Latest / Epic Entrepreneurs / From Camera to Construction: How Mandy & Richie Caudill Turned DIY Hustle into a Thriving Renovation Business

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From Camera to Construction: How Mandy & Richie Caudill Turned DIY Hustle into a Thriving Renovation Business · Epic Entrepreneurs

• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I am Cliff McCray with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Today I'm excited to be joined by Mandy and Richie Cowdle of Handy Mandy.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: So Mandy and Richie, thanks for being here.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let's jump right in.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: How are we all doing today?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for having us.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: All right, perfect, perfect.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so excited to hear more about your business.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So for those of you who may not know it yet, who is Mandy and Richie Cowdle?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: What is Handymandy and what problems are you most passionate about solving for your clients?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_03: That was so many questions.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: We uh Handymandy accidentally started about five years ago.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: I did had no intentions on starting a handyman business.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: I actually had a pretty successful photography business.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: I photographed weddings and families and babies and all sorts of things for several years.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: And COVID hit.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um we over the lifetime of our marriage, which is 16 years, we were kind of DIYs.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my family has had rental properties in the past.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: They've always done renovations on their own.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: And so I've just grown up kind of hands-on.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Hands-on, figure it out yourself.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_03: Most of the time we are too poor to hire someone to come do something cool in our house.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: So we just always, you know, figured it out.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, around COVID, we were renovating a home and doing a lot of major projects.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, social media, I always just shared kind of, I'm always an open book.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so I would just share the things that we were doing.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: And then in 21, we had a family friend reach out to me and say, hey, I am my family, you know, my childhood home that, you know, I'm considering selling.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: Would you come over and kind of help me, you know, tell me what to do and, you know, that sort of thing?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought she was asking me to come do the work and not just ask for design ideas.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: And so I had gone over there and just kind of started throwing out ideas or whatever.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: And she was like, Oh, you'll you'll do the work.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, I thought that's why you were asking me to come over here.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so she was like, that would be great.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: I just thought, you know, you were gonna give me ideas and I'd have to find someone to do it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, I've been posting that I redo kitchens.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we've renovated several kitchens of our own and for his family and stuff like that.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I just thought you were asking me to do the work.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: So, anyways, I ended up doing it uh for her and you know, was posting, you know, my daily like what I was doing and then posted before and afters because people love to do that and see that.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_03: And instantly just inquiries were coming in.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, can you help me with this project?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Can you help me with this?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Can you do this?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: Can you, you know, and my answer to that nine out of 10 times is if I don't know how to do it, I'll watch a YouTube video.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_03: If I watch a YouTube video and I think, oh, I 100% can do that, I will attempt it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: If I watch a video and go, oh, if I have a little hesitation, I usually just refer it out and just say, I would find someone else.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: But most of the time, people, people's projects are something that we can handle.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh a few years ago, I can't even remember if it was 22 or 23, but my husband was an MLO for several years, and he had the rates are going up.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: He uh he was working for a very small credit union.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they minimized his position and kind of took it all to a bigger city that wasn't where we lived.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so I said, Well, while you're looking, I'm like, don't jump into another job, just help me.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: I could really use the help.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so he has been helping me for the last few years, and uh, he never went back to like a nine to five, and now we work 24 hours a day instead of eight, you know, being a business owner.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, okay, okay.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So take us back to the very beginning.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: What what made you say, yep, I'm doing this, I'm starting this business?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Well, when I started getting so much work that I'm like, okay, well, this is definitely not a side job.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: This is taking up all of my time.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I was photographing weddings primarily, and that was taking up all my weekends.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so it really just kind of was a natural progression of you know, things happening with COVID and just the restrictions and just a lot of, you know, personal things were happening, and I kind of lost my my passion, if you will, for that.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: And it really, you know, I am very much ADHD brain, like, what's the new thing I can learn?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know, how many hobbies have I started?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: I couldn't even tell you.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so I just was getting naturally getting so much work and thought, this is our this is how we're gonna provide for our family.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so we just that's it it really, it sounds kind of silly, but really wasn't a choice.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: It was just this is what's happening, and you know, we have to provide for our family, we have to, you know, pay our bills, we have and we just became a natural way to do that.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then we moved to the upstate about 18 months ago and uh, you know, hit the ground running here.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: So it's it's been a roller coaster of emotions, but it has uh been pretty successful, you know, for lack of better words.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, okay.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say if you had to start again from absolute scratch, no brand, no clients, no safety net, what would you do differently the second time around?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_03: Oh I'd probably charge more out the gate.
• 6:45
  unknown: Okay.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_03: I think, you know, when that very first uh kitchen remodel that I did, I I still even sometimes struggle.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm definitely a lot better, but sometimes struggle with giving people an actual estimate for larger projects.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: But for her, I just said, you know, I'm gonna charge$25 an hour.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we had my husband's other job, and then I had my weddings that were pretty, you know, successful.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: And that was, you know, this was extra money basically.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, okay, this will, you know, keep me busy, an extra way to make money.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_03: And it was a lot of work, and I have learned that I really do have a lot of knowledge about different things.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: I constantly am educating myself, you know, don't want to speak for Richie, uh, but he, you know, between the two of us, we're constantly educating ourselves in different ways and like how can we, you know, do this job easier, better, what tools will make it more efficient.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: I'm all about efficiency.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: I don't like to waste time.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I mean, I would I would say just learning, learning more of the tricks of the trade faster and charging more would probably be the the thing that I would do differently.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: What what do you think, Richie?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess we were um uneducated about the financial side and the business side of the you know construction world.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a learning curve at the same time as um, you know, learning how to do different um different aspects of the remodel.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, we we hired a business coach here.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: What was that about six months?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um so there's just so much involved in your business with keeping your books in order and what you need to charge and how to be profitable and how to pay yourself.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a big um you know, eye-opener to us.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um the the other the working kind of came more natural, I would say.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think really just knowing to like keep your books and what's actually, you know, that the the boring stuff, in my opinion, that I'm like, I do not care about that.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: I just want to make things pretty.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like I just, you know, I want to make money and I want to make things look pretty, but I don't want to have to know about taxes and 1099s and how to, you know, do all that.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: But that really is something that I think people need to, if they want to do a business, you know, knowing those things that no one ever thinks about, which I didn't for the first couple years.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just like, I'll figure it out, you know, I'll look at the receipts, I'll see how many times I went to Home Depot or Lowe's this week or this, you know, year.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: But you really have to think about that stuff when you're you're charging.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I still, I mean, I still underestimate so many.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like such an optimist when it comes to like, oh, it's only gonna be this.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'm like, oh no, I didn't think about, you know, extra plumbing parts, extra, you know, that stuff adds up.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: It does, it does, yeah.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: So what would you say is one common myth people believe about running a business that makes you laugh now?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh I guess that it's gonna, you know, provide a lot more freedom.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: It can if you are if you are successful and diligent with you know all the thing, all the things that you have, you have to be organized, you know, you have to uh run the job efficiently and get it done on time, and you know, uh make sure that your communication is on point.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's nice to be able to take a day or make your weekend a little bit longer to spend time with the family.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If, you know, it it can allow that, but at the same time, you're you you can't you can't turn it off at at five o'clock.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there is no when you're working for the man, I think people are just like, okay, you know, nine to five, that's when I'm working, you come home and you shut it off.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: When you're a business owner, it does not shut off.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like even in the middle of the night, you wake up, you start thinking about all the things.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I don't want to forget these tools.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to, you know, I need to do this, I need to be here, I need to, you know, send this person an invoice, I need to send this person an estimate.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's just it's it's laughable, you know.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I think kind of, I don't know if I, you know, kind of dug my own grave, but you know, we quote unquote handy mandy.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a handyman business.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_03: So people think, oh, you're gonna be cheap.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, some people are just really surprised at, you know, what we charge an hour.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, this isn't just a hundred percent profit.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know, there's time to get there, you know, there's just so much more involved.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I think so many people just there's a miss, you know, there's a blockage there.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what the word is, but it's just they expect Joe Schmo to show up.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, this is how we provide for our family.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you have no problem paying, you know, custom home builders.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, they're doing the same thing, they're just making a lot more because you know, they have they're they're paying themselves plus contractors.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, we are paying ourselves.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: We are the contractors, so we have to, we really have to, you know, set ourselves up for success, or we're working for nothing, you know.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: So and then all the knowledge that we have, you know, what's that saying that they say a mat a jack of all trades?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: Some people will say that and they're and then they'll say, Yeah, a jack of all trades is a master of none, but you know, the rest of the thing goes something like, but a master of you know, none is there's more to the saying, I don't even remember, but it it really kind of embraces that I still have so much knowledge over so many different areas.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Richie, I joke, he's the electrician, I shouldn't touch electric.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: I and when I touch it, I usually get shocked.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: And then he's not allowed to touch plumbing because he usually causes a leak, and it's usually not a small one.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, I'm the plumber, he's the electrician, but then you know, he's kind of the heavy lifter, he kind of makes the mess, is good at demo, good at you know, cleaning things up, and then I like to go in and make things pretty.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, sometimes I think people go, Oh, you're just coming in here and for you know, swapping out a light.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, we have the knowledge to do that, and most people that don't want to do that, they don't have the knowledge and they don't want to do it.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, if you want to do it, save yourself$250, then do that.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: But a lot of people were finding, you know, that's our ideal client.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's someone who either A doesn't have the time, doesn't have the knowledge, or doesn't have the want to, but they have the money to have someone else do it.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's really our our ideal person, you know.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: So Okay, okay.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: So looking back, what do you attribute most of your growth to so far?
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_03: I would say social media has been social media, and that is pretty broad, but also networking.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: When we moved here to the upstate, we knew one family, and uh, you know, I wasn't connected to anyone anywhere.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so where we moved from in Kentucky, I had a pretty large network because of shooting weddings, and I became friends with all my clients and their families, and then just social media.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I was all about just how many people can I add to my my my quote unquote friends list just for you know wedding purposes.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: Like I want to be in front of people so I can get work.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I kind of you know shifted that into my handyman business and was like, okay, I I know what people like to see.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: People are visual, they want to see it before and after.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh most people don't care too much about the in-between, but I just wanted to get in front of people as much as I could.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: Uh now I joke that when I post on social media, I'm like, I have to be prepared uh for the inquiries that I get because I I do get so many.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I don't even have a business card because I truly have the just the word of mouth in social media.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: I would joke when I first moved here.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, well, if I did have a business, well, in Kentucky, where we moved from, I would say I didn't have a business card, and if I did, I would have the wrong number on it.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I people would stop calling me because that sounds kind of silly, but it I truly cannot handle, I could not handle the amount of work that I was getting.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, you know, we're a few months out.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: If it's anything more than a half a day project, if it's a bigger project, you're gonna have to wait.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, here in the upstate, I knew I knew no one.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so I thought, okay, I'm gonna have to network.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: So within a few weeks of moving here, we I knew about BI back in Kentucky.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: I was in it for a couple years, and then I got here and I thought, okay, I'm gonna join networking groups.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: That's gonna be the first thing.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: Like, that's how I'm gonna have to get my name out.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so I visited a few B and I's gotten a BI, and a few people there literally to this day are the reason like we have a house over our head because they their referrals just really helped keep us busy.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, when we moved here, I joined a BI.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh they really fed my family with referrals.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: And before we moved here, there were some areas that we were looking into.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so, because of social media, I know that there are different residence groups.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure you have them where you are.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them are neighborhood, but I didn't want to get into neighborhood ones because those are so specific.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: So I got into Simpsonville residents, Greenville residents, Greer residents, uh, Lawrence residents groups, Taylors, traveler, Taylors, TR.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I got into a lot of those groups just so I could really get a feel for the community, you know, wanted to ask questions in those groups because we we love the area, but we didn't know where we were gonna land.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I was already in these groups.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_03: So when we moved here, I thought, okay, you know, joined a BI, was getting some work, and we actually moved here six weeks before Helene.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: So it was pretty chaotic.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: Got into a BI, and then Christmas time hit, and we were a little bit slow.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so I'm like, okay, well, it is Christmas time, you know, a lot of people aren't thinking about projects.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so I got into a couple of those groups and just posted some work that we've done in our own home and then work that we have done for others back in Kentucky, and posted that.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: I think in like in Simpsonville and Greer, because those were kind of the bigger groups and in Greenville, and posted about wallpaper and tiling and bathroom remodels and kitchen remodels.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: And the I think I had over 50 Facebook messages within the first few hours of me posting the exact same post in a few of the residents pages.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I was like, okay.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I don't have the numbers because I was too busy to pay attention to them.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: But it that literally since that moment, now I'm very hesitant to post because I get so many inquiries.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I will post on my personal page, but I do not post very often in those groups because, you know, it just gets so overwhelming.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: I have, I mean, even last week, someone said, Hey, I saw your post about wallpaper in the Simpson Bell group.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: I that was literally, you know, not this past Christmas, that was 24-25, like beginning, you know, January, December, January of 24, 25.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so people are still searching.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: So it really just, if you have good content and you have what people need, I really feel like you just put yourself out there and it's kind of if you build it, they will come mentality that I've always had.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, well, I'm gonna throw it out there, and it seems like it's sticking.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I would say that is just a huge social media has just been a huge, huge factor in the success of our business.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: And then networking right next to that, just constantly meeting new people.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: You know, some we do have a repeat business, but not always, you know.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: Some people are like, I just want you to come, you know, fix this little thing.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's not like you know, every month I'm coming to clean a house or whatever.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're gonna head into what's called the quick fire round.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So so basically what I'm gonna do is I'm going to say one word, and I want you to let me know what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear that word in regards to running your business, handy mandy.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: Oh gosh.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: Richie, I'm saying that too.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: If you think of a word before me, you go because my vocabulary is gonna be well.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Your answer doesn't have to be one word, it's just it's basically the first thing that comes to your mind, the first idea.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll say one word and you'll just you'll just say the first thing that comes to your mind when it comes to running the business.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: First word is education.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: Lots of it.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: Just you can't have enough.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot educate yourself enough.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, to do a job correctly, the way it should be done the first time, you need to be educated.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean I'm in a few, I do a lot quite a bit of tile work, and I'm in a few tile groups on on Facebook and stuff.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_03: And there are some people you can see kind of the you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: You can you can see the the the two sides of like this is how we've been doing it for 25 years.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's not a broken system, just do it that way.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: And then there's these new guys or you know, young, thirsty people who are like, I, you know, oh, this new product or this new system of waterproofing or this way of cutting or whatever, you know, and you see that tear of like, you know, what why do we need to this, you know, why do we need to do it this way or whatever?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: I would say just staying hungry for learning the newer ways, the more efficient ways.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you can't reinvent the wheel, but a lot of times there are better ways to do things.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so I would say it's just so important to educate and keep an open mind and having that that attitude of like, I know that prideful, I know what I'm doing.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Don't question me.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: My way is the highway, you know, it's my way or the highway.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: I just to me.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_03: it's very it turns me off when I see people like that because I'm like you are closed off you're not willing to learn and I think just having that willingness to learn you might have the best way you might have the the most efficient way to do things or whatever but I think just having that openness and willingness to learn is so important.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: For sure yeah yeah yeah yeah next word is planning planning yeah oh yes I am a I wouldn't say this is all the time but generally speaking the difference between my husband and I he is I'm gonna sit here I'm gonna think it through from the very beginning to the very end take no action right until you have the complete plan for me I usually go with I'm very gut instinct this is what I'll do and a lot of times I'll go in and then I might have to pivot halfway like oh changing but a lot of times I mean that's just my personality uh but planning you know I think planning ahead anticipating error or not mistakes but anticipating um stuff to not go the way that it that you think because I live I I would say my gut instinct is always like this is gonna go so great and it's gonna you know very this this is gonna go smooth we're not gonna have any issues but really just preparing not just planning for or expecting the worst but just just being ready for when stuff hits the fan yeah yeah and and and to be honest with you you sound yeah I mean you you you and you and Richie sound like me and myself and my wife I'm the same way I I need you know like let's say if we want to go buy a car same thing I I need to know you know everything about the car I need to know everything about the financing that we're doing everything about this this and another before I make a decision I'm the same way so I need to know I need to be completely you know I need to know everything about everything before I say yes or no.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: And my wife's a little bit more seat of the cuff you know cuff the seat and you know hey we want we need a car let's just buy this you know it's like no no hold on let's wait let's let's plan let's make sure we're making the right choice we're gonna be stuck with this car for the next three years whatever you know what I mean and so yeah I've definitely I definitely can uh relate to you guys there with that one um yeah like uh I have 75% of the information I am gonna take a very educated guess because that's me I'm like oh for the most part this has a high probability of being fine I'm just gonna go with that you know that's what to be done yeah but yeah yeah he's a processor Mandy has the experience she can she can do that we are great balance um she is uh she's she's very talented she's very fast at doing things very well and um you know she's she's so social too so um it's it it just a lot of things come naturally to her that I think don't to others and is uh it's it's really cool to watch yeah some people will say like oh I wish I could do this and I'm like I don't think that I have any special talent I think that I have a willingness and to learn and to do it and so I'm like that's really you know so many people all you know be doing picture frame molding I'm like you anybody can do it like a lot of things that we do I'm like you just have to have a willingness to want to know how to do it and then you figure it out but I'm like I get that you know it you know some people are more like no I I'm not artsy I'm more you know have to sit by behind a computer look at data you know I couldn't I would not want to do that I should say but yeah I mean I just a willingness to do it and and you can do it yeah yeah perfect and the next word is inspiration oh my gosh I don't even know where I would go with that do you have yeah who inspires you oh you know a lot of people a lot of different I'm actually inspired by people that are outside of my field I I do have people that inspire me in the field a lot of times you know H-E-T-V you know you watch some of that some of this stuff isn't necessarily my style but I love just watching the process of you know taking something ugly and making it pretty um but I even have I'm really inspired just by other people in other fields for example there's a this girl that someone sent me uh she's a hairstylist and she does extensions I have no skill in hair and they said this girl reminds me of you because she has a lot of facial express like funny facial expressions and her you know her personality is really similar to yours and sent it to me and I started watching her just out of curiosity and I was like is this a good thing or a bad thing and then I started watching her and this woman has built an empire and she is the most down to earth relatable person and she just works hard.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like she you know I was watching her do these extensions and I've been watching a ton of before and afters and then I learned like she created this you know the these hair extensions and people are flying all over the country like from all over the country to go to California to have her do the do their hair and I just thought oh it's this brand she likes to work with the more I learned she created this this brand and it is her brand she does a ton of training like she has when you first watch her you just go oh it's this girl that does hair and the more you learn about her like she's so inspiring.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like how can I come up with a product that really helps people better their like better themselves, feel better about themselves, like improves their life.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like she just has really inspired me and like not that I want to do literally I told my husband I said this girl makes me want to do hair and I do not want to do hair but she just is so you know captivating and and loves people and really listens to people and hears their concerns and just you know it's a completely different field but very inspiring on how she treats people how she was so innovative of like there is a need for this product she you know worked hard to find a really great product and is you know training other stylists how to install this product and and then get people instead of coming to fly to her get them to go to someone in their area like oh this person is whatever trained by me so you can go to her and she's you know this person and they're local to you like she just has really just on so many facets has really inspired me to like you know be better myself in what I do.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah I would you know finding inspiration is I would say pretty easy now because we're just in such a a phone world where there's Pinterest at our fingertips and there's you know social media but okay perfect and the last word is commitment oh I am overly commit committed it just I mean Richie and I both watching him be an MLO you know I could tell like he would be on the phone with a client and there is literally nothing he can do for them you know to get them alone for a home and it would just I could see it was tearing him up that like he could not help but he was trying you know that commitment to to wanting to see it through and then same with me you know once I you know say I want to do something like I am going to do it and no one's gonna stop me.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_03: I just think that's so important to you know I joke with people like you know I'm like I sorry you can't get rid of me you know some contractors you know you just hope that they show up I'm like me you're gonna have to kick me out because by the end of this I want to come to Thanksgiving because I want to hang out with you you know so um I would say it's almost to a fault how much how committed we are yeah wow but okay okay so and I and I want you to be as candid as you can on this answer here for this quinx question but you know if if if a small business owner is listening right now and feels stuck or overwhelmed what's a piece of advice you'd want them to hear today you know it's so hard to answer that because I'm such a I want to hear your details I want to hear why are you stuck what are you doing what have you tried what have you not tried you know gosh I've been there too like where I just get in my head and so what would I tell them it's not like it's not gonna last like that rut it it feels like it's gonna last forever and it's not and just to do something different whatever you have been doing do the opposite for example when we were slow back in the end of 24 beginning of 25 you know I'm like okay what haven't I tried recently like okay I haven't posted like in any of the residence groups and to me it was like that fear of looking like I'm desperate or looking like I'm begging for work.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_03: But I think if you just fake it till you make it you know a lot of these sound so cliche but truly just you know know your worth and so you know educate yourself if you feel like oh I'm failing because I'm not doing a good job well educate yourself work on your craft but if you are confident in what you're doing just try something different go to a go to a networking group go um you know if you're in a church go to your you know get on your get involved in something and just start meeting people uh I think just a lot of times people generally do want to help you and a lot of times I'll just be you know talking about my day and then to a random stranger and they're like oh you know they'll try and connect me with someone and I'm like I didn't even ask for that and they're trying to help me.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I think just putting your that's it I think just putting yourself out there in a way that you don't normally do would really get you out of the rut and not staying in your head about you know whatever it is that's stressing you out.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's great.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: That should that actually is really good.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: So what's next for Handy Mandy?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: What should people be excited about next?
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man you know I think I'm at that point where I need to hire someone I am a little nervous and to be completely honest I'm I'm very nervous because I feel like I can answer for myself I can answer for Richie.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_03: Even my dad who is semi-retired uh since we've moved here to South Carolina they moved here too at the same time and so he we give him work as well and I just I'm okay with giving them our you know speaking or being responsible for whatever they do I fully trust like if you mess something up I'm fine to stand behind you and you know I guess it's that hiring of someone I don't know and I don't know their work ethic.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know their skill level and just hiring someone is really scary and to also be responsible for putting food on their table is a little scary.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: But I do think that we're at the point where you know we're we're getting inquiries or I'm actually like avoiding like okay I hope I don't get any calls this week because I don't I do not have time for that.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I think just growth is really and figuring out how we can have that freedom as a business owner because though we can just take a week off you know if we really want to we can do that but you know if you don't work you don't get paid and then just the this the stress of like knowing people are waiting.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: So having that employee where we can have someone work while we're not and we can have our family time back is just yep that's growth and not being afraid to grow because I am I am kind of afraid to grow.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay okay so you said something very interesting there so you're you know looking to hire you're not actively hiring right now as of this moment though I would say we are where I'm at right now because I still have to learn so much about payroll and that boring stuff that really makes my eyes blaze over uh we I would definitely say I'm very open to hiring someone like as a subcontractor as like a 1099 uh you know at this point I don't think I can offer benefits or anything like that but I would like to get to that point where we can W-2 employees and you know get to that but right now I think you know a 1099 I would honestly my ideal person would be someone who does not want to network does not want to do any of the business stuff they just like to get in there and do the work they don't want to go do estimates they don't want to have that like relational the the relations with the clients they just want to show up and do the work and get paid that's probably my ideal employer or employee sorry employee just someone who I don't really have to train because I don't know if I am a good teacher I because I am self-taught and like I figure I've always just been I'll figure it out that I I don't know if I can articulate how to do things where I wouldn't get frustrated with myself.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I really need someone who is self-motivated knows already knows a lot and that is open to learning new things but doesn't want to do any that really is probably like my ideal employee is just someone who doesn't want to go get the work.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_03: They just want to go okay where am I going today?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know and they can do it.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah so we're we're navigating that with my business coach right now who has been helping me with like my books but she said that she could help me with you know hiring if that's what I want to do.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah yeah so you know just in case anybody's listening I mean you know maybe a month maybe two months from now maybe they're you know you've got the position up everything's great.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah how should they get in contact with you in case anybody's interested I would say a call you you can always text text me to start the conversation and then because a lot of times if you call me my hands are you know I'm painting I'm in tile I'm wallpapering like I just can't always answer my phone right away but a call or text is probably the the fastest way to get a hold of me you know I'm just a regular person.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have HR or an answering service it's it's me.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay perfect.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: And would you want to give that out over the over the podcast?
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah my phone number is area code 41956060 perfect perfect all right yeah so definitely keep that in mind listeners in case you're interested in talking to her more about that position give her a call or a text yeah yeah and Mandy and Richie this has been fantastic yeah thank you so much for sharing your story your perspective and the real behind the scenes of building your business we appreciate everything you're doing yeah thank you so much for having us yeah thank you