Welcome to Close it now, the podcast that's revolutionizing the H Vac and home improvement trades industries.

Get ready to dive deep into the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

We're turning up the heat on industry standards and cooling down misconceptions.

And we're not just talking about fixing vents and adjusting thermostats.

It's about the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H VAC and home improvement.

We're the driving force, inspiring top performers who crave excellence not only in their professional endeavors, but also in fitness, nutrition, relationships, and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement.

Let's get to work now.

Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Well, all right.

Welcome back to Close It Now.

Let's use radio voice for a second.

Chef Wakefield.

Here it is.

Creepy salesman voice on the line.

We're got a no.

Just kidding.

Stop being weird and start selling.

Everybody just have normal conversations with people.

So today I have.

I'm not just stoked and excited like I normally say.

I have one of my oldest friends in this.

In this game since I started coaching and training on the line on the show today.

On the line.

And I am so excited to catch up, to reconnect Josh and I.

This is so.

For everybody that doesn't know, this is Josh Baca.

He is.

He's a total badass for one.

But our story is fun and it bounces around.

We connected originally lost, didn't really lose touch, but just kind of life went different ways.

And the last little bit we've reconnected and I've got.

Actually, before we get into it, I've got one a huge surprise because he was actually on Josh Walker's podcast yesterday.

J Dub, money maker.

What's up, Josh?

What's up, Jason?

Yeah, so this is kind of fun.

So I actually grabbed my cap that I got from Jason when I was in Minneapolis at the at Champions.

So throw on my Masters of the Hustle hat for a minute here and so give you a huge shout out.

Jason got.

Got the hat.

So everybody, if you're watching on YouTube.

Go ahead, shout out J Dub.

Yeah, shout out J Dub.

So Everybody watching on YouTube like, like and subscribe.

But you'll see co branded for a second.

Got my close it now shirt, my Masters of the Hustle hat.

So tip of the hat to you, Jason.

You thank you.

Because you made me realize that as long as I've known Josh, he's never been on the show, which is you know, I apologize for that everybody, because I have kept you from hearing one of the most inspiring stories in the trades and yeah.

So, man, so welcome to the show.

He is.

Let's see, let's give a little bit of details here.

The official intro.

This is his two year anniversary at peak home performance.

If you don't know, that is Weldon Long's company in Colorado Springs and he is the number one guy there.

Congratulations.

Congratulations.

And so that's part of what, what we're going to talk about today.

So thanks for being on the show, man.

Hey, man.

Thank you, Sam.

It is an honor, brother.

And it's, it's always fun, first and foremost and it's always nice to get, get back in touch with you and get to do stuff like this.

We don't do it often enough.

We both realize that.

You hit me up.

You're like, josh, why haven't you been on the show?

I think it was my response, I was incredulous.

I was like, bro, you tell me this man told me, you tell me when and where and I'm gonna be there, bro.

Right?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, I love it, man.

So let's, let's fill everybody in, give everybody a little bit of your, you know, highlight reel.

You know, how long you been in the trades, what, you know, how, how'd your roles progress, you know, across the years and you know, and how'd you get to where you are?

I mean that's, that's a really cool story.

I know you told it yesterday on, you know, a little bit on, on Jason's podcast, but different community, a lot of different people listen.

So love to hear your story again.

And then of course there's a few sections we're going to, to camp out on.

Absolutely.

Well, first and foremost, if for any of your listeners that are familiar with Jason Walker and what he's done in the community, you know, he, Wally, Weldon Long's his mentor as well.

So it's kind of a, it kind of comes full circle.

But I did episode 170 of Masters of the Hustle.

That was the original episode I did with, with JDub and yesterday I was honored to do episode 304.

So first and foremost for, for your listeners, when you guys get a chance, check those two out.

That'll really help you get an in depth catch up on where some of my origin story, if you will.

But for, for those that are with us now today on the, on the badass Close it now with, with, you know, the legendary Sam Wakefield, we'll just say as far as how I got started in the industry, it was a while back here in, in Colorado.

There's a sheet metal union in, in Denver called Local Number nine.

And so there was a five year apprenticeship program that I had originally enrolled in.

And this is back, you know, before people were using CAD machines, so we were doing hand layout.

We were old school tenors, so we were hand layout using the Pythagorean theorem and theory and parallel line development, radial line development.

So we were creating these big fittings for commercial buildings.

So you would get placed with a, with a commercial outfit, you know, Southland Industries, RK Mechanical, one of these big outfits.

And then, you know, we were doing big downtown Denver high rises.

So that's how I kind of cut my teeth in the industry.

Was on the, on the tenon side of it.

Sure.

And then I transitioned four arms for days, right?

Yeah, yeah, man, this is.

You were really grinding back then.

You're with a lot of old school union guys.

So it was an interesting introduction and baptism by fire, if you will.

I eventually transitioned to residential H vac.

So shout out to this trade and this industry.

It completely saved my life, literally.

And I, I owe it.

I owe it everything I got and I love it.

And so then, and then just started building from.

From there.

Did take about a 10 year hiatus out of the trade in between that time and then got back into it in 2016.

And then I think you and I met a few years after that.

Yeah, we met in 2019 would have been.

Yeah, so April of 2019 is when the first closing out podcast went up.

And it wasn't very long after that.

I think we originally connected.

Yeah, Good, good friend of mine, Kyle Nelson, Shout out Kyle.

He was like, man, have you heard of Sam Wakefield?

And I'm like, nah.

He's like, man, you got to check them out.

That's exactly what I did.

I started listening to your.

Started listening to you.

And then I finally reached out just because I was wanting to break in to the sales side of it.

I was just struggling, man.

Didn't have a solid process or I don't know what.

I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

So he didn't even know what you didn't know at that time?

I was drowning and the life preserver was Sam Wakefield.

So I was holding on and clutching on.

And so when I finally got a chance to talk to you, I was like, brother, I need help.

And you were like, you've come to the right place.

Me, man, with open Arms.

And I will forever be grateful and.

And loyal to that.

So I think I.

I reached back out to you shortly thereafter and I'm like, dude, your help is working.

Yeah.

I'm implementing.

Was so laid back.

It was so customer centric.

It was, it was just so.

I hesitate to use the word gentle.

It was, it was firm, but it.

In its tone and tenor, it was gentle.

It was, it was the.

It was that embodiment, you know, that.

That cadence that you embody, that, that Sam Wakefield just laid back, you know, helpful, informative.

It's not rah rah, you know.

Exactly.

It's real digestible.

So it was easy for a guy like me that was reaching and treading water and reaching for help.

It was easy for a guy like me to hold on to it and, and then implement.

It was a.

It was a really nice.

And so that I say all that to say anybody new to the industry, new to the trade, that's.

That's might be struggling or, you know, trying to figure out some stuff.

Sam's a good guy to get started with.

A thousand percent.

I appreciate that, man.

This is not scripted.

Everybody appreciate it.

Send me my money now.

Because you told me to say no.

I'm just kidding.

That's.

That's real spit.

Anybody that knows me knows anything I say is.

It's fresh off the top of the dome.

And you know, it's.

It's coming from the heart.

Yeah.

Those that know me is, is you're going to get stuff pretty blunt and coming straight, straight off out the heart.

Word.

That's the only way to be, man.

Authenticity.

You can't.

You cannot fake it.

You cannot fake the authentic, Authentic, authentic approach.

Right.

Just when you speak from the heart, I mean, it cuts through all the white noise.

Right?

100, man.

100.

And.

And clients that we serve know that other fellow tradesmen know that other, other in home sales professionals.

We know that we're.

We're all humans first before we get into the trade.

So you.

You can feel that because it's an energy thing and authenticity is.

It's.

It's something you can't purchase.

You can't buy it off of Amazon.

They're not going to deliver it to your home either.

Right.

Got it.

Or you don't.

Yeah.

And you and I instantly connected based on that foundation of authenticity.

I was like, I came to you, open arms and vulnerable, talking about my weaknesses, say, hey, about to get canned here.

Like I'm.

You got anything to con?

How can you help me?

I'm a Good friend of mine, Kyle, spoke on you.

Is this true?

Can you.

And you were like, yeah, you came to the right place.

And I was like, well, we'll see.

And you were right.

I reached back out and I'm like, damn, bro, that stuff works, right?

Oh, that's funny.

So this is cool, because if you've listened to a lot of the episodes, everybody.

So Josh that I talk about, this is his story.

We're reliving it.

And he reached.

It was funny.

We were kind of catching up on this before this episode.

And I remember the exact place in Austin that I was at the time, because I remember this very specific overpass that I was sitting at a stoplight, looking at this overpass, when my phone rings.

And I'm like, who is this guy?

And it's totally what he said.

He's like, man, you got to help me.

I'm about to.

They're about to can me because my numbers are so bad.

It was the lowest on the totem pole.

And yeah, man, it's what, three months later, he's texting me and be like, dude, look, check it out.

I won the number one for the week.

Yeah.

Big, big breakthrough.

I was so excited and just enthusiastic to implement some.

I'm like, damn, dude.

Sam knows what the hell he's talking about.

So that was your journey as a.

Selling tech at.

At your first company up in Denver.

And so.

And then, of course, you were there for, you know, a couple more years past that.

Yeah.

And so then you had a cool transition out of selling tech into what you're doing now, Right?

Correct.

Yeah.

Design consultant.

Which is.

And I'll never forget, too, I remember I was working for a company in Centennial, Colorado.

I was a.

A new green technician.

Barely had my Nate certifications, you know, just super green.

And I'm chilling with a good friend of mine that I met there.

He's still, to this day a good friend of mine.

Shout out, Vincent.

And shout out, you know, Coolerado, he opened up his own little company.

So shout out to Vincent.

And I looked over at Vincent.

I see these comfort advisors walking in.

And now, mind you, this was a bigger company, so we'd have meetings in the morning with the company, wide meetings.

And lo and behold, about an hour into the meeting, you'd see these comfort advisors come strolling in wearing their chinos and drinking, sipping on their coffee.

And they had their nice little quarter zip polos on, just looking like they didn't have a care in the world, right?

Just sipping on these Starbucks.

And I told Vincent.

I'm like, hey, who, who are these cats?

Those are the comfort advisors, right?

They.

Oh, these.

They make big bank whoopy woo.

And I'm like, really?

I'm like.

And I said to myself, and what, what do these dudes got that we don't got, right?

Besides, they seem like they had everything, right.

Sure.

I'm like, nah.

I told Vincent.

I'm like, bro, that could, that could be.

These are just men, just like us.

They bleed just like us.

And I think I'm built to do that.

I want to do that.

Good luck, you know?

And I tried breaking through for a long time to get into that, and it just.

I.

But I never gave up on that journey.

I kept knocking.

Finally I had to kick the door in and get in.

And once I got in, be careful what you wish for, people, because it'll.

It'll.

It'll spit you up, man.

It'll chew you and spit you up, man.

Just so.

But I, I got in.

But if you could persevere, it can turn out to be some of the best.

The best thing you can ever do.

Oh, 100%.

I love, love hearing this part of the story because that's the.

In fact, I'd love to camp out there a little bit because there's a lot of people that listen that are either, you know, it could be in several different places in their journey.

They could be that selling tech that's like, oh, they're seeing the, you know, the, the advisors come in and like, oh my gosh, what do they have that we don't have?

Right.

And.

Or they could be working on that transition, or they could be, you know, getting.

Or maybe they started at that advisor role or project manager role, and they're like, whoa, this is a whole different animal than what we thought it was going to be.

So couple questions along the way.

Where was your mind?

So I love that you had the concept that, well, they're just.

They bleed like we do.

Right.

Everybody puts their pants on the same.

But the difference, of course, was, you know, where I want to go with this.

Where did your.

What did it take for you to.

One to step into that role and mentally.

Right.

So what did you have to do internally to recognize that one?

You already had an idea that, well, if they can do it, I can do it.

But what did you have to work on along the way to actually prepare yourself for the skills to get there?

Wow, that is such an amazing question.

So for me to answer that, I'd say for me, originally, I was just Enamored.

Enamored or taken back just by the fact that, you know, here I am grinding it out as a tech, putting in this work, you know, blood, sweat and tears and trying to learn this trade.

And, and it's not, it's not, it's not glamorous and, but it's, it's righteous.

It's not glamorous, but it's lucrative.

But you really gotta grind and grind it out.

But there's so many layers to H Vac, so I starting to see different layers.

You got tune up technicians, right?

You got, you got CSRs up in the office, you have advanced techs, you have boiler technicians, you have selling texts, then you have comfort advisors, design consultants, owners.

Just all these layers.

So in the trade, you gotta do what I did and ask yourself, okay, with the skills that I have or the skills that I want to acquire, I might not even know what it's going to take.

But what's going to be my lane in the trade?

What's going to be the best fit?

How can I best serve this industry?

And in turn, the industry is going to serve you and your, your dreams and wishes.

Well, I knew immediately that my role, even though I, I loved being in the field, I love doing installs, I love working with tools, I love brazing in line sets, I love sheet metal fabrication, I love doing.

But I knew, nah, homie, I'm, I'm, I was built to be a design consultant.

I was built for sales.

Now you could, if you asked me, how do you know that?

I'd have been like, I don't know, these dudes are, I see these dudes driving Porsches and they got these wives.

I know that that needs to be me.

Whoopty Woo.

I was seeing the distraction, the glitz and the glamour, right?

The fame.

These guys are rock stars, right?

Somebody once said your, your salesmen are the, are the extreme athletes of the business world.

And they always, always stuck with me because you got athletes out there, but then you got X Games, right?

Yeah.

The dudes that are the, the straight up badasses, these are the studs.

These are dudes creating flips and doing tricks that no one, oh, that's, he's never going to land that.

And this does all this and then lands it and you're like, that's why he's an X game gold medal stud.

So I was always drawn toward, okay, I don't want to be regular schmegular.

This is just my vernacular.

My.

Not that anybody is.

I just in my own Mind, I was like, you know, I'm destined for greatness.

I just had all kinds of ambition.

They call it being full of piss and vinegar.

I just have any skill set or mindset to back it up.

So the transition was brutal.

Just.

So don't do what I did.

Learn from guys like me, like Sam.

That's why we got you on the show, to, like, cover your mistakes so people don't have to make the same ones along the way.

We can, like, start on the backs of giants, right?

Get with guys like Sam and Jason Walker and Weldon Long that have been there, learn from them.

Me, I just went in full blast, just taking all the damage that comes with it, and then reached out to Sam, like, dude, I'm drowning.

You know, like, save me.

Like, you know, but you don't have to do that.

If you, you can just.

If this is where you want to be, you can be there.

Reach out to Sam, man.

Spend the money, invest.

Get involved in the training and learn it right?

And save yourself some.

Some blood, sweat and tears.

But either way, you do it.

Just.

Just do it.

You know, you gotta so.

And thanks.

And it's so true.

When you hire a coach, it compresses time, you know, can somebody get there on their own?

Absolutely.

You know, and I'm happy to give them the, you know, probably, I don't know, five, six hundred, a thousand books that I've read to get there and, you know, 15 years of conferences and conventions and speakers and coaches that I've hired and the hunt.

Literal hundreds of, you know, if you, if you think on, you know, on average, it's a recipe for Success.

Everybody.

Invest 10% of your income into your own personal growth every year, and you will not stay the same.

Your income will not stay where it's at.

It will only go up.

So, you know, put together 19 years of that at six figures a year.

We've got a lot invested.

Or you can compress time and just, hey, what mistakes did you make that I can, you know, I can learn from?

But, so this episode's about you, though.

Let's, let's.

Let's take it along.

Continue the path here a little bit.

So you're, you're begin crushing it as a selling tech.

You're doing the thing, but you got your site set on that.

You know, I call it project manager, you call it the design, you know, design specialist.

All the.

It's all the same thing.

It's like different names.

Right?

But so how did you make that transition?

Because that's a really cool jump when you went from.

Because there's a lot of people around the country that would give their eye teeth to get the opportunity to work at a company that somebody like Weldon Long owns and does training in, in his own company.

Of course it's going to be successful.

It's his own company.

So how did that transition happen?

And then tell us about your journey there.

Because, I mean, we talked a little while back and, you know, you were still on the climb, huh?

Yeah.

So that transition was, for me, it was brutal.

But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

It was not easy.

I started voicing my.

And declaring my intentions early.

So I would go into the general manager's office.

I say, hey, sir, I know I'm just, you know, tune up technician, but I've sold more maintenance plans than any other tune up tech or you guys introduced this new water purification out of the entire company.

First day out, out of all the departments, first guy to sell one, right?

So I'm trying to show my initiative.

Oh, he hands me, he goes, okay, what are you trying to do?

I.

I said, man, I want to be one of these guys.

I wanna.

I wanna be part of your sales force one of your.

I wanna be your top sales guy, okay?

And from his perspective, probably hears that quite a bit.

So be prepared for that.

These guys, that.

And not everybody.

Not everybody's cut out for that, right?

They see the glitz and the glamour.

They don't see the hard work that goes into it.

And I do mean hard work.

As you mentioned, hours and out, right?

You're dedicating so much of your life, you don't see that, right?

So he hands me this case full of DVDs, and it's this.

This bulletproof sales process by a guy named Weldon Long.

No.

Nice.

And so I'm watching this.

How long.

This is DVDs, right?

So I'm working all day, running my calls, and all night for weeks on end.

I'm watching these DVDs day in, day out.

So I come back to the general manager and I'm like, I'm ready.

He's like, ready for what?

I'm like, man, I'm.

Put me in, coach.

Learn the process.

I'm good.

I've studied this.

I could.

I'm ready.

I'm ready to get in.

Let me show you what I got.

And he goes, okay, cool.

Go down the hall, talk to this guy.

He's the head of our sales.

And I was like, what?

So I'm starting to realize they're not just handing these spots out.

Now I got to go talk to this sales manager guy.

The gate.

This guy.

And this guy was keeping.

He was the gatekeeper.

And I walk into his office, and I'm like, hey, talk to the general manager.

He put me on game.

I started just putting in the work.

I've been living and breathing this.

I'm ready to show you what I got.

And the guy looks me up and down, right?

He knew of me, but he didn't know who I was.

And he says, you know, Josh, I just don't see it.

Wow.

I.

I didn't even know.

Gut punch, right?

Gut punch, bro.

I'm like, you don't see it?

I.

You haven't even put me in for a play.

I'm all still on the bench, technically, once you put me in.

And then tell me if you don't say, how.

How could you?

How could you say.

And I was just like.

I took it personal.

I shouldn't have done that.

But I was like, oh, okay.

You don't see it.

Yeah, I just.

I just don't see it.

Then I realized, okay, this is gonna be harder than I thought, you know?

So I had to revise my tactic from there and exactly what I did.

And that's why I realized, boy, this.

You gotta really.

Not only do you have to want it and have the drive and the initiative and be able to articulate and declare that, you got to know there's more to this.

There's more.

There's different components.

Now.

You got to find a way to convince others.

So I'm saying to myself, he won't let me in sales because I'm not selling myself.

I don't even know how to sell myself.

So then it dawned on me.

I don't know jack about sales, right?

DVDs, and this dude's a monster.

But I don't.

When it comes to doing it in real life with another person, I had nothing.

I had no comeback for that.

I had no rebuttals.

He was probably testing me to see, okay, well, sell yourself.

And I.

I had nothing.

So that's when it dawned on me like, oh, this is real.

This is real.

This isn't just, you know, it's not just a game.

It is a game, but it's not an easy one.

It's easy.

Everybody do it, right?

Right?

Let's camp out there a second, because I love this.

There's a couple things I want to highlight here before we continue.

One is, you know, and you were exactly right.

Anybody that I'VE ever hired for my teams, we would always narrow it down to the top few.

And then the ones that I really wanted, I'd tell them, you know, I just don't think it's going to be a fit because I wanted to see how they're going to one, what type of conversation is going to happen after that and two, I wanted to see how they're going to do with follow up because if they won't follow up on their own application to me, then they're not following up to my client.

So you're 100% right.

This is the test.

So everybody that's out there, will you that first know when you're trying to, you know when you're wanting to get into the cells.

It's, it could very well be what's happening.

Let's, let's see.

Like the.

We'll see.

Prove it.

Right.

So big question though, because there's a major.

Now that you've lived both worlds, you've been the selling technician and you've been the advisor.

Let's.

This is something that I don't hear anyone really talk about.

Let's talk about the difference in how, how not necessarily how easy it is to sell, but how the homeowner perceives you and receives information as a technician versus how they perceive you and receive information in the advisor role.

Because it's very different animals.

You can be a great selling tech and sometimes just bomb as an advisor or sometimes and vice versa.

Or sometimes we can use it to grow because it's almost like the minor leagues because of the level of trust and rapport there.

So unpack that a little bit because you've lived through both places.

Let's talk about like some of the differences there and what we have to do in both roles to be successful because it's different.

No, you're absolutely right.

You hit the nail on the head with that.

The skill set doesn't automatically translate from selling technician to in home, project manager, sales advice, you know, comfort, advisor, design consent, whatever you want to call it, they don't translate immediately.

So if you make the rookie mistake that I made and felt like, hey, for, you know, a technician based role, man, I'm crushing it.

I'm getting some success in sales and I'm not even in a full sales role.

That just must mean I'm, I'm a salesman.

So put me in.

No, that was, I was a green rookie mistake that I didn't even know I was making.

And so when you are a technician or a selling tech There's a bit the way you're received by homeowners.

It's, there's a bit you're, you're, you're looked at.

Your credibility is almost interwoven immediately because you're there as an expert for one.

But when you go into a full on design consultant role and you're running marketed leads, you might just be, you know, this isn't a homeowner that has been using your company, having a, having a maintenance agreement with this company, having a relationship with this company that's seen tech after tech year after year from this company.

There, there's some built in trust and comfortability in there.

You have a relationship with that client and it's, and it's, you're more of a trusted advisor as a technician because they know about you.

Now I'm arriving at somebody's door that has never met me in life.

They don't know where I came from, my background or anything.

And in an hour and a half later they're going to be signing over checks of upwards of $98,000, sometimes 45,000, 32,000, 15,004, whatever it may be.

How does, how do you bridge that gap?

Right now you better be bringing tons.

Megatons.

Yeah, it's like blind date to marriage proposal in four in an hour and a half.

How do we get there versus years of building relationships sometimes.

Right?

Exactly.

And so that's the difference between when you're little, taking your BMX bike and jumping over a five foot ditch versus now you're on a Kawasaki trying to clear the Grand Canyon.

That's a great analogy, man.

I like it.

You better know.

What the hell?

Consider that one R and duplicate Robin.

Duplicated.

I'm probably gonna say that again.

R D, baby.

Yeah, you can have that one.

That one just came.

I told you, I freestyle.

That came off the top of that.

I've never even said that in my life.

I love it.

To me that is because that's a real analogy.

You know, I was a BMX kid in the 80s, I'd be jumping now.

I'm looking over this chasm which is the Grand Canyon and it dawned on me like, oh, hey, hey player.

There's levels to this.

Oh yeah, you're definitely going to be going from the minor leagues.

You know, you got E1 team and then you have straight up the pros.

And the pros.

These dudes are accomplished.

These dudes are, you know, so you got to find dudes that are going to embrace you and you got to be somebody Worth embracing, but you're just not going to step in and get an overnight sensation.

At least it didn't happen for me that way.

Yeah, it all is directly related to the work and the attention to detail and all the things we put into it right along the way.

So for everybody listening, I'm throwing this out there.

This is a total side note I'm working on.

I found my new filler word with my crutch word, which is right at the end of sentences.

So call me out on it if I.

If you hear me say right again, because I've made a commitment to eradicate that from my language.

So quick lesson for everyone.

If you recognize that you have a crutch word, eliminate it from your vocabulary, because it only becomes distracting to the people you're trying to communicate to.

I got a good way to eliminate that.

I had a buddy that he.

His crutch was more of a phrase.

He would always say, you know what I mean?

After everything he said.

So he would be like, yeah, man, we're gonna.

We're gonna slide down to this party.

You know what I mean?

And then when we go there, if we do meet these chicks.

You know what I mean?

What we'll probably do, you know what I mean?

And I pointed out to him, I'm like, hey, bro, you keep saying, do you know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

He goes, I am.

I go, yeah, after everything you say?

He had a brilliant response.

He goes, well, if you want me to get.

Stop saying that, just tell me after.

Every time I say that, just say, yeah, I do now.

And so he'd say, hey, man, we're about to leave this party.

You know what I mean?

And I go, yeah, I do now.

And he was like, why are you saying that?

I go, because you asked me, do you know what I mean?

I do now.

So I was.

So what do you want me to say?

Every time you say, right, same thing will work.

I'll say.

I'll say, hey, you are right.

You are right.

There you go.

Nailed it.

That'll get you rid of that crutch in a heartbeat.

Watch.

Oh, I love this.

I love this so much.

This is good.

Because talk about real world lessons here.

And I'm living proof, man, when you choose to be a lifelong learner and you choose to always be a student, you can learn from anyone, anywhere, anytime.

And that's what keeps us driving forward, is.

Keeps us growing.

And that's crucial, especially in this conversation.

It's really great how it applies, because part of What I'm hearing from you is you can't just get there and then you've arrived.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Even though as bad as we want that with the.

With the passion and soul in our hearts, man, you can't.

You got to put in the work.

Even in these podcasts and this, These.

These.

These glimpses of national attention.

I mean, don't get it twisted, audience.

I'm speaking directly to you right now.

Nine out of ten times, I am exhausted.

On my third call of the day, I'm up in an attic, just smothered in insulation, sizing out that attic.

How many square feet of insulation?

I've been on a call three or four hours.

I've been running since early in the morning.

Sales meeting, call, call, call.

And I'm two hours away from home, and I just stepped on a nail, you know?

And none of that matters, man.

I have a homeowner here.

It's got a massive solution that they need answers for, and they're looking to me as an expert.

They've invited me into their home.

Why are they going to choose me over four or five different contractors and sign on the dotted line for a $52,000 home h vac project?

Why?

Because it's all about the work.

That I'm up and I'm not scared to get down.

And this isn't me.

All day, all day long, I'm usually mess, dirt on my shoulders.

I'm in crawl spaces.

I got spiders crawling on my neck, you know, And I'm like, why am I doing this?

It is not glamorous, but.

But people don't see that.

They.

They see the planes and the vacations and the cars and.

And, you know, and.

Which is fine, but don't get it twisted.

It is truly about the work.

And.

And you.

You'll realize that just like I realize that.

And so it's going to weed out those that are scared to do the work.

Right?

If you're scared to be in those trenches, then you're not going to achieve that level of success, you know?

And that's one thing about me.

I'm not scared.

I've had installers call me out.

Yeah, you sold this job, bro.

We can't get the line set out the way you recommended it.

We'll do.

Oh, yeah, okay.

I'm so sorry.

Let me see.

You're at this address.

Yeah, we're here.

We're going to take a smoke break because.

Yeah, you don't.

I don't think you know what you're doing okay.

All right, I'll call you back.

Boom.

I show up to the job site.

I'm right there.

I'm like, hold up.

Let's get down there.

Show me.

Show me where you were talking about where we couldn't run this line set.

Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about.

You sold this, but this can't be done.

And then I just start banging out the line set.

Yeah, and then you do it exactly as you described.

Homeowner comes out and sees this dude polo'd up fresh to death with a tool belt on and making it work.

And now you got two installers with a sitting there with a cigarette in their mouth going, oh, damn.

The sales guy just.

He just ran the line set.

So it really.

The respect is going to come from, you know, really, really putting in the work and really doing it, Not.

Not.

Not talking about it.

We talk on these podcasts and we talk in the industry.

We're trying to encourage people.

But at the end of the day, man, you got to ask yourself, are you a real grinder?

Are you a guy that's gonna.

Because now if you are, okay, you're built for this because that means you have fortitude, intestinal fortitude.

You got consistency.

You still keep getting up and failures and pain don't discourage you.

Okay?

So now guys like Sam are gonna say, okay, yeah, you want to be in sales.

You shown some sales acumen, some.

A little bit of articulation.

You got some emotional intelligence going on.

That's great, but deep, man, do you got that.

Do you got the mental fortitude?

Do you have guts?

You got the cojones.

That's.

That's that next level.

Can you follow up with me?

Are you going to say, hey, man, you know, and that.

That's a big component of it, too.

Now, if you got all that, then get ready.

Your life's about to change, and you're here now.

If you don't, that's when you want to reach out to guys like me or Sam or Jason or Wally.

Then, you know, just titans in the industry.

Not.

Not that I'm a titan in the industry.

I'm saying these guys are my mentors.

These are guys that I reached out to, and they.

They help to refine that skill set, calm down the ambition, and I'll outwork everybody.

Okay, I see that you're active.

You're fully active.

I get that.

Now we got to start working with the.

The brain.

And I can assure you this.

That's a much harder.

That's a different level of stress.

That's why I tip my hat so much to you Sam, and guys like you because it does look glamorous.

And people are like, oh dude, you're just flying around this country in your polo clothes it now shirts and man, you ain't but bro, get it, don't get it twisted folks.

That's a mind every bit as it's a grind when we're and some days I'd rather be in, in the crawl space being the hero for the homeowner that doesn't have to deal with the mental side of this and and just is dealing with my own battles sometimes that's those days.

Now that I look back on it.

Sometimes those days are there's more job satisfaction in those days than there is here.

You got clients that'll tell you point blank, just, you know, they'll treat you like dirt.

You got to let it roll off your back and hit that next call and still execute on a high level.

Right, right.

That's what we're talking about.

Thank you for going through that.

So much of that too.

But, and you're exactly right.

The mindset is everything.

It's our belief system about ourself.

Do we think we're able or not?

Yes.

And you're right.

Grind culture is one.

We have to have an insane work ethic.

And you're right.

When I'm training, people don't understand.

They're like all you do is fly around and talk to people.

Okay, so I'm in the gym at 5:30, I'm preparing myself.

I get there, we, we coach from, you know, we're in the classroom 8 to 8 to 12.

And it's not just saying the stuff, you know, it's holding the container of the room and making sure everyone is understanding along the way.

And then we'll go straight into ride alongs until, you know, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 at night I'm in the crawl space with people.

I'm in the attic with people.

I'm in the basement with people.

We're sitting at the kitchen table, you know, working it out with the homeowners.

And then I'm usually going back to the hotel for, you know, two to three hours to develop what we're going to work on the next.

I have the plan but what we content created that day.

Now I'm going to put it into documents for the team to have the next day to be able to practice with.

And so there's a level to this as we grow, there's levels Right.

There's the.

There's the right.

Got to.

No more.

Yes, you are right.

Yes, I'm right.

That's the third one since we had the conversation.

I've been counting myself.

So for everybody listening, this is how you do it though.

You make very conscious awareness.

And once you're aware, you have to intentionally unsubscribe from your awareness to not force change in your own life.

So quick side note on the filler word and how you correct it.

I love this.

This is cool because we're like actively working on things while we're discussing other things.

But in that levels of the growth.

Right the next.

You are right.

Yes, I am right.

In the levels of growth along the way, we realize we have more capability inside of us than we ever thought possible.

Because each next level requires something new and different and more of us that we didn't expect.

But once you get there and it becomes your routine, it becomes your habit, you realize, oh, maybe I do have more inside of me.

And so talk to us a little bit about that because you've gone, I know we've known each other long enough and I know your story.

You've gone through that transition into these different steps.

But talk about it like that.

Tell us what was it like when you.

So you've been this role now with peak home performance for two years, two year anniversary.

Tell us about that two year journey though.

Yeah, include the.

So the couple things we want to know, tell if you're comfortable with it, share some of your numbers along the way and where your mindset was along the way of like, okay, what do I need to work on next?

What am I working on next?

When did it go from, man, this is a constant, daily, really hard struggle to the place of, okay, I'm starting to get the hang of this now.

I'm embracing it as this is who I am.

And I know now that I don't just have an idea that I'm good at this.

And because I'm working on it now, I know what level of performer I am because that's the place that everybody wants to get to and doesn't quite recognize it a lot of times.

Yeah, and that's such a good question.

And there's so many layers to that question.

It's a, it's an advanced question.

So I'm just being diligent with my answers here.

It's.

It a lot of times is going to come down to, you know, metrics and I know this is going to sound, try cliche, passe, whatever you want to say, but this is why we track so many our numbers.

This is why we write down goals.

So let me.

Let me show you something here if I can find it.

I'm in my office.

But what you'll see here.

So when I got.

When I got to peak, I.

I was excited because now I get a chance to work alongside and with a good friend of mine first and foremost, but also probably one of the biggest mentors to me, which is Weldon Long.

And, you know, and.

And I had been watching Weldon and Drew and Gary for a long time.

Haven't met Mr.

Alex yet, but I've been honored enough to spend some time with Drew Cameron.

Love that dude.

So if he's listening, shout out Drew Cameron.

But.

So I'm excited to go over there now.

Wally is.

He's.

Man, he's ornery.

He.

He propped me up so much, we.

So we met prior to me fully stepping foot on.

On peak soil.

And he's like.

He was flying out somewhere.

He's like, meet me at the hotel.

Let's chat.

And I'm like, all right, I'm there.

So we meet up, and he's like, man.

So we sit down and we're talking.

Like, you and I, we're just kind of riffing, talking.

And he's.

He's like, man, I'm excited.

You are going to be the spark plug that this team needs.

So he kind of went into the team, what he's trying to do with the company now.

I'm starting to feel a little like, dang, man, Wally, a thousand percent, like, believes in me, which he should.

But still, it's.

It's intimidating when somebody, you know, that's been around as long as he.

That has a wealth of knowledge that he has is 100.

He's like, yeah, you know, telling you to your face, you're gonna do this.

This is exactly what we needed.

I'm so glad to have you.

I can't believe, like, you're coming over to be with me.

And I'm just like, really?

I can't believe I'm sitting here with you.

So it was a bit intimidating at first, but.

So he.

But what I didn't see on his end of it is what he's telling the team.

And he's like, look, we're.

I got my eyes set on a guy from Denver.

I've been talking to him for a while.

I've seen some of his numbers.

He's going to come in and revolutionize this team.

And, you know, I don't want to put words in his mouth.

He may not have said it in verbatim, but in, in its essence, this is basically the crux or the gist of it.

And so he's saying all this.

So then I get, I get to the company and I have.

I was starting to hit my stride.

I wouldn't, you know, you know, I'm not one of these dudes that you see across the nation that just has extraordinary numbers.

Right.

I'm in a market to where I'm running marketed leads in the state of Colorado.

We have certain climate.

We have four seasons.

We have certain climates.

So we're working within those parameters.

Like you, You've got to work within the parameters that you're.

You're given.

And I'm a, I'm, I'm a Denver native, so I'm working with Colorado Climate, and it's got its own climate.

We're primarily a heating state.

You know, we do have our summer season, but we're not Las Vegas.

You know, it's not 105.

Urgency isn't out the roof for us.

Exactly.

We gotta get.

And no disrespect to any, you know, any of the tech there, Brent Buckley or any of those guys, you know, I'm not taking nothing away from them.

I'm just saying we don't have that here.

We gotta, we gotta get down and straight up show the value and we gotta, we gotta sell.

Absolutely.

And so, and you know, and I know those guys just hung out with them and they'll tell you the same thing.

They'll sell everybody.

Like, listen, we know not everyone can do our numbers, not because they're not capable, but because we just happen to be in the perfect market.

Completely different company model.

All of these things that just happen to line up to have a position that's like the perfect sales unicorn.

So getting to know them and hearing that from them was, was exciting and reassuring because it's what we have always known.

But they said, don't let that ruin someone else's viewpoint of what success looks like.

Well said.

If Brett, if, if Brent Buckley said that, well said to him, and it's so good to hear him say that.

But, yeah, so those things can play on you.

But.

So I'm in this state, I'm starting to my stride, I'm starting to, you know, you giving me some tools, I started implementing, so I.

Starting to see some semblance of success on certain levels.

You know, small wins are starting to stack.

Confidence is starting to grow.

Starting to wrap my Head around the technology and the interpersonal skill set that you're going to need to be successful in this trade.

But now I get a chance to transition to a different beast.

You know, this is Weldon Long's company here in Colorado.

And the journey for me, getting to him, getting on his radar, that's a whole nother story.

That's why I encourage you to listen to these other episodes on, on Jason Walker's podcast, because you'll get that backstory.

But the sake of time here.

So now I'm transitioning in.

So I arrive at his company and.

And people are like rolling out the red carpet and they're.

And, but they're like.

And we want to hear what you got to say, man.

Like, I'm somewhere.

Or is this guy.

Yeah, who is this guy?

And I'm like, oh, dear Lord.

And so I'm feeling pressure now.

You're going to, you're either going to buckle or you're going to rise to the occasion and be what you're destined to be.

And I was faced with that reality.

Sure.

He just threw you right in the pressure cooker, right?

You're in the pressure cooker.

Now.

I'm driving from Lone Tree, Colorado, clear down to Colorado Springs every day meetings we're building.

And mind you, we're in the process of acquiring another local company in town that was selling.

And so we're paying off a ton of their debt and onboarding 40 new employees and then moving to a different location and all that that entails and handling it what appeared to look like from the outside, looking in flawlessly.

And that's what we wanted it to look like because we were putting in that work.

So.

But there's a lot going on and in the midst of this, I'm having to learn everything new at a new company.

Two different lineups of as far as equipment.

So there was pressure.

So you, you're either going to respond to pressure when you get pressed or buckle.

Cuz I was getting pressed and I applied pressure back.

And it all starts with numbers and metrics.

And I'll just give this an example.

I had never broke 3 million in sales.

Man, that was a big number for me to try to break and I was determined to try to get, get to that.

But every single day I'd be writing down my goals on a daily basis.

I knew that I love this.

And I have every day, just over and over that I'm gonna hit like you.

Every single day.

I would sit there and ph, write it out and write it Out.

So for everybody that's just listening, Josh is showing me his page where it's written over and over and over what these goals are.

Do you.

Are you comfortable sharing what you wrote on there?

Yeah.

So, for instance, this was.

This was 116 of 2024.

I wrote 3,000,117, 2024, 3 mil.

Just writing it out on a daily basis, staring at it, and being similarly focused on a goal.

Now, now I got to make that translate.

Okay, so what do I need to do to achieve that?

That's.

Writing it down is one thing.

What does that look like on a daily basis?

So one thing that Wally would always teach me is what are some habits consistent and in alignment that affinitize with my goals?

Right.

Well, what's something that somebody that had never hit 3 million in our market in Denver, Colorado, as a fairly still relatively new design consultant, what's something that he's got to do to.

To achieve 3 million?

Well, you know, how.

How are you treating your clients?

More importantly, how are you treating your co workers?

Right?

Are you coachable?

Are you approachable?

And more importantly, how are you behaving and acting when nobody's looking?

That's a big one.

That's.

That's a big one also, too.

You know, how are you not only now absorbing new information and at what rate are you absorbing it and are you willing to absorb, but how are you now implementing that?

And this is a big one, too.

How are you executing on high, elite levels when, man, you're.

When you just ain't feeling it, Right?

Maybe you got into it a little bit with your wife, right?

Maybe.

Oh, now I'm saying.

Right.

Okay, so, yes, you are right.

Yeah, I know, it worn off on me.

But such a good crutch, though, because it's a good.

It's a.

I like that crutch.

But.

So, yeah, these are things.

What if you're not.

What if you're sick?

What if you got a tinge of COVID that you're getting over or the flu?

Or what if you're just physically exhausted?

What if you're not eating correctly?

What if you're not hitting the.

Who has time to do all this stuff?

Elite performers.

Fine, homie, that's who.

We all have that 24 hours.

And again, this is trite, passe, cliche, but you can hear it a million times.

We all woke up today breathing.

So we're alive.

And we all have 24 hours in today's day.

Today is my Sunday, my day off.

Did a podcast.

Yesterday was in the office yesterday, closing deals.

On my way home in the car, rushing home to get on this platform with Sam.

You just make the time.

You don't complain about it, and you start to embrace the work, the stress, if you can start to embrace that.

But that's what I'm talking about.

It comes down to implementing these things.

So the transition I was starting to make was, okay, now I'm put, I'm getting put in position by my mentor who's a guru in this industry.

What's my response going to be?

You know, and we're humans, so naturally you're nervous, you may have some self doubt, you may have a little bit of insecurity, you know, and you're, you may not be declaring this or broadcasting it, but you're human, man.

You have that.

I'm just everybody else, man.

I have those as well.

But on the other hand, okay, I don't have too much time to think about those.

Now it's time.

And you're gonna hear me say this a lot.

Time to get active.

Active is when, is when you're now getting pressed and now you gotta square up and demonstrate.

And that's what I do.

So I'm like, okay.

And so I started getting active.

I'm one of those dudes that, that will get active.

And I started breaking records.

I, I think it was, you know, I came in a, in a transitional period, but I put on a demonstration where I had the other design consultant saying, dude, what do you do in this situation?

What are you doing in the home?

How are you closing these numbers?

So I started doing that.

Then I had to get face to face with the realization that driving from the Springs, putting in a full day's work, and then trying to come home and stay awake on that drive up Monument past in the, in the trials and tribulations of Colorado winters wasn't the safest thing for me to do.

Sure.

Then I had to sit down with my significant other, my lovely wife, and say, babe, what do you think about moving from the beautiful, you know, Parker Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree area of Colorado, the picturesque, quintessential Colorado town?

You got the best of both worlds.

You're close to the beautiful Rocky Mountains, but you have all the best dining and, and shopping in the area to slide down to Colorado Springs right on.

The plane there in the middle of all this.

Let's pack and move.

What?

Thank God I got a gorgeous partner.

That inside and out, that was like looking at the positive and saying, it's beautiful down there.

Let's Go if, if you're.

Because she's seen my entire climb and ascent.

So she not ease a believer.

So she's like, she's been there from.

The beginning, from the beginning.

So she's like, I'm okay, good.

Now we made the move.

That's when I was able to really dig in, settle down and again now really get active.

And so started putting it down.

And now on top of all that, who can we bring with us?

So you have other team members and other team members and I was going over this with somebody today.

You have to keep that in mind too.

You got all these different personalities and people that you're working with.

How are you treating them?

Are you embracing them?

Like Sam embraced me when I was reaching out, you know, when I wasn't getting national exposure, I wasn't hitting any big boy numbers.

I was still trying to find my way.

Guys, guys like that, that reach out people are going to remember that because so, so let's say that, that I move and I go to like next gen and jump on that team with Ish and Mark and, and I'm not that I'm not doing that.

I'm just saying, let's say that I.

Hypothetical, right?

Hypothetical.

Well, it'd be fair if guys at that company, can you imagine one of them picking up the phone and calling down to Colorado Springs to Wally's company and say hey yeah, Josh Bach is coming down here and we're fairly certain he's going to do some big, he's going to fit in.

But let me ask you this, how was he to work with?

Well, what is, I want to hear from his co workers, I want to hear from the shop manager, the kid that was doing all that work.

I want to.

How did he treat that guy?

This is real talk right here.

How did he treat the gal that ran all the permitting.

How did he treat the gals in the office on a day to day basis when he was in the, in, in the building?

What was the feeling left when, when he was talking to people, how did they walk away feeling?

You got to keep that in mind, man.

You got to keep that in mind.

So you know, do you want people saying, oh yeah, this is one of these prima donna, just super big headed ego monsters that, that you know, at the expense of everybody else thinks he's a stud and a rock star now man, that's my worst fear in life.

You never want to be that.

You want to hear like hey from, from our office people to the people that stock shelves to, to, to Our other fellow design consultants, to our lead generators, to our coordinators, to the, to the owners.

Man, that dude was a pleasure to work with.

So I'm gonna admit that was really my homie.

Everybody in that office has a story about when they talk with him on a daily basis.

They look forward.

And you can see it, you can see it when I go into the office, man, I'm getting daps.

I got special handshakes with people because I'm loving everybody.

I truly love this industry and this life and the people I work with.

Yes, truly, I really love them.

And all of them, I've kicked it with all of them.

I've had people at my company on all different levels have their wives come over and come kick it with me and my wife.

We'll go bowling, we'll act stupid, we'll go out to eat, we'll go to comedy shows.

Just.

I'm just a normal, I'm just a normal ass dude at the end of the day, straight up.

And that's what you're going to hear.

So that's another component of it too.

And I told this to somebody today, one of our lead gens, I said, you have your clients and how you treat them.

And I have handwritten testimonials and video, but you also have your internal clients.

What does that mean?

Those are your co workers, man.

Those are the people that are with you on a day to day.

So if you're not helping them come up as well, bro, what are you doing?

You know you ain't a rock star stud.

If you, if you're, if you're pushing everybody down to say, look at me.

So you want everybody to be with you and come with you and feel like you're approachable and straight up.

I'm as approachable as they come because I, I know, I know where I come from and it ain't.

And in a place of glamour and glitz, I'm that dude that just is hanging out in that attic.

Struggling, sweaty, wet.

I lit the attic on fire.

Now I'm jumping on the fire to try to put that out because some of the RX11 chemical flush and then I accidentally lit that on porches.

So now I'm looking around and the attic's on fire.

Oh, I got, I got a choice here.

Burn down the house or jump on it.

I jumped on, mothered it.

You know, I'm that idiot.

So I ain't nothing special.

I'm that cat.

I made mistakes like that.

You know, I've oversized systems, you know I've made a million mistakes.

So at the end of the day, I'm laughing at myself just as hard because I realized I'm an idiot.

But.

But I got love and heart and.

And I'm gonna treat everyone I roll with the same way I treated them from the beginning, from the second we first talked.

Fast forward to now.

All the success that you've ever achieved and that you're on the precipice of achieving, you still ain't never once changed the way you've treated me or the energy that you've came at me with.

It's always the same.

It's always laid back.

That's Sam Wakefield, laid back dude, just hustling.

Hey, Josh, I'm sorry we haven't kept in touch, man.

Why haven't you done my podcast?

Well, that's on you said.

Oh, you're right.

That is on me.

I apologize.

Let's get you on.

Okay, let's do it.

You never once changed.

That's authenticity.

And to me, that's what I respect above all.

There's nothing worse than meeting one of your heroes and finding out the dude's a douchebag.

At this point, I haven't.

That's so true.

I haven't experienced that.

And not that I can't or that I will, but I haven't experienced that yet in this trade.

When I met Drew Cameron, that's Drew Cameron as hell to talk to, me and him were damn near in tears going over some of our stories and what had happened, you know, with He's Cameron and sons and his brothers and his family and some of the losses that he.

And he damn near.

He died, came back to life and.

And then I'm chopping it up about some of the things I am hearing.

Next thing you know, me and him are smoking a cigar in tears, drinking whiskey like, damn, what's going on?

That's H Vac, baby.

That is HVAC in a nutshell, man.

That is.

That is hvac.

This, the story is so beautiful, too.

And thanks.

Thank you for, first of all, for being so transparent and vulnerable with us in this conversation.

I honestly, I had no idea where it was going to go.

I just knew we were going to have a great conversation.

But some of the things that you.

That you've really emphasized.

I can hear the transformation in your language.

One of the things I actually wrote down before we even started on my notepad is confidence in language.

And I wanted to highlight that.

Everybody, listen to Josh.

Go back and now listen to the way he speaks.

And the certainty and confidence behind his language.

It didn't matter what we're talking about.

When we first started working together, that was not there.

Not at all.

It was very different.

And I can hear your growth in that, which is so first of all, huge, huge shout out.

You've put the work in and I love to see it.

But pay attention to that, everybody, because as we hear his story of his journey across time, there's so many things that we talked about.

The craziest part and the coolest part of it is we didn't really talk about.

Well, I learned this word track and I learned this script and I learned this line.

And this was the magic bullet.

This is what did it.

You know, getting to hang around Wally.

I learned the.

The super secret scripting that he doesn't give to anybody else, but only keeps us in his own companies.

No, that's not what happened.

He grew.

He grew as a person.

Yes.

Had confidence in who he is and what he did and made a decision of where he wants to go.

And man, this is a cool moment.

So I'm grateful that it just happened to be on your two year anniversary at Peak, which is super, super cool today.

I'm going to make sure that we get a teaser about that today, but this podcast won't drop for a little bit strictly because I'm backlogged on some recordings.

But this, the date of recording is February 21, 2025.

So that's the commemorate commemoration day.

But man, this has been such a good conversation as we're thinking of.

And for all of the techs out there that are considering and wanting to move into the sales department, do not hear this as we're telling you not to do it or it's too hard.

Hear this as it's just going to take more work than you thought you were that was necessary to get there.

And the work really is internal.

That's where the work is.

Yeah.

And that wow it.

And again, trite, passe, cliche, but truer words have never been spoken.

It's an internal battle, you know, and I don't usually name drop books, but there's two that were instrumental in part of this metamorphosis was one is ego is your enemy and the other one is the slight edge.

I've literally listen to those two books countless times, man.

If you can, if you can embrace those two books, do yourself a favor.

Ego is the enemy.

And just look throughout history where great, great men that have accomplished amazing things have fallen due to ego.

Ego will not help you out any in this process.

And I know that's counterintuitive when you look at some of these rockstar design consultants throughout the nation because they're flossing around and they're brand new Corvettes and, and you know, I love Wally.

The guy's a total car guy and he, you know, when his, when he sells a huge multi million dollar deal that he closed for a huge multiple, his treat to himself is a brand new Ferrari.

And I love that because he's earned it.

And I love cars too, and I'm guilty of buying expensive cars too.

But at the end of the day you think, oh, these are egomaniacs.

Nah man, you're getting lost on the distractions.

Because the real part of it is to achieve any semblance of success in this industry, you got to push.

Ego is not your friend.

It, you got to put that aside in any, whether you're aspiring, whether you've arrived and, and achieved some level or some semblance of success, or whether you're a flat out st dud in the industry like a Victor Rancor, some of these, these dudes that are up here hovering in the stratosphere like Wakefields, right?

It doesn't matter.

At any one of those levels your ego will betray you and you want to get more in depth on that.

Just read ego is your enemy.

And then the slight edge.

The slight edge encapsulates all that we're talking about.

None of this, this quant, this, this theory of there's this quantum leaps.

That's a misnomer, it's a misconception.

There's no quantum leap.

I didn't leap and jump to this.

No way.

Mind, I'm not even here yet.

I'm just getting started.

But there's the slight edge.

It's that drive and that implementation done on a daily basis.

The power of consistency by welding.

Pick that up.

Consistency, Consistency selling by Weldon Long.

Pick that up.

I promise you that is the slight edge.

We got nothing that you guys don't have, that you don't already know and that you don't have access to.

We all have a supercomputer in our pocket, our iPhone or Android.

Right?

We all have that.

Absolutely.

We've all got YouTube, we've all got Google, we've all got all the podcasts in the world, right?

So, so what do we have?

Just that slight edge that we're willing to listen, implement put in that it's just the slight edge compounded over years, right?

Compounding interest, effect over years.

That's what we have now.

If you can harness and embrace that.

That's what Sam's speaking to when he says, I'm hearing a Josh Baca on a different level.

It's the same Josh Baca.

It's just the slight edge year after year.

And we sit down three years later, and the contrast between when we first talk till now is clearly evident.

But it was all achieved through the slight edge advantage.

The tips and tricks that you showed me in the beginning, that I immediately took to and implemented, that's the slight edge that got me to that next level.

And then that took me to the next level, and it took me to where I'm at now, and continuing to implement that will take me to where I'm going to be in the future.

And it's the slight edge without the ego involved.

And it's confusing because people will see my Facebook post, my Instagram post, and you're going to hear rap music and rock and roll, but that's the.

That's the genre and the platform to do that.

That's racing time.

That's when you've grinded all summer long, you've cashed those big checks and you've put in your family in position, and then you get.

You get a chance on social media to flex a little bit.

And that's why I don't hate on anybody.

That's flat.

I love it when I see dudes getting into their Lambos and, And because, man, but.

But I, I am under no illusion the amount of hard work that it took to get there.

Because in the trades, you ain't get.

You ain't getting there.

Like Ishmael Valdez, man, when I see him in the Phantom in the Rolls Royce, I.

I give them props because I know, man, I couldn't even imagine the work that it took to get there and the people he's helped and he's handing out bonus checks to his office people.

I'm like, go ish.

I hope to meet him one day and just dap him up.

I'm not on his nuts, but I'm gonna tell him, hey, bro, straight up, props to you for what you do.

You may not know me and, you know, I might not even be a blip on your radar, but I've been watching you for years.

And so.

So I give props where props is due.

I'm not a player hater.

I'm a congratulator.

I love this.

That's the type of cats I like to.

To get down with dudes that are grinding Whether you're an installer, I'm right there with you, dog.

I'm in that attic installing with you.

Or in that crawl space, I'm installing with you.

If you're a tune up technician, I'm right there with you trying to keep all your filters from getting crushed in the back of that van.

You got to take piss and you're on the highway and you're like, oh man, I have to piss in this bucket back here.

I'm with you and all the struggles you got to do.

I'm with every one of you national sales trainers that are starving, haven't seen your family and haven't caught a good workout in days, but are still putting together your next day's sales plan for the company that.

That paid you already to be there and dealing with the stress that that entails.

I'm right there with you and.

And I'm going to always maintain that same energy, bro, to the best of my ability.

Now, do I have off days?

Yes.

Do I have missteps?

Yes.

Day.

I said I.

I screwed the pooch on that one.

I could have done that better.

I blew that call.

That's okay.

We all have those.

Don't even trip, homie.

Have that.

Like Jason Walker was saying yesterday, have the short term memory because you do get kicked in your teeth.

I have way more failures and adversities and challenges that I did not handle successfully or with grace then I have successes.

My successes are 10 of it.

But you see all of that on my Instagram, my Tick Tock page and all that.

You see the 36, 000 views and on one post, I just got lucky on that, man.

That's this much of it.

The grind is what I embrace.

I.

I like the work and because the work, that's what's behind that 10% of those of those videos that you see.

So can't.

You can't get it misconstrued either.

Make no mistake, man.

Sam puts in the work just like Jason does, just like Wally does, like any of these guys do.

And I promise you this.

I.

I promise you I put in the work.

So if you're doing that, props to you for all of those that are putting in that work.

And you know it.

Maybe nobody else is seeing it.

That's all right.

We're with you.

We are.

We're with you.

Thank you for.

I could not have wrapped this episode up any better than that.

So I'm just going to add on that hats are off to everybody out there that are.

We feel you we hear, we feel it on a heart level in a way that only somebody who's done the work can understand.

And that is the difference of the slight edge.

Right.

I would add one more book into that, into that list.

We've got Ego is your enemy.

The slight edge.

I love Ed Mylett's book, the Power of One more.

Power of one more.

If everybody can do one more and whatever it is, you can.

If you're knocking doors, you can knock one more door.

If you're asked, if you're in the objection cycle, you can sit through one more objection, one more squat, one more.

Push up, one more pull up, one.

More push up, one more rep.

Or one less donut.

Exactly.

One or one.

Exactly.

It's one more.

Or.

Or two.

If we're.

This is important.

We could do a whole nother episode on, like, the power of positivity and how we frame our.

Our words in our language.

Tell your wife you love her one more time today.

Oh, super huge, Right?

Instead of one less donut, one more.

Healthy choice.

Right.

Geez.

Right?

Telling your wife, telling your kids, telling your family you love them.

Yeah.

One more time.

Because there are some times that that's not guaranteed.

I've had recently, people in my life at a moment's notice, unexpectedly, are all of a sudden not there.

And I wish they were, because I would tell them I love them one more time.

But we have to keep the main thing.

And the main thing is, like, our focus and just that, growth.

If it's not 1% better today than I was yesterday, can I be half a percent better?

Can I be a quarter of a percent better than I was?

I will start a podcast.

We're going to call it the Fully Active Podcast.

Let's crush it.

Dude, you got this.

You got this.

That's it.

So good.

Such a good conversation, man.

If everybody find.

Find Josh's Instagram, what's your Instagram handle?

That way everybody can follow you.

Great question.

I don't even know.

Hold on.

That's how.

Hold on.

I said we've got it right here.

It's not hard to find on.

I'm on Instagram, I'm on.

I'm on Tick Tock and I'm on Facebook.

I don't even know my handles.

That's how green I am.

To the.

To the.

Here you go.

I've got it.

So on Instagram, it is at josh.baca.716.b a c a dot seven one six.

Yes.

Go follow his Instagram.

Yep.

On TikTok.

On the rest that I'll make sure to get those from him.

Put them in the liner notes.

Yes.

But you'll be able to.

To connect to him from there.

Watch what's going on.

He's a.

He's a rock star.

He's a top performer because he's put in the work to get there.

And heck, we could do a whole episode about what you've done to which the extra work you did to surround yourself and get in the room with people like Jason Walker.

Like me when you just randomly picked up the phone and my phone rang out of the blue and it's Josh one day, like to be able to get in the same room with Wally.

We are the average of the people that we spend the most time with.

That's it.

Success leaves clues.

We just have to adopt the habits successful people do.

Then we can start getting the results they get also.

It's incredible how that works out.

So, yeah, real spit, man.

Thanks for being on the show today.

It has been a pleasure.

I'm so glad you made it.

Won't be the last one for sure.

I'm ready.

It was my honor to be here with you, bro.

Absolutely.

So make sure to tell the wife I said, hey.

It's been a minute since we talked also, and for everybody out there, we could not have recorded a better episode that truly emphasizes the way that we always, always, always end this show out, which is you go out there and work to become someone worth buying from.

You've been listening to the Close it now podcast.

Our passion is to dive headfirst into the transformative movement that's reshaping the very foundation of H VAC and home improvement and at the same time, covering fitness, nutrition, relationships and personal growth, proving that we can indeed have it all.

We hope you've enjoyed the show.

If you did, make sure to, like, rate and review.

We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find the website@closeitnow.net find us on Instagram herealcloseitnow and on Facebook closeitnow.

See you next time.

Sa.