He Built A $20 Million Remodeling Company Knocking Doors In Blizzards | Lakota Tidd

Tommy Mello (0:00)

So, for someone listening who's spending 30 or 40,000 a month on digital leads and not seeing the return, what would you tell them? Google's getting outrageously expensive. I mean, insanely expensive.

Lakota Tidd (0:11)

In March this year, we did a million dollars in revenue in one week just from shows. So if you're a company and you're sitting there waiting for leads and they're not coming, they probably won't. So you need to learn how to, how can I create them rather than wait for them?

Tommy Mello (0:28)

All right, guys, welcome back to The Home Service Expert. I got Lakota Tidd with me. Lakota dropped out of college starting a remodeling company with his, hold on.

All right, guys, welcome back to The Home Service Expert. Today, I got Lakota Tidd with me. Lakota dropped out of college, started a remodeling company in his mom's garage at the age of 21 I built it to $20 million in seven years by knocking doors. No digital marketing, no body leads, just canvassing in Michigan blizzards with ice-freezing chills of Michigan, where I'm from. He pivoted from doing everything to focus on one day, bath and windows. That decision changed everything. Today, he breaks down how he built the $20 million company on canvassing alone. While trying to do everything almost killed his business, and the mindset that it took from his mom's garage to top remodeler 500

Lakota, how are you, brother?

Lakota Tidd (1:26)

I'm good, brother. Thank you very much for having me. This was always a goal of mine, and I'm looking forward to the conversation.

Tommy Mello (1:33)

I can't wait because a lot of people say you can't do door-to-door on a lot of businesses, but I've seen it work now even on foundation repair, which is crazy. I mean, you know the pest control. We know it works on windows and cable companies and whatnot, but let's just dive in and hear your story. Let's talk about how you started and what you're looking forward to in the future.

Lakota Tidd (1:55)

Yeah, like you said, brother, I started at the age of 21 We started Top Home Improvements in my mom's garage. We had no money. We had two lawn chairs and just a dream of starting a company.

The only way I knew how to generate appointments was without spending money was by knocking doors. Every day for the first year that the company was around, I would hop in my old broke down high school truck and I would drive to neighborhoods all over Michigan and I would knock the entire neighborhood, whether it took me a couple of hours or all day long just to get appointments on the board. At that time, we were doing windows, roofing, bathrooms. We were doing a few different projects. But there was one time that I'll never forget and that's the day that I wanted to quit. You're from Michigan, so you get it. I had to knock doors whether it was in the beautiful summer or humid 100 degree weather or in a Michigan blizzard. There was one time that I was knocking in a blizzard in the middle of Michigan, a neighborhood. I had zero appointments on the board, nothing on for tomorrow, and I pulled out my pen and it was completely frozen. All the ink was frozen.

I remember looking down and like, man, I want to quit. We're getting nowhere. This is a lot harder than I thought. But I had a thought that occurred to me that from this moment, it doesn't get any worse, right? If I could truly create a powerful company from this moment in the middle of a blizzard and make it successful that eventually I'd be invited on to podcast someday and I'd be able to tell my story and hopefully inspire others to make it through their own blizzard. And so that's truly a full circle moment for me, Tommy, from the kid in the blizzard to the kid here today. I'm super grateful to be on the podcast and I'm hoping I can inspire others.

Tommy Mello (3:55)

I appreciate having you, man. I love the idea of building your own demand where it doesn't exist.

I've been very fortunate. Clients come to me. I rank high on Google. I understand the LLMs. I know how the lead ads work.

And people call us when their garage door breaks, but you seem to make something happen out of nowhere. And that's magical. I mean, so when did it all start to shift? So you're in this blizzard. You're pens frozen. You're out there grinding the first year. What was some of those decisions that got you to where you're at today?