How a Father-Son Team Built a $25M Trade Business

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Unknown
Oh, hey. Oh!

00;00;09;29 – 00;00;15;07
Unknown
Oh.

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Speaker 2
Welcome to the blue Collar Start, a podcast where hard work meets big ideas. This is the home for real talk, real stories and real strategies. From the frontlines of life in the business of the trades. I’m one of your hosts, Mike Nelson from Five Towers Media, and I’m your.

00;00;27;26 – 00;00;29;17
Speaker 3
Co-host, Derek Foster.

00;00;29;17 – 00;00;48;09
Speaker 2
Of Double Cleaning Systems. Are we doing today, Mike? I’m doing great. I’m doing great. As I was telling our guests before we started, it’s like 70 degrees. Sunny. Yeah. No rain, no snow. It’s Friday like. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what else could be better. And I get to be on a podcast that I’m really excited about.

00;00;48;12 – 00;01;12;23
Speaker 2
So I’m good, man. How about you? Good. Yeah. No, it’s, exciting time of the year. We got got a lot going on and a lot of moving pieces. And hopefully get out and get some vitamin D over the, over the weekend doing some yard work. So looking forward to that. Cheering lots of cheering I got a I actually I’ve got a paddock right now that I’ve got to recover from what the pigs did to it over the last couple of months.

00;01;12;23 – 00;01;35;17
Speaker 2
So I’ve got some serious serious work in front of me this weekend. But excited to do it all. Enjoy it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right, we’re going to, jump right into our guests. I think we’ve got a lot of questions. As these guys. I sent over our questions list and disguised each question is or I disguise three questions as a question.

00;01;35;17 – 00;01;59;28
Speaker 2
So I want to try to get through as much as we can. So let’s let’s jump over to our guests here. Scott Junior and Scott senior. Guys, let’s have you introduce yourselves. Tell us just a little bit about you, and the your company before we, before we get into it. Plus, that saves me from messing up anybody’s last name and, which I’m pretty famous for, so.

00;02;00;03 – 00;02;29;24
Speaker 3
I guess I’ll start. I’m Scott’s at new ski. They say senior since Scott joined the company. Originally from Illinois, Chicago area. Grew up. My dad was, plumbing contractor, eventually became a plumbing contractor and ran a business in Chicago while raising four kids. And, and then 2018, you know, we just made the decision to move out to Colorado and start this chapter of our lives.

00;02;29;24 – 00;02;34;06
Speaker 3
So, Yeah.

00;02;34;08 – 00;02;53;16
Speaker 3
Awesome. Yep. And Scott Muskie junior, as we go by the business, I will say I’m not officially a junior. We have different middle names, but when you have to, Scott’s someone. Someone has to be called something different. And my middle name is David. So people started calling me David and I was like, that’s not even close to my name.

00;02;53;16 – 00;03;24;17
Speaker 3
Let’s just go a junior. So I’ve been junior the last four years. But yeah. So I’ve, I joined the business in the fall of 22. I live full time in Chicago, so I worked remote as the CEO of integrator for the last three and a half years, operating the business, executing on the day to day and taking the responsibilities, that senior gave me to, to run and grow the business from, you know, where it started, where I joined to where that where it’s at now.

00;03;24;17 – 00;03;41;04
Speaker 3
So I’ve actually started the transition myself, and we’ll probably get into it too. But, we’re transitioning into a new co integrator as well. So we can certainly talk about how that transition, is working too. But happy to be here. Yeah.

00;03;41;06 – 00;03;57;11
Speaker 2
Yeah. You know, it’s interesting when we got on and you said that you’re in Chicago, I was like, oh, I’m like, man. I’m like, well, maybe he’s in Chicago for a conference, but you’re you’re full time in Chicago. And we’ll say teleworking, as a call. Oh, that’s that’s wild.

00;03;57;14 – 00;04;15;29
Speaker 3
Yeah. It’s, I worked I was in a sales position, before I joined SAS, LLC, so I was already in Chicago. My wife was already working here. We’d already kind of set up shop, and, at that last job, I. It was during Covid, so everything went remote. I worked there for remote for a year and a half.

00;04;15;29 – 00;04;42;14
Speaker 3
So I figured it out pretty quickly. And so I knew coming into this opportunity, I wasn’t going to move out to Colorado, because my wife was very fully invested in her job, and I was supporting that and, you know, knew how to work remote and knew how to talk and how to communicate because I’m 6000 miles away from the business, you know, it’s up to me to be able to communicate with them if I need to know something and vice versa.

00;04;42;14 – 00;05;05;01
Speaker 3
So it was certainly trial and error at the beginning, but due to being able to create a really solid team, really just made this this job easy and fun and, I traveled out to Colorado a week, every month. So that was my time, you know, and my whole goal was not sitting in an office. I sit in my office Monday through Friday every other week.

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Speaker 3
So when I’m out there, I got to get in front of the team. That’s the week I get to see them.

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Speaker 2
I feel every week it’s a whole show. Just on working, working remote like. Well.

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Speaker 3
And I think it’s important just to understand, you know, before we get started, that we had started this business, but, Scott and I, had an opportunity to work really hard as he was in high school and helping him get recruited to play college football. And so I, I, you know, I knew who he was as, I knew how he worked.

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Speaker 3
I knew his work ethic. You know, obviously he was my son. But, once we started this business, we started having deeper conversations, and I, I really tried to separate myself from being his father. And I recognized that I needed his leadership to help me champion this culture in our company. And he didn’t know anything about plumbing. And that’s not why we hired him.

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Speaker 3
And so he came on and, and really, you know, people look at me as the face of the company, but he’s really been the architect of our success, and he’s allowed me to kind of stay in my lane and build the business from a business development side where he’s really built the structure and and the processes in our departments.

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Speaker 3
And there’s, there’s he’s way more important than I’ve been in this process. So it’s, it’s been great to just do this together. Yeah. And, and and just to add to that, I mean, you know, I get asked a lot of time, what’s it like working with your dad? And to me, this is the greatest opportunity I’ve ever been able to have, because I knew someone one way for 26 years, 27 years.

00;06;46;13 – 00;07;09;01
Speaker 3
And then I got to really know him on a different level the last four years. And I knew right from the beginning that we were never going to have the same father son relationship, and I didn’t know if it was going to be positive or negative just because I, you know, I’ve you only really ever hear the horror stories of family businesses not working.

00;07;09;03 – 00;07;30;06
Speaker 3
Yeah. And you know, we had a we had a meaning, you know, really early in the business, we were talking with a guy that that has a, has a large company that acquires a lot of family businesses, and he acquires them because of their dysfunction. He looks at that as the way for him to get in. And we looked at each other after that meeting.

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Speaker 3
We’re like, we’re going to go prove him wrong. You know, we’re going to go do this and make this as so far away from dysfunction that people will laugh at us. And I think that’s what we’ve done. You know, my mom’s in the business, my sister’s in the business. You know, this this is truly a family business. And it even expands beyond that.

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Speaker 3
You know, we have, husband and wife. We have brothers. You know, we have, cousins, nephews. I mean, it’s just we’ve created an environment, and I think it’s because of how we’ve how we’ve grown this business as a family. I mean, he’s not dad. He’s senior, you know, because that’s another thing. Like, I’m not sitting in a meeting saying, hey, dad, hey, mom.

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Speaker 3
Like, no, I’m calling Kathleen and I’m calling Scott, you know, because it’s it’s you’re running the business. You don’t want that the rest of the team to feel awkward. So, it’s it’s been it’s been an awesome experience being able to learn. You know, like you said, I came into this with absolutely nothing to do with plumbing. I always told myself I never wanted to be in plumbing, but we’re.

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Speaker 3
What we do is so much bigger than plumbing. That’s why. That’s why I was attracted to it.

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Speaker 2
I love it, you know, it’s funny that you say that about the name thing, too, because I’ve had the experience of being around both of family owned businesses and ones where they still college other mom, dad, you know, that kind of stuff, and others where they use their names. And it would always throw me off when they were using their names.

00;08;56;20 – 00;09;25;20
Speaker 2
But now that you’re saying it, and as I think about it, I, I don’t know if it’s a thing, but the, the ones where they were using their names and not calling, not saying mom or dad or those things were actually the the better run companies where they were kind of and I assume and maybe you can verify this, but because you’re kind of putting that that family label on the side for a little bit because you have a job to do, right, and you got to focus on the job and you’ve got to be that work person.

00;09;25;20 – 00;09;31;02
Speaker 2
Not the son, not the brother, not the though the dad. Yeah. That’s true. Yeah, 100%.

00;09;31;02 – 00;09;52;28
Speaker 3
I mean, it’s it took a long time. I mean, I, you know, there were team members that we had that was like, wow, you’re calling your dad by his first name. You’re calling your your first name. Like, that’s weird, but I knew it’s enough to have the same name as him coming into the business. I know whatever happens, people are going to look at it differently because I got the same name.

00;09;53;05 – 00;10;19;28
Speaker 3
It’s SS, LLC, it’s got some new ski LLC that is my name. So from the very beginning, I was very intentional that this is work. This is not sitting around the dinner table. There’s time for that. But we we have to do a job and run this as professional as we can. Because, you know, I wanted to I wanted to earn the respect of everyone and not just think it was just given out because I was I was the son of the owner.

00;10;20;00 – 00;10;43;10
Speaker 2
Hundred percent. All right, guys, well, we’ve got some we got some serious questions here. Let’s get into let’s see, we’ve got first one, obviously is primarily for senior, but, you know, of course, junior jump in anywhere you want to, senior. As far as, like, the origin story for the company, you know, take us back to day one.

00;10;43;12 – 00;11;05;29
Speaker 2
What did you see? You know, this was something I was thinking about. Like, specifically multifamily plumbing. Like that was the market. And say that there’s a better way to do this. I’m just curious, you know, like, number one, like how you how you decided on that, and then also what the vision you were building towards where when you, you know, when you put the first truck out in the road.

00;11;06;01 – 00;11;40;15
Speaker 3
Right. So it’s, it’s probably not a story, you thought about hearing, but it’s that’s the story. So, I ran a plumbing business in Chicago for 18 years. Really small. I think I most I had three guys. Service work, bath remodeling, high end bar, restaurant build outs. And so that brought us to 2018, and we were just we were just frustrated, you know, my wife and I had run it together and just said, we’re done.

00;11;40;15 – 00;12;10;23
Speaker 3
We’re done being in business. And our youngest, Scott’s youngest sister was in high school. Senior in high school. Found an opportunity to, I found an opportunity that presented locations to either go to South Carolina, Nashville or Denver to, work for a multifamily plumbing contractor, something I had never really done before. And so, I think in a matter of hours, I said, do I want to go to the ocean or do I want to go to the mountains?

00;12;10;23 – 00;12;29;05
Speaker 3
And I picked the mountains and we made decisions, for me to take a job and we’re going to relocate Kathleen and I and Anna was going to come with us. And so that’s what we did. And I started the project in March of 18. She took a job and, and went, CSU out here in Colorado.

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Speaker 3
And we began this next, phase of our life and, worked at that company for a couple of years, really worked for a really strong superintendent on the GCC side. That taught me three things. He said, follow my schedule, build relationships, and stay organized. And it’s ironic because that ends up being the foundation of of how we started our company.

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Speaker 3
So I worked there for about two years. Ended up moving up to the mountains for six months by myself to get in a truck and actually do service work, because I was just struggling to really find my path after leaving Chicago. Then in June of 20, got a call to move to Colorado Springs to help run a small company.

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Speaker 3
And, so that’s what we did. We moved to Colorado Springs, and I. Scott. Now I was on the inside. I knew the outside of running multifamily. Now I was in the inside, been work, negotiating scope, reviews, all the things that it takes to run an office. But it was super dysfunctional. It was underfunded. And, it was then that, I had struggled with alcohol and I had quit twice and through this process started drinking again, thinking I couldn’t control it.

00;13;45;10 – 00;14;08;20
Speaker 3
And so in June of 21, I ended up taking our youngest daughter, Anna, who was 21, to Nashville, Tennessee, for Daddy Daughter weekend. And on a Saturday I ended up blackout drunk and she doesn’t know what to do with me. And so, the next thing I remember is it’s 8:00 in the morning on Sunday, and Scott’s calling me to wish me happy Father’s Day.

00;14;08;22 – 00;14;32;29
Speaker 3
And, I don’t really know where I’m at. And he said there was something wrong in the in my voice. So, I came home that Sunday, and both our daughters were living with us at the time. And my older daughter, she looked at me and we sat around the kitchen table, and she her biggest concern was that I was going to get drunk at Scott’s wedding, which was in about three weeks.

00;14;33;01 – 00;14;54;24
Speaker 3
And so I’m sitting there and I’m I said I said to myself, I’m 56 years old, like, this is who I am. And I had I had struggled, I had put myself in just bad situations. After bad situations. I sat there and I said, I never want to put myself in this situation again. So I got up the next day on that Tuesday and I got online.

00;14;54;24 – 00;15;17;20
Speaker 3
I’m like, I got to find an answer to this. And there I found, I found the video of Jocko talking about extreme ownership, the Ted talk. And in that moment of watching that video, I realized two things. The first was my family was going to have to live with the memory of that event the rest of their lives, and there was nothing that I could do about it.

00;15;17;23 – 00;15;32;27
Speaker 3
But the other thing I realized was I could make this my defining moment, and I could make that moment the time where my family could look back.

00;15;33;00 – 00;15;56;16
Speaker 3
And say, that’s that’s when my dad changed his life. And so I went and bought Draco’s book and, just started learning that I had just never really taken ownership of the things in my life. And being a man, being a father. And, so I decided to quit that job. You know, Scott got married. It was a great celebration, came back and realized I had to quit that job.

00;15;56;18 – 00;16;14;24
Speaker 3
And so I had been dealing with the contractor, negotiating, kind of, doing a bid on two 300 unit apartment complexes in Colorado Springs. And I went to him and said, hey, I’m quitting this company. And he looked at me and he said, well, what are you doing? I said, I’m just going to go work for another contractor.

00;16;14;24 – 00;16;24;05
Speaker 3
And Dan was like, well, if you start, if you start your own business, we’ll give you the work. And so the work was $7.2 million worth of work.

00;16;24;07 – 00;16;25;22
Speaker 2
Holy moly.

00;16;25;24 – 00;16;50;18
Speaker 3
So I wish I had a better story to say. Man, I had this vision of multifamily. It was just something was just dropped in my lap. And the only thing. So I came home that day and I said, honey, Kathleen, I said, I know. We swore we’d never be in business again, but I think we got the opportunity that we’ve been waiting for our whole life.

00;16;50;20 – 00;17;12;16
Speaker 3
And we have this book of extreme ownership. And I think if we followed the principles in this book, it will be different. So we talked for about a week, just a lot of deep conversations. Finally, we just had to give it a whirl. And August 1st was when we incorporated, we started the business. I got those contracts, got another contract.

00;17;12;20 – 00;17;39;21
Speaker 3
So by November, I had $11 million worth of work, three 300 unit apartment complexes, apartment complexes in Colorado Springs. Her and I, I had a sub crew to do the work and no employees. I thought I was going to do everything myself. So we hired our first employee in December to help manage the projects, and we just started delving into leadership and understanding how to build a culture.

00;17;39;23 – 00;18;00;07
Speaker 3
And so from the day, from day one, we started having team meetings every Monday and talking about leadership and, you know, being new as a leader. I’m hammer and I’m hammer. And we ended up hiring two more people and in January and more people along the way, and I’m just hammering over, over people’s head with extreme ownership. You got to do it this way.

00;18;00;07 – 00;18;21;11
Speaker 3
You got to do it this way. You got to take ownership. And I could remember, you know, I it was about that time I in January, I had visited Scott back in Chicago. And he’s like, dad, I get it, man. I get extreme ownership, I get Jackel. But everything doesn’t have to be about job. You’ve got to, like, stop.

00;18;21;13 – 00;18;46;25
Speaker 3
And, so we end up going to our first leadership event, The Muster, which Jocko Action Front puts on in March of 22. So it’s just over four years ago. And, JP Daniel, which is you know, actually Cody’s boss, he got up there and was talking about doing brutal self-assessments as to become a better leader.

00;18;46;25 – 00;19;12;06
Speaker 3
And so my my issues have been I’ve just I love creating chaos. And a lot of times it’s negative and just the pot stirrer and just bringing negative emotion to a lot of different situations and, regardless of the relationship. And so I’m sitting there listening to JP, I’m just like, my whole life is unraveling in my head about just the chaos that I brought.

00;19;12;08 – 00;19;31;13
Speaker 3
So I walked up to JP afterwards and, I said, hey, man, thanks for sharing. You know, I briefly told him a story, my story. And he’s like, he looked at me and he looked away and he looked back and he said, you’re living in guilt. You got to clean up your life and go back to church. And he didn’t even know I wasn’t going to church.

00;19;31;13 – 00;19;56;09
Speaker 3
Something told, something he sensed. And so, although I quit drinking that June, that previous June, I’d gotten high for 30 years, and I was still getting high. And I’ve been sober. It was just four years. I’ve been sober ever since that conversation I had with JP, and from that point on, it’s just been this, this, this reflection, action, reflection.

00;19;56;09 – 00;20;20;15
Speaker 3
Just how do I how can I continue just to be a better leader, to be more of an impact? And what I learned was, is with extreme ownership, there’s four stages everybody goes through when they read that book. The first one is, man, why didn’t I read this book sooner? Then the second stage is? Man, I know a lot of people that can use this book.

00;20;20;17 – 00;20;53;08
Speaker 3
And then the third stage is, which is the longest stage is finally realizing that that book is only about you leading yourself. And then then after once you know that and and that becomes part of who you are, then it becomes this lifelong commitment, the impact that you can have others by leading yourself. And and so as we’ve learned to run a company and, and develop a culture, it’s really just comes down to us being the example for ourselves.

00;20;53;11 – 00;21;16;15
Speaker 3
And so I make two promises to everybody that joins our company. And the first promise is that I will work every day to be a better leader. And the other promises is that I will provide you the opportunity to be a better leader yourself, and I can’t. There’s it’s up to you to take the information, the tools, the coaching that we give them.

00;21;16;17 – 00;21;44;01
Speaker 3
And so it’s we’ve invested over $1.2 million in leadership training and events and coaching and in just under five years. And we’ve developed a very strong culture. But you can’t run a business just on culture. And so I’ll really let Scott take this from here because him joining, we joined because of culture. We join because of leadership.

00;21;44;03 – 00;22;05;16
Speaker 3
But he started asking questions about why do we do it this way, why are we doing it that way? And, and I didn’t really have a lot of good answers for that. And so what we were lacking was a structure of how to build the business. Right. And so as we kind of figuring out our strokes, the, the foundation of our company was going to be extreme ownership.

00;22;05;18 – 00;22;35;11
Speaker 3
We still needed to know how to run a business. And so I’ll start take that from there. But, you know, I just to finish it, just my life. My wife says I’ll be married 34 years in August. It is unimaginable where we’re at today. And it has nothing to do about the success of us. SLC it has to do about my wife knowing she’s a priority, my children knowing that they’re a priority.

00;22;35;11 – 00;22;52;06
Speaker 3
Scott’s Scott’s daughter, right? It’s my priorities are in line with where we’re going as as individuals where God wants me to go. And it’s just it’s just been a great, as Scott said, a great experience to.

00;22;52;09 – 00;23;16;07
Speaker 3
The experience with the closest people in your life, you know, to see the impact that it’s had on Scott and being a better husband, a better father. And and we have countless stories of people just becoming better human beings. And, and that’s really what the opportunity we offer, you know, young people in the trades is, is it’s not only about trades, it’s about a lifestyle.

00;23;16;07 – 00;23;27;10
Speaker 3
Right? It’s about taking care of other people in what we do. So I’ll turn this over to Scott from here. I think that kind of leads into your next question, even for me, Michael.

00;23;27;12 – 00;23;42;06
Speaker 2
Well, yeah, I was say I you’re are I will call him your dad because we’re on the work mode, but, this Scott senior, you know, he really he took us through the first couple of questions. I didn’t have to say anything. That’s amazing. So we’re. But, yeah, we’re at we’re, you know, kind of the handoff, right?

00;23;42;06 – 00;24;03;19
Speaker 2
Like where you’re you’re taking the baton from your dad now, and first of all, before we get into that, I just have to say how astounding and, like, amazing that that story is. First of all, I acknowledge that. And, senior, thank you for sharing everything you just shared with us and our audience. I think that’s very powerful stuff.

00;24;03;19 – 00;24;04;16
Speaker 2
And.

00;24;04;18 – 00;24;28;03
Speaker 3
You know, there’s a little bit sting. I just wanted to add that you talked about vision. And so although I got sober not believing in God, I know God told me the mission and the vision of our company. And from the very beginning, it was to build a company based on the success of others. So that’s everything we do and that has transcended, that has transcended into our.

00;24;28;03 – 00;24;50;15
Speaker 3
Our mission statement is to build relationships for the success of others. And what does success mean? It’s helping people get what they want. And so that’s I just wanted, you know, that’s the that’s the vision that that I champion that Scott has has helped me champion that my wife is our champion. I mean, that’s that’s why we’re in business is to help other people get what they want.

00;24;50;17 – 00;24;54;21
Speaker 3
And we’re we do it as plumbers. You know, I zone in a plumbing business.

00;24;54;23 – 00;25;18;12
Speaker 2
Well, and I just the one thing I got to ask is. So you you based on everything you said, right? Like, you use those relationships that you had built. Right. And using those three things that the guy told you to to position yourself into where you’re you’re being awarded as a seven plus million dollars contract. Like, did you lay an egg when he said that?

00;25;18;12 – 00;25;30;16
Speaker 2
Because I felt like if I was going to start a business and, and, and all of a sudden I’ve got $7 million in, contracts, I’d be like, oh, okay, all right. It’s like, I don’t even know how I would respond to that.

00;25;30;19 – 00;25;32;03
Speaker 3
I’ll answer that. I’ll answer.

00;25;32;03 – 00;25;33;03
Speaker 2
That. You’ll answer that.

00;25;33;05 – 00;25;51;16
Speaker 3
Because knowing him, he’s crazy enough for that probably wasn’t even a surprise. He was just like, yeah, we’ll do it. I’ll figure it out. Because he was trying to figure out how he was going to drive to three different sites in one day and manage and run the entire job. So yeah, there is no wow. Maybe it was just yes, we’ll figure it out.

00;25;51;18 – 00;26;10;24
Speaker 3
And I got it. I probably got to hand it over to my dad. My dad had passed by this by this time, but my dad was still alive when I moved to Colorado. And I’m running from the ground up at 369 apartment complex. I mean, the biggest thing I’d ever done was 12 units, you know, and I’m he’s feeling the stress in my voice.

00;26;10;24 – 00;26;30;25
Speaker 3
And one day he’s like, you got to relax, man. It’s just a bunch of bathrooms. Like, just just taking one bathroom at a time. And so that’s how I looked at it, you know? And really, that John is his name, the guy that was my superintendent. It really came down to building relationships, staying organized and following a schedule.

00;26;30;25 – 00;26;54;07
Speaker 3
And it was really that simple. Unfortunately, you know, I had the material figured out ahead. Rick Wilkinson from United Supply out of Illinois was a guy that he was the only guy that would allow me to buy the material. We didn’t have any money, so everybody’s wanting us to pay for. I mean, we probably spent, you know, over $2 million on just those first two projects.

00;26;54;07 – 00;27;18;00
Speaker 3
I didn’t have that money. And Rick Rick has supported us ever since then. So there’s there’s been a lot of people along the way that has advised us and supported us in and gone way out of their way, to help support us to be successful. So it was it was a team effort. I wasn’t in this on, I mean, my wife and I, Kathleen, were in and, we started in on our own.

00;27;18;00 – 00;27;36;27
Speaker 3
But I’ve had a lot of advisement through this process and Jocko in life, you know, the authors, they were they they were there at the beginning helping guide us through building a culture. So it’s. Yeah, I mean, I didn’t say anything, but how can I figure this out? That’s all I saw.

00;27;37;00 – 00;27;58;25
Speaker 2
It’s an amazing story, Scott. I when you when you first started to talk, you you’re like, I don’t know what’s the story. What? Scott I mean, that’s exactly the story we wanted right there. And that’s amazing. So. So, junior, let’s talk about the handoff. You come in about three and a half years ago. Your dad’s asking the seniors asking you to, help you to help him create structure.

00;27;58;25 – 00;28;02;17
Speaker 2
Like what? What did that look like?

00;28;02;19 – 00;28;25;17
Speaker 2
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00;28;25;19 – 00;28;36;00
Speaker 2
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00;28;36;03 – 00;28;44;28
Speaker 2
Your dad’s asking the seniors asking you to, help you to help him create structure. Like what? What did that look like?

00;28;45;01 – 00;29;07;17
Speaker 3
Well, it was probably like, we’ll find you something to do, but we want your brain, like, we want you to be part of this. We’ll figure the rest out. So I think for three months, I was our purchasing agent, and all that really means was he’d send me an email with a list of material. I would send that email to one guy, a United, get the order confirmation and tell him he’ll be delivered.

00;29;07;17 – 00;29;30;12
Speaker 3
This time I was just he he didn’t have time to send emails. And so that’s that’s what I did for about three months. And then I was just like, there’s gotta be something else here, gotta be something else. So, you know, this was the fall of 22. I joined in September. And really just where I come in into this a little bit more, I, he sent me the book in the fall of 21.

00;29;30;12 – 00;30;00;06
Speaker 3
Extreme ownership, just was like, hey, take a look at this. Let me know what you think. So I like reading read it. And I was like, as is this is kind of a crazy book. I think I read it twice before I actually talked to him about it, and it just really forced me to start looking at my job and my work and, you know, just really uncovered how complacent I had become, you know, to the point where I started using the word comfortable.

00;30;00;06 – 00;30;22;29
Speaker 3
Even in the conversation with him, I was just like, yeah, you know, everything’s pretty comfortable. It’s good. And it’s like, right there. Even he knew that. He’s like, wow, he’s never said that. My life. So I always kind of been living in, comfort, to just to be able to grow. And, you know, I followed the business, you know, for that whole year, he would talk weekly about things that he was dealing with, things that were going on.

00;30;22;29 – 00;30;47;22
Speaker 3
So I knew I was able to start to share with him what I’ve learned through three years of of working professionally as well. And yeah, it was just it was the spring of 22 where, you know, him and my mom came to me and they were like, hey, we want we want you to come work for us. We don’t know what capacity it is, but we’ve seen what you’re doing and you know, we want we want you to be a leader within our company.

00;30;47;25 – 00;31;03;26
Speaker 3
And it was really. It was what I was looking for. You know, I had been passed up for a manager position at my job three times just because I wasn’t at that company long enough. And I really it pissed me off at the end of the day. And I was like, I know I can do this.

00;31;03;26 – 00;31;25;11
Speaker 3
I just need the opportunity. And here they were with the opportunity. So I probably thought about it for three months. If we’re being honest, because my wife is family is a long time family business, electrical, small electrical company in central Illinois. And, you know, she is seen with a family business. You know, the the downsides, the upside.

00;31;25;11 – 00;31;48;15
Speaker 3
Like she lived through it all her life. So it was a lot of conversations that we had. And, you know, we we made some agreements with each other. And it was both our decision that this was really the best opportunity for our family. You know, financially, you know, stability wise, flexibility, that, that this, this opportunity was what I wanted to take.

00;31;48;17 – 00;32;08;12
Speaker 3
So yeah, I joined in September of that year, started working in purchasing. And then, you know, obviously I came because of the culture. I mean, that’s what attracted me a ton in learning, getting to know the team, getting to know the people traveling out there. You know, I was out there quite a bit in the early stages, getting it, just getting used to everything.

00;32;08;14 – 00;32;26;18
Speaker 3
But I just again, like he said, I started asking questions about like processes and structure and hey, where is this? Or how is this documented? Or how do we report all of this? And it just they didn’t have that, you know, and they were a year old. I mean, it’s not that I was expecting it. It’s just I came from something that was so structured.

00;32;26;20 – 00;32;57;00
Speaker 3
I was like, how do you not where is the structure? And so we started looking online and just trying to find something to help us. And we we came across iOS entrepreneurial operating system. And it’s, it’s I’m going to say because I’ve been the integrator of ran the OS, it’s the it’s the thing that’s changed our business to get us to where we’re at today because we have we had such a strong foundation around culture and attracting the right people.

00;32;57;00 – 00;33;16;15
Speaker 3
I mean, you heard his story and that’s the same passion he has talking to someone who’s a new hire, talking to someone that’s a client like you just get you can’t not want to be like, how can I work for that person? How can that person help me on my project? You know, so we were attracting a lot of very talented people.

00;33;16;17 – 00;33;34;20
Speaker 3
We just needed to really provide them with a platform so they could continue to grow and actually do their job effectively. And iOS was that, and it was a structure. So we say our culture, extreme ownership is the foundation and iOS is a structure that sits on top of it. So it was just building in the accountability chart.

00;33;34;20 – 00;34;00;26
Speaker 3
It was getting the right KPIs for the departments. It was just having clear lines of of authority and reporting, making sure the right people are in the right seats, that you even have the right positions that your business needs. You creating just a regular meeting rhythm, you know, creating, just a standard operating process, you know, because when you’re new business, you bring in experience because you don’t have everything documented.

00;34;00;26 – 00;34;21;11
Speaker 3
So people just know what to do. Well, we started bringing in guys that were 19, 20, 21 years old that don’t have the experience. You’re going to need to be able to provide them in SOP on how they need to be able to do their job, you know, clear roles and responsibilities. So everything that a business runs on normally, iOS was able to kind of guide us through that.

00;34;21;11 – 00;34;48;03
Speaker 3
And, you know, I, I, I raised my hand to basically be the integrator, which in regular business it’s the CEO of a of a company is the integrator. So he’s the visionary I’m the integrator. So my goal was basically to talk to him, understand his vision, understand the ideas, the goals that he has, figure out how to execute it, figure out, hey, we can do this right now.

00;34;48;03 – 00;35;12;12
Speaker 3
This has to wait. We can do this. This has to wait. So, you know, that’s what’s really helped us grow. This is when you get into this iOS structure and the kind of the world of the US, our relationship of a father and son being visionary integrator is very rare. A lot of times it’s you have a visionary that’s older, that maybe spends most of the time, you know, on the beach, they’re removed from the business.

00;35;12;12 – 00;35;32;21
Speaker 3
You got an integrator that’s really that’s really just the face of the company running everything. And then they meet once a month to discuss what’s going on. Well, him and I talk 3 to 10 times every day, you know, so we were able to I was able to pull so much the information out of him much quicker than then.

00;35;32;21 – 00;35;50;08
Speaker 3
If we weren’t father son because of our relationship, we didn’t have to go through a honeymoon phase or anything like that. We were just like, let’s go to work because we knew how we how we worked. I mean, he told me how to play football. He, you know, we we we bonded over that for, for years, you know, getting ready for college.

00;35;50;08 – 00;36;15;08
Speaker 3
So like, we just it was just that all over again in a way. So just kept asking questions, you know, and you, you said like, what’s one decision early on where you had to trust your own judgment, even when it felt uncomfortable? I can’t say one decision. Everything was uncomfortable. I know I, I can I can tell you like I wanted the opportunity to be a leader.

00;36;15;16 – 00;36;34;02
Speaker 3
I probably wasn’t ready for the opportunity, but he saw an in me. I had to believe that, and I think how I would answer that question is I trusted him, that he saw something in me that I hadn’t seen yet, and just trusted the process and just trusted in it. You know, like, I wasn’t a great football player.

00;36;34;04 – 00;37;01;25
Speaker 3
He saw something in me. I trusted that I was able to play a mission, you know, so he was able to put people around me to help support me and advise me that saw something probably more than I saw in myself, that really elevated my ability to lead and take chances and take risk. Because at the end of the day, for me being in this position, I’ve always kind of looked at it as a leadership playground.

00;37;01;28 – 00;37;27;01
Speaker 3
You know, there’s a lot of things we’ve tried that failed. There’s a lot of things we’ve tried that’s work. But we because of how he’s built that company and yes, the flexibility of being in the family business has allowed me to do this. I’ve been able to really figure out who I am, what I do well, and how I can best lead a team of individuals because he’s just he’s always going to give the opportunity rather than take it, you know?

00;37;27;01 – 00;37;47;22
Speaker 3
So my the whole goal with EOS was to develop a leadership team. And, and I’m, I’m responsible for really managing and overseeing that leadership team. And you know, we started out with eight people, you know, and then it maybe six months later it was six, you know, and then for about a year and a half, there was only four of us.

00;37;47;24 – 00;38;11;08
Speaker 3
And it was just really finding the right people to want to take responsibility away from someone. And that’s that’s a very hard concept, I think, for a lot of people to grasp, because when you’re a leader, when you’re at the head of the company, if you just look at an organizational chart, you have all the responsibility. Everyone’s going to look to you to make every decision.

00;38;11;10 – 00;38;33;22
Speaker 3
I could probably say in the last two and a half years, there hasn’t been a decision senior has made by himself, and that’s because we’ve been able to build a group of six people who are continually taking responsibility away from the owners, because they all need to be in their day to day. There are other people to be able to execute rather than him.

00;38;33;24 – 00;39;01;11
Speaker 3
He doesn’t think in systems and processes he thinks and long term goals. Ten year picture, you know, going out to build high level relationships with clients I think construction process. So we know the lanes that we’re able to operate and we just rely on those to get us to where we’re at today. I mean, we were we were just under your 9 million, just under $10 million, in 2022 of revenue as a business.

00;39;01;11 – 00;39;23;13
Speaker 3
And that last year we finished just over 25 million, you know, in year four. So it’s a direct reflection of extreme ownership in our culture, us and really senior, allowing me to build a team of leaders. And that’s and that’s that’s where we’re at today.

00;39;23;15 – 00;39;37;25
Speaker 2
Quick question on that or follow up question on that. Are you said senior is not making decisions himself. He’s making them with six other people. Now, is that primarily through like that level ten format meeting. Are you guys running those.

00;39;37;28 – 00;40;02;00
Speaker 3
Yeah. Correct. So we have a leadership level ten meeting every Thursday morning. And really within our business now. So I think for over two years, iOS was only a, executive level leadership system because we weren’t confident in ourselves to be able to run it, even roll it out to the rest of our team. And so we finally got to that point and then started rolling it out.

00;40;02;00 – 00;40;14;09
Speaker 3
And now every department has their own level ten meeting. So Monday through Wednesday, all the departments have their meetings and then everything funnels up into our leadership meeting and then add something.

00;40;14;11 – 00;40;29;26
Speaker 2
What’s that that’s interesting that that’s like that. Yeah. That’s like I got to ask because you guys have been working with, with Echelon Front. Is that like military chain of command funneling up, up the chain of command? Is that how that came to be, or you guys just mean you?

00;40;29;29 – 00;40;57;02
Speaker 3
No, it’s it’s really just the simplest way, because how how it works effectively is we get into our meetings on Thursday morning and there’s really nothing for us to talk about because the ownership has been given to each department leader and to each really each team member soc solve the issues to solve the issues. Because when things come to us, we know, okay, this wasn’t able to get solved, that at a superintendent level.

00;40;57;02 – 00;41;24;16
Speaker 3
It wasn’t able to get solved at a PM level. Now it’s come to the leadership team. We need to provide some input to give them, get them on track with a solution. So it’s just a way for information to just flow correctly to the people that really need it. So it’s it’s, it’s it’s what extreme ownership has allowed us to do is empowering everyone to solve problems, you know, and, and just running and really run their own business.

00;41;24;16 – 00;41;45;15
Speaker 3
I mean, we, we have 28, 28 people on their team. I like to think there’s 28 business owners because everyone’s running their own business and that’s their job. That’s the project, right? That’s their home life. I mean, everything is their own business, and we’re just trying to give everyone the tools to do a little bit better every day.

00;41;45;17 – 00;41;53;20
Speaker 2
And is some of that is that that this decentralized command kind of person thought 100%. Okay.

00;41;53;20 – 00;42;04;24
Speaker 3
So yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, that’s you’re thinking about that now. Would you decentralize command and cover move? I mean, those are the two.

00;42;04;27 – 00;42;26;25
Speaker 3
Biggest things you probably see in our company now. You know, you’re going to see people working as a team. You’re going to you’re never going to see someone really in a silo because we’ve just integrated everything just as a team. I mean, there’s never really decisions that are being made by one person. You know, there’s there’s that we you know, obviously decentralized command is still a skill a lot of people work on.

00;42;26;27 – 00;42;44;24
Speaker 3
But, you know, if you if you’re if you’re a leader, you’re going to look at your leaders to delegate responsibilities to, you know, we like to make you try to make it clear between those thinkers and those doers, you know, every company is going to have people. That man, I’m going to put my head down and work and you need those people.

00;42;44;26 – 00;43;02;20
Speaker 3
But how can we help them think of a little bit more? We take a little bit more ownership and not just do something that they were given to do in that task, but also be like, hey, what more can I do for you? Or hey, I’m thinking you may need help with this. So it’s just thinkers and doers.

00;43;02;22 – 00;43;18;08
Speaker 2
So love it. What about, so obviously there’s questions for both of you guys, but, let’s get into the, the 8080 principle. Maybe you can, explain to us what that is, and then how you guys put that into into play.

00;43;18;10 – 00;43;44;11
Speaker 3
Yeah, I’ll, I’ll start because it stems from an iOS question, focused around, the six key components and one of those being vision. And within the vision component, you have to answer the question of what’s your ten year target? And when we first created our leadership team, you know, we we sat down for two full day sessions thinking through these questions.

00;43;44;11 – 00;44;05;00
Speaker 3
And, you know, we have a lot of people saying a lot of things. You know, we wanted to plumb in every state. We wanted to, you know, put a toilet in the white House. You know, we wanted to plumb in the moon, whatever. It was like a ten year target is supposed to be something that’s so audacious, but it’s kind of like your your lighthouse.

00;44;05;00 – 00;44;26;11
Speaker 3
The thing that’s, like, kind of always taking you in the direction you need to go. And what we’ve what we settled on was we wanted the plum 100,000 units. So that was we all decided that day, the eight of us, I think at the time. Like that’s that’s something in our in ten years, if we could say we plumbed 1000 units, man, we’re doing something.

00;44;26;13 – 00;44;49;03
Speaker 3
So I don’t know how long it was. It may have been like the next two months, but you were at an event and it was shortly after that. He was at another muster and, he was talking with Leif Babin, who’s coauthor of of Extreme Ownership, and he was like, yeah, we we found the OS. You know, we we’ve we decided on a ten year target and it’s the plum 100,000 units.

00;44;49;06 – 00;45;07;08
Speaker 3
And I think like if he kind of like puts his head down, looks away and looks at them and goes, is that really what you want to be known for? And then just walked away to talk to it. And so obviously that’s like here, here’s a group of eight people that just sat in a room for eight hours.

00;45;07;08 – 00;45;25;09
Speaker 3
They just came up with this as a ten year target. And he’s so excited to share it. And it’s just like, is that really what you want to be known for? So he comes back to us after the event and and shares that. And we all really started to think like that’s that’s true. It’s like, what’s the quality of those units.

00;45;25;09 – 00;45;51;04
Speaker 3
Where are those units at? Like, is that really what the business we’re trying to build wants to be known for is just we’re doing all this work and we all said no. And I think you got this fair how it how 8080 started. Because that’s more of your story there. So, you know, I really just started thinking what kind of company did we want to have and what what did what did we want that to look like.

00;45;51;04 – 00;46;16;26
Speaker 3
And what would that guiding light be like to to really help us navigate through making decisions? And, so, you know, there’s always the 8020 rule and we have a leadership coach. His name’s, Marcus Aurelius Andersen. And we were talking and, through a conversation we determined is what if what if it was 80, 80, and 80?

00;46;16;26 – 00;46;40;22
Speaker 3
Meaning if we could, retain 80% of our clients in ten years and 80% of our team in ten years? Wow. That would be a great ten year goal to look back to, say we have 80% of the people that’s ever worked there and that we’ve ever worked for. And so, I brought that to the team and they said, hey, what do you guys think about this?

00;46;40;28 – 00;47;04;26
Speaker 3
And so it became it became, you know, obvious because of, I’ve always been focused in on business development, like, hey, I, I would, I’ll champion the 80% of our clients, right? That’s what I do anyway. And so then it was like, decided that, you know, we all were championing the 80% of our team. Like, we all were owning our culture.

00;47;04;28 – 00;47;30;20
Speaker 3
And so that’s kind of how that started. But eventually realizing, as they say, if everybody’s in charge of it, nobody’s in charge of it. And so it really started, like, who was who was really championing our culture. And I think it was also about that time that we were so focused in developing and starting in iOS that I started to feel like we were losing our culture.

00;47;30;24 – 00;47;51;26
Speaker 3
Right. That and what I realized in that moment and actually got some pushback from our implementer a little bit, but that we were so strong culturally that we had a focus in on both of those things at the same time. If we only focus in on data and not on people, they’re going to feel it. If we’re only going to focus on culture, not data, we’re not going to before.

00;47;51;28 – 00;48;25;13
Speaker 3
So it had to be this thing that we’re we’re looking through both lenses at the same time. And so if I’m responsible for the 80% of our clients, who’s going to be responsible for 80% of our team? And so, Scott, tell them the conversation you had with with Kathleen when you were talking about the my mom. So my mom calls me and and I’m like, man, for someone to do this, they’d have to be like, here from day one.

00;48;25;15 – 00;48;50;25
Speaker 3
They’d have to know our whole team. They’d have to be probably part of the people that brought them in and help them develop them. Like, I don’t think we have that in here. I was talking to the one person that that is and that was my mom, somebody, you know, and and, you know, I wasn’t I was on the phone with her, but like, I could tell her, like, this was her.

00;48;50;27 – 00;49;08;28
Speaker 3
This was her path. Like, this was like her moment of, this is what I can do in the business, you know, because, like, for her, I think that was something she always struggled with because she ran the books for 18 years, you know, within the former business, you know, she was sure kind of like running our HR and our payroll.

00;49;08;28 – 00;49;33;24
Speaker 3
But I don’t know if she really felt like she had something like senior did, you know. And so now that that she’s got this title, she’s our chief culture, our Office of chief culture officer, and she’s in charge of retaining 80% of our employees. I mean, the list of things that she does weekly debriefs, monthly debriefs, annual reviews, running our team meetings, new connecting, having check ins.

00;49;33;26 – 00;49;56;05
Speaker 3
You know, she probably has 5 to 10 check ins with team members every week where she talks to the whole team every month. So she has the pulse of the team to know what things are working, what things aren’t working, and then also having the seen on the leadership team. This to be able to bring that to the people that can actually go have those conversations, you know, so that’s it’s it’s a, it’s a yin and yang.

00;49;56;07 – 00;50;17;08
Speaker 3
You know, the two owners, you know, retaining 80% of the clients, retaining 80% of the team. I mean, you talk about having a path now where every decision we make is this getting us closer to that 80, 80 or further away? We’re 100,000 units planned is not even going to get us close to that. Even that’s not the company who we wanted to be.

00;50;17;10 – 00;50;20;06
Speaker 3
So that’s that’s how 8080 started.

00;50;20;08 – 00;50;31;27
Speaker 2
This is amazing. Guys, we are like, we’re running short on time, and I don’t want to keep you on it, because I’ll probably keep you here for another hour, but,

00;50;31;29 – 00;50;34;17
Speaker 3
This is another half hour if you want to keep talking.

00;50;34;20 – 00;50;51;11
Speaker 2
And I don’t know if these got to jump you good, I can definitely. I’m good. I can definitely keep going. Okay. I’ll keep for sure. Keep it rolling. All right, all right. Because I, we still got the the the YouTube questions I’d love to ask those and get those from you. So we’ll keep we’ll keep going.

00;50;51;13 – 00;50;58;01
Speaker 2
Yeah. All right. So.

00;50;58;04 – 00;51;19;18
Speaker 2
Well, I had one follow up question, actually, before we get in the other stuff, as far as the, EOS. Right. So Derek and I are both pretty familiar with iOS. I mean, I, I’ve read traction probably a dozen times. Have implement self implemented some of the stuff. I think Derek is also self implemented some iOS stuff into his company.

00;51;19;21 – 00;51;26;23
Speaker 2
I’m just curious, did you guys do a self implementation or do you work with someone that was an iOS? Implementer?

00;51;26;25 – 00;52;08;01
Speaker 3
Yep. We worked with an implementer. So we got very lucky that the first 90 minute call we had with EOS to introduce what it was and how it could set up was actually with our now implementer came into our office, presented to us very, very same, that same values, you know, faith based, undergrad, rather extreme ownership, understood our culture, you know, and for him, you know, he saw this as an opportunity for himself to and I think I can I can say that, you know, him and I being close that that we’ve been able to both influence each other because we don’t do things by the book of EOS, you know.

00;52;08;06 – 00;52;40;27
Speaker 3
But, you know, I think extreme ownership has started to also influence how he’s being an implementer with, with others too. And, and, you know, he’s been that guiding light for us that I’ve been able to work with very closely. And through this whole process of working with him, like I kind of mentioned at the beginning of, of the call that we we hired a new CEO in, over two like a little over two months ago now, and I officially started my own business as a consultant, the beginning of March.

00;52;40;29 – 00;53;08;13
Speaker 3
Because because of what I’ve been able to learn with SAS, LLC and worked with Ryan, our implementer, it’s given me the confidence that, hey, I know there’s business owners out there that are struggling with the day to day and being involved in the execution and not being able to really pursue their their goals and set up their legacy to grow their business because they’re just trying to put out fires.

00;53;08;16 – 00;53;36;20
Speaker 3
And I’m I’m what I’m trying to do is work with those owners to remove that, to develop leadership teams, to bring people in, to take those responsibilities so they can get out of the business and not be sucked into the day to day. So I’m like, oh. Secondly, that Ryan’s one of the main reasons I felt confident enough to to break away, to hire someone that is much, much better than me at being a integrator or really being a CEO and integrator.

00;53;36;22 – 00;53;56;16
Speaker 3
And I can take this opportunity and start something for myself. So it’s it’s it’s been awesome, to work with him and, and yeah, my goal is to continue working with him, you know, as I find other clients to, to to work with other owners, you know. Hey, Ryan’s right here with me. You know, we can do us.

00;53;56;20 – 00;54;20;14
Speaker 3
We can come implement this because, you know, for us, iOS is a tool. Extreme ownership is a tool. Our SOPs are tools, you know, so it’s not it’s not to say we’re a one stop shop. It’s just iOS. There’s a lot that goes into making SAS, LLC. And luckily I’ve been able to capture all that kind of being at the head of it and want to go try and do that for other businesses.

00;54;20;16 – 00;54;43;24
Speaker 3
And I think it’s important to to just, you know, creating this business. On the success of others. It’s if we got a guy that wants to go start his own plumbing business, I’m going to help him do it. And it was just it’s just been a great opportunity to live out this mission with my son, to tell the company that, I mean, it was really.

00;54;43;27 – 00;55;07;11
Speaker 3
I mean, it was really emotional when, like, we all realize, like. And February was his last day working for us, but it was like he he found his passion. And man, I just wanted to support him in that. And you know, now he advises us back with, with his, his knowledge of, of iOS. But it’s just we’re living out this mission with his the closest people to us.

00;55;07;11 – 00;55;25;08
Speaker 3
Like if, if, if you’re anybody, including my son and you want to leave and go do your own thing, I’m going to support you in that, I’m going to help you build that. So it’s just been it’s been great to see the passion he’s created in what he wants to do and, the work he’s doing with his first client.

00;55;25;10 – 00;55;27;09
Speaker 3
So it’s been great.

00;55;27;11 – 00;55;58;06
Speaker 2
And just, you know, give our listeners a little, we’ll say, delineation between the different tools that you’re using. So you’re using iOS as just what it is, the operating system. Right. That’s, how you organize your sales and your marketing and the finance and everything around the business structure and echelon front. And the work that you do with those guys is more on people developing people, leadership mindset, those types of things.

00;55;58;06 – 00;56;03;05
Speaker 2
Is that a fair? So like one is the business and the others for the people in the business.

00;56;03;07 – 00;56;29;11
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah. And and yeah, I’d say that’s, that’s pretty close to it because you know, echelon front, I mean every every team members on the front Academy, every team member we go to goes to a muster. You know, when the Ft is available, we take them to that, you know, we watch the, so when you enroll in the academy, you get access to the live zoom calls that they have every week.

00;56;29;14 – 00;56;50;13
Speaker 3
Our whole team sits on those live zoom calls, you know, so it’s it’s it’s so much of what we do because we know being able to be a leader, everyone everyone is a leader. And that’s and that’s one thing that I think new people coming in have a hard time of realizing, because you go outside of SSL, see leaders carry positions.

00;56;50;16 – 00;57;17;27
Speaker 3
Well, everyone that SSL sees a leader, it just differs the authority you have being where you are in our accountability chart. But leadership for us is focusing on yourself. And that’s it. Because if you try to lead someone else without leading yourself first, it fails. And we we, we have countless examples of that happening. So all of our leadership training through Echelon front, you know, yes, we’re trying to grow the business, build up a team.

00;57;18;00 – 00;57;50;29
Speaker 3
But really for us, it’s just making sure that there taking the skills and realizing, hey, look at yourself, self-assess, understand where your red flags are. So you when you’re in situations, you know how to react. You know, taking ownership isn’t about pointing the finger at someone else. It’s the you taking ownership. And we’ve had fortunate, a couple of years ago, I came across I was, helping at my alma mater, Western Michigan, sharing some of the things that I have learned.

00;57;50;29 – 00;58;22;25
Speaker 3
And, and there was another guy volunteering at the time, and, it ended up he was had a great college career, had a great pro career, coach 13 years in college. And, and we really developed a relationship. And he’s had a very specific coaching mantra. And so what we’ve transitioned into last year was we we have a great understanding of of our knowledge of extreme ownership and even iOS, but it’s a whole different level when you start coaching, right?

00;58;22;27 – 00;58;47;19
Speaker 3
Not only coaching one person, but coaching that person to coach. So, coach Mike mentor, his philosophy is know the way, go away showed away. So it’s first having the knowledge of the subject that you need to be the example in. So you know the way you know the knowledge and then you go, you be the example and then you can show it right.

00;58;47;19 – 00;59;07;29
Speaker 3
You can show other people and talk to them and then show them through your actions what you’re doing. But then it flips to the other person. Right. So now I’m going to coach you and on an on something the first thing before everybody usually wants to say, I’m going to coach you what’s in my head. Right? I’m going to coach you.

00;59;07;29 – 00;59;27;03
Speaker 3
What’s in here? It doesn’t work that way. I got to find out where you’re at. So I got to find out where you’re at with your knowledge base. Then I got to watch you go away, right? And give you feedback. And then eventually, then you could end up showing the way. So it’s really where people are at, where we want them to go in coaching that gap.

00;59;27;06 – 00;59;47;04
Speaker 3
And that’s where, you know, having a football mind, a football coach has really helped us. Really. All of us, you know, coach ourselves better, coach our team. So it’s yeah, it’s taking that book knowledge of special on front and, and transitioning it into how we share with other people.

00;59;47;07 – 00;59;58;07
Speaker 2
Amazing. So when you when you guys are looking to bring new people into your organization, I would imagine with the growth that you’ve experienced, you you’ve expanded the team quite significantly.

00;59;58;08 – 00;59;59;24
Speaker 3
What are some of those criteria.

00;59;59;24 – 01;00;01;08
Speaker 2
That you look for.

01;00;01;10 – 01;00;03;13
Speaker 3
Whether they’re there younger folks or people.

01;00;03;13 – 01;00;08;15
Speaker 2
Looking to who are getting into the trades or or people who are looking for a new career.

01;00;08;15 – 01;00;13;09
Speaker 3
Path. What are some of those key characteristics that you look for?

01;00;13;12 – 01;00;35;04
Speaker 3
So it also it’s all our core values leadership, teamwork, humility and ownership. And we have a two part interview that happened in the same interview. And so Kathleen, my mom being the chief culture officer and typically the supervisor or the department leader are both going to sit in the same interview and talk to one person and 50% of the interview.

01;00;35;06 – 01;00;56;13
Speaker 3
And really, the start of the interview is all culture questions, all questions to identify who this type of person is and how do they think. The first question we ask, what’s one mistake you made? How you over how did you overcome it? Nine times, maybe ten times out of ten, that answer is going to tell us who that person is because are they going to?

01;00;56;13 – 01;01;15;14
Speaker 3
I mean, I’ve said on and on interviews where people just talk about other people’s mistakes and it’s not even about that. And I’ve I’ve heard great answers where someone really takes ownership and they don’t even know what taking ownership means. But we know those words in a lot of times, like our core values, the four laws of combat.

01;01;15;14 – 01;01;45;13
Speaker 3
It’s not rocket science. It’s not like these crazy things going we’ve created. It’s just we have better definitions to teamwork, to being a leader, to being honest and having integrity, to owning mistakes. And so when we’re in interviews and we’re asking these questions, culturally to understand a person and they start using these words, we know this is going to be a fit because they’re going to start now, tying them into how SSL operates and not even know that they have a lot of this in them already.

01;01;45;13 – 01;02;11;09
Speaker 3
But we typically know if someone’s a good fit with us within, I like to say ten, 15 minutes of an interview before we even get to the technical side, because anyone can do this and it’s plumbing. Anyone can run, run the project, put pipe in the wall. But being a leader means managing people, you know, and that is something that you can’t overlook because it’s it can go completely sideways for you.

01;02;11;12 – 01;02;37;23
Speaker 3
And then there’s a tool to realize, I’m sure you know the people analyzer. So we use the plus, the minus, plus minus. And one thing we recently started to do is, in preparation for the interview, our daughter and, is our HR manager should send out an email and just say, can you please define these four terms of leadership teamwork, humility and ownership?

01;02;37;23 – 01;03;04;26
Speaker 3
We want to see where they’re at. And because our our definitions are different than probably a lot of others. And so for for leadership, for us as LLC, that means own your own growth. For team work, it means show up for the team and put others before yourself. Humility for us means ask questions, listen and learn. And in front of the ownership is, you know, take care, take ownership of everything in your life and and bring solutions, not excuses.

01;03;04;29 – 01;03;27;08
Speaker 3
And so it just right from the very beginning where they at. And we get great answers to those to those questions but they’re generally a little bit different. So right off the bat we’re coaching that gap. Hey man that’s a great answer. But for us leadership is owning your own growth. It starts with that first. So you know I used to laugh.

01;03;27;10 – 01;03;51;05
Speaker 3
The first there’s 15 people that are no longer with our company, and there’s one person who hired all of them, and it’s it’s me. And it’s because I hired out of emotion. This is what I thought. And so that those core values, those questions, it really does take the subjective ness out of it and create an objective way to look at the data, right?

01;03;51;05 – 01;04;16;13
Speaker 3
And try and, weed through those, those emotions that we all feel, man, this guy is going to do very well. They know they and we use like like I said, like there’s four the four stages of extreme ownership. When you have a strong culture, there’s three types of people you end up getting the first. The first group are the ones that don’t agree with your culture and quit.

01;04;16;20 – 01;04;40;17
Speaker 3
We just had a guy quit after 22 days because he couldn’t he he couldn’t he couldn’t handle our culture. Then there’s another group that hide from our culture and eventually get weeded out and fired. And then finally, it’s the third group which 28 people are. Where we’re at now is they believe in our culture, they embrace it and they become valuable to themselves, their families and our company.

01;04;40;20 – 01;05;07;26
Speaker 3
And so it’s it’s, it works, you know, I mean, there’s there’s there’s a great line that, Jamie Cochran, the CEO of Echelon Front, she says extreme if extreme ownership isn’t working, you’re doing it wrong. And it’s really it’s really the truth. But it’s all a process. I mean, to your question, Derek Young, like, 15 people were hired by senior, and those 15 people aren’t there because it was one person doing all of it.

01;05;07;26 – 01;05;32;05
Speaker 3
So me with the process side and thinking in systems and SOPs, it’s like, okay, well, this isn’t a process. So let’s have interview one, two people. Interview two. If it’s a superintendent, get them out on the jobsite, have them walk with another superintendent and have them walk with one of our labor leads. So now instead of one person just in two interviews, you got almost 5 or 6 different perspectives.

01;05;32;05 – 01;05;57;03
Speaker 3
And now you can have on one person. And then the last thing, if they make it to the third round, they’re talking with our leadership coach Marcus, who has a pulse on our team, knows our core values, knows how we operate, and he’s able to give an unbiased opinion on a 30 minute phone call. So we went from one person hiring everyone to now there’s 6 to 7 people going through an interview.

01;05;57;03 – 01;06;18;13
Speaker 3
But here’s one more step. Is that person that is being hired? The department leader has to come in to a level ten meeting on a Thursday and present that candidate to the leadership team on who they are, why they’re being hired, and how can they benefit SLC. And then that’s just the final check and balance to say, are there any questions we didn’t ask?

01;06;18;20 – 01;06;36;15
Speaker 3
What should we be prepared for? Because you’re never going to have a person come in. That’s 100%. You had nothing you need to worry about. Everyone’s going to come in with something. So what’s the trade off you’re willing to make? Who’s willing to invest in the coaching to help them get to where they need to be here? Hey, they’re strong there.

01;06;36;15 – 01;06;52;00
Speaker 3
We don’t have to worry about it. So before someone starts, you know, there’s a 90 day plan that’s already outlined, already written out to be able to help that person get to where we really need them to be.

01;06;52;03 – 01;07;10;26
Speaker 2
Guys, we’re going to, jump over to the YouTube segment or I should say the the YouTube exclusive segment, which for our listeners, means if you’re watching, you’re listening to this on YouTube, you don’t need to do anything. Just keep watching. If you’re on Spotify or on Apple, you got to jump on over to YouTube to hear the next part of, of the show.

01;07;10;28 – 01;07;31;03
Speaker 2
What we’ve done has been amazing so far, guys, so I’m really excited about these next three questions that we’re going to ask you. So the first question will say is for junior, but obviously, of course senior, if you want to jump in, jump in, you know, talking about the quote unquote unsexy systems, right? A business, the, the, the real playbook.

01;07;31;03 – 01;07;45;03
Speaker 2
What is what does Monday morning look like? Get at your business. Like how do you run the three week look ahead. What’s actually in the project manual? What’s an operational habit that you tell every trade business owner listening to implement this Monday?

01;07;45;05 – 01;08;06;10
Speaker 3
Yeah. Okay. So Mondays for us, I mean, it’s probably one of the busier days for, for the entire team, obviously coming out of the weekend, but, you know, for senior and I, you know, that’s our same page, meaning Monday morning just to get on the same page for that week. Jeremy, who are new hire CEOs been involved in that too.

01;08;06;10 – 01;08;27;14
Speaker 3
But, you know, really Mondays are meeting day for the most part. We’ll have the echelon front live zoom call Mondays. We’ll have our hour long team meeting on Monday. So everything really revolves around that. So it’s how much of your Monday can you get done up until noon mountain time and then the afternoon. What do you need to finish to get the next day ready?

01;08;27;14 – 01;08;55;03
Speaker 3
So Mondays are a little chaotic for some. We’ve been doing this a long time now where where everyone’s been able to find their rhythm and be able to be fully participating in, in those two meetings. So that’s been good. But, you know, for us, the three week look at it, I mean, it’s it’s the biggest tool we have for the guys in the field, you know, from internally for us and then for our customers and, and our clients on the, on the side as well.

01;08;55;03 – 01;09;12;18
Speaker 3
So I’ll talk first with us because one of the biggest things for us in plumbing is being able to plan a job correctly, because where we lose money is when things aren’t planned. You got to run our will call. You got to go the Home Depot. You know, those are the things that end up eating away the budget pretty quickly.

01;09;12;18 – 01;09;43;03
Speaker 3
So when a guy is able to successfully fill out a three week look ahead, we’re able to procure the materials correctly to save money, to save time. They have things when they need it, instead of having to have those last minute orders. So that’s huge. To make sure we’re aligned on the work that’s being needed. But what we do with the the three week look ahead is it’s a conversation with our subs because for SSL, see, so we have a superintendent on every job site that is an SSL employee.

01;09;43;05 – 01;10;07;27
Speaker 3
And then all of our work is subbed out. All of our labor is subbed out. So we have five different sub crew spread out across 13 projects right now. And so those three we look at for a guy on the field, the superintendent running that he’s talking with, the lead of the sub crew, the one doing the work to make sure, hey, this is what I’m tracking this week, next week, the week after that, align with with what you have going on and you’re going to get a thumbs up.

01;10;08;00 – 01;10;28;01
Speaker 3
And then what we do is it’s take it a step further, that guy will walk into the GC trailer and say, hey, here’s my three week look at is this lined up with what you’re expecting us to be at? And so now you got a three week look ahead that’s been looked at by our purchasing on the material side, our field operations to make sure the resources and the manpower are properly managed.

01;10;28;04 – 01;10;55;20
Speaker 3
The sub to confirm the work they’re actually doing is what’s being highlighted. And then the GC to oversee it all and understand if it’s playing into his master schedule. So that’s that’s a huge tool. It’s taken all us a long time to get there. I mean, it’s you know, we’ve we’ve incentivized our team. We’ve had a lot of training around that because, you know, when you have a guy that’s been plumbing something plumbing for 20 plus years, he’s going to do something one way.

01;10;55;22 – 01;11;11;10
Speaker 3
He may never fill out the three week look at. So it may take him a little bit more time to get used to spending an hour or two on a Tuesday morning to to highlight this, where you got a new guy that’s like itching for for something like this. Because now for him that’s a guide for his next three weeks, you know.

01;11;11;10 – 01;11;35;09
Speaker 3
So it’s really it’s been really cool to see the dynamic of the younger guys and the older guys being able to do something, to make the project successful. So that’s, that’s been the three week look ahead and then the project manual. I mean, we spent a big part of last year writing down and documenting all of our, our SOPs, you know, and we focused on a, 2080 rule.

01;11;35;09 – 01;12;07;26
Speaker 3
So not 80, 20, 20, 80. So whether the 20% of the SOPs you need to move 80% of your department. And so we got the core processes documented and thinking more operationally for us, that’s a playbook. So as we continue to grow, as we think about expansion and maybe possibly moving to different areas, you know, it’s do we have everything documented into a playbook where we can go to a new site, drop it down there, put in superintendent, he can pick it up and run the job.

01;12;07;28 – 01;12;27;01
Speaker 3
You know, and that’s that’s what our playbook playbook is. So we’ve gone through revisions. I mean, we’re we’re probably on the fourth iteration of what that playbook is because, hey, you bring someone else in new, they share an idea. And so he’s got to get updated, you know, and then distribute it. So we’re really close to to having having all of that in the binder.

01;12;27;02 – 01;13;00;28
Speaker 3
We can go do that. You know, and then one operational habit I tell every trade business owner to start implementing on Monday, you know, I’m glad you sent this out because I was I was reading it last night trying to think. And the biggest thing that came to my head was documenting communication. And I think for us, that’s been something that has hurt us and something that has helped us tremendously is, you know, in the world of construction, so many conversations happen in passing.

01;13;00;28 – 01;13;22;06
Speaker 3
They happen standing in a unit, looking up at, you know, what? What was just plumb standing at a tub. And then two days later, it’s like, hey, how come you’re not doing this? We talked about it here. Well, that guy didn’t remember. And so one emphasis we’ve made probably the last six months is our team documents every conversation that’s had.

01;13;22;06 – 01;13;42;24
Speaker 3
That’s not through email. You have a phone call with a GC that’s superintendents following up with an email to the GC giving him a read deck. You guys knowing echelon front read back is a huge term that they use, and a Rebeck isn’t to make sure that person understands what I’m saying, it’s to make sure I’m clear in how I’m communicating.

01;13;42;26 – 01;14;04;27
Speaker 3
So superintendent has a conversation with a GC that superintendent hangs up, pulls out his phone, sends hey GC, per our conversation. Here’s the plan. And then that. Now that sent the project manager the field operations managers attached to it. So now everyone’s aligned on what’s been communicated, you know, and we’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from the GC is on that.

01;14;04;27 – 01;14;31;28
Speaker 3
And just saying like, hey, that’s keeping us organized. Now we have something to go off of. But it’s also accountability for us too. I mean, we you know, how many times do you make plans with someone and then something falls through and nothing’s communicated and people are wondering what what happened? So you being able to document all of those conversations, you know, has really helped us create better alignment with the people we work with.

01;14;32;01 – 01;14;51;03
Speaker 2
I it’s, it’s you’re talking about that the the read back and it’s it’s interesting because we’ve moved basically every single meeting we have now to zoom so that I can record it. So I can use that AI summary so that I can like, hey, here’s the summary. Here’s the transcript. You got any questions about anything that was said?

01;14;51;03 – 01;15;21;13
Speaker 2
You can consult exactly what it was. And it’s it’s been a huge, huge value to us. I know the next question. We the next question was about developing next year leader for senior. But we and I think we we cover that really well during the main episode. So if it’s all right, we’ll just we’ll skip to the next one because I want to make sure that we got to this because I’m really interested in the work that you guys have been doing with Echelon Front, the Masters for councils.

01;15;21;13 – 01;15;44;09
Speaker 2
You’re all in. You’ve been doing a lot of it for years with these guys. What’s one specific lesson from an echelon event that Gen you kind of you, you gave us one that that, you know, that really changed how you ran the business the next Monday morning type deal. All right. Or for anyone who’s listening or curious, hasn’t pulled the trigger on working with those guys, like where should they actually start?

01;15;44;11 – 01;16;05;07
Speaker 3
So, you know, I, when I went to that first event, I realized that I had started a business, a pretty complicated business, right? And that, I really wanted to build this, to give it away and that protect my, you know, protect Kathleen. If something happened to me, how is she going to run this business?

01;16;05;07 – 01;16;27;22
Speaker 3
And so I started thinking, who could I surround myself with? So I go to this first monster. And Jamie Cochran, the CEO, she has stories of impact. And there’s always a story of a guy that had just gone to NFTs and the next week had, collapsed and died of a heart attack. And he had been a customer vessel on front.

01;16;27;24 – 01;16;47;28
Speaker 3
And they talk about the legacy of leadership and then how Echelon Front actually stepped in to make sure that this company was all right. And I’m like, this is the answer. I got to build relationships with these guys, because if something happens to me, who’s going to look after? Who’s going to better look after Kathleen than Jocko and laugh in these guys?

01;16;47;28 – 01;17;11;17
Speaker 3
And so, that’s really where the power of relationships came is like, I needed to build relationships. And then I realized that how do I build relationships with Jocko and leave? Because I got to do the work. I got to prove that I’m like, who I am as a leader by by my example and and and really earn earn that relationship with them.

01;17;11;19 – 01;17;27;23
Speaker 3
And so, you know, we’re going to Nashville next week with, some of our team. It’ll be my 30th event in four years. So it’ll go to show you how much work I needed to do on myself.

01;17;27;25 – 01;17;30;13
Speaker 2
But we all do again. We all do.

01;17;30;15 – 01;17;59;09
Speaker 3
So it’s really it’s really how relationships are the most important thing. And I’ve probably asked Jocko more questions. And 99% of the time he looks at me and he says, how’s your relationship with that person? And it’s, it’s it’s really that’s that’s the biggest thing that we’ve all gone from this is, is what does relationships mean? It’s not just the casual, hey, how you doing?

01;17;59;09 – 01;18;26;05
Speaker 3
Like, how do you build a relationship with somebody, right? I mean, they use five terms. Listen, respect, care, influence, and respect. Right. It’s it’s. And you got to give all those things. You trust. Trust, and you got to give all those things before you receive them. And so we’re very intentional about building relationships. And, yeah, I would say that.

01;18;26;05 – 01;18;52;19
Speaker 3
And and the other one is it’s all about you. It’s all about you leading yourself. Scott, what do you have from your experience? Simple. No problem. Is unique, I think. I think everyone that goes to that master probably goes in there thinking, man, I have probably something that no one else is dealing with right now. Then you get in a room of 500 people and everyone that’s dealing with the same exact problem.

01;18;52;22 – 01;19;18;12
Speaker 3
And it just I think that opens up your mind to realize, well, if everyone is dealing with the same problem, I bet you everyone probably came up with a solution to this before. So then you’re like, okay, we can solve this. So it just gives you that confidence. Being in a group of people, being around a group of people that in the most difficult moments of their entire life, life or death, they were able to come up with a solution.

01;19;18;12 – 01;19;42;01
Speaker 3
And they’re just teaching us that solution. So who are we? Who am I to go back to my office and say, man, I the way that guy is chewing gum next to me. Like I don’t like working with him. I’m like, have I built a relationship with him? Maybe he’s a cool guy, you know? So it’s just it removes any judgment you have because, you know, the worst time to build a relationship is the time you need something.

01;19;42;01 – 01;20;06;07
Speaker 3
So it’s if you’re building a relationship all the time. I mean, it’s it’s it makes your life more enjoyable. It really does. You know, because you don’t hold grudges, you know, taking ownership, like there’s two ways to take ownership. You can take ownership for something you did, or you can take ownership of your reaction to something. You know, because a lot of times there’s a problem that you have to own that you weren’t involved in.

01;20;06;09 – 01;20;27;27
Speaker 3
You weren’t part of it. But hey, people are looking to you for answers, so you’re going to have to own that outcome regardless, you know? So it’s just, you know, being able to take ownership of of your life. And I say life because it’s not professional. You know, Echelon Front has probably shared, taught me more about how I live my life personally than it has professionally.

01;20;27;29 – 01;20;49;15
Speaker 3
And then we know in business there’s no you don’t turn it off. You know, you don’t work for eight hours, turn it off and go home. You know, especially at the level we’re at being business owners, it’s 24 over seven, you know. So if you think you’re, you’re doing something at home and you can hide it at work, there’s people around you that are seeing right through that.

01;20;49;18 – 01;21;16;22
Speaker 3
And so this really is just something you have to constantly work at because at one time you’re like, I’m good. So when complacency slips in and then you’re right back at square one. So it’s really just taught me a lot about myself and who I am and the people I surround myself with. And you know how important it is to continue to share what we’re doing to get those perspectives, you know, because we’ve we’re not here because him and I am and my mom know everything.

01;21;16;25 – 01;21;38;12
Speaker 3
We’re here because we found the people that we didn’t know the answers to the questions, and we found the people who did. And they’re still with us now. So. And you have, you know, how how would somebody get started, pull the trigger. You know, we had you know, we had, you know, just an unbelievable opportunity to have, the work.

01;21;38;12 – 01;21;57;04
Speaker 3
And so we were able to take the profits from the very beginning and invest in this culture. And a lot of people don’t have the funds, you know, and so you just got to do something, you know, you could go by the book of extreme ownership in the workbook and you could read you could read the book once at once a month in your team.

01;21;57;04 – 01;22;20;11
Speaker 3
Right. And you could go through the questions and, and just start just start learning some portion of leadership. And it doesn’t have to be extreme ownership. That’s what we found. There’s a lot of great concepts up there. But just find something to learn how you can be better, and then just have those discussions with your team, get them to find out what their challenges are.

01;22;20;11 – 01;22;40;12
Speaker 3
You know, it’s it’s it’s a it’s really becomes a very simple thing to do. And it just just do something on a weekly basis, even if it’s. Yeah, I mean, just whatever that is, just do something to to give a different perspective on how you can be a better leader. I mean, you talk I mean, we’re talking YouTube questions.

01;22;40;12 – 01;23;03;04
Speaker 3
I mean, you type in Jocko Willink on YouTube the amount of information that you’re going to have or actually in front. They do a fantastic job of posting as much content without a paywall as humanly possible. I mean, they have a whole podcast series that they’re posting weekly and monthly with Laith and Jamie, and they’re bringing in people from echelon front to share their stories.

01;23;03;04 – 01;23;20;05
Speaker 3
I mean, this is again, to Seniors Point, like just that small thing. You just do that over and over. You take those incremental steps. You’re not going to see a change the next day, the next week, the next month. But I guarantee you four months, six months, a year from now, you’re going to be like, wow, I was doing that.

01;23;20;05 – 01;23;36;26
Speaker 3
Then look at what? Look at the impact we’ve made. Because this stuff takes time. It does. It’s they’d say extreme ownership leadership. It’s easy. But or I don’t know, simple. It’s simple but not easy.

01;23;36;28 – 01;23;50;11
Speaker 2
Guys. That’s great place to to stop. I can’t say thank you enough for coming on the show. And everything that you shared today was absolutely amazing. Do you got any you got any thoughts? I know, you know, I’m always letting you get a word in edgewise.

01;23;50;13 – 01;24;12;05
Speaker 3
You know, you’re doing great, Mike. Just congratulations on on all the success. And, you know, we we wish you continued success and excited to check back in with you here in the future and see how things are going in our all. If you share our contact info, you know, you could share our website. I mean, we got here because of help of other people.

01;24;12;05 – 01;24;24;09
Speaker 3
And so anybody wants to reach out, to learn our path or any suggestions? We love helping other organizations to, to just get involved with leadership because it really is the difference.

01;24;24;11 – 01;24;35;10
Speaker 2
Yeah. If people are looking to get a hold of you guys and, junior, sounds like you’ve got, a new consultancy as well. So if people want to chat with you, how how, how and where do they find you guys?

01;24;35;12 – 01;25;08;02
Speaker 3
You go first. So our website is SSL. See, Dot Pro. My email is Scott at SSL Seek Pro. So that’s really, the best place I, junior’s email with our company is Scott David at SSL Scott Pro. So yeah. And you on LinkedIn, I’m Scott Sandusky Jr. And you can find a lot of my information on there about what business I’ve created now and just a little bit more about some of the details that we’ve done over the last four years.

01;25;08;02 – 01;25;29;28
Speaker 3
And, yeah, I mean, that, I always said so I, I’ll just briefly, I was a long snapper in college, and I started training people outside of, when I got out of college because to me, that information is doing no good just sitting in my own head. And that’s the whole purpose of this. I got information over the last four years that I know has helped this business, and I know can help someone else.

01;25;29;28 – 01;25;32;21
Speaker 3
So it’s all I want to do is have a conversation.

01;25;32;21 – 01;25;52;09
Speaker 2
So I’ll, I thanks again. Really appreciate it. We’re going to have to have you back on, again and just talk about how you did that whole remote thing for four years running the business. That’s, like it says the whole podcast in itself, man. But, if you’re doing it, it’s it’s doable. Right.

01;25;52;11 – 01;26;03;02
Speaker 3
And get the heart, get the heart on here are good for my wife on here. I know you would enjoy, listen to her and how she’s intentional. And she’s got a great story as well.

01;26;03;04 – 01;26;13;08
Speaker 2
Yeah, I bet I actually. That would be amazing. You know, talking about company culture and the work that she’s done, that she’ll be awesome. So we’ll make it happen, boys.

01;26;13;10 – 01;26;41;08
Speaker 4
And that wraps up another episode of Blue Collar Startup. A big thank you to our sponsors, Five Towers Media, Daigle Cleaning Systems, Stable Fire Solutions, The Michaels Group, Martin Electric, MLB construction, Pinocchio Construction People, and Catamount Consulting for making this podcast possible. And thank you for tuning in if you learned something or felt inspired. Connect with us on our website at Blue Collar startup.io or email us at hardhat, RCBC, ASU at gmail.com.

01;26;41;08 – 01;26;54;15
Speaker 4
We’d love to hear your questions and topic ideas. Help us spread the word by sharing the show and following us on social media for updates. Until next time, keep on building, keep on dreaming and keep hustling like your future depends on it.

01;26;54;17 – 01;26;57;00
Unknown
So.

01;26;57;03 – 01;27;04;08
Unknown
Hey! Oh hey.