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. 18 - Handyman to Entrepreneur: Building Trust & Referrals
Join us as we promise a journey from the ground up, where Wade Decker of Decker Home Solutions shares his transformative experience of turning a humble handyman project into a flourishing enterprise. Explore the importance of consistency and discipline over sheer motivation, as Wade elaborates on his 20-year friendship with our host, reflecting on shared business wisdom and the significant role of project management and accountability in overcoming entrepreneurial hurdles. Learn firsthand how Wade overcame initial business challenges, maintained momentum, and conquered burnout with the same grit and determination as a rigorous fitness routine.
Discover the craftsmanship and entrepreneurial spirit that propelled Wade from a single remodeling project to a thriving business with satisfied clients at its core. Through trial and error, and a resilient focus on quality and customer satisfaction, Wade forged a path that emphasizes personal fulfillment beyond monetary success. Listen to insights on making strategic decisions about equipment, transitioning career paths, and the potent power of word-of-mouth referrals. This episode is packed with practical advice for anyone navigating the construction industry, from leveraging community pages for job opportunities to using platforms like Angie and Thumbtack.
Gain valuable lessons on turning mistakes into opportunities, inspired by real-life customer service stories that transformed challenging situations into lasting relationships. Wade's journey underscores the resilience needed in entrepreneurship, highlighting the importance of perseverance and setting meaningful goals. From navigating personal and professional challenges to understanding the nuances of lead generation and customer communication, this conversation is a treasure trove of insights for entrepreneurs. Join us for a narrative that champions the entrepreneurial spirit, urging listeners to embrace the journey and celebrate victories, both big and small, along the way.
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. Welcome back, guys, to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast, sponsored and presented by Sycon Excavation and Utilities. We finally have got somebody stepping up and being a sponsor. I don't know how that happened or anything, but you can be one too. You can go hit up bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom, check us out. You can get in contact with the show in any various format you'd like to.
Speaker 1:I'm super excited to bring a guest that I've known for 20 years of my life. It should be a very relaxed conversation, not as formatted as probably previous shows are, so I'm excited for the lax conversation, for sure, but he is in a very interesting spot that I do believe a lot of the audience members are experiencing currently. Right now he's year one, I think. I think year two, startup phase, essentially of a handyman operation which can be extremely profitable set up correctly. And furthermore, we're going to be diving off basically into skills and knowledge of how we obtain those skills and knowledge probably through life, and we'll share some life stories that'll be probably rather entertaining for you guys to hear. He's going to offer up some advice to other handymen that are just looking to get into it. There's going to be some probably bullet points that we hit on, go light bulb and start talking about.
Speaker 1:Um, but furthermore, man, mr wade, decker with decker home solutions, thank you, what's going on, man? Seriously, thanks so much for being here. Dude, I got was uh, we almost I've had a pretty busy schedule here at podcastvideoscom studio and I literally just told Wade hey, man, I think you're at the end of January and Friday I think it was Thursday or Friday Miss Sam here threw up a calendar invite with your name on it and I was like oh okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so really proves that you don't know what the heck's going on, dude, I just I blew man, literally just came from a two-hour fractional project management, bringing somebody in to help me more than ever, build project management sequences, procedures, sops and make sure they're implementing, and having somebody hold me accountable to ensure that I'm providing the right stuff for my. Yeah, dude, that's big boy stuff, it is. I don't know if it's big boy stuff, but it's needed at where I'm at. But, dude, to give you guys a little bit of backstory of me and Wade used to go to church together 20 years ago, very close over the years, me and our families and our families are still close. Love your mom and dad, dude. I had to give them a shout out, your brother-in-law and also, too, now that I brought your brother-in-law shout out to our boy, jimmy.
Speaker 1:Jimmy is such a big fan of the show, I'm going to get him on here. I need to get you both on here. But you guys have a podcast going. We do. What's it called? It is called the Kings of Nothing. The Kings of Nothing. What are we talking about? Absolute mayhem. Wait, dude, I need to come on and it'd be so much fun.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we'd love to have you on. I don't know how much business we would talk. We talk all kinds of other business, but but, uh, man, we really we're just uh Canon episodes right now and just waiting to launch.
Speaker 1:So, dude, yeah you're, you're pumping a bunch into the tank. I know you guys have been working on that. Man, that's so awesome. We've it's been, uh, again crazy on my side of things on this podcast adventure. So on my side of things on this podcast adventure. So kudos to you, dude, do it and just consistent from what I? Yeah, man, the biggest thing I would probably encourage anybody listening um, it's so hard to keep it going. Getting it started is probably the hardest thing ever, but once you get started, the consistency after that is the biggest golden ticket for that I'm I'm being results wise, for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean that applies to most things. Start is that starting is the hardest momentum, right. Gaining momentum, that's right, and then sticking with the discipline to keep going.
Speaker 1:Dude, discipline's a hard thing, dude, discipline is so hard and you know it's funny. I'm going to bring up a buddy of mine, another excavation owner in Michigan. He calls me about once a month, checks in, called me the other day and he goes man, I'm burnt out. How do you keep going? So I get motivated, but then it's just like I feather out and I get motivated about things. Well, it's motivation is just as big of a killer. Motivation. I saw this. I'm going to get it printed and put it on our office and you guys pretty know what I'm talking about listening.
Speaker 1:But motivation is these giant leaps, these giant upward leaps, and then they start gradually getting smaller and smaller as you're working down the line until they're back to the exact same spot. That discipline is point A, point B, nice, and even doing the same thing every day, starting and stopping and never quitting Absolutely. And I saw that graph dude and it blew my mind. Yeah, and I saw that graph dude and it blew my mind. And to a guy, it really resonated to him and I know, you know how big of an important is his self-workout plans and motivation and that. But it takes so much discipline he is crazy in the gym seven days a week and I'm like, hey, dude, you know how much discipline you've got to make your arms grow an inch? Well, it's the same thing in business. You have to have discipline To make your arms grow an inch. Well, it's the same thing in business. You have to have discipline. No, you can't go home with no One.
Speaker 1:Of my easiest discipline things was I can't go home until I have read every single email all day, every day. If I come in at the end of the day and I got 86, I'm going through 86. If I got 150, I'm going through 150. I don't go home without reading my daily email. Still do that. Still do it to this day. But now I catch it a lot quicker. I can stack up 10, 20, go through it, because I've disciplined myself that knowing if I get 150 in there, I know it's going to be a booger and I'm going to stay another hour or two or go home, get the kids in bed, hop on my personal computer and roll through my email at home right before I get in bed, which is I don't suggest to anybody. Yeah, work at work if you can exactly if you can but do what you have to do to stay disciplined is what I'm trying to get at my wife she always says that, uh, motivation is crap and it's the discipline that gets you where you want to go.
Speaker 2:It's a hundred. It's a hundred interesting truths and everything that you want to do, it's the the con. Maturity is the constant application of elementary things.
Speaker 1:Oh Right, and so there's a first knowledge bomb for you, fellers Boom.
Speaker 2:Boom. Right, it's the, the consistency in the elementary things that we're supposed to do, that get us to maturity, to where we want to go, and, uh, yeah, man, developing that discipline. Now, when you're talking about burnout, though, for your friend burnout it happens right, because you're in there all the time. You're grinding, you're grinding and you are disciplined enough to grind, to grind, to grind. So I don't know if you have a discipline issue as much as you have. You know, take it, step back for a second and breathe for a little bit. You know, every, every month, take a, every three months, take a day and don't do anything. Every, take a weekend, every year, take a week. But I kind of think that's like basic stuff. I've heard that. That's not original for me, no, I've heard that before.
Speaker 2:But I really want to. We own our own businesses, so I want to be able to. If I want to take a week off, or I want to take two weeks off, I want to take a week off, or I want to take two weeks off, I want to take three weeks off. I want to be able to do that. Now it's, how do I accomplish that? Right, with all of the balls, the marbles that we got to keep on the table. How do we accomplish that? 100% Right. When I started this business this endeavor that I'm on right now I really Not outdecker home solution. This endeavor that I'm on right now, I really Not Al Decker Home Solutions. Decker Home Solutions just handyman decks, fences, just kind of a jack of all trades and a master of nothing and just doing my best out there to make people happy. But when I started it, I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 1:Literally. But I'm going to hop right on there, because when you're starting out and you don't have a master of any trade because I was just like you, dude, I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I was good with a machine. I can't hit a hammer and a nail together you would laugh at me miserably. Still to this day. It's terrible.
Speaker 1:I'm just now figuring out, you know, steadiness with an impact to get screws to go in without dodging them everywhere. Dude, I'm not that guy. But hey, man know your lane, Stay in your lane. At the same time, I'm so I'm almost envious of, because for you to go to work, yeah, you've got some tool investment 2020, let's call it $20,000 in tool investment to kind of cover those parameters that you're dealing with, but it's not a $100,000 Traco or a $100,000 skid steer or whatever the conversation may be, plus a truck to haul it. And so the overhead, with me walking in and still not know what I'm doing, is even worse of a conversation. Is what I'm trying to get at Is that you have figured out how to not have a ton of capital and a ton I'm sorry, a ton of overhead per se and not have to invest a ton of capital. You have a business Now. From that standpoint, the first thing is sales. So, mr handyman, how has the sales been in your first year?
Speaker 2:and uh, okay so the first, here's the first month or so. Um, you don't need numbers, I'm just talking about a little poster. It's cool, sales are good, I'm busy enough, I'm um to go from being a one-man thing yeah, for the first, from february, to like may or june, it was just just me. Yeah, then I started picking up a job where I could bring in one helper. Yeah, right, shout out to my dad. My dad would roll his with me and help me get this job right, which would be great, and then I would go back doing it one by one. Now, as far as sales, I got very blessed in the very beginning that I had one couple that um came to me. Word of mouth that said, that said, I need a handyman, I need my entire house remodeled, I'm living in it and we're going to go a room at a time. Okay, so day one I show up and I move all of the stuff with this family out of this bedroom and strip it down to the concrete floor and start over. Okay, that's cool. So, from floor to ceiling, paint outlets, light fixtures, flooring, everything. Wow, room's done, move everything back in. Now we're going to the master closet, shelves, whatever they want it, literally from the floor to the ceiling. And we're moving to the master, closet shelves, whatever they want it, literally from the floor to the ceiling, and we're moving through this house.
Speaker 2:How do you experience you gained? Oh yeah, oh yeah, I mean, and the things that I did, that I really didn't know how to do them. Well, right, there's a difference in doing it and doing it well 100%. And so I can go in here, I can flub something up, I can mess it up. What's the greatest way to learn is fixing your own tracks, so, and then developing through that this standard of excellence for myself. What I'm, what I say, that's okay. My house, okay. That's, that's my deal. It's good, yeah, it's good. Are the miters good on the trim? Is everything caulked right? All this stuff right? So there was a ton of learning and the cool thing is they are like we're not in a hurry, so business picked up like May, june, summertime, bigger jobs take longer, and and they're like just come back in the winter, that's so.
Speaker 2:I have this amazing thing in my back pocket. I thought I would slow down. I'm only speeding up, and now I'm to the point where I'm gonna have to throw them on my schedule and not just keep them in the in my back pocket pocket, for, oh, I've got four days. Let's go over here and start this for me. You know what I'm saying. So, which is which is great, but I'm telling you, I started literally at a really crazy time in my life.
Speaker 2:Right, I didn't have any money. Right, I'm sorry, yeah, I didn't have anything. Right, I'm sorry, yeah, I didn't have anything. I had some tools that I had acquired from previous jobs over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2:Um, I worked I don't know what I can shout out, doesn't matter um, I worked, um with, uh, some guys that worked on the fixer to fabulous television show that they film here. So I was working on those houses. I was getting a lot of experience there, just being a hand, yeah, yeah, being a nobody and learning all kinds of different things from tearing those houses down and building them back up. The guy I worked for a lifelong friend of mine, his name's Charlie them back up. The guy I worked for lifelong friend of mine, his name's charlie, and he is a jack of all trades and a pretty darn good one at that. Okay, all right, I don't think we're a masters of anything, but I've never ran any into anything that he can't fix right, right, and so I got all this experience, um, and then I started literally with nothing. I didn't have good for you Couple of bucks in my family's account, I know.
Speaker 1:I know all about that.
Speaker 2:I get this, this little trim job or this and that, and, and you, you, you pay. You buy some materials with some of your family's grocery money and you hope that people pay. And just to wrap that up, I mean sales have been good and consistent to keep me busy, but also now to the point that I'm hiring two guys at a time for jobs.
Speaker 1:I think that also speaks to you. Worrying about miter, cut edges on the trim board and making sure every piece is caulked and making sure the light fixture is leveled, and it's those little things that just like in my world, man, when you pop a meter can on a final day, I want that meter to be straight, I want the trace wire wrapped and cut and I want gravel in the bottom of that meter can. Does it pass every other way? Yeah, but is it pretty looking when I pop that with everybody looking in there? Yeah, man, you're setting yourself right, you're setting yourself apart. But then all seven, eight people I know it sounds so silly, but looking in a meter can and everything's neat and tidy and everything passes inspection.
Speaker 1:Of course, at the commercial level, right, but at the residential level, I got no better satisfaction ever in my working career as an entrepreneur than walking out with somebody in their front yard, backyard, side yard, lot they just bought, I don care and go, hey, I really want to do kind of this. They don't really give me any idea direction, they're just like yeah, I really have this concept in my mind, okay, okay, and I know you run into this a lot every day when you take that kind of mushy concept and then they come back in three or four days when you've done what you believe is their mushy concept no, nice, pretty plan telling you what to do, right. But they come back and they're blown away and their smiles on their faces and they're in tears because that's what they've been wanting to do for so many years. And now their grandkids whatever the story may be that right there paid more dividends than I think I'll ever earn ever, because it mattered so much to me what they thought I didn't care. They had to pay the money. I had costs. It is what it is, but would I charge for every little extra? I, looking back monetarily, I probably should have. At the same time, I made a lot of people's small dreams come true, and I know you're doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:As you walk into a house and they have been sitting in this house for 10, 15 years and they're like, hey, man, I really want to remodel this. And the amount of remodel jobs that I've heard go bad over the years in the market just people, I know it's terrible. And same stigma on this side of the table too, bro, walking into a deal. It's always the contractor's fault God forbid the engineer he drew it up. But anyways, that satisfaction and the pride is always going to bring you that next sale, especially back then, first starting in that first year startup phase. It mattered way more then than it ever will now. For me have to continue. That same person as Cy was day one when he was starting CyCon. We still need to be able to set to some site of quality standards. That I still saw on day one and I want to continue that. It gets very hairy to do when you got a bunch but-.
Speaker 2:It's continually casting your vision to your people Exactly and continually sticking to your guns. Who am I right? Which drives sales? Absolutely, that's what I was vision to your people.
Speaker 1:Exactly and continually sticking to your guns. Who am I Right? Which drives sales? Absolutely, that's what I was trying to get at. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's the finishing touches, yeah Right, like if your dozer man that is supposed to be your finished dozer guy, you know is up there driving with his hands instead of his butt Yep, when he's on the dozer. Actually, they don't even do that anymore.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, see, I'm an old school dozer driver man, dozer operator you have to drive that thing with Sam Putting your buttons on a screen and pushing it forwards and backwards.
Speaker 2:I love that Technology helps people make money. That investment, that's there, I get that. Technology helps people make money, that investment, that's there, I get it. But I really I'm there with like, just put me there, let me get the feel of it again, and that's an art or a craft that won't be around.
Speaker 1:It's literally eliminating itself right now. And it's funny even me and Sam kind of being at the same points I learned the old school way and from people giving me these mushy concept ideas and going out there, I didn't have no GPS, I didn't have none of that crap, it was. Can my skid steer mini X do this or do I need to rent a dozer? If I rent a dozer, can I get it done in three days? Under that week rental charge them a month. Whatever the case may be, and I'm like sitting here, I'll rent the dozer and do it in three days, Cause it's going to take me two weeks. My skid steer mini I can sell some more work. All right, get the dozer in there. Well, now it's just total free hand, completely off your butt and your hands and your feel and what they were thinking they might want. You know, yeah, that's how I learned. Yeah, I didn't even dude, swear to God never even ran a dozer until like two and a half years of me owning a Saikon Straight up.
Speaker 1:I was a pipe guy. Many X, I was a pipe guy. I've always was a pipe guy. So like the dirt side of things to me was like it's dirt, you push it and you put it in place. Now, as I've owned dirt operations through the past couple of years, I know there's way more to it than that. Yeah for sure, man, those year, one year, two standards consistently will drive you sales. Man, I can't tell you the word of mouth and the referral after referral, so-and-so's, cousin's, brother's, mike's uncle gave me a ring. He said I was over his house Thanksgiving man. He said you were the jam-up trim guy dude, that's right, and that's exactly what happens. And then he landed a 10K trim guy. Dude, that's right, and that's exactly what happens. And then he landed 10K trim job. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's silly, yeah, and that's I mean as far as marketing for me. Yeah, I have a Facebook account, that's it, yep, and I know you're on a whole different level, but literally, I didn't either.
Speaker 2:back then. I have a, I have a Facebook that I post some videos, to post some pictures, and I'm able to tag my business on like community pages. That's really what it's there for, yep. Um, those community pages are huge. Oh they're, they're so big. But I'm telling you, when you go on there and there are 90 other comments, I'm like you know, screw it, I'm fine, I was there'm like you know, screw it, I'm fine.
Speaker 1:There's a new one on our Citizens of Our Hometown page about me ripping that house down there at Idle Disco. I literally just was reading that. I'm not on my way here. I was not on my phone and driving who does that? But I've seen that this morning it's half gone, yeah, and it's fixing to be all the way done. No-transcript. But it took me about a year or two when I was right at the startup phase and going, oh man, if I put a little post up on here, did it one time, dude, it was over. I stayed on those community pages. I hunted them, dude, yeah, any, I would search gravel dirt excavation once a day on each three or four. Back then is what it was. Now there's plentiful of them.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's crazy and nine years of difference. Here's. Here's the thing with that. I started that facebook page I think it was probably around. J right, I was four or five months in to doing this, staying consistent and working Granted. I'm one person, so you know what I mean and at that point it's a job. I've worked myself into a job. Right Now, I'm at the transition point where I really this can be a business. Yeah, right, so the joys of working for yourself, the joys of bringing home money, the joys of paying taxes and blah, blah, blah, all that fun stuff.
Speaker 1:I didn't do that, right, so did you really, oh, my god, sir, a call dude, dude. I about sell over. Oh, october, right, is that? What was wrong with you? No, no, monday. No, monday was a long day anyways, uh, so anyway, yeah, that's the joys man.
Speaker 2:um, having the facebook has really only got me maybe like three jobs since I've had it. Yeah, yeah, okay, about three. Now, like I said, I don't push it.
Speaker 1:That's pretty crazy, dude. Three converted. Do you know what people pay Like? There's people out there that pay big, ridiculous money to have Facebook ads and I understand it's, it's, it's business, is business whether you're starting day one or you're 50 years in, if you're converting leads off of these community pages by this much marketing. Yeah, what if you did that much marketing? Yeah, for sure, man, but it comes with more people. I'm totally.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying I wish I got that sooner is what I'm trying to get at, because I didn't get that. I was just here's a picture, send it to the customer, et cetera. Would they, you know, maybe want to work with me? And it's kind of surprising when you show hey, look, done, 30 electrician jobs. I kind of know my way around. You know these trailer hounds or this single wide, whatever you guys need subdivision platform, give me a ring Five electricians by the end of the week. Hey, man, what are you doing for me? It's nuts, dude, yeah, and I still.
Speaker 1:It took me when you said, well, it's not to your level, but, dude, it took me seven, eight years to even clue into even doing that much marketing. We had a Facebook page, you know. I know everybody's got a Facebook page, but I hear in these Facebook groups that I'm a part of, everybody talks about they're starting up, they're trying to find work. You, especially in the excavation, pound those communication pages, community pages, pages. But what I was trying to get at sorry, I'm leaning back what I'm trying to get at, lean back no, I know right, um is that it's easier to sell work when your customer, client potential, can see the finished product. Yeah, that you've performed. And when that clicked to me, buddy was over and and I spoke results very quickly of course, but man, three jobs off of community pages in a couple of months, a couple of months, yeah, and so 95% of everything I've done is word of mouth.
Speaker 2:You got quality work back to sales. Quality work back to sales. People know people and those people trust you. I mean, you got me work with with air, that's true, right. And you're like, hey, you hit this guy up. Fun little barn rehab that we did. Say, that's right, you know, and it's it's. But it all boils down to me of this how I'm a good person. Yep, okay, that that will set you apart as well in the handyman business, because they're literally asking you to come into their home. Oh, that is oh, they're not thought about, you're not. You're not staying out in the yard and hanging in your truck, unless you're building a deck or something like that.
Speaker 2:But in the handyman business, if you're going in hanging tvs or switching out sinks and light fixtures, that's how you present yourself. How you smell. Yeah, not like cologne, I'm just saying do you smell like an ashtray? Yep, do you smell like something else? Yeah, you know what I'm alcohol, um, alcohol, bo, whatever. Are your clothes clean? I'm not going in there super tidy or anything like that. I'm a working man. So do you wear booties? I haven't had to do that yet. No, I do wash my feet off or wipe my feet off. Of course, I'll take my shoes off if they ask me to, but the trust like I have this customer and she's an incredible customer the first time I went there, very standoffish, very matter of fact, I want you to do this, which is switch out my kitchen sink faucet and then my bathroom faucet and some rot on a door jam in the back, okay, and she watched me kind of like a hawk this whole time and I'm going around yes, ma'am trying not to go to the restroom in her house, right, yeah, big thing like.
Speaker 2:And. But I got a real small bladder dude. So my customers now it's like in our little contract, like I will have to pee, yeah, big thing, it wasn't. A week later she called me and she's like I've been making a list and I will call you when this list gets, yay, long, and you can just come out here and work for an entire day.
Speaker 2:That's so awesome, right, and she's been a repeat customer four times. Four times. We're sending her a Christmas card, right, I'm going to send her a Christmas card. Yeah, I would make sure about that. And she makes sure that her list is long enough to keep me there for an entire day. That's super cool, man Bro, that's a big deal to you, man. You walk in, you're in their home. Then, when they trust you and you treat them like human beings and talk to them like human beings and Do what you say you're going to do, do what you say you're going to do, do what you say you're going to do and your product is good, then they're like and then your product is good, like the market, even for back.
Speaker 1:You know, when I was in the same boat, it was if you could handle everything else and give them an okay product. They were halfway okay with it, but I want to be a great person. I want to be a great person, I want to be a good person, I want to have good client relations and I want to give them a good job.
Speaker 2:Well, that though, that that'll just repeat, repeat, rinse and repeat rinse and then those are the people that when they see lucille at the restaurant, that's right, they're like this is the guy yeah.
Speaker 1:Or they're like this is the guy, yeah. Or they're at a dinner party at someone's house and the fan. They go to click the fan on and they're like, oh man, I just wish I, oh I got a guy here. He is, and I mean literally that's how I've done it. I have done so much business that way and I still do business that way. Business is I swear to God, I've said it on every single episode on this show is business is relationships. It's all about relationships. It's about who you know we're sitting here talking about.
Speaker 1:We both were masters of a trade per se walking into this, had a pretty good general understanding of knowledge and we're good people. Yeah, we're going to make mistakes. Yeah, we're going to make mistakes Every day. We're human, every day, people. But it's not about mistakes you make, it's how you handle those mistakes and especially in a professional sense, if you can walk up to your customer and they're mad about it.
Speaker 1:Literally just happened. On Saturday my guy smoked a gas line. Okay, I'll put it in my regards Private side of the gas line, existing hotel. We're bringing fire lines in from the public waterment. Okay, into an existing hotel. The hotel's been shut down for six, eight months They've been reno-ing it for about two months or so. I had no idea anybody would be living or staying at this motel during Thanksgiving week or living there at all. So my guys hit the private side of the gas service. So that would be behind the meter, which would require a plumber. We smoked it. It wasn't obviously marked. Next day we had a plumber that works directly with the gas company, did that on purpose and then my guy just completely brain farted to call the gas company back. Just made a simple mistake, just simple mistake.
Speaker 1:Thursday was Thanksgiving, friday was Black Friday. Right, we all were off. I didn't hear nothing. Saturday my phone starts blowing up Email after email, voicemail after voicemail, office voicemail, email about the office voicemail. I mean my guys are texting me and I'm like I mean my guys are texting me and I'm like what is going on? And I read it all and find out that we never turned this homeboy's gas on. I didn't realize people were living there. Neither did my superintendent, nor does that matter. Way to go. Cy.
Speaker 2:It's the coldest days of the year so far.
Speaker 1:And I felt terrible. So I get a hold of this customer, and rightfully so. He is irate, he's like dude. I've had a cruise stand there for a couple of nights and I've had a hot shower in O'Heave for two days and I'm like buddy it was Thanksgiving, like are they working? It sucked. Anyways, it did suck, but what did I do?
Speaker 1:I got up 10 o'clock on Saturday morning of Thanksgiving long weekend and I drove down to Fayetteville, which is roughly 45 minutes for us out in our neck of the woods. Go all the way down there. I called the gas company before I left to try and get a service tech to meet me there and kind of schedule it, so I wouldn't interrupt his day. And get a service tech to meet me there and kind of schedule it, so I wouldn't interrupt his day. And the rude phone technician that I dealt with in South Dakota or something said that they needed a meter number. So I drive all the way down there. To make a very long story short, finally get there a couple hours after my customer had been updating him every 15 minutes. Hey man, I don't know anything yet. I'm working on it. Let me see what I can do. I figure out, kind of the head guy at the facility, kind of the site superintendent, you would say, yeah, that works for this gentleman, get ahold of him. We start talking. I get the gas company called in come to find out that they won't turn the gas on because we didn't get it inspected by the city of Fayetteville plumbing inspector on a Saturday. Not going to happen. And so this is where I'm always. I try to be a couple of steps ahead.
Speaker 1:I also said that we had a plumber that works directly for Black Hills. Okay, come fix our service. And so that was our only saving grace. There he's like, well, I'm not doing it. And I said, well, let me, buddy, this is your subcontractor. He was here, he was on site, he fixed it, we got inspection, everything's great. Now, don't get me wrong. But he did turn it back on on Saturday to get the guys back in. And let me tell you something, the way me updating him every 15 minutes, hey man, I don't know anything along the way I got it resolved three hours later I think I have a customer for life. He had given me he took care of it. Oh, you bet you owned it. You have to.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I have communicated earned more jobs off of mistakes I've made on projects than I'll ever do.
Speaker 2:Doing 50 perfect projects, that's the truth, man, my best, my most repeated customer, that lady, she's the furthest customer from me as well, right, but that lady is also the, the client or the customer that has been the most angry with me. Yep, of course, yep, she uh, first, second time I was there and I won't go into that story, but she let me have it because she's very. I told you she's very, yeah, very, matter of fact, about everything forward. She just let me have it. And I said you know, I made a call. I had brought in a sub to do some work, um dinner, yeah, buddy, yeah, I had brought in a painter to do a bunch of. I hate painting, by the way, I don't do much painting. Um, I subbed that out and I have a really good painter, but she had bought a specific type of paint that was odorless or something because she had a newborn baby. And the painter came in said dude, we don't need to use this primer, it's not going to turn out good at all, the finished product is going to be crap. And I made a decision. I was like dude, I want the best product. That was in my mind. I would say I want the best finished product. Go ahead and go get that. And he come back and he had primed it, it was all taped off and primed.
Speaker 2:And she pokes her head through the plastic in her house and she goes, why do I smell primer? And I was like, um, I don't know how to paint your house and you not smell paint. That's what I said there. You go bud. And I mean I said, I said I have no idea how to do this and you not smell anything.
Speaker 2:Okay, and uh, so she pulled me into the kitchen and she was like, um, I bought a specific primer that is odorless, supposedly and, uh, easier on fumes and things like that. And I said, oh, my gosh, I had no idea. She didn't communicate that with me. Oh, but I don't know if still, but you're wrong. You're, it was my wrong. And I stood there in her kitchen and I took her chewing and I owned it and I said, you, obviously there's nothing I can do about it now. It's already painted. Blah, blah, blah. And um, uh, I said I just made a decision because I wanted the best product for you finished product. And she goes, that don't matter, that was my decision to make. Dude, you talk about a learning lesson right there. And like okay, they are the boss, dude, I have a job.
Speaker 1:Interesting huh. I have a job right now that an owner is costing himself more money. I can't. I've tried to paint it out for him, draw it out for him, spell it out for him. I had to rewrite my contract for him and give him another contract because he wouldn't leave my site superintendent alone and it caused a four to five times a day. Coming up to a blue collar guy in August in Arkansas 300 pound man, probably not the best. He's sweating in weird places people which you don't know.
Speaker 1:Like the dude is um tired as soon as he gets out of bed, let alone going and doing 110 degree day and and doing a tenor and to have somebody just coming at you and not seeing what you were trying to do. And what I'm trying to analyze here out of that situation is you were trying to do what you thought was best Yep, a hundred percent and what you know from your experience up until that point that you wanted the best product. Best product obviously drives everything that we've been talking about. But if the person writing the check, even though it's completely freaking ignorant, it's still their decision and even though you've sat there until you're blue in the face, nicely told them hey, going that route is going to cost you more time or more money, and then I'm still going to have to work three times as hard to do the same thing I could do right now. Well, I'll pay you both ways, get it done, yeah.
Speaker 2:They don't necessarily care how hard you have to work to get it done, they just want what they want. Yes, 100%. You know what I mean. And we are in the people customer service business. We sell service dude, we do Big or small.
Speaker 1:The only product I sell is time.
Speaker 2:And that is the most valuable thing on planet Earth. Yes, it is In your life.
Speaker 1:It is dude. Money is a tool to buy time, yep, and as soon as people figure that out, it took me. I still ain't got it perfected in my head. I promise you that, but it was a ginormous self-realization to chew on. That is what do I want ultimately. I want time. We all want time, whether it's time with your children, whether it's vacations, and your business pays for all these vacations and you fly around the world. Whatever you want. Ultimately, you want time and whatever business you know. You can keep it small, take three weeks off, and it doesn't affect you, or you can try and get big and take three weeks off, and hopefully it doesn't affect you.
Speaker 1:I mean, um, I've done it both ways and, um, I can't tell you which one's better or is not, but I'm starting I I'll tell him myself again a little bit here in this one. But I started getting in the realm. I had a project manager and I was biting off some chunks of time that I was actually starting to feel comfortable. But I felt more disconnected with my business than I ever did, which is ultimately what you want. But as an actual entrepreneurial spirit dude, it was like you were killing me literally. Right, you weren't at that level yet. No, I wasn't.
Speaker 1:And then I just came from that meeting, Like I told you they're like well, you need an operations manager, you need to be focused on what you have going on your marketing campaign and what we've got going on All of that. That's crazy where we've taken that. But I need to be focused on that and focused and I'm like I don't want to hear any of this right now. That's not what I want. I want to be involved with my business, but I'm literally just hindering my own self if I don't take some of this advice and I'm just damaged goods from the situations where my heart led too hard or my mind led too hard.
Speaker 1:It's a really funny line Everybody wants to be a cowboy until it's time to do cowboy stuff. Ain't that the truth? On the horse, when you fall off, it's hard, dude. And when you've got to have tough conversations with employees or vendors or anyways, what would be your advice for the guys that are out there maybe listening to the show, have the same set of various skills that you do and are maybe on the fence about it, and what advice do you have for them to do what you just did Run your first year of your own business. Dude, it happened. It's already over. Your first year is done, Like, literally, you're a month away, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say do it, um. And I would also say it's probably like when you find out your wife's pregnant and you're gonna have a baby, or you're thinking about maybe you want a kid, and you're like I better try to get ready, we need to do this and this and this before we have a baby. You're never ready for a child, never, okay, let alone three Just stabbing it. No, no, no, for real. Just, you're never going to be, it's never going to feel right, unless you're just completely blessed and you've strategized for years and years and you start with a logo and this marketing and everything. I just went, I have to eat and I don't want to go to sit and I've tried the desk. I I've tried all kinds of other different things in my life. I had a gym, I owned a gym that's right time great gym. Kovat took us out, you know, and just murdered us and don't feel bad.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of folks, man, yeah sorry.
Speaker 2:I had a lawn mowing business, like I've tried different things and, and I was like you know what, I would really be happy. Like I've tried different things and and I was like you know what, I would really be happy if I could just feed my family. And so it came to a point where I'm not going to start applying anymore to places, I'm just going to go figure it out. Figure it out. You bet, buddy, and if you're sitting there on the fence like you've got to have this, um, man it. It just happened Like I didn't have the tools and I invested Yep, in yourself, in myself. I used my family's money. I did not go into credit card debt to invest in it yet, right, oh, you've got an Amex in your future bud.
Speaker 2:Um, now, I understand that if you're gonna like operate with it and you're paying it off as you go, things like that, but I didn't go into a bunch of credit card debt to get tools. I actually would knew the tool I needed for the job that I didn't have and included the price of that tool in my bid. There you go. Okay, there you go. I did that like I'm gonna do this big fence and I don't really want to screw all this. I need a siding coil mailer, and so I put that in my bid. Did it take from my profit? Maybe, but I still made the profit. Well, you're sitting there and you don't know if you really want to do it or if you don't know how.
Speaker 1:You'll never learn if you don't try 100%, dude, that's such, such great advice. I mean literally you're never ready for a kid. I'll talk about I was living in a camper on my in-laws land. I had a failed business venture. I had sold my house, took what little equity from 11 years ago, put it in this business, bought a truck and I never saw a dime for 13 weeks. And I took that machine and trailer back to that guy and very humbly me and Sarah, we were trying to have children for three or four year infertility battle and obviously we were successful now with baby Caroline inbound being number three.
Speaker 1:During that time it was such turmoil. I was living in a freaking camper trying to start a family and deal with everything else. I just had what I thought was going to be our future. Every dime I've ever made. I can't afford this truck payment. I can't afford to put fuel or fix a tire or a lug nut on this thing and what am I going to do? And so I figured it out. Obviously I rented a few machines, got a trailer, and that was Monday and on Wednesday, and on Wednesday Sarah looked at me and said she was pregnant and you want to understand why I got to where I'm at was because of that moment, right there.
Speaker 1:I have been under immense stress and pressure before, but I don't believe I've ever put that amount of. I've never received that amount of pressure quickly in my life and how I responded. A lot of people don't respond very well to pressure. I responded uh, with can't fail, and use that driving insecurity to drive me to what I fantasize success was. Let's put it that way, because I've been successful. There's no doubt in some forms and in other forms I've completely failed. And now I think back to that moment all the time, all the time when I get stressed out, think about where you were at then. But good thing is we started with nothing and my mentality is I've got this beautiful family out of it. I'll start again tomorrow, buddy. Yeah, if I get taken out, it is what it is, bud. I'll put a comma in my name and start again tomorrow. Thank God we live in the United States of America Absolutely, man, Because you can't do that everywhere else in the world. But anyway, not to go off on a story time there, but that's how you started.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how I started and I feel that I have been successful in my first year. My family is taken care of, I've spent time with my kid, my wife still loves me, I, I, you know I go home when I want to. You know, of course, if the job needs finished, I finish it up, but, um, so now I've already. Just about a month ago, I I started looking like what's going to happen next year, like, do I owe her? You know what I mean. But that's the entrepreneurial spirit and some people have it and some people don't. 99.5% of people don't have it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They want the easy route. That's why there's so many coaching programs that have success, in my personal opinion, yeah so I think you're probably right.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, um, but I feel like I've been successful 100. You know what I mean and, dude, I had so many conversations with you. It's like I would pull over so I would get to go. Bro, you need to do this. You need to get your books from day one.
Speaker 1:The things you don't do, what I did you know um, he's literally what the event of this podcast is for listen, he practices what he's preaching because I was nobody and still am a nobody, uh, in the massive business world.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm just providing for my family and I'm happy doing it, but this dude spent time with me on the phone 30 minute calls, 40 minute calls, three minute calls, five minute calls.
Speaker 1:And missed calls for six days.
Speaker 2:Asking questions. But also I would encourage you to find a guy like this in your life. That's big. Find somebody that cares about you as a person, because that will help you burn out. And find a guy that'll call and be just like yeah, I don't need jack squat today, nothing, buddy. I just need to know how's my friend and dude 20 years, you can't just like. Throw that to the sides Big deal. Yeah, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate you, my guy. Yeah, dude, I really. Uh, that's, that's big for you to say that. I really appreciate that. I never. I help a lot of people. I really try. I really try because that's literally the design behind this entire show, because I would.
Speaker 1:The amount of volume that people were trafficking to me. It's an idea going there needs to be some type of resource. Yeah, why are they coming to me and I'm feeling like the ultimate failure over here and they, they, they're thinking I'm like welcome to leadership over here. And they're thinking I'm like Welcome to leadership, exactly, exactly. And so they're just viewing me in this, their perceived perception, and I'm sitting here like, sure man, here's my advice to you. This is what I think you should do If I was you da da, da, da, da, da da, but absolutely.
Speaker 1:If I was you da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, but absolutely, dude, that's what it's about. And if I had somebody like that, I begged for years, grinded, invested into various, many null brick wall of relationships. That I thought was that person that did care about me as a person but ultimately cared about what I did for them, whether that be an employee, whether that be a business relationship. I can't tell you the amount of times I ask Sarah, I go to her, I'm like God, the guy, babe, I've got to go on, he's got to save his and all the world's going to change, right, yeah, and she'll be like uh-huh, tell me about it. And I mean, she's been the ying to my yang and vice versa, man, and she's been right a lot they normally are a lot and there's you know what. There's some time she's been wrong and she calls me her dreamer and dude, you know that's probably.
Speaker 2:That probably lights her fire. Dude, yeah, who you are as a dreamer, as a pusher, as a as a entrepreneur like she. So she's pulling it out of you. Yeah, she's not stifling you. Oh no, you know she never. If she's calling you the dreamer, yeah, she's going to give you crap about stuff or whatever, but that probably lights her fire.
Speaker 1:She loves me back, dude. She loves it, but at the same time, I'd be nowhere without her. And if you guys haven't, you can check out me and Sarah's episode. It's episode number two on the Blue Collar Business Podcastcom. If you guys are listening to us on a streaming platform, I really appreciate you guys If you wouldn't mind dropping a rating and a follow on the channel for me, and if you guys are watching on YouTube, drop us a like. It sure does help the channel a whole bunch, but you can find it all for free at bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. And while you're there there, hit the subscribe newsletter so you get the background knowledge of every episode every wednesday. Um, I've got one question for you, dude, and that I don't think you're quite prepared for, now that I wrote it down earlier. Yeah, are you using any subscription encryption lead platforms at all yet?
Speaker 2:no, okay, here's the here's and here's why. Um, there's a, very probably one of the there's two. Can I say name? Yes, absolutely, you got angie's. You bet angie and then you got, uh, thumbtack.
Speaker 2:Yep, I believe, um, and all of those people are reaching out constantly. Yep, good, they figure out, they see handyman anywhere, some, somehow or another. They get my phone number and I had a conversation with angie leads. You know it was like a 30 minute intro conversation about this and this and this. How many leads I want a month? Um, things like that, and I honestly have been consistent enough that you haven't needed that. I haven't needed you bet and I, the first time I talked to him, I was probably at a point where I could have used two or three jobs a month to help supplement, but they wanted an introductory. I'm pulling out of my family funds to do my business and going like I can't, I can't do it Now. I can't get him to quit calling me, even when I tell him like I don't, please take me off your list. Um, I see the value in it.
Speaker 1:I see thumbtack being valuable to you. I don't necessarily get the same. No, it is very much different. Angie's list is a uh, I can go off into it, but um in, from what I recall, I didn't use them either. I never did uh, they did elite service.
Speaker 2:This guy's in Bentonville. He needs this.
Speaker 1:But 92% of the daggum time. The guy that first sends his estimate proposal and quote back to them and shows up professional and is a good person 90% of the time is going to get the job and it's a race on thumb tag. You got a bunch. From what I understand, they used to post a job and whoever you could contact. Angie's list is a little bit more tailored. In the excavation it was a total gimmick from everything I've read on the smaller pages, et cetera, facebook pages and whatnot. But dude, I know there's some really easy, simplified lead generation systems out there in the handyman world that, yes, would be, and angie it.
Speaker 2:I think it's not angie's list anymore, it's just called angie. Oh, okay, okay, um. But I have thought about them for expansion, right. So I feel like the future of what I want to do, I would love to have a guy that does handyman stuff and I would want to almost like gc projects, you bet, right, that's kind of some vision for me. I enjoy the, the management part of it and people part of it, and giving a good product. If I could find somebody that could help me, I could figure out how to.
Speaker 2:Like with Angie, you pay for a certain amount of leads. Say you only want three a month. They're going to throw you three jobs a month and you can accept them or decline them. Now, if you're a huge, but they're paying. But you pay for those leads per lead, right. So say you want them to only send you 10 leads in your area a month, you pay 350 bucks. That's not, I don't know if that's what it is, but you pay 350 bucks a month, flat fee. They give you 10. Now it's your job to go get them. Yeah, they get their money whether you get the job or not. You know I'm saying so and you can get up to 40, 50, 600 leads a month, but you're paying angie their flat fee. Yeah, you see what I'm saying. Saying that's what they proposed to me.
Speaker 1:You need every business if you're going to grow and scale, which is usually the ultimate goal. You need sales, that's it. And whether you generate leads, whether you get them off community pages, but I think I don't by any means of a long shot. I think that's a great goal to have. It sounds like you met all your goals of this year. Hey, to be my family. Figure it out. Now I'm starting to need a couple of guys and I'm getting a few projects. And now I'm starting to actually have to create this schedule and keep this schedule, because I'm telling other beasts it is a whole nother beast man because you're telling three or four or five homeowners this date, that date, this date, and then the painter doesn't show up, and then the trim guy and I'm over here, and then I hit rock where I'm putting in the deck and, oh my God, my whole schedule's gone.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to back everybody up and a lot of times. You don't want to sit there on a Thursday night and go. Hey, sally, I told you Tuesday. I'm sorry, it's going to be next Tuesday. Hey, robert, I said it was going to be Friday. I know it's going to be, but it's going to be next Wednesday. I've done it already, man. You have it is yeah, and it sucks because you get chewed on. What do you mean? I'm blocked off and they all give it to you all at once, god. But the alternative is hey, that guy, he just no-called, no-showed when he said he was going to come over here and they hop quicker online than ever. Hey, this guy right here, he's no good. He said he would show up this day because over-communication is everything. Yeah, everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're very quick to say when you've done something wrong. Or even if you, they're very quick to say when you've done something wrong or they yeah, even if you matt, lipped or, you know, lipped off to them or something like that, they're very quick to write that. But I almost have to beg them to post something and shout out something I've done. You know what I mean? Because they forget. They're like oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Number one thing you have to be doing is get your business Google verified and send Google reviews every single one of your customers and get it through an auto. You can. There's automated easy subscriptions per month that you can, until they post a review, send them once a week. Oh, that's right. And there's a lot of times, dude, there's a lot of times that I get those emails. I'll save them. And when I got them in and I'm cruising around Google cause I'm kind of a big review guy, but it's the number one thing you can do as a friend, client, companion for a small business, because what that does to the algorithm, small business, because what that does to the algorithm.
Speaker 1:Not going to get off in the weeds there, don't, but there is when you're going to a restaurant. There's two chicken places one's a five star, one's a three star. Who you're going to use? Subliminally, the five star, the five. But now what if the five star is twice as much as the three star? Who are you going to choose? That? Probably still, probably the five. Probably still end up with the five star, right?
Speaker 1:I want the product, exactly, yeah, what I'm saying is is it doesn't matter if you're getting a little bad review here or there. You can always, and that gives you an opportunity to go back, just like 4P lady over there. If you didn't correct your mistake from number two, there would be no three and four, but it gives you an opportunity to right your wrongs, even if it's not wrong in your eyes. I can tell you how many times I've gone out to do things cussed the whole way, because there's no reason I should be over here doing this for free. This is ridiculous, but it makes that customer happy and with the online world they're real quick to jump on there. But consumers are lazy, bro, we're lazy. 82 percent of web-based traffic globally is video. Think about all this web and all the articles and all the blogs and all all the back feeding of google, and 82 percent of the global internet traffic is video.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean what someone's gonna get more it's. It's only going to grow. No hundred hundred, because it's dopamine hits man. It's just constant dopamine to sign that we're lazy.
Speaker 1:Even when we're being lazy, we want to be even lazier. We don't want to scroll or click something, we just want to sit there and doom, scroll whatever we're doing scrolling, and just why? Just tell me, well, oh yeah, this furry panda in sri lanka, man, this guy did, you know he's bananas like, but, but you're not gonna swipe away because it interests you and it and it ticks your talk and but what I don't know, man, man, it's just crazy. The whole world is just a little bit lazy, and especially it's that 50 to 1 ratio, like I was just talking about early in the show, is that you can have 50 good jobs but nobody cares about it and they're not going to hear about it until that one bad job and that just black eyes. You Doesn't matter if you've done 150, 350 jobs around that black eye, it's that one bad job and that just black eyes. You, it doesn't matter if you've done 150, 350 jobs around that black eye, it's that one bad job. And if you don't write that wrong, right, write the wrong. Got to get, especially in you.
Speaker 1:Smaller home service built HVAC look at HVAC and plumbing guys, especially the larger commercial guys that have 20, 25 crews. Look how many Google reviews they have. It'll blow your mind when you see three, five, 7,000 Google reviews on them. Why, well, google drives sales, anyways, that's a whole different side of it. But Google reviews is the number one starting point. I still only have like 12 on Cycon, like minimalistic, because I never. I did not do that early on in the year. I had, I just like you marketing. Who cares about that? I have just now started this whole marketing campaign in the last two years and now people know me for it and that still don't even realize that I do dirt and utilities. But that's exactly to my point. That's crazy. It's good stuff. So I would encourage you and everybody listening, if you're doing any type of home service and like Wade said, dude, they're trusting you to come into their home Even just to write a little bit about how professional you were.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I'll get off that tangent. It goes a long ways. It will go a long ways, but you can build off those Google reviews into your marketing program. That's where I was going with that. And if you already have a good, verified Google profile man, throw up a few photos there that they can click on as soon as they click on your name on Google and they see, oh wow, no, he does do handyman stuff. Here's a doorknob, here's a whatever and a deck and here's various jobs, not deck, deck, deck. Oh, he looks like he just decks.
Speaker 1:We're lazy, we want to one-click everything and look at it and go, well, that's what he is, and we just personify and assume everything about that service, restaurant or whatever. I do it too. I'm terrible about it. Yeah, anyways, I'll completely get off there. I can hang around on that. But, man, I've really, really, really enjoyed our conversation. I knew it was going to be very loose and fun, man, I've had a lot of fun today. But I've got one more question for you, dude. What's a takeaway for the blue collar worker who is sick of being stuck in the mud and that mean that can be a ditch hand, literally stuck in the mud trying to get out of that, dead in there. Yep, me too, bud, lots of it. And that can also be a guy, mentally, man, emotionally, that is just absolutely battered. How does he get out of there?
Speaker 2:it's hard to beat somebody that don't quit, that's good, dude. So actually it's impossible almost. You just don't quit and you don't even add it in the sense you don't quit your job, you don't in a sense. You don't quit your job, you don't quit going through the grind, but you don't quit dreaming and having some vision for your life. That's what I would say, because all of us have been through times where we've had the opportunity to say, all right, I know how to stay in the ditch, I know how to work this shovel, I know how to do this and okay, and our ambition just goes down the cracker, right. So I would encourage anybody that's stuck mentally or in a job they don't like, or they have a dream inside them that needs to come out Don't quit and don't quit looking to the future, at what you can do.
Speaker 1:It's so funny, man. I talk about this podcast teaching me and learning me along the way and, uh, speaking about that, meaning it's obviously been weighing on me. Um, before I walked in here, um asked me my goals. I have been so crushed by what I went through, especially this year, um with people, employees, all sorts of different.
Speaker 1:Um with people, employees, all sorts of different caliber life, personal issues, um, it was hard for the first time in nine and a half years. So you're also speaking to a tenured entrepreneur. Into that exact same mentality I would. I would assure you to never lose sight of your goals, your vision, and where you're going Doesn't matter who, what, how, why anybody is detouring you. You're not stuck unless you stop. And I would just add onto that and sink that in your brain because as long as you get up and you stick him freaking blue jeans on and you put your feet in them boots and you go to work and you get up and you do it another day, and you get up and you do it another day and you string it, just like you had a string of bad luck, you'll have a string of good luck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it takes a little bit of effort. Man. To that question is get out of that mindset and attitude of you already defeated before you even tried to fight a war of the day, and it's a war every day in our minds as men in the blue-collar world, our jobs aren't never easy, never is of what we're actually doing, but we put that beside the fact because that's who we are and that's who we are as professionals, but mindset-wise guys. I've been there, literally. I'm sitting here talking to you very honestly and vulnerably, as it's hard whether you're starting because you just are trying to get to the end of the month and then you're 10 years in. You're just trying to get to the end of the month, no matter where you're at, but it's so easy to lose sight of where you're going and then you're just in this tree of non-derived it's survival. It is survival 100%. Yeah, and 2024, as I've talked on this show has been survival for a lot of folks. I mean, we've watched a lot of businesses locally either get acquired or not a thing anymore, or a business a year ago that we all knew as a staple mine and you go to call them and their phone don't work and it's kind of crazy. And throughout the entire country I know you guys have seen it too work's been slower. Hang on, because 2025 is going to be crazy.
Speaker 1:In my personal opinion, I think some parts of the country it's going to take a little bit longer, but I think you guys really, truly, if you're in a spot right now, I would encourage you over Christmas time, take a moment, take some time, like you were talking about to yourself. Find yourself and who you're going to be. Write some goals for yourself. Not a New Year's freaking resolution, but write some daggum goals I'm fixing to do the same thing myself for this year and see which ones you hit.
Speaker 1:Because when you're in this entrepreneur game and I'm sorry to just go off here, but literally once you're in this entrepreneurial game, you don't get many victories. It's 90% of the time getting hit in the face of oh, that's new, I don't know what to do now. I don't know what to do. Okay, do I do this, do I do that? And it's your experience that directs those 90% moves. 8% of the time, you're feeling okay, things are all right. 2% of the time, you're completely lost. You're completely lost and there's times throughout that year that you're going to be completely lost.
Speaker 1:Referencing to that discipline. That discipline will point you in the right direction on your goals and your pathway that you set for yourself. So congratulations on your first year. I'm so. I'm so cool. It's so cool to. We were just talking about it feels like yesterday. We were just talking about it. You were like man. I think I'm like go, dude, let's go. What are you waiting on? Let's go. You got this and here you are, almost hogger down, talking down, talking about, you know, figuring the next step out of doing a little bit of growing and scaling uh yeah, I am humble enough to know that I do not have it all figured out.
Speaker 2:And uh, I, I am not. I feel you, you know I just I just want to work hard, I want to work with my hands, I want to help people. Yeah, and uh, you know, we want to have a good time while I do it. Yep, you know, it took me until I was 40 to realize that's what's what's going to make me happy, but that's kind of the the way it goes.
Speaker 1:It's uh, some. Yeah, I think for me. I think I started so young because I went through such a traumatic experience moving here. I I believe that's why I started so young, and really maybe I'm just stupid. You know, we are a little bit. I'm completely dumb. In no direction. No goals, no nothing. I was just a man in a machine dude, and so I tip my hat to any man with a set of tools, a truck, whatever you're doing, I just appreciate you guys. We're underappreciated as a whole, as the entire industry. If we stop, this entire world stops. So you guys keep grinding out there.
Speaker 1:If you've loved this episode, I would highly encourage you to check out bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. You'll find all of our other episodes. You don't have to have any type of streaming platform subscription on there. You can watch the YouTube video version or listen to the audio version directly from your browser. But if you do have a subscription say Spotify, apple or Amazon Music or iHeart make sure and give this a follow and a like. I greatly appreciate that and it really helps the channel more than you guys would know. Lastly, you're on YouTube. Drop us a like. Guys, I really appreciate you. Until next time. Be safe, be kind, be humble. Appreciate you. Until next time, be safe, be kind, be humble. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to give it a like. Share it with the fellers. 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. Until next time, guys.