A $32,000 Job on the Very First Appointment: Blaine's First 18 Days With Dirt2Dollars
I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
Author: Brady Carlson | Dirt2Dollars
Published: 27 October, 2026
Blaine signed with us on October 8, 2026. His ads went live on October 15, 2026. His first on-site appointment was October 22, 2026. He closed it on the spot for $32,000.
One appointment. One job. The whole investment covered before the second appointment even happened. Here is how it went down.
Where Blaine Was Before
Blaine runs a full-service excavation company. Land clearing, forestry mulching, septic and drain fields, grading, drainage, site prep. Eight years running it himself, five-person crew, three skid steers, a track loader, a mini excavator, a mulcher, and a dump truck. Real operation. Real overhead, about $25,000 a month before payroll.
The problem was not the work. The problem was where the work came from.
Almost all of it was referrals, repeat customers, and builders. On top of that he was paying a lead-sharing platform a monthly fee plus around $120 per name for property owners who were price shopping. To keep his close rate up he was underbidding. He told me he was taking tire kickers because the calendar needed filling.
Then a change in state licensing rules cut his service area. The referral well got shallower. His Google Business Profile was suspended. His Facebook page was still owned by an old agency. His mulcher had been sitting for months because he had never advertised it.
The result was the thing that kills contractors: wild swings. April 2026 was a $120,000 month. September 2026 was $35,000 collected with another $30,000 sitting in unpaid invoices. Same crew. Same equipment. Same overhead every month regardless.
What He Wanted
Blaine had already made one smart move before he called us. He had raised his prices 50% to 80% and decided to stop chasing builder volume and go after residential property owners who pay for quality.
What he did not have was a way to get in front of those property owners consistently. His goal was simple. Get the business to $1 million a year, buy a property for a shop and a yard, and stop living month to month on referrals.
He had never run a real Meta ad campaign. He understood SEO a little. He did not have time to learn the rest while running five guys and quoting every job himself.
What We Did
Dirt2Dollars is a done-for-you marketing agency. We are not a coaching program. This is not a course. We run your ads, build your website and landing pages, and handle all of your marketing. Our in-house sales team books qualified on-site appointments directly on your calendar. All you have to do is show up and close the deal.
So Blaine did not have to learn anything. Here is the timeline.
October 8, 2026. Blaine signed on the call with me. His Slack channel with our sales, marketing, client success, and tech team was open within the hour.
October 9, 2026. Launch call with his Client Success Manager. We mapped out exactly which jobs to go after. Land clearing first, because clearing jobs turn into full site work. Then dirt work and grading. Then septic installs. We mapped out what he would never take: stump grinding, tree trimming, hardscaping. We set his availability so the call center only books when he can actually show up. Two slots a day during the week, one on Saturday.
October 15, 2026. Ads went live. We launched with pond and septic creative first because that content was already proving out across other clients. We did not make him shoot a single video. Proven ads, his business name, his service area.
The First Appointment
A property owner saw one of the pond ads and filled out the survey. Owner-occupied residential property, 17 acres, a pond behind the house built about three years ago that had a leak, a creek running right alongside it.
Our in-house sales team called, confirmed the project, confirmed the timeline, and booked the on-site estimate for Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 2:00 PM. The notes went to Blaine in Slack before he ever drove out. He knew the acreage, the problem, the age of the pond, and that the owner wanted him to text when he was on the way.
Blaine went out, looked at the pond, and quoted it.
At 4:47 PM that afternoon the property owner reached back out to our team and said he was ready to move forward and wanted to start Monday.
Two minutes later Blaine confirmed it in Slack. “Yes we closed it. Will be starting Monday or Tuesday.”
His Client Success Manager asked how much. “$32,000.”
Then Blaine wrote the line I keep coming back to: “First appointment and first job cleared. Off to a good start.”
Why This One Matters
Blaine did not win this job because he was the cheapest. He had just raised his prices by up to 80%. He won it because the property owner was already qualified, already expected him, and already trusted the process before the truck pulled in. That is what a pre-booked, pre-vetted appointment does. It lets you set the price instead of defending it.
There is also a second job hiding inside this one. The survey notes said the owner is not looking at land clearing right now but may consider it in the future. That is 17 acres. Blaine is now the guy who fixed their pond. When they are ready to clear, nobody else is getting that call.
Where He Is Now
As of October 26, 2026, 11 days after the ads went live, Blaine has 10 on-site appointments booked. His flagship program guarantees 30 in 90 days. At this pace he will pass that in the first month.
One appointment paid for the program. The other nine are upside. And the campaign is still in the learning phase where the ad algorithm is just now figuring out who to show his ads to. Weeks seven through nine are usually where it gets stupid.
A month ago Blaine collected $35,000 and had a mulcher sitting idle. Today he has a $32,000 pond job starting, nine more property owners waiting on estimates, and a calendar he did not have to fill himself.
Ready to See Results Like Blaine?
If you’re a land clearing, excavation, or forestry mulching contractor and you’re tired of relying on word-of-mouth or competing on lead-sharing platforms, we should talk.
We’ve generated over $100M+ in on-site estimates for contractors just like Blaine and we’re just getting started.
Book a Demo Call with Our Team
Brady Carlson / Dirt2Dollars
