Barefoot Landscape Lighting

Captain Matt explains one of his lighting designs. Lighting Design Walk Through Hey guys Captain Matt here, wanted to go over another video here with pictures in it because a lot of you've been liking that. So on this one I just wanted to show you this is sometimes what we'll do for a design, now this is one for us on our initial plans also for our install team sometimes the client as well, and so I just want to go over one with you. The most important thing to note is some clients get this, these arrows do not necessarily mean that a light is going every single place there is an arrow, and also doesn't mean that there's only going to be one light. Where there is an arrow it is simply to show the overall vibe and direction of lights, where they're going to go. So you see here is a picture of the front of the house, we have some up lights that are all gonna go on the bottom, we've got some area enhancement lights that are gonna go right on the front porch, then

Our new trailer Check Out the New Trailer! Honk if You See Us. We got our trailer wrapped with our signature Barefoot Lighting colors and a beautiful picture of some of our work. Give us a honk if you see us! https://barefootlighting.com/?p=925

How we do our wire connections. Andrew Doing Some Wire Connections One of our installers, Andrew, is installing a junction box and shows how we do our wire connections. We use crimps instead of wire nuts because crimps are a mechanical connection. Connections are the weakest point in any system so mechanical crimping is the best option. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=921

How we install our Nightpost sconce lights. Mark Installing Sconce Lighting In Vermont One of our installers, Mark, shows how we install the Nightpost sconce lights on a house. He makes sure everything is even so they look good on the home, they are also color matched to this home so they blend in. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=919

Explaining one of our lighting proposals. Barefoot Lighting Proposal Walk Through Hey guys Captain Matt here, I've had a lot of lighting contractors and lighting designers ask us what we do for a proposal, So I want to do one quick video to kind of walk you through one, and also it allows prospective clients to see what they're going to get and kind of know what to expect. Now this person here, this was a real proposal, they did get a demo and everyone gets a demo depending on the size and scope of the project. Anyways, first is just the cover page. It has their name and address on it, and then a picture from the demo if we had one, or a similar image if not. Second page is a little about us; founded in 2009, fully insured workers comp, then meet the team Captain Matt, Maverick Mike. Then we go over the options and phases, because budgets are a real thing, so you don't have to do it all at once you can always do one, two, you can do three, and you just keep adding on whene

What we do when replacing existing lighting. Upgrading existing lighting takes more planning and visits than a new install! Find out why. Hey guys Captain Matt here, just want to go over what I do when clients have existing lighting. So some clients already have existing lighting, maybe some of the lights are out, they’re just not great, and they just want us to replace fixtures. Well I don't recommend this, it is something that some people want to do for budget reasons. The reason I don't recommend it is because replacing the fixture, I can't warranty that fixture because we're just using the existing wiring, the existing transformer, we don't know what kind of shape the wire is in underneath the ground, the connection points, etc. However I just want to go over this with you, so as you can see here, well maybe if you can read my mind, but this client has a pool, a hot tub, and a rock wall. So basically I'm just mapping out what they currently have. So in this

Listen to your music easily outdoors. Use Your Alexa to Control Your Outdoor Speakers Did you know you can connect your Alexa or Google Home to your outdoor audio system? The amp we use, the Ambisonic L-240, is able to connect to your devices wirelessly, so you can play your favorite music easily in your outdoor living space. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=892

What a real demo looks like. Landscape Lighting Demo | Real Lights on a Real Property | Barefoot Lighting Captain Matt shows us what a demo looks like. During a demo we bring temporary lights to your property and set them up like we would on a real install to help you decide where you would like them placed. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=890

How loud is our outdoor audio system? If the People Keep Silent, These Stones Will Cry Out! Outdoor audio systems need to be louder than the systems we have in our house because obviously there are no walls or anything. These speakers are great quality and will be an excellent addition to your outdoor living space. Captain Matt demonstrates their quality in this video.   https://barefootlighting.com/?p=886

How to reconnect your wireless devices to your outdoor audio system after a power outage. What Happens When You Lose Power to Your Outdoor Audio System If you lose power at your house you don't have to worry about re-bridging your Alexa or Google Home to your outdoor audio system. When the power is restored the amp will automatically reconnect to your Alexa or Google Home. It might take a couple moments but Captain Matt demonstrates what happens in the video above. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=878

What to expect with your Gemstone lights install. Your Gemstone Lights Installation Captain Matt back again, I hope you watched the first video from yesterday where we talked about what to expect for your Gemstone lights, your color changing soffit lights, consultation coming up. Today I wanted to talk to you about the timeline, the installation, and some other frequently asked questions. “When will my lights be installed?” that's always a major question, and a valid one at that. So what I tell people is from the day of deposit is when the timeline begins, and you can expect between four and six weeks from day of deposit to a complete installation. Now I always push to have the jobs done as soon as humanly possible so if there's an opening in the schedule, or one job goes quicker than the other, etc,  we will call and if I can get a crew over there sooner we will, but plan on four to six weeks from the day of deposit to the day install is completed. Believe it or not most of o

What to expect for your first Gemstone appointment Gemstone Lights Appointment It's Captain Matt here, Barefoot Lighting and the Christmas Guys. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to make an appointment with me, or one of my project managers, for Gemstone lighting, and I really do appreciate it. What I realized is that most people have the same exact questions, so I figured I could just make a video and answer a lot of your questions and help make your decision easier by the time we meet with you in a few days. Real quick a little bit about me and my company, we started in 2009 as the Christmas Guys, I have general liability insurance, commercial auto, workers comp, and all my installers are W-2 employees, and that's probably all you care about, right? Now let's move on, I am the first and currently only certified Gemstone lights dealer and installer in the Northeast of America, so in order to make the most out of the time at your appointment I just wanted to go

Add audio to your lighting project.  Hey guys Captain Matt here, just wanted to talk to you about the outdoor audio, a lot of people have been asking us about it since we put it on the website. This is the Ambisonic L240, that's the cover, this is the world's first outdoor amp. It is wireless in the sense that it has bluetooth and wifi, it’s hard wired into an outlet with 120, I have this bridged with my Alexa device so I can just tell her to play music and she’ll play out of this amp. We hardwire it, this is the same type of virgin wire we use for landscape lighting. It's just different colors black and brown instead of pink and brown. That’s so that you have much better clarity, because you don't want your speakers to be wireless so they’re all hard wired to the amp and the amp becomes wireless, so you can just play like you normally would in any other part of your house, but now you can play to your outdoor speakers. That’s it for today, see you guys soon. https://

How to see Gemstone lights IRL Try out the exit 10 loop to see 5 different buildings/houses all with Gemstone lights! 😍 Hey guys Captain Matt here. Just got done doing the Exit 10 loop, if you're coming north on 87 get off, take a left if, you're coming south take a right. You can see five places that have Gemstones installed all within like four or five minutes of each other. So you get off the exit boom, Northway Church, tonight they're 100% bright or warm white. Keep going down Ushers Road you can see the house on the hill on Northeast Lane that had Easter eggs on. Keep going down Ushers Road, Clifton Park Veterinary Clinic, they had Ukraine pride on. Keep going down Burning Bush Boulevard, there’s a house that had two lights of warm whites on, five off. Then go down to Classic Crust, they forgot to set a timer so their lights weren't on, so I turned them on for them, I think I put it on warm white for the picture. It's really fun to get off Exit 10 you can see

The Story Behind Our Name and Slogan. Why Barefoot Lighting? How did you come up with that name? Captain Matt here with a video on why we are called Barefoot Lighting and where that came from. It's kind of twofold, so I do live a lot of my warmer months just completely barefoot, I enjoy it, it feels good, so there was that. I went to California when I really learned illumination and being barefoot is a different mindset, when you think of “barefoot” you're not thinking that you're working, you're not thinking you're walking down the streets, you're either on the beach, you're on vacation, you're enjoying yourself, so the name really kind of encompassed that vibe of the feeling we went for. Then where it says “We’ll Knock Your Socks Off”, so what that came from one of my project managers was trying to talk to a guy about some lighting and really the guy’s wife wasn't home at the time so I said to my project manager “listen if it's the right produ

How I lost 60 Pounds - My Morning Routine. I Lost 60 Pounds and Changed My Outlook on Life | Wake Up Warrior Review with Captain Matt Hey guys it's Captain Matt here and I want to talk to you a little bit about my morning routines and everything, because a lot of my guys have asked and other people my personal life, and then even when I see people from you last year to this year they mention that I look so different, I've lost so much weight, my attitude's a lot different. So I'm proud to be in the Wake Up Warrior movement started last February, or this February 2021 in the Wake Up Warrior challenge, and I was just ready for a change. I didn't really know what this was going to be, I had my ideas and my thoughts which were demolished once I started and even hearing Garrett, the coach, talk about “you have to put a lot of work in, it's gonna be intense, you gotta either go all in or not at al”l and I laugh like, really? This is doing stacks, journaling, and thin

Does knocking on doors work? Should I knock on Doors? | Marketing with Captain Matt   Hey guys Captain Matt here, I want to talk to you more about some marketing techniques and things. So specifically in this video I want to talk to you about door-to-door sales, cold calling on the door. Now, I remember back when I was a kid that this was a very common thing, and even more common in my parents' age when they were growing up. So it used to be a guy would come knock on the door and try to sell you something, they get a vacuum, even boy scout candy, girl scout cookies, I don't even do that stuff anymore and I noticed that there are some companies now that are really driving home this door-to-door sales, knock on the door in the service business specifically and I know that it makes this big uproar on facebook groups and in the neighborhood apps, but I mean if it wasn't working they wouldn't be doing it, right? So I mean I know for me, I got one of the pest control compani

We need to talk about the Yelp girls. Yelp Girls Gone Wild with Captain Matt | Business and Marketing Hey Captain Matt here, doing another little marketing video here. Something I wanted to touch base on and if you own a business you probably know exactly how this relates; when Yelp calls you. The second you hear that Yelp calls you what's the immediate thought you have? That it’s going to be a female on the other line, very attractive sounding and very flirtatious conversation, which is a fun conversation because they're so nice, it's how they keep you on the phone and get you talking. The question is, does that work? Have you spent money on yelp ads because of the attractive sounding females that call you? It got me thinking like something, when I call you to talk about lighting would you rather have an attractive sounding female call you? I don't know, maybe there's a thing there. But anyways, just every time I get a call from yelp and I got one the other day

Why I can't buy my employees lunch No I Can’t Buy Your Lunch! With Captain Matt | Business Hey Captain Matt here, just wanted to tell a quick story about a conversation I had with my accountant. So this is the craziness of New York State and and tax law and all that, so we used to try to buy people lunches when they were working you know 12, 16 hours a day for us and then my accountant called me and said “hey matt, you got to stop buying lunch for these guys you're buying it too often” because he said if I buy it too often then it becomes an expectation, and if my employees are getting the expectation of it then it's considered a benefit, and if it's a benefit then I have to pay payroll taxes on it, and the employees have to claim it as income so they would have to pay taxes on the lunch that I was buying them. So we did away with that obviously because it just makes more work on the employees and it's just insane. So anyways I just wanted to share a little tip of

How I show gratitude to the people around me. Show gratitude every single day and watch how it changes your life! Captain Matt here, I want to talk to you about a gratitude stack, which is part of the Wake Up Warrior program that I've done other videos about. So I think I said gratitude stack is showing gratitude towards somebody, sometimes even yourself, and just expressing it without the expectation of them responding, without the expectation of them saying “oh I think you're great too” or whatever. It's much more pinpointed because you say I appreciate you for this for this specifically, I honor you for this specifically, or I love you for this reason specifically. So, that's a lot different than just saying “hey man, I think you're great”. Anyway gratitude stack, even if you're not a Wake Up Warrior try it out it'll change your life. https://barefootlighting.com/?p=782

Keeping a consistant image Keep your marketing message consistent and don't confuse your clients! Hey guys Captain Matt here, just want to talk to you a little bit about marketing, and I wanted to specifically talk about Tommy Bahama today. If you know me at all you know that I love Tommy Bahama, I love their shirts, I love their clothing. It's what I mainly wear, winter time gets a little rough but I do my best. So what I love about them is they are just packaged correctly, from their emails, to their mailers I mean so much, so that I even print them out and use them to remind me of the inspiration. Usually there's a big picture where you can see how the little saying always matches the logo color at the top of the email, “sailing to relaxation”, you got “make all the bright moves”, I mean there's a whole stack of them here. I just absolutely love them and Tommy Bahama is clothing, what we do in lighting is the backyard resort type vibe where you open your door and it

How to process your rage. How do I handle my RAGE?! Captain Matt here, going to talk a little bit more about Wake Up Warrior, this time about a mega stack. Mega stack is also called a rage stack, it's a stack like a journal entry that you use when you're just red hot, you can't see, you want to punch your fist through walls, you don't want to see anybody, you don't want to talk to anybody, you're just pissed. I have used this so effectively because when you start you can only see red and these take a little bit of time maybe 45 minutes to an hour, but when you're finished you're like “damn i can't believe I started this thing so damn angry”, because now it makes you walk the block. So maybe I'm upset at my wife, or my son, or my dogs, or my employees, well you walk the block, what are you doing that's pissing them off, look at it from all different angles. So four different angles which makes you think of things you would never think of norm

Captain Matt shows some of the colors we have for color matching. Smart lighting color matched to your house?! Hey guys, Captain Matt here, just wanted to show you something with our permanent soffit lighting, the Gemstones. When we talk about color matching to your soffits I wanted to show you some of these cool things, these are tracks that we still have right here, look at this: we got, I hope you can tell, it's like a wood grain, you got the blacks, different type of wood grain, different tracks this one is kind of like a "U" or like a "U-ish", and these ones are a little tiny ones for hiding the wires, grays, white obviously, the creams,, light brown, dark brown, tons of white because we use that the most, different type of wood grain here, another browns, some silvers and grays, a red. So when we say color matched to your soffits, these are just some of them we have in stock because we these are the most common ones so we keep some on hand, that's jus

Outdoor Audio with your landscape lighting for your backyard resort! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IrHst3ExNfg 

How I focus on happiness. Staying happy and learning what that means. Captain Matt talking about Wake Up Warrior it's a part of my routines and how I do operate my business. Another stack is called the happy stack, very similar to a gratitude stack or an irritated stack but on the happier end, a happy stack really makes you focus on some good things. Do you ever wake up in the morning and you just feel alive or great and happy? Maybe you've got a new plant,  little things like that excite you, or you got a new shirt in the mail, or something's getting delivered today and you're just happy. Maybe it's not a gratitude towards something, maybe it's just happiness. Well we way too often don't focus on that and we only focus on the bad things, and the anger. Well the happy stack allows you to kind of get out of your system, and learn a life lesson from it on how to focus on that happiness, and use it you know to live your your day better with a smile all around.

Are business partners a waste of time? Business Parters? Hey guys Captain Matt here once again with another business video, you can probably tell from my shirt, anyways that's it’s own marketing video. I just want to talk to you about having a partner, I know when you hear about partners in business it's always like “don't do it, it's the worst thing”, and I've had partnerships where I fully agree with that it's totally bad, but I mean the same can be said about marriages, right? I mean if we only went off the bad none of us would ever get married, none of us would ever get married because why would you want to if all you ever heard and focused on was the divorces and the bad things that happened. So with The Christmas Guys, Elfperts Inc, and Barefoot Lighting I have a partner, Maverick Mike, and what's funny is my wife calls him my second wife, and it really is it's like having a marriage that's only about money, there's no sex, there's no

How we keep things organized for Gemstone jobs. Behind the scenes of how we store, organize, and prep for a Gemstone Lights installation. Hey, Captain Matt here. Just wanted to show you the the Gemstone section of our shop here, some other installers were asking us how we keep things organized and everything. So we've used a lot of these blue bins, these are the screws, these are some smaller loom cuts, more screws, power cords, hub controllers, white and black split loom, all the different jumper cables that we need, these ones aren't labeled but they're more jumper cables, lights, more lights or wire, or some what we call floodies. So just basically labeling everything, and then as we do the job, I'm going to turn this way, this job's going out the next work day, got the rigid cases all filled up with all the all the items and the jumpers, and the tools that guys are going to need on the site. Here's the tracks they're getting installed, we got the copper

How implementing discovery stacks helped Captain Matt What is a discovery stack? Daily routine with Captain Matt. Captain Matt back with another video, again talking about another stack, or another journal entry. Part of the Wake Up Warrior program and it's called the discovery stack, and I love them. Basically a discovery stack is you take a little sentence or a little parable that you're reading, or you heard, and then you take that little thing and you break it down into so much more and really extract some learning from it. I think what i've seen is most powerful is that when I went to first meet my illumination mentor, as an illumination artist is that I took a bunch of notes I actually typed them up on my phone I was sending myself facebook messages and then when I got home I took each individual facebook message and I did a full-blown discovery stack on it, and then I sent that entire book to my team. You can tell the team members who read it versus who didn't

How I manage irritation, anger, and rage. We are the story we most tell ourselves! Captain Matt, Wake Up Warrior, another part of my routines and everything is the angry stack and the irritated stack. So basically it goes: irritated, angry, mega- or irritated, angry, rage. Irritation that's not let out becomes anger, anger that's not let out becomes rage. So I find myself doing a lot more irritated stacks now versus angry and mega even though I still 100% need to do all of them, but the irritated stack might be something small like your kid not shutting the door, or your wife putting the cereal box somewhere where she doesn't normally do it, or whatever the case may be. Doing an irritated stack and journaling about it and and getting it all out, why you're irritated, what you would do. What's the story that you're telling yourself right now? Because the stories that we tell ourselves is what matters most, we are the story we most tell ourselves. Doesn't m

Walking and talking and how it's helped me. If you're not going on walk and talks you're missing out! Captain Matt back again with a little bit of-I don't know what I'm calling these videos. I've learned a lot of these things with Wake Up Warrior but more about your mood and your mind and how you think, because changing up here will change your entire life and everyone around you. When you're doing things for yourself instead of trying to change someone else, when you work on changing yourself you'll find even the people that are around you are different which really makes you reflect on how much of the things that you maybe have been perceiving weren't even true. So anyways, I want to real quick talk about walk & talks, I do walk & talks with my business partner quite often, we were doing it before we even called them walk & talks. Basically you know we walk on the back train tracks, or walk over here. Basically we're walking, yo

Everyone needs landscape lighting, even if it's not from me. Everyone needs landscape lighting. Hey, Captain Matt here I just wanted to quick jump on. So I had a call with one of my landscape lighting coaches the other day, and you know we were talking he said "you know you truly believe that everybody needs landscape lighting, it's not a want, it's not a marketing thing", and absolutely it's the case. That's why anytime I talk to somebody I know they need landscape lighting even if it's not from me, even if they go down to Home Depot and spend a few thousand dollars and do some stuff themselves. I have seen and I have experienced how much landscape lighting literally changes your life at your home, and so again whether, it's me somebody else, or you're doing a DIY, everybody needs landscape lighting it makes you able to use your entire property, and it makes you feel more welcomed when you get home, anyways that's it. https://barefootli

Up lighting or down lighting? Which is right for your home? Should I put uplighting or downlighting on my home? Captain Matt here, Barefoot Lighting, Elfperts Inc. People ask "Hey, should we get uplighting on our home, or down lighting on our home?" and the answer typically is both. That is because with, let's just say our upstate New York's typical two-story home, up lighting is going to make it look great and everything, but it's when it gets up to the second story it's going to be less bright at that point a little bit too dim and dull depending on the side of your house and ledges and all that, typically you need a little extra light there. So, then we can come down with some softer lights, so it's not the same brightness that comes up from the ground, just a softer 60 degree beam that'll be less bright but help brighten up the entire home, that is the curb appeal, that is your house, that is your castle. So, that's why a lot of times I'll

Why your outdoor kitchen needs lighting Outdoor kitchens NEED lighting! Ask anyone who has one! Hey guys, Captain Matt here. Just want to show you when you get your outdoor kitchen so many times people forget about lighting. Obviously you can see during the day when you're grilling and everything, but doing some outdoor lighting above your grill when you're cooking at night, put a little light switch there, a giant down light there so when you open it up, look at that you can now see the meat that you're cooking. We also can do one over your prep area so you can see what you're prepping, and then a little outdoor switch over here click it off, that way you can go back to enjoying your night but you can see what you're cooking. https://barefootlighting.com/outdoor-kitchens-need-lighting-ask-anyone-who-has-one/

Barefoot Landscape Lighting Portfolio: Barefoot Landscape Lighting does all sorts of exterior outdoor lighting design and installation. With Captains crew of 13 years in the lighting industry it's time to let us help you enjoy your property like you've never even dreamed possible before. Landscape Lighting: Tree Lighting: Pond Lighting: Outdoor Activities Lighting: Custom Lighting Props: Fence Lights: Outdoor Audio: Pool Lighting: Entryway Lighting: Pathway Lighting: Hanging Outdoor Lights: Outdoor Kitchen Lights: Architectural Soffit Lighting: Front of Home Landscape Lighting: Landscape Lighting For Gardens: Shadow Art Lighting: Bistro Lights: Hardscape Lights: Christmas Decorating: Barefoot Landscape Lighting is a brand under Elfperts Inc. With sister companies of The Christmas Guys , Light Your World , and VisiDream . https://barefootlighting.com/landscape-lighting-portfolio/