Happy Friday yo! :)

I find it so damn weird how cool shit in life lines up the way it does.. I suppose I'm sensitive to the idea given that I document a lot of things going on and I'm always planning my next topics.

February 2, 2019 - which is exactly two years ago this Monday - weird... I made a post about a GUD Chicken Coupe Story... A damn good post if you're down for a neat back story. :) In short, I was announcing to the world that I had just started my GUD Handyman business.

Weird shit continued...

Last week's post turned out to be my 200'th Friday post.. pretty cool! "Grateful Friday Message #200".

Weirder shit yet...

Today I celebrate my 200'th GUD Customer!

BOOM!

Tristan "Dabbing" on top of a client's rooftop... note the street light in the background. The kids nowadays "dab" when something legit or awesome happens... so this couldn't be a better pic!

Two years ago this past Christmas I was motivated to start a handyman business not knowing how or what it was going to turn out... before the first of the year I had made the time to design my gud shirts, website, and got decals made for the truck... I was pumped!

January 1, 2019, I declined an opportunity to go to the Fiesta Bowl - for free - to do my first official handyman job. Amongst a number of other items, one was installing these 3 heavy ass mirrors. Likely north of #100lbs each... AND the brackets were all different and opposite.. but got the shit done gud!

All I remember from that first opportunity was sitting across from the man while I did a shit load of math for two pieces of art.. designers wanted 12" between them and needed to be perfectly centered vertically and horizontally on the wall... meanwhile the left and right brackets for each art piece were not installed correctly. I did not want to make multiple holes in the wall for an unlevel shit install... to make matters more complicated, the client legit sat there at his desk facing me, saying nothing, just watching me work.. all that you could hear was the tick-tock of the grandfather clock behind him... doing math and feeling those eyes.. dude!.. then?! ... "It's been almost 2 hours already - what's going on?!".... Thankfully I was about done and ready to install... AND they were level :) but man... talk about shitty! Bummer I didn't have my computer to design off of... 100% old school....

First job bam! in the books.. now what?! hahah!

I couldn't wait for my T shirts to come in.. my tools were a total mess, I felt like such a noob! .. I ended up getting professionally insured thereafter to be a pro.. I recall talking with my insurance guy, he said dude, you were so kinda just, I have no clue, just going to give this a try and see what happens.. "well I'm happy for you" he would say.

Since that first job I've had the fortune of completing 345 other jobs, with 199 different clients/customers all totaling 1,520 working hours...

yes, I'm that much of a nerd... haha

Now sitting back processing just these two short, but demanding years, today I will later celebrate serving my GUD 200th customer. :) man! I wish my GP were here to talk about this stuff with.. I never knew what or where this could or would go.. so the best thing I could do was filter decisions of where to take the business through his hopeful wisdom.. Listening to myself, asking questions and answering them as I believe he would, and all the while listening to the universe, paying attention to the small things going on around me, about what I was doing... Before making the next big jump it would be wise to have the business prove it's trajectory. Listening to the universe... Sometimes I will get stopped in the store with people asking about my hoodie - yes, my hoodie "is that really your business?, are you really a handyman?"... yes "oh can I have a card please"... or handing out business cards to two different people while standing at In-n-out... or shit, one time, someone called me by my first name in Home Depot just to F with me... he said it was a riot watching me sweat like who the hell is this guy?!.. he ended up telling me he saw my truck and connected the two hahah! What an ass!! Some of the greatest feelings have been pulling up to Home Depot oddly parking next to competition. Ironically this one here is at the very Home Depot I worked at while in college.

I like to think that I am the only one who's shirt and hat match their own truck.. haha :) As the handyman business would continue to gain traction I would find myself becoming more confident with the idea of "identifying" myself as also a Realtor.. ​Stepping into the realtor biz wasn't easy... even though I am good at it, sustaining the ambition to continue has been a struggle over the years. The industry is filled with the wrong people, and it requires a lot of emotional fitness - especially if you lead with your heart. But over these two defining years of being a Realtor AND handyman made me feel special about what I was doing... much like when I would design hospitals.. that was incredibly gratifying. For the emotion I put into things - shit anything, having some semblance of scarcity adds to the fuel! I believe the handyman biz made me a better Realtor and the Realtor made me a better handyman. The shared interests would prove to meld beautifully with my multiple personalities.

I would find myself going from handyman jobs to listing appointments - all while rocking my handyman truck and uniform get up! Surprisingly! It was very well received from clients.. I have even taken customers in my handyman truck to show houses...

The universe is talking...

I stepped out of my truck in a Wal-Mart parking lot, wearing civilian clothes no less, and a nearby person asked for one of my cards asking about drywall repair. Months later we had the privilege of helping him and his wife start their next chapter in life by selling their family home of 15 years.. what an honor! and we never did any drywall repair! I now process parking lots totally differently now! hahah :) Stepping into the start of year three, approaching 200 customers and 400 jobs, the support of all my close people, the universe encouraging me to pay attention to the small things.. The GUD idea of mixing it with an ORANGE idea was no longer an idea, it was, it is a reality.

With that clarity of proven purpose, it was time for another big step..

Create a mobile store front :)

I wanted to find a way to bring both brands into one blended brand - much like the GUD Team ORANGE ​newsletters that we share monthly. I gave the design a go and realized I was getting into shit I couldn't pull off... So after embarrassing myself I asked for some help. I shared all of my marketing shit, and then "Steve Jobs" the hell out of the process. Thankfully my good friend Dez at PRI Graphics connected me with a designer who spoke my language.

Damn he knocked this bitch out of the park!

A pic before the branded tattoos :)

Chas and my neighbors named the truck Rick - from The Walking Dead... can't rename something that has been named already... haha So, Rick has a Hemi V8 and I had a throaty Flowmaster installed on it too. So it sounds super mean.. incredibly reminiscent of my 1970 Camaro from back in the day.

I'm really happy with the change in store front. Although the bed is a little smaller, the cab space and technological update has made a hugely more efficient impact on my working routine. I am so thankful to my first truck as it rooted onto a path I'm incredibly grateful for. Being on the social webs, so often we see people (especially realtors! - ugh!) posting new shit they bought, look at me, see my vacation, blah blah.. me, me.. ugh.. did I mention I'm a realtor hahah! I try to exercise humbleness and humility as often as I can, so to make this kind of announcement was not easy, and is likely why I'm telling another long ass story! haha :) The universe has an interesting way of leading us along... the backplay of all of this is truly moving for me... shit?!! compounded by the circumstances of last week's post #200 and watching those dots being connected - hits the heart. As a new and young adult I wished for a large property so that when I had kids I could punish them like my GP did when I was a kid... a platform to regularly teach them things of life through work ethic.. although I do not have acreages like he did.. I do hundreds of customers that have their own acres, and that I can teach the boys work ethic companioned with people skills.

For me, that's as GUD a reason as any.

I'm eternally grateful for the GUD opportunities that have been bestowed onto me these last two years. I don't take 200 customers for granted, nor where I came from. Thanks for letting me share GUD reasons to read my gratefulman. :) If you're out and about and see my ride, please be sure to take a pic and send it to me. Have a great weekend! :)

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