BigDeal - #17 These are the Highest Paying Jobs That No One’s Talking About

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

🚀 Main Street Over Wall Street is where the real deals get done. Join top investors, founders, and operators for three days of powerful connection, sharp strategy, and big opportunities — live in Austin, Nov 2–4. https://contrarianthinking.biz/msows-bigdeal In this episode, Codie explores if blue-collar workers might be happier and more financially successful than white-collar workers. She points out that many blue-collar workers report high job satisfaction and that trade jobs can offer good pay without needing an expensive university degree. Brandon Downer, cofounder of Pink's, shares his story of leaving a corporate job to start the Austin-based window cleaning business. The podcast challenges traditional views on career success and suggests that blue-collar jobs can be fulfilling and rewarding, urging listeners to reconsider their career choices.Financial freedom isn’t luck — it’s learned. Join my 3-day live virtual event this September 19-21. Reserve your spot and join the owner revolution → http://contrarianthinking.biz/3Hon5uW Want help scaling your business to $1M in monthly revenue? ⁠Click here⁠ to connect with my consulting team. Record your first video https://creators.riverside.fm/Codie and use code CODIE for 15% off an individual plan. 00:00 START 01:44 Contrarian Idea: Blue Collar Happiness 02:21 Exploring the Data: Blue Collar vs. White Collar Satisfaction 06:01 The Coal Mine Experience 11:03 Steal My Rich Friend: Brandon Downer, cofounder of Pink's Window Services 11:52 Brandon's Journey: From Corporate to Blue Collar 20:42 The Reality of Blue Collar Work 23:55 The Path to Happiness: Purpose-Driven Work 25:03 From Financial Firm to Window Cleaning: A Personal Journey 26:29 Choosing Team Over Profit: The Decision to Stay Local 28:57 Faith and Business: Integrating Values into Work 30:44 Branding and Marketing: Making Blue Collar Cool 37:18 The Rise of Blue Collar on Social Media 41:06 Rethinking Career Paths: The Value of Trade Work MORE FROM BIGDEAL: 🎥 ⁠YouTube⁠ 📸 ⁠Instagram⁠ 📽️ ⁠TikTok⁠ MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ: 🎥 ⁠YouTube⁠ 📸 ⁠Instagram⁠ 📽️ ⁠TikTok⁠ OTHER THINGS WE DO: 🫂 ⁠Our community⁠ 📰 ⁠Free newsletter⁠ 🏦 ⁠Biz buying course⁠ 🏠 ⁠Resibrands⁠ 💰 ⁠CT Capital⁠ 🏙️ ⁠Main St Hold Co⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The average marketing major makes somewhere between $60,000 to $80,000 a year. The average skilled trades worker after they graduate can make up where of $75,000 to $100,000 a year. Does every kid have to go to university? Student debt in the U.S. is at all-time high record levels. You had gone to college. You paid all this money. You had these fancy jobs. And then you're like, the thing is, well, I want to go be a window cleaner.

Like, moms don't love that. The tide is turning in this country. And people are starting to realize sitting in the office all day isn't for me. For a lot of people, it doesn't make them happy being behind a screen. Why does it feel like we're working harder and we're getting no further in this country? What the fuck's going on? Hey, it's Cody Sanchez and welcome back to the Big Deal podcast. For those who don't just want to be rich, but free and do what actually takes to get there.

I love this podcast because I love talking to friends about how they made their millions and helping business owners solve their problems. It's fulfilling. I love sharing all the secrets. But when I can't meet in person, there's only one tool I use. It's called Riverside. Riverside ensures I can talk to someone anywhere in the world, recorded in 4K, so the quality of the video matches the quality of the humans you're listening to. Riverside records separate audio and video tracks so we can easily cut out those awkward interruptions that are my least favorite

part of interviews. They have in-platform editing software based off a 99% accurate AI transcription. And if that's not simple enough, they take AI one step further for their show notes. It summarizes your entire content into an SEO optimized description and chapters all automatic saves me a ton of money. So you can use Riverside for podcast interviews, panel discussions, presentations, webinars, more. And best of all, it's simple. Try Riverside. for yourself with link in the description. Use code Cody for an exclusive discount. I get a deal. You get a deal. The contrarian idea this week is that blue-collar workers might actually be happier than white-collar workers. And what if they're actually starting to make more money? There's this

quote from Mike Roe that I love that said people in trade works are balanced people who do unthinkable work. And they have this amazing sort of symmetry to their life because of it. And Mike Roe should know because he ran dirty jobs for, I don't know, probably a decade. And the research actually goes to show that 86% of blue-collar workers are satisfied with their jobs. So they're not only happier, I think a lot of them are probably more skilled in their fields than white-collar workers today. Let's look at the data. And we found some really interesting things when it comes to, are you happier if you're working with your hands versus not? So are you happier being traditionally blue-collar versus white-collar. And the statistics are actually fascinating. Like,

for instance, 86% of blue-collar workers are satisfied with their jobs in this survey. You can see it linked below. A fact, a bunch more people are applying for trade schools instead of vocational schools, more than 16% increase in vocation focused community colleges since 2018. And, you know, there was this quote from this guy Alex Cohen that I just loved. We can throw it up on the screen here basically that said the average blue collar trade workers 10x more skilled than the average fang product manager. Now, I mean, skilled is in the eye of the beholder. But this hit home for me because student debt in the U.S. is at all-time high record levels. We are having universities funded by our parents' tax dollars, our tax dollars, while we spend our lives paying them off because it is the only

type of debt that is non-recourse, meaning that if you go bankrupt, guess what, your student loan debt follows you. Yet we have told an entire generation, or two or three, of kids that the only way for them to progress in society is for them to go to traditional universities that cost tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to get the good white collar job that your parents didn't have because they actually spent their time trying to make your life better. And so they worked hard so you have an easier life, right? That's what my parents always told me. And yet, we're getting out of these four-year institutions and we're in a nine to five that is really like an eight to seven, commuting longer distances than ever. The average commute is increased by 30% in the U.S.

since 2020. And increasingly, not making more money with wages stagnating as well for most white collar workers. So I started to dive into what the fuck's going on. And why does it feel like we're working harder and we're getting no further in this country? And I think one of the reasons is this. We were told white color jobs were good. And yet, were we just a cog in a machine? And so we went to the data and we found out a couple of different things that are fascinating. One, that 86% of blue-collar workers are happy with their job. They're happier on average than white-collar workers who 50% on average say that they do not like their jobs. We're finding, in fact, that these trade and vocational schools have a stigma with the younger generations, that 74%

perceive that vocational schools over a traditional four-year university are a good idea, and that 79% of people said their parents wanted them to go to college, while only 5% say they wanted them to go to vocational school. So our parents are telling us, go rack debt. The government's saying your tax dollars are going to go towards universities, but you don't really get any benefit of that. The universities get to increase their prices by double digits every year. And oh, by the way, you're going to have to pay it off for, I don't know, five or 10 years on average, and like be happy about it because now you're educated. And you're going to have all this opportunity. The contrarian idea this week is that you'd be better off going to a vocational school.

That's the idea that in fact it seems like they're happier. And look at the average wage between a marketing grad at an average institution and a skilled trades worker from a vocational school. The average marketing major makes somewhere between $60,000 to $80,000 a year. The average skilled trades worker after they graduate can make up where of $75,000 to $100,000 a year. So if you're happier and you make more money and you get a little bit more vitamin D and less LED blue screen, I think there might be something here. And I realized this week because I went to a coal mine with a couple friends of mine where I went, let's see, 650 feet down, four miles underground. There's only two entrances into the coal mine. And going in, I had all these ideas, you guys,

you know, like, God, these poor guys, this looks like such hard work. You know, are they safe? Am I going to be safe down there? Can't believe we're still doing this? Can't machines do it? Then the weirdest thing happened. First of all, one of the miners when I was down there, when I asked him, I said, hey, you know, why do you do this? And he said, well, I've been doing it more than 30 years. And I said, okay, you know, what made you want to do it? He said, well, my dad did it. I said, all right, that makes sense. You fall in in your father's footsteps. So he goes, yeah, but it's more than that. Let me tell you why. Now, right before this, this giant machine had plowed through a wall. It's called cross-punching. So imagine the ceiling's only five and a half feet tall.

You have to walk. It's called a coal miner's walk. You walk hunched over to the side with your head down and to the left and your hands behind your back to support your hips. And so I'm hunched over walking four miles in underneath the ground, 650 feet below the surface, thinking that this place was a little dark and scary. And then this huge machine claws through a wall across from me and punches through collecting coal. Sort of sparking a little bit and this wild noise and the ground shaking. And then it pulls back and it grabs. the coal back into it. And when I talked to the coal miner right after we had seen this, he said, you know why I do this? Do you know why I work in the coal mines? He goes, go stand over there. So I walk over five feet where the machine had just been. And he said, that ground that you're standing on right now, no man has ever stood there before. You know who else can say that? Astronauts. You go, some people go to the sky, some people go underground, two different types of explorers. And I thought about that as I was watching these guys. You know, you get a little dirt on your face. You've got these big, huge machines. They're pretty big guys with lots of muscles. Now,

they're quiet. You know, I went over to a group of them and, uh, and I was joking with them and said, you know, you guys want a picture? And they kind of, kind of smiled and looked at me and looked away because they did it. And when I talked to one of the lead foremen, let's call him, said, you know, they're kind of quiet guys. They don't say a ton. And he said, well, have you met a lot of farmers? We don't say many words. We just do many tasks. And the coal mine was sort of filled with these short, crisp sentences, the likes of which those of us who podcast and talk all day for living on Zoom and have turned into knowledge workers where the words that come out of our mouth equate to the amount of money we make, we don't understand this world. We don't

understand a world in which somebody would point and tell you that I do this job because no man has ever walked there before. And really say nothing else besides that. And, you know, as I was talking to another group of them about what's happening down below. They said, where else besides the military can you find a group of hardened men doing hard things together where one decision impacts every other human and thus you have to operate as a team and as a unit as opposed to an individual? How many of you feel more connected than ever? Like you've got a tribe, an incredible community of people. Like you're never alone. Like you're not isolated. Like you wish you could be on your phone more.

I think the answer is not very many of us feel like that. These guys had this community built in. You know, I remember a quote, the fastest way to long friendships are hard times. The fastest way to short friendships are meaningless times. It's probably why your high school friends, your college friends kind of come and go. It was short, sweet, beautiful moments,

not iron sharpens iron. I thought about that a lot with these coal miners. And as I went deeper, a few other things came to mind. These guys do this job for 30, 40, 50 years or more. They don't retire. And I asked one of them why and he said you'd have to pull my cold dead body out of here. And he said because in a world where we're all stuck to our phones, you can't get service down here? So you're down there for 10 hour shifts, 12 hour shifts, sometimes no service whatsoever. Like, can you guys imagine a more different life? And yet I was talking to another guy who they call Strawberry. And his statement was fascinating. He's like, if you watch news stories about us, it's about. It's about. how dangerous it is, about how bad it is. I bet if you tell your friends you went down to a coal mine, they're going to say, well, was it toxic? You know, well, did they have problems with coal dust? They won't realize that one-third of the world is driven by energy derived from coal. So you turn off coal mining and you take away one-third of the world's energy. Think about that for a second.

And in a part of Appalachia, where the average income is below poverty level, coal miners make six figures a year. An incredible job that's hard and dirty, but just because it's hard and dirty, does that mean it's bad? When did clean fingernails equate to happy lives? And I think the point of the matter is here that they might not. I want you to speak to Brandon, who is the founder of a company that I am now one of the biggest investors in. I just bought a company called Rezi Brands that I co-owned now with the founders. And it's a franchise company for people doing trade labor. And I want you to hear from Brandon something that I've realized and become really passionate about, that the dirty work is often the important work. This episode is brought to you

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Workday is the AI platform for HR and finance that actually knows your business. We help you handle the have to-dos so you can't-wait-to-dos. It's a new workday. Brandon, I'm so excited to have you here today. Thanks for having me. This is awesome. I think we were sold a lie. that being vitamin D-deprived keyboard bunkies was the way to go that we wanted to sit in Excel

behind a screen in a cubicle working for somebody else all day, when in reality there might be more joy found outside. I wasn't sure, though, then I started meeting people like you. So really quickly, tell them where you came from and what you're doing right now. Yeah, absolutely. My career started, went to University of Arkansas, graduated there in 2017, and went straight in the corporate world, Walmart headquarters in Benville, Arkansas. There's no windows at the headquarters. They're working on it. They're building a new campus, but that's soon. From there, I knew I wanted to be there, but I knew it wasn't for long term. So I came back to Austin, jumped into the financial world, kind of like you, kind of in an analyst role, and I was in an office by myself all day, and it was tough. And I knew that wasn't it for me either. Jumped, I mean, this is like classic millennial, right?

jumped then to the live music business. That was in December of 2019 and got laid off six months labor later because of COVID. COVID live music doesn't work. That's when Pinks was started in June of 2020. You're absolutely right. Like the cool jobs coming out of college are the commercial real estate jobs, being a lawyer, being a doctor, doing whatever. And there's something wrong with those jobs. It just wasn't for me. So within two months of starting Pinks and Carter and I, buzzing around town and an O-4 Chevy Tahoe, just cleaning windows. Yeah, explain him what Pink's is because you're wearing like, if you guys could see him on two, he's looking like fly right now. He's got on what I actually said to Carter. I was like, yeah, this is a great hipster uniform. He was like, excuse me, this is timeless. This is timeless. This is timeless. And it is. It's like what I would describe as sort of a classic, you know, maybe 1950s inspired, 1960s inspired tradesmen uniform that's beautifully designed for a window cleaning service that you two started. That's exactly right. And that was the whole purpose of

Pink's, is we wanted to flip the script on blue collar. So yeah, you're exactly right. Pinks is a window cleaning company. We do exterior cleaning, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, soft washing, all of that. And basically started just Carter and I buzzing around town, doing it all the work ourselves. Within two months of us starting this exterior cleaning company, branding it out because we knew we wanted to flip the script on blue collar and tell a different story that, hey, this is a great job. It's fun. It's cool. Within two months of us starting it, we told ourselves, if our old jobs call us back and offer us a job back with even double the salary, we're not going back. We're telling a pound sand. Wait a second. So what did your moms say when you told them that

you were leaving? You know, you had gone to college. You paid all this money. You had these fancy jobs. And then you're like, the thing is, well, I want to go be a window cleaner. Like, moms don't love that. No. Well, our moms are amazing. And they were supportive from the very beginning. It was a lot of our mentors that told us, hey, when are you going to get a real job? Hey, like, do you really want to spend your 40 hours cleaning windows and power washing driveways? And we had to fight that. And we were super insecure to start off because we bought that lie that the good job is commercial real estate guy, the finance guy, the lawyer guy, whatever. And we had to get over ourselves. And we had to die to ourself, die to our pride to really

believe what we were doing that without the blue collar services, our cities would be an absolute mess. Absolutely fair. I think we said that at the very beginning, but we didn't actually believe it until three months in. Yeah. Well, you know, it was interesting as I rode around with you guys and, you know, cleaned some windows. I think I did a pretty good job, actually. You were amazing. And, you know, what I noticed, and we've felt it here even before is we'll do, you know, I don't know, seven or eight. hours of work in the office here. Even podcasting, which people think is fun. And it is. Yeah. And then we will get out to film YouTube videos in the street. It's in Austin. It's 102 degrees outside. We're sweating, makeup, running off my face. It's my favorite time of the day. Yeah. Because there is just nothing like being around other humans actually moving your body and doing things. And I think we've forgotten that in this

country. And, you know, I think the interesting part is you could say, well, maybe Brandon and Carter are just weirdos. And the- I mean, we're super weird. You are kind of weird. But, you know, two young, good-looking dudes, full capacity, intelligent, deciding to go on the trades, they must be weird. But then you've sort of amassed an army of people just like you. Talk a little bit about, like, the guy I met yesterday, the former Marine, who's now my best bud. Like, these are, you've brought other young men on who are skilled and they're thrilled to be part of cleaning windows, which people might not even believe. Yeah, the tide is turning.

in this country. And people are starting to realize maybe like sitting in the office all day isn't for me. I mean, I just think about how we're created as human beings. Like, we're designed to connect. We're not designed to just sit in a room by ourselves or work from home and just be in our room all day by ourselves like behind a 11 inch screen. That's why we create a pinks. That's why we're franchising the business because we want to get people out of that. But as far as like our laborers go, whether it's our franchisees or guys in the field, the personality is guys that said, hey, they're young dudes, college isn't for me,

I want to do something different. Maybe they worked in a coffee shop or in a restaurant, but they're tired of showing up to the same place, interacting with the same kitchen staff every single day. While at Pinks, and with a lot of other service companies, you have a lot of freedom. You get in the car. You're not with your boss.

You get to buzz around town, help customers. You kind of own the relationship. and you get to make people happy by giving stellar service all over the city or all over all over the town. It's yours. And then you get tipped and then you get to go wherever you want for lunch. And that's a great situation. Yeah, you guys do a lot of stuff that I think is cool that usually tech companies did, which is like you give guys some cash for lunch. They get to go wherever they want in town. But talk about why you do it from a couple different perspectives. For sure. I mean, from a monetary perspective, we say $15 a day per guy. And it's so good for culture. because normally a service member or service company guy,

they pack their lunch or one guy goes to McDonald's, one guy packs the lunch and they're not eating together. So just in the car. It's hot. They're not engaging. Or one guy's inside. Yeah. Eating a McDonald's.

One guy's in the truck eating a sandwich you brought. We want the guys that commune together because, again, it's like a core belief. We design we're supposed to be together. We're better together than apart. Also, just what it does for our workers, when we pay for the lunch, it shows that we care. And it's just one less decision that they have to make for the day. We try to just limit the decisions that they have on their plate.

And it's just great for retention. I mean, it's good for so many reasons. I think we spent $40,000 on lunches last year, but it's worth every damn penny because our guys stay, they like what they do, they feel of freedom. And one of the best parts is, is when guys come into a restaurant wearing the pinks get up, it's marketing. Yeah. We get a lot of clients just from guys buzzing around town, eating lunches,

at places wearing the uniform. One of our sayings is you want to get paid like a pro, dress like a pro. Yeah. And I think one of the things that has been lost in trades and services is we've lost the pro mentality. And so I think this idea of dressing a certain way, if you want to be taken a certain way, is really critical. The human brain gauges people in less than a millisecond. And so in less than one second, you have a chance to have your very first impression. And if your first impression is, I've got on this kind of like smart, cool uniform. And I take care of myself personally and I've got this cool car behind me, well, then you're probably going to attract a different level of person.

Every interview we do, we're wearing this. Yeah. And it sets a tone for our employees, but also when our employees put on the uniform, it does something for them mentally. Yeah. It's like, oh, I'm showing up. It's time to work. Like, I got the uniform on.

It's time to get to it. I wonder how much of that is also like similar to the military, actually, you know, because my husband, obviously in the military for a long time. And I used to joke with him and call it an outfit. And he was like, just like, because I kind of got to him. Like, this is a uniform. And he kind of explained to me what a uniform meant. He's like, when I am wearing this, I am a representative of the arms forces. And it means something to be able to wear this uniform. Like, we screen for it. And there's a reputation associated with it. And I think often in the era post-2020 of COVID, where we all wore pajamas for most of our year, we've lost that, right? Like, you forget what it means to put on something that changes you into a different character for a moment. Absolutely. And it just, it built so much trust. Trust within yourself. Trust that, hey, my team members

wearing the same thing as me. And then trust in the community. People know the pink's uniform. And when our guys show up, they know they're going to get a friendly person that's on time. That is reliable and that is background check. Let's talk about your worst day as a Pink's employee.

Like, I think sometimes we can cherry pick things. There is a lot of hard, very hard things about the trades and doing things with your work and manual labor. Like, give the tough side of it, too, the cons. Oh, my gosh. one, I mean, so many tough days, whether just like the physical labor of it where you're up at seven or six on a job site, on a construction site, but you're getting held up because you didn't go through the safety protocol with the superintendents. And I have to sit there for two hours and just wait and go through this stupid training. That is a terrible day. Also, when it's 110 outside and you know you have five hours of work left and you're chafing and it's side.

sucks and it's hot and the customer's picky. That's no fun. I would say one of our hardest days, but then that turned good was when it was at the very beginning, we were at one of Carter's friend's house. We drove all the way to Houston to clean a house because, you know, early on, you'll take any job. Yeah. And so we drove to Houston and we were cleaning one of Carter's friends from high school's houses. And he was in the commercial real estate world. And he was working from home because it was in the heat of COVID. And both of us, as we're cleaning, basically a Pierce house, felt super insecure. He's, this guy is in his home office, beautiful house in the heights. And he's like crank it away on calls and emails. And we are like, excuse me, can I

clean the window behind your desk? And all that. So we get back in the car and both of us expressed this insecurity we felt. And it was a low. We're like, man, he's crushing it, doing these commercial real estate deals, and we are cleaning his house while he's working. So we drove home, and as we're driving, we're just like thinking, like talking to each other, praying, and we're just like, man, how cool is it that we got to add value to someone's house? How many of our friends can say that they got to add value to their buddy's house? And like, do him like a favor, like do a service for him that was efficient, affordable, and that he needed and wanted.

And so from that moment, like that low day, we kind of flipped it in our brains and said, actually, like, we're all in on this thing. Like, we can do this. We're proud of what we do. We're proud to help a friend. What's wrong with being a janitor? There's nothing wrong with it.

And that's what, like, the bad day and the bad mental state flip for us is, like we've been talking about this whole time, we've been sold the slide that if you're in, lawn maintenance, if you're a window cleaner, if you're a painter, if you're whatever, you're a second-tier citizen. And it was that day that we believed, like, actually, this is amazing, this is useful, and we get to help people all over the city. I was listening to a story the other day about Japan, and there are some cities in rural Japan that are shutting down because they don't

have communal services, even just like a butcher shop. Right. They're missing, like, one butcher shop, and because of that, they can't get the core services they need, and so people are leaving cities entirely, which means the real estate that they have spent up their life's livelihood to afford is now worth nothing because there's no community around them. In this world where we're just starting to realize that a little bit of ownership, that a job that doesn't turn you into a robot, that having a community and a team and doing work that matters is actually the path to happiness. So, yes, is rare.

But I think your generation, do you think your generation gets it more than mine? And you're like one generation below me. Are you seeing other people your age start to understand this? We're seeing a lot of our friends start service companies. Yeah. Because they realize when I can make just as good, if not better, money than if I was working in an office. And two, I have so much more freedom over my life. And I feel like people nowadays, they're so tied to purpose, like purpose being tied to their work.

If you have a purpose-driven lifestyle, you're going to be way happier. We don't clean windows just to clean windows because we're so passionate about cleaning windows. But we are passionate about helping our city, maintaining our city, and making customers really happy and excited. That's what drives us every day. It's not just cleaning for the sake of cleaning, but it's cleaning for the sake of the customer, cleaning for the sake of the betterment of our city and the prosperity of our city. Do you remember what your worst day was when you were employed before you did Pinks? Oh, man. I try to say no bad days, but that's just not true. I think it was when I was working in the financial firm, and I was like an analyst and kind of just putting spreadsheets together.

But I remember like most Sundays, I'd get the Sunday scurries. Yeah. I bet a lot of people listening feel that. And you're just like, gosh, I don't, like, I feel like there's more for me. So, like, there's not one specific day, but there was that feeling that I had every Sunday, every Monday, like, I was a weekend warrior. I was just waiting for the weekend because then I was off. And I knew deep in my heart that what I was doing was not it. Operating at what I felt was like 50% capacity of my brain and not feeling a lot of purpose.

And then just being locked in the office every day. Like it was hard days. I would call my mom. And she'd be like, hey, how's work? You know, how's work, Brandon? And I would just kind of lie to her. I'd say, oh, mom, it's great. It's fine.

It's fine. But mommy's, they got that, those spidey senses. She knew that I was struggling. And she knew when depressed. She knew and not depressed, but she knew that I was in a tough place because I just wasn't fulfilled with work for the purpose, like from a purpose perspective, but also from a, I am not firing on all cylinders in my brain. I'm only using half of what I feel like I have up there. And those days were not fun. You guys, as far as I understand it, you had a chance to sell the business entirely. You could have pretty much kind of sold, moved on. And you had some

different options on the table. But instead of selling overall, you said, actually, we just want to bring more people into the fold. We want, you know, we're good at cleaning windows. That's what we like to do. We're good at branding and we like leadership. Yeah. And, you know, maybe we don't know how to build a national business. And so you partnered with the company that I invested in, right, Resio-Rans. A lot of people, if they would have gotten a chance to maybe have some sort of bigger exit, they might have taken it. And people listening to you might be thinking, well, you know, maybe he's just going to clean windows for a minute and then he's going to leave and he's going to go become a venture capitalist. Right.

But you actually had a little bit of a window where something like that could have happened. Sure. Why continue to own the franchise locally to actually go out into the field like I've seen you guys, you know, get dirty like you do. Why keep doing that as opposed to cash out in some way, shape, or form? One, we love our team. Like here locally, like Pink's Austin is our baby. And we love our team. They do such a good job.

And it's like it's a fun mentorship opportunity. Business, we are in the people business and we love people, whether it's our customers or our employees. So we want to stay tight to that. That's like from a purpose perspective. And also prints cash, which also doesn't suck. We want to keep owning things awesome because it's, it just spits us cash every single month. And that's a great part of the income.

The reason we wanted to partner with Resi Brands is because we feel like we are flipping the script on blue collar, trying to make it cool, try to add purpose to it, trying to just brand it out, like we said, like flip the script on blue collar. Rezi Brands is doing that in franchising. I feel like five years ago, franchising, it was kind of for like the weirdo. Oh, you want to, this franchise? Or like a Donald's Crumble cookie or something terrible for society, right? Right. Like, yeah. What Rezzi is doing with the support for the franchisee, the connect center, the marketing team, all that, it's so good for the franchise. Yeah, you guys are the ones that introduced me to them. And I remember texting, you know, and I was like, what do we think about these guys? Like, let's have the download and you told us. But I think the other part is like, owner operators. When I first met you guys, I was like, oh, they're in it. They're in it. And Stephen's the same way. He's like, I did this for 11 years before I started to do you know franchises. That's why we love Steven. Yeah, he's in the game. And the other thing that's fascinating, Brandon, is like, how many of the people in your group and his are faith-based? A good amount. We're not like so, like,

outward and like pushy about it. Of course. But if people ask about it, like, we're not going to shy away. It's like, yeah, like, we love Jesus. Yeah. And like, God gives us purpose and we're all in. And those principles of being honest, doing the right thing, like being faithful with a little so that we can be faithful with a lot. Whatever resources we get, being a wise steward of them, like, that just makes sense. That's good business practice.

It happens to be in the Bible too. It's, it works really well. Were you dating? It's now your fiancee, right? Yeah, Kelsey. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. She's adorable. Were you dating her before you started Pinks?

No, we started dating. So you met her after you were a window cleaner? After. Was that hard? Did that hurt your social capital at all, basically? Before I started Pinks, I feel like in the dating world, I was less confident because I didn't have my career figured out. But it just turned out I was insecure. But when we started Pinks, we got over ourselves. I got over myself and just died in my pride. I think I gained confidence. And I was like, yeah, I'm a window cleaner. What's wrong with it? And it helped me in the dating world.

I mean, now I'm engaged, so it worked, I guess. It looks like you do well. I think a lot of times, you know, for men, good, bad, or the other ways, you're judged often on job and earnings. That's at least historically how it's been. So the status games would happen on the male side. But then, you know, I just had another friend of mine in here, Andrew Wilkinson, he met. And he's always like, God, your husband's such a manling man. And I'm back here, you know, and a nerd.

analyst. I think there is something really neat about the merging of the two that you can have head, but you can also have, you know, some dirty, dirty fingers. Yeah, absolutely. And like, that's what I love about pinks or just the service business of general. Yeah. Is if I want to go clean windows every day, I can do that. But also if I want to work on strategy and figure out a gross strategy to get pinks up into the northeast or the Pacific Northwest, I can do that. Or coach franchisees just jump on a call and talk to a guy in Palm Beach, Florida. Yes, this morning. I'm just coaching them up on how to quote a building and how to overcome some customer objection. I love talking about not being fully used because I feel like that's so much of our generation

is people that are just working in an office and they have, like they're probably working from home three days a week and they are not being fully used. Like they're working for really three hours a day, but they have to stretch out their work to make it an eight hour day to make it look like to their boss that they're working. they got to appear online on Slack. So they're constantly moving their mouse and all that. Is that true? Is that something that you guys had where they were like tracking what your work?

Probably not officially they had that. But I think as an employee of like a big corporation. Yeah. And there's like a tiered management system. Yeah. It feels like that. Whether that's a reality or not, I don't know. But I always felt like, oh, I got to be online or else I'm going to get a slap on the wrist or whatever.

Yeah, probably true. I think a lot of bosses probably go, what are you guys doing? And, you know, get micromanaging about. And I know I've been there before too. I think for a lot of jobs post the industrial revolution where we became knowledge workers instead, we just flipped how we measure work. And so now, instead of measuring output, we didn't take the time to figure out how to measure output for knowledge workers. So we just said time. Yeah.

We just said, no matter what, no matter the output, your time has to be dedicated for this allotment. Right. This generation and mine are probably the first two generations that have fully felt this idea of knowledge work. Yeah. And to be candid, I don't think it makes us happy. And I'm not sure that the tracking is working. Yeah. I'm not sure either.

Yeah. But you following Deval. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So he was on a podcast. I forgot when it was. But something I love that he talked about in this, like, knowledge base. Well, now all the knowledge that there is out there is on the internet.

Or you can just chat GPT, what's the best way to do this? So the knowledge is there. But in like the coming years, what he says, is like the, the vast. value commodity amongst employees or workers or business owners, it's judgment. We all have access to the same information, but what are the decisions we make based on the information? So judgment and wisdom and discernment, that's what we want to be as pinks. It's easy. It's easy to get the information. What are we going to do with it? And how is that going to influence our future, the business's future, our franchisee's future, our employees future, all of that.

I love it. If people want to hear more from you, we're to they go. Pink's Windows. You can find us on Instagram, LinkedIn, or still figuring out the Twitter thing. Maybe you can help with that. Absolutely. I will help with that. Also, phone number on your forehead. Yes, it is there. If you need a window cleaning quote, all are here. Actually, you know, we joke about this as, you know, clothes as business cards. Yeah. Which I think is really underdone in the trades. You know, it's like handyman service. Well, that's not a great name because you're never going to remember it. Right. And I think the way that people have done this historically in the trades is they go, cutesy or like a goofy saying? Like, you know, if it's cold outside, we've got your dad joke, right? Answered dad joke. But you guys said, no, we're going to have a premium brand. Absolutely. And we're going to

treat this just like we would Apple if we were at Apple computer, but we happen to clean Windows. That's right. I've been thinking about this a lot lately because there's a lot of new brands popping up. There's a lot of big cleaning companies. If you have the decision to make your brand on clip art or Microsoft paint or whatever, it is, or you have the opportunity to, you know, hire an agency or, or do yourself or whatever, I want it to be good. Like, if we're going to build it, let's build it right. And no one else in the service business is doing it. That's why we branded it out. And honestly, like, all credit to Carter. Carter's like the creative. Carter's a little bit of like a mad marketing genius, isn't he? Yes. Like Instagram videos are incredible, I can't believe I'm saying this about a

window, but candidly, like Pink's, what does the Instagram handle? Pinks one day. Pink's windows. It's hysterical. Like you guys have that one with the Brady bunch. We can actually show it right here. Yes. And first of all, you're going to get a bunch of female clients because it's like a bunch of young, good-looking tutors. You're going to be wanting you to be sweating. That took so long a film. It's like five. It took way too long. It was incredible. Like you all pop up in them. And then the other thing I thought was brilliant that you guys did from a marketing standpoint was the free neighborhood clean. Oh, the comp clean of the week. Comp clean. Yes. Basically the comp clean is it's just a way to bless our community, but also have some fun and film it. And bring like whenever we do a comp We don't like to go to a big pop and restaurant. We want to go to the small mom and pop that everyone in the neighborhood knows or drives by every day, but that may not know, like, what is they serve at the restaurant or whatever. So we like to make fun, engaging content. It's become a thing where, like, we've cleaned Mount Joyce tour bus. Yeah.

And I'm at ACL. It's amazing. We've done some stuff at Stubbs, barbecue, the venue for other band. And so it's kind of become this thing, but we still love the mom and pop. Well, yeah, the other part, then the comp, Clain. just so you guys know, you guys do free cleans for neighborhood restaurants, and then he filmed them in a really cool little way. And edit it, it's like, it's so silly. It's great. Yeah. You were also in a movie. Yes. Yes, we were. We were in Hitman, Glenn Powell wearing her shirt, which is like, what the heck. It happened two years ago. A costume designer that Carter knew reach out to him and said, hey, here's the concept of Hitman. We need a service company, you know, for a few minutes of the movie. Can we use Pinks? And of course, our

answer was, hell yeah. He thinks, like, of course. And so we got a picture of Glenn Powell, like, two years ago wearing our shirt. And so we've just been sitting on it and sitting on it. And then it was released this past week. Good things would take time. Yeah. You get to go on Saturday now. No. I mean, we shipped him a shirt and that was our involvement. That's amazing. Yeah. All right. Well, here's some more movies, man. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. And like, that's the whole goal of pinks is we say we try to flip the script on blue collar. When you think of window cleaning or when whoever in New York City or L.A. or Chicago, whoever thinks of window cleaning, we want to think of one company. And that's Pinks. That's us. Because we're doing something

different. We're bringing purpose and trying to flip the script. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids. And I want to give back to the community. Ooh. Then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my out of office has a forever setting. An IG private wealth advisor creates the clarity. you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center. Find your advisor at IGPrivatewealth.com. When a country's productivity cycle is broken, people feel it in their paychecks,

their communities, their futures. What does this mean for individuals, communities, and businesses across the country? Join business leaders, policymakers, and influencers for CGs' national series on the Canadian Standard of Living. productivity and innovation. Learn what's driving Canada's productivity decline and discover actionable solutions to reverse it. Let's talk TikTokers and content for the deal of the week this week. This I thought was super interesting. So there's this girl that I follow and she actually just got written up about in the Wall Street Journal. She's the electrician in Cornwall, New York. And she just shows like the day to day of what she does.

And like, first off, she must be breaking in so much money because not only is she an electrician, you've been talking about how much money you can make doing this, but she's also making, and the Wall Street Journal said this, like $200,000 in like brand deals and things like that. So dual income has a nine to five. Like, she seems like she's killing it. The hashtag blue collar do 500,000 posts in the first four months of this year and is up 64% since 2023. It seems like blue collar. caller is cool, basically, on TikTok. And that people, you know, what probably stands from. I mean,

in a world where so many of us only know things like spreadsheets, computering, like, cannot fix the oven if our life depends on it. Somebody who's capable with their hands. Let's watch this video really quick from Lex, the electrician, and see what's up. All right. Well, first of all, what you're seeing here is like a young woman, she's cute. She's cute. She's got like cute, but wholesome outfits on. She's serious. She's doing these, like, big commercial. electrician looking jobs, like hauling huge cables, got a little dance in there because it's the TikTok. Looks like she could electrician herself at any time doing it with nails on, too, because that's what your generation is into, like nails that look like you can't do anything

with, but she's doing it with. And she's serious. Like, this is a serious professional out there doing her thing. And what I think is amazing about this is basically we're shedding some light on a work on work that without which you and I could not be doing this podcast right now. Somebody built these lines. Somebody ran a bunch of cables. And because of that, we can do this. How can you not only do trade work, but skip college? So she's making, let's say she's probably making six figures in her electrician job.

She actually didn't even skip college. She went to pre-med for two years, got her associate's degree and was like, I actually, I'm not a people person. And then after her associate's degree stopped him, became an electrician. Fascinating. And I wonder if, like, she, I think she had family members that were electricians. And I think one good thing it is, like, that's happening because TikTok and other social media platforms are kind of like amplifying blue collar work, is it showing people alternate job opportunities. Because my parents were great.

And they said, if you want to go to vocational school, they were really, really into it. Where my mom lives, there's a pretty good, a pretty good program for people who want to become plumbers. and latricians and things like that. But I feel like not that many people are given the opportunity or have parents or have anybody else that's telling them like, hey, these jobs are out there and they exist and they make good money. You know, Chris always, my husband always says, like his favorite time was, he says, was doing hood rat shit with his friends, which means when he was in the military, like kicking down doors and shooting guns and, you know, working out a lot.

And I think for a lot of people, it doesn't make them happy being behind a screen. And so if we can now, you can't be what you can't see. If we can now see a bunch of people who are living lives where they make money with their hands, I think you're in my generation. I used to think, well, like, I guess you could be a physical trainer that was, like, allowed. If you wanted to do something with your body, you could be an athlete. You know, you could be in the military. Yeah.

But at least my generation, we didn't think about the trades. My father's generation definitely different. So I love this. Lex the electrician. You look like a stud. And maybe you guys on social tag me the best trade and vocational people. that you see on the internet, I want to continue to highlight people like you, because I think you guys are doing the work. To close out the episode today, there's a quote from Marcus Aurelius that says,

you can't be a good man if you are incapable of violence. And what did that mean? Well, Jordan Peterson actually said something similar, which is a harmless man is not necessarily a good man, that a man who can commit violence but chooses not to is truly a good man. And I think about that a lot with these trade workers and with those people who have decided to take the hardened path, that in fact, maybe it's being able to commit violence. It's being able to do the hard, but choosing the other that leads to happiness and a better society for us. So this week, I hope I made you think a little bit with this episode. And if you're a parent out there, maybe ponder this a little bit. Does every kid have to go to university? Do we have to pay into institutions,

continuously that put us in roles that increasingly don't make us happy and don't necessarily make us more money? Is that a good idea? I would love to hear from you guys in the comments. It's something that I think about a lot because I am a Monday morning quarterback with kids because I don't have any of them. But I wonder if one day when I have them, what will my decision be? Will I be okay if my kid wants to go clean windows? If they want to go work in a coal mine, if they want to do the hard and dangerous thing? Or do I only feel pride in them if they have a title of CEO? or a title of doctor behind them and do some big mental gymnastics in order to have a career. I don't know the answer to that, but I know that it's a question worth asking. Thank you for being here today. I think you are a big deal. You are a big deal to me, and that is why we do this podcast. So if you haven't already, please give us a little review. I think it's time for the word to get out that just because you're a tech worker doesn't mean you're better than a trade worker.

So if you agree with me, now's the time to share the pod and give us a review. Stud it like this because I work so hard. I'm the best. I only speak fast.