Below is the transcription for this episode:
Dave: All right my friends, this is Dave Sharpe. Welcome to Wake Up Legendary. I'm excited to jump in to this episode this morning because I've got some fellow tradesman trades woman here on the line with me and I am super excited to hear how they have trend or are transitioning not transitioned but are in the process of well maybe just adding to who knows let's hear what their plans are. But they've made the amazing transition from HVAC, heating and air basically AC and heating contractor who comes in and works on your AC over to digital marketers online. Wow, Craig and Mary, welcome to the show you're actually live this time. Oh good. I scared him here a second ago and came on and said we were live before we're really live but trying to get you guys loosened up a little bit ready for the show. So where are you calling in from?
Craig: North Carolina
Dave: Okay, nice. So tell me about your this this this I mean, what in the heck would bring you from you know, the trades doing heating and air all the way over onto the internet online and then eventually here to legendary marketer What were you looking for? And have you found it?
Craig: Well, it's quite a story actually. We had been HVAC contractors for 25 years in Northern California. And between the pandemic and fires and the floods and everything that was going on out there. We were slowly going out of business. We tried pumping money in. We tried everything but it wasn't going to happen. And during that time, our son in North Carolina kept calling and saying, Hey, move to North Carolina. You can be with the grandkids. And so we finally shut down the business and moved here. And we were offered a job with one of his buddies by starting a trucking company. And so we're going to do that and then that falls through. And so you're I was on the internet looking for something and I came across Steven Droege and that's how it all started.
Dave: He's something else isn't he? Yeah, he's, he's, he's something else he was. He was our mastermind in December. I want you to think about this. Okay, think about this. Everybody who's listening. And obviously you know his story, Craig and Mary, but I mean, Stephen Droege, came to the mastermind in December of 2021. And sat in the background quietly with his pregnant wife. very unassuming, and quite frankly, I don't think he knew exactly what was gonna happen. I just know that he knew he needed to make something happen and did so much and achieve so much. I think a lot of ignorance is on fire. You know, it's not about having to know everything. Sometimes being ignorant is not a bad thing. Sometimes being ignorant is what we all are when we're kids and more playful and we're going 100 miles an hour and we don't have all these fears and all these limiting beliefs. But anyways, you know, before we learn too much, to where we get out there on tick tock and we start talking over people's heads. He took advantage of that early motivation. I call it ignorance on fire. It's where you don't know everything. You realize you don't need to know everything, and you just go like hell, and you don't waste a lot of energy overthinking things and you don't waste a lot of energy. You know, you know how it is Craig and Mary you guys have been in HVAC you forgot more about that business than a lot of new people know. And there's a lot of benefit when a young HVAC business owner or contractor comes into the industry, right? Because they're just, they're, they're on fire. As we get in the industry, and we know more and we have some success. It's sometimes honestly it can get harder because Steven took advantage of that early so I know that all of you thinking your first six months are going to be your hardest. But what I'm telling you is what Stephen Droege did, is he made his first six months his most impactful yeah and did so much in his first six months. He now has an income that's well beyond what I think he thought he could achieve. Maybe it's surprising to me, sometimes there are still things that are achievable. I'm like, Wow, is that possible? But in six months he went well. I think he quit his job, and is now full time at home with his wife and his baby. Came back to speak at the Orlando mastermind and did a wonderful job and shared and, you know, you can tell somebody who's ready for their moment because they seized it and they and he was ready for his moment. And in a short six months, he changed his entire life and is obviously changing other people's lives too. That's powerful.
Craig: Yeah, yeah. We followed his instructions. And he answered every question I had. And he told us to just start doing reels. And go crazy. Do four or five of them a day. And don't stop. And that's what we did.
Dave: Yep. Yeah, it's pretty you know, when I was looking at you guys's stuff, and it's real. It's real. Grandpa Craig there's your there's your I mean, it's talked to us about you know, coming in learning a new skill set learning a new business. What has this been like for the both of you? Well, we felt like we just had to dive into it. I told Steve from the beginning. We don't have any options. We got to be successful. We don't have anything else. And so we just dove in and at first we weren't very good. And we just kept trying and kept doing it and started getting good. And now we've got all kinds of people getting interested. And it's just amazing. It's blowing our mind.
Dave: It's amazing. You said we weren't very good and something like we kept doing it and then we got good. Now. Hold on a second. A lot of people make what you just said really complicated, like getting good at something is rocket science. But what you said was basically we sucked at first. We kept doing it, we kept practicing. And now we're a lot better and we're actually pretty good at this whole thing. I mean you made something that a lot of people really over complicated really, really simple. How'd you do that? Right there and you know what I mean by how others make this process very complicated because, well, what are people going to think of me and you know what, what? I feel uncomfortable in front of the camera. How have you overcome all that? Or how are you wrestling with you? Surely you're human, you have those same things. How are you dealing with it?
Craig: Well, at first, I didn't even tell Mary about this. I just paid the seven bucks and went through the first four days. And then I realized, realized this thing was a little bit bigger than I thought it was going to be. And so I stopped, went to talk to Mary and said, I need your help. You got to do this with me. And so we started from day one and started over. And then we got going well, we're going through the 50 Day Challenge. I started going online and posting Bible script just to get myself my face out there to get used to talking and it really helped. And then by the time we got to the end of the 15 days, Steve told us just run with this thing. Just get going, do it like crazy. And we'll just see what happens. And so that's what we did.
Dave: If you keep it simple, it can be simple. I like how you went and got Mary. How did that feel to you Mary when he went in and got you to stop what he was doing. He had went down this path initially without telling you but then he stopped and he went to you any asked for your help and support and tell tell tell me and I'm asking this for a reason because a lot of us husbands struggle getting the support of our wives and I'm sure that there's wives out there who are women who struggle getting the support of their spouse, can you talk to us about how that fell or what that experience was like when Craig came and sort of solicited your support but in a vulnerable way. It didn't sound like he was like a woman over here. It was like Can you talk to us about begging?
Mary: I'll tell you, I dragged my feet like they wanted to. He's pretty gullible and you got to reel him in sometimes. But seeing his excitement and us realizing that this is our plan A and we don't have Plan B right now we got to just dig in there and do it. So as far as getting in front of the camera, I'm still rather like this, but you gotta get out there. You're gonna look silly. You're gonna have fun. And that's where we're heading right now.
Dave: I mean, I'm looking at, you know, Grandpa Craig's channel here, but I'll tell you what, I'm seeing a whole lot of Mary on here too. You know what I mean? I mean, I'm seeing a whole lot of Mary here and there. He's still in the show here, brother. Yeah,
Craig: We've done about 240 reels. And she's probably half of them.
Mary: Wow. Yeah, I didn't realize that.
Dave: I did realize that. Well, what is this? What? Now you both have? So I made some money, right? Which, you know, always helps with motivation. You know what I mean? Because it's kind of like, I don't know how people stay motivated in in other things that that take four years, six years, then you gotta go do insurance, IPS chips and all this stuff, which is what people do in college and they go to internship, but a lot of people can get really impatient and just maybe a month or two of getting this up and running or even whatever. Um, how long did it take you to start actually seeing traffic leads in sales? And how long would you stay disciplined and committed? Were you prepared to stay on this track? Until you quit? Do you know what I mean?
Craig: He had the mindset of we're going to do it however long it takes, but we had so much money, and so it turned out right when the right we started getting paid was right around the time our money was running out. And so it just worked.
Mary: I gotta tell you, we were so excited over $2.80 dollars and 80 cents and then it comes out it proves the concept you know, the first few Commission's prove the concept, and then the bigger commission came in, and it was just like, that's amazing. And it works. And so we just got super excited.
Dave: Are you both also? It's wonderful, and you're starting. It seems to be working in the make money online space, which was also something that you were looking to do, so it makes a lot of sense. A lot of people think, Oh, well the only thing legendary teaches is how to be an affiliate for legendary. Do you know, for those of you who are listening who are just you know, maybe sitting on the sidelines and haven't gotten to the trenches and are getting done the work and getting the results that Craig and Mary are getting, a lot of times people sit on the sidelines and they just assume or they just criticize or maybe they're trying to sell something else so they take shots. Number one is we never asked anybody to be an affiliate for legendary. We're blessed and honored and grateful that people think that our training is valuable enough that they actually want to also promote it. That's about that's just all there is to that. But number two point that or thing that I wanted to say was relating to that it is really amazing when those first couple of very small commissions come in and you celebrate and you feel almost like it's like a million dollars, but it's only a couple of bucks. But it proves the concept now. But I want to ask you, do you see how these skills in these business models that we're teaching you both affiliate marketing but also how to sell information? Do you see how that translates and transfers over into so many different things? Not only can you use these skills to maybe market an HVAC business, but you can even package all of your HVAC 25 years of knowledge and you can have a a category you know, a separate channel or whether it be Tiktok channel YouTube channel, to where you are speaking specifically to HVAC contractors and tradesmen. And as a matter of fact Greg and Mary, I mean, test maybe test that separately on a second account, no rules that we can't have multiple accounts folks, we all can have multiple tick tock Instagram, these are free accounts people. It's okay. So why not test the concept you've already got all this expertise, that you know how to talk to those people. Why not say I've been a contractor for 25 years. I could show you how to do HVAC better, I could also show you another way of how to get out of that business. Or at least create side income in case that business ever goes down. Right. But my point originally was the transferable skills. So I want to ask you about that. Do you see how the skills transfer and translate into promoting any product out there or packaging your own? Knowledge or somebody else's knowledge into a course or coaching program program or an event?
Craig: We definitely said it's a definite possibility we could sell on our knowledge on HVAC, although right now we want to focus on what we're doing. But you never know.
Mary: That's a great idea to thank you.
Dave: Well, what you're doing right now is affiliate marketing. And I love that answer. I love that answer. See, there's always you know, if we pay close attention to people that are rocking and rolling and succeeding, we pick up little clues about how they're succeeding in the minds that they're in. And as I was just going over that with you, your response was that's a great idea. Dave may be awesome for another day, but we're focused on what we're doing right now. That's I just want to validate you for being in that mindset because it is so easy to get distracted. And especially, I was just doing a fellow entrepreneur with lots of ideas. All us entrepreneurs have lots of ideas. How real I want to say this, Greg The reason why you are succeeding is because you are focusing. So in what you just said to me, it was proof of that. But how do you stay focused on a daily basis with all of these differences and even your wife said, Hey, this guy's a little gullible. He's a risk. He's a risk taker. You know, he likes a good sales pitch and He probably likes to give one too. But how do you stay focused Brother, if you are somebody who has a little bit of the squirrel, the shiny object syndrome and you're an opportunity seeker, how do you stay focused day in and day out?
Craig: That's definitely me. I've been in every MLM since they began. I was in Amway 25 years ago. I mean, so anything comes along. I'm always looking at it. But this thing,
Dave: I love the I love you. You're the older version of me.
Craig: Steve told me from day one, that I was gonna be a success and was gullible enough to believe him. So I just told him, You tell me what to do. I will do it. And then if I'm not successful, I'll come back and engage in it. Now.
Dave: Yeah. So you're you're you're willing to stay on track and you understand from owning an HVAC business for 25 years. That if you're going to have any success at something, you've got to work the business day in and day out. You can't show up one day in your town and say, well, we're not doing AC Today. Today. We're doing plumbing. Don't you guys want some plumbing work done? Right? And it's like, sure the AC guy was about to call you for some AC maintenance. Now you're not right. Wouldn't that be weird? You know, from running that HVAC business. You gotta be in business. Those doors gotta be open. Those checkout pages got to be working 24 hours a day seven days a week because they may not be ready right now. But next week when that system breaks, or next week, when they're actually having a feeling that they remember. Remember that guy on Tik Tok that was in North Carolina and was sitting around Grandpa, what was his name? Oh, yeah, I'm ready to buy now. I'm gonna go look at that. Guy. Oh, I pull them up on TikTok Oh, shit. He's talking about Oh no. How's he into now? He's in the Amway. Oh, gosh. Follow this guy. But there's gotta be an element of consistency. Because that's how this whole business works. You're set when you're sending follow up emails. There. They're now following your page so they see content from you. People usually have to see a few videos or emails or hear from you a couple of times, just to trust that you're not a scam artist who popped up one time and then you're off. So you guys both of you are doing that consistently and are you getting are does it seem like from the messages and in the interaction that you're getting people are? They see that you are leaders even though you may not consider yourself leaders. They can follow your suggestions and they can take your advice in their doing so you feel like that consistency, despite the fact that you're not really experts at anything, right? Do you feel that your consistency is still winning over the trust of people and making them bold?
Craig: We feel like the consistency speaks for itself. We've got a couple 100 More than 200 reals out there. And anyone can go on our page and see them and we do training and stuff whenever it comes on. And we try to learn we're trying to learn at the same time as doing it. And so we want to get better and do more.
Dave: What other things would you think would be valuable for people to hear from you guys today?
Craig: Gosh, I don't know. Just our main theme is consistency. And every day whether we're sick no matter what, we get up and we're gonna do at least for reals no matter what. And that's our focus. We may have something to do with the grandkids. But around that we're going to get our reels out. And you know, it's just whatever it is it is and we're just going to keep pushing. Yeah.
Dave: Mary, How about how about you? What do you see in what people should know from your perspective, you've got a valuable perspective of having your husband come to you. And then now you getting involved in I mean, what got us such valuable experience? What could you share with other folks who may be listening in and maybe they're, I don't know, maybe they can take this to their spouse and say, Hey, see, I'm not trying to hurt our family. I'm trying to help. It may seem like I'm a little erratic, because I think a lot of people deal with husbands or wives or just partners, like Craig, like Dave, who we are. We do seem sometimes like we're erratic right are starting a bunch of things. How do you support somebody like that? Mary, how do you support somebody like that? And how, what experience would you give maybe to somebody who's a skeptical spouse loves the spouse, doesn't want him to get her in, doesn't really want to waste a bunch of time, but ultimately still wants to support their dreams and doesn't have a whole lot of other options. You have such valuable experience as just I'm just like, what could you share with us that might be helpful?
Mary: Well throughout the years you get to know your spouse and they go down a road that maybe is too gullible, you know, you reel him back in. If you do spot this in your spouse their desire to actually go through with this suggestive file and you'll see like the pride in his face for actually doing this for actually going forward and making something of this it is so exciting to see how excited he is every morning and make these reels. I just want to help them.
Dave: Really, Craig, I mean you really got it made rather. You're really you know, you're surrounded by family. You went to you and you encountered a tough situation, like many of us did. Maybe not to that extent of business and having to move across country with chill with your kids, but man, you guys are figuring it out and doing it and now you're not sitting around saying what happened or you're going I just man, so much credit to you for doing that and for getting out there and making it happen. And thank you for your Yeah, I mean, I'm just really inspired by your story and I know so many other people are so we're gonna send people to your TikTok. @grampacraig
Dave: We'll go check it out, man and follow along on your journey and come back and see us in a couple of months. Would you too and let's keep the conversation going.
Mary: We'd love to all right. I'll see you.
Dave: Okay, Craig. All right. See you Mary and tell your family that we said hello as well and be well be safe and be legendary stay legend.
Mary: Thank you. All right. See you guys.
David Sharpe
My friends. There it is. Once again, you know another amazing story. Go and check them out at @grampacraig over on TikTok and Grandpa Craig Marketing over on Facebook. And man I mean, wow. Move cross country to have to completely relocate with absolutely no plan and to not know what or where money's gonna come from. But to still have enough wherewithal to still be you know, in those moments, those are where we break down or we break through, you know, it really is like wow, this is it. This is the moment you know what I mean? This is where I need to act, and they acted, they acted well. Craig acted secretly. And then he came in and he shared it very vulnerably and honestly and wow. Look at the partnership, look at the support. Look at what's possible. Sure they're having their apps probably going to experience a lot more financial success if they stay on this path, who knows what's possible, but also look at the relationship and look at what it can do and has done for them, their love for each other. It's just magical what this business or a business can do. If you go into it and you're in, you know your limitations. See with Craig and I've done this too. You know, for me a big business with a like, for example, being a contractor might have even been too overwhelming for me personally, because it's a lot of equipment. It's a lot of things to take care of. But online marketing, affiliate marketing, it is a manageable business. All I need is a laptop in a cell phone, and I can do it and he's done it. He's doing that. Right and Papa Don's doing it at 78 and so many other people from young to old are doing it because they got in and they went through the training. They took if they needed support, they asked for it. They asked for it. There's just so much to learn when we talk to these people day in and day out, and we listen to how they did it. How did you do it? Well, I didn't have any other options. And I was at a moment where I was gonna break down or I was gonna break through, you know, I mean, he didn't say those exact words, but that's exactly what happened. And yeah, he and he went and did something even if it was wrong right. He took some action. That's what my dad used to say to me on the construction site, do something, son, even if it's wrong. Well, you don't know what's right until you start trying things. Just so happened to try something that was right. And then he said, Mary, I screwed up. I didn't tell you. You know what happened. But I want to tell you now I need you to write in and I mean, the magic every moment is an opportunity to create magic depending on what choice we make. What choice do we make? We are so powerful pieces to design our life. We are in control. I know that and I'm not trying to say play god. I'm just saying we're in control of these powerful choices that Craig and Mary have made, and it's possible for any one of us to do the same thing. So keep up the great work. Of course, Craig and Mary and all of you have a Legendary day. We'll be back here. Another episode tomorrow. Same time, same place.
