Business Innovators Radio - From $500 to CEO: Brandon Brown’s Incredible Journey in Home Services and Community Impact

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

Join us for an inspiring episode of the Homepreneur Heroes Podcast with your host, Marco Salinas, as he delves into the extraordinary journey of Brandon Brown, the founder of Brown’s Heating, Air, and Plumbing. Starting with just $500 to his name and no prior experience, Brandon transformed a humble beginning into a thriving business with 31 dedicated employees. Hear firsthand how he navigated through the challenging 2008 recession, accumulated debt, and even worked multiple jobs to keep his dream alive.In this detailed interview, Brandon shares invaluable insights into the ongoing challenges and rapid changes in his business, driven by economic conditions and new mandates. He discusses strategic planning for the future, including retirement and succession, while emphasizing the unparalleled freedom and flexibility that entrepreneurship offers.Brandon’s journey is not just about business acumen; it’s also deeply rooted in community service and faith. Discover how his faith has been a cornerstone, offering resilience and guidance during tough times, and how community assistance initiatives like a heat pump giveaway and free systems for veterans or cancer patients have become central to his mission. His marketing strategies are equally compelling, focusing on personal and relatable content through social media, TV commercials, email and text campaigns, and fun events.The episode also explores Brandon’s personal evolution from managing daily operations to coaching and speaking engagements. He discusses his ambitions for the next 5 to 10 years, including the addition of electrical services, apprenticeship programs, and writing another book. Marco and Brandon wrap up the conversation with some heartfelt advice for aspiring home service entrepreneurs, underlining the importance of financial planning, balancing work-life demands, and cultivating a supportive partnership. This episode is a testament to the relentless spirit of entrepreneurship and the profound impact one individual can make on their community. Tune in to get inspired and learn from Brandon Brown’s incredible entrepreneurial journey.To learn more about Brandon Brown, visit his website at www.brownsheatingair.comAbout Brandon Brown:Brandon Brown is the founder and owner of Brown’s Heating, Air, and Plumbing, a successful home services business. Despite starting his company with only $500 and no prior experience, Brandon has navigated numerous challenges, including the 2008 recession, to build a thriving enterprise with around 31 employees. His innovative leadership and commitment to community service have not only ensured his company’s growth but also earned him recognition as a published author and sought-after coach in the industry. Brandon emphasizes the importance of faith, freedom, and flexibility in entrepreneurship, and continues to inspire others through speaking engagements and his book ‘Cool Success.’About The Show Sponsor:Today’s episode of the “Homepreneur Heroes” podcast is proudly brought to you by Pina Colada Media.Pina Colada Media is a premier podcast production company dedicated to helping businesses, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders grow their brand through high-quality content creation. With their comprehensive “done for you” podcast production services, Pina Colada Media takes the hassle out of podcasting, allowing you to focus on what you do best – running your business.Whether you’re looking to launch a new podcast or elevate your existing one, Pina Colada Media offers tailored solutions to meet your needs. From podcast setup and editing to branding and distribution, their team of experts handles every aspect of the production process with professionalism and precision.Visit pinacoladamedia.com to learn more about how Pina Colada Media can help you amplify your message, reach your audience, and take your brand to new heights through the power of podcasting.Thank you to Pina Colada Media for their support of the “Homepreneur Heroes” podcast.Homepreneur Heroeshttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/homepreneur-heroes/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/from-500-to-ceo-brandon-browns-incredible-journey-in-home-services-and-community-impact

A welcome to the Homepreneur Heroes podcast, the show where we shine a spotlight on the unsung heroes of the home services industry. Join us as we delve into the inspiring stories of entrepreneurs who have turned their passion for serving homeowners into thriving businesses. Our guests share their journeys, insights, and strategies for success. Get ready to be inspired and learn from the best in the business. And now your host, Marco Salinas. And welcome back to the Homepreneur Heroes podcast, proudly sponsored by Pino Colada Media, where we spotlight the remarkable journeys of home service entrepreneurs. I am your host, Marco Salinas, and each episode, we explore the stories behind successful

businesses in HVAC, plumbing, and other essential home services. Join us as we uncover the secrets. to their success and learn valuable tips for aspiring homepreneurs. Joining me today, a very special guest, Mr. Brandon Brown of Brown's heating, air, and plumbing. Brandon is no newcomer to the game. He's been around for a while. He started his company back in 2006, which is a very long time ago. And so Brandon's been grinding it out for a very long.

time. He's a seasoned veteran in this world. And he's probably going to grace us with some real serious wisdom and some real golden nuggets on today's episode. So Brandon, welcome to the Homepreneur Heroes podcast, my friend. Man, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. I've heard so much about you and the podcast and others that have been on here. So I'm, I'm thankful to be on it and be part of your list. Thank you so much, Brandon. I really appreciate that. Yes, sir. One thing that I did not cover in the introduction, because I kind of I kind of wanted to dedicate, you know, a significant amount of time or at least a decent amount of time to talking about this is that you recently scratched something pretty big and

important off your bucket list here about a month ago, which was to become a published author. Is that right? Yeah, that is correct. A month ago, we released a project. I've been working on about 16 months, and we released my biography. Cool success. I got a copy here. I don't know if you full of success.

So just kind of my journey from start to now. Yeah, man, that is incredible. Now, my understanding as well, Brandon, is that you've also entered into the coaching world as well, right? You're helping other home service businesses with coaching and guidance on how they can grow their business as well? Yes, sir. Yeah, I became a conquer coach about two, two and a half years ago. It's a group that's part of House Call Pro, which is a CRM, a lot of home service, industries use it and it's a group of coaches that of all trades you know heating and air plumbing

pressure washing landscaping and that's what we do we meet with pros weekly that are starting a business people that I think I wish I had this when I started um just helping them grow so they can get out of the truck you know they're in the truck working they want employees so we try to help them you know put processes and stuff in place and grow their business yeah yeah absolutely Yeah, that coaching thing is that's a whole other animal right there. That's just a whole world, right? It is because it seems so natural to me when I'm doing it myself, but then when you have to sit down and tell somebody and try to help them out,

it's just a total different ballgame. So it's definitely a different approach, a lot more dedication and things you want to research and educate yourself on. Yeah, I bet. I bet. Well, let's do this, Brandon. Let's go back in the time just a little bit. Take me back right around that year 2006 when you started your business.

Can you share with us a little bit about your story of how you decided, I guess, to go that route to start the business? And what inspired you, I guess, ultimately to enter this industry? Well, great question. It actually goes back to 98. I was in high school. And I had, you know, in 98, you're a junior, senior year, everybody's like, what are you going to do? What are you going? They're pressuring you to do this.

They're pressureing to do that. And I honestly was looking at our, you know, here in Lynchburg, it's a huge. Christian school, Liberty University. A lot of people across the nation have heard of it. They played Oregon in the bowl game this year. So that's Liberty. I was actually looking to go there to be a preacher. I grew up in a Baptist Christian home.

I loved the church. But I have three brothers and sister and just didn't have the money to go to college. And also I really didn't like school. I was a C average student, but I like using my hands and being out. So going into my junior year, my guy and council sat down they had a new dual enrollment program coming to central Virginia paid for by the school system for the community college you could pick heating and air plumbing electrical welding i think it was machinist nursing hair it was all these options and just something told me heating in air i have no

idea why i did no idea what a thermostat was what a filter was whatever i'm like well let me try it so and i'm glad i did because i fell in love with it just so i did that my junior and senior year and graduated high school in 2000 with my high school diploma and my career studies, heating and air certificate the same day, which was unheard of because I was had no debt, no college debt. So I was already working doing heating and air for a company. So fast forward, I worked with them to about 2004 or five. I was working with them when Hurricane Katrina hit because I was also a firefighter, volunteer firefighter my whole life. Okay. And Katrina hit and they reached out, FEMA reached out for help. Like, hey, if you want to

sign up to come help, you know, we'll pay you, you'll be on the clock and help us clean up with FEMA, get people out of the danger zone. And this was at the time where I'd been doing it for about five years, but I wasn't really happy. I wasn't happy working for someone, but I didn't know what I wanted to do that I need to start a business. That was just something wasn't right. So I took the FEMA job. It was a minimum 30-day thing so I could come back. And so I did that and I actually turned into about six months, working for FEMA all around the off coast, helping people out of flood zones and putting them in hotels, things like that. So I got back, and I had just started dating my wife now.

We had just started dating this at the time. And I just didn't know what they were like, I don't really want to go back to working for someone. What should I do? And she's like, you just need to go in just try it for yourself. You got your license and stuff. Just do it. So that's when we decided, you know, I literally had $500 to my name.

That was it. I'd spend everything. I had gotten out of a bunch of I was a teenager so I spent a ton of money I never knew what a savings was so I had a $5,00 in my name I begged her dad, we begged her dad to loan me $2,500 to buy a van down the road and that was it and I just hit the road. Wow.

And that's how that whole thing kicked off. That's how it kicked off just me, no nothing. I had no idea, 500 bucks in my name, no idea how the price is. job how to what a P&L was what a budget I had none of that just just me and I went to staples a Walmart and bought a stack of invoices like receipts and just started handwriting and and that was it that's what I did and then basically just jumped into the fire it just jumped in yep that was it was do or die and I knew having an air-conditioned background if it didn't

work it would be jobs there was plenty of jobs sure um in the trade and I had started learning that and I already knew that. But so it was just, I was just going to do or die, make her break and see what happens. Wow. And all these years later, it looks like it worked out pretty well. It did. It's definitely been a ton of up and downs and a ton of nights where you say, man, I just should do something else.

I should get rid of it. I should quit. But, you know, in the long run, I wouldn't change anything. Sure. Absolutely. So that's a good segue to my next question. And that was kind of one of the things I wanted to know. I love when I get to talk to a business owner.

that didn't just start, you know, 24 months ago. When you've been around for a while, you've actually seen quite a bit of different things. There's been some, obviously, some big economic things that went down since 2006. We had, you know, what we would call the Great Recession back in 2008. And that was kind of early on in your business endeavor, you know, so you had to overcome that. And then, you know, even in the early 20 teens, there were still plenty of little hiccicals. up and difficulties and different things that went down, right? All the way to COVID in the last, you know, four years or so.

So can you tell me maybe some unique challenges that you've encountered as the owner and operator of a, you know, home services business like yours? Yeah. The, definitely that real estate crash in 2008, 09 really, really hurt because I was doing a lot of new construction and had builders leave and bake, corrupt after that and left us with 35, $40,000 in debt. And I had to go to a bank and farm money to pay off my account so I could stay open. And then work also died at the end.

And then, of course, I was still a young owner. So I had no idea of saving for slow seasons, budgeting for this. I would spend it, you know, I would, you know, make money in the summer and go do my trips in the fall and spend on my money and forget that there is a slow season coming. So I actually took a full time. I was then in 2008. I took a full-time job with Lynchburg Firefight and Fire Department. It was a firefighter and did heating an air both until I got back on my feet in 2015 when I could finally leave and get back in the heating and air.

The recession was gone and things were coming up. But that taught me a lot then to get me through COVID because I had to, after getting that loan, I met with a lawyer. You know, I finally learned about contracts. He's like, dude, you've got to get signatures. You got to get your contracts signed and make sure if they leave you, you get covered. And in different insurances, I had no idea about. saving money for slow seasons, you know, so that I could pay myself when it was slow. So luckily that taught me and gave me time between that and COVID to kind of get that in place so that we could also make it through COVID.

Because once COVID hit, we had 25 employees by then. So that was a huge learning curve and time to prep that because nobody, you know, nobody can predict stuff like COVID and things. But you've got to always say, you know, I'm already saying now, what if something else happens five years from now or seven years now eight, what is our plan? Right. Because worst case scenario, if we get there and it doesn't happen, I've got money saved that I could either keep it for the next time something happens or, you know, at least I'm safe, you know, in coverage.

So it's a lot of lessons in that that taught me how to keep going. Sure, yes, absolutely. Now, was your business always HVAC plus plumbing, Brandon, or is that something that you added on later down the line, the plumbing? Yeah, we added plumbing about two years ago. got a brought a guy that got his license and wanted to come work for us and started a plumbing department. So that's pretty new and it's growing pretty quick. Sure.

Now, is that something that you recommend to, you know, early business owners that are running HVAC companies to try to get that plumbing in there to give a little bit more balance to the slower seasons? Yes, absolutely. I wish I'd done it years ago. Plumbing or electrical all three, just something because I've noticed that there is no slow season in plumbing. and there's always clogs, there's always waterline breaks, there's always fails. And actually our plumbers this fast winter, because we've had a weird year.

You know, it's been milder the temperatures since last summer, then our winter was hardly any. So we were slower. Our slow season was longer. And our plumbers kind of picked up the slack with our bills and things because they were no slow season for them. Wow.

Yeah. So that really kind of balances things out for all. all the little ups and downs that may be a seasonality of the HVAC world, huh? Absolutely. Yes. Definitely getting some kind of having an extra avenue of income. Not only that, but if you're in heating and air, you dive 100% into service plans and memberships, have some kind of maintenance year round for customers so that you're guaranteed

that reoccurring revenue. There you go. Man, there's nothing I love more than that nice little monthly continuity coming in, right? It's predictable. It's dependable. And even with a little bit of churn or, you know, a, and losing a few, you're still all right if you got enough of them. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, absolutely.

So I think that's another one of those, another one of the many golden nuggets that you've already dropped on us today for anybody that might be listening. It's kind of early on in their homepreneur journey. So all of that is big. Now, where you're at right now, Brandon, you've been at it for a while. You've kind of, I mean, I'm sure you built a nice little team out. How many people on the team as of right now is it? That's 31, 31.

31. Okay. So tell me what does a typical day look like for you at this stage of the journey running, running your home services business where you're not, maybe you're not out there actually, you know, getting up into the attic on a regular basis or what have you. What is your day look like as the owner now that you're pretty well seasoned? Yeah. The last couple of years, I'm transitioning more to the, I've got supervisors in place.

I'm transitioning more into teaching them how to run it so I don't have to be here a lot. That's why I've started doing some coaching, started doing, I did my book. I do a lot of keynote speaking. I travel and do some keynote speaking for events. So I still reach out to community. We do a lot of community give back. So we're always making sure we're out in the community, thanking them for, because I wouldn't be here without the community. You know, small businesses, you have to realize and respect that the community that calls you for work, you have to give them back.

You got to give them back time. money, whatever it is, because I would not be, I would not be where I was today if it didn't for the thousands of people that call us every year for their work. There's hundreds of competitors around us. They could call anybody, but our customers are loyal, and you've got to thank them. So I'm always trying to find ways to be in front of the community giving back and helping. I'm here day to day, usually just helping leaders grow, doing, running things, how I would run them, just making sure things are still running, how I would like them to run because, you know, we're blessed to have over 1,2005-star reviews in the last four years.

And our rating in Google, you know, it's 4.9, which is amazing with home services because it's hard to get that. So our employees buy into, they know our core values and they stick with it, the humility, the customer-oriented, the community. And they love it. So they dive straight in. So that's my day-to-day now. My wife came on in 15 when I looked at the fire department. She came on as vice president. that she's here day to day too more like doing all the stuff that I'm horrible at the accounts payable

the HR stuff the office stuff so it took a load off of me to kind of concentrate on my field supervisors and growing them as leaders yep yeah that's really smart that is really really smart now I'm always wondering if if somebody is is wanting to consider coming into this world right you're thinking man I'm seeing all my friends or people that I know that are in the home services world and they seem to be doing pretty well financially. They don't have all that college debt like the other people I know do, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And they're in demand.

Their services in demand. Yeah. What kind of advice would you give to somebody that's either wanting to start or maybe recently started? And if I could just add a little extra note there, talk about also the effects on family and home life. What kind of expectations should you give your spouse or potential spouse if you're going to enter into that world together? Oh man, that's that's huge. I'm going to tell you right now that the first thing I tell them is I'm honest with them, it's not easy. Owning any kind of business, small businesses are the backbone of the country.

It's 90 over 85, I think percent of businesses own in America or small businesses. That's right. It is a ton of stress. It is. It takes a special person, not special, but you just have to know and well, you just have to know it's coming. I'm 18 years in, there's still sleepless nights. they're still stressed. You're going to have that, but you have to know where to draw the lines.

From the very beginning, having someone in your corner locally that's a financial person, a financial advisor, someone that can go through with your books and your accounts with you monthly or every couple months so that they help you save money. You wouldn't believe how many people we help and conquer or any coaching where we get to meet them. They've been in five years. They're doing one, two million a year, but they're literally only profiting two or three percent. And they're like, I just don't know what do. I'm going to business.

And then you get to look at it. And they're traveling the world. They're buying the boats. They're buying. So everything they make, they're blowing. So it's in there early because it's when you're first owner, you get that check. And you're like, oh, I've got, I made 10,000. But you don't calculate your insurance coming.

Your, your taxes. So that's the stuff that is vital to if you want to make it long, you want to stay married because if that happens, you're, no time your wife or they're not going to stay around if you're running your business owner working seven days a week but you ain't bringing in any money you're going to have issues you know you don't want that head home so having that set up from the beginning even by yourself and having a way to budget and save you got to have a business budget and a personal budget and don't out spend it just because you're busy now because you could be slow tomorrow um that's the biggest thing i try to tell people because we do run into a ton of them that

a ton of businesses that go out of business than five years or less is usually money issues and that's that's one of them. Man, that's huge. Great advice. And I think you're right. I think that, you know, especially when it comes to family life, you're going to need to warn them that you're probably not going to be seen a whole lot of me for a little while. But if we could stick this thing out and we can weather these early storms, then it can really pay off for us later down the line. But we've got to have the right mindset together going into this thing, right? Right. Yep. You got to work at it as a partnership. And I'm blessed. Like I said, my wife's been here since she's always been part of my business. She was in college and got to stay home with the boys as they grew up. But in 15,

2015, when she was able to come on, we're able to work together and go home and separate it and get things done and still married. We're going on. We're married 13 years next week. So it's definitely takes a mindset that you've got to accept. You're going to be stressed. You can't worry about your competition. You can't worry about what people say. There's enough. And I try to tell people, I actually help a lot of other heating their companies here in Virginia. locally, like even my competitors, call me all the time for help. We help each other. And I tried to start that now that they're new and I've been around because when I started,

I didn't get that. I walked in supply houses in 2008, 2009. People would laugh at me like, look at he's 24 years old starting a business. He ain't going to make it. It was like a sacred ground to start a business back in 06. Now it's 20, 30 businesses. And it's enough work for everybody. You don't need to be stressing somebody else trying to make a living.

Just do your job. Do it right. your customers and your in your your the word or mouth will spread and bring the business for you there's no need in ever downplaying another business locally are talking about them just let it be they're talking let them be it'll it'll always end up in your favor absolutely absolutely now a question that i like to ask the season guys is given all your experience and and all your success um you were mentioning earlier that they're still occasionally the sleepless night what what kind of obstacles do you see at this stage in the game where you're 18 years in, the thing's been running for a while.

It's not like the problems just all of a sudden go away and everything's perfect, right? What is an obstacle? What is a challenge that you deal with now at this stage in the business, a little bit later on like this? Yeah, I think even if you're in 18 years or two years, every year it seems like it's something new. Like right now, of course, the economy is an obstacle. What's going to happen? You know, heating and there, people know, start in January, there's. a new Fri-on coming out mandate.

So now we're stressing we've got to completely retrain everybody, completely retool everything. And budget for that we didn't even think about until this year. And those obstacles like that, but also the end game. You know, what's going to happen? I got two boys. Do they want to take over in one day? You got to start thinking, how are you going to retire? How are you going to exit?

What's going to happen in 10 years? So then now, my planning is now until then, what do we need to be in place? so that you're comfortable, you know, either not being here and letting it run or what happens with it. So those are the obstacles you're starting to think about because I went in business, you know, with the goal of not wanting to work on my life, you know, not want to, you don't want to work but so long and do teaching and speaking, you know, when I'm done. So that's the goal now the next 10 years, what to do. That's right. That's right. For us as entrepreneurs, man, we, we tend to really value freedom more than anything else. Freedom and flexibility. We're not afraid

to work. We're not afraid to get down and dirty. But at the end of the day, what we would like in exchange for that is that flexibility to do it on our terms, right? If I want to take some time off with the kids, with the wife, with the family, I can do that, right? What kind of things have you done in your business, Brandon, to allow you to step away and things like that from time to time on your terms? Being able to put leaders in position early and teaching them. So now, like I used to have to wait till fall to take my summer vacation. Now there's enough leaders and stuff in there. We can go in the summer. You know, I had to plan that ahead so that I knew in a few years, this is when I want to take. I can take a week or two off. And also, we stress that with our

employees. One thing we do here that nobody does is every employee gets their birthday off paid as a gift from us. You don't get, you don't use your vacation, you don't use your PTO. You get paid to stay home on your birthday. If it's a Saturday, you're off Friday. If it's a Sunday, you're off Monday. And like, we had an employee last week with his birthday. He was off. And he posted, you know, and everybody was like, what? I didn't know you had that. Like, I got to eat, go to school, eat lunch with my kids, you know, which I normally don't do in the heat in their world, you know, able to take off, spend time with your kids at school, do a school event.

I got to wash my truck. I got to do all this because my company appreciates my time with my family. And that's why we did that. We pay for it. That's your birthday gift from us. So we noticed that too, and we value that in our employees. We want them to be home and see their family. Because I remember when I was doing heating there and fire department, I remember many Christmas days at the fire station away from my boys, you know. And that was just when I got to the point when they were getting older.

I said, that's enough is enough. I've got to do one of the other. Right. Life is way too short. So just you just got to plan it. I mean, I'll even put on my calendar. My wife, like I said, me and my wife work here together. I'll send her an invite next Friday lunch, just us.

And make us put it on the calendar. And then we know next Friday we're leaving work for two hours. We're going somewhere nice. We're going to sit down. We're going to eat and there's no work. Right. We're going to take our lunch break. So we try to do that with each other every month or more so that we make a point to put it on the calendar.

And that is some serious wisdom right there, my friend. I love that. Brandon, you know, obviously businesses need to advertise and they need to market in some capacity. Typically, if they want to at least be able to scale, you can do a lot with word of mouth. You can do a lot with referrals. But if you're looking to scale and turn up the volume, you usually have to have some type of marketing campaign. I'm a marketing nerd.

So I geek out on this stuff. And I always love to hear how businesses are, you know, operating in that realm. So can you share a little bit about maybe what you guys are doing with your business to market and promote yourselves and get your name out there? Yeah, we try to stay in front of them daily. We have posts on all social medias. We have TV commercials. We have email and text campaigns. We try to do fun stuff.

We always incorporate our employees. We have a fun commercial from last year we did with Bigfoot. I was Bigfoot and didn't need an air condition. Two of my guys backed up and we screwed an old thermostat to a tree. If you go on our Facebook page, browse you there and find it. There's a bunch of them on there. We did an Easter egg hunt for the game.

We closed down for half a day, you know, right before Easter, and cooked everybody breakfast and did an Easter egg hunt. Nice. We video it and we put out reels and we say, you know what? I don't care if we have to put off a customer for a couple hours. The employee is going to,

they'll be there when they're done with this, you know. Right. And we put that out. So we got to make it, you got to make it personal and likable. We try to strive to not have, maybe 2% of sales pitches. We do specials.

We do do tips. We do plumbing tip Tuesday. We're heating in there, tip Thursdays. We try to keep it 5% or less sales. We just want information and we want fun stuff just so they see us and they know our brand and our logo. So that when something happens, they already never call us because we're not forcing sales down our throat. And I'll tell you, the best commercial we ever did on TV was during COVID. It was just me and my wife and standing in front of our desk.

It was kind of dark. just said just a short thing of we know it's tough we know times are tough but we are praying for you and that was it that was the only commercial nothing about call us because you're home and we got more working during COVID because of that commercial than any other year because they were like your commercial just touched us that you cared right um and you got to make it personal and that's where we did and that one just led to so many blessings that we didn't even plan on golly man that is incredible. I think that you've made it pretty clear, Brandon, that you are definitely a man of God and you don't seem to hide that about yourself. Can you just touch on that briefly in what

role that has played in your life and everything that you're doing? Yeah. He's the one to put me on the path. You know, I tell everybody when I go to keynote speech, I don't like saying I'm going to give you my story because usually stories have at the end, they say the end. And I'd like to say this in my business testimony. Because everything, literally, if I look back, you know, I could I couldn't have planned the path any better than what would happen. If it didn't, doors didn't open. Every time I fell, you know, we got back up and we just had faith that something would happen.

We had several years or seasons where we were like, man, we have no money. We got to pay the people, not us. We're just going to close the doors, you know, and we're, then all of a sudden a job comes through. And you're like, no, we don't, you know. So I'm a firm believer that that's, you know, I respect. respect everybody's views, everybody's views,

religion, political, whatever you won't, you're free to, you know, believe, think whatever you won't. But for us,

we firmly believe that, you know, God put us on this path because I wasn't a preacher. I wanted to be a preacher and I kind of felt bad that I didn't. Because I was like, if this is my calling, and I'm not doing what he wants me to do, will I be successful?

So I think I found out as I went that I am serving in helping people in this role and helping people out. We do a heat pump giveaway. a family of need once a year. We do a huge event. The community nominates and votes, and we put a system in for a vet or a cancer patient or somebody, whoever wins the vote free. And I just, I feel that our path is where he wants us. So it's kind of joining. I feel better about it more at ease that I didn't take that one because I think I'm on the path he wanted me to be

on. Man, that's beautiful, man. I mean, that is as real and transparent as, as you could ever get. And I really appreciate your humiliate. Your humility. and being willing to share that, Brandon. So thank you for being very open about that because not everybody's willing to share those very, very personal things, you know, but they are of utmost importance in our lives, you know, for those of us who do believe

and have a faith life. So really good stuff. My question is we wind down here, my last couple of questions here, what does the future look like for Brandon Brown and Brown's heating air and plumbing? What do you envision you know, as far as your growth and expansion of your, of your business.

And let's just say like in the next five, 10 years. Yeah. For the next five years or less, our goal is to hopefully add electrical. It's hard to find, you know, people that want to do electrical and come to work for you because it's just a dying. Trades are just dying off. So it's hard to do that. But our goal is to get electrical added. Our goal is to, you know, expand jobs.

We've got apprentices starting where we're, we're going to run. just starting where we can do some internships for hopefully local high schoolers, get them interested in the trade, and like I was, and so young, so you don't have to go to a four-year school. You can do a trade and make good money. So the next five years, that's really that. We really want to tighten up what we have, the processes and the things, keep the plumbing growing, add electrical. Ten years from now, I'd love for it to be within zero to ten years where it's running completely

without me. I can just check me in a couple weeks every couple weeks. and I'm coaching, I'm speaking, doing things like that, maybe even do another book. I don't know. Yeah. And on that note, I did want to leave off on the conversation about your book. Where can that be found and what are you going to be doing in the future? Because I know you got a lot going on with the coaching and you're giving talks and a lot of that revolves around the book.

So you want to give that a little plug here before we wrap up? Yeah, I appreciate it. If you go to Brown's Heatingair.com, no end, just Brown's Heating Air. There's an author tag or tab on our page where you can find the link. It's on Amazon if you just search Cool Success by Brandon Brown. Or you can email me at Brown, HVAC, at gmail.com. If you do that, I will send a sign copy to you and give you the details of how to get a signed copy, personalized to you, and I'll mail it to you that way as well.

So, yeah, it's, I've got a, I've done about three speaking events so far this year, four. Next week, I've got a fifth one in Kansas City with a big train, actually a train America standard dealer event. I'm keynote speaking at. And hopefully this will lead to some more, you know, events and, and engagements. That's great, my friend. Brandon, let me tell you something, my friend. You are the definition of a homepreneur hero.

I thank you so much for your time, your story and, and all. that you've accomplished is really, it's moving. It's motivating and it definitely, you know, lights a fire under guys like me that just get to hear about all that you've overcome and all that you've been through and where you've ended up today now as a published author, as a coach, you know, it's just, it's really, it's really a phenomenal story. So thank you so much for coming on today. Brandon, I couldn't thank you enough for sharing all your story and all that you've,

all you've shared with us today. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate you. Absolutely. God bless all of you out there. God bless you too, my friend. And that does it, guys, for another episode of the Homepreneur Heroes Podcast. We will catch you here next time.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Homepreneur Heroes podcast with Marco Salinas. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights from our guest's journey in the Home Services industry. Remember to subscribe to our podcast for more stories of entrepreneurial success. and tips for growing your own home services business. Until next time, keep striving, keep serving, and keep being a homepreneur hero.