Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Zach Sale. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Zach, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

I love the thought of a family business. My father-in-law, who really came into my life at a time when I needed a lot of guidance, was a small business owner. And he invited me into his company because he wanted it to be a family ran business. Pop’s and I f$$kin killed the father son business duo…we were a Dream Team.

To me, a family business is awesome because you get to go through the ups and downs of running a business with the people you’ve literally gotten through life with; What can be more of a roller coaster of ups and downs than life? And Dad would agree with me on that…him and I loved our family business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

“If you could be anything you ever dreamed of baby, what would you be?” My wife, then Girlfriend, asked me this question in 2009. And without hesitation, I told her “pay me to act.” It was the first time in my life that someone asked me this question and the first time in my life I was ever sure about an answer I gave right away. I was always a ham in school and I always loved making people smile, laugh and really just be entertained. I was 26 years old in 2009 when she walked into my life. She is My Jax, Jacqueline M Sale. Queen amongst women and Empress amongst beings and the first person in my life who truly wanted the best for me without anything in return. I got lucky when I got her. A year went by after she asked me that question and I had not done much to pursue a career in acting, and again she asked me a question, “are you going to do this acting thing? If not, let’s just move on and do something else. If you’re not gonna put 100% into it, let’s put 100% into something else, you’re worth it.” That hit me like a ton of bricks. I had not been doing much for my career as an actor up to that point…and she was absolutely right. I hadn’t put a lot of effort into doing much for it. And then, I did start doing a lot…she began submitting me into projects and I began auditioning for short films and independent projects.

It was while working on an independent film in Atlanta I had met a great actor and super cool guy Jim Sutton. You sat me down and said, “Dude you can do this on a big scale…you need to talk to my agent.” After the film wrapped he stay true to his work and introduced me to his agent. That was 2010 and now I had my very first agent. I began my work in the southeast doing the shows in 2010 like Drop “Dead Diva”, “Vampire Diaries,”, “Burn Notice” and 5 episode recurring role on BET’s “The Game.”
I also booked and worked on the films “Fast Five” and Tyler Perry’s “Temptation.” This took us to 2012 when I decided to move myself and the family to Los Angeles, California. And have been pursuing an active career in Los Angeles ever since. I’ve been blessed with doing multiple television shows on all the major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS. as well as got to work opposite Jennifer Garner in the 2016 faith-based hit film “Miracles from Heaven.” I can remember getting the audition sides for that film and saying to Jax, “Babe! This is trailer material! The scene could end up in the trailer!” And it did.

I love Acting, it’s the art of being human. Which is actually a lot more difficult than people not in the industry can really understand. It’s one thing to perform a scene or a script, it’s another thing to show an audience you’re experiencing a situation from the dialogue on the pages. That you’re having a conversation, not reciting lines. And I love that.

While I was pursuing my dream as an actor I had to support myself and family. So what does an actor do for work…they get a job talking to people. I work exterior home sales. I sold roofing, windows, siding, you name it and I probably sold it. My father-in-law, Fred Goldberg, gave me my first job like that. He was my best friend in the entire world. He taught me everything I know about the home improvement industry, in-home sales, and being a family man. He was my confidante and I never knew how much he was my sounding board until I lost him on June 28, 2021 and I wasn’t able to talk to him anymore. I had sent a text message that day and he didn’t respond. So I called him within 5 mins of him not answering just tell him something silly but  he didn’t answer that either. I knew something might’ve been up, Dad and I never not answered back to back calls from one another. So I drove to his office and that’s where I found him on the warehouse floor unresponsive. I called 911 and performed CPR until the emergency medical team got there but I would learn later after reviewing the shop tapes that he had already passed about an hour before I found him. I still have nightmares of finding him on the ground and I still miss him every minute of every day. He was my Obi-Wan Kenobi, he was my guiding light, he was my best friend… he was my Dad.

After he passed in 2021, my wife and I started our own business together, called Boomtown Construction. BoomTown is a word that I’ve been using since I took a class with Lesly Kahn at her studio on Labrea Ave in Hollywood in 2012. A great group of Actors was in my class, and BoomTown was said after a scene ended that went well. Since then I’ve used the word BoomTown to mean everything, anything, and anytime that is absolutely awesome! You get paid, BoomTown! You catch all the green lights on the way to work, BoomTown! You book a job, BoomTown!

So to the readers of this article, feel free to shout your own “BoomTown” from the rooftops!!!

Our construction companies are licensed in Tennessee, where we perform work in Chattanooga and in the surrounding areas as well as in California. Boomtown’s ran with the same ethics and mission statement as Dad did with his business. The customer’s family, fair prices and professional installs. Communication with customers is key. I would want my contractor to stay in contact with me so therefore I stay in contact with my customers. I feel like Jax and I are carrying on Dad’s Legacy with our own construction company.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

While pursuing my dream of being an actor, I still had a family and myself to take care of financially. I began selling exterior home improvements as an in-home sales person in 2009. I preferred this field of work because it allowed me to set my own schedule, which means I could still make time for auditions, and anything else I may want to do beyond my side job. Flash forward 12 years and my wife and I own our own home improvement company, Boomtown Construction. Because of the relationships I established while as a sales person in the community and beyone a lot of my first customers were ones I had met when I was just a salesperson. My wife and I are two years into owning Boomtown Construction and I gotta tell ya there’s a lot more that goes into owning and running a company beyond what just a salesperson does. Payroll, scheduling of material drop off, pricing jobs so that they’re fair to the customer and at the same time making a profit for the company, insurance, carrying a bond, keeping up with my licenses. Also at the end of the day if there’s an issue with any job it falls on my shoulders to make sure it gets handled. As the sales person I just got to sell the job and walk away. However, being a business owner gives me the opportunity to give other people a chance to earn money to take care of their family and pay their bills as well as help my neighbors in my community to improve their homes; and that makes me feel good.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

One thing the pandemic really forced on business owners was to lean into technology in order to reach people outside of their homes and businesses. Where before meeting in person or coming to a company’s showroom was standard practice…after the pandemic hit everything went remote. My Wife and I started Boomtown Construction in 2021; the pandemic Rules of distance was still in place so my wife and I went Digital. We still do all of our contracts electronically which is awesome because it keeps an electronic trail of all paperwork and that makes it very easy to pull up contracts and material receipts from any of my devices; from my computers, to my tablet, to my phone. It’s great.

One of the big things to me is communication with my customers. It was literally my Dad’s number 2 rule after family first. I communicate heavily via text, audio messages, and FaceTime. My customers love the fact that I am reachable by text and phone. Like I said, Dad would always say to me, “communication, communication, communication!!” Check in with your customer periodically while the job is going on and always respond within 30 minutes of receiving a phone call or text. Even if you don’t have great news to deliver, like there was a delay in material or we found some additional damage while opening up a wall or floor, customers appreciate communication immediately. So my advice to any of the small business owners reading this is…communication, communication, COMMUNICATION!!!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.buildboomtown.com/
• Instagram: @buildboomtown
• Facebook: @boomtownconstruction
• Other: Reviews of Boomtown Construction www.buildboomtown.com reviews

Image Credits
Set Images from the film “unDEFILED” director Matt McCauley.