119 | From High School to HVAC CEO: How 20-Year-Old Julian Crawford is Redefining Success

You

It was

awesome. Yeah.

If you weren't there,

you missed out. that was, and listen, we brought the house down. Like when we say we closed it down, they're permanently closed. Last night was our last night open. Did y'all know that?

Yeah, we did that, yeah.

We did it, we shut it down.

So I wanted to bring Julian on here and to tell a little bit about his story. I wanna tell a little bit how these guys met because when you told me the other day, was crazy. And Julian and I met two days ago at a hike. So we were like, hey everybody, let's go hiking. ⁓ Tom flaked. You know, it's fun.

I

had to get my rest.

Yeah, that's Julian came out and we got to talking and learn a little bit about your story Yeah, and so I wanted to have him on the podcast. I wanted Tom to be here because I always liked Tom to be here So real quick Tom, I know you've been on the show before so people probably know who you are, but give us a quick intro

Yeah,

President, El Presidente.

And then once I had that experience, I'm like, okay, I need to, I want to go back to being an entrepreneur. And so now I still get to help Service Station. That's why I'm wearing the shirt still. Now I consult for Service Station, help them behind the scenes, help them at this event, and do all the other things that I like to do as well.

Really, I'm only here Justin, because of this rising star. Like my star is beginning to fade, it's like little sparkles. This, Julian is a rising star. Yes. Thank you. It's really cool how...

bumped into together or if it was meant to be, but it was really, really cool. And so if you want to tell the story of how we bumped together.

Actually,

I think it would be cool.

before we do that, give an intro on yourself real quick. ⁓ then, yes, we want to get to

So my name is

first day we rolled out a line set 100 foot and I stepped on the entire thing and it was kinked the entire way. I didn't know anything about AC other than that thermostat went cold when you put it to cold. after eight months, as supposed to, after eight months I quit, we bought a van and I started just rolling out. Maintenances with, we got really lucky with one customer. They had 10 properties so that was just enough to pay our very little overhead and get everything rolling.

post two.

we got everything rolling, were able to, we met a guy on Facebook, we were doing some work, and my partner was able to leave, because he would work with me at the company. He was able to leave, work with me, and you know, we were making so much money that summer, we bought another vehicle, and then winter hit, which you can read all you want about a slow season. You won't learn until it hits you. There's nothing I can say, like if somebody said, can I tell you, I'd just be ready, I'd just go to the gym, I don't know, get ready, get ready to call.

because it's going to suck. ⁓

So yeah, we've been in business for about a year and eight months now. I've been in the field for about three total years and just, I don't know, I'm just happy. I've met a lot of people. I've been very lucky. With my father, he started as just a bottom of the barrel plumber, which no disrespect to anyone. Grew his way up after 30 years with the same company and now he's the service director of a $70 million company. And when he was with them, I don't even think, you know, they weren't doing over anything near that. So he's been with them forever.

He's in a position where he can now help. My older brother has an electrical company, I have my company, he's just doing exactly what a dad should do. He's helping us out, and we're all gonna, ⁓

So

I want to think about that. So I started my entrepreneurial journey pretty young as well. ⁓ And I can remember there being those challenges of being young. And what's funny, Tom will probably attest to this, you get to where you're the young guy in the room and then all of a sudden, one day, you're not. Very weird feeling. So I also, I want to highlight this too, right? In an era where we talk about employee problems and nobody wants to work and this next

time.

generation is, you know, all this negative things that we hear. Here you are as a 20 year old.

Yeah, I mean that's... It's definitely real about, you know, my generation, but I feel like...

I don't know, I guess just people need to find what they like to do. Absolutely. a lot of what people like to do are comfortable things. So streaming, YouTube, this and that. So if they grow up seeing that, HVAC, being in an ad call, they suck. So you don't want to do that. that's not shiny, that's not bright, that's not cool. I think there was a statistic where like over 70 or 80 % of young children want to be YouTubers. Sure. Because that's so cool and that's what they idolize and that's what they see. me, I never really was into any of that. I grew

and you see it is actually a lot of work.

And I grew up like going to side jobs with my dad and watching my dad work all the time and like that was just so normal like everyone our family working is Just normal. That's that's so normal. I had my mom sit at home all the time My dad was always working always working. So it was just kind of like so normal. I started working at 15 with my older brother We would travel the country wiring gyms for the company He worked at at the time and I didn't think anything of it. That was just what you do I turned 15 my brothers like we're going to work and I'm like, yeah we are. Yeah. Yeah, come on with it. That's it

And we just work. That's all we do.

So tell

the story about how you guys met. Because when you told me this the other day when we were hiking, I was like, my gosh, we got to get Tom. This is too awesome. OK.

Yeah, go ahead.

So I'll

start with how I ended up where I ended up on this trip. And then I want him to pick up on how he ended up where he ended up. So let me just say, so I go to this home service conference in Orlando. So I fly in to this home service conference. And I'm sitting outside, waiting for the next breakout. I don't know, I'm just sitting there, I'm waiting.

Okay.

looking at emails all this kind of stuff minding my own business here for another conference and then how did you end up there what it is

So

I always when I when I worked my job in Orlando, I would listen to podcasts while I'll never forget I was wiring air handlers listening to like Chris Yano, you know, Oh, yeah. So on my way home, I was listening to his podcast and he had mentioned that there was an event going on on the East Coast for Home Service Freedom. So my initial thought was, oh, that'd be cool if I could go. Then he said Florida. And I was like, OK, I might actually be able to go. And then he said the name of the building. And I was in traffic on my way home from this like the Disney area.

and it was the JW Marriott, I looked up, it was right there. And I was like, I gotta go. Like my stomach just dropped. I looked up the price of the ticket, it was $1,500. And at

At

this point you're how old?

Yeah,

at the time, $1,500 is a lot of

called in sick, I talked to my dad, I'm sure he said something to the bosses, because he's higher up there. So I called in sick, I bought the ticket, I went to the event, and I think what did we meet, the second or first day? Anyway, I was running around like, I gotta get my monies worth somehow. I just spent $1,500 just for them to tell me, know, some stuff I could have looked up. But the classes ended up being way more than just stuff I could have looked up. That's what the first day I initially thought, like, oh man, but I learned so much in those classes, like it was so worth it to go to that event. And I also met this guy. I was just walking around trying to meet people.

I didn't have a company, I had a name of an idea, I was an employee, and I didn't know anything about anything. So I saw a gentleman in the corner in a suit, and I almost felt bad for him by himself. So I wanted to introduce myself to you, and I was like, no. Like I don't want to.

and then just something in my stomach and I was like, gotta listen to my gut. So I went up to you and I was like, you look dressed important. I think that was the first thing I said. Something along those lines and I think you had said something like. ⁓

You know, I'm Tom, and I was like, cool, cool, you're Tom, I'm Julian. And we had started small talk about, you asked me what I was doing there, I was like, I don't have a company, and you were like, what do you mean? It went something along these lines. I sat down, you handed me your card, said Service Nation President, and I think my exact words were like.

What does that mean? That doesn't mean anything to me. I was like, that's cool. And ⁓ I had no idea what Service Nation was. And then we talked for a little bit briefly. And then Roy White and Michelle came up and sat down. And I got to meet them all. And we just talked. We went to dinner that night at Disney Springs. We talked more and more. And yeah, I mean, I just got lucky. And then think you, at the end of it all, you ended up inviting me to Charlotte. And then we went there with my father.

and another buddy that was a part of the business at the time and yeah it's just it was crazy yeah it shouldn't it shouldn't have really happened but it did so

Well, said, okay, so you said the word lucky, which I just, I want to clarify, luck had nothing to do with that, right? There's a lot of times where people see an opportunity and they chicken out. And you had the cojones, right? To invest the money, invest the time, ⁓ go meet this, they're like, well you look important.

We ended up with

a

Well, it's probably

a little bit of disrespect on that end, you looking boring, when it came to going to the event, I had nothing to lose. I live at home, my parents, don't, still, I do not pair up. I live at home, they kind of leave me alone. this is perfect scenario to not, to just take all the risk I can because I'm...

I have nothing to lose. support me the whole way. I, anything I need, like if I need, hey, I haven't paid myself in four weeks, my dad would send me money. Like it's not like some sort of me on my own. It's like, there's a lot of people, including people like this guy. And hopefully, you know, we can connect more. But there have been so many people that have helped me along the way. So when I say there's no risk, because of my parents, I don't see any of this as a risk. If I take out a $300,000 loan, my business fails and I owe that back, I'll be 23 and I can get a job.

pay back and then by the time I'm 30 hopefully it's paid off and I can try something else. Like there's no, if it's money that needs to be made I think I could make money somewhere else so if this fails somehow...

⁓ think it's a crucial lesson, especially when you're early in your business career. First of all, hustle like you're broke. I have a giant sign in my studio that says that to this day, because I think it's important. But to drive and to not be focused on the negative of it, because right, going broke, that's the negative side of it. You're like, I'm focused on up here. mean, Tom, it could have been somebody else you bumped into, and I could have been like, who are you, kid? Go away. ⁓

percent.

you

moment he and I began business, because I've known so many contractors, and I know the typical age in which a contractor takes that leap to be their own business owner. And I'm like, this guy, Julian, is not doing normal things. He's taking a risk 10 to 15 to 20 years ahead of when most contractors decide, I'm going to own my own business.

Thinking about doing that now, that's not normal. He accosted me in the hallway. That's not normal. And then as I just visited with him and the way his mind thinks, I'm like, different.

Yeah.

you

I remembered what I was like as a young man. At his age, I was not thinking what he was thinking. I was not looking at taking entrepreneurial risks. I was just, yeah. I was not here, but he's mature in the entrepreneurial way at his

Thank you. In the entrepreneurial way. I'm still a 20 year old.

Okay, so as

we're doing this, we're doing this, like I said earlier, we're doing this live at Service World. We're back here in one of the booth areas and Julian, somebody walked him up here and Julian said, I went and found, what did you say, an adult? The trusted adult to get me here. So there's still a lot of that, which is awesome.

trusted.

I love to poke fun at because the things that I do are not normal for my age and I know that but at the same time I still am a 20 year old and I still my main thing is I played video games a lot before and I stopped that and I was like you know however good I get at this video game no one will ever see however good I get

If I can do business, and that's all I focus on, I can get super good and I can almost make it a game. The more vans you buy, you need a tech, you need to stock it, you need to do more Google Ads. You can almost make it a game with all the metrics and everything you see now. So if I play this game, then everyone's going to think I'm cool. Maybe not cool, that's not why I'm doing it, but it's more acceptable, it's more...

can provide for all the people I care about. can do such cool stuff. And all I got to do is instead of playing this game, I play a different game. And I just play that game. Yeah. And it's so much better. I love it.

Can I tell

another weird story about Julian? Absolutely. I don't if you remember this, it just... So last year we were in Orlando and we reconnecting. I'm like, Julian, hey! And so we were able to work out to have dinner together. So my wife and I and Julian, we go out to eat. And me being the old wise man that I think I know a lot, I'm going to be able to help Julian. I remember I'm sitting across from dinner. I'm like, hey, listen, you probably need to check out some software called Blue On.

Yeah.

helps you troubleshoot, and Julian's like, I don't need that, I've already been doing that. What are you talking about? And he goes, yeah. As he's been going on service calls back then, and not knowing how to troubleshoot, how to fix anything, he'd just go to AI and say, hey, I got this going on, what do think I should do? He was already using AI to help do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

service calls. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna watch the magic happen.

For sure, I I use AI not as much anymore because I've been doing it for a good amount of time now but my partner in AI, my physical partner, not my AI partner, ⁓ Caleb, he's, I can call that guy for anything and he's like an AI, he's like a blue on, he'll get me my issue and if he can't get it for me we're on the phone looking it up and we get it. So having AI, having a good partner, having my parents, the whole support thing is the reason why it's like no risk to me and I can just keep doing my thing.

Yeah.

I was probably,

so was trying to think, when Chris and I started our first home service business, think I was 21 or 22, somewhere in that range. And we were alone. Like seriously, mean, there were so many times where I was like, I think this entrepreneurial thing, I think it's a lie. I think everybody's lying. Nobody's actually making money because our revenue, like we were way up here and then at the end of the month, I'm like, what do you mean we can't pay the mortgage? Like, what are you talking about?

Okay, yeah.

And then as I.

five years into running this business before I even figured out there was groups like this. Like I think, well first of all, we cannot wait to watch this happen, right? I really and truly cannot. And you're doing it in just the absolute right way and it's so untraditional, it's inspiring.

I'm excited.

⁓ I'm not excited for the hundreds, probably thousands of more attics and crawl spaces, but I will just, you know, that's part of it in order to be in the positions that you guys are in. You've got to put in the work and I've put in a good amount of work so far, but I know that there's so much more to do. And I mean, even if I, even if I put the next five years in and, and then it hits and then I start doing it, that'll be 25. And, I think in the next two to three, hopefully by the time I'm 23, we have a good team. We've got everything running. Cause my

My issue now is time in the day. have to, which my partner helps tremendously with stuff like this. ⁓

whatever I need him to get done, he'll always get done. But when it comes to estimating, I have to do my processes, my price book, I have to run out to two hours away to a general contracting job we took in bid. And the GC's mad, so now we have to do it over and over, and we have to go back and do certain stuff. And the bills aren't getting paid because we're not getting paid by the GC's. And then I got my friends wanting to hang out on Saturday. it's like, oh, yeah. So figuring it all out is very annoying. But thank god I don't have a kid, a wife, a girl, as much as I would

love a girlfriend. I'm steering far away from all of that because I don't have time for anyone. I just have time for me. And it's kind of selfish too because I'll have my grandparents send me things to do and I'll feel bad because they'll send me, hey, can you help me with this on Saturday? And I'm like, I'm sorry, I got this or I got this. it's definitely a sacrifice where you have to focus on yourself for long. But I hope that if everything goes well and I'm able to get it all done that we, can go on vacation with my grandparents and we don't have to look at any of the bills, you know? Very cool. Be cool like that. I'm.

I don't know, just trying to do the right thing and get it done. yeah, I also think it'd be cool if every, I do think about this a lot, if my dad's able to say like, that's his son. I think that's pretty cool. ⁓

I remember I was at the cross-

Yeah.

Yeah, very

cool. You know, again, it's inspiring, right? And you're in this position where so much of the world is talking about your generation, which I think this happens every, like aren't they always like, that generation,

I remember

when I was a young Gen Xer and they were like, you guys are...

you

Yeah. The world

shifted, right? And think of how fast the next generation is going to adopt technology to grow. You've already done it. You're like, oh, well, here's this thing I can't fix. AI, problem solving, boom. Because I mean, running a business, how much of that is just on the fly problem solving? Like, you're just like, well, don't know. so I, Yeah.

Speaking of technology, so when I bumped into him at the conference, you know a couple of days ago, he's like hey check this out

What are you wearing right

now? What's on your head? I've got my Meta Ray-Bans on, the Smart AI glasses. Well, these have been around for a little bit. They've been updating them and they've gotten pretty good. They just came out with one that has... Well, we're not running an ad for them, but they're pretty cool. You can talk to them and I've actually used it before to... You can say, Meta, what am I looking at? And it'll take a picture of whatever you're looking at and it'll tell you what you're looking at. And I've had it before. I think my father used it for a plumbing fitting. Hey Meta, what am I looking at?

You're looking at a fitting blah blah. Where are these at? And I believe it did tell him like the Lowe's 10 minutes away you can get it just through the glasses. And it said they have them in stock. Like it was just just with the glasses. So it's insane. And actually there was a leak in a customer's coil. I was in their attic like two months back and I had to hold the flashlight and spray my bubbles. And I used this to record so I can show the bubble, the fizzing. So I had proof. Hey, here's your leak. And I just use my glasses. So I didn't have to have the phone in one hand, the light in one hand. I just use the glasses and I made.

I made some money off of that one with the glasses. So they've already paid for themselves and they're they're super cool Like I have a little video of me and my my little nephew who's the best? Fighting like he's dressed as spider-man and I have them on and like it's just like super it just looks so cool. Like they're awesome. They're awesome

Which seeing that kept me from making a similar mistake of like suggesting, hey Julian, you ever heard of company cam? It's where you can videotape.

I have

company camera. you do? I use company camera.

I would not have said that because you can do a little bit of company camera there.

Yeah,

that's one of our big guys, this company camera. He's in every day I'm in there and house call.

But

the fact that technology is growing so fast and the older generations, like myself, and even millennials are struggling to keep up. mean, this guy's like, no.

Yeah, it's good. I definitely think it's a big thing on mindset too because I started reading when I was eight. Well, no, that's not true. I wanted to be successful. I what a successful people do they read? So I started listening to podcasts and they would always recommend books at the end of it. So I added it to my car. One day I bought like fifteen hundred dollars worth of books. I didn't read them for like a year and a half because I hate reading. It's so boring, but it's good for you. So I forced myself to do it just like I've run and go in the sauna. I forced myself to do it because it's good for you. ⁓ So I got all the books.

and I eventually read through all of them and as I read through them it just made my whole process and my mentality just stronger and stronger. So like I'm talking now, but if you would have talked to me before I bought those books when I was 18, I would have been an 18 year old.

There would have been nothing different about me. But one of the books that I definitely want to shout out and recommend is Ellen Rohr. Yes. She made a book, How Much Should I Charge? And there was a line in there that went something like, charge for the lifestyle that you want. Oh, I owe her a bottle.

Shut out.

That was

a good one and I bought all of her books and I have them. ⁓ I haven't read the other two but the one that I did read was so good. I need go home and read the other two because maybe there's two lines waiting in there that might also change my life.

Well, I appreciate you coming and hanging out. Absolutely. It was great to get to meet you. I'm so excited to watch your journey and to just see where it's going to take you because I got to be honest with you man, there's a lot of contractors in here that you're probably a little bit ahead of or a lot ahead of and you probably don't even realize that yet.

Yeah,

I notice that it's all me. If I go to bed early, eat good, I'll wake up with a good mind and I'll get work done. And if I don't do that, then it's really all just me. And as much as it is fun coming here and doing this, nobody's going to be crawling through an attic with me on Monday. On Monday, I got a job already Tom Mike. Tom. ⁓

He didn't go on hike, so I don't know if he's able to crawl through the attic with us. he, you know, just stuff like that. I got to remember that it's, when all this and you know people saying how cool and how awesome it is, just stay focused and just, yeah, just get it done.

any show you

go to, any investment you make, where you go to a show, you go to an event, if you will just think about two things, like just two takeaways, no more, just two, and then go implement. Because I think so many people want to know what the silver bullet in running a business is, it's implementation. That's the magic sauce that most people, they lose or they miss.

Yeah,

would definitely say like the biggest thing for me would be...

just go around the people that you want to be like, 100%. Because I don't, you know, no hate to any of my friends that are 20. But, you know, I can't get drunk on a Monday. I gotta, you know, talk with my buddies that are not in college. I absolutely can. I absolutely have. And I absolutely won't again. But I definitely try to surround myself with people that I think the same. Like Billy, for example, he's...

He's

had you at the gym at 4 a.m. this week hadn't he?

Yeah, and I hated it

every minute. He's like, you want to go in the morning? I'm like, no. I'm going to be... I told him no, but I'm going to be there because that's what you're supposed to do. every day I try to run a few miles because the last mile hurts so bad. And if you just do something hard every day, everything else becomes easy. And I'm not trying to sound like some David Goggins, but it's just so true. Like, it's just true.

Have you ever heard the term you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with?

And it's 100 %

true. I'm only 20 and that is 100 % true. tell all my I have a buddy I tell him all the time. I'm like, hey like the people hang around are dumb I'm like, they don't really do anything. They just do this and that and he's like, huh? I'm like, all right, dude. All right. Yeah. Well, that's it's so important like when I started hanging around and talking with Billy That that's when I realized and this was the guy that connected me to Billy So I met you and then Billy and me and Billy talk every day and I go to his shop once a week

And that's all because you were lucky enough to be listening to a podcast and then take action and show up at the event and make it. So again, what is this saying about luck is the cross of prepared or being prepared. And you remember what that sound something like that. It's like it's the cross between being prepared and execution. You know, that's that's luck.

Chris Yada.

Yeah, I mean I would definitely say a lot of it is luck, a lot of it is just being in the right place at the right time Yeah, because I would if I think about this sometimes if you would have walked up and went to the bathroom I would have walked right past you and we I wouldn't be here My dad wouldn't went to Charlotte my brother and my dad are flying in tonight If you would have just not been sitting in that seat for that time. Yeah, it would have been crazy

Any gooseys? ⁓

Yeah, well put put yourself out there and yeah, we're all going to be paying attention. We're all going to be supporting you rooting you on and and you have our info. So whatever you need you just. Set the call and say hey, yeah, I need to I need to know something or actually will probably call you. there's this technology thing.

Thank

And you're not too far from

Yeah.

⁓

I've got some buddies that are wizards when it comes to the technology stuff like with the AI stuff for me Yeah, you know I seem like a wizard, but It's it's not as complicated But I know some people that are light years away from me that I could even you know talk to and hook people up with because there is the stuff that I'm doing with the AI is Scraping the bottom the stuff like making ads and things like that the stuff that some people I see are doing it's Insane it's so much more than anything. do anything. I could do it's

It's huge.

Guys, I appreciate you coming and hanging out. Appreciate the story. Thank you guys for checking it out. And ⁓ I'm sure we'll see everybody here soon.

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