Why “My Way or the Highway” Fails in Construction | Trevor Blondeel

Running a trades or construction business is hard enough without disengaged crews, missed expectations, and constant frustration on site.

In this episode of “Built. Trusted. Chosen.”, I sit down with executive coach Trevor Blondeel to unpack why leadership breakdowns happen in trades and construction, and how small shifts in communication, expectations, and accountability can completely change the way teams show up.

This conversation is all about practical leadership. We talk about how leaders unintentionally disrupt productivity, why culture never improves as you scale, and what it actually takes to build trust across crews, supervisors, and management.

You’ll take away:

• Why leaders talking too much can cost productivity on site
• How culture reflects leadership behaviour, not posters or values
• A simple framework for setting expectations crews actually own
• How accountability builds trust when it’s done in the right order
• Why behaviour problems often hide deeper personal struggles

Guest bio:
Trevor Blondeel is an executive coach who spent years running manufacturing plants and now works with owners and leaders across construction, logistics, and manufacturing. He helps leaders improve communication, strengthen accountability, and build cultures people actually want to be part of.
https://www.trevorblondeel.com/
https://manufacturinggreatness.com/

Host bio:
I’m Wes Towers, founder of Uplift 360 and host of Built. Trusted. Chosen. I help trades and construction companies be built, trusted, and chosen online through high-performing websites and Search Everywhere Optimisation.
https://uplift360.com.au/

Want to be a guest on Built. Trusted. Chosen.?
Book here: https://uplift360.com.au/built-trusted-chosen-podcast-guest-booking/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Built Trusted Chosen, the podcast for leaders and marketers in trades and construction. Hosted by Wiz Towers from Uplift 360.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

G'day Trevor, it's good to have you on the show, Built Trusted, Chosen. It's um an honor that uh Dr. Andy, actually, a friend, a mutual friend, connected us, and it's privileged to have you here today. If you'd just like to introduce yourself real quick, we'll unpack it as we progress, but uh tell the audience who you are and what you're up to these days.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

Well, thanks, Wes, for uh and thanks, uh Dr. Andy Neely for the recommendation. And and yeah, so I'm uh I I ran manufacturing plants for 25 years, the last 10 years. Uh I've been in executive coaching and working with owners and leaders across logistics, construction, manufacturing, and that space. And uh, you know, just really uh learned a lot from my own mistakes, Wes, and uh and and figured out uh, hey, you know what? Uh sometimes you need to have be able to have better conversations. And it took me some some skill and some learning of my own over 25 years, and then you know, I'm I'm still learning today, man. I'll learn something from you on the show.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Uh no, I love your uh transparency and the the way you connect. I mean, I've watched a bunch of your material and I'm I'm curious to unpack some of the uh the lessons learned the hard way because we all relate to those things. Certainly, my own journey feels like a series of lessons learned the hard way, but maybe uh unpack your early um stages of those things and and your story.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Yeah, so I'm recording here from Stratfordville, Ontario, Canada. Uh so I'm a Canadian, but I'm also a U.S. uh citizen. So I go back and forth. I actually reside in Kentucky, and my parents have some health issues that I'm here for. And so I grew up on a farm, you know, 10, 15 years of just farm work, and uh that's very relatable to construction. And uh and then got into manufacturing and and had some success, you know, doing some green field launches, brand new plants. And uh obviously, when you're building plants, you're tied in construction and building material and and just you know, just definitely I see like transportation, logistics, all that space. We kind of trade places sometimes, right? Because we have a lot of the same opportunities and sometimes the same problems. And uh, and I got into manufacturing leadership and running plants, and uh and you know, I was feeling pretty good about myself because you know, we were really hitting some good numbers and and and doing well, and and I had a morning meeting where I brought all the supervisors and engineers in and I said, Hey, this is this is where we're going, this is what we need to do, this is why we need to do it, told them all the great, you know, I I had a lot of leadership experience, I was really smart. And uh, so I went back to my desk and my executive assistant uh Amy walks in and she says, Boy, you really pissed those guys off. And I'm like, What are you talking about? I'm I'm gonna took all these courses, I'm kind of laying all. She goes, Like, I don't know, but they're not happy when they left that room and they were happy when they came in, and then you were the only person that was talking. I said, Oh, okay. So I went and talked to a supervisor on the line and and I say, Oh, how's it going? They're like, fine. And I'm like, oh, one of those finds.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

So I'm like, okay, well, what's going on?

SPEAKER_03 3:07

He's like, well, you know, you pull us all in the room. We we're, you know, we're off, we got a good plan for the day. And then you pull out all this other stuff that's needed. Now everybody's running around and disorganized, and we're gonna lose 10% production because of you. And I'm like, oh, this guy's confused. He didn't get it. But it wasn't him, it wasn't the supervisor who was confused, it was me. Right. And that was a really turning point for me of very humbling in the fact of like as leaders, because we get that responsibility. And you know, when when you have a crew working on a job, right, we we can easily disrupt that if we're not mindful of how we are impacting others with our own personal requests. And that that was kind of the humbling moment of like, oh, I need to start asking more questions and they don't need to hear my voice so much.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Yeah, for sure. I suppose as leaders, sometimes you you can be a bit of a whirlwind coming through with your own ideas when everyone is on the path for their day, and then you disrupt um disrupt everything. Do you think it's uh personality personality types that are the biggest challenge in that? Or what would you say? I'll open it to you. What's the biggest challenge is for that communication, I guess, gap or understanding of each other?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

I'm a big fan of like, you know, whatever your personality is, I like it. Like I like who you are, right? So it's like I don't want Wes to be anybody different than Wes, and I'm not thinking that people need to just kind of show up with kids' gloves and you know, this and that and construction. That's not gonna happen. Uh, but what I do want us all to do is just understand what the impact of our behavior is on others, right? So it when we we when we have that skill and we focus on that, we can make better choices on what part of our personality we want to amplify and when. And when do we need to tile it down and for who? Because I can tell you, 30 years ago, when I was working in in plants and and I've been some construction crews, and some are still the same today, it's like, hey, this is how it works out here. Okay, so it's my way or the highway. And we're in 2026, that's not working anymore, right? So that that's not gonna be our future. It was, and it's not now. And in and if I think it's a really critical time right now that if if we have to really look at differently, and I call it situational leadership, right? Like it's you know, it and it it depends on the situation. And we have to be so much more skilled. We can't just come in there and say, okay, this is the same message for everybody. This is just the way it's gonna be. What are we doing to ensure they want to drive into work tomorrow? Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

I mean, and just uh you touched on something, the the the culture of the communication in an entity, the uh how do you scale that? Because uh uh when you're a small team, it's easy because you've got a handle of it's easier, I should say, because you've got a handle of how it who everyone is and how they operate. How do you how do you create a culture where leadership um is thriving and therefore the whole t the whole teams are thriving?

SPEAKER_03 6:25

Well, we're gonna switch the topic for chocolate. You like chocolate, Wes? Yeah. Some people don't, I gotta ask. But if you like chocolate chocolate found dudes, right? Like they're kind of a little more of a throwback now. They're not as popular. But you know, you take a piece of banana or a pineapple and you and you and it's a fountain of chocolate, right? And it's a smaller ring on the top, and then the next ring gets wider and the next ring gets wider. But no matter where you dip your banana in, the chocolate's not gonna taste better than what it does coming out of the top. It's only gonna be as good as what comes out of the top. It doesn't get better. And as those rings get wider, you're you're hitting more space, but it's not gonna get better. So I look at it as this chocolate fondue effect, right? So it really depends on the behaviors at the top of the organization. So that you're, you know, if if you're if your owner or your boss is a jerk, I doubt you're gonna have really kind and connecting supervisors, right? Because we're gonna emulate some of that behavior. So it really does start there. Like our our our phrase is you know, we connect the top to the shop. Because then when that happens, when we're truly connected, because most owners I know are good people with good intentions and sometimes showing up in a way that they don't intend, but it's how people are perceiving it. And they think they're communicating a certain way, but they're not. So kind of tie that back into the chocolate effect is that you know, if our if our people at the top aren't asking themselves, how am I showing up today? Because how we show up impacts on how people feel. And how we make them feel determines the extent to which they can engage with us. And we own that. And so, so, so to really to cascade, I don't care what the size your organization is, you know, if you can be working here, because I'll get a call, Trevor, you know, you can come in, you can help uh train our supervisors. And I'll say, okay, well, uh, great, how's the management team? Oh, we're we're good. We're just busy. We just need you to come in here and do this. I said, okay, well, here's a number you can call because uh you're not gonna you're not gonna do this with me. But if you want to be engaged, you want to be a part of this from the top, now we're talking.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah, that it reminds me of a conversation I was having with a client. We do we're uh a digital agency, so we do websites for trades and construction businesses, and and so this particular company had grown quite a bit, but the the leader who I deal with, it's a founder-led business. Um, he's a real he he swears a lot, and um, you know, he's really quite rough, but it was okay in the context that he started because he had other rough blokes around him. And as things grew and different positions uh were filled into his entity, into his organization, um that wasn't as suitable as it once might have been. It might have been passable, I suppose, in the early days, but certainly not now. And to to correct course, um really challenging because it a culture has been built uh around a certain type of um behavior which isn't um going to propel him forward and to correct course in that really difficult. How would you coach someone through a scenario like that where they've made a you know, they've set something up that's not ideal?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

How do you race steer that ship?

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Well, I think swearing's a great topic, right? Because if we're gonna say the F-bomb's never gonna happen in construction or logistics, then we're probably wrong, right? It's just like that's never gonna happen, right? And I don't get that. How it's an and, right? So at and we need to think about like when you think of great leaders that has really propelled your career or really pulled a team together, right? Like, how often is you know, and and I really like because they swore so much. I think that's what made them, you know, like really made them impactful was was how they could swear, right? Like that's usually not part of the conversation, right? So you know, and I get it, in certain contexts, you know, it's still gonna happen, but you just really just gotta ask yourself is that is it adding value to the audience? You know, if we start to kind of question ourselves with that, is like, am I swearing for who? And like, you know, what is it, you know, and I understand sometimes their emotions run and we got to be mindful of that. Um, but it it it's your emotions are not an excuse for your behavior. You're going off on someone, like if you're you know, there there might be, you know, some old school guys that you do swear and joke around a little bit, and but you know your audience. If you're gonna bring in a bunch of Gen Z, like people that like my son that worked a little bit in construction, and and if you're gonna play pranks on the construction site and and and swear and and joke, you know, and be some pretty harsh jokings, you're they're not gonna stick around.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah, those old school initiations and so on probably uh and it still happens.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

It still happens.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

And so you you mentioned the like the understanding people and the we're all different, the personality types, getting back to that. The um what are some of the good questions that you might use um as a leader to kind of open up those conversations? I I guess some people will be naturally a little bit closed, and you've got to somehow pry them open and and and so on. Well have you got a few little tips that uh questions people could use to help with that process?

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Well, I I I call like we have we have three gaps we talk about. How we show up, the one we just kind of mentioned, expectations and then accountability. Because I'm I'm a big fan of accountability. I I believe it builds trust, but it's got to be done in that order, right? So the first one's that showing up one we just talked about. And for that one, you know, it's it could be as simple as, hey Wes, like um, when am I at my best? Like when when describe to me, like when I when I come into work or when I'm having a conversation with you, like when am I most impactful? And then, you know, try kind of paint a picture, right? Well, I like it, you know, when you come and say good morning, you kind of ask about my weekend first, right? Like it could be something as simple as that. And somebody else may say, Hey, I like it when you just get to the point. You know, like so you kind of have those questions, and you can say, you know, when do you when do you want me to go away? You know, like when do when do I when do I make you upset? Right? Uh, when are those moments? Right. And so it's just having that conversation of like, and and and and I think that, you know, the when I when I'm on a site and I kind of hear like, oh boy, here we go. You know, we gotta kind of like now we gotta make sure everything's careful and it's it's it's not that, it's just being a little more skillful, right? It's just kind of asking that, like, how am I showing up for you? Some people might not be comfortable with that. So that's why I kind of twist it into like, when do you tune in when I'm talking? And when do you tune out? You know, just something like that. Just get the conversation going.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah, that's brilliant. And so the focus is on you being better, not them being better. That I'm that's the way I'm hearing it, which is a really quite great way of framing a conversation, isn't it? It's um because often I suppose as employees and team members, they might be thinking, they might be feeling as though they're just constantly being judged and trying to trying to measure up to a standard which they just can't quite reach or not quite sure how to go about that. Um is that is that kind of the the it feels to me those questions, those set of questions is about um first opening up your own vulnerabilities. Would you say is that the key?

SPEAKER_03 13:58

There may be some listeners that are gonna stop listening right about now. So it's kind of like if you don't have information that I can just kind of give that magic bullet and get people to do so I can just tell them what to do and I can move on. I'm just I'm not gonna apologize either. It's just, it's just, you know, it we it we're good enough. We we can do this. You can do this, you the listener right now that's listening. I I promise you, if you just try this with one person that maybe you're struggling with a little bit, right? And and I'm not saying that, you know, we gotta like it's all our fault, but it does start with us, right? It it does start, you know, the person with the highest level of of rank in that room is usually their their voice is gonna be the heaviest. So if you come in there and you're kind of lift, you know, it's it's like when you I'm in a room here right now. Wes, if you when you walked in, if you knew you know when you came online with me today, I felt a little better that you were here, right? Like I kind of lit up a little bit. Hey, Wes is here we're gonna do the podcast. So are you the person that kind of brings the room up, or are you the person that brings a room down? Like, oh, Wes is here. Everybody kind of like stop and you know, like so it's kind of like just kind of knowing that. Like, how am I showing up? How am I reading that room? So you gotta kind of know that first. And then the second one, we we get into expectations and it's just asking, like, and and this is the this is the hard part because it's like we just want to be able to tell people like, Wes, this is what I need you to do on the podcast. This is how I need you to do it. We good, and then we're like, well, they didn't do it. So my question for you is is just to ask, like, hey, Wes, what are your what do you believe your expectations are? And just like unpack that and then be a little bit lazy. You know, you don't have to tell people what to do. You just gotta ask them, hey, yeah, on this job site today, what is what does done look like? Hey, when we show up here at five o'clock and I come back, what does done look like to you? Describe to me what you see. You know, if we could take that framework, now we got a conversation and now it's now it's the crew's idea, right? It's like, hey, I told the boss we're gonna have this much done by five o'clock, and this is how we're gonna get it done, as opposed to, yeah, I was told we gotta figure out how to somehow jam this and get this into here.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Yeah. And just thinking that through as well, I suppose the the timing of these conversations. It's better to invest in these relationships when something hasn't gone horribly wrong, but that's the time you kind of need to. But you if you've haven't invested in, you know, sometimes something might be built and it's not spec and it's going to cost a whole bunch of time and money to rectify the situation. And and someone is typically to blame for these things because someone's not read you know, not followed the guidelines or or so on. So all the time. How do you have those difficult conversations where yeah, go on, you have something to share.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Well, that excites me, Wes, because you know it it it's that is gonna happen. Even when you're doing this, you're gonna have exceptions, right? Life is full, construction has exceptions. Yeah, and but when that happens, I want you to ask the question when when you made that decision and you built it in that spec, like what was your decision-making process in the moment? Like what was going on, describe to me what was going on. Right? Because if it's not built to spec, I want to understand, because I hired you for a reason. You you know, you're a part of this team. I I I I think and I hope if you're working for me that you came in with an intention to do a good job. So if the job's not good, help me understand what what how did we get here? What were you thinking? Because as opposed to saying why didn't you do it this way? Whose fault is this? Who's responsible for this? If we can kind of flip our thinking and kind of say, well, huh, that's interesting. Uh, I certainly wouldn't have built it this way. And I I would have expected you wouldn't have, but it was. So where's the disconnect, man? Let's let's let's talk that through instead of just like putting the hammer down. Let's let's kind of like, okay, well, how do we get here and how do we not get here again?

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yeah. That open-ended type of question to allow them to answer any any way they they want to. Um I love that. The just to keep the dialogue dialogue going. And the other thing, so that's things go wrong on on site, um building things, but also things go wrong in people's people have challenges in their personal lives, and and these things are going to be manifested in the workplace as well at at times. What um how much of how how much of that do you sort of deal with or where where where are the boundaries, I suppose, in in all of that?

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Well, that brings me to the third gap that accountability gap, right? So so if if you've if you've done your job up front, right? So we got this conversation, we got a little bit of feedback, we're not getting deep, touchy-feely. I'm not gonna asking you to go too crazy here, but you have some level of rapport in how you're showing up for each other. And you got some baseline of expectations. So now comes the accountability, right? So you said that, hey, you had the week to finish this job and you knew it was due on Friday, but now you're coming to me saying that, you know, you had these problems. Could be personal problems, could be could be whatever. But when we do a good job in front of it, you know, when we get when we get in front of it and we have good expectations up front, then we kind of get the that accountability because the transparent accountability is that, you know, no matter what, this job has to be done in a week. And if it can't be, and you know it can't be, it's your job to come to me and say, hey, I need some help. And that could be from a personal standpoint. I'm going through it right now. I'm going through it right now myself. And and I've gotten in front of it and saying to some clients, hey, you know, I've got my my my my parents or um, you know, my my dad's not not gonna make it, and I want to be here with them. And this is the plan, right? So, and everybody's totally understanding. So that's why it's like you got to show up and make sure that they feel that you know that they're gonna, that you've opened up the door, that if there is a personal problem, you can come to me. Because most of us have had a dad or a mother at some point in their life, or a sibling, or somebody that, you know, we're all gonna be in that situation. And that's where you actually earn more capital as far as people capital, right? Because now you're more vested. It's like, hey, I know I can come to Wes. And but what's not okay is just showing up on Monday and it's not the job's not done and nobody's brought anything up. That's not okay either. That's why it's gotta be transparent accountability. It's okay to have personal problems. It's not okay to talk about, you know, and you don't have to tell me all your detailed personal problems, but we just have to have some level of rapport to say we we gotta we gotta communicate to what's going on the best we can.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Yeah, 100%. I love that. And yeah, you you you're right that when you do open up with um personal um challenges of of your own, then other people are more uh likely to do the same when when the um time comes for them as as well. With the so a lot of it's what you speak of is emotional intelligence and um creating that dialogue between team members. Is there a structured way to to do that as well? So would you suggest what what kind of format would you suggest um like team meetings and and who's involved and and how does that because you talk speak of the trickle down, how do you facilitate that in a practical way so you don't miss people um along the line.

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Yeah, and you know, you you can expect like so if you're a manager of a group of a hundred people, you're not gonna get to all those people. So you you gotta be able to demonstrate that behavior up front and create some autonomy. So it's like, you know, it again, if if if well we're mana, you know, we're we're we're we're we're the white collar, so like uh it doesn't apply to us. If we have family issues, we gotta kind of stick that through. But that doesn't work either. You know, we have to, you know, we're all humans, we all have that other personal aspect. So you kind of kind of start at the the the top, right? So one Are we having some structure in communications? Right? Like just general, right? So that cadence of maybe it's just two minutes in the morning where everybody's together, right? Hey, this is the plan today. This is who's off and on. And, you know, and then just some general communication updates of kind of what, you know, what's going on with the plan moving forward. So we got to be doing that at the top level. And so that trickles down. So that's an expectation. So I think you have two sides of this, right? You have the one where it's more the group, right? Because we want to kind of keep that group aligned and keep our team working together, right? It's it's, you know, because you might have one site over here doing this, another site doing this, but we both need to come together to finish the job. So kind of keeping that connected. But the other one that's really important are one-on-ones. You know, just booking some one-on-one time. I was just talking to an owner of a uh CNC shop. And, you know, this is just like small country Canadian CNC shop, dozen operators and you know, less than 20 staff. But the owner would, you know, put put on his wall, like in the in the in the shop, of like everybody's name and once a week that he he and him and the manager would sit with one of the employees. And it was just basically that touch point, right? Like a whatever is going on and some structure around it, but also just some looseness to it. So I think if you're doing that at each level, if you've got a bigger organization, that are your supervisors doing that? Are your managers asking, hey, are you taking time to touch base? Because suddenly they get, well, Trevor, I see these people all day long. Why do I need to sit with a one-on-one on them? It's because some of these conversations don't come up on the on the job site.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

Yeah, 100%. And so I was speaking to a guy actually about something like this just by by accident, another, another client, but they um, because they go pick up their their what they need for projects, and they're I'll have sites all over the place building things, uh, building homes uh mostly. And so a lot of the time people would work in different teams and not necessarily connect all the time, but the only one time would be the Monday morning where they'd, you know, they'd drop everything off back um of a Friday evening. But on Monday morning they would all be there at the start of the day. So it was the one, the one chance in the in the um in the week that the whole team could have a conversation. And so the temptation was because there's so many projects on just to send everybody out to do the thing, but he said that just taking that 10 minutes, making sure everyone gets there on time, but that taking the 10 minutes, whatever it was, have that conversation was a was a game changer. Um I guess figuring out how to work these things in in practical terms for your own entity is the key to to figure out what works for you and the style of business. Um yeah, I I think that's really empowerful. So what do you think um the uh how do you maintain so you you if you keep if you do this stuff right, you build a great culture and people want to stick around. How do you help to communicate that culture across the board so um so no one's lost uh in the in the hustle?

SPEAKER_03 25:06

I was gonna say, you know, and I've been to places West where you know they have the cards in your wallet with all their values, and then they got the nice boards behind you, and they've got all the documentation, and everyone's signed off on it. Yeah. The behaviors have to match the window dressing, right? So you can say this is your culture, but again, it really kind of starts from that top. Like, are we, and that's why I don't I wish there was a shorter version to this, but it's just it is you are who you show you are. And for example, if you say, you know, yeah, we really care about people, and you know, I like spending time with people, and it's like, okay, so show me your budget line, like what are you investing into your people, and then show me your more importantly, show me your calendar. Like where are you spending all your time, right? Because there's got to be a percentage of your time that's dedicated to these conversations, like the Monday morning, right? Gate, like you just you used a word, Wes, game changer from from the gentleman you were talking to at the Monday morning. It is, and it's just finding out that balance of like you know, a little is better than none. And you don't need to overdo it. Like, you know, even if you're just, you know, like it sounds like for that company, it was just Monday mornings they got to meet every everybody together. But you know, if we can get the smaller crew together every morning, and if we can do one-on-ones like once a month, even right? Like actually, that that CNC shop operator, he was doing it once every three months. That's it. And it was and it was a game changer for him. So this isn't quantity, this is authentic, you know, quality of just like, are we having a good talk here? Are we just talking about the sports on the weekend? You know, are we really talking about like, hey man, are you happy here, Wes? Like, are you thinking about changing jobs? If you were to change jobs, you know, why would you want to do that? You know, getting into like get in front of it, like have these conversations. Because otherwise, because I worked with an electrical contractor, great company. And uh, you know, they do all construction on new homes, and that that's what they start doing, right? Just some of those regular check-ins and just some more structure around that. And even, you know, and then the, you know, and it's kind of like a a layer, right? Where the owner, he's got like 70 electrical contractors, but like, you know, he will meet through his with with each employee kind of like through the year, right? Like a good touch point. And then his manager will touch base with them like, you know, once a month. And then the team lead is like doing a little touch point once a week, right? So it's kind of like depending, there's no right or wrong. It's just like, do you have some type of cadence? Because it's it's um it's like gravity, right? It's a law of entropy where they call it where you know there's their gravity is always always pulling us down. And you know, hold something in the air, it's gonna drop. Well, if your intention is that you do want to have some of these conversations, you do want to make, you know, understand how you're showing up and have clear expectations and have transparent accountability, then you've got to put something in place which trumps every the busyness of the day.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

So, like, what what do you got in your calendar? What is gonna be like, oh, because there's another uh another person I was talking to, and and and a practice they got into by accident was they're in launch mode, there's so much going on. So, hey, we're just no problems with Wes, we're just gonna cancel you today, okay? Yeah, well, that turned into another cancellation. So that's fine out what you don't do well and don't do that again. You know what I'm talking about. So all you started doing was postponing it. Okay, if there's a fire, we're gonna postpone it, we're gonna do it this Friday, Wes.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I can see that. It's um coming from my work, so we we effectively do marketing. Digital, we're a digital agency. And so the the power of getting your people right, they're all marketing as well because they're talking to all their friends and family and um speaking about the quality of their entity that they work for, um, and that word of mouth and referrals and recommendations and so on. That the the power of getting your people right, it just transforms your whole business throughout, far further than what you first initially think about. So that recommendations, referrals. We're all looking for um trusted providers, and and so and everyone's talking, you know, people are talking if they've got a bad experience at work, and and so um, but they're also talking if they're getting a great experience and and recommending the the business to to those that need it. I I just think it's such a powerful way to get chosen, to build a great culture, bu build great team, uh great people. Um it just uh it's to go to your analogy of trickling down, it's trickling down for the people, but it's trickling out to your marketing and your reputation um out there in the in the bigger world.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

So your marketers, like I want to see, I want to see your people, I want to talk to them, you know. Like I I want to know, like, you know, how how are they being treated? Because how how that electrical contractor that comes from my house is being treated is maybe a reflection of how he's gonna treat my house. You know what I mean? Like like so, you know, so that kind of spreads to the community and that's your brand, and it's kind of like well, yeah. Why not?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Yeah, people buy from people. So certainly when it's a larger investment. I mean, there's impulse buyers that you can buy a widget online that's you know, no thought behind it. But if people are parting ways with a fair bit of money, they're doing their research, they they gotta find out everything they can about a company before they part ways with a significant investment. So getting this stuff right, really powerful. I think uh there's always I always like to ask, um, was there a question I didn't ask that I should have?

SPEAKER_03 30:44

Well, I'll I'll I'll I'll uh I'll answer that with a with a quick little story here. And we'll we'll tie this back on how you how you're showing up.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

So it was about six years ago, and uh my I was working in the United States and my son's in Canada, and I would come back and I kind of see him. So I I get there, I knock on the door, it takes forever. I I give him a hug, and then um I got this awful smell in his apartment. He's first year college. And it's not a smell you might be thinking of because marijuana is legal in Canada, uh, but it was more like garbage and old socks. And I'm like, Dyson, like what's going on here? And and I named him that before this vacuum cleaner came out. It's a pretty popular vacuum cleaner. And and uh, but this is before it came out, and it's just like what's going on? So I'm like, I'm frustrated and I'm like, you know, man, I just want a drink of water at this point. So we make our way to the kitchen and I spot this countertop camouflaged by dirty dishes, right? So I uh and you know, what can I not find? Glass, clean glass. I'm like, man, like you need to do some dishes. Right? Like you gotta shape things around here. He's like, you're not in a very good mood. So I leave there and I'm frustrated. I come all the way, and it's just like I'm feeling like a wasting time. Talk to my uh my now wife Diana, and I'm like, you know, can you believe this? And she's like, Do you think there could be something else going on? I'm like, Yeah, but you can still take out your dishes. You could take out your garbage and do your dishes, right? Like, come on. And so anyway, so I go there the next time. If if you can believe it, those dishes are still there, Wes. I'm about to lose my mind. And but I'm like, okay, if I'm not a little more curious, right? If I'm not thinking about how I'm showing up, if I'm not gonna be a little bit more curious, I'm gonna get the same result. So if I want to see a change in him, it's gonna have to start with me. So I said, hey, like what's going on? How you doing, man? He says, Dad, I'm just kind of hanging on right now. I just broke up with my girlfriend, I'm struggling with school, I'm stressed out, and and and I need your help. And I'm like, man, like yeah, I didn't have a clue, right? Because the problem we see on the surface is the one we want to fix, right? I wanted him, I wanted to help him, so he says, there's a clean place and dirty dishes. It's like I I got a hammer, I'm looking for a nail. You know, like everything looks like a nail.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

And then so I say, you know, how how can I best show up for you?

SPEAKER_01 33:14

And he says, Dad, I can't stop drinking.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

So that's where I kind of come back to this, Wes, is is that this isn't just about the culture of your people and the marketing. This is about you, us as people, right? And and really understanding. And you kind of said earlier, Wes, was, you know, like, what about those personal problems and stuff? You know, if you see a behavior change with someone at work, you know, go up there and say, hey man, what's going on? Like you're off. You know, and you may find that out. And and you know, and sometimes, Wes, I didn't do that because I just didn't have the skill or I didn't have the courage because I was afraid of what the answer was gonna be. And I didn't want to, I didn't know how to answer it. So I think, you know, as we just kind of lean into that a little bit more. And um, because right now, my son Dyson, he is uh in February next month, he's gonna be five years sober. He's gonna be getting a coin. And he and and and I don't know if he's sober if I didn't make the change. So think about that for not only your your organization, but your personal life, because those behaviors, you know, I always like to say it can't be uh this way at work, but I'm like this at home. We're the same person. I don't know, unless you kind of switch out, that's kind of my view. So so I just, you know, we all make mistakes and and we miss some stuff, but I mean, you know, the problem's usually bigger, right? And I would just encourage you all listeners that you know today, when you get on the site, if you see something odd, just say, hey, what's going on? And and you might just really help the job site, your branding, and people's lives.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

Yeah, that's a powerful story, Trevor. I I love it, just the um making space. He was obviously self-aware enough to know there was internal conflict going on, but needed that space um to be able to speak that through. So well done on your fathering uh in that scenario and and uh everything you're doing with your work. Um maybe this is a good time to tell everybody how they can connect with you and find out more about what you're up to.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yeah, it's manufacturing greatness.com and uh I got a podcast with the same name, and I've got a book coming out uh May 11th, 2027. So uh if you want to get on uh the reader list, and it's really about we're doing a national, we're doing a North American study on it too, if you're interested in some of those stats. But I mean it's gonna hit construction, it's gonna hit logistics, and we're gonna do this study and and tie into these concepts into the book. And and I really believe in the whole manufacturing greatness of you know, we can do this together. And I think just uh the conversation that we've had today, Wes, I've really enjoyed and just just kind of like just let's just unpack it a little bit more and and and I did some good fathering stuff. I made a lot of mistakes too, but you know, I think if we all have the mindset of like, are we a little bit better than we were yesterday? And that's kind of like what I subscribe to. So if that interests you, then you know follow along.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

That's absolutely Trevor. I'll put those um the link in the uh show notes as well to your podcast, but also your your website um as well. Uh been an honor to have you on today. Thanks so much. Thanks, Wass. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Thanks for listening to Built, Trusted, Chosen. Brought to you by Uplift360. Visit Uplift360.com.au