FOCUS with David Heacock, CEO at Filterbuy.com
In this episode of Exploring Growth, host Lee Murray talks with David Heacock, CEO of FilterBuy. The conversation highlights the importance of focus, learning from mistakes, and creating a mission-driven company. David also offers practical advice on personal branding and accountability for entrepreneurs navigating growth and distractions.
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Lee – https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehmurray
David – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfilterbuy/
David Heacock
00:00:00
People think, oh, this is just this moment. Like one day you're going to wake up and say, you know what an air filter is, is how I'm going to go and make my money. And that is just never how it works, at least in my experience. You have to be willing to put in the work, build, build the skill set, you know? experiment, kind of, get some experience, maybe working for somebody else. Kind of just seeing how things work, work so that then you can get the insights that that are going to give you that idea that then you, you really believe in and you can and you can commit to.
Lee Murray
00:00:36
So a few weeks ago, I was tooling around on LinkedIn, as I do, and I saw a professionally shot video of a guy talking about this mission that he was on, growing his business from 250 million to 1 billion and beyond. And his story caught my attention immediately. It was not only the story, the the message content of it, but the actual video, because that's part of what my agency does is we create video like this.
Lee Murray
00:01:01
So I was very impressed. And I went down this rabbit hole trying to figure out who is this guy. And I was so intrigued at what I found that I reached out to him. I asked him to be on the podcast and to my delight, he accepted. I'm not going to say any more. We can get into his story now. My guest today is David Haycock, CEO of filter B.Com. Welcome to the show, David.
David Heacock
00:01:25
Thank you for having me. Lee.
Lee Murray
00:01:28
I'm super pumped about this conversation. I mean, I don't know you that well, but just from what I've seen, you know, you've, you've it's like you, you were invisible and now you are very visible.
David Heacock
00:01:43
Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. I, you know, spent the first 12 years or so of my entrepreneurial journey with literally zero public presence and zero social media presence, and it's actually something I was quite proud of. You know, like if you did a Google search for me. You wouldn't even find a picture of me.
David Heacock
00:02:00
You'd find nothing. and, you know, for a long time, I thought that was, how I wanted to live my whole life, to be honest with you. you know, I, see all of the kind of downsides of, you know, being publicly known and what that brings, and especially when you're, like, going out and kind of doing different and big things. there's some value, to anonymity. Yeah. but, you know, I about, two years ago, I now started kind of having a little bit of a maybe midlife crisis. I was I just turned 40 and, was, you know, I built this, you know, fairly substantial business, and kind of looking at myself and saying, okay, what do I want to do with the rest of my life? Do I want to sell this business and retire and and live happily ever after? Or what is it like? What is the reason? and I ultimately decided that, you know, for me, I really enjoy what I do.
David Heacock
00:02:56
And, you know, life is about the journey. There is no kind of fixed destination. And I think that, I knew for me to find, I needed to have a reason to wake up every single day to be excited about, with something that fueled me and kind of went down, you know, the kind of rabbit hole of figuring out, like, how do I define that? And I ultimately settled on my mission of building the world's leading indoor air quality company. it's kind of the the guiding, mission for me that drives all of my actions and everything that I do and anything that I do within business, at least. And, you know, that has really been the the focusing agent for me in what's going next and like, and I start reverse engineering, you know, what does it take to become the world's leading indoor air quality company from where I am? And, there's a realization within that that it's not something that I can do on my own. It's going to take, you know, a whole movement of people and a whole team of people in order to be able to achieve something like that.
David Heacock
00:04:02
and if you want to do that, then you have to be public, because otherwise, if people don't know about you, they're not going to come along for the journey or for your ride. And, and so I did a complete 180 and I think it was October 18th or so of, 2024, just a few months ago, I launched my first video on YouTube, and started this whole, you know, process of building a personal brand, with my mission being to, to build the world's leading indoor air quality company. and, you know, I have a decent amount of infrastructure that we've already built within filter by, that gives me the, the resources to be able to attack such a problem. and, you know, I hope to use my personal brand to be able to expand our scope, and meet other good like minded individuals to partner with us, on that journey.
Lee Murray
00:04:51
Yeah. well, you're doing a fantastic job. And I have to say, your team is doing great. I mean, I love it.
Lee Murray
00:04:56
It's very polished. no criticisms. And it's funny because when we first, when I first started my podcast, I had some marketers on. This is like a year and a half ago and we, we had this discussion around, is it possible to grow a company with no social media? And I even wanted to take it to the next, to the next degree to say, without a website that might be taken a little too far because websites are very important. But, you know, these, these marketers, I knew it was going to be a challenge for them because they're really a lot B2C. And so there's a lot of social that's involved, ads and that kind of thing. And I'm really more heavily on B2B. And so for me, it was simple. It's like, yes, there are millions of people around the world right now building big companies, and they don't even know how to how to even operate Facebook. Right. So I think it's to that, to that problem in that nature.
Lee Murray
00:05:49
I think it's really cool to see that you are living proof of that. Like you are over here doing your thing, you know, and doing great things, and then all of a sudden decided to say, hey, if we're going to do it at the next level, I could see how social media and YouTube and some other platforms would be a great tool for me to leverage to do that same thing. But it wasn't let's do social media for the sake of doing social media.
David Heacock
00:06:14
Yeah, I mean, I think people end up conflating a lot of different things. I mean, you know, I am currently in the process of renovating a house house here in West Palm. And, you know, one thing that's problematic when you're doing that is the permitting process. And that process, I actually met a guy who's, I would guess in his early 60s that for the last decade is kind of a second career. He has been a permit mediator, and he expedients billions of dollars of permits down here in South Florida and makes a very healthy living doing that.
David Heacock
00:06:48
And all. He he barely uses email. All he does is he has a phone and he has connectivity within the permit offices that he's built those relationships. and he has become known as the guy that can get permits done. And so people pay him a lot of money to do that. And he has no website. he has a Gmail account. If you message him and you're not going to likely, you know, be able to get in touch with him if you do. But it's, you know, purely, you know, leveraging relationships and, then referrals. And that's how he's been able to build a business. and I think that there are countless examples out there like it. so, like, people are lying to themselves if they think there is one way of, of building something. but then you look at me, I mean, I, I understand internet marketing, you know, at a very deep level. Filter by was built off of, you know, what I would call intent based marketing.
David Heacock
00:07:39
So if people are in market for an air filter, then we have dominated that space for the last decade. and so, you know, I have utilized, you know, the, the marketing tools against that brand over a long period of time. And, I mean, and that is that kind of marketing is, in fact, how we built the customer base that we have today. But that's very different than like me being on social media. Me being building in public, me having a brand. And I think that a lot of times people kind of get lost between the two. Like they're kind of stuck between the ego of wanting to have this kind of known presence and being able to show off to their friends, all this kind of stuff versus like, hey, what do I actually need to build the brand of the business? And really, like when you're building a business, just like with my permitting example, but also within filter by you, you're building your reputation as a business over a long period of time.
David Heacock
00:08:31
And that is ultimately that your greatest asset is that that kind of reputation and that customer experience, how you treat your customers and that word of mouth, which ultimately leads to a sustainable, long term business. and that's really the most important thing when I think about, you know, building a brand. I mean, you can do that, you know, against your personal brand. And now I'm, I'm obviously taking that leap of, of doing that against my, my personal brand, because I think it can be powerful if it can be authentic and unique to you. But it certainly is not necessary to build a business. And I think there there are countless examples out there, of where it's not been necessary to build to, you know, to build your business.
Lee Murray
00:09:10
Yes, exactly. And I think the personal brand has leveraged leverage in a different way. so take us back to before filter buy before we get to that. Who were you and what did you do leading up to Filter by?
David Heacock
00:09:27
Yeah.
David Heacock
00:09:27
So the long story short is I'm from Talladega, Alabama originally, which is a small town of less than 10,000 people. And, you know, has probably reduced population my whole, my whole life. and, but I grew up around a family business that was largely in the industrial supply sector that my grandfather started. And so I kind of got early kind of entrepreneurship insights from that and was always it was always an entrepreneur growing up. You know, I built websites, I built, computers when you used to be able to buy the components and then build it as a computer and then sell it on eBay. You know, in my when I was 15 or 16, you know, I had a decent little business like that. And I always experimented, you know, kind of coming up, coming of age in the 90s, you know, when all this stuff was, was the internet was really starting to take hold. I went off to college, and ultimately landed a job at Goldman Sachs, where I, you know, worked for seven years and ultimately ran the emerging market options trading business, in New York, where I was, you know, trading foreign exchange options and, you know, basically if you were, a corporate or a hedge fund looking to do some type of a trade on in Brazil or Mexico and wanted to hedge some risk.
David Heacock
00:10:41
And you needed a price on an option. I was the guy that you would call, and, you know, I, kind of fast forward to, you know, 2012. my family was kind of going through the sale of the family business. My grandfather was, you know, at the end of his life, in his early 90s, he didn't really want to see it sold. and so I kind of took a leap and bought this dying industrial supply business. you know, doing no due diligence or anything. You kind of used all my all the money I had to to to do it. and, you know, found myself. I quit my job, bought the business, and, you know, I guess November 1st, 2012, walk into it and I'm like, oh, what am I going to do with this thing? and I really had no idea. but I started looking at it, and I realized that the business called Titling Machinery and Supply Company was was not going to stand the test of time.
David Heacock
00:11:37
It was basically, you know, you know, we had like 3 or 4 outside salespeople with an average age of probably 60 years old that were kind of, you know, relying on existing, you know, legacy customer relationships. But, like, we weren't really offering great value, like, we were buying and selling product and like, we were competing with the Grangers or the Amazons of the world. you know, you could see the writing on the wall like, hey, this thing, this thing isn't going to last very long. and so I had to come up with something, and I ultimately, I was looking for a product that I could manufacture competitively in the United States, and sell direct to end user, like, you know, the direct to consumer movement was really big at the time. And for me, what direct to consumer meant was like, oh, if I could actually manufacture a product and sell it direct to the end user, then I would have a sustainable competitive advantage.
David Heacock
00:12:26
that's actually not in practice. What most, you know, B2C customer companies are, they're generally just brands that are using contract manufacturing to sell. So that's not really direct to consumer how I define it, but that's how kind of the world defined it. But for me, it was important to find something I could manufacture competitively, and I didn't want to have to compete with imports. because I kind of knew like so much stuff was manufactured in China or Mexico and other places. And I thought, like, what product lines could I would, would fit this bill and ultimately settle between, remanufactured ink cartridges and pleated air filters, and chose pleated air filters. Hence now now filter by but there, there, you know, unique dynamics in those markets. But like in the air filter market, there are, you know, lots of different SKUs like we have about 300 different sizes because in practice there are all these sizes that are in these buildings. So like, no, like hardware store or Walmart could possibly have all the sizes that you need.
David Heacock
00:13:26
And then a lot of older buildings actually have custom size air filters, which are, you know, actually cut and capped from an existing air filter is how you actually manufacture them to, to to for that use case. And, you know, the supply chain for that was such that oftentimes you were waiting eight weeks to be able to get delivery on that. And I kind of realized, well, I could, you know, manufacture these and do the customization work and ship it, you know, Fedex to the, to the end user, and have a sustainable advantage with that. and so, you know, I started that process in early 2013. initially thought I was just going to buy the product from a, another manufacturer and then do the customization work as needed and, scale that way quickly realize that, you know, you have to be able to stay in stock on all your different SKUs if you're going to be able to be successful in the air culture business, because people buy at least a lot of larger customers might buy, you know, five sizes or ten sizes at a time, depending on the kind of use case.
David Heacock
00:14:27
And if you didn't have one of those sizes, you couldn't take the business. and we ran out of stock quite a lot early on and I thought, well, if I want to do this at scale, I have no choice but to manufacture it, right? And so without any, previous experience in the air filter world, I, took, took, made that hubristic move of saying, hey, I'm going to go and, start a I'm just going to start manufacturing on my own. you know, having never even been in an air filter manufacturing facility myself, I just said, how hard could it be? it is, in theory, it's quite simple. but you quickly realize, how difficult it is to scale. and so, you know, basically spent the first five years in the business, you know, figuring out how to, to manufacture air filters. We were not doing it competitively. if we were, if we did not have a direct to consumer model, we would have been losing money.
David Heacock
00:15:18
we were able to kind of stay afloat because we were, you know, selling at a higher price point than you would if you were, like, doing it at a wholesale basis. But it really took us about five years to be able to manufacture a product that was cheaper than I could have bought it from somebody else. you know, and that it was a much longer learning curve than I initially imagined it would be. But we finally kind of got over the hump with that and started to find our footing. and then Covid happened, which was a very big tailwind for our business. I mean, I scaled the business to about $70 million or so a year by 2019, which is, you know, it's still a substantial business. But, in order to do our kind of stuff, you really need a decent amount of scale. We were still kind of figuring it out. And the, and then Covid happened and there was a huge tailwind was all of like the higher Merv ratings and, and whatnot that we're kind of niche before, became very much, you know, they were talked about on the news with, you know, Andrew Cuomo in New York saying you need a Merv 13 air filter if you want to open up your restaurant.
David Heacock
00:16:21
And yeah, it was great kind of marketing. And, you know, we were like one of the largest in that space, you know, before Covid and then Covid happened and it was like a great tailwind for us. And I really used that as an opportunity to expand and expand our customer base. and we were able to acquire customers in that couple year period, at a much higher rate than we ever had been previously. And because we kind of expanded our footprint, we were able to harness that and really build the customer base that we have today. That's really propelled us into to what we have today. So that's the kind of very long story short.
Lee Murray
00:16:56
Yeah, that's a great arc. so let's go back to your bought your grandfather's company, and you're doing a lot of things. How did you decide? I know you covered this very quickly, but, you know, kind of double clicking into that. How did you decide from all of these things that you're selling to pick air filters, or you had a couple things you were trying to decide on, but how did you again, to to our coming conversation about focus, how did you focus down from, you know, multiple products to 1 or 2?
David Heacock
00:17:27
Yeah, I'll give you the slightly longer winded answer for that one, because I think it's important in that, you know, when I talk about when I talk about an entrepreneurship arc, I think that people need to understand that it really starts, I really started probably when I was 11 because, you know, I was always in, in business, of some kind, always had side hustles, was always experimenting.
David Heacock
00:17:51
I'm a big experimenter, which I think is important. Even though we'll talk about focus, focus, a larger focus is certainly key. But but you have to be kind of go down rabbit holes and experiment, when you're figuring things out sometimes, and, you know, part of the story that I left out before was, you know, during, I started Goldman in 2005, and in 2007 is when I actually moved to the trading desk within within, within Goldman. in 2007 is when, like the financial crisis started to, to happen. and I saw a lot of people around me getting fired, and I was convinced I was going to lose my job. And I had a, wife. She's still my wife, but at the time she was in, in medical school, and I was very proud of the fact that I was able to pay for her to go to medical school without taking on any debt, because I did not want to take on any debt. And, I was worried about losing my job.
David Heacock
00:18:47
And so I started a side hustle where I was, I was an affiliate marketer for StubHub. And, you know, I made an in 2008 or 2009, like $550,000 from as an affiliate from StubHub, which is a lot of money to me at the time. And, and I started thinking, wow, that that's pretty interesting. And then, I was like, wouldn't it be better if I actually owned the product or on the offer? And so I started a company in early 2009 called My Office Delivered, where we were effectively dropshipping office supplies, to, you know, largely on Amazon. and, you know, I actually scaled that to about $5.5 million in 2009. It was a low margin business. but but, I when I look back at that $5.5 million, about, 25% of it was pleated air filters from a, small drop shipper, in Creole, Alabama. and another 25% of it was ink cartridges. And then the rest was a bunch of office products. And I ultimately then get fired.
David Heacock
00:19:52
Actually, the financial crisis was great for me from a career perspective. I had to shut down that business because, I didn't have the bandwidth to continue to to run that and do my very taxing day job. and so I, you know, shut that down. Did my day job. And then, you know, fast forward a few years, ultimately bought the industrial supply business. And so that is why, like because of that previous experience that I had had, which I think is so important, I was like, okay, well, these are two markets I should look at, right? and so, then I, then I did a deep dive on those two markets. and I realized that, like, in the cartridge market, I don't know a ton about it now, but like, I know like the OEMs, like the HP's of the world or the canons or whatever for them, the ink is a very big revenue generator. And so they they have a lot of, protections around patents and, and all of this kind of stuff that, yeah, you can go in and you can work around and you can figure out a way to build a business around.
David Heacock
00:20:47
And there are some big businesses in that space. but I knew that I did not want to sign up for that. and also, like, I was kind of looking at the remanufacture part, which basically means you have to go and get a network of, of businesses that are going to give you their, their empty cartridges, and you refill them and you put them back. And so you have to build all the infrastructure around that, which, you know, I thought was an opportunity. But if you were able to do that at scale, there could be, you know, it could be a good business. But I just realized that for me, that was not a that was not super compelling. and so I, you know, and I saw the air filter opportunity and, you know, I kind of decided to go all in on that, and, that, that was, that was that was how the decision was ultimately made. But I think what's important about it, is people think, oh, this is just this moment.
David Heacock
00:21:35
Like one day you're going to wake up and say, you know, what an air filter is, is how I'm going to go and make my money. And, that is just never how it works, at least in my experience. you have to be willing to, put in the work, build, build the skill set, you know, experiment, kind of, get some experience, maybe working for somebody else, kind of just seeing how things work, work so that then you can get the insights that, that are going to give you, that idea that then you, you really believe in and you can and you can commit to. So for me, it was a multi-year process. it was not one, one, one moment. And I think that that's one thing that a lot of people get wrong when they're thinking about entrepreneurship.
Lee Murray
00:22:15
Yeah, 100%. I couldn't agree more. And, and now, as we move into our topic of focus, this is really actually what got triggered as as a very intriguing point in my mind when I saw your first video was, you know, just personally.
Lee Murray
00:22:35
And this is where I like to bring on guests, where I personally have an interest in the conversation. So, you know, it goes well. And also, it'd be nice that if the guests were interesting and they have good stories and that kind of thing too. But what stood out to me was the fact that you're talking about focus and and in my personal life and in my business, focus has become a preeminent thing that has to be or I'm going to continue on the same path of mediocre success that I've had so far. I just have realized, you know, this in the last year or so. and the more I focus, the more focus becomes the priority. And it's sort of, it's sort of, you know, cyclical, in my mind. And, so when I, when I saw that you were talking about focus, I said, oh, I've got to have you on and talk about I got to get your perspective on this. So as we launch into this topic and hearing from you about this, because this is your narrative, I mean, this is what you're talking about on the different channels.
Lee Murray
00:23:35
First, what I want to hear is your mission with filter by. Right. Like, what is it? Because, you know, I've seen the numbers going, you want to grow from 250 to 1 billion. And that's great to see the numbers. But what is that journey look like for you? Is it I mean, what's the mission? If you were to kind of state it plainly.
David Heacock
00:23:56
Yeah. So my mission actually has nothing to do with numbers, to be honest with you. Like, we're putting out the like we are. We did about $250 million of revenue last year. You know, we're targeting 280 million this year. And, you know, you know, I intend to take this business to a billion plus and well beyond. But the real driver is I'm on a mission to build the world's leading indoor air quality company. and, you know, like, if I achieve that or when I achieve that, that is a, multibillion dollar, ten tens of billions of dollar opportunity, right? So like that, that is how my that is how my mind thinks about that.
David Heacock
00:24:32
the time frame really doesn't matter to me. I mean, it's that I need to put myself on that path, on that trajectory. and so what I think people get confused on with focus. and, you know, maybe it's a little differentiated in how I think about it than maybe other people think about it is, you know, for me, it's important to know, what success successful in game looks looks like for me on a decade plus kind of time horizon. because I'm a big believer that people consistently overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade. And, you know, you need to really kind of take a step back out back and think about like, okay, like where? Like, what do I actually want out of life? Like, what am I actually looking to achieve achieve here? you know, on a macro. because then that is what is going to be the decision mechanism for all of your smaller day to day decisions. And so when I say focus, it's like, okay, well where am I going on a ten year period? Like where do I want to go? and then like all your short term, like once you have real clarity around that, like once you really know what it is that, that, that you want, which is going to look different for everybody and you have to have a lot of self-awareness.
David Heacock
00:25:49
Most people don't want to build $1 billion plus business, and most people shouldn't. It's really it's a path to misery for most people. For me, it works because I have a unique drive and a unique set of skills, skills, and it fuels me in a unique way. But it's not for most people. And that's okay. It shouldn't. It shouldn't be for most people. but I know that that's my long term vision. And that is my kind of focus mechanism, my forcing mechanism for all of my short term daily action. Right. Because like my I have to say, okay, is this action consistent with my like, long term vision is going to get me closer to that or not? And the answer is yes or no. And if is yes, then yes I'm going to to explore it. If it's no then I'm, I'm, I have I'm going to take it out. Right. and so I think where people get stuck is, you know, they, they, they're focusing on two like, too many small tasks, right.
David Heacock
00:26:41
And like, and that's not actually what I mean by focus. Like, sometimes, like I will go down rabbit holes or I will want to learn something because it's consistent with a skill set I need to build or with something I need that is for my long term focus. And that's okay. you know, you need that kind of creativity, to be able to evolve and to learn. and so that focus doesn't mean, oh, I'm just going to do this one thing day in and day out and hope for the best. because I'm focused on it, that's not really what it means to me, at least to me. It's about being very consistent in a long term vision or very consistent with the person I want to become or want to be, and then every day work towards being a little bit closer to that. And that's really what focus, means to me, if that makes any sense.
Lee Murray
00:27:25
It does. Yeah. This is a great, great start to this conversation, because what it's making me think of is, focus as a skill versus, more of a discipline.
Lee Murray
00:27:37
And I think it just sort of came to me because I've thought about this a lot as a discipline and also a discipline being self control, because you have to control yourself from not looking at the wrong things and staying focused. I think it has to start as a discipline, but really in business it, you know, it's hard to detach yourself emotionally from all the things that you're doing because it's just not possible. But objectively, it really should be a skill. It seems like that's what you're saying, is that you're building up a skill set of being able to stay on the path.
David Heacock
00:28:13
I reframe it just a little bit differently in that, like you talk about discipline, which is super important. I mean, discipline is more important than motivation, for sure, any day of the week. but, you know, purpose trumps discipline any day of the week. And so, that's why I say it has to you have to have something that is, is really, unique to you. compelling to you.
David Heacock
00:28:38
you have to have a vision that's so compelling to you that you're going to wake up every day and and be drawn to that. Like, you don't you can't. You're not relying on the discipline that, hey, I should do this. It's you're compelled by it. Right. That, that that is why you have to have that kind of bigger, you know, purpose, that bigger vision that is consistent with what you actually want. Because then you become compelled to that and all your actions compel you to building that. Right? That makes a lot.
Lee Murray
00:29:03
and also, if you get off the path, you you're going to be, feeling like I'm off the path because I shouldn't be doing this thing or focusing on this thing because I was compelled and compelled over here. And so the opposite is true.
David Heacock
00:29:19
Yeah. Well, you'll find you're not is you're compelled to it. You're not actually going to get back on it. And I think so many people end up trying to copy what somebody else is doing or like, like I have the saying I've used a lot that like, you know, copying somebody else's dreams is a sure path to misery.
David Heacock
00:29:33
and, and what social media is, is like people are, like, envious of some something that somebody else has and they're like, oh, I'm going to copy it. And then they don't quite achieve it, or then they, they achieve it and they find they're miserable. And why is that? Is because it's not actually your dream is somebody else's dream. and I think that that's what, social media, and the influencer culture has kind of caused, whereas people would be much smarter kind of looking inward a bit and being being honest, like, hey, you know, maybe I don't need, you know, $10 million house to be happy or a private jet to be happy like that. That's just not who I want. I don't want all the stress for that. I want stability, and I want like, like you. But. And for most people, like, it's gonna look completely different. You got to find what it looks like for you, you know, find your truth and then reverse engineer the life that leads to that.
David Heacock
00:30:23
and then once you're like, once you once you have that awareness, you're compelled to that, and you're going to wake up every day with that. And then you want to plan and be consistent on your plan and that kind of stuff and be realistic. but, you know, most people would find much more happiness and success if they followed that, that path.
Lee Murray
00:30:39
Yeah, it sounds like all of the focus and everything becomes much more natural and much more organic if you do have that purpose, because if you have that purpose, I think that's what people really struggle with is, you know, once you have that purpose and it makes sense to you. And I'm an analytical person, I'm a thinker. So things have to make sense for me, for me to be connected to them. And so when I have the purpose and I am connected to it, then it's just about the practical. I'm compelled to, you know, stick through any hardship or, you know, go through all the things like I'm there for it.
Lee Murray
00:31:13
But then it's just to the practical. And so my question for you on the practical part is how do you keep yourself from, like you said, you want to go down rabbit holes, right. And rabbit holes. Experiments can be good. And they should they should be part of the focus. But how do you know if you're going down the wrong rabbit holes, or if you're spending time in areas that you shouldn't be spending time in, whereas it would be more better spent on your focus.
David Heacock
00:31:40
Goal setting and accountability. So like, you know, like if anybody that's watched my, YouTube in the last few weeks or the last couple of months, you'll see, like, we've been going through a planning process by segment of our business. and we have actually publicly showed all of our goals for 2025. And that is a forcing mechanism for us, right? Because we are going to hold ourselves accountable to achieving those goals. And, you know, those are like we have a, you know, long term mission that, you know, I'm very compelled by the I'm going to build the world's leading indoor air quality company.
David Heacock
00:32:17
but, you know, a dream is just a plan with the goal, right? I mean, and and, ultimately, like, we're going to, you know, we're setting goals and we're doing our short term planning, and we're doing that. you know, we did that very systematically, publicly for the first time this year. and that's like ultimately, how you do it. I mean, like, you have to have this, like, long term life that is compelling to you that you're like, hey, you know why I'm doing this? That's your why. But once you have the Y. that's when the practicality comes in, and you got to do that. And one thing that, you know, I did a whole, video on this, but accountability is just so important. Like, how do you hold yourself accountable? and, you know, like how I view that is there are things that I know that I am not naturally good at holding myself accountable to in a short term.
David Heacock
00:33:07
Like, like, going to the gym and working out, for instance, is something that's hard for me. So how do I fix that? Well, I hired a trainer six days a week that I know I'm going to be accountable to him. And I show up. He's I know he's going to be there every day. and I force myself into that accountability. and I'm always thankful when I do it, but like, because I forced that accountability because I know it's something that's not natural for me. but I'm very happy to do that because I know it's consistent with the vision of of who I want to become. Right. and so, you know, that's how I think about long term, you know, mission that's going to give you that purpose and that drive. But then you have to have a shorter term, tangible plan with a, and then a bias to action to, you know, move you along that plan. and then the areas that you know, that you are not great at, then build accountability into that to force you, to stay on it.
David Heacock
00:34:00
And that's really the formula.
Lee Murray
00:34:02
So I think a lot of people listening to this, could probably relate to this question. So, you know, when I. Let me, let me back into this, when I hear you say, you want to build the world's leading or biggest or leading, I'm.
David Heacock
00:34:16
Sure the leading indoor air quality.
Lee Murray
00:34:18
Air quality. Okay. So it's about air quality. It's not about filters. That's what I'm picking up. And so usually when I hear someone that's building a company in a very focused way say that, that means they have other ideas down the road of how they can expand their company, not just filters. Not putting words in your mouth, but that's just what comes to mind. So if in the future to get to a billion plus, you start expanding products potentially. How do you not let yourself get excited about those new objects, the shiny objects, those new potential paths to revenue, those new things that could be good and fun and different than filters.
Lee Murray
00:35:01
When you're talking about air quality, you might have these things in your four of you. How do you not start working on those things yet? Until it's time.
David Heacock
00:35:11
Yeah. We have to realize that, you know, I'm now $250 million plus business with a thousand employees. And, you know, we have, you know, resources to invest in, in a different way than when you're, like, a one.
Lee Murray
00:35:23
Person would make.
David Heacock
00:35:24
It harder. Entrepreneur. Yeah, but but it's actually like, it allows me to build the systems around, any investment that I want to make, which is very different than, like, when you're, you know, bootstrapping or getting something off the ground, which is how I, how I built to where I, where I am today. and, you know, we basically have four pillars to our business that, you know, I am working towards expanding that, I think take us to the leading indoor air quality company. So you have our typical direct to consumer air filter business, which is, you know, the largest chunk of our revenue today is how we kind of got started.
David Heacock
00:36:00
But then you have the business to business sales channel within that, which, you know, there's there's more than just the pleated air filter. There's all types of filtration within that, some of which we've made, you know, products for, for years. And then we're expanding our product lines within that. Yeah. but you know, that that actually like 70% of the, you know, air filter market or the filtration market is actually commercial, not residential. Whereas like our direct consumer business is primarily residential. even though, it's much bigger than our, our B2B business currently. But we've hired a sales team around our core expertise, and our, our core and our investments that we've already made. And then like the third pillar is like retail sales. It's just another sales channel for air filters. But, you know, we launched in 550 Walmarts in the last few months, and we're starting to expand our our retail presence, which still comes back to this core competency around and around our brand. But that's a whole other channel for us that could be quite large.
David Heacock
00:37:00
And then the fourth and the one that I'm probably the most excited about, and is, is also the most different, but it's something that I've actually been working on for 3 or 4 years already. Is, a service component on top of our filter business? So like, so much, like so much that indoor air quality, you know, is not driven by the filter. It's like they're like UV light, like installation and this kind of stuff, which is very important for your air quality, which like UV light combined with the, with the filter that you put in is like probably the greatest enhancement somebody can can do to their, to their, ductwork or their HVAC system. and so in order to be able to execute on that at scale, I need a service arm to be able to help me to do that. And so we're building what we call filter by HVAC solutions, which is the service component on top of that. that, you know, it's all linked together in the kind of indoor air quality brand.
David Heacock
00:37:53
I would not start out a business model like if I started 12 years ago, saying, I'm going to be the world's leading indoor air quality company. I think that would have been a mistake. I was not I was not ready. I'd not put my myself in a position to be able to execute against that type of vision. but now, you know, I've laid the groundwork and have the team and the and, and the ability to go out and hire and to, you know, buy businesses and this kind of stuff that that allow me to execute against that vision. But still like the the indoor air quality is my guiding light. And like we basically have, you know, we basically determined those four pillars as being the the kind of pillars that are going to allow us to, to build that. And that is our like each of those are, are run in a way that's like, hey, is this going to grow this segment or not? And that, that that's really where the forcing mechanism.
Lee Murray
00:38:40
Okay. So but that, that kind of gets to the nature of my question is, you know, if you're if you're focused on indoor air quality. Okay. That that that plays true with the four pillars. But how do you know, especially when you have all the resources to build infrastructure and put these plans in place to, to light each one of these pillars on on fire. How do you know when it's time to say follow that thing that excites you a little bit more about the service arm, which is going to take your focus off of the current directory consumer filter, you know, piece of it. How do you know when it's right to to make that next to, to to switch your focus, which is still big picture, still focused. But in the next, you know, three quarters, six quarters, eight quarters, not focused.
David Heacock
00:39:29
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it comes down to, you have to know when you've saturated a sales channel and, and I think, like the advice I give to early entrepreneurs oftentimes is they try to diversify their sales channels too early.
David Heacock
00:39:43
like if you started, you know, scaling on Facebook with the Shopify store, for instance. and you're selling something that, like, you figured out a way that you can spend X amount of money and get your Y return consistently, and then you say, oh, I'm doing this. Well, I'm going to go do it on TikTok now, I'm going to go do it somewhere else. I think that really what you should do is you need to scale that Facebook channel until you no longer can scale it anymore. Right? And so like when I, when I say in that kind of early on, I think people diversify way too early oftentimes in sales channels because they have not earned the right yet because they haven't maximized the one thing that they actually understand because they see the shiny object somewhere else. Right? And so I think that that's super important. But like you have to look at like my business, for instance, you know, if I just wanted to stick in the pleated air filter market, like basically 1 in 3 pleated air filters purchased online or a filter by air filter today.
David Heacock
00:40:41
and so that means we have, you know, somewhere around 30% market share, depending on what I look at in the online air filter market. And it's very difficult to go from 30% to 50%, for instance. I mean, over time, I hope we do. but it's like at some point you do hit saturation, right? It's like our direct to consumer business is at a more mature stage of a business. And so, and, you know, I spent, you know, a decade building the systems and the infrastructure to support that, and the customer base to support that. but, you know, it's a it's a robust and, you know, fairly stable business that is not going to grow at the rate, that, you know, I that, you know, I want to wake up and spend all my time doing so, as I told you two years ago, I was like, okay, what do I do? Do I sell this business and move on with my life? Or what do I want to do? And I did not want to do that.
David Heacock
00:41:32
And so for me, that means expanding my scope, right? I mean, that's really the only option that I have if I want to continue to grow and to grow into something big. But if I was early on in my journey, what I would say is, you know, you got to go out and earn that, right. By maximizing the sales channels. Go get to that, that, that 30% market share or whatever it is, and then you earn the right to go into it. And most people diversify. Way too early in that. but it's like if I sat here and I believed, oh, I could ten times my business today, just focusing on my core product, then, then I should what I would 100, 100% be doing that. It's just I'm at a scale now that that is not realistic. So I have no choice but to to expand. Does that make sense?
Lee Murray
00:42:12
That is a great answer. Yeah. And I would just, you know, for the generalities sake, I would I would simplify it to say that have you maximized the current focus that you're, you're, you're after before you start on that second path? And if you can't answer that question, you probably haven't maximized it.
Lee Murray
00:42:31
and that that makes total sense. Great great great answer.
David Heacock
00:42:34
And I made and I made that mistake like I tried way too early on to diversify into other things. And I actually started a freight business, and I did like a lot of stuff that cost me a lot of money. That what that that was a mistake for sure. but two things can be true. Like, you can also get to a point where, like, if you want to grow, you have no choice but choice but to expand your scope, which is what ultimately led to me expanding from pleated air filters direct to consumer online to the leading indoor air quality company. Right. I mean, like that was a shift that was very conscious after I'd already kind of maximized what I, what I could do. I mean, like, we're still growing that business and like, I'm still like, it's not like we've completely maximized it, but it's just way more mature. because, you know, that market is only so big, right? And, that that was really the decision maker for me, and I needed something that was going to get me excited coming in every day.
David Heacock
00:43:24
And if I was not excited about that, then either I need to sell that and let somebody else run with it, or I need to expand my mission. And I chose the the path of expanding my mission.
Lee Murray
00:43:34
Yeah, this is awesome. I hope people listen to this 2 or 3 times because I mean my head spinning about all the value that you've given, all the wisdom that I mean, you're talking about some pillar concepts here that are just, again, to the nature of focus. If you could focus in on just one of these, it really could change the trajectory of your business.
David Heacock
00:43:55
Yeah. I mean, especially early on in a business journey, you need to master one sales channel that works or one funnel that works. I mean, like that that that is. And then you need to you need to take that as much as you possibly can. And this is way easier to optimize something you understand than something that's completely new. but shiny object object syndrome is real. And people get kind of get sucked into it.
David Heacock
00:44:19
And, you know, that that would be early on. The best advice that I would have for anybody.
Lee Murray
00:44:24
That's awesome. Well, thanks for being on the show. This is amazing. Awesome conversation, as I knew it would be. before we go, for the sake of it, people that have been following my show just to show you, like, what a small world it is. Back when it was your grandfather's company in Talladega. I was a outside sales rep for Cintas Corporation selling uniforms, and that was my territory. So I probably called on someone from that company. If not your grandfather, if he was there, trying to sell uniforms or facility service services.
David Heacock
00:44:57
Yeah, I would imagine, I would imagine so I've definitely, run across sales reps before.
Lee Murray
00:45:05
Yes, yes. And I probably knew who they were if, they were there in your timing, but that's pretty cool. It's such a small world. You know, I actually lived in Birmingham for ten years, so that's.
Lee Murray
00:45:14
That's where I was out of, the, Bessemer location.
David Heacock
00:45:19
I went to school at Indian Springs. I actually met my wife at Indian Springs and right, right there in Birmingham.
Lee Murray
00:45:24
So. Yeah, right.
David Heacock
00:45:25
Off to a lot of time.
Lee Murray
00:45:26
There. Yeah. That's, I heard a lot of good things about that school. Yeah. That's cool. Well, Hey. Thanks again. This is such a great, conversation. I think it's one that doesn't get the, the credit that it needs. I think people think that they're focused, but they're not. I can personally attest to that. I'm working very hard in the early part of this year to be focused and just do this one thing. I think the trouble for entrepreneurs, as you know, you know, being one is that, we're creative, we're curious, and we are easily distracted. So focus is a hard, hard thing.
David Heacock
00:46:04
It's hard part. Part of the thing. Like when you hear me talking about something so much, you know, it's a signal that it's something that I struggle with, right? I mean, that's part of the reason why, like, when I, when I, put all this content out there, it's really a reminder to myself because I'm talking to myself as much as I am to whoever's watching it.
David Heacock
00:46:24
because this is not easy stuff, but it doesn't mean, it's not important. It means it's even more important. And that's why I like. I need the a reminder. And actually doing this so publicly really holds me accountable to doing the things that I'm out there talking about. And so this is kind of me building in accountability to actually go out and attack this kind of scary vision that I, that I've built. Right? So, you know, people have to remember that, that like, oftentimes when, you know, I'm out here talking about it, it's because I'm reminding myself of how important it is, not just you.
Lee Murray
00:46:54
Nobody's perfect, you know? No. That's great.
David Heacock
00:46:57
Certainly not me.
Lee Murray
00:47:00
Well, thanks again. And, of course, we'll send people to filter by com to get their air filters. But if they want to get in touch with you, where should we send them?
David Heacock
00:47:09
I'm David filter by everywhere. So YouTube is where we put the most energy. So just David filter by on YouTube.
David Heacock
00:47:16
and you know I really appreciate if you like and subscribe on that. Have we put a lot of effort and and energy into that. But David filter by basically on every platform and you can find me there.
Lee Murray
00:47:27
Awesome. Thanks again.
David Heacock
00:47:29
Thank you.