Digital Social Hour - From Hockey Dreams to Home Service Millionaire | Adam Chapman DSH #1181
Episode Date: February 14, 2025Hockey dreams, life-changing setbacks, and a $250K business hustle—this episode of the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly is packed with valuable insights you can’t miss! 🚀 Adam Chapman shares... his inspiring journey from playing semi-pro hockey to building a thriving home service empire through grit, determination, and out-of-the-box thinking. 🏒💡 Discover how Adam pivoted after a career-ending injury, went from sleeping in his car to generating six figures in just two years, and started Home Service University to help others achieve their entrepreneurial goals. From hanging Christmas lights to scaling a multi-service business, he’s proving that hard work and creativity can lead to massive success. 💼✨ Want to know how you can start your own hustle with $0 to your name, or why simple services like window cleaning and holiday lighting are goldmines? Tune in now to hear Adam’s secrets, jaw-dropping numbers, and game-changing advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. 💵🔥 Don’t miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and join the conversation for more incredible stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚨 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:30 - Adam's Journey to Success 04:56 - Specialized Recruiting Insights 05:52 - Nature vs Nurture Debate 06:23 - Relocating to the US 06:53 - Expanding Business in the US 09:15 - Launch of Home Service University 09:54 - Christmas Light Business Strategy 12:38 - Generating Business Leads 15:25 - Managing Customer Complaints 17:02 - Hockey Career Overview 19:06 - Overcoming Low Points 22:19 - The Journey to Success 23:20 - Impact of Upbringing on Mentality 24:00 - Origins of Hockey Fights 25:20 - Recovery from Brain Injury 25:59 - Achieving 6-Figure Income 28:00 - Government Jobs in Canada 30:38 - Meeting His Mentor 31:50 - Connecting with Adam APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: jenna@digitalsocialhour.com GUEST: Adam Chapman https://www.instagram.com/adamrchap https://www.instagram.com/padpalca SPONSORS: Specialized Recruiting Group: https://www.srgpros.com/ LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ #makemoneyonline #getmoreleadsforhomeservicebusiness #homeservicemarketing #cleaningbusiness #businessideas
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yeah concussion right yeah yeah I was in a fight and I fought a lot too really
yeah
all right guys Adam Chapman here today from Canada welcome to America welcome
to Vegas thank you for having me sir is this your first time it your first time in Vegas? First time in Vegas, yes.
What are you liking about it so far? Well, we had a really good event last night. That was a lot of fun.
Yeah, pretty much all we've done so far is
headed to your event. It was a lot of fun. A lot of cool people there. Yeah. Yeah, we were talking outside.
You met all sorts of people, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. We met an F3 driver last night. Some guys in the online space.
Yourself was a really cool event. Absolutely. Anyone recognize you from your viral videos?
Yeah, just one, just one guy was trying to convince me that we went out in Vegas
together and he pulled up my Instagram and was like, Oh, you're the Christmas
light guy.
That's the first guy.
Yes.
Was that your first viral video, the Christmas light stuff?
No, the first stuff that started going viral was driveway ceiling.
It's like seal coding.
Yeah.
And you made money off that and just filmed you like performing that on other
people's driveways, right? Yeah. Well, it kind of that and just filmed you like performing that on other people's driveways.
Right?
Yeah.
Well, it kind of started with just me filming it for my, my actual company
pad pal filming videos.
And then a bunch of guys started reaching out to me from all over the
place, asking for help with their business.
And for me, at least it was a lot of older guys in the industry, like 65
year old guys.
So it was just kind of cool to talk to other people that were looking at
home services that weren't old and then kind of spilled into creating more
and more content.
Damn. I didn't know the industry was that old. It's ran by older people.
Yeah, it's a very, it's a very old industry. It's a very, uh, let's see,
like a little bit more unprofessional. So being a young guy in it and meeting
other young guys in it's a lot of opportunity for us. Yeah.
Do you think it's cause our generation's a little lazier?
A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Like everyone wants to be like a TikTok star or do drop shipping or
Amazon FBA, whereas no one wants to go and kind of get their hands dirty and put in the hard work.
Yeah, or a podcaster. Yeah, I get asked every damn day. You know, how can I start a podcast? Yeah. Yeah
Well, they think it's easy. Nothing's easy, but that's a little bit more sexy to be a podcaster than a home service guy
Yeah, yeah, but these these these jobs are needed, man.
I mean, they're not going away.
AI is not at the point where it can replace them yet.
No, and it's one of those things where I,
I know everyone's afraid of AI for everything,
but a lot of these services,
I just can't see it being a priority
of things that AI is taking over.
Maybe it's going to help make it more efficient
for business owners,
but the actual physical labor is not going anywhere, no.
Yeah, hanging Christmas lights, that'd be very hard for an AI to do the actual physical labor is not going anywhere. No.
Yeah. Hanging Christmas lights.
That'd be very hard for an AI to do.
I know there are robots now though.
Elon Musk dropped one.
Yeah.
You see that one?
Yeah. He did the whole release of a bunch of stuff.
Yeah. I saw that.
But then again, you want to think of like application of,
if they're going to have all that technology,
is it going to be for something like Windows
or Christmas lights?
Probably not.
It's going to be in a different field.
I imagine that's going to be more lucrative than or Christmas lights. Probably not. It's going to be in a different field. I imagine that's going to be a more lucrative than these types of things.
And I love what you teach because it's so relatable and you don't need tons of
money to get started.
You started with zero bucks, right?
Yeah.
So I started with basically ground zero.
I was sleeping in my car and then I went door to door collected deposit money.
Use that money throughout the winter to buy my equipment.
And then that was almost nine years ago.
Now, what was the first equipment you bought?
First equipment was a squeegee and a scrubber.
I didn't have any of the fancy stuff.
It was just like a bucket, some rags, really the basics.
I started with window cleaning and then just kept reinvesting back in my business.
Those window cleaners make decent money though.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Window cleaning is an awesome gig because it's cheap to get started with
and it's scalable
and easily can do about a thousand, $1,500 a day by yourself.
What type of buildings were you doing that for?
Residential.
So we do some commercial stuff, but the biggest one we got into is residential.
There's some that do skyscrapers.
I'm like, dude, yeah, we're not into that.
Yeah, I'm good on that one.
They probably make more, but the risk.
Yeah.
And it's very, that's very like very uncompetitive.
Like there's not enough companies that do it, but that's, that's not a route we're going to go down.
Yeah. The liability probably is just insane.
You know, if you're up that high, I remember being on the 44 once and I saw someone outside like, dude, that is crazy.
Yeah. It's like, or like those guys that do the free solos up the building and stuff.
Oh, that documentary was my favorite one. What was that guy's name?
The free climber. Alex Honnold?
Yeah.
That was nuts.
And then I saw that one with the boyfriend and girlfriend.
It's on Netflix now.
I forget what it's called, but they're going up the Dubai buildings and stuff.
No harnesses.
What?
That is crazy.
Sweating watching it.
You ever do crazy stuff like that?
Crazy stuff like that.
No, I love swimming and jumping off cliffs and stuff. All right cliff jump is pretty pretty wild
What's the highest cliff you've jumped?
Like 50 feet or something like that. I've done 40 and I was that was pretty scary. I'll throw in the gainers
Yeah, I just a fear of heights and I was in Jamaica. I'm like, let me just conquer this
I was like I'm not gonna look before I jump. I'm just gonna jump off
Yeah, that's what's all about. A tough landing though.
Shit hurt, to be honest.
But there was an 80 foot cliff there and like the guys...
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Teaching everyone, we're jumping off that one and doing back flips. I'm like,
yeah, dude, that's wild. But cliff jumping is fun. You do a lot of stuff in nature.
A lot of stuff in nature. Not too much. I like getting away and going down south and taking the
winners, I call it off, I guess, but working on the business
while my guys are kind of taking care of the lights and stuff
taking them down. But yeah, like I love going going swimming and
stuff like that getting out of Canada for sure. It's cold out
there. Yeah, it's already snowing and blowing. So it's
nice to be down here. There's spots to swim out there though.
Kind of a little bit like lakes and stuff is only good for like
July or else it's pretty cold. Yeah, you like the US better
overall. Yeah, I love love the states you want to move
here yeah it's either gonna be Florida or Texas okay well Las Vegas is pretty
nice so yeah it's hard to be Vegas that process is hard I heard yeah I have a
company that's kind of like down to get my visa and do that with me if I wanted
to yeah kind of looking into that I just met someone and he said it was like
eight thousand bucks or something and that's a lot for most people. So yeah
Yeah, definitely for a lot of people but it's definitely a lot of opportunity here too and coming down to me a lot of successful people
And yeah, it's definitely the move you think your business is replicatable in the US. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely
So we haven't started franchising and something that we've considered but for my online stuff
Everyone just kind of copies and pastes what I do in Canada, in Ottawa, Canada.
And we have guys in Florida, California. We have a couple guys in Vegas as well.
Yeah, copy paste the same systems, the same strategies, and they're doing really well.
Wow. Yeah, I guess it's needed everywhere, right?
A lot of people celebrate Christmas, so they need the Christmas lights getting hung.
And there's no one really teaching that.
Yeah. Yeah, well, it's, we teach a variety of services.
So like, that's the other thing that comes into play is like where you are.
So people that are like in California or Florida, anything on the coast, like
soft washing is a big service, soft washing.
Yeah.
So it's like, you're cleaning the roof with the chemicals.
Yeah.
So that gots a big thing.
Whereas where I am, it's not really a big thing.
So different places have different services that are more needed or more popular.
Whereas, uh, there's our services that are the same everywhere.
Like window cleaning is going to happen in Vegas is going to happen in everywhere.
Same thing with the lights.
We do the Christmas lights, permanent lights.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So there's depending on what people want to do.
I talk a lot about service stacking.
So what we'll do is get a client for window cleaning and then we'll upsell them
gutter cleaning and then get them on Christmas lights.
And now that one customer spending $2,000 a year, you do a good job, do what you're supposed to do,
and they'll come back.
Yeah, dude, my handyman is booked all day every day.
It's nuts.
$60 an hour and he's just booked all freaking day.
Yeah, just people don't want to do it.
And if you, people that are doing it,
as long as you do a good job, like people stay loyal
because everyone's been burned or like kind of stood up
by a contractor, by a company.
So it's unlike other industries, you can kind of just do the basics and really
stand out.
So if you take it above that, it's the world is yours.
Facts plus the marketing is all word of mouth.
So like, if you do good work, people are going to refer you business, right?
I've sent a ton of referrals.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
But there is that negative stigma with God directors for sure.
Cause it's always like, they give you that initial quote and it's never that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, a lot of these guys can charge and they know that.
Like if they're really good at doing like pavers and stuff,
they'll be booked out for a year or so.
They have that take it or leave it kind of mentality sometimes.
I remember when I got my house,
this one guy wanted to charge me like 10k to replace the AC units and they were
all like fine.
Yeah.
My dude.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You got it.
You do got to be careful.
And that's why I tell guys to like build up a good Google reviews, build up the presence
and do the right thing.
This is going to pay off in the long run.
Yeah.
So when did home service university start?
Cause you've been in this for nine years, you said, right?
Yeah.
So I've been doing my own company for almost nine years now.
And I started home service university about two years ago now.
And it's the, uh, uh, I feel like it's as lame as it sounds.
I feel like that was like why I was put on planet earth.
It's, uh, it's really cool to see guys from all over the place and some guys
come in and they're struggling and to see them a year later, be able to go from.
Either losing their job or maybe only making like 40 K a year to
working for themselves, making a hundred thousand dollars a year, being able to have their wife at home with the kids.
So about two years doing the home service university, but it's two years of a 24 seven
obsession.
So it's moving quick.
Yeah.
It's cool.
You're saying you got some testimonials already people in Cali you're visiting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're going to California on Sunday to go visit two of my students.
So it's a husband and wife combo.
We don't have a lot of those.
So it's kind of cool dynamic.
Husband and wife, we were kind of't have a lot of those. So it's kind of cool dynamic.
Um, husband and wife, we were kind of doing as a bit of a side hustle.
The wife quit her job to do more of it. And then now this summer her husband quit and now they're, their, their dream
was to have a business together and they're doing about 25,000 a month.
And yeah, yeah, there's, there's plenty of money in the home services.
So they're making more money and they're working together and then also like,
yeah, have control of their time.
So 25 a month is not just off one service or did they kind of do everything?
Yeah.
So 25,000 a month.
That's what you can do for like a one or two person crew.
And that's pretty standard across the board for like window
cleaning or gutter cleaning.
Uh, right now they're doing Christmas lights and make more Christmas lights.
So it'd be interesting to check in on them tomorrow and see if they're.
So I've never paid for that, like Christmas lights.
What are, what are the people paying for that for their house? So we started at a thousand dollar minimum. Whoa. Service I've never paid for that, like Christmas lights. What are, where do people paying for that for their house?
So we started at a thousand dollar minimum.
Whoa.
Service.
Yeah.
People pay a thousand for Christmas lights.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What?
Yeah.
Well, it's, it's a, it's an experience.
So it's not just like hardware store lights.
Like we, uh, we use commercial grade lights.
We make it like really, really, really nice.
Um, and yeah, like our, our average ticket at my company last
year was $1,800.
Damn.
Yeah.
And we, that's nuts. And we lease the lights was $1,800. Damn. Yeah. That's nuts.
And we lease the lights too.
So it's like a rental basically.
Okay.
So they're just paying for the service.
Oh, wow.
So they don't even own the lights.
No.
Holy crap.
Yeah.
What a business model.
Yeah, it's very lucrative.
Like my company this year will do about $250,000 and just Christmas lights.
Damn.
Yeah.
So October, November, December, right?
Yeah, October, November, right through December.
Yeah.
So it's not even like a year.
It's just three months.
You're doing that revenue, which is crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we have, we have some people in home service university that have like normal
jobs and then they always take all their time off in the fall and make a bunch
of money with Christmas lights.
Damn.
It does.
It probably does take a long time to hang them though, in the house.
It depends on what exactly you're doing, but like when I send out two guys,
my goal for them is to $5,000 a job today.
Wow.
They're like two jobs or sometimes three jobs.
We have some residential clients that that'd be one full day at their house.
5,000.
That's impressive.
You ever get into moving?
Moving and stuff.
Yeah.
Like moving house to house moving company.
Oh, no, no, no.
Nah.
That would be a, the moving sucks. Really? Well, I don't know if the business model sucks, but personally, Oh yeah no no. The moving sucks. Really? Well I don't know if the
business model sucks but personally. Oh yeah personally yeah we can all agree on
that. I just I just asked because I paid this moving company like it was like
fifteen hundred two thousand bucks just to move. I was like damn I wonder what
their margins are on that. Yeah it's just labor. Just labor right? Yeah there's no
really I guess the truck but. Yeah and that thing is beautiful too is you could
like like I tell guys,
like get creative. Like if you're wanting to start a moving company,
you could find the lead, quote the job,
and then go rent a truck and get a buddy and start building it up from there.
So yeah, the margins, the margins would be good. Absolutely.
Do you have a process for finding leads using social media for my pad pal and
stuff? Yes. Yeah. We, I started the business off door to door
because I was broke, I had no money.
And it's awesome.
I love door to door because you can start from zero
and make a thousand, like I could leave this podcast today
and just because I had the skillset,
I could come home with a thousand bucks easy,
like from window cleaning.
But I tell guys to build up your brand name, do it right,
like get that repeat business.
And then that's kind of what we do.
And then as well as you do Facebook ads, Google ads, yard signs, uh, yard signs.
People find it surprising if they never called the yard sign before, but yard
signs, people call, call yard signs and they work really well.
Yeah.
Like those signs that you'll see on the side, people actually call those all the
time.
No way.
That's like a billboard to me.
Like I've never bought off a billboard.
I promise you, man.
Like, uh, especially when it comes to Christmas lights, like like we give in home service university we give them everything at pad pal
that my company does and we have these yard signs that are like 12 by 18 it just says holiday
lighting phone number and guys get phone calls before they even get home from putting the sign.
What? Yeah. Is that a Canada thing you think though? No everywhere everywhere all over Canada
the states maybe some places are not as popular but every single one home of home service, you have, I opened up the app right now.
It's like you type in sign, got the job from your sign, got the job from yours.
No way.
Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, I guess it's a, it depends on the industry.
Like if someone did that for something else, it probably wouldn't work.
Yeah.
I don't, I'm not sure.
Like it works for windows and stuff.
Of course, other people that have those windows and gutters is more popular,
but when you have that holiday, the holiday lighting sign, just it's a money printer, man.
Like a sign's going to cost you like a buck
and then a job's a thousand.
Like you can't get that ROI on Facebook ads or anything.
Yeah.
Gutter cleaning.
I didn't know the money was that big in gutter cleaning.
My parents used to get that when I lived in Jersey.
Yeah.
So like the kind of like standard rates,
like window cleaning, you're going to be about 250 a job.
Gutter cleaning about 250, 300 Christmas lights is a thousand, soft washing about 750 depending on a driveway ceiling
you're about 500 bucks for driveway ceiling. Yeah so the money's there.
Which ones do you lean towards out of all those? My favorite service is holiday
lighting. It's high ticket, recurring, it's very sticky like unless customer
moves they come back. Second. Second after that, maybe the seal coating, you can get pretty big in this parking
lots and stuff like that.
I'd say those are my favorite too.
They all have their kind of like pros and cons, I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's so many ways to make money.
I saw people flipping Christmas trees last year.
That was pretty viral.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Flipping Christmas trees.
Like we, and that's the other thing too, is like my company, PadPal, I could go tomorrow and launch PadPal painting because we don't do painting right now. Send out an email campaign and we'd be booked out for months because even though we've never done painting, they know what to expect when they contact my company and they work with PadPal. They want us to do everything for them.
Wow. So you got a great reputation.
Yeah. It's been a lot of work and yeah, it's's but we have a good reputation. How do you handle like angry
customers? That's a good question. You just refund them or what? Try not to too
much but yeah we do always make sure that our customers are happy because
like I said it's a lifetime customer right so if they're getting the gutters
clean and there's treats around they're gonna do it next year so sometimes yeah
like if you need to like wave a service or something like that, absolutely.
We do pretty good though, especially now
that I've gotten my hand on it.
When I first started out, of course,
had more issues and stuff, but,
and people are pretty understanding
for the most part as well.
I've only had two in the past few years,
but I just refund them both,
because I don't want them like bad mouthing me,
like reputation's super important these days. Oh yeah, reputation is more important than a couple hundred bucks.
Exactly.
And some customers, I know there's that saying you should always do right by them,
but at a certain point they're taking it a little too far.
I'm just going to refund you so we don't have to do business together.
Yeah, I think it may be even more so when it comes to someone's house sometimes.
Oh yeah.
Oh geez, do that while you're here. Do this while you're here sometimes.
Yeah, you got to kind of keep an eye on it.
But if you're kind of marketing yourself to the right clients
and charging a premium price for your service, I always enforce that on guys.
Like teach guys like, hey, charge a premium price.
You can pay your guys well, pay your workers well.
They're going to do a good job. They're going to stay.
And then your customers are going to come back.
You get for what you pay for.
Yeah, exactly.
Like you should never, especially for your house, you should never go with gonna come back you get for what you pay for yeah, yeah Like you should never especially for your house
You should never go with the cheapest quote you get definitely not because you're gonna get the worst quality work for the most part
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, or or they're on insured and then they get injured and that's you and the homeowners
So yeah, I usually pick like the middle one. Yeah, you know, I'll get like at least three quotes and I'll pick the middle one
For the most part. Yeah, it's a good way to go. So you played hockey and you were really good.
Not decent enough, I guess.
Yeah.
So I played, uh, I played semi-pro, uh, when I was 20, uh, played, that's the
only thing I did my whole life was hockey.
Like I was not a business guy at all.
It was just straight NHL or bust and got pretty close and then had a pretty big
injury, so that's kind of Atlanta.
Concussion, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I was in a fight and I fought a lot too.
Really?
Yeah. Yeah. So I was in a fight and a guy had my helmet off
and I hit my head off the ice having convulsions for like three days.
Yeah.
Holy shit. So he like flipped you?
Yeah. You got like a 16 game suspension.
Cause you're not allowed to do that.
Like it's just like physics.
Like if someone's on skates and you push them and pull their pants like this, Yeah, you got like a 16 game suspension. Cause you're not allowed to do that. Like it's just like physics.
Like if someone's on skates and you push them
and pull their pants like this, they're gonna flip.
And then I didn't feel anything at the time.
Like I got up and then I was in the change room after
like the, it was like right at the end of the game
and the coach was talking.
And then I just started like convulsing.
Holy crap.
So I was 20 years old.
Thought I was like this close to going to the next step
of my first year of playing pro.
And next thing you know, I'm being told by the team doctor,
hey, like you're not playing hockey here
for at least another year.
And then the team, it's pro, it's a business.
They said, hey, see ya.
Like, good luck, hope you get better.
Damn.
That's insane, dude.
So that was probably the lowest point of your life, right?
Oh, yeah, I've definitely had a...
Not the easiest upbringing and stuff, but like when I'm in the middle of Georgia from Canada
and sleeping in the back of a car, I was definitely...
I didn't know anything about anything in life, just hockey.
I was definitely questioning what I should do.
Right, because you put all your eggs in that basket.
Every single thing I knew was hockey.
Yeah, there was no backup plan.
And then when that got taken away,
you were probably like super lost.
Didn't know who to talk to, right?
Yeah, it was very dark for sure.
I didn't really have anywhere to go either.
Like my mom was living with my great grandma at the time,
like an old age home.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so it's technically like homeless for like a month.
And you were in Georgia, you said?
I was in Georgia at the time, yeah.
Wow. That is crazy.
So what were like the steps you took from there to get out of that funk?
So the way it works in Canada is like, well, I guess for hockey wise is you play a major junior.
So that's like semi-pro, I guess that would be considered.
And then after that, the universities try to get you in Canadian universities
because you can't go to the States anymore to do D1, paid to play.
Um, so they tried to like poach all the guys when they're 20 and my brother
and I were the same age, we went in the summer and just did a bunch of school
tours, just to kind of get the money and have fun for the weekend and leave.
We were both going pro anyways, kind of idea.
And one of the schools, uh, reached out to me during that time and said, Hey,
we saw you got injured.
Come here.
We'll pay for your rehab.
We'll give you somewhere to stay.
And I was like, might as well at least have somewhere to stay.
So I went there.
I started doing my rehab and that's kind of the full circle of how I end up getting
into the home services was a really bad concussion was really wondering if there's
any real point of life anymore to falling into the home service space to being the the best thing that's ever happened to me. Wow so that school saved you.
Yeah yeah the everyone at that school was awesome like the people with the hockey team were good.
The doctor, the team doctor was really awesome. My physio, I didn't do anything that rest of that
year so I took the rest of that year just to do rehab and stuff and then the next year I went back
to hockey at university. Did academic all Canadian all Canadian, which is, uh, good grades essentially.
And you did a lot of points, um,
and then did hockey for the rest of my university career.
But my main focus at that point really knew that I liked business more than
sports because everything is in your control. But in sports,
unless you are a superstar,
there's so many things that are out of your control. Whereas business it's, if you suck, it's your own fault.
Facts.
Yeah.
Cause sports, especially team sports, you can only contribute
X amount of percentage, right?
You can only contribute so much like the co like for all you know, like
you're on a bad line or you get bench or you get hurt or you get traded.
Like there's so many, especially when I was playing pro, you'll see guys
are on like NHL two way deals.
So they need to be the one that's getting the most ice time so they can get pulled
up. Right, politics. Yeah there's a lot of that especially when it comes to pro and
like a lot of things are out of your control too. Yeah I think you would like
chess I know we were talking out there about chess because if you lose chess
it's your fault. Yeah. It's not like some lucky thing happened. Yeah I love chess.
Yeah and that's the same thing with business too and a lot of people aren't
good at business let's be. It's not for everyone.
Bucks. I mean, I think what? 95% fail. Something crazy like that.
I have no idea. But it's, I look at business like this, at least for what I know in the,
I don't know every single industry obviously, but for home services and stuff like that, like,
as long as you stay consistent with it and don't give up, I think that's where most people fail.
I know that stat, like everyone, a lot of businesses fail, but how many people that you know at
least that put in like a half-assed effort and that technically counted as a business.
That's true, yeah. Opening up an LLC and then not doing anything.
They probably count that as a fail, but they never even tried.
Yeah, or they don't try long enough. I think people underestimate how much it
takes to get as far as some people do. Like when you say people come to you the podcast,
because they see you, they see the studio,
they see who you are now,
but they don't see you tripping over your words
and having a hard time even knowing what to talk about
and figuring out your audio for the first time
and sticking with it.
Yeah, plus the seven years of personal branding
and personal development before that.
Yeah.
Even getting to that point.
It's like when people see me now,
like it's weird because they don't know my whole, even getting to that point. It's like when people see me now, like they it's weird because
they don't know my whole like they assume that I like came
from money or a super smart guy or anything like that. Whereas
it's not the case or like my first my first business vehicles
are 2003 Chevy, the same 2003 Chevy Malibu I was sleeping in.
Wow. The next one was a 1972 F 150 that was was just enough money to like get enough jobs done
to get a nicer one and then kept upgrading.
Yeah.
Love it.
Yeah.
I've raised by a single mother too, right?
Same here.
Yeah.
Good for you, man.
Yeah.
It was tough at the time for sure.
I felt pretty lost, especially in sports.
Like not having that father figure.
I was super like passive.
Bro, it's such a helpful thing if you
have like having a father that's involved for the kids playing sports and like can give some
influence like i had no idea how it worked like my mom just said work hard and like
basically like go to the NHL and work hard but i didn't really know how the whole process
worked so yeah i uh admire that you got that far and done well for yourself man
yeah no for sure shout out to my mom she did her best but yeah my mentality was
just so timid I was shy I didn't have that confidence growing up yeah but it
sounds like you had some right with the hockey stuff. Had some confidence? Yeah.
It's just the only thing it was yeah it was just the only thing that I looked at
hot I remember being young and being like okay like I can't I don't want to have a
life like this one day so hockey is the only way to get rich is what like
I was believed.
So being really good at hockey was something kind of like
escape everything else that's going on.
And I just saw it as a way to like,
be able to like one day take care of my mom and like,
when I have kids and stuff,
I want to have a better life for myself.
Yeah. That was your outlet to escape.
Yeah. It was hockey.
Who initiated the fights mainly?
You said you got in a lot
I find people always find this funny when you when I tell them this but some of them are really like
Not once they set up but you know, you're gonna fight like it's before the game
Like if you're like doing warm-ups, you'll see you guys talking at the red line like that guy's tough
I want to fight him and then you'll go up to hey man, you want to fight and make yeah sounds good, bro
Why it's very chill like that sometimes really? Yeah, like when I have the engineer these times to hey man you want to fight and like yeah sounds good bro. What? It's very chill like that sometimes. Really?
Yeah like when I have the engineer these times like hey man let's fight.
They're like no man come on man like he's like no no no man like your coach will love you.
You haven't played in like fucking five minutes like let's go okay fine.
Then you fight and then you're paying the box.
Hey man thanks I needed that like.
What?
It's very like that.
Sometimes they're very intense and like mad and all that.
But a lot of times it's like you know you're on a game or like, let's say you're on a way game.
You're down to nothing. The other team's tough guy knows that someone else on their team is going to
come up and say, Hey bro, fight. And it's like, he owes you one because next time that they'll,
their team will need momentum. He'll ask you to fight and you fight them back.
Oh, so it's like a momentum shifter. That's why people do it. Yeah. Oh, I never knew that.
I always see them on TV.
I'm like, what's the reason for this?
If someone just ran, if you were watching NHL games, someone just like drops the
gloves and start fighting and it's random.
It's because someone that's on the team that doesn't have momentum went out and
said, Hey, can you help us out fight me?
And then that's kind of how it starts.
Yeah.
Damn.
That's crazy.
So you made a full recovery though from that brain injury.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was a, it was a big process.
Um, did a lot of, a lot of stuff for that, but made a full recovery.
Um, but I just didn't want to continue.
I finished my university cause you don't quit what you start.
So I finished my university finished with the hockey team.
Um, but then as soon as I was done, I just doubled down on the business.
Cause like I said, I realized that I didn't love hockey.
I just thought his way to one day provide life
and they'll take care of my future family.
And then when I saw that and the window cleaning
and these simple services, I just doubled down.
So as soon as I graduated,
that's when I first added Christmas lights
and really took my business to the next level.
Nice. So you've been doing that business for nine years.
How long it take to get to six figures
in revenue with that business? Two years. How long it take to get to six figures in revenue with that business?
Two years. Oh, wow.
Yeah, that's quick.
Yeah.
So my first year I did 55,000.
Um, but that was from April until mid August, cause I was in university.
So then we have training camp and stuff.
And then my second year, yeah, we did the hundred 140 and then by
university and graduating about two 60.
Damn.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really impressive, dude.
For real.
I mean, not a lot of businesses you could start within two, three years. Do that type of Damn. Yeah. Yeah. That's really impressive, dude. For real. I mean, not a lot of businesses you could start within two, three years do that type of number. Yeah.
So if you're doing a home service business, if you're doing it full-time, like a good benchmark
to hit for yourself, if you're doing the right thing, should be a hundred thousand your first
year. First year. Holy crap. Hundred thousand revenues for first year. Good margin if you're
doing yourself. You're working hard, of course, but that's like a solid like first year you're
gonna start in January or February.
Yeah.
I mean, average salary in the US is I think 50k.
So yeah, you can do a lot better for yourself.
Just doing these simple jobs like you got to get your hands dirty though.
That's the thing.
That's the difference.
Yeah, that's that's the only thing that's which a lot of guys now I think are starting
to open up and like see how much opportunities there.
But we had a guy just before I came in here,
I was looking at, we have our app for home service.
You guys said, hey, I've done 54,000 this year
in Christmas lights.
And I remember that guy, when I first met him,
he was like, yeah, I work for a marketing agency.
They haven't fired me yet, but I feel like it's coming.
And then he ended up getting fired,
but he started his business ahead of time.
Outside of it.
So it's smart to probably do this on the side at first.
It's a good, yeah, depending on what you're doing in life.
Like it's something that I always tell people you want to do it right,
like build up your brand, like do it right, do it for the long term.
But yeah, you can start it up on the side.
We have a lot of guys that do it on the side of their nine to five to start.
And yeah, like I was just in Colorado visiting a guy, he has four kids into nine to five,
but he's like, it's not going to leave anything behind for my kids.
I want to build something.
He started doing his Christmas light business this year,
doing a massive mega church the other day.
Damn. Yeah, those churches got money.
I've never seen that in Canada. It was nuts.
That was in LA?
Yeah, there's the Range Rover parked out front. The G wagon parked out front.
Oh, classic. Yeah, that's not in Canada.
Yeah, that was in Colorado. Yeah, yeah, massive church.
Yeah. I got to bring this up because you said this outside. Canadian jobs. So 25% of Canadian jobs are for the government
Yeah, that is insane. Yeah, you think that's too high, right? It's makes a very slow
Yes, people are just comfortable. Yeah, come comfortable enough. Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm not happy. It's a comfortable or
Yeah, like being an entrepreneur. There's probably like look down on almost
Yeah, if you stand out a lot like if you you're flashy, especially like I'm in Ottawa, like
it's not something that's celebrated.
Like when you're here in Vegas and in Miami, like you see people doing big things, it's
not as much celebrated as people are interested and want to learn more and stuff.
Whereas in Canada, it's much more closed off, play it a bit more low key for sure.
There's parts of Europe like that too.
It's just like, I hear all the time America's like the best entrepreneurial country
and we live here so we just don't know what else is out there, you know?
You guys are hungry, you guys are go-getters.
Like I'll talk to a guy from the States that's like,
yeah man, like my girl just left me, I have $5,000 for my name,
I hate my job, I just need a change in life.
And then they'll be like, cool, let's start my home service business.
And then a year later, they're putting up numbers and hiring workers and like going
after it. Whereas like, yeah, a lot of guys from Canada are very like, yeah, risk adverse
and want to really like take their time with things.
Damn, that's wild. It's so close to here too. It's not even that far away. It's a
whole different world.
There's just a lot of like a lot of different factors kind of like playing into that. Of
course, like a lot of government workers just government workers just embedded into our society, the mentality.
And then all this, a lot of red tape on things.
Right.
You were saying the companies have monopolized a lot of industries out there.
Yeah.
Yeah, like a big ones like foam plans and basically all the grocery stores.
Yeah.
They do that here.
I don't know if it's as bad, but if there's a healthy food brand coming up,
they'll get acquired by an unhealthy one and then they'll change you the ingredients
Real quick make more money
Similar idea. Yeah, it'd be like five grocery stores on your own my one company. So they just yeah
That is the one downside of capitalism. I guess you know the big dogs are just gonna eat
They'll buy out the up-and-comers and stay big, but I don't know if there's a better system honestly
big. But I don't know if there's a better system, honestly.
Yeah. I don't know. The states are doing pretty good. You guys, we rebounded well from the COVID stuff.
I don't know how you guys handled that stuff, but apparently we rebounded better than
most countries in the U.S.
Yeah. Yeah. I can't, it's a hard time.
I remember you couldn't even fly in at one point.
Yeah. I was, I left a lot during COVID just like, yo, screw this.
Like especially it was like during January and stuff.
Yeah. You were able to get out? Yeah. Well, I left right before I was like during January and stuff. Yeah.
You were able to get out?
Yeah, well I left right before I was like, I could tell the second time they're shutting
it down.
I was like, hey, I'm not, it was January.
So at that time of the year, my guys just taking down the Christmas lights anyways.
So I don't need to be around.
So I went to Anguilla in the Caribbean.
Okay.
That sounds fun.
Yeah.
My mentor's from there.
And funny enough, he's from Canada, built an asphalt company and sold it.
And then moved down there.
How'd you meet him?
Social media.
He reached out to me,
he saw me creating content for driveway ceiling.
And he has a supply company now.
They supply seal coating stuff.
And he said, hey, come down.
I was like, say less.
I love that.
And that's the power of social media right there.
Yeah, it's incredibly powerful.
That's how we met, you know, content, posting daily. You never know who's gonna see it. Yeah, absolutely
I got like big people coming up to me. They're like y'all I've seen your videos. I'm like, holy crap
Yeah, it's nuts. I get open so many doors
Were you posting nine years ago like on social media? Were you doing it more behind the scenes?
My first three years the only thing I was doing was door-to-door
It just laws new version didn, didn't know, you know, but
then as I was getting more and learning more, I was posting a lot of content
for my company, PadPal.
Um, and that's how people found me to help them start and grow their
businesses was seeing the content that was creating for homeowners being like,
Hey Ottawa, like come get your windows cleaned or stuff like that.
So it's what brought me in started.
I guess my, like I said, my life's purpose,
Home Service University was from
just creating social media content.
It's powerful.
Where can people find your social media
and what else you got going on?
Yeah, my social media, it's Adam R. Chap, C-H-A-P,
crazy Chapman, I would say.
And then you can go to like, we have a website,
Join Home Service University.
Joinhomeserviceuniversity.com.
Perfect, we'll link below. Thanks coming on man
Hey, thank you very much. Check out his stuff guys. Peace
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