In episode 57 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden welcomes Carter Broer from Window World to discuss his journey from being a carpenter to owning a successful franchise. Carter shares insights on building a business, leveraging time and resources, and the importance of continuous growth. They delve into topics like sales strategies, expanding services, and the power of TV advertising in a conservative market.
Tune in to their conversation as they explore the mindset and actions needed for entrepreneurial success.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:00:55] Window World's Huge.
[00:07:00] Fargo TV Show Appreciation.
[00:11:08] Pricing Strategies and Customer Behavior.
[00:14:39] Adding New Products to Business.
[00:16:04] Sales Process Strategies.
[00:21:55] Retail Sales Success.
[00:23:44] Unusual Weather Patterns and Challenges.
[00:28:16] Leveraging Time and Resources.
[00:32:40] Leveraging for Exponential Growth.
[00:35:06] Restarting for Self-Improvement Journey.
[00:38:24] Embracing the Grind as Success.
[00:41:38] Building Brand on Social Media.
In this episode, Ken Baden and Carter Broer emphasize the importance of grinding and putting in hard work to achieve success. Carter highlights the significance of starting with a strong skill set and continuously improving it to become proficient in the chosen field. He also mentions that society often seeks instant gratification, but true success comes from consistent effort and perseverance.
Moreover, Carter's focus on leveraging different aspects like technology, money, and people to enhance business operations underscores the importance of utilizing resources effectively to scale a business. He also emphasizes the need for personal growth and development, such as maintaining health and wellness, to support business success.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheKenBaden
Carter Broer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbroerworks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Carter.Broer.Works
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbroerworks/
WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
Window World: https://www.windowworldfargo.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 where business is done. I'm Ken Baden and I'm here with Carter Brower of window world. I almost said something else. I'm glad I didn't, but the infamous window world, Carter, how are you doing today, brother?
I'm doing well, man. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.
Yeah, there's a couple window blank insert, you know what I mean? Here in Maryland, like window nation window, this window that I almost said one of the wrong ones. Actually, I just said what I was going to say, but window world's huge, man. I mean, before we jump, I guess, right into business. I mean, tell us a little bit about yourself, man. I mean, you're you're you own the franchise or one of the franchises of window world, correct?
Yep. So there are over 200 franchises now. And I got my start. So I was a carpenter for my whole life. My parents had a landscaping company growing up. So I started working full time when I was like eight years old. Got into like lands or hardwood flooring as as I got into high school, I sort of switched in the carpentry side, started doing the hardwood flooring thing. And then my I took a year off from high school to just figure out what it is I wanted to do. And that year off turned into like multiple years off. And I sort of feel like I, I look back now and it was a blessing in disguise, but I sort of felt at the time, like I got stuck in the trades like, ah, this is all I know. I'm pretty good at it. You know, I'll just keep going. Um, I did end up going back to like a tech school, didn't ever graduate. Um, but I worked, so I graduated high school in 2006. So I worked through the recession doing roofing, siding, sheetrock, brick and flooring cabinets, I mean, give me a foundation for a house and I can build you a house start to finish minus the, you know, electrical plumbing and all that. And so I got to the point back. So yeah, through the recession, because the construction industry and the building industry got so volatile, like I had to keep jumping shifts. I was sort of forced to learn all of these different trades.
When you say recession, you're talking like 08, right? Not like the most recent stuff.
Yep. 08. Yep. And so then I ended up just doing that. And so I was working for a bunch of small, different contractors and stuff. And as every other carpenter just like me, I felt like all the rest of them, I can do it better than my boss. Right. I always sort of had that in my head that I can, I can run a business better. Like why are they making all the money? I should be the one I'm where I'm bust my ass. I should be making money. Well, it was in 2016. Um, got to the point where I was working full time. I was doing side projects, uh, flipping our own house, putting in like 80 hour weeks. And I'm like, God damn my, bank account does not reflect how much work I'm putting in. There's got to be a better way to level up and to leverage my time and to get to where I want to be financially. And so I started looking for sales jobs. And that was in a small town in Wisconsin, La Crosse, Wisconsin. And there wasn't a lot for construction going on. So there wasn't a lot for sales opportunities. But I applied. I was doing trim carpentry at the time. Applied to that company for a sales job. They basically were just like, no, you've jumped ship too many times. We see your work history and it's like, there's no way. I'm a horrible employee, put it that way, but I ended up getting a job interview at Window World in La Crosse, Wisconsin. I was interviewing, I made it to the second interview, and they hired somebody else. He turned the job down, so I was the second choice. I got in there and because of my construction background, I was doing some installs just to learn the installs, but I was so good and efficient at it. They sort of stuck me on that for a couple of days a week, but I was selling full time for them. Um, and I got my first taste of like sales money, even though it wasn't a ton, but it's commission based pay. And I'm like, okay, this is the, this is it. Right. And so from there, my wife and I set a five-year goal. to own our own store in Fargo, North Dakota. People think of North Dakota and they just think of the movie like a small farm town. It's not really like that. I mean, it's not a huge city, but it's, you know, our market is around half a million people. And so building here, we're one of the fastest growing cities in the entire country. And we have been for like 15 years. So the construction industry is just crazy here. So we knew, okay, we want to go to Fargo. There's a available market there. We set our five-year goal. Five months later, we were out here. Opened our store in 2017. We partnered with my brother. I had like zero business acumen at the time. My brother, he's done well for himself. He's successful. He's in tech. And so he partnered with us to help us kind of get the thing off the ground. And we pitched our idea to corporate, came out here, took our last $5,000, went to the TV station, and we're like, hey, Let's cut a TV commercial. We want it to start August 1st. And that weekend, my wife and I were like looking at part-time jobs, like, all right, this thing better work. Like we have two months worth of money to like float us on the personal side of the business. Cash was gone. August 1st, the phone started ringing and it never stopped. Um, so the first year my wife and I did everything I was running sales. Um, we had crews set up to do the installs. They all fell through immediately. So I was out installing the work. My wife was helping me install the work. She's never done window installed, but she learned quick. The first year was just like keeping our head above water. And we ended up finding one solid sub. And so we did like a million our first year, and then we've grown by about a million a year since. And so this year in 23, we finished out the year selling about 6.5 million and installing about six point right on the dot 6.5 million each.
So that's sort of where we are today. That's wonderful, man. That's actually where I got my start was Windows. So back in 08, believe it or not. So 08, I started selling Windows for a company called Power. I don't know if you're familiar with them, Power Windows and Siding. They're now Power Home Remodeling Group. And we know all about Window World. I mean, they're a big company here. They're hard to compete with because their pricing is so competitive. But yeah, man, I'm very familiar with that model. So when I saw that, I was pretty intrigued. But I got to admit, what I was most intrigued about was, dude, I love the show Fargo. When I saw that in your bio, I was like, oh, hell yeah, man. I'm interested to talk to this guy. So that's pretty cool, man. You probably get that a lot. Do you watch that show? I mean, I'm sure you've seen the movie, but do you watch the show?
Um, we haven't, we're like, we got to start. And I know it's, it's interesting. I don't realize I have an accent until I see like playback video of myself, like, God damn it. I sound just like, um, you don't sound as bad, dude.
You'd really don't. Cause I've been listening for it. I've been listening for, I'll give you credit. I don't know if you're from there or what, but like originally, but you don't sound as bad, but I'll tell you a funny story. I was watching that show so much. And I had an interview with a new, a new sales rep and it was a zoom. And I don't know what the hell was going on. But like, I guess I had just been watching the show so much and I caught myself like these little instances where I'm like, am I fucking talking with like a North Dakota, Minnesota accent? And so then I had to like stick with it because I didn't want to be jarring. So like the whole interview, I just kind of had this slight like Fargo accent. And then afterwards, I'm like, that was the most bizarre, funny story, though. You know what I mean? Like, You just get that burnt in your head. I'm like, dude, what's just been watching that? Because I binge watch, dude, I don't my ADHD. I'll sit and watch a show and I'll like my wife goes crazy because I'll skip past some talking points because I'm just like, yeah, I don't have time for this. But I watch all the Fargo seasons in a row and I'm like, that was a great show. I watch every season in like two days. But so what's so this last year, six point five back to business, which is totally respectable. That's great. I mean, how many reps do you guys have now?
We're only running in with three. So we have one.
So you're at 6.5. That's damn good.
Yeah, yeah. So to your point about window worlds prices being very competitive, we are still competitive on our market. But we, we are not the low price leader here. We have my background, my last like six years in construction, we're primarily in finish work. So trim, trim carpentry. So we have an incredibly high, we have our own trim shop. So we build our own trim boxes in house. And we pay our subs more than any other window world in the entire nation. I know that for a fact. We do that, but we expect perfection. Our customers are so picky here. We've had crews come up from North Carolina, from Texas, from Michigan. They can't handle it because if you got a freaking 16th inch gap in your trim, you're getting a callback because of our price points. They expect it to be perfect and we expect it to be perfect. And so our values, our relationships with our customers, precision, We have multiple other values, but those are two of our main values. We expect perfection. And we understand that we have to do a perfect install if we want to charge the prices we want to charge so that we can be as profitable as we need to be to continue growing. Also, we have a fully staffed service department. So we have three service trucks and a service manager. So if anything ever comes up, we can be on top of it. And so for our business, we like 55% of our business is repeat and referral and we've raised prices. Like we've tripled prices in the last three years and we're still growing. Um, units sales are about the same, but since we've added in roofing, siding, we're selling a ton of entry doors, looking at adding garage doors. And so our model is we've learned a lot from window world as far as like how to handle volume and how to manage. Manage it but we prefer to go the other direction and we don't want to work with every single customer there are customers that aren't for us. We found that the people that are most concerned about paying the least are also the ones that least. likely want to pay when it comes time to write the check.
And most likely to have an issue, which is hilarious. They get something given away to them and they're 100 percent calling you and making it a problem just to get paid. It's it's blows me away. It really does. I'm glad you said that, man, because there's a lesson there. You know, most folks in our market, when they hear window world, that's exactly what they think. Ninety nine dollars a window. Now that's going way back. That's going back away. Right. But still write that whole like And I don't want to use the term bait and switch, and I'm not trying to use it in a derogatory or anything like that. And it's not even them that I'm thinking of. There's another company here that does roofing and windows. And I didn't even know Window World did roofing or anything but windows. But they're infamous for like $39.99 for a roof, right? They're mainly like that's their focus. And it's like, Yeah, but they don't tell you that's like, you know, average eight squares, you know what I mean? Like blah, blah, blah. And then you get in and it's like, you know, and then, oh, well, you know, that's not you. So you would be this, let's take a look at this. You're not eligible for that, but. And that's, that's more my mantra is like, and where I come from, which is, Hey, I'm going to actually going to be more expensive. You know, I'm, I'm, I might be in the middle, but it's probably going to be more on the higher side, but here's why, right. A premium product, premium install premium service, like, and it's okay. You may not be the right client for us. We may not be the right. Installer for you. That's okay. Right? Like not to your point, this race to the bottom of these guys. I just don't get it. You know, because to your point, also, like those customers that are looking for the cheapest deal are the hardest to work with. They're the most pain in the butt clients ever. The ones that pay a premium are just always so cool. I mean, to your point, they expect a premium service. But as long as you deliver that, dude, they're so cool. Happy to pay. Happy to refer you. Least difficult. And I learned that a long time ago. So I'm glad you said that. So tell me about these other these other products that you've introduced, siding, which isn't weird, by the way, like the exterior, I'm assuming you run a retail model if you do windows, meaning you, here's a, I've got a quote, send out a sales guy, sales guy runs that quote and sells it or doesn't sell it. I don't know if you give them an opportunity to follow up or not, you know, old school days of just one call or bust. And then you have a follow-up department that's your business and set up, but that model, whereas like roofing tends to get really heavily swallowed up into the insurance model, which is an entirely different business model. I myself have a retail background. I fell into insurance, just sort of given a failed partnership. And I'm bringing back in my retail department this year. Well, they're two different things. So I'd love for you to talk about how you've introduced these other services, but I do want to preface like for the exterior business model, as it pertains to retail, that's super common. In fact, it's usually window siding, roofing doors, gutters. window siding, roofing doors, guys, I mean, that's just very, very common. So it's not like, oh, they're throwing all this stuff, dude, that's the model, right? So they're all things we can get quickly at a good price at a good quick turnaround that we can install in a day, most of all, right? I don't really like doors. But what's that been adding, like adding those products has been seamless, but a little bit difficult. Talk about that.
Definitely not seamless. We do run a retail model, like we do zero insurance work. We started with Windows. Yeah, up here. I mean, we get blizzards and then it melts. But, you know, we started with Windows, primarily Windows patio doors. added entry doors about two years in, and then siding here and there, but we never really pushed it, never advertised to sell it. Siding, it's a lot easier to find siding crews in town here, because there's so much new construction going on that there's just a cruiser a dime a dozen. But last year was the first year we really pushed the advertising for siding, and then we added roofing in too. problem with it is I was, you know, I'm the only person in our entire office who's ever installed a roof. And so we thought we had our pricing model, where we needed to be. And we found a subcontractor on the roofing that, you know, we thought was honest and whatever. And the way it turned out, so we finished the job paid for everything, and he sent us a bill, then there's different people handling the paperwork along the way. So we didn't recognize that they were They were charging us for extra work, and nobody caught it. And so we ended up losing money on roofing, losing money on siding. And so we still profited last year, but that was because the windows are still profitable. And so now we've restructured our entire system, entire process from start to finish. So we should be profitable. We will be, because we're not going to sell it if we're not profitable this year. But roofing and siding will be profitable this year. And then looking at adding garage doors, and I know I understand that's a that's something I've never done and so that's a completely New animal, but we're sort of working out deals with some local Contractors slash, you know small business owners that looking at just sort of partnering with them We we handle the sales process to your point. We're all one call close. I mean, that's the way that's what we shoot for We go our Our sales process is we've taken multiple sales process and sort of melded it into our own. So we've taken some of the stuff from Window World, Dave Yoho. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him. Oh, I'm very familiar.
I don't know if the audience is familiar, but that's a little. How old are you? I'm 36. OK. All right. Yeah. Only a couple of years younger than me. The young the young folks on here probably won't know.
Yeah. And then there's a book called The Straight Line to the Sale, I think is what it's called. The idea behind that is It's like a sailboat, right? You're never directly on the path. You're never directly on your navigation path. You're always adjusting and redirecting. And the idea behind the straight line of the sales, control the conversation down the path. And if it gets diverted, bring it back to the point, let the customer talk. But you have to be in control of the sales process if you want to close. And so we've implemented like a sales agenda at the beginning of the sales call. And I walk in, walk them through exactly what's going to happen. Say, hey, these are We'll go through blank, blank, blank, blank, blank. And there's three easy ways to pay. Does that sound good to you? Boom. If we've answered all your questions, you're comfortable, yada, yada. And then we like to preface a sales appointment with, hey, we're going to sign a contract at the end of this talk. And get that in their head so that it's not a shock when you ask them to buy. If you don't ask them for the sale, you're not going to get the sale. So the more times you can soft close throughout the process, it makes it easier when you get to the
the hard close, which we never doing that on the qualifying call. Like you're just prefacing what the qualifying call like, Hey, at the end of this, if everything I'm assuming it's something like, Hey, if everything makes sense, we'll be asking for your business. If everything makes sense, we'll move forward. We'll go ahead and get a contract authorized or something like that. Is that during the qualification call prior to the rep coming out?
Nope. That well, um, no, actually, I don't know. I don't think we do that when we, I was going to say, that's awesome, man.
I'd love to be your rep, dude.
But our sales guys do when they get in the door, and then we bring up the three different ways to pay right away. And we asked them, which way would you lean towards? Are you interested in the financing? Would you want to pay cash? And that way, when they're writing up the contract, they can say, OK, they want the financing. So we're going to give them three different financing options. Payments, what can you afford monthly? And we have a really great financing program, which is one huge advantage of working with the franchise is we get Uh, we have some leverage with the, uh, Wells Fargo, so we get great, uh, dealer fees.
What these days is because that's where it really just makes everything so difficult. You know, one thing I implement in my, uh, system, which is just, it is a true one call close set up. That's why I asked that, but. You know, we have what we call the customer needs analysis, but it's probably the same place in which the rep comes in and they deliver all the same stuff, right? Like, hey, you know, guys, just so you know, we're not going to be the cheapest. In fact, we're going to be more expensive. And here's why. Boom, boom, boom. And then, of course, like you said, we're setting up for like, hey, I'm going to explain everything. Here's what I'm going to do. And if everything makes sense and we are a mutually good fit, including me and including you, we've got to be good for us. We're going to be good for you. All things make sense. you know, then we'll move forward. We'll go ahead and move forward. Like we're going to assume that sale. Right. And one thing we do add into our customer needs analysis is a flat out like ballpark range of what you're looking for, financing or cash, just like you said, how would you like to pay? And of course, they're always like, well, That's where you get the whole, like, well, I, you know, we're not there or we, I don't make a decision a day, but like my, you know what I mean? It's just, yeah. Okay. I hear you. Uh, but you know, hypothetically, uh, if you find the right company, the right product, the right service, you know, um, you're going to be doing this at some point with someone. And when you do right, where you're going to be moving forward with cash or financing, what is a comfortable monthly payment for you? Like, that's what I'm really trying to do is put, because what I want to show you at the end is the monthly payment that I know you're looking for. Right. I don't want to waste a whole bunch of time showing you stuff. And that's really the easy way to explain that, too, is folks like, well, how are we talking about credit? Why are we talking about monthly payment? Well, Mr. Mrs. Jones, your time is valuable. Right. And so, like, I don't want to show you to your point, we've got like 50 different finance years with 50 different plans. You may have a very specific plan that you're looking for and 30 others that you could care less about. I don't want to show you 20 things you don't care about and waste all this time. If I know you're like, look, dude, if it's above 200, forget it. You know what I mean? So anyhow, that's just I could talk about these one called closed sales processes. I think that's my passion, man. I mean, it's ironic. I've been doing insurance for the last three years, but it's just kind of what I fell into her this this breakup I had where we were running retail and insurance. But I'm excited to get back to the bones of of retail. It's just. no compromise, no order taking, you know what I mean? Like an insurance and we're even in the insurance side, like we're adding a good, better, best because they're just making it so much more difficult, so much more. Of course they are, right? Like they don't want to pay. So how else can you control your margins, but sales methods, right? That's the beautiful thing about retail and dude, 6.7, 6.5 last year. True retail with three reps, dude, that's. That's killing it, man. I'm really, uh, it does me good to hear that, especially in like, well, you said it's a booming market, but I feel like most folks think Midwest and like, Oh, you know, they, they wouldn't consider that to be like one of the markets, like the desirable markets. But that's the funny part because to you, your knowledge, it's one of the most, you said it's one of the fastest growing cities in the entire, entire United States. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and I mean, we've got some Microsoft, their second largest campus in the world is here in Fargo. And then Facebook, Amazon, and then multiple hospital systems, a D1 college, multiple other colleges. And so, I mean, there's other than like the five months of winter below zero, there's a ton to do here. But I mean, that's also why we're able to charge more than any other window world, because it literally gets to 50 below zero on a consistent basis here. And then three weeks later, it'll be 70 degrees. And I'm not shitting you, like just two weeks ago, it was 60 degrees. The next day it was 30 below. Or nah, that's a lie. It was like 10 below. So this year has been the weirdest year that's been warm. So for the first time ever, we actually, so typically like January, February, March, we get to catch up, right? Or our sales get to, we get to build up a little bit of a backlog because we can't install fast enough. Our crews will work to 20 below zero. That's their cutoff. But this year we haven't slowed down at all. Um, we hardly have any snow. There's like green grass and treated budding. And typically right now, like yesterday, or I had a memory on my Facebook timeline, we had a 30 inch snow storm. So I was, I had snow drifts like five feet deep in my front driveway. And, uh, you know, we're not dealing with that this year. So we're like our, our struggle for this year is going to be, how do we, how do we sell more? How do we produce more leads? Um, to keep all the crews we got finally for the first time ever this year we have enough crews but it's like shit now we don't now run out of work right yeah i need that back we need winter to come back
That's weird, man. You're like the third guy that I've talked to. I guess they're all up in the same area. Tony's in Minnesota. He said the same thing. I was like, dude, it's been a weird year, man. I even think that's probably good for business, but to that angle anyhow, it's good and it's bad because now you just got to go sell more, man.
That's all. Yeah. Well, we've done a good job of advertising. We're up 40% in lead gen this year.
What's your biggest lead gen source?
Believe it or not, well, other than repeat referral. So those two are 55%, but TV, our market here is very conservative and a lot of people still watch TV and we do a really good job. My wife and I are on all the commercials and we, so most window organization, why they stand on the window. So people have watched us sort of grow the business from nothing. And now we have our two year old daughter in the commercials. And I mean, we get people calling us. Probably at least once a month saying, hey, we need a new commercial. We need an update on your daughter. She's so cute, blah, blah, blah. So we've really built just that. We're the window world, so we're corporate backed, but family owned. And so people really connect with that. And then we've started doing a little bit more on social media. I've gotten a little more active. Need to do better there. That's sort of all new territory to me. But definitely TV, like we, like, like I said, we ran that first commercial at first week. And like, I was running five leads a day, immediately, like starting that day, I was like, boom, I was out. Back in those days, our prices were back closer to that $300 a window model. So I was closing like 85%, 200%. And so I was like, shit, price is probably too low. But like I said, we didn't know. We were broke when we started. We didn't know how to manage money. We didn't understand cash flow and P&Ls and balance sheets. And I'll consider myself an expert in all those things now, because as you scale and grow a business, ripples become waves. And it's very easy to get upside down. I mean, through COVID, we We weren't on top of our shit and like, we lost a ton of money because material prices went up. Our backlog was so long. We had people locked in at pricing, fricking lumber went up, window price went up 40%, boom, boom, boom. Next thing you know, it's like, oh my, end of the year, like what the, you know, what the hell? So, uh, what are you going to do?
Go back and tell Mr. And Mrs. Jones, like, look, I need more money. They, they change the prices on these things.
when they're already pissed because they're waiting six months, you know, they're already calling and wanting their money back. Like, yeah, right.
And same thing happened to me with decks and that's, that's, but I get it. I think a lot of people experience that and learn some valuable lessons, but so what's the future for you guys, man? I mean, you got 6.5 now. I mean, what's the plan. I mean, I know this year you got to keep up or sell more, but you're heavy in TV, which by the way, it's funny. I'm looking to do some more commercialized. You know, just branding the family. I mean, ours is all door to door, door to door, door to door, but I'm like, you know what, I'm going to start to do all these, like I do all these reels and all this branding myself, which I want to continue to do, but I really need to connect it more to the business. You know what I mean? And so like, I'm going to focus a lot more of that this year with the business and try to do that via social media. But my concern here would be like, who the hell watches TV, but to your point in your market, you know, they still do, but. I'd be curious to see if that works as well here, but I'll let you know. I'll report back. So tell me about what your plans are this year. Where are you guys headed this year?
So it's, I'm, I'm an interesting position here. So I quit drinking alcohol like a year and a half ago.
Oh yeah, dude. Six years sober myself. Good for you. That's awesome.
Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a, it's an interesting ride. And for me it was, I recognized that I was sort of using it to just like numb numb the stress and whatever. And I realized like, I need to dig down and get this business running without me. And so the last year and a half I focused on, we run EOS as well. Yeah, me too. Yeah, we got all the right people in the right seats. And like our leadership team, we basically, we cleaned house, there's one guy left other than me, and then brought in some new frickin A players And so this year, probably about when we hired, the last two guys we hired was about three months ago. And this was the first time that I could literally walk away for two months and have zero contact and be 100% confident that thing could run itself. So I'm like, well, what the hell should I do then? And so I'm looking at, so I'm still involved in the marketing. I'm doing that social media stuff. And I maintain the relationships with the vendor, our marketing partners and stuff. But what I've been thinking about is, you know, raising my standards. So with all this free time, I like I hired a performance coach. I'm training like a professional athlete. I got my nutrition down. And honestly, if you if you raise your standards to the level of like a pro athlete, just eating is almost a full time job.
It's not a joke. 100 percent, dude.
Yes, 100 percent. And so for me, I'm like, all right, I want to raise my standards. in all the areas where I'm deficient. I quit chewing tobacco on my one year anniversary of quitting drinking. So now I'm like on this health thing. And so I've recognized that for me, like that, that one, the zero to 90 is like, that path is very clear. Like, you know, I just need to get my systems in place. I got to get the right people. I want to hit this much in revenue. This is what I got to do for the sales process, blah, blah, blah. But that last 10%, 90 to a hundred, that's like, exponentially more work. And so how do you leverage, like, you can only work so hard, like one person can only shingle so many squares in a day. Like what you could work 24 hours a day. But if you had 10 guys, they're always going to do more than you. So I'm thinking about this year, what I'm looking at is how do I leverage my, my skill set or my time, and there's different types of leverage, right? So like technology, so I can implement like a CRM if you don't have one. Customer communication. So then there's money, right? I can leverage money. I have enough money. I can pay somebody else to take care of, take this off my plate. People, obviously hire the right people, get your systems and processes in place or increase productivity. And so what I'm trying to do is use leverage to get to that final, you know, increase to that 100% mark of like getting my company fully efficient and built out. Because like I said earlier, it was a very clear path for me. These were our goals. We hit our long-term goals years ago, as far as personal finances go. So now I'm trying to expand my mindset to accept the fact that if I want to make another equally exponential jump from zero to where I am today, I need help essentially. So that's what I'm focused on is like building my network, finding a mentor, finding someone that can help me take it. I don't necessarily think I'm gonna build my business from 6 million to 65 million here in Fargo. I know that's not possible. It's just not. But for me, I'm trying to like expand my thinking and that's where I'm sort of at. I felt like you know all the things sort of working and running itself. I'm like how do I how do I take it to the next level? And I guess that's where I'm at. I'm sort of trying to figure that out. But I understand that it's leverage, I have to figure out, you know, the longer the lever, the easier, the easier it is to pull. But at the same time, if you want to use the same amount of input or output, or you want to use the same amount of power and move 10 times more, you just need that long, much longer of a lever. So like, where do you How do you do that? And so that's where I'm at. You know, I read as many, I've read every book out there and I'm at the point now where it's like, okay, time to take action. But I don't want to be working towards the wrong thing. So I'm so, I sort of feel like I'm stuck in a way. Um, so yeah, hopefully I sort of rambled there, but yeah, that's right.
I can relate so much to so much of what you just said, man. I, that's why I was just listening. Uh, I got a lot out of what you just said. And I sincerely hope listener, you know, if you find yourself in a similar, I mean, you know, Carter is in a, in a great place. I mean, he's arguably like already done when a very small percentage of businesses and entrepreneurs have done, and this is by the way, true retail. So I'd love to see like what his margins looks like. I bet they're great. Um, none of this insurance BS or whatever. And I don't mean to say that dismissively, but. you know, you could be in a state like Texas or a storm state, like even Minnesota, and just have a few guys and some knuckleheads and be willing to hustle and go out and do 10 million. So you've got to be able to compare the spaces, compare the, you know, what you do, and what it takes to get those things done, the capital, the models, like in those industries, the barrier for entry is having a truck, a ladder, and there you go. You know what I mean? And you're all of a sudden, I'm a businessman. Trust me, I've seen it because I have five guys in the last six months that are now roofers. You know what I mean? But they weren't core value fits here. You know what I mean? And they weren't, but I digress. That's not the point. The point is you've done so well, but I want the folks that are listening to take this in. What he's looking at now is like, okay, what do I do next? It's not like here, here, here. It starts internally. The fish stinks from the head down. And so if I want to take everything to the next level, it's got to start by taking me to the next level physically, mentally, spiritually. I'm going to get sober. I'm going to get and I don't know if you fully like for me, I had to. I was going to die. But like sobriety and the last vice I have and even this little vape thing, my wife and I are working on fertility. She's completely stopped. I have like a count of how many vape hits I can take in a day. And like that's gone for me. And then there's nothing left, I guess. But. You know, like you said, food, diet, all of that, you know, like I was kind of complacent recently, because I've stayed in the gym for the last three years. And I feel like, hey, I look pretty good. You know, I got a six pack, especially at my age, dude, I could be way better. In fact, at 19, I was way better, right? Like I ate like a machine, I did all the stuff. So like, frankly, I've been lazy, right? I'm not eating enough, not committing enough. So I'm in a very similar space, just sort of restarting like, okay, kind of a reality check. Like, well, look, man, you know, the deal, right? Like what you just said, that's what it is. When it's time to level up, it starts here. Then the rest kind of falls in place. If you're now like, okay, I'm consistently getting up at this time doing this. I'm routine. I'm a machine. I'm reading these books. I'm putting into action. Cause that's a great point, man. You can read all the books, you can get all the mentors, you can go to all the classes and seminars, you can join all the groups. But if you don't put action behind it, like that's the one thing, if I've done anything right, I've done that right. Like quick, almost like irrationally quick action, right? Just like jump in, go figure it out. And that's what makes us entrepreneurs, man. So, I commend you. In fact, are you in the Ballers Facebook group, the free one? Is that how we met? Yeah, yeah. Okay.
I think so, yeah. Yep.
Check him out in there, man. I mean, follow him, see what he's doing, watch what he's doing. And if you're not in that and you're in a blue collar or home service space, jump on in there. It's just a free Facebook group. It's a great place for folks like us to share ideas on what's working and what's not. There is now a private coaching group that we just announced. I had one before where it was just myself. Truth be told, I just didn't have the time, man. It was something I was really passionate about, but I'm in the middle of my own scale, right? And so as you could imagine, imagine adding a coaching group to that while that was something that I was passionate about and I was stoked to do. It was just almost counterintuitive, like, dude, I can't do this right now. You know what I mean? It's not even the money or anything like that. It's not, it's just like my time here is so much more needed and more important and more valuable currently, while this is something I'd love to do in the future. Ryan Steumann and Todd Price stepped in, we formed a partnership. I think we have a powerhouse group there now. In fact, dude, I would encourage you if what you're looking at, and we'll talk more about that off air, but, and perhaps, man, that might be something that would be, You know, I don't know any of these groups. For me, when I started was locally and free, you know what I mean? And I found somebody who was doing, but you might be the guy there, dude. You know what I mean? What I found was some guys locally that I knew were doing what I wanted to do. And I just flat out hit them up and was like, Hey man, would you mentor me? And I, they, every single one was like, yeah, sure. You know, which was so surprising, but I think we get this idea in our head, like, you know, they're the competition. Most, not everybody thinks that way. And for me, that shifted my thinking to the point where not everybody, I don't think of anybody like that. In fact, it's like, how can we work together? How can we build value together? How can we bring up the market? Right. Instead of driving everything down and cutting everybody's feet off. Like that's ridiculous, man. If we just work together, we can say, look, man, there's plenty out here for everybody. We can do good business. Let's bring this thing up. Let's make sure we have a thing to come back to next year. So, you know, I challenged the thinking on that, but. Carter, what's something that you want to leave imparting words of wisdom? Cause it sounds like we've got a lot of it, man. Why don't you drop something on sort of the, for the rest of the year, if you could kind of like give one piece of advice for these, these, especially the young entrepreneurs, but just early adopters, anybody that's in a rut right now, what could you give to them imparting words of wisdom from you to them right before we jump off?
Yeah, I think, uh, I think the main thing is don't be afraid to grind. you know, um, everybody, you know, society these days, everyone wants that quick turnaround, that instant gratification and kids, especially they want to, I think they can get out of college and I think they deserve 150, $200,000 a year. You know, for me, you know, I'm an overnight success. That's what people see, but they didn't see me busting my ass, swinging a hammer, climbing roofs in the rain, uh, carpet roofs in the rain to the house leak, uh, for 15 years. And so the first thing you got to do is learn a skill and build your skill set to a point where you're dangerous, and then continue to grow it. From there, you have to start with a base of some type of a skill set, whether that's in the blue collar, in tech, whatever it is. Start with a skill set, and then grind, and grind, and grind. And eventually, you'll get an opportunity. And that's the way it worked out for me. And that's my biggest advice is if you feel like you're grinding, that's good. That means you're on the right path. And always be thinking and looking for that next step and that next opportunity. Because, again, you could be the world's fastest roofer, but even if you're putting on 100 squares a day by yourself, boss is still making more money. So, you know, think about leveling up and and don't be afraid to work hard along the way.
Oh, yeah, man. I love it, dude. I love everything you said about EOS and everything that you've got. I really would love to follow up with you, even in like the end of the year and just kind of see where that stuff took you. I'm actually in my scale and a very similar and we spent the last year implementing EOS, getting the right butts in the right seats. I think we're one higher away. I still need my integrator, which is such a key piece. I mean, it's the let's be honest. Right. So like It's everything. I got a guy that I think could be. The problem is, is he just started a business like out of necessity. And so he's like, and he sees the value here. Trust me. He's like, look, man, I get that. I could spend time here and it would be more valuable than even my own, but I've got these two folks here. So we're trying to work out that semantics there, but it will or it won't. And we'll find somebody that, but that's the last piece. And it's such a big piece. Yep. But we needed a production manager. We needed this because like what we had was set up for like eight to 10 million, not 35. Right. And so we had to get this higher, this higher, this higher. We got everything. But now the last final major piece, which is the integrator. And then we've got all these recruits coming in. So I'm in the same boat, dude. I've been locked and loaded. Hence why I was like, I can't. I can't do anything else right now, you know, outside of, but I love it. I'd love to follow up with you, uh, Carter, tell, tell everybody where they can find you social media, where they can find any information about the company, all the things.
So all my social media handles are the same. So C Brower works. What my handle is the B R O E R W O R K S. I'm on Tik TOK, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Don't do a ton on LinkedIn right now, but Just sort of getting going I have, I'll be posting content here, you know, few pieces a week at the very minimum. So, yeah, otherwise my personal Facebook page is just Carter, a roar.
Beautiful, man. Well, look, follow Carter as he starts to build his brand on social media like he has on TV. We look forward to your growth, man. I really thoroughly enjoyed talking to you. I was actually really pleasantly surprised, man. I mean, this is one of my most recent favorites, so I'm stoked to get to know you, man. I'm looking forward to your rise. We'll catch you here soon, and we can't wait to see how far you guys go.
Thanks a lot, Ken. I really appreciate you having me on. Have a good day.
You too, brother.
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