#213 - Put Down The Tool Bag - WorkWife's Christy Carter

[00:00:00] I think there's a real disconnect in like not coming out of the field. With my dad we used to say you got to put down the tool bag. Like one day you got to put down the tool bag. And I think that's really, really hard. Especially if you start this business because you're passionate about the trade that you're in. In order to take it to the next level past a job you have to stop doing the job that you did this to do and become something else and learn a whole new skill.

[00:00:28] And like most people in the trades did not go to business school and learn all the reporting and the KPIs and they're probably not even using their software right if they have software at that point. Because if it was just me I don't need software Google Calendar is just fine. But then now how do I introduce these other people? I don't have anything to introduce them to. I have what's in my brain and what's in my gut and I just yell at people on fire.

[00:00:54] If you are an irrigation professional, old or new, who designs, installs, or maintains high-end residential, commercial, or municipal properties. And you want to use technology to improve your business to get a leg up on your competition. Even if you're an old school irrigator from the days of hydraulic systems. This show is for you.

[00:01:17] Hey, it's your friend Andy, the Sprinkler Nerd. And welcome to the The Sprinkler Nerd Show. Today I'm talking with Christy Carter, the founder of WorkWife. Christy built an HVAC company from the kitchen table to more than $5 million in revenue and then she sold it. Along the way, she experienced one of the hardest stages of business growth. The messy middle between a few hundred dollars and $5 million.

[00:01:44] That's where the phone keeps ringing, the teams keep growing, the systems keep breaking, and every unfinished task somehow lands back onto the owner's plate. Today, Christy helps service businesses move through that stage with real back-office support, implementation, and virtual assistants who actually take the work away from the owner. Her philosophy is pretty simple. Clear the plate, don't add more. Christy, welcome to the show.

[00:02:14] Thanks so much. Yeah, look forward to chatting. And I would love to get started with a little icebreaker, and that would be, what have you been nerding out on recently? Could be anything. Nerding out on recently? I, you know, I, I obsess over new tools to play with. That's, that's my problem. Um, it, it, very specifically right now, I'm obsessed with some new AI implementation and some reporting tools that we have.

[00:02:43] And I am just like the, the limitless of it. I'm just, I find myself just like drowning in, oh my God, can I figure this out? Oh my God, can I figure that out? Amazing. So I guess I'm a reporting nerd right now, but. Okay, great. A reporting nerd. And that fits, uh, fits the work wife. I'm sure we're going to learn more about it. Is there one thing you've, uh, unlocked in reporting recently that you can share from your reporting nerd venture?

[00:03:08] Well, my current venture is in the call center side that we're able to like pinpoint exactly when people are talking. They can read all the, um, vibes of the call. They can tell you if it was a good call or a bad call, like without anybody ever listening to it. And everything is fully transcribed right now. Ooh. So nobody, like if you couldn't hear what they were saying, if they had a heavy accent, now they're just taking the call, letting it be and reading the transcript after the fact, finishing the call. So it's, it's been some really cool upgrades for us.

[00:03:37] Wow. Excellent. Well, maybe, um, as we get going, you can talk a little bit more about call center, um, operations. I think maybe a good place to start would just be before I ask you specific questions, maybe just tell us a little bit about your history and how you got into the HVAC business.

[00:03:53] Yeah. So, um, I actually grew up HVAC. My dad was an HVAC guy. So I grew up working in the office with my mom. And in the summers I would run duct work with my dad. That was my first job. Um, dollar an hour is what he paid me to go do new construction. Um, but from there in 2017, I opened my own HVAC company, um, with my now ex-husband. Um, and we grew really quickly. Um, like stupid quickly. And, um, in 23 it sold. Um, and that's when I started to get into it.

[00:04:22] I started working on work wife. Um, we got to 5 million. Wow. Wow. And when you started up, um, what did your company, you know, look like when you were kind of just starting from that kitchen table?

[00:04:35] Yeah. So, I mean, it was literally just me and my ex-husband. Actually it was my ex-husband to start with, but it only took a few weeks before, you know, you immediately reach out to your spouse or your sister or your mom or somebody to help you with the phones. Cause you can't do the work and answer the phone at the same time. So somebody usually gets roped into that. Cause oftentimes you can't afford to bring in like a real employee and those early stages. So he started in the field. I started in the office and it was just the two of us until he couldn't handle that workload.

[00:05:04] And then we started bringing in more guys and then we had to get a shop cause it was weird to have eight dudes in your house in the morning. And, uh, so then, you know, we went and got a shop and then there was trucks and more employees and they needed more help in the office.

[00:05:17] And then it just sort of like at a point gets out of control. And, um, that was a fun little, little ride to go when it's sort of like evolves into its own thing. And then you're not the owner really anymore for a little while. It kind of owns you for a little while. And then you have to figure out how you're going to get a handle on it and then make it be something intentional again.

[00:05:38] Yeah. Yeah. Slips out. Do you think, um, right at the beginning of that question, you said, can't remember exactly what you said, but it made me wonder if, wonder why contractors maybe don't hire that person where, or take the risk on that potentially, if that's the way we want to look at it. They kind of like, well, I'm just going to do it all myself.

[00:06:00] But maybe another person's like, yeah, I'm just going to hire this person. Cause I know in like a year from now, it'll be all right. Can you take us inside and maybe like the minds of some of your customers on maybe why they don't hire that person when they should? I think in the trades more often than not, you have somebody who is skilled at something and they're like, you know what, this guy that I work for, he's kind of dumb. Or maybe I've got this great idea of a better way to be able to do things. But at the end of the day, they have a skill and they go and start a business.

[00:06:29] With the skill. Um, and I think that coming from that perspective, you don't realize early on how important that office person really is. And so it tends to be a favor in the beginning. Hey, can you just help me while I'm this? Hey, can you just help me until that other person has to quit their full-time job because they can't do both.

[00:06:50] And I think that it's really more of about a perspective on the value of that seat early on. And then also financially, it's like a lot of the times, you know, you're just like, please let me get another job so I can pay my mortgage. Can't pay two people's mortgages.

[00:07:04] That's what I was wondering too, because if someone is bootstrapped financially all the way anyway, and they're actually irrigation wise, just hoping to buy that trencher or lease that trencher, they might not have any extra for an office admin when these other tools, let's say, are more valuable to actually getting the work done that, you know, having to juggle, well, which investment do I make? People or tools?

[00:07:30] Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think that's why it falls on family a lot of the time. Like, or somebody that's really, I see a lot of sisters, moms, wives. That's typically your first person. And if they are super skilled or willing to learn the skill, it works fine. If they are not skilled or they don't want it, then at a point you have to replace them with something because sometimes the wives are being forced into that role so the family can survive.

[00:08:24] Mm-hmm. And they're thinking, yeah, I really like this. And someday I either want to buy this company or I want to start my own company. And what is it like, or where do you see the hurdles when someone's at zero and then they're going to get to something? Let's say it's 200,000 and then it's 1 million. What are the hurdles along that growth from zero to something?

[00:08:49] So I think in the beginning, like the very beginning at zero, all the hope in the world, like the dollars don't matter as much as the hope and the dream. And like, you've got faith that it's all going to be okay. And I think at zero, you survive on hope and wishes and you still have those. And then after a little while of reality, the hope and the wishes aren't enough, you know, to be able to get you through. So there's like that, then you don't have the, then it becomes an emotional struggle too.

[00:09:19] Because like now the dream feels heavy. And like you start doubting, am I doing the right thing? Should I back off? Should I go forward? And I think like, that's why they, honestly, I feel like that's why they say that like a lot of businesses don't make it a year.

[00:09:32] I think because the first time you hit that wall of hopes and dreams aren't enough right now, you have that choice of like, okay, am I going to go get a real job or am I going to make this something for real? And I think that decision happens in that first year because you start, everybody starves a little. It's pretty rare that you can just jump straight in and there's no sacrifice. And that hope and dream piece of it, I think gets you through to a point and then you have that breaking point where you have to make that decision.

[00:09:59] And then I believe that once you make it, you hit that barrier again, because then you start to make money and things feel okay. And then at about, I would say like somewhere between year two and year three, you realize how much help you actually need to be able to get any bigger. And then you almost go backwards again, because you haven't dealt with employees and you haven't dealt with structure and you haven't dealt with volume and you haven't dealt with real marketing. It's mostly been referrals. So you kind of knew the people that you were getting into business with.

[00:10:27] And then you start moving into a space where you're working with strangers and like, what kind of marketing did you pick? Is your marketing getting you really terrible people who complain about everything? Is your marketing getting you like people you enjoy being around? Like in that state, I think two to three years is like, it's another place of, oh, I thought I had this figured out and maybe I don't.

[00:10:47] And then at this point though, I feel like it's not about hopes and dreams. It's about, am I ready to be a leader? Or do I still want to do this as my job? Because that's when your job changes from being the guy who has the skills, from being the guy who leads the guys that have the skills. And I think that's a big mindset shift that people struggle with too.

[00:11:07] Do you see particular financial patterns? Meaning are there points in someone's business? Let's, again, I guess I'm going to lean on you. Like, is it zero to 500,000? You have a certain set and it's 500 to a million. Is it like, what are the financial gaps where you see these problems arise and then disappear and then new problems come up?

[00:11:32] Yeah. So I, I mean, it probably varies a little more by industry, but I mean, I feel like that the ticket size really matters, right? When you talk about dollars versus years. But I would say like up to 500,000, most people can deal with it with people they know. Like you can get to 500,000 with people, you know, without doing a whole lot of marketing, you could probably network your way into 500,000.

[00:11:57] You and maybe one other family member who maybe doesn't even have some skill sets, but you guys have enough in your brain and in your gut to be able to run this thing without having any idea what you're doing. I think once you get like 500 to a million, you're going to have to introduce some strangers and strangers introduce problems because you don't know what you're getting yourself into with any of them, your customers or your people you're hiring to get past that.

[00:12:21] So I think that initial hurdle is after like 500,000 for most trade businesses anyway. And then I think you hit it again at like two, three million. And I really think that that number, that's when the volume hits. Like there's just so many employees and so many customers. And there's just like so many balls. And did you build a good foundation? Do you have managers and everybody knows what they're supposed to do?

[00:12:47] And there's some sort of measuring stick, whether they're doing a good job or a bad job. And I think we fall into that stage so frequently that we haven't developed a measuring stick yet.

[00:12:57] So you're just like, well, John's a really good person. So he's going to make sure and get this done. And John means to. But now at this level, can he? We don't know. And I think that that's a really hard step to get past is when like you have to stop letting it be something that's a part of you and let it become something that you are a part of.

[00:13:21] Yeah. Would it be safe to say that the starting point, let's say it's zero to 500,000, as you mentioned, is that more of like solopreneur? I'm one guy. I've got all the equipment or I'm one guy plus a helper. And we do irrigation most of the time. We got this other thing going. Would that be safe to say zero to 500,000 is that? Yeah, I think that's that like, you know, people say you built yourself a job. Yes. Like, I think that's zero to 500,000. You built yourself a job.

[00:13:51] Maybe you've got one person in the office or you're utilizing a third party for the office side of things, but maybe a helper. But it's just you made a good job and you can get 500,000 a year for that. And so when we're going from 500 to the next level, what typically do you see starts to break down? I think there's a real disconnect in like not coming out of the field. With my dad, we used to say you got to put down the tool bag.

[00:14:21] Like one day you got to put down the tool bag. And I think that's really, really hard, especially if you start this business because you're passionate about the trade that you're in. And in order to take it to the next level past a job, you have to stop doing the job that you did this to do and become something else and learn a whole new skill. And like most people in the trades did not go to business school and learn all the reporting and the KPIs.

[00:14:50] And they're probably not even using their software right if they have software at that point. Because if it was just me, I don't need software. Google Calendar is just fine. But then now how do I introduce these other people? I don't have anything to introduce them to. I have what's in my brain and what's in my gut. And I just yell at people and fire them. Yeah. I don't know why this just came into my mind. But when you said put the tool bag down, I just had this picture of like, let's say a baby or a toddler. As they grow up, they've got their like security blanket. And it's like they're hugging like, I got this security blanket.

[00:15:18] And maybe the tool bag is the person's security blanket. They know it. It feels comfortable. They can show up. They can have the confidence. They can do all the things. And putting that tool bag down might be like stepping into the freaking unknown that may or may not be worth it for them. And it's scary. It's a scary step. I know this. I've known this into I have no idea what I'm about to get into. And I think it's fine if you're good with a job. Like you could stop there.

[00:15:46] You don't have to put down the tool bag. But like I think that people then think that they could sell it later for retirement or whatever. And that is a reality that's not going to happen when you never put down the tool bag. But if you do put it down, the opportunities are endless. As long as you find those measuring sticks, build a good team, make sure everybody's held accountable, and create those structures to make it replicatable so that you know exactly what's going to happen at the next phase.

[00:16:42] Mm-hmm. So there's a coaching program out there called Pinnacle.

[00:17:10] So it's sort of like traction. Like did you read that book? Traction. I know traction. They implement some functions of traction. There's some traction stuff in their program. But there's also some other things that I really liked better than traction. It really helped. It spoke to me the way that they teach that information. And one day we were in a session with our Pinnacle coach. And he was like, so what do you do and do you want to? And he is like going around the room to my team and he gets to me and he's like, what do you do, Christine?

[00:17:40] And do you want to? And I was like, I do everything. And can I say no? Yeah. And he's like, yeah, that just means we hire a general manager. And I was like, the thought never even occurred to me. Do you mean you could hire someone to do this? Like that blew my mind that that was even an option. Like I built this all the way through. Like someone really could take it over. And I think the freedom of being able to say, no, I don't want this. Let me sit back and start understanding processes and building processes.

[00:18:11] And then I found that I really love it. I love being on the other side of it. I absolutely love being a leader and I love training people and I love seeing them grow and become something else. And several of the techs that used to work for me have their own jobs now. And like, I love that. I feel like that was such an amazing thing that it like moved into the next generation. Yeah. Do you think I love what you just said about, I can't remember the question, but the fact that you were able to say, I don't like doing it. And they said that you could hire.

[00:18:39] Is that where you came up with the phrase like, take it off your plate? So for me, I feel like what my goal was, was because I was so overwhelmed, I couldn't get help. And we tried to hire a coach earlier on and we paid him $12,000 to come and sit in the office for three days and watch us. And he wrote down this list of everything that we were terrible at and printed it out. And it was like a ream of paper that he smacked down on the table on the last day and was like, here's what you get for $12,000.

[00:19:09] And I was so overwhelmed. I literally took his stack and I put it in a drawer and I didn't read it for a year. Like that looks like a big stack of work. No, thank you. I'm too busy for this. And so I once, once everything was over. And you're probably thinking, sorry to interrupt you, but you're probably thinking, I know we suck at that already. I didn't come, I didn't bring you in here to tell you what I already know we suck at. This, you know, and like not that he didn't provide solutions, but the solutions required even more capacity. And I'm negative capacity over here. Like how am I, how am I supposed to gain anything from this?

[00:19:38] And so really what WorkWife came from is because like, what would it look like if there was a company that could create capacity? That's why clean the plate is our priority because like, what would it, what could we do to create capacity? Because once you have capacity, you can make everything happen. And then what would affordable capacity look like? And how could we integrate into a company without creating homework? Okay, great.

[00:20:07] Let's go, let's go from here. So low hanging fruit. What is something you see? I know everybody, every business is different. So they're all going to have different things, but there's got to be some overlap, some similar pattern in a business that you could help create capacity for. I mean, capacity happens with efficiency really easily. So that's like the first place where you probably are doing too much. Most people are only running their software at like 50% and they do a lot.

[00:20:35] And nowadays they've got some AI integrations and some automations and things where like you're doing manual tasks every day that your software was already built to resolve. So like the first thing that you can do to create some capacity is make sure you're set up all the way and that you're in the software that's right for your business structure. Because sometimes we've found that like, well, this software does do a schedule, but you really need something that has recurring visits in it so that you don't have to worry about writing down

[00:21:04] that every May we go to Susie Jones's house. You want the software to be able to do all that stuff for you. And so setup is a huge piece of capacity. And then we start looking at the manual tasks, right? And then like, could these be automated? Is AI something that could work for this? A lot of the times I find in the smaller businesses, we lean away from the AI side of things just because the big businesses can do it. And if somebody hangs up, it's not a big deal.

[00:21:30] But if you only get 10 calls a week, if you only get 20 calls a week, like it's a big deal if one person hangs up. So like, we don't really dabble in the AI space with the small guys. But you think that at a small company level, it's actually maybe important for them to know who their customers are so they can understand them, their needs, wants, and desires, because they're trying to grow. So the more they can interact with potential client, the more they can learn about them,

[00:21:59] learn what they want, learn what the price thresholds are by actually doing like that groundwork. Yeah, I think to a big degree too, you're testing your marketing. So if you lose touch with your customer base, you don't know how your marketing is working. And something I didn't realize until we got like really going with WorkWife is like, we have companies where every single person who calls is a jerk. They're all mad. They all won't wait till Wednesday.

[00:22:27] They think their problem is an emergency, even though it was happening since four days ago. But like all of them are mean. And then we have other companies that are booked out two weeks and every customer is like, you can get there this month. That's amazing. I'll take it. And I definitely think the marketing is driving this. Like they're doing something in marketing that's allowing them this more patient, more understanding, more agreeable clientele. And then the other marketing is driving impatient.

[00:22:57] And maybe some contractors, service companies are choosing their customers. And some are saying, well, I know already that this person is going to be a dick. And we can say that here. They're going to be a dick. So let's just not even go down that road. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So like I think there's to a degree like you do need to stay in touch with that. Because if you remove yourself too early completely, you're not going to learn this is not the path I want to be on. Yep. And one quick off topic on that.

[00:23:27] I don't think we really have as many anymore, but maybe less people are just calling Sprinkless Supply Store, my online store. But, you know, 10, 15 years ago, a high percentage would call because they just didn't want to put their credit card in online. Okay. But they're not always nice, like you said. So we actually, as a way in customer service to offset that, we had this, what I came up with was the dick of the day, like bored. So you wanted to have like who got the biggest dick on the phone that day? This is the dick of the day. And how did you like overcome it?

[00:23:56] So instead of being like, oh, man, that person was such a jerk. You're just like, no, I won the dick of the day. I got the guy or the gal. That's so much. I'm going to steal it. Is that okay? Can I steal it? Absolutely. The DOD. I feel like my team would think that was. And then you can celebrate something that's normally like a pain in the butt. I love this. This is great. But yeah, like I think that's a big, that's a big part. Like who are you bringing? Like, and I think that in the beginning we take it all too.

[00:24:23] And I think, and that once you start not having to work with this, everybody, then you can start saying no sometimes too. Like, I'm just not going to do it. Cool. All right. Well, I would love to learn a little bit more about how, what the services that you offer to service companies in order to, you know, create that, create capacity for them. So, um, our biggest program is, um, uh, we call it operations reset.

[00:24:53] And so basically what we do is we go through and we analyze your workflows and your communication and your marketing and your, um, your KPIs financial sort of, but like only to make sure that every, all the reporting is correct. Right. Right. Because the data going in is the only, or the data coming out is only as good as the data going in. So, um, we do have to make sure that all the financials are talking to everything correctly.

[00:25:16] And then whoever is handling your books actually knows how to handle your books because I think you would be pretty shocked to know how many people think they have a bookkeeper and they don't have real books. So, um, those things we, we, we analyze it. We figure out exactly where the breakdowns are and where the inefficiencies are in those four areas.

[00:25:35] And then we make sure that your software is set up all of the way and that you understand like where those inefficiencies are happening so that we can adjust some processes to better align with the software and make sure that we're running as leanly as possible. The same thing happens in communication. Like how are you communicating to your customers? How are you communicating to your team? Do we need to, this one bugs the crap out of me. They have a software, but they didn't give it to any of the employees because it costs more if you add people to it. Another seat, another license, another $100.

[00:26:04] A hundred dollars a month. Yeah, exactly. Like, and I get it, but also like you're losing more than a hundred dollars a month having to call everybody or having them be like, well, I can't find this address. Well, if it was just in the software, then you wouldn't have to worry about it because it would have been GPS checked. So we make sure that all of that stuff is operating as efficiently as possible. Help you set a marketing budget. Help you identify what KPIs should be. A lot of these companies in that one to three million, they don't even know what they're supposed to be looking for. Or what their, um, like what their goals should be.

[00:26:33] So like some of our conversations are even about like, here's how you, here is how you pull a report. And this is what that report means. And this is when that report is bad. And this is when that report is good. And this is how it should look. And so they kind of get that initial understanding of how everything works. And it's just a 90 day program. When it's over, it's over. The stuff you get is the stuff you get. Um, and then we have a full team of VAs. They are all trade backgrounds. Uh, we do have landscaping.

[00:27:02] We've got, um, restoration and carpets. We've got HVAC plumbing, electrical. Um, I think that's probably. And let me, uh, I'll interrupt you and pause there because you use the word VA. And I'm going to assume that some, some, if not all many know what VA is, but let's just kind of like go back to something simple. What is a VA? Yeah. So it's a virtual assistant. Um, basically you're getting a real office person on a fractional level.

[00:27:28] So instead of having somebody who works for you for X numbers an hour and you have to train them and you have to deal when they're sick and all that good stuff. Um, like we actually just create the process with you. We roll out the process to the team and then the team handles it. It's not your problem. But you don't have to worry about teaching multiple people. If there's turnover, it's not your problem. Somebody else picks up that plate and continues on making sure that those tasks are getting done according to the profile that we've set up. Okay.

[00:27:56] Like a contract specialized staff member. I'm going to say contract, meaning they're not a W2 employee of the company. They're contract through you to do specific things that can free up the plate and, um, allow that owner to have more time and get more value. And because we're all experienced already, we can skip those couple of steps. So when they come in, we can be like, oh, here's the problem. Here are the processes that can fix that problem. What sounds like it will work best for your company? Okay.

[00:28:26] And how does your company charge for those types of services? Yeah. Yeah. So Operation Reset is really straightforward. We just have a monthly fee. It's $2,000 a month. And that gets you up to 200 tasks completed, helping you be able to get your software set up. And this is per month. Helping get software set up. Helping make sure the reporting's in. We do six meetings during that timeframe where we kind of assess and then meet.

[00:28:54] And then, okay, what actions are we going to take over the next two weeks for you? And then we do those actions. We assess and then we meet. And so every two weeks, we're sort of realigning on the next stage of the process. And then ongoing services, which we do with a lot of companies, we charge per task or minute. So if you're busy, your bill is higher. If you're not busy, your bill is not. You only pay for exactly what you use.

[00:29:21] So you don't have to worry about keeping up somebody's salary. And then I know that somebody listening is going to go, yeah, but I'm in New York and we don't actually do. I shouldn't say we don't actually do anything because that's not true. They might plow snow or hey, they might go to Florida. But let's just say November through end of March, they might not really have. It might be in a losing money stage. They're losing money those months, keeping the operations alive. How does a seasonal business fall into this? So we don't have contracts.

[00:29:51] We just require 30 days notice and we do have companies that only work with this in the summer. We've got a couple of painting companies that we only work with in the summer. They just don't have a client. Okay, so they kind of like, yep, pause and then, hey, we'll just pick back up on April 1st and keep going again. Yep, absolutely. Very nice. Totally doable. The other side of it is we do, if you're B2B, we do B2B cold calling. So some of them will switch over from an inbound plan to doing outbound. And so we'll try to help them get business.

[00:30:21] Okay, so if like, let's just say there's an irrigation contractor that specializes in new construction. You might then try to get in with more landscapers who would subcontract to the irrigation company, perhaps. Yeah, absolutely. We do a lot of outbound stuff and reaching out to even all customers. Like we've got, we'll hit the databases. And so like, there's a lot of ways that you can utilize just some backup support. All those things that you think like, oh, I'll deal with it later. That's my problem. That's not a customer problem.

[00:30:52] Like all those things can be picked up. Okay. Are there times or have you had customers that, you know, let's say they're at that 500,000. So they go, okay, we got enough. We're going to grow. We're going to hire a work wife. You come in, you do some things. It keeps growing. And then they go, hey, Christy, yeah, we got to a million, but now we can actually afford that person that was doing what work wife is doing. We're going to bring them in. Do they then end with you or do you then, do they then just change what the service offering is and keep going with you to keep growing?

[00:31:23] Yes, to all of those things. So we've had people come in who have fully replaced us and they still utilize our profiles that we initially built. So part of their onboarding is working with me to make sure that they are doing the things that we were doing. And in transition, we work with them. And then after that, they take it over. Most of the time, though, it does end up where we sort of stay in an overflow capacity because eventually that person is going to take a day off or they don't want 24-7. We do.

[00:31:52] We are 24-7. So the 24-7 companies don't usually replace us overnight. But when it's just daytime work, absolutely. I would love for them to transition off of me and be able to do this on their own and take those structures and run. And then when they hit the next point, they're going to call me back. Excellent. Yeah. And I just had this, I don't want to say it's a crazy thought. However, so you take a supplier, okay? And in the irrigation industry, they're known as a distributor. They're a wholesaler.

[00:32:21] And every distributor wants to grow their business. But the market is only growing as fast as the market's growing. And there's not people just creating new irrigation companies every day, right? So if somebody has an existing customer, irrigation contractor, and let's say they're buying $100,000 of parts. But that distributor would love it if that contractor could buy a million. But that might mean they got to get their business to $3 million in order to be buying $1 million in parts.

[00:32:49] And so the crazy thought I had is, well, if the distributor just brought in WorkWife and invested in WorkWife to invest in that contractor, contractor grows, distributor sales grow. So there's got to be some type of like, where that was come together. I'm like, well, that would be, a distributor should just offer what you're doing either via you or they should just do it so they can grow their customer's business.

[00:33:14] Yeah, we have an HVAC supplier who keeps our cards on their front counter. Like, that we work with. We work with them at Supply House. But they also tell everybody about us. So, like, I mean, it definitely is, it's symbiotic for sure. Yeah, that's the word I was looking for, symbiotic. You know, and a lot of them are doing points programs and rebates and trips and all these things where it would be like, well, let's say you bought $100,000.

[00:33:39] And it could be as soon as you get to $150,000, then they're going to invest X dollars back in, but only towards using like a WorkWife because the intent is to grow the business, not just have another trip to Cancun. Right. I think contractors who aren't beyond exhausted would probably just grow the business all day. Yeah.

[00:34:04] Are there any geographic areas of the country that you find that you guys have more, you know, interest from, et cetera? Well, we are most popular in Colorado because we're based in Colorado. And then second is California and third is Florida. So, don't know, didn't target any of that, but that's where the cards fell. And then we're in 15 states right now. So, okay.

[00:34:34] If they're, you know, if somebody is listening and they're at that, they're under a million, what do you think, if there's a low hanging fruit that you could just give a piece of recommendation to them, what might that be? Probably internal marketing. Because if you're not, if you're in that $500,000, you probably don't have a good healthy marketing budget. It's going to be really hard to find you some new customers. But you can, those old customers already trust you.

[00:35:01] And going back to those old customers on a regular basis with a new offering or a time-sensitive offering, especially as you move into shoulder seasons when it's like iffy weather, but you could maybe still get something done. And that's a goldmine that I think a lot of people forget about. Like they just think about those new ones. But those old people, they already trust you. And there's a lot to be made on previous customers. Okay.

[00:35:26] And the ones that are, have done that and the companies that you see that either you're currently working with or you have already worked with that are growing like crazy. Is there anything that you see on the, let's just say the personal level, the mindset of the owner that you see from those that are taken off like a rocket ship and those that aren't? I think the difference is really, are you comfortable getting, being scared? Like you have to go into this, the space of scared there.

[00:35:54] And like, that's that transition. Like if you get scared and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm just going to keep this job. You're going to stay at 500,000. You just are. If you get scared and you're like, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to figure out the next thing. And I'm going to, I'm going to stay on this path. And I'm like, you hear a lot of people say that like, it's really about when you make a decision, sticking with the decision all the way through and not waffling on it and getting scared and moving back. And I think that's really like, you got to make the decision.

[00:36:23] You got to stay with the decision and go. And then once you make it, that's your plan. You have to stay there from there. Okay. Now, let me, I'm not going to counter that, but let's say they're going to stick with it. And then they start to, you know, run the plan, run the play, let's say. And then they go, oh, wait a second. Hold on. I thought this play was going to do this, but it's not. Is it okay to be like, nope, stop the bus. We're going to change. We're going to go over here.

[00:36:53] Like what, when you say stick with it, how does someone know? I got to stick with it because Chrissy said stick with it, but I know I shouldn't stick with it. Yeah. Okay. So what I mean by stick with it is decide if you're going to keep a job or decide if you're going to make this something else. And there's a lot of trial and error in the something else. And every time that you have an error, there's a lesson learned. I think the only mistake that you can make once you decide to make it something else is to not learn from the error.

[00:37:21] So if there is something that is not working, you can't just go, nope, not working, moving on. And you have to make sure that you understand what's not working. Like some marketing takes six months, a year. Social media is like three years before you really start gaining ground. Like if you didn't wait three years and you backed out, you don't even know if it works. So you have to fully understand the decision that you made.

[00:37:43] And then if it's not working, fully understand why it's not working because parallel bad decisions are just going to hurt you even more. So that you can learn from whatever that is. Redirection, I think, is a lot different than make a decision and stick to it. Gotcha. Okay. That makes total sense. Am I going to stay at this level as a job? Am I going to grow it? And again, these are personal decisions, right? So I was going to ask you the question, do you have to grow?

[00:38:12] Because there's this whole stigma of like, what's your revenue? How much are you up this year? Da, da, da. And then sometimes in the back of my mind, I'm like, well, why can't someone just run a nice, steady business year over year that they like and they enjoy? Do you have to grow? So like, I don't think that you have to grow, but you have to understand the expectation of exit. And I think that's the only problem with not growing is that you have nothing to sell at the end. So like, if you're not going to grow, that's totally great.

[00:38:41] You can live that lifestyle and that's fine. And it's way less stress than trying to grow it. But at the end of the day, when it's time for you to retire and eventually it will be, it might turn into nothing. And if you're okay with it turning into nothing, that's okay. Maybe you're going to have someone take it over and they're going to have a job or grow it or you're going to try to sell it. But I think that they don't realize that like you, it's not a business if it was your job. It's your job.

[00:39:08] And so that's a big trap that I see a lot of people in. Because like, I've even had people come in as clients and they're like, well, we're just going to sell it. Well, as soon as we figure this out, we're just going to sell it. And I'm like, well, you don't have anything to sell for starters. Like, maybe you could sell these memberships. Maybe you could sell this list. But like, you're not even going to get a year of income out of this. So like, it's not viable until you grow it. And I think that's the only danger is like, what's your exit plan? Do you have retirement of some sort somewhere else?

[00:39:35] Like, have a plan for the end if you're going to, well, both ways. But your options are more limited if you didn't grow. Yeah. Excellent. Let's see. What haven't I asked you that I should ask you or you would like to share with the irrigation audience? So what my favorite part of this is? Because it's pretty personal for me. So like, my favorite thing to do is to work with couples.

[00:40:06] Um, and I mentioned I started my business with my ex-husband. Yeah, there's a big reason. Because everything that happens in the business, just like those little cracks that are in your marriage, like when you add the business to it, those are big cracks. Like, it's monstrous. And so I absolutely love bringing perspective to couples, helping them define their lanes, figure out the things that are going to cause fights that aren't there yet.

[00:40:33] Because I can see them building while we're having the conversation. That's, that's actually my favorite thing to do is. Now, do you, I love that. And my thought is, should someone start a business with their spouse? And it could be the, it could be the man or the, the, the husband or the wife. Or should they just have their business that they do that is their business and their spouse does something else? So, I mean, that's, I feel like a really personal decision. But I do think if you are going to start your business with your spouse,

[00:41:02] that you need to have really clean lanes about who's responsible when. And I firmly believe that sometimes you should report to your spouse, and sometimes they should report to you. And before the decision comes, decide who's responsible for that type of decision. So like, if I am going to be responsible for all the finances, and you're my husband, and you're going to be responsible for all the marketing, when we disagree, then at the end of the day, I get to hire the bookkeeper, you get to hire the agency.

[00:41:32] And we can't argue about it because we decided years ago that if we disagree, it's going to default to me. And I think that that would, that's the really the biggest thing. Like they say, don't take it home. And like all this advice that is so ridiculous, because you're going to take it freaking home. Like you can't. Well, when you go home, it's either, it's going to be in here no matter what. So you're bringing it home. It's in your body or it's there. I'm like, so you just pre-fight. Like fight three years before you care.

[00:42:03] Decide who's making all the decisions. And then as those decisions come up, it's not a fight. Because you know going in, that that person is going to be ultimately responsible for it. So yes, make decisions together. Yes, give your two cents. Yes, of course your perspective. Yes, this is the most important person to think through this decision with you. But just prevent the fight from the beginning. And I think that's really it. I don't think it's about who you're married to. Can I follow this with a personal question? Yeah. It might not be a personal question.

[00:42:32] When you, why did you decide to sell at five million? The divorce. Okay. Okay. And then, and again, this is personal, but at what stage of the one to five, did you have an inkling that this wasn't going to work out with you and your ex? So, um, honestly, it was when he tried to come in from the field. Okay.

[00:43:00] Yeah. Mm-hmm. But all those lanes have been established with management, with the structures that we had. He didn't understand the structures. He was out in the field. Do you know? So like, it just really threw like a whole wrench in the gears. Do you know what I mean? To, and then that created fights. Like, this is the way we do things. Why are we introducing this? Like, you can't just roll it out to one guy. Like, everybody has to have access to this if we're going to change this thing. And so that conflict really, um, that's really when it changed.

[00:43:29] And I think that probably happens to a lot of spouses as we learn to put down the toll bag. I'm just thinking that. And then also maybe you were working together, but you were working miles apart, if not, you know, hundreds of miles apart, but inside the office, outside the office. And then all of a sudden you're working like maybe one share over and that's a totally different dynamic where you're like, wait a second. I wanted to be like married to you, but I didn't know we were going to like share a desk eight hours a day.

[00:43:59] Yes, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I'm just making it up. I don't know. I'm sure there's somebody listening that could relate and then they can listen to this and make their own decisions. And hey, maybe that's one reason to not come into the office or hire that office person and just teach the guys how to do the best work that there is. Or like figure out a role that like if you want to put down the tool bag, which you've had the tool bag, like what is your new role? And like we introduced a role into the business, not like try to find a place for yourself.

[00:44:29] Like, no, what job are you taking? So what do you think? Again, a personal question. What do you think would have been the perfect role for your ex? Um, I really think if he had just stayed in a sales manager role, cause I was, that was what he, he was really a sales guy and like, he was really good at it. And I think that if he had just come in as a sales manager, stayed with the sales guys, worked on that side of things, helped them learn how to do that job better, and then manage

[00:44:57] those numbers and those processes, that would have been, it would have been really seamless to bring him in. Fantastic example. Cause that's not a bad thing. And that's not like saying to someone, uh, I'm up here and you're down here. And no, it's just, it's a role and the role should fit what the person's, well, should be good at or desires to be good at. Yeah. And I think just being removed, cause like he was never a part of the office and then all of a sudden, like, and nobody knows what to do.

[00:45:25] And then like, sometimes he would say to do something that I didn't know about and I would say to do something that he didn't know about and then employees get confused and like, it just, it starts to like trickle down. Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like help in your personal relationship, you can hire a work wife and you also get a counselor. I mean, unofficially, unofficially. Very good.

[00:45:52] Um, just quickly back to AI and what you were reporting out, what you were nerding out on report wise. Yeah. What seems really exciting in that area that you look forward to in the next six months? Yeah. So, um, when it comes to AI, it's more about like the processing power, right? Like I think that we really had to be geniuses to be able to figure out a lot of these financial things. And I know from like your background, like you have to know a lot of things to be able to read these things.

[00:46:17] And now, even right now you drop a P and L month to month P and L into chat GPT. You can be like, explain to me what is wrong with my company. And as long as your bookkeeper is worth their weight and you know, like you can get good information just in a place to start. And I think that having that expert in your pocket, that's what I think is going to be really exciting. Um, just like in the near future that we're just not going to have the questions that we have right now.

[00:46:47] I love that. And, and, uh, just to remind those that are listening, the expert doesn't necessarily know what's wrong with that valve, even though your customer thinks that chat GPT can just fix the valve, you know, automatically for them. No, they still need you, the technician to go fix that valve because there's so many little nuances that you as the trained technician know, but you can use chat GPT for the other things that are more generalized data numbers crunching that, uh, that a human can't, can't do quickly.

[00:47:17] And not even data really. Like, um, we were having some issues with hiring. Like I went through this phase where like, I just, it didn't seem to matter what I did. Like I just couldn't find the right people. And I was going through hundreds of applications and I was like, what am I doing wrong? Like, here's my ad. Here's the notes from all my last interviews. Like what is happening here? Like you can even process through those kinds of things as like a, just a processing agent. Right.

[00:47:44] So like they would be like, well, the job description says this, are you really looking for this kind of person? And chat GPT actually uncovered at one point that indeed had classified our call center job as an IT job by itself. And so we were getting the wrong candidates, but that's where it was found. So, I mean, doesn't even have to be numbers. It's pretty. Awesome. Um, let's see if somebody is listening to this and they definitely need a relationship counselor, how do they reach out? Just kidding.

[00:48:14] How do they reach out to you and learn more about a work wife and maybe how to get started and all that? Yeah. So our website is get work wife.com. Um, you can book a discovery call with me right there on the website. Um, and I will chat with you and we can figure out if you need help or you just need some emotional support for having an hour. Excellent. And for those that are actually in the Denver area, whereabouts in Denver are you? Uh, we're actually in Colorado Springs. So we're just South. Colorado Springs. Okay. Very good. I was actually in Denver last week visiting my son who just moved out to the Centennial area.

[00:48:44] So Denver was on my mind and Colorado is a beautiful state and, uh, easy pickings for those that live out there. So if you're in Colorado, definitely call Christy. Come say hi. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Christy. Appreciate your openness and, uh, everything that you have going on and, uh, look forward to seeing how your business grows. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.