The Grit Blueprint

Unlocking Greatness When No One Believes In You With Jacob Emery

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Jacob Emery shares his remarkable journey from troubled teen earning $9/hour to becoming co-owner of R&R Pipeline. His story reveals how embracing adversity, overcoming fears, and building strong teams transformed his life and business.

• Growing up overweight with learning difficulties and family struggles that led to acting out as a teenager
• Starting at R&R Pipeline at 16 years old and working his way up from the bottom rung
• The turning point when a friend challenged him to do more with his life
• Boldly claiming the operations manager position and transforming the company's culture
• Purchasing R&R Pipeline in 2019 despite having only $37,000 net worth
• Creating the "Pipeline of Prosperity" culture based on accountability, transparency, and recognition
• Launching "Unlocking Greatness with Jacob Emery" coaching program to help others achieve their goals
• The importance of investing in personal development and finding mentors who have achieved what you want
• Understanding that the journey matters more than the destination

Visit jacobemery.com or find Jacob on all social media platforms @jacobemery44 to download his free Break Barriers Blueprint and learn more about his coaching program.


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Jacob Emery:

Winter's gonna hit everybody. Adversity's gonna hit. Expecting the easy life is what makes it harder. So choose your heart and be prepared for it.

Stefanie Couch:

That hunger in people. When I see that in people, it makes me want to help them, and I think there's been a lot of people that have felt that way. They feel your passion and your hunger and they see that ability in you Like, hey, this person could do this thing.

Jacob Emery:

Everything is possible in life if we pursue it hard enough. But it doesn't mean that the way we're going to get there is the way that we might think. The people you care about the most might not be the ones that help you get what you want out of life, and that's okay.

Stefanie Couch:

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast, the show for bold builders, brand leaders and legacy makers in the construction and building industry. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and I've been in this industry my entire life. Whether we're breaking down what's working in sales and marketing, new advances in AI and automation, or interviewing top industry leaders, you're going to get real-world strategies to grow your business, build your brand and lead your team. Let's get to work. Welcome to the Grit Blueprint podcast. I'm your host, Stefanie Couch, and today I'm excited to be joined by Jacob Emery.

Stefanie Couch:

He is the co-owner of R&R Pipeline. He's also a host of a podcast, iron and Infrastructure. I love the alliteration in the name. Jacob is a leader in the construction industry and he is actually known for his commitment to really building strong teams and we had a great conversation a few weeks ago and I was able to see his passion. And he is a entrepreneur through and through and he's a real great leader and learner, which I love because we talked a lot about coaching and all the different. And he's a real great leader and learner, which I love because we talked a lot about coaching and all the different things that he's into. So, jacob, thank you for joining me on the show. I'm excited about this conversation today.

Jacob Emery:

Stefanie, I appreciate your time. It's an honor to be here and I'm really excited to have this session today.

Stefanie Couch:

I don't meet very many people that love learning and coaching and education in this space of construction as much as you. So when we talked a few weeks ago, I was like this guy is awesome. I can't wait to learn a little bit more about him and his journey, and I know that our listeners are going to love that. So for people who maybe don't know, jacob Emery, tell me a little bit about you, your background. How did you get started in this construction world?

Jacob Emery:

Yeah, so growing up I got in a lot of trouble. So I was kind of a fat kid. I was overweight when I was younger and it ended up becoming a bigger issue with insecurity. And then it compounded when I struggled to read and write English is not to this day. I still have third grade grammar, that's what I always tell people so it's always been a struggle. Mine math was something I picked up easy, but English was not, not there. So I struggled, you know, and I had insecurities of being overweight and then being in front of an audience or a classroom to put my hand up in front of other people would terrify me. So it compounded. And then my parents got divorced when I was a teenager and so I just started acting out. I had the ability, because of that situation, to exploit it and to be out of control. And so just imagine a lost visionary entrepreneur in high school that had no ceiling of success, that was looked down upon, that didn't fit in, and so, debtor in jail by 21 was my ceiling of success at probably 16 to 18.

Jacob Emery:

And I had worked at R&R Pipeline in the summertime in between school years, and so I was familiar with the company. It was a local company and I went there right after high school because I just realized that I would never survive college. College was not for me. I barely survived high school. So I decided to go into the workforce and my thought was let me go make $20,000, maybe buy a house, instead of spend $20,000 and be in debt for school that I know I won't finish. And I wanted to go into business management anyway. So I just realized, you know what? I'm just going to go work. I'm just going to go see what it's about and just see if this ends up becoming anything.

Stefanie Couch:

That's awesome and I agree with the struggle of being kind of a really smart kid but wayward in some way. I feel like that's the struggle of a lot of entrepreneurs they have, you know. You hear about people having ADHD or all these different things. That are kind of superpowers once you learn to use them. But man, they're hard when you're a kid and you're not like everybody else. I struggled with my weight like almost my whole life, and that's also hard when you're not like everybody else. But I think the idea of not being like everybody else, maybe what actually is one of your superpowers, you know, what is something that maybe someone wouldn't know about you from from what meets the eye now, cause you're super fit, you obviously have a business, you have a lot of businesses, you're out there speaking, podcasting, so you've gotten over all those fears. But what's something people might not know?

Jacob Emery:

Well, my two biggest fears in life were having my shirt off in front of other people and being on camera. So for the longevity of my life, up until a few years ago, them two fears were the biggest. And now, you know, I work out every day with my shirt off and I get on camera almost every day and it's almost just my way of saying F you to the world. I'm going to do it on my terms and it's my subtle reminder that I'm conquering that fear all the time.

Stefanie Couch:

I love that. It's awesome when you can get over your biggest fear and realize that really it's not that big of a deal Like you said. You're doing it every single day. But how many things do we let stop us from going after what we want in life because of something that could, after a few times doing it, not be a big deal?

Jacob Emery:

Yeah, and that's the thing. You know fears. If you think of fear from a visual standpoint, it can look miles long and 100 foot deep. If you're standing on the edge of the water and you realize that once you take a step into it it only a few inches deep and it's not as long or as wide as it seems to be. And although you might fall down, you might get wet, you might have, you know hardship in that, you know journey it's really not that bad. But the first step is the hardest. The journey to a thousand miles starts with that first step, and that first step is what normally costs people. You know the worst. There is a cost of inaction and if you want to pursue your dreams you have to start with that first step.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that it's interesting to me how many people sit around and talk and think and ideate and try to come up with this perfect plan. But I've done this now for three years with this entrepreneurship journey and there's almost never a moment where the plan that I had when I started is what actually ended up happening, like even close. But I think it's just having enough foresight to say I'm not going to know unless I've done it. And if you think that people don't screw up every single day, we none of us really know what we're doing ever. I mean, you don't know it in a job, whether you're working for corporate or doing it on your own. Until you've done it a lot, you don't know what you're doing. So I think it's you're not an imposter, you're just inexperienced.

Jacob Emery:

Yeah, and I talk about confidence and ego and the difference between the two.

Jacob Emery:

And to me, ego is saying that you know how to do something without doing it, the yes man, the know-it-all, the person that in the construction industry, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And then there's confidence, where there's just a proven track record that you are this person, that you you have this pedigree and that you know how to do this thing, because it's undeniable proof you know on your resume or whatever it may be that I am this person. But normally most times, Stefanie, we are not as good as we think we are and we're also not as bad as we think we are. So it's hard to be self-aware sometimes and really knowing what the true state of who you are is. But having enough faith to know that I can get through this, being vulnerable enough to say I don't know what I don't know that's part of leadership to me and you mentioned a failure a minute ago. Failure is a requirement for success, because without failure there is no success, because you never get started.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, and if you're not willing to look pretty stupid honestly, you might as well not start your entrepreneurship journey, because I feel like every day my husband and I talk about it a lot. It's like extreme ownership is is one of our core values in our company. Jocko Willink wrote that book and I read it when I was at corporate and it kind of changed my perception on everything because I was playing a lot of blame games like, well, if he just did this or she just did this. And now that I own the company with my husband, there's not a lot of blaming. That could go on. So it's pretty easy to have extreme ownership because like, well, that was really stupid.

Jacob Emery:

You don't have much of a choice.

Stefanie Couch:

It's like we, even with the employees we have, we directly told them to do that real stupid thing, so we can't really blame anybody but ourselves. But you know, I think that's an important part of life is to be able to look at what you're doing and say, hey, I screwed up, I learned. For the next time, hopefully. I know we have a mutual person. We admire Alex Hermosi. He talks about trying to make the mistake at $10 or $100 instead of $10,000 or a million, and so I'm making a lot of mistakes now. So hopefully, when we get bigger and we know more, we don't have to make that mistake at a bigger level. But I think you're still going to make them and it's just part of it.

Stefanie Couch:

So I want to talk a little bit about levels, because you started making nine dollars an hour at r? R pipeline. I want to know what was your first job at the company, kind of how. How does that pro progress? So walk me through the journey from going from nine dollar an hour probably a guy with a shovel in his hand, i'm'm guessing and you actually bought the company. I'm sure there's a lot of journey in between. Walk me through that.

Jacob Emery:

So I actually started at 16 years old for $7 an hour, but it wasn't full time, so I leave that part out. So your listeners will get a kick out of that because it's something that I don't ever really talk about. But during the summertime and after school I'd go in and change oil and help the mechanics out, and then I would wash trucks just whatever was available. And then I went into the field at 17 as part of a cleanup crew, probably for that $7 an hour range. And then 2007, when I started full time, it was $9 an hour and I went right on the road. My first week of work was on the road and so I went on the road and probably was on the road majority of seven or eight years after that, and so bottom of the labor pool, $9 an hour, like you said, with a shovel in my hand, and I became a product of that environment Toxic.

Jacob Emery:

I always swore I would never smoke, I would never chew, I would never do all this stuff, and I picked up every one of them bad habits, and I already had bad habits and it just compounded and made it worse. So from 18 to 20, I just progressed zero. It was zero progression, zero accountability for myself. I was still a child, basically, and I was at the old school gym one day and my now business partner in a couple different businesses, and probably my best friend, corey Gregory I'm sitting on a tractor tire and I had been laid off during the winter. So I had been laid off a couple of months and I was in the gym every day for four to five hours and I was there because I was angry about life and that was the only time I felt peace mentally. So I'm at the gym and I'm sitting on this tractor tire and I'll never forget this moment as long as I live. And I had my head in my hands and I'm just sitting there and I'm being a victim and I'm just trying to, you know, blame the world for my problems, and I wasn't doing it out loud, but that's what what the setting was like. And Corey comes up and he said man, what the hell are you doing with your life? And he called me out and there was dialogue before that, but basically it was right to the point of why are you here so much? What are you? What are you doing? What are you going to accomplish? What do you want out of life.

Jacob Emery:

15 years later I went in and did a podcast interview on his on his show and then a year later started mine. But he meant why are you not a personal trainer? So I was at the gym all the time, I was in good shape, and he thought I should have been a personal trainer. Well, I had never pursued it and I thought about it. I go back to work not long after and then I actually go to take personal training test and I had to make a choice there. I had to be a pipeline or a personal trainer because of outside circumstance. Basically, I didn't have a choice. I had to pick one or the other. And so I ended up saying I failed the test for the personal training. I actually passed it. I just told that story for the first time ever a couple of months ago.

Jacob Emery:

But it created this edge and this intensity and conviction that I will never allow myself to be on someone else's terms again. And it started the turning point really right there, and I didn't know where I wanted to be at, but I knew the next step. So from that point I'm like okay, I want to be a relight technician where I can. You know we'd do natural gas work. So shut the gas off, turn the gas back on in the house, so I'll chase that. So it was just chasing that next thing at next certification. And so I did that.

Jacob Emery:

And then I went to be an operator and so I became an operator, probably at 21. And then by 22, there was an opportunity that came up with a new client that we had just acquired, and I went there and within a month or two I was running a crew and so I ran one crew and then I became almost like a project manager and then I was good at putting people in the right seat. If I had any ability whatsoever, it was that I was able to get people scheduled out far ahead, communicate clearly and then make sure that everyone was doing something that they were good at. And what I had seen right at the beginning was the 350 pound guy. That's a great operator. That was, you know, not healthy, healthy, not in shape, but he was in the ditch shoveling. And then we had the little 150 pound wiry guy that's sitting on the track go digging, and he would. He would jump off every five seconds to go down and help the guy digging in ditch. So I would switch them. And then it was like, oh okay, we're, yeah, we're moving now, and so became a foreman and um ran crews anywhere from five people on an average job to 30 people at some point with some of our larger projects.

Jacob Emery:

And I was always told I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. That was the the phrase I heard more often than not, and I just reminded people you have been doing this longer and I've been alive, and if you're that good, if you're better than me, then come, take my spot. And I was always the young guy, so it really just created this me against the world type of feeling. And throughout that duration, I just realized I have to be able to replace myself, because if I cannot replace me, if I don't teach someone to take my spot, I can't take the next spot. And so I did that for a few years.

Jacob Emery:

In 2014, I was running a project and my now business partner came back. He was in the Army and he came back on leave and our safety director at the time was getting ready to retire and I was like, man, you've got to come back. I'm pretty sure that we can get you in that safety position. Come back, let's go, let's buy this company one day. And so he came back after some some hard, long conversations with his family, because he had been on our pipeline before. We had a history, but at that point it was a hell. No, I'm not coming back there like it was a hard no.

Jacob Emery:

So we worked through it. We got you know. On the same page he came back and then the operations manager at the time was doing a lot of discretionary type things within the company. The company was struggling and we were about ready to lose our best customer and the owner at the time. I knew the owner very well and I went in and I just laid it down for him. I said listen, I am the operations manager, effective immediately. If you have a problem with it, tell me now. Tell me now. But if not, I am the operations manager, effective immediately. If you have a problem with it, tell me now. Tell me now. But if not, I'm going to get busy and I'm going to save this damn company. And he never said a word. It was. I think about it now. Someone would do that to me. I would probably smack the absolute shit out of him.

Stefanie Couch:

He probably knew that was the best thing. He just didn't want to have to be the one to pull that trigger.

Jacob Emery:

Yeah, he knew it was best and he didn't realize he was kind of an off-site owner, so he had a lot of health issues and his family did as well, so he was kind of going through his own battles and he wasn't there a lot, so he was seeing from a distance and hearing what was being said, but it was until that point he didn't see the reality Right. So it was in 2015 that happened and, um, and that's exactly what happened. I went and packed the other guy's shit up, put it in the box and I got busy that day and we went from almost losing that customer to being our best customer about a year, year and a half and so me and cody turned the culture around. Um, he probably fired 30 or 40 people in a year for not wearing safety glasses. We had to set a standard, and so that started to be in place. And then, from 2015 to 2017, we really got good with our customer base. We had a solid foundation of customer relationships that were great and a core group of people that were really going in the right direction.

Jacob Emery:

And April 12th 2018, we sat down with a previous owner and told him, like hey, we want to buy our pipeline. How much is it worth? You know, I had no idea what the hell I was talking about. And he starts laughing, essentially, and we're sitting there eating lunch, having a steak, and he starts kind of laughing and I'm like man, this dude's going to regret this because we're going to buy this damn company. I'm sitting here like with a conviction so my whole life had been that way. I was never the star athlete. I was actually not athletic at all, genetically, was not gifted whatsoever. It's just been a long, resilient road of hard work and getting to that point it was like this is my moment. And so we got there. We put the things in place and we had zero idea what we're doing, and so just trying to figure out how to start was astronomical. You know against us, but we had that day. We told him what we wanted to do.

Stefanie Couch:

The number he gave you? Did it surprise you? Was it more than what you thought it was going to be? Or I mean, I'm just curious where it landed.

Jacob Emery:

He was probably 40% high on what he thought compared to what the valuation said. Yeah, yeah, which probably all owners that don't actually know.

Stefanie Couch:

We think it's worth a lot more than it is yeah.

Jacob Emery:

Right. So, but the company wasn't ready to sell, it wasn't cleaned up for the transaction, so we had to get I mean, you just think about bill of sales and titles and all the different things with hundreds of pieces of equipment. It was bad, it was really bad, I'm sure. So we were running the company as the you know, running the operation itself. We were getting the company ready to sell and trying to buy the company all at the same exact time, and so it was astronomical odds that we were even going to get a seat there.

Jacob Emery:

But he had said, like I'm going to sell the company. It's got to get ready to sell. I'll pay you to get it ready and you have a chance. Like I'll give you a shot because it's going to be quicker. If we did it then it would be going to market. But he's like I'll give you a chance. My net worth, Stefanie, was $37,000 in January of 2019 when we finalized. It was our last PFS when we closed in May of 2019. So from April 12th of 18 to December 31st, our original closing date, he never told his wife you know, really, that it was time to sell and we were at his house for the high state Michigan game and she didn't know, she had no like. He didn't probably think it was feasible and looking back I don't blame him.

Stefanie Couch:

Right.

Jacob Emery:

But we had a closing date in place. Everything was going great. We had an LOI and everything Like it was a real deal. Sba loan was set up. We had all the inner workings done and the bank absolutely dropped us like cold-blooded, never even gave us a phone call. So right at mid-December we had to start all over again and we went through absolute hell with probably 20 different banks.

Jacob Emery:

I was called everything but a decent human. I was called a piece of shit. You'll never make it like all the things that you would think of from a ruthless banking system that has a box to check, and not only were we a circle, we're trying to go inside that box. I mean, we would blow that box apart because we had a conviction and we weren't going to waver on it and all it took was one. It just took one person to believe in us, and so one person did and we signed a loan document at that point. We closed in May of 19. And the rest has been history. So we have a great banking partnership still with that same bank and it's been one hell of a ride ever since we purchased it.

Stefanie Couch:

That's amazing. You know, I want to pull the thread on that banking and getting the money thing because I think for a lot of people, first off, I think startups are really, you know, shiny and look super awesome, you know, to people. But buying a business that is already existing, that is already profitable, that has maybe not a perfect system definitely not in most cases but it's a working business and that is a big deal. And there's a lot of businesses, especially in our industry right now I'll call it blue collar, but construction related that are 60-year-old people that are getting ready to roll out. They haven't thought about it. Are 60 year old people that are getting ready to roll out. They haven't thought about it. Like I don't think, most industry owners. They're just trying to make ends meet and keep things going. They don't spend a lot of time thinking about what's next. But then they wake up one morning and say I'm done. That's what I've experienced a lot, or maybe it's a year or two before, but, like you said, they got to worry about a lot of operational stuff that they weren't planning on selling, so they haven't been working on that. They often don't have anyone to sell to.

Stefanie Couch:

And then there's people like us that would like to buy a business like this but have no idea, with that net worth of thirty seven thousand dollars, or sometimes you know more or less how do you even start this process? So I mean, you know owner financing is something I hear a lot about now. I think that's an option. Sba loans, all these different ways to go about it. What would you tell someone like you or like me that's in this situation, that does want to go look for a business? Maybe they aren't currently working for it? What advice would you give to people? Obviously, be resilient has got to be one of them. But other than that, from a more tactical side of like, how do you get money to go do these things? That seem kind of crazy sometimes.

Jacob Emery:

It's really about who, it's really not about how. So who can help you get there? That's already done it, because I promise you that I would have never accomplished anything without my attorney, jim Havens. He was the dealmaker. The art of the deal was truly the separator. Resiliency is great, but if you're resilient but you're not intelligent enough to know what to be resilient against, then it's a lot of action without accomplishment. And so, having someone that understands how to navigate it I knew how to run the business from an operational standpoint.

Jacob Emery:

I knew zero about owning a business or how to buy one, but our attorney knew that we understood the operation enough to run it very well and he had the confidence in us that we didn't pay him until we closed on the deal. That's how much money or how much faith he had in us, and it was a six-figure bill and substantially, you know, decent chunk. We didn't pay him till closing. We asked him you know, jim, what's this price tag look like to get there, because we don't have anything. You know you can take the equity in my household, $37,000. It probably won't cover, you know. You sign in one document, so what does it look like? And he said boys, you can pay me at closing and I'll never forget that moment. It's the first time we met him. I'll never forget that moment as long as I live. He had confidence in us that no one had ever had in us, and myself included, I didn't have it in me. He's seen something in me that no one else had ever portrayed to be a reality, and he had so much like distinct confidence that I remember walking out of there different, and so it's really having someone there that will help get you through that.

Jacob Emery:

That's already been there, done that. But that starts because of opportunity. Put yourself in the arena and the man in the arena it's one of my favorite quotes. It's the background normally on my laptop and on my phone and everything, because I've always been in the arena. Put yourself in the arena, go to every event you can go to and the person that's the keynote speaker, the person that you know has done great things. Shake that person's hand, research them, study them, have something of a hook or a talking point to get their attention and talk to them relentlessly and leave them with a little nugget that's going to make sure that they remember you. I've done that a few times and that's how I end up meeting the attorney, but make sure you just put yourself out there. The more hands you shake, the more money you make and at the end of the day I will firmly believe in that for the rest of my life.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, I agree with that wholeheartedly, and I think making connections with people, knowing that you don't necessarily ask for something Hopefully you can give them something that's valuable A lot of times it's really hard to do that when you're starting out, but just that hunger in people when I see that in people, it makes me want to help them, and I think there's been a lot of people that have felt that way.

Stefanie Couch:

They feel your passion and your hunger and they see themselves like 20 years ago when they didn't have anything, and they see that ability in you, like, hey, this person could do this thing. And I think that grit and that hunger is what a lot of entrepreneurs like to see. And so you obviously had that. And I mean this has been six years now since you bought this business and I'm sure you've learned a ton every single day. What are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned since buying the business and running your own business for the first time? Because even though you were running the business, you didn't own the business, and that is a very distinct difference when the bottom line comes down to you. What lessons have you learned?

Jacob Emery:

You're never as good as you think you are. You're never as bad as you think you are, and there's always going to be more to learn. Back to the people it's really about your team. You build up the people and the people will build the team. But there is no owner that's going to go out there and be successful without having a successful team, and I think the team is everything.

Jacob Emery:

Culture is everything, and I want to have a culture on our pipeline where everyone feels like they're a part of something bigger than themselves, and I always classify it like individual success for team significance. Build a transformational team and a legacy of excellence is our 10-year vision. That's what we're going to become and it is so impactful for me. I want everyone to feel greatness inside of the company, feel like they're part of something that's once in a lifetime opportunity and that will create the culture. But it all starts with the team. Yeah, I am not that smart, Stefanie. You know me and my business partner have been really good at one thing, and that's getting really good people around us, and that's been our. Our truest breakthrough. Understanding is who, not how. Once again, it's really about the team of people on our pipeline. We'll be successful because of everyone on the team except for me. If it fails, it's because of me, and that's leadership in itself.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, I was listening to a Dave Ramsey podcast this morning that actually was talking about that. I am the problem and I'm also the solution in everything in my business. But it's because you can't recruit good enough, you can't keep people happy, you can't build that culture. Those things, as a leader, become the number one problems.

Stefanie Couch:

Not, oh, I don't know how to code this thing or I don't know how to drive that piece of equipment or whatever it is in your particular business, but I think in construction, especially in dirt work and pipelines and things like that, you know, and when someone is doing something with their hands or manually, you have to have people in person on the job site and that is hard to keep that culture. You know, to get people to do this hard work it's physically hard, it's demanding on your body. You know you got to have something more that you're building towards when you go to work in the morning, how do you keep people inspired to have that culture? Like, what are some of the tactical things that you guys do as a company to do that?

Jacob Emery:

It's tough. You know one thing that we are creating right now. It's called the Pipeline of Prosperity, and so I actually came up with this program probably three or four years ago, and I see this being like our unique edge in the industry, something that will make us a separator. We have a monthly newsletter that we send out. I actually go around and do core value interviews with the winner of the month that our team votes on. So we have, you know, core value recognition every month and I go out and do an impromptu interview. It's not scripted, it's just completely random.

Jacob Emery:

And we appreciate our team and so it's hard to get that all the way instilled and it's a work in progress and it always will be, and it's at the very beginning phase. But showing true appreciation and abundance of opportunity and having that out there on front street and saying, look, this is what we're doing and why. This is where we fail, this is where we won. But being pretty transparent in general is a big thing, and I think the culture is going to be directly tied to how we treat people. But part of that isn't just soft, mushy, you know, letting everyone get away with stuff. It's accountability, it's leadership, it's opportunity and it takes all of it.

Jacob Emery:

I think true, Anybody that wants to grow and get better, they want accountability. But anyone that's stagnant or not wanting to, you know, try to advance any, or is maybe insecure a little bit, accountability is kind of that, that bottleneck for them. I really think that accountability creates insecurity out of people that are not willing to fail and have it out there. So as a leader, I try to put it out on the front street that I fail often. The only failure is not trying to me and so even like with issues or anything else, unspoken expectations or predetermined resentments. You have to speak your mind and get it out there open and honest communication. And it kind of started with us where we wanted to put a newsletter out every month, kind of touching on big highlights or whatever's going on. And that's the start and then showcase an appreciation. But everyone wants to know that I have a place to be a part of something and it becomes more than just a job if you can create that.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, and the transformation of being open with communication instead of trying to hide things from people.

Stefanie Couch:

The thing I always worried about when I was a leader in a bigger company, where I couldn't quite control that part of it, is people fill in the blanks Like they're going to write their own story of what's happening, and a lot of times the truth is actually not as bad as the story that they've written. So if you just told them what was going on and they could sleep a little bit more at night, knowing, okay, yeah, this is not great, but at least I know what it is, they know the monster that's in front of them, even if things are tough or the year didn't go as planned, whatever it is. I think people want that, and so that's a great trait that you're building into your culture of being open with people as much as possible, and then it allows them also to have ownership over their own destiny. A lot of times they come up with solutions I'm sure that are better than what you would have thought of, because they know what the problem is.

Jacob Emery:

Yeah, definitely. You know, not micromanaging people is another big thing. Giving the authority to the ones that are the decision makers and letting them know hey, the only time that we're not going to be OK with your choice is when you don't make one. Yeah, there is a huge cost of inaction, and just empowering people to know that you have the authority to make these choices. Now, there's going to be boundaries and guardrails and we have support there for you, but don't be scared to fail. Be scared not trying and failing. So not trying is the ultimate failure to me. And just making sure that we continue to grow and evolve, but then also, we continue to evolve the team, and so we're in this unique transition. Right now, we're really getting, we're dialing in the development of the team and really expediting that process and so getting everyone, development and and skills in general faster and easier. It's it's an ongoing process, but it is always one that I truly believe has to happen.

Jacob Emery:

I had a conversation a couple of years ago and we were talking about the investment into the team and how we're going to develop and all that. And it was a fractional person at the time, a leader of ours, but he's like man Jake, what happens when you invest all this in the team? And what if people start leaving? And I was like what happens if we don't this in the team? And what if people start leaving? And I was like what happens if we don't?

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, because that's the ultimate failure.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, it is so true and you know you're going to lose some people, like you're going to lose people because they want to do their own thing. You're going to lose people because they got to move to a different place. Sometimes it's no fault of your own, it has nothing to do with that, but I think it's part of building the team that you know that. But you're going to give them everything you can anyway and, like Richard Branson says, hopefully they stay and they love it so much that they could go anywhere. But they don't want to go anywhere.

Stefanie Couch:

So I think that's huge. I think about that a lot. When you spend money on people and develop people, I mean it is expensive to do training and development. It takes their time away from other things that could be revenue generating for the company and it also is a capital investment from a training perspective. But it's important. And speaking of training coaching programs, you have some exciting stuff coming down the pipe, which is your own training and coaching program. So tell me a little bit about that. What are you planning to address a need in the market with that? What are you going to be doing with that program?

Jacob Emery:

Yeah. So it was unique how the podcast came about. I'll kind of start with it. I started that podcast because I really moved into that full transition as a visionary of Arnor Pipeline and so I just I knew that I'm going to have to speak in front of people and we did a stay of the company address and we rolled out a new operating system a few years ago and we did all these things and I'm like shit, I don't know how to public speak at all. I'm not comfortable on camera.

Jacob Emery:

That insecurity honestly came back. And even even that first day of the company address I remember I prepared so much it was I didn't even have to think about giving the speech because I prepped so hard and so much for that that there was no way that I was going to screw it up. It was like bulletproof because I knew I have this insecurity still and even though I'm a business owner now and I'm 30 some years old, I still have this thing kind of lingering, and so it was tough to face that at first. It was embarrassing, maybe a little bit, but it was also an acknowledgement that oh, this is opportunity for me to get better.

Jacob Emery:

So I started the podcast and I jumped into it quick. I was actually writing a book called the Pipeline to Prosperity of All Things and four out of five chapters were pretty much done, had a publisher lined up, it was all ready to go, and then I put it on the shelf and said you know what the podcast needs to happen now and through some, you know, strategic thinking and different, just getting a little bit clarity on on that direction. I think today actually was 150 episodes that have been released, and I started in october of 2023, so so two episodes every week.

Stefanie Couch:

Fast paced, most people never get past. I think it's like 20 episodes the average podcast.

Jacob Emery:

Yeah. That's amazing 2% of people or 2% of podcasts, make it past 20. I think it's something very small, but I've released two episodes a week since I started.

Stefanie Couch:

Is it solo? Is it interviews? What's your style for people that are listening that might want to check it out?

Jacob Emery:

So normally Monday is an interview, friday is a solo, and that's how it's really been throughout the duration of it and the amount of knowledge that I've gained from other people, which has been such a blessing. I never would have imagined the therapeutic response and the network building and the knowledge base that I've been able to gather, some bestselling authors and just people that I would have never imagined. Just like yourself, Stefanie, I can't imagine us sitting here years ago, yeah. And so the opportunities have been just outstanding. I've grown individually a bunch, and so it all kind of started to come together and I really figured out that I have such a passion for serving other people and helping them because I needed a superhero so bad when I was younger and I needed that person to kind of grab me under their wing and help me get through that sticking point. And so Unlocking Greatness with Jacob Emery is the name of the program. I want to help everyone unlock their greatness. Everybody has greatness inside of them. The only people that never uncover are the ones that don't believe it and don't try to tap into that. And so I want to help build momentum and personal growth, personal development, um accelerate personal and professional success, figure out what success really looks like.

Jacob Emery:

I have a inability to communicate very well. I cannot sit here and tell you a, a process or try to explain something very well. It's been a pain point of mine for a long time, and especially as a leader. So the way I communicate is not very understood. But I can draw like a third grader and I'm a damn good third grade drawer. So now that's what I do. I try to put visuals together, because we all can hear words and see something different, but we can't see something different when we put it down, and so I've developed a little bit of a skill of visual explanation where I had struggled to use words with that before. So I do a lot of visual diagrams and things that cut all the minutiae out, make it very black and white and simple, simple scales, complex fails. So I really just want to have a impact on people to really unlock their greatness, find purpose in life, figure out what they want and have a have a direction in life.

Jacob Emery:

Um, you know, 10 years out, like, what does a perfect day look like for me? And then, you know, break it down from that 10 year way out, there kind of thing, to what's three years look like what's one year look like. And then you know, break it down from that 10 year way out there kind of thing to what's three years look like. What's one year look like. And then everything that we do um inside of our pipeline, and me personally is in the 90-day world. So we operate on eos, but using a similar time structure as that and taking it the next step for the personal and professional both um being put together. I want to help people turn their visions into reality, and everyone has a dream in life. Everybody has this passion, this dream, this thing that they can only see. And a dream is like a fingerprint and it's unique, it's individual and so is greatness, and so I want to help everyone unlock their greatness.

Stefanie Couch:

That's awesome. When is it launching?

Jacob Emery:

This week it actually launched, so I just got it going and it's like anything else. Stefanie, it's the first time. I don't have no idea what I'm doing with the setup, the workflows, the automation. The process in itself is out of my league. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I know how to get information to other people.

Stefanie Couch:

Nobody cares if the value that you're giving is good enough and you're very open about the fact that you're still figuring it out. So nobody's going to care about that little stuff and you're going to figure it out probably a lot quicker than you think. So I'm excited for that, for you and for everyone. That's a part of it. When I started my journey as a manager, I was 2019, same time as you that you bought your company and that was my first leadership development class. I actually got sent by one of my managers. I asked them to give me some sort of development and they sent me somewhere, for it was two weeks over the span of a year, and then we did some stuff in between and it was a huge turning point in my life because I learned some things that I just didn't even know were out there. And then I've continued that for the last six years and it's been the biggest catalyst for growth, for really for leverage in my life.

Stefanie Couch:

And Masterclass is something I started watching when I was starting my business or about to start my business, and there was a Sarah Blakely episode on entrepreneurship that pretty much changed my perception about everything, and so I think it can be one thing one day, one program, one speaker that's all it takes for sometimes, for you to just plug into a different side of yourself, and I love that. For someone maybe that doesn't know the value of personal development or says I don't have time, I don't have the money, whatever. There's all these objections we hear. What would you say to them?

Jacob Emery:

Everything that you want is on the other side of investing in yourself, and personal development by itself will catapult you through any adversity. The reason books are wrote is because there's a story to tell about something that happened. And I don't know too many books that are all sunshine and roses. There's dialogue in there that's going to have a adversity and there's going to be, you know, opportunity created out of that. We are going to have winter.

Jacob Emery:

I live in ohio. Winter is never going to go away, so it's always going to be cold, it's always going to be shitty, the weather's going to suck. It's never going to go away. So I can't plan on weather going away. I can't plan on that winter going away. But I can get more adaptable and more prepared for that environment. And that's like life Winter's going to hit everybody. Adversity is going to hit. Expecting an easy life is what makes it harder. So choose your heart and be prepared for it. And I think personal development, investing in yourself, is the biggest fashion or form of self-worth. Show me how much money you're putting into yourself. It's more powerful to invest in you to grow than it is any stock market anything else. What is your investment on yourself? And it creates this empowerment to know that if I pay, I pay attention. Everybody wants something for free, but then never uses it. Information is a plethora out there. You can get any information readily available within 10 seconds. How many people are actually using that, though?

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, and I've thought about that a lot over my span of time. I mean, I've even sometimes paid for things that I just haven't done, like there's just too many things going on and it's not a priority. But I think the biggest thing that you get with these types of programs that you mentioned earlier is that accountability piece. It's the same thing when you pay a trainer at the gym If you know that trainer is going to text you when you don't show up at 9 am when you had an appointment, and they're still also going to charge you and they're going to text you and be like where were you? There's something there.

Stefanie Couch:

My husband actually is a certified trainer and we go work out every you know four or five mornings a week and he goes with me and we work out together and I can tell you I work out a lot harder, number one and more readily than I would have if it was just me. Like, do I want to get out of bed and go do this? I'm going to do this. And then also you're keeping the promises that you made to yourself, which I think is when you can do that, when you can keep the promises you make, then that builds confidence, even if it's something small. So if you are in a coaching program and you promise yourself that you're going to go every Thursday, at whatever time that call is, and you're going to at least show up, that's a big step towards becoming the person that you want to be and then you start to do the things. Hopefully the coaching program is telling you but just talking about goals, you know, I think about.

Stefanie Couch:

We all have dreams. I know you said that earlier and I totally believe that, but what a lot of people have are just dreams, and what becomes of those dreams is based on how accountable you are to yourself and to others around you. So I love that If you can say one thing that you think someone listening to this it's really a mindset shift, something that you've heard, a piece of advice that's made the biggest difference, because you've obviously you said dead or in jail by 2021 is what your life was going to be, and you're obviously doing amazing things. Now what is the biggest thing, that a catalyst that's made the difference for you? What would you tell someone that's in that place of trying to get to that place they want to be, but they just can't quite grasp it?

Stefanie Couch:

You know, I really.

Jacob Emery:

I truly believe anything is possible and the unfortunate reality is for us to live out our dreams. Everybody else's dream for us has to die, and it's just what it is.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah.

Jacob Emery:

Our family and other people in our group.

Jacob Emery:

You know, in our network, they might have the best of intentions for us, but it doesn't mean it's what we want, and so I always am cautious whenever asking for advice or seeking advice from someone that hasn't done what I've done.

Jacob Emery:

If you want to achieve something and you're going to ask say, even your parents your parents are going to have the best interest in you from their perspective, but if they don't understand it, it's not really valuable. It doesn't mean they're not great parents, it doesn't mean that they're not good people, but find someone that's done what you have done. Have a mentor they're not good people, but find someone that's done what you have done. Have a mentor. Have someone that you can trust and look up to. I think understanding that we are not that good and not that special, but that everything is possible in life if we pursue it hard enough. But it doesn't mean that the way we're going to get there is the way that we might think. So just be willing to know that the people you care about the most might not be the ones that help you get what you want out of life, and that's okay.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah, and it goes back to the thing you said earlier. It really is about the who in your life, and so if you don't have people in your life that are doing bigger things than you, that help you strive for something that's above what you are right now, it's probably going to be really easy to stay in that place that you're just kind of mediocre because everything around you is that way.

Jacob Emery:

You are an absolute product of your environment. I truly believe that. I just think that there's so many people that are willing to accept the status quo or accept that I'm never going to be able to break through this. I'm a generational thing. I just can't get out of it. But it just takes one. It takes one person to believe, have a conviction that, come hell or high water, I'm going to get out of this situation, and just that belief alone is the first step to accomplishing anything you want in life. Knowing that it's going to be easy, though, or thinking it's going to be easy, is what really makes it hard, and I would really tell everyone embrace it, be present. Don't worry about the destination as much. Process, journey.

Jacob Emery:

The climb up that mountain is the actual win, because you can get up on top of that mountain, go to enjoy the view and then the climb. You didn't enjoy, and that view is not very good, and for 12 years, Stefanie, that's what I did. For 12 years, I focused on buying our pipeline. This accolade and accomplishment was going to be the thing that made me happy, and two days after getting up on that mountain, I realized that I didn't enjoy the view as much because I didn't enjoy the climb and so I thought I was up on top of the mountain. And the reality hit when, you know, I'm up on top of this mountain and the cloud cover kind of moved away and I realized that it's just a ledge. So I wasn't on top of the mountain and I realized that I have so much more to do, so much more to learn, and that I have to enjoy the climb.

Stefanie Couch:

That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. You are an amazing person. I can't wait to see how this coaching program changes lives, because I know it's going to. You're inspiring in a lot of ways and I think your message of being able to do whatever you want if you're willing to put in the work and get over, basically, your fears and yourself is pretty powerful for all of us. So I really appreciate it and hopefully we will run into each other, because we are in a lot of the same groups and I know we go to conferences and stuff. So I'm hoping we'll be able to meet in person soon. But if you are not following Jacob and you're not listening to his podcast, check it out. If you're looking to unlock greatness in yourself, he has a new program and he is ready to rock with that. So if you're checking him out, tell people where they can find you.

Jacob Emery:

Yeah, so if you're checking him out, tell people where they can find you. Yeah, so, jacobemery. com. That's where the coaching program and everything's at. All the different businesses I'm associated with are on that page as well. Jacobemery44 is all of my social media handles, so every social media platform I'm on is jacobemery44. Come check it out. I'm telling you, I have a break barriers blueprint on there and it's free. You can download it today and you can really reset the thing that's sticking right there in front of you that you can't get through. It's a pretty simple three-step guide that will absolutely help you break through any barrier that you have in life, and it's what I used for myself when I was a 20-year-old kid. That was lost, and so I created this framework just to help other people out. I want to serve other people. I want to help everyone unlock their greatness. I'm honored to be here today. Stefanie, I'm going to just go ahead and throw this out at you. Now you've got to come on my show. Let me interview you.

Stefanie Couch:

Let's do it. I'm excited about it.

Stefanie Couch:

Yeah we'll make that happen for sure, and hopefully we do get the chance to meet in person, and I cannot thank you enough for your time today. Thank you. Well, thank you for joining us on this episode of the Grit Blueprint and we will see you next time. That's it for this episode of the Grit Blueprint podcast. For more tools, training and industry content, make sure to subscribe here and follow me on LinkedIn and other social media platforms To find out more about how Grit Blueprint can help you grow your business. Check us out at our website, gritblueprint. com.

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