December 15, 2025 • 34 mins
We break down how to sell the real product clients want—project management, communication, and trust—and map a practical plan for 2026 with sales, process, marketing, hiring, and personal goals. We also share how our retreat builds systems, peers, and momentum that outlast the event.
• redefining the product as process, advocacy, and experience
• diagnosing the coffee stain and building guardrails
• designing a 10-step sales path from first contact to signature
• using preconstruction to prevent scope creep and delays
• creating consistency so jobs scale across teams and cities
• planning 12 months across six critical areas
• setting realistic goals before accelerating spend or hiring
• stage-specific marketing and when to add headcount
• quarter planning and weekly action for steady progress
• live estimate training to show value and win trust
• community, peer support, and night sessions that spark ideas
Join us January 11–13 in Nashville for the Chart the Course 2026 Planning Retreat. Sign up now and get three free coaching sessions before the event to finish 2025 strong and hit 2026 with a clear game plan. At the retreat, you’ll tackle systems, hiring, marketing, and leadership alongside ambitious contractors, leaving with a blueprint for growth. Spots are limited—visit prostruct360.com to learn more!
Have a question or an idea to improve the podcast?
Email us at team@prostruct360.com
Want to learn more about our software or coaching?
Visit our website at ProStruct360.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover
the good, the bad, and the uglyof growing a successful
contracting company.
Welcome to Contractor Cuts.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
This is Clark.
And I'm with James again thisweek, so thank you for joining
us this week.
SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
All right.
Today we are talking about whatyou should be doing.
Your changing body.
Your changing body.
You're a blossoming flower.
No.
Today we're talking.
We're focusing a little bit onthe retreat, a lot bit on the
retreat of what we do on theretreat and what you're going to
walk away with.
A, we want you to know if you'reinterested in coming on the
(00:44):
retreat.
This is kind of what thetakeaways are.
But B, more of what we'retalking about is going into the
new year.
Where should your mind be?
What should you be thinkingabout?
Where should you be going whenyou're thinking 30,000-foot view
of your company?
Take this and run with it.
If you hear this and you'relike, I like this stuff, I might
want to come on that retreat.
Hit us up.
We are running out of spaceright now, but we love for you
(01:06):
to be there.
Um, but yeah, it's a it's apretty intimate retreat where
we, you know, it's we we limitit to 30 companies where we
really want it to be, whereeveryone can participate.
So we we've limited the roomsize, we've limited the amount
of people to make sure thatthere's a good interaction.
But if you want to come, go tocontractorcusts.com, sign up
right now, hop on a call withme, we'll talk for 20, 30
(01:30):
minutes about your company, makesure it's a good fit for you,
and we'll get you booked.
So, anyways, today we're talkingabout that.
We're talking about what thetakeaways are when you go on a
retreat like this.
What should you be doing?
And if you're not coming on theretreat, what should you be
thinking about?
How should you do your own miniretreat in and of uh yourself
and your company to really kindof launch into 2026 well?
(01:51):
So I wrote down a handful ofstuff.
James is is going off the top ofhis head.
We've been doing these retreatsoff the top the dome.
Uh we've been doing these treatssince 2016.
I think this is our 10 year,10th year of doing this.
Wow.
Um, and it started out just us.
It was uh our company's umreally intimate, really
intimate.
(02:11):
We really limited it to onecompany.
Yeah.
So it was uh it was smaller, butum we've been this is our fourth
or fifth year where we've beenbringing all of our coaching
clients along and saying, youknow, we got we got we were
doing this and I switched intocoaching, you know, five, six
years ago.
I was like, everyone needs this,like this is the best thing that
we can do for our company istake this time once a year for a
(02:33):
couple days and plan stuff out.
And so we started invitingeveryone to come and it's it's
been killer.
So all right, I've got it kindof a list that we can go down,
take us wherever you want to go.
I'll I'll I'll kind of rabbittrail as well.
But the first thing that I thinkthat is important to walk away
from uh this retreat or any sortof planning that you're doing is
(02:56):
starting to look at how and whatyou are selling, what product
you're selling.
And now, if you're a paintcompany, you're you're a
flooring company, you're ageneral contractor that
specializes in kitchens, uh,those are what people believe
their product are.
But what we really want toredefine is what you're actually
selling, right?
So I'm not, as a generalcontractor, I'm not selling a
(03:17):
kitchen because there are 28companies within a hundred feet
of that house that can do akitchen that just as good as I
can, probably, or very close.
The product that I'm selling,yeah, uh on paper, it's a
kitchen.
But what I'm really selling isthe project management.
What I'm really selling is myexpertise, my knowledge, my
(03:39):
skills, my ability to be youradvocate as a client and to be
able to step in and say, listen,I I we understand the vision of
what you want in this kitchen.
Now let me execute that and I'mgonna handle that for you.
I'm gonna ask the questions thatyou don't know need to be asked.
I'm gonna think through thethings that you don't realize
need to be thought through.
And the product that I'm sellingis the convenience and ease of
(03:59):
receiving a renovation fromsomeone who knows what they're
doing.
Right.
And so, how do we refine that?
How do we view our product thatway?
How do we view it not?
I got you your kitchen.
Why are you so angry?
Like the kitchen looksbeautiful.
Stop.
Uh, why are you yelling at me?
Like that's not the productthey're looking for.
Baby, baby, relax, relax.
Why are you so uptight?
(04:21):
But literally, that's themindset of people, of guys like
in this are like, there's justanother crazy client.
Well, no, it's a client withunmet expectations because you
never called them.
You they didn't know clue whenpeople were gonna be there.
They you made choices withoutinvolvement.
Like, there's so many thingsthat you've done in get in
delivering what you believe isthe product, that kitchen that
(04:42):
looks great, that the customerservice was not good, not up to
par, not met expectations.
And so they're never gonna referyou to someone else.
They're never gonna call youagain.
They're not gonna their theirmom might walk in and say, This
is a beautiful kitchen.
Who did it?
It's this company.
I mean, they it the kitchenlooks awesome.
Um they're they're a pain todeal with.
Yeah.
Right?
So that switch.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
Separating intention from execution.
Yeah.
Like you can have the best ofintentions.
You could have tried to do this,you could have tried to do that.
That doesn't mean you're a badproject manager or a bad person,
but like what what was theexecution like?
Did it did it roll out the waythat you wanted to?
And if not, they've got they'vegot ground to stand on.
SPEAKER_01 (05:23):
Yeah.
Well, the the litmus test forthis is consistency of how your
clients are receiving you,right?
If if my client in Atlanta andmy client in Lexington and my
client in Austin all get theexact same experience, that
means we've done it well.
That means the product thatwe've built is that consistency
(05:43):
of delivering X kitchen,bathroom, basement, addition,
new build.
Um, the the processes indelivering that is what's
scalable and what's sellable asa as a owner of a company, as a
growing company, that's the onlyway to scale it.
And so what we want to do on theretreat is really refine what
that looks like, assess what ismissing in your game plan to
(06:07):
deliver that, and start reallybuilding around what needs to
change, what needs to say thesame in the in in your product
that you're offering personally.
SPEAKER_02 (06:17):
And you said in the beginning, you know, it's not
there's gonna be people that dodifferent, serve different
niches and niches in theindustry, and not everything's
gonna be 100% applicable.
This is like anything else.
It's take the meat, leave thebone.
There's gonna be things thatlike someone's talking about
that doesn't exactly relate towhat you're doing.
(06:37):
Yeah.
But I've always found on theseretreats you hear people from
completely different walks,completely different mindsets,
different creative abilities,different structural abilities
talking and working throughproblems in their company or
successes in their company.
And there's always littlenuggets that you're like, oh,
(06:58):
that's not what we do.
But like that, the heart of thatmakes sense.
How do I uh put that over topwhat I'm doing?
I like that piece.
SPEAKER_01 (07:08):
That the what's what's funny, what the part
you're talking about.
I've been talking to some someof the people coming on the
retreat, and you know, they'reyou know, first some the first
timers are like, you know, likewhat's the schedule?
Like what calls noobs.
The noobs are like, what's youknow, what should we expect?
And what I say to them is like,listen, this isn't a vacation to
Nashville.
Don't go plan.
Oh, I really want to go visitthis restaurant that I saw on
(07:31):
Instagram.
Don't plan your evenings.
Don't cut out at five when we'redone and go do that.
And I'm like, there is somethingthat I can't explain that
happens in hanging out withpeople going through the same
process, trying to build andgrow together that in the
evenings we have that I can'treally explain.
But it's like what you just saidlike you can talk to an
electrician or you know, amaster woodworker that's there,
(07:54):
and it's like, well, how are youdoing this way?
And what are you doing aboutthis?
And there's some sort of like,oh yeah, I can I can take the
meat and leave the bone on that.
Like, I'm not an electrician,but that's really cool how you
do that.
And there's a lot of thoseconversations that happen in the
nights, in the evenings fromfive till midnight or one when
guys uh end up going to bed thatyou you can't quantify, but it's
(08:15):
there of like, oh, that's great,that's great.
So my my my my suggestion toguys come in, girls coming uh
for the first time is like,don't make any other plans.
Don't go see your aunt who livesoutside of Nashville.
If you want to do that, getthere on Saturday, go do that
Saturday night and then Sunday,let's, let's, let's get down to
business.
Because Sunday night we do acocktail party, it's a get-to
(08:35):
know-you party.
It's really the icebreaker.
We we've realized if we do this,we did this last year for the
first time, and it made Mondaymorning so much better because
everyone was interacting,everyone was involved, everyone
knew each other by that time.
Where if you just show up Mondaymorning, it's like, hi, hi, um,
go.
And no one speaks up and no onewants to answer questions till
we're three-fourths of the waythrough day one.
(08:56):
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, I think that'sthat's great.
SPEAKER_02 (08:59):
Like, if you come Monday, you're gonna you're
gonna not be on friendship levelwith everybody.
SPEAKER_01 (09:04):
We'll have all these inside jokes.
Yeah.
And we'll be like, yeah, no, Ishould have been there.
Gwen Stefani is terrible.
Don't bring up Gwen.
That's uh from last retreat.
If you if you were on it, youwould probably get it.
All right, uh, number two, uh,something else I wrote down.
We go from the product of whatis your product, what is missing
from your product.
(09:24):
And again, we're looking andassessing 2025.
We're looking at the last yearsaying, okay, what went well,
what what didn't go well, whatwhat went wrong, what can we
improve in that?
And and part of that, and thismight scare some people away
from the treat, but we getpretty introspective and deep on
a personal level with peoplebecause it's like whatever your
flaws are as a person, that'sthe flaws that your company have
(09:46):
naturally baked in.
So if you're not good atfollowing up and you're you're
you know, you're not good atremembering to do things, your
company's gonna be known forthat.
Well, uh Grant a few weeks ayear ago on the podcast talked
about something that I'veactually worked into the
retreat.
I might have him talking aboutsome of it on the retreat.
He's he he he he said the phraseand the metaphor, what is your
(10:08):
coffee stain?
Uh the the whole idea of whenyou leave, what's that one
negative thing that's leftbehind?
What's kind of what what's thecoffee stain of your company?
What's the the thing that likeand and is it I just you know it
takes two weeks to get estimatesback from me?
It's I get I hit people with thechange rules at the end of the
job and they get pissed.
(10:29):
Every I feel like every job I'marm wrestling to get that last
amount of money that they oweme.
Uh or you know, I'm just uhhonestly, like if I pulled my
clients, most of them would saythey think our job sites are
messy, or whatever, whatever itis, understanding what the
coffee stain in the company is,and it's most likely in your
personal life that's baked intothe company that way.
And we're not gonna fix you.
(10:51):
Like you have you are who youare.
What we need to do is build theguardrails around that and make
your company better than you.
Like that, I always said thatwhen I with our company in
Atlanta was when I got to a spotand I stepped out and turned
into GM and you were a projectmanager at that time.
It was like the software and thesystems that I put in place were
(11:12):
like what I what I needed.
And then you came in and youwere better at other things that
were naturally happening, butthen like the things that you
aren't as good at, the processesare making you better.
And so, like, you're a better PMbecause it's combining our two
ways of running, like my goodstuff and your good stuff.
And so the goal is to buildthese processes where your
company is better than you are,where a job site ran by one of
(11:34):
our project managers is ranbetter than if I was running it
myself.
And if we can get to that spot,that product, that's what we're
offering, that's the winning thewinning product.
That's the winning ticket thatwill get you there.
And so uh taking that andunderstanding the flaws of the
owner, the flaws of the company,we look at what's happened this
year, and then we start buildingout your processes.
(11:55):
What are the 10 steps?
And this this year we'refocusing on um of the 10 steps,
the the first contact tosignature.
Uh, and then we'll also do somepre-construction um
conversations as well.
As so once they sign, what doespre-construction look like?
But really, that sales process.
It's not, I'm they want a numberfor the kitchen.
Here's the number, uh eitherthey sign or they don't.
(12:17):
It is selling a product andletting them understand what
they're buying, helping thehelping your clients see your
value over the next guys and whythey should choose you, even
though you might be 10% moreexpensive than the other guy,
you are the safest, smartest betfor them.
And how do we sell that?
And and really kind of thefront-end sales training of this
(12:38):
movie, especially moving fromlike a hammer swinger into
project manager.
How do we sell that?
And a lot of guys naturally aresalesmen, especially a lot of
entrepreneurs, but there's adifference of being a salesman
and laying out a product thatpeople want to buy.
And so we're gonna focus on thaton the retreat and kind of take
that have have that takeaway uhon how does your process run?
(13:00):
Our 10 step is from firstcontact to final invoice, every
step of the way, what you needto be doing.
But then we start refining itand getting it efficient and and
patching the holes in the bucketthat are dripping money out,
that if we can get you two,three, five percent more
efficient and then make it aproduct that people want to buy,
that's a win.
Right.
So that's that's kind of the thea lot of day one and and some of
(13:24):
day two is refining the processaround your flaws, your
inefficiencies, and the problemsfrom last year.
So if you're doing this on yourown, if you're not coming on the
retreat, take time to do that.
Look back, be reflective, writeout, have a spot in your in your
iPad or on your phone where youkind of write down when stuff
hits you, like, oh, we suck atthat.
Put that down.
The more uh eye-opened that youare, the better your company's
(13:48):
gonna be.
Uh, do you remember we were in Iwon't name the the person,
company, or place we were at,but we were at one of these
retreats in the past, and Isaid, I I asked one of the guys
there, or girls, but it was aguy, uh I said, you know, if I
pulled your polled all of yourclients, how many would be like
(14:10):
10 out of 10 he that company'sperfect?
And he was like, all of them.
Every person.
Do you remember this?
And I was like, I was like,every person would say that you
were a 10 out of 10.
He was like, every client would.
I'm like, oh, so you don't havethe ability to to to like see
reality of what people don'tlike about you and your company.
Like, there's no way that you'vebeen running a company for two
(14:32):
years and 100% of your clientsare 100% happy with you.
And so how do we understand thatand how do we start figuring out
what people aren't happy with?
Because if I can't see it, Imean if I could see that they're
not something's not good, I'mgonna fix it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:46):
There's something.
There's something so refreshingabout that confidence, though,
that I want.
I just want a taste of it.
SPEAKER_00 (14:57):
Just the blindness to people's unhappiness with
you.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:02):
So that's what your 2026 is gonna be.
SPEAKER_02 (15:04):
Nah, man, I've I pissed ginger ilm poop sherbet,
baby.
SPEAKER_01 (15:09):
Anyway, so we're we're doing that.
We're looking back, we're we'reassessing the companies, we're
figuring out the the holes inyour process, uh, and we're
diving a lot into that stuff.
Um, and then something else thatthat that you're gonna get was
day two on the retreat.
Um you're we're breakingeverybody into different groups.
It's kind of the first timers orguys kind of starting companies
(15:31):
that are either hammer swingersor one-man shows is group one.
Group two are most most of thepeople, uh, it's gonna be more
prepping for higher levelcompanies, like first time,
second time, third time hires.
Um, if you're about to hire inthe next six months, you're
probably gonna be in that grouptwo.
Uh, and then group three areyou've got hires.
It's more of like a leadershipgroup.
Hey, how do you how do you growyour team?
(15:52):
How do you build the culture?
So half of day two, you're gonnabreak into those groups, and
those groups are gonna gothrough a marketing per level,
because each level's gotdifferent marketing.
So we're gonna kind of customizewhat type of marketing you
should be doing, what shouldyour spend be?
What should um you be focusingon?
Where should you be at?
(16:13):
Because a company that's gotfour project managers looks
different than a dude coming outof the truck trying to become a
project manager when it comes tomarketing.
And so, what should it looklike?
So that's that's one of thesessions.
And the other session that eachof those groups will go through
is with me.
And I've kind of got builtdifferently on how who to hire,
when to hire, how to hire thatmiddle group or leadership, uh,
(16:34):
or where the the startup groupis gonna be more less really
refine your 10 steps and reallytalk through what processes
should look like if you're kindof new into this.
So, anyways, that that's gonnabe day two, but you're gonna be
walking away with a marketingplan.
And so if you're not coming onthe retreat, take time to figure
out what you're doingmarketing-wise.
What should you be doing?
(16:54):
Do the research of how muchshould I be spending for my
revenue price point?
How much, where should I bespending?
What's the most efficient spendin construction versus you know,
wasting my money?
Um, but that's that's somethingtoo, going into the new year.
What is 2026 marketing looklike?
What should it look like?
What's the goals by the end ofthe year on that?
Um speaking of goals, uh, that'sthat's something else.
(17:16):
We've got this big one-year goalplan across six critical areas
that we're gonna be covering.
It's revenue, financial,marketing, employee, process and
procedures, and then personal.
And those are the six that we'regonna be focusing on.
Uh, and I'm gonna boil it downto uh probably three main ones.
Um, but what we have is aplanner that you're gonna get
when you come on the retreat andit's laying out 2026, and we're
(17:39):
gonna be focusing.
So if you're in coaching, thisplanner you're gonna have for
365 days until the next retreat,and we are coaching out of it,
and we're gonna be planning outwhat every month from here
through December looks like tobe successful for your company.
And it's gonna be in writingthat you're gonna take home, and
we're gonna be editing,changing, working out of it,
taking notes, all that stuff.
(18:00):
What looking forward to it?
SPEAKER_02 (18:02):
I am.
I can't wait to see thosejournals.
SPEAKER_01 (18:05):
Yeah, it's uh I'm pretty excited about it.
We're it's it's not something webought.
I've I'm hand building them andwe're getting books printed that
are specific ProStrut planningjournals for them.
Are they gonna be leather bound?
Might be.
Are they gonna smell like richmahogany?
They will.
They will, they'll be very nice.
So that's something that that Ithink you know, focusing on
(18:26):
those, if you're not coming onthe retreat, revenue,
financials, marketing,employees, are you gonna hire or
improvement of currentemployees, uh, processes and
procedures, and personal.
I I care as much personal as Ido on any of these other ones
because if you don't have ahealthy personal life, a healthy
marriage, a healthy being a dad,healthy with friends, and and a
(18:49):
balance where there's a focusoutside of nothing but work,
you're gonna burn out.
Everyone does.
And what's you know, get intothe why of why you're doing
this.
What's the reason that you'rerunning this company?
Why not just go work incorporate America?
Why is this your baby?
And what are you doing to growit and and to foster it?
Because I don't care about mycompany.
I care about the life it'screating for me.
(19:10):
I care about my kids' experienceof life, my wife's experience of
life, and and what does thiscompany support there?
And where do I want to go by theend of 2026?
What's health for me personally?
What does that what is my NorthStar guiding me for my revenue
and my finances and my personaland my employees and marketing?
Like, what does success looklike by the end of December?
(19:33):
And what's also like, what'srealistic?
I had someone I was talking touh who's in the coaching program
that they were just startingwith us.
And my my first was like, Hey,let's talk about next year.
Like, what do you think you cando?
And they're like, you know, theywant to 10x what they did this
year.
And it's like, well, that's notthat's not gonna happen.
We're not 10xing this year tonext year when you don't have
processes in place.
(19:54):
I was like, let's lay out arealistic goal.
I love that motor.
Yeah, yeah.
And like we will 10x.
In a couple of years from now,but like we got to build the
foundation before we build ahouse.
And you think we're building ahouse and you're gonna grow and
have this huge revenue.
We got to spend three, four,five months building the
foundation, your processes.
How do we operate?
How does your client engagementreally work?
(20:16):
And how does it uh reallymanifest itself on your job
sites?
All of that stuff needs to be inplace before we can pour gas on
the fire, before we can grow therevenue.
And so I love that.
I love the engine, I love theidea.
I love like, yeah, I'm gonna 10Xnext year.
Great.
Let's actually pick a realisticnumber and let's look.
When are you gonna make a hire?
So let's talk about how muchrevenue you can do in your
(20:37):
industry, in commercial, therevenue, and this is what it
looks like.
Or if you're a if you're aresidential remodeler, this is
what the max revenue you can doon your own.
And this is when you add aproject manager, what the
revenue looks like, and kind oflay all those numbers out and
just get a realistic number forDecember and and have that our
goal that we're aiming for.
Uh, and if you hire three peopleperfectly and they're all great
(20:58):
project managers, and we do 5xwhat you're doing this year,
awesome.
We will edit that along thejourney.
We will in March and April, May,be like, dude, you're killing
it.
Like, let's let's up thesegoals.
Um, but I want to set realisticgoals for each company coming
out of this retreat.
SPEAKER_02 (21:13):
And the cool thing too, especially with how many
people are gonna be there, andthat changes every year, but
like there's gonna be peoplethere.
If you're listening to this andyou're like, yeah, I'm I'm I
want to go, I'm worried aboutyou know, being the low man on
the totem pole, and likeeveryone's gonna be talking
about all this great stuff, andI'm like just kind of
struggling.
There's gonna be people therethat are in the same boat as
(21:35):
you.
Yeah.
And it's going to be as dauntingas it is to think about stepping
away for a couple days andspending money to go on a trip
and like, you know, maybe justfeel like crap the whole time
because everyone's doing betterthan you, you're going to get a
a commiserating experience.
There's gonna be people therethat have the same problems,
(21:57):
that are facing the samebattles, and it's going to be
rejuvenating.
Yeah.
It it always is.
SPEAKER_01 (22:03):
Yeah, it it's a it's not a get out the measuring tape
of who's bigger.
It's it's a we've all been atlike me and you have been at
every stage of this.
And it's like we've there's nota oh little, oh, you're a little
startup company.
It's like, no, bro, let me, letme, come here, let's, let's
talk.
You know, this is a have youthought about this?
(22:24):
Are you doing this?
Tell me about what you're doingthere.
Like that's that's fun.
And we're all entrepreneurs onthis, and so it's like our our
engines run at the same speed,which is great, because it's
like, oh, what about this?
Have you tried this?
Oh, have you thought about doingthis?
Oh, that's cool.
What if we did this?
And you know, there's there's alot of that, but I think that's
a good point that you make ofit's not a oh, the big boys and
(22:46):
everybody else.
It's it's like, no, we're allevil, evil, level playing field.
Um evil playing field.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
Life is a fickle mistress, she's an evil playing
field.
SPEAKER_01 (23:58):
So I I think one other thing when I'm talking
about planning out uh 12 monthsin advance.
It's hard to plan out weekly inNovember when it's January.
But what we do is we plan outlike goals for the year, what
what they should look like, whatsuccess looks like quarter after
over quarter.
And then we look at Q1, January,February, March.
(24:20):
What are you doing these months?
When you leave this retreat,Monday you wake up, what's
changing?
Right?
We we we want to look at theentire elephant that needs to be
eaten this year and say, okay,cool.
What are the first three bites?
What are the first two bitesthat I need to do this month by
the time January ends?
This is February, February 1st.
SPEAKER_02 (24:39):
This looks what I just got uh never, I'll explain
it later.
Just a visual of eating anelephant.
I'm just picturing theelephant's face and like you're
looking at the elephant like I'mgonna eat you slowly, and it's
like, okay.
What are you doing?
I'm just mapping out where I'mgonna start.
SPEAKER_00 (24:58):
I'm gonna tail it's tasty.
SPEAKER_01 (25:04):
My nose.
So, anyways, we're laying thatout.
We're laying out the firstquarter of what you should be
doing.
And then if you're in coaching,well, uh, I've got plans each
quarter.
We're laying out those quartersas we go.
So we're kind of settingshort-term three-month goals
that we that will be edited andchanged as we go, and that will
kind of affect our larger goals.
Uh Clark, can I say something?
SPEAKER_02 (25:24):
Yes.
Just as me, three months seemslike not a short-term goal for
me.
That that's exhausting sounding.
SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
Yeah.
Well, it won't be.
Good.
As long as you know like whatyou got to do in the next couple
weeks.
Like what's the next?
What's next?
The goal is what are what shouldyou be when you sit down?
Because I I've had guys incoaching like, all right, I've
I've scheduled two hours Fridaymorning to work on the company.
My wife takes the kids toschool, and I got two hours that
I'm gonna work on my company.
(25:52):
What should I work on?
And they sit down and they startwriting estimates and they start
looking through their emails,and oh, I gotta pay this bill,
and I gotta do, and it's like,that's not that's not what you
should be working on.
Okay, well, then I'm gonna planout my marketing campaign.
Well, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You're you're not ready for amarketing campaign on Meta.
Like that's not that's not hereyet.
And so it's uh what should yoube doing Friday morning for that
(26:14):
two-hour time block?
What you know, how much time canyou peel off this week to work
on your company?
And let's plan out thosesessions to where it's like
you're not wasting the time andyou've got a sense of
accomplishment because guys wantto score touchdowns.
Here goes the sports metaphor.
Buckle in.
You got this.
We got to go all hundred yardsto get you to success, right?
And guys want to break off the50, 60 yard plays that get you
(26:38):
there real quickly.
SPEAKER_02 (26:38):
Ken Walker.
Sure.
All he wants to do is hitdingers.
SPEAKER_01 (26:42):
Yes.
What I what I want is we I don'tcare if you make one inch, one
foot, one yard, three yards,five yard gain.
I need you to be moving forwarddown the down the field.
So every single week, I I mean,hey, I got slammed last week.
I did nothing we talked about.
Uh I gotta hit a reset.
Cool, awesome.
You didn't move backwards, solet's keep moving forwards.
(27:04):
And so my goal, my, my goal.
My goal is my goal with my goalwith the coaching and with this
planner and everything elseyou're doing is listen, we are
going, I don't care how fast wego, I want forward progress week
over week.
And so by the end of the year,you've gone all 100 yards, and
that's that's great.
But no one, no one's justquickly getting there, even
(27:25):
though we all want to get there.
It's like, okay, cool, we willget there.
All I need this week is this.
Just do this.
Or, hey, I've I'm finishingthree jobs and starting two new
jobs this week.
Cool.
You want your assignment is thisweek?
Do that well.
We're not gonna be doinganything, any other growth for
your company this week or nextweek.
End those jobs, start the nextones, let's talk in the next
session, right?
And that's okay.
(27:45):
You have permission for thatbecause it's a busy week, but
we're not gonna fall off thewagon and stay off the wagon.
We're gonna get right back onand say, hey, all right, those
jobs are done.
Now I need to start working onthis.
Now we need to start planningthis.
Hey, let's talk about subs andthe sub onboarding.
Let's start, let's, let's start,start filling up your bench of
subs to where we can startcalling on people because you
don't start looking for paintersuntil you have a paint job
(28:08):
without a painter on it.
Why don't we start looking now,have those calls and have a
paint, right?
And so we start talking aboutthat sort of thing of where you
should be at.
Let's assess your company.
Um, but yeah, you'll walk awayfrom the retreat with kind of
that game plan.
If you're not coming on theretreat again, sit down and
think through that stuff.
What does Q1 look like?
What's this month look like?
What should I do for successthis month?
(28:30):
And really start assessing kindof the 30,000 foot view of your
company of like what's missinghere?
What's broken here?
What's what do people not like?
What's my coffee stain from inthis company right now?
How do I start tweaking thosethings and my processes to where
I'm eliminating that stuffpermanently?
I'm excited right now.
Yeah.
Uh I'm I'm super excited aboutgoing.
SPEAKER_02 (28:52):
I'm being I'm being genuine.
I'm I'm uh um I've got all thesethings in my head.
I'm like, oh yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:58):
This all sounds good.
We we m what we'll probably do.
We did this last year and peopleloved it.
We uh we're gonna line up Jamesto do a live estimate or desk
estimate with the client or alive walkthrough with the
client.
Good to know.
Yep.
We haven't talked about thisyet, but he did it last year,
and so we're gonna line one upfor this year, hopefully.
It's it's hard because you gotto find the right job and the
(29:18):
right client and uh kind ofchoreograph it down to the day.
Um, but uh I think James is amaster at estimate writing, a
master at talking with theclient and prepping the client
and the pre-con work and the thedesk estimates and site revision
conversations.
(29:38):
I think you are the best I'veseen in doing those.
Take a moment.
I don't give out complimentsoften, do I?
SPEAKER_02 (29:45):
I'm gonna name it.
SPEAKER_01 (29:49):
But I I think what's super helpful is for guys to see
you do it and be like, oh,that's why.
So we're gonna have a session,whether it's with a live client
on a Zoom or just you buildingout an estimate.
But but I think we're gonna bereally, when I said from first
contact through signature thatwe're focusing on, I think
that's a big part of it of howand why we build those
(30:10):
estimates, uh, kind of thereason behind why we put what we
put there and how we do it forthe pre-site estimate and then
post-site estimate and all ofthose things.
So there's gonna be a lot ofthat that that's that's really
enjoyable.
That was when I got feedbackfrom the last year's retreat.
That was a lot of people'sfavorite part, even though I
wasn't doing it.
So it was fine.
It was good.
It didn't hurt my ego at all.
(30:31):
It makes sense.
Um, but yeah, if you want tocome on the retreat, you should
come on the retreat.
Go to contractorcuts.com, set upa call with me.
We'll talk for 30 minutes.
I want to hear about yourcompany.
I want to make sure you're agood fit for us, uh, and we're a
good fit for you.
Um, but take the time.
It's worth the effort and thetime to come on something like
this.
This is year over year the mostimpactful thing that companies
(30:55):
can do, whether it's with us oron their own, is to take three
days, zoom out, turn your phoneoff, set your uh jobs up to run
when you're not there, and workon making your company better.
Zoom out, look at the30,000-foot view of who you
really are, get some outside uheyes on your company that say,
(31:15):
hey, this seems like a problemfor you.
Let's let's figure out how tosolve this one issue and let's
let's let's keep tweaking uhthese little things to really
make you from good to great as acompany.
Yeah.
If you want to come, check itout.
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (31:29):
Well, I was just gonna say if and if you're open
to it, you're gonna leave withwith like friends.
Like everybody every time thatwe've done this, there's been
real like friendships that startforming, and you can kind of
watch them, and like someone'stalking about their company, and
like the same person's like, forwhatever reason, you know,
(31:50):
there's like this one personthat's like really invested in
like that person.
Yeah.
And you'll see them likeoffering thoughts and offering
uh, you know, like building themup, and like it's just a really
cool thing.
You just it feels like a veryisolating experience being an
entrepreneur, being in theconstruction world.
And when you get in a group ofpeople that are all kind of
(32:14):
doing the same thing, there isjust a bond that's just
naturally there, and thenspending all this time together.
And that's one of the bigreasons I think you're saying
don't plan other things.
There's so much good stuff goingon and the downtimes and you
know, the breaks, and you know,just talking.
SPEAKER_01 (32:33):
Everyone's coming off their islands that they're
living on in their own cities,and we're coming together and
we're helping each other gobetter and move for further and
and be a better company.
And there's no competent, Imean, there's guys like from
Atlanta that come to this thatare our competition, right?
And it's like, no, we're like,there's plenty of work
everywhere.
Like, let's help each othergrow.
(32:53):
Um, but I think that's that'sone of the what you're saying is
right on of like the like I knowthat there is I know
specifically two guys that afterthis retreat, you were, you
know, we the you were talkingabout VA loans on the retreat
last year, and two of the guyslike, hey, can I can I call you
when we get back?
Because I want to get into doingmore VA loans and I want to know
how that process works.
(33:14):
You're like, yeah, here's like,call me, call me, call me.
So stuff like that where it'slike, hey, I I've been thinking
about this specific thing.
You're doing that.
Tell me like, do you mind beinga resource for me?
Like absolutely.
Like, we all love to contributeand help each other out.
So I think that's uh thecamaraderie is hard to put on
paper what happens on theretreats, and it's hard to tell
people about it until they comeexperienced and like, yeah, I'm
(33:36):
gonna come every single year.
Until yeah, so thanks forjoining us.
Go to contractorcuts.com, uh,get signed up for the retreat.
Um, love to chat with you, andwe will love to see you there.
SPEAKER_02 (33:49):
That's all.
My bye.
Welcome to Contractor Cuts, where we cover
the good, the bad, and the uglyof growing a successful
contracting company.
Welcome to Contractor Cuts.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
This is Clark.
And I'm with James again thisweek, so thank you for joining
us this week.
SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
All right.
Today we are talking about whatyou should be doing.
Your changing body.
Your changing body.
You're a blossoming flower.
No.
Today we're talking.
We're focusing a little bit onthe retreat, a lot bit on the
retreat of what we do on theretreat and what you're going to
walk away with.
A, we want you to know if you'reinterested in coming on the
(00:44):
retreat.
This is kind of what thetakeaways are.
But B, more of what we'retalking about is going into the
new year.
Where should your mind be?
What should you be thinkingabout?
Where should you be going whenyou're thinking 30,000-foot view
of your company?
Take this and run with it.
If you hear this and you'relike, I like this stuff, I might
want to come on that retreat.
Hit us up.
We are running out of spaceright now, but we love for you
(01:06):
to be there.
Um, but yeah, it's a it's apretty intimate retreat where
we, you know, it's we we limitit to 30 companies where we
really want it to be, whereeveryone can participate.
So we we've limited the roomsize, we've limited the amount
of people to make sure thatthere's a good interaction.
But if you want to come, go tocontractorcusts.com, sign up
right now, hop on a call withme, we'll talk for 20, 30
(01:30):
minutes about your company, makesure it's a good fit for you,
and we'll get you booked.
So, anyways, today we're talkingabout that.
We're talking about what thetakeaways are when you go on a
retreat like this.
What should you be doing?
And if you're not coming on theretreat, what should you be
thinking about?
How should you do your own miniretreat in and of uh yourself
and your company to really kindof launch into 2026 well?
(01:51):
So I wrote down a handful ofstuff.
James is is going off the top ofhis head.
We've been doing these retreatsoff the top the dome.
Uh we've been doing these treatssince 2016.
I think this is our 10 year,10th year of doing this.
Wow.
Um, and it started out just us.
It was uh our company's umreally intimate, really
intimate.
(02:11):
We really limited it to onecompany.
Yeah.
So it was uh it was smaller, butum we've been this is our fourth
or fifth year where we've beenbringing all of our coaching
clients along and saying, youknow, we got we got we were
doing this and I switched intocoaching, you know, five, six
years ago.
I was like, everyone needs this,like this is the best thing that
we can do for our company istake this time once a year for a
(02:33):
couple days and plan stuff out.
And so we started invitingeveryone to come and it's it's
been killer.
So all right, I've got it kindof a list that we can go down,
take us wherever you want to go.
I'll I'll I'll kind of rabbittrail as well.
But the first thing that I thinkthat is important to walk away
from uh this retreat or any sortof planning that you're doing is
(02:56):
starting to look at how and whatyou are selling, what product
you're selling.
And now, if you're a paintcompany, you're you're a
flooring company, you're ageneral contractor that
specializes in kitchens, uh,those are what people believe
their product are.
But what we really want toredefine is what you're actually
selling, right?
So I'm not, as a generalcontractor, I'm not selling a
(03:17):
kitchen because there are 28companies within a hundred feet
of that house that can do akitchen that just as good as I
can, probably, or very close.
The product that I'm selling,yeah, uh on paper, it's a
kitchen.
But what I'm really selling isthe project management.
What I'm really selling is myexpertise, my knowledge, my
(03:39):
skills, my ability to be youradvocate as a client and to be
able to step in and say, listen,I I we understand the vision of
what you want in this kitchen.
Now let me execute that and I'mgonna handle that for you.
I'm gonna ask the questions thatyou don't know need to be asked.
I'm gonna think through thethings that you don't realize
need to be thought through.
And the product that I'm sellingis the convenience and ease of
(03:59):
receiving a renovation fromsomeone who knows what they're
doing.
Right.
And so, how do we refine that?
How do we view our product thatway?
How do we view it not?
I got you your kitchen.
Why are you so angry?
Like the kitchen looksbeautiful.
Stop.
Uh, why are you yelling at me?
Like that's not the productthey're looking for.
Baby, baby, relax, relax.
Why are you so uptight?
(04:21):
But literally, that's themindset of people, of guys like
in this are like, there's justanother crazy client.
Well, no, it's a client withunmet expectations because you
never called them.
You they didn't know clue whenpeople were gonna be there.
They you made choices withoutinvolvement.
Like, there's so many thingsthat you've done in get in
delivering what you believe isthe product, that kitchen that
(04:42):
looks great, that the customerservice was not good, not up to
par, not met expectations.
And so they're never gonna referyou to someone else.
They're never gonna call youagain.
They're not gonna their theirmom might walk in and say, This
is a beautiful kitchen.
Who did it?
It's this company.
I mean, they it the kitchenlooks awesome.
Um they're they're a pain todeal with.
Yeah.
Right?
So that switch.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
Separating intention from execution.
Yeah.
Like you can have the best ofintentions.
You could have tried to do this,you could have tried to do that.
That doesn't mean you're a badproject manager or a bad person,
but like what what was theexecution like?
Did it did it roll out the waythat you wanted to?
And if not, they've got they'vegot ground to stand on.
SPEAKER_01 (05:23):
Yeah.
Well, the the litmus test forthis is consistency of how your
clients are receiving you,right?
If if my client in Atlanta andmy client in Lexington and my
client in Austin all get theexact same experience, that
means we've done it well.
That means the product thatwe've built is that consistency
(05:43):
of delivering X kitchen,bathroom, basement, addition,
new build.
Um, the the processes indelivering that is what's
scalable and what's sellable asa as a owner of a company, as a
growing company, that's the onlyway to scale it.
And so what we want to do on theretreat is really refine what
that looks like, assess what ismissing in your game plan to
(06:07):
deliver that, and start reallybuilding around what needs to
change, what needs to say thesame in the in in your product
that you're offering personally.
SPEAKER_02 (06:17):
And you said in the beginning, you know, it's not
there's gonna be people that dodifferent, serve different
niches and niches in theindustry, and not everything's
gonna be 100% applicable.
This is like anything else.
It's take the meat, leave thebone.
There's gonna be things thatlike someone's talking about
that doesn't exactly relate towhat you're doing.
(06:37):
Yeah.
But I've always found on theseretreats you hear people from
completely different walks,completely different mindsets,
different creative abilities,different structural abilities
talking and working throughproblems in their company or
successes in their company.
And there's always littlenuggets that you're like, oh,
(06:58):
that's not what we do.
But like that, the heart of thatmakes sense.
How do I uh put that over topwhat I'm doing?
I like that piece.
SPEAKER_01 (07:08):
That the what's what's funny, what the part
you're talking about.
I've been talking to some someof the people coming on the
retreat, and you know, they'reyou know, first some the first
timers are like, you know, likewhat's the schedule?
Like what calls noobs.
The noobs are like, what's youknow, what should we expect?
And what I say to them is like,listen, this isn't a vacation to
Nashville.
Don't go plan.
Oh, I really want to go visitthis restaurant that I saw on
(07:31):
Instagram.
Don't plan your evenings.
Don't cut out at five when we'redone and go do that.
And I'm like, there is somethingthat I can't explain that
happens in hanging out withpeople going through the same
process, trying to build andgrow together that in the
evenings we have that I can'treally explain.
But it's like what you just saidlike you can talk to an
electrician or you know, amaster woodworker that's there,
(07:54):
and it's like, well, how are youdoing this way?
And what are you doing aboutthis?
And there's some sort of like,oh yeah, I can I can take the
meat and leave the bone on that.
Like, I'm not an electrician,but that's really cool how you
do that.
And there's a lot of thoseconversations that happen in the
nights, in the evenings fromfive till midnight or one when
guys uh end up going to bed thatyou you can't quantify, but it's
(08:15):
there of like, oh, that's great,that's great.
So my my my my suggestion toguys come in, girls coming uh
for the first time is like,don't make any other plans.
Don't go see your aunt who livesoutside of Nashville.
If you want to do that, getthere on Saturday, go do that
Saturday night and then Sunday,let's, let's, let's get down to
business.
Because Sunday night we do acocktail party, it's a get-to
(08:35):
know-you party.
It's really the icebreaker.
We we've realized if we do this,we did this last year for the
first time, and it made Mondaymorning so much better because
everyone was interacting,everyone was involved, everyone
knew each other by that time.
Where if you just show up Mondaymorning, it's like, hi, hi, um,
go.
And no one speaks up and no onewants to answer questions till
we're three-fourths of the waythrough day one.
(08:56):
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, I think that'sthat's great.
SPEAKER_02 (08:59):
Like, if you come Monday, you're gonna you're
gonna not be on friendship levelwith everybody.
SPEAKER_01 (09:04):
We'll have all these inside jokes.
Yeah.
And we'll be like, yeah, no, Ishould have been there.
Gwen Stefani is terrible.
Don't bring up Gwen.
That's uh from last retreat.
If you if you were on it, youwould probably get it.
All right, uh, number two, uh,something else I wrote down.
We go from the product of whatis your product, what is missing
from your product.
(09:24):
And again, we're looking andassessing 2025.
We're looking at the last yearsaying, okay, what went well,
what what didn't go well, whatwhat went wrong, what can we
improve in that?
And and part of that, and thismight scare some people away
from the treat, but we getpretty introspective and deep on
a personal level with peoplebecause it's like whatever your
flaws are as a person, that'sthe flaws that your company have
(09:46):
naturally baked in.
So if you're not good atfollowing up and you're you're
you know, you're not good atremembering to do things, your
company's gonna be known forthat.
Well, uh Grant a few weeks ayear ago on the podcast talked
about something that I'veactually worked into the
retreat.
I might have him talking aboutsome of it on the retreat.
He's he he he he said the phraseand the metaphor, what is your
(10:08):
coffee stain?
Uh the the whole idea of whenyou leave, what's that one
negative thing that's leftbehind?
What's kind of what what's thecoffee stain of your company?
What's the the thing that likeand and is it I just you know it
takes two weeks to get estimatesback from me?
It's I get I hit people with thechange rules at the end of the
job and they get pissed.
(10:29):
Every I feel like every job I'marm wrestling to get that last
amount of money that they oweme.
Uh or you know, I'm just uhhonestly, like if I pulled my
clients, most of them would saythey think our job sites are
messy, or whatever, whatever itis, understanding what the
coffee stain in the company is,and it's most likely in your
personal life that's baked intothe company that way.
And we're not gonna fix you.
(10:51):
Like you have you are who youare.
What we need to do is build theguardrails around that and make
your company better than you.
Like that, I always said thatwhen I with our company in
Atlanta was when I got to a spotand I stepped out and turned
into GM and you were a projectmanager at that time.
It was like the software and thesystems that I put in place were
(11:12):
like what I what I needed.
And then you came in and youwere better at other things that
were naturally happening, butthen like the things that you
aren't as good at, the processesare making you better.
And so, like, you're a better PMbecause it's combining our two
ways of running, like my goodstuff and your good stuff.
And so the goal is to buildthese processes where your
company is better than you are,where a job site ran by one of
(11:34):
our project managers is ranbetter than if I was running it
myself.
And if we can get to that spot,that product, that's what we're
offering, that's the winning thewinning product.
That's the winning ticket thatwill get you there.
And so uh taking that andunderstanding the flaws of the
owner, the flaws of the company,we look at what's happened this
year, and then we start buildingout your processes.
(11:55):
What are the 10 steps?
And this this year we'refocusing on um of the 10 steps,
the the first contact tosignature.
Uh, and then we'll also do somepre-construction um
conversations as well.
As so once they sign, what doespre-construction look like?
But really, that sales process.
It's not, I'm they want a numberfor the kitchen.
Here's the number, uh eitherthey sign or they don't.
(12:17):
It is selling a product andletting them understand what
they're buying, helping thehelping your clients see your
value over the next guys and whythey should choose you, even
though you might be 10% moreexpensive than the other guy,
you are the safest, smartest betfor them.
And how do we sell that?
And and really kind of thefront-end sales training of this
(12:38):
movie, especially moving fromlike a hammer swinger into
project manager.
How do we sell that?
And a lot of guys naturally aresalesmen, especially a lot of
entrepreneurs, but there's adifference of being a salesman
and laying out a product thatpeople want to buy.
And so we're gonna focus on thaton the retreat and kind of take
that have have that takeaway uhon how does your process run?
(13:00):
Our 10 step is from firstcontact to final invoice, every
step of the way, what you needto be doing.
But then we start refining itand getting it efficient and and
patching the holes in the bucketthat are dripping money out,
that if we can get you two,three, five percent more
efficient and then make it aproduct that people want to buy,
that's a win.
Right.
So that's that's kind of the thea lot of day one and and some of
(13:24):
day two is refining the processaround your flaws, your
inefficiencies, and the problemsfrom last year.
So if you're doing this on yourown, if you're not coming on the
retreat, take time to do that.
Look back, be reflective, writeout, have a spot in your in your
iPad or on your phone where youkind of write down when stuff
hits you, like, oh, we suck atthat.
Put that down.
The more uh eye-opened that youare, the better your company's
(13:48):
gonna be.
Uh, do you remember we were in Iwon't name the the person,
company, or place we were at,but we were at one of these
retreats in the past, and Isaid, I I asked one of the guys
there, or girls, but it was aguy, uh I said, you know, if I
pulled your polled all of yourclients, how many would be like
(14:10):
10 out of 10 he that company'sperfect?
And he was like, all of them.
Every person.
Do you remember this?
And I was like, I was like,every person would say that you
were a 10 out of 10.
He was like, every client would.
I'm like, oh, so you don't havethe ability to to to like see
reality of what people don'tlike about you and your company.
Like, there's no way that you'vebeen running a company for two
(14:32):
years and 100% of your clientsare 100% happy with you.
And so how do we understand thatand how do we start figuring out
what people aren't happy with?
Because if I can't see it, Imean if I could see that they're
not something's not good, I'mgonna fix it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:46):
There's something.
There's something so refreshingabout that confidence, though,
that I want.
I just want a taste of it.
SPEAKER_00 (14:57):
Just the blindness to people's unhappiness with
you.
SPEAKER_02 (15:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:02):
So that's what your 2026 is gonna be.
SPEAKER_02 (15:04):
Nah, man, I've I pissed ginger ilm poop sherbet,
baby.
SPEAKER_01 (15:09):
Anyway, so we're we're doing that.
We're looking back, we're we'reassessing the companies, we're
figuring out the the holes inyour process, uh, and we're
diving a lot into that stuff.
Um, and then something else thatthat that you're gonna get was
day two on the retreat.
Um you're we're breakingeverybody into different groups.
It's kind of the first timers orguys kind of starting companies
(15:31):
that are either hammer swingersor one-man shows is group one.
Group two are most most of thepeople, uh, it's gonna be more
prepping for higher levelcompanies, like first time,
second time, third time hires.
Um, if you're about to hire inthe next six months, you're
probably gonna be in that grouptwo.
Uh, and then group three areyou've got hires.
It's more of like a leadershipgroup.
Hey, how do you how do you growyour team?
(15:52):
How do you build the culture?
So half of day two, you're gonnabreak into those groups, and
those groups are gonna gothrough a marketing per level,
because each level's gotdifferent marketing.
So we're gonna kind of customizewhat type of marketing you
should be doing, what shouldyour spend be?
What should um you be focusingon?
Where should you be at?
(16:13):
Because a company that's gotfour project managers looks
different than a dude coming outof the truck trying to become a
project manager when it comes tomarketing.
And so, what should it looklike?
So that's that's one of thesessions.
And the other session that eachof those groups will go through
is with me.
And I've kind of got builtdifferently on how who to hire,
when to hire, how to hire thatmiddle group or leadership, uh,
(16:34):
or where the the startup groupis gonna be more less really
refine your 10 steps and reallytalk through what processes
should look like if you're kindof new into this.
So, anyways, that that's gonnabe day two, but you're gonna be
walking away with a marketingplan.
And so if you're not coming onthe retreat, take time to figure
out what you're doingmarketing-wise.
What should you be doing?
(16:54):
Do the research of how muchshould I be spending for my
revenue price point?
How much, where should I bespending?
What's the most efficient spendin construction versus you know,
wasting my money?
Um, but that's that's somethingtoo, going into the new year.
What is 2026 marketing looklike?
What should it look like?
What's the goals by the end ofthe year on that?
Um speaking of goals, uh, that'sthat's something else.
(17:16):
We've got this big one-year goalplan across six critical areas
that we're gonna be covering.
It's revenue, financial,marketing, employee, process and
procedures, and then personal.
And those are the six that we'regonna be focusing on.
Uh, and I'm gonna boil it downto uh probably three main ones.
Um, but what we have is aplanner that you're gonna get
when you come on the retreat andit's laying out 2026, and we're
(17:39):
gonna be focusing.
So if you're in coaching, thisplanner you're gonna have for
365 days until the next retreat,and we are coaching out of it,
and we're gonna be planning outwhat every month from here
through December looks like tobe successful for your company.
And it's gonna be in writingthat you're gonna take home, and
we're gonna be editing,changing, working out of it,
taking notes, all that stuff.
(18:00):
What looking forward to it?
SPEAKER_02 (18:02):
I am.
I can't wait to see thosejournals.
SPEAKER_01 (18:05):
Yeah, it's uh I'm pretty excited about it.
We're it's it's not something webought.
I've I'm hand building them andwe're getting books printed that
are specific ProStrut planningjournals for them.
Are they gonna be leather bound?
Might be.
Are they gonna smell like richmahogany?
They will.
They will, they'll be very nice.
So that's something that that Ithink you know, focusing on
(18:26):
those, if you're not coming onthe retreat, revenue,
financials, marketing,employees, are you gonna hire or
improvement of currentemployees, uh, processes and
procedures, and personal.
I I care as much personal as Ido on any of these other ones
because if you don't have ahealthy personal life, a healthy
marriage, a healthy being a dad,healthy with friends, and and a
(18:49):
balance where there's a focusoutside of nothing but work,
you're gonna burn out.
Everyone does.
And what's you know, get intothe why of why you're doing
this.
What's the reason that you'rerunning this company?
Why not just go work incorporate America?
Why is this your baby?
And what are you doing to growit and and to foster it?
Because I don't care about mycompany.
I care about the life it'screating for me.
(19:10):
I care about my kids' experienceof life, my wife's experience of
life, and and what does thiscompany support there?
And where do I want to go by theend of 2026?
What's health for me personally?
What does that what is my NorthStar guiding me for my revenue
and my finances and my personaland my employees and marketing?
Like, what does success looklike by the end of December?
(19:33):
And what's also like, what'srealistic?
I had someone I was talking touh who's in the coaching program
that they were just startingwith us.
And my my first was like, Hey,let's talk about next year.
Like, what do you think you cando?
And they're like, you know, theywant to 10x what they did this
year.
And it's like, well, that's notthat's not gonna happen.
We're not 10xing this year tonext year when you don't have
processes in place.
(19:54):
I was like, let's lay out arealistic goal.
I love that motor.
Yeah, yeah.
And like we will 10x.
In a couple of years from now,but like we got to build the
foundation before we build ahouse.
And you think we're building ahouse and you're gonna grow and
have this huge revenue.
We got to spend three, four,five months building the
foundation, your processes.
How do we operate?
How does your client engagementreally work?
(20:16):
And how does it uh reallymanifest itself on your job
sites?
All of that stuff needs to be inplace before we can pour gas on
the fire, before we can grow therevenue.
And so I love that.
I love the engine, I love theidea.
I love like, yeah, I'm gonna 10Xnext year.
Great.
Let's actually pick a realisticnumber and let's look.
When are you gonna make a hire?
So let's talk about how muchrevenue you can do in your
(20:37):
industry, in commercial, therevenue, and this is what it
looks like.
Or if you're a if you're aresidential remodeler, this is
what the max revenue you can doon your own.
And this is when you add aproject manager, what the
revenue looks like, and kind oflay all those numbers out and
just get a realistic number forDecember and and have that our
goal that we're aiming for.
Uh, and if you hire three peopleperfectly and they're all great
(20:58):
project managers, and we do 5xwhat you're doing this year,
awesome.
We will edit that along thejourney.
We will in March and April, May,be like, dude, you're killing
it.
Like, let's let's up thesegoals.
Um, but I want to set realisticgoals for each company coming
out of this retreat.
SPEAKER_02 (21:13):
And the cool thing too, especially with how many
people are gonna be there, andthat changes every year, but
like there's gonna be peoplethere.
If you're listening to this andyou're like, yeah, I'm I'm I
want to go, I'm worried aboutyou know, being the low man on
the totem pole, and likeeveryone's gonna be talking
about all this great stuff, andI'm like just kind of
struggling.
There's gonna be people therethat are in the same boat as
(21:35):
you.
Yeah.
And it's going to be as dauntingas it is to think about stepping
away for a couple days andspending money to go on a trip
and like, you know, maybe justfeel like crap the whole time
because everyone's doing betterthan you, you're going to get a
a commiserating experience.
There's gonna be people therethat have the same problems,
(21:57):
that are facing the samebattles, and it's going to be
rejuvenating.
Yeah.
It it always is.
SPEAKER_01 (22:03):
Yeah, it it's a it's not a get out the measuring tape
of who's bigger.
It's it's a we've all been atlike me and you have been at
every stage of this.
And it's like we've there's nota oh little, oh, you're a little
startup company.
It's like, no, bro, let me, letme, come here, let's, let's
talk.
You know, this is a have youthought about this?
(22:24):
Are you doing this?
Tell me about what you're doingthere.
Like that's that's fun.
And we're all entrepreneurs onthis, and so it's like our our
engines run at the same speed,which is great, because it's
like, oh, what about this?
Have you tried this?
Oh, have you thought about doingthis?
Oh, that's cool.
What if we did this?
And you know, there's there's alot of that, but I think that's
a good point that you make ofit's not a oh, the big boys and
(22:46):
everybody else.
It's it's like, no, we're allevil, evil, level playing field.
Um evil playing field.
SPEAKER_02 (22:56):
Life is a fickle mistress, she's an evil playing
field.
SPEAKER_01 (23:58):
So I I think one other thing when I'm talking
about planning out uh 12 monthsin advance.
It's hard to plan out weekly inNovember when it's January.
But what we do is we plan outlike goals for the year, what
what they should look like, whatsuccess looks like quarter after
over quarter.
And then we look at Q1, January,February, March.
(24:20):
What are you doing these months?
When you leave this retreat,Monday you wake up, what's
changing?
Right?
We we we want to look at theentire elephant that needs to be
eaten this year and say, okay,cool.
What are the first three bites?
What are the first two bitesthat I need to do this month by
the time January ends?
This is February, February 1st.
SPEAKER_02 (24:39):
This looks what I just got uh never, I'll explain
it later.
Just a visual of eating anelephant.
I'm just picturing theelephant's face and like you're
looking at the elephant like I'mgonna eat you slowly, and it's
like, okay.
What are you doing?
I'm just mapping out where I'mgonna start.
SPEAKER_00 (24:58):
I'm gonna tail it's tasty.
SPEAKER_01 (25:04):
My nose.
So, anyways, we're laying thatout.
We're laying out the firstquarter of what you should be
doing.
And then if you're in coaching,well, uh, I've got plans each
quarter.
We're laying out those quartersas we go.
So we're kind of settingshort-term three-month goals
that we that will be edited andchanged as we go, and that will
kind of affect our larger goals.
Uh Clark, can I say something?
SPEAKER_02 (25:24):
Yes.
Just as me, three months seemslike not a short-term goal for
me.
That that's exhausting sounding.
SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
Yeah.
Well, it won't be.
Good.
As long as you know like whatyou got to do in the next couple
weeks.
Like what's the next?
What's next?
The goal is what are what shouldyou be when you sit down?
Because I I've had guys incoaching like, all right, I've
I've scheduled two hours Fridaymorning to work on the company.
My wife takes the kids toschool, and I got two hours that
I'm gonna work on my company.
(25:52):
What should I work on?
And they sit down and they startwriting estimates and they start
looking through their emails,and oh, I gotta pay this bill,
and I gotta do, and it's like,that's not that's not what you
should be working on.
Okay, well, then I'm gonna planout my marketing campaign.
Well, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You're you're not ready for amarketing campaign on Meta.
Like that's not that's not hereyet.
And so it's uh what should yoube doing Friday morning for that
(26:14):
two-hour time block?
What you know, how much time canyou peel off this week to work
on your company?
And let's plan out thosesessions to where it's like
you're not wasting the time andyou've got a sense of
accomplishment because guys wantto score touchdowns.
Here goes the sports metaphor.
Buckle in.
You got this.
We got to go all hundred yardsto get you to success, right?
And guys want to break off the50, 60 yard plays that get you
(26:38):
there real quickly.
SPEAKER_02 (26:38):
Ken Walker.
Sure.
All he wants to do is hitdingers.
SPEAKER_01 (26:42):
Yes.
What I what I want is we I don'tcare if you make one inch, one
foot, one yard, three yards,five yard gain.
I need you to be moving forwarddown the down the field.
So every single week, I I mean,hey, I got slammed last week.
I did nothing we talked about.
Uh I gotta hit a reset.
Cool, awesome.
You didn't move backwards, solet's keep moving forwards.
(27:04):
And so my goal, my, my goal.
My goal is my goal with my goalwith the coaching and with this
planner and everything elseyou're doing is listen, we are
going, I don't care how fast wego, I want forward progress week
over week.
And so by the end of the year,you've gone all 100 yards, and
that's that's great.
But no one, no one's justquickly getting there, even
(27:25):
though we all want to get there.
It's like, okay, cool, we willget there.
All I need this week is this.
Just do this.
Or, hey, I've I'm finishingthree jobs and starting two new
jobs this week.
Cool.
You want your assignment is thisweek?
Do that well.
We're not gonna be doinganything, any other growth for
your company this week or nextweek.
End those jobs, start the nextones, let's talk in the next
session, right?
And that's okay.
(27:45):
You have permission for thatbecause it's a busy week, but
we're not gonna fall off thewagon and stay off the wagon.
We're gonna get right back onand say, hey, all right, those
jobs are done.
Now I need to start working onthis.
Now we need to start planningthis.
Hey, let's talk about subs andthe sub onboarding.
Let's start, let's, let's start,start filling up your bench of
subs to where we can startcalling on people because you
don't start looking for paintersuntil you have a paint job
(28:08):
without a painter on it.
Why don't we start looking now,have those calls and have a
paint, right?
And so we start talking aboutthat sort of thing of where you
should be at.
Let's assess your company.
Um, but yeah, you'll walk awayfrom the retreat with kind of
that game plan.
If you're not coming on theretreat again, sit down and
think through that stuff.
What does Q1 look like?
What's this month look like?
What should I do for successthis month?
(28:30):
And really start assessing kindof the 30,000 foot view of your
company of like what's missinghere?
What's broken here?
What's what do people not like?
What's my coffee stain from inthis company right now?
How do I start tweaking thosethings and my processes to where
I'm eliminating that stuffpermanently?
I'm excited right now.
Yeah.
Uh I'm I'm super excited aboutgoing.
SPEAKER_02 (28:52):
I'm being I'm being genuine.
I'm I'm uh um I've got all thesethings in my head.
I'm like, oh yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (28:58):
This all sounds good.
We we m what we'll probably do.
We did this last year and peopleloved it.
We uh we're gonna line up Jamesto do a live estimate or desk
estimate with the client or alive walkthrough with the
client.
Good to know.
Yep.
We haven't talked about thisyet, but he did it last year,
and so we're gonna line one upfor this year, hopefully.
It's it's hard because you gotto find the right job and the
(29:18):
right client and uh kind ofchoreograph it down to the day.
Um, but uh I think James is amaster at estimate writing, a
master at talking with theclient and prepping the client
and the pre-con work and the thedesk estimates and site revision
conversations.
(29:38):
I think you are the best I'veseen in doing those.
Take a moment.
I don't give out complimentsoften, do I?
SPEAKER_02 (29:45):
I'm gonna name it.
SPEAKER_01 (29:49):
But I I think what's super helpful is for guys to see
you do it and be like, oh,that's why.
So we're gonna have a session,whether it's with a live client
on a Zoom or just you buildingout an estimate.
But but I think we're gonna bereally, when I said from first
contact through signature thatwe're focusing on, I think
that's a big part of it of howand why we build those
(30:10):
estimates, uh, kind of thereason behind why we put what we
put there and how we do it forthe pre-site estimate and then
post-site estimate and all ofthose things.
So there's gonna be a lot ofthat that that's that's really
enjoyable.
That was when I got feedbackfrom the last year's retreat.
That was a lot of people'sfavorite part, even though I
wasn't doing it.
So it was fine.
It was good.
It didn't hurt my ego at all.
(30:31):
It makes sense.
Um, but yeah, if you want tocome on the retreat, you should
come on the retreat.
Go to contractorcuts.com, set upa call with me.
We'll talk for 30 minutes.
I want to hear about yourcompany.
I want to make sure you're agood fit for us, uh, and we're a
good fit for you.
Um, but take the time.
It's worth the effort and thetime to come on something like
this.
This is year over year the mostimpactful thing that companies
(30:55):
can do, whether it's with us oron their own, is to take three
days, zoom out, turn your phoneoff, set your uh jobs up to run
when you're not there, and workon making your company better.
Zoom out, look at the30,000-foot view of who you
really are, get some outside uheyes on your company that say,
(31:15):
hey, this seems like a problemfor you.
Let's let's figure out how tosolve this one issue and let's
let's let's keep tweaking uhthese little things to really
make you from good to great as acompany.
Yeah.
If you want to come, check itout.
Yep.
SPEAKER_02 (31:29):
Well, I was just gonna say if and if you're open
to it, you're gonna leave withwith like friends.
Like everybody every time thatwe've done this, there's been
real like friendships that startforming, and you can kind of
watch them, and like someone'stalking about their company, and
like the same person's like, forwhatever reason, you know,
(31:50):
there's like this one personthat's like really invested in
like that person.
Yeah.
And you'll see them likeoffering thoughts and offering
uh, you know, like building themup, and like it's just a really
cool thing.
You just it feels like a veryisolating experience being an
entrepreneur, being in theconstruction world.
And when you get in a group ofpeople that are all kind of
(32:14):
doing the same thing, there isjust a bond that's just
naturally there, and thenspending all this time together.
And that's one of the bigreasons I think you're saying
don't plan other things.
There's so much good stuff goingon and the downtimes and you
know, the breaks, and you know,just talking.
SPEAKER_01 (32:33):
Everyone's coming off their islands that they're
living on in their own cities,and we're coming together and
we're helping each other gobetter and move for further and
and be a better company.
And there's no competent, Imean, there's guys like from
Atlanta that come to this thatare our competition, right?
And it's like, no, we're like,there's plenty of work
everywhere.
Like, let's help each othergrow.
(32:53):
Um, but I think that's that'sone of the what you're saying is
right on of like the like I knowthat there is I know
specifically two guys that afterthis retreat, you were, you
know, we the you were talkingabout VA loans on the retreat
last year, and two of the guyslike, hey, can I can I call you
when we get back?
Because I want to get into doingmore VA loans and I want to know
how that process works.
(33:14):
You're like, yeah, here's like,call me, call me, call me.
So stuff like that where it'slike, hey, I I've been thinking
about this specific thing.
You're doing that.
Tell me like, do you mind beinga resource for me?
Like absolutely.
Like, we all love to contributeand help each other out.
So I think that's uh thecamaraderie is hard to put on
paper what happens on theretreats, and it's hard to tell
people about it until they comeexperienced and like, yeah, I'm
(33:36):
gonna come every single year.
Until yeah, so thanks forjoining us.
Go to contractorcuts.com, uh,get signed up for the retreat.
Um, love to chat with you, andwe will love to see you there.
SPEAKER_02 (33:49):
That's all.
My bye.
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