Ep. 29 - Reclaim Your Time and Grow Your Business

When you've mastered your craft but your business owns your life, something's deeply wrong. Richard Walsh knows this firsthand – from digging trenches at $5/hour to building (and losing) a successful landscaping company during the 2008 crash, his journey reveals truths every blue-collar entrepreneur needs to hear.

The moment that changed everything? Watching his four-year-old chase his truck down the driveway in tears as he left for work. That's when Richard realized his business had become his identity, threatening not just his family relationships but his children's future. Today, as CEO of Sharpen the Spear Coaching, he helps contractors escape what he calls "the owner prison."

Most blue-collar business owners are stuck repeating the same two years over and over again for a decade – constantly on the hamster wheel of making payroll, selling the next job, and doing the finish work themselves. The culprit? No clear exit strategy, incomplete systems, and the inability to document their "inner genius" so others can run the business.

Richard shares his revolutionary approach to creating freedom while scaling profitability. You'll discover why most hiring attempts fail (hint: it's not the employee's fault), how to build systems that let A-players thrive, and the "Five F's" framework that brings balance to your life. Most importantly, you'll learn why "gross revenue feeds the ego, but profit feeds your family."

Whether you're struggling to make payroll or simply tired of missing your kid's soccer games, this conversation provides the roadmap to transform your business from a prison into a vehicle for freedom. Remember, you're building a legacy – but that legacy isn't your business, it's what you leave behind in people.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share.
Whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,

(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox, guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Blue Collar Business
Podcast brought to you by todayby podcastvideoscom.
I am sitting in one of theirlovely solo pod rooms bringing
you another episode of the BCBpodcast.

(00:50):
Today I have an interestingguest that has intrigued myself.
He has more accolades than Ithink I will achieve in my
lifetime, but the mindset thatwe both have about what we're
trying to do and trying to helpyou guys in the long run, we are
aligned in symmetry and rockingand rolling.

(01:13):
Let's just list off a few ofthese things that this man has
done.
Number one he's a US Marine.
He's a Golden Glove boxer, afather of six, always in three
years.
We're going to hear a littlebit about that.
Currently, though, the CEO ofSharpen the Spear Coaching and
you can find that atsharpenthespearcoachingcom.
I encourage you guys to gocheck it out.

(01:35):
This gentleman, from the briefamount of time I've had with him
, he started explaining a littlebit about his book and I
stopped him.
I said, hey, look, the showneeds to hear it.
Escape the owner prison.
So that's that middle game andI think we're going to hear a
lot about it today, guys, and asyou guys know, I love learning

(01:56):
right along with you, if you got, and from the blue collar
background.
This gentleman was aninternationally renowned water
feature guy in the landscape anddesign world back in the day,
let's say, and started offroofing contractor.
I mean, if that don't get anyblue-collar, then blue-collar
gets.
And I am so excited tointroduce to you guys Richard

(02:21):
Walsh, ceo of Sharpened SpearCoaching.
Sir, thank you so much forbeing here.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Si, thanks for having me, I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I'm really excited about today's show.
If you guys kind of loving whatI'm feeding you in this episode
, make sure you guys arechecking out
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
You can find all of theepisodes on there.
What's coming out, subscribe tothat newsletter.
If you're looking to be asponsor or you have a
sponsorship opportunity that ablue collar service or product

(02:51):
that you might want to get tothe right target audience, this
would be an awesome opportunity.
We would love to have you hit,become a sponsor on our website
and if you're listening on anyof Spotify, iheartheart, leave
us a rating and follow.
Furthermore, mr richard, thankyou so much for being here.
Sir, number one, thank you foryour service absolutely my

(03:15):
pleasure, my honor.
Uh, mr, mr richard, give us,give us the start out.
Where did all of this start?
Did we start in a roofing game?
Where was the service?
Give us a little bit of introand timeline and we'll kind of
go from there.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, marine Corps 83 to 87.
Got out in 87, started working,actually swinging a pickaxe,
digging trench for cable down inTucson Arizona for $5 an hour,
okay.
So yes, I'm dating myself, butI was able to pay for my
apartment, eat and drive a caror at least a bicycle, but $5 an

(03:56):
hour, right, and all that Right.
So I did that.
That's where it began.
Coming out, I had to work,obviously right.
So it was kind of funny becausesomeone walked out to me coming
out.
I had to work, obviously right.
So it was kind of funny becausesomeone walked out and we dug
this transfer cable to go tohomes and they wouldn't allow
equipment in there.
So you had to hand dig, ohRight, it really sucked.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
And it's like 100 degrees.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
No, the caliche Caliche is like concrete.
You can dig about 2 inches at atime with a pick, you know.
So I'm doing that.
18 inches deep.
You know about 12 inches wide.
Guy behind me with a crumbshovel cleaning it out, right,
and I'm just swinging that packpick all day because I can dig
right.
So I became a savage when a guycame out and said hey, I got a
side gig.

(04:35):
Would you be interested?
I need some work done.
I said, yeah, what do you got?
Because I got a pile of granite.
You know, I got like crushedgranite and stuff in the south
down there and and you use thatinstead of grass.
He goes, it's in the street.
I need it shoveled, put in thewheelbarrow, brought to the
backyard and spread so I can dothat.
Man, I do that all day.
So he had 35 tons of it.
So I said so I show up.
I spent my last $85 beforepayday, bought a wheelbarrow and

(04:57):
a shovel, started going, gotthere at 7 am, started shoveling
.
Ten hours later I'm done Right,moved this whole thing and that
guy came out and sighed he put$1,000 in my hand and I'm
looking at this going.
Dang, I did this yesterday for40 bucks.

(05:18):
I know my future.
I know I'm going to go in thelandscaping business.
If I do one of these a month,I'm making the same as I did
work in all the other hours.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
What year is this?
You'd say this is 87.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Okay, yeah, right, kind of 87, 88.
Started boxing at the same time, right, so I'm working, doing
the side gate, trying to getthat going.
Started boxing because I wantedto box.
Cool story.
You want to hear my first timein the ring story.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Please sir.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
So I was also working at a big college bar down in
Tucson called the Wildcat Houseand we had a doorman, big dude
kind of your size.
He's about 6'4".
He's about 240, 10% body fat.
South London kickboxingchampion, just a monster Mohawk
with the Harley Davidson wingstattooed on the side of his head
.
His name was Daveave.

(06:05):
We called him crazy dave, okay,okay.
So I hear he boxed.
I'm like dude, I want to box.
Okay, I'm out of mercury.
He goes.
Well, come on down to the gym,I'll box with you.
So we get down there, we gloveup, I get in the ring, the bell
rings, we're doing three minutes.
I start chasing him.
I can't leave a glove on him,can't?
Can't, a fool, right?
He's just slipping and movingand slipping and then he kind of

(06:27):
looks Pop, hits me with a jabright Like bam, right in.
My nose Breaks my nose.
Breaks the nose for a shot, I'mlike whoa and the blood is
pouring.
I'm like I'm okay, so I getgoing after him again.
Still can't lay a glove on him,okay, so he's looking and he's
looking again.
We're doing the same thing.
I'm like getting ready to movein Pop with the left hook.
Okay, he throws the left hookat me, slide my mouthpiece out

(06:51):
of my mouth, out of the ring andacross the gym.
Okay, I'm like whoa.
And this little kid ran up withit.
He went and got it off theground.
It's like full of hair and dirtand stuff and he's sticking my
mouth and I'm like I'm good.
I mean, I can't even move myjaws.
We get done with that round.
We're pretty much finished afterthe first round and I'm like,
oh man, I've got to blow my nose.
No, don't do that.

(07:11):
And I blow my nose and I've gotthe two big black eyes.
Okay, so I go to the bar.
I go.
I was sparring with Dave.
You can't do that.
I go.
Oh, I'm going back tomorrow.
I'm going to get better at this.
I'm in.
If you can't work here and looklike that, I go.

(07:31):
Then I'll quit.
You know, I said I'm going back,so that started the whole thing
.
I went every day and I'm in thering every day and I became
multiple state champion doingthe regional, all this stuff.
It was super cool until finally, seven breaks my nose actually
got detached from my face.
My cheekbone got broke in mylast gloves tournament I'm the

(07:53):
favorite.
Ten seconds in ten seconds ofthe first round.
This guy throws a cheesyuppercut.
Feels like he thumbs me in theeye, okay.
So I'm like dang, I can't feelthe left side of my face.
So I just took a knee right andhe's acting like he did
something.
All right, they count me out.
I go to the ring doctor, andthis is a testament to amateur

(08:13):
athletics.
So you got the doc.
He climbs up on the ring andhe's drinking like a scotch you
know plastic glass with ice, andI go doc.
I can't feel the side of myface.
He's like, yeah, he goes, youbroke your orbit, you know,
because this is all collapsed,my cheekbones all collapsed in
my face he's like here, and hefinishes his drink, it's got the
ice in the cup.
He says put this on it, holdthis cup of ice on your eye and

(08:37):
go to the hospital.
I'm like, okay, so I climb out,I got the ice, I get in my
truck and I drive to the ER.
Look at me, and this wholeplace was full.
It was at this big resort andit was packed.
All these tables, georgeForeman was there and stuff.
I mean it was really cool, butso much for me and that was the
end of my boxing career.

(08:58):
Oh my God.
So, then I really focused onbusiness because I had no other
options.
So then I really focused onbusiness because I had no other
options.
Okay, so I did expand that.
I took the landscaping business, running the custom water
features, really saw that as anearly niche and what was really
doing it?
I'm like this is me.
I'm into rocks and water.
I'm like I'll make this.
So I moved back to Chicago withthat and ended up scaling that,

(09:20):
did really great, won all theawards.
I was published Incorporatedsteel sculpture with that Right
Real ornamental stuff.
I was doing world-classexhibits for that.
You know I had a piece onMichigan Avenue commissions from
the Shedd Aquarium.
I did a Garfield ParkConservatory.
I'm, you know, doing thesecutting-edge exhibits and
everything was really great.
I was killing it.
You know, I got married.

(09:41):
That was really great.
And then we had six little kidsin three and a half years and
that was really great.
It was cool.
I was really tired, okay.
And now we're creeping into 08.
Okay, so here comes 2008.
And November 5th of 2008, dayafter the election.
I lost a half a million dollars.
On that day.
Phones started ringing, peopleare canceling, they're dropping

(10:04):
out, I'm like.
And then I hang up the phone, Ilook over my office manager.
I'm like I think it's over.
I think we might be done Livethrough part of 09.
Okay, going through it, I'm likeit's just not happening.
No one was spending money.
They certainly didn't need awaterfall.
They could wait, okay, or asculpture.

(10:26):
So now I'm like the funny thingwas like I was doing really
great with the work.
I made beautiful things.
I'm getting tons of money,whatever I wanted, because no
one could do what I do.
I'm making this, I'm gettingall the awards, I'm on magazines
, I'm in shows, I'm on TV.
I'm doing all this great stuff,not really paying attention to

(10:46):
the business side.
Just hey, I need money.
I go make more money, that'sright.
I just 50,000 for a skin serum.
I got that.
Here you go, man, debt-freebaby.
You know.
40,000 for a website?
No problem, 40 grand.
It was back.
You know, I just shut thewebsite down a week after they
finished it because I didn'tactually want to use it.
Oh, so I'm just sharing mylevel of stupid at the time.

(11:10):
Okay had some brilliant clients, billionaire clients, super
high-end guys offer me advice.
You think I took it.
Go out on a limb here and thinkif I took the advice.
Of course I didn't, of course,right, because what do they know
about water features?
They're just billionaires.
They just own professionalsports teams and manufacturing

(11:31):
plants and stuff like that.
They don't know anything aboutwater features.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
I know about water features.
I'm laughing with you because Iknow exactly what you're
talking about.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
We're the best at what we do.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's what we think.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, that's what we think, right.
No one works this wrench likeme, okay.
So, basically I'm like over$600,000 in debt.
All of a sudden, right for allthe reasons, and I go to my big
client and I say I sit down withhim and go listen, here's the
issue.
And he looks at it.
I'm with my CPA, we're there,we're talking to him.
He goes straight.

(12:03):
He's my favorite client, bestguy, just a wonderful human
being, right, self-made guy.
And he looks, he goes.
Listen, if this was like 50 or100 000, I would.
I just write you a check.
He said but it's 600 000.
He goes you know what you'regonna do?
I said no, that's why I'm here.
And he goes you're gonna filebankruptcy.
And I go oh yeah, I can't dothat.

(12:24):
And he goes you're going tofile bankruptcy.
And I go oh yeah, I can't dothat.
And he goes why not?
He goes because I can't screwmy vendors.
These guys are all taking careof me.
So here's my mindset, right,I'm like I'm that guy.
I'm like I'm not going to dothat.
He goes well, listen, he goes.

(12:47):
But if you do, I think I canpay it back.
Yeah, I think I got stuffcoming.
I can work.
I mean I can do this.
He's like okay, let's say youcan, so you file bankruptcy
today, you're at zero.
Now, if you make $600,000, likeyou're going to pay them back,
what are you going to have?
$600,000 in cash?
Yeah, then you go.
There's nothing illegal aboutit.
And I went, huh, I can't dothat, I'm not going to do that.
But here's the second sad partof the story.

(13:09):
I paid them all back.
I made the 600, right, yeah,cool, right.
And then 08 came.
If I would have just had onenormal year, I would have been
fine.
But I went from that to zeroagain and like, um, yeah, I'm

(13:31):
done.
Yeah, so we had.
I lost my home, I lost thebusiness, I had to sell
everything for 20 cents on thedollar.
You know, brand new call thisstuff it was.
And then we had to move andstart over.
And what am I going to do?
Right, so?
So that kind of brings us tothat time period.
But there's an even bigger thingthat you're going to relate to
this side, because I woke up onemorning, you know, near the end

(13:54):
here.
So this is early 09 and I'mlike I started thinking about my
six little kids, you know who.
When I came home, they all runand crawl to me and attack me.
They just want to be with me.
And one day, when I was leaving, my four-year-old was like,
chasing me down the driveway,crying, chasing my truck right.
So I'm like I'm looking at himin the rearview mirror.
But hey, I got a business tosave.

(14:15):
You know, I can't stop.
So I just watched him getsmaller and smaller and I went
off to work.
I, I went off to work.
I'm like you know, my kidsdon't care how many trucks I
have, what kind of truck I drive, what kind of house we live in,
how big or small my business is.
They just wanted me around.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
But my business had become who I was, so that
identity became Rick Rock.
That was my company, that's whoI was.
Right, I get out of bed I saidyou know what, if I stay down
this path, where business isfirst, this is all that matters,
I'm going to destroy theirlives, their futures.
They're going to have brokenmarriages, failed relationships.

(14:59):
Right, they might be good atbusiness, but everything else in
their life will be trash.
That's right Because of what Idid, not what I said, because
more is caught when they'retaught with kids.
Ooh, that's good man so all theyknow is they're going to look
at what dad did.
They might be 30, going into ahard time.
They're going to do what I did,not what I told them to do,
yeah.
So I walked in the office thatday, said we're done today, went

(15:26):
to my yard and told my guyslook, guys, this is our last cup
of coffee together, dude.
10 years they've been workingfor me.
Best guys ever, dude.
We were like family.
These guys were the greatestwe're ever.
Just what a team Like.
They were just amazing in everyaspect.
Homeowners would comment on howamazing it was just to watch
them work.
That's how good we were.
And I'm like I can't.

(15:47):
I can't do this anymore.
I can't let what I do becomewho I am.
So I'm not starting over.
I have to leave all this behind.
Now my friends, even my wife,were like you make a lot of
money doing this.
You still can do it again.
I'm like I can't because ofwhat it is it becomes.

(16:10):
Make a lot of money doing this,you still can do it again.
I'm like I can't because ofwhat it is it it becomes who I
and I can do it.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
So I like well, what are you gonna do?
I have no idea.
Yeah, I had to figure it outright, but you chose them over
the business.
Yeah, I had, I can recognizethat 100 bro.
I struggled very hard in myfirst five, six years like, oh
my god, I can relate to thatyeah, it's.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
And and you figured it out though, you made that
choice.
We talked about it off air.
Man, when you make that choice,I'm telling you you'll never,
because people I do a lot ofpodcasts, right and people say,
well, what's your legacy?
And I'm like, well, it's notbusiness.
They're like it's not, no, it'smy children.
They're who carry on the legacy.

(16:45):
What I instill in them, how Iteach them, how I train them,
what we do, what I demonstrate,that's the legacy Business, man.
I could start a business allday long.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Man, I've had three you know, working on my mother's
fourth.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yeah, so it's like you know.
So what was I going to do?
I said, well, you know what I'mgoing to do something I love.
I want to do something I reallylike to do, but I want control
of my time.
So I'm not owned by thebusiness, right.
So I wanted that.
So I said I love trainingpeople, I love fitness, I'm
really good at it, I'm a boxer,I'm a black belt, I'm all this
stuff, right.
So I'll go be a trainer.

(17:19):
So I went to an anytime fitnessand they needed a trainer and I
became a trainer and a yearlater, guess who's trainer of
the year?
Me, okay.
So what does that make anentrepreneur do?
Go open a gym.
So, I opened a gym boot campstyle training, hired all
Marines dude Wearing blouse,boots, dude and the black shirts

(17:39):
, hats and everything.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
It was awesome.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I built a whole system for body weight exercise
and like a belt progressionthing.
I did that for like five years.
It was great, right, scale that.
But now I'm like, okay, this isfun, they're doing all the
stuff.
I'm pretty free, let's get inthe contract.
Let's do roofing contract.
I kind of like this.
I think I like it.
You know, roofing, siding,windows, watched that, did it

(18:02):
again.
It was really great.
A lot of fun Did.
The sub made some good money.
And then that's when I startedtalking to other business owners
Because like, well, how did yougo from all that to nothing to
this and back to here?
How'd you do that?
So I started mentoring guys.
But the thing I started seeingCy is, pattern after pattern

(18:25):
after pattern, the same pattern.
They're all stuck in the ownerprison.
They're all owned by theirbusiness.
Right, they're on the hamsterwheel.
And here's how it looks.
Real quick, you start abusiness.
Guess what you're going to doWork really hard.
No secret sauce around thatHaven't found.
It doesn't exist.
You're going to bust your hump.
You're going to wear a lot ofhats.
You're going to do it all.
That's the game, that's part ofit, okay, but here's the problem

(18:48):
Two years goes by of doing allthat.
The next thing you know, 10years goes by and you've
repeated the first two yearsfive times, 100%.
You're on the wheel.
Yep, you got to show up, yougot to unlock the door, you got
to do the finish work, you gotto get out there.
You got to sell the job Right,you got to keep the guys busy,

(19:08):
you got to make payroll.
Yeah, right, that's the patternin.
Like every business I talk toMm-hmm, especially guys in the
trades, mm-hmm Okay, and serviceconstruction, all to write.
I think I'll write a book.
So I started working on thisbook.
I'm going to put my story in it, I'm going to read my story and
I'm going to do all thesebecause I'm seeing they're

(19:29):
missing all the fundamentals.
Their businesses suffer reallybecause they don't have the
fundamentals.
It's like if you don't practicea free throw, you do it one way
and you do it the same wayevery single time and you do it
the same way every single time,right, they're not doing these
things.
So let's weave that in with mystory and I'll make this book.
And I had 27 working titles formy book.

(19:50):
Okay, I'm trying to figure outthe good titles, the title is
everything right.
The cover is what sells the book, the title is what sells it, so
not loving any of them.
I'm at a track meet withanother friend who's a business
owner.
He's got a good-sized business,real successful, and I said I
go, troy, what do you think?
I got a new one, escape theOwner Prison.
And he looks at me and he goesthat resonates.

(20:12):
I go done, that's the name.
So now it's Escape the OwnerPrison.
That was hard enough.
Now I have to come up with asubtitle, which is even harder.
But I came up with acontractor's new way to scale,
regain, control and fast-trackgrowth while loving life.
Wow, it's a beautiful thing andI'm like this is what I want,
this is it?

Speaker 1 (20:32):
That's what contractors want.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
That's it right, we all do right.
So I published it.
It became a bestseller in like10 categories on Amazon Really
cool.
So I got all that and I builtan academy around it to coach
people.
I'm like mentoring is fun, butyou know that's free.
Coaching coaches get paid.
So I'm an entrepreneur, I needto get paid, so you need some

(20:56):
skin in the game.
You're going to improve, you'regoing to pay.
So that started going, thenwent through a few iterations
and now we're at Sharpen theSpirit Coaching the last couple
years.
Really, that started going,then went through a few
iterations and now we're atSharpen the Spirit coaching the
last couple of years Reallygrowing, just helping people in
great ways, helping them find,recover, lost profits they
didn't even know were missing,right, really getting into how
to keep your money, how to runyour business, how to create
that freedom, that quality oflife you got in the business for

(21:18):
, like, yeah, you're making moremoney, don't get me wrong, most
guys get in and make a littlemore money.
But they never reached thefreedom level.
Right, they can't not go towork, they can't disappear for a
week or a four-day weekend,they can't not call in, right
that kind of stuff.
So that became the whole thing,like, how do we build that, how

(21:39):
do we create that?
And that's kind of where we'reat.
That's what I do.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Man, what a story.
My guy Condensed version I knowthere's probably plenty, but I
want to jump on something yousaid.
It's funny, this is like thethird or fourth episode that we
have talked about legacy.
Linkedin a couple months agoalmost changed my life and it's,

(22:07):
you know, I had the sameconcept of legacy.
It's like, oh, you know thisbusiness, everything's just I've
got to leave something behindand this is what they're going
to do.
And I always concerned withthis legacy and I'm like I read
this post and it was legacy isnot what you leave behind, it's
what you leave behind in peopleand I'm like, oh, that's for my
kids, number one, that's for myteam, my leadership, like

(22:30):
everybody that's helped me getto where I'm at mentor, like I
want to be able to, you know,instill my little piece of
legacy in their lives, likethat's, that's your purpose,
that's.
And to hear the amount ofpeople you know talking about
your team, the 10 guys standingthere, dude, I hit in my stomach
when you're sitting theretalking about that, because it

(22:51):
wasn't too long ago that I wasweighing the same kind of, you
know, as we went through ThankGod it's not as bad as 08, but
the same economic decisions ofoh, my God, what are we going to
do?
Same economic decisions of ohmy God, what are we going to do?
Because I'll be.
I'll tell them myself and Itell them myself constantly on
the show man.
My focus was exactly like youare in the water feature

(23:12):
business, and don't get me wrong, I'm still young, I'm figuring
this out and education isexpensive.
But experience is priceless andyou're going to learn with your
own money by making mistakesand you know well if you're in
the underground game or you'retrying to move water or anything
in the skilled trades is,usually you know you put the

(23:32):
outlet in the wrong spot or youknow, whatever the case may be,
it's never, never inexpensive orcost effective with your time
or your money and you've got tomake that customer happy.
But that legacy piece, but thethe owner mindset man is.
You're talking about workingwithin the business and I think

(23:54):
a lot of guys get confused withworking in the business and
working on the business andthere is two different
categories.
And, yes, there is times thatyou have to work within the
business, but trying to figureout your free time for your kids
or just like you were saying,take a four day vacation like a
weekend, just a long weekend.

(24:14):
I can relate to that so hard.
I would stress, richard, Iwould stress so freaking hard
for a month, because I know mywife wanted to take Thursday,
friday and go camping in July.
And why?
Why should she have to feellike she's ripping her husband
away?
And I don't want her to feellike that.

(24:35):
You know what I mean.
Nor do I want my kids to feellike that, and I will.
But when I'm there, I want tobe prepared enough that I feel
like I can set it aside, but I'malways wearing too many dang
hats because I haven't figured.
Anyways, it's this hamster wheel, just like you said, dude, and
you climb on this hamster wheeland you just keep going, oh, I

(24:57):
can do this and this will fixthat, and I can do that and
it'll fix this.
But you don't ever grab theconcept of hey, man, you're
standing in your own way, startasking for a little bit of help,
either from a coach likeyourself or a fractional project
management lady, or whatever itmay be.
But we just automatically justthink, oh, I can do it, or I can

(25:21):
do it, you're the businessowner.
Well, yes, you can do it, butdo you need to be doing it for
the business, for you, yourfreaking time, your time with
your family, and that leads usto like the perfect first point.
And who better to hear fromthan yourself?
But what do you think the realreason that business is robbing

(25:43):
these guys of the free time butalso showing little profit in
the bank account, just like thehamster wheel I've lived in for
so many years.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Well, I think what is the main reason?
Is, man, I'm going to tell you,it's going to seem totally
counterintuitive, but there's noexit strategy.
They haven't gone to the end.
They didn't.
As Stephen Covey said, theydidn't begin with the end in
mind.
Okay, because if you have anend and here's the end, cy Okay,

(26:15):
I want to do this for 10 yearsand sell it for $10 million,
whatever, that's the end, cy.
Okay, I want to do this for 10years and sell it for $10
million, whatever, that's yourend.
Okay, good, now reverseengineer that.
What's it going to look like?
How do you get there If theyknow that they know when to hire
the first person, the secondperson, the fifth person, they
know where they're going, theyknow the targets they need to
hit as they go along.
Otherwise it's let's get thepayroll on Friday.

(26:37):
Let me close this.
Let me get another draw.
Let me get to this point in thisjob so I can make payroll.
Let me get this.
Let's get a new job so I canpay for the last job.
That's right, let's be honest.
We've all been there right.
I got to close a deal and get adeposit check so I can pay for
the last job you know what Imean which works until it

(27:01):
doesn't right, until you haveone bad month.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
And then you're done, you're finished, right.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Right, exactly, then you're done, done.
But, yeah, it's really that.
And when you understand whereyou're going, now you can
forecast, now you can reallyunderstand what you need and
where you need it and when youneed it.
It's a critical element,because here's your goal, to
just piggyback on.
This is my goal with clients isto get to the point where

(27:26):
they're focused on the 5% of thebusiness.
Only they can do Okay, becausethere are things that only you
can do.
You're the visionary.
You know where you want to go,you know how much you want.
You know all this stuff.
Only you can make thosedecisions and steer this ship.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Right, 5%.
That means 95% of your businessis self-running by others, with
systems, with processes,everything else.
So I'll take you to the nextstep.
You're at the end.
You're negotiating your $10million.
It's been 10 years.
Here comes Cy in to buy yourbusiness.
Okay, you're a really goodnegotiator.

(28:05):
You actually get 10-5,.
Okay, cy paid.
He's a sucker.
He writes the check for 10-5,.
Right, you can shake Cy's hand.
Cy's in, you're out.
Nobody knows the business soldBecause that's how well your
business runs.
That's a business thatsomeone's going to pay 10-5 for.
They don't have to do anythingNow.
They grab market share.

(28:26):
That's worth it.
Right, there's an investment.
In the future they can tweak itand change it.
But if you're not operating nowto build that, even if you
don't sell it, you're going tohave a business that operates
like that, and that's where yourfreedom comes from.
Right.
Excuse me, that's where you'regoing to get the time with the
family.
Yeah, remember, money isreplenishable.

(28:47):
You can always make more money.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Money is a tool to buy time.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
That's right Time.
You can't.
That's right.
In your kid's first soccer gameyou got a son or a daughter
first soccer game, scores theirfirst goal, gets the breakaway,
scores the first goal and you'reswinging a hammer on the job
site because someone didn't showup and you got to have this
done today to get a draw.
You never get that back.

(29:13):
When your kid scores turns,looks on the stands for you.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
What's that worth?
Yeah, is that worth that?
No, is that worth that?
Poor, poor planning andinability to finish the job, not
having the money, not being,you know, and I'm being I'm not
trying to be a jerk here becausewe've all done this.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
No, you're being real brother.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
But it's like I don't want to miss that your child
will never forget that.
Want to miss that.
Your child will never forgetthat, ever, no man.
And if that's the only thebeginning, imagine if you don't
get this fixed now.
It's the recital.
It's the weekend.
I had a client's wife talk tome.
I'm in about four months ago.
I've been working on for a fewyears uh, remodeler and she goes

(29:55):
richard, I never thought thiscould happen.
Eight years he's been inbusiness.
We just spent a week at thebeach with all five kids.
He was never on the phone.
Totally present, totallypresent.
This is the.
This is amazing and I'm likethat's why I do what I do.

(30:15):
Yeah, man, I saved a family.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
You know we're saving family Cy.
I do what I do.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, man, I saved a family.
You know we're saving family,cy, that's what we do.
We help people with this stuff.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
And that's the ultimate goal, man Right, and
you've hit a couple hammer andnails together here because
you've figured out that numberone there's a need for,
especially in the skilled tradeand blue collar world.
Why do these guys start thesereoccurring businesses from one
to three years?
Because they don't know how toget out of the three-year mark

(30:47):
and survive.
Something happens, whatever itmay be, but nobody.
Everybody, just like theexperiences I've had hey, you're
here and you need to be here,man.
So when you get here, let usknow.
Nobody's connecting those dots,nobody's putting a stairway or
drawing a highway to get youthere.
They don't even.
They're not even willing tohelp most guys in the contractor

(31:13):
side and competition.
They ain't even willing to tellyou about what works they might
be grabbing this year orthey're not going to let you
know how they got here.
Business wise and I receive alot of hate for that, but
locally for sure.
But I wanted to come back totwo things that you just said.
No exit strategy which isderanged from a plan, which is

(31:38):
deranged from goals.
You got to know where you'regoing, and I'm talking to myself
here because I can't tell youand it kind of these two points
kind of coincide here.
It wasn't that long ago that I'msitting here going, man, I
haven't, like, dreamed or gotany vision and I'm starting to

(32:00):
lose focus of the dream.
Anytime that the top stopsvisioning or dreaming, there is
alarm bells that should be goingoff in everybody's world that
guy's either overworked or he'snot getting enough time wherever
he needs it, et cetera.
But that can't happen.

(32:21):
If he stops dreaming,everything's going down the
tubes.
And, trust me, I lived it.
But from that point and momentI sat with my wife and I'm like,
look, I was begging her.
Hey, give me what your goalsare for this year.
I turned around just this lastyear.
I sent it out to my entireleadership team hey, I want to
know your personal goals.

(32:41):
I want to know yourprofessional goals.
I want to know where you wantto be in the business in a year.
I want to know where you wantto be with your home family,
like 15, and I paid my guys offfor two weeks, from Christmas to
New Year's, kind of.
In that time frame Cities arenever open, they're taking
vacations.
So and they kind of razzed me alittle bit oh, you give us two

(33:02):
weeks off and then you give usan essay to write.
It's like being back in school,but I can't tell you what that
did for me, richard, is thisyear.
I'm moving more now, with now, Iunderstand the freaking
importance of having small goals, small plans and detailed plans
, direct plans to get to thisbig picture that you're trying

(33:24):
to get, which is, like you'resaying, that exit strategy, the
end mark.
What is that end mark, sir?
I have no idea what it is forPsyCon.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I've got some differentvariations that I've now planned
put in place and we're movingtowards.
But at the same time, mostblue-collar guys are like well,
man, I hope I get that job thatold Johnny told me about last

(33:46):
November.
Man, that'd be big for the year.
You know what I mean.
That we're just all trying toget to that next Friday, get to
the next year and go from there.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, really important, and you're 100% spot
on with exactly what you said.
The goals are important, right,I've even broken it down.
We've changed the name of themto targets.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Hey, I like that.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Because you don't hit a goal.
You hit a target and it's gotthat little red dot in the
middle and that's what we'regoing for.
So that gives us something.
And they're a shorter rangeright, targets are going to be
at a shorter range.
Goals are way that's thetwo-mile shot where you've got
to take into the rotation of theearth to compensate for the
bullet drop.
Those are really hard to get,yeah.
But a target that's 50 yardsout, okay, 20 yards out, 100

(34:35):
yards out, I can hit those allday.
That's right, right, with botheyes, right.
So I want to make sure that Iunderstand that.
So sometimes you've got to justredefine it and what it is.
But it's like you're sayingfirst you have to know how much
is enough.
How much is enough?
Because some people John DRockefeller said just $1 more.

(34:59):
Okay, he was never satisfiedwith money.
Oh, he wanted more and more andmore.
Go ahead, try to live that life.
Okay, how much is enough?
You need to quantify thatnumber.
I don't care what the number is, quantify it.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
And if you know your cost well enough, you shouldn't
anyhow.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
What.
You reverse engineer it Now.
You know how to get there.
You should, anyhow.
You reverse engineer it Now youknow how to get there.
Right, Because you have anumber, Not.
Oh, I'd love to make $10 or $20million.
Well, which is it?
$10 or $20?
There's a bit of a differencethere.
Okay, Like there's years inbetween there, probably right.
So if you want to get out in $10, $20 might not be the thing, or

(35:39):
20 might not be the thing, ormaybe it is, you know, but I'm
just saying so it's, it's.
You're exactly right.
It's really important that wereally understand, as
technicians, as craftsmen, aspeople who are good at what they
literally do, they can do itbetter than the guy they're
working for and that's why theystarted a business.
Okay, we have to understand,the sooner we do the better that
we can't be doing the work.

(35:59):
I don't care how good you canbend sheet metal, I don't care
how good you can weld.
Okay, we can't do it.
We have to work on the business.
And where are you going to doit?
Guys, like us, I call it timecompression.
I will put 10 years into one.

(36:22):
I will save you 10 years ofcostly mistakes, bad decisions
and possible complete businessfailure, because I've been there
.
I did the failure for you.
I failed for you.
Now you don't have to, becauseI can tell you exactly what
you're doing and why you'regoing to fail.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
And if you just do do this and you're good.
Isn't it funny, richard, thatguys like myself and yourself we
hear these comments of, ohthey're, they're trying to be
more podcast influencers thanthey are businessmen, and I'm
like I've heard that comment acouple of times and I'm like,
guys, if you even obviouslynever listen to the show, I'm

(36:59):
like, guys, if you, you'veobviously never listened to the
show, the only reason I sit infront of this microphone and
bring people like yourself isbecause there's there's not
hardly any resources.
And I'm going to sit here anddiscuss what I've done wrong and
my failures because I don'twant them to freaking do it and
have to live through the painand agony and miss those moments
with my kids and not prioritize.
And and as sooner you figure itout, the sooner profitability

(37:20):
stacks, the sooner your lifeequals to financial freedom.
And we're going to get to that.
But real quick, guys.
If you've been loving this,there's 25 plus episodes now at
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
You can watch or listendirectly from the website right
there.
But, mr Richard, before we goany too far here, I want I don't

(37:42):
want to go too far.
We've been hitting around aboutit, about these processes and
procedures and you know,balancing hiring to when to hire
, and we've already talked abouta little bit about the plan and
targets, of where we're tryingto go with this said thing.
But talk about some of themaybe one, two, three pointer

(38:05):
keys of what do you see yourcommon, I guess, coaching member
runs into, or folks like myselfthat you see that are making
the same mistakes and you justwant to grab them and you're
like dude, just put this inplace.
I know it's not important toyou, I know you think the next
job is important, but withoutthis you're hosed.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
So here's what it is Okay and I'm going to talk about
.
We're going to hire someone,right?
I need help.
I'm busy, I'm doing 10estimates.
I need help.
I'm going to hire a guy.
I got a guy he said he's donethis stuff.
Okay, put him on the job site,have him work.
He's done stuff.
Okay, tell him what to do forthe day and he kind of does it,
or he doesn't do it and hedoesn't know.

(38:54):
This guy's a clown and you firehim.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Okay, and you got to start over again and get someone
else, and I'm going to explainwhy this happens and I'm going
to tell you how to fix it.
Okay, he didn't fail, youfailed.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Okay, Now we get that .
I'm a big start to the top.
I was just talking to a CEO ofa company.
They just built a $400 millionexpansion.
Oh my gosh.
Okay, he's a personal investorin this stuff, the CEO, and I'm
going to whisper he shouldn't bethe CEO, okay.

(39:29):
He should be watching his money.
Okay, ain't nothing happeningthere, right?
No, but here's what these guysare having.
You come on the jobs.
I don't care what level you are.
Skilled worker, I don't care ifyou're pushing a broom, yeah,
you're taking out the trash here.
You got to do this.
There's three categories.
When you hire someone, you havetheir position.
Okay, right, that's who theyare Office manager, trim

(39:52):
carpenter, plumber, whatever he,plumber, whatever he's,
finisher, whatever it is right.
Okay, good, that's the positionTitle.
Yeah, doesn't really have a lotof relevancy, okay, but there
it is.
The next thing is what they do.
It's called job functions.
You need to lay out every jobfunction they're responsible for

(40:12):
, and I don't care if it's everythird Wednesday, for 10 minutes
, they got to submit a report.
Yep, that's a job function.
It could be 13, could be 37things.
That's what they do Veryspecifically.
This is what you do.
The next column is how you doit.
Okay, here's how you do each ofthese functions.
Now there's a third column thateverybody leaves out, and

(40:35):
that's the training of the how.
Okay, how do you train?
Because everyone's not going toknow all your job functions.
They may have done seven of the10, 12 of the 20, but they
don't know them all, they don'tknow the psi way of doing it.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Okay, everyone's done .
I do that all the time.
Well, not like I do it becauseI'm the best Right.
Okay, I'm the best right, justask me, I'm the best.
So, not like I do it becauseI'm the best right.
Okay, I'm the right, just askme, I'm the best.
So I must do it differently.
I'm gonna do it my way, okay,which is fine.
So we got to build it out forthem to follow and you have to
train them in your way, becauseit was what they want to do is

(41:12):
what no one wants.
You know what no one wants.
No one wants a mystery job.
No one wants to show up and notknow what's going to happen,
but they live with that all thetime.
Yeah, you know, they createtheir own chaos, but no one
wants it.
If I'm the sales guy, I'm an Aplayer.
I close deals and I come toyour company and you're like,
yeah, I need something.

(41:32):
So why don't you build out asales system?
I don't know whatever you usein your other, can you do that
here and do this?
I'm going to go.
Yeah, I'm out.
All I want to do is come and Iwant to close deals.
I want you to drop me in thesystem.
Give me a ball and say there'sthe goalpost and I can run for
the goalpost.
But if I got to come in and dealwith so-and-so and this person,

(41:55):
this person, you don't have asystem, you don't have a product
list, you don't have anything.
I can't succeed.
Why would any A player come toa hot mess like that?
They're not going to.
But once you build it out, getit done, you can drop that great
A player in and he's going tomake you money.
Yep, he's going to close deals,he's going to feed his family,

(42:16):
he's going to feed your family.
Everybody's going to be happy.
That goes for every position inthe company.
It's hard work that guys don'twant to do because they're busy
out working right, and theydon't have time to build that
which again back to coaching isa great place when you bring
someone in who can build it outwith your team.
If you have someone in thesales position, you bring

(42:36):
someone in to build it outaround them.
It doesn't mean it's focused onthem, but we build it.
So now they can work within thesystem.
Your office manager, same thing, right.
Your suppliers, whatever thatlooks like.
Everything needs a system and aprocess.
It needs to be able to functionwithout you.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
Dude, I got to jump on a few points here because,
man, you are like talking aboutme right now because two, three
years ago me I'm likeconcentrating on this and this
and this and this and this andI'm just expecting everybody
around me to understand my pointof view.

(43:14):
And this is of course.
This is how we've always doneit.
Just get on board.
It's just of course.
This is how we've always doneit.
Duh, just get on board andalways looking through this
owner lens and never lookingthrough the employee lens.
And they want to help ownerlens through the employee lens,
but you've got to lay someconnecting dots for them to
follow and job descriptions andtitles and positions.

(43:35):
They're important, Like jobdescriptions of what this person
is setting up day one.
What's he going to do?
Don't just oh well, we need acouple extra people.
Why Does your number support it?
Did you bid a few more guys?
Because you're expecting more.
Why do you need more people, CyKirby?
Because you feel like you'restacking a bunch of contracts.

(43:57):
Are you really stacking a bunchof contracts?
Are you really stacking a bunchof contracts?
And when they get here, whatare they all going to do?
Take time.
So the first one I did hoppingon this little, I guess ranch
brands and tangents and I'lltell myself was my sales guys.
I literally brought a sales guyin because I had an estimator

(44:18):
in the earthwork game and thisis a totally different subject
and utility game and undergroundtechnology is just moving in so
fast and it's just reallymaking everything so efficiently
and streamlined.
Like projects that would takethree weeks to build by hand,
Now we can do in literally fourhours and have the

(44:38):
quantification.
So Estimator was reallyfrustrated because, number one,
we're trying to drive more work,because who doesn't want to do
that?
Of course, but at the same timeI want him to learn these
programs to become moreefficient so we can take on this
more work.
But he needs a little bit oftime.
Well, I, I, as an operationsmanager at Sycon, I need more

(45:02):
contracts and I need more jobsand I need more sales
opportunities.
So I was trying.
It was just such a frustratingcompound situation because and
that's my first ever employeeLike I respect this guy, this
guy helped me, he dug ditches,he put in pipe himself, Like I
respect what he's got to say.
And he came to me in my officeone day and he said look, I just

(45:23):
need a little time, that's allI need and I'm like okay, thank
you for coming.
He was frustrated beyond allfrustration and I just let him
know hey man, All right, let memull this over, Let me chew on
this.
We talk with Sarah and figureout who's.
I would be nowhere withoutthank God for my wife but

(45:45):
literally go back to her kind ofroll, this run, this kind of
scheme through about where we'retrying to go, where we're
trying to get, and give youenough time to empower yourself,
to feel confident.
These are the numbers, this isestimation, this isn't something
we can play around with.
And so, IE, I went and found anA player and, thank God, shout

(46:08):
out to Mr Heath coming in.
And I didn't have a salesdepartment brother in the
underground utility game, yougot an estimator, Okay, and most
folks have just overworkedtheir estimator.
They don't ever think to addthat sales piece in to maybe
start getting ahead, let alonejust keep your head above water.
So thank God I did.
He comes in, completely, killsit.

(46:30):
But job descriptions and layingout for these two guys about
where this clear line was who'stalking to who.
But number one had to figurethat out, so I literally put a
nine or 13 page document calledthe sales Bible and I said I
literally I was on an airplanetype this document up and I

(46:52):
literally just spewed my brainout onto paper about how I take
a sales opportunity in at mylevel, how I would talk to the
customer.
Here's this situation, or thissituation I would be in.
These driving factors woulddrive this Built a go no-go
matrix.
They did, actually, and broughtto me and I gave this document

(47:13):
to them and I said, hey guys,this is my head on paper.
This is how I want deals to betreated, this is the timeliness
I want to get the info back perwhatever variable and parameters
.
But we've got to improve ourcommunication.
And they, freaking, owned itand ran with it, Came back to me
in two weeks and they're like,hey, look, we're getting so many

(47:35):
opportunities because ofmarketing.
Guys, Don't skip the marketing.
I understand it's a totallydifferent subject for another
day, but they came to me andthey're like, hey, we're getting
so many opportunities.
We have got to figure out howto really find a funnel before
the sales funnel and we need aCRM.
So we set all that up.
Anyways, they built this gono-go matrix of the contractor,

(47:57):
the engineer who drew theproject, the time period, the
crew availability, the siteconditions in a one to five and
basically they started, kind ofyou know.
Hey, this isn't really a job weneed to focus on, but what I'm
trying to get out, brother, isthey just ran with it.
I empowered them just a littlebit, spewed my brain on the
paper that my wife has beenasking me to do for six plus

(48:21):
years.
Just put it on paper, please,and I finally do it, and they
run with it.
And from there I'm like, oh, itwas just like, is it?
And from there I'm like, oh, itwas just like self-realization.
Boom, You're really screwingyourself here, buddy.
You have got to spend some timeputting this stuff on paper,
giving it to somebody that caninternalize it, interpret it,

(48:45):
bring feedback back to it andhelp build a procedure around
your mindset.
Like that.
That is an actual thing, guys,I may be blowing your mind right
now, but, thank God, shout outto Michalina helping me on the
fractional PM side, taking theseblurbs and literally going hey,
I don't know what this means,but you do and tell me what it

(49:06):
means, and starting to buildthese processes and procedures.
And I can't tell you, MrRichard, to wrap up my point, it
has been insane the amount offluidity, the frustration level
decreasing for me myself and Ifor the entire team, the morale
and I'm like, why did I not dothis seven years ago when my

(49:29):
wife first asked?

Speaker 2 (49:30):
So just wanted to hop on that.
It's called your inner genius.
You got to take your innergenius and put it on paper.
You have to build boundariesfor everybody.
People thrive in boundaries.
When there's no boundaries,there's chaos.
Okay, people come and go andyou don't know where.
You don't know.
Does red mean stop and greenmean go?

(49:52):
It's pretty universal, right?
Yeah, if you got to make up, Ithink red means go today and I'm
going to go, you're probablygoing to die or kill someone.
Right?
You have boundaries, you havestandards.
This is how we operate so thateveryone can thrive in those
positions.
Now you got to build them out,like you said, drop it and give

(50:13):
it to them so they understand.
I can help Jim over here whenI've done this, this and this
and if he needs it.
Or I can help Jim becausethere's a world of difference
from what I do.
I'm focused and I'm dialed in.
Here, jim has another avenue toget the help right.
There's processes, there'stroubleshooting, there's all
this stuff I built up and itsounds right.

(50:34):
Now people are going.
Are you kidding me?
I've got like 13 people, one ata time.
Yep, it's the elephant.
It's one bite at a time and insix months to a year.
Everything is systemized.
No one is coming into youroffice asking you what to do.
What about this?
How do I do this?
What do you want me to say tothis person?
You know it's not 10 hours aday of that.

(50:56):
It's like why is it so quietout there?
That's because they're doingstuff Right.
They're doing what you taughtthem to do to get this stuff
finished.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
And how you did it before, whether it's right or
wrong, and I think you know what.
Let me touch on something realquick.
I think we have such a prideabout us too as and made me
realize like hey, dude, youain't all that in a bag of chips
until you start supportingthese people.
And you got to set that prideaside and start.
When you start bringing peoplein, you're like I don't want to

(51:44):
bring anybody in, I don't wantto see my books, see what I've
got, going on Like it's mine,like well, if that's how you
want to be, that's totally fine.
But if you're living in insanefrustration if you don't bring
somebody in that has a betterknowledge point or maybe a
totally different third world orthird bias perspective on your

(52:05):
situation, that's probably beenthere or seen the situation
similar to yours.
You're not the only one outthere.
Barely making it to payroll,barely trying to pay the
insurance or the machine note,or calling a banker to push the
note back that's all of us guys.
But knowing how to get yourselfoff the hamster wheel is

(52:27):
exactly what we're talking abouttoday, while you're growing
your business to the target thatwe're talking about.
But these are the most vitaland training.
The other thing I was going tohop there, all these points that
you're talking about, man, I'msuper passionate about because
I'm literally going through themright now and seeing the payoff

(52:47):
of and the real results,because the training of it
you're like, oh my God, this isgoing to take forever and I
could just do it myself.
Well, guess what?
You're going to do it yourselfnext month and then you're going
to do it again next month andthen you're going to do it in
six months and when your son'sgot that baseball game, that
report's got to be out tomorrowand you're the only one that

(53:09):
freaking does it because youdidn't want to take the time and
train somebody.
Now I get it.
Guys.
You guys are sitting there.
Cy training is so expensive.
Well, if you don't ever createa system to get those people
retained, especially thisyounger generation guys, this is
a whole different new ballgame.
To try and retain one of thoseguys or make them excel, it's

(53:32):
going to be even more expensive,because you never retain
anybody and you're alwaysconstantly training.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
I tell them I go, they don't need a ride along.
Sales ride along is like whatan unbelievable waste of time.
You know how it is?
Oh, ride around with me for acouple of weeks.
I'm the owner.
I'll show you how to sell, howI close.
You know, yeah, I close like90%.
I'm like no, you don't.
Oh, my God, you know they allthink I close like 90%.

(53:59):
I go.
Do you do two estimates?
A?
month yeah come on, what are youtalking?
90%, no one.
Okay.
So, but at the same time I'mlike I build.
Here's the sales presentation.
Here's the sales system.
Here's the training video.
Here's me doing like my roofing.
Here's me doing thepresentation to Mr Jones.
Watch the video.

(54:20):
Here's the transcript you canmemorize.
Yeah, I do good better.
Best I walk him through this.
I say this See how I say wouldit make sense to choose colors
on the install date?
Did I ask him if he wants to dothe job?
No, I said would it make sense?
And when he says yes, we do thedeal.
And he says no, I said well,what would make sense?
And we continue theconversation.
Okay, I don't need a ride-alongto teach that.

(54:41):
I need a script I need.
They can watch that wheneverthey want, not when they're in
the truck with me burning up mytime when I should be running
the business.
That's right.
So we create these the done foryou sales presentation, your

(55:02):
brand, all your stuff's in thereIn a week.
Listen, I take a guy's.
The only thing he knows about aroof is it's on top of a house.
That's right.
That's the extent of hisknowledge, right.
But there's like seven thingsto a roof.
Yep, okay, I can teach them inseven days.
Go out and close deals andthey'll think the customer,
they've been closing deals foryears in roofing Right.

(55:24):
Okay, this is not rocketscience, but I took the time to
build it and then I have awarm-up process.
Right, if they call me today, Idon't go out till tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Right.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
It's four days minimum, because they're going
to get confirmation email.
They're going to get.
Here's my business licenseemail.
Here's a content email.
Here's a reminder of theappointment.
Here's a confirmation again.
Hey, here's a phone call.
I go knock on the door.
Four or five days later theyhave seven or eight touches with
my company.
Yeah, now they're a warm lead.
They went from cold paid leadto warm lead.

(55:55):
At least Now I got an in that Ican continue the conversation
from there.
Right, so we build these littlethings.
It's a system.
Yeah, everybody operates in thesystem because it increases
their probability of success.
That's your job as an owner.
Yes, increase the probabilityof success for everyone on your
team.
That's your job as an owner.
Yes, increase the probabilityof success for everyone on your
team.
That's your focus.
That's your 5% for now.

(56:16):
Build that out.
How do you help them win everysingle day?
What does success look liketoday, on the week, on the month
, on a quarter, on the year?
Can they all tell you, in theirposition, what success looks
like on the day, on the week, onthe week, on the month, on a
quarter of the year?
And if they can guess whatthey're going to do?
They're going to win every day,every single day, because they

(56:39):
know it.
Guess who gets the win afterthat.
You do, you bet, you know, theprofit goes boom and it comes
down man.
Oh, it's huge, it's huge.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
I haven't got to that point yet, richard.
I'm waiting on the compound ofprofitability I can, oh, let's
the ventures that we've gotgoing we'll do a call.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
I'll show you how to do it all right, bad brother
I'll show you that in less thanthree minutes man, three minutes
I can show you boom I'll.
You'll be astounded.
I will show you how to doubleyour profits in less than three
minutes Wow.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
I'm talking, whatever it is, incremental stuff.
If anybody's listening and wantto call you bluff, I'm assuming
they can go over tosharpenthespiritcoachingcom.

Spe (57:21):
Sharpenthespiritcoachingcom .

Speaker 1 (57:25):
It's a beautiful place.
Well, two things I want tofinish up with you, because I
can already tell how passionateyou are about your prioritizing
and the value of your own timeas an owner, and I wish I had a
better understanding myselfearlier, went through what I
went through, etc.

(57:46):
But now I'm here trying tofigure this out, but balancing.
You want to grow this business.
That's what any trueentrepreneur wants to do.
You want to build value in yourbusiness.
How do you concentrate on thatand personal life at the same
time?

Speaker 2 (58:07):
So people talk about work-life balance right, we all
hear that, we're all gettingthat.
You're an entrepreneur and youwork a lot.
You're on your hamster wheel.
You're going to hear thework-life balance right, we all
hear that, we're all gettingthat.
You're an entrepreneur and youwork a lot, you're on your
hamster wheel.
You're going to hear thework-life balance from someone
spouse, a friend, a mother, afather, whatever business guy
down the street who's supersuccessful spends his whole time
on the golf course.
Never works.
How does he do it?
You can't right Very much.

(58:28):
So in balance, I I call it thefive f's, as in frank.
Okay, it's, it's faith family,finances, fitness and
friendships.
So if you've got all thosedialed in and they all have
their percentage, it's neverequal.
We all understand that therereally isn't any balance,

(58:50):
there's just distribution, okay.
So for me, faith is first God'sfirst, for me 100%.
Second is my family, and in myfamily it's my wife and then my
children.
It stays in that order.
Okay, it's a very importantthing, okay.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
That's what the good book says.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
Yes, that's it right.
And then finances I got to payattention to my money.
Yeah, All right, and it'simportant, and you need time to
do that.
Fitness I have to be healthy.
What I eat, my workouts everyday.
I have a morning routine, aworkout's part of it every day.
The reason being is that health, that energy when you expend

(59:31):
energy, you create energy.
Expending your energy will giveyou more energy.
Right, and that's what you want.
You want to be, you got to besharp, you got to be mentally
sharp.
You can't just be fitphysically.
We have a saying, you know, ifyou're not fit, you're not fit
to lead.
Okay, and fit is mentally, it'sphysically, nutritionally, your
body.
You really have to understandthat because you're an example

(59:54):
to everyone on your team.
You're an example to yourfamily.
You're an example to the peoplewatching you from the outside.
You're the leader Okay, you'reit and people shouldn't judge,
but as they say they do, yes,okay, when they look at you,
they make a judgment one way oranother, right Whatever that
might be.
And then the last one is yourfriendships.

(01:00:14):
Okay, I don't have a lot offriends.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Me neither brother but the ones I have.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
the joke in my family is, if my friends are all in
one hand, I could lose threefingers and still have them all.
Okay so, but their qualityright Over quantity.
They're the ones who matter.
They're my trench buddies,they're the ones I go to war
with.
They got my six all the timeright, no matter what, and I got
thirds.
I'm good with that, perfectlycontent with not a lot of

(01:00:42):
friends.
Yeah, all right, because theones I have matter.
But I get to choose them andlike anything else, like your
money, like your friends, likeyour money, like your friends,
like your spouse anything youdon't pay attention to is going
to disappear.
It's called Parkinson's law,especially with your money.
If you don't have a place foryour money to go, it will
evaporate.
I give you 200 bucks forsending some of my way.

(01:01:03):
You stick those hundies in yourpocket, take your buddy to
lunch, grab a drink.
It's gone.
You go.
What $200?
Yeah, you don't even know whatyou spent it on or who it came
from, right.
So that's my point.
But that balance in your, ifyour business is a hot mess, you
don't get the five Fs, youcan't, you can't begin to work

(01:01:24):
on those if, because thatbusiness and I'm just going to
use the term it's a mistress.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Yes, it wants your time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
It wants you to sneak out and be with it, okay, it
wants you to stay there.
It will hold on to you nomatter what.
Yeah, everything else doesn'tmatter to the business Until
that thing can run by itself andby others.
It owns you.
Yeah, you are trapped in theowner prison, right?
So once you fix that which isyou know it can be done right

(01:01:55):
relatively quickly Once that'sdone, the 5S will open up to you
.
Now you can start to go wow,that's really.
Oh.
Wow, I can go see my friends.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Yeah, Go play that round of golf, oh wow my wife
really is good looking.

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
I haven't noticed I haven't really looked hard
lately.
Okay, I've been too busy atwork.
You know what I mean.
So it's like that's what we'retalking about.
You know that's how it comestogether.
But if you're not going tofocus on your business and fix
it yes, all the things you weresaying so you're going to take

(01:02:35):
the time to take the.
You're going to miss all thegreat experiences that they're
going to have.
Right, you're not going to leadthem well.
You're not going to lead yourcompany well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
You are always going to be the one in the way.
Yes, man, and that is the truthwith entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Most of them are in the way.
They're the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Yes, and you've got to be in a mental.
Whether you're in a bad spot ora good spot, it's your job, mr
Leader.
Man, this was where I failed.
I took too long to recognizethat everybody was waiting on me
Like it's your job.
If you, you're a CEO, you'rethe big dog and that's where you
want to be.

(01:03:07):
Hey, buddy, act like one.
And I wasn't.
And it took some things tohappen for me to realize like
hey, man, and things are goingto happen, because if it's a
mess, they're going to.
Employees are going to feellike it, the team's going to
feel like it.
There's never going to be anyfluidity within the team.
Everybody's going to be at eachother's throats picker, bicker,

(01:03:27):
bicker and you get nowhere.
So it's your job to set thepride aside, like I was
mentioning before.
That was my problem with myselfwas I didn't want nobody looking
at my stuff, and now I'm like Ican actually start to breathe
because they're looking at me.
Like Cy, you don't know what.
You don't know.
Why are you trying to act asaccountant, sarah?

(01:03:50):
Why are you trying to act asCFO, cy?
You guys don't even know whatthese roles are defined and what
levels you need to be giving,letting go, and below and above,
and so it's all these newrealizations, but I would
encourage you guys, with theshort amount of time that we've
had to go, I'm going to myselfand I assure you I'm going to

(01:04:13):
pick your book up and escape theowner mindset, and that's
literally one of the things formyself is reading more and, like
my own personal goals for thisyear, I'm trying to read a
little bit more.
Faith-based, leadership-based.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Love it Well let's do this, cy, go ahead.
Let's do this.
I'm going to help you out, I'mgoing to help your listeners out
.
Okay, I'm going to give you andyour listeners a gift.
Okay, because reading is hardfor people, I know it's time you
have the book, everything elseIf you're not into it, you're
not into it.
But people really like audiblebooks and guess what?

(01:04:51):
It just happens that Escape theOwner Prison.
I have to show it at least once.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Let's see it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
There it is.
It's on audio and it's mereading it.
So if you haven't heard myvoice enough today, here's what
you're going to do.
Okay, You're going to go tosharpenthespherecoachingcom.
Go to the contact page.
Okay, You're going to go tosharpenthespearcoachingcom.
Go to the contact page.
Send me a one-sentence emailthat says Richard saw you on the
Blue Collar Business Podcast.

(01:05:18):
I'd love a free copy of theaudio version of your book.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Let's go and boom.
Appreciate you doing that, man.
I will be giving you more thana one-sentence email.
But, man, I really appreciateyour time.
But before you go, I've got onelast final item that I ask
every single body, every singleguest that I have sit here with
me on the show.
And what's the takeaway for theblue collar worker who's just

(01:05:56):
being sick and tired and he'sdone with being stuck in the mud
, and I may, just, like you,hint uh reference there before.
It's not just physically stuckin the mud, help me out, it's
the mental, it's the emotional.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Well, from a mindset standpoint, you know you have to
change your thinking.
That's what mindset is Amindset shift right?
Where do you actually want tobe?
You're stuck because you don'tknow where you want to be.
You don't know where you'regoing.
Okay, if I get in a car in NewYork and I want to go to
California and all I know isit's west, kind of that's all I

(01:06:38):
know.
The good news is I'm going tosee every part of the United
States, okay.
The bad news is I'm going toend up in the Gulf of Mexico and
think I'm at the Pacific Gulfof America, gulf of America.
I was going to say that.
So now here I'm at the PacificGulf of America, gulf of America
.
I was going to say that so now,here I am, at the Gulf of
America.
I'm really thinking I've donesomething, and I have no idea.
I'm even in the wrong place,because there's no map, there's

(01:07:00):
no direction, I have no plan.
I have next Friday, I have nextmonth, I have hope to get that
big contract.
Okay, you have to say like toyour point, cy, when you're
saying I don't want to look atmy books.
No one gives a rip you knowwhat these people do.
They do this every day.
Numbers are like they'renumbers.
They don't even have meaning tothem.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
And they're passionate about it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
They just know they're wrong, yeah, okay, and
they're going to fix them foryou.
They're not judging you.
If they're judging you whywould they even work with you,
talk about it?
They're just going to like justbaby, did I fix this?
We'll have this done in like aweek.
Yeah, give me them numbers.
This is what I do.
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Like you do, whatever you do.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
You go do what you do .
You know, like I don't, I don'tdo that, but you do it, yeah,
right.
So that's the biggest takeaway.
And understand that in businessrevenue gross revenue, right,
terrible scorecard, 100%.
Gross revenue feeds the ego.
We talked about pride, right,gross revenue feeds the ego.

(01:08:03):
Profit feeds your family.
That's some good stuff rightthere.
You need to make profit.
That's one thing I specializein profit acceleration.
I help you recover lost profitsthat you don't even know we're
missing.
This hidden money keeps youstuck, unable to grow or scale,

(01:08:25):
stealing your freedom and time.
I help you take it back sofinally you can move forward.
It's that simple.
That's what it's doing.
You have so much money in yourbusiness that's being.
It's lost, it's yours, you haveit.
You don't even know it, andthat goes for, like every
business owner, you're notuniquely bad at this, we're all

(01:08:50):
equally bad at this.
Okay, we're all equally bad atthis.
Well, we uncover that stuff.
Show you in incremental littlechanges, boom, big profits
you're able to keep.
We all want to keep more.
We work too hard not to keep it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
That's right why?

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
are we working more and making less profit?
Yeah, let's keep the profit.
That's the kind of stuff I canhelp you with, man number one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
Thank you so much for your time, brother.
I hope you guys have enjoyedthis as much as I have, because
this has been one.
I tell you guys, all the time Isit here and learn with you
guys and this is exactly why Istarted the Blue Collar Business
Podcast was to sit withgentlemen like yourself that
have 30, 40 years of experienceof failing and trying again, and

(01:09:32):
failing and trying again andbeing successful along the way,
and then going, picking thosesuccessful parts, putting them
together and helping thecommunity that I'm trying to
help and go.
Hey, guys, if you follow thesekey features, you might end up
in a different spot, but, guys,be willing to change and explore

(01:09:53):
a different mindset.
That's all I'm asking you to do.
I mean, doing the same thingover and over again and
expecting a different result ispure definition of insanity.
Nothing changes if nothingchanges.
So, uh, guys, go check out,sharpen the spear.
Coachingcom, send a and don'tmiss the blue collar business

(01:10:15):
exclusive of a free copy ofescape the owner prison.
I'm I'm really intrigued to belistening to that brother of
today.
You've literally got a fewthings you can see it on my face
, you know, mulling around in myhead and I just appreciate the
conversation that this audiencegets to listen to, because it's

(01:10:37):
these types of high leveloverview that they don't get
more of.
And yes, there are influencersyou can watch and they and they
hint around about this stuff,but there's not many.
Just diving to the root of theproblem and discussing these
real and raw issues that aregoing to help navigate these

(01:10:59):
guys to success andprofitability, including myself,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
I have the trainer, not teacher, mentality.
I'm not going to stand in frontof the class and tell you what
to do.
Can't do that either I'm goingto say get in your face and bust
out 25, and I'm going to startwith you to make sure you're
doing it right.
I'll be doing the push-ups withyou.
That's the trainer mentality.
We have real-world stuff thatgets results.
That's what it's about.
I don't want to talk about allthe foo-foo, whatever.

(01:11:33):
It's about getting things done.
When we take action imperfectaction that's when you're going
to reach success very, veryquickly because you're making
forward momentum.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
You just dropping the mic with an extra knowledge
bomb.
There for the final wrap upSure.
Guys, go check outbluecollarbusinesspodcastcom.
If you haven't before,subscribe to the newsletter
there so you get an email whenwe drop every single week on
Wednesdays on the website andall of your streaming platforms.
Look forward to hearing fromyou, guys.

(01:11:59):
Again, thank you for theseveral emails I've received
here as of late to you loyalguys that are listening to every
single episode.
I've seen a couple of youremails and I just wanted to take
the time and say thank you.
I'm getting to see thoseresults of helping and finding

(01:12:19):
value.
You're finding value in whatI'm doing here and that's
exactly what drives me and makesme more passionate to meet
folks like Mr Richard.
Again, thank you so much foryour time and I look forward to
talking to you again.
Brother, I think we're going tosee you again on this show.
I think this episode is goingto help a lot of guys switch it
up up here, and that's all ittakes to get going in a

(01:12:40):
different direction.
So, guys, until next time,y'all be safe and be kind and be
humble.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like,
share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions

(01:13:01):
you may have.
Till next time, guys.