Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
what's up everybody?
This Ryan Van Orn back withanother edition of scaling up
success, powered by synergist.
Today I have a good friend ofmine, tom Reber.
He has many businesses thecontractor, fight, simplified
painting and published author.
I got his book right here Sellunafraid.
(00:24):
It's a good read.
You got to get it.
Tom the man, the myth, thelegend.
So glad to have you on thepodcast today, my friend.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Glad to be here, man.
How you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh man, if I was any
better, I'd be you, bro, like
you're killing the game.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh well, I appreciate
that it's it is good to be me.
I have a pretty good life, yeah, you do.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, you do.
So, man, tell, tell theaudience.
I know you got your start backin in the Midwest on some stuff
you know you had, you had some,you had some companies out there
.
But I mean, tell us a littlebit about what the contractor
fight's.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
All about my friend.
Yeah, cool.
So you know, like, like yousaid, I'm originally from town
called wheaton, illinois.
It's about an hour west ofchicago.
I grew up in the painting trade, uh, with an uncle and a
grandfather.
My dad was a tile guy and hewas always crabby and he was
hunched over his whole life andhe actually shrunk as he got
older and had these big knots onhis knees from being a tile guy
(01:25):
.
So I'm like I'm going to dowhat my uncle does.
So I worked for my uncle and westarted working from when I was
like 15.
And then, when I got out of theMarines, I worked for him and,
fast forward, I ended upstarting my own painting
business and then I sold thatand then a few years later,
somebody or about a year laterafter I sold it, somebody tapped
(01:47):
me on the shoulder and asked meto speak at an event for
helping businesses grow.
And that's kind of how I gotinto coaching and I it was
originally coaching all types ofsmall business owners,
entrepreneurs and then I guessit was a mid 2017, we just
rebranded and because most ofthe people we were working with
(02:10):
are in the home improvementspace.
I still speak to all differenttypes of groups and things like
that.
But you know, the main gist ofthe contractor fight is the home
improvement space.
And so fast forward.
We've got, you know, over 1000episodes of our podcast, a
couple thousand YouTube videos.
You know we got literally homeimprovement contractors all over
(02:33):
the world that we help.
You know, one of the things wetalk about is we want to help
bring dignity and respect backto the trades, and that starts
with working on the individual.
And one of the things I'm alwaysafter these guys about is you
got to build a business so youcan stop stealing from your
family.
You know, as an entrepreneur,it's really easy to just
(02:57):
undervalue yourself and not putthe processes and systems in
place that you need.
And the net ROI on that is yousteal time, money and memories
from the people that you'reworking your ass off for.
You know, so it's so yeah, Imean I could go on for days
super proud of our community.
We have an amazing coaching teamwe serve I don't know, probably
(03:17):
a little over 2000 contractorsa year are, you know, in and out
of our world and and we love it.
And then about a not even ayear ago I I woke up one day and
I said I'm going to startanother painting company here in
Colorado Springs and it's goingto be the ultimate case study
(03:41):
of everything that we coach inthe contractor fight.
So I'm running it part-time, myhours are part-time, but I have
, you know, four crews out there.
I've got a great salesperson, agreat project manager, admin,
assistant, all that stuff, andso we're just implementing
everything that we teach in ourprograms and our company called
Simplify Painting and it's beena good first.
(04:03):
Nine first, uh, nine or 10months, whatever it's been as if
you didn't have enough on yourplate.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
But here's the thing
that that a lot of business
owners may not get and you dodefinitely is understanding the
leverage piece.
So, like I mean, once you getto a certain level of being able
to to implement certain things,it may not be like that 60
hours a week.
(04:30):
Right, like tell, tell peoplehow you've done that with, with,
with, simplify so quickly.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well, it doesn't hurt
that I had several thousand
projects under my belt and I'vebeen in that trade growing up,
right?
So that's I guess that that wasmy cheat code, right?
You want to call it that whereit just gave me the, gave me an
edge because I had made all themistakes already.
You know I'm I learned yearsago and I wasn't always this way
(05:00):
, but years and years and yearsago I learned how to get my ego
out of the way and realize thatyour business will never grow if
you're the smartest person inyour company.
Oh goodness, I have 30 yearsexperience in the painting trade
or whatever it is right, 25, 30years.
I know a lot, but my projectmanager there's not too many
(05:22):
things he doesn't know.
There's not too many things hedoesn't know, you know.
So I just, I just believe inhire people that are, that are
amazing at what they do and theknowledge set and the skill set
that they have, and and paint avision for what we're building
together and how they're a partof it, and then my job is to
support them and it's not to bethe hero.
You know, in the early days itwas all about me.
(05:45):
You know, it was being the hero.
I'm the business owner andeverything has to run through me
and that's just exhausting andthat's why so many businesses
are stuck and they don't grow.
I mean, I don't care what kindof business it is, you know.
And then I and I, and then Ijust hired a sales guy, probably
about two months ago.
He's doing amazing.
(06:05):
He had zero industry experiencebut he knows how to roll the
red carpet for people.
He comes from the restaurantindustry.
He was the general manager of afew really nice restaurants and
he was just tired of therestaurant life and my wife and
I we had dined at his place afew times got to know him and
then we ran into him one day andI'm like you know how's things
(06:28):
over there?
And he's like I'm not thereanymore and I'm like what's up?
And he's like I'm trying tofigure out my next thing.
And I said, well, let's gettogether and have a conversation
.
And now he actually works forSimplify Painting and he works
for the contractor fight.
So he works for both companiesand typically I mean I'm
(06:54):
simplifies such a new companythat you generally don't go out
and hire a salesperson this soon.
But coming back to the visionfor the company and my goal of
why I started it.
I'm not eating from it.
You know what I mean.
So I'm building a machinethat's going to, that, that's
serving people at a high level,and I know that that machine
(07:14):
will never mature and grow ifI'm the one doing all the sales
Number one I don't have time.
So so you, you know the was ityears ago.
Somebody said, like you canhustle your way to a million
dollar business.
You can hustle your way and youknow you're you're still
involved with everything, butyou want to start.
So you know, get into that.
(07:34):
What seven figure business youwant to get to like an eight
figure business?
Um, it's so much not about you,it's about people you bring on.
And so I just intentionally wentinto this new venture last year
with the mindset that my numberone role is to support the team
and to build the team.
(07:55):
And I know when I hire goodpeople, good character, we hope
we have high standards, a lot ofaccountability, having each
other's backs and thosedifferent things.
I know it'll grow, becausethat's what happens, right?
You know, you put, put a seedin the ground and you get it
sunlight.
You weed it and you put wateron it.
The shit grows.
Same with a business.
(08:15):
So yeah, man, it's.
And there, you know, I'm likeeverybody.
There's times where I seesomething come through and I'm
like, oh, I got to go handlethat, right.
And then I always have to stopand just go wait a minute.
You can't come to the rescuehere and you have to be when you
hire people.
A lot of, I know I'm kind ofall over, but a lot of people
are nervous to hire peoplebecause those people are going
to make mistakes that cost youmoney.
(08:36):
But you have to rewind to whenyou first started.
How many mistakes did you makethat cost you money?
But you didn't have necessarilya boss to report to or to be
accountable to.
You still made the mistakes,and those mistakes they compound
(08:56):
in a good way to give youwisdom.
So you have to be willing toinvest in people, and that means
their mistakes as well.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
That, by all the way,
our audience that'll be $795
just for watching this.
Guys, because those are somelearning, learning tips and
trades and nuggets right therefrom Tom himself, golden, my
friend, golden, so man, and andand kind of going along those,
those routes.
And I was thinking about thiswhile you were talking.
It's like there's what I callthe learning tax.
It's like you pay the learningtax as you go along as a
(09:34):
business owner and then one ofthe things that you've been able
to build out simplify becauseof the other things that you've
done.
It's like when you build, likewhen I took one business and it
may have taken me five years toget to a certain point and it
could have been at.
I know it's in a differentgenre, but the business that
I've built now is, you know, sixmonths after launching, is now
(09:56):
exponentially farther aheadbecause of what I learned in
that other business.
Do you see that all also?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Oh yeah, I mean my
first year in business as a
painting contractor, way, way,way way back 20 something years
ago.
My first year, our top linesales were $86,000.
Right, yeah.
And I want to say my secondyear, I did like 160.
(10:26):
Then we jumped to like threeand then it was five and so on.
Well, you know, we're at a runrate and I'm what 10 months in,
and I literally took two monthsoff because I had so much travel
and speaking in the wintertimewith the contractor fight that I
didn't do a dang thing at allfor Simplify.
I got too much crap going onwith the contractor fight that I
(10:47):
didn't do a dang thing at allfor simplify, I just was, I got
too much crap going on.
And so if you take that ineight months, you know we're um,
we're about a month away, monthand a half, call it two months
by our year year anniversary,we'll be at a million dollar run
rate.
Man, that's awesome, you know.
So it's, you know this.
This month, what are we?
May 30th, we got a couple onthe hook right now that we're
(11:13):
trying to push over the finishline today or Saturday Emilio,
my sales guy or, yeah, sales guyand I.
So we're, you know, I want tosay in.
Was it April?
Yeah, april, we hit, uh, about75 grand and, um, this month
we're, we're knocking on thedoor of I think, as of right now
I looked this morning we'reonly at 62 and most of that's
come in.
(11:33):
The last week it was a slowstart to the month, um, and so I
I would say by June we'll be,we'll be at a solid pace to to
hit that million dollar run rate.
So, man, that's awesome, butit's because I got out of the
way, ryan.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Out of the way.
Like you know, I, I, I, Ipicked up a brush one time with
this new company and I did itwhen I hired my first painter
and we went, we actually Icalled a friend of ours and I
said hey, I know you need yourbasement painted.
I got a guy I got to try out.
I got I need to know if heknows what the hell he's doing,
(12:08):
right, yeah, and I think we'llcome paint it.
You just pay for the paint andit's on me and give me a great
review.
And so it was great.
And so one day I picked up abrush and just to work with them
and make sure, and he's now my.
(12:28):
His name is JC, he's now myproject manager and great guy.
But that that's the thing Isaid earlier.
So many of us as business owners, we don't get out of the way.
We got it, we keep doing thething.
And as long as you're doing thething, whatever the thing is,
it's going to limit, you know,your growth.
Now, if you love doing thething, I have no judgment on
that, but don't fool yourselfand think that you're going to
build, build like an eightfigure business.
(12:50):
Right, because you can't.
If you're going to do the thingall the time, right?
Speaker 1 (12:56):
One of the things
that I, that I kind of reiterate
to a lot of business owners Icome across and I talk to with
uh, what we do is like, if you,if you are handling some of
those tasks that uh are that youcan have somebody do for $15 an
hour, $20 an hour, whatever, itis right Um, you, you basically
(13:20):
hired yourself as your ownassistant and you probably suck
at that job.
So, like you know, you rewriteyour damn job description.
You know, get yourself out ofthe way is exactly what you've
been saying.
So, uh, you know, I love that,I love that mantra because it's
like to me, I want to be valuedat you know X amount of dollars,
(13:41):
300, 400, 500, a thousanddollars an hour, whatever it is.
That's where I'd need to be andplay at that level and then be
able to have others be able toempower them up.
So then they're, they'releading in those roles that
they're in.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, the thing is, if youdon't get out of the way, let me
back up.
We call it the contractor fight, because the fight's between
your ears.
It's the way you think.
Okay, yeah, just kind of ablanket context there you bring
(14:20):
and how you're spending yourtime and we want to big, big
concepts we talk about I talkabout in the, in the book and
stuff is that you know peopleneed to audition for my time.
Oh, yeah, yeah, I love that landon my calendar, it has to make
a case for why it needs to bethere.
Well, if you don't do that andyou, you're, you're doing all
(14:41):
these 15, $20 an hour tasks andstuff you end up having a
business, you have a glorifiedjob with overhead and a shitty
boss.
It's like the trifecta, right.
So you know it's, you know youtalk about those, those tasks.
(15:02):
We just did a training thing Ithink it was last week for our
group and I I gave an example.
We had this guy come to us whowas and guys, I again, I don't
care what the industry is, theseconcepts, they're universal,
right, a hundred percent.
Yeah, he came to us and I wantto say at the time my notes
(15:22):
aren't here with it because I'mjust thinking of it now he was
doing about 600 grand a year intop line sales.
He'd been in business for likeeight years, right, hamster
wheel, same year, you know, sameresults, different year every
year.
And whatever we did the math ofthe hours he was putting in,
because he wouldn't get out ofthe way of the hours he was
(15:43):
putting in, because he wouldn'tget out of the way, literally,
he was working so much and whathe was paying himself was
peanuts because he wasn'tcharging enough.
Long story short, he was makinglike $12 an hour.
If you did that as a businessowner.
What's funny is we helped himidentify like what's your sweet
spot in the business and for himit's sales.
(16:07):
But his sales time was gettingeaten up because he was in the
thick of everything else and sohe wasn't present, he wasn't
following up, he wasn'tprospecting and doing all those
different things.
Fast forward, a year later hewas doing about 1.8 or 2 million
.
Fast forward, a year later hewas doing about $1.8 or $2
million, paying himself about aquarter million a year, $300,000
(16:29):
a year within a year.
And he was making under$100,000 that first year.
And when he came to us, wetracked this thing in the
contractor fight.
We call it your effective salesrate.
So if you take I got acalculator here If you take, if
(16:52):
you go out this week and sell$25,000 worth of whatever your
thing is and you divide that bythe time you spent doing sales
tasks.
So for home improvementcontractors like drive time,
meeting with the client, typingcrap up, revisions, you know all
this other garbage right, whichis why you got to pre-qualify,
so you don't waste time with you.
Don't live on what we call HopeIsland, but anyway, say it took
(17:17):
me 30 hours to sell that 25grand.
I have an effective sales rateof 833 bucks an hour, so that's
the value I'm bringing to mycompany that week.
So we track it with all oursalespeople.
Well, this one guy he went fromspending his time doing 12, 20,
$30 an hour tasks.
(17:38):
Within a year, his effectivesales rate was 43,000 bucks.
Nice, that's awesome.
And this year, in 2025, he soldI want to say in the first six
weeks of the year, because hehad taken things off of his
plate.
He just worked in his sweetspot.
Like 80% of his time is justsales stuff because he's got the
(18:00):
team in place.
He did around 570 in sales insix weeks.
He spent 13 hours.
Wow, he only spent 13 hours onsales tasks, which was about 43
grand, yeah, but effective sales, right.
(18:22):
So so, everybody listening,you're all salespeople, you sell
your stuff.
I encourage, I encourage you todo that math Right and and so
and part of the reason he gotthere.
Like he put in the work.
I give him all the credit in theworld, but you know, he
implemented stuff that I talkabout in the book, okay, called
sell unafraid and and sales.
(18:44):
You know the subtitle isunleash sales success through
personal discipline.
Sales is a discipline game,right, it's not a numbers game
and all this other crap peopleare going to tell you.
It's about are you controllingthe things that you have control
over each and every day, yes orno?
That's it.
And what I find, um, the I'vedone.
(19:04):
I do not just in the homeimprovement space, but like I
train other things.
Now I find I've done.
I do not just in the homeimprovement space, but I train
other things now.
I mean, we pitched in the homeimprovement, but then it just
kind of people are always going,hey, can you come speak or do a
workshop, right.
So what I found from doing allthese workshops coaching
thousands of people a year andall this stuff is the average
(19:24):
salesperson has what I call twomediocre sales days a week.
A mediocre sales day is definedas not whether you sold
something or not today, becauseyou really don't have control
over that, right?
But did I do the things thatlead to a sale prospecting,
follow-ups, we, we.
There's a thing we called UITsunexpected intentional touches,
where literally it's just a textto a past client, we, we.
There's a thing we called UITsunexpected intentional touches
(19:46):
where literally it's just a textto a past client because
there's, there's money in yourdatabase, guys, people that have
already paid you, they'd payyou again, right, but you fall
off the radar because you're toobusy chasing new leads all the
time.
And so I I mean I just sent aUIT the other day woman we did a
$16,000 painting project for,and literally I think it was
(20:07):
last what's today, friday, itwas last Wednesday I sent her a
UIT I send three a day, by theway, okay, every day to pass
clients and I go hey, you knowher name.
I said Tom just wanted to seehow things are looking.
Hit me back when you get aminute, that's it, that's a UIT.
(20:29):
Okay, if you, if you were amortgage person and you help
somebody buy a home, you know,send them a couple UITs once a
quarter or whatever it is, andjust go.
Hey, I was just going throughmy files, saw your name and I
was just curious.
You know how's the how's thenew home working out that files
saw your name and I was justcurious.
You know how's the how's thenew home working out?
That's all it is.
The goal is not to sellsomething, it's to stay on their
(20:51):
radar.
But anyway that that UIT turnedinto about $30,000 more work
that she wants done between Juneand July, just because I
reached out.
So I have control over that asthe point.
So, anyway, back to the mediocresales days.
I'm a data guy.
So there's about what?
264 working days a year, right,give or take, if you have two
(21:14):
average sales days a week,that's 104 days that you're not
controlling.
What you have control over,which is about 39% of your
available sales days.
Think about that, right, thinkabout that.
So now this is where it getscrazy.
So say you got a $2 millionsales goal and there's 264
(21:37):
working days, that means you'reselling about 75, 75 a day.
Now, I know you don't close a$7,500 job every day, right, but
the concept works.
That means you take thataverage times the 104 days,
you're leaving $790,000 on thetable, woo, wow.
(22:00):
Because you didn't choose toget off your butt and do the
things that you know moverelationships for it.
And this is things likerole-playing, like right now.
Like I heard a stat the otherday, less than 5% of all sales
professionals role-play everyweek.
My goodness, my goodness, theyneed me.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Our whole team role
plays every morning.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Yeah, we role play
every day.
Yeah, Inside our, our maingroup coaching program it's
called battleground and thecontractor fight.
Every weekday at 10 o'clockmountain time, we have live
sales tray role play calls.
Role play calls where our ourmembers get on and they role
play with our coaches or eachother and they get coached on
the fly and this and that theybring scenarios to the table.
(22:51):
Man, I ran into this the otherday Because if you're not role
playing, you guys, you'repracticing on your customers.
Oh yeah, and that's like goingto this, it'd be an nfl team not
doing shit during the week,showing up on sunday and trying
to work it out exactly, that'scalled the jacksonville jaguars.
(23:12):
Yeah, or the bears.
I'm sadly a bears, fan.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Fair, fair man you do
it been dropping knowledge this
whole episode, my friend, Iappreciate it.
One little piece, what would bea little piece of advice, a
little nugget for someone that'sstarting their own journey,
starting their own business?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, starting their
own business.
Yeah, I think this is justopinion from my own experience,
okay, and who I've helped andwhat I've seen Um, I know
there's outliers to this.
I think one of the biggestmistakes and I'm talking to
small business owners here right, like yeah, don't bother with
(24:05):
all that mission and vision shitearly on.
I see so many people they don't.
I mean, guys, you don't have abusiness until you sell
something, right?
And so I just think the thefirst couple of years there's
seasons of business, just likeyou know seasons in life.
You know you're a toddler andthen the preteen and all that
other crap, right, this is thestage of your business where you
(24:28):
got to prove that anyone, thatpeople want what you have and
that you have a little bit ofgame to develop and that you can
.
I think it's proof of conceptto you the most, and so I
encourage people from day oneyou need to get fanatical about
marketing and sales, because youcan't sell if you don't have
leads, and you don't have, youknow, if you don't have leads,
(24:49):
you got nothing and um, and sothis is building your brand,
your personal brand, it'screating content, it's going
live on video, it's doing whatyou're doing here with the
podcast Like this?
Is it guys?
It's like, yeah, the firstthing I did when I started the
contractor fight was I started apodcast because I knew, like,
if nobody knows we exist, thenthere's never going to be a
(25:11):
business.
And I was probably a hundredepisodes in before I even made
any money from it.
No one ever reached out to me.
So I just see I see too muchfocus on when I say this people,
people don't think I think it'simportant.
Systems are incrediblyimportant, but I see so many
people get bogged down increating processes and systems
(25:31):
when they haven't even proventhey can sell Right, right.
So you know, for me and that'show I'm wired, like, even when I
coached high school football, Iwas an offensive coordinator
and I'm all about scoring points.
Right, we've got to score thepoints.
Yes, special teams and defenseare super important, but life's
a lot easier when the cashregister is ringing every day.
So we have a mantra here in thefight and in simplify that you
(25:53):
know we, we sell shit every day,period.
Some are ringing the cashregister.
So in the contractor fight verydifferent than painting, cause
I don't, we don't sell a projectevery single day for painting
we sell, you know, might be aday or two between or whatever.
Sometimes we go on a streak,just like everybody, right?
But in the fight, you knowwe're, we do a lot online, we do
(26:17):
, you know, group coaching andall this other stuff, and then
we'll put on workshops, we sellswag, online courses to help
contractors, all these differentthings.
And I forget exactly where inthe book it is, but I and the
streak is still going.
But at the time of the writingof the book I'll just make up a
number we were like a thousanddays or whatever, 1100 days, 980
(26:41):
days, somewhere in there in arow where the cash register rang
in the contractor fight and thestreak is still going.
Let's go, baby.
And so what's fun?
Back to the day.
One thing you need to create aculture where we sell shit.
Yeah, this is a culture whereyou carry your own water.
(27:02):
Right, you need help.
We're good teammates, buteverybody in the company is
responsible to help bring thecash reader.
So we have a Zoom or not a Zoom, a Slack channel that need to
hold this.
See, look at that, there'sanother sale.
So we got what do we got?
We got one, two, three, foursales today for our main program
(27:25):
, which is about 8 000 bucksthat came in today.
Um, since 8 30 am.
Now it's a damn good day inthis channel.
Uh, where is it?
It's under the general.
I'll show you here because itjust happened.
We had, so I gotta, I gotta,find these.
I need these now.
I'm 55.
(27:48):
May 26th, whatever day that wasTuesday, something like that
yeah, monday, tuesday, yeah,tuesday, I think At 11 am we
didn't have any sales yet thatday, like on our online CRM with
CRM with people buying coursesor whatever.
(28:09):
And whenever we hit aroundmidday and there's no sales,
everyone in the company seesthat and it says no sales today.
And everyone's phone dings andyou'll see if you scroll down.
(28:33):
My guy, neil, who's our CEO inthe contractor fight he's a
great guy.
That message was at a what didI say?
11 AM.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
And at 12, 16 AM,
neil goes got one.
Okay, so now, and that day wasliterally only like 300 bucks,
right, right, which was likehang me type results.
But the point is, is everyone,everyone on the team?
We have a sales culture where,when everyone gets that, you'll
(29:08):
see, like our coaches, our adminpeople, our marketing people,
everyone starts posting shit allover online and our facebook
groups and stuff.
They're like hey, have youbought tom's new book yet?
Hey, have you, you know?
Um, uh, you know, here's,here's a, here's a cool t-shirt
that we have, or whatever it is.
I don't don't care what it is.
The point is it's like I wasjust talking to one of my kids
the other day.
(29:29):
We have five kids and she'slike she's 20.
She's got like 16 grand in herbank account, like she's killing
it Right, goes to school fulltime, works all this other stuff
.
I said, honey, I need toconnect you with my guy, you
need to start investing.
And she's like I don't haveenough money to invest.
I said, well, first you have 16grand in the bank.
(29:54):
I said, but every month youneed to put a couple hundred
bucks.
She's like well, what if Ican't do a couple hundred?
And I said then do five bucks.
And it's kind of the sameconcept here.
The amount doesn't matter, it'sthe habit, yeah, it's the
mindset.
We've built the habit here inthe fight that it is just
non-negotiable to have a daythat we don't sell something,
right, and and it's been what?
Three years in a row now wherewe've not had a day without a
(30:18):
sale.
And every time I say that tosomebody or whatever, I'm like
oh my God, I hope today's notthe day.
So but that goes back to the,the things that we have control
over.
Yeah, you know, I just know,and you know this from what you
do.
You're mega, you're a baller man.
You know that, like, if youdon't like, whatever you do or
(30:41):
don't do is going to compound,oh yeah, what comes down to them
.
I mean, you've been, you'vebeen losing all this weight and
working out and shit, and you'redoing that because you're
controlling what you can control.
You're controlling what you putin your mouth and you control
what you do with your body.
Yep, pretty much the game planright there.
So with with sales, withbusiness, leading your team,
anything, there's always thingsthat we have control over that I
(31:05):
think it's really easy for usto get knocked off course and
not pay attention to thosethings, because we get
distracted by the shiny objectsand the things that we think are
really urgent, that aren'treally that important and so
forth.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
It's one of the
things that I started changing
in my mind is like I don't needmotivation, I need discipline.
God so true, you know, when youhit that level of just like,
you know what, screw it.
I need discipline.
God, so true, you know when,when you hit that level of just
like, you know what, screw it,I'm going to go anyway.
Like it was like, like was it?
Yesterday I went to the gym butI forgot my headphones halfway
(31:40):
through.
I was like, oh, this sucks this, this is going to be his poor.
And then you know what I stilldid?
I still went and lifted and gotmy fat ass off the couch and
did it like that, like you, just, you just make it happen.
Like it's all that mindsetbehind it of like I'm not, I'm
not going to stop.
Like, like you know, I, I haveto get this thing done, and
(32:04):
that's that's what I'm trying toteach, whether it's everybody
that that's in our company orit's my kids.
It's like you're teaching grit,you're teaching determination,
you're teaching discipline,perseverance, resiliency.
All of those things come withthat.
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Oh, a hundred percent
.
I mean one of the things I talkabout and I I keep going in the
book book, because it's sittingin front of me and I'm seeing
the tape Right here.
Baby, remembering shit, right,one of the things I talk about
in the book is there's the oldsaying that everyone wants to be
a lion until it's time to dolion shit.
(32:41):
Yes yes, everyone wants to be aballer, an entrepreneur and you
know, have a million bucks andyou know whatever it is until.
But then if you have aconversation with their mindset,
their discipline and theiractions over the last 30 days,
you usually find that they'refull of crap because it doesn't
support what they say they want.
And one of the things I talkabout a lot is that success is
(33:01):
inconvenient.
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't care ifyou slept well last night, you
still need to get to the gym.
It doesn't care if you have aargument with your significant
other, you still have to do yourjob Right.
You still have.
Like every single one of us themost mega successful people in
the world, down to the biggestlosers on the planet, we all
(33:25):
have shit happening in our lives.
Yeah, that that are that arejust not fun.
They're inconvenient.
We don't want to do whatever.
And I always talk abouteverybody says win the day, and
I get that, but I'm like, well,how do you win the day?
You got to win the momentsthroughout the day, right.
And there's, there was a yearsago.
(33:46):
There was like some brain study.
All these smart people puttogether this study that was all
about there's the average.
This?
This blew my mind.
The average person hassomething like 10 or 15,000
decisions a day they make.
Oh my goodness, 95% of them, ormore, are insignificant.
(34:08):
Like you, made the choice topick your nose right.
That's a choice, you, you, youchanged lanes when you're
driving you made a decision tochange, like those are
insignificant, but like, when itcomes down to like significant
decisions for your career, yourbusiness.
There's around 60.
Okay, but they, they say so ifyou just take that 60, so for me
(34:34):
, um, create content, contenttoday or don't create content
today.
That's a decision.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Role play, don't role
play.
Eat the donut, eat the apple,work out, don't work out.
Whatever they are, we all havethese things.
So say you got 60.
If you want to win the day inyour building, your empire,
(35:05):
wouldn't it make sense thatyou're going like 58 and two?
yeah, exactly, exactly like 10,and 50, right, right, and that's
I mean.
When you said it's aboutdiscipline and habits.
That's what made me think ofthat.
Because, yeah, that's all it isyou guys like, because every
time you know, I see ed, mylet's book, behind you there.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
I know Ed and spent
time with him.
He's a great dude.
I love him and Ed is.
I just lost my train of thought.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
This happens to me
all the time, man, I saw you
meet him, it was like in Vegas,like about a year ago.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah, we hung out in
Vegas, we hung out in Florida a
few years ago One of the nicestguys, but anyway, ed, oh yeah,
ed talks about.
People are like how do Idevelop, how do I grow my
confidence?
You grow your confidence byhonoring the commitments that
you make to yourself first.
So if you say you're going toget up at 5.30, then that means
(36:08):
you don't hit the snooze, youget up.
That's why I don't say whattime I'm going to get in the
barn.
I get up when I want to get upAnyway, which is usually between
6.30 and 7.
But anyway, we usually don'tset an alarm.
So you know why, brian?
Because I have a team and Idon't have to be anywhere right
away.
So that's some leverage stuffright there, baby.
(36:29):
But, guys, if you want to buildyour confidence in whatever it
is you're doing, honor thecommitments on, you know, choose
the right thing in the moment.
I call it winning the momentsand we have, you know, 60 to
whatever moments.
A day of significance.
That if you, if you have awinning record each day with
those moments, like and it couldbe as simple as you have an
employee that's underperformingand you think to yourself, I
(36:51):
need to talk to him.
And then you have that othervoice in your mind go.
I don't know if I have time orI'm going to ride it out a
little longer and see how he'sdoing.
You know, I mean I've done this, we've all done this Right.
But if you're going to win themoment, when you think of it,
you go hey, ryan, you got aminute.
Now it doesn't mean you're likeyou're jumping in their face,
(37:13):
like when I have somebody that'sunderperforming because I'm
from the Marine Corps, dude,it's like we know how to get in
people's faces and I had to calmdown for a while after I got
out of the Corps and then Ibecame a better leader for my
company after I calmed down fromthe Marine Corps way of things.
But anyway, one of the phrasesthat I learned to use with
underperforming people usuallyand it's usually people that are
(37:36):
like kicking ass and thenthey're not right, I'll pull you
aside privately and I'll justgo.
I'll pull you aside privatelyand I'll just go.
Hey, you, okay.
And they usually go.
What do you mean?
And I go.
Well, you know, the last coupleof days, you know I was looking
(38:01):
at the call log here and thesits that were set up and the
appointments that are set orwhatever it is Right.
And, uh, last couple of daysand this is key, guys, you got
to jump on this shit early.
You can't wait two months,right?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but like,cause, you decided two months
ago not to win that moment, bythe way, so I'll be like you
don't seem yourself the lastcouple of days.
What's going on?
That's?
(38:21):
That's one of my word tracksthat I use when I want to
address something with somebodywho's underperforming.
You know, so we've got.
If you want to win the day, yougotta, you gotta win the
decisions and those momentsthroughout the day, and when you
do that, you're going to movecloser to that version of
yourself that you want to be.
It's that simple and that'salso how your confidence grows.
And that's why, ryan, I used tothink so funny, so many, so
(38:45):
much stuff's coming out rightnow.
I'm sorry, that's great.
I remember when I was a totalloser, had no money, I was a
shit show man and I used to lookat guys that were mega
successful.
We just talked about Ed Milet.
(39:06):
I'd look at a guy like an EdMilet, right, I'd look at a guy
like an Ed Milet and I used tothink things like God, he's
cocky or arrogant, or oh, thattypical wealthy person, right,
typical person making money.
You, they, they probablystepped on somebody's back to
get it.
And I tell myself all thesestories what I've learned?
(39:31):
And I know you know this, causeyou're, you're like I said,
you're a baller man.
That's why we get along.
It's, it's a confidence that isso rare.
You think it's arrogance,because you know deep down the
price you have paid for yoursuccess.
(39:52):
Oh yeah, I think it was JimRohn who said don't seek to make
a million bucks for the sake ofthe million bucks.
Seek to make a million becauseof who you have to become to
make the million Right.
Seek to make a million becauseof who you have to become to
make the million Right.
And so every level that we have, you guys, in our life, our
(40:12):
business, our relationships, ifI'm here and I want to get to
here, I actually have to put todeath the previous version of
myself, push it aside and becomesomeone else.
And that's the stack.
And that's why we're hittingthis confidence thing.
So many business owners andsalespeople and entrepreneurs
they lack confidence.
Well, they lack confidencebecause they're not consistently
(40:32):
paying the price of honoringthose commitments to themselves
and controlling the shit theyhave control over.
I promise you, when you do that, two huge things are going to
happen.
Number one you're going to beinvincible.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Walk in the room with an airabout you that nobody has.
And the second thing is you'remake a lot more money because
98% of the people that you arecompeting against even if it's
(40:55):
other salespeople in your ownoffice that you're competing
against, whatever it is they'renot showing up that way.
They're just not.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
So and the thing that
I get is like, like, don't
compare your insides to somebodyelse's outsides, because
everybody's a shit show.
They just don't show it as muchas you think they do.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Well, dude I'll tell
you, I made that mistake
probably about eight or nineyears ago yeah there was a guy
that approached me um, detailsaren't important, but he wanted
to be a part of what I'm doingWith the contractor fight.
He had another company and weserved the same people and he's
(41:35):
like can we work out someaffiliate deal or whatever?
To my fault and detriment, Ikind of blew him off.
Fault and detriment.
I kind of blew him off becausehe wasn't where I thought he
needed to be for me to do somesort of partnership with him.
So I was looking at theoutsides.
(41:57):
Yeah, yeah, I was looking at the.
This is the stupid excuse.
It wasn't really this bad, butlike it'd be.
Like, oh, he's only got ahundred Instagram followers or
or whatever, and he's such a newbusiness and this and that.
Had I taken the time to get tounderstand them and know them a
little bit and not make thatjudgment and really really dug
(42:17):
deep, it would have been a greatpartnership.
And I blew it because I made ajudgment based on the outside
man.
So and I thank God peopledidn't make judgments on me
based on my outside because Imean, yeah, I made millions, I
lost it all and went bankruptand all this other stuff, and I
remember trying to grind andscrape back to the top.
(42:40):
Yeah, and I mean, I did a $500speaking gig.
I had to drive six hours oneway, so it was 12 hours round
trip speak for an hour, and Ihad to pay for my own hotel that
night, oh my goodness, I madeno money Right.
Nothing I lost.
It was negative for me.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
And but nobody knew
what was going the fire I had
inside, yeah, and so I'm gladyou brought that up because it
reminded me like we got to becareful on making assumptions
about people and this and thatthat's why you know what that
taught me is be slow to developan opinion about somebody before
(43:23):
you get to know them and seehow they show up and their
discipline and their habits andconsistency and those things.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
So man, I could talk
to you for days and days, man,
every time we get together it'slike, it's like the we haven't
skipped a beat.
You know.
You know what I'm saying and Ijust absolutely love talking to
you, man, but I I know your timeis very valuable.
I I really appreciate youcoming on, man, and uh, um, if
(43:52):
there, if people are interestedin the contractor fight or
simplify painting, how can theyget a hold of you, man, like,
you know, like, and then youknow what, what else you got
going on?
Speaker 2 (44:02):
yeah, you know,
contractor fight.
It ain't anywhere online.
Just type in the ContractorFight and you'll find us
Simplify Painting.
It's Simplify with a Y Painting.
In Colorado Springs we'remainly residential and light
commercial property managers,designers, remodelers, stuff
like that that we work withhomeowners, whatever.
We have a lot going on, man,I'm in the season now of just
(44:26):
training up my team.
We're building our sales,adding to our sales team in the
contractor fight, so I'm full on, like literally you guys,
developing teams.
That's how I'm spending my timeand I'm personally interviewing
people and once they get pastme, then they go to my team and
that's where they usually getshot down, cause I like
(44:47):
everybody and you fall in lovewith everybody first right.
But you know, like I saidearlier, you know the book came
out a couple of weeks ago.
It hit bestseller within acouple of days, which was
awesome.
But yeah, regardless of your,of your industry, I think
(45:08):
there's some good stuff in here,concepts that are universal for
people, and you can grab it onAmazon, and I think in a few
months we'll have an audioversion coming out.
We haven't recorded it yet andand that that's that's on the on
that implementation list, fewnotches down right now, but that
(45:29):
implementation list a fewnotches down right now, but I
love it, man.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Uh, I, I'm halfway
through it myself.
I laugh in in pieces of thatbook because I know you as a, as
a friend, I know I know yourfamily, and it cracks me up, man
.
So, uh, did you get to the partabout Albert yet?
Not, not yet.
But uh, I'm going to have tocheck that I'm, I'm, I'm working
on that one man, but every timeI can actually hear your voice
when I'm reading that book.
So I love it, man.
(45:52):
So thanks again for coming onScaling Up Success, my friend,
it's always a pleasure and bestof luck with everything you got
going on.
You know you got a fan in me.
My friend Appreciate you man.
Awesome, all right, once again,that's Ryan Van Arm Scaling Up
Success podcast, powered bySynergist.
Thank you so much for tuning in, guys, take care.