In episode 51 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden is joined by Matthew Clemans, as they discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals and seeking mentorship to achieve your dreams. They also emphasize the importance of sharing your story and not withholding uncomfortable or personal experiences.
Tune in to learn more about their journey and the power of authenticity in building your brand.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:02:22] The Importance of Branding.
[00:07:31] Niche Down and Simplify.
[00:15:19] Finding Reliable Workers.
[00:17:06] Overcoming Addiction and Personal Growth.
[00:22:09] Getting in Rooms You Don't Belong In.
[00:24:46] The Blue Collar Trades.
[00:29:38] Getting Uncomfortable and Growing.
[00:30:39] Strategic Relationship Development.
[00:34:37] Sales Management and Growth Opportunities.
[00:39:18] Pay Structure for Employees.
[00:44:45] Personal Growth and Branding.
In this episode, Ken Baden and Matthew Clemans emphasize the importance of surrounding oneself with individuals who think differently and are already pursuing the desired goals. They suggest that this strategic move can greatly contribute to achieving one's aspirations.
Additionally, Ken and Matthew mention the value of mentorship and seeking guidance from those who are already pursuing the desired goals. They suggest auditing your circle and surrounding yourself with people who have big dreams and aspirations, and who are taking action towards achieving them. By doing so, you can expose yourself to alternative paths to success and expand your own mindset.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheKenBaden
Matthew Clemans
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matthewclemans/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthewhersandonlyhersclemans
WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
Welcome to the Kitchen Table, a podcast about where business is done. So pull up a chair and join your host, Ken Baden.
All right, welcome back to another episode of the Kitchen Table podcast. My name is Ken Baden, and I'm here today with a special guest, Matt Clemons from Matt, what is this? I don't want to say it the wrong way now because Matt has one name, but He's getting ready to change it. So Matt, first of all, how are you? Second of all, what's the name of your company?
I'm good, man. Right now it's from the ground up customs, but we're getting ready to switch over to our family remodeling as we gear towards the roofing side of it.
The roofing side, as he says, as the Midwest tends to say.
I'm the only one in my house that says it, you know, I get made fun of at my own house for it.
Really? I thought that was just like a full Midwest thing roughing.
I mean, a lot of people here, especially the roofers.
Yeah. I have a, a guy that used to work with a still really good friend, friend of the family. And, uh, Good church friend to Tim. He's from Michigan. And so he says rough as well He called today actually with a lead from a friend of his from church. He said I've the rough is leaking so I get a kick out of it every time but Matt has I don't know. What's it been Matt? It's probably been a full year of where Matt and I met online on social media, Facebook particular, I think he just kind of came across some of my stuff, maybe the Orion or something like that.
Yeah, so I was, I like, strategically just started adding anybody that was in apex. So, you know, I have about 331 mutual friends with you, all in apex. And then I just, you know, I came across your content after that. And it just kind of clicked with me. A lot of similarities in our background and, you know, in the same direction. And you're a little bit further down the road and was looking for some mentorship.
I think that's what's important about not withholding your story, even if there's some things that may or may not be uncomfortable or that you might be, you know, because originally I really didn't like to express or even talk about the stuff in my past. My profile wasn't public. until October of last year. And so meeting Ryan, working with him as a coach, him encouraging me like, okay, look, man, first things first, we gotta get you out there, we gotta get you starting to brand. And I had heard the concept from guys like Brad Lee and the importance of branding yourself and the individual brand and how important it is and how much easier it is than branding a business. And if you successfully brand yourself, Any subsequent businesses or affiliations that you are tied to should benefit from the successful branding of yourself. So I started putting myself out there. I went from like, you know, two followers to, I think I might have like 4,600 right now, which isn't a ton, but considering, you know, it's been a year where I was at none. You know, and that's not really what matters to me. It's that I have actual personal relationships like Matt as a result. So Matt and I started talking, you know, I mentioned, hey, man, you got a very similar story to my own. I appreciate you sharing. what you've gone through and I can't tell you how many messages I've got just like that. I got one recently where the guy was like, man, I came across your YouTube channel and I wish I had the courage to talk about my story like that, which one you do. But I understand the way it feels originally to be like, man, for me, I wanted to make sure I had enough. I had benchmarks, right? That I wanted to check off before I was comfortable talking about where I came from. And I never, I always kept moving them up, right? Like, all right, well, once I do a million, then I'll be comfortable. Then I'll tell people what I really went through. Then once I do 10 million, then once my business is at a hundred million, then once I exit, right? Like I just kept raising the bar and finally I was like, screw it. And I'm so glad I did because in the last year, Matt's been a part of this. You know, we started Blue Collar Ballers. the Blue Collar Ballers Union, so we started the Facebook group Blue Collar Ballers, Matt joined up quick, man. He was one of the first to actually join when it was converted from what it was to Blue Collar Ballers, just a free Facebook group. But from there, the Blue Collar Ballers Union, which is a paid coaching group, and we're really trying to do some different stuff with that because there are so many coaches, so many groups, so many things, and I just, you know, I have my own business that I'm still very active in and still, you know, looking to scale and exit and talking to private equity and just doing all these things. I have a couple of businesses. And so. I don't really have any interest in just like the one on one coaching aspect of it is difficult, but as a group, as a collective, as a, you know, a bunch of business owners, especially in the blue collar space, working together. Holding each other accountable, going over KPIs, coming up with those goals and KPIs and and making sure that we're on the same path. you could find yourself being in a situation very much like Matt, who started off in bathrooms, right? Started off working for somebody in bathrooms, and I'm not gonna tell his story. He's getting ready to tell it. I'd like you to tell us how you got to where you are, but what are you getting ready to do now, Matt? Currently, your business focuses on?
On roofing.
On roofing. Yeah, well, I mean. Bathrooms, right?
Well, right now, I still have a few jobs that are under contract that I got to close out. But I've stopped really like trying to push any ads or any kind of marketing towards bathrooms. I'm getting ready to switch the business up and kind of new logo, new everything. So that it just can be a whole new venture. But definitely heavily trying to move into the roofing space.
And that wouldn't even be I would think was that something you were even thinking about like this time last year?
Oh, nowhere near that. I didn't even start thinking about moving into roofing until like 10 minutes before our first zoom when I joined the union. I was like sitting there thinking about it like something clicked and I was just like, you know, PCR and everything like that. I'm like, well, I know from experience being in the trades my whole life that like, there's a lot of money in roofing, but everybody's like, with my mindset, I was thinking, I don't want to go into roofing, because it's hard work, as far as doing the installs, because my mind my entire life has been on doing the work myself, not building a business. But then I was it just kind of clicked for me, because we were talking before our first call. And you were just kind of talking about, you know, niching down and not try to be so spread out. And I was like, well, if I'm trying to build a business, the labor side of it is something that you're going to pay to do not have to do so go where there's profit and something that I have experience in on the install side of it, you know?
Yeah. And that was something, uh, When we first started working together, so Matt ended up joining the union, right? The paid coaching group. He's our very first one actually, right? And so Matt and I were just working one-on-one. I mean, you know, I just said, as far as like the one-on-one coaching, I just don't have, well, he was the first member, so that's effectively what he got. And I had just came off the heels of our last consulting client. So I have Baden Consulting, I have the Blue Collar Ballers Coaching Group, and I have PCR, Potomac Custom Remodeling. Now we're operating as PCR Roofing. We're focusing our, we've niched down and simplified down to just our bread and butter, which is roofing. I've been selling it forever. I've installed it. It's what I know better than anything. And that's what we're focused on, right? So Matt comes on the heels of my last consulting client that I was like, okay, I'm taking this one consulting client on because it's very involved. And I also have another business, right? And so I'm picking and choosing the hours I can allocate to what, and it's just running out of hours. And so that was a lot, but I did just have a system put together of kind of like, okay, this is a turnkey 90 day process of getting guys up and running into the insurance roofing space. So when Matt hopped on, and I didn't know this until just now, and we started talking, he's like, man, I'd love to do roofing. I'm like, well, you know, right now you're my first coaching client as far as this group goes. And until we get, you know, a couple more guys in here, I'll work with you and get you up and running if you're serious. And that's where I think a lot of folks talk But there's a very small percentage that are willing to put the action behind the talk. And so Matt did, did what he needed to do. And here he is. He's gotten a few installs over the course of last year. He was tired of installing bathrooms himself. But I think Matt's story is awesome because one, there are so many of us business owners that get caught up in working in the business and not on the business and they just don't it's like we it's even I have an example of this currently right where I'm looking to scale but it's like things don't stop Even though you need to kind of stop and take a backseat and look and zoom out and see, okay, I need to do this, this, this, and this in order to get to the next level. And you may know this and this, but you're missing two or three things. Or even if you know it, you may not stop and do it because the day to day keeps coming. And it's like, okay, yeah, we need to stop and do all these things. But oh, by the way, we need to sell and we need to install these jobs. And when you're installing yourself, man, there's really like so little time to stop and do the things that are needed to work on your business. And so Matt is a perfect example of like, I want more, I want to do more. but I'm selling these jobs, I'm doing these jobs, I'm doing the payroll, my wife's doing the books, everything is me and I just can't see a way out. So Matt, do us a favor if you would, take us through how you got into working for yourself in the first place.
Oh, like most people, I just got sick and tired of where I was at. You know, I was, I was running jobs for my old boss. And I mean, like, start to finish, I'd show up, do the demo, everything but sell the job, he would go sell the job. And then he'd say, here's the address, here's what needs to happen, go over the design with the customer, so on and so forth. So I'd show up, I'd deal with the customer, I would do the install, I would run to the supply store if I needed to get something. And I was getting paid like, I think $18 an hour. And I'm, you know, closing out these jobs every other week for them. And eventually, it's just like I had to threaten to quit my job to get a $2 an hour raise to start making 20 bucks an hour. And I was like, you know, okay, so I did that for another couple months. And I just finally, I had enough one day we were on a job and me and him kind of got into it. I mean, not physically, but I just, I walked off. I went and got my truck. I called my wife and I'm like, at this point, I'm in tears. I helped this dude build his business for like seven years. You know, it's like breaking up almost. I called my wife and I'm like, Hey, I just quit my job. And she's like, for real this time. You know, like, it was like every other week thing that I was just I was just tired of being where I was, you know, I knew I could do so much more than what I was doing. And I could be I was way more valuable than I was letting myself be paid, you know, and I just had enough. I called my wife. I was like, I quit my job. I'm for real this time. And she's like, Well, what are we gonna do? And I was like, I guess I'm gonna start my own business. She said, Okay, And, uh, I don't think she quite understood what she was signing up for when she said, okay, but thankfully she's been there through it all. Uh, you know, so just like that at the time I had, I had a lot of side work going on. I was doing a lot of side projects after work on weekends and all that to make some extra cash, obviously. Um, so I had like maybe a month and a half worth of work lined up. I had about an $800 paycheck coming on Friday and. No money. So I basically just put my back up against the wall and went and made shit happen. So then for, I don't know, about six months, it was just me. I was you know, get a couple small jobs here's a couple small jobs there. It was August of 2020 is when I quit my job. So it was like, right as COVID was kind of getting to where's everybody was at home had money, but they were kind of like not as concerned having people in their home. So like, I quit my job at the perfect time, doing what I was doing. So my first year, I just I think we did like over $400,000 in revenue my first year, more money than I could ever have imagined seeing. Now, I mean, that was like gross revenue. So obviously, I didn't make that my first year. But my first year, I made over two times more than I had ever made in one year of my life. So naturally, I was like, OK, well, if it's that easy, all I got to do is get some more guys and take on more work and slowly but surely I was at one job working and I might have some guys over here, but I had no systems in place. I had, you know, I didn't even know what core values were. I didn't have any idea of like even what the culture of my business was or what a brand was or what I stood for at that point. It was just warm bodies that kind of knew what they were doing and hoping things worked and it definitely didn't work out. You know, they were over here doing whatever. And one guy had a certain standard of work, the other guy had another standard of work. And I think the biggest thing is I had no idea what it took to run a business. I just knew how to do the work and kind of manage a project. But I, it was all new to me. You know, so I just I spent a lot of money and didn't get any results. So it was like my first year of business, I profited like damn near double what I did my second year in business, just not having a clue what I was doing. And then I think it was like, beginning of 22, I had like three guys working for me. And They were all, you know, one guy was a drunk, one guy had this problem, this guy had that problem. I had enough of it, you know?
I certainly find, like, workers that do any work with their hands that are American citizens that, like, I don't know, it's almost like a prerequisite these days that if they're younger, they, like, almost assuredly have some kind of, like, problem, drug or alcohol problem. And if they're older and they're not doing anything for anybody else and you somehow get them, if you don't steal them away, they also probably have like an alcohol. It's just people give, you know, I don't know. I can tell you this much. I've had plenty of customers that have given me the run around. Oh, you know, these, are these Hispanics illegal? Brother, those guys work their butts off. Yes, they're legal. And second, do you think that we have this long line of just like, Young American, doesn't matter, black or white or brown, doesn't matter. Young American folks that want to go and work with their hands, whether it's doing roofing or bathrooms. I mean, it's unfortunate. And they're in lies, really. They're in lies. the importance of this blue-collar baller movement. You can be what you perceive as a baller, right? You can lead a baller life and it can start by learning something so valuable like working and building with your hands, moving up, doing what Matt's doing right now, what Matt's story is right now, like learning, building something, doing something invaluable that you could do then for yourself. But then learning the business side, right? And then learning how to do it and then work on your business, teach someone else how to do it, set a standard of work, teach multiple people how to do it. And man, you could set your own freaking wage because there is just no one out there that does it. It's just the American. way has changed so much. They pushed college computers and all, and people have just gotten so damn soft that it frustrates me when I hear like, oh, well, you know, there's not anybody wanting to do those jobs. I mean, listen to Matt right now, right? I mean, what he's talking about, you think he hired, oh, I can't wait to get this guy who's a drunk and this guy who's, how many other people did you have begging you for work?
Not very many, and if they were, they weren't worth it, you know?
I didn't mean to cut you off on that, but I couldn't help but comment. No, you're good. It's just so common, but go ahead.
Well, it really is. And into that, it comes with its own problems, especially when you're working with these guys day in and day out. I mean, I skipped right over a lot of my story. I've dealt with drugs pretty much since I was about 16. I got into like taking pills when I was in high school, you know, is usually painkillers or something. And I went through like a year or two of that. And then I got clean and like I never really addressed that I was an addict. And it was never really like. It never caused problems in my life that I was aware of, you know what I mean? But like there was obviously there was problems with it, but like it would come and it would go and I'd go through phases and and then like I stayed away. I met my wife when I was 21. And at that point, you know, I already had a five year old and she had two kids because she's older than me. So it was kind of like, bam, instant family. I went from 21 and my ex having custody of my son to being able to do whatever I wanted, going out drinking, doing whatever, have my son every other weekend. And then I met her and it was kind of like, hey, dude, you got to take care of now. Like, wake up. You know, and I at the whole the whole time I was working, you know, I mean, I, I had my son when I was 16, I tried to finish high school, but working a full time job at a gas station, and then going to school didn't work out. So I dropped out. And then I needed a good job and construction was available. So hindsight being, you know, 10 years down the road, I start my own business should get stressful. I have a bunch of drunks and drug addicts working for me, dude's like, Hey, man, you know, we've been working like 80 hours this week. How do you do it? I'm like, I'm barely hanging on. And oh, here's an Adderall goes, you know, and then down the road, I'm like, holy shit. I got to go go go go on this. And, you know, maybe six, eight months later, I'm like, what the fuck just happened, dude? Like it got it got bad towards them. I was about to lose my wife. She's gonna take my kids. And It's just, it's sad, dude, because it's like the trades, there's so many guys that you see that just waste their potential. And it was like, I was this close to being that guy. So that's when I was like, you know, everybody's got to go. I fired everybody and I started working on my own. And I was like, I'm almost gun shy. You know what I mean? Cause I brought guys on and it messed a lot of things up. I had guys that were messing jobs up. So I had dissatisfied customers. I got, you know, all the problems that come with it. And then after I got clean and I got I got clean by myself, I just like you got a problem. My wife's like, we're this close. And that was it. I got my shit together. But I was afraid to make any moves. I didn't want to bring people on or be responsible for hiring or growing my business because I'm like, oh, these people that knew me, they have a bad taste in their mouth or whatever the case may be. I just gave myself all the excuses to almost curl up and hide from the world.
Now, you're like you said, you're gun shy to try again.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, you can only stay down so long. You know what I mean? It's like, what am I going to do? So I found some mentorship, I started like, switching my focus. I'm like, okay, well, if I'm gonna do this, I got to do this right. I am tired of being the one that has to do all the work like you can you put a ceiling on it dude you can't you can get close to yourself but you're never going to replicate yourself and not you know in any timely manner so I'm like okay if I'm going to get where I want to be in life in the amount of time that I want to do it I got to figure out how to do this and how to do it right So I just started looking for help in anywhere and everywhere. And that's when I started looking into Apex. I started adding people. Even just having your news feed, when you're scrolling on Facebook or something, people that are doing things, people that are going where you want to go, not your past over here where everybody's going out or just whatever. Everything they post is negative. It's like that was where my mind shift was. It was like, I have to get around the people that I want to be, whether I think I fit in there or not. You know what I mean? It's like the most, the best thing you could ever do is get yourself in rooms you don't belong in. You know, it's like once you're there, eventually the stuff starts rubbing off on you. You start thinking a different way and you realize there is a different way. Most of the rest that are like in the trades, It's like you only see one mindset. And that's go to work, work as hard as you can put in the hours, get the paycheck, take care of the family. How many guys like you know, I have kids like I don't want to have to work $100 a week for somebody else and then sleep the other 20 hours I'm at home. It's like you just got to take that leap. You know what I mean? So
you go through that stint of addiction and I don't want to say like, you know, I'm careful with that word because, you know, when I hear the word addict, like I think True Blue, you can say what you want, I don't care, you know, disease of addiction, I don't know, whatever the it part of that, whether you want to label it disease, I don't give a damn what it is, whatever it is, I have it. But, you know, there are some folks like Matt where it's like, hey man, yeah, I definitely, got into this it was definitely a problem I was able to you know once the differences by the way once consequences come and it's like hey I'm about to lose my family and that that ability really you know not to get too far down the rabbit hole but like AA would describe that or excuse me um 12-step programs would describe that as problem drinkers or problem users, people that definitely use to the point of a problem, but when that problem arises or that serious consequences arises, they can stop. True blue addicts just don't have the stop. They don't have it. It doesn't exist until they're met with just there is no more consequences it's complete rock bottom and the pain of doing that thing is greater than the feeling they get and so like and i say that only to clarify that like You know, I don't know. I don't want certain folks to get confused in hearing that and they're like, oh, I'll just stop. And why can't I? I couldn't either. Right. And so, like, that's just me. My story. I couldn't either. I had to go and try over and over and over and over and finally get some help and get so there's different levels. Right. So just to clear that up, not to get too far down the rabbit hole on that. And I don't mean to hijack Obviously, that's a subject that means something to me. So I just want to clarify. Now, next, what Matt was just saying, he's absolutely right. And I think that's worth talking about is like the blue collar trades, man, like the home service and the blue collar trades. We get ourselves caught up, we work, and we're taught, like, depending on what your socioeconomic or your background is, like, you may be born into that, and that may be all you see is like, cool, get out, get a job, start a family, work nine to five, maybe get some overtime, if I'm lucky, provide for my family, sleep, and barely make ends meet, right? But like, these days, the blue collar trades and the home service spaces are so desperate for good help. and you can learn and go in and make good money and get your overtime and get those things, but you learn then watching the foreman, learn how to do that, right? Then you watch the VP, learn how to do that. Then you watch the owner, right? And then it's like, well, hell man, like I've worked up and worked up and worked up. What's next, right? What's the next? And that's where like that entrepreneur, intrapreneur, like you could work your way up to CEO of a, nine figure possibly even publicly traded like home service or business like that. Like you can have that baller and or business mentality within the blue collar space. I had this idiot and I'm gonna call him idiot because he's an idiot. First of all, the dude's name is Dakota. Second of all, he's like trolling me on Facebook and I'm like, why are you even following me? I don't have enough, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not like, you're really sweating me already. which I'm told that's when you know you've made it. But guys like, oh, you know, where's the blue collar at when me and Ryan are talking about our event the other day? And I'm like, brother. I've been there, done that, worn the hat, written the book, installed, but his whole thing was like, well, the definition of blue collar, first of all, where'd you get that definition from, idiot? Your definition of blue collar is swinging a hammer because the blue collar space has all like it's not that's the problem it's not just swinging a hammer like yeah you might start there but there are so many air sales there's marketing within a blue collar business there's selling within a blue collar business there's the business of a blue collar business the entrepreneurship and those spaces that are making millionaires and arguably faster than a lot of these other things that and people just don't know they don't get it and they don't they don't they don't it's not sexy to them and it's just so unfortunate so we're really trying to change that and that is why this initiative this culture this movement of the blue collar baller It's so important, that's why I dress the way I do, I carry myself the way I do, because I really want to show the other side of that. It's not just coming home dirty and swinging hair. Yes, dirty hands equals clean money. Yes, I've been there. Yes, I've done that. But look at where I am now, right? There's another side to that. There's nothing wrong with continuing and staying within the day-to-day if that's what you want to do. But it's making sure that folks know there is a whole other side to this. There's sales, there's marketing, there's business. and you could make an awful lot, and you could make a life-changing future for yourself. And Matt is a perfect example, because Matt, you went from now, you're doing everything on your own, you fired your guys, you're kind of gun-shy, you don't really know if you want to hire anybody, but you start putting yourself in uncomfortable situations by surrounding yourself with people who think differently, who are doing the things you want to do, which, by the way, was a smart move. If you don't know what to do right now, I suggest you seek mentorship and you take a good look around your circle. If you've got big dreams and aspirations, and if you're listening to this and you don't know, look around your circle. Is it negative? What is the quality of your conversations? What are you talking about? Are you talking about going somewhere? Are you talking about building dreams? And are you putting action behind it? And is the circle that you're around also talking about that? Because if it's not, I can assure you it's going to be really hard to do it. And you might want to audit who you keep around you because you're the sum of the five people that you're around most. And that's just what it is. Right. And so like I did the same thing Matt did. I literally paid to get in rooms I was uncomfortable to be in until I was comfortable enough to be in them. And I'm supposed to be speaking on a panel tomorrow in front of those same folks in that same room a year ago. I was uncomfortable being around. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go because I've got a My wife and I are trying to, not trying, my wife and I are going to expand on our family. So we have a meeting about that. We're working hard on that, which is the best part. But I look forward to having a doctor's appointment in all seriousness. I can't make it. But my point is, It's getting uncomfortable. There's growth and uncomfortability. It's putting yourselves around the folks. So you get into a space, you don't necessarily know what to do, but you find somebody who's done it. You ask them how, right? And in this case, sometimes it's even as simple as Matt jumps on social media. Hey, Ken, man, I love your story. I love what you're doing, man. Keep it up. We develop a conversation. We develop a rapport. you know, maybe he can't, maybe he's been following Ryan Stumann or someone like that for a while now. And he's not necessarily to a level where like, you know, if Ryan could, I'm sure he would respond to everybody or Andrew Taylor, any of these big names, right? Like they're not, they're not likely to even run their own accounts or, but I will. Right. So if I'm affiliated with this guy and this guy by proxy, Matt can talk to me, right? And so these are some of the ways that I try to look at things, like, yeah, that guy's probably not gonna respond to me, but that guy's working with that guy, and that guy might, and I'm trying to get in the room. That's all I'm trying to do. I know it's hard for me to get to that guy, but if I can just get to the guy that gets to the guy, that's even, like, strategic relationship development is something that I could teach an entire class on, and I'm telling you, what Matt did will set him up this year just by trying to level up his network. That's really what he was doing. So Matt leveled up his network. It's forcing him to level himself up. So now Matt, you started working with myself. You said this, you decided, I didn't know 10 minutes before our first call that you wanted to start doing roofing. You started doing it. You got the, you know, we talked about it. We had a checklist, right? Here are the things that I think you need to do. And of course, you live in a different state. So we need to figure out what are the rules, regulations, licenses. You got all that taken care of. And by the end of the summer, you had your first few installs. And you were up and running, right? And now what are your plans for this year? Because I understand you still then you go into winter and winter comes a whole lot sooner where you're at. And so what are your plans for 2024? So.
Like we discussed before, by the end of the first quarter, I want to be 100% full into roofing. I don't want to be having the open contracts doing anything else. I want to get myself to a position where I can make that jump. You know what I mean? So it's going to take me a couple of months, obviously. Right as we started getting things going, it was like, well, shit, dude, we started checking all these things off the list. I got two installs in and then winner hit, you know, so it's like, Just thankful that I had the work, but ready to be done with it. So come spring, I'm just going to hit it hard. My first goal that you set me up with after our talk the other day was getting some sales reps. So I'm trying to figure out how to make that happen, have them lined up to start hitting it hard when spring comes. I told you that I wanted to do a million sales and you told me that was weak. So you said two. So now it's three. So now it's three, you know, like if I'm going to, if I'm going to go, I might as well go. Uh, so, so I'm trying to do 3 million this year.
Uh, honestly, I'm just about that. So we, and we reverse engineer that like, okay, so I need three reps. doing a million a piece to get three, which is what? 80,000 or so a month, which is how many, and then we can break it down even more from there. Okay, 80,000 a month, what's my average roof that I'm looking for? What's the average per square price that I'd like to get, which translates to what average ticket Like ours is 630 at 189 at 30 square. So we need, you know, and this guy wants to do 80 K a month. How many of that, how many roofs is that a month? How many doors does he need to knock on? How many conversations does he then need to have to set how many claims to have? How many claims go to approvals to installs to make that happen? That's how you reverse. All right. So what was I saying? My battery's not on me. but the culture, you know, and not, not allowing, uh, for folks to make excuses for, for not tracking their, their stuff. Right. Like not allowing for guys to say, oh, you know, we didn't have service or, you know, I was out, but no, right. Like we need to know, so we can help you as well. Right. Like if you're struggling. We need to know how many doors you knocked. We need to know how many conversations you had. So we can tell you where in our sales system was the breakdown. So for yourself, your goals are three reps. So where do we start? How do we attract somebody when it's like, you're selling a vision. At this point, you're selling the vision. You're selling the what if. All right, look, you're getting yourself in and a ground floor in my business and my company, and you're going to help me build this thing, right? And you're going to help me scale it. You're going to help me get it off the ground. Because of that, the actual opportunity is not just selling, but the sky's the limit. I mean, we're going to need sales management. We're going to need sales VPs. We're going to need, you know, team leads. I mean, there's just so much opportunity to get in and grow with me. And, uh, and, The biggest thing would just be making sure like, okay, I'm poised to be able to do whatever I say. Because so many guys that are new, they come into this industry in particular, insurance roofing, right? There's these young knuckleheads. And they just want to get whoever to come over and work for them. So they say literally anything. And they have no concept of sustainability. They have no concept of what is or what isn't even feasible. And they just think, oh, OK, look, man, I'm going to pay you 50%. And yes, men like Curt Linnington and Todd Price can do that with a 50-50-10, or a 60-40-10, or a 50-50-15, meaning They're transparent with their numbers, but they're also going to say, look, I'm taking 15% right off the bat because the company has to, the company has an overhead and the ideal overheads like 10, but depending on the size, it could be more 12, 15, like we're still at 15 or just below. So there's going to be an overhead that costs to keep the lights on, pay the bills, run the ads, build the brand, pay the office staff, all the things. And we're trying to keep that under 10 or 15%. that comes off first. Then we have the labor material, the actual job itself, that's the per job cost. What's left is the true profit, real profit. Because you get these kids that just don't know any better, and they're just like, yo, I'm going to pay you 50%, guy. You come over here, I'll pay you 50%. You don't know what 50% is. They don't even know don't even know the sustainability of that. They don't know how lean that is. And they may not even be taking overhead. So they make one mistake on one job, and one job falls short. And what happens? They can't pay you. They don't realize how lean that is. They don't realize how strict and small the margin for error is. Even if you're running a 50-50-10, if you screw up, your overhead's now more than 10, well, now you're eating into something. Now, that's not profit. Now, you have to take from either your profit or their profit or the profit to pay bills, so that's not profit. You know what I mean? That goes against like, no, that isn't profit if you're paying bills with profit. It doesn't work that way. That would make it not profit and make it overhead. Point is, I've seen so much of that where guys are like, oh, this guy is going to pay me 50% in a specific market. I'm like, okay, well, we're not in the South, and they're not one of the big three or whatever of the industry that I know can do that. Good luck. What I would suggest more than anything is no your limits, know what you can do, know what you can pay. I'm not giving you a pay plan or anything like that. That would be some of the obvious ones, but know what you can do, do what you can do and be honest. Like, look, I'd love to build towards this. Early on your overhead is going to be next to nothing. So you probably can, what's sustainable. But I tell you this, it's really hard to take it back. So if you started something because you're so lean, you either need to stay that lean as you, you know what I mean? Or, or, it's going to be almost impossible to take back. Just some tidbits there on some things that I've seen before some guys do early on that I think are mistakes. I've done the same. I've allowed the voices in the room to dictate the pay and the voices in the room to dictate I've allowed the opposite. I've removed the overhead percentage, and I was. I was paying bills with my side of the profit. Wait a minute, that's not profit.
It wasn't until I realized these things like, wait a second.
Okay, no, we can't do that.
You're getting paid 40% of your business. That doesn't even make sense.
It's not a nonprofit and it just doesn't work that way. Another way you could do it is pay them on the gross. That's a lot more transparent. Look, X percent of the gross, period. We don't have to do any of this crap, numbers and all this other stuff, just percentage of the gross that's comparable to the percentage of the profit. There's just so many ways to skin that cat, but the number one thing is doing what you know you can do and sustain. So you're gonna go out there this year, and that's not even a preach to Matt, that's just me. Honestly, what that is is a frustration of mine because I see it all the time, these guys that really don't have any business being in business, but the barrier for entry in our business and the insurance restoration side is truck, ladder, oh, I'm in business. Depending on the area, there may not even be any licensing, right? And, you know, I don't know. That's a shame, but it also helps guys like Matt stand out. Guys that are real, driven, business, integrity-driven individuals who can really stand out above the rest and make sure they build something real. Because Matt's about surrounding himself. You know, Matt, what would you say this year or your biggest takeaway was from having like joined the whole ballers community, like gotten a net and networking and leveling up who you've surrounded yourself with? You know, what would you say is your biggest takeaway from all of that?
Well, I mean, there's a lot to choose from. I mean, honestly, like. I think the one thing that I would stress is like everybody thinks that just as. There's somebody like, I don't know, like Ryan Snuman, perfect example. It's like, man, that guy just, he's so big. There's no way I could ever even possibly get in a room with him. And it's like, you don't necessarily have to, you know, it's like, I, like you said, stir up a conversation with you. You were putting me on game long before I even joined the union. So it's like, I mean, obviously you had a limited amount of time. So it's like, you can only ask a question here and there, but it's like, If you don't ask, the answer is always going to be no. But the one thing I really noticed is like, I was always afraid to like, try to pay to get into a room. You know what I mean? It's like, Oh, well, you know, if I waste this money, if I wasted, it's like, you don't understand that these people, like, for you to take an hour of your time out of the day to try to pass game, I guess you want to help, but you only have so many hours in your day. And for, you know, what the union costs, like 300 bucks, and I get a room with now not even only you, but it's like, just from making that one decision, I've been on the phone with Andy Elliott, Ryan Suman, access to your network, you know what I mean? Just the knowledge that you've accumulated, you can then pass on.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Danny Klein. I mean, and it's like, if you just, you got to start somewhere. So like, don't stand still. Like if you can only afford to send out some cold DMS, the 10 different guys that you think have no chance of talking to you, like one of them's bound to respond. One of them's bound to like help you out with any questions you might have. Like everybody wants to pass on the, not, I mean, anybody that's, a decent human being wants to pass on what they've learned. I mean, like, I don't even I'm like, barely in the game. And I love when somebody I can help somebody, you know, if somebody sends me a message, like, man, like, dude, I've been there. It's, I mean, just got to ask the questions, man, get in the rooms. It's like, even if you if you can start spending the money, I mean, the best investment you can make is in yourself. Hmm. If you're not, if you're not around those kind of people, your brain doesn't even going to work that way. It's like once I started just I mean, getting on calls with you. And then when it started to grow, and we got a few more guys on there, it's like, not even necessarily just you, but it's like, everybody in there is on a similar path, maybe not the same path, but pretty similar. They got the same head on their shoulders. And maybe they have experience over here where you didn't even know you needed it. You know, what was it thinking grow rich, where he's like, it's knowledge isn't power. If you can't organize it. So you start, you know, you start organizing people together. It's like, okay, well, shit, I didn't realize that, you know, James was over here doing this. And I've been thinking about getting into something like that. Or this guy, he's a freaking master at marketing. I've been slacking on my marketing. Okay, well, now I'm in this group, I can shoot him a message. He's like, Okay, well, I know this dude isn't just bullshitting me. Like he's taken the effort in the time and invested the money to get into this group. Obviously, he's serious about it. So I'll give him my time. Because I mean, like, I can't imagine how many like DM somebody like Ryan Steumann or yourself even get where it's like, Hey, man, Can you help me out with this? Can you answer this? Can you answer that? Everybody wants to take, take, take, take. And it's like, yeah, sure. I'd love to help. But how do I know who's serious? And if you're not even willing to put a little bit of money into yourself, like, okay, what you're not taking it serious.
That's a good. That's a good point, man. And I mean, you know, this is a podcast that we don't, we mentioned the ball, it just so happens Matt was the first ever blue collar baller union member. So he's always gonna have that, you know, it's special place, right? So it's driven the conversation a little bit. And I'm damn proud of watching how much he's grown, not just in business and taking leaps, but he's grown a lot just in his comfortability and putting himself out there and branding himself. you know, how he holds himself. It's really cool to watch, but we've been building that a lot over the course of the year. We've been holding each other accountable in like the gym and things like our personal life and spending time with our families and all of that, man. Like it's in all areas. And like that accountability itself is just so powerful. And if you don't have the funds to do it, I'm not saying like, oh, you don't do this, you're a loser, but start somewhere, man. Level up your network, level up your network. That doesn't cost you anything. Level up your network, start there. Ask questions from the folks that cost nothing, right? Until you exhaust what you can do until you have the funds to pay to get in the rooms you need to be in and freaking do it. Alex Formosy spent his last, what, couple grand to get into a seminar or whatever it was, some class that by joining that, set the course for the rest of his life. Ryan did the same thing, right? I spent that first time I had the money to spend it, I spent it, right? I invested back in me. Went a little crazy last year. I'd probably, there's a few things I'd like to have back, but that's okay, man. I won't spend any of it. And I'll apply all of it, right? Like, you know, I'm an all in, foot on the gas kind of guy, man. I started getting a taste of something. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna learn everything in one year. But in all seriousness, man, Matt, I'm so proud of just watching how much you've grown over the course of the year from just trying to figure out like, man, how do I get out of this inertia I built of like jobs, installing, keep going, and I can't get out, right? To kind of conquering that to, you know, I'd like to just do roofing and just work on my business and maybe I'll do some bathrooms later, but like, and do it, and then you've done it, right? And now you've got a plan of exit to get into, all right, come spring, we jump right back in and we're gonna kick some ass, we're gonna have three reps, we're gonna do three million, and like, I believe that you will do it. And it's exciting to watch. If you guys want to watch Matt's journey, Matt, where do they find you at on social media?
I'm Matthew Clemens on everything. Well, I mean, everything he's been saying.
Matthew Clemens, I don't know why there's a lag, but what is it?
Matthew Clemens on everything. It's just, I'm only, I'm only on Instagram and Facebook.
M-A-T-T-E-H M-A-T-T-H-E-W
C-L-E-M-A-N-S.
There we go, there we go. Okay, Matthew Clemens, look him up, follow his journey. I think that this will be a really cool podcast to come back to a year from now. That's what I'll say, right? I've made a commitment. You know, we've got a whole, we've got probably two months booked out now. We've got some really big time guests, the roof strategists, couple others I'm not going to mention right now and then we've got folks that are just near and dear and close to myself that I believe are going to be just as big time here in the future that I think it's a really cool concept to like put these folks on now and give them like and get to look back in a couple years or a year and be like holy crap look at Matt man before he you know what I mean before he was you know the the roughing king, right? So thinking, yeah. But, but all seriousness, man, I'm very proud of you. I love having you in my circle. And I look forward to this follow up call here in about six months to a year's time, brother, keep doing what you're doing. Follow Matt, follow his journey. And one more shout out to your business. What is to be
It will be our family remodeling.
Oh, our family remodeling. Remember it. Remember the name, baby. And, uh, Matt, we'll see you next time, brother.
Yes, sir. Thanks for having me.
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