A contractor's journey to self-mastery requires discipline, integrity, and respect. Welcome to Hammer and Grind. And welcome to the Hammer and Grind podcast, the podcast built for contractors to help maximize profits and get you off the tools before burnout or bankruptcy happens. I'm your host, Brad Hebner, and I'm here to help you on your journey to self-mastery. Make sure you check us out on our social media platforms, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. Just search for Hammer and Grind Podcast and you'll be able to find me there. Consider joining my free Facebook group called the Contract Your Profit Blueprint. I created this free group to give you as much information as possible to help you in your business. I go live in there once a week, tons of content to help you in your business. Now, if you want to accelerate the success, consider joining my paid coaching group called The Profit Club. In there is a great community of contractors all willing to share information and help each other succeed, as well as hundreds of hours of training, coaching calls, everything you need to accelerate your business. If you want to learn more about that, you can find out more information on hammerandgrind. com forward slash The Profit Club, or just send me a message and I'll be happy to share that with you. Now, let's get on to the show. Hey, welcome back to the Hammer and Grind Podcast. It's your host, Brad here. Listen, thanks so much for tuning in and hanging out with me. If this is your first time, I really appreciate it. And I want you to go tell all your friends. Create like a little army of your friends to come listen so you guys can have chats back and forth with each other. Say, hey, man, did you hear what Brad said on this podcast? Yeah, go do that, all right? Go tell all your friends and have a little Hammer and Grind Podcast army. So you guys can have conversations back and forth. All right, listen, I am feeling frisky today and checking out, I told you last podcast, I got some new tech coming in. I got new lighting. I got some new audio stuff and all kinds of things playing with the colors and the sounds and everything. So we're going to have some fun today. If you don't like this, if you're like, Brad, quit trying to sound like a 16-year-old influencer and just deliver. the stuff that we need, we don't care about all the extra crap, then let me know. Just shoot me a message, say I don't like it. Or if you like this, let me know as well. Some of you listen on the audio, some of you watch this on video. If you're watching the snippets in the short form of this, let me know if you like this or not. And we're going to play around with some different things here on the show just to try and liven it up a little bit. Today's podcast is episode 122. What kind of salt are you? And you're probably thinking that's like a really dumb question. I'm not salt. I am a human. What are you talking about? What's this nonsensical thing that you're talking about, Brad? Well, I'm going to get to it here. We're talking about essentially what separates you from everyone else. Now, I've talked about this before many times in the podcast, but I wanted to hit it from a different angle. Because I've talked about this in my coaching group in the Profit Club, and it helped a lot of people to really make the connection. Because I don't think contractors fully understand what it means to separate yourself from everyone else. Because when I ask, you know, what makes you different? The number one response is, my quality sets me apart. Let me do my voice changer here. I ask, hey, what sets you apart? It's my quality that really sets me apart from everyone else. And that's a bunch of bull crap. It's not. Your quality doesn't set you apart from everyone else. You're comparing yourself to Chuck in a truck, the handyman, the part-timer, the guy who just started his business last week. That's who you're comparing yourself to. You're comparing yourself to the worst of the worst. And of course, you're going to separate from those people. Of course, you have no option not to. It's like trying to compare a Ferrari to a Pinto or a Model T Ford. In your mind, that's what you're doing. You're like, all these other contractors out there suck, right? All these other contractors in my town suck, so it's really easy for me to separate myself from everyone else. Well, that lives in your mind rent-free. You believe that to be true. However, it's not always true. And most of the time, it's not universally true. Because most people try to do good work. Most contractors try to deliver quality product and they try to do good work for their clients. But it's so easy to compare yourself and say, I stand out because you're the Ferrari against the Model T. But what happens when you're the Ferrari? against the Lamborghini, against the McLaren, and against all the other sports cars. Now you're not standing out so much, are you? Now if you're in a Formula One race, all the car brands that are in that race are all pretty much standard. There's not really much separation between each of the different car manufacturers. And so you're riding around thinking that your quality is what sets you apart from everyone else. And it's not because everyone else is doing and saying the same thing. So what the heck does this have to do with salt? Right? Well, think about table salt. What is it? NACL2? Is that the formula for table salt? I was terrible at chemistry. I hated chemistry and physics. Man, did I hate those classes. Biology too. Anything science related, I absolutely hated in school. I did terrible at it. But table salt. Right. What's the purpose of salt? It's the flavor of your food. Right. You get you like your nice baked potato and you want to throw some salt on there or you get some green beans and you want to throw some salt on there. Some nice. Maybe you got a steak and you want to put a little bit of salt on there. I don't know. Maybe you're weird. Who knows? Maybe you put salt on things you shouldn't put salt on. Some of you guys put ketchup on things you shouldn't put ketchup on. Some of you guys are just straight up weird. I'm just going to say it. Some of you are just straight up weird in how you eat your food and what you put salt on. But we put salt on to flavor our foods, right? Now, if I asked you, what's your favorite salt brand? If I'm having a conversation with you and I said, hey, John, what's your favorite salt brand? You're probably going to say, I have no idea. I don't even know what the different brands are. I mean, that's probably what you're going to say because most of us, myself included, I don't know the brands. I know there's the one brand that has like a person holding an umbrella. I think it's blue and white. Could not tell you to save my life what that name brand is. Could not. And see, some of you think that you're separating yourself from everyone else, but you're actually just salt. Because if I said, hey, go get some salt from the store. And you went to the store and there were two options there. There was a more popular brand name and then there was a less popular or generic. And one of them was $10 for a container and the other one was $6 for a container. More than likely, if I was betting, I would bet on you buying the cheaper version nine out of 10 times because it's salt. There's no difference in salt. You could buy 15 different brands and it's all salt. You don't care about it. It does a job. It has a function that you use and they're all the same. All salts the same. They all have the same chemical compound. And see, that's what you're doing in your business when you think that quality is the only thing that separates you from everyone else. It's not. I'm telling you. I talk to hundreds and hundreds of contractors on the daily. I don't talk to 100 each day, but I talk to hundreds of contractors, and you all think and say the same thing. So if everyone is thinking and saying the same thing, how does that make you unique? It doesn't. So what I want you to do is start looking at your business as a different kind of salt. Because if you're putting together an ingredient for your favorite food, and it calls for sea salt, then all of a sudden, regular salt doesn't work. You see what I'm saying? So your job is to figure out how to be a different kind of salt, not just regular salt. Your job is to figure out how you can provide solutions to problems. that either haven't been solved yet at all. In other words, you create an entirely new service or product or the current offerings in your location are not doing a good job of solving these problems. There's a reason why companies like national major corporations that have franchise locations, they look at demographics. Dollar General is one of the... People think Dollar General is cheap and it's just... where everybody goes to buy low quality, you know, crappy stuff. At least that's what I thought. Dollar general knows exactly their demographic. They know based on population, they know based on geographic location, based on demographics of financial income, they know exactly where to place a dollar general store and what type of revenue that store is going to generate. And as a result, they know what size of store, square footage-wise, and what types of products they carry in that store. Dollar General is extremely in tune with their demographic. And they're selling a different kind of salt. Now, they may sell the exact same product in Dollar General that you can get at Walmart. But the difference is the Dollar General... is a half a mile from your house and the Walmart is 20 miles from your house. So you don't mind going to Dollar General and paying maybe 50 cents or a dollar more for a product because it's going to save you time and gas and energy. See, they solve the unique problem. And so when you look at your business and what you do and the demographics and the opportunities you have in your area. You've got to figure out how can I differentiate myself from everyone else. And so if you become sea salt or if you become Himalayan pink salt, you're now different than everyone else. And so when that recipe, i. e. that customer, is looking for a very specific type of service or a very specific experience, you're the only one that can offer that. You're the only one that can offer the Himalayan pink salt. You're the only one that can offer the sea salt or whatever other types of salt that are out there. So you're trying to compete with all the other table salt brands. You need to figure out how to separate yourself from those and become a completely different type of salt. And whenever people need that, you're the only option or one of the few options in town. I hope that kind of helps clarify that a little bit. Right? Like what's, what is that? I mean, yes, I get it. There's Himalayan pink salt and there's sea salt and all that. But how do you, how do you implement that in your business? Like I'm a, I'm a bathroom remodeler, Brad. How can I be different than all of the other bathroom remodelers out there? There's lots of ways. Are you right now, a new trend going on in the tile space are solid panels, right? Now, instead of doing 12 by 12,12 by 24 tiles in your shower. Now the new thing are solid panels. So you have basically if you're doing like a shower or walk-in shower, you just have three panels and you're done. Right? Big slabs. Another thing can be big slabs on the floor, like huge slabs on the floor. There's lots of new trends that you can do. You can specialize in a very specific type of remodel. One of my clients focuses on modern bathrooms. And that's his main focus. He doesn't do like contemporary or country or anything else. He really only focuses on modern bathrooms. Now, that doesn't mean that he can't do the other things. It just means that all of his branding, all of his marketing, all of his outward facing efforts that he puts into the world are focused around modern bathrooms because that's what he enjoys doing. And because there's a gap in his marketplace to offer those services. So whenever you figure out where the gaps are, you can create the service offering or product for that. A lot of people, a lot of contractors, they do what they want to do, what they'd like to do. And we've all heard it, find what you're passionate about and you'll never work a day in your life and all these other sayings. And there is truth in that. To an extent, there is truth. But if I'm passionate about collecting bugs and looking at them under a magnifying glass, it's going to be much harder for me to make money doing something that is very in low demand. So when we start our businesses as contractors, most of the time we're doing the work. And so we do work that we want to do, that we like to do, but it may not be the most profitable work to do. It may not be the easiest work to do. But if you can understand that as a business, your job is not to do work that you really love doing. Your job is to find the gaps in the marketplace and then solve those problems better than anyone else. And if you can do that. you will have a very, very successful business. I promise you. If you can find the problems that are not being solved, you can be very successful. But most of you are trying to solve the problem that the majority of the world is already solving. It's like trying to create a better wheel. If you said, hey, Brad, I want to go on business and I'm going to be a wheel manufacturer. Oh, you're going to Do something like a new tech, new, new material or something. No, I'm just going to make it better. Like new designs and stuff. We're still going to use alloy, aluminum alloy wheels, but we're just going to have different designs. I'm like, okay, so you're going to do the same thing that 10,000 other companies are already doing. Yeah. And we're going to be successful at it. Okay. Okay. You see how silly that sounds when you talk about another industry? What's a interrupter? What's a different type of salt in another industry? The tireless, what do they call them? Tireless wheels. You see them in military. You see them in agriculture. Now they have, like John Deere has them on their residential lawnmowers. It's the wheels that don't have any tires, right? They look kind of like spokes. The tires themselves kind of look like spokes or a webbing in there. See, that is a Himalayan pink salt application. They're solving a different problem. You're playing. t-ball with all the other t-ball players, all the other teams playing t-ball, and they're out playing professional because they're going in an entirely different direction than everyone else. So you guys get hung up on this. As long as I do good work and I show up and I work hard, hang on, let me redo this. As long as I do good work and I show up and I work hard every day, then I'm going to be super successful. Some of you may get lucky doing that. But if you want the quickest path to success, it's doing things that nobody else is doing. You ever look at companies like IBM? IBM was the leader in the computer industry. And they got to a point to where they just stopped innovating. See, companies that stop innovating start dying. There's companies like Apple. There's companies like Microsoft. And as much as I, it pains me to say this about Apple because I just, and I don't, I mean, I say this with a little bit of what's the word being felicious or not felicious. I can't think of the words today, guys. Sorry. Facetious. There we go. Wow. I'm being a little facetious here, but I don't like Apple. Okay. I can't stand Apple, but here's the thing. Apple is an innovator. Apple is creating new products. Microsoft is trying to match. Apple goes up one. Microsoft comes in and matches it. Apple goes up one. Microsoft comes up. Right? They're an innovator. Microsoft used to be the best. Now they're not. Google is innovating. Now they're getting a little bit topped by TikTok because TikTok is doing a little bit better on algorithms. Like companies that are constantly innovating, trying new things, growing the marketplace, usually outlast those that get to a point and they say, okay, this is, you know, I'm just going to do the basic bare bones and then I'm going to be okay. I'm just going to stay here. I'll just survive at this level, which is a scarcity mindset, by the way. You should always be trying to grow. You should always be trying to grow. But those companies are solving problems that people haven't even thought about yet. That's when you're over the curve. You're too far into the future because you're solving problems that people aren't even experiencing yet. All you have to do is look at your marketplace and say, where are the voids? Where can I be different? Who's not showing up? How are they not showing up? One of the easiest things you can do is go to all your competitors and look at their reviews. Whatever the bad reviews are, that's where they're failing. Whatever the really good reviews are, that's where they're exceeding. But even beyond that, you can reach out to vendors. You can send out surveys to your clients. You can look at trends. Here's one thing that blew my mind back when I was in the Marines. When I was stationed out in Camp Pendleton, California, this was in 1999, when I was in Pendleton out in California. 1999 tuner cars were the rave out in California. You know, Hondas, Civics, the real, the short, small tuner cars slammed. Got the little sounds like a hamster in there. That was the rave. Everybody was raving about those. I come back home to the Midwest, live in Indiana, and there's not a single tuner car in anywhere in the city. They didn't even exist. It wasn't for almost a year and a half to two years later before that trend made it to my town. And when I saw that happen, I was like, man, if somebody could go out to the coast, East Coast, West Coast, see what the new trends are, and then come back to the Midwest and then start offering that trend now. In a year to two years tops, which now is probably shorter because of technology and access to the internet. I mean, you know, to the social media. But if you can get out ahead of new trends and then bring it to your market before anyone else, you're going to be first to market. And there's always benefits to being first to market. When you're first to market, you're the expert. It doesn't matter if you're the first. And then six months later, there's three other competitors. You're still the first to market. So you will always be considered the leader until the other companies do even more outreach, more marketing, do a better job than you, and they surpass you. But as long as you keep that same level, you will always outperform them. So you can look at trends in the marketplace in other locations, especially if you live in the Midwest, because it's always a year to two behind the coast. But if you live in the coast, then usually you're kind of the... the first ones to get that trend. But a lot of those trends even start overseas, European trends. So if you live on the coast, you could possibly look at trends happening in European countries and bring some of that here. A lot of this stuff is even cyclic. Some stuff starts in the US, goes to Europe, and it's the vice versa, and it circles, and it's cyclic, right? But if you can figure out where those needs are, then you can get one up on everyone else. You can provide services and solutions that nobody else is doing. And if you can do that, you're set. You're set for a long time until everyone else jumps in. You see that with even trends on social media. Somebody starts a trend. Everyone else starts doing it. And then within six months, that trend is completely burnt out. And everybody's like, I'm so sick and tired of seeing that dancing bear. I'm so sick and tired of seeing this. Or if I see this, if I hear the sound one more time, I'm going to lose it. That's because it's been played out too much. And so if you're the one that's coming in six months after it's been played out too much and trying to do that trend, you've been left. You're behind times. But if you're the guy who's starting the trend. and then everyone else is following, you're way ahead. So the salt scenario, the salt metaphor here is quit trying to be regular table salt. Figure out how to be Himalayan pink salt. Figure out how to be a sea salt in your area. And if you do that, you'll be leaps and bounds above everyone else. This is a short podcast today. I really didn't want to go super long because I don't even know, to be honest with you, if this thing recorded. If the audio recorded, I've done that before. I recorded a whole entire podcast and the audio didn't record. And because I'm changing up different audio equipment, I wanted to make sure this is going to work. But I wanted to give you some different perspective on how to separate yourself from everyone else. So my question to you is, other than salt, like other than table salt, what kind of salt are you going to bring to your market? Go to the comments. Let me know. Shoot me a message. I always like to hear back. Give me feedback. Did you like my little voice? Was it stupid, gimmicky? There's lots of other things that I could potentially do. I don't want to get too crazy. I'm not trying to put on a production here. I just thought I'd add a little bit of flavor to the conversation. Let me know your thoughts. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Give me the feedback. Remember, data is important to making decisions in your business. You know where to find me. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. The Hammer and Grind Podcast. Just search for it. Go leave me a review if you would. Give me some feedback. Until next time, guys, remember, profit is not a dirty word.
