EP248: Turning Chaos into Clarity in Your Contracting Business with Jake Isaacs

Brad. Excited to be here.

Well, my business partner lovingly gave me the title of Serial Integrator. And if we have any EOS fans out there, he's the visionary of the organization. I'm the integrator of the organization. And that is what I've been doing my entire career. I've had the opportunity to work in a lot of different industries as the number two, getting businesses set up. And I just have this passion for taking chaos and turning it into clarity. Awesome.

Yeah. You know, Brad, regardless of what the size of the organization is, it's important that you are setting up systems and processes and everything that you do, whether that's following the EOS system or something like Pinnacle Business Solutions. There are a lot of different operating systems out there that a business owner can subscribe to. The most important thing is that you're trying to organize. your processes and systems somehow.

You know, most people get in business because they believe they can do the widget better, right? Whatever that service or product is. And the idea, like the, the big goal is that You build it so you can sell it and exit. And, you know, there's something sexy about a, you know, a seven, eight, nine figure exit that people believe that they want. But if they're not putting processes in place, they're never going to get to that point because no one's going to buy what's in your head. It needs to be a duplicatable process. And so you might have a unique way of doing something, but if it's not documented and you're not teaching other people how to do your unique way of doing things, then you don't have anything that you can actually sell.

Yes,100%. Right? If an exit isn't what you're going to, but you want time freedom inside of your life, you know, if you're the single point or the choke point for all decisions inside of your business, then you can't ever be free. You can't ever have that time with your family or your friends or to spend, you know, two weeks in the backwoods hunting elk if you don't have processes built inside of the business.

Yeah. First of all, I think that there needs to be a recognition that people that hold my skillset, it's not very common, you know, right inside of book rocket fuel. Gino Wickman talked about how there's. one integrator to every three visionaries. And so most business owners in their careers will have to go through multiple people to find that running mate that can really take their vision and turn it into a reality. And so the first thing that you need to do if you're on the hunt for that operational minded person is to let your network know. Just be open and honest with the people around you that you're looking for someone to come in and help you run your business. because you just don't know who is lurking inside of your network. You know, it could be a high valued employee of a buddy's business or, you know, someone who is getting out of a corporate career and wants to make a change.

A hundred percent.

Yes, I agree with that. Okay. Yeah. You know, and the way you position that is like, hey, growth is a good thing. We're wanting to get better. We want to improve. We want to continue to serve you as my client better. And we're always looking to optimize. And this is the next hire that we feel like we need in order to optimize our business. Makes

Yeah. I had my first opportunity to build teams and build systems inside of my first big boy corporate job. I was working for a telecommunications company in Kansas City, and they needed to build out a new department with a call center so they could handle inbound calls from different clientele. And so it was just really... organizing things, making sure that people were following scripts, making sure that everything was documented and communicated well as we were bringing people in so they could follow the playbook, you know, grew up as an athlete playing sports and just understood the need for everyone on the team being on the same page. And so it just made sense that inside of corporate America, we were, we were putting the same things in place that I had done as an athlete up to that point in my life. And so really built that out and, uh, saw how easy my life became once the systems and processes were in place. I was like, oh my gosh, this is, this makes a lot of sense. It's a little bit of front loaded effort. But once the process is in place and everyone's following it, it becomes easier on the leader to just refer people back to the system or refer people back to the SOP that's been created. Yeah.

Yes, that's correct. Yep.

Yeah. So shortly after that opportunity, a buddy of mine who had exited the military decided that he wanted to buy a local moving company. and wanted help growing that business. And so I came on as just the number two in that organization. We were able to take it from one truck, just a couple hundred thousand dollars in revenue. And we grew it very quickly to seven trucks and multi seven figure business. And it was just about... duplicating a system that worked, right? If we could figure out how to organize and run a crew on one truck, well, we knew that we could stamp that out and duplicate it through multiple trucks. And then it just became a game of marketing. So we grew our volume in order to like duplicate multiple trucks doing the exact same thing. And so we were able to just take that knowledge and grow the moving company. It's funny that you mentioned building a franchise system at the top of the podcast, because that's what we did. We realized early on that we had a duplicatable system and we wanted to start the process of franchising it. So we went through the process of franchising that business, making sure that all of the due diligence was done, the T's were crossed, the I's were dotted. So we could go out and sell franchises and support other locations in that franchise model. Oh, wow.

Yeah, no, I've had other opportunities since then. Left that organization and moved down to Dallas. And I got my start working in the hospitality industry. I worked for Hilton and Marriott for 10 years as kind of a fixer traveling around from underperforming hotel to underperforming hotel across the country and just kind of turning them around. What most people don't know about the hospitality industry or specifically about hotels is their franchises. And so a family-owned business or a conglomerate owns a portfolio of hotels. but you're franchising that Hilton or that Marriott name on the outside of the building. And if you're not upholding standards around cleanliness, around customer service, around just general upkeep of the building, they'll come in and they'll pull their name off the building. And so where I kind of made my living inside of the hospitality industry was taking a hotel that was a quarter or two away from getting their flag pulled and just getting in, bringing everything back to the studs, bare bones minimum. and setting up systems and processes that we could then duplicate in order to clean up the hotel, turn around customer service, increase revenue, and keep that flag for that business under the Hilton or the Marriott name.

Yeah. Typically, what I saw happen is there was a disconnect from the ownership to the boots on the ground management. And, you know, I could get an idea by looking at a P &L. for the last three years of kind of what condition the hotel was in. Because if it's something that they weren't willing to invest back into, you knew that it was deteriorating. And as the hotel deteriorated, customer service went down. You know, people didn't have the same level of pride inside of their work because they didn't come into a clean, nice looking building. You know, so all of that stuff snowballed. And so really it was making sure that... when I came in, I could bridge the gap between the on-property management and the ownership group to reprioritize how the hotel was invested in, where the money was going, and what type of systems were in place. It was varied depending on geographic location or depending on type of hotel, but it always boiled down to customer service, sales, and cleanliness. That dog will hunt in any business that you walk into. It's going to be about sales and customer service no matter what you're doing.

Yes, need to make sure that you have a profitable business, but also need to understand where the priorities are. A lot of the businesses that I would come into, the ownership group was unwilling to put any money into capital improvements because they weren't sure that that investment was going to be worth it. If you're three months away from losing the ability to call your hotel a Marriott, you don't want to spend $2 or $3 million in a renovation package because you're not sure if you're going to get that out. And so it was making sure that when I came into those hotels that there was an agreement of, I understand I can't get that CapEx money, but we're going to make sure that we're spending everything that we have budgeted for linen replacement or for maintenance. You know, and I just learned very early on that sometimes you've got to spend money in order to make money. An example, Brad, is, you know, when I first started my career in hospitality, I was actually a maintenance guy. I had gotten divorced and moved to Dallas and I was running kind of a home handyman company before my divorce and before my move. And a buddy of mine came to me and said, hey, you know, I'm in need of a maintenance guy at a couple of Marriott properties. I know that you're in this transition period. Why don't you come screw in some light bulbs and plunge some toilets for me? And that'll help you get on your feet and it'll greatly help me. And so that's what I did. And as I got into the business and started learning about hospitality and what was needed, I quickly advanced through the ranks. But I was a maintenance guy at a hotel and we had a room and this property was... In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, very close to Cowboy Stadium. And it was making, at that time, about $130 a night is what we could charge for that room. And we had this room that was out of order, so we weren't selling it because the toilet was running. And the general manager was unwilling at the time to spend the money to get a new toilet flapper so I could install that into the toilet. And so we were losing. $130 a night for a $5 fix, but because he couldn't afford the $5 fix on the budget, we were losing thousands of dollars, you know, over 30 days because he had to wait until his budget cycle renewed in order to spend that $5. You know, that's just throwing bad money at a situation instead of, you know, understanding the bigger picture.

Yeah. It. helps to have a fresh perspective to bring someone new in, whether that's a coach or whether you're part of a community that you can bounce ideas off of, or you're bringing in new talent at the leadership level inside of the business in order to bring a fresh perspective.

Yeah, that's a good question. You know, I think that what I see, at least in the people that I work with a lot, Brad, is you as the owner of the local plumbing company or the electrician or, you know, whatever it is, you were just arrogant enough to believe at one time that you could do it better than you were being told to do it in your own job. And so you left to do it your own way. Right. And so from that aspect, there is visionary S qualities to who you are. Right. The reason why an integrator is really important inside of your business is because it can help take some of those thoughts and those ideas that you have and organize them down into systematic step-by-step approach about what you need to do next inside of your business. You may be able to see, you know, I want to have 30 trucks on the road and I want the branding to look like this and I want all of that stuff. But when you bring it back to a very tactical boots on the ground level, you don't know how to go and get the contracts. to buy those trucks. You don't know how to find the vendor that can put the wrap on the trucks. You don't know how to get the graphic designer involved in order to take the idea of this logo to a place where it can be on the side of a vehicle. And, you know, people like me can help you come in and take those ideas out of your head and apply them into today. We're going to do this. And next week we're going to do this. And next month we're going to do this. And all of a sudden, you know, six months down the road, this idea that was in your head is now sitting in the parking lot in front of your building.

That's a good point. Most number twos, when we look at the visionary integrator relationship, think about a gas pedal and brake pedal inside of the car. Visionary is very much all gas. We're putting the pedal to the metal. We're going forward as fast as we can. That integrator tends to be more brake. They tend to... try to figure out ways to drive profit. They're looking for security. They're looking for safety, right? And so they're unwilling from a personality standpoint to take the same type of risks that the visionary is. And so in this example that you're talking about, most integrators are not willing to plant their own flag in the ground because they can't make it work on their own. They can't be the visionary on their own, you know? And so they're not looking to try to do their own thing. To speak specifically to the mindset of scarcity, you've got to check yourself on that because if you're not training someone because you think that they're going to steal that knowledge and do something nefarious with it in the future, then you're never going to be able to grow your business, right? You have to let go of all of that. Right. You need to train people in order to be better than you at what they're doing, because that's how you serve your customers. And that's how you differentiate yourself inside of the market. If you hold the knowledge close because you don't want to be ripped off and you don't want someone to be your competitor, then why are you in business in the first place? Go get a job.

Yes,100%. When I look at the role specifically in my past relationships with people that I've worked with or my current relationship with my business partner, he is the strategic thinker. He's the person that's going to develop the strategic partnerships and relationships. He's the person that's out front marketing the company. I'm developing the relationship with the employees. I'm doing the training. I'm making sure that everyone knows what the holiday schedule is and things like that. Those things are just not what he's focused on it. And if he's in a situation where he has to focus on those, the team's actually going to suffer because his mind isn't wired that way. And that's not a fault of his own. He recognized that and... you know, we partnered together in order to fill some of those gaps.

No, Brad, I would 100% agree with that. In fact, I would probably take it a step down the ladder a little bit. You know, you have to learn how to delegate. You have to learn how to communicate your desires to people. And if you're doing that with a high value employee, who's a director of operations or an integrator or COO or something like that, you're paying a lot of money for that employee. My recommendation is if you're starting out, go get yourself an executive assistant. You know, exactly what you said. Get someone inside of your life that... you learn to delegate with and they can take things off of your plate to increase your value. If you're, you know, approving payroll for your team, it's an important task, but it's not a high value task for you and your talents. That's someone that you can train to do that.

And so start with an executive assistant, run that for, you know,18,24 months. If that works well and the business continues to grow, look for an office manager. From an office manager, you can look for a director of operations inside of the organization and just stack people that are going to take things off of your plate for you and just continue to bring clarity and organization to the business.

Yeah, what was I doing for the last five years? Yeah, exactly.

No, I agree 100%. You know, it is okay to have some family time. It is okay to go fishing, right? You're not a failure in business if you're freeing up your time in order to spend a Saturday afternoon on the river or on the lake.

To answer your question,1 million percent. I 1 million percent believe that what you just said is true. I think really what it boils down to is not that they want to self-sabotage. The reality is most people don't truly understand what actions are going to move the needle inside of their business, inside of their life. And so as a result, we have just been brought up in this whole hustle grind culture where busyness feels like productivity. But the problem is busyness doesn't mean that you're growing your business. Busyness doesn't mean that you're reaching for the goals that you've set out. It just means that you're exhausted and your back is sore at the end of the day.

No,100%. I had a mentor very early on in my career. And he said, listen, just so you know, I'm not impressed by you working a 60-hour work week. In fact, if you tell me something like that. It's going to cause me to want to dive deeper into how you're spending your time because there's probably a lot of inefficiency happening inside of your life. And that was such like a countercultural moment for me because I was raised in a household where I saw my dad work 120 hours a week. He was just married to the job. It was a part of our lives. It was the mistress that everyone knew about. And so as an adult, I perpetuated what I saw, work all the time. And when that mentor got a hold of me and said, listen, this is not impressive and it actually means that you're not efficient. I was like, oh, dang. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, if a client came to me and said that they had to work until 830 at night to finish a patio. My question is to be like, did we bid that wrong? Did we not schedule it right? Like there's nothing good that happened ahead of that led to that situation. There's some things that need to be fixed in order to make sure that doesn't continue. Because like your client's not excited that you're in the backyard at 830 at night.

It's a broken business and it's probably not growing either, right? I mean, you're clawing. tooth over nail to try to maintain what you have.

No,100%. Yep.

Unpack that for us. Yeah, I mean, we've been talking about it up to this point. It's making sure that we have systems in place and that we're delegating appropriately to the right people, right? You're never going to have time freedom inside of your business. or inside of your life if you are continuing to hold close to the vest those things that your business needs in order to move forward. And so, you know, my example of the freedom formula is let's identify the two or three positions inside of your business that you need to hire for right now that's going to take things off of your plate. Let's identify the processes that those people need in order to be able to take those jobs and duplicate them without your input. Right. And once we start developing that type of system inside of your business, now you no longer the choke point or the bottleneck for things happening. And you've got people that are like coming in, doing their jobs. And all of a sudden you've got more time, you've got more mental capacity and you can focus on different areas of the business that will allow you to grow and, and venture into new things or new ideas.

Oh, I mean, in my experience, I'd say about 5%. Pretty small

And I think, Brad, part of it is there's a pride and ego thing that people aren't willing to let go of, right? There's an endorphin rush that we get as men for being problem solvers, right? And so when that teammate or when that employee comes to you with a problem and you provide the solution, it actually feels good that you're the one that has solved the problem. Yeah, exactly. Tighten yourself on the back. But what actually happens is you train the people around you to rely on you for everything that they need. Right. And, and you're never going to be able to step away from your business. The business is never going to grow without you. If you're incentivizing that type of behavior with the people around you.

It's what keeps people from growing.

You know, part of it is you can control a hundred percent of everything, or you can bring someone in that does it to 70 or 80% of your capacity, but they're doing 70 or 80% of your capacity in five different areas of the business that you currently aren't spending any time in because you don't have the ability to. Right. And so you're willing to be okay with not 110% because, you know, they're not you. That's how you grow.

No, I agree.

You know, a great book that I read specifically around this topic right here, Brad, is by a guy by the name of Joey Coleman. And he wrote a book called Never Lose an Employee Again. And as a business owner, we talk about customer experience and customer journey and what we want our clients to experience in working with us. But we very rarely set up that same type of system for our employees. And the whole concept of Joey's book is setting up that type of client journey for your employees inside of the business. What does the first 90,120 days of employment look like with you? And are you mapping out what those experiences are? Are you specifically showing them how things are getting done? Are you delivering uniforms in a special way and explaining why we wear uniforms? All of the intentionality in onboarding an employee. You know, so often what I see is out of self-preservation, we're drowning. So we hire the first, you know, breathing person that comes across our desk with very, very little vetting and skill recognition. And now it doesn't work out because we didn't do a good job of on the front end hiring that person. Now we feel like we can't hire or it's hard to hire or there aren't. qualified people out there, right? None of that is true. You're not intentional about the way that you're bringing people into your organization.

I mean, if we break this down, like on a human psychology level, this person has left a job or is starting something new. And so there's fear of the unknown and them walking into the office on the first day and for them to walk into an organized system. Oh my gosh, he was expecting me. Oh my gosh, he planned for me to be here. Oh my gosh, he values my time. Just As an employee, how good are they going to feel about their potential future with you because they're not coming into a place that is haphazard, that's busy, where there's chaos everywhere, and they can feel comfortable learning.

No, it's wild to me.

And the broken thought in that is, is I've hired this person to do a job. My expectation is that they're an adult and they come in and do the thing that I hired them to do. Yes, all of that is true, but they don't know how you do things. They don't know anything about your organization. Right. Right. And if you can like look at those first couple of days as an investment into your business and their future, right, you're going to totally stop whatever employee turnover that you're having because. People feel like you care about them. People feel like this is a safe place for them to come to work. People feel like their best interests are being taken into account here. And they're not just being thrown to the wolves like every other contracting job that they've ever had in their entire lives.

Yeah, absolutely.

So Gathering the Kings is a peer-to-peer mastermind organization. We represent business owners from all types of different industries from all across the United States. And when we built this organization, we did it on the back of the mastermind principle from Think and Grow Rich, which is the number one success book ever written by an author by the name of Napoleon Hill. And the mastermind principle essentially states where two or more minds come together in harmony for the achievement of a goal. That's the mastermind principle. And we just wanted to create spaces where business owners could come together, talk about problems, get creative ideas for solutions, and just do community with one another. Because what we recognize is that most business owners don't have people in their lives that truly understand the weight of being a business owner. They don't understand what it takes to make sure that payroll is going to clear. They don't understand what it takes in order to make sure that the marketing pipeline stays full. And so they just become unrelatable to the people around them. And so by creating a community like gathering the Kings, you instantly walk into a room where game recognizes game and there's a mutual level of respect because. regardless of the industry, you know what it is taken for that person to be successful.

does that work? We do weekly calls. We have some tactical calls that we do every Wednesday afternoon where we're teaching through one of the different business fundamentals, or we're bringing in an expert to teach about a fundamental. Like this week, we have a profit first expert that's going to come in and talk about how to set up systems of profitability in the new year for your business. And so we're constantly bringing people in to uplevel people's education. And then, you know, once a month, we get together in a big like round table type format where we just go deep inside of the businesses.

It's all virtual. We have a couple of in-person events that we do every single year because, you know, we understand that shoulder to shoulder community is just really where true bonds are built. And, you know, we've had... We've been doing this now for three years and just, it's been really cool to see how people have developed friendships and have grown to support each other over the course of the last three years, not just from a business owner standpoint, but also families. We do some family events where, you know, the kids come, the spouses come and it's how we interact with each other on a, on a day-to-day basis.

You know, one of the things that we tell people as a business owner, there are three things that you need in order to be successful. You need a system in which you're applying your business to, you need a coach that'll help you navigate some of the troubled waters that comes with being a business owner, and you need a community for support and growth.

Yeah, Brad. And to piggyback on that as we're closing, it's so important as leaders that we continue to be lifelong learners. And so, you know, if you're listening to a podcast this long into the conversation, congratulations, you're probably one of those growth minded people that understand that it's important to continue to learn so you can grow your skills and liking and following, leaving a comment, those little actions help Brad be able to continue to support and grow his community so other people can get value from conversations like this one.

Also super active on, on Facebook and LinkedIn can find me at Jake Isaacs and gathering the Kings. com is the best place to find out more about our community.

Great conversation, Brad. Appreciate you. Awesome.