From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
Scaling a Business Without the Burnout
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Burnout is not a badge of honor, and it is definitely not a requirement for scaling a contracting business. Crystal sits down with Chuck Staskowitz, a former plumber who started from a garage with a $2,000 van, grew to more than $22 million in revenue with 130 employees, and later sold his company. The story is inspiring, but the real value is what he learned the hard way about systems, planning, and protecting your life while you build.
We dig into why so many trades owners hit a wall: they stay reactive, skip the numbers, and chase shiny solutions like expensive CRMs or “big marketing” when the real issue is operational capacity. Chuck explains the difference between growth and scaling, why profitability can get squeezed during fast expansion, and how operator thinking helps you maximize every dollar you spend on leads, labor, and vendors. We also talk about mentorship and fractional leadership, plus how a two-minute outside perspective can save you from lawsuits, waste, and years of pain.
Then we get practical about leadership and culture: when to bring in a service manager, how field leads create breathing room, and why homegrown career paths often beat outside hires. We share simple ways to keep the business fun while scaling, from celebrating wins to gamifying new processes so they actually stick. If you want sustainable growth in home services, contractor leadership advice that feels real, and strategies to scale without burnout, hit play and take notes. Subscribe, share this with a contractor who needs it, and leave a review so more owners can build companies they actually enjoy.
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Welcome And The Burnout Problem
SPEAKER_00What's up, Lemon Heads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. Guys, today I know this is a huge problem in our industry. Scaling your business without the burnout. I hear it every day from contractors that have worked tirelessly to build something successful and they want to feel great about it, but it comes with a lot of baggage. And so again, today we're going to be joined by a guest that knows what that's like, and he's also passionate about helping businesses grow and scale while actually enjoying what a concept, right? The process. So something a lot of you guys struggle with. But let me tell you, today we're really going to learn how to grow a company without sacrificing your life. Systems that you can make scaling a little easier. I'm excited to hear a lot about those. And then how to keep your business fun. I think it's important that we all stay energized and energetic about going to work every day to build these companies for good so that you can employ good people. And honestly, generational wealth is also a really decent goal to have. So, you know what, guys, let's get settled in. Let's listen and let's dip some lemonade.
SPEAKER_01Hey, thanks, Crystal.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Chuck, I'm so excited to have you. You know, we had a little moment on there where I was trying to learn how to pronounce your last name, but that has to be something you have had your entire life. But Staskowitz. That's it. Staskowitz, look at there. Look at there. I told him I said my East Texas will not let me mispronounce that. But with Opus and Golds Group. Um, and so tell everybody like who you are and why they should listen to what you have to say, because I think you have some clout.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, first of all, thanks, Crystal, for having me on. And I just want to know how many people, after they come on your podcast, do they start having a Texas accent? Because I might by the end of this. Um, yeah, my my last name is a doozy. It's it's Staskowitz, right? So I used to introduce myself as Chuck the Plumber, right? Like, and that just fit for so many years, right? Because I was in plumbing for 25 years, and it was an easy way because people are like, What's your last name? I'm like, just call me Chuck the Plumber. But they always knew, like, right, when they needed a plumber, I'm gonna call Chuck, right? Like, and now it's morphed into the Chuck in the truck and all that other stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00Like you're the you're the original Chuck in a truck.
SPEAKER_01The original Chuck. Well, that's why it's the OG group, right? The Opusyncle. Yeah, so Crystal, a little bit of my background is I spent 25 years in the trades, plumbing focused mostly. I uh I started my company in 2011 from my garage. I bought a a$2,000 van off of Craigslist and I scaled it to just over$22 million with 130 employees in 12 years and sold to PE eventually. Um, there's lots of things in and out of there. Yeah, yeah. Just a lot of, you know, uh 12 years is not a long time, right? Like I know businesses that have been in business for 30, 40 years and haven't even got to 5 million, right? Like, and they're just they're just stuck in in in uh uh where wherever they're stuck, right? So um for me, the reason that we I co-founded uh the Opus and Golds group is I brought my sister on as a general manager in year nine when I was doing about 12 million dollars a year, and I just knew that I was stuck, right? So I knew I needed something different, and she has a completely different background than the trades, so it was a really good fit. We're we're almost like yin yin and yang, where I bring the trade experience and she brings like the corporate retail background, and it's just like it really fits well together. Um, and that's why we decided we worked so well together after the the transaction. We were like, look, let's just let's just found something or let's um build something where we uh we can help other businesses in a fractional leadership aspect, right? Fractional operations. Um, and we can get into these companies and really dissect what their needs are, right? Like I see a lot of coaches, gurus, mentors, and I don't consider myself uh someone in that category. Like I talk the talk, I walk the walk, Crystal, right? Like I um I I have you know uh equity in companies myself right now. So I'm out there doing the same things that I'm teaching people to do. And realistically, it's it's like this is like I don't generally put everyone in a group, right? Like I want to tailor what your company needs today. So like you know, a lot of these platforms, they're just like, yeah, do what the$20 million,$30 million,$40 million a year company is doing. And it's like they're not ready for that yet. Like, why would someone that's you know, um doing a million to two to three million dollars a year, why would they need a really expensive CRM, right? Like, why? You know, so and uh and we we've seen a lot of this behind the scenes stuff going on, and we're like, we want to do something different. We really want to do something.
SPEAKER_00They want those CRMs because they have they have FOMO, they're distracted.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yeah, it's it's a lot of of FOMO uh and distracted, shiny object syndrome, whatever you want to call it, but it's like that's also these these guides, right? These gurus, these these um uh coaches that aren't taking the individual and saying, what is assessing the company and saying what is your needs today where you sit right now? That's like why am I gonna give a company doing two or three million dollars a year a strategy for a company that's doing 40 million dollars a year? Like that's like saying, hey, you know, the company that's doing 40 million dollars a year, they might have an internal marketing department. So you, as two or three million, you should have one too. But it's not cost effective and it's not gonna, it's not gonna work well in that company.
SPEAKER_00No, and I love it. I'm telling you, like that is I tell this is lemon seed strategy. Like, I like to meet contractors where they are and help them get where they want to go. So I can't, I can't give you that's why like when I talk about lemon seed sometimes, like when we build out strategies, and same thing with you, when you're building out your coaching strategy for them, you have to look at them as an individual. Um, because that's how marketing works. Like, marketing is not a an exact science, there's not some template I can hand you, and people that do, that's a lie.
Tailored Help Versus Guru Playbooks
SPEAKER_01Because marketing works a whole lot different in Texas than it does in Salt Lake or New York or California, right?
SPEAKER_00Like, absolutely. Well, why do you know our biggest thing is, you know, why do we think scaling your business often does lead to burnout? You know, like what are you thinking some of the biggest mistakes that companies are making as they're trying to grow?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for for nine years, I you know, Crystal, I ran it just like everybody else that starts a company. I was a plumber, turned businessman, right? And I ran it like I didn't know my numbers, I didn't know direction, I did no planning, I did like none of that, right? And and I had some great success. I built it up to$12 million a year, top line revenue with about 75 employees. But here's the thing is I was absolutely burnt out. And and I realized a lot of things from that is because I had no plan, I had no systems and processes in place. And um, it was, you know, the the old of hey, the bank account's going up, I'm doing something good. The bank account's coming down, I'm freaking out and doing whatever I can to make it go back up, right? And that that ultimately that thinking led to burnout because it was constantly like I didn't know what to put in place to make the account go back up. I just took a while to ask guess, right? Like I, you know, I was panicking, and in that panic mode, that led to a lot of burnout and a lot of distractions too, because I like because I couldn't pinpoint exactly what was making the business fail, I would go out and get other distractions. So I'd go build something because I didn't want to focus on what I actually needed or I didn't know what I needed in the business to make it it grow or expand, right? So, like that process in itself, because it was so stressful, right? I didn't want to deal with it or look at it. So I'd just go create more chaos and distractions in my life. And I did that for a lot of years, and ultimately it led to, you know, my relationship wasn't the greatest. My, you know, like I avoided situations. Um, I avoided things like that needed to be done in the company, like taxes and tax strategy and planning and all the things. And ultimately, it it wasn't at the end of the day, it wasn't like I went home and was like, oh, I accomplished something. No, I went home and I stressed out about what fires I was gonna have to put out tomorrow.
Why Growth Creates Burnout
SPEAKER_00I think so many contractors are feeling that same way today. Yeah, contractors, good plumbers, good technicians, good people. They never learned the bridge between being that and being a true entrepreneur, and everything is trial by fire, trial by chaos. Um, and so I think, and I wrote down like being reactive to everything. Um, so we my team is going through the unique genius right now. Yes. Um, and so I am a galvanizer and an innovator, right? So, you know what I do? I create chaos, like for, and then I want to rally everybody around it, right? So, um, but then my business partner, Emily, she's a wanderer, and so she thinks through things from top to bottom. So I'm over here like, hurry up, tell me yes, tell me yes. But I need that balance in my life because I I love being the visionary and the creative, like, and she's also very creative, but in a way of she's thought through steps one through 10. I'm I'm fine once I get to about step three. If it's looking good, I'm good for it. Let's go, you know, let's go. So you're right. Like we and we unintentionally cause our own selves chaos that then flows over onto our teams. Um, and so I really my goal word for 2026 was focus, um, because I'm really wanting to push myself because you know, leaders are disciplined. And so, you know, I've really been pushing myself to be more disciplined on my focus of focusing on tasks at a time to get them accomplished to not bring chaos to me or myself, which is a which allows me to be more proactive instead of reactive, right? And you know, scaling just naturally increases stress. Um, because one of the things, again, one of the things I wrote down is you said, you know, tax, tax issues and things like that. You know, like there's stressors that are just no matter what you do, you're gonna be stressed out about whatever's going on in the business. And so, and then you have the owner doing everything problem, right? So, how many hats did you wear as the owner? You're wearing the training hat, the marketing hat, you're wearing all the hats, right? So, you know, what are some early warning signs that maybe a business is scaling in the wrong way?
SPEAKER_01I mean, early warning signs are just that, like you're going home and you're not, you're not completely shutting off, right? Like, um, I put a post out yesterday and I was like, if you want to, if you want to scale your company, you have to have these five things. You have to be focused, you have to be consistent, you have to be tough, and you have to be fair. You also have to be willing to stretch yourself and others in your business to be different and better than average in your industry, right? Like, yeah, so you're gonna go really far, just like I did$12 million top-line revenue in nine years, um, just by grinding it, right? But I wasn't stretching myself, Crystal. I wasn't um I wasn't becoming better in the industry, right? I was just average, right? Like, and that's a lot of contractors are okay with that, and that's fine, right? Like, plumbing's plumbing, right? But when you if you really want to scale your company to bigger and greater, you have to take a look at like, I'm not just changing the water heater, I'm going and changing that person's life, right? Like, I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna leave on such a high note, and they're gonna have the best, most amazing experience with me. There's no one that they're ever gonna call again, right? So, like, I think of a lot of things of like where what direction was I headed in. I I didn't have a plan to build it to 70 trucks and 130 employees. I started my company, I wanted to have three trucks and make more than I was making with my boss, right? But it morphed into something very quickly. I mean, 12 years is not a long time, right?
SPEAKER_00No, it's really not. It's not.
SPEAKER_01It morphed, it morphed very quickly, and we had to learn a lot of lessons along the way. So, you know, I I I really do feel that the biggest thing that I can pinpoint there of the direction that uh that you it may be bad going into is your lack of planning and and you said it focus, right? Like if you're not sitting down a couple times a year and planning what you the direction of where you want to go, you're just free-following, right? And that's it can be good and and and you can have success from that, but I can tell you the burnout will be a lot less if you're planning, like you know, I want to hit this multiple this year, I want to have this many employees, I want to have this many trucks, you know, it and plan it all out. Your lack of planning is ultimately leading to your to your stress and possibly some of your failure, failures. Because you said something really interesting in there, right? It was like if you don't know the type of person you are, like if you're a visionary, you need to know that. Like at one point, I was the visionary in the implementer. I had to be, and most people are, right? Most business entrepreneurs are a visionary, but they have to be the implementer and recognizing which one you are. So if you're the visionary, you can't get too distracted, right? And I'm like you, like, get it to three and go. Like, I don't want to see it a hundred percent. Yeah, that's where like my sister is the yin in the yang, or the yang to my yin, right? Like she is the implementer, right? She sees it through. She takes my crazy and my ideas, and she's like, okay, let's do this. Or we don't have time to do that right now. We're so focused on other things, that would be a distraction. So no, that's that would be my other thing. Lack of planning, and then knowing where you are who you are. Are you the visionary, or do you have to wear both hats, the visionary and the implementer right now? And how do you, because most of the time, visionaries are not good at implementing. So, how do you focus the energy on the implementing? You can still be the visionary, but you have to slow yourself down so you can implement and implement with the consistency that leads to results.
Planning Focus And Knowing Your Role
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. That's wonderful. So, my brother and I are the opposite. So I am the visionary and he's the implementer. And so he'll call me and say, Here's my dilemma, but here's what I want to happen, and I'll like ideate on it, and then I'll give it back to him to go implement. Like, let's do this, you know. So I completely understand. Well, you know, I also think there's a difference between growing and scaling. So, in my opinion, to grow a company is to literally focus on revenue. I'm growing revenue, I'm trying to get fast, faster, larger, faster, all those things. But scaling means your processes grow along with your revenue. And that I think is a big issue. Um, so you know, I have clients and we look at their marketing budgets, and so I'll say, okay, you want to double next year. Tell me what your strategy is for recruitment. Well, I think I can do it with the same group of people. So I'm like, well, let's let's work those numbers out. And really they can't. They're gonna be short, probably a CSR or a technician or an installer or a plumber, whatever. And I'm like, yeah, so you you're about to set yourself up for failure because you're gonna be frustrated when we really don't have the right mix of things. Um, and so you know, when you get ready to scale your company, I personally think they should start with a coach. Where do you think they should start?
Growth Versus Scaling And Profit Reality
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, scale mode is, you know, like there, there's a lot. There's a lot going on, right? Like growth is is good, it's slow, it's it's steady, right? But when you're scaling, you're going fast. So it's like you're and and you may not have the profits that you want when you're scaling, right? Because you're gonna have to put different things in place, you're gonna have to take some risk. Like, there's a lot of things while I was scaling, building that foundation, right? That I I was not looking at what I was taking home at the end of the year, I was just going. I was like, look, we're gonna we're gonna get this done. And and I thought, you know, more is better. That isn't always the case, right? Like, I I want to make sure I want to make sure profitability is there too, right? So um I'm a firm believer, you know, Crystal, if I don't know something a hundred percent, I'm gonna get around people that know it a lot better than me, and I'm gonna ask really good questions. And I think that's what a good mentor is going to do for you, right? Like, I mean, I some people that that work with me, I mean, they'll I had a guy that hit me up and was like, hey, what do you think about this situation? An employee did this. Um, could I do this? And I'm like, look, man, you could get yourself into a serious lawsuit if you do that, right? Um, and that little piece of advice uh off of a two-minute text message probably saved him thousands of dollars, possibly tens of thousands of dollars, and you know, the heartache and the distraction of being in a lawsuit or this and that. Like, that's what a good mentor will do for you. Is like, you know, I I've been through lawsuits from employees, I've been through lawsuits, a class action lawsuit, like all these things. Now, if I would have asked better questions all along up front, I may have avoided some of those situations, right? And and that's like when you're scaling, you're going so fast and you're just throwing things out there. But if you had somebody alongside of you that you could run things by and just say, what are your thoughts behind this and get a different perspective? It's gonna save you a lot of pain and suffering in the long term because our growth did not just was not all bells and whistles. Like we were not just happy growing that fast. Like it came with a lot of risks, and we went through a lot of those risks, right? And my belief is did I do it right or wrong, Crystal? I don't know, but I do know this. Like everything that I went through was meant to happen so I can help other people, right? And and and that's truly like I didn't have this whole um the the way everything is right now, right? Like there was not a lot of fractional. There was not a lot of mentors, there was not a lot of coaches back when I was still. Yeah, this the fractional, like I look at it now, and um, I would have scaled to even greater had I had fractional. I would have had a fractional CFO, I would have had a fractional marketing team, I would have had a fractional outbound team, right? I had that all internally, I could have saved probably 30 or 40 percent to my bottom line. Like this idea of fractional, like, listen up, if you're doing three to five million right now, you should be exploring fractional because it's gonna get you there faster and a lot more cost effective. Like it really is like if I could go back and rewind time with everything that's with AI and this these fractional services now. I mean, you can scale a company in less than 12 years now. I mean, I watched a guy do it in four and a half years. He went from zero to 17 and a half million in four and a half years and sold.
SPEAKER_00And that listen, I say this, and I'm a marketer. So it is not marketing and a fancy CRM that's gonna grow your company. It is an operator. The operator. When you look at companies that go from zero to 17 million, even what you did in 12 years, that's operator growth. That is, yes, marketing plays a piece of it, but so did hiring the right people, and so did having the right systems in place. So marketing is a piece of an operator's puzzle. Um, but so many people just look at marketing like, well, it's a marketing problem. And I'm like, uh, sometimes I want to get on there and be like, hey, I'm gonna both it is not me, it is a you problem. But it it and even even contractors that have the best of intentions, they tend to make a mess of things when they they either they're trying to micromanage every little thing because they feel so obligated, right? Or they're they're over investing, they're too small to be doing what they're doing, and they're doing that in the wrong places. Um, I'm like, you would be better off as a two million dollar company investing in really good coaching for yourself about growth than going and getting the best CRM on the market or going and buying this huge um you know, big marketing campaign. I'm like, you're not even you're not even gonna make the most of those leads. Your team, your internal team is the problem. So I I could get on a stage for four hours or more and just kind of talk about that because I literally watch, I I said this to one of our clients the other day. Like, I feel like I watch some of my clients like sit. Self-harm. Like you're like you're a gun for punishment with what you're doing. And but you know, at hindsight's 2020, and I'm on the outside looking in. And so I try to be very empathetic. But no, most of the time it is an operator issue, and not a not in a in a mean sense of what they're not smart enough to do it. They're just kind of in their own way. It's a mindset problem.
Fractional Leadership And Better Mentorship
SPEAKER_01Yeah, a lot of tradespeople are really good at their trade. Not good business people. I'm sorry, guys, I'm not trying to offend you. I was one of them. I was a horrible business person for a long time. I was really good at doing plumbing. Here's the thing like you talk about, I'll give you just an example of where it leads to operator, right? Um, you have to identify that, hey, like, yeah, okay, I'm gonna throw out this marketing campaign. Let's face it, nowadays, marketing is expensive, right? And you could be paying three to five hundred dollars per lead. But if you take a step back and you do this huge campaign, right? Why not an operator aspect to that would be like, okay, how do I maximize that? Let me look at what I'm doing. I'm throwing out this huge campaign, right? And I'm paying$300, let's call it$300 per lead. Well, now I build a door hanger um campaign around it. So maybe if I blanket 10 houses in the neighborhood and I get one or two more, now instead of five$300 per lead, I may have spent$150 or$100 per lead. And then you go even further with the yard signs, right? Own the neighborhood. And you have to break that down into every situation in your business. And that's the operator, right? Like, I yes, I'm a visionary, but I'm also a damn good operator, right? Because I can come in and assess any situation. And it's like, where do we get maximum value from that situation? Just like that marketing campaign. Like, I don't want to, I don't want to spend three to three hundred dollars a lead and just you know have my guys burn through leads that end up costing me six or seven hundred dollars a lead. Now I'm not making any money, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're like you're spinning your wheels.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you got to break that down into every situation. And and again, if you don't have the time and you're constantly putting out fires, you're just distracted with all the fires. You can't take a look at every single situation and break it down that much further. Like, that's what like uh if if any of you guys have ever read the book Atomic Habits, right? He talks about um 1%. The 1%, like when you when you scale a company 10 million and above, every little 1% difference that you do makes a huge difference, right? We went from negative 4% one year to positive 2%, so a 6% increase in one year, right? By doing that, by breaking down every situation, and then the next year we went from 2% to 14% profit. But we couldn't have done that if we'd just been doing the same old things that we were doing. We had to go in and reevaluate and plan what we were doing and break it down even further and maximize the value of each one of those situations, and whether that's labor, sales, operations, efficiencies, marketing, vendor relationships, negotiating with vendors. I mean, there's there's lots of different strategies that you can implement 1% better every single day. And when you're doing that type of revenue or even$3 million a year, 1% to your bottom line is huge.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, so I think you know, one of the things that we could talk about a little bit is like, you know, you really need to build out some accountability pieces. And you said at 12 million, you brought your sister on to basically be the GM, right? So I know a lot of contractors are like, when should I hire that second level of leadership? You know, is it a revenue size? Is it a what when is a is a good trigger? I know there's not a solid answer for that, but I do think you probably have a strategic thought about that.
SPEAKER_01I probably could have done it sooner. Um, but I was, I mean, I spent nine years in the truck. Like people look at me and they're like, Why didn't you get out of a truck at year two or three? And I'm like, because I loved being in the truck, I was really good at it.
SPEAKER_00My grandfather, my grandfather, never got out of the truck. That's what he wanted to do.
Operator Thinking And The 1% Gains
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And like that was my jam, right? But I was also developing the process in the home. And then I realized I had to develop the people that were going into the home. So I became the trainer, but I was also really passionate about recruiting. So I constantly, even till the end, I had my hands in recruiting. I was really good at it. I was really good at talking to people, having dinners, meeting people, conversations, this and that. So, like to answer that question, I mean, I knew it was time. I knew I was like, I was about to have my third child. I knew I would have more responsibilities at home. So I knew I had to, you know, I didn't want to be doing what I was doing forever, right? So I just knew it was time. Plus, then COVID happened at the same time, right? So, like sometimes you're forced to uh make these these changes, and sometimes you just choose to make the changes. I I would rather choose to than be forced to. Um, so don't don't go by my rule, right? So I think it's a matter of this is like still focus on what you love to do, but if you don't love the operation side of it so much, and you're you're the visionary and you want somebody that's gonna take your vision and implement it, and and you could say, Chuck, that's today. I only have three employees and I want that today. Yeah, but you can't command that or you can't put up that burden salary right now. So I would say when your business is to a point that you can afford the burden salary, even though it's not a burden, it's gonna drive your company further, but you still have to be able to pay that salary, right? So I would look there and I would look at where it's like you have all these things in your plan that you're not able to get done. Like you have an extreme amount of vision behind your company, and you're like, man, I'm just constantly putting out these fires because of this, and I don't have the systems and processes, and I don't have the time to put the systems and processes in place. That might be a time where I'm starting to look. I always like this too, Crystal. Before I'm gonna go GM, I want to have a service manager.
SPEAKER_00I was about to ask, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I want to have, but even before serve manager service manager, I want to have field leads, right? Like, I don't like titles. Titles people get weird about, right? Like, so I'm gonna put a field lead in place, and he may be training to be that service manager, right? So now I'm filtering the calls that would come to me through that person first. If it's not answered there and it's got to come to me, cool. But that's how you're starting to build how you um level up to bring in a GM, right? Like if you if you're not good at delegating and have a service manager in place or field lead, and you you haven't designed that in your in your organization, you're gonna bring in a GM and you're gonna set them up for failure, right? So like I think there's I don't think I know there's there's smaller steps that you need to take before you bring in that GM, right? So get really good at like you should always be training your people that are underneath you to level up and be the next GM or service manager or field tech, right? Like give your people a direction of they're not just here to be a technician, they have a plan of a career path on where they're gonna go inside the company. If if I know I'm a technician today and I'm working to be the field lead, I have a path and I'm not gonna look for something else. I know like I'm here today, I'm going there. And once I become that uh field lead, now I know I have an ability to possibly go up to a service manager, right? So I have a direction that I'm going in, and that service manager could absolutely grow into being the GM. So there's two parts like you could find a GM or you could grow a GM. And yes, it takes more time, but I can tell you this anyone that has that I've grown inside of my company or any comp client's company, they've always been the best employees.
When To Hire Leadership And Build A Bench
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes, grown homegrown. Um, you know, my brother and I got tired of like struggling to find employees, so we developed the home service academy, and uh, I had kind of taken this idea from uh Texas Department of Public Safety, DPS, for my husband. And like I remember like DPS was, you know, everybody was applying and hoping to be picked. And I was like, man, DPS, all they were doing was hiring, and but they made it look like this very, and it is, it is a very, you know, you have to apply, you have to be accepted, and it's a privilege to come to work here. And I'm like, why can't we? It can be the same way, it's paid training. I mean, so we we did that because we knew if we could get them um green, we could grow them the way that we needed them to think and be. And it really was super impactful. Well, I know one thing that we said is how do we keep this fun while we're scaling? And so I just wrote down a few thoughts of like maybe we can show that we're maintaining our passion for what we do. And you hit on this earlier. So if you enjoy being in the field, give yourself time to be in the field. If you enjoy marketing, allow yourself to keep marketing on your plate, but maybe it's not accounting and you need to find a someone to help you on the accounting side. I think that's how you maintain your passion. Um, and so if you're forced to do things all the time, because we're all grown adults, we can do hard things, right? And we can do things that aren't necessarily in our quote unquote genius, but it's when you constantly stay outside of your genius that you really start, you know, burnout and struggling. So allow yourself, if you love ride-alongs, go do the dead gum ride-alongs, work it in. But I I thought that one, and then I'm a big culture person. Yep. So I thought celebrating wins publicly. So one of my favorite things that we ever did is at our monthly meeting. Um, and this is so corny. It is corny, but it was fun. Our GM um at our location in Lufkin, you know, he had a couple of 20s like just in his pockets. And when people were dressed correctly, he was giving out$20 bills because lunch was on us that day. Y'all, it was like$80. And people were like, oh man, so today I didn't tuck my shirt in, and that's today. But what it did is like, dang, they are looking.
SPEAKER_01But it's also that consistency, yeah. Right? Because every time he showed up, you gamified it. Number one. Number two is you built the consistency, like you built it in part in green into your culture that I need to have my shirt tucked in and I need to be represent the company well, right? But you didn't just roll out that process and let it die. You've you you kept bringing it back by giving away$20. I used to do this all the time. We any any system or process that we would roll out, we do a contest around it, right? Just because people would talk about it, it would stay consistent, it then became part of the culture. If I go in and say, hey guys, today we're doing this, and this is the way it's gonna be going forward, and I never talk about it again, how can you expect your people to remember that with all the things they've got to remember?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, remember I talked about this three months ago, right?
SPEAKER_01By gamifying it and doing it consistently consistently in every meeting in front of everybody and rewarding. And I know I get it. Look, I come from the old school too, right? Like, why do they have to meet their job?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. Yeah, you know why? Because so we can keep them engaged. That's why. And my brother, my brother, I tell him all the time, like my Emily, my business partner, she calls Trey the sour lemon because I am over here like, oh, it's employee appreciation day, or oh, we go over our core values at Lemon Seed. We use the acronym Zesty and we go over it every single Monday morning, not just what they are, but how people can apply them. Like, give us an example of someone. So E stands for experts in strategy. So somebody today call out where someone was an expert in strategy, like over the top. And and we reward that all the time. And so I'll tell my brother, um, I would say, hey, so in this week's or in this month's meeting, we're gonna do um, we did a pie eating contest. Um, and at the end, they had exact instructions on what to do. And there was a couple of things that were kind of silly, like put the bib on. And I said, So, but at the end, it's not really who ate the pie the fastest, it's who followed the rules. And we're gonna tie that into like we're going with service tight and then this is how we're gonna follow our processes, you know. And and he was like, sure, whatever, you know, because he was like, Well, because that was my role. My role was to come up with ways to keep our team engaged and celebrating people. Y'all, when people are getting married, we have a shower, we invite the wife, and we do we have cookies with their last name on it. And we do you think my brother did that? Heck no, he showed up. I was in charge of that. And when people had a baby, we went and took food the first night they were home and we took a bunch of diapers. And I made sure that my brother called our technician. Um, and Trey wanted to do those things, but he needed like that's not a natural thought to him. So he had to put people on his team that helped him be there. But it was seeing that in action really helped us drive the culture at Lemon Seed. And listen, Lemon Seed's not perfect. We still have our own little, you know, everybody has their little drama pieces, but I think that's how you keep fun while you're scaling is feed your team every once in a while, celebrate them when they win, create weight. Gamification is such a cool thing. Gamify everything, your memberships, your answer rates, your upselling, your IAQ equipment, all those things. Gamify all of that. Um, and you really can have a good time. So, okay, we're gonna wrap it up. I have two rapid fire questions for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, could Crystal, could I go one thing on burnout that came to me?
SPEAKER_00Of course, of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Real quick, guys, I want to talk about burnout for a second too, again, um, because it's it's super important. I know that when my mind wasn't right, um that that I was I was getting burned out. So I had to constantly focus on mindset as well when I was really going fast, right? And and if if my mind wasn't correct, I was I was distracted or doing other things that I shouldn't be doing, and it was leading to burnout to me constantly.
SPEAKER_00So I no, and let me tell you, I think burnout makes me sad because it's you start out so passionate and excited, yeah. Um then you go with burnout and you look around, you're like, I got these kids, I got a spouse, I've got all and I got all these employees, and now I'm almost like I dread every day. Yeah, and I just don't want that for contractors. I don't think you do either.
SPEAKER_01You know, not at all.
SPEAKER_00All right, so here's my rapid fire question for you. I love that. So, um, what is the one business mistake that all contractors should stop making if you had to pick one?
SPEAKER_01Uh I mean, there's a lot, but but the first one, and it always comes. I I mean, I hear this time and time and time and time and time again. Um, being priced correctly, like you don't have to be the cheapest to win jobs, just stop. Like, build the best experience, charge what you need to charge to make the profit that you need to make and and and go from there. Like, yeah, are you gonna lose some jobs? Sure. But you know what? You I'd rather lose jobs and make in and and make money than take jobs and not make money.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. I love that. I love that. And then if you were starting your company over again today, what is one of the things that you would immediately do differently?
SPEAKER_01Man, there's so many there too. Um, I'll be honest, you know, have a plan and a vision. Yeah, like like I didn't have a plan and a vision for a lot of years. I was just going, and get that led to the burnout, led to all the other things too, right? It's like have a plan and a vision of where and a destination of where you want to go. Know what you know exactly what you want for the company and the direction that you want to go in. And it may not be I want to grow this to sell it. It may not be like, I just want a good job and I want to provide a good place to work for my employees and and make money and have fun while doing it. That's a simple vision, right? But just know that and and put it up on your wall, right? Whether it's just you looking at it for right now, have a plan and know the vision and know exactly what you want. Like, if you don't know what you want, how can you get to where you want to go?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, and make more money is not a vision. No, you gotta go a little bit deeper than that.
SPEAKER_01Yep, go deep.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I love that. Well, Chuck, thank you so much. But where can listeners find you? And you have an event coming up. Yeah, um, yeah, tell me about your event.
Keeping Work Fun With Culture And Games
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so opusgolds.com, op-usgolds.com. That's our website. You can find me on Facebook, Chuck Staskowitz, friend me, DM me there. You can book a strategy call right on our website with us, whether you want to learn more about how what it's like to work with us, or just figure out something that's going on in your company, help us or let us help you walk through that. We're happy to do so. You can book it right through the website or just DM me. And the event, Crystal, I'm really excited. And I hope you or your team will be there as well. May 5th through 7th in Houston, Texas. Um, we've got an amazing uh agenda as well as the event space. It's not going to be your same old boring space um where you just sit in a room all day long and you don't get anything for your business. We're doing a workshop style. So you're going to leave. I talk, I talked a lot about planning throughout this. You're going to leave with a solid plan of things that you can do once you identify the biggest pieces that are missing in your business. We're going to help you develop that plan so you leave there and you can absolutely go back and put things into your business well, well organized and have a solid plan there. We're also going to focus on um mindset. Um, we've got three amazing uh uh uh things teed up that will help you break through, and you're gonna go home energized and excited about uh uh about your business again, right? And and our idea behind that, crystal, is this is like again, I talked about mindset earlier on and helping people get through burnout, right? And and uh our goal is this, right? Is like we said business should be fun all along in this conversation, and that's that's our goal. So we're not just doing the business side, we're also mixing an adventure on the third day. You have a choice whether you want to stay behind and work on your business some more, or whether you want to go out and and we're setting up a hog hunt up on a ranch in Texas, and uh a bunch of uh of people will go to that. Um, we did a snowmobile event in January, and half the people came snowmobiling, half the people stayed behind and worked on their business. And we set up a bonfire up about 10,000 feet in the mountains. We had lunch and we talked about business. So you're still gonna get the business side whether you choose to do the adventure or not. That's an experience. Different atmosphere. How I've seen people double down on this is one person stays behind and works on the business, one person goes on the adventure. Now they're doubling down, and uh you know, they're getting both sides of it. So they're hearing the strategies in two different areas.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I love that. So that's fantastic. Well, thank you so much. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's opusgolds.com. All that will be in our notes section of today's episode. I really encourage you, those of you that maybe are feeling like, gosh, I really could use some new energy, some new coaching through this phase of my business. I encourage you to talk to Chuck. One thing about him is I think you've been there. You've actually been there, you've done it, you've worked with family in the business, you've made bad mistakes, you've made good decisions. Um, so if those of you that are listening that maybe are right in a good sweet spot to really, you just need to get off high center, I encourage you to reach out to www.opusclip opusgolds.com and uh reach out to Chuck and let him know what you got going on. I say this friends and family talk free. We were talking before the show started about, you know, I told him, I said, hey, anybody that you have that just needs some marketing advice. And he's like, anybody that you have that needs business advice. So, you know, it's really nice to have people that just want to give back. So don't worry about what size business you are. Both Lemon Seed and Chuck's company, we're willing to listen to you and help and walk you through it. We both come from this industry. Um, and so we can't wait to see everybody be successful. There's so much room for everybody to hit their goals. And so, and those of you that are still listening with us, thank you for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. Go and follow us. If you thought somebody really needs to hear this episode, share it with them. Leave us a review. Until next time, keep sipping lemonade. See you soon.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, all right.