The Home Service Expert Podcast - Setting Yourself Apart From The Rest In Your Market

Episode Date: July 11, 2018

Simone is the owner of Demo Diva Demolition, a trail-blazing business in a male-dominated industry. She made her mission of helping her neighbors a full-fledged business success after she lost her home and her job in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In this episode, we talked about management, marketing, business leadership...

This is the Home Service Expert podcast with Tommy Mello. Let's talk about bringing in some more money for your home service business. Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week, Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields, like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership, to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now, your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello. Hello, listeners. I'm here with Simone Bruni, and she has done some marvelous things with her life.

She owns the Demo Diva Demolition Company based in New Orleans. And she basically lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. And we're going to go through some great things that she's been through and learn a lot about her business. Simone, how's your day going? It's going great. Thanks, Tommy, for having me on your show. Yeah, I'm excited to get going on this. I mean, it's crazy. We just kind of talked on where you've been and where you're going. Can you kind of tell the audience a little bit about you and what you've been through over the last couple dozen years? You know what? Life is a journey of unpredictable curves. I've come to learn that. So 12 years ago, I was single here in New Orleans. I was working for a corporate event planner. So I was planning parties, going to parties, selling parties. It was a great life

for a young single girl. I had just bought my first house, so invested. And life was just rolling along. Then that old thing called Katrina rolled through and really turned our city upside down. Needless to say, the hospitality industry came to a screeching halt. I was laid off. My house was flooded. And I had to pick up the pieces alone, which was probably the worst part of that whole story. And that was probably the most fearful part of going through a disaster alone. And through that, I discovered a new path. I discovered a new beginning for myself.

I was helping my neighbors gutting their houses. And that opened the door for me to learn the demolition business. I knew nothing about demolition. Nobody in my family is in construction. And so it was very foreign and it was very scary for me to work with a really big, rough man. But I learned. And so thus, I started the Demo Diva Demolition Company. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about the demolition company.

I mean, you guys, you were just telling me. Tell me about what you work on and how much it's grown into being the monster that it is today. Well, I started with $250, and this is probably the funny part of the story. I knew that I wanted to work with my community, and I really was only targeting women. I figured there were more women in this business that felt like me, scared. And so I bought a box of business cards for $30. I bought a pair of magnets for my car because after Hurricane Katrina,

and if you were a legitimate contractor, ha ha, you had a pair of magnets on your car that like suddenly you were an authorized agent of construction. So box of business cards, magnets on my car and yard signs. And, you know, for all your listeners out there who are feeling really angst in life and nervous that, you know, time has gotten away from them or they're too old or they're too young or they've missed their opportunity. That's a lie. And I'm going to tell you, timing is everything. It's timing and attitude. So let me tell you my story. 10 months after Hurricane Katrina, I started the demolition business. Now in those 10 months, there were so many other companies that had come to town or the big boys that

were already in the demolition business were everywhere. And I just was watching from the sidelines, you know, I had no intention of starting a demolition business. I just was watching and there was nice sandy lots that they had demolished these houses. And then they came back with sand and they graded out the property. And so I saw a marketing opportunity. Once I decided to start Demo Diva, I ordered a hundred yard sign in hot pink. And I went to these nice sandy lots. I asked the owner or the neighbor, whoever it was, if I could stick my sign out there, this nicely demolished property.

They said, sure, we don't, you know, I don't know who that demolition company was. They weren't even from New Orleans. And so I said, well, I'm from New Orleans. Can I stick my sign here? So in one week, I put out 100 yard signs on jobs that I did not do. Let me tell you, that catapulted me into another stratosphere because it appeared that I did 100 demolitions. And my phone started ringing. And it was people were like, Demo Diva, we see you everywhere. You must be so busy. And I said, oh, we're slammed. We are busy. And it wasn't we.

It was me. But I did sub out everything. So it was a we. I had gone to get some guys. So basically what I did is I subbed it out for two and a half years. I owned no equipment. I subcontracted all the demolition out. But I didn't have the confidence that I would really

be a legitimate business. And after two and a half years and watching these guys rip me off of copper and all the other commodities that come out of the demolition business, I said, that's it. I'm going into the business. I've made a lot of money in those two years. I saved it. I saved, I saved, I saved. And I bought my first piece of heavy equipment. I bought a hot pink Volvo excavator. Well, I bought it and then I had to paint hot pink. And that set me apart. That got me going. That's incredible. You know, we talk a lot about guerrilla marketing on the show. Tell me a little bit about, it's just incredible, you know, that pink excavator, the signs that you did. Is there any other good advice that you have to share about the forms of guerrilla marketing that really help propel you to that next level in the marketing game?

Oh, yes. Marketing, marketing, marketing. What location is to retail, marketing, marketing, marketing is to any other business. And I really believe it's how you tell your story. You know, I always remind myself of a Bible verse that says, there's nothing new under the sun. Like we think, oh, technology today. No, I just think that there's really nothing new. It's how you package it and then throw it back out into the market. So marketing is your story. It's your passion. It's your voice. And I think that today we live in an age, especially with social media, that we now have access straight to the consumer to share our voice or our image. For example, I mean, from the demolition business,

I was really having a hard time hauling my debris off. For example, I was hiring out these trucks and I said, forget this. Like I saw an opportunity to get into the dumpster business. So I went and I bought five hot pink dumpsters, had them painted hot pink. And in the dumpster business, people will spray paint their acronym on a dumpster. Instead, I welded 12-foot panels, 12-foot metal panels, and I use my dumpsters as my mobile billboard. So they're not like just little acronym of ABC dumpster company. We, it's Demo Diva is a mobile billboard on both sides of the dumpster. So people have seen my dumpsters and said, Demo Diva, we see you everywhere. And listen, now I own 111 dumpsters.

Okay. Like, you know, 11 years. Yeah. 11 years later. But at the time, I mean, you know, when I only owned 25, that hot pink was popping more than the guy in town that literally owned 300 black dumpsters. My 25 pink stood out. So it's all in your color, you know, putting your signage out there. So I really use social media. I've loved telling a story. My tagline is taking it down to the dirt. Anything that has to do with dirt, I've become passionate

about. So it's really putting a spin on whatever it is you're selling. You know, like you were saying that you have the garage business and the Christmas lights business. I mean, one of my taglines is who can take the blight and turn it into light, the demo diva can, the demo diva can, kind of like I'll sing it, you know, at the Tootsie Roll commercial. So, you know, whatever it is, like you got to find, I mean, you being the listeners, you got to find like your, what's that thing that just really ignites you that's unique to you and put that spin into your business. Absolutely. You know, I'm a big marketer. That's kind of my passion is marketing. And

it took me a long time. I've done everything from creating links on Google to Facebook to Craigslist posting. I mean, I do some really, I even have realtors going to vacant homes and put stickers on garages. But, you know, when I got into business. Oh, I love it. Yeah, I make a lot of money doing that. But, you know, I've been doing this since 2006, 2007. And I used to just really think I had to do everything. I didn't know how to delegate.

I answered the calls. I booked the calls. I was a dispatcher. I took inventory. I ran the calls. I did the marketing. I mean a dispatcher. I took inventory. I ran the calls. I did the marketing. I mean, that's what every business owner does. And I sacrificed at the time a girl I was dating. I lost a lot of relationships. I wasn't close with my sister and her kids at the time. It was tough. And I think that was the hardest thing that a business owner goes through, especially for me. And, you know, you're in this business of a male-dominated industry.

I mean, it's just the reality. I mean, more women are getting into the industry than ever before. But tell me about your biggest challenges. Tell me about those things that just you thought you were going to maybe give up at a certain time and you were able to turn it around? Well, you know, it's funny that you're saying, I think there's seasons in all businesses and there's seasons when we've got to be hands-on. And then there's seasons where you really do have business fatigue and it comes, you know, I'm now in business 11 and a half years. I almost say that like crying because I just can't believe it. I've had so many highs and lows.

The biggest one that really brought me to my knees was an embezzlement. I got married for the first time a little bit later in life. I was, you know, running my business, building it up after Hurricane Katrina. You know, I probably intimidated guys. I don't know if they knew what to make of me. And so I just didn't date a lot. And finally met a wonderful man, was getting married, and my secretary embezzled in that period and crippled my business, crippled it. And by the time I found out, I knew in my gut, I just didn't really want to admit to myself because I really cared for her. She was a single mom. I just couldn't believe that things were awry. But anyway, got her out

just barely in the nick of time to save the business because Demo Diva was about to go bankrupt. But the silver lining in that is that it led me to another business, which was the wood mill. I just knew that demolition really needed – I needed to morph. Like, it's not a one-income household anymore. It's a two income household. And businesses are no longer soul stream. Like every business has to have some feeders, like feeder rivers is what I call them. And so the dumpster was a feeder into the demolition business.

And the next organic move was to be in the salvage business. I didn't want to sell windows, doors, and doorknobs, but I got into the wood mill. So out of our demolitions, we salvage all of our antique pine, heart pine lumber, and I now mill antique pine floors. But it took me, sometimes you need to be brought to your knees

and feel that burn again to realize, okay, because you get in this track of not really paying attention. You really get comfortable in that well-beaten path, you know? So while the secretary debacle was a painful pruning, it led to new growth. And, you know, there's other stories like that. Every time, like when I would purchase a truck for my roll-off business, my dumpster business, I mean, there's a pain in growth. There is a pain in growth. But I would just say, you know, to anyone that's listening and wants to do something new, try it. You know, have a game plan.

Try it. something new try it you know have a game plan try it because i think that that fear of failure is it's gonna come but i shouldn't really put out that art like our passion and so those are some of my hard times you know cash flow is really hard no i think that well you hit the nail on the head i mean it's tough and a lot of people out, they just get so used to the daily lives. And, you know, I do personality profiling and a lot of people keep up with the Jones, like 75% of people. And then we got some really, really good thinkers out there. We've got some entrepreneurs spirits. But, you know, change, you got to get into change. I mean, you know, we do really well with the garage store company. We've been able to do millions a month. And they think I just throw money at problems. And that's not the case. You know, I have a hard time firing people still. It's not easy.

But you've been incredibly successful. I mean, you've been able to go through the hurricane and literally grew a mega business and now you're in three or four different businesses. Walk me through the process of starting a new business and what's one of the most important tips when you're small, when you got three or four or five employees and how to really get out of that and get to the next level. Well, I would say this.

I would say that probably the most important thing for me was that I treated my bank account like the Holy Grail. And by that, I mean, I started making money, but I did not dip into it. Like I paid myself a salary. I paid myself and the money was really coming in in that first year because I just happened to hit it when there was, you know, a deluge of business. But I always had this fear factor that it's going to taper off. It's going to taper off. And it did taper off and it didn't taper off in the first five years. But everything that I had saved in those five years, when it came down to like, you know, needing some money stashed away, I had a savings. So if you're starting a business, I would say, you know, really put yourself on a budget. Don't get blinded by success. I watch, for example, in the demolition business, scrap.

It's cash. So people are constantly going to the scrapyard and taking that cash and going and spending it. I watched it in so many businesses I cannot even tell you. And they never reported it because it's cash. And they never put it back into the business. And I did. I did. And because I realized I've quickly, I said, I'm not going to pretend that this quick cash is play money. I kept putting it back in the business. And the day, this is the true story. The day that the bank came through. okay, so when it came for me to buy this wood mill, I had, this is in the middle of the embezzlement debacle.

Yep. The bank said, we need to, like, it happened so fast because the man that owned the wood mill died suddenly. And they, I mean, the sale of this wood mill all happened in one week. So I didn't have time to go get my affairs in order. Like I had to have my affairs in order. The bank said, send me over your P&L statement. Send me over your accounts. We'll take a look and see if we're going to help you out.

And I didn't know what they were looking for. They were looking for one line item. And that line item was scrap income. They were already familiar with other demolition businesses and concrete crushing businesses that steal the scrap metal money out of it. Because, again, it's like, I mean, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars you don't report. Sure. And I report it. And because of that, and I didn't know that, and he pointed it out to me, he goes, I want to commend you.

Your books look so clean. And it's this one thing that I'm looking at right here. And I said, oh, while you're looking at the, I want to show you that I even report the sale of my bricks. But that's it. I would say, you know, when you're starting a business, what may look like success right out the gate, trust me, the bottom is going to fall out at some point or the market is going to shift and you need to be prepared for that shift. So make sure you just always have a fear, a holy fear of your bank account. Yeah, that's a common mistake. I see a lot of business owners that are still working day to day in the business.

And one of the things I've noticed is, you know, they got a brand new diesel truck. They just picked up a mobile home off their favorite river or lake and they go fishing every weekend. And, you know, they're the top worker in their business, but they're not putting it back in. And I see it all the time. They got two mortgages. They're living check to check, but they're living really nice lives. They're not paying their taxes on time. And it's that keep up with the Jones mentality. And the first thing you need to do is put the money back in the bank. You need to accumulate. It's just like you said, so many people out there, they don't have a nice large bank account and they don't save and they live check to check. And that you need to be prepared for when that man passed away, unfortunately, but it was your opportunity to go in and buy it.

And I'll tell you, I'm working on buying out businesses all the time, you know, that's called mergers and acquisitions. And if it's done right, you can grow really, really fast, faster than you could grow organically. And deals come to you because people know you have money. They come to you. And it you have money. They come to you and it's a great way to grow. I mean, the listeners here, I just can't tell you enough. Save that money. Get the loans in place before you need them. And it's just a line of credit because the day that you need it, you won't have it. It takes sometimes months. You got to go through the SBA process a

lot of the time and it's a lot of work. So I think that's unbelievably great advice is save your money, put it to work for you. Yeah, it is. Tommy, I'll tell you, I do not. And that's another thing. I think Americans really, yeah, and this is a story that I really would like to share. but I think Americans really could learn some great advice if they met an immigrant, because I did. And that's really where, I mean, I learned that humility of like, I don't need expensive hobbies. Okay. I don't need boats. Like I've seen my colleagues in this industry, they've got fishing camps and they've got, like you said, boats and hunting camps. I'm telling you, my hobby or my is like Starbucks coffee.

Like I'll go sit there and I just go to sit and think because I can't afford it. And I think this is another thing is the ego that goes in business because people assume Demo Diva was so big out the gate because of the marketing. You know, at first I'm like, well, I've got to live up to that. And thank God I came back to my senses fairly quickly because no, I'm not going to live a persona that I'm not. And, you know, I live in the same house. Well, actually, when we got married, we moved two years ago. But I have my same house. It's the same neighborhood that I lived in before Katrina. It's a very modest little cottage.

You know, if and when the day comes that I can afford a bigger husband, listen, I'm 12 years out of the storm. And, you know, it's just business takes so much money and you've got to have so little ego. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. A lot of people out there, they're just they fake it till they make it and they drive these nice BMWs. But then you realize they're in an apartment and I just don't see the logic. Yeah. But, you know, to each his own. So, you know, I don't really care how politically correct or incorrect it is, but there was an influx of undocumented workers into New Orleans. OK, that is who rebuilt this city. That's who laid the sheet on the floors of the homeless sheetrock. And I assure you that's who's doing it in Florida, Puerto Rico and Houston.

I mean, and so and getting to know these guys, because you cannot find people to help you. I could not, I mean, labor was a commodity. So I had these two Brazilian brothers that helped me. And these two boys were salt of the earth. We laughed and they were like, Simone, you're so lucky you are an American. You have every right to start your own business. I worked side by side with them. I mean, day in and day out.

And I learned like the hunger of business and look, you know, Tommy, like we're in the blue collar business, you and I, and Americans need to get their hands dirty again. Americans need to really get out there and feel it. And I'm so glad I went to college. My dad is a doctor. I grew up a nice middle-class life, but all that doesn't matter. When a crisis comes, you need to know how to survive. And I learned it from immigrants. I learned from them, like, where your head needs to be in the middle of a disaster. And I really appreciate that time I was with those boys. And then, wait, one of those boys went on to marry an American doctor who graduated from Harvard. Wow.

That's great. I know. That's a win. He struck the American dream, all right? Yeah, I know. It's a win. He struck the American dream, all right? Yeah, I agree. I mean, I put these ads all over the place. People are like, where do you find so many good workers? And I'm like, we post. And for every hundred we get a response from,

we get 10 of them that show up, and then we get one of them that makes it that really wants to work hard and I'd rather take a C player that has the right attitude because I could coach him and lead him to be an A player than have a A player that's a prima donna that doesn't want to get their hands dirty so yeah yeah I mean there's a lot of hard workers out there especially you know like you said if it's Mexico or if it's a lot of countries, they still have that great work ethic and that Americans do. It's just they're few and far between now because we just live on social media computers these days and there's nothing wrong with white collar.

It's just we do need to have the I think I heard this weekend the average age in the plumbing business is 48. I don't know exactly if that's true, but it's hard to believe because no young people are getting into it. But wow, it's crazy. Yeah. We always talk on this show about impact areas. So we pick 10 or 15 or 20 impact areas with your business, whether it's hiring CRM efficiencies, you know, there's the banking, there's all kinds of stuff. There's trucks, there's buying trucks, there's maintaining the trucks. What are the top three processes when you're in business? I mean, what are the three things that you think if you could go back in time and, you know, you go all the way back and you'd say, Simone, these are the three things that I

need to tell you. And this will give you 10 years ahead of what you learned the hard way. What would those be? Okay. Number one. Oh, I wish I could have sat down and told myself this. Number one, CRM. You hit it. Every time your phone rings and you capture an email, I did not have a good CRM system in place that every time. So when my leads would come in, we would write them on paper. And we called them a pink sheet. And we had binders. And so the first five, six years, I had binders. I mean, we were a paper business because we had, like, for example, it was, you

know, it was A through Z. We had like seven binders. And if whatever street, you know, we write down the lead on the pink sheet and it would go filed alphabetically. Well, we then decided, okay, we're going to put all this into an Excel spreadsheet. And then that got lost or duplicated. I mean, it turned into a nightmare. So number one, if you could capture everything you do digitally, number one, okay, paper is obsolete. So get rid of the paper in your office. So I guess that would be number two, but your CRM is capture your emails, that phone number, and put it into an organized format because you never know how you may need that contact again. And really, it's the phone number and the email. It would be slow down and either outsource your human resources or like put a checks and balance system into when I'm hiring. So I'm talking to myself.

I've hired out of emotion. I've hired out of like need. I've said I'm a dog that's returned to its vomit more times than I've want to remember. I've had to go back to people that I know are just dreadful and horrible. And I've had to, cause I need them in that moment because I'm familiar with their skill, but just dealing with them as a human is almost unbearable. So, you know, I'd say like, if there's a way to just help yourself and the human resources department. And three, if I had to look back

over the last three years, all that glitters ain't gold. And when people come with big promises and big dreams and, you know, if it's too good to be true, it is too good to be true. And so, you know, I got myself hooked up with some rotten telemarketers

and they tried to act like they were agents of Demo Diva and they wound up embarrassing my brand. They didn't reflect my corporate philosophy. And so that was really, you know, and that was my naivete and trying to grow. And so, you know, marketing, capture the marketing. Number two, paperless is really the way to, you know, organization or office organization really keeps your head clean.

And then, you know, slow down with the HR stuff or go outsource it, one or the other. All right. So I love that you said CRM because I'm obsessed with CRMs. I just, I was in a conference last week and I use a CRM called Service Titan. And I was talking with the owners. We were at the conference and they are just killing it. They've been around for a few years and they're coming out with artificial intelligence within the program. And basically what it does is it collects data.

It collects how long the guy was at the job for. It collects job types. Who's going to monetize that job the best on profit? And then it actually dispatches. It'll move the dispatch board around and it'll dispatch the best guys. It actually another thing that it does is it talks to the bank and reconciles everything for you. So no more accounting reconciliation. I mean, how many people would love that? And I'm telling you, I'm one of three garage door companies. I was the first one on it.

And, you know, I'm very pro about what they're doing. There's a lot of good CRMs out there. I love this one, but it's the unfair advantage. I'm telling you right now, people, if you don't switch here this year or sometime soon, you're going to face a lot of losses when you switch. I mean, what happens is people fall out. You lose guys. There's a lot of issues that come into play.

But make that change sooner than later. Ooh, I'm going to have to. Yeah, I'll email you on that because I'd love to hear more about that. Yeah, absolutely. You know, the world is changing so fast in front of us. I mean, you know, we went paperless three years ago. And by that, I mean, everything is, you know, signatures are electronically, everything's electronically filed.

That really streamlined our office. But I also realized where I'm lacking, you know, and we've pointed out different areas. And it's hard because you focus on one area. Okay, we're going to get better ourselves here. I've got, I put GPSs on everything. I put magnets on all of our dumpsters. We're tracking everything. We are, you know, seeing how many times dumpster 108 moves. How many times did that make profit for us? And so no sooner do you improve in one area that you realize,

oh, all that technology did not really amount to anything. Yeah. So removing the magnets from the dumpsters or put it on truck, you take sometimes two or three steps forward and you do have to take a step back. But I think office organization and, you know, it's probably critical to any business. I mean, that's the foundation. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don't even consider my COO that works for me. I don't consider him a COO.

He's a CTO. He's a chief technology officer now. And he's really a general manager. I mean, it's a blue collar industry. But, you know, he focuses on the technology all the time. And he's always updating, making sure that we've got the latest, newest features. And, you know, the home service industry is changing and it's coming out with technology and it's making things. You know, we used to have pagers and not be able to get a hold of people.

And now if you don't answer your phone on the second ring, people are going to the next person. And you would be shocked, Simone, if you knew in my lead gen business, I sell leads for all different home service businesses. And, you know, I used to do a lot of prospecting years ago, and I couldn't believe how many people don't answer their phone. But yet they'll complain and say, well, yeah, we don't get enough business. We don't book a lot of calls. Well, the first thing you need to do is answer your phone, right? Yes. But no, I agree. I may stand corrected, though, because we actually and I'm wondering now if this is good or bad, because we just switched our service over to, you know, thank you for calling Demo Diva. If you want dumpsters, press one demolition, press two wood mill, press three.

So you're saying that really having a live body is critical instead of that. So so here's my take on that. OK, so that's called an IVR. And what an IVR does now, let's think about where an IVR started. OK, an IVR started at a cable company and they said it's a reoccurring customer. It's your electric company. It's your all of the different companies that are you're not switching. If you're calling Verizon, you're not switching. And then IVR makes it easier. Banks, all these

companies, it makes it a lot easier. Now we got rid of our IVR and our call bookings went up 10% because what happens is, yeah, an IVR sounds great in the functionality. Hey, it's going to keep things more organized. You could have billing, you could have more organized you could have billing you could have this you could have that but now you look like how many people just hit zero when they hear an IVR zero zero zero zero zero connect me with somebody and you're going to lose business because of that it might not be a lot of business and it depends how big you are but you start losing that small company which is a good thing that small company feel that I can get a hold of somebody I'm working with somebody that's local how many times do you get a phone call and say, are you guys, and I don't know if you deal with this, but we're in a lot of states, but you know, are you guys local? Are you

guys around here? Because I only want to do business with my local community. And when you get that, and I'm not saying you did anything wrong because if it's all repeat customers and you have these people calling back, then agree it's great if their accounts big accounts use an ivr but if it's just a new customer calling for the first time you really start to lose customers and like i said i'm not saying it's the wrong way of doing things it just depends on your business so that's my take on ivrs because i haven't i had an ivr for four years you're right yeah i think you're right. I think I may need to revisit that. So when we, our repeat customers, some of them are repeat, but no, I mean, that's the way the whole business is set up.

So we may have to revisit that. Well, you know, try it out and see if there's a difference. You know, one of the things that I do is I build tools around everything. I have people that listen to every phone call and they grade them and they say, what's the average time on hold? And it's so important. Those are all KPIs that we work on all the time. And it's a huge process. You know, if I could go back in time, I would tell myself, read every book you can on the power of delegation. And delegating is just not telling somebody what to do. It's making sure that they move forward and get done. And it's training people and it's teaching them how to do it.

And it's the biggest thing I've learned is I'm not good at a lot of things. I've got a master's degree in business. I've been to a ton of accounting and finance classes. I've taken organic chemistry, biochemistry, anatomy, you name it. And I know the things I'm not good at. And I focus on the things I'm really good at and find somebody way better than me, the things I'm not. And then I delegate. Yeah.

I check on that. So that's, if I go back in time, I tell myself, Tommy, you don't have to do everything. Delegate the things that you don't love and do the things you do love. You know, so my question for you is, what's one non-obvious mistake that you see most entrepreneurs make when they're trying to grow their business it's a non-obvious one there's something that you would say you know if they just did it this way they would be so much more efficient maybe i just had a young guy that was here at my house that he said he worked for at&t for 12 years, but he lost his job and he went into the tow truck business. But did you know anything about the tow truck business?

He said, no. And he said, I said, did you ever work in the tow truck business? He said, no. And I said, who advised you to buy a tow truck? And he said, a friend. And he said, I bought a gas tow truck. Well, I mean, a friend, and he said, I bought a gas tow truck. Well, I mean, anyone knows, like first obvious mistake is like anything that pulls heavy equipment, anything that pulls

anything heavy is diesel. So he went and bought this really cheap tow truck that uses gas. And I felt so bad for him because he told me that he took his savings to do this. And I said, listen, I think for me, I said, my hardest thing was in buying heavy equipment. I relied on the wrong people to advise me. And it sounds like you fell into the same thing. And I think that the most non-obvious is sometimes you trust people to advise you and their passion sells you, but just put, you know, you really do need to get like three and four and five opinions before you make a big decision. So, you know, I would say before you go into something, ask your circle of influence, ask the people who know you best, like, hey, bounce your ideas. And if they're not like, you know, for example, I was telling you

before we started the show, you know, my next thing that I bounced off some friends was doing Demo Diva YouTube for kids and where I have like mini pink excavators trucks and I'm telling a story of girls at work and when I started to tell this to my friends and that idea with people around me and then then once I kind of felt safe with the idea, then I took it to kind of like business colleagues. And they were like, I think it's a brilliant idea. And then they started giving me their... I allowed them an opportunity to give me their ideas. And so I think that that's a good advice for someone is vet your ideas first with your family circle of influence., you know, beware that they're going to be the naysayers. And then secondly, once you've refined that idea

and you feel safe, take it to the next level. Take it one circle of influence outside, like, you know, to your, I don't know, coworker or whatever, whoever you feel safe with. But just think ideas. You get really good free feedback when you have a refined idea, and your idea is constantly being refined as you share with others. Yeah, I love that piece of advice. When I used to bus tables, which I bused tables for a very long time, I would play in these football pools and I really didn't watch a ton of football at the time. And one of the things that I did is I'd call and I'd ask at the restaurant,

I'd go up to 10 different people and whether they were customers or coworkers, and I'd say, who do you think is going to win this Sunday on this game and this game and this game and this game? And I'd fill out my stuff and then I'd take the majority. And sometimes somebody would say, well, this guy's out, so I don't think they're going to be able to have the right defense. But I'd always win these football pools. And what I learned was, you know, I bounce ideas off of people constantly. I mean, I've got my 10 people I call all the time.

And then I call someone that might know that business much better than me or has implemented something similar. So ask the people who have already done it. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. And I love that piece. Right. Yeah, it's true. So, you know, you did a video that you talk about in one of your interviews what you look for in a potential employees. And I hear this a lot and it's all about the culture and buying into the philosophy

of you know your business and I really want to understand that because I feel the same way but I hear this a lot from very very successful people such as yourself and I really want to know as a small business, I mean, I've got seven people total. I got my kids and my mom and it's a small business. What do the guys out there do when they're just getting going? I mean, how do they really start that process of the culture and the philosophy? Well, you know, I think that we live in a day and age where everybody thinks that they need to be so politically correct. And, you know, last time I checked, we still have freedom of speech and freedom of thought.

And my company culture is that I am a faith-based company. And that means I have faith, and that is the basis of my company. And my language is going to reflect that. When we have a staff meeting, I pray. When I started, I mean, out of the gate, you know, initially when the emotions were so raw, I would ask my customers, do you want me to just say a prayer? I mean, people were crying on lawns, you know, that was the atmosphere, but that really dissipated after a year. And I realized that, you know, you're not going to ask somebody, can we pray for you? So, you know, you feel it, you learn that when the right time is to

touch someone's emotion, but the people that had come in over the years knew that this is how I was. They either adapted to it or they left. And we have prayer, you know, we'll have Monday morning prayer or staff prayer, whatever. Like, I'll just say, Lord, thank you for providing for us. Thank you for giving work to our hands and blessing us in the community. We want to serve our community. And that is the company culture. There's a situation going on right now in New Orleans with, I mean, it's national news now, with John Besch, the chef. And it's all over the New York Times. It's all over, you know, our newspapers,

internet. He's actually stepped down today because he established a company culture that did not protect women. He had 1,200 employees and no HR director. And now he has 25 women suing him for sexual harassment. That's a company culture. Like you set up and you establish as the head of your company who you are and what the ideology of that company is and the feeling. I just did a demolition for a young guy. This is fabulous.

A young guy who started Crew Sunglasses. Okay. And they're these fantastic. You just open a flagship store in New York City. He's from New Orleans. He's like 28, 25, 26 years old. These $300 fantastic sunglasses. And I mean, he's rocking and rolling. And so he's building like a small pool on his corporate headquarters. And he said, I mean, we're going to have parties

around the pool, you know, wearing our sunglasses. But I like that because he's young, he's free, you know, and he's setting like this atmosphere of hip. And so, I mean, I don't think that they're splashing around sending emails. I think that he just wanted to have like this atmosphere. So it's so important out the gate who you are, whether it's you're a vegan, whether you are a tree worshiper, whether you are a Christian or Jewish, whatever it is that you are, that is the core of your company. And people, like, why is Chick-fil-A the number one fastest company in the United States? Number one, across the board. And it's because they've established this like feeling of excellence and they don't care that, you know,

they don't care that we want them open on a Sunday. Like they're like, no, we're not open on Sundays. That's our company culture. And I love when I see other companies say, this is who we are. And this is the way I love that. I love the expression of individuality in a business, like truly, you know, be an individual. And I think that Demo Diva has, you know, somehow been able to establish that. But, you know, we are uniquely. Yeah. That's incredible. It pulls you guys together.

I've not heard that explained in the, you know, people talk about it all the time, but they really don't give a good definition on what that is. And I think it's exactly what you described. So you talk a lot about in order to stay in front of your competition, you got to be the first one on the ground. Talk to me a little bit about that. Talk to me about your aggressiveness and why you get the bid first. And what do you do if someone says I'm getting three quotes to differentiate yourself? Excellent question. I just had the situation today. This is exactly what happened today.

Warehouse burned down. The owner calls and the landlord, the owner of the property called me to get a bid. She said, but my tenant is also getting estimates. And she said, you know, we're both going to be paying for this. I said, okay. So I went over, met with them. This was last week and walk through, explain the entire process of you have an asbestos problem here. Let me explain. In a commercial demolition, you have to, and I educated them. I said, you've got 27,800 square feet of surface. You've got X amount of concrete.

I said, you've got to deal with the asbestos. I said, otherwise, your $40,000 demolition is going to turn into $120,000 demolition when DEQ, Department of Environmental Quality, comes by and realizes that you didn't handle this appropriately. Sure. I explained this to the two of them face-to-face. So today she calls me and she says, well, I want to go with you, but the tenant does not because he got a quote for half of what you quoted. And I said, okay. And she read me the competitor's quote, and it did not break down quantities. It was clear land, all asbestos, concrete, and level it with new sand. Quantities, no explanation of how they were handling the asbestos.

And I walked her through that. I said, do you understand that I just educated you on the whole process of asbestos? I said, so she said, you've got the job. Like, I don't trust this other guy. You know, I said generalities will get you in court is what's going to happen. And so she said, I don't care.

I'm willing to pay, you know, your price. Someone will always come along cheaper. I said, I've never even heard of this company, much less are they certified with the state as a demolition company? I don't know if I did make the statement of the first one to the site. Is it? Because if I did, I was wrong. But I would say that, you know, talk to the customer.

I mean, I did not go into demolition because I knew anything about demolition. I went into demolition because I sold myself. And whatever business it is you're doing, I only can sell one thing, and that's Simone and my word. And I'm telling you I'm going to do right by you. And, you know, whether I'm selling widgets or wood or sand, I mean, I'm selling myself and I'm selling my passion to say, I really want to serve you.

I really want to do a good job for you. And, you know, the rest falls into place. But I guess a little time and age and back, you know, the rest falls into place. But I guess a little time and age and backs, you know, I'm tempered now and in or temperate. And by that, I mean, you know, it's going to come like you don't have to chase it and grasp so hard for it after a certain point. I think once you've really established yourself to say, I'm proven, I've established a good name in the community, that gives you a little bit of leverage. You know, you now have a voice of authority and say, no, like this is what the

market bears. Like this is the standard of market pricing and anyone who's not pricing it accordingly, it's not from the industry and they're rogue. Yeah. Yeah. What I do, Simone, is I put up three fingers and I put up my three middle fingers and I say, you want it done, right? You want it done cheap. And you want it done today. We'll pick two out of the three and I leave my middle finger up and this is what you get because you'll never get all three.

So, but, you know, I wanted to ask you one last question to close it out. And what I like to do is just kind of hear something that you might be passionate about that we didn't talk about. I also want to hear what's your top couple books that you recommend. Like I always recommend The Richest Man in Babylon. It talks about paying yourself first and saving money. But I recommend a lot of books. But tell me a little bit about a book you'd like or a couple of books and then just your closing thoughts. And then what I'll do is, you know, I really, really love to just learn more about people and then get them back on down the road so i'll

definitely be in connection with you i'll send you some stuff on that crm and um you know we could talk offline but anything we just maybe that you wanted to tell you i want one thing about me that is like okay so I rescue baby squirrels. And out of my demolitions, when we're tearing down a house or a tree comes down, you know, these squirrel nests, this happened to me on my like, maybe my first year in business. And a baby squirrel fell out of the nest. And I picked it up. I was so fearful of this cute little thing. And I've bottle fed it. I released it. And so over the years, I've probably had 15 to 20 squirrels

like come through my hands. And I, you know, now within the last five, six years, I've been putting a lot of it on social media. And it's so funny that people have used that. One of the wealthiest Indian businessmen in our city, I mean, he owns so much property. I'm friends with he and his son on Facebook, but I've never been able to do any of their demolitions. I've never, you know, like gotten in front of them like they're big dogs. And I was walking through a warehouse one day and they came onto the site with the contractor. And the contractor said, do y'all know the Demo Diva? And they both said, oh, of course, you've got the squirrels.

It opened an opportunity for us to immediately start talking pleasantries about something non-business related. They were asking me all about the squirrels. And now I'm like known as the squirrel girl all around New Orleans. And it was just a little hobby that kind of like morphed into something bigger. And so it's been a fun hobby and people ask me about it all the time. So that would be probably the most interesting part about me or one of them. And then a business book. Let me think. I can't think of anything right now. I have nothing off the top of my head. You know what? Here's what we'll do. We will discuss this offline and we'll pick a book and then me and you get back on and talk about it because you are very very happy person you know that you could just hear it in

your voice and i think that's one of the reasons you're so successful is you're always laughing smiling and just you know definitely you can hear it through the phone so it's been oh thanks yeah well i'm gonna definitely be in touch with you. And I really appreciate you coming on today and taking the time to help us out and have some insight into your life and your success. So I think it went great. And like I said, I'm super appreciative. And we'll get you back on here, okay? All right. Thanks again for the opportunity.

Thanks, Simone. Have a great day. Okay. All right. Bye-bye. Bye. This was the Home Service Expert podcast. Now, listen up. Do you want to dominate your market, triple the profit you make without working those long 12-hour days, seven days a week? If the answer is yes, my team and I are opening up some

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