Building Resilience: How Elier Bermudez Overcame Market Crashes

Summary

In this episode, Elier Bermudez shares his incredible journey from starting in the restaurant industry to building a successful construction company in Utah. His story highlights resilience, learning by doing, and the importance of relationships in business.


Keywords

Construction, Entrepreneurship, Resilience, Business Growth, Learning by Doing, Relationship Building


Key  topics

Elier Bermudez's background and 30 years in construction
Learning all trades by working on-site from ground up
Navigating market crashes and economic downturns
Building a new business in a new city from scratch
The importance of relationships and networking in business
Resilience and mindset in overcoming setbacks
Branding and professionalism in construction
Lessons from books: The Greatest Salesman and How to Win Friends
The role of failure in learning and growth


Takeaways

You can't fix something unless you understand how it works.
Build relationships, not just structures.
Failure is a stepping stone to success.
Put yourself out there and meet people.
Consistency and branding build trust and recognition.
Learn from failures and setbacks to grow stronger.
Resilience and persistence are key to entrepreneurship.
Start where you are, even if you know no one.
Your mindset determines your ability to overcome challenges.
Never stop learning and adapting.


Valuable sound bites

"You learn more from failing than winning."
"It's not what I am, it's who I am."


Chapters

00:00 The Journey of Entrepreneurship
09:57 Building Resilience Through Challenges
24:37 Starting Fresh in a New Market
26:29 The Builder's Journey
31:52 Overcoming Fear and Building Connections
36:14 The Power of Branding and Professionalism
37:00 Influential Reads for Entrepreneurs

Resources

Build with Elier - Website - https://buildwithelier.com
Elier Construction on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/elierconstruction/
Elier Construction on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/elierconstruction

Books

The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino -

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Grind Design Podcast. I am Michael Walters, and uh today I'm flying solo as uh my partner in crime is uh off doing some shenanigans. But uh rest uh no rest to the weary because I've got an awesome guest today. Um I came into contact with this uh this individual, oh my gosh, probably almost four years ago when I was uh on my real estate team and uh um he was doing uh some work uh as a preferred partner within that uh within that team. And um since then he's uh helped uh many, many clients of mine, and he's done personal work for me. And I can't uh think and and and say enough good things about not just the quality of work that he does and the uh and rather the business owner that he is, but just the the the human being he is in terms of his ability to communicate and um leave you um with a great experience. So without a further ado, I'd like to introduce uh you guys to Elier Bermudez. And Elier, uh I know you, and but nobody else, or a lot of people that are listening to us may not know you. So uh give us a bio and introduction of yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Excellent. Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. Um, well, I as you mentioned my name is Elier Bermudez. I am the owner of Elier Construction and Remodeling. We are a local residential and con and commercial construction company. We do lots and lots and lots of like kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, uh, home additions, home renovations, basement build-outs, ADUs, garages, and also new construction. Um I'm also in the commercial side able to do outfits for commercial centers, things like that. Uh, have a lot of experience, 30 years in the industry, and I've been doing both commercial and residential uh for about the same amount of time within those 30 years. Uh, always wanted to become someone who was well versed in both fields. Um, I love building homes, but I also love helping communities develop and things like that. So when I started into the construction industry about 30 years ago, I saw a world of opportunities and I began what I call my training program to become where I am and who I am today.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Yeah, that's awesome. So let's go back 30 years, or maybe even slightly before that. Like, how did you get into this space?

SPEAKER_00 2:35

I um I was actually in the restaurant industry. I started in the restaurant industry as soon as I moved into the United States back in 1993. Um, but I quickly figured out that that that type of business took a lot of time, and uh you have very little time for yourself. So I wanted to build a restaurant empire and have someone else run it for me. I love the industry, I just didn't want to be tied to it as a manager or an owner 24-7, 80 hours a week. And um, so I decided uh to go into painting. Um, my brother-in-law at the time had mentioned to me that he was starting to work for a painting company, and um he said there's just a great amount of potential here. I was like, man, I don't really know much about painting. Um, he's like, Don't worry, I can I'll teach you. And uh he'll he'll later come to not be so happy about that because I became the general manager for that company for both the residential and the commercial divisions of the entire company in about a two years' time. Uh, after the one day he took me out on a Saturday day and started teaching me how to be a painter and how to use a sprayer and those things. I wanted to be the best painter I could be, and I wanted to run that company for the owner, and so I went to work on becoming the best painter, so much so I became his manager. He didn't like it, he quit, he went to work for himself, and I just stayed over there working with the owner, and I helped him develop his company into what it became about a six million dollar company in those two years. Uh, developing, we were doing hospitals, we were doing retirement homes, we were doing hotels, we were doing multi-million dollar homes. I've done several for several multimillionaires that own even very famous businesses like Richard Childress, who owns the children's uh children's uh racing team in NASCAR, the owners of Deo Larnhardt and Deo Arnhardt Jr. We uh we did his house, I was the project manager for that house. Um, and so forth. But you know, it was always one of those things for me that I was the best painter anyone knew, but that wasn't enough for me. I didn't want to just be an amazing painter or run somebody else's businesses. I wanted to build houses from the ground up. I wanted to build them myself for me, for someone else to paint, for someone else to sheet rack, for someone else to do all those things. So I left and went to work with one of the general contractors that had become a friend of mine through working for that company, for that painting company. When I was the crew chief on site doing the actual painting, that general contractor decided that I was the best painter he knew, and if it wasn't me painting his houses, he was gonna wait or just go to someone else because it might as well be someone else if it's not gonna be Elier. It doesn't matter anymore. So I called him knowing that I had a good rapport with him, and I said, Brian, I need to become you one day, so I need you to teach me everything you can. Can I come be a superintendent for you? I'll be the grunt on site, I'll dig the footings, I'll do, I'll clear the lot, I'll do everything with the crews for whatever you want to pay me. But I need to learn everything that you know. And he said, Yeah, come on. You're you're as good as a painter as you can be, and you want to be more. I get it. Come, I'll teach you everything I know, and you can be even better than me one day. So he did. For the next five years, I worked as a crew chief and superintendent for him, then became his project manager. I was the guy running all of the houses that we were building for him. At this point, I've already dug footings for days and days and days. At this point, I've already laid pipes with plumbers, I've already pulled cable with electricians, framed the houses, laid the hardwood floors, worked on the layouts for the kitchen cabinets, worked with the tile crews to learn patterns, different things like that. There was nothing with the insulations. There were got there were days I came home and I would tell my wife, don't touch me. If you touch me, I am going to be angry for a week. Because I had so much insulation all over my body from laying insulation, from walking on stilts through ladders and things like that. There is absolutely nothing I didn't do. I wanted to know it all. And uh, once I knew enough about the residential aspect of building homes, now I needed to know how to build things on the commercial side. So as a painter, I made really, really, really great contacts. I'm someone who really likes to build relationships with people. Um, in fact, one of the slogans, things I like to say about our company is that we don't just build construction things, we build relationships as well. Um, I think relationships are definitely everything. You and I are here because of the relationship that we built four years ago. Yeah, you know. Um, I think it's super crucial. So I called one of the superintendent, I'm sorry, project managers for a company at the time called Rogers Builders out of Charlotte, North Carolina. I was the project manager for the painting company when we did a five-story hospital in the center of a retirement village, build 220 homes. And I was the project manager for the painting company who came in and worked with the project manager for that commercial construction company, shoulder to shoulder every day, coordinating drywall painting, and finishes for all 220 homes and all five stories of the hospital with all medical equipment that needed to be put in, with all wallpaper finishes, absolutely everything that was to be done until the day we handed the keys over to the owners. So I called him up and I said, Hey bud, I am looking to come work on your field, and I would like to see if maybe you can help me get the foot in the door. I'll start from the bottom, sweeping the floors, whatever it is, but I want to know commercial. And he made he put a word in three months later. I was working for the company as a superintendent. About a year and a half later, I was in the trailer as a project manager, and I worked for that company for five years as a project manager, learning everything I could possibly learn about all that has to do with building a hospital, a hotel, a commercial center, a grocery store, anything of that sort. Small restaurants. We did Kentucky Fried Chickens, we did Wendys's, we did Burger Kings, we did so many different things all the way up and down. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Virginia. So and then one day I decided I'm gonna buy a restaurant so that I can buy the freedom to go into the construction company or world to build my own company and start my own construction company, and things got kind of kept getting in the way. 2008 got in the way, 2001 got in the way, um, then you know, 2020 got in the way, but finally 2021 landed me in Salt Lake City, Utah. And I've always said that that the universe got we don't never know when or how it's gonna be, but there is a plan, and and we get that plan put on to us to execute, not when we want to, but when we're ready. And thank the Lord after all the things that I've been through over the last couple of decades. I think 2021 was finally a time when the universe, my my my belief, my faith, my my my um constant dedication to who I am and what I do for a living became true, and I was able to get my general contractor's license here in Utah and start doing what I love doing, and here we are four years later.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, we're gonna that's what an amazing story, and I I loved how you talked both sides of uh learning both the commercial and the residential, and I know you'll agree with this when I say like you are here today doing what you're doing because you you did everything from the ground up, like literally, you you you started and you you did things, you did the different jobs, the different tasks, the different trades, um so that you could know them and then do them, and then be able to now have your own GC company and and know what to look for. And it's it's not it's not enough to say, hey, I saw people do it. You actually did this stuff, didn't you? Like that was a critical part of your learning.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Absolutely, Michael. I am a true believer that you cannot fix something unless you know how it works. Right? You can't take a tire off a vehicle and replace brakes if you don't even know how the brakes go in and how they apply the force onto the disc. You don't even know what a caliper does, you don't even know what makes it react when you press that brake pedal. But if you understand how it works, it isn't difficult to go backwards in the process and figure out how to take it apart and fix it. You have to know how things work. I how can you possibly tell the electrician that what he has done is not to code because maybe he not because he doesn't know, but because a mistakes are made all the time. But maybe it was an oversight and they forgot to put an outlet within a space of a wall of six feet. In electrical code, you cannot have any given space of a wall with that one outlet at every six feet. Yeah, right. So if you come in and you don't know that that's supposed to be the case, and you don't know that a plumber is supposed to be a pee put a p-trap under a toilet. You know, you know how a toilet works, but you don't know why or how, right? You just know that you use it and it works, and that's all you want, right? But how do you know that the plumber didn't put a p-trap under it like he's supposed to when you don't know those things yourself? Maybe he sent a helper that is brand new right now. Maybe he had a master plumber working, he was working under, the master plumber was busy doing something else, that helper didn't know to do it. You come in as a builder, you're supposed to be able to catch these things, but how could you if you don't know? If you've never done it, if you've never even just been on the field with the guys, watching, learning, asking, just sucking it like a sponge. I wanted to know everything I could possibly know without knowing everything they need to know to do their job, to be able to manage them effectively.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah, yeah, it's it's so true. You hear that we learn by doing. And uh even when we when we think we're um we're we're maybe masters or or uh very high level uh proficiencies in something, like when we go out and teach that again, we relearn it, and we relearn it because we're doing it. That's a great point. You know, and so uh it reminds me, you know, you'll find this funny because you know my business partner Lee uh Stern. I think you've had interactions with her. Um but my very first open house, I was probably two two weeks in the business of being a realtor. And I had no I mean, I had no direction, I was given no direction by design, hindsight. I just went out and put up signs, how I thought I should be putting up signs on an open house. And when I asked Lee later on um, you know, how how it was, how I did with the signs, she said, Oh my god, they're god awful. That's a true story. And the the funny thing is, is I she got me in her car, we went backwards and saw the place of my signs, and she told me what I could do differently. But I never would have learned that had I not done it and done it incorrectly, maybe, and then got corrected and coached in a very positive way. And now when I go to an open house, it's second nature, right? But unless somebody's done it, whether it be in your trade or in my trade, like they're not going to know, and and I don't think you can fast track that.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

No, no, definitely not. And I um I remember watching a movie once, and I think it was Desylan Washington who said it, uh, and it's always stuck in the back of my mind, you learn more from losing than you learn from winning. And it is true. If you always win, you don't know what it takes to s to win because you haven't lost. But once you lose, you get to learn what you need to do to win.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, yeah. I we call it we call it failing forward, right? Because um, you know, if you if you take that approach where you learn something because you failed, but you you actually got knowledge of how to do it better, is it really a failure? And I would I would say unequivocally, no, it's not.

unknown 15:17

Right?

SPEAKER_00 15:17

I will I'm with you. I I think it's a win all the way. Every every time you fail, it's a win in the right direction in the way I see it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

So like before we get into your experience building your your company here locally, um talk us through. Like, okay, you're building um, you're learning, you're building, you have 2001, 2008, both had um you know uh historical events, and then 2020. Like tell us or talk about what you learned by pushing through and having to navigate those those three periods, because those were three historical periods.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, no, absolutely. Um, you know, it it as difficult as it was, Michael, it has been a blessing in disguise to have experienced the loss of law I experienced throughout these periods because I didn't understand that money was never gonna run out at one point. Like I was building so strongly at one point by 2000, when 2008 came around, after 2001, I had the opportunity to open a drywall and painting business for myself. By 2005, I bought 50% of my first restaurant. By 2007, I had opened the second restaurant for myself, built it from the ground. I basically took a an existing building down to a shell and just rebuilt it three stories high the way that I wanted it to be. I didn't have any understanding of looking at markets or thinking forward with what a market crash could create, or even who would have ever even understood what a bank crisis it was going to become in those days, right? Like you were in the real estate uh industry, so you know everything that went down with that, right? So the way that I was building, I thought I was gonna retire by 40. That was my plan. I was gonna be retired at this point 11 years ago. Yeah, I know I look like I'm still 40, but I'm not. That's right. That's right. Um, I really didn't think my money was ever gonna run out. And so I was buying, I had houses, I had cars, I had toys, you know, I had everything. I was doing more businesses, you know, opening more restaurants, investing more money. And boy, was I wrong. Boy was I wrong. Because while once I didn't have the money to pay for everything, you know, as soon as 2008 crash took place, um, you know, everybody that owned that money came looking for it.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

And and it wasn't me. So it taught me a big lesson about learning and educating myself more about the current markets and the current states of our economy and how fragile it really is, and and what little things could affect it. To educate myself more in that regard rather than to think that I could just get more money to make more money and keep making money and it was never gonna run out. It also taught me a lesson, a great lesson of resiliency. Um it was very difficult to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars overnight that I had you know spent a good amount of my life building, you know, working day and night, Saturday, Sunday, you know, all days are the same. I'm working towards something, I'm building something. And um, as you said, no, no rest for the worry, right? So I I finally had gotten to the point where I was like, this is exactly where I wanted to be. I'm building, and now everything is gone. So now you gotta sit back and and and think a little, like, was it all for nothing? You know, do I deserve this? Is is this is this of my doing? What am I gonna do now? Nobody's painting houses, nobody's drywalling houses, nobody's coming to my restaurants to eat, nobody's giving me money to pay my rent, my truck's getting repossessed. Um, you know, what what do I do? How do I create a way for me, an opportunity for me to rebuild everything that I just lost? And frankly, it makes me even a little emotional to think about those days because they were very, very difficult days. Um, you know, there were days when you know you wake up thinking, what is it all for? You know, if this if if it's so fragile and it can go so easily, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Well, I I and I don't wanna I don't wanna belabor the point, but I don't want to, and I'm not making light of it, but in as in as simple a way as you can explain it, like how did you overcome that? Because and I asked that because having lived that I saw a lot of people just throw their hands up in the air, Elier, and um you know let everything just sort of happen to them. So how did you how did you direct directly impact your future by how you responded?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

It's a great question, Michael. I um I always uh I always say my my key to success is my inability to quit. I don't know how to spell the word. I I'm gonna figure something out and I'm gonna keep moving. So in 2008, uh closer to 2009, I got a job with a property management company and I started working for them as a technician, just doing the repairs. Already know how to build homes, but I can't come in there with this attitude. Nobody's hiring. I'm losing everything. I don't have money to pay even rent. I need something to just eat and stay alive for a while until I figure it out. Um little that I knew that company was suffering from mismanagement on the construction side, the people they had working for them were not good at what they did. And here I come and I'm like basically a builder, and there is nothing I can't fix properly, and save that company money at the same time making them more money because when they were paying a lot of money for one of their technicians to replace a sink, I could come in and replace it in two hours, therefore helping them keep more money in their pockets without paying some technician 10 hours for something that you know basically he spent eight hours sitting outside smoking cigarettes, just taking his time, not really caring about the company, only caring about his paycheck and not really knowing what they were doing. They were just kind of figuring it out as they were going along. So I came in and in like a Like to call LR fashion. I sort of took over that department for them, and then that allowed me to start seeing other opportunities to help them manage their property management aspect better. So I started bringing in some subs. I opened up a company of my own, an LLC, uh, is a property management construction assistant company to help them with their problems by managing some of the things that were subbed, like roofing. I brought in my own roofers, uh, siding, I brought in my own vinyl siding people that I knew to help do the work, save the property management company money. They were making money, and I was still making a little bit. Like there were just some companies that were taking advantage of them. So they saw that and they kept me on board for the next about two years or so, uh, until it was time for me to move to another city and kind of start figuring things out for myself again. I went in to manage a sushi restaurant in 2012 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Uh, great opportunity to have a pay raise a little bit more. Now I got some of my subcontractors situated with this property management company and others. So I'm making a little bit of uh cuts on the side here and there. Nothing huge, but enough to make a little extra to kind of get back up on my feet. By 2015, my wife and I moved together into Charlotte, North Carolina. Um, she had just graduated from med school, so now it was time for her to start practicing as a doctor. Um, so now we have the both of us incomes helping, so things are getting more, you know, more and more level in our lives. And now we start working on okay, it's time for me to get back to what I do, you know. So I was taking the I was doing uh uh estimating for a company, uh mostly drywall painting, metal framing, acoustical ceilings, uh roofing, and uh some commercial on the side as well. All I needed was the software um and internet anywhere in the world to be able to work. I can take the software and estimate an entire hundred-story hotel from top to bottom for absolutely everything that goes into it, which has been an amazing thing because I can nowadays walk into a building when people ask me how much do you think to do this, and I can just look at it and tell them the number within 10%. Um okay, hold on here. I gotta how I got back in.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, I've that that's such a great story. And man, you are one resilient SOB. You I mean, seriously. Like that, and take that as a compliment because that's how it's meant. I mean I 100% do. You were like Teflon. And what I want people to realize here, like go back and re-listen to this, that uh you had an opportunity like a lot of people to just put your arms up and say, Whoa me, but to your own words, you don't know how to spell quit. And you did you did the little things um just to get by while you're still the way I perceive it, you're you're sort of master planning this vision on the side while you're taking care of yourself in in a way that you need to, until the two start coming together when the economy gets better. You didn't wait for the economy to get better to start planning this. You were you were building it and nurturing it even at a small level until the the time was right. That's sort of what I took.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

100%. The economy is not waiting on you. No.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, no, it's not that's man, like yeah, you are yeah, man, you are resilient. Um okay. So so 2021 comes and you move out here. Now, this is we'll spend the rest of our time talking about this because um I have people do this in my in my business where they'll they'll relocate to Utah and they'll be like, I can't do real estate because I don't know anybody. Yet you moved from across the country, didn't know anybody, maybe a few, I don't know. But you you started just literally five years ago here with a brand new business. Take it from there.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

This is this is uh one of those stories that also um you know gets me a little emotional because I am super invested into who I am as a builder. You know, I recently did a presentation and uh and I opened the presentation with a slide out of uh Top Gun Maverick. You've seen the movie, I'm sure. And you remember the scene when Ice and Tom Cruise are having the talk at the computer, and he he's gotta type things on the computer, and he's asking him to go do and be a teacher and whatnot. And Tom Cruise says, I don't know how to do that, Ice. I am not a teacher. I am a fighter pilot, a naval aviator. It isn't what I am, it is who I am. How do I teach that? Verbatim, literally. And I opened up with that and put those words on the screen because I see myself that way as a builder. I am, it's not what I am, it's who I am. I have trained myself to become this. So in 2020, when the pandemic took place, my wife and I moved to Denver, Colorado from the East Coast. She was supposed to start a practice from the ground up with one of her mentors, and I was supposed to get my general contractor's license. There, we knew some people that had already promised, you get your license, we'll get you work. You know. Obviously, the pandemic had other ideas. None of that worked out. So we ended up doing a little bit of work, uh, travel work with her, for her, uh being a doctor. We ended up in Minnesota for about six months and whatnot. Eventually went back to Denver, and as she was looking for other places to go do what she does, Salt Lake City became one of the best opportunities that that was very appealing. And so we moved here for a job for her with Intermountain. We knew absolutely no one other than each other, not a single person, not one. And um I said, well, now we're here. Denver didn't work out, but now this is where I get to start. The hiccup that I have is no one knows me here in North Carolina. I could have made a call once I got my license and had 10 houses lined up to go build for people I knew. Yeah, here I know absolutely no one, no one knows me, and no one knows what I can do, so it's going to be challenging, but again, I don't know how to quit. So I did. We got here in November of 21, in March of 22, I got my license, passed it on the first try, and spent the rest of that year working on the concept, on the logo. I wanted things to be recognizable. I wanted a name, I wanted a brand that when I showed up at your door and I knocked on your door and said, Can I paint your front door so I can eat? Right? That that you would see that I'm in business, that I'm not just some fly by night off the street. Here's my business card. Elir at buildwithelier.com is the email. Builtwithellier.com is the website. Everything is Elier Elier Elier. 1 800 Elir CR 1844 Elir CR Elier Elier Elier Elier Construction Remodeling Elir Costa Rica. You see, CR. It's repetition, repetition, it's concept building, brand building. I want it to look serious, so it took me the rest of that year. In November of 22, I did a small painting job for an agent, $6,500. She walked in, saw the job, said, I think I need to pay you more money. This is the absolute best painting job I have ever seen, and I would feel like I'm taking advantage of you if I don't. I said, Don't do that. I told you this was my price. I'm sticking with it. I wanted you to see what I can do. And if I tell you that I can build you a palace, and if I told you that I was the best painter I ever knew, or anyone around me ever knew, and this is what I can show you I do. Imagine what I can do with that palace when you give it to me to build. Send me people. I need people, I need to build this business. And in January of 23, I am going on my own. Finally, I'm not gonna have a salary from anything else. I'm not gonna be working, estimating for nobody else. It's go to work, make a living, or die. Send me people, send me anyone you can for whatever, I don't care what it is. And once that ball started, little snowflake started rolling down the mountain, it became a big ball, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. And and since 23, at this moment, we have now already built a house from the ground up, brand new house, turned down garages, built them from the footings all the way up into a two-story garage with AD use on top. We have torn up roofs of houses and garages and put houses on top of houses. And it's just been amazing. And again, it's one of those stories that makes me emotional. Sorry about that. But it's it's I've been so invested in this, in building this brand, and in becoming where in being where I am today because it's who I am, and and it just means a lot to me.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah, and I I yeah, if people don't feel it, because I can see it here and feel it, like it is emotional because it's personal. And here's the cool thing that I know to be true about you is you're very, very, very personable. And it is that connection that I guarantee you is what you were doing with every connection you were making. That that helped get those, you know, get the ball rolling and getting that momentum, right? And so people that are out there and they're like, Well, I don't know anybody, what would you tell them? Like in literally in 30 seconds, what would you tell that person that says, Well, I can't do it because I don't know anybody?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

You have to go out and meet them. Doesn't matter, we it doesn't matter if you don't know anyone, there are millions of people around you. You just have to put yourself out there and not be afraid. I have walked up to people on their vans when they were loading materials at the Home Depot because I was looking for framers or painters or drywall crews. I saw them walking around in their painters' whites and I approached them. I saw the van with all the plumbing materials and I walked up to them. Don't be afraid. Go up to them, talk to them, ask them. You see a woman buying a door, she's putting a door somewhere. Offer offer your name and offer your service, offer your help. You see a man buying a door, you offer it.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yeah. Okay, but let me ask you this question. Why are people afraid?

SPEAKER_00 33:21

We are naturally afraid because we fear we fear failure. And failure is a thing that builds you.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah, we we fear rejection/slash failure, right? So here's what I tell people, right, that I coach. I'm like, because they're like, I'm afraid they're gonna say no. And I get it, that's human nature. But I'm like, I do this exercise with them, Elliot. I'm like, and I'm gonna do it with you. So how many how many solicitation calls do you get on your phone?

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Oh, more than I can count.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Okay. So was could could it be fair to say your last solicitation call was in the last week, maybe the last day?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

In the last hour.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Okay. Now, um do you remember that person's name? I do. Okay. Now, let me go back a week or two weeks or three weeks or four weeks ago. Do you remember each of those names?

SPEAKER_00 34:11

No, absolutely not. I only remember the one from a week ago because it was very annoying. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

And that is my point, is I tell people that I'm coaching, I'm like, they're not going to remember your name. They just won't. They're not going to remember a week later saying, oh, Elier or Michael called. No, they're not. So get get past that. That's that's ego. Now they will remember you either A, because it was weird and awkward, or you just were rude, or they're gonna remember you because you were polite. And so take a page out of what Eliot just said. You've gotta go meet people. And they're not gonna remember you if they say no, they're not gonna remember you unless you were either you know made a poor impression on them or a good impression, either way, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Either way, you need to get you need to give yourself the chance. Yeah. Because not knowing somebody didn't stop me, not knowing someone shouldn't stop anyone. You go out there and you knock on doors and you shake the bushes and you shake the trees and you shake a lot of hands, and you just put yourself out there. Otherwise, you might as well crowl, crawl under a hole like a you know, hermit crab.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Yeah. You know, I think the last thing I would say, and and I I know this to be true because you've you've come to my house and done some work, and yes, your logo is everywhere. And and so that professionalism, if you're gonna go out and start a business and you're gonna meet people, like yeah, be professional. It's not it doesn't cost much to get name badges or shirts, logos, decals, whatever. It it really doesn't cost much, but you will differentiate yourself as a serious player by having that visible. And and so don't let don't let the fact that you don't know anybody stop you. Get serious about it. Get serious about it, get serious about your branding, right? Um, and go out there and you will make a difference with people. You will come across difference with people.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

And it may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but sooner or later you're gonna put this energy out into the universe, and this universe is going to listen and it's going to pay back to you because you are doing it. You have to put your energy into it. Without energy, nothing works. You've got to put it out there.

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Oh my gosh, man. That is I that is that is the quote of this episode, man. Like you put you got to put that energy out there. I love it. Okay, so as we're wrapping up here, um, we we ask our guests um a couple of questions to every person that's on here. And we do so because as an entrepreneur, um we find that most of us are readers or um consumers of content. So I'm curious for you has there been a book or a piece of content that has really um sort of set the stage in uh something that you apply and use in your business today.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

100%. Um there are two in particular that should be known by anyone in business for themselves. Um one the first one, and it was actually the first one I read, it's The Greatest Salesman in the World. Um, I think that book definitely this is a great segue from what we were just talking about. That book teaches you, and it's a very small book, too. Um, it's it doesn't take long to read it. Um really teaches you about losing that fear and going out there and presenting your base case and and thinking of better ways to sell the product, whatever it is, you know, you're you're a real estate agent, you're you're a boutique owner, you're a restaurant owner, you're a framer, whatever it is that you're doing, there are there is sales involved in order to interact with each other, in order to let the other get the other person interested in what we offer, in the service that we offer, in the person that we are. There is a sale that has to take place. And the other thing that teaches you, and it's the second book because they both tie together for me, is the How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Two very small, very common knowledge books for people. I have learned so much from reading that book over and over and over about how to treat people, about how to make someone feel to get what I need to get out of that interaction, and not in a selfish way, but if it is that I'm trying to help someone who just fell off their bicycle, how do I approach this person in a way that they don't feel fear while they're already down? And how do I let them know that what I have to offer can help them? That is a great, great thing to be able to have to offer to someone else.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Okay, I've read I've read Dale's book. I've not read the first one, but I I'm literally gonna go uh buy it tonight. So thank you for that suggestion. Uh okay, so I mean, what a story. And I'm I'm just so grateful for you taking the time to share your story because um it's I think in a world of building businesses and building empires, the hardest thing to do is to start. And you've been proof and you've shared your examples that um you've started several times. And so thank you for just sharing your story. Uh it's inspiring. People myself, others are gonna learn a ton from it. Um, and I know that people this is gonna land with a lot of people that listen to our to our show. So they're gonna be interested in knowing more about you. So where can they find you?

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Definitely. Um, our website is builtwithelier.com. They can also go to our handle on Instagram, which is at ElirConstruction. On Facebook, we are Elir Construction and Remodeling. Uh, we're also on Nextdoor at Eliot Construction and Remodeling. We're also now accredited with the Better Business Bureau. So you can actually go to the Better Business Bureau and find our accreditation there as well. Um, we have lots and lots and lots of amazing reviews on Google that you can just Google our name and find us and read. Um, and also if you're looking to get a quick uh connection with myself, you can call me at 844-LERCR or you can call me at my cell phone number at 336-772-0091, and I'll be more than happy to speak with you. And remember, just to kind of close the thing you said just a minute ago, Michael, you learn more from failing than you learn from winning. I fail enough times to know what I need to fix and what not to do so that I can be where I am.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Oh my gosh, what a way to end it. Um, Elliot, thank you. Uh people go follow him. And if you found this episode of value, share this, subscribe, follow, do all the stuff you know that you want to do because this episode's gonna really resonate with a lot of people. My friend, thank you. It was an honor. Um, thanks for coming on, and I look forward to connecting again.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

The honor was mine. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

All right, thank you, sir.