How to make $150k a year cleaning pools 4.5 days week. No employees, just you, a net and a brush. The setup I’d set my work week for Tuesday-Friday cleaning 12 pools a day. Monday is a flex day. I’d only work Mondays if I’m behind on repairs or need to follow up on things. Maybe some office work if my VA asked me to look over anything. If I didn’t have any of that, I’d be fishing or golfing. I would service your pool every week. Well, not every week. I’d take off the entire week of Christmas and Thanksgiving, one week in the Summer, and one week in the Winter. You’d know this about my service, and I’d be able to manage your pool so that everything would be fine while I’m gone. It wouldn’t be an employee servicing your pool. It would be ME. The GOAT of pools. Ok, not really, but better than your average employed service tech, and with a lot more give a damn. It’d be a premium service and so it’d be offered at a premium price. I’d start service off at $275/month, chemicals included. I’d fill my service route through organic, grass roots marketing. Customer acquisition costs would be very small to start, and zero once I’ve established my route. When the route is full I’d start a wait list and begin to increase price to new customers $25-$50 each until I determine the maximum the market would accept. I’d expect that to be at least $325/month. I’d do filter cleans and repairs myself. Based on my current business that averages about $1,250 per customer per year. My Cost of Goods Sold would include chemicals and equipment needed for service, and repair parts. I’d budget 15% for chems and equipment and 65% for parts. Other expenses would include cost of truck, phone, insurance, vehicle maintenance, fuel, a virtual assistant, an operating software, Quickbooks, and other admin costs. You may be asking, why a virtual assistant? The answer is because this is a cush job if you let it be. I’m going to make $150,000 chilling by the pool. I don’t want the phone to ring and interrupt my podcast and I don’t want to be doing bookwork on the weekends. I’m going to pay someone $11/hr part time in the Philippines and they’ll do most of that for me. Sounds to good to be true, huh? Well it’s not. Here’s how the numbers break down: Revenue 48 pools @ $325/month = $187,200 Filter cleans and Repairs for 48 pools producing $500 labor and $750 parts each = $60,000 COGS Chemicals and equipment @ 15% service revenue = $28,080 Repair parts @ 65% of parts revenue = $23,400 Credit card fees @ 3% revenue = $7,416 Expenses Used Truck/Phone/Insurance $800/month = $9,600 Fuel = $4,800/year Software and other office expenses = $3,600 Virtual Assistant = $14,300 Totals Revenue: $247,200 COGS: -$58,896 Expenses: -$32,300 -- Earnings: $156,004 Would you take this job? What’s stopping you?

My 11 year old son lost the championship game because of a mental error In his last baseball tournament, he came in to close the game He's usually clutch but he made a mistake that cost his team the win I had something important to tell him but I waited until we got to the car -- My son's always been a great baseball player. He's 11 but he plays up with a group of 12 year olds. They play at a high level, and other than him being a little smaller than the other kids, you wouldn't know he's a year younger. Last week they found themselves in the championship game. My son has been pitching great and so when his team was in a bind and they brought him in to pitch, we were all confident he'd find a way out. His team was up 4-2. Fifth inning (of 6). Bases loaded, one out. Looking confident, he steps onto the mound to warm up. First pitch, he strides long but his front foot slips when it lands on the steep mound. Second pitch, he slips again. As he continues to warm up, he adjusts, but still not comfortable. He's a competitor though, we all believe he'll find it. But he didn't. He walks the first batter. We're still up 4-3. Second batter - ball then strike. Then something completely unexpected happens. With the bases loaded he picks off to first base. As you would expect, no one is covering the bag. The ball flies over the bag and rolls to the right field fence. He picked up the wrong sign from the catcher, and without thinking it through, made a mental error that gave up two runs. They didn't come back from the mistake and his team lost 5-4. -- I wasn't sure how to act after the game. While still at the field I had to find the right balance of support while still showing disappointment in the loss. I knew that I needed to save any real conversation for the car. We walked to the parking lot, mostly in silence. When we got in the car and drove to the exit, but I pulled over just before leaving. "Caleb, I want to tell you two things." I paused. He looked at me, anticipating baseball advice and getting ready to fire back. "No matter what, I love you and I'm proud of you." I tear ran down his face. I choked back emotion. After a few seconds of silence, I put the car in gear and drove out of the parking lot. On the 90 minute drive we hardly spoke. Everything that needed to be said had been said. He didn't need advice. He didn't need to hear that it would be alright, that he'd get 'em next time. He just needed to know that no matter what, I was there for him.

I’m 37 and live in a frat house My house has become the hangout spot for my 8th grade son and his friends. Last weekend 7 of them stayed over. Add that to my five children and we had 12 kids at the house. It can by complete chaos! Here’s what I love and what I hate about living in a weekend frat house. What I hate They are loud. It’s hard to escape them. I can hear them from my office. They wake me up at night. It’s a lot. They are messy. My house, my yard - they don’t EVER pick up after themselves. They eat us out of the house. You can’t give them enough to eat and you need a walk-in cooler to keep enough Gatorade cold for them. Run out of anything and they think you should drop what you’re doing to get more. What I love I get the opportunity to influence these young men. While they are at the house they fight, they argue, they do things they shouldn’t, they do things they should. I get to negatively reinforce the bad and promote the good. It keeps my kids at home. I’d much rather my kids be at my house where I get to experience them, then at a friends house where I lose the opportunity to monitor and influence. They are entertaining. For instance, last weekend they were wrestling in the living room and I couldn’t help but join. One of them who had some wrestling experience almost put me through the wall. He wasn’t ready for my Jiu Jitsu though so once we got to the ground it was over. It was fun to show them the old man still has it. There’s never a dull moment while they are here. It keeps me young! – Most Sundays when the kids go home I tell myself “We’re not doing this again next weekend.” But when Friday rolls around and my son starts asking if the crew can come over, I always say yes and get excited for a wild weekend. It's a love/hate... but mostly love.

I didn’t realize how many parents are against sleep overs There are 5 comments saying no sleep overs to every yes My kids started staying at friends’ houses around 8. I have all boys. Might have thought a little harder about it if I had girls. What’s your take on sleep overs?

I drove the oldest truck in our fleet until last year. Once I had someone ask me “why do you drive that old truck? Don’t you know the power of perception?” To which I answered “absolutely, that’s why I drive it.”

Today I received a Better Business Bureau complaint Here's the backstory: The homeowner's pool is cracking It was built in 2020 by a company I acquired in December 2022 The homeowner bought the home in 2021 and started noticing cracks in the pool shell in 2023 Warranties are almost always non transferrable in the gunite pool industry and so the warranty did not transfer from the original homeowner to the new homeowner We completed an asset purchase of Maximus Pools in December 2022 that included the tangible and intangible assets, but no ownership of the legal entity in order to avoid liablities We planned to maintain the brand in a limited capacity (mainly just website and local business profiles) so we anticipated some warranty expense to keep goodwill intact and we've executed nearly $50k of warranty work on their behalf Our warranty representative visited the pool in the Summer of 2023 to examine the cracks but the warranty claim was denied because the property owner was not the original buyer I did approve completing the work at cost as a good faith gesture The home owner declined the offer and has resorted to complaints and public disparagement to try to force our hand Check out the BBB complaint and our response What do you think? Should we spend the $15k to fix the pool even though we have no contractual obligation? Or should we stand our ground?

Something amazing happened today My teenage son asked me to play catch If you don’t have a teenage son that may not seem miraculous But at about 11 they stop asking It didn’t just happen though. The day unfolded just right. In a sense I got lucky! Here’s how it went down👇🏻 My son and I started the day off at church. It was just us two. Mom overslept and his little brothers were spread across friends and grandparents. On the way I took a minute to tell him I was proud of him (thanks @trevizo_gabe for the weekend challenge). He tried to change the subject but I stopped the conversation and made him acknowledge me. This was the first of a series of small dad wins. At church we interacted with some subtle elbows. They were hard to sneak in with a congregation of 80 but we managed not to get caught. It was fun. After church we met mom for lunch. We checked his grades at the table. All 90 and above. My mind was blown. He’s smart enough to be an A student but never puts in the effort. “How proud of me are you now?” he joked. When we left he rode home with me. This never happens. He always rides with mom. I should have noticed something was different, that I was winning at dadding, but I didn’t even think about it in the moment. On the way home he mentioned his back was hurting. I told him I could stretch with him at home to see if we could loosen it up. When we got home he showed me a video of him running the 100 meter dash in his track meet last Thursday. I noticed a couple mistakes he made coming out of the blocks. I asked if he wanted advice or just wanted me to watch (dad hack, never offer your teenage son advice without asking first). He said he wanted my feedback, and after I gave it, he asked me if I’d go to the track with him one day this week to practice. I was starting to notice I was on his good side at that point. After that we stretched. He was super tight. Somehow my middle aged body was more flexible than his. The stretches helped though, and he loosened up and was feeling better. Then the miracle happened. He said “hey dad, you want to play catch?” “What?” I said, in disbelief. He repeated himself, confirming I hadn’t misheard. We went out and played catch up until the minute he had to go to baseball practice. We mixed in a few curves and knuckleballs and long tossed so he could prove he can throw the ball farther than me now. It was a blast. It had been too long! — As I reflected on this anomaly of a day I realized I just experienced how to win the favor of my teenage son. I had accidentally put together a sequence of small dad wins. And this was a playbook for how to get some quality time with him. So I’m sharing it here, hoping other dads can use my new playbook and experience the miracle of their teenage sons asking them to play catch.

We pay our EOS implementer $6,000 per day. Here’s six reasons why he’s worth it. 1. Our implementer coordinates our quarterly and annual meetings. He provides a top notch location, snacks, drinks, and lunch. All we have to do is focus on making the meeting a success. 2. Our implementer has a method for helping us extract business issues. The methods are planned into our quarterly agenda. Some methods are the same each meeting and some aren’t, but there are always discovery exercises to help us uncover issues. 3. Our implementer forces us to address confrontation. If he senses conflict within the team he brings it to the front of discussion to ensure we resolve it. 4. Our implementer acts as an executive coach. On top of providing tools and resources, he listens to our conversations and provides suggestions and support in leadership and professional development. 5. Our implementer adds an additional layer of accountability. We respect him. The team wants to perform well to show him that we work hard and do what we say we are going to do. 6. Our implementer makes us more successful at implementing EOS. Our leadership team is investing countless hours to making EOS a success. Investing in an implementer is investing into making sure those hours pay off at their highest return. Would you self implement or hire an EOS implementer for $6000 a day?

Logan Forsythe can make anyone go VIRAL His company, Media Scaling, guarantees clients up to 150 million impressions in 90 days How do they do it? Mass content distribution – 3000 to 5000 posts per month They’ve only been in business for a year but have scaled to 7 figures while producing over 2.5 billion views and 18 million followers for their clients After hearing about their success, I dove into their business to understand how it works I was so convinced that I even invested in their product Here’s how he does it The Strategy Logan’s company uses a strategy known as “Social SEO” to make clients “omnipresent” They create 25-50 accounts for their clients across five social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat The accounts have name variations like Tai Lopez Reels, Tai Lopez Clips, or Tai Lopez Fan Page Then they take the clients’ long form video content, make it into shorts using their proven virality frameworks, and post the shorts across the accounts on all social platforms The algorithms on video platforms use facial recognition to identify who’s in the video and understand that the creators’ videos are getting views The result is that all accounts are boosted The traffic from the secondary accounts is directed back to the primary account to skyrocket growth It’s like backlinks for your short form video content The result: 150 million impressions in 90 days and hundreds of thousands of new followers The Process It takes a lot of people to pull this off Logan’s company sets up a 10-15 person team around each client The team includes 5-8 editors, 2-3 social media managers, copywriters, team leads, a clips coordinator, data analyst, and virality engineer (cool title right?) The client provides video content from recordings that already exist to the team and the team uses the content to start making videos When the clips are finished the copywriter adds headlines and descriptions and sends the posts to the virality engineer The virality engineer is basically quality control. They review the videos and copy, and make sure they fit into the viral frameworks that drive videos to the top While the first videos are being created, social media managers are creating new accounts They warm the accounts up, occasionally posting and engaging with other peoples content After a few weeks they launch full scale, posting 3-6 times per account per day Some accounts experience fast results and others take time But in the background of the posts the data is being meticulously analyzed Adjustments are made to accounts - some receiving more posts, some receiving less - in a constant effort to optimize each account and the campaigns overall performance Results ramp up over 90 days as accounts are fine tuned and a following is built Ultimately reaching hundreds of millions of people The Business Media Scaling’s strategy and methodology came from Logan’s business partner Spencer Murphy Before starting the business, Spencer was hired by a top creator where he implemented and fine tuned the Social SEO strategy Having this model in place allowed Spencer and Logan to scale Media Scaling quickly and produce results for top creators from day one But one of the most interesting things about Media Scaling is how open they are with their methods and business model Logan spreads the word about the business in tell all interviews and podcasts On their website, they provide access to free tools like their Content Virality Guide, Viral Content Database, and Viral Hooks Framework They also offer a free course that includes 17 videos and 1.5 hours of content, introducing hooks, editing, and scaling systems They understand that what they’ve learned and what they’ve built is so hard to duplicate that they don’t have to build in the dark And by building in public they can build trust In fact, after viewing several of Logan’s interviews and Media Scaling’s free online tools, I was so confident in their product that I purchased their Short Form Mastery program The program includes live coaching, weekly cohort calls, and over 15 hours of training videos I’m confident that the course will take our business content to the top — After watching a Brett Melanowski podcast featuring Logan I was intrigued with his methods and what I could learn to apply to my own business So I started looking for more content featuring Logan I went to his YouTube channel and was surprised to find just a few videos I followed anyways, and the next day I was notified that he had posted a new video I was notified again the next day and the next day I realized that Logan was at the beginning of posting content to start his own personal brand He’s even posting on X @LoganForsyth_ If you are interested in skyrocketing your content and creating viral videos, I would suggest you follow What better way to learn than from the master himself

Today I saved $90,000 by moving my call center to Belize When I was pitched on an off shore call center I wasn’t interested I associated it with the experience of calling my credit card company But when they told me about costs I decided to hear them out The numbers were great and very simple. They looked like this: $5.50 per rep per hour. $3.50 pays for the rep and $2.00 pays for a fractional manager, equipment, rent, and other overhead. We need 3 reps for 8 hours a day. The total annual cost is: $21,840 for reps $12,480 for manager and overhead OR $34,320 all in If I duplicated this call center in my home office, I’d be paying a minimum of $15 per rep per hour. Applying normal overhead costs for rent, equipment, taxes, benefits, etc. I estimate a cost near $125,000. That’s a $90,000 annual savings. -- But the savings alone wasn’t enough to sell me. I had to overcome that “credit card call center” stigma The consultants explained that Belize is an “English first” country which didn't mean much to me. I needed to hear them myself. We set up a call with a Belize call center so we could hear them read through a script I've included the recording of the call so you can hear it yourself. (The video is a stock overlay for effect but the audio is from our actual call) Pretty hard to hear an accent, even when you're listening for it. -- The final step was to understand the calls we receive We wanted to ensure that we could create the proper call flow for any situation We spent two hours writing down every possible call for each of our business segments We talked over each type of call and how it could be handled We talked about operational changes we need to make for a call center work for us Ultimately, we got comfortable with every scenario -- After understanding costs, the customer experience, and call flow, it started to seem like the only good solution was a Belize call center. Today we finalized that decision I’m excited about how this is going to change the customer experience I’m excited about the operational changes this will force us to accelerate And I’m excited about how we can reappropriate $90,000 to grow our business

Wow… can’t imagine going into that position and then suddenly having that realization.

Spending Saturday morning watching call center trainings We’ll save $90,000 moving our call center to Belize We’re initially focused on inbound calls but I’m excited for how outbound can help us generate more leads This training is very well done. Great job @coleruudjohnson Cole walks through all things setup. Things like country selection, office best practices, rent, utilities, scripts, etc He talks about call center teams. Managers, callers, hiring, team structure, and more. And he talks about how to monetize your call center. Whether your purpose is to create a call center as your primary business, or it’s a vertical integration (like mine) and you want to monetize it, he teaches you how to acquire clients and scale your call center as a business. — If you’re interested in a call center i’m happy to tell you what I’ve learned so far If you’re ready to pull the trigger, @coleruudjohnson team has been a great partner for us

A letter to Nina who gave us a 1 star review that lowered our Google Rating to 4.2 stars: Thank you Nina Your review was exactly what we needed We had ignored our Google rating long enough, and although your purpose was vindictive, it lit a fire under our team that will forever benefit our business You didn’t just help us create a system to build our positive reviews You also brought our team together, working toward a common goal And the team hasn’t stopped there Seeing our rating increase has put an even bigger focus on quality and customer experience And it’s all because of you

I did consider whether it was an X thing

$4 million to $7 million in 2021 $7 million to $11 million in 2022 $11 million to $16 million in 2023 That's the revenue numbers behind POOL-ology's growth story. I was able to join @apentz on his Small Business Mentors podcast to talk about how POOL-ology's grown and our plans for future growth. It was a great conversation and Alan offered some valuable insights from his decades of entrepreneurial experience. A link to the podcast is in the comments. Check it out!

Holding people accountable is often overlooked in building culture. We focus on the feel good stuff. But every time who choose not to hold someone accountable it erodes the teams buy in just a little.

8 Suprises from my first 8 weeks on 𝕏 1. Had an in person meeting with @joshuamschultz . We talked about business and family. 2. @KenziesPoolBoy and I met to compare our proprietary pool service software. His is better. 3. Joined @apentz on his Small Business Mentor podcast. 4. Was given a great call center contact from @jcolesimpson . Now @coleruudjohnson is helping with our call center implementation. 5. I’m scheduled to join @JakeMRichards on his Salary to CEO podcast next week. 6. Had a zoom call with @KirkNewcombe to discuss our experiences leading pool companies. 7. Won free coffee from @MouyyadA . 8. I have a call on Wednesday for advice from @website_joe on building a “sports shed”. His post on his sports shed had tons of interest. Make sure you give him a follow so you don’t miss the great information he’ll be sharing about it. I joined this platform to see if there were marketing opportunities for my company. I had no idea how helpful and engaging the X community would be.

I had the same feeling. Not feeling as generous now.

Last year I invested in a music festival Last weekend that music festival happened It was an incredible event Three days, thirty-one artists, tens of thousands of people Seeing it all come together after studying the pro formas, consulting on some vendor agreements, and anxiously reading each investor update made it that much more exciting to attend The coordination and planning to bring an event like this together is incredible I’m lucky to have been invited to invest with a proven group Actuals aren’t in yet but I’m excited to see them What questions does SMB have about the business behind a Texas Country Music Festival?

New contract signed Pew pew 5 star review Pew pew — Sending Pew pew from your iPhone automatically send with lasers It’s how we celebrate every small win I’m not sure how it started but it’s become my favorite company tradition How do you celebrate wins?

I’ve been through this one. Very minor fender bender in a parking lot. They see a business name on the truck and think there’s opportunity. Insurance handled it. The settlement was less than five figures. I wish I would’ve included them earlier though.

Did you ever feel like you were missing out as a kid? That your friends were growing closer or had connections you didn’t? Someone else dropped a comment with this regret of missing sleepovers as a kid. Wondering if it’s shared.

I’m only trying to sell a follow so I guess I can be honest This year we forecasted $2 million of growth $2 million would be our slowest growth year since 2019 We are currently off track to hit this goal Based on sales in Jan/Feb we may not even comp last year I’m hopeful that we will find ourselves back on track by the end of March though Lead volume took off 3 weeks ago and I’m confident it will translate into sales — Here’s why I’d rather be open about slow sales than go silent. 1. I can get input from the X community. A lot of you have more experience in sales, marketing, and business in general. It’d be stupid of me to hide my results and not receive that advice. 2. I can share what works to get back on track, or what doesn’t work, and help others with my successes and failures. 3. If I am going to help people with what I know, and have you help me with what you know, I need a network. I build that with a follow. People want to follow people they can learn from and trust. Not people who go dark when things get tough. — It’s definitively easier to share what’s working. Probably because it sparks a different emotion that makes you want to tell people about it. I find myself sharing the good more than the bad. But I won’t hide from the bad. It’s a part of the story too.

We decreased ad spend 40% and doubled viewer retention And all I changed was 3 seconds of a video Here’s how we did it: Our content agency put together a great video It’s an Office parody featuring kids as pool designers It’s entertaining, it’s fun, it deserves views But the first six seconds were of me The way people view media today, I didn’t think they’d hang on to see the good stuff I knew we needed to build curiosity So I had the agency add a hook We took a clip of one of the kids saying “Are we getting paid for this” and we added it to the front of the video Then enters me, loud and demanding. My theory was the change would make people curious enough to hang around and see these adorable kids design pools But we didn’t just assume the edit was going to work better than the original We tested it We put both videos on the TikTok ads platform We showed the videos to the same audience, with the same headline, and the same call to action buttons. Everything was controlled. The only variable was the video. And the results were that our viewer retention more than doubled on the edited video. Here’s what the data looked like. But the impact of the hook didn’t stop there. When I turned the ads off I noticed that the edited video had 40% less ad expense but the same number of views It cost us less to show the video that people were watching longer We understood that we needed to capture the attention of viewers, but the impact of a 3 second change at the beginning of a video was even more than we expected

My son is probably the only one in the world to catch one of these on his first fishing trip It was April 12, 2020 - four years to the day Because of COVID we were doing a lot of river fishing The river was a place to get away with the kids where we wouldn’t see a soul and had no obligations to wear masks or social distance On this day, I asked my 4 year old if he wanted to go with us, and to my surprise he said yes I probably shouldn’t have let him go We had a huge rain the night before, the river rose 4-6 feet, and conditions were more dangerous than usual I probably shouldn’t have went myself, but we had lines in the water and I felt an obligation to go check them We cruised a mile up river and noticed something strange There was a black calf clinging to the bank with his front legs He had been washed into the river during the big rain the night before As we moved towards him I asked my then 7 year old if he wanted to pick the calf up. I told him if we did he wouldn’t be able to fish. I fully expected him to tell me to save the calf. He said he’d rather fish and we could grab the calf on the way back. When I think about that conversation it still makes me laugh. I explained to him the calf wouldn’t make it that long. That if we left him the calf would die and it was now or never. He reluctantly agreed (although I wasn’t really giving him a choice) I idled over to the calf and pulled him into the boat He was small, probably just a day or two old He didn’t put up a fight, he was too weak I laid him at my feet in the floor of the small aluminum boat and put my legs over him to ensure he wouldn’t stand up and tip us We cruised up river to where we put our boat in This is back woods fishing There’s no boat ramp, just a path with a steep bank and steps in the dirt that we dug in with a shovel I put the 70lb calf over my shoulders and carried him up the bank I felt like I was in a Western or a scene from Yellowstone I sent a picture to my wife and asked her to post on Facebook and start looking for a home for the little guy Within 30 minutes we had found someone ready to raise the calf They had all the supplies to start nursing him back to health I put the calf in the cab of my truck and turned the heater on hoping to warm him up The kids sat next to him while I drug the boat up the river bank and loaded it on the trailer Then we drove the calf to his new home He quickly recovered and we were able to keep up with him on Facebook as he grew into a full sized bull — This is one of my fondest memories. It’s something I’ll never forget, and I don’t think my kids will either. When I tell the story I usually say my son is 1 in 8 billion since he’s likely the only person in the world to catch a cow on his first fishing trip. He is 8 now and he doesn’t like to fish. I don’t blame him really. He caught a cow on his first fishing trip. How could he ever top that???

Nina gave us a 1 star review in November and I want to thank her for it Not because her review was legit Nina was wrong. This was one of those unavoidable, bad customer situations. She left it to be vindictive But she didn’t know about the fire she was about to start in our business — Customers are always complimentary of our company Most of our new business comes from referrals Our team takes pride in working for POOL-ology So when Nina left her review and our Google rating fell to 4.2 stars our team was PISSED We knew that rating wasn’t representative of the service we provide There was a time when we used to ask for positive reviews and our rating reflected it But we had gotten away from that very necessary practice and our new reviews had become customers sharing their negative experiences So the team came together to make a change — To be clear, we didn’t change anything about our service, at least not intentionally But we changed what we did after the service We started asking for customers to leave reviews after all equipment repairs And we started working through a list of our weekly maintenance customers asking about 50/month to help us by leaving a rating on Google (we didn’t ask them all at once because we didn’t want a sudden 200 review spike 🚩) The result from making these two small changes has been phenomenal We have added 84 five star reviews in 4 months And we are four reviews away from 4.7 stars — Thank you Nina Your review was exactly what we needed We had ignored our Google rating long enough and the team needed you to light a fire under us You didn’t just help us create a system to forever build our positive reviews You also brought our team together, working toward a common goal And the team hasn’t stopped their Seeing our rating increase has put an even bigger focus on quality and customer experience And it’s all because of you

You should act more important than you are when managing your time But you should act less important than you are when managing your team This can create a major conflict I’m struggling to find the right balance

𝕏 and TikTok have one thing in common You never know what’s going to catch 🔥 We started posting on TikTok in January We’ve posted 72 times in those 6 weeks And we finally had a video hit Why? I have no idea It’s a lot like the other videos we’ve put out But this one has 4x-40x the views What do you think are the keys to a viral post? And what do you think made this video do better than the others?

Size Floor material Height of ceiling at walls and peak Is it heated/cooled Sq footage Floor plan Very interested We should be breaking ground on ours in about 2 months

Agreed, me buying the company is not related. Was just trying to provide a couple different reasons why we weren't covering. It's tough to be in this home owners place. I hate it for him. But I can't spend $15k because I feel bad.

We post 60 videos per month on all social media platforms Up from 7 videos and 13 static posts per month in 2023 Each week we review follows, reach, engagement and profile visits And the numbers have consistently grown I believe there are two reasons for the positive results 1. Consistency in posting. If you increase posts by 3X (8.6X video posts) something is going to hit. More hits grows your following and also means better treatment from the algorithms. 2. A bigger focus on making content our audience wants to see. The posts have transitioned from ad like videos with logos and calls to action, to posts that are entertaining and educational. We look at each video as an opportunity for an impression, not a content piece to generate leads. My outlook on social media has become a lot like my outlook on SEO - It's a long game. Does it generate some leads immediately? Yes. But if we can keep the flywheel turning it will produce lots of leads in the future. I can't wait to look at these graphs at the end of 2024 and beyond. PS - I had to separate TikTok into it's own graph after a viral post two weeks ago. TikTok reach is starting to come back down (until our next viral post!)

When I was at C4 energy we grew from $8 million to $300 million in 9 years I was 22 running accounting/finance by myself. Way over my head. Why did the owner leave me in that role? In hindsight I believe the primary reason was he knew he could trust me.

These guys make me nervous. Even when they are the highest sellers they tend to break all the rules and make messes. If they aren’t killing it they leave. When they are the highest sellers though, you always find a way to clean up their messes!

Today my pool company spent $10,000 on pigs, chickens, goats, and steers $10,000 on animals we’ll never see We go to the Bell County Youth Livestock Show every year to support the children of our customers and friends But the auctions isn’t what it used to be When I was kid selling a pig in the fair the animal was physically there I walked it through a pin while people from the community competed to be the top bidder When the sale was over, the pig went with the buyer But they changed the system during COVID and never went back Now animals are bought through a buying group which is really just a sheet of paper to collect donations The animal isn’t at the sale, just the kid holding their ribbon And you don’t get the animals. They went home with the exhibitor several days before But the principle is the same Kids work hard for months feeding, exercising, and grooming their animals And the community comes together to reward them for their hard work I’m incredibly lucky to be able to support the kids of my customers and friends And give back to a cause that once supported me

State of the company: Chaos! And it was just 12 months ago. There was no direction. We were working against each other. In a 10 minute time period I had three people tell me that they needed my help that day, and if I couldn’t help there would be major repercussions to a project they were working on. In all three instances this was the first time I had even heard of the project. AND I wouldn’t have ranked any of the projects in the top 5 items the company should be working on. This scenario had become common in my business. I knew that I wanted to implement EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), but I wanted to wait six months. We had just made a big acquisition and I wanted my focus to be on integrating it. But this day changed my mind. After helping everyone with their projects I started calling implementers. EOS is now at the center of our operation. With a defined 10 Year Goal, 3 Year Picture, 1 Year Plan, and Quarterly Rocks, we are all paddling in the same direction. The synergy has created constant small wins, and some large wins. The flywheel is beginning to turn. But EOS has given us more than common goals, and as time allows, I’m going to document each EOS win on X. Follow me to learn more about EOS at POOL-ology.

A Facebook trick you may not know: @ followers Using @ followers tags all of your followers at once, notifying them of your post Yesterday, I used @ followers on a post that performed well but lost momentum I asked followers to like & share to spread the word The result: 33% increase in shares 28% increase in likes 11.5% increase in people reached I don’t use it often, only on key posts to maximize reach But when I use it, it’s effective, and a great way to drive results

Thank you all for commenting and re posting. I love hearing from other parents. I have five kids and lots of dad stories. I look forward to sharing more.

I have five kids and lots of dad stories. Follow me for more.

Would you pay $13,000/yr to never do laundry or dishes again? What if the cost was $0? Even better, what if never doing laundry and dishes actually made you money? I haven’t done laundry or dishes, swept or mopped, or a single house chore in 4 years. Here's how I make money by not doing housework. - - Four years ago I was feeling overwhelmed. Between five kids and a growing business my wife and I couldn’t keep our heads above water. If we weren’t working we were running kids around town to baseball, football, karate, or one of the other 100 things they had to do. And if we weren’t running kids around town we were washing their clothes, doing dishes, and trying desperately to keep the house semi clean. I had enough and so I came up with a plan. If I could get my business partner to split a house cleaner with me I was certain we could turn it into a net profit. - - Here are the economics of our house cleaner: My business partner and I each pay $250/week for a house cleaner. She does it all. Every day I walk into my house it is completely clean. It costs each of us $13,000 per year. BUT We pay the cost as “janitorial expense” through our business (our CPA probably wouldn’t approve but oh well 🤷‍♂️). Let’s assume we save 30% between self employment and income taxes (it's probably higher). That means by paying someone to clean our house we lower our tax bill by $3,900. Our net cost is now $9,100. But hiring someone to clean my house saves me tons of time. Modestly I could say that I get back two hours each day. And I spend at least one of those hours each day working, brain storming, tweeting, or finding other ways to drive professional value. So assuming I save just one hour a day, 365 days per year, at just $25 per hour the time saved would be worth $9,125. At just $25/hr I make a net profit of $25 over the course of a year by having someone else do my house work. Now consider the value if my time was worth $50/hr, $100/hr, or $500/hr? Consider the amount of time it saves my wife and apply a rate to that. But most of all, consider how much stress relief I experience every day walking into a clean house with clean clothes, able to spend my time doing what I want to do. - - Paying someone to clean and do laundry is the best money I spend every day. I can't imagine going back and I believe everybody should find a way to make money by not doing housework.

No caffeine after 11 AM That’s my rule But when the coffee I won from @MouyyadA and @paxandbeneficia showed up this afternoon, I had to make an exception. Damn good coffee. Will be worth the insomnia.

8 surprises from my first 8 days on X 1.@MikeBotkins shared important insights on financial benchmarks for my industry. 2.@KenziesPoolBoy shared some solid industry training videos and a sneak peak of how he grows his service business 2X faster than me. 3.Met @apentz. Scheduled an appearance for The Small Business Mentor Podcast. 4.Connected with @STLChrisH who recently participated in an acquisition in my industry. Coincidentally that company just started advertising in my market. 5.Have the start of a door to door playbook from @pestctrlguy. Something my company has been considering doing for years. Seems much more doable now. 6.14,545 impressions 7.250 profile visitors 8.100 followers (projecting for end of night 😂) I joined this platform to see if there were marketing opportunities for my company. I had no idea how amazing the X community would be.

Seems like the consensus is “if yes, know the parents well”.

Building the team is the struggle. Believe it or not, cleaning pools isn’t easy. It’s more technical than you think. It’s more laborsome than you think. It’s hard to find good people to commit to doing it every day.

Here's an example of Principal/Agent Theory I experienced in my business last week: Swimming pool renovations are booming. It will be our best year ever. Last week the construction coordinator told me that even if we sold more renovations, we wouldn't start any that aren't currently in the pipeline before Memorial Day. The goal was to finish everything that's already been sold by Memorial Day to avoid any time pressure from customers. I felt that there was also a subconscious goal to experience a sense of accomplishment by clearing everything off of the checklist. Depending on the project a renovation could take 1-3 weeks. Having EVERY job we've started complete would mean that we didn't start a job for 1-3 weeks before Memorial Day. We would forego ~2 weeks of revenue. I told her that we could adjust our sales script so that the message to customers could be "we cannot finish your renovation before Memorial Day", but we couldn't STOP starting projects. This was not an easy message for her. In her eyes what is most important was a lack of pressure and clearing a checklist. In my eyes what is important is pushing every day to hit our 2024 goals. A clear conflict of interest we had to overcome.

Today my 3 year old flew his first kite and loved it But he loves fishing even more So we combined the two Huge dad win We were able to get the kite hundreds of feet away And it felt like a real fish pulling on the other end of the line Tons of fun!

Cell phones to early are way more risky than a sleep over imo

Five weeks ago I made this post There were a lot of opinions Most people said I should do nothing more than I’d already offered Some said I was a terrible person only driven by profits And some said I should find a better compromise, maybe even try to turn it into a PR positive Today the homeowner and I agreed to a compromise where I supported more of the repairs My legal obligation was zero but I struggled with doing zero given the extent of the issues This post was probably the only one I’ve ever made where I wished X would stop showing it The comments were brutal But ultimately I left with a general consensus of the public’s opinion plus some really good business ideas on how to think of warranty for our business in the future And for that I’m thankful

Joe just Roasted my website. Where other than X can you get free feedback from a web design expert? Great feedback in this video. There's a few things you wouldn't expect that I need to work on.

Both @trevizo_gabe and @KirkNewcombe are growing so fast they made the reintroduction post today Gabe was on Shark Tank and is a great dad Kirk has been sharing his findings from a 3 year search in 30 industries Give them a follow! Their re-intro posts are in the comments👇🏻

I need help Please repost if you don’t have a referral to help me find someone who does I need a consultant to help set up a world class call center in my business I don’t want to outsource It will be part of a bigger strategy to enhance customer experience But it starts with a well functioning call center

Another one of our competitors is going bankrupt And we recently lost a $180,000 job to them because they were $3k lower Now the homeowner is asking for help because he’s paid in full for an unfinished product that will cost $20k to complete In the last 3 years our 3 biggest competitors have gone under Why should we price match companies who won’t be in business in a year? The most value isn’t always in the lowest bid!

I see this perspective. The industry perspective is the warranty is an agreement between the seller and the buyer. Changing this would require a cost increase to adjust for the risk. The initial buyer doesn't care about the second owner. They don't want to pay more to protect them.

I was suprised

How many reviews do we need to get to 4.7 stars? This was asked a lot when we were working to raise our Google rating. So we built a calculator. Below is a link to it. You can have it. No newsletter sign up or anything. Here are reasons why your Google Rating matters🧵 docs.google.com/spreadsheets…

Those opportunities get harder to come by the older they get. I was thankful for this opportunity. It was more impactful than saying it after a win.

Outwork your self doubt. We’re spending 3X on marketing in 2024 and I am leading the charge. I’ve studied, hired some solid consultants, wrote out my plan and started to execute. But I’m nervous. I feel out of my league. By the time I know if it’s working we’ll be $250k+ in. So I keep telling myself to outwork my self doubt. It’s all I know to do. I can’t rely on experience, but I can make sure I give it everything I’ve got.

There’s some solid boomer symbolism in here. The lip on the cup deflecting balls that would have went in And then the ball with the back spin that was on track but then suddenly reversed course Perfect video analogy

Hope not! lol

When I was in finance in the sports nutrition industry I was making about 150K salary. That was 6 years ago. Recently I found out that some of the guys who worked under me who are now in a similar position are in the 200s. I couldn’t believe how quickly salaries have grown.

No School on Fridays! That’s what my kids’ school district implemented this year. That’s right, my kids go to school 4 days a week. This was a controversial decision. The community had a lot of questions and concerns. How do families plan for childcare? How does this impact student development? What about sports, length of school year, holidays, etc This was year 1 of the experiment but they just they just renewed the four day calendar for next year. What do you think about a 4 day school week?

I had a similar reality check that brought me to being a pool guy I was in corporate finance and I realized that my income growth was limited, even if I reached the C level. I’d probably never be a 1% earner in the path I chose. I saw guys in sales making more money in mid level positions then I would make at the top of my field To reach my goals I needed to do something different

I’ve been trying to post all day But between the livestock show, kids basketball & lunch with family, I never thought I’d get to it So when my wife asked if I wanted to take the kids to Top Golf I drank two beers before we left so she had to drive and I could post in the car

For me it happened when we built out our leadership team and I started seeing the ranges of executive salaries (I was young, 28, but running the finance group for a fast growing supplement company). I saw the gap between ownership and executives who were at the peak of their career. I decided to be an owner.

Success doesn’t come overnight, that’s for sure. To me the best hack is to put in extra time upfront, work 60 hours earlier in your career rather than 40. Out pace the competition to find it sooner.

Self storage: lame BUT Printing money: not lame

Last year I went to lunch w/ our team members individually The most unexpected benefit: learning most of them had a skill/passion I wasn’t aware of I put some of those skills to work in the business It was a win win. They felt appreciated & we benefitted from their talents.

I worked for a company with an equity sharing program. In fact I administered it. What I learned from that experience, and the reason why my company doesn’t give away equity: PEOPLE DONT APPRECIATE IT

The other day someone asked if they could make their $40,000 pool down payment with gold coins. They had 20 gold maple leaf coins with them.

I also try to consider our team and what’s fair to them. $15k isn’t going to break us, but enough $15k-s would. When I start to feel sentimental about issues like this I try to remind myself that there are 50 team members counting on me to do what’s right financially to maximize the core purpose of the business.

I’m thankful to be a pool guy in a year round market. The seasonality is hard enough in Texas. I can’t imagine trying to staff up and staff down every 6 months, while trying to build talent, culture, etc.

I hope these kids never forget weekends at the deer lease. I know I never will!

We just outsourced ours, my business partner and I both have finance backgrounds so it took some time to let it go. Who are you using? We are implementing now. Not sure we found the right partner.

I have a few thoughts: I will never operate another business without EOS, or at least the principles of EOS being a part of it from day one. Even when we are at $0 revenue we will use it. My favorite EOS book is get a grip . Something about it being in fable form just helped me absorb it. While sitting in my quarterly EOS meeting on Tuesday, I jotted down a note to write a post of why my EOS implementer is worth $6000 a session.

This year I learned how it actually works. I also thought we were pooled into the insured population. It’s hard to understand how it doesn’t work that way. I do like the idea of educating the team to be better consumers. I hadn’t thought about that as a way to manage costs.

I’ve been amazed by the Twitter network. Tons of people willing to connect and help. Perfect example right here 👇🏻

The largest players are PE roll ups. In 2022 the largest service company did just under $60 million in revenue. The competition can be fierce. There’s a lot of one polers not charging a premium price and they can drag the price down.

I had no idea you could just put them back in! My 4 year old is missing both his front teeth thanks to his older brother. Wish I would’ve known I could just slam them back in!

I'd be pissed to and I feel for the guy, that's why I offered to do the work at true cost. The typical cost of the work when we include our overhead and labor would be $20k+. I can eat the overhead and labor, I just can't cover it all.

Love that you had the hustle to make 87 phone calls. This post made me think back to the auction post. You’re a scrappy entrepreneur. The hustle is inspiring.

Here’s a picture of the AirPods they flushed down the toilet Does that count?

I’m skeptical I agree with his stance and his actions But waiting until an election year to make his biggest stand isn’t a coincidence IMO The drama always peaks in an election year

I agree with @supa2001. I usually see credits in this situation.

This wins the award for most interesting post of the day. It really is mind blowing.

I have five and can’t figure out what the hell I was thinking.

Reasons to follow Joe: 1. So you don’t miss his sports shed breakdown 2. He’ll evaluate your website and give you feedback 3. He needs 7 more followers to get to 500 Follow Joe!

This is every subcontractor I have. They know our markets down, they know they shouldn't raise prices, so what do they do.. make up a fee. I have to call them out on it because if I don't, they'll try to raise their actual prices in 3 months and say they haven't raised prices this year like I didn't notice the fee. It's exhausting.

Pools check four of six boxes: Need: no High ticket: yes Barrier to entry: no (not in Tx) Unsophisticated: yes Room for growth: yes Sales and marketing focused: yes The problem with Pools is that the sales process is so complex. Not like plumbing or roof. You have to design the product and sell the product and it’s hard to find people with both skill sets and also hard to break up design and sell and serve the customer well. If I could change anything about the industry i’m in it would be an easier sales process.

What are the primary tasks you outsource to the assistant? Was there a certain amount of training you had to do? I’ve been thinking about hiring offshore talent for quoting and putting together construction contracts. If we had the right models and systems is that doable?

My initial thought was the same as @OptimusCFO. But ultimately I think it comes down to the culture of your organization and nobody understands that better than you. Also, it looks like you gave them a choice and they chose equity. I think then choosing equity will greatly increase the appreciation and buy in. And that’s why I’m voting Good Decision! 😁

If you want to follow someone who will make you think differently about how to “Dad”, Gabe is the guy. @trevizo_gabe

When I’ve coached rec basketball, something I teach is to get on the floor, dive for the ball. My kids are great about going after a loose ball at maximum effort, laying out and sliding across the wood floor with no regard for the pain, only focused on winning. I’ve thought many times about how this translates to life. Putting in an unconventional effort, trying harder than anyone around you and disregarding the pain to reach your goals. @trevizo_gabe does a great job of explaining how effort in basketball translates to life in this post.

I’m just going to put this right here…

You got my follow anyway… not sure how I wasn’t already following 🤔

1000 likes and I’ll live stream me fighting a 14 year old 😜

"I want to speak to the owner" is a hard thing to get away from in small businesses. You want to provide a high level of service but you have bigger initiatives to drive in the business. I try to remind myself that I am responsible to my entire organization when deciding whether or not to take the "I want to speak to the owner" meeting.

I’m with you. If I don’t have anyone to work that day, the shop would shut down for a couple hours. Nothing would keep me from being at that party.

Last year we started sharing revenue targets with the entire team, ~50 people. It was a controversial subject for the leadership team, 4 out of 6 did not want to share them. But we starting a quarterly “state of the company” and we couldn’t clearly share company goals and direction without revenue. My business partner and I decided we’d move forward despite the opposition. We did our best to explain to our mainly blue collar workforce that the revenue didn’t translate to money in our pocket. But after the first company meeting there was some disgruntled talk between employees. Four out of six people on the leadership team said “I told you so”. We decided to stay the path. After the second quarterly meeting no one had anything to say. By the fourth quarterly meeting, because of our regular meeting cadence and transparency, the alignment between the team was so strong that feedback one-eightied. The team was excited to see us grow and hit our revenue targets. Give it time and most people will buy in. But if you can’t be open with your team, you may have the wrong team.

**Disclaimer** Parts of this post are fictional and have been included for entertainment purposes only. Particular items that should be considered as fiction include anything regarding taxes.

I would struggle to continue to give money to the church. If I believed tithing was required to be in good standing with God, I would find a way to give that wasn’t going into a fund. It would be hard for me to give and not feel like my giving was driving a purpose.