Blue Collar Business Podcast
Welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast with Sy Kirby. Dive deep into the world of hands-on entrepreneurship and the gritty side of making things happen. Join us for actionable tips on scaling your blue-collar business, managing teams, and staying ahead in an ever-evolving market. We'll also discuss the latest industry trends and innovations that could impact your bottom line. If you're passionate about the blue-collar world and eager to learn from those who've thrived in it, this podcast is a must-listen. Stay tuned for engaging conversations and real-world advice that can take your blue-collar business to new heights.
Blue Collar Business Podcast
Ep. 13 - Constructing a Life: Immigration & Entrepreneurship
Andrew Deeter, the mastermind behind Deeter Construction, joins us to unravel the profound impact that relationships can have on the construction industry. From his beginnings working with his father-in-law to launching his own company in 2010, Andrew shares how he navigated unexpected roles and challenges. The episode is packed with insights into the crucial role that mental health plays in entrepreneurship, providing valuable lessons for aspiring business owners in the blue-collar trades to help them sidestep common pitfalls.
Discover the gritty realities of the commercial construction industry, where brand recognition and word-of-mouth often trump traditional advertising methods. We tackle the evolution of the sector since the post-2008 recession era, offering insights into the transition from residential to commercial projects. Andrew's venture into YouTube demonstrates innovative ways to enhance marketing and client engagement amidst the long payment cycles and complex payment processes that define commercial work.
Our conversation takes a personal turn as we share stories of immigration and cultural adjustment, examining the pursuit of the American dream from our unique perspectives. We also explore the delicate balance between scaling a business and maintaining personal well-being. From the trials of building a company from scratch to seizing unexpected opportunities, the discussion underscores the importance of patience, perseverance, and strategic relationship management on the entrepreneurial journey. Join us for an inspiring dialogue rich with empowerment and encouragement for anyone navigating their path in the blue-collar business world.
Sy-Con is a family-owned civil contractor specializing in water, sewer, storm drains, & earthwork.
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Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast, where we discuss the realest, rawest, most relevant stories and strategies behind building every corner of a blue collar business. I'm your host, cy Kirby, and I want to help you in what it took me trial and error and a whole lot of money to learn the information that no one in this industry is willing to share. Whether you're under that shade tree or have your hard hat on, let's expand your toolbox. Well, guys, welcome back to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast. Different topics this week might catch you guys off guard.
Speaker 1:A gentleman that I've known a long time through business. I talk about relationships with you guys. All the time I have built a relationship. We don't work with each other as much nowadays. It was more starting on the first couple of years and filling in there, but you general contractors take note, filling in there, but you general contractors take note. This is how one guy did it from the immigrant status, just like your boy. On this side of the table.
Speaker 1:We're going to be discussing a few different things today diving into the power of relationships in business, shared experience between both me and Mr Dieter about immigrating to the US, starting a company in the US, the culture shocks that it came with, and how to grow and scale that business to what they are today. Obviously, we've had some success Not saying we know everything by any means, but emphasis on relationships and construction, as we both know how crucial that is and how running a business affects your mental health, as we both can discuss that topic very well. But Dieter Construction, as he's commonly referred to, as myself is referred to, I don't even have a name anymore, I'm just psych on. So Dieter Construction started back in 2010, started a lot like me, grassroots, come from nothing, two guys in a truck and doing some small bathroom remodels but furthermore, andrew deeter, the owner, president, hey, and ceo of deeter construction.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you joining me, man yeah, thanks for having me back on dude, um, as you guys may, may or not know, I did 10 previous episodes, roughly 10, I don't know if 10 actually made it on the youtube channel from our youtube channel cyclone, excavation and utilities, sy-con shameless plug there. Go check us out on youtube. But me and andrew sat down, had a fantastic, probably my favorite conversation out of those 10 awkwardly filled um kitchen sitting business things. They weren't quite a podcast. We couldn't figure out editing, but shout out to podcastvideoscom. We're here in their studio again today.
Speaker 1:If you guys are loving what we're talking about here, you can catch all of the episodes I think we're 10 episodes live, as I'm filming this right now on bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. So go check that out. You'll be able to hit every single episode and you haven't missed anything else. And, as of today being Wednesday, they come out every single Wednesday for your enjoyment On the website itself. Don't even have to have a subscription or you can catch us on any of your subscribed podcast streaming platforms. So, furthermore, dude, thank you, yeah, seriously, thank you, man. Yeah, thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 2:What a fly guy, man. When you like started off, it's like what not to do.
Speaker 1:Dude, I actually it's so funny you say that because I say it all the time on here. It's like you want to talk about how not to do it. That's literally why I started the podcast. It's like if I can try and help yeah, not just excavation utility guys like myself, but blue collar skilled trade services in general succeed and not make the same stupid mistakes that I thought I had to make Exactly. You know what I mean. Here we are. So, furthermore, man, tell us a little bit about how Dieter got started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so 2010,. I was working for my father-in-law and you know, thought I was going to maybe help him and he did what he also did, did construction.
Speaker 2:That's right. I would kind of, uh, take over his business and help him run it one day, and that wasn't in the books for him. So we had that conversation. I think it was on like a friday and monday morning, theater construction started. I thought, like I, I need to go somewhere. Like I, I like, what am I gonna do? And at that time I just got out of high school, went to work. I was working for him for about four years and thought to myself, like I Learning what in those four years, you'd say?
Speaker 2:You know, when I first started with him, I was kind of just I guess you'd say a bit of a grunt, honestly, just like cleaning up houses. He did a lot of sheetrock and mud finishing.
Speaker 2:So mode, finishing, so you know, throwing out the scrap, picking up the trailers, building a dumpster dumpster, loading things in, and from there started helping out with painting. Honestly, it was horrible at doing all of it. So he finally kind of found something I was good at and that was just, uh, either grabbing material or talking to people. So I learned kind of quick how to do estimates and go out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you didn't like carrying that stuff every day no yeah neither did I, I don't, I didn't mind it, but I didn day.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, neither did I.
Speaker 1:I didn't mind, I didn't either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just thought you were wasn't good at the painting stuff, so that just wasn't my deal, dude. I would.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I would rather go play in traffic, get stabbed in the eyeball with a fork, than I would paint my own house alone anybody else's? Oh yeah, brutal.
Speaker 2:So so yeah, kind of did that the two.
Speaker 1:That's a road. Tell them around. Do you guys hear that?
Speaker 2:brutal and so got around in 2010, start up the business and kind, like we were saying there in the intro. Just, it was me, another guy, we were working doing all sorts of stuff digging holes for people that needed that. Replacing one piece of tile drywall patch you bet a buddy of mine had recently started a plumbing company at the time, and so he'd kind of throw out my name every now and then. If he was going to go in and repair something, he'd say hey, man, give Dieter a call to touch the drywall.
Speaker 1:That always helps, man, doesn't it that?
Speaker 2:did. It helped me, you know, and also my father-in-law. He helped me too, of course. When he'd get a call or needed something done that he wasn't around for, he'd say, you know, just give Andrew a shout. And so it really helped me out, you know, in the beginning for sure, get you started, for sure.
Speaker 1:Get you off the ground Because it's so hard. And I think a lot of guys are fixing to find out at the end of this year, as we're moving into this winter, how brutal it really can be.
Speaker 1:Because if you don't have those relationships like your father-in-law or say you know your plumbing buddy or whoever's referring you, you not only have to go do the referral, you have to do a good job to get another referral that's how it freaking works, and definitely it's, man, if I talk about relationships on the show and I can think of five or six or ten guys that right here, off the top of my hat, that have bought a Mini-Axis skid steer this year, that I'm fearing for them at the end of this year, because when it gets wet here it's literally finally going to rain today, for the love of God. I know you've been battling the dust but, man, if you're not leaning on some relationships, whether you burnt the bridge or not, you're going to be probably hurting in your first year. Think about being your first year in 24, bro, would you do it all over again, starting right now? Yeah, I would too. I never thought about that. I was like yeah, I would.
Speaker 2:I just hopefully wouldn't make so many mistakes, dude, you know what I mean. But in 2010, when I started, I mean it was the same. It was really tough in 2010.
Speaker 1:It was still it was coming off of 08.
Speaker 2:Coming off of yeah 08. And so it was slow.
Speaker 1:Stupid elections man, so ready for them to be done Me too.
Speaker 2:The thing is too on going, and so, um yeah, so far, man, thank God we haven't really had any any problems with that, cause.
Speaker 1:I mean, we have trucks that have logos on them and signs and this and that, but most of the time when people call us it's only hey, so-and-so you know, recommended us said you're doing good and give you a shout. In the commercial space, yeah, in the commercial things, and so it wasn't.
Speaker 2:I don't think we've ever really gotten a call where it's been like hey we saw a truck or we saw a sign that might have happened in all of our. It's coming up on 15 years of us being in business. Dude, that's so awesome, that might have happened twice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, and I can think of literally one. Don't get me wrong. Brand recognition is a huge thing and I can always smile when I see a freaking deeter truck and there goes deeter, yeah, and one of the vans or the painters or whatever. But how many trucks you got now?
Speaker 2:um, I think we've got it's not that many.
Speaker 1:I want to say six, seven, kind of doing all sorts of different trades, because you kind of you do the general contractor thing but you do a lot of things in house we we do quite a bit of things in-house.
Speaker 2:We don't typically sub out for others. We're normally our own GC.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:We have one company in particular that we will sub to and we really like them. They're an out-of-state company and they've been awesome for us.
Speaker 1:We love working for them, and so we've been doing stuff for them do a lot of their concrete work roofing, carpentry things, stuff like that. So that's the cool thing you encompass so many miscellaneous ends of the blue collar world. What kind of crews you got, who we talk to a lot of, we do a lot?
Speaker 2:of concrete work yeah we do a lot of our own interior finishes. We can do our own drywall painting, tile, carpentry, things. And then for the things that'll be done, obviously we've got really good subs, but they've been working for us almost since the day I've right, I'm really big on the, even with the. You know, not only like customers having relationships, but also the people that I work for you work with.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry both to have good?
Speaker 2:yeah, because I don't know. I've worked for some big companies. You know local companies and it's like you know you mess you treated like trash, don't you Do to stay one time they're done with you, and I mean, it might work for some, but I've just Just never been like that.
Speaker 1:No Things and yeah.
Speaker 2:I think at that point then you start to have like a better relationship. People start to care about you, yeah and it's not about.
Speaker 1:It's literally. I tell my guys all the time and I preach about this on on our youtube channel 50 to 1 man, 50 good jobs to the one bad job. Nobody gives a crap. Nobody cares not even a little bit about the 50 good jobs you do. They could not care less. It's that one bad one you do. Now, everybody knows about that one bad one, whether it's you know the engineer team or the architect team or the owner that knows these owners and you run into these people. Well, remember that one bad one. I'm probably going to stay away from them and that's what happens is that one freaking bad job is the one that labels you and it takes time to build that reputation back and to prove and it helps with marketing not to go off into the weeds there too quickly. But you've got your own YouTube channel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just started it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. By some pushing from you Got to do it, got to do it.
Speaker 2:I've tried that and it's all right, it's going, you know.
Speaker 1:He's getting crushed Channel by the results analytics that I told him to be very fearful of. Don't be looking at those analytics every time. It's hard not to it is.
Speaker 2:I look at them seven, eight times a day, Because as soon as I post a video, I'm like oh my god, did I get another subscriber? It's just like crickets. Yeah, dude, I'm just expecting to wake up one day and have like 50,000 subscribers overnight.
Speaker 1:I mean you could, 100% could. That's what I'm hoping with for the show, and if you're listening to it on YouTube, hit that subscribe button, and if you're listening to it on a streaming platform, make sure you drop a follow for us. It sure helps the channel out immensely. Man, the commercial game is different. I can go off on so many topics on the commercial game, like retainage, pay apps, getting paid 45 and 60 days after you do something. The form of payment it's so crappy in our industry, bro, it's like literally every other industry other than the construction industry has figured out how to pay people and get the product they want quicker rather than slower.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Yeah, I mean that's something we've had to deal with. I mean going from residential where it's, you know, you make a deal with a customer and you're getting some money up front money. When you're done with this money when you're done. And the commercial, I mean, yeah, that was one of our biggest and probably still is our growing pains is just trying to understand like the system of the whole aia forms the day before end of month, and if you don't submit on this day, you're not getting paid by this day and they retain, they open that window.
Speaker 1:For what? Maybe one day of the month? Oh, that's the billing day, and if you don't get it in there, you're not getting any money for another 30 days, yeah, and so if they're paying out in 60, you miss a payout window. You're looking at 90 to 120 days before you see money. How is that even remotely a thing in our world? It's 2024, bro, unbelievable.
Speaker 2:I don't get that Honestly. I mean for ourselves. You know, when we're at the GC of the company, that is something I do try and pride myself on is actually paying our guys pretty quick, and we do. We hold retainage only just to make sure that we're safe, we're okay.
Speaker 1:But you know, normally it's just saying hey guys, get us in on this time, and we're like two or three weeks.
Speaker 2:here's your money.
Speaker 1:And if we know someone's going to.
Speaker 2:if someone hasn't got it in, we'll tell them hey, we need to get that in. Like, just try to help out, but bro, not to be named- not to be named today yeah, but I definitely just I stay clear of them and I think that that's something too, for anyone out there. You know, listening is to kind of understand.
Speaker 2:You know, like, hey, sometimes I think as a young business person, especially when I started, I would, I would get into those things, you know yeah, I want to get money and I'll just I'll deal with it, but like, and they like really truly crushes you, stress issues, you know, and then, and they like really truly crushes you to stress issues, you know, and then and they can just play games with you. And so I think it's honestly better again for the person out there listening just sometimes to stay clear of those and and, and you know, build yourself up maybe a little bit more to be more secure financially. You can never lose money on a job you don't do. Yeah, honestly, I've had to learn that the hard way.
Speaker 1:It's a mess sometimes the word no has got to be more Bid more equals, win more. Put pricing in there. Yeah, we can go off on that subject, but that's not the subject matter of the day. Mr Immigrant, there you go. We're going to talk about the legal way to get into this country and the process that many of my listeners here on the show probably have no idea about, have never even. All they've heard is immigration, illegal immigration. Obviously, it's been a big thing in the last couple of years, which pisses me off even more because I'm a legal immigrant, right as yourself. Are you a citizen? I am, yeah, oh, so you're a full citizen? Yep, no way. I don't. You're a full citizen? Yep, no way.
Speaker 2:I don't really have a crazy story of that, honestly.
Speaker 1:No, I was born in Ireland.
Speaker 2:My biological mother was American, so automatically got a passport. And here I am, this guy.
Speaker 1:I don't have any bad story.
Speaker 2:Came over in 2000 and 2004. Came here in 2000 and, I think, 2004. Came here in 2004.
Speaker 1:After school you were out of high school or you were still. No, no, so I was actually finished.
Speaker 2:High school in America Went to what?
Speaker 1:was that like?
Speaker 2:Different. Horrible actually, to be really honest with you.
Speaker 1:Tell me about it.
Speaker 2:I did not like school in America whatsoever.
Speaker 1:I didn't either bro.
Speaker 2:No, very, very. You know it's kind of funny because growing up in Ireland you'd see American movies of like how cliquish it was the baseball guys and the football guys and the nerds and the. You know the good looking girls and the not so good looking girls. You know what? I mean You're like no, it can't be like that.
Speaker 1:And then you're this Irish boy that come over and it's cool that you're from Ireland. Then it wears off and then you're just this weird kid, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah that was totally it, dude. I was in the 10th grade. No, I'm sorry, I was in the 6th grade. I was 10 years old. It was my 10th birthday.
Speaker 1:I probably never even told this story, so you get to be a part of the whole channel. But I um, my mom and myself natural born canadian citizens. My father's actually a brit um from south side of london and he served in the royal navy for 22 years roughly, and so with him being in the Navy, he could immigrate anywhere in the British Isles. So he immigrates to Canada with a previous wife and things don't work out, meets my mom in the late 80s and here I am Right. And so I said all that to say this 10 years go by and my mom had divorced my dad and another man and we were heading out to basically move to Arkansas, and within a I watched my mom literally this is before the digital age so I was watching her fill stacks, bro and I mean stacks of papers fold them up and just over and night after night after night, and we had to fly to montreal. We had to know my mom went to montreal on my birthday one year. I was kind of crushing. I was nine years old and, but I understand, we were doing what we had to do. But man, I was. I was a AAA Ontario hockey player. You know, football to you wasn't football like it is here, and I didn't know anything about football here. I was a freaking hockey player dude, and a good one at that. And now I'm getting ripped out of my programs.
Speaker 1:And now we're moving to some place called what, arkansas, arizona. Where are we moving? What? And so 2001,. I'll never forget it the rest of my life. Maroon colored ford f-250 like a 2000s model with the 73 in it, and, um, a horse trailer, a three horse slant trailer. And we pulled up. We, my mom, had a book, had a black, nothing crazy, just a little black notepad, and every single box that was in that trailer was numbered, had a generalistic item list on the outside of the box and it matched correspondingly to the book. Okay, we pull up to the border, say this is what we're doing. They have to call my dad, who still lives in Canada at this point, and go hey, do you know your son's moving? Number one after to the border, say this is what we're doing. They have to call my dad, who still lives in Canada at this point and go hey, do you know your son's moving Number one?
Speaker 1:after all the meetings, after all the papers, after everything we're moving across. My mom has everything binders this is what's in it and they rip out 160-some-odd boxes of our belongings and strung them out between the American and Canadian border at three o'clock in the morning, with me my newfound stepbrother, my newfound stepdad and my mom. Wow, I was nine years old, it was my 10th birthday, and you want to talk about a frozen Canadian?
Speaker 1:you know great white North kid who talked funny like ketchup I guess abnormally than most, and that was another. And I was called Canadian through my whole schooling career. But I spent when I moved here it was the middle of my sixth grade year and I spent more time in the counselor's office than I ever did in class my sixth grade year. I was such a mad kid did in class my sixth grade year I was such a mad kid anybody would be in that. In that regard of you know, not really. Now you're down here with your mom and your mom's really happy with this decision, so you don't really want to weight your problems on her no so it was really rough.
Speaker 1:Um, looking back, I can see where a lot of was it that not regretting it? I need you to understand that, dude. I do not regret it, Thank God. You know my family. I have a beautiful family and I don't regret it one bit. But man, it was freaking brutal bro. I didn't enjoy it. I didn't even know how to open my own. We had cubbies where I come from, and so we get down here in sixth grade and you've got a locker Hell. I had cubbies where I come from, and so we get down here in sixth grade and you've got a locker Hell. I didn't know. I didn't know what a locker was. I had some kid open my locker for three months because I couldn't even figure out how to run a combo.
Speaker 2:You know it was just craziness man. So not me. I just got a ticket and jumped on a plane.
Speaker 1:Really, and here I am, jesus. That was a great, fantastic story. There's your story and you went straight here.
Speaker 2:I came straight to Arkansas. It was a culture shock for me.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was really really tough. I mean a lot of times I wanted to go home and I never really got bullied or anything like that, I mean you know, some kids would like laugh the way I might say things, but I think it wasn't I going to school because in Ireland it was so different.
Speaker 2:You know, everyone gets along with everybody and there's no cliques, it's all you know. You're nerds with your popular people. You're rugby players with your soccer players, you know whatever it is. Yeah, you know it was a lot more laid back, so that was hard for me. It was hard for me of the freedom that I had, you know in. Ireland. It was very easy getting around with public transportation.
Speaker 1:Toronto too.
Speaker 2:Still here in Arkansas our public transportation is.
Speaker 1:Terrible, horrible, non-existent yeah nothing.
Speaker 2:basically, I mean, at least now we've gotten.
Speaker 1:I say that We've got things in some Ozark Regional Transit. We did that expansion a couple of years ago. We added a couple of hydrants they still don't have. They have very, very specific major collector route pickups to major points within our area and I mean it is nothing like Toronto. Toronto you can go, dude. You can go eight hours up into Ontario and take a GO train almost all the way down to wherever hit the subway, hit some buses and get anywhere in the city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same in Ireland. We don't have you know train, darth DeLuis, things like that in Dublin.
Speaker 1:But it's still a lot easier.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. It's tough. I mean that was hard for me and then trying to get into sports and things was tough. The same thing I had played soccer and I had done a tiny little bit of rugby back home.
Speaker 1:Nothing major in football.
Speaker 2:I was horrible at it, didn't really like it, didn't get it, didn't fit into that group, tried to do a little bit of soccer. My grades were never great, I didn't do good in school and so that just.
Speaker 1:That funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just was never good. I was actually talking today to a customer of ours. This guy's done really really well for himself and he was showing me some some new cars that he bought he had imported over from from germany.
Speaker 1:uh, jesus got me some nice cars and you know.
Speaker 2:So I started talking to him about his business and what he was doing. How he started was like a high school dropout, you know. But just had a dream and you know like, and that's what's so great about living in america, you know, like, honestly, you know you can it dude.
Speaker 1:It's the immigrant mentality. We can't, from where we come from, just go out and start a business and start making money in a couple of months. That's not how that works, not in Canada, I would assume, in.
Speaker 2:Ireland. In Ireland it's tough, but the thing that's hard in Ireland is that people don't really support you. It's not like a, oh, this guy's doing good for himself, let's help him, hey, let's. It's like they're almost like shunneders, you know. They don't want to see you do good. And so what I like about America is that they most Americans they seem to be happy for you, like well done, you know, and we'll pass, pass your name around, or at least other investors and guys that I've met that are doing really well. They're all about like hey, man, give me your number, I'll help you out, I'll see what I can do If I get a job, I'll give you an opportunity and that's nice and it's you know.
Speaker 2:You know what I think it is bro.
Speaker 1:And you may be able to speak from the Irish side of things, but I was just up in Newfoundland, which actually we were just talking about I had just come by your office.
Speaker 1:We were talking about a project you have on the go and coming out of the ground, et cetera, et cetera. But basically I went up to Newfoundland, which is what I call the North American Ireland, and the amount of, without going too far in the political weeds, socialism and the reliance off of the government, it's like dude I'm talking my family too Like it's bad, bad, bad, up there Gas $8.50. It's like $1.80 a liter. It's freaking, it's a joke, man. And they live on an island that they can't keep any of their imports. They have to export everything. When they sold it from britain into canada in 1946 after the war, um, anyways, so my grandfather, my grandmother, were natural born newfoundland.
Speaker 1:Canadian citizens actually had a british passport if they would back in the 40s. You know what I mean. They were natural born, yeah, brits. So I have dual citizenship. Before we get too far off on this, I have dual citizenship between canada and britain. So if I were to go file for my american citizenship, you can hold a tri-citizenship, but you have to have your american citizenship first and then you can file back for whatever citizenship, but man being, you know, a bordering country other than our southern border or northern border.
Speaker 1:Um man, if shit hits the fan here, I want to have somewhere to go. Yeah, I'm not trying to be any way, but I love this country. I probably would defend my home and till the death of me. But if things were getting bombed or things were getting whatever, we live in the up until the last four years, the ultra superpower of and still is but they just don't act like it but the ultra superpower of the world and we piss a lot of people off, anyways. So I've always had that in the back of my mind because when things America goes to war and it ever happens to hit here which I highly, highly, highly doubt, but the world has gone freaking batshit in the last four years, buddy.
Speaker 1:And so I've always thought in my head I'm like dude. I could literally just pack everything that's important to me in my truck, put my babies and my wife in that truck and be 18 hours and crossing that border and never have to worry about it again in my life. Right, they can't tell me no, because they're going to probably close the borders, thinking I know, this is tin hat wearing and you guys are going to get me, but at the same time, dude. This is how I've thought about this. What's me getting a US citizenship? Help me, I can vote. Well, that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:I live in.
Speaker 1:Arkansas. We have six electoral votes, don't get me wrong. Every vote counts. Go vote, go vote red. Anyways, editors, take that out. Let's not go political. That's probably not good. Yeah, I'll take that out. That's probably not going to go good, or it may go good, yeah, good, yeah, I'll take that out. That's probably not gonna go good, probably. Or it may go good, yeah, leave it in. Whatever you all want to do, um, but furthermore, it's you know what? Can I go vote? I can be a police officer. I mean, that was the only added benefits of being a us citizen. I still pay a hell of a lot of taxes as a permanent resident green card holder. I still do everything an american citizen does, but I have the right to go through that closed border because I'm a natural born citizen, and that's the only reason I've kept it up till now.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I mean, I have myself, I have my idish passport still, do you? Yeah, it's good to have. I mean, I like having why would you not? Yeah, yeah, I mean, why would I not? And I've gotten my kids. Uh well, I say I've gotten, we've started the process to get, to get my kids passports, their passports too. And again just just to have it. I mean, if they can yeah I think the same thing, like you're saying if you can have it like, why not?
Speaker 1:yeah, 100. But before we spin off this topic, my guy, I think there's a mentality going back to my socialism comments of canada, I would assume anywhere in europe's kind of my perception is that it's more Canadian style than it would be the States. Eh, um, as in freedoms and when I think that immigrant mentality, we come here and we're like look at all this opportunity.
Speaker 2:We're like we can't do this.
Speaker 1:where we come from, bro, we like you could, but you're going to have a lot of hands in the pot because it takes so much money just to get started and to meet the government requirements. But to your point, bro, of how folks don't necessarily cheer for you as much, because it's like, oh, look at that guy, you don't have to rely on the freaking government anymore. It's like we want to poke at him because he's trying to do something for himself, and that's.
Speaker 2:I'm speaking on canadians, don't know about irish people but I think for me it was, um, you know well, first of all, when I came here I was 16, so I guess I didn't really have the outlook of you know what people are they? They don't want you to succeed. I do want you or even really the american dream. I mean, I really have only kind of just discovered, in a sense I'm living that American dream isn't that crazy?
Speaker 2:you know what I mean over time, where it's like I've been able to do this, and when I go home and I've got a couple friends back home in Ireland. They've started up their businesses and they're doing good, but I think they go through struggles that I necessarily didn't go through, you know, because one thing for me, a struggle was coming in, not, you know, didn't go to college, wasn't? Part of a big group of guys. You know, I didn't know a ton of people.
Speaker 2:Even when I graduated, I knew a handful of people still in the high school, and so it's been based off relationships and people that I've met. Well, I've got all my friends back home that have lived there their whole life, know everybody that I've met. Well, I've got all my friends back home that have lived there their whole life, know everybody, but they're not getting the same almost feed or the same of like man, you do it, you've got this, you're going to do great. It's kind of a very much not a beat down, but just I don't see them getting the same kind of support.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would agree with that From other people trying to do good?
Speaker 2:Yeah, literally, and so I think that that is something great about here. You know if you are going to start up a business, or for those people that are listening that are starting businesses, you know. I know people can say whatever they want about America, but, honestly, you've just got the best opportunity in the United States the right to pursue freedom. Yeah, I mean you can. The sky's the limit.
Speaker 1:Literally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, literally. And I mean the thing is, it's not like that everywhere else.
Speaker 1:It's not man and I think that you know I hate to get on this topic, but illegal immigration for a legal immigrant burns us even more because we did the process. We did what they don't want to do. Now I understand not going too far off on that. We did the process. We did what they don't want to do. Now I understand not going too far off on that. But American citizens get so upset with immigration topic in general if it was handled a lot differently. Hey, you want to know how we handle illegal immigration and you may completely disagree with me here, and that's totally fine.
Speaker 1:But the seven to 10 extra million people we have in this country now, why would we not? There is so many able-bodied men ready to work. We've been struggling where the workforce and labor shortage for five, six, seven, eight years now and our generation's not really coming up. So why would we detour the seven? There's 7 million. Uh, fact check me here. Uh, audience micro came out and said there's seven million able-bodied american men that are not in the workforce anymore.
Speaker 1:What in the hell are we gonna do, bro? We need them in the workforce or we're not gonna be able to have our products moved across the country, buildings built, roads paved, and so basically, I just I think if you put them all, if you basically send out a call to action and go hey, look, here's these tents, we're going to process you as long as you came across with the proper information to have you stay here. You haven't done anything crazy back home. You ain't done anything crazy here. Let them stay. Give them a. Give them a 12 month freaking temp. Now the guys that are worthless showed up with nothing and just expected everything. Send them back where they come from, because there's a process here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know for me, I think I have a you know. Um, I don't disagree with you. I have kind of an insight on that, just because you know my wife, her family, they're from peru peruvian right my wife was born in america, um, but you know, they're from peruvians or they're from peru.
Speaker 2:They're a peruvian, and so I've gotten to see you know interesting culture too yeah, two different sides to all this stuff, and I mean like I would definitely agree. I think, if you know, the problem is that you know and I'm I don't want to get into political, I don't know all this stuff. But from the stories that I've heard, the people that do try and do it right. It's extremely hard, it's extremely. And so when you're living like that and you've gotten like literally no other choice, right? I mean, you know you've got kids, you've got a wife, you want to try and do something better.
Speaker 1:I just talked about leaving this country.
Speaker 2:If I had to, yeah, and like you know you have no other way. So okay, so you come over. But I think the same thing. I think if you're not a criminal, you've not done anything bad. You should be given a chance to.
Speaker 1:Come work for Nader Construction. Yeah, you know, come work for Saigon, but the same way.
Speaker 2:I say that out loud. Then you know, if you had millions and millions of people coming, what are you going to do?
Speaker 1:I don't know, so I fix in the process, because there's good people, man, and there's good people seeking a better life.
Speaker 2:Especially in the service industry right or in the trades.
Speaker 1:I mean, I know that we've.
Speaker 2:You know, back in January we were able to become a part of an electrical business and it's when I've really gotten to see the struggle of like finding guys. And I mean, it's just a lot of the guys out there.
Speaker 1:They're're older, they're over 40, 50 years old what are we gonna do in 10, 15 years, man? You just don't have young guys going into the.
Speaker 2:You've got to adapt and train it's yeah, it's, it's definitely something I think that we need to to consider or to maybe try and push people. That is something you know. That's even the reason why I ended up in America, because in Ireland you get to do. It's called the transition year, so it would be fourth year. So in America, I believe, they call it 10th grade, so you get to have some time, I don't say time off of school, but you get to kind of make some decisions. You can either continue your education and graduate and go to college and do your thing, or you can get into a trade.
Speaker 2:You can become a brick mason, carpenter, electrical plumber and get into a trade. You can become a brick mason, carpenter, electrical plumber and get into those things, and so it's something that's not shunned on. I mean, it's something where people really try to push that and, you know, I think that that would be a great thing too to eventually be able to possibly do here, dude.
Speaker 1:So actually there is a program in the state of Arkansas. It's called Workforce, workforce, direct Workforce. Anyways, springdale School District, funnily enough, two weeks ago, walked out of the studio here podcast and they were Rodney is his name the gentleman I spoke with actually going to film on November 12th. All the behind the scenes. They actually own a 308, a dozer, a roller and some other things with GPS equipment on them and they have a CDL school, they have a carpentry school, they have a HVAC electrician and these are seniors, they're graduating. He's putting people. Nine drivers in SMG's hands, which I buy concrete off. Smg last year alone, owned by an Irish company. Nine drivers in SMG's hands, which I buy concrete off. Smg last year alone, owned by an Irish company. They all. Yeah, there's a new one. Have you seen O'Brien yet? I?
Speaker 2:have.
Speaker 1:I use them every now and then, of course, you do you freaking golly.
Speaker 1:He just hit one of our jobs yesterday, shameless free plug there for O'Brien, ready makes here, but, um, no man, 100 it's. It's been such a weird transition but I'm glad, glad it happened. You know, in general, but, um, sorry, the workforce stuff. I'm going to film them. Uh, november 12th, so I'm really excited about that. They have a night class and a two-day classes and some of these guys have already graduated and still coming back, whether they're hvac, they have a plethora workforce I can't think of the next word. But I wish I could give them a little bit of a shout out because, man, they're taking high school kids and giving them a chance.
Speaker 1:That's awesome they don't even understand. From 18 by 22, 23,. If you're really good at your trade, you can make $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 very easily, not even like you know how to send an email. Be the best at your trade, know how to move a couple of people. Oh my God, dude, the sky's the limit. And within four years you're not going to college. I'm not a big college guy advocate, although I'm a huge college football fan but I'm not a big college advocate. You're going for four years to get a freaking piece of paper that says you've got a degree in this and you've spent this amount of money, but you haven't even paid them that money in most general cases. And you take all this debt and then now you're starting at the 22, 23-year mark and I hadn't made a single freaking dime and you're already starting out in debt.
Speaker 2:I mean, I understand for some things right. Engineers architects, doctors, things you need to put Engineers.
Speaker 1:And architects. You can go back to school for a little bit, come on.
Speaker 2:But I mean, I think it's, you know it's important to have, obviously, but uh, I definitely, you know, being the fact that I didn't go to college. I'd like it, I'd love it to see more kids kind of not having to know like this is your only way to become successful, like you have to go to college. Like you have to go to college. It's just not there. And I know too there's a bunch of kids now that are getting into the whole TikTok and YouTube. And you know they're doing really good for themselves.
Speaker 1:Before they even hit 18.
Speaker 2:Before they even hit 18,. Yeah, I mean they're doing great. Some of the stuff that's happening.
Speaker 1:It's pretty crazy. But um, on that, on that segment of you, know, we've got this business here in the states and you've grown it. You've been in business almost 15 freaking years. I'm knocking on the door of 10 and, uh, man, talk a little bit about going from that two-man position, three-man position, selling work and we're getting some referrals from father-in-law, we're getting some referrals from plumbing guy. How did you grow and scale your business is probably the number one most question that I get all the time because a lot of these guys can't even get out of the three-year, five-year. Some of them can't even get out of a one-year because they can't keep their crap together. And that's who I'm trying to talk to on this podcast. Is those guys just trying to level up their stuff? So brief little story about, or maybe some insight about, growing and scaling A couple things.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:One patience. I don't have that, but patience has been my biggest lesson. Prayer, definitely prayer. I am you know, because I, you know, I think I've said this before, maybe even the last podcast. You know, I always tend at times where I'll compare myself at times and I'll say you know well how come they've got this and I'm not there.
Speaker 2:A lot of times it just comes down to, honestly, just right place at the right time. For me personally, what I've done has just been patience. I started my business. I always wanted to be big we all do. There were times where I wanted to be bigger and I've almost started to rethink of rethink that you know, and you know I'm kind of happy where I am. In a sense, for me it just has been more of a passion. No, I just, I really love my family man.
Speaker 1:I think we talked about that last time.
Speaker 2:And it's. You know, the bigger you get, the more stress you have. You know you've got to get to a really big part, to where you can almost step away. You know, and until you get there it's a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice.
Speaker 2:You know it's a lot of time away, and I don't think there's anyone that could come and say, no, I spend a lot of time with my kids and my business is massive. It just there's no way, I mean unless it was handed to you 100% on your own and grass roots up and it's. You know, you've done it all yourself, like you were going to sacrifice one thing it's either going to be maybe not becoming so big, because then you're gonna have great family life, or it's going to be a great family, you know, or vice versa.
Speaker 2:I'm bloody confused on my own so no, I'm with you, but it's either going to be your business is going to do great and your family's going to suffer a little bit, or your family's going to do great and your business is going to do great and your family is going to suffer a little bit, or your family is going to do great and your business is going to suffer a little bit. And so you know, I just kind of started to really learn the patience part of things. I mean, if you're doing the right thing, if you've started a business, whatever you're doing and you're doing the right thing, you're being honest. You just have to be patient, because it just Rome wasn't built in a day. You know what I mean? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:You're preaching to me right now.
Speaker 2:But I've had to kind of continuously tell myself that you know, just wasn't built in a day and that is something. Though that is different. Sometimes, when you do see people and maybe you look at them and you've you know they've gone from a one truck to they've got 15 trucks and they're doing it quicker than you are. A from a one truck to they've got 15 trucks and they're doing it quicker than you are. A lot of the times it's because they know different people.
Speaker 1:Or there's more money involved, or there's more hands in the business, or it can be also.
Speaker 2:They're in a ton of debt.
Speaker 1:Oh, psych on. Need a sponsor, come on.
Speaker 2:No, you know what I mean, but like they're living check to check. And it's like you know that's the only way to live. I think if you're patient and you just try to live within your means, be patient and do the right thing, and like I said too, god is a big one. I mean every day just pray that. Hey, you know I do the right thing.
Speaker 1:Be the best version I can of me every day.
Speaker 2:Try and focus and you know, whatever it is, I'm doing that, I'm doing the best that I can for him and and and that's it. I mean they're really I don't know if there is a secret to or a perfect formula. I got you one, I got you one.
Speaker 1:You ready for it. Super hard man, yeah. Pick an industry, yeah. Get punched in the freaking teeth for 10 years and you'll have it figured out. There's no Chico to this dude, no. But I see so many guys that get frustrated. They'll start a landscaping business and they'll run a year or two. Winter hits, bad winter, they can't start mowing until late. So now we're over here doing tree stuff, or the tree stuff costs too much money to get into. So now we're over here doing tree stuff, or the tree stuff cost too much money to get into. So now we're over here and we're concentrating on this.
Speaker 1:And I was a little bit like that too. I wanted to get into the dump trucks for my dirt game and I made some mistakes there, wavering but not ever switching industries. I think if you just pick a freaking industry, get punched in the face enough and you'll gain enough experience to be sustainable. But like I'm gonna, I'm gonna hit you with a question, though. Like how did you know when it was the right time to scale? When did that point? When, I mean, we just talked about adding an electrical service? So what are we? How did you know it was the right time? You're just having so much work can't get it done. What's the basis there from either gaining subcontractor into in-house or subcontractoring it solely? But you know you had to have the service. I mean that's all part of growing and scaling right.
Speaker 2:So some things have been like what you said. You know, I'm the same way, like I thought, oh, I'm going to buy myself a few dump trucks, like just go with the dump truck thing, because I did the same thing.
Speaker 1:That is terrible. I'm even a dirt guy.
Speaker 2:Horrible, it was the worst thing. Someone had mentioned it to me, thought it would be great. Did that Horrible? Lost money, had to eat it, you know, got rid of the trucks. Never did it again. Then I had wanted to get into some kind of a service industry, I didn't know, like plumbing, electrical, and you know, it's kind of saved up some money. I'd put that away and and, um and honestly it was just it.
Speaker 2:Just I don't want to say it's a god thing, but if it was just something, it just came about and I think for people comes from that prayer time, man, I think I think two people like there are going to be moments in your life where you're going to have opportunities, whether you take it or you don't, and sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and you know this. So far we haven't been in a year, it's been going okay. I'm not sitting here, you know, with wads of money.
Speaker 1:It's the same type of thing.
Speaker 2:It's starting it and just going slow, doing the right thing and, you know, hopefully, people are liking what we're doing. And so, you know, someone just happened to come to me that said hey, I've got this, I've got another business partner, my other business partner wants out of it. You know what do you think? And I was like you know what I really like that other guy. You know he's a good dude and I think that we'd work well together. And so I thought, yeah, you're like, you know, let's do this.
Speaker 1:And so.
Speaker 2:I took the opportunity to do that and so far it's been going good. And as far as scaling the construction business, it's been. You know, I think, a lot of times too. As a business I don't try to do everything on my own. You know, so I've got different people around me that I can talk to.
Speaker 2:Super important man, my wife, or even my mother-in-law, who helps me in my business. She's really smart. Um, we've got different people and I'll often sit down with them and just say, hey, like this opportunity has come up. What do you guys think you know? And she may say, hey, you know, I think it's going to be good. You know, financially we'll be okay, let's have a jab at it. You know, hey, let's, let's do this. Or hey, you know we we're renting. You know we're renting a skid steer.
Speaker 2:you know, every month we've got a skid steer Every month we've got a skid steer on rent for putting gravel around a home or clearing a lot, or for loading up trailers. And so we look at that and we say well, instead of paying rental, what if we go buy one? And so then we ended up we had a skid steer. Then it was well, we've got to dig footings for our houses that we're building and we're renting it so long. Well, let's go buy a mini excavator. And so you know, those little things just happened again. It was very natural but that's the business.
Speaker 1:Telling you too.
Speaker 2:It's also the business, kind of telling you like, hey, like instead of you. So that's really how we've always operated, like I've never gone out and just been like I'm gonna buy five trucks and machines and just hope it works out. It it's always been like you know what I'm saying, I do, but I didn't there you go. So well, you're the exception, you know. So I've always been like, well, I'll just, I'll just.
Speaker 1:I just kind of like we said it worked out Well you're doing good it's never easy. You know, you're doing good, and so that's it. That's kind of like you know just waiting on the right times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean like I said to me, but but this is my, this is all my perspective. You can have someone else come in and be like, oh, no one took a loan and I'm just killing, I'm doing great yeah, that works for some people. I always learn. I always learn the hard way. I very rarely learn the easy way. I've got to stumble four or five times and I finally figure it out and then kind of go from there.
Speaker 1:Well, the scaling is always a question. Growing is always a question. When do I start? What about the guy? We've got just a little bit of time here? What about the guy that's sitting there like you were just heard back from father-in-law and goes, hey, uh, probably not gonna let you take this over. Hey, I'm gonna have a go with this. And he's sitting there in 2024, not in 2010, 2024. Sitting here, going, man, I should start. Would you recommend starting?
Speaker 2:yeah, hell yeah me too. I mean like every time you don't mean like businesses are always being created and going and some fail, some don't, and if you fail, keep going. You try again yeah, just try again. I mean, difference between it's easy to say right, like when I started my business, it was just me and my wife.
Speaker 2:I didn't have children right that was also, you know, an easier thing to do. I wasn't having to put extra food on the table, things, things like that. But I mean, for the guy out there, maybe that's working for someone that has kids, you know, that's obviously a sit down and talk to your spouse and figure that out and see what you have to do. And maybe it's, you know, maybe it's you're having to work a Saturday and a Sunday, you know, and, and, to, to, to or going out after work and working a few hours late, like there's all. If you really really want it, you're going to figure it out every time, man. If it's just like a, well, and I will tell you this too I mean, yeah, it can be, be for money. But if you're going to try and go start a business and all you're thinking about is like, oh, the money, the money, that's like the last thing that came. I mean, when we started it was really tough. I mean it was tough.
Speaker 2:Probably after year eight or nine we were fine, like okay we're doing okay and we're here and then you know 11 and 12, and we're like, okay, we're starting to kind of make some money, but nothing great. I mean it has taken time.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing too thing too right. I mean like everyone always sees, and I know like there's so many people out here that say the same thing and whatnot, but everyone always just sees, now like people. They see psycom, they see all your trucks and your machines like, wow, look at that, he's done this, he's up, but like no one knows what you're going through where I was or where you were, or you know how you started, I mean like when you started with, like your little bobcat machine.
Speaker 1:You know you or you know how you started.
Speaker 2:I mean, you started with, like your little Bobcat machine, you know.
Speaker 1:You bad buddy.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like people don't often see that, and so everybody starts small for the most part. You have to I know there are exceptions of people that have gone in and gone big right off the bat. Maybe they've done it well and they've been handed a company from their family or a family member, and that's different. But for those guys that are out there that are starting all new, you have to start from somewhere, dude.
Speaker 1:And just only you're your own competition In your mind. Your mind is your only competition. It's crazy, dude. Keep moving forward. But those relationships, man in construction in general, have obviously helped the growing and the scaling and we've already talked about those opportunities. But positioning yourself for those opportunities to being able to even remotely being able to strike on, those opportunities is hard, hard.
Speaker 1:And to position yourself in 90 days for this one set opportunity, like you're saying, taking a jab sitting down, man, I won't hardly make a move at psycon without the whole team. Hey, man, what do we think about this? Well, so and so worked for them. I didn't go good, let me call him man. We have gotten really picky and choosy about the relationships that we work with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean seriously, not just below us. My subcontractors are amazing, but I've got a concrete guy that's worked for me for almost two years. He's phenomenal, does all my mantles and boxes. Got another guy that kind of does the flat work but at the same time we've got don't do dump trucks anymore, got a dump truck guy. Those subcontractor relationships are huge. They are vital.
Speaker 1:Whether you're sitting here at the end of the month just like I am chasing money to make sure they get taken care of and you told them you would take care of them. Whether the day comes, it always comes, you would take care of them. Whether the day comes, it always comes, you always take care of them. But the relationships if you want every other relationship below you to start running more seamlessly, more smooth, guess what? Get up there at the first starting relationship, that customer relationship. You can never get too big in a company to never just pick up the phone and talk with your customers because your customer I found this out the hard way through this year, bro is that I kind of tried to deject from my customer not necessarily my main focus, customer, but you know, through the display of work with a project manager and a production manager that after several years didn't go very five years to be exact, didn't go awesome and we split ways but left me with a pile of crap to deal with.
Speaker 1:But in the last now that I'm past it I'm in about 100 days, 115 something days from there we set a record in revenue this last month and I started, production just went and it was because I was out there.
Speaker 1:But not only that, was I out there. I was talking with the customers and letting them know what is transpiring, when and how it's happening, and saved me a lot of, I guess I'm. What I'm trying get at, Bob, is that I'm being a lot more proactive with my business, rather than I see so many people and myself get in the burnout phase and just deal with the reactions and just deal with it and be reactive to every situation. But those were relationships that on the intake side of it, with the customer relation side of it, we have really, really started entering them into a no-go-go matrix. Is this somebody we want to work with? Is this somebody that you know, Anyway, so a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:But you know, we've talked about prayer man. Prayer is such a huge thing. Prayer man, Prayer is such a huge thing. But the mental health is we got on a subject when we first talked in our previous podcast and we've talked about it many times and I think we're a little bit, probably a little bit more open about it than other folks are. But man, the mental health toll of that 10-year getting punched in the face trying to raise a family. It's almost impossible to.
Speaker 1:I've got a seven year old boy, five year old girl, got another one on the way coming Christmas. I've raised this family while building this business. Was I always a perfect family man? Hell, no, I wish I could do a lot of things differently in those years. Don't get me wrong. I owe them the time, but the sacrifices I've made have now, for the rest of their life. In a 10-year, just wasting not wasting, but building through. A decade wasting my time is how I feel, like it in my head, but all the time I've been investing and sacrificing and building them a future. That's the only reason me and Sarah did this was to build a sustainable future for our children and have them, because we didn't, I didn't have nobody here.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean I had all my family down here, my step family, my mom, but I didn't have anything for sure getting give to this guy. So if I wanted a better way of life, the only way I knew is, you know, I jumped around and a few positions, jobs and careers and industries and tried to figure things out and I figured out that this industry kind of just picked me from the pipe and pipe side of things and it usually does. But man too, I mean sitting here today I had a lunch meeting and I'll be frank, you know I'm sitting here dealing with this YouTube. I'm trying to project this podcast and bring people in here and help other people and I'm helping other people through this YouTube and I'm having to run five crews of dirt and civil guys and answer all the accounting questions, the sales questions, the estimate questions, all the questions in between and keep everybody moving. It's just a freaking lot, man.
Speaker 1:And I had a lunch meeting today with a mentor of mine and I just said man, I'm not burned out, but I'm just tired, I'm exhausted, but I'm just tired, I'm exhausted. And thank God that me and Sarah 10 years married last September have worked through this together, because I don't think I could get my family going and then go out and build a business. You know, here I'm going to go build this thing for you guys. I just don't think it would have worked. So I guess that's going a little counterintuitive to what you said. Just don't think it would have worked. So I guess that's going a little counterintuitive to what you said. But literally built a family while I built a business. But building a successful business is a totally different thing. Rather than just going out and building a business.
Speaker 1:Right and doing that, giving it the time. It's its own baby, it's your baby. You know what I mean. Its own baby, it's your baby. You know what I mean. And, dieter, as Dieter Construction, you have got to give the amount of time into it that it deserves, and not only meeting that cusp if you want to grow it or do anything else. Guess what? You've got all of that time. Now you've got to take a couple extra steps ahead and start laying processes and procedures down for them. Couple extra steps ahead and start laying processes and procedures down for them so when they do get there, they can take off and run with it. Right, and it's other than prayer, man, a lot of the. I don't know about you, but I don't listen to a lot of music in my truck when I'm driving around town. I know you hit a lot of jobs like I do. I'm usually just me and my thoughts which is a dangerous place sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah definitely.
Speaker 1:But if I didn't have my family, bro, to be able to come, I don't care what happens. But when I come home and I see them babies, and I see Mama, I'm good to go for the next one. You know what I mean. It recharges me. But in the last three years especially prayer, talking to the big man above my church, family people supporting me from a mental side has definitely changed the game. I still struggle with it. I'm not going to be anyway. It's every end of month it's a struggle fest.
Speaker 1:We're in year nine, so, um, we're doing okay, we've got some sales, but 2024 was really hard on us, I ain't gonna lie. It was really hard on the way we modeled what we do for the commercial retail space, commercial multi-family space, as that really slowed down this year, this year, obviously, and it got pushed more affordable housing, and we've made that switch, but not till about a month or two ago. And so this year, man, my project manager leaving me, that really, that really messed me up, bro. That really messed me up, and it was man if messed me up. And it was man, if you're a right hand, if I can just talk to you guys for just a second audience wise, like if you, if you're a right hand to some business owner out there that relies on you, just talk to them. Literally, I promise you I they don't even understand what's going on in your brain because we have so much going on in ours. But if you ever for one second think that you're burdening your boss by going up and talking to him, pick the time, though Appropriate timing is a big thing, obviously in business.
Speaker 1:Just wish I got a conversation, man. I mean I shared a desk with the guy. I just wish I one point, and you know what guy. I just wish I one point. And you know what I fault myself for not giving that time and making that time available, although he didn't ask for it. But I think I improved me as a leader, mentally going man. I should have probably checked up on him a little bit more. I should have done this, although it has nothing to probably do with me. Whatever, it doesn't matter. He's going to do it no matter what. But those key people in business, man in your business, that leave you and you're just sitting there, what you know, and then it's all about watching those cracked doors. If you're sitting there concentrating on a cracked door that God don't want you to have open. He wants it closed and you're just keeping your finger or your foot in there to leave it open and just concentrating. Why?
Speaker 2:is this not happening.
Speaker 1:And then all of a sudden you're like I'm tired of this and you slam that door shut and you turn around and there's 17 open doors that you haven't even been looking at because you're so concentrated up here on that crack of that door and forcing that to happen.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean, yeah, and I think we get caught up in it as business owners that that right opportunity finally hit and this opportunity is it, and this is the one that's going to do it, and it ends up hurting you more than anything ever did. And if you're not right up here, um, counseling man, I'm a big. I have never I had a. Uh, I did anger management for several years when I moved here. Um had a counselor, but, um, I should probably look into it a little bit more. But you got to talk, you got to get this stuff off your chest.
Speaker 1:And if it's business sense, man, pick up the phone, pick one of your competitors, I don't care Build a relationship with them and start spewing some of that crap off of you before you get home, bro, I think it's.
Speaker 2:You know, I've said this before in the last podcast. You know, being an entrepreneur can be a lonely road. You know, my brother has said that to me before. It's extremely lonely and you know it's. It doesn't have to be necessarily, but it's tough because a lot of people don't understand what you're going through. They don't understand why you're doing it. They don't understand, you know. You know why don't they? Just, you know a lot of people. They like to go work for other people and that's okay, right, like we need those people in the world.
Speaker 2:And so, um, you know the mental health side of things. I think it's really important. You know I'm big on that. I go to therapy. I think it's really important to go and talk to someone, um, to get your thoughts, you know, out of your head. And some people, like my father-in-law, you know, man, I see him. You know he could have a building falling down, he could have one on fire, he could have five guys who just quit, he could have a wreck on the highway and he's just like, hey, it'll be all right, yeah, got it under control, no problem. For me.
Speaker 2:I just stress, I'm just like you know and so they're just. You know people handle things differently. But I think it's also knowing your weaknesses and you know if you can go out and you can kind of help yourself and fix that and not be ashamed of it. I think it's really important because you know, I think, as men, we definitely shame ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, men don't always want to open up and be like I need help, I need therapy. You know it's like oh, I got it, I, I need therapy. You know they it's like oh, I got it, I'm good, Yep, I can deal with it. And then inside you're just like burning or you're out of control. You're mentally drained.
Speaker 2:And so you know, I was going to say too I remember when I started my business and I would have to say I probably selfishly when I did I first started I don't know if I was like I'm going to have a company. Like me, andrew, I wanted to have a company Ever since I was little.
Speaker 1:I always wanted to do my own thing.
Speaker 2:I never wanted to work for someone. It was just something that was in me and I didn't know like. I remember being little and thinking I want to be a farmer, I want to be a farmer.
Speaker 1:I want to have like big old jobs. Dude, my mom says the same thing about me.
Speaker 2:And so when about construction, it was just natural, something where I was like I really like construction, like I love seeing things being built I love seeing thing being, you know, remodeled whatnot, and so when I started, and then, and then, after I had, you know, I got married in 2010 and I started my business, and then I was like, well, I want to provide something great for my wife, of course. And then, and then we had our daughter, and then it was my son, and then it became where I was like man, like you gotta kind of do this thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really want to do it because I want them to have a good life, I want them to have things, and so, yeah, it definitely uh, it kind of grew from there, you know, and then it did, did become where it was. You know, this is for the family, but then also realizing that stepping away sometimes from work and maybe not always getting all the jobs that I want, they're not having the company as big as I want it to be, you know, but that's also okay and it's an okay decision to make, you know, because I enjoy being with my family.
Speaker 2:I enjoy going to games with my son and games with my daughter and things like that.
Speaker 2:And so I think, as you know that person out there listening that's building their business they need to make a decision and say, okay, like what am I going to do? But just remember, one thing is going to be sacrificed you're not going to be as big as you thought you'd be in your dreams, or you're going to have a good family life. I mean, you can try and balance things, but it's going to be, I think, slow and I think you know, luckily for me, I've learned, I think, pretty well to balance and you know, do I wish I was bigger? Maybe a little bit. Could I've been bigger by this time? Maybe a little bit.
Speaker 2:But you know, I also like to go home at you know five and hang on my kids and don't like working Saturday and Sunday anymore, because I want to see what my son's playing or my daughter's playing a game and hang out with them and at the end of the day, you know, life is short and that's what the kids are going to remember. They're going to remember, man, my dad was there, my dad did this with me, my dad did that. Not necessarily that I'm.
Speaker 1:I never miss no T-ball practice. Hell. I coached three years of it in baseball and football. We both got games to go to after this. I mean, it's what I do it for, and the other thing is too.
Speaker 2:I was going to say you know, in relationships again, for anyone out there listening, you know, it's always like that next thing, you know something I was trying to remember and someone had said it to me you know, when you, when you're out there and you're running your business and you have a tough day, you know and you're like you know I want to quit.
Speaker 1:I don't want to do this anymore.
Speaker 2:But if you just go one more day, you don't know what that day is going to hold and it may be another one, it's a bad day, things that don't work out, yeah, but just maybe that next day. And you know, for me what happened on the commercial stuff is we were working for um. We were doing some work for a big company and this large company only does a certain thing. They're not a full gc, they only do one, one thing. They they focus a lot and steal. So a guy called them up and said, hey, there's a tornado that came through and it damaged my, my building that I own, okay, and the guy there was like man, we really don't do that, but we could recommend andrew, andrew dieter. He does some stuff for us and he's, you know, good at what he does and fair. You know you should give him a shot. So he calls me to go out there. Well, it had. I had met this guy like two or three years before and just things didn't work out. It was weird.
Speaker 2:He's like you know, he's like it's kind of weird, like our paths have crossed again. Like you know, you've come up again here and he's like you know what, give me the bid and do this job for me. So I gave him the bid, I did the job and he paid me and he, from you know, fixing his you know 10,000 square foot plaza to doing 120 apartment buildings for him, to doing some different plazas for him, and that's so awesome.
Speaker 2:You know him recommending me to other investors and me doing their plazas you know, and things like that, and through that one guy you know, and I remember, I always ask I just need, I just need one opportunity, actually one opportunity I say dealing all the time you know'm saying.
Speaker 2:It's like finally, like it comes, and it's like you don't know when it's going to happen, like you can't predict that that could be five months into your business you started it could be five years, it could be 10, 11 years, it could be four days, but if you just keep that attitude of like just the next day, 100% dude, yeah, dude, put your boots on. Yeah, and it'll just work, and it really is. It's just that one opportunity that you can get and it'll really really help, Dude.
Speaker 1:Last final takeaway and we'll get you out of here Go for it. Same question I ask everybody Blue-collar guy standing out there in the mud, mentally, physically, emotionally, just absolutely stuck, and I think you just kind of hit on the head yeah, Get up, put your boots on. One more day, you never know. But what's the takeaway for him? Just being sick of being where he's at and being stuck in the freaking mud whether that's a utility, guys. You've seen me a hundred times being stuck in the mud literally, or being stuck in the mud mentally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, evaluate what you're doing. If this is really what you want to be doing, then put your bloody boots on and get to work. Yeah, and like just work the next day. I mean keep going Like I don't know what to say. I mean, no matter what you do in a trade, it's tough, right, right.
Speaker 1:Like right.
Speaker 2:You know I don't look at and say, like construction guys and we're like the superheroes. I mean everyone in their own right Right Police officers, dentists, doctors, lawyers, the lady who's mopping the floors at a, at a school, you know, cleaners, like everyone is doing something and so every day like if you're in a bloody hole and you're digging in your utility guy. It's like, well, you know what I mean. Like you picked it, you know know, like own it and work through it, and if you're proud of it and be proud of what you're doing, like you're like without you.
Speaker 2:Without you, people that wouldn't have water, without you, this building wouldn't get done without right like everyone plays an important part.
Speaker 2:I remember, you know, with my father one day we're driving along and I was like man, look at that dude just holding the stop sign for the traffic. I'm like that would suck, I would hate to do that, you know. And he kind of looks at me and he's like, yeah, but like someone has to do that, you know, like I'm like you know that's why I was calm I might be like my mr miyagi, you know, like whenever I tell him, he's always got something like wise to say back to me and I'm like you know, you're, it is true, right, like someone has to do that. If that person didn't do it, cars, cars would go by, hit each other, kill each other, fall off a bloody cliff.
Speaker 1:Or end up in my damn holes, or end up in an open trench, exactly so.
Speaker 2:someone has to do the job. So, whatever you're doing, just do it with pride. I couldn't agree more, man. Just do it with pride and just remember that you play an important part. And if you want something more, then work harder and get some put in a little bit more.
Speaker 1:it's so crazy, isn't it? So you have to do. You want more out of a vending machine. What you do you put more money into it and everybody just wants it to come to them.
Speaker 1:But no, that's a good takeaway, man, I really appreciate it. Yeah, I haven't said it a whole bunch through this podcast, but man, seriously, if you guys have loved the topic and conversation that me and andrew have been sitting here talking about over the last hour, make sure you guys hit up bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom, check that out. There's 10 episodes as of right now. We're filming. We have eight roughly in the bank so we should be right through Christmas coming at you guys every single Wednesday. Check that out and you will find a plethora, man, a plethora of episodes on covering so many topics, and I've absolutely loved this episode. I knew it was gonna be a good one from our last conversation and man sitting down, I think just what you've said different angles is going to help so many people, man you don't even know, and I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your experiences with us, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me on again, and you're doing awesome too, so just keep up the good work.
Speaker 1:Trying buddy, trying to help a bunch of folks out there, and if that only just helped me. Come on, so be good, awesome man. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like. Share it with the fellas. Check out our website to send us any questions and comments about your experience in the blue-collar business. Who do you want to hear from? Send them our way and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have. Till next time, guys.