The Alimond Show
Paulo Nicolau of JP Companies Inc
Ladies and Gentlemen, brace yourselves as we unravel the fascinating journey of a self-made entrepreneur, who rose from the ranks of a family of concrete and masonry workers. A man who dared to diverge from the conventional university path during an economic crunch, and took a deep dive into the business world. Learn how his childhood experiences of growing up in an immigrant family in Northern Virginia and Loudoun County, among successful individuals from all walks of life, shaped his life and entrepreneurial journey.
Our guest takes us through his evolution from a competitive relationship with his brother into a successful business partnership. Eager to know how they carved out their niche in the contracting industry after surviving several challenges? Stay tuned and explore the exhilarating journey. We delve into the trials and tribulations of owning a business, the importance of setting realistic expectations, trusting your gut, and the crucial role of family in the business.
As we progress, we touch upon the joy of welcoming a first grandchild and how it impacts priorities in life and business. We discuss the essential role of effective communication in a client-centric industry and the consequences of overpromising and underdelivering. In the final part of the episode, our guest shares the significance of giving back to the community, honesty with customers, and the need for a reliable team. All of this culminates into a captivating conversation that transcends beyond entrepreneurship and delves deep into human connection, community, and personal growth. Tune in to get a glimpse of this enlightening journey and take away insights that can reshape your perspective on life and entrepreneurship.
Ladies and Gentlemen, brace yourselves as we unravel the fascinating journey of a self-made entrepreneur, who rose from the ranks of a family of concrete and masonry workers. A man who dared to diverge from the conventional university path during an economic crunch, and took a deep dive into the business world. Learn how his childhood experiences of growing up in an immigrant family in Northern Virginia and Loudoun County, among successful individuals from all walks of life, shaped his life and entrepreneurial journey.
Our guest takes us through his evolution from a competitive relationship with his brother into a successful business partnership. Eager to know how they carved out their niche in the contracting industry after surviving several challenges? Stay tuned and explore the exhilarating journey. We delve into the trials and tribulations of owning a business, the importance of setting realistic expectations, trusting your gut, and the crucial role of family in the business.
As we progress, we touch upon the joy of welcoming a first grandchild and how it impacts priorities in life and business. We discuss the essential role of effective communication in a client-centric industry and the consequences of overpromising and underdelivering. In the final part of the episode, our guest shares the significance of giving back to the community, honesty with customers, and the need for a reliable team. All of this culminates into a captivating conversation that transcends beyond entrepreneurship and delves deep into human connection, community, and personal growth. Tune in to get a glimpse of this enlightening journey and take away insights that can reshape your perspective on life and entrepreneurship.
We come from a family of entrepreneurs right, and most of them in the concrete business.
Speaker 2:So what did your dad do? Was it your dad that started it? I'm assuming.
Speaker 1:That's what he did. Yes, concrete and masonry correct, different levels though different types, right. So when we first started, we kind of got into that and we kind of were following the path that a family had set and then we kind of decided to kind of it wasn't really working for us.
Speaker 2:You're saying we who's in the video? Just you and your brother. Correct, okay?
Speaker 1:cool as a health and family. He's 11 months older. Okay, so you guys have always been like We've always been competitive together, friends, enemies, but he's my best friend.
Speaker 2:Can he out bench you?
Speaker 1:No, no, he's a big dude, he's a strong guy. Yeah, but not, no, not there. No, yeah, we, I do. Well, I don't know about now. It's kind of tough you know, the years are creeping up on us, you know, but now we both do work out and we've been yeah, we've been good friends. We've always had a friend right 11 months. I've always had a friend to play with Almost like a twin.
Speaker 2:What does that call Irish twins, or something?
Speaker 1:Basically that's what I'm hearing. Right, and people did. I don't think we look alike, but some people swear we're twins so even to this day. But he's taller.
Speaker 2:That's good, because you can get away with like he's taller, more handsome than I am, so, oh, did he say that? Or did he say that?
Speaker 1:you know I don't think we look that similar, but but now it's been cool, it's cool and I mean he's here, he came with me today, support right, and so yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that. So okay, how many did you do anything before you started here in Northern Virginia Like, did you really I'm born?
Speaker 1:and raised in Northern Virginia.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Meeting. As far as business, yeah, business wise, no, I went to school, went to college and came out and was kind of like what am I gonna do right? What were you gonna do Got?
Speaker 2:with my brother back to us What'd you get after.
Speaker 1:I didn't actually never finish college. Okay, so I got three and a half years almost finished, but I wasn't doing business management. Why are you just?
Speaker 2:letting people do that. They were like it's not just you, A lot of people do that.
Speaker 1:You look so hard.
Speaker 2:And then it's just like Correct.
Speaker 1:Well, ironically enough, kind of all ties in. I was in school so I went to. My graduating year would have been like 2009, 2010. That was a really bad time for the economy, right. So we kind of I kind of take a step back and kind of get into business to keep things going for the family and stuff like that. And then once we got into that, the first couple of years were tough but I mean it was a good learning experience, right. And then from there kind of things just kind of took off.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say that was put on the back burner, but it has been. It has been, so it's there, though for me it's there if I need it right. I think I need about 30 credits or so, so in due time.
Speaker 2:I was going to say, and I believe and I know our amazing little behind me filming right now, would not agree with this but I believe that school can be beneficial if you need it. If you're going to be a doctor, you're going to be a dentist, you're going to be like a profession where it's like no, you actually need to know what you're doing. Otherwise, like for me in my profession photography, videography, marketing that's like you learn on the job. Correct, nobody like as many times. I've never studied any books about like I mean, I watch YouTube videos to learn lighting, I pick up a camera and I start learning lighting by actually doing it, and you're probably in a similar field, right With your business.
Speaker 1:Very similar. So, yes, so I tell my so we come from an immigrant family, right, we're a much country family Portuguese, portugal. So very old school, very you know, it's got its benefits right. And I actually was the first one in my media family to go to college, right so, and I kind of feel like I wanted to go to college as well, but I kind of feel like it was kind of a path that my family was like hey, like you know, like hey, like this is what you need to do, because this is what we see needs to be done right. Again, this was almost 20 years ago too, right. So mindsets have changed right. Internet and social media it's definitely exploded right and helped kind of. Not I don't want to say take college out of the picture, but, like you said, to your point, there's other ways to get things accomplished right. So that happened right. And then but I do agree with you, like I tell my parents all the time like I mean they were great parents, right, obviously, you know but-.
Speaker 2:I showed you the tools of the trade.
Speaker 1:Correct and showed you how to like do this.
Speaker 2:But yeah, a little bit of that pressure was probably put on Correct.
Speaker 1:But to your original point like the best thing I mean, besides obviously taking care of me, feeding me and all that stuff but the best things that they did for me, I think, was they allowed me to grow up in an area like Northern Virginia and Loudoun County. That put me around all different types of people and my friends and family and their parents were successful in all types of different avenues, right, and that really helped me, right. And that kind of goes back to the experience like being around people and seeing things and realizing that, hey, things can get done right. There's different ways to do it. There's different ways to achieve your goals, and they don't always necessarily have to be with school or education, but or a formal education, if you will, because you're always learning, you're always learning right. You're always learning right. I gotta be careful, right, you're always learning right. But so I agree with you, I do agree with you. So that's kind of what happened. And, yeah, learning, especially in construction, when you're like boots on the ground- and experience.
Speaker 2:What's one of the hardest that pops to your head? Because obviously didn't ask, didn't want you to know about any of our questions. What's one of the hardest experiences that you're like? That crap was hard, but I learned a lot from it, even if it didn't turn out the way that you wanted it to turn out.
Speaker 1:So knowing when to say no, right. When you're young and you're starting a business and you have, you put unnecessary pressure on yourself, right? You always want to, especially on a lot of work, like you maybe take on jobs and situations that you may not be comfortable with or prepare for, right, which is part of the growing experience. But learning from failures right, Learning from and failure is a harsh word, but learning from situations where you know you gotta break it down for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there. I'm getting there right Situations where, like you know, like you're so eager when you first start to get those sales, to see the numbers right and I'm gonna be honest with you when I first started this may come off not the right way right.
Speaker 1:So they're gonna understand they're gonna understand perfect, perfect, Like you're after money if you will right, Not necessarily, I mean. You have goals and dreams. You have to score it hard, Correct, correct. That's how you're graded, right, yeah, that's how you're graded and at first you realize like that's the end, all be all right. So you may put yourself in situations or take on jobs that you're like well, I want that job, I want that sale, I want but you're also getting the experience right. So it's never a complete one.
Speaker 2:You're gonna figure it out, Correct?
Speaker 1:correct. So that would probably be the biggest hurdle we had in the beginning was kind of finding our way and finding our niche which I'm thinking you're probably gonna get to this when you ask me soon which did allow us to get to our niche. That kind of separated us from what our family was doing, even though in the same line of work, but a different angle that we attacked and has allowed us to grow and-.
Speaker 2:So what I'm hearing is you said yes to a job or jobs Correct that you were like. Can I backtrack that now? Because, I don't think we could fulfill on what we originally thought we could do.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, more when you have that trusting your gut right, that feeling you have in your gut Like we work with a lot of people, right, and we have great customers.
Speaker 1:But we also come across situations where you have a meeting with someone and you- so maybe the person and you have a gut feeling where you're like you know what, but in that eagerness of being young and just starting out, you're like you know what. I don't want to listen to my gut, I want to. So maybe I didn't expand myself correctly. I don't think we ever took on an opportunity or a situation where we couldn't handle it or perform it. Just it may have not been-.
Speaker 2:That's been a clarification Beneficial of both parties. Okay, that's a good clarification because I've done the first of the two and said I'm going to figure it out and I'm really really good at figuring it out.
Speaker 2:So I've always just kind of been. My experience is like just say yes and you'll figure it out. But then sometimes I don't give myself enough time to figure it out and then I'm in a situation where I'm like ooh, so now I've learned preparation is key and knowing where my limits are. But what you're saying, it sounds like, is more of like not seeing the red flags in certain clients, because we now have red flags personally to say like that's an amazing client, just not for us.
Speaker 1:Correct, correct. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. But we come our line of work contracting. We come from a line of work where there is a lot of good but there's also a lot of not so good.
Speaker 2:Can you break it down for people like me that have very little knowledge of what it is that you can do?
Speaker 1:No, for sure. So we do a lot of residential work. We do a lot of specialized in driveways, walkways and patios. Right, our main specialty is driveways. That was kind of the angle that I explained earlier that we kind of attacked, I want to say, back in 2011, 2012. We saw a need for it and there wasn't many people that were. There were people that were doing it, but there wasn't many people that were actually advertising it, attacking that angle and actually making it like the cornerstone of their business. Right, yeah, and it worked out well.
Speaker 2:We're having a niche in due the driveways.
Speaker 1:that's like our. That's our thing. That's our thing we do walkways and the patios. Branch off that because sometimes they go hand in hand. Yeah, that's our thing we do. We do quite a bit and that's our bread and butter, you know.
Speaker 2:And so you've learned some things along the way. If you're talking to a business owner who's like starting off their service based. They're trying to like figure out how they can market and get build themselves up to a business that sustains an actual livelihood.
Speaker 1:I like, I like to say that Build yourself up. I like, no, I like that because that's very important, because you got to, you got to crawl, then you got to walk and then you can run. You know, like some, some faster than others, but you still, you can't skip a step Like well, that's my question.
Speaker 2:It's what advice would you give them? It sounds like.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to use a cliche answer right, like honesty, right. When I say honesty, I'm not. I don't want to make it sound like I feel like there's other contractors that are out there lying, like I don't think anyone gets into business. Too lie, right, and that's a strong word, but too mislead, if you will. But sometimes people or contractors, especially our line of work, they Overpromise, under perform.
Speaker 2:Well, it's everyone's line of work right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure, we try and do the opposite, right, we've. We've actually even walked away or not being able to do a job or Contract with people because it didn't work out for both parties. Right, because expectations weren't Weren't the same. If you will, yeah, but we found that doing that more times than not will allow you to grow, yeah, build a reputation and, honestly, sleep well at night. You know what I mean. Like at the end of the day, when you own your own business. It's your reputation.
Speaker 1:Yeah right and like it's more than just X's and O's right. It's who you are. You know what I mean. Like you want to be able to lay your head at night, like you know what. Like we're not perfect. Yeah but we said realistic expectations and we deliver on that and we're here. You know like we're accountable.
Speaker 2:Yeah right do you have a?
Speaker 1:family. I'm married, two dogs, okay, but we just, but we just actually. Now I'm gonna say, actually the business ain't even my brother anymore. We actually just had it. My brother just had a daughter. So yeah, so she's like she's the boss now. She's a month old. She's a month old today.
Speaker 2:He's already giving orders.
Speaker 1:So my, my, my man, dude, she's the best, she's awesome, yeah, so awesome. Yeah, it was cool, it was a blessing for the family the first, first grandchild. So my parents, they're a static and you didn't get that one yeah no, no, no, no try. Yeah, he got me BBO that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's a move for him, right, that's a move for him. I got checked the all-time, all-time record though, so we'll see, but it's quite close, it's quite close, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's so, that's been, that's been, it's been awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that sounds like a fun adventure in terms of like going forward. Where do you see yourself in ten years? Because that's like not two years, not five years, but ten years. Like who are? You guys in the community. What are you doing? What are the big dreams and aspirations?
Speaker 1:Um, as far as business goes, we obviously would like to grow, right, we're obviously have dreams of growing and getting bigger, but we want to do it the right way, right, we want to do it organically. We wanted to do it yeah and, and that's and I really do mean that, because I Tell my customers all the time that I work with I have great customers, right, I want to do a job for them, I want to build a relationship, I want them to be happy, and then I want them to reach out to me on Christmas or something, telling me tell me Merry Christmas, or if they want more work, or if they're referring me, right, you don't want them to like avoid eye contact with you at the grocery store, right.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean, like exactly. So I want to, we want to grow organically, we want to stay in our lane. We want to stay in our lane and um, and just kind of take it where it goes. I mean, we've been fortunate, we've been, we've been blessed and things have worked out really well. Like I said, we've been in business for 17 years now, um, and yeah, I mean as long as we can continue to grow organically and stay true to ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's the goal. That's the goal, you know, and I find kind of feel like the the benefits will come from that right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how have you been able to incorporate your business into the community, whether it's through give back programs or being able to Be a part of the community in some shape way form?
Speaker 1:um, we've done some sponsorship for, like, some golf tournaments, for some really nice causes, right, and um, we um, through advertising, and we go into neighborhoods and we um I'm trying to make this make sense right, we'll go into a neighborhood. If one of the neighbors have contracted us, we'll go and we'll put like a sign up and we'll market that neighborhood, say, hey, we can get you guys together, we can do a deal for you guys, we get the neighborhood involved. We also do work a lot of HOAs right, where we'll go into an HOA and kind of like, do group deals and kind of help everyone out, right, cause some people have this situation where they need to have their driveway fixed, or not just because they want it, but because they need to Because the HOAs Otherwise we're gonna get Exactly, but it may not be in their budget. But if we can get five or six neighbors together, it all works out for everyone. Everybody wins.
Speaker 1:That's awesome so that's kind of an indirect way of giving back. If you will cause everyone's winning, if you will, right, take care of the people, take care of the people. And we also like to donate to a lot of. We like to be under the radar, if that makes sense. My brother and I-.
Speaker 2:I know and people don't like talking about stuff like that, and that's actually very respectable and honorable, because it's like I just wanna do the good stuff without having to like announce it from the rooftops that. I'm doing this stuff At the same time, which we'll end it there, but just this is just me saying my part, for sure.
Speaker 2:At the same time, don't be afraid to share things like that. When you do stuff, and even if it's not you doing it yourself, even if it's like somebody else saying like, hey, shout out to these people for this thing, because what it does is it helps other people see this company is not just taking. This company is an integral part of our community who is giving back as much, if not more, than what they're taking, and it sets example for other businesses to be like look at what they're doing, oh, I'm gonna do better than them. And if they're even competing by giving back Everyone's winning.
Speaker 1:Everyone's winning right, the community's winning? Yeah, absolutely no, no, 100%. Yeah, we were, just we were. We're very similar in that sense where we do do things. We could always do more right, everyone could always do more right. But we're also very much where we like to. We do things and now that you're opening me up, right, you're like I could do that. There's been situations where like and I don't want this to come off I don't even consider it helping right, I consider it being like something we should have been done right. But there'll be times where we'll be on job sites and our customer may be elderly or maybe this or maybe that, and they may have something that needs to be done around their yard or something, and it gets.
Speaker 1:They're like hey, strong man, you know you can't help move this thing, and you're like yeah, you know it gets done, you get done and stuff gets done. Or you know like yeah, so that's awesome. We also feel like we help the community by being and again back to that word honest, right and doing honest, decent work, right, like because people have had horror stories with contractors right, right, of course, and we don't want you know what.
Speaker 2:I mean it doesn't, it will change the narrative, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Because it's not just a job to me, it's just not a check to me, you know, or a payment to me, because I joke all the time with my customers like I'm not retiring off one job. My goal here is to get a review from you and get a referral from you. Right, I want you to tell your friends in fame like, hey, these guys they're cool, they're legit, like you can trust them, they're gonna do a good job, you know. So, like that, that's the goal, right. I mean, obviously we need money to pay bills, right, but that's the ultimate goal, because that's what keeps us busy.
Speaker 2:You know what, If there's something that's held you back from growing or scaling or getting more work or like what's like either been a mindset thing or something that you're like if I could only just get around to doing this thing, it would help my business grow so much more.
Speaker 1:Trust, trust in finding good help. We have great help.
Speaker 2:Do you know how much this conversation comes up in these interviews? Oh, it's so common. Yeah, it's common.
Speaker 1:But it's a good though you want your business owners to say that, because that means they care right, because we do have again, we're fortunate, we have a large volume of leads that come in right. We've actually had opportunities to expand, but we wanna expand the right way, right, because there's no benefit to us expanding to expand and then in two years being like hold on a second. We really didn't take a step back because we just got weighed over our heads and now we're doing damage control right. So just finding good people and they exist. We have a great team. We have a great team, great guys, but it takes time to get that right.
Speaker 2:It takes time to get that. How do you identify a good fit person Like? What are some qualities that you're like? I mean, obviously you've gotta put them in the position and make sure that everything's good.
Speaker 1:But what's the?
Speaker 2:things that you're like. These are some qualities that.
Speaker 1:Accountability communication.
Speaker 2:What is accountability medium?
Speaker 1:Being present, being responsible, admitting when you're right or wrong. We, as business owners, we were made wrong all the time.
Speaker 2:And I have no problem saying that you know.
Speaker 1:I don't either. I don't know why people struggle with that.
Speaker 2:It's like you're gonna be wrong just.
Speaker 1:All the time.
Speaker 2:We're all gonna be wrong All the time.
Speaker 1:You know that's how you learn right. That's how you become right the next time, if you will. With I mean our business. To get a job done from start to finish takes a lot of different things right, like first of all, we need to get the email coming or the call coming right. Our secretary needs to answer that phone call. She needs to do her job correctly to be able to get us out for an estimate right, and that would be me and my brother right. Then we need to do our job correctly to get a job, to get a contract, if you want an agreement.
Speaker 2:Get them to sign the contract, yeah.
Speaker 1:Then we need to handle all the logistics right, which is the material, ordering, scheduling, all that stuff. Then our crew need to come in and deliver a good product, but they need to have the tools in place to be able to do that correct. Yeah, so all that needs to happen. And what I mean by that is, I may be very good at what I do doesn't mean I know more than my crew does when they're installing the job. I know enough, but I'm willing to take advice from them and know that, hey, this is what they do every day and they're there doing it. So if they tell me, hey, this isn't going to work, I can't be no. Well, no, this is what needs to work. There needs to be give and take, there needs to be communication, accountability. Back to accountability, though, if I'm wrong, I have no problem saying to my foreman hey, you're right, I was wrong. How can we make this work? Because, at the end of the day, we need to make sure the job's uncorrect. So, accountability, that's what accountability is to me.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because, growing up, so we play sports, me and my brother growing up, and you hear that one Soccer, basketball, football for me and football for my brother and I recommend everyone play sports. That's just me. And I say that because it's going to come back to that word accountability. You hear that stuff when you're younger, from your coaches and stuff and you're like, yeah, whatever you hear it, you hear it. But then you learn it and you're learning it subconsciously as you're doing things and then you realize that, especially with football, you need to do your job on that play for that whole play to work. And it could be a situation where it goes unnoticed like a block, if you will. It doesn't make it less important, it could be even more important.
Speaker 2:It's hard to understand that one, if you're not the one scoring the touchdown. You see what I'm saying. You see what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying Like yeah, so like right now I'm the face of this podcast right now for my company, if you will, but I'm just doing my part. You know what I mean. Like there's so much more going involved into it. Like people like a lot of our jobs are one or two day jobs and people may see that was a simple process, but behind the scenes, like there's so much that needs to go right.
Speaker 2:I say it to this girl right here all the time Like her job to make all this look good.
Speaker 1:I know, right, I know, and sound good. I know, I'm counting on you, I'm counting on you, right, I'm counting. The final prize was great? No for sure. 100%, you know, and at all. Even stating this all this like it's all important right. It is all important. And if again back to that word, accountability, right, like if the people that aren't doing their, they may think like I'm just setting up a light or I'm just like wait there's so much to that.
Speaker 2:And then you look at that video and it's like the shadows under my face and my eyes.
Speaker 1:You set sin the crack and I'm like, okay, I'm here, I'm comfortable with moving over to the crack. There's a method for a madness. You know what I'm saying? Like that's so everything comes out. So when it's so, when it airs, then it's like oh wow, that was a great podcast, but behind the scenes there was so much things that had to happen. Right, yeah, I think people need to know. Back to accountability.
Speaker 2:People need to understand too, like on a team, as a leader of your company, to make sure that that message is heard and understood. They're answering their phones, the person delivering the supplies, the person installing the stuff, whatever it is. Every single job is so important.
Speaker 1:So important.
Speaker 2:Football like, yeah, finish that play like run that play like your job at the end of the day is what helps this operation move forward. No job is too small.
Speaker 1:Oh, I tell my secretary all the time she's awesome. You're the first interaction people have with our company. Yeah, if that doesn't go well, I don't get my shot. Our brother doesn't get his shot. You know what I mean. So, like, yeah, we've been blessed though. We have great people, we have a great team and we work well together. I think they like me. You know what I mean. Ty will tell you, right. Ty will tell me They've been, they've snuck around. No, they're great. They're great. So it just takes a lot. It takes a lot and yeah, and everyone liking what they do too as well, right, and having an open line communication. Like, again, going back, I come from an old school family where maybe communication wasn't always the best, if you will, right, but you learn that without that, like things aren't going to happen, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:Or people have to assume.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 1:And their assumptions might not be based on facts, but based on and as a leader you use the word leader if you can show that you're open, you can show that you're human if you will Like, a lot of times people will have bosses if you will and they're like well, I don't want to tell them that he may get mad or she may get mad. Like that's because you didn't create a situation where they have that open door to come talk to you, right, correct? You know what I'm saying? So, like that's where we've tried to like and we're not perfect, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. We're not perfect, but that's where we've tried to. We've taken experiences from that. We learned and kind of changed how things are done in our industry. Right, because in our industry we come from a very Our industry is very much like male dominated, if you will, at this point, right. So it's very much like the communication is not something that's harped on, right, like hey, let's talk. It's kind of like just figure it out. Sometimes it's a quick question, you know what I mean. It's a quick hey, what should we do here? Oh, do that Cool, so much more smooth, right, and the customer's happy, exactly, and that's ultimate goal, right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but communication isn't taught as well as we would think it would be.
Speaker 1:And we're still working. We're still working. I don't want to just come off like an awesome professional communicator. Trust me, I'm working on it. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:Communication, though, isn't something that is taught at a young age of how important it is. I mean, it kind of is, but it's not really like as critical as like hard work, ethic and just work hard. You know all those things, and so, yeah, you do get a mix of people team members yourself, group settings where, like I tell, when I hire new team members, I'll tell them right away I'm an over communicator and I want that in return.
Speaker 2:Don't feel like there's ever anything that you're like oh, I shouldn't have said that. It might not be with me, it might be with the team that you need to communicate with, but I would rather you tell too much information than not enough, and it's like setting those boundaries of like. Not set boundaries but setting those expectations of like. This is what I want here on this team, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I gotta catch myself because I say the same thing. I'm like, hey, let's communicate. Call me, I'd rather you call me, text me. And there's times where I'll get three calls in an hour and I'm not that live. By the third call I'm like in my mind I'm like, why are you calling me? But I get it. You know what I mean. I get it Like I understand it.
Speaker 2:I just told this to the team. I understand it.
Speaker 1:And I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have you communicating with this person and then they will let me know if I need to know it.
Speaker 1:Well, you're delegating, you're being a good leader. That's what I'm saying, like, but that takes learning too, right, that takes learning too. And we all, we all, again, we all have our frustrations. We all have our things going on personally, right, we're all. We're humans, right. But that phone call could be the difference of being like, of us finishing that job on that set timeline, the customer being satisfied and that's getting a good review, right versus versus like hey, we need to come back, or just gets delayed, and then at that point it's you know, yeah, so yeah
Speaker 1:another very important thing and I might be jumping ahead of myself is with our line of work is and if we found this out and we've heard it from our customers communication, right, like, we found out, that like, and we were shocked at first right, we would, we would like, we would schedule jobs, we would communicate email, let people know we're coming to their house and so many customers we would get to their house. To start, they were starting to like they would be so surprised we were there on time or we showed up that day, yeah and like that kind of caught us.
Speaker 1:We kind of like we would hear that, like, take a step back. But then you hear it enough and you're like, wow, like, and we're thinking like that's the least you can do, right, like you're working on someone's house. They have a schedule, they need to take off work, they have kids they may need to take care of. If you're gonna tell somebody you're gonna be there on a Tuesday between Between 7 and 7 30 in the morning, you need to be there, unless something comes up, which things do come up, yeah, but you need to communicate and we were just shocked how much in our line of work that communication wasn't there.
Speaker 1:Right right or back to this whole build.
Speaker 1:Old saying like the Overpromising, underperforming right like yeah it's all the time right and it's like I just we just like we don't, we try not to do that because it's like, honestly, we're trying to keep our headaches to a minimum, to right. You know we, you know we have a personal life too. We're trying to. You know, and I just it happens a lot where people just in our line of work, where they decide to by at all, you know what's the saying bite off more than they can chew, right, how do you manage that then?
Speaker 2:so, like, somebody is watching this and they're like, okay, this is a problem we're running into. A lot is we don't know how to manage time or expectations or Overpromising and under delivering. What do you have in your business to help manage that, because it's a lot on your shoulders? I know that you're not personally texting people. I don't think at least.
Speaker 1:We are. No, we have people in place, but that's that's another thing that we do. Is me, me and my brother our business, like we are Our only salesman? Yeah, meaning we're not, we're not out here. Again, back to it not away out here over promising, yeah, right, so it's easier when you're the one who's doing the work.
Speaker 2:When you're got a self-person, do it over not nothing.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, you're not, you're not easier to do that Then because the day is we all. As humans, we could have the best intentions, but at a day, we all have our own goals and aspirations in mind which is nothing wrong with that, yeah.
Speaker 1:But to your you've mentioned it, you said that word you may have a salesman that may only be looking at that commission check. Yeah, right, how can I get this sale? Yeah, and if I get this sale, I may Not communicate or, you know, dot my eyes and cross my T's with this customer, but I'll get a sale, I'll give my commission and I'll let my install team figure it out. I'll figure it out. Right, and that's just not the way that you that's not.
Speaker 1:That's not the way we work. You know what I mean. And I'm not saying we may not get to that point. Yeah and we've had an opportunities to Again. We generate enough volumes of leads that we could probably use an outside salesman, if you will. Yeah but we're still young, we still have energy, we're still willing, so that's something we give our customers and that goes back to us being allowing us to be accountable.
Speaker 1:Yeah and be Be honest if you want to get no honest. Using that term, I'm a maybe insinuating. People are not saying the truth and that's not what I'm saying. Yeah, but it allows us to excuse me. It allows us to control our situation in our job site. Yeah, a lot better.
Speaker 2:So my unsolicited advice to you to help you push past that is it might be a Mindset barrier only because I was in your place, so I get this a mindset barrier to allow you guys to hit your goals faster is that fear of we're gonna lose control of that relationship with their clients by allowing somebody else to do the selling for us? That's something in my own team where I've managed it Very, very closely to make sure number one, it's the right person.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, that's doing it, they've got the values and the ethics and exactly as if it were you and your brother doing it, mm-hmm. And then number two it allows you to let go and release a thing like release things. That will then allow you to Focus in on something else that needs more of your time attention. Not that the relationship doesn't need it, but that is something that oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:That's a constant battle being in business, right is letting go your baby, if you will right go up yeah. Absolutely. And to be successful and to grow, you have to right like, as I don't care how well you do things or how well you process things, this is gonna get to a point where you're gonna get overwhelmed, right? So no, I grew you. I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I mean and I was working on stuff and I think you know enough about, like, what you want, what you don't want, that you could move into that part of your business.
Speaker 1:In the next, however well, it's gonna need to happen right, like cuz I mean, even though I mean I think I'm gonna be young forever.
Speaker 2:I'm not right and my priorities are gonna change, right yeah, and your wife is gonna be like honey, stop texting. Right somewhere, is that? No, I'm dinner with me, hundred percent.
Speaker 1:No, no, a hundred percent right. So, yeah, it's sooner. We we do know that sooner or later that is gonna be something that we're gonna have to transition into, right. So, yeah, we're gonna have to be open to it, right, and We'll make it work. Right, we'll make it work, but it's gonna take some time and it'll take some time. And, yeah, and you're right, there is a little bit of letting good, letting go of, like you know, that first was and I'm not a parent yet, but hopefully one day, but I can only imagine, like, how, like your kid go to school the first day, right, like let it go With that hand, right, yeah, I mean the business is our baby. Right. Like it's allowed us to live a decent life, it's allowed us to have free time, it's allowed us to do certain things that we've always wanted to do. Right, and when you?
Speaker 2:have that baby.
Speaker 1:You're like I don't right want to just trust it with anybody and when you got the JMP like that's direct you know what I mean Like that's us, like that's JMP, right, so, like so. Yeah, I mean it's it's, it's a constant battle, right, but it's it's, it's one worth. It's one worth worth fighting, if you will.
Speaker 2:What's your brother's name?
Speaker 1:Joe, joe, yes, okay and he's upstairs waiting. He is upstairs. You came in for more support, right? You probably had him on camera. He's probably a bit better on camera than I am. Thank you so much, of course, on thank you I'd cast and I'm sorry to see your growth.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely a lot of that Passion and excitement and knowledge that you're just gonna keep pouring into your business.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you. It's been fun. It's been a good experience.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:You.