Owen Alexander

20yo | 36 ACT, full-ride dropout | hit $70k/mo land clearing in 6 months | now building tree service to $1M

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

Starting the day with a slipped track right as I’m 1/3 of the way through my haircut, never a dull moment!

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@redbirdracing Also great advice

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

Had a conversation with my employees recently that I’d been putting off for a long time.

I told them I’m 20.

With us launching short-form for the personal brand, I figured the last thing I wanted was for my employees to find out my age by stumbling across an ig reel.

For a long time, I’d been careful not to reveal it. I’d steer conversations away from anything that might give it away, constantly conscious of how I was presenting myself.

I’ve dealt with plenty of skepticism because of my age, especially in blue-collar industries. There are some guys who just won’t take a 20yo seriously, regardless of what he’s accomplished.

But I’d built it up into a much bigger deal in my head than it needed to be.

Finally having that conversation was an enormous relief. Being straightforward is so much less exhausting than constantly managing how people perceive you.

And ironically, my age is one of the biggest advantages I have in content. There’s a reason we’re leaning into it with our hooks. Swinging big at 20 gets a hell of a lot more attention than doing the same thing at 40.

Between getting that off my chest and finally having complete clarity on what I’m doing for the next 14 months, I feel like I’m coming out of a long season of burnout.

I have energy I haven’t felt in a long time. I’ll get these random bursts of excitement throughout the day. I’ve even found myself losing interest in some of the hobbies I picked up to balance out my life.

For better or worse, I just want to work.

I really fucking believe in what I’m building, and I want to pour everything I’ve got into it.

Our first week of content has been incredible. Several viral videos, a ton of inbound interest, and at least 10 people reaching out looking for jobs.

I think the personal brand could become a massive recruiting advantage. We’re running the tree service with subcontractors through March, giving me time to focus on sales, content, and recruiting some absolute killers to build out the team.

So excited for the path ahead.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@redbirdracing Wow, 7 figure issue. If you don't me asking, what happened??

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@jamestgordon Thanks James!!

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@1JoeSpringsteen Haha sounds like something my 17yo sister would say

Thanks brother 🚀🚀

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

Thanks man. Not great on the Google reviews. We've slowed down since I'm winding down land clearing. I sold off one of my rigs, and I just have one machine out in the field, running 3 days a week instead of 5 (I have an employee that can bid jobs 2 days/week and operate 3 days/week which is what we need to cover overhead rn). Our jobs have been very large lately too, 3-6 day jobs, so we might only get an opportunity once every week or two. At the same time, we're having issues with Google flagging and blocking some reviews. We went from 3-4 reviews a week to only a handful every month. You're probably smoking me.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@haulamerican Haha

Fair question. They still know I'm younger. They just usually think I'm in my late 20s. Not being legal drinking age is a hard pill for a lot of them to swallow.

21 in Jan!

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@BangsHoldings https://t.co/tyV932CLIj

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

We’ve been posting the original batch of videos from his working interview. Just posted the fourth yesterday, on brand new accounts.

So far, that one video has:

107k views on ig
67k views on tt

Can’t wait to test a million more ideas and see how far we can take this.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

Just hired someone full-time to document me building a tree service to $1M in year-one revenue.

I've been away from X for a couple months. Had three surgeries at once and have been keeping my head down grinding away at the business.

I'm winding down land clearing and going all-in on tree service, this time documenting the entire thing with long and short-form video.

Here's everything I did to find my head of content:

- Spent $1,480.36 on Instagram ads. Three short video creatives driving to a VSL and application form in GHL. Built in a ton of friction and still got 39 applicants at $38 each.
- Posted on LinkedIn and cold DMed 100+ profiles that matched my ideal candidate.
- Emailed/called journalism, PR, communications, and entrepreneurship professors at a local college.
- Reached out to everyone I knew in those fields or adjacent ones and offered $1k cash for a referral.
- Got a listing in a local entrepreneurship newsletter.
- Tracked down who @molzer hired for a similar role and paid her for advice. Also got great advice from @stevehunsaker1, @danielfazio, @irentdumpsters, and @guessworkinvest.

I then scheduled paid working trials with my top three candidates: five shorts and one long-form video each. The first was clearly the hire, so I cancelled the others.

He came through Insta ads. He'd been running an agency with his brother and decided to wind that down to take this role. Absolute killer.

I've documented everything on X since day one, but never invested this heavily in content.

Can't wait to see what we can do. So fired up.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@hectorserrranoo Meta ads is the best way to find them

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

Just hired someone full-time to document me building a tree service to $1M in year-one revenue.

I've been away from X for a couple months. Had three surgeries at once and have been keeping my head down grinding away at the business.

I'm winding down land clearing and going all-in on tree service, this time documenting the entire thing with long and short-form video.

Here's everything I did to find my head of content:

- Spent $1,480.36 on Instagram ads. Three short video creatives driving to a VSL and application form in GHL. Built in a ton of friction and still got 39 applicants at $38 each.
- Posted on LinkedIn and cold DMed 100+ profiles that matched my ideal candidate.
- Emailed/called journalism, PR, communications, and entrepreneurship professors at a local college.
- Reached out to everyone I knew in those fields or adjacent ones and offered $1k cash for a referral.
- Got a listing in a local entrepreneurship newsletter.
- Tracked down who @molzer hired for a similar role and paid her for advice. Also got great advice from @stevehunsaker1, @danielfazio, @irentdumpsters, and @guessworkinvest.

I then scheduled paid working trials with my top three candidates: five shorts and one long-form video each. The first was clearly the hire, so I cancelled the others.

He came through Insta ads. He'd been running an agency with his brother and decided to wind that down to take this role. Absolute killer.

I've documented everything on X since day one, but never invested this heavily in content.

Can't wait to see what we can do. So fired up.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@johnennis Fraudulent letters unfortunately

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@naelbis Mulching is much harder on a skid than ‘any job that relies on machines’

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

One of the things I don’t like about forestry mulching: if it can break, it will break.

Also, things that definitely shouldn’t break will break. Like this poly door.

In our last three days of operating, we’ve had over $2k in repairs. Poly door, hydraulic hose, couplers. Three separate incidents.

It’s exhausting, but I’m trying to use these as low-stakes, high-frustration situations to retrain how I respond when things go wrong.

Can I stay optimistic and grateful even when the day is relentless? Can I keep my energy high, dominate the problem, and keep the team both optimistic and accountable?

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@RealPlantBrah Passive income duh

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@ToddLlewellyn What's the migration process going to be like? How long?

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@MatznerJon I've had recent applicants accidentally paste their ChatGPT prompts along with their answers.

Working interviews are where it's at.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@thebaldogarza Smart

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

One of our machines went down and the parts have to be overnighted.

I had meetings all day, so I put my operator on some maintenance and cleanup in the meantime.

Came back to an organized shed, a workbench he built, a pegboard he installed, a repaired shelf, and a homemade tool holder.

Completely took the initiative and went above and beyond.

Lucky to have this guy.

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@jakewilliammo always wondered in these, do they use choreographers or just stick the girls with dance/cheer backgrounds in front?

[Owen Alexander @BuildWithOwen]

@PavelBosovik What was wrong with Missouri