Captain’s Quarters First Class | Lights. Legacy. Living.

Matt Martoccio
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Captain’s Quarters First Class isn’t just another outdoor lighting podcast, it’s my arena. I’m Captain Matt, and here we dive into the big three that move money: landscape lighting, permanent lighting, and Christmas lights. But it’s bigger than fixtures and installs. This show is about leading your crew, building a brand that lasts, and sharpening the mindset to keep you from sinking when the pressure hits. Sponsored by The Lighting Trade School but make no mistake, this is my ship. Sink or Swim.

  1. Sep 28

    The Christmas Lighting Crew That Sells While It Installs | 34

    Christmas season is coming fast, and this week Glo Show Shane joins me to talk about what actually keeps Christmas lighting business owners up at night this time of year. Hiring. Crew capacity. Callbacks. Profit. And whether the people you just hired are even going to make it through the season. Shane recently hired three people and fired all three within a couple of weeks. I’ve had seasons where I hired 25 people, had 19 show up for training, 14 make it to day two, and finished the season with four. That’s Christmas. But the biggest idea in this episode is something Shane is testing this year: stop thinking of your crew lead as just an installer. What if your lead technician was sales first and install second? He walks the property with the customer, confirms the job, spots additional opportunities, upsells the customer, talks to the neighbors, and then helps the crew complete the installation. Instead of sending someone to a $300 service call just to fix something, can they turn that visit into $1,200? Instead of installing a $1,000 Christmas job and leaving, can they add another tree, another roofline, another wreath, or sell the neighbor while they’re already there? We get into: • Hiring slow and firing fast before Christmas season • Using Christmas to identify the A players you want to keep year-round • Why revenue means nothing if the profit isn’t there • Shane’s sales-first / install-second technician model • Paying technicians for both sales and installation performance • Two-man crews vs. three-man crews • When one-man crews actually make sense • Why four-man crews often become inefficient • Keeping service and fix crews from destroying production • Increasing average ticket while you’re already on the property • Whether Christmas companies should offer more than rooflines • Branch wraps, wreaths, garland, and the “gutter slammer” debate • Why roofline-only companies may eventually lose the rest of the property Christmas is one of the biggest opportunities of the year to make money, build a stronger team, and identify who belongs in your company long-term. But the season gets ugly fast if your systems, people, and numbers aren’t ready. Glo Show Shane is with Glo Geeks:https://GlowGeeksGang.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/

    The Christmas Lighting Crew That Sells While It Installs | 34

  2. Sep 24

    After 18 Years, I’m Capping Christmas Lighting Sales. Here’s Why. | 33

    For the first time in 18 Christmas seasons, I’m putting a cap on how much Christmas lighting work we sell. Not because the leads aren’t there. Not because I don’t want to make money. Because I finally understand that every crew has a capacity, and constantly saying yes to more work has a cost. I’ve spent Christmas seasons waking up at 4 AM, working until 8 PM, answering calls, selling jobs, fixing problems, watching crews turn into Christmas zombies, and trying to squeeze one more job onto an already packed schedule. I’m not doing that this year. In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, I break down what I’m doing differently for this Christmas lighting season and why I think Christmas is one of the biggest opportunities of the year to change the way you run your business. We get into: • Why I’m intentionally capping Christmas lighting sales this season • How I’m calculating actual crew capacity instead of just selling everything we can • Why more Christmas revenue does not automatically mean more Christmas profit • The trap owner-operators fall into when they have to sell AND install • Why Christmas is one of the easiest times to make your first hire • Why seasonal employees can be the perfect way to start building a team • When you should hire installers and when you should hire a salesperson • Why Christmas lighting is easier to train than permanent lighting or landscape lighting • How separating sales, installation, and office responsibilities changes the entire business • Why getting yourself off the ladder can actually help you sell more work • How some of my original seasonal employees eventually helped us become a full-time company Christmas has built-in urgency. It has nostalgia. Customers already want what we sell. That makes it a great time to make money, but it also makes it easy to convince yourself that you need to take every single job that comes through the door. You don’t. Know your capacity. Build the team. Protect the operation. And stop creating a business that requires you to personally do everything. If you’re still the person answering the phone, selling the job, climbing the ladder, installing the lights, fixing the lights, invoicing the customer, and trying to make payroll, this episode is for you. This Christmas season can be the season you finally start building something bigger than yourself. Now go make some damn money. 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/

    After 18 Years, I’m Capping Christmas Lighting Sales. Here’s Why. | 33

  3. Jun 23

    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/

    Before You Start Your Own Business, Watch This | 32

  4. Jun 12

    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/

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

  5. Jun 5

    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/

    Stop Letting Landscapers Ruin Your Lighting Sales | 30

  6. May 26

    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/

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

  7. May 11

    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 b******t, 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/

    The Christmas Light Industry Has a Leadership Problem | 28

  8. May 8

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

    Grant Fields from Thunder Lighting Supply joins Captain Matt for a behind-the-scenes conversation on the Christmas lighting industry, building a supplier brand contractors actually trust, and why training the next wave of installers is not “ruining the market.” In this episode of Captain’s Quarters First Class, Grant shares how he went from hanging Christmas lights in high school, running crews before most people even start a career, studying diesel mechanics, and eventually becoming one of the most recognizable faces behind Thunder Lighting Supply. Captain Matt and Grant dig into what really matters in the holiday lighting business: speed, systems, branding, customer experience, training, and staying organized before your company outgrows you. They also talk about: How Grant got started in Christmas lighting as a teenager Why Thunder Lighting Supply rebranded from Wholesale Holiday Lighting The power of trade shows, buckets, branding, and being memorable Why contractors should stop blaming new installers and start building better companies Selling vs. leasing Christmas lights Why free training helps elevate the whole industry How systems and SOPs help Christmas lighting companies scale Why outdoor lighting and holiday lighting are emotional services, not just products If you install Christmas lights, landscape lighting, permanent lighting, or you’re trying to grow a seasonal service business, this episode is packed with real-world perspective from someone who has been inside the industry from the ground up. --- 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/

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

Captain’s Quarters First Class isn’t just another outdoor lighting podcast, it’s my arena. I’m Captain Matt, and here we dive into the big three that move money: landscape lighting, permanent lighting, and Christmas lights. But it’s bigger than fixtures and installs. This show is about leading your crew, building a brand that lasts, and sharpening the mindset to keep you from sinking when the pressure hits. Sponsored by The Lighting Trade School but make no mistake, this is my ship. Sink or Swim.

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