4 Guys Cleared 1.5 Million Dollars in 16 Weeks #money

uh good morning you guys we are at Aquascape and there's baby so Tim said he's been dealing with you for 20 years that's about how long we've been working together that's a long time well welcome to Aqualand nice nice to meet Blaine and Alex for the oh yeah yeah oh I'm sorry Greg Blaine Alex I'm sorry how did the Iguana oh okay whatever that means I don't want a demonstration let's just say that and you don't need to hold your arms out like this when you do it either Blake I got a confession to make to you guys some of the videos I make are to get views because I need you guys to watch my videos so that YouTube can pay me enough so that I can continue to make more videos but the goal of this channel when I originally started was to help you guys break free from the trap The Daily Grind of whatever job you're in that you're not happy that you don't feel satisfied that just isn't fulfilling you you see I love what I do but it's not easy to make a living doing what I do so I look for different ways inside of the green industry that can maybe help some of you guys give get the life that you really want and one of the videos I made a while back was on installing ponds and I went to Aquascape and to this day that's been years ago to this day I get so many guys walking up to me and shaking my hand and saying thank you because they watched that video and then they took the steps to start to go to Aquascape Academy to learn how to install ponds that has absolutely changed their lives it's transformed everything they did I had one guy that was making a hundred thousand dollars a year selling cars and he came up to me and he says I would look out the window and I would see the world going by it and I was scared to try to make that step because I was making so much money he said then I just went for I've realized that my life was not I wasn't going to get my life back so I went I followed your steps and I went to Aquascape Academy I took the training that they offer and he says I have never been happier I now have five guys working for me and I'm making even more money out than I was when I was selling cars and it's that story and stories like that that inspire me to make these videos to help you guys get yours life in the direction that you want to go and that's what I'm going to show you today I'm going to make another video on the Aquascape Academy not because they're paying me because they've never paid me a dime but because you guys walk up and shake my hand and say thank you and that's going to be the goal of this video and if you guys are on the fence and you don't know what to do and you want you just want information you let me know if a video like this helps you out after you're done watching it can I sit up here are these safe anywhere you want to see it okay so for my first 16 years of business everything I touched turned to gold right now do you notice when that shark stops what year 2007. does anybody remember 2008 no or what I just said whatever business it is is going to have this same exact type of a a trajectory or a model um the first stage is Hands-On so the Hands-On stage is where you're actually in the trenches building the pods how many people in here are physically doing the work I'm gonna guess it's the majority of you right you're physically working in the thing that's the majority of businesses in America the second stage is the hardest of the four stages in business the second stage is working with others why is this stage the hardest stage in business where other people are involved because other people involved employees right and you've got to get what's in your mind into somebody else's mind is that a challenge that's a huge challenge okay and the famous phrase that all business owners like to say is if I want it done it right done it done right I should do it myself myself good and you're going to always be in the trenches right and by the way that's okay if that's what you want but but the this is the this is the thing that I ask myself basically ever since I started my business very very soon after my my second year when I had to hire other people to run things I said this is a brilliant question by the way is this the job of a CEO is this the job of the CEO to be building the ponds and my answer to that was no that's a job of a Foreman is this the job of a CEO to be selling ponds and my answer to that was no that's the job of a sales person is this the job of a CEO to be designing and laying out a catalog that's the last job I had here in 2000 and um uh who whose job is that did I answer graphic designer right so I worked my way out of every job in this business to eventually I don't have a job and instead every single day when I get my ass busy doing stuff I'm working on the business and not and I got out of the way of a guy that was right behind me that was a much differently wired guy I gave him a rope and what did Ed do and then he got out of the way and who went right behind that Brian and then Brian gets out of the way and then Chris and then Chris gets out of the way talking on a mic and second your teammate Jack is going to be leading in construction if you do that if you're doing everything yourself now I am not criticizing the people that want to be in the trenches but here's what I figured out very early on I can make so much money with my own two hands I could double it and I use somebody else's hands but you better have systems which is the third part of the business in place if you don't have systems for people to follow then it's going to get picked up and then it's going to come back and then you're going to complain about things and whose fault is it for locking the systems so what's the Aquascape system 20 products 20 steps follow the plan stand when I think water features is how I think Ben and Jerry okay Donald Trump when I think water features I think cookie cutter assembly line how's that sound a custom one-of-a-kind landscape designers and artists cookie cutter assembly line not good right but because I have a systems in place a stat 20 products in 20 steps I can control the end result and every water feature even though it's built the same way with the same products is there any water feature unique work about one-of-a-kind Custom Creation yeah that's a different setting every time even though I use the same three types of rock what types of rocks do I use no one ever gets this right what type of rocks do I use yes but that's not what I'm asking I use good better and best yeah Granite is the good better is weather Limestone best is uh Blue Stone Those are three types I want if a customer says build me a pond out of this type of rock because I got a left over from the project a lot or I dug it up and it was on my property what do I say that's not what we do remember the first rule business give them what they want is it hard to build with different types of rock and make it look good if you never use that kind of wrap before I want by the way when this when I leave this pond it's got to say two things it's got to be the Joneses Pond and it's got to be the Aquascape pod it's got to be ABC landscape slime and if you give the customer what they ask for and they ask you for a five foot high waterfall on a flat backyard and it looks like a volcano spilling lava because it will it's your pond too that's represented and if you're in this business long enough somebody's going to ask you to make water flow off the roof and when it leaks on the kitchen table whose ass is in the sling to fix it don't give a customer what they ask or give them what they want oh and by the way because my guys are trained Jack to your teammate because they're trained in the set methodology what do they spend all their time working on instead of figuring out what size pump what kind of Plumbing what size filters what do they spend their time thinking about the creativity right how to do it because they're going through the motions on the logistics the assembly line cookie cutter process and it opens up their freedom so if you're a Hands-On guy and you adopt systems and you can get employees to work for you and the last part and this is where Aquascape really comes in and while you guys are even here today the last part of the four stages of all business is strategic this next part is one of my favorite Parts Greg goes through industry standards not things that he came up with but what the industry is saying that guys inside the industry are making on an average per hour basis and you're about to see that a pond installer makes up to 253 dollars an hour and all of you guys out there making Tall Grass short are making closer to 26 dollars an hour almost 10 times more per hour and it's not because the pond installers have more skills because they don't they've actually refined and use a system that allows them to just come into place and get everything nailed down almost to the point where where they're not even thinking kind of like when you're cutting grass and you put on your headphones and you listen to a podcast when you're installing a pond you've got a system in place where you're not worried about all the minutia and the details because you've already worked through it and you've now you're now building a pond off muscle memory but I'm going to let Greg actually show you some of those different stats because it's my favorite part of his whole presentation all right let's do that now okay I'll read it to you all right so the four categories are design build commercial maintenance residential maintenance and residential Mason including irrigation so design build commercial maintenance residential and irrigation um of the number of survey customers 326 contractors 479 and 529. they found out for design build it was the highest profit margin of any of the companies it was 51 dollars per man hour it was a couple years old so let's say it's 70 60 70 per minute hour what does design build mean uh full service operation so building building um hardscapes saucecapes and maybe even waterscapes a little bit in there but I'm going to tell you the difference between a waterscape from a contractor that does dabbles in it and a full-time pond building the commercial maintenance as you would imagine is the lowest because it's supply and demand Commodities a few years ago it was 36 bucks per man Hour return on investment okay I'd say it's probably 10 bucks more than that let's say 46 dollars now and then residential maintenance is a little bit higher than commercial maintenance of 40 bucks per man hour that is the average return based on the survey of 326 479 to 529 industry Associates through Planet our industry organization commercial maintenance and residential maintenance is your Mo and blow guys right yep your mobile guys commercial residential and then full service landscape design build firm design builds 51 an hour yep which is commercial maintenance is 36. yep and this is a couple years ago so it might be 60 bucks an hour and residential is 40 and this is based off of what this is based off of a survey of Planet members our industry Trade Organization and what their cost per unit the return out of each man hour is going to be okay that's what this is compare these to our actual numbers three years ago from our construction Department aquascape's custom crew did 241 dollars per man hour our standard installation recruited 262 dollars per man hour all of aquascape's average 246 dollars per man hour and our maintenance Edition did 142. or 152. Which business do you want to be in why is this look at those discrepancies in those numbers look at look at this is the industry this is Aquascape this is what happens when you can get into a niche category here is the problem with landscape contractors that attempt water features they get a call from a consumer and it says I would like a backyard habitat a living area I want a patio some plant material and maybe the sound of water and a typical landscape contractor that does 90 of his work is hardscapes and sawscapes and he dabbles maybe 10 percent in water States will go out to that contract customer and let's say the customer tells them I've got a ten thousand dollar budget and that landscape contractor will design a six thousand dollar patio three thousand dollars in perennial plants and put a thousand dollar pre-form pound that sits in the corner leaks turns green freeze mosquitoes and has all the fish eaten by raccoons and that thousand dollar pre-form tub that sits in the corner leagues turns green freeze mosquitoes and has all the fish eaten by raccoons will cause more hassle for that landscape contractor than the other nine thousand dollars in the Landscaping combined true or false true and then they meet the pond guy at the green industry Expo and they say Pond sucks you can't make money from it and I go oh really what's the difference the difference is every single water feature they build is different they don't follow a set system when they put a patio in they put the screenings down and the papers on top of it when they put a pond in they give a customer a 5.9 waterfall to make waterfall off a roof they give the customer what they ask for instead of what they want a natural water feature and they don't make money with water features and then they look at me as a farm guy and they said you can't make money with water features and I'm like what the hell are you talking about you're not following the plan stand you're not a franchise owner you're not keeping it simple stupid you're giving the customer what they ask for you're not following the system and I get 60 70 people coming to my Academy and the rest of them say I'd rather mow lawn for 40 bucks an hour and I go what the hell is wrong with this it doesn't make sense to me I don't make money comparing what you guys charge but I want you to be successful in business these are the actual numbers I didn't make up these numbers these came from planning this is our actual numbers of our construction crew that's what they do our maintenance crew and by the way does it end there no because here's the big Epiphany how many guys in here are moan blow guys or full-service landscape contractor design build show of hands I'd like to see this okay at least half of you in here are already in this business what this is a huge statement that I'm going to make but go ahead and argue with me bring it I want it water features are the only form of landscape design that cannot stand alone it's the only form you can put a patio in and be done you can put plant material and be done you could put in a uh um uh lighting and be done you put in a water garden you need aquatic plants you need terrestrial plants around it you need a patio next to it you get bit by a mosquito you put in a gazebo now take that same ten thousand dollar budget that that customer gave you that said I want a backyard living area and I want the sound of water and instead of putting in a six thousand dollar patio three thousand dollars in landscaping and a thousand dollar preformed tub that sits in the corner lease turns green Breeze mosquitoes that's all fishing by raccoons you think I've said that a lot a few and take that same ten thousand dollar budget put in a four or five thousand dollar patio three or four thousand dollars in landscaping and watch as that same ten thousand dollar budget becomes fifteen twenty thirty thousand dollars over the next two three or four years as they are outside and they want a gazebo as they want to expand the patio as they want to make the water feature bigger water features are the only form of landscaping that sell future work they can't stand alone I don't do that work I am the pond guy we build pods we build fountains we build palmist waterfalls how did I figure this out that a water feature sold the future work doing it getting calls for referrals on your customers constantly call you back I would stop out at a pod Thousand Dollar Pawn that I put in two or three years ago and I would see twenty thousand dollars of additional Landscaping that wasn't there when I put the pond in because they've expanded the patio because they've added a gazebo because they've added lighting if you take that same ten thousand dollar budget and make the water feature the big part it'll expand the future Revenue because it's the only form of landscaping that can't stand alone okay all of these things are the like what we call the revenue ecosystem hardscapes lighting maintenance our maintenance division does over a million dollars a year an average cleanout that we're doing is nine hundred dollars it takes two guys and a power washer two hours to do four man hours to do a clean out a typical Pond cleanup can you make that kind of money cutting lawns I had an aquarium in my house and I paid more money for the aquarium guy to come service the aquarium every other week than I did for the contractor with four guys to come and mow my four acres of lawn 160 gallon aquarium two one guy and four guys to cut my four acres of lawn the guy it's a niche category so I'm not saying to anybody in here stop Mowing and blowing I'm not saying to anybody in here to stop doing patios and everything else I'm saying when you prioritize water features you sell the need for future work that's how this works okay Greg I want to read your message now it starts we were taught me and this guy were talking about uh boss back blades okay so this is all the text he texts me I'm going with boss because he wanted to know what back blade to buy I'm going with boss thanks man thanks for inspiring me you suggested I go into ponds three years ago I'm going to break 1.5 million this year in business and might not have done it without you wow especially not this fast with zero experience amen well he listened right he was open to learning who is it I don't even know I don't even know I mean he just kind of randomly said they're texting me which is cool I mean I love my you know I love the guys and audience this is why I'm not in Utah skiing right now because they're who knows when someone's going to take and run with it you know right and the greatest satisfaction in life as you know that comes from helping someone else reach their fullest potential so when someone takes the advice and they have success it just reaffirms your philosophies and of course you get more Pride from somebody else's accomplishments than your own I love you guys and I love hearing how you guys were able to create your own success stories a couple things that I think questions may have come up when you were listening to Greg he mentioned franchise he doesn't sell a franchise he has nothing to do with the franchise feed the way Greg's model works is he provides you all of the training he makes sure he then certifies that you're an Aquascape certified contractor meaning that he knows he makes sure that you know how to actually go out and use the systems that he trains you guys to use and then where Greg blue his company up is he developed the products he went through all of the hard work going trying to figure out what kind of pond filter do you need and they didn't sell the pond filters so he built his own pond filters and what kind of tubing and what kind of overflow and what kind of pumps and what's the fastest way to assemble these ponds in a cookie cutter fashion he went through all of that when he was building his company and he built all of these products for himself and then he had this aha moment like Greg tends to do and he's like wait a minute I can make money selling my products to guys but they got to know how to use those products and if I teach the guys how to use those products at the same time I can teach them how to build a business that's really super successful business so he doesn't charge you to become an Aquascape certified contractor he wants you to succeed he wants you to…