Summer 2019
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contents<br />
FEATURES<br />
6<br />
Going<br />
Great Guns:<br />
Kristy White builds her<br />
San Antonio-based pressure<br />
wash company into a<br />
powerhouse -- after dark<br />
and one sales demo at a time<br />
12<br />
Bo Knows HOAs:<br />
Bo Josetti specializes<br />
in the niche market of<br />
pressure washing vacation<br />
home communities;<br />
but his experience offers<br />
insight for anyone desiring<br />
to land an HOA contract<br />
18<br />
Word of<br />
Mouth:<br />
Serial entrepreneur<br />
Jay Baer’s formula for<br />
growing your business<br />
hinges on the free<br />
advertising your<br />
customers can do for you<br />
27<br />
“Washing<br />
Babe-raham<br />
Lincoln…<br />
Excellent!”:<br />
Iconic pressure wash entrepreneur<br />
Henry Bockman, who has cleaned<br />
national monuments including the<br />
Lincoln and Jefferson memorials,<br />
is now taking his brand national<br />
DEPARTMENTS<br />
4 Editor’s Letter:<br />
The biggest thing that holds back<br />
this industry is the industry itself<br />
6 Guest Column:<br />
Progress not Perfection -- Be like<br />
legendary University of Alabama<br />
head football coach Nick Saban and<br />
win the day seven seconds at a time<br />
10 Contents<br />
under<br />
Pressure:<br />
A look around the<br />
World Wide Web for<br />
wacky examples of<br />
pressure washing in our<br />
culture’s everyday life<br />
Vol. 1, No. 3, <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
Publisher: Jackson Vahaly<br />
Editor: Drew Ruble<br />
Design: Katy Barrett-Alley<br />
Pressure Wash News is published 4 times per year and is independently owned by Jackson Vahaly.<br />
All inquiries should be directed to:<br />
Pressure Wash News, 110 Childs Ln. Franklin, TN 37067<br />
jacksonv@pressurewashnews.com<br />
Copyright © <strong>2019</strong> 2 Dollar Enterprises/Pressure Wash News. All Rights Reserved.<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 3
EDITOR’S<br />
NOTE<br />
As most PW News readers know, three<br />
primary entities serve the pressure wash<br />
industry. The Power Washers of North<br />
America (PWNA) is a trade organization<br />
that is specific to pressure washers. The<br />
United Association of Mobile Contract<br />
Cleaners (UAMCC) is, as its title suggests,<br />
a “united” organization for not just pressure<br />
washers but also window cleaners,<br />
janitorial services, carpet cleaners, and<br />
other general cleaners. And the Pressure<br />
Washing Resource Association (PWRA)<br />
provides resources for individual contractors<br />
to grow but does not serve any type of<br />
certificatory or regulatory function.<br />
There are benefits to all. As an individual<br />
contractor, it is not unrealistic (and,<br />
arguably, sensible) to be a member of all<br />
three. How better to stay on top of industry<br />
trends, new ideas to grow your business,<br />
and networking for support and education?<br />
When I talk to people in the industry, they<br />
consistently tell me that the biggest thing<br />
that holds back this industry is the industry<br />
itself. What they mean by that is that there<br />
are a lot of operators out there nationwide<br />
who would like to “play professional,”<br />
who are often already members of one of<br />
these professional associations, and who<br />
are perhaps even trying to “step up their<br />
game.” But they still won’t wear their safety<br />
ropes, they still do business under the table,<br />
they still want to cheat the government on<br />
their taxes, and they still don’t want to obey<br />
OSHA laws.<br />
It has to stop.<br />
The<br />
Road Ahead<br />
Most companies out there check all<br />
those boxes successfully. Nevertheless, there<br />
are still far too many marginal companies<br />
that occasionally think about checking<br />
those boxes but never do. Let’s be honest: a<br />
large portion of the industry is comprised<br />
of a bunch of trunk slammers and gypsies<br />
running around cleaning driveways for<br />
$50 and really dragging the rest of the<br />
industry down. That’s not unlike a lot of<br />
industries. We are not unique in that. But<br />
that’s no excuse for not dealing with such<br />
problems head-on.<br />
Every time someone in our industry<br />
goes looking for the shortcut, or fails to<br />
deal with safety and OSHA requirements,<br />
or workers comp requirements, and they<br />
do so because they’re more interested in<br />
skirting around them than acknowledging<br />
these are the things they have to deal with,<br />
and that they need to be compliant with<br />
regulations like the Clean Water Act,<br />
we all suffer. Allowing members in our<br />
industry to persist with the attitude of<br />
‘don’t tell me what to do, if I want to get<br />
up on roof without my safety ropes on<br />
that’s my decision, it’s not going to<br />
hurt anybody else,’ is simply<br />
no longer feasible. Because<br />
in fact it does hurt other<br />
people. The minute that<br />
person falls off the roof and<br />
gets injured or dies, it registers<br />
on the entire industry’s loss modification<br />
risk ratio, plummets our collective<br />
reputation, and raises rates for all of us<br />
(not to mention the unnecessary<br />
loss of life).<br />
No wonder when you walk<br />
into your local bank to borrow<br />
money to build a building or<br />
something like that that they too often<br />
look at you and say ‘oh, you’re just some<br />
stupid little pressure washing company.’<br />
Why? Because we’re too often acting like<br />
stupid little pressure washing companies!<br />
Holding such companies accountable<br />
and even pulling their membership from<br />
the associations are reasonable outcomes.<br />
Associations train people to use safety<br />
ropes to get up on roofs and when those<br />
companies flaunt and violate the requirements<br />
it should jeopardize their membership.<br />
There must be accountability.<br />
Everything boils down to leadership.<br />
Either those companies need to start<br />
following the guidelines or the leadership<br />
in this industry needs to bare more teeth.<br />
Losing membership or even creating<br />
controversy is less important than doing<br />
what’s right. At the least, such<br />
Let’s be honest:<br />
a large portion<br />
of the industry is<br />
comprised of a<br />
bunch of trunk<br />
slammers & gypsies<br />
running around<br />
cleaning driveways<br />
for $50 and really<br />
dragging the rest of<br />
the industry down.<br />
members should remove the association’s<br />
sticker from the side of their truck and the<br />
association’s name from their marketing<br />
materials. They must be held to a standard,<br />
be certified, and essentially ‘cut the crap’<br />
if the pressure wash industry is going to<br />
truly mature as an industry. No doubt all of<br />
the associations and organizations representing<br />
this industry can agree on that.<br />
I, for one, believe we’ve reached<br />
that point and that matters are set to be<br />
improved – which is just another reason<br />
I continue to be so high on the future of<br />
this industry.<br />
Best,<br />
Drew Ruble<br />
drewruble@gmail.com<br />
4 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
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Going<br />
Great Guns<br />
Kristy White builds her San Antonio-based pressure wash company<br />
into a powerhouse -- after dark and one sales demo at a time<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
in both Texas and the Southern United<br />
a demo right in front of your face. And<br />
Remember the old Febreze commercials<br />
that aired during the 2012 London<br />
Olympics? The ones where the aerosol<br />
maker dangled treated jock straps from<br />
the Azerbaijani Olympic Wrestling<br />
Team under the noses of blindfolded<br />
Londoners who were then asked to<br />
describe what they smelled?<br />
Responses ranged from “strawberry<br />
milkshake” to “floral bouquet.” Future<br />
product commercials utilized goats,<br />
smelly fish, toilets, and body builder<br />
armpits to prove a similar point.<br />
Effective product demonstrations like<br />
these have been around since the beginning<br />
of sales history. They serve to make<br />
clear to buyers that the product being<br />
sold is worth the price. After all, what’s<br />
more convincing than seeing it with your<br />
own eyes? (Or, alternately, smelling it<br />
with your own nose???)<br />
Lucy Handley, writing in a 2014<br />
article published in Marketing Week,<br />
stated that “despite the digital age, the<br />
saying that people buy from people still<br />
stands – and they are more likely to do so<br />
if they have an opportunity to try before<br />
KRISTY WHITE<br />
they buy.” According to Handley, 41<br />
percent of shoppers who see a demonstration<br />
of a product go on to buy it.<br />
“That is why experiential marketing<br />
and in-store demonstrating are growing<br />
industries,” she concluded.<br />
Kristy White, owner of Big Guns<br />
SoftWash, is a big believer in the sales<br />
demo. In fact, she’s ridden the method<br />
(among other savvy business techniques)<br />
to a spot among the most respected pressure<br />
wash operators in the enormous<br />
market of San Antonio, Texas -- the<br />
seventh-most populous city in the United<br />
States and the second-most populous city<br />
States, with more than 1.5 million<br />
residents.<br />
“Yes, from time to time I even give<br />
away services, and people are like ‘what<br />
do you mean you give away services?’”<br />
White said. “Well, frankly, I would rather<br />
them see what I can do for them.”<br />
White admits she relies heavily on<br />
her instincts and emotional intelligence<br />
before providing a free service, granting<br />
them predominantly to prospects she<br />
knows are highly likely to be closed.<br />
“If I sense they are just trying to<br />
get something for free then no, I don’t<br />
do that; but when I know this might be<br />
the sticking point on a sale, I’ll clean<br />
something for free for them and show<br />
them exactly what I can do,” she said.<br />
“That live demo in front of them is so<br />
impactful.”<br />
White said she learned the art of<br />
the sales demo from her mentor, Ron<br />
Musgraves, who often reminded her<br />
of the classic American door-to-door<br />
vacuum cleaner salesmen now iconically<br />
tethered to product demonstrations in<br />
American lore.<br />
“They would come in and give you<br />
how many people would buy that vacuum<br />
cleaner?” White said. “So it’s the same thing<br />
with our pressure washing. And people can<br />
understand that…That’s old school.”<br />
Musgraves, a veteran pressure<br />
washing contractor, owner of Pro Power<br />
Wash of Mesa, Arizona, and controversial<br />
past president of the UAMCC,<br />
urged White go out and do about 12<br />
demonstrations for clients, all the while<br />
judging her results.<br />
“I had to send videos of them to him<br />
and he would say, ‘no, they’re not good<br />
enough, you’ve got to practice more,”<br />
White said. “’You can’t hit a homerun<br />
if you’ve never done batting practice,’<br />
he would say. He’s always quick with the<br />
baseball analogies.”<br />
Like Musgraves, White has also (in<br />
recent years) significantly narrowed the<br />
scope of her business. Said another way,<br />
she stopped chasing every type of job<br />
and instead got laser focused on a niche<br />
– commercial sidewalk cleaning.<br />
“I do nothing but commercial now,<br />
and I’m emphasizing residual income,”<br />
White said. “So I have totally changed<br />
the model of our business in the last two<br />
6 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
years. I decided I was going to chase<br />
nothing but sidewalk cleaning in San<br />
Antonio. Now, yes, I do an occasional<br />
roof cleaning…but my focus is on shopping<br />
centers and restaurants -- anything<br />
with a sidewalk.<br />
“I’ve seen a lot of mistakes out there<br />
in the industry where operators start out<br />
and they want to chase everything. But<br />
when you’re trying to do everything, and<br />
saying ‘yes, I can do your roof,’ and ‘yes,<br />
I can do your house,’ and ‘yes, I can do<br />
this and I can do that,’ you just seem to<br />
stretch yourself too thin, particularly if<br />
you don’t have the right employees for all<br />
those aspects.<br />
“Then, doing residuals, I have them<br />
on either a bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly<br />
schedule,” she continued. “I’m not<br />
doing ‘one and dones,’ to apply a basketball<br />
phrase. I just send those to another<br />
competitor in town…I pick and choose my<br />
customers now whereas before I was always<br />
like ‘yes, I’ll do your job.’ Now I’m focused<br />
on who I want to work for and work with, so<br />
that’s how I changed the model.<br />
“The growth has been a little bit<br />
slower but it’s steady now. Income is<br />
coming in. With residual income, I know<br />
every month what’s coming in I just need<br />
to keep on adding to it and growing.”<br />
White’s crews work exclusively at<br />
night, and not just because her clients<br />
exist in high-traffic areas.<br />
“It’s hot in Texas, so at night it’s a<br />
little cooler,” she said. “My guys work at<br />
night and each of them have their own<br />
route. That’s how I’m building it -- I only<br />
do one guy per truck at night where a lot<br />
of companies go out with two.<br />
“Personally, I work a lot of days and<br />
nights now. My guys go out at 9 p.m.<br />
My down time is like 2 a.m. I do a lot of<br />
training and sales during the day.”<br />
Her formula has produced success.<br />
And she’s built the company in rapid<br />
order from when she and her husband<br />
started in the industry just a few years ago.<br />
Back in 2006, White was a supervisor<br />
at the Department of Motor Vehicles in<br />
Delaware.<br />
“So I took people’s licenses away<br />
from them,” she said. “I did that for 12<br />
years and worked my way up through<br />
the state and became a supervisor.”<br />
Meanwhile, her husband, Darren,<br />
was working for the postal service.<br />
continued ...<br />
BIG GUNS<br />
soft wash<br />
MAKING A DEMO<br />
Thinking about launching a product demo-based ad campaign? Here<br />
are a few important aspects to consider.<br />
In a 2018 Forbes magazine article on how to have a “killer” demo,<br />
writer Tom Taulli offered these steps to improve your odds of success.<br />
DISCOVERY<br />
CALL OR EMAIL<br />
“Before the call, you need to get a good understanding of the pain<br />
points, challenges, and requirements of the customer. One way to do<br />
this is to add some fields in the sign-up form for the product trial. But you<br />
should also reach out to the customer and ask some initial questions.”<br />
START OF THE DEMO<br />
“Before jumping into the product details, it is a good idea to spend a<br />
few minutes talking about what topics you will cover and how long the<br />
presentation will be. It’s also a good idea to give a quick description of<br />
your company and how your products solve tough problems. Something<br />
else: provide information that shows that your company is standout, such<br />
as mentioning large customers. This will help to build trust and credibility.”<br />
THE DEMO<br />
“A demo is not a training session. Rather, it’s about addressing the<br />
needs of the customer. So do not go straight into a tedious description<br />
of your product. The customer will probably just zone out…Next, the<br />
demo needs to relate the product to the daily problems or scenarios the<br />
customer faces.”<br />
THE TAKEAWAY<br />
“At the end of the demo, recap the main points and how your product<br />
can help solve the customer’s problems. Then, you need to talk about the<br />
next steps. Is the customer ready for a purchase? And if not, who should<br />
be the next person to talk to?”<br />
Next, writer Larry Alton in a 2016 Inc. magazine article provided this<br />
additional advice on successful demos.<br />
MAKE THE<br />
TEST CONVINCING<br />
“If your users suspect you of manipulating the results in any way, the<br />
demo won’t be convincing. Show everything ... even if some data or<br />
results might work against you.”<br />
TAKE A RISK<br />
“Don’t take the safe route. Truly test the limits of your product. Can it<br />
take 200 pounds? Try 400 pounds. Can it survive being underwater? Put<br />
it underwater for a week. The bigger you go, the more impressed your<br />
users will be.”<br />
MAKE IT CRAZY<br />
“Throw in something random, weird, or downright perplexing to make<br />
the image of your test stick in your users’ heads. This is apt to become<br />
your ‘hook.’”<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 7
BIG GUNS<br />
soft wash<br />
“We ventured into the pressure<br />
industry, and I know their wives as well.<br />
“That’s kind of how I got involved,”<br />
country and we talk on a regular basis<br />
washing business because Darren was<br />
We all help each other.”<br />
she said. “You get to know a lot of<br />
talk about what we’re doing. If I’m going<br />
kind of looking for a way out,” she said.<br />
White’s rapid ascension in the<br />
people. You build a cross-country<br />
to teach them how to do business then I<br />
“He didn’t really like the post office life<br />
industry hasn’t been confined simply to<br />
support system.”<br />
need to do it myself properly. That’s my<br />
because it was the same thing every<br />
her growing business. She has also been<br />
So how does she manage running a<br />
philosophy,” she said.<br />
single day. Also, I think we looked at his<br />
on a rapid rise within industry circles.<br />
successful, around-the-clock business and<br />
The DMV supervisor from Delaware<br />
pay and over 12 years it went up $4,000.<br />
White is current president of the United<br />
also serve the national organization ?<br />
has certainly ingratiated herself into<br />
And he was like ‘there has to be more<br />
Association of Mobile Contract Cleaners<br />
“I have a good support system,” she<br />
Texas culture. How did she do it? Well,<br />
to life then what I’m doing right now.’<br />
(UAMCC). She credits that role primarily<br />
said, adding, “I have ambitions.”<br />
perhaps it starts with her savvy choice of<br />
So one day he was listening to a radio<br />
to her thirst for ongoing education.<br />
White added that education more<br />
company name, and logo.<br />
program out of Houston and the guy<br />
“I learned early on that I needed to sit<br />
than competition drives her and that she<br />
“We sat around the table in 2013<br />
was talking about pressure washing<br />
with people who were better than me, if<br />
has a passion for seeing things improve in<br />
trying to think of a fun name and Big<br />
opportunities and the next thing I know<br />
that makes sense,” White explained. “It’s<br />
the overall industry.<br />
Guns came up,” White said. “Texas is<br />
we were talking about doing this.<br />
kind of like in school where you have the<br />
“I talk about ‘competitors’ here<br />
big on guns. Everyone carries a gun<br />
“One day we came to Texas to visit<br />
cool table at lunch, you know? You want<br />
in town; but to me, really they’re not<br />
down here. And then Big Guns also<br />
his sister and we ended up on that trip<br />
to sit with the cool kids because you know<br />
competitors because when you need help<br />
kind of goes along with the muscle idea.<br />
buying a house while we were there. I<br />
you’re going to learn from them and grow.<br />
or your equipment is down, you have<br />
So it was just kind of fun. I wanted<br />
called my mom and dad and said ‘oh,<br />
“I wanted to sit with the guys that I<br />
someone you can rely on, and that’s the<br />
something totally different that I hadn’t<br />
by the way, we’re going to move to Texas<br />
knew were out making millions of dollars<br />
beauty of this. I have one local compet-<br />
heard of before because there are so<br />
and start a pressure washing company.<br />
in this industry, that had so many trucks<br />
itor and we have dinners together every<br />
many names out there that are the same<br />
We changed our lives.”<br />
on the road, and that were always pushing<br />
once in a while. We sit down and talk and<br />
across the country.”<br />
White has been primarily steering<br />
themselves to do more and be better. So I<br />
hang out. It’s not cut-throat like some<br />
The logo was actually designed<br />
that company since 2013. Darren only<br />
learned with Doug Rucker [of Kingwood,<br />
places are. I’ve learned to get along with<br />
through an online contest.<br />
began working full time at their company<br />
Texas, founder of The Pressure Cleaning<br />
people and we all work well together.<br />
“I think the guy that actually did our<br />
last June.<br />
School] and Ron Musgraves.<br />
If we make our economy stronger then<br />
logo was out of Indonesia,” White said.<br />
What has it been like as a woman<br />
“I believe in education in this business,<br />
we’re both going to grow that way.<br />
“All I said was I wanted a Texas theme,<br />
owner in a predominantly male-owned<br />
because education is key to being successful<br />
“At conventions, I teach people how<br />
a kind of a cowboy character, because<br />
industry?<br />
in life and learning to work together.”<br />
to do the residual income. I teach a class<br />
I wanted something to be memorable.”<br />
“Being a female in this business was<br />
She also volunteered at annual conven-<br />
on how to do a proper demo and how<br />
Memorable, indeed. Not unlike her<br />
strange at first, but not now,” White said.<br />
tions, learning at the ground level how the<br />
to present that to a client. I have guys<br />
company’s and her personal story of<br />
“Plus, I have so many friends now in the<br />
association and its events worked.<br />
that call me all the time from across the<br />
success in the pressure wash industry.<br />
8 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
REGISTER NOW! ceta.org<br />
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While both associations will remain<br />
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Two Teams. One Vision.<br />
Advancing the Industry forward.<br />
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Think Progress,<br />
Not Perfection<br />
Be like legendary University of Alabama<br />
head football coach Nick Saban and win the<br />
day seven seconds at a time<br />
Colby B. Jubenville, PhD,<br />
is a recognized author,<br />
international speaker, business<br />
consultant and professor.<br />
He is the founder and the<br />
director of the Center for<br />
Student Coaching and Success<br />
(www.mtsu.edu/cbhssuccess)<br />
on the campus of Middle<br />
Tennessee State University, the<br />
largest undergraduate college in<br />
Tennessee. A Senior Consultant<br />
with Brentwood, TN based<br />
Brent Consulting Group, he is<br />
the recipient of the Nashville<br />
Emerging Leaders Impact Award<br />
presented by the Nashville Area<br />
Chamber of Commerce and YP<br />
Nashville. The award honors one<br />
of Nashville’s top leaders who<br />
has made a significant impact<br />
on Nashville’s young professional<br />
demographic. Most recently, he<br />
was a blogger for the Washington<br />
Times focused on self-reliance<br />
and developing an entrepreneurial<br />
mindset. His website can be found<br />
at www.drjubenville.com, and his<br />
latest book can be found at<br />
www.mepersonalbranding.com.<br />
BY DR. COLBY JUBENVILLE<br />
I can’t stress enough that neither your<br />
personal change and growth nor the<br />
change and growth of your employees<br />
and business are going to occur overnight.<br />
It’s a process. You’re going to have to be<br />
patient, both with yourself and others.<br />
Too many people I consult get frustrated<br />
if they don’t see immediate results.<br />
They often abandon ship. That’s a huge<br />
mistake, especially when incremental<br />
improvement is already evident!<br />
I’m a list maker. I have a big list with<br />
everything essentially in life that I want<br />
to achieve.<br />
Each week I make a weekly list with<br />
an ambitious but what I believe to be<br />
doable amount of work from the big list.<br />
Then each day I make a daily list<br />
from the weekly list that is also ambitious<br />
but doable. (Yes, I need a therapist…)<br />
Do I complete each task each day?<br />
No! Not by a long shot! But am I discouraged?<br />
Well, sometimes, at least a little bit.<br />
We all know that some days simply go<br />
off the rails and don’t end up the way we<br />
planned them.<br />
What I’ve discovered from my<br />
list-making obsession, though, is that<br />
often an item on a list can’t be completed<br />
and stricken off in a single space in time.<br />
As much as I want to strike it from the<br />
list, and feel a sense of accomplishment<br />
when I do, about the best I can expect to<br />
do on any given day is push the proverbial<br />
rock up the hill a few more feet, or<br />
even inches.<br />
The other thing I have realized is that<br />
eventually, sometimes after having the<br />
same item on the list for days or weeks<br />
at a time, I do finally finish and I’m able<br />
to strike it off the list. How did I do it?<br />
Was it achieved in one fell swoop? No,<br />
it took adequate daily progress over a<br />
period of time before ‘voila’ it was finally<br />
(almost suddenly) accomplished -- and<br />
strike-able.<br />
We are a perfectionist society. We<br />
look around and it seems that people and<br />
businesses are accomplishing amazing<br />
things overnight. Believe me, it’s not<br />
happening that way folks. It’s a process.<br />
And that process requires a mindset of<br />
progress over perfection.<br />
It is almost football season again, and<br />
once again down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama,<br />
legendary University of Alabama head<br />
football coach Nick Saban has a team<br />
primed for yet another run at a national<br />
championship game. How does he<br />
achieve such sustained success?<br />
The answer might best be explained<br />
(ironically since the Tide’s mascot is a<br />
pachyderm) by first asking the question<br />
‘how do you eat an elephant?’<br />
A lot of people don’t know it, but<br />
Saban has a personal advisor who has<br />
been central to his success. His name<br />
is Lionel “Lonny” Rosen, a professor<br />
and psychiatrist who has been working<br />
with Saban and his football teams since<br />
Saban’s Michigan State days. Rosen<br />
is credited with inspiring Saban’s now<br />
well-known method for running a<br />
successful football program, called “The<br />
Process.” It’s based on what’s called<br />
process thinking, or the breaking down<br />
of things—like meetings, practices,<br />
games, and seasons—into smaller pieces<br />
that can be handled without anxiety.<br />
According to Burke, it provides a way of<br />
functioning without being overwhelmed<br />
by the bigger picture.<br />
Said another way, you eat an elephant<br />
one bite at a time.<br />
continued ...<br />
10 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
It’s based on<br />
what’s called<br />
process<br />
thinking,<br />
or the breaking<br />
down of things—<br />
like meetings,<br />
practices, games,<br />
and seasons—<br />
into smaller pieces<br />
that can be handled<br />
without anxiety.<br />
As but one example of Saban/<br />
Rosen’s process thinking as it relates to<br />
football, Saban has smartly communicated<br />
to his players that the average football<br />
play lasts about seven seconds. Then<br />
he tasks his players with one simple goal.<br />
It’s not winning the game. Or winning<br />
a championship. It’s certainly not about<br />
looking at the scoreboard or focusing<br />
on the end result. It’s about winning<br />
those seven seconds. Then regrouping<br />
(regardless of outcome) and focusing on<br />
winning the next seven seconds.<br />
Imagine how this concept might<br />
translate into your own life and bring you<br />
(like Saban) to the cusp of championship<br />
(professional or otherwise) in your own<br />
life. Can you win the first hour of the day<br />
when you get out of bed by controlling<br />
your thoughts and sending yourself<br />
positive messages and inspiration for the<br />
day? Can you win the next 30 minutes<br />
of your day on the sales floor by being<br />
focused and efficient on the task at hand?<br />
Can you win your 2 o’clock meeting?<br />
After work, can you say something nice<br />
to your wife within the first five minutes<br />
of being at home that will set the tone for<br />
a nice evening at home with your loved<br />
ones? And when the weekend comes,<br />
can you focus for seven seconds every<br />
time you stand over a shot on the golf<br />
course thereby maximizing your chances<br />
of making good shots that add up to a<br />
solid round?<br />
I’m not asking you to bust the monthly<br />
sales record overnight! Or save your<br />
marriage! Or lower your handicap! All<br />
I’m asking you to do is think in bite-sized<br />
increments in your quest for success!<br />
Stop thinking about perfection and start<br />
thinking about progress. Pair the process<br />
to your dominate focus (sales!) and watch<br />
GUEST<br />
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the personal championships rack up.<br />
When I watch Alabama’s football<br />
team play in championship games, I find<br />
myself wondering: Do their players and<br />
coaches make more sensible choices than<br />
the other team? Do they produce repeatable<br />
outcomes? Football, especially under<br />
pressure, is complex. Does the Crimson<br />
Tide’s step-by-step approach keep them<br />
in games? Do they appear overwhelmed?<br />
Yes, Alabama is blessed with the pick<br />
of the crop of the best athletes in America.<br />
But mark my words – Alabama’s players<br />
and coaches are winning football games<br />
as much with their thoughts and their<br />
mindset of progress over perfection as<br />
they are with their actions.<br />
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VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 11
HOA<br />
Niche<br />
operator<br />
Bo Knows HOAs<br />
Bo Josetti specializes in the niche market<br />
of pressure washing vacation home<br />
communities; but his<br />
experience offers insight for<br />
anyone desiring to land an HOA contract<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
There are over 351,000 homeowner<br />
associations in the United States, according<br />
to HOA-USA.com. Collectively, this<br />
represents over 40 million households, or<br />
53% of the owner occupied households<br />
in America.<br />
Clearly, planned communities are big<br />
business. And according to HOA-USA.<br />
com, single family, townhome, and condominium<br />
associations spend more than<br />
$15 billion annually on their communities<br />
on products, services, and maintenance,<br />
including pressure washing.<br />
Arguably no one knows the upsides of<br />
building a business through agreements<br />
with HOAs and property managers better<br />
than Bo Josetti, owner of All Clean<br />
Power Washing, which serves portions<br />
of southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware,<br />
and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In<br />
fact, Josetti is not only an expert in the<br />
niche market of HOAs. He’s actually an<br />
expert in a niche of that niche – specifically,<br />
vacation homes.<br />
The lower Delaware region is one<br />
of the fastest-growing areas on the East<br />
Coast. Baby Boomers are retiring and<br />
moving to the water in large numbers. In<br />
addition, Delaware taxes are nearly unbeatable<br />
– there’s no state tax and taxes<br />
across the board are relatively painless,<br />
making it a premier retirement destination.<br />
“We’ve got probably 20 communities<br />
under construction right now within<br />
10 square miles of our shop,” Josetti<br />
explained. “So why go someplace else to<br />
expand when the area you’re in is blowing<br />
out?<br />
“It’s just growing inventory, and we’re<br />
not talking about high-dollar beach<br />
houses,” he continued. “I mean, there<br />
are a couple of communities like that,<br />
and one of our biggest contracts is one<br />
of the finest communities on the Eastern<br />
Shore where you’ve got multimillion-dollar<br />
homes being built. But the majority<br />
is the blue-collar, pension retirees that<br />
are coming here and getting 1,500- to<br />
2,500-square foot homes in one-and-a-<br />
12 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
HOA<br />
Niche<br />
operator<br />
half story type homes in a cookie-cutter<br />
type setting of a neighborhood and living<br />
a very simple lifestyle. That is really<br />
what is going up all over the place and<br />
that’s really our bread and butter.”<br />
Serving a vacation or second home<br />
market can be quite different from a<br />
traditional HOA or property management<br />
client. How so? Based near resort<br />
communities like Ocean City, Maryland,<br />
the Delaware beaches, and Rehoboth<br />
Beach, Josetti services homes that are vacant<br />
a large portion of the year.<br />
“Since for these people it’s their second<br />
home, and they are not here most<br />
of the time, the water’s turned off,” Josetti<br />
said. “When we first began washing<br />
some of these communities through<br />
the property manager or the HOA, we<br />
would quickly run into water issues. For<br />
instance, we couldn’t hook up to one resident’s<br />
water because it’s turned off. The<br />
neighbor is turned on, but the neighbor<br />
doesn’t want you using his water to wash<br />
the rest of the neighborhood.<br />
“So I created basically an environment<br />
where we’re able to bring the water<br />
to wash upwards of 500 or more units.<br />
We’re able to supply the water on water<br />
trucks and trailers, and being able to get<br />
that water to the location…to pull it off.<br />
Not everybody could show up on site<br />
and do that.”<br />
The property management companies<br />
soon found out that was exactly the<br />
case. Given that insurance rates for the<br />
industry are going up due to exorbitant<br />
insurance claims, to the point where<br />
many insurance companies won’t even<br />
cover power washing companies anymore,<br />
Josetti recently instituted a price<br />
increase on one client. Not surprisingly,<br />
the client asked for some time to shop<br />
other options. Josetti happily agreed.<br />
Why? Because as he expected, Josetti’s<br />
value to the vacation home client quickly<br />
became clear.<br />
“What we do, in my opinion, requires<br />
a premium, so as I’ve raised these prices<br />
over the last few years, they naturally<br />
have told me they have to get other estimates<br />
to compare the pricing,” Josetti<br />
said. “What they have found out and<br />
come to realize is that based on the description<br />
of the job at hand that we have<br />
kind of created and provided to them,<br />
the process that we’ve created and how<br />
we provide this water remotely, and the<br />
production rate in which we get it done<br />
-- no other company can do it.<br />
“Most of the competing companies<br />
come in and say ‘we can’t do that, we<br />
don’t have the capability.’ Other companies<br />
would come in with such a high price<br />
tag because they really had never done<br />
this before and they were just guessing at<br />
true costs. The HOA soon understood<br />
that those companies were not going to<br />
be able to perform the service, certainly<br />
not in the time that we would, because<br />
they just don’t have the same capability.<br />
“We kind of created the specs for<br />
these contracts and now have spoiled<br />
(so to speak) the customer, the HOA, the<br />
property manager, with being able to do<br />
the job based on these specs, whereas the<br />
rest of these companies can’t do it.”<br />
Adding to Josetti’s value is the fact<br />
that Eastern Shore water companies now<br />
disallow operators from tapping in to<br />
community fire hydrants. The area has<br />
a lot of iron in the water; so even though<br />
it goes through a treatment plant and<br />
gets treated, there is still enough in the<br />
pipeline sitting at the bottom that when a<br />
company like a pressure washer taps<br />
into a fire hydrant, they stir the iron up.<br />
Residential customers were getting very<br />
angry because when they would turn on<br />
their spigot they would have iron in their<br />
water because somebody had just tapped<br />
in to a fire hydrant down the street for<br />
whatever reason (a lot of them were the<br />
builders and construction companies using<br />
the water during the construction of<br />
all the communities Josetti describes going<br />
up). Water companies said ‘no more’<br />
and stopped granting any more permits<br />
or allowing anybody to tap into fire hydrants<br />
except the fire departments.<br />
It could be said, then, that Josetti sits<br />
in the Catbird’s Seat in Ocean City. But<br />
it hasn’t always been that way.<br />
Josetti came around to both pressure<br />
washing and specifically HOA work after<br />
a lengthy career in painting and restoration<br />
services. In 1995, after working<br />
for another contractor, Josetti started<br />
Superior Painting Services in Philadelphia.<br />
Then one day he had his “ah-ha”<br />
moment.<br />
“What got me into the power washing<br />
business fully was that I had a painting<br />
company and I was burning myself<br />
continued ...<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 13
HOA<br />
Niche<br />
operator<br />
out and I started to realize I was making<br />
more money power washing the jobs<br />
that I was getting ready to paint than I<br />
was from painting,” Josetti said.<br />
“Right around the late 1990s, early<br />
2000s when they started changing the<br />
building materials from wood to the<br />
composite materials and vinyls and all<br />
these different maintenance-free materials,<br />
what I basically could see was that<br />
in the future these materials wouldn’t<br />
need to be painted or stained but oh,<br />
guess what, they will need to be cleaned.<br />
Every single house that was starting to<br />
get built 20-plus years ago was needing<br />
our pressure washing services within<br />
two to three years. The light bulb went<br />
off in my head. I said ‘all right, here’s<br />
what we need to do.’”<br />
In April 2004, he launched All Clean<br />
Power Washing and slowly moved out<br />
of all painting and restoration services.<br />
Josetti’s gravitation specifically in<br />
to the HOA space came in large part<br />
due to the positive influence of his wife,<br />
Meg, on the business.<br />
“We finally realized that if we were<br />
going to get to the next level with the<br />
company, she had to get involved,” Josetti<br />
said. “She has a business degree<br />
and was also a property manager when<br />
we got married. So she’s got experience<br />
across the board and that helped us immensely<br />
in our venture with the property<br />
management work that we do in our<br />
market.”<br />
Sounds like a perfect marriage, no<br />
pun intended…<br />
Today, All Clean employs between<br />
eight and 15 people depending on the<br />
time of year.<br />
A lot of small pressure wash operations<br />
nationwide would love to land<br />
an HOA contract and cease doing jobs<br />
one residence at a time. Josetti said he<br />
actually gets contacted all the time by<br />
people asking questions about getting<br />
access to property management portfolios.<br />
And although he explains that<br />
his “niche of a niche” is different from<br />
standard HOA work, he does offer advice<br />
and support for becoming successful<br />
in the space.<br />
“Just go do it,” he said. “For instance,<br />
anywhere in the country these 55 and<br />
over or retirement type communities<br />
are taking shape and there are ways to<br />
reach them and market to them,” Josetti<br />
said. [See sidebar titled “Step-by-step<br />
Guide to Marketing to HOAs”].<br />
“They are basically created under<br />
the same guidelines and needs that we<br />
provide to our market here, where everything<br />
is going to be taken care of…<br />
from gutter cleaning to the exterior<br />
washing to the lawn maintenance…and<br />
that has to be done by an outside service<br />
like ours. You can find those in the middle<br />
of Oklahoma or Florida, obviously.<br />
It’s all over the place. Be prepared,<br />
think it through, and offer value.”<br />
In addition to running his company,<br />
Josetti has since 2015 served on the<br />
board of directors of the Power Washers<br />
of North America (PWNA), where<br />
he teaches various certifications. He assumes<br />
the presidency of the association<br />
later this year.<br />
“I came to my first convention in<br />
2013 because I wanted to know what I<br />
didn’t know,” he said. “I’ve been doing<br />
this for a long time and within the first<br />
literally 20 minutes of the first class that<br />
I took I realized did I have a lot to offer<br />
that I knew more than most of the people<br />
in that room. Frankly, I knew more<br />
than the instructor. And from there I<br />
just had a passion for it and I have no<br />
problem giving back and helping even<br />
my own competitors.”<br />
According to Josetti, it is not uncommon<br />
for him to teach classes at conventions<br />
to competitors in his own market.<br />
“It’s about raising the tide of the<br />
industry,” Josetti said. “And helping to<br />
set some standards that everybody can<br />
live by.”<br />
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE<br />
TO MARKETING TO HOAS<br />
As HOA-USA.com stated in a recent<br />
white paper, “the opportunities<br />
to market to this target audience are<br />
tremendous, but also challenging.”<br />
Why? Well, for one, homeowner<br />
associations are nearly invisible!<br />
“Most HOA’s do not have an office<br />
or a phone,” the website states. “Only<br />
a few maintain current websites and<br />
are rarely found on a Google search.<br />
Without an identifiable customer, you<br />
cannot sell your product or service. So<br />
how do you get in front of the board<br />
members and decision makers for<br />
these communities? And what do you<br />
say in order to help them make informed<br />
decisions to better their community<br />
through you?”<br />
HOA-USA.com was created specifically<br />
to reach the targeted market<br />
of HOA board members and decision<br />
makers. HOA-USA works closely with<br />
management companies and maintains<br />
a Management Company Directory<br />
nationwide of over 5,000 listings.<br />
The following is a lightly-condensed<br />
list of tips the website offered<br />
up when planning a marketing campaign<br />
to HOAs. [Visit www.HOA-<br />
USA.com for more.]<br />
RESPECT THE BOARD<br />
MEMBER’S TIME<br />
“People who serve as board members<br />
for their HOA all do so voluntarily.<br />
As an incorporated homeowners<br />
association, board members cannot<br />
be paid or otherwise compensated for<br />
serving on the board. Board and committee<br />
members put in a great deal of<br />
time into board meetings, enforcing<br />
covenants, collecting dues, and making<br />
their community a better place. About<br />
35-40% of HOAs contract with a professional<br />
management company to<br />
help ease the load of running the community.<br />
The rest do so by themselves.<br />
In either case, board members are the<br />
decision makers for their communities<br />
and their time is quite valuable. When<br />
you get the opportunity to speak with<br />
a board member about your products<br />
and services, keep these thoughts in<br />
mind. In most cases, boards are required<br />
to get numerous bids on a variety<br />
of different services. They want<br />
to (and need to) hear about what you<br />
have to offer, but often don’t have a lot<br />
of time to hear it. If you are fortunate<br />
enough to get agenda time at a board<br />
meeting, keep your presentation short<br />
and offer to send more information. By<br />
being respectful of the board’s time,<br />
you may find yourself in a better position<br />
for an RFP (Request for Proposal)<br />
and increased business.”<br />
OFFER VALUE<br />
AT THE HOA LEVEL<br />
“Remember that when you are<br />
reaching out to an HOA, you are speaking<br />
to the community as a whole and<br />
not just to one homeowner. Make sure<br />
that your message speaks to the ultimate<br />
goal of every board member: to retain<br />
and increase property values of the entire<br />
community…If your company typically<br />
works with individual homeowners<br />
then keep several things in mind:<br />
• Often the HOA will have common<br />
area and amenities that need servicing.<br />
For example, the clubhouse may<br />
need carpet cleaning, or the private<br />
roads may need repair work.<br />
• The board member is in a unique position<br />
to tell the rest of the community<br />
about your products and customer<br />
service. A good impression to the<br />
board member can go a long way.<br />
• Offering discounts for multi-home<br />
purchases is a great way to ensure<br />
that the board or committee member<br />
will tell their neighbors.<br />
continued ...<br />
14 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
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Remember that HOA Board Members<br />
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so offering them personal incentives to<br />
promote your product is NOT allowed.<br />
However you can offer incentives to the<br />
HOA or community as a whole. For<br />
example, a power washing company<br />
may offer a free exterior cleaning to the<br />
HOA clubhouse in exchange for advertising<br />
on the community website.”<br />
TIMING IS<br />
EVERYTHING<br />
“Approximately 75% of Homeowner<br />
Associations hold their required annual<br />
meetings between the months of November<br />
and February. This is important because<br />
the annual budget also gets ratified<br />
at the same time. If a board is going to<br />
make a change in service provider for a<br />
big-budget operating expense item, they<br />
are likely to make that change around the<br />
time of the annual meeting…Marketing<br />
your services in the months prior to the<br />
annual meeting is often a good strategy.<br />
That’s not to say that all expenses are decided<br />
during the annual budget. In fact,<br />
much of the ‘operating budget’ will be<br />
adjusted throughout the year. Seasonal<br />
influences are likely going to dictate the<br />
appropriate time to advertise…A sound<br />
marketing strategy for HOAs will include<br />
some amount of marketing year-round,<br />
while leaving the majority of the advertising<br />
budget for the months of the year<br />
when board members are most likely to<br />
pay attention.”<br />
THE ROLE OF THE<br />
MANAGEMENT COMPANY<br />
“Approximately 35% of HOAs contract<br />
with a professional management<br />
company to aid with the governance of<br />
the community. The other 65% choose<br />
to self-manage or are, for all intents and<br />
purposes, defunct…When an HOA<br />
contracts with a management company,<br />
they are assigned a community manager.<br />
This person aids with collections, ensures<br />
covenant enforcement, and generally<br />
handles the financials for the board. The<br />
management company will often have a<br />
list of vendors that they go to when one<br />
of their boards is in need of a particular<br />
product or service. The property manager<br />
will take bids from their vendors and<br />
make recommendations to the board<br />
on who to select. However, the decision<br />
making power still lies with the board.<br />
The property manager will always yield<br />
to the board because the management<br />
company works for the HOA (not vice<br />
versa).<br />
Reaching out to management companies<br />
is almost always a solid marketing<br />
strategy if you want to work with<br />
HOAs. By getting your foot in the door<br />
with a management company, you<br />
stand the chance to be a “preferred<br />
vendor” and may be asked to provide<br />
an RFP for one of their communities.<br />
It is important not to forget about<br />
the 65% of the market that chooses to<br />
self-manage. These communities need<br />
your products and services too, but they<br />
don’t have the luxury of asking a community<br />
manager to help find your company…Working<br />
both sides of the market<br />
is important, and understanding<br />
that in both cases the ultimate decision<br />
maker is the board member may be the<br />
key to your success.”<br />
CONSIDER TURNOVER ON<br />
HOA BOARDS<br />
“Serving on an HOA Board can<br />
be quite rewarding, knowing that you<br />
have helped your community maintain<br />
its property values and become a<br />
community worth living in. However,<br />
if you have served on an HOA Board,<br />
you know that it is also a time consuming<br />
and often thankless job. Thus, the turnover<br />
rate among board members can be<br />
high. Most new board members will take<br />
office at the beginning of the calendar<br />
year. This can often breathe new life in<br />
the community, as new board members<br />
often have a number of things that they<br />
would like to see improved in the community.<br />
However, many first-time board<br />
members have limited (or no) experience<br />
serving on a Board of Directors. With<br />
this in mind, it makes sense to advertise<br />
to HOAs at the beginning of the year, so<br />
now you can be heard by fresh faces on<br />
the board. New board members can feel<br />
overwhelmed at first and will sometimes<br />
take several months to get accustomed<br />
to life as an HOA board member. A<br />
marketing campaign than spans several<br />
months (January – April) will give you a<br />
chance to leave a lasting impression with<br />
these folks.”<br />
GEAR YOUR<br />
WEBSITE TO HOAS<br />
“If you plan to advertise your products<br />
and services to HOA board members,<br />
it is important to remember that<br />
you must speak to their needs as a community.<br />
Dedicating a section of your<br />
website to this agenda is a sound strategy,<br />
as most people will take the time<br />
to look up a company on the internet<br />
before doing business with that company.<br />
If a board member is able to visit<br />
your website and quickly find a page<br />
that speaks directly to them, you have<br />
put yourself in an excellent position to<br />
earn that community’s business.”<br />
USE SOCIAL MEDIA<br />
“People are using social media as<br />
a primary means of communication,<br />
which can translate into referrals and<br />
excellent word-of-mouth advertising.<br />
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are<br />
great places to advertise specials, post<br />
testimonials, ask for referrals, and join<br />
HOA-specific groups. Having these social<br />
media tools link directly with your<br />
website is also a great way to improve<br />
your search engine optimization. Talk<br />
to your webmaster or website designer<br />
about integrating social media into your<br />
overall marketing strategy if you have<br />
the time to devote to it and you’ll hopefully<br />
see positive results for your efforts.<br />
Look up some other businesses (or your<br />
competitors) to see how they are using<br />
social media. A few posts or tweets per<br />
week will take no more than a few minutes<br />
of your time, and can lead to increased<br />
exposure and business.”<br />
BANNER ADVERTISING<br />
“Banner advertising gets your company<br />
name and logo in front of your<br />
customers, and more importantly drives<br />
them back to your site, increasing your<br />
site traffic and Google rankings as well.<br />
This important first step in the marketing<br />
process reinforces your brand recognition<br />
to the decision makers who matter<br />
most to increasing your businesses sales.<br />
By carefully choosing only relevant sites<br />
your banner ads appear on, you can<br />
make sure that you reach the right audience<br />
and drive targeted traffic to your<br />
site.”<br />
DIRECT MAIL<br />
“Lately everyone has gone digital, so<br />
there’s been less of an emphasis placed<br />
on using direct mail to reach your targets.<br />
This has caused a resurgence in<br />
the effectiveness of this type of marketing.<br />
To create an effective marketing<br />
strategy, it’s important to reach your<br />
target market in various ways. Send out<br />
direct mail to various targeted lists of<br />
homeowner associations.”<br />
16 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
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CONTENTS<br />
UNDER<br />
PRESSURE<br />
A POP CULTURE-<br />
INSPIRED LOOK<br />
AT THE PRESSURE<br />
WASH INDUSTRY<br />
A look around the World Wide Web<br />
for wacky examples of pressure washing<br />
in our culture’s everyday life<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
App-ropos<br />
Secret Entourage, a consortium of<br />
millionaires who now work to help tens<br />
of thousands of entrepreneurs start and<br />
grow their own businesses, interviewed app<br />
developer Allen Wong of Rego Apps a few<br />
years ago.<br />
Wong told Secret Entourage that his first<br />
app was a browser that removed the toolbars,<br />
did not save your browsing history, and<br />
allowed you to view websites while offline.<br />
One of Wong’s earliest successful apps was<br />
called News Feed Elite, which was the #1 news<br />
app back in 2009. Using the technologies he<br />
developed from his browser app, he made an<br />
app that made it easy to view various news<br />
sites. It was successful because it allowed you to<br />
scroll through websites by tilting your phone,<br />
save news articles to be read at a later time<br />
(even offline), block ads, share sites to Twitter/<br />
Facebook, and other things. It basically paved<br />
the way for the other popular news apps you<br />
see today.<br />
But his most successful app was his 5-0<br />
Radio Police Scanner…5-0 Radio was for a<br />
time the #1 police scanner app for the iPhone.<br />
At its peak, it was in the top 10 paid apps in<br />
various countries. People had many uses for<br />
this app, ranging from monitoring crime in<br />
continued ...<br />
18 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
CONTENTS<br />
UNDER<br />
PRESSURE<br />
their neighborhood to getting live alerts about<br />
hazards in the region to keeping in touch<br />
with family members who were members of<br />
a police force. People also used this app to get<br />
early tornado warnings, hurricane warnings,<br />
flood warnings, and other news before the<br />
radio and TV broadcast them. It made it<br />
to the top of the charts after Wong added<br />
internet radio stations to the app and created<br />
a free ad-supported version of the app. Other<br />
copycat apps later popped up and saturated<br />
the market.<br />
In all, according to his personal website,<br />
Wong’s apps have been downloaded by at<br />
least 15 million people.<br />
Not long after Wong began having his<br />
wild success in app development, the then<br />
20-something posted some pressure wash art<br />
he had completed on the sidewalks outside of<br />
his swanky new home to social media.<br />
First came Batman. More followed. But,<br />
alas, eventually his artistic liberties met their<br />
match.<br />
As described by Wong in his last social<br />
media post on the matter, the neighborhood’s<br />
home owner’s association had the last laugh.<br />
“HOA’s response to my sidewalk street art,”<br />
Wong wrote at the time, his words placed next<br />
to this picture of broken out sidewalk concrete.<br />
“Well played, HOA. Well played. You win this<br />
round.”<br />
A WALK WITH<br />
DR. SEUSS<br />
The Dickinson Press reported on Jeff Borys,<br />
who used a pressure washer to inscribe a<br />
passage from a Dr. Seuss story on the sidewalk<br />
outside his house in Grand Forks, North<br />
Dakota (pictured here).<br />
20 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
WORD OF<br />
MOUTH<br />
Word of Mouth<br />
Serial entrepreneur Jay Baer’s formula for growing your business hinges<br />
on the free advertising your customers can do for you<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
Jay Baer is a seventh-generation entrepreneur.<br />
An internet pioneer, he has<br />
written six best-selling books, founded<br />
five multimillion-dollar companies, and<br />
is currently the president and founder of<br />
Convince and Convert, a social media<br />
consulting company that advises some of<br />
the world’s most iconic brands, including<br />
Hilton Hotels and the United Nations.<br />
Baer doesn’t think a business like a<br />
pressure wash company should have to<br />
spend a single dime on advertising in order<br />
to grow their business. He cites Robert<br />
Stevens, the founder of Geek Squad,<br />
who said advertising is “a tax paid by the<br />
unremarkable.” How then does he expect<br />
a business to grow?<br />
“If you do it right, your customers<br />
will do the growing for you,” Baer explained.<br />
“The best way to grow any business<br />
or to grow margin is for your customers<br />
to do that growing for you. But<br />
for that to happen, you have to give them<br />
an opportunity to do just that.<br />
“There is no question that word of<br />
mouth is the single most important way<br />
that customers make a decision about<br />
where to give their business. But here’s<br />
the tragedy. You have to do word of<br />
mouth on purpose and almost nobody in<br />
this industry or any industry is doing so.<br />
“Fewer than 1% of all businesses<br />
have an actual word-of-mouth strategy,<br />
even though we all know how important<br />
word of mouth is. It’s how we make decisions<br />
in our own lives, right?<br />
“You probably have a marketing<br />
continued ...<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 21
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WORD OF<br />
MOUTH<br />
strategy, a social media strategy, a hiring<br />
strategy, a compliance strategy, a real<br />
estate strategy, a banking strategy -- you<br />
have a strategy for everything except the<br />
one thing that can actually grow your<br />
business the most affordably, which is<br />
word of mouth. We have to do word of<br />
mouth on purpose.”<br />
Baer said embracing the concept of<br />
word of mouth requires first turning<br />
loose of the notion that competency<br />
alone creates conversations amongst<br />
customers.<br />
“We believe that if we just run a really<br />
good business, if we just take care<br />
of the customer, if we just don’t make<br />
mistakes, if we continue to invest in new<br />
equipment, if we roll out at new idea…<br />
then people will talk about us. But that’s<br />
not how the world works.<br />
“Nobody has ever said ‘hey, let me<br />
tell you about this perfectly adequate<br />
experience I just had.’ You never say<br />
that because it’s not an interesting story<br />
to tell and it’s not an interesting story to<br />
listen to.”<br />
Same is lame, Baer preaches.<br />
“As human beings, we are wired to<br />
discuss things that are different and ignore<br />
things that are average…So you<br />
have to give your customers a story to<br />
tell. You have to give them something<br />
that they perceive as different. And that<br />
difference -- that thing that you do that<br />
they are not familiar with -- that becomes<br />
the story that they tell their friends.”<br />
Baer says doing something unconventional<br />
that creates a customer experience<br />
has been proven to accelerate word<br />
of mouth activity among customers.<br />
According to a recent research paper by<br />
global consulting firm McKinsey, 50 to<br />
80% of word-of-mouth activity actually<br />
derives from an experience that “deviates<br />
from what’s expected,” or as Baer<br />
says, something “outside their frame of<br />
reference.”<br />
Baer provides this example. There<br />
is a band in Nashville, Tennessee comprised<br />
of eight Grammy award-winning<br />
musicians. Every member of the band<br />
has won a Grammy as a session musician.<br />
Each member of the band, though,<br />
is under contract to record labels in the<br />
city to play on albums with some of the<br />
most popular artists in the world and<br />
therefore are contractually bound to<br />
NOT play out in public under their own<br />
names. So what do they do? They make<br />
an unconventional choice. They dress up<br />
like mummies, concealing their identities,<br />
and they travel around the country<br />
wowing crowds with their world-class<br />
music. (The band is called Here Come<br />
the Mummies.)<br />
“Now, would you tell a story if you<br />
went to a music show and everyone was<br />
dressed as mummies compared to if<br />
you just went to a music show even if it<br />
was the same good music?” Baer asked.<br />
“How could you not tell that story?”<br />
Baer said every business needs to<br />
seek to identify their own similar “differentiator”<br />
so that people will talk<br />
about their business as well. He calls<br />
this a “talk trigger.”<br />
Baer describes a talk trigger as “an<br />
operational choice” that you make on<br />
purpose that causes customer conversations.<br />
The key word is operational choice.<br />
This isn’t really marketing, not in the<br />
classic sense. It’s not a promotion. It’s not<br />
a price. It’s not a contest or a coupon or a<br />
billboard. It’s something that you do differently<br />
-- something operational -- that<br />
customers notice and talk about. It really<br />
is part of your operation. It’s part of<br />
your customer experience.<br />
According to Baer, good talk triggers<br />
share four things in common. The first<br />
one is that your talk trigger, your differ-<br />
continued ...<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 23
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WORD OF<br />
MOUTH<br />
entiator, has to be remarkable in the<br />
true definition of that word, which is<br />
worthy of remark.<br />
Take CVS Pharmacy. Baer said many<br />
people have experienced the CVS talk<br />
trigger without even noticing it. Think<br />
about it. What is remarkable about the<br />
CVS experience?<br />
Well, CVS has massively long receipts<br />
on purpose. And customers notice it and<br />
talk about it. One customer, after visiting<br />
a CVS, went on social media to express<br />
that he had run out of wrapping paper<br />
for presents so he used a CVS receipt<br />
to wrap presents. A sort of inside joke,<br />
it got a lot of attention on social media.<br />
Another customer had a window blind<br />
break in his bedroom, so he used the<br />
CVS receipt to replace the missing link.<br />
The social media post received 57,000<br />
retweets and 256,000 likes. CVS couldn’t<br />
buy that kind of publicity. It’s an operational<br />
choice that the company made on<br />
purpose to create conversations, or a story<br />
worth telling.<br />
The second thing Baer said that your<br />
talk trigger must be is repeatable. Baer<br />
explains that the best way to create a talk<br />
trigger is not for special occasions or people<br />
on their birthdays or a certain day of<br />
the week but for everyone all the time.<br />
“All customers must have access to<br />
your bonus because you are trying to maximize<br />
the number of people who will tell<br />
your talk trigger,” Baer said. “Business, a<br />
lot of times, they think…we’ll just do it on<br />
their anniversary or their birthday or for<br />
our best customers. I understand why we<br />
think that way, but you are then reducing<br />
the number of talkers.”<br />
Baer tells the story of a restaurant<br />
in Sacramento, California called Skip’s<br />
Kitchen. The restaurant is by no means<br />
remarkable from a curb appeal standpoint,<br />
it’s just a simple family-owned<br />
business that makes good hamburgers.<br />
According to Baer, Skip, the owner, has<br />
spent a grand total of zero dollars and<br />
zero cents on advertising in nearly a decade<br />
in business. And yet there is a line to<br />
get in to the restaurant almost every day.<br />
Every person<br />
gets a crack<br />
at it. It’s not just<br />
on Wednesdays<br />
when business<br />
is slower. It’s not<br />
just on a person’s<br />
birthday. It’s not<br />
ladies night.<br />
It’s everybody.<br />
How did they accomplish that in a<br />
saturated restaurant market? How do<br />
they create that kind of traffic without<br />
telling anybody about the business?<br />
“It’s because their customers do that<br />
for them,” Baer explained. “Their customers<br />
are volunteers marketers. And it’s<br />
because they have a story to tell. They<br />
have a talk trigger.”<br />
Here’s how it works. Skip’s is a counter-service<br />
restaurant, meaning that you<br />
order from a menu board placed behind<br />
the cash register then wait for your food<br />
to be brought to your table. Except at<br />
Skip’s, after you order but before you pay,<br />
the counter person whips out a deck of<br />
playing cards, fans them out face down,<br />
and says ‘pick a card.’ If when you select<br />
a card you turn over a joker, your entire<br />
meal is free.<br />
“Approximately four people a day win<br />
this game,” Baer related. “Everybody<br />
gets a chance, but about four people win.<br />
And when they win, they go crazy. It’s<br />
like winning the lottery. The Patty Melt<br />
lottery. They are taking patty melt selfies.<br />
They’re calling their mother. They’re<br />
putting reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor<br />
-- it’s a whole thing. And it’s so successful<br />
that in Sacramento, despite the fact that<br />
there’s a big sign outside that says ‘Skip’s<br />
Kitchen,’ most of the people in Sacramento<br />
call it ‘that joker restaurant.’”<br />
Now that’s an effective talk trigger.<br />
But, as Baer stresses, one of the reasons<br />
it’s so powerful is that every person gets<br />
a crack at it. It’s not just on Wednesdays<br />
when business is slower. It’s not just on<br />
a person’s birthday. It’s not ladies night.<br />
It’s everybody.<br />
“Consistency is the key, especially<br />
when you’re trying to create word of<br />
mouth because you want them to tell the<br />
same story to more and more people,”<br />
Baer concluded.<br />
The third thing your talk trigger must<br />
be is reasonable.<br />
Baer said a lot of times business owners<br />
think that in order to get attention,<br />
or get new customers, they have to do<br />
something over the top, like hold a contest<br />
where the winner gets a new car or<br />
something crazy like that.<br />
“We think that we have to blow people<br />
away or we have to shock them,” he<br />
said. “You don’t need something big. In<br />
fact, it shouldn’t be big and here’s why.<br />
Because when you do something for customers<br />
that’s too grand, it doesn’t create<br />
the kind of conversation we think it does;<br />
rather, it creates suspicion. What they say<br />
is ‘wait a second, what’s the catch? When<br />
is the other shoe going to drop? This<br />
can’t be true, they are not really going<br />
to give somebody a car.’ Also, it’s like the<br />
Publisher’s Clearinghouse effect. People<br />
think ‘I’m not going to win that, so I’m<br />
going to throw it away because it’s too<br />
big, it’s not reasonable.’”<br />
According to Baer, you don’t have to<br />
make it big; it just has to be different and<br />
consistent. Consider, he says, Double-<br />
Tree Hotels by Hilton. The hotel chain<br />
has given every guest a warm chocolate<br />
chip cookie at check-in every day for<br />
30 years. (Now that’s a talk trigger with<br />
some staying power!)<br />
“They hand out an incredible 75,000<br />
chocolate chip cookies a day,” Baer said.<br />
“How effective is that? I conducted a survey<br />
of thousands of DoubleTree guests<br />
while consulting Hilton and found out<br />
that 34% of them -- more than a third --<br />
have told a story to somebody else about<br />
that cookie. What that means is that<br />
22,500 stories today will be told about<br />
that chocolate chip cookie.”<br />
Baer follows up with a simple question.<br />
When is the last time you saw a<br />
Double Tree advertisement or TV commercial?<br />
It’s not very often because the<br />
cookie is the ad and the guests are the<br />
sales and marketing department, he said.<br />
“It’s not a car, it’s not a trip to Hawaii,<br />
it’s just a chocolate chip cookie, but<br />
people talk about it all the time online<br />
and offline,” Baer said. “People are making<br />
hotel decisions based on a chocolate<br />
chip cookie!”<br />
Baer cited another example pulled<br />
from the story of a tire shop owner he<br />
met in Kansas. In this businessman’s<br />
hometown is located an artisanal root<br />
beer company. The man loves this root<br />
beer. So, when you take your car into his<br />
shop for maintenance, or to purchase<br />
tires, or for tire rotation, and you pick<br />
up your car after he services it, every<br />
customer finds in their passenger seat a<br />
two-liter bottle of this locally-made root<br />
beer with a little note that says thanks so<br />
much for your business.<br />
“In that town, he is known as the<br />
Root Beer Tire Man,” Baer said. “You<br />
don’t get free tires. It’s not something big.<br />
It’s just root beer. But it’s consistent and<br />
it becomes the story people tell.”<br />
The fourth and final thing your talk<br />
trigger must be is relevant.<br />
“It has to add up,” Baer said. “It has<br />
to make sense. The Root Beer Tire Man<br />
makes sense because he likes root beer<br />
and the root beer is made in that town. It<br />
must speak to who you are and what you<br />
are because then the story is easier to tell.<br />
There’s not a lot of follow-up questions<br />
that have to occur.”<br />
As another example, Baer points out<br />
a locksmith in New York City who is the<br />
highest rated locksmith in New York<br />
City, and also one of the highest-rated<br />
businesses of any kind and all of New<br />
continued ...<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 25
WORD OF<br />
MOUTH<br />
York City. How?<br />
“Once he is done with the job you<br />
called him out to do, he goes around<br />
your house and checks every door and<br />
every window and does a thorough security<br />
audit,” Baer said. “He’ll say ‘this<br />
one’s a little bit loose, this one could be<br />
jimmied open’ – he does that whole process<br />
totally for free.”<br />
That inventory -- his talk trigger --<br />
makes sense, right? He wouldn’t think<br />
of offering you a warm chocolate chip<br />
cookie like Doubletree, would he? That<br />
wouldn’t be relevant.<br />
“So it has to make sense for you and<br />
your business,” Baer said. “The cookie<br />
works for DoubleTree because they are<br />
focused on the warm welcome. They are<br />
focused on the first seven minutes from<br />
the time you walk in their door to when<br />
you make it to your room. That is also<br />
why they spend more money on lobby<br />
design than other places. Plus, it is not<br />
just a cookie handed to you or under<br />
glass. It is a cookie ceremony. The person<br />
behind the register goes to a warm<br />
oven behind them, puts it in a plastic<br />
bag, and hands it to you. The hand-tohand<br />
pass is a big part of it. It’s not just<br />
a cold cookie under glass at the register,<br />
it’s a warm cookie. A warm welcome. It’s<br />
an experience.”<br />
Resist the temptation when you were<br />
working on creating your talk trigger<br />
to just do something “random,” Baer<br />
warns. “Think of something that is true<br />
to the spirit of your organization and<br />
then turn that into your talk trigger.”<br />
Here are two final examples of talk<br />
triggers that Baer shared.<br />
There isn’t much in the town of Santa<br />
Claus, Indiana. Certainly not Santa<br />
Claus. Mostly corn, Baer said, and he<br />
should know living in nearby Bloomington.<br />
The one thing they do have in<br />
Santa Clause, Indiana, though, is Holiday<br />
World Theme Park and Splashin’<br />
Safari Water Park, a family-owned water<br />
park and amusement park. It’s not<br />
the kind of place you would expect to<br />
find an amusement park, Baer said. In<br />
fact, Baer describes the location as “objectively<br />
terrible.” As such, location is<br />
a distinct disadvantage. So too is the<br />
fact that the park is family-owned so<br />
they don’t have a tremendous amount<br />
of budget. They can’t just spend their<br />
way to success competing against the<br />
deep-pocketed folks that run amusement<br />
parks elsewhere in the nation<br />
and that boast characters like Mickey<br />
Mouse. But what they do have, Baer<br />
said, is an extraordinary talk trigger.<br />
“When you go in to Holiday World<br />
and go through the turnstiles, the first<br />
thing you see is a little hut, a little building,<br />
and you soon realize it is a free sunscreen<br />
station,” Baer said. “These are<br />
spread all throughout the park. They<br />
offer an unlimited Supply of sunscreen.<br />
“It is a total freak show…It’s like a<br />
slip and slide but everyone standing up.<br />
It’s a greasy audience.<br />
“The owners obviously run a very<br />
good business. A tight ship. They know<br />
what they’re doing. But people don’t talk<br />
about good. They talk about different…<br />
what they talk about is free sunscreen.”<br />
“And, in fact, Holiday World ranks<br />
as one of the very highest rated theme<br />
parks in America on tripadvisor.com --<br />
higher than Disneyland, Disney World,<br />
Universal Studios, and Cedar Point! And<br />
almost every one of the reviews that leads<br />
to that rating mentions free sunscreen.<br />
“It’s repeatable, relevant, reasonable,<br />
remarkable,” Baer concluded.<br />
Finally, there’s a business in New<br />
York City called Paragon that services<br />
cars. Their talk trigger was based on<br />
an epiphany. Paragon’s owners asked<br />
themselves a simple question related to<br />
the time and effort it takes for a customer<br />
to service their car. And that question<br />
was, ‘when do our customers NOT<br />
need their cars?’<br />
The answer? When they are sleeping.<br />
Paragon now has a mobile app<br />
Think of<br />
something<br />
that is true to<br />
the spirit of your<br />
organization<br />
and then turn<br />
that into your<br />
talk trigger.<br />
where customers schedule an appointment<br />
for their vehicle. Paragon then<br />
picks up their customers’ vehicle at their<br />
home once they return from work for<br />
the night, usually around 6 or 6:30 in<br />
the evening. They take it to their repair<br />
center, fix it overnight “like a magical<br />
elf ” Baer said, texting you periodically<br />
for your approval if they identify other<br />
services that are needed or they recommend<br />
for your automobile. Then they<br />
bring your car back to you before you<br />
leave for work the next morning.<br />
Not surprisingly, Paragon has massively<br />
increased revenue since making<br />
the operational change, and customer<br />
satisfaction is through the roof.<br />
“Now if somebody fixed your car<br />
overnight like a magic elf, would you tell<br />
that story?” Baer asked. “Hell yes, you<br />
would tell everybody you know that story<br />
because it’s universally awesome and<br />
remarkable.”<br />
So how do you come up with your<br />
own talk trigger? Baer explains the process<br />
in full in his book on the topic, but<br />
does offer this advice up for starters.<br />
“Talk to your customers about what<br />
they expect and then use that research<br />
to come up with some candidate triggers,”<br />
he said. “Then test them.”<br />
Bear adds that the secret ingredient<br />
of word-of-mouth advertising, he believes,<br />
is “empathy.”<br />
“It is taking the time to really understand<br />
where your customers are<br />
coming from, to be aware of what they<br />
really need, and delivering that,” he<br />
said. “It’s really more psychology then<br />
it is execution.”<br />
Baer finished with one last example<br />
of a talk trigger premised on this notion<br />
of customer empathy. KLM, a Dutch<br />
Airlines based in Amsterdam, had an<br />
admittedly poor system for reuniting<br />
customers with items lost on their planes.<br />
People would lose their headphones or<br />
sunglasses on the plane, the flight attendants<br />
would place them in a lost and<br />
found, customers would contact the airlines<br />
looking for their possessions, forms<br />
would need to be filled out, and perhaps<br />
a couple of weeks later the items would<br />
be returned. As a solution, KLM trained<br />
beagle dogs to board planes after arrival,<br />
identify scents on lost items, and run<br />
through terminal areas returning items<br />
before customers left the airport.<br />
“So a beagle shows up with your<br />
item,” Baer said. “Is that a story you tell?<br />
“Empathy does not have to be complicated,<br />
it’s just people understanding<br />
people. Simple is amazing. It’s relevant.<br />
It’s an operational add on that becomes<br />
a talk trigger.<br />
“That’s the best place for you to<br />
start your own talk triggers. Exceeding<br />
empathy expectations causes conversations.<br />
Make your business care more. Be<br />
the guys that care more about your customers.<br />
And if you do that…your path<br />
is success.”<br />
Advertising is a tax paid by the unremarkable.<br />
Your customers are your best<br />
marketers. If you give your customers<br />
a story to tell about you, they will tell it<br />
over and over and you will grow.<br />
[Editor’s Note: Baer, who is also a tequila<br />
collector and certified BBQ judge, was<br />
keynote speaker at The Car Wash Show<br />
in Nashville, Tennessee, May, <strong>2019</strong>.<br />
This article was created from Baer’s<br />
keynote address to attendees that day.]<br />
26 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
WASHING<br />
Babe-raham<br />
Lincoln ...<br />
Excellent!<br />
Iconic pressure wash entrepreneur Henry Bockman, who has cleaned national<br />
monuments including the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and is an expert at<br />
performing “big jobs” like the University of Maryland football stadium and the<br />
D.C. Armory, is now taking his brand national<br />
BY DREW RUBLE<br />
Henry Bockman, you might say, has<br />
always been red, white, and blue.<br />
A veteran of the Navy, Bockman<br />
served aboard the USS America as<br />
an aviation ordinance specialist with<br />
the F-14 Squadron “The Starfighters”<br />
weapons systems.<br />
“I went into the military because I<br />
wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do after<br />
high school,” Bockman said. “I wanted<br />
to get out and see the world a little.”<br />
Bockman served three years in the<br />
service. Afterwards, he started out working<br />
at the Department of Energy as a<br />
security guard but decided it was “too<br />
much like being in the military.” He had<br />
a friend who had a window cleaning<br />
HENRY BOCKMAN<br />
company and asked him to do a job for<br />
him when he was going on vacation.<br />
“So I did that and made like three<br />
hundred and fifty bucks,” Bockman said.<br />
“And I was getting paid about that same<br />
amount for a week in the military! So I<br />
was like ‘this is pretty good.’<br />
He bought a couple squeegees and<br />
started cleaning windows. From there,<br />
beginning in 1989, he started adding<br />
other lines of business, including gutter<br />
cleaning and, in 1990, pressure washing.<br />
He would eventually start Commercial<br />
Restorations, a company specializing<br />
in delicate commercial pressure wash/<br />
cleaning jobs. This included work on<br />
Washington DC-area historical memorials<br />
like the Lincoln Memorial and<br />
Jefferson Memorial. Bockman cleaned<br />
the plazas, exterior areas, and some<br />
of the lower parts of the Lincoln Memorial<br />
in 2002 and again in 2006. He<br />
did the same for the Jefferson in 2006.<br />
Other historic projects on his resume<br />
include the Abner Doubleday Stadium<br />
in Cooperstown, New York, the home<br />
of the Baseball Hall of Fame. In short,<br />
he’s done a lot of high-pressure jobs, no<br />
pun intended.<br />
The first time Bockman cleaned<br />
sections of those national monuments<br />
was as part of the ‘Clean Across America’<br />
program that he created. Clean<br />
Across America was nothing short of<br />
a brilliant marketing idea for the entire<br />
pressure wash industry. Bockman’s idea<br />
was for pressure washers everywhere to<br />
clean historical areas nationwide free of<br />
charge both as an act of altruism but also<br />
as a means to promote the industry to the<br />
general public. The Pressure Washers<br />
of North America (PWNA), for which<br />
Bockman is a former director, adopted<br />
the idea and made it the organization’s<br />
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WASHING<br />
BABE-RAHAM<br />
LINCOLN<br />
number one outreach initiative.<br />
“As far as I know, that was like the<br />
biggest promotional thing still to this<br />
day that the organization ever did,”<br />
Bockman said. “So basically the organization<br />
-- free of charge -- offered to<br />
clean the nation’s historical areas. It<br />
was a community thing that I did for<br />
my own companies and communities<br />
and then I went to the board of directors<br />
of PWNA and introduced the idea<br />
of making it a campaign for the organization<br />
to use it for promotion and as a<br />
membership building thing.”<br />
Once again, in classic service to<br />
America style, Bockman had made an<br />
imprint in a patriotic way. This time<br />
he was recognized for his work in a<br />
high-profile manner. As creator of Clean<br />
Across America campaign, he received<br />
the Daily Points of Light Award from<br />
then President George Bush.<br />
Working on national historical<br />
monuments inside the Beltway was no<br />
panacea, however. Doing government<br />
work by its very nature means lots of<br />
bureaucratic red tape. Cleaning historical<br />
monuments adds another layer of<br />
regulations and, frankly, obstacles to<br />
performing a successful clean.<br />
“Most of the stuff you have to run<br />
by National Park Service,” Bockman<br />
explained. “They have approved products<br />
you use for the Lincoln Memorial,<br />
for instance… it really was nothing.<br />
Palmolive probably would have done a<br />
better job. Or you could have just used<br />
hot water at low pressure.”<br />
In the spirit of Clean Across America,<br />
and/or with profit in mind, pressure<br />
washers nationwide should consider sizing<br />
up their own local historic inventory<br />
(smaller in scale though it may be) and approaching<br />
the proper government entity<br />
(planning commissions, historical societies)<br />
about getting a chance to clean them.<br />
Bockman offers up this advice for<br />
those thinking of doing so.<br />
“It’s not just different methods and<br />
chemicals and processes but also navigating<br />
governmental entities. It can be<br />
very complex and not for everyone,”<br />
Bockman said. “Even for small-town<br />
operators, they need to prepare their<br />
minds to sort of go through some hoops<br />
and do some things that you wouldn’t<br />
normally do just getting a residential<br />
or commercial job.<br />
“Sometimes it’s a huge hurdle,” he<br />
added. “For instance, you often have to<br />
do core samples…So you may have to<br />
wait a year before you can actually go<br />
out and do the job. You’ll have to show<br />
consistent cleaning performance on different<br />
areas of the buildings and in removing<br />
different stains. They may want<br />
it to dry just to make sure it’s right. So<br />
there’s a lot of prep work involved to secure<br />
it. You’ll have to put a lot of work in<br />
place before you can even begin bidding.<br />
“Also, wages. Sometimes you have to<br />
pay a certain amount on different projects<br />
on government jobs. Some of them<br />
they require you to pay wages that could<br />
be $30 an hour and you have to pay your<br />
guys that if it falls under certain guidelines.<br />
You have to know that fact going in<br />
and plan for it or you’ll under bid.”<br />
According to Bockman, on some of<br />
his highly-sensitive DC jobs, his crews<br />
will be guarded by armed security the<br />
entire time they are on a job.<br />
“They guard us with M-16s,” he<br />
said. “So you have two security guys<br />
per employee on a job site following you<br />
around watching you the entire time<br />
and inspecting your vehicles and going<br />
through your chemicals every time you<br />
pull in…A lot of contractors way under<br />
bid these kind of projects because when<br />
you have to go through a security checkpoint<br />
every single time you do a property,<br />
it can take an hour just to get on the<br />
property and through security. Time is<br />
money. Then you’re guarded and you<br />
can’t move around quickly. So, for instance,<br />
if a window is open, they’ve got<br />
to call to get clearance to go in there<br />
and close it. Some of the jobs that we’ve<br />
done that would normally take us three<br />
or four hours can take two days just because<br />
of the bureaucracy. So pricing is<br />
huge for these jobs.”<br />
Not understanding all these ins and<br />
outs of government can cost you in the<br />
long run, both financially and reputationally.<br />
“On some jobs, they don’t allow us<br />
to use any acid-based materials at all,”<br />
Bockman explained. “So if you have to<br />
remove rust or lime or calcium without<br />
an acid-based product, that has to be<br />
covered in the contract that you submitted.<br />
Because if they expect that to be<br />
removed, there’s no way you can really<br />
remove it. If that fact is not made clear in<br />
the contract, you have lost all credibility<br />
when you have to bring that fact up in<br />
the middle of a job.”<br />
Education, then, is key. And no one is<br />
more known in the pressure wash industry<br />
for an emphasis on education than<br />
Bockman. Arguably no one in the field<br />
has as many certifications and credentials<br />
for various types of cleaning techniques<br />
as Bockman. He is also a prolific<br />
teacher in the field. In fact, Bockman<br />
created many of the power washing and<br />
soft washing classes in existence today<br />
across the globe.<br />
His restoration work in particular requires<br />
continuous education on the latest<br />
and greatest products and methodologies<br />
being developed to deal with historic<br />
or sensitive projects.<br />
“Staying on top of the industry in<br />
this specialized field is key to success,” he<br />
said. “I recently took a class that taught<br />
me how to rebuild statues. Let’s say you<br />
have a statue and a grape bundle breaks<br />
off. This allows you to remake the grapes<br />
and attach them and bond them so they<br />
won’t break off the next time it freezes.<br />
Really cool stuff, and very lucrative.”<br />
Bockman isn’t just known for historic<br />
jobs. He’s also known for his ability<br />
to do big jobs that other pressure<br />
washers simply couldn’t bid on because<br />
they don’t have the bandwidth, equipment,<br />
knowledge or experience that<br />
Bockman possesses.<br />
continued ...<br />
VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 29
WASHING<br />
BABE-RAHAM<br />
LINCOLN<br />
For instance, Bockman recently<br />
pressure washed the DC Armory, which<br />
opened in 1941 as the headquarters,<br />
armory and training facility for the DC<br />
National Guard. Commonly identified<br />
by its domed roof, is a 10,000-seat<br />
multipurpose arena with 70,000 square<br />
feet of drill floor, the Armory today is<br />
Washington, DC’s most versatile venues,<br />
serving as an auditorium, arena,<br />
big top and ballroom.<br />
“That’s the biggest project I’ve done,<br />
really,” Bockman said. “Limestone<br />
and…bigger than a football stadium.”<br />
“The project was over half a million,”<br />
he said. “I spent three and a half weeks<br />
on it.”<br />
Not unlike historic jobs, successfully<br />
completing big jobs, Bockman said, is<br />
also highly dependent on planning.<br />
“A lot of it is figuring out the fastest<br />
and most efficient way to do something<br />
with the least amount of manpower and<br />
the least amount of resources,” he said.<br />
“But the biggest thing on big jobs like<br />
stadiums is to make sure that you have<br />
access to water or enough water to feed<br />
your equipment. You have to make sure<br />
you have enough water access to run<br />
full out and non-stop…I’ve got pump<br />
systems to do 45 gallons per minute. In<br />
addition, I have all kinds of different<br />
and weird equipment that I either made<br />
or designed or created to do stadium<br />
jobs. I created a special surface cleaner<br />
and patented it – a modified a piece<br />
of equipment to do multiple things and<br />
which made a huge difference on a stadium<br />
jobs. We tripled our speed when<br />
I designed that on the second day of a<br />
big job that was eating our lunch. The<br />
first day, we got like two sections done…<br />
once you go through that, you say to<br />
yourself, ‘okay, what can I do to make it<br />
easier. You learn on the fly. Sometimes<br />
every couple hours you try something<br />
different just to get two more rows done<br />
in the same amount of time.”<br />
It’s not just getting the water on site<br />
but also getting the water where it needs<br />
to be. At the University of Maryland football<br />
stadium, for instance, Bockman needs<br />
equipment that allows him to get water<br />
hundreds of feet up to the top rows.<br />
“We had to run lines 250 feet up to<br />
the very top of it and then 150 to 200<br />
feet down,” Bockman said. “So minimizing<br />
how many times you have to go up<br />
and down the stairs to clean – well, you<br />
are going to think deeply on that.”<br />
Once again, pressure washers nationwide<br />
wishing to ramp up from residential<br />
jobs to big commercial jobs like football<br />
stadiums can learn a lot from Bockman’s<br />
experience and advice. Which includes<br />
perhaps to consider NOT going in to<br />
that particular line of business after all.<br />
“Everybody would like to get a job<br />
like that, but are you really in a position to<br />
do it?”Bockman questioned. “In addition<br />
to questions about adequate equipment,<br />
there’s also the financial side of it too.<br />
“If you want to take on a $50,000-<br />
to-$75,000 project, can you cover the<br />
overhead to get through the project?<br />
Can you cover payroll? Equipment,<br />
chemicals, and gas? And you’re probably<br />
not making any other income if<br />
you have everybody on your crew out<br />
there, so there’s no other jobs coming<br />
in every day to make money…Can<br />
you go three to four weeks without<br />
any money coming in at all? And, after<br />
that, another 30 days to get paid? Not<br />
getting paid for a few months would<br />
put most guys out of business.”<br />
So how did you do it?<br />
“I learned by trial by error or trial by<br />
fire,” Bockman said. “It’s a calculated<br />
risk and you take it in some cases.<br />
“I’ve made big mistakes on jobs…I<br />
screwed up one bid on an apartment<br />
complex of three-story townhouses, 275<br />
total,” he said. “I was tired while I was<br />
running the numbers and wrote up a<br />
price not realizing until we got on the<br />
job that I calculated square footage for<br />
one story, not three. So I did the job for<br />
a third of the real price. I think I made<br />
$300 on that whole job after labor and<br />
materials. I was like ‘don’t make that<br />
mistake again.’”<br />
Bockman’s service to America was<br />
most recently on display during his recent<br />
tenure as an appointed member<br />
on the Commission on Veterans Affairs.<br />
Though he describes his two-year<br />
term on the commission as “boring as<br />
hell,” with more time spent in meetings<br />
listening to presentation than actually<br />
taking action, he said he did his best to<br />
promote the commission and get it out<br />
there on social media so more people<br />
recognize that we even have a commission<br />
and its programs.<br />
“They move so slow,” Bockman bemoaned.<br />
“I could have renewed it and<br />
stayed on but I figured there’s a lot of<br />
things I can do community service-wise<br />
and helping people on my own rather<br />
than sitting in meetings.”<br />
He has done so by recently testifying<br />
to Congress for a new training program<br />
for veterans that teach them how to deal<br />
with government contracting for free, and<br />
which also helps veterans network with<br />
the powers-that-be who facilitate these<br />
contracts. Bockman was also recently<br />
recruited to participate in a new veterans-in-business<br />
online training program.<br />
What’s the latest from Bockman?<br />
Well, after decades of running six companies:<br />
Henry’s Housework Inc., Commercial<br />
Restorations, Extreme Marketing<br />
Solutions, a training company called<br />
the Contractors Foundation, and two<br />
companies that operate online stores<br />
and internet directories, he was (at press<br />
time) in the process of merging all of his<br />
pressure wash businesses into one powerhouse<br />
of an entity.<br />
“The new company is powerwashcompany.com<br />
and it has the ability to do<br />
power wash servicing on a nationwide<br />
scale,” he said, highlighting setting up<br />
different branches, working with other<br />
contractors, and lead generation. “I can<br />
launch a company in any place easily.”<br />
One can’t help but expect that another<br />
venture related to his service to the<br />
USA is also in the offing for Bockman.<br />
30 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | VOL. 1, NO. 3 | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>
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