5 Must Learn Principles to Get Off the Ladder!

Summary

In this episode of the Off the Ladder podcast, Branden Sewell discusses the importance of personal growth and leadership for home service business owners. He emphasizes the need for continuous learning, understanding one's motivations, and the significance of focusing on a single area of expertise. Branden shares insights from five impactful books that have shaped his leadership style, highlighting the importance of discipline, ownership, and investing in team development. He concludes with a call to action for listeners to read and grow, including the wisdom found in the Bible.

Takeaways

Leaders invest in themselves through reading and learning.
Understanding your 'why' is crucial for motivation.
Focusing on one area of expertise leads to better results.
Building effective habits is essential for success.
Discipline is necessary to maintain habits and achieve goals.
Taking ownership of outcomes is key to effective leadership.
Investing in team development can unlock potential.
Mistakes are opportunities for growth and learning.
Reading the Bible can provide valuable life principles.
Continuous learning should be a lifelong commitment.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Leadership and Personal Growth
02:46 The Importance of Understanding Your 'Why'
06:08 Focusing on One Thing: The Power of Specialization
08:46 Building Effective Habits for Success
11:45 The Role of Discipline in Achieving Goals
14:59 Taking Ownership: The Key to Leadership
23:52 Investing in People: Developing Your Team
26:44 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Get More Reviews w/ NiceJob 
NiceJob Automates Your Review Requests!

Grow Your Business with Jobber
Sign up for a 14-day free trial or get a special discount when you sign up!

Get More Reviews w/ NiceJob
NiceJob Automates Your Review Requests!

The Perfect Payroll Solution
Gusto is a powerful and user friendly payroll provider. With Gusto you can integrate with Jobber and

Maximize Marketing Dollars w/ CallRail
Attach call tracking numbers to all your marketing campaigns and track their success!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Branden Sewell (00:01.39)
Hi everybody, I'm Brandon Sewell. I'm the owner of Seal Pro Painting located in central Florida. I'm also the host of the Off the Ladder podcast and we exist to help home service business owners learn so that they can lead well and ultimately live life off of the ladder. Welcome to today's show. I'm excited about this one because I think it's just a very foundational thing that I'm gonna go over today.

One of the things that I learned when I was younger was that leaders invest in themselves. Leaders, you know, I've heard this term over and over again, leaders are readers. And if you're going to lead, if you want to grow and you want to take your business, your organization to another level, you have to invest in yourself.

And so if you're listening to this episode, if you've listened to other episodes and you don't read, then there's a big problem. Now, maybe it's not necessarily reading, but you need to be listening to books. there was a season in my life where I read a of books. Now where I'm at in life.

with two kids and a business and all of that. Sitting down to read a book is a little bit more challenging, but we have resources like Audible now. So I use Audible and I try to listen to at minimum 12 books a year or more. And so just having a consistent, you know, diet of reading.

and taking in new information and learning and growing. One of the worst things that you can do for yourself is to stop learning and to become stagnant and to not be investing in your personal growth, your personal development. So with this episode, what I want to do is I want to go over five books.

Branden Sewell (02:21.43)
that I just kind of picked at random. was, you know, these are, they are five books that I have really impacted me, have helped me in shaping who I am as a leader and how I run my business. And, you know, there's, there's a lot of other books that I could.

recommend and that are amazing books and each one of them are you know amazing and you know so it's hard to to narrow it down to five but anyway I picked five because I think there's five principles from each of these that are really important for getting off the ladder or

running a business and really kind of taking building a foundation that helps you to get into other books that help you to develop even more. But anyway so we're just going to work through this this list of five books and and then what I'm going to do is just share like you know some principles from each one and takeaways and I don't want this episode to be too long so

Let's go ahead and jump into this. So the first book that I wrote down to go over is Start With Why. Now the reason why I put this one first is I feel like in order to, you know, like I said, have a good foundation, you need to have a why. Like you need to understand what drives you in business.

Like, so before you try to figure out the how to get off the ladder and what you need to do to get off the ladder and when to get off the ladder and and all of those things, you need to understand why. Why are you getting off the ladder? What's driving you? What's your inspiration? What's what gives it deeper meaning and purpose than just, hey, I'm going to do this and this is

Branden Sewell (04:40.814)
Who and what and when and where and all those things to do it? The why is what really? Needs to be figured out so you know for me my why You know there's there's a few but I mean at the top like in order for me to Not be just like completely overwhelmed and drained

and consumed by my business to the point where I don't have time to focus on my faith, well, my faith is a driver, it's a why. So I wanna make sure that I have the margin in my life to make my faith a priority. And so what does that mean? That means like, you know, I'm able to, you know, be disciplined in my...

devotional habits, attending church, serving and doing all of those things that I do, participating in my faith. And my business doesn't take over. My family is another why. My business doesn't consume me to the point where I can't spend time with my family. So I'm present for my family.

And not to say that you can't do those things on the ladder. It just it's harder to grow and not let it affect those other areas. So anyway, my family, you know, health. So, you know, even for like the guys who work on my team, you know, for some of them, I want them to focus on, how can we develop you?

I'm in other areas to eventually get you into a role in the business that isn't gonna be as physically demanding because I mean the reality is is the labor physical labor the trades can be hard on your body and so I think there's a point where even for our employees we want to start thinking of like okay well

Branden Sewell (07:02.466)
Can we develop some other skills to transition you into sales, to project management, to doing other things in the business that are not going to cause you to just drive your body into the ground? And so, and you know, that's like taking ego out of the picture. You know, I think,

as men, want to work hard and we want to do that. And we we feel like we have something to prove. But if you drive your body into the ground, and you're no longer healthy, and you can't function, then that becomes a problem too. So again, like just personal health, you know, and that could be mental, physical, all that.

But anyway, those are some some whys for me of like, OK, this is why I'm going to get off the ladder and this is why I'm going to choose to run my business the way I do. So anyway, I would encourage you to if you're listening to this podcast because you want to get off the ladder. It's challenging. It's very hard to do. It's not easy to get off the ladder, but.

it's possible and to endure the challenges you need to have a strong why because it's in the challenging times and the moments where you're going to want to give up or quit that you have to remember the why and that'll help you get through the challenges. The next book that I want to talk about is the one thing so something that I learned early on you know I.

started my business and then I read this book and early on I tried to do a lot of other things. We were doing flooring, were doing small, I wouldn't say kitchen and bathroom models, for example, going into a kitchen and painting the cabinets, putting up backsplash, changing out counters, sinks.

Branden Sewell (09:18.158)
You know, things like that. Going into bathrooms and, you know, putting in a new shower, changing out of vanity, putting new flooring, you know, things like that. So, but those things were distractions. They were usually jobs that I lost money on, things that I wasn't as knowledgeable in. So there were things that I missed maybe in the bidding process, expenses.

And so it just became a way that I like lost money and I got distracted from the main thing and so I read this book and I really just decided like, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna focus on being the absolute best painting company that I can be and I'm not gonna Allow myself to get distracted by all of these other things that I could be doing and I'm gonna focus on just trying to be the best painting company

And so I think, you know, if if you're if you're wanting to get off the ladder, if you're wanting to do something, focus on one thing and do it well. Don't get distracted. If if you're going to be a flooring contractor, be a flooring contractor and do that really well. And once you master that, then then maybe add in some other things. But just focus on one thing and just seek to be

excellent in one thing before you try to master a bunch of other things. And that's been really key for me in my development as a business owner and as a leader. It's really hard to do one thing really well and with excellence when you're distracted by too many things. So that book is really, really important. The third book

that I'm going to recommend is atomic habits. So there's kind of like this natural progression, you you understand your why, you niche down to one thing that you're going to focus on. And then comes the hard work and changing who you are changing how you do things. And so I think atomic habits is really important because the reality is, is that

Branden Sewell (11:48.238)
It's very difficult to run a business. It's very difficult to get off the ladder when you're out in the field and when you're already doing things a certain way. You have to develop yourself. You have to grow as a leader. You have to grow in so many different areas. You have to essentially learn and grow in every area of running your business. And so that's not an easy thing to do. But you can create

little habits, you know, start start with these small little habits. You know, it's something as simple as like, hey, I'm going to have this, this small habit of waking up early and investing in myself. And then, you know, the other thing that I'll say is like,

You have to adopt a mindset of saying, and I've heard this from a leader I really respect, that's Craig Rochelle, is that you have to adopt this mindset that this is who I am. You know, I am a person who wakes up early. I am a person who learns and grows and invests myself. I am a person who is a leader.

and a, you know, just a forward thinking person in in my industry. And so you've got to kind of work on that mindset and change, start to change who you are. And, you know, like I said, that starts with these making these small little habit changes. It's not like

You know, the the Atomic Habits book, what it's essentially trying to hit on is that, you know, you don't get to where you want to go or become what you want to be by saying, like, you just look at this big picture, like, I'm going to get off the ladder. Well, OK, like, that's a that's a big task. Right. But can you focus on the little habits that you need to develop in your life in order to get to

Branden Sewell (14:07.822)
the next level in your business. So change those little habits. Become the person who has been equipped and changed in the person who can get off the ladder. So you've got to start pretty small. Start working on small little habits in your life to get there. So atomic habits is important.

Fourth book, discipline is destiny. So again, there's this natural progression. You start with why you understand what's motivating you. You niche down to like one thing that you're going to focus on and be excellent at. You use atomic habits. Now you need discipline to stick to those habits. So developing discipline, basically what discipline and

Discipline is destiny is about is it's talking about how really the key to unlocking like what you want and where you want to go and doing what you want to do as as a person in general is Discipline like you have to have discipline If if you don't then it's gonna be very hard to get where you want to go like you have to make decisions that are

you know based in this determination of like this is where i'm going in this is what i want to accomplish and sometimes that's in spite of your feelings it's in spite of a lot of things on and so. Creating discipline in your life is really important so highly recommend discipline is destiny. The last book that i'm going to recommend that i think is like just.

It really encompasses all of that and it's really been probably my favorite leadership book and probably the book that has helped me the most as a leader is extreme ownership. Now the reason why I say that is extreme ownership really captures this.

Branden Sewell (16:30.85)
this principle that it really all comes down to you. Like you can't shift blame. can't. At the end of the day, everything rises and falls on you. The results of your life, the results in your business, the results in every area of your life, your marriage, your relationships. It really comes down to you have to accept this. Like it's on me. You have to be willing to take that one yourself.

and say like, hey, if my business is not going in the direction that it needs to go, it's not because I can't find great people. It's not because I can't bid jobs well enough because I'm getting underbid. It's not because of the economy. It's not because my team is awful.

and because of this person's character, this other person. It's not because of any of that. You have to take it back and say, it's on me. Why can't I find better people? Why, you know, what can I do in a difficult economy to still thrive? Because the reality is, is there's businesses out there that are going to be thriving either way.

And so it's it's not letting yourself fall into this blame game or this trap of being a victim of circumstances. And it's a it's hard because you have to take that on and it's not easy to face your shortcomings. It's not easy to face your apathy and your fears and.

You know, all of these negative things that make us human, your imperfections, it's not easy to look those things in the mirror and say like, hey, the reason why we don't have enough work right now is because of me. The reason why my team is struggling is because of me. The reason why my business is where it at is because of me. You have to take that ownership and and then

Branden Sewell (18:48.714)
You know, and that's that's a progression in itself. Like it takes time to, you know, accept like the ownership to accept like, hey, yes, some of these points might be, you know, a somewhat relative point. But at the end of the day, like, I can't blame that I have to take ownership. So

you have to be willing to own it. Like there's no other way to put it. Like it's on you 100 percent. If sales are suffering, it's because you haven't worked on your sales process and made your sales process better. If your sales team is not succeeding, it's on you. Like you hired the wrong person. You're not developing them. You're not equipping them. It's on you.

it marketing like if you're not getting enough business coming in, it's not your marketing agencies fault. It's not the economy. It's on you because at the end of the day, if you want it bad enough, you're going to go make it happen. Production, if production is slipping up and, you know, failing, it's not on them. Like, yes, they might be the ones out there doing the work, but it's your lack of leadership that's causing problems in the field.

If you're having problems on jobs with workmanship or whatever, if you're having issues with customers, that's on you. Yes, they might be the ones who are in the field, but if they're not doing what they're supposed to, if you have a bad reputation, that's not because, you know, you have the bad guy that you have working for you. It's your fault that you hired the guy. It's your fault that you didn't have values and

You know core values for your business when you hired it's you know your fault that you didn't have better on boarding to train on the mission the values of your company. It's on you like you have to get to this point where you say yes there's all these other little things that are going on but at the end of the day it's a reflection of your leadership. I remember years ago when I first started my my business and.

Branden Sewell (21:16.032)
I was actually subcontracting a lot of our workout and I would have issues with subcontractors and it's really easy to say, it's the subcontractors fault that I lost money on this job and it's the subcontractors fault that we're having an issue with this customer. And you can say all of those things, but at the end of the day, it was my fault because I hired that subcontractor.

I didn't set clear expectations for that subcontractor. I'm the one who decided to have subs and not employees. And so at the end of the day, it's on you. You have to take ownership. so, you know, that again, I think you can kind of tell I'm very passionate about that book. I've probably shared this in other episodes, but I love one of the illustrations in that book.

And one of the key principles is that there's no such thing as bad teams, only bad leaders and Jocko and and leaf the the authors of the book, former Navy SEALs, they talk about Hell Week, and they're going through this, this training. And they're basically what they have to do is they're doing

they have boat crews and there's like a certain amount of teams and they're doing these races and it pays to win and so like when you win you maybe you get a break or something but anyway they have this like team who's like coming in first and they have this team that's losing and so the basically the drill sergeant or instructor whatever goes to the team that's losing and is like asking I'm like hey you know you're

why are you losing and the team, the leader blames it on, you know, someone in their team. And so what the instructor does, the drill sergeant does, and he takes to make a point, he takes the leader from the boat crew that's winning. He takes that leader and he puts them on the team with the team that was losing.

Branden Sewell (23:34.298)
And they do the race again and the team that lost or was coming in last is now coming in first and winning. And the point that he makes is like, you know, so there's no such thing as bad teams, only bad leaders. so when when there's a bad leader in an organization or a business, the business, the organization is going to go the wrong direction. But as long as the leader

takes ownership and leads well, then it doesn't really matter what team is in place, you can have success. And I love that not just for the simple fact of like of the leadership and the leader who's doing a great job, but I love that it's it's it's it's painting this picture that everybody has great potential to win. And so maybe even right now in your business,

You have your you're not doing well. You're you're failing. You're struggling and you're you're blaming it on your team. You could have a gold mine of people working for you. But because you're not taking ownership and developing them, developing yourself and developing them, then you're missing out on these amazing people. You know, some.

Sometimes I think even my own guys don't understand that, you know, like I might I might keep somebody on when they think I should let them go. But I believe that there is potential in every single person that works for me. And one of my goals is to try and pull that out of even those who don't see the potential or the value in themselves. And so I want to

invest in those that maybe others would give up on or discard and say, hey, like, maybe they're not where they could be. Maybe they're not doing what they could be and and growing and becoming what they could because they haven't had a leader who gives them a chance or an opportunity to learn and to grow and to become like you don't just arrive. People have to

Branden Sewell (25:59.778)
be developed. People have to be poured into and that takes time. Like I didn't become who I am in a day. I didn't just arrive. I have I've had to invest in myself. I've had to seek out people to invest in me and help me to get better. And so I want to do that same thing for somebody else. And

So instead of just like discarding people, I want to develop people. And so I would challenge you if you're listening to this, think the, you know, here's my way of doing things is if I feel like somebody is doing the work to, they're willing to learn and they're willing to grow and they're humble, I'll employ them.

as long as I can keep in and pouring into them and investing into them. The ones that I can't deal with is those who just put up a wall and they can't be coached. They can't be developed. That's when it's it's like an end of the line. But if somebody makes mistakes if they do things wrong I'm not just going to fire them. I'm going to try to find the the opportunity to

coach and to teach. Because the way that I look at it is I'm not a perfect person. I make mistakes. And so I often say this to my guys. like, well, if I was if I was expected to be perfect and always do everything right and and that was the basis for owning my business, then I should just quit and close up shop and fire myself.

But I believe that I make mistakes, but I'm humble and I'm teachable and I want to learn and I want to get better. So when I do make mistakes, I just say, OK, what can I learn from this? How can I avoid having that happen again? And what can I do to change in the future? And so I just want the same thing for my employees. I don't expect them to be perfect.

Branden Sewell (28:21.932)
I don't expect them to never make mistakes. I actually I expect them to be human and to make mistakes and to be imperfect. But what I'm looking for in them is can you be humble? Can you own it when you're wrong? Can you own it when you make a mistake? And can we learn together and get better together as a team? That's what I'm looking for. And so anyway, I'm going to

Close this out. Those are five books that I think have five incredible principles. Well, they have some five key themes, five key principles that you can pull away many other principles within the book that you can learn. But go read those books. Go get them on Audible. Listen to them. Invest in yourself and then have a consistent diet of learning and reading and growing and listening to books.

And lastly, you know, I didn't want to be super like cliche with this, but the Bible, like if you want the ultimate wisdom, if you want the ultimate just recipe for I don't want to say success because it's not really about success or like a material or financial thing, but just for

substance if you know just for growth for just fulfillment read the Bible there's incredible principles in there to help you walk through this life in every area so if you haven't read it read it for yourself listen to it and it'll really help you in your business and as an owner a great place to start would just be like reaps

read Proverbs. 31 chapters you can read, a chapter a day, and you know every month read a chapter a day and you'll get wisdom in there that'll help you to make wise decisions and run your business better. So anyway, hope that this episode is valuable for you, hope that you get some takeaways. If you want to reach out to me for any other suggestions for books to read,

Branden Sewell (30:44.686)
I have a huge list of books that I can give you that have helped to shape me and help me to grow as a leader and as a business owner. As always, if you need any resources for your business, please check the show notes below. I do get credit. It is a support to me financially if you use my affiliate links, if you decide to use any of the resources below.

So please use my link that helps me to get credit if you decide to sign up for any of those resources If you're watching this on YouTube, please like comment subscribe share all of those things if you are Watching or listening to this on any major podcast platform Please rate and review the show so that we can reach more people And as always thank you so much for tuning into this episode and I'll see you next time

on the next episode of the Off the Ladder podcast.