[00:00:00.400] - Chris Nordyke
Hey, bro. Back in the saddle, huh?
[00:00:02.120] - Brandon Reece
Man. Yeah. It's been a minute. I'm getting... I'm not going to say it. I was going to make some bad horse riding joke. I'm like, that's not worth it. Yeah, back again. Boy, long time, dude. I don't even forgot how to put the headphones on. Yeah. All these things, headphones, earphones?
[00:00:22.020] - Chris Nordyke
Yeah, they're called Cans. Whatever we want to call them. We got a fun show. We've been wanting... We set out this year to do more owner stories. They're fun for us, but we've got some great feedback on other owners we brought on this past year. We're going to do more of that. Johnny G, good old Johnny G, was up to the task. The interesting thing about Johnny is he was our very first consulting client. I met him when I had a small coaching business pre-F floodlight. Essentially, he morphed from an executive coaching prospect into a full-on restoration consulting client and was the genesis of you and I forming Floodlight. That's always fun, a little nostalgic for us.
[00:01:05.240] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, that's right. Those are those kinds of friendships, really. They get built over time. It's like putting on an old pair of shoes. It's just like, it's just the old brother in arms.
[00:01:19.640] - Chris Nordyke
Yeah. You hear about his evolution as a business owner and talk about some of his origin story that shaped who he is and how he shows up and how that's changed. Even just over the last few years, he's had a real significant transformation in how he looks at the business and how he handles himself. I think there's something in here that probably most owners will have something they can grab onto and relate to.
[00:01:44.510] - Brandon Reece
I mean, we tag in the mental health and just the ramifications of that on decision making, caution in the business. I mean, we cover some territory, but the dude's just such good-hearted guy, and he's really had some unbelievably great success just as he's matured as a business owner and individual. It's always just fun to talk with old friends. That's right.
[00:02:03.900] - Chris Nordyke
Let's go. Yeah. By the way, I should say before we hang up here, if you know of a business owner, you have somebody that you admire in the industry that you'd love for us to get on for owner stories, just shoot us a DM. You know how to reach out to us, Brandon Reece or Chris Nordyke on LinkedIn, and shoot us a message and say, Hey, I love it. If you get this guy or gal on. We'll do our best to get him on for another owner story.
[00:02:26.100] - Brandon Reece
That's right.
[00:02:26.820] - Johnny Gabe
Let's go. Wow.
[00:02:28.020] - Chris Nordyke
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.
[00:02:38.660] - Brandon Reece
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.
[00:02:48.410] - Chris Nordyke
I'm noticing that, and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose.
[00:02:51.480] - Brandon Reece
No, I don't. I didn't, and I am not happy with it. Well, now, Johnny G. Johnny G, for those loyal fans that have been in the pocket with us now for some time, they may see this as a reboot, but for the rest of the world, you may not know it happened. Johnny G, technically, this is round two. We're going to call this officially round one. Welcome back to the show, my friend.
[00:03:14.440] - Johnny Gabe
Thanks for having me back.
[00:03:15.860] - Brandon Reece
God, dude, I feel... I'm going to be real honest here. I'm feeling a little rusty. Are you? A little rusty, a little out of pocket. For those of you that been hanging out with Chris and I for a while, we've had some different adventures running in the background, and boy, one has kept me Kept me busy.
[00:03:31.530] - Chris Nordyke
Burning the candle at both ends.
[00:03:32.560] - Brandon Reece
Burning the candle, boys and girls. Anyways, it's been a while since we've recorded. We got to correct that. I blame Chris, but...
[00:03:39.620] - Chris Nordyke
Well, I've been looking forward to this. Johnny, a little bit of background for folks that are new or whatever. Johnny was our very first client at Floodlight.
[00:03:48.840] - Brandon Reece
I think we have his fake $2 bill he paid us, like frame somewhere. Yeah.
[00:03:54.500] - Chris Nordyke
It's really been fun to journey with you, man. Along the way, we've had a lot of personal and professional and learn more about your story. Part of what prompted this, apart from just wanting to have you on to talk about your experience as a business owner, is also for you to share a little bit more of your story. You have a really fantastic restory. I mean, it's a restory of- Did you just say restory? I guess I did. That was clever.
[00:04:15.780] - Brandon Reece
Was that on purpose?
[00:04:16.900] - Chris Nordyke
No, but let's roll with it. To have you share your restory with others. I mean, seriously, though, it's a story in some ways of redemption. It's also a huge story of achievement. I mean, You're one of those American dream guys. Really, you're living it out. And yet it didn't start there. I just think it'd be really rad for you to walk people through your origin story and what exactly you're up to today. Then Brandon and I will just pepper you with questions as we go. Johnny, why don't you just open it up with how did Johnny get it start? What's the origin story that Johnny gave, man?
[00:04:54.460] - Johnny Gabe
Man, I had a pepper pass, but we're not going to go too much into that.
[00:04:58.120] - Chris Nordyke
A what pass? What do you mean?
[00:05:00.060] - Johnny Gabe
A pepper. We're not going to toss any salads here, okay, Chris?
[00:05:05.700] - Brandon Reece
Oh, my gosh. Then I was in this place. Insider. Little insider. Insider joke. That broke the ice. That's great. Well played, Johnny.
[00:05:16.710] - Johnny Gabe
Well played. Yeah, I tried, man. About 2014, I started my own construction company, and I did that for a few years. Me and my wife started it together. She told me, You need to pay taxes and do the right thing. I'm like, Man, I don't really... Why do I have to do that? She's like, Well, if you don't, you'll never have a company. It'll just always be a thing. A side hustle. So I listened. Yeah, so I listened to her, and then we went and moved on. We could never really break $1. 1 million. I was like, What the hell? Even though $1. 1 million was way more than I ever I can imagine making... That was a lot to me. I remember the first check I got, it was for $5,000. I was so stoked. I was like, Okay, we got to figure something else out. It was right around 2017, I met a guy named Justin. He came on board. Man, he was probably one of my best hires at the time. He helped even mold things a little bit differently. This was back when our HR department was a pair of boxing gloves and the shop floor.
[00:06:34.220] - Johnny Gabe
That was crazy. Yeah. So- Those are efficient HR systems.
[00:06:39.540] - Brandon Reece
Just not a lot of CYA attached to that.
[00:06:42.900] - Chris Nordyke
Direct discipline, yes.
[00:06:44.700] - Johnny Gabe
I know, man, it was intense. We did that for a while, man. He was like, If you want to grow, this is probably not the way to do it, man. He said, We should rethink things. In about, it was a 2019, at the beginning of the year, we just came out of a good year, but it just wasn't good enough. I was just like, Man, we got to figure something. I got this email from a restoration company that was trying to sell us on a restoration. He did his research and I was like, What do you think? He said, Yeah, I think we should pull the trigger on it. So we did it and it ended up doing good, man. Our first year was like 700,000. And then we were like, Man, here we go again with this $1 million ceiling thing again. We better hire somebody that knows what the heck is going on. And then that's when we I met you guys. And it was like a burden had been lifted from my shoulders. It was crazy. I was like, finally, somebody's going to tell me how to be a business person.
[00:07:42.180] - Brandon Reece
Little did you know what you were trading for.
[00:07:45.440] - Johnny Gabe
Dude. The crazy part is I remember showing up to the meetings, and I remember the feeling, because you guys would always hold me so accountable. If I didn't have what it was that I was supposed to have for you guys, I just remember the awkward... You'd look at me and say, So did you do what we asked you to do from last week?
[00:08:07.700] - Brandon Reece
And I'm like, Why the F do you have us if you're not going to listen to us? Yeah, I think we did come out of the gate a little stronger with you.
[00:08:18.100] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. You... Yeah, no. I needed it, though. I was definitely one of those people. I needed it. We did great, man. It was fun. We went from what? I think our first year was when we went with you guys. It was like we went from 700,000 to 1. 7 right away. And then it just kept going. I think we made it to three million before we realized that we were missing another piece of the puzzle. So we found 1-Tom plumber, and I went out there and we checked it out, and I was like, Man, this is pretty cool. I never thought about being a plumber before. I always gave that plumbing work away, man. People call you and ask you if you do plumbing, and you have to say no. Then you'd tell them on the phone call, while you're a restoration company, Well, we can come out and do that. Well, they weren't interested. They wanted to figure out the plumbing first. Then after the plumbing stops being plumbing, then they'll talk about restoration. But they needed to stop flooding first. So we just always lost those calls. We were just like, it makes sense.
[00:09:21.960] - Johnny Gabe
It makes total sense. One of the biggest things, and then we were still in the thought process of that. Then one of the biggest things was the turning point for us was when we were at, it was during one of those polar vortexes. It was a deep freeze for a week straight. We get this call from one of our property management accounts, and it's a pretty big one. They said that the water being broken, they needed our help. It's flooding. We get out there and we're like, Where is this even coming from? It's just like water pouring out of the cracks of the concrete inside of this brand new store. We're like, Okay, we got to call a plumber. And we just listened to this podcast. We just listened to this podcast That's what we heard about one time and all that stuff right before this. And called 21 Plumbers, and of the 21 Plumbers, only four people responded. And of those four, one showed up. That happened on a Friday and on a Tuesday, that one came out. So that many days later, and that was their emergency call. That was their emergency response time.
[00:10:21.820] - Johnny Gabe
So they get out there, they get out there and they shut the water off. And when they shut the water off, they had to dig through ice just to get to the stop box. So they shut the water off. They get the water off, and then they come out, and a couple of days later to repair the thing. And they ended up charging, now that I know what these things are, they ended up charging for a two-inch mainline. It was like $100,000. I was like, You got to be kidding me.. Yeah, I was like, Man, I'm in the wrong business. These guys were here for two days. So needless to say, it ruined our relationship with the property managers because we referred them and they got taken for a ride. We were like, We got to do something. We got to figure something out.
[00:11:08.120] - Brandon Reece
Gosh, I don't even remember that detail. I forgot about that being a catalyst for that decision.
[00:11:15.500] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. It was crazy because the way it happened was like, you're coming in, you're the Night in Shining armor, but then you realize that you're really not. You depend on another company to have your back and do the right thing, but you can't control what somebody else does. We learned that lesson pretty quick, and then that was it. From there, I was like, we're buying plane tickets out to this place. We went out there. Man, Rocky was a character. I went out there, and I was going to... We were really thinking about it. But then, remember them telling us, they're like, Man, to be honest with you, we appreciate you guys coming up, but we have to vote you guys in. And I was like, Oh, man. You were told at that point. Yeah, I was like, What the hell? I hope they pick us. I hope they pick us. But they ended up picking us, man, and it ended up being a good thing. Where we're at now, compared to where we were at then, it's really helped a lot of things. For one, it's helped our restoration company a lot. We just took a phone call now, two weeks ago for a loss, a commercial loss.
[00:12:24.710] - Johnny Gabe
They would not have called our restoration company, but they called our plumbing company because It's so much easier. I can't even tell you, man, when you go into property management companies and all these other companies and you're like, Hey, I'm John from One Town Plumber. They're like, Oh, yeah, come in. This chair has been waiting for you the whole time. Here, do you want to drink or something? But you go in there as a restoration company, man, they're like, I'm in a meeting. Yeah, I'm in a meeting. Leave me alone. Didn't I tell you guys already not to come back? It's like such a different feeling, man. But anyway, this company called us. They had a water leak in their hotel, a pipe burst in their hotel, and it flood at the whole hotel. It was a $100,000 job that we would not have gotten had it been for the plumbing company. But the opportunities do come a lot more than they used to. We're always seeing mold. We're always seeing water damage. You're the first guy there.
[00:13:19.040] - Brandon Reece
You feel more in control of that.
[00:13:21.120] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. But the biggest problem with plumbing, though, is the... I don't know, they're going to hate me for this, but the biggest problem with the plumbing companies, man, is plumbers, they're really rare. And the issue is when you get a plumber, it is so hard to break the bad habits of a journeyman plumber. And I say that, not every plumber is a bad... You know what I mean? But most of the plumbers that I've interviewed or journeyman plumbers that I've interviewed, they want 80 bucks an hour, whatever. They want the whole thing. And I get it. They went through the classes. They got their tenure. But it's so hard to teach them your values and your ways. We just stopped. We stopped hiring plumbers with experience. We just have a certain amount of journeymen on staff that we've handpicked. We have a training facility, so we breed our own plumbers in a house, and we don't even look outside of that box anymore. We have a whole training facility here where our guys literally can absolutely do everything from everyday plumbing to drain cleaning, all in this one facility. That's super cool.
[00:14:41.040] - Brandon Reece
That's not very old. You didn't do that for a long time.
[00:14:43.700] - Johnny Gabe
No, just recently, a couple Well, let's see. We're on our second round of candidates. This is our second class we've done. Our first class got out, and there was a set of four guys in that class. Nice. Yeah. It's so crazy because... This is how we see it now. We hired a plumbing sales coach, Chris Fresh.
[00:15:01.700] - Brandon Reece
We got to get him on the show. We keep threatening. He's scheduled. Oh, that's right. Is he? It's super fun. All right.
[00:15:07.180] - Johnny Gabe
I sent you guys the picture to show on screen so you can see who the Chris Fresh is. You should flip to it right now. Yeah, we'll have to make sure. We point somewhere. This is Chris Fresh.
[00:15:17.380] - Brandon Reece
It's going to show up later. Yeah, we're not that cool, Johnny. Calm down.
[00:15:20.960] - Johnny Gabe
Oh, damn. All right. All right. So we hired Chris Fresh, and man, he took us. I remember he was like... I'm like, Man, you know how I am, right? I'm like, I call him. I'm like, Chris, I need to talk to you. I got a problem, man. I don't know what's going on. The cash flow sucks. Tell me all the problems. He's like, Let's see. He's like, Oh, man, somebody's stealing money from you. And I was like, What? Oh, hell no. Team meeting right now. Which one of you is it? It was who is it? Who did it? And come to find out it wasn't that. What we had was a capacity problem. I had plenty of money. It was a capacity problem. So what happened was our guys are doing six to eight jobs a day. Can you imagine doing six to eight jobs a day?
[00:16:07.520] - Brandon Reece
Wow.
[00:16:08.540] - Johnny Gabe
So we came up with a plan. Now, our guys are doing, I think our average is like 1. 9 or two, two and three jobs a day. No more. The quality is way better. We have more guys to do it because we have more... We control our flow of guys now, and we teach them in-house. We hire based on culture now. We don't hire for experience anymore. We just want a good person because we're putting these people in people's homes, and I just don't want to guess. Our guys are pretty young, but they're sitting on a journeyman. They have to be with us for a year. We put them through school, all that whole nine yards, like actual school, plumbing school. They get benefits and all the perks that all of all the greatest unions there are with vacation.
[00:16:54.840] - Brandon Reece
That's pretty epic, man. That picked up pace substantially over the last year. You really invested in that.
[00:17:03.820] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. In '24, okay, so from June of '24 to December of '24, we did not have our... We didn't hire Chris until November. But from there to there, we did 700,000... Or no, 800,000 in sales. And then the next year, which was 25, we did 2. 2 million. Big jump. In sales, yeah. And this year, I think we'll We either do close to three or right at three, maybe a little bit more. And we could do more. It just depends on how many guys we get in the flow. I'm trying to get... I'd like to have 10 trucks on the road in the next few months. So right now, we have seven. Seven trucks on the road.
[00:17:46.680] - Brandon Reece
You're moving. That's incredible, man. Yeah, you are moving.
[00:17:49.280] - Johnny Gabe
That's right. Listen, I would not have done that had not been for Chris because he absolutely showed us. He's like, he has this magic recipe, man. He's like, I don't want to give his secrets away. But like...
[00:18:02.160] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, you can't go talk for him.
[00:18:03.960] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. So he has this recipe, man. He's like, this is how you do it. And he's like, what number do you want to get to? And I told him, he's like, here's the layout. It's simple. He's like, I'm not a very smart guy. He's like, But this is how I do it. He's like, I break it down so it's simple. I'm like, Oh, wow, that is so easy. Why did I not think about that? You're a freaking genius. He won't take credit for being a genius.
[00:18:28.880] - Brandon Reece
What does he call himself the Plumber Whisper or something, isn't there? Yeah. There's some side channel there.
[00:18:34.480] - Johnny Gabe
A great guy, man. Yeah.
[00:18:37.800] - Brandon Reece
That's awesome. All right, so I got to ask you some real questions. Now that you're doing honest how rad at business you are, let's get into the nuts and bolts of this thing. When you were making some of this transition from the early phases of the unnamed restoration company that you own, I don't know if you did that on purpose or not, but. As you were You're transitioning in the early phases of that and then onboarding this plumbing division, if you will. It's its own brand, but this other arm of your business, how were you balancing onboarding and starting something new while still maintaining this business that had been, at this point, you're several years old. What were you doing to ensure that you didn't throw a hand grenade in the base business that you'd already put all that time and energy into?
[00:19:27.180] - Johnny Gabe
I won't lie, I did throw a hand grenade in restoration. Well, because I was like, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. I lost my drive for it because the unnamed company, I just wasn't feeling it anymore, man. I had been thrown to the wolves and I was treated pretty bad. So I was just like, you know what? I'm on to this. This is my new girlfriend. But to be honest with you, I can't even take credit for it, man. I have such an amazing set of people, man. And I'm so blessed to call them my friends and my teammates, Justin. I've lost some guys along the way that were great. Chad was amazing, man. He helped us at the beginning. My cousin, Mikey. But Justin, and now we got a bunch of good people, man. Liz, she's our rock star in the office. Then Josh, all these guys just put so much work into... They're so selfless, man, and I love it. But it's just, I don't know. If I didn't have a team, what I'm trying to say is if I didn't have a team like that, none of this would be possible because you can't do this by yourself.
[00:20:27.470] - Johnny Gabe
It's just not possible. Yeah. And my wife, super understanding. She's got my back through everything. If I didn't have that, I'd be toast.
[00:20:38.220] - Brandon Reece
It's interesting because this is insider a little bit just because we've known you for so long. I think for a lot of business owners, the relationship with our personnel, it can be tough to manage. There's a lot of give and take. There's a lot of ego checks, I think, for us as leaders to make sure that we can meet our people where they are. I definitely struggle with There's times where I feel like I'm in the flow on that. There's times where I feel like I'm definitely out of the flow. But anyways, my point in saying all that is I've been watching you, not only from inside the business when we were working together, but just over the years as you continue to develop and grow the business. It feels like your posture with your employees has shifted quite a bit. I'm just thinking old days Johnny G, when I first met you versus where you are today. Some life happened in between there. I'd like to I'll pull that out a bit if you're willing to. I'll do some context drawing, and then you can tell me if I'm completely- Yeah.
[00:21:35.920] - Johnny Gabe
No, go ahead. Say whatever. No holds barred.
[00:21:38.720] - Brandon Reece
No holds barred. Well, except for some.
[00:21:41.620] - Johnny Gabe
Oh, yeah. No salad. Don't toss any salad.
[00:21:44.190] - Brandon Reece
No, we're not talking about salad. All right.
[00:21:46.820] - Chris Nordyke
Oh, man, are you building up the intrigue?
[00:21:49.200] - Brandon Reece
I feel like it's one of those things. Where did the mea-al thing come from? Was that right mea-al?
[00:21:56.520] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah.
[00:21:57.280] - Brandon Reece
All right, we digress. Okay.
[00:22:00.000] - Chris Nordyke
Are you a business that's under 5 million in sales, and you're just now getting ready to try and scale your company up and hit some of those targets you've always wanted to hit, but now you've got to build a sales team? Or maybe you just hired your first sales rep, but you don't really know how to manage them. How do you manage, lead, train, develop a sales rep? Floodlight has a solution for you now. So we can actually assign your sales rep a turnkey VP of sales that will help them create a sales blueprint, their own personal sales plan for your market. They'll have weekly one-on-ones with that sales rep to coach, mentor them, hold them accountable to the plan. And they'll also have a monthly owners meeting where they'll meet with you or your general manager and review the progress of that sales rep, their plan to actual results, what performance improvement they're working on with them. Also let them know, Hey, you might, they're doing really well. Maybe we should think of hiring a second sales rep. They're going to have that one-to-one advice for you as an owner or senior leader on the team as well.
[00:22:53.990] - Chris Nordyke
How great would that be to have a bolt-on sales manager for your one sales rep, and it's only 2,500 a month. If you're interested in talking more about that, reach out. Let's grab some time and let's talk shop. Our floodlight clients this last year in 2024 generated over 250 million in revenue, supported by, advised by an industry expert who's owned and operated a business just like you. So take action. Don't kick the can down the road. Start with our business health and value assessment, and let's unlock the next chapter of your success story.
[00:23:27.200] - Brandon Reece
So when we first started working together, John, Johnny, there was a little bit more just venom in you. When you would get frustrated with a situation or angry at something that you were experiencing or seeing in the business, that energy held. That was hard for you to shed and approach every situation freshly. It feels way different now when we interact with you. Like your behavior, your posture has changed there. What's going on? What am I experiencing?
[00:23:58.800] - Johnny Gabe
To be honest with you, You guys personally coached me and not only business, but personally, too.
[00:24:04.800] - Brandon Reece
I didn't tee that up, just for a disclaimer. I wasn't like, tee up.
[00:24:08.940] - Johnny Gabe
No. You definitely did, though. You guys coached me. I would call, I remember I would call you just for personal advice, man. You guys were a big mess when you guys had time. You're like, Oh, yeah, John, I'll take you. I'm on vacation, but I can take your call. Whatever. Morning coffee with Chris on Sunday. That was awesome. I've got quite a few of those calls.
[00:24:31.140] - Chris Nordyke
I do remember that. That conversation started with me on the toilet, just so you know.
[00:24:35.280] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. That's right.
[00:24:38.030] - Brandon Reece
No holds part.
[00:24:39.120] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. But really just like, you got to want it, man. I'm one of those people that I want to say that I'm self-aware and I own my mistakes, maybe not right away, because I don't think anybody owns it right away. No, especially as a man, you don't want to be wrong. I struggled with... My mental health was really bad for a while there. You guys were with me for that. I went through I was in 2020 to 2022. I was battling those... That was the anxiety. I had anxiety and panic attacks so bad that it tore me down. It broke me down as a man, and I didn't even know what the heck hit me. I was like, I don't even know what's going on. So I trapped myself in my house for two years. It destroyed me. I looked for counselors. I finally found one that they told me, well, we can help because I I was literally... I told the last guy that I called, I was like, you're the end of the road, man. There's no more people to call. Google ran out of names. After this, I don't know if there's going to be another call, to be honest with you, man.
[00:25:40.220] - Johnny Gabe
I was in a dark place, man. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to die. I just didn't want to feel the pain anymore. I just didn't understand what was wrong with me. And you guys were super accommodating. You guys helped me through that. That's really helped. And my wife, man, although she didn't understand it, and it was hard for her, I got to give her credit, man. She really did. She was there 100 %. Never gave up. She got close, you know what I mean? Because that's hard for your spouse. You're like, please don't leave. I don't know what the hell is going on. I feel like I'm dying. What the hell? I call an ambulance. If anybody's ever experienced it, that's what I was going through, man. I went through that, and then that really changed my perspective on things. Then it humbled me enough to try to be a better person. And then I went from that point in my life to the road got rocky with me and my wife, and we actually split up for a while. Almost we came, I think we were maybe, it was like 20 days away from actual divorce.
[00:26:47.100] - Johnny Gabe
We had the papers filed. We went to court. We signed the papers. The judge almost ruled on it. Then we found each other again, man. And she's my inspiration. She's the one that's like, she's always in the back. What's that saying? They say, behind every strong man is even stronger woman. I really believe that, man, because I feel like whenever I'm about to do something, I say, Okay, let's go.
[00:27:11.300] - Brandon Reece
Like, it's the wind in my back.
[00:27:13.980] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah, are you good? Okay, let's go. She's like, Yeah, it's good. Or she's there to be like... Even though I don't like it, sometimes I appreciate. I really do appreciate. I owe it all to her and my kids for understanding. I have such an amazing family, I'm so blessed. I'm rich beyond anybody's wild as you. I have everything that I could ever possibly want in life. If I asked for anything more, I would just be a greedy piece of crap. I really do have everything. I think that's really it. I don't... I mean, and then I put the hard work in, obviously, right?
[00:27:50.460] - Brandon Reece
Can I ask you more about that? Like the hard work side?
[00:27:52.980] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah.
[00:27:53.660] - Brandon Reece
I believe your foundation did shift, right? You went through this experience that we saw from a distance that It clearly shook things up. But at some point, like you said, there's work required. It's not just you go through a thing and you're a different person. You go through the thing and it drives some decisions, right? Or makes you feel like you're at a breaking point, the bottom, whatever. And you started to put in some more. What's the work? When you say that, what are you talking about? What did that look like day to day?
[00:28:21.560] - Johnny Gabe
Man, just showing up consistently every day. I've always gotten up early, but I had slack on my physical health, which ultimately cuts into your mental health. So I'd slack on that and I had to really change that up. Being intentional with the things that I did and said, put my phone down when I'm at home was a big thing. Knowing when to stop because I didn't know when to stop. You know me, I never stopped. It was just always I had to have something going on. So that was a big thing. I mean, really, other than that, it was just showing up every day, going to counseling. Me and my wife go to couples therapy, marriage counseling, quite a bit. We stay adamant. We're adamant in that. Man, I don't really know, man. Much other than that. I mean, you got to work harder. You got to show up every day with intention, and you got to be willing to change the things that you know are messed up.
[00:29:15.760] - Chris Nordyke
I want to double click on this. I want to hang here.
[00:29:18.040] - Johnny Gabe
We're going to spot it. Hang in the pocket.
[00:29:19.700] - Brandon Reece
I figured you would. I was like, dude, when are you going to take a picture?
[00:29:24.020] - Chris Nordyke
Johnny, you've heard Brandon and I talk about this before, and we've spoken about this at conferences, but there's this idea that as and leaders. There's certain knee-jerk behaviors that we bring to the table present day that are anchored to things that have happened to us in the past or experiences we've had. Some cases, you might call it traumas. Oh, yeah. Pass work experiences. For Brandon and I, both of us have our own set of experiences from how we experienced our fathers. As an example, our early childhood family culture and stuff like that. Connecting those dots and learning about those things has been really transformative for Brandon and I to recognize, okay, hey, this behavior, this natural reaction I have in certain situations.
[00:30:14.050] - Johnny Gabe
I see what you're getting at.
[00:30:16.340] - Chris Nordyke
I'm just curious for you to reflect on that, dude. What have you learned about yourself? Where maybe some of the anxiety or the reactive- Maybe my origin story wasn't detailed enough.
[00:30:30.320] - Johnny Gabe
Then, so rewinding back a little bit further, I lived in Philadelphia when I was a kid, where I grew up. When I was a kid, I grew up with my aunt, my uncle, my mom and her husband, and then my dad and my stepmom. In every household that I was in as a child, I was abused, and physically and mentally. It just was not fun at all, man. Then I grew up in the hood in Philadelphia. On my dad's birthday, I got shot in the chest with a twelve gage shotgun twice. Well, once in the chest, once in the arm. I was just doing the wrong thing, being a knucklehead kid. This girl lived on our block. We just came home from my dad's vacation for his birthday. This girl across the street says, Oh, yeah, my boyfriend hit me or whatever. It is something like that. We was like, Oh, let's go find him. I wasn't even supposed to leave the block. I was grounded. I left the block and went and knocked on this guy's door and said, Hey, man, is your son there? He's like, No. He's like, But you better get off my porch.
[00:31:30.520] - Johnny Gabe
I was like, Whatever. I was like, How about you come out here and I'll beat you up? And he was a young kid. I was 14 years old. And I thought I could beat the world, man. He slam the door and I was like, Yeah, that's what I thought. Hello, whatever I said. And I took a few steps back at the sidewalk, and I see the door swing open, and I flash, and then I was on the ground. I didn't know what happened. I'm like, What the hell? I get up, and I'm like, What the heck happened? My hand's on my chest and look up, and I see another flash, and I realize, I am, I'm getting shot. That time hit me in the arm. I get up, and he's like, I'm going to kill you. Then out of nowhere, my friends came, grabbed me under the arms, then ran me to their neighbor's house and put me on the ground, laid me on my back and put my feet up on a trash can. I was looking up and I just remember, they're like, Stay with us. Amulons got there. I just remember looking at the ambulance guy and I was like, Man, I don't want to die.
[00:32:33.240] - Johnny Gabe
He's like, Just stay with me, kid. I was like, I'm so tired. He's like, I know. You got to keep your eyes open, man. You got to stay awake. That's all I remember. I just like, I just need to fall asleep. I felt like I was falling asleep. I just remember waking up in the hospital and my dad was drunk. He came up to the hospital and he's like, Well, LJ, your blood really is red. I'll never forget that. I was like, Man, what a crappy thing to say to your kid. You know what I mean? When he just got shot. But it is what it is. Take it with a green of salt. It was in that moment I realized, Man, I need to do something. But I got out of that situation and all the kids were like, my new nickname, he's bulletproof. That dude, he'll never die. Nothing could kill him. And I just remember being the coolest kid in the neighborhood because I survived getting shot with a 12 gage there. It was crazy. It was crazy.
[00:33:29.060] - Brandon Reece
There's so much. I mean, that's just a hard story to just unpack. Thinking through all the different characters in that, like that dude that answered the door and pulled a 12 gage on a 14-year-old kid, regardless of what's coming out of there. Just how much just trauma and ugly that was present at that time in that part of the...
[00:33:54.920] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. He died since then. But, man, it was crazy. I couldn't imagine shooting a 14-year-old kid for... I mean, somebody is threatening your life and they have a gun themselves, right? Obviously, you're going to protect yourself. It's you or him. I was there by myself at his door, like, bring it. Talking shit. He should have called the cops for sure. Yeah, you definitely should have called the cops.
[00:34:16.300] - Brandon Reece
Or just punched in your smart mouth.
[00:34:18.200] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah, like smack me up and take me home. My dad would have been... That would have been any worse than any shotgun. Oh, man. Like, Hey, you got your son in his little smart mouth.
[00:34:29.320] - Brandon Reece
Boy, One of the things that I remember you talking about, Johnny, on this, though, is that you also have a heart for the guys and gals that are coming up, right? And that maybe their lifestyle, their background, like those guys and I was looking for a second chance. That means something different to you than a lot of people. You want to talk about that?
[00:34:50.580] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah. Where I grew up, man, and my past, I really... I'll set a story real quick. But even When we had... I had an incident. I don't know if you guys remember this, but it was early on, and I went to this fire job. I spent so much time with this customer and getting the customer ready for what was going to happen and all that stuff. And then another company came in and stole it. Do you remember this story?
[00:35:18.260] - Brandon Reece
I think I do. I think so.
[00:35:20.120] - Johnny Gabe
Man, it's a weekend, and I call this guy's company. It's a pretty big company, man. I don't know what I was thinking. Again, this is before me. I I don't know what I was thinking. I called this guy and I'm like, I don't know who the F you think you are. You're just going to steal my job. Send your people there. I was like, I'll mess you up. I obviously said more words than that. But where are you going to be next Tuesday? Where are you going to be next Tuesday? I got something for you, bud. He's like, Man, I remember what he said. He's like, Yeah. He's like, You show up wherever you want, man. He's like, I'll tell you this right now. He's like, If you think this is how you're going to do business, he's like, You won't last long in this town. He's just the old... You could tell. His company has been around for 40 plus years, man. They're an amazing company. I'd say that today, dude. They really are. They're an amazing company, but I don't know. I don't know what the hell I was thinking back then. I was like, I'll punch owners in the mouth.
[00:36:17.920] - Chris Nordyke
It sounds like 14-year-old Johnny King.
[00:36:20.160] - Johnny Gabe
I know, man. And I really was, too, man. I was like, I'd see a dude, and I'd be like, I wish you would come in my shop. I'll throw all your equipment right out the door. They were like, Man, he's vicious. Guys, I don't do that anymore, man. I don't do that anymore. I pay my guys to do that. I'm just kidding. I don't do that. We don't do that.
[00:36:38.960] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, you got people for that now.
[00:36:40.960] - Johnny Gabe
I got people for that. I got a guy. Philly keeping you, huh? Yeah, no. No, I don't do that shit, man. But no, I look back at that and it's really embarrassing, man. I know I laugh about it now, but it's really embarrassing. I can't believe that some of the things that I did as an adult, man, I'm like, Wow, what the heck was I thinking? But it is what it is. I learned from my lessons and my mistakes.
[00:37:03.360] - Brandon Reece
That's right. It's funny. Somebody sent me a post. Actually, I think it might have been my wife actually, sent me this post, and it's this guy. I don't know who he is. Could be famous. I don't know. He's not famous in my ecosystem. Anyway, this dude is just talking about like there's these words popping up on the screen. The average new entrepreneur is 42 years old. The average artist that gets whatever opportunity is in their 40s. They just go through all these things in real life When you're off YouTube, what really happens historically and by data is that all these things happen to people in that very late 30s up into 50 years old, that time window. I'm just thinking about how as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, how often I've felt like, Man, if only I would have learned this earlier, if only I would have not understood this when I was a younger man, or I feel behind, I feel late. The reality of it is, I think, statistically, is this is an age frame, late '30s to early '50s, where the combination of life, time and grade, exposure to different relationships, different realities, seeing the world a little bit bigger than maybe you thought it was, it causes you, it's a catalyst for you to change and mature in so many meaningful ways.
[00:38:20.460] - Brandon Reece
I guess my point is that listening to a guy like you, for people that know the history, that darker history, colored history, is not way way, way, way, way, way off in the past. It followed you for a while. You're in that age now where so much change is happening. That age catalyst, that experience catalyst is just making you into a fundamentally different man. The The root of that change, of you living out this new version of yourself is exponentially greater than anything you were able to create in the past. I just see it. That's what triggered the question in the first part is, the Johnny I knew even a few years ago, super high strong. I mean, it was like chasing a fucking squirrel on crack. You just were constantly in motion and buzzing. It felt like a lot of times, you were trying to outrun your own shadow. Now you're just a different man. It's like you've slowed down a little bit. You're more intentional, like you're more comfortable in your own skin and the people around you experience it and watch what's happening to your business. What you've done in Wantam versus your restoration the hits, the misses, the startovers, versus what you've been able to produce now.
[00:39:34.500] - Brandon Reece
Like, man, dude, I just want to affirm you for whatever it's worth. It's obvious from my perspective.
[00:39:40.040] - Johnny Gabe
I appreciate it. My goal, though, is to... I want to create a program that really can give back. When I was a kid, I didn't have any resources. Even small town, Des Moines, Iowa, we don't really have stuff for kids that want to do something with their life. Before they decide, you know what? I'm going to go sell drugs because weed cards and all that stuff is really easy to do. It's like the new hustle, right? It's a new crack. They really don't have nothing other. They can go to the union and stuff like that. But what else do they have? My goal is we're open in our second location in Cedar Rapids here in the next 30 days. My goal here is to... We're going to build the brand to a certain point, a certain EBITDA, and then we plan on selling it, selling most of it. We're We're going to keep our main location, right? But this is going to be our legacy location. Then we're going to sell all of our other branches, take that money and put it to good use. I want to open up a facility where I can teach guys to plumb and teach them.
[00:40:44.670] - Johnny Gabe
There's more money in the trades for service than there is anything else. My average guy, my average plumber making 80,000 a year in the first year. I got guys that are making over 100,000 Over 130,000 as plumbers in my company. Like, man, Justin, I've never paid anybody that much money. I've seen this thing, this year to date on January. I about fell out of my chair. I was like, wow, I paid him that much? Holy cow. But it makes me feel good. You know what I mean? I don't know. If I could just show that to people and look, you don't have to do those things. You can make more money. It feels better. You know what I mean? The Chris Fresh approach Yeah, the Chris Fresh approach. We really adopted it, man. Always be... He has this sticker. I don't know if you... It says always be closing, but it crosses out closing. It says serving. Man, that's our motto. We've really lived by it, man. That's good. We really do. We really live by that. I'm religious, right? I believe in God and I go to church. I don't push my religion on anybody.
[00:41:51.820] - Johnny Gabe
I don't do that. It's not the type of Christian that I am. But I really believe that if you do good and you do things with intention and you do it for the right reason, you can 100% guarantee, as long as there's hard work to back all of that, that everything that you want in your life will come to fruition. You just have to really put the hard work in. You can't be out there ripping people off. You know what I mean? Because eventually, that shit is going to catch up to you. And that's just, I really firmly believe that, man. I just rehired my very first employee. I wanted to tell you guys this. My very first employee that I ever had in my first company, I just rehired him in the plumbing company. And it felt so good when you're talking to somebody and they tell you stories of how you used to be and you're like, Yeah, no, really? That's how I was? Is that really? Dang, I didn't realize that I was that bad. You know what I mean? I hear it now and it doesn't register that that's who... I'm like, Who did that?
[00:42:49.940] - Johnny Gabe
No, there's no way. Like, Yeah, I remember this story. We just laugh and joke. We have our morning meetings on Fridays, our culture meetings. Yeah, he tells stories about that stuff. But he's so happy now, whereas before, my goals were always the same. I always wanted to give guys a home that they loved and they wanted to come to. But I didn't have the right guidance, man, until I met you guys. That's really where my life pivoted.
[00:43:16.620] - Brandon Reece
Dude, I want to hang in the pocket on that culture meeting thing. So one of the things that we did witness with 1-Tom is they have a production meeting of sorts, but they have this very specific Friday culture meeting. Do you mind just walking us through the principles of that? What you guys do, what effect you've seen it have on your business, on your clients, things like that?
[00:43:39.730] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah, I love it. We cook breakfast for our whole team every Friday. Usually, I'll either order it or I'll cook it. We just sit down for an hour, man, it doesn't matter what's going on in the world, what chaos has happened. I don't care how many jobs we have. We shut it down seven to eight. We don't talk about nothing but them. That's it. I talk about their goals. What are they doing this weekend? How did their week go? I don't care about anything work. I want to hear about their personal lives. How's your kids? How's your mom? How's your dad? What's your girlfriend doing today? What you got planned for this weekend? I always hold my guys really accountable, man, especially my men. I'm sure they're going to listen to this. They know that I'm not lying. I hold my men really accountable. I want to see them be good men. We had a couple of guys that I didn't think we're going to make it. I'm not going to lie. I look at them now and I'm like, Dude, we have a mentorship program in our company, and everybody gets mentored by somebody.
[00:44:32.040] - Johnny Gabe
Man, it really has changed the way. Because one thing men don't like to talk about is their mental health, or what's going on, or what's wrong, or you know what I'm saying? It's always, I'll be all right. I can handle it. It's okay. I really hope my guys go like, what are you doing for your wives for things for Valentine's Day? You know what I mean? I was going to go get her flowers. That's not good enough, man. I don't want her to say something positive. What are you going to do for her? Because just because you make the money doesn't that, yeah, you're the man, but that's not enough, man. You got to give back to it, not just once a year, neither. I push these guys, man. I'm like, hey, so what's going on? How's it going? What are you doing for Mama? I really hold them accountable.
[00:45:14.520] - Brandon Reece
And that A lot of that comes out then during the Friday culture meetings. You're doing it. It's not one on one. You're doing this as a group, right?
[00:45:21.840] - Johnny Gabe
Oh, yeah. I hold people accountable as a group. So not in a negative way. So nothing negative happens on Friday. But I don't hold them accountable in a group in a negative way. If they did something wrong, I don't have that. That's not the term. No, that's not the time. If I do say it in a group, it's never, I never point somebody out. Now, if you point yourself out, then that's on you, you're going to get it. But if we're having a group discussion where it's a learning experience, then let it be a learning experience, don't do that to yourself. Don't do that to yourself. Yeah, don't do that. I've had a couple of guys do that, man, and they regret it instantly. Honestly, man, it's just really... We really take this serious, man. We've had coaches Just along the way, you and Chris Fresh and you guys both have changed our lives in so many ways and helped us in so many ways that it's been epic, man. I owe you guys all the credit in my team. I can't take... I'm just here sitting in my chair with Larry Bird Jersey behind me, bro.
[00:46:18.480] - Brandon Reece
It's so interesting, man, because I think that every time as leaders, we take on a different lift, it is going to stretch. It's going to require a a different level of mentorship and leadership. In full transparency, man, I almost hate saying this, but I feel like it's a commitment that we've made to the audience is, I'm probably in the least confident state I've been in as a leader for a while. That's actually not a negative thing. Anybody that's hearing that, I want to just be really clear. I don't mean that as a negative. I just mean there's an element of refinding the base and refining where you can prioritize certain initiatives inside your business. With Floodlight, we had gotten to a point where... And part of it was just the team membership as well, where we're really able to spend a lot of time in this higher-level thinking, higher-level conversations with our team. I'm finding myself right now a little bit out of sorts as we realign and find base and find that footing again. Where do we want to continue to incorporate and adopt these elements into the culture at the company? It's just a good reminder, man, if I'm just really transparent with you, it's a good reminder, even for me, to hear you talking about a business your size, and that's not negative, and how you right now, out of the gate, regardless of size, are committed to and leveraging culture and culture commitment right out of the gate.
[00:47:51.740] - Brandon Reece
The profound impact it's having on your business is just really a great reminder. I just say that so that anybody that's listening, I think it's really common for us to make excuses of when we're going to prioritize cultural elements. We probably give ourselves ways out to not be committed to that and prioritizing it along the side, all these other financial-based initiatives that we focus on. I just really appreciate you sharing that and hearing that. I needed that. I need that reminder personally to make sure that I don't get out of lockstep with that commitment. You know what I mean?
[00:48:26.340] - Johnny Gabe
It's great, man. I have imposter syndrome, though. It's Dude, I think a lot about that. I'm just like, man, I put a lot of work in, but I don't like to take all the credit because I know that if it wasn't for these guys, I'm going to make some of these guys millionaires. Then I don't know any business owner that is really saying that and really meaning it. I'm going to make some of these guys millionaires, and then the rest of them, I'm going to make really wealthy. The ones that are going to hang on are going to be the ones that go for that ride, man. I got a lot of really good, solid people in my corner, man, that would literally do anything for me. I could call them any time of day or night. They'd be like, up on my way. I'll give you a real quick story. I had a guy that I was like, I'm firing him. It's a Sunday, and this happened just recently. I was like, It's a Sunday. I'm like, I'm firing this guy. Hey, Josh, I need you to come in. I know it's your day off, man.
[00:49:18.560] - Johnny Gabe
And he answers the phone and it sounds like something like this, Hello. What's up, Johnny? I was like, You okay? He's like, Oh, man, I'm fucking sick as a dog. I said, Oh, He's like, Why? What's up? What do you need? And I'm like, Well, man, I'd have to feel bad asking for it now. You just told me you're sick as a dog. He's like, No, what's going on, man? I'm up. I'm up. I'm like, I was going to fire this guy, but now that I found out you're sick, I'll probably just go out myself. I'm not going to fire him. And he's like, No, I'm getting dressed right now, man. I'm coming in. I'm like, Are you sure? And he's like, Yeah, no, I'm sure. I'm like, All right. Well, I don't if that's a good idea. And he's like, No, no, no, no, man, I'm coming in. I'm coming in. I'm coming in. I was like, All right. I hang up the phone, call Justin. I'm sitting in front of Justin. I'm like, Man, he said he's coming in. He's like, John, I think you overreactive. This is what happened. He showed me what's going on.
[00:50:15.140] - Johnny Gabe
I look up at the board, I'm like, Let me call this guy back real quick. I call him back. I was like, We're just testing, dog. I'm just playing. And he's like, What? I'm like, No, no, I'm just kidding. I wasn't testing. I knew you'd have my back. But no, I told him the story, what happened. He's like, Oh, man. He's like, oh, shit, I was already dressed. I was like, man, I fucking love you, though. Josh, any one of these guys, man, they would jump to whatever I needed in a heartbeat, man. And the same for their team. And that's the guys that I hire. I won't hire a guy in my organization if they're not like that. And if they are, we figure it out. I don't care how they can be the best plumber in the world. I don't care. If they don't have that, they don't stay here. They just don't stay here. I'll expose you eventually. You could fake it. I mean, anybody can fake it. You can get past me. I've been tricked a few times, but I'm going to find out. You'll be gone. I've done it. Man, I've had Justin look at me like, Why did you just fire him?
[00:51:09.700] - Johnny Gabe
Man, we needed that guy. And I'm like, No, we didn't. No, we didn't. That's it. I promise you, man, we didn't. But they trust me. They trust me, and I love that, man. I love that they trust me so much, man. Yeah, it's an amazing feeling.
[00:51:25.180] - Brandon Reece
People aren't going to give you that unless you earn it. And clearly, you've done a lot to earn that. Well, brother, dude, not surprising. Fun conversation. Obviously, you're always great at being real and honest about it. We appreciate that. Inevitably, you're going to continue to do some really cool stuff, and we're going to have to get you back on to talk about the new phase of spending your time and then your Gian, obviously. Then, of course, we won't let you out of our sites anyway.
[00:51:53.840] - Johnny Gabe
Yeah, I appreciate you guys. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:51:56.260] - Brandon Reece
Thanks for hanging out with us, man. Much love and respect, always.
[00:51:59.340] - Johnny Gabe
Same to you.
[00:52:00.220] - Brandon Reece
All right, Amigo. See you. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots.
[00:52:08.210] - Chris Nordyke
If you're enjoying the show, 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.