[00:00:00.000] - Chris
Okay. Hello.
[00:00:01.290] - Brandon
Hey, dude. That's the whole... Well, that's a deep subject for dad jokes.
[00:00:06.900] - Chris
Oh, man, dude. I feel like there's this tug of war happening inside me where on the one hand, there's the ambitious, driven, achiever part of me that's like, let's get as much. I mean, we've onboarded a couple of clients just the last few days. We've got a few more clients that are onboarding before this new year. And I'm like, yes, let's just finish really strong. And then there's this other part of me that's like, I could pack my bag and leave for Christmas vacation.
[00:00:35.190] - Brandon
Like right now.
[00:00:36.280] - Chris
This afternoon.
[00:00:37.480] - Brandon
Yeah. You know? I am not even going to pull back the punch. I'm dragging ass.
[00:00:44.560] - Chris
2024.
[00:00:45.500] - Brandon
I'm headed to the gym after this because it's my only hope of staying in gear, staying in the gym.
[00:00:52.200] - Chris
Yeah. Here we are. This is actually a really great show. So last year, in fact, I remember we were sitting in a barbecue restaurant and you and I We had our iPads out and we were basically mapping out an editorial calendar for this shit. Where was that?
[00:01:05.580] - Brandon
I don't know. Might have been Texas.
[00:01:07.040] - Chris
I don't know. Yeah, I think it might have been Texas. We were sitting in a barbecue joint and just thinking through topics. And this was one of the things was, hey, let's get more owners. Like owner operators on to just talk about their story. Again, along these lines of so many of us feel so alone lots of the time. That our problems are limited to us. Everybody else is executing better, except Look for the people we quietly make fun of, our competitors. But everybody else has it all figured out, making more profit, making more top line, succeeding more than we are. And we can just get stuck sometimes in that negative self-critical headspace. And when we just hear other people's stories, we're like, oh, shoot. Well, they languished in that stage for a while, or they struggled to get from here to there, too. Okay, I'm not alone. Because so often the game of entrepreneurship is just hanging in there. It's just not quitting when it's It's hard, and it's disappointing, it's discouraging, it's frustrating. And so I just I find so much inspiration in other people's stories. It helps me keep going and be like, oh, no, no, no.
[00:02:08.870] - Chris
I know this happens. I know people struggle with this. So today is one of those owner stories. We got introduced to Coral and Kevin. They own a one Tom plumber franchise in Melbourne, Florida, and we got introduced to them by Cameron Hensley. I was having a chat with him about something else entirely. He's like, hey, do you guys ever like to have owners on your podcast? I was like, Hell, yes, we do. We've done it once, and yes, we want more. I think Julie Roberts was the last big time, super successful serve pro owner, she and her husband. So, yeah, it was just a quick yes. He introduced me to Kevin and Coral. I had a phone conversation with them two or three days ago, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, these guys are a hoot.
[00:02:50.140] - Brandon
Yeah. Well, technically, it'll be five weeks ago by the time you hear this shit.
[00:02:53.800] - Chris
This is true. This is true. There's always that leg time. But they're the real deal. They're two and a half years into their business. They haven't been doing this for decades. This is the very first business that they've owned, and they have a rich background in the restoration industry that I think a lot of people are going to relate to and their desire. I love operators. Oh, my gosh. They've been nurturing this desire to own a business for a while. They had another opportunity that was presented with them beforehand that they decided not to take. All of this, I think, is going to amount to a story that many people listening, you guys can relate to their story. They may be a few steps ahead of you where you're at or maybe a few steps behind you. But in any case, it was a real fun conversation.
[00:03:36.290] - Brandon
Yeah, Coral comes out swinging.
[00:03:38.610] - Chris
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Listen, if you got a problem with F-bombs, this may not... You may start by turning the It's all down low, and then you can turn it back up. But she break that F barrier right out of the gate.
[00:03:51.110] - Brandon
That's right.
[00:03:51.880] - Chris
So better her to break that barrier than us, right? We're trying to implement the cussing jar here at floodlight, and we haven't had a ton of success yet.
[00:04:00.100] - Brandon
No, it's fucking painful.
[00:04:00.850] - Chris
Brandon is the problem there. It's all his fault.
[00:04:03.430] - Brandon
All right. All right. Let's get going.
[00:04:05.830] - Chris
Yeah. Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that react, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:04:18.070] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours.
[00:04:27.480] - Chris
I'm noticing that, and I really appreciate it.
[00:04:29.740] - Brandon
I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't, and I am not happy with it. Hey, all, thanks so much for listening to the show. Hey, if you're not already following, please do so and ultimately share, right? Like the coolest currency that we have in terms of supporting this is share it with a friend, share it with somebody, a colleague, a peer, one of your downline team members. Let them be able to take advantage of the information you're already leveraging in your favor. And finally, guys, if you hear a show that really moves you, that really moves the needle, will you please Please leave us a review? Those five-star reviews help us a ton.
[00:05:04.740] - Chris
Right on. Listen, if you're trying to grow your business, you might consider checking out Floodlight's business opportunity audit. It's free. We provided it no charge. It's actually what we use to assess new clients as they come in. It's a 110-point assessment for your business, and we've now decided to give access to the general public for it. Go and take our business opportunity audit at floodlightgrp. Com. It's going to help you identify the biggest gaps and opportunities in your business right now. At the end, it'll assign you a health score to let you know exactly where your business stands right now. Go check it out, floodlightgrp. Com/audit, and take the Boa. It's a great way to get a pulse on your business. All right. Well, another episode of Head Hard Boots. This is another of what we're calling owner stories. That's right. We decided, well, really, the latter part of last year, this is something we wanted to do more of this year. You and I were mapping out different topics and stuff for the podcast. God, it'd be really cool to have owners of companies to come talk about their story. Then Cameron Hensley from One Tom Plumber.
[00:06:07.750] - Chris
I was in a conversation with him, and he's like, Hey, by the way, would you ever want to talk to any owners? I'm like, Heck, yes. He's like, Well, I have two that you would have fun talking to. And so here we are today. Coral and Kevin have joined us. They own a one-time plumber. They are not married, which was the misconception I had before we first talked. They didn't say so at the beginning of the call. I'm like, God, are they married? They're talking like they might be, but not really.
[00:06:32.030] - Brandon
That's what happens when you own business.
[00:06:33.780] - Chris
That's when your business partners. Yeah, yeah. But no. Coral and Kevin have their own spouses that are not on the call today. But we just thought it'd be really fun to hear about their story coming up in their careers how they ended up partnering, because many people that are listening to this are thinking about they want to start their own company at some point. Maybe they're working for another restoration company. They're like, I want my own. And so I think it'll be really inspiring for them to hear how you guys came to this and what your experience has been so with running the One Tom and so forth. Coral, I'm going to start with you. Give us the nutshell version of where did you come from? How did you get into One Tom? What's your background in the restoration industry?
[00:07:10.860] - Coral Martin
Yeah, absolutely. I got into the industry when I was 19, worked in a various different businesses, some local, some corporate, worked for a big rental company guy, and ultimately landed at a reconstruction company, which is where I met Kevin. My husband actually was already working They were a past client of mine when I did equipment rental. And Kevin was actually my husband's boss. And we used to always complain about Kevin and would basically call him fucking Kevin. The day I met him for the first time, I walked up to him at the printer and I said, Hey, my name's Coral. And I heard, I'm probably not going to fucking like you. And he's like, Cool. I'm probably not going to like you either. And I was like, Cool. I'm glad we got that figured out now. And the next day, the ownership actually put us in a vehicle and sent us down to South Florida to go look at a project. And so we were in the car for about three hours together. And by the time that car ride ended, we looked over at each other and we're like, Did we just become best friends?
[00:08:22.110] - Coral Martin
And the rest was history. So him and I started working together on various projects for that company. And Kevin really did a good job of developing the thoughts and ideas and skills that I had, but he was able to develop them in a way that was just much more beneficial to the mission. We just really connected, and we were very, very successful in a lot of the jobs we did. We really prided ourselves on getting paid quickly, which, as everybody knows in this industry, is something that's very hard to do. We always talked about how we wanted to own a business. It was joke for a while. Somebody had come to us and said, Hey, we have an opportunity that you may be interested in. We were at the time, and it didn't really work out, but that was the start of realizing that us owning a business was real, right? We could actually do that. We were up at Chuck DeWald's class. Kevin and I had spent a lot of time up there because we had completely reworked the way that we drive buildings because of Chuck and Chris and his entire team. And Rocky was up there sponsoring the dinner.
[00:09:35.710] - Coral Martin
And I asked Chuck to introduce us to Rocky, and he did. And we all sat there and started chit-chatting, and they looked over at us and they were like, Can you guys shut the fuck up? We're trying to start dinner. Seriously, shut up. And then we all instantly became best friends, and we were really looking for something to add to the current business business that we were at, even though we were employees. And so we brought the idea originally to the ownership of where we worked. And we thought it was a great idea. We thought it was a way to continue to have at-home restoration business. And I will never forget the feeling leaving that room, but they laughed us out of the room. They were like, You guys want to start a pink plumbing company? Are you kidding me? And I just remember walking back to my office and feeling like, Man, I just suck. And this is such a shitty idea. And I called Rocky a couple of days later, and I said, Hey, I just wanted to thank you for your time, and I really appreciate it. And we have a lot of autonomy in what we do, but we don't own the business, and they don't want to move forward with us.
[00:10:46.290] - Coral Martin
So thank you so much. I think it's such a great idea, but we're going to have to decline, and maybe one day. And he said, Well, what do you mean maybe one day? And I said, Well, I'd love to own a business, Rocky, but... And he goes, Well, what do you mean, you know? No. And I said, Well, I mean, I'm just an employee. I can't own a business. And he's like, Why not? And I said, Oh, I don't know. Maybe money? And he's like, Coral, come on. Money is the easiest thing to find. He's like, You can own a business. I guarantee it. And it was those words that changed everything for us. And I called Kevin and I was like, We're going to be fucking plumbers, dude. And I talked, there's a Christmas party that we had, and I talk about this in it. But I didn't know if it was profitable. I to know if it was good. I just knew it was pink, and I wanted to be a part of it.
[00:11:34.920] - Chris
Okay. I got to stop you there, Coral. This is great. You've got a gift for gab. It's awesome. I want to pivot over to Kevin, then I want to dig into this a little bit more. Kevin, walk us back. Obviously, you and Coral met at some point working at this other company and hit it off and ended up collaborating a lot, working together on staff. But what were you doing before this? What was your intro into the industry?
[00:11:58.840] - Kevin Kittel
The company The company that we worked for was a planned renovation, specializing in senior living, but they did everything, commercial finishes, upgrades, typically. I started with them as basically a foreman or supervisor running individual jobs. I'm responsible for my one job. Worked my way up to where I had a group of project managers that I was responsible for in a very large segment of their business, roughly half. As a part of the plan innovations that they did, another service that they offered was restoration. But it was like restoration as a general contractor. It was a little bit different than being like... They were construction first, restoration second, which is a little bit different than most of the industry. When they brought Coral on, Coral had experience in the large loss segment. She had a very good process as far as how to do TNM and the paperwork and all the things that were involved with that. That wasn't anything that we had ever been exposed to. We were doing commercial restoration, basically by hiring a restoration company, subbing it out to them, collecting the 10 and 10 and the restoration company doing the rest of it.
[00:13:04.500] - Kevin Kittel
Coral came in, and so now it was time to self-perform. The first job that we did, we go out there. I'm going out there as support from the construction basis. Coral is out there to obviously run the show. She gels me a bunch and tells me how I screwed everything up. Then I start to learn how TNM works, and I look at it and go, The finance background in me goes, Well, we can make money doing this, especially the way that we do things. It was a very natural connection of me on the building side, managing the building piece of it and making sure that what we were taking out, we were setting up to put back together in an efficient way that was good for the customer. Then Coral on the other side, managing the restoration processes and techniques and all of the back-end, because she's a savant when it comes to the back-end of all these things. Then the more we work together, the more that I then... I'm a production guy, and I like the parts and pieces. I'm an analytical guy. The second that I could figure out, Hey, this is super cool to figure out how to drive building and to do it the best way possible.
[00:13:58.480] - Kevin Kittel
Then I started taking on more and more of that where Coral was obviously the face and the client relations because a customer would come to me and be like, What do you want to go on in the building? She'd be like, You smack me in the back of your head and say, Shut up and get out of the way. She'd go talk to him and fix whatever I had just screwed up. That's how we came to collaborate. Then as we were... There was always talk, as there isn't any employees of that, Hey, we'd love to do our own thing one day. I had thought for a long time that it would be being a general contractor. Then as the restoration piece of that business started to develop, I fell in love with it. Coral and I were... We were like a team within that business of that. We had that whole segment of the business. We were in charge of it, soup to nuts. We'd always talked about, Gosh, it would be great to just do this on our own, because we were given a lot of autonomy. There were obviously some strings attached and some things that we couldn't do and things that we would have probably done differently.
[00:14:51.460] - Kevin Kittel
The only way to do that is to go hang your own sign and go to work.
[00:14:55.050] - Chris
Sounds like you guys were confronted with an opportunity. Can you guys talk a little bit about that? You mentioned there was an earlier opportunity to either buy into a business or buy a business, and you glossed over that. It didn't work out. Can you go into that a little bit? What was the opportunity you ended up walking away from?
[00:15:09.910] - Kevin Kittel
We were at an industry event and had met somebody at a dinner. It was really a chance encounter, a gentleman just sat down next to me and we struck it off, started to have a conversation, told him what I was doing. He was sharing about his business. He was in a place in his business where he was trying to take it to the next level. He was looking for somebody who was the caliber of Coral and myself, where we were really accustomed to doing large scale commercial projects and being really successful at it. So as a part of that whole conversation, I had told him, Man, I always wanted to own my own business. And that whole side of the story. And he looked at me and he said, Why don't you do it? His offer to us was to come with a lot of the cash, come with the brand recognition, and essentially open a satellite division of his company down in Florida And then we would have a chance to have some earned equity as time progressed. It was a hybrid. We would never own the whole thing, but we also didn't have a whole lot of the risk.
[00:16:09.290] - Kevin Kittel
He was taking on a lot of the risk, and we were the talent, so to speak. And then we were going to build that business out and then also help him with his large loss division that he was trying to get out of the ground within his brand as a whole. And the more Coral and I looked at it, one thing with the two of us that we really share is that we're not really good at following rules. And so we were tired of the rules that were already set for us. And so when we looked at it and said, well, we're just jumping into abiding by another set of rules, and we won't have control over the whole thing. And so for that, we very respectfully stepped away. And to this day, that guy's a great friend of ours. And we actually thank him on a regular basis, because if it wasn't for him having the faith in us to be able to go off and step out on our own, we probably would have been a lot less likely to actually make the jump because it was a scary move. Yeah.
[00:16:58.560] - Chris
Oh, yeah. It's really useful to share that story because so many people have found themselves in that, and they may even have that same opportunity in front of them right now. It is. It's really good to think through, okay, am I going to actually feel good in this arrangement? Am I going to be okay with this? Really smart on you Let's just have the self-awareness to know that you probably wouldn't thrive under that setup. Okay, so you're talking to Rocky. You guys are hanging out with Rocky, and Rocky is a hard guy not to love.
[00:17:25.730] - Brandon
I've got questions around that for sure.
[00:17:28.200] - Chris
I'm curious about that interaction And then ultimately, a lot of people are hearing that story and they're like, okay, so you have no money. Rocky says, well, money is the easiest part. I'm not sure everybody understands exactly how that's true.
[00:17:43.280] - Brandon
Yeah, with a massive exit, Because the serial entrepreneur that has a bank account with more zeros than most.
[00:17:50.880] - Chris
But so take us back to that moment where you guys decide, oh, man, maybe we can buy this franchise, whichever one of you wants to take lead on that. How did that start to come together? God, I don't know how we would do this.
[00:18:04.450] - Brandon
Before you guys get started, I'm just going to say something super obvious for those that maybe are not watching the video. The difference between our two guests' character is really hilarious. Kevin, his face hasn't cracked anything remotely near a smile since we've started. Coral hasn't stopped smiling since we've started. I'm going to assume that somehow that plays a role in your guys' functions within the business. And by the way, Coral Well, thank you. You broke the F-bomb barrier long before I came. Right out of the gates. Normally, that's my problem or job is that I'm the one that gets everybody-Sulty.comfortable..
[00:18:40.880] - Coral Martin
Well, I actually was... You guys remember Keisha Edwards from Hiccup North Carolina?
[00:18:45.770] - Brandon
Sure, yeah.
[00:18:46.530] - Coral Martin
She works for us. She actually ended up down here. Her husband ended up moving. I told her about this, and she goes, Oh, my gosh, I love them. Tell them I said hello. She was like, But they have a potty mouth. I was like, Oh, I'll fit in with them then.
[00:19:03.400] - Brandon
I'll fit right in.
[00:19:04.000] - Chris
How dare you out in us, Keisha.
[00:19:06.110] - Brandon
Gee, that's right. Yeah. What was happening, guys? What was the catalyst with Rocky's speech to you, Coral? How did that turn into the two of you launching a one Tom.
[00:19:17.120] - Coral Martin
Everything in my life, honestly, has been around who I know, not what I know, right? And the connection that you make through time and the relationships that you make over time. And I think I think Rocky saying that as lit a fire under us, where we started to make phone calls, right? We started to talk to people. We started to talk to banks. We started to talk to people. We started to talk to people that might even want to invest or friends or other business owners. And that led us down the path to find the solution that we needed, which was a few hundred thousand dollars to get the thing up off the ground. And we didn't need that much money, so that was helpful. And then we ended We ended up turning around, and in our first year, did a million dollar hurricane with myself and a few amigos. So that was nice to have that cash, too. But I think it really just lit the fire for us to start searching for it, right? And if you don't search for it, you never get it if you don't ask for what you want.
[00:20:17.140] - Coral Martin
We started asking, and we found it, and we were able to get the money. We were able to get a really good deal on it. And I mean, gosh, we're over halfway through repaying it at this point, so that feels good, too. Kevin, do you remember anything different from that?
[00:20:33.240] - Kevin Kittel
I remember it was terrifying, but I think that one of the most important points that Coral is making is that you don't get what you don't ask for. The other big part of this was that both of us throughout our professional careers, one of the things that we always acted in decisions that were made were always, not always in our best interest, but in something of that no matter what, whether it's going to actually maybe negatively benefit us, how do we always be above reproach and never burn a bridge, never do anything that would leave a foul taste in someone's mouth? And so because of that, we had a large group of friends, even larger than we probably even realized. And so the second we got real about talking about it, we didn't just have the money. We have multiple people courting us with money because they realized that we're of high character and that we were going to put our heads down and go to work. And so I think that's a pretty important thing for anybody who's thinking about making the jump is just You don't realize how many people are your fans until you put it out there.
[00:21:33.250] - Brandon
Yeah, that's super interesting. So I'm just curious, get a little bit of nuance here. So Rocky makes this statement to you, Coral. You were the one that reached out to him. Was there this immediate ring of Kevin, like, dude, you don't ever guess what happened or how did it go from Rocky-inspired to the first action step?
[00:21:52.060] - Coral Martin
Oh, yeah. I called him straight up on the phone and was like, we're going to be plumbers. We're going to figure this out, man. We're going to do it.
[00:21:58.940] - Kevin Kittel
Coral comes in my office to give me the update because she was having the conversation because you guys can't tell she's the front end of the relationships. She comes in, tells me the thing, and she goes, Rocky said that we can do this on our own. Do you think we can do it? I said, Well, let me run the numbers. It built out a spreadsheet and came back to her about four hours later and said, Oh, yeah, we can do it. Here's what we need. Here's what we can do. And we took that and ran with it.
[00:22:20.780] - Brandon
There was a little bit of sharpening the pencil and going to work to see if you could affirm what Rocky was selling.
[00:22:26.750] - Kevin Kittel
It was just putting pen to paper in something that I could digest as the financial mind of our partnership to see, hey, what would it take? What's the real dollars and sense of it? We're going to truly jump out of a plane without a parachute because we're going to quit our jobs with some nominal savings and open this thing and pray that the parachute opens when we pull the road cord. And so for me, it was more just like, okay, assuming we can get this amount of traction and this amount of people, what can we do so that we could make an educated decision that was going to affect potentially the rest of our lives?
[00:22:58.710] - Coral Martin
I'll also say, because They don't... This is pivoting a little bit, but they don't get enough credit for this. But Kevin and I literally came home and in those moments, looked at both of our spouses and we're like, we're quitting our jobs. And mind you, my income came from one company. So if I was quitting my job, my husband was quitting his job, too. And Kevin's wife was in dental and loved it. That was what she wanted to do with her life, and she was good at it. And their support really made the process easy, too, because I think people forget that sometimes when you're going to open a business. I get that maybe that's your craft, but it also has to be the love of your partner, because if it's not, then you're at a constant disagreement and you're constantly at arms. So it was really pivotal in our whole journey that both of our partners, we walked in that day and they said, Let's go. Let's do this thing. They never questioned us. They never hesitated. My husband, actually, for a while, worked two jobs. He worked during the day here and worked at night at the space center.
[00:24:12.000] - Coral Martin
Get off at three and we'd say, Hey, we got this.
[00:24:15.610] - Kevin Kittel
Can you save us this way? He was the savior a lot of days.
[00:24:18.530] - Coral Martin
He spent his 30th birthday in a bar, unclogging a sewer drain. That was just a ton of our life.
[00:24:24.890] - Brandon
That's been a true team sport from the very beginning. Okay, I'm curious, and I don't know, maybe I'm drawing attention to something weird. But Chris and I can relate to the fact that it's this work-marriage thing. When you're a business partner and your business partner is in a startup environment, it's all-consuming. There's just so much life that you're sharing with this person just to survive and build the machine and do the thing. Let's see, I guess we just can be black and white. It's two dudes, right? My partners aren't worried about my work wife because it's Chris, right? So you guys, obviously, that's a little bit different dynamic. How come there's just this collective support of you two? What are your partners seeing? What does that internal dialog look like between you all, where there's this really profound trust that you guys are meant to work alongside of each other? How do you balance that internally as couples? You know what I mean?
[00:25:17.330] - Coral Martin
I thought about that the other day because it is interesting, right? It's just so uncommon. And Kevin and I see so very often where you'll have a male and female partnership, and then you realize that they're banging. And we're like, but we're... It's almost like finding out Santa Claus isn't real. It breaks your heart a little bit. But it is very different.
[00:25:43.220] - Brandon
Yeah, it's true. You were going where I was going, right? How do you guys... What does that look like? How come there is so much trust between the four of you? What is the background and how that's been the case?
[00:25:55.750] - Kevin Kittel
I think it's a built thing in that... Before I worked with Coral, I I worked with Rick, so I had a relationship with him. He was one of my direct reports at the old company. As a part of that, we were friends, and he had saw our character and everything else. And so when he brought Coral in. When Coral came into the fold at the business that we were at, Coral and I worked together a lot. And so, Rick, I already had the friendship with her husband. When she came in and then we became friends, it was just a natural thing. Then Coral and I traveled the country together before we ever even jumped into business. We spent all kinds of time together, out of town, in hurricane situations where you're in a house and you're just praying that the lights turn on when you get there. We spent a lot of time in really close quarters. I think that just as the relationship generated, the trust just happened over time.
[00:26:46.630] - Coral Martin
Kevin and I are super close, but I've probably only ever touched Kevin twice in my life. You know what I mean? We don't hug. We're not that close. We're good friends. You know what I mean? But we're not like that.
[00:27:00.940] - Brandon
There's the takeaway. For business partners, no touching. No touching.
[00:27:04.870] - Coral Martin
No touching.
[00:27:05.730] - Brandon
We got to change things up, bro.
[00:27:07.840] - Chris
I start rubbing his shoulders and he looks at me funny.
[00:27:11.140] - Coral Martin
Yeah, it's weird.
[00:27:12.560] - Chris
Hey, okay. This is really interesting. How long have you guys owned the One Tom now? How long have you guys been open for business?
[00:27:18.610] - Coral Martin
Two and a half years. Is that right, Kevin? Two and a half?
[00:27:21.170] - Kevin Kittel
Yeah, pretty close.
[00:27:22.240] - Chris
Okay. Sort of early days, right, in terms of One Tom's coming into the market and whatnot. You guys are one of the early one of the OGs. And it was also both of your first businesses that you owned, is that right? Yes. First business owner? Okay. What was the biggest shock or biggest fear or difficulty that you guys encountered as you opened the business that really knocked you off balance for a moment? Was there anything that you were like, Oh, my God, this is real now? Yeah. We talk about this a lot is when we first started, our only employee was unpaid, and it was my mother.
[00:28:00.170] - Coral Martin
And we used to joke that she kept us out of jail. That was her job. Because Kevin and I, in our minds, had this vision where Kevin was going to run production. I was going to run systems, processes, and marketing. And we were just going to have this great business, right? Because that's all it takes to run a business. And then we realized we're like, oh, wait, you need a business license? I didn't know I needed a business license. We didn't know that we had to pay. We got a bill for tax taxes for some equipment that we owned or whatever. We're like, what? We have to pay this bill? So there were so many things going through the process of developing a business that is just not what you think. It's all the minutiae. And there's no book on it. There's nobody that tells you. I mean, I don't even think there's really a podcast on it that is like, from day one, you need to register this and do this and have an OSHA manual and do this over here. It just all of those little things. I mean, we were just constantly stepping our toe in that first year, which was shocking and difficult.
[00:29:06.760] - Coral Martin
It was very stressful in the very beginning.
[00:29:09.310] - Brandon
How do you prevent that from overwhelming you? Or did you have moments where you're like, F this? What have we done?
[00:29:16.700] - Coral Martin
I think our personalities is that we will never give up. We absolutely were overwhelmed. I mean, the first year, none of us slept. We worked all day at the office. We literally, Kevin and I would go concrete eat together. Rick was over at the Space Center. Chelsea's grabbing the three kids and helping us answer phones. None of us were sleeping. We were delusional at times because we were just so damn tired. We had terrible employees because we were brand new, right? So you know how it is, the first guys that you hire. I mean, it was. It was everything that could break you was breaking us. We just refused to be 100% broken, and we just kept pushing forward Because at the end of the day, I felt a responsibility to Kevin and his family. Kevin feels a responsibility to my family and my dreams, and it wasn't going to fail. It never was going to happen. And we worked so much. I think being in restoration really prepared us to be business owners because you're not in restoration. You're on hour 15 in a hurricane. You haven't showered in two days or had a good meal, and you got to keep going.
[00:30:28.440] - Coral Martin
And I think we took a little bit of that and inserted it here and just kept pushing forward because failure was not an option. It wasn't going to happen. That's the least way I see it. What about you, Kevin?
[00:30:38.250] - Kevin Kittel
Yeah, I think that we put our blinders on and went to work. And when all those things popped up, I don't know how much attention we really paid to them. What ended up happening was the support staff around us ended up screaming at us and beating us over the head until we finally stopped long enough to deal with whatever it was. Because like Coral said, you don't know what you don't know when you open a business and There are a lot of duties as a business owner that have nothing to do with whatever the product is or whatever you're selling. It's all the the insurances and the licenses and all those very fun things that you have to do that nobody likes to do. I think that a big portion of our success from that probably really comes from Coral's Mom, Susan or my wife, Chelsea, who were in the background saying, Hey, you're forgetting this. Hey, you're forgetting that. Until we would finally stop and try and tend to whatever we had managed to screw up.
[00:31:31.590] - Coral Martin
And we're scrappy. That's just how we've always been. We were plumbing out a Chevy Malibu in the beginning. My nephew would sit and do his homework in the front seat while my brother went and unclogged a drain.
[00:31:42.660] - Kevin Kittel
For the record, there was a pink plunger on the side in case Cameron or Rocky are listening.
[00:31:48.760] - Coral Martin
You're following all one-time obligations.
[00:31:52.880] - Chris
I think you'll hear from other business owners is they'll be like, Well, yeah, we didn't have a guy, so we couldn't do that job.
[00:32:00.660] - Coral Martin
And Kevin and I will hear statements like that, and we're like, what? What do you mean you didn't have a guy so you couldn't go do that job? Because if we don't have a guy, we're going to do that job. It's our business. It doesn't matter. We do whatever it takes, no matter what.
[00:32:14.390] - Brandon
It's interesting the connection you make to that storm response, cat loss response, because I think you're spot on. It's something that we've talked about a lot internally with our promotion of military personnel into our industry. You get people that have been in combat without arms. They've been placed for multiple years in scenarios where it's high stress, it's high demand. This idea of an eight to five is like a non-negotiable. It doesn't even make sense to them. They don't care about it. There's this general grit mentality of adapt and overcome, which at the end of the day makes us more successful in our industry because the industry demands it. I think that's a really unique connection that you're making. I think it's informative and affirmative for those that are in our industry, grinding gears, getting their launch, getting their startup, building their business, is that we are uniquely equipped to do hard things because the environment's demanded it from us. And so I think it's really cool to watch that win out for you guys as you've taken on your own endeavor.
[00:33:15.070] - Chris
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[00:33:58.210] - Brandon
Com/bloodlight. We spend a lot of money and a lot of attention trying to get that first call. And one of the things that we do once it happens is sometimes we leave it to chance, right? Who picks up the phone? How do they respond? How do they walk that client into a relationship with us? Well, one of the benefits of partnering with a team like answerforce. Com is we can systemize that, we can make it more consistent. We can also have backup for when our teams need that help, right? Somebody goes on vacation, somebody's out sick. We get a storm search, we get cat event. All sorts of things can have an impact on how we receive that client. But the most important thing is they need to know that they've chosen the right team. And so answerforce. Com can support you, be a bolt on partner to help you consistently produce an awesome onboarding experience with that first call with your client. So answerforce. Com/bloodlight. That's great.
[00:34:51.870] - Chris
Cnr magazine, we're friends with all the folks at CNR. Michelle and her team, they do a great job of keeping their ear to the ground and reporting all the important information from our industry. Industry. You want to stay up on all the M&A activity and what the latest best practices are for selling your company successfully. She's got that. Great articles about all the four quadrants of our business. Cnr is constantly pushing out great material and leveraging great writers and subject matter experts in our industry. It is the water-cooler of our industry. If you're not subscribed, go to cnrmagazine. Com. Follow them on LinkedIn. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn. Trust us, if you're trying to stay on top of everything happening in the industry, your best destination is cnrmagazine. Com.
[00:35:35.290] - Brandon
You guys, many of you have already heard about Actionable Insights and the training and the technical expertise that they bring to the industry. But how many of you are already leveraging the Actionable Insights profile for Xactimate. That's the game changer. It's essentially an AI tool that's walking alongside of you as you write your estimate, bringing things to your attention that should be added, that could be considered, All of them items that increase our profitability, increase the effectiveness and the consistency of that scope. It can do anything from helping a new team member assimilate some estimating best practices. It also helps the grizzled vets add back that few % that we've just forgot over time. So actionableinsights, getinsights. Org/ floodlight, and take a look at what the actionableinsights Xactimate profile could be doing for you and your team.
[00:36:29.230] - Chris
One of the things I'm curious, and certainly all the small business owners out there that are listening to us, I think, might be curious about the same thing. How did it go in terms of getting sales when you first started? I mean, one Tom, we do know, has been pretty extraordinarily successful with some of their digital marketing and branding campaigns and the stuff that corporate is doing, at least from our perspective and what we've heard from other folks. But was where the phone is just ringing off the hook and you had as much business as you wanted day one? Or was how did you guys figure out sales and growth? What did you encounter as far as that goes?
[00:37:05.210] - Coral Martin
We grew up in this town, so we had a little bit of a reputation here before we got started, even though neither one of us ever worked in this town. I never had a career here before we did this, but people knew us. One of the things that I will tell anybody that's interested in opening a one Tom and comes from the restoration industry is that plumbing is the easiest thing to sell in the world. Everybody needs plumbing, and everybody understands what it is. When you go to sell restoration, you're going to sell an idea to somebody about something that may happen in their lifetime that most of them don't understand. They can't see it, they can't touch it. Sometimes they can smell it, but they can't see that water in the wall. They look at the wall and it looks normal. When you talk about plumbing with somebody, it is so obtainable. A stay-at-home mom that's ever been on a construction site in her life understands what plumbing is. She understands what her water heater is. She understands all of these things, and in the commercial level as well. It's just such an easier thing to talk about.
[00:38:10.400] - Coral Martin
Versus walking in the door and having to talk about restoration that, Hey, you might have this issue. In the very beginning, one, our phones did explode. Then two, on the days that we would get slow, I would just go out and talk to people. I'd be like, Hey, you need a plumber? You need something fixed? You need this? You need that? We We did a lot of community outreach. We did a lot of things that were unconventional. We had a booth at a craft fair, and we passed out plungers deal, and peak popsicles to the kids because it was summertime. You know what I mean? We did the boat raid, we had an airplane flying by, and it said, Call one Tom Plumber, the name is the number, across the beach. We did lots of things like that that were really just... It wasn't necessarily... We weren't going to get ROI from it, but we were putting our name out there. We were recreating meeting a brand in the community. And then we really tried to change how the service industry is perceived. And that starts with your employees and your guys. And I want my guys to know that they're valued and that they're just as good, and they probably make more money than an executive or maybe even a doctor sometimes.
[00:39:21.280] - Coral Martin
I mean, these guys are making great money, and they should be respected that way, and they should respect themselves, and they should respect their job, and they should respect customers, and then that trickles all the way down. So I think that helped us a lot by just really making our mark that we were different. We were pink, we were here to do plumbing. We were different. We offered a different level of customer service. And honestly, by the time we got through a year of this, I looked at Kevin and said, Pick a service, any service, because we can make it a million dollar business in a year. We know exactly how to do it. Because I think a lot of people lose in the service industry, the customer service and truly being a professional and not being a blue collar type person. We do blue collar work, but we need to act like professionals.
[00:40:08.950] - Brandon
Dude, that is so... Okay, I want to hang in this pocket for just a minute because I find this super interesting. One of the things my daughter and I were having a conversation a couple of days ago, one evening. We were just chatting about her age group. She's 23, basically. My son's 25. They're in this group that we've seen as... I don't know how to say this exactly, but they're in one of these transition groups where they're more native to tech, they're more native to some of the things I think that we would all experience around social media, social media anxiety, some of the things that it's pushing, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, here's where I'm going with this. They're also, though, one of these groups that I feel like has their eyes on and are returning to the valuing of blue collar service industries, the work, the type of income that you can get from it, the type of business ownership opportunities, all these things. And they were, my daughter and I, as we were talking about that, she was even speaking to the fact that the generation just below theirs, so let's call it another eight or so years younger than her, they're very interested in the trades, very interested.
[00:41:13.800] - Brandon
And we've got some very big influencers now that are pushing this revival on Tradecraft and being a professional that does work with their hands to earn a good income and be respected that way. And so I guess part of where I'm going with that, my question to you guys is, is that How has that been your experience? Are you guys finding that there is a larger audience now that is interested in participating in something like this? Or do you guys still feel like your business is maybe still early in that engagement? What's your worldview regarding this receptiveness to the surge in blue collar again and tradecraft again?
[00:41:51.130] - Kevin Kittel
I think that society as a whole is changing. When you see people that are maybe in your kids' generation, they're looking at things where when Coral and I were in school, it was, Hey, go be a doctor, go be a lawyer. That was the push. Go to a four-year university. When you leave, you're going to have a great job and a great life, and this and that and the other. I think that a lot of people coming out of that, like '08 to 2010 type of thing, if they were in school in that area, you come out of school and you look at it and you're like, oh, my gosh, I got a four-year degree. I got $200,000 of student loan debt, and I can't get a job making $35,000 a year. I think that now you're starting to see a paradigm shift where enough people have seen that, Oh, you You can do that and walk out of a four-year institution with not a whole lot, or you can learn a trade directly out of high school, refine that trade, spend that four years getting good at it. In your same time frame, you're somebody who's making six figures comfortably.
[00:42:45.600] - Kevin Kittel
The service industry in plumbing, especially, is a young man's sport because it's very physically demanding. You don't see a lot of older people doing the job very successfully. They might know how to do it, but it's hard on your body, and your body can only hold for so long. The majority of our staff is probably 35 or below. We have a few younger guys on the team. I think that there's still a lack culturally, in my view, of people who want to work hard. They think that it's just going to be easy, that it's more of that entitlement culture. This is not an industry where that works. There's money to be made and there's opportunity everywhere that you look. Coral just said, We turn the phones on and it exploded overnight. We didn't know what to do. That's why we were plumbing out a sedant. But our main problem was a manpower issue. We don't have a manpower issue now in that people come because we've built a reputation and we pay our guys very well. We have a lot of guys that are coming. But bringing that up and coming generation, it's very hard still to find people who want to work hard physically.
[00:43:54.180] - Kevin Kittel
They might say that they want to, but then they get into it and they realize what the true physical demands of it are. And a lot of times they change their mind.
[00:44:02.770] - Brandon
One of the things that we saw firsthand, because we've had some extended time with the one Tom family there at HQ, and Chris and I also have, let's just a closet interest in one Tom and what it would look like for us to even participate in some of that. One of the things that we had the opportunity to see was their home office, like the actual One Tom Plumber outfit that was running their day-to-day business. We had a chance to hang out with Sunny, I believe is his name, and watched their team. I remember walking into their shop, and it was one of the days of the week. It was just a morning tech meeting, essentially. Yeah, it wasn't even... You guys do once a week. There's more of a culture-focused team meeting, right? This was just your run-of-the morning huddle. I was really excited to watch, one, the youth of the team members' faces. They were some young men in that room. Then to hear Sonny and his staff talk about those team members' competency and their sales growth and what doing on a day to day basis, how they manage themselves and how they're finding success out in the field.
[00:45:05.340] - Brandon
And I just thought, in general, there was a really interesting thing happening in terms of how they were treating them, how they were talking to them and the expectations they set for them. Could you guys dive into that a little bit? What is some of those things that the system, the franchise itself is focused on? And how have you guys continued to leverage that to create that cohesiveness and some of that? Those factors It's like you were talking about, Coral, of we have to respect ourselves and act like professionals. We might be doing blue collar work. So just give us some picture. What does that look like in day to day life at One Tom with you guys?
[00:45:41.410] - Coral Martin
One of the things that One Tom is really adamant about is one the uniform and the look of the guys. The second thing that they're really adamant on is the culture meeting that you just mentioned there. And not that Kevin and I were against that. Honestly, one of our biggest gripes about where we worked before is Kevin was there for 11 years and they didn't even know his wife's name. It makes you feel very alone and they don't care about you and you're putting all this time into something and traveling all across the country and you're away from your family. I never even had a cheeseburger with the owner of that company. Every Thursday, we have fellowship together, and that is something that one Tom corporate initiated originally, and then we have developed that. We We cook a homemade breakfast every Thursday. And this is not... We don't go to Chick-fil A. We don't pick up McDonald's Mcgrittles. We literally cook. I think tomorrow, he's making breakfast burgers. We do steak and eggs. We do breakfast tacos. We do fruit phase with them. I mean, it's a spread. And in the very beginning, it was hard to get the guys to come in for that stuff.
[00:46:53.140] - Coral Martin
And now they appreciate it. They're like, Oh, what are we having for breakfast this week? But it was really about bringing in that community together. We're at the point right now with our guys. And I cried in my office a week ago because it was just so beautiful, but it was 6:30 at night, and we had five or six plumbers out there in the office just hanging out. And I think sometimes as owners that we forget these people want to be our friends. And I get why they can't be your friend, friend, right? And I get that. I understand that. But they think we're cool. They think what we're doing is cool. They're a part of this mission and what we're pushing forward, and they appreciate our insight and the way we look at life, and they want to be a part of it. You're going to find a person that's just a jerk and doesn't want to. But for the most part, people want to be a part of something that's bigger than them, that they can attach to, that they can be a part of the group. And so many people nowadays are lonely.
[00:47:52.800] - Coral Martin
That's just the reality, is that you have a lot of loneliness in this world. And so we put a a lot of time into, and this started because of One Tom corporate. We put a lot of time into making sure that our staff knows that they are valuable, that we appreciate them, and that they're not just a number. I know that this makes everybody cringe, but we're a family. The reality is, is we spend more time together than anybody spends at home. We got to like what we're doing, and we got to work well together, and we have to take care of each other. It's not just about doing your job and nothing else that needs to be done. We need to be there for each other. And that's very important to us. We didn't want to carry the culture of what we came from into our business, and we refused to do that because that's why we left. If the culture would have been different and if we would have made a little bit more money, we probably wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation right now. We were high-performing employees, and they lost us over that.
[00:48:51.840] - Coral Martin
We made a promise to each other that we would not forget what it felt like to spend Rick's 30th their birthday unclog in a sewer drink, because that's what your people go through. Yeah, that's right. When you start to make money and you start to have a bigger office and things start to get a little bit easier, you tend to forget about that stuff. Your staff realizes it, and then they act accordingly, thing. So we have a real big push of that here.
[00:49:18.600] - Chris
Well, so this has been really great. I appreciate you guys' transparency, really talking through a lot of these different pieces of your guys' experience. Bring us to present day. So two and a half years in, As much as you're comfortable sharing, where are you guys at today? And then as we land the plane in our conversation, where are you at today? And then what's the vision for, say, the next two and a half years?
[00:49:39.820] - Kevin Kittel
So we're at the phase in our business where we've built the foundation We've put in the hard work, we've held our nose to the grindstone. We've given a lot more than we've received, I would say, in all aspects, whether it's time, financially, just in general. We've grown a team from what was four of us when we started to we're a team a little over 20 now. We're running nine vans. We're pushing to get a 10th on the road. We're actually starting to set up some processes to where we've been owner operators in every sense of the word, down to putting the shovel in the ground. We're now to the point where for the business to grow any further, we have to put the shovels down and work truly on the business and not in the business. Coral has been a lot better at that in that she's already stepped away from that piece of it, and she's a lot more working on how things get done in the processes within the business. Whereas I'm a little bit more hard-headed in on the production guys, it's a little bit more difficult. But we're now to the point where I need to step out.
[00:50:45.810] - Kevin Kittel
There needs to be somebody who becomes a general manager to run the day-to-day because our plan and our commitment is not to just have this one Tom. We'll actually have five when we're done. The markets that are next to us, too, There are really great markets that we could really jump into and be super successful right now. But we're trying to create that process and have it so tight that when we go, we don't lose the heart and soul of the business. So for us, that's where we're at. Is every dollar that we've made has gone directly into the business, whether it's buying equipment, inventory, more vans, expanding the office, all those things. Now what we're looking at is that we don't have a business that is hitting the profitability that we would want to see, because we've spent on all these things. And so now what we're really looking at is, okay, as we dial in these processes, how do we take that 8% and go to 10? How do we take that 15% job and go to 20? What are those things? Where the time sucks? Where are the guys going in? And that job, they only did for $200, and it really should have been $500 because, yeah, that's only a couple of $100, but you do that 300 times in a month, and that number is a really big number.
[00:51:57.820] - Kevin Kittel
So for us in our journey, that's where we are, we're finding ourselves as entrepreneurs is really getting into it. And we have a great business. It's very well respected. Our phone rings off. Hope we're very blessed in that regard. Even when other businesses that are like ours around our town are slow, we tend to not be just because of the customer base we have, and they're fiercely loyal. We were just in a parade the other day, and there were people literally screaming on the streets, one Tom plumber. I mean, it was incredible. Coral was in the back. We were supposed to be making snow, and a coral is just weeping because she's like, this is the most beautiful thing ever. But so we have all that. And so now it's really just how do we create a business that doesn't need us to run every day so that we can go do some of these other things.
[00:52:40.470] - Brandon
Guys, from just one last question, I think is, from your perspective, this has been two and a half years that normally for most businesses, the first five years are excruciatingly challenging. You're two and a half years in, you've got this thing right on the horizon where you need to begin shifting and working on the business If you had to give people one or two key mental shifts that they need to be prepared for to make the commitment that you're talking about. And Kevin, maybe this is best for you since you're the one having, maybe by the sounds of it, the hardest time making the shift. What would you tell somebody to your left and right, how to get out of their own way and make the shift that you're committed to right now?
[00:53:22.160] - Kevin Kittel
I think you got to trust your team. You got to trust what you build. And you have to have the realization that if you only want to be what you are right now, then keep doing what you're doing. If you have a bigger vision, then you have to allow people to help you build it. And part of that is stepping away. And then I was actually listening to you all's podcast in preparation for this, and I listened to one about accountability. And I thought that you guys had some really good things of that you've got to create accountability loops of, okay, someone else is going and doing the task. I'm now coming in and looking in on this task to make sure that it's being done properly.
[00:53:54.800] - Brandon
Tell me more about what you learned from us. Kevin, I just got caught. No, I'm just kidding. Well, listen, guys, this has been really fun.
[00:54:05.560] - Chris
It's exactly the energy I think we were hoping for with these owner stories. Really appreciate you guys coming in and sharing really candidly. Even two and a half years in, I think for people listening that are small business owners. One, I think I'm sure the vast majority of them can relate a lot to the transition point that you guys are in. So again, it's one of we talk about this a lot of just how knowing you're not alone in this game, it sometimes is all the difference you need to just keep going. There's a lot of inspiration here for folks listening. I really appreciate that.
[00:54:37.320] - Brandon
I just want to add something to that really quickly. Unbeknownst, probably to you guys, we're actually pretty well acquainted with some fellow One Tom plumbers, and they unanimously have all spoken very highly of your guys' willingness to provide information, share experience, be willing to take a phone call. I think that you guys are constantly highlighted from Rocky and the team in terms of people that will give a real answer on what the experience has been like. The only reason I just bring that up is I think that's part of what was contributing to your guys' personal brand that you referenced as part of your success is the goodwill for those to your left and right. I will tell you as a third party person with zero connection to you before today, I would affirm your guys's story is true, and we've heard it through our other relationship that you walk that walk. I think it is a major contributor to your guys's success already. Just highlight that for folks listening is we have a tough time, I think, especially in the early days of building our businesses, where we just really lose sight of the fact that, look, this shared experience makes us all better.
[00:55:48.800] - Brandon
There's not some fat trade secret that somehow is going to make your business so much different than somebody else. It really boils down to your ability to execute. Anyways, I'm just affirming your guys' willingness to share That continues to be the case. And a lot of people talk about you from that perspective, just FYI.
[00:56:05.850] - Coral Martin
Thank you. That's really nice. Thank you.
[00:56:08.060] - Brandon
Yeah, big time. Yeah, it's been pretty overwhelming, actually. We've gotten a little. Yeah.
[00:56:14.080] - Chris
We'll Kevin, Coral, thank you again for joining us and your first appearance on the Head Heart and Boots podcast. Congratulations. But yeah, God bless you guys and best of luck here as you finish out this year and moving forward. I'm sure we'll be in touch in the future.
[00:56:29.400] - Coral Martin
Absolutely. Thank you, guys. Merry early Christmas.
[00:56:32.000] - Brandon
Yeah, same to you guys. Oh, gosh. Yeah.
[00:56:34.300] - Kevin Kittel
Take care.
[00:56:38.660] - Brandon
All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head Heart and Boots.
[00:56:44.090] - Chris
If you're enjoying the show, if you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.