00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:00 Unknown How you do one thing is how you do everything right. If you want to be this top level business owner, you should also be a top level dad. At a top level husband, you know. And if you're going to be a top level business owner, you need a top level team. So you got to pour just as much as you do into the business and your family like into your team.

00:00:31:02 - 00:00:52:12 Unknown How goes I'm getting flew in this morning. Flew in this morning. Had a bumpy ride in the storm and out. But the view on the way up with a quarter sun. Sunrise in Florida and then the storm in Iowa. Beautiful. The clouds coming, coming down. This pretty fool look like a bunch of cream puffs. It's super cool. Yeah, kids love it.

00:00:52:14 - 00:01:16:05 Unknown I thought. Yeah, all right, well, today on the show, we've got Austin McGinnis. He is, actually one of my professors from way back when. Don't you dare call me that night. An instructor. Thank you. Yeah. So, special guest today, co-owner of Team Builders and out of Cedar Falls. And they also have a location in Florida, so.

00:01:16:08 - 00:01:43:09 Unknown Sarasota. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about that. How did that come to be getting a second one, really? It was a family decision. First and foremost, like, the foundation of the reason behind it wasn't necessarily like a business strategy move. It was more for, family reasons, family piece, just kind of not that we needed a fresh start, but it was just more, you know, better for my wife and I and our relationship and what we want her to do.

00:01:43:09 - 00:02:17:21 Unknown She's definitely one that, flourishes and nice weather you get around Iowa. Sometimes it can be draining through the winter. So, But now she was. She also had a little bit of burnout with her, her business. And, you know, it was it was a good, healthy reason for us, to move. Good for the kids, too. And, yeah, I mean, that's that was the foundation, and I actually I spoke with my partner, so two partners, Ken Trevor, had a sit down meeting with them was really kind of one of those, like, come to Jesus meetings where it's like, hey, like, this is what I'm doing.

00:02:17:21 - 00:02:33:00 Unknown This is what my family's doing. Like, my mind just made up and I think they could tell, like, that was, you know, and I didn't want to leave, you know, the team behind was like, can we do both? And so then it became like this equation of, you know, being best for the family and best at the business.

00:02:33:00 - 00:02:57:15 Unknown And here we are two years later. And what's come from the move? It was almost just like, meant to be. And there's a lot of synergies that we gain. You know, we share a lot of services. So we actually have like estimating and design services out of our Iowa office. And then we have more bookkeeping marketing heavy, out of our, our Florida office and growing every day too.

00:02:57:15 - 00:03:19:13 Unknown So it's just kind of, it's a cool position to be in. It's honestly a dream. I love what I do, and, to have two locations, it's really cool. It's challenging. But we have aspirations for more to. And so we have, you know, strategy to play, to go beyond attack and do that so we can get into some of that today too, if we really wanted to.

00:03:19:13 - 00:03:37:23 Unknown But but yeah, for sure, man, I just really enjoy getting on stuff like this. I like to pour my heart out. You know, I don't want to hold anything back. And, you know, you're a state of mind, too. I really think it's cool what you're doing, sharing. You know, the the hidden hustle of entrepreneurs, which is a cool story.

00:03:38:00 - 00:03:57:06 Unknown And I love hearing other people's stories. So I appreciate someone who's bringing those stories to life. And I'm super cool. So keep following us. Yeah. That's awesome. Like, honestly, it kind of goes into more of a, a vision of what we're trying to do. So we we saw a vision in 2021. So 2122, 23, 24, 25. It was a five year vision this year.

00:03:57:06 - 00:04:17:10 Unknown 25 at the time, we were just $1 million company in 2021. And like 1.7 maybe. And that was chasing our tails. Like that was the hardest 1.7 we've ever done. I was honestly 3 or 4 years into the business at that point. So we were those three years in the business because this year will be eight.

00:04:17:10 - 00:04:41:09 Unknown So three plus five is eight, right. So still just a baby infant. We're still full time teaching at the University of Northern Iowa Construction Management. My partner was actually, doing a little bit of double duty. He taught at, Hawkeye, taught the, the, carpentry apprentice program. So we were both teachers. Kind of had that a little bit of a background share mutual interests.

00:04:41:09 - 00:05:08:14 Unknown He and I were both from Mason city, Iowa, originally, and I could get into the story kind of how we came to be. Yeah. What's what's the origin story of, oh, man, let's get into it. But really kind of vision wise like that. 25 you know, vision initially was to do 10 million by year five. But also reinvesting half of our profits and, you know, basically pouring back into the business for growth reasons and employees.

00:05:08:14 - 00:05:38:15 Unknown So not just, like being profitable to fill our pockets as owners, but being profitable to grow and provide more opportunities for our team and foreign to our team. And so every step of the way, every year, I could point to one thing that we did that was growth for the business, and one thing that we did every year, that was growth for our team and reinvested to our team, whether that be insurance benefits, or, you know, 401 K, trucks, just different, you know, benefits because our, our goal too is to keep employees for life.

00:05:38:15 - 00:05:58:17 Unknown We want to make carpentry cool. We want to make that, you know, like, feel like it's a dying trade. Construction in general is and, and so, like, to bring about a business that can be somewhere for people to grow that are, that are skilled trades, hands on type individuals, and basically have a home for them to grow and have a career.

00:05:58:19 - 00:06:18:15 Unknown So that's kind of was the original vision. And then this, you know, next vision is going to be a 2030 vision. And so we're starting to develop that this year. And that's fun. And with two locations it's just like what can you like if what we've done in five years to get to the 10 million and it's coming feel it's happening right before our eyes, what the next five years could be?

00:06:18:20 - 00:06:45:12 Unknown Yeah, right. So that's kind of cool. But then the origin story, Trevor and I actually went to high school together. We weren't necessarily buyers were, you know, acquaintances at the time is a year older than I was. Funny fact two we both actually married girls from, Northwood, manly cancer area. And, you know, they always they went to school at Central Springs and that's just kind of a cool story.

00:06:45:12 - 00:07:07:16 Unknown So his wife was in the same grade as my wife's brother. So cool story there. But, you know, back to the origin story. I'm. I'm in Waterloo, Cedar Falls. Just move from Minneapolis, start or I'm from Mason city. Moved to Waterloo, Cedar Falls after living in Minneapolis for three years after college and moved and became an engineer.

00:07:07:16 - 00:07:32:16 Unknown Was doing HPC, plumbing, fire suppression design. Trevor was actually doing. Worked at Target Distribution for a while. Martin Brothers and actually kind of went out and was almost doing his own handyman work, roofer, another contractor in town to have a life on his own doing that. And I was basically flipping a house, during that time was having trouble with some, some subcontractors.

00:07:32:16 - 00:07:47:21 Unknown I ended up having a conversation with, a good friend from high school who knows Trevor. Well, he was like, hey, you should hit up Bengals. You know, like he's in town. If you know stuff about the troubles I was having, you know, flipping my first house, it's just like, oh, you know, struggles every step of the way.

00:07:47:22 - 00:08:11:07 Unknown You start building your network base. Like, it was just this whole thing and, great experience. But Trevor came on, ended up, you know, pulling him into the project. And he handled some coordination. He handled, skilled carpentry stuff like custom barn doors, custom, accent wall, dealt with inspectors, was managing some trades, built me a deck in the middle of January.

00:08:11:07 - 00:08:30:23 Unknown Like I remember pulling up the site and freezing cold out dudes got bibs and solo, you know, jacking up a deck and just, like, polishing a turd, you know? So, definitely gained a ton of respect for me just in his work ethic and, you know, his skill that he brought to the table, just all he was juggling at the time was really impressed.

00:08:30:23 - 00:08:48:09 Unknown And so I had the conversation with him like, hey, man, I would love to continue to do this and like, exit out of, you know, being an engineer. And he was like, hell yeah, man. Let's let's figure out how do we do that? And we ended up having a conversation. We we played softball with each other that summer.

00:08:48:11 - 00:09:14:01 Unknown And every he took the time to softball with either me before or after and just start to develop the business plan of what we wanted to do. We started reading some books together on just Business Partnership. Rocket Fuels, the book that we were reading and very paramount book for us. And just knowing his style and my style, knowing that like going into business together was almost like a marriage, you know, like you want to make sure you're a good fit and felt that way.

00:09:14:01 - 00:09:33:16 Unknown And so the day that we incorporated team builders and started our work was the same day I actually started at you and I. So I left engineering, started at you and I as an adjunct, and it was ended up being like was supposed to be just like a one semester thing. There was a professor prior that had some health issues, which is a reason for the position.

00:09:33:16 - 00:09:58:17 Unknown And I fell into that like dumb luck, basically. Really enjoyed it. Ended up doing it for five years. And all the while building, you know, team builders on the side. And honestly a lot of the history of team builders that was actually hiring some students, you know, as interns and growing organically that way. And we learned just as much from students at the time as they were learning from us.

00:09:58:17 - 00:10:28:19 Unknown And I was really kind of the organic foundation of the first five years at TI. So nice. Yeah. Started out of my basement and Trevor's basement. Right. We ran a lot of meetings out of a Caribou coffee shop in those early days. Yeah. And, graduated into a gym. We actually ran operations out of a gym. We had a ping pong table inside the gym, and then we stumbled upon the the ratio in 2020, August to 2020, the duration hit Cedar Rapids.

00:10:28:19 - 00:10:52:03 Unknown And at the time we were really heavy into roofing, siding, gutter work. And so we chased that storm and that had a lot of fruit. But it also stretches then and so about broke us in a lot of ways. And so we ended up pulling out of Cedar Rapids in 22, and really pivoted the business big in a big way in 22 and committed to decks, fences and custom build.

00:10:52:03 - 00:11:12:13 Unknown And that's our niche today. And that's, we just started our deck and fence operation in Florida this year. So now both Iowa and Florida have a deck fence custom build operation, which is a good balance. And that's where a lot of the synergy comes from. Is both locations doing similar work. Right? Yeah. So what the first few months or the first year look like a team builder.

00:11:12:13 - 00:11:35:08 Unknown So you said was that the derecho that was part of that first year was now derecho was 2020 and we started 17. The first year was really, like we call ourselves basically the Screen Door Company. You know, we'd be the company that would come and fix your screen door. But it started with, a lot of small jobs, actually, one of the one of my favorite stories.

00:11:35:08 - 00:12:00:19 Unknown Our first, I'll never forget, we, we we had a storm. It was a it was a storm job, but like, the siding that we were removing off of this house. Nice house. Was relatively new house, but, like, the storm paled damage, right? So, like, decent sized house, two stories the backside is what looks to have like March, but they got a whole new siding on their claim.

00:12:00:21 - 00:12:16:14 Unknown What we listed the siding on like Craigslist, like for sale. Like, hey, is anybody want this for like a rental or something? And we ended up getting it sold. I came and picked it up like we had it. We basically demoed it, set it on side. The guy came, pulled up with a trailer, loaded on the trailer, avoided a dumpster.

00:12:16:14 - 00:12:39:19 Unknown Right. You know, basically got paid for the material. We got paid basically almost four grand for the material. And, we ended up buying our first trailer and clothes trailer with those funds, so that was like flipping right. Material. We've never done that ever again. But the first time that they ever did a job was like, how do we get crews just one of those creative, you know, waste, yeah.

00:12:39:21 - 00:12:59:11 Unknown Yeah. With like, Piccolo's trailer, which was like epic. We were operating out of just the back and, back of the F-150 at that point. Right. So that's that's wild. Yeah. It was. Wow. I'm. That's how I answer it. And the trailer had hail damage. Oh, my, stupid. So we scooped that up for relatively cheap, too. And we still have it today.

00:12:59:11 - 00:13:24:09 Unknown It's an awfully nice. Yeah, that's an epic story. When you think about, like, what's made team builders successful, what stands out? That I mean, honestly, like, when we first started team, it was Trevor was awesome. Again. It's like it was an acronym. We took the acronym away because the it's about the locker room. It's about the team, like the the people in the business.

00:13:24:09 - 00:13:40:11 Unknown And, and a lot of ways we say like, the business operates like a family, but it's like that locker room type family. Or when you're on the team, everything's cool. But, you know, you can still be traded and you can still be cut if you're not performing. Right. So you're treated as family so long as you're in the locker room.

00:13:40:11 - 00:13:58:19 Unknown But if you mess up that opportunity, you know you're cut or it's not necessarily cut throat like that, but it's, you know, we we pride ourselves on who's inside the walls of the locker room, and we treat everybody that's in the locker room with the ton of respect. And we pour out for them. We basically have a saying, you bleed black and green.

00:13:58:19 - 00:14:15:23 Unknown People that are out there wearing, you know, team builders with pride in the community and saying good things like our we want our team members to be our number one recruiters. We want our team, you know, members to be our number one word of mouth referrals. Right. And, we very much have that in this culture is everything.

00:14:16:01 - 00:14:40:13 Unknown And so that's, that's the most important piece, to our success. Yeah. It's the people inside the walls. What were some key lessons you've learned along the way? You know, like, even like the hard way? Honestly, the the ratio was a big, big learning lesson. And one of the reasons we pivoted, out of storm work, you know, we were doing storm work by happenstance.

00:14:40:13 - 00:14:58:07 Unknown We got like, the first project we did was storm work, right? That society job. And there was there was an abundance of it in Cedar Falls at the time when we were getting started. So that's part of the reason we got into that. We ended up, you know, really diving into roofing, siding and gutters, but it was almost like we hated every step of it.

00:14:58:07 - 00:15:19:08 Unknown And, we weren't built for it. We were a team of carpenters, and we were subbing out a lot of that work. We don't get systems for it. But, you know, when we went to when we went to Cedar Rapids, it tested our systems. It tested us logistically. That was a hard lesson. Like, we we were like, oh, we're gonna, you know, it's 20, 20 or 3 years in the business.

00:15:19:08 - 00:15:34:10 Unknown And we always have wanted like an expansion, you know, like, oh, Cedar Rapids just makes so much sense. Just the opportunity to. Rachel just messed up the whole town. Well, you go and you do all that work, and then the work dries up, too, you know? So, like, we tried to get a salesperson there, we tried to build out a crew there.

00:15:34:10 - 00:15:51:22 Unknown And every step of the way, it was just it was more agony than it was. Like it just wasn't worth it. So huge learning lesson for us. If you're going to start a new location. And this is part of the reason why we are successful in Sarasota, we want to route. We learned the hard that lesson the hard way.

00:15:51:23 - 00:16:12:13 Unknown You need boots on the ground. We were trying to operate in Cedar Rapids even though it's only an hour away. Trevor and I went there. Neither of us can. And so, you know, we were hiring guys there that was just, like, hard to train, hard to manage, and just headaches every step of the way. Running mostly subcontract trades, which we didn't really have the resources.

00:16:12:13 - 00:16:32:19 Unknown So no boots on the ground. We weren't well connected when we when we when we went to Florida, we bought an existing business. It came with a Rolodex, the key with a network. It came with a runway. It came with some projects. It came with a phone number, you know, like it was established, a 30 year existing business where we were being more of a startup mode down there.

00:16:32:19 - 00:16:51:14 Unknown So we learned really good lessons that would, you know, suit us well. Later when we did the expansion to to Florida. And one of the reasons why we decided to buy a business doing that, you know, because I wasn't just going to go down there and do a startup because that's just a recipe for disaster. You're shooting from the hip and you had no connections.

00:16:51:16 - 00:17:10:08 Unknown Yeah. So no buying this way much. Yeah, yeah. So what was that process like, buying a business? There's a book out there called Buy Them Build and I actually it was then following like we actually looked at buying businesses in Cedar Falls prior to the Florida thing, never even becoming an idea. We looked at a financing business.

00:17:10:08 - 00:17:29:08 Unknown We looked at a concrete business. We looked at a plumbing business like we were always seeking expansion. And eventually, like after the Cedar Rapids thing was like buying a business. As the founder started to make more sense to me, I started to look into it and was like, you know, damn, there's a huge opportunity out there for, you know, these baby boomers that are retiring.

00:17:29:08 - 00:17:54:16 Unknown They call it like, this $10 trillion opportunity is kind of what the Twitter user says. I feel like I can do that now. And so yeah, you can find plenty of people talking about SMB, which stands for Small and Mid-sized Business Opportunities, where you could buy with SBA money, which is what we did. Another business. And honestly, like, just like you go on Zillow and you can find a house, you can go on biz, buy, sell and find a business.

00:17:54:18 - 00:18:18:21 Unknown So it's very there's an abundance of businesses out there looking to sell. And if they're working with the right broker, that broker is listing that business on bits. Buy, sell. There's franchise opportunities on there that aren't even operational yet like oh, I want to start, you know, a friend dispense franchise in Sarasota. Or you could buy that the rights to that territory and start a franchise if you wanted to franchise.

00:18:18:21 - 00:18:39:02 Unknown That's a whole different operation. Ours was just, you know, it was a one man owner operator for 30 years, and he had two employees and a couple of, you know, business assets and was not really like, I didn't buy like this, you know, fully operational, systemized business. Like, I found a business that I could buy it at a decent price.

00:18:39:04 - 00:18:59:12 Unknown I felt like I was getting a good deal business valuation was like 900 K. I bought it for 650 and ended up having clawbacks. That got me down to close to 500. So based on a 900 K valuation, getting it for five was pretty good. And that was an independent third party valuation. And so I also like went and toured it.

00:18:59:12 - 00:19:15:11 Unknown I did good due diligence. I didn't just like, you know, sight unseen buy this thing. You know, I went and got to meet the employees, which is kind of unheard of. But that was the only way I was going to do it. I was able to, you know, really see some of the projects and quality of work.

00:19:15:13 - 00:19:38:21 Unknown And once I saw the neighborhoods that this guy was in and how he didn't have a stickered up if he wasn't doing any marketing, like everything was word of mouth. And I'm like, dude, if this guy just turned on a little bit of a marketing faucet, this thing could blow up, you know? And, not that we've blown up by any means, but, like when here in Iowa, we got to sometimes pay to get leaks.

00:19:38:21 - 00:19:57:10 Unknown You know, in Florida, I have to do that. You know, my truck rap, yard signs, word of mouth, good reputation. The phone number I have, it's been enough. So it's. And there's just an abundance of work on there. I went down there and on every corner I turned, there was a dumpster of a home getting, you know, demos or a full teardowns and rebuilds.

00:19:57:10 - 00:20:17:09 Unknown Just the whole community is just it's insane what was happening down there. And so, yeah, I mean, if so, that sealed the deal for me. On knowing that I was potentially sitting on a goldmine and not saying that like it's produced all this fruit, like it's been two years of hard work to get it to a level where, you know, now we have 11 employees.

00:20:17:11 - 00:20:47:21 Unknown It's starting to feel like, you know, that that locker room culture were just initially like it was a grind for me coming from this location was such an awesome culture and such amazing people. To go down there and really be on my own, having to deal with the turnover, you know, there is there was a little bit of, you know, rub between me and the existing owner after a certain period of time, he had, 90 days of like turnover.

00:20:47:21 - 00:21:18:14 Unknown And after 45, it really kind of stopped. And, yeah, it was just there's challenges every step of the way. I mean, even from that point, building it and finding a new home and building a team. And, you know, a lot of the systems that we built in Iowa was what I was able to leverage and what I had already learned and done once here from scratch, taking it there and just doing it again, it was able to accelerate, you know, a lot faster, but also have the support of the Iowa team bought in on that mission.

00:21:18:16 - 00:21:39:03 Unknown Was a big thing too, because initially when I went down there like, oh my gosh, our CEO is leaving. You know, I don't know what my employees felt like, but I know there was initial shock when I'm announcing it to the team, you know, okay, moving to Florida, we're going to have another location. Our answers that help, you know, fearless leader, you know, taking off and just charting new territory.

00:21:39:03 - 00:21:59:03 Unknown And initially, I'm sure there was some shock. But two years in our team is brought in more and more every 90 days. And we talk about strategically planning, you know, how we're going to grow that thing and how the team here, you know, is a big part of that mission. That's not just me and the Florida employees, which it felt like initially.

00:21:59:03 - 00:22:20:03 Unknown It's been this change, the shift of culture even down there. And this building of new the two employees I inherited in, I bought the business are no longer with me today. All the employees that we have or are yeah. Organic built which is cool. And that's why it feels the way it feels now versus a year and a half ago.

00:22:20:05 - 00:22:41:19 Unknown How do you build that reliable team. Yeah. Oh, so what's your approach to hiring employees honestly. Like if I'm going to be like nuts and bolts and strategic with it, the answer is, serving them like I look for opportunity to

00:22:41:21 - 00:23:05:05 Unknown Sponsor them in the business if you will, like, make them bleed black and green as fast as possible. And the only way to do that is to go out and serve, not do something for them that, you know, a lot of the a lot of the recruits that we have are in a bad situation. Like it's surprising how many are just like, you know, in a job that they hate.

00:23:05:07 - 00:23:32:01 Unknown You know, whether that be not treating, not being treated well, just not in the right see to operate in their unique ability, whatever that is, we have an opportunity that really attracts them. And they also see the culture. So, you know, our new office, just like the five that you come in like you could, you came into this office like you can feel it when you walk in it, you know, it's kind of that locker room, like when you walk in, imagine, like, imagine if you walked into the green Bay Packers locker room in green Bay, Wisconsin in Lambeau Field.

00:23:32:03 - 00:23:51:13 Unknown How freaking cool that it's, right. Like, I'm not saying this is Lambeau Field. I'm not saying that we got that type of locker room, but like, that's how I want people to feel when they walk in. It's like this aura of like, holy shit. Like, this company's got their stuff together. This is a this is a team. They got the whiteboard wall, they got their, you know, office table, their conference room.

00:23:51:13 - 00:24:14:08 Unknown That looks like it's just the conference rooms wide open. It's a big team builder, like custom table. It's like our state would be. So we got this pergola suspended from the ceiling hanging over it with some like outdoor lighting kind of by then it's like when you walk in here and I tell this to homeowner Sue when you walk into my office in the way you feel like, I want you to feel that way when you walk into your home, or I want you to feel that way when you're standing on your back deck looking over your land, right?

00:24:14:11 - 00:24:34:19 Unknown Right. Your kingdom. That's how I want people to feel, and that's that kind of locker room vibe. So that to me is was so paramount in Florida to Florida success. When initially I went there, we were working out of a garage. I honestly just posted about this the other day, like it was, you know, and it was on the dude's property.

00:24:34:19 - 00:24:49:22 Unknown So like, I'm working with the dude and we got some resentment building up and like, I got to go to work in his garage, right. So getting out of there in 90 days. And then I moved in with another contractor, basically, and I was basically in his garage and his and my relationship also was just like he was very controlling.

00:24:49:22 - 00:25:09:22 Unknown So it's just like I ended up buying building from him and I kicked him out. And then we repainted the building, remodeled the space, got rid of all this old crappy furniture and, like, made it our place. All right. Honestly, this last six months has been really the moment where it's been like, Holy shit, I got a team, I got it, I got my home, I got my locker room.

00:25:10:02 - 00:25:26:14 Unknown Nice. And in order to grow a team or to build an awesome team, you got to have a good locker. Yeah, and that's it. And so it's all about. That's why this male team is also cool for that reason. Yeah, definitely. No I when I walked in I was like, I could feel your brand. Like there's a brand presence there.

00:25:26:14 - 00:25:56:22 Unknown And it was cool it as an appeal to what's one system or strategy that's changed everything for you or for team owners? Honestly, the sticky operating system, that whiteboard that you see on the wall. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I mean, that's the answer. You can't fathom how much that's done for us. And honestly, like, we we had an opportunity to Cedar Falls high schools can build story construction out of story Iowa Ames area.

00:25:57:00 - 00:26:16:13 Unknown Was running that project. Trevor had was teaching his class. I had my some of my students were interns on that project. We got to go to that job through their job site, Trello. Their job site superintendent was super open, gave us all the insights. We had, like an hour meeting with him about it and were able to just like peppering with questions.

00:26:16:13 - 00:26:39:02 Unknown We went to their location and saw their headquarters. They were so open about it. Abundance mindset. It was awesome. And I'm like, guys like nobody else in the residential world has anything like this and that. They know the way they had a bill was very commercial. You know, there's just like huge scale. So how to like take that huge scale and, you know, basically dumb it down into residential world is what we did.

00:26:39:04 - 00:26:58:08 Unknown We tried their way. We made tons of iterations to get it to work for us. And you know, I could go in like, I could talk about this like, this is my jam. Yeah. But and I, I have a, you know, that teaching background for me. I taught a class construction entrepreneurship. It was a class that I created at you and I.

00:26:58:08 - 00:27:24:14 Unknown And I got to do it my last semester. And after that, you and I had to parted ways and a part of my passion at you. And I was pouring in and teaching students. I hated the red tape. I hated the bureaucracy. I hated, you know, grading papers. But I love teaching students and getting them excited about building their own company or entrepreneurship or whatever.

00:27:24:14 - 00:27:46:02 Unknown So that's that was where my passion was and why why I stuck around that, you and I, for so long. But here I am, and I got this opportunity now to teach everybody else's system. And I've come up with a course. I teach a course about it. I love basically spilling all the tea builder nuggets and processes and everything, because it's worked for me and I know it'll work for others.

00:27:46:02 - 00:28:03:15 Unknown And I, both Trevor and I and Trevor starting to get into some of that with me. But we're building that. And, that's probably one of the new fun things that we got going on. Like we have the operating entities that kick ass and, we have some super cool A players coming on board to really operate those.

00:28:03:15 - 00:28:25:19 Unknown As Trevor and I continue to level up. And, you know, part of that leveling up is impacting the industry. Both he and I have a passion to do that. And it's like like we both have said, it's bigger than us at this point. For our business. It's about the team, but for the industry, it's about the whole team of entrepreneurs, the guys out there that are, you know, thinking about jumping full time, doing it for themselves.

00:28:25:21 - 00:28:42:06 Unknown Do it like we can support you, right? We could tell you all through all our trials and tribulations, but also the guys that have maybe been in business for ten years, but they feel like they've been doing the same year ten times in a row, right? They've never been able to grow or get past whatever it is, and they don't know what the bottleneck is like.

00:28:42:06 - 00:29:03:07 Unknown I guarantee this system for you in 90 days could get you off the tools with the right people and the receipts in the system. So yeah, it's a huge delegation and automation system that honestly, Trevor and I have been operating with whiteboards for a long time. We actually built the whiteboard before we went and saw a story. And so like we saw it, we were like, holy shit, like this.

00:29:03:07 - 00:29:23:14 Unknown And it all came. Really, dude? Yeah, we were so ready for it. And it's funny, you know, I'm very spiritual. I feel like God works in those ways where like, right at the right moment is when he provides, you know, and I think for us, it was just the timing was so perfect. And honestly, yeah, I mean, I can't tell you how perfect it was for us at the time we're pivoting.

00:29:23:14 - 00:29:40:00 Unknown We were just I could go on and on about what that thing's done for us, and I know that it will impact other businesses. And that's what it's our duty to get out there and and help other businesses with it, too. Yeah, that sounds really cool. I wish I would have been able to take that, construction operation.

00:29:40:05 - 00:30:04:19 Unknown You didn't get to take that. I wasn't in that semester. No, I'm pretty sure I graduated by then, but, we call it the sticky operating system. Lots of whiteboard operators, sticky notes. It's very systematic in how it operates. It's like a big rock crusher taking boulders to rocks to sand. Very granular in your activities when you're starting projects really runs the pre-construction process, the procurement process, the communication with homeowners.

00:30:04:19 - 00:30:29:00 Unknown It has processes in it built for that. And, we teach it through a course. We call it construction on entrepreneur operating systems, construction, iOS scones, the website, and it's basically a week to 12 week cohort, depending on, how ingrained you want, you want us to be to do it with you, do it for you. And we we help build the system for you.

00:30:29:00 - 00:30:48:17 Unknown It's a framework, but we cater it to each individual business. There's electricians, there's landscapers, there's big geeks. You know, there's there's different business facets. And it has to be cater to each business a little bit. But the framework in and of itself is the genius part of it, packaged with other things. So we have been provided assist with.

00:30:48:18 - 00:31:06:12 Unknown Yeah is awesome. So when's the next cohort is it starts April 28th. I think it's a Monday next Monday, this upcoming Monday. But the Monday after. Yeah. How many people have signed up or how many can you have? The time I like I like to limit it at ten. You know, I've never actually hit ten.

00:31:06:12 - 00:31:27:18 Unknown It's still kind of new and in its infancy, but it's picking up momentum fast. But people you know, there's some where amounts going around locally about it. But yeah, it's it's still a passion project. So it's also like a little baby infancy. But that's what I pulled towards. And it is fun and exciting and I enjoy that aspect to teach and grow and impact the industry in a big way.

00:31:27:20 - 00:31:51:11 Unknown That's out. Yeah. And it is awesome. Yeah. So if you're not signed up yet. That's right. Where do they go? Construction, construction and construction, US dot com. And there's a book, a call link, and that's linked to my calendar. You can get on, on during my I call it troubleshoot your business. I try to drive results in that business and I determine whether we're a good fit to work together.

00:31:51:11 - 00:32:14:23 Unknown If, you know, there's some guys that maybe you're a little too new, that aren't quite ready yet, you know, almost like the ideal candidate is someone that, as you know, three, 3 to 10 employees is, like, really poised. But I have guys in it that are like, run in that chaos with 20 to 30 employees. And so, you know, we the those guys are the ones that have the biggest impact because they're ready, you know.

00:32:14:23 - 00:32:32:20 Unknown But I think starting when you start to have a little bit of a team, if you can build that foundation, it's critical. Yeah. If you're just a one man band, you know, it's not it's not really set up for just the one man band. It's meant for when you have a team and you're starting to grow, and you have roles and responsibilities at different facets along the way.

00:32:32:20 - 00:32:50:09 Unknown And yeah, I can drive the most impact. For the more people you have, the the bigger the impact. But if you if you feel your operation is chaos, if you're still on the tools as the founder, it's poised to help you give off the tools, have a, you know, have an impact on your team, have an impact on your family.

00:32:50:09 - 00:33:12:22 Unknown Like it's it's it's bigger than just like you. But it's it's built for the founder to help grow the business and grow the team as well. It it it's huge accountability delegation but also like empowering the team that you have with their skill sets. So yeah.

00:33:13:00 - 00:33:35:22 Unknown People you know, people see the brand, they see, you know, the beautiful homes, the beautiful projects that you guys complete. They don't always see what goes, what it took to get there, what it took to get to that level. I wanted to dig into that side of the business that doesn't make it onto social media. Like the hidden hustle.

00:33:36:00 - 00:34:15:12 Unknown So what's something that people don't see about your work that, you know, takes the most out? That takes the most out of me? You know, I'm, I'm a firm believer in, you know, this mantra. I think maybe it's a little overused, but that how you do one thing is how you do everything right. So if you want to be this top level business owner, you should also be a top level dad and top level husband, you know?

00:34:15:14 - 00:34:35:23 Unknown And if you're going to be a top level business owner, you need a top level team. So you got to pour just as much as you do into the business and your family like your team. And when you get to 30 employees or more, even ten or more like in your job when you families, that's hard to do.

00:34:36:01 - 00:34:57:16 Unknown But there are times when, you know, sometimes it's sacrificing one for the other because I gotta I can't put the kids down tonight because I have to have this critical phone call with this employee because he's going through something, or she's going through something or whatever they may be. And so a lot of what probably people don't see, and that's part of the, you know, one of my passions is the people of my business.

00:34:57:16 - 00:35:25:23 Unknown And even in the recruiting side of people who aren't in my business, like I enjoy the the the people say. And so one of the, one of the things that people aren't going to see is, you know, the relationships that I have behind the closed doors of the business that are after hours or before hours or, you know, dealing with the employee that's going through a tough time being there for them like that.

00:35:26:01 - 00:35:45:02 Unknown Those are the impactful moments. Those are the you know, it's like. As a business owner, you could see your employees as dollars or you can see as humans, but you just see them as humans. And so it's like, yes, pay is one thing. And, you know, there's market rates that set some of those conditions, but you're a performer, so you're going to treat really well.

00:35:45:02 - 00:36:06:15 Unknown And I feel like I had a team of all eight performers, I'd have to treat all of them well. And how do I do that? I like to get on the phone with them. I like to check in with them. Honestly, in the last two years I've fallen in that or a have because I'm not as close to my Iowa team, but I've had a new Florida team that I'm starting to pour into, and so it's hard.

00:36:06:17 - 00:36:28:19 Unknown But that's probably the piece that people don't see behind closed doors is, you know, the impact that, I'm trying to have with my, my guys to, to really not necessarily like that their sons or anything, but I want to be there for that. Yeah. Not just for Marci. And just as a of it all, I got paid this guy or whatever.

00:36:28:19 - 00:36:48:22 Unknown Like I wanted to win at life. I want to be a kick ass dad. I wanted to be a kick ass husband. I wanted to be a kick ass carpenter. So that's. There's some stories that just happened along the way. There's just like once you. Once you really know a guy. Yeah, that's what it's all about, you know?

00:36:48:22 - 00:37:07:22 Unknown And it takes a level to get to that, like, oh, you gotta, you gotta want it. You gotta want that mentorship from from a leader, you know, and a losers gotta want to give that to, you know, a mentee, if you will. Yeah. And sometimes I don't have that relationship with every single one. Maybe they're just not ready at a time.

00:37:07:22 - 00:37:35:16 Unknown He's a big piece of that. But the ones that want it and seek it out, I'm. I'm very open with them and I'm there for them all the time. So any way you can create that desire in a way or fabricate it to make them desire, you kind of know, I mean, mentorship. I feel like God, it's going to put them, you know, those things are out of my control.

00:37:35:18 - 00:37:59:17 Unknown That's not that's that's up to him. And if I'm I'm the one he's chosen to be put in that relationship or in that instance, which he does often for me, that's where an impact is made. There's many people inside the walls at TI builders that their lives have changed because of this team.

00:37:59:18 - 00:38:35:23 Unknown And, you can't really put a price on that. You can't you can't make that happen. It comes and opportunities. It comes in moments. And it's just about being present in those moments. And that's one thing when I was originally with my original CEO, mantra was just like this crush skulls mantra. That's how I start, you know? And I was an intimidating dude, and I could not necessarily that I'm blowing up at any time, but I could be, you know, very stubborn, you know, etc..

00:38:36:01 - 00:39:03:20 Unknown And my mentality threw a lot of work on myself to become that leader that is more, servant type leadership has come with, foundation and faith. Got baptized in 2021, 22. And that changed my life in a lot of ways. And I became free in that moment and, let go of a lot, of a lot of things.

00:39:03:20 - 00:39:23:04 Unknown And, since then, I mean, I've just been blessed with a lot of things in my marriage for relationships, with my kids, relationships with my team business, you know, the the path, the journey that I'm on, the success that that you know, it can appear that way on the outside. But every day is a grind and never gets.

00:39:23:04 - 00:39:39:22 Unknown You gotta enjoy the journey. If you enjoy the journey, then, success in my opinion. I enjoy the journey and I love what I do and I love the people that I get to do it with. And God continues to bless me with those moments all the time. And I like being there for my team. I like being the one that they can lean on.

00:39:40:00 - 00:39:59:14 Unknown I don't wish to have those conversations all the time, but when they arise, like, that's part of my gig and people don't see that. But that's. I love doing that. Yeah, yeah. And I think I had that with students too on set. You and I like. I could point to many students, you know, that I have relationships.

00:39:59:14 - 00:40:24:20 Unknown You know, good relationships like that. With that, we could have conversations like that, you know, and those conversations don't happen with the typical instructor or typical person you got to be. You got to first be that person to be able to have those conversations. No, I think, I mean, I can attest it really came through that you cared about the students and like going to any other class.

00:40:24:20 - 00:40:43:16 Unknown It was, you know, you sit there, you'd listen to the lecture, you do the homework, but there's never like, the professor just didn't have that one on one connection where he was like, no emotion accumulates at the door. And you knew everybody by name. And, you know, we knew some things about everybody. And so, yeah, keeping that and making a tones.

00:40:43:16 - 00:41:02:10 Unknown Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, I try to do that. I mean, and and that's back to the mantra of how you do one thing is how you do everything. And it's it starts with yourself. You gotta have a full cup first. And then as you're full, you can overflow into those other things of your business and relationships with your team and your wife or your kids.

00:41:02:12 - 00:41:20:23 Unknown How do you stay focused or or keep yourself from drifting? If there's ever a time, you know, keeping yourself in that mentality, there's always stress. I mean, life is full of ebbs and flows, and I think you have to realize that there's different seasons of life, and every 90 days I feel like it's a different season. Right now, I'm in a season.

00:41:20:23 - 00:41:56:08 Unknown I. I injured my leg. I haven't worked out in a couple months, and I just feel like pops, you know, helped, like, health wise and, it's just that moment of having to slow down and, you know, rest up. And I think that there's seasons of craziness and business of busyness. And then there's also like, you know, seasons of, like, crazy, like focusing on intimacy with with the family and, you know, going on that vacation or doing that, that date night or whatever that may be.

00:41:56:08 - 00:42:16:15 Unknown I try to always have something on the calendar when it comes to that, but I think it's it's a good it's a good, thing to be intentional about, right? When you, you have to self-reflect, you know, doing journal, you know, exercises, actually thinking critically about how am I performing. Like, it's like you can have a scorecard in business tracking, business metrics.

00:42:16:19 - 00:42:37:23 Unknown What is your scorecard for yourself? You know, are you, are you judging your life based solely on how much money you make on salary? Yeah. You know, like, is that how you see yourself as you just a number like that. Sure. Like it's coming from. Yeah. And so I think it's going back to, you know, what is the scorecard for your life.

00:42:37:23 - 00:43:02:08 Unknown And, you know, I've worked with, a coach, in the past. And then there's five charity territory, self-help, relationships, wealth and business. And they kind of go in that order. You got to be, you know, mentally, spiritually, healthy. You got to be physically healthy yourself. And then you can focus on, you know, being there for everyone else.

00:43:02:08 - 00:43:19:10 Unknown And that's relationships. And then wealth and business kind of come, you know, on the back end if you focus the other way, if you focus more on business first, you can get to the top, but you got to at the top and no one, no one's there with you. What's the point of that. Yeah. You know, and then you also are overweight and not a shape.

00:43:19:10 - 00:43:35:09 Unknown And because you focus so much on business, you didn't give enough time and attention to yourself and, and hey, I, me all this money. But now I'm 55 years old and I can retire early or 50, I can retire early. But I'm, you know, this blob of a man, and I don't, you know, I've been through a divorce and this, that and the other.

00:43:35:09 - 00:43:54:19 Unknown Like, you don't want that, right? So focus on yourself. Get to be the right person, the right man, spiritually, mentally and physically. And then you could be there for everybody else and actually focus on once you start to have that stack to like, if you're in good shape, you're, you know, there mentally, you're focused on doing the right things.

00:43:54:19 - 00:44:13:17 Unknown You're you're feeling full. Then going and pouring into everybody else actually becomes real easy. Going and pouring into your vessels becomes a lot easier. And then you feel like a warrior, you know, that's what. That's what I try to aspire to. I don't feel that way right now. Physically. But I know I'll get there. Just.

00:44:13:17 - 00:44:36:08 Unknown It's a season. A life I've gone through is, you know, resting on my leg and trying to get back to normal. Yeah. Reflecting on everything is you don't always take the time to do that, you know? And there's this concept of gap versus gain and it's good. You know, I think as men you can always be looking at the gap, you know, of like, not where I want to be and not where I want to be.

00:44:36:08 - 00:44:55:02 Unknown And then life becomes this whole like story of, like, never having what you thought you were going to have. And you know, that kind of like care. It's always in front of you and you're always chasing it. But every time you grow an income, you move the target. And now you want more and you want more. And it's like you got to be satisfied a little bit with where you're at.

00:44:55:07 - 00:45:20:02 Unknown I, I feel like I balance between this. Yeah. So often where it's like, I have so much that I want to do and it's so much that I want to become, but I. Yeah, that and there's, one of my favorite is, is like, it's like you men are typically overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, but they underestimate what they can accomplish in five years.

00:45:20:04 - 00:45:34:10 Unknown Right. So if you would have told me five years ago that I'd be where I am today, I've been like, Holy shit, that's sounds crazy. That's a lot, you know? But every year when I look at trying to accomplish a certain goal, it's like I seem to always fall short with where I think I should be or where I want to be.

00:45:34:10 - 00:45:53:17 Unknown And that's not kind of like, you know, the gap and then but like reflecting back and how far you've come, like, even like just today I was running our quarterly meeting with my whole team and just like reflected, we actually went back and looked at our original 2021 like vision. And you know what? Our two weeks were about?

00:45:53:17 - 00:46:15:01 Unknown What made us, us and where we wanted to be. And some of the three year, you know, vivid picture that we were talking about. What? Like, where do we think we'll be in three years? This is five years. What is three years look like? And reading those just it's like comical right, of where we were back then. But like it's like, guys, let's go back and look at what we thought we were five years ago.

00:46:15:01 - 00:46:33:21 Unknown And here we are about to accomplish this mission. Number one, we set this ten year goal. How crazy we thought that was. I'm in a room with one, two, three, 4 or 5. You know, six of them have been with us for three years or more, five of them basically for all eight years. And here, to be honest.

00:46:33:22 - 00:46:55:07 Unknown And, you know, they were there the day that we set those goals and they remembered how hairy big goals those felt like right here we are like it in for you know, it's it's coming to fruition. And just, it's good to reflect back. You got to take time to slow down to do that, or else you're always chasing the gap and you're never looking at the game.

00:46:55:07 - 00:46:57:22 Unknown And that.

00:46:58:00 - 00:47:26:13 Unknown Good insight. So again. Was there ever a point where you felt like you had to fake it, whether it was like in the beginning or, like while you're still figuring it out? Or did you always kind of have that, Yeah. I mean, definitely getting out of the gates was faking it, you know? Yeah, I had the construction engineering degree.

00:47:26:13 - 00:47:49:16 Unknown I had industry experience with, you know, bigger geeks, you know, bigger jobs. But then when you go out on your own and you're just, you know, an entrepreneur and, you know, had done remodels on my own house, you know, I grew up, my dad was a car salesman then my mom was a hairdresser, and my mom was more handy than my dad.

00:47:49:18 - 00:48:03:04 Unknown You know, I didn't you know, they bought me a tool, though, every Christmas period, if fit enough, which is just like they wanted me to have this sweet toolbox, I guess. And I'm all. But it came. You know, I still have a lot of those tools today, and they've all community, but, like, I didn't grow up with a carpenter, dad.

00:48:03:07 - 00:48:27:20 Unknown Right? Or, you know, but my dad was always like, go to school, get a good job, you know, be better off than I, you know, than the opportunity that I've given you. And, you know, construction became my path along the way. Just discovering that, you know, I was my own, my own journey of that was, in and of itself, unique and not having any sort of foundation.

00:48:27:20 - 00:48:55:22 Unknown So I definitely like, felt I faked it all along the way, even, like, even through engineering school, I don't think I ever was fully confident in myself to go and be like like in my head. Initially in engineering school, I was like, I'm going to build stadiums. You know? I wanted to build, the target field and the US bank, you know, I wanted to build those big stadiums.

00:48:55:22 - 00:49:20:17 Unknown But then, you know, you start to fall in love and and cheer, you know, like, now I'm going to want a family like, if you're built stadiums, you got be moving all over the place, you know, because you're not building stadiums every year in the same spot, you know. But anyways like I remember like going through those motions but like I always had big dreams but I don't think I ever really felt like I, you know, was like oh that's my thing.

00:49:20:17 - 00:49:40:17 Unknown Like I actually bounced from job to job after college. A few times. I only ever lasted like two years before. I was just like, man, I'm not cut out for this or this isn't me. And, I feel like even at, like, you and I, I was there for five years while, like, this is me. Like I could teach.

00:49:40:17 - 00:50:08:09 Unknown I enjoy this, you know, the the red tape and the bureaucracy. Didn't really, but I could deal with that because I love teaching, you know, and then team builders at the same time, like when I got into flipping houses and I got into, you know, doing projects like I was probably like faking it to a degree, but, like, I felt like it was a little in my wheelhouse, like I was, you know, a carpenter right after, like, even in high school, like, right after high school, I'd be starting to become a carpenter or working with the buddies.

00:50:08:09 - 00:50:32:22 Unknown Dad. And after that, like, I worked for them for three years. And then, you know, when I went to college, I was always doing side jobs. I ended up starting a drywall and paid company in college and did a lot of work at the university and for other, like, even just like, people throughout the university like to have their houses and stuff.

00:50:33:00 - 00:50:52:10 Unknown And so like, I enjoyed some of the hands on stuff, but as I like, got older and just got into more of the business side and just kind of kept pouring into education even after college, like always reading books, wanting to be somebody but not necessarily had found my way. One time when Trump came along, it was just like, that was God's plan all along, you know?

00:50:52:10 - 00:51:15:08 Unknown So but definitely faded up until that point. And then I finally got into, like, residential stuff. I was like, this is my jam. Yeah. You know, and then then it was just a matter of figuring out, you know, how to be somebody in that space and, you know, still be me in. Then you feel this culture that we have this brand like, that's who I am.

00:51:15:08 - 00:51:36:22 Unknown Like, I'm wearing that. So I am the part of that like this because that's who I am. That's what type of person I am allowed. You know, like if you see our truck or house, you walk in here, slow out a little bit, move it. And it's I enjoy kind of it's kind of just who I am. And you know Trev too and a lot of the guys we have.

00:51:36:22 - 00:52:15:08 Unknown So it's it's all part, all part of it. But I didn't know who I was and was faking it definitely till now. Yeah. Was there ever anybody that doubted you or told you it wouldn't work? I don't necessarily have anyone particular I could just call out, and so like that I was an idiot or anything, but, like, definitely some critics, carefully, some doubters and, you know, I've been in entrepreneur ship type stuff early on and some of those didn't work out.

00:52:15:08 - 00:52:45:11 Unknown So you actually start to doubt yourself, you know, in the first few didn't go your way. But life's about, you know, getting knocked down and getting back up. Just keep going. And I definitely I mean, there's there's probably one thing that really resonated with me and, Yeah, I won't go and tell that story and call that person out, but, I mean, it's it's more of in the back of my head.

00:52:45:11 - 00:53:00:23 Unknown And I think that's maybe more of a story, really, that I was telling myself that I allowed myself to have that chip on my shoulder, but it's gone now. But just didn't think it back. And trying to think there was one thing that really always motivated me from somebody, and I think it's good to use that for fuel for a certain period of time.

00:53:00:23 - 00:53:17:18 Unknown But before, you know, before too long, it becomes, it becomes a distraction. And then it's just like, what are you doing it for? To prove somebody else wrong. Like, it's a good motivator to get going, but you don't want that to be your ride, your status the whole way, you know? Yeah, yeah, I grew out of that.

00:53:17:20 - 00:53:52:02 Unknown Yeah. What mindset shifts have helped you grow the most through your career mindset shift? Honestly, going back to the, you know, self first was a big mindset shift. I was always building the business first sacrificing my health, my family, my relationships. Trying to be that earner right where the dollar amount that I was making define me and when I was able to.

00:53:52:02 - 00:54:09:22 Unknown And that was kind of the whole part of the baptism thing. And committing to Christ a little bit was just like getting rid of that weight and being a different breed and type of, you know, I didn't I didn't like that that was who I was. And I didn't have, I just needed that clean slate for myself.

00:54:09:22 - 00:54:42:03 Unknown And yeah, committing more to being the healthy person spiritually, mentally, physically for myself, doing it for me first, which is a little selfish, but I think it's good to be a little selfish to, you know, you got to be right with yourself, you know, before you can really like if you hate yourself and hate what you do and hate your your life in a lot of ways, and you're not connected with who you are, how are you going to go and be an awesome dad or an awesome husband?

00:54:42:04 - 00:54:59:03 Unknown You know, an awesome business owner? And so like, that was a big mindset shift for me and I. I paid a lot to realize I went through, you know, some really high dollar coaching to figure that out. And that was honestly really profound to me. Is that mindset shift. And then I like once you know it, it's like, holy shit.

00:54:59:03 - 00:55:25:17 Unknown Like that's like spot on. Why didn't I ever think anything different? And I think in this, in today's society and world, it's like you got all these influencers that are out, like it's just like, oh my gosh, like, I could be I could do that, or I want to be that. But it's like, if you're not first set on who you want to be and who you are, then you're kind of, you might just be going up the hill the wrong way, you know?

00:55:25:17 - 00:55:47:10 Unknown So slowing it down to figure myself out for a few years was very, very healthy for me. And I was like 2020 to 2022 time period for me. And then even from 22 to now, it's still like, committing to that, being that person, because that's who I've always wanted to be. And I just didn't know how to be that until I switched that, you know, philosophy, if you will.

00:55:47:15 - 00:56:17:11 Unknown Yeah, yeah. Are there any quotes or scriptures that, like, really resonated through that whole, shift? I have a couple in like, in my but like, you know, love others as yourself, you know, is is a big one for me. And I think, you know, that's part of that servant leadership for everyone else. That's one that I is definitely on my wall.

00:56:17:13 - 00:56:41:09 Unknown But yeah, I mean, I don't necessarily have, like, a quote from a book or anything. Obviously, you know, that mantra of how you do one thing is how you do everything. I, I really resonate with that. And I feel like if, you know, I think Warren Buffett says another one that's like, you know, it's the story of him basically on a golf course, and somebody bets him like, you know, 1 million to 1.

00:56:41:09 - 00:56:58:19 Unknown Like, if I if you don't get a hole in one, you owe me a dollar. But if you do get a hole in one, he's like, I'll give you a million. And Warren Buffett doesn't take him up on the guys. I feel like we had so much to gain. And he's like, yeah, but like my odds of actually hitting a hole in one are way less than 1 in 1,000,000.

00:56:58:19 - 00:57:20:14 Unknown Like dumb and small things and big things is what he says. And so it's almost like someone that's relentless about investments like that is, is is the reason why Warren Buffett has what Warren Buffett has today. And that's because if you're small and, you know, small little thing dumbing in small things, you're going to be doing big things.

00:57:20:14 - 00:57:41:18 Unknown And that's back to that matter of how you do my thing is how you do everything. So, you know, it's definitely, thing you got up. Like, if you're going to be relentless about it, you know, and you can live that life as like a founding principle, like, that's a super cool, and I think that's that's kind of part of the balance, you know?

00:57:41:20 - 00:58:08:06 Unknown Yeah. Tim Miller says, really strong presence online. What, was that always intentional? I think so, yeah. I mean, we had, one of my students that you and I, Austin O'Neill, and he, came on with us really early. I think he actually left you and I. Yeah, I joined full time and pretty early on.

00:58:08:06 - 00:58:33:23 Unknown So he was probably a sophomore. Junior, but dropped out, came, worked for us, and we noticed the town him and, you know, his ability to do the creative tech side of stuff and also like he was in the field. But super cool story with him. I would love for him to be on the podcast with you and tell his journey a little bit too, because he is always want to share cool things about, you know, his path or where he's gotten.

00:58:33:23 - 00:58:57:15 Unknown He's going to be coaching a lot of those people in that CEO program, too. On the marketing side, like he's super powerful and everything. He's learned a team from a marketing aspect to then go and help other contractors do the same. But he started in the field. I was a student of mine and we were very intentional, like, do we want you to be the guy that's taking photos and posting them to social and recording the videos, like going live?

00:58:57:15 - 00:59:31:22 Unknown And then that grew from him being, you know, like 80%, you know, like, you know, laborer carpentry to like 20%, you know, marketing to, you know, eventually like 10% every quarter on quarter to the point where he's 100% now by 2020, he was full time marketing guy. And, today, like he's got a team underneath him. He's got virtual assistants, do a lot of our videography, like he's got processes and systems.

00:59:31:22 - 00:59:55:20 Unknown He's got his whole content library, you know, stuff he's doing with our website, working with the website team. He's just kind of this orchestrator and, and, you know, we've poured a lot into him. Only in that position where today, I couldn't imagine life without him here to our team. And, you know, we have all to who's in who's in the IO office?

00:59:55:20 - 01:00:24:19 Unknown O'Neill moved to Florida. So it's really cool having him there. And I think it's kind of that, like, you know, like Elon Musk when he's building, Tesla is like putting the designers and the engineers in the same room. Right. Like those guys need to have cohesion. And, you know, putting O'Neill, which is a marketing seed, into you know, a new Florida territory which is trying to grow its sales, right, is really key where he's already got kind of that mesh with the Iowa team and able to like, grow that.

01:00:24:19 - 01:00:44:05 Unknown But like having him there with me, boots on the ground is really when we started to take off. There as well. So I believe same thing for marketing and sales, right. Being in the same room, same office, like hey or now like Greg, you know, we need when and we just started that content's there too. And now the deck and fence guy who's a sales guy is sitting in the same room is on you.

01:00:44:07 - 01:01:15:09 Unknown Right. And we have estimating InDesign in the same office here, which is also another one of those strong ties. And yeah, it's just, a very intentional thing from the beginning, I would say, when we realized that was one of O'Neal's strengths, but I don't think we would have necessarily came to that conclusion. Without on the even there like I would always maybe, you know, post a photo once a week on some paragraphs early on, but eventually it became like an every day thing.

01:01:15:09 - 01:01:38:05 Unknown And from there, you know, now we have multiple Facebook pages, multiple websites, multiple territories. And it's cool to see that looking back. Yeah. Well, do you have a specific marketing strategy that you've been, you know, see following. See the swag? I haven't been on the podcast. That's his rant that did a little riff on that all day, which he'd absolutely does.

01:01:38:05 - 01:01:57:03 Unknown I mean, you could go and, I know we have an awesome scorecard. You know, our the marketing equation is really, to us a function of like, what target do we want to hit top line. So if I were to take top line revenue, let's say we want to hit 10 million. Okay. Well what's your average ticket size.

01:01:57:09 - 01:02:22:13 Unknown Let's say our average job size is 100 K. Which may be close to accurate given that we got some jobs that are, you know, over $1 million and you know, new homes and you know, renovations, large renovations. But also we do small decks and fences. So anyway so let's say it's 100 100 K. Well what's, you know, 10 million divided by a hundred K would be like a thousand maybe.

01:02:22:13 - 01:02:45:07 Unknown Right. All right. Three zeros. No, I think it's 100. You need 100 jobs times 100 K. 10 million. All right, so if I got 100 jobs. All right. What's my close rate? Right. If my close rate is working backwards. Yeah. Yeah. We're just working backwards. Right. So if I need 100 jobs in my closed rate is let's say 30% what I need to divide that.

01:02:45:07 - 01:03:07:21 Unknown So now I'm going, you know, 30% of, 100 K would be basically three, 300, 900 K, 100 would be 300 leads. Okay. Well, if I need 300 leads, how what's my strategy to get that. So it's basically working from top line revenue using average job size. And to get the number of leads you and you're using your closer to get the number of leads you to.

01:03:07:21 - 01:03:26:07 Unknown Yeah. If you know your number of leads now you can go and figure out okay, now you start to track how many lead you're currently getting, what is your pace. And if you have a good array of data, like I've tracked my leads for a whole year and maybe last year we had 200 leads. So how do we grow that by 50%, right?

01:03:26:08 - 01:03:43:16 Unknown Well, last year we didn't do any paid ads. So are we using paid ads? Maybe we can get that right. Or if we were all paid ads last year and we spent, you know, 20 K, maybe we need to at least time at half that budget. Right? So it's usually like you need a little bit of metrics, some historical metrics to get to that.

01:03:43:16 - 01:04:07:06 Unknown But you just got to start tracking various numbers first. And then you can use different strategies on marketing, whether that be paid ads, you know, print, digital, being in a magazine, being in, like a neighborhood magazine. Those can be, you know, a good starting place, truck wraps. Just like getting more brand awareness to. Yeah, yard signs.

01:04:07:06 - 01:04:25:12 Unknown Like I always tell people, grassroots marketing, yard signs. We call it a five by five by ten. So five to the left, five to the right, and ten across the street. So we'll we'll dump, koozies and a little flier. Hey, we're in the neighborhood. If we're parked on the wrong side of the street and, you know, you can't move your car like, call, so let us know.

01:04:25:12 - 01:04:47:02 Unknown Like, almost like engaging with them, and we'll give them. Right. A free koozie. I've had multiple people still to this day send me a picture like that. They live in the neighborhood that we're all of a sudden and and they're like, dude, got this in the mail. Super cool. Like, oh, I love this touch. You know? And so that's kind of like a grassroots approach is a vehicle, vehicle wraps yard signs five by five by ten.

01:04:47:02 - 01:05:08:10 Unknown That right there should get you, enough leads to get started. And then from there, it's like, okay, now I'm growing and scaling. I have more crews, I have more, talent, whatever. Now I need to. Maybe now I'm working to develop a website, have a social presence, do some work. Google paid ads. I want to have some five star reviews.

01:05:08:12 - 01:05:32:17 Unknown Yeah. Where do you think the most of your leads come from? I know, and most of these come from is it's truck graphs and yard signs. Over 30%. And do you have a, you know like a discovery or like a question that you ask them like every single lead to know. Exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. You got to ask if you're not asking that you're doing yourself a disservice.

01:05:32:17 - 01:05:48:09 Unknown You got to know where your lead to come from. Yeah. If someone fills out a website lead, obviously they came to the website, but how did you find out about us? Did you come to the website and tell us, you know, you found us on Google and you clicked on our website and then you fill out a form.

01:05:48:09 - 01:06:08:04 Unknown Did you come to us because you saw a truck rap? And the truck rap had the website on it, like, how did you, you know, come to work site? Is there any been is there ever been a strategy that you try that didn't work? From a marketing perspective, I won't say that didn't work. There's just some that it's really hard to discover.

01:06:08:04 - 01:06:38:14 Unknown The return, like, we did a billboard one year and we thought it was cool, because it was like, you know, the one billboard that we thought anybody would ever look at and Cedar Falls and we were on it, but, you know, and we were in a magazine two and it's just and those are like, you know, those those magazines have their own metrics and they can share with you, you know, where what you can expect and who gets it.

01:06:38:14 - 01:06:59:06 Unknown And you're in the right neighborhoods that you want. Like, if it all meshes, like, it's hard to really gauge. For us, we ended up terminating those and not doing them or re-upping on them. One because they're hard to track, but two, because we're already feeling like we were getting enough leads and we had enough traction that it was like, do we really need to be going and spending more money on this?

01:06:59:06 - 01:07:18:22 Unknown And every year you get to a point where it's like you got to, you know, hey, we're maybe a little fluffier. We need to cut some overhead and we need to be more, you know, diligent, tighten some lug nuts, if you will. So, it's not that they didn't work. Like, I definitely think they drove. Visibility, brand awareness.

01:07:19:00 - 01:07:42:13 Unknown But there's no call to action that somebody could click on your billboard or you're going to have the magazine. So it's like, how do you really. Yeah, yeah. Make sense? How do your Google Ads perform? For me, it leads are getting from Google. Honestly, our Google Organic is pretty good. So we're not doing I think we do we do do paid ads for actually fences.

01:07:42:13 - 01:08:07:08 Unknown It's just nature versus just like roofing needs and siding leads. But Google Organic is, pretty powerful for us. I want to say probably in like the 10 to 15% range. Just off the top of my head last time I looked. But I know we get a report that shows, like our Google ranking for certain, metrics, keywords.

01:08:07:10 - 01:08:24:13 Unknown So if you were to look up tech builder near me, fence builder near me in Cedar Falls, Waterloo, we would show up top three every time. And then you kind of get into the nuances when it comes to custom build. Is someone looking for a kitchen and are they typing custom build or they what are the what do they call I know they're calling it a renovation or are they calling it remodel?

01:08:24:15 - 01:08:39:17 Unknown So I want a home addition or do I want to text, you know, like, are you calling it an extension? Like, it's just what are you really trying to, to get? And so, you know, we have certain things that we are like, we want to show up number one for that. And it's about building on your website and getting Google to trust you.

01:08:39:17 - 01:09:03:14 Unknown And the Google algorithm recently changed. And so actually making those adjustments on the website is key. And having someone dedicated to that that knows that space. Well, there's also that engine to the success and dedicated to building out the website and controlling the the developer and the developer is responsible for knowing the Google out the building that the paid ads.

01:09:03:14 - 01:09:24:23 Unknown So to see manage those two, he does I think I don't know if it's in conjunction with the website or what he does, but I think that's one of the things. So we actually just talked about today is, you know, wanting somebody to maybe handle that aspect. So have you ever tried, any social ads on that?

01:09:25:01 - 01:09:43:00 Unknown We have early on? I don't know that we've done so lately. I'd be interested to see what return on investment that would bring. But we can talk about that, too. But yeah, I don't I know we did. We did early on. And I think in Dec and fencing would work, custom built.

01:09:43:00 - 01:10:10:05 Unknown I'd be really skeptical just because it's, you know, that's something that people are I sure like, oh, this guy on Facebook says he built editions. But I think there's awareness that you can get from that because a lot of people are on social. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever gotten any leads from just organic posting like personal just like your, your socials for the, for team builders sites.

01:10:10:07 - 01:10:33:00 Unknown You post a lot of content has that driven any leads or do you see it more more as building brand and we see a social building a brand and social credibility. But also we came from a time where we were doing a lot of Facebook ads, and we were proposing like, no need. In addition calls today I give you home calls today, like that kind of stuff.

01:10:33:00 - 01:10:50:09 Unknown Need a different call us, you know, like read show a cool picture of a fan before and after a cool little video and be like, you know, a little a call to action at the end. And, you know, you could maybe get a call or two from that. But it's also another thing that's kind of hard to track on the organic side, right?

01:10:50:09 - 01:11:13:00 Unknown Ads, you know, somebody click this and call that right or and that's usually a drag. Well yeah. Yeah. So yeah. What jobs would you say you'd like the most of. Like what is your bread and butter or something that you'd like to see more and more custom the more we thrive. Full custom home, is definitely our favorite.

01:11:13:00 - 01:11:33:13 Unknown We're we're getting more and more into that space. We're gonna start, you know, building some speculative homes and then converting to custom. That's kind of the goal. But add on the custom build side. So deck French, custom built being our niche, the custom build side wants to build custom rooms. The deck and fence side, we love, custom.

01:11:33:15 - 01:11:56:00 Unknown We can't dopest at, So the more custom is on the deck side, the more we're going to thrive. I'm not saying, like the cookie cutter ones don't excite us. Like, those are definitely like, we have our brand system of, like, how we build a deck that's like how, you know, the team builder way. And then on the fence side, like, we, we do some cool stuff on fans.

01:11:56:00 - 01:12:19:09 Unknown More and more people are starting to drive their posts like us, which is just nature of people wanting to be like the best, you know? And so there's not necessarily anything there that stands out as like, we want to do chain link or we want to do wood. Like the more custom it is like we can do some really cool wood stuff, like the cap and trim, just different types of patterning on wood.

01:12:19:09 - 01:12:37:20 Unknown Like we, I would say wood is something that we're really good at. Chain link is something we're amazing at vinyl, a territory we would love to grow more in. But you know, that's that's also like all all of them fences is just more of a competitive market too. But I definitely think, like we are very systemized in our way.

01:12:37:21 - 01:12:54:03 Unknown We eliminate callbacks. Like, honestly, I remember the last time we had a call back for a fence, we were guys on the team. That's a hell of an installer. Very meticulous. Same on the deck and fence side, like all across the board, custom build deck, fence and, just like, even on all the way up to the leadership.

01:12:54:03 - 01:13:11:23 Unknown Like, we got the guys that are in the right seats that love what they do. They're meticulous and they enjoy what they're doing. So they do it at a high level. And we're a small team, but we're a high performing team. And you got when we put guys on your deck, like they have a passion for that trade or they have a passion for that, that process that they're running.

01:13:12:01 - 01:13:32:01 Unknown And so you're going to get that team builder experience of like people that love what they do and are great at doing it when you have any interaction with us. And so that's. That's what it's all about. 1708 players and those eight players being in the right seats to dominate. So yeah. Up. Yeah. Yeah. So what's the next five years look like.

01:13:32:03 - 01:13:54:00 Unknown Oh man that's loaded. You know, the custom build size and a little bit of a pivot right now to do more custom, custom home stuff. Not that we're exiting out of the remodel space, but it's trying to cater more of the business to to do some of that, build new, but also be in the remodel space for, retail clients.

01:13:54:02 - 01:14:27:15 Unknown So kind of, you know, more more of a shift to some, you know, we'd love to develop, a neighborhood, buy a good chunk of land, develop it, and actually build all the homes in that neighborhood. And, you know, but, like, not like the typical run of the mill track home, like, we're talking like quality. Like quality over quantity, you know, like, I'd love to buy, you know, the six house cul de sac with decent size lots, you know, I mean, like that to me and like and so two by four walls on the exterior do two by six well insulated, really solid.

01:14:27:16 - 01:15:04:14 Unknown You know, Hvac systems, maybe some home automation stuff, you know, energy efficient, you know, just like that type of finish quality finishes like durable, built to last impact rated, you name it. That's a big thing in Florida. Impact rated. But just like that quality standard and in the in the speculative space. But like also like people knowing the team builder brand, the team builder level of quality and the standard that we set and having that be on the forefront of people's minds.

01:15:04:14 - 01:15:17:18 Unknown So when they come in, they're looking at a home and they, you know, this one here is an Ruffin. But like I want that home because I know Team Builders is building that. And I know what it's I know I can expect quality and then there can be a little bit in on the finishes of what that is going to look like.

01:15:17:18 - 01:15:42:12 Unknown But, you know, building out that level of the business is kind of next for us on the custom build side deck and fence as a whole, whole initiative in and of itself. We look to have Des Moines and Cedar Rapids locations here in the next 2 to 3 years, and then go statewide from there. We'd love to be building decks on Okoboji clear Lake, you know, those are places near to my hometown.

01:15:42:14 - 01:16:17:20 Unknown But all the way, you know, South and Moyne and over to Council Bluffs. So we want to have the whole state of Iowa, both deck and conference and just dominated at a high level, but also be vertically integrated with our, product line. So not necessarily having, you know, the deck board that everybody else could do with the, the vinyl that everybody else can do, but having our own line, like that's where we're going and, we're, we're looking at, you know, a territory right now to move our office and warehouse locations and vertically integrate there to right now, our office is here, warehouses in Waterloo.

01:16:17:22 - 01:16:40:11 Unknown So we're not really vertically integrated there. So it's just like bringing everything to be more meshed. Synergize. You know, systemize is one of our core values. We honestly, that's probably like the most important one. And so doing everything that we're talking about is a process of that and a function of that. And then even in Florida, we want to run up and down the west coast of Florida.

01:16:40:13 - 01:17:12:15 Unknown Right now Tampa and Fort Myers would be like secondary operations. We're out of Sarasota. So that's, our north and our south over not going and adding a ton of locations. We want to actually service those locations out of the the current homes that we're in. So if we build a little bit of a distribution and a source here, we want to be able to add a key sales general manager who can work out of a home office, keep overhead low, keep prices low, be very competitive, but do it in a quality way because we want to make quality the standard and affordable.

01:17:12:16 - 01:17:31:19 Unknown Right. So you know doing that you gotta stay lean on overhead and building that out with right fit people and sales salesmen where they may become a Cedar Falls once a week, once every other week, or once a month to do kind of that cultural check in and make sure like everything's, you know, good or are still in virtual meetings, like, ever since Covid, right.

01:17:31:19 - 01:17:56:12 Unknown We're we're all right, integrated online. But we want to do more. And when we do more, that's we're vertically integrating with the product starts to make sense because it's like I can't go and bring in a whole distribution center, or if I'm just doing Cedar Falls, right? Right. But if I run the whole state of Iowa and we want to travel, and I bought from Mason city, Cedar Rapids is right down the road.

01:17:56:12 - 01:18:15:16 Unknown Des Moines a big market, Quad Cities, we have a lot of people from that area as well. Dubuque, Fort Dodge, like you name it, like serving all of those and then just having a crew in each location that dominates and people that want to be a part of that big mission to is honestly like, that's a super exciting mission in and of itself.

01:18:15:16 - 01:18:33:04 Unknown And then you got the custom built team over here trying to, you know, build some neighborhoods and do some cool stuff and then, you know, honestly, over here is the sticky operating system. We're working on an app to to develop into that space and that whole coaching component where we want to help grow other entrepreneurs and in fact, the industry.

01:18:33:04 - 01:18:56:01 Unknown So those are kind of the big three. That's the five year goal. That's that's kind I see. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, that's all those are already starting to happen. Yeah. But it's brick by brick, you know, and I think slow is fast in some of those big moves. And honestly, what we've been able to do in the past five years to do that again in the next five years to to have a big, hairy goal.

01:18:56:03 - 01:19:21:05 Unknown Those three are big, hairy in and of themselves. And then it's about having right players. They, you know, dominate each of those. And you know, helping Trev and I get above the business just a little bit so we can pour into the people and not be so integrated in the day to day. But also like getting down into different facets to help systemize and build and like, having your own distribution center doesn't happen overnight.

01:19:21:06 - 01:19:38:05 Unknown Like, that's a big mission building aspect. Neighborhood doesn't happen overnight. That's a that's a that's a big mission. You know, coaching impacting a whole industry and having an app and doing all that. That's a big mission. Right. And we have a great start on that. We're actually almost done with our paid version of the app. Sticky O's is.

01:19:38:05 - 01:20:03:08 Unknown Yeah yeah. So those three honestly you can feel I feel sometimes spread thin. And I definitely want like the next five years to be more about laser focus. And so when I say laser focus I'm going to be bringing on key numbers to run those facets, me being more part of the coaching program and the sticky operating system and, you know, yeah, building out the,

01:20:03:09 - 01:20:22:10 Unknown Impact across the industry. And then like Trevor running a lot of the operating systems as a CEO. So it's it's starting to like a cat, like the org chart is coming together, the missions coming together. It's like, you know, integrating that and filtering into the team is is a big mission too. So that's that's the next five.

01:20:22:10 - 01:20:52:16 Unknown Yeah. For us. Yeah. What would you say. Big picture looking down the road little ways. Looks like like 10 to 20. Yeah. 1010 years I see my oldest and Trevor's kids started to get into the business and, excited about, like, honestly, all the kids that are part of Team builders, there's so many, we're all all the guys have their own kids, so I just like I'm super above it to be a family thing, a legacy that you can pass on and would love to bring in.

01:20:52:17 - 01:21:13:22 Unknown A lot of the people that have helped us get here along the way, guys that have been here since the very beginning bring them into ownership. You know, even 1% to 5% be, you know, grow and growing their like, what they've invested in over time giving that back, but also because we've grown it to a level that we can now serve.

01:21:14:00 - 01:21:42:02 Unknown You know, serve them back because they've served us so much. So that's where my heart is. But Trevor and I, I'm never surprised how you know we can. We're not butting heads. It's more of just like, you know, there's disagreements. Or he may see one way, like we like, I may be bringing in an AI executive. Just come in for two days in July to a meeting, and, he gave me some good pushback on that.

01:21:42:02 - 01:22:03:22 Unknown And, I was like, bro, like, this is what we need. What's an AI executive look like? It's just more of that. Well, I mean, I executive maybe the long term, but we got an AI manager, if you will, a guy that, you know, specializes in knowing what's going on out there helps identify areas in your business that could be quick wins and maybe puts together development program to leverage AI more.

01:22:04:00 - 01:22:29:03 Unknown And so right now, you know, ChatGPT grok, those are the easy ones. You know, we got the team using those things for, you know, large language model type task. But it's just like, you know, what what API integrations or even just like, you know, I, I mean, one of the ones that we were talking about today is, you know, somebody answer the phones looking at the answers files.

01:22:29:05 - 01:22:47:04 Unknown And the big push back is like, well, we don't want to lose. You touch. And I, I agree, I don't want lose you to touch either. But if you know all those words, we answer the phones. But he went to say to go, you know, do a drone and battles usually is back up above us on a fence consultation and you know somebody else's.

01:22:47:04 - 01:22:59:17 Unknown See how I can do that or may not be. So sometimes, like you're in the office, it's like, no moves in here. Answer phones. No, he was here to answer phones after five. A lot of people call after work. You know, and then we're getting this pile of voicemails time. We got to try to be like, how awesome.

01:22:59:17 - 01:23:15:15 Unknown Let me to just have this overflow AI that could be like, hey, I'm an AI assistant. I'm here to help. I just want to collect your information, make sure that the right person gets in contact with you. But I can get you in our system and in the queue and, you know, take care of 80% of the stuff in the human will be in touch with you.

01:23:15:15 - 01:23:35:02 Unknown And for the other one, like how clutch would that be? And right, they can take that information and then they have, you know, entered into our CRM, assign it to the right person, they collect information. Tell me about your project. They record that call and it dumps like a little blurb into the software. And it's basically like you could press play it, relisten to that conversation.

01:23:35:02 - 01:23:53:15 Unknown As a salesperson if you really want it. Right. And I today doesn't even sound like a robot. Sounds like a human right. You know? So it's just like, you know, my team was pushing back on me, and I, I totally get why. And I'm agreeing with them, like, I don't want to lose a human touch either. I'd rather somebody answer the phone.

01:23:53:17 - 01:24:10:12 Unknown But at the end of the day, after five, some people call on you. You're still missing. I'm like, if what if you capture them with AI? And then they had a better experience with AI Island, you know, because if you don't answer their call, the next guy listen, the next guy answers, there it goes. A $10,000 venture job or 25 K tech.

01:24:10:14 - 01:24:32:02 Unknown Yeah, you know, whatever. Maybe you're the worst. The $1 million custom hump, right? So leveraging AI is definitely like if you're not doing that, you're going to be falling behind in today's world. Right. And what I capable of I don't even know I want to be educated. I'm going to be bringing in an expert to educate my whole team, not just me.

01:24:32:02 - 01:24:57:16 Unknown Like that's a very valuable exercise, in my opinion, as founder. So I want that for my Michael. Yeah, 1% for someone just starting their own hustle. What's one piece of advice that you give? Continuous learning education and like I like followed by action though, right. Like you don't just read to take in a bunch of information, not do anything with it.

01:24:57:18 - 01:25:13:15 Unknown There are countless books I could point to, or I read that book. And then we did this, and then I read that book. And then you did this. Like every single book was followed by action. If you look in a book that I've read, it is filled with highlights in my notes, like right in the margins, I highlight the things that are in my head.

01:25:13:15 - 01:25:36:03 Unknown I talk about where I'm at in those moments. A thought comes up, I'll write it. And then when I go and review that book, which I'm not necessarily saying I do every single time, but there's a time where, like, you know, if I wrote a book five years ago and I'm in a moment now, it's in Sarasota where I'm doing the same thing and I can go read that book I read five years ago, but I was in the same kind of space that I'm in now.

01:25:36:07 - 01:25:59:01 Unknown It's pretty cool to go back and just be like, oh shit, look at that. Already highlighted with like, the cliff notes in March. It's how awesome. I'm so thankful that I did that five years ahead of time. So be a continuous learner and take notes. Reflect journal about your thoughts, journal about where you're at and where you want to go, and put a vision board in front of you to write.

01:25:59:01 - 01:26:18:15 Unknown If you want to have the company that does X and you're doing Y, put X in front of you, right? Put it all over the place. I don't have my wallet on me, but I mean, I wrote down in January 2022, I wrote down, you know, where I wanted to be in five years. And honestly, some of the things that I put on there have already come to fruition.

01:26:18:17 - 01:26:42:00 Unknown But it's like it's in my wallet, it's on my computer, it's on my vision wall. It's it's on my mirror of my, on my dresser. Right. Like, put your goals in front of you and be a continuous learner. What's something you wish you knew when you started? Oh, did.

01:26:42:02 - 01:27:13:04 Unknown Honestly. Finance. You know, I didn't know what the hell was. I don't know what a balance sheet was. I didn't know what a cash flow statement was. You know, I lost, I think, as a business owner in construction, everybody is really good at production. They know the trade, they know the craft, right? They can do the work.

01:27:13:05 - 01:27:33:18 Unknown That's usually how people get started. They start because they love construction. They start because they that nobody starts because they want to, like, own a construction business, be like this. You know, like I didn't necessarily start for that reason. I love the craft. I love building decks. Like that was one of my favorite things was to craft.

01:27:33:20 - 01:27:55:11 Unknown And then it became bigger than that. And that's when I started to grow. And then I fell in love with business side. Right. So, finance though, was that was the thing that can kill you the fastest. Like, it's kind of that, you know, food and water thing. Right? If, if you start with both, which one kills your first lack of food or lack of water?

01:27:55:13 - 01:28:20:19 Unknown Lack of water. Right. Well, construction knowledge is food. Business knowledge. Financial knowledge is water. If you don't have the water, you will die first. You can know everything about construction, but if you don't know shit about finance, then you're going. You could be going down a lot quicker than you know. Before you know it, you're a whole year just went by and you never took the time to look at your finances.

01:28:20:19 - 01:28:44:13 Unknown And the end of the year, you're counting your marbles and you got none. You got negative. That's a tough spot to be in, especially as a single trade entrepreneur, right? So take the time. There's a book out there called Markup and Profit by Michael C Stone. I actually just post it on my on my socials top four books I recommend to any construction entrepreneur.

01:28:44:13 - 01:29:08:14 Unknown Just Getting Started and Markup of Profit by Michael C Stone. Number one that is finance. That is that is water. How to win a how to win customers. You keep them for life. That's a marketing book. There was integrity selling for the 21st century, which is a sales book. It's about how to sell, how to sell with integrity, how to sell the way people want to be sold to and with, with dignity.

01:29:08:14 - 01:29:27:21 Unknown Like you're not doing it to get somebody, you know, you're doing it. You're trying to fulfill a need. Somebody has a need and you need to fill it, and you fill it and you're, you know, doing it in an honest way. Honestly, you're going to win a lot of business, right? People tell me all the time, I'm just so glad you answered the phone and you set an appointment and you actually did what you said you were going to do.

01:29:27:21 - 01:29:51:12 Unknown I was there, like, how fucking hard is the summer? And then the last book, is The Road Less Stupid, which is like insights from the chairman of the board, kind of like every single chapter is like 1 or 2 pages, and every single page is just like, kick in the nuts, like, wow, the road less stupid.

01:29:51:13 - 01:30:10:08 Unknown Like, I'm glad I read that book. And that's a book I reflect on at least once a year, usually before, like an annual meeting with my team, and I can go back to that in the highlights, in the notes. And every year it's just like, it's cool to write. I write with different ink every year too. So it's like multiple, multiple, multiple cases in that book.

01:30:10:08 - 01:30:27:18 Unknown It's just like, holy shit. You know, some that you read in one year, it's like, oh, that's not really a landing. But then a year or two down the road, you read it again. It's like, that's what he was talking about, right? So there it is. And it's just insights nuggets. Like if you haven't read that book as an entrepreneur you're not doing it right.

01:30:27:20 - 01:30:50:21 Unknown Awesome. Yeah. But people follow along with team builders who get in touch. Honestly, all my socials are Austin underscore McGinnis. So, Instagram, LinkedIn x and then, you know, my Facebook is connected with my LinkedIn. So I have, like, a, career profile on faced or connected with Instagram, but I create a profile on Facebook as well if you want to follow me there.

01:30:50:23 - 01:31:16:13 Unknown Awesome. McGinnis. And then Team Builders. We have, a Team Builders Q social, Facebook, and we have a Team Builders Limited, which is the Cedar Falls custom build. And then we have team deck and fence. The those three and those all have a there's a Pinterest page, like, you can build our Pinterest free page and find all of our stuff and like a it's an awesome library, honestly.

01:31:16:13 - 01:31:32:14 Unknown Like it's if you want to our personally it's basically yeah. I mean it is an inspiration board and that's one of our mottos, just like your inspiration this year, if you come to this team, if you work with us, you're going to be inspired by just the way we live and the way we build where you live. So that's what we're about.

01:31:32:16 - 01:31:55:13 Unknown And then the website Team Builders Limited, dot com, Team Builders, Qcom, and then the team deck and fence website. It's actually team deck and fence.com, but I don't know if that's live yet. The Sarasota one is Sarasota deck and fence. There's team builders decks, team builders plural decks plural. And then team builders fences both plural too.

01:31:55:13 - 01:32:14:14 Unknown So we got a lot of websites, but like, there's a reason behind that. But yeah, Facebook is a great place. And I think, a lot of that's tied into Instagram too. But, we also have a YouTube channel. We've got a guy, deck builder decks with Dan. He does ton of stuff, too. Super fun to watch him, just, like, get on camera.

01:32:14:14 - 01:32:34:22 Unknown He's a he's a goofy guy. A hell of a deck builder dropping insights and nuggets. So that's that's a cool little spin off of a lot of stuff that we do, too. But also our YouTube channels, which are all like team, if you look t builders up, you find that there too. Yeah. So we'll call anything else to check that, now, I mean, I really appreciate you know, I know this is like what, episode nine nine.

01:32:34:22 - 01:32:58:07 Unknown And, you're growing. You were a student of mine. You and I connected really well back then, and I'm just excited to see you growing, pursuing your passions, doing your own entrepreneurship thing. And just like, you know, hearing about, you know, how you got started, what you got going on, it's just like you're you're bringing the stories of the entrepreneurs, like hustle to get there.

01:32:58:09 - 01:33:18:16 Unknown But you're also like living it out, too, which I think is an advantage for you. So, keep pouring in, keep, following your passions. I think that's a huge thing is, you know, I read a book called The Passion Test, and that's how I live my life. I've developed. I know what my passions are, And I know what fills my cup, and I.

01:33:18:16 - 01:33:37:18 Unknown I pursue those relentlessly. And I think that's a huge piece to live. And a happy life, too, is knowing what fills you and pursuing that with ambition. So I'll leave it at that. Yeah. Thanks for being on the show. Awesome. And my pleasure. Appreciate. Yeah. Everybody that's listening, watching like all of us and stuff in the show notes below.

01:33:37:20 - 01:33:49:09 Unknown And, to those of you out there, keep building and keep hustling.