March 9, 2026

Mentorship, Balance, Working ON Your Business & the Butterfly Effect | Local Leaders The Podcast #221

In this powerful episode, Jim Chapman sits down with Gus LeBaron — a true-blue tradesman turned empire builder — for a raw conversation about how he built his construction business from an unknown start-up to an empire. Gus opens up about his gritty early challenges, the mentors who changed his trajectory, and the hard-won lessons that took him from working IN the trenches to building his thriving business (KOS Drywall & Painting).

He breaks down his lessons learned from how to actually find balance in business, when to scale and the game-changing power of working ON your business instead of IN it. You’ll also hear his practical system for setting goals that stick, plus Jim and Gus briefly discuss the mind-blowing “butterfly effect” moments that alter lives. If you’re a business owner, tradesperson, or anyone chasing bigger dreams, this one’s loaded with actionable gold and real-life inspiration.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Introducing Gus LeBaron
06:15 – Early Life and Challenges
10:21 – Influences and Mentorship
17:27 – Entrepreneurship and Lessons Learned
23:21 – Balancing Family and Business
30:21 – Working ON Your Business (Not IN it)
39:18 – Setting Goals for Success
45:25 – The Decline of Qualified Tradesmen
55:23 – The Butterfly Effect in Life

WEBVTT

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Hi, this is Laurie Johnson with Hancock Whitney Bank, and

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you're listening to Local Leaders the podcast. Visit Local Leaders

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podcast dot com for previous episodes or for information on

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peering on the show.

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Hey everyone, and welcome back to Local Leaders of the podcast.

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And I'm gonna do something a little different with today's episode.

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I have a local, lifelong entrepreneur here on the show.

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He has had quite the journey thus foreign life. So

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we're for sure going to discuss a little bit about

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several businesses that he owns and he has his hands in,

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especially here locally, but we're also going to discuss what

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he feels have been his keys to success thus forward

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his business and outside of his business as well. So

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first of all, with that, I want to welcome Gus

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Lebarn to Local Leaders of the podcast. So first of all,

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welcome to the show.

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Thank you, glad to be here.

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No stranger to podcasting, you're you've been doing a little

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bit of podcasting yourself.

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Yes, we got started about six months ago. We got

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our own podcast going on on on basically mainly just

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trying to educate and train and influence early early entrepreneurs.

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Catch them early in life. Right, I'll make sure that

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I link your podcast to the description of my podcast,

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So hopefully some people will get something out of this

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and they'll go want to check you out. Maybe some

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younger people wanting to learn something before they're actually there

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in life and they have to figure it out, kind

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of playing catch up. Hopefully they'll get something out of that.

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Now today we're here to talk about you. You've had

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quite an interesting journey in life, and some of this

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we talked about pre recording this podcast, and some of

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this I'm going to be learning on the fly, which

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is how I preferred it with you. So let's start out.

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Where are you from and born in? Where were you raised?

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Those sorts of things. Early life.

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My story begins in Mexico, wat and raised up to

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twelve years old. Okay, So I was born in a

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farm in Mexico, growing up my whole life working on

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the fields, working horn. Yeah, my father owned several hundred

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acres of farmland, planeted corn, planet afalfa for the cows,

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I mean things like that. So I grew up country

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life my whole entire life. I really love to enjoyed it.

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So that's pretty much where I got started. Eventually my

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father was traveling my daughter. My dad did a lot

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of traveling throughout his years, and he went through a

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town called ross On, New Mexico.

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Yeah, sofo there you go.

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Yeah, that's the town, so Roswell, New Mexico. Even he

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was passing by there for some reason, and he came

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across a school called New Mexico Military Institute. It's a

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it's a military school that goes from high school all

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the way to college and sometimes. For some reason, he

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really liked what they had to offer there and he

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made it a goal to try to get most of

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his kids to go there. So from Mexico at a

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early age, once I turned twelve, I joined New Mexico

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Military Institute for high school. And that's kind of what

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brought me to the States and where.

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Oh wow, when you were really early in life, let's say,

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before the age of twelve, when you were that young,

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what do you remember wanting to be?

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My kids asked me this question, and I get asked

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a lot, and the only the best answer that I

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can give you is this is it. When I was young,

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all I remember is wanting to be rich.

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Yeah, I had that one too. That sounded good to

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me at eleven, and I'm sure.

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Yeah, So I think that I got to see you

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early on as a young kid the influence of money

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had on people. Yeah, I knew right away as I

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needed to get as much of it as I possibly could.

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That's awesome.

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That was the mindset I had as a young kid

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twelve years old before.

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So yeah, very good. So you, as you said, you

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ended up in New Mexico and uh, you know that's

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pretty early on in life. What were the challenges back

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then for you? Was it something that you remember kind

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of blow your mind. I mean, I know people that

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have lived in this area their entire life, they've never

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been outside them. Yeah, they've never been north of I

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ten and that's twelve. You went to a whole nother

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country I was raised.

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Yeah, I got to get born and raised in a

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different country, so I was. I got to be around

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a lot of the little the lot of the Mexican culture. Yeah,

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and some of the challenges is definitely trying to be

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able to connect with the culture, trying to be accepted

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by the culture.

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By the American culture, well, both.

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Both in Mexico and America. So if if people can

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see this, I don't necessarily look or fit the profile

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as a Mexican citizen.

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You don't have an accent that you will someone recognize.

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So I get that a lot. Like other people. They

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asked me where I'm from. They think I'm from like Europe,

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or they think I'm from some other part of the country.

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I say I'm from Mexico. They don't necessarily connected with that.

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It's like where really, Like, you're six foot three and uh,

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you know, somewhat camel skin, yeah, and so most of

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the people can't really make that connection. So I think

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that some of the challenges early on was definitely being

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able to connect with with not only the Mexican culture,

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but the American culture because I do have somewhat of

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an accent. So when I come to the United States,

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people will say, well, where are you from. I know

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I can hear somewhat of an accent, so I'll be like,

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I'm from Mexico. But then I go to Mexico and

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they're like, hey, Bud, like, where are you from? Green eyes, white,

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white skin, six foot three, You're not from here. So

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it's hard to fit in either or. It's always been

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a challenge growing up as a as a young kid.

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Yeah, yeah, but you seem to have managed obviously well.

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Uh so from there, from New Mexico at some point

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ended up in Louisiana. How did that occur?

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Well after high school, I didn't necessarily didn't pursue college.

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I never went to college. Was something for a lot

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of financial reasons. My dad being a farmer. Farmer's struggle.

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It's just a tough lifestyle.

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So there's a lot of upstate and expensive ridiculously.

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So anybody that can relate to being a farmer understands

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ups and downs in life. So financial struggles through high

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school I got. I basically skipped college. So I started

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my entrepreneurship spirit right after high school. I started getting

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into construction, working with family members, started learning how to work,

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understanding the ins and outs of business, and I bounced

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from state to state. I was in Minnesota for a

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little while, I went to Lincoln, Nebraska, I was in

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Kansas City. I was bouncing all over the country, just

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working on myself work, learning how to work construction, how

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to build up you know, how to build a construction

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business in general. And the break that we caught was

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really Katrina. So two thousand and four or five, I

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believe when Katrina happened, Ye you, two thousand and five happened,

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And I remember I was at the point where like,

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all right, I want to start my own buiness out.

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I want to start working for myself. I had my

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own my own tools, I had my own crews, and

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me and a really close relative named Mark le Baron,

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really good friend, one of my best friends. We decided

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to team up together and said, let's go to Louisiana

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and let's there's a lot of work. It's gonna be

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a lot of work over there. I called my dad,

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got his advice. He says, if I was in the

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construction business, I'd be in New Orleans right now.

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Yeah, so good call. Yeah.

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We packed up our stuff and got all our tools

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in it, showed up with you know, some hopes and

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some prayers to make it happen.

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Yeah. That's awesome, man. So your influences at that point,

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And I'll use an example of myself. I wasn't always

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as put together as I am now. Right when I

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was sixteen seventeen, I was wild. I mean I you know,

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I had two or three things on my mind and

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that was it. And being a business owner or an

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entrepreneur was not one of them. And I actually met

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a guy when I was seventeen. I was working. I've

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always been a worker. I was working in high school

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at a local retail establishment and this guy was in

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the military, and he was actually pretty high ranking in

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the military, and he was also the store manager of

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that store, and he carried himself pretty well. And I

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remember noticing that, noticing how he carried himself. He'd come

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in sometimes he would have he was in the National

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Guard and he would have drill that weekend and he'd

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come in just for a couple of minutes. He'd be

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dressed in his uniform, and I'm like, that, dude's sharp

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right there, and he's got his stuff together. And I

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would spend a lot of time talking to him, and

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I really consider him one of my mentors in life.

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But the amazing thing about it was he didn't even

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realize he was. I didn't tell him, you know, wow, man,

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I want to be like you when I grow up.

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But I would just watch this guy and he seemed

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to have it all together, and he influenced me in

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a positive way because at the time I figured out,

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if I want to be like him, I can't do

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all this stupid stuff. And uh so I started watching

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the guy. He was an influence. Who was an influence

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for you early on, uh maybe around that age before

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maybe right before you headed to New More Orleans after Katrino.

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My greatest influence in my whole life has definitely been

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my best friend Mark.

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Yeah.

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He was. He was a He's always been a moral

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compass to know when I was messing up and when

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I was doing right or wrong.

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Yeah, it was.

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It's something a little emotional, sure, but I get it.

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Father definitely struggled with my dad a lot growing up

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as a younger adult. There was a lot of there

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was a lot of trauma, I guess you could say

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as a younger, you know, growing up with your father

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not being somebody you looked up to because a lot

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of the things that he was doing so and so.

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So there was definitely some some childhood traumas that I

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had to get over a lot. So one of the

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pillars in my life had definitely been my best friend Mark.

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Yeah. And that's so important I think for for someone

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especially when they're struggling, they don't have anybody around them

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that maybe can motivate, motivate them would be a good

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word for it. In your example, I'm sure this guy

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motivated you. You seemed to be the voice of reason sometimes.

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And it was the same for me. That guy motivated

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me because I knew I was going down the wrong

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path and this guy seemed to take make all the

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right choices. And so you mentioned your podcast is about

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almost like mentoring young people and showing them, you know,

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what the proper way to live a life and in

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most instances, and I think that's something where a lot

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of people lack that from. You know, these young people's perspective,

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their influences are not typically people that are business owners

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and successful entrepreneurs. Usually it's what they see on YouTube

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or well, I don't want to say on YouTube, because

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there's a lot of good shows on YouTube I watched,

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but music something like that. You know, Yeah, mentorship a

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very important thing. So you take off, you get to

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New Orleans and and uh, you know, great timing for sure,

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anytime there's a disaster, you're gonna have a need for construction,

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and uh, when you get there, what happens.

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It was incredible, I mean, just mind boggling to be

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able to see the damage to the extent that it was.

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We showed up to New Orleans, there was boats on

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the trees, cars, it was. It was very sad to

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be able to see and witness such devastation, and at

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the same time we were very thankful to be there

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because we knew that we could help and make a difference.

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And amen, we were.

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We were in a position where we knew nothing about entrepreneurship.

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We didn't know how to how to incorporate a business,

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we didn't know how to ensure a business, we didn't

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know how to manage, We didn't know anything. So there

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was a lot of challenges up ahead. But nonetheless we

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had the drive, grit and the want to be able

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to create it. So as long as there's a will

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is a way.

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Yeah, amen, And I'll tell you what. But so important

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that there are people there to help people through disasters.

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I can speak to that firsthand. A lot of people

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listening to the show Canne twenty sixteen. Right here in

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Denham Springs, the whole town went under water. Yeah, some

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three thousand residents, me being one of them. A matter

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of fact, where we're recording right now was underwater. My

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home name was underwater. Yeah, and it was the people

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that helped you to rebuild. That became such an important

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aspect of your life at that point, and we.

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We were able to be a part of that as

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well and help out people get their houses back. Yeah,

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twenty sixteen, So that we were fortunate to be able

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to help people out with that, and that was a

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great That was good. You know, you had to be

253
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part of you know, making people's lives better is always good.

254
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Yeah, and came back so much stronger after something like that.

255
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So New Orleans, Katrina, you get through that, and I'm

256
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sure you've learned some you learned some lessons on the way.

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What are something you can reflect back on and it

258
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with that experience and say, man, we really learned, you know,

259
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I really honed my skills in an entrepreneurship for that

260
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whatever it may be.

261
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The best lessons I've learned so far from the time

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we showed up to now is that how important is

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to be able to be valuable to people? Like how

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the being able to have bringing able to bring value

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to people's lives. I think that entrepreneur spirit and being

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able to own your own business is all about being

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in the people business. Right, You're you're representing yourself to

268
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somebody else of what, how how you can make their

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life better? And one of the best philosophies that I've

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stood by since day one that I've really enjoyed and

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I've been able to apply to my life into my

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businesses always do what you say you're gonna do. Yeah,

273
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so that's something that I've learned. I've not always done that.

274
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You know, There's been times in my business when we

275
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got started off early we told people were going to

276
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do certain things that didn't get done. The communication was

277
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lacking a lot of those a lot of those ingredients

278
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and the recipe we're missing. And as I've gotten better,

279
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I've always to this point now in my business, and

280
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I believe why we're successful now is because I follow

281
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that philosophy to its core. I do what I say

282
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what I'm gonna do, and if I don't, I let

283
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them know right away, Hey I can't, I can't do this. Yeah,

284
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you know, I need an extra day, I need an

285
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extra week, I need these extra tools. If you can

286
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follow that, that philosophy, that quote, do what you say

287
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you're gonna do, you will be successful in all things.

288
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I think you nailed it on that. It'd be hard

289
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to argue with with that philosophy. And I'll give you

290
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a quick example of the importance of something like that. Obviously,

291
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in a former life, I was someone in the construction business.

292
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I was on the paint aspect of things, the decorating

293
00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:52.240
side of things, and I managed or helped manage a

294
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lot of companies, a lot of people just starting. A

295
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lot of people would come to me and say, I

296
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want to start my own paint contracting business. Maybe they've

297
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been a painter for somebody else forever, and I had

298
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been in the business so long they relied on me

299
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to kind of help them through that process. And I

300
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remember one guy in particular, speaking of Mexico. He was

301
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from Mexico, and man, he had it all. Very talented guy.

302
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And one day he calls me and he says, I

303
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got a problem. And I said, what, I need you

304
00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:22.000
to help me with this. I need you to call

305
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the customer. He's panicking. I said, what happened? He said, well,

306
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I quoted our price. We agreed on one coat of paint,

307
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and now she's coming back and saying we agreed on

308
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two coats. And I said, well, pull the contract and

309
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show her. This is what he says, No, contract, no contract.

310
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I said, what do you mean, no contract? He said,

311
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mister Jim, I didn't get her to sign anything. And

312
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I said, always get him to sign. And I said,

313
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it's not that, it's it's you don't trust them or

314
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they don't trust you. It's communication. Sometimes things just get

315
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lost in translation. This woman may be just trying to

316
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get an extra code out of you, or maybe she

317
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really did misunderstand and thought it was two coats. If

318
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.000
you don't have it in writing, you got to do

319
00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:10.080
the two coats. I mean, that's that's the only way

320
00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.679
you're going to satisfy her as a homeowner. And really,

321
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at the end of the day, it's on the business

322
00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:18.840
owner to make sure that stuff isn't writing. And he

323
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learned a hard lesson all that. But to this day

324
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I still communicate with him all the time and he

325
00:16:25.799 --> 00:16:29.240
tells me, I still get them contracts on and I

326
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make sure they know this is one coat or two coats.

327
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Yea.

328
00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:34.159
And those are some of the things that we learned

329
00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:36.039
since we got your Katrina to who is trial and

330
00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:39.759
error of knowing what not to do is so important, right,

331
00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.840
And you learned that by making mistakes. So I'm a

332
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big firm believer that if you're not making a lot

333
00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:48.279
of mistakes in life, that is a mistake. Yeah, you

334
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need to be making mistakes. That's the more mistakes that

335
00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:53.919
you're making, it means that you're trying. The more you're trying,

336
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the more success you're going to have in life. So

337
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I'm always a big firm believer, and I tell this

338
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to my kids all the time. Make mistakes, make mistakes,

339
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learn from them, make another mistake, keep learning from and

340
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I understand that every single day you're going to keep

341
00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.640
making mistakes. Don't ever be unkind to yourself when you

342
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make a mistake. Let yourself know, Hey, I just made

343
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a mistake, and guess what, I'm going to make more tomorrow,

344
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and I'm going to make more the next day. I'm

345
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going to keep making mistakes, and guess what, I'm going

346
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to keep learning from them, and guess what I may

347
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become better because of them.

348
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That's that's one hundred percent accurate. And look, you can't

349
00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:26.759
you can't run a business without trial and error and

350
00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.880
making a mistake. The important thing is you just said,

351
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is learning learning from that and not continuing to make

352
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the same mistake. One of the number one things that

353
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you said in business is communication, whether it's with your

354
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customers or your employees for that matter. And I want

355
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to shift to that for a second. And you know,

356
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one of the things with entrepreneurship is typically, especially in

357
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a business like yours, you have employees, you have people

358
00:17:54.480 --> 00:17:57.960
that work for you. Yes, how hard is that? How

359
00:17:58.039 --> 00:17:59.960
much of a struggle is it to find good piece?

360
00:18:01.400 --> 00:18:04.000
It's a big struggle. My honest truth is is when

361
00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:06.039
we get scarred. We just got started with our business

362
00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:08.640
and we've been through a lot of ups and downs. However,

363
00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:12.119
I've very had a hard time hiring people. I always

364
00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:15.119
wanted to do everything myself. Yeah, you know, it's like, hey,

365
00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:16.799
you have your business and it me and my wife

366
00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:18.559
and builds us up since the ground up. My wife,

367
00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:20.119
I'm very blessed to have her in my life. She's

368
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:23.599
been part of my team and she's been blessing in

369
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so many ways of being able to get me to

370
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where I am today. And I say this because most

371
00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:29.799
of the time I was like, Hey, it's just me

372
00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:31.759
and you, we don't need other people, right Like, it's

373
00:18:32.079 --> 00:18:35.359
we can be all this and the stress of having

374
00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:37.799
that mindset what's so overwhelming at some point I said,

375
00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:39.319
if we're going to scale, we're going to grow as

376
00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:40.799
a business, and we're going to get big to where

377
00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:42.680
we want to be. We have to we have to

378
00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:44.880
open up our doors to hiring more people. We have

379
00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:45.279
to grow.

380
00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:49.279
And it's super scary, so scary.

381
00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.559
When I just started. I have a life coach, Becca,

382
00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:55.480
and I reach out to her and I'm like, I'm

383
00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:58.440
so out of my uh my comfort zone. I'm so uncomfortable.

384
00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:00.240
And one of the things I've realized is that in

385
00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.279
business you got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And

386
00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:09.039
I love that get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And when

387
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:11.319
I started having that mindset, when I started getting that

388
00:19:11.400 --> 00:19:15.599
frame of mind, a state of mind, we started growing.

389
00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:18.160
We started growing, we started getting bigger contracts, we started

390
00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:20.839
getting more contracts, we started having Tom have more employees.

391
00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:24.880
And now we're to the point where I am able

392
00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.279
to have a certain level of freedom that I've never

393
00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:31.640
had before, you know, because I have this this philosophy

394
00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:33.680
that I got from a great book. It's called Who

395
00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:36.680
Not How, And the philosophy is, if somebody can do

396
00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:40.079
your job eighty five percent as good as you do it,

397
00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:42.920
let them do it. Don't do that. And what I

398
00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:45.799
found out though through this process that when I'm hiring

399
00:19:45.839 --> 00:19:49.200
these people to do certain tasks within my business that

400
00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:52.359
I don't want to do, they sometimes do it better.

401
00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:54.079
I have.

402
00:19:54.279 --> 00:19:57.119
I have about a handful of employees in my business

403
00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:01.960
that I honestly cannot do their job better.

404
00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:02.920
There's no way.

405
00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:05.400
And you'll start finding that out the hard way as

406
00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:07.519
you want to scale your business and grow it, Like

407
00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:10.599
take take a leap of faith, right, Understand that people

408
00:20:10.880 --> 00:20:13.200
for the most part are honest. You know, you're seeing

409
00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:15.279
the you're watching all this negative news all the time

410
00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:18.839
and all these negative comments on Facebook, and overall, human

411
00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:21.920
beings are pretty honest and they want to help you.

412
00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:23.880
I mean, we want to help each other out. But

413
00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:26.000
if you get so caught up and listening to the

414
00:20:26.039 --> 00:20:29.400
news when they're reporting on ten percent of a certain

415
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.000
you know, race or demographic or population and using that

416
00:20:34.039 --> 00:20:39.160
ten percent to categorize the whole entire race, you're going

417
00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:40.920
to be frightened. Right, You're gonna say, all right, these

418
00:20:40.920 --> 00:20:42.839
people are not to be trusted, and these people are dishonest,

419
00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:45.720
and these people are this. But you'll find out slowly

420
00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:48.519
but surely that people, for the most part are good

421
00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:50.640
and are honest. Yeah, And I found that out the

422
00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.240
hard way because I've always had the mindset trust nobody.

423
00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:56.759
Everybody's looking out for themselves. Nobody will do this. And

424
00:20:56.839 --> 00:20:59.119
as I've been growing my business in the last ten years,

425
00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:01.440
and as I was hiring more and more employees, I

426
00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:05.920
started following this pattern that people actually overall want to

427
00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:07.799
do the right thing. They want to be honest, they

428
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.119
want to do what they say they're going to do.

429
00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:14.519
There've been small instances where they don't, but I'm talking

430
00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:15.319
about two percent.

431
00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:17.319
Yeah, there's always an exception.

432
00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:19.599
They're they're very, very minor, and those people you can

433
00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:21.799
kind of see the red flag sense to start. You

434
00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:24.240
start seeing how these do certain things, You're like, all right,

435
00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:27.960
this guy is probably not gonna make it. But overall,

436
00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:32.119
I've been very pleased and happy with our team building

437
00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:34.440
it up to this point. We've built a great team

438
00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:37.400
and it's been essential to be to be in the

439
00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:39.680
position that we are in today's market.

440
00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.680
It's huge, and you know, I can relate to the

441
00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:46.160
struggle that you were just talking about because your business

442
00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:48.920
is your baby, and you grew that baby. You and

443
00:21:48.960 --> 00:21:53.279
your wife grew that baby, and so your mindset early

444
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.000
on is nobody. And it may be true that nobody

445
00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.200
is going to love it like you do. Nobody is

446
00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:03.319
gonna love it, but you know, you just said it,

447
00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:07.279
and probably every successful business owner I've ever sat down

448
00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:09.359
in that chair right there you're sitting in has said

449
00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:13.599
the same thing. The key to business when you have

450
00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:17.839
matt you know a good amount of employees is find

451
00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:22.480
people that are better than you at what you're not

452
00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:25.359
good at and hire them to do it. And as

453
00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:27.839
business owners, it's the biggest struggle because there is a

454
00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:30.599
little bit of ego with us that this is our

455
00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:33.279
business and we know how to do everything, and we

456
00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:37.440
may know the basics of everything, but certainly there's people

457
00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:40.720
out there that can do editing, for example, better than

458
00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:45.920
I can. They'd be hard to find, but they're you know. So,

459
00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:49.359
so that's the hard part of business for me, and

460
00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.119
something I still struggle with to this day is delegation,

461
00:22:53.640 --> 00:22:57.799
letting someone else have it, trusting them that they're not

462
00:22:57.839 --> 00:22:59.960
gonna mess my baby up, they're not gonna take it

463
00:23:00.119 --> 00:23:03.480
running in the ground. They may actually do a better job. Right.

464
00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:07.240
You mentioned your wife and the importance of that, And

465
00:23:07.240 --> 00:23:08.720
I want to shift to that a little bit, and

466
00:23:08.720 --> 00:23:13.240
I want to talk about family. Another thing in entrepreneurship

467
00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:17.960
that is a struggle is finding balance. I will also

468
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:21.640
be the verse to admit that I am probably out

469
00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:24.400
of balance, and well, not probably, I definitely am out

470
00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:27.200
of balance. I spend a lot of time working, and

471
00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:30.599
as entrepreneurs, we don't look at it as work. I'm

472
00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:34.519
sure you don't look at it necessarily as work. It's life.

473
00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:38.160
It's a lifestyle that you chose, but you need a

474
00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:41.440
lot of support behind you, with your family and people

475
00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:44.279
that understand that. And then you got to find ways

476
00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:47.839
to balance that keep your family happy. You have a daughter,

477
00:23:47.880 --> 00:23:50.960
that's let's talk about your daughter real quick. She's a

478
00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:52.759
sports phenom. Tell me about that.

479
00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:54.400
I have two daughters, two other daughters. I have a

480
00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:56.480
fourteen year old and a twelve year old. My fourteen

481
00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:01.799
year old is a have itlay. I've been practicing with

482
00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:04.920
some of the Olympic athletes, Christen and Terran. I'm pretty

483
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:06.440
sure some of the people have heard of them. Were

484
00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:08.559
one of the first girls to represent Louisiana and the

485
00:24:08.599 --> 00:24:12.440
Olympics for beast volleyball, the first time that's ever happened.

486
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.519
They were recognized by the governor at some point, so

487
00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:17.200
my daughter gets to it's very fortunate and very blessed

488
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:18.519
to be able to train with them. I have a

489
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:21.519
younger twelve year old that plays golf. We just got

490
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:25.160
back from the Sam Burns and Streetport tournament. They did

491
00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.039
really well. They crushed it all over and got to

492
00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:29.680
spend some time with Sam Burns, which if nobody knows

493
00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:32.680
who Sam Burns is, he's a professional golfer, the representative

494
00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:35.240
the United States and the Ryder Cup against Europe even

495
00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:37.319
though we lost, but he still gave him a fight

496
00:24:37.400 --> 00:24:40.759
and it was really great. But to answer your question

497
00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:44.160
about being able to stay in balance with family and

498
00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:48.359
your children, I have always had the mindset of give

499
00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.400
things the time they deserve. So if I'm in the office,

500
00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:55.279
I am trying to stay as much focused on the

501
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:57.599
office as possibly can. I don't try to focus on

502
00:24:57.640 --> 00:24:59.039
my kids while I'm at the office. I don't try

503
00:24:59.079 --> 00:25:01.200
to focus on my family. I'm giving my employees and

504
00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:04.119
my business the time that it deserves while I'm there,

505
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:06.279
and when I'm home, I do the same thing for

506
00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:09.079
my family. I try to stay, you know, give my

507
00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:11.160
family the time that they deserve. When I'm at it,

508
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:13.279
and I try to keep the office away. Somebody calls,

509
00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:15.000
I'll say, hey, I'm busy right now, send a text

510
00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:16.960
or an email. I'll get back to you tomorrow. And

511
00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:20.920
I try to schedule my time where most of most

512
00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:22.720
of my tasks are in the morning early when I'm

513
00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:24.160
in the office, so that I can get most of

514
00:25:24.200 --> 00:25:27.160
it done. And something falls through after lunch, it'll be minor,

515
00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:29.440
but I'm still able to really have my energy and

516
00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:31.200
my focus within my family. And I'm going to say

517
00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:34.160
it's perfect, because I still struggle with it. Every entrepreneur

518
00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:37.519
is going to have a very hard time keeping them

519
00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:40.519
one hundred percent distance from each other because anybody this

520
00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:45.759
entrepreneurs has a very proactive mind. I mean they're always

521
00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:48.720
trying to find solutions. They're trying to find solutions of

522
00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:52.480
problems that haven't even happened yet. Every entrepreneur struggles with that,

523
00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:55.079
and that's why some most entrepreneurs have struggled to have

524
00:25:55.160 --> 00:25:57.400
a hard time sleeping at night. You know, they have

525
00:25:57.480 --> 00:25:59.599
to be taken there on medication or some kind of

526
00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:02.480
some kind of pills because they can't stop that mind.

527
00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:06.559
Because you're depending on you, You're depending on you. Yeah,

528
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.160
you're not depending on it. You're an employee, You go

529
00:26:09.200 --> 00:26:10.680
to work and you're getting your check. And if you're

530
00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:13.119
an entrepreneur and you're not making those sales and you're

531
00:26:13.160 --> 00:26:16.519
not turning over those products or those services, uh, you're

532
00:26:16.599 --> 00:26:17.519
you're gonna go bankrupt.

533
00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:17.759
Right.

534
00:26:17.799 --> 00:26:19.960
So that's that's a lot of pressure. That's a that's

535
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:22.359
a lot of it's a big, a big boulder on

536
00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:24.839
your shoulders. And I think it's very important if in

537
00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:27.839
life you really have to prioritize and separate those that's

538
00:26:27.880 --> 00:26:30.440
so important. Otherwise you're you're gonna get burnt out real quick.

539
00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:32.480
In this business, You're gonna you're not gonna last.

540
00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:35.160
That's right. That's right. Burnout is a real thing.

541
00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:36.599
It very very much really is.

542
00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:38.000
Even when you love what you're doing.

543
00:26:38.039 --> 00:26:40.079
Yeah, no matter what it is, you're gonna get you're

544
00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:42.200
gonna find ways how to You're always gonna try to

545
00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:45.119
find ways how to do more, and you have to

546
00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:47.279
stop yourself. You have to say, all right, what am

547
00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.079
I really doing all this for? It's for my family.

548
00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:51.599
So if I'm not taking the advantage of being entrepreneur

549
00:26:51.640 --> 00:26:53.039
and being able to spend time with my family, then

550
00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:55.039
why don't I just get to get a nine to five.

551
00:26:55.160 --> 00:26:56.559
I mean, like right at that point, like.

552
00:26:56.559 --> 00:26:58.759
Yeah, let let someone else have all the pressure.

553
00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:02.400
Hey. The reason that one of the greatest, the greatest

554
00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:04.880
things that's come out of being an entrepreneur is that

555
00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:07.799
you get to control your time. You know, and I

556
00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:10.720
really recommend anybody this entrepreneur is that try to figure

557
00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:13.079
out how to scale, scale your business bigger. If you're

558
00:27:13.079 --> 00:27:16.559
instilling that small mindset where I'm doing everything and nobody

559
00:27:16.559 --> 00:27:18.759
else can do it, you're losing out on a lot

560
00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:22.359
of freedom, a lot of finances, you know, being able

561
00:27:22.400 --> 00:27:24.839
to have better opportunities to make more money. But when

562
00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:26.559
I find out that when we started scaling and I

563
00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:28.680
started hiring more people to do a lot of the

564
00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:30.720
things that I didn't want to do, I started finding

565
00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:32.839
out that I started having more and more freedom, you

566
00:27:32.839 --> 00:27:36.079
know if now, which is nice, right, that's what that's

567
00:27:36.119 --> 00:27:38.480
a whole Yeah. So you don't want to own you

568
00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:40.759
don't want to own a job. Essentially is what you

569
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:42.839
do is you're owning a job by you doing everything.

570
00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:44.680
You want to own a business, right, You want to

571
00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:48.359
be able to be able to dictate what hours you

572
00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:49.759
want to work with hours you don't want to work,

573
00:27:49.839 --> 00:27:51.960
if you even want to work. That's really the true

574
00:27:52.319 --> 00:27:55.599
spirit of owning a corporation or owning a business. Most

575
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:57.599
people own a job and they don't know the difference.

576
00:27:57.599 --> 00:27:58.480
That's the biggest problem.

577
00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:01.359
How did you come to that realization when.

578
00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:05.960
If you're not able to leave your business for more

579
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.880
than a month, you own a job. That's a really

580
00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:11.079
is if you don't have the structures in place that

581
00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:13.799
you are able to walk away from your office and

582
00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:15.880
not come back from a month, you own a job

583
00:28:16.039 --> 00:28:18.680
because that business cann't survive without you. So you're part

584
00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:20.880
of the structure of that business, and by you being

585
00:28:20.920 --> 00:28:22.640
a part of it, it can't survive without you. If

586
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:24.279
it can't survive without you, then you have to be

587
00:28:24.319 --> 00:28:26.960
a part of it, meaning that you are obligated to

588
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:28.880
be there. That means that you own a job. You're

589
00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:31.759
an employee. And the true, the true spirit of being

590
00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:35.960
an entrepreneur owning a real business is being able to

591
00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:40.000
have a business that's bringing some of that mailbox money

592
00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:44.599
that you have. Know you have zero tasks to do

593
00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:47.200
with it. You mean, people just don't understand that. Everybody.

594
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:49.839
People pass I think that most people own a job

595
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:52.640
they don't own a business. And what I found out

596
00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:55.279
by you scaling hiring people to do the things that

597
00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:57.839
you don't want to do, and eventually you just get

598
00:28:57.920 --> 00:28:59.400
left with the things you do want to do, like

599
00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:01.799
easy stuff, I mean things that you can manage from

600
00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:03.799
out of state. You can go on to go to

601
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:06.039
education in Paris and be able to answer a few

602
00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:09.279
phone calls and make some transfers, you know, minor stuff,

603
00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:11.440
but you're still You're away. You don't have to be there.

604
00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:14.079
It doesn't need you to survive. And most people will

605
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.759
never understand that until they do it.

606
00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:20.480
Yeah, And I think the fear with a lot of

607
00:29:20.519 --> 00:29:24.720
business owners, there's a fear there of hiring people that

608
00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:28.519
may not that may actually be a detriment to your business, right,

609
00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:31.400
they may be those sort of headaches that you got

610
00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:34.519
to deal with. But there's also a fear of now

611
00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:37.519
I've got to pay this person. Now I've got extra,

612
00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:42.839
even more responsibility, you know, if if if something happens

613
00:29:42.880 --> 00:29:47.240
to me, you know, I'm not driving. In business, I'm

614
00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:51.319
not hurting someone else's livelihood. We hire employees, now you've

615
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:54.400
got a whole nother responsibility there because you want to

616
00:29:54.400 --> 00:29:57.920
pay them, right, they they've got to get paid. Those

617
00:29:58.039 --> 00:30:00.440
jobs you are picking up. Now you're splitting it income

618
00:30:00.720 --> 00:30:03.240
in a way. You're not splitting it, but you're they're

619
00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:05.960
taking a certain percentage of your profit away from you.

620
00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:08.920
That's one out the.

621
00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:10.920
Way I look at it. Anytime that I hire employee,

622
00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:13.440
I look at it like I'm replicating myself, Like I'm

623
00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:16.559
making a copy of myself, and they're they're assigned to

624
00:30:16.599 --> 00:30:18.599
a certain task of the business. It's essential. So you

625
00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:20.400
want to just be hiring people just to hire people,

626
00:30:20.440 --> 00:30:21.960
they have to have something for them to do. Sure,

627
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:24.119
So I just look at it like I'm just replicating myself.

628
00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:25.720
So and the more I can replicate myself, more I

629
00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:28.720
can copy myself and paste, the more money I'm to make,

630
00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:31.440
because hey, I'm good at making money, like I do well. Right,

631
00:30:31.559 --> 00:30:34.400
So if you had, you know, another one of you,

632
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:36.839
you could be making two podcasts at a time, right,

633
00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:39.519
three podcasts shows at a time, four podcasts, five podcasts.

634
00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:40.920
So I look at it the same way. I'm just

635
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:44.200
copying myself. So if I'm able to get one contract

636
00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:46.240
now and I hire more people now, I'm able to

637
00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:48.559
get two contracts now, three contracts now, we can do

638
00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.440
twenty contracts a year because I just replicated myself over

639
00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:53.240
and over again. So I don't know if that makes sense.

640
00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:57.960
Yeah it does, It actually does. And I you know,

641
00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:01.079
sometimes as business owners, at least in my case, I

642
00:31:01.079 --> 00:31:04.319
don't practice what I preach sometimes and I know the

643
00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:06.440
right thing to do. But you know, there's ebbs and

644
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:10.440
flows in business, and very fortunate with my business that

645
00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:13.039
I've got more than I can handle. But that's also

646
00:31:13.079 --> 00:31:15.559
a problem because I have more than I can handle, right,

647
00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:18.640
So my option there is to either send business down

648
00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:24.240
the road or hire people to handle it. And so

649
00:31:24.359 --> 00:31:26.799
I get what you're saying, and one hundred percent agree

650
00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:30.279
with what you're saying, and of course I'll use me

651
00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:34.319
as an example. I know that the more people I hire,

652
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:36.839
the more money I'm gonna make because I know that

653
00:31:36.920 --> 00:31:40.559
my business plan is solid and there's a there's a

654
00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:43.640
need for it, right, And it's great advice. It's probably

655
00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:47.839
the hardest lesson that business owners will learn is when

656
00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:51.599
to scale, because there's timing there. You can actually grow

657
00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:54.640
yourself out of business if you're not careful. I've seen

658
00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:58.480
people grow too fast and they end up sacked with

659
00:31:58.559 --> 00:32:02.279
a bunch of debt and then then uh, business something

660
00:32:02.359 --> 00:32:05.960
happens and you know, business maybe drops a little bit.

661
00:32:06.119 --> 00:32:08.000
You're gonna know though, You're gonna know right away, Like

662
00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:10.240
we never hire anybody unless there's a need. And as

663
00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:12.119
soon as the way that I know that there's a

664
00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:14.119
time to hire somebody else is when one of my

665
00:32:14.119 --> 00:32:17.319
employees is overwhelmed, like they're frustrated, like, hey, I don't

666
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:18.839
have enough time to get all this done. I'm like,

667
00:32:18.839 --> 00:32:21.279
all right, we need to hire somebody else or even

668
00:32:21.319 --> 00:32:23.880
myself if I'm overwhelmed. Right, So, if I'm overwhelmed, like

669
00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:26.559
I have a freaking one hundred task in my desk,

670
00:32:26.599 --> 00:32:28.720
I can't get them all done there, all right, there

671
00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:30.519
have to we have to hire somebody else, Like there's

672
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:32.319
no way that I'm gonna be able to handle all this.

673
00:32:32.359 --> 00:32:33.920
And that's how you know when you have to hire

674
00:32:33.960 --> 00:32:36.960
somebody else. But I'll never hire somebody else unless there's

675
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.119
the work there for them. But as long as the

676
00:32:39.160 --> 00:32:41.599
task is there, you need to be charging for it, right, Sure,

677
00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.000
you have to because that's where the income is coming from.

678
00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:47.359
If you're being overworked and you go bankrupt, it's because

679
00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:49.359
you never bid the project, correct, You never bid. You

680
00:32:49.400 --> 00:32:52.400
never out of the right profit margins to your service,

681
00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:55.559
to your product. So this all there, it's all categorizing

682
00:32:55.599 --> 00:32:58.680
your budget and you just need to make sure that

683
00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:01.200
there's enough hours in there for it. And if somebody's

684
00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:03.720
having one person's having to do way too many hours

685
00:33:03.759 --> 00:33:06.000
on a certain task, then you have to hire somebody else.

686
00:33:06.039 --> 00:33:07.480
And that's really where it comes down. Then that's how

687
00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:09.720
you're gonna know when to hire somebody else. As I

688
00:33:09.759 --> 00:33:12.000
was building my business, I would start seeing some of

689
00:33:12.039 --> 00:33:15.680
my team members really overwhelmed, really stressed out, and I said,

690
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:17.799
all right, we have to hire somebody else. And if

691
00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:19.599
it goes done to the point where our profit margin

692
00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.119
starts going down, then we got to charge more because

693
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:24.359
this is what it takes to get this job done.

694
00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:26.960
And if we're having these struggles, so is my competition.

695
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:29.359
There's no way around it. And comes to my competition

696
00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:31.480
is not having this problem is meaning they're gonna burn

697
00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:32.960
They're gonna get burned out, and they're gonna be out

698
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:34.720
of business within a year or two anyways, because there

699
00:33:34.759 --> 00:33:36.440
was only so long they're gonna be able to do

700
00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:39.119
this for. So it all kind of falls into place

701
00:33:39.160 --> 00:33:42.200
at one point. But It takes confidence. It takes confidence

702
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:43.640
and belief in yourself to be able to do it,

703
00:33:43.680 --> 00:33:45.559
because I know that I struggled with it. I had

704
00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:47.720
there was a lot of therapy sessions with my life coach.

705
00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:50.240
I don't know it's gonna happen. I'm gonna go bankrupt

706
00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:52.079
because I had that same mentality that you're saying, my

707
00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:55.160
overhead's gonna get too big. Too much overhead is never good. However,

708
00:33:55.160 --> 00:33:57.599
what I found out though, as I hired more people

709
00:33:57.759 --> 00:34:00.160
and more employees, I also found the work for them

710
00:34:00.200 --> 00:34:01.680
to be able to fill in those gaps as we

711
00:34:01.759 --> 00:34:04.519
went growing. And it's just growing and growing and growing.

712
00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:07.440
And that's just a pattern that happened to follow and

713
00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:09.320
say you have to be at a hustle out there

714
00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:12.000
and filling their time work to make sure you keep

715
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.480
them busy. Yeah, so wow, it fell into place pretty good.

716
00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:18.800
Your podcast, in particular, you cover a lot on books

717
00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:22.360
and and uh motivation, I guess you could say motivational

718
00:34:22.559 --> 00:34:26.559
business uh related books. Give me a couple of books

719
00:34:26.920 --> 00:34:29.079
and you've already named one, but give me give me

720
00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:32.599
a couple of more books that that you would say

721
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:36.000
were kind of key. Because I'm also like that I read.

722
00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:39.599
I take in a lot of literature on uh. I

723
00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:43.159
call it self help, you know, just just food for

724
00:34:43.239 --> 00:34:46.760
the mind man. And and uh, I've always been a

725
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:49.159
curious person, which makes sense with what I do for

726
00:34:49.239 --> 00:34:51.880
a living. Uh. What are some books you would say

727
00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:53.199
that's helped you along the way?

728
00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:55.880
The best book that I can recommend anybody listening to

729
00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:59.000
this podcast is is if you're an entrepreneur and you're

730
00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:01.039
a true entrepreneur and you want to either you're starting

731
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:03.880
an entrepreneurship or you're an entrepreneur, you never read this book.

732
00:35:03.880 --> 00:35:06.119
And most I would say most people have is the

733
00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:09.800
book called How to Win Friends and Influence People. That

734
00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:11.920
is that has got to be the same extent your

735
00:35:11.960 --> 00:35:12.599
second Bible.

736
00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:18.400
I mean quite, it's been around so long, it's it's timeless,

737
00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:19.760
the lessons.

738
00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:21.840
It's an art piece. So anybody that has not read

739
00:35:21.840 --> 00:35:24.079
that book, I highly recommend that you read it. But

740
00:35:24.079 --> 00:35:25.679
I only read it once, but read it twice. I've

741
00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:27.840
read it about six times in my lifetime. And I

742
00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:30.119
and sometimes you got to keep rewritten it because a

743
00:35:30.119 --> 00:35:32.480
lot of life lessons you got to relearn. So that's

744
00:35:32.519 --> 00:35:34.400
when a really good book. So How to Win friends

745
00:35:34.400 --> 00:35:37.320
that influence people has been really key essential to be

746
00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:39.320
able to learn how to interact with people, how to

747
00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:42.039
socialize with people, how to do well in sells all

748
00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:46.480
the above. There's another great book that I've read recently,

749
00:35:46.519 --> 00:35:52.000
so through the struggles of entrepreneurship. Everybody deals with anxiety, overthinking, stress,

750
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:54.800
all the above. Right, there's just so much goes in

751
00:35:54.840 --> 00:35:57.400
Choppers Show and so many unknowns coming to you that

752
00:35:57.639 --> 00:35:59.719
it's hard to deal with them. There's a really great

753
00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:02.039
book and I'm sorry but I forget the name of

754
00:36:02.039 --> 00:36:04.679
the author, but the book is called Don't Believe Everything

755
00:36:04.679 --> 00:36:07.920
that you think. That book was so good to deal

756
00:36:07.960 --> 00:36:11.639
with with the anxieties of life. And it's short book,

757
00:36:11.719 --> 00:36:14.440
two hours long, I mean, but it's pure gold.

758
00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:15.320
I haven't read it.

759
00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:17.840
You really got to read that one. I've read it.

760
00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:20.679
I probably read that one ten times because it's so short,

761
00:36:21.119 --> 00:36:23.599
it's only two hours and being it is so short,

762
00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:26.760
but the material is so powerful and it's just really

763
00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:30.280
essentially the premise of the book really just says that

764
00:36:30.519 --> 00:36:33.360
all your life struggles and pain comes from from your thoughts.

765
00:36:34.719 --> 00:36:36.880
But his years just really got to read it and

766
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:39.599
it's been such an impact in my life. Whenever the

767
00:36:39.639 --> 00:36:42.320
wills are just coming off where I'm just overthinking, I'm

768
00:36:42.360 --> 00:36:44.440
going my mind's going one hundred miles an hour, I

769
00:36:44.519 --> 00:36:46.760
go back to that reference and I really think about

770
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:50.039
where this is coming from. It's just coming from my overthinking.

771
00:36:50.159 --> 00:36:52.679
It's really it, you know, and he just it gives

772
00:36:52.679 --> 00:36:54.559
you life's lessons of how to stop it, how to

773
00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:56.199
put the brakes on it, how to take a deep

774
00:36:56.199 --> 00:36:57.599
breath and just reset yourself.

775
00:36:58.400 --> 00:37:01.760
Wow, look forward to reading it. I'll definitely get that one.

776
00:37:01.800 --> 00:37:04.840
And I'll link the books that we talk about in

777
00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:08.079
the podcast description, So if anyone's driving right now and

778
00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:10.840
when you get home, click the link if you'd like

779
00:37:10.880 --> 00:37:12.960
to check it out. I'll throw a couple in there

780
00:37:13.039 --> 00:37:16.440
that have really inspired me. And I've been a reader

781
00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:19.880
my entire life. I can remember at twelve years and

782
00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:23.920
reader of those types of books, motivational types of books.

783
00:37:24.039 --> 00:37:26.719
The first book that really had an impact on me

784
00:37:26.920 --> 00:37:29.079
was called See You at the Top. It was by

785
00:37:29.079 --> 00:37:32.840
a guy named zig Ziggler, who is one of the

786
00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:39.719
most amazing salespeople in history. He was from Mississippi and

787
00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:44.760
had that Mississippi accent, and this guy would sell out

788
00:37:44.840 --> 00:37:49.760
Colisseum's talking about you know, just what you and I

789
00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:54.480
are talking about today, Not so much entrepreneurship, but how

790
00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:57.119
to sell yourself to other people, which plays a big

791
00:37:57.159 --> 00:38:01.480
part in an entrepreneurship. And so shout out and zig Ziggler.

792
00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:04.400
He's passed away now, but I'll shout out his company

793
00:38:04.440 --> 00:38:06.639
which is still around. But see you at the top

794
00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:10.239
was one, and then recently I read one by Patrick

795
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:13.960
Bett David. It was called Your Next Five Moves, a

796
00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:21.320
great book on planning out your business strategy in advance.

797
00:38:21.719 --> 00:38:24.199
Too many people and I want to get your opinion

798
00:38:24.239 --> 00:38:27.000
and your thoughts on this. As a successful business owner,

799
00:38:27.599 --> 00:38:30.679
I find a lot of business owners fly off the cuff.

800
00:38:31.159 --> 00:38:35.679
So they know their business. Maybe they're maybe they're a

801
00:38:35.719 --> 00:38:41.320
painting company, and every day they have people that they're

802
00:38:41.320 --> 00:38:43.599
doing jobs for. They in this company, maybe they got

803
00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:46.159
four or five guys working for them, and it seems

804
00:38:46.199 --> 00:38:48.639
like they're always busy. But if you stopped them and

805
00:38:48.679 --> 00:38:50.559
you said how much money are you making at the

806
00:38:50.639 --> 00:38:52.880
end of the month, they couldn't tell you. They have

807
00:38:52.880 --> 00:38:55.920
no idea. They know what they make jobs a job, right,

808
00:38:56.559 --> 00:38:59.360
and so they're flying by the seat of their pants.

809
00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:01.719
There's no planning to where are we going to be

810
00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:04.039
in a year, where we're going to be in two years.

811
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:09.039
So that's a good book to really form your business

812
00:39:09.079 --> 00:39:12.840
strategy five steps ahead, which is kind of how he

813
00:39:12.920 --> 00:39:15.719
believes that you should form your business strategy. You should

814
00:39:15.719 --> 00:39:20.599
always be proactive and not reactive. And what are your

815
00:39:20.599 --> 00:39:21.320
thoughts on that.

816
00:39:21.639 --> 00:39:24.760
I am a big believer in something pretty much goals,

817
00:39:24.840 --> 00:39:27.039
So I look at it like you're he's talking about,

818
00:39:27.079 --> 00:39:29.559
is building a set of goals for yourself or your business,

819
00:39:29.559 --> 00:39:32.639
for your family. So one thing that I do religiously

820
00:39:32.880 --> 00:39:35.519
every single New Year's with my families, we sit down

821
00:39:35.880 --> 00:39:37.880
and we write down ten goals that we want to

822
00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:40.000
have for the years. So I write down not only

823
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:42.599
the goals for myself, but for my business, for my family,

824
00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:44.679
for my kids, and we all sit down and we

825
00:39:44.719 --> 00:39:47.360
write ten goals. And I would love the audience to

826
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:49.760
really do this in life because the goals really what

827
00:39:49.800 --> 00:39:52.639
it are. Is there a GPS navigation system to where

828
00:39:52.679 --> 00:39:54.440
you want to be at in the next five, ten years,

829
00:39:54.519 --> 00:39:56.119
or at the end of the year. So I have

830
00:39:56.199 --> 00:39:57.840
five year goals, I have ten year goals, I have

831
00:39:57.880 --> 00:39:58.639
one year goals.

832
00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:00.400
I have quarter goals.

833
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:04.119
So UH, to me, those are the next five moves,

834
00:40:04.199 --> 00:40:05.639
right like where we go and what are we trying

835
00:40:05.639 --> 00:40:07.880
to accomplish and what are we doing? And anybody that's

836
00:40:07.880 --> 00:40:11.360
successful in life has implemented some kind of system where

837
00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:17.280
they're they're uh instilling these these principles goal setting, and

838
00:40:17.760 --> 00:40:21.039
that's been a major change in my life. It's something

839
00:40:21.079 --> 00:40:23.760
I started doing in the last ten years. And I

840
00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:25.440
would say that this would have been one of the

841
00:40:25.440 --> 00:40:28.000
greatest impacts in my life, just being able to know

842
00:40:28.119 --> 00:40:29.639
where you're going, where you want to be at.

843
00:40:30.159 --> 00:40:35.039
Yeah, it's huge. I'll tell you. You know. One thing that

844
00:40:35.079 --> 00:40:39.000
you said that just stuck out to me was goals

845
00:40:39.039 --> 00:40:41.480
in your personal life and your business life. So if

846
00:40:41.480 --> 00:40:43.239
you sit people down and you say, hey, man, what

847
00:40:43.239 --> 00:40:45.320
are your what are your goals from the next year.

848
00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:48.719
Most I don't know if i'd say most, but probably

849
00:40:48.840 --> 00:40:51.960
half of your your entrepreneurs, your business owners are going

850
00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:55.840
to list out four or five business goals, nothing personal.

851
00:40:56.599 --> 00:40:59.360
It's important to have both, right, It's important to say, hey,

852
00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:01.800
I want to be a you know, a better husband

853
00:41:01.800 --> 00:41:03.719
this year. I want to maybe I want to do

854
00:41:03.800 --> 00:41:05.440
a date night. I want to set a gold to

855
00:41:05.480 --> 00:41:06.079
do a date.

856
00:41:06.119 --> 00:41:08.360
Those are some of my goals. I have my wife

857
00:41:08.440 --> 00:41:10.239
three times a month, you know, things like that.

858
00:41:10.199 --> 00:41:14.519
Exactly, and that's so important. But I'll be the first

859
00:41:14.559 --> 00:41:20.559
to admit, Uh, most business owners they don't. They don't

860
00:41:20.599 --> 00:41:23.280
put the importance on that personal stuff. And if your

861
00:41:23.320 --> 00:41:26.360
personal life ain't right, your business life ain't going to

862
00:41:26.400 --> 00:41:26.760
be right.

863
00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:29.440
So I have them right here. I keep them. They're

864
00:41:29.440 --> 00:41:31.639
my second bible. I have my goals right there. These

865
00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:33.920
are my goals for the year, and I keep them.

866
00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:36.519
I see them every single morning, and they're they're my compass.

867
00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:37.639
All right, what are we doing today?

868
00:41:37.880 --> 00:41:38.039
Well?

869
00:41:38.119 --> 00:41:40.480
What direction are we going in? And and I feel

870
00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:42.039
like the people that don't have these in their life,

871
00:41:42.039 --> 00:41:44.679
they're lost. They're not They're they're wandering and they're trying,

872
00:41:44.719 --> 00:41:46.000
they're trying to figure out what they're going to do,

873
00:41:46.039 --> 00:41:48.880
and they don't have. If you don't if you don't plan,

874
00:41:49.519 --> 00:41:52.960
plan to fail. Yeah, really simple, Hey make a plan

875
00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:54.079
or plan to fail.

876
00:41:54.480 --> 00:41:57.239
I love it. And it's true, very true, it's true.

877
00:41:57.280 --> 00:42:00.320
And and uh, you know, one of the things I've

878
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:04.119
done is actually for the last twenty five years, I've

879
00:42:04.159 --> 00:42:07.840
had this clipboard. I've had it from way before I

880
00:42:07.840 --> 00:42:10.760
had a podcast, when I was still working for somebody else,

881
00:42:11.320 --> 00:42:13.800
and I would carry this clipboard around and every night

882
00:42:14.079 --> 00:42:16.280
I would sit down about I want to six thirty

883
00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:19.440
or so, maybe after eating dinner, and I would write

884
00:42:20.079 --> 00:42:22.440
out everything I was going to do the next day.

885
00:42:22.559 --> 00:42:24.480
And it would be ten or twelve things, and a lot,

886
00:42:24.719 --> 00:42:26.320
you know, in my life, a lot of it with

887
00:42:26.400 --> 00:42:29.719
sales calls or whatever, or go see this customer, take

888
00:42:29.719 --> 00:42:32.360
this guy to lunch. And as I would do them,

889
00:42:32.440 --> 00:42:35.480
I would cross them off the next day. I may

890
00:42:36.199 --> 00:42:39.119
I may only end up crossing off six of those things.

891
00:42:39.519 --> 00:42:41.719
The next four would go to the next day, so

892
00:42:41.800 --> 00:42:45.880
I would prioritize those to where by the end of

893
00:42:45.920 --> 00:42:48.159
the week I was knocking out those daily goals. But

894
00:42:48.199 --> 00:42:50.840
I'm like you, I also had quarterly goals and it

895
00:42:50.960 --> 00:42:54.159
wasn't just sales related. Maybe I want to lose ten pounds,

896
00:42:54.559 --> 00:42:57.119
you know. It's things like that. Health. How important is

897
00:42:57.199 --> 00:42:58.679
health to a business center?

898
00:42:58.800 --> 00:42:59.480
Health is wealth?

899
00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:02.360
Yeah? Health is wealth. There you get man, We got

900
00:43:02.360 --> 00:43:06.559
some phrases on this one. People are learning some.

901
00:43:06.559 --> 00:43:11.559
Stuff today that a rich man has many many dreams, right,

902
00:43:11.639 --> 00:43:14.239
that has many wants. I guess you can say a

903
00:43:14.480 --> 00:43:17.119
sick person only has one. Yeah, And that is to

904
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:18.360
feel better. That's it.

905
00:43:18.559 --> 00:43:22.280
Wow, true and deep. I mean when you really think

906
00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:24.159
about that and you really get down to the nuts

907
00:43:24.159 --> 00:43:26.760
and bolts of it, that's a deep statement and it's

908
00:43:26.920 --> 00:43:29.239
very true. And if if your health side of whack,

909
00:43:29.679 --> 00:43:33.320
if your personal life side of whack, good luck getting

910
00:43:33.360 --> 00:43:38.039
your business life in line. I've never seen a business

911
00:43:38.079 --> 00:43:42.519
owner that had haywire behind the scenes, if you will,

912
00:43:42.679 --> 00:43:46.239
everything outside of his business was haywire, meaning his personal

913
00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:51.079
life or his health and his business be on point.

914
00:43:51.480 --> 00:43:55.400
Never seen that because usually one thing controls the rest.

915
00:43:55.920 --> 00:43:58.079
You know, you got you got to learn and I'm

916
00:43:58.079 --> 00:44:01.000
not preaching to people here, but you said it. You

917
00:44:01.079 --> 00:44:03.159
got to learn to leave your business stuff at work

918
00:44:03.719 --> 00:44:08.320
and don't bring it home. And sometimes that's hard, you know,

919
00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:10.800
I would, especially if you've had a really tough day

920
00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:11.400
in business.

921
00:44:12.079 --> 00:44:16.159
But so important, very very very important being able to

922
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:18.679
separate the both and just really understanding that as you're

923
00:44:18.679 --> 00:44:21.360
building your guys a business, right, anybody that's listening, that

924
00:44:21.480 --> 00:44:24.159
there's gonna be times where your life is out of balance. Right,

925
00:44:24.159 --> 00:44:26.280
you're prioritizing work a little bit more than your family,

926
00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:29.639
or you're prioritizing your family even less. Than your work

927
00:44:29.639 --> 00:44:33.480
and you're struggling financially or vice versa, or you're prioritizing

928
00:44:33.880 --> 00:44:36.360
your work more than your health and things you suffer.

929
00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:38.960
But what was really important is the awareness behind it,

930
00:44:39.199 --> 00:44:41.679
understanding and having the conversation even with your family, like

931
00:44:41.719 --> 00:44:44.039
look at babe, look at my kids, or you have

932
00:44:44.039 --> 00:44:46.840
a meeting, we were struggling financially. We're gonna have to

933
00:44:46.840 --> 00:44:48.880
make some sacrifices. Dad's gonna have to work a little

934
00:44:48.920 --> 00:44:51.119
harder this year to get us ahead in life. But

935
00:44:51.239 --> 00:44:53.400
being able to recognize it and make sure that your

936
00:44:53.400 --> 00:44:55.760
family's behind you and they understand what you're trying to do,

937
00:44:56.039 --> 00:44:58.039
so that awareness is there, and then once you meet

938
00:44:58.119 --> 00:45:00.559
those goals, those financial goals, you can kind of come

939
00:45:00.599 --> 00:45:03.360
back to balance again or the same thing. Hey, all right,

940
00:45:03.400 --> 00:45:05.840
I really sacrifice my health because I needed to get ahead.

941
00:45:05.960 --> 00:45:07.559
All right, I'm going to really take it easy with

942
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:09.719
my business. Have a meeting with your team and your

943
00:45:09.719 --> 00:45:11.639
office saying, look at guys, I really need to take

944
00:45:11.639 --> 00:45:13.760
a little time for myself. I'm going to be taken

945
00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:15.920
off work a little early, getting off because I need

946
00:45:15.920 --> 00:45:17.639
to go to the gym. I need to go work out,

947
00:45:17.800 --> 00:45:20.360
I need to prioritize my health. But the awareness and

948
00:45:20.360 --> 00:45:23.360
the communication between your family, your team members at work,

949
00:45:23.480 --> 00:45:26.159
and even with yourself that you're recognizing it. A lot

950
00:45:26.159 --> 00:45:29.320
of the people do this unconsciously, right They don't even

951
00:45:29.360 --> 00:45:31.679
know they only have a plan again behind it. So

952
00:45:31.719 --> 00:45:33.840
they're spiling out of control and they have no idea

953
00:45:33.880 --> 00:45:36.239
what's happening with their life. They don't know why. You know,

954
00:45:36.280 --> 00:45:39.039
they have high cholesterol, type two diabetes, their wife is

955
00:45:39.119 --> 00:45:41.800
leaving them, their business is going under is because they

956
00:45:41.800 --> 00:45:44.840
don't They've never really had the awareness behind it and

957
00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:46.920
being able to understand it. If they're going to be

958
00:45:46.960 --> 00:45:49.159
out of balance, at least be aware of it understanding Hey,

959
00:45:49.239 --> 00:45:51.320
I know that I'm neglecting my family right now, but

960
00:45:51.360 --> 00:45:53.519
it's for a purpose and there's a plan behind it,

961
00:45:53.599 --> 00:45:55.280
and my family's aware of it and they're behind me

962
00:45:55.320 --> 00:45:56.159
and they're supporting me.

963
00:45:56.559 --> 00:45:58.960
Yeah. You have to be able to look yourself in

964
00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:03.559
the mirror and beyond us with yourself, and hard hard

965
00:46:03.599 --> 00:46:07.199
for people, most business owners, and I think it's an

966
00:46:07.679 --> 00:46:12.000
important for a business owner to have confidence. Ego is

967
00:46:12.039 --> 00:46:14.119
not always a bad thing. It's a bad thing when

968
00:46:14.159 --> 00:46:18.079
it's out of control, but ego is important in business,

969
00:46:18.559 --> 00:46:23.519
I find because I think that ego drives how other

970
00:46:23.559 --> 00:46:29.119
people perceive you. And if someone if you're someone that

971
00:46:29.199 --> 00:46:31.559
doesn't have a whole lot of self confidence, that's going

972
00:46:31.639 --> 00:46:35.239
to stand out and people it's hard to get people

973
00:46:35.320 --> 00:46:38.239
to do business with someone that lacks self confidence a

974
00:46:38.239 --> 00:46:42.440
lot of times. And so you've got to be able

975
00:46:42.440 --> 00:46:44.239
to look yourself in the mirror sometimes and let go

976
00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:46.440
of that ego and say, hey, this is why this

977
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:50.719
is failing. You know, I'm not spending enough time here

978
00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:53.639
or there. And there will be times in business, as

979
00:46:53.719 --> 00:46:56.559
you said, where maybe you do need to dedicate a

980
00:46:56.559 --> 00:47:00.719
little more time to your business. You know, things change

981
00:47:00.760 --> 00:47:02.960
one thing about any type of business. I don't care

982
00:47:03.039 --> 00:47:08.039
what business you're in. It's constantly changing. Things are coming out.

983
00:47:08.199 --> 00:47:12.159
There's uh, you know, especially in the construction business, what

984
00:47:12.360 --> 00:47:16.119
was popular yesterday may not be popular today. You know.

985
00:47:16.239 --> 00:47:18.599
I remember when foat finishes were all of the thing,

986
00:47:18.679 --> 00:47:22.559
and people were spraying drywall mud all over there, all

987
00:47:22.559 --> 00:47:24.960
over their sheet rock, and and that was a bit

988
00:47:25.480 --> 00:47:30.000
beautiful decorative technique that not many people knew how to do.

989
00:47:30.079 --> 00:47:33.239
But it's gone away from that. So as a business,

990
00:47:33.599 --> 00:47:36.280
that's something if if you're good at that you're gonna

991
00:47:36.320 --> 00:47:37.480
have to change along with it.

992
00:47:37.519 --> 00:47:41.199
And you know, uh, the best, the best thing that

993
00:47:41.199 --> 00:47:43.239
people can do when it comes to the topic that

994
00:47:43.280 --> 00:47:45.360
you're talking about as far as balancing when things do

995
00:47:45.440 --> 00:47:48.320
file apart and aren't going your way and things you're

996
00:47:48.360 --> 00:47:50.440
missing your quotas and you.

997
00:47:50.119 --> 00:47:53.000
You're having struggles in life. The best mindset that I've

998
00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:55.840
been able to really apply to my life that's been

999
00:47:55.880 --> 00:47:58.800
the most helpful is going to this to this quote,

1000
00:47:59.360 --> 00:48:02.320
it's your fault. Yeah, you know, if I if I

1001
00:48:02.360 --> 00:48:04.719
take responsibility whether it's my fault or not, I don't

1002
00:48:04.719 --> 00:48:07.280
even care if you know, if I lose that contract,

1003
00:48:07.440 --> 00:48:09.719
if my wife leaves me, if my kid, you know,

1004
00:48:09.840 --> 00:48:13.119
is struggling, or if I'm you know, not winning in

1005
00:48:13.159 --> 00:48:15.440
life in sun Gieral. If I tell myself it's your fault,

1006
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:17.760
immediately in my mindset goes like, all right, if it's

1007
00:48:17.760 --> 00:48:19.880
my fault, that means I can do something about it.

1008
00:48:20.039 --> 00:48:22.679
That means I didn't do something that I can possibly

1009
00:48:22.760 --> 00:48:26.119
do now to change the outcome. And most people these days,

1010
00:48:26.159 --> 00:48:28.800
they have a mindset of it's not my fault, it's

1011
00:48:28.840 --> 00:48:30.840
his fault, and it's that person's fault and it's the

1012
00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:33.840
weather's fault and it's world's fault or whatever they want

1013
00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:36.679
to blame, and instantly they become victims and powerless to

1014
00:48:36.719 --> 00:48:39.400
the situation. So I believe that anybody listening to this,

1015
00:48:39.480 --> 00:48:41.760
if you can apply that to your life, just anything

1016
00:48:41.800 --> 00:48:43.440
that happens in your life, whether it's your fault or not,

1017
00:48:43.719 --> 00:48:46.280
whether it's your kid failing school or your kids getting

1018
00:48:46.320 --> 00:48:48.599
into drugs or whatever it is, just tell yourself, this

1019
00:48:48.639 --> 00:48:51.079
is my fault, you know. And as soon as you

1020
00:48:51.079 --> 00:48:53.039
tell yourself that, and you really truly say it to

1021
00:48:53.039 --> 00:48:56.440
yourself and believe it, you're instantly your mindset's going to go, well,

1022
00:48:56.440 --> 00:48:58.719
if it's my fault, then I can do something about it.

1023
00:48:58.920 --> 00:49:00.239
And if I can do something about it, I can

1024
00:49:00.320 --> 00:49:02.079
change the outcome. And if I can change the outcome,

1025
00:49:02.119 --> 00:49:02.760
I can stop this.

1026
00:49:03.320 --> 00:49:08.440
Yeah, Jocko will It write a book called Extreme Ownership,

1027
00:49:08.840 --> 00:49:11.480
and it's very similar to what you're saying, where you

1028
00:49:11.639 --> 00:49:15.880
have to take extreme ownership of your business, of your

1029
00:49:16.039 --> 00:49:19.679
life and you have to own the victory's and the mistakes.

1030
00:49:19.880 --> 00:49:22.559
Yes, that is good too. So one thing is important

1031
00:49:22.960 --> 00:49:24.880
is that, Yes, when you're sitting in that JACUZI at

1032
00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:27.119
that five star resort, and you look around and you

1033
00:49:27.119 --> 00:49:29.280
see your kids playing around, or you with your girlfriend

1034
00:49:29.559 --> 00:49:31.800
or whatever. His life is treating you to look around

1035
00:49:31.840 --> 00:49:34.159
and say, this is my fault. Do that as well.

1036
00:49:34.239 --> 00:49:36.320
Don't just do the negative stuff, do the positive as well.

1037
00:49:36.360 --> 00:49:37.760
I love that and I do do that as well.

1038
00:49:37.800 --> 00:49:39.679
I look around and I wake up in the morning

1039
00:49:39.719 --> 00:49:41.920
and I see my baby boy in the bed, and

1040
00:49:41.960 --> 00:49:44.039
I see my wife, and I see my house, and

1041
00:49:44.480 --> 00:49:47.400
I tell myself, Hey, this is your fault. You did this.

1042
00:49:47.639 --> 00:49:52.159
Yeah, that's right. Let's talk about your business quickly. You're

1043
00:49:53.119 --> 00:49:56.800
you're in Denham Springs, KOs Drop Wall.

1044
00:49:57.039 --> 00:49:59.599
Ks draw On Painting. Yes, you're right here. Our office

1045
00:49:59.599 --> 00:50:02.000
is right here Peete Highway, right behind the walmart.

1046
00:50:02.239 --> 00:50:05.920
Uh, and y'all do primarily drawwall and painting and or

1047
00:50:05.960 --> 00:50:06.719
all of the above.

1048
00:50:06.800 --> 00:50:08.800
We do all the division nine of the plans, so

1049
00:50:08.800 --> 00:50:11.880
we do everything from metal stuff, framing to send spender ceilings,

1050
00:50:12.239 --> 00:50:14.920
act ceilings, drawwall.

1051
00:50:14.480 --> 00:50:16.639
Painting, commercial, residential.

1052
00:50:16.800 --> 00:50:18.760
We do some commercial, we do some residential, so we

1053
00:50:18.800 --> 00:50:21.000
do a little bit of both. We do some multi

1054
00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:24.119
family things like that. So that's pretty much what most

1055
00:50:24.119 --> 00:50:26.519
of our business does. If anybody, if any if anybody

1056
00:50:26.559 --> 00:50:28.159
needs a draw over, Paara, Please don't call us.

1057
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:30.920
You get a hole in the wall.

1058
00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:33.960
Get every year, every year during Christmas time, we get

1059
00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:37.320
phone calls. Yeah, we're up in the attic Christmas tree

1060
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:40.519
and my husband step in the ceiling. I'm like, I'm sorry,

1061
00:50:40.679 --> 00:50:42.800
but we don't really kind of do that too much.

1062
00:50:42.840 --> 00:50:46.039
But we normally we tackle most of the larger projects

1063
00:50:46.079 --> 00:50:48.960
around the country, do a lot of the you know,

1064
00:50:49.920 --> 00:50:52.519
the housing shortage, so there's a lot of apartment buildings

1065
00:50:52.559 --> 00:50:54.159
going up, and we we tackle a lot of those

1066
00:50:54.199 --> 00:50:58.280
bigger projects. And we recently just opened also electrical company,

1067
00:50:58.400 --> 00:50:59.960
so that's something we can help you out. If you're

1068
00:51:00.280 --> 00:51:02.280
a new home in the area and you need an

1069
00:51:02.280 --> 00:51:04.400
electrical quote, please give us a call. So that's something

1070
00:51:04.400 --> 00:51:06.920
we're excited about. We just teamed up with Kent Tech

1071
00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:10.480
Electric with Steve Saloom. He's uh, we've got him on

1072
00:51:10.519 --> 00:51:12.760
the team and we've been working together now. So any

1073
00:51:12.840 --> 00:51:17.000
electrical needs, residential commercial, Uh, We're we're happy to help

1074
00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:17.639
you guys out with that.

1075
00:51:17.880 --> 00:51:22.079
Yeah, and and uh and so on that electrical side,

1076
00:51:22.079 --> 00:51:24.360
I want to talk about that for a second. So

1077
00:51:24.920 --> 00:51:27.920
if it's new construction, do you deal with the electrical

1078
00:51:27.960 --> 00:51:30.679
on that end too, or is it just existing homes

1079
00:51:30.800 --> 00:51:32.639
or maybe they need a panel switch out.

1080
00:51:32.519 --> 00:51:35.199
Or we mostly just we may just doing the new construction,

1081
00:51:35.320 --> 00:51:38.559
many the new construction and commercial anything new new construction, commercial,

1082
00:51:38.599 --> 00:51:41.320
small retail, anything to do with new construction. The smaller

1083
00:51:41.360 --> 00:51:43.480
stuff we don't really mess with too much unless unless

1084
00:51:43.480 --> 00:51:45.239
it's it's a it's a favor something for one of

1085
00:51:45.239 --> 00:51:48.719
our customers, will do it, but we're we're prioritizing mainly

1086
00:51:48.760 --> 00:51:49.480
new new builds.

1087
00:51:49.559 --> 00:51:51.719
I got a lot of builders listen to this show,

1088
00:51:51.880 --> 00:51:54.760
a lot of big builders too, So y'all give him,

1089
00:51:55.079 --> 00:51:58.280
y'all give give that company a shout, and if you

1090
00:51:58.320 --> 00:52:00.639
send me the link, I'll link that in the description

1091
00:52:00.760 --> 00:52:06.039
as well. Make it easy. Yeah, exactly. One more thing

1092
00:52:06.159 --> 00:52:08.559
before we get in out of here that I want

1093
00:52:08.599 --> 00:52:13.039
to talk about specifically, and it's kind of going to

1094
00:52:13.079 --> 00:52:15.960
be a circle back, but it's important. Look, one thing

1095
00:52:16.079 --> 00:52:20.840
that I have stood on a pulpit about, if you will,

1096
00:52:21.639 --> 00:52:27.039
is the importance of trades today. And I speak from

1097
00:52:27.039 --> 00:52:30.440
a lot of experience because I believe that a good electrician,

1098
00:52:31.159 --> 00:52:34.559
or a good drywall guy, or a good painter or

1099
00:52:34.599 --> 00:52:40.719
a good framer, those in and of its core are talents. Okay.

1100
00:52:42.280 --> 00:52:44.920
I have seen, probably in the last ten years, a

1101
00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:50.599
shift to where where you used to have and I'll

1102
00:52:50.679 --> 00:52:53.039
use painters because that's what I dealt with. Where you

1103
00:52:53.119 --> 00:52:56.199
used to have these old school painters that were just man,

1104
00:52:56.280 --> 00:52:59.199
it was art to them and they were just great.

1105
00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:05.280
There has been a shift to a quality reduction in

1106
00:53:05.320 --> 00:53:08.679
some cases with some of those industries, and I think

1107
00:53:08.719 --> 00:53:11.800
a lot of that there is such a push towards

1108
00:53:11.920 --> 00:53:16.000
college that the trades have suffered because of it. Look,

1109
00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:18.079
there's some people out there. If you're going to be

1110
00:53:18.119 --> 00:53:21.559
a hard doctor, go to college, get your medical degree

1111
00:53:21.599 --> 00:53:24.400
and heart surgery. I don't want anyone to operating on

1112
00:53:24.440 --> 00:53:26.639
my heart that doesn't have a college degree or a

1113
00:53:26.719 --> 00:53:31.039
medical degree. There is a serious lack in the trade

1114
00:53:31.079 --> 00:53:36.360
field of qualified people in trades, and I think some

1115
00:53:36.440 --> 00:53:40.719
of that has caused because parents push college to people

1116
00:53:40.760 --> 00:53:43.719
that they may just not be made for college for

1117
00:53:43.840 --> 00:53:47.280
whatever reason, has nothing to do with brain power. They

1118
00:53:47.320 --> 00:53:51.000
may just not like school too much. And maybe they're

1119
00:53:51.039 --> 00:53:55.000
a talented framer or maybe they're a talented painter. And

1120
00:53:55.360 --> 00:53:58.800
these are where your entrepreneurs are being born. You know,

1121
00:53:58.880 --> 00:54:00.480
if you're gonna if you're gonna go. We're up telling

1122
00:54:00.519 --> 00:54:03.280
a construction company. I mean, I guess you could graduate

1123
00:54:03.360 --> 00:54:06.880
in construction management and take that route, or you could

1124
00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:09.760
be someone like in your case, rather than go to

1125
00:54:09.760 --> 00:54:14.039
the college route. You kind of learned from the ground

1126
00:54:14.119 --> 00:54:17.480
up on what this business was, and then you ram

1127
00:54:17.559 --> 00:54:21.400
with it and you built an amazing company based off

1128
00:54:21.440 --> 00:54:23.719
of that. How do you feel about that.

1129
00:54:23.679 --> 00:54:25.880
Quote that curts my mind when you're saying this is

1130
00:54:25.920 --> 00:54:29.000
a quote that people have probably heard a thousand times

1131
00:54:29.039 --> 00:54:33.519
that says that strong men create good times, and good

1132
00:54:33.519 --> 00:54:38.480
times create weak men, and weak men create hard times

1133
00:54:38.800 --> 00:54:41.599
and the cycle goes right, So I feel that, you know,

1134
00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:45.360
our hard times create or hard times creates strong men. Yeah,

1135
00:54:45.480 --> 00:54:47.320
and it kind of just cycle kind of games going.

1136
00:54:47.480 --> 00:54:49.920
So right now we're in the phase where we've created

1137
00:54:50.880 --> 00:54:53.400
a lot of weaker men, I guess you can say

1138
00:54:53.400 --> 00:54:56.079
in a sense, and the fact that we've had amazing times,

1139
00:54:56.159 --> 00:54:58.199
We've had some great times, you know, things we have

1140
00:54:58.280 --> 00:55:01.559
not struggled. And I say, for myself, growing up in Mexico,

1141
00:55:01.920 --> 00:55:05.280
I've really been able to see the actual the face

1142
00:55:05.320 --> 00:55:09.360
of growing up lacking in life, Lacking you know, just

1143
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:12.039
good set of clothes, good set of shoes, you know,

1144
00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:14.320
food in the fridge, a nice bed to be able

1145
00:55:14.320 --> 00:55:17.639
to sleep on. So I feel that a lot of

1146
00:55:17.679 --> 00:55:22.199
the younger generations have grown up with having so much

1147
00:55:22.360 --> 00:55:24.000
it's made them weak in a lot of sense. And

1148
00:55:24.039 --> 00:55:27.320
now they're seeing you're having to also you throw in

1149
00:55:27.360 --> 00:55:29.639
their things like social media, where they see these kids,

1150
00:55:29.880 --> 00:55:32.679
you know, making millions of dollars just making YouTube posts

1151
00:55:32.800 --> 00:55:36.159
or drop shipping on Amazon or things. So the incentive

1152
00:55:36.239 --> 00:55:38.079
is not there, right, Like do they really want to

1153
00:55:38.119 --> 00:55:41.679
go sweat out in the sun and build a house

1154
00:55:41.719 --> 00:55:45.079
and framing when they're seeing their buddy, you know, making

1155
00:55:45.280 --> 00:55:49.960
hundreds of thousands of dollars, go even gaming. So we're

1156
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:52.440
creating a generation of definitely weaker men, you know, we

1157
00:55:52.480 --> 00:55:55.559
need to definitely. One of the advantages that I had

1158
00:55:55.559 --> 00:55:57.519
as a younger adult my dad always did for me

1159
00:55:57.599 --> 00:56:00.280
is during the summers and summer after school, I would

1160
00:56:00.280 --> 00:56:02.199
go work in construction with my with my uncles or

1161
00:56:02.239 --> 00:56:04.480
my brothers, and I was out there hustling. So I

1162
00:56:04.559 --> 00:56:07.159
got to learn a trade at a younger age that

1163
00:56:07.280 --> 00:56:09.320
was able to apply later on my life to build

1164
00:56:09.559 --> 00:56:12.840
a multimillion dollar business debt free, no doubt, right, So

1165
00:56:13.840 --> 00:56:15.880
I think that if you as a parent and you

1166
00:56:15.920 --> 00:56:18.480
do have a younger kid, send them with their uncles

1167
00:56:18.480 --> 00:56:21.039
to go frame, send them to go you know, roof,

1168
00:56:21.760 --> 00:56:25.159
do electrical work, hvac work. Have them instill how to

1169
00:56:25.199 --> 00:56:27.679
have that trade in case they ever needed one. Later

1170
00:56:27.719 --> 00:56:29.760
they had a weld, you know, things like that, and

1171
00:56:29.840 --> 00:56:31.639
having doing in their summer and their time off, you know.

1172
00:56:31.639 --> 00:56:33.440
And that's what my dad did for me. I would

1173
00:56:33.480 --> 00:56:35.719
either I was either working on the farm or I

1174
00:56:35.760 --> 00:56:38.159
was either working in construction in the United States during

1175
00:56:38.159 --> 00:56:40.440
my summers. And when I became an adult, I was

1176
00:56:40.480 --> 00:56:42.719
able to use those skill sets to be able to

1177
00:56:42.719 --> 00:56:44.960
build a multimillion dollar company and I loved it. It

1178
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:47.800
was something that was really good for me. And I

1179
00:56:47.800 --> 00:56:50.159
don't feel that we're doing that for the younger, younger generation.

1180
00:56:50.239 --> 00:56:52.880
I feel that it might it might come and bite us.

1181
00:56:53.159 --> 00:56:55.599
Yeah, I agree. I agree with that one hundred percent.

1182
00:56:55.760 --> 00:56:59.840
And you know, work ethic is nothing to be taken

1183
00:57:00.079 --> 00:57:04.000
lightly in the entrepreneurship field. When you first start, you're

1184
00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:05.880
gonna have to work, You're gonna have to build it,

1185
00:57:06.400 --> 00:57:08.880
and the sharks are gonna be out there and they're

1186
00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:11.960
gonna be biting at you. And you've got to be

1187
00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:16.440
able to weather that storm. And a lot of that

1188
00:57:16.519 --> 00:57:19.079
work ethic is built when you're eight years old, nine

1189
00:57:19.159 --> 00:57:21.320
years old, ten years old. Look, I can tell you

1190
00:57:22.079 --> 00:57:25.599
I was never given anything in life. I can remember

1191
00:57:25.679 --> 00:57:28.199
when I was twelve and I wanted to go to

1192
00:57:28.239 --> 00:57:31.559
a movie with my friends. My dad would expect me

1193
00:57:31.599 --> 00:57:35.800
to cut the grass or other things you know, around

1194
00:57:35.840 --> 00:57:38.679
the around the house to give me two bucks to

1195
00:57:38.719 --> 00:57:41.039
go to a movie. I'm old. It was cheap back then,

1196
00:57:41.639 --> 00:57:47.280
but it built something in me. And let me tell

1197
00:57:47.280 --> 00:57:50.199
you one thing, I ain't afraid to work. I ain't

1198
00:57:50.239 --> 00:57:52.880
afraid to work. And I credit my work ethic with

1199
00:57:52.920 --> 00:57:57.079
about fifty percent of any success that I've had because

1200
00:57:57.119 --> 00:57:59.559
I've always been one to say, you know, you may

1201
00:57:59.559 --> 00:58:01.800
be smaller than me, maybe better looking, the mean, but

1202
00:58:01.840 --> 00:58:04.599
you ain't gonna outword me. It ain't gonna happen. Yeah,

1203
00:58:04.639 --> 00:58:08.480
And and it's been a blessing. I was blessed with that.

1204
00:58:08.559 --> 00:58:11.559
But I agree with you that I think, uh, some

1205
00:58:11.679 --> 00:58:17.119
of the younger generation just haven't experienced that. They it's

1206
00:58:17.159 --> 00:58:19.360
fell off. So it's up to us as an older

1207
00:58:19.400 --> 00:58:24.119
generation maybe to mentor those those kids. One thing I

1208
00:58:24.199 --> 00:58:28.519
will credit livings to parish in Louisiana, for is. Some

1209
00:58:28.599 --> 00:58:32.079
of our schools now have trade programs high schools. I

1210
00:58:32.119 --> 00:58:35.159
know Walker High School has a phenomenal welding program. You

1211
00:58:35.199 --> 00:58:38.559
brought up welding. They have that there. So what do

1212
00:58:38.639 --> 00:58:42.400
you think, Man? Any any final thoughts, anything else you

1213
00:58:42.519 --> 00:58:43.840
want to say before we get out of here.

1214
00:58:43.880 --> 00:58:45.159
No, I just want to really thank you for having

1215
00:58:45.199 --> 00:58:45.679
me on the show.

1216
00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:49.000
Man. I enjoyed it. We could talk for four hours.

1217
00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:53.119
I really want to just finish off with the you know,

1218
00:58:53.400 --> 00:58:56.639
just anybody that's listening. If you guys need any help

1219
00:58:56.679 --> 00:59:00.000
with you you guys electrical or dry well work? Definitely, Yeah,

1220
00:58:59.559 --> 00:59:03.159
I got I'm very fortunate to be part of this

1221
00:59:03.199 --> 00:59:05.039
company now and being able to build it up as

1222
00:59:05.079 --> 00:59:08.800
I was. I I remember early on when we wanted

1223
00:59:08.800 --> 00:59:09.800
to name the company.

1224
00:59:10.119 --> 00:59:12.280
I remember, oh, I did want to talk about it.

1225
00:59:12.280 --> 00:59:13.320
I'm glad you brought that up.

1226
00:59:13.320 --> 00:59:15.320
I was thinking about, you know, a name for it.

1227
00:59:15.760 --> 00:59:18.360
And the company is named KOs and everybody always asking

1228
00:59:18.360 --> 00:59:20.800
me what is what does KOs stand for? And I

1229
00:59:20.840 --> 00:59:22.400
always I kind of lie a little bit. I'm like,

1230
00:59:22.519 --> 00:59:26.239
it's like Kings of she Rock. But but the truth

1231
00:59:26.280 --> 00:59:29.320
of the matter is that the name came the name

1232
00:59:29.360 --> 00:59:32.519
actually in Spanish is spelled chaos, So there's an a,

1233
00:59:33.119 --> 00:59:35.280
there's an a head and in the symbol. And the

1234
00:59:35.599 --> 00:59:37.599
reason why I wanted to name it chaos, it comes

1235
00:59:37.599 --> 00:59:40.960
from a good h scientist. His name was Edward Lorenz.

1236
00:59:41.239 --> 00:59:44.519
Edward Lorenz was a weatherman and he was trying to

1237
00:59:44.559 --> 00:59:48.079
predict weather patterns. This is, you know, several like a

1238
00:59:48.199 --> 00:59:49.800
hundred years ago or so when he was doing this,

1239
00:59:50.079 --> 00:59:53.119
so he was calculating his formats in his in his computer,

1240
00:59:53.199 --> 00:59:56.400
in his in his uh, his algorithm. He was trying

1241
00:59:56.440 --> 00:59:59.679
to figure out how to predict it. And he found

1242
00:59:59.719 --> 01:00:02.719
out as he was trying to predict the weather, as

1243
01:00:02.719 --> 01:00:05.679
the weather was making these small, tiny little changes, he

1244
01:00:05.760 --> 01:00:09.440
had to adjust his formula. And every time he adjusts

1245
01:00:09.440 --> 01:00:13.760
the formula, it caused the whole pattern to change. And

1246
01:00:13.800 --> 01:00:17.559
as his pattern was developing on his computer, he started

1247
01:00:17.639 --> 01:00:20.039
seeing it. It started creating a pattern and it ended up

1248
01:00:20.119 --> 01:00:22.679
looking like a butterfly. And that's where you get the

1249
01:00:22.679 --> 01:00:26.000
movie of the butterfly effect. So, and the butterfly effect

1250
01:00:26.039 --> 01:00:28.519
says that the flaps of the flaps of a butterfly

1251
01:00:28.559 --> 01:00:32.360
in Africa will cause a storm in South America and

1252
01:00:31.360 --> 01:00:36.079
The whole premise of the whole theory is that small

1253
01:00:36.119 --> 01:00:39.440
little changes make big impacts. And it's something that I

1254
01:00:39.440 --> 01:00:42.280
applied to my life, into my business, my personal life,

1255
01:00:42.320 --> 01:00:45.280
and everything that I do is always try to make

1256
01:00:45.320 --> 01:00:47.880
small little changes that make you better every single day,

1257
01:00:48.199 --> 01:00:50.599
create a better version of yourself by the small little things.

1258
01:00:51.079 --> 01:00:53.719
Small hinges move big doors. So that's where the name

1259
01:00:53.760 --> 01:00:54.239
comes from.

1260
01:00:54.440 --> 01:00:57.280
Yeah, water computers rock. If it just drops on it

1261
01:00:57.320 --> 01:01:00.719
and drops on it every time, it will actually pierced rock.

1262
01:01:00.800 --> 01:01:02.760
And you know, when you think about it, you brought

1263
01:01:02.840 --> 01:01:06.719
up the butterfly effect just quickly. Something that and I

1264
01:01:06.760 --> 01:01:09.480
try not to think about this y'all too often because

1265
01:01:09.960 --> 01:01:13.880
it absolutely blows my mind. But if you ever looked

1266
01:01:13.960 --> 01:01:16.639
back at your life and you think, Wow, if I

1267
01:01:16.679 --> 01:01:20.320
wouldn't have zigged instead of zagged, this would have never happened.

1268
01:01:20.360 --> 01:01:23.079
If I wouldn't have met this person, it wouldn't led

1269
01:01:23.119 --> 01:01:25.840
to this, which led to this, which led to where

1270
01:01:25.840 --> 01:01:30.840
I'm at now. Those sort of things. It sometimes the

1271
01:01:30.920 --> 01:01:37.480
smallest interactions are the smallest experiences. You can literally trace

1272
01:01:37.559 --> 01:01:41.280
back your life to that and say, if this wouldn't happen,

1273
01:01:41.280 --> 01:01:44.599
I wouldn't be here. Isn't that crazy. I don't even

1274
01:01:44.719 --> 01:01:46.719
like thinking about it sometimes and I'm like, man, it

1275
01:01:46.800 --> 01:01:51.320
just blows my mind. But it's life is is, you know,

1276
01:01:51.400 --> 01:01:56.440
It's a blessing. And it's also something that I don't

1277
01:01:56.440 --> 01:01:58.880
think people take a lot of time to look back

1278
01:01:59.559 --> 01:02:02.760
and really look at what led them to wherever they are.

1279
01:02:02.800 --> 01:02:07.159
But there's so many little things that just lead you.

1280
01:02:07.159 --> 01:02:10.880
You just got to be open to accepting that. So

1281
01:02:11.840 --> 01:02:15.440
I think that some people got some stuff out of

1282
01:02:15.480 --> 01:02:18.880
what we talked about today, I hope. So I'm gonna

1283
01:02:18.880 --> 01:02:21.599
link everything we talked about in the description, but I

1284
01:02:21.639 --> 01:02:25.480
do want to say this is why local leaders of

1285
01:02:25.519 --> 01:02:28.039
podcasts regardless of all the other things that I do.

1286
01:02:28.079 --> 01:02:32.480
And I've been very blessed that this business grew wings

1287
01:02:32.519 --> 01:02:35.480
and I was able to branch off and do other

1288
01:02:35.559 --> 01:02:38.880
aspects of media. But this will always be my baby.

1289
01:02:38.920 --> 01:02:41.079
And why because I get to sit down talk to

1290
01:02:41.119 --> 01:02:47.400
people like Gus who I learned from, and you're never

1291
01:02:48.039 --> 01:02:51.400
too good in business, or too experienced in business, or

1292
01:02:51.440 --> 01:02:55.280
too old for that matter, to learn and so I

1293
01:02:55.280 --> 01:02:58.079
appreciate you coming on and I got something out of today.

1294
01:02:58.119 --> 01:03:03.079
So I'm hiring fifteen people when I love it so

1295
01:03:03.480 --> 01:03:06.320
I appreciate you coming on. We'll link everything in the description.

1296
01:03:06.440 --> 01:03:09.760
Everyone to come back, just let me know and look,

1297
01:03:09.800 --> 01:03:12.920
if y'all enjoyed this comment in the description and go

1298
01:03:13.119 --> 01:03:17.079
follow Gus's podcast and we'll put that in the description

1299
01:03:17.199 --> 01:03:19.679
as well. And they're talking about all kinds of good

1300
01:03:19.719 --> 01:03:22.119
stuff every week on that show. So thank you so

1301
01:03:22.199 --> 01:03:25.440
much for coming on, and until next time, reminding all

1302
01:03:25.480 --> 01:03:29.000
of you to love your community, support local business, and

1303
01:03:29.159 --> 01:03:31.239
keep leading. Thank you very much,