SPEAKER_01 0:17

Or you can go to the show notes for the link in the description.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

I love Joe. Oh my gosh, he's so funny. Joe from Bethesdawn care. Um, obviously that's a joke. The Beagles are not for donation or sale. We just always make a joke about getting rid of them, correct? See, baby.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

I mean, sale maybe, depending on what we can get from.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Pie is better.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

So, all right. So you're enjoying, it looks like a beautiful feta and spinach omelet. You made me one earlier. It was delicious, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I'm trying to get my protein in.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Gotta let big Big Maz in. Come on in.

unknown 0:57

Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Alright, so it's a beautiful, beautiful Sunday afternoon. Oh, it's not even afternoon yet, it's still the morning. Stink Bomb is asleep.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Guys, we had a momentous occasion yesterday. We went out for our anniversary and we had our first um night away from Zeke, which we have not had since he's been born. And he is nine, a little over nine months old now.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, stayed at Graham G's house.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

I didn't think he was gonna want to come home based on the pictures and videos we were getting. Yeah. He looked like he was just having a ball.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

It's a riot over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:35

That was a lot of fun to just enjoy time together, reflect on our anniversary, reflect on really just the craziness of the last year. That was really, really special.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yeah, as we like, you know, have talked about previously, it's so hard to like as a parent get time away from your kid because one, like, you know, you have an established routine, and especially when they're this little, it's very hard to like break that because you know, these are such formative years, but I think it was so needed. I think I literally got like 11 hours of sleep. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yeah, and so did he. Yeah. My dad said that, yep, he slept for 11 hours straight. Um, so you guys cannot say that he that you're sleep deprived or anything like that. But I mean, that's just Zeke. I mean, he's such a good sleeper now.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yeah, if there's anything we were blessed with with him, besides, you know, him in general, is that he really is a great sleeper. So as much as he's crazy active during the day, you know, can be fussy, I would much rather have that versus you know, a baby that's up three, four times in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Yep. All right, so what are we uh dialing in on today? What's your what's your topic? No, no, no, no. You you're the one who comes up when you come up with these great ideas, it just takes my thinking away and I just go into conversation mode. But you need me to come up with a topic?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, I feel like lately you've been coming up with some some decent stuff. I feel like you didn't like my uh idea last week about the um overrated, underrated.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

I loved it. That was fun. Um, okay, so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna talk about team culture and how that's a good one, how you how you work through different personalities and such and make it as cohesive as possible. And I think this is gonna be great because we're gonna come at this with your experience with team culture from corporate America, and then we can come up with m like my experience with team culture so far this year, and just have a little conversation about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

This is also really great to talk about because in the episode, maybe two episodes ago, when we were talking about what you would tell somebody who wants to like scale their business. I had asked you in that episode, like when I listened to it back, I realized that we had never approached this question. And this was one of the things that I asked you is like, how do you handle team culture? How do you handle a growing business while people are like asking for raises and stuff? So it's great that we're talking about it. Um, because I feel like it's very hard nowadays because you know, at least in corporate America, so many people are still working from home. Granted, they're calling a lot of their employees back to the office. Excuse me. Um, but for the most part, I mean, you still have a work culture of like being at home, being able to like care for children or would do whatever, versus like your business. Obviously, that's literally not an option.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

I mean, granted, during COVID, you couldn't even like work outside and so coming from corporate America, obviously being a manager, you have a lot of different personalities that you're working with. No, I'm full, I don't want any. Um, and but the cool thing is you have an HR department. So you have the resources at your disposal to really help you manage even better. Now, you've got your Troy Clogs, you've got your Sam Gembels at Atlas Outdoor. I mean, you've got some big companies in Michigan that are clearly going to have an HR department, right? You can't have hundreds of employees and not have an HR department. So when you have someone like myself, I'm I'm the leader, I'm HR, I'm payroll, I'm this, I'm that, you know. So obviously, I think too, we're getting to this point where, like, yes, you're gonna be doing a lot of the office administration type stuff, right? You might say, no, HR type BS and the guys having beef with each other. I'm not dealing with that. And that's totally fine. But for instance, this past week, I mean, we had two guys that were just ready to throw down, and that's that's gonna happen, right? We're we're men, we're we're products of our upbringing, we're products of our environment, we're a lot of men, yes, and and we got men that take a lot of fucking pride in what they do, and I think that's awesome. But there when it comes to the point of you know, physical altercations, one, I'm not gonna tolerate that, but two, and then to to Blake's point as well, um, you know, I think it's hilarious. Mozzie, chill out. I think it's hilarious. Blake was talking about how every Friday what they would do. Do you remember that on my Instagram story?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

So tree companies.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

So tree companies, roofers, hard men. Hard men. You piss somebody off, or somebody gets pissed at you, you're gonna hear about it. But if you had beef with someone at this tree company that Blake worked for, save it for Friday. Because then Friday morning, or maybe it was after work, I don't remember, but they'd throw on gloves and they'd go behind the shop where no one could see them, and you work it out. And Blake said every single time, they get the anger and frustration out. Clearly, there'd be a winner, right? They'd shake hands, and then there was no beef. Now, I see that side where it's like get it out. Yeah, I get it. But there's also the control aspect that I like as well, where you got to learn to regulate your emotions. And just because you're frustrated with someone or whatever, you know, I don't want you to think that, oh, I'll just I'll save this beef for Friday and then I'll get it out. I see both sides.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Or the alternative is that people wait until Friday and then maybe they're like, oh, I'm not really thinking about it too much anymore. See?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Yeah, that's so there's that positive too. Um, I see the pros and cons to both sides. Um, but to me, I don't think we're gonna be heading that direction, uh, getting a little octagon or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Um yeah, I would hope not.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

That would be hysterical though. Yeah, just see, all right, who's the scrapper? Yeah, yeah. Who's got it?

SPEAKER_00 8:27

But I think like with anything, like when we talk about my experience versus like your experience, like, yeah, your method may be different, but the end result is always the same. The end result is always for people to be able to talk about what issues they have with each other. Because in my industry, it's definitely more like women-based. So obviously, that comes with a different set of of challenges. Women are much more, oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna gossip about you know, behind people's backs, and I'm not gonna sit there and just like address it head on.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Um there's a lot of shit talk with men though, too.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

There is, but I feel like with women, they're much more not apt to just walk up to somebody and address the problem. They're much more like, I'm gonna talk about it to five other people. We're gonna create almost this like bully mentality. And then, you know, once the manager then gets word of it, then that's when things get addressed.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Versus kind of men, it'll be two guys talking shit about one person. And then eventually it gets figured out, and then that man who's talking shit will go up to the guy he's talking shit about, yeah. And just kind of address it head on. Now, I think if you do have a problem with someone, I think there's a very healthy way in which you can go about saying, Hey, I got a problem with this, this, and this. And then that person responds with, Well, I got a problem with this, this, and this. Okay, how can we come together as a team and work this out? Are you willing to change this and this? No, I'm not. Okay. Then the person might ask, Are you willing to change this, this, and that? No. Then we have a problem. Yeah, and so that's when I need to then step in and say, Okay, you want this and this, you want this and this. Both of you are not willing to adjust. So we need to compromise somewhere. Or we need to figure out, are you looking for a different place of employment? Yeah, because the whole the whole time, so we had a conversation with the whole team. I said, nobody's leaving. I got two estimates I'm doing. I'll be hopefully back to the yard by this time. Make yourself busy, make yourself useful, and find something productive to do for the company while until I get back. I could not change these two estimates that I had.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

And so then I got there and I said, Or would you want to change the estimates for this type of stuff? I mean, this is something that men should be able to work on amongst themselves.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

So, you know, I basically got there and said, look, we got clearly we have a little bit of beef between two individuals. We're gonna work through that, but now is the time. If you have any type of issue with anybody, we're all men here, let's get it out right now. Because I'm not playing this game of not talking about it. Who wants to take the floor? And there was a long pause, and then someone stepped up and said what they had their issue with, and it was getting a little heated, and so we just we calmed things back down. We listened, all of us. There was no interruption. And okay, so this is this person's concerns, and this these concerns are directed at this person. This person, would you like to speak? So they gave their two cents, they gave their opinion of the situation, and they said, you know, you do this great, you do this, great, you do this, great. I would like you to focus on this. Very fair way to do a conversation, right? Then the first person said, Okay, well, I'd like you to work on this. Great, perfect. And then I said, now what I'm going to do is talk to you guys about what I see out of the two of you. And this is not an attack on you. This is just stuff I have noticed as the team.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Constructive criticism.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

This is just as the team leader. I feel like such and such, you need to work on this, this, and this. You're doing this stuff amazing. Those three things I just told you, I think you really need to work on those because I think you're going to gain the respect of the team if you work on those three things. And such and such, you need to work on these three things. I think you're also going to gain a lot more respect from the team if you work on those three things. Does that seem completely unrealistic, the three things that I'm asking you? Because in my opinion, they are not. But I want to know from them.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Are you too proud to work on these things?

SPEAKER_02 12:50

That, but also, does this seem unrealistic? And they both agreed, no, it does not. And they both said, you know, you know, this is just embarrassing that we have to have a team meeting about this. Yeah. And I said, Yeah. I said, Can you imagine how embarrassed I am as your leader? Because I tried as the leader to create this cohesive and almost beautiful work environment. Clearly, I have failed. And I don't know if it's the messages that I've been communicating and such or whatever, but somewhere along the line, something got lost. And I said, look, I love having all of you guys here. But things all you have to take into account that there are so many different people that had all different upbringings. For instance, me, I'm very blessed. I had a great house growing up. My parents are divorced. I'm gonna have a different upbringing than Alex's parents. They've been together nearly 30 some years.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Well, and I think the bottom line is that you can't have people that are unable to work together. Correct. Sure, you may have a cooling off period where for two or three weeks they just don't work together because they both need to just digest, get over it, and come back to the table. But with how, you know, how tight of a crew you're running, I think that you have to be able to interchange people. Absolutely. It's just like the bottom line.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Like Friday was crazy, and people were shifted all over the place.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

If you cannot work together, then go find employment elsewhere. But you have got to get to a point, even as a man, where you're able to do the things that you don't want to do for the benefit of your family. Well, the benefit of your family is that you are working and you're making money.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

Yeah, but you're also benefiting the team. You you swallow your pride.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

As a man for your family, you should be able to just let it go.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Yeah. And what was I gonna tell you? You you struck a thought in my head.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

I was saying about how you have to be able to work together. Yeah, there may be a coalition.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Oh, so basically, I'm not gonna tolerate bullshit and stupid games and shit talk and all this. And if you are not willing, because I am not perfect and I strive to be every single day, but there are things that I need to work on in my personal life, my business life, leadership, you name it. I am always hungry to learn and be better. And if you are not willing to be better than you were in this situation, what a shame. Yeah, because everyone else here is is trying their best, and they're and they're even trying to improve even more. So I'm gonna give you a chance to try and improve. But if you refuse to improve, you're one, you're not gonna be here, but two, what's the point of working at a different company? Those personality traits, those things, they're going to follow you. So I'm giving you the opportunity, instead of firing your ass right now for almost starting a fist fight at the yard, we're gonna work on this because I believe in both.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Which by the way, the yard is a public place that I and when Jake and I were talking about all this stuff that was going on before he addressed this, I told him I said all of that aside, this is a public place. You could get kicked out of having your equipment and vehicles there if there is a physical altercation. So not only are they causing problems amongst themselves and amongst the whole thing. But they're representing a whole different company. And what kind of a company wants to have people that are having a fist fight in the parking lot?

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Yep. Exactly. It's just the point too. They said, you know, we were trying to handle this off the clock. Hey, that's cool. Um, you're still in a public space. Yep, you're still potentially wearing JLC shirts, you're potentially inside of the facility that JLC pays for.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

You are a you are, as far as I know, me.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Because you are as a I want you guys to understand this too. As a team, you are only as good as your worst employee or your worst subcontractor.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

You can have five amazing, amazing team members. And if you have one that messes up, that reflects poorly on the entire operation. So I said, so that also pisses me off.

SPEAKER_04 17:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

You guys want to go meet in a parking lot in Pontiac, Detroit? That's on you if you want to do that. But there's consequences. There's consequences to every decision you make. And I understand we are quote unquote grown ass men. Well, grown ass men think these things through. And I'm not saying any of you are being stupid or morons or anything, but you're not thinking of the ramifications.

SPEAKER_05 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

So with the one individual, and I'm not saying anyone started it, but with, in my opinion, the one who was more hot-headed during this, I said, Did we think about how this would impact the team today? And there really wasn't an answer. And I said, So clearly that was more of a selfish id ego thing going on. You have other people on your team, and let's just say it it came to blowing punches and all this kind of stuff. Cool, you might feel good 15 seconds after, but then what about this person or this? Like, then you lost trust in other people. Like, oh, if I mess up, this person might beat me up.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Well, and the work still has to continue. You have this beef with each other, but the work has to continue. For instance, I'll give you an example from corporate America. When I before I became assistant manager at my job, before I became manager, I was talking with some other employees about just the workplace culture, some things that I felt needed to change, and I just wasn't happy with. And so they knew that I was like thinking about leaving. And when I I ended up finding another job, and I told my company that I was gonna be leaving. And they in turn, because they didn't want me to leave, and this was kind of like I was upset about growth, I was upset about all of these things, they offered me a promotion to stay and a pay raise. So shockingly, these employees who I was talking to about how I wasn't happy with the culture, wasn't happy with the growth, they're like, wait, I thought you were leaving. So they got upset when I they found out that, oh no, I'm not leaving now. I'm actually being promoted. Because how do you affect change? You get promoted to a position where you can make a change.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yep. So get promoted after your concerns had not been addressed. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

So I'm gonna be promoted and I'm going to address them with my management team and figure out how to fix it. So these two women were not having it. They refused to accept me as assistant manager. And it came to a point to where they were so anti me being a part of the management team that they just refused to speak to me, refused to acknowledge that I was in management. So I got to a point where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna give them a cooling off period, a week or two. We'll just see if you know they can get over it. They did not. So my head of management, Maria, had to come to the office. How embarrassing for her, like it was embarrassing for you. She had to come to the office, have a pow-wow with me, my manager, and then the two girls who refused to acknowledge that I was part of the management team, and we had to talk it out. The talking it out was me saying, being the bigger person and saying, like, listen, I know that you know, we've had conversations about how the workplace culture is. This is how you affect change by becoming a part of the management team. Yes, I was gonna leave because I was unhappy, but if I can make a change here to where I am happy, why would I want to leave?

SPEAKER_02 21:17

And also that change wasn't just for Catherine.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

That the changes you had were not out of a selfish place. Correct. They were to better the entire team after being in the trenches with the team, experiencing this toxicity and this just high school drama. You're like, you know what? I'm bigger than this. I think I could actually, if I climb, I think I might be able to help the team.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Okay, cool. I'm glad I'm just I want to make sure that we're tracking for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

So we have this pal.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

I'm going over here. Would you like to come with me? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

So we have this Powell, and the end result is them saying. Saying that, you know, they'll they'll b basically play ball, but they're not happy about it.

SPEAKER_05 22:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

And I said, Okay, nobody's asking you to be happy about it, but like this is a workspace. We will continue to give the best customer service to our customers because that's what we do, and we don't let what's going on between us affect the job. And come to find out now, you know, three or four years later, these women were at my wedding. They were able to shockingly enough get over it and realize that what I was doing was for the betterment of the entire team.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

So I say all that to say that Can you mouth to me who the two people were that were a big problem? Ah, okay. Yeah. So all that to say is That's so interesting because I feel like they're so great now.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

I know. I know to see how things can change. Yes. And I say all that because, you know, your team members needed a cooling off period. Yeah. As did they. They will see the value in what you said eventually. Maybe not now, maybe not a week from now, maybe not two weeks from now, whatever. But they will see it eventually. Because they will be able to look back and realize, yeah, I had beef with this person, and I'm really gonna listen to what Jake had to say, and hopefully, um in maybe a couple weeks, couple months, whatever, we'll be able to work together and actually like function as a normal show.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

So, you know, I'm in the I'm texting the guys today. It's Sunday, it's before noon, and there is no pressure to respond to this group chat right now, but I'm just asking. So let me pull it up. But this is how cool this is, and I take zero accountability for this. That this is them, right? They are choosing to be the individuals and conduct themselves the way they want to. So I send a text. Uh, we're just having fun talking. Uh, Dom's telling me in the group, you know, what he's doing for his wife's car. You know, we had to they gave us these wrong parts, and then I got the new parts, but I got this fixed. And he said he's pretty excited about what he's doing to his yard this morning and stuff. Like, good for him. He's having a fun Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_05 24:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

And then I said, Heck yeah, dude, that's awesome. And then I said, Hey, are there any requests this week that I can try to accommodate? I believe Blaker and Alex have a funeral, sad emoji, that we know about already.

SPEAKER_05 24:30

Yep, tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yep. And so they're gonna need to get off a little bit earlier. No big deal. Please be there for your friend, please be there for your friend's family, please be there for the others that are impacted by that. Far more important than landscaping and lawn care. And I said, anybody need any breaks? Lawn to landscape crew, landscape crew to lawn care, right? I don't want anybody feeling burnt out. We've got, I don't know if you saw the weather, another hot.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah, it's supposed to be hot, yeah. Yep, not as bad, not as humid. Still hot.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

It's not it's not the heat, it's the humidity, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah, bad things.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Um, Dom said, I'm good, lol, as far as I know. So then, these two don't have beef together, but they've been having a lot of fun working together. Dom then texts Nico, Jim still tomorrow? They're gonna go get a workout in the morning before work.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

That's so cute.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

How freaking cool is that?

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Then who did I have a lift with last week? Eric.

SPEAKER_05 25:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

He's got a new gym membership to our gym, and he wants to train in the morning.

SPEAKER_05 25:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

That's freaking awesome. Yeah, I think that's so cool. Then Blake sends a picture, and it looks like he's got a badass stroller and I think a bicycle. And then he says, Ma fucking track day, boys. Bike packed, snacks packed, we ready. And I said, Let's go, boys. And then I don't think that Dom knew what a lift meant. So I said, Oh, like, are you going to the gym to get a lift in with Nico? And he Dom says, Got to lol. Get enough cardio. Don't, I think he meant to say don't get enough cardio at work. I miss my abs. Ooh. And it's like, okay, they're having fun.

SPEAKER_05 26:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Like, how cool is it that I'm not making this fun. I'm just putting the foundation in. It's up to them if they want to have fun or be boys outside of work. I hope they do. Yeah. I I sure hope so. But like, if it doesn't start at the top, or it doesn't start somewhere along the line with a crew leader or more of a leader in the pack, how is this going to work?

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Well, I think that the important thing that a lot of people don't realize, and what I try to reiterate, or what I used to try to reiterate to my team anytime there was an issue, is that you're spending 40 plus hours with these people a week. That's more time than you spend with your family on an average week.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

That's exactly what Eric and I were talking about. Yes. This work family, it's more of your family than you realize.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Yes. And so when you think about this beef and stuff, like, oh, you think it's just at work. No, think about how many hours you're spending with these people every week. So why wouldn't you want to have a great work environment because of how much time you're spending with these people?

SPEAKER_03 27:18

And then why would you want to take that beef home with you?

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Why would you want to be in more of a piss poor mood when you walk in the door?

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Yeah. Now, granted, I can have a really bad day. But and I'm not like I don't have bad days, but just like little things that are annoying.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yes, you know what I mean? Just a stressful day. But like it shuts off.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

I open that garage. One, I'm already so excited on the ride home to come see you and Zeke. But like as soon as I open that garage, close that garage, and I open the door to get in the house. It's it is the biggest head rush. It's as if I I've never snorted cocaine, but if I snorted cocaine, you guys are my cocaine. Well, that's sweet. You make me you guys make me so happy. And like some days, I can tell as soon as I walk in, you're like, Yeah, it was a day. Okay. I'm gonna hang out with Zeke. Um, we're gonna play in the playpen. I think you wanted to cook dinner. Do you want to just cook dinner? Yeah. Yeah, I would like to just get that started, and I do not want to be not necessarily bothered, but you want to focus on something that you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Yeah, actually like prioritize my time versus like having to go 50 minute things at one time.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

And then there's days where I come in, grab Zeke, hang out, and you're right next to me because you just want to like you don't want to stop playing.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Yeah, I don't want to miss a thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

And guess what? That's okay. Yeah, like whatever you need, that's what I'm there for. And we've talked about, I think we've talked on the podcast about like the 50-50. It's never 50-50. It's 90-10 some days, it's 80-20. Sometimes it's right doggone in the middle. But it's communication, it's communication at work, it's communication with your family, it's communication with your friends, and it's communication with God. Like you have to be talking. You cannot, and there's times where you need to, you know, I gotta bite my tongue here because I'm gonna say something that I can't take back.

SPEAKER_05 29:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

But if something is bothering you, whether it's me to my team or team members to team members, or even team with me. You need eventually you need to bring this up. Yeah, this needs to come to a head where you can communicate and you can feel safe about communicating it. Yeah, there should be no backlash. Sure, if somebody's calling you out or somebody's frustrated with you about something, human nature, we're gonna be defensive. There's no need to be defensive.

SPEAKER_05 29:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

You can take that in and go take as long as you need.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

But go, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 29:54

If I'm sitting in that person's shoes and I did this or I said that, I can understand where that frustration's coming from. You don't necessarily have to apologize.

SPEAKER_05 30:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

An apology would be great. But you know what? Hey, I'm sorry that I said that. You know what? That that was that was a little bit on the dick side. I'm really sorry about that.

SPEAKER_05 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

And then you want you want to incorporate even better culture. How would you like how do you respond better to criticism? So then if Nico, I'm just making up a scenario. Let's say Nico is told by Dom, because they work, they've been working together a lot and they've been having so much fun. But let's say Dom is giving instruction and this upset Nico, how it was delivered. Nico can then bring it to Dom's attention. Hey man, the way you said this, like, just kind of didn't sit well with me. Oh, I'm I'm so sorry. I that's just, you know what? That's sometimes how I talk.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Um Nico, how would you have rather me told you about this?

SPEAKER_05 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

And then Nico could say, well, you know, maybe you could have said it this way. Then Dom should be going, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Absolutely. You're right. I can do that.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

I can do that to help you learn.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

No problem at all.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

I think it's you know, you can even translate it into your personal relationships because, like, we had an argument this past week, and we were talking about it, and I said, When you say things like this, it makes me go immediately into defense mode. And then I explained to you, here's what you could have said to make me be like, Oh yeah, like you're right, I should have done this. So I think, like you're saying, like it's all about communication, and you can't expect somebody to just know how you like to receive things. Like, that's just human nature. Like, you are a much more I want to talk about things immediately. I am not. I want to simmer on things for a little bit before we come to the table and have a talk with them.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Yeah, you kind of want to maybe potentially plot my death first and how you're gonna kill me. Yeah, and then go through, well, you know, the poison, they might be able to detect that. Okay. Yeah, no, I can't do that. Could I push him off the roof?

SPEAKER_03 32:05

That I mean, he does do a lot of stuff around the house. That could look like an accident.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

What I say, why I say that is because then the next day I had been thinking about it all night into the next morning, and I thought to myself, you know what? Like, I think he is right. I don't necessarily agree with everything that he's saying, but I do acknowledge that his feelings are valid too, as are mine. And so I think I texted you the next day and was like, you know, I'm sorry that you had a stressful warning because of something that I did, and like that was the end of it. But I think it's so important to, I mean, you know, you wouldn't necessarily think that three years into our relationship, you would still need to reiterate it, but things change. People change. You know, after pregnancy, I feel like I've become a different person. So I feel like the way that I receive things and and do things is a little bit different than how I would before we had Zeke. So I think I've become a lot more sensitive now than I was prior.

SPEAKER_05 33:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

And so all that to say, communication is so important, whether it's in relationships, whether it's in your workplace, that just communicate how something has made you feel. Like when I was managing, there were times when I would have a conversation or I would send out a blanket email right to the team, something that you have to um that you have to let everybody know, either a process is changing or whatever. And there would be some people that would email me back and would say, Were you trying to like call me out in that email? And I'm like, Oh my God, absolutely not. I'm trying to express to the whole team a certain process that needs to change. I'm not calling anybody out. If that's how you were doing it and you felt like, you know, I was calling you out, then maybe you are a culprit of something that does need to change and I can help you get there. But it doesn't take away anything from what I'm saying because they do need to change. Here's how we're gonna change it. And you acknowledging that you felt maybe that I was speaking directly to you, maybe is your way of saying this might be something that I need to change to accommodate what the whole team needs.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

That's what it's about.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Yeah. So I was pulling up a text, and you know, I'm going in on Tuesday in the morning with this, you know, stress of I want to get these estimates done as quick as possible. And I want to get the team back together and get it right, right? So I get a text from Alex at Avexia, huge Christian dude. Him and his wife own that wellness spa. And they opened a second location. So he always sends me a devotional, like almost every morning.

SPEAKER_05 34:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

So I see his devotional come in as I'm heading to the first estimate, and I'm like, you know what? I always try to hard it as quick as I can because I let him know I received it. Looking for, and I want to read this when I have time.

SPEAKER_05 35:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Because I want to I want to give a hundred percent of my attention to this devotional. And I said, you know what? As I'm driving, I go, I bet you this is spot on with what I'm dealing with. That's how it always is. You haven't been to church in a while. The message is it hits you in the field. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

So, you know, I guess I feel like even you have that with almost like podcasts too, or like a random one, or even like the motivational speeches that you listen to. Sometimes you're like, oh my god, this is so applicable to literally what I'm dealing with right now. And that's the Holy Spirit talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

It's a hundred percent the Holy Spirit, and there's no coincidences, this doesn't just happen.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Nope.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

So I actually I even read this to the guys. Now, my whole team knows that my faith is extremely important to me. Many of them have faith, many of them have recently come to faith, and there's a couple that don't have faith, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not going to force my faith on you. No, but I told them I said, This is such a great biblical devotional, but this is also such a secular devotional. So this is called boundaries have a purpose. Exercising self-control, self-discipline, and establishing boundaries and borders in our life are some of the most important things we can do. A life that has no discipline is one that's filled with carelessness. The word of God establishes the necessary boundaries to keep us in God's safety zone. It tells us what we can do and what we better not do to be safe. As Christians, we can think it's kind of exciting to live a life on the edge. We like the image of, yeah, that's me living on the edge. It's become a popular way of looking at life. But to be honest, God doesn't want us living on the edge because if we're living on the edge, then we have no margin for error. Highways have lines, one on each side and one in the center. Oh, we got a little receipt from Daydreamers. Looks like she's uh running billing early. Good for her. She normally does it Monday mornings. That's funny. Um okay, so highways have lines, one on each side and one in the center. These lines provide margins for our safety while driving. If we go over the line on one side, we'll go into the ditch. If we cross over the line in the middle, we could get killed. We like those lines because they help keep us safe. It's like that in our personal lives too. When we have boundaries, borders, and margins, we feel much better and experience God's peace. The key is to go to God's Word, where He has laid out all the boundaries we need to live by. Let God direct your path every day. And then the prayer starter says, God, I recognize the need for boundaries in my life, and as I read your word, show me how to apply your healthy boundaries in my life today. Okay, for some reason that stopped, and I'm gonna have to figure out how to mix these two. Um, but it's like absolutely everything in our life. If you don't have boundaries, if you don't have difficult conversations, if you don't have control of yourself, you're you're you're you're you're reckless.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Well, it's even like you know, even in your personal relationship, even family relationships, like we've had to set boundaries with people, you know, recently since we've had Zeke of like, hey, this is what works best for us. I totally understand if it doesn't work for you, but this is a boundary that we have set in place. And if you can't acknowledge that like we have this boundary and respect it as new parents who are just trying to figure it out as most new parents are, then maybe for now we just give each other a little space. And I think that you know, that's that's okay. You don't need to let everybody have immediate access to your life. You know, if you want to keep certain things close to the chest, that's great. You know, you don't need to go out and like literally share everything that you're feeling the same way that you're talking about in your workplace. You don't need to share every single feeling that you have about each individual person on your team. There is power in knowing stuff's going on, but like I I don't need to I don't need to say it. You know, I think a lot of um things that you have in corporate America, you have to keep certain things, certain changes that are coming close to the chest. It was very hard for me, for instance, when we were constantly laying people off two or three years ago.

SPEAKER_05 39:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

And I knew that it was coming. I knew that I was gonna have to pick between my team. And how do you pick between such a close team of five people of how you're going to let someone go? You have to mentally prepare for it. You have to be able to, when this person that you know you're gonna let go makes a mistake to not make them feel like, yeah, this is the end, even though you know this is the end. It's very hard to create boundaries and to be able to stay quiet about some things, but you just have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

You have to sometimes. You have to.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:17

Yeah. There's a lot of um power and control and silence. There's this guy that I've listened to talk before. And when you're having whether it's a great conversation or a difficult conversation with someone, there is so much power and silence. So someone is telling you, you know, what's frustrating them. You don't need to respond right away. Let them finish their sentence, pause, collect your thoughts, and then proceed. You're you're gonna have such a more intelligent and controlled conversation in that way. And it's so true. I mean, you you can get fired up or you can be fired up because you're happy too.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

You're having such a great conversation, and you can get so lost in the weeds by just, well, I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to, you know, oh, oh my gosh, and then because you're not gonna complete the thought. Yeah, you're not, you're gonna miss something. And you owe it to that person to one, let them finish your their statement or finish their thought because maybe they're telling you something, and it could be a total game changer for the way in which you think or the way you conduct yourself or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 41:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

So and Alex, especially, he does a great job of that. Whenever you're conversing with Alex, he is I mean, there's silence sometimes for eight seconds because I can tell he's collecting his thoughts. And I that's one of the things I admire the heck out of because he wants you to finish your thoughts and then he's like, Okay, how am I gonna respond to this?

SPEAKER_05 41:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

And then he continues. It's such a cool way to converse with people. What's going on?

SPEAKER_00 42:07

I'm just checking on uh on Zeke. He's still sleeping. Um, no, I totally agree. I think that you know, when you are able, and I am guilty of this because I'm a serial interrupter, right? Like ever since we had Zeke and I started having pregnancy brain, I feel like I have to just like get out my thought before I forget about it.

SPEAKER_05 42:27

Before you lose it.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

Yeah. And I still have it probably a little bit, but I feel like I've gotten a lot better in the past like month or so. Where I, you know, I'm one of those people that like, oh my god, I have to get my thought out right away. But like Jake was saying, there's power in being silent. So, like, let, you know, say what you're gonna say, you know, let me think about it, and then I'll respond. You know, like Jake asked me today when we were in the car. Um, today is our actual one-year anniversary. We celebrated yesterday, but it is today. And um we were talking, and he goes, I had gotten a text from one of my coworkers who was at our wedding. I love this person very dearly. And he asked me, he said, Are you a person who is gonna respond right away to that nice text? Or are you going to respond later? And it got me thinking, and I was like, No, like I'm the type of person that I'll read it, I'll acknowledge it, I'll digest it. And then just as much as they created a thoughtful message for me, I'm going to then take a little bit of time to think about it and create a thoughtful message back. And I said, What kind of person are you? And he goes, Oh, I'm gonna respond right away because they're probably still on their phone, they're probably, you know, have just sent it so like I can, you know, respond and acknowledge that like I've seen it and just say what I want to say. Neither approach is wrong, neither approach is wrong, both are great, and I think that. That kind of highlights the difference between like the two of us, but it's just a little bit flip-flopped when we're talking amongst each other. You're the type of person that you're gonna respond right away to what I'm saying. I'm the type of person to where okay, I'm gonna think about it, I'm gonna digest it, and then I'm gonna respond.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

You'll you also like to think about it, digest it, and interrupt while the conversation is still going on, though.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

Sometimes, yeah.

unknown 44:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

I like a little smirky head.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Sometimes, yeah. Yeah. You just you like to throw that in there, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 44:31

Well, you said that you're a serial interrupter. Yes. I'm not saying anything you didn't say.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

I'm not throwing any bus over you or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Um, I mean, that's kind of all I have.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

So to end, I would like you to um talk about the story that you told me about, Andy Elliott.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Oh, that was cute.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

Because I think like what we were talking about earlier when it's in reference to nothing is by coincidence. I think this is like a great tie-in of like when you feel led to do something, when you feel led to have a conversation with somebody, do it because you don't know what's happening on the other side of somebody's life. And a conversation that you might feel is so minute, or something that you do might might be so minute, really could like mean a lot to somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

So I was just scrolling through the gram and came across Andy Elliott, and I love some of his content. And he was with his daughter, and they were going to get slushies where they normally go to get slushies, him and his 10-year-old daughter. And so they're driving, they're on the way, and the 10-year-old daughter says, Daddy, turn around. I want to go somewhere else instead of our normal slushy place. And you know, he's shocked. What 10-year-old wants to break their routine? And so he says, I whip the car around, and we stopped.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

The 10-year-old daughter, of course, he's gonna whip the car around.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

And he says, We stopped at like kind of this little what's the word? Like a family-owned, not but like when it's just on the side of the road, like a little pop-up. That's what's that's what we'll call it, a pop-up.

SPEAKER_05 46:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

And he said, There was this little like pop-up thing, and my daughter went and got like this cute little slushie or whatever. And I said, Honey, why did you want to stop here? I thought we were going to such and such place, like that's our spot. And she said, You know, daddy, we drove by and something just told me we needed to stop. And he said, Did do you like your slushie? And do you feel like those are good people? And she said, Oh, yeah, they're really nice, Dad. And he says, Okay.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

Well, one, I'm proud of you because you you listened to your to to your inner inner thoughts. That's the Holy Spirit, honey.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

There was a reason why we should have stopped, and we did. Yeah. So I want you to go give them a thousand dollars. And she said, What? And he said, Yeah, go give them a thousand dollars. And so she got out of the car and gave them the money, and the whole family just broke down.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

He said it was very evident that they were going through a very hard time. And something, whether it was the Holy Spirit or God Himself, told my daughter, that's where we needed to stop. And he said, So we stopped and then we left.

SPEAKER_05 47:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

And he said it was just it was so cool that my ten-year-old was able to experience something like that for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

Yeah. So and something that like may have seemed so minute to him, a thousand dollars to Andy Elliott is nothing, you know. And something that may have seemed so minute to him probably made these people be able to like put food on their table that day.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Yeah. And it brought me or pay for that car that you know is their transportation for whatever their business is. Maybe they had a repair bill that they were like, where are we gonna get the money? And all of a sudden it's paid for or it's half paid for. Yeah. Like, how cool.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That brought me back to a conversation that I had with your stepmom earlier today, just about how, you know, God always provides. And, you know, when your dad was going through his divorce, he went from making a lot of money to not necessarily making a ton of money or what most people would consider a ton of money. But anytime they needed it, like God provided, the money was there. Whether it was through a bonus, whether it was through something that they were doing, the money was there.

SPEAKER_05 48:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

And I think that, like you said, there's no coincidences in life. You know, there is an intelligent design out there that is creating your life and your path for you. And if there's anything that I think you could take away from this episode, it's just that nothing happens by chance. You're in whatever position you're in for a reason, whether it's workplace, personal, whatever. And when we talk about workplace culture and we talk about how Jake had to have this uncomfortable conversation, those guys are there listening to that conversation for a reason. Whether it's to grow them, to move on to their next adventure and in work and wherever they would decide to work next, or whether it's to stay with JLC, the point of that conversation and where they are at currently at that time is to be able to help them grow into the person that God wants them to be via that conversation that you had with them. And like what a cool way to think about it versus thinking about it like, man, my boss had to have this embarrassing conversation with me. Like, no, this is gonna help you grow. Anytime that you have a constructive criticism, conversation, whatever, it's meant to help you grow. If I didn't have the conversation with you, then that means I don't care enough about you as an employee to have it. But I care about you enough to want to see you grow and be better. Yeah. And that's the avenue that it happens in.

SPEAKER_03 50:01

100%. All right, C baby. I think this was a fun one. This was a I feel like this was a hard hitter for the the duration. It's not the longest one we've done, but like this, I feel like this was a really good one.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

Mm-hmm. You came up with that, so good job.

SPEAKER_03 50:16

No, I mean we did it together. So all right. We'll see you on the next one, gang. Ciao. My wife. What do you got? What do you got? Anything?

SPEAKER_05 50:27

Bye.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

See ya, y'all.