468 | 223 Employees. Zero B Players. How ACE Consulting CEO Scott Arias Builds an All A-Player Team.

Scott Arias built ACE Consulting into an eight-figure commercial construction consulting company with 223 employees, over 3,000 client companies, and what he claims is a 100 percent A-player team. He overcame a devastating motorcycle accident and prescription drug addiction to do it. And he has done it by building something most contractors never build: a system for identifying, hiring, and leading people across three completely different generations simultaneously.

In this conversation with Chaz Wolfe, Scott breaks down why generations are defined by historical events, not arbitrary birth year ranges, what each generation actually needs to perform at the highest level, the specific interview questions he uses to filter for A players, and why the biggest mistake most Gen X and Boomer leaders make is assuming their generation had it right.

People problems are the number one drain on every contractor doing $1M+. This episode is the framework for fixing that.

Key Takeaways:

• People issues consume more time and resources than any other problem in a small business. Every contractor owner already knows this. Scott built an entire company to solve it for his clients.
• Generations are not defined by birth year ranges. They are defined by the significant historical events that shaped their formative years. Gen X was shaped by the "me generation" of the 80s. Millennials were shaped by 9/11 and a world that demanded teamwork. Gen Z was shaped by the Great Recession and COVID.
• Gen X lived to work. Millennials and Gen Z work to live. Neither is wrong. They are a product of the world they grew up in. The leader who understands this stops fighting it and starts leading more effectively.
• Gen X values individual performance. Millennials value the team winning. Gen Z is individual-performance focused but motivated by team identity. Know which one you are leading and adjust your approach.
• No generation respects another naturally. Every generation thinks their way is the right way. The leader's job is to bridge the gap, not pick a side.
• Technology is not a generational preference. It is the reality. If your younger staff would rather text than call, that is not laziness. It is how they process information. Adapt your systems to meet them where they are.
• To get A players you have to know what an A player is, be able to identify one in an interview, and be willing to pass on everyone who is not one. Most hiring managers settle because they are behind on a project. That is how B players get in.
• Scott's interview questions are built to reveal character, not competence. Competence can be trained. Character cannot.
• The best thing a Gen X leader can do is acknowledge that the millennial or Gen Z approach might actually be better in some areas. That acknowledgment earns trust faster than any perks or pay.
• Silence is a leadership tool. Scott calls it a crucial function of leadership. The ability to sit with discomfort in a conversation rather than filling it with noise is one of the rarest skills in any generation.

If you are a contractor business owner doing $1M+ and you feel stuck in the day-to-day, we built GTK for you.

Through peer mastermind and 1:1 coaching, we help you:

• increase profit
• install real systems
• build a team that runs the business
• get your time back

Visit www.gatheringthekings.com for information on how to apply.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We have over 3,000 companies we work for. We have 223 people. I can't name anybody who's less than an A player on the entire team. We're like the largest general contractor in the world. You have to acknowledge as being a Gen Xer or a baby boomer that it may be better than what we did before. People issues are the biggest issues if you own a small business. And I'm sure all your listeners will be shaking their head right now and be like, people issues consume most of my time, most of my resources. What's up, everybody?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Welcome to Gathering the Kings Podcast. I'm your host, Jazz Wolf. I'm a serial entrepreneur across franchising, construction, real estate, and online education. My mission is to transfer courage to you, our listeners, by sharing the real and raw stories of success. Seven, eight, even nine-figure business owners. Today we are joined by Scott Arias, the CEO of Ace Consulting. Scott's story is nothing short of incredible. Overcoming a devastating motorcycle accident and battling with prescription drug addiction to build a multidivisional, eight-figure commercial construction consulting company. This is Scott's second time on the show, and uh it's been about a year since he's been here, and I'm pumped to catch up with him. We'll dive into how he's successfully navigated multi-generational workforces while continuing to drive success at Ace Consulting. In this episode specifically, you'll learn three things. The biggest differences across the generations.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Everyone thinks it's like even slots time frame-wise, but it's not. It's by historical events. How these differences impact the hiring process. That's where it really comes home to somebody who's an entrepreneur like myself or your audience is understanding that one is not better than the other. And Scott even gives the actual questions he uses in interviews to find a player.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I want to give you uh an idea of some of the interview questions that I ask people. If you want to learn how to build a successful business while navigating the complexities of a multi-generational workforce, you're in the right place. Stick around. This is one episode you won't want to miss. Enjoy the show. What's up, Scott? Welcome back to the King Stage. How are you, man? Good, Chaz. How you been? Dude, we've been rocking and rolling. I know you were on the show like last April. Does that sound right? Something like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

It uh doesn't seem that long, but as we get older, it seems to go by faster.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, it there was there was one little snippet in my mind that was like that felt a long time ago. We've probably done like 300 episodes since then. Oh wow. Um yeah, and and just kind of catch everybody up who's listening, you're not just you know in the construction field. You you're touching all kinds of business owners in construction. But give us a little backdrop of your business and how you help them.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

We focus on construction for two of our four sectors. One of them being pre-construction, also, we just changed the name to project controls because that more nearly represents that's project schedules, that kind of thing. And our staffing side is strictly site management staffing, so we don't do skill trades or anything like that. We do, you know, site superintendents, SSHO, quality control managers. And then the other two sectors, one is training, and because I taught at a university for a decade, it it aligns up with that. So I do a lot, I mean, I do project training, you know, anything that has a finite deadline. And then the last sector is something that we added a few years ago and has gone through the roof, and that's security services. So we've done security services for top 10 billion dollar corporations all the way down to uh small little rinky dinky projects throughout the United States and overseas, too. We're working on one right now for a casino, you know. So we do security services for a lot of different sectors. And I brought my brother in. My brother was one of the most senior officers in the security realm within the Navy before he retired. And so since he's been retired, he's been he's been helping me out doing different things. Even though I'm his younger brother, he helps me.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah, that's awesome. To make it clear for the listener, you know, when you're saying security, site superintendents, you know, all that, you're you're placing people into those roles on a on a temporary basis or is it a permanent uh type uh placement? Give us a little bit more detail there.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

The staffing sector is a project-based model because that's what we do, you know. So we if you don't have a project to go to, they don't go anywhere. So and the reason we did that is because it's difficult as a contractor to hire something that has a project, hire a high quality person, not knowing if you're gonna have a project after that. If you're gonna hire, you know, someone of the caliber and the quality, you need to you need to entice them with having a future. And that's what we do. You know, we're like the largest general contractor in the world. We have, you know, over 3,000 companies we work for. And so so that's it. There are staff, but they serve as a management, kind of a a little bit different dynamic because they also, you know, from an ethical perspective, you can't look at quality and safety if you're ingrained within a company totally, you know. So so that that that's one, and but the security sector uh crosses all sectors. We do both administrative, doing site assessments, going and looking at and and advising all the way to providing site personnel. So it's more, it's more physical security, but we we do provide some IT IT security services also.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah, I mean, I think that you hit the nail on the head. That's kind of what I was hoping that you would get to there. But uh any anyone is in construction, even you know, like you said, the small rinky dink, you know, projects, it's uh it's about managing uh pieces and deadlines and making things concrete and being able to say what you or do what you said you were gonna do. And so many folks in contracting, residential, commercial, whatever fall victim to not being able to execute. And so I've always loved what you do, but I just wanted to make sure that they they knew who they were talking to. They're talking to the king of this. I mean, like you said, you're the largest of what you do, and uh, you've got these super A players on your team that can come in on a project type basis and help your clients win a single project, and then they can go, you know, on to the next client or whatever that that your client doesn't have to worry about keeping them on staff, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah, I know you know we have 223 people, so I can't name anybody who's less than an A player on the entire team. We're very fortunate, but you also got to put a lot of effort into hiring because to get a players, you got to know what an A player is. So, you know, and if you don't know, research it because it actually it's a term, but it's actually it was coined in a book a long, long time ago. Yeah, what book? I've got you know, you asked me that, and then I don't have the answer to that. So that's all right, we'll put it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Don't worry.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

I have I have it, I have it on my Audible account. So that's that's about how it rolls for me.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

I'm like, I heard that once, and then the 17 million books I have in my Audible, that's how it rolls. Okay, well, and so so hiring a players is a is a certain process. Obviously, you've got it dialed in. Your clients don't have to think about that, they just hire you.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

That that's absolutely correct. And you know, we handle all the all the administrative things, you know. People issues are the biggest issues if you own a small business. And I'm sure all your listeners will be shaking their head right now and be like, people issues consume most of my time, most of my resources, and we handle those type of things. And I have people on staff that do nothing but handle personal issues. Somebody has a death in the family. This new generation wants is they they don't want just uh a commitment between nine to five or in construction seven to seven, it seems like sometimes, but but they want to know that you care about them, yeah. So, which is a little touchy feely, but I think it it's well it's it's been well received by my company of being a crucial function of leadership.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah, I mean, uh let's we'll just dive right into it. I mean, the bigger topic here that you just referenced is uh in in a lot of businesses, but specifically construction, we are dealing with three generations. We've got generation X, Generation Millennials, and then Generation Z. Um, and you know, really it's X and millennials make up about 75% of the workforce, maybe a little bit more, maybe close to 80. And you've got about a 10 or 15 percent on the on the Z. And so you've you've got very different uh people, expectations, what they consider work, what they consider hard work, what they consider consistency and reliability, what they're looking for in return, like you kind of just mentioned. And so let's just start from a high level. Why are we here? Why do we have three different generations all kind of all in the mix? And and what should the listener do to like pay attention or to just become aware of this first?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

So I sent through a generational presentation recently, probably within the last month, and they discussed the different generations. And one thing you didn't mention was the boomers, but the reason you probably didn't mention the boomers is the boomers are literally with one foot out the door at this point. So generations are really categorized by significant events that have occurred during a lifetime that that form their perspective and form their what they think is acceptable, what they don't think is acceptable. And you take like Generation X, okay? Generation X is my generation. Uh um, and Generation X were more formed during the 80s. It was, you know, also known as the me generation, you know. So it was a lot about personal performance, that type of thing. They also, you know, didn't really care about you know what was happening at home. I remember one of my bosses once said, he goes, the difference to me and you is I take care of my business at home and you don't. So he didn't have any caring whatsoever. And that was the school of thought that I grew up on. Now, now uh uh the millennial generation shortly occurred after uh uh after the Gen X, because Gen X is the smallest generation by numbers. Uh, and then you got the Millennials, which occurred right in the 80s, early 80s perspective when they were born, and they were more formed uh during um you know uh events like 9-11, for example. Um, and so they're big believers, millennials are big believer in you know doing it as a team, coming together, because that was the world that existed when they were formed, their formula of years, you know, yeah. And then you have the Gen Zers, which are more formed during the you know, the Great Recession type kind of time frame. Everyone thinks it's like even slots time, you know, time frame-wise, but it's not, it's by historical events. And they were they occurred during the Great Recession. So, you know, the way they go about their their business has to do a lot with being a little more risk-adverse, you know, a little more, you know, thinking thinking about the future and wanting to be involved into in an organization that cares about them. So it's those generations, it's it there's just challenges with each of those. And if you come from one generation to the other, or even if you're on the borderline of one generation, like I am, you're going to understand some of those beliefs and philosophies.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot to it. Obviously, as you as you kind of laid it all out, we can we can all probably imagine the people that are on our teams, or even just in our families, and it's like, oh yeah, there's pretty distinct differences. You know, it's funny, I was in a in a workshop this past weekend given some uh information on sales and marketing and stuff like that, and we were talking about avatar and like the places where your avatar hangs out is where you want to be marketing. And and this has a lot to do with what you're saying, even from like a non like employee team building perspective, but from a marketing perspective. You know, who who is my client? Well, as a as a millennial Gen X client base, you know, places like Facebook are going to be better than Snapchat or or whatever. We can go into the marketing stuff, but I think that you're what you're saying, what I'm picking up, and I want the listener to make sure they're getting is that there's distinct differences between these generations. And now what you're saying is okay, well, now we've got them all working on the same job site or in the same project, maybe in different capacities, but they're they're they're bringing something different to the table. They're also expecting something different. Talk about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Well, you know, hey, and that's it, that that's the key here, and that's where it really comes comes home to somebody who's an entrepreneur like myself uh or your your audience is understanding that one is not better than the other, although we want to think that way, you know. Um I I want to think that way, to be honest with you, because I want to say Gen X is the best, but but uh but the truth is is that we were we were cultivated by the environment we grew up in, you know. So that right there makes them here's the here one of the big takeaways I uh that I got from the the entire you know two-hour presentation I sat through was is that Gen Xers care more about you know individuals, millennials, and Gen Zs care more about the group winning, you know, and there's benefits and drawbacks to that, you know. I mean one of the one of the benefits are is they're really big into the whole, hey, cut the company is my team or my sector is my team, and I'll die for my team, not literally, but figuratively, you know. But on the other side, Gen Z's Gen Z are like, I'm gonna show my performance. It's not that I don't care about the team, but I'm gonna focus on my performance because as long as my performance is there, it does what it doesn't need to do be for a team, you know. So it's just they're just different ways of of looking and seeing seeing things through the lens of the different generations.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, it's interesting. I'm thinking as you were kind of saying that, an experience that I had working for a pretty big marketer, we would all know his name, but inside of that environment, I'm running, you know, a pretty big team. And uh, you know, I'm I'm a I'm an executive. I park in a specific spot. I've got access and privileges that that most people don't, and we're building this brand new thing. And the feeling that I had as a millennial was wow, it's kind of like everybody just has a number here. There's not really a whole lot of like team dynamic, there's not really a whole lot of care specifically. It was more being run by a boomer/slash gen Xer who is probably more considered about the individual. And and my millennial mind in that moment was like, If I'm building a team, but nobody cares about the team, I'm I'm struggling trying to connect these dots here, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yes, yes. And then you know, that and that that's the thing is and then they don't interesting thing is that none of them respect each other. All the different generations they all think that the the third generation is the generation that that it's everyone should should, you know, fall into. The other one here is that we I haven't even jumped into yet has to do with the way they view life, you know, or way they view the profession. I mean, my generation and the generation before me, the baby boomers, they they believed we lived to work, you know, so they didn't care about working 70-hour work weeks, you know. And and that was the school of thought I came up through because you know, I started out as a very young man working in various different capacities, and I that's what my boss has told me. So I adopted that, you know, that expectation. But today's generation, I think honestly has a right to a certain degree. They don't live to work, they work to live. They're more focused on work-life balance. If I said work life balance to my first boss, he would have slapped me in the face, you know, yeah, and or punched me one way or the other. But the the fact is that's just that's who we have now. And most of my staff, you know, falls into that millennial, the millennial generation, and and they're that's what they want. They want they want a place where they can come work, work hard every single day. They don't mind checking emails in the evenings, but they don't want to work 70 hour work weeks. That's just uh the reality. And you know, it's tough because we're we're saying this about everybody and we're stereotyping here, but the reality is is that that there's a lot to be said for for those statements there.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Yeah, I think if you just zoom out, right, like 200 years ago, and there was no work-life balance, right? It was just survival, probably is maybe a better term, uh, especially 2,000 years ago. Like you just keep going back and back and back, and their reality of life back then seems almost traumatic to us today. And so there's just a natural progression, right? But how much in that, uh especially the the work-life balance? I I I like you, I'm like, ugh, I kind of cringe at work-life balance. I say work-life obsession because I do want life and work, but I want to be obsessed on both. But how much does the, you know, just psychological growth or just emotional intelligence and how that's grown? How has that played a role in maybe a millennial or Gen Z worker? Right? Because like you said, they're more in touch with their feelings, which really just means I'm I'm more heightened or I'm more conscious of emotional intelligence. How has that played a role versus you know, maybe an ex or a boomer who's like, we weren't allowed to have feelings? You just put your head down and take care of your business because that's what life was.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

That that's a tough one. It links I put in the generational, it's about how they where their formative years were were cultivated by this, you know, this of these type of events. And one of them technology being a big one. I mean, that the reality is is I I didn't have a cell phone when I started working. I didn't have a cell phone till till you know my almost my mid-level career, you know. So that has changed everything. And then smartphones, the other one. I mean, you can't spurt off a fact anymore without somebody fact-checking you. So it's so easy to do nowadays. And and the fact is, you know, you have the world of knowledge right here, you know, and that's crazy, you know, that that in your palm of your hand, you could literally look up anything that's ever been written about any topic you want. And when I went through my dissertation process, we started in the 2013-ish time frame, it one of my major professors said, you know, everybody nowadays should get have to do two, you know, dissertations. And I said, why? And he goes, because it's so easy to do the literature review, which is entire chapter two and the foundation of your research. And I thought about that, and he and he's right. You know, there's it is so much easier rather than going to the library and opening a book. Now you can go into uh, you know, websites like ProQuest and then do a keyword search and figure, you know, and get all the information that you need. There's still a lot of data, but it's much easier to search for it. So that's one technology is one. The other piece of it is people don't give enough credences, is these Gen Zs, their formative years had to do with COVID too. So personalities and things like that. And I've noticed when I was teaching, and I still teach per time as an adjunct from time to time, just because I love doing it, and is that maybe they weren't their entire years weren't formed by that, but they thrive with the environment. Like, you know, you can't get one of my younger staff to pick up the phone to call somebody, they want to text everybody. It's just it's just an interesting dynamic, and you got to figure out as an entrepreneur how to navigate your way through each of these different generational differences. And we just did this recently with our phone systems. We we switched over from a traditional phone system where you pick up the dial and talk to somebody, but that's antiquated. And so now we have a web-based, a web-based one where you know you do it through your computer. If you do it through your phone, there's a separate app via your phone. And you know, that's just you know, I I I still have cable at my house, and most of my staff doesn't have cable, you know, they don't even know what you know, satellite TV is.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

I think my 10-year-old just the other day learned how to type on on a phone, like with her thumbs, right? But everything, a hundred percent, is pick up and talk to Siri, whether they're searching for something, whether they're texting something, whether like anything that they want to do on the phone, it's all done through voice activation. And for me as a millennial, like I understand it's there, I use it sometimes, but for whatever reason, I like to type out what I'm searching. It makes it feel more detailed and more precise and whatever, but they don't even know how to type. And so as they're learning the technology, they're just leaning into what they know, right? So all of that is a backdrop. How are you seeing this technology gap between generations show up, you know, on a construction project?

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Well, it's kind of like, you know, using a nail gun when you uh used to use a hammer, you know. The guys now just carry hammers to drive a nail that maybe the nail gun didn't put all the way in, you know. Right. So it's just doesn't mean that it's not it is it it's you have to acknowledge as being a Gen Xer or a baby boomer that it may be better than what we did before. However, there are certain things that are downfalls. One of them being is when there's an issue, I tell my people pick up the phone and call the person, you know, rather than fighting it over email because you can get it lost in tone. In I mean, we've all had an email where we we thought we sent an email with the right uh perspective and somebody takes offense to it, especially a Gen Z eers.

unknown 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

I mean, like like we talked about a few minutes ago, they're they're maybe more conscious of of feelings or how things are being perceived. And so rather than a an ex or a boomer just saying, well, psh, whatever it is, what it is, because they are that way, they're going to be more heightened, not necessarily to offense, but yes, could be just they're just aware of when I read this email, it made me feel this way. And whether that was intended or not, and so you're right, staying out of written communication for that reason is is huge. How do you think this, you know? I mean, we've we've talked technology and maybe a couple of other things, but you're you're huge on uh core values. And I know that your company specifically is built on core values, but how do you see the generational pieces that we've just talked about and the gaps between them? How do you talk about the same core value, which could maybe be even defined differently via different generations? How are you dealing with that?

SPEAKER_00 22:57

My three core values are do the right thing, be the gold standard, and practice extreme urgency. I'm gonna get slaughtered by all my staff because I'm sure I left a word out there or something. But the point is right, right? We call it rug, right thing, urgency, gold standard, right? So, what is urgency mean? You know, urgency in my generation meant when I get back to my computer or or answer a phone call, but now it urgency has to revolve around 24-7, you know. But then you got you also got the whole work-life balance thing. So that's also plays into it. The hardest one that I struggle with is not the gold standard or the urgency, it's do the right thing. And the reason you know, uh my organization is a Christian organization, not afraid to say it's just who we are, it's comes out of my faith originally, being the founder and now the CEO. And so I've had to explain that much better. And and the best way to get get some of those messages across is to continually communicate and communicate examples of what that means. So when we have a every meeting that has three or more people in my company, we we the person in charge of the meeting, the facilitator of the meeting, that person's always supposed to ask, give me three examples, give me three examples of our core values and and what are they? And so we they go through do the right thing, urgency, gold standard, and then they go through and they said, Well, I've seen this person doing the right thing because they had a client call, was all mad or all upset, and rather get mad and upset, they they chose to help them, you know, or this person had a relative died, and us as a company, even though we didn't have an obligation, we paid for the funeral, or we sent them home, you know. And to me, that's where and I it was brought to one of my my mid-level staff, and he brought up a very good point, and that is what does it mean? So the only way I could do it is just to have every time we bring it up, we bring an example to the table. And then that that way, that way we have it, and that and I hate to say that doing the right thing is subjective, but it's tough because you work in three different generations here, and do the right thing maybe to help the group rather than help the individual.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

That's right, you know? So yeah, and to be able to have space to delineate those things, I think is also important as well. That's what you're doing by creating the space and not only just giving the examples, but having people be in the room to talk about it. I think that you know, the different generations are gonna respond, you know, differently. That is interesting though, because you're right, doing the right thing is not subjective, although it's completely subjective. And you know, my my experience around how to treat someone else. It's funny, we were doing a workshop, I don't know, about a month or so ago, and and my COO of Gather and the Kings gave an example of how he grew up thinking the you know, the golden rule was to do unto others as you would have done unto you. And he's like, that's actually that that's really not the best rule, the platinum rule, which is written written in a book about do unto others as they would have done to themselves. Because sometimes what what's good for Chaz isn't what's good for Scott or the boomer worker that I'm uh that I'm reporting to or that's reporting to me, or the Gen Xert, right? And so we've got to think a little bit more outside of ourselves and kind of through the lens of the other person and/or even greater team. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Oh, I absolutely agree with that. And if you think you think about uh uh and I think about construction right offhand because you know, our field staff are more rough around the edges because I grew up as a field staff, I was a carpenter, Mason, and we're just rough, we're more rough around the edges, you know. And I, you know, I tell everybody I I was I'm a sailor and a construction worker, so I may have a couple things to say that you know that that probably not acceptable when I'm in an environment with a whole bunch of accountants, you know. So understanding we always talk about office talk or field talk, and that's how we delineate. Hey, it's not okay to walk in the office and drop the F bomb, you know, it's just not not that's not appropriate to do, you know. So treat you're talking about treating people the way that they want to be treated is recognizing the way they want to be treated and then changing your behavior to be able to match that. And it's not being ingenuine, it's just changing, you know, making yourself better, you know, and in a lot of different ways, or or at the end of the day, one of the one of the Christian's value values that I always speak in my church speaks is it's love God, love people, right? It's so part of loving people is meaning whether that part of love of God is is understanding that, you know. Yeah, and some people may call that touchy filly. I call it the reality of the world that we live in as entrepreneurs, you know?

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Yeah, it could just like you said a few minutes ago, we can either embrace technology, we can embrace new psychology, or we can't. We can just throw up our hands and say, nope, I've always done it this way. It is what it is, that's not better. We have seen time and time again that how those people, businesses, frameworks, mindsets just get swept away. Technology is coming, new psychology, more emotional intelligence is coming, or it's already here, to your point, you know. Yeah, it's interesting that you you you know remind people, it's not even just really Christians, but people of of the two things that Jesus said there. The top all these rules, what's the most important? It's like, well, love God, love others. And I say those same things to my kids on a regular basis. It's like, no, look, literally everything falls out of this right here. Have reverence, the fact that you are not it, right? Like you were created by something other than yourself, and then over here, there's other people. Let's see, let's see them through the lens of maybe the person that created them as well. They're probably pretty special, and we should probably treat them as such.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Absolutely, absolutely a good good lessons for life, you know, kid child raising or business or whatever, you know. My I my father used to say you can't do a good deal with a bad person, and there's a lot to be said there, you know. So, not saying people are inherently bad, but the way they view is based on the way they were raised and the culture uh they're part of.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Hey, kings and queens, Jazz Wolf. I want to talk to you about something that's super important to me. We put a lot of time and effort, we meaning myself and my team, into this podcast, into the content that goes out every single day. And if you have been getting any sort of value or insight from this, we want it to be able to reach other business owners too. So we would love if you would like, comment, share, leave a review, post, share again, all of the things on social media, on all the different platforms, or even on the podcast mediums of Apple and Spotify. We would love to be able to get our content into more hands, more entrepreneurs so they can grow their business as quick as possible. Together, we are building a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who are committed to growing their businesses to new heights. So let's do this. Let's help each other grow. Yeah. Just kind of going on that whim there, just for a few minutes here. I mean, obviously, you guys have a huge team. You're you have a hiring process, I'm sure that's just an amazing format and framework, but how has that even changed as you're now? I mean, you could go from today interviewing two people and you have no idea which generation that they're going to be, probably the responses and interactions in those interviews are going to be completely different. How did how that how's that changed for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

Well, you know what I do? Well, first of all, as an entrepreneur, uh, you know, I believe regardless of your business, people are the most important piece. Even if you make widgets, it doesn't matter. People make widgets. So people are the most important uh piece of your company, uh, also because they change and and and whatever. So the interview process uh is founded on the whole, you know, belief that we have our entire management team there. So we do the first couple interviews and know that it's a pla this is the person that we want as a player. And then we we assemble what we call our ones, which is the the seven top executives in my company, and then they do the final interview. And that's important. Number one is because we want people to know that hey, we really are we're saying it, but we believe it because I'm taking my you know 30 minutes an hour and I'm I'm you know, you know, dependent upon you. The other thing is is the questions, and he and if and if it'd be okay, uh I want to give you uh an idea of some of the interview questions that I ask people. It's funny, once again, keep it on my phone. So uh so one of the things that I do was I ask, Do you have any unfulfilled dreams? What kind of responses do you get? I've had people say, you know, I I thought when I was growing up, I was gonna be a nurse, and then I ultimately decided that I this is what this is what I was gonna do per fresh profession, and it changed because of this. So you kind of get the life story, kind of pull it out of them. Other things are are something that's right in line with where they are. You can tell a lot of people by their unfulfilled dreams, being like, okay, I acknowledge the fact I'm not there yet, or I'm working to get there, but this is what I want to do. I had one gentleman come in and he said, I want to be a senior executive with this company. Well, there's a lot of drive there. And why what do you and there's a lot of other questions there? Why this company? So I also ask them what they know about our company because that's critical. Do they do their homework? Because I want people who did their homework, I don't want people who just are walking in the door. And the last one is the most important was I do speed questions, speed route questions, and I ask them questions like this, and they have to answer within, I tell them within five seconds. So these are these are a list of them. Uh, a dog or cat, blue or and I asked that because I'm a dog person. So I just I was like, everybody knows the difference. Blue or red. Somebody once said to me when I talk about blue or red, or they said, Are you talking about politics? I was like, no, because I don't know which what color is what, to be honest with you. Maybe I need to change it to green and yellow. I saw that something, but there's a green party too, so maybe not green, you know, but it's but oceans or mountains, dawn or dusk, fall or spring, winter or summer, cars or trucks, country or rap, chicken or egg, dog, dad or mom, cold or hot, triggered or unoffendable. I love that one right there because if you're triggered working in construction, there's about 90,000 people that are uh probably a lot more than that that are going to trigger you. If I'm gonna be a therapist, okay. But if you're gonna work in construction, you have to be able to determine what is acceptable. And then I asked a personal one about uh University of Kentucky or University of Louisville. My daughter goes to University of Louisville, but I'm a Kentucky fan. So I want to know where they fall. Are they blue or red? You know? So in not a political sense, in uh in a sports sense, you know?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

The triggered, untriggered part. There's a there's a spot in the book of uh psycho cybernetics that talks about basically what thick skin is and uh how you've gotta be able to have skin. I mean, our literal skin is what protects us, but it's and it keeps us away from certain things, certain uh pain. But it doesn't mean that it's not uh penetratable or it doesn't experience pain, it just keeps us from certain things that allow us to kind of just have a little buoyancy, you know, like it hit me and then it and then it bounced off and and I just keep going. It's okay. It's okay to have some of that thick skin, especially in construction.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Well, and you know, you go along that right. My one of my first bots boss told me he said you need to build some calluses up, just everybody knows what calluses are on their hands or whatever. Because you know, I worked in the trades, and you know, you swing a hammer long enough, you're gonna get calluses on your hands. So, and then you think about that. Well, how do you get calluses by doing it over and over and over again and getting that in-deep understanding of what you're doing and how you're doing it? And there's good and bads from that, you know, one of them being the bads I can think of right offhand is you lose perspective on people who don't understand what you do or what they understand. But on the other side of it, if you do things over and over again, you understand that and you understand it in detail. You know, you I I may have mentioned this, I may not mention it, but I'm a I'm a left leg amputee. I lost my lower left leg in a motorcycle crash and then further damage in an Iraqi oil platform. So that right there, my the guy who who does my prosthetics for me, he's an amputee too. And the thing that he understands that many other amputees or people who do prost, I can never say prosthetists, yeah, that they don't understand is all the intricacies like when you sit down on a with a suction-based prosthetic, it pull it feels like a pulling sensation at the bottom. Well, you don't know that unless you've done if you were born before. So, and that goes with like business and how we conduct things, and it makes us understand that we may not have all the knowledge necessary. And if you have a a gen, uh a young man or lady that grew up in California or they grew up in the Midwest, different exposures completely. And so you have to be able to treat them, as you said, the way they would like to be treated.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Yeah, different different exposures, different calluses. You know, that that that same chapter in psychocybernetics talks about the callus being uh scar tissue. Something has happened to cause damage, and that's our body's way of of helping us to have buoyancy, to keep going, some resilience. It creates a scar tissue so that way when it happens again, it the actual damage doesn't happen again. And so you're right. Scars or or callous speak to experience and speak to maybe just different perspectives that we have, you know, whether it be California versus Missouri, you know. And so I think all those things are good, especially when we're in uh an environment like we are, like we've been talking about this whole show, around hiring and hiring not only just new generations, but now a mixture of all the generations. What would be kind of like your last as we kind of wrap up here? You know, entrepreneurs listening right now, maybe they're in construction, maybe not, but they're they're like, Yes, I understand. I've got I've got a couple different generations on my team right now. This has been challenging, difficult. What's your main point takeaway for them of how they can go continue to not only hire well, but then curate this environment of multiple generations? How do we do that well?

SPEAKER_00 37:24

That's a great question. And and I'll go kind of back to uh something I said previously because I think it's so vitally important, is one is not better than the other. And that's important because it gives you rather than you know totally dismissing somebody's feelings about something or giving credence to somebody's feelings when it when it's not necessarily justified, or you know, numerous different ways of of is understanding that that's somebody's perspective, and we need to uh be respectful that while we're trying to get what we need to get out of that person. I'm creating an ASOP or you know, employee-owned stock ownership program, and I want everybody to have skin in the game, and that plays in real well with the generation that I that I'm in right now, with with most of my staff is is in. So I would say more than anything, as an entrepreneur, is understanding, uh identifying who what you have and how to move the organization forward, understanding the differences because most people don't understand the generational differences, how they're defined, what they mean. You know, it's always every generation just says to the later generations, oh, they're terrible. When in reality, this is not terrible, it's just different, you know?

SPEAKER_01 38:43

So yeah, then that would, I mean, obviously that's ignorance to say it's terrible. It's it's intelligence to say, hmm, this is interesting. It's a little bit different. I wonder how we can incorporate, you know, maybe the best of the best from both worlds or from all three or four of these worlds. You know, I think those are the teams that are gonna win, right? It's like how do we recognize it in one? How do we just become aware of the room and how the room is now different than it was 20 years ago? Okay, great. How do we move forward in that? I love, I love that direction. Scott, you obviously provide just an incredible service to construction companies all across the country. How can they find you if they're listening right now and they're like, yes, this is majorly beneficial? I need a project manager or any of the other sources that you've got access to where they can hire you. How can they reach out to you?

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Best way to do is look up uh ace consulting.net and we have all the contact information there and and uh or hit me up on LinkedIn, Scott Arias. Last name is spelled A-R-I-A-S. So I know it's not a common name, but nonetheless, it's it's my name. So, but but you can you can always reach out to me on those two different platforms. I would love to tell you, you know, reach me out on Instagram, but I don't have an Instagram account, you know. So because I'm a Gen X, you know. So I mean, yeah, so I have a Facebook account, but I I normally don't look at it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

So that's funny. Yeah, I think that you know, LinkedIn is really probably the one platform that has done a great job of bringing all generations to the same place. I think yes, there's a lot of business owners and and folks looking for jobs, but you're right, all the social platforms, they've we've got we've all got our preferences based on most likely the generation.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

So that's good stuff. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Well, Scott, it's uh a pleasure to have you back here today. I think this is such a great topic that not only is important for people to understand. So thanks for giving your expertise, but for those looking for services like what you offer, I think it's just incredible to get have you, your business back in front of the the audience again here today because I work in and out a lot of construction folks, and and what you do is just really, really important. And I think that people should take you up on going to your website and seeing how you can help them. So thanks for being here. We appreciate your expertise. Blessings to you, your family, your team, all the cool things that you're doing. Thanks for being here. Well, well, thank you, Chess. Thank you for listening to Gathering the Kings today. I hope that you were able to pull out a few nuggets to go apply into your business right away. More importantly, though, I hope that you're realizing that it takes more to be successful than just being by yourself, doing it all on your own, carrying the weight all by yourself. What I have realized, not only in my own journey from multiple businesses and multiple different industries, and now interviewing over two or three hundred other very successful seven, eight, and nine-figure business owners, is that it's tough to do it alone. And so gathering the kings exists to bring together successful entrepreneurs. In fact, we are putting together 1,000 kings, specifically who are grateful but not done. We're intentionally assembling kings who fight tooth and nail for their business, family, and communities. And here's what we believe that in the pursuit of excellence in those areas, that it ignites within us the responsibility to govern power and forge a lasting legacy. So if that relates and resonates with you, and you know that you need people around you, sharp, qualified, other, very successful business owners, I want you to go to gatheringtheKings.com. I want you to take a look at what we're doing and see if it makes sense for you to be part of our pursuit to 1,000 kings. Talk soon.