My First W2 Employee!

Expanding can definitely be nerve wracking! Listen in as I face the fact that in order to grow where I've been manifesting for years, I can't be a one man admin team any longer.

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Welcome to the King Me Collective Podcast. I am Dylan King, and I can't thank you enough for listening to what I have to say. This is the space that I get to ramble about all of my project lessons and even my entrepreneurial ADHD ideas. My hope is to inspire you with confidence that you take action towards your goals and let's normalize learning on the go in your designated field. Time waits for no one, and the best time to start was yesterday. So let's go. Alright, so it is a new week, and I feel actually like a lot happened last week. Um, things that were building up, but nonetheless, I feel like a lot of things are coming into fruition. Uh definitely gave me some moments of anxiety and self-doubt, excitement, being proud. So let's just go through exactly what I'm talking about. Uh, I think a lot of entrepreneurs probably feel this, especially when we are so accustomed to being like sole proprietor. Uh I know my company is a partnership with my wife, but I guess what I mean by sole proprietor is like if you're essentially the one running it, not talking about the paperwork um type of stuff, talking about day-to-day task things to do, all the stuff that just has to get done, and things that could be delegated, but you know, when you start off on your own, like you start off on your own, which like this is where I started. Uh so we're getting to the point that I've been manifesting, and so that's where the excitement comes in. But yeah, let's go over a little bit of the detail. So if you tune into the first episode, last episode, I'm a general contractor here in Louisiana. I've done a flip, I aspire to do you know continuous flips, hopefully get to a point where I'm doing multiple flips a year, and then also on top of that, I do aspire to even have rentals and become a landlord and create that generational uh wealth with real estate. So that this is you know where I'm at now in my career. This is the path that I've wanted to be on. I've really always wanted to be involved in real estate somehow. And I think at the time I knew so little actually about the industry that I thought the only way in was like real estate agent. So when I figured that I don't didn't think that real estate agent was my path, I thought I was out. Uh 22, got my GC license. This is where I am now. We've done new builds, I made countless customer renovations. Like I said, one flip. I'm under contract for my second flip. So what's going on or what has happened this past week is over the last year, and we've been busy, consistently busy, and I'm super grateful for that. We've had like a week and a half where we weren't physically working, but like the job was booked. They just like it was holiday season, so we were waiting till after the holidays to start a new job, and we had finished another job right before the holidays. Um, so not that we didn't have the booking, we just, you know, by customer request held off through the holiday. So we've never, you know, have lack of work, and I've been gr super beyond grateful for that. Not just for me, but even for at that time, it was like one carpentry crew that I was working with. Uh, and as I said also in my last episode, I'm on to having my secondary crew, which was part-time. We're on full-time with them now. He uh started a job for me beginning of last week, took him a solid week. We've got another job lined up this week, probably gonna take him a solid week, and then we have a long-term job that's gonna start for him on on Monday on this coming Monday. So I record these on Mondays, release them on Wednesday, so it's Monday right now. He's starting the second one today, the long-term one starts a week from today. So what's really going on is the past year, while we've been busy, of course. You know, I give out estimates, I probably send out five to ten estimates a month, which I feel like is really great for the size that my company is, right? It's me, I have one worker in his crew. Now I have my other guy and his crew. Um, we have my work truck, and then we also have a work van. And this has been what we can handle, and for years, for years, I've really thought of the success that I want and the name that I want, and um you know where I want this career to lead. I don't want to be in the everyday dailies forever. It can't grow like that. I can't be everywhere at once. Last week was difficult, it was a perfect example, which will lead me to how I'm helping myself grow. We had a job in Gentili, New Orleans, and in Garryville, Louisiana. So pretty much an hour apart, and I'm somewhere in the middle of those two locations. Not a big deal if I have to drive to one, just check on things, drive to another and check on things. But right now, I am not only just checking on things, making sure customers are happy, making sure the workers, you know, are up to speed on any change order type stuff, but I'm also the material runner. So if you think that I have to go near one location to a hardware store, load the truck, bring it to them, unload the truck, go to the other job, check on them, see what they need, get to the hardware store. You know, that is my full day. That's my full day gone, pretty much, right? Because I'm over here for two or so hours situating their materials and going to the other location, same thing with that hour drive in between. One day I did drive to and from each job. I went to both locations twice. So um, I was like, man, if I am gonna take multiple jobs, maybe they should be a little bit closer. But it's hard because I have connections in both areas. I live closer to New Orleans, but I have family that works in plumbing supply near Garryville, so you know they're gonna refer us. It's really hard to, and my my crews were willing to work within an hour radius of where I am. So if it's an hour radius of where I am, where like I said, I'm centrally located, then like though both of those locations are just fine. Um, so anyway, that was one thing going on last week where I was like, man, I could really use the help. Um, and we we gave out estimates last year. We had one job, they thought they were going to move because of the husband's work, so they held off, and we had another job that was ready to go, and then their plans were done incorrectly by their architect. So they spent, I think it was about two weeks. We literally pretty much thought we had the permits, we had sent in the stamp plans and everything. The um city looked at it, and something on their plans was against code per the architect. So we had them send it back to their architect, and I think it was like, man, I think it was like two weeks, maybe three weeks. They couldn't hear any, they didn't hear anything back from their architect. And they're like, look, because I had told them, I was like, I have a referral, my guy's great. I I've used him for all of my new builds, I've used him for renovation plans, everything. He's timely. If he's you know, if he's coming into a bump with something, like he can at least communicates with you and lets you know what's going on. You're not sitting there in the dark being like, am I waiting for nothing? You know. Um, so lo and behold, they're like, Dylan, we haven't heard from our person. Can you just go ahead and forward everything over to your guy and we'll work with him? So I did that, connected them, got the email over the weekend that he'll be wrapping up and sending preliminaries today or tomorrow, which means after that should only take a few days, as long as they say everything's good, which we've already seen preliminary. It looks like exactly what they want. The changes that the parish needs have been made. So now it really should be once they get the finalized plans, they approve it with the architect, send it to the engineer, and hopefully we'll be able to have that permit in hand before next week, if not the end of next week. So we should be right, and I mean, as soon as we have a permit, we could break ground on what we're doing. So we have that job, we have the job that was on hold because um the husband was moving, but he got contracted to stay here for a few more years. So we're going ahead with them. They're just making a few changes to what they wanted, which is fine. So I'm updating their their estimate. Once I get all those changes in the estimate, we'll go through signing, apply for permits, all that stuff. That's one that is not large enough that's going to need official stamp plans, but will need um you know, renovation permit with electrical plumbing, uh, gas and an HVAC in that. So everything, but we won't need engineer stamp plans. Um, then the other job that we have is actually for a plumbing supply warehouse. It's going to be their sales room and their showroom. So both buildings are about 1100, 1100 square feet, I believe. One might be closer to 900, but either way, we're like gutting it out. Like the I don't know if these warehouse situation or the sales room, showroom of this location has been changed since they originally got the building, which was, I believe, over 30 years ago. So, you know, we've got some mold in places, we've got really old carpet all along everything. Uh things that were white are no longer white. I mean, just think of like walking into like an old an old-ass hardware store, like that's what it is. And the new manager, um, and the sales rep that have been working there for years. The the manager just got promoted to manager position, and yeah, they're really excited to just kind of put a new face and kind of have like a grand reopening. So I'm really excited for them. Um we're we're just going in and knocking that one out. It's really just cosmetic. We're just really doing sheetrock, floors, counters, slat walls for them to put some some product displays, things like that, uh, and freshening everything up for them. I'm super, super excited. Um, the manager, it look, it's actually my sister-in-law's store. Um, so I know that they've been really wanting this. I know that they've been really wanting this renovation, right? Because in order to compete with other stores around them, like they have to have an extra showroom. I don't think people even know like they sell to the public as well as like the supplies that plumbers need. Like, you can go buy your faucets and your fixtures over there. So Southern Pipes Supply and Laplace, that's them. My sister-in-law Stephanie, sounds weird, we don't ever call her that, we call it Sesta, but works over there, so we're really excited about that. So we have the warehouse and the sales room. That one's gonna be in Laplace. We have uh the bathroom edition that's in Algiers Point, and then we have the the hallway edition, and they've added a full bathroom, their master suite bathroom renovation, and they've added relocating their kitchen upper room towards the front of their house. So that job was already a decent job, got bigger. So we're not only just waiting on the plans, but we're finalizing change orders for that. And um also my flip. You know, I should close on my flip if not by the end of August. I would say by the middle of September, it's a wholesale property. We have to do succession, deal with a lot of liens, um, tax liens, and like code enforcement fines, stuff like that. So I'm gonna do a whole episode on that property, maybe more than one episode on that property because it's gonna be quite the project. But anyway, that's four big jobs we've got going on. And really the key is to stagger them. Um, because I have one dumpster, and like I said, we're growing, and I'm accepting that we're growing, and I'm excited we're growing because like this is exactly what I wanted. But doesn't mean it doesn't make you nervous. But I'm sure everyone's heard by now. If it doesn't make you nervous, then that means you don't care. And it does make me nervous because I genuinely care about multiple facets of it. I care that the work is quality, I care that we can do it timely, I care that we stay on budget, um, I care that the customer is happy, um, and that we can get it all done. Like I we can stagger it to where the tiers of things that need to happen at these jobs, like one doesn't hold up the other. And you know, having adequate crews, which we've been working on because we knew all this is piling up, right? Like I said, we know my flip is coming, so we're making sure we have hands on deck. We knew that we were waiting just on plans. It's one thing to get the permit for the addition, so we're making sure we have the hands for that. Um, we knew that my sister-in-law's job with the warehouse was coming, so we're making sure that that team was ready to be full-time and that they had plenty of help. So we've been getting ready, and you know, I think especially with the last two jobs being far apart from each other, like an hour away, and me feeling like how do I have the time? And you gotta think on top, I'm working with Homebar Louisiana, so I'm running last week. I ran to Roseland, which was a little over an hour away, to go do an inspection. And um, you know, that that being part of that team is great, and I love it, and I'm learning, and I also feel like I am adding value because I'm making sure the inspections are as well as I can do them, that I'm offering, you know, the most professional eyes that I can on properties. Um, so you know, I have that stuff going on as well as my own construction. Um so it's like, where do I, where am I gonna find all the time, right? Like I was going back and forth between the two. You know, we had the two, and we had one smaller job that was closing up. Um, and it really started making me realize, like, okay, you want to grow into this bigger company. You've thought about it, you've, you know, done the visualizations, manifesting, meditating. Um, you've worked towards it, saying those affirmations that you know you're gonna be reputable GC in your local area, and you know, reputable, respected real estate investor in your local area. All these things were like, look, it's here, right? What's on my lap is my own flip, and what's going on with the company is three large jobs. So what can I do? Well, a few months ago, I had actually hired some help. I had actually hired a friend who was working offshore, and when they were home, they were just home for weeks at a time, which they got like pay, but like almost just like a per diem pay, not like they're like big pay, unless they were like out um actually on physically the job. So it was great because when I needed material ran, she would run the material and it was extra money for, and when I didn't need help, it saved me the money, and she was like, Cool, I just like take this week entirely off, type of thing. So that was like a good little deal. Well, then they moved her to a like nine to five office job. So then her obviously her availability was no longer in connect, you know, going to work with my schedule when I needed the help. So I was like, no big deal, I'm just gonna take it back over. Like it's been me, like whatever. And now with these four jobs coming up, um, and even we had two investors hit us up. One investor I've seen at a lot of local meetups, he's doing great. Really uh like real big interest in doubles is kind of like where I see like most of his trajectory going and mostly of what he talks about. So he's got a double that's pretty much gutted on one side that will again need permits, it needs a full electrical rewire. I mean, it doesn't have walls, it doesn't have insulation, it doesn't have it, it needs new subfloor in a lot of areas and cosmetically like it needs everything, it's pretty much gutted on one side. Um and then we have another job. Um a young investor, she called me last week. We met up actually at a this is awesome. We actually met because I was showing a wholesale property to her for Homebuyer, Louisiana. She ended up not being interested in that property, but she learned that I was a GC. She found our Instagram page, which is King Me Collective, um, King Me underscore collective on Instagram. If you want to see a lot of our work, most of our work is there when Google we'd be DM uh King General Contractor. But she did a little research and she ended up calling me, she's like, I love your style. Uh, she's actually like an interior designer, I think is where she started. And um, she's like, I love your style. She's like, I really want to work with you, and I think it's really cool. She wants to do a pad split situation here in New Orleans, which I think is so needed for affordable housing to make good quality housing where people can have their own space, be in a pad split, but like it not be a slum lord situation. So I'm really pumped. I'm supposed to meet up with her sometime this week uh at a location and kind of give her my two cents of if I think it's it's a strong, strong deal. Um, anyway, so when my friend couldn't help me do the material running anymore, I went back to on my own. Now I'm facing these four jobs, probably possibly, you know, the two other jobs coming up. And I was like, how can I make this work? Why am I so nervous? Maybe I should tell one of them, like, I can't do it. Um, you know, kind of going down that of like this is too much for you. And I was like, Yeah, it's too much for me as one person, but it's time. Like, if I want to grow where I want to grow, it cannot just be me doing the admin, doing the material run-ins, doing the estimates. So I've hired my first actual W-2 employee. My friend was just a 1099, she was like just gonna be like as contracted, and that was because that was because of her availability, like it wasn't super solid. But this is actually um my secondary crew, my main guy, DeLeon. It is actually his son. He's 19, he just got out of high school, doesn't want to go to college, he's been on the jobs with them, just learning carpentry with with him, which has been great. But he he I don't know, I guess I just have this con I like feel like he's young and he's at the job sites already. Uh, he pretty much know I've known him for years, like I've known him since he was like a kid. De Leon was the guy who poured the slab for my house in 2021. And then when I started in 22, De Leon just became like my solid like um side gig and and my only concrete guy. So I've seen him, you know, for the past like three probably, I guess, since he was like 16, 45 or 16 or so. So he's a good kid, you know, he's got great manners, and I think because of where we're at, I feel like I can shape him into this is what I expect of my company. And his dad, De Leon, is actually very excited. Um, because the thing is, is like as long as they show up and they stay the full day and they give me good work, you know. I don't even care if they they work on Saturdays. A lot of times if they want to finish a job quicker, like they'll they'll show up on Saturdays, but I'm okay if they take the weekend, or you know, when De Leon has an event at school for his younger son, like I don't care if he goes, so I think that's why they want to work with me. A lot of the other jobs obviously require like the very standard days and require X amount of Saturdays, if not all Saturdays. And I'm just like, if the job's moving on par with like our set schedule, then like take Saturday off, like have that time for your family because I've been the worker that works on Saturdays and maybe a little bit of paperwork on Sunday, and you know, I don't want that for me, but I also know like I'm the entrepreneur and like that's my sacrifice that like if I can get everything I need done Monday through Friday, then that's absolutely great, and then if I can't, then like if not the things I can move to next week, but the things that like need to be done before Monday shows up, like need to be done, then like it needs to be done, you know, and it's my company, it's my responsibility, and that's say the burden, but the blessing that I've put onto myself because look at what what's happening now. So he's actually riding along with me today. His name's Christopher, he's riding along with me today. Things that I'm gonna be training him on is definitely customer service. I've been in customer service, I did hair for years, um I did hair for years, that was totally clientele based, right? Went into the gym space, owned a gym that was a hundred percent membership based customer service, and now here with the construction jobs it's so much customer service, so much face facing with with the customer. Taking a request, hearing complaints, addressing complaints, things like that. So definitely gonna be coaching him on customer service, you know, not agreeing to something with a customer on my behalf, not apologizing for something on my behalf because their complaint could really be because of something that they request and they just change their mind on. So I don't want anyone to be overzealous and say, like, apologize and agree to like change it or make it right on my behalf. Like, um, so really just teaching him how to connect and relay messages from me to the customers on times that I can't be on site, and I need him to be, you know, the face of the company for a second. Um, and then you know, going over material running, which is really where he's starting. He's mainly really starting to like help me with material running. So, you know, what stores are nearby? I need to go get his name to be, you know, someone that will can approve purchases for me on behalf of the company and um preferred brands, you know. There's certain brands of cuck that I just prefer the crews to get and that my crews prefer. You know, there's certain types of self-leveling concrete that we like. There are certain types of grout we like for floors, there's certain types of grout we like for shower walls. Um, you know, what kind of waterproofing are you gonna get whenever we're doing showers? Just going over preferred brands for types of jobs, and then last but definitely not least, after the material running, I'll really I mean kind of simultaneously, but his main thing is gonna be doing material run for now, and I'll probably take him on a few estimates, but eventually he's gonna be the guy that can if I can't go. I always like to go, I don't mind going, I like to meet the customer. I do feel like a lot of people hire us because of the way I communicate and because of my personality. I am casual to a fault, but also professional as needed. You know, I want people to feel like they can trust me and I'm gonna be professional about things, but I also want them to be comfortable. I'm gonna be in their home, and a lot of times they're in the space with us. So I do like to go to estimates, but sometimes, like let's say I was in Roseland and I had two estimates on the books and I couldn't make it, then like you know, in those situations, hey, I'm gonna be out in Roseland for like half my day, can go do this estimate, and then he can turn something over to me that I can turn into a solid estimate, and I know like we're not missing something. So training him on all kinds of those that type of stuff, brand materials, um, picking up materials, estimates, um, customer service, and yeah, so I'm really excited to shape him, and I have him on W2, which I'm excited about, and I did that for him really. Is it easy? What's easier for me is to everybody's just 1099. All my hands-on workers are 1099, but why I want to make him W2 and I'm paying him full day rates and then a half day rate for Saturday, because really Saturdays, you barely need a material run. Usually, our situation is I get them as prepared as possible on Fridays, but plenty of times I will get everything that I know that they need on Friday, and then I'll get a text Saturday morning. They arrive, so they're probably like, Oh Dylan, I forgot I need like one of these, or I need two of these, or I forgot, like, you know, or like they break the floor and they realize it's subfloor and it's not slab, you know, and they'll be like, Ah, now I need concrete board type of thing. Those things do happen on a Saturday, so we're doing half days on Saturdays because I feel like he can get to the job around 7:30, 8 in the morning on Saturday, just check on the cruise. Anything comes up, nothing comes up by 12 o'clock, he's off, right? So um, I'm really excited. But why I did W 2 for him was because when I worked at a salon and I went onto booth rental, um, that and it that's when I really became 1099 because when I worked at Aveda, like in the mall it was a W 2. But when I went into booth rental and then obviously working on my own and and having the gym and nail construction, you know, you're essentially just 1099. So like you have your income coming in, then you have like your write-offs and your deductions. The bank hates that. Like, that's why I really needed a partner to even get into real estate investing because I didn't I hadn't had a W-2 in fucking over God, I think it was I think it was literally 12, maybe 15 years since I've had a W-2. Um, gratefully and thankfully, we uh are W-2 with Home Buyer for what we do over there. And then when we started, when we changed from the partners at Home Suite Home Builders, left the partners. Uh, talked about that in last episode. I can make a full episode on that because I do think it taught me a lot of things as far as if I wanted a partner and how to run business. But when we left them and started a DM King general contractor, me and Missy put ourselves on a salary W-2. So we had that, and now we have you know, home buyers. So like the banks will start looking at us a little differently, probably after you know, this tax year ends. Um, but so I put him on a W-2 because I thought about myself at 19. Like, yeah, you were super happy to just get that like cash check, right? And like run with it, and then tax time would come, and you're like, shit, I hadn't paid taxes all year, you know. Thinking of older, like I know Social Security is gonna be like jack shit, it already is jack shit, but um, it ain't gonna get no better, you know. So not so much that, but like think about being 19 and wanting to get yourself like a reliable car. Is are they gonna approve you? They might approve you for a car, you know, with a higher interest or buying a house. Like, if he wants to buy a house, what bank's gonna loan loan lend to him if you know I've just had him on 1099 and he's making deductions every year? So I've kind of talked to him over the weekend. I told him like I really want to make you a W-2, like it's gonna be a little less money on hand in your pocket, but in the long run, say a year or two from now, you know, you want to not just move out of your parents, but you want to buy your own place, you know, or whatever it is. Like, if you just need some kind of I'm not talking about like, hey kid, here's your early way to like go get in debt, but those fixed costs of living these days, like what's the chance of him like having cash to like go buy a decent car or but have cash to go buy you know his his first-time house that's like not a wholesale freaking property, needs a lot of work, like a move-in ready house he can be proud of and move into, even if it is something that he can fix along the way. But to get an FHA loan, say, for his first-time house, like what I'm trying to set him up to where he can turn over a W-2, show his longevity of working with me, hopefully, at this time, and have the tax paperwork that makes it easy for him to get approved, because those things would have made my life not just easier, but I think would have extremely, and when I say extremely helped my confidence. Um because even like I have like I'm not kidding you, the I went and started my um a new business bank account two weeks ago because I'm getting the flip, and they're like, wow, your your uh credit score is 790. That's amazing, you know? And for so long I beat myself up over a credit score, and I'll go over why because I actually used to have like a 400 something to no fault of my own. Um, we'll get into that another another episode. But I stressed over this this credit number for so long, and I worked my ass off. I mean, I wouldn't work in full time, probably overtime, let's be honest. Like, entrepreneurs work freaking overtime, like it's a dream to work 40 hours a week. The great thing is that we're only answering to ourselves, really. Um, but yeah, so I had amazing credit, and even when we were trying to do the flip, like you know, we had all this cash on hand ready to go, and like we got told no because we didn't have a W-2 and we people felt like we were like high risk to lend to. It's like, you know what? Like, that's wild. That's the American dream, though, right? It's like start your own company. But man, so anyway, all of this stuff, you know, even when you know you have your ducks in a row, and even when you know you've put in the you had the work ethic and you've put that time in and you've built good businesses, like I had the gym for nine years. Like, can't you look at a credit score and see that like I've never been late on a payment? Like, I'm not delinquent in anything. It's crazy. And so having all of that and being told no by a bank still made made me feel I'm gonna say made because I'm still making it past tense. I'm affirming that that is past tense because I'm no longer want to sit holding myself back with these thoughts, but made me feel that I wasn't good enough, that I still wasn't successful enough. Because if I was, why wouldn't the bank land in me? Like just me, you know. Um, that hit me hard for a long time. Like I said, I'm still working out of that mindset. Um so yeah, I've hired him. He's gonna be a W-2. I feel like I'm setting him up for success. And my goal for him is to right now, he's gonna be um Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is when I do most of my work with Homebuyer Louisiana. Not saying that I don't do inspections and showings and stuff on those other days, but we have set hour to two-hour meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So if I have inspections and stuff on top of that, like it pretty much eats my day. So when I have my friend a f you know, a month or so or a little over a month ago working with me, what it was is they would material around Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays so I could be off on Saturdays, actually, just have family time. Um, Tuesdays and Thursdays outside of my home buyer meetings, I would just turn those into administrative days for us. Do I need to sit down and put an estimate together? Uh, do I need to email somebody back? Do I need to turn over insurance for a job? Like, do I need to turn in some paperwork or get with the architect because of like a permit we're working on? Uh, do I need to go over my bookkeeping in my in my I use QuickBooks, all that stuff? Like, what's the profitability looking like? Like, are we behind on a job? Like all that, just like scheduling, like, okay, they sent us a deposit. Have I checked this calendar and given them their start date? All these things. So now it's good because I can take Tuesdays, Thursdays administratively, and I can have my time off on the weekends. And also, too, Missy used to do all of my, like, she used to be the only one that answered the company. We share an app that we both get the calls and the text. So when it was just us starting before we were working with home buyer, she was essentially essentially like receptionists like she do answer the calls that way. Because customer call and it might be for something small. Um, but obviously they think it's important they're calling me. But I literally might be at the dump site, like emptying the trailer, or I literally might be like carrying material in or into the job site or out of the store, whatever. Um, so she would answer all the calls, uh, and she would schedule me to go out and do estimates like that, and then whenever I would make the estimate, she would go in and send them and mark everybody that was sent and like remind me, like, hey, we have X and Z, you know, that like still need to be sent their estimates. And then when we got on home buyer, she had a lot of like onboarding to do. Um, there's a lot of computer systems that they use to run the team to keep everything organized, to make all the legalities are in place and to make sure you know everything's going down the the pipeline as it should. And she is the person that creates the emails and the marketing text messages when we have a new property. Like she actually schedules me to go out and inspect the property. She takes my inspections, my pictures, markets it, text, email. After that, whoever inquires about those properties, she figures out a schedule with you know the homeowner that needs to sell for whatever their reason is, the people who are interested in seeing it, and then me because I'm the person to go and open the door for them because I do the inspections and the showings. Um, but on top of doing all of that communicating, she like also she'll accept the offers, and then from there, like she'll assign contracts, things like that. Like that's her main part. Um, but there's like I said, they use more than one computer system because everything does something different for them. Um, well, well old machine, man. I I have so much respect for home buyer because as big as it seems outwardly, like like I said, me and Missy are higher five and six for them, and it it just runs so well. And Steve, Aussie Steve, if y'all have heard of him, like genuinely good person. If he's watching this, man, I appreciate you and our opportunity to be under your wing more than all I don't know, I think I do express it quite a bit because I'm wordy, but Missy appreciates it also, she's less wordy than I am. But you know, it was definitely a huge change in our trajectory and a massive jump in. Like, I think the potential, not just because of the networking that it allows us to do, the credibility that it allows us to do, but also like just to know all the rooms that we should be in and the knowledge that we get from the connections that we make, you know, not just to like, oh, they know my name, but I know their name, and I know that when they go talk somewhere that I should show up and talk, you know, um, talk and listen and learn. So um, so with Home Buyer, she stepped back from being receptionist for me because she was just, you know, she's very competitive, and if Missy's gonna do something, she's gonna do it right. She's not gonna do it at all, you know. She's not gonna half ass a damn thing. She is a rule follower to a fault sometimes because I'm like, I know the rules to break the rules, you know what I'm saying? And she's like, it's a rule for a reason, like that, you know, uh opposites attract. So, you know, she stepped away from helping with DM, and I respected that because I knew that being part of this team at Home Buyer was such an important blessing in the lessons and all opportunity that it would give, and even to teach Missy a little bit more about real estate. Like, obviously, I know it's teaching me a little bit more about real estate, but I can't say that when Missy was being like the receptionist, it was like an interest in the jobs, and you know, when we're doing the flips, like I think a lot of the things we talk about, she's like, I don't really understand. I think she'll get frustrated. She's like, No, it's okay, you don't have to explain it. Like, I'm not gonna understand. So I'm I love now that we can have full-fledged conversations of a real estate transaction or ARVs, um, and like all these things, or like successions and and wait times and legalities of things, and tight, you know, deeds and titles and all this stuff, and like we can have full conversations. So I think it's made our relationship better, right? Because we don't feel like we can't communicate at work, it's like we work together, but we don't physically work together. Um, and it's awesome. I love it, wouldn't have it any other way. Grateful to be a part of this team, but yeah, so she stepped back, but now she has it all kind of like leveled out and she's like in a really good flow, and John Lester is like he's at on our team at Home Buyer, he's the one really expanding a sense of Mississippi. Man, this dude is uh one of the girls at uh at the job. Like, good job, nerd. Like, he is always setting up automatic systems and uh really helps us out with speed and efficiency, and I like admire that because as much as like I think of those ideas, I'm like, dude, could we do da-da-da-da-da? And like that would make it so much quicker. He's like, I can do that, like I'll have like an idea, but he has like ideas, but then also knows not that he's gonna follow through, but like he knows the how. It's crazy. I have so much respect for him. Um, he's someone I appreciate, like, we've become friends, like we have a lot in common, and we've become friends. But any chance I even get to pick his brain, I love picking his brain. Um, but now that Missy's streamlined over there, she feels like she has everything under her belt, she's crushing it, y'all. Crushing it. Um, but now she has actually not become the receptionist again. I'm still on that because at this point it's a lot of customers to keep track of, it's a lot of job sites to keep track of, and a lot of stuff that they're talking about, like unless she's on the job site, which she's not, you know, she wouldn't understand, and it would just be like relaying probably a confusing message. But I've trained her a few weeks ago on our QuickBooks, and you know, we've you know created her own logins for all of my portals where she needs to see where you know the money's going out of, whether it's like Malow's account, Home Depot account, like Dufran Building, which is like a big uh distributor around here, uh Sherwin Williams, um, anything that I use, like we've just given her all the logins so she can do the bookkeeping with my CPA. So that's great because that's removed one task for me on my administrative days, you know. So having Missy with the books and Christopher gonna be helping me on the jobs, hopefully, like eventually, like more than the three days a week, we should be able to grow, right? It was giving me anxiety, and I was literally being like, this stinks because I have all this opportunity right now, especially with the people who are investors, which the two jobs that I'm going to estimate, right? Let me see. Yeah, so not the jobs we have say deposits and on the books, but the two jobs, one I'm went out there sending them an estimate this week, and the other one with the pad split I'm going to meet up with this week, which means I'll probably give her her estimate next week. Um, you know, those are investors. I don't want to let those jobs go. I like these people, I have genuinely good conversations with them. They trust me because I know you want it to be good, but as an investor, you're in for profit, right? So you want it to be good, but like what numbers make sense? So what products make sense, what finishes make sense, etc. etc. Um, so I don't want to pass these jobs up because an investor, once they make a relationship with a contractor, unless you freaking screw them over, like you're their guy, right? And these people are also my age. I love that. I love seeing like my generation getting into this, right? Because we have like a lot of older and a lot of conservative, like really conservative. Like, if you don't know, guys, if you haven't researched me, if you stumbled onto this podcast, I'm not ashamed about it. You can call me a liberal, whatever you want. Like, I'm freaking trans. I was born female, transitioned over 10 years ago. Like, get over it. That's just part of my story. I'm a businessman, I love business. Um, and my main goal is to create like general rational wealth for my family. So, like, yeah. So I love to see my generation that is more with it, um, more progressive, stepping into these um blue-collar areas and spaces and being like, we're making a dent. We're coming to make a dent, we're coming to claim our wealth. So I want to be these two investors guy. I do. I don't want to pass these jobs up. So I was getting anxiety because I was like, man, like I have these four big jobs, one of them's my flip. Like, how am I gonna do this? I can't do this, like, I'm gonna have to tell them no, or like maybe like one of these other jobs I shouldn't take, and like maybe I'll take the investor jobs, but it's like, no, it's delegating. And I think the hard part was I was really getting into a realm of like, I don't want to spend any more on the company, right? I have a website, I have Instagram, I'm getting on social media, I'm starting a podcast, we're gonna get notoriety, I'm getting out there to meetups. I've actually, you know, started my own meetup. So if you're LGBTQ or ally, G Spin Rhea. Um, so it's Gulf South, Gulf South Pride Investor Network, but G Spin Rhea, I think it's G Spin underscore R E I on Instagram. We also have the group on Facebook. Go ahead and join that. It is basically for anybody who's LGBTQ but also an ally. Is our money circulating within votes for our own rights and safeties, you know, for our families? So that's why we started it. Um, not because we don't feel welcomed in other spaces, because we do, but we know when we go into this space, like our money is circulating for us by us, you know. Um does that mean that I don't work with some conservative like subs? I mean, probably I don't like know 100%, but I do know that where I can, that I'm where I can and where I'm ready to change, like I'm going within our G Spin Rhea group, and I'm gonna be, you know, working with my like our fam, like you know. Um, but yeah, I love to see our generation really getting into this realm and saying like there's wealth out there because I think a lot of our generation. Has been shown like how poor people can be, and how the cost of living is just getting so ridiculous. And I think these two investors are great. They're coming in saying, like, well, if we get wholesale properties, do a decent job on them, like we can make housing affordable again, and like we care about people, we're gonna make sure we're not fucking slumlords. So I want to become their guy. How am I gonna do that? Delegate. So creating more time for myself by taking myself away from the bookkeeping, training Christopher. Um, they make sure I stagger the work properly. And if I need to get more hands on deck, like I'm already making more connections for other carpenters and things like that. Um, the good thing is like plumbing and like electrical, like I can continue with my crews because plumbing and electrical, especially like we don't do commercial, we're not like rewiring like 15,000 square feet, like we're typically just you know working on 2,000 square feet or less. Like they're at the job for like a day or two at a time in the in the process, so it's really just like framing and carpentry crews that are a little bit more solidly needed for us. So I'm already networking in case I need to grow with that. But honestly, as long as jobs stagger, like you know, carpentry can go over here, and then while plumbing electrodes working, carpenter can go over to this job, things like that. So, yeah, but I was having so much anxiety, like, I can't do this, and like I said, I was at a point where I was like, I don't want to spend any more money in the business because like I've already put money in, right? I got got a truck that could tow. I bought a 6x12 hydraulic um dumpster trailer, that way I didn't have to spend thousands on renting someone else's trailer for a big job, that kind of stuff. Um, I spent a lot of money on a new software that helps me, along with AI, like save prices, save cost versus profit on each line item. Um, and it's like a lot more streamlined, it does like 3D uh renderings of which is great also because that will save time because a lot of times we'll go into something and the owner's like I just can't see it. So that thing that software's 500 a month. So I felt like I and I didn't do all this at once, right? Like I got my truck a little over a year ago. Um, I got my truck a little over a year ago, maybe about 18 months ago. I actually got my trailer about a year ago from the month I think I got it like in July of last year, we're in August, and then um, you know, I just got that $500 software last month, so I've been using it for about a month now. Still learning, it still has a lot to offer me. So I do feel like I already feel like it saves me a ton of time on estimates, which is great. I also think it will give me more of like a baseline, like I don't have to worry about if, you know, well, is this estimate comparable to the last estimate I gave? You know, I don't want to see like our I don't want our prices to feel like they're everywhere, so I'm excited to make that seem more uh what am I thinking? I keep saying streamlined, but you know what I mean, like more uniformed all the way around. So I was like, I didn't want to spend money on the company because I felt like I had already invested enough into it. But I called my best friend, uh and I'm in therapy, guys. So every other week, but you know, I called my friend, I was like, I'm freaking out because I want all this these things, and I feel like this is exactly what I've been manifesting. So, like here I am manifesting, meditating, visualizing myself being the successful, reputable GC real estate investor. I was like, and it's here, it's literally right in front of me, and it's here for my taking, and it should be here for my taking. Why? Because I fucking deserve it, and I am like, nah, I can't do it, like I can't handle it, like it's gonna be too much, it's gonna end up looking bad on me if I don't have like the right delegating going on. And my best friend was like, D. She's like, I think you have so much trauma of being poor and being told that it's for other people, and that that this good, successful life is for other people, but you haven't accepted that it is actually for you as well. You know, she's like, You have been working for years. She's like, you have been entering the rooms and you have been putting in the time and um effort, and she's really was like, and that's what I called her for because I was like, I'm in here. I'm I'm pointing my my head right now. If you can't see me if you're listening to the podcast, but I am in my head as to all the reasons why I'm feeling anxious. Um, in the self, it's I I always say like I do have the angel and devil my shoulder, you know, um, because I feel unstoppable. But then when things like this happen, I'm like, oh, you know, freezing up. Um, she's like, you have literally not, you're not entering the door. She's like, you have one foot in the door of where you've been working towards. She's like, in your heels off the ground on the other world, like your heels off the ground of where you've come from. She's like, and you're never gonna forget where you came from, right? Like, I'm gonna be humble. Like, there's no way I can ever forget like everything I've been through has made me here here what I am today, and I'm not ashamed of any of it. Um, but you know, I've grown up, we'll get into this. I've grown up at a house that's been knocked on, that's been foreclosed on. More than once I've seen cars be taken away from the front of our house growing up, being repossessed. So I have this major thought of like other people are meant to be successful, but maybe it's not like for me. Like, yeah, I'm a hard worker and I'll make it, but like the ease of stabilized success. Maybe it's not for me, and that's always in the back of my brain. And you know, at night me and Missy catch up a lot, like we mainly catch up mostly about our day and our thoughts and our feelings, like after the kids go to sleep. And I think it was probably less than two months ago, we were getting ready for bed, and I was like, I'm just scared because it's getting so good, you know, like we're going exactly where we want to go, and I'm just like so nervous, like I'm gonna drop the ball or whatever. And she's like, Dylan, sometimes people's lives like can just be good, you know. I mean, me and Missy, we were best friends in high school, so she's known me since I was 16. Um, we only lost touch briefly while she went to college because she went out of state to college, but um, and we've been together since 2011, it's 2026. So she knows me. She knows me through and through. She's been through a lot with me, she knows a lot about my family life, etc. Obviously, like she's my wife. So she was like, I think you think that when good times come, it's temporary, and that it'll be taken away or it ends. She's like, but maybe you've just worked through the hard parts and now you're entering like the good part of your life. She's like, and some people like don't ever have that hard part of life. She's like, you need to know that life can just be good, and it doesn't mean if it's good, it's temporary, so like there's a fall coming. And that's not to say that I don't hear her like, yeah, like there's gonna be challeng more challenging times in others, but the message definitely I definitely heard it, you know, because that that is my thought process, um, and that's what makes it so hard for me to accept and to move forward with confidence. And I can tell you since my transition, if you're not confident, you can't do it. There's no way I'd have the life I have now without going through my transition because it gave me confidence to be Dylan because I was not confident as before, you know. Um but so I heard her, heard what she says. I do deserve, like some people have just good lives, and then my best friend being like, you deserve it, like you've put in this work, like if you see anybody else putting in that work, and then you see the success pay off for them, she's like, you're proud of them, right? And like, absolutely. She's like, so why not for yourself? She's like, look in the mirror, she's like, and change your affirmations. Instead of saying, like, I'm gonna be successful, you know, which I don't, I do say present tense, like I do say like I am the successful GC, I am a successful real estate investor, like you know, um, I can manifest like anything I desire for me and my family's life. Like, these are some of my actual affirmations that I'm I'm stating here, you know. She's like, but not just that, but like that you that like you've arrived, you know, like you also you deserve to have the success. Like the success is yours to claim, and that it is okay to move on from like the say struggle of being like everything to like into the delegating. So I had to let go of the anxiety that this, you know, was maybe not for me, and sit here and be like, why not me? Then what am I working so hard for? If I'm not gonna claim it when it arrives in front of me, then like what am I working so hard for? So here I am, I'm gonna claim it, and I deserve it. And like, does that mean it's always gonna be easy? No, there's gonna be hard days, there's gonna be customers that aren't happy, there's gonna be things that we need to fix, you know, there's gonna be jobs that we don't get, whatever. But it happens to everybody, nobody's like 100% success rate or or doing like nobody's perfect, you know. And the great thing about construction, it's innovative. You know, you're gonna hit bumps in older houses that you didn't expect when you open up that wall, that type of stuff. Like, but the point is to face it, have the customer service, make it right, and like care about the product because your name is on it. So I'm gonna continue forward. I'm gonna claim that all these jobs in front of me just means that I need to delegate which I am doing. Um, you know, like I said, hired him, W2, he's on there. Um, he starts with me today. Uh, I couldn't be more excited. So my goal is my goal is to train him, get the three days a week going really great, uh, spend a little bit more time on getting my content out there, meeting up with other investors, maybe doing some more interviews. I was doing interviews for a while, want to get some more interviews with other investors, agents, anybody really in the realm. You can learn something in this industry from anybody because it's all so like interconnected and teamwork. Um, the next investment I'm probably making is um we're probably getting a like cargo container, like a trucking container, uh a shipping container into the backyard, like a 20-foot long one. And the reason being is like I need storage. I'm ordering windows for multiple jobs, don't know where I'm gonna put them. You know, I get like 16-foot material, and I really hate cutting it to fit like I have just like some hangers on my garage wall where I set like extra material that's like not necessarily worth a lot to return. So, like I just keep it as like extra when we need scraps, like if we just like need one more foot of baseboard or something like that. So I have like extra materials kind of like on the side, and I'm running out of space. Um, for those of you who don't know, like when we closed a gym, I took some of the the equipment and I put it in my garage because with my schedule, it's really hard to get to a gym. So I've been working out just like in my garage, been working out really great for me. But yeah, so I have that in my garage already. So I'm running out of space for the material, and I actually found a cargo truck uh container that I could get for under 3k delivered. So I'm really looking into that for the next few weeks um to put that back there. I mean, eventually our goal is to actually get a pool in our backyard. We were supposed to go get, we were we actually had a quote and we're like gonna get a pool last summer, like leading into this summer we're at now. And then we had a job not pay us almost 50k, so we're dealing with aftermath of that. Um, which maybe one day I'll be able to do a podcast on it right now, but for legal reasons, I'm not gonna talk about it because things are still ongoing. But we had a job not pay us 48k last year, so we put the pool in hold. But I'm like thinking right now I didn't want to go get just rent um like a storage unit because as an investor, man, ah, it's so hard to like rent something. You're like, what can I get that's an investment for myself and makes more money sense, you know? So found the container, and what we're thinking is put the it's a 20 by 8 container in the back, use it as storage. When that pool happens, obviously at that point, the the company will be expanded enough to where like I'd probably just go get a small piece of land or something, put a warehouse on, move all the stuff out of there, and then we could turn that shipping container into like a pool house type of deal. So feels worth it, feels like that it's under 3k. Like as of right now, I think with the two doors I want them to install and the delivery, it's like 2,500 bucks. So that is a freaking steal. Um, so right now that's the next investment that I'm looking at to get within the next couple weeks, and to have all the big jobs that'll have like bigger materials and especially windows that'll need to put aside. Um so that's the next thing coming up for me. Weekly schedule is to we are starting a smaller exterior renovation for someone today. We are wrapping up a full interior paint job for first-time home buyers. Um, probably Wednesday we'll wrap that up. We have a small roof repair we are looking at on Thursday. That should only take like a half a day, maybe a whole day to work on. Um, and then wrapping up the small renovation. That way, my secondary crew that's on that will start their big warehouse and sales room job on Monday. Sending in some permits for um sending in some permits information once we get those stamp plans from the engineer. So we could be breaking ground on two of the big jobs next week, but it's two different crews, so that'll be just fine. Um, yeah, and that's pretty much it. I will be at the West Bank Real Estate Investors meetup if you are not a part of that and you are interested in anything real estate. It is this Thursday, it's the it's it's a Thursday out of every month. Um, I think I guess it's the second Thursday. I guess I think that's where we're at in the month. So it is this Thursday, the 13th or 14th. Starts at 6:30. It's really great. Most of the meetups, you know, you kind of talk for the first 30 minutes, just kind of like saying hi to everybody, meeting new people. If you see some new faces, then there's about an hour QA with the investor that's up to speak, and then afterwards, most of them have like a casual hour after. This one goes to Gatuso's after. So uh Aussie Steve, my boss at Home Buyer Louisiana, runs that one again. The group on Facebook is West Bank Real Estate Investors. The meetup is this Thursday at 6 30. I definitely will be there at this one, and then the one that we started for LGBTQ Plus and Allies is G Spin R E I, Rhea G Spin underscore R E I on Instagram, and then uh find us G Spin on Facebook. I am Dylan King, local Louisiana um general contractor. I'm also a real estate investor, done one flip, about to work on my second one. I also wholesale properties alongside homebuyer Louisiana. If you have or know of someone with a blighted property or property they inherited that they don't want, want, get in touch with me. Everything real estate, you can find us. TikTok, I don't have X, but I have TikTok, Facebook, definitely Instagram. We are King Me underscore collective. I'm working on the new King Me Collective website as we speak. Um, and then on Facebook and on Google, because of DBA rules with Louisiana, you can find everything we do at DNM King General Contractor LLC. Hope that wasn't too much. It went a little longer than expected, but yeah, a lot of things happened last week. Just trying to catch y'all up. I hope something I said resonated, inspired you, motivated you to, I don't know, maybe it's time for you to delegate, free up some of your space that way you can grow and go where you want to go. All right, talk to y'all next week. Gratitude is where everything begins. So thank you again for thinking what I have to say. It's worthy of your time. If you'd like to find out more about what I do and keep up with what we have going on, find me at King underscore collective on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. I'm Dylan King, your host and owner of DM King General Contractor LLC, serving the New Orleans metro area. If you found something I said useful, like, subscribe, share, comment, or don't. Either way, take care until next week and go get it.