Unlocking Greatness When No One Believes In You With Jacob Emery

Episode Transcript
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Jacob Emery (00:00):
Winter's gonna hit everybody.
Adversity's gonna hit.
Expecting the easy life is whatmakes it harder.
So choose your heart and beprepared for it.

Stefanie Couch (00:07):
That hunger in people.
When I see that in people, itmakes me want to help them, and
I think there's been a lot ofpeople that have felt that way.
They feel your passion and yourhunger and they see that
ability in you Like, hey, thisperson could do this thing.

Everything is possible in life if we pursue it
hard enough.
But it doesn't mean that theway we're going to get there is
the way that we might think.
The people you care about themost might not be the ones that
help you get what you want outof life, and that's okay.

Welcome to the Grit Blueprint Podcast, the show
for bold builders, brandleaders and legacy makers in the
construction and buildingindustry.
I'm your host, Stefanie Couch,and I've been in this industry
my entire life.
Whether we're breaking downwhat's working in sales and
marketing, new advances in AIand automation, or interviewing

(00:59):
top industry leaders, you'regoing to get real-world
strategies to grow your business, build your brand and lead your
team.
Let's get to work.
Welcome to the Grit Blueprintpodcast.
I'm your host, Stefanie Couch,and today I'm excited to be
joined by Jacob Emery.
He is the co-owner of R&RPipeline.

(01:20):
He's also a host of a podcast,iron and Infrastructure.
I love the alliteration in thename.
Jacob is a leader in theconstruction industry and he is
actually known for hiscommitment to really building
strong teams and we had a greatconversation a few weeks ago and
I was able to see his passion.
And he is a entrepreneurthrough and through and he's a

(01:42):
real great leader and learner,which I love because we talked a
lot about coaching and all thedifferent.
And he's a real great leaderand learner, which I love
because we talked a lot aboutcoaching and all the different
things that he's into.
So, jacob, thank you forjoining me on the show.
I'm excited about thisconversation today.

Stefanie, I appreciate your time.
It's an honor to be here andI'm really excited to have this
session today.

I don't meet very many people that love
learning and coaching andeducation in this space of
construction as much as you.
So when we talked a few weeksago, I was like this guy is
awesome.
I can't wait to learn a littlebit more about him and his
journey, and I know that ourlisteners are going to love that
.
So for people who maybe don'tknow, jacob Emery, tell me a

(02:19):
little bit about you, yourbackground.
How did you get started in thisconstruction world?

Yeah, so growing up I got in a lot of trouble.
So I was kind of a fat kid.
I was overweight when I wasyounger and it ended up becoming
a bigger issue with insecurity.
And then it compounded when Istruggled to read and write
English is not to this day.
I still have third gradegrammar, that's what I always
tell people so it's always beena struggle.
Mine math was something Ipicked up easy, but English was
not, not there.
So I struggled, you know, and Ihad insecurities of being

(02:51):
overweight and then being infront of an audience or a
classroom to put my hand up infront of other people would
terrify me.
So it compounded.
And then my parents gotdivorced when I was a teenager
and so I just started acting out.
I had the ability, because ofthat situation, to exploit it
and to be out of control.
And so just imagine a lostvisionary entrepreneur in high

(03:15):
school that had no ceiling ofsuccess, that was looked down
upon, that didn't fit in, and so, debtor in jail by 21 was my
ceiling of success at probably16 to 18.
And I had worked at R&R Pipelinein the summertime in between
school years, and so I wasfamiliar with the company.
It was a local company and Iwent there right after high

(03:36):
school because I just realizedthat I would never survive
college.
College was not for me.
I barely survived high school.
So I decided to go into theworkforce and my thought was let
me go make $20,000, maybe buy ahouse, instead of spend $20,000
and be in debt for school thatI know I won't finish.
And I wanted to go intobusiness management anyway.
So I just realized, you knowwhat?

(03:56):
I'm just going to go work.
I'm just going to go see whatit's about and just see if this
ends up becoming anything.

That's awesome and I agree with the struggle of
being kind of a really smartkid but wayward in some way.
I feel like that's the struggleof a lot of entrepreneurs they
have, you know.
You hear about people havingADHD or all these different
things.
That are kind of superpowersonce you learn to use them.
But man, they're hard whenyou're a kid and you're not like

(04:22):
everybody else.
I struggled with my weight likealmost my whole life, and
that's also hard when you're notlike everybody else.
But I think the idea of notbeing like everybody else, maybe
what actually is one of yoursuperpowers, you know, what is
something that maybe someonewouldn't know about you from
from what meets the eye now,cause you're super fit, you

(04:42):
obviously have a business, youhave a lot of businesses, you're
out there speaking, podcasting,so you've gotten over all those
fears.
But what's something peoplemight not know?

Well, my two biggest fears in life were
having my shirt off in front ofother people and being on camera
.
So for the longevity of my life, up until a few years ago, them
two fears were the biggest.
And now, you know, I work outevery day with my shirt off and
I get on camera almost every dayand it's almost just my way of
saying F you to the world.
I'm going to do it on my termsand it's my subtle reminder that

(05:12):
I'm conquering that fear allthe time.

I love that.
It's awesome when you can getover your biggest fear and
realize that really it's notthat big of a deal Like you said
.
You're doing it every singleday.
But how many things do we letstop us from going after what we
want in life because ofsomething that could, after a
few times doing it, not be a bigdeal?

Yeah, and that's the thing.
You know fears.
If you think of fear from avisual standpoint, it can look
miles long and 100 foot deep.
If you're standing on the edgeof the water and you realize
that once you take a step intoit it only a few inches deep and
it's not as long or as wide asit seems to be.

(05:52):
And although you might falldown, you might get wet, you
might have, you know hardship inthat, you know journey it's
really not that bad.
But the first step is thehardest.
The journey to a thousand milesstarts with that first step,
and that first step is whatnormally costs people.
You know the worst.
There is a cost of inaction andif you want to pursue your
dreams you have to start withthat first step.

Yeah, absolutely .
And I think that it'sinteresting to me how many
people sit around and talk andthink and ideate and try to come
up with this perfect plan.
But I've done this now forthree years with this
entrepreneurship journey andthere's almost never a moment
where the plan that I had when Istarted is what actually ended
up happening, like even close.

(06:32):
But I think it's just havingenough foresight to say I'm not
going to know unless I've doneit.
And if you think that peopledon't screw up every single day,
we none of us really know whatwe're doing ever.
I mean, you don't know it in ajob, whether you're working for
corporate or doing it on yourown.
Until you've done it a lot, youdon't know what you're doing.
So I think it's you're not animposter, you're just

(06:55):
inexperienced.

Yeah, and I talk about confidence and ego and the
difference between the two.
And to me, ego is saying thatyou know how to do something
without doing it, the yes man,the know-it-all, the person that
in the construction industry,you know exactly what I'm
talking about.
And then there's confidence,where there's just a proven
track record that you are thisperson, that you you have this
pedigree and that you know howto do this thing, because it's
undeniable proof you know onyour resume or whatever it may

(07:20):
be that I am this person.
But normally most times,Stefanie, we are not as good as
we think we are and we're alsonot as bad as we think we are.
So it's hard to be self-awaresometimes and really knowing
what the true state of who youare is.
But having enough faith to knowthat I can get through this,
being vulnerable enough to say Idon't know what I don't know

(07:42):
that's part of leadership to meand you mentioned a failure a
minute ago.
Failure is a requirement forsuccess, because without failure
there is no success, becauseyou never get started.

Yeah, and if you're not willing to look
pretty stupid honestly, youmight as well not start your
entrepreneurship journey,because I feel like every day my
husband and I talk about it alot.
It's like extreme ownership isis one of our core values in our
company.
Jocko Willink wrote that bookand I read it when I was at
corporate and it kind of changedmy perception on everything

(08:15):
because I was playing a lot ofblame games like, well, if he
just did this or she just didthis.
And now that I own the companywith my husband, there's not a
lot of blaming.
That could go on.
So it's pretty easy to haveextreme ownership because like,
well, that was really stupid.

You don't have much of a choice.

It's like we, even with the employees we have,
we directly told them to dothat real stupid thing, so we
can't really blame anybody butourselves.
But you know, I think that's animportant part of life is to be
able to look at what you'redoing and say, hey, I screwed up
, I learned.
For the next time, hopefully.
I know we have a mutual person.
We admire Alex Hermosi.
He talks about trying to makethe mistake at $10 or $100

(08:52):
instead of $10,000 or a million,and so I'm making a lot of
mistakes now.
So hopefully, when we getbigger and we know more, we
don't have to make that mistakeat a bigger level.
But I think you're still goingto make them and it's just part
of it.
So I want to talk a little bitabout levels, because you
started making nine dollars anhour at r?
R pipeline.
I want to know what was yourfirst job at the company, kind

(09:15):
of how.
How does that pro progress?
So walk me through the journeyfrom going from nine dollar an
hour probably a guy with ashovel in his hand, i'm'm
guessing and you actually boughtthe company.
I'm sure there's a lot ofjourney in between.
Walk me through that.

So I actually started at 16 years old for $7
an hour, but it wasn't full time, so I leave that part out.
So your listeners will get akick out of that because it's
something that I don't everreally talk about.
But during the summertime andafter school I'd go in and
change oil and help themechanics out, and then I would
wash trucks just whatever wasavailable.
And then I went into the fieldat 17 as part of a cleanup crew,

(09:54):
probably for that $7 an hourrange.
And then 2007, when I startedfull time, it was $9 an hour and
I went right on the road.
My first week of work was onthe road and so I went on the
road and probably was on theroad majority of seven or eight
years after that, and so bottomof the labor pool, $9 an hour,
like you said, with a shovel inmy hand, and I became a product

(10:17):
of that environment Toxic.
I always swore I would neversmoke, I would never chew, I
would never do all this stuff,and I picked up every one of
them bad habits, and I alreadyhad bad habits and it just
compounded and made it worse.
So from 18 to 20, I justprogressed zero.
It was zero progression, zeroaccountability for myself.

(10:38):
I was still a child, basically,and I was at the old school gym
one day and my now businesspartner in a couple different
businesses, and probably my bestfriend, corey Gregory I'm
sitting on a tractor tire and Ihad been laid off during the
winter.
So I had been laid off a coupleof months and I was in the gym
every day for four to five hoursand I was there because I was

(10:59):
angry about life and that wasthe only time I felt peace
mentally.
So I'm at the gym and I'msitting on this tractor tire and
I'll never forget this momentas long as I live.
And I had my head in my handsand I'm just sitting there and
I'm being a victim and I'm justtrying to, you know, blame the
world for my problems, and Iwasn't doing it out loud, but
that's what what the setting waslike.

(11:20):
And Corey comes up and he saidman, what the hell are you doing
with your life?
And he called me out and therewas dialogue before that, but
basically it was right to thepoint of why are you here so
much?
What are you?
What are you doing?
What are you going toaccomplish?
What do you want out of life.
15 years later I went in and dida podcast interview on his on
his show and then a year laterstarted mine.

(11:40):
But he meant why are you not apersonal trainer?
So I was at the gym all thetime, I was in good shape, and
he thought I should have been apersonal trainer.
Well, I had never pursued itand I thought about it.
I go back to work not longafter and then I actually go to
take personal training test andI had to make a choice there.
I had to be a pipeline or apersonal trainer because of

(12:02):
outside circumstance.
Basically, I didn't have achoice.
I had to pick one or the other.
And so I ended up saying Ifailed the test for the personal
training.
I actually passed it.
I just told that story for thefirst time ever a couple of
months ago.
But it created this edge andthis intensity and conviction
that I will never allow myselfto be on someone else's terms
again.
And it started the turningpoint really right there, and I

(12:25):
didn't know where I wanted to beat, but I knew the next step.
So from that point I'm likeokay, I want to be a relight
technician where I can.
You know we'd do natural gaswork.
So shut the gas off, turn thegas back on in the house, so
I'll chase that.
So it was just chasing thatnext thing at next certification
.
And so I did that.
And then I went to be anoperator and so I became an

(12:46):
operator, probably at 21.
And then by 22, there was anopportunity that came up with a
new client that we had justacquired, and I went there and
within a month or two I wasrunning a crew and so I ran one
crew and then I became almostlike a project manager and then
I was good at putting people inthe right seat.

(13:06):
If I had any ability whatsoever, it was that I was able to get
people scheduled out far ahead,communicate clearly and then
make sure that everyone wasdoing something that they were
good at.
And what I had seen right atthe beginning was the 350 pound
guy.
That's a great operator.
That was, you know, not healthy, healthy, not in shape, but he
was in the ditch shoveling.
And then we had the little 150pound wiry guy that's sitting on

(13:29):
the track go digging, and hewould.
He would jump off every fiveseconds to go down and help the
guy digging in ditch.
So I would switch them.
And then it was like, oh okay,we're, yeah, we're moving now,
and so became a foreman and umran crews anywhere from five
people on an average job to 30people at some point with some

(13:50):
of our larger projects.
And I was always told I've beendoing this longer than you've
been alive.
That was the the phrase I heardmore often than not, and I just
reminded people you have beendoing this longer and I've been
alive, and if you're that good,if you're better than me, then
come, take my spot.
And I was always the young guy,so it really just created this
me against the world type offeeling.
And throughout that duration, Ijust realized I have to be able

(14:13):
to replace myself, because if Icannot replace me, if I don't
teach someone to take my spot, Ican't take the next spot.
And so I did that for a fewyears.
In 2014, I was running a projectand my now business partner
came back.
He was in the Army and he cameback on leave and our safety
director at the time was gettingready to retire and I was like,

(14:36):
man, you've got to come back.
I'm pretty sure that we can getyou in that safety position.
Come back, let's go, let's buythis company one day.
And so he came back after somesome hard, long conversations
with his family, because he hadbeen on our pipeline before.
We had a history, but at thatpoint it was a hell.
No, I'm not coming back therelike it was a hard no.

(14:57):
So we worked through it.
We got you know.
On the same page he came backand then the operations manager
at the time was doing a lot ofdiscretionary type things within
the company.
The company was struggling andwe were about ready to lose our
best customer and the owner atthe time.
I knew the owner very well andI went in and I just laid it

(15:19):
down for him.
I said listen, I am theoperations manager, effective
immediately.
If you have a problem with it,tell me now.
Tell me now.
But if not, I am the operationsmanager, effective immediately.
If you have a problem with it,tell me now.
Tell me now.
But if not, I'm going to getbusy and I'm going to save this
damn company.
And he never said a word.
It was.
I think about it now.
Someone would do that to me.
I would probably smack theabsolute shit out of him.

He probably knew that was the best thing.
He just didn't want to have tobe the one to pull that trigger.

Yeah, he knew it was best and he didn't realize
he was kind of an off-site owner, so he had a lot of health
issues and his family did aswell, so he was kind of going
through his own battles and hewasn't there a lot, so he was
seeing from a distance andhearing what was being said, but
it was until that point hedidn't see the reality Right.
So it was in 2015 that happenedand, um, and that's exactly

(16:07):
what happened.
I went and packed the otherguy's shit up, put it in the box
and I got busy that day and wewent from almost losing that
customer to being our bestcustomer about a year, year and
a half and so me and cody turnedthe culture around.
Um, he probably fired 30 or 40people in a year for not wearing
safety glasses.
We had to set a standard, andso that started to be in place.
And then, from 2015 to 2017, wereally got good with our

(16:31):
customer base.
We had a solid foundation ofcustomer relationships that were
great and a core group ofpeople that were really going in
the right direction.
And April 12th 2018, we sat downwith a previous owner and told
him, like hey, we want to buyour pipeline.
How much is it worth?
You know, I had no idea whatthe hell I was talking about.
And he starts laughing,essentially, and we're sitting

(16:53):
there eating lunch, having asteak, and he starts kind of
laughing and I'm like man, thisdude's going to regret this
because we're going to buy thisdamn company.
I'm sitting here like with aconviction so my whole life had
been that way.
I was never the star athlete.
I was actually not athletic atall, genetically, was not gifted
whatsoever.
It's just been a long,resilient road of hard work and

(17:15):
getting to that point it waslike this is my moment.
And so we got there.
We put the things in place andwe had zero idea what we're
doing, and so just trying tofigure out how to start was
astronomical.
You know against us, but we hadthat day.
We told him what we wanted todo.

The number he gave you?
Did it surprise you?
Was it more than what youthought it was going to be?
Or I mean, I'm just curiouswhere it landed.

He was probably 40% high on what he thought
compared to what the valuationsaid.
Yeah, yeah, which probably allowners that don't actually know.

We think it's worth a lot more than it is yeah
.

Right.
So, but the company wasn'tready to sell, it wasn't cleaned
up for the transaction, so wehad to get I mean, you just
think about bill of sales andtitles and all the different
things with hundreds of piecesof equipment.
It was bad, it was really bad,I'm sure.
So we were running the companyas the you know, running the
operation itself.
We were getting the companyready to sell and trying to buy

(18:16):
the company all at the sameexact time, and so it was
astronomical odds that we wereeven going to get a seat there.
But he had said, like I'm goingto sell the company.
It's got to get ready to sell.
I'll pay you to get it readyand you have a chance.
Like I'll give you a shotbecause it's going to be quicker
.
If we did it then it would begoing to market.

(18:36):
But he's like I'll give you achance.
My net worth, Stefanie, was$37,000 in January of 2019 when
we finalized.
It was our last PFS when weclosed in May of 2019.
So from April 12th of 18 toDecember 31st, our original
closing date, he never told hiswife you know, really, that it
was time to sell and we were athis house for the high state

(18:58):
Michigan game and she didn'tknow, she had no like.
He didn't probably think it wasfeasible and looking back I
don't blame him.

Right.

But we had a closing date in place.
Everything was going great.
We had an LOI and everythingLike it was a real deal.
Sba loan was set up.
We had all the inner workingsdone and the bank absolutely
dropped us like cold-blooded,never even gave us a phone call.
So right at mid-December we hadto start all over again and we
went through absolute hell withprobably 20 different banks.

(19:28):
I was called everything but adecent human.
I was called a piece of shit.
You'll never make it like allthe things that you would think
of from a ruthless bankingsystem that has a box to check,
and not only were we a circle,we're trying to go inside that
box.
I mean, we would blow that boxapart because we had a
conviction and we weren't goingto waver on it and all it took
was one.
It just took one person tobelieve in us, and so one person

(19:50):
did and we signed a loandocument at that point.
We closed in May of 19.
And the rest has been history.
So we have a great bankingpartnership still with that same
bank and it's been one hell ofa ride ever since we purchased
it.

That's amazing.
You know, I want to pull thethread on that banking and
getting the money thing becauseI think for a lot of people,
first off, I think startups arereally, you know, shiny and look
super awesome, you know, topeople.
But buying a business that isalready existing, that is
already profitable, that hasmaybe not a perfect system

(20:28):
definitely not in most cases butit's a working business and
that is a big deal.
And there's a lot of businesses, especially in our industry
right now I'll call it bluecollar, but construction related
that are 60-year-old peoplethat are getting ready to roll
out.
They haven't thought about it.
Are 60 year old people that aregetting ready to roll out.
They haven't thought about it.

(20:48):
Like I don't think, mostindustry owners.
They're just trying to makeends meet and keep things going.
They don't spend a lot of timethinking about what's next.
But then they wake up onemorning and say I'm done.
That's what I've experienced alot, or maybe it's a year or two
before, but, like you said,they got to worry about a lot of
operational stuff that theyweren't planning on selling, so
they haven't been working onthat.
They often don't have anyone tosell to.

(21:11):
And then there's people like usthat would like to buy a
business like this but have noidea, with that net worth of
thirty seven thousand dollars,or sometimes you know more or
less how do you even start thisprocess?
So I mean, you know ownerfinancing is something I hear a
lot about now.
I think that's an option.
Sba loans, all these differentways to go about it.

(21:31):
What would you tell someonelike you or like me that's in
this situation, that does wantto go look for a business?
Maybe they aren't currentlyworking for it?
What advice would you give topeople?
Obviously, be resilient has gotto be one of them.
But other than that, from amore tactical side of like, how
do you get money to go do thesethings?
That seem kind of crazysometimes.

It's really about who, it's really not about how.
So who can help you get there?
That's already done it, becauseI promise you that I would have
never accomplished anythingwithout my attorney, jim Havens.
He was the dealmaker.
The art of the deal was trulythe separator.
Resiliency is great, but ifyou're resilient but you're not
intelligent enough to know whatto be resilient against, then

(22:14):
it's a lot of action withoutaccomplishment.
And so, having someone thatunderstands how to navigate it I
knew how to run the businessfrom an operational standpoint.
I knew zero about owning abusiness or how to buy one, but
our attorney knew that weunderstood the operation enough
to run it very well and he hadthe confidence in us that we

(22:34):
didn't pay him until we closedon the deal.
That's how much money or howmuch faith he had in us, and it
was a six-figure bill andsubstantially, you know, decent
chunk.
We didn't pay him till closing.
We asked him you know, jim,what's this price tag look like
to get there, because we don'thave anything.
You know you can take theequity in my household, $37,000.
It probably won't cover, youknow.

(22:55):
You sign in one document, sowhat does it look like?
And he said boys, you can payme at closing and I'll never
forget that moment.
It's the first time we met him.
I'll never forget that momentas long as I live.
He had confidence in us that noone had ever had in us, and
myself included, I didn't haveit in me.
He's seen something in me thatno one else had ever portrayed

(23:16):
to be a reality, and he had somuch like distinct confidence
that I remember walking out ofthere different, and so it's
really having someone there thatwill help get you through that.
That's already been there, donethat.
But that starts because ofopportunity.
Put yourself in the arena andthe man in the arena it's one of

(23:37):
my favorite quotes.
It's the background normally onmy laptop and on my phone and
everything, because I've alwaysbeen in the arena.
Put yourself in the arena, goto every event you can go to and
the person that's the keynotespeaker, the person that you
know has done great things.
Shake that person's hand,research them, study them, have
something of a hook or a talkingpoint to get their attention

(24:00):
and talk to them relentlesslyand leave them with a little
nugget that's going to make surethat they remember you.
I've done that a few times andthat's how I end up meeting the
attorney, but make sure you justput yourself out there.
The more hands you shake, themore money you make and at the
end of the day I will firmlybelieve in that for the rest of
my life.

Yeah, I agree with that wholeheartedly, and I
think making connections withpeople, knowing that you don't
necessarily ask for somethingHopefully you can give them
something that's valuable A lotof times it's really hard to do
that when you're starting out,but just that hunger in people
when I see that in people, itmakes me want to help them, and
I think there's been a lot ofpeople that have felt that way.

(24:40):
They feel your passion and yourhunger and they see themselves
like 20 years ago when theydidn't have anything, and they
see that ability in you, like,hey, this person could do this
thing.
And I think that grit and thathunger is what a lot of
entrepreneurs like to see.
And so you obviously had that.
And I mean this has been sixyears now since you bought this

(25:01):
business and I'm sure you'velearned a ton every single day.
What are some of the biggestlessons that you've learned
since buying the business andrunning your own business for
the first time?
Because even though you wererunning the business, you didn't
own the business, and that is avery distinct difference when
the bottom line comes down toyou.
What lessons have you learned?

You're never as good as you think you are.
You're never as bad as youthink you are, and there's
always going to be more to learn.
Back to the people it's reallyabout your team.
You build up the people and thepeople will build the team.
But there is no owner that'sgoing to go out there and be
successful without having asuccessful team, and I think the

(25:43):
team is everything.
Culture is everything, and Iwant to have a culture on our
pipeline where everyone feelslike they're a part of something
bigger than themselves, and Ialways classify it like
individual success for teamsignificance.
Build a transformational teamand a legacy of excellence is
our 10-year vision.
That's what we're going tobecome and it is so impactful

(26:07):
for me.
I want everyone to feelgreatness inside of the company,
feel like they're part ofsomething that's once in a
lifetime opportunity and thatwill create the culture.
But it all starts with the team.
Yeah, I am not that smart,Stefanie.
You know me and my businesspartner have been really good at
one thing, and that's gettingreally good people around us,
and that's been our.
Our truest breakthrough.

(26:29):
Understanding is who, not how.
Once again, it's really aboutthe team of people on our
pipeline.
We'll be successful because ofeveryone on the team except for
me.
If it fails, it's because of me, and that's leadership in
itself.

Yeah, I was listening to a Dave Ramsey
podcast this morning thatactually was talking about that.
I am the problem and I'm alsothe solution in everything in my
business.
But it's because you can'trecruit good enough, you can't
keep people happy, you can'tbuild that culture.
Those things, as a leader,become the number one problems.
Not, oh, I don't know how tocode this thing or I don't know
how to drive that piece ofequipment or whatever it is in

(27:05):
your particular business, but Ithink in construction,
especially in dirt work andpipelines and things like that,
you know, and when someone isdoing something with their hands
or manually, you have to havepeople in person on the job site
and that is hard to keep thatculture.
You know, to get people to dothis hard work it's physically
hard, it's demanding on yourbody.

(27:25):
You know you got to havesomething more that you're
building towards when you go towork in the morning, how do you
keep people inspired to havethat culture?
Like, what are some of thetactical things that you guys do
as a company to do that?

It's tough.
You know one thing that we arecreating right now.
It's called the Pipeline ofProsperity, and so I actually
came up with this programprobably three or four years ago
, and I see this being like ourunique edge in the industry,
something that will make us aseparator.
We have a monthly newsletterthat we send out.
I actually go around and docore value interviews with the
winner of the month that ourteam votes on.

(27:59):
So we have, you know, corevalue recognition every month
and I go out and do an impromptuinterview.
It's not scripted, it's justcompletely random.
And we appreciate our team andso it's hard to get that all the
way instilled and it's a workin progress and it always will
be, and it's at the verybeginning phase.
But showing true appreciationand abundance of opportunity and

(28:23):
having that out there on frontstreet and saying, look, this is
what we're doing and why.
This is where we fail, this iswhere we won.
But being pretty transparent ingeneral is a big thing, and I
think the culture is going to bedirectly tied to how we treat
people.
But part of that isn't justsoft, mushy, you know, letting
everyone get away with stuff.

(28:43):
It's accountability, it'sleadership, it's opportunity and
it takes all of it.
I think true, Anybody that wantsto grow and get better, they
want accountability.
But anyone that's stagnant ornot wanting to, you know, try to
advance any, or is maybeinsecure a little bit,
accountability is kind of that,that bottleneck for them.

(29:05):
I really think thataccountability creates
insecurity out of people thatare not willing to fail and have
it out there.
So as a leader, I try to put itout on the front street that I
fail often.
The only failure is not tryingto me and so even like with
issues or anything else,unspoken expectations or
predetermined resentments.

(29:26):
You have to speak your mind andget it out there open and
honest communication.
And it kind of started with uswhere we wanted to put a
newsletter out every month, kindof touching on big highlights
or whatever's going on.
And that's the start and thenshowcase an appreciation.
But everyone wants to know thatI have a place to be a part of

(29:47):
something and it becomes morethan just a job if you can
create that.

Yeah, and the transformation of being open
with communication instead oftrying to hide things from
people.
The thing I always worried aboutwhen I was a leader in a bigger
company, where I couldn't quitecontrol that part of it, is
people fill in the blanks Likethey're going to write their own
story of what's happening, anda lot of times the truth is

(30:13):
actually not as bad as the storythat they've written.
So if you just told them whatwas going on and they could
sleep a little bit more at night, knowing, okay, yeah, this is
not great, but at least I knowwhat it is, they know the
monster that's in front of them,even if things are tough or the
year didn't go as planned,whatever it is.
I think people want that, andso that's a great trait that

(30:34):
you're building into yourculture of being open with
people as much as possible, andthen it allows them also to have
ownership over their owndestiny.
A lot of times they come upwith solutions I'm sure that are
better than what you would havethought of, because they know
what the problem is.

Yeah, definitely.
You know, not micromanagingpeople is another big thing.
Giving the authority to theones that are the decision
makers and letting them know hey, the only time that we're not
going to be OK with your choiceis when you don't make one.
Yeah, there is a huge cost ofinaction, and just empowering
people to know that you have theauthority to make these choices

(31:10):
.
Now, there's going to beboundaries and guardrails and we
have support there for you, butdon't be scared to fail.
Be scared not trying andfailing.
So not trying is the ultimatefailure to me.
And just making sure that wecontinue to grow and evolve, but
then also, we continue toevolve the team, and so we're in
this unique transition.

(31:31):
Right now, we're really getting, we're dialing in the
development of the team andreally expediting that process
and so getting everyone,development and and skills in
general faster and easier.
It's it's an ongoing process,but it is always one that I
truly believe has to happen.
I had a conversation a couple ofyears ago and we were talking

(31:53):
about the investment into theteam and how we're going to
develop and all that.
And it was a fractional personat the time, a leader of ours,
but he's like man Jake, whathappens when you invest all this
in the team?
And what if people startleaving?
And I was like what happens ifwe don't this in the team?
And what if people startleaving?
And I was like what happens ifwe don't?

Yeah, because that's the ultimate failure.
Yeah, it is so true and you knowyou're going to lose some
people, like you're going tolose people because they want to
do their own thing.
You're going to lose peoplebecause they got to move to a
different place.
Sometimes it's no fault of yourown, it has nothing to do with
that, but I think it's part ofbuilding the team that you know
that.
But you're going to give themeverything you can anyway and,

(32:30):
like Richard Branson says,hopefully they stay and they
love it so much that they couldgo anywhere.
But they don't want to goanywhere.
So I think that's huge.
I think about that a lot.
When you spend money on peopleand develop people, I mean it is
expensive to do training anddevelopment.
It takes their time away fromother things that could be
revenue generating for thecompany and it also is a capital

(32:51):
investment from a trainingperspective.
But it's important.
And speaking of trainingcoaching programs, you have some
exciting stuff coming down thepipe, which is your own training
and coaching program.
So tell me a little bit aboutthat.
What are you planning toaddress a need in the market
with that?
What are you going to be doingwith that program?

Yeah.
So it was unique how thepodcast came about.
I'll kind of start with it.
I started that podcast becauseI really moved into that full
transition as a visionary ofArnor Pipeline and so I just I
knew that I'm going to have tospeak in front of people and we
did a stay of the companyaddress and we rolled out a new
operating system a few years agoand we did all these things and

(33:31):
I'm like shit, I don't know howto public speak at all.
I'm not comfortable on camera.
That insecurity honestly cameback.
And even even that first day ofthe company address I remember
I prepared so much it was Ididn't even have to think about
giving the speech because Iprepped so hard and so much for
that that there was no way thatI was going to screw it up.

(33:51):
It was like bulletproof becauseI knew I have this insecurity
still and even though I'm abusiness owner now and I'm 30
some years old, I still havethis thing kind of lingering,
and so it was tough to face thatat first.
It was embarrassing, maybe alittle bit, but it was also an
acknowledgement that oh, this isopportunity for me to get

(34:13):
better.
So I started the podcast and Ijumped into it quick.
I was actually writing a bookcalled the Pipeline to
Prosperity of All Things andfour out of five chapters were
pretty much done, had apublisher lined up, it was all
ready to go, and then I put iton the shelf and said you know
what the podcast needs to happennow and through some, you know,
strategic thinking anddifferent, just getting a little

(34:35):
bit clarity on on thatdirection.
I think today actually was 150episodes that have been released
, and I started in october of2023, so so two episodes every
week.

Fast paced, most people never get past.
I think it's like 20 episodesthe average podcast.

Yeah.
That's amazing 2% of people or2% of podcasts, make it past 20.
I think it's something verysmall, but I've released two
episodes a week since I started.

Is it solo?
Is it interviews?
What's your style for peoplethat are listening that might
want to check it out?

So normally Monday is an interview, friday is a
solo, and that's how it's reallybeen throughout the duration of
it and the amount of knowledgethat I've gained from other
people, which has been such ablessing.
I never would have imagined thetherapeutic response and the
network building and theknowledge base that I've been
able to gather, some bestsellingauthors and just people that I

(35:29):
would have never imagined.
Just like yourself, Stefanie, Ican't imagine us sitting here
years ago, yeah.
And so the opportunities havebeen just outstanding.
I've grown individually a bunch, and so it all kind of started
to come together and I reallyfigured out that I have such a
passion for serving other peopleand helping them because I

(35:51):
needed a superhero so bad when Iwas younger and I needed that
person to kind of grab me undertheir wing and help me get
through that sticking point.
And so Unlocking Greatness withJacob Emery is the name of the
program.
I want to help everyone unlocktheir greatness.
Everybody has greatness insideof them.
The only people that neveruncover are the ones that don't
believe it and don't try to tapinto that.

(36:12):
And so I want to help buildmomentum and personal growth,
personal development, umaccelerate personal and
professional success, figure outwhat success really looks like.
I have a inability tocommunicate very well.
I cannot sit here and tell youa, a process or try to explain

(36:34):
something very well.
It's been a pain point of minefor a long time, and especially
as a leader.
So the way I communicate is notvery understood.
But I can draw like a thirdgrader and I'm a damn good third
grade drawer.
So now that's what I do.
I try to put visuals together,because we all can hear words

(36:54):
and see something different, butwe can't see something
different when we put it down,and so I've developed a little
bit of a skill of visualexplanation where I had
struggled to use words with thatbefore.
So I do a lot of visualdiagrams and things that cut all
the minutiae out, make it veryblack and white and simple,

(37:15):
simple scales, complex fails.
So I really just want to have aimpact on people to really
unlock their greatness, findpurpose in life, figure out what
they want and have a have adirection in life.
Um, you know, 10 years out, like, what does a perfect day look
like for me?
And then, you know, break itdown from that 10 year way out,
there kind of thing, to what'sthree years look like what's one

(37:36):
year look like.
And then you know, break itdown from that 10 year way out
there kind of thing to what'sthree years look like.
What's one year look like.
And then everything that we doum inside of our pipeline, and
me personally is in the 90-dayworld.
So we operate on eos, but usinga similar time structure as
that and taking it the next stepfor the personal and
professional both um being puttogether.
I want to help people turntheir visions into reality, and

(37:58):
everyone has a dream in life.
Everybody has this passion,this dream, this thing that they
can only see.
And a dream is like afingerprint and it's unique,
it's individual and so isgreatness, and so I want to help
everyone unlock their greatness.

That's awesome.
When is it launching?

This week it actually launched, so I just got
it going and it's like anythingelse.
Stefanie, it's the first time.
I don't have no idea what I'mdoing with the setup, the
workflows, the automation.
The process in itself is out ofmy league.
I have no idea what I'm doing,but I know how to get
information to other people.

Nobody cares if the value that you're giving is
good enough and you're very openabout the fact that you're
still figuring it out.
So nobody's going to care aboutthat little stuff and you're
going to figure it out probablya lot quicker than you think.
So I'm excited for that, foryou and for everyone.
That's a part of it.
When I started my journey as amanager, I was 2019, same time

(38:54):
as you that you bought yourcompany and that was my first
leadership development class.
I actually got sent by one ofmy managers.
I asked them to give me somesort of development and they
sent me somewhere, for it wastwo weeks over the span of a
year, and then we did some stuffin between and it was a huge
turning point in my life becauseI learned some things that I
just didn't even know were outthere.

(39:14):
And then I've continued thatfor the last six years and it's
been the biggest catalyst forgrowth, for really for leverage
in my life.
And Masterclass is something Istarted watching when I was
starting my business or about tostart my business, and there
was a Sarah Blakely episode onentrepreneurship that pretty
much changed my perception abouteverything, and so I think it

(39:34):
can be one thing one day, oneprogram, one speaker that's all
it takes for sometimes, for youto just plug into a different
side of yourself, and I lovethat.
For someone maybe that doesn'tknow the value of personal
development or says I don't havetime, I don't have the money,
whatever.
There's all these objections wehear.
What would you say to them?

Everything that you want is on the other side of
investing in yourself, andpersonal development by itself
will catapult you through anyadversity.
The reason books are wrote isbecause there's a story to tell
about something that happened.
And I don't know too many booksthat are all sunshine and roses
.
There's dialogue in therethat's going to have a adversity
and there's going to be, youknow, opportunity created out of

(40:21):
that.
We are going to have winter.
I live in ohio.
Winter is never going to goaway, so it's always going to be
cold, it's always going to beshitty, the weather's going to
suck.
It's never going to go away.
So I can't plan on weathergoing away.
I can't plan on that wintergoing away.
But I can get more adaptableand more prepared for that

(40:41):
environment.
And that's like life Winter'sgoing to hit everybody.
Adversity is going to hit.
Expecting an easy life is whatmakes it harder.
So choose your heart and beprepared for it.
And I think personaldevelopment, investing in
yourself, is the biggest fashionor form of self-worth.
Show me how much money you'reputting into yourself.
It's more powerful to invest inyou to grow than it is any

(41:04):
stock market anything else.
What is your investment onyourself?
And it creates this empowermentto know that if I pay, I pay
attention.
Everybody wants something forfree, but then never uses it.
Information is a plethora outthere.
You can get any informationreadily available within 10
seconds.
How many people are actuallyusing that, though?

Yeah, and I've thought about that a lot over my
span of time.
I mean, I've even sometimespaid for things that I just
haven't done, like there's justtoo many things going on and
it's not a priority.
But I think the biggest thingthat you get with these types of
programs that you mentionedearlier is that accountability
piece.
It's the same thing when youpay a trainer at the gym If you
know that trainer is going totext you when you don't show up

(41:46):
at 9 am when you had anappointment, and they're still
also going to charge you andthey're going to text you and be
like where were you?
There's something there.
My husband actually is acertified trainer and we go work
out every you know four or fivemornings a week and he goes
with me and we work out togetherand I can tell you I work out a
lot harder, number one and morereadily than I would have if it

(42:07):
was just me.
Like, do I want to get out ofbed and go do this?
I'm going to do this.
And then also you're keepingthe promises that you made to
yourself, which I think is whenyou can do that, when you can
keep the promises you make, thenthat builds confidence, even if
it's something small.
So if you are in a coachingprogram and you promise yourself
that you're going to go everyThursday, at whatever time that

(42:29):
call is, and you're going to atleast show up, that's a big step
towards becoming the personthat you want to be and then you
start to do the things.
Hopefully the coaching programis telling you but just talking
about goals, you know, I thinkabout.
We all have dreams.
I know you said that earlierand I totally believe that, but
what a lot of people have arejust dreams, and what becomes of

(42:52):
those dreams is based on howaccountable you are to yourself
and to others around you.
So I love that If you can sayone thing that you think someone
listening to this it's really amindset shift, something that
you've heard, a piece of advicethat's made the biggest
difference, because you'veobviously you said dead or in

(43:13):
jail by 2021 is what your lifewas going to be, and you're
obviously doing amazing things.
Now what is the biggest thing,that a catalyst that's made the
difference for you?
What would you tell someonethat's in that place of trying
to get to that place they wantto be, but they just can't quite
grasp it?

(43:33):
You know, I really.

I truly believe anything is possible and the
unfortunate reality is for us tolive out our dreams.
Everybody else's dream for ushas to die, and it's just what
it is.

Yeah.

Our family and other people in our group.
You know, in our network, theymight have the best of
intentions for us, but itdoesn't mean it's what we want,
and so I always am cautiouswhenever asking for advice or
seeking advice from someone thathasn't done what I've done.
If you want to achieve somethingand you're going to ask say,
even your parents your parentsare going to have the best

(44:04):
interest in you from theirperspective, but if they don't
understand it, it's not reallyvaluable.
It doesn't mean they're notgreat parents, it doesn't mean
that they're not good people,but find someone that's done
what you have done.
Have a mentor they're not goodpeople, but find someone that's
done what you have done.
Have a mentor.
Have someone that you can trustand look up to.
I think understanding that weare not that good and not that
special, but that everything ispossible in life if we pursue it

(44:26):
hard enough.
But it doesn't mean that theway we're going to get there is
the way that we might think.
So just be willing to know thatthe people you care about the
most might not be the ones thathelp you get what you want out
of life, and that's okay.

Yeah, and it goes back to the thing you said
earlier.
It really is about the who inyour life, and so if you don't
have people in your life thatare doing bigger things than you
, that help you strive forsomething that's above what you
are right now, it's probablygoing to be really easy to stay
in that place that you're justkind of mediocre because

(44:58):
everything around you is thatway.

You are an absolute product of your environment.
I truly believe that.
I just think that there's somany people that are willing to
accept the status quo or acceptthat I'm never going to be able
to break through this.
I'm a generational thing.
I just can't get out of it.
But it just takes one.
It takes one person to believe,have a conviction that, come

(45:21):
hell or high water, I'm going toget out of this situation, and
just that belief alone is thefirst step to accomplishing
anything you want in life.
Knowing that it's going to beeasy, though, or thinking it's
going to be easy, is what reallymakes it hard, and I would
really tell everyone embrace it,be present.

(45:41):
Don't worry about thedestination as much.
Process, journey.
The climb up that mountain isthe actual win, because you can
get up on top of that mountain,go to enjoy the view and then
the climb.
You didn't enjoy, and that viewis not very good, and for 12
years, Stefanie, that's what Idid.
For 12 years, I focused onbuying our pipeline.
This accolade andaccomplishment was going to be

(46:04):
the thing that made me happy,and two days after getting up on
that mountain, I realized thatI didn't enjoy the view as much
because I didn't enjoy the climband so I thought I was up on
top of the mountain.
And the reality hit when, youknow, I'm up on top of this
mountain and the cloud coverkind of moved away and I
realized that it's just a ledge.
So I wasn't on top of themountain and I realized that I
have so much more to do, so muchmore to learn, and that I have

(46:27):
to enjoy the climb.

That's awesome.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me today.
You are an amazing person.
I can't wait to see how thiscoaching program changes lives,
because I know it's going to.
You're inspiring in a lot ofways and I think your message of
being able to do whatever youwant if you're willing to put in
the work and get over,basically, your fears and
yourself is pretty powerful forall of us.

(46:50):
So I really appreciate it andhopefully we will run into each
other, because we are in a lotof the same groups and I know we
go to conferences and stuff.
So I'm hoping we'll be able tomeet in person soon.
But if you are not followingJacob and you're not listening
to his podcast, check it out.
If you're looking to unlockgreatness in yourself, he has a
new program and he is ready torock with that.

(47:12):
So if you're checking him out,tell people where they can find
you.

Yeah, so if you're checking him out, tell people
where they can find you.
Yeah, so, jacobemery.
com.
That's where the coachingprogram and everything's at.
All the different businessesI'm associated with are on that
page as well.
Jacobemery44 is all of mysocial media handles, so every
social media platform I'm on isjacobemery44.
Come check it out.
I'm telling you, I have a breakbarriers blueprint on there and

(47:38):
it's free.
You can download it today andyou can really reset the thing
that's sticking right there infront of you that you can't get
through.
It's a pretty simple three-stepguide that will absolutely help
you break through any barrierthat you have in life, and it's
what I used for myself when Iwas a 20-year-old kid.
That was lost, and so I createdthis framework just to help
other people out.
I want to serve other people.

(47:59):
I want to help everyone unlocktheir greatness.
I'm honored to be here today.
Stefanie, I'm going to just goahead and throw this out at you.
Now you've got to come on myshow.
Let me interview you.

Let's do it.
I'm excited about it.
Yeah we'll make that happen forsure, and hopefully we do get
the chance to meet in person,and I cannot thank you enough
for your time today.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for joining uson this episode of the Grit
Blueprint and we will see younext time.
That's it for this episode ofthe Grit Blueprint podcast.
For more tools, training andindustry content, make sure to

(48:31):
subscribe here and follow me onLinkedIn and other social media
platforms To find out more abouthow Grit Blueprint can help you
grow your business.
Check us out at our website,gritblueprint.
com.

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