Transcript of From Man in a Van to $100M Empire: Ben Jordan’s Blueprint for Massive Growth

I wasn't making hardly any money. It was just a man in a van. Me and the guy, the owner of the company. We went to the owner and we were like, Hey, we want to buy your business. Obviously, we don't have any money. We didn't even know what business was worth back then. We threw out a number, 250 grand. We'll come down with a down payment, and then you own or finance us. And we created these terms, and it worked out for him. It worked out for us. I remember when I first married my wife, said, Hey, by the time I'm 30, I want to be worth 100 million. She says, You sure you want that? I'm like, Yeah. And she's, Okay. And I remember one night in specific, I'd come home, and I'm laying on the ground I have my boot string in my hand still, and I'm dirty because I was in a crawl space. I was crawling around all night long. Most people's lives would be like, Oh, honey, you're tired. Come to bed. It was 7: 30 in the morning. She's kicking me. She's like, Hey, you got to get showered.

You got to go back to work. I look back now and I'm like, How come you did that? She's like, You told me what your goals were. I asked you if you were serious, and you said, Yeah. And so she's like, I'm not going to hold you back.

Hey, guys, and welcome back to a LevelUp podcast. This Paul Alex, and we have another phenomenal guest here. He goes by the name of Ben Jordan, guys. He's the operator behind Action Plumming, Heeding, Air, and Electric, guys. A 5,000-recognized home services company known for rapid growth and strong sales systems. Now, guys, if you're a 9-5-er or a new owner looking to scale, this conversation is all about the mindset and daily habits that turn a small operation into a real business. Now, Ben's first business was a side hustle that turned into a full-time position. I'm pretty pumped, guys, to actually interview Ben. We met in Scotia, Arizona, during one of Andy Elliott's events, and he's just a phenomenal entrepreneur and just human being. Ben, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Dude, so tell us about your background, the journey you've been through, and just a little insight of who you are, brother.

Well, honestly, I'm one of 14 kids. I grew up, I'm the third oldest of 14 kids. It was a great childhood. My dad owned a business, right? When I was young, he owned an appliance repair company. I come from a service background. I didn't really have much of plumbing or HVAC or electrical. When I was growing up, it was all about just getting things done. Crazy little thing happened. When I was 13, my mom passed away. My dad, he was really like, Hey, you guys need to get to work. We really need some help doing some stuff. From 13, I started working full-time. It was During the summer, it was full-time after schools, when we'd go there after school. I really learned how to work. I learned how to work on my hands. I learned how to deal with people. We answered phones, we dispatched technicians. Then when we could drive, we actually got onto the road and started our service journey. We learned how to deal with customers, sell customers. I did that all the way through high school. I made good money. It was good. I really learned a lot about people. I get through high school.

I had a wrestling scholarship. I had a few offers to go to pretty good schools. It was either go to college or there's always an opportunity for me to serve a mission for my church. My dad really was like, Hey, I really think you should go serve a mission, but you do what you want to do. He actually told me it was funny because my dad was always one way. He was never really like, Hey, do what you want to do. He was like, You do what I tell you to do, or that was it. That was the only thing. But in this instance, he was like, What's going to matter in a thousand years? He was like, Is wrestling going to or is you going on a mission and developing as a person and teaching people about God? And so I was like, Man, he never had explained it like that to me before. So I decided to go on a mission, spent two years in Southern Spain. And for me, honestly, that was probably the most defining moment in my entire life. I went there not knowing the language. I didn't know how to speak Spanish.

I didn't really know much about anything besides what I believed in, what I truly believed in. But as I spent time there teaching with the people, being with those people, seeing their different things, I learned a lot more about me, and I learned more about God, and learned more about everything that I needed to. It was crazy. I learned about people, persuading, how to really connect with people. When I got home, I got married right away. I was home six months, got married. That's when my journey to being an entrepreneur really started. I got married and I moved to Utah. I was living in Colorado, moved to Utah. I didn't really know what I was going to do. I was just working with my uncle. I always knew that I wanted to own a business, but I didn't know how. I remember one day I was on a job. We were doing some HVAC work with my uncle, and we're on a job, and I met a plumber. I was like, Man. I started to ask him questions about plumbing and stuff. I literally was like, Hey, can I come work for you? And he's like, Probably not.

I always tell people in plumbing in Utah is a cult. It's really hard to get into. It's like everybody's really tight niche. And so he was like, No, probably not. And I remember The next job I went to for my uncle, we went to this job, and they were having a problem with our water heater. And I remember I sold it, and I called the guy and I said, Hey, I sold a water heater. I need you to come install it, because we didn't do plumbing. We just did HVAC work. And He's like, This guy is crazy. This kid's crazy. That was the start of me getting into plumbing. I started working for him for about 10 months. Then, actually, my brother and I, we approached him to buy his business.

Wow. How old were you when you went to Spain?

19.

19. So at the age of 19, your dad was like, Hey, you could go ahead and go two different ways, and you chose Spain. What made you, what inside of you actually told you like, Hey, Spain is the right way to go?

It was one of those things where it was like, I didn't know why. I didn't know why I felt like I needed to go. I think it was intriguing because it was a foreign country. It's one of those things. But more so than that, I knew in my heart of hearts that that's what I needed to do. Wrestling was always life to me. Outside of work, that was my outlet. I always was doing it. I did. I invested I invested all of my time into it. When it came to the point where it's like, Hey, do I go to school or do I go there? It was a pretty easy choice.

Then you were dating your now wife back then when you went to Spain? No.

Where'd you meet your wife? I met my wife. So when I got home, my sister was in college, and she was next door neighbors to her. She texted me one day and said, Hey, I got the perfect girl for you. I'm like, Sure. You know how that goes. But It was weird. And then a couple of weeks later, she's like, Hey, did you text that girl? I'm like, No. And I remember I finally texted her. And it's crazy because we met the third of March, and we were engaged the 20th of April. It was that fast. The first time I met her, I knew that I was going to marry her.

I love that, dude.

And when we get home for the mission, two years, you're spent every single day preaching. You only call home twice a year. So it's like you're right I had to call it handwritten letters once a week. You get to call home twice a year, but other than that, you don't have any outside contact. You're just working, working, working, working. When you get home, that was life for two years. You get this... I don't know. I always wanted to go back because life just didn't feel full. It's like you're helping people all day long, that feeling. When I got home, I was like, Gosh, this place sucks. I want to go back to preaching. When I met my wife, it went away. I remember the first day I met her, all that feeling just went away, and I was like, I know this is right.

Fulfillment?

Mm-hmm.

That's awesome, man. What would you say is somebody's, I guess, path to finding fulfillment, man? Because it seems like you went a couple of different ways. You went to Spain, you came back, you were like, Dude, I'm not fulfilled here. Found your wife. Fulfillment again. Now, you're going into a specific industry. You probably found fulfillment in that. Otherwise, you wouldn't be building a $100 million business in the industry, right?

I think it's all about taking action. I say that a lot, but if I look back to everything that's ever defined me in business or in life or anything, it's It's not like a split second decision. I didn't really have to think about it very long. It's like, if I can see what I want and I can make the decision, and then it happens. I think the longer am thinking about it, the worst outcome comes.

At the age where you decided to invest into a business, how old were you?

23.

23. At the age of 23, paint the picture now for our 23-year-olds that are watching this, man. Where were you at in life financially. Did you have the cash flow to invest into a business? Did you take out a loan? What were the initial steps you did in order to buy a business?

23, I was making probably 55 grand a year. It I wasn't really making much. What year was this? 2014. Yeah, 2014. So I wasn't making hardly any money at all. And I just barely gotten into a new industry. And it was just a man in a van. That's what they call them. It was just me and the guy, the owner of the company. And I wasn't making a whole bunch of money, but I knew that I could take what I was learning and I could do something with it. I just knew I could. And so we went to the owner and we were like, Hey, we want to buy your business. Obviously, we don't have any money to buy the business. We didn't even know what businesses were worth back then. It was just like we threw out a number and we said, Hey, we'll buy your business for 250 grand as long as you will owner finance us on a portion of it. We'll come down with a down payment and you own or finance us. And we created these terms, which we really didn't know much about. Now I look back 10 years back and I'm just like, Gosh, we We were dumb in the whole situation, but we knew what we wanted, and it worked out for him.

It worked out for us. I remember I would work all day with him, and then we would find side jobs, anything we could possibly do. I would work all day with him, plumbing, and then I work all night on the side job. Then I would go back to work the next day, and then I would sleep one night. I did that for a year and a half straight. All day, all night, all day, sleep. It was crazy because I remember when I first married my wife, I said, Hey, by the time I'm 30, I want to be worth 100 million. I said, That's my goal. That's my ultimate goal. She says, You sure you want that? I'm like, Yeah. She said, Okay, well, that's how it's going to be then. I remember some of those nights I'd come home, and I remember one night in specific, I'd come home and I'm laying on the ground. I have my boot strings in my hand still, and I'm dirty because I was in a crawl space. I'm crawling around all night long. She comes over and she's nudging me. I remember Most people's lives would be like, Oh, honey, you're tired.

Come to bed. It was 7: 30 in the morning. She's kicking me. She's like, Hey, you got to get showered. You got to go back to work. They're expecting you. I look back now and I'm like, How come you did that? What did that take? She tells me. She's like, You told me what your goals were. I asked you if you were serious, and you said, Yeah. She's like, I'm not going to hold you back.

She kept you accountable? Yeah. Do you think that's a big needle mover for a lot of people in relationships?

I think that your relationship, your significant other, is probably one of the biggest things that you can have, needle movers, out of anything. You can have good managers, you can have good partners, but if your significant other is not the right person or doesn't help you, you'll never reach what you could have reached if they were that right person.

Yeah. Do you think being married is almost like a cheat code when it comes to entrepreneurship? Mm-hmm. Yes. For all my single guys, get serious. Find that one, all right? You heard from Ben. Ben, what would you say to a beginner who just started their plumbing business and they're trying to get to the next level? Okay, let's say they're a man in a van, like you said it, and they're trying to hire their first couple of employees. What would be three steps that you would do in order to reach the next level?

Well, first thing I would do, and we talk about a lot, I I went through a lot of really good guys that could have just been unbelievable for me, but they didn't work out because I didn't have systems and processes in place. So I'd say number one thing is get a system and process that you can install in your business to help you scale.

Wow.

That's the biggest thing. Finding the right people is a big thing. I always thought when I first started, I just need guys, and then I can train it into them. But if you get guys that aren't going down the right path, don't see the vision that you have, it'll never work. It doesn't matter. My dad always say, You can't put a square peg into a round hole. So that's a big thing is really recruiting the right type of people. And they don't have to be perfect because we've molded a lot of guys into a thing, but they have to be the type of guy that you can mold. I would say three is just don't worry about too much. You'd be able to pivot. Because in business, as you're running down a path, something's going to come up, and you're going to have to pivot. And if it takes you a while to do that, you're going to lose.

What is your idea on culture? Is culture big when you're building a big business like yours?

Culture is everything. And we built a phenomenal business. I tell everybody this. We built a big business, and we just were missing something. And I joined I joined up with Andy a little over a year ago, and I just started seeing this culture, and they had in their business. I'm like, That's what we're missing. In our business, we shifted. We shifted so much in our way, our culture was with our business. And literally one month to the next, we were doing a million a month more in revenue just because we shifted our company culture, just because we brought everybody in, gave them an idea of what culture actually looks like. And in In the trades, if you went around and ask 10 businesses, you might find one that has a good culture. Maybe. And that's a maybe. You might find all 10 that don't have any culture at all. And then they're wondering why they're just doing the same thing over and over, year, over, year, over, year.

Yeah. No, it's true. A lot of people get stuck, man. They hit a plateau, right? But I'm a big believer in culture as well, man. I mean, that's why I instill building leaders and leading by example, right? Yeah. Currently, Finally, right now, how many employees do you guys have in your corporation?

Right now, between Arizona and Utah, we have about 175 employees.

At that level, at 175 employees across two states, how do you manage to still, I guess, build the culture among so many employees?

When we were first growing, I had the right guys around me. I call them my core group of guys. When we were growing, we were all building this dream that we had. For me, I was always the owner. I was the guy that was living the dream. When I brought them in, and I really instilled into them what my dream was, but not only what my dream was, and I grabbed what their dreams were, and we just started pushing along. It's like, now I have very little to do with the day-to-day. Very little. I love to come in, do meetings. I love to slap high fives. I read all the numbers. I see all numbers. That's what I do. I'm big goals, future stuff that we have moving on. But the dream that I had 10 years ago that has developed into what it is now, it gets pushed every single day because the guys that are in the position of pushing it, they believe the same way I do. Then it just trickles all the way down. For me, having a core group of guys that believe the same, for my culture, it's been everything.

It's allowed us to be the company that we want to Those core group of guys that you have, were they there from the beginning, or did you hire, let's say, somebody who came in with the expertise to go ahead and manage the company? No, none of them were there from day one. Every single one of them, I got from other industries. It was really like I would hire one, and we would put them in, and we would train them and develop them. They're just been the ones that have stuck around, but none of them were there from day one. I would I would say that every single one of my core group of guys have been there less than seven years.

How do you go ahead and actually find talent like that? Because I feel like at the stage of the game that I'm at, man, with my company that I'm currently running right now. We're two and a half years in. We're at about 60 employees. But now I'm trying to find a CEO. Now I'm trying to find executives that can manage the day-to-day so I don't have to be involved in it. What would you recommend to a business owner like me? How do I go ahead and find talent? Do I find a recruiting manager? Or what did you do?

Well, for me, we're home service and we're going to people's homes. I always said it's easier to teach a salesman to plumb than it is a plumber to sell. Because in our business, we have to sell. We have to go to people's homes and sell. So I never looked from the actual industry. I was always looking for somewhere else. I'd find guys at Jiffy Lube. I'd find guys at Les Schwab. It's People ask me all the time why I still take my cars to Les Schwab to get my tires changed, because that's where I recruit guys. I see guys that are just good, hungry, and they want to work, and they just don't have a clear path. And so I love that. But upper guys All my upper executives and stuff, I've farmed them from in-house. Every one of them, we've got them in, and we just put them on a rapid rate of acceleration to the top. I saw who were. And it's like a lot of guys, especially in the trades, if they have a really good sales guy, they want to keep them in that truck or in that van as long as they possibly can.

Because they're getting so much off them. My sales manager right now was a six million dollar a year sales guy. Wow. I mean, he was just every single time- Crushing it. I couldn't get him to stop. But then I figured out if I have one six million dollar sales guy, it's really hard because I can't ever duplicate that. It's the only one time. I've never really seen a lot of people in trades that can do that. But then I figured out if I made him the sales manager, right? And now he's got contact with all of my other guys. Now I got a six million dollar sales guy in everybody's van because now he's pumping them up. He's doing the manager phone calls. He's doing all the stuff that needs to happen to grow those guys individually. And I don't just have one six million dollar sales guy. Now I got him in every single one of my trucks.

Now you're building a bunch of different six million dollar individuals from his knowledge.

And the cool thing was that everybody wanted to ride with him when was in that, when he was the guy. Everybody wanted to go with him because he made it look easy. Now, he goes and does weekly ride-alongs with everybody. He'll go and just find new guys, the young guys, the old guys, and group is having a problem. He just helps them, fixes him, lets him know that not only is he there to help them, but he's going to help them to grow and be the technician that they want to be. Everybody's in the business, they want to be that best guy. But when they They get the objections, and they get the customers that aren't buying from them. Everybody gets beat down. So it's like, how do we get them back up there? And for us, that's been a game changer. We've grown $15 million in one year because we did that.

Wow. That's amazing, man. It goes down to your processes as well, learning that, Hey, I got one guy that does 6 million in revenue by himself. He'll be great as a manager or leader. Go ahead to groom the other salesman. It's smart, man. It's smart. I love it. What would you say, Ben, that in business, when you're growing a massive company, we're going from a man in a van. I love that quote, a man in a Van. This is so good. A man from a van or a man in a van to $100 million now company in your industry, how do you go ahead and balance your personal life, dude? Because we talked about this, right? Me and you were on a health journey, dude. In 2024, it was the best financial year for me, dude, but I lost myself, dude. I gained way, it was like 45 pounds, heavy. But you went through a great journey yourself Well, guys. Guys, if you're not following Ben, make sure to check out his IG. It's Ben JordanOfficial on Instagram, guys. Really, really great entrepreneur. He can 10X your plumbing, HVAC, electrical sales. Make sure to DM build up.

For me, my journey in the trades really started when I started losing weight. I told you, I was 400 pounds. I don't know anybody who's that big because now I'm 223 pounds. I don't know anybody who's 400 pounds when they should be a 220 pound guy that is really in love with themselves, really cares about themselves. For me, I didn't care about anything but trying to get my daily work schedule done. It was just like, all I did every single day was just try to put out fires. And so it was like, I never really cared about myself. And in 2017, I said, You know what? I remember vividly because my brother, he was always fit, and he was always like, Dude, you got to start losing some weight. You got to do something. And I was like, Yeah, because I was always athletic. I never I had a problem moving around. I never saw myself as a big guy. I look back at pictures now, I'm like, What the heck was I doing?

Isn't that crazy? You look at yourself and you're like, Dude, what was I thinking? Yeah, it's like...

But I never saw myself like that. I remember I went to go. We were doing a waterline. In Utah, you got to dig them three feet deep. You're talking three foot deep hole. It's nothing. I went to jump in. I remember my knees buckled out. I'm like, what the heck? Then I just started thinking to myself, my kids are getting bigger. What if they're like, Hey, dad, can we go hike the hill right there? Or, Hey, dad, can we go play basketball? I could barely even walk up the stairs without dying. I said, You know what? A nut's enough. I just started. I started swimming every morning. I would lift every night. I didn't drink soda for five years. I ate protein and vegetables for a year straight, zero carbs. I lost 145 pounds in 16 months. That's amazing, man. I just told myself, I said, I will never, ever, ever go back to that way. As soon as I started losing the weight and I started understanding it's not impossible to do impossible things. People would think 145 pounds in a year in 16 months. It's insane, dude. But it's not impossible. Okay, now I figured out it's not impossible to create systems that these guys can follow that will allow us to grow to a business that they want to be a part of.

Yeah. You're also showing them that anything is possible by going and taking care of yourself personally, too, man. How was your mental clarity when you were that heavy, man?

I look back now and it was just like every day was just, I don't know, just confusing. Mental clarity, you don't have any mental clarity. It's a thing of like, you think about only doing the things you have to do to stay alive, and then You're so exhausted. You can't really do anything else. I just remember just being exhausted all the time. Then when you're that big and you're running that business, it's like, I wasn't sleeping very good. Now it's four times. If I think about now, you ever take a vest, a weighted vest, and done a workout with a weighted vest? Imagine putting 145 or 150-pound weighted vest on you. Now I weigh 223 pounds, so it's like a 180-pound vest. I mean, I would literally die. I'm just thinking that's what I was doing to myself every single day. I didn't start growing in business until I started taking care of my body.

Wow. What's your goals in the future for your fitness, man? Are you looking to do some competition? What is your goal? Just to stay upkeep, just for more just to feel good?

I still have little brothers that are competing and wrestling and stuff like that. My goal is to... Competing, I've never had a six-pack my whole I'm starting to see my abs now, and I'm like, Okay, I want to have a six-pack, and I know it's going to keep getting more and more. But I'm still super into sports. My son's getting bigger now. He loves roping. He loves anything rodeo. How old is your son? He's five. He's five? Yeah. And then wrestling. He loves wrestling. My girls, I have a 10-year-old, I have an eight-year-old, and then my son's five. I have a three-year-old, and I have a new one on the way. I got a lot of kids, and they love sports. They love the outdoors. So I want to be in the best shape I possibly can so I can do whatever. If my daughter says, Hey, dad, I want to go climb that mountain, I'm like, Let's go. That's my ultimate goal, is to be in the best possible shape I possibly can be so I can do whatever for them. Whenever.

Yeah. Also, it all comes back to experiences, memories. As they get older, they're like, Dude, my dad was like a beast. He was able to do this with me and do that with me. That's awesome, man. That's good. Where do you see the For your future, for your company now? Taking it from 100 million, two different states, over 100 employees, what's the next step for you?

Right now, we are developing managers within the business. We just barely did it in Arizona, and it worked perfectly. We took one of the managers that we hired that had zero experience. Took one of the managers and we said, Hey, at some point, we're going to give you an opportunity to not just be a manager, but to own a portion of your own business. Wow. We took him with us to Arizona. We set it all up. Now, he is part owner in the business and manages the business in Arizona. We're doing that currently with other employees right now, and we'll go open up other businesses, allow them to be not just a part of a team manager, but be a part of a team ownership-wise. It's been unreal just seeing the growth in Austin from us doing that, because he was always a phenomenal manager. He was always a phenomenal sales guy. But now it's like another level. It's opened up in him. He never believed that he could do himself. And now we're growing crazy in Arizona. We started in January, and we had just zero trucks. Right now, we're up to 23 trucks in eight months.

I foresee that Arizona is going to be bigger than Utah just because the population is bigger. But I foresee Arizona being bigger. Then we'll go to Tucson because Phoenix. We'll have Phoenix, we'll split in two. Then we'll go to Tucson, and then Sedona, and the north, and Colorado is in our scope right now. Denver. I grew up in Denver, so it's always been really... I love the state, I love the city. I don't want everyone to live there again, but I believe we'll be back there again to do business. And New Mexico, it's always a good one. Nevada. So it's like we have a bunch more goals, but my main focus right now is growing those and growing our managers. But we also opened up another division of our company where we're actually coaching and helping other entrepreneurs in other businesses, other plumbing companies, to scale.

I love that. So break that down, man. Let's say I have a plumbing company, and I maybe have two, three employees, and I'm looking to get you as a mentor. What exactly systems or processes would you be showing me to level up my plumbing company.

Yeah. If you had, let's say, two or three employees, what we would do is we come in and just break down what your processes are, how you are going about it. The typical old way that the plumbing companies, they get jobs, they go to the jobs, how they're doing it is all old school. Everybody in the trades, they look at business, they look at every customer transactionally. I don't look at them for how much I can do today. I look at them how much I can do for them for the next 10 years, 20 years. We We would see how your company is operating, see what your guys like, what training they have. And then we would just build out a process that works with your guys, but is a process that can scale because every plumbing company has the same problem. They have guys that can sell, but as soon as they sell, they're bogged down by the work. So we have designed a system where we have guys that are good at selling. See, we can have a guy that can sell $20,000 a day. If he can go to five jobs a day and he can sell $20,000 a day, that $20,000 is going to take him the next week to perform all the work.

Yeah, absolutely.

Normally, typical plumbing companies, they have guys that sell and install, and their guys don't sell as much. They don't take care of that customer as much as they should take care of that customer. Like long term fixes, they'll just do a little repair on a piece of pipe because they can get it done real quick, move to their next job. But we designed a system where that sales guy can go there and sell, and he can take care of the customer. He's going to be like, Hey, instead of just fixing this piper here, you've had six different repairs done on it. Let's just re-pipe it. I'm going to have my install team show up. Then we have installers that they're not sales-backed. They just like to install. They like to get there to do their work. The install team shows up, re-pipes the house. As that sales guy goes to his next job and sells the next job, takes care of that customer. We have figured out our customers are so much happier because it sucks they have to pay a little bit more in money today. But The fact is that over the lifespan, they're going to be saving money because they don't have their house get ruined.

They're not wasting time at home every time it blows, or they have some issue with it. They found a company, finally, that can not only take care of their plumbing, but their HVAC and their electrical, and is going to provide all the services that they need every single year because now they're on a service agreement with us. We're going to come in their house and do checkups for them, make sure stuff isn't having a catastrophe day.

Wow. That's amazing, dude. Basically, you're hitting HVAC electrical and plumber. And plumber. At the same time. Then you have basically incorporated a sales team that doesn't have to do the fulfillment You have a dedicated fulfillment team, so you separated the divisions. That's a good process, man. I love that.

It's been great. The guys like it, and it works so flawlessly because we can get to it the same day. That's the thing is that a lot of companies, if you sell $20,000 today, if I went out and sold $20,000 today, I couldn't fulfill all that today or even tomorrow. It would take me a while. But now with the install team, I can sell it today and get started on today. If not finish it today, I'll finish it tomorrow. We just crank through it. Customers get taken care of. They're way happier. They're not wasting their time. Time is the most valuable thing we have. Absolutely. When you truly value your customer's time, they'll pay you any time money.

Oh, yeah. Success, low speed, dude. People pay for quality nowadays and for convenience ever since COVID, right? Mm-hmm. Convenience is all day. Here's my question. How are you guys getting leads right now? How's your marketing? How do you do marketing? Are you doing organic marketing? Are you guys running ads? What are you guys doing for advertising?

Well, it's completely changed. The game of advertising for the trades has completely changed because since COVID, private equity has stepped into the trades now, and they're buying up all the companies. Right now, I would say the top 10 companies in Utah, top 10 revenue-wise companies, were the only one that's not private equity. Wow. Now the advertising, they're buying up all these companies, these mom and pop shops, these bigger size companies that in the community, they were family-owned. Well, now they're not family-owned, and they're dumping a ton of money into marketing. So now customers are like, Man, I hired that company because I thought they were family-owned, but they're not really Found Me Owned. Processes are completely different. And now they're not really trusting Google. Well, me, coming from just the man in a van type, I didn't have the money to compete with those big guys back in the day. And so I found really, really unconventional ways of marketing Marketing. We did flyers, we do door hangers. We've knocked on doors before. We hand out flyers all the time and yard signs. That's what I did when I first started. That marketing, it worked for me because we were the small guys, and I just got into people's actual hands.

And then it went away. We started doing a lot more Google, but now people aren't trusting Google as much as they used to. They're not trusting the online sources, which I don't think Google will ever go away, so we still advertise pretty heavy on it. But other forms of marketing, are starting to come back. Print media, I would say dollar for dollar in the trades. Print media is probably the best. Those mailers that you get in the mail that have the coupons. I get those all All the time, dude. I would say dollar for dollar, those are probably the highest ROI. I created a whole wing of our shop is just print media. We have a commercial-size printer, and we just print all day long. I'll print flyers and flyers and flyers and magazines and coupon books and cards and door hangers. Because we give a lot of those away. We have yard signs. We come up with an equity incentive program for our customers. I was like, Hey, you let me stick this in your yard. Any of your neighbors call in, we'll apply money towards anything future for you. Nice. It all goes to you.

They love it. Customers love it. We give them discounts for having it in there. It's like, Hey, they're proud of who we are and the business that we are. They love having us in the yard, and they love telling everybody about it, too.

I feel like people love supporting small business owners, man, because you're local, you're there. I like to call it the H2H technique, human to human technique. Ben, let's go back to a time. Was there ever a time in your business while you were growing your business that you thought it wasn't going to work out? Because I know there's seasons in business, dude, and there's always ups and downs, right? Mm-hmm. Was there any time in your business where you were just like, Dude, I'm actually stuck, or this sucks, or, Dude, I'm going to give up?

I told the guys, I did a meeting last Thursday, and we did a whole company meeting. And I told the guys in, I remember vividly, in 2018, my wife calls me. She's like, Hey, I'm going to the grocery store. Okay, sweet. She went to the grocery store, right? Well, she gets there. She had her all grocery, two kids in the car, right? All the groceries in there. She goes up to the front, swipes the card, declines. I don't know if you've ever seen a lady in a grocery store putting back her groceries, but she called me and said the card didn't work, right? And I just remember, I'm working A hundred hours plus a week. I'm never around. And then now I'm working this much, and now my card is declining. And I'm like, Am I doing something wrong? I just look back, and I'm just like, Am I doing something wrong. And that's when it was a pivotal time for me. I said, You know what? We're going to pivot the way our business was running, and I'm going to get a little more specialized. I got a little more specialized, and that was everything for me.

I started really relying a lot more on my team instead of me trying to do everything. I was a really big bottleneck in my business. To this day, when I get around, I want to just take care of everything. So I get myself out of it, and I handle the things that I'm really good at. And I let the team handle the things that they're good at. And we've just grown. But to this day, my wife won't go to a grocery store without cash.

Because she never wants to experience that feeling ever again.

I tell her, I'm like, now you have credit cards without limits. You don't have to worry about it. No.

Times are changed, babe. We're even going back. Yeah. No, but okay, let's talk about that, man, because even myself, dude, running multiple companies and having different operators myself, I find it hard in the very humble beginnings. I'm a visionary guy. I'm a startup guy, right? I like to take ideas from very smart people like you guys, and I like to grow them, right? But then I find it hard sometimes to really trust that people are going to get the job done because it's your baby. You built it, dude. How do you surpass that? We got a lot of people here, and they mainly listen to this podcast because it's self-help, dude. It has a lot to do with mindset. Mindset's everything, right? What would you tell the entrepreneurs right now that are stuck? They know they're the bottleneck. They know it. You guys know it, right? But you guys can't delegate. Where you guys won't delegate because you won't get past the limited beliefs. So what recommendation would you tell somebody, dude?

I would say you have two alternatives. It's like, continue going down the path you're going and you're going to end up burnt out. You're going to end up in the same... I don't know if you've ever gone to the gym. Most people quit going to the gym because they don't see any results happening. Any progression. They don't see any progression. So if you keep continuing being the bottleneck, you'll never see progression, and you'll burn Or, and the adverse is, is like, Hey, if you do install somebody in there and they're the wrong person, well, you can fix that. But if they're the right person and it just grows exponentially, For me, I installed the right person, gave me way more of my time back, more time to go and grow other portions, to be able to install somebody else there and grow even more. For me, it was everything. Remove me the bottleneck, trust in somebody, and you give somebody that trust, and you say, Hey, this is everything to me. All I wear is my branded shirts. I tell everybody that wherever I go, it's like, This is my name. This is everything to me.

Everything that I own, everything that I have ever built, this is me. So now giving that to somebody else, it gives them a level of, Hey, I need to get this done. Not only for me in my job, but for Ben, too. So it was everything. And I just thought of it like, if they mess up, and I continue going down the same path, it's going to lead the exact same spot. So why not give it a shot? That's all what business is, right? Taking risks. Every entrepreneur in the world is a risk taker. That's why they- Absolutely. That's why they started doing business in the first place. So it's like, why not take the risk with the chance that it's going to work?

Yeah. Because worst case scenario, right? You're just going to be back at the same spot where you started from. That makes sense, dude. So what would you tell somebody that's looking to transition into the trades? In 2025 now, I heard a few things that the trades, they're growing quite a bit, right? So what would you give, as far as advice, somebody looking to get into HVAC, plumbing, electrical, looking to get started, and then eventually grow their own company?

What I would say is, what I hear from everybody that we hire and from just talk around is everybody thinks that they need to be a plumber. They need to have some license or experience. When all reality is I thought the same thing 10 years ago. I needed a license and I need to do this. Well, you do need licensing. But when you come into the business, the business will get you licensed. The business will help you move you down the path to becoming that person that you want to be. And it's not, Hey, I have to go do it first and then get in. It's like, you just waste time. Get in, you start doing the work. You get on with a company, a good company, because there's a lot of deadbeat companies out there. You find a good company that fits your lifestyle, fits your culture that you have eternal. And I mean, something that's going to push you. I tell a lot of guys, You might not like me, but you won't ever find somebody that's going to push you harder than I do. And I promise you in five years, you're going to like that.

So the thing is, if I could go back and I could tell myself, I would say, hey, don't worry about it. Just jump in. Just go. Get into the trades, because right now, is The biggest change in wealth that trades have ever seen. Baby boomers are getting out. All of those companies, they say 3% of them are going to sell. So 3% of the businesses that are currently functioning from baby boomers are going to sell. The rest of those customers are to go back into the market. Everybody needs plumbing, HVAC, and electrical. So all those customers are going to go back. Right now, we have a steady decline in trades guys. By 2030, they say it's going to be 10 million jobs shy.

Wow.

So The the worth of guy in the trade, especially someone who's good, is exponentially growing every single day. So get in, start and learn as much as you possibly can. And if you get in with a good company and you get around good guys, They're going to naturally teach you. Because everybody that is a part of my business and that wants it really bad, that's the only path. I tell them, Hey, today you're sitting on that side of the table. Tomorrow, you'll be sitting on this side of the table. What you do in between that defines when it's going to happen.

Wow. That's amazing, dude. Ben, what would you say are three massive needle movers that someone should implement in their daily habits to be successful like you?

I'd say working out is a 100 % must, right? I agree. Working out is huge. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I think that mindset, besides working out, you fix that, but your mindset of how you approach things will move the needle more than anything, right? And then I would say, just be grounded in what you're doing. A lot of people, they want something, they want to be Jeff Bezos, or they want to be these billionaires, but they don't understand what it takes to get there. So it's just being grounded. You work out, you have a good mindset, and being grounded in where you're at, and just move as fast as you possibly can. I think those are the three most important things for me in my life.

Ben, and when you say move as fast as you can, let's dive deep into that, dude, because I always say success love speed, and I know what you mean when you say that. But for the viewers and for the listeners, what do you mean when you say that?

Well, I think that everybody that is successful has really had in Spanish, they call it They really move fast. They got some movement to them. I see a lot of the guys that are successful in the trades, they get in and they're like, okay, I learned this. Now I'm moving here. I'm going to the next thing. I'm going to the next thing. It's like they can never just be satisfied where they're at.

It's implementing. Yeah.

It's like the train is going up or going down. Tell everybody all the time. It's like either you're going up or you're going down. There's no flatlining. There's no such thing as plateauing in life. So either you're moving forward, upwards, or you're going down. So it's like When I say move fast, it's like, how fast can you learn something and then implement it? The speed to lead, we talk about all the time, is like, how fast can that customer call in till we can get to them? We're going to close those customers. The longer they sit around, it It's 50/50. It's like, how fast can you learn something and then implement it in your life and then learn something else again? And not just be satisfied with what you learned and where you're at, but, Hey, I'm going here.

Dude, I love that. Man, me and you have so much in common, dude. I I'm a big implementer. I'm a big believer in success, low speed, man. That's the only way to move, especially in entrepreneurship, my friend. Cool, brother. All right, so you're going to have 100,000 downloads on this episode, brother, when it comes out. What do you have to say to the viewers and the listeners on what can help them level up from then?

I would say the biggest thing to help somebody level up from me would be get your health in check. If you're unhealthy, you're going to be unhappy. That's what I always say. If you're unhealthy, you're unhappy. So get your health in check and just believe in you. That's the biggest thing. It's like your perception is your reality. So if you believe in you and you believe that you can do anything in this world, you literally can. I really am a firm believer this country is the greatest country in the planet, and you can be whatever you want to be. I put on all my shirts, You are who you are. You are who you want to be by what do today. If you want to be somebody different, you want to be somebody bigger and better, stronger, you better get out and do something about it.

And guys, that's the level up. Ben Jordan, $100 million entrepreneur, guys. Guys, and that's There you have it. This is the level of podcast with Paul Alex. Guys, make sure to leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcast or for our fresh news sponsors from Airwave Media. Thank you guys for sponsoring us. And guys, thank you for getting us on top 10 on all categories stories. Very thankful, Melio, who produces this show. Thankful as well. We've been here for the past... What, it's been like two years now, Melio? Almost two years, guys, and you guys got us up there. So thank you. Helping a lot of people. We're going to be sharing this story with millions of people. We got about what, Melio, like 4 to 5 million downloads now on a monthly basis. They're going to be listening to this podcast, guys. So at the end of the day, guys, we wouldn't be here without you guys. And make sure to check out this episode on YouTube as well. Make sure to check out Ben Jordan on Ben Jordan official on Instagram. And then where else can they also check you out, brother?

I'm on Facebook, and we have a YouTube channel that we just barely opened up as well. It's Ben Jordan official. So everything is going to be under Ben Jordan official here. We're getting it all going. We're getting our school community up. So it'll be up with here in the next month or so. So you'll see some stuff. You're on my Instagram. We'll be dropping some cool stuff. It's going to be just a pathway for everybody in the trades to to not only see where we're going, but how you can get there yourself. Absolutely. There you guys have it. That's the level with Paul-Alex. We'll catch you on the next one.