Live at Bakers Street Pub with the Net

Live from Baker Street Pub and Grill, this is The Homeowner Show. I'm Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of The Homeowner Show, live from Baker Street Pub here in The Woodlands on the waterway. It's on the water, but I am scorching.

No, it's like, there's water, where? Like, it's not blowing cool—

It's not doing its job.

No, it is not blowing cool air on me right now.

Yeah, so we brought the entire studio—

Yes, we did.

To the waterway, including the beloved Bregman statue.

Nobody loves that thing.

Bregman, come on.

Oh, he's wrapped up.

There he is.

Hello!

And nobody cares about that.

Well, I mean, people who are in first place care. Well, because your team is in what place right now?

Not first place.

Not first place. Okay. Yeah, that's, that's really all the people here care about.

Yeah.

And I'm excited to tell people who pass us by on the street right now exactly what team you're rooting for.

Oh yeah, the better team.

Because I am looking for an alley brawl.

Well, good luck with that.

I mean, I'll jump in if it gets ugly, but—

If I start winning, is that what you mean?

No.

winning, I'm gonna let it go. It's a way better story. But if you're losing, I don't want to hear it from your wife. Oh, that's true.

That's true.

That would happen.

So anyway, we, we're gonna, we're gonna move through lots of guests tonight, but we got one of our favorites right up front at the top. Miss Deborah from Paul the Plumber. Miss Paul the Plumber.

That's right.

Yeah. How you doing, Deborah?

I'm doing good. Yeah, good.

Jonah, can you, can you hear that okay?

Is that You may have to bump her volume up a little bit.

Yeah, just give it, give it all you got there, Scotty.

Yeah, that's right.

How you doing?

Um, I'm melting.

You're melting? I know.

I'm melting like the ice in my glass.

So you're gonna, you're gonna appreciate that Sarah has agreed to keep these to 10 minutes then.

Right. Yes, yes.

Yes.

I love Sarah.

That's right. That's right. Well, so, I mean, you guys, you guys actually did a big job for me not, not too long ago. I mean, you guys came in and changed my water heater out.

Yes. Oh yeah.

So, and I actually tried to spend more money.

Well, we appreciate that.

Were you trying to do a water, like a tankless?

I was trying to do a tankless.

I bet I know what the reason was that you didn't. Well, I'm guessing.

You're guessing? What do you think it was?

My guess is that the gas coming to your house was not 3/4 inch.

I don't know if it was the gas. I think it was the— I don't know. It could have been the gas. It could have been the water pipes. I don't know what the issue was.

You gotta have— that's one of the big issues, is you gotta have a 3/4-inch pipe coming in for gas.

Is it the gas pipe? Yeah.

Okay. Most people have half-inch coming in.

What I appreciated is like they could have just done the job, taken my extra $2,000 or $3,000, yeah, and called it a day, but they didn't. They're like, hey, you can't do that, it's not gonna work in your house.

And I was like, oh, you guys are so awesome, man, looking out for you.

Oh, we want to make sure that you're taken care of. It's Not— I don't know. I don't know my words today. But the thing is, this is customer service, and I want to treat— we treat our customers like we want to be treated.

Yeah.

You know, I want somebody to be honest with us and be somebody, be fair. You know, if it's gonna cost me 10 grand, I need to know that that's legit.

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay. But if you have a way of saying, no, we can fix this, Or this is a better route to go. We want what's best for you. It's not what's best for us. You know, don't get me wrong, who won't take the bigger ticket job? Sure, but that's, that's not the right way. That's—

Well, and honestly, that's one of the big reasons we started this podcast was to help homeowners understand like what, why things are the way they are so they're not getting scammed by contractors. So whenever you you hire a trustworthy contractor, then a couple of things. Number one, um, it's just better for you as a consumer, but honestly, it's better business. Because, I mean, if Craig, if you got another issue, you're gonna call them again. Yeah, they took care of you the first time, they didn't screw you over the first time, and that's the way it should be.

Well, we laugh about it, but our tagline is, for jobs big or small, just call Paul.

Right.

Because the small, the small jobs get us the big jobs, right? Because we'll take care of those small jobs because you get a lot of them, and I've had customers call and go, look, I've just got a leaky faucet. Is that too small of a job for you? No, we got you covered. Yeah, we get you taken care of.

Yeah, and even though that's something probably pretty simple.

In some cases, yeah. Yeah, I mean, change out a faucet or whatever it is, but for them, it's, it's a big crisis. For them, it's whatever it is, if they don't know what what it's like, you know, whoever— I don't know AC work, I don't know electrical. We're going to call those people, right, you know, to come out and do what we need, right? So we just want to be the— we want to be trustworthy. Now, I'm not going to lie to you, we're not the cheapest company around, but, but we're going to be honest with you, and we're going to make sure that you get what you need. Mhm. And then we'll tell you, okay, if you want to go higher, if you want to upgrade This is what you can do.

Right, sure.

So whenever you say that, I, I'm curious to dig into what that actually means, because when you say something like that, I don't know how people hear that. Um, if they hear, oh well, you're not the cheapest, okay, I'll go with someone else, or if they hear it in, okay, why? So I, I would ask the question, what is the difference between someone who's quote unquote cheapest and you, who's not going to be the cheapest?

So you're getting a master license, you're getting insured, you're getting excellent customer service. If something goes wrong, we're back, we'll come back. We're not gonna ghost you, we're not gonna ignore you, we're gonna take care of the problem. And you've got us at every turn. I've got a phone number that you can text And multiple people get that number. Now, when you call and leave a voicemail, 1 or 2 people can get that voicemail at— in after hours, but that text message goes to multiple people.

Okay.

Okay, so, um, so there's like— don't ask me what the phone number is because I don't know.

I'm just curious. There's— so like, if it's after hours, there's a voicemail, but it text messages you?

No, it's on the voicemail. It does tell you, here's the text number.

I got you.

Okay.

Yeah, on the voicemail. So whenever you call the voicemail, Listen, know that— be prepared to have a pen and paper because there's going to be a number you can text us.

Okay.

And text is so much better.

Yeah.

After hours or weekends, that is just the best way to get a hold of us. And, um, but we'll— we can answer you. Well, it may take time because—

Well, it's after hours.

Because sometimes we do the things on the weekends we can't do during the week.

Oh, you mean you like eat and play But look, you answered my question, and those first 2 things that I think is a difference maker. One is a master plumber. That in and of itself, it means something, right?

It does.

Number 2 is insurance and, you know, the bonded side of things as well, making sure that if something goes wrong, we're not gonna be out. I think those 2 things are what a lot of people don't bring to the table. And what I— what you need to know as a consumer, as a homeowner, is that if you're not finding someone that's insured, licensed, bonded, and actually has gone to the classes they need to get a master plumber or master electrician's license type of thing, then you're running yourself a big risk. You might pay less now, But if you have to pay more later, you're up a creek, you know. So that's a huge, a huge

benefit, and I'm glad you mentioned that.

Well, we've written something before saying, do you know who's coming into your home? Because here's the thing, you have to have a master's license to have your business, but you have to have a master's plumbing license to get insured to do plumbing work, right? So somebody else is coming in and say, I can do your plumbing work, But I am insured. But are you insured if they flood your home because they're doing plumbing work?

Yeah.

Is that insurance? Is your home— what's your homeowner's insurance going to say? Are they going to cover? What you have to think about those things, and we want to make sure that our homeowners know that you're covered when we walk in the door. You're covered. We're protecting you as well as ourselves.

Yeah.

To have insurance. So It's, it's a big issue.

So I, I actually have a question about flooding because— and, and, and this may be more of a Paul question, I don't know, but you, you may know because I know you take a lot of the phone calls and, and, and handle stuff in the office. What is the deal with putting hot water heaters in the attic?

Duh, we hate that.

Like, I, I can't tell you— like, I've— I, I can count on— and like, this is a lot for me— I can count on one hand the number of clients I've had whose homes have flooded because the water heater is in the attic. And so it floods the second story and then it floods the first, and it always happens when they're on vacation.

Oh yeah, never happens at opportune moments.

Is there a benefit to doing that? Like when you're building a home, or do you even know?

So they're saving space.

Yeah, they're not building an extra closet or they're not wanting to take up space in the garage.

It's all about that prime real estate, so to speak.

So we assumed that, but I didn't know if there was like another like actual like benefit plumbing reason. Is there a benefit because it keeps it hotter? Is that like a Jack and Jill thing where like the water runs downhill?

Is that—

it's super hot up there all the time. They don't have to heat the water up there.

Okay.

And here in Texas, I think it's especially this part of Texas, it's the worst place to put it.

That's what I would think.

Because we're having the hardest time right now, we're getting calls for, my pilot's out, what happened? It's working fine, it's only a 2-year-old heater.

Right.

Well, what's happening is it's suffocating. It's so hot, the extreme heat in the attic, and there's not enough circulation, so the pilot's just going out. It's not getting enough oxygen, it's not getting enough air.

That's crazy.

So it's not moving. So you need circulation in your air. Now there's something that we can do it for for it, but it just depends on the brand water heater. There's just other things. Well, so the only thing is, is that's, that's what's happening. So when they put it in the attic, I'm like, why?

Why are you doing that?

Well, not only that, you got to go up there to fix it, so I'm going to charge you more. That's what I would do.

So hot.

Yeah, it's so hot. Well, so here's, here's a question. I kind of know the answer, so that's why I'm asking.

When a hot water heater goes bad, Somewhere there's a home inspector that's cringing at your question already because you said hot water heater.

When a water heater goes bad— and they do, they just go bad— why do they go bad most of the time?

Age.

Age. And what happens when they go bad?

Everyone's different, but common, uh, pilot goes out and you can't can't start it again.

Okay.

And we could— you could— I know people are out there going, well, you could do the thermocouple, or you could do the gas control valve.

Hold up.

It depends on the age. Right. We're not going to repair it.

Right.

Or we'll repair it for you. However, we'll give you— we'll let you know that due to the age, no guarantee this is going to work.

Right.

So, you're still going to pay for this, but then you're going to end up paying for a whole new water heater.

And then, if it's not the pilot, The other more common, most common reason is that they just rust out, right?

They start leaking.

Yeah, they start leaking.

Yep.

And if it's in the— yeah, Paul's over there saying— what'd you say? The condition of the water. Okay, yeah, because the water causes corrosion and it starts rusting. Sediments in there. Okay. No, no, no, thank you for saying that because here's the reason.

This happens every time. He tells you to come on, Leo's over there answering questions.

That's right, that's right.

But here's what happens.

That's what happens all the time.

That's the one.

That's why I'm Mrs. Paul the Plumber.

That's right.

But it rusts out and it starts leaking. And when it starts leaking, the water has to go somewhere. And, you know, theoretically you've got a pan that's drained out, but always that line gets clogged or something. And so what's gonna happen? It's gonna fall through your roof. And it's gonna cause major, major problems.

Sometimes, yeah.

So I don't know. Here's, here's my point with that. Check your water heater. Make sure that, like, it's not clogged up there.

Well, I'm not trying to cut you off, but real quick, you mentioned vacation. There's vacation mode on your water heater.

There is vacation mode.

Oh, that's right.

Vacation mode on it.

Make sure you're setting it right. Is that on electric and gas? I mean, like, is it just gas?

Just gas.

Just gas?

Just gas. Just gas.

Okay. Yeah. Most— there are many questions I have to, like, answer.

Okay. Yeah.

No, I'm not a plumber. I need y'all to know this.

Because we have, we have gas and I've seen it on ours and I was going, okay, I've never had an electric one, so I don't know if it's on there.

Craig has a lot of gas. I know.

Constantly. Give me a subject.

Well, listen, we would, we could talk to you for a really long time and—

Well, we, so I have, I have a, I have one question. Okay, bring it. I want to ask all our guests tonight because we, we put up a post today about if you—

What would you do?

Yeah, yeah, what you would do. And I want to hear your answer because I want to hear from all of our guests tonight. If you had $1,500 that you had to spend on your home right now and you had to spend it, what would you spend it on?

Well, that doesn't give you much these days.

That's the part of the challenge. But Irrigation system, he says.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's a down payment.

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Mike would give you a deal.

Sure.

Is that what you would want?

Honestly, I— you know what, I read that earlier and somebody said an outdoor refrigerator. Like one in the garage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I'd want a new one in my house and I put my old one out in the garage.

Okay, that's smart.

So that would, that would be—

At $1,500, you can get a decent—

get you a new fridge.

Yeah, probably a new fridge.

Okay. All right. Yeah. So when you go Christmas shopping, Paul, keep the water—

you know, keep the water cold. You can keep the water cold that you're gonna go dump on your lawn. That's the way that's gonna happen. Well, listen, thank you for coming on. I know we got some other people waiting in the wings and you're ready to get some air conditioning.

I am.

Yeah, I get it.

I love talking to you guys though.

We'll do it again.

Thank you for sitting down with us. All right, enjoy the rest of the night. Have a good time. And you know, if you guys have not yet followed the net so you can get in touch with businesses like Paul and Deborah's over at Paul the Plumber. Real quick, how do people get a hold of you if they, if they want to contact you?

So they can call our office at 832-521-3252. They can go to our website at paultheplumberllc.com, and then they can email us at operations at— I can't talk— operations@paultheplumberllc.com.

Great, that's a new one. I haven't heard that one before. I like that one.

Yeah, operations.

Cool, thank you. You're very welcome. Y'all, if you, if you need some good plumbers and you're in the Montgomery County area, please reach out to them. They take care of me, they take care of my family, they do a great job. So, that's right, thank you for sitting down with us.

Thank you for having me.

Awesome. Well, we should probably mention Lone Star Appliance.

We absolutely have to because they're sponsoring tonight.

That's exactly right. Yeah, so if you are Looking for appliance repair, man, I'll tell you right now, there it is so easy to just go for a brand new appliance.

Yep.

Because people think, oh, this one's worn out, it's not good anymore, I need appliance repair. But the truth of the matter is, I mean, they need a new appliance. The truth of the matter is most of the time that thing can be repaired.

Yeah.

For a whole lot less money. way less money out of your system stills, whatever it is, and just get the thing repaired. And honestly, for us, we had a situation where we needed, uh, a new— like, the washer went out. And so, like, we can't go without a washer, right? Not in my house. Sure, I got a little boy, right?

So, uh, things gonna get dirty.

Things gonna get dirty. So We, we call the repair place first, and you know, you're gonna pay a repair fee up front, but if you do the repair with them, that's gonna roll right into the cost of the repair. So you're not gonna be out, you know, a diagnostic fee or anything at that point. So just give them a call. It's worth it. I promise they're gonna take care of you. They're great people. Lone Star Appliance Repair.

And, um, Rizzler, do we, do we have the, uh, the number?

Okay.

All right.

So if you're watching, you got the number right there. I don't remember it off the top of my head because I'm not a great person.

No, they're a fantastic company.

Sarah's the owner.

We have a couple people here representing them tonight. And Kevin's absolutely right, it is way cheaper to repair an appliance than it is to replace it. And we'll go into more detail on that tonight.

That's right.

But, but right now we, we have a guest from Goodwin Recruiting, and I, I, I gotta tell you, I am terrified to say your first name. Is it Therese?

It's Teresa.

Teresa. Okay. Yeah, the spelling is just like killing me.

So the story behind that, I was born in the days when they heavily sedated mom.

And what now?

They heavily sedated mom during childbirth. And then they— she was high as a kite when they asked her. She was high as a kite when they asked her how to spell my name, and she was just like spacing.

So, wow.

Thanks, Mom.

Teresa.

T-A-R-E-S-A. I thought it was— I thought like Because I've met you before.

Yes.

And we've hung out several times. I was like, it's Teresa. But like, then you have your name tag on and I'm like, nope, that's not it.

Somehow I've been screwing it up.

I've been calling her the wrong name and she's been polite.

That's how hey you works.

That's right.

That's great.

That's right. Well, go ahead, Kim.

So you work for a recruiting company?

Yes. So I have my own business, but I am under contract with Goodwin Recruiting. It is a recruiting company that is nationwide. We have about just under 340 recruiters nationwide, and we all work really well together. Some of us get contracts with businesses, some of us work to get those contracts filled, and so there's a lot of collaboration that happens. We've been around, what, 24 years now?

Okay, wow.

So yeah, and we're Forbes, uh, Top 100 recruiting companies.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, great. So answer me this, because I think recruiting company can mean a lot of different things. What— so I, I maybe not, maybe I'm just, you know, ignorant here, but which is— we know that's true. Um, but I'm gonna ask the ignorant question anyway. What, what types of industries do you recruit And maybe the better question would be, how— if I need an employee, how does that work?

So, depends on what kind of employee you need. If you're talking administrative, clerical, things like that, that's not what we do. We would be too expensive for you for that. There are companies that do staffing. Okay. Temp to hire, things like that. So if something like that comes up, I refer to those companies.

I'm really glad I asked that question because that's the first thing that came to my mind was like, yeah, that kind of thing.

Well, and here's the thing that I see. A lot of the recruiters that are more individual will collaborate a lot. So for instance, I am not as experienced in oil and gas where I know a recruiter who is, and if somebody comes to me saying, hey, I need a job, I'm like, you know what, I probably can't help you, but this person can. Here's the website, here's the phone number. And, you know, my company doesn't do what's called fee splitting, so that would be 2 companies working together, etc., etc.

So you just refer out exclusively on that type of deal?

If there's something, you know, I can put it out to other recruiters in our field, in our company, but honestly, if I don't have a position open right now, I can't help you.

Sure.

Right. So you can go on the website and you can sign up for notifications for this zip code and this industry, etc., etc., and then you get email notifications.

Is that free to do?

That's free.

Just have an account?

Yeah. And so if you get an email notification, you know what, call me with the job number and I will dig into the details, the internal details for you, and see if it truly is a good match. I'm not gonna, you know, I feel for people that are looking for work. Been there, done that. But I want to make sure it's a good fit because I don't want them job hopping in 6 months.

Yeah, right.

So it needs to be a good fit for both sides.

Well, I mean, as a recruiting industry, you don't want that. You want your— your employers want to know that the people you're bringing to me are top-notch. I'm not having to fire them in a few months.

And, you know, sometimes things happen in life where people and you have to do what you have to do, but that does show on your resume. So I do help people understand what to put on their resume that is appropriate for what they're trying to do. Aside from good ones, I will help somebody, I'll write a resume if I need to.

Okay.

Okay, but you know, if I need to submit somebody and their resume isn't 100%, if it's a quick fix, I can do it. If it's not then either they can do it or, or I can refer them to somebody that professionally does it as well. I'm spending more time trying to get people hired.

So, okay. And so from the employee side of things, there— what, what types of businesses do y'all typically work with?

Uh, the only ones we don't work with is like first responders.

Oh, okay.

Because of the certifications and the training required and, and all that wonder— you know, police, fire, um, military, we can't But we have government positions. We have everything from bookkeeping up through plastic surgeon. Oh, wow. HVAC, electricians.

Lots of contractors, I would assume.

But this isn't contract work. This is like with benefits, full-time. We don't do contract work. So full-time. Example, one of my favorite stories. We were hiring for Caterpillar up in Illinois.

Okay.

And a 19-year-old applied for one of the welding positions. And he'd done all the training in school. He came out of school and he jumped around a little bit, but I was able to get the story out of him as to why things happened the way they did. We submitted him. I did the interview. We submitted him. They rejected him. I pushed back and I said, no, you need to understand who this is. He may be 19 on the outside. This is a kid that worked for his parents' landscaping company through all of his teen years. He saved up every dime. When he turned 18, he He bought himself a house.

Wow.

And at 19, he's putting a welding shop in his garage. I think you need to talk to him.

Right, this, this kid's a little driven, more so than you think.

A little bit. And you know what? He's got a lifelong career now. He never has to look for another job.

Wow.

And that's what I'm trying to help people see, is that there are opportunities out there, but you have to be willing to stick with something for a while.

I've actually talked to several guys that work for Caterpillar. Great company.

Oh yeah.

Oh, the benefits are amazing.

It's an incredible company.

He's taken care of for life and he's 19.

I don't think a lot of people realize like what a big company, what a good company Caterpillar— like an American company to work for here in the US. I mean, it's one of the last great, like, I don't even want to call it like manufacturing, but they are a manufacturing company.

Yeah, like I'm hiring for machine repair mechanics right now also in Illinois. And it's what, $36 to $45 an hour? Okay, the 19-year-old, he's making about $31 an hour at 19.

Which is incredible.

Yeah. And so, and their health insurance is amazing and life insurance policy and disability, the whole nine yards. It's an amazing company.

Oh yeah.

So I mean, I think when I was 19, I was like happy to make like $12. Like super, super happy.

So I'm a little bit older. I was happy with $8 an hour.

Sure.

Yeah. No, I can remember working for $5 with tips. And just being like blown away when I made more than 5.

I know, oh my God.

So, well, so, okay, so if I'm, if I'm looking for a job, I could call you, you would coach me through a little bit of tell me a little bit about who you are, what you're looking for, and determine whether or not y'all would be a good fit for me.

So if somebody calls and says, hey, I'm looking for work, it really depends what level they're at. It depends on, you know, most of the companies we have are looking a lot for unicorns. So they're paying the big bucks, but, you know, like one position that's coming through tomorrow is a college instructor for medical diagnostic sonography. Okay, that's a unicorn. They have to have 3 different licenses.

Yeah.

So that's why, and they've been looking for half a year.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, and so they're kind of— they've exhausted whatever they know how to do, and so they're coming to us.

Okay.

And I've already done a search. We've— I found 20-some-odd people.

Wow.

Yeah, they've had like not much, so.

Well, and I know that you, you have a bit of a background in the medical field.

Yeah.

Is that kind of your specialization in helping people find positions?

So my life has been very long and interesting. And I will say I've worked in sales and marketing in high tech. I've worked in healthcare, more on the holistic side, and then I've worked in IT. So I had my own company. I did web hosting, marketing. I did websites. I did all the graphics. I ended up leading a team, worked for NASA Ames for a bit doing their web services. And so I speak those languages.

Right.

And that's where I specialize, but that's not necessarily what I'm hiring all the time. But that's the one where I'm like, oh yeah, HIPAA this and billing code that, no problem, I know what it means.

Mm-hmm.

And so I'm looking for skilled nursing facilities, any urgent care clinics that are a little larger, any healthcare urgent care clinics, but also we're looking for attorneys. We're looking for commercial realtors. We're looking for, you know, that level.

Yeah.

I'm just— they just closed a job for executive director for senior living facilities, so assisted living, independent living. And so that's where we come in and we say, okay, I need to get to know you as a company because you could be all, yay, loose, and here comes somebody that's all, you know, white shirt and tie and doesn't really fit in So we really try to make that a match as well.

So this is a full process. This is not just a— this is not just, oh, you have a job and you have a job need, we're going to put you together. No, you're looking at the whole enchilada, so to speak, and making sure that we're putting the right people with the right thing. It can take time. It's just a process.

So for me, the process is we get a position in, I talk to the account manager and say, okay, what are you really looking for? Like, you You can put everything in the notes. What are the nuances that you can't put in there? Like the feel. Okay. I get that picture and then I start going out and finding people and we have all kinds of resources. Amazing. And I find somebody, I talk to them for 15 minutes. If it looks like it might be a good match, the next step is a 1-hour webcam interview because I want to watch your body language and your eyes because that tells me if you're lying or not.

Oh yeah, for sure.

But it also shows me if you know how to be professional.

Yeah.

Right? It also shows me, you know, do you know how to hold yourself in an interview? Do you know how to interview via webcam? So I do that. I do a whole write-up on them, and I submit that to the account manager, and I talk with the account manager to say, here's what I learned, here's what I've written, here's what I, you know, here's stuff that's maybe not in the writing, and then we decide whether something needs to be Added, taken away, or whether it really isn't a good fit. Right. And then I do what's called a strategic interview planning, which is we have a prep call the day before an interview with the company, and I go over, okay, if you're doing a webcam interview, I want you to look at the camera, not the

screen.

Oh yeah, that's huge.

I want you to smile, I want you to hold shoulders back, make sure this back here is blank, make sure there's no wild clothing, makeup, jewelry, especially for you, right?

See?

But, you know, if you're doing in-person, bring a folder with your resume, several copies of your resume. Don't give the limp fish handshake. That turns everybody off. So we teach you how to interview so it's not a waste of time for either party, right? Because if you are great at what you do and you really are not good at interviewing, you're not going to get jobs. Yeah. And so let me show you how you need to do that, what's important. Let me, you know, give you some ideas on questions.

So coaching on top of finding.

Absolutely.

Yeah, so you mentioned some already. Are those— the ones you mentioned are the ones in the most— from what you're seeing, are those the jobs that are in the highest demand right now?

So Goodwin started out in food and beverage, so restaurants, maybe hotels, And so they're a lot stronger there than they are with the other verticals. What I'm seeing—

Hospitality is what that's called?

Hospitality, yes.

I know one or two things. Mostly one.

One.

Pretty much one.

I just placed an executive chef for a catering company.

Okay.

And it was a perfect match. It was so amazing. The owner hadn't had a day off in 5 months, I think.

Oh geez.

Yeah, and can you imagine, right? Like, no days off, none for 5 months. And I brought a candidate who had applied to another position that didn't— it wasn't a great match. And 2 weeks later, this position came up. He had had his own catering company for 20 years, ended up going through a divorce, sold his company, and just drove through the United States to kind of figure out what he wants to do when he grows up, right? Landed in Palo Alto, California, and I said— I called him on Monday morning first thing. Dude, you gotta, you gotta look at this. I'm just emailing this to you right now. This is a perfect fit for you. Long story short,

he interviewed that Friday, he was working the next Wednesday.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, I mean, they did a taste test on Monday. It was 4th of July.

That's the thing, is like a taste test does it all. That's right. Show me a taste test. I want more.

Oh yeah, and he's amazing.

I want that job.

And you know what? And you know what? What's really nice about this is that the owner now gets time off. Yeah, he's a perfect fit. I mean, personality, everything. And he gets a do-over.

Nice.

Okay, so for both sides. And those are the things that make it really worthwhile. Yeah, because it's, it's like this all the time. And we work on commissions, so if you don't play somebody You don't get paid. Here's the other thing too is I was in healthcare. We had ethics pounded into us. I work ethically. So if it's not a good fit, I will tell you it's not a good fit.

Right, absolutely.

And I'm not gonna place somebody that really doesn't deserve to be there.

So real quick, 'cause we're getting the stink eye, how do people get a hold of you if they're looking for a job or if they're looking to hire somebody great?

So my digital business card is thereseholliday.com. That's T-H-E-R-E-S-E-H-O-L-L-I-D-A-Y.com. And that'll give you my, my cell phone, my business phone, email. You know, it's got my history on there. And if they can get a hold of me, phone number 936-260-4348.

Okay. All right. And real quick, because we're asking everybody tonight, if you had $1,500 to spend on your home, How would you spend it?

Oh, it's already gone.

It's already gone. What'd you spend it on?

We just had to replace the HVAC.

Oh no. That's it. Well, that's way more than $1,500.

Way more.

Add a zero.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good grief.

Well, at least you're staying cool now.

Send me people.

Yeah, please. Right. Good grief.

She needs help, y'all.

Well, thank you so much for sitting down.

Yeah.

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you. And enjoy the rest of your night and have a good time networking with everybody.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

All right.

Absolutely.

What do you think, bud?

Man, I, I love that because I think that finding people to pair up with other people is really challenging.

It's, it's incredibly challenging.

I mean, you know it better than I do as a, you know, business owner that, that, you know, has more than one employee at it. It's hard to find, you know.

Well, and even then, like, you know, you're just gonna have— there's, there's personality issues that are gonna come up, you know, and like there's There's a lot of vetting that, especially if it's not a— if it's, if it's a stranger, uh-huh, man, like, you just feel the need to just investigate.

You want to know more.

You want to know as much as possible.

And so having a recruiting company that can tell you more, yeah, that's invaluable.

Well, and to have a recruiting company that will actually give you accurate information, because I imagine there are recruiting companies that will just like shoot smoke up your rear end. Oh, you know, in order to close the contract money, you know, and to know somebody that's just not gonna do that, you know, that's especially if you're a company that's in the hiring phase of your, of your company life. Like, that's, that's incredibly valuable.

Sure.

Is it just syncing? Is that the deal?

It is. Yeah, there's— well, I got it. I got a fix. I got a fix. That'd be fine.

Just scoot the chair up. That's, that's really the best solution.

I fixed it.

Gonna need some Viagra.

There you go.

That's right.

Can we say that on here?

Well, we just did.

There's no going back now. It's live.

Check your phone.

What's wrong with my phone?

I don't know. All right, cool. Well, I'll just, uh, I'll just go, uh, 'Cause I've not met you before.

No, you haven't.

My name's Kevin.

I'm Corey.

Corey, it's good to meet you. Tell us a little bit about you.

I'm Corey Reeves, owner of Reeves Realty Group out of Montgomery.

Okay.

And since you haven't met me, I— this way I'll help you a little bit. There's one of my cards.

And I'm gonna go around, see if I can fix this. You keep talking.

No problem.

We specialize in Montgomery County.

All right.

Try to, but we'll cover all of Greater Houston.

All right.

referrals. We handle commercial, residential, lease spaces, flex spaces, luxury, multifamily. We'll do usually 8 units. You know, we've got some people looking for those smaller type multifamily, multi-use kind of deals, duplexes, things of that nature.

Right.

We're not as big into like you know, the multi-million dollar apartment complex, right? Things of that nature. Um, our niche is more residential, uh, flex space commercial, and lots, leases, rentals, things of that nature.

And I, I'll tell you, we, for one reason or the other, Craig and I love talking to realtors and realtors, mortgage brokers, all these people that are in the niche of helping homeowners find good real estate, because right now The market just seems to go up and down. It's changing constantly. So finding people that actually know the market, study the market, are aware of trends, and trying to help homeowners figure out when's the best time to buy, where do you buy, what's, what's gonna actually give you a return eventually— all those things to me make a difference. Where I know a lot of homeowners, they're like, Can you find me a house under this much that is this large? That's really all that they care about, you know, in a lot of ways. But then on top of that, they're like,

oh, but I want this school district and I want to be near this shopping center. And, you know, this restaurant, you know, needs to be able to deliver to my house, all that kind of stuff. So I'm curious, like, what are the things that you're seeing right now as far as the market is going?

It's a great, great question. All right, so answer number 1, you asked about 5.

I know, I always do that.

Number, number 1 is yesterday was the best time to buy.

Uh-huh, always.

The second best time is right now.

Yes.

Um, because we can actually break down the numbers and show you where if you're not a homeowner, you're paying somebody else's mortgage, and you can make $30 grand next year yourself or make somebody else $30 grand It's your choice.

Wow.

And it doesn't matter what the interest rate is because you're going to be able to refinance it. Your house is never going to depreciate. Homes are not going to do anything but go up in value, and you're going to do nothing but cash in year after year of being a homeowner. Take that money, liquidate it, go buy you another place, and keep going.

Wow.

So that's—

I love that short, concise answer. That's pretty amazing. What you just said is an experience that I've had recently. I mean, I, I sold a house a little over a year and a half ago now and bought a new place. I was there for 5 years and I made not quite $30,000 a year, but close to it.

Yep.

Yeah, and, and like, to see that kind of return— I mean, we, we paid for our new place, which is on acreage, We paid 10% over asking because we just had to, and really happy to get, get that. But a year and a half later, it's already worth more than the 10% I already put into it. So it is. I mean, it's just the way it goes. And so, you know, I know that a lot of people are going, ah, how can I afford that? And I think I look at it sometimes and go, well, how can you not afford it, right? You know?

Well, when you're not, when you're not taking advantage of Your buying power. Some people aren't in a position for their buying power, but we've also got programs that we work with various lenders that do offer assisted loans.

Okay.

Where you might not have the, you know, $20,000 or $30,000 sitting in the bank account, but we've got loans through different lenders that we partner with that specialize in VA loans for veterans. We've got them that are, you know, helping single moms out with children that don't have $40,000 in the bank, but all they'll need is like 1.5% down, and we can get them into a house instead of them having to lease or go rent.

Wow.

It's life-changing for people like that. Now granted, there's, you know, credit ceilings and, you know, and bottoms and things of that nature, but we've even got partners that work with people on credit and things of that nature to get them there. And sometimes it might be a year process or are a 6-month process, but we keep the pipeline fed with properties out there. We set people up on portals. You were talking about, you know, what they're looking for and things of that nature. We worked with a nice young couple that we just— with a family that just moved from Louisiana. They wanted a large home with a pool under a certain price point, and it's kind of like we're looking for unicorns.

Right.

But amazingly enough, we were able to place them in exactly the right house. We closed them last week.

Wow.

Took us, took us about 3 or 4 months to get it done. They were patient, we were due diligent, and we got them exactly what they wanted. There's a lot of realtors and people in the business that, you know, work, and some really work. So there's a difference between what we offer and how we go to work as far as, you know, some of our competitors. And, you know, everybody's in this transitional market, but you got to put your bootstraps on and you got to go to work for your clients and you got to do your due diligence and, and, and really take care of people. And that, you know, it's a referral business and people buy from people who they like, trust, and, and, uh, and, and

believe. So.

That is so true. That is so true. Unlike a lot of businesses or you can find referrals in different ways. Realty is very unique in that.

It's a niche. It's very nichey. You know, again, people buy from people who they, you know, they like, trust, and know, and believe. And that's the whole name of the game. Yeah, right.

And you have a background in HVAC, right?

I do, 35 years.

Yeah, so like you, you kind of have like a specialty in like spotting a serious problem in properties that you might be showing your clients.

Correct. You know, one of the first, one of the first things I look at is the HVAC because that is next to the home, your largest purchase that's gonna be part of your, of your home that could be detrimental and non-repairable. Right.

Oh yeah.

So So I take a look at that. We've also got trusted HVAC guys that we can call. And, you know, if I see a problem, we will definitely get it checked out and deeper inspected than just by a regular inspector. We will actually have a certified technician, HVAC licensed guy go out and double-check it and make sure that there aren't any issues. But that— you bringing that up, Craig, not only was I around HVAC, I was around plumbing, electricians, insulation, all of those guys, because I used to do new construction also.

Right.

So when you're doing new construction, you're around the trades all the time, so you pick up things, you know.

Definitely.

You learn a little bit about a lot. So, and then you apply that when we're looking at houses, and I can spot, you know, foundation issues for the most part, and drywall problems, and air conditioning problems, and, you know, see mold coming out, or one room's hot, one one room's cold. You know, those kind of things tell me that there could be underlying issues with that home that might need to be addressed a little farther and save our buyers a lot of money. Or if it's on the listing side, we can get those things addressed before it does get inspected.

Yeah, so you're gonna know, you're gonna be able to inform your client like, hey, this property that you're listing, like, it's gonna have some issues going forward because they're gonna have this property inspected and this is gonna pop up because I've done this 100 times. You know, but if they choose not to do that, that's on them.

It is, but then we put it on a seller's disclosure that they know, so that way we're upfront about it and go, hey, this is this, but they're not willing to fix it and let's move on. But they're willing to give a seller's concession on it and, you know, give a few dollars to help fix it. Yeah, so, but it's not hidden.

No, and I think that's something that I think is important for someone to hear, is that if you need an inspection. I mean, you have inspection time as a buyer. If you need a plumber to come out, get a plumber out. If you need an HVAC guy out, get an HVAC guy out. If you need not just the inspector but other people, not just a home inspection, right, but other people— I mean, they're gonna get— they're gonna catch a lot of things.

They do.

They're good. But at the same time, if you need to dig into it, if you need a pest control company to come out, right, like these guys Call Excalibur.

Absolutely.

There, uh, there are people out there that you can bring in that inspection time, you know, because you've got that right. So don't forego that, especially with one of the— probably the largest investment most people will make in their lifetime.

It is. And, and, and we want— we will do our due diligence and, and try to do our best to make sure that they go through The proper inspection time, because the times that we haven't, we have seen it come back to them. And a lot of times people will be like, oh, the house was under contract a month and a half ago, it fell through because of financing issues. So our client likes it, uses their inspection report, and says, oh well, everything looks okay, Uh huh. and proceeds. And we've done it before and it's come back with HVACs messed up and then they're trying to blame us and things of that nature. But we have it in writing that we, we said that we recommend you do another inspection. It's on you if you don't, because some people are trying

to save a few dollars and it's worth the extra money to spend as far as somebody doing their due diligence.

Right. Right, that makes sense.

Totally makes sense. Let me ask you this because it's something that came up recently on a, uh, on an episode that we were doing. I, I was— and I think this is true for you too— I was unaware that FHAs have a ceiling.

They do.

You know, I didn't know either.

And it's different from— is it different from county to county? Is it different from state to state?

No, it's, it's, it's a government-backed program, and the way it is is FHA loans are capped And you also, if say you sell your house, it's 3 years since ownership to go get another FHA. So it's got—

Oh, they've even gapped it for 3 years.

Well, but you have to own a house or not buy a new one first, right?

Yeah, if you sell your property—

For 3 years.

Well, no, if you sell, you can't do another FHA loan within 3 years. So it's— they've put guidelines on when you can use your FHA loans because that's a first-time homeowners program.

But I mean, like, how many, how many do you get? Everyone gets so many, right? Is it like, is it like 5?

Are you mean capping on how many times you can use it?

Well, I know that there's a cap on how many times you can use it, but I also know that there's a ceiling on the amount.

They've raised that. I'd have to go look because they just did some New government regulations on that as far as what qualified and what didn't.

Okay.

They've raised the amount, I believe, shooting off the top of my head, I think it's five. That'd be an Ashley question. Five, five twenty-five maybe. So.

Oh really?

Yeah.

So we thought it was higher than that.

We thought yeah.

We thought it was six fifty, right?

I think we thought it was like seven fifty, but I mean like you know.

Yeah, we can we can we can edit this out.

You caught you caught me. Oh yeah, we edit stuff all the time.

It's not it's not a real estate agent. question. It's more of a broker question.

Well, it's a contract question and a lender question is what it is.

Yeah.

And I'll tell you in 2 seconds.

Okay. No, that's good.

Well, I mean, part of the reason I ask is like, particularly here in Texas, right? I mean, people are moving here with gobs of money, right?

They are.

And it's, you know, it's gonna be more beneficial to them to use an FHA if they qualify. Sure, because the interest rates tend to be lower. And so, but like, if you come here with $2 million because you sold your beachfront property in Northern California, I don't know, but you know, it's just gonna be— you're not gonna be able to borrow that much money with an FHA, right?

So if you have that much money, just pay cash and stop whining.

That's right. So, all right, Corey, we're getting the— we're getting the evil eye again. From, from Sarah.

Yeah, yeah, see, it ranges. It's $472,000 up to $1 million, but it depends on what area you're gonna be in.

That's what I thought, it depended on the area.

Yeah, so I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna speak out of turn.

Yeah, I'm in the 936 area.

That's fair. So, so real quick before we bring on somebody else, 2 questions.

Sure.

How do people get a hold of you?

Uh, Reeves Realty Group right there.

Oh, right there, buddy.

If you Google us, we pop up. Um, we're out of Montgomery. So it's 281-932-2423 or 281-639-4587, and then it's cory@reevesrg.com and reevesrg.com for our website, and I'm all over social media.

So fantastic. And then I know you answered this online, but I want to, want to get it on tape. If you had $1,500 to spend on your home right now and you had to spend it, how would you spend it?

Um, I would upgrade my bedrooms and put new flooring in.

Okay, I love that. Yeah, you could get that done.

And yeah, $1,500, you could probably get that done.

Yeah, mine has carpet now and the rest of it's hardwood, and I think I would upgrade my bedrooms to, to, uh, hardwood.

Okay, nice. I think we know a guy that can, that can help you.

I think, I think we do.

All right, guys, I appreciate y'all.

Thank you for sitting down. Always good to see you, buddy.

Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

Awesome, man.

Well, uh, one thing that we didn't mention earlier whenever we mentioned Lone Star Appliance Repair, which is the sponsor for tonight's live event here, is that, um, when you— I, I— this is something that I think is really important. When you don't just repair your appliance, it's just gonna go into a landfill somewhere. That's true. And like, I mean, look, I You know me, I am not the biggest tree hugger in the world. Like, I, I— whatever.

You're wearing a shirt that says sawdust.

Exactly. Sawdust is man glitter, and we all know it's true. But at the same time, like, I'm not trying to intentionally hurt the environment, right? Like, why would you consume more materials when for less money you can keep the thing that you already know and just fix it, keep moving on, and not Fill up the landfill with more junk.

Maybe you've got that refrigerator that is in the avocado green that they're just not making anymore.

Exactly, they're not making it. Those things are repairable, I guarantee it.

Yes, and they will last forever.

Another 35 years, it's gonna happen.

Well, like the old appliances, sometimes the old appliances are the cool appliances.

Oh yeah, yeah, and they're the ones that whenever you walk into someone's house, you're like, how long have you had that thing? Like, it's a cover.

60 years.

It's a conversation starter. Throw it at my great-grandma. This one you've had. Yeah, she bought this from the Sears Roebuck catalog back in 1935.

Yeah, so anyway, if you don't want to lose your nostalgic appliances—

That's right.

Which includes sinks— call Lone Star Appliance Repair. They're gonna hate me that I said that.

I hate you for saying it.

But it's true!

Well, it's an opinion.

They'll work on it.

They will not work on your sink, I promise.

They will.

No, they'll work on things under your sink.

Everything has a price. They will work on your sink.

That's hilarious. That's hilarious.

All right, we got, we got another guest. Who we got here?

My name is Mitchell Vincent, owner of Mitchell Marketing. I just want to say first too, you guys are hilarious.

Man, we fool a lot of people. We fool a lot of people. I love it though.

Oh yeah, that's— yeah, yeah, we're good fakers.

That's right, that's right. The homeowner— that's what they say about us. The Homeowner Show, the fakers. The fakers.

Yeah, it's the fake homeowner show.

That's right. Mitchell Marketing, tell us what you do, man.

Yeah, so I own Mitchell Marketing. Uh, we do anything digital marketing, so websites, search engine optimization, can help you manage your social media accounts, uh, all of that. So it's super fun. We've been doing it for— I've been doing it for 5 years now, so enjoying every bit of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, so I mean, so you're, you're on the, the business end of things trying to get information to homeowners a lot of times.

That's right.

You know, because you— I imagine you represent a lot of service companies.

Yeah.

So I imagine one of the things that you're pretty good at is spotting frauds and fakes.

Yes.

So what are some key indicators that you see out there to spot, you know, somebody that's probably not an ethical business or a legitimate business so that somebody doesn't waste their time and can find the real thing?

Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, yeah, pretty much gave me a layup there. It's, I mean, it really has to do with their digital presence, right? So if you, if you're looking at, for, if you're a homeowner, if you're looking for someone to come fix your appliance and you look them up online and they—

You mean like with Lone Star Appliance Repair? The one who's sponsoring this episode?

Yes, that's right.

Who's actually a good company.

They are.

Okay, good.

Yes, so if you look them up online, you know, they need to have, you know, have a good website, have plenty of good reviews. Uh, you need to— you want to hear what other people are saying about them. Um, all of that stuff.

Hang on, we need, we need to do some shaming over here.

Hey, what happened over there? Oh my goodness, we have Broken glassware on the table.

Party foul.

Oh my goodness.

Are you just cleaning it up?

No, she did.

You didn't?

And she did.

Okay.

Yes. All right, we'll talk, we'll talk about this later.

Yes, we still, we still love you. It's fine.

It's unlaundry related.

It's fine. So going back to the show, uh, so it's like a Zack Morris moment. Time in. Um, so when was that?

Only just lost like half the audience.

I know, half of the people have no idea what I just said. Both the older and the younger, like, who did he say Zack Morris?

What is that?

Anyway, um, so, so I mean, beyond that, like, not just a website, but like there are multiple digital presences that matter, right? That if you can't find a website, that's a huge red flag. But what other things do you think that are important as far as that goes?

Yeah, so I mean, what I look at and what a lot of other people look at are number one, Google reviews, what other people are saying on, on your Google review page. Um, and then, you know, not just your website but your social media accounts.

Huge.

I mean, it's huge. If you see someone and they, I mean, they haven't posted since 2018, it's like, okay, well, what do they, you know, slam on 2018 at it?

nowhere, right?

Bam!

They're not really pre-COVID numbers.

Yeah, no, I've seen it. I've seen it, y'all. I've seen it firsthand.

You had nothing else to do for like 6 months in 2020 and you didn't post on social media? Who are you?

That's right.

That's bad.

You're not a real business.

One job. You had one job.

You had nothing.

You had no jobs. You're trying to get jobs and you're not even posting on social media.

Well, yeah, you could have hired Mitchell.

It's true, that's true. That's right.

So yeah, that's— I mean, yeah, if you look at their social media accounts, you look at any of their Google reviews or anything like that, I mean, that's a great way to tell if it's a reputable business or not.

Okay, so just like, is it, is it regularity with posting, or is it like, okay, they haven't posted in like 8 months, like, yeah, they're not paying attention?

Yeah, so irregularity is one. But I think just staying on top of things, because to me, if I look up a company on social media and they're everywhere, they don't have a consistent message, if they don't have any kind of quality posts, I mean, it just kind of goes back to— because social media is a part of your business. It's a huge part.

Sure.

So the quality that you put into that is the quality people are going to see.

So yeah, so how do you integrate with a business and, and then set them up? I mean, like, what— I imagine there's tiers of service and things like that, but like, what, what is it that, that you are offering them that they're like, okay, like, this is, this is going to be a good partnership?

Yeah, so the number one thing is just a plan, because I feel, you know, a lot of companies put this— the marketing, their social media taking care of their website, they put it on the back burner. A lot of people don't really pay attention to it. So what my main job is, number one, to, you know, focus on their business, what they need and how they operate. The second thing is implement a strategy and a plan.

Right.

Because if you go into it, you don't have a strategy, you don't have a plan, then you can't measure any success. You can't figure out what you need to do later. So it's It's, it's, that's really the 2 main things is coming up with a, a specific plan for that business and then executing it.

Yeah, and I would assume that on, that on top of that, like, and this is something that, that gets me, is for businesses, I mean, they're, they're gonna budget a lot of things, right? For sure. They're gonna budget materials, they're gonna budget vehicles, they're gonna budget gas, they're gonna budget their salaries, they're gonna budget benefits, all these sorts of things. But so often, one of the things that we find is, is people just don't budget marketing, right? They, they're just waiting on people to call them, but they don't have a really good vehicle through which people are gonna know what their phone number is. I mean, they rely on a wrap on their car or something. That's really the only thing they've got. And it's like, okay, well, while

I'm driving trying to keep my kids from from killing each other, making sure I don't run the red light. Now I got to write down a phone number on the wrap on your car. Now I'm not saying that that's not a bad way to market, but what I am saying is that it's not enough, right?

Right.

Because here's what I am going to remember. I am going to remember Excalibur Pest Control. I am going to remember the name Excalibur Pest Control. I can't forget that even if I am running a red light at the moment. And so, I'm going to Google it, right?

Right.

I'm— so I'm gonna— man, we cannot miss Steve tonight, can we?

No, Steve is gonna reject himself.

All right, sorry, y'all, I just had a moment. Um, but they're gonna Google Excalibur Pest Control, right? And I mean, if you don't have a good presence online, like, yeah, I'm just gonna find somebody else.

Yeah, you know, absolutely, absolutely. And you had a point about, you know, making sure it's a budget. What's cool about marketing is it's a lot of it is about opportunity, right? So like if you're giving your website a good shot, a solid shot to get new clients, man, it could really pan out very well.

Yeah.

You know, working with local businesses, we've, I've, you know, working with contractors, you know, and I've seen it firsthand getting a, you know, getting a $40,000 job from a Facebook ad and you're like, hey, you know, let's All of a sudden, hey, we need to do more of this. What are we doing? We need to step it up. We need to put more into this. So I think the companies I've worked with, whenever they start seeing the results is when they're like, oh, okay, I get it. I get it because what we're doing is actually working.

Yeah. And the other thing that I would say is, I know a little bit about this, but I'm not going to get too far into it. But what I would say is like, can you talk a little bit about what a healthy budget actually even looks like? I know that is a real subjective question, but it is a little bit. But like, but like, for most people who don't really have anything, any lines in the water other than maybe they, you know, someone back in 2018 built them a website. Like, what?

2018.

Exactly. But they've missed— actually, that's a bad year. 2018, stuff was happening, but it didn't last.

Yeah, yeah.

What kind of— where should I even begin thinking about where to budget that sort of thing? Or is it smarter just to call and set up an appointment?

Yeah, you can definitely call. Yeah, calling would be great. But here's what I'll say. If it was like, you know, what's the alternative is my, like, the main question to that is if you're going to reach out to a marketing company and have them do work on your behalf, onto your social media account or to your website, anything like that, what's the alternative? Is the alternative you hiring a new employee to take care of your marketing? And then, you know, how much does that cost, you know, for a salary? And so hiring a digital marketing company, normally you have a team behind you, you have several different people working on your project, so it actually

ends up being less than a full-time employee. And so for hiring someone and then worrying about your ad spend with whether it be Google, Facebook, it's less than a full-time employee for your business. And it's worth way more.

And what you're saying, which I think should not be lost here for the moment, is most people should have a full-time employee working on getting them more business.

Yes.

And because, I mean, if you really want to grow and scale, somebody's got to be on the forefront. And maybe it's just someone, you know, maybe it's someone just being intentional about having really good conversations. But if you don't have someone who's kind of a natural salesperson in your business, you need someone who can do that online, right? Figure it out for you. And if you don't want to hire that person who's a natural salesperson, who could be really expensive, Then figure out a way to make your digital presence speak for you.

Right, right. And it's not just this, it's number one as a salesperson, but it's also a lot of the processes that are set up. You know, we can work with automations, they're super cool.

Like automated responses and things like that.

Automated responses to follow up with clients who you haven't talked to in a while. So it's, you know, the, the values is definitely there and And when people see the results, it's a no-brainer. But the initial cost of it, you think of, you know, if you were to hire somebody, it's going to be much less than that. But, um, but you're getting a professional who knows what they're doing. You're getting a system that has proven to work before.

Yeah.

So it just makes a lot of sense.

Well, hey, we're getting the 5-minute mark, the stink eye from the producer here. Um, so if people need to get a hold of you, how do they find you?

Yeah, they can go to our website, mitchellismarketing.com.

Clever, I like it.

Yeah, that's it.

And, and then the question we're asking everybody tonight, $1,500, you have to spend it, and you got to spend it on your home. What are you gonna spend it on?

$1,500 on my home, on my home. You know, for my house, I think I'm gonna go with an outside, like an ex— like a patio.

You're gonna invest in the patio?

Yes.

Like furniture?

What are you—

what are we doing?

A deck.

Oh, you're gonna build a deck?

Yes.

Like, you're—

well, $1,500 is probably not gonna do a lot for a deck, but it'll start.

I mean, it'll start.

It might cover some of the material, right?

Some of the material.

Some of the material. Maybe some of the—

yeah, the delivery fee.

I like it. Get the groundwork going.

Yeah, I hear it.

Something.

You just want a deck?

Just a deck.

I got you. You know, just something somewhere to chill.

That's it.

I got you. Oh, man. Well, thank you for sitting down with us. It's good to finally, like, get a face-to-face with you.

Yeah, for sure.

I know we've been— we've been interfacing.

Yeah. Through the Facebook.

Through the Facebook.

Yeah.

Through the social media and the interwebs.

That's right. That's how we met first. Right?

That's right. Cool, man. Well, enjoy the rest of the night. I mean, it's a great— it's a great event inside. We get, you know, banished to the outside where we have to sweat and stink.

I know, man.

But we do it because we love it.

Yes, and we love you.

That's right.

People, listeners.

Specifically you.

Specifically you watching right now. And if you're not watching right now, whatever.

Yeah, so much so I haven't even finished my glorious grilled buffalo wings.

That's true.

They've been gnawed on a little bit.

That's right. So, well, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna find the next person. Thanks for stopping by, man.

Thank you.

huge important part of your business, man.

I know. It's almost as important as having number 2 on your team here.

Oh my God.

That's, that's Bregman, by the way.

Yeah.

So whatever. I know, I know that you hate the Astros, but like, you've got to give Altuve his due.

Well, yeah.

He cycle hit the other night.

He did.

That's crazy.

It is.

I don't even watch sports and I heard about that.

It's very difficult difficult to do.

How many times has that been done? I know, because you're a statistics guy.

Oh, there's— I mean, more than you would think, although I don't know, the number is probably less than 1,000.

Oh, that many?

Oh yeah. I don't know what that— I don't know what the number is. You know what, if I had my— if I had my phone here, I could probably figure it out because I have a stat thing that would really help with that.

But you can— we just have the one microphone.

Or just move the chair and stand. Which sucks for you.

I tell you what, sit here.

It's not for me.

No, I know.

Let Kevin talk to them both.

One on each side.

Yeah, 'cause I can't move.

You can't move?

I'm in a position right now where it's like, it's a chore to try to move at this point. So, all right, we're gonna get everybody set up here.

Let's see.

All right, man, we're, we're good. It's getting, it's hopping over here. A lot of people. Well, hello. How are you? I'm great. How are you? All right. Yeah, uh, right here. It'll be fine. There's one right here. There's only one more headset, so if we want to, uh—

Why don't y'all just do it and have fun?

Okay, so then we just need one more chair and I could just stand right there.

Wait, we just got 3 mics.

Okay, so he's not in it. I know.

All right, we're figuring it out. Oh wait, no, you're, you're sitting.

No, I still stay. Come on.

All right, put your halo on, or the microphone and the headset. I said halo on purpose, y'all. And, uh, there you go. All right, well, hello again. Hi, it's been a minute.

How have you been?

I've been great. How have you been?

Making it.

How long ago were you on our show?

It was just earlier this year.

Okay, earlier this year, so it's not been too long.

No, not too long.

Well, tell us a little bit about who you are. There's, there's 2 people here I don't know that I've met you before, so let's introduce each other and talk about what we do.

Oh, my name is Lila Taylor and I'm the owner of The Laundry Fairy. We're a laundry pickup and delivery service where we come to your location and pick up your laundry, wash, dry, fold, hang, and then we bring it back same day, next day, your way. And we also have a drop-off center at 7613 Spring Cypress Road. And this is my oldest daughter, Jules.

Well, hello, Jules. Welcome.

Well, thank you.

Glad you're here. So what is your role with The Laundry Fairy? Besides creating more laundry. Um, I would say I do a little bit of it all.

I fold and I run the washing.

Okay.

Just a little bit of it all here and there.

So how many washers do you have in your house?

I would say 6.

6 washers. All right. How many dryers do you have?

9. Perfect.

Oh, I thought it might be the same number, but no.

No.

Okay, why do you have more dryers than washers? I'm curious.

It takes longer to dry than it does to wash.

Okay, so you cycle a little bit.

Yes, because your average wash cycle—

Did you see what I did there? Cycle a little bit. Okay, sorry, I'm just putting it out there that I was trying to make a joke.

No, your average wash cycle is only 15 to 20 minutes, but your average drying cycle could be an hour to more depending on how high your heat is on your dryer.

Okay.

So you can wash 2 to 3 loads per one drying cycle.

Okay, now I've got a question right off the bat, because when I put my washer on the main regular cycle, it's like 50 minutes.

Yes.

Why, why are you saying 15 to 20? Do you have a different washer, or do I have the wrong setting? Well, it's, it's, it's complicated.

You're not— no, no, you're not doing anything wrong, but And for your everyday clothing that you just normally wear, you don't need to put that much wear and tear on your clothes. You just— a 15 to 20 minute cycle is enough to just get them washed.

So I need to probably start using the quick wash cycle.

You could easily use the quick cycle and it would be fine.

Oh my goodness, I'm wasting energy and time. And goodness gracious, where were you, Jules, during all of this while I'm at home washing? Actually, I don't Well, let's be honest, y'all. My wife does the laundry. I do other— I— look, it's not a sexist thing. I actually do a lot around my house, but we have jobs.

Exactly.

Everybody has their chores, right? My chore involves stuff outside, and she doesn't want to do stuff outside, so I do the stuff that's outside.

Okay, so my husband and I are the same way. Well, my husband actually does our laundry.

Okay.

So he's wonderful.

Do y'all have a dedicated washer for y'all's stuff, or No. No? Okay, good to know. It's all just there.

That's it.

All right, well, okay, so I remember y'all, uh, you specifically, Lila, being on the show before. Um, what would you say is your unique value proposition? Uh, so what defines you over any other laundry service that's out there?

Well, I wouldn't say that we're better than any other laundry service.

Oh, come on, just say it.

Well, no. Do it! No! I would just say that we possibly cater to the different needs of different people. Other laundry services weigh per pound, and we weigh— we measure by the bag size. That way when you put it out, you know what you're spending, and it's easy peasy mac and cheesy. We also have our drop-off location for easement. We don't We charge an arm and a leg for that. It's a dollar a pound bringing it into the drop-off location. And I would just say, for us, something that's different than other laundry services is our connection to our clients. No client is the same, and we don't treat them all the same.

Mm-hmm.

Everybody has their different situations in life, their different reasons for using our service, and we just treat everybody the, the same kindness but that catered kindness.

Sure. I love that. I mean, and I do think that is a unique value proposition. I really, really do. But so my next question is this, Jules. I'm going to ask you this question. You may or may not know the answer, but I'm going to ask you anyway. So as a guy, like, I'll just tell you right now, I got a ton of t-shirts. I've got more t-shirts than probably anyone you've ever met before. In my— so I'm not kidding. In my closet, I counted not too long ago, and this is not the t-shirts that I have put away. OK, they're put away for a reason. They're special. They have meaning or value to me. These are the ones in my closet that I actually wear. I have over

100.

Why have over 100 t-shirts?

Well, it's a long story, but the short story is this, that I work in a— I work in a way that a lot of t-shirts come my way, okay? I just have a lot of different— and I love t-shirts. Like, I like funny t-shirts, I like unique t-shirts, I like that sort of thing. But let's say the average person is not me and doesn't have 100 t-shirts. They've got a normal number of clothes. And I'm concerned, like, I run out of underwear after a week, right? Like, that's all I got. So if I'm going to bring my laundry to you to get washed, do I need to have more clothes than the normal family that doesn't use the laundry family,

or— I say yes.

You say yes?

Yes.

Okay, why?

I don't know how to answer that other than yes.

Okay, because I mean, here's, here's the thing. If I'm bringing my laundry to somebody else, and this is the ultimate question, is like, how long does it take like to get that back? I'm giving you my clothes, meaning I'm not getting it the same hour later, right? So what is the time frame that I should expect my clothes to come back so that I know how many I would say depending on how much laundry you send and how difficult your laundry is to do. Okay, so if I'm doing it once a week, and once a week when— and I, I give you my clothes on a Monday, when do I get my clothes back?

Monday morning or Monday afternoon?

Monday afternoon, because that's when I can get it there.

You would get it back Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday, 24 hours.

That's it.

Yeah, 24 hours.

Yeah.

So I really only need one extra set of clothes.

Yeah, depending on how many times you change in a day.

Oh, I only change one time.

Are you sure about that?

I am sure. I should probably change more, but I change one time a day, and unless I'm in, you know, working in the yard, so maybe 2. Yeah, and then of course you have your pajamas. We're not gonna get into pajamas, alright? That is— this is a family show, okay? We're not getting into that right now. But I think it's worth knowing, like, that's really, really cool. I, um, we've just got a few minutes left, but I do want to ask one question. Who do you find is your most typical type of client? Because I know that You said it, everybody's different. Everybody's got a different reason they're using the Laundry Fairy. But what would you say

is the type of person you find is most average?

I would say it'd be the busy family.

Okay, 2-income family working high-intensity jobs, kids are in school, busy, that kind of thing.

Or it could even be like a single mom.

Okay.

And she just doesn't— she has no time. She has time for everything else except that laundry.

Yeah, I mean, laundry takes a long time to do.