Show Information
Episode Number: 57
Date: 10/21/2024
Duration: 47:10
Host Contact Information
Host: Justin Deese
Website: JustinDeese.com
Contact: Justin@JustinDeese.com
Guest Contact Information
Guest: John & Vicki LaPlant
Guest Contact: vlaplant@servicenation.com
Website: www.josephgrohfoundation.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JosephGrohFoundation
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/josephgrohfoundation/
Summary
In this episode of the Freedom Blueprint Podcast, I get to interview industry LEGENDS John & Vicki LaPlant live from Service World Expo 2024. They discuss their journey in the home service industry, the importance of embracing technology, understanding financials, and planning exit strategies. The conversation also highlights the impact of the Joseph Groh Foundation, which supports individuals in the industry facing life-altering challenges. The episode concludes with reflections on the future of the industry and the importance of small businesses in the economy.
Takeaways
Running a home service business is challenging but rewarding.
Embracing technology is crucial for efficiency and productivity.
Understanding financials is key to business success.
Planning for an exit strategy should start today.
The Joseph Groh Foundation provides vital support to industry members in need.
Networking and sharing experiences can lead to significant growth.
The industry has seen transformative changes in leadership and culture.
Small businesses are the backbone of the economy.
Continuous learning and adaptation are essential for success.
The future of the industry is bright with opportunities for young professionals.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Freedom Blueprint Podcast
01:00 Live from Service World Expo 2024
07:02 The Journey of John and Vicki LaPlante
12:02 Embracing Technology in Home Services
17:46 Understanding Financials for Business Success
23:47 The Importance of Exit Strategies
29:53 The Joseph Groh Foundation: Giving Back
36:04 Looking Ahead: The Future of the Industry
Keywords
Home service business, Service World Expo, John LaPlant and Vicki LaPlant, financial management, exit strategies, Joseph Groh Foundation, industry insights
Transcript
Justin Deese (00:03.086)
Running a home service business is hard. So how is it that some people make it look so easy? Well, we’ll tell you. This is the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. It’s always good to hear the wins that successful contractors have. But have you ever thought that the best advice would be to hear about the speed bumps they encountered?
the they’ve made along the way. We’re gonna talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. We want you to be successful and avoid the mistakes others have made. Let’s get this party started. Welcome to the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. Now your host, Justin Deese.
Justin Deese (01:00.142)
Today is actually a really special event. It’s a special broadcast because we’re getting to do it live from Service World Expo 2024. And as you can probably hear the background noise, it’s all the energy that’s happening inside the Expo Hall. And we’re on the podcast stage. And I am joined with John and Vicki LaPlant, who are legends. And I mean, legends in our space. So thank you guys so much for joining and hanging out with us today.
Justin, thank you. We feel honored that you invited us, so thank you. And the energy is so exciting here anyway. just makes you feel… John? Absolutely. This is fantastic. It’s one of the best shows. We’ve been to a number of them. And it’s absolutely gratifying to see the energy, the networking, the helpful information that’s being spread throughout this convention. Well, and so if you don’t…
know who John and Vicki LaPlant are, I’ll say this, then you’re not part of Service Nation. That’s it, right? You guys have made such an impact on the business and Kristen and I actually got the honor to do a keynote yesterday and we had a few friends come up and do a panel with us and your names just kept coming up, right? Just kept coming up and most of the contractors that are here that have been part of Service Nation.
It worked with you guys, you guys have changed their life, their business, and it’s incredible. So I want to ask you this, how did you guys even get started in the industry? Well, I guess the best way to explain it was we got fired. We got caught in downsizing 21.
know, century 21 and had the opportunity to do something else. And Vicki was forward enough thinking, given the training that we had had and that she had had and the contacts that we had in the industry, we started a consulting company. John and I, I mean, to give you the full background, we worked for Linux. We both had worked for Linux. In fact, we met there and got married following that.
Justin Deese (03:06.858)
It was a great experience from the standpoint that we got to work directly with contractors, because that’s how Lyrics went to business and went to market. And so then after that, when we were both let go, then we went on and again started our own training and consulting business. And for over 20 years, our life was airplanes, because we were traveling around the U.S. and Canada, working directly with contractors on their business.
It was a fantastic, wonderful time of life. And then in 2016, we went to work full time for Service Nation. We did all of their training, their business training, their operational training, sales training, marketing training. We kind of did it all because we’d had experience with all of it.
And those of you that are listening to this, can’t see my hands. Well, we hope so. We’ve got a video crew over here. So we hope that you’ll be able to see your hands. can see my hands moving. OK. And we have a camera over here. Hopefully it’s all working. that’s deal with shooting things live. You just never know. I’ll add one thing, given all that went on in our lives. One of the real pluses was Vicki and I were well trained by Lennox. They gave us all of the information, all the tools that.
We needed to be successful as consultants. And a lot of the members of Service Nation, we actually had worked with before the Alliance was formed, Service Nation Alliance. And so it was fantastic because then when we went to work full-time for Service Nation, we got to bring them in with us. And so it was great. And we’ll share kind of one personal thing. Somebody asked us the other day, and I thought it was a great question.
We’re a couple like Justin and Kristen are in terms of the things that, you know, they worked together for a very long time in the same business. And John and I pretty much, except at Lennox, we’ve always worked together. And somebody said, well, so what was the biggest obstacle to working together? Obviously it worked because you’ve done it for over 40 years.
Justin Deese (05:20.13)
but what was the biggest obstacle? And you get to answer that question, boy, felt like There were not any obstacles at all. I learned to do what I was told. God. Not true. I’m going to follow that advice. Yeah, yeah. But now say the real thing. Well, I don’t know what you mean. he doesn’t know what I want him to say. He would go out and sell a training class we did not have. And guess who had to develop all the training materials?
me and I say okay you promised this company we’re going to come in and do this training and how when is that to happen next week you can do it by next week right yeah I remember coming back off the road and said do we have anything on risk management
I do too. She goes, risk management. Yeah, we’ve got a session to do coming up here in about a month. So you see my wife back there. He’s like, yep, I have done that. You’ve been there. You’ve been there. So the term now, and we say this a lot, build the plane as you fly it. That’s it. Kristen, you know. That is awesome. So now that you got, well, OK, so I want to back up for just one second because as I introduced you guys,
I forgot, and I know the cameras can’t see it and the audience can’t it, but we have Anna back here. Anna, the amazing puppy dog. Well, how old is Anna? Anna is about 13. Okay, so. She’s a great Pyrenees and she goes with us just about wherever we go. So it’s just not Vicki and I being joined at the hip. Now it’s Vicki and I and Anna joined at the hip. And actually her hips are in better shape than mine are. That’s fantastic. So as you guys have been really…
helping so many contractors, what are two or three of the opportunities that you see that are missed on an everyday basis from contractors? Well, right off the bat, and all you have to do is look around this floor of just all sorts of tools to be put in place in a company. Technology is at the forefront, I think.
Justin Deese (07:28.414)
There’s been more change in the last five years than the last 50 years in this industry. I got into the industry in 1972 and the focus then almost 100 percent the focus was on the box. It was on the condensing unit, the furnace unit, it was the mechanical kinds of things and that’s not the case now. Now the focus is on process and the tools to enhance and develop productivity and efficiency in an organization.
And I think that has to be embraced and a lot of companies have a long way to go in terms of implementing some of these tools to create additional value in their business space. Yeah, guys, there are so many opportunities and to follow up on what John said, you know, when we first got in the industry and I start, in my background and my emphasis and what I like to work with,
contractors on is the financial side of their business. you know, when I started, and there’s very few people in this room that can remember this, Kristen knows, but it’s not because she did it, she’s too young. But we did it on these huge books called General Ledgers, and we had to do credits and debits and all that stuff. And now again, just the technology of how you can keep track of your bookkeeping is amazing. But I want you, everyone,
whenever you have an opportunity to talk to a vendor of some type, if you’re at the show, great. If you’re not, know, just go whatever best practices group you’re a part of. Just explore all of the services and the products that they bring to you. Not for the rebates, although that’s always nice, but because they will enhance and bring so much to your business. There are so many software adders. There’s so much
going on in AI alone. One I like to talk about is Rilla. Some people don’t like it, and that’s fine. Every business is different. But I think Rilla is an amazing technology where you can actually get a transcription of how your technicians are interacting with the customers, or how your CSRs are interacting with the customers. And they have so much data, they can actually send them not
Justin Deese (09:51.032)
during the call of course, but afterwards they transcribe it and they say to the tech, hey, you know, you did a good job, but if you’d said this, this way, we know that 70 % of the time when a technician words it this way, they make a sale. So again, we’re not saying take advantage. never, know, Jonah and I would never ever want any of you to take advantage of a customer or any of your employees to do that.
But this is just a way to help them communicate better and communicate in a way and educate in a way that, you know, the customers understand. And then in addition to that, the products you have available, Don, talk about some of this here and fleek and, yeah, fleek, Just as an example, clear and seek thermal imaging. my gosh, That can be used by a technician whether they’re heating and air conditioning, electrical and plumbing.
And just like Vicki says, to the advantage of the customer, to the advantage of the company to add value, you could take the thermal imaging and do a quick shot of a breaker panel. And if there are hot breakers, you could alert the customer that could be a problem in the future. And if you do an electrical, you can change it out or suggest someone that they could call so that they don’t go through a painful experience of no lights coming on in a certain part of their house.
There are a lot of things you can do to educate the customer translated, create a value proposition in favor of yourself, your own professional identity, and your company. Opportunities. Guys, can’t tell you, know, Matt Michelle yesterday when he spoke here at Service World Expo, he talked about
We’re an industry that finally people know about because of the pandemic. So from that standpoint, maybe it was good for our industry. It made people aware we’re critical, we’re required, whether on the plumbing, HVAC or the electrical side. And one of the things that I think that’s presented for you as contractors is the opportunity to bring in more of those services to become a full service home service.
Justin Deese (12:01.742)
you know, company. And there’s a lot of opportunities in how you can do that. There’s a lot of smaller companies that you could slide into your business. You can start up other divisions. I just think for consumers, we were talking to a company the other day. Now they’re a larger company, but they, I mean, they do it all. They do HVAC, plumbing, electrical. They do garage doors and garage door repairs.
They do gutter cleaning, guys. So the beauty of that is that it also helps their labor force. They can always keep their labor force employed in such a way that they don’t have to worry, am I going to have a place to go, a job to go to tomorrow, because they’ve got such a diversity. And they can train them.
somebody I was talking to, they always do dryer vent cleaning. They’re making a lot of money on dryer vent cleaning. You don’t have to charge that much for it, but it covers, you you can at least charge enough to break even to get your technician into the home. And then perhaps they’ll see other opportunities like what John was talking about using some of the great products and tools that are available to you guys. Well, Dickey, dryer vent fires are a reality of life. mean that…
That happens. And if you can take that out of the equation, you know, for safe living for a homeowner, know, hallelujah. I’ll say one thing that you brought up the pandemic and the COVID situation. I think that turned the spotlight not only on our industry, but some of the requisites of running a professional company. When I got into this industry, nobody ever talked about culture and leadership.
Now everybody is talking about culture and leadership in an organization. Coming through the 24 months or so of the COVID situation, Matt Michelle was a stellar example of leadership and making sure people remained positive and making sure that people were energized, that things were not going dark, that they were bright as ever. It’s kind of a mental disposition. So all of those things together.
Justin Deese (14:15.128)
We’ve seen heating and air conditioning companies go through transformational changes in terms of leadership. John Maxwell training as an example. Walking again around this expo center, there are companies that can help with leadership culture development functions. And that’s something that everybody should embrace, but take advantage of.
So what do you guys think is one of the biggest shifts that you’ve seen in the industry? Like we’ve talked about technology, leadership. What do you think the single biggest shift has been? I think, well this is probably more me than maybe the industry, but I really think one of the things that we have observed, because Vicki and I pretty much specialized in the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement, and training revolving around those tools.
I see far less and less and less pushback on starting to learn the numbers. One of the things that we always said is you don’t know your business unless you know your numbers. And I see more people saying, yeah, I want that financial information. I want to be able to look at my income statement, my P &L, and know the KPIs and understand what those KPIs are telling me about the direction the company is going. it?
very efficient, is it productive, is it creating value for the long term when I will sell this business if that’s the case. So I don’t know, I think people are really being receptive to using the financials as a real positive leverageable in their business. And Kristen Deese is here and that’s one of the things. There she is.
And that’s one of the things that her company can help you do. So she can help you understand, they can help you understand what it is your numbers are telling you. John always says that your numbers tell a story, but you’ve got to learn how to listen to that story. Matt said that yesterday, by understanding the numbers.
Justin Deese (16:21.726)
Years ago when I was with Linux, we had a group of people we would send out to work directly with Linux dealers. And we started the concept with what we got to help them with is marketing. They got to know how to market and advertise and generate leads. We weren’t 12 months into that program and we go, that’s great. But you know what our real problem is? They don’t understand their numbers. We can get them leads all day, but until they know how to price it.
till they know how to deliver customer service, till they know the impact of when they sell that job, the cost of that job, and the overhead associated with that job, it’s not going to do them any good. So we quickly had to change our focus to helping them understand the numbers and do the marketing. Those two to me still go hand in hand. So going back to Justin’s original question, I will tell you that it’s critical.
There’s a woman here who tells an amazing story. She became part of the Alliance, Service Nation Alliance, and she said, and she’ll tell you the story herself, so I’m not telling anything out of school, she was overweight. she came to the class and she heard Matt talk about the fact that it’s hard to fix your business until you’ve kind of worked on yourself and know yourself.
She went back, she lost 179 pounds and they have turned their businesses sold. They’ve turned their business around before it was sold. you know, guys, it’s the same way with your numbers. It’s just like you’ve got to work on the intern. I don’t want you totally to focus on it because you can’t ever lose sight of that customer and what you’re delivering. But you’ve got to internally understand those numbers and the story that they’re telling you.
in order then to truly give a good focus to your customer. So it’s critical you understand your own company. And then, as we’ve already said, mean, the basics are the same, guys. You focus on your culture, your leadership, but first you got to understand those numbers. Well, you make a lot of decisions in 12 months in a fiscal year. And whether your fiscal year is a calendar year or it’s an offset, it’s still 12 months of operations.
Justin Deese (18:45.198)
And you want to make sure that every month you go through that operational sequence of serving your customers and using the skill sets that you developed in your team, that the end result is you’re adding value to your business model. That’s the key. And people think I’m crazy when I tell them, you can grow revenue in a company, but when you look at the value basis of the company, it actually moves down, that you have not created value by selling more.
And so there’s a number of things that go into creating value that will ultimately come to surface when you go through the exit strategy. again, it’s just not selling stuff. It’s selling stuff and adding value to a business enterprise. So you’re going to be rewarded at the time of sale, just like Brian Cohen said. Are you going to be at a 7x on EBITDA, or are you going to be at a 10x on EBITDA?
Well, that’s the value that you’re creating in the company that warrants a certain price tag when it comes time to exit. So to remind everybody of Matt Michelle in his talk yesterday, which was phenomenal, you know, he made the point, everybody’s exit your business. Yeah. It’s either like on your terms or not on your terms, but you’re all going to exit. that’s not a, the reality is that’s going
to happen at some point. And even if you’re going to be a second generation or third generation,
You obviously don’t want to burden your children with leaving them a business that is train wrecked. You want to leave them one that’s, know, prosperous. And we talked about it on the panel yesterday. This business is a whole lot more fun when there’s double digits at the bottom line versus single digits. Like that is such a shift, you know, when you’re like trying to dig a sand hole versus, you know, double digit profit. Absolutely.
You know, that’s probably, and Justin, I’m glad you said that, because that’s also probably one of the changes I think I’ve seen, particularly in the last five or six years. And a lot of it has to do with how many Baby Boomer owners that we have. Our son is a Gen, he’d be a Gen Y, right? Gen X. Gen X, sorry. Always get him mixed up. He’s a Gen X. And he keeps saying, when are you Baby Boomers gonna retire? Well, at least in our industry.
Justin Deese (21:04.13)
we are seeing more baby boomers retire either by transferring their business or by again selling it. And I think that’s good news. There are so many things that you young people out there who are working in businesses who are beginning to take over the business being transferred from your, from your, you know, perhaps another family member or you’re buying it out from another family member.
That’s what’s exciting because there are so many years ahead of you where this industry is just going to get stronger and stronger and much more. I mean, it’s a critical part of people’s lives now, but I think, again, they’re more aware of how critical they are. I’m not sure they ever thought, you know, the typical consumer, they didn’t think about heating and air conditioning.
until like I’m hot, I’m cold, my plumbing’s not working. And now I think they’re aware of us. And one of my hopes is that because more consumers are becoming aware of us as an industry, we’re going to have more children and more young people be aware of the fact that you can make…
Six figures, you can make over $100,000 in this industry today being a technician. And that is justified, guys, what technicians and what plumbers do. I mean, it’s essential. We know that now. We had to prove it to ourselves, I think. And it’s essential. And you deserve to make a lot more than that if you’re the owner, because you have all the headaches that go with it.
But again, and the risk. Thank you, Justin. Yeah, all of that. And I sometimes say their soul a little bit too. But guys, it’s, know, and so I think that’s another very positive change going forward, especially with the optimism of youth that you all have. I think that is exciting. Well, make no mistake about it. The &A, the merger and acquisition activity, private equity.
Justin Deese (23:17.002)
It’s not going away. Right now, today, there is a little over $3 trillion sitting on the sideline waiting to purchase companies. Don’t know if that’s going to be one of your companies or not, but in the future, someone’s going to put the crosshairs on your organization, and you’ll go through, just like Matt said, due diligence. And the outcome of that is what’s the company values at, and you want to make sure that valuation’s as strong as possible. And that, again, ties into, guys, it’s critical.
Everybody just as Justin said, you’re all going to exit one way or another. So, you know, people say to us, when should we start planning our exit strategy? And we always say today, you know, start planning now, get your financials in ready, get your management team ready, be thinking about who’s going to take over if you’re the owner GM, who’s going to be my next GM? And again, guys, we’re not saying you have to sell your business.
We know, and there’s several owners here who we call them, and it’s not a bad term, we call them passive owners. What they do is make the profits. They create a wonderful organization, they find a great GM, get that GM trained, pay them quite well, let them run the business, and they can run off, come here to Florida for six months when there aren’t hurricanes. You know, they can just enjoy the fruits of taking.
you know, in enjoying the profits from the business and not have to be as involved in the day-to-day operational side of it. That’s another way to exit your business, guys. So, you know, there’s so many just fantastic opportunities. Well, that’s the point of owning a business, right? The point is to not work in it every day unless that’s what you want to do, right? If it’s your business, you build it to where you get to do what it is you want to do. So if there’s things that you don’t like doing,
find somebody that’s better, because if you don’t like doing it, there’s a good chance that you’re not good at it anyway. So you might as well find somebody else to answer and that one strategy that you mentioned, passive ownership, I think it’s going to lead to one of the things we see more and more of the future, and that’s outsourcing as it impacts our business model. We can outsource Admin functions, we can outsource database cluster management, we can outsource a lot of things, and it’s happening right now.
Justin Deese (25:43.51)
And guys, there’s so much, again, software out there and so many third party companies even represented my gosh, and AI. Yeah, yeah, talk about what Justin, you Was last year, like, was there what, one or two companies that were AI last year? There’s, I mean, what a fascinating… Absolutely. I like learning it. It’s a little bit terrifying at times, but it’s really cool to watch how it does things better, faster, sometimes…
stronger than you do it. So it’s definitely a cool thing. So I want to shift gears real quick. So when I think about you guys, I think about impact and influence, right? And one of the biggest ways you guys have impacted influence, obviously helping business owners really get to the next level and change their life and their business. Another thing is being part of the amazing organization that you guys are part of, which I know is a huge passion project for you guys. So for anybody listening, can you tell us a little bit about the Joseph Crow Foundation?
If you don’t know what the Joseph Groh Foundation is, it is for John and I, it’s our way of giving back. Everyone that’s involved in the heating, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, home services industries, you know, your company, who you work for, that’s how you put the bread and butter on your table for a long time. It’s been an industry that has given a lot.
to everyone in this room and everyone listening to this podcast. So it’s our way and it’s a way we can give back as an industry to people in our industry who have had a life altering accident or illness. That’s what the Joseph Groh Foundation does. We help anyone associated with the construction field who’s had an accident. And this year for the first time from this expo,
We are going to give back a good chunk of the money we raise here to help people in Florida, the Carolinas who’ve been impacted by the last two hurricanes. Contractors. Yeah, contractors, if I didn’t say that. Contractors who have been impacted by that. In fact, there’s one contractor here at the show. He showed up at this show, but he lost his home. Not just damaged, it’s gone. There’s a couple that I’ve talked to here that have.
Justin Deese (28:05.806)
And I’m like, well, that’s amazing that you came here. I I think part of that was they were like, I just needed, as normal as a trade show can be, right? Like there’s a lot going on, but just to get out of it for just a second. Just to take my mind off it for a little bit. we’re going to, and if you know of someone that might need that help, if you’ll come see me, if you’re here at the Joseph Groh booth, we’ll get them down. But guys, we’ve helped, the foundation started
a man that I had worked with for years. We’d worked together at Lennox then when we had all left Lennox. We worked with him when he was with some other companies doing training and facilitating meetings for him. His name is Joseph Groh. We call him Joe. And on Father’s Day in 2008, he was riding his bicycle. He hit a rut, threw him over the handlebars, and he’s now a quadriplegic.
And John says he can do more in a day just from, you know, I mean, the only thing he has use of is his head and his neck. And he does more in a day than a lot of people with all four limbs functioning can do in a week. And he truly is amazing. He is an amazing model. And one of his philosophies is after he knew because he…
laid on the ground for about 20 minutes before he was found, he thinks. He doesn’t know how long he was unconscious. He knew he was in trouble as soon as he came back to consciousness. But, you know, after he knew help was on the way, he decided, I’m not, I’m not going to feel sorry for myself. He said, I can’t. And he said, I’m going to focus on, you know, rehabbing as much as I can, but then I’m going to, you know,
just say, I’m never going to look back. You can’t at that point. When you’ve had that kind of devastation, it’s just like these floods. When you’ve had that kind of devastation, trauma in your life, you can’t look back. You you’ve got to look forward. And that’s what he has done with this foundation. With the help of us and some other people who are good friends with at the time, the foundation actually became a 501C3 in 2012. And in that period of time, and
Justin Deese (30:23.406)
all of us on the board. It’s run by a board of directors and all of us are volunteers. Everything we do here, all the things we do, we’re not paid for it. We don’t take any, we take the joy of trying to give back to an industry that has been phenomenal for us. And we have given back to date $1.3 million.
to people, contractors in our industry. there we go. Yeah, thank You guys gotta clap really loud so they can pick it up on the microphone. There you go. And I mean, we’ve helped them with bathrooms. I mean, you know, if you suddenly have become paralyzed, and you don’t have to be hurt on the job. We have a number of people. You guys, please be careful when you’re on your motorcycles because we have had a lot of people who we’ve helped who’ve had motorcycle accidents.
But can you imagine you’ve been in this traumatic, you’ve got this whole change in life, your body is now not functioning like it once did. You come home and you can’t even take a shower. We had one man who for eight months, he needed, when he could, when he had a family member who would take him out in his yard, they would hose him off with a hose. Can you imagine?
The loss of dignity and having to do something like that, it just gives me chills. We had a letter recently from a man, similar situation, we helped him get a bathroom. And by the way, a bathroom remodel to widen the doors, to put in the transfers that they need to get themselves from a wheelchair to a board in the shower is about $30,000. And now we…
We buy typically we’ve got again wonderful contractors in the industry who help supply the labor in a lot of situations and we supply the you know the materials and that that’s fantastic but guys I can’t and he said you know at first after I was hurt and I think it’s a typical reaction he said I didn’t want to make any adjustments to my house because it just reminded me of my weakness and he said it just upset me.
Justin Deese (32:46.682)
And so he said, finally, you know, he reached out to the foundation and we helped him put this shower in. And he said, I want you to know, not only physically did you help me, you changed my life. You gave me back my life. Guys, that’s the difference you can make. So we appreciate those of you listening. If you’re not here at the show, you can go on to Joseph.
J-O-S-E-P-H grow G-R-O-H foundation.org and make a donation. And we would love that because again, every, doesn’t matter whether it’s $5 or John didn’t say $100,000. John’s not going to say $500,000. Yeah, John’s not going to say $500,000. Think big, man. But guys, we are here to stay. The industry, our foundation, you know, when we started it, we’re probably like a lot of you guys. We…
You know, it’s this little small company and you know, a little small foundation and we’ll all help as much as we can. We now know it’s here to stay. We’ve got the backing and we’ve got people, young people coming into it who are going to continue it and keep paying it forward. So, and I probably am more, that is, if there is, if there is any legacy, and I can leave in this industry, it will be this.
Foundation because we know it’s going to continue and it will continue to give back to people, all these amazing young people who are coming into this industry. Watch this turn. Okay. Just like many of your companies, you’re going to be doing business planning for 2025. You’re either doing it now or you’re on the cusp of doing your business plan. Well, at the Joe Grove Foundation, we’re doing a business plan too. We’re planning for the sustainability.
of this foundation. you know, it’s going to be here 2025, 2035, you know, it’s going to be here for the next generation, the generation after that, because if there’s a great need, people will have accidents, wish they didn’t, but people will have accidents or illnesses. And this is the only foundation dedicated to the contract and trades. Impact and influence.
Justin Deese (35:10.008)
So I have a vision board in my office and that’s the very top of it, Impact Influence. You guys are absolutely amazing. How much passion you guys have in the project, obviously that’s why we all want to be a part of it. So you showed a video yesterday and I’ve seen the video several times. And same with you, literally I get chills. So one of the things Joseph Grow said was never look back, never give up. And what was the third thing? Remain positive. Remain positive.
I want to say this, when you’re having a tough day at the office and there’s that employee that you’re upset with or that customer you’re a little bit upset with, I think Joseph Gross should make a shirt that says that and then all the owners should buy it or hang it or sign or something. Because then when you have a bad day, you think back to like a real challenge and opportunity that…
I mean, he has a real challenge opportunity. Great idea, Justin. We’re going to put you on the board. That’s my wife’s job. That’s my wife’s just joined us. Yeah, Kristen. All in favor. got you more to do. I’ll hand you one up. So she’s good. Well, be sure and come by the CES, the Comprehensive Employment Solutions booth. They always give us a corner of their booth for the foundation.
Talk to us, bring a blank check, I’ll fill it out for you. He’s that giving of a guy. If you want to know your credit limit, give me the card. We’ll max that sucker out and you’ll have all sorts of information to go home and tell your family. Very cool. So, okay, so we’re gonna shift gears a little bit because again, impact and influence you guys have had. what is the future, what’s the future look like? You guys have been doing this for very long time.
Anna looks very tired. What a sweet, I wish you guys could see this puppy back here. But she’s a professional. She’s a pro for sure. So what does the future look like for you guys? Probably road trips. likes to ride in the car and so we’ll probably take some road trips. We unplug year over year from the industry. It’s hard to do. Yeah, because we love it so much.
Justin Deese (37:21.966)
There’s a couple of people sitting in this audience. We, more and more over the last few years, have given up a lot of our training and other responsibilities. Kim Martin, standing back there, she’s taken over a whole lot of our training that we used to do on the financial training. I see Jessica Young sitting up here in the front row. She’s taken over some of our mentoring and moderating.
John and I will continue to be involved with Service Nation on a limited basis. We’re going to keep our AB groups. We’ll probably continue to do a little bit of virtual training. We’ll do some special projects. guys, this, and everybody says, you say this every year, and I know we say it every year, but this really is our last year of doing.
these big conventions. These are for young people. God, just the walk down the hall is for young people. And next year being in Vegas, I said, you you give me my own private. Yeah, what if we get you a golf cart? Yeah, that’s what Tom Peregrino said. He he said, come on, one more year. But guys, just, you know, and we really do.
We love you guys mentally. could go on forever, but physically the body saying, I don’t know. So we love this industry and you know, it’s been interesting. I was afraid when we started backing out, like Matt talked about when you sell your business, especially those of you that are young, you go.
Well, at first it sounds wonderful. John says we’re going to take road trips. Well, we’ve been doing that for the last two or three years as we’ve backed out. And they’re wonderful. We have a good time. But there has to still be a purpose in your life. So that’s why we’ve still stayed connected. And we’ll always be there. If somebody calls us and they need some help, we’re going to be there, guys. My phone number’s out there in too many phones.
Justin Deese (39:30.612)
And my email address is out there. Now, John, he doesn’t do that. He just sells it and then, you know, turns it over Pass it on, yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, we will still be around, but you may not see us in person as often. I, you know, I can’t, what you guys have given us is more than we could ever give to you. So I can’t say enough.
the most wonderful people I have ever met in the entire world are associated in this business. I tell people I meet, and they start talking about big corporations, and I said, yeah, that’s all fine and good. But where the backbone of America is, it’s in small businesses like what are in this industry. You employ, I think the last statistic I read, it’s like you employ
54 % of the employees in the country are employed by small businesses, and that’s $20 million or less. So guys, you are. You’re what runs the economy in this country. And never lose sight of that. Never lose your pride in that. And never lose… Make sure your employees know how important what they do is.
And because again, you’re the heart, the soul, your ethics, your just everything about the people we’ve had an opportunity to meet. You just, I don’t know. I mean, that’s why it’s been hard to retire because we’ll miss the opportunity to personally get to see you guys, hug you guys. But you understand it’s time. Absolutely. Any closing thoughts, John, as we wrap up? It’s been a great ride.
Yeah, it has been. It has been, guys. I can’t, we can’t say thank you enough. It’s been, it’s been truly amazing. And Justin, thank you for having us and letting us kind of have this, I don’t know, we might do another podcast or two, but kind of having this, you know, last hurrah, guys. Yeah, I like it. Thank you. Well, thank you guys so much for coming on. Again, the impact and influence has been amazing that you had, so.
Justin Deese (41:52.454)
Thank you. And thank you all for coming out and hanging out. The plan right now for everybody here is for this to come out Monday. We hope the audio is good and gonna come out, but whatever, we’re gonna kick it out anyway. So thank you guys so much. Thank you, Justin.