Humans That Build: James Pritchard, Founder of Integrity Poolscapes

Episode summary

James Pritchard went from addiction and repeated incarceration to founding Integrity Poolscapes, a fast-growing, multimillion-dollar company built on faith, risk, and relentless work. In this conversation, James tells how he got there. He is honest about the dangers he faced and the long odds he beat, and he is clear that his recovery was no accident. He points to trusting God, daily labor, and small choices that slowly replaced self-destruction with responsibility and vision.

James and his wife, Kayci, built the company on a people-first culture. They hired the right people, posted consistently on social media, and let exceptional work earn trust and bring in leads. James credits four things for the growth: trusting God, taking risks, learning from mistakes, and paying his dues.

What we cover

• James's path from addiction and incarceration to business owner
• Why he sees redemption as practical work: showing up, accepting risk, and rebuilding relationships
• How he and Kayci built a people-first culture and hired the right staff
• How consistent social media and excellent work won trust and leads
• The daily practices behind the company: team meetings every day, recitation of core values, dedicated videography, and 3D design services
• Why they added supply and equipment streams to support expansion
• How to scale without losing quality or culture

Key takeaways

1. Second chances are real, and so is the work they require.
2. Restoration comes from humility paired with sustained effort.
3. Growth takes risk. You learn by making mistakes and paying your dues.
4. Culture is a daily habit, not a poster on the wall.
5. As you scale, protect the quality of the work and the people doing it.

Final thought

James's story is a testimony of transformation and resolve. If you are waiting for permission to change, take the risk, put in the work, and give yourself that permission.

Follow Integrity Poolscapes on Facebook.

Companies mentioned in this episode

• Humans That Build
• Integrity Poolscapes
• Integrity Pool & Landscape Supply
• Ascent Dealer Services
• Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark (Ballpark Hilton)
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Dippin' Dots
• Dropping Bombs

This is Adam Marburger.

And this is humans that build real conversations with real people.

Not just about what they've built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.

No hype, no shortcuts, just humans doing the work.

Humans that build real people, real work.

It's your boy Adam Marburger here, host of the Humans that Build podcast.

We've got an awesome episode today.

We've got a guy that I look up to at a high level and entrepreneurship.

For those that know me, it's my favorite sport and I just love seeing younger entrepreneurs build.

Build, but not just build and get to market, but to actually scale.

And this individual that I'm going to talk about here in a minute is somebody that's scaling, but scaling at a very, very high level and doing it the right way.

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So, without further ado, let's get right to it.

I got a show today that I've been really, really excited to share with you guys.

I got my boy James Pritchard here.

He is the owner of Integrity Poolscapes.

I've personally done business with him, so I can vouch for his work.

But before we get into what he's doing now and what he's building and what he's built, we're going to go back in time.

We're going to go back in time because everybody has their own story.

And let's start here.

I like to ask this question.

When you were in sixth grade, did you have a dream of getting into landscaping and building pools?

Where did that thought and idea ever come?

What did you want to do when you were a kid?

I'd like to know that.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an NBA player.

I was real, real good at basketball.

Kind of, kind of liked that a lot.

And then obviously, things changed when I got into some bad habits of mine and the whole plan changed.

And freshman year, I started getting into drugs, started chasing that life, started getting arrested.

Going to rehab, started down spiraling my life, and it kind of went from there, and it didn't get any better for a lot of years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And what is.

Do you have a statistic on the individuals that kind of go down that dark path of addiction?

What is the success rate, do you even know, of individuals being able to break that and get out of that?

Because now you, you and your wife have built something special.

I mean, on paper, I mean, statistically, you guys probably shouldn't.

I shouldn't have, right?

I mean.

Yeah.

What does that number look like if you have, if you have that data?

I, I, and I know in prison they said that 91 of people that are here are going to come back.

Right.

I remember that statistic.

As far as, like, drug addicts and stuff, I know the statistics.

The statistic is very low.

Right.

It's.

It's easier to fall off than to be successful with it.

You know what I mean?

And, and it would have been very easy.

I'm lucky to be alive.

I know people talk about drug use and all that, but I was really running and gunning and not worried about getting arrested, not worried about going to prison, not worried about who I had to hu.

No matter what I had to do.

All I was worried about was what can I do to get more and who can I hurt to get it?

You know what I love about your story is you know, I get told a lot.

I'll call my general manager out, Jacqueline.

She always says, adam, you're so nice to everybody.

You're just so nice.

I am the person that gives, like, second, third, fourth, fifth.

I've been burned, and I know you have, too, James, especially in business.

I've been burned so many times.

But I just believe in second chances.

I believe people can change.

I believe people can change, and I believe it feels so good to see somebody get that second opportunity or maybe the third or fourth opportunity and turn it into something really special.

Because what if there were people out there that never gave anybody an opportunity or a second opportunity?

Right?

What would the world be like?

So, hey, congrats to you for that.

Let's talk.

Let's get into the idea of integrity.

So what were you doing before you were.

You decided to start this business?

I mean, I want to hear that.

How did it start?

What made you decide to start it?

What were you doing right before then?

If you could share that with the readers, the listeners, and the viewers, that'd be great.

So right before we started this, I was working for another landscaping company.

I was working for my brother doing that landscaping work.

And I never really had ambition to start my own.

I never really thought much of it.

It was kind of just like one of those things.

My wife kept mentioning it and mention it, and then when we decided to do it, she.

She put so much faith and trust in me to run this that it was just like, we got to trust God, you know what I mean?

Because so many people that say they want to start a company or do this, and that fear is what stops them.

It's the fear of, oh, where's my next paycheck gonna come from?

What if this, what if that?

And I'm not one of them kind of people that want to live my life.

What if I would have done this?

What if I wouldn't have done that years from now?

I want to be able to look back and be like, you did everything you could to achieve.

I mean, the main thing about naming our company Integrity is we want to be able to provide a service for a customer that they can trust for years to come.

We want to separate ourselves from the competition by providing high quality work and by.

By letting people know that we actually care and that we truly care about creating an environment for our employees to work, a great culture, being able to provide for their families, truly caring about them.

That's why we throw these events for them.

That's why we give the health Care the benefits that we do because we want to show that we care.

We don't want to just run these people into the ground and, and not care about them, you know, And I,.

Again, I think I already apologize.

You were on my planner to be your.

I double booked myself and then I had to leave town.

I'm sorry I didn't make it up to your grandparents.

What a beautiful facility.

Tell us a little about that.

Talk.

Talk through that a little bit.

So, like, where we're at today, it's kind of.

It's kind of like the, the story of where we started to where we are today.

It's just year three for us and we're already meeting milestones.

That was a goal for year 10, right.

And some of this stuff wasn't even a milestone.

So it's like we're growing at a rapid rate and many people are like, mostly the haters are like, dude, that's dangerous.

Are you sure you want to do that?

You know how hard you're going to fall.

I mean, it, it's just.

We just keep trusting God and we keep providing and we, we moved into this building and it's like completely changed our company.

Like, we're able to grow and evolve into the company that everybody knows that we can be and that we know ourselves.

Right.

It's just a great facility.

You're talking about the event.

We had an event there, the grand opening for our event.

500 People came.

It was just loaded.

It was crazy.

The whole event was free.

Food trucks, dipping dots, everything was paid for.

And, and really what we want is to show that we care about the community and like, like all the stuff we give back, yeah, we make money, we're a business.

Right.

But we're able to give back to so many people.

To your point earlier, we're able to give back to so many people, so many communities, the church able to give back to all these kids, sports teams, able to do all this and bless like what God has given us.

We're blessing on other people and that's what it's all about.

You know, the one thing I love is you bring up God a lot.

You know, it's with, with, with, you know, we're.

We're all in desperate need of a savior.

And it's.

When you put God first and you trust God and you have comprehension of really what that means, it's a lot easier to take the risk.

It's a lot easier to go out and try something new.

Because what is the worst thing that's going to happen.

And listen here, young entrepreneur, young entrepreneur, listening to this right now.

And I don't really gamble, but if I was a betting man.

James has made some mistakes.

He's probably lost some money on some deals, probably bid some jobs the wrong way.

He's lost and made mistakes.

I know I've made a lot of mistakes.

I can't even count the mistakes.

But here's the one fact, and I'll let you piggyback off this, James.

I've learned more from those mistakes than I ever have from some of the wins.

A lot of people are afraid to go out and try because you're going to fail.

You're going to fail and you have to fail because if you don't fail, you can't learn and evolve and grow.

You know, processes came, processes were born from screw ups years ago.

I don't know if it was the caveman day, I don't know when it started, but there was an era where somebody screwed something up and there were a group of people that said, you know what we need to do?

Let's put a plan together to make sure we don't screw that up.

And here's the process, right?

So I'd love to hear you echo that, James, because I know you've, like I said, you're a young company and you're doing some big, big, big numbers.

And I'm sure there's been a couple little setbacks.

Oh, there's always setbacks and stuff.

But we have team meetings every morning and literally this morning I was, I was giving a speech to the guys and I was talking about the mistakes you make in this company are what define your future.

Right?

It's not like, oh, we're a great company, we never make mistakes and stuff goes wrong.

Because that's a load of bull crap, right?

It's about what are we doing when we make the mistakes?

Are we grown and learning from him and are we persevering?

Because a great company is divine, defined by their perseverance.

That's what it is to it.

Because honestly, Adam, look back.

I was a lost cause junkie.

I was gone.

Everybody had wrote me off.

Everybody thought I was done for.

And now look what we're building today.

Look who we get to help today.

So it's one of those things where I could have gave up, been like, okay, my life's done for, or I could have took the risk because, you know, just like I do, if you want to be a multi million dollar company, you got to take risk every single day.

Everybody I get.

I get people.

How do you do this?

How do you do that?

How did you do this?

I took the risk, I trusted God and I put in the work.

That's it.

You know, it seems pretty elementary, James.

I mean, what you just said seems pretty dang simple.

Trust God, put in the work, take the risk.

I mean, it seems pretty simple.

I wonder why so many are so scared.

What is it?

What do you think?

Because the formula, and I tell people this all the time.

The blueprint to success in life and in business, they're written by the greats in the form of books.

We've got books, we've got audiobooks, we've got podcasts.

We all have the blueprint.

But why do people take no action?

What do you think that is?

Why?

Why are people not taking action?

Fear.

And they also don't want to put in the work.

Most of it's just they don't want to do the work necessary.

When people ask me, I get people ask me, they're like, how can I get to that level?

How can I do this and that?

Well, first and foremost, you got to sacrifice time with your family.

All the little hobbies you used to do now got to go out the window, right?

Because 24 hours a day, even when I'm sleeping, I'm thinking, how can I improve?

How can I evolve?

How can I get better?

And if you don't like stress, if you don't like high, high stress in your life, then you can't scale a company.

That's all there is to it.

You got to be able to deal with the high stress.

You got to be able to deal with taking the risk, and you got to be able to deal with the repercussions.

Because in order to scale a company effectively, you got to have the right people in the right seats.

Yeah, you know, I'm glad I'm going to piggyback off what you're saying.

Right?

People in the right seats.

So I brought my team at Ascent Dealer Services.

We had our quarterly traction meeting with the owners on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon, the rest of the team flew in from all over the country and we stayed at the Ballpark Hilton.

We went to a ball game, had a good time, and then we had meetings all day yesterday in the boardroom.

And one of my final.

My final talk to the team before we dismissed to go do our team building stuff was, is, you know, the view from the top is really, really pretty.

It's beautiful.

But the view from the top by yourself and without others is Less pretty.

So you might as well bring a team.

And to have a team where you have everybody that's in the role that they thrive in, that they're absolutely in love in.

We have to hire people better than us and put them in those roles and give them autonomy, give them support, give them everything they need to be successful, not just in their work life, but in their personal life.

That's how you grow a company.

I mean, it's human capital.

And I think you've kind of cracked the code on that.

It seems like you guys have a really nice culture over there.

At Integrity, we focus so much on that.

And obviously we hired a full time production guy to keep the videos up to date.

And, and the main thing I wanted to focus on, focus on.

Yeah, I want to see people create, see these backyards we're creating.

Right.

But I also want to let people know this culture is what we're building for people to come and grow.

Right.

It's more than just building backyards.

It's about growing a family, a culture where people can come and love it.

So because from the top up, from the top down, we got it covered.

General managers, project managers, design managers, we're covering all the bases for us to be able to effectively grow.

Because what we don't want, Adam, is to scale this company and lose the quality.

What we don't want is to scale the company and people be miserable.

What we don't want is to scale the company and people don't like coming to work anymore.

We want to be able to check all the boxes, scale this company productively, efficiently.

Me and my wife read the books.

Me and my wife got coaching.

We do every week, sometimes daily.

We get on there about admitting that we don't have all the answers, admitting that we can't run the company by ourselves, admitting that God trusts us to trust other people.

Amen.

I love it.

Yeah, I, I, I was joking with my team yesterday that I was the problem, you know, and the theme, the theme of our meeting yesterday was, you know, what got us here is not getting us there.

Yeah, we've come a long way, but we, we're not anywhere near where we're going.

We're heading to a whole new stratosphere and the bottleneck of the company.

I had to, you know, I'm going to be 46.

I don't think I could have done this at 36.

You were years ahead of me, James, when it comes to where you are in entrepreneurship, you know, and humility, because I was the guy that Wanted to be in every meeting.

I wanted to control everything.

I wanted to know everything.

I wanted to be involved in every little detail.

And we got to a point to where we, you know, we built a big company, but now I'm on a plane every week.

I'm in a hotel every week.

I'm not seeing my kids.

It got to where I was so burnt out.

And then we were.

I couldn't get to all of my agents.

I couldn't serve my team.

So then I had to.

I had to humble myself and realize I'm the problem.

It was me.

I.

It was me all along.

So then I brought on a couple C Suite executives that are better than me.

And I'm doing the things that I'm good at.

They're doing the things that they're good at.

And now the company's continuing to grow.

It's funny.

I'll land the plane on this.

For those listening that if you're in a business right now and you think you're going to be able to scale it and get to the elite level by yourself, you're mistaken.

And then another part to this is, is true, James and I think that we can agree on this right now.

I don't mind working in the business.

I am working more on the business as a CEO than in the business.

But business owners start businesses for the businesses to ultimately work for them, to provide freedom.

But make no mistake, you gotta pay your dues.

You don't.

You, you know, year three, you don't get to go to freaking Turks and Caicos for three months and sit on the beach and drink freaking mai tais or pina coladas.

And you know, that don't work.

That doesn't exist.

You gotta pay your dues.

You gotta put in your time and you gotta get the right people.

You gotta get them in the right places.

You gotta hold them accountable, but give them autonomy.

And then your business should run for you and you not run for it.

That's the goal.

Exactly.

You know, exactly.

Let it, Let it run for you.

And, and the only way to properly do that is to trust other people.

It's.

It's to have the right people in the right seats.

And, and that's what me and my wife have figured out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So how do you hire?

I'd like to know, like, what do you.

What are you looking for for somebody that would join integrity?

So first off, we focus so much on our core values.

We got our mission statement, our core values all.

All, all pulled.

Pulled up on the, on the walls.

Every, every team meeting in the morning, a new guy has to come up and recite the core values in front of the entire team.

We do that every single morning.

What we're looking for is people driven, living their life with the core values.

What we won't do is justify the core values to bring in somebody with a bad attitude.

Like if you, if you don't have the right attitude, you can't be taught.

You know what I mean?

Somebody with less experience.

I will take over anybody with a bad attitude and high experience any day of the week because a bad attitude cannot be taught.

Somebody with inexperience can be taught to have experience.

100%.

Yeah.

I love that.

I love that.

So let's, let's, let's do a little bragging rights on you right now.

So let's talk about your company.

Tell us a little bit about integrity, some of the work you're doing now, some of the projects you're in now.

You know, let's just, let's just talk about what you.

Exactly what do you guys do, what markets do you serve and how easy is it to get involved with you if somebody wants to do some business.

So we are a full in ground pool and outdoor living company.

We do in ground pools, any, any style, gunite, fiberglass, vinyl liner.

We do full carpentry, pool houses, pavilions, decks.

We got two carpenter crews, two pool crews, and then we have two hardscape crews who do our retaining walls, paver patios and all that.

So all that high end luxury outdoor living stuff, that's what we mainly focus on.

Like I said just, just two years ago, man, we were getting, we were doing two thousand dollar jobs.

Right now we're doing half a million seven hundred fifty thousand dollar projects on the regular basis.

So that, that's what we've grown into.

We want to be able to serve like the higher end market and be able to create backyards that are luxurious and like the wow effect.

Like we want, we want to focus on like, you know, just when people see it, they're like wow.

That's, that's, that's amazing.

You know, so that's kind of what we focus on.

We, we serve the St. Louis area and the metro east area.

Our goal is to branch out into other areas, maybe grow the company.

Lake of the Ozarks, maybe, maybe, maybe Nashville, Indianapolis.

We want to take over the entire Midwest, man.

And I got my eyes set on it.

I love the ambition.

I'm young, I'm young.

I can see it in your Eyes just looking at you right now.

So walk us through a life of James Pritchard.

What does it.

What does a day, Monday through Friday day, look like for Mr. Mr. Pritchard?

So I'm the managing director.

My job every single day is to take the company's vision and turn it into operational strategies.

That's strictly my job.

I don't do sales anymore.

I don't do any of that.

I don't do any project management.

My job is to strictly think of ideas and ways to grow this company every single day.

My.

My job every day is.

Is mainly in.

In my iPad and my phone, texting, doing.

Doing that kind of stuff and just making sure, like, our general manager is.

Is getting the vision magnified to everybody else, is making sure he's magnifying the vision.

He understands it.

He's agrees with it.

Because nothing will kill a company more than.

Than somebody who doesn't magnify the vision, somebody who doesn't understand the vision, Somebody who's going against what you.

You were saying, right?

And we have that dialed in.

We have a great, great integrator, great general manager, somebody who can give back.

My wife's great with the director of administration stuff.

So mainly I just sit around all day, stress out, focus on how we can.

Because.

Because what, what, what they say, my wife and them, they're like, you need to calm down, right?

Because I'm.

I'm thinking about eight.

I'm.

I'm eight moves ahead, right?

I can't think here and now I got severe adhd.

I'm thinking about how can we grow?

How can we effectively grow?

How can we do this or that.

I'm already thinking of.

We're already talking about launching a hardscape and pool supply company, branched off Integrity Poolscapes, right?

Be able to distribute that, create a nicer revenue stream.

Just.

I got so many great ideas in my head.

And.

And honestly, Adam, we are growing so rapidly, dude.

It's just crazy how fast we're growing.

I love that we're doing it in a way that people are growing with us.

People are getting to do these things with us.

So let's talk about why you're growing so fast.

I mean, I see you guys online, and there's a couple things that I know from a human psychology standpoint, social proof is big.

And you guys do a really nice job of sharing your work on your socials, showing some of your jobs like you did my dad and stepmoms.

I mean, what you guys.

What you guys did in their backyard I mean, you changed my life, man.

Like, by the way, thank you for that.

I, I don't.

I don't even know if I ever thanked you.

Thank you for that.

You know, they, they, like, they're, they have their dream home, they have their dream back.

My dad, they're madly in love with what you did for them.

You'd crushed it in my house.

I mean, you did an incredible, credible landscaping job at my house.

I mean, you guys knocked it out of the park.

And then you guys have the social proof, right?

So that right there alone is probably bringing in leads from a competitive standpoint.

I want to kind of dig into this a little bit.

So you got the social proof, you've got the clients.

We don't.

Let's not name competitors.

I don't like doing that on this show.

But what is the competition like?

Is it, is, are we in a tough market?

Are you in a.

Is it a brutal, like what I do for a living at Ascent Dealer Services?

It is brutal.

Like the reason we're successful is because we bring more value than any of our competitors.

We were a value based company and that's why we win.

But there's a lot of competition and they fight dirty.

So tell me a little bit about your industry and what does the competition look like?

Is there friendly competition?

Is there collaboration?

Is it difficult to win these jobs?

Talk us through.

I will say we have competition in the area.

What we're trying to do is separate ourselves, right?

And now, and now we're getting higher in leads.

We're kind of getting noticed with the more high end companies that have been doing this 20 years and stuff, which means a lot to us.

It's a compliment, right?

Because, Adam, I'm one of those people, man.

I'm not a hater, dude.

When I see a company doing better than me, I'm like, how can I get like them clapping for the success behind closed doors, talking good about them?

You know what I mean?

We actually had a customer.

We were, we were competing with somebody else.

And the reason why they signed with us is because we were saying all good things about the other people that we were competing with for the bid.

And the other companies were saying bad things about each other, right?

So they were like, we're hiring you because you were just stood on integrity, talked all these good things about these other companies if you didn't hire us, how you were comfortable with them.

And that's just my mindset, man.

It's like, don't hate, like, be, be proud of, like, other People and like applaud them and stuff.

So as, as far as a competitor standpoint, I, I, I, I applaud the success of everybody, man.

And somebody who's doing better than me, I take that as a sign for me to motivate and get better like them.

So yeah, we're a competitor.

What I focused on, what we have an advantage on over the competition is our social media marketing.

I have focused so much on that from day one.

And then hiring the full time videographer now, you wouldn't have believe how, how many leads.

Like, it's like we're getting so many leads flooded in.

So many people are hiring us because of our culture, our videos, all the stuff we're seeing every other day, we're posting something on our Facebook page, Tik Tok, Instagram.

That's huge.

Marketing is everything.

And, and, and if you're not marketing and doing the things necessary for your company, then, then you're, you're, you're a step behind.

That's all there is to it.

Yeah.

So if, if, I don't know if you follow Bradley, Bradley's a stud.

He has a podcast called Dropping Bombs.

If you were on Bradley's podcast right now, there were two bombs that you just dropped.

I'm gonna, I want to touch on those things right now.

So the first thing you were talking about, you were, you were talking about competition and praising your competition.

You know, the fact of the matter is when you genuinely want everyone to win, you win.

When you genuinely want everyone to win, why not collaborate with your competitors?

Like, you know, and I've seen you do it online.

Like, why not share their stuff, why not applaud them?

I lost a deal to an agency that I respect highly.

I lost a deal.

And when I found out I lost the deal, I sent the other agent, the other agency owner a message.

I said, hey man, hats off to you.

The better man won.

And it was you today.

And I go, I would rather see you get this deal than one of these other companies.

So hey, congratulations to you and your family.

Like that positive stuff goes a long way.

There's another bomb too.

Like even on social media, like sharing, there is young entrepreneurs.

We're going to talk about the social media because you dropped a bomb on social media.

You dropped a bomb when it comes to praising your competition.

And it's, it's my friend Meg Fairless talks about this.

She has a statement.

Community over competition.

There's plenty to eat.

The ocean is very big there.

It's just the market is massive.

There's enough for all of us.

But the reality is most don't take action at psychotic performance portions.

Like you, James.

Right.

You could relate with me.

Right.

We're kind of similar in our psychoticness when it comes to our businesses.

Right.

And I don't think that's ever going to change.

Oh, and I have severe ADHD as well.

And I think it's a superpower.

I think it's a superpower.

I'm not taking meds for it.

You can't talk me into it.

Okay.

I think it's a superpower.

But the fact is praising your competition, clapping for people when they win.

And then the thing I want to land on here, social media is how you grow any company.

Social media.

There's no other way to grow a company than social media.

And I am friends, I might have brought his name up earlier.

Glen Lundy is.

Glenn Lundy is a savant at social media and he uses the terms paid organic.

Now there's a time and a place to boost some ads.

You should boost certain ads here and there.

Right?

But having it like you have a videographer that can constantly take content non stop so you can deploy it out there at a non stop base is how you build and grow a company.

Now, younger listeners, there's two things that are going to happen here.

Number one, at first, you're going to get in your own head.

You're going to hear this little, I call it a bitch voice.

This little bitch voice, this comes from Andy Friscilla, by the way.

It's going to be in your little ear going, are you posting too much?

Are you going to annoy somebody?

Are your family and friends going to start not liking you or are you going to, are your people going to unfriend you and unfollow you?

Right?

So you got to punch that voice right in the face because that voice is a lie.

All right?

And if you do have a family or a friend or somebody that doesn't want to support you, they're not your type of people anyway.

They don't deserve a seat at your table.

So having somebody continuously posting on a never ending basis is the most important thing you can do for your business.

James, I am so glad that you shared what you just shared because there is no more truth than what you just said.

No problem.

So thank you for that.

So what's next?

So you got, you know, I know, I know we're scaling, you know, we talked off air.

We don't need to get into some of the, all the, all the little details, because us entrepreneurs are allowed to keep our secrets amongst others, each other.

But you got, you got some big numbers, bro.

You're not.

I mean, just so, just so the viewers know, we're talking millions, we're not talking hundred, thousands.

We're.

We're scaling at a rapid pace.

So what's next?

Like, what's this kind of.

What's this next evolution of your company?

What's.

What's next?

So obviously we just bought a big truck.

Big, big tandem dump truck.

That's a big milestone for us.

Able to.

Able to revenue stream.

Able to.

Able to get jobs done faster.

Able to get more jobs done.

Obviously, we just hired some more guys.

We got a project manager for the pool division who is just, just killing it.

Best delegator ever.

Able to get three jobs going at one.

Able to like, just create massive amounts of revenue.

Like I just said, we're about to launch Integrity Pool and Landscape Supply.

So all the supply we're using will sell rock blocks, pavers, pool chemicals, all that.

We're going to be launching that soon.

Hot tubs.

I'm just thinking about ways how can we grow but branch out into the same field.

Right.

Create more revenue streams, but kind of tied into the same company.

So that, that's the goal here.

And then give me a couple hours.

And I'm thinking I'll have some other stuff too.

My mind is just non stop, Adam.

Like, like, I come I.

For our management meetings, I come with new stuff.

They're like, where do you come up with this stuff?

Because this is my job.

It is my job.

It's not a coincidence that we're growing at a rapid rate like this.

It's my vision.

It's everybody else implementing my vision and us working together as a team.

And my wife is a superstar.

What she's done, she's doing coaching, obviously.

Went to a conference not too long ago.

We're doing coaching.

She's turning into this killer, like, absolute killer.

I would not be where I'm at with, without her.

Obviously.

I wouldn't even start at the company because she kept putting in my ear, trust God, let's do this.

Let's do this.

Best business partner I could ever have.

She's just a killer.

You guys are.

I don't know her personally.

I'd love to meet her.

She.

You guys seem like a power couple.

And you know what I mean, who you marry is the biggest decision, you know, and your spouse is your biggest decision.

You know, Sylvia, I can echo that.

I mean, without having her she's my advisory board.

A lot of times, I mean, I.

Not all.

James, don't.

Please don't tell anybody this, but not all my ideas are good ones.

And it's kind of nice.

It's kind of nice to, like, have a sounding board that someone who cares deeply enough to say, hey, listen, I think this is probably the wrong time for this one.

You know, I don't think fits.

And so I love that you just shouted out your wife.

That's fantastic.

I want to brag on you.

I want to.

I want to spend a few minutes bragging on you to end the show.

But before we do that, James, share with the viewers that will eventually view this on YouTube and the listeners that will see clips online, on socials, on Spotify, Apple.

How do we.

How do we connect with you, man?

Like, like, what's the best way to follow you?

What's the best way to get in touch with you?

How do we re.

How do we do business with you?

Yeah.

So the best way to follow us would be on our Facebook page.

That's where we get the most followers.

That's where we post all content.

Tick tock, Instagram, all that.

Just integrity poolscapes.

Look us up on Facebook.

Give us a follow.

You won't, you won't.

You won't regret it.

We do some phenomenal work, man.

Some of the best work in the area.

People.

People are really starting to notice and see that.

We.

We'd love to hear from you, man.

We, we're growing fast.

We're branching out.

We want to be able to provide for our clients like, like they deserve.

Create that backyard atmosphere like you said.

Jane and Steve, your parents, it was just great.

Like, like they just kept coming outside.

Thank you so much.

Jane is such a sweetheart.

I've known her since I was a kid.

She.

They're just so grateful, so thankful.

And honestly, that's what this is about.

Being able to.

It's cool to do little stuff, but when you can create backyard family memories, like, they're gonna spend their golden years out back, like, all the time, just happy as can be.

Like, so happy.

And we got to create that for them.

Yeah.

Did we make money and stuff?

But the main thing is we got to create lasting family memories that'll last a lifetime.

Yeah.

And that's why, before I brag on you for a minute here, because you're gonna.

You're gonna get.

You're gonna get some good stuff from me.

Profit's not a bad word.

You know, like, this is pretty much a predominantly entrepreneur show.

And profit, like I was talking to somebody earlier about money.

And money so sensitive.

Every business deserves to make a profit.

We all need.

If.

If we provide great value, there needs to be profit.

And so for those consumers out there that might listen to this, like, you know, I'm not saying not to negotiate on your next house or not negotiate on your next car, but understand that margin compression in all industries is a real thing.

Companies are not running on margins that you might think that we are.

And profit is not a bad word.

And when a company does a job and they do a great job, you got to think about all the overhead, the insurance expenses, all the.

The licenses people have to pull to do these jobs, the equipment cost.

There's so much that goes into some of the things that we do that the retail consumer doesn't quite see.

So profit.

We want people to make money.

And here.

So I want to.

I just want to say a few things, if you allow me.

James, so what your story is as a true story, of resilience, lots of passion, underdog that never wanted to give up, that believed in themselves.

And there are so many people in our world, not just in our country, there are so many people out there that are where you were and that were where I was because there was a time I was all messed up, right?

I needed to get out of my own way.

There was a time I felt hopeless, like there was no way out, Right?

Your better days are ahead of you, my friends.

Like your past may have gotten you to where you are right this second, but it doesn't necessarily have a bearing on where you should go or where God has already predestined and intended for you to go.

If you just listen to the whisper and you take that walk.

So what James has done, James, is the true entrepreneur story.

Like, if there's a book that needed to be written, it should be yours.

This is a story that needs to be told.

And so for those that got to listen to James today and me kind of ramble and ran a little bit, it's not too late.

You're not alone.

You're not alone.

You may feel right now hopeless.

Maybe you are addicted right now on a substance, whatever substance that you're on.

Maybe you're struggling with alcohol, whatever that is.

There is hope.

There is a way out of it.

And I'm going to tell you right now, the comeback story, those are the most special stories.

And there is an opportunity for you.

So for those out there even take addiction out of the equation, for those out there that have maybe failed once or twice in a business or they lost some money, or they've been burned by a businessman partner, or they feel they just.

They don't have what it takes, you got to get out of your own way.

You got to adjust your mindset.

You got to understand you can truly, and I believe this to my core, you can truly have the things you desire if you just do a couple of things.

And James, hit the nail on the head, put God first, do the work and just take massive, just psychotic action.

If you do those things, genuinely the life works out.

Would you agree, James?

I think things kind of work out if we.

Absolutely,.

Yeah.

So, James, I. I appreciate you, man.

Like, I know we.

I know we had to reschedule a few times.

You had business meetings out of town.

I had meetings.

And out of town you're busy.

But you know what?

We're both busy.

But you know what?

I don't think we're busy busy.

I think you and I are productive.

Productive and blessed, my man.

Blessed, yes.

So any final parting words?

Anything you want to say to the younger generation?

Anything you want to say to anyone before we adjourn this amazing conversation?

I just want to say, don't let nobody tell you you can't.

Don't let any statistic, any stat tell you that you are against the odds.

Don't let any addiction, anything stop you.

I was a lost cause junkie.

I've been to prison seven times, rehab seven times.

I was supposed to be dead.

I was supposed to be in prison for life.

And here I am building a multi million dollar company.

There is hope, there is restoration, there is redemption.

Take the risk, put in the work and give it your all.

That, my friends, is what I call a mic drop.

God bless you, James.

I'm grateful for our friendship.

I'm grateful to do business with you and I'm grateful that you took the time to come pour into this community.

So for those that tuned into another episode of Humans that build.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We can't do this without you.

We appreciate you and we will see you on another episode next week.

Humans that build.

Real people, real work.

See you next time.