The Mindset Behind Doubling Revenue 4 Years Straight

Most contractors want the growth. Few are willing to live through what it takes to get there. In this episode of NIX Your Excuses, we sit down with Sam, co-owner of Rio Roofing, to talk about how she and her husband built a multi-7-figure roofing company in under four years while doubling revenue year over year, maintaining outstanding customer satisfaction, and building a team people actually want to stay on.

No fluff. No “overnight success” narrative.

We talk about the early days of driving neighborhoods, knocking doors, and earning trust one homeowner at a time. We get into the harder part most owners never prepare for: becoming the bottleneck, building systems, hiring the right people, protecting culture, and learning how to lead when an entire team depends on you.

This episode covers the reality of successfully scaling a blue-collar business, why discipline matters more than motivation, how to hire and train without lowering standards, how operators accidentally sabotage growth, the shift from chasing revenue to optimizing profit, and what leadership, burnout, routines, mental resilience, and reputation really look like when the stakes are high.

This is a conversation for owners, operators, and anyone tired of hearing polished business advice from people who have never actually built something difficult.

No excuses. Just execution.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Show the f up. Yeah. If you don't show up, nothing's going to happen.

SPEAKER_03 0:04

We've doubled our revenue year over year for the past, I guess, four years since we've started.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

A leader has a really great way of showing up on their hardest days. What are we capable of? What could we build? What what kind of impact could we make? Sam, thank you for investing time this morning to come here and chat with me about honestly all things business, but really getting to the nitty-gritty of it, the every angle, right, of what's led you to build what you've built in four years, right? Four or five years. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Yeah. What I'd like to know from you is, you know, kicking us off, give me a quick snapshot of the business today and what you've built in the last four years.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Yeah. So um my husband and I co-own Rio Roofing. So it's a roofing company here in St. George, Southern Utah. And um we started back in 2022. Um opened the business kind of in in the summertime, but didn't do a whole lot the first year until the very end of the year. Um but yeah, so we, I guess a snapshot would be that we've been growing a lot year over year. We've doubled our revenue year over year for the past, I guess, four years since we've started, which is a lot of growth in a short amount of time. It's been kind of a whirlwind. Um, but it's been a really fun adventure. So uh my husband and I, like I said, we co-own it. So um I do like the business side of things. So um, you know, like kind of like vision and um finance and marketing and the admin stuff on the backside, and then he does all of the roofing specific uh things. So um and how large is your team? Yes. So our team is around 20 to 25 people. We've hired a couple recently, so yeah, it's about 25.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

And what would you say the ratio is of office and field? Okay on that.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

Yes. So office, let's see. We have probably about seven to eight office, and then the rest are in the field. Yeah. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Yeah. So take me back to that first summer then, or throughout, I'd say the first 12 months, you know, since you've obviously passed the seven-figure mark, which congratulations because that's something to be very proud of. It's a huge achievement. But what did it look like leading up to surpassing seven figures, maybe things or certain aspects of that journey that even to this day a lot of people don't see or or didn't see that has led you to honestly have the, oh, I would say the the brand dominance that you have. You know, I heard about your company far before I'd ever crossed paths with you.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

And like I had said in the very beginning, it's always been raving reviews and very, they're articulate, they're incredible with their craft. Basically, we never have to assume that they did something well. We can just blot out see they they are masters of their domain and they do an excellent job. And most importantly, integrity, which is great that that's one of your primary core values. We obviously align with that as well. And yeah, basically everyone that's had great things to say about you, that's somehow intertwined within it, is you know, they're they're individuals of their word. They walk the walk. So take me through that here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

That's a really cool question. So um, in the beginning, it was it it felt like it was a slow start. Um, so the way that we would do it is I would actually go around and drive in neighborhoods, kind of like older neighborhoods. Okay. And I would look for things on the roof that were, you know, incorrect or like cracked tiles or something that needs attention. And I would literally knock on the door. And um, being a woman, I have an advantage there. I'm not as scary like a woman's knocking on your door. True. And so people would answer and I would just say, Hey, I was just, you know, driving by your home and realize that you have a couple of cracked tiles right here. Have you noticed those before? And a lot of times they would have no idea. And I'd be like, could I just show you really fast? And then I'd point them out. And then I'd be like, Hey, um, my husband's actually gonna be, you know, nearby in this area, like in about an hour. If you want, I could send him up and have him do, you know, a free inspection just to let you know, like, how your roof is doing. And it was that's how we started. It's amazing. Yeah, that's how we got our first sale. It's amazing. Yeah, just knocking doors and no one knew who we were.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

I call it scrappy. And sometimes I feel that, especially in a day and age where there's so much background noise and you do see a lot of stories, some very valid, others very procured, on how to achieve success and achieve success quickly. And honestly, when I come into the picture and I'm sitting down with our partners, I'm really looking at how can we continue to be as scrappy as possible as if we were in those first six months, because more money doesn't necessarily mean that you have business investing at a higher capacity than you did in the first six months. There could be massive investments that you want to be pulling that money for to ultimately take yourself to the second, third, fourth level. And sometimes I feel that it's almost a sense of entitlement that they're they aren't aware of, but it does come into play in that you know year, year and a half that I shouldn't be continuing to operate scrappy when there's a lot of beauty in operating in that what I call scrappy mindset and it forces creativity, it forces innovation. It does, it's authentic. Yep. Um You're hungry, like you want to go for it, like at all costs.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Like, how can I do this? Right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

So I love that you say that because it's, you know, the the waves, and then there's an undertow. And I feel like what you just touched on is the undertow of that. It's that that drive, that belief, you know, happiness is a fleeting emotion. And I feel that people forget that. Like, if you were to tell me a joke, I'd laugh, but I'm not going to be laughing in three hours. I mean, if I was, that'd be a little odd. But it's fleeting. And, you know, there's so many people I've talked to who in business they're still searching for maybe validation or happiness or a sense of I made it. And all of those are feelings, and feelings are fleeting. And it's more or less are you focusing on having more of positive feelings, or are you more or less waiting for those to come to you and then hoping that they stay for the long term?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

And when you think of first starting a business, it that is much it's more extended, right? I feel like it's from what I've seen, my experience three to six months. But it's motivation, if you will, which you've always heard that's also fleeting. Yes. It's largely you're excited, you're in the moment, you're riled up, but then reality sets in and the complexities of growth kick in. So let's touch on that. When you surpass six figures and then you surpass seven figures, what complexities were you not prepared for that you've realized with more money comes more problems, or if you're looking at it properly, more opportunities to really refine what you do and and step back and make sure everything's scalable before, you know, firing from all cylinders again?

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Yes. That's a great question. So um I would say something that I didn't realize is how much SOPs and systems would be the focus of what I do. So we we operated well when it was a lot smaller and we were doing a lot of things. However, just as you know, you're limited on actually how much you can do because you become the bottleneck in your own business. You know, who's the person who, you know, gets the leads? Me. Who's the person who, you know, writes the estimates? Me. Who's the person who sends the invoice? Me. So you can't be the the go-to person in your business if you really want to create something big and have a big impact. And so it's been very instrumental in our growth to be able to have systems and processes really nailed down, written out very specifically step by step, so that there's uh an extreme amount of clarity. Um, because if you don't have that clarity, uh, it causes chaos. So clarity can help you avoid that chaos of people are doing it all in their own way. And um, there's no, you know, they thought they were doing it, you know, the way that we wanted, but they were doing it completely different. So that's been a really big one. I would say for any business owner that wants to grow SOPs, even if you're the only person in your business, having those SOPs in place, this is exactly how I do this. Because we can fall into this, I think, as business owners. Well, no one can do it just like me, you know. Like I can't, how can I teach the way I do this to someone? I can't. It's no one ever will.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yeah. Because it's your baby, it's your dream. Right. So no one's ever going to buy in at the level that you are. It's a matter of how do I scrape off the capability sets that allowed me to create what I've created and find the right people to cater to those capability sets while I maintain the vision. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

And like you said, there are certain things in your business that you will be the person for that for those things because no one else can replace you. Absolutely. But um, there's a lot more than you think that can be delegated out. Um, I think for for many business owners, and we were kind of this way too. Um so a little background on our business and about us. My husband is actually an engineer. So he has his bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering. And so he has a very unique brain. He's one of those like fix it guys that can just literally fix anything. In fact, the other day on a job, like someone was having an issue with their garage door and it wouldn't work. And my husband just went over and just like fixed it for them. And then, like, the guys on the site, they were like, You fix garage doors. Like he's just that guy, like he can just figure it out. Very cosmetically talented. Yes. Yeah, that's fast. It's amazing because my brain does not work like that at all. So we're very different in that way. That's cool. Um, however, so the way he goes about putting roofs together or putting together solutions for repairs is very unique. And um, it's different than I would say, like industry standard. He'll install things a little bit of a different way so that they last longer and things like that. So it was tough for us to be like, how could we ever what we do? Like, we need your brain to like figure this all out. And it's been a really interesting challenge to give ourselves to um figure out how to impart that on other people and train them to kind of think in the same ways that my husband thinks and outsource it. So now he's not the one on the roofs all the time, which is huge. And I think at the beginning we were really stumped as to how we would get to that place where he wasn't on the roof every single day.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Um so there's definitely a form of compliance as well that you have to identify with different roles. You know, if you think of a brain surgeon, you can't be even a millimeter off of what you're doing or a micrometer. I'm not a expert of measurements, but that's not the point. The point is that you could end up taking a life if you're operating on a brain and you're a fraction of a hair off of where you're supposed to be. Yes. Then you look at a nanny and you need to pick the kids up from school at three. So if you roll on around 255 or 305 when they're coming out, then you're good. And so I also feel that sometimes the buy-in that we have for our vision, it's so easy to almost tie that into an expectation of compliance for every role. When buy-in, there shouldn't be a measurement of compliance to. It's what is the capability set? What is the black and white that these individuals can complete and understanding emotional quotient analysis? That's huge. Understanding if these are the right people to fit the role. I know when I have brought employees on, if I know there's going to be a lot of context shifting going on with their role, I want to make sure that if we're thinking of like the disk assessment, that they're basically even across the D, the I, the S, the C, which means they're results driven, but they're great at creating conversations very quickly. They do maintain loyalty with those relationships, however, and they're very compliant with what they do. However, if I have one of our partner liaisons, I'm looking for a very high C, meaning they're extremely compliance driven. And they're going to be someone who naturally values their worth in an organization by how accurate they are. But you wouldn't want that person in a role where compliance matters not near as much as speed, as result is decisiveness, right? And so you definitely need to do your employees a favor, I would say, by ensuring that you're setting them up for success within the business, because honestly, anyone can adapt to fulfilling a capability set into taking that off of your plate. But if you're hiring them in their adaptive profile and their natural profile maybe is much more compliance-oriented and detail oriented than it is decisive. But because of you and I have very similar backgrounds with how we were raised, it's easy to have an adaptive persona about you and new environments around new people for whatever reason, right? We all think we've had it hard and we all have valid reasons to believe that we've had it hard. But at the end of the day, it's a matter of is who you see truly who you get, or as these people become comfortable with their environments and who they're working with and their daily tasks, is that going to start to translate over to their natural profile, which might be much different?

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

And so it's so important, Sam, and business to recognize. And I don't know if you and your husband have experienced this, but it's not going to go perfect. And it's never going to go perfect. And that's something that when partners are starting to navigate SOPs and systems and delegation and hiring, you can get there yourself and it'll take a hell of a long time, or you can get there with a team and it won't look perfect. But every issue, every problem, that is an opportunity for you to better yourself as a leader, an opportunity for you to step back and say, is this a good employee, but not for our company? Or is this a phenomenal employee that I simply need to step in as a leader and understand emotionally so that then the intelligence quotient can play well with their EQ, their EQ and their IQ. But it comes down to they the give up mentality, right? So I was born on March 4th and I share a birthday actually with two or three generations of grandpas. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. They're all on the same side on my mom's side. And in 2018, I attempted to commit suicide. And my mom wasn't aware of it until about a year and a half after. And because of, you know, the conversations you and I have had of how we were raised and what we navigated and things with our parents, I I honestly wasn't sure what type of reaction I would get when I had shared it with her. But I know the reaction I got really surprised me. She was just beside herself. And she took a minute to collect herself, as I'm sure any parent would. But then she told me, you know, for one, you better always call me if you ever feel that way again. You better always know that I'm here for you.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

And two, I'm disappointed. And I kind of was just like, huh? You know, you're disappointed at what that I told you is my initial thought. She said, No, you've always been my child that never gives up. And I know that's how come you were born on March 4th, is because you've always marched forth since you were a little girl. Anything that was in your way, you found a way to go through. Not around, not sit and hope that maybe someone moved it, you've gone through it.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

And she didn't really say much after that. And not even three days later, I got March 4th tattooed on the back of my neck. And honestly, it's my standing oath to my mom that obviously if I were to ever hit that low of a that big of a mental low again, that I would reach out. But most importantly, the number of times that I've remembered you've got to March 4th. This is not going to be perfect. This is sure as shit not going to be easy. And you signed up for this and so commit and commit 100%.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

And when you really create a vision that's a legacy, you know that you're going to, in your lifetime, make an impact on, yet carry that on your children, your employees, the community to continue to fulfill. A lot of partners feel like, well, I want to achieve it in my lifetime. I want to see it come to fruition. Right. But if you die while you're on your way to achieving it, you die doing what you love. So create a goal, create a vision that you probably honestly will never achieve. However, you'll make a massive impact on the community, on your employees, on your family by aiming to achieve that and leaving a brand, a legacy, a vision that others can continue to push forward on and continue that impact, right? Yeah. Because to me, and I'm very curious for you. For me, the true definition of success is knowing that at the end of your life or at the end of your time here on earth, you've at least bettered one person's life, right? You've left a room and they felt more confident, they felt more empowered, they felt uplifted. Um, I love that. Always build people up. And so, how would you, with the business being a component of your overall vision? That's something I've always been very drawn to with you, is you're extremely driven. And I love that about you. And so I want to know if we kind of take back the layers, right? Or instead of looking at the waves, look at the undertow of that drive. What is your definition of success and what are you wanting to achieve that real roofing is an aspect of, yeah, right? Not just, oh, real roofing, I own a great company. Okay, cool. You could sell that like a product and go start three others. So, what is the greater picture for you and what's really driving you with it?

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Yeah, that's a really good question. I think having a really good why is so important. I would say um we have we have some really great whys and it helps us to keep going when the days are so hard and you feel like, why am I doing this? Because it there are days that are really difficult. Absolutely. Um I would say it's so our family is a big one. I know that's kind of something that all humans have in common. Um we just we love our people. So um being able to have family time, being able to be present for our kids, you know, being able to go to like school programs or um, you know, soccer games or whatever they are, um, just being able to be present and um experience life more fully with our family. So that's a big one. Another one is we want to be able to contribute to the community. So um, especially with contractors, I feel like we get such a bad reputation for being shady, doing bad things, you know, just not not following through on our word, not even showing up, you know, there's a lot that don't even show up.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

And so being able to overextending past where you are an expert is what I have noticed. Okay, you know, with trades and contractors is where it's it's you're great at what you do, but make sure that you ethically maintain within that boundary, yes, and not be a do-it-all, because that actually really hurts your enterprise value as well. Yes, yeah. So there's a factor of that that drove you to break the mold, be the purple cow, if you will, and do it different.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

Yes, yes. Yes, that absolutely. So that's cool. I I really do believe that the services that we offer were not available like in the way that we offer them before we existed. And that's something really, really cool and meaningful to be a part of. That's badass. And yeah, it is badass. Yeah, yeah. Cause everyone lives in a house, right? I mean, yeah, most of us. And so, you know, everyone needs a roof to protect. So our kind of like our mission statement is that we help our clients protect what matters most, their homes and their family and their peace of mind. Wow. So, you know, those are things that are so important. So that's a big one. And then another thing that drives me personally, I'll say, is I think a big like a deep curiosity within myself. Like, what am I capable of? You know, what are we capable of? What could we build? What what kind of impact could we make? How good could we get? You know, just like it's just been like such a fun thing to be discovering that along the way uh in real time. It drives that, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Drives that curiosity for you because that's something that that is a parallel trait I've noticed in any successful person I've been around. Is it isn't that it it's never enough. It's they always want to learn more. And curiosity, in my opinion, it's unrealistic to fail if you're always curious. And understanding it's good to be curious, but you don't have to master that area. Yet that Curiosity and that searching and that seeking and that analyzing how much more of an expert that can make you in your specific domain. Because I do feel that as entrepreneurs, we want to be a master at doing it all, right? It's you hear it all the time. Yes, it's very tempting. Uh-huh. Yeah, it also takes a lot of discipline to understand that while I could do it all, I'm going to become an absolute master of this specific domain and know that when I'm in this domain, that I'm doing it 110, 120% better than I would want to say anybody could do it. And then leave those other aspects to masters of those domains, yet understand what they're doing. And that's something that that's something I tell partners all the time when I come into the picture is I actually have it required. I heard this book on a podcast. It's called Demystifying the Role of the CFO by Rick Smith.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

And I actually require partners, if they want to enroll, to read that. And they kind of look at me. I mean, one, it's not an easy read. So they're not too excited about that, unless they're an avid reader, which honestly few are. Podcasts are big. Yeah. But what's funny about it is when they, you know, they're kind of like, okay, you know, it's not on mindset, it's not on vision. It's it's on your role and what you do. So how come I'm reading that? Because I want you to be very clear on what to hold us accountable for, where that's one of our core values. But likewise, I want you to be very clear on what we are not here to do. And we are not here to drive your vision. We are not here to be your CEO. We are here to be your CFO. And it's so important in that same conversation for them to understand that that also means that you are responsible to know what it is that we are doing. That doesn't mean that you have to understand how to cash flow project and understand the million different formulas that are within your sheet to be able to get you the outcomes I'm showing you so that if you don't like what that outcome is, I can go back and pivot in the next six weeks and basically mold the future how you want it. But the purpose is nearly obsolete when I can just see their face glazing over and they're just like, yeah, yeah, you know what? Whatever you think is best. No, quite honestly, do you even know what the hell I'm saying right now? You know, like show me some buy-in. Yeah. And that's so important when you're looking at team, when you're looking at promoting managers, when you're looking at superintendents, foremans, directors, when you get to that level. Um, sales and developing a sales team, marketing. You got gotta measure it like a hawk. You should always be marketing, but you should always be measuring your marketing and knowing exactly when to push more behind it or completely pivot. And you aren't able to do that confidently if you don't have that curiosity to know, yet also the discipline of when to stop searching and to start acting, right? It's like that meme, plan, plan, plan, act.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

So something that you touched on with curiosity, what do you feel from a very young age drives that? Because you definitely weren't given, I would say, this success that you've achieved on a silver platter.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Yeah, no. Um, so my childhood was rough, to be honest. Um so someone very close to me was abusive to me, like all growing up, and that impacted me a lot. Um I didn't it affected the way I thought about myself and the way I saw my place in the world. And um, it was really a hard time. Um but I do feel like it made me stronger in some ways because I had to basically I had like a street fight for like who I was, like what I was really capable of when people around me were telling me that I couldn't do something and I wanted to prove them wrong basically. So I feel like um I had to work really hard to understand who I am and what I value and what I want to try to do in my life because what I was handed was not acceptable to me. I didn't I didn't like that that reflected sense of self that I was seeing from people around me. And I wanted something better for myself. To be honest, I don't know exactly where it came from, but I do know that the way that I was raised kind of lit a fire in me. And I knew that I didn't want the status quo of what my life should be according to how I was raised. And I knew that I would not repeat the cycle of what was done to me, um, and that I wanted something better for myself and my future and um my family that I would create someday. And so I would say it shaped me a lot uh and helped me to kind of own my own definition of who I am more than if it maybe was handed to me and it was like good enough. I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm not unique in that. Um, maybe we all kind of go through that in our own ways um and in our own lives, but I can only speak from my own experience that how do you show up on those days? On the days when I well, the difficult days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

I mean, people are full of shit if they say that they don't have them. I mean it's just a flat-out truth. We all have them. And I consider myself to be a very strong individual mentally, emotionally, physically. I show up and I wouldn't be alive today if I didn't show up. And I've hit rock bottom. You know, I was telling, I was at a lunch yesterday telling a hilarious story. To me, it's comical about how integrity became a core value. It's a hundred percent derived off a really poor decision that I made when I was 17 years old and being held accountable to that.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

And what was spoken to me is hope you find some integrity when I was handed my last paycheck. And that that rattled me. Yeah. And it rattled me because it was true. And it sat with me, I'd say, for about four to five years. And then that's where that curiosity, but more that drive behind who you've maybe been in the past, doesn't have to define where you go and the impact that you make. And ultimately, exactly like your reality is a direct reflection of your choices, your reputation is too. Yeah. And at any point, you can flip that and you can switch that. And that doesn't whatsoever discredit what you are about to build and who you are about to impact and the validity and the authenticity behind how you've impacted them. And so when people sometimes I do feel like in the beginning, partners have a little bit of a wall-up, right? Because it's extremely vulnerable. They know that I'm seeing multiple numbers and multiple businesses, and they instantaneously believe that theirs is the worst. And so they start almost justifying how come I wouldn't want to come in, right? Almost justifying as to how come they know this is what they need, but maybe not yet. And I want to always remind them, trust me, it's bad and yours is not the worst. So we're fine. That's good. But two is we all go through it and I've gone through it. And just like you have your ebbs and flows in business and the health is up and down and it's never perfect, neither is your feelings, neither is your your approach to every day. For me, I know I I can't exactly remember how it went, but I remember hearing from a mentor several years ago that at the end of the day, don't ask yourself, um, are you a better version of yourself today than you were yesterday? Ask yourself, how am I going to show up tomorrow? Am I proud of how I showed up today? And it was just a really different perspective on instead of I'm not there yet, more how did I show up today and how do I want to show up tomorrow? And paralleling the two, and you've basically already answered what might be preface as a negative question. And so that's honestly one of the biggest reasons I won't entertain moving forward in the interview process with the partners if I feel that there is not a genuine transparent vulnerability of, oh yeah, I have awful days. Oh, I have really shitty days. And half the time I feel like throwing the towel. It's like, great, yeah, I'm glad because you're going to have a lot more of those days because we're going to have some hard conversations. Right. And we're going to have some hard decisions and some hard pivots. Are you going to show up? Because if you don't, I'll fire your ass.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Because I would not be where I am. And I'm not able to achieve what I can with partners if you don't show up. You don't have to show up in the best of moods. You don't have to show up as your best self, but show the fuck up. Yeah. If you don't show up, nothing's going to happen. If you sit there and hope that maybe today feels a little bit better, who the hell said you're guaranteed tomorrow? And I've never felt like I'll live a full life. I've always had this really strong intuition that I won't be here for maybe like this frame of time, 80, 90 years old, that most people will. And that's where my drive really comes from is I have no clue if today, you know, my wife and I were just talking at dinner last night, and her father passed away three days. He's a double purple heart, which is incredible. And he passed away exactly, I believe it was 42 or 43 years, three days from the second purple heart, basically, that he had earned. And it made me emotional. It rattled me because what if we knew that now? What if we had a massive paradigm shift, you or I, in the last month or the last week, and unbeknownst to us, that was marking 40 or 30 or 20 or 21 years from when we're going to pass away. And the way that we would show up and operate if we knew when our last day was, how come that's so riveting when we have the opportunity to show up like that every day, no matter what?

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

And so I want to know from you because you exude that drive, and that's something that's rare, honestly. And so I'd be damn proud of that if I were you because you definitely know when you're in your presence that you're focused, you're driven, and no one's stopping you. So continue that. Keep that up.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

What drives that though on those bad days, the hard days? I want to say first, really quick, just thank you so much for being like own honest and vulnerable and open about your own struggles. And it's just it's so much better when we can acknowledge our humanity and that we're not perfect and that it's not all sunshine and rainbows because it's just fake and it's not it's not helpful, you know? So anyway, just thank you so much for being like open and vulnerable because that's one of my um authenticity is one of my personal core values. And so I just love that we can be authentic and vulnerable. Absolutely. Um so for me on difficult days, to be honest, it might sound maybe silly, but exercising is really big for me, like essential. So I can't even tell you the amount of times, the amount of days where I've gone into a workout thinking my life is so hard. It is so overwhelming. I have no solutions for these problems. I don't even know what to do with these problems. I don't think I can solve them. And then after an hour workout or a 45-minute workout or whatever, I'm like, it's not that bad. I can figure this out. Like it's, you know, I feel like I have more ability to think about creative solutions and um yeah, just solve my own problems.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

I say you're purposely getting uncomfortable. Yes. I don't care who you are, how fit you are. Apparently, there was a study done on David Goggins that he hates to run. I just found that out recently. Okay. But it didn't surprise me because I don't care how fit you are. Again, just like business, we all have days that we sh show up and we don't want to show up, but we do anyway. Yep. And for me, you know, I on my last podcast, I'd said I'd say five to six days out of the week. I don't feel like running, but iron, yeah. It really boils down to are you purposely making yourself uncomfortable? Because business, especially if you're driving and you're focused and you're scaling, it's consistently uncomfortable. You're never in your comfort zone if you're doing something right. If you're doing it right, exactly. So if you're expecting to show up and you're expecting to scale and then you're rattled by discomfort, you're probably going to be a bit in motive. But if you decide, hey, I'm going to wake up, it's early, I'm a little bit tired, my eyes are heavy, I have a lot on my mind. Yep. Like you had said, I mean, that's business. And honestly, I I laugh, I smirt because it's like that's when you know you're growing, you know, and you're like, well, I said yes, and now I gotta figure it out. You know, throw my wings on the way down. Here we go.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Launching off the only way. It is if we wait till we feel perfectly prepared, we will never act. Right. And that's literally the secret. I would say the secret to like success is just taking action again and again and again, even when it gets boring, even when it's invalidating, even when it's not always fun, just persisting and just showing up consistently. Just get out of bed and literally get dressed and get ready and go do the thing. Like putting it off is not going to help. Um, it just makes things worse, honestly, in the long run. So just do the hardest things at the beginning of your day when you're the freshest, is how I try to do it. Um and exercise is non-negotiable because if I'm not feeling my best, like physically, um, then I can't mentally do what I need to do as a business.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

Yeah, I remember when a colleague told me if you think of Nike's slogan, what is it? I'm like, just do it. Yeah. Yeah. And she's like, right, what's the most important word in that? I'm like, do. And she laughed. And she's very successful. I really look up to her a lot.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

And she said, no, it's just just do it.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

And so it's actually row. I have a mirror in my gym. So I have my vision board on this side, I have the window, obviously, where all my workout equipment looks out. And then I have a mirror over my weights. And the bottom I wrote in large letters with a dry race marker, just do it. And the number of times, Sam, I've looked over at that when I'm running, and it might be just do it and finish your seven miles, even though your legs are burning off. Or it could flat out be just do it, just hire the next employee, just push forward with the new marketing campaign. Cause I'm I'm definitely like tease cross, eyes dotted when it comes to marketing because it just scares me. It's there's a lot that could go wrong, but there's a lot that you have to put in up front. And so it's really just ensuring that you know everything's scary. You gotta just measure it, benchmark it, and and then just shut up and stop being coward about it. But um, you know, I love also that you say exercise because I do feel a lot of people compliment when they see my physique, they're like, oh my gosh, you know, you must do this hours a day. And I always just say, no, the physique just follows. I I exercise for the mindset. Oh me, and I feel like that's exactly what you're saying. Yeah, is because especially when you have a team of 20, 30, 50, 100, it doesn't matter how you feel. You truly do need to be that example that shows up and and paves the way. Definitely don't be fake about it, right? Authenticity, uh-huh, hold strong to that, yet be a leader. And a leader has a really great way of showing up on their hardest days as the strongest leg in the room.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

And doing so with authenticity, where they aren't faking it and putting on a mask, but more or less, yeah, I'm having a shitty day, but I showed up and we're going to kick ass and let's do it. And so for me, exercise, I call it my track. And I always say, you know, find two or three things in the morning that no matter what is going on in your life, whether you have lost a pet or lost a parent or lost a business or lost a partnership, that you still wake up every morning and you follow those two or three steps. Because something I did last year is 20 push-ups a morning. Nice. It sounds so easy. That is not easy when you start realizing that, man, I honestly don't feel like it today, or I didn't get a lot of sleep, or I have a very full day. But there's such a massive shift that happens mentally when no, I'm I'm going to find time to do it and I'm going to do the full 20 and I'm simply going to get it done. Yep. And so the just do it is something that I feel like if you remind yourself of that, even on the hard days of no, just show up and just do it. Yeah. And even if maybe in your head you should wait to do it until you're in a better mindset, no, just drive toward it.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

And it's crazy, but on those days, sometimes are your strongest days because you do kind of have a little bit more of that savage mentality of you have something to prove to yourself.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Yeah, exactly. And you are, you're proving it to yourself every day when you do show up when you're not feeling like it. Hundred percent. I'm a person who keeps my word. Absolutely. I'm a person who's disciplined. I'm the person who gets stuff done. Absolutely. Absolutely. It needs to get done, regardless of how I feel. Absolutely. And that builds confidence better than like anything else.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

And transparency. Yeah, I always say that when you have integrity and you're an honest person, you never have to ask for respect. You instantaneously demand respect when you walk in a room because you exude the fact that you walk the walk. Yes. And you're never afraid of people bringing certain things up or certain comments up when you're around because you own every part of your life, every aspect of your life.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

Whatever it is. Absolutely. I'm going to keep trying and I'm going to keep learning and growing.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

And yeah. So moving into I would say the next two, three years, what are you driving toward? What are you excited for?

SPEAKER_03 39:42

Yes. Um, I am excited for growing sustainably. So we like I said, we've been able to grow our top line revenue a lot. Um, but you know, they say like revenue is for vanity and profit is for sanity. So this year specifically, this king. Yes, exactly. Which I know very well because I'm the finance person and it all lands on me. Yes. Yeah. But uh, yes. So this year we are really instead of trying to double our revenue again, um, we're trying to grow still, but we want to basically um optimize what we're currently doing so that, yes, because there's, you know, with that much growth in a short amount of time, there's always going to be, you know, growing pains and things that we're learning and improving and um, you know, changing based on what we're doing. So this year, I feel is a year of optimization. Love that. And it's been going great. And then after this, once we really can feel like, okay, we are solid, then we can then go for the next, you know, growth target. And also I'm we're we're planning to expand into other markets, other states. So I'm very excited for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

It's so huge. And yeah, it's all it's day by day, you know. I always say, never let the how kill the why. Oh, I love that. There's so many people that they know what they want to go after, yet then they start getting caught up in the, but how would we expand other states and how would we well? You're actually gonna figure that out. Yeah. Because if you look at yourself three years ago, you were asking yourself, how do I get past six figures? How do I get past seven figures? Right. And here we are. So exactly definitely really important to remember the how. But what would you tell business owners when I genuinely feel like most often I hear excuses and it really just comes down to lack of discipline? Being real and raw and blunt. What genuinely do you feel like business owners who want to grow to the capacity that you have in four years need to understand and be willing to accept and own in order to follow your footsteps and achieve what you have? That's a great question.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

Um I learned something from John Maxwell. Um, I'm a big reader, by the way. I love I want to read the book that you suggested earlier, but he talks about the law of the lid. So the leader of the organization that you're in is the lid on how much can be done, basically. So you are the lid in your own organization and your beliefs and the way you operate as a person. There's not gonna be people that are gonna be better than you, you know, in those ways because they'll just go work for someone else or go work for themselves, right? So you're kind of the lid in your organization. And so that's that means that you need to take care of yourself. I think that a lot of us we we think that we're making good sacrifices when we're neglecting our own health or our own um mental health or whatever. But I feel like going back to something you mentioned earlier, waking up early in the day, making time for yourself before people need you, um, before you need to just instantly start putting out fires and have carving out that time for yourself with you know, quiet, peace and quiet, thinking your own thoughts. Like don't get on your phone right away in the morning. Be able to journal.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

One of the best things that I ever did was not opening Facebook or Instagram when I woke up. Yeah. And then ultimately just deleting the amps from my phone. I've deleted it as well. Because when your iPhone sends you those reports of your screen time, I'm like, that better be emails or we're screwed, you know. If that's scroll time, we have some serious reflecting to do. But yeah, no, that's huge. I love that you touch on that because there's so much negativity out there. It's start your day with positivity. Yes, create it in a way.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

I love that. Yes. And so I think, yeah, I think just making sure that you're investing into yourself as a human being so that you can show up and be that leader that people need. Because, like you were saying, like once you have a team, it's like, okay, this train is moving, like it's gonna keep moving. People are providing for their families by working for our company. And we have Our duty to them and a responsibility to them. And so I need to make sure that I am the person that I need to be to be able to lead this company so that we can all win together. And it's it's my job as a leader to make my employees' success easy. So I need to be in a position where I can make that happen. Otherwise, I'm not a good leader. That's strong. Yeah. That's great. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Thanks. Yeah. Learn something new every day. So thank you for being my teacher today. Oh, thank you. I love that. Yeah. So John C. Maxwell's uh yeah, John, yep. He has a lot of leadership books. It's not Maxwell's very familiar. Yeah. A lot of leadership books. Okay. Yep. And so he's great. Um, there's a lot of people that I love to learn from. But yeah. If people want to get a hold of you, or whether it's about roofing or more from a mentorship perspective of how you have achieved what you have in this period of time and and basically learning more about those footsteps that they could follow, how could they get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_03 44:59

Yeah, they could totally reach out to me. So my personal Instagram is Sammy Z. So S-A-M-M-Y-Z-E-E. Um that's my personal Instagram. Um be patient with me because, like I said, I deleted the app. So um, but we also have Rio Roofing is our um business Instagram if they want to reach out that way. We also have Facebook. But yeah, I would welcome any and all kindred spirits that are just, you know, building a business because it can be lonely sometimes. So that's another thing we didn't talk about too much, but having people that you can confide in on those hard days too. And owning the business with my husband's been great because um we can we get it. Like we we're in it together and we can really help. You share the stress, yes, but you share the vision, exactly. Yes, and I wonder how people do it solo. That sounds really hard to me. But well, I'll have you back then and we can dive into that. Yeah, sounds great. Genuinely thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

Thank you so much. And for all of you listening, remember next year excuses and show up every day and get ready for the next one. Amen.