March 26, 2025 • 35 mins
Ty discusses the importance of legacy, leadership clarity, and leaving a positive impact on those around us. He shares personal stories that shaped his journey from a young carpenter with a ponytail to the leader of a thriving construction company.
• Using clear communication to empower team members rather than just telling them to "figure it out"
• The story of Pat, the mentor who changed Ty's life by teaching him everything about siding and roofing
• Creating an organizational chart that prevents people from being overlooked while clearly defining departments
• Building a "trust bank" with your team through consistent positive interactions
• The challenge of weathering difficult business seasons without sacrificing team members
• Balancing giving enough guidance without micromanaging to foster growth
• The importance of surrounding yourself with people smarter than you
• Having clear goals while avoiding "one foot in yesterday, one foot in tomorrow" thinking
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Behind the Tool Belt, where the stories
are bold, the conversations arereal and the insights come to
you live, raw and uncut.
Every week, host Ty Cobb-Backersits down with game changers,
trailblazers and industryleaders who aren't afraid to
tell it like it is no filters,no scripts, just the truth.
(00:22):
Please welcome your host ofBehind the Tool Belt, ty
Cobb-Backer.
Ty Cobb Backer (00:27):
Hey, hey, hey, we're live.
Welcome back to everybody toepisode 274 of Behind the Tool
Belt.
I am your host, ty Cobb-Backer.
Thank you for joining us onthis fantastically flipping
Wednesday Sun's back out.
I believe that we ended upactually getting some hail
earlier today, so that's goodfor us.
(00:49):
Up here in the great state ofPennsylvania and, like I had
mentioned last week, vic and Iplan on doing some things a
little bit differently and Vicis in the background as usual,
and today we actually hadplanned on going live from my
truck.
Again, we ran into sometechnical difficulties.
We completely changed thingsaround from the way that we were
(01:12):
going to do them, or the waythat we did them last week,
because I didn't really like theway that it was going through
GoPro.
Gopro had its own interfacethat we could stream through
Facebook and it was just kind ofdifficult to see and read
people's comments.
And then, of course, I couldn'tfigure out how to freaking end
the live without actuallyhitting the off button on the
(01:35):
GoPro.
So, anyhow, we kind of cameback to the drawing board here a
little bit, because we had ourYOLO box that we haven't broke
out and it had some updates thatneeded done on that which, if
you're not familiar with YoloBox, it is your all-in-one
streaming.
You know, audio video monitor.
(01:55):
It's basically a small computerthat picks up on a network.
You can actually add a SIM cardto it and pick up.
You know, if you have AT&T orVerizon or whatever.
So we were going to attempt topull that off from my truck
because we have built-in Wi-Fiin the vehicle and, of course,
power and all that good stuffthere.
But something wasn't workingright so we thought screw it.
(02:19):
So we kind of came back andwe're back in the office here
real quick Thought I'd get backon here because this show must
go on.
You know how dedicated we are,but be prepared for some changes
coming up, as you know and asyou can see and as you're
experiencing here with us thatwe're changing things up.
We want to get back to some ofthe bootstrap grassroots of you
(02:39):
know plug in, you know TC Backerand of course, of course, some
of our sponsors.
Before I forget them, I wantedto do a big shout out to
Roofhole Lead Scout Hook Agency.
If you want to know more aboutthem, put a comment in the
comment section and we will hookyou up with their websites and
get you pointed in the rightdirection there.
But again, thank you all forjoining us live today and and
(03:03):
we're you're going to see a lotmore of this of me, you know,
doing more Q and a.
So if you guys have anyquestions about life, about
business, about personaldevelopment, professional
development, anything like that,please put them in the comments
and I will answer them to thebest of my ability while we're
here live.
But then I can also go back inthe comment section there and
(03:24):
maybe put a more elaborateanswer in there for you guys to
be able to answer your questions.
But we got some great guests onthe horizon.
We are going to continue tokeep bringing people in.
Brad Akers from Brad buildsbuilds businesses, I think, and
I think he's got a couple otherplatforms and stuff like that.
(03:45):
But he'll be on next week andthen Woody is actually flying in
from Texas.
He'll be, he'll be in studio ina couple of weeks, I think,
sometime first or second week orWednesday, rather in April.
So Woody's coming on.
So it won't just be me runningmy mouth and discussing kind of
where I'm at today in the worldand mentally and what season I'm
(04:06):
going through, cause we talkabout that a good bit the ebbs
and flows of life and the ebbsand flows of business and like
that.
But and of course, you guysknow that we talk a lot about
legacy and leadership and orwhatever you know that we're
shooting for, like we want toleave an impact, and it's funny
because my nephew Zach came into see me.
(04:28):
He works for us.
He's been working for us nowfor a couple of years.
He's been such a great asset tothe team and has such a
powerful impact on the team, andhe brought me some photos in of
some family members, and I wasvery young and I used to have a
ponytail down to the middle ofmy back and he shared this photo
with me.
I might as well bring this up,because this photo had taken me
(04:52):
back quite a few years.
So I am, however, from a longline of carpenters, and my dad I
consider him a master carpenter.
My great grandfather, hisfather and you guys have
probably heard me tell that partof the story you know my uncles
, my grandparents, likeeverybody in my family, is
(05:14):
pretty much a carpenter, and avery good carpenter.
I'm not just talking about,like rough framing houses and
stuff like that, but I'm talking, you know, furniture and
cabinetry and staircases andthings like that.
But so I had moved to YorkCounty, uh, my couple of decades
ago, let's, let's say that and,um, I moved in with my, my
(05:37):
sister and my brother-in-law,and, and, uh, I really didn't
have a pot to piss in or windowto throw it out of, but they
were gracious enough to to kindof, you know, uh, help me get
back up on my feet and and, uh,my brother-in-law, rick, his,
his best friend, his name wasPat, and and hence, where his
construction company's name camefrom, is PAR1, and PAR stands
(05:59):
for Pat and Rick, and and that'syou know.
There's probably three differentother versions of that story,
but that's what I remember of it.
And and, of course, my nephew,who, who still works, his name's
Pat too, so it's very fittingand and it's it's such a great
story and Pat, long story short,pat, and I'm going to speak for
(06:20):
myself on this if it wasn't forPat, who brought me into the
siding and roofing space, and Iwant to say this goes back to
you know, I say that I've beenin the industry 30 plus years,
so let's go back 30, 30,probably close to 31, 33 years
ago, 17 years old, and I wasintroduced to Pat, who was at
(06:42):
that time Rick, mybrother-in-law's best friend,
and Pat was in the siding spaceand he worked for a local
company GC Winters, an associate, and Glenn was his name GC
Winters, glenn Winters and so Iwent to work for those guys and
I was the ground guy.
And so, speaking of legacy, ifit wasn't for Pat cause I could
(07:04):
probably talk about that all daylong but if it wouldn't be for
Pat um and I just showed hispicture earlier for those of you
checking in Pat here, my, mynephew, of course he was a lot
younger in those days.
Pat has has passed on and is nolonger with us.
But you know, for me andspeaking for myself and and, and
(07:24):
in terms of legacy, if itwasn't for Pat um, tc Backer
wouldn't, and, of course, if itwasn't for my brother-in-law and
my and my sister, I can't,can't not mention that too, but
I'm pretty sure Pat showed Rickhow to hang siding too, probably
way before um I came along.
But I remember struggling andtrying to get jobs and stuff
(07:46):
like that, and Rick and Patdecided to start part one
construction and it was just usthree for the longest time and
Pat showed me everything that Iknow today and of course I've
I've learned some things andpick some things up over the
years to be, you know, bettermechanically inclined and
processes on installation andthings like that.
(08:07):
So if anyone ever asked me likewhat is my strongest suit when
it comes to the profession I'min, it's always been the
production side of things,because that's where I grew up.
I didn't get a business degreeat Harvard or Yale or anything
like that.
I did go end up going back toschool many years later and I
(08:29):
went to York business Institutefor for a few for for a while
actually and had met some reallygreat people there.
But again I I didn't get like a, a, a major or anything like
that in business, not evenaccounting.
But I did take a lot ofaccounting courses and I'm sorry
, somebody keeps blowing myphone up Obviously they don't
(08:51):
know who I am and that we golive every day or every
Wednesday at 12 noon PM.
That's probably something veryimportant because they
continuously keep calling me.
Hopefully they'll leave amessage and I'll get back to
them.
But you know well I guess wedon't think about it where we
come from enough, right, like,don't forget where you come from
, bum, and you know I lived in abasement.
(09:12):
I brought nothing with me,basically like a Martin's bag,
which is a giant grocery storeover in Waynesboro.
It's called Martin's andliterally I had that bag and I
slept on an air mattress in mysister's basement and those guys
showed me everything, whetherit was entrepreneurially, along
(09:33):
with my dad and my mom my momand dad had owned a bar and a
restaurant for a long time andthings like that but most
importantly, the production sideof things, of of knowing how to
do takeoffs and measurementsand installations and things
like that.
All come from Rick and Pat, andI have another picture here of
of all of us together.
(09:53):
You can't really see myponytail, but my hair is pulled
back.
Um, in in a ponytail.
I'm sitting on a picnic table.
That and that's going back along time.
I'm, I'm this little dork rightthere.
Then you kind of see I got myhair pulled back and a lot of
people don't tell them thatstory Like yeah, I used to have
(10:13):
long hair.
They're like no way, and some ofthe other stories of the
chaotic lifestyle that I livedback then.
They don't.
They don't believe me and it'salways a trip to to reminisce
(10:52):
and walk down memory lane.
But you know the importance of,of, of legacy, the impact that
we're leaving on people'sjumping back in and grabbing and
pulling things back from peopleand, you know, taking away
their growth and allowing themto figure things out, but at
least pointing them in the rightdirection and and it and, and I
know over the years I've I'venot done such a great job of
always articulating the messagevery well.
(11:13):
It's kind of like we hirepeople and recently I'm going
through this thing where it'sthis, it's, it's a clarity note
from Ty.
I'm, I'm, I give, I'm givingmyself about eight weeks to give
everybody a clarity note of thedirection of the company and
the direction of their position.
If the position is going tochange or just you know, and not
(11:33):
everybody's note from Ty isgoing to be the same.
But I'm so guilty of, you knowthere's a cemetery looking out
my window here, so I'm going touse that as an example slash
metaphor.
Where it's like I'm so guiltyof, like, go to the cemetery.
For where it's like I'm soguilty of, like, go to the
(11:54):
cemetery.
Okay, not, not really givingthem a reason, so they're kind
of lollygagging on their wayover to the cemetery trying to
figure out.
You know, why does he?
Why is he sending me over tothe cemetery, opposed to letting
them know?
Like the reason why I wantedthem to go to the cemetery is
becauseies, because, hey, inthat cemetery over there there's
an oak tree and every time thewind blows, the lower limbs of
(12:15):
that oak tree tend to blowacross the top of the headstones
.
Could you go over to thecemetery, trim up the bottom of
those tree limbs and so that waywhen the wind blows it doesn't
affect them?
Well, if I would havearticulated the point because
I'm guilty of like hiring people, they're like what do I do?
(12:35):
Like, figure it out is a lot oftimes has been my response over
the years.
So I know that is somethingthat I wanted to work on this
year was like giving peoplebetter direction, better vision
of where and why, why they'redoing things you know and and
it's funny, funny stories Iworked for a company called
(12:56):
Homes by Keystone.
I was an electrician there backwhen I was probably you know, I
don't, I don't even know Cause I, like I said I had moved to
York County around when I was 17, but then I ended up moving
back and I got a job down thereas an electrician.
But I had a mentor I guess myguide to show me how to you know
wire houses, modular homes andstuff up like that.
(13:18):
But so he would basically justcome in and be like you got to
drill all these holes and thenpull all these wires.
And some of these wires are forreceptacles and some of these
wires are for switches, some arefor smoke detectors.
But he never really got realgranular on it with me.
Like he never told me thedifference between, like the,
the ground wire from the whitewire, from the black wire, and
why some had red and some hadgreen.
(13:40):
You know he didn't tell me thedifference between a single pole
switch or a three way switch.
You know.
You know the ground wire, thegreen ground wire and the red
and the negative and a positiveand things like that.
Like he never really told meyou know exactly why I was doing
things.
He just told me to do thingsbut he didn't exactly tell me
why.
(14:00):
And unfortunately I've I've beenguilty of that myself, but if I
would have told somebodyexactly why I needed them to go
over to that cemetery, theywould have grabbed the chainsaw
and they would have ran.
The vision would have beenclear.
Then they would have haddirection, they would have had
motivation, they would have beenable to just run over to the
(14:20):
cemetery with their chainsaw andwhile they were over there they
probably would have noticedthat there was two other oak
trees over there that neededtrimmed up.
And probably without asking me,because I've empowered them
right, I didn't necessarily, youknow, one of my sayings is you
know, oh, I can't even think ofit right now, but anyhow, I've
(14:45):
empowered people enough to thatthey would have saw that there
was two other oak trees overthere that needed trimmed up.
And then they would have lookedaround and they would have
realized that was two other oaktrees over there that needed
trimmed up.
And then they would have lookedaround, they would have
realized that, hey, maybe Ishould break these leaves up
over here, maybe I should mowthe grass.
And hey, I can't even read thenames on the headstones anymore.
Maybe I should power wash them.
But with that little bit ofguidance up front and a little
more, you know, vision of likewhy I needed you to go to the
(15:08):
cemetery, opposed to hey, vic,just pick that camera up.
You know what I mean.
Vic has a clear direction, heknows what it is that we're
trying to accomplish and we'retrying to create the most
bad-ass content possible.
You know, and Vic has the, the,the.
I don't even want to say it'san honor, but I have the honor
of working with Vic and jivingand gelling and vibing with him
(15:31):
that some people in the buildingmay not always get to see me on
a day-to-day basis to hear thatvision.
So I thought you know why notwrite these, you know, these
clarity notes to everybody andconsidering the fact of, like,
where we're at, we're in adifferent season, we're coming
into a new roofing season and,and it wouldn't hurt me myself
to, to, to re reevaluate andrealign my vision and things
(15:53):
like that, and it's and it'sokay.
So, if anybody out there that'slistening to this, I kind of
like in a funk or or somethingthat can't figure quite, put
their finger on you know, likewhat's going on, or you know,
because sometimes you just wakeup and you're kind of like
you're, you're in a funk and Iand I've noticed myself being in
a funk and I've noticed myselfbeing in a funk and I just feel
like there's, I don't feelcompleted.
I don't feel accomplished andit's kind of like I had to
(16:13):
really do some inside.
I had to take a look inside andfind out, like, what's been
going on.
And just like this podcast,it's kind of like I'm sure we're
getting what we call, you know,in the content world, viewer
fatigue.
Well, we also suffer fromcontent fatigue as well.
So one of many things that thatthat we're stepping up our game
(16:35):
in, you know, not just in TCBacker and not just in Lead
Scout, and there's a lot ofgreat things going on over there
that I'm sure I could, you know, create a whole entire podcast
about Lead Scout.
But you know, sometimes when wego through these seasons and
these changes and stuff, likewhat got us here is not going to
get us where we're going to go,and I think so much we base, we
(16:57):
, we threaten our long-termgoals over our short, short-term
emotions, whether it's our ownshort-term emotions or other
people's reactions to thechanges that we feel like we
need to make.
And we can't always get hemmedup and and I know it's hard,
especially for me it's hard forme to not get in my way because
(17:19):
of my emotions and the pain thatI might be experiencing right
now or the pain that might becast upon somebody else due to
these changes and things likethat.
But but I guess the messagethere, at least in this small
little piece you know, is youknow, don't, don't, don't get
distracted by your short-termemotions and and screw up your
(17:40):
long-term goals.
And the goal is on multiplefronts, like, like we want to
kick out, like the best contentthat we possibly can kick out,
and that's why we're changingthings up, because we want, we
don't want you guys sufferingfrom, from viewer fatigue.
We don't want to suffer fromcontent fatigue.
And and same goes in your, inyour personal life, right, like
if you're not working, waking upwith purpose, and you're kind
(18:01):
of just waking up and goingthrough your day by mistake and
and not very intentional, aboutwanting to take care of your
body, not wanting to take careof your mind, and I I tend to
slack in that thing Sometimes.
I have to switch up the contentthat I'm listening to.
I listened to a lot of CraigGrishel, I listened to a lot of
Pedro Koolian, I listened to alot of the Hermoses, both of
(18:22):
which, and I kind of got aswitch between all of them
because I get.
I suffer from from viewerfatigue.
That's right, jay.
The key is to start small andbuild momentum and reconnect
with your why Exactly and it'sfunny that you talk about your
why, because I'm actuallyreviewing my why.
Today I pulled open my why.
(18:43):
I have this, this, this notesection, on my phone here where
over the years, I've put in mywhy, so so I don't forget one
where I come from, plus I I jotdown a lot of things, um, you
know that might be on my mindthat I could use later or not to
forget.
And and uh, you know it's goodto journal too.
(19:04):
It's kind of like my journaland there's a lot of good stuff
in there.
So that way, maybe someday, ifI'm not here, my journal and
there's a lot of good stuff inthere.
So that way, maybe someday, ifI'm not here right, vic or Jana
somebody can pop open any of mydevices.
That's why I choose to useApple devices, because anything
I do on my phone shows up on myMacBook, shows up on my iPad,
and not that Google doesn't dothat.
I also use a lot of Googlestuff as well, but I like using
(19:28):
notes.
I find that I can do just aboutanything in notes, as I can in
a Google Doc, and then Itransfer it over to a Google Doc
and that's where I've startedto create these clarity notes
from Ty to.
I'm starting with some keyplayers and then I'm kind of
working our way down, and wejust revamped our work chart,
(19:48):
our organizational chart, and ifyou're listening to this and
you don't have an organizationalchart in your company and I
think there's amisinterpretation of why you
should have an organizationalchart it's not always for who
you're supposed to report to,but it's also very important to
(20:09):
differentiate different silos ordifferent departments.
I hate both of those wordsbecause it creates separation
and creates division.
Right, and division is anotherhorrible D word that I don't
like to use, but sometimes Ihave to use it.
In this context, right now, I'mgoing to use the word, you know
, departments, right, it helpskind of clean up and it gives me
a thousand foot view.
(20:29):
So I don't forget people thatare in certain departments,
because I think we have close toa hundred people that work for
us today.
So we need, at differentlocations, from production to
administrative, to accountspayable, to receivables, to
salespeople, sales managers,sales trainers all of these
people and subcontractors right,we do have a lot of our own
in-house crews window crews,gutter crews and things like
(20:56):
that.
But we do have subcontractorstoo, that I don't want to forget
about them too, and with themon the forefront of my mind with
the organizational chart right,then I can keep them in mind.
For, you know, spring flingparties and events and stuff
which I know that we're due forsomething.
I don't know if we're going tostart working on the food drive
or if we're just going to kindof do like some kind of open
(21:17):
house networking, spring fling.
So if, david Bruner, if you'reout there listening to this
right now, and if you want to bea part of maybe hosting another
, you know networking, you know,but it just kind of keeps
everybody engaged and everybodycoming back and it just re
revigorates and rejuvenates theculture that we, we we've
strived so hard to create.
(21:38):
And culture goes into a lot.
You know the piece of of, oflegacy as well, you know, and,
and what I mean by that is likewe've had a lot of people come
into our organization, you know,and, and they become family,
they're, they're not employees,they, they're, they're family,
they're teammates, they, they'reco, co, co-members, co-leaders,
and you know most of them stay.
(22:02):
You know and, and.
Over the years, a couple ofthem left and and, and those
that that stay continue to grow.
You know, whether it'spersonally, professionally,
financially, you know they arenot the same people as it was
when they came here.
And if somebody does leave, atleast now they have the tools to
go.
And we've talked about thisbefore where it's like, I know,
(22:24):
when people come here they'renot the same person that they
were.
I know for a fact that I'vechanged.
I've grown immensely and again,that's what I'm talking about
Leading by example andcontinuously working on myself
so we can develop leaders, wecan build teams, we can create
legacies.
Even the people that work hereare creating legacies, like
(22:45):
Glenn, for instance.
You know, glenn.
Glenn has created such a legacyfor himself, whether he knows
it or not.
And again, I don't have to takethe blame, or the blame or the
credit for any of that, but Iwill take the blame,
unfortunately, when, when shitdoes hit the fan and that's the
difference between selfish,selfish leadership or servant
leadership, right, like we'rehere to serve, and when we can
(23:08):
keep that on the forefront ofour mind and don't get it
twisted.
I am not the most always giving.
I am not the most alwaysforgiving.
I don't always give grace whengrace is, or being empathetic
and things like that, and reallya lot of it has to do with
what's going on with the sixinches between my ears.
But again, that's where allthis personal development comes
(23:31):
from.
And I can tell you this, thething I'm not who I want to be,
but I'm definitely not who Iused to be.
And on a day-to-day, day-to-day,I review my day every night,
whether I want to or not,because it's just become a habit
for me to do a reflection uponmy day.
Where did I do well?
Where didn't I do those do sowell?
And the difference today for meis is I know almost
(23:53):
instantaneously when I'm notbehaving or acting or performing
very well.
That is the difference today.
So I am more apt and more proneto add an amend, correct my
actions immediately, because,let's face it, none of us are
put on this earth to feeluncomfortable or feel awkward or
(24:14):
feel weird or anything likethat, right?
So life is too short for us tonot be happy.
Wake up with a purpose andmotivation and achieve that goal
, whatever that goal is, I thinkwe should all have like this
one year, five year, 10 yeargoal, right.
What does it look like?
Where does behind the tool beltlook like in one year from now?
I'm you know, and that'sstarting to come to fruition
(24:36):
right now for Vic and I wheredoes it look like?
What does it look like in fiveyears from now?
Like these are all things youknow, and I'm not saying dwell
in the past or or live in thefuture.
You know, have one foot inyesterday and one foot in
tomorrow and pissing all overtoday, but that you should have
goals and you should have dreamsand you should have aspirations
, and most of that should affectand impact most people's lives
(25:01):
positively.
And when you can put that intoperspective and start working
that intentionally into yourlife, great things can happen.
You start, start, people startto gravitate towards you because
they want to be a part of that,they want to join a force that
is to be reckoned with and theyknow, when there's that positive
force, there's nothing, nothingthat you can't do, and I said
(25:27):
this to Kim the other day and Imight've mentioned this last
week, but it's like what I can'tdo by myself we can't do, and I
said this to Kim the other dayand I might've mentioned this
last week, but it's like, what Ican't do by myself, we can do
together.
Everything is we, even if I'mby myself, because it's not me.
It's it, whether it's the manupstairs or, or the force, the
universe or whatever the casemight be, it's not me.
I know for a fact I wouldn't behere If it was left to my own
(25:49):
devices.
I wouldn't be here today.
I know that, I know that I'm onborrowed time, I know that I
don't want to take that forgranted and I'm going to totally
take advantage of it and makethe biggest impact that I
possibly can.
And I've been given secondchances, so why wouldn't I give
second chances?
And I'm not saying and see,there's a fine line there too of
(26:14):
being taken advantage of toothat I've gone from both ends of
that spectrum where I've beencold hearted and I've been
overly generous and have beentaken advantage of.
But again, I think a lot ofthat was self-infl-inflicted
stuff, right, and it's so hardto kind of like, find that happy
medium where you're given justenough and not not ruining or
(26:37):
spoiling people and giving themenough room to grow, because
you're not giving them too much.
And, and I I practice this a lotwith with my children.
You know, rocket, we had afamily meeting the other day and
it's kind of like rock, I don'tmind doing these things, but
you're going to have to do X, yand Z around the house, right,
and?
And you know, because I don'twant to raise weak children
(26:59):
Right, so he's out, you know,cleaning the shed, he's building
things, and I'm asking himbecause now you know he he can
build stuff.
Now he's 16 years old and he'sgetting ready to get his
driver's license.
He's getting ready to get a car.
There's going to have to befuel put in that car, there's
going to have to be insurancespaid and things like that.
And over the summer he's goingto come work for us here at TC
Backer Construction.
But most urgently, he's got todo things around the house.
(27:24):
If he wants a skateboard and hewants these things and all
these pretty, pretty littlethings.
You know that sometimes we can'talways afford, you know, which
is also a good thing.
Like we, we can't afford thatright now.
Right, you know patience, he'sgoing to have to learn patience.
He's going to have to learntolerance, right, and and, and I
think you know he I know he'ssuch a great kid, mckenzie, you
(27:45):
know and and Jacob, jacob is hasturned out to just be an
outstanding citizen of society.
I mean, I think Jana and I havedone a great year, great, great
job with our kids and any otherparent.
You know, it takes a villageright, it really does.
When it comes to raisingchildren, it takes a village.
(28:07):
But I guess, getting back towhat I was alluding to earlier,
it's like what I can't do bymyself, we can do together, and
that is so important to not ruinit, because I am the only
person that can ruin this rightnow.
At any given day, I can show myass and go out there and just
remove responsibilities andcriticize people who I've
empowered, who I've encouragedto grow and and allowed them to
(28:30):
make mistakes over time.
All it would take is one dayfor me to go out there and show
my ass and and and don't get ittwisted I have done that.
But over the years I have builtwhat I like to call the trust
bank, every now and then that Ihave to take a withdrawal, but I
think I think for the most partthat I've.
I've, you know, made enoughdeposits where, if I do show my
(28:53):
ass where things don't go to.
You know.
Go to plan as as as accorded orhowever that that saying is, you
know, because sometimes it doesthings don't happen in our time
, like, for instance, this hasbeen a long winter for us.
We haven't experienced a winterlike this and our projections
were were BHAGs.
(29:13):
They were big, hairy, audaciousgoals, but I honestly feel like
we can still achieve them.
But we basically lost theentire first quarter of the year
and, being from South CentralPA, we we do get winters.
We usually get like a one ortwo week stretch where it's
below 30 degrees and nobody'sworking.
But it seems like for the pastthree months like it has just
(29:34):
been cold, it's been raining,it's been windy 40, 50, 60 mile
an hour winds and a lot ofpeople are like, well, that's
probably getting you more work,isn't it?
And it's like, yeah, but likewe can't even get out there to
do it.
You know the guys are workingone or two days a week but we
try to keep everybody busy with40 plus hours and that tends to
put a stress financially on thebusiness.
(29:55):
Yes, we had prudent reserve.
We lasted for four to sixmonths prudent reserve.
But when you start getting downand the overheads still up, it
creates stress right on thecompany and our revenue goals
weren't met.
Yet Now we're getting back ontrack, which we we knew, but
unfortunately that variable wecouldn't control.
(30:16):
All we could control was thevariables that we could control
and we did.
We did the best we could.
We cut some things back, um,our spending habits and things
like that, but we didn't knockon wood, have to lay anybody
else, anybody off, cut outanything that really affected
anybody.
A lot of it had to do with justthings that nobody really sees
(30:36):
other than, you know, a coupleof our people on our leadership
team and things like that.
And we actually were able topick up some really great people
my daughter, so totallygrateful Mackenzie big shout out
to Mackenzie, who's becomeKim's-hand woman.
We picked up Pete big shout outto Pete who is just a came from
(30:56):
a $1 billion company.
We were blessed to have him inin our regime because he is just
so fricking smart, right, andyou can't be afraid, can't be
afraid to bring smart people inyour circle, right, you can't,
you can't.
And this is the thing that Istruggled with too, especially
when I was younger.
I was terrified.
(31:17):
I was intimidated by bringingpeople or hanging out or going
places where I knew other people.
The people that were there weregoing to be smarter.
I mean, it's kind of like whata fricking, you know, what a lie
that I was telling myself.
You know, and and if I am thesmartest person in the room, and
(31:38):
if and if I'm the smartestperson in this building, I'm in
the wrong building.
I'm I'm at the wrong event,right, like I should not be,
cause if you know me, you knowthe only thing that I really
have going for me.
I mean and don't get me wrong Ihave common sense and I am
street smart and I have all thethings that it takes, the grit,
(31:59):
the resiliency, you know all thethings that that it takes to to
be a successful entrepreneurand have great impact on
people's lives.
But again, going back to you,I'm not a certified public
accountant, like Pete is right,he is definitely stronger in
that area than I am.
You know, vic, at this point intime, has has over exceeded not
(32:21):
not just my expectations but,like you know, one point in time
it was just this was an iPhoneeight, and then we brought Vic
in and not really necessarilycoming from the content creation
background, but but veryintelligent when it came to
audio and video.
Maybe maybe more so audiobecause he is a magnificent
(32:41):
musician, but hopefully I'veencouraged him enough and I know
, I know I have to become one ofthe greatest content creators
that I we know today.
You know, and, and, uh, youknow he's making it, making a
name for himself in in, in thisspace and, um, you know, slowly,
slowly but surely, um, you knowthere are some things and again
(33:03):
, that's getting back to thattopic of us switching things up.
The more that he learns, themore that I learn that you know
there is such things as viewerfatigue, that there are such
things as content fatigue andwhat got us here this five years
?
Right, it's not going to keepus sustainable or relevant for
another five years, zach.
It's okay that you're late,buddy, but thank you, thank you
(33:25):
for joining us and being asteady Eddiedie every week
coming in and coming out.
So, anyhow, um, I enjoy youguys if, if you haven't liked,
loved, subscribe to our youtubechannel.
Vick just got us on iheartradio.
We had enough downloads forthat, but we are still in need
of a thousand downloads beforeYouTube for Buzzsprout to
(33:52):
monetize us, so we need 1000more downloads.
So if you haven't downloadedany of these episodes yet,
please do that Episoded If youlike what you like what you see,
like what you hear, want tohear about a specific topic,
please, please, hit us up in thecomments here.
Bradley said he's going to be inBaltimore June 17th through the
(34:14):
20th.
I'll see if I can make a quicktrip up.
That would be great.
I don't know what days thatfalls on, but one of those days
has to be a Wednesday, I wouldimagine, and if not, it doesn't
really matter, because we'redoing more things outside of our
Wednesday content creation ofBeyond the Tool Belt podcast.
So maybe we can meet halfway,or maybe we'll even come down to
Baltimore to see you, jay, andcreate some kick-ass content and
(34:38):
see where you're at and howyou're impacting people's lives,
because I know your head's inthe right place, as Vic and I's
are, and everybody here, the TCBacker and Lead Scout family is.
So anyhow, I'm going to get offhere.
It looks like we're at about 30couple minutes into this and
we've also found that it's it'svery difficult for people to
listen, you know, for for acomplete hour.
(35:00):
So we want to make this moreviewer friendly, uh, listener
friendly, you know.
So, anyhow, I'm going to getoff here till next week.
We got, uh, bradley acres, whowill be our guest next week at
our regularly timed scheduledbehind a tool belt, 12 PM
Eastern standard time.
Brad will be zooming in and, uh, we're going to probably I know
(35:22):
for a fact that we're going tokick out some, some kick-ass
content.
So, until next week, like love,subscribe and share this with
anybody that you think might getsomething out of this.
Love you guys.
Thanks for hanging out.
Welcome to Behind the Tool Belt, where the stories
are bold, the conversations arereal and the insights come to
you live, raw and uncut.
Every week, host Ty Cobb-Backersits down with game changers,
trailblazers and industryleaders who aren't afraid to
tell it like it is no filters,no scripts, just the truth.
(00:22):
Please welcome your host ofBehind the Tool Belt, ty
Cobb-Backer.
Ty Cobb Backer (00:27):
Hey, hey, hey, we're live.
Welcome back to everybody toepisode 274 of Behind the Tool
Belt.
I am your host, ty Cobb-Backer.
Thank you for joining us onthis fantastically flipping
Wednesday Sun's back out.
I believe that we ended upactually getting some hail
earlier today, so that's goodfor us.
(00:49):
Up here in the great state ofPennsylvania and, like I had
mentioned last week, vic and Iplan on doing some things a
little bit differently and Vicis in the background as usual,
and today we actually hadplanned on going live from my
truck.
Again, we ran into sometechnical difficulties.
We completely changed thingsaround from the way that we were
(01:12):
going to do them, or the waythat we did them last week,
because I didn't really like theway that it was going through
GoPro.
Gopro had its own interfacethat we could stream through
Facebook and it was just kind ofdifficult to see and read
people's comments.
And then, of course, I couldn'tfigure out how to freaking end
the live without actuallyhitting the off button on the
(01:35):
GoPro.
So, anyhow, we kind of cameback to the drawing board here a
little bit, because we had ourYOLO box that we haven't broke
out and it had some updates thatneeded done on that which, if
you're not familiar with YoloBox, it is your all-in-one
streaming.
You know, audio video monitor.
(01:55):
It's basically a small computerthat picks up on a network.
You can actually add a SIM cardto it and pick up.
You know, if you have AT&T orVerizon or whatever.
So we were going to attempt topull that off from my truck
because we have built-in Wi-Fiin the vehicle and, of course,
power and all that good stuffthere.
But something wasn't workingright so we thought screw it.
(02:19):
So we kind of came back andwe're back in the office here
real quick Thought I'd get backon here because this show must
go on.
You know how dedicated we are,but be prepared for some changes
coming up, as you know and asyou can see and as you're
experiencing here with us thatwe're changing things up.
We want to get back to some ofthe bootstrap grassroots of you
(02:39):
know plug in, you know TC Backerand of course, of course, some
of our sponsors.
Before I forget them, I wantedto do a big shout out to
Roofhole Lead Scout Hook Agency.
If you want to know more aboutthem, put a comment in the
comment section and we will hookyou up with their websites and
get you pointed in the rightdirection there.
But again, thank you all forjoining us live today and and
(03:03):
we're you're going to see a lotmore of this of me, you know,
doing more Q and a.
So if you guys have anyquestions about life, about
business, about personaldevelopment, professional
development, anything like that,please put them in the comments
and I will answer them to thebest of my ability while we're
here live.
But then I can also go back inthe comment section there and
(03:24):
maybe put a more elaborateanswer in there for you guys to
be able to answer your questions.
But we got some great guests onthe horizon.
We are going to continue tokeep bringing people in.
Brad Akers from Brad buildsbuilds businesses, I think, and
I think he's got a couple otherplatforms and stuff like that.
(03:45):
But he'll be on next week andthen Woody is actually flying in
from Texas.
He'll be, he'll be in studio ina couple of weeks, I think,
sometime first or second week orWednesday, rather in April.
So Woody's coming on.
So it won't just be me runningmy mouth and discussing kind of
where I'm at today in the worldand mentally and what season I'm
(04:06):
going through, cause we talkabout that a good bit the ebbs
and flows of life and the ebbsand flows of business and like
that.
But and of course, you guysknow that we talk a lot about
legacy and leadership and orwhatever you know that we're
shooting for, like we want toleave an impact, and it's funny
because my nephew Zach came into see me.
(04:28):
He works for us.
He's been working for us nowfor a couple of years.
He's been such a great asset tothe team and has such a
powerful impact on the team, andhe brought me some photos in of
some family members, and I wasvery young and I used to have a
ponytail down to the middle ofmy back and he shared this photo
with me.
I might as well bring this up,because this photo had taken me
(04:52):
back quite a few years.
So I am, however, from a longline of carpenters, and my dad I
consider him a master carpenter.
My great grandfather, hisfather and you guys have
probably heard me tell that partof the story you know my uncles
, my grandparents, likeeverybody in my family, is
(05:14):
pretty much a carpenter, and avery good carpenter.
I'm not just talking about,like rough framing houses and
stuff like that, but I'm talking, you know, furniture and
cabinetry and staircases andthings like that.
But so I had moved to YorkCounty, uh, my couple of decades
ago, let's, let's say that and,um, I moved in with my, my
(05:37):
sister and my brother-in-law,and, and, uh, I really didn't
have a pot to piss in or windowto throw it out of, but they
were gracious enough to to kindof, you know, uh, help me get
back up on my feet and and, uh,my brother-in-law, rick, his,
his best friend, his name wasPat, and and hence, where his
construction company's name camefrom, is PAR1, and PAR stands
(05:59):
for Pat and Rick, and and that'syou know.
There's probably three differentother versions of that story,
but that's what I remember of it.
And and, of course, my nephew,who, who still works, his name's
Pat too, so it's very fittingand and it's it's such a great
story and Pat, long story short,pat, and I'm going to speak for
(06:20):
myself on this if it wasn't forPat, who brought me into the
siding and roofing space, and Iwant to say this goes back to
you know, I say that I've beenin the industry 30 plus years,
so let's go back 30, 30,probably close to 31, 33 years
ago, 17 years old, and I wasintroduced to Pat, who was at
(06:42):
that time Rick, mybrother-in-law's best friend,
and Pat was in the siding spaceand he worked for a local
company GC Winters, an associate, and Glenn was his name GC
Winters, glenn Winters and so Iwent to work for those guys and
I was the ground guy.
And so, speaking of legacy, ifit wasn't for Pat cause I could
(07:04):
probably talk about that all daylong but if it wouldn't be for
Pat um and I just showed hispicture earlier for those of you
checking in Pat here, my, mynephew, of course he was a lot
younger in those days.
Pat has has passed on and is nolonger with us.
But you know, for me andspeaking for myself and and, and
(07:24):
in terms of legacy, if itwasn't for Pat um, tc Backer
wouldn't, and, of course, if itwasn't for my brother-in-law and
my and my sister, I can't,can't not mention that too, but
I'm pretty sure Pat showed Rickhow to hang siding too, probably
way before um I came along.
But I remember struggling andtrying to get jobs and stuff
(07:46):
like that, and Rick and Patdecided to start part one
construction and it was just usthree for the longest time and
Pat showed me everything that Iknow today and of course I've
I've learned some things andpick some things up over the
years to be, you know, bettermechanically inclined and
processes on installation andthings like that.
(08:07):
So if anyone ever asked me likewhat is my strongest suit when
it comes to the profession I'min, it's always been the
production side of things,because that's where I grew up.
I didn't get a business degreeat Harvard or Yale or anything
like that.
I did go end up going back toschool many years later and I
(08:29):
went to York business Institutefor for a few for for a while
actually and had met some reallygreat people there.
But again I I didn't get like a, a, a major or anything like
that in business, not evenaccounting.
But I did take a lot ofaccounting courses and I'm sorry
, somebody keeps blowing myphone up Obviously they don't
(08:51):
know who I am and that we golive every day or every
Wednesday at 12 noon PM.
That's probably something veryimportant because they
continuously keep calling me.
Hopefully they'll leave amessage and I'll get back to
them.
But you know well I guess wedon't think about it where we
come from enough, right, like,don't forget where you come from
, bum, and you know I lived in abasement.
(09:12):
I brought nothing with me,basically like a Martin's bag,
which is a giant grocery storeover in Waynesboro.
It's called Martin's andliterally I had that bag and I
slept on an air mattress in mysister's basement and those guys
showed me everything, whetherit was entrepreneurially, along
(09:33):
with my dad and my mom my momand dad had owned a bar and a
restaurant for a long time andthings like that but most
importantly, the production sideof things, of of knowing how to
do takeoffs and measurementsand installations and things
like that.
All come from Rick and Pat, andI have another picture here of
of all of us together.
(09:53):
You can't really see myponytail, but my hair is pulled
back.
Um, in in a ponytail.
I'm sitting on a picnic table.
That and that's going back along time.
I'm, I'm this little dork rightthere.
Then you kind of see I got myhair pulled back and a lot of
people don't tell them thatstory Like yeah, I used to have
(10:13):
long hair.
They're like no way, and some ofthe other stories of the
chaotic lifestyle that I livedback then.
They don't.
They don't believe me and it'salways a trip to to reminisce
(10:52):
and walk down memory lane.
But you know the importance of,of, of legacy, the impact that
we're leaving on people'sjumping back in and grabbing and
pulling things back from peopleand, you know, taking away
their growth and allowing themto figure things out, but at
least pointing them in the rightdirection and and it and, and I
know over the years I've I'venot done such a great job of
always articulating the messagevery well.
(11:13):
It's kind of like we hirepeople and recently I'm going
through this thing where it'sthis, it's, it's a clarity note
from Ty.
I'm, I'm, I give, I'm givingmyself about eight weeks to give
everybody a clarity note of thedirection of the company and
the direction of their position.
If the position is going tochange or just you know, and not
(11:33):
everybody's note from Ty isgoing to be the same.
But I'm so guilty of, you knowthere's a cemetery looking out
my window here, so I'm going touse that as an example slash
metaphor.
Where it's like I'm so guiltyof, like, go to the cemetery.
For where it's like I'm soguilty of, like, go to the
(11:54):
cemetery.
Okay, not, not really givingthem a reason, so they're kind
of lollygagging on their wayover to the cemetery trying to
figure out.
You know, why does he?
Why is he sending me over tothe cemetery, opposed to letting
them know?
Like the reason why I wantedthem to go to the cemetery is
becauseies, because, hey, inthat cemetery over there there's
an oak tree and every time thewind blows, the lower limbs of
(12:15):
that oak tree tend to blowacross the top of the headstones
.
Could you go over to thecemetery, trim up the bottom of
those tree limbs and so that waywhen the wind blows it doesn't
affect them?
Well, if I would havearticulated the point because
I'm guilty of like hiring people, they're like what do I do?
(12:35):
Like, figure it out is a lot oftimes has been my response over
the years.
So I know that is somethingthat I wanted to work on this
year was like giving peoplebetter direction, better vision
of where and why, why they'redoing things you know and and
it's funny, funny stories Iworked for a company called
(12:56):
Homes by Keystone.
I was an electrician there backwhen I was probably you know, I
don't, I don't even know Cause I, like I said I had moved to
York County around when I was 17, but then I ended up moving
back and I got a job down thereas an electrician.
But I had a mentor I guess myguide to show me how to you know
wire houses, modular homes andstuff up like that.
(13:18):
But so he would basically justcome in and be like you got to
drill all these holes and thenpull all these wires.
And some of these wires are forreceptacles and some of these
wires are for switches, some arefor smoke detectors.
But he never really got realgranular on it with me.
Like he never told me thedifference between, like the,
the ground wire from the whitewire, from the black wire, and
why some had red and some hadgreen.
(13:40):
You know he didn't tell me thedifference between a single pole
switch or a three way switch.
You know.
You know the ground wire, thegreen ground wire and the red
and the negative and a positiveand things like that.
Like he never really told meyou know exactly why I was doing
things.
He just told me to do thingsbut he didn't exactly tell me
why.
(14:00):
And unfortunately I've I've beenguilty of that myself, but if I
would have told somebodyexactly why I needed them to go
over to that cemetery, theywould have grabbed the chainsaw
and they would have ran.
The vision would have beenclear.
Then they would have haddirection, they would have had
motivation, they would have beenable to just run over to the
(14:20):
cemetery with their chainsaw andwhile they were over there they
probably would have noticedthat there was two other oak
trees over there that neededtrimmed up.
And probably without asking me,because I've empowered them
right, I didn't necessarily, youknow, one of my sayings is you
know, oh, I can't even think ofit right now, but anyhow, I've
(14:45):
empowered people enough to thatthey would have saw that there
was two other oak trees overthere that needed trimmed up.
And then they would have lookedaround and they would have
realized that was two other oaktrees over there that needed
trimmed up.
And then they would have lookedaround, they would have
realized that, hey, maybe Ishould break these leaves up
over here, maybe I should mowthe grass.
And hey, I can't even read thenames on the headstones anymore.
Maybe I should power wash them.
But with that little bit ofguidance up front and a little
more, you know, vision of likewhy I needed you to go to the
(15:08):
cemetery, opposed to hey, vic,just pick that camera up.
You know what I mean.
Vic has a clear direction, heknows what it is that we're
trying to accomplish and we'retrying to create the most
bad-ass content possible.
You know, and Vic has the, the,the.
I don't even want to say it'san honor, but I have the honor
of working with Vic and jivingand gelling and vibing with him
(15:31):
that some people in the buildingmay not always get to see me on
a day-to-day basis to hear thatvision.
So I thought you know why notwrite these, you know, these
clarity notes to everybody andconsidering the fact of, like,
where we're at, we're in adifferent season, we're coming
into a new roofing season and,and it wouldn't hurt me myself
to, to, to re reevaluate andrealign my vision and things
(15:53):
like that, and it's and it'sokay.
So, if anybody out there that'slistening to this, I kind of
like in a funk or or somethingthat can't figure quite, put
their finger on you know, likewhat's going on, or you know,
because sometimes you just wakeup and you're kind of like
you're, you're in a funk and Iand I've noticed myself being in
a funk and I've noticed myselfbeing in a funk and I just feel
like there's, I don't feelcompleted.
I don't feel accomplished andit's kind of like I had to
(16:13):
really do some inside.
I had to take a look inside andfind out, like, what's been
going on.
And just like this podcast,it's kind of like I'm sure we're
getting what we call, you know,in the content world, viewer
fatigue.
Well, we also suffer fromcontent fatigue as well.
So one of many things that thatthat we're stepping up our game
(16:35):
in, you know, not just in TCBacker and not just in Lead
Scout, and there's a lot ofgreat things going on over there
that I'm sure I could, you know, create a whole entire podcast
about Lead Scout.
But you know, sometimes when wego through these seasons and
these changes and stuff, likewhat got us here is not going to
get us where we're going to go,and I think so much we base, we
(16:57):
, we threaten our long-termgoals over our short, short-term
emotions, whether it's our ownshort-term emotions or other
people's reactions to thechanges that we feel like we
need to make.
And we can't always get hemmedup and and I know it's hard,
especially for me it's hard forme to not get in my way because
(17:19):
of my emotions and the pain thatI might be experiencing right
now or the pain that might becast upon somebody else due to
these changes and things likethat.
But but I guess the messagethere, at least in this small
little piece you know, is youknow, don't, don't, don't get
distracted by your short-termemotions and and screw up your
(17:40):
long-term goals.
And the goal is on multiplefronts, like, like we want to
kick out, like the best contentthat we possibly can kick out,
and that's why we're changingthings up, because we want, we
don't want you guys sufferingfrom, from viewer fatigue.
We don't want to suffer fromcontent fatigue.
And and same goes in your, inyour personal life, right, like
if you're not working, waking upwith purpose, and you're kind
(18:01):
of just waking up and goingthrough your day by mistake and
and not very intentional, aboutwanting to take care of your
body, not wanting to take careof your mind, and I I tend to
slack in that thing Sometimes.
I have to switch up the contentthat I'm listening to.
I listened to a lot of CraigGrishel, I listened to a lot of
Pedro Koolian, I listened to alot of the Hermoses, both of
(18:22):
which, and I kind of got aswitch between all of them
because I get.
I suffer from from viewerfatigue.
That's right, jay.
The key is to start small andbuild momentum and reconnect
with your why Exactly and it'sfunny that you talk about your
why, because I'm actuallyreviewing my why.
Today I pulled open my why.
(18:43):
I have this, this, this notesection, on my phone here where
over the years, I've put in mywhy, so so I don't forget one
where I come from, plus I I jotdown a lot of things, um, you
know that might be on my mindthat I could use later or not to
forget.
And and uh, you know it's goodto journal too.
(19:04):
It's kind of like my journaland there's a lot of good stuff
in there.
So that way, maybe someday, ifI'm not here, my journal and
there's a lot of good stuff inthere.
So that way, maybe someday, ifI'm not here right, vic or Jana
somebody can pop open any of mydevices.
That's why I choose to useApple devices, because anything
I do on my phone shows up on myMacBook, shows up on my iPad,
and not that Google doesn't dothat.
I also use a lot of Googlestuff as well, but I like using
(19:28):
notes.
I find that I can do just aboutanything in notes, as I can in
a Google Doc, and then Itransfer it over to a Google Doc
and that's where I've startedto create these clarity notes
from Ty to.
I'm starting with some keyplayers and then I'm kind of
working our way down, and wejust revamped our work chart,
(19:48):
our organizational chart, and ifyou're listening to this and
you don't have an organizationalchart in your company and I
think there's amisinterpretation of why you
should have an organizationalchart it's not always for who
you're supposed to report to,but it's also very important to
(20:09):
differentiate different silos ordifferent departments.
I hate both of those wordsbecause it creates separation
and creates division.
Right, and division is anotherhorrible D word that I don't
like to use, but sometimes Ihave to use it.
In this context, right now, I'mgoing to use the word, you know
, departments, right, it helpskind of clean up and it gives me
a thousand foot view.
(20:29):
So I don't forget people thatare in certain departments,
because I think we have close toa hundred people that work for
us today.
So we need, at differentlocations, from production to
administrative, to accountspayable, to receivables, to
salespeople, sales managers,sales trainers all of these
people and subcontractors right,we do have a lot of our own
in-house crews window crews,gutter crews and things like
(20:56):
that.
But we do have subcontractorstoo, that I don't want to forget
about them too, and with themon the forefront of my mind with
the organizational chart right,then I can keep them in mind.
For, you know, spring flingparties and events and stuff
which I know that we're due forsomething.
I don't know if we're going tostart working on the food drive
or if we're just going to kindof do like some kind of open
(21:17):
house networking, spring fling.
So if, david Bruner, if you'reout there listening to this
right now, and if you want to bea part of maybe hosting another
, you know networking, you know,but it just kind of keeps
everybody engaged and everybodycoming back and it just re
revigorates and rejuvenates theculture that we, we we've
strived so hard to create.
(21:38):
And culture goes into a lot.
You know the piece of of, oflegacy as well, you know, and,
and what I mean by that is likewe've had a lot of people come
into our organization, you know,and, and they become family,
they're, they're not employees,they, they're, they're family,
they're teammates, they, they'reco, co, co-members, co-leaders,
and you know most of them stay.
(22:02):
You know and, and.
Over the years, a couple ofthem left and and, and those
that that stay continue to grow.
You know, whether it'spersonally, professionally,
financially, you know they arenot the same people as it was
when they came here.
And if somebody does leave, atleast now they have the tools to
go.
And we've talked about thisbefore where it's like, I know,
(22:24):
when people come here they'renot the same person that they
were.
I know for a fact that I'vechanged.
I've grown immensely and again,that's what I'm talking about
Leading by example andcontinuously working on myself
so we can develop leaders, wecan build teams, we can create
legacies.
Even the people that work hereare creating legacies, like
(22:45):
Glenn, for instance.
You know, glenn.
Glenn has created such a legacyfor himself, whether he knows
it or not.
And again, I don't have to takethe blame, or the blame or the
credit for any of that, but Iwill take the blame,
unfortunately, when, when shitdoes hit the fan and that's the
difference between selfish,selfish leadership or servant
leadership, right, like we'rehere to serve, and when we can
(23:08):
keep that on the forefront ofour mind and don't get it
twisted.
I am not the most always giving.
I am not the most alwaysforgiving.
I don't always give grace whengrace is, or being empathetic
and things like that, and reallya lot of it has to do with
what's going on with the sixinches between my ears.
But again, that's where allthis personal development comes
(23:31):
from.
And I can tell you this, thething I'm not who I want to be,
but I'm definitely not who Iused to be.
And on a day-to-day, day-to-day,I review my day every night,
whether I want to or not,because it's just become a habit
for me to do a reflection uponmy day.
Where did I do well?
Where didn't I do those do sowell?
And the difference today for meis is I know almost
(23:53):
instantaneously when I'm notbehaving or acting or performing
very well.
That is the difference today.
So I am more apt and more proneto add an amend, correct my
actions immediately, because,let's face it, none of us are
put on this earth to feeluncomfortable or feel awkward or
(24:14):
feel weird or anything likethat, right?
So life is too short for us tonot be happy.
Wake up with a purpose andmotivation and achieve that goal
, whatever that goal is, I thinkwe should all have like this
one year, five year, 10 yeargoal, right.
What does it look like?
Where does behind the tool beltlook like in one year from now?
I'm you know, and that'sstarting to come to fruition
(24:36):
right now for Vic and I wheredoes it look like?
What does it look like in fiveyears from now?
Like these are all things youknow, and I'm not saying dwell
in the past or or live in thefuture.
You know, have one foot inyesterday and one foot in
tomorrow and pissing all overtoday, but that you should have
goals and you should have dreamsand you should have aspirations
, and most of that should affectand impact most people's lives
(25:01):
positively.
And when you can put that intoperspective and start working
that intentionally into yourlife, great things can happen.
You start, start, people startto gravitate towards you because
they want to be a part of that,they want to join a force that
is to be reckoned with and theyknow, when there's that positive
force, there's nothing, nothingthat you can't do, and I said
(25:27):
this to Kim the other day and Imight've mentioned this last
week, but it's like what I can'tdo by myself we can't do, and I
said this to Kim the other dayand I might've mentioned this
last week, but it's like, what Ican't do by myself, we can do
together.
Everything is we, even if I'mby myself, because it's not me.
It's it, whether it's the manupstairs or, or the force, the
universe or whatever the casemight be, it's not me.
I know for a fact I wouldn't behere If it was left to my own
(25:49):
devices.
I wouldn't be here today.
I know that, I know that I'm onborrowed time, I know that I
don't want to take that forgranted and I'm going to totally
take advantage of it and makethe biggest impact that I
possibly can.
And I've been given secondchances, so why wouldn't I give
second chances?
And I'm not saying and see,there's a fine line there too of
(26:14):
being taken advantage of toothat I've gone from both ends of
that spectrum where I've beencold hearted and I've been
overly generous and have beentaken advantage of.
But again, I think a lot ofthat was self-infl-inflicted
stuff, right, and it's so hardto kind of like, find that happy
medium where you're given justenough and not not ruining or
(26:37):
spoiling people and giving themenough room to grow, because
you're not giving them too much.
And, and I I practice this a lotwith with my children.
You know, rocket, we had afamily meeting the other day and
it's kind of like rock, I don'tmind doing these things, but
you're going to have to do X, yand Z around the house, right,
and?
And you know, because I don'twant to raise weak children
(26:59):
Right, so he's out, you know,cleaning the shed, he's building
things, and I'm asking himbecause now you know he he can
build stuff.
Now he's 16 years old and he'sgetting ready to get his
driver's license.
He's getting ready to get a car.
There's going to have to befuel put in that car, there's
going to have to be insurancespaid and things like that.
And over the summer he's goingto come work for us here at TC
Backer Construction.
But most urgently, he's got todo things around the house.
(27:24):
If he wants a skateboard and hewants these things and all
these pretty, pretty littlethings.
You know that sometimes we can'talways afford, you know, which
is also a good thing.
Like we, we can't afford thatright now.
Right, you know patience, he'sgoing to have to learn patience.
He's going to have to learntolerance, right, and and, and I
think you know he I know he'ssuch a great kid, mckenzie, you
(27:45):
know and and Jacob, jacob is hasturned out to just be an
outstanding citizen of society.
I mean, I think Jana and I havedone a great year, great, great
job with our kids and any otherparent.
You know, it takes a villageright, it really does.
When it comes to raisingchildren, it takes a village.
(28:07):
But I guess, getting back towhat I was alluding to earlier,
it's like what I can't do bymyself, we can do together, and
that is so important to not ruinit, because I am the only
person that can ruin this rightnow.
At any given day, I can show myass and go out there and just
remove responsibilities andcriticize people who I've
empowered, who I've encouragedto grow and and allowed them to
(28:30):
make mistakes over time.
All it would take is one dayfor me to go out there and show
my ass and and and don't get ittwisted I have done that.
But over the years I have builtwhat I like to call the trust
bank, every now and then that Ihave to take a withdrawal, but I
think I think for the most partthat I've.
I've, you know, made enoughdeposits where, if I do show my
(28:53):
ass where things don't go to.
You know.
Go to plan as as as accorded orhowever that that saying is, you
know, because sometimes it doesthings don't happen in our time
, like, for instance, this hasbeen a long winter for us.
We haven't experienced a winterlike this and our projections
were were BHAGs.
(29:13):
They were big, hairy, audaciousgoals, but I honestly feel like
we can still achieve them.
But we basically lost theentire first quarter of the year
and, being from South CentralPA, we we do get winters.
We usually get like a one ortwo week stretch where it's
below 30 degrees and nobody'sworking.
But it seems like for the pastthree months like it has just
(29:34):
been cold, it's been raining,it's been windy 40, 50, 60 mile
an hour winds and a lot ofpeople are like, well, that's
probably getting you more work,isn't it?
And it's like, yeah, but likewe can't even get out there to
do it.
You know the guys are workingone or two days a week but we
try to keep everybody busy with40 plus hours and that tends to
put a stress financially on thebusiness.
(29:55):
Yes, we had prudent reserve.
We lasted for four to sixmonths prudent reserve.
But when you start getting downand the overheads still up, it
creates stress right on thecompany and our revenue goals
weren't met.
Yet Now we're getting back ontrack, which we we knew, but
unfortunately that variable wecouldn't control.
(30:16):
All we could control was thevariables that we could control
and we did.
We did the best we could.
We cut some things back, um,our spending habits and things
like that, but we didn't knockon wood, have to lay anybody
else, anybody off, cut outanything that really affected
anybody.
A lot of it had to do with justthings that nobody really sees
(30:36):
other than, you know, a coupleof our people on our leadership
team and things like that.
And we actually were able topick up some really great people
my daughter, so totallygrateful Mackenzie big shout out
to Mackenzie, who's becomeKim's-hand woman.
We picked up Pete big shout outto Pete who is just a came from
(30:56):
a $1 billion company.
We were blessed to have him inin our regime because he is just
so fricking smart, right, andyou can't be afraid, can't be
afraid to bring smart people inyour circle, right, you can't,
you can't.
And this is the thing that Istruggled with too, especially
when I was younger.
I was terrified.
(31:17):
I was intimidated by bringingpeople or hanging out or going
places where I knew other people.
The people that were there weregoing to be smarter.
I mean, it's kind of like whata fricking, you know, what a lie
that I was telling myself.
You know, and and if I am thesmartest person in the room, and
(31:38):
if and if I'm the smartestperson in this building, I'm in
the wrong building.
I'm I'm at the wrong event,right, like I should not be,
cause if you know me, you knowthe only thing that I really
have going for me.
I mean and don't get me wrong Ihave common sense and I am
street smart and I have all thethings that it takes, the grit,
(31:59):
the resiliency, you know all thethings that that it takes to to
be a successful entrepreneurand have great impact on
people's lives.
But again, going back to you,I'm not a certified public
accountant, like Pete is right,he is definitely stronger in
that area than I am.
You know, vic, at this point intime, has has over exceeded not
(32:21):
not just my expectations but,like you know, one point in time
it was just this was an iPhoneeight, and then we brought Vic
in and not really necessarilycoming from the content creation
background, but but veryintelligent when it came to
audio and video.
Maybe maybe more so audiobecause he is a magnificent
(32:41):
musician, but hopefully I'veencouraged him enough and I know
, I know I have to become one ofthe greatest content creators
that I we know today.
You know, and, and, uh, youknow he's making it, making a
name for himself in in, in thisspace and, um, you know, slowly,
slowly but surely, um, you knowthere are some things and again
(33:03):
, that's getting back to thattopic of us switching things up.
The more that he learns, themore that I learn that you know
there is such things as viewerfatigue, that there are such
things as content fatigue andwhat got us here this five years
?
Right, it's not going to keepus sustainable or relevant for
another five years, zach.
It's okay that you're late,buddy, but thank you, thank you
(33:25):
for joining us and being asteady Eddiedie every week
coming in and coming out.
So, anyhow, um, I enjoy youguys if, if you haven't liked,
loved, subscribe to our youtubechannel.
Vick just got us on iheartradio.
We had enough downloads forthat, but we are still in need
of a thousand downloads beforeYouTube for Buzzsprout to
(33:52):
monetize us, so we need 1000more downloads.
So if you haven't downloadedany of these episodes yet,
please do that Episoded If youlike what you like what you see,
like what you hear, want tohear about a specific topic,
please, please, hit us up in thecomments here.
Bradley said he's going to be inBaltimore June 17th through the
(34:14):
20th.
I'll see if I can make a quicktrip up.
That would be great.
I don't know what days thatfalls on, but one of those days
has to be a Wednesday, I wouldimagine, and if not, it doesn't
really matter, because we'redoing more things outside of our
Wednesday content creation ofBeyond the Tool Belt podcast.
So maybe we can meet halfway,or maybe we'll even come down to
Baltimore to see you, jay, andcreate some kick-ass content and
(34:38):
see where you're at and howyou're impacting people's lives,
because I know your head's inthe right place, as Vic and I's
are, and everybody here, the TCBacker and Lead Scout family is.
So anyhow, I'm going to get offhere.
It looks like we're at about 30couple minutes into this and
we've also found that it's it'svery difficult for people to
listen, you know, for for acomplete hour.
(35:00):
So we want to make this moreviewer friendly, uh, listener
friendly, you know.
So, anyhow, I'm going to getoff here till next week.
We got, uh, bradley acres, whowill be our guest next week at
our regularly timed scheduledbehind a tool belt, 12 PM
Eastern standard time.
Brad will be zooming in and, uh, we're going to probably I know
(35:22):
for a fact that we're going tokick out some, some kick-ass
content.
So, until next week, like love,subscribe and share this with
anybody that you think might getsomething out of this.
Love you guys.
Thanks for hanging out.
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