Shifting from Tradesman to Business Owner | Jason Liers with Stone Ridge Remodeling

Meet Jason Liers, owner of Stone Ridge Remodeling, Inc. based in Cleveland, Tennessee. From growing up in a family of builders to navigating the highs and lows of running his own remodeling business, Jason shares his journey of resilience, reinvention, and the lessons learned along the way. He dives into the challenges of transitioning from tradesman to business owner, the power of mentorship, and how he rebuilt his company with a clear vision and strong processes. Jason’s story is packed with valuable insights on perseverance, branding, and building a business the right way.

 

 

Here are some of the key takeaways from our discussion with Jason:

• Building a strong reputation drives business
• Essential systems for scaling
• Having the right mindset and perseverance

 

Learn more about Stone Ridge Remodeling here: https://stoneridgeremodeling.com/

 

Own a construction company and want to share your story? Apply to be on an upcoming episode of Builder Stories at https://www.builderstories.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to the podcast where wetake a deep dive into the stories
behind construction business leaders.
We will share how they got started,how they found success and the
lessons learned along the way.
I'm your host, Eric Fortenberry.
Welcome to Builder Stories.
How's it going everybody?
I am here today with Jason Lierz.

(00:21):
Who is the owner of stone Ridge remodelinglocated in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Really excited to have you on thestory or on the podcast today, Jason,
welcome to builder stories, man.
Thanks for having me, man.
Awesome.
So why don't you give us a,give us a little background.
I mean, you know, who are you?
How'd you get intoconstruction remodeling?
You know, what, what, what ledyou to start up your business?

(00:43):
I got it.
So,
uh, I'm pretty much a lifer.
Um.
I grew up in a, in a construction house.
My dad was a framer.
My grandpa on my mom's side was ageneral contractor, um, married into it.
My in laws are all contractors.
Um, so, you know, itwas kind of a natural.

(01:03):
Uh, you know, progression, I wouldstarted going to work with dad when
I was probably 13, 14 years old,just carrying lumber and whatnot
for whatever crew he was working on.
And then up through high school, Ikind of followed him when I was home
in the summers, you know, wherever mysummer job was, was working, whatever
crew he was on, basically, um, wentto college and actually was computer

(01:28):
science major, believe it or not, thatdidn't go very far, um, cause I was.
Cutting class to go build stuff, um,you know, and I finally, after three
semesters of college, realized, youknow, I'm, I'm paying for college
and I'm, I'm cutting class to gobuild stuff so I can pay for college.
It just doesn't really make sense.
Right.
So we started our first, um,and I've always done remodeling.

(01:52):
I never really.
Never really got into thenew construction side.
You know, I worked a lot with dadon the new construction stuff, just
never was super passionate about it.
But I had another friend whose dad was aremodel contractor, um, which I actually
ended up working for him for a little overa year, I think, um, before I got married.

(02:12):
And just doing all the different things,learning all the different trades.
Cause we were working for him.
We were pretty much a hundredpercent in house remodel.
Um, so we got to do everything.
Uh, so, you know, I just kindof fell in love with that.
Started my first remodel company, J& JHome Improvements, uh, in my twenties.
I think I was 21 when we started that one.

(02:33):
Um, had that until 2008 went throughthat whole fiasco and didn't make it.
Um, so we kind of.
Went a different route.
I actually got my CDL, drove truckfor a while, um, which actually
turned into a pretty cool opportunity.
I worked for ABC Supply, um, startedthere as a driver and ended up as the,

(02:56):
uh, driver manager before I left there.
Um, worked there for almost eightyears, um, and then decided I was
just tired of kind of being in thecorporate scene, uh, and ready to
get back into, into construction.
So 2019.
I quit ABC, went back, um,started a handyman business.

(03:18):
It was just me.
Some tools, a little Ford Ranger,just doing what I could do.
You know, I've always been a handson, um, more of the tradesman
side of the contractor versus,you know, the business owner that
subs everything out kind of thing.
Um, so we started like that, you know, ofcourse, then we had the, the epidemic hit,

(03:42):
which kind of made things interesting.
I was trying to start a company,but through all that, I had a bunch
of customers that were customers.
You know, back in the J and Jhome improvement days, find out
that I was back, back in business.
Um, so the phone startedringing for bigger projects, you
know, can you build me a deck?
Can you remodel this room?
Can you do this thing?

(04:03):
The other thing.
Um, I've always been prettywell known for my tile work.
So once that kind of startedgetting out, I got super swamped.
Um, and I finally realized, you know,the handyman thing, chasing all the
small tickets and all that just.
Wasn't really what I wanted to do.
'cause I spent way too much time justtrying to chase leads and all the things

(04:29):
other than actually building projects.
Right.
So in 23 I found you guysin 22 I think it was.
Um, 'cause we were still handyman herowhen I first signed up for Job Tread.
Um, and then we made thatrebrand in 23 to Stone Ridge and
specialized in bathroom remodels,uh, custom tile work and bathrooms.

(04:53):
Is our bread and butter.
And now we're, we're diving intokitchens and, um, you know, some
other types of projects as well.
Uh, just started hiring a team,got a great lead carpenter.
We just brought on a couple of weeksago, so I'm super excited about that.
Um, and now I'm kind of working my wayoff the tools into more of the owner.

(05:16):
Owner role and trying toget this built into a really
reputable, uh, remodeling company.
So that's kind of the backstoryof how we got where we are.
Yeah, that's, man, that's awesome.
I mean, uh, you know, growingup in, uh, in the trade
sounded like you had no choice.
You were going to be a contractor throughand through no matter what you do.

(05:37):
I've tried to get out of ita few times and I always.
Either end up in a job that hassomething to do with construction
or I end up right back here.
Well, that's a tension.
I didn't know that you worked at a ABCsupply where we're actually about to
start working on an integration with them.
So, uh, I make
super excited.
I don't do a lot of business.
I don't do a lot of exterior stuff.

(05:57):
I still, I mean, ABC is, is always goingto be a major, major part of my life.
They're a, they're a great company.
Um, and.
As soon as y'all get hooked up withthem, that's just going to be amazing.
Awesome, man.
Well, you know, I'm, I'm curious that,you know, obviously, you know, you've,
you've, you've had a couple of businesses.
I mean, you know, the first one,you know, J and J like, you know,

(06:19):
didn't make it through 2008.
I mean, what, what would you say?
Like, what were yourbiggest takeaways from that?
I mean, that, that must've been likejust such a tough, you know, thing
to go through to have, have spentthat many years and, and, and, and
building this business and then havingto, having to shut it down, you know.
Just out of your control, you know,just the market crash and everything.
I mean, like what, when you thinkback on that experience, like what,

(06:41):
what were your biggest lessons?
So,
so back then, you know, 2005,six ish, like at that point in
the market, you didn't have toreally know how to estimate.
You didn't, like, you couldthrow stupid numbers out there
that didn't make any sense.
People were going to hire you.
Like, I had a backlog through the roof.

(07:01):
People didn't care what it cost.
They're like, just come do it.
I mean the whole, whole environmentwas a lot different back then and I
didn't have any business since like Iwas just a 20 year old kid that knew
how to build stuff and I had three ofmy buddies working for me at that point
and so we just went and built stuffand, you know, we made decent money.

(07:22):
Um, but what ultimatelyreally got me there is.
I got in way too much debt.
Um, I was running everything on payments.
Yeah.
I had payments on all my cars.
We had credit cards that were prettymuch maxed out, you know, every month
we'd max them out and we'd pay them off.
Then we max them out, you know,go through that whole cycle.

(07:45):
So when the whole recession hit, I mean,I can remember just like it was yesterday.
It was like 2007 or beginningof 2008 when it really started.
I had a six month backlog.
And so I wasn't really worriedand we had just actually, I
had just bought a new truck.
I had, um, I was basically rampingup to run a whole nother crew.

(08:07):
Um, so I was kind of in expansion mode ina way and then the bottom just fell out.
And I had to let everybody go but one guy.
We scaled back and then thecustomers just started calling
and cancelling by, Hey, we can't.
Can't do it.
Can't do it.
And, you know, back then Iwasn't signing contracts.
We were like, everything was a handshake.

(08:28):
I wasn't collecting deposits, likenone of the stuff that I do now, you
know, that most companies do, youknow, and I didn't know any better.
Nobody taught me this stuff.
So, you know, when that, whenthe bills started piling up
and then the work just kind of.
It literally disappeared, like Ilost a whole six month backlog in

(08:49):
probably a matter of two weeks.
Oh.
Um, and I, I just remember sittingthere and telling Jennifer, I was
like, I'm gonna have to go get a job.
Like, I think we've officially, I can'tsustain this anymore cause I just got
myself into a position where the workwasn't there and the bills were, you

(09:10):
know, so, um, you know, one of the biggestlessons that I, I've brought into this
business is trying to stay debt free.
Um, you know, we've, we don't have any.
Any car payments, you know, other than acredit card, just so we have, you know,
some cashflow, um, options there, butwe, you know, we don't carry a balance,

(09:33):
stuff like that any more than we have to.
So, you know, that was big takeaway.
Um, and you know, I know there'sdifferent schools of thought on
debt and leverage and all that.
Um, I got absolutely buriedin it the first time around.
So I'm super careful with that.
Um, you know, and the second thing is.

(09:56):
You know, going out and meeting peoplethat are further down the road than
you are, that can offer, uh, youknow, good counsel, good coaching
and making sure it's people that haveactually done the things they say.
Like I listened to a lot of people thatmeant well, hadn't actually gotten to

(10:19):
the place I wanted to go or the placethey were telling me I needed to go.
Right.
Which.
Obviously it was not very good advice,so, you know, that was probably
another, a good lesson learned, um,you know, without that experience, I
definitely wouldn't be where I am today.
Sure.
Um, and probably wouldn't make allthose mistakes right over again,

(10:40):
um, cause it's super easy to do.
Yeah, I mean, it was,it was interesting too.
I mean, it obviously probably felt likesecond nature to just go right back into
the handyman work and, and the smalltickets, but like, can you talk a little
bit more about like, you know, what wasthat transition to go from, you know, the,
the, the handyman, you know, small dealsup to, you know, the, the full remodel

(11:03):
and getting the, the larger size projects.
Cause, you know, again, we, we seea lot of people who, you know, they,
they come in, They're doing, you know,a bunch of jobs, a bunch of work.
And they're just, they feel like they'rejust, you know, they're grinding so
hard, but like, they're not, they'renot really moving the needle that much.
Like they're not, they're notputting, you know, money, you know,
in the pocket at the end of the dayand, and, and they're struggling.

(11:23):
So it sounds like you've kindof, you know, already gone
through that and worked through
that.
So I've, I learned real quickin the handyman business.
Like there's, there's definitelya model and there's definitely
a need for a handyman business.
It's a volume model, 100%.
Like, to be one guy with one truck tryingto do all the work yourself, like I

(11:44):
just, I could not see where there wasever going to be a six figure income.
Like I, I just couldn't put it together.
Like it was going to be a multipletruck, multiple, like, you know,
whereas now, you know, I need, well, forinstance, for this year, I only need.
Maybe 50 or 60 leads to get allthe jobs I need to make all the

(12:09):
revenue I need for the whole year.
Well, as a handyman, you needlike 50 or 60 leads a week.
And then hopefully you can close like10 or 20 of them because you need to
be doing three to four jobs a day,depending on what the tickets are.
Right.
Um, so I found out real quick.
That, that was going to be asuper hard way to make a living.

(12:30):
Um, and you have to be super efficient.
Like, you have to reallypare down your service area.
You know, there's just so muchto making that work, right?
And on a bigger job, you know, say,let's, let's say with, you know,
a 30, 000 bath remodel ticket.
You know, the way we price,we price fixed price.

(12:51):
So, you've got more.
You got more, um, what am I trying to say?
Fudge factor there.
Like if you miss the electrical, youmight make it up on the plumbing or,
you know, you got, you got a lot moreroom in there to make money, whereas on
a handyman job, you know, a 250 ticket,you better have that thing dialed in.

(13:14):
Cause one little thing, you don't haveone nut or bolt on your truck that you
need and you got to make an extra runto home Depot, you just lost all your
profit on the whole job, you know?
So that was ultimately, and the callsthat I was starting to get, like,
you know, I was getting more andmore calls for big tile jobs and, and
bathroom models and things, and I was.
I was basically doing, you know,that last year, which ultimately

(13:36):
is why we came to Job Tread.
I was using Jobber before, which Jobberwas amazing for the handyman stuff.
But once I started getting more into theseprojects and I needed a robust contract
and, uh, you know, budgeting tools and allthe things that you guys do really well,
um, I started realizing, Hey, not onlydo we need to switch our process and what

(13:58):
we're doing, we need to switch software.
We need to switch a lot of things.
Right.
Um, which ultimately is why,why we made that rebrand.
And then, you know, I, I did a reallygood job with Handyman Hero, actually.
You know, I, I'd show up in my1988 Ford Ranger, just me, right?
And everybody's like, man, wethought you were a franchise.
Like, big, big deal.
Like, I did a, I did apretty good job with that.

(14:19):
Um, but The kind of remodels thatI'm wanting to do, like the person
that's buying that 100, 000 bathroomis not hiring Handyman Hero to do it.
Let's just be honest, you know?
So that's kind of where,um, the rebrand came from.
And I was working with a coach,um, back then that was kind of

(14:40):
already leading me that direction.
He's like, man, you need to, uh, dosomething about this business name
to go where you're trying to go.
I'm like, yeah, I think I agree.
Um, so we sat down.
With my marketing guy that runs mywebsite and everything and we spent
about two hours looking for an availableURL and all the things and That's

(15:02):
kind of where Stone Ridge came from.
It's like, Hey, it's available.
Sounds good.
I can make a cool logo around it.
Let's do it.
So it kind of just cameout of thin air one day.
So, so, but like for this rebrandeffort, I mean, you know, I assume you
had to, you know, invest some, some,some money into making that happen.
I mean, what, what wasthat process look like?

(15:23):
I, I gotta believe, you know, you,you got a brand that you really liked.
I mean, obviously it didn't kind of gelwith where you wanted to go, but it's not
easy to have to think about starting, youknow, over and, and rebuilding the brand
and all of the assets and the designsand the imagery and the content, like
how did you, how did you navigate that?
I will never do it again.
Um, I mean, you know, from, fromyour experience, like Handyman

(15:49):
Hero is a sole proprietorship,
I just came up with it kind of the sameway we came up with Stone Ridge, right?
And so then to basically, you know, I callit a rebrand, but we started a whole new
company from scratch because we couldn'treally roll anything over other than
we kept the same phone number, right?
Um, and It was just one thing.

(16:11):
Like you say, it's onething after another.
Oh, now you got to do this.
Oh, now you got to do this.
Oh, this costs money,all this and this thing.
And I, I didn't know any of this stuff,man, and still finding stuff out, you
know, here we are, what are we, twoyears in and I'm still finding out stuff.
Um, you know, we just got, gotour GC license, um, last year.

(16:31):
Um, you know, so now we can do alittle bit bigger projects and whatnot.
And there was so much involvedin that, that I didn't know.
That's like, man, I've been doingthis for 20 years on and off.
And I, I feel like I don'tknow nothing about nothing.
As far as, you know, some of thebackend stuff, um, you know, I get
in the, for your GC license, at leastin Tennessee, you got to have audited

(16:54):
financial statement and that costslike eight grand to have done for you.
And it's like, why didn'tanybody tell me that stuff?
Right.
So it's, uh.
It is definitely not
for the faint
hearted.
So, so, like, I mean, I gottaassume you probably still have, you
know, or maybe you did for a while.
Like, I mean, you still got thephone calls for the smaller projects.

(17:18):
So how did you handle those?
I mean, did you, did youtry to go and upsell them?
Or look at a, you know, whatother opportunities there
might be to bundle that?
Or did you start handing thoseoff to, you know, to someone else?
Or, you know, what,what'd you do with those?
So at
first I actually ran quite a few of them.
Um, cause you know, as we're making thetransition, got to have revenue, right?
So whatever calls are comingin, that's what we're running.

(17:39):
Um, now the way I kind of handle it isif I get, cause every now and then, you
know, handyman hero is still out there onthe interwebs, if you find, you know, if
you search it hard enough, you'll find us.
Um, so I still get every now and thenI'll just turn, if it's, if I can
tell, it's just like a maintenance,like somebody wants me to come
clean their gut or something likethat, like I'll just turn it down

(18:01):
or if I know somebody that does it.
I'll give them a referral, but westill, for our regular customers.
So like, if you've done a remodelwith me, um, or done a big ticket
project or whatever, you're in ourdatabase as one of our customers.
I like working.
I do a lot of, of handyman typework for our existing customers.
In fact, I've got a customer right now.

(18:23):
I gotta go change a kitchenfaucet for, um, you know,
and that, that kind of stuff.
I almost look at it as.
Not necessarily revenue,but more marketing.
Like I'm staying in front of these people.
I'm giving them value.
Of course I'm charging them to do thesethings, but I'm not making, you know, a
killing off going to change the faucet.
Right.
Um, it's a great way for me to stayin front of them and they know,

(18:47):
Hey, this guy, I can trust him.
He's going to fix what I got.
Um, and I, I do, um, I guessconsulting, you would call it like.
Say I'm not even going to get thejob, but they trust me because
I've worked with them before.
They're like, Hey man, can you comegive us some guidance on what we should
do here, who we should call, you know,even in some of those jobs, like, Hey,

(19:07):
why don't we just knock it out for you?
I mean, it's not something wenormally do, but we can do it.
Um, so that's kind of how I handle that.
Um, just that kind of as.
As it comes in basis, you know, mostof that is kind of gone by the wayside.
Now, most, most of the leads we'regetting now are kitchens and bathrooms,
which is exactly where I want to be.

(19:28):
Um, so I don't, it's not as big an issue,but you know, from the regulars, we still
definitely get some maintenance work.
Sure.
So, so, you know, this, this, this newwebsite you put out there, I mean, is,
is that where you're getting the majorityof your leads or is it still kind of the
referrals or, you know, what's, what'sdriving top of the funnel for you today?

(19:51):
Um, yeah, we were probably, if Ihad to put a percent, it's probably
at least 95 percent word of mouth.
And I also throw Facebook in there.
Um, you know, the Facebook groups,um, you know, my, some of my, my trade
partners, my plumber electrician, someof these guys, they'll throw my name
out on some of these Facebook groups.

(20:12):
Um, of course I still.
I consider that all referral business.
I don't do any, anypaid advertising at all.
Um, we have, I can probably countin the last two years, maybe three
jobs that I know of for sure thatwere just random Google searches that
came in and they found us that way.
Um, But for the most part, it'seither they've heard, they've

(20:35):
either heard about us on a Facebookneighborhood group or they've heard
about it directly from somebody thatthey know that we've worked with.
I feel like a lot of people overlookthe, uh, the Facebook groups for sure.
I mean, that's, that's how we builtJob Tread in the early days too.
I just went and I joinedall these Facebook groups.
People start asking questionsand, you know, you just start

(20:55):
chiming in and answering.
And, you know, I mean, now at thispoint, it's like, you know, we got, you
know, so many users in all these groups.
And, you know, I assume once you get,you know, your clients in those local
groups and someone else is like, Hey,you know, I need to redo my, my, my
bathroom or my kitchen or whatever itis like, you know, your, your clients.
And we'll give you the referralsand, you know, it really is just
like kind of this network effect.

(21:16):
You know, I'm sure you've seen too, like,if you see the post first, you comment.
And then here come your clients,cause Facebook knows, Hey, let me show
all those other people that Jason'sconnected to, because, you know, we
think that they're gonna now engage.
And it just like, creates this like,you know, this, this, This awesome,
uh, you know, social effect for
you, right?
Well, like next, next door.
I've never once in mylife gotten on next door.

(21:37):
Don't have a profile like I getall kinds of clients once I get and
talk start talking to them They'relike, oh, yeah, we you were the
most recommended guy on next door.
That's awesome.
What the heck is this thing?
Right, you know probably set up a profileand I probably should you know, but I
figure whatever's working is working.
So yeah, don't,
if ain't broke, don't fix it.

(21:58):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, Hey, that's, uh,that's awesome though.
I mean, you know, it goes to showthem and you're, you're doing high
quality work and you're providinga great customer experience that
leads them to want to refer you andrecommend you and give you those.
You know, those, thosereferences and reviews.
So, I mean, you know, again,you, you, you pay it forward.
I mean, just the fact that you'll goout and take care of your existing

(22:18):
clients and, you know, change afaucet, you know, again, it's, you
call it, you know, marketing, you callit just, you know, it's a goodwill.
I mean, you're, you're outthere, you genuinely are helping
people when they need it and.
That, that stuff doesn't go unnoticed,you know, it might feel like a not great
use of your time, but like, you know,that client, you know, you sure know
when he's, he's ready for that biggerproject, he's going to be thinking about
you or when someone, one of his neighborsis asking, Hey man, we want to do this.

(22:41):
Like, who do you know thatmight be able to do that?
I mean, they're going to think aboutyou because you've been there for them
and you help them when they need it.
That's the key.
So, you know, I, I, I know you've,you've talked about, uh, You know,
the, the importance of, you know,some coaching that, that you've gotten
over the years and, and, and differentgroups that you've been part of, I mean,

(23:01):
maybe you can kind of shed a littlebit of light on like, you know, Oh,
you know, who have you worked with?
And like, what, what's the impactthat that's made on your business?
Like, did, did you focus on just, youknow, one, one specific, you know,
was it sales focused or operationsor, you know, building the team, like
kind of what, what's been the bigimpact and how has it helped you?
So I got a pretty goodjourney there as well.

(23:23):
Um, I started, man, this hasprobably been, well, it was
before my first daughter wasborn, so it's been 11 years ago.
My first kind of, um, run inwith coaching, I guess, is I
used to race mountain bikes.
So back when I was doingthat, I had a fitness coach.

(23:44):
I had a nutrition coach, you know, allthe things to try to help me win races.
Um, and I. I wasn't in theconstruction field at that point.
That was when I was working forABC, but then once I got into the
business world, it was kind of like,okay, I can see where, you know,
there's all these different coachesoffering all these different things.

(24:05):
Well, I am not a businessman.
And I need to be a businessman.
So how do I figure outhow to be a businessman?
I go get a coach.
Right.
Um, and that started with kind ofjust getting on Facebook groups.
I follow a bunch of people.
Um, Kyle hunt with remodeling onthe rise, been following him for
years, friends with a bunch of peoplein his group, Kyle's great guy.

(24:28):
Um, which ended up leading me.
I don't know if you'refamiliar with Bob Peterson.
He was actually the first coach thatI hired in the construction space and
worked with him for a little while.
Um, And got me, got me a ways, Bob's agreat guy, um, love him to death, but I

(24:48):
needed that aggressive accountability.
I love that term, right?
Um, and I found when I wasat Job Tread Connect last
year, so that'd been what, 24?
Yep.
Um, you know, Mike Claudio was a keynote.
And that dude just punched meright square between the eyes.

(25:12):
Like
it was, it was game changer.
It really was.
So I met, I met him and Sam at that event.
Um, I got a really cool story there.
And, uh, and I don't know how many peoplereally know, but I was at connect that
year and I thought we were going bankrupt.

(25:32):
Like literally, like I was only therebecause I'd already paid for it.
And I figured I might as wellgo, you know, like I didn't.
Didn't expect to be in businessanother month, honestly.
Wow.
Um, you know, and, and we've kind of beenthrough that journey, you know, you guys
have helped me through the whole, thewhole, the whole, uh, the journey, right.

(25:55):
You know, you and Michael, uh, both have,have been part of that journey, you know,
up before I found, you know, actual goodcoaching, but back to the coaching thing.
Right.
So I ended up signing upwith Winrate, um, there.
At Connect24.
Um, and just being in, in that group, likeI was looking at that whole event, you

(26:20):
know, cause Kyle was there, the contractorfight was there, the win rate was there.
Um, I don't remember whoelse was there that year, but
there was three or four great.
Coaching, uh, groups there that I wasfamiliar with that I'd been following,
but I just kind of was sittingback and stalking everybody, right?
Because I hadn't, I had no plansof really signing up for coaching.

(26:42):
Like I said, I thought Iwas going out of business.
And the last day of the event,I pulled Sam to the side.
We started talking and helet me know about an option.
They had the SBA, which is moreof a group coaching setting.
You know, they're known fortheir one on one coaching.
He's like, man, we just started thisgroup coaching thing for small businesses

(27:03):
like you think you'd be a perfect fit.
And I'm like, dude, I'm broke, man.
And he's like, man, it's 300 bucks.
I said, dude, I don't knowif I got 300 bucks, but if
the card clears, let's do it.
Like, I don't know.
So he, he swiped my card right thereon the spot and he went through and it
was, that was kind of a history, right?
So I worked with them for the betterpart of 24 in the SBA, which was amazing.

(27:29):
I mean, the amount of value you getin that group with, because you're,
you're rubbing shoulders with guys,you know, in my boat, sub, sub million.
All the way up to guysrunning 30 million companies.
So you're getting perspective thatyou just can't get unless you're
in an environment like that.

(27:51):
But what really hit me and the reasonI ended up going with Mike and Sam
before I got to actually know himwas anybody that's been around him
and spent any kind of time with him.
These guys just show up different, man.
They're, they're aggressively loving.
Like they are not afraid to slapyou around and tell you like it is.

(28:16):
And you just know, like,this is what I got to do.
Like there is no, there's,there's no gray area.
Like, and that for me,that's exactly what I needed.
Like I can see where a lot of peoplemay not like it, but I, I'm just one of
those guys, I need to be told like it is.
And if you got to drag me, justdrag me, but let's go, right?

(28:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
I've always, uh, I've alwaysreally appreciated that about Mike.
Uh, you know, it's, it's,he is a straight shooter.
He will just tell you how it is, youknow, what he believes you need to do.
Yeah.
And, you know, doesn't sugarcoatit, doesn't beat around the bush.
Like, Hey man, here's what I see.
Here's, here's what Ithink you need to do.

(29:01):
Take it or leave it, I don't care,but I'm going to tell you, you know,
this is what should probably happen.
And, you know, I just, I've alwaysappreciated that about him because
you know that he's, he's genuine.
He's, he's got no other objectivehere than like to genuinely help you.
And he knows though that like, youknow, what, what they've seen in that
group and, you know, again, I know alot of people have been part of it.

(29:22):
It, it, it's one thing to tellsomebody what they need to do.
But it's a whole nother thing to holdthem accountable and to be there and
to make sure that they get it done.
That's it.
And it's.
I'm sure the same with you.
I mean, like it's, it's not that like,you know, this is like revolutionary
stuff, but it's like, you know, when youneed that extra push, you know, I mean,
it's, it's, it can often be very lonelyas an entrepreneur and, and a solo, you

(29:46):
know, business owner, you know, likethere's no one else around you, you
know, you got to just, you know, lookinternally and like just being able to
be part of that group and have thoseothers, those like minded individuals
that are going through the same thing.
Same thing, you know, that, that'ssuch a great way to reinvigorate your
entire business and your own internaldrive and motivation, you know?

(30:08):
And so like, I've, I've loved that abouthim and, and the group that they built.
Yeah.
And when he tells you, he wants it foryou worse than you want it for yourself,
he is 100 percent telling the truth.
Like that guy and his whole team, they.
They do it themselves, number one.
They've, they've been there.
Like all the coaches obviously areway ahead of where I am currently.

(30:31):
And.
One thing they told me from theday I signed up is you've got
to commit to 90 to 120 days.
Like, what you're gonna do today isnot gonna pay off for 90 to 120 days.
And you just gotta trust us.
Like, do what we say, stick withit, trust us, and in 90 days you're

(30:53):
gonna be a whole different place.
And that has kind of beenthe, the, the focus, right?
Like, I know all the problems I have now.
Like, I couldn't even see,like, where I am now, I couldn't
have even seen a year ago.
If you would have told me whereI'm gonna be right now a year
ago, I told you you're crazy.

(31:14):
Both personal level business level, like,and that's, I think part of it too, is
you can't, you can't be a good businessowner if you're not a good person, right?
Like all this stuff is tied together,and I had to do a lot of internal work on

(31:35):
myself, you know, my health, my spiritualstuff, my marriage, you know, work with my
kids, like all this stuff directly affectsyour business, whether you know it or not.
Yeah.
Um, and so, Seeing how these guys, I meanthis, I'm in a group, you know, coaches
and clients that's probably 70 plusstrong and it's congruent and consistent.

(32:00):
Like the people that don't do thework don't stay in the group long.
Like that's just how it is.
And it's not that they necessarilyget kicked out, they just leave.
Cause this is one of those groupsyou're not gonna, you're just not
going to hang out with if you'renot doing the work because it
will be extremely uncomfortable.
Um, and, and for me, like, I have neverexperienced anything like this in my life.

(32:25):
Um, from,
secular church groups, like any,anything like I've never been a
part of anything like this period.
You know, I'm not trying to turn thisinto a plug for wind rate by any means.
But, um,

(32:45):
you know, wherever you're at, Isay all this to say wherever you're
at in life, business, whatever.
If you're stuck, you got to findsomebody that can help you get unstuck.
Like that's just the bottom line.
Like you don't know what you don't know.
And I figured out in my 40s,like I'm, I'm in my mid forties.
Like I've only got so much time left.
Right.
And I can't take 20years to figure this out.

(33:08):
Like, could I sure I could, I don'thave 20 years to figure this out.
I got to figure this out in likefive and to make that happen.
I got to have people thathave already been there that
can show me the fast track,
like
that's just the bottom line.
No, I'm, I'm, I'm a hugefan of Mike and his team.
And, you know, I mean, you know, again,it's, he's the type of person that.

(33:29):
If you reach out to him, youknow, you need help on something.
I mean, I think it waslike a couple of years ago.
I mean, I, you know, I was talking to him.
I was just like, man, youknow, I'm struggling to manage
my, my work life balance.
My wife is, you know,really frustrated with me.
I'm not home enough.
I'm not, you know, I'm not showingup, you know, as, as the husband
and the father that I want to.
And, you know, he, uh, he, he sharedwith me about how him and Tiffany, his
wife, they, you know, they have regular,you know, planning meetings as, as a

(33:52):
household and, and, and as a couple.
And he has a YouTube, uh, where,where he kind of first sort of And
if you hadn't seen it, I highlyrecommend you ask him for it.
But like, you know, and so my wifeand I, we, we went and we did that.
And the beginning of the year we laidout, Hey, what are our goals for the year?
What are our objectives as, as a couple?
And how can we make sure that we'remeeting each other's needs and that
we're there for each other and,and just blocking out time on the

(34:14):
calendar and working, you know, to,to together as, as, as a couple.
You know, again, I never would havethought in a million years that, you
know, a contracting coach was going tobe giving me personal, you know, marriage
life advice and like that, that's thetype of guy that he is, though, you
know, he understands it's, it's thewhole picture and, and I think, you
know, there, there, there's, there issomething to be said about, like, you

(34:35):
know, you can't just like grind 24 byseven, like you do need to prioritize your
health, your family, you know, everythingelse that goes into making you you.
Successful is, is, is kindof all interconnected here.
You know, if you just work, work, work,I mean, you're going to burn yourself
out and you got to take that time to gorecharge and find that healthy balance.
For sure.

(34:57):
I'm curious.
So.
You know, when, when you think backabout, you know, the, the, the last
couple of years and, and kind of,again, sort of re restarting, I mean,
what would you say has been the biggestchallenge for your business, you know,
has, has it been, you know, the, the,the sales side, the operations, the
production, you know, the, the finances,like where have you struggled the most?

(35:17):
The
biggest challenge for me isgetting out of the tradesman
mindset and into the owner mindset.
Yeah.
And I think there's a lotof people that go from.
Owner operator and try to make the shiftinto business struggle with the same thing
because we've been on the tools so long Weknow the trade so well, it's comfortable,

(35:39):
but our bodies are shutting down.
We can't physically do it Efficientlyand as fast and like we used to but
we don't have all the skills We needto be a great business owner either.
So we're caught in this gray areawhere You're good enough at all of
it to just make this huge mess, andthat's, that's kind of where I am.

(36:04):
Um, and there again, the importanceof coaching, like I got, I got guys
looking at this like, Okay, youneed to work on this, but not that.
You need to help, you know, do thisover here, do that, like, you know,
hiring this lead carpenter, man, I gotprobably the best carpenter I've ever had.
Um, but just, And I know he's capable,100 percent know he's capable.

(36:26):
Allowing myself to turn that overand being able to communicate like
what I'm finding out, like all thesedetails in my head, cause I'm used
to making the project come together.
Right.
But articulating how I dothat is extremely difficult.
Um, you know, to get that, I can showpeople all day long how to do stuff, but

(36:48):
I need to be out selling, estimating,doing bids, making, uh, you know,
relationships with other trade partners,you know, doing all those things so that
I can continue to build this company.
I can't be on a jobsite all day, every day.
I just can't do it.
Um, that has 100 percentbeen the hardest part.

(37:09):
Totally agree, man.
I, I think, you know, again, as, as, asan entrepreneur, you know, it's one of
the hardest things is like, you know,just delegating, you know, we, we just
naturally want to put on all the hatsbecause, you know, at the end of the day,
the buck stops with us and we know that,you know, we, if, if we focus on whatever
it is, like, we will get it right andwe'll get it done the best that we can.
And like, you know, you, you'llknow that you left, you know, just

(37:30):
everything out on the field, butlike, The reality is as, as you start
growing, it's like we can't do it all.
We don't physically have the time,you know, to, to be able to do
everything that needs to happento build a successful business.
And so like, that's where, you know, I,I think really the, the only way that I
have found to, to be able to learn to, todelegate, to, to build a great team around

(37:52):
you, you know, and find the right people.
It's, you know, if, if youput, you know, somebody, just
any, any warm body in the seat.
That, that's just going to create morework for yourself, you know, like if,
if you feel like, you know, they, they,they, they just don't have the skills or
the experience and now you're having togo clean up after them, you're, you're.
You're just creating an even biggermess, a whole bunch more work.
And then that leads you rightback to where you started.

(38:13):
I'll just do it all myself.
You know, the key is finding the rightpeople and bringing, you know, the,
the, those people into the businessthat you can trust and you can train
because, you know, again, somebodywith, with the right, you know,
desire, the, the right skills, theaptitude, like you can train them.
Now, you know, you got to take thetime to train them and you can't just

(38:35):
assume that they can read your mind.
Right.
You know, as much as we all wish,you know, somebody just could learn
through osmosis, like it doesn'tjust happen that way, right?
Like, you got to make a veryconcerted effort, but like,
it's like invest a little bit ingetting that person up to speed.
That's going to save you a ton of timein the long run and then let you go
and focus on what, you know, what,what's the most pressing issue and
the things that you need to be doing.

(38:58):
Exactly.
Would you, you know, I mean, so, so you'rejust kind of getting into your first hire.
Well, we've had, we've had multiple,this is, this is probably the
first hire in the right direction.
There you go.
You know, we've had, we've hadprobably three or four, um, you
know, since we, we started and in it.

(39:21):
Some of the failurethere was my own fault.
Just couldn't let go, couldn't,just couldn't get past my own.
I'm the only one that can do this, right?
Like, that, that's been a realmindset shift that I've had to make.
Like, there are peopleout there better than me.
Like, I got to find them.

(39:42):
And I got to be okay with people betterthan me and not be threatened by that.
Um, and, and that's a hard mindset shift,especially when you're Very capable at a
lot of things at a very high level, youknow, to find somebody else that can do
all those things at a very high level is.
Is tough.

(40:04):
I can take a long time.
I mean, I, you know, I tell people, Imean, you gotta, you know, just like
with your leads, you gotta treat, youknow, your applicants and the people that
you're trying to recruit like, you know,you gotta devote the time to trying to
find them, to trying to, you know, lurethem in, to win them over, to, you know,
make sure that, you know, that, that.
That they're the right person, but youknow, following up, even if they tell you

(40:24):
no today, you know, once you find thatright person, you know, check in with
them, build the relationship, keep tryingto lure them in because you never know
when, when, when you may be able to getthem or when their situation might change.
You know, it's, it's, it's a lot ofwork to build a great team of people.
And, uh, you know, I, I thinktoo, though, it really helps.
When you can sort of hone in on whatexactly are you looking for, you know,

(40:48):
what, what role and what were theresponsibilities be for that person?
You know, what do you need to doto be able to free up your time?
You know, who do youneed to replace yourself?
And I think once you've got that clarity,you know, then you got to put the job
post out there, you know, put it on yourwebsite, post it on Facebook, social,

(41:08):
do whatever to, to spread that, youknow, spread those seeds as, as wide
as you possibly can and, you know, askfor referrals, you know, people you
know, the family, you know, even yourclients, you never know who might know
someone, you know, and it just, it's,it's, it's a long process that, that, you
know, eventually You know, law of largenumbers says you'll find that person.
You know, you can't get discouraged.

(41:29):
You just got to put in the work.
And this go round, you know, I've, I'vebeen working on, you know, branding
pretty much ever since we started.
Um, And you know, the personalbrand part of it too, right?
Cause I've, I've managed to build ahalfway decent personal brand that
I've carried with me throughout theyears, whether I'm in construction or

(41:50):
at ABC or driving a truck or whateverI've done, like I've had customers that
have followed me all along my journeyand done business with me in whatever
capacity, because it's me and theyknow what service I'm going to provide.
Right.
So building that to where.
They trust Stone Ridgebecause I own it, right?

(42:15):
And now, like, when I put out this last,um, ad to hire, I had guys come and,
like, because they want to work for me.
And this kind of blew my mind, becauseI'm just like a one man show, but when
you, you know, when you go to my website,I look way bigger than I am, because I've

(42:36):
done a halfway decent job branding, right?
And so I'm having to, there again,develop this mindset, like I'm
building something bigger than myself.
And when I tell people, youknow, you don't work for me.
You work for Stone Ridge thesame way I work for Stone Ridge.
Like, we are buildingsomething way bigger than us.
That's the goal.

(42:59):
I don't know if I'm ever going to sellthis thing or what's going to happen,
but I'm trying to build it that way.
Uh, you know, who knows?
I might give it to my kids.
I mean, I don't know.
But I want it to be like Stone Ridgeis its own living, breathing thing,
separate from Jason, but it shares thesame core values that Jason shares so

(43:19):
people know, like, and trust it thesame way they know, like, and trust me.
Yeah.
And that has been kind of a A huge deal.
Like the guy that's working for me now, Iknow he's had other offers for potentially
bigger, better companies than me, right?

(43:39):
But he wants to work for mebecause he believes in my mission.
He believes in my values.
He saw what we build and it'sexactly what he wants to build.
All the things a hundred percent linedup and he's very good at what he does.
Um, you know, I don't think I couldhave come across somebody in better
alignment The values, the mission andeverything I got going on in this guy.

(44:03):
Yeah,
that's
awesome.
Yeah.
And, and it takes a great leaderthough, to, to define, you know,
what are your core values, youknow, who, who is the company?
What is the brand?
What do we want to represent?
How are we going to treat our clients?
You know, how, how are we goingto, you know, deliver exceptional
work time after time, you know?

(44:23):
And I, and I think, you know, you,you've clearly invested the time.
To define that and then tobe able to communicate that.
And, and, you know, again, I, Itell people all the time, like money
is not everything, you know, like,you know, probably the majority of
my team could immediately go outand get a much higher paying job.
But there's so much more than justmoney that's going to fulfill someone

(44:47):
and making sure that they're in theright role with the right opportunity
and that you're meeting theirpersonal needs, their career needs.
You know, the fact that you're willingto take the time to work with this person
and train them and share, you know, thedecades of experience that you have,
you know, that, that is a tremendousopportunity that you can't always
quantify the value of that, you know?

(45:10):
And so I think that's like where,you know, again, it's, You can't just
think about, hey, I'm going to pay you.
You know, you're going to do so muchmore for that person than just pay them.
And, in theory, they'll doso much more for you, too.
I mean, you get somebody that's, you know,like you said, money's not everything.
For me, money's probably number three onthe list, if I'm being totally honest.

(45:32):
You know, I have, I have kind of aa bucket list dream for this thing.
Like I would love for Stone Ridge toget to where my role in the company
is to operate a non profit side whereI go fix people's stuff for free.
Like people that can't affordus, their house is falling down,
and we just come in and fix it.

(45:53):
Because honestly, that's whatI'd love to do, you know?
That's awesome, man.
For me, I'd do it because I enjoy it.
I love to see the transformations.
I love fixing broken stuff.
Like, I come behind, you know, alot of our work, unfortunately,
is coming behind contractors thatjust did a botched job trying to

(46:14):
get in, get out, make a quick buck.
And, you know, we comein and fix it right.
And, you know, those are the, like,I do it as much for the accolades and
the attaboys as I do for the paycheck.
Sure.
And Like when I, when I finish ajob, if the customer's not happy

(46:34):
or there's something that justain't right, like at that point, I
almost don't even want their money.
It's like, let's, let'sget this figured out.
So you're happy.
Then you can pay me.
And it's, you can't run aprofitable business that way,
but that is just how I am.
Like if, if I can't make you happyand I can't get the job, right.

(46:54):
You shouldn't have to pay me.
That's, uh, you know, again,that's the, that's the heart, man.
That's the, uh, when you do buy, youdo write, you know, buy your clients.
I mean, buy your employees,you know, buy your subs.
Like when you treat others around you theway that you would want to be treated.
I mean, it, it doesn't go unnoticed.
You know, that, that's thereputation that you're creating.

(47:17):
That's the brand that that's who you are.
And, and, and that attracts people.
It attracts clients, it attracts, youknow, people who want to work for you
because they know that they can trust you.
They know that you've got their back andthat you're going to do right by them.
And, you know, again, especiallywith construction, like,
there is so much unknown.
You know, it's kind of crazy whenyou think about what a client

(47:37):
who has no idea what it takes torip out a kitchen and rebuild it.
It's, it's crazy, right?
To think about that level of trust thatthey really are making and, and, and,
and they have no idea, you have no ideawhat's under the, behind the wall, under
the floors, in the ceiling, like there,there could be just a total disaster

(47:57):
waiting to happen, but they're choosingthe person who they know is going to be
there and is going to be someone thatthey can trust to make sure that they
will, at the end of the day, end upWith a successful project that, that,
you know, was, was the whole reasonthey went into this in the first place.
And so, you know, I think there'sa lot to be said about, you know,
about that and about who you are andwhat you're doing with your brand.

(48:21):
I I'm curious too, though.
Like, I mean, I, I find ita little bit interesting.
Like, you know, again, so, so you had ahandyman business, you know, the notion
of systems and processes for you, likewhen, or how did you figure out that like
you needed to get something in place?
To help you scale.
I mean, how, how has thatlike come about for you?

(48:41):
I mean, you went from a, you know,truck driver to, to going back to being
a handyman to, you know, now buildinga remodeling business, like when did
you figure out the whole let's, let'suse some software and technology.
So I'm
still very much figuring that out,but the kind of eye opener was.
I was doing pretty much everything on ahandshake, you know, very loosely written

(49:05):
stuff, nothing really signed, nothing.
And, you know, one day, this is back whenI'm still self performing all the work
myself, and I'm doing like a 30 somethingthousand dollar bathroom project.
And I'm like, there's absolutelynothing in writing here.
Like, if this whole thing goessideways, I'm going broke.
Like, I was like, okay, we should probablyat least get some kind of a contract

(49:26):
in place, you know, and this is just.
There again, I didn't know any better.
I'm just at this point thinking, allright, I should probably do these things
just for my own protection or whatever.
Uh, you know, so that'skind of where we started.
Then, you know, got hooked up with y'all.
Um, we had messed around, like I said,with Jobber and a couple other softwares.
Um, but you, well, we did co constructbefore we signed up with JobThread and I

(49:52):
had such a miserable, honestly, after thatexperience, I was so done with software.
I went back with.
Basic spreadsheets, whichI'm not a spreadsheet person.
Anybody that knows me,I, I hate QuickBooks.
I hate spreadsheets.
I hate all those things.
Right.
And so when I did the demo with youguys and I could actually use it.

(50:14):
I mean, it was like, okay,customer for life, right?
And this was back, you know, 22 where, youknow, the budget tool was pretty robust,
but a lot of the other features were stillsuper basic compared to what we have now.
Now, um, but it was great.
It was great.
Like I could figure it out.
I can get ahold ofMichael if I needed help.
Like, you know, the, the customerservice you guys have always

(50:37):
had has always been amazing.
It, you know, if there's a problem,you fix it on the fly most of the
time, you know, And for me beinglike a software idiot, that was
great because I can mess stuff up.
I'll get in there, click a button.
I'll put something in a folder,have no clue where it went.
Can't find it ever again.

(50:58):
Kind of thing.
Right.
Um, so just the ease of use was hugefor me, but knowing, like, I still
am developing processes and I, I haveprocesses like in my brain, the way I
do things, just nothing's documented.
Um, but, but really kind of, once Isettled on you guys, I'm building my whole

(51:19):
company around job tread, like whatever.
The workflow in Job Tread is willbe whatever my system is, you know,
um, and it's kind of cool causeit's so customizable, you know, for
somebody like me, it's almost a badthing that it's so customizable.
Cause I don't reallyknow what to do with it.
It'd be, you know, it'd be great toset up all these cool things, but

(51:41):
I don't even know what I need to do
as the basic process.
Right.
So, you know, we're stillfiguring some of that out, but.
I'm confident that I havethe proper tool to use.
I just have to figure out how toutilize it the best for my own.
Because I, you know, in every business,and I know that's why you built
the software the way you built it.

(52:03):
Because every business is different.
Every business uses it different.
And I think it's pretty cool.
You got 5, 000 Customers that alluse it totally different, right?
For the most part, like, I don'tthink there's probably one of us that
uses every feature exactly the same.
I'd almost guarantee it.
You know, it's, uh, it's definitelysomething that, you know, I, I, I feel

(52:24):
like, you know, some, some people sort offind it early, some people find it later.
You know, at the end of the day, though,it, you know, it's important that, you
know, when, when you do embrace, youknow, software, whatever software it
may be, whatever technology you have,you know, you got to really figure
out like, where are my, you know,where are my most immediate needs?
Let me focus on learning that, gettingthat in place, you know, flushing out what

(52:47):
is the right process for me, and then youcan grow into the other aspects of it.
You know, as, as you're now looking tokind of keep building out that team, you
know, as you get more and more people onit, you know, you're not going to have
to, you know, stop and pull everythingfrom your head because you've, you've
already got some of these systems inplace and these processes and like, you
know, this, this lets you sort of getit out of your head and, and somewhere

(53:09):
where it can be, Hey, here's how we do it.
You know, it's not just how doesJason do it in his head, you know,
we, we, we can point to, and we canshow someone, we can train someone.
And so hopefully, you know, again, Ilove to love to keep, keep seeing you
build that team, you know, be able toeventually sort of step back and kind
of focus on the higher level picturesand, you know, have a team of people
that are able to run the business, youknow, with the processes that you set,

(53:33):
you know, that, that, that you set forth.
And keeping it all, like anotherreason we settled on DropTrez, we
can pretty much put everything there.
Like, I'm not a tech stack kind of person.
Like, I don't want to have 15different apps and softwares.
I gotta try to figure out what'swhere and who and how does this
sync with what and like, no.

(53:55):
Like, Google Drive, if I put somethingin Google Drive, I'll never see it again.
I gotta have Simple, easy, you know,I had Michael help me set up a Kanban
view for, uh, you know, my activeopportunities and we changed my process
slightly where now when I have an incominglead, we automatically set up a job.

(54:16):
So I got all these extra jobs in there,but it allowed me this view that now I can
see on one screen, everything I got goingon across new leads to completed projects.
And.
Just that one thing alone has been agame changer, you know, being able to

(54:38):
number one, figuring out the processyou actually need to develop and then
having, because I mean, let's be honestwhere I'm at, I could run this company
on a sheet of notebook paper, you know,I'm, I'm not that big of a company,
but if I build it The way I'm buildingit early, I won't have like, I talked

(55:00):
to so many people that run in five, 10million companies, and they're hesitant
to make a software switch because theonboarding is going to be a nightmare.
Well, if you build it that way to startwith, you don't have to worry about that.
It's kind of, it's kind of my.
My thought process and you know,the price tag y'all have on it.
It's so affordable.
I can't see why you wouldn't, especially,I mean, what is it for two users?

(55:24):
A couple of hundred bucks a month.
I don't even know what I pay.
It was something like that.
219 bucks.
Something.
Yeah.
You know, and I don't know if you rememberthis, but back in the handyman hero days,
you know, I, I made that post on Facebook.
You and Michael caught it.
I get a call like, what CEO of whatsoftware company is gonna call you

(55:44):
because he saw a post on your personalFacebook page that you're having a hard
time and be like, hey, dude, I got you.
Like, I'm gonna give you creditfor a couple of months and we're
gonna get you through this.
Like, who does that, man?
You know, and so like, I've, I've,I've told it to you, you know, I'm a
customer, customer for life of you guys.

(56:05):
You've, you've been therefor me when nobody else was.
You believe in me when nobody else did.
And you know, because of some of thethings you've done, I've been able
to connect with other people thathave stepped into that role that
have helped move me up the chain.
Like, I can't, I can't takecredit for any of this.
Like I can put it, I mean, obviouslyI did the work, but I had all of

(56:26):
these other people, you included that.
That gave me the knowledge, the knowhow, and the support to get there.
Oh man, uh, uh, uh, you dohave to take credit for it.
I mean, it's, you know, again, youcan have the best tool in the world,
but if you don't use it, you don't doanything with it, you can have all the,
the, the textbooks, and the knowledge,and the coaching, and everything,
but if you don't implement, if youdon't take action It's all worthless.

(56:49):
That's true.
So it is you man, you know,you have built the business.
You're continuing to build it You'remaking the right moves, you know, and and
it's it's exciting, you know It's it'sso awesome to hear your story and to see
how you're not gonna let anything, youknow Tear you down like you just keep
overcoming Adversity obstacles challengesone after another and that's what it takes

(57:10):
to be a resilient Resilient successfulentrepreneur you're doing it man.
Yeah, and I
hope others have heard your storyAnd, and, you know, again, I'm sure
there's a ton of people in that sameposition as you, or earlier on that
will hopefully, you know, gain someof the knowledge and the insight that
you've shared here and, and, and nowhave a little bit more confidence in
themselves that they can do it too.

(57:33):
And that's what this is all about.
I mean, this year at Connect,uh, you know, one of, one of the
guys I met last year at Connect.
As we were leaving the conference, hesaid, man, you know, when I met you last
year, you were big Burley contractor.
Like I could tell you built stuff.
He said this year you showed up, youlook like a business owner this year.
He's like, you know, year, you know,from year to year, it's like, you're

(57:55):
just showing up totally different.
Um, and it's good to hear that stuff.
Cause you know, on some level mentally,like I want to be the big Burley
contractor that can build anything.
Right.
And I'm still that guy.
I've grown and I've developed and I'vegot this other side now that I'm stepping

(58:15):
into that I didn't have a year ago.
And it's kind of cool to, to,to notice other people noticing
that because I don't, I seemyself in the mirror every day.
I don't pick up on all thatstuff all the time, right?
People that only get to seeme once or twice a year.
You know, they, they can seethe huge transformation that
I don't necessarily see.

(58:36):
Yeah, sure thing, man.
That's, that's awesome.
Well, look, as we wrap up here, I'm,I'm, I'm curious if you have any, any
final advice that, that you might wantto share with others who, you know,
are, are somewhere on their journeyearlier on, just getting started,
struggling, going through thosehardships that you've gone through.
What, you know, what, what, what doyou wish you would have known, you
know, back when you were startingthat, that you now know today?

(58:58):
Number one, find, find somebodyyou can rub shoulders with
that's ahead of you in the game.
Like, find somebody that is where you wantto go, has done it, has proven success,
and get in the room with that person.
Number two, don't quit.
Ever.
I don't care how bad it sucks, I don'tcare how bankrupt you are, if you want

(59:22):
to go down this road, just don't quit.
Like, the only people that losethis game are the ones that stop.
And I've proven that self,that time and time again.
I've, I've Lost businesses and I'vegone back and all these things.
It's just because I quit.
I, when I came back out here,quit ABC, I burned the ships.
Like, I am NOT goingback to another W 2 job.

(59:45):
I'm just not doing it.
So, with that in my head, Ihave no option but to succeed.
Whatever that looks like, and it's beena crazy road, and I still ain't nowhere
near where I want to be, but every morningI get up, No matter how bad it sucks.
And trust me, there'sbeen days I want to quit.
I've been pushing through thisnasty, sick, whatever it is.

(01:00:07):
Going to work with fevers andall kinds of craziness because
it just has to get done, right?
Nobody's going to do it for me.
I can't lay in bed and whine about it.
So, you know, that'd bemy two biggest things.
Get help and don't quit.
I love it, man.
That's, uh.
That's, that's the exact advice thatI think people need to, need to hear,
you know, and, uh, you know, I've, I'vereally appreciated the opportunity to,

(01:00:28):
to get to know you over the years, to,to see you go through, you know, your
ups and your downs and, you know, again,you're, you're still here fighting,
you know, stronger than ever, youknow, it's, it's just exciting, man.
It motivates me, motivates my teamto see you be able to accomplish
your goals and to continue growing.
So I just, you know, again, Ithank you for being a great.
role model and inspirationto others out there.

(01:00:49):
You know, I know, you know, again, as,as, as the leader, you don't always
hear these things, but believe me, it,it, your, your, your effort, you're
wearing your heart on your sleeve, it.
It doesn't go unnoticed man.
We appreciate you and I wishyou all the best of luck.
I can't wait to keep seeingwhere you take this business in
the next year, several years.
Like I think you're gonna buildsomething that's very successful.
You're making all the right moves.

(01:01:09):
You got all the right peoplearound you and it's exciting man.
I can't wait to see wherewhere the future goes with you.
I appreciate that man.
I'm glad I got you on the team.
Awesome, man.
It's good.
Good.
Good.
Good episode.
Appreciate you coming on.
Yeah, man.
See you Jason.
Thanks for joining us for thisepisode of Builder Stories.
We hope you enjoyed the conversationand gained valuable insights that can

(01:01:31):
help you in your journey along the way.
Don't forget to subscribe tothe show and leave us a review.
And as always, if you or someone youknow has a story to share, please
contact us at BuildersStories.
com.
We'd love to hear from you.
I'm Eric Fortenberry, and remember,every builder has a unique story.
Keep building yours.