Speaker 1: Since twenty sixteen, I've been blessed with the opportunity to
share conversations with those that have been featured on NBC's
The Voice. Sure, we'd put them up on the platform,
but then most people were going, so where's it at?
So now we finally centralized.
Speaker 2: It for you.
Speaker 1: Every performer from twenty sixteen forward ero dot net A
R R O E dot net enjoy the exploration, Hey,
what's going on, John? How you doing today?
Speaker 2: Good man? How are you?
Speaker 1: I sure can man, your voice is coming through loud
and clear, wrapped around the world, you know how that is?
Speaker 2: Oh sweet? That is what I needed to hear.
Speaker 1: So that line behind you, is that a symbol of
the of a victory? I mean, because I mean that's
a that's a and it's got the lamb. So now
and see, now I can see what's going on behind
you there, sir.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, sir, yeah, that's yeah, that's christ. It represents
the line in the lamb.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I just wanted to hear it from your
vocal tones, man, because you know, because that's who we
are these days. It seems like we all sit there.
We'll judge a book by its cover. Hit social media
and never get the story right.
Speaker 3: Oh man, Yeah, that's one of the things I was
gonna ask, is you know, because I can't hardly tell
the story.
Speaker 2: I mean, well I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't tell the story without including God in it exactly.
Speaker 2: So it's well, good, I'm glad. I'm glad that well.
Speaker 3: And I try to make that real apparent in the
in the emails that I send out, is that hey, listen,
this is I've got to give him credit, you know.
Speaker 1: And so well, that's one of the things that Steven
Ferdick from Elevation Church has taught us throughout the years,
is the fact that you've got to do the credit. Man,
give it, give the credit it's due. And then and
make sure that you work together as a team because
it is about a relationship.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is, absolutely, Yeah, it's the only way to go.
Speaker 1: So then let me ask you this question. Is this
a testimony or is this a story? And is there
a difference between the two.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I don't know that. I don't know that.
My business, my.
Speaker 3: Everything is an absolute just testimony of God grace really,
I mean from from day one, and so yeah, it's uh,
it's so interwoven in who I am is you know,
I'm not trying to be a minister. I'm not trying
to necessarily, you know. I mean part of this is that,
you know, I'm getting my business out there now that
we went national.
Speaker 2: But I want people to know what the business is about.
Speaker 3: And it isn't about uh good contractors. It's about it's
about Kingdom.
Speaker 2: It's about you know. Uh. I followed his voice.
Speaker 3: I didn't follow the voice of all the business people
out there that told me, you know, uh that that
it would fail because you know, it was the worst
business model on the planet. You know, I heard so
many different things because it's so not a business plan,
you know, it was it was a mission and I
felt like God brought me on that and so it
was it was mine to a steward And that's I mean,
that's even the why I use my middle name Stewart
in things is because it's about stewardship of what He's
given you to.
Speaker 1: Nice nice nice. So yeah, see, I love that journey,
and the reason being is because it gives you the
opportunity to connect the pieces together. Because I've been in
radio for forty six years and the thing is, though,
is that what does it have to show for me?
I can't say that, you know about a relationship with
God is because I have a lot to show for that,
whereas the radio it's like I have nothing. So you're
right when it comes to the separation between your career
and a higher power.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I love it. Well, I'm glad that you're
open to.
Speaker 1: Well you're europeen to it too. And where did you
get that confidence to take that step? Because you know
how some people are they don't want to talk about it.
My mother was one of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I just you know.
Speaker 3: I I don't I don't think I have an option.
It's just like who I am, Like I wish I'm like,
I can't tell the story without, you know, including all
the pieces that happened that were out of my control,
you know.
Speaker 2: I mean that's and so it's just who I am.
I can't you know.
Speaker 3: I'm not a religious person in this in the in
the form of religion being religious, but I do have
a relationship like a daily I get to minister more
on a daily basis than I ever did when I
was in church and doing all things.
Speaker 1: So well, that's what I've always called knocking down the
four walls of the church and getting out there on
the streets.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I actually even created back in twenty nineteen, right before COVID.
Actually God started talking to me about building a website
for house churches, and so I created a website called
find a house Church dot com. And so I feel
like that's gonna someday come back around. And I think
probably the Good Contractor's List is somewhat of a platform
to to increase my.
Speaker 2: I don't know, influence, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I just it's like God, God has a
He's given me a huge vision and.
Speaker 2: It's all kingdom. Man.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like that's and it's impossible. So it's like, well,
the Good Contractor's List was one of those impossibilities. It's
like you're not going to be able to guarantee contractors work, yeah,
you know, you know, and he's proven them wrong, all
of them wrong, Like they were all saying that you
can't do it.
Speaker 1: So now to the average listener, what is the good contractor?
Because we all are bombarded by people who we've been
in family business for forty three years don't care. So
then you know, it's one of those things that what
are we talking about when he comes to the good contractors.
Speaker 3: Well, what's different about us is we didn't really it
wasn't really about.
Speaker 2: The money, you know, it was it was what.
Speaker 3: I felt like God gave me, and so I didn't
I didn't spend a lot of time trying to figure
out how am I going to make more money? It
was like, how can I give people more? And one
of the things that was obvious to me is I
was there to protect homeowners from these bad contractors, you know,
and it just.
Speaker 2: Kind of grew nice, you know, from the beginning.
Speaker 3: And so what we're doing now, you know, it was
in Dallas Fort Worth for fourteen years. We've been doing
this since twenty eleven. We've backed over five billion dollars
worth of work and out of pocket so far, we've
got we've come out of pocket one hundred and twenty
seven thousand dollars in fourteen years. So you know, yeah,
we've had to take some of the contractors out. We
have an amazing screening process now. We have FBI level
background checks that we do on the owners.
Speaker 2: I mean it's like, no, we don't.
Speaker 3: We can't take a chance because we literally put a
twenty five thousand dollars guarantee on every job they do.
So if homeowner isn't happy, they actually have a third
party now they can go to other than the contractor.
And uh, you know, the contractor is part of our
organization because they they're good contractors because that they take
care of business and you know, they don't need somebody's
third party guarantee. But in today's world to have a
third party that takes responsibility is like it's unheard of.
You don't there's not another resource out there like it
that you know. It's like in most in most cases,
they want to sell as many leads to as many
contractors for as much as possible, you know, And what
we do is a I mean we and this is
this is sounds crazy, It sounds like how how are.
Speaker 2: You even gonna make it?
Speaker 3: But we we charge five hundred dollars setup fee and
two hundred and fifty dollars a month. Yeah, and what
we do is we treat it truly is a movement
of good contractors who are banding together to protect homeowners.
And so they pay a flat fee while.
Speaker 2: You know, while.
Speaker 3: Everybody else is trying to get more money for more leads,
we want to we bring them together, and they start
saying the same thing. We have all the services here
that are backed by twenty five thousand dollars guarantee. We're
a movement that's trying to protect homeowners. And so pretty
soon when they get all their homeowners registered for the
guarantee and they start bringing other contractors in from all
the different services, they'll have what we call a safe
contractor community. And as the word gets out, then the
homeowners come to the Good Contractors List to find their contractors,
which means that for two hundred and fifty dollars a
month they can together create what I call a community,
a community base lead ecosystem.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, so that's all I mean.
Speaker 3: It's like, because we did the right thing, and everyone's
doing the right thing, and you know, the homeowner, the
homeowners are watching to make sure we have the right people.
The contractors don't want to be a part of something
that has a bad contractor, and you know, yes, so
it so it becomes an organ It's it's a movement, man,
it's a it's a it's a living organism of people
who are bent on doing the right thing. And uh,
and it takes care of itself. But you know, it's
not the it's not the biggest money maker on the planet.
It's you know, it's quite opposite of everything else that's
out there.
Speaker 1: Please do not move. We'll be back with John Stuart
Hill coming up next. This is absolutely one of the
most brilliant ideas the good contractors. Let's get back in
with John Stuart Hill. Do you have to face the
evil empire the hoas when it comes to these contractors,
Because when it comes to home building anymore, or even
home owning these days, that hoa stands in the way
of so many decisions being made.
Speaker 2: I really haven't seen any problem with that.
Speaker 3: Especially a matter of fact, we even have homeowners associations
that want to use our list because I mean it's
every contractor is backed by twenty five thousand dollars guarantees.
So none of the homeowners get ripped off. There's nobody
going to show up and just disappear, and it go
around the neighborhood that they let somebody in, you know,
so it's like, no.
Speaker 2: We're real estate friendly.
Speaker 3: It's like the real estate agents, you know, they're afraid
to refer contractors because they don't know who to trust.
So now here's a resource in their hands, you know,
if they if they if they have a safe contractor
community in their neighborhood, then they now they have a
place that they can refer homeowners without actually referring a
contractor that could could look bad on their reputation. So
it's like, so it's really a great resource to you know,
for just about everyone involved.
Speaker 2: I can't see a downside to it.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, it's it's such a perfect move because
I know that in our own neighborhood, we've all been
together twenty five to thirty years, and that nobody moves
until somebody else makes the first step and then we
you know, for instance, like when it came to fiber,
we all got when nowhere all starting to get the
fiber now, but it only took forever to get it
because nobody wanted to be the first one to jump
on it, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, But it's like that.
Speaker 3: It's like that in a movement too, is that when
when someone says, oh, okay, I see the difference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh and so and so did it.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well I won't look so dumb if it's me
and it fails, you know, and I think homeowners naturally
feel that way. And I've kind of been in this
unique situation being in between contractors and homeowners for the
last fourteen years, and so I've seen some a different
perspective of things. Homeowners are scared going into this. They're
afraid they're going to look like a fool. They're you know,
if that guy is the one that took advantage of
them or charged them too much.
Speaker 2: They're afraid to talk about it with their neighbors, you know.
Speaker 3: And so when the least little thing happens, which we
live in a real world and contracting is difficult, I mean,
it's it's got a lot of moving parts. And so
you know, the first time somebody uh gets delayed because
the electrician had lost someone in his family and wasn't
able to make it on the day he was supposed
to be there, when that caused that to not work,
and then and then next thing, you know, it just
kind of snowballs, and homeowners will get really really defensive
and and be like, oh, no.
Speaker 2: You know, I got one of those guys. And so
by being in the middle, you know, it.
Speaker 3: Was easier to to de escalate those issues, you know,
by just being the voice of truth and just saying, hey,
you know, this happened, and it's it's it's a normal
thing for in life, and so we're here, we'll we'll
be right beside you all the way to the end,
and let's just let him get done with the job.
And so I think that a lot of things that
don't really need to escalate escalate quickly just out of.
Speaker 1: Fear or assumption.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: And so by having that third party there just to
kind of buffer things and go, hey, you're not alone.
These guys are good, or they wouldn't be on our list,
and it just takes the fear out. It makes the
homeowner go, oh okay, well, as long as you're with us,
and we do we do everything from most things can
happen through emailing on the phone, by just opening up
communication correctly. But there have been times that we go
out to the home and actually inspect the work. So,
I mean it'll be that way across the United States.
We'll have inspectors that can pop in and look and go,
you know, is this homeowner feeling like you know, I mean,
things are expensive now, so sometimes homeowners just go, man,
did I pay too much for this, I feel like
I got more, you know, and so they start nitpicking
everything and try to get stuff for free.
Speaker 2: And there's so many things.
Speaker 3: The review system is being used to manipulate contractors, you know.
They they have to give away stuff sometimes because homeowners
will threaten, you know, if you don't throw this in,
I just don't feel like you did get enough job
or whatever, I'm going to write a bad review. And
it's just the world's messed up.
Speaker 1: So in reality, what you're doing is you're creating an
open door conversation. Then you're bringing people together because you're
right when when something goes wrong, for instance, I need
to have my deck repaired, instead of me going out
there and half ass in it, what happens is is
that you get somebody such as what you're doing with
good contractors, and then you're guaranteed the work is going
to be satisfied.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, that's exactly it.
Speaker 3: And if there if there is a disagreement, they can
they can bring us in and we'll look at you know,
And obviously the first step would be like take some pictures,
show us and you know, we'll we'll start there and
you know, and there's been There's been times that the
contractor thought he could really trust his foreman out there
and and uh, all I took care.
Speaker 2: Of that, and they didn't.
Speaker 3: And so you know when we had to call him
to the carpet and say you need to go out there,
and we'll bring the owner out, you know, look at
the job, and they go, oh, man, man, this is
not our quality. This is not the kind of work
that we do. I'm sorry, you know, And then all
of a sudden things are better.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's just like I like to call I like to
look at us more like the voice of truth. We're
we're kind of more like counselors sometimes than we are
anything else.
Speaker 2: Is that good? You know?
Speaker 3: We like to we like to we like to strengthen relationships,
and that's what we do. We we strengthen the relationship
between a homeowner and a contractor. And if they're a
good guy and they do things right, man, we'll we'll
bend over backwards to do whatever form.
Speaker 1: Well, don't you see that we're in a resurgence right
now of rebuilding the community that when we get somebody
like this on our team, it stays within that neighborhood.
And this way, then our community remains strong as well,
instead of being the one that hides because something might
be wrong with being the crawl space of the house
and you don't want to talk about it in front
of your neighbors.
Speaker 3: Right well, I mean community is so important, especially in
the day of AI.
Speaker 2: I mean think about that. I mean, you can go
buy reviews, you can.
Speaker 3: Go there's so many there's so many fake things out
there that you know, to have something that's genuine really
makes a difference. And the only way that you know
that is in a community you don't like. I mean,
if you're a you're just out there on your own,
just you know, trying to figure things out on your own,
you're in a dangerous position.
Speaker 2: You really need to be part of a community. That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, that's that's so that's so true because that
that's where people start losing grip and they start losing
interest all of a sudden. You know, the house down
there in the corner, it's now empty because they decided
to move on because they didn't feel it. And and
this is a situation where you know, you feel it
once it begins to happen. I mean, you're bringing something
brand new to the neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: Yes, you know, I mean that's one of the you know,
with I find a house church idea, I really felt
like that was the opportunity for everyone in the neighborhood
to even get to know each other. Hey, you just
want to get together and hang out and get to
know our neighbors. And so, you know, we we did
this here and we lived in Burlison, Texas. Whenever I
first started this, and I put out a couple of
yard signs saying find a house church, because you know,
I didn't want to put my dress out there. You
go to the find a House church and then you
were able to look up and and and you know,
they saw that that little I had. I put out
three signs that said go to find a house church
dot com, you know, and and people started going. And
next thing, you know, I have twenty people in the
house coming, you know, once a week, just together and
and and we we we all communicated. It wasn't like
we were all sitting out in a pew and I
was talking. It's like we all we were a community
of people, and we all had value. And that's and
that's where I feel like a lot of the church
is missing, you know? Uh? Is that is that they
go there and they can they can show up for church,
they can feel like they're part of something and not
actually ever even really talk to anybody.
Speaker 1: Tell me that you don't feel the same vibe that
this is like being on that boat. Jesus is over
there in the other room. There's a big storm going on,
Paul and those guys are all worried about the storm,
and all of a sudden, it's like, just guys, find
your peace. When we get on shore. We're going to
change people's lives. And it just feels like because all
three of those guys never really had anything in common
except for except for their conviction, and and and that's
the thing about it. And then and then what look
what what happened after that was a they used it
together as one tool, and look how many people's lives
one what was it, five loaves of bread feeding five thousand?
Speaker 2: Come on now, yeah, it multiplies. Yeah. And and they
also knew who they were following.
Speaker 3: Yes, that was that was that was probably the most
powerful part of it.
Speaker 2: Is Yeah, I'm scared. I'm scared. But if he says it, yep,
you know, I can stop you know.
Speaker 3: And so that's and that's kind of how I've lived
my life. Uh, you know early as matter of fact,
you know, my backstory is that in twenty eleven, I
had a heart attack, and uh and I really had
been praying for two solid months that God would take me.
I had been praying that because I was at such
a low point divorce three times, didn't have any kind
of any kind of real job that I thought would
ever become anything. I was selling coupons at the time.
You know, I'm like, Callie, I'm forty two years old
and I've done nothing. I've touched nobody, you know, Please
just I'm ready to go. And so this business didn't
start in a place of me understanding how powerful I
am or any of those things that you know. I
had no business experience, I had no business background.
Speaker 2: I didn't have any money. Like, there was nothing going
for me when.
Speaker 3: I start this business other than in the process of
that heart attack and coming out on the other side,
I felt like God said, if you decide to stay,
I'll be with you you and I'll give you a
purpose in that beautiful Yeah, it's so crazy, because I
left in worse shape than I went in. Obviously I'd
had an heart attack and had you know, I was
forty to fifty percent of my heart was scarred. I
had to have a pacemaker to keep it squeezing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: He was like I was that I was in worse
shape than I went in on the outside. But on
the inside, all I knew was like I know what
God said, Like I know with all of my soul
that He is with me, and I have a purpose.
I don't know what it looks like. I had no
idea it was ever going to be about contractors. It
was about walking out there knowing that I have a purpose,
and that's all I knew. And so within six months
I was selling coupons, Like I was telling you, So
was trying to sell a coupon to a local plumber
and he goes, Man, I don't really know if I
want to pay for this all by myself.
Speaker 2: He goes, but I know.
Speaker 3: A really good electrician that I trust with all my
you know, business, and I have a roofer that I
really trust, and we could go in together and buy
this ad. And I was like, oh, like, so y'all
would like be you know, you'd be the plumber and
the roofer and the electrician and y'all would kind of
come together as a good contractor, right, like a list
of contracts. Maybe we should get a bunch of different
people together and then y'all could all go together and
buy this ad. It we even be that, you know,
that much more less expensive to you guys. And so,
but then two solid nights I couldn't go to sleep
because it was just it was like God.
Speaker 2: Was downloading yes the vision, and I was like, oh, man.
Speaker 3: So I went into my boss and I said, you know,
I was an outside sales so I could look. I
could go out and at least see if someone was interested.
Speaker 2: In my idea. But I was like, that's not integrity, man.
Speaker 3: And so I went in and I talked to my
boss and I said, hey, man, I'm going to have
to quit. I've got this idea. I told him what
it was, and I've got to do it. I don't
know how I'm going to do it, but I got
to do it.
Speaker 2: And quit.
Speaker 3: Had one paycheck coming to me, had no money in
the bank, no savings, and just went out. And at
first I had started with a yellow legal pad going
into contractors and you know, just trying to find out
who who's the good guys in town? And I would
go talk to them and I was drawing it. I
was literally drawing it on a legal pad. We're going
to have a website someday and it's going to look
like this and this is where. This is what it's
going to do, and you'll be the good guy guys,
and you know, so we're also going to guarantee your work.
I'd never made more than fifty thousand dollars in a year,
and I'm telling them what we're going to do is
we're going to start out with fifty thousand dollars month
in radio and TV advertising. And man, they would they
were they were on board.
Speaker 2: They saw what I was doing. They saw that, you know,
and I told them, this is the worst sales thing
that you can imagine.
Speaker 3: I'm like, you could lose your money because I don't
know how many people are going to try to join up.
You know, I'm just doing my thing here. And they're like, dude,
if you're if you do this, I want to be there.
And so we just had our fourth annual ten year
dinner and there's contract there's contractors at that dinner that
have been with me. Since I was riding it on
a legal pad. So it's like they saw it. They said,
we want to be separated from the bad guys, and
we believe that you're going to do it. And that
was just faith on everybody's part.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Well, the different tiers that you have now, So now
what what I'm understanding is that you've got a tier
for the contractors and then you've got a tier for
the for the actual business, I mean, the homeowners. So
how can people find out more about those different tiers
and start promoting you know what what what it is
that you're bringing forward?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, okay, So I consider this a movement, and
a movement it requires community, like we were talking about,
so it takes everybody you know, to be a part
of this. And so as a homeowner, what I'm asking
homeowners is, if you know someone that has the integrity
that I mean can go to bed every single night
because they in sleep because they know they did the
right thing. You know that kind of guy. And it
doesn't have to be a big company. If you know
someone who has that kind of integrity, we want you
to refer them. And so if you want a safe
contractor community in your neighborhood. You could literally be the
spark that starts it. Wow, it just takes one good contractor.
We bring that contractor on, that contractor, you know, and
we do all of our screening first, obviously, but that contractor,
let's say it's a plumber, knows an air conditioning guy
that has integrity. That air conditioning guy knows a roofer,
And next thing you know, you have a nice group
of people who are saying, I'm going to protect homeowners
at no matter what the costs. I'd rather lose than
lose my integrity, you know. And so when they start
banning together like that, and they start bringing other homeowners
to the one place they can go, and that's the
Good Contractors List dot com. So if you're a homeowner,
go to the Good Contractors List dot com and refer
your favorite contractor. If you're a contractor that that's hearing this,
and you are that kind of person that has been
in business a long time, you've done things right, you've
worked on your reputation, and you're tired of self promotion.
Speaker 2: It's time to come together as a collective. And when
you come together as a collective and you work together,
you're so much stronger.
Speaker 3: Then you buy yourself out there trying to find another
accolade to add to your You know, your your all
the accolades that you give someone whenever. You know, because
everybody's doing the same thing, they're saying, this is why
you should hire me. And if you're part of a
collective that worked together, you're never going to have to
do that again.
Speaker 2: You know, people will come.
Speaker 3: To the website, they'll find you, and this will be
a community based lead ecosystem that will just continue to
grow as more people find out about it. So it's
it's really the best world for contractors that I can imagine.
It's the best world for homers I can imagine. And
so please go to the Good Contractors List dot com
and play your part in this movement.
Speaker 1: Well, John Stewart Hill, You've got to come back to
this show anytime in the future, especially as we build
up a brand new year, and I want people to
be motivated to do exactly what it is that you're
bringing forward to them.
Speaker 3: Man, that's awesome. I would appreciate that. I appreciate the
time of you doing me today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well, excellent, will you be brilliant Today, Okay, sir, you too.