August 12, 2025 • 55 mins
Keaton Turner kicks off the episode with his morning routine and breakfast with colleagues. He shares business and life war stories, discussing Slack communication, financial tactics, and future goals. The episode explores work-life balance, corrects a previous topic by Trevor, and uses "gateway drugs" as career metaphors. Keaton examines social media's impact on business image and warns against "shiny object syndrome." He addresses relationship pitfalls, scorekeeping in partnerships, and the dangers of venting to third parties. Lifestyle inflation in relationships is highlighted. Keaton wraps up with advice, meeting takeaways, and appreciation.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:40):
Welcome back to the Per Diem podcast.
What a day.
What a day.
I'm leaving the office.
It's 06:30PM.
I I just had an awesome day, to be honest withyou.
It was an awesome day with mister Michael Bottsand mister Daniel Kelly, two of the nicest guys
(01:09):
you'll ever meet.
And and we just I mean, kind of a wild day.
They spent well, first, we went to breakfast atUptown, had a great little breakfast.
And from from the first minute I saw them thismorning, we basically just swapped war stories.
(01:32):
Stories about getting kicked in the balls,stories about family drama, stories about
trying to build a business, failed businesses,customers that we've screwed up, employees that
we've screwed up, employees that have tried toscrew us up.
(01:52):
Man, it's been it's been war stories all day.
They they got to sit in our Turner StaffingGroup company meeting this morning.
We have one every Monday morning, and and theygot to listen to us.
Thomas and I squabble with the rest of the teamover some strategy.
It was just it was kinda cool.
(02:13):
I mean, I I had no expectations.
I had no idea what to expect, to be honest withyou.
And we it's it's kind of unusual for people tojust say, hey.
We're just gonna come hang out at the officeand see what you guys do and how you do it.
Well, man, it was cool.
It was cool to, you know, tell them, you youknow, just even little things like how we use
(02:36):
Slack as our company communications channel.
You know, Jeff mister Jeff Turner, my olderbrother from another mother, got to tell them
how he thinks about some strategy when it comesto finance and accounting and operating lines
(02:57):
of credit and what to do when you come into awindfall of money.
One of them, I won't tell you which one, hasgot a little extra cash in his pocket right
now.
And so he's trying to figure out best way to gomaximize his cash and the return on his cash.
You know, it's just it was it was fun to talkshop.
(03:20):
And and there for a moment towards the end ofour time together, I told them both.
I was like, man, this this could very well bemy next thing someday when, you know, whenever
that day comes.
Spending time with guys, trying to figure outhow to do business better.
(03:41):
It was kinda like I don't know if they wouldsay the same thing, but it was kinda like the
per diem podcast, but, like, eight hours of itfrom 08:30 to 06:30.
It was, like, eight hours of nonstop.
What are we doing?
How are we doing it?
Why are we doing it?
(04:05):
I don't know.
It was it was a lot of fun, and I'm just nowrealizing that 08:30 to 06:30 is actually ten
hours, not eight hours.
So it was a ten hour Podcast with Michael Bottsand Daniel Kelly that we didn't we didn't
(04:25):
record any of it, and there's some reasons forthat.
But, man, some of the stories, I loved it.
What else is happening in my life?
It is it's that weird it's that weird spot II've told you guys.
It's hot.
It's it's you know, school has started, so youget home from work.
(04:48):
It's you know, my truck still says 90 degrees.
You get home from work.
There's not enough hours left in the day to goto the pool or go golf or go do, you know, any
of that.
So you get the homework done, and, and thenit's just chill time.
Basketball season has not taken off hot andheavy yet.
(05:09):
We're doing flag football.
We had our first game.
We lost in a heartbreaker yesterday in ourfirst flag football game.
We lost by two.
Oh, by the way, I need a correction.
This is very rare that I do this, but acorrection to yesterday's episode.
I gave a huge shout out and prayers up for MikePolone's good buddy who was involved in an
(05:34):
accident, a cutting accident, and and Imisquoted his name.
This happens when I'm driving, and I can't lookat my notes.
I can't look at my phone.
And so I think I said multiple times, the kid'sname was Tyler.
The kid's name's not Tyler.
(05:55):
The kid's name is Trevor.
And so, man, I you know, a, I feel bad aboutthat, but b, prayers up for Trevor.
It really took the wind out of my sails when Ilearned this morning, and no one reminded me.
Mike, I don't know if Mike heard the podcastand was just too kind to correct me or what.
(06:21):
But, you know, I thought to myself, I'm like,man, I I think I got that guy.
I don't even know why it came to mind.
I was like, I think I got that guy's nameright.
But I realized later I got his name incorrect,so apologies for that.
Mike, prayers up for your buddy.
(06:42):
One of the things that came up today in my dayand in some of my meetings was that I would not
recommend doing math.
Okay?
This is gonna be the topic for today's episode.
I would not recommend meth as a sustainablelifestyle.
(07:09):
You're probably thinking, what in the world?
Which got which one of his guys or whichcompany failed a drug test?
None of that.
We didn't do any drug tests.
But this topic came up this morning in ameeting, and I and I you know, after the
meeting, I kinda got I I kinda dove in a littledeeper on the topic.
(07:30):
And I looked around at Thomas.
I looked at Jeff, our CFO, who was in themeeting.
Of course, you know, Boss was sitting there tomy right, and DK was across the table.
And I said, guys, have you ever one time donemeth and thought to yourselves, I can't wait to
(07:52):
get addicted to it?
Like like, my hope is the answer is no.
But I said, have you ever done meth, like,hoping you get addicted to meth and spiral your
life out of control?
And they were all like, you know, once theshock wore off, they're like, no, dude.
We haven't we haven't done meth.
And we definitely haven't done meth hoping weget addicted to it.
(08:14):
I said, everyone starts doing meth as a onetime thing.
No one ever does meth thinking they're gonnaspiral their life out of control.
That would be crazy.
If you know someone that's done meth the firsttime they ever did it and they said to
(08:34):
themselves, I can't wait to ruin my life, tellthem to send me a message on the per diem
hotline.
For the rest of the world, the people thatstart doing meth probably I'm just guessing.
Again, I have not done meth for the record, butthey probably start with drinking a Bud Light.
(08:55):
And then they drink a few Bud Lights.
And then maybe they have a couple mixed drinksat a party.
And then next thing you know, one thing leadsto another.
It's late.
It's dark.
The music is pumping, and someone says, hey,smoke this thing.
I'm just guessing this is how it works.
I I I mean, it's a gateway drug.
(09:18):
And and some people would say, well, meth isnot a gateway drug.
Meth is like the drug.
There are other drugs like, I don't wanna saythem, but there are other drugs that lead into
meth.
The whole point of this morning's topic wasthat you should not begin taking gateway drugs
(09:39):
in your career, in your marriage, in your ownbusiness, gateway drugs lead to a path of
destruction.
Trying meth one time, I'm told, leads to almostinstant addiction and then a path of
(09:59):
destruction for your life.
This podcast episode might get blocked orshadow banned just because I'm talking about
meth.
That's okay.
You cannot begin to take gateway drugs in yourcareer, in your business, in your marriage
(10:22):
because it leads to a downward spiral.
And and you guys are probably wondering, like,what in the world is he talking about gateway
drugs in business, in our careers?
I'll tell you what it is.
Gateway drugs are the things that seem easy andseem ins insignificant and seem like a good
(10:44):
compromise, but that ultimately go against theprinciples hold on, phone call.
That ultimately go against the principles ofwhy you started in the thing you're in
currently.
What this looks like is, oh, I'm just gonna I'mjust going to double down on the debt that I
(11:13):
owe and refinance it at a more expensive rateor factor my invoices because my cash flow is
bad.
And instead, it will it will infuse me withquick cash that I need to keep funding my
business.
What a gateway drug looks like is raising moneyto fund your company when you have no pathway
(11:40):
to becoming profitable, when you're hoping andpraying that someday you can pay everyone back,
in reality, you don't have a plan.
You don't have a clue.
You're just hoping.
What a gateway drug looks like as an employeeis you take the easy job.
(12:04):
You slide under the radar.
Maybe it's you stab an employee in the back tokeep your job when you know, in reality, you
should have taken the fall for something thatwas screwed up, and it would have potentially
cost you your job.
(12:24):
What a gateway drug looks like in marriage isif you're not getting any intimacy with your
wife, if you're not having that those thosespecial romantic moments, you outsource it to
your web browser.
And instead, you're like, oh, it's it'sharmless.
So just do it a couple times.
Just do it once.
(12:44):
Just do it a couple times.
She'll never know.
They'll never know.
It's no big deal.
Or some people or even worse, they'll beresentful.
They're like, yeah.
You know what?
Screw her.
If she doesn't wanna hang out with me, I gotthe AI chatbot.
Like, it's a gateway drug.
(13:07):
It doesn't it it leads nowhere fast.
It leads nowhere fast.
And it's not that it leads nowhere fast.
It's that you spiral and you go deeper anddeeper and deeper, and the web of lies gets
spun.
(13:28):
And one day, you wake up, and you have acompany where you've raised all this money, and
you have no idea how to become profitable.
Your your product's no good.
You can't run your business profitably.
You can't pay back the debt.
You have no choice but to close the doors.
You lie.
You cheat.
You steal in your job.
(13:49):
You poke other people in the back just to keepclimbing the ladder at everyone else's expense.
You're hollow.
You're empty, and you end up burning out.
Or worse, your employer sees the web of lies.
Your employer sees the games.
(14:10):
Your employer finally recognizes what'shappening, and they're like, yeah, you're out
of here.
All you did you did all of that for nothing.
It all crumbles right in front of you.
What this looks like in marriage is you getfound out.
One harmless picture turns into a bunch ofseemingly harmless videos, which turns into
(14:31):
some sort of weird addiction, which then turnsinto some chatbot, and then you're messaging
some girl, hey, local singles only.
And the next thing you know, it's an affair.
And it doesn't happen, like, in one or twodecisions.
It doesn't happen quickly.
It doesn't happen overnight.
(14:52):
It happens over the course of years.
But it happens because you said yes to agateway drug.
You said yes to the easy, feel good in themoment thing.
(15:13):
You took the meth.
I know it sounds wild.
You're like, why does this guy keep going back?
No one ever plans on doing meth.
No one.
When you're 15 years old in high school or 18years old or jumping into college, like, no one
(15:34):
ever says, yeah.
My life's gonna spiral out of control.
This'll be fun.
It just you hear it all the time.
I don't know if you guys have ever been aroundsomeone that's got alcoholism or addiction or
their life has spiraled out of control.
They say it all the time.
They say, it just happened.
It just happened.
(15:55):
I don't know how it just happened.
Well, how it happened is you said yes to thevery small things, and one thing leads to
another.
And over time, one bad decision leads toanother bad decision, and ultimately, you find
(16:24):
yourself too deep in the hole to crawl out of.
It's a tough spot to be.
I wanted to wanted to talk more about this withsome people that I I know who have gone through
(16:47):
this, both in the marriage front and in theircareer, someone that's taken a gateway drug in
a career and it backfired on them, and thensomeone that I know pretty intimately who took
a gateway drug in their business, and it iscurrently being unwound.
It's it's they're all three very sad stories.
(17:10):
But as I pull into my driveway, I see threethree Delberts, but three beautiful kids
playing wiffle ball.
And so I'm about to pause the podcast.
I don't know for how long, and I will pick upon this topic.
I might even totally change the topic dependingon my mood.
(17:32):
I'll pick this up later tonight after I spendsome time playing a little bit of wiffle ball
with the kids.
They just look like they're having too muchfun, too excited for me to, sit here and,
continue to ramble on about meth and gatewaydrugs.
(17:52):
So hold on one second.
I may be able to recover.
A part two to this episode is coming up verysoon.
Okay.
I'm back.
Couple hours later, just got the kids to bed.
It is an early bedtime tonight.
It was kind of their first full week back toschool this week.
(18:16):
Last week, they only went two days of school,and so this is their first full week, and so we
got them back in in bed early.
The problem with that is here in the Easterntime zone, sun freaking sun doesn't set till
like 09:30.
So I gotta pull the blinds shut, and the kidsare, probably up there not sleeping.
(18:37):
But that's okay.
Let's pick back up where we left off.
I was gonna give you guys a few examples andwhat these examples, I think, would look like
when relates to gateway drugs in your career,and then gateway drugs if you're trying to
build a business from scratch, then obviouslygateway drugs to building a healthy marriage.
(19:04):
And so some of the examples I had, you know,earlier that popped up in in my mind was, you
know, one of the things I see a lot of peopledo in their career, they chase a title in their
career path that has no substance.
You accept a promotion working for a companythat you, you know, quite frankly, you
(19:25):
shouldn't even be working for that company.
So what does it matter if you get the titleyou've always wanted?
If you're working for a company where there'sno real future opportunity or no real upward
mobility beyond that, you might end up being,you know, stunting your growth.
And so chasing titles are one example of agateway drug that would lead to a dead end road
(19:49):
in your career.
Another another good one, and this and I'veman, I've if I've never talked about this one,
this is probably a whole separate topic in andof itself, but overreliance on one single
mentor.
This one's tough.
A lot of people do this.
Right?
They get their full source of truth from oneperson in their career.
(20:13):
Maybe it's their boss.
Maybe it's, someone from their church.
Maybe it's a coach.
You get all your source of truths from oneperson, all your perspective from one person,
all your learning and education from oneperson.
That's a not always, but it can be a dead endpath.
(20:34):
There is so much context to get out there andbusiness, the business climate is changing, you
know, really months to months these days withwith the addition of AI and technological
advances, I am a huge fan of getting peoplearound me that have a bunch of different
opinions, different backgrounds, differentbelief systems, people that challenge each
(20:58):
other and challenge me in the way of thinking.
And so, you know, one of the ways I think thatyou ultimately can spiral your career is you
just have one source of truth and one mentor,and you don't get to taste and feel and see
enough from enough different people.
Another one, this one's tough.
This one is it's probably a super gateway drug,and that's saying yes to everything.
(21:23):
Being eager in your career, especially early,can open a lot of doors, but it also can you
can open yourselves up to being exploited foryour time and your energy and your resource.
You don't set boundaries.
There's a lot of young passionate dudes outthere.
(21:44):
They're gonna get taken advantage of becausethey say yes to too many things.
If you say yes to too many things, people getused to you saying yes, and they're gonna ex
exploit that weakness.
Maybe not intentionally, but might you have aboss that says, well, I know Jimmy will work
his self to the bone.
He'll do sixty, sixty five, seventy, seventyfive hours a week.
(22:05):
I know I can get the grunt to do the grunt workbecause he never says no.
He never pushes back.
He says yes to everything.
And there's a fine line here.
I'm a big fan of saying yes to everything,especially early in your career.
But saying yes to too many things, and andsaying yes to too many people can be a gateway
drug that leads to a dead end road.
(22:29):
Man, another one I had down here is politicalgames internally.
Companies, the bigger the company, the morepolitics exist.
I don't care how awesome the company is.
I don't care how legit they are.
I don't care about their reputation.
It's just a fact.
The more people you add into the mix of anorganization, inherently, the more political
(22:51):
games ultimately get played.
And so, my advice would be do not take thegateway drug of getting caught up in political
games.
Stay out of them at all costs.
Sometimes sometimes you can't stay out of them.
Sometimes you can't avoid them.
But man, when you get caught up in a politicalgame, it can cost you.
(23:12):
It can cost you big time.
We've had people, unfortunately, I've had tosay goodbye to because they got caught up in a
political game, and they got caught on thewrong side of the game.
And I don't have time in this episode to gothrough, you know, all the ways you get caught
up in, internal BS politics.
But trust me when I say a good old boy like metrying to build a real transparent culture like
(23:37):
what we're trying to build, political gamesexist.
And once you start playing the game, it'sreally, really hard to get out of it.
It's really hard to avoid it once you kind ofdip your toe in that water and you get into the
gossip and you get into, you know, angles andalways trying to spin something a certain way.
So, you got to stay out of the political games.
(24:02):
Man, I could go on and on and on with climbingthe corporate ladder, but those are a few that
come to mind.
If you're if you're, you know, working in ajob, especially a young person, trying to climb
the ladder and impress your boss and and nailyour performance reviews, you gotta be careful
not to take one of these gateway drugs and letit run you down a path of self destruction.
(24:27):
What this looks like in business, again, someof these guys I talked to, I spent, you know,
two days now or at least a full day today withtwo business owners.
Some of this gateway drug consumption inbuilding a business is raising money.
You guys heard I I think I, teased this alittle bit earlier on the first half on my
(24:50):
drive home.
Raising money too early before you know whatyou're doing in business, oh my goodness.
I don't know if there's a quicker way to stuntyour growth long term than to raise money when
you don't have your product market fit naileddown.
(25:11):
You kind of inherently create a culture ofspending money that's not your money.
It's not your money to spend.
Someone lent it to you.
And and, you know, this one this one's tough.
I mean, there was a time in my business, I'llnever forget, I looked over again, I said, man,
how how easy would this be if because we were Ithink we were going through a hard time and,
(25:36):
you know, trying to win some big contracts andbuy equipment.
And I said, man, how how different would ourjourney be if we went out and like raised a
$100,000,000 for our mining startup, miningservices startup?
You know, we're the next thing in the industry.
And like, how different would it be?
And he's like, yeah, it would be crazy, but Ithink it would build some bad habits.
(25:57):
We wouldn't be scrappy.
We wouldn't be lean.
We wouldn't fight for every dollar.
And and, you know, as you get bigger and andolder as a company, some of that just creeps in
anyway.
You get lazy, you get fat, you get sloppy.
But man, it only it only compounds when you'reusing other people's money instead of your own
(26:17):
money.
You know, if your dad hands you $20 to go tothe store, of course, you're gonna spend the
$20 differently than if you mowed yards forthree days in the 100 degree heat and you were
using your own $20 to go to the store.
It's just different behaviors, differentculture.
So and, you know, depending on investor moneyor raising money or, you know, you know, angel
(26:41):
investors, venture venture capital, it's it's agateway drug in my opinion.
Sometimes it works.
Right?
Sometimes it's the right cash infusion at theright time for the right business.
It gets returned to stakeholders.
I mean, sometimes it works.
But in our blue collar industries, I there'sthere's no stories that I've heard where
(27:03):
someone took, an investment before they knewhow to make money.
Usually, when someone takes an investment andturns it into a return for the investor, it's
because it was growth capital and the companywas already growing.
They already had a product market fit.
They already had a service that they weremaking profit on.
(27:24):
They just needed a little bit of growthcapital.
That's a totally, totally different ballgamethan raising money because you can't make your
own money.
So, so that's one.
Another one, gateway drug.
I lived through this one, which is why I talkabout it.
Over hiring too early.
(27:46):
Building a huge team of people before you'vehit predictable revenue, it's it forces you
into some real cash flow problems.
I know there's a there's a saying out there,and I might butcher it here.
Let me let me make sure I nail it down.
It goes something like, if you buy the thingsyou don't need in good times, you will be
(28:10):
forced to sell the things you do need in badtimes.
And and man, I lived through that one.
We we had a big staff.
Shoot.
I don't know how many people we had on staff,but we were growing.
Right?
And I was I was betting on the comm, and I wasbetting on us to continue to grow.
(28:31):
And then all of a sudden, kind of a doublewhammy hit.
We lose our biggest customer.
Our biggest contract kind of dried upovernight.
At the same time, the world stops turningduring COVID.
And so it was almost like you were on the dancefloor at your first prom, and, you were out
(28:52):
there dancing with all the other Delberts, andyou didn't wanna look like an idiot, and all of
a sudden, the music stops, and the lights comeon, and you're on the dance floor, and you
realize like, oh, you actually don't know howto dance very well.
It's what it felt like for me when COVIDhappens, and we learn we lose our biggest
(29:14):
customer.
And so, we had to say goodbye to a lot of thethings we needed at the time because we just
over hired.
We had way too many people on staff or we gotfat.
We got, you know, a little bit complacent.
We were living like it was 1999, the world wascoming to an end.
And then when the world didn't end and weactually had to figure out how to run a
(29:37):
business, that's when we had to get really leanand and figure out, you know, what areas do we
need to cut.
If you're trying to figure out what areas youneed to cut, usually, you're having to cut
much, much deeper than you would have if youjust stayed leaner in the first place.
So super easy gateway drug to get involved inearly on in a business is over hiring too
(30:02):
early.
Hiring too many people you don't need, toomany, what I call, non revenue producing
employees.
This is a big one.
If you're a non revenue producing employee inthe early days of a business, you better hope
the business continues to grow and do well oryour days are numbered.
(30:23):
Because a company doesn't fire in in in hardtimes.
A company doesn't lay off the revenue producingemployees.
A company lays off the non revenue producingemployees.
And if you don't know whether you're a revenueproducing employee or not, man, I guess I'll
hold my comments to myself.
(30:46):
Fake growth marketing.
This is one that's tricky.
You see these people out there that are kind ofthe fake it till you make it mentality or the
people that appear much bigger than are.
I think we did a really, really good job ofthis back in the early days or bad job,
depending on which category you wanna put thisin.
(31:07):
We, from from the early days, always lookedmuch bigger than we were.
You know, we we had cool images.
We had a great marketing team.
We we were, you know, quite frankly, we werespread out all over the country.
So, I mean, we weren't small, but we had a veryinteresting point in time where we had a lot of
(31:30):
momentum with social media.
And when you get a bunch of followers, it'seasier to look bigger than you are.
But we never bought any followers.
I've never paid a dime for a follower.
Our company's never paid a dime for followers.
We didn't, like do gimmicky PR stunts.
I I remember, you know, multiple timesdifferent people in our marketing team over the
(31:53):
years would say, oh, this company is doing thisthing where they, you know, they cook a pizza
in the excavator bucket and it got like2,000,000 views.
Or this company did this thing where they duglogos in the ground and, like, dug their logo
with an excavator.
I'm like, okay.
But but they're getting a bunch of peoplelooking at that who have no impact on our
(32:18):
business.
We don't need followers.
We don't need a big follower count.
We need to go, you know, an inch wide and amile deep, not a mile wide and an inch deep.
And I think I've talked about that on aprevious episode.
But fake gross marketing, doing doing PR stuntsto like, you know, grow your following, it can
(32:43):
mask some real underlying business flaws.
And, I think it can you know, just because itmakes you appear bigger than you are, it
doesn't really solve any business problems.
But you can kinda get high on your own supply alittle bit, and, and it's a gateway drug in my
opinion.
And, I've tried to toe the line with lookingsexier than we are, being, looking and and
(33:08):
appearing bigger than we are, and then alsobeing just super real and raw and transparent.
I talk about how many employees we have.
I talk about how many states we've worked inand what kind of work we do and how many yards
we move and all that.
So, it's not you don't have to go do a ton ofmath to figure out how big a company is.
I mean, shoot.
If you want the real data, just go to the MSHAwebsite, go to the data retrieval system, you
(33:34):
can pull up anybody that does mining exactlyhow many man hours they've worked.
So it's not rocket science on trying to figureout how big companies are, but fake growth
marketing is for sure a gateway drug.
Hold on.
Drink break.
I because I got a couple more here.
(33:55):
I'm just rattling these things off kind of asquick as I can.
Shiny object syndrome, this is a gateway drug,shiny object syndrome.
I got accused one time.
I fired a guy, loved the guy to death.
He was on our staff.
(34:15):
And he told me when I fired him, he was like,oh, well, you just like the shiny new object.
I'm an old toy.
You forgot about me.
You just like the shiny new thing.
And I was like, what does that even mean?
He's like, well, you know, you get you getsomebody else new in and you pay attention to
them and you invest in them, you pour intothem, and you mentor them.
And then, you know, the people that aren't theshiny new object, they don't get any attention.
(34:37):
They're kinda just an old toy to you.
And I never forgot that comment, but it's it'seasy to do when you are trying to scale a
business to always be thinking about the shinynew object and not the older things that got
you there.
Whether this is equipment, whether this ispickup trucks, or this is people, could be even
(35:02):
customers.
I've been guilty of this with customers where,you know, if if you're the shiny new object, if
you're the customer I'm trying to date, theminute I get married and we lock in the
contract and the ink is dry, what am I doing?
I'm onto the shiny new object.
I'm looking for the new customer.
(35:22):
And it's easy to take my eye off of the currentcustomer, or or even the old customers that
we're still doing work for.
And so this shiny new object syndrome is man,it's a gateway drug.
You buy a new machine, you forget about yourold machines.
You stop paying attention to them.
You stop doing maintenance on them.
You you hire a new person.
(35:43):
You kinda ignore the old one and just leavethem in their corner to do their work.
You don't do check ins.
You know, you're not you're not following up.
I'm guilty of this one.
This is one that I am really trying hard not tobe guilty of, but this is a this is an easy one
to fall into in the terms of gateway drugs whenyou're trying to build a business.
(36:06):
Let's see here.
I'm gonna go one more.
You know what?
I'm gonna pivot.
I'm gonna go to marriage cause I'm running outof time.
I'm eighteen minutes in on the second halfhere.
Gateway drugs in relationships or in marriages.
I think one of the ways you spiral arelationship out of control, I literally just
(36:30):
did this.
Literally just did this five minutes ago, rightbefore I clicked record.
I learned I was double booked and I was goingto miss my nine year old daughter's birthday.
Her birthday is in a couple weeks.
I was looking at my calendar.
My wife's like, oh, yeah.
Hey, by the way, you're double booked andyou're gonna miss your daughter's birthday.
(36:53):
Of course, she was sitting there.
She starts crying.
I take offense to it.
I'm like, well, I mean, how am I supposed tofreaking know that?
Like, I I can't hardly keep track of agoldfish, let alone my calendar these days.
I need an assistant.
So I'm hiring and I'm hiring an assistant.
I've I've decided if you if anybody knowsanyone that would make a great assistant, I
(37:17):
gotta get my life in order, my calendar inorder.
I got so many side projects and little businessthings.
It's something I definitely need to do at somepoint.
But nevertheless, never waste a crisis.
I was double booked.
My daughter was distraught.
I was gonna miss her birthday, and I get alittle salty with my wife.
I'm like, why would you say that right there infront of her?
(37:39):
And she was like, oh, I didn't know she wasgonna react that way.
I wasn't trying to call you out.
A gateway drug in relationships is avoidinghard conversations.
I got defensive.
I got a little bit mad.
I went quiet for a few minutes.
I went up and talked to my she went up to herroom.
I went up and talked to my daughter.
(37:59):
I'm like, hey, look, I'll I'll figure it out.
I'm not gonna miss your birthday.
I'll make it right.
But then I came back down.
I grabbed my wife.
I was like, look, I'm sorry.
I overreacted.
I got a little defensive.
I don't do a great job with my calendar.
You know I'm not a detailed, organized person,and and I would never just book something over
(38:21):
my daughter's birthday, But this is a hardconversation that it would have been super easy
for me to just go to the base and be like, youknow what?
I'm not gonna deal with this tonight.
I don't need the drama.
And then I could have been the one that was thevictim.
Avoiding hard conversations will lead tospirals.
(38:43):
One argument turns into two days, turns into aweek.
Next thing you know, there's a rift, then yougrow apart.
It just it's it's it happens, and it happensquicker and and over dumber things than you
even understand what you know, some of the someof the biggest fights we've had have been over
the dumbest things when neither one of uswanted to end the dreaded drama triangle.
(39:08):
And so, avoiding hard conversations is withouta doubt a gateway drug.
So, I would highly recommend not avoiding hardconversations.
Another one, this is one that I've seenfirsthand.
I've done this one firsthand.
My wife has done this one.
(39:29):
My my own parents have done this one.
Every every married couple I know at some pointor another takes the gateway drug in their
relationship called score keeping.
They keep score.
Who has changed the baby's diaper more?
Who has tucked the kids in bed more?
(39:52):
Who has mowed the yard more?
Who, you know, has set up more date nights?
You know, who has initiated intimacy more?
Like, other you can keep scoring anything.
Like, who's cleaned the kitchen more?
Who's put away the dishes more?
Who's done the laundry more?
You know, who's picked up crap around the housemore?
(40:13):
Scorekeeping is, to me, I think it's just anatural human DNA thing.
But if you're not aware of it, scorekeeping canbecome a gateway drug in your marriage that
will spiral and cause so much resentment.
You'll resent her.
She'll resent you.
You guys will point fingers at who's done whatmore.
(40:35):
And at the end of the day, does it matter?
Honestly, like, does it matter if she's, youknow, not done the laundry as many times as you
or you've put the dishes away more than her?
At the end the day, it's partnership.
And so scorekeeping is one that, you know, onceyou start, you see every little action through
(40:58):
a competitive lens.
Once you start scorekeeping, every little thingwill set you off, and you'll start in in your
mind, and and then it's hard to like get thatimage out of your mind.
So, scorekeeping is definitely a gateway drug.
Let's see here.
Man, this is a tough one.
(41:19):
I don't even like to talk about this onebecause it just feels it feels just dishonest
or that's not even the right word I'm lookingfor.
It feels like a stab in the back, but thisone's tough.
Third party venting is what I have written downhere.
(41:40):
Third party venting.
It's when one of the two people in therelationship goes to their friends or goes to
their mom and dad or goes to their brother andsister and talks about their spouse and vents.
They complain about them.
(42:02):
They say they don't they don't, you know, theydon't do this, or I wish they would do that, or
I wish they were more like you.
This one this one would set me this one wouldsend me to the moon.
I don't know if there's anything that Shelbycould do, and she's never done this by the way,
because I've never been sent to the moon,although that would be, kind of a fun little
trip.
(42:23):
If she ever one time was talking to her friendsor my family and said, I wish was more like
you, or I wish Keaton would do this thing morelike you, or I wish Keaton would learn to do x,
y, z the way you do.
Oh, I mean, I'm I'm I'm getting sent to themoon.
(42:45):
I'm exploding.
Because it just seems so, first of all, it's acomparison game.
Right?
I don't want to be compared to anybody.
I'm my own person.
You're the one that signed up to deal with thisdebauchery of a lifestyle that I have chosen.
You're the one that married this Delbert, andso, you know, of it's like, hey, you picked it.
(43:08):
But second, I don't know if there's any bigger,like, slap in the face to be compared to
someone else who's got all kinds of other flawsthemselves.
You know, if I and I gosh, I hope I've neverdone this.
She's never called me out for it, so I thinkI'm in the clear here.
But if I ever told Shelby, oh, I wish you weremore like her, or I wish you did things like
(43:31):
her, or I wish you, did things like thisperson, like, I don't know that there's a
bigger slap in the face.
So I wouldn't even call this one necessarily agateway drug.
I would call this one like the ultimateoverdose because if you do this, if you do
third party venting and the other one catchesyou, man, you're like a few steps from it being
(43:56):
over, in my world.
It's just so disrespectful, and and what I'mafter in a relationship is respect.
I wanna get respect.
I wanna give respect, And this one seems likethe ultimate disrespect to be compared to
someone in my family, to be compared to anotherguy, or to compare her to another girl.
(44:19):
It just third party venting, it builds externalloyalty with other people instead of internal
trust between the two of you.
That's really what it does.
External venting, third party venting issomething that builds external loyalty, you
(44:40):
know, you talking to your friends, buildingloyalty with them, you talking to your family
instead of having the hard conversation andbuilding internal trust.
And so I hate this one.
And then the last one I would say she just cameout here.
She must have heard her ears burning.
The last one I would say is and I'm gonna endthis because she just gave me the wink, which,
(45:05):
you know, wink wink.
The last one I would say here is lifestylecreep.
This one's tricky.
Okay?
This one is tricky.
This is the probably the ultimate gateway drugfor the women.
If you're one of these people that gets anAmazon package at your door every day, you are
(45:29):
taking the gateway drug of lifestyle creep.
You're doing you're basically doing math.
Okay?
I'll just put it that way.
If you get an Amazon package at your door moredays of the week than you don't get an Amazon
package at the door, like if if, I mean,obviously, there's seven days in a week.
(45:52):
If you're getting an Amazon package four daysof those seven, you're doing meth.
And when I say meth, I am basically comparingyour lifestyle to being hooked on drugs.
And some people will say, Well, yeah, but I getlight bulbs.
(46:12):
I got toothpaste.
I got new socks.
I got new underwear.
Like, I bought groceries.
It just happened to come from Amazon.
I highly, highly doubt that more than half ofthe days of the month you're buying toothpaste,
deodorant, socks, and light bulbs.
(46:33):
Let's just say it what it is.
It's lifestyle creep.
You build your life on spending more money,upgrading more items, treating yourselves with
with more things, more stuff.
I'm guilty of this, by the way.
I my my wife is I know I'm calling her out, andshe's gonna do the same to me.
(46:56):
I like things.
You know, I have this kind of habit.
I've got a revolving wardrobe where I get ridof old stuff about at the same pace, maybe even
a little slower than what I get new stuff in.
And and so I, yeah, I definitely do not havepackages showing up four days a week.
But, you know, it's not uncommon I get apackage a week or, you know, maybe one every
(47:20):
two weeks.
I'll get a new shirt in the mail, whatever.
Lifestyle creep is a dangerous, dangerousgateway drug.
I you know, I would say, again, just stick onthis theme of meth for a second, and I gosh, I
hope none of you guys are listening or, youknow, recovering meth addicts because that
(47:40):
would sound insensitive from from from myperspective.
But you know the only thing harder than havingan intervention with someone on meth.
I'm just guessing here.
I'm not speaking from experience.
I've never had any interventions with people,but I've tried to have interventions before.
(48:01):
And the only thing harder than having anintervention with someone on meth is trying to
have an intervention with someone who has anAmazon problem.
I I'm I believe this.
I don't know that there's any cure for someoneand their Amazon problem.
(48:23):
I don't know if there's any cure for theaddiction that people have with clicking a
button on an app and the thing shows up thenext day at their doorstep.
I don't know.
I don't know if you can beat that.
If if you know how to beat it, please send meyour tips and tricks.
I've told Shelby, I'm I am literally cancelingour card from the Amazon app.
(48:45):
I'm gonna prevent our cards.
You have to go physically manually type in thecard number every time you wanna buy something.
The problem with that is she's got her cardnumber memorized, so it doesn't take her that
much more effort to enter the card number in.
But this is a real problem.
I mean, lifestyle creep, I I I know I'm kindajoking around here.
(49:06):
A lot of people, as you make more money, youspend more money.
We have been guilty of this in our ownhousehold over the years, and then we'll hit
the reset, be like, wait a second.
Let's wake up let's wake up for a minute.
What are we doing?
Lifestyle creep is a real thing.
I mean, everybody has heard the stories aboutthe people that make a million bucks a year and
(49:27):
live paycheck to paycheck.
How does that happen?
How does a guy that makes $400,000 in w twoincome live paycheck to paycheck?
Well, they do it because their lifestyle hascrept up with their income, with their earning.
When your lifestyle creeps, you buy things youdon't need when times are good, and what
(49:53):
results in that is later when things get bad,you have to sell the things you do need.
So, this one to me is, in a marriage, it is amassive, massive gateway drug that ultimately
can cause a marriage to spiral because whathappens is the husband and wife argue over
money.
I mean, I'll never forget my dad, you know,when we were growing up, he always told me
(50:16):
because my mom and dad had a great marriage.
They never really fought, and when they did, itwas just little, you know, tips and taps here
and there.
He always told me, he's like, oh, son, ourbiggest fights were were money fights.
And I was like, really?
What does what does that mean?
And now that I'm his age or, you know, was hisage when he told me that, I'm thinking back,
and I'm like, oh, yeah.
I can understand when I see a can of pop layingaround.
(50:40):
My kids don't drink pop, but bubbly or one ofyour seltzer water or whatever.
I see one laying there and it's opened and thecan is warm.
It's been sitting out for a while and it'sfull.
I'm like, well, that's wasteful.
Or I see someone open a banana and take a biteout of it and then lay it on the counter.
Someone, you know, like the the wasteful, youknow, you you know you've turned into a dad
(51:06):
when you're walking around telling everyone toshut the door, close the windows, you're
letting the air conditioning out in the heat,you're letting the heat into the cold house,
you know, shut the lights off.
Lifestyle creep is a real thing, and and it'seasy to let the lifestyle creep and the
spending creep up as your income creeps up.
(51:26):
So those are some things that I think about,and I would challenge you on any one of those
things.
I mean, if you're again, if you're if you'reclimbing the corporate ladder or you're trying
to build a business specifically, be verycareful of every step you make not to get
hooked on one of these gateway drugs that leadsyou down a destructive path.
(51:51):
Be very careful.
Be very careful of the boss.
I'm again, I'm a big fan of having a bad bossfor a while, but be very careful of picking up
the habits and the traits and the lifestyle ofa bad boss.
Learn the lessons from the bad boss.
Learn who you don't want to be, but do notsuccumb to the gateway drug that is a poor
(52:11):
attitude, that is negativity, you know, that isalcoholism or whatever your bad boss is
struggling with.
Don't smoke two packs a day.
You just you gotta be really careful.
And so, are some of the things that as I wasdealing with this today in a meeting, Joe Lord,
shout out Joe Lord, He knows what I'm talkingabout.
We had a we had a fun squabble.
(52:33):
Me, Thomas, Joe, Sean, Tim, it was and ofcourse, you know, Jeff and and DK, and bots
were all in there to watch it.
It's it's it's really easy.
It's really easy to get hooked on meth.
I'm guessing.
I I again, I'm guessing.
(52:53):
I've never I've never actually had the the, youknow, the opportunity, but no one ever does it
the first time getting excited about the paththey're about to send their life down.
The same way no one ever goes to work for thatboss who then ends up being the catalyst in a
(53:19):
failed marriage later because you starteddrinking too much, and then you weren't home on
time, and then you weren't present for yourwife, and then you didn't have hard
conversations or she wouldn't have hardconversations with you, and then you
ultimately, it ruins your marriage.
I mean, no one ever starts down the destructivepath of the gateway drug knowing it's gonna
(53:40):
screw their life up.
And so you just gotta be very careful,especially when you're young, especially when
you're trying to build your business or climbthe career ladder, be very careful not to get
hooked into some of these things that will sendyou down a destructive path.
So, that's what I got.
I, I gotta go.
She, she gave me the wink, and I don't know ifI don't know if that wink from her was, hey, I
(54:04):
need to come in and unload the dishwasher or ifthat wink melt meant something else.
But I would say either way, I'm gonna go figureout what that wink meant.
Maybe I'll let you know tomorrow.
But thank you for listening.
Thanks for tuning in.
Thank you for getting some sort of enjoymentout of it.
(54:24):
I hope this one doesn't get shadow bannedbecause of all of the drug use, language in in
this one.
I, I hope you guys got a kick out of some ofthose things.
Pray you're killing it.
Pray you're getting your per diem.
Pray you do not start a gateway drug.
(54:45):
We'll do it again tomorrow.
Welcome back to the Per Diem podcast.
What a day.
What a day.
I'm leaving the office.
It's 06:30PM.
I I just had an awesome day, to be honest withyou.
It was an awesome day with mister Michael Bottsand mister Daniel Kelly, two of the nicest guys
(01:09):
you'll ever meet.
And and we just I mean, kind of a wild day.
They spent well, first, we went to breakfast atUptown, had a great little breakfast.
And from from the first minute I saw them thismorning, we basically just swapped war stories.
(01:32):
Stories about getting kicked in the balls,stories about family drama, stories about
trying to build a business, failed businesses,customers that we've screwed up, employees that
we've screwed up, employees that have tried toscrew us up.
(01:52):
Man, it's been it's been war stories all day.
They they got to sit in our Turner StaffingGroup company meeting this morning.
We have one every Monday morning, and and theygot to listen to us.
Thomas and I squabble with the rest of the teamover some strategy.
It was just it was kinda cool.
(02:13):
I mean, I I had no expectations.
I had no idea what to expect, to be honest withyou.
And we it's it's kind of unusual for people tojust say, hey.
We're just gonna come hang out at the officeand see what you guys do and how you do it.
Well, man, it was cool.
It was cool to, you know, tell them, you youknow, just even little things like how we use
(02:36):
Slack as our company communications channel.
You know, Jeff mister Jeff Turner, my olderbrother from another mother, got to tell them
how he thinks about some strategy when it comesto finance and accounting and operating lines
(02:57):
of credit and what to do when you come into awindfall of money.
One of them, I won't tell you which one, hasgot a little extra cash in his pocket right
now.
And so he's trying to figure out best way to gomaximize his cash and the return on his cash.
You know, it's just it was it was fun to talkshop.
(03:20):
And and there for a moment towards the end ofour time together, I told them both.
I was like, man, this this could very well bemy next thing someday when, you know, whenever
that day comes.
Spending time with guys, trying to figure outhow to do business better.
(03:41):
It was kinda like I don't know if they wouldsay the same thing, but it was kinda like the
per diem podcast, but, like, eight hours of itfrom 08:30 to 06:30.
It was, like, eight hours of nonstop.
What are we doing?
How are we doing it?
Why are we doing it?
(04:05):
I don't know.
It was it was a lot of fun, and I'm just nowrealizing that 08:30 to 06:30 is actually ten
hours, not eight hours.
So it was a ten hour Podcast with Michael Bottsand Daniel Kelly that we didn't we didn't
(04:25):
record any of it, and there's some reasons forthat.
But, man, some of the stories, I loved it.
What else is happening in my life?
It is it's that weird it's that weird spot II've told you guys.
It's hot.
It's it's you know, school has started, so youget home from work.
(04:48):
It's you know, my truck still says 90 degrees.
You get home from work.
There's not enough hours left in the day to goto the pool or go golf or go do, you know, any
of that.
So you get the homework done, and, and thenit's just chill time.
Basketball season has not taken off hot andheavy yet.
(05:09):
We're doing flag football.
We had our first game.
We lost in a heartbreaker yesterday in ourfirst flag football game.
We lost by two.
Oh, by the way, I need a correction.
This is very rare that I do this, but acorrection to yesterday's episode.
I gave a huge shout out and prayers up for MikePolone's good buddy who was involved in an
(05:34):
accident, a cutting accident, and and Imisquoted his name.
This happens when I'm driving, and I can't lookat my notes.
I can't look at my phone.
And so I think I said multiple times, the kid'sname was Tyler.
The kid's name's not Tyler.
(05:55):
The kid's name is Trevor.
And so, man, I you know, a, I feel bad aboutthat, but b, prayers up for Trevor.
It really took the wind out of my sails when Ilearned this morning, and no one reminded me.
Mike, I don't know if Mike heard the podcastand was just too kind to correct me or what.
(06:21):
But, you know, I thought to myself, I'm like,man, I I think I got that guy.
I don't even know why it came to mind.
I was like, I think I got that guy's nameright.
But I realized later I got his name incorrect,so apologies for that.
Mike, prayers up for your buddy.
(06:42):
One of the things that came up today in my dayand in some of my meetings was that I would not
recommend doing math.
Okay?
This is gonna be the topic for today's episode.
I would not recommend meth as a sustainablelifestyle.
(07:09):
You're probably thinking, what in the world?
Which got which one of his guys or whichcompany failed a drug test?
None of that.
We didn't do any drug tests.
But this topic came up this morning in ameeting, and I and I you know, after the
meeting, I kinda got I I kinda dove in a littledeeper on the topic.
(07:30):
And I looked around at Thomas.
I looked at Jeff, our CFO, who was in themeeting.
Of course, you know, Boss was sitting there tomy right, and DK was across the table.
And I said, guys, have you ever one time donemeth and thought to yourselves, I can't wait to
(07:52):
get addicted to it?
Like like, my hope is the answer is no.
But I said, have you ever done meth, like,hoping you get addicted to meth and spiral your
life out of control?
And they were all like, you know, once theshock wore off, they're like, no, dude.
We haven't we haven't done meth.
And we definitely haven't done meth hoping weget addicted to it.
(08:14):
I said, everyone starts doing meth as a onetime thing.
No one ever does meth thinking they're gonnaspiral their life out of control.
That would be crazy.
If you know someone that's done meth the firsttime they ever did it and they said to
(08:34):
themselves, I can't wait to ruin my life, tellthem to send me a message on the per diem
hotline.
For the rest of the world, the people thatstart doing meth probably I'm just guessing.
Again, I have not done meth for the record, butthey probably start with drinking a Bud Light.
(08:55):
And then they drink a few Bud Lights.
And then maybe they have a couple mixed drinksat a party.
And then next thing you know, one thing leadsto another.
It's late.
It's dark.
The music is pumping, and someone says, hey,smoke this thing.
I'm just guessing this is how it works.
I I I mean, it's a gateway drug.
(09:18):
And and some people would say, well, meth isnot a gateway drug.
Meth is like the drug.
There are other drugs like, I don't wanna saythem, but there are other drugs that lead into
meth.
The whole point of this morning's topic wasthat you should not begin taking gateway drugs
(09:39):
in your career, in your marriage, in your ownbusiness, gateway drugs lead to a path of
destruction.
Trying meth one time, I'm told, leads to almostinstant addiction and then a path of
(09:59):
destruction for your life.
This podcast episode might get blocked orshadow banned just because I'm talking about
meth.
That's okay.
You cannot begin to take gateway drugs in yourcareer, in your business, in your marriage
(10:22):
because it leads to a downward spiral.
And and you guys are probably wondering, like,what in the world is he talking about gateway
drugs in business, in our careers?
I'll tell you what it is.
Gateway drugs are the things that seem easy andseem ins insignificant and seem like a good
(10:44):
compromise, but that ultimately go against theprinciples hold on, phone call.
That ultimately go against the principles ofwhy you started in the thing you're in
currently.
What this looks like is, oh, I'm just gonna I'mjust going to double down on the debt that I
(11:13):
owe and refinance it at a more expensive rateor factor my invoices because my cash flow is
bad.
And instead, it will it will infuse me withquick cash that I need to keep funding my
business.
What a gateway drug looks like is raising moneyto fund your company when you have no pathway
(11:40):
to becoming profitable, when you're hoping andpraying that someday you can pay everyone back,
in reality, you don't have a plan.
You don't have a clue.
You're just hoping.
What a gateway drug looks like as an employeeis you take the easy job.
(12:04):
You slide under the radar.
Maybe it's you stab an employee in the back tokeep your job when you know, in reality, you
should have taken the fall for something thatwas screwed up, and it would have potentially
cost you your job.
(12:24):
What a gateway drug looks like in marriage isif you're not getting any intimacy with your
wife, if you're not having that those thosespecial romantic moments, you outsource it to
your web browser.
And instead, you're like, oh, it's it'sharmless.
So just do it a couple times.
Just do it once.
(12:44):
Just do it a couple times.
She'll never know.
They'll never know.
It's no big deal.
Or some people or even worse, they'll beresentful.
They're like, yeah.
You know what?
Screw her.
If she doesn't wanna hang out with me, I gotthe AI chatbot.
Like, it's a gateway drug.
(13:07):
It doesn't it it leads nowhere fast.
It leads nowhere fast.
And it's not that it leads nowhere fast.
It's that you spiral and you go deeper anddeeper and deeper, and the web of lies gets
spun.
(13:28):
And one day, you wake up, and you have acompany where you've raised all this money, and
you have no idea how to become profitable.
Your your product's no good.
You can't run your business profitably.
You can't pay back the debt.
You have no choice but to close the doors.
You lie.
You cheat.
You steal in your job.
(13:49):
You poke other people in the back just to keepclimbing the ladder at everyone else's expense.
You're hollow.
You're empty, and you end up burning out.
Or worse, your employer sees the web of lies.
Your employer sees the games.
(14:10):
Your employer finally recognizes what'shappening, and they're like, yeah, you're out
of here.
All you did you did all of that for nothing.
It all crumbles right in front of you.
What this looks like in marriage is you getfound out.
One harmless picture turns into a bunch ofseemingly harmless videos, which turns into
(14:31):
some sort of weird addiction, which then turnsinto some chatbot, and then you're messaging
some girl, hey, local singles only.
And the next thing you know, it's an affair.
And it doesn't happen, like, in one or twodecisions.
It doesn't happen quickly.
It doesn't happen overnight.
(14:52):
It happens over the course of years.
But it happens because you said yes to agateway drug.
You said yes to the easy, feel good in themoment thing.
(15:13):
You took the meth.
I know it sounds wild.
You're like, why does this guy keep going back?
No one ever plans on doing meth.
No one.
When you're 15 years old in high school or 18years old or jumping into college, like, no one
(15:34):
ever says, yeah.
My life's gonna spiral out of control.
This'll be fun.
It just you hear it all the time.
I don't know if you guys have ever been aroundsomeone that's got alcoholism or addiction or
their life has spiraled out of control.
They say it all the time.
They say, it just happened.
It just happened.
(15:55):
I don't know how it just happened.
Well, how it happened is you said yes to thevery small things, and one thing leads to
another.
And over time, one bad decision leads toanother bad decision, and ultimately, you find
(16:24):
yourself too deep in the hole to crawl out of.
It's a tough spot to be.
I wanted to wanted to talk more about this withsome people that I I know who have gone through
(16:47):
this, both in the marriage front and in theircareer, someone that's taken a gateway drug in
a career and it backfired on them, and thensomeone that I know pretty intimately who took
a gateway drug in their business, and it iscurrently being unwound.
It's it's they're all three very sad stories.
(17:10):
But as I pull into my driveway, I see threethree Delberts, but three beautiful kids
playing wiffle ball.
And so I'm about to pause the podcast.
I don't know for how long, and I will pick upon this topic.
I might even totally change the topic dependingon my mood.
(17:32):
I'll pick this up later tonight after I spendsome time playing a little bit of wiffle ball
with the kids.
They just look like they're having too muchfun, too excited for me to, sit here and,
continue to ramble on about meth and gatewaydrugs.
(17:52):
So hold on one second.
I may be able to recover.
A part two to this episode is coming up verysoon.
Okay.
I'm back.
Couple hours later, just got the kids to bed.
It is an early bedtime tonight.
It was kind of their first full week back toschool this week.
(18:16):
Last week, they only went two days of school,and so this is their first full week, and so we
got them back in in bed early.
The problem with that is here in the Easterntime zone, sun freaking sun doesn't set till
like 09:30.
So I gotta pull the blinds shut, and the kidsare, probably up there not sleeping.
(18:37):
But that's okay.
Let's pick back up where we left off.
I was gonna give you guys a few examples andwhat these examples, I think, would look like
when relates to gateway drugs in your career,and then gateway drugs if you're trying to
build a business from scratch, then obviouslygateway drugs to building a healthy marriage.
(19:04):
And so some of the examples I had, you know,earlier that popped up in in my mind was, you
know, one of the things I see a lot of peopledo in their career, they chase a title in their
career path that has no substance.
You accept a promotion working for a companythat you, you know, quite frankly, you
(19:25):
shouldn't even be working for that company.
So what does it matter if you get the titleyou've always wanted?
If you're working for a company where there'sno real future opportunity or no real upward
mobility beyond that, you might end up being,you know, stunting your growth.
And so chasing titles are one example of agateway drug that would lead to a dead end road
(19:49):
in your career.
Another another good one, and this and I'veman, I've if I've never talked about this one,
this is probably a whole separate topic in andof itself, but overreliance on one single
mentor.
This one's tough.
A lot of people do this.
Right?
They get their full source of truth from oneperson in their career.
(20:13):
Maybe it's their boss.
Maybe it's, someone from their church.
Maybe it's a coach.
You get all your source of truths from oneperson, all your perspective from one person,
all your learning and education from oneperson.
That's a not always, but it can be a dead endpath.
(20:34):
There is so much context to get out there andbusiness, the business climate is changing, you
know, really months to months these days withwith the addition of AI and technological
advances, I am a huge fan of getting peoplearound me that have a bunch of different
opinions, different backgrounds, differentbelief systems, people that challenge each
(20:58):
other and challenge me in the way of thinking.
And so, you know, one of the ways I think thatyou ultimately can spiral your career is you
just have one source of truth and one mentor,and you don't get to taste and feel and see
enough from enough different people.
Another one, this one's tough.
This one is it's probably a super gateway drug,and that's saying yes to everything.
(21:23):
Being eager in your career, especially early,can open a lot of doors, but it also can you
can open yourselves up to being exploited foryour time and your energy and your resource.
You don't set boundaries.
There's a lot of young passionate dudes outthere.
(21:44):
They're gonna get taken advantage of becausethey say yes to too many things.
If you say yes to too many things, people getused to you saying yes, and they're gonna ex
exploit that weakness.
Maybe not intentionally, but might you have aboss that says, well, I know Jimmy will work
his self to the bone.
He'll do sixty, sixty five, seventy, seventyfive hours a week.
(22:05):
I know I can get the grunt to do the grunt workbecause he never says no.
He never pushes back.
He says yes to everything.
And there's a fine line here.
I'm a big fan of saying yes to everything,especially early in your career.
But saying yes to too many things, and andsaying yes to too many people can be a gateway
drug that leads to a dead end road.
(22:29):
Man, another one I had down here is politicalgames internally.
Companies, the bigger the company, the morepolitics exist.
I don't care how awesome the company is.
I don't care how legit they are.
I don't care about their reputation.
It's just a fact.
The more people you add into the mix of anorganization, inherently, the more political
(22:51):
games ultimately get played.
And so, my advice would be do not take thegateway drug of getting caught up in political
games.
Stay out of them at all costs.
Sometimes sometimes you can't stay out of them.
Sometimes you can't avoid them.
But man, when you get caught up in a politicalgame, it can cost you.
(23:12):
It can cost you big time.
We've had people, unfortunately, I've had tosay goodbye to because they got caught up in a
political game, and they got caught on thewrong side of the game.
And I don't have time in this episode to gothrough, you know, all the ways you get caught
up in, internal BS politics.
But trust me when I say a good old boy like metrying to build a real transparent culture like
(23:37):
what we're trying to build, political gamesexist.
And once you start playing the game, it'sreally, really hard to get out of it.
It's really hard to avoid it once you kind ofdip your toe in that water and you get into the
gossip and you get into, you know, angles andalways trying to spin something a certain way.
So, you got to stay out of the political games.
(24:02):
Man, I could go on and on and on with climbingthe corporate ladder, but those are a few that
come to mind.
If you're if you're, you know, working in ajob, especially a young person, trying to climb
the ladder and impress your boss and and nailyour performance reviews, you gotta be careful
not to take one of these gateway drugs and letit run you down a path of self destruction.
(24:27):
What this looks like in business, again, someof these guys I talked to, I spent, you know,
two days now or at least a full day today withtwo business owners.
Some of this gateway drug consumption inbuilding a business is raising money.
You guys heard I I think I, teased this alittle bit earlier on the first half on my
(24:50):
drive home.
Raising money too early before you know whatyou're doing in business, oh my goodness.
I don't know if there's a quicker way to stuntyour growth long term than to raise money when
you don't have your product market fit naileddown.
(25:11):
You kind of inherently create a culture ofspending money that's not your money.
It's not your money to spend.
Someone lent it to you.
And and, you know, this one this one's tough.
I mean, there was a time in my business, I'llnever forget, I looked over again, I said, man,
how how easy would this be if because we were Ithink we were going through a hard time and,
(25:36):
you know, trying to win some big contracts andbuy equipment.
And I said, man, how how different would ourjourney be if we went out and like raised a
$100,000,000 for our mining startup, miningservices startup?
You know, we're the next thing in the industry.
And like, how different would it be?
And he's like, yeah, it would be crazy, but Ithink it would build some bad habits.
(25:57):
We wouldn't be scrappy.
We wouldn't be lean.
We wouldn't fight for every dollar.
And and, you know, as you get bigger and andolder as a company, some of that just creeps in
anyway.
You get lazy, you get fat, you get sloppy.
But man, it only it only compounds when you'reusing other people's money instead of your own
(26:17):
money.
You know, if your dad hands you $20 to go tothe store, of course, you're gonna spend the
$20 differently than if you mowed yards forthree days in the 100 degree heat and you were
using your own $20 to go to the store.
It's just different behaviors, differentculture.
So and, you know, depending on investor moneyor raising money or, you know, you know, angel
(26:41):
investors, venture venture capital, it's it's agateway drug in my opinion.
Sometimes it works.
Right?
Sometimes it's the right cash infusion at theright time for the right business.
It gets returned to stakeholders.
I mean, sometimes it works.
But in our blue collar industries, I there'sthere's no stories that I've heard where
(27:03):
someone took, an investment before they knewhow to make money.
Usually, when someone takes an investment andturns it into a return for the investor, it's
because it was growth capital and the companywas already growing.
They already had a product market fit.
They already had a service that they weremaking profit on.
(27:24):
They just needed a little bit of growthcapital.
That's a totally, totally different ballgamethan raising money because you can't make your
own money.
So, so that's one.
Another one, gateway drug.
I lived through this one, which is why I talkabout it.
Over hiring too early.
(27:46):
Building a huge team of people before you'vehit predictable revenue, it's it forces you
into some real cash flow problems.
I know there's a there's a saying out there,and I might butcher it here.
Let me let me make sure I nail it down.
It goes something like, if you buy the thingsyou don't need in good times, you will be
(28:10):
forced to sell the things you do need in badtimes.
And and man, I lived through that one.
We we had a big staff.
Shoot.
I don't know how many people we had on staff,but we were growing.
Right?
And I was I was betting on the comm, and I wasbetting on us to continue to grow.
(28:31):
And then all of a sudden, kind of a doublewhammy hit.
We lose our biggest customer.
Our biggest contract kind of dried upovernight.
At the same time, the world stops turningduring COVID.
And so it was almost like you were on the dancefloor at your first prom, and, you were out
(28:52):
there dancing with all the other Delberts, andyou didn't wanna look like an idiot, and all of
a sudden, the music stops, and the lights comeon, and you're on the dance floor, and you
realize like, oh, you actually don't know howto dance very well.
It's what it felt like for me when COVIDhappens, and we learn we lose our biggest
(29:14):
customer.
And so, we had to say goodbye to a lot of thethings we needed at the time because we just
over hired.
We had way too many people on staff or we gotfat.
We got, you know, a little bit complacent.
We were living like it was 1999, the world wascoming to an end.
And then when the world didn't end and weactually had to figure out how to run a
(29:37):
business, that's when we had to get really leanand and figure out, you know, what areas do we
need to cut.
If you're trying to figure out what areas youneed to cut, usually, you're having to cut
much, much deeper than you would have if youjust stayed leaner in the first place.
So super easy gateway drug to get involved inearly on in a business is over hiring too
(30:02):
early.
Hiring too many people you don't need, toomany, what I call, non revenue producing
employees.
This is a big one.
If you're a non revenue producing employee inthe early days of a business, you better hope
the business continues to grow and do well oryour days are numbered.
(30:23):
Because a company doesn't fire in in in hardtimes.
A company doesn't lay off the revenue producingemployees.
A company lays off the non revenue producingemployees.
And if you don't know whether you're a revenueproducing employee or not, man, I guess I'll
hold my comments to myself.
(30:46):
Fake growth marketing.
This is one that's tricky.
You see these people out there that are kind ofthe fake it till you make it mentality or the
people that appear much bigger than are.
I think we did a really, really good job ofthis back in the early days or bad job,
depending on which category you wanna put thisin.
(31:07):
We, from from the early days, always lookedmuch bigger than we were.
You know, we we had cool images.
We had a great marketing team.
We we were, you know, quite frankly, we werespread out all over the country.
So, I mean, we weren't small, but we had a veryinteresting point in time where we had a lot of
(31:30):
momentum with social media.
And when you get a bunch of followers, it'seasier to look bigger than you are.
But we never bought any followers.
I've never paid a dime for a follower.
Our company's never paid a dime for followers.
We didn't, like do gimmicky PR stunts.
I I remember, you know, multiple timesdifferent people in our marketing team over the
(31:53):
years would say, oh, this company is doing thisthing where they, you know, they cook a pizza
in the excavator bucket and it got like2,000,000 views.
Or this company did this thing where they duglogos in the ground and, like, dug their logo
with an excavator.
I'm like, okay.
But but they're getting a bunch of peoplelooking at that who have no impact on our
(32:18):
business.
We don't need followers.
We don't need a big follower count.
We need to go, you know, an inch wide and amile deep, not a mile wide and an inch deep.
And I think I've talked about that on aprevious episode.
But fake gross marketing, doing doing PR stuntsto like, you know, grow your following, it can
(32:43):
mask some real underlying business flaws.
And, I think it can you know, just because itmakes you appear bigger than you are, it
doesn't really solve any business problems.
But you can kinda get high on your own supply alittle bit, and, and it's a gateway drug in my
opinion.
And, I've tried to toe the line with lookingsexier than we are, being, looking and and
(33:08):
appearing bigger than we are, and then alsobeing just super real and raw and transparent.
I talk about how many employees we have.
I talk about how many states we've worked inand what kind of work we do and how many yards
we move and all that.
So, it's not you don't have to go do a ton ofmath to figure out how big a company is.
I mean, shoot.
If you want the real data, just go to the MSHAwebsite, go to the data retrieval system, you
(33:34):
can pull up anybody that does mining exactlyhow many man hours they've worked.
So it's not rocket science on trying to figureout how big companies are, but fake growth
marketing is for sure a gateway drug.
Hold on.
Drink break.
I because I got a couple more here.
(33:55):
I'm just rattling these things off kind of asquick as I can.
Shiny object syndrome, this is a gateway drug,shiny object syndrome.
I got accused one time.
I fired a guy, loved the guy to death.
He was on our staff.
(34:15):
And he told me when I fired him, he was like,oh, well, you just like the shiny new object.
I'm an old toy.
You forgot about me.
You just like the shiny new thing.
And I was like, what does that even mean?
He's like, well, you know, you get you getsomebody else new in and you pay attention to
them and you invest in them, you pour intothem, and you mentor them.
And then, you know, the people that aren't theshiny new object, they don't get any attention.
(34:37):
They're kinda just an old toy to you.
And I never forgot that comment, but it's it'seasy to do when you are trying to scale a
business to always be thinking about the shinynew object and not the older things that got
you there.
Whether this is equipment, whether this ispickup trucks, or this is people, could be even
(35:02):
customers.
I've been guilty of this with customers where,you know, if if you're the shiny new object, if
you're the customer I'm trying to date, theminute I get married and we lock in the
contract and the ink is dry, what am I doing?
I'm onto the shiny new object.
I'm looking for the new customer.
(35:22):
And it's easy to take my eye off of the currentcustomer, or or even the old customers that
we're still doing work for.
And so this shiny new object syndrome is man,it's a gateway drug.
You buy a new machine, you forget about yourold machines.
You stop paying attention to them.
You stop doing maintenance on them.
You you hire a new person.
(35:43):
You kinda ignore the old one and just leavethem in their corner to do their work.
You don't do check ins.
You know, you're not you're not following up.
I'm guilty of this one.
This is one that I am really trying hard not tobe guilty of, but this is a this is an easy one
to fall into in the terms of gateway drugs whenyou're trying to build a business.
(36:06):
Let's see here.
I'm gonna go one more.
You know what?
I'm gonna pivot.
I'm gonna go to marriage cause I'm running outof time.
I'm eighteen minutes in on the second halfhere.
Gateway drugs in relationships or in marriages.
I think one of the ways you spiral arelationship out of control, I literally just
(36:30):
did this.
Literally just did this five minutes ago, rightbefore I clicked record.
I learned I was double booked and I was goingto miss my nine year old daughter's birthday.
Her birthday is in a couple weeks.
I was looking at my calendar.
My wife's like, oh, yeah.
Hey, by the way, you're double booked andyou're gonna miss your daughter's birthday.
(36:53):
Of course, she was sitting there.
She starts crying.
I take offense to it.
I'm like, well, I mean, how am I supposed tofreaking know that?
Like, I I can't hardly keep track of agoldfish, let alone my calendar these days.
I need an assistant.
So I'm hiring and I'm hiring an assistant.
I've I've decided if you if anybody knowsanyone that would make a great assistant, I
(37:17):
gotta get my life in order, my calendar inorder.
I got so many side projects and little businessthings.
It's something I definitely need to do at somepoint.
But nevertheless, never waste a crisis.
I was double booked.
My daughter was distraught.
I was gonna miss her birthday, and I get alittle salty with my wife.
I'm like, why would you say that right there infront of her?
(37:39):
And she was like, oh, I didn't know she wasgonna react that way.
I wasn't trying to call you out.
A gateway drug in relationships is avoidinghard conversations.
I got defensive.
I got a little bit mad.
I went quiet for a few minutes.
I went up and talked to my she went up to herroom.
I went up and talked to my daughter.
(37:59):
I'm like, hey, look, I'll I'll figure it out.
I'm not gonna miss your birthday.
I'll make it right.
But then I came back down.
I grabbed my wife.
I was like, look, I'm sorry.
I overreacted.
I got a little defensive.
I don't do a great job with my calendar.
You know I'm not a detailed, organized person,and and I would never just book something over
(38:21):
my daughter's birthday, But this is a hardconversation that it would have been super easy
for me to just go to the base and be like, youknow what?
I'm not gonna deal with this tonight.
I don't need the drama.
And then I could have been the one that was thevictim.
Avoiding hard conversations will lead tospirals.
(38:43):
One argument turns into two days, turns into aweek.
Next thing you know, there's a rift, then yougrow apart.
It just it's it's it happens, and it happensquicker and and over dumber things than you
even understand what you know, some of the someof the biggest fights we've had have been over
the dumbest things when neither one of uswanted to end the dreaded drama triangle.
(39:08):
And so, avoiding hard conversations is withouta doubt a gateway drug.
So, I would highly recommend not avoiding hardconversations.
Another one, this is one that I've seenfirsthand.
I've done this one firsthand.
My wife has done this one.
(39:29):
My my own parents have done this one.
Every every married couple I know at some pointor another takes the gateway drug in their
relationship called score keeping.
They keep score.
Who has changed the baby's diaper more?
Who has tucked the kids in bed more?
(39:52):
Who has mowed the yard more?
Who, you know, has set up more date nights?
You know, who has initiated intimacy more?
Like, other you can keep scoring anything.
Like, who's cleaned the kitchen more?
Who's put away the dishes more?
Who's done the laundry more?
You know, who's picked up crap around the housemore?
(40:13):
Scorekeeping is, to me, I think it's just anatural human DNA thing.
But if you're not aware of it, scorekeeping canbecome a gateway drug in your marriage that
will spiral and cause so much resentment.
You'll resent her.
She'll resent you.
You guys will point fingers at who's done whatmore.
(40:35):
And at the end of the day, does it matter?
Honestly, like, does it matter if she's, youknow, not done the laundry as many times as you
or you've put the dishes away more than her?
At the end the day, it's partnership.
And so scorekeeping is one that, you know, onceyou start, you see every little action through
(40:58):
a competitive lens.
Once you start scorekeeping, every little thingwill set you off, and you'll start in in your
mind, and and then it's hard to like get thatimage out of your mind.
So, scorekeeping is definitely a gateway drug.
Let's see here.
Man, this is a tough one.
(41:19):
I don't even like to talk about this onebecause it just feels it feels just dishonest
or that's not even the right word I'm lookingfor.
It feels like a stab in the back, but thisone's tough.
Third party venting is what I have written downhere.
(41:40):
Third party venting.
It's when one of the two people in therelationship goes to their friends or goes to
their mom and dad or goes to their brother andsister and talks about their spouse and vents.
They complain about them.
(42:02):
They say they don't they don't, you know, theydon't do this, or I wish they would do that, or
I wish they were more like you.
This one this one would set me this one wouldsend me to the moon.
I don't know if there's anything that Shelbycould do, and she's never done this by the way,
because I've never been sent to the moon,although that would be, kind of a fun little
trip.
(42:23):
If she ever one time was talking to her friendsor my family and said, I wish was more like
you, or I wish Keaton would do this thing morelike you, or I wish Keaton would learn to do x,
y, z the way you do.
Oh, I mean, I'm I'm I'm getting sent to themoon.
(42:45):
I'm exploding.
Because it just seems so, first of all, it's acomparison game.
Right?
I don't want to be compared to anybody.
I'm my own person.
You're the one that signed up to deal with thisdebauchery of a lifestyle that I have chosen.
You're the one that married this Delbert, andso, you know, of it's like, hey, you picked it.
(43:08):
But second, I don't know if there's any bigger,like, slap in the face to be compared to
someone else who's got all kinds of other flawsthemselves.
You know, if I and I gosh, I hope I've neverdone this.
She's never called me out for it, so I thinkI'm in the clear here.
But if I ever told Shelby, oh, I wish you weremore like her, or I wish you did things like
(43:31):
her, or I wish you, did things like thisperson, like, I don't know that there's a
bigger slap in the face.
So I wouldn't even call this one necessarily agateway drug.
I would call this one like the ultimateoverdose because if you do this, if you do
third party venting and the other one catchesyou, man, you're like a few steps from it being
(43:56):
over, in my world.
It's just so disrespectful, and and what I'mafter in a relationship is respect.
I wanna get respect.
I wanna give respect, And this one seems likethe ultimate disrespect to be compared to
someone in my family, to be compared to anotherguy, or to compare her to another girl.
(44:19):
It just third party venting, it builds externalloyalty with other people instead of internal
trust between the two of you.
That's really what it does.
External venting, third party venting issomething that builds external loyalty, you
(44:40):
know, you talking to your friends, buildingloyalty with them, you talking to your family
instead of having the hard conversation andbuilding internal trust.
And so I hate this one.
And then the last one I would say she just cameout here.
She must have heard her ears burning.
The last one I would say is and I'm gonna endthis because she just gave me the wink, which,
(45:05):
you know, wink wink.
The last one I would say here is lifestylecreep.
This one's tricky.
Okay?
This one is tricky.
This is the probably the ultimate gateway drugfor the women.
If you're one of these people that gets anAmazon package at your door every day, you are
(45:29):
taking the gateway drug of lifestyle creep.
You're doing you're basically doing math.
Okay?
I'll just put it that way.
If you get an Amazon package at your door moredays of the week than you don't get an Amazon
package at the door, like if if, I mean,obviously, there's seven days in a week.
(45:52):
If you're getting an Amazon package four daysof those seven, you're doing meth.
And when I say meth, I am basically comparingyour lifestyle to being hooked on drugs.
And some people will say, Well, yeah, but I getlight bulbs.
(46:12):
I got toothpaste.
I got new socks.
I got new underwear.
Like, I bought groceries.
It just happened to come from Amazon.
I highly, highly doubt that more than half ofthe days of the month you're buying toothpaste,
deodorant, socks, and light bulbs.
(46:33):
Let's just say it what it is.
It's lifestyle creep.
You build your life on spending more money,upgrading more items, treating yourselves with
with more things, more stuff.
I'm guilty of this, by the way.
I my my wife is I know I'm calling her out, andshe's gonna do the same to me.
(46:56):
I like things.
You know, I have this kind of habit.
I've got a revolving wardrobe where I get ridof old stuff about at the same pace, maybe even
a little slower than what I get new stuff in.
And and so I, yeah, I definitely do not havepackages showing up four days a week.
But, you know, it's not uncommon I get apackage a week or, you know, maybe one every
(47:20):
two weeks.
I'll get a new shirt in the mail, whatever.
Lifestyle creep is a dangerous, dangerousgateway drug.
I you know, I would say, again, just stick onthis theme of meth for a second, and I gosh, I
hope none of you guys are listening or, youknow, recovering meth addicts because that
(47:40):
would sound insensitive from from from myperspective.
But you know the only thing harder than havingan intervention with someone on meth.
I'm just guessing here.
I'm not speaking from experience.
I've never had any interventions with people,but I've tried to have interventions before.
(48:01):
And the only thing harder than having anintervention with someone on meth is trying to
have an intervention with someone who has anAmazon problem.
I I'm I believe this.
I don't know that there's any cure for someoneand their Amazon problem.
(48:23):
I don't know if there's any cure for theaddiction that people have with clicking a
button on an app and the thing shows up thenext day at their doorstep.
I don't know.
I don't know if you can beat that.
If if you know how to beat it, please send meyour tips and tricks.
I've told Shelby, I'm I am literally cancelingour card from the Amazon app.
(48:45):
I'm gonna prevent our cards.
You have to go physically manually type in thecard number every time you wanna buy something.
The problem with that is she's got her cardnumber memorized, so it doesn't take her that
much more effort to enter the card number in.
But this is a real problem.
I mean, lifestyle creep, I I I know I'm kindajoking around here.
(49:06):
A lot of people, as you make more money, youspend more money.
We have been guilty of this in our ownhousehold over the years, and then we'll hit
the reset, be like, wait a second.
Let's wake up let's wake up for a minute.
What are we doing?
Lifestyle creep is a real thing.
I mean, everybody has heard the stories aboutthe people that make a million bucks a year and
(49:27):
live paycheck to paycheck.
How does that happen?
How does a guy that makes $400,000 in w twoincome live paycheck to paycheck?
Well, they do it because their lifestyle hascrept up with their income, with their earning.
When your lifestyle creeps, you buy things youdon't need when times are good, and what
(49:53):
results in that is later when things get bad,you have to sell the things you do need.
So, this one to me is, in a marriage, it is amassive, massive gateway drug that ultimately
can cause a marriage to spiral because whathappens is the husband and wife argue over
money.
I mean, I'll never forget my dad, you know,when we were growing up, he always told me
(50:16):
because my mom and dad had a great marriage.
They never really fought, and when they did, itwas just little, you know, tips and taps here
and there.
He always told me, he's like, oh, son, ourbiggest fights were were money fights.
And I was like, really?
What does what does that mean?
And now that I'm his age or, you know, was hisage when he told me that, I'm thinking back,
and I'm like, oh, yeah.
I can understand when I see a can of pop layingaround.
(50:40):
My kids don't drink pop, but bubbly or one ofyour seltzer water or whatever.
I see one laying there and it's opened and thecan is warm.
It's been sitting out for a while and it'sfull.
I'm like, well, that's wasteful.
Or I see someone open a banana and take a biteout of it and then lay it on the counter.
Someone, you know, like the the wasteful, youknow, you you know you've turned into a dad
(51:06):
when you're walking around telling everyone toshut the door, close the windows, you're
letting the air conditioning out in the heat,you're letting the heat into the cold house,
you know, shut the lights off.
Lifestyle creep is a real thing, and and it'seasy to let the lifestyle creep and the
spending creep up as your income creeps up.
(51:26):
So those are some things that I think about,and I would challenge you on any one of those
things.
I mean, if you're again, if you're if you'reclimbing the corporate ladder or you're trying
to build a business specifically, be verycareful of every step you make not to get
hooked on one of these gateway drugs that leadsyou down a destructive path.
(51:51):
Be very careful.
Be very careful of the boss.
I'm again, I'm a big fan of having a bad bossfor a while, but be very careful of picking up
the habits and the traits and the lifestyle ofa bad boss.
Learn the lessons from the bad boss.
Learn who you don't want to be, but do notsuccumb to the gateway drug that is a poor
(52:11):
attitude, that is negativity, you know, that isalcoholism or whatever your bad boss is
struggling with.
Don't smoke two packs a day.
You just you gotta be really careful.
And so, are some of the things that as I wasdealing with this today in a meeting, Joe Lord,
shout out Joe Lord, He knows what I'm talkingabout.
We had a we had a fun squabble.
(52:33):
Me, Thomas, Joe, Sean, Tim, it was and ofcourse, you know, Jeff and and DK, and bots
were all in there to watch it.
It's it's it's really easy.
It's really easy to get hooked on meth.
I'm guessing.
I I again, I'm guessing.
(52:53):
I've never I've never actually had the the, youknow, the opportunity, but no one ever does it
the first time getting excited about the paththey're about to send their life down.
The same way no one ever goes to work for thatboss who then ends up being the catalyst in a
(53:19):
failed marriage later because you starteddrinking too much, and then you weren't home on
time, and then you weren't present for yourwife, and then you didn't have hard
conversations or she wouldn't have hardconversations with you, and then you
ultimately, it ruins your marriage.
I mean, no one ever starts down the destructivepath of the gateway drug knowing it's gonna
(53:40):
screw their life up.
And so you just gotta be very careful,especially when you're young, especially when
you're trying to build your business or climbthe career ladder, be very careful not to get
hooked into some of these things that will sendyou down a destructive path.
So, that's what I got.
I, I gotta go.
She, she gave me the wink, and I don't know ifI don't know if that wink from her was, hey, I
(54:04):
need to come in and unload the dishwasher or ifthat wink melt meant something else.
But I would say either way, I'm gonna go figureout what that wink meant.
Maybe I'll let you know tomorrow.
But thank you for listening.
Thanks for tuning in.
Thank you for getting some sort of enjoymentout of it.
(54:24):
I hope this one doesn't get shadow bannedbecause of all of the drug use, language in in
this one.
I, I hope you guys got a kick out of some ofthose things.
Pray you're killing it.
Pray you're getting your per diem.
Pray you do not start a gateway drug.
(54:45):
We'll do it again tomorrow.
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