Homeless To $108M In 6 Years (Here's What Nobody Tells You)

Was there a time where you thought you were going to quit? Like, what. What attributed it to you ultimately being so successful and growing so fast?

Everything was a sell. If we're inside the house, we're selling. If we're communicating with their. With, with the client, we're selling. The early success of us was just being so sales driven.

So how did you attract talent to actually execute on this? Because I had construction companies and that was not fun.

The number one thing that got me to attract the best talent in the industry was my, My wages. I paid everybody the best. Not only did I pay him the best, though, everybody knew I paid the best. Problem with these small mom and pop shopping construction guys, they might be even paying better than me, but nobody knows that that's their biggest problem.

Because you were marketing that you were

paying for finding that routine that makes you more productive, number one, but also has the highest impact in your business and sticking to it because it's boring. The longer that you keep that boring routine, the higher the success.

Yeah. Because it goes back to peak state. If you get yourself in a peak state of mind, you're going to have peak outcomes. And if you're not in a peak state of mind, you're going to have poor outcomes.

Like, dude, when I was going through the roughest parts of my life, I still enjoyed it. What I did learn when going through all my struggles in life, that when.

Welcome back to the Hannah Hammond Show. I am sitting here today with Ishmael Valdez.

Hello.

You are. You have an incredible story. I cannot wait to dive in. You are just this amazing person. I know. I actually saw you because you were interviewed by the school of hard knocks as well as. As I was.

That's where I saw you.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

No, it was perfect, I think. I don't know if I messaged you or you messaged me. Anyway, we came together and they've been looking into you and you know, we have a lot of mutual friends, Mello, and different people like that. So tell us your story. Because you were kicked out at 17 years old and then you had a failed partnership. You know that you, you founded a company, then you started your own company out of your garage in the H vac home services business. And then you had massive double growth. Like literally doubled every year.

Which, look at retrospect on that. Like, I, I feel like people sometimes think that, like, I planned it, bro. I had no idea. Like, I didn't have Instagram, I didn't have Facebook. Like, I didn't. When we were Growing Home Comfort. And we were growing next year. To us, it was normal. Like, to, like, we. Our first part, our first project that we did was Home Comfort usa. It was me and Ken, my partner, and we grew from 0 to 20. A little bit over 20 mil in four years. And when we were growing it, like, we thought it was normal. So when I did next gen and I went from zero to 108 mil in, like, six. Six years. Yeah, six and a half years. Like, to me, that was normal. Like, and then once I started telling people the story, that's when it was like, bro, do you know what you've done? Like, to me, it was like, no, it's just another.

Why did you think it was normal?

I don't know.

Were you watching somebody that did that?

Maybe because I didn't have Instagram and Facebook in that. Maybe because I wasn't exposed to the social media thing. Right. Because now I know more stories of people that had a little bit of success and, you know, and not to the, you know, the. The. The amount that we had. But, yeah, I thought it was normal, man. For the longest time, would people be like, congratulating me? And I'm like, what do you. Like, what are you congratulating me for? We're just growing businesses here. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, and I don't want to

say, who are you modeling? Like, nobody.

We were just. We were just hustling.

Dude, that's crazy.

We were just like, remember, nobody's ever grown a company that fast in the trades business. Not even in garage doors and electrical, plumbing and roofing. Nobody's ever grown it that fast organically, with no private equity or no investors. So when. When I was growing, it, it wasn't like, you know, I was trying to, like, you know, I didn't have guidance for anybody. I didn't. I couldn't go to somebody and be like, hey, how much are you spending in marketing? Or how much are you paying your tax? Or, like, I couldn't go to those people because it didn't exist. So to me, it was. I thought it was normal. And then once I started exposing myself, then that's when people were like, congratulations on everything. I'm like, oh, we did do something dope. That's crazy.

And so you had one partner in the company.

So our first one. So I got into the trades business when I was 17 years old. My dad kicked me out at 16. So I was, you know, I was. I was homeless. I wouldn't say homeless, but I was you know, moving from place to place for. For a couple years. Yeah, dude, I. I lived with like, four of my high school buddies from like, like six months here, three months here, a year here, a couple years. And the only reason why I got into the trades is because we were going out to, I think, a party or something that. On a weekend, and I was driving down Cerros Var right here in Orange county, and I saw a sign that said, not hiring sign. It was just a warehouse, so I walked in there and I asked for a job because the job that I had, you know, was paying pretty shitty. So I walked in there and it happened to be a distributor for air conditioning and plumbing. I'm like, dude, if they give me a dollar more, like I'm 17 years old. Like, you know what I'm saying? If they give me a dollar, $2 more, it. I'll. I'll go for it.

Yeah.

I interview for like, five minutes, and the guy goes like, dude, can you start tomorrow on Monday? And I'm like, yeah, how much are you paying me? He's like, how much are you making over there? I think we were making like 9 bucks or 10 bucks. And he's like, I'll give you 11 or 12 bucks. And I'm like, yes, dude, I. You guys don't work on weekends because I'll work on weekends too. And. And I started that Monday, and that's how I got into the trades. But, dude, looking back, if that little thing didn't happen, bro, none of it would have happened because that's where I met my partner, Ken. He would go in there and pick up equipment and material from us and. And I would talk to him, you know, once a week, twice a week. He would come in and I would ask him a million questions. Contractors would come in and I would ask. Always be asking question. I. I think I annoyed him. So many questions I had, because they would come in, I'd be like, how much do you sell this for? What are you buying here? Where do you sell this? And I would just like ask and ask and ask questions and, and, and yeah. And I'm like, dude, if that little incident didn't happen, I look at, I look at, I look back at it. I would have never gotten into the trades. I would have never met Ken. I would have never blown up next gen air conditioning. So, like, the power of one little decision that can, you know, transform your whole life is, is. Is. Is living proof on that.

Yeah, well, it gives me goosebumps hearing stories like that. And I mean, you would have done it in something else. Like, I think it was in your nature, but it was also reflecting right place, right time, right opportunity. The trades business was blowing up, like, still is, Right. There's massive opportunity there now. Roll ups and pe, buying them ups, like, a lot of that was very aligned, but you intentionally went out and you got the job and you looked for opportunities and you were asking the questions, and so were you. Did you know in the back of your head, like, I'm going to own a company one day or I'm going to run this company one day and I want to learn everything.

I didn't. I just wanted to make money, dude. I. I've always wanted to make more and more money. And to me, when I would talk to all these contractors and they would show me the contracts that they were selling these equipments for, and I would. And, and I would, you know, I would look at my invoices and be like 15, 14, 1600 bucks. And they would flip them for like 10,000, 11,000, 12,000. And I knew what they were paying for labor and all that, so I'm like, damn, these guys are making a lot of money. Can I cuss or no?

Yeah, okay. Yeah.

And I'm like, dude, these guys are making a lot of money, but they're thinking too small. And 99 of the. Went into that. That distributor, you know, had five, 10 employees. And I always thought, I'm like, imagine if they're making that kind of money with like one or two jobs a day. Imagine if you did it like 50 or 100 or 200 jobs a day. And that's when it just started, like, eating me alive. I'm like, I don't think I've known an air conditioning, plumbing, electrical company that moves that fast.

Right.

And. And that's what drove me to partner up with Ken. That's what drove me to, you know, start next generation air conditioning. Because it was just, dude, the money's too good.

Yeah.

To pass up on it.

So you. You did see. So before you started your company, you did see a model because you worked at a company. So you saw the kind of volume.

So the home comfort model was the first one I saw.

Okay. And how much volume were they doing the.

So home comfort. When we started, we had three. Three employees. And it took us to. In four years, we got up to 20, which back then, 20 mil was a huge company. 20 mil today, like, promise you, like, I could start a plumbing company today, and my first year, I'll do 20, 25 mil yeah. Like without even trying. Right. But back then it was like, like, dude, you're like the biggest thing in the world.

Right?

And. But now that, now that we look at it back, it's. It's a smaller company. Yeah, it's a smaller company. But that was my school though. The home comfort school was like where I learned everything. Like he had, he was really like sales orientated, marketed, driven, like a real like front end operator. And now it's the back end operator. I'm like, o cool. He, he would hand over the slip, the cell slips and I would take it from, from the cell to the collection process.

Okay.

So it was a good. If I didn't know that if I didn't, if I didn't team up with him, I wouldn't have blown up next gen. So I did, I did do nex behind what he did, but, you know, I just took it a little bit step further.

Yeah. No, that's so cool. And so what were you raised with money? With no money? No.

So my, me and my brother are. My whole family was born in, in Mexico, in Michan, Mexico. So we, we got here when my dad immigrated here when he was, I think he was turning 27, 28. So my mom had just passed away. We were, you know, me, my and my two old. My two brothers were just kids. My mom passes away and as soon as my mom passes away, I think like a week later my dad came to the United States and he left us with like different aunts and we were scattered around and I think for like four or five years we lived with different people and we just kept moving around from aunt to aunt to cousins to cousins. So it was cool. Then he came over here, he started making a little bit of money and he started bringing us one by one. So I think it took him about four or five years. He left us over there in Mexico.

And how did those early years, do you think, impact you and your drive and pursuit of all the things you've created?

Dude, I just, I think looking back at it, like, because we were like just moving from place to place is such a hassle that I was like, man, there has to be a better life for, for me, you know, for us. And, and I think that's where the hunger comes in from the, from just like knowing how bad it could be. Like, I know people are poor here in the United States. You guys have no idea.

Yeah.

You guys have no idea what poor is like. Poverty in Mexico is, is bad. It's, it's, it's you know, it's bad. So, so knowing that side of the spectrum and, and having gone through that in our early ages, like, to me, I, I still look back at it, I'm like, damn, dude. Like, how did we. How do. How do you just leave your kids? You know what I'm saying? Like, three boys, like, just. And you know, granted, he came over here and he took a huge risk and he brought us over here, but, like, what about, like, something would have happened to him, we would have stayed over there. You know, there. So many things could have gone bad. Luckily, you know, Lord baby Jesus protected us and, and, and, and gu. Yeah, I always look back at that, man. Like, dude, I would never. I have four beautiful daughters, bro. I would never. Like, if something happened, I would never. I wouldn't be able to, like, I would figure out a way to keep them all together and, like, you guys are going to stay with me. Right?

Right.

But he had, you know, he took a huge risk and luckily he brought us over here and you know, he, he. We went through the whole process. We went through, through getting our, our, our residency and then we went through getting our citizenship. So I think we. I got my citizenship five years ago, six years ago.

Oh, awesome.

So it's one of the dopest things going through. I think it took 17 years or 18 years to get our residency, and then we waited five years to get our. After four. No, after four years. Then we applied for citizenship and they give it to us. That was cool.

You're like the epitome of the American dream. Literally in every single way.

People say, I just don't feel it. I don't know why.

Why?

I don't know.

Oh, yeah, I don't know why. Why? But yeah, I don't know why wouldn't you.

I don't know. Like, do you feel. Let me ask you a question. Do you feel successful? Do you. Like, is there. Is. Do you. You personally. Do you feel like you've made it already?

Oh, this is a deep, layered question because I've done a lot of work on this, so there's the hunger of always wanting more. Okay. That I have. Like, there's always new levels to the game. There's a higher pursuit in everything and business and finances and wealth and impact and in health, like, everything. So I'm always pursuing that. I'll never be done, but I've finally come to the point where I feel whole and complete and I actually, like, enjoy the process of the journey. I'm pursuing something to fill something that I'M missing.

See, I don't think I'm, I'm, I'm. I'm filling a void like what people say. I think I just, I don't know when to stop. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't feel successful. Even though we've done some dope things. We flipped our first business for over 20 mil. Our second business over 100 mil. Our third business, newbies already worth over 150 million our second year. Like we've done some dope shit. But like to me it's like it's just another day. I don't know. I don't, I don't feel like I made it. Made it. You know what I'm saying?

Well, there's always new levels of the game.

Yeah.

Like we're, we're not even.

What's your goal?

I want to be a billionaire, but not to say that I would ever sacrifice my peace and my happiness to do so. Okay, so it's more of just. It's a level of mastery. It's a level of self actualization. I want to reach my highest potential in business and in life and help other, other people do the same. That's my mission. And so it's just that next level of the game and something to pursue and something that's possible, but I'm not miserable in the pursuit.

Yeah, I'm definitely not misery.

Right. And so I think it's.

Do you enjoy it?

I love it. I love every single day. I can't say, like it's a calling. It's not, you know, and I want to impact other people. Like I, I want to make it, to give it all away and have a legacy and all these things. And it's just. I love it. I really am passionate about it and I love it and am called to create and connect and serve and teach and grow and all these things. But I also. It's no longer about. Because my intention used to come from a place of trying to like prove myself or because I was afraid, you know, scarcity mentality, fear mentality. Because that was my background too. Scarcity, fear, disconnection, unworthiness, all of the. Prove your worth, earn your love. Like all those things. But that only served me for a certain period of time. And then I realized.

How'd you get over the hump?

Well, it's been a journey. So I was talking about this with Luke Morris, the co founder of Crexi yesterday. But when I, I became a millionaire at 25 years old and I realized I Was. Thank you. But I realized I was still empty and I was still miserable and I still had suicidal thoughts.

Can I ask you another question? Does it bother you when they say, oh, like for a woman to be a billion, a millionaire by that, congrats, that does bother you, or no?

No, no, I don't really get bothered by much. Yeah, no, I mean, the pain always fueled me. Like, the doubt always fueled me. You know, my brother told me I would never amount to anything all the time, my whole life. And I would always yell at him back, I'm gonna be a millionaire by the time I'm 30. Like, you watch. And I'm never gonna give you any money. And I never have. I haven't given anybody. Yeah. But I love him dearly, but no money for him. He doesn't call me anyway, so I realized that and that's when I started. I hired an energetic intelligence coach. And he said, your intention behind everything you're doing is wrong. He said, you are. Your intention is to try to love yourself. Yourself. Yeah. And he said, your intention has to come from love. You create because you love people. You love your business, you love your family. You go to the gym because you love your body, not because you're like, you're a fat piece of shit. Go to the gym. Right. Piece of. Shoot. I'm. I'm committing to stopping cussing this year.

Are you really? Yeah, yeah, dude, I, I tried. I just. I'm like a five year old, you know?

Yeah.

Like whatever's in my mind, I just let it go. And if it's, if it bothers somebody, like, I'm sorry, here.

Yeah.

I'm not here to please you guys.

Right? No, I know it's not about pleasing out. I mean, all my shows, I pre. Previously cussed so much. It's just about, it's like another level of discipline.

Nice.

And I want to be very intentional about the words that come out of my mouth.

I'm going to try.

It's hard because it's habitual. It's been in my, my language since I was six. You know, it's what I grew up around and so. But I was talking to my videographer one day and he's like, yeah, it's a level of discipline, like the clarity of the words that are coming out of your mouth and being intentional about the words coming your mouth. And you. If you don't even know the words are coming in your. Out of your mouth and you're a leader and you're speaking. How do you know the message that you're delivering is. Is accurate if you don't even know what you're saying.

Dude, I'm so glad I came. I'm so glad I came. You're a dope ass girl. Honestly.

Thank you.

I'm so glad I came, honestly, because I feel like I'm gonna learn something today. So I think I'm gonna interview you today.

Okay.

No, I'm serious. I'm so glad I came. I. I'm gonna try that. I love challenging myself. So if it's like a. A different layer of discipline to be able to control my mind from cussing, then I'm gonna try it. So thank you for that.

Of course. And then it's like, if you want to intentionally cuss to make a point or make a statement, then you intentionally do so. Right. But I didn't like the fact of subconsciously speaking language that I wasn't choosing to speak true and not even knowing I did it. You know, I'd be in front of a priest and I'd be like, f this, F that. And I'm like, this is not good.

Right. Tommy's actually told me that. He's like, look, bro, you connect with people so much, and there's a. I don't, I don't, I don't. I don't think you've. I don't think you know how much of an impact you have on people, but you don't need a cuss. And I'm like, and I've always debated on him, but. But you're right. I don't need to cuss. There. There has to be a different, you know, way to approach things, too, without one.

Ultimately, what. What my energy coach taught me, he said the outcome can only be as great as the energetic state in which you initiate the action.

Okay.

The outcome can only be as great as the energetic state in which you initiate the action. And so what I realized is as long as my energetic state was poor, my outcomes in my life forever were going to be poor.

True.

Even if on paper they looked like I was accomplishing things, really. I wasn't getting what I wanted. I wasn't getting peace, I wasn't getting happiness. I wasn't making impact, I wasn't getting love. All the things I wanted. And so my obsession became to be. To stay in a peak state of mind at least 90% of the time.

Okay.

Right. Because 90 to 100 is an. A pretty good 10% of life. You got to grieve or be angry or whatever. Right. But if I could live 90% of my life in the green zone, in flow, where I feel good. I'm, I'm operating in my zone of genius. I'm passionate, I'm connected, I'm coming from love and creation and all these things. Then how could I ever be on my deathbed and have any regrets regardless of what I accomplish on paper or not? Right? And so part of staying in a peak, energetic state is surrounding yourself with the people that make you feel expansive. It's doing the kind of work that makes you feel expansive, that lights you up and leaning away from and stopping to do the things that make you feel contracted or drained or annoyed or frustrated or all these things. Because if you're in that state, you're going to get bad outcomes. And then another thing is just like with cussing, it's just a low frequency word, right. Or vibration like it. And I want to just always elevate the frequency of my energy and say things that, that rise up instead of, that diminish. So, yeah, those are just some of

the reasons I'm going to try. I'm going to try this. I'm going to try to control my cussing.

I promise you guys, try isn't a good word.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to, I'm going to control my cussing.

This is another thing. And then we're going to go back to you. My, my mentor, one of my mentors is.

How many mentors do you have?

So many, dude.

That. See, I think that's where I'm missing it. You know, I think that's where I'm missing it. I don't. My mentors are my friends.

Yeah. And I call them mentors too.

Okay.

But I, I intentionally seek out very wise people that are older than me that have accomplished all that I want to accomplish in every area of their life that are aligned with my values.

Okay.

And so like for instance, this mentor, he's a, he's a billionaire, very successful. But not only is he wealthy, because I know plenty of wealthy people, but I wouldn't want them to be my mentor. Right. But he has an amazing marriage, he has amazing relationships with his kids, he has incredible health. He is so kind. He is so giving. He makes such a big difference. So he has like all the things that I would want to create in my life. And he's, you know, an older, older guy, has seen it all. And what was I going to tell you that he taught me, though?

Can you get over mentored, you think? Can you have too Many people in your ear or. No, I. Dude, I have no mentors right now. My mentors are my seven business friends that we all have intertwined businesses with. And we all look up to each other and we all push each other. Yeah, we all clown on each other. We're all like high school buddies kind of thing. Th. Those are my mentors. But I've never, ever, like, see seeked out, you know, per se. Hey, somebody to teach me this specific type or.

Right. So, yeah, I think you. I think the ability to distinguish signal versus noise is a real skill. And in this world where we have so much noise. Yeah, right. Information's free now. You could ask ChatGPT anything you possibly want. You could go to networking groups, you could go online, you watch YouTube videos. Like, there's so much information, and you could find an argument on every single case for the opposite case, no matter what. Right. So it's like, what do you listen to? And so I think the importance of. I always have been a student of life. Like, I'm curious about everything. I want to know exactly how you operate, how you think. What are you doing here? Not that I'm gonna go do it, but I know my true north. I know what's my. My values are what direction I want to go, what I want to create. And so I can distinguish. This is noise, this is signal. And I'm going to pick that up and I'm going to listen to that. And so. And then a rule that I have is I only take advice from someone I trade places with in that area that I'm asking their advice. Okay, so like, if you have a really messed up marriage, I'm not going to listen to your marriage advice, of course. But if you have a really incredible company, I'm going to listen. I'm going to listen to that.

If you're really good in shape, then I'm going to listen to you.

Yep, exactly. And so that helps me distinguish what I let go in one ear, out the other, and what I actually absorb and think. But the biggest thing is, is the person you're listening to aligning, because I call, you know, authors, mentors of mine. Like I say, everybody's. Everybody that I take something from I consider a mentor. And then I have in person mentors too. But is the person I'm listening to aligned with my core values? And that was something I learned from my mentor, like the, The. The one I was just talking about, because the success. And Chris Voss talks about this. He wrote the book never split the difference, which is one of my favorite books.

I'm not a dude. I need. That's. I think that's where I'm missing it. To the mentors and the. Because everybody brings up all these books. I've never freaking read a book in my life.

I don't.

I don't like 30, 000 conversations in my head right now. So.

Yeah, no, I get it. But I do audible and I have it. Stack it. You know, sometimes it helps you. Oh, my God. Yeah, I learned so much. I mean, I don't know what I would be if I didn't read. I really don't. That's. That was all I had growing up. You know, I read Rich dad, poor dad at 13, and that's what taught me what entrepreneurship was and real estate investing and how important that was and gave me the pat. Like the. The mission and the motivation to do that and made me keep going. Like, I probably would have killed myself if I didn't have books.

Really?

Yeah, They've been really impactful to me.

That's so dope, bro. I need. I am. I'm going to make a big effort on. On reading books because again, all my buddies, they're all huge book guys and they're always talking, did you get this book? Did you get. I'm going to send you this book. And it's like, oh, cool.

Yeah, just habit. Stack it. So if you're driving, put the audible on.

Okay.

You know, something like that. So because you're like me, you're all over the place. I cannot tell your energy. So you're not gonna sit down every place.

But I'm super intentional with my energy.

No, I know. I know what you mean. But you're. You're for to sit down and open a page of a book. It's not gonna happen. But if you're already doing something else and you can stack it on top and.

And listen, what's the one book you can't live without? You can't say rich, poor, rich. That part down.

Oh, there's so many.

Just one.

There's thousands.

You've read that many books?

Thousands. Yeah, I feel. I mean, maybe not.

Dude, I feel dumb. Honestly, I need to. I need to step up my game. Honestly, I imagine if I was smart, bro. How. How much farther? Just imagine if I had a high iq.

You're. You.

You know what I do have? I have a huge eq. My eq. I promise you, like, I'm not trying to show off or trying to be cockier, but dude, my EQ I could read from a mile away. Like, I could read people. Really? Really.

That's what matters. IQ can be hired.

Yeah. God gifted me with that, so. But yeah, I need to work on my. I. I need to work. And I need to be more intentional with my. With my iq for sure. Because I don't think my. My. The way I talk and the way I present myself, the way I look reflect the person that I really am. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So I. That. That I could work on. So, yeah, I need to be way more intentional with my picking up a book. You. Look, everybody. My. My whole life has been telling me, you know, books change my life. Tommy always says readers are leaders, and I've always. Some of the smartest people in the industry and. Or in business, and people that I admire just in general, are always readers. So I. I need to be way more intentional. See, I'm. Dude, I'm already learning with you. I'm good, man. You. You made this whole trip worth it, so thank you.

Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Honestly.

Well, now it's fun. I can't wait. I want to learn from you because I haven't accomplished anything that you have accomplished on the business front.

So it was right. Most of this was right timing, honestly, right just being at the right time.

That's not true. I mean, I know that there. That is a variable in a lever, but a lot of people existed in that timing, and a lot of people didn't do what you did. So you have to take credit and stop and smell them roses like what you actually created. Is there more? Of course there's always more. But look at what. And this one you said, do you feel successful? Look at the average of. Not your YPO group and your Tommy mellows and like, okay, the YPO thing

I need to get into, too, by the way. Everybody keeps telling me to go on that, too.

Yeah, that was another. That's.

But, yeah, look at the average person. Yeah, I. I agree. I agree. Right. But timing did have a lot of. A lot of. A lot.

But are you going to do it again? Yeah, exactly. Regardless of what's going on in the world. Right?

Yep. I'll do it again and again and again.

So give yourself some credit.

I will. I'll try. I need to work on that, too. See, I'm already working on. I'm going to work on books. I'm going to work on books. I'm going to work on giving myself more credit for sure. And then I need to work on my cussing. Too. So I'll work on those three aspects.

Okay.

I promise you. I promise.

Oh, and the book that you said. Are you talking business book or like, personal book?

Just book in general. It's probably going to be my first book I read. That's what I'm asking. If you've read thousands of books, bro. Number one, Lord baby Jesus, you are special. Because I just. It doesn't fit in my brain, like, how I can read that many books.

I have it playing while I'm in the shower. Audible.

That's like.

That's how much I listen. Learn things or podcasts, too. I learn a lot.

What's your favorite podcast?

All in, as far as, like, macroeconomic. What's going on in the world?

All in from who?

Chamath, a bunch of billionaire and politic guys. David Sachs and Chamath and a couple other guys. And then Moonshots with Peter Diamantes. Because I'm really obsessed with AI and robotics right now. It's going to change everything in the whole world. Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, it's. It's a lot. And then I watch every Elon Musk interview that ever comes out. His books are really good.

I like Elon.

Yeah.

I like his. I like his mind, bro. His mind. His mind must be a fucking storm.

I know.

It must be a beautiful storm to be in there. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. But Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza, that's it. I don't. I don't. It's not my favorite book. It's one I read recently that I absolutely love just from a personal standpoint, because it really teaches you if you can learn to control your thoughts, then you can create whatever life that you want, you know, and. And be able to observe your thoughts and not. Not believe that every thought that comes into your brain is you. Right. And you can actually observe them and thoughts can come and go, and then you can redirect them. You. And it brought me a lot of peace in my life and the skillset to be able to calm down and slow down and calm the noise in my brain so I could have clarity and also understand, like, I'm not crazy for thinking certain things. Right? Yeah. So that's a good one.

That's. I think that's one of the things that. That us entrepreneurs fight with. Sometimes we do think we're crazy. Sometimes I think I'm crazy.

We are. Well, I mean, we are a little crazy, but I think you have to

be a little bit crazy to do some of the Things you do, right?

Yeah. So, like, what did those early days look like for you when you were launching this company? I mean, you. All the success, right? Everyone sees the success, but I know that it was fricking painful to create that. So like, what did those days look like? Was there a time where you thought you were going to quit? Like what, what attributed it to you ultimately being so successful and growing so fast?

The first partnership that me and Ken had, I think the success came from his sales. He was just such a fucking sales machine, bro. Bro. Like to a point where everything was a sale. If we're inside the house, we're selling. If we're doing, if we're communicating with their, with the, with the client, we're s. Like, everything was numbers and sales to. And that's the one thing that I still remember. And if I never learned that, obviously next wouldn't have happened. But the early success of, of us was just being so sales, sales driven. I was, I was always good on the marketing side just because my mind is so simple. So my marketing is so simple that it's, it's super effective. From the way I did my billboards, to the way I do my direct mail pieces, to the way I do my social media, to the message I carry. They're so simple, such short, sweet messages that it resonates with people. So I had that front end and then just the, the early stages of success was just being so sales driven, bro.

What is that? What do you mean by that? Like what? Show an example of what that actually looked like.

So when we're inside a home, let's say we had 10 calls. Out of the 10 calls, we want to book eight and out of the eight calls we want, we want, we want to run eight calls and we, four of them are going to go for repair and four of them are going to go for replacement. Replacement are the big tickets. The repairs are the smaller tickets. And just doing that over and over and over every single day is what got us to, you know, $20 million in such a short term. And then obviously at the next. Did, at the next scale, we just did it at a higher place. Right? We were in a thousand homes and we, you know, 800 of those homes, we got a thousand calls. 800 of those, we got inside the home. 400 of those went over here to the repair bucket and for. And we lived and died and made sure that every single technician knew that, hey, if you guys are going to be inside the home, you guys got to make sure you present the Four options of repairs. And you know, when the customer asks this, then we leave. Like we had such a sales driven organization for an air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, like most, most contractors are, are handymen. They go inside the house trying to fix everything. And we weren't that way. We educated the client on, hey, this is your options for repair and these are your options for replacement. And then you choose what you want to do. Right? Most contractors, the biggest mistake they do, Hannah, is that they're shopping for the contract, they're shopping for the consumer. They go in there and hey, it's you know, 680 for this capacitor or 680 for this toilet. And it's like, okay, well is there, is there different types of toilets that I could buy? Is there different warranties of toilets I could buy? Is there a different payment plans? Like, you know what I'm saying? Most contractors, what they're doing wrong is that they're choosing for the consumer when they go in there and they just present an option and that's not sales.

Right.

What we did different is that we always presented four options of repair. And then we also, we also educate them on four options of permanent replacement, which was either replacing their system or you know, doing, doing some intensive plumbing work or electrical work inside their house where they would have peace of mind that for the next 20, 30 years you never have to worry about it. Like your electrical is going to be on point, your plumbing is going to be on point, your air conditioning is going to be on point. And we were really, really, really methodical about how we did things inside the home. And that formula helped us get to where we were at.

And so you guys knew your numbers, your KPIs, what you're trying to do, and then you held people accountable and then you gave them the resources to be able to execute on that. So how did you attract talent to actually execute on this? Because I had construction companies and you know, that was not fun like that. The blue coll collar type workforce and all of that was very challenging for me. And then I shifted full white collar. Oh my God, I can't do this, jump off a bridge if I do one more day at this. So yeah, how did you attract talent and put those systems in place to actually hold them accountable? Because those are high conversion rates that you guys are expecting.

The, the number one thing that got us, that got me to attract the, the best talent in the industry was my, my wages. I paid everybody the best. Not only did I pay him the best though, everybody knew I Paid the best. The problem with these small mom and pop shopping construction guys, they might be even paying better than me, but nobody knows that that's their biggest problem.

Because you were marketing that you were paying the best and the other people weren't marketing.

I'm on social media saying, hey, five thousand dollar sign on bonus. You're never going to make more money than with me. Next gen always has leads. Next gen, this next and this Next gen, this like NextGen is a way of life, right? And those guys might be even paying better than me. They might even do better quality of work than me. But nobody knew that. And that's our biggest problem with the, the differentiation between the mom and pop shop model and the enterprise model that we grow. We put our name out there everywhere, right? And we let our employees know that there's no better opportunity than us. That's the biggest problem that they make. That's the biggest obstacle that the small mom and pop shop construction guys have. That, that nobody knows them. Nobody knows them. And nobody knows if they're even a good or bad company. Everybody knew that we were a good company. Everybody knew that we paid really good. Right. We had, you know, two three year old plug, two three year old plumbers that were barely getting into the industry, making 150, $200,000 their first year. Right. That would have taken five, 10 years at a mom and pop shop level.

Yeah.

Just because they don't have the resources, they don't have the marketing, they don't have the sales organization they don't have, they don't know their numbers. They, they're missing so much of it. So yeah, I think what attracted us, the talent is number one, we were super confident in the way we presented ourselves. Number two, everybody knew we paid good. And number three, our marketing was so freaking diverse, bro. Like when I started what made Next Gen blow up was in 2019, I took a huge risk. I started driving, obviously Southern California, you know, it's traffic mayhem everywhere. And there's billboards everywhere, bro. And not one freaking billboard that I ever see of air conditioning, heating, electrical companies. So I took a huge risk. I called Lamar, I called out front, I called them all the major billboard companies and I, and I said, hey, I want to purchase a large volume order. And I put up 293 billboards all at once. Holy crap. Air conditioning, electrical and plumbing. And when the first batch of 100 came in, the phones did not stop ringing.

Wow.

They didn't stop ringing.

But did you have the staff to support the orders?

Yeah, we were already rescaling really fast. Yeah. So the one most, the most impressive part of it is that I was marketing to a consumer, but half of the costs were coming in for, was for, for employees, people driving around, technician sales guys, installers driving around the freeways streets just seeing our billboards everywhere. And they would call and be like, man, I just saw another billboard, another billboard, another billboard. Every five minutes there was a billboard with a next gen air conditioning logo on it. And people just started calling in.

How much did that cost?

We were spending on billboards anywhere between 400 to 500, 000amonth.

Holy crap.

On Google, I was spending about on my peak. I think I was spending about 800 to 900amonth.

Geez.

So our budget fluctuated from like 1.2 to 1.6 million.

And were those your two main drivers?

Billboards and Google?

Yeah, Google.

Yep. So branding and capture.

Yeah. Yeah, that's so cool.

I sprinkled a little bit of Yelp on, on there too. So there were some months that we're spending 200, $250,000 a month on Yelp. Just lead generating again, dude. Marketing is my thing. I love marketing. Yeah, Love marketing.

Marketing.

It just, I, I find it so simple and I find this, I find it, I find peace when I'm doing it.

Really?

Yeah.

So did you, were you, I mean, who is managing your ad creatives? And what was that?

We had a whole agency. Yeah.

Yeah. You worked with an outsource agency?

Yep, yep.

And they actually were successful because I feel like every agency I work with

is, I got lucky. I got lucky with, with this ad agency called Ad Leverage that early on, you know, they took a huge risk with us and obviously I did too. But yeah, there is not many out there, bro.

Are they still around?

No, they kind of, they kind of faded out of the home service industry after I, I, I, I sold NextGen. The private equity started switching companies around. But yeah, ad agencies are, they're so I think, you know what I told, what everybody tells me is you should start a marketing company after Nouve. And I'm like, bro, I don't think I have the energy, but I would smash on marketing for sure. Yeah, we would kill. There's not a really good ad slash marketing agency in the industry. Like that is the one weakness. Like we had Rhino, which my buddy Cristiano used to own. And you know he had probably like a thousand contractors, twelve hundred contractors. There's millions of contractors, bro. Like there's no one agency that you know has 10,000 or five. There's not.

Yeah, they.

All the contractors. The one fault that the contractors have is they're so impatient with marketing that they think they put a $10,000 in the market, you know, pot, and all of a sudden, you know, the phones have to blow up. It's like that's not how marketing works. Yeah, right. So, yeah, there's still, there's still a lot of kinks inside the home service industry that we got to work on.

So yeah, I'm just as you because I want to. I know Tommy's really good at that too. Creating marketing that magnetizes talent. Right? Yeah. And I'm in this, you know, HP Capital is my newer company and I'm trying to recruit top talent and I just can't recruit them. You know, I'm trying to work with different recruiters and stuff. But these are independent contractor, 100% commission roles and top tier talent. That is, they make a million dollar plus a year easily. It ranges of course, but top talent makes great money. And so I'm just trying to figure out how, how to get that talent because it's just difficult. I don't know if the ads attraction thing is going to get that kind of talent, you know, it's hard, man.

Yeah, our ads were super concentrate on the consumer and it ended up pulling some of the best technicians in the world. Yeah, some of the best text, best sales, best installers in the world came through us because of our, you know, social media platforms, our, you know, our billboards are the way we market ourselves.

So that's so cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I have the same thing as like, you know, most people that are looking to finance $100 million commercial real estate project aren't really.

Where do you find those guys?

Not on ads. I don't run ads. I mean, I do organic content, but that's not where I find them. In person.

Yep.

Yeah, in person and referrals mostly. It's a, it's a different game, commercial real estate.

But how long you been on it

in commercial real estate? Since I was 18.

That's dope.

I'm almost 32 more months.

April.

By the time this podcast gets released, I will be 30.

April?

Yeah, April 10.

2.

No way. See Aries. No wonder we get along so well. Yep.

Yep.

Same energy. Yeah, yeah, that fire energy. I was with Ken. Ken McElroy or I was talking to him, I don't know, a while ago, but we were talking about different astrological signs like Robert Kiyosaki and Ken and all that. And it was. It was funny because I was reading the Aries thing and it was like this. The Aries is fire energy in motion or something.

I could see that. Yeah, I could see that. Do you believe in that?

Oh, yeah. Because it's all. It's accurate. Every single person that I look at their thing, and you could even dial it down to the day that they're born and those types of things, but it's so accurate. I mean, if I don't know how or why or whatever, but it just. It makes sense. Like, if you read it about an Aries female, it is me a hundred percent with no inaccuracies at all. And almost every single person I know, it's pretty. Pretty much 100 accurate on. On who they are. But it's like, if humans can exist.

Yep.

Anything is possible. People are like, that's impossible, man. I'm like, do you realize you're floating on a space rock and you just exist? And, like, the sweat that comes out of your skin gets evaporated, goes into the sky, then it rains back down and then you drink it and it fuels your body? Like, you're telling me anything is impossible? You're crazy.

I think Gary Vee said the chances of you being, you know, being born is like one in like a trillion or something. I don't know what it. That is insane, honestly. Like, even for this to happen, for this podcast to happen, right? Like, I saw you on the School of Hard Knocks. He has a ton of, like, good people in there, and I saw you. I'm like, dude, that chick's dope, man. Like, that is like, I respect women when they're. I, I respect. Obviously I have four daughters. I respect women in general, but when you see, like, a shining star come out, like, the number one. I gotta meet them just to see, like, what made them special, you know what I'm saying? Or what is it about them? And obviously I'm gonna learn something, right? And hopefully I get to teach you something here too. But I always, always look for dope people to intertwine with just to be able to. Because I know for a fact that, you know, Lord baby Jesus put this together so that I could take one thing away, and that one thing is going to change my whole life. And that's why, that's. That's what makes me pursue relationships and, and. And be able to put myself out there and be like, hey, you know, let's do a podcast together or let, you know, let's go out to dinner. Or let's do this together or let's have a conversation. Right. Because one thing could change your freaking whole life.

It does. And thank you. Thank you for all the kind words and same goes to you. And. Yeah. It's just. It's so amazing. And I don't think anything happens, incidentally.

No.

You know, I think everything happens for a reason. And we can guide the direction of what we can create. Like, I'm a big. Take full accountability and create whatever you want to create. Because, like you, I didn't come from a lot. I didn't have much. You know, you grow up here easy. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Scottsdale.

Well, yeah, technically this area. Phoenix, Scottsdale area.

I told everybody if I. If I ever leave Orange county, it would be Scottsdale. That's it.

If I ever left Scottsdale, it'd be Orange County. That's it. The best is both, bro. Yeah. You get six. Just over six months in Scottsdale, residency here, and then six months on the beach in Orange County. That's my plan.

Orange County's people are like Ishmael. You should. All the taxes in Ishmael. Your company is going to be worth so much money. You got to do. It's like. Have you guys ever lived in Orange County? The energy here is insane, bro. The people in here, the energy, the weather, the. I don't know, it just. You have 30 minutes to the beach, 30 minutes to the desert, 40 minutes to LA, you know, the mountains. Like, everything's just there.

Yeah. So it's beautiful.

But I. Yeah, I think I have a house here in North Scottsdale, but, you know, I think I use it once a year. But, yeah, I love here. I love it here, man. You be. I met some of the coolest people here. Some of my best friends are here. My best friend Travis is here. So I met some of the dopest people here.

Yeah, they're both great places. So you mentioned you have four daughters. I know they're super, super important to you.

They are.

And to scale a company at that speed, and you're married and have an amazing wife that you attribute a lot of your success to as well. And so to scale a company at that speed, like, I'm in that right now, you know, 16 hour days, seven days a week, like in the grind. Love it. Tired, but love it. Just scaling. And there's always. You hire one person, but then you have. Still there's so much to do. Like, it never ends. Right.

Of course.

So, like, what were some of the sacrifices that you have had to make in those years of building your company and you know, how did that affect your relationship? Or.

It still does. Yeah, so let's talk about that, how it affected it. I've missed their whole, you know, first 10 years of their life. I've, you know, yes, I could have retired and yes, I could have gone that route, but I still, I still think that they deserve more. That's why when I brought on the, when, when my buddy Tom brought on this project called Nube, I was gonna say no to it, but like, 100 million is cool and like, I know my daughters would have had a really, really good life and, and, and we've all would have had, but like, I still want to take care of my brother. I want to take care of the, his kids. I wanted to. Like, I'm like, I feel like the responsibility of being like God gave me an opportunity to be able to take care of my whole bloodline, bro. And I feel like that's such a huge responsibility that when I think about like, man, I didn't make this recital or man, I didn't make this dance, this dance competition for one of my daughters or this award show or whatever, I always look back, I always step back and I always go, like, God gave me an opportunity to not only take care of them, but to take care of like, you know, my brothers, my sisters, their kids and their kids and their kids and their kids. And it would be, I think I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't go through the whole way to make sure that they all get taken care of. And that if that means, hey, I gotta sacrifice the dance or hey, I gotta sacrifice the, the time, time here and there with my daughters to be able to take care of their kids and their kids and their kids and their kids and so on, that is the least thing I could do for them. And I always, I always resonate back to that. And I know some people might not agree and most people, if they were in my, if they were in my shoes, they would have grabbed those a hundred and plus million dollars and they would have set off to a sunset and been, you know, full time dad, full time everything. But I just felt like it would be such a, how could I put it? It would be such a disrespect to them, like knowing that I had the opportunity to take care of their kids because look, they're good, my daughters are good, my nephews are good, but like, my daughters are going to get married and they're gonna have kids, right? And I know how bad it is to be poor and I know how bad it is to be moving from place to place. And I know how bad it is to have my mom, my, my dad coming and out and like, I know how bad it is and I don't want them to go. So I rather sacrifice me and my life. And you know why God put me here? To be able to give them peace of mind for the rest of life. You know, I guarantee you 20 years from now, 50 years, 100 years from now, they're going to have such a dope ass life. And I'm okay with that. And I'm okay with, you know, sacrificing a dance and not being there for them full time and not being able to, you know, raise them. You know, they have a badass freaking mom that teaches them every single moral aspect of life. And I feel like my, my place and my responsibility is to take care of them financially. And I don't, I don't compromise with that. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not willing to negotiate that. Like, I'm not willing to, you know, slow down and be like. Because I, dude, my, my buddies tell me all the time like, bro, like, you already have it. Why not, like go and, you know, spend time they deserve you or they need, you know. And I'm like, yeah, but you know, their kids are going to need something and their kids are going to need something. Right. So I just feel a huge responsibility, to be honest with you.

Yeah.

Of being able to, you know, to have a chance to take care of many, many, many generations. And I'm not willing to negotiate or I'm not willing to, to suffer it.

Yeah.

And if it costs, you know, relationships and it costs, you know, whatever it's going to cost to me personally because of how far I came from, you know, being an orphan, being stuck in Mexico with my brothers, with just moving from place to place and not knowing where you're gonna live the next day. Like, to me, having gone through that and knowing that I have the opportunity for them never to go through that, it's like, bro, like, you're not gonna talk me out of it. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So they play a huge role. Honestly, like, if I could tell them one thing, it's like, it's all for them. Like, I know it sounds selfish right now of like, you know, I'm always chasing, chasing, chasing more. And I'm just like, yourself, I do want to be a billionaire, but in the next couple years and I'm probably going to be. And it sounds selfish and I think it sounds arrogant and I think it sounds like I'm doing it for me, but the one thing like everything that I'm doing is for them. Just because I don't like, I genuinely, genuinely don't want them to suffer. That's it.

Yeah. That's beautiful.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. And I think it's all about William Lamb. I love him. He, he owns Upgrade and he talks about what is your thousand year goal?

Yep.

You know, everybody's so tied up in this. That's this life, bro.

That is a badass question. What is your. I've never, I've never heard that before. That's. Dude, I, I want my family and my bloodline to a thousand years from now to still remember, like to always look back and be like, hey, because of him we all get to have a badass life. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

And that to me, to me, that's worth more than, you know, going to a dance or, you know, obviously God's going to give me time for that. Hopefully he does give me time for that, to do it with them. But that thousand year goal is probably like the, the dopest question is it's to be able to be remembered by my family and friends. That's my, that's my thousand year goal.

Yeah. Yeah. And you can even do a dynasty trust. That's a 600 year trust and has, you know, it's governed for six generations.

What's your thousand year ago?

I want to make the world a better place. So I want.

For who?

For everyone. You don't have kids in the world? No, I don't think I will.

No.

No.

Congrats, bro.

I mean, I, who knows? I have an open heart for that

because the, what is it? The, like the, the ideal, you got to be married by this and you know, the status quo tells you that you got to be married by 30, you have kids and you got to be married is this, this is. And, and to me, when I meet somebody dope like yourself and you're super driven and you're doing things for the world, that. Dude, that shows how unselfish you are. You know what I'm saying?

Thank you.

When in a world full of selfishness like, bro, we need more of you. We need more people like you in our world.

Thank you. No, I, I actually, that, yeah, I had a lot of, just trauma going up internally, a lot of conflict and insecurity and so I actually used to say that I didn't want kids because I would never want me in the world.

No.

Yeah.

Why?

Why? Yeah, bro.

You can't be that, bro. I think we're both in the same.

Yeah. You just used to hate myself a lot. Now I don't. I love myself, but now I just feel called to, like, a bigger mission. Yeah. To help so many people. And for some reason I don't have the, like, the motherly thing in me of. I want to birth my own child and pour all my energy into my own child or children. And I feel called to pour that energy into the masses and like, really. Because I want to have a foundation and I want to allow children to have real mentors in life and real guidance and, like, real support. Really be seen, really be loved, really be protected. Like, learn financial intelligence, emotional intelligence, energetic intelligence. And allow them to turn their pain into power. Because I think it's the greatest gift if you have the right support around you to channel that into purpose and creation and giving. And so that's just the thing is, like, I just. I've always thought I would adopt children or a child later in my life, but I just have never had the instincts to. To birth my own child. But I. A big part of my entire mission is to help children and the. The younger generation and all of that. So. Yeah, we'll see. And who knows? Things, like, evolve over time, but that's been up to date.

That's so dobro. That's so dope. Honestly, I'm glad I came tonight.

I'm so glad you came.

I'm glad I came today. Honestly, you're. You're such a dope ass girl. Honestly.

Thank you. You're dope too, bro.

Dude, I honestly, I talk like a 13 year old.

I know. I love it.

And look at. This is how I am in front of anybody. I don't. I. I think I stopped caring at the age of 30 or something. I just.

Be authentic. Yeah. Be who you are.

Like, I hope you like me, but if you don't. Cool.

Exactly. Yep.

I'll be fine. Yeah, I'll be fine.

Love me. Love me. That's a poem I wrote when I was really young. I said, love me, love me not. I'm fine with either way. Because if one's loved by all, they'd be a solo gray,

Bro, you're special, honestly. Thank you.

You are. You're like,

I'm meant to be special, but I don't know.

Me too.

I got a question for you.

Yeah.

What's three words that describe You. What's. Is selfish? No, not. What's the opposite of selfish?

Selfless.

Selfless for sure.

Me.

That. That means you're giving, right?

Yeah, yeah. Selfless for sure.

If, dude, you're doing all this to help people, bro. Like, you got to have the biggest heart in the world. Like, most people with your success are,

like, I was gonna say filled with love, but you know, thank you. No. And I don't. I. I don't see myself as. As successful, but I'm also not gonna be. Be like, really hard on myself. Like, you need to do better. Right? Like, I'm proud of who I am, but there's always bigger levels to the game if we're talking financial success. But I do see myself as a successful human because I have been successful in my health, been successful in my happiness, been successful in the relationships that I have, like now, today, not in my whole life. Right. There's been a lot of horrible failures, but right now I feel that. And that's what I want to share with others. Because I didn't think that was possible. I must have, because I kept going and I kept trying and pursuing that. But it's such an amazing feeling to really feel like you have this infinite potential to create love, serve, do whatever you want to. And it's not that it's easy because it's freaking hard. And there's storms draining, bro. Yeah, but it's draining.

It's not just hard, it's draining.

Yeah, but that's the difference between push versus pull motivation.

Okay.

And so I learned this from Tony Robbins mentor. He said, push motivation is when you're. You're living a life of force. You're trying to force outcomes.

Okay.

You're like, I gotta grind. I gotta, like, think Alex Harmosi style. Yeah. I don't know. Watched their interview, is amazing. I was like, oh, I love this.

I love Alex. I've been trying to. I've been trying to reach out to him. I just don't like bugging people. But I've been trying to reach out to him because I love the way he views business.

Yeah. But he has that, that, that suffer mentality, dream, you know, work for something we're suffering for. Have a dream worth suffering for. And Tony came in there is like, that's horrible. Like, why do we want to suffer? Why are you teaching people to suffer? Like, how about you set a goal that's not worth suffering for? Like, you can actually enjoy going after and achieving and living in. In happiness and peace. And it's not to Say, okay, let me just go back. So push motivation is that suffer grind just outwork everyone, like, whatever, right? And it's draining, it's exhausting. And that's where usually people cannot sustain it for long periods of time.

Okay.

They get burnt out, they quit, they cheat, they. Most alcoholics. Right. Most people, if you're living in that push our push. Yep. That push motivation. Most people, they're. They're. They're seeking something that they don't have and they're not enjoying the journey. And they think that they'll be happy when they get there. Right. A goal worth suffering for until you get that goal. But anybody that's accomplished goals, know when you accomplish that goal, the next one comes in, you don't feel any different. You get a little high.

I know.

And then you're like, oh, shoot, what do I do next? And so. And then that comes with more suffering. Okay, Right. And that's just the masocistic entrepreneurial way of just, like addiction, addicted to pain. Then there's pull motivation.

Okay?

That's calling. That's where you can't not do it even if you tried, no matter what.

Definitely. I'm in the pool. Yeah, I'm in the. I tried stopping this shit all my whole life. And they just.

Yeah.

God just keeps giving more and more and more. It's like, Like.

Yeah. Like you wake up every day and you're pulled out of bed, like, to go create.

I thought that was me being crazy, though.

No, no, that's calling.

Okay.

Yeah, that's calling. Now there's addiction, okay. Because you could be pulled to, you know, cocaine or sex or drugs or alcohol. I know you struggled with alcoholism, and I want to dive into that, but it's difference, because addiction is. You're being pulled to something that you don't want to be pulled to.

True.

Right. Calling is you're being pulled to something that you do want to be called to. That you. It is aligned with your true north, is aligned with what you want to create. Like, you are fully aligned with that mission and you're being pulled to it, and nothing can stop you from accomplishing that. Right? So that's the difference between calling an addiction. But they both have the same obsession and passion right behind it. But the calling, you don't wake up the next day and hate yourself. You're like, oh, no, I'm called to this mission again. And I'm. It's aligned. So, yeah, I think that obsession, it's just in me. Like, if you told me that I had to go be a stay at home mom and cook dinner every night. I couldn't live.

I would go crazy.

There's not a chance to tell. Like, and some people, that's their. What they're pulled to and that's beautiful and we need that. Obviously we need mothers to raise, like to raise children and parents and all that stuff. Stuff. But for me, it's not my calling and so I'm called to do all this other stuff. And I love it more than anything. And yeah, it's brutal.

I love it. That's the thing I, you see, that's the thing I always look back on. I, I enjoy like the, the suffering and the pain and the going through the, you know, the good. And like, to me, I don't, I don't view it as pain or, you know, going through all my struggles just to get here. Like, it sounds up in a, like how. I'm telling you, but like, you never saw me, like, oh my God, what am I gonna do today? I'm, you know, God, you're not fair to me. Like, I just woke up the next day and kept going and kept going and kept going. So, like, I've enjoyed my whole life, even though it was a up life, even though people have been in and out of my life, you know, for whatever reason. And I've. But I've enjoyed every single. From being in Mexico to, you know, growing my first company, to having my beautiful daughters, to, like, I've enjoyed the good and the bad of it. So I don't.

Well, did you ever contemplate your life or did, you know, you ever depressed?

No, never, bro.

You just kept going.

I've never been the, I think the lowest point of my life was when I was drinking, when I was drinking and making way too much money.

So. Yeah. What stemmed the drinking? When did that begin?

It was my dad for sure, because my dad was okay with us drinking since we were young. So, you know, if he was having a beer on a Sunday and we were, you know, 14, 15, we could grab a beer and just chill with them. Like, he didn't think anything of it, I didn't think anything of it. And Mexico is okay to drink when you're 14, 15. Nobody really tells you anything. So it's not like, it's not like, like it's a bad thing or, or people are like. So I think it came from that. But I think the, the where it got bad is when you mix the, you know, the, the success and the drinking. That's when I got a Little bit of out of control. And to me, I'm a control freak. So once I started getting out of control, I'm like, okay, I know what I'm doing wrong. So I stopped the drinking, and then I went back into control mode.

Was the drinking because you were celebrating success, or was it to cope with the amount of it? Was it to stress release, like, to numb out at the end of the day, or to deal with the amount of stress of the business?

I think the drinking was just to. I think the drinking was just to. I would drink so much sometimes just to be able to go to sleep, in a sense, because my mind's, like, always running. And, you know, now that I don't drink, you know, I've looked at other things, whether it's meditating, whether it's, you know, just being alone with no phone, and for, like, you know, know 30 minutes. So I'm doing other things. But to. The drinking was. I think it was more to. To just be able to deal with myself, you know what I'm saying? Like, I. I was in a dark place between 28 and 30 where I was making a lot of money and was hanging around with the wrong people and, you know, drinking all the time. So I think that was it. I think it was just to cope with myself that I didn't like who I saw in the mirror right now. Dude, I love who I see in the mirror. Like, I wake up every morning, you know, I have my beautiful routine that I take my daughters to school. I go work four hours at Nuve. That's the maximum output I could do now. And then I go to my gym, and then I come back home and, you know, chill with them and have dinners with them. But I didn't like who I saw in the mirror. That's. And the drinking made it pleasant for me to see it, kind of. So when I was drinking, if I was sober back then, I didn't like who I saw. And when I was drinking, it kind of looked good to me. I looked. I looked good in the mirror.

But. What. What didn't you.

Like, I didn't. Like, I always felt like no matter how much success or money, I've always felt like. Like it wasn't enough. Like, I wasn't enough. Like, you know, they're like, I'm always trying to, like, not impress people, but I'm always trying to serve people more just so they can be like, oh, my God, it smells so good. And I think that's where, like, some of the drinking problems really, like, you know, like, drove. But, dude, I pro. I would not skip that part of my life either because thanks to that, thanks to me going through the drinking and I don't. I don't think I was depressed because I'm a happy drunk, but thanks to going through that, I'm able to see now myself sober. And, you know, I've been sober for eight years now. I haven't. I haven't dropped. I haven't touched a drop of alcohol. I haven't even. When we sold Next Gen and the wire came through and I was like, yeah, I didn't celebrate. So I'm glad I saw that side of the spectrum. Goes to. It goes to, you know, my. My, My life. I'm glad I was so dirt poor because now that I'm doing good, I'm like, damn, that, that, that. That wasn't that bad. Honestly, like, being poor is not the worst thing in the world. Right? Like, there's other. I could. I could name a million things that people are going through that are worse than that. Right. Chronicle diseases, cancer, like, just millions of things. So I love the. The imbalance in my life. I love the. The going from that poor to, you know, successful or going. Being a super drunk to now being 100 sober. So. Yeah, I don't know. It just. Maybe it's me. Me. Maybe there's something wrong with me.

No, nothing's wrong. I mean, something's wrong with all of us, but we're all perfectly imperfect, right? No, I think I. I used to do the same thing. I used to. I had chronic nightmares most of my life. Horrible, horrible lucid dreams in my house. Getting raped or dragged out of the, like, horrible things.

For sober.

Yeah. No, almost my. All my life. So I had bad nightmares and I would smoke weed. Like a vape. A weed vape. To sleep. No, I quit.

How long?

Well, officially quit. I go in 20, 25.

Yeah, I go in and out of it.

Yeah.

I don't rely on it. But since I don't drink and like, if I see a lot of people together, like, I don't want to be the awkward person.

Right. Yeah. I'm not like a hardcore. I'm sober. Like, anything like that. Like, you know, here and there. Just like with drinking. I never like drinking, but here and there, I'll have a couple. Like, the one day I drink is this week. Waste management open. That's like the only time I drink all year is just because you're. It's just what you do. Wasted management. Like, what? Come on. But that's about it. I just don't like the taste of alcohol. But that was my thing, my story of I need it to calm my brain. I need it to not get nightmares. I needed to sleep because otherwise I have insomnia. And if I have you try shrooms in a. Yeah, I need to try it, bro. Now.

Oh, everybody keeps telling me you got to try. It's going to help you. Not just because my mind's always spinning. It's going to help you be more creative.

Well, I don't, I've not. I don't do them recreationally like that. I know some people micro dose to be creative and things like that. I haven't tried that. I've done high dose as a ceremony, as a healing.

I want to try.

I have a good shaman, but that was a shaman. It's somebody that guides you through a journey. A journey. Yeah, it's. Yeah. Hook me up. She's actually here.

I have to try.

Yeah. So I, that was the biggest transformation to me. Like I've done a lot of therapy and reading a lot of books and workshops and became as obsessed with personal development and healing as I did with business, which was a lot. I kind of went down this rabbit hole of okay, let me pause business for a second and figure this out because I.

Have you figured it out yet?

Yeah.

Have you?

Yeah. No, because I went in that, that the tech exit room in a mastermind and everybody was worth hundreds of millions of dollars or $50 million or whatever, large amounts of money. Tech exit entrepreneurs and they had no identity outside their business. Like they were depressed, they were miserable, they were anxious. They. Some of like there was one that was suicidal and Lord, thank you for

not giving me that. Please.

I know you, but yeah. And they're like, I don't know what, what my life is for, what my purpose is. I just worked all this time. I sold my company and you know, I don't, I don't know what I'm going to do and like all these things and they had all this money. I was like, that's going to be me. That's going to be me when I'm in my 50s or 60s.

Yeah.

And I don't want to do that.

Yeah.

I want to actually enjoy this process. And I clearly can see that no amount of money is going to change what I'm feeling inside. So I got to change what I'm feeling inside and then I can truly create what I want to create from the right place and enjoy it. And yeah. So that's When I dove into personal development and just going back to. You said, it's like when you look in the mirror, you hate what you see. I hated what you used to. I hated what I saw for so long. So I hated myself so much that I almost committed suicide.

No way. Yeah, dude, there was. If I saw you in the street, beautiful blonde, you. Obviously, you coming out of my wagon.

I'm not. I'm. I'm brunette. I'm going back brunette.

Okay.

I dye my hair blonde because I'm insecure. I was insecure.

This is.

Yeah. I started dyeing it blondes when I was 16. Got a nose job as soon as I could. When I was 18. Got veneers. Like, wear eyelash extensions. Like, everything screams insecure. Right. And so that's. Because now I've done a lot of work, so I'm starting to unravel some of this stuff. And I'm totally fine with doing things to make yourself feel confident in your own skin, but it also comes back to feeling confident in your own skin. Right. Not somebody else's skin. Like, not change everything. Yeah. Get new skin. So. And I. I talk about that. And I always talk about, like, loving yourself and this empathy and compassion. But then I'm still dyeing my hair, you know, blonde, and I'm still doing these things. And so I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna go back Burnett this year and go back to my normal one version of my normal self. But the. The. What I was gonna tell you is looking in the mirror and hating yourself. So, Dr. Gabor, mate, okay? Famous trauma therapist. And he said, the primary desire in all people is to feel seen, heard, and protected.

Yes.

Right. So the primary root trauma in most people. Not everyone has this. Some people have very loving upbringings, but is that they don't feel.

I envy them, by the way. I know whoever you are out there, my best friend has been a mom and a dad.

Yeah.

I envy you.

Yep.

Go ahead.

But that's it. That's so true. But. But it's. The child doesn't feel seen, heard, or protected. And that is what creates this. I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy. I have to prove myself. I'm not loved. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. The list goes on. But. And we. And then we carry that with us our whole lives.

Most of us.

Yeah, most of us. Until we figure this other stuff out and start to do the deep healing work and, you know, go up the hierarchy of needs and all this stuff. But most of us Carry this. And then we're really adults that are operating on six year old emotional intelligence operating systems and we still have this. I'm not good enough. I need to be better. I need to compete. This person's better than me. I am not successful.

Do you think mentors help you with that or what? What else do you think people could do to. Because I've obviously, you know. Yeah, most successful people have the same thing. They never think they're good enough. They're always chasing something that's never that, that's unobtainable. What do you think? Obviously it goes back to our childhood, but what do you think are things that people can do so it can help them feel valued, it can help them feel seen.

Like, well, Tony Robbins is a great example. Like became a billionaire, created all this massive impact and wealth and owns hundreds of companies and all this stuff and, and I don't know him behind closed doors, but at least his messaging and like, you know, he cries on stage and all these things. His messaging is you can be happy, you can enjoy the process and you can create great things. Right. For me, it was plant medicine that really helped me. You know, doing a guided ceremony because it put me in a different consciousness state because you could hear the message from anybody. Right. But it's only one might impact you like this certain person. Right. So I feel like mushrooms is psilocybin. Plant medicine. Ayahuasca. I haven't done that.

But people I know that's my second thing I wanted.

Yeah. Like that's the, that's the messenger that you can hear the message from.

Got it. Okay, now, now it made sense to me.

Yeah. And so that was the first time when I did that I was like, oh, you know, because I was cut off from my emotions. I didn't cry if I was crying like the whole world was falling down, you know. And now I'm more into.

I think you're the bro. Are you the girl version of me or what?

Yeah, we are probably.

Jesus Christ. You're.

Well, because we had to cut them off to survive. When we were young, if we were emotional, we wouldn't have survived.

True.

Like we, we would have died. Literally, we would have died. And so we had to cut them off, be strong and figure it out so we could live. And then we carried that with us. And so then we get disconnected from our emotions and from ourselves and it causes other issues in our, our lives through usually addictive behaviors. But the, the plant will force you

to look at yourself.

No, to really connect to all your emotions. And so when I did that experience, I was just crying.

I'm gonna try for hours. I'm gonna try. How'd you feel afterwards?

Oh, like a new person. Literally. My. My best friend and one of our clients, he's like, when I talk to him afterwards, he goes, you are a new human. Like, directly afterwards.

How did your body feel?

So light.

Is it.

Yeah, it's so free because I have, you know, I always had severe back pain.

How'd you sleep?

I sleep fine. I quit smoking. Smoking weed. I sleep fine. I just have a little magnesium spray, my aloe spray that smells so good and it helps me fall asleep. I listen to my rain sounds to fall asleep.

Dude, what the are you mean?

Maybe.

Dude. I swear, every night I do the same thing. I put on my rain sound. My house that has a surround sound. And then I just. That's the only way. Or I'll put rain in the back.

Yeah.

Just like. Because my mind just. Or I'll start counting the drops in the rain because it just goes crazy, bro. Sometimes feel like I'm crazy.

Oh, it feels so good. I can't sleep without it.

Yeah.

And you should try the magnesium spray. I recently started that. And I'll. I'll send you some from aloe. It's got. It's got to be from aloe. It smells so good and it just like puts you into a deep sleep. Someone recommended it to me and it's crazy.

How many hours of sleep do you

go on right now?

Could you.

That you could be super productive if I could choose.

Yeah. I'm good at. Dude, I do every day.

AI would be eight to nine.

Yeah.

Lately I've been four to six. And so that's why I'm a little brain dead and I need to hire because I don't like, if you lose sleep, you go crazy and you can't sustain. So I really should be getting eight, but I haven't been in a while.

I. My routine, like. And this is one thing I do want to talk about because a lot of people don't realize the power of a badass routine.

Oh, yeah.

It took me, man, it took me almost my whole life to figure out my perfect routine. That. That not just that I enjoy, but that also impacts my business, my relationships, my. With my. With my daughters and my brothers and my family. Like, my routine, bro. Like, if I get out of the routine more than a couple days and I just started getting freaking grouching on it. If you. This is one thing I do want Your listeners to. To. To learn is finding your routine that you feel at peace with is one of the most impactful things you'll ever do. Finding that routine that, you know, I was before I was all over the place when I was growing home, comfort in action. I was 6am to 7, 8pm in the office. And that's how I thought I was worth the. The production. And that's the only way to. And that's the only way I could do things because I needed a grind and I needed to be in there. And then I started tweaking my routine. I started taking care of myself, I started working out, I started working on myself. And then I found out right now, you know, it took me six and a half years to grow next gen to pass the $100 million value. Nuve is already worth 140, 150 million or second going on two years. Already four hours of intentional hard work, dedication inside the operation. Now I don't go and stay inside there for 10, 12, 14, 16 hours, no more. Now I'm super intentional with my four hours and I'm super productive because I shut my phone out and I'm like, okay, we got to work on this. We gotta. So it's, you know, taking my daughters to school, going to it for four hours, two, three hours at the gym, and then going home and resting is the most beautiful thing I've ever did for myself. Like, just being able to be like, okay, at 10:00pm like, again, this is why I don't go out. This is why I don't drink this. You know, you don't see me partying and you don't see me out doing it because I gotta be in bed by 10. Because then if I don't sleep those hours, it up my whole routine and then I feel more unproductive the next day. And if I feel unproductive, then it like starts eating me alive.

Yeah.

Like, I start. Am I worthy or like, what am I doing? I should have not. Like, I just start questioning my life over one routine. So I try to stick to my routine every single day, bro. Every single. Especially when I travel too. It messes up my. It messes up that. But now I'm like trying to find it again. So if that. There's one thing I could, you know, hopefully you guys learn from here is finding that routine that gives that. That makes you more productive, number one. But also has the highest impact in your business and sticking to it because it's boring. Like, nobody wants to wake up and do the same Thing, same two, three things over and over and over and over. But the longer that you keep that boring routine, the higher the success.

Oh, it's everything. I call it the morning integrity setup. I've learned that from my coach.

I didn't know that.

Yeah. Because it goes back to peak state.

Okay.

If you get yourself in a peak state of mind, you're going to have peak outcomes. And if you're not in a peak state of mind, you're going to have poor outcomes. And so that routine is so important. That's like right now I'm feeling myself getting into a not peak state. I'm like, okay, I need to hire this person so I can immediately take this as soon now. Right. Because like if I'm going to start getting bad outcomes if I can't show up in my peak state and I'm not going to enjoy my days and I don't want that. Right. Because I'm too tired or whatnot. So I love that. And what. Yeah, the, the routine is so important. That consistency and I, I love, I

love my routine right now.

Figure out what gets you in the green zone, what makes you feel good.

Like feeling rested. For sure.

Yeah.

Have your like today I. I'm not. I'm like a little bit drowsy because I had to go from Vegas to here at 6 in the morning. I. You. So I've been all over the place. But dude, that like if me well rested my eight hours and you know, fresh out of a gym, bro, I'm like, I'm. Dude, I could move mountains for sure.

The gym is so important. Working out. Yeah.

How many times are you doing? 5.

I exercise every day. Okay. But gym like weight training is usually three days a week. Two to three days a week. And then I do sprint intervals and like hit a couple days a week and then I usually do like a Pilates and then I walk.

Our Pilates is though.

Pilates is. I. I get bored.

Not for guys though, right?

Some guys do it, but it's mostly girls. Yeah. But some guys do it. It gets you in good shape.

But yeah, I love walking too.

Work out. Yeah. Like the sunrise walk is my favorite.

Okay. I'll tell you one weird thing about me. If you do this, you're gonna blow my mind. The one thing that I'm super. Where I feel the most creative is when I'm cleaning. I don't know why, like everybody like in my office, like I always have a yellow rag. Like see like if I see something, I just start. I don't Know why? And I. But. But when I'm cleaning, though, dude.

Yeah.

Everybody knows that if I'm cleaning or vacuuming or.

Yeah, no, I know what you mean. Because I get that sometimes if I'm doing laundry or walking or. Yeah, walking is for me, bro.

If I'm walking around in the office, something like, my office is kind of like this, and there's, you know, a bunch of desk in the middle, and I'm usually on the outskirts just on my phone. If I'm walking and I'm thinking, dude, I'm like. Like, leave me alone. Like, I'm like. I'm in the zone right now, you know?

Yep. I love it. Yeah. I'm not a cleaner, dude.

I'm a knee freak, man. I. I think I'm not a knee freak in a sense where it's like, I get. But I'm, like, super organized. Like, all my houses, all my offices, all my shops, all my. Everything is just like, you know, everything looks the same. My. My clothes is a certain way. Like, I don't know.

That's so nice.

Maybe it's weird.

I feel like it's an ex. It's a. Your external environment is a reflection of your internal. Right. And if your external is chaos, your internal is probably pretty chaotic, too.

And you know what? I used to. Steve Jobs, or I heard something about Steve Jobs, that he would always wear the same shirt. And I used to think I'm like, that's what I do way, bro. People wear the same shirt over and over, dude. If you go to my closet, there's two types of shirts. There's a nuve polo, and then there's a regular bill, you know, Shirt.

Yeah.

And it's one of those two. If I'm working, I'm on this. If I'm not working, I'm on that. And that's it.

It.

And I used to think, like, there's no way people. There is.

I do the same thing. I wear the same thing every day.

It is the most peaceful thing in the world, just being able to grab and go, you know?

It's amazing. Decision fatigue. It's like we need to save our decisions for important things. And trying to correlate.

You have, like, titles for everything. That's dope. Yeah. You have not titled. You have, like, a label for everything. Yeah, that's dope. I need to learn that. I need to educate myself on it.

All right. I think you're. I think you're doing fine. Okay, so we have 10 minutes left. So for what is nuve? Your new, your new company, you started, you started two years ago. We didn't even get to go. I want to go through the whole process of selling your company.

Oh, we could do it again.

We have to do more of these.

I, Dude, I don't get a, I don't get a. I don't get a chance to do podcasts like this where it's just life. Most of my podcasts or most of my content is, you know, operations and marketing and sales and, and like I go hard on, on, on diligence and quality of earnings and selling a company. Like I could go through a hole in there and just, you know, I could put on a clinic for you guys on that and, and I'll do it and we'll do it, but I get, I don't get to enjoy like a dope ass conversation like this. So thank you for doing it.

Oh, cool.

What is Nuva? Nuva is a thermostat that I created for contractors. In 2014, Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion. And Nest is just a regular thermostat. And to me, most people would look at that and be like, well, nestled a lot of thermostats. And that's not the reason why Google bought them. Google bought them in a strategic. And this, how fucking this is how advanced and how like in mine, it mind blows me how like how they're playing chess, they're not playing checkers kind of thing, right? Most people would look at that acquisition and be like, oh, they bought them because they have millions of thermostats out there. No, they bought them because there was going to be a plumber like myself. There was going to be somebody that was going to come into our industry and start putting providers, right, service providers on the thermostat instead of a Nest or Echo B or Honeywell logo. If you, if you take, if you, if, if Google, if Nest had the provider inside the, the thermostat, meaning, you know, if something went wrong with your ac, they would look at it and not go on their phone. They would just get the information. Kind of like your ADT panel. The only reason why you know to call ADT is because you click the logo and there's a 1-800-number and you call them and say, hey, my sensors or my cameras or something's not off, right? Well, Google bought Nest because they didn't want that to happen. They bought them for $3.2 billion because they've installed, you know, 15, 20 million thermostats out there because they Want you to keep using your phone to go on Google to look for an eight track electrical plumbing roofing provider. And what our platform does is we put that we connect the thermostat back to the contractor, meaning when they need you, they don't have to go on Google. So I bypass that. From now is Google going to be super mad? 100 fucking percent. We sold $14.2 million of thermostats on our first year.

Wow.

Right? And the more thermostats I get out there, the less the clicks, the less the searches for Google.

Yeah.

So that's the only reason I saw a huge opportunity on that.

That's so cool.

If Google could go in there and buy Nest for $3.2 billion with no MRR, right. No subscription model, which mine does. We just crossed $712,000 of MRR.

Geez.

Yeah, I know.

What are they paying for, like this subscription?

To monitor the thermostat, to host their logo, their contact information to.

Oh, the contractors are paying it. I was gonna say, how are you getting homeowners?

The, the contractors, they play, they pay us a flat fee and we give them all the features to the thermostat, meaning their logo, their Q, their, Their contract, their information. They could start the units from their office. They could message the customer through their app or through the, through the logo. So like when you're using your thermostat, when you download it says Echo B or Honey or Nest. We give each contractor their custom app.

Nice.

So like NextGen was, was my old company. If you click on it, that's my thermostats in one of my houses. And if I want to call them, then I just call them from there.

Nice.

They don't have to go on Google and search for them.

What if they go out of business or something? They just end your subscription or they

end the subscription and then we. It gives me the right to give them to, to sell their, Their thermostat.

Assign it to someone.

Yeah. Because I own the digital real estate. The digital real estate inside.

That's awesome. That's so cool.

Dude. When I looked at it, when I took on the project, bro, it was.

You created the product.

Yes.

So. So. And this is like a, this is a tech, this is a product in tech.

It's hardware and software.

Yeah.

The subscription is the software and the, the hardware is the thermostat. I have 60 something people working in Armenia for the software in the Philippines. It's getting, the thermostat's getting manufactured and then I'M about to move it into the United States or Mexico. But yeah, sales and customer service here in the, in, in California. We just came up with our version two. Now version two, you're going to be able to speak to it. I call this Sophia because my, my middle child, which is my. I don't want to say this, but everybody has a middle child. My favorite middle child. My favorite child is Sophia. So I came up with a thermostat for her. So now instead of saying, hey, Google, or Hey Siri or hey Alexa, it's hey, Sophia, can you send me a plumber? Hey, Sophia. My, my garage door is not opening. Hey, Sophia. My roof's leaking. And they'll dispatch a technician to your house without talking to anybody.

That's amazing.

And we patented too. So I patent all my technology. So nobody could message, nobody could host offers, nobody could host contractors. Nobody could. So I patent everything.

So, so is this going to be your, your company that you want to take?

I'm taking IPO for sure. So I did it at 20 mil already. Homecover was a 20 million. Next year was a little bit over 100. And now the next stepping stone would be IPO for sure. So I have a goal for sure. I was gonna give myself five years, but I'm giving myself two years now.

How are you using AI in the

company or just for the software development on it? Yeah, we still haven't figured out a way to grab all the information from the actual thermostats and from the actual AC units that we're monitoring, but I'm sure there, there's going to be a huge play for that.

Yeah.

You know, all these manufacturers, when they sell equipment and they install them in your home, they don't know what happened to it. Well, my, my technology connects the, the air conditioning back to the manufacturing. So I'm sure somebody's going to come in and be like, hey, what happened to all the millions of units we've installed out there? How long have they been running for? What's the cycle time? How many compressors? Like all the data that we're acquiring, somebody's going to want it for sure, right?

Yeah. The data is so valuable.

Who said it? I think the ex. The, the, the ex CEO from Google, Eric something said that the next billion dollar companies are going to be data aggregators. The ones that can collect massive amount of data to feed into an AI to be able to, you know, do whatever with it.

Right? Yeah, that's what we're doing. Because AI can only access the Data that it can get to. Yeah. So the data IP is, is, you know, data and IP is so valuable.

We have, you know, we're gonna have the most data for air conditioning, electrical, plumbing in the world.

So that's so cool.

I can't wait for somebody for you.

And you didn't have to stay aboard next gen when you stayed one year with them.

But anybody that sold the company at that scale knows that private equity always comes in and they try to modify.

Yeah. They put in all their systems in place. And you didn't consider doing a roll up? You just wanted to exit or did you not even think about a roll up?

No, I, I knew that next gen was just a stepping stone to something else.

Yeah.

So I don't, I didn't want to be stuck on the contracting level. I am a contractor at heart but there's always like I've always viewed every business as a stepping stone to something bigger. Right.

Right.

Like I don't know what new is, where Nouve is going to take me but I know that whatever happens after Nouve is going to be bigger than what it is. And to me the dopest part is that you know, at Home Comfort we employed a couple hundred people and we helped a couple hundred people. Next gen we, you know, employed over 600 people. Nuve we're going to employ, you know, hundreds of thousands of people and the next one will employ even more people. So to me the exciting part is just we get to help that many people. That's insane.

It is insane. To be responsible for so many.

Yes.

And lives.

Yes.

Energies and yeah. It's, it's crazy. So it's a big response.

I'm excited though, honestly. I think, I think we got something special for sure. You know we. For us to grow that big into in our first years, that's insane. Pretty dope.

What, what do you think is the number one thing to attribute to that success?

We are the most from Tommy to you know, all my buddies that, that have built over a hundred million dollar companies. We are sales driven organizations, bro.

We are self like, like and marketing with that. Right. Like you're doing heavy marketing to get your sales.

Look the one thing that I always, that I always remember and, and, and this is how important it is to a business. Obviously marketing is the first step to anything but somebody said a quote on, I don't know where I read it but it said in order for, in order for everybody to eat, somebody's got to sell. And when I heard that I'm like Dude, that is the most accurate thing in the world. Like if you guys are not a sales driven organization, you're always going to be stuck where you're at. You got to build a freaking process in order for you to scare your company. And the only way to scales through the sales department. Yes. Marketing is important. 100. That's the first step. The first step in operations, marketing. The second step is sales and then the third step is operation.

Right.

So yeah, we're just, we're just highly driven sales people.

I love it.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you are too. You are too. All your success that you, that you have is because you're a salesperson.

Yeah.

Deep down inside of you, you're always selling.

Yeah, I know. I was talking to a guy that runs like a billion dollar family office or something and he was like, after we had the meeting, he's like, you're really good. He's like, you are closing the entire time from minute one. And I'm like, I wasn't trying to sell you on anything.

But it's. You're so good at your natural addiction, I guess. Yeah, you're so good. Here we are so good. We're natural at it. Where most people think we're selling, we're just talking.

Right.

We're just having conversations and trying to connect dots and that's it.

Yeah. Solve problems, understand, build trust, understand the person. But it's just instant. Like I actually just do that naturally. You know, I never, I never had sales training.

Good at it though, you know, that's what you do. I've never had sales training.

Yeah.

I've never been inside of home selling. I've never installed a toilet. I never, you know, worked on these damn AC units. I. Dude, I, I love my people that worked at our companies and that's why I paid them so much. Because to me, a skilled labor bro like, is one of the dopest people to be Being able to, you know, grab some, the thousand pieces and put it together to give you cold air. Being able to grab, you know, hundreds of thousands of pipes fittings and put it all together to give you, you know, pure water, drinkable water or you know, all these wires running through your house to be able to plug your iPhone and be able to charge it. Like, people underestimate all the things that we had to learn and do so you guys can have a, you know, this beautiful studio or just a, A normal life.

Yeah, it's amazing. It's fascinating.

That's why I'm in Love with the trades. I think my personal mission in the trades is, is, you know, and I've, and I've said this before, we are the unsexiest. We are the unsexiest industry in the world. Meaning nobody wants to be a plumber, nobody wants to be an electrician, Nobody wants to be a roofer. Nobody wants to be that. And I think my calling is to, to, to this world is to expose our trades.

Yeah.

To expose them into, you know, you know, all those 16, 17, 18 year olds that are lost in high school right now and they're like, what the. I don't want to go to college. You know, that's not what I want to do. I'm, you know, I'm a mechanic. I love working on my car. I love working on my bikes. I love, like there's a, there's a place for you over here in the trades and there's a place for you where you can make so much freaking money that a, you know, a five year old Mexican kid could come into the United States and build, you know, three different companies.

Exactly.

So that's.

I couldn't agree more.

That's the dopest part.

It's the hardest thing for the robots to come after.

They're not coming after us. You guys can't come up. We are irreplaceable.

Yeah. Irreplaceable. Yeah. All right. The school of hard knocks, Rapid fire. How old were you when you became a millionaire?

28. Actual, actual over a million dollars in my bank account. Yeah, 20.

What about.

Yeah, but a net worth 24. 23, 24. When I had an actual million dollars. When, you know, obviously we were already doing like 60 mil in revenue.

That's insane.

I know.

Yeah. Were you just reinvesting it all back into the company to keep growing?

Yeah, all of it. I was living a modest life, dude. I was driving a used Mercedes and living. I think I was leasing a house still. Just because all the money that was coming in. Put it back, put it back, put it back. Get more vans, get more marketing. Get more vans, get more marketing. Yeah.

What's the greatest advice you've ever received?

The greatest advice? Don't. Don't take life too serious. I think most of us get stuck in a. Like something happened and we just dwell on it. Like, look at all this that happened to me throughout my whole life. Like from my mom. Like I never got to meet my mom. My dad, all, like, just all the things that happen and I've never ever, like just crouched up and cried. I've always just woken up and been like, look, look, I gotta get things done, right? So don't. Whatever you're going through, it's gonna pass. Whatever you're going through is gonna pass. You're, you know, you're always gonna see rainy days. You're always gonna see sunshine. Like, enjoy the moments of each one. Like, dude, when I was going through the roughest parts of my life, I still enjoyed it. Like, I, like, I was never, like, just depressed and, you know, what am I gonna do? Like, even when I, you know, when I was drinking and the businesses were failing and we're not making money and we're trying to borrow money to pay money, it's like all the mayhem that's going on, like, to me, I look at all this that's happening to me, like, God must be wanting me to do something about it, right? Because the one thing that I've learned is that when God doesn't have anything for you, he ignores you. And if you're going through things, that means. Because he's paying attention to you, that means he has you in his heart. That means he has you in his vision. That means he's. He's actually taking care of you. If everything's fine, you should be worried, right?

Yeah.

When. When things get like, when you, when everything's perfect in life, that's when I get worse worried. That's when I'm like, dude, what the. Do you not. Do you not remember me no more?

Like, right, so they're entering a storm in the middle of a storm or just got out of a storm, but enjoy it. Yeah, Enjoy that storm. That's the whole thing. That's the whole. Committed to the green zone because you're. You're always going to be entering a storm in a storm or getting out of storm.

True.

Right? Like, no matter what. That's life.

That is so true.

So you might as well learn how to freaking enjoy the storms. If you can't learn to enjoy the storms, you're not going to get very far.

You're gonna struggle and you're gonna. It's gonna be painful. Honestly, dude, I can't wait for the next storm. For me, I don't know what it looks like right now. It's, you know, right now, life is good. And as long as my daughters and my family and my. And my. And my close ones are good, then I think I could be okay. But, yeah, I can't wait for the next storm. The next storm is gonna definitely teach me something. So I can't wait for it.

That's how you grow. Yeah. What's the number one thing you attribute to your success?

This relentlessness. I am relentless. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care what the. What the objective is, what the goal is, what the mission is. I will die on the cross on it. Like, I will wake up and do it again. I will wake up and I don't care if it's a bad dude. I don't. I don't care. I don't care if I don't feel good. I don't care if, you know, I just. My relentlessness is. Is insane, bro. Like, I honestly. I honestly think I'm sick because of that. And, you know, that's probably one of my best attributes, to be honest with you. Like, most people look at it as, you know, me being stubborn or whatever. That's probably one of my best attributes. Like, I'm just relentless, bro. Yep, I am. I love, love, love, like. Like, I love competing, bro. Bro, like, I. Dude, I want to kick Echo's ass. I want to kick Google's ass. I want to kick Nest's ass. I want to kick all their ass. Just to be able to say I did it just because that compet. Like, me. If I'm going to compete, like, in the small leagues, I get bored, bro.

Y.

If I'm. I want to compete against the big dogs, I want to go in the public space and start steering up, and I want to go in there and, you know, hey, what's going on?

Oh, I know. Yeah, that. That's what I was going to tell you. That was my favorite book for a long time. Relentless Tim Grover.

I never. I know.

It's amazing. He coached Kobe Bryant. He was his coach. Mental coach. Yeah.

Relentlessness, I think.

Yeah. So good, dude.

I. Yeah, yeah. Relentlessness, for sure.

You. I asked you. Okay, so what do you want your four daughters to know about you that they don't know about you now?

Dude, every time you bring up my daughters, I tear up. I don't know why. What? I want them to know that everything I'm doing is for them. Everything that I'm doing is for them. The, you know, growing the companies, the being out of town, the always being gone. The, like, you know, the always being on the phone. The, you know, the. The absence is all for them. Like, the me being so absent in their life is. Is because that's how much I love them, that I. No matter what I'm going through in life, whether I had to be sober. Whether. Whether I. You know, I had a partner, you know, bad partner. Whatever it is that life throws at me, I know that what keeps me going, what keeps that fire and that relentlessness going, is that I have a vision. I have a picture in my head that it's engraved for the rest of my life, and it's them smiling. Yeah, it's all for them. It's all for them. I want them to always look back and, you know, maybe I wasn't the best dad, but I want them to look bad and be like, you know, my dad was gone, but it was worth it. You know, look at. You know, everybody gets to have everything they have because dad was always working.

Yeah.

Yeah, for them, for sure. Everything's for them.

And if you had to leave one message to the younger generation, what would it be?

Stop listening to fucking people that don't know what they're talking about. Stop listening to all this social media and all this noise and all these gurus going in there and telling you that for, you know, $99, they could change your life or sign up for my mentorship. And it's like, in a world full of noise, like the. The. The pieces, where the. The gold's at, you know what I'm saying?

That's where you get all the answers.

One that. Do you know what. What I. What I did learn when going through all my struggles in life, that when nobody was there, I knew I was in the right place. Like when, you know, my brothers got mad at me or, you know, my ex got mad at me or my, you know, whatever friends didn't talk to me or. Or I was by myself. I wasn't at a club. I wasn't drinking. I wasn't going, and I was just by myself. I knew I was in the right place because I could finally hear my thoughts. I could finally give my. I had my direction and I had, you know, my purpose when I'm. When. When. When everything's quiet. So.

And that's what the Bible says, too. That's the only time you can hear God is when you're inside.

That's when I heard him. Honestly.

Yeah.

I think the first time I heard him was at my lowest point when my. When my dad passed away and I stopped drinking and I was just by myself in my house, and I'm like, dude, I think this was it. So if I could give them one piece of advice, learn who. Like, learn who to listen to and learn to not, but also be okay with people walking away from Your life. Like, not everybody's meant to go where you're going, right? So, you know, I'm okay with. With being alone as long as my daughters and my family is okay.

Well, you're amazing. This is such an amazing conversation. I could keep going forever. So we'll have to do another one, but thank you.

So we'll do an operational one.

Yeah, yeah.

Dope asset operation. I'll say that. I'll. I'll set up like the whole journey on, you know, how to structure your. If people that want to sell their company, whether it's plumbing, electrical, whatever it is that they want to sell or they want to structure it, we'll do like a dope ass little, you know, one hour thing. Yeah, of course.

I love it because I. I need to know this stuff, you know.

Thank you for having me, Honestly.

Thank you. How can people find you on Instagram?

Valdez CEO on Facebook I have a. I started a contractor university because there's nothing. There's no educational system for US contractors. That's why 94 of us are failing or are under a couple million dollars in revenue. So I started this free digital contractor university. It's called Nube Contractor University, or NCU on Facebook. It's a free group. There's 10,000 contractors in there, and we're always going in there. And I'm just doing it for free. I go in there and I put, you know, sometimes I go in there for 15, 20 minutes and I'll teach them how to pay the technicians, how to pay installers, how to pay sales guys, how to recruit them, them, how to bonus managers, like how to set up the whole operation so they can produce profit.

That's insane. That's so amazing.

Yeah. Nouveau contractor University. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

All right, off to dinner.

Let's go.