Conversations with Joel Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joel Smith.

Hi Joel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Born the youngest of 4 boys and raised in Brigham City & Willard, Utah. I Grew up with a bmx bike, dirt bike, or three/four wheeler of some sort between my legs from a young age. Things like that were always my number one passion, but they were just a hobby as I grew up, nothing more. Never seriously considered making a career in the motorsports arena from about 7th grade on for some dumb, and surprising reason now that I reflect on it. I figured I would join the military after high school and figure out my life from there, but I made plenty of mistakes from then on to keep me from most anything else I hoped to achieve in life. DOH!

I graduated high school with a certain plan of how my life would progress over the next decade-plus, unfortunately, the mistakes were made to keep me from that plan. After a few years of flailing and failing around the hometown area living in my dad’s basement, I accepted I wasn’t living the kind of life that would bring me any of the experiences to have in life. So, I started to try new things and take leaps to get out of my comfort zone, try to figure out what can bring peace and happiness to an underachieving, basement living, loser. It was a little hard to admit and realize at the time, but I was just cruising thru life not doing anything to help my future, all while imagining SOMETHING would come along and turn things around for me.

The first leap- classic door-to-door security salesman. OH yeah… Had a friend that was successfully doing it with a (mostly) great group of people to get me into it. Started out pretty awesome, 2 sales in my first 2-week stint. Got them both on my last day knocking on doors for the trip. After that, sales were few and far between. Left the summer sales season early, and left bitter. I was young and didn’t take care of myself at all, lost a lot of weight, and was dealing with migraines daily. Drove back to Utah with my tail between my legs and in bad shape. I worked my first grave shift job in my time back, and walked out of my first grave shift job a couple of months later- it was awesome. Went back to the restaurant I worked at before leaving for sales and ran into a family friend one day. She helped me get a job in Montana working at a 5-star resort as a server. I took another leap and spent the next two years in MT learning all about wines, 5-star dining, and all the little aperitifs and digestifs that go along with it.

I hate tea, knew nothing about it before starting here, and my first day was tea/coffee/beverage training. I hated every tea except chai and pomegranate oolong. It was a funny introduction to the new world I was in, considering how immature my pallet, food choice, and knowledge were. I worked at a “nice steakhouse” in Utah, but this was a whole other level from anything I’ve seen in person. The kitchen I worked with was like watching top chef every night. The menu was a 4 course menu that started with an amuse bouche and finished with a petit four, all made from scratch that day with amazing ingredients from all over the world. I worked here for 2 years and ended up as the nighttime dining room manager for a bit of it. It was an awesome experience that I will always look back on fondly. I know what good food is now, can cook great food and meals on my own, and realize how much sh*tty food is readily available everywhere. I feel a little like Gordon Ramsey when going out to eat now with the quality of food at most places. It’s a blessing and a curse.

The next leap was moving to Washington state, just outside of Seattle. What a joke of an area to live. I hated living in that area for a lot of reasons, but mainly traffic. Your life is almost dictated by traffic in that area with the rain, hills, narrow roads, and masses of people. I’m from small-town Utah, and always thought a city would be fun, and in some ways it was, but the amount of people and traffic alone were enough to drive me away. It’s beautiful on a clear day, fun to visit, and has tons of great food, but living is a poor quality of life. I ended up working for a residential cleaning company for most of my time in WA state. Never imagined that’s what I would be doing, but I needed a job at the time and couldn’t be too picky. I met my future fiancée working there when she came crashing into my life. She actually crashed her car into a cement wall on her first day, it wasn’t as bad as that sounds, but it was loud and super funny. Me and her decided that WA wasn’t where we wanted to be after a year of dating and we decided to take a leap together and move to Utah to start a residential cleaning company of our own, J & J’s Green Cleaning.

We started cleaning in my hometown of Brigham City Utah and quickly realized it would be better to start in St. George Utah. Glad we made the switch! St. George is awesome and it’s where I originally wanted to move before I went the opposite way to Montana, so I ended up exactly where I wanted, just years later and a few detours along the way. This is where we start to get to the successes and the realizations that will eventually lead to the peace and happiness I’ve been looking for. The successes actually came shortly before meeting Jayde, but they’ve accelerated ever since. Business in St. George started out slow because we moved into our home here in mid-March 2020, right at the start of COOVVIIIDD for everyone. Since then business has only grown! We’ve just hit our 3 years in business mark and are still continuously growing. Everything with that is awesome and we’re working hard to get amazing employees to help us grow. So, now I’m living in the area I love and have wanted to be for a while, I have an amazing fiancée and we’re progressing amazingly, business is going great, but something is missing. In a weird way, passion is missing on the career side of things. I love the cleaning company we run and all the people we help, but it’s not something I came up with because I wanted to clean. It’s a profitable business that will help get me closer to things I’m passionate about is why I do it. That leaves me feeling like some excitement is missing in a weird way, and that leads me to my latest leap and why I was contacted for this article- FERGUSON PITS.

First, why Ferguson Pits? Because i’m a turd on a small bike. If that reference makes zero sense to you, type ‘Turd Ferguson SNL’ in youtube or google, and enjoy! Despite everything I just went over with my story, and going out and living in 3 new states with countless opportunities and career path ideas, my passion is still dirt bikes and off-roading. Dirt bikes and off-roading have been with me since birth- Thanks family! I’ve almost always had a dirt bike to ride and a place to go. The only time in my adult life without one was a period of 6 years from before my door-to-door sales journey to a few months before we moved back to Utah. I bought me and my partner each new pit bikes (mini bikes). We got the small ones because they’re fun, easy to learn on for a new rider (my fiancée), and adults like myself like to mod them to race around like fools. The leap with this comes with starting a YouTube channel and Instagram page for all things pit bikes, in the hopes of starting a brand in the dirt world. I am absolutely passionate about dirt bikes and have been ever since the first time I rode one. My goal with the channel is to be a ‘how to’ sort of channel to get growth and consistent views as time goes on, along with riding/racing videos for fun and entertainment in search of a viral moment to help. I’ve sat on this YouTube idea for years now and have been sitting on footage for almost a year, waiting for the confidence to start. Finally this November, the confidence came and I made my first crappy video. I’ve never recorded with a GoPro before this or edited videos, so anyone who goes to check them out, expect seriously noob material, but it will get better with time! It’s been a lot of fun so far and it really feels like a lot of things are coming together at the right moment. Since the start of November 2022 and going down this path, I’ve been sponsored by AOT Racing (riding gear company), got this interview opportunity, and have a functioning YouTube and Instagram page to help spread the word and get FERGUSON PITS name out in the world. If you want to see a dummy get beat up on a small bike and work to build a brand, I’m the dude to watch. Maybe you’ll even get motivated to get out in nature and see some of the beautiful areas you’ll see me explore and ride in. I’ll show you how to build, race, and have fun with friends off-road! To sum this all up, my life has had extreme highs and lows. My twenties started out horribly and mistakes were made that affected how I was to proceed, course changes and getting myself out in the world brought me to exactly where I always wanted to be – Business owner in the desert, riding dirt bikes, and working to get paid for it. I’m 32 now and loving where I’m at. Check out Ferguson Pits on YouTube and Instagram to see where I’m at and what’s going on, and since it’s new, PLEASE subscribe/follow and watch it grow!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not a smooth road, I made legal mistakes to start my twenties that I had to deal with. All my own fault and it wasn’t anything horrible, just enough to affect a certain interview question about felonies. Ok, I was caught with MDMA 2 months after turning 18, then got a disorderly conduct for throwing snowballs in highschool 4 months after, then got a alcohol charge 1 month after the disorderly. DOH! 3 charges in 6 months was a stupid way to start my adult life. Then I was living a life on autopilot as I figured out what to do and who I am in a way, not focused on anything I was passionate about. Continued making mistakes for a bit, not legal tho thankfully, just moral and financial mistakes. My struggles came from those mistakes, and underachieving in my own eyes while I was learning how to live in a way that benefits my future. I went from living day to day, not thinking I needed to be worried about my 30s, 40s, 50s, etc., to constantly thinking about that, saving, and working on things now that will affect my quality of life as I age. The biggest issue has been getting out of my own way and going for it, whatever IT is, instead of worrying about everything to the point where I don’t do anything.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m starting a YouTube channel for pit bikes, dirt bikes, off roading, etc. I will specialize in how-to and comparison videos as I build my bikes, and riding and racing videos along the way for more entertainment. There aren’t a lot of channels that have stuck with this for the long haul (a lot will build one bike and quit) and have entertainment along the way, so I’m hoping to fill that gap. I love riding and have done it most of my life, so that will continue as long as I’m around, I’ll just have a camera now to capture and share it. We will also be starting to make awesome seat covers to help bring some swag to other bikes in the world. That will help kick off the brand. Most everything in this process is new with me, so you will hopefully see someone start something from nothing if you follow/subscribe fergusonpits on IG & YT. Film is up on IG & YT, i’m constantly working to improve editing skills, and seat covers are in the R&D phase. It’s exciting times on top of running a small cleaning business. Life gets busier, so why not enjoy as much of it as possible?

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Be careful, and wash your hands often. Don’t touch things unnecessarily out in public ( items in stores, gas stations, etc.), meaning look with your eye’s, not your hand’s,

Pricing:

• $40 per hour for home cleaning
• Free to subscribe on YT & IG Ferguson Pits

Contact Info:

• Website: jjsgreencleaning.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fergusonpits/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JJsgreencleaning
• Twitter: @CleanardodVinci
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fergusonpitsYT/about