EP2: The Journey to Self-Mastery

I mean, it's a journey, you know, like, look, there's a lot of journeys that aren't so great. So I think focusing on this is a big deal and understanding your why and where, when all those things are important to answer. Sometimes we don't have the exact answer.

Well, it means like the can I method to me pops out. C-A-N-I.

Yeah, C-A-N-I.

It's a constant, never-ending improvement. I mean, that's what we want to do. So we just always have to be thinking, what's next? It's funny to just think about coming up, we change directions where we're going. It's a weaving path. And sometimes our priorities change when we get married, we have kids, all those different things. But now when I have kids, it's like, I want to be a better dad. Okay. I didn't want to be a better dad when I didn't have kids. So, but that's part of your journey in self-mastery. It's constantly changing.

The journey to self-mastery?

I mean, to me, it's just like, I constantly want to learn more. I never want to stop learning. I want to remain humble. I want, I mean, Dude, I'm an I personality. There's no one sentence. You can't just confine me to one sentence. I want to be healthier. I want to be smarter. I want to be sexier. I want to be a better leader. All these things. And I want to be better at all my hobbies. I want to, it's never going to stop. It's like, I'm not going to be good at bonsai until I'm dead. And I probably won't even be that good when I get there. But I'm going to be the best I can be at it because I'm constantly going to be thinking about improvements.

Yeah. I mean, you always want to be efficient. I mean, as a contractor, I'd look at my projects in the beginning when I was just a one man show, two man show, three man show, whatever. I'm like building a pond, building a water feature. At the end of a job, I would look back at that waterfall or I'd look back at the pond and I would pick something out that I think I could have done better. And multiply that times a hundred, multiply that times a thousand, you know, a thousand ponds in the ground. And if every time I finish a water feature, I stand back and go, what could have I done better? What could I have done different? You know, even something that you think is like your masterpiece, you could find one little thing that you might've been able to do a little bit different and make an improvement.

I can see that.

Are you directing that at me, Brad?

Listen, the only thing I don't like about what you said is like, how can I do it better, faster, cheaper? You know, better, faster, cheaper is just a bad word, right? I know you don't mean it that way, but that's the only thing I just.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Listen, went back to, I started to talk about my journey of becoming a contractor and building that waterfall and then self-evaluation. And that's part of self-mastery, self-evaluating, right? So once I felt like I was getting pretty good at the craft and the things that I would have changed became less significant, As far as making it aesthetically the way I wanted it as an artist, then it became like maybe more as a businessman where maybe it's better, faster, cheaper or save money. But then it became like, how could I have ran this job site better, maybe to make it a better experience for my client? Or how could I have been a better leader? to where my employees had a really wonderful experience on this job site as well. I think that's important as well to understand. That's part of my journey to self-mastery is creating a wonderful experience and work environment for my team, for my clients, and still winning with profit.

Well, dude, listen, I mean, your business is a third of your life. I mean, think about it. I would argue

Yeah, I'm just saying at the minimum, it's a 30-year life, right? So, yeah, I want to self-master there. I want to self-master my hobbies and my relationships with my wife and kids. But work is a critical part of that.

Yeah. Well, I mean, being a leader could be a leader from work to home, could for your friendships, could be on a mission. You know what I mean? Like we went kayaking in La Jolla and I was like leading the pack. I mean, I was like, I know where we're going to drop. I knew where we were going to get the kayaks. I knew. you know, what kind of food we were going to take to feed to the Garibaldi. And, you know, like I led that journey because I think about being a leader and it translated from work.

Come on. It's the California state fish. Don't you know?

Well, don't make me start talking scientific fish names on you. You'll freak out.

When it began, you say, is that what you said?

Probably in my early twenties is when I really kind of dawned on me, but it's interesting that you just mentioned that. Cause if I think back, I think back prior to that, you know, prior to me recognizing it, you know, I can think of different sectors of my, you know, growing up where. I was trying to make things better, you know, from throwing a football to playing baseball to soccer to collecting baseball cards. I wanted my collection to be all collated perfectly and like the betterment of, you know, my experience and what I was producing.

And discipline.

Would you be surprised if I told you my first touch to self-mastery was with Tony Robbins as well in my 20s? But that was like 20 years before you were 20, though, right?

But, you know, they didn't have CDs. When I got into it, they didn't have CDs. It was actually a book. They actually had a book.

I hate you right now.

Let's talk about that. So right now, so what's happening mainstream currently in today's age is like, I don't want to say the self-help gurus or whatever, like the guys that are really pushing the envelope to self-mastery, they're like, I don't want to show up at heaven's gate, you know, finishing the crossing the line with like what I accomplished in my life. And then whoever's greeting you at the Pearlies was like, this is who you could have been. And this is what you showed up as like, you really screwed up. You know, you left a lot on the table. And that's kind of what's happening today in that self-mastery world. And that resonates with me a little bit. I know I can be better. I know I leave a lot on the table sometimes and I get mad at myself for it.

You keep accusing me of that, but that's not necessarily the truth because it all comes with that. And I'm not going to be like, hey, I showed up. It's like, hey, you could have had. You know, you only have two Ferraris. You could have had three. It's not about that. It could have been maybe health wise. Maybe I show up fatter than I should have been. Maybe they're like, hey, you could have lived like 10 more years if you wouldn't have drank so much beer. That's not materialistic.

You know what I'm saying? It's like, it's not about materialistic stuff. It's about being better. It's about being smarter, being more caring. I think that's part of the legacy for me is to leave behind something for people to remember. That's my I personality.

no.

You keep accusing me of saying like, hey, it's a materialistic thing. It's not about how many raptors I show up to the Purley's with. It's about maybe experiences I could have left with my family, maybe goals that I could have accomplished. Maybe I set goals too low and kind of eased by in life. I could have went harder. And just that's what I mean by leaving stuff on the table. I don't think they're going to count how many cars you have and how much money you have in the bank when you get there. That's not a big deal. I think it's about.

I got earphones on, bro. I

Okay.

Well, you're getting to know me a little bit better.

Well, I want to circle back to, first of all, I don't even want to use the word circle back, number one, but let's backtrack to self-mastery and contracting. And I do think this is an important correlation and tie back is because Listen, the better you can get at whether it's estimating, you know, all those little tiny nuances of a business, delegating, estimating, production, leadership, all. And then if you can get better at all those things, you know, you have a more comfortable existence. You have, you know, more, there's more gratitude. There's more accomplishment. All those things happen as you get a little bit better in all those different things. Instead of just going by winning it.

They have those things where if you're sitting on the toilet, you put your feet up on there and it gets you in a better position to take a dump. Is that what

You have one, don't you? No, I don't.

Nice.

Well, congratulations.

So, okay, go back to the 10X. Okay, now you're going to buy one of those squatty potties. What next? What else?

Well, I think we can't talk about the journey of self-mastery without talking about the Kaizen methodology then, right? I mean, clearly that ties into this.

Again, let's go back to self-awareness. I'm sure we've talked about that before. I'll tell you a quick story. Maybe it won't be too quick. I'll make it quick. Relax.

Yeah. I ran an aquarium division for about 10 years. And I took care of this one office. I was there for at least seven years. And I always did things a certain way in there. And I felt like I found the right in, the right out, the fastest whatever. And I didn't want to bother the client. And it was kind of a high end thing. And I sold the division to a buddy of mine. And when I was there, we were hauling water out of the place. And I'm like, this is the door we use. And he's like, well, what about that door right there? I'm like, don't question me. Use that freaking door right there. We're not bothering the clients. Just we're using that door right there. He's like, all right. So he goes out the door, dumps, distributes the water. He comes back in and we're working. Now, this is a friend of mine that we've known each other a long time. So I got some pushback from him. So we're getting ready to haul some more water. And this nurse walks by. He's like, excuse me, ma 'am. And I looked at him like, I will freaking kill you right now. I'll strangle you. I'll drown you in this bucket of water right now. And he's like, would it be appropriate if we take some water out this door right here? She's like, oh, no, absolutely. And I was like, what the hell? And like literally the door was like, you know. 10 feet away instead of 40 feet away. And he walks over to the door and he opens the door up. And there's like this perfect little spot to put water in a little garden out there. And he turns around, looks at me and he like sneaks me a little birdie, like F you, bro. Like, look at this. I just found a faster way. And it was like a real wake up call to me. I'm like, wow, I've been doing this for seven years. I'm an idiot. There was a faster way this whole time. Like how much of my life did I waste for the past seven years, every single Wednesday hauling water? an extra 40 feet. And it was a real wake up call for me. And that's, that was probably when I started to dig a little bit deeper. That was probably my mid to late twenties.

How many are, am I still doing that way? You know, I mean that, so that's, that's why you have to, that's that self-awareness thing for sure. I mean, we're only human. We're going to make these mistakes. I mean, I'm only human. I know you're probably alien, but.

No, it's a constant moving target, man. I mean, just like we said, you have kids, you know, they grow up, they move out of the house. Now the mastery changes. It's like, how how is the house going to change? Then you get it and you get pets and then you get new hobbies. And so with new hobbies, you have new experiences. And so it's constantly moving. It's fluid.

Stay humble. I feel like I can learn. I mean, I like to surround myself with a good community of contractors. I think that's important. And that's one of the premises behind Hammer and Grind is to create that community and be around like-minded people. I think that's really important because, listen, man, we're here. for such a short period of time in life. And there's so, there's so much to take in. And even though I can read several books a year, I mean, several books a month or whatever I want to do, it's like, you're reading books that might affect me and help me better. And you might be able to inspire me to read something or just tell me a passage from something that will help me. And so being humble and open to learning, I think a lot of people get stuck and, you know, hardheaded. They don't want to listen. They don't want to learn. I think that, that comes to some people. So. Between reading and surrounding myself with like-minded people and staying humble, because I can learn something new from someone who's just getting started in construction or in bonsai or with fish or whatever that my interests are. So staying open to that, I think, is a really important thing.

I do want to correct you on something important here. Say it. I mean, it's, well, what are you reading? It's like, did you read The Lord of the Rings? book series or like, are you reading something that's of value, something that's of self-improvement, self-learning, you know, like whether it's a hobby or about how to make money. I mean, that's important. What you're reading is critical.

Okay. So here's, oh man, this is funny. So for me, I probably couldn't read a book on tidying up. I couldn't handle it. I'll just go to TikTok. Do stuff. I'll go to TikTok and I'll put hashtag tidy up, hashtag organize, and then I'll watch 20,30 second TikTok videos and get a couple nuggets on how to clean. For me, reading is kind of a big deal for me. It's important. And the last fiction book I read was probably The Gunslinger by Stephen King. Stephen King is probably the last couple of things. I read as fiction probably 25 years ago. And I probably took a timeout. Yeah. I took a timeout on reading, not a timeout, just like life got in the way, whatever. I started doing stuff and I just wasn't reading. And then I, I remember the first book that I got, but that like really hooked me was crush it. And that was probably like 10 or 12 years ago. Yeah.

Crush. It was a good book for me. I liked it a lot.

Well, it's cool that you mentioned that. And I think that's something I could probably strive to be a little bit better at because I don't think I've ever listened to an audio book. Maybe.

great. My wife's going to hear that and kill me now. No, I mean, so listen, I listen to a lot of podcasts while I'm on the road. And so I'm not listening to, it's funny because I'll ask people like, hey, what podcast are you listening to? And they're like, oh, I'm listening to a true crime podcast. It's fiction, but it's really interesting and it's fun. And I'm like, oh, okay, that's, I just want to stab myself in the eye with a spoon on that. So for me, yeah, for me, I'm like, I'm listening to. Of course, I love Annie Fursella, the MFCO project and the real AF. I mean, I'm liking that kind of stuff. And then I'll listen to Joe Rogan, but I don't really care to listen to the comedians. I don't really care to listen to MMA stuff. I'm more like, hey, Jordan Peterson's on or I forgot that there's one doctor that's on there frequently and she's amazing. I love listening to her. So like those that's like health and wellness stuff and not Dr. Jordan Peterson, but he's like he's a realist. Those things keep me fresh, you know, current offenders and stuff like that. I think that's important. But so I do that on the road. I should probably get into listening more. But I do. There's something about holding that book, flipping the page, taking a pencil, circling something, dog earing a page, you know, closing it up. That's where I get my most value. I think it hits me a little bit harder. Oftentimes when I'm driving, even I'm listening to a podcast. My mind will water a little bit, like, where am I headed? What do I got to do? Why does Brad keep sending me Marco Polos? How do I got to tell my guys what to do next? Those things.

Yeah, I would say that for sure. I, too, just got a course. You know, what are we mid-February doing this? I got a course early January. with Jesse Itzler. It's an amazing course I'm super excited about. And that's more of, it's not even necessarily business masteries, which is where I've been focusing on the most. How do I make my business better? How do I make, how to make my business more profitable? How do I rate, you know, retention of employees, that kind of self-mastery in my profession, in my career. But, you know, the cool thing about the course that I just did with Jesse Itzler, it's like, this is a self-mastery course to create. an amazing life with wonderful memories and experiences for not only myself, but for my family and those around me and my employees drug their asses into it too.

So I think consumption, let's call it consumption, whether they're reading or listening to a podcast or listening to an auto book, consumption is critical. We can agree on that. I think surrounding yourself with a good community, a coalition, a militia, whatever you want to call it, you know, a society, like surrounding yourself with a like-minded people, mandatory, it's paramount. And then really, I think, self-awareness is going to come into play here because you have to realize where you're at and you have to realize where you want to go. So like, I, that would be my three really pressing things that I would talk to someone about to make sure they're on the, on the track. Yeah.

Dude, I really want to tie into that. I think that's really important because, and let me backtrack, like there's a lot of books that are timeless. I mean, Awaken the Giant Within from Tony Robbins is still a great book. Think about Think and Grow Rich from Napoleon Hill. It's an amazing book. These are all old books. And I'm currently in a coaching program for scaling my business. Let's just put it that way. So my coach currently, he's in his 70s. And at 54, which is two years older than I am now, Brad, two years older than I am now, he started, he got his life figured out in his business and multiple dozens and dozens of businesses. And he went from where he was at to doing like 2 million a month in his construction business. And from 54, and now he's in his 70s. So it's like, I think that's a really good point to make there. No matter how old you are, you can always. You can always turn it up. You can always ramp it up and be better.

I think that's a great idea. Also, you can check us out over on Instagram, hammerandgrindpodcast. We'll be getting TikTok going up soon. We'll let you know how to connect with us there. Isn't it Hammer and Grind Podcast on TikTok? You already got that locked in?

There you go. Rock and roll. You got any final words you want to say?

Put it up on your wall. All right, we're going to close it out there. Listen, people, thank you so much for lending us your ears, giving us attention, and we're looking forward to building up this community. Listen, share this stuff with some like-minded contractor friends of yours that are interested in the journey to self-mastery. And we're going to catch you on the next episode. So stay tuned for more.