The Start of Julian Burrell’s HVAC Success Story: How He Transformed His Business with CertainPath (Recorded from the Halls of CertainPath's Expo)

Welcome to The Successful Contractor powered by CertainPath, a show for residential contractors about residential contractors. We chronicle business journeys, share insights, and celebrate successes in this wonderful industry. I'm your host, Bob Houchin. For more information on how CertainPath can put your contracting company on a certain path to success, Visit our website, www.mycertainpath.com. I hope you enjoy today's show and take away another two. All right, everybody. Hey, we're coming live from our Certain Path Expo. We're celebrating 25 years in business, 25 years of helping home service contractors, and it's not our typical setting, but we're outside of the celebration. We're just grabbing numbers to talk about their journey in contracting and with us. And the first gentleman with us. You share your name and company name, where you're located, please.

My name is Julian Burrell and my company is U&S Mechanical Services and we are out of the Bronx, New York.

Very good. I love it, Julian. Well, thanks for sitting down with me.

My pleasure.

Now, how long have you been a member exactly?

Maybe 8 months now.

8 months now.

So you're brand spanking new. All right.

All right.

Wait, let's backtrack a little bit. Let's talk about your story. Are you native to New York or how did you get up there?

Well, I'm from Jamaica originally and my dad filed for me and I come to New York and, you know, bunch of different small jobs. I used to drive tractor trailer. And for some reason my driver's license got suspended. I was home for like 3 or 4 months. Don't know what to do. All my savings was just blown up.

Yeah.

And at the time there was a lot of jobs was coming out in the newspaper for HVAC.

Yeah.

I didn't even know what HVAC was.

Right.

Yeah. And I actually went to school, Apex Technical.

Okay.

And for the first month when I was doing HVAC, I have a cousin that called me and say, hey, cuz my boyfriend working at a company, They're looking for an apprentice. Do you want the job? And I said, sure. So I stopped going to school in the day and I started going to school at night. And I was doing HVAC from that time to today, every day.

Is that right?

Never stopped.

So how long did you work for other people before you started your own thing?

About 8 years.

8 years?

About 8 years.

What kind of roles were you filling in at that time? Were you always a service technician, maintenance technician, did sales? What were you doing?

Service tech. At the time, I never got introduced to sales or anything like that. It was just straight HVAC, straight service repair. And then maybe in 2008 when the market crashed, I was one of the first guys to get let go from my company.

Is that right?

Oh yeah, it was terrifying.

Well, yeah, for sure. So you had to figure out what next, right?

Well, at the time when I was working for the company, my customer, because I used to have a list of customers that only asked for me to come to their home. So we used to do a lot of, everything we used to do was just residential. So we used to work in Manhattan, those high-rise, we used to do a lot of PTAC, you know, split system and stuff like that. And I was home and I was, I didn't know what to do. And then a customer called and say, hey, I got something to do and, you know, can you help me? And yeah, at the time I got some tools, my tools that when I was working at the other company, I take the tools. I have a 2009 green Toyota Camry.

Is that right?

Yep. I'll never forget.

Yeah.

And I drove to the customer home and I fixed it and customer said, Why you worried?

Yeah.

Why don't you do it?

Yeah.

Your boss never come to the job. It's always you.

Yeah.

Why you scared?

Right.

I print some business card. I have $50 leave in my pocket.

Yeah.

I print some business card. I start go around to bodegas and because in New York we got bodegas and stuff, those corner store and give a few people and the phone start ring and what is it since September 9th, 2009.

Wow.

I'm gonna say yeah.

So how did business change or evolve over the last about 10, 15 years? Was it mostly you? I mean, did you hire a few people? How did it grow from there?

I hired a few people and then stuff changed over time.

Yeah.

A lot of changes. I stopped doing residential.

Okay.

Started doing commercial.

Sure.

A lot of commercial that, you know, with commercial you don't get paid.

Yeah. So you started falling into those issues? 30, 40, 60. Yeah.

Sometimes even more.

Yeah.

And after a while that's not working, then I get into heavy, heavy commercial now. So I start doing government jobs.

Okay.

That even worse.

I was going to say, I've heard they pay out even less. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Today, before I came here, I have a meeting with my CPA and I was like, what's going on? I'm working a lot. Where's the money? She said, you got $500,000 unpaid invoice.

How much is that government?

Maybe $450,000 or more.

Yeah.

Damn.

That's frustrating. Yeah. And paying with no cash, you know, that hurts cash flow very much. Yeah.

Very much.

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She understood, you know, eight months ago. We were like, okay, I can't keep doing this. Can't keep doing something the same way. Now this wasn't planned, but how did you find, what made you start looking? Because you just wanted something different? You started looking for a different model? You knew residential service was where you needed to go?

Actually, I didn't.

You didn't?

Okay. I did not know that.

Okay.

I was, I'm a person like this, I think a lot.

Yeah.

Everything that happened and everything that, you know, Any success that I find, I have to go out and look for it. I never really have a, um, a hand, someone to say, hey, hey Julian, you know what, we know of such and such, you could, um, do this. And nah, I never have that. So I've been thinking, right? So even before we get to that, at one point in time I was working a lot, always working a lot, and then, um, I said, you know what, I ain't got no money.

Yeah.

Just like that.

Yeah. And you're working way too hard to have—

Working way too hard.

Yeah.

But I go on my favorite university, which is YouTube.

Yeah.

And I type in— I forgot to type in something with money.

Yeah.

And Dave Ramsey popped up.

Oh yeah.

There was 2 guys. There was Dave Ramsey and another guy. I listened to the first guy. I didn't like what he was saying. I listened to Dave Ramsey.

Yeah.

I never gone back.

Is that right?

And that set my money thing straight.

Yeah.

And then, you know, when I find certain path— now about maybe 8, 9 months ago, I find certain path, right? I was at the gym early one morning, 5 o'clock, stress.

Sure.

Don't know what to do, payroll backed up.

Yeah.

And I said, how to grow your business?

Yeah.

You know what, there's 2 people popped up again. I swear to God.

Yeah.

Uh, Tommy Miller. Yeah, I think the Garage Door guy. Oh yeah, I'm on Phoenix. I think, I think it's Phoenix.

Yeah, A1.

Yeah. And then Serenapad.

Yeah.

So I see this thing that said, you know, uh, 8.6 million in one year.

Yeah.

I listened to Tommy Miller first. Uh, he was good.

Yeah.

But it was a little bit too loud for me. It wasn't my style.

Right, right.

And I type into that when I touch the next one that say $8.6 million.

Yeah.

And you was talking to Sean Mitchell.

Yep.

That's it. The same day.

Right.

I, um, I screenshotted, I sent to my office, I said, search for this company.

Yeah.

And tell them that I'm interested and what I can do today to be there.

Is that right?

Just like that.

So, so how did the— what are the next— what was the next step? So they reached out to us, did you Yep. UK.

They called and they said, um, they have, I think, a Profit Day. I was like, what is a Profit Day? They said they got one in Nashville and another one outside. But because I, I was in love with Dave Ramsey, I said Nashville. No, I'm going to Nashville.

Okay.

And I flew to Nashville and I met Patrick.

Yeah.

And in that group, it was like 4 or 6 of us.

Yeah.

Room was very cold. I don't know if that was on design.

It's, it's by design. Keep you guys awake.

It was very cold, man. And, you know, it was Patrick and another guy, and they did a pitch and all of that. And I was there, and a couple of certain Pat guests, uh, member was there.

Yeah.

And they was talking. And I was like, okay.

And the testimonial.

Yeah. And I was like, you know what?

Yeah.

I say, I know how to do the work, but I don't know nothing about business.

Right, right.

I joined and everything is good.

Yeah.

And that same, same day, I, um, I took an Uber from downtown Nashville to Dave Ramsey's office.

Yeah.

And I met him, get a hug, got a book.

Oh man, that's cool.

And I say, you know what, I think I'm in the right place. Yeah, I think I'm in it.

That's a, that's a heck of a day.

Yeah.

Yeah. So you go to Profit Day, you join, and then Executive Perspective is next.

Oh yeah.

Uh, how many— what, a couple weeks later you're on a plane to Dallas?

To Dallas. And I was like, listen, I love it.

Yeah.

When I get to Dallas, it was, it was cold, man.

Yeah.

I was like, man, why this place is so cold?

Gotta keep you alert. It gets too warm, people get sleepy.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was like, you know what, I listen. And, you know, I called my team in the office and I'm excited.

Yeah.

I want to do everything.

Right, right.

You know, I was like, yo, we need to do this, we need to do that. They'll be like, okay, how? I'll be like, we gotta figure it out. You gotta call a certain player, you gotta talk to the team.

Yeah.

Hungry, you know.

I like it.

Determined.

Yeah. Yeah, I know you see an avenue to change, right? That's the exciting part of it. So what are the first couple things you knew, and you're probably still working on it now because you're so new, what are the things that you knew right away I need to change, adopt, install?

Pretty much everything. My whole process that we were doing was wrong. Yeah, everything. I was doing the job, I was answering the phone, banging on ductwork, doing everything. Hold on, that Drilling, do everything, talking to the customer. Right, right. It wasn't a good process.

Right. So it's, it's you and who is— do you have someone in the office answering?

Yeah.

Okay.

I have someone in the office and then, you know, I got a couple of guys in the field.

Okay.

I mean, part-time, pretty much part-time guys right now.

Right.

That I need help. You know, I pay them by the day, pay them by the job.

Right.

They come and help me. My customer don't want nobody come but me, but, you know, I start explaining to my customer that, you know, we are growing right now and For us, for me to be able to provide a great service for you, I'm training my replacement coming behind that. Gonna do the same thing. You got my cell phone.

Yeah.

Call me if anything.

And I like it. You give me your personal guarantee in a way like, hey, I trust these guys.

Yeah.

You have any issue, get a hold of me.

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You are in the infancy. You're trying to grow to get out of the eventually the trip. Yep, that's great. That's great. What so I guess maybe pricing had to go up, right?

Well, with the pricing this year, I get hammered.

Yeah.

When I say get hammered, I get hammered this year with price. Yeah, because price now is completely different from what I used to do, right? By far.

Sure.

So right now I think my price is the most expensive out of everybody around.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, but I try to talk to my customer and this is the thing what I do. I listen to a lot of YouTube.

Sure.

With the member that you have sitting in this very chair.

Yeah.

And I listen to them, they process how they do it, how they didn't do it. And I, you know, I start write down. I like something this guy say, write it down. I like something the other guy say, write it down. When I'm driving to my job, you know, before I drive, I, you know, I read over it. Then I'm driving to the job, say I like a certain take that you make. Yeah, I listen to you going to the job, I'm trying to process it. When I go to the job, when I stand up at the door, turn my head.

Yeah.

Whatever. You know, the way I talk to the customer, a lot more confident now.

Right.

That's key. You know, take control of the situation, not let them control it, just take control of it.

Right.

And, you know, the way I price it, you know, the type of question that I ask the customer upfront, you know, kind of set it like I'm not asking them questions to give me a no, I'm asking them questions to give me a yes.

Right.

Right. And, you know, so I got hammered with the pricing because my price was way high. They're not used to that price.

Sure.

You know, and because I'm new to the process, you know, I'm trying to explain to them the, you know, the values, you know, the warranties and the guarantees.

Right.

And if you find a cost, if you find, I mean, I don't call people competitor no more.

Right.

Because I'm reading this book, not to change the subject, I'm reading this book called The Science of Getting Rich.

Yeah.

And they talk to you about competitor.

Yeah.

There's no such thing as competitor.

Right.

It's create, you create.

Yeah.

So I kind of get away from the competitor thing. Yeah. Right. So the guys that, you know, bidding, they just bidding just to make I'm bidding because I'm creating value and I still have to bring home 50 to 60%.

That's right.

You know, so the company can grow and I can train my team and plus I still can provide more value to the customer.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Sure.

Yeah.

Sure.

So those are the stuff that I'm trying to talk to the customer about.

Absolutely.

It's the benefit of what you're getting.

Not everyone's going to say yes. That's okay. Not everyone's your customer. You know, even, even the best salespeople still close, you know, at best 50%, 60%. So it's a different world.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. But, but, but no, but that's all right. That's okay. You're getting, you're getting it going. You're feeling things out. So is sales getting a little bit easier? You get a little more accustomed to it?

Much better because right now I have about $60,000 of work to get done by the time I go back.

Oh, nice. Okay.

Since I'm here, I was on the golf course this morning and a customer called me and tell me he have $30,000 in cash for me to put a system in.

Yeah.

He don't want to do the finance, he just want to pay cash.

That's okay.

He say he need a little break. I don't mind give him a little break.

Yeah.

Fine.

Yeah.

Because he say he got 2 more people lined up for me. So, right, whatever I feel like I lose from him, I don't think I'm losing because, yeah, I'm still After the job finish, I'm still having about $18,000.

Wow.

I'm bringing home for the company. So I'm good.

You're good. You're good. You're figuring it out. I'm good right now.

It's getting better. Yeah, it's getting better.

Much better. It just takes time and hard work at your stage being a small operator. But you've got the right attitude. Working on expanding your mindset, learning. Who's your coach? Who do you work with?

Xavier.

Oh, Xavier. Very good.

Talk a lot.

Good.

That's good.

So he's keeping your feet to the fire.

Yeah.

You sound like a guy that you don't need to keep motivated. You've got things you want to get done.

Yeah.

He knows it.

Yeah. I mean, I'm hungry, man.

Yeah. I like it.

I'm hungry. I want to— when I'm saying hungry, I'm not hungry for food for my belly.

Yeah.

I'm hungry for growth.

Yes.

You know, I feel like the more we grow, the better we can provide. I mean, I learned this from your show too. I learned this win-win mentality.

Yeah.

You know, the 3-win.

Sure.

And I think you have a lot to do with it.

Yeah.

And I talk to my customer a lot about it.

Yeah.

You know, so I have a couple of sales that I make for high $40,000.

Yeah.

Like, you know, I don't get much sales with new equipment, but my sales are big profit.

Yeah. And that's what matters. Yeah.

And, you know, my customer that wanted to do business with me, they, they don't have a problem spending.

Yeah, I like it.

Yeah.

You're still a small business. You're working hard. You still made time to come to Expo, get on a plane. Why is it so important to come to stuff, come to things like this?

You have to hit it to win it.

Yeah.

Are you— when you're growing, I mean, I'm using this analogy as in a lobster, right?

Yeah.

When a lobster is growing, his shell is too tight.

Right.

He has to get out of it one way or the other. And what he got to do, he got to keep banging himself till it's soft enough so he get out. I need the growth.

Yeah.

And I've been away from Expo for what, 5, 6 months? It's too long. I'm all the way in New York. I don't have another— I don't have nobody else.

Right.

My closest people in what I'm doing is on YouTube.

Right, right.

Because I don't have another company down the block I could talk to, then I go to YouTube and socialize with my fellow friends. So when you guys have a get-together with other great minds, I have to be here.

You have to be there, yeah.

I have a lot of jobs to do, but—

Right, you got to pour into yourself. That's how you get better is to Listen to classes and interact with the other members.

Yeah, for sure.

So you make it a point to talk to other members?

Everybody, man. Everybody's friend, man.

Yeah. Well, that's funny. You're everybody's friend. Yeah.

And everybody's friend. I talk to everybody and I don't care what trade you're in. I mean, we all friends. And so this, I forgot this young lady name that do, she sell the most club membership and took all of those book calls.

Okay.

She booked like 93% out of the call.

Yeah.

So I tell my office manager to reach out to her.

Is that right?

Of course.

That's great.

And I don't think she's going to say no.

No, she's a sweetheart.

I tell her, I say, reach out to her. I said, before you call her, write all your questions down.

Yeah.

Make sure you have everything.

Yeah.

And you call her and ask her, tell her that you in all the way in New York. Yeah. So you're not next door competitor.

Yeah.

And we just joined certain pet and we watch her YouTube.

Yeah.

And we like what she do. If she can be an assistant to us.

Oh.

And I don't think she's gonna say no.

No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I tell them to do that.

Yeah. Has she done it yet?

I'm not sure.

Not sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do.

But no, she will say yes. She'll help you out. That's great. That's a neat part of this group is I think that's why I've been doing it so long. Everyone is so helpful. Like, and they don't look at it as a— even if people in their own market, like, I know lots of members that are friends with, you know, people in their own market, but there's so much business out there for everybody and it's a growing industry. Like, everybody needs air conditioning. No one's going to do without. Those days are over, you know. So it's just nice to get around success-minded people that want to help each other. So that's very cool.

Very cool.

I had a guy in Houston. I want to, you know, I met him on your show too.

Yeah.

And as soon as I walked to Dallas, I was like, I know you.

Yeah.

And I said, I know you. And by thinking about it, I was like, Joe Martell.

Oh yeah.

You remember Joe Martell?

Of course.

Met him on your show.

You did a year ago. We did the interview a year ago. Yep.

And I met him when we went to Dallas and I met him and we built up a friendship and, you know, we talked.

Is that right? He's a great guy.

We talk a lot.

I haven't run into him yet, but there's a lot of people, so that's fantastic. So why are you so excited still? I mean, it's a lot of work, right? And there's some hard days, but how do you keep that positive energy through it all?

I'm a very determined person. And since a young age, it's just everything that I have, I have to work hard for it.

Right.

And I felt like with certain parts I'm paying, it's not free.

Right.

But I'm grateful enough for them to say, yes, come on in, for them to bring me along.

Yeah.

So it's no longer the money no more.

Sure.

It's more of all the benefit that you're providing to me.

Yeah.

I didn't have it for 10, 14 years. I didn't have it and you're giving it to me now.

Yeah.

I gotta take it.

Yeah.

You know, because, you know, one thing, a person would help you, but a person not gonna help you if you're lazy.

Right.

You know?

Sure.

They will tell you one or twice, and if you're not trying to do something about it, nobody wanna be around a loser. So, you know, I'm still hungry. I still have my family to take care of. I still want my team to retire with the company. I want the company to grow to a level where I don't have to go in my truck.

Yeah.

Unless I want to.

Unless you want to, sure. I'm guessing most guys don't want to at some point.

Yeah, I'm at the point now that I really don't want to be in the truck anymore.

I understand.

I swear, I don't want to.

Well, let's keep selling and replace yourself and it'll happen. All right, last question. Where do you see the business 5, 10 years? Have you thought of it in that way yet?

Yeah. I'm looking for next year, so I'm looking for about 1.5, 1.2 million.

Yeah.

And you know, I got a lot of nuggets from, you know, talking to different guys here. And, um, Chris, or Chris from A Certain Path, I spoke to him, he gave me a lot of nuggets. And a couple other members give me a lot of nuggets where it comes to marketing, right?

Yep.

And if I plug into all of those nuggets I get from my teammate.

Yeah.

And I do everything and have my team coach and train the proper way. There's no need for me not to make $1.5, $1.2 million next year.

Right.

And I feel like once you cross over that million point, you can feel it and see what it looks like.

Yeah.

Then, I mean, it's just up from there.

I love it.

Because I'm in New York.

Yeah.

There is how many million homes just in one city.

Yeah, yeah, right. That's right.

If we have the right marketing, the right strategy, strategy, and be able to relate to all the customers, you don't have to travel far.

Right. That's all right there, right? That's right.

And so with that, with that, I feel like within the next 10 years, $20 million should be easy.

There you go.

Of course. I like $2 million a year. You know, every year you grow by $2 million. In 10 years, Yeah. Tournament and learn. That should be easy.

I like it.

I think so.

Yeah. Well, you got the network here to help you along the way and learn and to get some nuggets, more nuggets from.

Oh yeah. Definitely.

Well, Joe, thank you so much for your time. This was a lot of fun. Bet you didn't think this was going to happen today.

No, I didn't. I didn't. But you know what? I always think of you though. Seriously, I really do. I'm not telling you because we here right now.

Yeah.

Always think of you. And I tell my team, because, you know, this is something that I want.

Yeah.

You know, we need to do whatever we need to do. And when we see people that growing, it's like somebody maybe just come see me and say, oh man, I would love to be where Julian is.

Right.

I'm here and see all of my teammates, because listen, we all teammates.

Right.

You know, I see all of my teammates, I see you every day.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, I see you once in a while in person, but I see you every day.

Yeah.

And I'm saying, you know what, This is success right here, and this is where I wanted to be. So certain bang.

You're in the right place, man. We're excited. I'm excited to see your your trajectory. It's on the right. It's in the right pace. All right. Thank you for your time.

My pleasure.

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