Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Building a National Brand With Joe the Home Pro

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Building a National Brand With Joe the Home Pro · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

0:36
Jennifer Johnson: Today we welcome back into the studio Joe Nugent, or Joe the Home Pro as you're affectionately known.
0:43
Jennifer Johnson: He is a fully licensed, bonded and insured home inspection company that he started.
0:50
Jennifer Johnson: You started it all on your own.
0:52
Joe Nugent: All on my own, like all on your own Ground up.
0:54
Joe Nugent: Yeah.
0:55
Jennifer Johnson: And he's been doing for more than 15 years.
0:58
Jennifer Johnson: He's really dedicated his life to being a professional and helping others.
1:03
Jennifer Johnson: In his career he's been in the hospitality industry.
1:06
Jennifer Johnson: We kind of talked about that on the podcast from a few months ago that you probably hopefully listened to, which there were a lot of wonderful nuggets.
1:14
Jennifer Johnson: If you've not listened, go back and listen to that episode, because it was absolutely wonderful.
1:19
Jennifer Johnson: So welcome back in.
1:20
Joe Nugent: Well, thanks for having me again.
1:21
Jennifer Johnson: I really appreciate it and I wore pink for you.
1:23
Joe Nugent: Like I said, I would.
1:24
Joe Nugent: You did so anyone that's listening, can't hear that, can't see that, but the ones that are viewing you, they can see that.
1:29
Jennifer Johnson: Yes, if you watch this on YouTube, you can see he's wearing pink.
1:32
Jennifer Johnson: He told me he would do this.
1:33
Jennifer Johnson: I appreciate it.
1:33
Jennifer Johnson: So today I want to talk about you're taking Joe the home pro.
1:36
Jennifer Johnson: Want to talk about you're taking Joe the Home Pro or you've taken Joe the Home Pro National.
1:41
Joe Nugent: Yeah.
1:43
Jennifer Johnson: And the real reason why you started it was the company is because you know you number one.
1:49
Jennifer Johnson: You had started it before you were actually laid off from your job, so that was great.
1:54
Jennifer Johnson: Like you said, serendipitous because tell that story really quick.
1:57
Joe Nugent: Yeah, so, anyway.
1:58
Joe Nugent: So I'm the director of sales and marketing for a huge hotel company and I launched Joe the Home Pro.
2:04
Joe Nugent: Actually, I launched it as Inspector Gadget Homes and then I was told I can't really do that.
2:08
Joe Nugent: So then I went back to Joe the Home Pro, but anyways, what happened was during COVID of 2020, my job went away, but luckily, for five years I was building my company nights and weekends.
2:18
Jennifer Johnson: So when that job went away, luckily I had this to kind of like quote unquote fall back on, but I was already looking to make the move, so it worked out really well, and that is the power of the side hustle.
2:28
Joe Nugent: Yes, Right, because you just never know, you don't and COVID taught us that it did you just never know when your job's going to be there and when it's not.
2:35
Jennifer Johnson: It's a side hustle that grew into your livelihood.
2:38
Joe Nugent: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's funny.
2:40
Joe Nugent: I think, like my first year, I think our billables were like 14,000.
2:44
Joe Nugent: I was like, oh, not quite the emerging conglomerate I'm looking for right now?
2:48
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, look, what am I going to do with my 17 bucks.
2:50
Jennifer Johnson: You're three years in right Now.
2:52
Jennifer Johnson: Is it three or four?
2:53
Joe Nugent: No, now, joe, the Home Pro is nine.
2:56
Jennifer Johnson: Oh, nine, because you started it out.
2:58
Joe Nugent: Yeah, yeah, so, joe, the Home Pro is nine.
3:00
Joe Nugent: And then, as you mentioned, I just launched it nationwide, so we're going to be able to help a lot of other people which is exciting.
3:06
Jennifer Johnson: I want to talk about that.
3:07
Jennifer Johnson: What led you to the point where you're, like you know, I want this to be national.
3:11
Jennifer Johnson: What was that conversation in your head?
3:13
Joe Nugent: Okay, this is the point where everyone's going to just start laughing.
3:16
Joe Nugent: It's just like how I started the company with watching HGTV and watching this home inspector.
3:20
Joe Nugent: Well, not too far off from how I launched it nationally, I was working late at night at home I had on the History Channel.
3:27
Joe Nugent: One of the shows I love is the Food that Made America.
3:29
Jennifer Johnson: Oh my gosh.
3:31
Joe Nugent: Yes, this is why I'm fat right.
3:33
Jennifer Johnson: Because I watch all these food shows.
3:34
Jennifer Johnson: Do you remember?
3:35
Joe Nugent: the show Unwrapped, 100%.
3:36
Joe Nugent: Oh, my God, one of my favorites, one of my favorites Right.
3:38
Joe Nugent: So I'm like you know how, like you just have, like the TV on and it's kind of like background noise, not really pay attention to your work, and and they're talking about ice cream, and this guy who's now Dairy Queen right, came up with Dairy Queen and all of a sudden they said yeah, and after like two years or something he had 71 stores.
3:58
Joe Nugent: And I looked up at the TV and I was like what?
4:01
Joe Nugent: And I rewound it and I played it again and I'm going okay.
4:04
Joe Nugent: So it's like one of those like rain man skits where all of a sudden I got like papers flying everywhere and like computers everywhere, notepads, and I'm writing stuff down.
4:13
Joe Nugent: I'm up till two in the morning working on this idea that it just like came to me like at 11 o'clock at night and I'm going, oh my God, just came to me at 11 o'clock at night and I'm going, oh my God, I think we have something this might actually work.
4:26
Joe Nugent: This sounds really good, I'm like, but I'm not smart enough to figure that out.
4:28
Joe Nugent: So I called my mentor, sean, and then he's like hey, you need to talk to Dan, one of our other mentors in his group, and Dan specializes in helping people go from basically themselves to a franchise and then to a successful exit.
4:39
Joe Nugent: He's had like four or five groups that he's helped with.
4:41
Joe Nugent: He's amazing.
4:42
Joe Nugent: So I go, dan, I need to hire you for like two months as my coach.
4:45
Joe Nugent: He goes absolutely, joe, whatever you need, I'll help you out.
4:47
Joe Nugent: So we start going through this and Dan's like oh Joe, this is actually really good, I really like this idea.
4:53
Joe Nugent: And so him and I flushed the whole thing out.
4:55
Joe Nugent: But the whole idea came from.
4:56
Joe Nugent: How do I take so one step back?
4:59
Joe Nugent: Home inspectors inherently are very, very good with technical skills of inspecting a home.
5:05
Joe Nugent: If you had a gun to their head, they couldn't tell you how to do a sales call, how to run a company.
5:11
Joe Nugent: The majority I'm saying the majority because most of them are just solopreneurs it's one person that's kind of doing this thing.
5:17
Joe Nugent: So for me I was like, okay, I'm really good at running a company.
5:22
Joe Nugent: Building systems, building processes, sales and marketing is like my background for 20 years in the hospitality industry.
5:27
Joe Nugent: I can put all this together.
5:29
Joe Nugent: I don't need to teach them how to inspect a home, but I'm going to teach them how to run a business.
5:33
Joe Nugent: And so that's how this whole idea was kind of formed and kind of started.
5:39
Joe Nugent: And now it's like here we go, we're going to go across the country and the goal is to get to 250 by the next two years.
5:46
Joe Nugent: We have 250 offices in the next two years.
5:49
Joe Nugent: That's our goal.
5:50
Joe Nugent: Well, here's what I love about what we're doing.
5:52
Joe Nugent: I'm not franchising it, because I looked into the franchising model.
5:56
Joe Nugent: It's like, on average, about $50,000 for a home inspection company to buy, just to buy, the franchise.
6:03
Joe Nugent: Well, let's start with the franchise broker.
6:04
Joe Nugent: They take 50 to 60% of that.
6:06
Joe Nugent: Even if that's not the case, how do I charge somebody that kind of money when it costs me a 10th of that to start it?
6:15
Joe Nugent: I don't feel like that's right.
6:17
Joe Nugent: And the amount of support you need to get to really support your franchise partners because, again, most inspectors are solopreneurs so 150,000 a year, which is a great career and a great life for somebody, but when you look at what it takes to actually support them, you need so many stores and you're just not getting enough.
6:35
Joe Nugent: It's imbalanced.
6:38
Joe Nugent: So Dan says we need to license this and I was like great, what the hell does that mean?
6:44
Joe Nugent: I'm like Googling licensing, we're talking about it.
6:46
Joe Nugent: So what it basically means is that they're going to license out, they're able to use our logo and our branding, we're going to give them templates to use all the stuff that they would need, but it's a $5,000 investment versus a $50,000 investment.
7:02
Joe Nugent: And then what I said is well, I don't like the whole.
7:04
Joe Nugent: I'm going to take X percent of your revenues every month.
7:07
Joe Nugent: I just want to do a flat fee.
7:09
Joe Nugent: So then what we do is, after they buy the license, we give them up to six months to build up their cash flow.
7:15
Joe Nugent: And once they do that, then we're like cool, your first two inspections every month, it's $1,000.
7:20
Joe Nugent: Those come to the licensing company.
7:22
Joe Nugent: All the rest stay with you.
7:23
Joe Nugent: There's no additional technology fee, there's no marketing fee, there's no this fee, all the stuff that franchise companies do across the board.
7:32
Joe Nugent: And I just don't believe in that.
7:33
Joe Nugent: So I'm like, hey, we're going to keep this really simple.
7:34
Joe Nugent: We're going to keep your credit card on file.
7:36
Joe Nugent: You don't need to send me your financials.
7:37
Joe Nugent: We're just going to hit it for $1,000 on the first of the month and that's two inspections, roughly depending on the area that you're in, but it's roughly two inspections.
7:46
Joe Nugent: And then you keep all the rest and then we're going to give you one-on-one training, coaching with me.
7:51
Joe Nugent: We're going to do private Facebook groups, stuff, like all these things, so I can build incredible value, value, and so I think this is going to be something that it's, and we're starting to get good response.
8:01
Jennifer Johnson: Do you know, what I like about that is because it's not complicated, right?
8:04
Jennifer Johnson: Because, like you mentioned, a lot of the people that do inspections are solopreneurs.
8:08
Jennifer Johnson: They're they're working the business there.
8:11
Jennifer Johnson: You know, it's not like they have five other people under them, right they may but they may not.
8:15
Jennifer Johnson: Right, it may keep it simple.
8:18
Joe Nugent: right, the kiss thing 100%, because I had to come up with all this stuff.
8:22
Joe Nugent: So if someone came to me nine years ago and said hey Joe, if you give me $5,000, I'm going to create everything for you and give it to you and you'll be up and running in two weeks here's 10.
8:34
Jennifer Johnson: I would have given anything for that.
8:38
Joe Nugent: Right, so that's the whole.
8:38
Joe Nugent: Idea is how can I help other people get up and running faster with what they want to do with their life and they can avoid the $15,000 in six months of mistake that I made?
8:47
Joe Nugent: Love it Because it was very costly.
8:51
Jennifer Johnson: Hey, you know what?
8:51
Jennifer Johnson: That's all part of our journey, right?
8:54
Jennifer Johnson: We learn from all of the mistakes we made.
8:57
Jennifer Johnson: If we didn't make mistakes, where would we learn from?
9:00
Joe Nugent: 100%, I agree.
9:02
Jennifer Johnson: I can't even tell you how many mistakes I've had in my life.
9:04
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, and they've been costly.
9:06
Jennifer Johnson: Like I, I I'm getting squeezy thinking about it.
9:11
Jennifer Johnson: I know it's a lot, it's a lot.
9:13
Joe Nugent: But I think it's great, though really quick.
9:14
Joe Nugent: I and I know you bones about it.
9:25
Joe Nugent: I tell people I go listen, it's a for-profit company, so I'm here to make money on this, but I'm here to help.
9:30
Joe Nugent: More than that.
9:31
Joe Nugent: I can show you the roadmap of how that works.
9:41
Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
9:42
Jennifer Johnson: What has been something that's been a challenge in doing this whole licensing deal?
9:50
Jennifer Johnson: What's been the biggest challenge, the biggest roadblock?
9:52
Joe Nugent: You don't know what you don't know and so sometimes you have to figure out.
9:55
Joe Nugent: So as we started, it was like, okay, we're going to target home inspection schools and we're going to talk to them and we're going to offer them a referral if they can send their students to us.
10:05
Joe Nugent: And then it was first I was like going after my warm market, like anyone that I knew, right, and so you're like what's the sales and marketing process?
10:13
Joe Nugent: Like Didn't know, don't know, still don't know, still testing it right.
10:17
Jennifer Johnson: Right.
10:17
Joe Nugent: Like Still don't know, still don't know, still testing it right, right, like we're still trying to figure out what that secret sauce is.
10:20
Joe Nugent: So that's been really challenging, because you want to try to get this out in front of as many people as possible and you just want to, like any good startup, you just need cash flow coming in right so you can keep the machine running, and so I think that's been really really challenging for me.
10:34
Joe Nugent: I am fortunate, though, that I have people like Sean Thomas, who runs the Accelerators organization out of Franklin, out of Nashville, which you know Franklin but to have people like that that I can text, call, email and just be like hey, sos needs some help, and for them, to be able to weigh in of people that have been there before and done it, I've been able to avoid a lot of other mistakes.
10:55
Jennifer Johnson: I like to call that my virtual bench, Because it's like your board of directors, right, it's your advisory board.
11:01
Jennifer Johnson: Every business needs to have those key professionals that they can pick up the phone and call at any time, whether you're paying them, you're not paying them.
11:08
Jennifer Johnson: Whatever that is to be, I need help.
11:11
Jennifer Johnson: I'm in the weeds.
11:12
Jennifer Johnson: What do I do?
11:15
Joe Nugent: So fun story about that?
11:16
Joe Nugent: Because just a few days ago I did that exact same thing where I needed a ton of help with something that I was struggling with.
11:22
Joe Nugent: And I have a small group within our accelerators organization.
11:25
Joe Nugent: We do like a forum and it's kind of like an entrepreneur's organization type forum, and so they're like they all mobilized and they're all over the country and one's even in Hungary and they're like no problem, in 48 hours we're going to do this on this day, this time, be there and we're going to help you.
11:39
Joe Nugent: And for an hour and a half yesterday afternoon we all sat there.
11:43
Joe Nugent: I said here's the issue and they're like okay, and they all started spitballing different ideas of trying to help you.
11:51
Joe Nugent: So being able to be a part of a group like that and have like a core group of people like that is really priceless.
11:55
Jennifer Johnson: Powerful.
11:55
Joe Nugent: Very.
11:56
Joe Nugent: Powerful and priceless and why more entrepreneurs don't have mentors and people like that.
11:59
Joe Nugent: It's beyond me.
12:00
Joe Nugent: Because you I don't know why you want to try and reinvent the wheel.
12:03
Jennifer Johnson: I just don't think people realize they don't.
12:05
Jennifer Johnson: Right, that's, that's part of it.
12:07
Jennifer Johnson: Is your closet overflowing, or maybe your kids' closets are as well, or maybe you want to just rejunker at your house.
12:14
Jennifer Johnson: If you're wondering what to do with all that stuff that you've accumulated, bring it all to True Fashionistas, or even ship it to them for free.
14:51
Jennifer Johnson: They'll sell your unwanted items for you.
14:52
Jennifer Johnson: They take away all the hassle and they do all the work.
14:54
Jennifer Johnson: All you have to do is sit back and collect your money.
14:55
Jennifer Johnson: You can reach out to them online at truefashionistascom.
14:58
Jennifer Johnson: Come into the store or check them out on Facebook or Instagram, and that's truefashionistascom.
15:03
Jennifer Johnson: All right, friends, we are back in studio with Joe Nugent, otherwise known as Joe the Home Pro.
15:09
Jennifer Johnson: I just like saying that it's fun right.
15:11
Joe Nugent: Joe, the Home Pro my branding team did an awesome job with that.
15:14
Jennifer Johnson: They did.
15:14
Joe Nugent: I mean, they are like the best branding team in the world.
15:17
Jennifer Johnson: We could do some sound effects.
15:18
Jennifer Johnson: Joe the Home Pro.
15:21
Jennifer Johnson: Okay enough, Stop Okay.
15:24
Jennifer Johnson: This is why I'm going to be like my PR person.
15:34
Joe Nugent: This is great.
15:34
Joe Nugent: Who are you?
15:35
Joe Nugent: Oh, I talk, she talks, only she talks.
15:36
Joe Nugent: Yeah, I'm with her.
15:36
Joe Nugent: It's weird that you're wearing a shirt that says I was stupid with the arrow pointing this way.
15:40
Jennifer Johnson: I don't know what that means, but that's fine and I'm wearing one going the other way.
15:42
Jennifer Johnson: We're both confused.
15:43
Jennifer Johnson: So we've had a wonderful conversation.
15:46
Jennifer Johnson: I want to know what advice you would give to other entrepreneurs who are considering scaling their business on a national level like you've done.
15:56
Joe Nugent: Yeah, Great question.
15:56
Joe Nugent: So one of the big things I had to learn is it's great if it works in your market, but you need to go to a different market and test it, Because when someone comes in, if they want to buy your franchise, they want to know where have you done this at?
16:09
Joe Nugent: Where is it successful?
16:11
Joe Nugent: And if I just said, well, Southwest Florida, I'm really successful, I'm doing X, Y and Z and they're like okay, where else?
16:16
Joe Nugent: And it's like nowhere.
16:19
Joe Nugent: So that was the first thing I had to learn.
16:21
Jennifer Johnson: Crickets.
16:21
Jennifer Johnson: I need the cricket engine right now.
16:22
Joe Nugent: Exactly.
16:23
Joe Nugent: I was like, is this thing on Tap tap?
16:25
Joe Nugent: So the first thing I would say is go to a different market and either open up your own office or have somebody go there that is interested and have them open up an office, and then the R&D method rip off and duplicate.
16:36
Jennifer Johnson: Rip off and duplicate R&D the same systems and processes that you had.
16:39
Joe Nugent: Wherever your home office is, you do it there and then, when you can show after six months, hey, this is a viable business model.
16:46
Joe Nugent: Now you have a machine that you can then take everywhere that you want to go Proven kind of thing.
16:51
Joe Nugent: Yes, a proven concept model, because every entrepreneur is like this is a great idea, it's a great model.
16:58
Joe Nugent: And then it's like you take it somewhere else and it's like actually this doesn't translate for whatever reason.
17:02
Joe Nugent: Right, right, and I've seen it done a lot, but I've also seen it done really successfully.
17:07
Jennifer Johnson: It's test marketing.
17:08
Joe Nugent: Yeah, you done a lot, but I've also seen it done really successfully.
17:11
Joe Nugent: It's test marketing.
17:11
Joe Nugent: Yeah, you have to.
17:11
Joe Nugent: It is so it's like okay, if you have everything from a system process perspective, then you should be able to replicate this anywhere, but you have to have those systems and processes and they have to be written down.
17:20
Joe Nugent: And again, I guess the second part of the answer to that question is, if you don't have everything written down in a playbook, in a manual, there's a great system I use called train.
17:31
Joe Nugent: You will, and it's a hundred bucks a month.
17:34
Jennifer Johnson: I don't write that down.
17:35
Jennifer Johnson: Train you all train you all.
17:37
Joe Nugent: And what I do is I can record videos of every single process we do Like here's how you send out an invoice, here's how you inspect a garage, whatever that is.
17:46
Joe Nugent: I can put it all right on trainual and then anytime I bring a team member on, they have to go through there and all those videos and that's their onboarding, part of their onboarding.
17:54
Joe Nugent: So that has now become invaluable as I license across the country because I'm going.
17:59
Joe Nugent: Hey, I actually have everything in video format of what you need to do from a day-to-day basis Right.
18:05
Joe Nugent: Brilliant.
18:13
Jennifer Johnson: And that's one of the things that a lot of small businesses underestimate or don't even know that they need to do is like an operator, like I call it an ops manual and operations manual about how to run your company.
18:17
Jennifer Johnson: Right, it's just like a succession plan, you know, like that's crucial but not always thought of, like what's going to happen if I walk out and get hit by a bus?
18:26
Jennifer Johnson: Nobody's going to know how to run my business.
18:28
Jennifer Johnson: If you have an operations manual, somebody could come in and run your business.
18:34
Joe Nugent: Yeah, and that's so funny.
18:35
Joe Nugent: You say that because I just got done updating my will and trust, and by updating I mean like I actually did one.
18:40
Jennifer Johnson: Please drive safe yeah.
18:41
Joe Nugent: Well, it's good, everyone's going to make a lot of money when, I leave.
18:43
Joe Nugent: So it's fine, but that was one of the things I had to figure out.
18:46
Joe Nugent: Okay, if I were to go out and get hit by a car tomorrow and I die, god forbid what happens to my company.
18:53
Joe Nugent: So now I had to have a succession plan in place of what that is.
18:57
Joe Nugent: And then when that company sells, whatever it is, how does the money get dispersed to, whether it's my kids or whoever right?
19:02
Joe Nugent: There's a lot of that and a lot of times people, especially small business owners, owners are like I don't have the time.
19:08
Joe Nugent: You have to make the time or the money Right, or the money it does cost.
19:12
Joe Nugent: But like you can talk to, like Christina Roboli with Modern Woodman or Sergio DeCesar, I mean, they talk about this stuff and they go listen, everyone's going to exit their company.
19:21
Joe Nugent: Are you going to do it on your knees or on your feet?
19:23
Jennifer Johnson: That's the question.
19:25
Joe Nugent: Everyone's going to exit your company right, and so you have to have those things in place.
19:28
Joe Nugent: So, whether that is training or succession, or wills and trusts or whatever, that's really important stuff, I feel like, for small business owners.
19:35
Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
19:35
Jennifer Johnson: It's really really pertinent that, as small businesses, we don't take our eye off the future.
19:42
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah Right, because it's just going to keep going.
19:45
Jennifer Johnson: It's not going to go away, exactly Because we're sticking our head in the sand, kind of thing.
19:49
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, what is the biggest difference between running a company regionally and nationally?
19:55
Jennifer Johnson: What are some of the things that you've found?
19:58
Joe Nugent: The toughest thing is understanding different market conditions and understanding what someone's going through.
20:03
Joe Nugent: It's really tough when you're in Southwest Florida.
20:07
Joe Nugent: It's like here's the bubble of like what we live in in a way, and then you look at like a Tulsa, oklahoma, and you're like whoa.
20:13
Joe Nugent: Your challenges are way different than mine, so how do I relate to that?
20:16
Joe Nugent: I think the other biggest challenge I have is I'm not in their market, working with them, because they own the company a hundred percent.
20:24
Joe Nugent: I have no ownership interest in it, right, so it's their business.
20:32
Joe Nugent: And so I tell them when, when they start, it's like you will succeed or you will fail based on what you do not, on what Joe or Joe, the home pro, does or does not do for you.
20:36
Joe Nugent: So, not being there and sometimes you need to like light the fire under them and you know.
20:42
Joe Nugent: So that's been challenging, not being in the field, working with them day to day.
20:46
Joe Nugent: That's probably been the two biggest things.
20:49
Jennifer Johnson: But the nice part about what you're doing is you're licensing it, which means you don't have to have a footprint there, correct?
20:59
Joe Nugent: So that's a positive, but yet I see it is.
21:00
Joe Nugent: But at the same time, it's like we want them to be successful, right?
21:02
Joe Nugent: So they just paid me a lot of money to start this company.
21:06
Joe Nugent: I want to do everything I can to help them achieve whatever their dreams are.
21:09
Joe Nugent: So that's also why I implemented like, let's do a private Facebook group.
21:13
Joe Nugent: Every Monday is coaching Monday.
21:15
Joe Nugent: Every Wednesday, we're going to do a topic that's relevant to them.
21:18
Joe Nugent: These are the things that we want to do.
21:20
Joe Nugent: I want to create a forum, but really, what I want to create is I want to create a community of people across the country that are going let's share best practices, let's share the highs and the lows and again, I have to give credit to the accelerators organization, because that's exactly what we do with them, right, and that's so.
21:37
Joe Nugent: I just kind of, you know, took that theory and ran with it and the whole Facebook group and all that coaching that's.
21:41
Jennifer Johnson: that's invaluable to somebody who's just starting a business or or has ran a business forever.
21:49
Joe Nugent: You hope so.
21:49
Joe Nugent: You.
21:49
Joe Nugent: They don't realize it until you're like well, here's the bill I would have sent you if I were to do this.
21:51
Jennifer Johnson: Then they're like oh, but see, that's the thing.
21:53
Jennifer Johnson: You have to be the kind of person that wants to take advantage of all that stuff and see the positive and see what can come out of it and just go.
22:03
Jennifer Johnson: Oh, I'm going to go on another coaching call, like really, yeah, that's, I don't have time, but that's time that you're taking to invest in in your business.
22:13
Jennifer Johnson: It's working on your business, not in it.
22:15
Joe Nugent: Right, and that's a big big thing.
22:18
Joe Nugent: Right Because, as we've had like that slowdown in the housing market in Southwest Florida especially, I felt like I was working myself back into a job and I was like, oh, this sucks right, we've all been there.
22:29
Joe Nugent: But you have to do that because it's like that's what's going to keep the lights on and the doors open and everyone employed.
22:34
Joe Nugent: And then it's like, okay, now I can scale again and grow again and as things kind of go, I mean, and the housing market's cyclical That's- just real estate, but so is being a business owner.
22:45
Jennifer Johnson: Being so is being a business owner, being an entrepreneur it comes in waves Right, that's what I like to say, because it's like one minute you're going to be over here and you're at the top of it working on your business and doing all the things that you were like I didn't have time to do this.
22:58
Jennifer Johnson: And then the next moment you're down here and you're back working in your business and then you're back.
23:04
Jennifer Johnson: It's like it ebbs and flows.
23:07
Joe Nugent: Yeah, sometimes I drink at 9 am and sometimes I drink at 9 pm.
23:09
Joe Nugent: It just depends.
23:10
Joe Nugent: That's the flow.
23:11
Joe Nugent: I mean.
23:12
Joe Nugent: Right now I'm telling you everyone's like is he on a ladder drunk?
23:15
Joe Nugent: No, I'm just joking, just for effect.
23:17
Joe Nugent: But no, it is true.
23:18
Joe Nugent: And when you are in that valley you look back on the peak and you're like man, I needed to be doing this stuff.
23:24
Joe Nugent: Because when you're in that valley which we've all been in it's like how do you climb out of it as fast as possible?
23:29
Joe Nugent: And normally there's not a quick fix to that, it's a 30, 60, 90, 120-day fix.
23:41
Jennifer Johnson: So those are some of the things that, again, I learned, and I'm sure you did too, with what you did.
23:44
Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely, how are you building this team to support this expansion?
23:49
Joe Nugent: Okay, so I'm really fortunate that I have these amazing all-stars on my team, that I have currently.
23:52
Joe Nugent: Every single team member that works with me I've known somehow through social media, through friends, through networking, through whatever All of it.
24:02
Joe Nugent: I've yet to have to go outside of my four walls and put an ad on Indeed, or something like that, to try to find somebody.
24:08
Joe Nugent: I am a very, very transparent person on social media, and some people would probably say to a fault, but I'm very transparent about my highs, my lows, what's going on with business or whatever, and the reason I do that, though, is because I want to share my story, because there's a lot of people that might be going through it.
24:24
Joe Nugent: Maybe they can relate.
24:25
Joe Nugent: I just look at it as like, if I could.
24:27
Joe Nugent: Just one person sees that and like, oh man, I'm also in that crap.
24:31
Joe Nugent: That's great to know.
24:32
Joe Nugent: I'm not the only one there, cool, but I think, by sharing the story and my journey, I didn't even realize this.
24:42
Joe Nugent: There was a lot of people that were paying attention that I didn't even realize, and what's really cool is that, when I announced like hey, I'm going nationwide.
24:46
Joe Nugent: Like hey, I'm going nationwide, here's what I'm doing, looking for beta testers the people came out of the woodwork to be like I'm interested, tell me more, I might know somebody, whatever the case is.
24:57
Joe Nugent: And so I just feel like by being able to do that and build that team and I'm able to take my existing team that I have, I'm able to help move them into a different role and from a role that somewhat I created and a role that they created too.
25:07
Joe Nugent: So, like Molly, my office manager is moving over into a business services development kind of person and so she's been doing some sales work.
25:17
Joe Nugent: But as we bring on licensees and once we get to like 40 or 50, molly's going to move full time, be able to double her salary, single mom, two kids, right, great story.
25:25
Joe Nugent: And we're going to be able to help change her life and like there's nothing better Like being able to Great story.
25:33
Joe Nugent: And we're going to be able to help change her life and there's nothing better being able to have that happen.
25:35
Joe Nugent: And then Molly's going to find another Molly to kind of backfill our office manager position.
25:37
Joe Nugent: So Damarius, our lead home inspector, he's going to be our director of education, so he's going to lead a lot of the trainings and stuff.
25:42
Joe Nugent: I'm able to take people from my current team and say, hey, we're going to give you a little bump in here.
25:46
Joe Nugent: Right and team and say, hey, we're going to give you a little bump in here and you're going to be able to get a bigger exposure and more stuff happen to you and I think that's really cool.
25:51
Jennifer Johnson: You know it's a lot about connections, right?
25:53
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, it's about the people that you come across, that you resonate with and you're.
26:00
Jennifer Johnson: It also is a lot about authenticity.
26:02
Jennifer Johnson: We talk a lot on this show about authenticity and about how raw and vulnerable you are when you show who you really are and how that resonates, like you said, because everybody looks like they have that white picket fence on Facebook.
26:19
Jennifer Johnson: They're only going to show us their perfect parts, right?
26:23
Jennifer Johnson: Not that the skeletons we talked about earlier.
26:25
Jennifer Johnson: They're not going to show us their perfect parts, right?
26:25
Jennifer Johnson: Not that the skeletons we talked about earlier they're not going to show those, but there's a lot of power in showing those skeletons that you could change somebody's life.
26:34
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, you know I've talked about mental health on this podcast and how people who are going through something see everybody else looking perfect until they see someone sharing a story of imperfection.
26:52
Joe Nugent: Yeah.
26:54
Jennifer Johnson: And they go oh, it's not just me, they don't feel alone.
27:00
Joe Nugent: Yeah, two and a half years ago, I mean, I was in the hospital for three days for my mental health.
27:03
Joe Nugent: Like, I've been through it, I get it Like and that's a topic I talk a lot about.
27:06
Joe Nugent: But you're right, there is social media.
27:09
Joe Nugent: As great as it's been for connecting us, it's also been horrible because it really portrays a not real picture of what's really going on with someone, cause it's like you know, we get so caught up in how is people going to perceive this, or whatever.
27:20
Joe Nugent: But I think, though, the authenticity thing you cannot be more dead on about.
27:24
Joe Nugent: I have been a huge fan of yours for years and I've been following you.
27:27
Joe Nugent: And then, finally, it's like Melissa, finally, like my girlfriend's, like hey, you want to, like, meet her.
27:31
Joe Nugent: I'm like, yes, I would love to meet her.
27:33
Joe Nugent: This is amazing, right.
27:34
Joe Nugent: So it's like, but like you, you do you follow those people that you know that, that you kind of gravitate towards in the entrepreneurial world.
27:47
Joe Nugent: We gravitate towards each other, and I know that I've always gravitated towards people that are way more successful than me, because that's who I look up to.
27:52
Joe Nugent: That's where I want to get to, right, and I just think when you can build that community of people around like that, it's amazing.
27:59
Joe Nugent: But it really is amazing how many people have eyes on you and you're like, oh, I did not know that.
28:05
Jennifer Johnson: Oh, a hundred percent.
28:06
Joe Nugent: Glad I didn't post that picture I know.
28:07
Joe Nugent: It is it where, like when you finally meet somebody, you're like, oh my God, I've been following you, like, how are your kids?
28:13
Joe Nugent: You're like, oh God, they've never met, especially like as a guy Right, and it's like that is so funny, it has been an absolute joy having you on today.
28:27
Joe Nugent: All mine, all my pleasure, trust me.
28:28
Jennifer Johnson: If our listeners would love to get a hold of you, how can they do so?
28:31
Joe Nugent: Yeah, so on every Instagram Facebook handle it's Joe the Home Pro.
28:35
Joe Nugent: You can find me on my personal Instagram, joe Nugent Naples, or find me on Facebook.
28:40
Joe Nugent: I love connecting with people and engaging, so, whether it's personal, whether it's business, find me, follow me.
28:46
Joe Nugent: We'll have some laughs.
28:47
Joe Nugent: I'll tell some bad dad jokes, it'll be great.
28:49
Jennifer Johnson: Fabulous, you've been a true joy, a true joy.