Transcript

From Humble Beginnings to Business Success with Ismael Valdez

From Home Service Expert · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 57 min · 13,134 words · 85 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "From Humble Beginnings to Business Success with Ismael Valdez", an episode of Home Service Expert published June 16, 2025 (57 min, about 13,134 words). It mentions 21 people, works and ideas, including Ishmael Valdez, NextGen Air Conditioning, A1 Garage Door Service, Service Titan, Nuve.

What this episode is about

Ismael Valdez, founder and CEO of NextGen Air Conditioning, shares his inspiring journey from emigrating to the U.S. with nothing to launching a successful business in the HVAC industry. He discusses his early experiences working in a supply house and highlights the innovative thermostat company, Nuve, that he is currently developing to support and empower home service professionals.

Key takeaways

  • From smuggled immigrant to CEO, Valdez proves grit is the ultimate startup fuel.
  • Competitive camaraderie: building empires often relies more on 'brotherhood' than classic mentorship.
  • Thermostats aren't just gadgets; they symbolize Valdez's ambition to elevate an entire industry.
  • In business, timing is everything; missed opportunities can feel like pigs getting slaughtered.
  • Valdez’s journey shows that relationships forged in warehouses can ignite million-dollar ventures.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: NextGen Air Conditioning, Nuve, Home Comfort USA, Aaron Gainer
  2. – 10:00: Any Hour, Newuv, Grank
  3. – 15:00: Service Titan, Darius Slyers
  4. – 20:00: COVID-19 pandemic
  5. – 25:00: Service Titan, Jim Collins, John Warllo
  6. – 35:00: Service Titan
  7. – 50:00: A1 Garage Door Service, Service Titan
  8. – 55:00: Google LLC, Echo Bee, Honey Wells
  9. – 56:35: Ishmael Valdez

Notable quotes from "From Humble Beginnings to Business Success with Ismael Valdez"

  • Because I'll never bet against you. you're you're a lion. Thank you, man. Thank you. You Ismail is the founder and CEO of NextGen Air Conditioning. he's he's traded that, but…
    about Ishmael Valdez · at
  • I think I recruited 150 of them for that operation. couple years after that, after we were already at 21 mil, Ken, which was the old CEO, not Ken Goodrich, Ken Star was the CEO. we parted ways just, he had some financial issues.
    about Service Titan · at
  • You got, Tommy, they could grab somebody from the streets making 20 bucks an hour. Their first year at A1, they're going to make a $100,000, $80 to $100,000 all day long. All…
    about A1 Garage Door Service · at
  • Morris Jenkins is seven days a week till midnight and the way they got their parts delivered. One of the things that we were super impressed by any hour is their uniforms and…
    about Any Hour · at
  • Like there's no like they figured out we were lucky and then we made it through 200910. We made it through co and then they realized there's really good operators in these…
    about COVID-19 pandemic · at
  • But my biggest goal, there's a great book by what's it called? Built, not built to sell, that's John Warllo. There's a great book called Built to Last by Jim Collins. And this.
    about John Warllo · at
  • Would ask, can I work from a distance just to make sure that these families are taken care of? I got a good question for you and Aaron Gayner put this on a group chat. that and which is with what you're saying.
    about Aaron Gainer · at
  • And u what we're going to do, me and you, we're going to do like you've already got like a best practices group that you like if you're part of new, they get coached every single week by the top players in the industry. That's.
    about Newuv · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Ishmael Valdez — Person · Main guest · 1 mention · first at
    Primary interview subject; discusses his immigrant background, building/selling NextGen Air Conditioning, and building the Nuve thermostat/network for home service contractors.
  • Aaron Gainer — Person · Referenced peer (industry network member) · 1 mention · first at
    Appears as a member of the operator peer group and is credited with prompting a group-chat question about succession/CEO transition planning.
  • Cristiano Hoffman — Person · Referenced peer (industry network member) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as part of the high-performing operator circle; described as a 'genius' within the group context.
    Doing this thermostat stuff. And he asked, we're we're like with a group of a lot of guys, Chad Peterman, Aaron Gainer Y Cristiano Hoffman the list goes on and on. And I was dude, I'm in. And then he said, All right, wire me the money.
  • Ken Star — Person · Referenced executive (prior company leadership) · 1 mention · first at
    Identified as the CEO at Home Comfort USA during the period before Ishmail Valdez started NextGen; mentioned in context of parting ways due to financial issues.
    After that, after we were already at 21 mil, Ken, which was the old CEO, not Ken Goodrich, Ken Star was the CEO. we parted ways just, he had some financial issues and then I…
  • Darius Slyers — Person · Referenced peer/friend · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as an industry contact who became a friend during early shop tours and learning phases, reinforcing the 'doors opened for me' theme.
    When I first got a service titan. Tom Howard with his backpack. We're both there. Darius Slyers became a good friend. And I'm how many people open their doors for me? And so…

Books & papers

  • John Warllo — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a recommended book on business strategies.
  • Jim Collins — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a recommended book on building lasting businesses.
    Book by what's it called? Built, not built to sell, that's John Warllo. There's a great book called Built to Last by Jim Collins. And this idea should be if I were to leave the…

Companies & orgs

  • NextGen Air Conditioning — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at
    Founded by Ishmail Valdez, discussed as a successful venture in the home service industry.
    Mean, you're you're a lion. Thank you, man. Thank you. You Ismail is the founder and CEO of NextGen Air Conditioning. he's he's traded that, but he's still got a lot of money…
  • A1 Garage Door Service — Company · Case study · 1 mention · first at
    Highlighted as a successful company in the garage door service industry, with a focus on training and profitability.
  • Nuve — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    An empire being built by Ishmail Valdez, mentioned as a growing venture in the industry.
    Conditioning. he's he's traded that, but he's still got a lot of money in it. He's building an empire called Nuve. It's not only a thermostat, but he's doing a lot of stuff…
  • Home Comfort USA — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as Ishmail Valdez's first project in the home service industry, achieving significant revenue.
    And kind of what got me to accelerate these growths on these companies. my first project was Home Comfort USA. I know many people think that NextGen was my first project.
  • Newuv — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a current project Ishmail Valdez is involved with, focusing on thermostat technology.
  • Any Hour — Company · Case study · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned for its operational practices and uniforms in the home service industry.
  • Google LLC — Company · Competitor · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor in the thermostat market.
    Developing this product faster than what most products are going to get developed to. People are already buying Echo Bees, Honey Wells, and Google's for $200, $250. Ours is…
  • Ferguson — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a supply house for AC contractors, similar to Howard Industry.
    Was there for seven years. which people that don't know what Howard Industry is, it's it's like a Ferguson's AC Pro. It's a supply house for AC contractors where, most of these…

Products & tech

  • Service Titan — Product · Case study · 4 mentions · first at
    Discussed as a key software platform for home service companies, highlighting its importance in business operations.
  • Grank — Product · Referenced tool · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as an AI platform that can assist small businesses in various tasks.
    There is so many freaking things that are accessible to them now between social media, between ChatGpt and Grank and all these AI platforms that are can literally split spit…
  • Echo Bee — Product · Competitor · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor product to Newuv in the thermostat market.
    Developing this product faster than what most products are going to get developed to. People are already buying Echo Bees, Honey Wells, and Google's for $200, $250. Ours is…
  • Honey Wells — Product · Competitor · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a competitor product to Newuv in the thermostat market.
    Developing this product faster than what most products are going to get developed to. People are already buying Echo Bees, Honey Wells, and Google's for $200, $250. Ours is…

Places & events

  • COVID-19 pandemic — Event · Referenced event · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of its impact on business multiples and the home service industry.
  • Pantheon — Event · Referenced event · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a past event where discussions about business strategies took place.
    That's what we do. We were on a bus right after Pantheon. I feel like this was 5 years ago. Yep. And we were going back and forth. You ever going to sell?

Full transcript with timestamps

All right, guys. Welcome to the home service expert. Today, I got a great friend of mine, uh, Ishmamail Valdez, who, uh, just really, really smart guy. I would never bet against him. In fact, he called me up and he said, "Hey, I'm doing this thermostat stuff." And he asked, you know, we're we're like with a group of a lot of guys, Chad Peterman, Aaron Gainer Y Cristiano Hoffman the list goes on and on. And and and I was like, dude, I'm in. And then he said, "All right, wire me the money." and it showed up the next day and uh because I'll never bet against you. I mean, you're you're a lion. Thank you, man. Thank you. You you uh Ismail is the founder and CEO of NextGen Air Conditioning. You know, he's he's traded that, but he's still got a lot of money in it. He's building an empire called Nuve. It's not only a thermostat, but he's doing a lot of stuff going forward with it. He's for developing the crap

out of it. It's an amazing amazing thing he's building, and he's helping out a lot of home service companies. So why don't we just start with uh I know your story but it's an up and cominging story of how you started the business. You used to work in uh well first of all you came into this country with nothing. Yep. Yep. Tell us a little bit about that and then just starting as a sitting in a warehouse selling parts. Dude, I think we should start right there. Um Tommy, look, I was born in Mexico. My my family's from Mitra, Mexico. Um we were born over there, raised over there. I got here when I was 6 years old. We got smuggled in here at a very young age. My my dad was, you know, a really really hard worker just just like most of our parents are where um and and my journey started at Howard Industry. Man, my journey started at Howard Industry. I was there for seven years. Um which people that don't know what Howard

Industry is, it's it's like a Ferguson's AC Pro. It's a supply house for AC contractors where, you know, most of these mom and pop shops would go in there and pick up their material, their equipment, and then they would go out there and install it and, you know, and and and make a profit of it hopefully. Um, so I was there for seven years. Seven years, Tommy. Um, I built a ton of relationships there. I think that's what gave me a kickstart into the industry and kind of what got me to to um accelerate these growths on these companies. You know, my first project was Home Comfort USA. I know many people think that NextGen was my first project.

Uh, my first project was Home Comfort USA. Um, we had 162 employees. We did a little bit over $21 million in revenue in four years. And that took me four years to do. out of the 1601 employees, I think I recruited 150 of them for that operation. Um, you know, couple years after that, after we we were already at 21 mil, Ken Ken, which was the old CEO, not Ken Goodrich, um, um, Ken Star was the the CEO. Um, we parted ways just, you know, he had some financial issues and then I started NextGen, man. You and you guys know my NextGen story. We had a successful exit in 2022, May 5th of 2022, Tommy. May 5th of 2022 and I this is crazy. It's been three years and I don't I don't know if you remember but on the group message that we have I sent out I had my I got my license in 2016 February. So it may it my journey atction was 6 years and four months when we from the day we started to when we sold it for a ton of money. So yeah you

uh you're definitely a student and I don't think people understand that. I mean, who have been your best mentors? Dude, I I don't I don't think I have mentors, bro. I think I have more of a more of like competitive brothers. Yeah. No, it's a better explanation. I mean, for like most people have mentors. Like a lot of people have mentors. I don't I don't think I've ever had a mentor that like has sat down with me and has poured in time with me. And Tom Howard, Tom Howard was a was a competitive mentor, too. Competitive uh partner on it. He came in obviously in 2019 when things were going south and and and obviously he helped me a ton. But I think what what's driven me to the the heights that I'm in and all the projects that I'm involved with and all the companies that we're trying to try trying to um grow is I am super competitive to a to a level where like I look for brothers and I look for for friends and I look for for

companions that are going to be just as competitive. And I think that's why me and you get along so so much because you are one freaking comp. Whe people look, let me tell you something. There's one thing people don't know about Tommy because he hides it super good because obviously he's super polished and he's not he's never he's not always been that way. But Tommy is hands down one of the most competitive people in the freaking industry. There is no doubt about it. He's not a loudmouth like I am. I promise you he's not. But dude, you drive me nuts, man. Like I'm trying to keep up with your energy. I'm trying to keep up with obviously like the business side of it. Yeah. No, it's good, man.

That's what we do. We were on a bus right after Pantheon. I feel like this was 5 years ago. Yep. And we were going back and forth. You ever going to sell? And you're like, why wouldn't you sell? And I'm like, I'm not selling. Then all of a sudden, co happened. Yep. And dude, the multiple went bam bam bam bam. And Tom Howard came out and he's like, dude, I don't know if this is going to stay like this. He's like, this doesn't make sense. Guys are getting 15, 17, 19, 20. And at the time, look, Keegan was a one of the best home service companies. I went out to best home services. I think he got eight or nine. Yeah. So, I'm thinking in my mind at the time when I was talking to you, maybe we get 10, 12.

Why? And then it just went boom boom boom. And like pigs get sl hogs get slaughtered, pigs get fed or something like that. So, it was like and it was the best decision I ever made. But, you were like first you're like, I'm never going to sell. Then you're like, I'm going to do a deal. Me and you went back and forth and we both I mean mine was uh in 2022 as well. Yep. Yep. I remember. And you know, I I I got I'm always in the right place at the right time, and that's probably because I put myself in the right rooms. But you know, you came in one day and I was like, "Dude, you were like, it looked like a muscle shirt, but it was just that normal shirt." And you're like, "Yeah, dude.

Get your fat ass in shape." And I was like, cuz I am competitive. You are, bro. And I go, and people don't know that about you. Damn, son. I was like, "All right, dude. I went all in and I just started working out every freaking honestly. Good job. Good job. And I feel so much better. And you're like, dude, you're like, you're better than this. You could do this. And really, it sparked a lot for a lot of people. And um and I just know like, man, he's busy as hell. He's running around with four daughters. Yep. And he's still doing it.

So, you're a great dad and uh you make the time and um you know, you you were there every day looking at every Yelp review in meetings all the time. Same thing you're doing at Newuv. Yeah, man. If I had to give you three things, it's competition competitive marketing and recruiting. Y and I'd also add one thing is ripping off and duplicating. Like you are really good at just you pay attention and you're like, I like that. And you just own it. That's the one thing that business owners need to do a little bit more, Tommy, is that the the the small the smaller mom and pop shops, there is so many freaking things that are accessible to them now between social media, between ChatGpt and Grank and all these AI platforms that are can literally split spit out a payment plan for you. Now, there is so many things that these guys could be doing. And look, like you said, I'm not here to reinvent the wheel. I'm not by by any

means I'm not smarter than any of those of those contractors out there. Um, dude, I if I hear something, if I see something when I was doing shop tours like you, right, we me and you are probably the kings of shop tours. I've I've gone to every shop. Your your early early days, you showed up in your little uh hoverboard the hoverboard and then I got one cuz I was like, dude, I got the I got a bigger one and I was obsessed with it. Then I'm like, I got to get my steps, man. I go everywhere on that thing. Yep. So that dude that's the one thing I learned when I was doing these shop tours. I would come to your facility. I would come to Leland. I would I I went to all these facilities and all I would do and this is a huge a huge uh a huge pointer for you guys.

Okay? When you guys go to these show shop tour facilities, stop taking a million notes and trying to like implement everything today today or get all excited and go back to the shop and be like, "Okay, where do I start?" Everybody in the industry had everybody every shop does one thing really, really, really good, right? Like the one thing I could tell you about Tommy's facility, their training from the time they get somebody from the streets to the time they put a level four technician or whatever whatever levels you got, Tommy, they could grab somebody from the streets making 20 bucks an hour. Their first year at at A1, they're going to make a $100,000, $80 to $100,000 all day long. All they have to do is have the hard work ethic. Yes or no? Okay. After that, they put them on this journey to getting them to making two, three, four $100,000.

That to me is the one key strength that you have. Obviously, the second strength that I see in your in your operations, your your your call center. But back to the the thing about the contractors, guys, when you guys are going out there and doing your your your your shop tours and you guys are reaching out to me wondering who do you who you should visit, go to one fac go to each facility and just enjoy the freaking moment, man. Enjoy the moment that you're spending with Tommy. Enjoy the moment that you're spending with if you get to go to Aaron Gainers and Chad Peterman's and all these guys. Enjoy the moment and take one thing. One thing. Yeah. Well, the implementation most people fail at. And I'll tell you this, I started bringing my team with me. We went to Morris Jenkins. We went to Any Hour. And I told these guys, I said, "By the way, before we go in there, you guys are going to get super excited." I said, "You realize

we're more profitable than all these like literally at the bottom line." And I said, "So, let's not change everything. Let's decide." One of the things we were really impressed by Morris Jenkins is seven days a week till midnight uh and the way they they got their parts delivered. One of the things that we were super impressed by any hour is their uniforms and the way they work together and we took so we took certain things but they they had so much stuff and I go guys do you know what we do really great like let's just be clear on what we do very great but there's and then a lot of small companies come in and then they look at this and it it's a good dream to have but they got to know how to walk before they run and crawl before they walk 100%. And so, you know, my biggest I'd say my biggest thing I've done is I probably look at 10 softwares a month and we are the early adopters of the guys the founders I know that

actually I could get behind just like you. New wasn't going to be a great product without a guy running with it and pushing it and like sitting through the pain of the weekends and the nights and showing up every day and dealing with the clients. And now you got this whole new best practices where if you're a part of the network, you're going to coach them. You're going to get the top entrepreneurs in the home service industry to coach. I just was on a coaching or whatever you call it. By that mentoring call, by the way, and I don't mean to interrupt you, Tommy, but that mentoring call that you got that you did for our Nuva Networks people.

Blown away. Everybody from that call was was DMing and texting and emailing Elva. Hey, can I get Tommy's information? Hey, thank you for that. Thank you for that. So, I appreciate that. Great. I enjoy doing that stuff just because Ken Haynes, Ken Goodrich, Leland, Keegan, I could go on and on. They opened their doors for me. You open your doors. Look, Peterman opened his doors. There's not a company around that if I didn't ask. This is before I was anybody. This is when I first got a service titan. Tom Howard with his backpack. We're both there. Darius Slyers became a good friend. And I'm like, how many people open their doors for me? And so people are like, "Well, how do you make money doing this?" I'm like, "Dude, this is called paying it forward. People did it for me. I would knock. They would answer." Yep. And if anybody knocks, I try to help out everybody. It's just what I've learned is it's the 8020. 20%

of them you want to work with because they're actually doing the work. They're putting their head down. They actually take you seriously. And you know, we started Home Service Freedom because I started vertical track and all of a sudden it's filled with plumbers and HVAC and roofers. And I'm like, "This is a garage door only." So we started HSF and you know all we teach people how to do is like book the phone calls, protect your Yelp, do these simple things. Get a good brand and uh most of them they once they learn they start printing money.

Yep. They don't even know how to budget. You know you and I I see our weak points HR not not the hiring part but financing you know like dude I never read pivot tables and I wasn't good at reading the financials and like making sure we were I was such a visionary. I'm like I don't care if we make profit. grow, grow, grow. And then I learned profit's important. Ex. It is. And that's later in life that like I've learned because I'm like growth, growth, growth, growth. We could get profit later. It worked out for us, but usually it doesn't. Usually people go, "So, I got a question for you on that. Should people scale their business uh the top line as fast as they could and then work on the bottom line or should you be profitably year-over-year as a small person, as a small contractor, and grow, you know, 10, 20, 30%, whatever the status quo?" I got a rule of thumb. Uh, and it depends on how much money you have in the bank,

but my rule of thumb is if you're not growing 10%, focus on if you're not if you're not profitable at 10%. Okay? Now, listen, A1's doing 25%. But if you're in a growth mode, I take when you work out, this is my best analogy. Are you working out to get lean or you working out to gain muscle? When you're working out, you want revenue when you're getting muscle. And the best people that work out, they they're in the offseason, they're putting on muscle. Amen. So, I think the deal should be you need revenue, but you need profit. profit is what saves you when you get sued or saves you a car accident or saves you from a slow season. Yes. And everybody, they spend everything they got and then the CPA calls and says, "You owe a million dollars." You're like, "How's that possible? I don't have any money."

Like, "This is just normal taxes. We use GAP accounting, you owe money." And I used to get these phone calls and be like, "Man," and then I learned these private equity guys figured out a way to do both. Y they could get revenue and profit. But I would say, "Look, when you're smaller, you're learning. Revenue is important. I mean, you want growth, but profit's what pay the bills, man. I mean, profit and a lot of people aren't looking at the numbers when they're not profitable. I agree. You start cutting certain things, you know, the guys that are not getting reviews, that are getting warranty calls, that aren't showing up for training. A lot of people that I know, they're so afraid to top grade. And that's probably one of your strong points, too. You're you're able to, you know, keep the good people and and and and let go of the bad people that that create they don't leave. They don't they they won't leave because

they've got equity in the business and they see there's something in the outcome for them and that's that was something I learned too. You bring up um you bring up private equity, Tommy. Um another question I've got and I know a lot of our listeners and I know you're invested in and I'm invested in it too. Is private equity good or bad for the industry? Tommy, this is my best answer is the money will flow into anything making money. There's there's a lot of baby boomers out there. They need to make money. There's a lot of pension funds.

They go into real estate. They go into dental offices. They go into emergency rooms. They will invest in in they'll invest in a candy shop. So to say private private equity is a fancy way for investors. Yep. And to say but they're very good at what they do. They've created a really good platform where they take 2% of operating and 20% of the net and they raise capital. And it's like look, you make more money in private equity than you do in the stock market, even the S&P 500, but it's locked up for five years. But the fact is people are like private equity is bad. Private equity is bad. The investors are always going to get into every industry. They just thought blueco collar guys were stupid. Yep. They were like there's no like they they figured out we were lucky and then we made it through 200910. We made it through co and then they realized there's really good operators in these industries and

that's why they're here. And everybody hates it because there's good, bad, and the ugly. Yep. And I would say this, I know it was good for you. You got a Rolls-Royce. I know it was good for me. It was good. Look, and I know this. I know they're more sophisticated. They taught me about how raising capital. They taught me about you shouldn't have a 6% ARR or not ARR. Uh 6% accounts receivable AR. And now it's.3%. They they looked at my stuff cuz they're financial wizards, but they can't do what me and you could do. They go in and screw up a lot of companies because they don't got the EQ. They don't have relationships with the people. They try to cut their way to the top. But that's not every company. That's not a lot of them let you take the guys out. A lot of them say, "Invest in what you want. Just be healthy. just don't go too fast to growth because we need to make sure we got a plan and we're not big planners.

We're like, let's go all in. So, they taught me to slow down a little bit. I've seen all these comments online of like, oh, private equity came in my uh region and they ruined our our our region and now they're spiking up PPC and, you know, they're investing in all this marketing and all this. And I'm like sitting there like, guys, you guys should be proud. You guys should be happy that private equity is in your space. You guys should be happy that they're in in your region. Why? your exit strategy, you have no way of exiting at all. Exactly. Exactly. And not to mention, when A1 goes into a market, what everybody's kind of realized is, man, the everything's easier. Like they're at the top of the market, they've really trained the customer about a premium company. And so they get branded correctly. They answer their phones on weekends. They show up and they're like, "We're still bet cheaper than A1." Yep. And so all of a

sudden they double their company when A1 goes in. And so, you know, and they should be excited, man. There's no reason for anybody to talk bad about private equity. Look, like Tommy said, there's good and bad private equities out there. And you know, some of them are sharks. They're just here for money. Some of them actually care about the operators inside the the the the operations and and and the systems. But listen, stop worrying about them. Stop worrying about them. If if there's private equity in your sector, I promise you that's a good thing. Why? Because they're priced out properly. They're marketing properly. So, you guys should be using that to make sure that you guys are are are are leading that way. You know what I'm saying? Well, you learn a lot. You could learn a lot and all of a sudden you become ultra profitable. Uh here's one thing I've learned. Losers focus on winners. Amen. And winners

focus on winning. Yes, sir. And so many losers I know, all they do is get into a a a room and they complain and then they [ __ ] and then they say the prices and the tariffs. I'm like, you know what I say? Good. I'm like, cuz this is going to get rid of so much competition. Nobody's going to be able to keep up because they they they were complaining that they couldn't hire guys. Then now they're complaining they can't get leads. Then they're complaining about now PE's here. Then they're complaining. They've always It's the same people that always have an issue. Every time that happens, anybody walks into my office that works for me, I'm like, "Good."

They're like, "What do you mean good?" They're like, "Did you realize they just doubled our prices?" Good. They doubled everybody's prices. Who cares? You know how much harder it's going to be for them than us? We're trained for this. We're trained for battle time. You and you build enough value to be able to charge for that. So, look, it's it's talking about losers. There's a ton of losers in the industry, Tommy. Well, the deal is I have this philosophy. Whoever doesn't make it in the real world teaches. You know why we started HSF?

Because I'm still in the battlegrounds, man. I'm still in here fighting. I know what's happening. I know what macro microeconomics are going on. And look, there's a lot of people. There's some funky deals going on. And it's almost it's like you could, but they're really good sales guys. They can sell a dream. And there's a lot of them out there in a lot of industries. Trust me. You don't think it's in roofing. You don't think it's a pest control everywhere. They exist in every industry. It's just, you know, c certain people, they fall in love with the dream. They go on the private plane, whatever this looks like, and they sign their life away. And unlike you, I'm not a big fan of like, look, I'm not behind closed doors like you are. You talk to these guys more than I do. I don't know who's been ripped off or not. Like, I don't get into that because I'm too focused, but they come to you for in confidence. And

for me, I'll listen to their story, but I'm not the one that went through their Q of I'm not the one I've been through a lot of owners that tried to sell, that were lying about adbacks, that did a lot of shady stuff, too. So, just as many crooks are out there trying to teach guys to take advantage, there's a lot of owners that lie about their numbers. They make stuff up. I've been through deals where their financials weren't even close to what they were reporting. So, I think there's bad actors in everything. So, so what would you do?

What would put yourself as a as a contractor, right? Everybody wants the five to10 million dollar contractors because they know they're a couple tweaks away to getting them to 2025 mil and that's where you know you could get a good profitable flip, right? So you're a five10 million contractor. What are you doing in and these guys keep approaching you? And obviously whether you're in a good or bad spot and you're looking for help. What are the top three questions that you're asking these gurus in the industry, Tommy? Without, you know, calling any names or bashing on them, what are the top three things that you're out that you're that you're asking um to be able to make sure, hey, this is the right mentor for me or this is the right leader for me or yeah, I'm interested in it. Right? So, well, number one is there's a way to prep if you're ever looking to make something.

And a lot of people don't do this and they lose out on a lot of value. Number one is getting audited financials. Number two is doing your own quality of earnings that you're prepared. Number three is having service titan. I got to tell you when somebody's on house pro or jobber that's okay and I get it but you're going to get devalued because you don't look like an affluent business person. I mean you just don't everybody gets you every platform will get you in the home service industry on service titan. You got to be on the right payroll software. Like there's certain things you just have to do. So prep first. Secondly is when all these different PE companies approached me I went and flew out to see who they worked with what their success story and I looked at their financials. They open up the doors to me. Tell me all about your success stories. What's the good, bad, and the ugly? And you better tell me

some bad and ugly. Cuz if you don't have ugly, what? They're lying. Of course. And and then but but the track record like when I work with a vendor, I want to talk to 10 people you've worked with. And I want to I want to hear from a couple people that you either stopped work with or they fired you. And that's the fact is I flew out to so many businesses that worked with Cortech and they told me they're very hands-on. They're going to tell you no. they're gonna they're gonna expect you to be super uh humble. And I said, "Fine, I could be all that." And they taught me a lot. And they were really worried. They said, "Dude, I'll be honest with you."

They told me this. They said, "10 companies have called us and asked me what it was like to work with Tommy Melo." Everybody wanted to see if they could tame the beast. And they're like, "But you just sit there, you listen, you ask great questions, and you do exactly." And they don't tell me what to do. They just say, "Have you ever thought about it this way?" Or, "Why is this AR?" Or, "What can we do about this?" or have you ever thought about renegotiating with this guy because your cost of goods is out of control? And that's what they do. That's what a great partner does. But they said, "We didn't buy one, we bought you." And they did buy they did buy Luke. They bought Trust me, they brought Travis Rackley. They bought they bought our team. Y but the deal is is if I stop showing up, if I start taking vacations and just disappear, you know, these guys are loyal to me, too. So the founder leaves,

we know what that we know. It's not a good situation. We know what that leads into, right? Anything that's complex that I can't go explain to my significant other that's like, well, I get an earnout here. They're gonna add this back. They're gonna do this. That's always makes me fishy. Like, first of all, it should be a very, very easy deal. Easy earnouts. Yeah. And it should be I get a lot of cash up front. Yep. And it should be what's my upside? What what upside have you done this with before? Like where have you done this before? Is this your first rodeo? And a lot of people are taking other people's credit, you know, whether you worked for Ken Goodrich or whether you worked A lot of people work for a lot of people and and you know, Ken's there's so many guys I know that have worked for Ken and Ken's a beast. Dude, Ken is probably one of the most respectable operators out there and there's a lot of scumbags out there

talking bad or trying to take credit for what he did. It's it's no different from one of your guys saying, "Oh, I built A1." or one of my guys saying, "Oh, because of me, next should happen." And I've heard stories like that about me. I've heard stories about like that about you, about Ken Goodidge. Look, at the end of the the day, guys, the CEO, the operator, the guy, the guy with the vision is the most important part of the of the piece, whether people want to see it or not. So, I hate these scumbags out there that are always like, "Well, I I built Ghetto and I built NextGen and I built this." It's like, no, we didn't.

Look, I don't even say that. I've never heard you say, "Because of me, A1 happened." No, you're only as strong as your team and you're as strong as your weakest link. In fact, I needed to step back and say, look at I am fireable now that I work for private equity. I mean, those are the facts. And I just say, guys, you know, I'm the driver for sure. But my biggest goal, there's a great book by uh what's it called? Built built, not built to sell, that's John Warllo. There's a great book called Built to Last by Jim Collins. And this idea should be if I were to leave the company, it would do better because I put all the right people in place. Now, if somebody comes in and starts firing everybody and gets rid of all my installers and does all the crazy stuff, it cuts to the marketing. That's not good. But what I'd ask them to do, if you're going to let me go, can you give me 6 months as a consultant to make sure

we're leaving this in great hands because this is my face is on the side of the truck. I want this thing to live on because there's a lot of families. If there's 900 employees that are taking care of three people, there's 3,600 people we're taking care of. So, can you please I like if I did something bad, let's God forbid I got in a very bad car accident and something bad happened. can't operate anymore. We need you to be out because it's too bad publicity. I would ask, can I work from a distance just to make sure that these families are taken care of? I I got a good question for you and Aaron Gayner put this on a group chat. Um that and which which is with what you're saying.

Something bad happens to you. God forbid nothing happens to Tommy. Obviously, we you know, we all appreciate what you do in the industry, Tommy, but God forbid something happens to you and the new CEO is walking in. What do you tell that CEO about your company, about, hey, this is what you need to focus on? like what are what's that conver what's that 5 10 minute conversation you it's a very quick conversation of look there's a lot of people that I entrust in this business the most one is Luke and uh my CFO Adrian and I go they understand how I run stuff but what's going to happen is you're going to change the culture to your culture because now you're running the show y and all I'd ask is listen these guys know how to run without me so give them a lot of latitude let them do what they do best uh where I do my best where you're going to have to fill in for is there's certain vendors that I've got 10 year plus relationships

and I give them everything to make the decisions, but I hold them accountable. And I'd say, "Listen, here's what you need to do. A great leader, you need to rally the troops. You need to get them excited. You need to see what's in it for them. You need to make sure their families are taken care of. You need to make sure if they want weekends, they're going on the trips they want to, they're buying their first house. Because if you start to extract money from this company, they will be gone in a New York second. In fact, there's, and I don't say this with any pride, there's at least 40 people a month that reach out to me that say, "If you were ever to step down, I'm going, if you decided to be a garbage man, we're going with you to do garbage." And I'm like, "Yeah, but I want you I don't want you to be loyal to me necessarily. I want you to be loyal to this company." Unfortunately, Tommy, that is one responsibility that

carries with you for being a great leader. Same thing with me. you know, I stepped down as CEO of NextGen a couple years ago and and um there was people that told me the same thing. Hey, Ishma, if you ever leave or if you ever step down or if whatever the case is like, I don't think I could be here. And you know, unfortunately, I had to step down. I had to, you know, I had other uh visions in mind like my project that I couldn't that I couldn't. Well, you you know, when I went to your shop, first of all, you were feeding everybody. You had a truck there every day I was there. You were people were winning Raptors. you go give out. You had every guy walking in you were throwing cash to somebody had a hard time. You were figuring out a way to make it work. And one of the things that I think that look this is not because you're you're Spanish speaking.

But I will say everybody gets sued in California. What they figured out was Ishmail's came from where we came from. He takes care of us. And if one guy screws it up for us and they sue because of a mistake of clerical error on the payroll, then all of us go down. And I think they kind of self-governed each other. Yep. And that's why you didn't, you know, I'm sure you got sued in California a couple times, but nothing that took down the ship. Nothing, man. Nothing. And I'm I'm super proud of that because that culture that I built there was people saw me serving them every day, day in day out. I would show up to the shop at 5 6 a.m. Um, every day for, you know, se 6 and a half years, seven years I would show up. And the reason why we didn't get any lawsuits. The reason why we weren't any legal troubles. The reason why is because people would see me there and you know 5 6:00 in the morning I'm packing up the

installers truck. I'm grabbing u you know uh the yetis filling them with eyes. You're taking care of them of course and you paid more and and and also like you understood like look we're going to get this. But um I feel like they didn't feel like you were just chasing the dollar. Although listen, everybody wants to make money for their families and you want to set up your daughters. But there's an idea of like, dude, I if I sit on the top of the mountain alone with a magnum bottle of champagne, like that was that was the end of the my career if that would happen. It's pretty lonely, man. It's pretty Did you ever think that that this was going to happen to us, Tommy? You know, me and you are pro and I mean this in the most humble, respectful way. Me and you are probably some of the most influential voices in the industry. Did you ever think like, man, one day this is going to happen?

You know, when I was a kid, I used to listen to my mom and dad argue about bills. And I just decided I need to remove money from this will never happen to my family. They'll never get a divorce. My dad cheated on my mom. He drank a lot, but he was the best dad ever. And I'm golf with my dad two days ago. And I said, man, I'm like, I'm glad I I didn't My dad's a mechanic. He ran transmission shops. He did a great job. He took care of me. But I'm like, I found a niche. I made a lot of mistakes. I'm an overnight success of two decades.

But I didn't know I didn't know what multiples or arbitrage was. I didn't understand how to build a business. I wanted this. I was predental. I went to school. I took anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, organic, like you name it. I took advanced calculus. I mean, can you imagine me as an orthodontist? I would be like, dude. So, like I don't know. But I think, you know, I'm pretty spiritual and I think God has a plan. And I think he hasn't even begun to use me yet for the what I was meant to do. I'm not a dad yet. I'm not I was put on this earth to be a father. For sure you were. So I can't wait to see that version of you. By the way, my best things haven't, you know, god forbid if if I do something bad happened, which u you know, tomorrow's not promised.

That's something I've learned. Um I do believe my legacy is going to be my family. But uh you know, I I I can't I can't be sure because you know, all I could do is uh marry Bri and start having babies. But uh you know I want I want them to grow up in a great The hard part is when you have this much money. Yep. And I I say this with the most humble I want my my kids I want them to fight. I want them to go through not exactly what I went through. Definitely not what you had to go through. I mean but at the same time I don't want them to be like dude yeah come to this 50,000 foot house and they're friends and they're driving first class on private.

Like I want to figure out how to instill Yeah. It's just such a hard thing and I don't know how do you how do you manage that? I'm I'm in that midst right now where my where my daughters know they have a good life in it and I can tell they have that little attitude of like hey you know but but then I also look my number one thing with my daughters and I'll give you this as a as a humble friend to you Tommy is I am a mirror of what I want my my daughters to see every day. So if you ever see me around my daughters bro I am serving them. I am picking up napkins. I am picking up plates for them. I'm grabbing the thing.

I'm grabbing clothes for them. Uh I was uh I was at a I finally took them out to um San Diego to this new resort uh in San Diego which had a bunch of water slides and everything and there was four couples in back of us in a in a cabana and it was my daughters and myself were you know they were just chilling and the guy comes up to me after like five six hours of looking at me and he said hey man you haven't sat down for more than one minute. You've been grabbing towels, grabbing food, you know putting sun lotion. are you gonna sit down and enjoy your vacation? And I'm like, no, man.

Not when you have four daughters. I want them I want them to I want them to to to see how they should be treated every single day for their life. And that's the way I I I parent my girls. No. Well, that's it's going to be hard for anybody to date them because you're going to be a tough critic. And you know, if you have you know, if I have a boy, it's you treat a woman right. That's what my dad taught me. I mean, look, he made mistakes in his life, but I you know what? Everybody does. We all do. And I don't hold him. I don't know what it battles. He was going through a lot of demons. Everybody has that. So I just figured, dude, I only cared about money just cuz I saw ri my family apart. And then I started seeing fitness and faith and family and future self and and the the finance kind what what is the only thing you could really delegate? You can't delegate your fitness. You can't delegate your faith. You can't delegate

family. You can't delegate learning. No. You can't delegate fun. You could delegate finance. Believe it or not, you could you could get great people on your team. Yep. And they'll put you and look, I I could go out of town. I'm taking my dad on a golf trip next week. Good for you, man. And it's a with all my cousins. I'll be gone for a week and then I got to go to Milwaukee for a management meeting. Do you think that I'll log into Service Titan and everything's going to fall apart? No. Do you think I could be gone for three months and they won't skip a beat? They won't skip a beat. Our whole team goes to Mexico for a week. All of my seuite my managers my top 40 technicians in the company and installers leave for a week.

You know what's funny is all the other guys think they're getting the best jobs now and we hit the same exact numbers. They're like now that they're gone we're getting the good jobs which is a fallacy. Of course it is. But it's crazy to me because you would think your top 40 producers, your your whole management team is gone for a week. We don't lose the thing. Of course. And guys, look at what he just said. This is I don't want you guys to skip what he just said because this is the type of competition that you guys are against in the in the garage door industry. This is the type of compet Tommy is taking 40 of his top technicians to Cabo, his executives, his managers, everybody for a week, paying for everything, housing, food, everything. They're having a blast. You posted a bunch of videos on on on your on your pinnacle um trip that you do every year. And guys, this is exactly what I what I'm telling you. And this is

exactly what I mean when the way you recruit the top people is doing stuff like Tommy does. He pays the best. He trains the best. He treats them the best. Like there's I guarantee you if I talk to one of your technicians that just started a month ago, Tommy, they know exactly the pathway to getting to being a top a top performer here. And they all got my cell phone number. And the other thing is that they got a chance to get equity in the business. And the other thing is I teach these guys to be killers and ask for everything. Amen. They ask for everything. which means when I teach them that they're going to ask me for more of course. So the top guys that make more money than I do on a of a salary basis and with commissions and whatnot, they literally you can't teach them to be lions and then say they say what's next for me? What where could I do more? How do I make more money? And I'm like and I got to always be coming

up with ways and new strategies for them to earn more. Keep you on your toes though. That keeps you on your toes. It's like they always want more. And guess what? I always want more. And would you rather somebody say I'm just fine in the corner but they're not they're not trying. So you teach I always say this look you can't teach a guy to say hey listen I want you to go hard I want you to ask for everything but hey listen when you run these home warranty calls don't ask for anything like you you got to have specialists you know so you got to understand exactly you can't teach them to be one way to one thing one way to another if it's a little old lady treat her differently you got to go in and don't treat rich people or poor people or white people or Mexican people everybody's the same give them all the options and let them choose. Amen. And that's one thing that you guys got to learn as contractors is

that it's okay for them to make more money than you. Look, at the beginning stages of NextG air conditioning when I was growing it, dude, I wasn't made I was paying myself $2,000 a week just to be able to pay my bills and my rent and my, you know, I think we had a Merced a used Mercedes back in the day. And some of the sales guys were pulling in five, six, seven, 8,000, $10,000 checks a week. And I'm like, God, most most contractors though, Tommy, are not okay with that. They're like, well, how could the sales guy be making more? And how could this technician be making? And I'm like, guys, they don't they don't understand their enterprise value. They don't understand what they're trying to build. Exactly. They don't even understand if to not have a plan to sell or at least understand how your business is valued is such a mistake that I was in for so long. I wasn't We were in for Yeah. I didn't know what I But but

literally like the light started turning on and you hear about this exit, this exit, and then you build it in a certain way that it could be sold even if you don't plan on selling. But there's certain guys that are like, "I'm never going to sell." And I'm like, you know, because I do believe that literally people lose their DNA when they sell. A lot of people, most people do. But I'm like, do you know, you think I'd be sitting on a golf course? Of course I want to go golfing, but you think I'm going to disappear into the Bahamas? I will keep There is more opportunity.

Look, it was Ken Goodish that called me up. He said, "Dude, I would do a deal. And here's why. you are one of the smartest guys I know in home service, but you don't know [ __ ] about raising capital. You don't understand how to use debt. You don't understand what an LP is. And and he's like, "Dude, when you learn that with what you know of all of this," he goes, "You're half of it, but this other half, if you could just be a sponge," he goes, "It's going to be nutty." He goes, "Do you know how to do a deal? Do you understand adbacks? Do you understand quality of earnings?" And at the time, I just barely could scratch the surface. Now I'm like, "Huh?" I'm like, let's like like I was Core Techch.

I called them every day and I was like, so you guys are in the Middle East right now raising debt. They're like, yeah, we just got a pension fund and here's how it works. And so I would call them I'd invite them to spend the night at my house and I'd ask them, all I would do is they're like, they go, "Dude, it's 11 at night. Like, I got to go to bed." And I'm like, "One more question. One more question." Yeah. And a lot of people are like they're just like they got it all. You know, the the dumbest people in the world think they know everything. Amen.

And the billionaires I know are the they they sit there. They'll talk to a guy. They'll talk to a server for 20 minutes and ask them why they work there, what their goals are. Do they have kids? I've noticed that, too. And they ask the best questions and they learn. They're always learning. Every time there's been a real issue with this company, it's been me. And it was so easy to point my fingers. I let that happen. I let the guys not drive safely. I knew they weren't driving safely, but they were top producers and I let them, God forbid something bad happened. You know how many times that happens in every company? You know, they they it's a top producer. It's bringing in revenue. And you have you've done it. I've fired top four top producers, but I put up with a lot. We've put up with a lot. We've had it because we were ignorant to it. Well, you let it happen and then the whole tribe gets very disheartened and then you let

that person go and you're like, man, I should have done that six months ago. Yep. And there's a fear though because there was one point in my career where if I lost this one guy, I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to be able to pay the bills. And Adam walks in and he goes, I'm firing him. And I look at him and I go, okay. And I was so scared because I'm like, dude, what happens when these marketing bills come in? I got a truck payment. I got this stuff. And I was so worried. And you'd be shocked, dude. He goes, he's so disrespectful to you and me. He he literally rolls his eyes when he comes in. He misses meetings and he thinks he knows everything and the whole place is watching them do that to you. I said, "You're right. So, let's do it."

And we didn't skip a beat. And then that's why I was like, "Fine. Nobody's untouchable. Nobody." At what point, Tommy, did you go from did you go from or do you still remember when you were, you know, struggling to when you were already, you know, thriving? Do you still remember that point where you were, like you said, struggling to pay the bill, struggling to pay payroll? I'll tell you one story I'll tell you one story. Um, you know, me and Keegan have known each other a long time and uh Keegan goes, "Would you mind if I came down to your shop and just check checked it out?" And this is uh it was 2018 2019 somewhere in there.

Yep. Same. And um I go Yeah. And he's pretty smart guy. Like he he's really good at understanding financial. I met him once, by the way. So he Yeah. And he goes he goes, "Hey, could I just see every market? can you put it out on this conference table and can you put out so my CFO goes there he grabs the balance sheet and the P&L and Keegan goes out there with a highlighter and just starts highlighting he's doing his thing and he looks up at me with disgust and he goes you need to close these four markets today and I'm telling you Ishmail I don't care if it was GC Jesus Christ I would have not closed those and he goes you're bleeding and you're going to go under and I I go, Keegan, it's just bad management. I could fly out there. I could do this. I could do this. He goes, Tommy, close these today and offer your guys a reload package today. And I'm like, but but he's like, now. And I was like,

so I closed down Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Tampa the next day, and I started printing money like nothing I've ever seen before. Amen. And look, I've had a lot a lot of people do that for me though. Al Levy came in. I've had a lot of people. Ara didn't let anybody on service outside of HVAC Plumbing Electrical. We were the first company. And he goes, "Why would I let a garage company and my father does HVAC?" Like, this is what we're focused on. I said, "You bet on me. I promise you I will have more technicians." And and he goes, "Tommy, I can't do that." 15 minutes later, he goes, "You know what? F it."

He goes, "I'm going to send you send you 10 success managers." This was 2017. And we didn't have a price book or anything. We had to come up with it. And we're working with Matt Rule and all these freaking, you know what I mean? You know, Matt and uh and why did that happen? Why did he bet on us? Like a lot of people like it's crazy. No, but but it's it's just like now obviously I believe in Jesus and he's opened up a lot of doors of course and uh I feel like literally I could tell you this. I feel like I'm in the early stages. Like so many people are like what are you going to do? How much you wh why do you keep going? Like you're just getting people say where's the finish line? How much money is enough? My mom had asked me about money. How much is the is enough? And I said, "Mom," I go, "Do you think Tiger Woods mom asked him when you won four majors? Four majors, you got to be done, right? You hit the grand slam."

I'm like, "This is what I live for." Like, I don't get in a room and talk about sports. I don't get in a room and talk about like, "Do we talk about we talk about business? How do we freaking How do how do we help each other in a way? It's an obsession. It is. And I was with a guy yesterday and he goes, "You know who's the most successful people? The people that get obsessed, where they can't sleep, where they're just they're going to go all in." And he goes, "There's seasons of life." I don't know if you ever heard of Russell Brunson, but he Russell Brunson Click Funnels. He was sitting right where you are. And he goes, "Tommy, the obsession." But he goes, "When I go home, I'm a different Russell. I walk in, I breathe in my car, and I go new Russell. I'm Russell dad."

But he goes, "Look, there were places where I had to be obsessed with different things." And I think a lot of people are trying to be so balanced and trying to get to know the things they suck at. I never want to become a good CFO. I'm not saying I want to become a great marketer and continue to become the best marketer. I want to be great at sales. I want to be a great leader. You want to be a great father. Yeah. Those are the things I want to be in the best shape of my life. And really what I want to do is when I'm sitting on my deathbed, I never want to have to wonder, I wish I could have gone harder.

I wish I could have tried more. I wish I could have like I want to say I went all in on everything I did and if I could do that then I consider life a big win. Amen. Amen. Look, I want to get back to the the location thing because that's one thing that we always that we as operators always struggle with Tommy is when at what point do you go to a different market? Do you open up a micro location? Do you open up a second location? Because most of these guys look I know they're all I've met I've mentored a million guys uh Tommy on these what are you doing in ju just southern California alone now? I know you had different locations, but yeah, we had six operational locations with, you know, warehousing and and and installers, technicians, sales guys in there, and then we had three micro locations just to be able to lead generate on them. So, Paul and we talked about that. Remember when I told you

like you got to do that, but Paul Kelly is going to do over 300 million in Phoenix? Yep. Right. Uh, you know, here's the coolest thing about being where you live. You go to church there, your kids grow up there, your best friends live there, you know, all your neighbors. If you don't own that market, you think it's going to be easy to go to the next one. But most contractors think they own the market at 2 million, Tommy. Most contractors actually I've had contractors say, Ishmail, I'm I'm already I already dominate where I'm at.

I'm in Dallas, Texas, and I already dominate. I'm like, how much revenue are you doing? $7 million. What? Like, I'm going to open up one in Houston and one I'm like, there is millions of people in Dallas, Texas. What about guys doing over 100 million? Exactly. So at what point my question is at what point you got to own own the market. So there like like look what's the armpit of California 24 million. What's the armpit though? What's the armpit of California? Fresno. Yeah. Exactly. And how much does Tom Howard do? 50 mil probably. 50 mil.

So the idea is people always blame their market. They always say this. Yes. If let me tell you this. If I was in Sedona Yep. you got Flagstaff. I say look that's a smaller market. I probably got to hit a major metro if I want to get to like the tens and tens and tens of millions. Yep. But here's what I find. When when I went to Tucson, I was taking my best guys from Phoenix and sending them to Tucson. And I was robbing Peter to pay Paul. And I was trying to grow too fast. And this idea of like you need to make a lot of profit. You need to be at 22% profit before you're going to go and it needs to be millions and millions of dollars of profit, of course. And then you move slowly somewhere where you get to with an hour to two. How much do you sustain that 20% plus profit before you go into a different market? Do you just, you know, after you depends on how much how much money do you got in the

bank? So, look, look, at the end of the day, here's the deal. Own your market. Get the reviews. Get multiple locations. Like, you should be at least $20 million before even thinking about that. That's what I said. I think my rule of thumb is you got to be between 20 to $25 million. You got to have a a structured management system inside the operation that's producing profit in order for you to even think about adding a second trade, adding a second trade or adding a second, third location. It's hard, man. It's not easy running multilocation uh shops. And then the other thing is like a people don't understand the difference between home service and home improvement. Like discretionary versus indiscretionary money. Like if you're window washing or painting or doing water systems versus your pipe breaks, your air conditioner goes out, your garage door is busted, like when the when the market really gets bad, and it

eventually always does, which it gets great, they let go. Those companies, they struggle so bad. And I think people need to realize the reason why we get a premium is because we're demand driven. Yep. We're a premium. So we can't have AI answering the phone. Yeah. If you got a landscape company that everybody's calling you weekly to mow your lawn, you'd have AI answer that or the dentist office. But trying to do AI when you're busted and your pipe just broke you that certain people are like I'm just going to get AI to answer the phone. I'm like yeah good. Tell me how that goes. So tell me about it. Tell me about it because look there's been a ton of talk of when CSRs are going to get out of the operation, right? Service Titans working on their own. Um I know there's a ton of good companies out there that are that are doing the AI the customer service.

Service Titan and I will tell you that I think AI needs the assistance of humans and vice versa for the next 18 months to two years and I think it needs to learn from the humans and then we're going to learn from the AI and it's going to be a symbiotic relation. Do you start now though? Do you start your if you're a $10 million shop and you're you know you got 10 five CSRs inside the operation. Do you start doing well the AI will listen to the calls and they'll disposition the calls and they'll start scoring your calls and they'll start they'll start kind of coaching your team. Y uh but I would never I would where AI is right now if we did a quick phone call and you said thank you for calling A1 garage door service and you said hey my garage door spring break how much would it cost and go oh very good what's your address and it's still it's not there yet it's just not there and if you start now people say start nights

and weekends you're still throwing money away have an after hours call center first it's just not there is coming up in a year is going to be so much further so be a little bit patient make sure you pick the right companies I mean you can look at a guy like Sebastian, that dude is on the road. He's got great team. Like he's a go-getter. Like I go I get behind people that are go-getters that are like you. Like I would have never like dude Tom Howard said it was a long shot. He goes, "There's one guy on the planet that could work this out." He goes "Ishmail."

And dude, nobody in the beginning would have bet. I mean, dude, it was a lot. And I gotta tell you, you were like investing in like house cleaning and like sushi bars and then you're like, I'm gonna go all in on this. And dude, you had some like nobody knows this, but you came to my house and you were almost in tears going. You had you've had some things go wrong, which everybody does, and they built you're stronger and that business is going to be worth I mean, you text me and Ara and my all the time and you're so competitive and you're like, who's going to be a billionaire?

And I love that. But you know, here's the deal. I always say, look, how do I what do I do to help me like the people around me the most? And you know, for me, money is just this tool that when we go to Idaho, you got a place out there. Um, when we do stuff like I'm building a pretty big place right now, I got six guys staying with me. You know what I mean? Like you stay with me. You're more than welcome. You left a car at my house for a month. Yep. But but like the idea is I'm not doing this to say look at my house. I'm doing this to say this is a sanctuary of fun and relationships. We're going to work together. I mean, I lived in a thousand square foot apartment for four years. Tom Howard used to go sleep sleep on the couch and whiteboard with me till 11:00 at night and I'd be back out there at 5 in the morning. And I wasn't embarrassed. I had other houses. It's not that the my possessions don't

they're not who I am, but yes, I like nice things. I want to be able to get to a place faster and in comfort. Like it was selfish of me not to have a driver at a certain point. Of course it gave me 12 12 hours a week. Dude, I told you about a driver about a show. You told me about this stuff. You got into great shape. Like you doing certain things definitely have pushed me. Good man. I mean you've been a positive influence and it's a lot. I will say Yano's ringy like Gainer and I became really close. Like that group we've got Hoffman's a genius. Like there's nobody I wouldn't say there's anybody in there that I'm not like that. Like I'm not happy. And I got to say you I didn't know Hoffman. I didn't know Peterman very well. I knew Gainner and just all of a sudden I know you do other groups too, but all of a sudden you threw that together. And the cool thing about it is we give each other everything. Screenshots of what

our revenue is, what our top guys are. If I ever want to talk to somebody's top guy, they'll fly them out here. Yep. We ask for advice on the group. We hold each other accountable. So that's one of the cool things that we built on on and these are friends for life, man. And the deal is is like the problem is we're such big builders. We're so like we're always in the midst of something and plus there's kids coming and like you guys got kids, but we are like I I got this grand idea that like we're going to do some cool stuff. Like you you've done some cool investments with some of these guys already. Yep. Um real quick, I got to run here, brother, but uh talk to me about New a little bit because literally like look, I don't care if anybody uses new. I got behind it because I think it's damn good and I think it's it's the leading tech and I know you're not the guy back there doing the software and

like making all the innovations. You got ideas cuz you understand what it's like to be a business owner that's doing 100 million. So you built Nuvet in a way you you got sick of paying all these companies for marketing and you want to own the customer. So I think there's still a lot of skeptics out there. Yeah. Look, Nuvet was a product a project that was brought to me, you know, three years ago and I've been pouring my heart into it because I I saw a huge huge gap in in our industry taught me where customers have the same the same behavior every time they need an air conditioning just like the way they have the same behavior every time they need a garage door, right? They go to the garage door, they press the button, it sounds weird or it doesn't open, and what do they do? They grab their phone, they go on Google. So, stickers work, but they never really worked for HVAC. thermostat to be locked

out to be able to check the unit before the heat. My business isn't seasonal like yours. It's like the smartest freaking thing in the world. And now I you sent a text message the other day and it was like you're telling them the health of everything, the the the air quality, like the crazy stuff, the innovations you guys are making and like I think you're better than Nest. I think you're better for the contractor. I think that uh this potentially is a multi multi multi-billion dollar company. It is. Then look at some of the innovation that we're working on in there. We brought a a Carfax report for the AC units that we're actually going to be monitoring, you know, repairs.

We're going to be monitoring uh investments into maintenances. We're going to be monitoring usage to the hour to the It said happy Mother's Day the other day, a thermostat. Like, dude, that's super cool. My dad's got one at his house. It just looks so good. It's like so much. It's got the little glow. You could change the colors on it. like anybody that doesn't at least try one out. I just think it's foolish like what for what it does. And the ROI is going to prove itself out to be like like 300% of what they were made and we just hired our first messaging engineer. We just hired our first AI engineer. Like we are developing this product faster than what most products are going to get developed to. People are already buying Echo Bees, Honey Wells, and Google's for $200, $250. Ours is priced around the same same price, but it has so many features like the messaging, like starting the unit for the first time. We were we're

able to start units from all over your your the cities and and and states from your office. We were never able to do that. We're able to monitor. We're able to see if anything's wrong with the unit before it happens. So imagine you're calling your customer telling them, "Hey, we're on our way to fix your unit." And they're like, "What do you mean? Oh, we've noticed that we we've been monitoring it and we know that something's we we need to replace something in it. So, we're going to go out there and we're going to make sure that your units running efficiently or the air the air like we got filters whatever and you know the age like dude you built something for the contractor which is so much better and I just feel like when people really realize what you have there's not a company around you know cuz I'll tell you this you you're rough around the edges you tell people like it is some people don't like that y

but they don't understand the product and they don't understand the value of the long term there's a lot of people that either go all in with you or they're like oh Ishmail and the same thing with me I mean Yesterday, somebody made a post about me. They're like, "I'm so sick of seeing this guy." There was 80 people that said like good things about me, so he took it down. But I'm like, "Look, I always try to stay in between because look, I don't want anybody to try to take down my company because too many employees will get hurt." So, I try to really guard myself with what I'm going to say. You're a lot more outgoing. You're like, "Come on, bring it." Yep. You're like, "I'll I'll take on any fight. You'll go against everybody." I'm just a little more sensitive just because I want to be very sensitive to the people that that I work with. Dude, I'm more I'm more anything that we can do to protect our

contractors. You already know how I feel about them, right? Yeah, you're you're really doing a good job of that, dude. And u what we're going to do, me and you, um we're going to do like you've already got like a best practices group that you like if you're part of new, they get coached every single week by the top players in the industry. That's priceless. It is priceless. Yep. So, uh if somebody wants to get a hold of you, Ishmail, how do they do it? Look, go on newome.com if you want to learn about our product. our products. You know, over 400 contractors have already joined us in the short seven month journey. We got over 10,000 units already active, 15,000 units deployed in our first seven months. We're the fastest growing company out there right now. Um, if you guys go on new home, you guys could learn about the the product. If you guys want to know about the mentoring, newome.com, my social media, Ishmael

Valdez, CEO on Facebook and and uh Instagram. Um, more than happy to help you guys with anything, man. Yeah. And look, I mean, Ishmail, I think he'll get you a unit if you want one. Uh, if you're serious and you're moving it, all my HVAC contractors, I will ship you a unit brand, send it out to you the same day, and you it'll have your logo, have full functionality on it so you could try it. Call us back when you want to place your first order. Yeah, dude. I just think he he's helped so many people. Last thing is, um, we talked about a lot of stuff. I'll let you close this out. Look, man. I'm super h how the one thing that I'm still grateful for is having friends like you, Tommy, having friends like Travis, and all the all these guys that that were still the best the best, dude. Such good people, man.

They're such they're the biggest hearts in the world. It dude, the best part about the group that we have, Tommy, is that nobody's looking for anything from you. Nobody's looking for anything from me or from each other. We're all just looking to help each other win. And that's the best part about the group. So, I I'll I'll I'll leave it off with you guys should be you guys should be looking for that same group that that motivates you to get up that that uh holds you accountable for all your goals and that that actually uh makes you a better person both physically, mentally, and spiritually. So, thank you for having me, Mr. Thanks, man. I appreciate you flying out, dude. You're a busy guy.

All right, let's go, baby.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "From Humble Beginnings to Business Success with Ismael Valdez"?

Tommy (Host), Ismael Valdez (Guest).

What is "From Humble Beginnings to Business Success with Ismael Valdez" about?

Ismael Valdez, founder and CEO of NextGen Air Conditioning, shares his inspiring journey from emigrating to the U.S. with nothing to launching a successful business in the HVAC industry. He discusses his early experiences working in a supply house and highlights the innovative thermostat company, Nuve, that he is currently developing to support and empower home service professionals.

What is mentioned in this Home Service Expert episode?

21 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Ishmael Valdez, NextGen Air Conditioning, A1 Garage Door Service, Service Titan, Nuve, Home Comfort USA. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "From Humble Beginnings to Business Success with Ismael Valdez"?

The episode runs 57 min; the transcript is about 13,134 words in 85 timestamped sections.

More from Home Service Expert

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.