Oh, I don't know." What money have you made for your business? What is the bottom line? Are your team members paid well so that they come and are excited to be at work and are part of a culture and that kind of stuff? I think you're banging on, man. It's making sure investing in key people in key positions allows you to focus on your superpowers. Yeah, man.
John Bublich: Yeah. You're the salesman, right? I have a sales strategy. We're in the asphalt maintenance business. We all have Google Maps. You can cruise over a city from a long way up, and you can find the big chunks of asphalt pretty easily in the city. And then you can find out where to go and who to talk to.
Finding asphalt going forward is not going to be hard. You might get into some bidding wars, or you might have to do things a little, but you'll never not be busy. There's always work, and there are great-paying jobs. But then there are your slow days where you can do those low-paying jobs, but you can always make money. It's managing it that's very important.
Judd Burdon: Question for you. When you leave home — and you leave home clean — and you come back dirty, does that feel good for you?
John Bublich: Yeah. I've always loved that. My whole time in the oil field, I've always been dirty. I've always been a hard hat, coverall, steel toes, gloves, working with the rough guys around, and just loving it. Working outside all winter. I'm glad I don't have to work outside in the winter. I'm not going to lie. 13 years, so that was enough for me. I'm done. I call John's sealcoat my alter ego. When I put my yellow company shirt on and my yellow sealcoat glasses, that's like my costume. I'm like, "That's Johnny's sealcoat." That's our money-making outfit.
Judd Burdon: I love that, man. What's in store for Wyoming Asphalt Repair in 2022?
John Bublich: Oh, man. My biggest thing this year, as I said, was personnel. I kind of bounced around, but I found a guy that's going to run my painting division. Wyoming Asphalt Repair is attacking the line striping, and we are winning. Get a good website, guys. It's all I got to say about that because that's the only thing I did for that.
I got upgraded to a... I have my Titan still that I got with my [first contractor] package with you and we do all the curbs and whatnot with that. And then we had Graco. We upgraded our paint sprayer, and I got a guy coming in to do all the line striping. I'm going to run the crack filling and sealcoating, and then he'll run the line striping. The biggest addition is I have a full-time line striper now.
Judd Burdon: Would you be willing to share what your revenue goal is for 2022?
John Bublich: Well, it was lower, actually. My original goal was 250 for next year. Then I got together with a guy who's going to line stripe for me, and he told me that that wasn't a big enough goal. So, I said, "Well, fine." I said, "What do you want the goal to be?" And he said, "A half a million." And I was like, "Oh, man. All right." That's a full sentence, and the goal is half a million dollars this year.
I was just going to be comfortable because I'm already in my first year. I did 156,000 at the end of the year. I was unorganized, understaffed, and building... I got my logo, and I was in the middle of really just trying to brand myself while doing it by myself. Now, I have help. Yeah. We're going for half a million on year two.
Judd Burdon: I am so stoked, man. Can you keep me posted on that too, man? Anything at all I can help with, I'm here for you, man.
John Bublich: Oh, absolutely. I'll be calling you. I get all excited when I land my big job and I just call you out of the loop. Just kind of in shock of things.
Judd Burdon: It's awesome, man. Dude, I'm so happy for you and your family. I'm super excited. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us. I know it's not easy for people to necessarily just come out and do what you're doing. I know that people are really appreciative of it. I see Wallace Wimmer that's saying he can't hide that oil field money. Johnny is a very impressive young entrepreneur.
John Bublich: Yeah. If you ever get a chance before you ever get the... It takes a little money and it takes a little knowledge to run your own business, but the oil field is definitely a place to go and find some of that money and some of that responsibility.
Judd Burdon: For sure.
John Bublich: Owning your own business is the best way to go, for sure.
Judd Burdon: By the way, Johnny Bublich is a mixed martial artist as well. In promotion, you're picking some cards and stuff. That's pretty cool.
John Bublich: Yeah. I'm done fighting. I've fought professionally 61 times, and I'm done with that. But I still do ringside announcing and matchmaking. I work for a buddy who owns a promotion. So, I help him put that together. I got my hands in everything. I like to be busy.
Judd Burdon: That's awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for being here. Johnny, we appreciate it, man. If you want to stick around, we've got a Q&A at the end. I know you might want to spend time with me. But if you want to hang out for Q&A, I know people would appreciate it. I'm about to bring Rob McKenzie on of Black Max Driveway Sealcoating, man.
John Bublich: All right, buddy. Have a good one. We'll talk again.
Judd Burdon: I'm looking forward to it. I appreciate you, bro.
John Bublich: All right, buddy. We'll see you.
Judd Burdon: See you. Wow. What an incredible human. Each time I chat with Johnny, I'm just so excited to chat with him. James Martin, thank you so much. Guys, I know there are so many questions there, and thank you for all the compliments, for sharing, and for paying it forward. It's really special. All the questions, we'll do our very best to get to them with the Q&A. For now, let's bring on Rob McKenzie. I've got some great questions. He's a great buddy of mine too. Rob McKenzie, what's up, buddy?
Rob McKenzie: How are we doing, buddy?
Judd Burdon: Hey, it's going so well, man.
Rob McKenzie: [crosstalk 00:32:22].
Judd Burdon: Yeah.
Rob McKenzie: You've got a big story.
Judd Burdon: Such an incredible story. I mean, you have an incredible story too. I want people to hear it, man. I really want them to hear it. First off, I don't say this about every single one of our customers, because I haven't had a chance. But you and I have developed a pretty cool relationship where we've spent time.
We send [each other] photos of family and things that are going on in our life. And that to me is so special. To be able to do that means that the purpose, the mission that I'm on is actually, it's coming true.
I want you to know how much I respect you and appreciate you.
And thank you for taking the time out of your personal life to share with everybody here, man. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the reason or how you really came about coming up with Black Max Driveway Sealcoating? And why did you start in this business?
Rob McKenzie: Well, first, I got to say that you've had a huge effect on me in terms of moving me forward and where I've gotten to just in this short period. I thank you for that. Absolutely.
I've been a teacher for 28 years. I've loved it. The same school for 28 years, the same drive. I've coached; I've taken kids on trips all over the world for the last 12, 15 years. I've coached my kids' stuff at the same time.
I've always been in front of people. I've always loved being in front of people and talking to people. I feel comfortable being in front of people that way. How I got into it was a total whim. I wasn't even thinking. I wasn't even thinking of this industry. I didn't even know anything about it. I didn't even think about it.
I was at my rental property. I wanted to do my driveway because it was looking a little grubby and a little bit dirty, and I said, "Okay, well, I'll go to Canadian Tire, and I'll get a bucket of that stuff. I don't want to roll it through. I want to get something that..."
I found a squeegee. It's a three, four-inch squeegee. I got out squeegee, and I started going back and forth. I thought, "Wow, this is pretty satisfying." There's something about keeping those edges clean, being neat, and going back and forth and seeing the difference in it. As I finished, and honest to God, there is this lady two doors down came by and she goes, "Wow, how much, do you mind?"
I was blown away. It's like, "I don't know." I'm thinking through my head like, "How much? How much? How much?" I said, "150 bucks." And she said, "Wow, that's cheap." It was a postage stamp, a little townhouse, a little driveway. I said, "You're going to pay me 150 bucks to do that little driveway that will take me 20 minutes to do?" I said, "I'm in." It was like one of those "aha" moments. It really was. It was an "aha" moment.
I was getting a little bit closer; I can retire next year if I want to. I was getting a little closer. "Well, what do I need to do? What do you do when you retire?" I don't know. I'm not going to sit — and COVID has taught me — I don't want to sit still and do nothing. Anyways, I sat down. That was in October when I did that driveway. Here in Canada, the Northern states, we're done by it. If you're lucky to be going on November 1st, right?
I just sat down, and I started researching. One of the first videos that popped up was your make $100 an hour video. That's pretty cool. A hundred bucks, I can see that. Just because of that one that I did. So, I watched it. I found another one of your videos, and I watched that. I found another one. All winter long, I started researching it. COVID hit in March. I was teaching from home online, and I had lots of time on my hands because I didn't have to [crosstalk 00:36:46].
Judd Burdon: Almost two years ago. Two years ago, almost.
Rob McKenzie: Almost two years ago. Yeah. Late April, May rolled around. "Okay, I'm going to get this going." My wife says, "What are you doing? What are you going to do?" I'm like, "Sealcoat." "What?" Yeah, I'm going out.
Like you, I did the five-gallon buckets or 20-liter buckets, and I applied them. I found a place where I could get a sealer. Luckily, we have a Depot in Hamilton, so that made it super easy. I was down and filled up my five buckets. I put my ads on Kijiji, and I got a couple of calls. I said, "Okay, I'm going out." Dude, I'm feeling my neighborhood.
Then somebody put me onto Facebook and Marketplace. I put my ads on Marketplace. I signed up on every community group that I could in the area I'm from. From five miles away to 10, 20 miles away. Just my phone went crazy. "Bing, bing, bing, bing." I had about five pictures. I have about five pictures of driveways that I did, and that's all I had posted. Every time I got a driveway, I posted another driveway. I posted the edge work, and then I posted a little...
I didn't have anything great, anything spectacular, but people were... Every time I'd go out, I'd talk to customers. I talk to people just like... It's funny, I would say I'm a teacher. And it's like, "Well, okay, you're a teacher." I spent time. I built customer relations with people, and people started to refer to me and others.
I'll give you one example from last year. I got a message on Facebook to do a driveway. I went down and did it. The neighbor across the street came over, and he wanted me to do his. I got a pitch [inaudible 00:39:01] before and after, and my son is sending over. He's the one helping me in that one. It's like a before and after the cut. The guy says, "I got a bunch of buddies at work, and I like your work. I'm going to get you some business."
From that one guy, I made from a string of contacts about 12,000 bucks. Just the one person and just in talking and spending my time. Just being real with people and listening to who they are because that's what I've done my whole life. I listen to kids; I listen to parents. When you're real, and you're talking and taking the time to help and educate people, people like that, and they remember you. I've just been obsessed. I've been obsessed with it for two years.
Judd Burdon: What's the number one challenge you've had in the business? The number one challenge.
Rob McKenzie: At the very beginning [was] where to get equipment, where to find new stuff. I had no idea. I mean, I didn't know about Asphalt Kingdom at that time. I didn't know about Action Seal. To find places online that do a Google search to find equipment. I had nowhere to go.
For the better part of that half a year in the first summer, I spent a [inaudible 00:40:52] with pails. A three-and-a-half five-foot trailer. I show up like this where somebody can reach out and say, "We've got all these things in place. We can help you get started our way." That would have been, for me, a little more helpful. It didn't take me long. If I had a 230 sprayer right off the hop, I would have doubled my money. Easy.
Judd Burdon: I remember when you picked that 230 square up. I was like, "Yes. He's in now. There's no turning back anymore. Black Max is going to grow and other things are going to grow." I know we've had a lot of conversations about scaling, too. What advice would you have to somebody who's on here right now that may be considering starting in the business, but they might be on the fence, or they... Let's think about somebody who's on the fence. That would be my first one. And then the second one would be somebody who has decided to start. What would be the number one piece of advice?
Rob McKenzie: For that person that's on the fence, go for it. You don't have to start with a huge budget. You can get into it for very cheap if you want to do it slowly. You can do it any way you want. You can do it with your buckets if you want to. You can get a 130 sprayer that doesn't cost that much. I mean, it depends on what you have and what's available to you, what kind of financial resources you have. You can start small. You work from a tote. Work from a tote and cheap. 150 bucks, 200 bucks for a tote. Put a pump on it.
Yeah. Just get started. Use Facebook. Facebook, community groups, Marketplace, put a couple of nice ads there, a few pictures, and go for it. It doesn't take much.
Judd Burdon: For somebody who's decided...
Rob McKenzie: For the person that's starting out. One, I think to be meticulous. Every single job you do — pay attention to every single edge you do, every cutting you do, because people notice that. If you have to start off taping edges at the very beginning, people notice that too. "Wow, he tapes it."
Most people are going to start. If they're going to start small, they're going to start with residential stuff. People want their properties taken care of. They want to see people that come out, and they're taking care of it like you take care of your home. They respect that. That adage — whatever it is — you do a good job, they tell ten people. You do a lousy job, they'll tell 100.
Judd Burdon: 100%.
Rob McKenzie: Those 10 people multiply very fast. Part of my success was just... I'm not meticulous about anything in my life except for this. I really am.
Judd Burdon: What's in store? By the way, that advice right there about being meticulous and precise with your lines and making sure that the jobs are clean, making sure dirt is cleaned up at the end of driveways, proper attention. Ribbons that aren't just throwing on sticks, but properly wrapped nicely and clean, and not just leaving that stuff to blow away in the wind afterward. Being a pro about it. I couldn't agree more, Rob, it's so important. What is in store for Black Max for 2022? What's in store for Mr. Rob McKenzie.
Rob McKenzie: I'm growing the commercial part. I've spent part of the winter reaching out to churches, funeral homes, golf courses. Putting down my 23 emails to each place, each of those groups. Trying to build that. I've got one already, and I've got some more that are coming as soon as the weather gets going on. I got a ton of repeat business that people are calling about, so that's good.
I guess from just teaching for years, I love helping people. I love helping people get into this. Teaching them the little bit that I know and all kinds of you out there that know so much more than I do or are more mechanically inclined. Just to provide that energy to somebody else and help them with their situation. I got a buddy of mine that's a truck driver, and he's making 20 bucks an hour, and he wants to get out of it, so I've been helping him get into it. He's going to start next year.
Judd Burdon: Awesome.
Rob McKenzie: He's been working with me. Just work with me a little bit, and I'll show you how things go, and then we'll take it from there. Teaching that aspect of it and helping people. We talked about it a little bit earlier this morning and its young people. Young people and older, retired; people close to retirement and in good health, this is a great job. You're not sitting around and doing nothing after you retire.
But for young people. A lot of kids don't want to get into the trades. They don't want to do this kind of work. To teach them, to tell them that it doesn't have to be incredibly dirty work. You can build a financial future for this so quickly. If you want to go to school, go to school, get a good... But use those assets that you've learned in school, and take it into the trades because we're so sorely missing young people into the trades. Customers that have all the time. They can't hold on to young people because they want something that is meaningful. They want meaningful work. Well, what's more, meaningful is having your own business and taking care of someone's assets, and getting it going, right?
Judd Burdon: Yeah. I couldn't agree more. The pendulum is swinging. People are starting to... The photos on the fluorescent green Lamborghinis with chicks dressed up and makeup and all that stuff with big wads of cash in their hand. People are realizing it's a bunch of crap. It's phony. This cyberspace of junk.
What's not junk is when you go knock on that first door, and you actually... You're able to provide a problem-solving service, deliver value and make somebody smile. You smile, you get the money in your hand, and you're on your way to climbing that mountain of building your own business. That, to me, is for anybody here who is considering the service-based business world.
I mean, I know Adam Chapman is on here right now. Adam is 26 years old. Look at what he's built with Pad Pal, and look at the pay it forward, and the lighthouse movement that he's on to help people. He's done that, and he's built an incredible life for himself, and he continues to. He's down here actually in Anguilla right now with me, but look what he's done. He's in a service-based business. He leaves the office clean, he comes back dirty, and he is excited about it.
Rob McKenzie: Yeah. I mentioned it earlier. He's got it all figured out. He's young, he's got his own business, successful, and he's got the energy to boot. And he does fantastic social media, which I want to learn more from him too.
Judd Burdon: Yeah, for sure. He's actually posting right now. By the way, Adam, check your Facebook Messenger. There's a link I sent you. I'm going to try and get you on. If you wouldn't mind popping on, that would be fun. Listen, I'm so appreciative, Rob, of you being here, and we're going to go into a Q&A now. Do you want to stick around for that a bit?
Rob McKenzie: Yeah, absolutely.
Judd Burdon: That's cool. Great. My team, I don't know if Johnny is still here, but I'd love him. If he is, great. He is here. Awesome. I think we'll try and get Adam in here too. Everybody, we're going to stick around. We're not going to be here for too long, but we'll stick around for around 10 or 15 minutes. And guys, if you have to go, don't be shy, just rock and roll and say too-da-loo. But we appreciate you guys being here, man.
Let's go ahead with any questions. Please, if you have a question for a specific person, please address their first name and then the question. That would be very, very helpful. My team can post questions here in the meantime until we have any specific.
We've got a question from Paul. "Hi, I'm Paul, and I'm looking to start a sealcoating business and a striping business, but I was wondering how do you know exactly how much sealcoat and paint you will need. Is there a math formula?" Good question. Yeah. The actual supply and quantity. Certainly, there are material calculators out there. Johnny, how do you determine how much sealer you need for a project? I think you might be muted. You're muted on your thing.
John Bublich: Yeah. Now, I'm here.
Judd Burdon: Yeah. How much sealers? Yeah.
John Bublich: We go up to a job, and you check. It's all based on your square footage. And most of the time, all material I buy, it tells you how much is going to cover the square footage. The sealer is really easy. Actually, I still use the Asphalt Kingdom paint calculator. I don't even have to check on my phone. But if you go on Google and type in "Asphalt Kingdom paint calculator," it's the first link. And then you can click on it. And then if you got like 1,526 feet of lines, it will tell you how many gallons.
I buy everything in bulk because of winning business. When you buy in bulk, you get it cheaper. That's what I see. Let's say it's 2.2 gallons, then that's what I'm guessing my charge off for my estimate going in, but Asphalt Kingdom paint calculator.
Related: Get a bulk line striping quote
Judd Burdon: That's great. Thank you so much. There's a question from Ryan to me that says, "Judd, how can you get sealcoat shipped in the winter without it freezing? The first shipment was frozen before arriving." Yeah, that's not good. Generally, with the sealcoat, if it's shipping during freezing months, we would ship that heated.
There is an additional charge to ship heated with heated transport. But the key is once you receive the material, you want to make sure to move it into a heated environment right away. You don't want any freeze time. Paul thanks you very much, Johnny, for that answer.
Let's go with more questions. Post away. "I will be starting this spring. I really like the AS230 (AK230) unit. Do you think this will be a good choice? I know you have the AS230 unit." Rob, do you have any information on that? Any feedback on it?
Rob McKenzie: It's a very reliable machine. You're holding 230 gallons, or I get like 800 liters out of it. So, you're probably covering about 10,000 to 20,000 square feet depending on your spraying or your brushing. I brush it, so I'd use up a little bit more. It's super easy to use. The Honda engine, it's a nice engine. I just think it's a nice, reliable unit.
Judd Burdon: Johnny, remind me, do you have a 230 Pro, as well.
John Bublich: I have the AK330.
Judd Burdon: You have the 330. Yeah.
John Bublich: Yeah. It doesn't have the agitator. Yeah. I have the 330, I think. Does the 330 have the agitator?
Judd Burdon: It has the agitation through recirculation.
John Bublich: Okay. Yeah. I have the 230 then as well. I love it. The only issue I ever have is you got to clean the filter out. I do trailer parks with it like 80,000 [sq ft] trailer parks with my 230. You don't have to do it a lot, but the only issue you ever have with it is [you have to] stop, clean out the filter, put it back in, and you're back to sprint maybe twice in an 80,000-foot job. It's a great machine. I love it.
Judd Burdon: Yeah. Cool. Thank you.
Rob McKenzie: I think I've cleaned my Pro once, twice maybe. I never really had a problem. Yeah.
Judd Burdon: [crosstalk 00:54:48].
John Bublich: I figured out too, you're sucking it up off the bottom. You want to be real careful not to get any solids in there. You learn a lot quickly.
Rob McKenzie: Yeah. You can get that stirred up once a day. It's fantastic. Don't let it settle.
John Bublich: Yeah.
Judd Burdon: Yeah. The interesting thing is that tank... One of the pieces of advice is when the sealer is in your tank, and it happens to dry up and flake on the top a little bit, and the sediment falls into the tank. That's when a lot of the time you'll end up with a lot of filter clogging. One thing you want to do is to empty that tank and use a wire brush inside the top lid to scrape the inside of that tank to get all that sediment. And then what I generally do is a water flush, recirculate it heavily, and then remove that water that's contaminated.
Actually, I use that same water as dilution water for material in the future. So, you don't have to waste that water or dump it anywhere. The key is to not dump any wastewater ever, so try and reuse it, recycle it.
Adam Chapman, if you're on. I sent you a Facebook link in your messenger. Check it, please. All right, next question, please. Let's keep them coming. And guys, we'll be on here for another 10 minutes here. So, fire away with the questions. All right.
Wallace Wimmer says, "The line striping side interest is interesting to me, too. Judd is promoted by Billy Davidson." Yeah. Do you guys know Billy Davidson? Billy Davidson? You haven't seen him. He's an awesome man. He's on Facebook. Billy Davidson is a striping thing. He's also in the pressure washing business. I know that Adam definitely knows Billy because they're in the service-based business.
You see, Adam at Pad Pal, he does pressure washing and gutter cleaning. He does Christmas lights. He does lawn aeration. He does sealcoating, as well. So, it's pretty cool to see how they've moved in the mindset... The mindset is, "Well, hey, listen, if we sealcoated a driveway, then there's the opportunity to monetize additionally and just be that one-stop-shop." Which is pretty cool. Some people want to stay in their niche within the river walls. Some people want to go outside of that. He's growing a pretty awesome company over the last three years. I believe it's his third year in business, and they're rocking and rolling.
Christmas lights, by the way, are huge moneymakers. I couldn't believe it all. I have to share this with you guys or get Adam on a call with you guys. It's unbelievable what he was able to do in six weeks. Like hundred and something thousand in six weeks. It was wild.
Rob McKenzie: That's fantastic.
Judd Burdon: Okay. Wild, right? Here we go. Somebody asked where I'm originally from. I'm originally from Montreal, Canada. My wife is from Houma, Louisiana, down the bayou. We eat a lot of crawfish when we go there, for sure, and a lot of cajun food. Well, just say that I usually come back a little plumper. When I'm up in Montreal, I'm usually doing the poutine, the French fries, the curd, cheese, and the gravy. Rob, you know what that is, right?
Rob McKenzie: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Judd Burdon: Johnny, do you know what poutine is?
John Bublich: Yeah. I grew up in Northeast Montana 10 miles from the Canadian border, so yeah. I still remember the first time mom bought me some of that. I was like, "No." But actually, it was really good. Yeah.
Rob McKenzie: You almost [crosstalk 00:58:46].
Judd Burdon: That's awesome.
John Bublich: I know, it's pretty close there, 10 miles.
Judd Burdon: That's awesome.
Rob McKenzie: Can I say one other thing about the keys to success. I didn't think about this until a little bit when I got started. I don't know how many guys do this, but network with other steel quarters in your area. Talk to them. Don't look at them as competition. Look at them as partners, as friends, because you might have a guy that's been around for years and doing huge jobs and you're doing small ones, and he doesn't have time to do the small ones, your network, and you'd pass them off to you. And you get the big ones. You get the big ones [inaudible 00:59:30] the big one, so [inaudible 00:59:33]. Broker and deal with them, and you can take 10%, 20%.
Judd Burdon: I'm walking downstairs because I think Adam Chapman is at my door. That's awesome. Yeah. It's so true. Networking is such an important thing. Hold on. Let me see if we can get Adam in here. Is he here? Adam. No, he said he was at my door. I guess not. That's awesome. Cool.
Well, listen, we've got Greg Francis on here too. Sealcoating is Life, which is awesome. Greg Francis is an awesome guy. I don't know if you guys know [crosstalk 01:00:18].
Rob McKenzie: Great [crosstalk 01:00:18].
Judd Burdon: He was awesome. He came sliding in the door. The floor was wet, and we almost had an accident live on camera here. That's pretty awesome. Come on up, bud. By the way, just as a side note, our team, our marketing team, that's working behind the scenes here for the webinar and stuff. There was a big power outage at the person who was managing it. We were having some glitches though, but you know what? What's the imperfection? What's up, buddy?
Adam Chapman: How's it going?
Judd Burdon: Check this out. Guys, look who we have live right here. We have Mr. Adam Chapman.
Adam Chapman: [crosstalk 01:00:59].
Judd Burdon: You got a T-shirt and everything. That's awesome. Good stuff. This is Rob McKenzie.
Rob McKenzie: Hey, buddy.
Judd Burdon: Johnny Bublich right here.
Adam Chapman: Both had some good tips for both levels for people starting and people trying to scale it.
Judd Burdon: Yeah. It's been incredible to watch these guys scale, man. Exciting. Well, listen. What would be your number one piece of advice to somebody going into year number two?
Adam Chapman: Going to year number two?
Judd Burdon: Yeah.
Adam Chapman: I'd say building your brand. In the beginning, in the first year, I think the big thing for a lot of people is to make sure you get that money, like getting your jobs and just crushing jobs. I'd say getting your brand built up because that will pay dividends. It's not even the second year you see that. It's by year three or four [like] having a Google Business Profile.
You touched on earlier [about] building your brand up. Because then you can start turning down your ad spend and seeing the phone ring off the hooks. Kind of touching on both what you guys said there in terms of building your brand and then doing good jobs. Both go hand in hand. Having a Google Business Profile is huge.
Judd Burdon: One of the things that I want to touch on — and I think it's really important — is as we're scaling the time that we have in our day is so limited. We only have a certain amount of time, not just in our day and our life, too, and we want to make the most out of that. Choosing the jobs that are going to have the most impact on your future is going to be the key.
It's a sensitive one because do you turn down a job that's a $250 job to do a $10,000 job? But that $250 job could be Sally up the street that she might be a lady that needs some help getting her driveway done. Are you going to turn that down to go do that $10,000 or $15,000 job?
It's where you need to draw that line or the boundary relating to your business. Are you in business to truly help every single person you possibly can? Or are you in business to help as many people you possibly can, but yielding the best return for your money? I'd be interested in your guys' perspective on that. Rob, starting with you.
Rob McKenzie: Again, it comes to that networking. Knowing the people that are doing the same kind of work as you and your area that is smaller, that are bigger. Network with those people. I'm growing my own business, I've got somebody that's just starting.
They've got Sally's driveway down the road, and I can't get to it because I've got something else. I'm going to give it to them. Sure enough, that's going to come back to benefit you as well. It's not about competition; it's about working together. That's my thing. I reach out to sealcoaters all the time to say, "Hey, great job on what you're doing."
Judd Burdon: I love the answer. Johnny, would you agree with that?
John Bublich: Yeah. I mean, depends on how much you're getting out each day. Yes. Can you hear me?
Judd Burdon: Yeah. Now, I can. Yeah.
John Bublich: Okay. It just depends, I guess, on how much you're getting at each day. I tend to work 14 hour days. I can schedule in a lot of those smaller, quick jobs during my downtime, but I'm just real with my clients. If someone comes at me with a $200 driveway, I say, "Hey, I will get with you as quick as I can." But there's always a Thursday afternoon where you don't have anything going on. What are you going to do to catch up on Netflix? Or are you going to make that 300 bucks?
I just say there's no excuse this time. I do trailer courts. And then the day after, I'll go knock out a $200 driveway. The effort you put in is the money you're going to get back. Schedule the big jobs first, for sure, but just be nice to your clients. Explain to them, "I'll get to you when I can." There's always a downtime.
Adam Chapman: Yeah. If it's a smaller job or something that's not as high a priority [then we recommend that you] collect a 10% deposit because that little bit of extra commitment will keep that job in the back of your pipeline that you can get to.
As you said when you have a bit more free time, collect that 10% deposit — even if it's a $200 job, 20 bucks — they're less likely to go try to find someone else and do it tomorrow. They're still going to keep that commitment with you. That's something we do with lights and asphalt.
Judd Burdon: Good advice. Good advice.
John Bublich: Yeah, it's a good thought.
Judd Burdon: There's a question from Bruce Bradford here. "What is the minimum crack width to pour? Somewhere along the way, you should be able to bypass the smaller cracks and address them in the spring or early summer." Does anybody want to take a crack at that one?
John Bublich: Well, the only thing I'll say on that, I guess, is I got hired by three different cities to do their annual crack repair. That's the coolest thing that happened to me. I call artificial cracks. I don't fill artificial cracks because it's unfair to them to just burn up rubber. It's not necessarily about width; it's about depth too.
You might have one that's not very wide. But it's this weird crack that's really deep, and you should fill that. But if it's just these tiny surface cracks, drive out. They gave me my budget; they pulled me the blocks they wanted. We decided on how many feet. I do it and walked out all those streets and drove them out. And it's like, "Okay, well, I don't want to fill these ones and I want to fill these."
Judd Burdon: Yeah, exactly. Ryan [Pinege 01:07:12], Deery's max width is an inch and a half. A lot of people say a half-inch; a lot of people say an inch; a lot of people say an inch and a half; a lot of people say two inches. The spec of the product — the actual manufacturer will say what it is.
If you stay within that range by 25% — If the crack is wider and you know that it shouldn't be filled with crack filler, and it needs mastic or it needs to be repaired through heat, through an infrared machine, et cetera.
If you know that, you're building expectations, and clearly building those expectations with your customers that you might need to go over that crack twice or three times with hot rubber to make sure that it's done. And that you're building those expectations and being honest with them that you don't have a mastic machine, but it's better than not filling it at all and making you explain that.
If you're honest with people, you lay it out, and you build the expectations, you'll find that you'll build lifelong customers that will come back for a lifetime. That's the key. Don't bullshit people. Don't give them a bunch of shit that is... Right? Would you guys agree with that?
Rob McKenzie: Absolutely.
John Bublich: Yeah.
Rob McKenzie: Yeah.
John Bublich: Yeah. Because you can only do what you can do. There are some big money jobs that I've turned down where it's just like... You got to know that itself. I got called in to do this county job, and you need to know when to hold them and when to fold them.
Rob McKenzie: People love that honesty because everyone has been burned in the past by someone that hasn't been honest. And when somebody comes along and especially in this industry, and I'm glad it's changing, the culture of it is changing — then it's slow and it's gradual. But when people come along, and they're honest with you, they remember.
Judd Burdon: 100%. There's a question that just came in. How do you sealcoat businesses that are open 24/7 with steady traffic so it does not disturb business flow like Tim Hortons or McDonald's? Does anybody have any experience there?
Adam Chapman: We did one before.
Judd Burdon: So, how did you deal with that?
Adam Chapman: What we did for the Tim Hortons. It was a 24/7 Tim Hortons, but what we did was the owners picked a day where it's the least busy. And then we went in and just did it all like one night did all the sealing. We finished at 4:00 in the morning, so we were cautious. It was going to dry. We had the blowers going — trying to dry a little bit extra if that even helps or if it's just like mental (I guess at that point).
The next day, people rolled through, there were no issues. And we scheduled the line painting for the same time, the following week. This was three days later, I guess. We did the line painting. And as you guys know, that dries quickly, but yeah, we kind of just had all hands on deck. We had three trucks, so we got the job done very quickly. So, it has much time to dry as possible. That is a very good question.
I guess you could also do it in sections. Do a section where the parking would be. The parking is not going to be full all night long and then do the actual drive-through area all in one go as well. It's another option. We did that for Harvey's.
John Bublich: You'll want about 50 or 60 orange traffic cones when you start out. That's how you do those places is orange traffic, and you just shut it down. Yeah. You just go out section, sealcoat it, let it dry, and do the other sections. It gets a lot really busy, like NAPA. It gets real busy and stuff like that. The traffic one.
Judd Burdon: I think the other thing with that too is, again, communication. Over-communicate. Make sure that you map out what you're going to do, and you can print out a Google Earth image and aerial view, and you can literally do it. If it's possible to do it in phases, do it in phases.
A lot of clients have questions around, "Can I sealcoat at night?" We have a blog post about sealcoating at night, actually. We did an interview as well on that. You should be using additives if you want the stuff to cure by morning and stuff to have traffic flow going through. If you're using an asphalt emulsion or coal tar emulsion, you want to use FSA or something that's going to release heat in the material to cure it faster. There are ways of doing that.
We did a hotel project here that was 220,000 square feet in five days. $170,000 project which needed to be broken down into phases. As long as we were able to clearly communicate upfront that there wouldn't be any business interruption and that we would direct traffic and make sure that it was taken care of professionally.
Traffic cones, tons of them. Tension ribbon, tons of it. But at the end of the day, a $170,000 deal closed and walked away after five days. We'll just say [we were] very happy, and everybody was happy. Yeah, it's a great question.
All right. I think that we're going to probably close up shop guys. I mean, we've been here for an hour and 15 minutes. I can't thank you all enough for being here. Thank you for showing up like that. Thank you for coming after I had sent you that private message.
Adam Chapman: I used one of my team's Facebook, so [crosstalk 01:12:39].
Judd Burdon: Got it. Johnny, I'm super excited to hear how you're going to crush it this year. Rob, always, man, always great to speak with you. I'm looking forward to seeing you just crush it there too. Last word of advice to anybody out there that's thinking about doing this thing. What's the last piece of advice, Johnny?
John Bublich: Limit your spending on life when you go out on your own. Summer paychecks are huge. There's all this money coming in. Because I was able to be smart with my money. My goal is I don't want to have to be outside working in winter anymore.
Cut back on your spending. Don't go deep so much and all that. Just remember because you're not going to have this income coming in December, January, and February. Learn how to eat at home more. Get rid of cable. Just do your online streaming — it's cheaper. Don't live like a king, and then you really will. That would be my biggest.
Judd Burdon: I love that advice. Rob, what's your advice, man?
Rob McKenzie: I would say build your customer relations, build great rapport with people, and network and market yourself. And reach out to the people that are there to help you, that they want to see you succeed, because they're genuine, good people like you.
Judd Burdon: Thanks, man. Yeah. That's great advice. Yeah, we're definitely... Just showing what we're doing here is a huge pay it forward. Guys, this doesn't go on in many industries like what we're doing right now. That's huge to have people around being warm, friendly, and truly caring about people. That's pretty magical. That's why we're friends, guys. That's why we're friends. Adam, last piece of advice?
Adam Chapman: First days, starting out, someone who's just starting. The worst someone is ever going to say to you is no. That's kind of my mentality when I was starting. It's like walk up, ask a business, ask a... The worst someone is going to say is no. And the thing is, after that interaction, they say no to you, your life carries on, their life carries on.
They don't go tell all their friends that they said no. Ask for shit you want in life and your business. The worst someone could possibly say to you is no and you're in the exact same position you were before you asked.
Judd Burdon: Why we're all here right now, why we're actually all here live on camera, and why anybody who's watching this replay is here right now because you're exploring what it's like to maybe have somebody say no, but there's going to be lots that will say yes. Trust me. Trust me.
Adam Chapman: Be a pelican.
Judd Burdon: Right.
Adam Chapman: Be a pelican.
Judd Burdon: Be pelican. Be a pelican. Soar high and keep shooting for those fish, man. There's lots of fish. Actually, Adam has spoken about it, and then I did a live about the pelican. You'll have to go to my Facebook page if you're interested in learning more about the pelican analogy.
Hey, guys, thank you so much. Keep in touch. Johnny, Rob, Adam, you guys are brilliant human beings. I appreciate you guys, man, and I look forward to crushing it with all of you in 2022. Let's do this.
Rob McKenzie: Thanks for the opportunity, Judd. I love you.
Judd Burdon: Thanks, guys.
John Bublich: Have a good one, guys.
Judd Burdon: See you. Peace.
