Huge Transformations
Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast—your go-to source for building a thriving, profitable home service business! Hosted by Sid Graef from Montana, Gabe Torres from Nashville and Sheila Smeltzer from North Carolina, this show is all about real talk with real business owners. We dive deep with industry leaders who have built 7- and 8-figure home service companies and are eager to share their hard-earned wisdom. No fake gurus here—just straight-up insights from entrepreneurs who’ve been in the trenches. Every episode is packed with 100% real-world experience and 0% theory. Expect unfiltered conversations about the wins, the setbacks, and everything in between. Our guests reveal the costly mistakes to avoid and the strategies that actually work, giving you the tools to transform your business into something extraordinary. Ready to take your home service business to the next level? Let’s dive in!
Episodes

Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
In this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, Ethan Moore—founder of Moore Exteriors in Branson, Missouri—reveals how he built a profitable power washing business while simultaneously investing in real estate (including self-storage facilities) to achieve both financial and time freedom. Ethan explains his humble beginnings (from vending machines to window cleaning), highlights the importance of living below one’s means, and shares how he deliberately sets up his work routines and company culture to keep his priorities in check. Whether you aim to be “time rich” or expand your business without sacrificing family life, Ethan’s approach to intentional living and financial discipline offers a practical blueprint.
SHOW NOTES
Guest: Ethan Moore
Founder of Moore Exteriors (Website not provided)
Real estate investor: Residential rentals & self-storage facilities
Key Topics
Time-Rich Living: Balancing business growth with personal freedom
Intentional Money Habits: Living below means, channeling profits into real estate
Workday Shutdown Routine: Using structured end-of-day habits to fully disconnect from work
Company Culture: “I Am” statements—team members speak positive traits over themselves
Mastermind Influence: Leveraging peer mentorship to solve problems and accelerate business growth
Long-Term Vision: Embracing compounding effects in both finances and personal habits
Books Mentioned
The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber
No Excuses! by Brian Tracy
Traction by Gino Wickman
Beyond the Hammer
Tools Mentioned
Full Focus Planner
People & Mentions
Mike Dahlke – Business mentor and mastermind leader
Steve Weatherford – Mentor behind the “I Am” statements concept
Donald Miller – Speaker at The Huge Convention; business operating system references
Additional Resources
Huge Insider Newsletter (Free weekly insights)
Huge Foundations Education Platform (120+ hours of specialized training)
The Huge Convention (August 20–22, 2025, Nashville, TN)
Huge Mastermind (for businesses earning $750K+ revenue)
Downloadable Action Guide
Huge Mastermind Info Page
How You Can Support the Podcast
Subscribe to the Huge Transformations Podcast
Rate or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Share with fellow entrepreneurs looking to build wealth and time freedom
Transcript:
Sid (Host): Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast. I'm Sid Graf out here in Montana.
Gabe (Co-Host):And I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. We are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders and owners in the industry—folks that have already built seven- and eight-figure home service businesses, and they want to help you succeed. Yep, no fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100 percent experience, 0 percent theory.
We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the Wild Journey of Entrepreneurship. Let's dive in.
Sid (Host):Hi, this is Sid Graf with the Huge Transformation Podcast, and I had the absolute delight to interview my good friend, Ethan Moore. Ethan Moore has Moore Exteriors out in Branson, Missouri. He's been in business for—well, he's been in business probably most of his life. Let's get this piece started—with gumball machines and vending machines. But he's grown this business from scratch to a sizable power washing company, but he's also a real estate investor, and he's done some other cool things. But today, when you listen to this podcast—I hope you enjoy it as much as I did—you’re going to learn about how Ethan thinks about time and being time rich, and some of the principles that he and his wife have applied for years that have compounded to give them a great season of life with their young children. He said they've always lived below their means, and then he also is very deliberate about how he ends the day so that his mind and thoughts can be free to spend with his wife and family and he's not distracted. And there's a whole lot more. You're going to love it. Join me as we interview and get to know Ethan Moore.
Sid (Host):Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast, everybody. I'm Sid, I'm your host, and I've got Ethan Moore with us today. Ethan, thanks for joining us. How are you, man?
Ethan (Guest):Ah, I'm so good. Yeah, I'm actually enjoying some time off, slow season, and so we're out in Colorado, so having fun.
Sid (Host):Oh cool. Well, in Colorado right now—today I just talked with our friend Jared, and he said they were having blizzard time in Denver. You see the snow?
Ethan (Guest):Oh shoot, no. I wish. We're actually, like, south of Durango, and we need snow. I came out here to snowboard, and there's no snow. It's driving me nuts.
Sid (Host):Did you bring wheels to stick on your snowboard so you can…
Ethan (Guest):Yeah, honestly, I need to. (Laughs) Yeah.
Sid (Host):That’s cool. Well, you're from—you're a business owner from Branson, Missouri, right?
Ethan (Guest):Branson, Missouri. We had the Huge Convention in Branson in 2019.
Sid (Host):How big is Branson? What's the population of the area?
Ethan (Guest):Like, the city is small, so it's a tourism town. I think the city is like 20,000 people or something. The county’s maybe 80,000 or so, but we serve like 7 or 8 million tourists a year. So it's a tourist town. It's a little different than most markets, but…
Sid (Host):Yeah, as far as a market for a home service business, it's a small market. Which I think is, you know, we'll dig into that just a little bit with the growth and success you've had with your own business. So let's do this: just tell me—like, now you have several businesses. What did you start with and why?
Ethan (Guest):Oh, well, let's see. When I was a kid, it was like gumballs and gumball machines.
Sid (Host):Yes! Did you have a route?
Ethan (Guest):I only had like two machines. My brother had like two or three machines. Our grandma helped us get them set up, but that was the best type of business ever. Actually, that kind of ties into one of my favorite businesses I'm in now, which is self-storage, because it's kind of the same. But anyway, that was when I was a kid. I loved that, because you just got to open it up and see the quarters and take them to the bank. As a kid, that was so fun. So that was real early on.
But yeah, so we started cleaning windows. A friend of mine taught me how to clean some windows that he used to do when he was a kid in this town. He was telling me how he's making X amount an hour, and I'm like, well, that sounds pretty good, and I've always kind of wanted my own business. So I started doing that when I was like 16 or 17, and just did it on the side for a long time, worked waiting jobs—Bob Evans, IHOP—waiting tables, Dolly Parton Stampede, all that. I'd do that while cleaning windows and power washing on the side on weekends. I did that for probably six years.
Sid (Host):Right, so I'm going to ask you this question this way: you’ve been part of the Mastermind since the earliest days. When we called it the BBB and we started meeting—very informal group of guys and gals that run businesses. We said, “Let's get together in person and focus on talking business and helping each other solve problems.” From that, did you start right out in your first year, or five years ago?
Ethan (Guest):Oh yeah, yep, the first year.
Sid (Host):So I want you to paint a picture for everybody listening. Five years ago (and obviously there are a lot of other areas where you learn and have mentors, etc.), but let's do this for the Mastermind. So paint a picture: where you were then with your business and family, and where you are now with business and family.
Ethan (Guest):Yeah, that's fun. I remember this like yesterday. The first or maybe second meeting we did as a Mastermind was a Q1 meeting—winter. Historically, I'd always take winters off because our tourism is dead in the winter. So anyway, I remember talking to all these other owners, bigger businesses, me with a $100,000 or less in revenue, right? And they asked, “What are you doing right now?” I'm like, “I'm just chilling for the next two months. I'm just snowboarding and traveling. We have no kids.” And I remember everyone being so jealous, saying “Oh man, I wish we could do that.” (Laughs) So that was something I was like, “Huh, there's something to that.” These folks have bigger businesses, but they don't have that time freedom. Then there was an awkward season in between. Maybe it was six or seven years, I'm not sure, but there's a middle gap where I kind of fell into that “start growing the company, skip the time off.” Then I'd look back like, oh man, I want that time freedom again. And now I'm back on it, so I'm blessed to have built something so I can be time rich.
Sid (Host):Yeah, you said “time rich.” That’s amazing. So let's talk about your business growth. You ended up with Moore Exteriors, the power washing side, plus real estate. How did that all unfold?
Ethan (Guest):I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. The best advice I ever got was, “You become the average of the five people you associate with the most.” So that’s why I joined the Mastermind, listened to books, etc. I'm around people who are where I want to be. We overcame a lot of hurdles, spent nights working too much, personal frustration, all that stuff. But I do enjoy improving, raising my ceiling.
Anyway, so now we built the pressure washing company to about 800k in sales a year. Then four or five years ago, or longer, we started investing in real estate. We bought our first house, convinced my wife to live in a fifth wheel so we could rent that house. Then I'd say “Oh, let's do this for six months,” but it turned into five years. (Laughs)
Sid (Host):You’re a great salesman. (Laughs)
Ethan (Guest):But we always lived below our means, too. That’s the big key: we saved and invested everything. We started early, it’s a snowball effect. But we had about four single-family rentals, and I realized I hated dealing with tenants. So I looked into other real estate investments, found self-storage. Loved everything about it. We started buying self-storage units off-market. Now we have six facilities—700 units between them—plus the power washing company. And yeah, it’s definitely a bit of a rocket ride in a short time. But there's no magic bullet, it’s lots of daily consistent stuff.
Sid (Host):What's one big challenge or pitfall?
Ethan (Guest):Probably time management. Not knowing how much to work on the business or in the business, how to not overshadow your relationships. It's easy to let everything slip if you're overdoing it. The best tool that helped me was from our coaching with Mike Dahlke and the Mastermind. The Full Focus Planner stuff: a “Workday Shutdown Routine.” Because I'd carry stresses or undone tasks into the evening, every day, never shutting off. My wife didn’t like that, so we created a system where I'd tie up all the loose ends, go through emails, tasks, archive them for tomorrow. Then I can rest. It let me keep growing but not lose what's important.
Sid (Host):Brilliant. So the last question: you told me about your “I Am” statements in your company culture. Could you expand on that?
Ethan (Guest):Sure. We do these “I Am” personal contracts—got the idea from Steve Weatherford. He created a personal contract, an “I Am” statement. So for me: “My name is Ethan Moore, I’m a relational man of intention, I’m obedient to the King, disciplined to deny my flesh so I can live out my calling.” The team then says, “Yes, you are.” It’s speaking life over yourself, often in areas you want to grow into. It's powerful. We teach each technician to do it. They might start off timid, but eventually they believe it, it shapes their identity. It's the culture we build intentionally.
Sid (Host):Great. The last question now for real: advice for your younger self?
Ethan (Guest):We overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in ten years. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t happen in a year—compounding is huge. Ten years can do crazy things if you’re consistent.
Sid (Host):That’s fantastic. Thanks again, Ethan. So good to have you. I appreciate your time, and I'll see you soon at the next Mastermind.
Ethan (Guest):Yeah, thanks, Sid.
Sid (Host – Outro):Hello, my friend. This is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking your time to listen to today’s episode. I hope you got some value from it. And listen, anything that was covered—any resources, books, tools—anything like that is in the show notes. So it’s easy for you to find and check it out.
Also, the mission for The Huge Convention and for this podcast is to help our blue-collar business owners—like you and me—gain financial and time freedom through running a better business. And we do that in four ways:
Our free weekly newsletter, it’s called the Huge Insider. I hope you subscribe. It is the most valuable newsletter for the home service industry, period—paid or otherwise—and this one’s free.
The Huge Foundations education platform—that is, we’ve got over 120 hours of industry-specific education and resources for you. And every month, we do a topical webinar and Q&A with seven- and eight-figure business owners, and it’s available to you for a $1 trial for seven days.
Of course, The Huge Convention. If you haven’t been, you got to check it out. It’s every August. This year, it’s in Nashville, Tennessee—that’s August 20th through 22nd in 2025—and it is the largest and number one-rated trade show and convention for home service business builders. We’ve got the biggest trade show, so you can check out all the coolest tools and meet the vendors and check out the software to run your business. And we’ve got world-class education and educators and speakers that will teach you how to run a better business. And it’s the best networking opportunity you can have within the home service business.
Lastly, if you want to pour jet fuel in your business, check out The Huge Mastermind. Now it's not for everyone—you’ve got to be at over $750K of revenue, building toward $1M, $5M, or $10M in the next five years. It’s a network, mentorship, and a mastermind of your peers, and we help you understand and implement the Freedom Operating System.
We go into more detail, but you can get all the info on all four of these programs and how we’ll help you advance your business quickly just by going to https://www.thehugeconvention.com and scrolling down and clicking on the Freedom Path. Or, of course, you can find the links here in the show notes. Sorry, I feel like I’m getting a little bit wordy, but I just want to let you know of the resources that are available to you to help you accelerate and advance your beautiful small business. So keep on growing, keep on learning, keep advancing. And if you like the show, go ahead—take 90 seconds and give us a review on iTunes, then subscribe and share it. Man, it would really mean the world to us. It would help other people as we continue our mission to help people just like you and me. So thanks again for listening. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
In this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, host Sid Graef speaks with Liz Trotter, a multi-business entrepreneur and founder of Core Profit Builders. Liz details her evolution from running a dry cleaning business to owning multiple residential and commercial cleaning companies, as well as real estate ventures. She shares why the residential cleaning industry often sets low revenue goals—and how she’s on a mission to change that mindset. Liz explains her framework for prioritizing high-impact tasks, stresses the importance of avoiding overwork, and highlights how reading has driven her business growth. Whether you’re a small cleaning company or a larger service business, Liz’s story reveals how to break limiting beliefs, delegate effectively, and build multiple successful ventures without sacrificing your sanity.
SHOW NOTES
Guest: Liz Trotter
Core Profit Builders – Coaching for residential cleaning businesses (no direct URL provided)
Books Mentioned
Drive by Daniel Pink
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (fiction)
Tools/Concepts
Project Prioritization Tool – A framework Liz uses to evaluate and rank tasks by impact, importance, and ease.
Additional Resources for Home Service Entrepreneurs
Huge Insider Newsletter – Free weekly insights
Huge Foundations Education Platform – 120+ hours of specialized training
The Huge Convention (Aug 20–22, 2025, Nashville, TN)
Huge Mastermind (for $750K+ revenue)
Downloadable Action Guide
TRANSCRIPTSid (Host):Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast. I’m Sid Graef out here in Montana.
Gabe (Co-Host):And I’m Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. We are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders and owners in the industry—folks that have already built seven- and eight-figure home service businesses, and they want to help you succeed. Yep, no fake gurus on this show, just real life owners who have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100 percent experience, 0 percent theory.
We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the Wild Journey of Entrepreneurship. Let’s dive in.
Sid (Host):Hello, my friends. Thank you for joining us today on the Huge Transformations Podcast. I’m your host, Sid Graef, and today I’ve got Liz Trotter with us. Liz is in—you're in Olympia, Washington, right?
Liz (Guest):I am, yes. Hi!
Sid (Host):What a beautiful area.
Liz (Guest):Not as much today, but yes—normally, it is gorgeous here.
Sid (Host):Liz, you own several businesses, one of which is Core Profit Builders, which is a coaching program, right? You help others win in business. What types of businesses do you have, and where did you start in your business journey?
Liz (Guest):So my very first business was dry cleaning—a dry cleaners. That’s where I learned about the science of cleaning. Then I had residential cleaning, then I had seven residential cleaning businesses, a bit of commercial cleaning, and also some real estate LLCs. Currently, I have some real estate LLCs, one cleaning business, one coaching business, and a small commercial thing.
Sid (Host):Did you start so many businesses because you get bored quickly?
Liz (Guest):I’m really good at grabbing onto opportunities when they come my way. (Laughs) Actually, sometimes I’m good at it, sometimes I’m not. I’ll see someone doing something and think, “Ooh, can I do that with you?” That’s how I end up doing stuff.
Sid (Host):So with all these companies—like five, six, or seven different enterprises—you obviously can’t do them all alone. How do you attract talent to run them?
Liz (Guest):I have one team that helps run all the companies. The team handles hiring, firing, so I don’t do much in them. Like we’re part-owners in a construction company, and I don’t do anything, zero, except read the P&L. So, yes, it’s mostly overhead people who do the actual work. The only business I really work in is Core Profit Builders.
Sid (Host):Got it. So what project are you most excited about?
Liz (Guest):Core Profit Builders is my newest, sort of my retirement gig, to help residential cleaning businesses grow bigger. That industry has been so fractured—people rarely go beyond a million in revenue. I’m out to change that mindset, get folks to aim for bigger targets.
Sid (Host):Go back in time when you started your residential cleaning business: was it just you?
Liz (Guest):No, it was me and a partner. Actually, the first cleaning gig was commercial. A friend who worked for the state needed someone last-minute to handle three state buildings. I had no idea what I was doing, but it worked out. Then I realized I don’t love night work, so when customers asked if we cleaned houses, I said, “Sure,” found that was way better working in the daytime.
Sid (Host):You mention you had a goal of 100 houses. How long did that take?
Liz (Guest):Maybe three years? Could’ve been more. It was a long time ago, and I was also managing buildings. Eventually, I realized I need more than 100 houses. Then I hit a million in revenue, and that still wasn’t enough. “Small thinking,” I call it now. So I started branching into other areas, partnered with people in other states, etc.
Sid (Host):And you also read a ton of books. Did that expand your vision in the early days?
Liz (Guest):Yes, absolutely. My first real business experience was running someone else’s dry cleaning biz. The owners left for six months at a time, leaving me the checkbook. I had zero clue, so I started reading—this was pre-internet. I messed up a lot, but reading and trying was the only path.
Sid (Host):What were some early formative books?
Liz (Guest):Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill changed my mindset. The E-Myth by Michael Gerber was out there, but it didn’t hit me right away. Another book taught me “If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you got.” That sank in for me.
Sid (Host):If you could go back and give your younger self advice?
Liz (Guest):First, don’t work so much. Yes, put in hours at the start, but past 60 hours you get diminishing returns. Second, do the right things, not just urgent things. We chase what feels urgent, but often it’s not the highest-impact move.
Sid (Host):How do we figure out the right things?
Liz (Guest):I built a project prioritization tool: rank tasks by impact on revenue, how critical it is to your worst KPI, how quickly you can implement it, and how easy it is to do. Whichever ranks highest is what you should do first. Without a framework, you’ll chase random things like complaining customers, ignoring that you haven’t had a sale in days.
Sid (Host):You also still read a ton—like 200+ books a year. What’s your business recommendation and a fiction pick?
Liz (Guest):Business: Drive by Daniel Pink. It teaches you how to motivate people beyond just money. Fiction: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Totally random, not realistic, but it made me laugh.
Sid (Host):Liz, thanks for your time. Always good stuff. Really appreciate you sharing.
Liz (Guest):Thanks for having me, Sid.
Sid (Host):Hello, my friend, this is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking your time to listen to today’s episode. I hope you got some value from it. And listen—anything that was covered, any of the resources, any of the books, any of the tools, it’s all in the show notes. So it’s easy for you to find and check out.
Also, the mission for The Huge Convention and for this podcast is to help our blue-collar business owners—like you and me—gain financial and time freedom through a better business. We do that in four ways:
Our free weekly newsletter, the Huge Insider—it’s the most valuable newsletter for the home service industry, paid or free, and it’s free.
The Huge Foundations education platform—over 120 hours of industry-specific education. Every month, a topical webinar plus Q&A with seven- and eight-figure business owners. $1 trial for seven days.
The Huge Convention, every August. This year, Nashville, Tennessee, August 20–22, 2025. It’s the largest, top-rated trade show and convention for home service business builders, with the biggest trade show floor, world-class education, and unbeatable networking.
The Huge Mastermind—if you want to put jet fuel on your business and are at over $750K in revenue, building toward $1M, $5M, or $10M in the next five years. It’s a network, mentorship, and mastermind of peers, implementing the Freedom Operating System.
You can find all of it at https://www.thehugeconvention.com. Just scroll down or click on the Freedom Path link. If you enjoyed the show, please take 90 seconds to rate, review, or share it on iTunes—it really helps us reach more people. Thanks again, keep learning, keep growing, keep advancing, and we’ll see you on the next episode.

Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
In this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, hosts Gabe Torres has a chat with Danny Lehr—an entrepreneur and co-founder of CrossFit Excel and Caffeine and Kilos. Danny shares how he accidentally built a thriving gym business and an e-commerce fitness lifestyle brand, all while emphasizing “progress over perfection” as his guiding principle. With roots in a family-owned HVAC company, Danny learned early that entrepreneurship could be a natural career path. He explains how simple morning routines and investing in coaching or courses propelled his ventures forward, from running Facebook ads to launching his new book. Whether you’re starting a side hustle or scaling to seven figures, Danny’s story offers actionable insights on business growth, personal development, and leveraging relationships for success.
KEY TOPICS
Entrepreneurial Roots: Growing up in a family business and learning early on that small business ownership was normal
Progress Over Perfection: Don’t wait for conditions to be perfect—take action and adapt along the way
Starting CrossFit Excel: Transitioning from teaching to entrepreneurship and growing a gym from scratch
Launching Caffeine and Kilos: The accidental start of a successful fitness brand combining coffee and apparel
Coaching & Courses: Investing in external help and targeted learning to tackle new challenges (from business to even dog training!)
Morning Routines: Using early hours for focused work, strategic projects, and self-improvement
Relationship-Driven Success: Genuine connections and helping others become the backbone of expanding opportunities
Future Goals: Plans to expand Danny’s public speaking reach and share his knowledge with a broader audience
ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS
Start Now: Embrace imperfections; progress is more important than waiting for “the right time.”
Invest in Learning: Sign up for courses or coaching whenever you face a gap in knowledge—learn first, then hire if needed.
Protect Your Prime Hours: Dedicate early mornings (or whenever you’re most focused) to big-picture tasks or proactive projects.
Leverage Relationships: Build meaningful connections and seek ways to help others—opportunities often arise through reciprocity.
Diversify Income Streams: Explore additional avenues within your expertise to grow your brand or business.
RESOURCES & MENTIONS
CrossFit Excel – Danny’s gym based in California
Caffeine and Kilos – Fitness lifestyle brand (coffee & apparel)
Craig Ballantyne – Business coach specializing in productivity and time management
Danny’s New Book – Details in the episode; launched around the time of this recording
CONNECT WITH DANNY LEHR
Instagram
Caffeine and Kilos
Resources:
The Huge Convention 2025 – August 20–22 in Nashville, TN
Huge Insider Newsletter – Weekly insights for home service business growth
Huge Foundations Education Platform – 120+ hours of training for just $1 trial
Huge Mastermind Group – For business owners at $750K+ aiming for $1M+
Downloadable Action Guide
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review the Huge Transformations Podcast. Share it with fellow entrepreneurs aiming to build profitable and sustainable ventures!
Transcript
Sid (Host): Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast. I'm Sid Graf out here in Montana.
Gabe (Host):And I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. We are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders and owners in the industry. Folks that have already built seven and eight figure home service businesses, and they want to help you succeed. Yep, no fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100 percent experience, 0 percent theory. We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the Wild Journey of Entrepreneurship. Let's dive in.
Gabe (Host):All right, there we go. Let's do it. Nice. Danny Lehr. Dude, so this is Gabe Torres with the Huge Transformations Podcast, and we got our guest today is Danny Lehr of probably a couple different—not probably, but definitely a couple different things that he could probably do a better job telling you about than I could. But yeah, I think let's start with kind of a quick intro on Danny Lehr.
Danny (Guest):Great. Well, coming to you live from the garage here, Gabe. You know, it's part of the deal with the entrepreneur, when you have kids also, you know, so the kids are eating breakfast, getting ready for school in there, and so I get kicked out of the house sometimes. You gotta do this type of thing.
Gabe (Host):Yeah, make it work.
Danny (Guest):You gotta make it work, that's it. Well, I guess that's lesson number one is progress over perfection, right? You just gotta do it. I don't want to postpone on you, so I figured we'll just do it like this. I grew up here in California. My grandfather was an entrepreneur. Actually my dad owned a business when I was a kid as well, and so to me, owning a business wasn't a weird thing, it was normal, right? My parents had an HVAC company, and that's why I kind of grew up where sometimes after dinner, Dad would need to go down to the shop to get something done, and me and my brother would go with him, sometimes playing with sheet metal and trying not to cut our fingers off, that type of thing.
Gabe (Host):Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you too, 'cause you and I are friends and been friends for a while, but I didn't even know that either. I didn't know that you were from an HVAC company or—because when I first invited you to the Huge or to the Mastermind, I was like, "Ah, it's a service business. He owns a gym." But you already—you're born and raised in the service industry.
Danny (Guest):Yeah, dude. So my grandfather started a company, and then passed it on to his kids when he retired. And so yeah, my dad and aunt and uncle owned that thing for a while. Actually, when I graduated high school, they shut down the business, sold it out, and my dad went back to school. So when I was in college, my dad was in college, which is also another thing I learned early on without really knowing it, that people start over and do different things. Doesn't matter if he's in his 40s—his kids are out of high school, but he wanted to do something different, so he went back to school, got his degree. Also on weekends when I was 10, 12, I'd work with Grandpa, day labor, building a wall, splitting a unit in one of his buildings. I'd get five bucks an hour. So again, there are other ways to make money that aren't necessarily just get a job.
Gabe (Host):Totally.
Danny (Guest):Anyway, so yeah, that was normal to me. So I always knew that I wanted to do something with business, I just didn't know exactly what it would be. I went to school to be a teacher, 'cause I was coaching wrestling at the time and wanted to be involved in fitness, coaching athletics, that type of thing. While I was teaching, I met another teacher in the same district, different school, who owned a gym. They had just started, and his partner wasn't really pulling his weight, and so he needed help. So I partnered up with him, bought out his partner, started CrossFit Excel.
Gabe (Host):Right on, so that was your first personal entrepreneurial…
Danny (Guest):Yeah, that was my first. This was in 2008. So we run the gym, that was 2008, and yeah, me and him running that. Then in 2013, me and a couple other guys kind of accidentally started an e-commerce business, selling coffee and apparel in that same fitness space: weightlifting, powerlifting, CrossFit. That company's Caffeine and Kilos. Then fast forward, it's now 2024, so the gym has been going 16 years, Caffeine and Kilos 11 years. And just recently, I wrote a book. That actually—like, hold on, oh yeah, man, right here we go, new release. So that’s been a project for sure. It releases on Friday, so I'm excited about that.
Gabe (Host):I feel like writing a book would be the hardest thing ever in life.
Danny (Guest):Turns out it's a lot of work. (Laughs)
Gabe (Host):Man, that's cool. I love hearing that because I feel like you and I, I learned some of your story, that you got out of coaching, and yeah, like six years ago. But to know the trajectory. So CrossFit was not like normal in 2008, right? It’s not that everybody did CrossFit…
Danny (Guest):Yeah, it was pretty new on the scene. We were the only CrossFit gym within miles. So it was interesting for sure.
Gabe (Host):So that was brand new. So you basically started that gym from scratch, from a garage to a public-facing gym, to where it's at now. Or yeah, sorry to hijack the story, but that was…
Danny (Guest):Yeah, yeah, basically. So it was brand new, I hopped in. We only had classes three or four days a week, a small 900-square-foot building. Now we're in a 10,000-square-foot location, have 10 classes a day. Probably as many classes a day as we used to have in a week. We have a yoga program there, basically like its own self-contained yoga studio. So I'd say we're in the maturity stage, but we are looking to grow. Our lease is going up, so we want to push, especially in Q1 next year, and that'll be a good thing—stop resting on our laurels. Right?
Gabe (Host):Nice, so through that time, you started the gym in 2008, then launched Caffeine and Kilos in 2013. Right away, that means in 2013, you were juggling the gym, you were still teaching? Or you left teaching?
Danny (Guest):I left teaching. There's no more time. That brand really took off. So I had to figure out how to run a business, which leads to the real lesson: I hired a coach, joined a mastermind. Initially it was a workshop with five of us, plus a coach—Craig Ballantyne. It's time management, marketing, that kind of stuff. So I just realized, "Hey, I better figure out what I'm doing." And that's something I kept repeating. Every time I need to learn something new, I'd sign up for a course. For example, I needed to learn Facebook ads. I'd sign up for a course rather than just hire a firm. That way, I at least know enough to check their work. Or I'd do it myself. Or dog training—got a puppy, I'd do an online dog training course. It's the same formula. I do it in the morning. I'd wake up at five, I'd do 5:30 to seven before the kids get up—super productive. That's the big project time. Then the rest of the day, you can handle the day-to-day fires.
Gabe (Host):Yes, that's so good. I've had that problem, or I used to. I'd get in at 5:30 a.m. and I'd just do email. But you realize it's better to push big projects or do learning at that time. And like you said, the day can get derailed, but at least you did your most important task. So that's a great insight.
Danny (Guest):Yeah, absolutely. And I found that I hire coaches for big leaps or take courses. So that can help you solve new problems faster and avoid banging your head, you know. So that's how I wrote the book, too. I asked someone at the Mastermind who’d written a book about their process. They said it was a hybrid publisher plus a course. I said "Great," I paid for the course, did it in the mornings, and wrote the book. So that’s it. That's the formula.
Gabe (Host):I love it. Another piece you mentioned is you learned young that there's a lot of ways to make money, so you don't just follow the normal route. Then in your early 20s or mid-20s, you realized the power of building relationships and genuine connection, like how we met in Nashville. That’s probably the most rewarding part for me, the relationships. So I'd love to hear what's been most rewarding for you—maybe that's it.
Danny (Guest):Yeah, definitely. Another angle: having kids see that there are multiple options—like my parents had a 401k, but my grandparents used commercial property as retirement. So you realize there's no one set path. And second, I'd say it’s the people. I've met so many incredible people. At the gym, I've seen members lose 100 pounds, or they meet each other and get married. I've traveled with Caffeine and Kilos, got to meet folks all around the country, and obviously in the BBB Mastermind, I'd never have met them if not for these businesses. So those are the two biggest wins: the people, and letting my kids see that it's normal to do your own thing.
Gabe (Host):So good, man. We'll wrap up with this question: where will Danny Lehr be in five years? It's December, the reflective time. Is that basically the speaking?
Danny (Guest):Yeah, more public speaking, absolutely. It's a 10-year plan, but yeah, five years from now, I see myself traveling around the country, speaking at big events, building these businesses, hopefully signing books and holding babies, man. (Laughs)
Gabe (Host):Let's go! Well, thanks for taking time. I know you got a lot going on with the new book launch—like 200 more copies to ship?
Danny (Guest):Yeah, about 200 more, but I'm getting there.
Gabe (Host):All right, Danny. Thanks so much for being on, man.
Danny (Guest):Thanks for having me, Gabe.
Gabe (Host):All right.
Sid (Host):Hello, my friend. This is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking your time to listen to today's episode. I hope you got some value from it. And listen—anything that was covered, any of the resources, any of the books, any of the tools, anything like that is in the show notes, so it’s easy for you to find and check it out. And also want to let you know the mission for The Huge Convention and for this podcast is to help our blue-collar business owners—like you and me—gain financial and time freedom through running a better business. And we do that in four ways:
Number one is our free weekly newsletter—it’s called a Huge Insider. I hope you subscribe. It is the most valuable newsletter for the home service industry, period, paid or otherwise—and this one’s free. Next is the Huge Foundations education platform—that is, we’ve got over 120 hours of industry-specific education and resources for you. And every month, we do a topical webinar, and we do question and answer with seven- and eight-figure business owners, and it’s available to you for a $1 trial for seven days.
Next, of course, is The Huge Convention. If you haven't been, you got to check it out. It's every August. This year, it's in Nashville, Tennessee—that’s August 20th through 22nd in 2025—and it is the largest and number one rated trade show and convention for home service business builders. We've got the biggest trade show so you can check out all the coolest tools and meet the vendors and check out the software to run your business. And it's got education—world-class education and educators and speakers that will teach you how to run a better business. And it's the best networking opportunity that you can have within the home service business.
And then lastly, if you want to pour jet fuel in your business, check out The Huge Mastermind. Now it's not for everyone—you got to be at over $750K of revenue, building toward $1M, $5M, or $10M in the next five years, and it’s a network, mentorship, and a mastermind of your peers, and we help you understand and implement the Freedom Operating System. We go into more detail, but you can get all the information on all four of these programs and how we'll help you advance your business quickly just by going to thehugeconvention.com and scrolling down and clicking on the Freedom Path. Or, of course, you can find the links here in the show notes.
Sorry, I feel like I'm getting a little bit wordy, but I just want to let you know of the resources that are available to you to help you accelerate and advance your beautiful small business. So keep on growing, keep on learning, keep advancing. And if you like the show, go ahead—if you would, take 90 seconds and give us a review on iTunes, then subscribe and share it. Man, it would really mean the world to us. It would help other people, and as we continue our mission to help people just like you and me. So thanks again for listening. We'll see you on the next episode.

Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Recorded live at the 2024 Huge Convention, host Sid Graef sits down with Tommy Mello, founder of A1 Garage Doors, who scaled his home service business from zero to over $250 million in annual revenue. Tommy breaks down how he went from “chief firefighter” constantly putting out day-to-day fires to a visionary leader who hires specialists, builds airtight systems, and never stops learning. He explains why he shifted from doing “all the work” himself to empowering high-level executives, adopting performance pay and equity incentives, and using data and AI to dominate his market. If you want to move from seven figures to eight—and beyond—Tommy’s insights on leadership, team-building, and relentless focus will show you the path.
SHOW NOTES
The Leadership Shift
Killing the “hustler” mentality so the real leader can emerge
Delegate all but what you love or do best
Building a High-Performance Team
Performance-based pay outperforms hourly
Equity incentives create real buy-in for leadership; celebrate milestones to reduce turnover
Systems & Process Mastery
SOPs prevent repeated mistakes
Role-plays for sales and service, calibrated repeatedly
Continuous Learning
Tommy routinely visits peers (HVAC, plumbing) to see best practices
Surround yourself with coaches and mentors (Al Levy, Ken Goodrich, Dan Martell)
Data & AI Advantage
Predictive analytics can forecast close rates and lifetime value
Smaller operators ignoring automation may struggle to compete
Tools & Resources Mentioned
CRM Systems (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Service Fusion, Jobber)
Chirp (missed-call text-back & automation)
Pin Parrot (photo geotagging for local SEO)
Elevate by Tommy Mello (book)
Upwork / Fiverr (outsourcing admin & marketing tasks)
Additional References & Sources
Al Levy (consultant for SOPs)
Ken Goodrich (HVAC mentor to Tommy)
Dan Martell (business coach; “Buy Back Your Time”):
The Huge Convention & Freedom Path
Newsletter
Downloadable Action Guide
Huge Foundations Education Platform (120+ hours of training)
The Huge Convention (August 20–22, 2025, in Nashville)
The Huge Mastermind (for $750K+ revenue businesses)
Facebook
Action Steps
Optimize First, Then Scale
Improve booking rates, conversion rates, and average ticket before chasing new leads
Document & Delegate
Create SOPs for recurring tasks; offload email, errands, and routine calls
Invest in Team Success
Use performance-based pay and celebrate achievements to lower churn
Keep Learning
Visit high-performing shops, replicate what works
Leverage AI & Automation
Tools like Chirp and Pin Parrot can give even a smaller team “big company” muscle
TRANSCRIPTSid (Host):Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast. I’m Sid Graef out here in Montana.
Gabe (Co-Host):And I’m Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. We are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders and owners in the industry—folks that have already built seven- and eight-figure home service businesses, and they want to help you succeed. You have no fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profit. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100 percent experience, zero percent theory.
We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the wild journey of entrepreneurship. Let’s dive in.
Sid (Host):Hello, my friend. It’s Sid again with the Huge Transformations Podcast, and today’s interview actually took place in person at the Huge Convention in the summer of 2024. I had the opportunity to sit down with Tommy Mello, Tommy Mello with A1 Garage Doors. If you don’t know who Tommy is—like, it’s not every day you get to sit down with someone who has built a business from zero all the way to a quarter of a billion dollars in annual revenue. And I said “billion” with a B.
Interesting and fun fact: he got to about $17 million in annual revenue, which seems huge, and then he said he felt like it was just getting started. Took off like a rocket ship. In the next five years, they went from $17 million to $250 million in revenue. But here’s some things you need to know about Tommy: Tommy is driven, Tommy is focused, Tommy is charismatic, and Tommy’s got a vision and a mission, and he’s not going to slow down for anyone.
Rather than tell you the story behind Tommy and how he built it, I’m going to let you dive into this wide-ranging conversation with one of the unicorns of the home service industry. Before we get into it, I want to preface with this: part of the reason we’re doing this podcast is because I recall going to my first industry event, The Huge Convention, in 2016 or 2017, and I had a tiny company at the time, maybe 200,000 in revenue, and there was a chant, “Got to get to seven figures,” “seven figures was the holy grail.” Now, when you go to the same event, people want to get to eight figures, or beyond. But rarely do we see in the home service industry someone who built nine figures from scratch. That’s the difference—most nine-figure brands in home service are private equity roll-ups, not a single founder who started from zero and built into the stratosphere.
I hope you enjoy this. It is a wide-ranging conversation, we do not stay on point, we go down every rabbit hole. Enjoy this interview with my friend, Tommy Mello.
Sid (Host):Part of the theme of this is going from seven figures to eight, and eight figures to nine, and hiring a team. Like who did you—this is a two-part question—who did you have to become to grow into a strong eight-figure business? Because you had to be different than you were when you were broke. And then, who did you have to put in the team, because you can’t do it all by yourself?
Tommy (Guest):Well, the two questions kind of mold into one. Number one, I had to become inefficient. I had to become—the hustler had to die for the leader to be born. So I had to be deadly focused, pigheaded discipline. Racehorses wear blinders for a reason. And I learned to hire specialists, I learned equity-incentive programs to get people bought in, to be an owner of the company and row in the right direction—“what’s in it for them?” 25 millionaires came out of our first deal, a hundred millionaires will come out of the next deal in 2026. I’ve got a hundred notes on how I’m going to run it so I can 5X it in three years from now.
Like, right now, if we have 70 in EBITDA, I just got to hit 112.5—that’s the target, 112 million, 500 thousand of EBITDA. Then I roll half of what I got now, so I’ll be 25 percent, building a whole pot for the new staff I’m bringing on. That trickles all the way down to the technician level. Then we’ll go public, and from everything I see—Terminx is the only case study—I believe it’ll be a 28–30X multiple if we go public. But going back, the point is, I hire people who’ve been where I want to go. A lot of people don’t understand what got you here won’t get you there, so the decision-making changes. But I still say I like to make decisions like I’m in a speedboat, even though we’re a ship. Elon Musk can make a decision in 30 minutes that takes other companies months. Speed is power.
Sid (Host):You talk in Elevate, your book, about compensation. You’re really big on taking care of your people. Could you elaborate?
Tommy (Guest):Easiest for a company is to look at gross profit and bonus off that. Because if you focus on EBITDA, the founder might say, “We greenfielded into two markets, so we didn’t make net profit.” That’s their decision. At my size, we do focus on EBITDA. So my C-suite can get a 100 percent bonus if we hit the target, and 200 percent the following year. If you make 250, you can get a 500k bonus. I think hourly is for losers—losers pay hourly, losers work hourly. Yes, it’s controversial, but I believe in having a stake in the outcome. Hourly is like letting everyone play, but if you want to win, you reward performance.
I interview someone, I ask about their dreams, not just at work. I love people with a chip on their shoulder, who want the nice things, the big life. If your dream is to do something else, I’ll find a KPI to drive that for you. If you want more time off, we can do three days with ultra-efficiency. Or two months off. Money isn’t everything; some want recognition, some want to feel loved. So we attach KPIs to that.
Sid (Host):You have 800 or 900 employees, that’s big. How do you make it feel like family?
Tommy (Guest):Communication and leadership training. No one should have more than five direct reports—Jesus had 12 disciples and He’s the Lord, so that’s my logic. Also, I’m creating a software that ties into payroll, so I know birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, kids’ birthdays, best week, best day, everything. I can pre-program birthdays and achievements with handwritten notes, postcards, videos, text messages. They’ll feel appreciated. That’s how you keep them from quitting, how you build real loyalty.
Sid (Host):You’re also into data and AI?
Tommy (Guest):Yes, I’m going to a knife fight with a bazooka. We built software that can predict if we’ll close a job, how much we’ll close it for, 97 percent accuracy. That’s what real AI does: it interprets data. We can even build AI for hiring. If you can’t memorize your lines, you can’t fill the role. So that’s what we do, at a big scale. But if you’re under 5 million, get your booking rate, conversion, and average ticket set before you chase AI.
Sid (Host):So for someone at 1 million aiming for 5, blueprint them.
Tommy (Guest):Number one, a good CRM. Could be ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Service Fusion, Jobber. Make sure your pricebook is dialed in, your team is role-playing to present it. Next, use a tool like Chirp—everyone I turn onto Chirp, they see results. Miss a call? Chirp texts them. Didn’t close a job? Chirp sets up a text/email/voicemail drop. Another tool is Pin Parrot, which geotags your job photos for local SEO. That can get you in the top three of the local map pack, which is 15–20 calls a day.
Software matters, an org chart matters, mission, vision, core values matter. Live them. Also, get yourself out of the day-to-day and hire a right-hand person. If you can’t afford a personal assistant, you can’t afford to be in business, because you should be focusing on the big moves, not errands or emails.
Sid (Host):You once said new vans are cheaper than old vans because of accelerated depreciation, downtime, morale.
Tommy (Guest):Yeah, a mentor taught me that in 2015. I didn’t realize the cost of breakdowns, driver morale, lost capacity. You think you’re saving money, but you’re not.
Sid (Host):We’ll wrap it up with one last question. After hearing you, we’re taking notes. One last piece of advice?
Tommy (Guest):Look, even at 300 million in revenue, I traveled to North Carolina to see someone else’s shop. I’m bringing 25 people to Pantheon. I’m still learning, visiting shops, seeing how they do it. And if you’re not willing to do the same, you’ll be stuck. If you visit a top shop, you’ll see what’s possible. Then go home, pick your top three to five priorities, and nail them, then scale them. People try to chase 50 ideas. Focus on finishing a few.
Sid (Host):Nail it and scale it. Thank you, Tommy.
Tommy (Guest):Anytime, Sid.
Sid (Host):Hello, my friend, this is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking your time to listen to today’s episode. I hope you got some value from it. Anything covered—books, tools, references—is in the show notes, so you can check them out. The mission of The Huge Convention and this podcast is to help home-service business owners like you and me gain financial and time freedom through running a better business. We do that in four ways: number one, the free Huge Insider newsletter; two, the Huge Foundations education platform with over 120 hours of industry-specific education; three, the Huge Convention every August—this year in Nashville, Tennessee, August 20–22, 2025—and it is the largest and top-rated trade show and convention for home service builders. We have the biggest trade show, plus world-class educators and speakers, plus unbeatable networking. And finally, The Huge Mastermind, if you want to put jet fuel in your business. You have to be at over $750,000 in revenue, aiming for $1 million, $5 million, $10 million in the next five years. It’s a network, mentorship, a mastermind of peers, and we help you implement the Freedom Operating System. You can find it all at https://www.thehugeconvention.com. If you liked the show, please take 90 seconds to rate, review, or share it on iTunes. It helps us reach more people. Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
In this episode, host Sid Graef interviews Michael Dahlke, who took a failing $60K window-cleaning business and transformed it into multiple service companies now surpassing $40 million in annual revenue. Dahlke shares how he went from “chief firefighter” to a true leader who empowers others through structured growth opportunities. He dives into the mindset changes at each revenue milestone—overcoming the early chaos of 100-hour weeks, developing a people-first culture for scaling past $2 million, and focusing on accountability at the executive level once in the eight-figure range. If you’re aiming to grow beyond seven figures and want a leadership philosophy that prioritizes long-term thinking, personal development, and relentless learning, this conversation is packed with actionable insights.
SHOW NOTES
E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber
Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell:
Extraordinary Popular Delusions & The Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay
Leadership & Personal Growth Influences
Craig Groeschel (Life.Church, Global Leadership Summit)
Marcus Aurelius (Stoic philosophy, Meditations)
Tools & Systems
ServiceTitan
Jobber
Bloom Growth
Freedom Operating System (Huge Mastermind framework)
Huge Insider (Free Newsletter)
Huge Foundations Education Platform (120+ hours of training)
The Huge Convention 2025 in Nashville, TN (Aug 20–22):
The Huge Mastermind (for $750K+ aiming for $1M, $5M, $10M+):
TRANSCRIPTSid (Host):Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast. I’m Sid Graef out here in Montana.
Gabe (Co-Host):And I’m Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. We are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders and owners in the industry—folks that have already built seven and eight figure home service businesses, and they want to help you succeed. You have no fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profit. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100 percent experience.
We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the Wild Journey of Entrepreneurship. Let’s dive in.
Sid (Host):Hello, my friend, this is Sid with Huge Transformations Podcast and honestly, I couldn’t be more excited to start off this podcast with this particular interview today. I got to interview Mike Dahlke. Mike and I have been friends for about seven years. We first met at the Huge Convention, I think in 2017, and Mike is one of those guys that speaks with a quiet wisdom. He doesn’t like to be on stage; he likes to be behind the scenes, and he’s a very wise and astute business operator. And he’s wise way beyond his years.
Interesting story, fun fact: he started his company when he started a—he purchased what would be considered a failing window cleaning company, literally on its last gasp of air. And it was a company that had done about $60,000. And that’s not a ton, as we both know. In a few short years, he built that up to a company with multiple locations with over $5 million in revenue. And in the few short years that have passed since then, he and his partners have built their companies from zero to over $40 million in revenue. That’s not—I don’t say that, and he would never say that to brag because he likes to be behind the scenes. But the fact is, it’s important for you to know who you’re listening to during this interview with Mike. Again, he’s been incredibly successful. He’s very wise. And one of his greatest strengths is finding and building leaders. He’s a great business operator, owner, investor, and teacher. And he’s also a big part of the Huge Mastermind, which you’ll hear more about as we go along. I appreciate you joining us today. Please meet Michael Dahlke.
Sid (Host):All right, I’m here with Michael Dahlke. Michael, of course, business partner of mine. You’re part of the—you’re primary owner of the Huge Convention, you’ve been in window cleaning, you’ve been in house cleaning, you’ve been in all kinds of services, electrical, and more probably—dozens of businesses that you’ve been invested in and currently own. But I want to hear just the story in transition from starting with literally a box of index cards like, “Here’s the business you just bought,” to flying on private jets with a billionaire in 12 years. Now that’s a broad spectrum, but origin?
Michael (Guest):Well, the origin is way more exciting than the ending. We got a call from a business broker that we had done a previous conversation with, and they said, “I’ve got this amazing window-cleaning business for sale. Would you be interested in something like that?” And I said, “Yes.” They said, “It’s so awesome that it’s lost almost all of its revenue, and it’s down to about $60,000. Of course, they didn’t say that, but that’s what’s going on. It has two employees, one who will never show up to work, and the other that will be 350, 400 pounds, so large that he’s not able to get on a ladder for safety reasons. And to make that a little bit better, there’s no CRM, there’s no phone number, there’s no physical office space, and about six years later the owner will go to jail for flying marijuana across straight lines in a skydiving plane. Of course, they didn’t tell me that or know that either. So I thought, “Hey, what could go wrong?”
We bought a window cleaning business, at that time it was doing $60,000 in revenue and it had lost its biggest account. It was down to almost nothing. And the—I met with the, call the employee that was 350 pounds, didn’t know that at the time, and he showed up for our very first meeting so I could meet him with a cut-off T-shirt, cut all the way down the sides, and it said, “This is my beer drinking shirt.”
So what’s the thing about first impressions? It was awesome. So he didn’t last long. The other employee never showed up, never came to a meeting. And I remember walking out of the business—I had just bought it—and I got a box of index cards with people’s names on it and a price and whether it was in and out or outside only, and a thumb drive. And I still don’t know where that thumb drive is or what happened or if there’s anything of value on it. But as I was walking off, we had the phone number forwarded to my personal cell phone, and somebody called to get their windows cleaned, and I didn’t know how to book a job, I didn’t know how to clean a window. I had no idea. And so I had to say, “I’ll call you back.” And so that first year was the window cleaner, the bookkeeper, the phone answers, the whole shebang. So there was no silver spoon in my story. There was no big business education. It was literally, I had to do everything and I learned every key component of the business and took it to where it is today.
Sid (Host):Well, all right, “This is my beer drinking shirt” is still my favorite story. It’s unbelievable; it’s special. So you’re kind of thrown to the wolves at the beginning, and you had to learn everything. Let’s talk about how your mindset changed as you grew. What was your mindset when you started, when you crossed like your $2 million, and your mindset when you got into eight figures, like?
Michael (Guest):Yeah, so the mindset in the beginning was, I thought it was going to be easy, if I’m being completely transparent and candid. I thought, “Oh, it’s just window cleaning, it’ll be super easy. It’ll be scalable.” Then from a competition standpoint, it wasn’t super challenging, but what I didn’t account for was having to do 100-hour weeks, learning how to schedule, dealing with employees. So that scaling from $60,000 to $2 million was 100-hour weeks, it was nights, it was weekends, it was answering the phone, grinding your teeth so bad that you gotta go to the dentist and have holes filled, it was super stressful. So the candid answer and the true transparent answer is it was really hard and I thought it was going to be a lot easier.
From $2 million—my mindset at that time was no longer that it was going to be easy, but I was deathly afraid of staying at $2 million forever. I was completely afraid. I think partly was that I wouldn’t reach my God-given potential. I had done this because I had felt like I was being called back into leadership and business, and I wanted to realize and be the best I could possibly be in business. And so if I stayed at $2 million and that was the best, that felt like I didn’t quite get there, or it was really disappointing because that’s all I was going to be able to do. And so I was driven by that fear of not realizing the potential, and it sounded worse to me to stay at $2 million than it did to go through the pains and all of the extra work that would take to get to the next level.
So that was one mindset I had. The other mindset at that time was that I was starting to understand systems and processes. I was starting to understand leadership better. I was starting to understand that you can’t scale human behavior, and you needed to really treat people and love people well. So instead of being a steward of the business at that time, I started to realize that my job was to be a steward of people, and if I could help them escalate, we would go. And that was kind of the secret sauce to the company scaling. We invest in the people more than anybody else that I know and still do.
And we’ll get to the eight-figure mindset. When you’re in that spot, you’re like, if it’s investing in stewarding people, which is really unique perspective, did you build core values around that, or was it like…?
Sid (Host):How were you…?
Michael (Guest):Yeah, so we were hiring a lot of people out of addiction recovery. There was a faith-based addiction recovery center, and we were seeing that people are coming out with tons of talent that had to get through different things, and they were in a program that was designed to get them to this point where they could come back in and hopefully stay clean. That program was over a year, and then there was other programs at that time that were 30 days. And the success rate of somebody who was in a program for a longer period of time was better than the 30 days. So in talking with a lot of people, we decided to invest in three different programs. We created them from scratch. One was called the Personal Development Program. They read three books. They listened to some podcasts. They met with me each week and we helped them talk and learn about basic things. E-Myth was a book they had to read, Raving Fans. The second level was the Leadership Development Program—or, sorry, the LDP we called it—and that was growing people into leaders. So they read 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, we took them to one of our other locations, we took them to other businesses to open their mind and expand their horizons. And then the last one was what we called ELP, the Executive Leadership Program. And we didn’t do a great job at that time; we do better at it now. But there was other books and investments we would make. We’d take them to conferences and different things so that they could grow. And so some of those employees are still with us, still in management roles, or they are now leadership roles, and to see them grow from a technician with a squeegee to running a $2 million business, there’s nothing better. So it was a really cool experience. So that’s really what we did. It wasn’t core values; it was a program that takes someone from here to there. And sometimes they said, “I don’t want to keep going on that path.” And sometimes they said, “I’ll go as far as you’ll let me.”
Sid (Host):Okay, so then we start up mindset, $2 million mindset in it, we’ll just say $8 million when you crossed into the eight-figure mark, like, what’s the mindset at eight figures or now?
Michael (Guest):I think there’s still a bit of trying to make sure I realize the potential that I have and that I could grow, and I don’t ever want to stop growing. So that’s still definitely there. But I think the big thing now is that it’s more about the people and even less about me than it was when I was running a $5 million business. I’m not operating in all of our businesses; I’m not going—I’m still going there, but I’m not going and putting nails in the cabinets in our cabinet manufacture. I am leading leaders and developing people that run whole businesses and go through sizable change. So that is probably the biggest mindset is, I’ve got to be really good at leading leaders. And I’ll tell you that the one thing that is probably the biggest struggle is I love those people, I care about them, and when they’re not doing a good job, it’s really, really hard to let them go. And it is the biggest struggle that we have right now is leaving people in roles too long. So we’re trying really, really hard to get great at selecting those people, great at developing those people, but also really, really good at saying, “This might not be the right fit for you.” And we’ve really struggled with that.
Sid (Host):Yeah, well, I mean, when you’re emotionally tied to something, it makes it really difficult. But there’s that saying: what got you here won’t get you there. So at some point you…?
Michael (Guest):The snake has to shed its skin.
Sid (Host):Yeah, the eagle has to renew his feathers, like you’ve got to let things go—people, what else? Old belief systems?
Michael (Guest):Yeah, so much. And you and I have talked about this offline. In the last year, my biggest study has been King David in the Bible going from being a warrior to a king. I also studied Marcus Aurelius. He went from, not necessarily a peasant, but he became a king, and he had all these meditations, and there is so much wisdom in that. So David took down Goliath, he was a warrior, probably the best warrior ever in history, and then there’s this gap where he doesn’t go to a battle, doesn’t take responsibility, and then he’s king. And in that gap, he makes this huge moral failure with Bathsheba, and he abdicated responsibility and all that stuff, and then later he becomes a king, he has forgiveness, and all those types of things. And there’s a big difference from being a warrior and a king. And I don’t want to use that word “king” like that’s something that I’m trying to be, but there’s a different mindset, there’s a different position that being on the battlefield making sure that every window is cleaned and that all the trucks are running on time, versus where we’re at now.
One of the biggest things about that is, there’s parts of you that you can’t take into the season; it’s just got to die. One of the ones we’re talking about right now is, at this level you face a lot of criticism. You’ll make a lot of decisions that are unpopular because you’re in charge of making really big, hard decisions, and you can’t get offended no matter what. Both Marcus Aurelius and King David, no matter what insult came their way, they never took it out on that person. They looked at that person way above what that insult was. And so that’s one of the things is, you can’t get emotional at insults or little things like that. The highs and lows have to be about your people, and they can’t be about you. So there’s a whole bunch more there, that study I’m doing right now, more than we have time to talk about, but it’s something I’m passionate about and something I’m learning.
Sid (Host):Right, yeah. With, you know, having a grounding framework or foundation, because King David wrote so many of the Psalms. So his anchor was God and the Almighty, and Marcus Aurelius had a lot of Stoicism and wisdom. Then some people—like, I interviewed somebody earlier today, and their directional controls for making those kinds of changes, because they’re hard. You realize, like, “I’ve got to let somebody go who’s been with me for 20 years and has done a good job, but now they’re ballast. And the vision and direction of the company is so precise or so clear it’s like, in order to go there, we have to make these changes.” So all of those… I guess the question in here is, you’re really good at taking things and putting them into principles. Have you developed a principle, or do you have generally a method, where if I have to let somebody go just because we’ve outgrown them, how do you do that?
Michael (Guest):Yeah, so I don’t know that we have a principle for it. We have a ton of principles. You’ve seen a lot of them as a friend and a business partner. But when it comes to CEOs that we have to let go, or even just people that we have to let go because the position has outgrown them, our typical move is to let them know well in advance. We’ve had this conversation, we’ve tried to grow. You’re familiar with our principles of the wise, the foolish, and the evil. A wise person, you tell them the truth, they change, they adjust themselves, and they grow, and they become something different. A foolish person is someone who you tell the truth, and they shoot the messenger, like “Well, you did this or you did that,” or they externalize the problem. And then an evil person we don’t even need to talk about—they’re easy to let go. We’ve all been foolish, and there’s some challenges there, and we’ve all been wise, and there’s an awesome chance for growth and things. So while somebody is growing in that category, you’re resourcing them, you’re developing them. And then all of a sudden, if they stop growing but the organization keeps going, if you’re in regular communication from a leadership standpoint, you can say, “Hey, Sid, we’re going real fast right now, and it seems like the business is outpacing you. Here’s what I need out of this position from a core-value standpoint and a performance standpoint. Right now, we’re not achieving that. How can I help you? How can I serve you?” You work with them, and by the time that it’s three months, six months on the road, and those things still can’t get done, the conversation isn’t as hard if you’ve been doing the work up front to say, “Hey, Sid, we’ve had some performance expectations, and for the last six months we’ve been working really hard. We haven’t been able to do that, so we’re going to have to eliminate your position here or we’re going to have to move you to a different seat.” If we have to move someone out of the organization, we’re going to have to move them out of the organization. We’re going to let you stay for a while, we’re going to make sure you have a generous severance. We’d like you to stay, we’d like you to be here for as long as you need to be, but we want you to know that we’re going to have to make a change. And if you’ve got a great relationship built on trust, those conversations aren’t hard.
Sid (Host):Right. And what about the idea—I’ve heard plenty of people say, I’ve experienced it too—like, you’ve got to let somebody go, but you stress and struggle, you know, but then once you do it, I’ve never heard anybody say, “I should have waited.” They’re always like, “I should have done this a long time ago.”
Michael (Guest):Yes, oh yeah.
Sid (Host):So you alluded to it, but what are some of the keys?
Michael (Guest):We’ve all done that, right? And that’s usually because you haven’t had the conversation, you’ve just been avoiding it. And you haven’t lifted up the rock and seen all the squiggly things under it, and you just put the rock back down. That’s when it’s problematic.
Sid (Host):Okay, so let’s shift gears. In the context here is going from seven to eight figures, a home service business. Let’s just talk about growth mode. How do you balance growth versus stability? How much money are you putting into marketing and sales? Because you’ve got to feed your family, so…?
Michael (Guest):Two separate answers. First, for many years, I took a $40,000 a year salary, and I didn’t always get the salary because I had to pay payroll. We lived a very humble, frugal life; we didn’t go out to eat, we didn’t do anything because we were building this business. Second part as far as how do you do that: the two keys that I would say we were really good at are, every single 90 days for the last probably 10 years, I reviewed what I did the previous quarter and looked at the next quarter and said, “How can I make sure I’m eliminating the things that no longer fit the vision for my life, and how do I do more of the things that do fit the vision of my life?”
In the middle of that is how do I delegate various different things. There’s someone sitting in the room who’s taken a lot of that delegation and been amazing and completely life-changing for me. So as I did that, I did less stuff that wasn’t going to help achieve the vision and more stuff that was. Whether it became I used to negotiate media contracts with radio stations—now somebody else does that. Now I might negotiate a deal to purchase a company or to have a great strategic partnership or larger economic events. So taking every 90 days, I’d say, “What doesn’t fit my vision? What can I delegate, and what do I need to do more of?” That was one of the key things to help me personally. The other thing was realizing that if you align the incentives and the KPIs of the organization top to bottom, and everyone hits their goals, you hit your goals. If one of our goals might be to grow revenue by 10 percent, well, the technician should have an upsell goal of 10 percent. The manager should have a goal that ties to achieving revenue. So if you lay out the math to accomplishing those objectives and everyone hits them, so does the business. I used to just say, “Oh, we’ll get to $5 million someday, we’ll get to $10 million, we’ll get to $20 million,” but there was no plan. It was just my feelings and my emotion. And if I just cast that vision enough times, it’ll magically happen. Then once you do the math and say, “These are the resources I need. I need to get this many jobs, I can pay this amount for a job, I have this amount of money, I can do it, I need to have the technicians upselling.” If you do the math and then hold people accountable to the math, the business stuff takes care of itself.
Sid (Host):That’s great. Last question, so we wrap it up, and you’ll see where I’m going with this. You’ve done acquisitions, you’ve done turnarounds. Think of it like a turnaround. Anybody watching, say they’ve got a strong seven-figure business, they want to go to eight, but you’re the turnaround guy stepping into their business. What do you look at first, and what are the key areas that either have to change or be strengthened?
Michael (Guest):Yeah, so we could talk about this for a full hour. It’s surprising, but factory turnarounds are factory work. It’s the same formula almost every time. The very first thing you look at is the cost structure: are my costs of goods sold in line, is my marketing in line. I’m going to look at the cost and say, if I compare my window cleaning business to Sid’s, where do my key categories on my P&L—how do they align. How is he beating me? Sid’s not that good at business; how could he beat me in this? Well, there’s a really easy way to find out: I can call Sid and say, “Hey, Sid, so when we did a turnaround in the electrical space or the cabinet space, we would call friends and friendly competitors and say, ‘Hey, what are you doing in marketing, how are you doing in cogs?’ We’d go to industry events, and you figure out, is my business aligned, and what are the ways that they’re growing, and then we would test those different things.”
So every turnaround starts with that. The second thing immediately is getting critical mass around new thinking. There’s almost always some stinking thinking that’s going on, where people are kind of a groupthink around crazy things. There’s a really good book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions & The Madness of Crowds about when people were selling tulips for $30,000 a piece and all these things. But once a crowd gets groupthink, it starts to happen. In a turnaround, it’s usually not that bad, but if your whole organization isn’t thinking about going from seven to eight, you’ve got some of that groupthink. If your P&L isn’t optimized, you don’t have the cash to reinvest. So those are the first two. The last one, I would say there’s seven things that we always did, is aligning the accountability chart and the incentives top to bottom in the organization. Here’s the CEO’s bonus metrics. Everybody down the line has something that ties to that same metric. So we align the KPIs all the way through the organization and the incentives so everybody’s drawing in the same direction.
Sid (Host):Perfect. Yeah, that’s a great way to end and wrap it up. Thank you for your time.
Michael (Guest):Hello, my friend, this is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking your time to listen to today’s episode. I hope you got some value from it, and listen—anything that was covered, any of the resources, any of the books, any of the tools, anything like that is in the show notes. So it’s easy for you to find and check it out.
And also, I want to let you know the mission for the Huge Convention and for this podcast is to help our blue-collar business owners like you and I to gain financial and time freedom through running a better business. And we do that in four ways: number one is our free weekly newsletter, it’s called Huge Insider, I hope you subscribe, it is the most valuable newsletter for the home service industry, period—paid or otherwise—and this one’s free. Next is the Huge Foundations education platform—that is, we’ve got over 120 hours of industry-specific education and resources for you, and every month we do a topical webinar and we do question and answer with seven- and eight-figure business owners, and it’s available to you for a $1 trial for seven days. Next, of course, is the Huge Convention, if you haven’t been, you gotta check it out, it’s every August, this year it’s in Nashville, Tennessee, that’s August 20th through 22nd in 2025, and it is the largest and number one rated trade show and convention for home service business builders. We’ve got the biggest trade show so you can check out all the coolest tools and meet the vendors and check out the software to run your business, and it’s got education—world-class education and educators and speakers that will teach you how to run a better business, and it’s the best networking opportunity that you can have within the home service business. And then lastly, if you want to pour jet fuel into your business, check out the Huge Mastermind. Now it’s not for everyone; you’ve got to be at over $750,000 of revenue and you’re building toward $1 million, $5 million, $10 million in the next five years. And it is a network and a mentorship and a mastermind of your peers, and we help you understand and implement the Freedom Operating System.
We’d go into more detail, but you can get all the information on all four of these programs and how we’ll help you advance your business quickly just by going to thehugeconvention.com and scroll down and click on the Freedom Path, or, of course, you can find the links here in the show notes.
So sorry, I feel like I’m getting a little bit wordy, but I just want to let you know of the resources that are available to you to help you accelerate and advance your beautiful small business. So keep on growing, keep on learning, keep advancing. And if you like the show, go ahead—I mean, if you would go and take 90 seconds and give us a review on iTunes, then subscribe and share it, man, it would really mean the world to us, it would help other people, and as we continue our mission to help people just like you and me. So thanks again for listening. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Sunday Jan 26, 2025
Sunday Jan 26, 2025
In this special “hosts-only” episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, Sid, Gabe, and Sheila gather to share snippets of their personal business journeys and what led them to the podcast. They reveal how a single chance encounter, a divorce and lawsuit, or a basic need to cover rent all became inflection points pushing them to build thriving home-service companies. Their stories highlight a common theme: early struggles, eventual breakthroughs, and a passion for learning from peers. This dialogue sets the stage for future episodes that dive into transformation stories—from six- to seven-figure (and beyond) businesses—demonstrating that anyone can achieve major growth with persistence, mentorship, and real-world tactics.
SHOW NOTES
Hosts:
Sid (Host): Founder of a successful window cleaning business in Montana, overcame “bare-minimum hustle” to build a system-driven, culture-focused company
Gabe (Host): Co-founder of Right Hand Rhino (route work window cleaning across multiple states), started from a random coffee-shop meeting and door-to-door sales background
Sheila (Guest): Owner of A+ Pro Services in Southeastern North Carolina, turned sudden adversity into a thriving 25-year-old multi-service home care business
Key Discussion Points:
Unexpected Starts: From a bucket-and-squeegee hustle to a random partnership that led to major growth
Industry Connections: How associations like the IWCA or events like The Huge Convention sparked learning and legitimacy
Turning Points: A divorce, a big lawsuit, or new city relocations forced reinvention, leading to serious business-building
Mindset & Mentorship: Hiring coaches, networking, and simply asking questions helped each host overcome hurdles
Future Focus: Each host aims to spotlight real-life transformation journeys—showcasing both the mistakes and triumphs that shape business success
Why It Matters:
Encourages new and experienced home-service entrepreneurs to see challenges as springboards
Illustrates how forging strong relationships, mentorship, and a passion for service lead to scalable, sustainable businesses
Takeaways:
Embrace Industry Support: Events, conventions, and associations can provide mentors and solutions
Progress Over Perfection: Get started with what you have—no business or marketing knowledge required initially
Celebrate Milestones: Each host recalls going from small revenue to surpassing their old yearly totals in a single week
Leadership Evolution: Early days of “on the truck” eventually transitioned to hiring, delegating, and systematizing
FULL, UNABRIDGED TRANSCRIPT(All speaker labels are in the same font size; only bold text used for headings.)
Sid (Host):I had to figure out how to record on the first one. Okay, it's recording and we're live. So, hey my friends, it's Sid with the Huge Transformation podcast and I'm really excited today because all of our co-hosts are together. So I got Sheila Smelter, we got Gabe Torres out of Nashville, and we're all just hanging out, catching up. It's a, it's a cold day where we are. Sheila, how are you? It's good to see you. It's been a while.
Sheila (Guest):I'm wonderful, thanks Sid. Hey, Gabe.
Gabe (Host):Hey, what's up, Sheila? What's up, Sid? It's nice over here in Nashville, too. It warmed up a bit. It was freezing earlier this week.
Sid (Host):That's cool. So you guys actually—Gabe, you said, you know, a week or two ago, you had almost eight inches of snow in Nashville.
Gabe (Host):Eight inches in one day, and less than 48 hours later, it was all gone, which is why I love Nashville. We get to have fun in it, but we're not stuck in it.
Sid (Host):And Sheila, where are you? I know you're in the Carolinas, but what—where are you?
Sheila (Guest):Yeah, I'm in southeastern North Carolina on the coast, just north of the South Carolina state line. So I'm sandwiched between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington.
Sid (Host):Okay. And how often do you get snow there?
Sheila (Guest):Never, except yesterday we got snow. We got three inches of snow, everybody freaked out, schools closed down—it's like anarchy.
Sid (Host):Yeah. A great thing to do on a day like that is just stay home, like you don't have any place to go that's not important. That's cool. I'm out—I'm in Missoula, Montana, and it's supposed to be cold and snowy here this time of year, and it's not. It's a little cold, but... But listen, what I want to do—this is the Huge Transformations Podcast, and the whole point of this show is to interview people that have gone from bootstrapped to billions. I'm just kidding. I don't know anybody that's gone to billions cleaning windows, but we've got some really successful friends and associates in business that are—they've got a seven-figure business, we've got eight-figure businesses, and they're doing really well, and we want to share those stories. Sheila, when you interview people, Gabe, when you interview people, it's the same type: it's like, how did you start, what were your biggest problems and challenges that you faced and overcome, how'd you win in that scenario, and where are you now?
There's a lot of reasons for doing that. The main reason is, anybody that is newer in business or you haven't achieved the level of success you want, or revenue, or whatever—to give you some examples of how to avoid some of the pitfalls that other people have already encountered. It's like a minefield, it's like if you've got somebody that knows where the mines are buried and they can show you, then you don't have to step on them and get blown up.
We were talking a week or so ago, Gabe, and I realized that the three of us, like we all have a transformation story. So I want everybody to have the opportunity to hear that and get to know you better rather than just the person that's interviewing, to understand and recognize your story. So I hope you don't mind, Sheila, I'm going to pick on you first.
Sheila (Guest):Yeah, sure.
Sid (Host):Ask you to tell the story—your story of how did you get into window cleaning business, what was it like when you started, and like where are you now?
Sheila (Guest):Yeah, great. Well, I'm on the right podcast because I love telling my story and I love hearing other people's stories. And you know, really the stories that we tell, it's our life, right? It's our life story. And so I'm just really passionate about being true to that. And we're all so uniquely different, and so—and just like you said, we have so much to learn from each other. So yeah, thanks for the opportunity. So I'm Sheila Smeltzer, A+ Pro Services in southeastern North Carolina. Go back to 1999. My ex-husband and I moved to North Carolina from Breckenridge, Colorado. I was a total ski bum for six years after I dropped out of college at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. And I was a backcountry tour guide—loved the outdoors and, you know, worked service jobs and labor jobs, that's what I did.
So my ex-husband was a professional window cleaner by trade, literally growing up in the Myrtle Beach area—that's what he did from the time he was a kid, he was a window cleaner, and he was super good. So I only use him in past tense now because we are divorced. That was back in, I don't know, 2006 we became divorced. So in the early days, starting the business in '99, we were sole proprietors, owner-operators, I did the books and stayed home with the kids, had a wonderful life, it was great, and he was out in the field. We had one employee, and fast forward to 2006, we had good growth over the years and things like that. This is a huge retirement area that we're in, so we had, you know, our client database were people that built homes too big to take care of, right? Their retirement homes. And so that's where we came in.
So in 2006, a big ball was dropped, and that's all I need to say. Basically, the company fell in my lap, we had one employee at the time, and there was kind of a big blow-up between my former husband and I, and that employee—kind of, we had this like day of reckoning, and there was this huge fight basically, and we were... We had one truck, and we were tearing the equipment off the truck and saying, you take this, you take that, I'll take this, I'll take that. And that one employee was standing there, his name was Joel. And I said, oh, well, oh my God, I'm so sorry, what do you want to do? And he said, oh, Sheila, I stay with you.
So here I am—I have this business, and I have one employee, I didn't know how to do any of the work, but at this point, it was literally a situation where I had to provide for my children as a single mom. And I could have thought about going to real estate, blah blah blah. I said no, you know what? We've got customers calling us every day, this is an easy pathway for revenue to make money, I'm going to just do this. And so Joel taught me how to do the work. I worked like a man physically in the field, climbing ladders, washing houses, cleaning gutters, the whole thing. I did that for about seven years. I would pick my girls up—I mean, sorry, I would load my girls in the car in the morning, swing by pick up Joel, drop the girls off in the carpool line at school, go off and work with Joel, come back, reverse that order. And that was every day for about seven years. Then I started to say, well, hang on a second…
And there's a big point in there which I think is important. At that time of that day of reckoning, we were also sued for $64,000 worth of scratched glass. That led me into the industry, right? That led me into like, hey, this isn't just a business in Brunswick County, North Carolina—this is like, I am part of an industry, because I was, you know, exposed to the International Window Cleaning Association and Power Washers of North America and blah blah blah. And so, you know, when I started to be exposed to this, I saw that other people were actually very successful running companies like this, and it's like a light bulb went off. I said, wait a second, if they can do it, I can do it. And then fast forward, hired a business coach, started to hire employees, started to get my finances in place, all the QuickBooks stuff—like having the legit chart of accounts and a budget and a business plan. That's just how we've evolved.
And today, we teeter anywhere between 20 and 30 employees, we do commercial building services, residential home services, basically, I'm trying to differentiate from being a window cleaning/pressure washing company. We do commercial janitorial as well, but I'm trying to transform into selling service agreements and selling repetitive services to our clients that help mitigate the major problems that they have with their home living in the southeastern climate, which is corrosion, oxidation, mildew, mold, and algae. And so these are major problems that cost our customers thousands of dollars in repair and replacement, so what can we do to provide a service to them that will—I call it my 10x dream outcome—how can we prevent that 10x spending of repair and replacement by spending $100 with us, you save $1,000 in repairs down the line. And so I'm kind of repivoting. We just celebrated 25 years in business, believe it or not. And so, there was literally a huge ribbon cutting celebration. I woke up the next day, I'm like, wait a minute, time for something new. So I'm just a whole new forecast for the company.
Sid (Host):That's pretty—it's kind of a wild journey. And I just, you mentioned the IWCA, International Window Cleaners Association, it's kind of your first recognition that there's a whole business here, this is an industry, and you said light bulb moment, you know, things went off. I just want to toss in here for our listeners that you end up on the board of the IWCA, you were actually the president of the IWCA a year ago, and have been deeply involved in the industry, helping people at all different levels. So I think that's a big deal.
Sheila (Guest):Yeah, thanks for having me. Can I just say I've served on the Glass Education Committee for 15 years, I've been on the Residential Committee, served on the Board of Directors two times. My first time was in 2010 for three years, and then I just completed another board term, and I'm immediate past president. So I went up through executive committee. And that's been a big part of my career. It's all volunteer, right? But what I love about that is, we talk a lot on this podcast and with our interviewees about building a business, but I'm always very passionate about preserving and professionalizing standards in relationship to our craft, right? And that's where my industry involvement has been so important to me.
Sid (Host):Yeah, you and I share that. I've served on the Glass Education Committee for 8-9 years, a lot of volunteer hours. But it also helps the industry at large. It's got a far reaching impact, not just for the business owner and stuff. And case in point: two of my employees, who you've met, Darby and Cole, they're a great part of my team. They went to IWCA a couple years ago, they met you, but they started getting glass education. We do a lot of safety training, we teach people about scratched glass, tempered glass, how to be safe, how not to damage stuff. They came back and taught me some terminology because we used to just help. If somebody was like, "What's wrong with that window?" I'd go, "It's got a blown seal. Can you replace it?" And they're like, "Don't say that, that's a failed IGU, Sid Graf." This is how you explain it. I'm like, oh. It's a small example, but a great example of increasing the professionalism of an industry through education.
Gabe (Host):Well, I feel like we should give applause to Sheila for 25 years. That's so cool. And still evolving 25 years later, you know, that's really cool.
Sheila (Guest):Thanks. I'm the slow and steady, I'm the slow and steady.
Gabe (Host):Yeah, I'd say I'm probably the slower and steady.
Sid (Host):We're in good company then, Sid.
Gabe (Host):Within 25 years, and you said you're about to— you want to make a shift and change. I think you're talking about within the industry or with your business, but the first thing that popped into my mind is, is there a way you could combine your time as an outdoors guide with the—could you start doing tours and guided tours for people climbing ladders and walking on roofs, that kind of thing?
Sheila (Guest):No, but you know, what's so important about that question is that everything that we've learned in our past has contributed in some way to what we do in our future. Right? So I'm an example: those old jobs that I had gave me my unique skills that made me good at what I do today.
Sid (Host):It's true how it layers. Steve Jobs said you only connect the dots when you look backwards. I think it's definitely that way. So Gabe, you have a story. You started your route window cleaning, but you come from a door-to-door background. I'd love to hear your overview.
Gabe (Host):Yeah, yeah, real quick. I grew up in—I got out of high school, ended up in door-to-door sales, traveling around the country each summer, different products: pest control, security. And it opened my eyes that you can make money in these random ways. Then I started a gym with a buddy after college, but parted ways when we realized I wanted bigger scale, he didn't. My wife and I moved to Nashville with no plan. Then from a random coffee-shop meeting, I met a guy who introduced me to the Mike Dahlke. We hit it off. Dahlke was not investing in that guy's business—didn't pass muster. But Dahlke and I ended up connecting. Six months later he sees my Facebook message, calls me up. We talk about a route work window cleaning business. We both think it's possibly a bad idea, but let's do it anyway. We had a third partner, Brandon, who loved the name Right Hand Rhino. We launched it about seven years ago. Now we're around $1.8 million, have four markets, including Vegas, which was chaotic at first. It's a fun ride.
Sid (Host):I love hearing that story. Just a random coffee shop, message on Facebook, a handshake, and you have a multi-million dollar enterprise. So let's do a quick version of my story. I'd just come back from living in Greece for a year with my wife, dead broke, in Florida, looking for a job. My neighbor was a window cleaner. I asked to go with him for half a day. Loved how simple it was. Borrowed an old squeegee, found a bucket in a dumpster, started knocking doors. My very first job was a convenience store with 25 windows, I quoted $4 for exterior. The manager said yes, took me three hours. A little over a buck an hour. But that got me going. Moved to Montana, did it for years on a small scale, just me, a helper. Went to The Huge Convention around 2016, realized I'd never truly built a business. So I started learning from real business owners who are bigger. Now we have a system-driven, culture-focused, seven-figure business that runs without me. It's a small team but an excellent one. The big takeaway is how a major shift—from hustle to real business structure—can happen if you find mentors and a bigger vision.
Sheila (Guest):I love that, 30 years total, but business for only eight. I can say similarly, 25 years, I've only truly been “in business” for about nine. The industry events, relationships, the mentors, all of that keeps us growing.
Sid (Host):Yes, so that’s why we do the show. The transformations for both the owners and the listeners—hearing real stories of struggles, breakthroughs, and building a stable business. I'm excited we get to share it. So thanks for being part of it, guys.
Gabe (Host):Yeah, it's gonna be just as educational and fun for me as it is for everyone listening.
Sid (Host):All right, Sheila, I'll see you next week, Gabe likewise. We'll talk about what we learned last week and what's new in the industry. 'Til then, thanks for tuning in to the Huge Transformations Podcast.
Sheila (Guest):Thanks, Sid. See ya.
Gabe (Host):See ya.