Intro: Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: And welcome to a fabulous Friday. Fearless Formula. I am Sharon Cline and I am your host for the show on Business RadioX. I’m so excited today because I have like a different kind of energy in the studio. I’ve got Derek Jensen of Jensen’s Precision Power Washing. What’s really fun about having him on the show is it’s been almost a year since he’s been well, it’s been about nine months since he’s been here. And it was sort of the beginning of his journey for the show, for even me. I’ve only been was on the show maybe four months or something. So I still felt like I was getting my sea legs. And so we kind of had the same thing, like, let’s talk about where we’ve gone, you know, in that time. So I’m excited to to catch up with you again. And officially you are the owner, manager and CEO at Jensen’s Precision Power Washing.

Derek Jensen: Yes, ma’am.

Sharon Cline: Which sounds so badass. I just want to say.

Derek Jensen: Thank you.

Derek Jensen: It really is badass. We do some badass things.

Yeah, you do.

If it’s dirty or stained, we clean it for that clean time. Holler at the sauce slinger, You hear me?

Sharon Cline: Sorry. Oh, fun. Okay. One of the best things about Derek is that he is from Boston, and that is where I was born, you know, Massachusetts and New England. And so spending time with him is like talking to my family members. And the next thing you know, I start saying wicked. And I don’t know. It’s amazing how all of a sudden I kind of default to my my old school way of speaking, not my very American general, you know, But it’s like wicked awesome. Things like that. Okay. All right, all right, all right. Here we go. Derek, you wanted to come back on the show. We’ve talked a couple of times about this because you’ve got some changes that you’re kind of going through. You’re expanding, but you also have some really valuable information for people to know that I think as as not only a person who is in a small business, but you’re also a consumer out there, you would want to have this information for yourself. So that’s what I like, is that you really are trying to help people here.

Derek Jensen: Yes. Yes. This isn’t just to promote my business or grow my business. It’s yes, it’s part of that. But my main focus here is to bring knowledge and bring understanding to home owners on exactly what position they’re in. With the new changes due to the insurance industry and the way that insurance companies are covering warranties on roofs now.

Sharon Cline: So what? Okay. So what what are some of the major points that you think people don’t know?

Derek Jensen: So a couple of the major points that people don’t know is the difference between shingles. Okay. People just think a shingle roof is a shingle roof and that’s further from the truth. You got some that are absolutely garbage and then you got some that will last a lifetime and arrange in between. It’s very, very important when you’re dealing with a roof that you’re you’re putting quality shingles.

Sharon Cline: Do you find people are wanting to not spend as much so they get a lesser quality shingle?

Derek Jensen: I think what it is, is, you know, and I’m going to give GAF a huge plug here. I am a little biased. I think GAF is a great company. They make a great, great shingle. And, you know, talking to them and talking to their service department, their communication skills are awesome. They’re really proud of their product and they stand behind it. So the big thing that I wanted to get into and I’ll basically give a short little heck yeah, let’s go through it. Intro So you have the major players today in the in the shingle game are Certainteed, GAF, Iko, Atlas Roofing and Owens Corning. Okay. Those are those are the the top manufacturers.

Sharon Cline: Of the different shingles that are out there that generally people are using.

Derek Jensen: 99% of the roofs here in Georgia will have the shingles on. One of these will be on those roofs. Gotcha. And they have all different lines. You know, they have a shingle that’s. You know, low in cost, medium in cost and high in cost. What I want to talk about today and bring light to is the manufacturer’s warranty versus the allergy resistant warranty. Okay. In the past five years, these companies that I just mentioned, Certainteed, GAF, ICAO, Atlas Roofing and Owens Corning, they’ve all used this copper technology. And as we all know, copper will resist allergy. Okay.

Sharon Cline: Oh, okay. I didn’t know that, actually. Yeah.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. Copper is a natural allergy resistant. That’s why. And it comes from the ground. Copper comes from the earth. Okay. Right. So if you ever look at a place where there’s heavy copper deposits, you’re going to see mold and mildew doesn’t grow there.

Sharon Cline: So is that why they use them in air conditioning units and why? Oh, I got you right. Look at me learning today. I just never paid attention to that. So I appreciate the all.

Derek Jensen: Simple no brainer stuff. Yeah, okay. Yeah, but. But it’s stuff that you don’t know until someone kind of exactly puts light on.

Sharon Cline: Why would I know?

Derek Jensen: Right? So these shingle manufacturers, they’re all using a copper based technology and they’re infusing the granules of the shingles with copper so that they become allergy resistant. Oh, that’s.

Sharon Cline: Amazing.

Derek Jensen: It is. It’s a great idea. And. Most of the country it works. But here in Georgia, I mean, it doesn’t. You know, they say allergy resistant. Every single one of them guarantee it for ten years here in Georgia. You’re lucky if you get five. Why? Just because of the humidity, the heat. The climate here. It’s a breeding ground for the bacteria called gloeocapsa magma, which is what the black lines actually is.

Sharon Cline: Oh, no way. So that’s what people ask you to come and clear off the black lines that they have on their roofs.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. You know, and people don’t even really know that they have them up there.

Sharon Cline: Because how do you see. Right. You’re right.

Derek Jensen: You know, people don’t even look. But yeah, that’s what we do. People say, hey, I got some black lines on my roof. Well, hey, can you clean my roof off? And they don’t even realize what’s going on up there. And so I’m here to bring light to it and, you know, let people know, hey, look, there are a few alternatives to this. Another important thing, which is why I’m kind of doing this, is. Over the past two years, you’ve had a lot of insurance companies take a big, big hit on replacing roofs because you’ve got roofing companies going out there and putting in claims saying, Yep, yep, they need a new roof and they don’t. Oh, really? Okay. Right. So insurance companies are like, Well, we’re not a roofing company. We don’t know. We’re trusting them, but we’re losing money left and right here. Like we’re replacing a lot of roofs. And insurance companies, as you know, they’re in the business to make money. They’re not in the business to lose money. So this sparked the insurance company to do a little bit of their own investigation. And what they found is that all these shingle manufacturers, every single one says that, yes, these shingles will last X amount of years if you’re doing the maintenance. So insurance companies says, well, what is the maintenance? And so armor, which stands for the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Shingles Association. They say any shingle, all shingles, every 3 to 5 years, you’re supposed to have your roof soft washed. That’s part of roof maintenance.

Sharon Cline: Well, I had never done that ever. No one does. My houses that I know.

Derek Jensen: This is all new in the past two years. And because of this, insurance companies have now, you know, tooken their list of roofs that they have that they’re insuring, and they’re sending up drones and they’re taking pictures of aerial shots of the roofs. And if you got black lines all over your roof, you’re getting a letter in the mail that says, hey, listen, you’re not keeping up with your roof maintenance, so we’re not going to renew you at the end of the year.

Sharon Cline: Holy cow. How are you supposed to know these things? What letter goes out to explain these things to any homeowner?

Derek Jensen: It doesn’t Just the one saying you’re not getting renewed and then you’ve got to figure it out.

Sharon Cline: That’s awful.

Derek Jensen: And so that’s why I’m here doing this right now. It’s already happened to a few people in Georgia. I’m sure there’s going to be some people that are listening to this that, oh, I got one of those letters. You know, it’s a real thing. It’s happening. And it’s a shame because at that point it puts the homeowner in a real pickle, like a real big pickle.

Sharon Cline: How would you know? You know, of course, if you know something to prevent an issue, you’ll do it as a homeowner, right? Most people. So if you if you have no idea and you’re getting censured because of it, you know, you’re told no denied, well, you would have done it if you knew.

Derek Jensen: Well, here’s the thing. Once you get that letter saying we’re not going to renew you now you’ve got to go find insurance somewhere. And when you go to look for insurance, the insurance company is going to say, well, why do you need an insurance? Well, because my insurance company isn’t going to renew me. Why? Well, because they say, well, you need a new roof before we’ll touch you. And. No, but they don’t need a new roof. They just need a cleaning. They don’t they don’t need a $20,000 new roof. They need a $2,000 soft wash. Let me repeat that. They don’t need a $20,000 new roof. They need a $2,000 soft wash. But because they’re in this situation now, there’s no way out. They’ve got to get a new roof and they don’t need that. It’s it’s a waste. And it’s not covered under insurance either because they’re not keeping up with the maintenance. So homeowners are and I and I and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but homeowners are ignorant to this. Okay. And I’m here to just kind of shed light, bring, bring notice and say, hey, look, you know, it’s important to start looking up every time you walk out of your house or back out of your garage and you’re sitting there and you’re waiting for the door to shut, just look up, you know, just take a good look up at your roof, see if you’ve got some black lines up there. If you do, they’ll be really easy to see. If you do, call me.

Sharon Cline: So this is mostly happening in Georgia that because they don’t even last that long, because our climate and maybe other regionally areas like Florida maybe. Right. Right.

Derek Jensen: Or so. So parts of Florida, Georgia, parts of Alabama.

Sharon Cline: South Carolina.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. This this whole little area right here. Who knew?

Sharon Cline: I had no idea.

Derek Jensen: Yeah, it’s just it’s just the way the climate is, You know, we got gloeocapsa magma, which is a living bacteria, which is what those black lines are. It actually has a name. Okay. Okay. Don’t ask me to spell it. My third grade education ain’t going to handle that. All right.

Sharon Cline: Fine. Mine either. I don’t know how to spell that.

Derek Jensen: But it’s called gloeocapsa magma, and it’s actually a living bacteria. Okay. And as we know, bacteria is probably one of the nastiest things on this. It spreads so fast. Right? Right. So. Because it’s a living bacteria. Its diet is the granules of the shingles. That’s why it’s there.

Sharon Cline: Who knew?

Derek Jensen: Okay. That’s what it eats. That’s what it thrives off of. Now it needs three things in order to thrive. It needs heat. It needs humidity, and it needs moisture. We have that in abundance here. Okay. There’s no other place in this world that has those three levels in such a high level all together. You know, if you think about geographically, the way the United States is set up. Georgia and Florida are really the only two places that have that kind of extreme heat, humidity and moisture all in one all the time. Texas is really close, but they don’t have the moisture. Yeah, they’re dry. If they had the moisture in Texas, oh, it’d be over with. Roofs would be riddled with it out there.

Sharon Cline: So generally speaking, if you’re not in this sort of southeast area, your roof can be expected to last a lifetime. A lifetime. A lifetime to worry. But. But washing it every how often would you have to wash it if you’re in a different area?

Derek Jensen: If you’re in a different area. Maybe five years plus. I was going.

Sharon Cline: To say 5 to 10 years. If you really start to see it not looking great. But here in Georgia, it’s much more critical. Right.

Derek Jensen: It’s extremely critical because what happens is the gloeocapsa magma gets up there, it starts eating, the granules deteriorate in the granules, and then the shingle is wide open. It’s got no protection, it’s got no armor on it. So when the wind comes in, the hail comes in. It’s basically up there naked and it’s taking a beating. And that’s how you get hail damage, wind damage and storm damage. It causes the shingles to lift all that stuff. It’s it’s the beginning of the end of your shingles when you see black lines up there.

Sharon Cline: That and I think about the beginning and the end of any savings that you could potentially have. Right.

Derek Jensen: Because, I mean, if your roof goes, you know, that’s leaking down. So so now we’re not talking just shingles. Okay? Now we’re talking plywood. Yeah, Sheetrock. If it’s really bad and it gets into the wiring, it starts blowing some sockets. You know, you see the little circles on people’s ceilings all the time. Yeah. Okay. That’s that’s. That’s a direct effect of gloeocapsa magma being up on the roof and no one taking care of it. And it’s just doing its thing. Doing its thing. And over time, this is what we get.

Sharon Cline: Do you see when you’re driving around, you just look at roofs and you’re just like, Oh my God, this is a disaster. Like all the time.

Derek Jensen: I got to stop myself because I want to get out of the truck and knock on the door. Yeah, I’ve actually done that a few times.

Sharon Cline: Have you have you been like, Listen, I’m trying to save you? Yeah, it’s.

Derek Jensen: Terrible. And people just don’t know.

Sharon Cline: No, that’s the thing.

Derek Jensen: And the other thing is we live in a world today where people are so like. Afraid of being tooken. You know, when you go to them with something like that, they kind of look at you sideways, like, Are you telling me the truth?

Sharon Cline: Or what’s in it for you?

Derek Jensen: Because they’ve never heard of this before. So they’re like, What are you talking about, Willis? You know?

Sharon Cline: All right. So initially you were Jensen precision power washing, but now you have gone into helping in the roof part. How did that happen?

Derek Jensen: Well, I mean, I’ve always watched roofs, right? That’s one of the services we do. You know, we watch houses, roofs, gutters, driveways. Like I said, if it’s dirty, we clean it, right. And so roof cleaning has always been a part of the soft washing industry, a pressure washing industry which whichever word tickles your fancy. However, there. There’s never been a service in the pressure washing industry. That’s a mandatory service. Everything we do or anything a pressure washer company does, it’s it’s all a want, not a need to request.

Sharon Cline: Right. Right. I want to sell my house. I want it to look nice.

Derek Jensen: Right. So you don’t. If you don’t pay your power bill, you don’t have power, right? Pressure washing isn’t like that. You don’t need somebody to come wash your house. You just want somebody to do it right. So none of our services have really been a need like like homeowners don’t need us. It’s more of a luxury item if they can afford it and or a maintenance item if they can afford it. You know, that’s why you see so many homes that look terrible. You know, you drive by and you’re like, geez, what a nice home, but it’s dirty. It’s got, you know, algae growing on it. They just. You know, they’re living above their means. I mean, every month the bills come in and there’s nothing else. So paying to get the home washed, they can’t because they’re paying too much, you know, So those things happen. But basically what the roof stuff, the way the roof stuff came along for me is that after washing roofs and seeing this change with the insurance companies, that’s what made me go, Hey, a light bulb came on there. And so I started watching the trend. You know, following the trend, because it applied to me, it applied to my business.

Derek Jensen: It’s what I do. And so I said, if there’s going to be some changes going on, I want to make sure that I’m ahead of that curve so that it’s not such a big curve to come around when you try to learn it, right? Like I want to be in those conversations and be in those rooms and be proactive in what I was doing so that I could then protect the homeowners that I’m servicing. Got you. Right. Because good customer service is what really gets your business. I put up a post the other day a little simple saying that that hit me and come up with this all on my own. It was, if you want to be in business, you got to stay in business. And and I put read that twice because I wasn’t just talking about staying in business. I was talking about staying in the business, you know, the roofing company business, the get in their business, you know, if it’s got to do with your business. Make their business your be a part of the business.

Sharon Cline: Are you finding that not all companies are doing that?

Derek Jensen: No, they’re not. No. Here in this general area, there’s there’s maybe. And I don’t want to throw any names out there because we’re not going to do that. But there’s only a handful of us out of the Brazilian that are pressure washing that are actually serious and taking the time to learn these things. There’s not many companies that are authentic in what they do. It’s a hustle.

Sharon Cline: It’s a hustle. Interesting. Well, I mean, it is, right. There’s there’s that element of making money, which totally makes sense. Obviously, it’s a business, but you’re talking about a different level of care.

Derek Jensen: Yeah, this is this is Jensen’s precision power washing is here to stay. You know, we pride ourselves on being the only exterior cleaning solutions company in Cherokee County. That’s a title that we hold. We are a full service exterior cleaning solutions company. If you call us, we’re not going to tell you no. Okay. We do everything wet sandblasting. I mean, we do everything. There’s not another company out there that does what we do.

Sharon Cline: And roofs.

Derek Jensen: Right? So and we get called a lot of times to to go help other companies. You know, a lot of these big wash companies, they’ll call us and say, hey, you know, we need your expertise on this. We got a big one. We need another truck. We need another set of hands. We need somebody that knows what they’re doing. We need someone with chemical knowledge and they’ll call me and I’ll go help them out. Or, for example, and I’ll give him a plug because he’s a good friend of mine, Nick State. And I want to make sure I get that right. Statin I got it right there. Nick and I and.

Sharon Cline: Nick.

Derek Jensen: Yeah, he’s busting my balls all the time because I mispronounce his last name. So. So, yeah, so. So Nick’s a really good guy. He owns Wet and Wild down in the Decatur area. Okay. And, you know, we talk all the time. We’re going to conventions together. We’re sharing knowledge together. And, you know, I’ve helped him out a bunch. He’s helped me out a bunch. And that’s just kind of the way it works. Like I said, there’s there’s a lot of us here in Georgia that do this, but there’s only a real small core group of us that stick together like a band of brothers, you know, And that that’s been that’s been a great help to me, too.

Sharon Cline: Well, how wonderful to be able to to feel like you’ve got a family in this environment. You’re supporting each other and what you learn, you share. Yeah, it’s not.

Derek Jensen: Well, to a degree.

Sharon Cline: Oh, I was going to say there’s room for everyone, right? You want you want there to be people that care as much as you do, so you share what you know. But I imagine you still want to be the one in Cherokee County who’s covering all the bases, right?

Derek Jensen: Like, you can definitely sit down and eat at my table, but I’m not giving you my damn table.

Sharon Cline: But you can come eat.

Derek Jensen: But you can come sit down anytime you want.

Sharon Cline: I’ve heard that there’s that phrase that’s like with friends where, you know, I still want you to eat. I just don’t want you to eat at my table. Like I still want good things for you, but you’re just not going to be in my life kind of thing. So I like how you put a little spin on that. Look at you, Derek.

Derek Jensen: Here we go. Original.

Sharon Cline: Original. So what has it been like for you to expand your business?

Derek Jensen: Very difficult. It’s been very, very difficult and challenging. It’s been a lot of fun, but. This little journey that I’m on. You know, I’ve done a lot of things in life. You know, we talked about this the last time I was on the show. And I mean, I’ve done so much in my life, but I can honestly say that growing this business has been the absolute most hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

Sharon Cline: What is hard about it?

Derek Jensen: Well. First of all, I have no business running a business. Let’s just be honest, okay?

Sharon Cline: But you are running.

Derek Jensen: But here we are in business, so. Hey, man. Right.

Sharon Cline: Well, there are a lot of people who have dreams like you do or want to run a business, and it is daunting. It’s scary. There are so many aspects of it that people don’t know and they don’t do it because so fear. That’s why this is called Fearless formula. So one of the things that you had talked about is how the leap of faith that you took to start this business and and become somebody you never even thought you could ever be. And what I love is that that’s every man’s story. We all have our own hero journey story. You know, we’re trying to save ourselves and be our own heroes. And that’s kind of what you’re doing in your own way. So but that doesn’t mean that you’re just fearlessly out there doing everything and not caring about consequences. But that’s what we’re talking about now is like, what is that like for you? Well, trying to manage.

Derek Jensen: Yeah, it’s see, I’m a little crazy. I got no filter and I’ll just say what I’m thinking. So I’ve had to dial that back. That’s been a little difficult.

Sharon Cline: What have you had somebody say they don’t like something? What?

Derek Jensen: I maybe like the past six months, I’ve really kind of like, put a lot of energy into finding out, like, who my tribe is, you know, where do I what tribe do I belong to? Because. Because you can’t do it by yourself, right? That’s one of the lessons I’ve learned over the past year is as much as I love the the thought of, Hey, look, this is all me, I did this Mr. Big back, you know, it doesn’t it’s only going to get you so far. You definitely need a tribe. Like, if you want to succeed, you definitely need a tribe. Not only do you need a tribe like you need to be part of a tribe, and then you need to have your own tribe that you lead. Got you. Right. So that would be the biggest thing that I could say to people that are that are at that stage where they’re in business and they’re trying to get to that next level, but they’re not really sure and they just can’t seem to get there. Evaluate your tribe are you part of a tribe? Number one? Are you part of a tribe? And what is your position in that tribe? And then the second thing is, do you lead your own tribe? And what does that look like? Once you can kind of put those two things together, you’re going to find that the success ball just rolls.

Sharon Cline: So have you had to change a little bit of who you were before you met your tribe? How did how did you find your tribe? Um, because you said you have to change the way that you relate to people a little bit.

Derek Jensen: Well. Well.

Sharon Cline: You’re like an aw shucks right now. Yeah.

Derek Jensen: So. So, so basically what it is, is, is I’m trying to think of the word that that was said. I can’t. I can’t think of it off the top of my head right now, but. Yeah. So I basically sort out a few people that I realized in the community that I live in that are that are doing things that, that I align with, you know, their visions, their actions, their, their participation to the community. Because I’m a big community guy, you know, precision powerwash and restoration. We’re a community company. You know, this is going to be our second year taking care of the senior center in Canton, you know, taking care of our seniors. I remember you.

Sharon Cline: Mentioning that last.

Derek Jensen: Time. Yeah, we didn’t let that go. Okay. And we still do that. A matter of fact, we got to meet with Tim over there in October. We’re a community driven here. And so I wanted to try to I knew I said, if I’m going to be part of a tribe, it needs to be a community based tribe. It needs to be something that’s doing something within the community because that’s where I align. Right, right, right. The problem is what’s the problem? The problem is, is that I’ll say what I feel and I don’t you know, I don’t hold nothing back. And if you don’t like it.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, but we’re in the South, right? So we sugarcoat and we dance around. Yeah.

Derek Jensen: And the passive aggressive just ain’t me, you know? I mean, I’m just straight aggressive, you know, There’s no passive anything.

Sharon Cline: And how does that go for you? Right?

Derek Jensen: And so I’ve had to adjust that. Right. And so I let’s see, back in I think it was November of last year. Yeah. You know, I had I had caught on to this this little movement that’s happening called the Black Sheep Project.

Sharon Cline: And we talked about this. Yeah, I loved it.

Derek Jensen: And, and so I started kind of like following along that and then realized that that Mr. Gary Lamb is, you know, kind of a really big deal. I mean, he’s doing a lot of things. He’s got the Black Sheep Project podcast that he does, and he’s helping all kinds of people through that. You know, he’s reaching all kinds. He’s mentoring people. He’s helping people grow. He’s doing all kinds of things. They’re having, you know, men be able to hold themselves accountable. You know, it’s really a good thing that he’s doing through that Black Sheep Project podcast. And then he’s got revival events. You know, he does all the events, Guardians of the Jukebox that he just did. I heard about that. Yeah. So he’s he’s all over the place doing that. The barbecue and brews festivals that he does. He just did making bacon down there. I mean, the guy is just, you know, he doesn’t stop. Yeah, right.

Sharon Cline: He’s got his heart in the community and.

Derek Jensen: And then he. And then he’s. And then he’s my pastor as well. Right. He’s. He’s the head of Action Church in Canton. So, you know, Gary is just one of those guys that I just immediately kind of fell in love with no homo or nothing like that. But, you know, Yeah, I just I just immediately attached to the guy and, and I said, this is either going to go really, really good or this is going to go really, really bad. But I’m six three and I ain’t scared of shit, so let’s get it. Gary And, and that’s how it went, right? And so, yeah.

Sharon Cline: He’s on board, though.

Derek Jensen: He’s on board. It took him, but it took him a little bit. You know, I’ll be honest, like, this is what I’m talking about, you know, we’ll go back to the tribe thing, okay? I let it be known. Hey, listen, I want to be a part of your tribe, you know, and. In the beginning it wasn’t really received that well. Right. Interesting. Yeah. Because, you know, he he’s like, listen, this is my tribe. Yes. But, you know, just because I want you here doesn’t mean everyone else wants you here, you know? And you can’t be coming in here disrupting the the vibe, you know. So there was a lot of things that I had to take accountability for, you know, and really take a step back and look at and say, geez, you know. I am I. Am I allowing, you know, my my own. Self love to be toxic in my life, right? Like, am I am I ignoring some things that need to change and and using self love as a way to deflect a negative that I should be looking at?

Sharon Cline: Derek, this is deep. Yeah, Deep thoughts. And you have to be so real with yourself. And not many people like, they can’t. It’s shameful.

Derek Jensen: They can’t. They get in the mirror, they look at themselves and they go, Oh, I don’t like that. So they put on a mask and all that does is fuck everybody else up too, because now no one knows who you really are and what you’re really about. So they, you know, we take people at face value and I start dealing with you for 6 to 8 months and then I find out, wait a minute, this isn’t even this is a mask. This isn’t even this person. And it’s just so upsetting. Yeah, it’s it’s a real letdown. You know, It’s a real letdown.

Sharon Cline: So you have had to kind of ask yourself what you ultimately really want and then change according to that.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. Like what? Where, where? What am I? What are my priorities in life? You know, like, where do I want to be now that I’ve kind of like. Gotten over that hump, you know? You know, we touched on this in the last podcast. People can go on and look at it. It’s on your page with all the changes and all the things I’ve overcome in life and getting my life back after spending 17 years in the federal prison system, you know, and I’m only 47, that’s half my life. So after doing all that and getting it all back and rebuilding everything and doing it on a solid foundation this time, right? Like I had a really, really good empire going, but I didn’t have it on built on a solid foundation, and that’s why I lost it, right? Like God came in and he said, This wasn’t your blessing. You you made this blessing, this wasn’t God made, this was Derrick made. And he took it. Right. And so now that I’m at a point in my life where I’m able to acknowledge that and accept that and heal from that. This company is what he’s given me. This is your blessing.

Sharon Cline: This is the foundation, right?

Derek Jensen: And so, you know, after kind of getting over that hurdle, it took me two and a half years. Right. And then two and a half years of getting over that, I started looking around and I’m like, Yeah, you know, you’re going to have to use a lot more tact and you’re going to have to really, really, really tone this down some because people don’t like the brash so much. You know, it’s a lot to take. I’m a lot I’m a lot of energy and most people have a real hard time with it. So I’ve had to dumb that down for some folks.

Speaker3: Dumb it down.

Derek Jensen: Yeah, Yeah.

Sharon Cline: Which is so counterintuitive because you want to be like a smart person, business owner, and you want to be as aggressive as you feel like you need to for your business, but you don’t want it to be, you know, shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. And you flirt with that line like you always want to be yourself, right? You never want to be something you’re not. Right. And so I find myself struggling with that a lot. Like, am I doing this to appease this person or am I doing this because this is who I really am? And in business, sometimes you have to know how to flirt with that line because. You’re going to have to do some of that if you want success, you know, and that’s part of it. Like you’ve got to know how to flirt that line.

Sharon Cline: How do you know which one you’re playing to, whether or not you’re being authentic to yourself or you’re being appeasing to somebody else?

Derek Jensen: It always starts off as authentic to myself. It always starts that way. But the minute I realize, you know, in dealing with a customer or in dealing with a relationship or a friendship or anything else, as soon as I realized that they don’t appreciate my authentic self, that’s when I have to evaluate, okay, how far do I want to go with this guy to appease them? How important are they to me and where do they align in my success? And that just gives me a level of, you know. Where I’ll go with that person. Right. Because not everyone is is is going to want to get on board the journey.

Sharon Cline: What I like, though, is you’re talking about being very honest with yourself in what you really want. Like, in other words, a lot of business owners, the dollar is the ultimate decision maker. And you’re saying that’s not the case here?

Derek Jensen: Again, you know, I’ve learned to live without money, and I suggest that everyone gets that opportunity. I mean, I know everyone thinks going to prison is a horrible thing, but do some time in a serious institution and you’ll realize that there’s so many things that you can do in life without money. It doesn’t take money to be happy at all. And if that’s if if money is the route to happiness for you, you’ve got life all fucked up.

Sharon Cline: Not only that, but I do believe that there’s never enough money. When you have that mentality, there’s never enough. It’s almost like I saw this person had one. What was it like? $1 billion in the lottery. I can’t remember. It was some crazy number, but like the government took half or whatever, and you’re like, What? I only get 500 million. But when you think about it, like only, only, but because you initially got so much, it doesn’t seem like it’s enough. I don’t think I can ever have enough money or chocolate or sleep or pleasure, you know what I mean? Like, there’s just so many things that I sort of feel is like endless. So when your value system is something like that, you’re never really truly satisfied in your soul. Right. I was being sarcastic. There’s enough money in the world and chocolate. I just want you to know that maybe not chocolate, maybe not chocolate.

Derek Jensen: All right. I should have brought chocolate instead of t.

Sharon Cline: Shirts or t shirts that Derek brings me. Okay, so you’ve had to become very serious about who you are and what you want in your business sense, and that there have been some changes you’ve made. Are there any other moments that you’ve had that have been surprising to you as you’ve expanded in this past year?

Derek Jensen: Yeah.

Speaker4: One.

Derek Jensen: One of the biggest surprises was I never realized. Exactly. How much of a role I was playing within the community.

Sharon Cline: Wow. Really?

Derek Jensen: Yeah, Because. You know, here in Cherokee County, especially this little area, Canton, Woodstock, Holly Springs, this little area, it’s it’s big, but it’s small, if that makes any sense. Yes. Right. It’s not hard to rub shoulders with somebody who knows somebody. Yes. You know, and so somewhere down the line, one of your friends is going to know one of my friends. It’s just that big of a small town, right? It’s just big enough where we have our space, but it’s small enough to where somebody knows somebody. Right. And so that’s that’s where it’s at for me is. Getting to that point to whereas. My name is respected. I don’t necessarily need it to be liked. I need it to be respected. Right. And so that’s kind of where it’s been now. And that’s kind of what we’re doing is we we did make some mistakes in the beginning, you know, and we caused some issues trying to grow, you know, people in the way a couple elbows like people don’t like that but I’m coming through, you know, And so we created a few little issues, right?

Sharon Cline: You ruffled feathers, so to speak.

Derek Jensen: Plucked them more like it. But yeah, not ruffled them. I was hungry. I wanted chicken that night, you know?

Sharon Cline: Oh, my God.

Derek Jensen: So, yeah, so we’ve had to kind of go back and make amends and make amends and mend some fences. Yeah. Interesting. And then. But, but, but then carry that through and then make the changes so that we don’t do that again. Got you. Right. So that’s been kind of the biggest thing with us.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. You haven’t had someone to lead you through this process, though. You’ve had to learn all of this pretty much on your own. All on my own. And so how would you know exactly?

Derek Jensen: You know, make a mistake. That’s how you find out. Yeah. You know, just don’t make it twice. It’s okay to make it once. Just don’t make it twice.

Sharon Cline: But also owning up to it. That’s big because a lot of business owners make the mistakes and then they just blame something else or someone else. But to to take accountability is does create credibility for yourself and a respect.

Derek Jensen: See, that’s a really double edged sword with me because even if I wanted to do something like that, which I never would, but even if I wanted to. Where? Where am I going to put it? This is me.

Sharon Cline: It’s you. It’s all on your shoulder. What?

Derek Jensen: I mean, like. Yeah, it was my secretary. You don’t have one of those? Oh, shit. Right. You know. Yeah. So there’s nowhere else to put it but me. Now, that’s a good thing and a bad thing, right? Because at the end of the day, if it’s good, it’s really good. But if it’s bad, then. Then it’s. It’s me and the truck dealing with me on the way home, and that’s never a good ride.

Sharon Cline: Where do you. Okay, So if you were to say that you do have a fearless formula, what would you say your fearless formula is for your business?

Derek Jensen: Um. It’s a good question.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, I like good questions.

Derek Jensen: We just, you know, we just want to go out and show that we can compete at the highest efficiency level out there. And we want to bring value to everything we do that that’s basically our fearless formula, is making sure that every job we do, every customer we deal with, has an amazing experience. And that’s basically it. You know, we want to let people know that, you know, we’re here, we care, and we’re going to take care of you. We’re not trying to dig in your pockets.

Sharon Cline: Don’t you think that people can feel when you’re not being authentic?

Derek Jensen: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Sharon Cline: Or when you’re nickel and diming them for something that they don’t technically need. But, you know, because you’re the expert. Right.

Derek Jensen: And social media has has brought that to the foreground. Really? Yeah. Because I mean, you know, people people can get to see it now a lot more on social media, you know.

Sharon Cline: And it’s immediate as well.

Derek Jensen: Right. And so you do that enough times to enough people and. You’re done. You know, it’s going to spread like wildfire on social media and. You do that once or twice, man. You can make or break your company. You know.

Sharon Cline: What do you think at the end of the day when you’re driving home, what’s the feeling that you have that you just kind of give yourself a high five? Like, I just did a good I had a good day.

Derek Jensen: So I’ll go a little bit deeper on that. It doesn’t matter if it was a good day or a bad day or anything like that at the end of the day when I’m going home. I give myself a high five because I’m going home and I get to do this again tomorrow. So if it was a great day, we get to do tomorrow even better, right? And if it was a bad day, then that means tomorrow is easy because it can’t get any worse. So we already got the bad one out the way. Let’s get the rest of the good ones going the rest of the week.

Sharon Cline: And you get to go.

Derek Jensen: Home and we get to.

Sharon Cline: Go home and do it again and do it again. And it’s not have to. It’s get to.

Derek Jensen: Right. Because it was a lot of years in my life that I didn’t get to go home. Oh, yeah?

Sharon Cline: Well, Derek, I can’t thank you enough for coming by and sharing more of your story and your journey. And I just have to say candidly, you have such a depth to your spirit that you are willing to share that I don’t always get to access here on Fearless Formula. So I want to thank you for being so willing to share the things that you’re learning and not lead with pride and hubris. And you know this. I’m so great and my business is so great. But you’re like, Here’s my struggle. Because what that does is like, gives permission for everyone else to feel like it’s okay for them to struggle. It is, and we all do. Yeah.

Derek Jensen: And the biggest thing is it’s okay to struggle, but it’s also okay to, you know, hold yourself accountable there too. Like. It. I think we make things a lot more harder than we have to. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: You know, I know I do.

Derek Jensen: And but with that, I want to kind of jump into a couple of things because I know we’re running short on time. I did bring some stuff that I wanted to touch on, you know, please feel free. Yeah. So with the roofing industry again, there’s a lot of changes with the insurance companies, and insurance companies are really starting to take a good long look now at the roofs that they insure. And I just want to talk to all the people that may be listening and the people that are live on my Facebook. Allergy resistant shingles with copper technology is really a thing. It’s not a gimmick. It’s really a thing here in Georgia if you’re not using a copper infused technology shingle. You’re wasting your money. You’re absolutely wasting your money. And here’s why. And I’m going to use, for example, I mean Certainteed, GAF, ICAO, Atlas Roofing and Owens Corning all will do this, but GAF is the most easiest to deal with. Right. So I like them. So GAF has a product called Timberline, HD Z. That’s their allergy resistant line. Okay. And they say that you need to use the proper hips, ridges and everything when installing these shingles that come along with this. Yes. So, yes, it’s at the top of the price point. Okay. However, here’s the beauty of it. If you have the timberline shingles with all the proper hips and ridges on it and you ever get black lines on your roof, you’ll never pay for a soft wash. Interesting. Gaf will cover that cleaning because they stand behind their product. Okay. They say ten years. You’re not getting ten years in Georgia and they know it. You know, I was actually. I probably shouldn’t say this on the air, but I’m going to. Oh. Uh oh.

Sharon Cline: Okay. Okay, We’re going.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. I actually had a phone conversation with the vice president of GAF and was going over a lot of the information. And when I gave it to him and broke it down. Hey, look, you know, you got this product, you advertise ten year warranty, you’re never going to get that here in Georgia. You’re going to get five years at best. And I broke down all the facts to him of what I was doing on my end, you know, And it took him three days, but he finally got back to me and his exact words were. Yeah, you. You kind of got us by the balls because they now realize we’re never going to get ten years out of our shingles down there. They’re always.

Sharon Cline: Going to be having to deal.

Derek Jensen: With. And so and again, this is something that the homeowners don’t realize, okay? They get these algae shingles, they spend all this money, and then they got black lines up there and.

Sharon Cline: They call anybody, you.

Derek Jensen: Know, they call anybody and they’re paying, you know, and they don’t they don’t have their paperwork. Yeah, they don’t need to. And then on the other end of that. You know, because insurance companies are making a big deal out of roof maintenance. Now, whether you have allergy resistant shingles or not, you still have to do roof maintenance. They’re going to cancel you for having black lines on your roof. That’s a fact. So there’s a new tax code this year, 2023. Because of all this, there’s a new tax code out that allows homeowners to. Um, write off a portion of the cleaning up to $3,200 on your taxes. On your taxes? Yes. You can now write off up to $3,200 on your taxes under an energy and efficiency maintenance upgrade. Whoa.

Sharon Cline: Yes. I had no.

Derek Jensen: Idea. Right. And so with doing all that, like I said, we took the time to get recognized through the Asphalt Roofing Shingles Manufacturers Association. We’re recognized for them. We have a certificate of compliance through them. Good for you. Yeah. And so every roof wash we do, we’re issuing homeowners this certificate and we’re putting it doesn’t go to the homeowner. It actually goes to the address. Okay. So if you have a sold your home, it’ll go It transfers.

Sharon Cline: That’s wonderful. Transferable.

Derek Jensen: Right. And that’s the thing. A lot of people that you know. It’s so important to know what you’re getting into, because if you buy a home, the warranty doesn’t transfer. Unless it’s under the home. Truth. Okay. If it’s in a person’s name, it doesn’t transfer. So you buy a home and the real estate agent sells it to you as Yes, it’s got algae resistant shingles on it. It’s guaranteed for life. And you’re like, Oh, great. You get into the home, you have a problem, you call GAF. And they’re like, Well, you’re not the original owner, right? So there are some things that people need to be understanding when they’re buying homes and selling homes. Make sure that if you’re spending this money and you’re investing in your investment this way, make sure it’s transferable.

Sharon Cline: That’s a huge selling point. You know, I would think and I’m.

Derek Jensen: Dealing with a lot of realtors now helping them kind of get get to the bottom of this. But basically how it shakes down is there’s a few different ways that you can you can have coverage on your roof right from the manufacturer. Right. So there’s there’s a standard manufacturer’s warranty which covers the product you purchase. Okay. Okay. So that’s a standard manufacturer’s warranty. Got it. Then there’s a workmanship warranty, which that covers the contractor that comes to do the work. Right? And then there’s the extended manufacturer’s warranty. That’s the one that homeowners want. Okay. The other two, um, this last one, the extended menu. This covers contractors workmanship. Along with extended coverage for the products. So if you get the extended manufacturer’s warranty, you get the other two in with it. On top of all the other benefits. Got it. So it makes no sense to just cheat out on a couple hundred dollars.

Sharon Cline: When you could have it all. You can.

Derek Jensen: Have everything.

Sharon Cline: Yeah, that totally makes sense.

Derek Jensen: Okay, now I just want to get into some breakdowns real quick so people know and can if they hear these words, it might trigger some things for them. Excellent. So Ecco is a roofing shingle company and they’re allergy resistant line is called the Dynasty performance line. And they say that ten years allergy resistant hands down, if you got black lines in less than ten years, we’ll cover it. Perfect. Wow. Okay. So but that’s only on their dynasty performance. Allergy resistant line. Okay. Owings Corning. I don’t really interesting. Care too much for this company. Okay.

Sharon Cline: Interesting you say that because that’s the one I’ve heard of in the roofing industry the most. Yeah.

Derek Jensen: You hear a lot of them. They they got a really big name and and it’s, you know, they’ve reached a point where they’ve gotten too big for their britches and yeah, I just after, after talking to them I just really.

Sharon Cline: Oh okay.

Derek Jensen: And getting them to to back like so they have a street guard that’s their allergy resistant line. Okay. And they. Go into it a little bit deeper. They say that they use products from three M. You know, again, they offer the ten year warranty on it and they have it. You know, they say, okay, well, you need to have the approved hip and ridge products on it. They want pro edge, Razor ridge or Deco ridge, hip and ridges on it. Okay. And so they make you spend a lot of money to get this allergy resistant coverage. And if it does wind up getting allergy on it in ten years, Owings Corning is going to try to find a way out of that before they’ll find before they’ll actually back up their work.

Sharon Cline: That’s terrible. That makes me so frustrated. I know that’s what they’re supposed to do. But at the same, you know, that’s their goal. But at the same time, come on.

Derek Jensen: They’re really hard to deal with when you call them and tell them that their product failed. They act like a little kid. They want to throw a tantrum.

Sharon Cline: It’s terrible. Oh, gosh.

Derek Jensen: Now I will say that Certainteed, ICAO and GAF are not like that. Okay? I’ve had very, very, very good experiences with them. Okay. And so Certainteed, we’ll get into that. Certainteed brand is called Street Fighter. Okay. Okay. You see how they all have these little play on words?

Sharon Cline: Do they do?

Derek Jensen: And again, they say allergy resistant for ten years. Okay. So there’s the common denominator. Everything’s got to do with street fighter or some kind of play on words. But so they all got that going on and then they all got the ten year going on. That’s the common denominator in each. Got it. And what Certainteed basically says is pretty much the same thing allergy resistant properties using copper technology that allow the shingles to release the copper technology over time to combat gloeocapsa magma, which is the black lines that are on your roof. Okay, now. That’s what they all say. Ten years, allergy resistant. But here in Georgia, you can’t you can’t do that. Okay. You’d have to have shingles made of copper. If that was the case.

Sharon Cline: Could you imagine now or. But like. Like a copper roof. I can imagine. Right? You’re all set. But most people don’t have that. No, they’re doing a the combo.

Derek Jensen: But if you look, you know, and that’s the point I want to make. So copper is allergy resistant. Yes. But it tarnishes.

Sharon Cline: Yeah. It’s got patina doesn’t it? Like it turns green or something. Right. I didn’t think about that.

Derek Jensen: Okay. So so so that’s the that’s the that’s the double whammy there. Okay. Yes. They’re using copper because it’s an allergy. It’s a natural allergy resistant. But. It patinas. So. If you’re using copper technology, shingles, it’s going to patina interesting and it’s going to create black lines. And now you don’t know, are you dealing with patina and failure of the copper or are you dealing with gloeocapsa magma? So it’s very, very important that if you’re going the direction of this algae resistant technology, that you really do your homework and know what you’re getting into. Okay. Because is it worth the investment? 1,000,000%. Okay. If you go with any one of these brands, even though. Even though Owens Corning can be a real pain in the ass to deal with, they still make a great product. I don’t want to sound like I’m. Dagenham. Okay. I’m just saying that they’re a little tough to communicate with. You know, some people communicate great, some people don’t. It’s just the way it is, you know? I’m sure married folks will agree with me there. Right, right, right. And so, you know, they make a great product. They’re just really tough to get them to do what they say they’re supposed to do. Right. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of banter.

Sharon Cline: That’s going to go on.

Derek Jensen: There. Right. Yeah. The rest of them are pretty good. But but that’s just it. You know, I would suggest, you know, to to anyone that owns a home or that anyone is thinking about replacing a roof or whatnot, you know, building a home. You know, this this goes out to builders that may be listening to this, contractors that may be listening to this. If you you’re not using one of these companies and you’re not putting allergy resistant shingles, hips and ridges up on these roofs, you’re doing the homeowner and your customer an outrageous disservice. You know, egregious because they’ll never, ever, ever have a roof problem again if they use these products. You know, these products, they say in ten years, allergy resistant, then they’re saying 25 years to lifetime warranty. I mean.

Sharon Cline: It’s the dream.

Derek Jensen: They’re putting. Yeah, they’re putting some really big, big, big claims out there and they. They will stand on them. Right. So if you’re not using these products here in Georgia. I mean, I get it. You know, it’s a little bit more money. Some cases it’s a lot bit more money. But, I mean, this is your home. This is your investment.

Sharon Cline: It’s worth it.

Derek Jensen: You know, if you’re going to stay in that place for the rest of your life, there’s some peace of mind knowing that that roof is good for the rest of its life. If this is just a starter home or, you know, a layover or whatnot, there’s some real peace of mind knowing that you got the right stuff up there. When it comes time to sell that, you’re going to be able to get your value right. And then also for people that are, you know, got into this to to rent and make money off of being a landlord. I mean, it’s a real peace of mind to to rent out a piece of property knowing that the tenants that you have in there are covered by the best stuff possible.

Sharon Cline: They’re not going to call you saying we have a big leak, right? And now all my things are ruined.

Derek Jensen: Yes.

Sharon Cline: You know, and you have peace of mind knowing you don’t have to worry about if anything does happen. Right.

Derek Jensen: And so, you know, that’s that’s the big thing is I want to get it out there that look, you know, the roofing industry is changing. The insurance industry is changing. Roof maintenance has become a requirement. Okay. If you’re not getting your roof maintenance cleaned at a minimum of 3 to 5 years, you’re at risk of being canceled and not renewed. That is a real deal thing. How can people find that out?

Sharon Cline: I was just going to ask you, how can people find out even about you? You know, like if they wanted more information on this, because I’m sure this will inspire people to start investigating their own situations. And if they wanted to talk to you about it, what would be the best way they could get in touch with you?

Derek Jensen: (404) 431-4576. Call me on my shirt. There we go. Jensen’s precision power wash and restoration out of Canton. You can Google us. We’re a five star company on there. And I just gave you the digits, so you got no excuse now.

Sharon Cline: Well, Derek, you’ve just really helped. I think a lot of people have a potential way for them to save themselves, like not only money, but like the mental torture. You know, when you really know that you’re making a good decision, having that peace of mind can be really priceless.

Derek Jensen: Yeah. And I want to give another plug. You know, you asked me that question. So one of the companies that we’ve kind of networked with and kind of like linked up with is is roof advisors out of Canton of Canton. They here local in Cherokee County someplace. Okay. But Naomi over at Roof Advisors has been. An absolute blessing. You know, we got to talk to her a lot and go over some things with her and share with her kind of what we’re doing on our end, because they they’re a they’re a roofing company that exclusively uses GAF products. Got it. And so I brought all this knowledge to her and said, Hey, how much do you know about the products that you’re putting up there? And we sat down and we had a conversation over it, and it turned out that Naomi was actually considering starting to to to add soft washing, roof maintenance to, you know, roofing companies are starting to add this service.

Sharon Cline: That’s amazing because.

Derek Jensen: It’s a necessity.

Sharon Cline: Now. Yes, it is. Okay.

Derek Jensen: So a lot of roofing companies are low key searching out how do I get a roof washing set up? Right. Okay. And I want to say to every single roofing company out there that’s thinking about buying and purchasing and hiring employees to do roof maintenance. Don’t call me.

Speaker3: What a plug.

Sharon Cline: Oh, my gosh. We need to end there. That was perfect. That was, like, the very perfect ending. Good stuff, Derek. Thank you. Very welcome. I’ve had the best time chatting with you. Absolutely.

Derek Jensen: It’s always a good time coming in here. Thank you. And now you get to bring your mom in.

Sharon Cline: My mom’s visiting. Yeah. Yeah, I know.

Derek Jensen: I think Thanksgiving dinner is next.

Sharon Cline: You’re part of the family. All right, Derek, thank you so much. You are Welcome back. Any time. We’ll follow up again, because I’m just so enjoying your journey and really appreciate the time that you get to spend here. And obviously really sharing your heart and caring about people. It’s not about the money. It’s about really helping people.

Derek Jensen: Yeah, it’s really about the community and helping people out. So thank you for doing next year.

Sharon Cline: Hooray! Hooray. All right. All right. Thank you all too, for listening to Fearless Formula on Business RadioX. And again, this is Sharon Klein reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.

Intro: [00:00:05] Coming to you live from the Business RadioX studio in Woodstock, Georgia. This is fearless formula with Sharon Cline.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:19] And welcome to a fearless formula Friday. And I’m your host, Sharon Cline. We talk about the ups and downs of the business industry and offer words of wisdom for business success. And I’m very excited to speak to my guests today in this studio. He is the owner manager, CEO of Jensen’s Precision Power Washing. He’s been here in Georgia for five years, but he is a transplant from Boston. And you’re going to hear it because I’m from Massachusetts, too. And it’s like I’m talking to family here, so I can’t wait to introduce you to Derek Jensen. Hello.

Dereck Jensen: [00:00:53] Hello. And thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it. It’s awesome to be here. We really love what you do with inside of Cherokee County, promoting all the small businesses and bringing them on and just networking and bringing everyone together, getting one together. It’s an awesome experience. It’s kind of like my first little podcast too, so really? Yeah, this is great. This is awesome.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:12] Oh, I’m so happy to have you. And it’s it’s a joy too, because we get to really get to know the people behind the business. It’s not just a business name, it’s your story. And that’s one of the joys I have about doing this show is is being able to connect someone with the person behind the business. So you get to know why someone’s doing what they’re doing and what their philosophies are, and then you become like real. It’s not just in their head, you know? I love that. And that’s why I’d love to have this conversation with you. And it’s funny, when we talked on the phone briefly, I was like, Man, this is like talking to my brother. You know, it’s I just love your accent.

Dereck Jensen: [00:01:45] It’s the pressure washing guy from Boston.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:50] That was awesome. Good for you. Yeah. So I find it kind of just interesting to think that you chose Woodstock, You know, out of any city you could have come to. So can you tell me a little bit about what brought you here from Boston?

Dereck Jensen: [00:02:01] Sure. Five years ago, I had decided to change my life around and make some real changes that needed to happen. You know, so many times in life, things happen to people and it gets them down and gets them in a place that gets them in a bad place. And they just they know people, places and things need to change, but they just don’t have the courage or the fortitude to make that happen. Quite frankly, I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired. And so I changed people, places and things. I left Boston with the clothes on my back and came down here to Georgia and started fresh.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:33] What brought you to the city is specifically Woodstock.

Dereck Jensen: [00:02:37] There was really no rhyme or reason behind that. God kind of worked his magic. I really owe everything to him. I live by the phrase that Boston raised me and Georgia saved me. And I mean that. I mean that wholeheartedly. Because if it wasn’t for a an opportunity, for a blessing to happen, I wouldn’t be here. Buddy of mine had hernia surgery and it was pretty bad. His body had rejected the mess three separate times. And so he needed help, big help. So me being in the position I was, him being the position he was and we had been friends forever. So we trust each other. We knew each other. He said, Look, I need someone to come into my home and take care of things that I can trust. And you’re the only one I trust. Wow. And so I said, Say no more. I’m common. This is old school friendship. I’m coming. You call me. I’m coming the same way I run my business. You’ve got a problem. I got a solution. I’m coming. So I came down to Georgia, stayed with him six, seven months. And that’s all it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be. Come down here and help him get his stuff right. Get him healed up, get him back on his feet and back to whatever it was going to be. But being down here and having that conversation with him, meeting people here in Georgia, seeing what Georgia was all about, and I just I just couldn’t leave. I just I knew I was home. I couldn’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:01] Leave. I think that’s so interesting. It’s just this notion that there isn’t sometimes you’re being led and you don’t know that you’re being led or things work out just sort of perfectly when you’re not really trying to plan it so hard or you’re trying to plan something else. And it’s just not. I always find those stories fascinating because life just unfolds.

Dereck Jensen: [00:04:19] Sometimes it does. And before you can even realize what’s happened and it’s already happening to you. And that’s the beauty of it. That’s that’s really the magic behind God himself is you don’t know, you know, when it’s your time, it’s your time, and he’ll let you know. And that was kind of like the biggest part for me is I was never really a religious guy. You know, religion was just something that wasn’t. You know, they’re for us. But coming down here and seeing it and experiencing it and learning, it was just awesome, you know? I never in my life thought that I would say to myself, Oh, I’m saved or this or that. But I am absolutely so proud to say that I’m saved and I’m a Christian man now. It’s just it’s just been great. And again, that’s something that helped my life, too. You know, the transformation coming from Boston to Georgia down here and then the transformation spiritually has helped me grow into the man that is behind this business today, behind all the ethics, behind this business. Everything comes through prayer. Everything. We don’t do nothing unless we pray about it around here.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:38] Well, so how how is it different culturally here from Boston, do you think? Was it a surprise to you how different people were, or are we all the same?

Dereck Jensen: [00:05:47] Can we cuss on the air?

Sharon Cline: [00:05:48] Sure.

Dereck Jensen: [00:05:49] You got a little BLEEP me out there.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:51] Maybe we’ll.

Dereck Jensen: [00:05:51] See. So I’m going to tell you, this is funny, but this is a real story. So the biggest thing for me was I realized culturally, I was in a like on the moon pretty much.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:00] You felt here in Georgia?

Dereck Jensen: [00:06:01] Yeah. This is this is kind of what happened to me. I was always here. And bless your heart, you know, because I’m running around like a not out here. And so I’d knock people’s carriages over in the store or something, you know, just because I’m I’m a Bostonian, I’m fast paced, everything fast, fast, fast. And I just I hadn’t slowed down yet. Right. And so I was getting bless your heart, all over the place. And I had no idea what it meant.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:26] How do you think?

Dereck Jensen: [00:06:27] I thought they were praying for me. I really thought they were praying for me. So I come home one night and, you know, I’m changing out Greg’s bandages and things like that. And we’re having the conversation. And I says to him, I said, Man, this place is great. I really and this is about three months in now. I said, I don’t think I’m going to go home. He’s like, What do you mean? This this place is awesome. He said, Well, tell me what’s going on? And I said, Well, Greg, listen, I got to tell you, like, you know, I’m kind of a space shot when I’m looking for something and I’m shopping, I’m in the store, I just want to get what I want to get and I want to get out so I can be a little obnoxious. I said, I knocked this lady’s cart over in the store the other day and her stuff went everywhere. I said, So know I’m trying to pick it up, trying to help her. I’m apologizing. And she says, Don’t worry, bless your heart. And it was like a fourth time I heard it. After I’ve done something stupid, I’m like, These people are great. Like you screw up and they just pray for you. So I knew I was in a good place. And when I said that, he just started laughing and he’s like, You’re such an asshole. He’s like, I got a hernia and you’re making me laugh. Like, that’s not what’s supposed to happen right now. So he’s like, You dummy, They’re not praying for you. They’re telling you to go, you know, yourself. And I said, No way. And he said, Yeah, absolutely. And so nice ways, right? You know, And so and that’s exactly it. So I said, no way. And he had to show it to me. And when he proved it to me that that’s kind of the slang behind that, I was like, You know what, Greg? Hey, listen, if that’s really what that means, it sounds so great. I might just go try it. So here I am. I stayed.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:49] I know. I consider New England. That’s like my one of my homes anyway. And. And just the like. I love that when we’re here in Georgia. It’s such a contrast to be able to speak to someone when you’re waiting in line somewhere or you know, you’re about to get coffee and you’re speaking to the person behind, they want to talk to you. It’s not the same in New England. Not that that’s bad. It’s just a difference.

Dereck Jensen: [00:08:12] It really is. I mean, that southern hospitality, it’s it’s real. It’s not a joke. It’s not a cliche. It’s not just a saying. It’s it’s something these folks down here really live by. And the rest of the world could use it, to be quite honest with you. I mean, this is just a great place, you know, to touch on. Why Woodstock? Basically what I realize is being from a city, I knew one thing. I didn’t want to be in another city. Like, that was just the biggest thing. And when I saw what Cherokee County had to offer, I said, okay, we’re 45 minutes an hour north of the city, so not a big deal. Shoot right down 75. You’re right there. Not a big deal. Cherokee County has a lot of small town country feel. You know, you go through Woodstock, Holly Springs, Canton, up into Jasper, up in the ball ground Alaska. You go up into all those areas. Also, those are my areas I cover when I work in. So I see them all. Excellent. But when you get up in these areas, it’s just there’s there’s a multitude of convenience, but yet it’s got that down home country feel and it’s back roads and it’s you know, it’s a healthy, healthy environment. Last time I checked, this was last year. But when I looked at some of the statistics. Cherokee County is one of the most. Wealthiest, booming counties in Georgia. This little honey hole that we’re in is really doing some big things. And that was super attractive to me as well. And I said, okay, well, I’m looking to do big things. Let’s go with it. Doing big things and let’s do big things together.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:55] So what brought you to pressure washing?

Dereck Jensen: [00:09:58] This is an awesome story.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:59] I love awesome stories.

Dereck Jensen: [00:10:01] So I was working for Custom Homes, building custom subdivisions, and I was managing five different builds in three different subdivisions. It was a lot. I was getting up at about 430 in the morning and I wasn’t ending my day until about 1030, 11:00 at night. This was Monday through Sunday, and it was just a nightmare. Constantly going, go and going, go and going. And three years of that, I burnt myself out. I just I literally burnt myself out. So I had had I had had a talk with the owners of the company, and I let them know. I said, Hey, listen, you know, we’re going to have to either do something different or this is where I’m going to have to go my own way because I’m getting burnt out. I can’t I can’t keep. Doing what you need me to do effectively. With the load that I have on me. So we’re going to need to do some things to take that off of me so I can continue to do what I do effectively. Or I’m just going to have to step aside because I’m not going to half ass anything. And that was like a three week back and forth conversation. And we just we agreed to disagree on some things and parted ways. On my way home from that, I stopped to get gas pulled in the gas station and I’m pumping my gas and this truck rolls in with this trailer on it.

Dereck Jensen: [00:11:25] Now, this is about 830 at night, 930 at night. It’s dark. And this truck pulls in with this trailer behind it and it’s lit up like the tanks that lit up neon green. And it’s got all this stuff going on. And I’m thinking a circle just rolled into town, you know, here’s a circus. Where’s the elephants? Popcorn, peanuts, cotton candy. I’m just what is this? And and so when over talk to him, strike up a conversation, just ask him. I said, What is this? What do you do? He’s like, Oh, it’s a pressure washer rig. I said, Pressure washing. What is that? And he started to explain it and, you know, I took a real interest. I said, Listen, can I get your information? Can I come watch like what you do? Can I come see this? Because what you’re saying, I can’t register, it’s not registered and I need to see it. And the gentleman’s name was Jason Annesley out of NZ. He is out of Rome, Georgia. I want to give him a big plug. Thank you, Jay. He’s kind of my mentor. He said. Sure, come on. So I went on watch him do a job and just I knew it. I said, There it is. That’s, that’s, that’s what I’ve been called to do this. This is my calling. I knew it right away.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:35] It’s just so crazy that if you weren’t in that exact spot and that exact moment, you may not have had any inspiration to be able to find out what this is, you know? But because this truck came in, it inspired you, and now it’s led you to a completely different path. How cool is that?

Dereck Jensen: [00:12:50] Again, You know, we talked about it earlier. This is God’s divine timing. You know, I had no idea. I just left the job. I just quit a job, basically, and, you know, had no idea what I was going to do. But he did. You know, he did. And so after talking with Jason a little bit, going on that first job, watching him and getting some real knowledge, I just basically told him, I said, Jason, look, you don’t have a choice. You’re going to teach me this like I’m going to be successful in this. And Jason was awesome. You know, I can’t I can’t thank them enough. He took me right under his wing. He said, okay, go get some equipment, hop shot. And so I said, okay, well, what do I go by? And so he, you know, he kind of helped me along the process. The first year in business, it was a huge learning curve because to be honest with you, I really didn’t know what I was doing.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:38] But I feel like that’s important for all of our listeners is to if they have an idea and they’re not sure even where to start, that’s how it all works. You just try to figure out what you’d like to do and then almost work backwards. And so what kind of things could you tell someone like, what did you do? You have to get an LLC or a DBA or whatever it is. Set up your own business. How did you do it? Did you Google? Because that’s how I did to do my voiceover work.

Dereck Jensen: [00:14:02] I use Google and YouTube if I’m being completely honest and total transparent with you and all the listeners, Google and YouTube, those are the two things. If it wasn’t for those two platforms.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:16] Like where do you start?

Dereck Jensen: [00:14:17] This would never happen and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But the biggest thing for me was. Just being able to ignore the fear. Right. Know, holding my nose. No, getting scared that it’s a deep end and I may not be able to swim. None of that. I just jumped all in.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:37] Oh, how did you do it? Because the show is fearless formula for that reason. To encourage people to know that fear is a universal emotion. But it can hold you back. Right? And this is what I love about this show, is giving people an inside look into how someone managed, whether they had a good year or a bad year. What was it like for you during the pandemic? Did you almost not survive? You know, how do you deal with the anxieties and fears that come with the financial pressure of having a business? So how did you get to that feeling of I know there’s fear here, I mean, you’re jumping. How did you do it?

Dereck Jensen: [00:15:18] I mean, everyone’s different. Everyone has their own little thing. I guess you either reach a point in your life where you’re ready for that or you don’t. Like I said earlier, for me, it was I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I already made the move to Georgia and started myself and established myself for three years here. So it was a little bit easier for me to do that again because I had just done it with success. I left Boston, came to Georgia, built a really good thing with Tig. Custom Homes, established a name for myself. And saw what that did for me.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:57] So you built on some of your past successes to give you to bolster you, I guess to have.

Dereck Jensen: [00:16:02] Right. It was pretty much like, okay, we we can we can swim in the shallow end. We know that we’ve done that. Let’s let’s jump off the diving board now.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:09] I love that. I mean, I think more people would really pursue their dreams if they kind of had that feeling of, you know, let me just see what happens. Let me just be. Just have courage.

Dereck Jensen: [00:16:20] Well, here’s the thing. You can’t be afraid to fail. Okay. That’s that’s the biggest thing. Number one, you can’t be afraid to fail. I guess that’s the main fear is, Oh, my God, what if I fail? Now change that. Oh, my God. What if I don’t try? Just change that.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:37] Well, there’s there’s this sort I don’t know, for myself when I haven’t tried something, I have, like, already I have almost like, a guilt about it. So I feel like either way, I’m going to fail or I’m going to have a guilt because I didn’t try. There’s like not a win at all there, you know?

Dereck Jensen: [00:16:53] Well, I do. But here’s the thing. If you don’t try, then you don’t fail. And if you don’t fail, then you don’t have another chance to get up to try again. So what do you really lose if you fail? Nothing. You gain everything. There’s nothing to lose in failure and there’s everything to gain in failure. So why not? Why not try?

Sharon Cline: [00:17:13] Such good words. I love that.

Dereck Jensen: [00:17:16] Derrick, Thank you very much.

Sharon Cline: [00:17:17] You’re welcome. We’re going to talk a little bit about your business. We have some I had some questions that I wanted to ask you. And specifically, there’s there are things I don’t know as a layperson who imagining myself, wanting to find a pressure washing company, there’s a difference between a pressure washing company and an exterior cleaning solutions company. Can you explain to me?

Dereck Jensen: [00:17:39] Sure. So basically what we have is everyone knows this as the pressure washing industry, when someone needs their house or their driveway or their roof done, you Google whatever you know, they’ll go on next door or they’ll go on Cherokee connect. There’s a little plug for Cherokee Connect. Thank you. And you know, they’ll put in looking for my driveway clean or looking for whatever they’re looking for, for pressure. It’s pressure Washing is the word that the public knows, right? So that’s the top of the umbrella. But under that, you have a lot of different realms within the industry. Pressure washing is kind of died off. The name has stuck, but but the actual process is dead because pressure is bad. High pressure is bad. High pressure is going to break stuff, damaged stuff, rip stuff apart. Soft washing. Replace pressure. Washing five years ago.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:34] It’s just as effective, soft washing.

Dereck Jensen: [00:18:37] It’s more effective because it reduces the pressure to something similar of a garden hose.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:44] But it gets all of that.

Dereck Jensen: [00:18:46] But it’s able to yes, you’re able to deliver a solution that gets all that off. So you basically saw what soft washing did to the pressure washing industry. Was it basically eliminated the risk overnight? Of damage from pressure immediately, it eliminated that risk immediately. So within the industry, of course, businesses jumped right on that because that’s a way to know.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:17] Protection of the company, right?

Dereck Jensen: [00:19:19] Well, yes.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:19] And property.

Dereck Jensen: [00:19:20] But the most important part of that is its efficiency within the company. Now you’re operating a much more efficient basis. And when you’re. More efficient, you’re more productive. And when you’re more productive, you’re more profitable.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:34] Is it does it use less water? Because in my mind pressure washing has like just this, this speed to it and power behind it. And then but if it’s soft washing, I’m imagining it. You don’t even use as much water.

Dereck Jensen: [00:19:47] So there’s, there’s two different methods of actually soft washing. When soft washing first come out, it was done through a 12 volt system with a pump and the most you could get was five gallons a minute of flow, which is basically a little bit more than the water spigot that comes out the side of your house. A little bit more than that, the water spigot that comes out of the side of your house, that’s roughly 3 to 5 gallons flow per minute. Very rarely do you see five out of your water spigots. It’s more like three and a half, four gallons a minute. The the 12 volt pumps. They can come in one and a half gallons a minute, two and a half gallons a minute, three and a half gallons a minute. Four and a half gallons a minute or five and a half gallon a minute. Just recently, they they came out with a ten gallon a minute pump. That still kind of it’s been out for a year. It’s still kind of in its phases. The bugs are being worked out of it. Some companies swear by them and love them. Other companies just haven’t had much luck with them. And then some are in the middle of the road about it. It’s it’s one of those products that I truly believe that the companies that are manufacturing them like Northern Tool and things like that Sheriff lo ever flow they’ll get the bugs worked out by the end of this year and I’m sure those pumps will be much more effective.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:05] Do you feel like you need to explain this to people who ask you about your pressure washing business? Like I want you to pressure wash this and if you have a different way that you do it, do you explain what this is?

Dereck Jensen: [00:21:15] The only time I find myself getting into that and it’s all the time, is when I have to give them the price of the quote.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:21] Got you.

Dereck Jensen: [00:21:22] Right. Because you got a lot of guys coming around out here that are charging $99, $100 to wash your driveway. And then I come in and I tell her it’s going to be 4 to 600 to wash her driveway. Why? And so then I got to explain. Okay, well, you have these types of stains. Some are organic, some are non organic. These are the chemicals that are going to cost you to take them out. And this is what they cost. So I have to go down and break down the whole process of what I do, how I do it. And usually at that point, it’s it’s an easy sale. The biggest thing is I’m using hot water. Oh, wow. So. Pressure washing company, soft wash companies. It’s it’s all cold water.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:12] Right from my house or whatever.

Dereck Jensen: [00:22:13] Right. Or from a tank that they filled up with from your hose. It’s all cold water with me. I’m using a separate machine. The water is fed to the machine. The machine then pumps it through a coil in a diesel burner, which I can heat it up to up to 290 degrees Fahrenheit. So I’m not only cleaning, but I’m disinfecting also. Wow. At the same time.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:40] So every time I think of hot water is being something that you clean with, of course, it feels like it’s going to do a better job. So that must be a really important point to be able to mention to your customers what kind of stains you can get out by using hot water.

Dereck Jensen: [00:22:54] Exactly right. It’s it’s a combination of the hot water, the application of the product that we’re using to remove the stain, and then that makes up for about 20% of it, the other 80% of skill set.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:12] Which you’ve honed over three years.

Dereck Jensen: [00:23:14] Then again, I got to give a plug to Jason Ainslie at NZ Exteriors and Greg Townsend up at Townsend under pressure, and Dalton did the other two exterior cleaning solutions company in Georgia. There’s only three of us in North Georgia anyway. There’s only three of us. Only three. There’s only three in North Georgia. I’m the only one in Cherokee County. And like I said, they’ve been great. They’ve been awesome business mentors, business friends. Just, you know, they saw what I had. They saw the drive and they’re like, okay, well, we’re not going to make this easy on you, but if you want to learn, we’ll teach. And so that’s how that’s kind of gone for us. And that’s kind of where it is. You know, you you meet people, you find the best in your industry, and you try to model a business plan, something similar to that because it’s successful, it works, it’s effective. And that’s in a sense what I’ve done. And I owe everything to those two guys.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:09] Well, if you’re just joining us, I’m speaking to Derek Jensen of Jensen’s Precision Power Washing. I wanted to ask you another question to I mean, we talk about a lot in this as we network and meet different people in Cherokee County and their businesses. A lot of businesses want to give back in some ways. And we had briefly spoken about that. So would you like to talk a little bit about what you’re interested in doing in that regard?

Dereck Jensen: [00:24:34] Sure. So one of the big things is community is everything an old timer taught me years and years ago. My first job was shining shoes in a bathroom at eight years old.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:46] In a bar. Yeah. So Boston? Yeah.

Dereck Jensen: [00:24:48] We didn’t do school.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:51] You did? School of Life.

Dereck Jensen: [00:24:53] Exactly. Hard knocks. Anyway, so an old time at one time it said to me, Now you need to understand something. If you take care of your community, your community will take care of you. And that stuck. I was eight years old, but that stuck and it stuck with me all the way up till today. And again, Cherokee County has been so, so good to me. I just. It’s on my heart, you know, It’s been on my heart for for a little bit now the past few days. It’s it’s been really, really on air. And I got to do something about it. So what I’d like to do is I’m trying to reach out to any type of group, home foster home, institution, boys home, anything like that, where these youthful young kids are really up against it and unreachable. I want to come in and talk to these kids because I can reach them. I speak their language and the folks that are trying to fix it don’t. That is the problem today. You know, you got you got these kids sitting in the room and they’re talking to a person who can’t identify. They don’t come from where they come from. They have no idea what they’ve been through. All they know is what they’ve read in a textbook. And when they start talking, the kids looking at this person like you don’t even know and they just shut down, you.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:17] Can’t reach connect there.

Dereck Jensen: [00:26:18] They can’t reach them. You can’t reach them. So if you can’t reach them, they’re not going to listen to you. I can reach them.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:24] I feel like that’s one of the things that we’re supposed to do here on the planet, is to help each other.

Dereck Jensen: [00:26:29] Be a good human. Yes, be.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:30] A good human and help each other. It’s hard enough. It’s hard enough just doing all the best you can. But when you have somebody that you see that you can help and make something a little bit easier for them, there’s not only do you feel like a joy that not everybody accesses all the time, but it’s really a wonderful feeling. But also you’re giving them an opportunity to to feel like, okay, now I know what it’s like to get help. I would like to have that same feeling for someone else. And it just grows, I guess.

Dereck Jensen: [00:26:55] Well, I’m going to touch on that because you’re absolutely right. Once you experience a feeling, whether that feeling is good or bad or in between, you develop a a opinion and a mindset on that, Right. So good.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:10] Or bad.

Dereck Jensen: [00:27:11] Yeah, exactly. And so that’s what these kids that’s what’s happening with these kids. Things are happening to them that’s way beyond their control. Shouldn’t be going on in the first place. But we live in the world we live in. So it does. And they disconnect, right? They get that bad feeling. They get that bad vibe. And they they see that everyone in their life is treating them like that. So that means that everyone is going to treat them like that. And it’s it’s corrupting them at a young age. So by the time they hit teenage hood, you’re not changing that. You know, they need to see someone like me who is actually spent time in federal prisons, who’s actually gotten their life together and who’s overcome those things because I’m the one they’re going to listen to. They’re not going to listen to the guy saying, well, prison is bad.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:57] And.

Dereck Jensen: [00:27:58] They’re not going to listen to that. They’re not going to listen to that. They’re going to see the the street corner level hustler that’s got the new car, the new jewelry, all the women. He’s in and out of jail, but he never loses anything. Yeah, they see that. And so you think they’re listening to you? They’re not. They’re not. One of the biggest things that was given to me was. I was told, Why don’t you make a trade? And I said, Well, what trade do you think I should make? And my buddy Greg, who lived down here in Georgia, that I came down to help with the hernia. He said, Why don’t you make a trade while you trade your your inmate number for an iron number?

Sharon Cline: [00:28:40] Wow.

Dereck Jensen: [00:28:41] And I was like, Well, what is an iron number? And he’s like, You’re an idiot.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:44] No, you just didn’t know.

Dereck Jensen: [00:28:46] So. So but that’s the motivation, right? So. So I didn’t get mad at him. I didn’t I said, okay, yeah, you’re right. I’m an idiot. Let’s stop being an idiot. There’s the accountability. That’s what makes it hard, is people can’t accept the truth. The truth is the truth.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:00] You just don’t know what You just don’t know. Like, there’s there’s a pride that you kind of have to accept. I’m not going to be able to say I know everything about this or I have to learn the hard way. Some people don’t like to give up that pride.

Dereck Jensen: [00:29:10] No, they don’t. But that’s ultimately what hurts them and stops them. It’s it’s what prevents their growth. And they think that they’ve got to be prideful to to grow. But it’s the exact opposite. So I Googled it, I checked it out. I figured out what an iron number was and, you know, went on YouTube and said, okay, well, I got an idea. I want to do pressure washing. And, you know, now I know how to kind of think I know how to do this. So I just registered and did what I had to do. And I’ve had some people help me along the way. You know, if I got questions, I, you know, I’ve called some people and said, hey, listen, I’m I’m a little unsure what to do. Matter of fact, I have no clue what to do. Can you help me out? And they’ll tell me, yes, I can help you and no, I can help you. And there’s no shame in that, right? If you don’t know something, ask don’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:57] I think I love that because we talk about this on the show a lot, about how important it is to surround yourself with people who are willing to help in personal life, but also with networking and business because we all are trying to watch each other succeed. That’s what I think so great about Cherokee County or specifically Woodstock, where I do a lot of business. It’s nice to see that the business owners are all like happy to support other business owners. You know, it’s like a little family, but well, maybe it’s sort of like a family because I know I could call any of those people and they would help me.

Dereck Jensen: [00:30:28] Exactly.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:29] And that’s like a little gift in itself.

Dereck Jensen: [00:30:31] So and that’s the other thing that I’m doing with within my industry, trying to help people, bring them up to speed, letting them know, hey, listen, you know, there’s a much more effective way we can be servicing these customers out here and servicing our industry as well, you know? I can’t stress enough the use of proper techniques within a service industry. It’s just one of those things where. The hardest part is getting the customer to understand what’s going on. Again, because some of the prices can be really drastic.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:13] Clarity.

Dereck Jensen: [00:31:14] Yeah, right. So one guy is charging $99. One guy is charging $400, but it’s the same job. To to make that make sense can be really difficult at times. So the best way I found to do it, it was to keep doing what I’m doing, keep educating, keep showing, and then come on and do things like this. Excuse me. And then let basically let the public know, hey, listen, if you’ve got any questions, comments or concerns, I’m always there to answer the phone, and that’s free. Knowledge is free. It’s the work that you pay for.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:48] What are some of the challenges that were super surprising to you as you got into your business? I know one of them obviously being that you you you need to explain to people kind of what you’re doing. But are there any other kind of surprises that came along? You were just like, huh, I wish I had known that before I got started or something. You could offer someone who might be interested in the same kind of industry.

Dereck Jensen: [00:32:11] Yeah, I one of the biggest things that I wish I had known. But before starting this was the industry in itself. I wish I had known more about the industry before I got going because like I said earlier, I went through a year of a learning curve and that was a hard learning curve. I mean, I took a beat in my first year.

Sharon Cline: [00:32:38] And you did it by actually doing it. Not like just going to school, studying something. You actually did it physically, right?

Dereck Jensen: [00:32:43] Well, yeah, What I did was I. I have an ethic about me and I have a sense of responsibility. So I wasn’t going to go out there like a lot of these companies are and experiment on somebody home that’s paying me. What I would do is I’d go to construction sites and grab used stuff from houses that were being torn down and then work on that. So in case I ever did something wrong, I’m not ruining someone’s $800,000 home. Right.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:11] Smart man.

Dereck Jensen: [00:33:12] The last thing I wanted to do was get sued. I knew that much. So that’s how I kind of started. But again, you know, doing that, I would I would have to regularly call Jason or call Greg and be like, Listen, what do I do? How do I do this? What do I use? And it was a year of that. Just practice, practice, practice, learn, learn, learn. And being humble, you know, being humble to to to constantly make these calls and say, I don’t know. And being okay with that, letting that be OC Because it is. Oc Right. So I didn’t know I made the call. I got the knowledge. Now I know that’s great, isn’t it? It’s okay not to know.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:56] What are some of you you mentioned your ethics. What what are some of your sort of tenants that you that you run your business by? What are some of your like a list of ethics that you would say, I’m going to do it this way. This is what I believe and I’m not going to bend.

Dereck Jensen: [00:34:11] The biggest one is honesty. I’m always going to tell you the truth, whether you like it or not. I’m going to tell you the truth. The other thing is integrity. We stand behind what we say and we back up what we say. And that’s that’s one of the hugest things, is our customers know that when when they do business with us, they’re in good hands. Everything is covered under one umbrella. And if they’re ever not happy, we’re going to make it right. Lastly. I’m just a very competitive guy in general. I played sports all my life, football and couldn’t afford hockey but wanted to play real bad. You know those aggressive sports, right? Real competitive. And one of the things that I did was I said, I want to separate myself from everybody else. Right. And what was that niche? Because I heard a great one. I’m going to I’m going to quote Gary LAMB here of the black sheep mafia. I’m going to give him a plug to Gary. I’m going to see him wrestle tonight. So that’s going to be great. Oh, yeah, he’s going to have some ass anyway. So, Gary, Gary had given me a real gem and he had said and it’s one of his podcast on black sheet Mafia. The riches are in the niches, so find your niche and you’ll get rich. And he wasn’t talking money, right? He was talking mentally, physically, emotionally, those types of things. Find your niche and you’ll get rich because the riches are in the niches. And that was just like a gem, like a whole raw gem. I’m like, Oh, Gary. Oh, son. So with that, that’s what I did. I set out to find my little niche, and this was it. I said, Okay, there’s no one in Cherokee County that’s doing this. No one none of these companies are buying into it. I’m going to make a believer out of them. And here I am.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:26] You know, I’m gonna have to think about that one like it’s in my head now.

Dereck Jensen: [00:36:30] Thank you. You’re very welcome. Thank Gary, though, because he’s the one that gave it to me. I just gave it to you. Sharon’s. Karen.

Sharon Cline: [00:36:37] I appreciate that. It’s something that those little nuggets, little phrases, they can be so inspiring in just the right moment when you need it. So I love hearing that. All right. So I also have a question about a banner that you have posted at the North Metro Miracle League baseball field. Yes. Tell me about that.

Dereck Jensen: [00:36:55] So last year was our second year in business and we had experienced some real major, major growth. It was let me just start by saying I have no business being in business. So for anybody who’s thinking about starting a small business, do it. Do it. Okay. Because I got no business being in business and here I am in business kicking ass. So do it.

Sharon Cline: [00:37:25] All right.

Dereck Jensen: [00:37:28] I met a man by the name of Robert STROH’S Meyer, and he is the one who put that all together. He actually had that field built. He did it for the children that suffer from like. All different kinds of mental health and physical. Right. And it’s all kids that are on the spectrum, on all sides of the spectrum, some some some away on this side, some away on this side. Truth And and all of them are definitely different. Right. And so Robert’s just just one of those kind of guys. He he’s a he’s Cherokee County, you know, he’s he’s a Cherokee County guy and he’s really that’s his that’s his niche, Right? That’s that’s what he is is soft on is the kids that that are different you know and because he’s a sports competitive type of guy as well, he wanted to create an atmosphere so that these kids didn’t feel different so they could still have their time and have their place. That just that just resonates so much with me. You know, as a kid that’s got learning disabilities with ADHD and dyslexia and not doing well in school at all.

Dereck Jensen: [00:38:44] Graduating high school with a third grade education level, thank God that the the SATs weren’t mandatory or else I would never got a diploma. Thank God for the the eighties and nineties. Huh? They were great, at any rate. So that’s that’s kind of what happened there. And I was able to meet Mr. Robert at an event that he did and see what was going on, and I kind of just latched on to him right away and was like, Hey, listen, I really, really like what you’re doing. I really, really respect this a great deal. How can I help? Right? Like what? What what can I do to help? Like, do I need to come here and change your trash bags? What do I need to do? How can I help? This is awesome. And we developed a really good friendship, you know, and I wind up basically sponsoring his league. There’s many different sponsors that sponsor it, but I wind up sponsoring his league and doing some things. And I basically said, Hey, look, any time you guys need me, let me know and I’ll never charge you a dime.

Sharon Cline: [00:39:49] Wow. It must feel so good.

Dereck Jensen: [00:39:53] It’s the right thing to do. It goes back to being a good human. Just be a good human. It’s not hard. Just wake up in the morning and look yourself in the mirror and say, I’m going to be a good human today and then go do that.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:03] What do you find most rewarding about your job?

Dereck Jensen: [00:40:08] Boy, that’s a that’s a really, really tough question. There’s so much and I’m not even being facetious. There’s really so much. I think the biggest one is. A real sense of independence because.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:25] You did this?

Dereck Jensen: [00:40:26] Well, not only did I do this, but. I can wake up in the morning and decide what I want to do. I don’t answer to nobody. I have complete freedom. Complete freedom. I don’t have to worry about anything.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:42] You don’t have someone micromanaging you?

Dereck Jensen: [00:40:44] Not. And I don’t have to worry about appeasing nobody or pleasing nobody. It’s. It’s. It’s all right here. And I love me, Sami. So we’re good.

Sharon Cline: [00:40:55] Sorry. I’m going to use that in future conversations with people. Another gem. Another gem. That was funny. Okay, so what else do you find most rewarding? I mean, I know it’s like wonderful other people have mentioned this to on the show that it’s just wonderful to be your own boss. But. What else would you say is sort of what drives you?

Dereck Jensen: [00:41:19] I guess basically the. The knowledge part, right? Going out to these people’s homes and educating them on exactly what exterior cleaning solutions is, and then showing them and then breaking down the process for them. And then also that translates to the industry as well. Because I’ve been able to help out some other pressure washing companies. You know, I’ll see the $99 sign on the side of the road and and I’ll call that kid. I’ll pick up the phone and call that kid and say, Hey, listen, do you want to learn? Wow. Know do you want to learn the right way or do you want to up your tickets because you’re killing the industry right now doing this. And I’ll try to teach them and I’ll try some of them a little hotheaded. They bless them. They need some time and they’ll get it and they will eventually they’ll delete the delete the learn and they’ll make the adjustments or they’ll go out of business. It’s really that simple. But that’s the most rewarding part of it, is being able to educate on both sides of the spectrum. Because I’m highly desired in Cherokee County, a lot a lot of these other companies see what I’m doing. I just came on the scene. I’m kind of like the new guy, but yet I’m making a whole lot of noise. And so we did the steeple up at the Little Ones Learning Center in Canton. And people were just blown away with that. It looked like a brand new steeple. Everyone stopped to ask questions. And other companies are seeing it. People are seeing it. So they’re asking me, you know, Derek, what is this? What is exterior cleaning solutions? What is this thing? Because now the curious before they thought it was a gimmick. But now they’re curious because.

Sharon Cline: [00:42:59] This is.

Dereck Jensen: [00:43:00] All right. And so they’re asking me questions. And basically what I tell them is I say we live in a world that’s ever evolving with technology. I’m going to use your cell phone for an example. An iPhone comes out today. Five more come out within three months and yours is obsolete. It’s constantly evolving. It’s constantly changing. And that’s what happened within the pressure washer industry. Pressure washing was the only trick in pony for a very, very long time before a couple of smart guys come out with soft washing and a way to do that. And they they introduced electric operated pumps over gas powered equipment. So that was a real solution right there. That was a big solution to a major problem. And it took off. I mean, it really took off. And then, lo and behold, it was way more effective as well. So it stuck. Pressure washer went bye bye and and soft wash and took over. And it’s been on a five year hard core run, hot and heavy. And it’s been doing great. But again, things change. We live in that kind of world now where if you are not constantly staying ahead of that curve, you’re going to get passed, you’re going to get left behind. It’s just the way it is. And a couple of us who Greg’s been doing it a long time.

Dereck Jensen: [00:44:22] Jay’s been doing it quite a long time. I’m still kind of I consider myself a baby. I’ve only been in the business effectively for two years. My first year was just learning, so I can’t take credit for that. But I’ve actually only been watching two years and. Being able to wash at a level. That I’m washing at, applying the techniques that I’m applying, not using bleach, using proper chemicals, going out and speaking to these chemical manufacturers, going out and touring their facilities, going out to different events and getting the education and getting the knowledge. That’s really the biggest joy that I that I have is because. I get to do the work and then I get to see the benefits from that work and I get to see it on multiple levels. I get to do the work on one level, but then I get to see the benefits of it on multiple levels. I get to see the industry respect me. I get to see the community, respect me, I get to see my customers, respect me, and I even get my competitors and my haters to respect me. So we’re going to have to get some new haters, huh? Because the new the ones I got now are fans.

Sharon Cline: [00:45:40] Where do you want to see your company in like five years? What would you like to see your company do in the future?

Dereck Jensen: [00:45:48] Well, I haven’t set that five year plan. We’re currently three years into a five year plan, and the first five year plan was just to make it through the five year plan alive. Kind of. No, I’m kidding. But the first five years was basically, look, let’s really see if we can do this. Give yourself five years. Go ahead. Try and give yourself an honest five years and then see where you’re at. Don’t get discouraged the first year in the second you give it, give it five years and see where you’re at and you’ll have a chart to look at a growth chart. You know, a year isn’t enough. Two years isn’t enough. You need five at a minimum to to average a growth.

Sharon Cline: [00:46:25] Chart to really see it, to.

Dereck Jensen: [00:46:26] Really see it and make an educated decision at that point. Is this worth it? I’m three years in and I can already answer that question. So I’m getting ready to write a five year plan and that’s going to be it right there. The question you just asked, Where do I see myself? Right now the vision is. To basically. And I know this sounds really huge, but change the way the industry is done right? I want to be an innovator within the industry and I want to change the way these things are being done and bring the knowledge to the people that, look, you don’t need to cut corners. You can use the right products. You. You should be charging the right price. It’s okay.

Sharon Cline: [00:47:17] If people want to get in touch with you, if they would like to inquire about your services or even the way that you are giving back to the community, what’s the best way they can find you?

Dereck Jensen: [00:47:26] They can find me on Facebook. Jenson Precision pile washing restoration. It’s a public. It’s not private. You can find me on there. You can find me on YouTube. Precision power washing my cell phones. 4044314576. If you want to call me, call me. I’ll answer the phone, I promise. You can go on Google. You can check us out on Google. We’re a five star company and again, we’re the only exterior cleaning company in Cherokee County. But I really do encourage anyone who has any questions or has any thoughts about this. Go ahead and look at that Google Review sheet that I got on there. Check out what the customers are saying about me. Don’t take my word for it. Take the people that are paying me. And lastly, in closing, if I could just touch on a little bit. A few of the major, major things that have been just so. So beneficial to me for being a good human. And this is I want to touch on this a little bit is the strength of of this community. I don’t know many other communities in Georgia because I’ve only been in this one. But I can tell you the strength in this community, I mean, it is just unreal, you know? People in this community really care. They really do. And it’s sincere. It’s not fake.

Sharon Cline: [00:48:49] It’s special.

Dereck Jensen: [00:48:50] It really is. I haven’t quite figured out why that can’t expand some more, but it really is. It’s really great. And I want to give a huge thanks to the whole Cherokee County community. Everybody within that community that does what they do, whether I know you or whether I don’t know you, I want to say thank you for making and keeping Cherokee County awesome, because it is I mean, it’s just a great, great place.

Sharon Cline: [00:49:16] Well, Derrick, thank you so much for coming into the studio and sharing your story and all of you listening. Thank you for listening to a fearless formula on Business RadioX. And I also just want to say I really appreciate that you’re giving just in closing, you’re giving a shout out to the people who really maybe struggle in the beginning parts of their life, because lots of people do and they don’t like to talk about it. And in just normalizing that as being there’s a way to get through it and there are people that can help you. I just appreciate that. So thank you so much for doing that.

Dereck Jensen: [00:49:47] You’re very welcome. It’s it’s one of those things that’s much needed. You lead by example and maybe more people see how this goes and and you break the cycle.

Sharon Cline: [00:49:57] That is huge. Breaking the cycle. All right. Well, this is Sharon Cline reminding you that with knowledge and understanding, we can all have our own fearless formula. Have a great day.