AC Lockyer: 0:12

Hey, this is AC Locke here and this is Building a Lifestyle Business. And this week I have fellow Central Floridian in the same market as us, right down the street, actually went to Circle Christian with my kids, spent some time at the same church, got a long history with this guy, Andrew Wilburn. And so, Andrew, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody, name your business, where you're at all that good stuff

Andrew Wilburn: 0:41

Absolutely Well. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so, Andrew Wilburn, I am here in Winter Garden technically it's the West side of Orlando and yeah, so we've been basically soft washing since beginning of 2018. January 1st 2018 is when we quit our jobs and started soft washing. So, yeah, and it's been awesome, yeah.

AC Lockyer: 1:09

And so, wife, kids, what do you got?

Andrew Wilburn: 1:13

Yep, yep. So I've been married since 2015. I've got three kids Clay, who just turned six, morgan, who just turned four, and Jack, who's one and they're an absolute blessing to me. I love being a dad and that's kind of one of the best things about the business, honestly, is just being able to be with my kids. Um, for any big event, I spend a lot of time with my kids, and that's important to me, um, and that's that's my main reason why I love being in the soft washing industry.

AC Lockyer: 1:46

Yeah, and so I know you're a golfer. I've actually gulped with you what? Three times in the last two years.

Andrew Wilburn: 1:53

Yeah.

AC Lockyer: 1:53

Yeah, three times the last two years. Kind of crazy because I'm not a golfer, but I guess I've golfed five times in the last two years, so I guess that qualifies as a golfer. I was just on the call with somebody and they noticed I had my calloway shirt on here and I'm like, well, it's not because I'm a calloway fan, it's because it was 15 bucks at sam's yeah, that's where I get all of my clothing.

AC Lockyer: 2:14

I've got great norman shirts too, and that's. Those are supposedly golf shirts, but I like them because they have a shark on them but you're like you're like dude.

Andrew Wilburn: 2:21

You're like a legitimate golfer yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, I've been. I started golfing really early on with my dad, um, and then I took I don't know a decade maybe of no golf, um, and then in high school, for whatever reason, I picked it up and I just absolutely fell in love with it. I practiced every day, I worked at a golf course and they gave me free golf, um, you know, as a, basically a bonus for working there, right and um, yeah, I just fell in love with the sport. I don't play it as much as I used to, obviously having three kids now and a business, but in high school it basically consumed my life and I was able to. You know, like I said, it consumed me for all of high school. I was, you know, no kids, so I was able to play you were.

AC Lockyer: 3:02

You were also on the golf team at Circle Christian right.

Andrew Wilburn: 3:05

I wasn't on the golf team at Circle Christian. I was buddies with a bunch of the Circle Christian guys. They were on the golf team. Yeah, they were on the golf team.

AC Lockyer: 3:12

But those four of you were actually on the team.

Andrew Wilburn: 3:14

No, I wasn't on the golf team. I did go to a golf college which was more focused on the management side of you know how to run golf courses, you know how to maintain golf courses, things like that. But another perk of that, clearly the path to soft washing, right, oh, yes, yes, absolutely. You can tell I was yeah for sure Makes a ton of sense. But no, and with that again, I was able to play a lot of golf. That was a perk of being there. So you know, yeah, for about a seven year period. That's, that was a perk of being there.

AC Lockyer: 3:47

So, um, you know, yeah, for about a seven year period that's. That was my main thing was just golfing. Yeah, it's kind of like how I was with fishing.

Andrew Wilburn: 3:49

You know there's that, there was that season, you know and so, and now speaking of golf and dad, um Clay.

Andrew Wilburn: 3:57

Like I said, he's six.

Andrew Wilburn: 3:58

So I'm like, hey, you want to go out and golf and maybe you know you can see if you like it, and so he's picking it up and he's loving it. Um, so that's kind of my foot back in the door of being able to golf, you know more than I have been.

AC Lockyer: 4:14

So that's, that's been really fun, cool. Have you gotten any little golf?

Andrew Wilburn: 4:16

wiffle balls to whack around the backyard, yep, yep, yep. So he's practiced out in the back and then you know he, he goes and he putts, and you know he, he goes and he putts and you know things like that. He's not playing the whole course, but it's a lot of fun. He gets to drive the golf cart, and so sometimes I'll get off work a little early, pick him up from school and we'll go play. You know nine holes.

AC Lockyer: 4:31

So we'll shoot as a as a kid driving the golf carts a big deal, Right.

Andrew Wilburn: 4:35

Yeah, that's. That's his favorite thing about golf.

AC Lockyer: 4:46

Yeah, I'm not so sure he'd like. Any way, you can get a hook. You know exactly well it's. You know it's really all about spending time with your kids, you know, and developing that relationship. So it's cool to be able to share a hobby with them. Yes, absolutely, yeah, and so, uh, you know, when we look back on 2018, I remember you getting into the business and it was really because your dad had gotten into the business and it was really because your dad had gotten into the business, right, and your dad's name is Jack too, correct? Yep, yeah, so your third child, your youngest, is named after your dad, and so Jack actually worked for a short time with a licensed affiliate that was in the Seminole County area. They were in Daytona Beach and started another branch in Seminole County, and that branch failed and suddenly your dad had gotten introduced to this thing softwashing, had gone out and started selling it, and then you guys decided to do what from there?

Andrew Wilburn: 5:42

Yeah, I mean, basically he looked into the industry because my dad was really enjoying, you know, being in sales of selling soft washing. He liked, you know, seeing before and afters and it was satisfying. And then when the opportunity kind of arose to look into it for ourselves, that's when we kind of really started doing our research, and that was late 2017. I'd say I think we actually got our LLC in october of 2017, um, but yeah, so it was kind of a 50 50 thing with me and my dad in january 1st of 2018, like I said, um, and yeah, I mean we just I was working in the fire suppression industry before it, like right up before it, um, and I was actually cleaning hoods of you know, commercial hoods and schools and things like that.

AC Lockyer: 6:30

Oh no, you were in the hood cleaning thing yeah, yeah, oh that is the worst job in the world. It was awful and that's like a genuine micro dirty jobs episode.

Andrew Wilburn: 6:40

right there, absolutely. It was dirty and wet and nasty and stinky. It was awful. So soft washing is much, much, much better.

AC Lockyer: 6:47

I didn't know that. I didn't know that it explains a lot. Yes, exactly.

Andrew Wilburn: 6:53

Yeah, yeah. And I mean you know you're up underneath a nasty hood with a pressure washer and it's raining down on you, and so yeah it wasn't the best, but yeah, so I was able to transition from that with my dad in the January of 2018. And so we've been kind of going at it ever since. So that's what almost seven full years now, Seven full years Wow. Yeah.

AC Lockyer: 7:16

And so, when you think about your entrepreneurial journey, when you go back to before you got into soft washing, if you were to even go back as early as 2016,. Did you envision yourself being an entrepreneur and owning a business?

Andrew Wilburn: 7:32

Yes, yes, that was always the goal. So I just turned 31. So in 2018, I was so I'm going to butcher the math, but you know, early twenties, um and had recently gotten married and you know, obviously we didn't have a lot of money at the time. My wife was still in school, but I had always wanted to. I enjoyed jobs, but it was always tough for me to just kind of clock in and I don't know. I felt kind of put in a box and paid the bills, but it wasn't what I always wanted to do. As a matter of fact, when I was a kid, I would mow yards in the neighborhood for neighbors. I was flipping things on eBay when I was a kid, so I always had that spirit of being an entrepreneur, but I never had a great opportunity to do it.

AC Lockyer: 8:16

You seem like you're about the age that you're probably selling shoes on eBay.

Andrew Wilburn: 8:20

Yeah, exactly.

Andrew Wilburn: 8:22

I wasn't quite no-transcript, and so when my dad sat me down, he approached me about this in late 2017. It was kind of like I think let's do this, you know, and we put a lot of thought into it and we ripped off the bandaid of kind of finishing what we had been doing and starting this with, you know, no real experience. You know, obviously he he had owned some businesses in the past, but I obviously hadn't, and so it was just one of those things where we wanted to do it as a father and son and um, and you know, I was actually just talking to him about it yesterday, about how grateful I am for the time that we've been able to spend together. Um, it's a really unique, really unique situation that not a lot of people, first of all, a lot of people get into family businesses and it doesn't always end well, and so we still have a great relationship and so we're real thankful for that.

AC Lockyer: 9:34

Yeah, I mean it can be a rocky road, for sure. I've had one of those rocky roads and it was mostly good and it didn't end well, but we, we got back on track. But you know it's.

AC Lockyer: 9:46

I would tell people not to fear that. A lot of people are like, oh, but it could go so bad. Yeah, but it could go bad with people that you don't know that you hire. I mean, it's just. Business is like anything else in life. Life is a struggle. Business is a struggle, you know. Marriage is a struggle, anything is a struggle. Going to school is a struggle. If you didn't do things because of the struggle, nobody would ever accomplish anything.

Andrew Wilburn: 10:11

Right, and it could be bad, yes, but it can also be great, yeah, and so that's what it's been. And then I want to be truthful. Of course we've had our ups and downs. It's business, that's a given.

AC Lockyer: 10:22

I've been on the phone with you during some of those.

Andrew Wilburn: 10:24

Yes, yes, exactly, you know it's not always been perfect, no doubt about it, and you know we've had tussles with each other me and my dad, or just you know business but now we're real thankful for the opportunity that we've had to be able to do this together. And since, I'd say probably about twenty twenty one, early twenty twenty one, I took over the business full time, a hundred percent from my dad and then since then he's been very helpful, kind of on the side. He does some territory manager work for me, going out and running leads and things like that, and sometimes going to meetings, the chamber of commerce and things like that. So when I'm not able to do those things he always steps in because he likes to be able to do that. That's what he's always done is sales. So we've got a really good kind of thing going.

AC Lockyer: 11:04

It's always tough for dads and you know, my dad was a dad and I was the son and now my son's in the business.

AC Lockyer: 11:11

So I'm the dad and he's the son.

AC Lockyer: 11:14

And the thing that's always going to happen and you don't see it as the son, but you one day see it as the father is the process of which is very, very natural, of one generation aging out while the other generation age ages in and the ideas and the vision doesn't match some Um and and the older generation doesn't want to let go, and so you have to plan for that.

AC Lockyer: 11:42

And if you don't plan for your exit, then your exit becomes really, really rocky. And it doesn't mean that you have to plan for that. And if you don't plan for your exit, then your exit becomes really, really rocky, and it doesn't mean that you have to completely exit. I mean you've worked it out really well with your dad that he goes to meetings, chamber of commerce meetings, and presses the flesh and is kind of brand ambassador for you in some areas and does some territory management and goes out and sells jobs and all, goes out and sells jobs and all. So he hasn't completely released from the business, but he has. He has given you the authority and business now and and it takes it takes a lot of humility and understanding to be able to do that, but the transition happens whether you want it to or not.

Andrew Wilburn: 12:21

Yeah, and he's been really gracious with that. I owe my dad a lot of props for that, or not? Yeah, and he's been really gracious with that. I owe my dad a lot of props for that. You know, the transition was smooth and he was very humble and allowed me to do kind of what I had wanted to do as an entrepreneur, because the 50-50 split I was more operational for the first, you know few years, and so I wasn't necessarily able to if I had a real idea of marketing or whatever it might be, it was tougher for was tougher for me to um relay that to him because maybe he thought differently and he had more control at the time of certain areas and so, and I totally understood that.

Andrew Wilburn: 12:51

So, when it kind of came to a point in 2021, where I was like, hey, you know, I, I actually kind of really want to take over the business, you know, and give him a lot of reasons, and he allowed it and he's been super gracious and awesome about that this whole time and even now, you know, if I have any tasks or anything for him to do, he's all. He just jumps right up on it and never complains, always looking to help. So it's, I can't complain. I owe him a lot.

AC Lockyer: 13:16

So so, so you, you ended up, basically, when this other company went out of business. You all somewhat kind of took over then at that point, and and because we weren't, we didn't have any company owned stores in the area at that point, we were just completely in the supplier business. We do now have a company on store in Seminole County, and so you were able to kind of pick up where the other company left off, where they failed.

AC Lockyer: 13:40

I mean the other company literally opened the office, started the office and within 30 days of them starting the office, closed the doors and shut down. It was crazy and abysmal and it was just really sad, can I tell you something about that.

Andrew Wilburn: 13:57

Actually AC was the way that it really worked was when my dad had been working with them um, it was he. He actually had been approached about buying that that area, right, so that was kind of what got us thinking about it. And so you know, ultimately obviously we didn't. We started safely soft wash, uh, but yeah, that exactly it didn't last super long where they were.

AC Lockyer: 14:19

You know, no, no.

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AC Lockyer: 15:05

And so that ended and then you guys started your thing. But in the meantime we opened up a company-owned store in Seminole County and we got together with you and we kind of we don't have territories, but I executed a non-compete agreement with you to protect you, to let you know that I wasn't going to come into your area. We drew a line and I'm really jealous of your area. I was driving through your area the other day. Yeah, I went out to the Ford's garage out there in the Hamlin area and I was just blown away at how much that's grown out there. It is unbelievable how much that West side of town has grown.

AC Lockyer: 15:50

And we were out there for Ken and Birch's funeral the guy that started Dream Builders and that was out in Windermere and so I had to drive right past Islesworth and the Windermere chain of lakes and downtown Windermere. We're driving by, you know, all these beautiful houses and and everything else and I'm just like man Andrew Andrew should just be totally killing it back here because you are. Where your area is is like the hollywood or orlando. This is where all the movie stars and the sports players and all the wealthy of the wealthiest people in the United States have. One of their many homes is in your area.

AC Lockyer: 16:30

Tell us about your, your area a little bit.

Andrew Wilburn: 16:32

Yeah, yeah, so, as you stated, we do have the Isleworth area, which is the Windermere um very nice, um high-end homes, um, you know so we've got. It's the Orange County area um Windermere Bay Hill where the Bay Hill golf tournament is, arnold Palmer, you know so we've got. It's the orange County area um Windermere Bay Hill where the Bay Hill golf tournament is on a bomber.

Andrew Wilburn: 16:48

You know, um, as a matter of fact, the house that. I don't know if people followed Tiger Woods closely a decade or so ago, but when he had his dispute with his wife and the whole thing happened where he crashed into a fire hydrant at that house in Iowa earth. I've actually cleaned that house now.

AC Lockyer: 17:03

Um, I've actually cleaned that house now. I've actually cleaned that house now too. Okay, cool, we used to actually clean it when tiger owned it. Oh, okay, well, that's much cooler.

Andrew Wilburn: 17:10

Okay, you know he doesn't own it anymore. We've cleaned, uh, you know, just for context, you know, shack, we haven't cleaned shack's house but we cleaned all his neighbors. So you get the idea of, like you know, like you said, the movie stars, the basketball players, they, they all live over there. And then we've got some other areas, like where our office is and where I've lived for a while. I don't currently live here, I moved down the road but when, I'm sorry, winter Garden not quite as nice, you know, not all, just mansions is more. You know a lot of restaurants and shops like that. But yeah, no, I mean we've got Orange County's great. Our area kind of goes toward Orlando, the I-4 kind of corridor over there and then into Lake County. You know Claremont and things like that, which is blowing up tremendously. It's crazy. Definitely. We got a lot of competition, obviously, as you know, being over there, central florida, being, uh, you know, everyone wants to soft wash over here.

AC Lockyer: 18:09

Everybody's got a pressure. Everybody puts their eyes on your area and goes oh, I need to be clean in these. You know these 20 million dollar houses right, but but you, they don't trust everybody to clean their houses. There's a lot of people that want to clean those houses, but to break into those houses is really kind of different, because those people are living. We talk about building a lifestyle business. Those people have built a lifestyle business. That's on a whole nother level that we're probably never going to experience.

Andrew Wilburn: 18:37

Right, right, yeah, it's been great to be able to get in those neighborhoods and experience that type of house and you houses that may take. I mean, one of the houses that we did took over a week to clean, um, you know, and so, yeah, I mean, we've definitely had a lot of really fun projects in those areas, um, so, you know, yeah, we're definitely staying busy. I have no complaints with the, the windermere Winter Garden area. It's been really cool and we've never really needed to venture off further away. I remember early on in business, you kind of just take any lead that you can get. Yeah, yeah, right, you know, and so we're going 45 minutes away for, you know, a tiny shingle roof or whatever it might be, and so, you know, we're thankful for that time, but also thankful that we don't really do that anymore. We're kind of, you know, in this smaller bubble, real close to home, and so it's been, it's been pretty good.

AC Lockyer: 19:31

Okay, so, so, okay. So I still don't think people quite realize the types of houses you're cleaning. I remember when I owned Mallard systems cause I've had Mallard systems here in the area we were at one time a 4.8 million dollar a year soft washing company with three branches around the state of florida. I used to do work in your area. That's why we cleaned. You know, we used to clean shack's house, the one that had the blue roof on it. Yep, I've actually been in his recording studio, because a friend of mine, fred mcginn, was his recording engineer. Shaquille o'neal actually made me a ham and cheese sandwich one time, which was really cool.

Andrew Wilburn: 20:05

So I haven't cleaned his house. Yes, yeah.

AC Lockyer: 20:08

Well, I was hanging out in his house as we were mixing down our recording of our church singing group in his studio and all of a sudden you feel like somebody is watching you. We turn around there's Shaq leading up against the door and he's eating a sandwich. He's like hey, oh, hello, mr Shaq. He's like I made sandwiches. You want a sandwich? Yes, yes, mr Shaq, mr Rony, I'll take a sandwich. Thank you very much. When Shaq asks you if you want a sandwich, the answer is yes, yes, absolutely yeah. No, he is a nice guy. So, back in the day, because I got out of the cleaning business, it was about 2009. So, back in the day, I think the biggest house I ever cleaned, as far as dollar amount, was there in Owsworth.

AC Lockyer: 20:59

And it was the guy that owns Schneider elevators and that house. That was a single house cleaning of $11,000.

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AC Lockyer: 21:11

What is your single house cleaning record there in the Bay Hill, Windermere area?

Andrew Wilburn: 21:15

Single house. Now we've done a lot of big projects but they weren't all houses. Biggest house, residential house I've done, I would say I think it was about $17,000, 17 or 18,000. I think, it's about what we've gotten for the biggest one. Now, you know, the smallest one in that neighborhood is, you know, five or $6,000, right so it's an average.

Andrew Wilburn: 21:37

You know, there's no small jobs in there. Yeah, you know, and advice maybe to anyone that's listening to is, a lot of the time, with these really, really successful people that have these mansions, you're not always going to get the homeowner Right, so you need to look for potentially the, you know, someone that manages the home and that's, you know, that's been a big ticket of ours is to kind of get in with management companies that manage these homes and that's that's been allowed us to get our foot in the door in these neighborhoods, and even at that, just because you find a management company, you have to have the right insurance workers come.

AC Lockyer: 22:10

You have to have a good background criminal background checks, they like check you out. I remember when I cleaned the Schneider's house, they had me clean the house down the street, which was the 30, back then the $3,500 house. Right, yeah. And then the housekeeper, and they don't call them property managers, they call them housekeepers. Then the housekeeper looked at me and said, oh well, you've passed the test. That was our guest house. And I said, oh, that was the guest house. She goes yes, now I'm going to take you to Mr Schneider's home. And, um, yeah, and that was, that was the $11,000 one it was. The house was 30,000 square feet, all one level, and it wrapped on Lake Butler and the entire back wall of it was glass, so it had this panoramic view of Lake Butler and and so.

AC Lockyer: 22:59

So I, as I'm quoting the house for the lady and it's just fun to tell these stories, but as I'm quoting the house for the lady, that was the housekeeper I said to her. I said, hey, I noticed you're building another garage that has an apartment above it, and it's two stories. I said I've added that to the quote just so that you have the price for it. I realized it's not done, but it's going to get dirty in the future. That way, you have that number for budgeting it. She went oh, that's not an apartment. And I said yeah, it's going to get dirty in the future. That way, you have that number for budgeting it.

AC Lockyer: 23:29

She went oh, that's not an apartment. And I said yeah, it's a garage with the apartment above. Oh, no, that's not a department. I'm like oh, what is it? She goes it's a two-story garage. I said it's a two-story garage. She goes yeah, you pull in the garage, there's an elevator and there's cars on the second floor. There's cars on the first floor and I'm like, really, looks at me, goes, do you like cars? I'm like, yes, I do.

AC Lockyer: 23:49

You've seen my truck, you know yes.

AC Lockyer: 23:51

Yes, I do like cars. She goes do you like Corvettes? I'm like, well, I'm more of a Mustang person, but no, yes, I like Corvettes. She goes, follow me and she goes. You know that two car garage door down at the end of the house. I said, yeah, she goes, that's the garage. And I said, oh, so it's a two-car garage. She goes, no, it's a 30,000 square foot garage.

Andrew Wilburn: 24:11

Oh, my goodness.

AC Lockyer: 24:12

The entire lower level of this house. Underneath was a garage. So she comes over and she goes listen, there's an alarm system on and everything else. I'm going to open up the man door, the regular single door on the side. I gonna flip on the lights. You can't walk in because the sensors will go off. But she said in the floor of this garage and eventually in this other garage we're building next to the house, uh will is every single model year corvette and every special edition corvette that's ever been made. Oh my goodness, crazy.

AC Lockyer: 24:44

And she flips on the lights and it's like a batman movie where you've gone like into the oh my goodness, crazy, crazy, and she flips on the lights and it's like a Batman movie where you've gone like into the Batcave. It's like rows and rows of lights coming all across the thing and it is. I mean they must have put oil on the floor and skin these Corvettes in there. They were packed in so tight. There was every year corvette in there. Yep, and I was like this is crazy.

AC Lockyer: 25:15

And she goes oh, that's just one of seven houses mr schneider has around the world and they're all basically the same house with a 30 000 square foot garage underneath, all full of cars. And I, I went how many can the guy drive? She goes oh, you don't realize. And this is where I found out about this. The reason why Jay Leno and all these people have these huge garages full of cars is that's their bank, because there's a tax loophole. And the tax loophole is is that when you buy a classic car here in the united states, when you buy it, you can buy it with pre-tax money and then any money you put into fixing up the car, restoring the car, you can do with pre-tax money and then, if you ever sell the car.

AC Lockyer: 26:00

The only taxes you have to pay is on the gain so if you buy the car for 20 000, you put 20 into it, but you sell it for 50. You only pay 27 capital gains tax on the 10 000 dollar gain. Oh, okay, and I said, oh, but does he buy and sell him? He goes, no, what they do is they put all these cars in these gigantic vaults and whenever they need to borrow money they go to the bank and the cars are the collateral for the loan. So they said they never sell the cars, they just use them as collateral to pull out money out of the bank to be able to do business deals.

AC Lockyer: 26:39

A whole nother world. It's a world we don't even think about. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and so when you look at some of these houses like you're cleaning here in the Orlando, florida area, which is an incredible market, the most competitive pressure washing market in the world, by the way, there's more pressure washers and soft washers on the I-4 corridor through Orlando than any other place in the world. They're on every single block, every single block. You go to lunch On your way driving to lunch, you see six pressure washing trucks while you're driving lunch in your pressure washing truck, you know yes, um, and so these people, just, these homes are just on a different level. The furniture's insides on a different level. The cars that they buy are it's at a different level and when you look at them and say, hey, it's, it's going to be $17,000 to clean your home, they're like okay, it's not even a mortgage payment, right, that's no problem.

AC Lockyer: 27:33

Yeah, it's not even one month's mortgage payment.

Andrew Wilburn: 27:36

Right yeah.

Andrew Wilburn: 27:36

And I mean if you treat them well, and the thing about it is, too, is they've got other connections. Like you said, where it was, this is just the guest house. I've got these four other over here. This is just the guest house. I've got, you know, these four other over here. You know, if you, if you do well the first time, there's a lot of recurring work that goes back there, and we found that I mean, I think the first people that went up in, oh, not Elon Musk, who's the one that owns Amazon, jeff Bezos, jeff Bezos, yeah, yeah. So I think Blue Origin. I'm not sure where they go up and they do like these space adventures.

Andrew Wilburn: 28:05

Blue Origin, I'm not sure where they go up and they do like these space adventures. So the first people that went up like residential civilians that went up for the first time with him was two of our customers. Yeah, and they actually have a house in Winter Park and this was so we. That was probably the first time we ever cleaned their house was probably four or five years ago and again, just an absolute. You know, massive house, uh, beautiful glass walls everywhere, and you know that was like a week long cleaning as well. Um, but the thing is they are in a process of building and I think it's almost done the new biggest house in all of central Florida, like all of winter park. It's like all over the news, um, and so it'll be interesting to see if we go and clean that as well. But, um, you know they own businesses and things over here that we've cleaned for them.

Andrew Wilburn: 28:55

We clean their offices and so you know, it's really important to do a good job when you go out the first time and um, you know, so we've got a good setup.

AC Lockyer: 29:03

It's a lot of responsibility to be able to hold on to and handle those types of clients. Yes, absolutely yeah. So, yeah, yeah, I know you know you talk about those, um, it's uh, oh, I'm trying to remember the guy that owns Virgin.

Andrew Wilburn: 29:19

Oh, it's, a yeah.

AC Lockyer: 29:20

Yeah, sir, you know I got an excuse. I'm 55 years old. What's your excuse? It's like, well, I haven't took the part time, but anyhow, somebody listening to the podcast right now is yelling at his radio telling us his name. Right, but yeah, with his company they had bought tickets with his company and the tickets it was John and Diana, diana Cloud. Diana Cloud bought tickets and they were $750,000 each. That sounds about right. It was like, yeah, I'm going to buy a $750,000 ticket to do a space trip up into outer space and then come back down to land. That was almost a decade ago. They were that much. They were investor tickets. Now I think it's a quarter of a million dollars to go up, you know, and be up there for 15, 20 minutes and then it comes back down.

Andrew Wilburn: 30:13

That's, that's what it was, I think it was they basically, I think it was reported that it was half a million dollars essentially to go up and and that was you know, it was kind of almost no guarantee at the time, when they even bought their tickets too, because it was still like new and you know, maybe you know, and they're just like you know, just write a check for five hundred thousand to go up into space. I mean, cool opportunity for them. That's, that's awesome. As a matter of fact, one time we were cleaning their house and they actually came, you know, they pull up and they're getting in their garage and they come out and they're in like a space, like actual, like like looking space suit, like I'm not even kidding. It was crazy, yeah, and they were, you know talk to us getting ready.

Andrew Wilburn: 30:50

Yeah, yeah, you know just getting ready because they had to do training, I guess, for the takeoff and things.

AC Lockyer: 30:54

So Well, when, when they get the tickets down to a hundred grand, I'll be a little closer to roof, cleaner money and I might be able to do it.

AC Lockyer: 31:00

You know so Passionate on equity and maybe I'll go, but but yeah, I mean it's, it's. It's kind of cool because you are in, we're both in, and well, I'm in, I'm in eight countries and three territories now, but with all of our licensed affiliates and what we're doing worldwide together as a, as a team, as a company, you know, symbiotic organization that we are, but the market that we share, you know, I don't get. I don't get the $17,000 houses up in Seminole County, but it's a great market and we do have a lot of competition. But, that being said, even with all the competition, we have great companies that have great revenues and have great profit and it allows you to build a great lifestyle business. So when we're talking about building that lifestyle business, you know now you've been doing this for several years why three kids. You know you've built this great life. What, what, what does the future hold? What is building a lifestyle business mean to you and where are you taking this now?

Andrew Wilburn: 32:06

yeah, I mean a lifestyle business mean to you, and where are you taking this now? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean a lifestyle business to me is is basically what I've been able to build, and that's being able to not necessarily have to be clocked in all day, every single day, not always answering the phone all day, every single day. I've got people that are in control of you know. If something pops up, they can go take care of the situation. Obviously, at times I have to do what I have to do, and that's part of being in a business. I still have to serve my customers and my clients, but you know, we go on vacation, family vacations.

Andrew Wilburn: 32:37

I think we took three this year and I was able to remove myself from the business for four or five days at a time, and I'm, you know, work is still getting done.

Andrew Wilburn: 32:47

You know, I went to my son's graduation all of these things that happen during the workday, right, and so I'm able to spend a lot of time with my kids and again, I'm repeating myself, but that really is.

Andrew Wilburn: 32:58

I'm kind of, I'm just in this stage of life where the most important thing to me is to give time to my kids and and, uh, watch them grow and have no regrets in that area, cause I feel like, down the road, if I had any regret, it would be that I wasn't with my kids enough, not that, you know, oh, I should have worked more. You know, I feel like that wouldn't have been the regret, at least not for me. And so this, this business, has been able to kind of afford me to take that time. And you know, and as far as the future holds, you know we've got a good thing going. I don't necessarily look too far out in the future, but we continue to grow year over year. And so, you know, I don't know exactly, but maybe add a truck, you know, continue to grow here and there and kind of maintain what we have and getting better and adding more processes to refine certain things. There's always room for improvement.

Andrew Wilburn: 33:54

Always yeah, sure, and so that's actually kind of what I'm working on now is with through coaching and things like that of you know how can we get better? We've got a good thing, but business fluctuates, it's not always perfect, you know. We've got times where we need to. We could have done certain things that we didn't, and so that's kind of what I'm seeking through coaching, and so you know that that's kind of what it is Make sure that we continue to serve our customers well, make sure that we have a good work environment for my employees that they like showing up to work best. You know, obviously it's still work, but they've been still work, they've still been very reliable for me and I think we've got a good thing going with as far as keeping our guys happy. And so you know, yeah, just kind of maintaining that.

AC Lockyer: 34:36

I think the key thing that you said was the life stage that you're in. You're in that dad with young kids, yeah, okay. So, mom, dad, young kids, vacations, school plays, practices, games. Um, you know, I know when, when I was in your phase of life, owning my soft washing business, and you, you know, you, you were here in orlando. You, yeah, I went. I went from being an owner operator to having two or three trucks, to you know, mallard in or Orlando to three branches around the state.

AC Lockyer: 35:08

$4.8 million a year and Mallard trucks running all over the place and everything. And that whole time I was at church every Sunday morning. I was at church every Sunday night. I was at church every Wednesday evening. Every game every you know. Every play, every you know anything where you would think you would want to be as a dad. I got to be at all of those things because I didn't have a B-O-S-S. You know what I'm saying.

AC Lockyer: 35:38

And if I wanted to take off, I was my own boss, I could take off. I could say, today I'm quitting at three and I'm going to three and I'm I'm going to go to that recital. I'm going to go to that. You know, that practice or that game, or be at church or go on a mission trip, you know, and spend time with my kids or take a family vacation or whatever.

AC Lockyer: 35:58

We were able to buy an RV and, and you know, for us, I married a girl from Texas, so a lot of what we ended up doing was just traveling back and forth to Texas a lot, and, and so that was going out there for holidays, it was going out there for summer camp at Abilene Christian University to drop off the kids and put them within what we call the early indoctrination program at Abilene Christian. Yeah, yeah, so they knew that's where they were going for college, right and um, you know, and so that's what it really meant for me, because I was in that phase of life you're in, and I'm sure those are the things that you want to do and and you probably can't see very far beyond that right now, because you got several years left of doing that yeah, yeah and so, and my wife has been super supportive too.

Andrew Wilburn: 36:42

My wife is a nurse, um, and so it's been able to. Her schedule has been fantastic because she only works, you know, once or twice a week, and so you know we don't have to have them in daycare, and so we just have a really good home environment for our kids where the parents are home often, and it's just been a huge blessing. Maybe a little bit later on down the road I'll be able to, or maybe want to, put a little bit more time into work.

AC Lockyer: 37:07

But you're not in takeover the world mode right now.

Andrew Wilburn: 37:11

Yeah, it comes, it comes and goes in waves, but yeah, it's a lot of fun when we're busy and you know the checks are hitting and things like that. But it's also nice, you know, in the, in the slower months, you know, you know summers or around Christmas time, where you know Christmas time Again. An amazing thing about this lifestyle business is we from. Well, let's see the 24th, so it's Christmas Eve all the way through, basically the 2nd of January. So December 24th or the 2nd of January, right, guys. Just we close and we just stay at home and we enjoy time with our families. I pay those guys for that time off. Everybody stays happy and I just, you know, it's things like that.

Andrew Wilburn: 37:53

You get to completely turn it off. Yep, exactly Yep, and nobody you know nobody wants to get their house clean during that time anyway. So it just makes too much sense not to do it that way.

AC Lockyer: 38:05

But you could work because I know you do a lot of schools.

Andrew Wilburn: 38:08

Yes.

AC Lockyer: 38:09

And the schools are closed, then so you could work, but you get the luxury of saying I'm just not going to work, right?

Andrew Wilburn: 38:16

Yep, the work will be waiting for us come January 2nd and we book up January and we work real hard up until the Christmas Eve and then we can kind of sit back and enjoy our families and time off and reflect on the year and be thankful for what we've accomplished. And it's like a natural reset to you know, you're, you know, a little over a week it comes to. About a week and a half is essentially the time off that everybody gets and we come back and it's almost refreshed. It's a natural reset and so everybody's in a way excited to come back and start a new year and start new projects. So that's, you know, it's just a huge blessing to be able to do that kind of thing.

AC Lockyer: 38:53

Well, and we do the same thing. We build it in and I think I kind of inspired you to take that week off, because I always harp on people about that. But you know, we at SoftWash Systems of Seminole County the company branch that we have set up right next to SoftWash Systems so people can see a branch actually working and functioning Our team works four-day weeks, so every weekend is a three-day weekend and we give them off the week of Fourth of July every year. We give them off the week of Labor Day every year. We give them off the week of Thanksgiving every year. We give them off the week between Christmas and New Year's every year, and so that's four weeks off a year and every weekend's a three-day weekend. It doesn't get hard to find team members when you're offering a package like that.

Andrew Wilburn: 39:36

Right, yeah, and that's incredible. I mean, I've been considering something like that. That's something that I still have to run by my team, um, but you know, you got to work like hell for 48 weeks to make the same amount of revenue.

AC Lockyer: 39:50

You know Right right, right.

Andrew Wilburn: 39:51

Well, that, and you know the, the days are obviously a bit longer to do the 40 in the in the four days. But, um, you know, it's a, it's a mixed bag with that. Some, some guys have kids and they want to get home earlier through the day, and some guys are like, oh yeah, I'll work a full day if I get Friday off. You know so, um, but no, that's genius. I love that. That's a lot of time off for people.

AC Lockyer: 40:11

So it's important because, like you said, you want to take care of your team members and you want to create a great work environment for them, because you know I mean people want to have a life. Yeah, building a lifestyle business means you're building a business to give you a life, but it's very selfish if you're not giving your team a life too.

Andrew Wilburn: 40:30

Right, yeah, yeah, and so that's. That's one of those things where any anytime we have the opportunity. Like you you mentioned, we do a lot of schools, so those are bigger projects for us and they take more time, but the ticket is bigger. You know. You're talking upwards of $100,000 jobs, potentially even, and so I always on those types of projects where the guys are over there working, you know, for days on end, potentially over a month, maybe two months even on some of these. You know we do big bonuses for stuff like that and so that kind of keeps them happy and you know everybody loves a good little bonus to be able to be rewarded for a big project and things, and so we make sure to do that as much as possible.

AC Lockyer: 41:12

And then you know the soft wash systems. Pro forma helps out with that too, because we know a certain percentage of the dollar goes to payroll for technicians and if they, if they do it in a compressed period of time but like, let's say, for even numbers, you got $100,000 to do a job and 20 cents on the dollar goes to technician payroll and it took X number of weeks to do it. But at the end of the job you are under on your payroll, your 20% payroll budget by $5,000 or $6,000. Well, you've got some money, you can give some bonuses and that makes the team happy.

Andrew Wilburn: 41:46

Absolutely yeah, yeah, any, like I said, any chance we get to be able to do something like that, we do. And so it's kind of like a running joke or whatever through softwash systems that I've somehow managed to keep my employees for an extremely long period of time, and so you know, like I just feel, feel blessed. We've got a great group of guys and and you know when we have had people, well, you did, you did lose garrett, I did lose garrett, I did. He's gonna be really happy that he's getting named dropped by ac lockyer in this, um, but how can you forget garrett for crying out loud?

Andrew Wilburn: 42:21

he was so awesome garrett's the man um and and he's.

AC Lockyer: 42:25

He has such a great mustache.

Andrew Wilburn: 42:26

He does have a great mustache. I'm working on mine, if you're watching.

Andrew Wilburn: 42:31

But yeah, no, and Garrett's a good buddy of mine and I've hired his brother and friend. You know people in the church friend group and things like that, and that's just been really good because you know when work is maybe they're not on a fun job or it's hard and they're you know it's hot in the summer. They're still with people they know and they love these guys, they love each other, and so that that's worked well for us to kind of hire in a in a friend group bubble almost in a way, and and keep everybody. You know they get to go see their friends at work. It's not just, you know. Ah, you know I don't, I don't like the people I work with because that would make things much worse, and so, yeah, it's been pretty cool.

AC Lockyer: 43:08

So what would you tell people if they're considering getting into a cleaning business? What would you tell them about your decision with soft wash systems and encouraging them on that?

Andrew Wilburn: 43:21

I would say do it. And the main reason is because, like I said, I've been in business for about seven years now and through those seven years I've seen you know, quote unquote my competitors come and go, and come and go, and come and go, and the reality is they don't have any systems in place. Right, they see? Ok, soft washing sounds great.

Andrew Wilburn: 43:41

Oh, I just you know, squirt bleach on this building and I get paid $400. That sounds amazing, but that's not sustainable, as we know, and you've got to have processes in place to have things be repeatable and to grow your company. And so, with software systems, we've been able to get all the systems and the processes that we've talked about in place for us, essentially, and then at that point it's just up to me to abide by those and to apply them to my own company and hold my guys accountable to those things. And that automatically puts people above you know their competitors because, like I said, these guys don't really actually know what they're doing.

Andrew Wilburn: 44:22

All they know is they're going to get the biggest, baddest equipment for the cheapest they can possibly do and they're going to spray as much bleach as fast as they can on buildings and that's that, and whatever happens after that it is, and that's a race to the bottom right.

Andrew Wilburn: 44:35

It's a race to the bottom. It's who who can charge the least and do them, you know. And so, um, we just think completely different from that. We try to charge the absolute most. I'd like to do less work than those guys for double the price, maybe triple, you know, be more profitable. You know, not overwork my guys. And so, anyway, long story short is that you know, you kind of are plugged in with a community of people that are helpful. Everybody's going to have questions and our questions get answered and the systems that are applied, like I said, are very helpful. So I think it's the way to go, and I love soft washing. Soft washing is fantastic. I think it's a phenomenal community. I wouldn't change it for anything, and I've been able to do the Top Guns with soft wash systems and help teach, and that's been a huge blessing for me. Yep, I love the Top Gun instructor.

AC Lockyer: 45:27

Yes, sir, systems and help teach and that's been a huge blessing for me. Yeah, I love the instructor.

Andrew Wilburn: 45:29

What's your? Call sign Burns Burns, that's right. Yes, yeah, my last name is Will Burns, so you know we've been with that. But no, I love to teach. I'd love to teach people the systems, the, the equipment, which is beautiful and fantastic. It's the absolute best. I've done TikTok videos on this as, as you know and you know, it blew up with people being like oh my gosh, it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. There's a one day I want to be like you.

Andrew Wilburn: 45:52

You know things like that, where it's like hey man, I'm just taking a video of this awesome equipment and you know so it's cool to see people really love that that side of the software systems and so, um, but yeah, no, and and the Top Gun, like I said, has been fun because we're able to teach, and I kind of see things from a different perspective when I'm there for the week of the Top Guns, you know, and it's fun to be back on a truck because I haven't personally been soft washing myself, or well, since about 2021, when I took over. So we're approaching, you know, four years now of me and not actually doing the cleaning, just kind of running the business in the day to day.

Andrew Wilburn: 46:30

And so it's fun to get back on the truck and get, you know, my hands on these projects with these new people coming into the industry and see their excitement and feed into that. And then I come back to my guys with a renewed excitement and fresh perspective sometimes and so that's really cool. And so, yeah, I mean I can't say enough about the self-watch systems. I hope I'm not gloating too much about you guys, but it is all genuine.

Andrew Wilburn: 46:55

It's been life-changing and I actually mean that from the bottom of my heart, because in 2018, when we started, I didn't really have any money, you know, and my wife was in college and she was working for like $10 an hour as a scribe at a hospital, and so, you know, when we first started, like I said, we had bought the equipment and we didn't have much money. And, you know, you hope for success in the future, but you know, I see people coming in and out of the business, you know, and doing their, but I, you know future, I see right, no for sure, I'm in and out of the business, you know, and doing their best, but you know they failed. So, um, you know to, to fast forward to where we've been for these past couple of years, where you know it's really turned into that lifestyle business. You know, I'm off the truck, I'm with my kids, my bills are paid, um, and so I think that anybody that wants to get into the industry, should lean into software systems and see what they can do for them Cool.

AC Lockyer: 47:51

Well, there you go, guys. I can't say it any better than that. And, Andrew, thank you so much for joining us this week on Building a Lifestyle Business. It was a great conversation and hey, listen, guys, if you really liked this podcast, hit the like, go ahead and hit share and subscribe for us and you can be like Andrew, start your lifestyle business and be able to achieve your life's goals and dreams. Andrew, thanks so much for being on. Man, thanks for having me. All right, guys. So, ac Locke, you're here and, as always, guys, go forth and prosper. We'll see you at the next podcast.