Learnings and Missteps
The Learnings and Missteps Podcast is about unconventional roads to success and the life lessons learned along the way.
You will find a library of interviews packed with actionable take aways that you can apply as you progress on your career path.
Through these interviews you will learn about the buttons you can push to be a better leader, launch a business, and build your influence.
Find yourself in their stories and know that your path is still ahead of you.
Learnings and Missteps
Between Egos and Helmets: Unraveling Leadership, Safety, and Personal Growth with Tyler Campbell
Ever tried squeezing a big ego into a safety helmet? Join us as we embark on a rollercoaster through the thrilling world of entrepreneurship with my childhood friend, Tyler Campbell, a self-proclaimed social media anarchist and brand-building wizard. We reflect on the essence of leadership as servitude and the challenges of staying humble amidst success. Our lively discussion touches on maintaining authenticity and the humorous trials of fitting an inflated ego into a safety helmet. This episode promises insights into how staying true to oneself can navigate the tumultuous waves of leadership and business.
The construction industry is shifting from traditional hard hats to sophisticated safety helmets, but are these changes just a marketing ploy? With insights from Dr. Michael Botling, we dissect the truth behind type one and type two helmets, urging industry professionals to prioritize genuine safety improvements over mere aesthetics. We delve into the significance of scrutinizing marketing claims and emphasize the necessity for research to ensure these helmets offer better protection. It's a call to action for those in the industry to put safety at the forefront, beyond the alluring narratives spun by marketers.
Exploration is an art, and this episode uncovers how wandering through various interests can lead to unexpected paths of growth. From a passion for aeronautics to the creation of a podcast, we highlight the value of recognizing and leveraging unique strengths, including those influenced by ADHD. With Tyler's guidance, we celebrate the power of complementary skills and supportive partnerships in achieving shared visions. This journey of entrepreneurship and self-discovery emphasizes the magic of embracing curiosity and courage, encouraging listeners to pursue personal growth on their terms.
Connect with Tyler:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerscottcampbell/
https://storybuildercreative.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7OcpEn4q1_4yWXIY9Zuyiw
Make yourself a priority and get more done: https://www.depthbuilder.com/do-the-damn-thing
Download a PDF copy of Becoming the Promise You are Intended to Be
https://www.depthbuilder.com/books
They just let people start businesses. Did you know that? Oh yeah, I do know that. It's cool that people start this crap. You can do it too. It's nuts man. Building a business is not for the faint of heart, but man, it's a freaking rollercoaster and it's fun If you don't know precisely what your future is going to be.
Speaker 2:That only means that you're human.
Speaker 1:The more I get closer to being the leader that I want to be, the to being the leader that I want to be.
Speaker 2:The more I realize that leadership is nothing but just servitude. What is going on? L&m family Back and I'm excited about this conversation. I don't know if you know him, if you're in the LinkedIn world and you don't know him. You've been slacking my buddy friend. Well, I'm claiming him as a friend, whether he likes it or not.
Speaker 2:Mr Tyler Campbell's a construction brand building wizard. He's got all kinds of spells, does some amazing work. If you see my stuff, I'm pre-K level and he's like calculus level. I also think of him because of some of the tone of his posts personal posts, which I love, which is what caught my attention. I would say he falls in the social media anarchist. We're going to have a really good conversation today and, if you're new here, this is the Learnings and Missteps podcast, where you get to see how real people just like you are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it. I am Jesse, your selfish servant, and we are going to get to know the wizard, mr Tyler Campbell. Tyler, how are you doing, my man?
Speaker 1:Okay, two things right off the bat. All right, yes, we are friends for one. I've been clear the air on that. We're definitely friends. Two, dude, you just made my head like five times bigger than it needs to be. All right, so I'm gonna need to go talk to my brother after this so he can deflate me just a little, making me feel all great and stuff, calling me a wizard. Golly, I like the title, not gonna lie, I mean I like it, but eddie's gonna all sorts of crap about that.
Speaker 2:This I know I'm glad we're friends. That's so odd. You remember when we were kids and you'd go to the playground and it was like hey want to be friends, like it was kind of that was a thing.
Speaker 1:I was homeschooled man that didn't stop at the playground. That went all the way through to 18. Then I started realizing, wow, that that's a little awkward to just ask that, you know it's.
Speaker 2:It's a super, super important thing, and I'm glad that I just got promoted to being friends with the wizard and so you talked about an exploded head. We're just going to get right into it. Yes, let's go. Will your head fit into this safety helmet? Okay?
Speaker 1:We're starting strong here. I'm a little bit of a Captain Ahab when it comes to this, just because I want answers, all right, nothing more. I'm not trying to slander any companies, anything like that. I just want to get the legal crap out of the way. That way I don't get my butt sued from this. Yep, yep, okay. So it came to my attention after talking to Dr Michael Botling. He has interest with his own hardhat company, so he has interest with his own hard hat company, so he has his own bias. He started talking through some of the different hard hat options that are out there and there's a big switch that's going over to safety helmets. We're hearing this a lot. Safety culture is starting to push safety helmets, which is one thing that you just brought out here, and so, yeah, we're looking at it. Cool, all right. So you got your little chin strap and all that stuff. Fine, great, these are being pushed out there as they are the safer option. Now, jesse, I want you to look underneath there. What does that label say? The type class?
Speaker 2:is yes, so this type, this is a type one, class C All right.
Speaker 1:So there are two different types that we need to be aware of. There's type one, type two. Okay, so type one is like $13,. Go to Walmart Home Depot and pick up one of those little 3M hard hats that was in plastic. That's type one. The only difference is the strap. That's it. So they have gone through the same testing with these helmets and it is still a type one.
Speaker 1:What's really interesting is that when you go down the rabbit hole even more, this is a big topic that we could talk for three hours on, I'm sure, and I get passionate about it because I think it's a little bit marketing and that's getting into my corner. And the reason why I'm a little bit irritated about it is that these companies out there in the hard hat space, whatever they might be and I'm not going to point at any single one of them A lot of those companies out there saying that this is a safer option for your crew. And it is literally a helmet, is a shape. It's the shape of the mold. Yeah, and if you look at the type, it's type one. They are the same thing, they are rated for the same thing they have the same rating, so type one says it has the same rating as the generic stuff on the shelf.
Speaker 1:They tested it and they said this is not good enough to get up into type two. Okay, so you need a little bit extra to get into type two. Type two starts taking into account some of these rotational forces, which are the things that cause concussions. So when your head, when you hit something and you snap forward, what happens is it basically scrambles the eggs, causing a concussion. So these type one helmets because they're not geared for that and they also have this chin strap could potentially cause more of a concussion risk than the traditional type, the $13 hard hat that you can pick up over at Home Depot. Marketing is telling us that these are safer, they look different, so we believe them, but the reality is they're exactly the same as that $13 hard hat you can pick up over at Home Depot. So you're paying an extra $100 for a shape. That's it, okay, a shape and a strap. That's the difference. That's kicking the bee's nest and this. I know, this, I know.
Speaker 1:I actually posted about this several months ago and I had a very respected friend who is in the construction technology space. He commented on the post and he said hey, man, no, you're wrong. He was kind of getting combative with me. He had his safety director multi-billion dollar GC say hey, dude, no, actually Tyler's right on this. This is actually an issue. This needs to be something that we research more.
Speaker 1:We can't just trust the marketing. We can't just trust what is being promoted out there. We have to do our due diligence and find the safest thing for our people. If all we're doing is putting a shape on their head under the guise that it's safer and getting picked off if anybody ever questions it, all we're doing is virtue signaling, and that irritates the bejesus app. So let's make sure we're actually upgrading to type two, because that is the new standard. Is type two Right? Go out and buy a hard hat or a hard helmet based off of the shape. Check the type rating. That's the core of this. But then we need to do some more testing beyond that to see if these are actually safer. Are they actually safer?
Speaker 2:So what I'm hearing is it may or may not be safer. That needs to be tested. We need further testing. But based on the classification, it's a marketing thing that it is safer, so it hasn't necessarily been proven to be safer. It's just a different shape. The biggest difference is the chin strap. Let me ask you this before we go further. I want to give the l&m family members shout out. This one goes to mr john dogged. John sent me this dm and it was super. He said one day I will supporting the construction professionals out there. It's a special treat to know that I'm even on your mind and folks.
Speaker 2:Rest of the L&M family members out there, I hope you know I love getting these little messages, dms, comments, reviews, any and all of the above Because it helps me know that, like I'm not just boring the hell out of you, and when you do, I keep a log and I will take the opportunity to shout you out in an episode in the future. If they marketed it y'all helmet manufacturers you can use this clip. If they marketed it, from the perspective of how much sexier it makes you look, would you have a problem with it?
Speaker 1:I don't give a crap man, I just make sure that it's safer, because, at the end of the day, that's what everybody's talking about is oh, we use these because they're safer. Oh, all of our people wear helmets because they're safer and they have a chin strap, are they? I guarantee you, if you go out on your job site where there is a helmet mandate and you start flipping some lids over and you start checking the types, guess what? You're going to start seeing that, oh crap, I mandated type two, but that's a type one, jesse, and they're just going by the shape period. You had no idea, I didn't. You had no idea, no idea. So you're out there walking around thinking you're safer as a result of that, you're not Right. I don't know how this works, the how this works, the testing is the same. It was only good enough to pass the type one testing.
Speaker 1:And then, if you go into type two, there's another element to it. Where type two starts to take into account some of these rotational forces to prevent more concussions, there is a camp that is saying that the type two helmets are still not as safe as a type two hard hat. So the traditional style without the chin strap, without the chin strap. So it's really interesting and it's intricate and it's difficult, and I am not the best person to explain this. All I am saying is this is one of those things that has become my Moby Dick, that I've been chasing around with my spear because I'm like I need to figure this out If you do want some interesting insight into this. And again, I will say that he is completely biased because he's a part of WaveCell. Look up Dr Botling and the research that he has done, because they did the testing in the lab and they found some really interesting results comparing all of these different helmet types, their more traditional style.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to take a side. I don't care. I want the truth to come through. If we're saying it's safer, we better be sure that it's safer, because I have run into many, many safety people out on site. They'd be like, well, you're not wearing a helmet. They start going that way and I'm like flipping over my hard hat and saying, yeah, this is type two and they go well. But I guarantee you the safety person isn't wearing a type two, they're wearing a type one helmet. I'm safer than they are because they haven't educated themselves on this stuff. I love it, bro. I want people to dig in. That's the core thing that across here. This is again something I have researched extensively. I can give you what I've found, but I ask and I plead If you are thinking that this is safer, I urge you, go do some more research. Talk to the manufacturers, see how they're testing stuff. Go look into rotational forces and how that affects concussions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'll say this Key point here. Folks, this isn't a bash, this is. Read your stuff. I didn't know it was a class two. I, for real, read your stuff. I didn't know it was a class two. I, for real, I picked it. I said, oh, it's that shape, that's the one I want, and so that's a risk. And I don't do real work, so I'm at less risk than most people. But if I'm making my judgment based on the shape, which we're human beings, that's what we're going to do we could be elevating our risk instead of staying with what we've had, which was a class two. That's a thing. Maybe.
Speaker 2:I don't want to accuse anybody, but there's a lot of room to exploit that, and that may be how cause this bad boy here? Daddy, she's like you're kidding, it's over a hundred bucks. Why do I like it? Two big reasons. One, I travel all the time. Yeah, this is much easier to travel with than my big brimmed hard hat. A, b, back in the day when I used to do real work, I wish I had this helmet. Yeah, because when I was sitting down, tying in p traps, connecting sinks, contorting my body in mechanical rooms and up in ceilings, oh yeah, my would fall off all the time and I would catch hell from the GC. You need to be aware of your health rule. I'm working here. It just fell off. So the chin strap for me is my God. If I had that, I would have bumped my head less. There you go and I would have had less argument. So for me that's a value add right out of the gate.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, I'm not thinking about class one, class two rotational forces. So maybe the irk is exploitation of our tendency to process make decisions based on visual cues than informational cues. What?
Speaker 1:do you think, yeah, no, I agree with that and I think that's awesome that you have that experience saying, before the chin strap, this would happen to me. I mean, having done a little bit of plumbing, I try to avoid it as much as possible. I can say, yes, I could see how this would happen, we do. And again, like I can't really take a side on this, I can't sit here and be like, oh no, all the traditional stuff is the way to go, it's way safer. I just don't know.
Speaker 1:That's kind of throwing the flag in the air and saying, hey, can we just talk about this a little bit, because I think there's a lot of misinformation out there and it comes back to again kind of that marketing play. We've all just gotten this visual in our head of, oh, it's a helmet, therefore it is safer. We got to stop and I know that there are some incredibly smart safety people out there that have taken this into account, that are looking at that stuff, that are looking at the data and I commend you for taking the time to do that but the ones who are just buying off the shelf saying like, yeah, it's a helmet, safer, yeah, that's poorly mistaken and you need to reevaluate how you're making those decisions, and it's for the safety of the people that are out in the field at the end of the day, right? I'm just asking some questions here.
Speaker 2:When it's interesting how people respond like they're not even interested in having the cop, like they get defensive about the topic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if I share the data based off of that other study that basically talks about concussion risks being higher in helmets, I am very much at risk of being berated and belittled for saying that, even though I have a scientific study telling me it tells that. I will concede there is bias in it. However, I still think there needs to be another peer review study around this sort of thing. It can be unbiased, nobody cares. We are just trying to find the facts. It's not sponsored by a brand, it's sponsored by we, the people, and we think what is the safety measure that we're going to care about here? What is the best solution for our people?
Speaker 1:I don't care what brand it is, I could give two craps. I just want the safest thing for our people. I don't care what brand it is, I could give two craps. I just want the safest thing for our people. That's the only thing I'm advocating for. Come at me, tell me why I'm wrong, all of these things. I'm sure I will get a message about this and I'm a doo-doo head or something, I'm sure I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I want to make sure that the L&M family out there doesn't get confused in thinking you're like a hard hat specialist because you are a marketing wizard.
Speaker 1:I have a background in construction and we've interviewed over 400 people on our podcast, and so I think of myself as a bit of a student of construction from my time being in industry to now, where I get to talk to people like you who know more than me, and this is one of those things. As the commercial construction guy in a previous life, it matters. My crews, my video teams, are going out to site and they're running around. I want to make sure that they have the safe stuff, so this matters to me. If I'm sending people out to site, I'm going to spend the extra money and make sure they're in the right stuff.
Speaker 2:And for, and I think that's why we clicked, because you're not a wishy-washy type of person. You have a stance on things which, to me, is ultra valuable, right? You're not saying I need to come to your side. You're saying this is where I stand. You do that on social media. That's what. What caught my attention at first, and then, when we had our first conversation, I'm like oh, this dude's for real. This is the kind of people I like to roll with. Now you kind of touched on your career trajectory when you were on the playground or maybe middle school, highautical engineering, yeah.
Speaker 1:So my dad actually had his private pilot's license very still to this day and so I grew up near airplanes and there's something about airports, something about that that I just I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning. It's just wonderful. I was all in aeronautics that's where I started, and then it shifted from there to music. Played violin for four years. From that I picked up guitar and then went through my punk phase and found all the oldies and I found Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin found me. I switched to guitar pretty rapidly after that and so that was going to be my trajectory, which was going to be epic but kind of wandered I'm not going to lie Like my earlier years, I'll say 17 to 20 and even beyond, I was wandering.
Speaker 2:What was the wandering like? Because I think I know what you mean because I've been a wanderer for a long time. What did that period of time feel like?
Speaker 1:I started in this family steel detailing business at 19. So I had this like base foundation, this kind of string that held the kite, so to speak yeah yeah, grounding me, holding me in place. But the kite would move a lot. Wind would pick up and move me in different directions, and so my day to day was focused in on steel detailing. But the wandering aspect of it was I found user experience design, I found graphic design, I found photography, like all these different little elements, seo. Just, I went down the rabbit hole.
Speaker 1:I can blame my wife for this. She actually has a mass comm degree, and so I got some of her stuff that she was studying while she was still in school, when we were married, and I was like, oh, that's really interesting, I think I'll do that too. And so I like moved it over and I started focusing on that, and so the wandering was more. I never went to college, I apprenticed, and so I was able to openly look around and explore and try new stuff and not be high risk. That was kind of the beauty of apprenticeship is that I could have that grounding thing, that thing that paid the bills, but I could also wander around and see what other stuff interested me Through that. You know we started the podcast when I was probably oh gosh, I was probably eight years into my time with ABSI when we started up the podcast and it's been a great little part of my life and a great little way of Eddie and I being able to hang out and talk and get to meet cool people. So yeah, man, like the wandering was centralized, I'll say, around the job that I had but there was a lot of kind of things that swirled around it. But it just goes to show it's not all lost. Even if you feel like you're leaving a little bit and you're like I mean, I don't really know directionally where I'm going, but I'm going to come over here because I'm interested or I'm going to come over there because I'm interested, you have no idea the sorts of things that you're preparing yourself for down the road. Like no idea For me.
Speaker 1:I had no idea that detailing would be relevant to video production because at the end of the day it's like you're working on a computer, but with detailing I had to figure out faster ways of doing it. I had to figure out like, how do I make this more efficient? This is a repeatable task. How do I automate this Reading that back into my editors, who are fresh out of film school, and I'm saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Why are you clicking so many times? We need to find a better way of doing this. We need to systematize, we need better processes. We need better procedures in life. We're not perfect, but we're moving in that direction. There are core principles that you learn wherever you're at, that you can take forward and you just got to stay curious.
Speaker 2:Oh man. So a couple of things that come through One. It feels like the wondering at some point evolved into exploration. The reason I say those two differently is because, like, wondering is just kind of Roman, yeah, and just checking it out, exploration is like intentional and targeting, but the wondering came first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, wondering, and I was like, wait a minute, the nodes in your brain started firing and connecting and you said, whoa, let me go down this path to where you were able to like see the connection between these transferable skills. Yeah, the other thing that I'm kind of getting from what you just shared, same thing right when I was installing, which was a long time ago, a lot of the skills, the weird, like invisible skills that I learned then is what I'm applying to building my business now. Yeah, when I was installing, I got a pile of material, some information and some tools and I had to use my wherewithal to make something of utility by combining those things. Yeah, yeah, like the same kind of thinking and experimentation and whatever that I did when I was trying to build out this mechanical room yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, mindset, I think or maybe thinking process that I go through when I'm like building out my business and designing products, et cetera.
Speaker 2:So, now, while you were doing the wandering exploration, what kind of friction and when I say friction, I'm talking like social friction from your family, from your friends, about the fact that there was wandering happening, and how did you deal with that?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I'm already like I have ADHD, like full stop. And so I think some of the friction that came around that is and it's kind friction it was more like hey, are you just kind of yanking the steering wheel here just because you're interested in something, and you had this idea at lunch and you're ready to do it now? I love this line from the Office. I've had this idea since lunch and I'm not ready to give up on it now. And so I think what ended up kind of switching people's minds against that friction is that they started seeing me make these decisions that would actually cause it to happen, and they were like oh no, you're serious.
Speaker 1:So, like with the podcast, we joke. I ordered a bunch of equipment. I walked in and I looked at Eddie and I was like hey, eddie, guess what? I just I ordered a bunch of podcasting equipment. We're starting a podcast. And he went like he was like really, why did we give you the company credit card again? And so that was one of those things where Eddie was just we're going to have so much podcasting equipment just collecting dust.
Speaker 1:Just piling up. P Piled up his failed agreement, just another one, and so there was a little bit of a kind of a joking sort of environment around that. But then we tried it and they were like, oh, that's really interesting. And then I hired an editor. That was the first thing that I did is hired an editor after we got through that first kind of episode, because I knew if it was going to be sustainable, that it couldn't just rest on me. It was going to fail if it was all on me. Sustainable that it couldn't just rest on me, it was going to fail if it was all on me. And I needed to stay focused because I'm great at vision but the execution aspect of it I have to shore that aspect up because that's where I'm limited and I need people around me that are great at just tunnel vision, knocking stuff out Right.
Speaker 1:And I can hear about the weeds looking at stuff, and so the editor was that play, and so that was one of those moments where the friction was like, oh gosh, is he really going to commit to this? Ooh, classic Tyler. Another thing bought another company card. I think I showed the seriousness by the infrastructure that I built around it to make it sustainable. I don't know if that answers your question it does.
Speaker 2:It answers the question in so many ways because when I got into the trades and I'm using myself as an example you have a particular story and I want the L&M family to know like it's not a straight line If you don't know precisely what your future is going to be, that only means that you're human. And if you're experiencing friction and you said it very nicely, right, like it was kind friction it's because people cared and were concerned about you and that's valuable to know. So what I want people to take away from that is if you're having that experience, it's not because you're defected, it's because you're human. It's a part of the experience. The connection of the transferable skills is an important takeaway.
Speaker 2:The awareness there's all kinds of content out there where people are making big dollars to help people become aware of are they a visionary? Are they an out about them? Because they hit a point in their career or their personal growth that their tendencies are limiting the amount that they can put into the world. So one question I got is how did you get clear about? Okay, I'm a visionary, I'm not the execution dude, because Eddie's the execution dude.
Speaker 1:You had an execution dude? No, I had that. And still, to this day, he is the one that holds me to task on most of the things that I do, and whenever I'm feeling like, oh gosh, man, I want to just throw in the towel on this stuff, he is the grinder, he is going to sit in the suck and hold his breath for as long as he possibly can. He is the executioner, he is the operations guy. He knows how to do that. And so I started realizing really quick that whenever I started doing ops within the family business, where I was managing all of the people, I wanted to scale to a point where I did not have to be the one managing all the people that it was a result of my personality. My personality is that of somebody who has a ton of ideas, who sees a bigger picture, and that seems so grandiose. I don't know. I don't want to paint it as that. I don't want this to come across as I just I know my personality and my tendencies. Now, yeah, yeah, which is just. That's just my brain. Man, I have ADHD, and you know what that's actually freeing? There is this stigma around people with ADHD. They can't focus, they struggle to get things done on time, all of these different things. But the thing that really freed me up and this is something I don't think a lot of people realize is do you know how many I'm probably screwing up my percentage here, but there's probably like six out of 10, if not more entrepreneurs have ADHD or dyslexia or some other thing. Right, yes, I have both, and that was the thing that was really kind of freeing for me to hear that I was like whoa, I was made this way for a reason. My gifting is in those areas. But it took me forever to figure that out. It took me growing in a position, getting to a place where I was like oh, I'm operating, I'm making sure I'm holding people to task to get their job done and I'm like but I'm over here working on this other idea because this ops stuff bores me to death, yes, yes, bores me to death Whereas Eddie's over here suffering, going oh my God, tyler, can you get this done? And he's like watching me. I am not that guy.
Speaker 1:I had to see the contrast between my brother and I to realize where I fit in that kind of hierarchy of a business and the things that I need to focus on. I need to focus on the big picture stuff. I need to focus on the systems. Yeah, get me into systems. You're all day, you're in Holy crap. I can show you some stuff, dude.
Speaker 1:Like I was showing my wife, who is a very like straight on, she's going to grind and get the job done. That is her personality Great operator. I showed her sketches of systems that I have for my own business and I'm like I worked on this today. Check this out. She was like what the heck is going on in that brain man? What in the world? But it's I hyper-focus on that and it's a problem that I want to solve and it's a puzzle and it just it interests me, it fascinates me and I have to find people that can help me operate that system. I can't be the only one that does it. So and I get kind of back to what you were saying is I don't know where you're headed right now. You're okay, you got time, you're going to be fine.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's this pressure on all of us to make a million dollars or go out and do like these arbitrary goals that we have. We get so entangled with this idea of where we feel like we should be, instead of just trying to be curious and just kind of chase that next thing and just see what happens. The weaving is probably a little bit out of sync right now. It's just a little bit out and then all of a sudden it's just going to go whoop and everything comes together and everything works and it makes sense. But give it the time. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. I was a late bloomer this I know I was a late bloomer on a lot of this. This I know I was a late bloomer on a lot of this.
Speaker 2:Same. Yes, I can't remember who said it, but she's like. The thing is there is no answer sheet for the universe. What that alludes to is our conditioning right K through 12 and even higher learning. There is a right answer to everything yeah, and if it's not the right answer, it is absolutely wrong. Yeah. And then we get out into life and there isn't necessarily a right answer. I've come to terms with the idea that there is my answer and I just need to figure out what the hell that is and go, be messy and learn, and if it clears the path, keep doing it. If it creates barriers, try it a different way. Now, one thing that I think is really powerful is we all have these things right. We all have some kind of diagnosis, and you didn't let your diagnosis become your handicap.
Speaker 1:That's the thing that pisses me off more than anything, dude, is when we use that as a crutch and we use it as an excuse to not get things done For me. I'm like okay, god gifted me with this, I was given this, why. Why was I given it? I had to come to grips with that and, to be perfectly honest, I didn't find out that I had ADHD until like probably two, three years ago. And then everything came together and I was like oh my God, that's the reason why. That's why, oh my gosh, that's the reason my brain is like this. Because I had other friends around me that had been diagnosed and I was like oh okay, sorry, anyway, tangent ADHD For me.
Speaker 1:I could have taken that as like oh man, that means my life is going to be so hard. That means that life is going to be really difficult for me. It's going to be difficult for me to get tasks done. It's going to be difficult for me to focus on things. Oh, I need this, I need that. Just fall on my face and just kind of give up.
Speaker 1:I have nothing good to offer because I can't do these things that society tells me I should be able to do. Society tells me that I should be able to have focus. But why was I coded like this? Why did God give me this skillset? And that excites me because I'm like I have a superpower that nobody else does my ability to just wander, my ability to just go and then hyper-focus on it like a madman. That is such a gift. That is such a gift to be able to have that perspective on things, because not everybody has that perspective A hundred percent. You could turn it into a crutch. You flip that joker on its head and be like but what are the things that I'm now able to offer? Yes, having this in my DNA.
Speaker 1:You know my dad, like it or not, he definitely has ADHD. He probably wouldn't say it, but he is that way all the time and I see that in my father. He is that visionary. He is that person who constantly has more ideas than he knows what to do with. You see that out on his arm Like. You see all the different crap that he gets on in the projects and it's okay and that's fine. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how do you leverage the thing instead of letting it be your crutch? How can you leverage it? And then what you've done, which I think is super valuable, something that I finally I call them my personal advisory group, but I've surrounded myself with specific people Most of them know that they're on the group, some of them don't because they can help keep that, keep me in the nucleus of where I can best serve. Yes, and if I don't have those reinforcing people, perspectives, thoughts, et cetera, who knows where the hell I'm going to?
Speaker 1:go Exactly. The podcast would not, like our podcast construction brothers, would not be in existence if it weren't for Eddie also would not have been in existence If it weren't for me. It takes both right. It took me to have the ADHD to go what the heck? And then it took Eddie going. There's something here. Let's keep investing and like, keep grabbing me by the ear and pulling me in that insulation of know thyself, know your struggle, and backfill your life with people who are the opposite of you, can hold you to task and respect their opinions, and that can be difficult sometimes. But at the end of the day, like you've got to go through some of that weaving, some of that wandering to figure out how your brain works, the things that light you up and the things that don't, and then we start to kind of piece that together, then you backfill for your weaknesses. If you are that person who is a great operator like you're great at the daily grind you might need to find somebody who's a visionary to pull on you a little bit.
Speaker 2:You have to challenge you so you can keep growing and execute.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, if you are that visionary character that sounds so grandiose. I don't like that. If you are that person who's more prone to wander, if you're the explorer, you're willing to just jump out and go figure stuff out. You need that other person who's more prone to wander. If you're the explorer, you're willing to just jump out and go figure stuff out. You need that other person, who's that operator, to just hold you down and keep you moving on the things that matter to you, because, at the end of the day, that's the only way that you're going to keep moving forward and improve not just your life but the people around you too.
Speaker 1:I feel God has given me this ADHD because he knows that I can look at different things and find ways to build businesses, find ways to improve people's lives around me, because, at the end of the day, my purpose is I want to improve not just my life but everybody around me as well. Not everybody can do that. Not everybody can vision cast in that way and get people moving in that direction, and so for me, I'm like I want to be able to get people moving in a direction that makes society better, that makes the world a little bit better place the construction industry a better place, and I know that God has just kind of geared me for that. Nothing great comes by everything going perfect. It's always tribulations right.
Speaker 2:Winning is a poor or success is a poor teacher, because all of a sudden I start thinking it's just because of me, because I'm so awesome. Failure is my best teacher, because I know when I screwed up.
Speaker 1:I never realized. I learned a lot more about failure Whenever I started a business. Without failure, you can't grow Like you literally can't. I learned that in running, but for some reason I didn't retain it. I go out and I try to run a 30 minute 5k or whatever the heck like. I'm trying to get sub 30 on a 5k because I'm a slow, fat dude. But you know, I'm like oh yeah, I want to do these things.
Speaker 1:But, man, in order to do that, I have to fail repeatedly in order to hit, and it's failure in multiple ways. It's failure based off of my cardio just isn't good, my legs just don't have the strength in them yet. Heck, I didn't hydrate enough, I didn't eat well enough All these little variables. In order to meet that goal, you have to learn so much, yes, but and then there are other people out there in the world who can go out and run a 22 minute 5k. Wake up, drink a beer and go run it.
Speaker 1:That's bullshit. It's like that's not, I know, and it's not. It just it varies based off the people, and so eddie's known for saying this more just run your own race, man. Yeah, they focused on your stuff. Don't worry about the people around you, and I got caught up in that a lot, jesse. When we first started the show, I got so focused on the people around us that were also running podcasts and I was like I got to that place and that's not healthy for anybody. It's not that I'm not competitive. I get that. Our race is completely different than somebody else's out there. When we started this, we had zero falling. You know this.
Speaker 2:It's not zero up.
Speaker 1:But I was comparing myself with somebody that was five years down the road, and why in the heck I wasn't there yet? I'm like, dude, you haven't put that much time into it yet. The same thing with my business. I look around and I see somebody else got another job. That I'm like, oh man, I really wish we could have done that. And then I got to check my crap at the door and say, well, hey, they've been doing this for 10, but you've only been doing it for five.
Speaker 2:Sit, sit down and shut up, do the work, do the work. Yes, oh my god. So construction brothers podcast, y'all gotta check it out. Tyler and eddie lighten it up. So you went from aeronautical engineer to wandering kite detailer, explorer, musician, podcaster which love, because, yes, there's connections between all of those, there's threads in all of those things and then you launched a business. Did that happen after the podcast or was that concurrent?
Speaker 1:It happened after the podcast. So we did the podcast for two years and honestly just kind of got the bug where I was like I feel like I'm actually pretty decent at this marketing thing and I also was able to speak a different language than a lot of the other people that we were interacting with in the marketing community around the podcast, because I knew industry and so I was like there's value there somewhere somehow, and so I hung out the shingle, called it Story Builder and was like I don't know what we're going to do. We're going to figure it out.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So I had some ideas around what I're going to do. We're going to figure it out, right. So I had some ideas around what I was going to do and it changed. And it's three years in and it's completely different. Actually, no, it's exactly what I started out wanting to do, but I had to do some wandering in there too.
Speaker 1:Right, started out with video and photo. And then I was like, oh, consulting pays a lot of money. And then I was like, oh, we're going to be a full service marketing agency. And then I did this. And then I was like, oh, but what if we did a little bit of this? And it was zigzag.
Speaker 1:But now it's like I feel finally, finally, after wandering, you know, for a couple of years, I feel a lot more centralized down and this is our purpose, this is our mission, which is video, specifically. And so that was all just because I realized that marketing side of things that we kind of talked about at the beginning of the show, where it was like people didn't quite understand in the marketing side what construction people talked like or wanted to see, or you know, kind of that sme that comes in there and just says, no, this is the way construction. People think and want this is the type of stuff that they're going to care about. So I can help refine the messaging down and so yeah, man, but it's, it was wandering it's a wanderer I had no freaking idea what story builder was going to be when we first started it.
Speaker 1:It's crazy. They just let people start businesses. Did you know that like that? You don't. Oh yeah, I do know that you can start this crap. You can do it too. It's nuts man.
Speaker 1:That funny thing is I was like, oh crap, I really don't know what the heck we're going to do, and yet I've been able to provide for my family out of that as well. We let fear get in our way a lot, and it's not all as bad as you might think, and I'll say this too. I'll shout out the people around me who were some of the friction, but also there's some people who were just like, oh man, just send it, my wife being one of them. The whole reason I'm sitting where I'm at with StoryBuilder is because my wife was like we got to do it and she was just like behind me on this, and so I can't say enough about that. And also family, too, was just like yeah, I hate to see you go, but at the same time, we're going to support you.
Speaker 1:I have a lot of people around me to do this stuff, but it's based foundationally off of the relationships that I had built the previous 10 years. Yes, so don't forget. The relationships that are around you are the things that are going to propel you to that next step, that next rung. You stand on the shoulders of the people before you, so respect that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tyler, I wish I'm glad. So on two points the relationship perspective I am not the same human being Like the last 10 years of my life. I'm not the same human being I was before that. If I would have started my business 10 years ago, it would have been dead because I did not appreciate other human beings. They were a means to an end, yes, but then I saw the light, for a lot of different reasons, got sober Really important. It was a really important thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I launched my business, I'm like I don't know how the hell to do this, but let's go figure it out. What I thought I was going to do is not what I'm doing. I never expected to have online community or like the stuff that I'm doing is. I love it, I'm pretty good at it, but not what I expected. After I started, the market told me what they wanted from me. Like I had people call and say, jesse, we want to do this thing, we want you to help us with it, and I'm like why would you pick me to do that? It's kind of a big deal and I'd say, no, I'm going to do it. And of a big deal, yeah, and I'd say, no, I'm gonna do it. And then another person asked like oh well, I I know how to do that, I just need to do that so that I think the relationship piece is amazing. Yeah, the part to that is you had a community like your significant other, your family, supporting you, because when you start it's scary, or was it scary for you?
Speaker 1:Oh, it was scary as crap dude. The salary that I was so used to just went away, gone, no more checks, and at that point I'm like looking at our emergency fund going. Oh, sweet Lord, I hope it works. Also, it's like the things that I had done before launching the business had helped me kind of launch the business. So we were doing this podcast and I had built up relationships with people that were like hey, you know, we might be able to use you.
Speaker 1:And I think the first thing that I did was with Trimble and help them release their HoloLens product, which is absolutely freaking insane dude. Like, the first job that I hit was with trimble, but you know, that was a video production project project and I did that. And then I had another thing come up and they were like, hey, we need a logo. And I'm like, okay, I can do a logo. And then I figured that out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it is scary is all get out to. Yeah, and you know this is just hanging out your shingle and just going for it. I will say the thing that takes the most fortitude is when the market is demanding something of you and saying that they want this one thing, and then you have the testicular fortitude to say no, because I don't enjoy that, and you stay focused on the thing that you enjoy, even though the market isn't quite there yet. Like for me, I feel like I'm in this zone where the market is still kind of developing around, which is hilarious to think that the market around video is still developing in the construction industry, but it is, oh God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's really even though it's been a part of marketing for a long time with other companies, like for construction, it's still an infant, it's still a baby. There's just the number of contractors that I've talked to that have told me no about doing this Because it's crazy To date. Okay, this is a fun one for you To date, and this tells you how much of an opportunity there is, in my opinion, completely biased. But opportunity there is, in my opinion, completely biased. But I'm here to tell you there's a freaking opportunity for anybody who wants to reach out and get it. When I first started day one, my whole goal was to go out and help construction companies, contractors, gcs. To this day, I have not closed a single GC, not one.
Speaker 1:I believe it, I believe it. Not one has been willing to invest in something like this. So that's what tells me that the market is still in its infancy, because I think one is going to do it and then it's going to flip and then things are going to change. It's not for the faint of heart. Building a business is not for the faint of heart, but, man, it's a freaking roller coaster and it's fun, it's great.
Speaker 1:But I see so much development happening in the industry, and so I'm very curmudgeonly on my posts on LinkedIn. I will give you that I'm trying to be less. I love it, I love your posts, straight up. I'm trying to be less curmudgeonly because, at the end of the day, what do I want to happen is that I want to inspire people to go out there and try new things and change like whatever that might be Like, and so for me, I'm like if I inspire some construction company to go out there and hire a video crew not even us I don't even care. It helps everybody, it raises the market up, because we have this labor shortage thing that people keep talking about and, quite frankly, college has kicked our butts when it's come to marketing. And so what happens if we start flipping the script and we start marketing ourselves better than college does Not saying that people shouldn't get educated.
Speaker 1:That's not what I'm saying. That's a different thing. That's a different thing. We've got to start marketing ourselves to draw this next generation in here, or else we're going to be really screwed. We're going to really oh yeah, so if what I do, being a curmudgeon, can inspire one person to go out there and try for the construction company, it wouldn't be. Can inspire one person to go out there and try for the construction company, it was worth it. But I don't want to come across as this person of it's nothing's good, everything sucks that's not true man.
Speaker 1:There's so much happening in our industry. This is a freaking golden era. Yes, the thing that is setting the stage for the next 100 years, 200 years, 300 years of building. We're in the foundation period of this. Yeah, I am beyond excited with where the industry is at right now because it's just going to get better. Right, I think we're going to talk about things that we got to be straight about, we got to talk about.
Speaker 2:We got to be honest, yeah, we'll say systems, the system that construction as a whole has been functioning under. It's going to break. Like some of the data I read was 41% of the construction workforce will be retired by 2030. That's five years and a month away. That is very bad. There's some leaders, some early adopters, that are doing it differently, demonstrating appreciation for their people, like they're doing construction differently. But that's the tiny percentage.
Speaker 2:I have a sense of how much it's going to hurt to lose that many people because it's coming. They see the train coming down the tracks and people are crossing their fingers and blaming education and parents and the next generation. Some people are saying, oh shit, we got to do it differently. But when it hits, nobody's going to have a choice but to do something different. And so what you just said, I agree a hundred percent. Like this, next five years, we're going to see a significant evolution in the way we do construction holistically. I'm not talking about the assembly of systems like coppers, copper, sheetrock, sheetrock. I'm talking about the way we market, the way we treat and appreciate human beings, the way we structure contracts. I'm talking like all around workforce development, like it's all going to transform because it's not going to have a choice anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me, robotics is a big part of that. If I'm looking at some of the different things that are just kind of happening in our line of work right now, dude, there's so many opportunities. We look at that like there's this big issue. I'm here to tell you, man, this is the freaking land of milk and honey. It's awesome. There's an issue, yes, guess what we get to solve it. We get to figure it out. We're going to need to do some stuff that we haven't done before. We're going to have to change, we're going to have to adapt, and that excites the crap out of me. Dude, I'm so excited to be a part of this. Like, agree with me or not, it's going to take a village. We don't know what the winning thought is going to be, we have no idea, but we've got to start trying stuff, we've got to start innovating, we've got to start run with it.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen. All right, before we go into the final question where do people find you?
Speaker 1:LinkedIn Tyler Campbell on LinkedIn and I'm also on Instagram at the Tyler Campbell. And then if you want to go see StoryBuilder, just look up storybuildercreativecom. If you want to just come, hang out, chat, connect all that stuff hit me up on LinkedIn. That's the best place to get in touch with me.
Speaker 2:Boom so you ready for the big question? Let's go, and I'm excited about your answer because of your trajectory right. You've done some wandering, you've had some realizations, you took the big leap. You want to make things better period, not just for you, sure, you want the business to grow, but you also want people to have a better experience in the world. Yeah, and so here's the question what is the promise you are intended?
Speaker 1:to be. Promise that I am intended to be. Can you clarify for me? Like yeah I'll give.
Speaker 2:I'll use my example. Yeah, I had a counselor when I was in rehab. Tell me, jesse, your problem isn't admitting, your problem is that you haven't accepted. And I said okay, what the hell does that mean? He says you haven't accepted that if you continue to live life the way you live it, you will never become the promise you are intended to be. And in that moment I knew what he was talking about. All the times that I was disappointed by myself, all the times I disappointed other people, all the times I started venturing into thinking bigger, but I said, no, that's ridiculous, you're not that important, you're not that good. And so what came super clear was the promise I'm intended to be is to share my gifts and talents into serving others and escorting them on the path to self-discovery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if I was to give just kind of a one word answer, it's servant. I truly think that and with all of the highfalutin entrepreneur speak bullcrap that gets thrown out there a lot of times that gets super aggrandized Leaders are put in this position of being these superhuman, like superhero founder. You know what I mean, right? The more I get closer to being the leader that I want to be, the more I realize that leadership is nothing but just servitude. It's nothing but just caring for the people that are around you and sacrificing self every single day. So that is if I'm thinking of, like the promise.
Speaker 1:It's servitude. It's to stay humble and not say that I am the best, the most perfect, the anybody. I want to be known as a servant of people, and if that means that I have to lay down comfort in all of these other things in order to make, I'll use employees, my employees, better, make the people's lives around me better. That's a life of servitude, right, it's a life of being important, and so that'd be the angle that I would go at.
Speaker 2:Amazing, inspirational, and I'm not shocked at all because, amen, I support that 100%. My man Did you have a good time.
Speaker 1:Heck. Yeah man. Thank you, Dude, this is awesome. I'm so glad we finally were able to do this. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2:And I don't think we did a great job. I don't think we're going to get canceled after this.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so. I think we're pretty safe. I don't know.