EP39: Success Is A Moving Target

Listen, I want to kick the whole podcast off with, I wish it was a visual thing, but you know how they have the Instagram meme or whatever, but it shows like what... What you think success looks like, and it's basically a ladder, like climbing up the ladder that gets at the top, they win, right? This is what success looks like, but this is what reality actually looks like. It's just like this scribbly mess, spaghetti line of twisted turns and ups and downs before you get to the top. And that's what this is about. It's like, if you would have thought like, hey, I had to deal with all this squiggly lines to get to the top, you might not try. A lot of people come in blindly and they're like, I just climbed the ladder to the top. I'll do all the things. And then they get caught in the spaghetti, in that spaghetti wall. And then all of a sudden they're like, oh, I'm not cut out for this. And that's why 96% of contractors fail.

Oh my God. It was so long ago.

Yeah, that's crazy. It makes me think one time I was, I mean, this is a little off topic, but not totally. But one time I was a young man, I was... not even 20, you know, and I was hiking in, in the mountains here by Big Bear, Running Springs, Arrowhead, Arrow Bear kind of area. And I was hiking to this one plateau and it was long, grueling. And I remember getting like close and I was like, oh, I'm almost there. I just got to climb this one hill and get to the top of the hill. And at the top of the hill, the crest will take me to the plateau. And I get to the top of that hill and I look down and there's like,20 more hills to get me, you know, the hills and valleys to get to the plateau. And I looked at the top. I was like, oh my God, what happened? I thought I was here. And I'm so, I still have so far to go. And that's how

So, I mean, it's kind of, it kind of represents what you're talking about. It's like, what if you get there and it's the wrong spot? Do you turn around and walk away?

So for me in that scenario when I was getting lost, there was a fire road that led to the tower. And it's like, we can either take the fire road to get to the tower or we're going to hike through the mountains to get to the tower. I knew if I got to the tower, I could safely navigate my way home through the fire road. But here I'm stuck halfway in the wilderness trying to get to that plateau. So there was no... turnaround, easy route home. Like success was, you know, failure was not an option. I had to get to the tower to make it home.

I don't think it was George Washington, bro.

No, it was not George Washington.

I don't remember. It was not George Washington. I want to punch you right now.

I guarantee it was not George Washington. Okay.

Let's go to the three things we kind of want to talk about as far as successes. Some people, their personalities, they don't like change. And where other personalities are like, hey, change is cool. Let's go, okay, let's try something different, right? So they'll change it up a little bit. So personalities really play into this. It's really interesting right there, right? So what do we want to talk about? We want to talk about embracing the change, anticipating change, and training for change. Those are the three topics that I think are important to the podcast that we can cover and maybe shed some light on this crazy, crazy road to success.

Fantastic. Well, you know, George Washington's a legend, right? So there was probably some other wars. There was a different war than the cross in the Delaware that someone burned the bridges. Look it

No, no. I'm actually blown away that George Washington did that too. It makes him even more of a legend in my mind.

Hell yeah, he was. All

It means like you can't fight it, man. There's no way around it. It's going to happen. The target's going to move. The ladders are going to change. A rung's going to break. Hopefully you have a parachute or a zip line to dampen the fall or whatever. But I'm telling you, you have to embrace it. If you don't embrace it, you can fight it. It's just that I believe it's just going to be more stressful on you emotionally, physiologically. All that stuff is going to be more emotional if you don't embrace it. And so... you can either fight it or just know you got to go with the flow.

Emporify, bro. Bring it. I'm still pissed I was wrong about George Washington. He's a legend.

I knew you were going to love this topic, bro. I just knew it. Let me tell you a little secret. You know, I just want to let you know that I came up with this topic. Like, this topic's been on for like 10,11,12 minutes. Literally 18 minutes ago, I was like, this is our topic for the podcast tonight. I just want you to know. Just being 100% transparent.

Because that's what makes them authentic and candid and real. I mean, this is when the emotion pours out. This is when it's not thoughtful. You get goosebumps and you start to cry and shit. I hope you cry before the end of this.

Okay, so we're embracing, right? We have to be prepared, man. We have to like, that's the thing. Look, we talked a lot about mental health. Think about all the perfectionists that have to have things exactly the way they want to, exactly the time they want, and it doesn't happen that way, right? And so emotionally, that could be incredibly, incredibly stressful and trying. It pressures you. relationships with your family, your friends, your wife, your kids, everything, right? So just by being aware, total awareness and embracement is like the first, it's the first chance to be able to overcome this.

True. And I mean, the only flip side to that is like, we don't have to love it. If it's your personality, you don't love change. I mean, it's helpful if you love it, right? But if it's your personality.

Look at embrace it. It should, maybe we should just be expected, you know? I mean, expectation, right? We need to expect it.

Well, okay. Yeah. I mean, that doesn't work. Let's jump into it. Expectation.

So I go straight to sports when it comes to expectation. What was the word we're using right here?

Anticipate. Anticipate. So like, bro, you're going to love this. Because we talk a lot about culture. After work yesterday, one of the reasons I'm so much... inflammation and stress on my body right now. We played football yesterday out in the parking lot behind my ranch in the dirt with rocks everywhere. We played football for an hour after work. You know, it got me back into the whole mode, you know? It's like, so like we have to anticipate what our competition was going to do, you know? Like, hey, let's run these routes and I'm going to anticipate that this is going to be the outcome from it. I'm anticipating some change. I'm anticipating they're going to read us or they're not. And so while I was running trials and stuff, like, so like for, for me, sports comes into this, like I'm anticipating all kinds of crazy stuff.

sure. Well, that anticipation too is like for pit stops. I mean, I'm going to go straight into that analogy, what you're talking about. It's like, hey, can I make it another couple laps or... hey, do I need my tires changed? Because the last time I went around the curve, I don't feel like my grip was as well as it was earlier. So I'm anticipating I could have a problem if I don't plan for it. Maybe I should pit stop now, get the tires changed and feel at the same time and go hit it again. So it's like business can be fast paced. I mean, we have to be on our toes. We're getting calls, we're getting callbacks, we're getting employees, trucks, vehicles. There's a lot coming at you every morning when you wake up. I anticipate shit hitting the fan every single day.

Once you anticipate it and you're geared up for it, when it happens, it doesn't hit you as hard, right? So imagine all the contractors are out there that are running that are like, they don't want to embrace it. They're just trying to just like... lay down the track like they want to. They're not anticipating different changes. When these unknowns come at us and smack us in the face, it just hits those people harder because they're not ready for it. I'm always frightened to tell you how I think about things. When the phones ring, I'm like, did someone get in a car accident? Did someone get hurt on the job? I'm anticipating all these different crazy things. When they call up and they're like, hey, I got a flat tire. We're going to be behind schedule. Can you call the homeowner? I'm like, yeah, bro, I will. That's not a problem. That's an easy one. I don't even care about that. That's easy. It's like I'm anticipating the real problems that could happen. So when the small ones hit me, it's like water on a duck's back.

Just to clarify, I was wrong about George Washington. But I do want to clarify. I do want to clarify, I don't live there. I don't live there. But if I get a random call, this is an awkward time to get a phone call from here. I might go, hey, this could be a big problem. So I just want to clarify, I don't live there. That would be stressful enough as it is.

for sure. I mean, that would be an example. Why am I getting a call from my production supervisor at this time of day? He's going to tell me someone's not coming in. Something's going wrong, right? Dude, I have to share with everyone that there was a time in my business when I was scaling and I had a lot going on and we had a lot of pressures and a lot of push. And I set the notifications on my phone to be like that fire alarm. I don't know why I did it, man. I don't know why I did it. I was like, because I think I was ignoring some notifications. I was like, I need something more. This is important. This is critical. Get the notification. Jump on it. And I had my phone doing this fire alarm thing for a while. And it stressed me out of my mind. I was like, I would jump when my thing would go, when the notification would go off. I'm like, I can't do this anymore. I have to change this. It's not that critical. It's stressing me out of my face.

What's my notification? Just share everyone right now. Make it go off on your phone right now. What's my notification?

I'm not going to let this slide, Brad. I'm not just going to let this glaze over and we're not going to talk about it anymore. How about this? How about I tell you what I want my ringtone to be when I text you or call you? Can I just tell you that? Sure. And can we just make that switch?

Yeah, I want it to be the ACDC for those about to rock.

bro. Please. No. Come on.

Dude, everybody loves the circus. Everyone loves to see clowns and elephants.

I mean, if you're in sports, you're anticipating what your other team is going to do. They think, I'm going to pass. We're going to run. They think, I'm going to run. I'm going to pass. So you start anticipating things like that. in your business, in your life, when you might need a new vehicle, things like that. So if you're really sharp, and I think most entrepreneurs have that tendency, dude, we should do a poll one day. I would love to know about our members and stuff like that, who was heavily into sports and who wasn't. I have some things across my mind like that. But so anticipating, I mean, if you're in sports, you're anticipating those kinds of things. When I should lay up in basketball, when I should do the three-pointer, when I should pass, all those things, those are critical movements like that. And that can be said in business as well. I can't necessarily give you an exact example for your business.

Yeah, for sure. I get it. You know, and this goes back from soccer to hockey. You know, Wayne Gretzky always said he never skated to the puck. He skated to where the puck was going. Right. So. That anticipation thing is good. I think it's a good example because, you know, currently with the supply chain thing going on, like our construction team currently is gangbusters. Like we can't get there fast enough to build ponds for people. But I do know I am aware of potential supply chain interruptions in the supplies that we need for new pond construction. And so because I'm aware of that and I'm watching for it. I'm anticipating, you know, what will we do? What kind of changes will we need to make to make it in order to do this? Will we use a different liner? Will we do more concrete ponds? You know, should we work on some of our marketing campaigns to press harder into service and repair and do those kind of things to help support the business and keep all the employees rolling? So those are the anticipation moves that we do like that.

Let's close up shop. It's a change. What are we going to do? Yeah.

And you hoarded them, bought 300 buckets.

I'll bet. I'll bet.

One thing I want to bring up, I think you might like this, Brad, is part of this anticipation part is being connected with a really good community of like-minded contractors. you know, across the country. I mean, I've been networking with Han contractors specifically for, you know, two decades, you know, and now with the profit group and the profit club, we have our own peer groups and things like that. It's like, it's really interesting to stay connected with people like that. And I think that, you know, there's a lot of contractors out there that, you know, they kind of hold anything. Everything's a secret. They don't want to share the thing and they're just like, they're rogue and they're going to do it on their own. I'll carve my own way. But like, If you can be involved in a community, I don't care what community it is, where it is, but I've been doing it for a long time. And so being connected with those kind of people and peers that do what you do or in construction in general, they can help you keep a pulse on these kind of things, you know, from different trends that are coming on. Like, just think back about over the years, like different trends that are coming on. the windows that people are using, the new products that are coming out, new patents that are happening, you know? And so, like, we can anticipate things like this, right? And so, you know, one of the most amazing things I've ever done in business is create my patent for my skimmer, right? And I just anticipated the needs of my customers and it led me to this, it led me to that, you know? And if I was just, like, so bullheaded and, like, I just got to do this, that, the other, and I wasn't open to this. then those kind of magical moments wouldn't have happened. So I think community is really important here. And this anticipation leads to like these magical spots if you just let it happen.

Yeah. So let's move on to training because I think this is a really important factor. First of all, if you embrace it and you're aware of it, you have some self-awareness. You start to anticipate. Hopefully you're in sports. You can kind of have that feel for it. But like once that's happening with you and who you are and how you perceive things, now as you're bringing on employees, it's paramount that we help our employees understand this. And so if you don't communicate this with the employees and you're going this way, then that way, then this way, that way, then it's like, you know, my boss doesn't know what the hell's going on. He's going this way, then that way. He's a jackass. Like if you don't communicate. like what the end goal is and how we're going to navigate through this, all these challenging times or different things, then they don't realize it. You know, I know I hate to say like simple minded, but like sometimes they can be very narrow minded and focused on certain things since they don't see the big picture. I don't want to call them simple minded because they might be great craftsmen, but they don't see the big picture of how we're trying to get to the finish line and what we have to deal with.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely see that point for sure. currently something that I'm, I'm training a new supervisor for our production division. And, you know, sometimes in the morning, the team might see me just like barking decisions. I hate to use the word barking, but like, this is a decision, that's a decision. This is like just making decisions quickly. And sometimes I'll make a poor decision and we'll make a change. I'm like, Hey, that was a bad idea. You know, I'm glad you, I'm glad you mentioned that. I would have really screwed up if we would have done that today. Let's do this instead. And so like we're training that, hey, sometimes we're going to make a decision that might not create the best outcome. But sometimes when we make decisions, we have to process them as we're making them, process the decision and validate that it's the right move, right? Because sometimes you'll slide in different input, especially if you have a big team and a lot of different guys, a lot of moving parts. Hey, well, this guy can't pull a trailer. Oh, crap. That's a good idea. He's not going to be able to bring the machine home. So then we start to make different decisions. We're making a lot of changes each and every day based on who might be sick or what trailer might have a flat tire or whatever. So that's kind of how you said embrace it. It almost becomes fun. Like, okay, what are we going to overcome today?

Yeah, that's a good example. And I know exactly what you mean, like to the T. Here's a little bonus thing that I do I want to share with you that hopefully will make you smile. I know you don't smile that often. I don't know if you hit your quota this month or not, but there's certain products that we get from Home Depot and we use quite a bit of them. You know, it's a regular item. So let's call it the XYZ widget, right? So if I go into the Home Depot... And I'm getting some product and I go to the XYZ widgets. I'm like, oh, I need all of these. There's only 19 of them. I needed 24. I'll snatch that box up and I'll put it in my cart. And then I'll take two of them and I'll put them back on the shelf. Usually not in the box because I took the box too, right? But I'll just take two of those XY widgets and I'll set them back on the shelf just in case because I'm like... And if I came into the store and I really needed this one fitting and I didn't have it and they were totally sold out, I'd be so messed up. I'd have to go find another store and I'd have to drive away and I'd lose all the time and I wouldn't get it done. So that's just like, what's one of the nice things I do, bro? I just want you to know that.

Well, you know, and you're pissed, right? Just imagine the guy who took the last one just would have left one for you so you get your job done without stress.

I'll bet. Dude, are you retiring on this job, building your office out? Like you've been there forever, bro.

It looks like you're turning gray a little bit. Like get some gray in your beard, bro. Jeez.

don't know. I was thinking about training. I just, I want to say that we're just a second longer. I think that there's a lot of contractors and probably a lot of the listeners that disseminate information. to their employees like a little bit at a time. And I think that in part of the training process, they don't take enough time to show big picture stuff. They don't do tailboard meetings long enough to really get the team to understand like what the end goal is for this particular project. So like, you know, okay, we're, we're building a house, right? But I mean, if the whole team knew, Hey, we're building a house and this is what's happening and cool. But it's like, you know, imagine the labor's coming. It's like, Hey, Take the trash, put it in the trash can and come back and see me. Okay, I'm here. Okay, take the drywall, slide it into the wall. And then when the drywall's done, come and see me. They don't train the big picture. And I think the faster that contractors start to take even their low-level guys and try and train them big picture, I think the embracing and anticipation of this crazy road to success becomes more clear to everybody and actually makes morale even better. It just makes the world go smoother. And I think a lot of it can happen in the training. I just wanted to kind of, that's kind of my final thoughts right there with the training.

Absolutely. I'm old.

Where's the wisdom right there, bro? Thank you so much for paying attention to our podcast today. And just, I want you to know I'm super. pissed that I was wrong about George Washington. And I'm going to look up the other wars and battles that were fought where people burnt the boats when they hit the land. So, hey, if you want to make the world a better place, you know what you can do. You can share the podcast with other contractors because when we disseminate this information and get contractors to embrace the change, then the world becomes a better place. Everyone has better experiences and we really appreciate you. So, we'll catch you on the next Downbone.