Built Different: Rich Ortega on Leadership, Team Culture, and Doing Business Right

Episode Transcript
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(01:00:06):
Did it work?
Yeah, the session is being recorded.
So just tell him, hey.
All right.
Everybody's listening right now.
We're not live, no worry.
No, I'm not.
Anyway, man, hey, I really appreciate you
jumping on and having a conversation with
me, Rich.
Yeah, man.
I'm glad to be here and

(01:00:27):
obviously appreciate you.
So what's been going on, dude?
What's new with you?
We started this call before we started
recording and you said
you were losing your mind.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Losing my ever loving mind.
Ever loving mind.
Yes.
Every little bit of my
mind is being lost right now.

(01:00:48):
I mean, it's just growing at what to me
is a crazy, crazy rate.
You know what I mean?
Most businesses aren't profitable their
first three to five years.
So for me to sit here and what, 14, 15
months in, I've got me,

(01:01:09):
I've got two other master
techs because we just
brought on our second tech.
We've got amazing accounts that we work
with and it's trying to
manage all of it, especially
because as I know you know now, sometimes
it's easier to do all this when it's just

(01:01:29):
you.
Even though your work schedule is
overloading when it's just you, that's
always more manageable,
right?
Because I can always get up earlier.
I can always work later.
I can always do whatever.
I can order parts at 2 a.m. because I
know what I'm doing.
Now it's, my guys are great.

(01:01:49):
They'll get me wrong, but it's, I still
am doing my stuff plus
handling their problems
and you know, not that they're having
anything crazy going on, but
they can't pull the trigger
like I can.
When it's just me, I can do whatever I
want and then now I'm in
the middle of doing whatever
I want and it's one phone is ringing from
one guy like, "Hey,
what do we got to do now?"

(01:02:09):
The other one's like,
"Hey, can we order this?
Can we go to that?"
Whatever.
And it's like, let me balance all of that
and then we just keep
getting more and more
customers and it's all customers that
are, you know, have the
potential to be really
good customers and everybody seems like
it's calling with a legit emergency.
That's the guy that's like, "Oh, one of

(01:02:31):
my 17 friars is down.
I need you right away."
And you're like, "No, you
could wait till Friday."
You know, everybody has a legitimate
emergency because me and
my two guys are like, "What
is going on?"
We've never seen where like everybody who
calls is a good customer
with a legit emergency.
So I think that's the bulk
of losing my ever loving mind.

(01:02:52):
We are at least two to
three weeks backed up.
At least easy.
That's not counting new
stuff that's coming in.
That's just stuff we
still got to get back to.
I got my newest guy finishing up a call
that I started two
months ago on HVAC units.
Part of it was waiting on parts, but
aside from that, we just
haven't been able to get
back out to the place.

(01:03:12):
So, I mean, yeah.
All right, man.
Well, buckle up because you
haven't seen anything yet.
I've been told that.
Actually, so I've got a question and
we're going to get into
kind of in a second here
who you are and kind of how you got here.
But one thing I'm really curious about,
Rich, is how does the
reality of today right now,

(01:03:35):
what you just explained to me, compare to
what you thought it would be?
It's nothing like I
thought it would be, dude.
I thought I'd be struggling to pay my
bills for the first year.
Like, if I could pay my
bills the first year, I'm good.
I expected to at least have three, you

(01:03:55):
know, like first three
months to be slow and no
exaggeration.
My first three weeks were
slow and then that's been it.
So it is the complete opposite.
I thought, you know, I did think maybe
after a year, because it
wasn't my business plan
to at least bring on one
guy after my first year.
But I thought it would be like, OK, I got

(01:04:16):
me, I got a guy, you
know, covering my pay,
covering his pay.
We're good.
You know, a month after hiring my first
full time master tech, I
had to bring on another
one.
So it's nothing like
I thought it would be.
I expected it to be completely different.
I thought that I would get in good with a
lot of the mom and
pops, you know what I mean?

(01:04:36):
Being a small company compared to mostly
having big companies in
this in this area and whatnot.
I've got almost no mom and
pop places for whatever reason.
I don't know if they just loyal to the
people they already
have, which I'm fine with.
But what I did find is that my strong
suit is connecting with either
independent multi-unit

(01:04:56):
operators or experienced facilities
managers or experienced
project managers that have
dealt with all types of company from
small to huge and everybody in between.
And whenever I get in with one of those,
we just click and then
they're like, here you
go.
Here's all that work.
Nothing like I thought, dude, the

(01:05:17):
accounts that I've
gotten, I did not expect as, you
know, especially when it was just me and
my son who my sons are
being trained to land
some of these big accounts that we've
gotten and to have
facilities managers texting me
like, hey, man, we really appreciate
everything you guys do and
this and that and the other.
And I'm like, I never thought I mean, I
actually thought and I

(01:05:39):
want to give a shout out to
Corey Corey Yates on this one.
I looked at myself as I
was going to be independent.
There's a lot of
stuff I couldn't provide.
And because of that, I was going to come
in with an extremely low labor rate.
I was going to come in at I think I
wanted to charge like
ninety five or ninety nine
an hour because I was like, I don't have
the manpower to meet everybody's needs.

(01:06:01):
I can't do this.
All the stuff that I can't
do is what I was looking at.
And Corey was like, dude,
what the hell is wrong with you?
And I'm like, what do you mean?
He's like the company you're at now
charges one hundred and
thirty five dollars an hour.
He's like, you do one hundred and thirty
five dollars an hour work.
You just don't get paid for it all.

(01:06:21):
He's like, you just get a salary.
He's like, but you're
still doing that work.
And that's the same quality work that's
going to be done in your own company.
Why would you sell yourself short?
He's like, come in a little bit lower.
And he was going to tell me, he's like,
you know, come in if
they're one thirty five,
he's like, maybe come in
one fifteen one twenty.
But don't give the work away and stop

(01:06:41):
looking at the stuff
you think you can't do.
And I thank God for that advice because I
mean, I was profitable
my first year and you
saw my numbers.
I was very profitable my first year.
And I want to say if I did the math
right, it was like it
would have been an over my
rates would have been 20 percent lower,
give or take, if I would
have not gotten that advice

(01:07:02):
from him, which means probably would have
wiped out almost my
whole profit margin if
you if you look at
the actual profit I did.
So that was that in
itself is mind blowing.
And like I said, to get back to your
question, it's just none
of it has played out the way
I thought it would.
But it's been for the better.
That's good.
And we're going to talk a little bit too
about, you know,

(01:07:23):
surrounding yourself with people
like Corey that can
they can offer this advice.
But before we get to that, let's let's
kind of set the stage a
little so for the for the
audience out there, you know, a lot of my
network already knows who you are.
We run a lot of the
same circles, obviously.
However, there's a lot of viewers and

(01:07:46):
listeners of the show that
that may not know who you
are.
So, you know, all all go
the long and short of it.
And I'll say that you're a former
technician turned
entrepreneur business owner.
But I'll let you kind of
explain what that means.
That means the short version of what that

(01:08:08):
means is, you know
what, I thought I could
do it better than how
I seen it being done.
And after listening to, we'll just assume
for now the right
people, I started to believe
that I could do it for real.
And I took the leap and for the past, I
don't know, 14, 15 months,
I've been doing it better
than most other people.
So I mean, that's that's the short of it.

(01:08:31):
You want to get into my background or?
Yeah, yeah, let's do that.
Let's do what's your background?
What industry are you in?
And then why did you like, let's get
really get into the why
you got to the point where
you wanted to step out
and start your own business.
Okay, so background wise, I mean, it's

(01:08:54):
very, you know, very quick and easy.
My grandfather and my dad were both in
the industry,
restaurant equipment, repair and
service.
I got into it working with them.
Basically, they had a small shop back in
Florida that sold and
refurbished equipment.
And then they also ran
service calls here and there.

(01:09:15):
And I got into it because they only did
hot side and they
needed somebody to fix their
cold side stuff because they were getting
screwed every time
they try to sub out cold
side work.
Yeah.
That's the basics of how I got into it.
I worked there forever.
And then I left there actually got out of
the industry because
I moved out of Florida
during COVID.

(01:09:36):
So it was kind of hard to
get a job back in the industry.
So I was out for about 10 months.
I managed a family dollar left there
because that place was
whatever and managed a Jiffy
NOO for a few months.
Then some stuff happened.
We left that was up in Virginia.
We left Virginia came down here.

(01:09:57):
I got back in the industry, worked for a
big company for about
three years, about two years
into it.
I was like, I know
there's a better way to do this.
You know, through
LinkedIn, through other stuff.
I met you.
I met Corey.
I met seems like everybody and their
mother in the industry.
And as they see me posting and talking

(01:10:18):
about how I do stuff
personally, a lot of different
people were reaching out to me.
Like, dude, you're wasting your time
working for somebody.
You need to get out on your own.
You need to do your own thing.
You're wasting time.
You're wasting your energy.
You know, they're like the way you do
stuff is the way most of
us do stuff, or at least
your thoughts are the same way we think.

(01:10:41):
And then after enough of that and enough
of just seeing things I
didn't like, I'm like,
screw it.
Let's do it.
Did that answer your question?
Because you know, my brain
runs four miles a minute.
No, it's good.
And I like that.
So let's start there.
What would you say to somebody who was in
the same position as you?
Not necessarily in, you know, in the

(01:11:03):
trade or, you know, or in
service or whatever, but
somebody who's who's stuck working
somewhere, but they know
that they can do it better.
What would you say to that
person first and foremost?
First and foremost would be if you really
think that you can do
it better, get connected

(01:11:25):
with people that are doing it better and
then see if they think
you can do it better.
And I mean, I'm all for being, you know,
self-confident, believing in yourself.
I mean, my wife says I have a unrealistic
level of self-confidence.
She said it's not natural, the amount of
self-confidence that I have.
And while you walk in the line between

(01:11:47):
confidence and cockiness,
like, let's be real here.
What does that really mean?
So the way my wife puts it, right?
So I'm like this, because my wife says
that, you know, I
believe I can do anything.
And it's funny because it's not cockiness
because I am ridiculously humble, right?

(01:12:09):
Like, most people that know me are like
rich for the amount of
stuff you know how to do
and the stuff you're willing to do.
And they're like, you
don't brag about it.
Like, if I'm working in a team, my team
always gets the credit.
Because I don't need anybody to know
that, oh, Rich was running the team.
Screw that.
It doesn't matter.
Rich didn't do it by himself.
So yeah, it's
definitely not walking that line.

(01:12:30):
It's just like, if there's something that
needs to be done, even if I've never done
it, if I show up, it's going to get done.
We're going to figure it out.
It may not go the smoothest.
It may not go the best,
but it's going to get done.
And it's like I was talking with my
cousin one time, one of
my cousins, and he's kind
of the same way.
And the way he put it was, he's like, if

(01:12:51):
other people can do it, why can't we?
And that's kind of my mindset.
Like, if you grew your business from
basically zero, like you
and your dad grew it from,
we need food to when you
guys speak, people listen.
That's what you guys
have done at Windy City.
If you can do that, why can't I do that?

(01:13:13):
And that's my mindset with that.
So the reason I say to find people that
have done it and kind of
run it by them and talk
with them is to make sure you're not in
that level of delusion or
that level of cockiness.
Because it's easy to get there.
If you don't check yourself and you don't

(01:13:33):
have other people
that are willing to check
you, it's easy to puff yourself up and
say, yeah, I can make this leap.
I can make this jump.
And you don't know jack squat about it.
And you've could have ran that by two or
three people that have done it already.
And they can either be like,
no, you're on the right track.
Let's do it.
And they can guide you or they can be
like, dude, it's nothing
like you think, like you

(01:13:55):
think it's going to be.
That's one of the things that, you know,
Corey Yates first told
me when me and him first
start started kind of talking.
He was like, the biggest thing he sees
people mess up on in this
industry and any type of
service industry is they think because
they're good with the
tool, but you know, they're
good with tools.
They can run a business.
And he's like, yeah, it's not like that.

(01:14:16):
So that's why I say just because you
think you can do it,
doesn't mean you can do it.
So the first step is find some people who
have done it, start talking with them and
see what their thoughts
are on your ability to do it.
That's a great answer.
And what I'm hearing when you're saying
that is, you know, it's
not a question of cockiness.
It's a question of conviction, right?

(01:14:38):
It's conviction.
It's believing that you can do something
and then walking that
walk and saying, this is
what I can do and this
is how I'm going to do it.
And I'm going to go fucking do it.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
Exactly.
Good.
So, you know, there's a lot of stuff out
there and around
about finding people, you
know, like Corey and
mentors and stuff like that.

(01:15:00):
You know, how would you say
somebody goes about doing that?
Like when they want to get to that point,
you mentioned LinkedIn, like how did that
serve you, you know, and what did you do
to get the attention of
people that could possibly
help you?
Okay, cool.
I like that question because I'm in a
really cool spot between
my social media and the

(01:15:21):
point I'm at in my
career and in business, right?
Because I'm connected with guys like you,
with guys like Corey, Rich Malicki.
Gosh, what's his name?
I think it was Dylan that
started Garz, Michael Hess.
Like I'm connected with
all these big name people.
And then I'm also connected with people
that have been doing
this for 10 years and can't

(01:15:42):
figure out how to hire
their first service tech.
So I get to see a lot of different
aspects, a lot of different viewpoints.
And then I've got people that I'm
actually helping them
launch, you know, their businesses
from the little bit that I know I'm kind
of pouring into them and whatnot.
And when it comes to getting connected

(01:16:03):
with people, the way it
works with me on LinkedIn,
which is why I love LinkedIn, you know, I
just went on there and
started being myself.
And that's what I try to tell, especially
these guys that I'm
helping them, you know,
get their business started.
I'm like, you need to get online, you
need to get on LinkedIn,
you need to get in front
of, you know, facilities managers, you
need to get in front of
project managers, you need
to get in front of all these people.

(01:16:25):
And that's the easiest way to do it.
But then I'm like, you know, because
people are like, oh, but
then, you know, I don't
know what to say, I don't know what to
do, I don't know what to whatever.
I'm like, if you look at my content, my
content by, I don't know,
influence standards is trash,
right?
I don't edit, you'll catch
me stuttering in a video.
If I misspeak, it goes into video.

(01:16:46):
I don't care.
But that's what I think attracted most
people, you know, to want
to connect with me to want
to pour into me.
So to me, to start getting into those
circles is one jump on
LinkedIn, you know, find people
that are in the industry, connect with
them, but then be yourself.
All the mistakes, all the
screw ups, all the whatever.

(01:17:07):
Like I said, anybody who
follows me knows my content.
I'm blunt, I'm rough,
you know what I mean?
But I just don't care.
I tell people I'm the
literal definition of no F's given.
So jump on there, get in front of the
right people and be yourself.
You know that about me.
You've seen it once or twice, right?

(01:17:28):
But I mean, that's it.
And I think I answered your question
because it was about
getting in front of people and
how to connect, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I got two more questions that came out
of that conversation.
So number one, you know, I've heard time
and time again, people,
you know, they take that
step, they find those people, you know,
they, they, they
understand being themselves, but

(01:17:50):
they can't, how do I articulate this?
They're there, they can't
get out of their own way.
They're worried that they're going to be
a burden on whoever
they're asking for help.
How did you overcome that?
Or did you even have that fear or is this
wrapped up in the no F's given?
I don't care if I'm a
burden, just please help me.
So, right.
So, so my thing is this, right?

(01:18:12):
Well take, take you
for an example, right?
I asked you one time, I think I went into
your DMs and actually
something about margin.
I was like, Hey, I'm thinking about
starting my own company
and I just want to know what,
what am I looking at at, at,
you know, to expect for margins.
I'm expecting a two sentence answer.
And you know, you gave me half of a, half
of a novel, you know what I mean?

(01:18:33):
Great information.
And then you were in there and you were
like, Hey, if you got any
more questions, you know,
just message me or you might've given me
your number, told me to text you.
I take that at face value, right?
You tell me to text you or message you.
That's what I'm going to do.
What's the worst thing you could do?
Block me.
Okay, cool.
I'm still in the same place
I was before I messaged you.

(01:18:54):
And that's how it's
been in one way or another.
It's been like that with almost every
connection, you know, I've
jumped in rich Malachi's DMs
and I apologize to anybody now because
you might start getting
DMs flooded with people
like me, but you know, and I asked him a
simple question and
then it's the same thing.
And everybody that I reached out to, I
noticed was like, yo, any

(01:19:14):
questions you have reach
out to me, DM me, text me, call me.
If you want to get on a zoom
meeting, you know, we got you.
But it was, um, it was really, I guess,
you know, like I said,
what's the worst you could
do?
Block me.
I mean, I don't, I don't
know what else you could do.
Um, tell me what's the
best that we could do.
We could have coaching calls.
I could have people, you know, it went

(01:19:35):
from me reaching out to
people to people that maybe
we've talked once or twice, like just
commenting back and forth,
um, that own very successful
companies jumping in my DMs to tell me,
Hey, listen, you know,
I wish early on we knew
that we knew how to
set our rates properly.
So please make sure you're
setting your rates properly.
If you need help, let me know.

(01:19:55):
Make sure you know you're
marking up your parts properly.
And I'm like, I didn't even
ask for this, but I'm grateful.
You know, like it's funny to me because
people will be like, I
hope you don't mind me, um,
giving you this advice.
And it's like, dude, you brought your
company from zero to
$50 million in 10 years.
Who am I to mind you telling me anything?

(01:20:16):
Or another guy, I think he's like second
or third generation and
they got like 75 technicians
and he drops in my DMS on LinkedIn and
it's like, Hey, I
hope you don't mind this.
I just wanted to share
this advice with you.
I'm like, who am I to be
like, no, you know what I mean?
Like, nah, no, no, no.
If I talk back to you, feel free.
They tell me to shut up.
And I always respond and I'm like, I tell

(01:20:38):
them, I'm like,
listen, you've done something
that I'm trying to do.
You don't need
permission to give me advice.
Jump in my DMS anytime you want and tell
me if you think I'm, if
you know, I'm doing something
wrong or, um, I'm doing
something stupid or whatever.
And I've had a few people
like, Hey, you know what?
I see you posting this.
Um, like one of them, somebody jumped in

(01:20:59):
my DMS about me trying
to get some ASA work and
they gave me their whole strategy of not
doing ASA work and how
they grew their company,
you know, tremendously without it.
And you probably know
who I'm talking about.
Yeah.
I got a couple of good ideas.
Yeah.
But stuff like that.
But, um, again, it was, yeah.
What's the, you know, like I said, it

(01:21:19):
started with what's the worst you can do.
Block me.
Now that's, that's really great advice.
And, and, and honestly, I think there's
an element too of a, of a
self-fulfilling prophecy
here.
People respect and admire courage, right?
And they also understand that it takes
courage to be yourself, right?
To post the type of content that you post

(01:21:40):
to reach out, you know,
without knowing somebody
and, and just ask a
question or ask for help, you know?
And so I think naturally, you know,
people want, most people
want to help others and
they're more likely to help those who
show that type of courage
because they, they think

(01:22:00):
that they'll listen, right?
And it, because it's the ones that, that,
that are reserved,
that hold back, that, you
know, don't take this leap of faith.
People are like, why should I pour into
that person if they
can't, if they can't even get,
get enough courage to ask me for help?
Right.
And so I think there's an element of
respect there that, that
really helps, um, you know,

(01:22:21):
kind of bridge that
connection, if you will.
Yeah.
And that's one of the things I do try to
get into some of these
guys' heads when I talk
to them, I'm like, especially people that
have been running a
small company for years
and you could see, cause they're
complaining about, Oh, you
know, I can't, you know, I
can't find texts or I
can't do this, I can't do that.
Or we can't compete with

(01:22:42):
the big guys or whatever.
You know, they want to get to that next
step, but they're in their own way.
And like I said, I get to see it because
of the position I'm in
where people from all
different levels will
sit there and talk with me.
And I'm like, reach out
to anybody who's done this.
Like you said, be willing to listen.
And, you know, even if you don't run with

(01:23:02):
their advice, at least
listen to it, consider
it.
Not every piece of advice that somebody
gives me is right for me.
But who am I again, to not listen to a
guy running a third
generation multimillion dollar
company?
Who am I not to take 20 minutes and, you
know, think about what,
what he told me and then

(01:23:22):
decide if I want to move
in that direction or not.
And I'm like, if you reach out to these
people and you're willing
to actually listen, they
will give you more
information than you actually asked for.
I mean, that's literally been the story
of my past, I would
say two years because I,
you know, I've been working behind the
scenes, learning this
stuff probably a year before
I decided to take the leap.

(01:23:43):
But I don't know what it is.
I think a lot of people worry too much
about maybe how people
are going to perceive them
or whatever.
I don't know why people
don't want to reach out.
And I'm like, I'd rather look like an
idiot for 10 minutes than
be an idiot for the rest
of my life.
So I'll ask, I'll ask anybody anything.
I mean, how, how, what's the longest I
look stupid for you?

(01:24:04):
You're going to forget it.
You know, if you think I look stupid,
you're going to forget
about me by next week and
I'll have the knowledge
that you shared with me.
That's such a great mindset.
And I hope everybody out there is
listening because this is
an easy trap to fall into.
Right.
And I think if I had to guess it has
something to do with
stakes, you know, what's at stake,
high stakes is always, you know, there's

(01:24:25):
this added pressure,
especially to some people,
you know, that, that can
feel like a weight, right?
And it can be, they
can get scared, right?
Not only of failing or looking stupid,
but also sometimes of
succeeding, you know, because
they don't, they don't know how, or they
don't know what that looks like.
Or, you know, they, they, they grow up

(01:24:46):
with a, with a, you know,
skewed relationship around
what success means and
what money looks like.
And, you know, if that's part of how they
define that, you know,
success, it's, there's
a lot of different things, but, but to
cut through all of that
and kind of get to the
heart of what you just said, it's like,
listen, it's about conviction.

(01:25:06):
You know, is it something you truly want?
And if it is the stakes are all the
stakes that, that, that's fake, right?
That's right.
That's not, that's not even real.
It's all, that's all
manifested inside your head.
You've built it up to a point where, you
know, it, it's become this fear.

(01:25:27):
You know, you just posted about it last
week when we were talking
about the tightrope theory,
right?
It's this, that's built up fear to where
you feel like the
tiniest little mistake is going
to, is going to let you plummet to your
death when in reality,
you know, that mistake is
only a stepping stone toward succeeding
or, or, you know, whatever
it is you want to achieve.

(01:25:47):
Yeah, exactly.
That tightrope, that tightrope thing is
something that, that I'm
learning very fast, but it
is what it is with that, you know, cause
like one of the, I think
one of the conversations
being you had was me, you know, probably
maybe a month or so ago,
flipping out about how,
you know, far behind we're falling.
And I'm like, whatever.

(01:26:08):
And then you brought
that tightrope thing to me.
And then I'm like, you
know what, screw this.
What's the worst that could happen?
Right?
I mean, that's, that's my favorite line
that believe it or not,
that's how I learned how
to wire electrical.
I would put stuff together and I would be
like, what's the worst that could happen?
It's going to blow up.
I had a trainee.
This was years ago.
He was like, every time you sit at first,

(01:26:29):
he was like nervous when it rose.
Hey, what's the worst that can happen?
And then after a while he's like, every
time you say that I
feel great because nothing
bad happens.
But to bring it to where it, what I
started to say is I
started emailing, you know, a
couple of the facilities managers for big
accounts that I'm
actually trying to get more
work from and they know I want more work.
And I was like, Hey,
listen, here's a deal.

(01:26:49):
You know, we've fallen behind.
Right now, anything that's not critical,
we're pushing back to we can get to it.
If you throw anything critical to us,
we'll put you to the top of the list.
I've got, you know, a
couple of guys coming on board.
We'll work on catching up ASAP, you know,
but we're doing what we can.
You know what?
I don't know how they're
going to respond, right?
Because I still have in the back of my

(01:27:10):
mind that small company,
you know, are they going
to be like, Oh, we should have stayed
with somebody bigger, whatever.
It was like, okay, cool.
Thank you for letting us know.
I know that was the
gist of the responses.
Again, in my mind, I
was 60 feet in the air.
In reality, I was six
inches off the ground.
And it's as simple as that.
And I'll finish on this note, you know,

(01:27:32):
this conversation is
that you'll never know how
high up you are until you
actually take that action.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
And then you'll find that that 99% of the
time you are six inches above the ground.
Exactly.
So anyway, I want to add my second
question to the

(01:27:53):
conversation we had earlier was about
your content, right?
You were, you, you had mentioned, you
know, the, the content
that you post on social media
and how you're yourself and you just kind
of put it out there.
You also put out some deep thought stuff.
You also put out some really
philosophical stuff on
online on LinkedIn and your stuff.

(01:28:15):
So I got to ask, like, where does, where
does that come from?
How does that thought process serve you?
Because it is, it's a lot of it's a lot
of it's pretty deep,
you know, and, and do you
share it so that others can, so you can
provoke thought in others.
Do you share it so you can
cement it in your own psyche?

(01:28:39):
Like help me understand that.
So the answer is yes to both of them.
So I, so, I mean, I post that stuff
across all my platforms.
I love posting it on LinkedIn
specifically though,
because, you know, a lot of people
still try to say there's stuff you're not
supposed to post on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is business.
It's professional.

(01:29:00):
I'm like, screw you.
I'm on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is me.
That's just it.
So yeah, in one sense, I like to get, you
know, I like people to know what I think.
Right.
Because I don't want, especially on
LinkedIn, I don't want that
superficial connection with
anybody.
That's why even on LinkedIn, if you look
at my profile, it still says connect.

(01:29:23):
It doesn't say follow.
Early on, I was like, I
don't want you to follow me.
We can connect.
We can, you know, you can watch my stuff.
We can talk if you
want to talk, whatever.
So I posted.
So people can see, you know, I guess
another side of me, not just the
technician, not just
the complaining and calling people out.
I'm not just an old, grumpy technician

(01:29:43):
that's been doing this for too long.
But also, I mean, like the conversations
that I end up getting
in with people because of
those posts are cool.
And then what's really cool is when I
post any kind of
thought that I have, anything
that, you know, people said is deep.
And then it's, you know, an installation
manager or a
facilities manager or somebody

(01:30:04):
that I'm actually doing business with.
They read it and then we start having a
conversation on a whole
different level versus, hey, can
you quote this walk in for me or, hey,
you know, our friar
at this store is down.
So it did to me, it just brings a whole
nother depth of connection
with people that generally
you're only going to have that type of
connection with people
that you're talking to day to

(01:30:25):
day and probably that you're interacting
with on a more personal level.
Again, like I said, I'm an open book.
I'm upfront.
You know, I post stuff on there that
sometimes technically
should get me in trouble, but
hey, get me in trouble.
Then that's fine.
Like, again, I don't know what to tell
you, but if you're if
we're going to interact,
if we're going to have a connection, then
I think you should know who I am.

(01:30:46):
You should know more than just the, you
know, me trying to sell you
a PM contract or whatever.
Yeah.
No, I like that.
I like that a lot because at the end of
the day, you know, B2B,
B2C, it's all person to
person.
Right.
I think we had that conversation too.
It's, you know, and it's the same, the

(01:31:07):
same is to be said
about any aspect of life on
social media, you know, in your personal
life and your business life.
It's all it all revolves around the
people at the end of the day.
Right.
I heard a quote.
I don't remember where it was from.
I can't take credit for it, but I I heard
it somewhere and I said that it said that
the the best definition between good and

(01:31:31):
evil is whether we use
people as means or as ends.
Right.
Means to an end or if people are the end.
Right.
Because if we if we use people as means
in any capacity, we're
missing the entire point
because at the end of the
day, it's all about the people.
Yeah, exactly.
I like that.
Yeah.

(01:31:51):
Yeah.
And that's one thing I see.
I know I know everybody's got their own,
I guess, perspective
and the only things that
they're seeing.
For me personally, I'm seeing that that
personal connection is
is working out very well.
And I know, you know, we're obviously
we've been in a digital
age where people can hide
behind computer screens.
And that works even in our industry

(01:32:14):
because you can have
facilities managers or whoever
rejecting your proposals, you know, for
no reason, not even
talking to you to get information
about it because it's easier to reject a
proposal even, you know,
from a from a platform than
it is to call you and say, hey, we're not
we're not going to do
this project with you
or whatever.
But what I'm seeing is for me anyway,

(01:32:37):
that's that's been one of
our strengths is that personal
connection that I've been
able to to build with people.
Yeah, makes sense.
Makes sense.
All right.
So once we get to once we wrap up the
episode, I'm going to have
a couple questions for you.
But before we get to that, I want to I
want to ask if there's
anything currently on your

(01:32:57):
mind that that you're struggling with
that maybe we could talk
about here in the podcast.
If not, that's totally cool.
I got a million other questions.
But you know, just lungs
we have this time together.
Is there anything that that you're
struggling with right now
that we want to figure out
how to proceed with?
Not that I can think of right this
second, but if something

(01:33:18):
pops up in the middle of
the show, I'll cut you off.
Yeah, you bet.
You bet.
No, that's that's cool.
OK, so so help me understand.
You said that that the reality of today
has is wildly different
than what you thought it
was going to be.

(01:33:38):
And so I'm curious, since you started
your business, can you
take us through just a little
bit of the journey that you went on?
You alluded to it.
You said you were you were you were slow
for the first three
weeks, then it shot up.
You know, we kind of
jumped around a little bit.
You you're you're bringing on your you
just brought on another
technician within 14 months
of starting your business.

(01:33:59):
But but let's kind of let's kind of in
sequence go through that
journey a little bit to understand
how you were able to get from from zero
to where you are today.
So I'll call it quickly.
Listen, I help a lot of people with with
business stuff and and
the rate in which you
are accelerating is just
it's kind of unbelievable.

(01:34:20):
So I want to unpack this a little bit and
help people following
the same path, maybe
do some of the same things right.
Yes, so it's it's definitely a
combination of things.
It's to me, whenever I sit back and I
think about it, it's the
mainly it's a combination

(01:34:41):
of hustle and coaching.
One of the biggest driving factors and
please, if I start going
off here and there, feel
free to guide me back.
But one of the most guiding, sorry, one
of the biggest things
that drives me, like I
told you, is my grandfather and my dad

(01:35:02):
had a small sales and repair company.
But it was, you know, they they were the
type that owned their own job.
They didn't own a business.
And when I did decide I was going to go
and start my own thing,
I decided I do not want
to own a job.

(01:35:22):
For that, I can stay a technician.
I can jump around between companies and I
could make a whole lot
of money and not have
the hassle.
That is one of my one of my driving
factors in pushing for the growth.
But the thing that I think has kept me,
like I said, has been

(01:35:42):
able to sustain me growing
like this and has accelerated is the the
coaching along with the hustle.
Right. Because if I've got all the hustle
in the world, but if I
don't have, you know,
somebody like you guiding me and like,
hey, OK, this hustle is
great, but this is the
direction you need to go in the, you
know, this is the

(01:36:03):
direction you need to take the
hustle or even things like telling me,
you know, breaking
down for me when I know to
buy a new van, when I know to hire, when
I know to make those
big decisions, I wouldn't
I wouldn't be where where I'm at.
So to me, hustle and coaching.
And please remind me of the question if I
didn't answer at all,
because a phone call

(01:36:25):
came through and it distracted me.
So no worries, man.
No, no. I just I kind of wanted to go
through the journey.
Of when you started your business to to
how you got to where you're today.
So you would hustle coaching, you know,
and let's let's let's
focus on those two, man.
Let's let's break down
what hustle means to you.
Right. Because I think this could be a

(01:36:46):
subjective term to some
people who might think
they're hustling. But maybe it's not
quite what you consider
hustling because I know
what you consider hustling.
So why don't we why don't we break that
down a little bit and
just explain to me what
that means? Because I think a lot of the
words can be wrapped up into this right.
Useful grit, perseverance.

(01:37:06):
Right. So let's let's talk about it.
So for me, I mean, hustle is I mean, I
think it's old fashioned,
you know, work, just get
up, do the work.
The work's got to be done.
You got to do it. Be willing to do
whatever is thrown in front of you.

(01:37:26):
And it's also the the desire to win.
One of the things that always kind of
bothered me that I seen in
other places I worked is,
you know, I work if I worked in a place
that did all three trades,
they did HVAC refrigeration
and cooking. And I'm coming to do the
cooking equipment and I
see another company there

(01:37:47):
doing the refrigeration.
I'm like, why aren't we
doing the whole thing?
And there were times where I brought this
to, you know,
different bosses that I had.
Oh, you know, everybody
deserves a piece of the pie.
You know, we could do this.
They could do that.
I'm like, no, you know what I mean?
I want it all.
If I can do it all, I want it all.
So that's what that's what

(01:38:07):
hustle to me is the work.
You got to get dirty.
You know what I'm saying?
It's raining and you still
got to be on that rooftop.
You know, there's twelve and a half
inches of grease behind that cook line.
Shut up.
Clean yourself off when you're done.
Get the work done.
So, like I said, it's old fashioned, but
it's also that desire
to say I want it all.

(01:38:28):
Again, going back to my content or
conversations me and you have had, you
know, I've literally
said I'm going to go up against the
biggest companies in my
area and that's who I want
to go toe to toe with.
I'm not trying to go toe to toe with the
handful of small companies in my area.
I'm like, I want to go after these
multi-billion dollar

(01:38:49):
conglomerates and they're going to
know who I am.
Put some respect on my name.
That's what hustle is to me.
That's an amazing answer.
You know, and I hear a couple of
different things in there.
I hear discipline.
You know, I hear getting up there doing
the work, you know, and
not forgetting that starting

(01:39:09):
your own business, you know, means that
you've got to be it.
You are the business for
a certain amount of time.
Like that's the whole, that's the only
thing that will ever get
it off the ground is your
own two hands.
Right.
So that's what I'm hearing there.
You got to have that discipline.
You can't forget, you know, that you

(01:39:31):
still have to be put.
You have to put in the work.
And so, and I say that because, and tell
me your thoughts around this.
Actually, I'll pose it as a question.
What would you say to somebody who said
that they want to start
their own business in the,
because they want freedom.
Let's call it that.

(01:39:51):
If somebody was to tell me that I would
ask them, when do they want freedom?
Do you, are you
wanting freedom next year?
If you're wanting freedom next year,
don't, you know what I mean?
Work overtime, stack some money in the
bank, and then take vacations next year.
If you're thinking you want freedom next
year, if you're wanting,
you know, freedom in, call
it five to 10 years, then do it.

(01:40:13):
Yeah.
Awesome.
What's freedom to you, Rich?
That's another hard
question for me to answer, right?
Because when you live with my mindset,
you kind of already have freedom.
Because again, when you're no F's given,
nobody can hold anything on you.
You do what you want.
But if I had to break it down, that is a

(01:40:38):
really, really good question.
I've never really answered that.
Yeah, I've noticed.
I would say, man, saying the ability to
do what I want is
probably the best answer I
can give.

(01:41:01):
That would be the best answer I can give
for what does freedom mean to me.
And it's a mindset though, right?
It's not a financial
status or anything like that.
I mean, finances help, right?
Because when you're like, "Yes, through
this, I got the money to
go on vacation for a month,"
then that's a form of freedom.
But it's the mindset and the piece of
being able to do whatever you want.

(01:41:23):
That is probably one of the best answers
that I've heard and such
a good reminder for people
out there.
And that's honestly why I asked you.
Freedom is a mindset
in my opinion, right?
But to so many people out
there, freedom is a dollar amount.

(01:41:44):
When I have a million
dollars, I'll be free.
When I have $10 million, I'll be free.
When I have $100 million, I'll be free.
But if you keep moving that goalpost,
when will you actually be free?
And so to understand that mindset,
actually it reminds me of
the book, Man's Search for
Meaning.
Have you read that one?

(01:42:04):
No.
Okay, so Victor Frankel, he's the
founding father of
cognitive behavioral therapy and
Man's Search for Freedom is his account
of when he was in the
concentration camps.
And he had to watch his wife and family
perish, which it's a

(01:42:25):
terrible book, but it's a great
book because he basically, he survives.
He survived the concentration camp.
He got out.
He witnessed so much
death inside those camps.
But in his mind, he was free.
And that is the, that's the premise of

(01:42:46):
the book is that nobody
could take his freedom
because it was in his mind.
And in this day and age where we're given
so much and we're
surrounded by abundance of
all kinds, I mean, we're able to
communicate halfway across
the country like this every
week, like it's nothing, right?
And there's just so many

(01:43:06):
countless examples of that.
But we all, a large majority of us feel
trapped and able to move forward.
We all know these people, right?
It's, "Oh, this is never going to happen
for me," or, "Oh man, this sucks again.
Here I am again.
Bad luck.
If I didn't have bad luck,

(01:43:26):
I wouldn't have any luck.
How many times have we heard that?"
And so I really want people out there to
hear and understand why
I asked you this question
and because most people who listen to
this podcast are in pursuit of something.
And if it's freedom, I just want to point

(01:43:48):
out that I think
there's an element to that
is missing, right?
If you're in pursuit of freedom, it's
almost like you've
already kind of lost the point
to be blunt.
I mean, you can be in pursuit of other
things, but just to not
lose that ability to understand

(01:44:09):
that you create this yourself, no matter
what circumstance you're in.
Yeah.
See, I think a lot of people, when they
say they're pursuing
freedom, they're in a sense,
they're pursuing things that they think
will make them happy, right?
The problem with being happy is that
happy is an emotion and

(01:44:31):
our emotions are fickle.
They change.
How many people chase
for freedom is what?
Money.
Well, look at the last four
years, pre-COVID till now.
How many people chased a $100,000 salary?
Now a $100,000 salary is worth less than
what a $50,000 salary
was just a couple of years

(01:44:52):
before COVID.
So you know, you bust your butt for 30
years to make $110,000
that now is worth, you know,
what $60,000 was worth maybe, you know,
when you started your career.
Then what happens to that
freedom that you're chasing?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, it's what you said.
When your freedom is tied to anything

(01:45:12):
other than a mindset,
you'll never find it because
there's too many things beyond your
control that will affect that.
You chase a million dollars, you get a
million dollars in
investments and then the stock
market tanks.
Now your million is only worth $600,000.
Where did your freedom go?
So that's one of the things.
Before I started the business, because my

(01:45:34):
wife and I, we've
been dirt broke, you know
what I mean?
Barely being able to pay the bills.
And one of the things my wife said was,
what's the worst thing that happens?
We lose everything.
We've lost everything multiple times.
We lost the condo in the
great recession, went bankrupt.
Four years ago, woke up to an apartment
fire and lost everything.

(01:45:56):
It wouldn't be our first go around.
We don't want to lose
anything, obviously.
What can happen?
We go back to where we've spent most of
our adult life anyway.
Okay, cool.
And then we start over again.
But I say all that to say, because that's
the mindset of freedom right there.
And I think that goes back to something

(01:46:16):
earlier about people
being scared of success.
The more successful we get,
the more risk that's involved.
So it's like, okay, I've built up this,
say, $300,000 a year business.
I don't want to go back
to making $50,000 a year.
And part of you wants to take that next
step to try to get to a million.
But because of the level of risk that's

(01:46:37):
involved, you could be
jeopardizing your whole $300,000
in pursuit of that million.
And that stops a lot of people from
trying to actually take
that leap, even though one
part of them wants to.
When you've got the mindset of, hey, I've
made $300,000 for the
past three years, let's
try to crank it up to a million.
Be grateful for the $300,000 you made

(01:46:58):
over the past few years.
And don't put it as an idol in front of
you that's going to stop
you from chasing something
bigger.
But that goes back to
the mindset of freedom.
Oh, yeah, man.
I love this.
See, we could go Rogan on this episode
and sit and talk for three
hours about the philosophies
behind freedom.

(01:47:19):
But you're absolutely right.
And I think that that also
speaks to the value of failure.
And when I say failure, I
don't mean just at your own hands.
I mean failure in losing everything or
however that looks for
somebody, because it's this
reset, but it's also this
reminder that you're okay.

(01:47:41):
You're still okay.
As long as you can eat, as long as you
can have a roof over
your head, as long as you
can breathe, you can keep moving forward
and you can choose freedom.
But without that failure, the more we
succeed, the more our
baseline of what failure looks

(01:48:03):
like moves with that success.
We've had this
conversation before too, I think.
So that's why you see a coach I'm working
with calls it fragile rich guy disease.
That's why you see people that have a
hundred million dollars in
the bank and they're miserable
because they feel like if they drop down
to 99 million, that

(01:48:24):
their life is over and that
they've failed and that they can't recoup
and they can't rebuild.
This is actually a real thing.
Some people out there are probably like,
yeah, it must be nice.
But you know what?
It's real because whether it's a hundred
thousand dollars dropping
to 95,000 or whether it's
a million dropping to 900,000, this is

(01:48:46):
people moving that
baseline for what failure looks
like.
And so anyway, we could
go on and on about that.
Let's move the conversation forward.
I appreciate your insight on that.
Exactly what I was talking about with
some of the philosophies
that you've been posting
online.

(01:49:06):
So real quick, again, I'm not trying to
monopolize your time.
I know we're coming up at
the top of the hour here.
I do want to talk just a little bit about
the value of coaching and kind of how you
view not only getting coaching.
You mentioned a few people on this

(01:49:27):
podcast, but also you
mentioned giving coaching.
You're already taking what you're
learning and giving that value to others.
So help me understand the relationship of
getting coaching from
people like me, Corey
Yates, anybody else, Rich Malachi, and
then in turn taking that

(01:49:48):
and giving it to somebody
else.
Oh, I mean, so for me, it's
a very simple concept, right?
And I mean, I like to
bring the Bible into this.
And there's a scripture that says,
"Freely you received, freely give."
And when I think about that, you and all
these other people

(01:50:08):
have freely poured into
me.
I mean, just I ask a simple question and
I've got people
supporting me with any information,
any guidance I need to get my business
going or to get it to another level.
Who would I be?
I'd be a world-class douchebag to not
offer that to other
people that come to me.

(01:50:30):
It's just as simple as that.
Think about this.
Imagine you see a homeless guy at a gas
station and he's asking you for money.
You give him 20 bucks and somebody else
comes up to him and asks
him, "Could they get $10
of it so they could
get something to eat?"
And he tells them, "No."
You're going to be like, "Really, dude?

(01:50:51):
I just gave you 20 bucks and you can't
help another person
that's in your position get
something to eat?"
You'd kind of look at that person like,
"Dude, you're a frickin' retard.
You're a prick, whatever."
It's kind of the same thing for me except
I would look at myself that way.
How am I going to sit here and have all
these different people
on speed dial, they're on
DMs, and then somebody else calls me,

(01:51:11):
"Hey, Rich, you mind
giving me some pointers?
I'm trying to start my own business."
I'm like, "No, I'm not
willing to help you."
That sums it up for me.
No, that's good.
All right, so shameless plug, I have to
ask how much of what
I've given you, what kind

(01:51:32):
of value have you seen from that?
I don't think I could measure the value
that I've seen from that.
Like I said, it's insane.
You've helped me when I go off on, I'm 10
steps ahead of the problem before it even
comes when I'm like, "Hey, this customer

(01:51:54):
emailed me this and I've already blown it
up into a big thing in my head."
You're like, "Yo, take a step back.
Let's see what they actually say before
what you think they're
going to say," and things
like that.
It's helped me keep my head on straight
from that perspective.
I don't know from the practical side of

(01:52:15):
it, I don't know that I
would have been able to
pull my trigger on my first hire, let
alone my second hire
had we not been talking.
I don't know where my margins on parts
would be and stuff like that.
There's no way to measure the value of a
good coach, in my
opinion, especially if you're

(01:52:36):
starting from zero or if you're starting
from a level where you
know there's a bigger level
to hit that you can't get to on your own.
There's no way to measure it.
Awesome.
Now, I appreciate that.
Anybody listening out there that has the
same drive and
conviction as Rich, reach out to

(01:52:58):
me, reach out to him.
We're more than willing to help you so
long as you're willing to help yourself.
Where coaches lose their people is when
their people don't
follow through with what they
say.
Yeah.
I mean, simply put, nobody's going to

(01:53:19):
continue to pour into you if you don't
take that information,
at least some of it.
I'm not saying you have to take all of
it, but you've got to get over yourself.
Yeah, exactly.
You've got to take that action.
Action is what moves everything forward.
Action is what brings
you closer to your goals.

(01:53:40):
Action is what makes a
coach want to help you.
Everybody out there listening, just be
prepared to take that action.
All right, so we're going
to move to close here, Rich.
I need to let you get back to work, man.
I've taken too much of your time.
But I do have one more question, and if
you could give one piece
of advice to a business

(01:54:02):
owner, let's call it a new business
owner, somebody who has
just started their business
or even thinking about starting their
business that can help them
succeed, grow, scale, find
freedom, growth, fulfillment, however you
want to frame that,
what would that one piece
of advice be?
It would be to get a coach that's in the
industry that you're trying to get into.

(01:54:25):
Not one of these Instagram or Facebook
coaches that they feel like
they know everything about
every business because, truthfully, once
you start running a
business and you talk to people
who actually run businesses, you realize
that 99% of those guys are full of crap.
They've never done anything.
They can't do anything, and they're going
to give you a bunch of BS advice.

(01:54:46):
Now, find people that have done what you
want to do or are in
the process of doing what
you want to do.
Link up with them and get some type of
coaching or mentorship from them.
And I mean, that's it.
I think that's the single greatest piece
of advice I can give
because even on stuff that
you might be lacking, for example, if you

(01:55:06):
get a good coach and, like I talked about
earlier, hustle.
If you're not good at hustling and you
have a good coach,
they're going to push you to
hustle.
If anything where you're falling short,
that coach is going to push you.
So that, to me, is the single greatest
piece of advice for
somebody either starting out
or just trying to get to that next level.

(01:55:27):
Awesome.
Rich, well, listen, if anybody does want
to reach out to you,
how can they get a hold
of you?
Next way to get a hold of me is probably
on LinkedIn, Rich Ortega.
I'm also on Instagram and TikTok as Rich
in Kitchens, but I do.
Most of my stuff is on LinkedIn now.

(01:55:49):
And DM me.
If you need any advice, I give you as
much advice as I can.
I've got a buddy that I used to work with
that's starting a
service company in my market
and I'm helping him get started.
And people are like,
"Dude, are you crazy?"
And I'm like, "No."
I mean, why?
One, we're friends.
Two, I want to see him do good.
We've got the same mission.
We just can't work together.

(01:56:11):
But my point with all that is I'm willing
to help anybody, like
you said, anybody who
really wants to learn and is trying to do
good, I'll give you
any piece of information
that I've got.
And if I don't know it, I'll research it
or I'll tell you who to get it from.
But yeah.
Rising tide lifts all ships, right?
Exactly.
All right, brother.

(01:56:31):
Thank you so much for
spending your time with us today.
I know how valuable it is.
Believe me, I know how valuable it is.
So thank you.
Once we jump off here, I'm going to
change an exhaust motor.
So yeah.
Hell yeah, man.
Well, let's get you going.
Thanks again, brother.
Thanks for listening to the
Blue is the New White podcast.

(01:56:52):
Be sure to subscribe to
get the latest episodes.
For more, please follow at Josh Zolin on
LinkedIn, Twitter, and
Instagram, or visit us at Blue
is the new white dot com, where we create
success, not debt, and
build blue collar heroes.

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