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. 29 - Reclaim Your Time and Grow Your Business
When you've mastered your craft but your business owns your life, something's deeply wrong. Richard Walsh knows this firsthand – from digging trenches at $5/hour to building (and losing) a successful landscaping company during the 2008 crash, his journey reveals truths every blue-collar entrepreneur needs to hear.
The moment that changed everything? Watching his four-year-old chase his truck down the driveway in tears as he left for work. That's when Richard realized his business had become his identity, threatening not just his family relationships but his children's future. Today, as CEO of Sharpen the Spear Coaching, he helps contractors escape what he calls "the owner prison."
Most blue-collar business owners are stuck repeating the same two years over and over again for a decade – constantly on the hamster wheel of making payroll, selling the next job, and doing the finish work themselves. The culprit? No clear exit strategy, incomplete systems, and the inability to document their "inner genius" so others can run the business.
Richard shares his revolutionary approach to creating freedom while scaling profitability. You'll discover why most hiring attempts fail (hint: it's not the employee's fault), how to build systems that let A-players thrive, and the "Five F's" framework that brings balance to your life. Most importantly, you'll learn why "gross revenue feeds the ego, but profit feeds your family."
Whether you're struggling to make payroll or simply tired of missing your kid's soccer games, this conversation provides the roadmap to transform your business from a prison into a vehicle for freedom. Remember, you're building a legacy – but that legacy isn't your business, it's what you leave behind in people.
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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, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Blue Collar Business Podcast brought to you by today by podcastvideoscom. I am sitting in one of their lovely solo pod rooms bringing you another episode of the BCB podcast. Today I have an interesting guest that has intrigued myself. He has more accolades than I think I will achieve in my lifetime, but the mindset that we both have about what we're trying to do and trying to help you guys in the long run, we are aligned in symmetry and rocking and rolling. Let's just list off a few of these things that this man has done. Number one he's a US Marine. He's a Golden Glove boxer, a father of six, always in three years. We're going to hear a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:Currently, though, the CEO of Sharpen the Spear Coaching and you can find that at sharpenthespearcoachingcom. I encourage you guys to go check it out. This gentleman, from the brief amount of time I've had with him, he started explaining a little bit about his book and I stopped him. I said, hey, look, the show needs to hear it. Escape the owner prison. So that's that middle game and I think we're going to hear a lot about it today, guys, and as you guys know, I love learning right along with you, if you got, and from the blue collar background. This gentleman was an internationally renowned water feature guy in the landscape and design world back in the day, let's say, and started off roofing contractor. I mean, if that don't get any blue-collar, then blue-collar gets. And I am so excited to introduce to you guys Richard Walsh, ceo of Sharpened Spear Coaching. Sir, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:Si, thanks for having me, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited about today's show. If you guys kind of loving what I'm feeding you in this episode, make sure you guys are checking out bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. You can find all of the episodes on there. What's coming out, subscribe to that newsletter. If you're looking to be a sponsor or you have a sponsorship opportunity that a blue collar service or product that you might want to get to the right target audience, this would be an awesome opportunity. We would love to have you hit, become a sponsor on our website and if you're listening on any of Spotify, iheartheart, leave us a rating and follow. Furthermore, mr richard, thank you so much for being here. Sir, number one, thank you for your service absolutely my pleasure, my honor.
Speaker 1:Uh, mr, mr richard, give us, give us the start out. Where did all of this start? Did we start in a roofing game? Where was the service? Give us a little bit of intro and timeline and we'll kind of go from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, marine Corps 83 to 87. Got out in 87, started working, actually swinging a pickaxe, digging trench for cable down in Tucson Arizona for $5 an hour, okay. So yes, I'm dating myself, but I was able to pay for my apartment, eat and drive a car or at least a bicycle, but $5 an hour, right, and all that Right. So I did that. That's where it began. Coming out, I had to work, obviously right. So it was kind of funny because someone walked out to me coming out. I had to work, obviously right. So it was kind of funny because someone walked out and we dug this transfer cable to go to homes and they wouldn't allow equipment in there. So you had to hand dig, oh Right, it really sucked.
Speaker 1:And it's like 100 degrees.
Speaker 2:No, the caliche Caliche is like concrete. You can dig about 2 inches at a time with a pick, you know. So I'm doing that. 18 inches deep. You know about 12 inches wide. Guy behind me with a crumb shovel cleaning it out, right, and I'm just swinging that pack pick all day because I can dig right.
Speaker 2:So I became a savage when a guy came out and said hey, I got a side gig. Would you be interested? I need some work done. I said, yeah, what do you got? Because I got a pile of granite. You know, I got like crushed granite and stuff in the south down there and and you use that instead of grass. He goes, it's in the street. I need it shoveled, put in the wheelbarrow, brought to the backyard and spread so I can do that. Man, I do that all day. So he had 35 tons of it. So I said so I show up. I spent my last $85 before payday, bought a wheelbarrow and a shovel, started going, got there at 7 am, started shoveling. Ten hours later I'm done Right, moved this whole thing and that guy came out and sighed he put $1,000 in my hand and I'm looking at this going. Dang, I did this yesterday for 40 bucks.
Speaker 2:I know my future. I know I'm going to go in the landscaping business. If I do one of these a month, I'm making the same as I did work in all the other hours.
Speaker 1:What year is this? You'd say this is 87.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, right, kind of 87, 88. Started boxing at the same time, right, so I'm working, doing the side gate, trying to get that going. Started boxing because I wanted to box. Cool story. You want to hear my first time in the ring story.
Speaker 1:Please sir.
Speaker 2:So I was also working at a big college bar down in Tucson called the Wildcat House and we had a doorman, big dude kind of your size. He's about 6'4". He's about 240, 10% body fat. South London kickboxing champion, just a monster Mohawk with the Harley Davidson wings tattooed on the side of his head. His name was Daveave. We called him crazy dave, okay, okay. So I hear he boxed. I'm like dude, I want to box. Okay, I'm out of mercury. He goes. Well, come on down to the gym, I'll box with you. So we get down there, we glove up, I get in the ring, the bell rings, we're doing three minutes. I start chasing him. I can't leave a glove on him, can't? Can't, a fool, right? He's just slipping and moving and slipping and then he kind of looks Pop, hits me with a jab right Like bam, right in. My nose Breaks my nose.
Speaker 2:Breaks the nose for a shot, I'm like whoa and the blood is pouring. I'm like I'm okay, so I get going after him again. Still can't lay a glove on him, okay, so he's looking and he's looking again. We're doing the same thing. I'm like getting ready to move in Pop with the left hook. Okay, he throws the left hook at me, slide my mouthpiece out of my mouth, out of the ring and across the gym. Okay, I'm like whoa. And this little kid ran up with it. He went and got it off the ground. It's like full of hair and dirt and stuff and he's sticking my mouth and I'm like I'm good. I mean, I can't even move my jaws. We get done with that round.
Speaker 2:We're pretty much finished after the first round and I'm like, oh man, I've got to blow my nose. No, don't do that. And I blow my nose and I've got the two big black eyes. Okay, so I go to the bar. I go. I was sparring with Dave. You can't do that. I go.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm going back tomorrow. I'm going to get better at this. I'm in. If you can't work here and look like that, I go. Then I'll quit.
Speaker 2:You know, I said I'm going back, so that started the whole thing. I went every day and I'm in the ring every day and I became multiple state champion doing the regional, all this stuff. It was super cool until finally, seven breaks my nose actually got detached from my face. My cheekbone got broke in my last gloves tournament I'm the favorite. Ten seconds in ten seconds of the first round.
Speaker 2:This guy throws a cheesy uppercut. Feels like he thumbs me in the eye, okay. So I'm like dang, I can't feel the left side of my face. So I just took a knee right and he's acting like he did something. All right, they count me out. I go to the ring doctor, and this is a testament to amateur athletics. So you got the doc. He climbs up on the ring and he's drinking like a scotch you know plastic glass with ice, and I go doc. I can't feel the side of my face. He's like, yeah, he goes, you broke your orbit, you know, because this is all collapsed, my cheekbones all collapsed in my face he's like here, and he finishes his drink, it's got the ice in the cup.
Speaker 2:He says put this on it, hold this cup of ice on your eye and go to the hospital. I'm like, okay, so I climb out, I got the ice, I get in my truck and I drive to the ER. Look at me, and this whole place was full. It was at this big resort and it was packed. All these tables, george Foreman was there and stuff. I mean it was really cool, but so much for me and that was the end of my boxing career. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:So, then I really focused on business because I had no other options. So then I really focused on business because I had no other options. Okay, so I did expand that. I took the landscaping business, running the custom water features, really saw that as an early niche and what was really doing it? I'm like this is me. I'm into rocks and water. I'm like I'll make this. So I moved back to Chicago with that and ended up scaling that, did really great, won all the awards. I was published Incorporated steel sculpture with that Right Real ornamental stuff. I was doing world-class exhibits for that. You know I had a piece on Michigan Avenue commissions from the Shedd Aquarium. I did a Garfield Park Conservatory. I'm, you know, doing these cutting-edge exhibits and everything was really great. I was killing it. You know, I got married. That was really great. And then we had six little kids in three and a half years and that was really great. It was cool. I was really tired, okay. And now we're creeping into 08. Okay, so here comes 2008.
Speaker 2:And November 5th of 2008, day after the election. I lost a half a million dollars. On that day. Phones started ringing, people are canceling, they're dropping out, I'm like. And then I hang up the phone, I look over my office manager. I'm like I think it's over. I think we might be done Live through part of 09.
Speaker 2:Okay, going through it, I'm like it's just not happening. No one was spending money. They certainly didn't need a waterfall. They could wait, okay, or a sculpture. So now I'm like the funny thing was like I was doing really great with the work. I made beautiful things.
Speaker 2:I'm getting tons of money, whatever I wanted, because no one could do what I do. I'm making this, I'm getting all the awards, I'm on magazines, I'm in shows, I'm on TV. I'm doing all this great stuff, not really paying attention to the business side. Just hey, I need money. I go make more money, that's right. I just 50,000 for a skin serum. I got that. Here you go, man, debt-free baby. You know. 40,000 for a website? No problem, 40 grand. It was back. You know, I just shut the website down a week after they finished it because I didn't actually want to use it. Oh, so I'm just sharing my level of stupid at the time. Okay had some brilliant clients, billionaire clients, super high-end guys offer me advice. You think I took it. Go out on a limb here and think if I took the advice.
Speaker 2:Of course I didn't, of course, right, because what do they know about water features? They're just billionaires. They just own professional sports teams and manufacturing plants and stuff like that. They don't know anything about water features.
Speaker 1:I know about water features. I'm laughing with you because I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:We're the best at what we do.
Speaker 1:That's what we think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we think, right. No one works this wrench like me, okay.
Speaker 2:So, basically I'm like over $600,000 in debt. All of a sudden, right for all the reasons, and I go to my big client and I say I sit down with him and go listen, here's the issue. And he looks at it. I'm with my CPA, we're there, we're talking to him. He goes straight. He's my favorite client, best guy, just a wonderful human being, right, self-made guy. And he looks, he goes. Listen, if this was like 50 or 100 000, I would. I just write you a check. He said but it's 600 000. He goes you know what you're gonna do? I said no, that's why I'm here. And he goes you're gonna file bankruptcy. And I go oh yeah, I can't do that. And he goes you're going to file bankruptcy. And I go oh yeah, I can't do that. And he goes why not? He goes because I can't screw my vendors. These guys are all taking care of me. So here's my mindset, right, I'm like I'm that guy. I'm like I'm not going to do that. He goes well, listen, he goes. But if you do, I think I can pay it back. Yeah, I think I got stuff coming. I can work. I mean I can do this. He's like okay, let's say you can, so you file bankruptcy today, you're at zero. Now, if you make $600,000, like you're going to pay them back, what are you going to have? $600,000 in cash? Yeah, then you go. There's nothing illegal about it. And I went, huh, I can't do that, I'm not going to do that. But here's the second sad part of the story. I paid them all back. I made the 600, right, yeah, cool, right.
Speaker 2:And then 08 came. If I would have just had one normal year, I would have been fine. But I went from that to zero again and like, um, yeah, I'm done. Yeah, so we had. I lost my home, I lost the business, I had to sell everything for 20 cents on the dollar. You know, brand new call this stuff it was. And then we had to move and start over. And what am I going to do? Right, so? So that kind of brings us to that time period.
Speaker 2:But there's an even bigger thing that you're going to relate to this side, because I woke up one morning, you know, near the end here. So this is early 09 and I'm like I started thinking about my six little kids, you know who. When I came home, they all run and crawl to me and attack me. They just want to be with me. And one day, when I was leaving, my four-year-old was like, chasing me down the driveway, crying, chasing my truck right. So I'm like I'm looking at him in the rearview mirror. But hey, I got a business to save. You know, I can't stop. So I just watched him get smaller and smaller and I went off to work. I, I went off to work. I'm like you know, my kids don't care how many trucks I have, what kind of truck I drive, what kind of house we live in, how big or small my business is. They just wanted me around.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But my business had become who I was, so that identity became Rick Rock. That was my company, that's who I was. Right, I get out of bed I said you know what, if I stay down this path, where business is first, this is all that matters, I'm going to destroy their lives, their futures. They're going to have broken marriages, failed relationships. Right, they might be good at business, but everything else in their life will be trash. That's right Because of what I did, not what I said, because more is caught when they're taught with kids.
Speaker 2:Ooh, that's good man so all they know is they're going to look at what dad did. They might be 30, going into a hard time. They're going to do what I did, not what I told them to do, yeah. So I walked in the office that day, said we're done today, went to my yard and told my guys look, guys, this is our last cup of coffee together, dude. 10 years they've been working for me. Best guys ever, dude. We were like family. These guys were the greatest we're ever. Just what a team Like. They were just amazing in every aspect. Homeowners would comment on how amazing it was just to watch them work. That's how good we were.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I can't. I can't do this anymore. I can't let what I do become who I am. So I'm not starting over. I have to leave all this behind. Now my friends, even my wife, were like you make a lot of money doing this. You still can do it again. I'm like I can't because of what it is it becomes. Make a lot of money doing this, you still can do it again. I'm like I can't because of what it is it it becomes who I and I can do it.
Speaker 1:So I like well, what are you gonna do? I have no idea. Yeah, I had to figure it out right, but you chose them over the business. Yeah, I had, I can recognize that 100 bro. I struggled very hard in my first five, six years like, oh my god, I can relate to that yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:And and you figured it out though, you made that choice. We talked about it off air. Man, when you make that choice, I'm telling you you'll never, because people I do a lot of podcasts, right and people say, well, what's your legacy? And I'm like, well, it's not business. They're like it's not, no, it's my children. They're who carry on the legacy. What I instill in them, how I teach them, how I train them, what we do, what I demonstrate, that's the legacy Business, man. I could start a business all day long.
Speaker 1:Man, I've had three you know, working on my mother's fourth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's like you know. So what was I going to do? I said, well, you know what I'm going to do something I love. I want to do something I really like to do, but I want control of my time. So I'm not owned by the business, right. So I wanted that. So I said I love training people, I love fitness, I'm really good at it, I'm a boxer, I'm a black belt, I'm all this stuff, right. So I'll go be a trainer. So I went to an anytime fitness and they needed a trainer and I became a trainer and a year later, guess who's trainer of the year? Me, okay. So what does that make an entrepreneur do? Go open a gym.
Speaker 2:So, I opened a gym boot camp style training, hired all Marines dude Wearing blouse, boots, dude and the black shirts, hats and everything.
Speaker 1:It was awesome.
Speaker 2:I built a whole system for body weight exercise and like a belt progression thing. I did that for like five years. It was great, right, scale that. But now I'm like, okay, this is fun, they're doing all the stuff. I'm pretty free, let's get in the contract. Let's do roofing contract. I kind of like this. I think I like it. You know, roofing, siding, windows, watched that, did it again. It was really great. A lot of fun Did. The sub made some good money.
Speaker 2:And then that's when I started talking to other business owners Because like, well, how did you go from all that to nothing to this and back to here? How'd you do that? So I started mentoring guys. But the thing I started seeing Cy is, pattern after pattern after pattern, the same pattern. They're all stuck in the owner prison. They're all owned by their business. Right, they're on the hamster wheel. And here's how it looks. Real quick, you start a business. Guess what you're going to do Work really hard. No secret sauce around that Haven't found. It doesn't exist. You're going to bust your hump. You're going to wear a lot of hats. You're going to do it all.
Speaker 2:That's the game, that's part of it, okay, but here's the problem Two years goes by of doing all that. The next thing you know, 10 years goes by and you've repeated the first two years five times, 100%. You're on the wheel. Yep, you got to show up, you got to unlock the door, you got to do the finish work, you got to get out there. You got to sell the job Right, you got to keep the guys busy, you got to make payroll. Yeah, right, that's the pattern in.
Speaker 2:Like every business I talk to Mm-hmm, especially guys in the trades, mm-hmm Okay, and service construction, all to write. I think I'll write a book. So I started working on this book. I'm going to put my story in it, I'm going to read my story and I'm going to do all these because I'm seeing they're missing all the fundamentals. Their businesses suffer really because they don't have the fundamentals. It's like if you don't practice a free throw, you do it one way and you do it the same way every single time and you do it the same way every single time, right, they're not doing these things. So let's weave that in with my story and I'll make this book. And I had 27 working titles for my book. Okay, I'm trying to figure out the good titles, the title is everything right.
Speaker 2:The cover is what sells the book, the title is what sells it, so not loving any of them. I'm at a track meet with another friend who's a business owner. He's got a good-sized business, real successful, and I said I go, troy, what do you think? I got a new one, escape the Owner Prison. And he looks at me and he goes that resonates. I go done, that's the name. So now it's Escape the Owner Prison. That was hard enough. Now I have to come up with a subtitle, which is even harder. But I came up with a contractor's new way to scale, regain, control and fast-track growth while loving life. Wow, it's a beautiful thing and I'm like this is what I want, this is it?
Speaker 1:That's what contractors want.
Speaker 2:That's it right, we all do right. So I published it. It became a bestseller in like 10 categories on Amazon Really cool. So I got all that and I built an academy around it to coach people. I'm like mentoring is fun, but you know that's free. Coaching coaches get paid. So I'm an entrepreneur, I need to get paid, so you need some skin in the game.
Speaker 2:You're going to improve, you're going to pay. So that started going, then went through a few iterations and now we're at Sharpen the Spirit Coaching the last couple years. Really, that started going, then went through a few iterations and now we're at Sharpen the Spirit coaching the last couple of years Really growing, just helping people in great ways, helping them find, recover, lost profits they didn't even know were missing, right, really getting into how to keep your money, how to run your business, how to create that freedom, that quality of life you got in the business for, like, yeah, you're making more money, don't get me wrong, most guys get in and make a little more money. But they never reached the freedom level. Right, they can't not go to work, they can't disappear for a week or a four-day weekend, they can't not call in, right that kind of stuff. So that became the whole thing, like, how do we build that, how do we create that? And that's kind of where we're at. That's what I do.
Speaker 1:Man, what a story.
Speaker 1:My guy Condensed version I know there's probably plenty, but I want to jump on something you said. It's funny, this is like the third or fourth episode that we have talked about legacy. Linkedin a couple months ago almost changed my life and it's, you know, I had the same concept of legacy. It's like, oh, you know this business, everything's just I've got to leave something behind and this is what they're going to do. And I always concerned with this legacy and I'm like I read this post and it was legacy is not what you leave behind, it's what you leave behind in people and I'm like, oh, that's for my kids, number one, that's for my team, my leadership, like everybody that's helped me get to where I'm at mentor, like I want to be able to, you know, instill my little piece of legacy in their lives, like that's, that's your purpose, that's. And to hear the amount of people you know talking about your team, the 10 guys standing there, dude, I hit in my stomach when you're sitting there talking about that, because it wasn't too long ago that I was weighing the same kind of, you know, as we went through Thank God it's not as bad as 08, but the same economic decisions of oh, my God, what are we going to do? Same economic decisions of oh my God, what are we going to do? Because I'll be. I'll tell them myself and I tell them myself constantly on the show man.
Speaker 1:My focus was exactly like you are in the water feature business, and don't get me wrong, I'm still young, I'm figuring this out and education is expensive. But experience is priceless and you're going to learn with your own money by making mistakes and you know well if you're in the underground game or you're trying to move water or anything in the skilled trades is, usually you know you put the outlet in the wrong spot or you know, whatever the case may be, it's never, never inexpensive or cost effective with your time or your money and you've got to make that customer happy. But that legacy piece, but the the owner mindset man is. You're talking about working within the business and I think a lot of guys get confused with working in the business and working on the business and there is two different categories. And, yes, there is times that you have to work within the business, but trying to figure out your free time for your kids or just like you were saying, take a four day vacation like a weekend, just a long weekend.
Speaker 1:I can relate to that so hard. I would stress, richard, I would stress so freaking hard for a month, because I know my wife wanted to take Thursday, friday and go camping in July. And why? Why should she have to feel like she's ripping her husband away? And I don't want her to feel like that. You know what I mean. Nor do I want my kids to feel like that, and I will. But when I'm there, I want to be prepared enough that I feel like I can set it aside, but I'm always wearing too many dang hats because I haven't figured.
Speaker 1:Anyways, it's this hamster wheel, just like you said, dude, and you climb on this hamster wheel and you just keep going, oh, I can do this and this will fix that, and I can do that and it'll fix this. But you don't ever grab the concept of hey, man, you're standing in your own way, start asking for a little bit of help, either from a coach like yourself or a fractional project management lady, or whatever it may be. But we just automatically just think, oh, I can do it, or I can do it, you're the business owner. Well, yes, you can do it, but do you need to be doing it for the business, for you, your freaking time, your time with your family, and that leads us to like the perfect first point. And who better to hear from than yourself? But what do you think the real reason that business is robbing these guys of the free time but also showing little profit in the bank account, just like the hamster wheel I've lived in for so many years.
Speaker 2:Well, I think what is the main reason? Is, man, I'm going to tell you, it's going to seem totally counterintuitive, but there's no exit strategy.
Speaker 2:They haven't gone to the end. They didn't. As Stephen Covey said, they didn't begin with the end in mind. Okay, because if you have an end and here's the end, cy Okay, I want to do this for 10 years and sell it for $10 million, whatever, that's the end, cy. Okay, I want to do this for 10 years and sell it for $10 million, whatever, that's your end. Okay, good, now reverse engineer that. What's it going to look like? How do you get there If they know that they know when to hire the first person, the second person, the fifth person, they know where they're going, they know the targets they need to hit as they go along. Otherwise it's let's get the payroll on Friday. Let me close this. Let me get another draw.
Speaker 2:Let me get to this point in this job so I can make payroll. Let me get this. Let's get a new job so I can pay for the last job. That's right, let's be honest. We've all been there right. I got to close a deal and get a deposit check so I can pay for the last job you know what I mean which works until it doesn't right, until you have one bad month.
Speaker 1:And then you're done, you're finished, right.
Speaker 2:Right, exactly, then you're done, done. But, yeah, it's really that. And when you understand where you're going, now you can forecast, now you can really understand what you need and where you need it and when you need it. It's a critical element, because here's your goal, to just piggyback on. This is my goal with clients is to get to the point where they're focused on the 5% of the business. Only they can do Okay, because there are things that only you can do. You're the visionary.
Speaker 2:You know where you want to go, you know how much you want. You know all this stuff. Only you can make those decisions and steer this ship.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right, 5%. That means 95% of your business is self-running by others, with systems, with processes, everything else. So I'll take you to the next step. You're at the end. You're negotiating your $10 million. It's been 10 years. Here comes Cy in to buy your business. Okay, you're a really good negotiator. You actually get 10-5,. Okay, cy paid. He's a sucker. He writes the check for 10-5,. Right, you can shake Cy's hand. Cy's in, you're out. Nobody knows the business sold Because that's how well your business runs. That's a business that someone's going to pay 10-5 for. They don't have to do anything Now. They grab market share. That's worth it. Right, there's an investment. In the future they can tweak it and change it. But if you're not operating now to build that, even if you don't sell it, you're going to have a business that operates like that, and that's where your freedom comes from. Right. Excuse me, that's where you're going to get the time with the family. Yeah, remember, money is replenishable. You can always make more money.
Speaker 1:Money is a tool to buy time.
Speaker 2:That's right Time. You can't. That's right. In your kid's first soccer game you got a son or a daughter first soccer game, scores their first goal, gets the breakaway, scores the first goal and you're swinging a hammer on the job site because someone didn't show up and you got to have this done today to get a draw. You never get that back. When your kid scores turns, looks on the stands for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What's that worth? Yeah, is that worth that? No, is that worth that? Poor, poor planning and inability to finish the job, not having the money, not being, you know, and I'm being I'm not trying to be a jerk here because we've all done this.
Speaker 1:No, you're being real brother.
Speaker 2:But it's like I don't want to miss that your child will never forget that. Want to miss that. Your child will never forget that, ever, no man. And if that's the only the beginning, imagine if you don't get this fixed now. It's the recital. It's the weekend. I had a client's wife talk to me. I'm in about four months ago. I've been working on for a few years uh, remodeler and she goes richard, I never thought this could happen. Eight years he's been in business. We just spent a week at the beach with all five kids. He was never on the phone. Totally present, totally present. This is the. This is amazing and I'm like that's why I do what I do. Yeah, man, I saved a family.
Speaker 1:You know we're saving family Cy. I do what I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I saved a family. You know we're saving family, cy, that's what we do. We help people with this stuff.
Speaker 1:And that's the ultimate goal, man Right, and you've hit a couple hammer and nails together here because you've figured out that number one there's a need for, especially in the skilled trade and blue collar world. Why do these guys start these reoccurring businesses from one to three years? Because they don't know how to get out of the three-year mark and survive. Something happens, whatever it may be, but nobody. Everybody, just like the experiences I've had hey, you're here and you need to be here, man. So when you get here, let us know. Nobody's connecting those dots, nobody's putting a stairway or drawing a highway to get you there. They don't even. They're not even willing to help most guys in the contractor side and competition. They ain't even willing to tell you about what works they might be grabbing this year or they're not going to let you know how they got here. Business wise and I receive a lot of hate for that, but locally for sure. But I wanted to come back to two things that you just said. No exit strategy which is deranged from a plan, which is deranged from goals. You got to know where you're going, and I'm talking to myself here because I can't tell you and it kind of these two points kind of coincide here.
Speaker 1:It wasn't that long ago that I'm sitting here going, man, I haven't, like, dreamed or got any vision and I'm starting to lose focus of the dream. Anytime that the top stops visioning or dreaming, there is alarm bells that should be going off in everybody's world that guy's either overworked or he's not getting enough time wherever he needs it, et cetera. But that can't happen. If he stops dreaming, everything's going down the tubes. And, trust me, I lived it. But from that point and moment I sat with my wife and I'm like, look, I was begging her. Hey, give me what your goals are for this year. I turned around just this last year. I sent it out to my entire leadership team hey, I want to know your personal goals. I want to know your professional goals. I want to know where you want to be in the business in a year. I want to know where you want to be with your home family, like 15, and I paid my guys off for two weeks, from Christmas to New Year's, kind of. In that time frame Cities are never open, they're taking vacations. So and they kind of razzed me a little bit oh, you give us two weeks off and then you give us an essay to write. It's like being back in school, but I can't tell you what that did for me, richard, is this year.
Speaker 1:I'm moving more now, with now, I understand the freaking importance of having small goals, small plans and detailed plans, direct plans to get to this big picture that you're trying to get, which is, like you're saying, that exit strategy, the end mark. What is that end mark, sir? I have no idea what it is for PsyCon. Now, don't get me wrong. I've got some different variations that I've now planned put in place and we're moving towards. But at the same time, most blue-collar guys are like well, man, I hope I get that job that old Johnny told me about last November. Man, that'd be big for the year. You know what I mean. That we're just all trying to get to that next Friday, get to the next year and go from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really important, and you're 100% spot on with exactly what you said. The goals are important, right, I've even broken it down. We've changed the name of them to targets.
Speaker 1:Hey, I like that.
Speaker 2:Because you don't hit a goal. You hit a target and it's got that little red dot in the middle and that's what we're going for. So that gives us something. And they're a shorter range right, targets are going to be at a shorter range. Goals are way that's the two-mile shot where you've got to take into the rotation of the earth to compensate for the bullet drop. Those are really hard to get, yeah. But a target that's 50 yards out, okay, 20 yards out, 100 yards out, I can hit those all day. That's right, right, with both eyes, right. So I want to make sure that I understand that. So sometimes you've got to just redefine it and what it is.
Speaker 2:But it's like you're saying first you have to know how much is enough. How much is enough? Because some people John D Rockefeller said just $1 more. Okay, he was never satisfied with money. Oh, he wanted more and more and more. Go ahead, try to live that life. Okay, how much is enough? You need to quantify that number. I don't care what the number is, quantify it.
Speaker 1:And if you know your cost well enough, you shouldn't anyhow.
Speaker 2:What. You reverse engineer it Now. You know how to get there. You should, anyhow. You reverse engineer it Now you know how to get there. Right, Because you have a number, Not. Oh, I'd love to make $10 or $20 million. Well, which is it? $10 or $20? There's a bit of a difference there. Okay, Like there's years in between there, probably right.
Speaker 2:So if you want to get out in $10, $20 might not be the thing, or 20 might not be the thing, or maybe it is, you know, but I'm just saying so it's, it's. You're exactly right. It's really important that we really understand, as technicians, as craftsmen, as people who are good at what they literally do, they can do it better than the guy they're working for and that's why they started a business. Okay, we have to understand, the sooner we do the better that we can't be doing the work. I don't care how good you can bend sheet metal, I don't care how good you can weld. Okay, we can't do it. We have to work on the business. And where are you going to do it? Guys, like us, I call it time compression. I will put 10 years into one. I will save you 10 years of costly mistakes, bad decisions and possible complete business failure, because I've been there. I did the failure for you. I failed for you. Now you don't have to, because I can tell you exactly what you're doing and why you're going to fail.
Speaker 1:And if you just do do this and you're good. Isn't it funny, richard, that guys like myself and yourself we hear these comments of, oh they're, they're trying to be more podcast influencers than they are businessmen, and I'm like I've heard that comment a couple of times and I'm like, guys, if you even obviously never listen to the show, I'm like, guys, if you, you've obviously never listened to the show, the only reason I sit in front of this microphone and bring people like yourself is because there's there's not hardly any resources. And I'm going to sit here and discuss what I've done wrong and my failures because I don't want them to freaking do it and have to live through the pain and agony and miss those moments with my kids and not prioritize. And and as sooner you figure it out, the sooner profitability stacks, the sooner your life equals to financial freedom. And we're going to get to that. But real quick, guys.
Speaker 1:If you've been loving this, there's 25 plus episodes now at bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. You can watch or listen directly from the website right there. But, mr Richard, before we go any too far here, I want I don't want to go too far. We've been hitting around about it, about these processes and procedures and you know, balancing hiring to when to hire, and we've already talked about a little bit about the plan and targets, of where we're trying to go with this said thing. But talk about some of the maybe one, two, three pointer keys of what do you see your common, I guess, coaching member runs into, or folks like myself that you see that are making the same mistakes and you just want to grab them and you're like dude, just put this in place. I know it's not important to you, I know you think the next job is important, but without this you're hosed.
Speaker 2:So here's what it is Okay and I'm going to talk about. We're going to hire someone, right? I need help. I'm busy, I'm doing 10 estimates. I need help. I'm going to hire a guy. I got a guy he said he's done this stuff. Okay, put him on the job site, have him work. He's done stuff. Okay, tell him what to do for the day and he kind of does it, or he doesn't do it and he doesn't know. This guy's a clown and you fire him.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you got to start over again and get someone else, and I'm going to explain why this happens and I'm going to tell you how to fix it. Okay, he didn't fail, you failed.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Okay, Now we get that. I'm a big start to the top. I was just talking to a CEO of a company. They just built a $400 million expansion. Oh my gosh. Okay, he's a personal investor in this stuff, the CEO, and I'm going to whisper he shouldn't be the CEO, okay.
Speaker 2:He should be watching his money. Okay, ain't nothing happening there, right? No, but here's what these guys are having. You come on the jobs. I don't care what level you are. Skilled worker, I don't care if you're pushing a broom, yeah, you're taking out the trash here. You got to do this. There's three categories. When you hire someone, you have their position. Okay, right, that's who they are Office manager, trim carpenter, plumber, whatever he, plumber, whatever he's, finisher, whatever it is right. Okay, good, that's the position Title. Yeah, doesn't really have a lot of relevancy, okay, but there it is.
Speaker 2:The next thing is what they do. It's called job functions. You need to lay out every job function they're responsible for, and I don't care if it's every third Wednesday, for 10 minutes, they got to submit a report. Yep, that's a job function. It could be 13, could be 37 things. That's what they do Very specifically. This is what you do. The next column is how you do it. Okay, here's how you do each of these functions. Now there's a third column that everybody leaves out, and that's the training of the how. Okay, how do you train? Because everyone's not going to know all your job functions. They may have done seven of the 10, 12 of the 20, but they don't know them all, they don't know the psi way of doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, everyone's done. I do that all the time. Well, not like I do it because I'm the best Right. Okay, I'm the best right, just ask me, I'm the best. So, not like I do it because I'm the best right. Okay, I'm the right, just ask me, I'm the best. So I must do it differently. I'm gonna do it my way, okay, which is fine. So we got to build it out for them to follow and you have to train them in your way, because it was what they want to do is what no one wants. You know what no one wants. No one wants a mystery job. No one wants to show up and not know what's going to happen, but they live with that all the time. Yeah, you know, they create their own chaos, but no one wants it.
Speaker 2:If I'm the sales guy, I'm an A player. I close deals and I come to your company and you're like, yeah, I need something. So why don't you build out a sales system? I don't know whatever you use in your other, can you do that here and do this? I'm going to go. Yeah, I'm out. All I want to do is come and I want to close deals. I want you to drop me in the system. Give me a ball and say there's the goalpost and I can run for the goalpost.
Speaker 2:But if I got to come in and deal with so-and-so and this person, this person, you don't have a system, you don't have a product list, you don't have anything. I can't succeed. Why would any A player come to a hot mess like that? They're not going to. But once you build it out, get it done, you can drop that great A player in and he's going to make you money. Yep, he's going to close deals, he's going to feed his family, he's going to feed your family. Everybody's going to be happy. That goes for every position in the company.
Speaker 2:It's hard work that guys don't want to do because they're busy out working right, and they don't have time to build that which again back to coaching is a great place when you bring someone in who can build it out with your team. If you have someone in the sales position, you bring someone in to build it out around them. It doesn't mean it's focused on them, but we build it. So now they can work within the system. Your office manager, same thing, right. Your suppliers, whatever that looks like. Everything needs a system and a process. It needs to be able to function without you.
Speaker 1:Dude, I got to jump on a few points here because, man, you are like talking about me right now because two, three years ago me I'm like concentrating on this and this and this and this and this and I'm just expecting everybody around me to understand my point of view. And this is of course. This is how we've always done it. Just get on board. It's just of course. This is how we've always done it. Duh, just get on board and always looking through this owner lens and never looking through the employee lens. And they want to help owner lens through the employee lens, but you've got to lay some connecting dots for them to follow and job descriptions and titles and positions. They're important, Like job descriptions of what this person is setting up day one. What's he going to do? Don't just oh well, we need a couple extra people. Why Does your number support it? Did you bid a few more guys? Because you're expecting more. Why do you need more people, Cy Kirby? Because you feel like you're stacking a bunch of contracts. Are you really stacking a bunch of contracts? Are you really stacking a bunch of contracts? And when they get here, what are they all going to do? Take time.
Speaker 1:So the first one I did hopping on this little, I guess ranch brands and tangents and I'll tell myself was my sales guys. I literally brought a sales guy in because I had an estimator in the earthwork game and this is a totally different subject and utility game and underground technology is just moving in so fast and it's just really making everything so efficiently and streamlined. Like projects that would take three weeks to build by hand, Now we can do in literally four hours and have the quantification. So Estimator was really frustrated because, number one, we're trying to drive more work, because who doesn't want to do that? Of course, but at the same time I want him to learn these programs to become more efficient so we can take on this more work. But he needs a little bit of time. Well, I, I, as an operations manager at Sycon, I need more contracts and I need more jobs and I need more sales opportunities. So I was trying.
Speaker 1:It was just such a frustrating compound situation because and that's my first ever employee Like I respect this guy, this guy helped me, he dug ditches, he put in pipe himself, Like I respect what he's got to say. And he came to me in my office one day and he said look, I just need a little time, that's all I need and I'm like okay, thank you for coming. He was frustrated beyond all frustration and I just let him know hey man, All right, let me mull this over, Let me chew on this. We talk with Sarah and figure out who's. I would be nowhere without thank God for my wife but literally go back to her kind of roll, this run, this kind of scheme through about where we're trying to go, where we're trying to get, and give you enough time to empower yourself, to feel confident. These are the numbers, this is estimation, this isn't something we can play around with.
Speaker 1:And so, IE, I went and found an A player and, thank God, shout out to Mr Heath coming in. And I didn't have a sales department brother in the underground utility game, you got an estimator, Okay, and most folks have just overworked their estimator. They don't ever think to add that sales piece in to maybe start getting ahead, let alone just keep your head above water. So thank God I did. He comes in, completely, kills it. But job descriptions and laying out for these two guys about where this clear line was who's talking to who.
Speaker 1:But number one had to figure that out, so I literally put a nine or 13 page document called the sales Bible and I said I literally I was on an airplane type this document up and I literally just spewed my brain out onto paper about how I take a sales opportunity in at my level, how I would talk to the customer. Here's this situation, or this situation I would be in. These driving factors would drive this Built a go no-go matrix. They did, actually, and brought to me and I gave this document to them and I said, hey guys, this is my head on paper. This is how I want deals to be treated, this is the timeliness I want to get the info back per whatever variable and parameters. But we've got to improve our communication. And they, freaking, owned it and ran with it, Came back to me in two weeks and they're like, hey, look, we're getting so many opportunities because of marketing. Guys, Don't skip the marketing. I understand it's a totally different subject for another day, but they came to me and they're like, hey, we're getting so many opportunities. We have got to figure out how to really find a funnel before the sales funnel and we need a CRM. So we set all that up.
Speaker 1:Anyways, they built this go no-go matrix of the contractor, the engineer who drew the project, the time period, the crew availability, the site conditions in a one to five and basically they started, kind of you know. Hey, this isn't really a job we need to focus on, but what I'm trying to get out, brother, is they just ran with it. I empowered them just a little bit, spewed my brain on the paper that my wife has been asking me to do for six plus years. Just put it on paper, please, and I finally do it, and they run with it. And from there I'm like, oh, it was just like, is it?
Speaker 1:And from there I'm like, oh, it was just like self-realization. Boom, You're really screwing yourself here, buddy. You have got to spend some time putting this stuff on paper, giving it to somebody that can internalize it, interpret it, bring feedback back to it and help build a procedure around your mindset. Like that. That is an actual thing, guys, I may be blowing your mind right now, but, thank God, shout out to Michalina helping me on the fractional PM side, taking these blurbs and literally going hey, I don't know what this means, but you do and tell me what it means, and starting to build these processes and procedures. And I can't tell you, Mr Richard, to wrap up my point, it has been insane the amount of fluidity, the frustration level decreasing for me myself and I for the entire team, the morale and I'm like, why did I not do this seven years ago when my wife first asked?
Speaker 2:So just wanted to hop on that. It's called your inner genius. You got to take your inner genius and put it on paper. You have to build boundaries for everybody. People thrive in boundaries. When there's no boundaries, there's chaos. Okay, people come and go and you don't know where. You don't know. Does red mean stop and green mean go? It's pretty universal, right? Yeah, if you got to make up, I think red means go today and I'm going to go, you're probably going to die or kill someone. Right? You have boundaries, you have standards. This is how we operate so that everyone can thrive in those positions. Now you got to build them out, like you said, drop it and give it to them so they understand.
Speaker 2:I can help Jim over here when I've done this, this and this and if he needs it. Or I can help Jim because there's a world of difference from what I do. I'm focused and I'm dialed in. Here, jim has another avenue to get the help right. There's processes, there's troubleshooting, there's all this stuff I built up and it sounds right. Now people are going. Are you kidding me? I've got like 13 people, one at a time. Yep, it's the elephant. It's one bite at a time and in six months to a year. Everything is systemized. No one is coming into your office asking you what to do. What about this? How do I do this? What do you want me to say to this person? You know it's not 10 hours a day of that. It's like why is it so quiet out there? That's because they're doing stuff Right. They're doing what you taught them to do to get this stuff finished.
Speaker 1:And how you did it before, whether it's right or wrong, and I think you know what. Let me touch on something real quick. I think we have such a pride about us too as and made me realize like hey, dude, you ain't all that in a bag of chips until you start supporting these people. And you got to set that pride aside and start. When you start bringing people in, you're like I don't want to bring anybody in, I don't want to see my books, see what I've got, going on Like it's mine, like well, if that's how you want to be, that's totally fine.
Speaker 1:But if you're living in insane frustration if you don't bring somebody in that has a better knowledge point or maybe a totally different third world or third bias perspective on your situation, that's probably been there or seen the situation similar to yours. You're not the only one out there. Barely making it to payroll, barely trying to pay the insurance or the machine note, or calling a banker to push the note back that's all of us guys. But knowing how to get yourself off the hamster wheel is exactly what we're talking about today, while you're growing your business to the target that we're talking about. But these are the most vital and training.
Speaker 1:The other thing I was going to hop there, all these points that you're talking about, man, I'm super passionate about because I'm literally going through them right now and seeing the payoff of and the real results, because the training of it you're like, oh my God, this is going to take forever and I could just do it myself. Well, guess what? You're going to do it yourself next month and then you're going to do it again next month and then you're going to do it in six months and when your son's got that baseball game, that report's got to be out tomorrow and you're the only one that freaking does it because you didn't want to take the time and train somebody. Now I get it. Guys. You guys are sitting there. Cy training is so expensive. Well, if you don't ever create a system to get those people retained, especially this younger generation guys, this is a whole different new ballgame. To try and retain one of those guys or make them excel, it's going to be even more expensive, because you never retain anybody and you're always constantly training.
Speaker 2:I tell them I go, they don't need a ride along. Sales ride along is like what an unbelievable waste of time. You know how it is? Oh, ride around with me for a couple of weeks. I'm the owner. I'll show you how to sell, how I close. You know, yeah, I close like 90%. I'm like no, you don't. Oh, my God, you know they all think I close like 90%. I go. Do you do two estimates? A?
Speaker 2:month yeah come on, what are you talking? 90%, no one. Okay. So, but at the same time I'm like I build. Here's the sales presentation. Here's the sales system. Here's the training video. Here's me doing like my roofing. Here's me doing the presentation to Mr Jones. Watch the video. Here's the transcript you can memorize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do good better. Best I walk him through this. I say this See how I say would it make sense to choose colors on the install date? Did I ask him if he wants to do the job? No, I said would it make sense? And when he says yes, we do the deal. And he says no, I said well, what would make sense? And we continue the conversation.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't need a ride-along to teach that. I need a script I need. They can watch that whenever they want, not when they're in the truck with me burning up my time when I should be running the business. That's right. So we create these the done for you sales presentation, your brand, all your stuff's in there In a week. Listen, I take a guy's. The only thing he knows about a roof is it's on top of a house. That's right. That's the extent of his knowledge, right. But there's like seven things to a roof. Yep, okay, I can teach them in seven days. Go out and close deals and they'll think the customer, they've been closing deals for years in roofing Right. Okay, this is not rocket science, but I took the time to build it and then I have a warm-up process. Right, if they call me today, I don't go out till tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:It's four days minimum, because they're going to get confirmation email. They're going to get. Here's my business license email. Here's a content email. Here's a reminder of the appointment. Here's a confirmation again. Hey, here's a phone call. I go knock on the door. Four or five days later they have seven or eight touches with my company. Yeah, now they're a warm lead. They went from cold paid lead to warm lead. At least Now I got an in that I can continue the conversation from there.
Speaker 2:Right, so we build these little things. It's a system. Yeah, everybody operates in the system because it increases their probability of success. That's your job as an owner. Yes, increase the probability of success for everyone on your team. That's your job as an owner. Yes, increase the probability of success for everyone on your team. That's your focus. That's your 5% for now. Build that out. How do you help them win every single day? What does success look like today, on the week, on the month, on a quarter, on the year? Can they all tell you, in their position, what success looks like on the day, on the week, on the week, on the month, on a quarter of the year? And if they can guess what they're going to do? They're going to win every day, every single day, because they know it. Guess who gets the win after that. You do, you bet, you know, the profit goes boom and it comes down man.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's huge, it's huge.
Speaker 1:I haven't got to that point yet, richard. I'm waiting on the compound of profitability I can, oh, let's the ventures that we've got going we'll do a call.
Speaker 2:I'll show you how to do it all right, bad brother I'll show you that in less than three minutes man, three minutes I can show you boom I'll. You'll be astounded. I will show you how to double your profits in less than three minutes Wow.
Speaker 1:I'm talking, whatever it is, incremental stuff. If anybody's listening and want to call you bluff, I'm assuming they can go over to sharpenthespiritcoachingcom.
Speaker 2:Sharpenthespiritcoachingcom.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful place. Well, two things I want to finish up with you, because I can already tell how passionate you are about your prioritizing and the value of your own time as an owner, and I wish I had a better understanding myself earlier, went through what I went through, etc. But now I'm here trying to figure this out, but balancing. You want to grow this business. That's what any true entrepreneur wants to do. You want to build value in your business. How do you concentrate on that and personal life at the same time?
Speaker 2:So people talk about work-life balance right, we all hear that, we're all getting that. You're an entrepreneur and you work a lot. You're on your hamster wheel. You're going to hear the work-life balance right, we all hear that, we're all getting that. You're an entrepreneur and you work a lot, you're on your hamster wheel. You're going to hear the work-life balance from someone spouse, a friend, a mother, a father, whatever business guy down the street who's super successful spends his whole time on the golf course.
Speaker 2:Never works. How does he do it? You can't right Very much. So in balance, I I call it the five f's, as in frank. Okay, it's, it's faith family, finances, fitness and friendships.
Speaker 2:So if you've got all those dialed in and they all have their percentage, it's never equal. We all understand that there really isn't any balance, there's just distribution, okay. So for me, faith is first God's first, for me 100%. Second is my family, and in my family it's my wife and then my children. It stays in that order. Okay, it's a very important thing, okay.
Speaker 1:That's what the good book says.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's it right. And then finances I got to pay attention to my money. Yeah, All right, and it's important, and you need time to do that. Fitness I have to be healthy. What I eat, my workouts every day. I have a morning routine, a workout's part of it every day. The reason being is that health, that energy when you expend energy, you create energy. Expending your energy will give you more energy. Right, and that's what you want. You want to be, you got to be sharp, you got to be mentally sharp. You can't just be fit physically. We have a saying, you know, if you're not fit, you're not fit to lead. Okay, and fit is mentally, it's physically, nutritionally, your body. You really have to understand that because you're an example to everyone on your team. You're an example to your family. You're an example to the people watching you from the outside.
Speaker 2:You're the leader Okay, you're it and people shouldn't judge, but as they say they do, yes, okay, when they look at you, they make a judgment one way or another, right Whatever that might be. And then the last one is your friendships. Okay, I don't have a lot of friends.
Speaker 1:Me neither brother but the ones I have.
Speaker 2:the joke in my family is, if my friends are all in one hand, I could lose three fingers and still have them all. Okay so, but their quality right Over quantity. They're the ones who matter. They're my trench buddies, they're the ones I go to war with. They got my six all the time right, no matter what, and I got thirds. I'm good with that, perfectly content with not a lot of friends. Yeah, all right, because the ones I have matter. But I get to choose them and like anything else, like your money, like your friends, like your money, like your friends, like your spouse anything you don't pay attention to is going to disappear.
Speaker 2:It's called Parkinson's law, especially with your money. If you don't have a place for your money to go, it will evaporate. I give you 200 bucks for sending some of my way. You stick those hundies in your pocket, take your buddy to lunch, grab a drink. It's gone. You go. What $200? Yeah, you don't even know what you spent it on or who it came from, right. So that's my point. But that balance in your, if your business is a hot mess, you don't get the five Fs, you can't, you can't begin to work on those if, because that business and I'm just going to use the term it's a mistress.
Speaker 1:Yes, it wants your time.
Speaker 2:It wants you to sneak out and be with it, okay, it wants you to stay there. It will hold on to you no matter what. Yeah, everything else doesn't matter to the business Until that thing can run by itself and by others. It owns you. Yeah, you are trapped in the owner prison, right? So once you fix that which is you know it can be done right relatively quickly Once that's done, the 5S will open up to you. Now you can start to go wow, that's really. Oh. Wow, I can go see my friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Go play that round of golf, oh wow my wife really is good looking.
Speaker 2:I haven't noticed I haven't really looked hard lately. Okay, I've been too busy at work. You know what I mean. So it's like that's what we're talking about. You know that's how it comes together. But if you're not going to focus on your business and fix it yes, all the things you were saying so you're going to take the time to take the. You're going to miss all the great experiences that they're going to have. Right, you're not going to lead them well. You're not going to lead your company well.
Speaker 1:You are always going to be the one in the way. Yes, man, and that is the truth with entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Most of them are in the way. They're the problem.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you've got to be in a mental. Whether you're in a bad spot or a good spot, it's your job, mr Leader. Man, this was where I failed. I took too long to recognize that everybody was waiting on me Like it's your job. If you, you're a CEO, you're the big dog and that's where you want to be. Hey, buddy, act like one. And I wasn't.
Speaker 1:And it took some things to happen for me to realize like hey, man, and things are going to happen, because if it's a mess, they're going to. Employees are going to feel like it, the team's going to feel like it. There's never going to be any fluidity within the team. Everybody's going to be at each other's throats picker, bicker, bicker and you get nowhere. So it's your job to set the pride aside, like I was mentioning before.
Speaker 1:That was my problem with myself was I didn't want nobody looking at my stuff, and now I'm like I can actually start to breathe because they're looking at me. Like Cy, you don't know what. You don't know. Why are you trying to act as accountant, sarah? Why are you trying to act as CFO, cy? You guys don't even know what these roles are defined and what levels you need to be giving, letting go, and below and above, and so it's all these new realizations, but I would encourage you guys, with the short amount of time that we've had to go, I'm going to myself and I assure you I'm going to pick your book up and escape the owner mindset, and that's literally one of the things for myself is reading more and, like my own personal goals for this year, I'm trying to read a little bit more. Faith-based, leadership-based.
Speaker 2:Love it Well let's do this, cy, go ahead. Let's do this. I'm going to help you out, I'm going to help your listeners out. Okay, I'm going to give you and your listeners a gift. Okay, because reading is hard for people, I know it's time you have the book, everything else If you're not into it, you're not into it. But people really like audible books and guess what? It just happens that Escape the Owner Prison. I have to show it at least once.
Speaker 1:Let's see it.
Speaker 2:There it is. It's on audio and it's me reading it. So if you haven't heard my voice enough today, here's what you're going to do. Okay, You're going to go to sharpenthespherecoachingcom. Go to the contact page. Okay, You're going to go to sharpenthespearcoachingcom. Go to the contact page. Send me a one-sentence email that says Richard saw you on the Blue Collar Business Podcast. I'd love a free copy of the audio version of your book.
Speaker 1:Let's go and boom. Appreciate you doing that, man. I will be giving you more than a one-sentence email. But, man, I really appreciate your time. But before you go, I've got one last final item that I ask every single body, every single guest that I have sit here with me on the show. And what's the takeaway for the blue collar worker who's just being sick and tired and he's done with being stuck in the mud, and I may, just, like you, hint uh reference there before. It's not just physically stuck in the mud, help me out, it's the mental, it's the emotional.
Speaker 2:Well, from a mindset standpoint, you know you have to change your thinking. That's what mindset is A mindset shift right? Where do you actually want to be? You're stuck because you don't know where you want to be. You don't know where you're going. Okay, if I get in a car in New York and I want to go to California and all I know is it's west, kind of that's all I know. The good news is I'm going to see every part of the United States, okay. The bad news is I'm going to end up in the Gulf of Mexico and think I'm at the Pacific Gulf of America, gulf of America.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that. So now here I'm at the Pacific Gulf of America, gulf of America. I was going to say that so now, here I am, at the Gulf of America. I'm really thinking I've done something, and I have no idea. I'm even in the wrong place, because there's no map, there's no direction, I have no plan. I have next Friday, I have next month, I have hope to get that big contract. Okay, you have to say like to your point, cy, when you're saying I don't want to look at my books. No one gives a rip you know what these people do.
Speaker 2:They do this every day. Numbers are like they're numbers. They don't even have meaning to them.
Speaker 1:And they're passionate about it.
Speaker 2:They just know they're wrong, yeah, okay, and they're going to fix them for you. They're not judging you. If they're judging you why would they even work with you, talk about it? They're just going to like just baby, did I fix this? We'll have this done in like a week. Yeah, give me them numbers. This is what I do. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like you do, whatever you do.
Speaker 2:You go do what you do. You know, like I don't, I don't do that, but you do it, yeah, right. So that's the biggest takeaway. And understand that in business revenue gross revenue, right, terrible scorecard, 100%. Gross revenue feeds the ego. We talked about pride, right, gross revenue feeds the ego. Profit feeds your family. That's some good stuff right there.
Speaker 2:You need to make profit. That's one thing I specialize in profit acceleration. I help you recover lost profits that you don't even know we're missing. This hidden money keeps you stuck, unable to grow or scale, stealing your freedom and time. I help you take it back so finally you can move forward. It's that simple. That's what it's doing. You have so much money in your business that's being. It's lost, it's yours, you have it. You don't even know it, and that goes for, like every business owner, you're not uniquely bad at this, we're all equally bad at this. Okay, we're all equally bad at this. Well, we uncover that stuff. Show you in incremental little changes, boom, big profits you're able to keep. We all want to keep more. We work too hard not to keep it.
Speaker 1:That's right why?
Speaker 2:are we working more and making less profit? Yeah, let's keep the profit. That's the kind of stuff I can help you with, man number one.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for your time, brother. I hope you guys have enjoyed this as much as I have, because this has been one. I tell you guys, all the time I sit here and learn with you guys and this is exactly why I started the Blue Collar Business Podcast was to sit with gentlemen like yourself that have 30, 40 years of experience of failing and trying again, and failing and trying again and being successful along the way, and then going, picking those successful parts, putting them together and helping the community that I'm trying to help and go. Hey, guys, if you follow these key features, you might end up in a different spot, but, guys, be willing to change and explore a different mindset. That's all I'm asking you to do. I mean, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is pure definition of insanity. Nothing changes if nothing changes. So, uh, guys, go check out, sharpen the spear.
Speaker 1:Coachingcom, send a and don't miss the blue collar business exclusive of a free copy of escape the owner prison. I'm I'm really intrigued to be listening to that brother of today. You've literally got a few things you can see it on my face, you know, mulling around in my head and I just appreciate the conversation that this audience gets to listen to, because it's these types of high level overview that they don't get more of. And yes, there are influencers you can watch and they and they hint around about this stuff, but there's not many. Just diving to the root of the problem and discussing these real and raw issues that are going to help navigate these guys to success and profitability, including myself, yeah.
Speaker 2:I have the trainer, not teacher, mentality. I'm not going to stand in front of the class and tell you what to do. Can't do that either I'm going to say get in your face and bust out 25, and I'm going to start with you to make sure you're doing it right.
Speaker 2:I'll be doing the push-ups with you. That's the trainer mentality. We have real-world stuff that gets results. That's what it's about. I don't want to talk about all the foo-foo, whatever. It's about getting things done. When we take action imperfect action that's when you're going to reach success very, very quickly because you're making forward momentum.
Speaker 1:You just dropping the mic with an extra knowledge bomb. There for the final wrap up Sure.
Speaker 1:Guys, go check out bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom. If you haven't before, subscribe to the newsletter there so you get an email when we drop every single week on Wednesdays on the website and all of your streaming platforms. Look forward to hearing from you, guys. Again, thank you for the several emails I've received here as of late to you loyal guys that are listening to every single episode. I've seen a couple of your emails and I just wanted to take the time and say thank you. I'm getting to see those results of helping and finding value. You're finding value in what I'm doing here and that's exactly what drives me and makes me more passionate to meet folks like Mr Richard. Again, thank you so much for your time and I look forward to talking to you again.
Speaker 1:Brother, I think we're going to see you again on this show. I think this episode is going to help a lot of guys switch it up up here, and that's all it takes to get going in a different direction. So, guys, until next time, y'all be safe and be kind and 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. Till next time, guys.