029: Resilience Amid Chaos: What Truly Matters in Life and Business

Ever wonder how to juggle life's chaos with grace and a sense of humor? Join us for a heartening chat with Paul, whose journey of managing personal hurdles and business challenges is both inspiring and insightful. From dealing with a significant other's medical concerns to the stress of building a new home, Paul has faced it all without losing sight of what truly matters: health and relationships. His story of acquiring another company amidst these pressures is a testament to his resilience. He shares the smart strategies he used to delegate tasks, especially IT, to keep his business thriving even during personal emergencies. Paul's positivity and laughter are infectious, and his insights on prioritizing what truly matters might just transform your perspective on balancing life and work.

In the second part of our conversation, we explore the dynamics of empowering a team to grow and succeed independently. By sharing his approach to fostering a culture of learning at one's own pace, Paul highlights the power of documenting processes and encouraging independent problem-solving. His strategy of blending speed with thoughtful learning has led his team to execute tasks with confidence and efficiency. Listen in to discover how fostering team autonomy not only bolsters business continuity but also nurtures a collaborative environment primed for continuous improvement. This episode is packed with lessons on resilience, adaptability, and the value of nurturing a self-reliant team amidst the unpredictable twists of life.

IT Haven:
https://ithavenpro.com

Paul Haven on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-havens-it-haven

Chapters

• 0:09 Balancing Personal and Business Challenges
• 7:58 Empowering Team Autonomy and Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

so, um, paul, I'm gonna steer this a little bit in a direction. I know you the struggles of of staff right, of being an employer and dealing with people and and you know people have problems and you know, we know some don't work out and some work better than others. And you not only went through this the struggle of people and building your business and growing. You went through and you acquired another company. You made an acquisition which basically double the size of your company, based off of my knowledge of you. But during all this time, you also had some personal struggles that you've been dealing with when it comes to your significant other in your life. Right, this is an ongoing thing. You built a house during all this same time. You know surgeries, medical things, but yet you always have a smile on your face and you've always got that amazing laugh. You know how do you do it. Just share that with me and share it with our listeners. How do you manage to keep it light like you do? Because you go through some serious stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Yeah, yeah. For me, every day is really just a blessing, really, right, like we're here on this earth and we get to experience things that are going on. The material things don't matter much. The things that are stressful are, like you say, shelley's medical things that she has going on and and, uh, stuff like that. That's the stuff that that makes me worried, right, because that's that's actually life, right, that's not material thing. Like a house, I can build another house, a job, I can get another job. My business goes out of business tomorrow. I'm still on the earth and I'm still. I'm still going to be fine, right, as long as you have the will to go do something you can, you can get it done Right, and so that's always been my attitude and I just have fun with it, right. So, yeah, yeah, we struggle, I. So today, my, my, my longest tenured technician turned into his resignation today, like two weeks from now.

Speaker 2: 2:30

Like my guy that's been with me with the company, the company that I bought. He's been with them for 11 years, longer than my company has been in business. He's been working for this company in some form or fashion. Working for this company in some form or fashion, he's got some you know, some personal health issues in his family, his mother-in-law's having some things and he's got some things going on and and he was only able to put in 25 hours a week. Now it was going to get less and he just decided it wasn't fair to either one of us to to do that way and he wanted to focus on other things. So so he's moving on and he's probably not even getting another job. He's probably just going to be home and doing some education stuff.

Speaker 2: 3:14

It's tough, you know. You know it's tough. I gotta, I gotta replace that guy. Well, here we go. It's fine. It's just another thing. You know it's another hurdle. It's just another thing. You know it's another hurdle.

Speaker 2: 3:25

It's another thing to learn on everything. That everything that is a thing is is something to learn on something. Get better with right, so it's fine, it'll be fine. Um, we'll move on. Um, not only will I learn, but all the people around me will learn. Like, because now he's got to pass all his knowledge on in the next few weeks of everything he knows about everybody, right? So all those people are going to be better for it, right, it's a learning thing. Now are they going to get all the knowledge. No Guess when they're going to get the knowledge. Well, when that thing pops up again, we've got to figure it out. They'll learn it, it'll be fine, we'll get by, it's fine. I mean it's just. It's just life. People have things going on and the personal aspect of it is more important than the business aspect of it, right? So that's how I always look at it. As long as my health is good, I'm going to have a smile on my face. Now, when I'm not healthy, maybe it won't be so smiley.

Speaker 1: 4:19

But so how do you juggle that? How do you juggle that personal aspect right? And you said shelly's medical aspects and things like. I know, just recently you, you took a journey, uh, up north seattle, I think you said correct. You know, with the business being pulling you one direction and, and now this is shelly and her needs pulling another direction. You know, um, how are you managing that? And what is your, I guess, what is your coping mechanism?

Speaker 2: 4:46

So when I acquired the other company, I decided I was going to delegate every IT aspect of it. So, like, because of things like this, right, like if she has something going on and we just have to do it, I didn't want our customers to suffer for that, right, like, maybe the sales will suffer, right, we won't get sales in. That doesn't hurt the company. You know that doesn't grow the company. But that doesn't grow the company.

Speaker 1: 5:11

But that doesn't hurt, the company just puts it on pause.

Speaker 2: 5:13

I delegated, I delegated all the it aspect out, like I don't do any of it, like I I refuse to do it. People ask me and I just like, uh, no, figure it out, you know, and let me know, come up, come up with a better question. Then how do you do this? You like get, get specific about something and I will let you know. But like, don't ask, don't ask me to do it for you and just tell you how. So I did that really quickly when I got this other company, because I figured I had guys that had longevity in their, in their careers. They were going to have a lot of knowledge on themselves and the team could ask them Right and the team could ask them right. And so I just stepped back and stepped out of the it role, stepped into the business management role, which there was a lot to do there. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of integrations going on. I had a lot to do on that side of it when, when purchasing another company, uh, which meant that it was a good reason for me not to do it work, and so that's what happened.

Speaker 2: 6:10

And and ever since, I just don't touch it, I just don't. You know I do get questions once in a great while. Sure, I look in and on things after hours and make sure they're getting things done right. You know, sure, I do that, but that's because I want to, you know, it's not because I have to. Um, so that's how I balance. It really is delegation, and the more you can delegate, really find the people that can do that job better than you can do it. And if you can find that person, your business is going to grow because of it, and so that's always been my attitude is find someone that can do that job better than me and I will hire you to do that job right, like, uh, that's, that's what I want, you know, um, maybe I want my job.

Speaker 1: 7:01

Come get it so delegation is great, you know. Once again, you know I think we all have been that, stuck in the, in that spot and maybe sometimes don't want to let go some of those things, or whatever our reasons are. Um, I know personally that obviously I've grown a lot in just the past couple of years when it comes to delegation and letting things go, and also, at the same time, you know you mentioned people that could do it better than you. In my case, maybe on some aspects or other aspects, it was about, um, you know, helping to grow them and teaching them those things Um and uh and then just run with it, right, you know, passing that torch and um yeah, I was kind of saying the same thing with the it side.

Speaker 2: 7:45

I was like, yeah, they're not going to do it as good as me. They're asking me questions, you know. Yeah, I can fix that thing in five minutes. Yeah, it might take them 45 minutes, but they still fixed it. They'll still have a sense of pride in that, right.

Speaker 1: 7:57

Sure.

Speaker 2: 7:58

Um, and so I had to. I had to choose whether I wanted it done quickly, um, or if I wanted it to be done slowly, but someone learning from it, right, and? And every time they do do it, they're going to get better and faster and better and faster and pretty soon, um, today I I believe all my techs that are with me can do it almost as fast as I can do it, like, yeah, just take care of that. Now, you know, I don't have to worry about it and that's because I was hands off and let them learn. You know, I show them too much. They're going to be relied on being shown and I want them to figure it out, document it, put it in it, glue, you know, if you do it, document it. That's that's our rule, right, like, if you do it, document it if you, if you didn't find it in there, you document it afterwards, right, so we, we document everything. So it's, it's really good on that side of things. But, yeah, and it just keeps getting better.

Speaker 1: 8:55

So another one of those aspects. I guess too, at least in my team. At times it would be like come to me with an option A and B, come to me with what you think we should do and let's discuss that aspect. Get some thinking involved, get some planning what makes the most sense, and then let's discuss that aspect. Right, get some thinking involved, get some planning. You know what makes the most sense and then let's discuss that. So come to me for the answer, right, come to me with a potential resolution and let's explore those.

Speaker 2: 9:24

Yeah, I want you to come, to come, come to me, and just I want the first words out of your, out of your mouth, to be am I on the right track with doing blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Sure, that's what I want to hear right.

Speaker 2: 9:37

And then I can say yes or no, or maybe you should do this thing and maybe look at this and let them go figure it out. Hi, I'm Mark.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech Solutions and Cyber Guardians. I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech Solutions and Cyber Guardians. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting edge IT and cybersecurity services, we'd love to help. Our expertise in securing your business with AI precision ensures that you're protected and empowered to thrive. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business.