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.

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

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This is Close it now, where excellence meets excitement.

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Your host, Sam Wakefield.

Welcome back to Close It Now.

Sam Wakefield here.

I am super excited to introduce my guest today.

This is a gentleman I was introduced to not that long ago, but we, we sat down for lunch, we chopped it up over a meal.

And when you break bread with somebody, you really get to know them and you really get to know their heart in a lot of ways.

And we instantly connected on a different level.

And I love his mission.

I love what the focus is.

And you're going to hear about that today and you're going to get a PE inside of truly what drives this gentleman.

And so I'm happy to introduce our guest today.

This is JD De la Rosa.

He is CEO and founder of Rufio.

If you have heard of that company, if you haven't, check him out.

But what we are talking about today, he is also founder and one of the executive directors for Services Summit.

So that is, there's an event coming up that we were going to talk about.

But before we get into that, man, let's back up slightly.

Who in the world is J.D.

de la Rosa?

Yeah, so that's a loaded question.

But first off, Sam, thanks for having me.

I appreciate this, this time that, you know, we're going to talk life, chop it up, talk about the event.

So I appreciate you having me on your, on your podcast 100%.

So who's J.D.

all right, well, I, I originally started my, my career in, in the call center.

I, I worked for MCI WorldCom.

I did that for all through college.

Cold calling.

MCI WorldCom was the bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan commercials, if you remember, back in the day.

Oh, no, yeah.

Unlimited long distance, the, the neighborhood program.

Anyways, I was slinging that all through college.

So I learned how to, how to hop on the phones and talk to people from there.

Graduated Texas State got into door to door sales and worked door to door sales for over 10 years in the security industry.

Ran a offices starting off and then ultimately partnered up and did a company called Vault Security out of dfw.

After that denture, I sold it off to my partner for a good little seven figure exit and then jumped right into solar.

I saw what was happening and this was like 2017.

So I started in security about 2005, 2006.

Started off with Firstline.

So anybody that knows that security company back in the day, that dates me on how old I am, so jumped into solar.

I started with a company called Zoe Solar here in Texas.

And I wanted to transition from sales to learning business operations.

So I jumped in as the CEO.

Learned everything as far as processing accounts, material, installation, scheduling, customer service, basically everything outside of sales.

I dialed that in.

That partnership didn't work out, but I learned a lot.

I learned everything that I needed to know to start Rufio.

And Rufio started as a solar company.

It's roof.

And then the IO is the power symbol.

Right.

So it's roof.

Power is where the name came from.

But we say Rufio.

That, that started around 2017 and we've been at it since we started in the roofing industry just because of the name.

People are like, hey, do you guys do roosts?

We're like, no, you do roosts.

No, you do roosts.

Okay.

We do roof stuff.

The importance of correct branding.

Right, right.

So it forced us to actually hop in and do you know, roofing started that probably in the early 2000, 2001, started getting that process down.

But that's, that's me.

I'm a, you know, also I have a wife and two beautiful girls and I love them and they're my wife.

Yeah, that's my life.

I love it, man.

And I know we're going to hear about that a little bit more here in just a bit, but let's go into.

And thanks for that intro.

That's really powerful.

Let's go into a little bit about Services Summit.

So for everybody that doesn't know, Services Summit is an event and it is coming up soon.

We'll talk about some dates and stuff here in a minute.

But what was your vision for founding this?

You know, I know when we talked at lunch, it was, you know, we, we talked a little bit about how things are super scattered and tell.

Tell us a little bit more about that.

Yeah, so not a lot of people.

Well, people do know.

My, my daughter, when she was Two years old, she had a, a pool ball sized tumor in her, in her brain.

And it was a, called a pilocytic astrocytoma and it was a cancerous tumor.

And we were just kind of devastated as a family hearing that news.

And we didn't really have direction or counsel on what to do.

Luckily enough, we got some great information.

We went to the correct hospital and we were able to resect 98% of the tumor.

And it was, it saved her life.

She was able to do chemo for the remaining residual of the 2% that was on.

It was literally on her, her brainstem.

And she did chemo for, for two years.

And she beat it.

She beat the odds.

Right?

Yeah.

Going into it, you know, everybody was, you know, the stats didn't look favorable.

They were, you know, we were up against a lot.

But one of the biggest driving forces of Services Summit is, you know, when I was going through that, you see the inner working of a children's hospital, you see the families that are dealing and sorry, I get emotional, but you see what they're dealing with and it's not what they deserve, it's not what they should have to deal with.

And I told myself, we're going to make it through this.

And once we do, I'm going to do everything in my power to give back and make sure that, you know, we help the families that are going through this, make it easier or give them options or anything that we can do.

So we, we teamed up with acco, which is the American Children Cancer Organization.

All net proceeds are going to them for this event.

And really that is what sparked the event.

Okay.

My, my business side of things was like, all right, well how do, how do we generate money, right?

How do we get people to sponsor and really help serve?

That's what the Services Summit is about, is serving your community, serving others, and really bringing your expertise and your field and being able to help serve the event.

So a lot of the speakers, a lot of the sponsors, a lot of the people that are attending are offering their services to help promote and give back and really help the community.

So in general, services like home services, I mean we have everything from food and beverage to hospitality to legal, you name it.

Anybody that has services within their businesses, they're bringing it and, and really helping, you know, promote, collaborate.

There's a lot of handshakes that are being made at this event.

There's a lot of handshakes that were made at last event last year for Services Summit.

So it's allowing business Owners to give back.

A lot of.

A lot of business owners want to give back, right?

They want to be able to help the community and help, you know, without just sending money out.

They want to be a.

Feel like a part of it, right?

So, yeah, and this really helps those business owners, you know, have a, have a, an outlet to be a part of something to serve their community and help, you know, less fortunate and, and, and really actually help the community grow as well, because, you know, you're teaching the young minds.

It's here in downtown Austin.

Entrepreneurial School at Texas University is invited to the event as well.

So it's allowing a lot of collaboration, a lot of networking, a lot of good minds coming to the table and ultimately giving back to a good cause.

So that's Services Summit in a nutshell.

I love it.

I love speaks to me so much.

This message resonates very deeply with Close it now and with.

The mission of my company is to raise the standards of our industry.

We talk about being someone worth buying from.

That means also being a person of character, being a person of contribution, being a person that truly cares at the highest level.

And a lot of what we do is, yes, let's get bigger sales numbers.

But why?

What's behind that?

So who cares?

Bigger sales numbers are just vanity numbers if we're not actually doing something with it.

Something I've said for a long time is the best way to help people in need is to.

The best way to help the poor is not be one, because we can give back in such a grander scale.

And I love the entrepreneurs because we have a vehicle now, we have the means now what do we do with it?

And so circle the summit really gives an avenue to be able to contribute in a way that is very different.

So I love the heart of that man.

Let's talk a little bit about the event itself because I know there's a lot.

I've seen a just incredible speaker list of speakers coming up.

In fact, one of the speakers that's going to be there, Peter Roth, he's been on the show a couple times.

In fact, Peter is a great guy.

Great guy.

In fact, that's how we connected originally.

He introduced us.

But tell us a little bit more about as far as the content and who the event is for.

So maybe give us a sneak peek of some of the speakers.

I know you've got a really big name coming in as well.

Several big names now and an enormous name.

And then also we've got some other big names and talk about that and talk about what the actual content is going to be like.

Yeah.

So we, I'll kind of put the bigger, bigger names out first, but I don't want to dwarf some of the up and coming names too because there's so many great things that are coming with this event.

So coach Michael Burke is going to be on the fourth.

Brian Tracy is going to be opening up virtually for us, which is amazing.

I melted the second I heard that announcement.

Is like the classic, like one of my.

He's the godfather of sales.

Like it doesn't get any better than that.

Being able to collaborate with, with him.

He's an amazing guy.

I've been able to meet him personally and have a great conversation with him.

So that's going to be amazing.

We got Bradley.

He's going to be closing on the.

The fifth.

Okay.

Dropping bombs.

I'm sure Dropping Bombs podcast a lot of great content.

I was able to meet him a couple weeks ago when I was in Vegas.

Stopped by his, his offices.

Great guy, great convo, and then everybody in between.

I mean, like you said, Peter Roth.

I mean there's so many.

And I apologize, guys on not naming you.

He's going to be there.

He's going to be there.

We have, I'm sure you heard of the Kill Tony comedy show on Netflix.

One of the comedians from.

From that show is going to be on there.

There's going to be just so many people from the Austin, Central Texas and even across the country coming to this event to offer their.

Their insight and their services.

So.

Yeah.

Good times.

That sounds like such a really robust mix of.

Between all the different speakers, the actual content that they're going to present as well.

So very diverse.

Yeah.

So.

So who would this event be helpful to?

So this event is really, I would say it's, it's for everybody.

It's.

It's not dialed into any specific, like a sales order or operations.

Like you're going to get a lot of everything.

Yeah.

From it.

So if you're, if you're in sales, great.

You're going to find a speaker there.

If you're in comedy.

Right.

I mean, it does, it really doesn't matter.

It's so diverse that, you know, you, the first day you're gonna hear, you know, so many different things coming at you that you might resonate with something.

Right.

And a lot of times, I think for business owners and C suite execs, they need to get out and see something outside of their industry.

Yes.

Right.

Like who would go to a.

Who would go to a, a plumber's convention if they're in roofing.

Right.

And vice versa.

Who would go to a, you know, catering event when they're in legal and you know, supplements.

Like you don't do that.

Right.

But when you go to this event and you hear what other C suite execs are doing or their organizations are doing, you're able to like take those pieces that are benefiting from them and you can add it to your organization.

Right.

So it's that, it's that mix of different, different businesses and being able to, to really connect with what they're offering, what they're doing and take it to your, to your own business.

So I would say if you're college student, you want to see, you know, everything that's out there or you're a C suite exec and you need to take some, some little specific details of who's doing it big in their industry and say, oh, you know what, that would, that would work in my business.

I never thought of that.

Bam.

A hundred percent.

Oh, I love this.

You know, when we, when we had lunch together, this is one of the main things that I thought about that we were really talking about is, you know, we get so siloed in our own industries and especially if we're in the day to day the grind and we, we have such a hard time with those blinders seen outside of that.

But every single time I step outside of my specific industries that I work in, I learn something incredible that nobody in our own industry is doing.

And to immediately be able to implement it and see traction and see growth and more importantly to be different than everybody else, it's differentiation is huge.

And so I love this.

And the other piece I love about it is the power of coming together and sitting at the same table and just being able to network and to truly figure out who's successful and to help.

It's both learning and teaching at the same time.

And so it's a very, very healthy type of a relationship when people come together like this.

It is.

And it's going to be a great time as well.

We have for the Inner Circle tickets.

There's still a few available.

I definitely hop on servicessummit.com and if you want to be a part of that, we have Maroon 5.

What's the perk with the Inner Circle tickets?

Yeah, so the biggest one is going to be Maroon 5 concert the night of the 4th.

So we have kind of like a reserve box seat, floor seat like for that concert.

It's going to be amazing.

So maroon 5 on the 4th and then we have a facility here because we're literally like a block from.

From 6th Street.

And it's the live music capital of the world here in Austin.

And they have a comedy venue here that we're going to do some cigar rolling with with Brad Lee.

We're going to have some of the comedians there.

You're just going to be able to come and shake hands and really pick brains, right.

Like, figure out what, what the successful people are doing and, you know, get the variety of.

Of how they're doing it and, and have a fun time, you know, that, that.

That's what it's about, you know?

Yeah.

So that's.

Those are the inner circle, of course.

You know, you get everything that the VIP gets, the launches, everything.

But the inner circle tickets are the.

Are the, you know, what's really going to set you apart and be personal with a lot of the speakers and really get to know them.

I love this.

This is so great.

So the event is November 4th and 5th, correct?

Yes, sir.

It is at the.

Actually, I love where you're hosting it.

Right here?

Yep, right here at the Capital Factory, downtown Austin Omni.

So that's where the event's going to be.

Yeah, I love it.

I actually spoke at an event there a couple years ago and it's one of my favorite locations in all of Austin for events for just.

It's such a great atmosphere for growth, and you can't help but have your entrepreneurial spirit grown just by stepping into the building, the way it's built and set up and.

Yeah, so it's going to be awesome.

So for everybody that wants to.

For all of you, I invite every single one of you that are listening, get your butts to Services Summit.

You can.

You can.

So where can.

Actually, I'll let you give the details.

Where.

Where can they grab tickets for this?

Yeah, just go to services.

Summit.com.

easy as that.

Services is plural.

And then summit.com.

Got it.

So I'm going to spell it out for everybody.

S E R V I c e s s U-M-M m I t dot com.

Make sure you got two S's in the middle there.

The first time I went to the website, I left that off and it did not take me to where I wanted to go.

So I don't even know what the other one is, but hopefully it's GE rated.

I don't know.

No, I think it was just an empty website, but I was like, where's the tickets?

Yeah, Services.

Man, I love this.

I love this is, this is, it's such.

It.

It instantly became my.

I haven't even been to it.

So this is the second one that you've done as well?

This is second annual?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

So it's, it's, you know, we see it as growing.

We probably grow out of this venue this year with the, with the support that we have and the great people that are backing it.

We're excited.

It's, it's, it's something that, you know, I, I've, I've seen that.

It just makes my heart warm that, you know, this is coming to fruition and it's going to help so many people.

I love it.

Do you have a number around?

How much was you were able to donate from last year's event?

Um, I believe last year it was close to like 5 to 10,000.

Wasn't, wasn't too, too much.

This year we're looking to have some somewhere around the 250,000 in revenue for the event.

You know, Services Summit is designed to help build and grow as like a business.

So obviously there's expenses for it, but, you know, once those expenses are taken, net proceeds are going to Acco.

So being able to have business owners donate their services, their speaking time, things like that, and you know, obviously tickets and everything that comes along with it definitely helps keep our, our expenses low so we can give back to the, to the, to Acco.

So love it.

So that's just my business brain, you know, coming in and figuring out a way how can we give as much as we can back to Acco?

And, and this is what we came up with.

And it's working.

It's great.

I've seen a lot of events like this that are donation focused for a cause.

The problem is they start with.

That's the only thing in mind, which is awesome.

It's great.

However, if you don't cover the expenses, they tend to fail because nobody's running it in a way where it can sustain itself and continue to grow.

And continue to grow.

And so I love that you're marrying the two things together to create something that's obvious.

Clearly we're looking at potentially even multiplying the amount of donations strictly by the growth of it and will only continue.

Is there a goal for this year's donation levels?

Well, like I said, we're looking close to 250,000.

That's our goal.

I fully feel that the day of the event, once we're going to have raffles, we're Going to have all kinds of things throughout the day to help, but I feel that we get to that.

It's really going to help push that number.

Love it.

Love it.

I have an idea for something I'd like to donate to put into the raffle as well, which we will talk about offline.

So for everybody that goes, you have to go to the event to find out what I'm donating for the raffle.

But, man, thanks for being on today.

This has been awesome and I am super excited.

So everybody get to this event.

It is going to be.

It is the start of year two.

It's the start of something great.

I say we.

I feel like I'm part of this already and I just.

Everything we can do to help support and grow, you know, let us know here at close it now and we'll continue to spread the word about this because I believe in this mission.

I believe in this, in what you're.

What you're doing, both to bring all of the, all of services together and also, of course, for such a great cause.

And so how old is your daughter now?

She just turned eight.

Just turned eight?

Yeah.

Oh, so cool.

Love it.

She's loving life.

She loves her older sister.

She's a miracle.

Yeah.

Beautiful, man.

So cool.

Well, thanks for being on, man.

So one thing this podcast is known for, and of course this is a special edition, I'm going to drop it in between the regularly scheduled programming.

And so we're a little bit less on the actual just training and stuff on this episode, which is perfectly fine.

But what would you say because you've been through several different companies now.

You've started, you've grown, you've exited, you're in another company that's grown like crazy and super successful.

What would you tell somebody that is in their growth phase, somebody that's starting their company.

What's a couple pieces of advice you would give to them to.

To as a sampling of things that they're gonna learn at Services Summit?

Yeah, I mean, there's so, so much I could tell a entrepreneur that's just starting their.

Their business is fail fast and fail hard.

Right?

Like, if you feel in your gut it's right, do it right.

If you, if you want to invest, invest into yourself.

You don't need to invest into somebody else's company to build your company.

Right.

I mean, obviously, like when you get to that, that point when you need to take like capital, stuff like that.

But what I'm saying is like, invest in yourself.

Whether it be a mentor in the space that you're in to help you build and grow, you know, research and development is, is, that's what it's all about.

When you, when you hear that is developing yourself and, and really getting that mindset and not giving up.

That's, that's, that's a key factor is like you win by not giving up.

You only fail by giving up.

Right.

So even if it's, if you're in debt, upside down, I've been there in business, as long as you don't give up and you keep moving forward, you will win and you've already won.

I love this.

It's super, super, super powerful.

And so thank you for that and that.

And again, everybody that does.

Just a taste of what you're going to learn at Services Summit.

Nowhere else can you go other than events to get in the same room with so many titans in an industry or lots of industries coming together that have massive value, they've built great things, build huge organizations, and they're there to pour back into everybody that attends.

That way, it's a win, win, win all around.

We're doing something massive for the cause, massive for cancer research.

We're doing something massive for everyone who attends.

As far as the contractors and what you're going to learn and grow and build community here.

Too many people think there's competition, but there's not.

There's so many millions of homes that we can help.

Millions of people that we can help.

It can multiply us and there's still not enough of us to help all the homeowners out there.

That's right.

And to bring it full circle.

You know another answer to what, What I would tell entrepreneurs is when you help serve others or you do any type of service for others and you help somebody get to where they're going to get to, it actually helps you tenfold, whether you realize it or not.

If you're able to serve and give back and really do those things wholeheartedly, it comes back and kisses you on the forehead and you won't even realize it, but it does.

So for entrepreneurs that if someone is there and they need help or they have a question and you know the answers, like, don't court it.

Help them, help them get to where they're going to get to and I guarantee it'll come around full circle for you.

Love, it could not have wrapped this episode up any better.

Well, I appreciate you being on, man.

We're looking forward to November 4th and 5th for seeing you in person at Services Summit.

And everybody make sure to go grab your tickets now.

Especially those VIP spots.

Get FaceTime with the speakers.

Get to hang out at a Maroon 5 concert.

So all of that's going on.

Those slots are going fast.

They will sell out.

So make sure you.

The inner circle ticket.

The inner circle ticket.

Yep.

Invest.

When JD says invest in yourself, this is part of it.

Invest in there is power in proximity.

So if you can be like have a face to face conversation, it might be one conversation you have where you take your gold nugget.

So your million dollar idea back to your own business and so services summit.com November 4th and 5th and thanks for being on, man.

Until.

Until we see you in person, man.

Yeah, appreciate stopping by.

I'll see you soon, Sam.

Thanks, man.

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

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