The Gold Coast Podcast

The Real Secret to Long-Term Business Success | Mike Goldman

• Eric Winegard • Season 2 • Episode 15

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What does it take to build a successful business that lasts more than 30 years?

In this episode of the Gold Coast Podcast, host Eric Winegard sits down with Mike Goldman, President of Gen-X Construction, Inc., a respected South Florida general contractor who has spent three decades building commercial spaces, long-term client relationships, and a legacy rooted in integrity.

Mike shares how he knew at just seven years old that he wanted to work in construction, how he launched his business from the ground up at age 31, and the lessons he’s learned about entrepreneurship, reputation, family, and staying financially disciplined.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How Mike built Gen-X Construction from scratch
• Why reputation is the most valuable asset in business
• The importance of keeping your lifestyle below your means
• How referrals and relationships fueled 30 years of growth
• Why entrepreneurs should think long term, not just about quick wins
• The hidden risks of signing a commercial lease too soon
• How Mike and his wife Denise built a true family business together
• Lessons on raising children, marriage, and maintaining strong family values
• Why helping others succeed is the ultimate measure of success

Whether you're a business owner, entrepreneur, contractor, franchisee, or someone looking to build a meaningful life and career, this episode is packed with timeless wisdom and practical advice.

Learn more about Gen-X Construction:
https://genxconstruction.net

Subscribe to the Gold Coast Podcast for conversations with CEOs, founders, and industry leaders sharing the real stories behind business success!

Thank you all for listening in on today's episode of The Gold Coast Podcast!

SPEAKER_01

Hey guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Weingard, and today we have another awesome guest. I'm gonna call him a friend. Yes, he's a client, Mike Goldman of Gen X Construction. This guy is a family man, a businessman. He's been in business over 30 years. More importantly, the guy's been married even longer than that. So he knows a little something about family, business, and success. Um success as a whole. Welcome to the show, brother.

SPEAKER_00

One of the guys was talking about, you know, mistakes. What could you do over? I think maybe I wouldn't have shouldn't have had maybe had that attitude of, you know, don't want another me. Like I've had three key employees in in 30 years in business. By the way, I'm through 30 years in business April 25th.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

One guy was with me 25 years. He just retired in 2023. Another young kid that I hired was with me for 10 years. I let I let him loose at his 40th birthday because he had other things in his mind than he was doing side jobs, and I'm like, you need to go do what you need to do. Otherwise, you're gonna resent me your whole life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So, you know. He he wanted to forge his own path, blaze his own path.

SPEAKER_00

But he was scared to do it, but he didn't he wasn't ready to do it. So I said to him, you know, look, it's time for you to move on. Yeah. Move on.

SPEAKER_01

You know, when are you ready to do it? When is anyone ever ready to do anything? When when's the right moment to do it? When are you ready to get married? Yeah, like come on.

SPEAKER_02

It's really commendable though, on your part, because for you to recognize that, it's like awareness.

SPEAKER_00

So we're trying. Let's go. No, no, you no no no, no. Women rule the world. And a beautiful, smart, intelligent, pregnant woman in a room is gonna make me a better person. Yeah. And a better human.

SPEAKER_01

You guys are already great. You know, she I I'm glad you met her because she adds another element to me that just takes me to the next level.

SPEAKER_00

And, you know, being in business for 30 years, I would not have I would not be sitting here in business for 30 years if it wasn't for Denise, my wife. She's a CPA. And every uh contractor, and you know, we're good at what we do in the field and we're good at at construction, and we know we know that inside and out, but not many of us know the the bookkeeping and the accounting and the payroll. Right. Um fortunately, I I have that uh business side because of my college degree, which I was gonna get to. Now, have you been married 30 years or longer? I have been married 37 years. Yep, 37 years. Met my wife, Denise, freshman year of college, in the dorms at the University of Florida, Jennings Hall.

SPEAKER_01

Jennings Hall.

SPEAKER_00

Jennings Hall.

SPEAKER_01

Stumbling in and uh stumbling in and saying, hi Denise.

SPEAKER_00

Hi Denise. And she's like, her friends are like, Who's that annoying guy? He just keeps following you around saying hi Denise. Yeah, the rest is history. Wow. So that was your first true love, and you guys got married? Pretty much, not you know, had had other friends, yeah. But uh, yeah, we got married shortly after after graduation and uh started a family three or four years later with our son, and three, three and a half, four years later, our daughter. Went into business at 31. Okay. Um but um how many how many of your previous podcast guests you think knew what they wanted to do at seven years old?

SPEAKER_01

Zero.

SPEAKER_00

Well, now you have one.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Because my uh when I was seven years old, we moved from New Jersey to Kendall, Miami, which is a suburb of Miami, and my parents put an addition on our house because they wanted me to have my own bedroom. I have a younger brother and a younger sister, I'm the oldest. And I did not move from watching these gentlemen uh build my bedroom and a cabana bath. They would take a step foot, uh, a step back and they would step on me. And and they were they were nice, they were gracious, and uh I I loved watching them build this, I don't know, must have been a 300 square foot addition. It's tiny, but it was my bedroom, and and I fell in love with construction. My dad transferred down here, transferred careers from the heating business from New Jersey to the air conditioning business in Florida, because there's no heating business in Florida. And uh shortly after, I guess he was in his own, he worked for uh the largest air conditioning contractor in in Miami for about three years, and then he went off into his own. And him and my mom ran their air conditioning business. And I, as I grew up, was around construction on job sites, uh, know a little bit about air conditioning enough to be dangerous. Um try not to dictate means and methods to my subs. I let them do what they need to do. Yeah, but I'm watching that. You can talk a good game for sure. Don't don't blow smoke up my ass.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00

And I know I can curse because I can't do it.

SPEAKER_01

The defibrillator, there's no defibulator in there, right? Right.

SPEAKER_00

There was there there never used to be a defibrillation, now there are defibulators everywhere. Um and was on construction sites my whole life watching my father, watching how he would run things and taking notes of things that I didn't like that he did and behaviors that he had that I didn't like, and um made it through high school barely, and went to a program that is one of the first programs of its kind, the School of Building Construction at the University of Florida. Go Gators. Um back when I was there, there were about six original. There's there's a construction program at Auburn, there's a construction program at Purdue, there was a construction program, I want to say, at Arizona State, maybe a few, a few others, but there was like you know, 10 or 15 of them. Now there's construction programs everywhere. Thank goodness, because we are in dire need of people in the field. Right. As you as you well aware. And uh I first two struggled through the first two years, and then when I got to the third year, that was when I got into the actual school of building construction after my prerequisites were done, and I excelled in in my craft, my field, my my love since I was seven years old. And I had this, you know, my parents on this pedestal of oh, their desks were face to face, and and this is my goal someday. And uh I graduated, took the state GC exam that at the time the state of Florida only started licensing uh construction industry professionals. I don't know the exact date, but let's say around 1970, 1974, they came to the University of Florida School of Building Construction to help them come up with the testing standards and the actual tests. I had questions on exams in my building construction program that were on the state exam. So, right when I graduated college, I took the state exam, became a licensed contractor, went to work for a very large commercial contractor, did um estimating, did project management, and also spent some time in their marketing department because way back then somebody said, Hey, Mike, we think you would be good in the marketing department. Um that company is no longer around, but uh there's offshoots of it.

SPEAKER_01

This is the late 80s we're talking about? Uh-huh. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

It's called Centex Rooney. And uh gentleman named Bob Moss took over, and Moss, you've seen their names around here. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And uh so yeah, so uh So the dream started at seven. The dream started at seven, and then I left Centex Rooney and went to work for a smaller developer, and went to work after that, went to work for a an architect who was doing some developing. And at 31 I went into my own business. Wow.

SPEAKER_01

So so what made you, do you remember what made you take that leap into wanting to own your own business?

SPEAKER_00

Well, so the motivation, the motivating factor was the fact that I watched my father and my mom um, you know, run their family business, and that was always a goal for me to to have my own family business and to be and to have the freedoms that that brings you. Uh, you know, when I first went into business, um I didn't have a job. I didn't have any work. And our son, who's 34, was uh four years old. So guess who was picking them up, dropping them off at you know, nursing uh uh at daycare, then taking them to kindergarten the next year. Had got one job, one project, small project, you know, putting a wall up in a place like this or something like that. But started with with the ground up real real organically, didn't start with uh a trust fund.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, the lean years, right? The lean years.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And at the time, Denise was a CPA and she was working, you know, 14 to 18 hours.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And then more more projects came, then more projects came. Our daughter started getting older, and then 9-11 happened.

SPEAKER_01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00

And 9-11 happened, and and my Denise said, I'm not going back to work for an accounting firm. And I built my I built her boss, her boss's building. I built his built building in 2001. And uh, she's like, I don't want to go back to work, life is too short, you never know if planes are gonna fly into your building. And I agreed with her, and we tightened the belt again. By then my business was our business was was rocking and rolling. And but then after 9-11, I don't know if you remember, but the bottom fell out.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, economically? Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00

Economically.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it was interesting. I was in the military at the time, I was and I was in for two years, so I wasn't really affected by the economy, so I wasn't aware of it. Like the military, you just get paid, you're not thinking about the economy, but but yeah, obviously, uh, you know, looking back now, yeah, of course I I know the economy just felt free.

SPEAKER_00

I want to say that combined with the dot-coms, all the fake companies all crashing. So it was it was 9-11 and then the dot-coms uh which which took the rug out from under us. But you know, you find a way, like you said, you tighten the straps and and and find a way. And I only do commercial work. Uh, the only residential I do is for clients. So if I was building uh a restaurant for you, and then you said, Hey Mike, I need you to redo the bathroom in my you know my kids' bathroom, I'm gonna do that, of course, because I don't want you calling another contractor.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. How did how did so how did you grow the business? Was it just through word of mouth? And did you grow incrementally? Did it grow like a like a hockey stick at one point?

SPEAKER_00

So it's funny, so you know, like any business, um, it it grew, it didn't go exponential ever, except for there was about in 9, 10, and 11, I I bit on a very large public job. I got bonded and I I won a $10 or $11 million job, which was was huge, um for Broward County Parks. And it was it was a difficult job because it was 10 different projects at 10 10 different municipalities. Yeah. Um, so at that point, I had a lot of work going on. I did grow, but I never got too big where I couldn't control it, and I never got too big to where everything wasn't in my head. And Denise can't understand how I can know how much I owe every subcontractor at all times. And she, as an accountant, she writes the check and it's out of out of her mind. But for me, it's not out of my mind until the job is closed out. And I also know how much money, you know, I've invoiced the client and how much the client has paid me and what's left and who I have to pay, what has to be left. And a lot of general contractors or people in the construction business lose sight of that because there are times when you're pretty rich, especially if you're getting, you know, front-end loading a job and it's dangerous. So when the SNLs crashed in 09, there were guys that bought 30 lots in Port St. Lucie with not their money. So that's how Gen X construction has been able to sustain 30 years of being in business. And uh I try not to let the highs get me too high and let the lows get me too low. So there's always a midpoint. Um I don't have a big boat, I don't have a place in Denver or Telluride. Um basically business focused, family focused, focused on our kids.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think one of the big mistakes I've observed people make, and I'm thinking of somebody, a few people I know right now, if you have a big year, let's say that $10, $11 million year, it's almost like a professional athlete. You know, when they're making $20 million a year, they're spending money as if this is going to happen in perpetuity.

SPEAKER_00

As it's gonna last forever, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So a smart business person like you goes, uh let's hold, let's, let's wait. Let's yeah. So we got a little bit, you know, of a rainy day fund for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you know, we try to we try to amaze and astonish our clients. Uh we try to hear things like, well, we did the job, you know, 10 years ago and the contractor did this, this, and this. And uh, you know, that's that's our goal. That's the best the best compliment is a referral. The best compliment is, you know, doing multiple projects. You know, I've done a florist, I did his expansion, then he got another spot and I did another spot for him. I did uh you know, I can't even remember all the projects, but uh we do some franchises, we like franchises, but I like franchises. I like to be able to work for the individual user that's opening up a franchise or franchisee. I don't love working for corporate because corporate has a different MO. Their MO could be, not all, could be oh, I've got this contractor and I I beat him up with my big stick and got him to do it for this, this, and this, versus when there's a relationship with people.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

I might not be the low one, I'm usually not the low bidder.

SPEAKER_01

What uh that's interesting. We might have a referral for you potentially. Yeah. Yeah, somebody I know right now, a franchisee that's looking to you know, do a build out.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I love that. And and and and I'll and I'll do a great job for them. One of my first, like when I first went into business, uh, I joined a networking group. You know, we would meet once a month. And there was a guy sitting next to me, and he worked for at the time, this is a great story. At the time it was pens and pencils. It was the he was the he was the paper and pencil guy because there was no this before office depot. And, you know, you say to yourself, okay, this guy, you know, I I probably won't get anything from him, and I probably won't get anything from him, but maybe I'll get something from her, and maybe I'll get something from her. Well, it turns out, and but he was the nicest guy, and we were always friendly. And and I'm the nicest guy, and I'm always friendly. And one day I get a call from him, he's like, Yeah, I left, I left, I think it was BT office supply, and uh I rented a space in downtown Stewart, and I'm opening up a Kilwyn's chocolate, and he's still there.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

The Kilwyn's chocolate in downtown Stewart, and I built it for him, and I went on to build uh four locations for him, and then he sold two of the locations, and I did two locations for the guy he sold them to. So you never know who is who has what and what their plans are and what their intentions are. And you always gotta be be ready.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I always say for anything. Yeah, don't you feel like you can't prejudge anybody. I mean, sure you can, you know, make a a good calculation here and there, but you never want to fully prejudge.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because you never know who they can introduce you to as well. Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_00

And that and that's come that's come with experience that takes a long time. Yeah. But um but that was a a lesson early, early, early on, and he still owns it and he's still doing great. Okay. Uh yeah, yeah. That was a real fun, fun thing. Fun time.

SPEAKER_01

Do you have like uh like a photo collage somewhere of like all the work that you've done?

SPEAKER_00

So I have you know, I have a website, genxconstruction.net, um, and you know, I get 400 calls a day from SEO marketing saying, we can build your website better. Now, someone very close to me made that website. Good job, hon. Uh but you know, I am getting lots of calls about making the website, you know, more current. Yeah. More what today's requirements are. Yeah. So yeah, I do I do have a website and I do have a list of the jobs.

SPEAKER_01

I I guess, and we can, by the way, we do unbelievable work. Uh we'll we'll take good care of you there. Um, and we'll give you honest, honest, fair pricing since you've already been supporting us. Um no, really what I meant was like um like like an emotional one. Like, like do you have in your house somewhere like the first office that you renovated or did some demo work to or whatever it may be? Okay, so in a nostalgic one.

SPEAKER_00

In in my office, I have the the buildings that I've built because ground up buildings don't happen every day for a contractor that's you know a tenant improvement contractor, but they do. And I would have a uh company come and fly them with the helicopters. Obviously, this is before drones.

SPEAKER_01

And um spending 15 grand.

SPEAKER_00

No, it's cheap. It's way cheaper than a drone. It was like 125 a month. This little this little helicopter, little yellow helicopter would fly by, a guy would hang out of the side. Smith Aerial photos if they're still around. Um so I have those in the office as a collage on my office. So it's all my bigger projects. Uh I probably should have more of my interior, you know, my build-outs and stuff, but uh yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01

How important, you know, you talk about business has highs, business has lows. How important is a company's reputation to to withstand a low?

SPEAKER_00

It's the most important because you know you have to get back up. You know, you have to get back up when there's lows, you have to be ready to go through the the times when it's when it's tight and be able to make your payroll and be able to keep people going and not lose key people. And that's that's the hardest part. And that's and that's why uh uh you know it's like it it helps with the longevity.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I get a lot of times people will try to let's say I have an arrangement with somebody, a deal, a partnership. I'll always get these people that say, hey, you know, they'll want to make a little side deal off of it. And I just say, I I can't do it. Like it's not even tempting at all. Because if it ever got back to the original person that I'm doing this deal with, it's just your reputation is everything. Because I always feel like even if my business today fell to the ground and something catastrophic happened, as long as I have my knowledge and as long as I have my connections, as long as I have my reputation, I'm good. I'll get back up.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I'll be the first, and I agree with that. I'll be the first. So let's say you called me and said, Hey Mike, you know, um I I really want to get a nice accent wall right here. You got a painter? So I'd say, sure, I got a painter. I'll give you my painter's number, because you don't need a general contractor to paint that wall. No, no. And the painter says to me, Well, how much you want me to include for you? Don't ever even ask me that. What I want you to do is make this guy so happy that and then go on and on and on from there. Yeah. Um, and people look at you like, what? That's that's what I want you to do. I love that. This is how you pay me. You pay me by making my client that I trusted to give you their name, and you make them happy. I want to get a phone call from that client that says, Oh my God, that was the greatest painter you ever gave me. That's how you pay me. No, I agree. And when you tell people that, they're shocked.

SPEAKER_01

So I refer a lot of business all the time.

SPEAKER_00

Of course you do.

SPEAKER_01

All the time. And a lot of times people ask me, they go, hey, what do you want on the side? And I go, I I just want you to, I just want you to honor this relationship that I've just given you. That's all that matters.

SPEAKER_00

That is all that matters.

SPEAKER_01

That's all that matters. I don't need a spiff from this. You know, just treat them great. Right. Keep my relationship strong with them. Yep. And uh, you know, they'll in in the future they'll want to play connector for me.

SPEAKER_00

The worst thing that happens is you're out having a nice bourbon with that guy six months, a year down the road, and they tell you, hey, you know what that guy did? You know, or you know what a piece of POS they were?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You don't want that. And that because it's a reflection on you. I don't know how we went down this rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, it's good. It's it's business. It's uh Business and this is they don't teach this in business school. No. This isn't a topic in business school, right?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm glad you brought that up because it brings me back to the School of Building Construction at the University of Florida, which is a three-pronged program that teaches us a little bit of construction management, contracts, um, whatnot, accounting, and and and drawings. So that program is what it takes to go into your own construction business. If you the guys, I I equate, I equate it to the military. Uh I'm the lieutenant that graduated college, and then there's the sergeant on the front line. So the superintendent on a job site is that sergeant. And he's the guy that you know has been up and down that hill 40 times. Um I always respected those guys, and I always, when I worked for the big companies, would try to learn as much as I can from them. Because those are the guys that have been through the school of hard knocks. I've been through a university that taught me this, this, these three prongs, you know, accounting, plans reading, and construction law. I respect the guy in the field. And the company that I worked for right out of school did too, because when we would bid really, really big projects, talking, you know, like hotels at Disney and stuff, they would bring the superintendent in for th the week before the bid. So that guy had that job built in his head. Right. They would it doesn't matter what the status of the job that they were currently on, they would bring him in, and I always saw that and noticed that. So I've tried to do a little bit of that in my business, and with my new employee, that's he's the one that is actually absorbing it and learning and wants to learn. Other guys didn't don't want to learn that.

SPEAKER_01

I heard uh I think it was Eric Trump one time because I think Eric Trump, I think he's like the CEO of Trump. The Trump running it, yeah, right? Whatever it's Trump organization. And he talked about how honestly the best people were not the Ivy League grads. You know, they were the they were the people that you know had been uh learning from the School of Hard Knocks for year after year after year, and and that organization is less it's really more blue-collar that have rise to the top and less less white collar. I'm sure they have a Yale grad there somewhere, but but yeah, he he he spoke animately about the School of Hard Knocks versus Ivy League.

SPEAKER_00

And you can learn a lot from from them, and they want to learn, but you could also teach them a lot because they obviously are not in their own businesses and they don't have some of the polish that is necessary to get them to the next level. So that's that's another another thing. One of the things that I'm really, really proud about is I had a subcontractor, and he had that drive and that fortitude, and he's that 40-year-old guy, and he started working for me as a subcontractor, and he's like, Mike, I want to take the the GC exam. And I go, you should take the GC exam. And and I encouraged him to do it, and he studied, and it took him a couple of times to pass it, and he passed it, and then he got some work, and yeah, in the beginning I helped him with the work, and and now he's a thriving, you know, residential. He's not my competition. He still calls me when he has problems. Um that's the greatest thing in the world, and I don't know in the in a lot of industry that really happens. But here's the weird thing where it does happen the coaching carousel. The NFL coaches. Oh, yeah, he's a protege of Bill Belichick, and then all and they support one another. And and and and hike in college, you know, um the Alabama guy, forgot his name. Saban. Saban. I usually call him the car. The coaching tree. Yeah, the coaching tree. Yeah. Um, and they're proud of their their young uh mentees, proteges when they go on construction. I don't know how it is in in the marketing, it doesn't seem as much, but I've been in business 30 years. So maybe when I was 35, I wouldn't have been so proud of that. But right now, at 61, I'm proud of when someone works for me and they have the aspirations to go off on their own. I I want them to be a success.

SPEAKER_01

No, the the I this is a great topic. Um, do you know what the term flex means? Like if a young kid says flex, uh not really. It's okay. Um I have a 29-year-old wife, so I'm I'm kind of off. So do I. Do you? God bless you. We've been married. God bless you. Um, but the term flex means like flaunt. Right. Like show off. I figured that's what it was. So I saw this cool video and I loved it. It said the best flex isn't whether you have a Rolls-Royce or a Rolex. It's how many other people you've helped get their own Rolex or Rolls-Royce. It's how many employees you have, it's how many families you're helping feed. That's the real flex. And I love it.

SPEAKER_00

And not flexing about it.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. And not actually flexing about it. Yeah. Yeah, that's impact. Right. That's impact. It's Taoism. You know, that's great. I love that. Um, yeah, I mean, because you know, I I used to I used to work for somebody, and he made all the money at the top, and he's rich, he's wealthy as heck, right? He's legitimately a nine-figure guy. And he probably was a nine-figure guy in his 50s. Nobody else made money. Right. No one else. And, you know, I always looked at that as like, sure, you earned it, but you definitely didn't earn anybody's respect and admiration.

SPEAKER_00

So it's interesting, because as a as a general contractor, you know, I rely on subcontractors. And subcontractors are business people also, and they have their things that they like to do. And so when a subcontractor pulls up on a job in a $130,000 truck, there's a there's an instant, really? There's a flex. They're flexing when they pull up to your job site.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Now, my dad was a subcontractor, and he had a 9-11 turbo in 1985, and he would pull up on job sites in that.

SPEAKER_02

And maybe that's why.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, maybe that's why I have that in my head of, you know, be careful of what if you want to have that car, save it for the weekend. Save it for taking your bride out. Yeah, for sure. Uh, you know, don't pull up on a job site in that.

SPEAKER_01

And uh I think I think there's a fine balance between. So I think there's a really fine balance between looking successful and looking the part, and then also being way overboard with flaunting and flexing, as we're saying.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you're in the capital of it right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, oh no doubt. Well, like like I'll give you an example. So, you know, Alexis and I, we have two nice vehicles. She has like a new autobiography autobiography Range Rover, it's a beautiful car. Right. I drive a Cadillac Escalade, right? Very nice cars. They're not they're not uh Lamborghinis, but they're beautiful vehicles, right? So I went to this uh um a distinguished dinner about a year ago down in Fort Lauderdale, and one of the things that the people at this dinner did was they were taking their cell phones and saying, hey, look at look at all the money in this parking lot. And yes, there were $200,000 cars, two million dollar cars. So I had to have a vehicle to play the part there. Does that make sense? So there is an element to you know being, I don't want to say accepted, but looking the part. But then there's also the other part where But you're not a drywall contractor. Fair. Okay, no, fair.

SPEAKER_00

Fair, you know, or uh or a painting contractor.

SPEAKER_01

No, I'm not saying rolling up to the job site in a Lambo, you know, like you know, right, spinning out like in the dirt and fucking throwing dirt in people's face. Like you guys do edit these, right? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00

So if I want to like wipe my nose or if I want to do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'll let you view it beforehand. You're fine. Honestly, dude, you know, you know what online media is today? The more authentic and organic, the better. Really? Yes, dude. The more raw, like, like think of a fly on the wall. Just like like reality TV. Like I'm just watching live TV. That's the content that does the best now. Really? Not the highly produced crap. I got it. I got you. Yeah. But if you got like something hanging out of your nose, well, like you're gonna take care of that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. How are you doing over there?

SPEAKER_01

She's doing good. She she likes you. She doesn't sit in this the first podcast she's said.

SPEAKER_02

Not no no, but like I'm not working behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00

Where's that accent from? I like that accent.

SPEAKER_02

It's so funny. I get told that.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I I hear an accent.

SPEAKER_02

Does it sound Canadian?

SPEAKER_00

Eh?

SPEAKER_02

Or like upstate New York?

SPEAKER_00

It sounds like uh proper? Like yeah, like Vermont, like Connecticut, Vermont.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. No, she's very educated and articulate.

SPEAKER_01

Uh huh. I have a little more.

unknown

Twang.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, a little more, what do you want to call it? A little rougher on the edges, I guess.

SPEAKER_02

He has more like slang vocabulary, too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't talk that proper. It's funny because I'm the one that said not flaunt.

unknown

What was the word? Flex. Flex. He uses more slang terms than I do.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So I my upbringing, I was raised in the inner city until about fifth grade. Of where? Uh Rochester, New York. Okay. So we're from. Yeah, 50%, you know, I was the minority for a little bit, right? And then I in uh middle school I went to a working class suburb. So it was 70% Caucasian, but but very working class, still a little rough. And then for high school, I went to uh predominantly Jewish high school, which was very affluent. Mazletov. Yeah, Mazletov. Yeah, we had all the Jewish holidays off, right?

SPEAKER_00

Uh and in fact I didn't get the Jewish holidays off in Kendall in the in the 70s and 80s.

SPEAKER_01

Your last name's Goldman, right?

SPEAKER_00

Goldman, yeah. Goldman, yeah. Michael Goldman. Mike Goldman.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and now so but she was raised in that high school, that community her whole life. So she's she's well educated. Her uh her mom and dad did very well. Listen, the the daughter, her sister, and brother uh are very articulate and polished. Yep. You know, they raised three good kids, man. Yep, yep, yep. That's what it's all about. So what's so what's going on in the business today? Like what's you know, what are what are some of the projects you're doing? You know, what's your vision for the company over the next couple of years?

SPEAKER_00

So, right now, one of my best clients owns uh about 180 shopping centers nationwide. Um, they have a very large presence down here. Um they own two in Boca, one two in Boynton, one in Fort Lauderdale, they own one in Palm Beach Gardens. The one in Palm Beach Gardens is going through, well, the two of them in Boca are being rent, one of them in Boca is being renovated tremendously, and that's much too big of a job for me. But the one in Palm Beach Gardens, they have a lot of big spaces, like this space, and they need to cut them up and divide them into smaller pieces of pie so they can rent them. They need a reliable, trustworthy contractor that's part of their team to do this work because when they get a national tenant, they're trying to woo a national tenant there, the national tenant says, Well, we want you to do this, this, and this before we're gonna commit, and before we're gonna bring in our team and our contractor and our architects to do the build out. So, what that's called is landlord upfit or landlord requirement, landlord required work. I've done about 40, 50 jobs for this client. Wow. Um ultimately it would be nice to get in on both sides and do the tenant work for when I do, but there's a there's a loyalty to it's kind of like you can't be on both sides.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like a realtor almost.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you know, I work for and I represent the best interest of the of the landlord. Okay. So if I work for the tenant also, then the tenant is gonna tell me, well, you know, the landlord did this and the landlord didn't do that, and they promised me this. So I have done it and I've made it work with this same landlord with different tenants at the shopping at different shopping centers. But these people that they're uh tenants that they're bringing in are sophisticated, and I think that it's probably best that I keep my loyalties to this contract. This uh this this to the landlord.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you got a good thing.

SPEAKER_00

Right. They give my name out to tenants when there's no landlord work, and I bid those jobs, and I've got I get them. Okay. Maybe one out of five.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um so that that that right now is my big client, and and that uh that plaza is is well when they took it over, it was 70% vacant. And now I don't know the numbers, but there's some nice, nice, nice projects happen there.

SPEAKER_01

So who's your who's if you laid out an ICP, right? Like an ideal customer profile. Right.

SPEAKER_00

Who is my ideal customer is a small business owner or a small business wannabe owner. Um, I've done a lot of chiropractor offices in the day. So uh one of the networking groups that I was in had you know a chiropractor, and it was usually specific category. And he was working for the largest chiropractor in Palm Beach County at the time, and he was there to drum up business for his boss who already had a big firm. And then one day he comes to me and goes, Hey Mike, I'm looking at a space. Um I built him two places, yeah. So even even you know, young professionals that you think, oh, this guy's not gonna provide any work for me. He works, he's he's a lawyer working for a big law firm. No, he's gonna he wants to be an entrepreneur someday. Yeah. And he's looking for space. Um one of the things that that people need to do when they are at that juncture of their careers is they need to bring me, a contractor, out there, before they sign a lease.

SPEAKER_01

Why is that? Unpack that.

SPEAKER_00

So commercial brokers, residential brokers, they want to do the their goal is to make the sale and to get the lease signed. So they're not always privy to what it takes. What it takes to hire an architect, what it takes to get a permit, what it takes to bid out the GC work and get a GC, what it takes to, I already said the permitting, but the permit process. So I get people coming to me all the time. The landlord gave me three months' rent. I just signed the lease. Three months free rent. That's what I'm talking about. Great. You should have called me before you signed a lease. Because architects are not just sitting around waiting to do your drawings. Well, he told me I don't need a draw uh an architect. Yeah, that's not true. He told me it'll take you don't need a permit. Yeah, that's not true. He or she. So that's why bring out your contractor, because they see things. It's like when I get you to look at my website.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly. You see it quickly. You're gonna see things. Yeah, you just see it just like that, right?

SPEAKER_00

Right. I see things. I say, well, what's gonna happen with this? What's gonna happen with that? Oh, we oh, I don't know. So uh I just met with a guy today, yeah, uh yesterday, who's looking at uh a gym out in way out west, and you know, he's the son of the owner of the founder of of the gym, and the landlord's not willing to give him anything. And I said, Well, what a you know, you need to to be aware of this and you need to be aware of that. And and he said he called four GCs, and I'm the only one that came out there.

SPEAKER_01

No way.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because he doesn't have plans and he hasn't signed a lease. So is he wasting my time? No, no because I have a contact now and I have a relationship now, and I told him, I answered my phone, I called him back, I said, let me look at what you got, I'll call you on Monday, and we'll meet. And we met I called him Monday morning, we met Monday.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's great. That's great business.

SPEAKER_00

So that's the so you asked, How have I been in business? That's how I've been in business for 30 years. Yeah. So I'm making an investment now, the biggest investment I've ever made with Rare Blue Moon.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that that for marketing you're saying.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

That investment for for the Palm Beach North Chamber is is the largest marketing investment that Gen X Construction has made in 30 years.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, no kidding.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So if nothing comes out of that, I'm fine with it because now I have this.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah, no doubt. Well, I yeah, relationships are everything. I mean, um I'm already thinking of people I can refer you to, and even us. I mean, we're we're growing exponentially. You know, we're gonna need some help. And we try to be loyal to people that do business with us. We always try to reciprocate back. You know, like there's all the time. I do, as long as it makes sense. I always do. Me too, me too. Um, without a doubt. You know, like there's this um like there's this one business we're going, they do like cryotherapy and they do uh red light therapy. If you need another drink, let's go.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we we want to get it. Yeah, we we need the fizz.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, I always try to reciprocate. So I I think that's good business. And and I, you know, we're all small businesses, right? Cheers.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, cheers.

SPEAKER_01

We're all small businesses. Like, if we're not gonna support each other, who is? You know, like seriously.

SPEAKER_00

I uh I knew a guy that was a car wash. He had three locations in Boynton, where I lived for 35 34 years. And I knew the owner, and he was the nicest guy. And he had a partner who was a local contractor, um, and he built them for him. So I knew that I would never, but I I would talk to him all the time. He knew he got to know my dad because of the motorcycle, my dad was a Harley guy. And he sold out to equity or whatever it's called. Yeah, yeah. I canceled my membership and I'll never go there again. Yeah, I I'll wash my own car.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. No, I I get it. Um you know it's I mean, what I what I always say is we're a family business supporting family businesses. So when we when we take on a client, and let's say we did your website and your SEO, let's just say you hired us to do that, dude. We take it very seriously because you're a family guy, your wife works with you. One day you probably, I don't know what you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00

You said that right, by the way. What's that? I my wife works with me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, with you. Not for you, with you. Imagine if I said you work for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This podcast would end.

SPEAKER_00

It would have been it would have been black screened. Laptop.

SPEAKER_01

All right, go on. No, no, but it but it I I I just wish, and I think a lot of people do, but but we take this to heart. Is every dollar that we're spending like does affect our family's bottom line. And and you probably want to pass some wealth down to your son and your daughter.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe, maybe not.

SPEAKER_01

A couple bucks, right? Yeah, you know, your grandchildren.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe them. Okay, they're not around yet, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So if you spend uh you know ten thousand dollars in a year with us on some additional stuff, like it matters, it comes out of that bottom line.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, so well but to be in business as long as I have and not and not I mean ever spent anything. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, I mean, maybe, you know, I'm not I'm not talking, you know, the $180 a month, you know, uh a year to be a member of a networking. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, I get it.

SPEAKER_00

I'm talking actual, you know, and building a website one time. I'm talking what I just did. Yeah. Um, but someone fired me up. Can't imagine who that is.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't know. It's listen, it's uh it's what I do. Well, we're gonna give you your uh we're gonna we're gonna take it to the next level for you. We'll make sure you get your bang for your buck for sure. Hence why you're on here with us. Exactly. Exactly. Um we should introduce them to uh to your parents for their for their build out. Yeah, I mean it's it's probably half a million of a build out that they need. So they they're um and this might be a great contact for you because right, because this is a franchise coming into South Florida and they're aggressively trying to grow. That's that's Perfect. That's who you want, right?

SPEAKER_00

So we'll so basically if we just you'll get let's not tell it let's not say the name of it because we don't want all the other contractors on the chain to know who it is.

SPEAKER_01

Nope. And uh but that could be, you know, their goal is to have and they're the territory representatives too, my friends. Yeah, they they want 20 or 30 of them down here, and they're probably all half a million dollar jobs. I'm I'm a I'm guessing. Because they do it on a construction level.

SPEAKER_00

Well, on the 18th one, I will give them a really, really sick deal. Okay. On the 18th one, and uh maybe I can use that to get uh my daughter and son-in-law to move down here. No, we'll we can be franchisees.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, let's do it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's funny that that reminds me. So I uh I Peloton, I ride my Peloton, and I I love my Peloton, and I have my favorite instructor. Do you Dennis Morton? My wife thinks I have a crush on you. No, no, no, no, I don't uh and so he had he had a uh a ride, two back-to-back 20-minute rides, and it was 80s music and and 2000s music. And so I did the back-to-back live rides, and I said, Oh, I'm gonna love the 80s, that's my music, 70s, 80s, you know.

unknown

I love it.

SPEAKER_00

And I and I and that was the first ride, and I loved it. And I I got excited, all the songs from when I was growing up, and and then the 2000s came on, and the 2000s, and I'm telling you this for a reason because of what's in the oven over there. The 2000s was my kids' music. That blew me away. Because it's when my daughter turned three, I listened to this, she listened to that. When my son turned 10, the 2000s music was this, it and it was funny, and I told Denise that, and she's like, Yeah, of course. But in between, that the 10 minutes in between, I'm like, yeah, the 2000s music, whatever. The memories there were memories of Denise and I raising our children, and that's what it's all about. So congrats to you.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Amen. Was there uh one song you specifically remember? I'm trying to get these tears because I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01

Um was there one song you specifically remember?

SPEAKER_00

My son really loved Little Wayne, so uh there was no little Wayne there. That's another thing. Okay, I we we couldn't I need to be on the the the future that you the that you mentioned, the future podcast that may be happening. So we tried to really, really, really shelter our our children. And you can do a good job at that with your firstborn. You're gonna do a fine job with that with your firstborn until they hit middle school. And now with technology today, it might be in nursery school. So we had bought him all of the albums in the clean versions. Ludacris, little Wayne, uh, you know, I can't remember them all, uh, the guy with the big hat, T-Pane. And then his best friend, oh boy, Daniel, burned him uh, what was it when you used to have the little chips or when they had to you downloaded stuff to your MP3s? Burned him the non-clean versions. Yeah. But it gets even better. Like, we didn't give our kids sugar. My mom gave my kids uh sugar, rock candy and and cotton candy, and my mother-in-law gave our kids Coke, Coca-Cola, and we never gave them either of those things. They weren't in the house. So you can try to shelter them, but outside forces will uh how how's your feeling on this?

SPEAKER_01

Who should who should have the first alcoholic drink with their son or their daughter? Should it be the parents? Or should it be Yep?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I agree. Yep, we did that and we did, you know, other things too.

SPEAKER_01

So Yeah, all right, I get it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I know times have changed a little bit, you know, uh as far as you know, house parties and stuff. Uh but our kids, you know, you tell them over and over and over and over and over if you drink, call us. If you drink, call us. We we actually got those calls. We got those calls. We got the call like that from our son uh on a New Year's at a New Year's Eve party. It was only two miles from the house.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Please come and get me. And we got them from our daughter all the time.

SPEAKER_01

Wow, that's great.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That guy actually got those things. Right. And the only way that that happens, it doesn't happen by telling them one time or waving the finger and they're from the time that they were small, to you know, to trust, the trust that you build with your children. They have to trust you, you have to trust them. Yeah, no doubt. Um and it gets broken once in a while, but you know, as long as there's remorse and there's uh ramifications. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, I I I I agree. I think um, you know, I've just I've been reflecting on my childhood so much lately out of nowhere, which is interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Well, your wife's 22 weeks pregnant. Yeah. If you're not gonna do it now, then you're not in you're not facing reality. I've never changed.

SPEAKER_01

I've never been this reflective.

SPEAKER_00

Nothing's changed, nothing is gonna change your life like this. Not going into business, not going into the military, not going to college, not doing not oh nothing. This. This is gonna change your life more than anything.

SPEAKER_01

For the good or the bad or for the worse.

SPEAKER_00

Well, from my experience, for the best. Because I'm all in, and I think you're all in too. Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_01

No, we're we're we wanna, I think we wanna go relatively quickly after, you know, and have a second child. I want three, but I also, you know, I'm gonna probably be I'll be 64 when my daughter graduates high school.

SPEAKER_00

64 is the new 24. Come on.

SPEAKER_01

I know, I know. But kid three, I could be, I could be six sixty-eight, you know, and if that's a daughter, she could be getting married when I'm 75.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm saying that you're you'll be able to do more push-ups than than her fiance. No, you're right.

SPEAKER_02

And what's better is that you're a present person and you work through all your kinks. Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. You know, if that daughter, you know, is if you have a relationship where she comes and tells you things that she may not even tell mom, that's perfection.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, I I want that relationship. I do.

SPEAKER_00

But that you have to work at that. And it's not, you know, being you gotta be present. Present and accounted for.

SPEAKER_01

How how much different is that a military term?

SPEAKER_00

Present and accounted for?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah, that's very military. I'm not even in that. No, that was badass. Yeah, you like took me back. I like got in line. I know I saw you. Yes, sir. Sir, yes, sir. Did you do you feel like you raised your son differently than your daughter?

SPEAKER_00

That's a good point. No. Okay. No. Denise and I tried very, very hard to have the same parameters. Is it is it completely doable? Society kind of doesn't allow it, but in our home, we tried very hard. Our son, on the other hand, would give us crap about not being strict enough with her.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. He's the older one, right?

SPEAKER_00

Obviously. And we would say, well, when you have your own children, you can do whatever the fuck you want to do.

SPEAKER_01

Not being as strict. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we should be more strict. Just leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01

Now, do you are your grandfather yet?

SPEAKER_00

Not yet.

SPEAKER_01

Not yet. Not yet. It's coming though, obviously, right? Maybe.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01

Well, your daughter's been married a year.

SPEAKER_00

A year. No, it's coming. Yeah. It's coming. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

She may be pregnant right now.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, no, no. We were just there. She lives in Arlington, Virginia. And uh her and her husband, Adam. Live in Arlington. Yeah. But I am looking forward to that next phase of our lives.

SPEAKER_01

Are your parents still around? No. Yeah, that's uh I don't have my my mother passed away a year ago. I grew up without my dad. I found out who he was when I was 37. He's he's still around though.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, he is? Yeah. He's just a donor.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly pretty much. Listen, it was 1979, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

People were I mean, do do you have a do you have a why am I flipping this around? Do you want to meet him? Oh no, I have Oh, you have met him.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, good. So crazy story. My mom always gave me a weird answer about my dad, just never like a straight answer. And my last name is Weingard. And I've always had Italian girlfriends, and everybody says I look Italian. And I would always ask my mom, you know, mom, do you do I have any Italian in me? And she was like, no, you just, you know, have darker features. And uh, so I finally did an ancestry DNA just to see if I had any Italian in me. So I do the ancestry DNA. I'm like 37 years old at the time, and it comes back. I'm 50% Sicilian, right? And uh, and I said to my mom, I go, Mom, I go, what's up with all this Italian in me? She goes, Oh, those things aren't accurate. Right. And uh, you know, if if you and your son and your daughter signed up to Ancestry DNA, it links you. It says there's a 99.99% chance this is your daughter or your father, right? Wow. It links you, right? So if you have a long-lost grandmother or cousin, it links you. Right. It's one of the pros and cons of it. I'm sure you have to accept ancestry DNA to allow you to do that. But anyway, six months later, I get an email from a young man, very Italian. I'm gonna leave the last names out. Very Italian name goes, hey Eric, Ancestry DNA says there's a 99.9% chance we're half brothers. My dad was born and raised in Rochester, he left in 1980. He goes, Are you an orphan or or or were you raised by a single mother? And he then tells me the name of the dad. Right. I Google the name and I hit images, and I'm staring at myself 20 years in the future, just with some gray hair.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

No, for sure. No, no, but but what's interesting about my childhood, I never called anybody else dad.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So it wasn't like mom.

SPEAKER_00

You can call me dad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, daddy. Uh yeah, no, so my you know, everybody has a different journey. Yeah, yeah, that's that's really neat. But my my uh my family history is very fractured, so I'm just excited to have so much stability here with you know grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles. My child is gonna have the stability where I had all so mine mine was not.

SPEAKER_00

As a matter of fact, Denise's nickname for me is the boy in the plastic bubble. Wow. My parents were you know married the whole time, my grandparents were married the whole time. Yeah, so I'm the boy in the plastic bubble.

SPEAKER_01

That's great.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's not such a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's my badge of honor how I grew up and and how I am today, but but I don't wish it on anybody. You know, like I I get it. Like I grew up when I was in seventh grade, I lived in a homeless shelter with my single mom. She couldn't find work, and she was just always, you know, just struggling to make her way, and then and then she couldn't afford a babysitter, you know, a couple years later, so I got taken away into foster homes, etc.

SPEAKER_00

It's funny that because I I listened to a couple of your podcasts, and a couple of times you mentioned that you and your mom were not very close, and the struggles that you're describing to me would make it seem like that you would have this bond that was just ridiculous. Yeah. What factor caused it to not be so strong?

SPEAKER_01

I think you know how when you're younger and you look at your mom and dad as Superman.

SPEAKER_00

Correct.

SPEAKER_01

And you get older and you realize they're just like us, they're flawed. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

I go on job sites and I see my dad screaming at people and embarrassing the shit out of me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There you go. Yeah. She was very flawed. I I think she had some deep-rooted psychological issues. Um, her mother died when she was two, her father disowned her when she was two. So she was raised by her grandmother. I think she had, I don't mean this as an insult. I think she had uh abandonment issues, daddy issues. And I think the more I began to look like a man, the more I reminded her of her father, and she didn't want me around.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, she probably could have used mental help and never got and never got it. For sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Mental health is important.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, she uh she's a little she was a strong woman in a lot of ways, for sure. And she wasn't the worst mother in the world, and she certainly wasn't the best. But you know, with all that with all that being said, you know, so many people like like I remember when I was 19 years old, I used to get into a lot of fights, and probably 200 of them. And it was like my number one hurdle in life was to overcome my anger and lashing out. And it dawned on me at the age of 19, Mike. I'm like, wait a minute. Those other I'm I'm the common denominator with the 200 fights, right? The 200 fights and Eric is in all of them. And it finally clicked with me. I go, all 200 of those people can't be wrong. Right. Eric's wrong, right? So that was like an enlightening for me. And rather than just continuing to go down the road of just um victimhood, you know, I began to accept um, you know, take responsibility for who I am and take control of my future because so many people, I don't know, they uh they just continue to, you know, they're they're handed a deck of cards and you know, or a hand of cards, and and you got to play that hand the best you can.

SPEAKER_00

And look where you are now. And if you would have played it differently, I'm sure you have friends from I'm sure a few of those 200 you became friends with, and they're probably either not here or incarcerated or not where you are.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

So the fact that you realized it, you realized it and you made a change before it was too late. Yeah. That's commendable.

SPEAKER_01

And and unfortunately, I don't know what that was in me. I don't have the answer for that. But obviously, my mother didn't have that willpower to to say, you know, I had a jacked up childhood, I'm gonna make something of myself. She just continued to go down the the chain of you know, family failure. You know, my uncle was a crackhead, my aunt was a crackhead, you know, she was a relatively successful one, right? Right, because she had a kid and she became a nurse. She was actually technically the successful one in the family. Um, but you know you just can't make excuses. I don't know. And I think you get to a certain point where you can't just blame blame your childhood for your failures.

SPEAKER_00

No, you can't blame it.

SPEAKER_01

You can't blame your upbringing, you know, and it sounds harsh. Now, listen, as a 14-year-old, 15-year-old, like, yeah, you got, you know, you can play the blame game, but dude, you get to be 18, 19, 20, like, like wake the fuck up. Yeah, you know, take a snap out of it, pill.

SPEAKER_00

The military probably didn't hurt.

SPEAKER_01

Saved my life. Right. Saved my life, yeah, for sure. Right. For sure. Because I was partying, I was doing a lot of drugs and stuff. And like, not just I was doing all the bad drugs and consistently. Right.

SPEAKER_00

You're the that's a perfect scenario for where you what you achieved, and if you didn't go into the military, it wouldn't have been achieved. I agree. Yeah, that's a perfect example. You know, and we have an all-volunteer military, so God bless all of our people that have served. Yes, amen. You've had a bunch on this podcast. I think I've watched a bunch of bunch of military people? You have. Yeah, I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'd like to eventually do something with like veteran-owned businesses and maybe you know, try to create some sort of uh like entrepreneurial group to where you know it's no cost to them and it's just it's CPAs, marketing people, certain people just providing insight, you know, to veteran-owned businesses. I think it's really an overlooked um kind of group of businesses in this country. So impact, right? Yeah, for sure. For sure. Anything else you want to get in?

SPEAKER_00

Uh this is good. Uh yeah, it's it's it's pretty good. Yeah. Um no, just, you know, if somebody wants to need a contractor, they can reach us at genxconstruction.net 561-963-4490. Instagram is Gen X Construction, and uh look forward to taking some calls.

SPEAKER_01

Guys, thanks again for tuning into the Gold Coast Podcast. The host that has watched so many podcasts, I didn't even need to tell him to look into the camera and give his little schwiel. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to like and subscribe and share this information with someone that you think may find may find some value.