EP33: 2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

Yeah, it's interesting you say that. I mean, I think there's all kinds. I've seen quotes and stuff like that where people use certain quotes or use certain sayings and the original intent was not what it was meant for. You know what I mean? Just like you said, at some point, it just got 180 turned. And now it's more about, you know, pacifying our misery, basically.

Yeah. Maybe one of these days you'll be able to fix that notification on your laptop.

And we're not officially sponsored by Zencastr or Zoom yet. So, I mean, that's, yeah, I mean, there's obviously anytime you get new tech, you're going to have things you got to figure out and all that stuff. So, so how does this apply to our contracting businesses? In other words, what, what was your thought on the mindset aspect of it in our business? I mean, we, obviously we all know there's ups and downs in businesses, right? If you've had a business for more than one day, you've had some kind of ups and downs. I mean, what are you thinking as far as the mindset aspect of it in that capacity of two steps forward, one step back?

Well, I think you also have great perspective. based on your past that you have been able to realize like what's really important and what's not. You know, yesterday, for example, my wife and I are trying to buy some property to build on. It's not like, you know, immediate thing. Like we have to do it by in six months. I mean, we've been looking for over a year and where I'm at, it's kind of difficult to find property. It's not way overpriced, especially in this market. And a thing came up yesterday. It was like 25 acres wooded. It was like perfect what we were looking for. And around here, I mean, no joke, within eight hours of a listing, it will sell, right? So you have to like be Johnny on the spot. Like if a listing comes up, you have to like immediately make decisions. And so, you know, I got all stressed out about it because it's like, oh, here it is. This is perfect. And so after work, you know, I was able to go by there and look at the property and walk it. And then as soon as I got there and looked at it, I was like, oh, this. this ain't going to work for us. It just wasn't the way it was the layout and the terrain, everything wasn't going to work. So, you know, it's for us, that was two steps forward, one step back, right? Two steps forward. Oh, we found some property. It's going to be perfect. I was calling the bank, checking on the loan, all that stuff. And then we get out there and look at it and it's like, no, you're not going to get this. And so now it's back. And really it's more like one step forward, one step back. I mean, we're back to square one and we didn't.

Well, that's a good, that's a good point. And you're right. I mean, yes, it is. It is because we found out some information with the loan that we didn't know previous. Right. And so there's, there's going to be some complications if, if we try to go through our bank. And this is kind of stupid, but our bank, if you do a construction loan, because we're going to buy the land to build on. So if you do a land slash construction build loan, you have to have a general contractor build the house, right? Which is pretty obvious. However, it can't be you. I couldn't build my own house, even though I'm a general contractor.

We'll have to go through another bank that we did in the past. But anyways, so that's just an example of every day you come across stuff. Another thing that I've dealt with is about a month or so ago, well, it's probably been about six weeks now, but my office manager left and ended up hiring another person. And they did fine. And then within like three weeks of starting, they started having some medical issues. like last week or actually this Monday, this past Monday, he resigned. And it's not because he wanted to, it's because he's got all this medical thing. It's really an unfortunate situation. But as a result, I may have another opportunity with another person that may actually end up being a better fit. So that's kind of that two step forward, one step back. But really it might even be two steps forward, one step back, and then three steps forward. You know what I mean? Like kind of that back and forth thing. Yeah.

Yeah, well, I mean, this topic hits home for me. So I, you know, the last couple of years for me has been, have been a mindset journey, a paradigm shift in my mindset and read a ton of books, talked to experts, got, you know, expert coaching on the subject. So it's something that I struggle with. And this year for me and my business has been very difficult. you know, with labor shortages, material shortage, all kinds of things that's happened. It's been a very difficult year. And so it is something that I struggle with to try and stay positive in the midst of, you know, negativity and negative things happening in your business. So, I mean, this topic hits home with me. I'm sure there's definitely been times where, you know, you've said, Brad, quit being negative. You're too negative. I mean, we've had our disagreements and our arguments.

So maybe this is a secret way for you to, maybe you're doing this on purpose to try and get into my own head. Oh, shit. Is that what

But this is real. I mean, I'm not saying... I'm not like an overachiever type person. Everything's got to be perfect and I got to be the best at everything. But I definitely want to win. I want to succeed. And so for me, I do get frustrated whenever... And it's not like if I try something the first time and it doesn't work, I get upset and quit. That's not what I'm talking about. I mean, when I've been doing stuff, dozens and dozens and dozens of tries or for years or things in my business that I haven't been able to completely master. I get frustrated. And when that happens, I start to get, I mean, realistically, I probably get depressed a little bit. And so, you know, I've had many conversations with my wife about this, but it's hard to stay motivated, be persistent, have dedication when you're always constantly faced with adversity. And I think that's why a lot of businesses, not even construction businesses, but a lot of business owners fail is because they don't have the grit. and persistence required to get through those hard times or they don't have coaching or they don't have mentorship or they don't have support system. Those are all important things.

Oh, there's all kinds of excuses. I mean, it can be the economy, whatever. I think that's, we all do that. It doesn't matter what it is. We all make excuses to make ourselves feel better. It drives me nuts. I see a Facebook post and someone posts something that they're struggling with. And it's like, clearly, you made bad decisions here. It's completely obvious that you made a bad decision and the net result of that decision did not favor you. Yet you're on here complaining like the victim and then everyone gets on and it's like, oh, it's okay, Eric. You didn't do anything wrong and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, you did. You screwed up. You need to own that. But we can get into that. You know, we use these things like, oh, well, keep grinding and keep going at it and, you know, do this and that. And that's where that kind of that two steps forward, one step back mentality comes from of trying to pacify someone because, well, it's tough, but you just got to keep putting one foot forward. You know, all these different things that we hear. A lot of that comes out of trying to make us feel better whenever we do something bad, when we screw up, when it's our fault. Yeah,

Yeah, I mean, I would say that's kind of an extreme case. But because obviously you did benefit from, even with the failure, you benefited, right?

Well, so I think it's important to point out that we're going to make mistakes. We're going to have two steps forward, one step back, right? You're going to have the setbacks. But I think, and tell me if I'm wrong, Eric, but the point of what you're trying to get at is that one, it's okay to have a step back, right? Have setbacks. And two, it's okay to learn from those. You're going to have winning moments and learning moments in that which are going to benefit you. So even though it may feel like a step back, in reality, it might be two steps forward. And then the third thing is that we use it as an escape goat to feel better about ourselves and not actually look at it for what it's worth. There may be a huge learning opportunity in there, just like the land buying thing that we had. There was a learning opportunity in there. So we did learn and gain from that. So even though it may feel like a setback, it actually might be a net gain.

There's a song about that. All I do is win, win. Or no, that's not it.

I like to compare it to shooting. That's okay. I don't want to compare it to rock climbing.

I'm just kidding. I just, I think that one, we don't need to be hard on ourselves, right? Like it's going to happen. You're not going to avoid it all. You've heard the saying, fail forward, right? Have you heard that saying, Eric?

Yeah, that's a great saying, you know, fail forward. Anybody who's had any success, whether it's moderate success or major success, talk to Jeff Bezos or whatever. I mean, it doesn't matter. They have tons and tons and tons and tons of failure. Now, somebody out there listening may say, well, yeah, that's fine when you're a multi-billionaire, you can afford to make mistakes, right? One of the things that I always struggle with... in making mistakes is I couldn't afford a financial mistake, a large financial mistake. I couldn't go forward to maybe buy a $10,000 piece of equipment and then not be able to use it or whatever may happen. And then all of a sudden, I'm out all this money. Or I buy a really, really expensive vehicle and then it gets wrecked, which has happened to me twice, actually. I've had two trucks totaled. And you always lose whenever you get your truck totaled. So those are things that... I was always scared of was like financial mistakes. But the thing is, is that even in those situations, it creates resilience and it creates opportunities to find new ways of doing things. You know, one of my favorite sayings is necessity is the mother of invention, right? We find ways to achieve when we're at our greatest deficit where we have to figure out something. We have to solve a problem. because it's necessary for us to survive or to move on. And that's whenever we come up with our greatest wins, I believe.

I had a friend of mine, went to high school with him. He was a couple years younger than me. We played soccer together. And he started his own e-commerce business out of his garage. And he had a really, really good corporate. He went in the military. He actually went to college. Then he went into the Marines as an officer. And when he got out, he had a really good corporate job in logistics. prominent business here local that's nationwide. And anyways, he started his e-commerce business in his garage. And everybody thought that was great because it was a side business. But then when he made the decision, he's like, I'm quitting my corporate job to do this full time. Everyone told him he was stupid and he was nuts, right? Like that's never going to work. I was fortunate enough to kind of see him through his journey because he would call me and be like, hey, I need some shelves. I need you to build some shelves. I need to build some tables, you know, shipping tables, all these different things. And I kind of saw his journey as he moved from his garage and then they moved to a bigger house and then it was in his bigger garage and then he moved to a small warehouse space and then to a medium warehouse space and then to a large warehouse. You know, I just kind of see his journey. And now he's a multimillionaire. That's one of the fastest growing. He's one of the fastest growing companies in Indiana. I mean, like shattered all kinds of records and everyone, his family, his friends all told him he was stupid for quitting his corporate job.

It's also because people don't want to see, we don't want to think about our, you know, our lives sucking because we chose not to make a difference or to go for it. Right? So whenever we see one of our friends or something start to have success, it's like, wait a minute, I don't want you to have success because if you have, if you're just like me and you have success, then that means that I'm just being a lazy turd.

Well, and that, the reason I brought that up is because you can have that same two steps forward, one step back situation with friends and family, right? Where you, You think you're having success and then here comes along your spouse or your parents or your children or whatever. And it's like, hey, what you're doing is great and all, but it's not going to work out. You need to give up on your dreams or whatever it might be. You may have that same type of situation. And in that person's mind, it's because they love you. I'm doing air quotes. You obviously can't see me, but they love you. It's all out of love. And in reality, it's all out of selfishness. So you may have that two steps forward, one step back in your personal lives, in your relationships. And it's important to kind of recognize that.

I think when you were talking there, it kind of just hit me like a ton of bricks. The mindset shift really is understanding that your setback is not a setback. It's actually a win. I think once you can understand that, that setbacks are not actually setbacks, they're wins. then you can understand, then you almost get to the point of like, oh yeah, I can't wait to have a setback, right? Because now I'm going to learn from it and I'm going to get better and I'm going to move forward. So I think that's the, for me at least, that's the mindset shifts in this whole philosophy. What we're talking about is a loss or a setback is not a setback. It's actually a win or a learning opportunity, which is a win.

Well, one last way I want to talk about, Eric, is the easiest way to eliminate the number of setbacks is through mentorship or coaching, right? Or to study what someone else has done. I know when I first started my business, I was doing it on my own. I thought I knew everything. And looking back now,11 years later, I probably extended the misery by four or five years because I didn't get a mentor or coach early enough in my business. And I've had multiple coaches over the years, different aspects. Some are corporate America type coaches that helped with the business side of it. And some were... construction type coaches that help more with the production side of it. I mean, there's all different aspects. But once I started really fully embracing that and looking for coaching full-time, that's whenever I started getting big strides in my business because I was able to shortcut. There's nothing wrong with learning from your mistakes, but if you can avoid the mistake altogether and still learn the same lesson, I mean, that's ultimately a much better outcome, don't you think? Yeah,

Well, yeah. I mean, even yesterday, we were having a conversation with our ambassadors and, you know, they, it wasn't a disagreement, but it was like, okay, we have, we're looking at this one specific topic from a different angle, you know, like there's different ways of looking at it. And so it was more of a discussion of what's the best way to approach this. And I think that's important, but you know, I don't. Honestly, Eric, I don't care if they, this is from my heart here. I don't care if they come to our program or not. I really don't care if it's us. They need to find coaching, whether it's us or someone else. And you need to find someone that matches your personality, matches your needs, and is able to deliver the results you're looking for.

It's perfect, man. Let's take, take us out of here.