Jared "The Plumber" Williams Money vs. Freedom: Finding Balance in Business

What happens when you finally achieve the financial success you've been chasing—only to realize you've lost everything else that matters? Jared Williams, host of The Jared Williams Show and founder of multiple successful plumbing businesses, takes us through his raw, revealing journey of entrepreneurial trial and error.

Jared's story begins like many tradespeople—believing that running a business meant simply charging less than the competition and working harder. After several false starts and business ventures that left him working more hours for less money, he made a counterintuitive discovery that transformed his approach: dramatically increasing his rates. The results were stunning; customers not only paid his premium prices but thanked him for his reliability and professionalism. Within six months, his business generated $800,000 in revenue.

But success came at a steep cost. Jared candidly shares how his single-minded focus on building his company left him physically depleted, with deteriorating relationships and no true freedom. "I figured out how to get the money and then I lost all my freedom, all my relationships, all my health, everything else," he reveals. This wake-up call led him to develop systems for maintaining balance—from strategic time blocking to establishing technology boundaries—while still growing successful businesses.

Perhaps most valuable is Jared's insight into the power of human connection in business. Through stories about slaughtering chickens with neighbors and coffee meetings that seemed like time-wasters but led to transformative relationships, he illustrates how "your life will be judged by the quality of your connections." As he works toward his ambitious goal of building a $100 million company, his motivation isn't primarily financial but impact-driven—creating opportunities for employees, family, and future generations.

Whether you're a tradesperson considering entrepreneurship or an established business owner struggling with work-life balance, this conversation offers practical wisdom for achieving success without sacrificing everything else that matters. Search for "The Jared Williams Show" on any platform to connect with Jared and continue learning from his journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast
• 11:15 The Freedom Chase: First Business Struggles
• 19:49 Money vs. Freedom: Finding Work-Life Rhythm
• 37:21 Health, Hormones and Business Balance
• 58:11 Time Management: Living By Your Calendar
• 1:07:01 Building Community and Making Connections
• 1:17:51 Discovering the True Secret to Success
• 1:27:23 AI Revolution in the Trades Industry

Transcript

Corey Berrier: 1:02

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Berrier, and I'm here with my man, Jared Williams, otherwise known as Jared the Plumber, and from my research, Jared has done so many things. You've got a podcast called the Jared Williams Show from Fairbanks, Alaska. You've been doing the trade since you were 18 years old. You've had some ups and downs and I think what sets you apart from a lot of guys in the industry one thing it doesn't set you apart is you started out like a lot of guys in the industry from the field, thinking it's going to be simple to open up a business and run my own shop, and I guess that was. You're pretty surprised. It is not that easy to run a plumbing business.

Jared Williams: 1:53

It is not that easy, that's for sure.

Corey Berrier: 1:55

Yeah, yeah definitely, but you thought it was. You thought you know what you. I don't know if you thought this or not, but what a lot of guys think is screw my boss, he's making all the money. I'm going to strike out on my own and I'm going to make my own money.

Jared Williams: 2:11

Yeah, and I'm going to be cheaper than everybody else and I'm going to soak up all the work and I'm going to make a ton of money. I'm just going to work for myself. Who needs employees? This will be so much better. That's exactly what I thought, yeah. And then, man, that is not what I got and I I didn't have like a that. Those are my exact thoughts.

Jared Williams: 2:33

I remember sitting in the basement my brother owns a marketing company. I remember sitting in his basement I was working on his boiler from alaska we've got hydronic heating. It's all oil fired hydronic heating. It's all oil fired hydronic heating. That was like probably 70% of our work. And I'm thinking. I remember telling him dude, I think I'm going to go out on my own. He's like, are you? And I said yeah, because I'm tired of making my boss all the money. Like my boss was I worked at for a new construction company and that guy's worth he's got to be worth a hundred million by now, I would guess. And I remember just thinking like I'm working all day for this guy. They're paying me $41 an hour. I can go out and I can bill. I think at the time $120 an hour and I'm going to make twice as much, three times as much. And boy was I surprised. I did.

Corey Berrier: 3:27

I did not, that did not happen so, when you struck out on your own what was the, let's say, the first, first big hurdle that you ran into, what was the first, maybe even massive hiccup that you ran into, so I kind of I looked like the first time I struck out on my own.

Jared Williams: 3:45

It was a little bit of a different story. I started a business doing this little side gig. So up there we've got hydronic heating, we've got boilers and we would do a lot of boiler installs right. So we're pumping water through people's homes and there's different, there's like a manifold and zones and pumps and zone valves and all that stuff. And I saw this guy in a take-go magazine. He was pre-building these boards and shipping them out to people and I thought, hell, I can do that. And so I started making these like pre-made boiler panel boards where people would get ahold of me. They'd say, hey, I got this many zones in my house, I'm going to use this kind of boiler, build me a board and I would go over a layout with them and I would pre-make everything, pre-wire everything. So all they had to do was slap this board on the wall, slap their boiler on the wall, connect the boiler to the board and their zones to the board, do a little tiny little bit of wiring and then flip the switch and everything would run perfectly.

Jared Williams: 4:52

And I did that on the side and I remember I was like man this is, I can make so much money. I was selling these boards for like 4,000 bucks, 6,000 bucks, I think. My biggest one was like $14,000. And I did that for like. I did that for probably a good year and I remember at the end of the year, looking at the numbers going, man, this, I was selling these for a lot of money, but this didn't make any money. This is, this is dumb. And so I got this idea of like maybe business is a little harder than I thought. And so when I went into business the first time, I was like, okay, I was working with a guy and I said, hey, I'm going to start my own business. And he goes dude, I want to do it with you. And I was like, well, I had this little glimpse of like man, doing this on my own was really hard. Let me do it with a partner.

Jared Williams: 5:37

So the first hurdle I ran into was just the hurdle of having a partner. That was we started going. We were probably a year in and we got involved with a bunch of like some I want to call them remediation companies, guys who go in after floods and fires and whatever you call those and we would. We were working for these guys and man they were. They were the cheapest of the cheap. They never had their stuff together. They'd call us out to these houses and they'd be like, hey, we're ready for tubs or we're ready for roughing, and they wouldn't be.

Jared Williams: 6:10

And I was like, man, this sucks. And we were working. We were working our day jobs and then we were working after work and then we were working on weekends and my partner absolutely loved it and I was like this is, this is not for me, man. I want to work less and make more. That's my goal. I don't want to work more. This is terrible. This is not what I signed up for. I wanted some freedom. The money was less important than the freedom to me. I wanted freedom more than anything else. So first hurdle I ran into was a business partner. We ended up calling that off. I basically gave him the business. I said take it, it's yours, you can have it. He still runs it to this day, still doing the same kind of stuff, working like a dog 24-7. Probably makes decent income, but, man, not much of a life there.

Corey Berrier: 6:59

So it's interesting as this show has evolved from. You know, I started this show talking about business and sales and success and all the things that I thought was important, or really what I thought made up success and what I've found and it sounds like you found this far earlier than I did is money's important. You got to pay your bills right, you got to be able to afford things, and that's just a part of life, yep, but it can't be the most important. No, it's only a piece of it. It's only a piece of it because it robs. It robbed me of really being present. It robbed me of the joys really in life chasing the money. And do you find with a lot of the owners because you work with a lot of business owners in your group do you find that most of them are just chasing the dollar, or is it? Are they looking for something more than that?

Jared Williams: 8:08

In my experience, most of them get in for the freedom there's a lot of, and maybe it's just because they relate to my story, I don't know. When I was looking at I was working 60 hours a week, making 100K a year plus benefits, and when I did the math I was like I could work 40 hours a week and make more money. To me that was freedom. It wasn't necessarily about making more money, it was about working less. And then just like the idea of being in control of my own time or in control of my own day and I could set my schedule. You know I used to run a ton and I thought I remember having the idea I'm going my schedule. You know I used to run a ton and I thought I remember having the idea I'm going to keep my running shoes, my running shorts, in my van and I'm going to go in the middle of the day I'm going to go for a run and nobody's going to tell me I can't, and I never once did that. To this day I've never gone out for a run in the middle of the day when I was in my van. And so for me, like it's this idea of freedom. That's probably what I find the most with people is they want the freedom and then when they start getting into, oh crap, customers are calling me. Oh man, I got to handle this billing, I got to do all this paperwork at night. Hiring employees sounds like a giant headache. It doesn't sound like freedom and this business starts to take over their life and they lose their freedom and it becomes less about like.

Jared Williams: 9:39

At that point, I think that's when most people quit. At that point they say you know what? Cause that's what I did. I quit. I got to that point twice and I said you know what? This is not what I wanted. I wanted freedom. This is I'm making less money with less freedom. I want at least the same amount of money with more freedom. That would be better, but I didn't get that. Go ahead. Oh yeah, I was just going to say I think I think most people quit there and if they don't, I think what? Then what ends up happening? Cause this is what happened the third time with me is I found the way to get the freedom I found I figured out how to create systems and processes and price myself properly and how to hire employees and how to get them trained up and how to get them doing the things that we want them to do and to create an income.

Jared Williams: 10:30

But then that took over my life and I still lost my freedom. So then it became about this chase for money and I lost my health and I lost my freedom and my relationship suffered and I didn't. I didn't actually get anything I wanted. I had one or the other right. I figured out how to have freedom working for myself, but then I'd lose it because I didn't have the systems and processes, employees, I didn't have the money end of it figured out. And then I figured out how to get the money and then I lost all of my freedom, all my relationships, all of my health, everything else.

Jared Williams: 10:58

And it's this I don't. I hate the word balance because I it's I don't. I still don't understand how to create like a solid work-life balance. I put parameters on it, try to keep it nice and neat, but it's always messy. But it took me a long time to figure out how to maintain health, freedom and still have money. And I think when you can get that together, that's when, that's when entrepreneurship or business, that's when it really is like clicks. You're like, oh okay, this is awesome. This I can do. Let's do more of this.

Corey Berrier: 11:37

So when that clicked for you, let's say, I like to say when, the when everything's working relationship for me, sobriety for my job, everything flows and I say it's like in flow, which sounds a little hippy-dippy, but the truth is, when things just start to work for me, I don't have to work as hard for them, them. I feel like there's a level of peace that comes with that, and I fought so hard to get to the thing that I wanted and I fought so hard to get the relationship that I wanted, and I think it's kind of like a salmon swimming upstream, like it just couldn't really get any traction because I was in the way yeah and so when you say health and and the things that it affected your relationships, can you dive a bit deeper in there?

Corey Berrier: 12:35

what do you mean by that?

Jared Williams: 12:38

so, and I like to think of everything in in seasons is the best way for me to describe it is like there's a time where you're probably going to have to push on your business because it needs it, but we, what you have to recognize is that it's just the time. It's like having kids. Do you have kids, cory? No, but I've raised a child. They're a pain in the butt, right, yes, but and and they go through phases like you got your little baby, they need all your attention super annoying. And then they start being able to walk and you can set them in the living room and they play with their toys and it gets a little bit easier. And then they get out of diapers and there's these seasons to raising a child. They turn into teenagers and now they're a whole different kind of pain in the butt and then they move out and now there's a whole nother season of having kids and then grandkids and all that stuff and your life is the same way, right. So that's why the work-life balance doesn't really make sense to me, the continual work-life balance. So I like to think of it in like chunks. Okay, I'm in a season of I got to put my head down and get to work and get this thing built so that it can produce, and then maybe I'll go back and be in a season of health. And what happened to me is I pushed real hard on prospector plumbing when we were building that and I forgot about. You don't have to totally throw your health in the trash or totally throw your relationship in the trash. And I was in a season of building and what I did is all I focused on was building and everything else went in the trash. I didn't spend time with my wife, I didn't spend time with my kids. I didn't like I stopped her. I hardly ate because if I ate, I wasn't doing enough. I was sitting at a desk all day. If I ate, I started gaining weight and then your hormones start to suffer and you start gaining weight and you start losing muscle. And there's a video you can go watch. It's on the Prospector Plumbing and Heating website, prospectorplumbingcom, where I go watch that video now to this day and I'm like holy cow, like it was right at the end. I'd probably worked on Prospector for like three years when I finally filmed this video and I am just like my cheeks are sunken, my arms are super tiny, all my muscles gone and and I didn't realize how bad it was until like two years later I'd moved.

Jared Williams: 15:14

Right after that video, I moved to Florida and I started hanging out in the sun, I started eating more food, I started exercising, I went and got my hormones checked, got my blood panels done, and I look back on that video and I was like I told him. I remember telling my wife I have some pictures of when we first moved to Florida and I remember telling her why didn't you say anything Like how, how were you even attracted to that? And she would. She is very nice. She didn't tell me that she wasn't attracted to that, but I guarantee you she wasn't, because I was like a stick figure.

Jared Williams: 16:28

But yeah, I guess in hindsight, looking back on it, I'm in a. I'm in a phase now where I'm working on a company, started a pressure washing company here called dude wash, and I'm in that phase again of building and I'm much more conscious of, okay, I need to come to work and I need to work some days, but I also need to make sure that I'm packing my lunches, eating healthy, exercising. I don't have to gain 20 pounds of muscle over the next year while I build this company, but I also don't have to throw it all in the trash. That's what more of a balance looks like to me.

Corey Berrier: 17:13

Yeah, jared, would you say that's really just setting an intention and then following through with that intention. As you mentioned, you're packing your lunch. Like every day, I do the same thing I pack. I'm eating carnivore diet right now and I don't really know how long I'm going to continue it, but right now I'm getting incredible results, unbelievable results, and so every day I cook all my food. I pack it because, well, I can't trust food out there, right, you can't go through a drive-thru if you're on. I guess you could make it work, but I'd rather not. And so it's a process. But I know for me, I'm going to feel better if I'm prepared every day and I know what I've got to eat, I know what I've got, I know the water that I've packed. I drink a ton of espresso. That's all packed, it's all ready to go and it's a hour-long process every night, but it's worth it to me because I can function.

Corey Berrier: 18:10

I don't leave. When I get to work, I don't leave. I don't leave until I'm ready to go home because I've got everything laid out and I can utilize. I can make up that hour that I spend at night at work while I've got everything ready to go, and I think it's just that helps me to stay in flow with what I'm doing. I don't like to leave.

Corey Berrier: 18:31

And so you mentioned blood, your hormone panels. That's really important. I take personally. I take testosterone. I do take peptides. I think they're very important if they're taken the right way. And let's be clear Testosterone is not steroids unless you abuse testosterone. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about getting your blood work done every six months, making sure your levels are correct, seeing an actual doctor that knows what they're talking about, not just buying some stuff from China or off the internet or your buddy at the gym, because you can mess up those things. But if your hormones are firing in the right way and your levels are at the right way, you're at optimal level. I used to own a hormone clinic, so that's why I'm really passionate about this. Oh nice, you can't go by what the insurance companies tell you, because they're going to tell you, as a man, that your testosterone, if it's above 300, 301, you're good to go, which is a complete lie. In fact, the American Anti-Aging Association numbers are between 9 and 1100 testosterone levels, which is vastly different than 301.

Jared Williams: 19:51

Yeah, so you got to find somebody that knows what they're talking about. Agreed, I agree, 100 the the difference. So for me I I started getting my blood panels done and I got my blood work done and my testosterone was like 250 or something like that and over the course of a year of just getting on testosterone replacement theory and getting that up in the between 800 and a thousand, I probably put on eight pounds of muscle in a year. Just not even really like trying. I wasn't lifting heavy weights all the time, but, man, it completely changed my world. I sleep better, I feel better, I look better. In my mind it's game changer, game changer. And then, yeah, and then I just got some. I'm trying to do a little better at that.

Jared Williams: 20:40

So I just got some more extensive blood tests done and I've got this company. It's really cool. They, you go get all your blood work done, the most blood work I've ever had drawn. I was at the labs and the lady goes have you ever passed out before? And I said no, why she goes, you're getting a lot of blood drawn. And I said, well, hopefully you'll catch me if I pass out. But it was super cool, man. I got like I don't know, a million different things tested and they take. They make you a supplement list and they put it in these little packs and all you have to do is tear off a pack every day and I got all the supplements that I need in one day, which is really cool. And I've got a year supply sitting at my house and then they retest you every three months to make sure you don't need anything else Super cool. I like to like.

Jared Williams: 21:31

I've taken some of the things that I've learned in business as far as like systems, processes, simplification, and I've tried to apply those in my personal life to help keep these things in balance while I'm growing this other company. So like the idea that I can get a blood test. Somebody will pre-pack all my things into a little packet and I don't have to remember anything that I have to take. I don't even know what's in the packet. All I got to know is I got to take that one packet. Super simple, super easy. I can do that every day, no problem. Like food we make food for dinner and we just double the amount we make and I pack leftovers and I bring those to work. I have a camper van that I drive, with a refrigerator in it and I keep turkey meat and cheese and tuna in there just in case I don't have dinner. Super simple I go out to my camper van, I can whip up some tuna, I can take turkey meat and put some cheese on it and I'm good to go. Those are the ways that I'm able to keep that stuff in check, because business takes up so much of your brain For me.

Jared Williams: 22:42

Everything else outside of that, I ha. It has to be on my calendar. I have to have a system for it, a process for it, or it doesn't get done, even even like time spent with my wife or kids. I got to put that on my calendar. It took me forever to learn how to live on my calendar. That was that was absolute game changer for me.

Jared Williams: 23:03

The idea I teach in my in my course I tell everybody you guys should go write down everything that you do in a day, like I go to bed, like all the stuff you should be doing, to all the recurring stuff. I got to go to bed, I got to wake up, I got a shower, I got to drink coffee. I should be journaling in the morning, I should be going to work or I'm working on this project, whatever you got going on, write it all down. And then I have them put it in a T-graph and they split it between recurring tasks and one-time tasks. And I said, now go put all your recurring tasks on your calendar so that that stuff is set.

Jared Williams: 23:40

And what happens? What happened to me when I did this? And what happens what happened to me when I did this? I realized, like, how little time I actually have, how little white space was left on my calendar after all of just the normal stuff that we have to do in your one-time tasks. I have them go put it in a spreadsheet and they check it. They either check it, automate it, delegate it, don't do it, or I have to do this. And then everything that you have to do go put it on your calendar and you'll see, like man, I don't have time for much, like I really have to, like I have to value my time and set aside time for the things that need to get done, or they're just not going to get done. That's been absolute game changer for me.

Corey Berrier: 24:33

Something also. I think I realized this the other day. I was thinking, all right, I need to. I'm working with I'm the director of sales and business development at Zoom Drain, or at least this location, and so my job. I do a bunch of different things, but my primary job is to grow the business, and so I'm doing that through property management companies, so on and so forth.

Corey Berrier: 24:58

I thought the other day I need to email this person and check something off the list, whatever it was. I'm like I guess I could just do that tomorrow. And I realized here's what I'm doing I'm putting this thing off to tomorrow. So I feel like I have something to do tomorrow when I've got three other things that I know I need to do tomorrow. And so I just thought that's such, a, such a ridiculous thing to think that I'm going to put this off to tomorrow because maybe I don't have a full day tomorrow, and so I got to put this thing on there that I know I could do today, but put it on until tomorrow. So I feel like I'm doing something tomorrow. No, get it done today and then free yourself up for the thing that you really need to be doing tomorrow, the thing that's unexpected because they're going to come for sure, but it also frees up your brain to have that space to welcome that new thing.

Jared Williams: 25:51

Yes, yep, I have a rule. If it's like under five minutes, I do it right now.

Corey Berrier: 25:57

Right now.

Jared Williams: 25:58

And then, if it's 10 minutes to 30 minutes, I write it down and I have a block of time on my calendar for getting those things done and I can say, like I keep a piece of paper, I got it with me right now, I just have some paper and a pen always with me and I'll write down the thing so that it's written down and I can forget about it, freeze my brain up again, like you said, and then I'll get to it when I get to that block of time. And things like don Right, like, for me I can get a lot done in a day because, number one, I set aside time in the morning to determine what it is that I want to get done today, like what it is that I should be getting done today, and I'll write those things down and then those are the things I do first. First, so when I get to work, I will come to work and I already have a pre-made list, time blocked out of my calendar, and I'll say, okay, let's get these things done, and they're typically things that are going to move either my life, my business or my relationships forward, or all three, and I'm getting those done every day, on a daily basis and over the course of a whole year, of just consistently getting the things done that are moving you forward, pushing you forward, making you better. Massive change, small, little daily changes, but over the course of time huge change. And then check your email at noon or 2 pm or whenever, like nothing bad is going to happen.

Jared Williams: 27:32

I remember reading the four-hour work week and a buddy of mine gave that to me, probably one of the like the earlier books I ever read, and I remember the part where he says he checks his email, I think once every two weeks or something like that, and he's like, yeah, sometimes we might miss something and I'll have to pay a fine or a fee or whatever, but it's not the end of the world, like my business has never exploded and he's totally right. Like you could probably check your email every other day or every third day or once a week.

Corey Berrier: 28:09

So, and the benefit of that is now, if you let's just say I'm a, I check it 70 times a day, which is probably a reasonable number for a lot of people oh yeah, that means that I'm going to react to you every time you send me an email. So what does that tell you, jerry? That means I've got Corey's attention. As soon as I send that dude an email, he's going to shoot it right back. So you're now controlling me because I'm allowing you to control me. So by setting that parameter up at 12 o'clock or two o'clock, it's also letting you know I'm going to hear back from that dude 24 hours from now, not going to hear back from him today.

Corey Berrier: 28:50

And so really, what you're doing is for for me anyway, and I don't do this. I'm just going to be honest with you, but the idea of it makes sense. I'm, if I train whoever it is that I'm responding to, that you're only going to hear back from me at this time every day. You're not going to bother me all day long. Nope, may take a minute. It's a boundary.

Jared Williams: 29:13

Text messages on your phone, right like I'll give anybody and everybody my phone number, but during the day, if I'm in work mode on my calendar, this thing is in on silent. It's gone. All notifications are off and the only way that anybody can get a hold of me is through my Slack channel, and I only give that Slack channel to one or two people. I think I got three people that have access to my Slack channel and they know don't Slack me if you don't have to, and I don't even have those notifications on.

Corey Berrier: 29:50

So it's in the same realm here. So you're on a pretty big, pretty big group on Facebook. You also have a paid group right, wealthy Plumber, yep. So how do you have that? If you don't mind sharing, how do you have that structure to protect your time, because there's a lot. I don't know how many people are in there. You would know how many people do you have.

Jared Williams: 30:11

Yeah, so in the Facebook group there's like over 8,500. I think we have the largest plumbing business only Facebook group. I don't know why it just happened. It was a happy accident, but it's there. And then in our school group we've got like 870-ish people in there.

Corey Berrier: 30:32

Yeah, let's just put the Facebook group to the side. Yeah, but the 870 people pay whatever. They pay 99 bucks a month or a year or something. 99 bucks a month Yep, okay, 99 bucks a month. So part of you must feel that you at least, probably when you started. Well, I owe these people some chunk of my time. So how do you delegate that chunk of time and delegate all the I'm assuming all the messages, unless you set it up to where you have explained how you're going to respond back and forth to people? How do you manage that? Because it seems like that would be a challenge.

Jared Williams: 31:17

It can be. It can be at times so, and it's definitely been a challenge over the last year or so as we've grown. But I just treat it like anything else. There's a time block on my calendar, like we've got Zoom calls that we hold, so those are blocked off on my calendar. I prep for those Zoom calls, so that prep time is blocked off on my calendar. And then I even have time blocked on my calendar just to go in and respond to messages and comments and things like that and then so there's time blocked and I respect that time. I don't. I live and die by my calendar. If it's on my calendar, that's what I'm doing. If it's not on my calendar, I'm not doing it. And then just developing systems and processes to get that stuff done faster, more effectively and more efficiently. So if we get 30 questions on the same topic instead of answering it 30 different times, I'll make a video and I'll put it in the training. So now when somebody asks that question, I can just send them a link to the training. Things like that.

Jared Williams: 32:27

Yeah, simple processes, getting other people involved man, people could come in my group and I know some stuff right. I've had some level of success, but I'm not I don't know everything, I'm not a super guru, know-it-all insanely successful. That's not me and so we've created a community inside of there where other people will come in that have been in there for a while and they'll start getting involved with some of these other people and create subgroups within our group and and that's probably really the that's probably really the best part is we've got 860 business owners and there's probably 230 of them that are actively involved in responding to comments and sharing information, and so when you get in, you're not just getting my knowledge or my advice or my experience, you're getting the knowledge and advice and experience of 200 plus business owners 800 plus business owners, and fostering that community has been really helpful.

Corey Berrier: 33:37

So community is actually something that I wrote down that I want to talk about, because for me, like I mentioned, I'm in recovery and that community for me is one of the most important things in my life, because when things go sideways and I don't mean like picking up a drink or a drug I'm not saying that I'm cured by any stretch, but I had a drink in a long time and I haven't smoked weed in several years. So, like, the drink and the drug is really not the issue today. The drink and the drug I mean the issue really is me right. I'll get in my own way, I'll screw something up, I'll become an egomaniac, I'll say something stupid or I go through a relationship issue and that community that I have around me my inner circle, if you will, like your group is unbelievably powerful in those situations and I don't know if I'd be sitting here today if I didn't have that tight-knit community, and I think that's what you're referring to in your group.

Jared Williams: 34:45

Very similar. I want to do a better job of building those connections for people. I just read a book. Have you ever read the Tribe of Millionaires? I haven't, but I will. That's a good one. It's about a guy whose dad created this group called the Tribe of Millionaires and his dad ends up dying and he gets involved and learns a series of lessons by going to the tribe. The very last lesson he learns is that, and one that I thought was really interesting was that your life will be judged or your.

Jared Williams: 35:21

The success of your life is a measure of the quality of your connections. And over the last I've always poopooed like networking and all of that kind of stuff. And over the last I've always poo-pooed like networking and all of that kind of stuff. And over the last year I've been like, just because of my social media, getting lots of views. I went from this plumbing guy plumber in Alaska to I go to Pantheon and people are stopping me in the hallway shaking my hand and I'm like this is weird. And then people reaching out on Facebook and wanting to connect. And here I am on Corey Barrier's podcast and the effects that that just building those connections with people. Like one, one in example, like. One really good example of this is I was going through my Facebook group and I realized there's a lot of people from my hometown in my Facebook group and so I started going and adding them as friends because I thought, well, these people are business owners. I'm growing a business right here in Pensacola. I'm going to go add these people.

Jared Williams: 36:24

And then I meet my neighbor. He reached out and he said, hey, we should hop on a Zoom call. Turns out we literally live like if we were to fly to each other's houses, probably a half a mile apart, and so we've started to build a good relationship with him. He's a big networker. He's like hey, let's go out to coffee. Hey, let's go out to dinner. Hey, you should come over and help me slaughter my chickens or whatever.

Jared Williams: 36:46

And I'm reluctant. I'm like thinking like, what does this guy want? Like, what is? Like I don't understand. And what he understood is he just wanted to build a relationship. He just wanted the connection and my connection with him. He's a very successful guy, grown lots of businesses, super smart, his wife's super smart, and I have learned so much just from being around that guy that there's things that I'm doing now that have made me money already that are probably going to make me a lot more money in the coming years. That have saved me tons of time just by going to coffee with a guy, just by going to help him slaughter his chickens. The the power of networking is phenomenal. Another example I'll give you another one. All right.

Jared Williams: 37:36

I met Ellen Rohr right. Yep, my social media allowed me to meet Ellen Rohr. Ellen Rohr got me to be a service Titan super ambassador Still don't know what that means, but I am one and that allowed me to get my pressure washing company on service Titan. That never would have happened had I not done social media, put myself out there, built a relationship with Ellen Rohr. I wouldn't be on service Titan to this day.

Corey Berrier: 38:04

Well, I can. I can share a story about Ellen Rohr almost very, very, very, very similar. So I met Al. I've known Alan. I've been in and around the industry for a little while now, so I've known about Alan, but I never really crossed paths with her until I think it was December of this past year, I believe is when I finally met Alan face to face. Now I've interviewed Al. He's a good buddy of mine. I really think he's a world of Al Levy, but I just never really had a chance to run into Ellen. But I had a chance to meet her and I asked her. I said you should be on my podcast and we, I interviewed her. I've interviewed her again since then but because of that me sticking out my hand, introducing myself to ellen roar she is the reason I'm sitting in this building right now.

Jared Williams: 38:58

Yeah, she probably said yes in two seconds she did podcast yeah and then I I reached out to her.

Corey Berrier: 39:05

We were just talking, we text almost every day and I just said she, she said hey, I think she said I know that because she knew me in my previous company. She knew that we parted ways and she said I think she said I don't know for sure if this is going to be a good fit, but I think it's going to be. I think it's a good fit. I think he's looking for what you are and I think you'll really like this guy. And I just just interview with the guy and talk to him. Just interview with the guy and talk to him. And because of Ellen Rohr that's why I'm sitting here in the building of Zoom Drain right now because it was a perfect match. And she knew it was a perfect match hands down and it's been. But you're right, it's when you build relationships with people for the right reasons and sometimes you don't even know the reason the chicken guy you didn't really know why you had to go. You didn't know why you were having coffee with this guy or why you were slaughtering chickens.

Jared Williams: 40:04

I knew why I was slaughtering chickens? Because I knew how to slaughter chickens and he didn't. Oh, fair enough. Fair enough, I'll give you the coffee one.

Corey Berrier: 40:12

Yeah, because ultimately it feels like a waste of time.

Jared Williams: 40:15

It does yeah.

Corey Berrier: 40:16

Yeah, totally. But it's the furthest thing if you're with the right person, with the right intention, and the intention is I'm just going to sit down and have coffee with this guy. That's the intention. See what he's all about.

Jared Williams: 40:29

Yeah, see what kind of knowledge he's got. You never know yep, yep, and sometimes it'll be a waste of time. But, man, I've maybe spent I don't know 20, 30 hours going out to coffee over the last six months, and it's that one relationship has probably saved me I don't know years of hassle, just being able to glean a little bit of knowledge off of a guy. Totally worth it. Huge, huge return on time, massive.

Corey Berrier: 40:59

Yeah, yeah. It's incredible and I get that same thing when I work with people in recovery. I do it because, honestly, it's a very selfish situation in recovery, because I'm helping these new guys, because it helps me. I'm not doing it, so they stay sober, because, really, if they don't stay sober, it's not my problem.

Jared Williams: 41:25

Yeah.

Corey Berrier: 41:26

But it does something for me that's almost metaphysical or spiritual or maybe both. It's almost metaphysical or spiritual, or maybe both when I freely give that time. There's a guy right now in Canada. I've never even met this guy and I spend 20 or 30 minutes on the phone with him every single day. Yeah, because he found me through a different podcast and like connected with me through a website, which was just odd. But now I've been able to help this guy through his relationship because I went through the same thing and like I understand where he's at and there's something to that. That's just about as. It's better than making a whole bunch of money in one day. Don't get me wrong. Making a bunch of money in one day is great, but it's not necessarily for me. It's not fulfilling. There's a dopamine hit, for sure.

Jared Williams: 42:26

Yep, but that's it. Yeah, I think you need both sides of that spectrum, like you need the people that are close to you, that are around you, like your tribe you're the top five people you hang out with, right, you're an average of them. You need to have those people that are pushing you, or an example to you of fitness, health, wealth, relationships, whatever, to help pull you up, but also, like, like you said, helping other people. That's a huge. It's a. I look at it as giving. You're giving your time, not just giving your finances or giving your knowledge. You're giving some of your time to this guy. That's a huge part of living a fulfilled life. It's funny because, like I've talked to a ton of very successful people and at some point the money is, it just is what it is Like. You have enough right For me.

Jared Williams: 43:26

I hit that point really quickly, like at like 250K a year. I have more money than I know what to do with, and so everything else. So then you start wondering, well, okay, why am I continuing to be in business? Or why do I continue to have a coaching program? Or why do we continue to do this podcast? Or why do we go to events and talk to people and meet people and it becomes more about like you have to define a bigger purpose than the money.

Jared Williams: 43:59

And I've talked to a lot of very wealthy people and it always comes down to the impact. At the end of the day, all of them reach that same point where they say, okay, I've got enough money, I have plenty of resources, I don't need anything more. So what am I doing? What am I doing this for? And they genuinely wanted to help people out and it took me a long time to understand, like, why, like my neighbor, for instance, why do you want to help me out so bad? It's because to him, it's like you helping this guy out, getting sober and helping him live a better life. I'm that like. I'm that person. To him, it's like you helping this guy out, getting sober and helping him live a better life. I'm that person to him. He's made way more money than me, he's way better at managing his time than me, he's got very successful relationships and now he gets to help me achieve those things as well. That's what being fulfilled is.

Corey Berrier: 44:52

In the human connection with that portion too. Over the last four or five years I think we've become a lot of folks have become very disconnected to human beings Because, like we're sitting here now, you do your podcast in person, which I know is a much bigger pain in the butt than me doing it on Zoom. But I would almost guarantee that your conversations have more connection than us looking through this screen.

Jared Williams: 45:28

Yeah.

Corey Berrier: 45:29

And I think it. I was just listening to a show, a podcast, the other day. I think it was the Diary of the CEO, and it was talking about how men, especially, have become so disconnected from society. From dating, from picking up girls, to now they've moved over to swiping left or right, and so the pornography portion of that is skyrocketed, because men don't know how to communicate with women. They don't know how to go into a bar or to a coffee, wherever you pick up women and have a conversation, because they're so disconnected from human beings. Yep, and that's really sad.

Jared Williams: 46:23

Yeah, between COVID and social media, yeah, people live in a different world. It's actually kind of like I've got friends that they'll come over to my house and they'll be over there like this, and I'm like, what are you doing? You're at my house, man, you're here to hang out with me. Like, throw that thing in the trash, you don't need that. Like pick that.

Jared Williams: 46:40

And those are the same kind of people that that when they, when they pick their head up out of their phone, they live in a different world than me because they're so focused on Donald Trump or politics or what's happening in Iran or all this stuff. And I'm like, man, guys, if you would just just throw that in the trash, turn off your TV, don't watch any news, and just take in the world around you, your life would improve a thousand fold because it's not as bad as you think. Like you're being brainwashed and you don't even know it. It's actually pretty crazy. I don't understand that. I'm so happy I've never fallen into the trap of constantly on my phone, living in a different world. I have made a conscious decision.

Jared Williams: 47:28

Like somebody said, we bombed Iran or something like that the other day. I know nothing about it, I have no clue. They're like you didn't hear. I'm like no, no, and I don't care, because we didn't bomb Pensacola, florida and my view out my window this morning looked pretty good and I enjoyed the sunrise and hanging out with my wife and drinking my coffee and it was awesome.

Jared Williams: 47:51

I don't need to know I live in a much better world that's right yeah, just because I curated it for myself yeah, I do, I'm 100 with you.

Corey Berrier: 48:01

I I know my dad is blown away every time I talk because you know he's 75 years old, he watches fox news and like I can't believe you didn't hear. But I'm like like dude, I said, what difference does it make to me? He's like you got to know what's coming and I'm like, do I? Do I need to know what's coming? I really don't give a shit what's coming, because whatever's coming is coming, regardless if I know about it or not.

Jared Williams: 48:27

Yeah, I've got my guns. I know how to shoot. There you go Right.

Corey Berrier: 48:31

Yeah, who shoot? There you go Right. Who cares? And the whole idea. Social media is one of those things where it's there for two reasons. It depends on if you're a consumer or you're, if you use it like for business if you're a consumer.

Corey Berrier: 48:48

They've got you right where they want you, oh yeah. But if you use it as a business tool, you don't deal with any of that. And there's two and a lot of people, a lot of people are consumed, as they are the consumer, and they don't view this as a business opportunity or opportunity to well, that's it a business opportunity, because that's what it is. Yeah, business tool.

Jared Williams: 49:17

I don't think there's anything wrong with consuming certain types of social media, like podcasts, obviously, sure Like somebody can listen to this podcast and get a ton out of it and it could totally change their life. I will say, though, like shorts and reels and that kind of stuff, throw that junk in the trash. I make most of my money for my coaching program off of those, and I can tell you like we curate those reels to get views, not to pass along valuable information. It's to get real views, suck you into our ecosystem and sell you something. As bad as that sounds, that's what they're for.

Corey Berrier: 49:57

And yeah, but hold on. So I'm going to challenge that right. All right, so to sell them something because you know it's going to make their life better.

Jared Williams: 50:06

Yes, yes, it hands down a hundred percent make their life better. But if you were to just go watch my reels and then go try and run a business, you're screwed, screwed. I cannot give you enough information in 30 seconds for you to do anything with. All I can do is hook you in, pique your interest and piss you off, or make you like me One of the two. Right, that's it. I would throw that stuff in the garbage. I would like people who doom scroll and just sit there on their phone wow, that is a waste of time, just quit like. Those are the kind of people they need to go right now and all the stuff they got to do they need to make a t-graph, they need to go put stuff on their calendar and they'll go crap. I don't have time to doom scroll anymore. I gotta, I gotta work on some other stuff during that time.

Corey Berrier: 50:53

Yeah, and record how long you doom scrolled yesterday and that'll be a real eye-opener for you, because the idea is that you get stuck scrolling and it works If you allow it to work.

Jared Williams: 51:07

It works. Yeah, have you ever? I remember I was at a conference one time it was a real estate investing conference and the dude on stage said everybody pull out their phone. And so everybody pulled out their phone and he showed you how to go get to your average screen time over the last seven days and his was like four hours and 45 minutes and I was like holy crap. And he said the average was like seven hours. And I'm sitting next to one of my good buddies and I said what's yours? It was six plus hours. He goes what's yours? Mine was like 40 minutes. I was like holy cow.

Jared Williams: 51:46

How are you spending six hours on average on your phone? That is insane. I don't. What do you like? No wonder you don't have any money. Like I'm not trying to be mean, but no wonder you don't have any money. You're spending six hours a day on your phone. How are you ever going to go make money doing that? It doesn't even make sense. You're not even going to be able to get. You're like your mind is going to be so screwed up You'll never be able to deal with anything properly. In my opinion. I would yeah, I would, hands down, be very careful of the time you like. How you spend your time is really the secret to probably most everything. It's how you spend your time and and the people that you hang out with and the people that you that you bring on board to work with you those are that's like the secret to success, in my opinion.

Corey Berrier: 52:32

Yeah, and how, how, when you stood, we talked a little bit about when you started out, and you started out because you wanted to make the same money your boss was making. Yeah, but now that shifted. Do you remember when that kind of shifted for you, when the definition of success went from money to that happiness and so on and so forth?

Jared Williams: 52:54

Yep, yeah, I quit my job for the third time. So I would start a business, run it for a year, look at my P&L for the year and go just look at it and say, well, I worked less when I had a regular job and I made more money, so I should probably go do that again. And then I would do that for a year and then I would get tired of working for people. I was a good employee but I was terrible at the same time because I hated being there. And you got to remember.

Jared Williams: 53:24

This is when I'm you know, I'm like 32 when I first do this until I'm 35. And I've been plumbing and working for people since I was 18, doing the same thing day in, day out, day in, day out. I'm coming up on 20 years in the trade and I'm thinking to myself normal retirement's at 66. And here I am, I'm 32. I got a lot of years left there's. I'm not going to make it. There's no way Like I have to. Something has to change. There's no way I can do this or I'm going to be miserable.

Jared Williams: 53:56

And so the I did that with boiler panels, and then I did it with my partnership and then I did it on my own twice and then the third time on my own when I finally I quit my job. I was tired of working, the job slowed down and I worked out of the union hall and I went down to the union hall and I said what else you guys got? And they said it's slim. I got nothing and I had no intention of going back into business. But I thought, well, I better just go work for myself. And I remember I went on the internet and I started Googling because I remember seeing like service companies with 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 trucks and going I don't know how they do that, they must pay their guys, like nothing. And then I started just researching how to run a plumbing business how, whatever and I found an online calculator and I calculated how much I should be charging and based on expenses, which was like mind blown, and I it came out to like 259 an hour. Fuck.

Corey Berrier: 55:42

There you are, yep, all right. $259 an hour is where we were at before the internet kicked us out.

Jared Williams: 55:51

Okay, so you froze for a little bit. So I calculated my prices and it came out to $259 and I was charging $140 and I thought there's no way, like nobody's going to pay $259 an hour. Now, mind you, I'm in Fairbanks, alaska. There are no big plumbing companies. There's nobody charging anywhere near that. I think the most expensive company in town was $150 and the opinion of them is that they were a ripoff, like they were crooks. Right, and especially in the plumbing industry, like the sphere that I was involved in, those guys were crooks. They were terrible people. And I looked at that 259 and I thought I got nothing to lose. And so I remember going to my first job. It was easy for me to turn my business back on, thankfully. I had a GMB, I had a brand, I had a logo. It was J-Rod's Plumbing.

Jared Williams: 56:45

At the time I had customers that liked me make a few Facebook announcements. I'm up and running and he wants tons of stuff done, like a whole day's worth of work, and I give him a bid and it's thousands of dollars and he says yeah, let's do it. And I was like holy crap. And he comes back to me at the end of the job time to pay all the work's done. He said that works out to like almost $300 an hour, right, and I said, yeah, he goes. That's expensive. And I said, yeah, he goes. You got me over a barrel, though, because you were the only one that answered your phone and I was like, huh, interesting, he goes. I couldn't get anybody else out here. And I said, well, sounds like I do. And he paid it and off I went.

Jared Williams: 57:45

And then I went to another job. Guy called me out, called me on the phone. He said, hey, I need somebody to come out and change my toilet flapper. And I was like, oh man, $250 an hour for a toilet flapper, that's going to be an expensive toilet flapper is what I'm thinking in my head. And I tell him. I said, look, man, like honestly, coming out just to do a toilet flapper, for what you're probably willing to pay for, it's not worth my time. And he goes. Let me tell you something. I've called probably eight different plumbers and they all told me the same thing and I'll pay you whatever you want to come out and replace my toilet. Probably eight different plumbers and they all told me the same thing and I'll pay you whatever you want to come out and replace my toilet flapper and I was like, okay, I'll be there in a few minutes. And I went out and I just changed his toilet flapper. It was like 300 bucks and he paid it, left me a five-star review, was super happy, and I was like dang there's, I think I figured out like a secret that nobody else knows. Like dang there's, I think I figured out like a secret that nobody else knows.

Jared Williams: 58:44

Third guy called me. I was five minutes down the street. He had a water heater needed replaced. I quoted him 2,800 bucks. He said go for it. I got it done right then and there At the end of the job he asked me are you sure you're making enough money on this job? And I said I'm positive, I'm a hundred percent positive. And I was just blown away like that. That that worked.

Jared Williams: 59:07

And in a six month period, just by raising my rates and giving prices up front. I didn't give options or any of that, just raise rates, options or any of that, just raise rates, prices up front. I literally wrote estimates on a piece of paper. No software. I took payment through QuickBooks, that was it. That was my only software.

Jared Williams: 59:30

In a six-month period I did like $800,000 in revenue and stacked away a ton of cash, bought more vans, rebranded my company, did a ton of marketing and that business just exploded.

Jared Williams: 59:47

It was crazy. That was the first realization. It was like my whole thing. I remember back in the day I would crunch the numbers and I would say, okay, this guy cost me this much money and so he needs to bill out this much of his time at $120 an hour for it to be worth it. And it was like more time than he worked. And I knew from my experience that I'm not going to bill out all my time and I thought so this just can't be done. I don't know how these guys are doing it, but it can't be done. And then when I figured out that secret of oh, you just have to charge a lot or more than you think and you can because there's people out there that are willing to pay it because most guys don't charge enough and so they can't actually go out and serve the customer because they can't afford to, I was off to the races. It was super cool.

Corey Berrier: 1:00:37

Super cool One thing that and I know that a lot of guys you obviously have figured this out but if the customer can't change the toilet flapper, it doesn't really matter if it takes you five minutes or five hours.

Corey Berrier: 1:00:56

They still can't change the toilet flapper. Therefore, when I think about the plumbing industry, they're calling you because they don't know how to do the thing. If they knew how to do the thing, they'd do it themselves. Or maybe they just don't want to do the thing, or maybe they don't have time to do the thing, or maybe it could be all three, who knows? The point is is like it doesn't matter if you're billing out time, that's fine, but really it's the skillset that they're paying for. It doesn't matter how much time it takes and how much money it costs.

Corey Berrier: 1:01:30

If they can't accomplish that thing because they don't have the skillset, it's no different than me going to have heart surgery. I don't know anybody that performs heart surgery except heart surgeons. Yep, right, I'm not going to call the guy down the street that does foot surgeries to do my heart surgery, right, yep, but so many customers will do that. And guess what? If you've ever done business with a crappy contractor, you and I both know you're still going to have to call me and fix it because he's not going to do it right, because he's got to cut corners, so on and so forth. You're not going to be happy, so you're going to pay him his dirt cheap price, and you're also going to pay me, so just pay me to begin with.

Jared Williams: 1:02:12

There's customers that are okay with that. They're okay paying a lesser amount and getting a lower quality. That's fine. What plumbers don't understand is we think that customers want low price, high quality and they do. But we don't believe that there's customers out there that will pay a high price for high quality and that's where we go wrong. Like there is a, there are so many customers out there that are dying to pay you more to come to their house and offer them a better experience and they just don't know who to call. And if you can fill that need, there's a massive need for it in any any home service industry. That need exists.

Jared Williams: 1:02:54

And if you can just put together a good process where your phone gets answered, you book them on the schedule, you get out there when you say you're going to get out there, you present them with a price up front. They are willing to pay you and you get the work done like you said it was going to get done and it's good quality work. They'll pay you all day long and they'll leave you five-star reviews all day long and you'll have a customer for life. Because 99% of the guys out there don't do that. 99% of the plumbers don't answer their phone. They don't even know how to give a price up front. They don't even want to go do the job because they don't think they can charge enough to make it worth their time. That's right, and yeah. And so there's massive opportunity to just raise your rates and go do the work that nobody else wants to do, and do it well.

Corey Berrier: 1:03:45

You're 100% correct. That's part of the. I don't have a secret, like I know the industry and I know that what you're saying is absolutely the truth.

Jared Williams: 1:03:56

Yep.

Corey Berrier: 1:03:56

And so the reason I've brought on about 850 new customers, if you will, and what I mean by that is I'm not saying I brought in 850 people that need services today, but I've partnered with property management companies that have all those people that are renters and they're selling houses, but primarily renters. Well, guess what? Renders are going to F your toilets up constantly because they don't care, because they're the renter. So I've brought all these people in because I know the need of having a plumber is almost a good plumber is almost impossible to find. So I'm feeling a need that I know is there. I just have to knock on the door. That's it. Knock on the door.

Corey Berrier: 1:04:46

Here's what we offer, here's what we do. We'll be there on time. We won't overcharge you. We'll make sure it's fair. Sometimes we even have some prices in place. It doesn't mean it's going to be that way every single time. But then it opens up the door for re-pipes and all kinds of massive jobs. But you've got to treat those people the right way, because or you're going to be just like the other guys, and so that's where my job comes in, is I'm going to nurture those relationships and they're never going to forget me, even if I make a mistake, they're going to say, well, if I've nurtured it right, they're going to be forgiving, because there are going to be mistakes, of course.

Jared Williams: 1:05:29

Yeah, people are used to that, used to mistakes happening. It's part of the deal, yeah.

Corey Berrier: 1:05:34

Absolutely. But my God, just show up, just show up on time. Just show up when you say you're going to. That's half the battle these days.

Jared Williams: 1:05:42

Yeah, and then just charge them enough to where you still make a profit and let them decide if they want to use you or not. That's right. There's people out there that will use you. At the end of the day, there's more than you think, yeah.

Corey Berrier: 1:06:14

I'm always surprised, always. So how do you? Yeah, I'm always surprised. Always in place, that could have been. What do you? How do you? Follow-up's a big deal right. Most, most people in the trades just are terrible at follow-up. They don't touch back with the customer If they say no, they just move on to the next lead they're paying for, which is ridiculous. So how do you guys, what do you implement, how? Who do you use, or what do you use to make sure those things don't fall through the cracks?

Jared Williams: 1:06:41

Yeah, so for follow-up, we do some follow-up in-house. We do happy calls. That's about the only in-house follow-up we're going to do. We try to do those as soon as possible. It'd be cool to do them before the technician is down the street a ways. It'd be cool if we could call the customer and they say, oh no, he left this tool here, or no, I wasn't satisfied. We can call the technician and say turn around, go back and make that customer happy. It's also another chance for us to get a five-star review if the technician slipped up and didn't get a five-star review. So those are super important to us. And then, outside of that, like we're doing follow-ups with currently we use a software, we use Chirp to do our follow-up. So it's all just automated emails, text messages, all those campaigns going.

Jared Williams: 1:07:30

We're working on getting some AI involved. I haven't been a huge fan of AI just because it seems AI-ish, but it's getting very good and it's only getting better and it's getting better very fast. And if we can do follow-up and like I think the whole world is changing Like we've got, it's getting crazy. Actually, like between a few softwares we can say we can integrate with Service Titan and say, hey, we have a job here on the map. We can say we can integrate with Service Titan and say, hey, we have a job here on the map. Let's go do some, pull some data and see how many homes around this area are worth 500K or more. Let's pull those into an automated cold reach out and see if they want us to swing by and give them a free estimate and then let's use AI to get those people booked on our schedule. And let's also use AI to say let's dispatch our sales guy to all those homes in that area all at one go so that we're super efficient on our sales guy's time. It's getting crazy.

Jared Williams: 1:08:37

I think people who are behind the ball on AI or who refuse to use AI they're going to get left behind. If I can contact the customer, reach out to the customer and interact faster than you can, I'm going to win the majority of the business. It's getting pretty crazy and I think it's going to be necessary. Like with the cost of pay-per-click these days we're like in pressure washing. We're paying almost $200 for a call and we're literally the only ones doing PPC here. Right, we might have like two people spending very minimal budgets. We're the only big players spending big budgets on pressure washing and it's 200 bucks for a phone call and you can't sustain that and not follow up on all that stuff all the way through. Otherwise your cost per booked call is way too high, your cost per sole job is way too high, your customer acquisition is way too high. I think it's, I think follow-up is going to be. I think follow-up and, just like ai, automation on the back end is going to be imperative.

Corey Berrier: 1:09:42

What about voice? Are you referring to some of this as voice?

Jared Williams: 1:09:46

I haven't gone down that road yet. I've been opposed to it in the past because, like, my idea is like, as soon as all the other competitors are using AI, I'm going to market myself, as we have real humans that answered the phone I love it are using AI, I'm going to market myself, as we have real humans that answered the phone. I love it, but it's going much faster than I intended, right? So I don't think you're going to be able to tell it's AI here shortly. We might be at that point now, I don't know. At that point then, yes, 100% I'll use some sort of AI CSR. I can see the CSR position In my plumbing and heating company. At one time we had three CSRs full-time doing follow-ups, dispatching, scheduling calls, all that stuff. I can see you'll be able to run a $10 million, $15 million shop with like one or two CSRs. Yep, that's right, yeah.

Corey Berrier: 1:10:45

Because there is going to be a portion of people and so I'm a part of an AI company that's slowly but surely not becoming an AI company because it's just going so fast.

Corey Berrier: 1:10:58

But we built the call center AI for an HVAC company I was working for, and the way we mapped it out and I'm not the brain, I'm just the like I brought the idea, the scripts right.

Corey Berrier: 1:11:13

I'm not the guy behind the computer like building this stuff, right, but we built it out to where, when let's just say it's after hours and they call, and there's other companies out there that do this now and I think they've done a really good job and we've considered using one of them specifically I haven't pulled the trigger yet Anyhow so we would get it to ask if it's a midnight call. Wouldn't you rather talk to somebody and get a call? Wouldn't you rather talk to somebody and get a call? Wouldn't you rather talk to a robot and get a call book, knowing it's going to be there the next day at 8 am, opposed to how everybody does it now, which they might get back to you maybe by 8 am if you're lucky. I think there's a lot of people that are going to be willing to have that AI conversation. To have that AI conversation if you're up front about it being an AI conversation. It takes away the trickery of it and then you can decide.

Jared Williams: 1:12:13

Yep, I agree, so I just hopped. I have just had a conversation with a company for AI text messaging and we have an after hours answering service and they're good, but they're not my CSRs right, there's still somebody else's CSRs. So I always refer to it as the least sucky of the sucky. And they don't suck by any means, but that's a good way for me to think about it. They're not as good, so it's the least sucky of the sucky, fair enough. And he said well, why don't you give the customer a choice Like would you rather talk to, would you rather have a phone call or a text message? And then, if this customer says two for a text message, then you can use your AI for text messaging.

Jared Williams: 1:12:58

And we get to go in and train this AI on a daily basis and it's getting really, really, really, really like better than my CSR. It makes better text messages than my CR. It's better at booking calls over text than my CSR, and so now I'm saving money on my after hours phone calls because I'm not paying the answering service. It's about 40% of the calls are choosing text message over talking to a CSR. Yeah, and so it's just. The whole thing is fascinating. It's moving fast, like just giving them the choice of hey, would you rather a text or a call?

Corey Berrier: 1:13:39

So I know you can't look at it from your standpoint, but let's just take you as an example. Which guy did you which? Which which camp do you fall into If you're that guy making that call in the middle of the night?

Jared Williams: 1:13:50

phone call. Phone call. But or what if? If I got a text message, if I, if I hopped on the phone and it said, or like, press three, we'll send you our online scheduling link, I'd press three, yeah, and then I'd go to the online scheduling link and I'm going to schedule online. I'm definitely that guy.

Corey Berrier: 1:14:12

All right. So what if you're? Are you still that guy? If you're at Disney World with your wife and kids, Are you still the phone call guy?

Jared Williams: 1:14:24

Oh no, I'm the text message guy.

Corey Berrier: 1:14:26

So I think it depends on the scenario where you're at, what you're doing. Midnight you're at home, but maybe your wife's sleeping and you don't really want to wake her up, because that could be a whole other set of problems. Right, yep, agreed, fascinating. Right, yep, agreed, fascinating.

Jared Williams: 1:14:43

Yeah, it's a fast-moving, fascinating world. I think it's going to impact us a lot. I think we need to be on it.

Corey Berrier: 1:14:50

Yeah, I agree and I think honestly, the only people that are protected from this AI revolution are people in the trades.

Jared Williams: 1:15:03

I agree, but I think I feel like it's going to get harder for new guys to start up.

Corey Berrier: 1:15:11

Why do you think that?

Jared Williams: 1:15:13

Well, I think they're going to have to incur these costs of like they're not going to be able to just answer their phone anymore. It's not going to be fast enough, it's not going to be good enough, and so they're going to have to incur the cost of getting ai on board earlier than maybe they would have earlier so that's a business.

Corey Berrier: 1:15:29

So all right, let me rephrase the question.

Jared Williams: 1:15:31

All right, so let me rephrase the question what you're saying like like actual tradesmen out there doing that's right, yep I agree, I 100% are not protected at all.

Corey Berrier: 1:15:40

They have to get on board.

Jared Williams: 1:15:42

They need to? Yeah, and I think it's going to. I feel like it's going to create a division between the big guys and the little guys, and it's going to be harder and harder to be a little guy Like. And then I'm in pressure washing now and there are no big guys. So what AI is doing now is it's creating a giant hole in the market, like there's already a giant hole in the market in pressure washing, where there's nobody doing it very well, and now I'm going to be able to incorporate AI and all this stuff and it's going to be impossible to catch me for these little guys. It's going to be impossible to catch me. For these little guys. It's going to be impossible. And so I feel like we'll be able to sweep the nation really quickly and take over the world is how I view it better than ever. There's no competition.

Corey Berrier: 1:16:35

So is this why the road from zero to 100 million is a thing? Because of what we've talked about today, because of the things that you know are here and that you're utilizing, the things that are coming? Is that why you have made that? Did I say that right?

Jared Williams: 1:16:55

Yeah, yeah, 100 million, yeah, the. The reason I chose that goal is because in the past, thinking small has held me back and caused me to make small moves, small decisions and move slower, and so this go around. I said, screw it, we're going to 100 million. And it's not about the money at all, it's about it's about the impact. So, like in my plumbing business, just watching, I feel like I built a pyramid and I'm at the top of the pyramid, and every time that pyramid gets bigger, right, it's more and more people underneath that get to have a better place to work, make more money, and then even my friends and family get involved in that. Like, my friends have better opportunities, my family has better opportunities, my children have better opportunities, my grandkids will have better opportunities all because I made the decision to build something. That's more about what it is for me. So just setting that a hundred million goal, it was a big enough goal.

Jared Williams: 1:17:54

Somewhere I've never been. I don't know how to get there. It's going to require bigger thinking, bigger moves, and so that's what I needed. And then I purposely went and told people that, so that I couldn't come back on my decision. I couldn't say, oh no, we're only going to grow it to 30. I couldn't say no, we're only going to grow it to 50 or no, it's too hard. I quit. I wanted, I needed that accountability of hey world. I'm growing this to 100 million. Watch me do it. And then I have no option.

Corey Berrier: 1:18:25

It's like burning the ships to some extent right A hundred percent, a hundred percent, yeah, when you voice something as large as that to the world, you are being held accountable now, and it drives people like me and you.

Jared Williams: 1:18:41

It does, and I'll tell you what. So the accountability drives people like me and you Like. I love proving people wrong. If somebody tells me there's no way, I'm like watch me and I will make a way there's, I love it. It's nothing more satisfying to me than as bad as that sounds proving people wrong. It's like huge motivator to me, yeah to me. Then, as bad as that sounds, it's proving people wrong, it's like huge motivator to me. Yeah. So there's that. But then also saying, okay, I'm going to grow this to a hundred million, like my.

Jared Williams: 1:19:07

We were talking about my relationship with my neighbor. That is the whole reason that he reached out and we went to coffee. It was because I said I want to grow this thing to a hundred million. It showed him that I was thinking bigger than my current situation, that I had dreams and hopes and goals, and he loved it. Like the dream was so big that he felt like he could get involved and help me go there. So I think, yeah, we could talk all day long about thinking bigger it. Just it does so much more than you even realize.

Corey Berrier: 1:19:43

So I think it's probably ridiculous for me to ask this, but obviously I would think that you've read the Magic of Thinking Big.

Jared Williams: 1:19:50

Oh yeah, that's a great book. Yeah, I love that.

Corey Berrier: 1:19:53

Yeah, because our minds are limited to the knowledge that we have. And if you can't so? It's like I've heard this. I certainly am not the one that came up with this, but if you reach for the stars and you hit the clouds, you're still way further than you ever thought you could be.

Jared Williams: 1:20:09

Way further. Yeah, and it requires, like if I was going, if I wanted to grow a $10 million pressure washing business, right, and I'm stuck or I've got a decision to make, I'm thinking of it in a $10 million framework. If I'm saying, okay, I'm going into a hundred million, I'm thinking about this, those decisions early on, in a hundred million dollar framework. My systems, my processes, the things that I build now are much different just because my goal is bigger. We're spending much more time now building a solid foundation to scale on than I would if I was only going to 10 million. Yeah, so it's cool. I enjoy it. Makes it more fun to me too.

Corey Berrier: 1:20:55

Agreed. Yeah, I agree, yeah, I agree, and I think a lot of people just I don't know if it's programming from a small child, where you know, you see your parents make X, Y, Z and you think, well, if I just make a little bit more than them, I'm successful.

Corey Berrier: 1:21:21

But the reality is you're right, you just have to to be able to attend the death walk. I don't know if I told you that, but I'm not going to attend it. It sucks because here's why I wanted to attend the death walk. It's not about the 24 hours, right? Nothing to do with the 24 hours. Is that going to suck? Yeah, of course it's going to suck, but I've done a lot worse things that sucked, yep. But I've done a lot worse things that sucked, yep.

Corey Berrier: 1:21:42

But what I understood from that death walk after I started reading through it, I'm like oh, this is about building a connection with so many different people, because you're not going to talk to the same dude for 24 hours. No, you're going to move around, you're going to fall back, you're going to get ahead and you know, eventually you're or as that process happens I'm guessing tell me if I'm wrong you're going to be exposed to people that otherwise you would never be exposed to and you're going to be forced to have a conversation with them, because you all are sharing this journey together, you all. It's like you're my homie, because we're doing this thing together and there's a bond that happens there that you're not going to be able to get through a screen or you're not going to be able to get even over coffee. It's just a different level of connection, nope.

Jared Williams: 1:22:32

Right, it's twofold. It's that it's a different level of connection, like there's probably 20 people involved in the death walk. It's a small level of connection. There's probably 20 people involved in the death walk. It's a small group of people and that was intentional. You're going to talk about business for an hour maybe, and then you're going to talk about life, and then you're going to get so tired you're not going to talk about anything. You're going to be walking with a dude and you're not going to say a word to him, but you are going to feel like he's your homie. That's for sure. Everybody there is going to be homies by the end.

Jared Williams: 1:23:06

And then also for me, I I have done a lot of. I used to run ultra marathons in the past and so doing a hundred milers and getting to that point where you are asking yourself why am I doing this? Like there's no good reason to run 100 miles, zero and every single race I've ever done. I got to the point where I said this sucks, I don't know why I'm doing this, and I wanted to quit, but I'm not a quitter. To quit, but I'm not a quitter.

Jared Williams: 1:23:45

And so you force yourself to finish and you're always surprised at how hard you can push, even though your tank is empty. And, for some strange reason, every time you finish, you have this sense of accomplishment and this newfound idea of how hard you can push on things and how strong your brain is. And so, if I can pass that along to business owners because my thing is is I hear him say all the time this is so hard, and I'm like you don't know what hard is, man. So I'm going to show you what hard is. I'll show you hard. I'll show you. I want to show you when your knees hurt and your ankles hurt and you're chafed and you're dehydrated and you're hungry and is the worst, the suckiest of the sucky that you've ever experienced, you're still going to be able to walk and use your mind to push you past those experiences. It's a it's a cool thing to experience when you get to experience it.

Corey Berrier: 1:24:42

Yeah, yeah, I, I totally get it. I totally totally get it. Yeah, I hate that. Has it already happened? Has it already happened this weekend, saturday July 19th.

Jared Williams: 1:24:55

Wow, that's amazing.

Corey Berrier: 1:24:57

That's amazing. Well, I think that. Yeah, just super. I can't wait to see what all you post about it, and I think all 20 guys will make it, because they'll push through. And you're right, it gives you an example of how hard you haven't been pushing to.

Jared Williams: 1:25:17

Oh yeah, definitely yeah. Yep, we're going to do it every year, so you can come next year, I'll be there you can mark my words on that.

Corey Berrier: 1:25:25

I'll be there like I love a challenge, dude, I love a challenge and I will not quit, that's for sure. Probably not gonna run an ultra. Good, well, jared dude, I can't. I can't thank you enough for just spending this time with me today and just having this conversation. It's been it's really been. It's been really been impactful for me and I'm sure other people are going to get something out of it for me. I really, really really appreciate you and appreciate the conversation today. If people by chance don't know who you are, where to find you, could you tell us where that would be?

Jared Williams: 1:26:03

Yeah, if they just search the Jared Williams Show or Jared Williams Plumber on Google, I'll show up. Search Jared Williams on any of the social media channels. I'm there, perfect, yep.

Corey Berrier: 1:26:16

My friend, I appreciate you, appreciate you having me on. It's been a great conversation, thank you.