20: The Jon Karmazyn Episode

In this episode of the Huge Transformations Podcast, hosts Sid Graef, Gabe Torres, and Sheila Smeltzer introduce the show’s purpose: bringing on seven- and eight-figure business owners to share genuine insights on running a home service business. Gabe interviews John Karras (from the Allentown, Pennsylvania area) to explore his journey from a one-person hustle to operating a multi-crew exterior cleaning company with 15–20 employees. John highlights pivotal moments in his business growth, the importance of peer support, and how taking quick action—and sometimes big leaps—can help you push through challenging stages. Finally, Sid wraps up with resources for listeners who want to grow and find mentorship opportunities through The Huge Convention, The Foundations platform, and The Huge Mastermind.

Show Notes

• Host & Guest:

  • Hosts:

    • Sid Graef (Montana)

    • Gabe Torres (Nashville, TN)

    • Sheila Smeltzer (North Carolina)

  • Guest:

    • John Karras, owner of a large exterior cleaning business in Pennsylvania

• Key Topics:

  1. Origin Story: John stumbled into pressure washing by fixing a used pressure washer; grew from a solo side-hustle to a multiple-crew operation with an office manager, operations manager, and a sales team.

  2. Scaling Challenges: Overcoming “bottleneck” phases by hiring strategically, seeking outside perspectives, and taking big, decisive action.

  3. Entrepreneurial Mindset: John stresses the importance of community—connecting with other business owners for support, ideas, and expertise.

  4. Advice: “Dream bigger than you think you can,” then find people who have done it already and learn from them.

• Mentioned Resources:

  • The Huge Convention

  • The Foundations platform trial offer

  • The Huge Mastermind info page

  • The Huge Insider newsletter signup

  • The Huge Insider podcast downloadable action guide

  • Facebook group

Transcript

Sid Graef:
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Huge Transformations podcast. I’m Sid Graef out of Montana.

Gabe Torres:
I’m Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sheila Smeltzer:
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.

Gabe Torres:
Yep—no fake gurus on this show, just real-life owners who’ve been in the trenches and can help show you the way to grow profitably.

Sheila Smeltzer:
We get insights and truths from successful business builders, and every episode is 100% experience and 0% theory.

Sid Graef:
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.

Gabe Torres:
Thanks for joining us on the wild journey of entrepreneurship. Let’s dive in.

Gabe Torres:
Hey guys, this is Gabe Torres here in Nashville, Tennessee, with the Huge Transformations podcast, and you guys are in for a treat today with my buddy John Karras, who’s joining us from somewhere in Pennsylvania.

John Karras:
You got it.

Gabe Torres:
Where is this “somewhere”?

John Karras:
Allentown area.

Gabe Torres:
Okay, I still don’t know where that’s at, but—

John Karras:
It’s an hour north of Philadelphia.

Gabe Torres:
Okay, I’ve been there. I’ve been to Cherry Hill, Philadelphia area. Cool, so yeah, excited for you to join us. Thank you, John, for taking some time. I know you have a lot going on. You have a big company, been in business for a while, but for the folks who don’t know who you are—which I’m sure people will get more familiar, as it seems like you’re doing some more speaking stuff—for those who haven’t met John, what’s the quick backstory on how you got started in the service industry?

John Karras:
So, my background originally is in the construction space. I graduated college and was working for a general contracting company for about 10 years, but I’d always had side hustles and an entrepreneurial spirit. Back in 2012, I got tired of construction and was really looking for something else. One night in New Jersey, we were on a little family vacation, and inspiration struck—pun and no pun intended, because there was a big thunderstorm that night. We had little kids, they were up all night, and I was just brainstorming what I could do. I started going down the path of exterior cleaning, pressure washing, carpet cleaning—somewhere in that realm. Before we knew it, two months later we established a business plan, contacted a local bank, got a small SBA loan for some equipment, fired up a website, and business was on.

Gabe Torres:
Side note real quick—what was one of the side hustles you did in college?

John Karras:
Yeah, so I was into cars, Volkswagens in particular. I had a VW GTI and I was into lighting—this was before all the LED stuff was good, so it was xenon headlights and whatnot. I’d take the headlights, disassemble them, upgrade them, and then sell them on eBay for like five or six hundred bucks. I was doing this in college, putting the old ones in our oven in our dorm room to bake them so I could take them apart. In college, that was great money, so that was a fun side hustle.

Gabe Torres:
That’s awesome. So, on that dark, stormy night in New Jersey, how did you land on exterior cleaning?

John Karras:
There was a guy at my construction company who had an old pressure washer in his shed. He brought it in and said, “If you can fix it, you can keep it.” I got it running via YouTube, pressure-washed my house (not knowing what I was doing), started my deck, and halfway through, the thing exploded—smoke everywhere. So I was left with a half-finished deck. I went on Craigslist looking for a cheap used machine to finish my project, but I saw a listing that said “Commercial pressure washing business—we’ll train you to start your own company.” And I thought, “Wait, this is a real thing?” I did some homework, and that’s how I found out about the entire industry. I ended up contacting that guy, buying a truck from him, and he subcontracted me a few bank drive-throughs so I could get my feet wet, literally. That’s how it started.

Gabe Torres:
Fast forward to today—size, number of people, years in business?

John Karras:
We’re starting our 13th year. We’re in the Lehigh Valley area, about an hour north of Philly. We run six service trucks and at peak season we’re 15–20 employees: office manager, operations manager, sales team. It’s been a ton of fun—lots of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Gabe Torres:
What has been one of the hardest points for you? Was it the startup, or now that you’re much bigger?

John Karras:
There are a few pivotal moments, but early on it was tough because I didn’t jump in full-time. It was a side hustle for around eight months. I had a website, was pounding the pavement with flyers, mailboxes, signs, anything to match my nine-to-five income. It was a lot of sacrifice—two little kids at home, a wife, a full-time job. Eventually we pushed through that, but after we grew a bit, I was still doing it all—field work, sales, scheduling—total bottleneck. I hired someone to help in the field, then trained him to go on his own. Then we realized I needed an office person, at least part-time. We got fractionalized at maybe $500k to $650k in revenue. In 2018, I got into a room with some bigger owners—a mastermind—and realized I needed to hire a full-time office manager, an operations manager, a full-time sales guy, all in about 45 days. It was crazy but an unlock. It really opened my eyes to the power of structure.

Gabe Torres:
Yeah, and just seeing someone else say, “Oh, that’s normal,” right?

John Karras:
Exactly. You feel stuck but they’re like, “Here’s what to do.” You write everything down and then go implement. It’s the fastest way to get where you want to go. Suddenly, I’m no longer the bottleneck, and it was just a big epiphany. I remember the first time my new sales guy sold a $2,000 package—I struggled to do that! When someone you hire performs better than you did at that role, that’s a great feeling.

Gabe Torres:
So if you had to give 2012 John Karras a piece of advice?

John Karras:
(1) You’re capable of far more than you think. My thinking was so small in 2012. We’re beyond my wildest dreams now. (2) To tap into that potential, don’t try to figure it out alone. Build relationships with people who’ve done it. Learn from them and implement. Not everything will work for you, but it’ll get you ahead so much faster than banging your head against a wall trying to figure it out alone.

Gabe Torres:
Man, that’s great. Thank you so much for spending time with us, John. Thanks for sharing your story.

John Karras:
Absolutely—always a pleasure chatting, Gabe.

Gabe Torres:
Same here. Talk soon.

Sid Graef:
Hello my friend, this is Sid. Thank you again so much for taking time to listen to today’s episode. I hope you got some value from it, and anything we covered—resources, books, tools—is in the show notes for easy reference.

The mission for the Huge Convention and for this podcast is to help blue-collar business owners gain financial and time freedom by running a better business. We do that in four ways:

1. Our free weekly newsletter, the Huge Insider. Subscribe—it’s the most valuable newsletter for the home service industry, paid or otherwise.

2. The Huge Foundations education platform—over 120 hours of industry-specific education and monthly topical webinars with Q&A sessions featuring seven- and eight-figure business owners. You can try it for $1 for seven days.

3. The Huge Convention. If you haven’t been, check it out. It’s every August; this year it’s in Nashville, Tennessee, August 20–22, 2025. It’s the largest convention and trade show for home service business builders—world-class education, an enormous trade show, and unbeatable networking.

4. Finally, if you want to pour jet fuel on your business, check out the Huge Mastermind. It’s not for everyone—you need to be at over $750,000 in revenue, building toward $1 million, $5 million, or $10 million. It’s an elite network for mentorship and implementing the Freedom Operating System.

You can get information on all four of these at thehugeconvention.com. Scroll down or click on the Freedom Path, or check the show notes here for direct links. We want you to keep learning, keep growing, and keep advancing your business. If you like this show, please take 90 seconds to give us a review on iTunes, subscribe, and share—it means the world to us, and it’ll help other people, too.

Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you on the next episode.