Wednesday Feb 04, 2026
31: The Patrick Clark Episode
In this episode, host Sid Graef sits down with Pat Clark, a longtime leader in the home service industry and the co-founder behind Bright Brothers Power Washing. Pat shares a raw, scrappy origin story—starting in the 2008 recession, sleeping in a van to attend training, and grinding through the first few years on “rice and beans”—before learning how mentorship, marketing, and relentless execution can turn a struggling operator into a true business builder.
Pat breaks down the real turning points: hiring office support and salespeople (even before he felt ready), building systems by borrowing and adapting proven frameworks, and learning painful lessons around leadership, accountability, and hiring standards (including why background checks became non-negotiable). Sid and Pat also dig into Pat’s sales philosophy—why he strongly prefers in-person estimates, how communication becomes a competitive advantage, and how a simple, repeatable sales process can help franchisees win even when competitors undercut pricing.
Finally, Pat explains the leap into franchising with Bright Brothers—why they chose to build a brand from scratch, what it took to handle franchise compliance and documentation, and how partnering with Contractor Nation accelerated the entire roadmap. The episode closes on mindset shifts that matter for any operator trying to scale: moving from scarcity to abundance, letting go of fear around money, and learning to grow faster by partnering with people who already built what you’re trying to build.
Resources:
Bright Brothers / Contractor Nation Ecosystem
Books:
Connect with The Huge:
Transcript
Sid Graef:
This is— they’re trying to plow the interstate there. I-35 goes right through Austin and they had… they just had two front-end loaders pushing down the interstate. I’m like, okay, that’s like, work with what you got. But that’s right. That’s a tough day. That’s a tough day.
Yeah. Um, I used to live in Austin years ago. That’s where I went to school and there was an ice storm—caught ice storm once—and it… I mean it’s like… you know, the whole state shuts down. Put ice—everything shuts down. And I like… I walked to work. It was not a big deal. Wasn’t that cold, but it was so much fun.
Be at work. I worked at Four Seasons Hotel at the time and all the guests that were there just kinda locked down and nobody could get to and from work. So there we had a skeleton crew for three days who got to stay in a fancy hotel. I was like, nice. Wow, this is awesome.
But anyway… well, cool. Well, let me—lemme do an official start.
Hey everybody, this is Sid Graef and welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. My guest today is Pat Clark, as you can see.
And Pat’s been part of the home service industry for a very long time—been a leader in the industry as well. Right now you’ve got Bright Brothers power washing, and it’s… you have your own location, it’s a franchise as well. You started with Precision Pro Wash, you developed Sales Boost, and now you’re franchising.
So it’s a pretty big journey and I want to dig into it and learn about how you got started in business and literally—how did you start in home service business? And why… why would you do such a thing?
Pat Clark:
Yeah. So I do— I will correct you just a little bit there, Sid. So I don’t actually own my own location, which is amazing. And there’s a whole reason behind that, which we’ll get into.
But no, home services, man, is my passion. It really is. Like, I got in out of necessity. I was 20 years old. I remember going to my first event— it was back in, shoot… 2008. And I literally— me and my wife slept in our van to go to a two-day event, ’cause I couldn’t afford the hotel, but I was like, hell or high water, man, we’re gonna make this business work.
Right on. And so yeah, I slept… learned about non-pressure roof cleaning. Crazy, right? And just dove in.
I went on the internet. Back then, we didn’t have YouTube. We didn’t have Facebook like we do today, right? It was forums. So 20-plus years ago, right? Like I’m on The Grime Scene and, you know, I’ll mention some names. And these guys were like, the OG, right?
But OG boards, and I was researching roof cleaning, exterior cleaning, new construction, and so…
You know, I went in full-time and it was hard, don’t get me wrong. Like the first three to four years was very difficult for us. Rice and beans in the wintertime. You know what I mean? Learning marketing, learning all that.
And then I got a business coach, AC Laier. The man, the myth, the legend, right? And so he came to my location. I remember it was our last like $4,000. He literally— I pick him up from the hotel and I had a five-gallon bucket my wife was sitting on. He gets in the passenger seat. No— we’re in my work van. Right? That’s all I had. 1995 Astro Van.
But yeah, picked him up and I was like, “Hey man, this is my last $4,000. Where do we go from here?”
And you know, AC is a blessing. And so anyway, he taught me marketing. He taught me systems. He taught me how to get out there and sure enough, right? Like I just went for it.
And the next time he came back out, he was like, “Dude, it’s like Jesus is strapped to your back.” Like I was executing. He’s done it, I’m gonna execute, and I’m gonna put in the work. Like I’m a worker, man. I’m gonna put it in.
So, you know, home services… I found my passion. I started growing the businesses and then people were like, “Hey, can you speak at my event? Can you teach how you’re growing?”
And so I was never outgoing, right? I was scared to talk to people. I barely made it through high school. I was in special ed. Like, I could tell you a crazy background. My dad was never in the picture.
But I knew I wanted to talk to my previous self. Like if I can do it, I can bless somebody that they can do it, right? Take this vision, take this thing, and run with it.
So I started teaching at events. I started teaching safety classes. Wherever I can kind of pitch in to the industry. And it was just overwhelming, as you know, Sid. We’ve been in this a long time where people are just amazing.
I’ve got friends in so many states by teaching and mentoring and helping and whatever it was.
And it was like—going back to the very beginning—I was scared to tell people my secrets, my stories, like how we were winning because it was that scarcity mindset: “Shoot, man, I got competition in my backyard. They’re gonna take food off my plate.”
But I didn’t know at the time: no, man, you need to have an abundance mindset. When you bless others, it comes back tenfold.
And so again, just teaching and mentoring and then people were like, “Pat, can you come bid this large job? I can’t do it. It’s too big.”
I’m like, “Yeah, dude.” And I had these people start coming outta the woodwork, you know what I mean? You build these relationships.
So to say how I got into it was really through necessity. 2008, recession was right there. I was working for a builder at the time and they were slowly going outta business. The writing was on the wall. And so that’s when I went full-time.
Sid Graef:
Oh, that’s great. I love a scrappy origin story where you go literally—like “Hey, I was up against the wall. I didn’t really have any other choices. Like we burned the bridge and we’re gonna make this work.”
What were—like AC came out and helped you. So first you got a mentor, you got a coach, you got a guide, somebody that’s been down the road, it could show you where the landmines are buried.
But beyond that, one of the things you said that’s really unique amongst most entrepreneurial types is you said, “I just executed.” You didn’t overthink it.
I know myself included— a lot of guys—somebody will say, “Do it like this, like this,” and then I’ll spend the next two days trying to modify it, make it better. And you go, “Just go do it.” And don’t try to change it. Just do it and then you can change it later.
So that’s a really excellent point.
The thing I wanted to ask you about early on—once you got some help from AC—what were the main things that you did that started producing results? And was it surprising to you that it actually worked?
Pat Clark:
Yeah, so it was more marketing than I was… you know, I was small-minded when I first started, just like a lot of us. And I was like, “Dude, if I put out a thousand flyers, if I knock on this many doors, I’m gonna be so busy.”
But it was like, no, you gotta 10x that. Whatever you think it is, you gotta 10x it.
But what happened was when you start 10xing things, right, you can only do so much. So it was Pat wearing all the hats.
And so I read this article—and I’m not into Scientology—but there’s this article by L. Ron Hubbard and it said, “If you put the people in place, the money will come.” And it hit just at the right time. I don’t even know how I got this article, right? But it was like: put the people in place and the money will come.
And I’m like… to your point, it is like you just gotta go execute. You gotta do it and you gotta learn and you gotta fail.
And I was never in a management position. I was never hiring people. So if you had a pulse, I’m like, “Dude, you come work for me.” And that works to a point… until freaking SWAT shows up at your office, right? And they’re like, “Hey, this guy, you probably don’t want him on your team.”
And that was before I was doing background checks. Then Ask The Seal with my buddy Ed Marticelli comes into play and he’s like, “Dude, you need Ask The Seal. Start doing background checks.”
So you level up as you grow your business. But you don’t know what you don’t know.
And so for me, when I started putting people in place, I hired my office staff—my office lady—and we grew 30% because now I can focus on what my strengths are.
My strength wasn’t being in the office, answering the phone, doing the paperwork. I’m the guy that’s like, get out there, make it happen. Boots on the ground. Rile the team.
So you gotta focus on where your strengths are and hire for your weaknesses. And I learned that kind of early, I guess you’d say.
Because as I hired… I had really good salespeople because I knew sales was something I had to replicate to get more trucks.
And so I dove into the sales and hence Sales Boost—but we’ll talk about that a little later.
But you know, I had to dive into sales and as I hired really good salespeople, dude, I sucked. I was not a manager. I was like, “Yeah dude, you got a pulse. I’m not here to babysit. You go out and do it.”
And then they’re underbidding and you learn. And I failed a lot. And unfortunately, I failed really good people in the beginning. And now they could stick around, but before they couldn’t because the foundation wasn’t there.
So I had to build and slowly tweak as I grew the organization.
Sid Graef:
When you first started out—well, let’s spread it out. Like you’re eight years in, you’re ten years in, the year is now pushing 2018. You’re 10 years down.
In that first 10 years, what were some of your first big wins—points where you were like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this. Like, I’ve never experienced this before.”
Pat Clark:
Yeah, so it was our first… actually it was 2015. 2015 was a big win for us because we landed a big commercial job and we were able to get some money to propel us forward.
There was a couple big things, but it was a big commercial job because now we had some money to play with. I was able to buy some more vehicles at that time.
I remember growing into the Charlotte market actually. All my coaches were like, “Don’t go into the Charlotte market. You’re not ready.” And we truly weren’t.
But my brother-in-law was like, “Hey man, what does the general manager make?” I’m like, “Dude, we got a system. Let’s go into Charlotte.”
Well, it fell on its face four years later. Four years in, we had to close it down.
But when we did that, we brought everything back down—the resources, the trucks—and then I hired the people and dude, we exploded. But I had to have the foundation in there for the training, the sales meetings, the production meetings, all that stuff.
Sid Graef:
Did you just—like did you end up… I know you’ve had coaches and mentors, but ultimately did you make and build all your processes and systems, or did you take ’em from AC and adapt them?
Pat Clark:
100%. They came from all over the place. Little bits and pieces as we grew because you’d have systems to a point, and then those systems are failing.
Like for instance, a communication chat for the whole company. I would do big meetings and they’re like, “Yeah, Pat’s dad built this company.”
I’m like, “Dude, my dad wasn’t even in the picture since I was born. What are you talking about?” Because employees talk and you get this.
We were at like 24 employees at that time. So I had to do a big company meeting. I literally had pictures of a seven-by-five wooden trailer that I had somebody paint my logo on the side.
Like it started here. You know what I mean? You had to cast the vision a lot of times and kind of reset throughout the process because the saying’s true: the people who get you to $800,000 are not the people who are gonna get you to $2 million. It’s just not happening. You gotta level up your staff.
So with systems and processes… EOS was one that I adopted. Then I had a tracking system from another one. And you just build on these things and you get it to a point and you’re like, “Wait a minute. The tracking isn’t tracking what I really need to KPI-wise.”
So now we look at many more metrics now than we ever have. With Bright Brothers, we have a lot more systems, but before it was just leveling up the systems in the system.
So to answer your question: they come from all over depending on the industry as well. Tracking for restaurants is different than tracking for apartment complexes.
Sid Graef:
Alright, let me shift gears a little bit. With now Bright Brothers power washing franchise… when did you start it? It’s been two, three years?
Pat Clark:
Three years. Yeah, three years.
Sid Graef:
So you’ve got a partner… at some point along the way with Precision Pro Wash you got to this point where you’re like, “Hey, this works. Things are working. We could do it again and again. Let’s open other locations. Duplicate it.”
Here’s the question: from being at a point where you go, “Hey, I know this works and I know we can duplicate it,” to go and “Let’s make it a franchise”—that’s a big leap.
How did you handle, or were you surprised at how much work and compliance there is to run a real franchise?
Pat Clark:
Yeah, so there’s a lot— a lot of red tape.
But when we were doing… we already had a lot of locations with the previous company. So we knew how to clean in different states. We knew the marketing and tweaking little things across the country, pricing— that kind of stuff.
So I already knew a lot of that doing trainings and having multi-locations.
So when we went into Bright Brothers—my business partner—we were looking at it, we were like, “You know, we already have a system.”
He’s already done franchising, so it’s a no-brainer. He’s already done franchising—taking a couple companies to 90-plus locations.
So for me it was a no-brainer because it was like I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. They’ve already done it.
They have the School of Entrepreneurship… a two-and-a-half-year college course for entrepreneurs. I just had to bolt on some of my stuff to his already-stuffed-for-our-industry stuff. So that made it a lot easier.
Just a little background: my business partner has 35 businesses, one of which is doing over $600 million. And then they have a hub…
They have Contractor Nation, and Contractor Nation is a giant hub for over 3000-plus contractors. So they already had the systems.
So we were gonna franchise the previous company, but it didn’t make sense. There was other “Precision” companies all over the state.
Plus we did holiday lights—big staple. That company name didn’t say anything about lighting. So we were like, “Let’s go with Bright Brothers.”
You can see the logo. It’s like facial recognition.
Now I will tell you: it was a lot harder to start from scratch than to have an existing brand because in the beginning you have an Item 19—you have numbers you wanna post. People are like, “Oh okay, this is a real business.”
We didn’t have any of that. So when we go and you do the FDD—a lot of work going back and forth, writing manuals—you name it.
So the first whole year was just development—franchise development.
And then the second year we launched our first location and then we did nine locations in the first year. And we have a couple still in the process right now of launching into this year.
But yeah, super good. We did very well our first year without showing numbers ’cause you can’t legally.
Sid Graef:
Yeah. What are your areas of strength? Because you were talking about writing the manuals and SOPs. To me I’d rather jump off a cliff than write a book of SOPs. Everybody’s got their strength. What are yours?
Pat Clark:
Yeah, so mine is training. That’s where I came into this and I was like, “Look, I don’t wanna operate a location. I’m the chief training officer.”
So I’m the visionary, if you will—high level stuff as well as training.
My job is to go in and set up a location for a franchisee, get them tracking, get them on the basics right out the gate.
Then we have stages. So I created the training program—where we go out there, set them up, teach them a sales system.
And we do weekly calls. We have three calls a week that we do with them for one hour that are in depth—role playing, you name it.
So I’m really just focused on training and growing the franchisees and be there whenever—like I’m just a call away.
If they have a cleaning question, that’s what I’m there for. I’ll fly out to their location if they get a big job.
That’s my main focus.
Then around us we have a COO, chief operations officer, that does the day-to-day stuff.
We have Andrea in marketing. We do our own marketing hub called Treehouse Marketing. We do all the marketing for all our franchisees. We have a national call center.
So in the beginning it was training everybody how to answer the phone, how fast do we have to answer the phone, what is the customer journey—inputting all this stuff.
A lot of it was already there, don’t get me wrong. It was just inputting my flare because that’s what made this thing go.
Sid Graef:
With Sales Boost… did you adapt that into your sales training for Bright Bros?
Pat Clark:
A lot of it. They already had what they call Profectus, which is the sales system that they use. So mine was very similar. Theirs was a little different. We adopted that and train on it. It’s a little more in depth—we have eight steps.
Sid Graef:
A lot of guests earlier in their journey… they know sales is important. They probably feel like they’re good at it because they’re personable.
But maybe they don’t have a sales process. You had an eight-point framework for sales. Could you walk through that quickly?
Pat Clark:
Yeah. So step number one is call before you show up. We’re like, “Hey, we’re on our way. By the way, we stopped by Starbucks. You need anything?”
Step number two is a walk-around with the customer. We wanna do an interview with the customer. Learn what’s going on. And not necessarily even talk about cleaning right away—I wanna build rapport.
Step number three is a free inspection around the home—look for things like nail pops on the roof, drainage, little things—nothing too crazy.
Number four: we go out to the car. That’s where we do measurements. Then we type up our proposal.
We always do options for the customer because customers like options. They don’t like one price.
Then we go inside and do our presentation. We go over the company—what’s different about us, why we think we’re preferred vendor. We go through the story of Bright Brothers.
Then we do some closes—nothing crazy. We’re not a big closing company. I always say we’re in soft washing and we do soft sales.
But I am gonna ask for the business.
And then follow-up. Ask for the business and follow up enthusiastically. That’s a big thing—amateurs focus on the front end, professionals focus on the back end.
How are you following up? That was huge.
Sid Graef:
Any market you go into there’s competition. Some undercut price. What sets Bright Brothers apart?
Pat Clark:
We go in with a masterful presentation. We’re large enough company that we’re gonna make sure the cleaning is right. A manager’s gonna come by, check the cleaning, make sure they’re happy.
We’re triple certified. We talk about training, our people, core values, response rate, customer journey.
If it’s down to price, we love it when it’s down to price because we teach on that.
We say: do you want your house to be a test house, or do you want somebody that has experience and will stand behind their work?
We break it down so homeowners can make an educated decision.
Sid Graef:
Pros and cons on in-person bids versus over the phone?
Pat Clark:
Never will do over the phone in a million years… because if you do a bid over the phone, now it’s just price.
I know there’s some areas where it’s necessary. But I’m not a fan. In-person is better. People do business with whom they like and trust, period.
If you show up, earn the business, they’re a customer for life. Over the phone there’s no loyalty.
Sid Graef:
What’s your standard for speed—how soon you can get an in-person quote done?
Pat Clark:
We try not to book out more than a week. If you get over a week, you start losing jobs.
Holiday lights—crazy. They want it now.
So we teach sales—replicate yourself to dominate. You need salespeople.
We talk about backlog—how much backlog you need to sustain. But if you see drop-off, you gotta do something.
Sid Graef:
Rewind back to the beginning. First two years. You’re 22, young wife, maybe one kid. Wearing 17 hats.
What was your biggest goal when you started, and what’s your goal now?
Pat Clark:
My first goal was $600 a week. It’s crazy. Everything’s relative.
I remember the struggle: nights, days, weekends. You sacrifice time with family.
Man… I bought a trailer and didn’t buy my wife a vacuum. I still remember that to this day. I’m in growth mode.
Sometimes it was: what bill do I pay this time?
And then you get one inch of snow and the state shuts down and you’re like, now what do I do?
I had this map in my bedroom and I would circle every time I did $400 that day and color in a jar. My goal was like $10,000 or $15,000 in one month. I remember filling it in like, dude, we’re getting closer.
I had an office in my closet. Funny joke: I came out of the closet because my office was in my closet.
We rented a little office. My wife was crushing it. Kids were there. She’d take the kids to job sites. Thank God for my wife. If I had to do it alone, impossible.
Sid Graef:
How did you meet your franchise partner?
Pat Clark:
He reached out to me.
I was pitching Raindrop Pro Gutter Guard to the industry. The president of Raindrop reached out and asked me to jump on a leadership call and help sell Raindrop because it’s a different sale.
She researched me, saw I was speaking at conferences, and reached out to Larry, my business partner. She told him he had to meet me.
Larry called me. I looked him up—multiple companies, doing really well. I talked to my wife, we prayed about it, and we went up to Connecticut.
We went up there for two days and it was life changing. What Larry built with Contractor Nation is amazing.
Tenure there is crazy—people there for 30, 40 plus years. Culture. The office is like Google 2.0. Different rooms, themed spaces—built to inspire creativity.
My wife said yes before I did. She was like, “This is what we’re gonna do.”
It was nerve wracking—never had a business partner. It’s like a marriage. But he already had the fundamentals.
We had the hub up and running in like 44 days. Built out offices, built out everything, and we were running leads.
Sid Graef:
Now you’re in growth mode again. What challenges do you face now, and how do you think about problem solving?
Pat Clark:
Growing a franchise is different. Who’s gonna buy a franchise? Different avatar.
There are franchise directories and websites you have to advertise in. Different shows. We have a whole sales team for franchise development.
Early challenge was: we didn’t have numbers. How do you pitch when you can’t show numbers?
We were blessed because I had a reputation in the industry, and partnering with Contractor Nation helped overcome that.
Nationwide, we adapt—Texas mold and mildew is different, so solutions and mix charts differ compared to Florida.
Sid Graef:
What leadership principles do you teach?
Pat Clark:
Show up—even when it’s hard. Always training.
Doing things correctly when nobody’s watching.
We have a manager track for leadership—holding people accountable the right way.
Own your own crap. Buck stops with you.
We do morning huddles every morning. We rally the team weekly. Some leaders do exercises with the crew. They have fun.
It’s cool to see every leader is different. And franchising is cool because franchisees bring their own leadership experience and it compounds.
Sid Graef:
We’ll wrap up on mindset shifts. What were one or two impactful mindset shifts through your growth?
Pat Clark:
Big one was hiring. I was scared to hire. Scared that if I trained someone better than me, they’d leave and start their own thing.
But the reality: train like you’ve never trained before. Love on them so they stay.
Money was another one. I didn’t realize it, but I was afraid to make money because I thought people would think differently of me.
I believe money amplifies what’s in your heart. Once we started making money, we could do cool things—outreach for kids, buy employees vehicles.
But you gotta be a good steward. You see $200k–$300k in the bank and you forget: taxes come knocking.
But it’s cool writing big checks because you know you’re making money.
And business partners. I used to be more “do it myself,” but now I’m a firm believer in bringing people in.
Cut the learning curve. Bring a good partner. You’ll go faster.
I have this ladder analogy—everyone climbs the ladder, then above the clouds there are two or three ladders you can choose. Who you associate with, who you partner with.
Put yourself in rooms with like-minded people who are more successful than you. Bring people with you.
It’s a fun ride. Enjoy it.
Sid Graef:
Heck yeah. Pat, I probably have a half dozen more questions, but we are out of time.
Thanks for taking time to jump on and share your story and insights. This is valuable for everybody listening. And it’s been a lot of fun.
Are you still speaking at events?
Pat Clark:
I don’t… I’ve kind of got my head down focused on growing this thing. Our goal is to go over 90 locations. Only 5% of franchises go over 100.
I’m gonna be dialed in this year. Goal is 25 locations this year—call my shot—25 locations this year.
I’ll be traveling, doing national shows. Busy, unfortunately.
Sid Graef:
Alright. Well, Godspeed and best of luck with growth. Appreciate your time.
Pat Clark:
Yes sir. No thank you. It’s been an honor. Thanks for having me on the show, man. This is great.
If somebody wants to look into Bright Brothers, what’s the web address?
Pat Clark:
Just go to https://brightbrothers.com/ — go down to the franchise tab and check us out. We have open houses every Tuesday at 4:00 PM. Love to have you.
Sid Graef:
Very cool. Thanks again, Pat.
Pat Clark:
Thank you.
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