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Huge Transformations

Huge Transformations

Written by: The Huge
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 Welcome to the Huge Transformations Podcast—your go-to source for building a thriving, profitable home service business! Hosted by Sid Graef from Montana, Gabe Torres from Nashville and Sheila Smeltzer from North Carolina, this show is all about real talk with real business owners. We dive deep with industry leaders who have built 7- and 8-figure home service companies and are eager to share their hard-earned wisdom. No fake gurus here—just straight-up insights from entrepreneurs who’ve been in the trenches. Every episode is packed with 100% real-world experience and 0% theory. Expect unfiltered conversations about the wins, the setbacks, and everything in between. Our guests reveal the costly mistakes to avoid and the strategies that actually work, giving you the tools to transform your business into something extraordinary. Ready to take your home service business to the next level? Let’s dive in!Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Economics
Episodes
  • 38: The Jon Eastty Episode

    38: The Jon Eastty Episode
    Apr 20 2026
    On this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, Sid Graef sits down with John Eastty of Perfect Angle Studios, a videographer and visual storyteller whose career started in high school when he took a video production class, got a business permit, and immediately began booking wedding videos. Over the past two decades, John has grown that early hustle into a professional video business serving clients in both the Northeast and South Florida, with work spanning weddings, conferences, expos, and commercial projects. What makes this episode especially useful for home service owners is that the conversation is not really about weddings or cameras. It is about marketing, trust, and showing up in a way that helps customers choose you faster. John and Sid dig into why video matters so much now, how even simple phone-shot content can outperform polished but empty marketing, and why owners should stop overthinking social media and start answering real customer questions on camera. They also talk about AI versus real content, how to think about authenticity, and why the best marketing comes from genuinely wanting to help the customer win. It is a practical episode for any business owner who wants to build trust, stand out online, and create better content without making it more complicated than it needs to be. Resources Perfect Angle Studios Light It Up Expo The Huge Insider newsletter signup The Huge Insider podcast downloadable action guide The Huge Mastermind info page The Huge Convention Transcript:  Hello everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I'm Sid Graef out of Montana. I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. And I'm Sheila Smeltzer from North Carolina, we are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders in. The industry folks that have already built seven and eight figure businesses and they want to help you succeed. Yep. No fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100% experience. 0% theory. We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the Wild Journey of Entrepreneurship. Let's dive in. Hey, my friends, it's Sid with the huge Transformation Show. Thanks for taking your time to listen. This one's, this one's interesting and fun. I'm talking to somebody that's not in the home service industry at all. Matter of fact, they started their career as a wedding photographer, wedding videographer. Now they have a professional video crew. But the way John thinks my guest is John Easty, the way he thinks and his bias for action and his very focused desire to serve his customer at a very high level is gonna be very insightful. To everybody and well, I'll tell you the rest on the episode. I hope you enjoy this conversation with John and learn a ton from it. There's some great practical takeaways that'll help your business. With that, let's jump into our episode and conversation. Meet John Easty. Hey everybody, it's Sid with the Huge Transformations podcast, and we've got another great episode today. I've got my friend John East Easty, Easty, I'm saying it right, right, Easty. Exactly, yes. Okay. Cool. In my head, I'm, I'm slightly dyslexic and I always wanna say Etsy and I know that's not right 'cause it's not Etsy Easty. Um, but John's got a professional videography company. He is Perfect Angle Studios, and he's in the South Florida area. I know you go back and forth for the, you know, the northeast, um, to South Florida. But I, before we go any further, I know one of you guys listening or you're thinking. Sid, this is a show about home service businesses and power washers and doing that stuff. Why do you have a wedding photographer on or a photography company? Guy and I, and I will tell you why in advance and then we're gonna get into the conversation is number one, uh, John has been to the huge convention a couple of times. John has done video work for some of our industry leaders like Ryan Lee that does, uh, lighting secrets and. Also, John, you've got some really keen insight into visual storytelling that we can all use, and then mostly your mindset and your bias for action. And I take it from the very first conversation we had. So that's where we're gonna start. If I recall correctly, we talked about a year, maybe a year and a half ago, we were looking at coming to the huge convention. We were talking about different videography needs, and I asked you how you got started and you're like, Hey, I took a videography class in high school. And most people that ...
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    41 mins
  • 37: The James Riley Episode

    37: The James Riley Episode
    Apr 13 2026
    On this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, Sheila Smeltzer sits down with James Riley of Upper Cumberland Window Cleaning, a 13-year business owner in rural Tennessee who is pushing to break through the million-dollar mark. James shares one of the more honest and heartfelt growth stories in the series, explaining how he got into window cleaning almost by accident, bought a struggling route with barely any real customers, burned through his savings, and had to take a janitor job just to keep his family afloat while rebuilding the company from the ground up. What makes his story stand out is not just the grind, but the conviction behind it: James built the business with a long-term vision of creating one of the best places to work in his area and leaving behind something bigger than himself. James and Sheila talk through the realities of scaling in a smaller market, dealing with new competitors, improving systems, and making the shift from owner-operator to actual business leader. They also get into employee retention, company culture, transparency, performance pay, coaching, and the challenge of not letting the owner become the bottleneck. Throughout the conversation, James makes it clear that his business is driven by faith, family, and service to people, and that perspective shapes everything from leadership to hiring to how he defines success. It is a strong episode for owners trying to push past a revenue ceiling while building a company with real heart. Resources Upper Cumberland Window Cleaning Upper Cumberland Window Cleaning Facebook Upper Cumberland Window Cleaning Instagram The Huge Insider newsletter signup The Huge Insider podcast downloadable action guide The Huge Mastermind info page The Huge Convention Transcript:  Hello everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I'm Sid Graef out of Montana. I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. And I'm Sheila Smeltzer from North Carolina, we are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders in. The industry folks that have already built seven and eight figure businesses and they want to help you succeed. Yep. No fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100% experience. 0% theory. We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the Wild Journey of Entrepreneurship. Let's dive in. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I am Sheila Smeltzer, your host and contributor. Today I'm interviewing James Riley. James Riley is from Upper Cumberland Window Cleaning, and he is a 13 year company that is aiming to go to, aiming to hit a million dollars this year. So if you are in that space, if you are in that realm of size of business and you're looking to break through the ceiling of a million dollars, you wanna listen to this. The cool part about this interview today is this is a little bit different. We talk about operations, we talk about sales, we talk about systems, but what you're gonna find from listening to this wonderful person, James Riley, is how much heart we should all aspire to have for our own companies. He 100% wants to just. His goal is to just have the best place to work. He loves providing opportunities for people. And he loves people. Um, he's a very spiritual man. Um, and you'll see how that comes through to him, really crushing it in business. This is so cool. I love this stuff. You know, we all have our own individual and unique contributions and we can play that out however we want in our own companies, and I think it's really neat to, to experience the way that. We're all doing it. So be an active listener. That is my, that is my wish for you today is to be an active listener. Listen to what we can learn from James Riley, and we are just here in every single interview to help you grow. Enjoy the show. Hey listeners, this is Sheila Smeltzer with the Huge Transformations Podcast. Thank you for joining us today. Um, we're gonna have a nice conversation with James Riley out of Tennessee. Uh, James owns Upper Cumberland Window Cleaning, and he's been in the business for about 13 years, and, uh, just by getting a little soft opening with him before the recording today. Um, I really wanna get into James, uh, life in his 13 years. He's right at that breaking the ceiling from 800,000 to a million dollars. And we wanna dive deep and see what's good, what's difficult, and what he thinks that he could have done differently so that we can help all of our listeners, um, avoid any ...
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    54 mins
  • 36: The Brandon Smith Episode

    36: The Brandon Smith Episode
    Apr 6 2026
    On this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, host Sheila Smeltzer sits down with Brandon Smith, a retired Army First Sergeant turned first-time franchise owner of M1 Epoxy Floors in the Nashville area. Brandon shares what it really looks like to jump into entrepreneurship after 23 years in the military—trading structure and support systems for the chaos of wearing every hat in a small business. From sales and marketing to installation, bookkeeping, and hiring, Brandon gives a raw, honest look at his first 18 months in business and how his military mindset—especially adaptability and resilience—has helped him navigate the pressure. Brandon and Sheila also break down the realities of running a high-ticket, non-recurring service business. They talk about the challenges of cash flow, managing large project costs, learning financial forecasting the hard way, and why closing sales is critical when every job is a one-time opportunity. Brandon shares key lessons on hiring for character over skill, building an install team, and leveraging systems like CRMs to stay organized. They also explore how joining the Huge Mastermind shifted his thinking—especially around understanding market size, opportunity, and simplifying growth. It’s a valuable episode for newer entrepreneurs and anyone trying to turn early momentum into a sustainable, scalable business. Resources M1 Epoxy Floors Veteran Service Brands Housecall Pro QuickBooks The Huge Insider newsletter signup The Huge Insider podcast downloadable action guide The Huge Mastermind info page The Huge Convention Transcript:  Hello everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I'm Sid Graef out of Montana. I'm Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee. And I'm Sheila Smeltzer From North Carolina, we are your hosts and guides through the landscape of growing a successful home service business. We do this by interviewing the best home service business builders in the industry, folks that have already built seven and eight figure businesses, and they want to help you succeed. Yep. No fake gurus on this show, just real life owners that have been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably. We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100% experience, 0% theory. We are going to dig deep and reveal the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our guests will share with you the pitfalls to avoid and the keys to winning. In short, our guests will show you how to transform your home service business into a masterpiece. Thanks for joining us on the wild. Journey of entrepreneurship. Let's dive in. Hello? Hello, listeners. It's Sheila Smeltzer, a plus Pro Services and huge transformations podcast contributor. I am very excited today I introduce an interview. Brandon Smith with M1 Epoxy Floors, who is an 18 month new franchise owner, franchisee owner, uh, who shares a lot of his new entrepreneurial experiences with us. We talk about the good, the difficult, what we would do different. We talk about how his. Retired army, uh, experience has landed into his leadership skills and, uh, entrepreneur entrepreneurial skills, how he's wearing so many hats. We cover everything from tactical work and the details about epoxy floors, fixed revenue to recurring revenue. We talk about wearing all the hats. Um, this is just an awesome, authentic interview that I know that all of our listeners will gain something from. Um, I really enjoyed getting to know Brandon today, and I thank all of you for listening. Let's dive in. Hello everyone, this is Sheila Smeltzer with the Huge Transformations Podcast and I have Brandon Smith with Mach one Epoxy Floris here joining us today. Hey Brandon, good morning. Thank you for having me. I love this. This is gonna be super fun. Uh, Brandon is retired army sergeant and he is a first year franchise e owner of Mock One Epoxy Floors based outta West Nashville. And we're gonna have a lot of fun today and really insightful conversation about the correlation between your background and how, you know, your serving in the Army has helped you with, you know, starting as an entrepreneur. Um, I love that you're pretty new in the entrepreneurial journey, so this is gonna be great. Um, and I, you know, I wanna first start and just get to know you, but Brandon, introduce yourself. Uh, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and a little bit about Mach One. Okay. Um, so yes, I am, uh, just under 18 months business owner. Uh, I bought a franchise Wan Epoxy. Um, we do operate in the greater Nashville area, Nashville West based. Um, I've been, like I said, I've been doing that for about 18 months, but prior to that I spent 23 years in the Army. I retired as a senior enlisted advisor or a first and a, uh, first sergeant. Um, over a counter drug task force. Um. In that is vastly different, but a lot of the same, going from that role, transitioning to a business owner, um, a little...
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    1 hr and 1 min
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