In this podcast episode, Joe Carlisle, founder of Vision Handyman and Window Tinting, shares his life story and entrepreneurial journey. Born in Oxford, Mississippi and raised partly in Dallas, Joe worked in his dad’s restaurants, then spent years with Best Buy in retail and home theater installation, learning hands-on skills that later shaped his career.

After his younger brother died, he moved to Mobile to be near family, later bouncing between Hattiesburg, New Orleans, Dallas, and even New Zealand. He pursued standup comedy seriously in Austin before returning to Mississippi later relocating to Mobile and facing major challenges rebuilding Vision Handyman.

Transcript:

Joe: I am Joe Carlisle. I founded Vision Handyman and Window Tinting.

Marcus: Awesome. Well, Joe, it's been, uh, great getting to know you kind of over the last year, and I'm glad you're here today. So Yeah, you too, man.

Joe: Grateful to be here.

Marcus: Yeah. So, um. The first thing that we always do is we want to hear a little bit about who you are and you know, kind of some of your life experiences.

So why don't you go back and tell us, are you from Mobile? Did you go to school here? Did you go to second, you know, in college, married, you know, all that stuff.

Joe: Sure. No, uh, I'm not from mobile.

Marcus: Okay.

Joe: I, uh, I tell people I'm half from Dallas, half from Mississippi.

Marcus: Okay.

Joe: Born in Oxford. Both my parents went to Ole Miss.

Marcus: Cool.

Joe: Uh, my dad ran restaurants the whole time. I was growing up. Owned, managed, did food distribution, all that stuff. Uh, and so we, you know, born in north Mississippi, spent, was there till third grade. Then dad took us to Dallas [00:01:00] just to get us some more diverse.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh,

Marcus: more opportunity.

Joe: Absolutely. Yeah.

Just different. Um, and what, you know, graduated high school through there. Left, uh, when I was about 19 and then came back to Mississippi. Just coincidentally, uh, I was getting in a lot of trouble, so I moved in with my grandparents that were in Jackson.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, which was great. And then, uh, when I was 17, I started working for Best Buy and Retail.

And

Marcus: for those of you that don't remember, best Buy was a retail place where you could go and buy electronics.

Joe: They actually had customer service and

Marcus: not to be mistaken with Circuit City, which, you know, ended a long time ago. But

Joe: yeah.

Marcus: Anyway, I'm joking, but,

Joe: uh, but yeah, I, uh, got back on with Best Buy in Jackson.

Ended up opening the Best Buy in Hattiesburg. And was there for a few years. And then I had a younger brother that was killed a car wreck.

Marcus: Oh wow.

Joe: And that was what brought me to mobile. 'cause my parents had relocated here, or the whole family Really. Parents and sister were [00:02:00] here. And so I was like, we're gonna all be together.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: For this time.

Marcus: It makes you realize how important family is.

Joe: Yeah. It was like nothing else mattered. And it was all of us living in a little two bedroom house in Midtown on Macy Place.

Yeah.

Joe: And, uh. It was just important. And so I was here in Mobile for a couple years after that, then went back to Hattiesburg to start a home theater shop with a buddy of mine.

Couple more years there again, then to New Orleans, uh, then back to Dallas for a little bit. And then I moved to New Zealand, sold everything I had. Yeah. Caught my first wife, uh, cheating on me. Sold everything. I had, bought a one way ticket.

Wow.

Joe: And was like, I'm not coming back. And, uh. I'll finish up real quick and then we could dive into that more if you want to.

Marcus: Yeah, no,

Joe: um, but while I was over there I have so

Marcus: many questions, but anyway.

Joe: Yeah, man. While I was over there, my sister had to have a stupid baby and so I was like, great. So my plan to live the rest of my life as a vagabond in other countries [00:03:00] got put on hold. I was like, I gotta come back. To be closer to that kid, especially 'cause my, I'm the only uncle now.

Marcus: Yeah. The crazy

Joe: uncle, you know? Yeah. And absolutely insane. It's like, I gotta, I gotta be here.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And, uh, so came back, got close to her, and then I had told people forever I wasn't moving back to the States, but if I did, I was gonna go for it as a comedian and like try to make it. And so I moved to Austin.

For about a year just doing standup. I mean, really doing it, like trying to do 10 mics a week, just nothing but that. And driving Uber and I was living, uh, rent free with some friends of mine working as their personal chef and personal assistant.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, just to I'll

Marcus: do anything for a couch.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah.

Pretty, yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Like and uh,

Marcus: trying to make that dream come, come alive.

Joe: Exactly. And, uh, I realized. That, that was not the life that I wanted. I still loved the craft, but there were guys in Austin who'd been [00:04:00] doing it, you know, almost 10 years. That really weren't much further along. They're still in Austin, just hammering mics and stuff.

And I was like, I don't think that's my calling. And uh, I had just taken a trip back through Hattiesburg and the guys that own SPF window tinting and Hattiesburg asked if I would just hang out and clean windows for a while. I was like, yeah, I'm just driving Uber. So. I did, Hattiesburg has a really great local comedy scene and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna stay here.

Familiar with Hattiesburg, have a lot of friends, and, uh, stayed there, still kept hammering it with comedy, but small, you know, small market, uh, but just still loved it. And, uh, and then got divorced again and really wanted to do my own thing and wanted to have my own business even though that tent shop is elite and amazing.

And, uh, I just. Just wanted to have my thing and I realized I really liked working with my hands and like during COVID started doing a lot of renovations with a buddy of mine and I've always liked [00:05:00] working with my hands. And so it's like I'm just gonna start my own handyman business. And after I get divorced again, like, well v's.

Here, you know, my niece is here. Yeah. I need to be here.

Marcus: Set some roots up someplace in.

Joe: Exactly. It was like, this is, I, I need to be here. Yeah. And so here we are. And, uh, so to, you know, started the handyman business in Hattiesburg. Couple years in, and then moved. Moved it to a new market.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And that is starting over.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: That is from ground zero

Marcus: and a completely different market, I would imagine

Joe: than, yeah. Than

Marcus: Burg is.

Joe: And I thought, you know, I'll be good. I know a lot of people, my sister and her husband know everybody. Uh, it didn't work out like that. It still took a while to build Yeah. That network. And, uh, you would probably find this interesting is Google would never officially move me.

Like, even though we, yeah. I had multiple marketing people working on this. Yeah. And it would, uh, even though I'd verified my address and everything in [00:06:00] mobile, it would still rank me in Hattiesburg. And nobody could fix it. And that's wild. It was wild.

Marcus: Did you just end up permanently closing the Hattiesburg and opening a new one

Joe: or, we had I to Nuk the whole thing.

Yeah. So I had to start off.

Marcus: But you lose all those reviews

Joe: and everything. All Yeah. Of it gone. That sucks. And I was close to a hundred, you know, 'cause I was hammering it like I'm playing the game.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And it was devastating, but we're really just recovering from that. Uh,

Marcus: yeah.

Joe: So it was kind of like starting over again.

Marcus: Yeah. Uh, it's, it's amazing to me how dependent we are on things like that. So whether it's like your Facebook page or your Google, uh, listing or, you know, things like that. And, uh, because they're provided for free, there's absolutely no support. And honestly, Google and Facebook Act Act at times. Like, they just really don't care.

Joe: They don't care.

Marcus: Yeah. And so

Joe: it's so difficult. And the grip that they have on everyone is crazy.

Marcus: Yeah, I have, I've had a number of clients where it's like, you know, you just try and try and try to like move them or [00:07:00] gain control of the listing or whatever, and it's just like they won't do it. And then so you try to close it and open a new one and sometimes they won't even let you open the new, uh, listing.

Joe: Yeah, I'm going through it again

Marcus: specifically

Joe: like, so we do, you know, half of the business is architectural window tinting, so flight glass. Business, residential. Yeah. But if people search for window tinting, we don't rank high because we're a handyman.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: And so I've had to start a new DBA that's just called window tinting near me.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And, uh, and so when people Google window tinting, you know, will come up. Yeah. I got that process started like January 1st. The listing is still not live.

Marcus: Oh, wow.

Joe: Like the, the, the verification video didn't go through. I had to do all this stuff to prep, like to get ready for the verification. We're all set up.

I got it. My,

Marcus: yeah.

Joe: Employee with the shirt on, like we're ready to go send it in. They're like, oh, you didn't have this, this, and this. I was like, that's everything that we did have.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: And so sometimes

they

Marcus: don't even look at

Joe: it. Yeah. It's like, so I just get this guy in Pakistan on Fiverr to go. I don't know [00:08:00] what he does, but he triggers something else to where we can get it working.

Yeah. He's done it for me twice before.

Marcus: Well man, you just went through. 20 moves and yeah. You ready? A bunch of divorces and one move was, you know, transcontinental, um, or intercontinental. Uh, what did you think of New Zealand? What was it like living outside of the states?

Joe: Oh, it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing.

Marcus: So I'll tell you quickly. I had a friend who I used to, uh, live across the street from in Northern Virginia. He was the project manager for the Mac app for a OL.

Joe: Okay.

Marcus: Let that, let that register

Joe: nice

Marcus: back when. A OL was still a thing. And um, he was probably in his forties cashed out all of his stock options had been with a OL forever.

So he had some cash. Yeah. And sold everything and moved his whole family. And I know he took at least one of his vehicles. He had a, a Hummer. Uh, like an old school Hummer that he had, had a lot of work done, like new [00:09:00] suspensions, you know, like extra travel and everything. Sure. And moved all that stuff to New Zealand and opened a charter fishing business.

Joe: There you go, man.

Marcus: And I was like,

Joe: isn't that the dream?

Marcus: I just, I'm, I'm not playing life the right way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If this is a game, I'm on the bench, like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, what's, what the hell's going on? Like,

Joe: oh yeah, totally.

Marcus: But, um, he had some really, you know, cool things to say about it.

But what'd you, what'd you think, you know, moving there and being a expat and all that stuff?

Joe: I

Marcus: mean,

Joe: first off, it's gorgeous, you know, it's unbelievable. Like anytime you see like earth porn, you know, like, uh, pictures on. Subreddits. It's always New Zealand.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And it's almost always around Queenstown, which is where I was on the south island.

Like, so I showed up, bought a van. I was like, I'm just gonna travel the country. In this van, which is very common over there.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And uh, I pretty much got there and just shot to Queenstown and stayed there the whole time and then it would just travel from there. But Queenstown is mostly people not from New Zealand, it's other [00:10:00] people coming, doing the same thing.

So everybody's there for some kind of adventure sports. So it is huge for paragliding and mountain downhill mountain biking and. Ski and snowboarding, uh, skydiving, which is what I did. And rock climbing everything.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Boating, fishing, all that. It's all there. Uh, and everybody's there to be happy. You know, like anybody that's traveling, you don't really care.

You just make enough money to survive. Do the thing you want to do.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: That you're there for. Uh, and then just party like crazy, like every night. And I lived in a house with 15 check people and me.

Marcus: Oh wow.

Joe: It was just called the Check House and like the living room was just a bunch of cots.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And it was every night going.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And they were all, you know, hardcore rock climbers and adventurers and so there was always something to do.

Marcus: That's cool.

Joe: Uh, but yeah, you get a whole different perspective. You know when you get out [00:11:00] of America

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You realize that we are the only ones that say America's the greatest country in the history of the world.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: Which is fine, you know, I still agree with that, but no, it's just so different, you know, when uh, to

Marcus: get the outside perspective.

Joe: Yeah. And just say like, these people have a completely different perspective of what I ever could have even imagined.

Marcus: Yeah. The worldview and especially a small country like New Zealand.

I mean, uh, you know, of course the association with Australia would imagine, you know, they, their politics probably link, link up quite a bit, but being outside of the states and hearing and having conversations with people. About the United States, you know, had to have been kind of an interesting experience.

Joe: It's very interesting.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: It'll knock you down a peg or two.

Marcus: Yeah, I hear that

Joe: for sure. But I lived in Australia for a year or two,

Marcus: so Nope. No college.

Joe: No college man.

Marcus: Not currently married.

Joe: Not currently married. Never again.

Marcus: Yeah. Please make sure to come to me and ask permission before you put that ring on her finger, uh, because I'll [00:12:00] save you some, uh, save you some trouble.

Hopefully.

Joe: Trust me, I have a lot of people like, you're cut off, dude. You ready?

Marcus: You're done.

Joe: And I was like, don't worry, I can't be three divorces Ross. So,

Marcus: yeah,

I'm

Joe: not, we're not doing that again.

Marcus: Not a good, not a good thing. So well go back in time and tell us about the very first job that you had. You know, this was like high school-ish, middle school or something like that.

What was that job and do you have any lessons that you still remember from that?

Joe: Man? You know, my first real job where I had, I collected a paycheck was at Sonic when I was 15. But really my first job was working in my dad's restaurants.

Marcus: Okay.

Joe: And because he was putting me in there like nine or 10 years old running the fryer.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, at this time I was like fourth, fifth grade, and he had, uh. You know, not fast food, but quick serve. Uh, Philly Cheese Steak Restaurant, steak Escape. Yeah. If you ever remember those. Yeah,

Marcus: dude, I love it.

Joe: Dude, it was so good. The fries,

Marcus: I've been craving a steak, uh, steak and cheese sub for like, [00:13:00] the longest time, and I know I shouldn't eat one because they're, they're gut bombs.

Joe: Oh

Marcus: yeah. But I was watching a YouTube video and they were doing a special on one of the shops up in, in Philadelphia and they were just showing like all the onions and the meat and cheese Oh yeah. And stuff like that. And I was just like,

Joe: oh, that's so good.

Marcus: I haven't had one yet, so, but go, I'm sorry. Oh

Joe: yeah.

Steak

Marcus: escape. Oh.

Joe: So yeah, they a steak escape and uh, I mean, yeah, I'm running the fryer, running the register, nine, 10 years old. Fast paced.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Like

Marcus: there's nothing like the food industry for that.

Joe: Nothing. Yeah. And, you know, working under pressure. Uh, staying focused. 'cause I'm a DD like crazy. It's like,

Marcus: I didn't know that about you.

Joe: Oh yeah, dude. Wild. Oh dude. I went back and watched a bunch of the podcast episodes, so I'm like, oh dude, we're gonna connect a lot. I was like, gonna be good.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Um.

Marcus: But no, didn't mean to interrupt. So you were a stake, a steak escape in all those lessons. I'm, you know, one of the things that I'm, I, uh, see, do, see as a pattern is the people that have worked in the food industry have, you know, [00:14:00] I mean, there's something about the stress and the time constraint and all that stuff, the expectations.

You're dealing with clients. You're, you know, you're making the product, you know, you're working the cash register, you know what I mean? Like it's. You know, there's a lot there in certain, in a very small, you know, confined experience.

Joe: Oh yeah.

Marcus: And it teaches you about a lot of different things. Oh yeah.

Washing dishes, mopping floors, you know, that kind of thing.

Joe: Yeah. So, yeah, you're doing everything

Marcus: Well. Tell us about, uh, your business and, you know, how did you get started? I mean, you said you started, uh, in Mississippi, but you know, and you gave a little bit about here, but you know, was it really just a matter of like.

Enjoying to do and doing things with your hands. So why not go into contracting versus handyman and you know, that kind of thing.

Joe: So, you know, I grew up in restaurants. My mom was a teacher. Mm-hmm. Like we were not a trades family by any means. You know, my dad barely owned a toolbox. He couldn't fix anything.

Yeah. And. Then as I got older, I started to like to build things with my hand. It was a skateboarder, so we were building [00:15:00] ramps

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And whatnot.

Marcus: Same. That's how I got my start in woodworking.

Joe: Nice. Yeah. I got three fake teeth from skating, so, oh

Marcus: gosh.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: I should have a fake hip from skateboarding, but what's the story there?

Face plant.

Joe: Yeah, face plant on a pyramid. Just big old transition. Man, it was an old skating rink that had had converted into a park and the floors were real slick. And I hit this big transition and just,

Marcus: just smashed,

Joe: boom. Dude. It was rough.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, but oh, yeah. Getting it. Um, sorry.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Right. So then start was working for Best Buy, doing retail, and, but what I, my.

They stuck me in car audio. I wanted to be in home theater I month audio file. Huge. Yeah, AV nerd bad and uh, couldn't work in home theater. 'cause I wasn't 18 yet. I was 17 when I started. And then as time progressed through Best Buy. Wait,

Marcus: why? Why can't you, sorry, just as an aside, why can't you work in home theater unless you're 18?

Joe: Because you gotta be able to operate the lift that they move around. Get TVs down,

Marcus: down. Yeah. Okay.

Joe: [00:16:00] So I was in car audio, stayed in car audio for a while, but then. When I eventually got here at the one in Spanish fort, uh, there was an opportunity to be the home theater installer. So they started doing home theater Best Buy, started doing in-house home theater install around 2005.

And the guy I was living with got that job in Hattiesburg. I used to go with him and do stuff. He taught me a lot of stuff. He was real good with his hands. He grew up trades. And uh, so I got to be a home theater installer here, and that's where I really started going into houses learning. How to find studs.

Yeah. How to run wires. Getting into attics all the time. Just seeing how things are constructed, how walls are built and all that stuff. Yeah. And then, uh, when I went back to Hattiesburg with that same guy to start the home theater shop, and it was just all day, every day trying to do custom stuff. You know, really trying to

Marcus: elevate

Joe: the game.

Be, be, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marcus: Just

Joe: get good. Um, and then some things happened there and I had to go back to sales. Uh, and I just, [00:17:00] I. I didn't like it. I did. I don't like sales. I love building relationships with people and what goes with it, and I love the product and, but I just, I don't like having to close deals and make numbers and stuff.

So I got back into home theater in New Orleans. It was like, this is what I really wanted to do.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: And then, uh, went to a high end shop out in Dallas, but again, they were like, we really need you in sales. And I just hated it. And that's when like, as soon as the divorce was final, I was like, I'm outta here.

I'm never touching the industry again. 'cause that high end shop really ruined me on the industry. I was like, oh, it's all just about making money. These people don't care about the craft.

Marcus: Right?

Joe: And uh, and then that's when we, you know, get back doing standup. But then re when I got to the tent shop was what I was like, I really wanna work with my hands.

Like, 'cause it's different every day. Uh, you get to create stuff, you know, it's, it's almost like artistic expression.

Marcus: Yeah. 100%. And I, one of the [00:18:00] things that, and this is something that I've said for the longest time, is that a lot of what. I do in my in business is never done. It's never completed. It's never finished.

I can't ever look at something and say like, it's done for now. Yeah. Is that how we've kind of treat things here? And so the reason why I feel like, you know, woodworking and, you know, projects and, you know, DIY projects and stuff like that. Are so therapeutic for me is because one, it's working with something that I don't work with during the day.

I'm working with my hands, which are really just much like you. I'm a, I should have gone into the trades. Yes, totally. 'cause I very much enjoy working with my hands and also just, you know, that engineering mind of like. Taking things apart and putting them back together again. Yep. But doing it in a better way or, you know, figuring out a, you know, like that's there.

And so, um, but I don't know. It's just like, I really just have an appreciation for this is a physical thing that is [00:19:00] done.

Joe: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've never really thought about it that way, but I, I mean, I, I struggle with that too.

In

Marcus: a world of temporary.

Joe: Nothing is ever finished in my life. Yeah. But yeah, if I do a project for someone.

Marcus: It's done.

Joe: It has to be finished. Yeah. You know, like I don't get to put it in the back room and work on it when I feel like it, like it's gotta be done.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, and yeah, there's definitely a sense of accomplishment that comes with that. And with the handyman business, you know, we only do little jobs. Like if any individual project's gonna take more than a day, we're usually passing it on.

It

Marcus: really,

Joe: we want to do the one toilet, one ceiling fan, one GFCI outlet, stuff like that.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And so we can't, I can go in, complete it. Go on to the next thing that can be completely different. Yeah. You know, I'm changing a toilet one morning and going straight to tenting windows.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, and I need that.

I have to have that change. Change things interest for your

Marcus: a DD brain.

Joe: Oh yeah. If I don't, you know, like [00:20:00] guide my day to change and adaptability, you know?

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: It'll mess me up.

Marcus: Drive you insane.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: Um, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's one bit of wisdom that you didn't part to them?

Joe: Don't listen to me.

Marcus: Yeah. Don't do the things I've done.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: Yeah,

Joe: man. I will reiterate what several of your guests have said is that you gotta be really passionate about it. Yeah. It's like, you gotta love it whether the money is there or not, uh, and, and be ready for that to be. All that you do. And I've advised some younger guys, like a kid I knew wanted to be a NASCAR mechanic.

Marcus: Okay.

Joe: And I was like, that's cool man. You should go for that. You should totally do that.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Like, and I will do everything I can to help encourage and, you know, mentor you through this stage to help get you there. But if you love working on cars. Don't make that your job.

Marcus: Yeah. This is,

Joe: it's like, 'cause you're gonna lose, you can [00:21:00] lose the passion.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And you know, something like that, like it's a great lofty goal, but just know you're competing against millions of other guys who wanna do the exact same thing, who are gonna take the exact same career path you are.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: It's like, and it's gonna be tough. Like if, if it were me, you know, I would maybe get a job where you can still use those skills and work on your hands and stuff and work on the car when you get home.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know where you love it.

Marcus: The flip side of that is somebody like shit fuss or you know, you know somebody that's absolutely loves cars, loves working on cars and makes it, you know, and spends their day doing that thing that a

Joe: hundred percent.

Marcus: And so there's, I get what you're saying, it's the,

Joe: there's one chip fus.

Yeah.

Marcus: You

Joe: know,

Marcus: I have the needle is

Joe: there's a gazillion guys that want to be chip. I have a buddy who went for it. Like Chip boosted. Yeah. And he's the autobody guy in Dallas and does amazing. Same work. Amazing. Yeah. Like. Almost competing for the Ridler. And,

Marcus: but I get what you're saying in the sense that like, you have to have, you have to [00:22:00] have that knowledge that you, you may never make it there.

You may be at the local, you know, garage shop, just, you know

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: Changing tires or whatever.

Joe: Well, the most important thing is you gotta be happy every day.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know? And if you're gonna be discouraged, 'cause you didn't make. To NASCAR as far as you want to. Nascar, it's like that's, you're not gonna be happy every day.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know? And you can't be like, well, I'll be happy when I get to nascar. It's like, no, you gotta be happy now.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Whatever that takes in this hour, in this minute, in this second.

Marcus: It's funny 'cause I was listening to a YouTube video and it was one of the F1 mechanics talking about what it takes to become an F1 mechanic.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: And I was like, I can't even imagine. You know, the. The stringent standards that those guys, I mean, you're dealing with like the top of the top Oh,

pressure,

Marcus: but also it's like

Joe: air traffic control pressure.

Marcus: Yeah. All

Joe: the amount of money that's in that. Oh, and you, if you mess up one lug nut.

Marcus: Yeah. No, it's,

you're

Joe: done.

You're down to the minor leagues. Yeah. You know?

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Yeah. It's just like, you know, I make baseball references all the time, like all the, even the groundskeepers at [00:23:00] a major league baseball stadium, there's three levels of minor league guys and then D one, and then high school. All guys that want to be there.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, in the hundred, those

Marcus: crisp lines

Joe: in the grass in each organization. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, so by the time you get there, it's like you gotta be

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Dialed in and, you know, elite.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Every second.

Marcus: Um, are there any books, podcasts, people or organizations that have been helpful in moving you forward?

Joe: Uh, I mean, the E Myth for sure.

Marcus: Okay.

Joe: Is a big one. And it was one that was recommended to me. Pretty early on and I read it and it didn't really stick. And then a couple years later I read it again.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And was like, oh, this is me. They're talking to me. And you know, fried Bennett doesn't know. The E-Myth is about if the business is just you and you don't have processes set up around you that can [00:24:00] run the business without you, then you don't have a business.

You just have a job.

Marcus: Job.

Joe: Yeah. And it's the worst job in the world. And you know, you need a business plan. You need, this is a tip for any new business owner is write down, physically write down why you're doing it. And I did that because first starting out, you know, I was the one Googling what is a business plan, why do I need this business plan?

And everything says it's, you know, if you need to go to the bank and get financing, then this is what you're doing. And I was like, it's not gonna happen for me for a while.

Marcus: Right?

Joe: But then when I reread it, I wrote down. Really just the why, you know, and what the goal, you know, the long-term goal needs to be to sell the business.

And once I wrote that down, it started to influence every decision that I made. And so I would, you know, even just a tool that I really want that I'm like, oh, I've been wanting this. Yeah. You know, battery powered rotary hammer forever. And, uh, it's like, it's on sale for $250 [00:25:00] instead of $280. Like I should get it now.

And I'm like. Is that gonna get us closer to the final goal?

Marcus: Right.

Joe: You know, and the goal is for the business to make enough money to be able to give back in an impactful way to the community and it make a difference.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, it's like, I don't wanna just sponsor a softball team here and there.

It's like, we want to do something big.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know,

Marcus: I would 100% agree with you. I would just change the, the, there's one word that you used and you said, uh, to create a business. To sell. And I would say, and I don't want people that might be listening to the, in this say, well, I'm never gonna sell my business, so I don't need to listen to that.

Joe: Right.

Marcus: I would only change it to create a business that's sellable.

Joe: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marcus: I think that's what you, you meant

Joe: that is a hundred percent.

Marcus: And the reason why is because a, a, a business that's sellable can run on its own like you're describing.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: And you know, it makes. It makes your life a lot easier is the, the real reason why you wanna set up those processes [00:26:00] and stuff like that.

You

Joe: can take more time for

Marcus: yourself. You can take time for yourself, period. You know, do things. The business stops running you and you start running. The business is the basic premise of the book. And it is, yes. Literally one of the first three books that I usually suggest new entrepreneurs read is the E Myth.

It's right up there. Um, what's the most important thing that you've learned about running a business?

Joe: You don't know what you don't know. It's like there's, there's no way to predict what's coming.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, a buddy of mine just asked me that the other day. He's trying to start like a skincare company.

Like lotions or something. Yeah. And he's like, what do I need to do? And I'm like,

Marcus: who knows?

Joe: I don't know, man. It's like every situation is so completely different that it's hard to. Tell people what to prepare for other than like, know your values and stick to 'em.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, know what you're gonna do and do that.

Marcus: There are certain basic tenants that, you know, everybody needs to know when they start a business, but outside of that, it, you're right. It mean it very much depends on the business that, that [00:27:00] they're going into.

Joe: It's so different.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, and you, a guy, a really wealthy guy a long time ago, told me, uh. We got to talking about business.

This is way back. And he, he pretty much just said, uh, take care of people and the money will come.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: The end. And that is how I look at everything as far as the business goes. It's like we're taking care of people. And it's not just clients, it's staff, it's vendors, it's people in our network. Neighbors, the community.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: If we just take care of people, make that the focus. Everything will just fall into place like it's supposed

Marcus: to. Yeah. 'cause people sense that, and people want us, they wanna do business with a business that they feel like actually gives a shit.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: You know, because Theres's so many places that they go now where you know, people are apathetic or

Joe: it's crazy,

Marcus: you know, whatever.

It's

Joe: crazy. People tell me all the time, like, you've really figured out the secret. I'm like, what secret? We just do what we say we're gonna do.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: We call people back, [00:28:00] you know, it's like if you text us, we'll respond

Marcus: novel idea.

Joe: Right? Yeah. How crazy is that? But it is difficult. Still, like, uh, you know, I learned a long time ago that the reason Comcast tells you they're gonna be there between eight and 12 is because it's tough.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Like, you never know what's gonna happen at that first job. But if you, especially in this line of work, where soon as you realize you're gonna have to call somebody at your house to work on something, it's just,

Marcus: yeah.

Joe: Like this is gonna suck.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: But when you call us and we answer and we get you an estimate as quick as possible, we get you scheduled and then we show up on time.

Marcus: Yeah,

Joe: you're good. You can make a mistake. Yeah. You can, even with just those few steps in the beginning, call and be like, Hey, we're gonna be an hour late. You know, this is going on. And they're like, fine.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Whatever. You were already talking to me. They're

Marcus: not guessing. Where is he? Where

Joe: is he? Where is he?

Yeah. What's going on? Asking all these questions. Yeah. And uh. You know, we're just, just be available.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Just treat people the way you wanna be treated.

Marcus: Well, I've got 12 rapid [00:29:00] fire questions, but before we get to that, I mean, you've mentioned comedy several times.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: There is a comedy scene that is kind of coming up here in mobile.

You wanna talk about that a little, a little bit? Definitely. What's going on here in mobile that we should know about?

Joe: Uh, so the Crescent City is popping right now. Um,

Marcus: I've heard a lot of good things and we've been there a couple times too, but,

Joe: oh, it's so good. Um. Zeke Buck Halts bought it who, when I got back in the country, we, this is where I really cranked up doing standup.

I started when I was 16, going down to clubs in Dallas and then didn't do a lot until I got back here. And me, Zeke, Carson, Taylor, uh, I think that's it. It's still left from when we used to do the blind meal over. Um, the open mic of the Blind Mule. Uh, but Zeke and Carson kind of kept things going here. I went on to do stuff.

I came back and I'm like, the scene's still good. Zeke's crushing it. And he was doing all the booking for, if you wanna do comedy in mobile, you're going through Zeke.

Marcus: Okay.

Joe: You know, unless it's big like stanger and stuff.

Marcus: [00:30:00] Yeah.

Joe: Uh. And he, he really needed his own space. And there'd been talks forever about trying to get the Crescent pretty much since it closed last time.

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah.

Joe: And it just never worked out. Um, but when he finally got the opportunity to get it, it was like the whole scene's like, let's go.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: We need this. We need a real comedy club.

Marcus: It's just, you know, I mean, for the longest time it's like, why hasn't, you know what I mean? It didn't feel like there was any real comedy scene and, you know, it's, it just seemed really odd.

Joe: It's. You know, it, it's hard to get the word out on stuff like that. Yeah. It's pretty much just social media, you know, putting ads in LANAP even are too expensive for,

Marcus: right.

Joe: The comedy guy, you, you're not gonna make any money on these shows. You're not,

Marcus: you're doing it for the love of comedy.

Joe: A hundred percent.

You're barely breaking even. Yeah. You know, and if we, you get an act who you're like, this guy's gonna bring in a lot of money. Well, guess what? He's keeping 80% of the door.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, and so it's tough to get it out. And it's tough to get people to show up.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: It, it's really odd to me because I meet [00:31:00] people all the time who are like, we're such big fans of comedy.

We didn't know there was any comedy. And I was like, it's every weekend.

Marcus: Yeah. 'cause I mean like the music scene here is phenomenal.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: The food scene here is phenomenal. And the art scene here is like. You know, unlike most places.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: And so it's just kind of like, wow, like, you know, I know the writing, you know, here is incredible too.

There's a lot of really notable writers. Um, so it just seemed like it would be a natural thing. Yeah.

Joe: And it is. Yeah. I mean, it's here, it is top tier as far as the market of this size goes. Yeah. It's huge.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, we got guys here traveling often.

Marcus: Nice.

Joe: You know, and the acts we have coming through even.

Lower level are bone crushers.

Marcus: Right.

Joe: You know, and it's been tough to get people like, uh, Kyle Kenane, who was just here for two nights to come because we don't, we didn't really have a good venue. That's like a comedy club, you know, when you tell 'em, it's like, yeah, come on, you're gonna be in this bar, you know, the Merry widow.

And you'd be like, [00:32:00] uh, okay. And then they stop and there's 30 people there. You know, they're like, well, yeah, and these are people who have their own social media following and stuff and still can't get people to come out.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Uh, it's just, yeah, it's, it's, it's weird. Um,

Marcus: it's a difficult thing and there's a lot of things that are competing, but also mobile just seems to have a really weird relationship with like, you know, events in general.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: And, you know, I'm hopeful that. We kind of get off of our butts and support, you know, some of the things that are happening in Mobile. 'cause if we don't, then they have a tendency to disappear. And comedy is one of those things. So

Joe: I think, you know, the Crescent being one space where you can always go and check the Crescent Calendar and there's something going on there every weekend.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Every single weekend it

Marcus: starts to build an audience of its own.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. And the, you know, the more people come, the more we have a good time. We tell our friend, you know, we tell everybody, like, tell your friends. Tell your friend, you know. Yeah, it's happening here. We're doing it for real now. And having a place you can call a comedy club helps [00:33:00] draw in bigger acts that might just be traveling through that I 10 run from Houston to Lafayette to Baton Rouge, new Orleans, Pensacola, Panama City, Jacksonville.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: If we could, if we get word of that, hit 'em up and say, Hey, can you stop in mobile?

Marcus: Yeah,

Joe: they will. 'cause it's there.

Marcus: It's right there. And it's one of the things that always kind of blew me away about the, um, music acts. You know, they would play Tampa or Jacksonville and then they'd be in, you know, Biloxi or Dallas or you know, something like that.

And I'm like, Hey, I know they're driving right through here. Like, and they're not stopping for a reason. So,

Joe: yeah.

Marcus: But anyway, um, okay, so I'm modifying this, I'm removing one, uh, question, but I've got 11 rapid fire questions for you. Let's go. Are you ready? So what's your favorite type of music?

Joe: Psychedelic rock.

Marcus: There you go. How did I know? What's your favorite type of food?

Joe: Uh, Chinese or Asian

Marcus: favorite restaurant in lower Alabama.

Joe: Royal scam.

Marcus: How about [00:34:00] your favorite city outside of Mobile?

Joe: Queenstown, New Zealand.

Marcus: That's a good one, sorry.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: City you want to travel to but have yet to visit

Joe: Amsterdam.

Marcus: What comes to mind when I say guilty pleasure?

Joe: Huh uh,

Marcus: keep it clean.

Joe: Yeah, I know. Oh, uh, wasting time. Playing with my stereo.

Marcus: I got it.

Joe: Yeah, like, well, I should be doing something else, right. And tweaking my stereo.

Marcus: Um, dogs, cats, or none of the above.

Joe: Dogs.

Marcus: Summer or winter?

Joe: If I had to pick it's winter.

Marcus: Favorite movie or TV show?

Joe: God. Caddy Shack for movie and the office for tv,

Marcus: UK or, uh, American.

Joe: The American for sure. Yeah.

Marcus: Uh, favorite color?

Joe: Blue.

Marcus: And what's your favorite cereal?

Joe: Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Marcus: Good [00:35:00] choice

Joe: like that.

Marcus: I was addicted to cinnamon sugar pita chips for the longest time. I finally kicked that habit. I want everybody to know that.

Joe: Those are good.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: The Stacys,

Marcus: oh my God. I was eating like a bag a day.

It's not good for you. I mean, it was really bad. Yeah.

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: That's

Joe: fine man. Whatever makes you happy.

Marcus: But the cinnamon sugar stuff, man, it, if it makes you

Joe: feel good,

Marcus: it'll catch, you know?

Joe: Yeah.

Marcus: Um, what are you most thankful for?

Joe: I mean my niece.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, but overall family and my,

Marcus: so being surrounded by family.

Joe: Yeah. Everybody being close here. 'cause we have a very small family. Anyway, the fact that we're all in the same town

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Is pretty tremendous. Uh, and then my family's health, you know, we're all, none of us have any major health issues and that's huge. Which is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's so rare that constantly I hear stories about people, I'm like.

I hope, I never know what that's like. Yeah. You know, with any kind of major illness. And we've had tragedy, you know, we've had, when my brother died, like that's worse than any illness.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: But it just happened. It was just one day he wasn't [00:36:00] there. Yeah. And watching people try to struggle through long-term illnesses is

Marcus: just like, yeah.

Recovery, you know, of that. I know I've had the unfortunate thing to, you know, watch a number of people that I care about, you know, go through, uh, illnesses that, you know, just drag on for long time and it's, you know, it's never a pleasant thing to, to watch. But, um, let's end on a more positive note. Tell people where they can find you.

Joe: Vision handyman.com for the business. Okay. Uh. That's the best place to go to learn about us. We're pretty active on social media, but I don't like to encourage people to use social media. Uh, I don't have any kind of social presence for the comedy or anything, so I don't like what, like doing that. What the heck?

I don't want, I just want to do standup. That all started, like after I left Austin, where it's just con like you gotta put out content and if you call clubs to try to get booked, they're like. Watch your Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. And they're go, go see how many followers you have, and if you don't have it, you ain't coming.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And it really messed it up for guys [00:37:00] that just want to

Marcus: just focus

Joe: on, you know, kind of be road dogs really. Like I just want to tell jokes and get high on stage. You know, like, which is what it is. Like there's no drug, like it is completely incomparable to any drug on

Marcus: the plane. Yeah. There is a certain, I mean, I don't get that.

I'm an educator, not, I don't, you know, I'm, I'm a funny guy, but I, you know, whatever. Um, I. I get it though, because there's something very, you know, I don't know, there's just something very empowering about standing in front of a group and having them kind of like,

Joe: just in your hand.

Marcus: I can take them, you know, in different directions and Yeah.

You know, in my case I'm using, you know, uh, funny things to kind of break the ice because I'm dealing with, you know, very boring, you know, topics, you know, but, um, but yeah.

Joe: Yeah, being able to release that much good energy mm-hmm. At once. Like on command is just unbelievably euphoric.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, I get it.

And I've blacked out on stage before when I'm just chopping and [00:38:00] something goes and you just, it just hits you. You're like, where

Marcus: the time go? Yeah.

Joe: Oh. You're like, what happened? Like, I've gotten off, this has happened multiple times where I'm like, how was it? Was that good? People are like,

Marcus: what the heck was that?

I was Christ. Yeah.

Joe: You know, and I'm like, oh, and you're just like, chills. I get chills thinking about it.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: But it's very, it's so difficult to do and, uh, I mean, I've been. Not near as active as I should be with trying to get the business off the ground.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: Because, and like, and I don't drink anymore, takes lot, so I don't really like hanging out in bars late at night.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: You know, uh, but yeah, it's, if anybody's ever thought about trying standup, you should do it.

Marcus: Yeah. I mean, I, I think, uh, getting up and, and seeing what kind of chops you have would be a fun, uh, fun exercise for some people, you know, if they Absolutely. If they're so inclined. You know, I've got a, I've got one buddy that I think really should go into it.

Uh, to comedy. Um, but, you know, can't, you know, I can't get him, I can't move, move him fast enough. Um,

Joe: you tell him to comedy, I'll

Marcus: get, I'll get

Joe: him

Marcus: going. Yeah. I know there's a lot to it and I, maybe that's, you know what it is, [00:39:00] is, you know, he likes to just kind of tell his jokes to friends, but, you know, there's something very different about getting in front of how you present the story.

Totally. And, you know, stuff like that. It's, you know, really kind of a science behind it.

Joe: It's completely different.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And I mean, but tell it like, historically, your first time you're gonna crush.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: It's like, so just go do it once.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And then you'll get the bug.

Marcus: Yeah. But

Joe: then,

Marcus: and then you bomb,

Joe: then you gonna eat.

Yeah. Yeah. Then you're gonna eat shit for the next 10 years.

Marcus: Man, I bombed so much. I mean, so I was a, a vocal major in, in college and Oh wow. I've done, you know, a lot of performances, you know, and man, there's nothing quite like bombing in, in, you know, the school opera or something like that. Oh. Best. You know, like, you forget the lines and don't know the notes and you know, just like up there fumbling through.

Joe: Oh, it still happens. It happens to me all the time, especially now, like that I'm not. In a good rhythm. Like you just get off and suddenly everything falls apart.

Marcus: Yeah. The wheels on the bus stop going round and round.

Joe: Yeah. I have definitely been all jacked up for what I thought was gonna be just the greatest show in my life and then just gone.

Marcus: Yeah.

Joe: And it's off. [00:40:00] It's, it's worse. It's worse than the high of the good one.

Marcus: Well, Joe, I want to thank you again for coming on the podcast. To wrap up, any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share?

Joe: Take care of people and the money will come.

Marcus: There you go. You heard it here, folks.

Joe: That's it.

Marcus: Well, Joe Carlisle, I appreciate your willingness to shit with.

Sit with me, shit With me. Sit with me and share your journey as a business owner and entrepreneur. It's been great talking with you, man.

Joe: So grateful to be here, man. I'm a big fan. Thanks. It's a big deal.

Marcus: Thank you.

Joe: Thanks man.