How Thunder Lighting Supply Became a Christmas Lighting Industry Powerhouse with Grant Fields | 27

Before You Start Your Own Business, Watch This | 32

Thinking about leaving your job and starting your own business? Before you jump, you need to hear this. In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, Captain Matt breaks down the hard truth most employees, technicians, installers, and tradesmen do not fully see from the outside. Being great at the work does not automatically mean you should own the business. You might be an incredible installer, technician, or craftsman, but running the company means taking on sales, marketing, taxes, payroll, workers’ comp, follow-ups, customer problems, storage, insurance, pricing, hiring, and every late-night phone call after the crew goes home. This episode is not anti-business. It is a real conversation about whether you actually want to be an entrepreneur, or whether you would be better off becoming more valuable inside the company you already work for. Captain Matt talks about: * Why business ownership looks sexier from the outside * Why top-line revenue is not the same as profit * The hidden costs employees never see * Why amazing technicians often struggle as owners * The difference between being an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur * How production pay or performance pay can change your career * Why there is nothing wrong with being an employee * The real question to ask before starting your own business This one is for anyone in the trades, home services, lighting, Christmas lights, landscaping, construction, window washing, or any service business who thinks they are ready to go out on their own. Before you quit your job, make sure you know what you are actually signing up for. --- Lights. Legacy. Living. Captain’s Crew. Sink or Swim. Ready to build a real outdoor lighting business? 🔹 Work with Captain Matt: https://www.captainmattoutdoors.com/   🔹 See Barefoot Lighting projects: https://barefootlighting.com/   🔹 Learn landscape + Christmas + permanent lighting: https://lightingtradeschool.com/

Want a Bigger Christmas Lighting Season? Start With This Number First | 31

Most Christmas light installers wait too long to plan their season. They start thinking about product, trucks, crews, storage, marketing, and invoices when the season is already breathing down their neck. By then, they are not really planning anymore. They are reacting. In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, Captain Matt breaks down what Christmas lighting prep should actually look like before the madness starts. This is not about cleaning bulbs or ordering clips. This is about knowing: • What profit number you actually want • Why you want that number • How much one crew can realistically produce per day • How many install days you really have • What payroll, product, commissions, overhead, and marketing are going to eat • How many crews you need to hit the number • How much work you need to sell before the season starts If you are a Christmas lighting contractor, outdoor lighting company, landscape lighting business, or permanent lighting installer trying to grow your holiday lighting revenue, this episode will help you stop guessing and start planning with real numbers. Whether you are in Albany, Saratoga, Clifton Park, Troy, Schenectady, the Capital Region, or building a Christmas lighting business anywhere in the country, the math does not lie. If you want a bigger Christmas season, you need to know the number before you start chasing the work. Learn more about Captain Matt’s mentorship and training at CaptainMattOutdoors.com --- Lights. Legacy. Living. Captain’s Crew. Sink or Swim. Ready to build a real outdoor lighting business? 🔹 Work with Captain Matt: https://www.captainmattoutdoors.com/   🔹 See Barefoot Lighting projects: https://barefootlighting.com/   🔹 Learn landscape + Christmas + permanent lighting: https://lightingtradeschool.com/

Stop Letting Landscapers Ruin Your Lighting Sales | 30

When a client tells you your lighting design will look like "Disney World," it’s not their fault—it’s yours. In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, Captain Matt breaks down why so many outdoor lighting business owners lose massive jobs to hardscapers and landscapers who don't know the first thing about real lighting design. If you are tired of losing $40,000 lighting jobs to guys charging $12,000 for a handful of front-lit fixtures, you need to change how you sell. Captain Matt explains why it takes more fixtures to create less glare, why a 129-fixture estate looks elegant instead of overwhelming, and how to communicate the true value of professional landscape lighting without relying solely on nighttime demos. Stop letting clients compare your custom lighting design to cheap solar lights or basic wash lighting. Learn how to position yourself as the premier lighting expert in your market and get paid what your design is actually worth. In this episode: * Why clients think your lighting design will look like "Disney World" * The real reason you are losing bids to landscapers and hardscapers * Why it takes more fixtures to create a softer, elegant lighting effect * How to explain the cost of professional landscape lighting to clients * The problem with AI mockups vs. real lighting design * Why front-lighting trees and 16-inch spacing looks terrible * How to sell high-end lighting jobs without doing a demo every night * The difference between a $175,000 lighting design and a $30,000 bid * Why solar lights will never replace wired low-voltage lighting If your plan is to let clients compare your work to the guy who just throws a few lights against a wall, you are already losing. The money you think you are saving by skipping the education process is costing you massive, profitable installs. Learn how to design it right. Sell the value. And get paid like the expert you are. --- Lights. Legacy. Living. Captain’s Crew. Sink or Swim. Ready to build a real outdoor lighting business? 🔹 Work with Captain Matt: https://www.captainmattoutdoors.com/   🔹 See Barefoot Lighting projects: https://barefootlighting.com/   🔹 Learn landscape + Christmas + permanent lighting: https://lightingtradeschool.com/

Can’t Find Good Employees? Stop Paying Like You’re Broke | 29

Fourth quarter is when the phone starts ringing, the installs stack up, and lighting companies either cash in…or completely choke because they waited too long to build a team. In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, Captain Matt talks about training employees before the Christmas lighting rush, preparing crews for permanent lighting installs, and why so many business owners lose good employees, miss profitable jobs, and blame everyone except themselves. Christmas lighting can be trained quickly. Permanent lighting is different. Running data, installing power supplies, drilling into a home, troubleshooting boosts, and representing your company on a permanent installation requires real training, clear processes, and people who are ready before the fourth-quarter insanity begins. Because when the owner is stuck on a ladder training a new hire in October, he is not answering leads correctly. He is not selling at his best. He is not protecting the customer experience. And he is leaving money on the table. Captain Matt also goes straight at one of the biggest problems in the trades: owners who constantly complain that they cannot find good employees while underpaying people, failing to train them, giving them no clear standards, and expecting them to care more about the business than the owner does. In this episode: * Why lighting companies need to prepare for Q4 months in advance * Training Christmas lighting crews vs. permanent lighting installers * Why permanent lighting requires a dedicated, trained crew * How owners lose sales when they are stuck installing and training * Why hiring before the rush can open up more revenue * The real reason many companies cannot keep good employees * Paying employees well enough to represent your brand properly * Why processes and written standards matter in the field * How bad leadership creates bad crews * Planning for Christmas lighting, permanent lighting, and landscape lighting demand at the same time If your plan is to wait until October to hire, train, and figure out who is going to handle the work, you are already behind. The money you think you are saving by waiting could cost you far more in missed installs, dropped leads, burned-out crews, and clients who never get the experience your company promised. Build the crew. Train them right. Pay them like they matter. Then hit the season ready to win. --- Lights. Legacy. Living. Captain’s Crew. Sink or Swim. Ready to build a real outdoor lighting business? 🔹 Work with Captain Matt: https://www.captainmattoutdoors.com/   🔹 See Barefoot Lighting projects: https://barefootlighting.com/   🔹 Learn landscape + Christmas + permanent lighting: https://lightingtradeschool.com/

The Christmas Light Industry Has a Leadership Problem | 28

The Christmas lighting industry has plenty of people teaching installers how to hang lights. But after that? A lot of guys are left alone, confused, and taking business advice from random Facebook comments, suppliers pushing product, or people who have never actually built what they are pretending to teach. In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, Captain Matt talks about why the Christmas lighting industry lacks real leadership, what most new installers are missing, and why bad advice can wreck your business before you ever get a chance to scale. This is not about attacking specific people. There are great people in the Christmas light industry doing great things. This is about the gap between installation training and actual business mentorship. Captain Matt breaks down why pricing advice, product advice, leasing vs. selling debates, and Facebook group opinions are often useless without understanding the contractor’s actual goals, numbers, market, and life situation. He also shares why hitting big revenue numbers does not automatically mean you built a healthy business. Sometimes $300,000 with control, profit, and sanity is better than chasing $1 million just so strangers on Facebook can clap for thirty seconds. In this episode, Captain Matt talks about: * Why the Christmas lighting industry needs stronger leadership * The danger of taking advice from random Facebook groups * Why pricing advice without context is usually worthless * C7 vs. C9 debates, branch wrapping pricing, leasing vs. selling, and other industry arguments * Why scaling for the sake of scaling can destroy your business * The difference between revenue, profit, freedom, and ego * Why your goals matter more than someone else’s business model * What real mentorship should look like in the Christmas lighting industry * Why contractors need support beyond installation training * How to build a Christmas lighting business around your actual life, not someone else’s scoreboard If you are starting or growing a Christmas lighting business, this episode is a wake-up call. Stop chasing random advice. Stop copying someone else’s dream. Figure out what you actually want, build the business around that, and surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth, call you on your bullshit, and help you win. --- Lights. Legacy. Living. Captain’s Crew. Sink or Swim. Ready to build a real outdoor lighting business? 🔹 Work with Captain Matt: https://www.captainmattoutdoors.com/   🔹 See Barefoot Lighting projects: https://barefootlighting.com/   🔹 Learn landscape + Christmas + permanent lighting: https://lightingtradeschool.com/