224. Best Marketing Tips to Scale to $20M/year in Revenue in Home Services

0:00Most people talk about starting a business. Aaron Steed did exactly that at 17 years old with no money, no trucks, no safety net. What started as moving jobs for friends' parents turned into Meathead Movers, now a$20 million per year company, the largest independent moving company in California, with 350 employees, six locations, and eight straight years on the Inc. 5000 list. But Aaron didn't win by outspending competitors, he won by outcarrying them. Pricing on trust, turning hustle into visible customer benefit, and building a social mission that becomes a true brand moat. I'm Ryan athenson and you're listening to help the podcast where we uncover the secret to building and running successful businesses today Aaron is coming on this podcast to talk about starting meathead movers how you can do something similar and building an awesome culture over there So Aaron, thank you so so much for being here.

0:49Thanks for having me It's gonna be so good and you're on the youtube channel So once this is done, I'm gonna encourage you to go check that out But stay tuned for this because we got a lot of good action Uh happening ahead. But first off if someone's like, okay, I haven't checked out the youtube channel I don't know what meathead movers does. What do you do? We're an athlete moving company. We move homes and businesses and we do it faster than anyone. We have the highest job standard where we require employees to jog when not carrying anything. And we also get clear with our employees as to what they're trying to achieve in their life.

1:18And then we reverse engineer the skills and the experiences that they're gaining at Meathead Movers to help them develop their experiences and their marketable skills. And the net result is our clients get an amazing, outstanding moving experience with people they can trust who are on their way up in life. I like it. And what type of revenue are you guys pulling in? Because a moving company can be all over the place, but MeTime Movers, what are you guys doing? Yeah, we're a$20 million a year company. And that's even in a really tough economy. So we're very grateful. So let's get back into the founding story of this.

1:51I'm sure you didn't come out of the womb thinking, okay, at one years old, I'm gonna start a moving company. I'm sure maybe even at 10 years old, you didn't think that. But at 17, you did. So how did you kind of discover moving? Yeah. So, you know, being on the wrestling team, a lot of my friends' parents would ask me, hey, we help us move this and the other. So we just kind of found ourselves helping our friends' parents move. And I really, really liked it. And it was way better than my first job, which was working at the car wash for, you know, pennies, doing miserable, thankless work. But what I loved about it early on is, one, I get to work with my friends.

2:21Two, I was able to work around my school and athletic schedule. and three, I got a ton of gratitude from my customers. And as a young man, I really needed that affirmation. I needed a job well done. The compliments, it felt really good. And just like I fed off of that. And then of course the money was good and we were usually paid in cash and we got fed really well. So got a workout in, there was like a sense of completion and sometimes they'd even give us things, you know, until I got married, almost everything I had in my home were hand-me-downs from, you know, my customers. So it just felt like a really, really good deal.

2:56So you're 17 years old. Obviously, you're in high school wrestling team and all that. Did you continue this like through college? Did you go to college or talk to us more about that? Went to about one and a half years of college and then something just had to give. You know, the business was growing and I couldn't do both things excellent. So decided to drop out of college, take night courses at Cal Poly, you know, and then in order to stay competitive, because I basically had to forfeit my wrestling career, started doing mixed martial arts. Did that for a couple years and then was able to continue to grow the business during that time until the business took over so much that, you know, when I was about 22, 23 years old, I decided to just focus and pour all of my attention and energy into Meathead Movers.

3:40And I'm still doing it today. I'm 45 years old and I'm still, yeah, just as motivated and stoked to be doing it. I want to really zoom in on the moment you decide, you know, you're a year and a half into school. You can't do both things. Excellent. I love that little phrase right there. excellence is the key to that. Talks about that moment of dropping. I know it's been 30 years, whatever now, a little less. Parents, what were they saying? Were you confident in the decision? Obviously, I'm sure you don't regret it at all, but take us to that moment. No, a lot of people were second guessing it because at that point in time, it was like all about, oh, you know, how much is your job paying you?

4:10Oh, what kind of college are you getting? You know, do you need student loans or not? You know, are you on scholarship? That was the metric everyone was kind of measuring themselves. And then I was in a really unsexy industry, you know, moving people. It wasn't very impressive at cocktail parties or anything like that, you know, but now the tone has changed, obviously, and it's a different deal now. But that's never really why I did it. It was always like I just knew in my heart that this was the right thing to do. I feel calling to this business. I felt like I meant I was put on this earth to be in this role, to help lead this company and to do the things that I think really help transform lives and gives me an opportunity to be successful and provide for my family and a lot of other families.

4:46It's a really good deal. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's a great deal. Let's get actionable for our listeners here. Early on, you ran a pay us what you think we're worth. You ran that for multiple years. Tell us what does that mean? And like, when did that model work? And when does that like break? So, you know, for the first, you know, three years or so, I really didn't have too many expenses. And, you know, kind of growing up like lower middle class or whatever, I didn't really need a whole lot too. And I found it just so much easier to sell moving jobs if I would simply just tell the customers, hey, pay us whatever you think we're worth.

5:22You know, we're going to come out, we're going to do a great job, even though, you know, we're all young athletes, we're good at what we do, and we're going to make this the best moving experience you ever had. And if we don't, then don't pay us anything. That's how confident we are. It's hard to say no to that. So, you know, we did that hundreds of times over the first three years and it worked out really good, you know? And then eventually as we had, you know, more fixed expenses and starting to having to hire more people and getting burned a few times, we developed enough of a reputation where we could justify having a set charging system.

5:51And then we really needed the stability at that time. But like to get started, it worked out really good for us. And I do believe inherently and it's been proven in my experience with, you know, my experience is that most people are really, really good. and the power of repressosity. If I give you something, you're going to likely want to give me something. And also I'm extending trust to the customer first, which is kind of inverted where typically it's the client having to extend trust to the company first by paying them money first. I did the opposite. It's like, hey, so then in about like year three, I remember we did a job and it was me and my brother, we loaded a truck and we drove it all the way to Chico, which is about an eight-hour drive from us.

6:36And it was a one-way. And then the client sent us on a train ride home. And it took us a total of three days to do the whole entire thing. And she gave us 50 bucks each for three days of work. And we even, I think, had to pay for our own hotel rooms and everything. We lost money on the move. We didn't break anything. And she said, you know, you guys really should have a set charging system. And then just kind of stiffed like that. And I didn't even know what to say, but I think she might've been in a financial hardship type situation. Hence like, you know, having to move to Chico, not that Chico's bad or anything.

7:11No offense to the Chico listeners, but yeah, I don't know. It was really weird. That's when I was like, you know what? We have enough of a reputation now we're getting, you know, several calls a day to do these jobs. Maybe it's time to have a set charging system. So we had a set charging system and then we shift our focus to how do we gain more credibility? And then we did some things to gain more credibility too. And the rest is history. And now we're, you know, we do charge for our services, but in the spirit of being accountable for doing great work, we're the only moving company that has a money back guarantee where if you're unhappy with any of our movers or packers, you tell us what value you feel you received, we'll issue a refund based upon how much value you feel that you got from each mover and packer.

7:52Yeah. So we're accountable for the work that we do still. I want to ask for people that are listening to this saying, okay, you know, I'm hearing $20 million a year. maybe I want to start a moving company. I like to move stuff. I like to be active. Should they start out by doing basically pay us what we're worth model? Or would you recommend someone to have a structured pricing model when they're just getting started? Yeah. You know, it all depends on like what I think your expenses are. And, and, you know, so, I mean, fortunately being in high school, didn't really have much expenses and not needing much, you know, so I was able to kind of take that risk, but by doing that, you really be risk it for the client.

8:26So in studying your offer, you got to decide how compelling do you want to make it for the customer and what are you willing to do and how much are you willing to bet on the quality in yourself? You know, so I was on a lot of these moves, most of them, and the people that were on them, I knew and trusted. And I had my hands on them with the training and set expectations clearly and followed up with every client every single time too. And I had a plethora of people wanting to work with us. So I was extremely confident in the value that we were able to provide. I think it's a way of getting a lot of business, but it's a, you know, you're really kind of betting on yourself and you're betting on the people in your community.

9:02Being from San Los Obispo, there's a ton of wonderful people here. It's a very, you know, voted happiest city in the United States and educated and fairly affluent, you know, all that. Like, so I felt very comfortable and confident offering that in this community because I know my town and I know my people. Are you ready to launch, grow and scale a business? Inside the Uplip Academy, you'll get a complete roadmap to shortcut your success with 25 plus step by step programs taught by active business owners, not gurus who share their step by step blueprints, plus ongoing live workshops, skills training, a business idea database, and community to share resources and celebrate your wins.

9:45Click the link in the description below to join the Elphaba Academy today and start surrounding yourself with the people and tools that can change everything for your business. Let's go into marketing. Your early marketing costs almost nothing. You were doing a little bit of guerrilla marketing. Give us a high level of what you're doing. And then the question is, if someone has$200 a day, where should they spend it for maximum local exposure? Yeah. I mean, I think public relations is where you're going to get your best bang for your buck. Well, okay. Yeah, for sure. Even though you might need more than$200, but when someone writes something about you, it's not you saying about yourself, it's someone else.

10:21And then you get all of their new readers. So that is super powerful. But to answer your question, if I had$200, I would buy$200 worth of business cards and literally hand them out to people one by one, make eye contact with them, offer to put their items at Home Depot or Costco, like in their car for them. Hopefully it doesn't, you know, you can't come across too strong. You don't want it to be creepy, you know, but just let them know, hey, I'm a professional mover. Would you like me to move, you know, these items into your car for you free of charge? Here's my business card. You know, I think that's a way of like getting it really kind of getting it out there.

10:53And a lot of people who are at Home Depot are fixing up their home, you know, to sell, you know, and they're, you know, active kind of movers or shakers and everyone goes to Costco. Right. But it's all about like the human connection. I think in a digital world. And as distracted as we are, I think people are really seeking to have like genuine, authentic connection and lean on someone they can trust because it's so easy to be fooled online. And even like a lot of reviews now are fake. You know, we all kind of know that. So it's like hard to kind of sift through what's real and not on the phone and on the tablet.

11:23So if you're going to have a local in-home service business, get out in the community, meet the people, make eye contact, do things that matter and be creative. As intuitive creatures, like people can tell, like, are you a good person? Are you straight up or not? What I love about doing the Home Depot, as you said, is like, that's kind of where you're like ICP would also be like your ideal customer profile there, just because like people are moving. I'm sure that was like, intentional for you. Give us kind of like what that script would be if I'm going to go approach you at Home Depot, like what should I be saying to you?

11:52Because I do think that's a really good advice for people that are listening is that's not scalable, but sometimes non scalable things like actually do. And I do think that is something that you want to give us a quick script. Like if I'm approaching you? I say, Hey, I'm a mover. I can move this stuff. Give me a call. I think, you know, have a professional shirt, have a badge and introduce yourself. So real quick. Hi, I'm Aaron. I'm the owner of Meathead Movers. We don't have any work today. So I'm offering free help to load things into the car. This is my business card. If you're interested, I'm happy to load these items into your car.

12:21No strings attached. If not, have a great day. And also you got to get approval from the manager of Costco or Home Depot ahead of time, you know, which might be a little tricky. It was easier back in the day than it is now. But that would be part of it too, because you don't want to get like flagged by the store. They're looking out for solicitors and stuff like that. But you got to be, you know, uniformed and give them the option. And I think like your demeanor and tone and eye contact really kind of speaks a lot. Are you guys investing now into like digital? And if so, like, what works best for your team?

12:50And like, what should people consider starting out with if they are going to do digital? I think it is scalable, because you can have your employees do that, especially if you have like a salesperson do it, you know, so maybe like it's not you personally do it, but like as you grow and scale, you can have other people do it. But yes, we are, you know, on meta, we have Google ad campaigns, you know, we're on Bing, we're on Yelp, we're doing all the things to try to, you know, most intelligently get in front of anyone and everyone for branding and both clients when they're ready to make purchase decision.

13:20And that's a ever evolving quest that's constantly changing. I mean, how do you do that? Because I think that's the key is like when the purchase decision's coming up, I need to move my stuff. How do you like stay like top mind like for that? There are people here that can speak more intelligently than me, but I know we have, you know, drip campaigns when people are onto our website or have like clicked on our ad, we're retargeting them more. We try to do things like offer them free information. So they view us as a resource, you know, as well, and then just try to be memorable. And that's part of like why having a really good name is important.

13:55You know, like meathead movers, you're not going to forget it. That is a great name. Let's go into like operations and culture here because you alluded to it kind of in their opening, like you guys make movers jog to save customers money, which I think is crazy. I feel like everyone that works for you is probably like in insane shape, which is fun. I just thought that like what's kind of the thought process behind that? I mean, your movers are literally jogging if they're not carrying stuff, which is sounds clinically insane, but I love it. Yeah, well, it's just something we just like naturally and inherently did like from the beginning, it just made the day go by, you know, we're athletes.

14:25So getting a workout is we welcome it. And it also creates like a momentum, a pace, you start getting those endorphins. And it's truly like not that much harder, in my opinion, to jog when not carrying anything, but it makes all the difference in the world. And the clients really appreciate it. Cinematically, it looks far more impressive than taking your time, taking your time and slouching and slugging. And, you know, it's like an upbeat, collegiate, moving experience when Meathead is out there. And maybe you do got to be a little crazy to kind of fit into our culture. And you do got to love to work hard and lift heavy things and then run and then all while maintaining a happy, upbeat, enthusiastic attitude for the client.

15:07But if someone's willing to do it, they absolutely love it because they're going to get super fit. They're going to get super strong. And we meet a bunch of interesting people. No two jobs are the same. Every day is an adventure. And one of my favorite things, and a lot of guys and girls that work here's favorite thing is we get the best food. Our customers are so generous with us. They're always getting us really yummy food and we're, you know, fueling up. We're all over the place and we're able to hit up all the good joints. And I don't know, it's a lot of fun if you're wired right for it. You have to be wired right for it.

15:39And that comes down to hiring. And like, so how do you hire people that want to actually like move? Are you guys, talk about the hiring, because hiring for me as a business owner as well is like generally like one of the hardest things to get right. Are they going to be a culture fit? Are they going to be good at their job? Are you hiring an A player? Are you hiring a D player? I mean, how do you do it? Like, how do you hire for that? Yeah, we just got to ask them the questions. We got to explain, you know, what the job is and then also what we expect. And regardless of your gender or your age, if you can do the job, you want to work this hard and you want to be a part of this team, you know, we're interested.

16:11And if we have the availability or the need for the work, we just really try to gauge is could this person be a contributing member to our team? And it requires us meeting with them and talking to them and trying to figure out what's important to them. And then there's also a probationary period too where we can see, can they actually cut it and work up to the meathead standard? And it's amazing. You never judge a book by its cover. You have no idea who can handle it and who can't. Some of the smallest people in frame are some of the strongest. And there are some really big gorilla looking people that we've hired that don't have the endurance to last an entire day.

16:53But it's really amazing when someone puts their mind to it, how, what they are able to achieve and how they're able to grow mentally and physically working at Meathead Movers. What has been the biggest difference in your team's culture? And I want to ask this about someone that's listening to me. Okay. I want to, you know, mindfully build a culture that like lasts. how has the culture changed or how has your leadership style changed from going from zero to 10 employees from 10 to 100 100 to 350 because obviously there's maybe a little bit more corporate-y maybe it doesn't but like how does it change culturally oh my gosh so much and you got to really just evolve with it like i've grown up in this business right so 17 yeah i know like and it was me and my brother and my best friends and at first it was just so cool and it was so fun.

17:36And then after a couple of years, you know, we were hiring employees, people that I didn't know. So going from friend to boss, you know, was an adjustment. And then also just as I continue to age and grow and have children and have a cat, you know, like my interests kind of change and the company needs to stand on its own ideals and values. And what kind of value is the employee getting from the business because it originated where it was primarily based upon my relationships. And now it's based upon, okay, how does this job serve me? And I'm depending on people who I manage, who manage the people, who hire the people who are doing it.

18:25And that's where you really got to look at your business as a system. But also it's not just the science of the system. It's also the art of tapping into the psyche of what's important to our employee profile. Where are they going in their life and how can we help them get there? You know, so many people do internships to try to advance or better themselves where they're literally willing to sacrifice a summer and give away hundreds of hours of their time to gain the experience on a letter of recommendation in the hopes that will help make them a more marketable person who will get paid more, get a better job.

18:58The skills you learn at Meathead Movers are so incredibly valuable. You know, you get management experience. You can say you've led hundreds of people. You're responsible for transporting hundreds or thousands of or millions of dollars worth of goods. You're problem solving in high stress situations. You get commercial driving experience. You go through our leadership training program, our customer service program, and you leave a much better person. But how do you get them to communicate that to their next employer? And we actually help them do that too. So if you can help your employees connect the dots as to, you know, where they're trying to go in life and how this job is going to help them and then how they can actually apply it.

19:40Like at the end of the internship, you get a letter of recommendation, you know, and with us, you know, we don't just offer letters of recommendation. We'll actually call the hiring manager for the next job that you're trying to get. So long as it's in line with your career goal path. So we're actually helping turn over our employees. And if they believe in everyone else believes that, hey, this is a training ground for me to elevate and advance myself, they're gonna know you care about them and they're gonna know they're in a good place and they're gonna know that they're helping their future self and that's powerful.

20:12Yeah, that is so, so powerful. And I love like the thought process. I can tell like there has been genuine thought behind that. I've never heard of an employer like actually calling the next hiring manager and giving that. So was that like your idea or like whose idea was that? A lot of our employees for years were just asking for letters of recommendation. But it's so much more compelling when you can actually get on the phone and talk to the person. It also saves a bunch of time. And then you're actually able to help sell them as well. You're able to help sell the, you know, current or former employee to the next hiring manager.

20:43And then when they go on and get that job, we celebrate it. We talk about it like, hey, remember so-and-so who used to work here? Well, they're, you know, now they're a junior CPA and their experience here helped get them that job. You know, we tell those stories and that's like part of how you get into the Meathead Hall of Fame. Before we go into our fan blitz here, I just kind of want to reflect back on, you know, Aaron from 17 to 45. For you, which was the time where you felt like you grew the most professionally, personally, through this, whatever, again, 28-year journey, whatever it is? We're going on 29 years next month.

21:17Wow. Yeah. And there have been four separate occasions where we've almost lost the business due to huge adversities, whether it be cash flow or economy, or even most recently, a federal lawsuit that we have been able to overcome. And during those challenging times is definitely where I've grown the most. So when you have to reflect and ask yourself, Is this worth it? Am I willing to go through this? Is this business worth suffering for? Am I willing to risk it all? There have been four different occasions where we've almost lost the business in our 29-year history. And each and every single one of those times, we've made it out stronger, with more wisdom, more grateful, and then we emerge more profitable and better.

22:10So it's, um, there's a lot of faith in it. And, um, the, the comfy cushy times, um, are, it is not where, you know, we, we get the, the biggest lessons, you know, it, it may feel the best and maybe the most relaxing, good for my cortisol levels and all that, but it's, it's, it's truly not where, you know, you're, you're able to gain those, those lifelong wisdom. Super good. That is a phenomenal takeaway for our listeners. I feel like even building my own business is like when I grew the most is when like I was getting punched in the face like every single day. Like you will ask yourself some existential questions if you want to keep doing it and that's how you improve the business.

22:52Exactly. And to your point, Ryan, like you have to do something that you actually care about that actually makes a difference in people's lives or your life. If you're just chasing money and then you go through a hard season and guess what? No matter what business you have, there are going to be hard seasons. if you're only doing it for the money, the money is not going to be a good motivator going through a hard season because you're going to look around and see 50 other things you could be doing to be making more money. But like, if you really think what you're doing is important and meaningful and it's your calling, then that is what you're going to lean on.

23:25That's going to be your fuel source to get through those hard times. And then once you get through the other side is when you reach a new like level up. Nice. Super, super good. Aaron, let's dive into our fan blitz questions here. These are questions submitted from our community listeners. If you want to join in on world-class conversations with people doing$20 million a year in revenue, send us an email at podcast at upflip.com and we will answer all your questions there. But Aaron, ready for our last five questions here? Sure. Number one, what's one belief about pricing that most service founders get completely wrong?