Next Level Business Podcast Josh Pather &amp; Shane Mara

How much is a CRM for a small business? Most owners are shocked when they add it all up.
I sat down with my business partner Shane to break down what a CRM really costs, what you're actually paying for, and why most small business owners end up with 5 different tools that don't talk to each other.
Here's the math most people miss. A typical local service business is paying for:

Email tool: $50/mo
Text/SMS tool: $40/mo
Booking calendar: $30/mo
Review software: $50/mo
Funnel builder: $97/mo
Website hosting: $30/mo

That's $297/mo for tools that don't connect. Plus the time you waste jumping between them.
Lead Fuel CRM puts it all in one place:

Full CRM Suite — $197/mo (everything: CRM, automation, texting, email, AI receptionist, reviews, invoicing, scheduling, social planner)
Website Pro — $97/mo
Review Fuel — $50/mo

We built this for local service businesses. Contractors, plumbers, electricians, HVAC, DJs, photo booth companies, auto detailers, event pros. Real people who don't have time to learn complicated software.

I built a photo booth company to 800+ events a year and a community of 5,000+ business owners. Every tool I tried was either too simple to work or too complicated to use. So we built the one I wanted.

Ready to get started? 👉 https://leadfuelcrm.com

Grab the free report here 👉 https://leadfuelcrm.com/free-report

Open Audio

Buying Your First Commercial Building Can Change Your Entire Business - David Chuckman

July 22, 2026

Renting can feel safe until you do the math and realize you’re funding someone else’s future. We’re back in the warehouse with David Chuckman of Tri-Tech Window Tinting and Shane Mara, author of Confessions of a Banker, to tell the honest story of what it looks like when a business owner finally buys the building and bets on himself.

David walks us through his immigrant-family work ethic, starting his shop from scratch, and the long road of renting for more than 20 years before pulling the trigger on a 10,000 square foot automotive facility. We get into the details that most people skip: why bay doors and zoning matter, how a “piece of junk” building can still be the perfect setup, and what happens when remodel costs double because electrical, HVAC, lighting, and infrastructure all stack up at once.

Then we break down the financing like operators, not theorists. David shares how he landed an owner-financed deal, negotiated terms that helped him keep cash for the rebuild, and why seller financing can move faster than a bank. Shane adds the banker perspective on common pitfalls like covenants, surprise underwriting, and getting left high and dry right before closing, plus what you need ready for SBA loans or conventional commercial loans.

If you’re a small business owner searching for “how to buy a commercial building,” this is a practical blueprint with real numbers, real fear, and real momentum. Subscribe for more, share this with a business owner who’s still renting, and leave a review with your biggest question about buying your first building.

Open Audio

Alex Hormozi - The Bently That Didn't Fix Anything...

July 9, 2026

Customers are harder to win, ads are pricier, and attention is more fragmented than ever. That’s exactly why Alex Hormozi’s approach hits so hard: he doesn’t teach “a platform,” he teaches a customer acquisition system that keeps working even when the platform changes. We talk through how he went from consulting to building and scaling Gym Launch, the logic behind “client financed acquisition,” and why the best growth strategies feel boring once they’re finally predictable.

We also dig into the uncomfortable stuff founders usually avoid. Alex explains how his early work ethic was fueled by anger and the need for recognition, then how he learned to decouple performance from approval and status. That connects directly to money decisions: living far below your means, resisting lifestyle inflation, and choosing freedom over optics. The payoff is not just a bigger bank account, it’s clearer thinking and better leadership when the business gets stressful.

From there, we get tactical on scaling: what keeps entrepreneurs stuck around $3M to $5M, why doing things out of sequence kills momentum, and how increasing lifetime value creates the budget to open new acquisition channels. Alex shares his own hard-earned lessons too, including the “million-dollar mistakes” that came from starting too soon, hiring wrong, and not paying close enough attention to financials.

If you want fewer fragile tactics and more durable business fundamentals, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a founder friend, and leave a review. What’s the one decision in your business you know you’ve been avoiding?

Open Audio

Two Bags And A Big Dream | Josh Pather Rockwall Marketing Expert

July 3, 2026

Two bags, a decade of paperwork, and a flight to Dallas one week after 9/11. That’s how Josh Pather’s American story starts, and it sets the tone for everything that comes next: risk, reinvention, and learning the hard way. We talk about what it’s like to leave South Africa, sell off almost everything, and land in a country that’s tense, grieving, and suspicious of anyone who sounds different. If you’ve ever made a big move, started over, or felt behind because you didn’t have the “right” head start, you’ll hear yourself in this conversation.

From there, Josh walks us through the real ladder of entrepreneurship. First jobs, early money mistakes, and the mindset shift from “I need a paycheck” to “I need skills.” Then we get into the origin of his photo booth rental business, built from DJ weekends, a homemade booth, and a simple insight: people don’t pay for gear, they pay for a moment. We break down customer experience, emotional buying at weddings, and the unsexy advantage most business owners ignore: calling leads back fast and delivering consistently. You’ll also hear the SEO and keyword research strategy that helped “Photo Booth Dallas” rank on Google and drive inbound demand without relying on modern ad trends.

We also go deep on the stuff that protects your upside: understanding bookkeeping, reading a P&L, avoiding expensive accountant chaos, and staying ruthless about overhead as you scale. Josh explains why he chose to merge business operations with commercial real estate, how he navigated financing, and what changed during COVID with SBA support. We finish with a data-driven take on crypto, focusing on scarcity, real transaction problems, and why hype is not a strategy. Subscribe for more founder stories like this, share this with a friend building something from scratch, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Open Audio

How Harlow Payments Builds Trust In Merchant Services

June 27, 2026

https://www.harlowpayments-texas.com/

Your payment processor only feels “simple” until a payout gets held, a big transaction gets flagged, or support is a chatbot and an email queue. We’re in Heath, Texas with Mark Harrelson and Steve Vecchia from Harlow Payments Texas to talk about what small businesses actually need from merchant services: real answers, clear pricing, and a partner who treats payment processing like mission-critical infrastructure.

We get practical about credit card processing and the trust gap in the merchant services industry. Mark explains why so many owners feel burned by disappearing reps and surprise rate changes, and how building a partner-first culture changes the experience for both merchants and employees. Then we compare Stripe and Square with a traditional merchant account approach, including what “payment facilitator” really means and why underwriting and risk management can make the difference between smooth funding and frozen funds.

We also break down interchange fees in plain language, share fraud prevention stories that protect merchants from costly mistakes, and talk through Steve’s on-the-ground relationship strategy: door knocking, Chamber events, one-on-ones, and consistent follow-up. Finally, we dig into why our collaboration with Lead Fuel matters, and how an AI-driven CRM helps small businesses handle marketing, messaging, invoicing, and growth without drowning in tasks.

If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a business owner, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s the biggest frustration you’ve had with payment processing or customer support?