182. From High School Dropout to $2M/year

0:00Imagine you're 19 years old, living life on the edge. You've dropped out of high school, you're selling drugs, and you feel completely lost. One night, you're driving to work. Just another night in a long string of reckless choices. But then it happens. A car crash. Metal crunches, glass shatters. And as you sit there on the side of the road, heart pounding, you have a moment of absolute clarity. I was a high school dropout, dealing drugs, and completely lost. One night, I ran a red light, and in an instant, my entire life changed. I took out two$3 ,500 PayPal loans, converted an old boat trailer into a pressure washing rig and pulled it behind a blue Honda Odyssey van.

0:40That's how I started my business. This is Ryan Atkinson and you're listening to The Up Flip Podcast where we uncover the secrets of building and running successful businesses. And that moment changed everything for Joshua Brown. It set him on a completely different path. One that led him from rock bottom to running a multi-million dollar business. Today, he's not just a successful entrepreneur, but a leader, a mentor, and proof that second chances can lead to incredible things. And I am thrilled to welcome him to the podcast today. He's the founder of Brown's Pressure Washing that started with just a$3 ,500 loan and is now projected to do over$2 million this year.

1:12Joshua, I am so, so excited to welcome you on here. You've got such a great story. So thank you so much for being here. Humbled and honored to be here. So thank you, Ryan. It's going to be so good. And obviously, a super important part of you before you even dive into Brown's Pressure Washing is your background. Listeners, you probably just heard that intro and they're like, Joshua, what the heck, man? Like, what is your background here? What inspired you to start this business? Take us back. Yeah, just give you a quick recap. Drug dealer, pothead, high school dropout. Dad offered to pay for my abortion, not been in my life.

1:41My mom was 15 at that time and she was born into a home whose dad ended up going to prison by the time she's 13 and her adopted mom is addicted to pain, medication, alcohol. Madison, Tennessee. If anybody knows anything about Nashville, it's kind of the ghetto. And that's my starting point. And my mentors ended up becoming Dr. Dre, Snoot, NWA, Tupac. And that's what ultimately led me into that lifestyle. So today, by the grace of God, I've been a vocational pastor for 22 years. Crazy transformational story through that car wreck. Got my GED, pastoral ministry degrees, Christian counseling. And then after several years, just got a little burnt out.

2:23And now what I do is I run ministry in the marketplace through this thing called pressure washing. Ah, dude. So, so good. I want to ask specifically about the car crash. Take us to like that story. Cause it's for you. That's like the turning point in your life. Essentially. I'd love to hear like the story of like the car crash. Yeah. So I was a 19 years old. I had a Honda Prelude, four tens, four mids, two different amps with the Alpine EQ. It also was It was like a thugged out hunt prelude where it was dropped, 5 % window, 10 % all the way around. And I was following a friend of mine named Pookie.

2:57Pookie had a 3000 GT stealth and it had six gears. And when he threw it back in second, your whole body would just come out. Your spirit would come out of your body when he popped the clutch. But I was following a friend of mine to go smoke up before it went into Papa John's for the night. So we were going to my place and he ran a yellow light. And then as the light turned red, I fishtailed it as well. So I ran the red light. Well, it was like a scene of Dukes of Hazzard. And there was a dude driving a green Ford Ranger from the other side. And we met in the middle. So basically me turning left, him going straight, two wheels pop off.

3:33My car turns into a banana. I'm sitting on the side of the road looking at my car. And I denied medical attention because for our listeners, there used to be this thing called D.A.R.E. It was a war against drugs. and you go to jail if you had THC in your system. So I denied medical attention. And as I sat there and looked at my car and people staring at it and ambulance and fire department, I just realized if I would have died in that car wreck, my life was making an impact on nobody. Oh man, that realization I feel like is just like so heavy and just like so much to like process, just especially like at that age, I wanna ask like, okay, Ben was, Like the next day you're like, you know what, like I'm going to go start a company or like, what were those like few days after the car crash like for you?

4:20Well, I remember people were coming over and visited. I had broken up with my girlfriend. You know, she got kicked out of her house, ended up living with me. And I'm like, man, I cannot have a person living with me right now. So I told her she had to go back home. And so when that car wreck happened, she ended up showing up at my door. or so I would say it was emotional because as I look back now, we've been married, have six kids, married for 28 years. And so just, just thinking about those moments, I just felt like I didn't have purpose and meaning in my life. And so if you were to say, Hey, what, what was going on?

5:03People were visiting. I was going through the motions, but I had something inside my head and heart just thinking, I'm kind of wasting it. I'm not making a difference in anybody's life around me. And that's what was getting at me. Oh, man. Yeah, that is like incredibly powerful, the switch and everything. So I congratulate you on that switch. I want to keep talking about Brown's pressure washing, of course, as well. Like, when is the idea to like start a company come up then? Was it months after this? I mean, like, talk to us about that. Yeah, you end up thinking about starting a company when you get burnout and unsatisfied with whatever you're currently doing.

5:40And after 17 years of being inside the local church, I've got burnout. I felt like other people were controlling my pathway. I felt like I wasn't able to provide for my family, having a big family. I was working Uber and Lyft and Papa John's and also at a church. And so I'm like, surely, surely there's something I can do to provide for my family and control my future versus being controlled for my future. For those of you that don't know about ministry, sometimes you go from city to state every couple of years. And I worked at seven different churches over the course of 22 years. I got tired of moving my family around.

6:21And so that motivated me to Google top five businesses to start with$5 ,000 or less. And that began the journey of starting a pressure washing company. Oh, man, I love that. So let's talk about like that research, the top five easiest companies to like start. I'd love to hear like when you see this, I mean, are you like, oh, I know how to do pressure washing. I'll learn. I'd love to hear like that starting like origin story for you. Well, I went through all five and, you know, at that time, cats went to hell and dogs went to heaven and I wasn't going to start taking photographs of people's animals.

6:55but now I look back on him like man I should have started taking photos of people's animals that would have been so much easier and then also like climbing inside of chimneys being a chimney sweeper was on the board and I researched and I'm like yeah I don't think that's it yeah and I had a friend that had started a pressure washing business so I'm the type of person that I like to get my hands dirty play with it and determine if I could see myself doing this and so I actually reached out to a friend of mine that had a pressure washing business in High Point, North Carolina. And I just said, Hey, Parker, do you mind if I come and work with you for half a day?

7:31And I worked with him for four hours. He made more legal money than I'd ever seen. He made like 800 bucks. I'm like, let's go. Let's go. And I knew nothing. And so if our listeners are wondering like, Hey, did he have business? No, I'm a high school dropout that went to college and got a pastoral ministries degree, didn't know a whole lot about starting or scaling a business. But I am determined to figure out a way to provide for my family and stop moving around year after year. And so I just wanted that to stop. And when you have your back against the wall and you're looking for a way to provide, you'll do anything.

8:04Yeah. And basically, that's where it all started. Yeah. What I really love about reading between the lines here is you have a reason why. Your back's against the wall. You're looking to provide for your family. This wasn't something where it's like, I have an abundant lifestyle. Let me just add an extra five grand to my bank. this is like, oh man, like I need to provide for my family. And you had that really deep why. Yeah. And I'd say if you don't have a strong why, you're just jumping on somebody else's what and somebody else's what won't sustain your why. You got to find your why and let that drive your what.

8:36And that's one of the biggest mistakes that I see entrepreneurs make is that they're jumping on something that somebody else is doing versus taking the time of saying, what is my why? because your why will determine whether or not you're gonna eat a chocolate chip cookie or not. I think that's so good. And listeners, we're gonna dive into like revenue, marketing, sales, and startup costs, but I wanna hit on this subject as well, like developing your why, like why you start a company, why you do what you do. Entrepreneurship is so hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm sure you can relate to that in some essence as well.

9:09I wanna ask you like developing your why, how should someone that doesn't have a business idea, but wants to start a business, like how do they identify that why? I think you really have to take time to think. And in our society, thinking is a rarity. You know, we're often letting social media control our thoughts when we need to break free for a little bit, get a pad, get a pencil and sit in a corner in a dark room and just process. And I know this is oversimplifying, but really your why is already inside of you. You just have to spend time asking yourself, man, what am I living for? What kind of difference am I going to make with my life?

9:48And what comes out of that paper and that pen is ultimately going to be something strong. And so it's core identity questions. It's kind of like, who am I? And who are the family members? What's my roles? And how can I live this life? and you really start with the end in mind. I don't know if you've ever done this before, Ryan, but have you ever imagined yourself looking at yourself in a casket? I have not sure to answer your question here. Yeah, so if you want to learn how to reverse engineer your life, you start with the end in mind and the end really does start with our funeral. And so I literally thought about those type of questions, And I wrote my obituary, kind of like, what do I want the people around my funeral to say about me?

10:38And it's not about pressure washing. It's not about what business. It's more about the character and the impact that my life plays on others. Pressure washing was just the vehicle that allowed me to make some economics to be able to impact and influence other people in this life, which is what really matters. is in my life, it's, I want the people around my grave to say he loved me, he cared. And that gets into being a transformational leader or being a transactional leader, which really is what each one of our listeners need to ask is, are you trying to live for a transaction or for transformation?

11:15Transformation will take you so far. I love it. Most people spend months, sometimes years, just thinking about starting a business. But what if you could do it in just 10 days? that's exactly what the 10 day business launch plan is designed for. It's a step-by-step roadmap that takes you from idea to real operational business in just 10 days. Click the link in the description below and get ready with your business. Power Washington is obviously like your unlock really into entrepreneurship. You're thinking about your obituary about like what you can make an impact on what you can start here. You're fine for a little bit.

11:47You work here four hours. You see the most legal money you've ever seen before. What happens next? I mean, are you like, okay, I'm going to start a company the next day? Do you work with him a little bit longer? Talk to us about those various founding steps there. So during this time, we didn't have cool channels like Upflip and Academy is where we could buy courses and see all the cool stuff. I mean, you had Google, but a little, you know, Facebook and threads is what you read. But my personality is once I make a decision, I don't look at all the potential failures. I just pursue. And so I think that's one of the superpowers of someone who has gone through a lot of trauma in their life.

12:27Once they make a decision, they can get through anything and nothing's going to stop them. But when you start counting all the different costs and variables that you can end up being your worst critic. And this is why it's so important to remember that when people are on their deathbeds, they're more regretting the things they didn't do in life versus the things they did do in life. So why not reverse engineer it and burn the ships and say, what must I do to be my own boss and to live the life I desire to live? So I didn't, I didn't let any, I just did it. I bought a trailer, I bought the equipment and I just doing what you needed to do.

13:07Obviously. And obviously what you need to do is get your first client. So you have the trailer, you've got the equipment. Like how are you landing your first client, Joshua? I am checking out all the Facebook groups and I'm looking for anybody that is saying, hey, they need pressure washing. And then I'm posting on it. And so I'm literally like a hawk. And one of the principles that we teach inside of our webinars is in order to go up, you have to give up. And so you can't be playing Fortnite and be searching Facebook or looking for pressure washing. You got to say, hey, I got to stop this so I can start this.

13:42And so I started searching that way. And then I just told people, I said, hey, I have a pressure washing company. We'd love to do work for you. If you ever need our services, let us know. And so I would go ahead and take on the identity of someone who pressure washes. And that's an important part. I want to ask about the identity of taking that on. Talk to us about the importance of that, because I do think it is an important step in entrepreneurship to become an entrepreneur, but start acting like an entrepreneur. So have you ever felt like life was like you're in this boxing match with Mike Tyson?

14:16Oh, yeah, I felt that in November and December this year. And it's like everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth. And after four years of running a pressure washing company, we hit 900 ,000 in our fourth year. And I still didn't have the identity of like that I own a pressure washing business. Now I carried it on the outside, but on the inside, it wasn't until year six, seven, eight that I'm like, I think we have something that works here. You know, it was after for some reason. But I pretended on the outside that this is who I was and this is what we do. And my wife would even push back and say, babe, you know nothing about pressure washing.

14:59How are you going to pressure wash somebody's house? I said, I'm a pressure washer. I'm going to clean people's houses. You just take on the mindset of what does this person think about? What do they do? And then you start thinking and doing what they think and do. That's what kind of sounds of like fake it till you make it type of thing, honestly. Is that kind of the strategy you took on? because it's something that honestly, as a CEO myself, founder myself, like I sometimes do. Yeah, I think you have to because in reality, nobody's born something. You have to become something. And so if you're not there, you just have to talk to yourself like you are there.

15:31And it's the same thing if you're trying to quit smoking. Think of James Clear's book, Atomic Habits. You've got to go ahead and become, no, I don't do that. I do this and just go ahead and receive that identity. And over time, your mind will end up stepping into what you are or who you are. That is really good advice there. I want to keep asking as well about like customer acquisition in those early days. Obviously, you said by year four, you're doing$900 ,000, which is incredible. For what you know now about like customer acquisition, if someone was like, you know what, like I do want to try pressure washing, what would you tell them about getting your first customer?

16:09How would you do it now? Well, if I was coaching them or if we were in some type of relationship, I'd first find out what their unique abilities are because not everybody's cut out for the same type of work. Great answer. You really have to find out who you are and what you're great at if you're going to do something like this. And so if you're new to a city and you've got no network, you're going to have to use some paid advertisements and you're going to have to go out and door hang and door knock. So it really depends on your positioning inside of a city. If there's a market there, Now I'm maybe oversharing, but if you're new and you're trying to get your first few customers, know who you are and work towards what you're good at, not what you're not good at.

16:51And so if you're not good with relationships, you need to go to PPC, LSAs, and Facebook ads. If you're great with relationships, join some BNI, some contractors, and start meeting people in your community. And so my strategy would be based on your personality. Because your revenue growth has been very, very impressive. I mean, you scaled from$200 ,000 to nearly$2 million a year in six years, which I think is incredible. I want to talk about lead gen here. What has been like your best source of leads right now? How are you guys bringing people in? Is it PPC? Is it door knocking? Is it talking? Yeah, so your stage of business will determine your business plan.

17:29And so you got to know what stage you're in. Our stage today is going to be more referrals, relationship, business networking. We've grown to, by the grace of God, we've grown to have a lot of favorable relationships. And so that opens up doors that weren't open when we were first starting. And so if I've got someone starting, I really am going to encourage them to get that Google location up, start getting photos on news, get paid per click. I would encourage an expert that knows how to use your Google ads and get your local service ads and Facebook ads up. To me, in the first four or five years, I'd say maybe even the first seven, eight years, you really are just trying to win the game of Monopoly.

18:14And the way you win is you buy every piece. You know, you mortgage every piece you get to get another piece because, you know, eventually everybody's going to be coming this way. And so now we've got doors that we couldn't get open. So I might be oversharing, but I'm just saying it changes through the course of your business growth. I want to ask about competition as well, because you are in the Nashville area. That's not a small market by any means. This is a pretty large market here. How did you guys stand out from the competition and, you know, move your pieces right in Monopoly to have such a successful business?

18:45Well, in Nashville, we have incredible, incredible people here inside the pressure washing space. And we have folks have been here for 16, 20 plus years. And they're just as good as we are as it relates to the relationships they have and their knowledge base. And so huge amount of respect for all of our competitors here in Nashville. The way we stand out is we be uniquely us and not try to be uniquely somebody else. And so we've created what we would call a core value driven business where we try to lead with our core values. And so from who we hire to who we fire to how we do leadership development, it all comes down to those values.

19:29And we have three of them as humble, honest, hardworking teams. at the end of the day, we try to distinguish ourselves through having servant leaders who show up to your house. And that's our word for humble. And so the mindset of those, our salesman, our phone system, our marketing, our technicians, we teach them that, hey, if you want to be great at what you do, you take on the image of a servant and you just serve the person that's in front of you. And the home service business is beautiful for that. And then with honesty, If you break something, if you mess something, if their house catches on fire, you own up for it.

20:09You let them know what's going on. So always be communicating. And then when it's raining, snowing, sleeting, if we got jobs on the schedule, we try to get that work done. And that requires some hard work. So I'd say our core values is at least how we are uniquely us wherever we are. Yeah, I want to talk about core values and developing those. Is there something that you implemented from year zero, where it's like, we're gonna build core values right away. What year are you gonna do to implement this? And talk to us about the importance of implementing core values. I think it is a very important subject where people kind of like brush by it, but you have to intentionally build a culture if you want to be successful.

20:44Yeah, I was fortunate enough to be in the church space for a while prior to moving into the business space. And so we would create mission, vision, values, and goals inside the church. So I already had the framework that you need to have a mission, you need to have a vision, you need to have values, and you need to have goals. When we started the business, I did kind of take the time to think through. First, I was just trying to make sure I could do the work. Can I make money from this, and will people buy it? Yes. Then it came in, so 2016 of June is when I started the business, played around with it after church camp.

21:23Then going into 2017, that's when we rolled out, our mission, vision, values, and goals at that time. And I've read a lot of books. And so Start With Why is a great book. And Patrick Lencioni has several good books. So I tried to learn everything I could about how to start a great business. Good to Great, Jim Collins, another great book. Yeah, I think there's a lot of important reasons on starting with your why, like understanding, kind of going back to the early part of this conversation, like knowing your why as an entrepreneur, I feel like for me has gotten me through the hard times. And I'm sure you can attest to that as well there.

21:56Yeah, because there's things that happen in the business that if your why isn't something other than revenue, you can lose your dang mind. Because if you're trying to start a business that can scale economically fast, this is not the easiest play. You do have to buy equipment. You do have to have a vehicle. You know, you've got to pay a little bit to play or be, you know, what I would call risk averse. And that's where I was. I was like, I'll take out 18 month credit card, no interest, and I'll just throw as much Google ads as I can on it. And it worked. Yeah. So that worked for me. Oh, my God.

22:33That is absolutely insane. I mean, was that nerve wracking? I mean, that's a pretty big bet there, I feel like. But yeah, talk to us about that time. Yeah. So 0 % interest rates for 18 months. And also PayPal was also giving up to$3 ,500 for me and my wife. And so we would use whatever capital we could find because you also got to remember my past. Yeah. No dad growing up, no influences outside of hip hop music. And so taking risk was not that risky because I never had influences in my life encourage me to count the cost or to think. I just did it. and the way that things work is if you spend x amount of dollars on google ads and you have them set up somewhat right you're going to get x amount of leads in return if you're in the right market which i would tell everyone that's listening before you spend a lot of money get a market analysis and i don't mean to be salesy but on pressurewashingpastor.com you can order a market analysis that helps you determine whether or not you should even start a business to begin with And so that's why it's so important.

23:41Yeah. I want to talk about that market analysis, of course, then like what's in a market analysis? What are you like analyzing here? Do you hunt or fish? I do not. I have hunted before, but. You get the concept of fishing that there's a big lake and there's certain places on the lake that fish hang out. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. All right. I want you to imagine that you're at a lake that you've never been to before and you've got a boat, you've got a reel, and you're the best skilled fisherman on the planet. What you really need is you need a map or a sonar of where are all the fish in the lake.

24:14Because if you're fishing in the wrong spot or if there's no fish in the lake, no matter how much money you spend, no matter how qualified of a skillsman you are, you're not going to catch those fish. And so a market analysis basically does a sonar scan of your county's zip codes, and it determines how many avatars for pressure washing are in your area. and then you can know how many households in each zip code has your customers inside of it. And then you can end up doing what's called TAM. Have you heard that term before? Oh, yeah, yeah. But for listeners that don't know, let us know what it is.

24:52You've got to understand what your total addressable market is, because if you're going to open up a multimillion dollar business, but you got five households that can actually afford your services, you're never going to be a multimillion dollar business. And so this will actually give you a real number of how big you can be in an area. And then the goal as an entrepreneur is to get to 10 % skillfully. And that is what in market analysis, it shows you exactly where everyone in your area is living. And then if you've got a Google location from an organic growth for SEOs, you want your Google location exactly next to where all of your fish, your honey hole is located.