Ep 95 - "Begin With The End In Mind"

0:07 Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. Man, I love this industry. I love this industry. Christopher, before we hit record, we had quite an exchange going. Should we relive that? Sometimes we have a pretty quick path to agreement. And other times, we... A little bit more of a dance. A little bit more of a dance. Anyway, we figured it out. Yeah, we got our topic dialed in. I'm excited about this one, actually. And clearly from the last few weeks of Focus for You, you're excited about part of this conversation as well.

0:52 You know, one of the things I think is hilarious, it has nothing to do with... I get fixated on things sometimes. I'm a little bit... That whole you get a bee in your bonnet kind of thing. Yeah. Right? I get a little obsessive. Get keyed in on something and boy, howdy, you're not going to forget about it. I've learned this about myself though. You know, like one funny way it sort of shows up is I, like, you know this, I'm into gadgets. Yeah. Like I just, I don't know, new stuff, like the latest and great. Like I kind of get into some of that. Yeah. And sometimes I just get so enamored with something that it becomes a distraction and it's just better for me to buy it and get it over with. and have it show up in that Amazon box or elsewhere, right?

1:33 Like it's just sometimes you just do the calculus. You're like, okay, how much am I going to spend on this? And then how much time am I going to save for looking at it, reading reviews, watching YouTube videos? Like if I just pull the trigger... move the heck on anyway. I don't know how that relates to what you're saying. I'm not sure if that's strategically a good plan. I think it's a byproduct. Honestly, probably some people can relate to this. I am one of those ADD guys. And of course, I think nowadays it's just really... Everybody has ADD, right? Well, if you're a college student, you have it. I got diagnosed. My parents took me to the doctor. They were so frustrated. Like, man, he's always forgetting to turn in his assignments.

2:14 His backpack looks like a cluster of... Like a paper tornado. And they took me to the doctor just totally exasperated. They're like, what is going on with our kid? He's bright, but he can't manage to put the toilet seat down or turn in his homework, you know? But boy, is he special. And then they... Yeah, and then they gave me the Ritalin. And all of a sudden, Chris is just a wonder kid. He's doing his homework and stuff again. The guy's like a laser beam. But they told... I remember back in the day, this was a byproduct is that ADD people have this sort of outsized ability to hyper-focus, like put blinders on, and they can just sink into kind of a tunnel.

2:55 And I get that way sometimes. Oh, yeah. I think it shows... To varying degrees, it's like it can show... It can be a little bit obsessive, you know? Yeah. But it can also be a superpower. So whatever. There's the eight. Occasionally, I got to buy some gadgets and just clear my head. That's right. Yeah. Well, Joe Rogan has a theory on things that you should get done before you make any big decisions. Oh, let's not. You know what? Let's not. Well, Brandon, you just... Look that one up. Joe Rogan. Yeah. Stop it. Or not. Okay. Okay. Sponsors, man. Because we do have a good topic, Keaton, that I want to get to. And we need to talk about our sponsors. That's right. Answerforce.com. Right now, while you were listening to this, there's a call coming into your office.

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7:07 So if you're a winner, go to liftify.com forward slash floodlight. That's right. Now you have no choice because we know you're all winners. Get going. Have you ever heard this saying? This is an interesting saying. Let's sit on this for just a second. Okay. Winners beat losers and champions beat winners. Yeah. It's clever. I've always loved that. I heard that a while, like quite some time ago, multiple years ago. And I thought to myself, golly, is that a good way to think about things? All right. Yeah. There you go. Winners partner with Liftify. Liftify.com forward slash floodlight. All right, gang, let's get into this. Yeah. What are we talking about, man? Okay. So you and I have been kind of chewing on a couple different concepts. But recently, one, just kind of multiple things started to point at it. And it was this idea of starting with the end in mind.

7:50 And I think for some of those, some of you that listen to our show, if you heard, we had a really popular episode, changing our project manager mindset. And yeah, that thing, it just crushes. It's had so many plays, I can't even... It's crazy. Anyways, part of that, I think we even referenced this whole starting with the end in mind. Critical project management is this... stewarding of relationships, understanding where you're headed. But more recently, I had this really awesome kind of word picture or kind of correlation that I heard somebody reference, and it was billiards, okay, playing pool. And what's interesting is like if I'm playing pool, it does not look like this.

8:31 But when I play pool, it's more cursing shots that don't follow any... element of geometry whatsoever. It's a shit show, tire fire, if you will. However, champions, the folks that play billiards well, every single shot is thought through. And what's most important is where they leave the ball. because after they make that shot, it's all about the next shot. So for them, it's similar to chess. If somebody's playing chess, they're starting with the end of mind. Their strategy is predetermined and they begin taking steps and initiating actions to execute on that strategy because they know where they want to be by the end.

9:17 And so I think when I heard that word picture again recently or that correlation to a billiards table, I was like, gosh... That's interesting. And one of the things that you and I have talked a lot about is helping leaders shift from... Can I actually hang on that? Because I just watched a video on billiards randomly. See, it's weird how this stuff works, right? I love it and I hate it, right? I love just so much awesome stuff right out there. They were listening to us. But there's an interesting angle to that analogy, right? Because when a real billiards player, like what you're talking about in terms of shot placement and where that cue ball ends up, right? They shoot in a particular way to apply English to the ball, to get the ball to end up where they want it.

10:05 And the ball that they were hitting to obviously go in the pocket. Right, right. Right, but there's a specific strategy and movement they deploy to get the ball to do what they want it to do afterwards. It's 100% proactive. It's 100% proactive and it's... There's a skill that they're applying to their behaviors and their choice, right? So there's this, there's this, there's a deep correlation here, right? To what we're talking about. Oh, 100%. And I think another way that we think about this pretty consistently or at least that we communicate in different scenarios we're in is this idea of leading activities or leading behaviors.

10:46 And so one of the ways that we reference that is, I think in general, it's pretty normal for most companies to learn at least the basics on what are the things that we're measuring. What are the outputs I want to pay attention to, especially around financials, gross profit margin, right? Project timelines. Like I think a lot of that stuff's pretty simple for us to close the gap on and go, okay, these are important numbers for us to track. And as much as I love those things, I also have seen over the years and experienced firsthand, like it feels often like the numbers I'm looking at, there's not a lot I can do about it anymore. It really, they tend to be, not always, but they tend to be more of a rear view mirror look. Mm-hmm. And I am either frustrated or excited about what it is that I'm looking at.

11:29 And so one of the things that we've been taught years ago, we didn't come up with this, but we were taught this, we learned how to execute on this and lean heavier into it, was this idea of leadership teams being more focused on keying in on how they can influence our team's leading activities or leading behaviors. Yeah. For me, that's a similar scenario. It's us saying, okay, what we want is this end result, but I'm not going to wait to take action until I'm looking at that end result. Here's the things I can speak into today that when leveraged correctly are going to most likely give me what I want on the output side, on the other side.

12:11 And so for me, it's just like, man, when I heard this idea about a billiards table and this concept of... where we leave the ball, setting the stage for the next shot is so mission critical. And I thought, let's hang in that pocket a little bit today and talk about how that applies to our business. So I want to give you the opportunity here, man, because I know you've been thinking about this all for two weeks at least. What is the recon client checklist? Inside joke, everybody. I know you don't get it. I just think when we're trying to become more intentional and strategic in how we're running our businesses... Usually, or often, there are things that we can do differently than how other people do it.

12:53 There are skills that we can deploy. It's just like the billiards player, right? Applying English to a ball in order to control the cue after you put one ball in the pocket. That's a next level thing that most billiard players can't do or don't know how to do because they haven't developed that skill. So they don't even have the option of deploying that in their shot strategy where they're putting the cue ball. Yeah. And likewise, I think as restorers, we have a process, like a universal generalized mitigation process outline, recon process outline that most restorers deploy, right? There's a sequence that we do in a construction project or a mitigation response that more or less everybody does, right?

13:38 But then there's these other things, right? We can do skills we can leverage and steps in our process that we can introduce that can have an outsized impact on how the rest of the project materializes. And like putting English on the ball and having the cue ball land where we want it to on the table. And I think the restoration checklist is one of those magic resources that you and I discovered through... their own experience of just doing lots and lots and lots of projects, we've seen the effect of what that restoration checklist meeting does for our project outcomes, our customer relationship, the profitability on jobs, the customer experience overall, all the things.

14:22 Yeah. And so, I don't know. I just, I think it's interesting for us to focus on it. And are we saying, by the way, that this is some super fancy, sexy, sophisticated thing? No, it's not. It's not. And that's one of the reasons why we want to break it down is that anybody can do this and you can deploy it tomorrow. That's right. I think most winning strategies are supported and supplemented with actually very basic non-sexual. Yeah, the simpler the better, right? So how did this come about and what is it solving for? Well, okay, let's talk about the most common failure points in any full-service restoration company. It's a lot of times the biggest, most expensive failures. Most expensive, not just to our bottom line, to our EBITDA, but also to our customer reputation.

15:08 is the recon side of our business. I think everybody can agree on that. Right. And why is it so fraught with struggle? Well, in construction, we just have so many more moving parts. We're also dependent on external partners to a degree that we aren't with mitigation. Right. I mean, we're reliant on our skilled trades, people in terms of the construction timeline, getting a electrician or a plumber in. on a timely basis. That can be really tricky, right? Especially in today's trades market. Well, whatever variables they're experiencing in their business as a setup, now we've got that that we have no direct control over. Yeah, no joke.

15:49 We're at the effect of just so many other things. Not to mention, you know, over the last two, three years, we've had more challenges with supply chain, right? To where getting materials, we've got backordered items. Trades. Trades. Trades. And then within all of those variables, there's an enormous burden of communication that we as the restoration company, the GC, take on to try to get in front of that stuff, to try to keep customers happy in spite of delays and back orders and all that kind of thing. So it's just, it's all of those things. It really is. Plus all of the people elements, right? We have some project managers, project consultants, whatever you call them, that are more skilled...

16:29 at navigating all the elements of that timeline than others. Some are really great project runners. You know, you got those salty dogs that have been running construction projects for their whole life. And it's like, they're really good at that part. And they suck at the communication cadence. Yeah. And then you've got some that are just so great with people and they're terrible at managing the construction timeline. Yeah. And then you have those people that are the unicorns that all of us are hunting for that managed to kind of thread the needle and get both. I think the construction, or excuse me, the restoration checklist document and meeting help solve for all of that, including helping, I think, equip your really awesome project managers that are great on the construction side and those who are more great on the communication.

17:20 It helps sort of level the table for all the PMs that we work with. Yeah, and I think at the end of the day, the most important element of this is that it's really that tool that we use to educate our clients. So I think one of the ways that I always reference this when we talk to teams is it was kind of my secret sauce when it would come to competitive situations. So let's say we had a fairly decent sized fire. There was multiple contractors responding to that fire. one of the ways that I would try to sell that is because you don't always know if you can get on... I think the operative word is not sell it, but steal it. This is how you like it. Well, if we're honest. Grab. Grab fire jobs. I would use this to grab and boy, do I have some counterparts in the industry that we traded exchanges on this kind of stuff.

18:03 But I think it was one of those scenarios where often you don't know if you can get on site. You're not even sure that you can get physical contact made, but you can get on the phone. And so where it started for me was, what can I possibly say to develop enough relationship and rapport with this individual that I have the opportunity to potentially sell this, at minimum, earn the right to get onto the property and have some time with them? And one of the strategies that I deployed really early on was, and I know some people are listening to me like, yeah, duh, we do this all the time, is I just asked basically, what do you know about what you're about to get into? What have you been told? Now you've helped clarify some of that, make it more specific in terms of, have you ever been through something like this before?

18:46 But in a roundabout way, that's what we were doing. We're asking, have you ever experienced something like this? And I would literally ask them for permission to give them some guidance on what the process will look like. Now understand, I don't have a contract. I haven't even been given the right to get onto the property. And for all I know, one of the first things I could have been told by this prospect was that ServiceMaster is already there or ServPro or whoever is already on side. Dude, I've had scenarios where we already signed a contract and this still works. They had already signed a contract. They had already signed a contract. Right. And so I would just ask them the question, Hey, is it okay if I just kind of share what this experience is going to look like? And we would just start kind of at that generic level. And there was something really special then that would take place is over the next five, six, seven minutes, I would just explain to them in broad terms, have you ever heard of this role?

19:32 Do you know what a public adjuster is? Do you know what an independent adjuster is? Do you know what a claims representative is? And I'm just giving them the rundown on who it is you've probably talked to, who you're likely going to talk to, and really just asking questions or providing insight as to what their rights are, what their role is, what these other people will do, their decision authority, and all those kinds of things, right? Ken, I want to double-click on something you just said because I think words are so important, right? As people, we have, and we talked about this in a different context, but all of us have these mental file folders. And when we hear certain key words... it often will pull a file folder and it makes us think a certain way about that thing we're hearing, right?

20:13 Because we're reacting maybe out of a past conversation or experience with somebody. Yeah. So words are important. And what you said, I think, is important of how you approach those phone calls. Instead of asking, hey, has anyone explained to you what this process is going to look like? Because their knee-jerk answer may be yes. Yeah. Because somebody explained something to them. Right. And so if you had asked it a different way and said, hey, has anybody explained to you the process? They very well may have said, oh, yeah, the guy told us, you know, kind of what's going to happen. Right. And you don't necessarily know what they were told. Which then shuts down that conversation. But I love, there's something, the operative thing that you said was, do you mind if I, can I, I don't care if anybody else is explaining it to you, can I take a moment and explain the process of what's in front of you?

20:59 A tiny difference in how you asked that question. It was critical. It was critical because if you'd have said it the other way, they may have said, oh, yeah, they told us what's going on. We already, whatever. I'm good. I already know the situation. Right. You wanted an opportunity to share your explanation of the process and that made all the difference. No, and it really did. And often what I would just see is people, it was building rapport and trust when someone who was not obligated to, someone that hadn't even really gotten in any kind of formal scenario. I mean, this works live in front of the person even better. Yeah. But it just worked. And ultimately, what I would end up with is that it would go from kind of this cold, not sure how to respond to me, within a few moments of me talking about the things, at least from my perspective at the time, that we felt were critical and or clients seemed to have the most friction with, you would hear the guard start to break down.

21:56 And the next thing you know, they're starting to ask questions. They, oh, oh really? I never, oh, I didn't understand that. Tell me more about that. And ultimately what would happen, you guys, often, like we're talking 70, 80% of the time, high, I would end up with a client that would be like, hey, are you able to come out and take a look at my project? you bet I'll be there in 10 minutes. And 100% of the time when you get on site... And once I'm on site, after already building that trust and rapport, if you think I can't close once I'm standing in front of you, I'm closing. That job's mine. Yeah. Right? And so where did that take us? We effectively had that happen on a large loss commercial. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it happened. Multiple times, but one that I was involved in in particular.

22:38 And by the way, guys, it's happened to us. Oh, yeah. When we didn't do a good job following our own process of starting with the end in mind. Painful, bro. Right? Painful. So it is painful when it comes back to cut you. So let's zoom back out. Let's get some gritty detail. What is this we're talking about? Because you've referenced a number of the components of it. But again, the issue that we were struggling with when you developed this or somebody... Did you create this? Yeah, I think so. It was kind of a joint effort among some people. Sure, yeah. Team sport. But the struggle was, is that we were having a lot of variability in our customer experience on the recon side. Again, because we had some... Because everybody has a different personality.

23:18 Like PMs... are very diverse in what their skill set is and so forth. And so there's just a ton of variability. And so we started with this restoration checklist. We made it in a carbon copy kind of format, used our local printer, and printed up the single sheet with a signature area at the very bottom. And this resto checklist essentially walks through what you were describing. First of all, it defines our role as the restoration company. What is... Who are we serving? Who's our customer, i.e. you, the person we're talking to? And what is our role in all of this? And really clearly explaining to them the scope of our role and all the ways that we're going to be helping them in this process.

23:59 Then it gets more localized. Then it's what is my role as your project manager? What does that look like? What do you come to me for? Which essentially, outside of a scenario where you have a dedicated soup to nuts, you know, job file coordinator, that's also kind of our single point of contact. Outside of that kind of business structure, if you have that, that project manager is... Yeah. They're everything to them. Yeah, that's the QB. That's who you call. You got any issues? Come to me. I'm going to be helping you. I'm going to be working with your adjuster, right? To establish scope and get you guys back to a pre-loss condition, all the things. Plus, I'm going to be doing this. Plus, I'm going to be doing that. Just so you know. And then walking through all the other roles on the team.

24:39 Hey, you know, one of the people that you're going to be talking to is somebody from our AR team. You know, it's Julie, and it's Jonathan. I'm not sure who specifically reaching out to you, but here's their role, right? They're going to be helping you navigate the payment and billing and all that kind of stuff and on and on and on and talking about also the other roles on the carrier side, right? Sometimes there's a claims assistant or there's a desk adjuster versus a field adjuster and helping them understand those roles. And oh, by the way, talking about the role of a public adjuster, because as all of us, of experience. We've been in the industry for more than a minute. Every now and then, a public adjuster gets involved in the project and it can be very confusing for the homeowner. It can be very confusing for anybody that hasn't been through a large loss event, but we know it happens sometimes.

25:25 And so we're proactively introducing that role just in case it ends up appearing later, right? And on and on and on. And then it also takes people through the process. And the most important thing in the process that we really highlighted was the silent phase. And I don't know how many people refer to this. It's funny, when I bring this up and when we brought this up in leadership workshops, it doesn't seem like something that people have really necessarily identified and proactively talked. Yeah, not intentionally. Do you want to talk about what that silent phase is? Yeah, it's funny because you're right. It's like when we introduce the idea, everybody nods, they're like, oh yeah, yeah, I totally understand. Everybody knows what it is. Yeah, but they haven't necessarily intentionally covered it or tried to address it.

26:07 And I think think again, it's like if we go back to where this conversation started, that's the power, I think, in us thinking more about starting with the end in mind and really iterating that perspective. How much can we really nerd out on that and change the process, change how we communicate, change what we do? All right, Head, Heart & Boots listeners, wanted to stop here just a moment and thank our underwriting sponsor, Bloodlight Consulting Group, As all of you know, right? You know, Brandon and I, this is our passion project, Head Heart and Boots is. But it's also a way more and more that our consulting clients find us. And in effect, they interview us, right? Those of you who've been listening to the show for a while, you get to know who we are, right?

26:50 What we're about. So if Head Heart and Boots is valuable to you, one of the best things you can do is share it with your friends. And it's been incredible to watch just the audience grow. And we still get text messages from many of you about shows that you really like and impacted you. So that's number one. And please keep doing that. Many of you have been huge advocates of the show. We also just want to remind you too, if you're a restoration company owner and you're interested in a partner in your growth, you want some help building out systems, developing your leadership teams, helping set up the infrastructure for you to scale and grow into the company that you're trying to build. That's what we do. That's what we do is we come alongside restoration company leaders and We help equip them and we help support them in that growth trajectory.

27:34 So if you're looking for that, go to floodlightgrp.com. Potentially, we could be a great match for each other. Another way that we really do serve our client base and our sphere of influence is through our premier partners. We work really hard to vet those folks that we believe bring a level of value to the industry, that it can really be leveraged in a way to have a sincere, positive impact on your business. We take that very seriously. The folks that we create those kind of ongoing partnerships, that's not a check-the-box kind of scenario. It's we really see strategic alignment in the value that they bring. We see value in the way that their leadership teams and their partners are developed. And we've done very sincere work of ensuring that these folks that we introduce our clients and our sphere to can actually create vetted value.

28:17 So go check out floodlightgrp.com forward slash premier slash partners and see if there's some folks on there that you can connect with and begin developing some other resources to support your growth and your business. So this silent phase, and I think we've talked about this a lot of different times, but the silent phase is that handoff that happens between our EMS, our mitigation teams, and the rebuild, our recon team. And there's this moment where from a client's perspective, I think we don't, we undervalue is they just went through, let's call it a week of hurry. Yeah. major action happened. It was equipment. It's this, get the dry, you know, demo completed as soon as possible.

29:01 We're trying to make decisions and make movements to prevent microbe growth. It's go, go, go. And then there's this interesting pause that happens because it, well, let me preface this a little bit. If we're protecting our cash flow and we don't bankroll construction projects, there is a lull that happens where two key things are going on. One is we're getting a scope established. And then we're getting an agreement on scope and price point with the carrier or with our partner, with our referral, whatever. Well, during that piece, if you were to look at a project, there's going to be maybe minimum work. and maybe no work happening. And from the client's perspective, where we just had bodies and gear and equipment, it was move, move, move.

29:43 I came in the middle of the night, all the things. And now all of a sudden, it's a little bit more eight to five. There's these administrative things going on that I don't necessarily understand. And so from my house, from my seat, my business, it doesn't really look like anything's happening. Well, okay. And then, but It's even more significant than that, right? Because think about the emotional kind of arc of the customer experience. Right? First of all, I mean, one of the uniquenesses of our industry is right, virtually everybody comes to us in some state versus say a remodeler or a retail GC. everybody comes to us in some state of fear, frustration, anxiety, confusion, etc.

30:24 So it starts there, right? And if we do a really great job in that initial response, right, we're calming down some of those fears and anxieties. We're explaining the process and stuff. But then we're also, we're filling their space with, in most cases, loud, noisy equipment that now they're cohabitating around. Oftentimes, we have containment that we've put up that changes their living space. A lot of stuff is happening, but a lot of stuff is happening that's modifying their living environment. Yeah. And then now, so then they start to get excited. Oh, cool. Things are happening, but they're not very fun. And it's really annoying. And it's adding stress to our lives as our family, because we all have normal lives on top of dealing with this modified space.

31:06 And then there's this pause break. Yeah. where nothing's happening. So now there's spaces in disarray. Yeah. Right. Maybe now all the equipment's gone. And then there's this very real kind of holy shit moment of how long are we going to be in this situation? Like my house is tore up, right? From the floor. Right. No, you're right. You know, it's possible my dishwasher is sitting in the middle of my kitchen because, right, cabinet damage, da, da, da, da, da. And so the emotional arc of what's happening for that customer for years, right? As you and I were coming up with the business until we identified this and really problem solved around this dynamic, that silent phase was yet another surprise.

31:47 100%. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think again, where are we going with this whole conversation? Starting with the end in mind, what are we doing? We're educating our client proactively on these things that will set us up for the next shot. So like, for instance, this whole silent phase, the reason it was so mission critical for us to address this somehow proactively is that it always felt like time and time again, we were answering questions or doing service recovery, for lack of a better description, when the client would call and be somewhat pissed off. They don't know what's going on and why is nothing happening? And there was always a good reason. Well, we're negotiating a scope. We don't want you to have out-of-pocket expenses that aren't warranted. Lining up subs. We're working on your behalf right now. And in all actuality, a lot of times, this is that work that kind of sucks, if we're honest.

32:31 This is I'm beating my head against the wall. I'm trying to get approvals, right? All this stuff. So what we just determined with that is the better job we did just warning the client that this is going to happen and giving them a clear picture of what we were actually doing, even though visibly it may not be that obvious. It just took all of that down a level. And then when it would happen, when the client would inevitably get three, four days into waiting for the scope approval and us to do something on the recon side, they're like, oh, JoJo told me this was going to happen. This is what they talked about. And then it almost re-cements them to you in the relationship because they're like, aha, they were right. They told me this was going to happen. And so for me, I kind of, I go back to the billiards table.

33:14 That was one of those first scenarios where you take your opening shot and then you get the ball where you want it. So we're prepared to take the next one in the job of life cycle. Well, and you know, sometimes... Super essential. Yeah. And you know, sometimes if we're diligent to have this restoration checklist meeting with every single client, some of them go a lot faster than others, right? So if we're setting... If we're setting a realistic or maybe even slightly more negative anticipation of, hey, we call this a silent phase and it can be very frustrating. Oh, yeah. You know, most customers find this period very frustrating because it's like, wow, our life has been disrupted and we have people in our home.

33:56 Our home is in disarray. Stuff's torn out. And it's just this waiting game. It feels very frustrating. Yeah. And sometimes it can take a few days. Sometimes it's weeks where it feels like that. And we just want to let you know that up front, right? Then when we've got people back on site four days later, they're like, oh, well, that wasn't very long. Yeah. And now we have an enhanced experience. Yeah. Right? Even though if we hadn't had that conversation and we'd had no contact for even three days, a physical contact, well, they would have been anxious, frustrated, pissed off. But because we had that conversation, it's like, well, four days, that's not bad. Yeah, we're winning. Yeah. We're winning with this proactive engagement. We're ahead.

34:36 We made a deposit, in fact. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Here's another example, kind of off this. Let's switch directions. Today, I was doing... Sometimes what I do is I'll sit in on a client's production meeting. We're just shadowing, flying on the wall, kind of watching how it rolls out, what they're doing, what they're covering. And then we just have a coaching session afterwards, talk about, hey, how did that go? What can we do? And I was on one today and it was solid. There was plenty of things happening. And then one of the things I just wanted to orient them around was a shift in mentality on how the recording went. So one of the things that's really common when I sit in a production meeting and dude, I know there's some people listening that were in mine. So I want to be crystal clear here. This is a working process always, right?

35:18 Be gentle. Yeah, be gentle, man. I'm thinking Natalie Walker out there no longer. Of course, that's how freaking old that is, Natalie Walker. Anyways, Nat, I know you're out there hearing that. It's like, you've screwed up plenty of production meetings. Anyways, so in a production meeting this morning, I'm listening to the team go through this. And I just said, hey, one of the core principles that we want to shift into, because we all fight these production meetings that go on for like a day, It's like we're in there for hours. We're talking about drywall and this counter and this guy's attitude. And I mean, they're dreadful. But one of the things I was trying to get them to make a shift on is I want project managers to ultimately roll into that meeting and tell me what's happening with their business.

35:58 And then I'm just validating and verifying that against the notes and the preparation that I did before the meeting started. Yeah. So I'm looking at our whip. I'm highlighting things that are red flagged for me based on standards. And then they report on it. And then I just get to ask more questions. But it's not me dragging information out of my staff. Well, again, if we go back to the billiards table, setting the shots up. Well, it's not fair for me to have an expectation of one of my team members if I don't literally tell them what I'm anticipating and what I want. Yeah. So the difference in that scenario, or how do I start with the end in mind, is I just hit reset and I say, look, here's a weekly production standard we have to hit.

36:41 Like you have to produce this much and billable work. So we're going to talk about that. And I give clarity about what that number is and what the expectation is. we identify what our strategy around AR and the role that we play in AR is. And then I just set that example. Hey, when you show up, this is what I'm anticipating to have covered by you. Right? And we do that with all our primary things. Average job lifecycle times, gross profit, cost versus spend, contract values. And basically what I do is I set the stage for what I want my PM to report on. And I literally teach them how to show up to my meeting and report in a way that's valid. Okay, I'm starting with the end in mind.

37:23 I don't have an anticipation of something and then not do anything to proactively set the stage for that to happen. So again, in my mind, when I do that, when I have that walkthrough and I sit my PMs down or whatever the staff is and I say, when we roll into a production meeting, here's what we're covering and here's how I need you to report on it. Not micromanaging. Please do not hear me as if I'm micromanaging. I just want them to be focused on the right shit, just like I do, right? We don't have all day to be here. So then by setting that tone, I'm leaving the ball where I need it to be set up for the next shot. And when that team member rolls into my meeting, me having the realistic expectation that they'll report to me based on our KPIs, KPMs, focus, priorities, whatever, is going to happen.

38:10 Because I've taught them how to do it. Right. Right? So this starting with end in mind is something that reflects into all the different areas of our business. And I think the part I just want to key in on or just kind of pull to the front of people's minds, especially leaders in our industry, is what are we doing in our day-to-day leadership cadence that puts us more into the position to be managing and inspecting leading activities and behaviors? Because I know then, when I go to look at measurables, reports, P&Ls, I'm probably going to see the picture I want to see. Yeah. That's really what this whole concept about. What's another area of the business?

38:50 Well, not only that real quick though on the production meme, because one of the things that we find in companies of all sizes is, less so maybe at the really large size end of the spectrum, but even then sometimes is a lack of consistency with their production meeting cadence. Shit happens. Oh, we're too busy. Too much going on. We'll punt. It gets punted to another day and then all of a sudden it's the next week doesn't happen. And I think one of the reasons we've encountered that comes along is rather than taking that approach to the production meeting, it's more of a cadence of everybody showing up And going line by line through every job that's in process.

39:32 Brutal. And it's like checking every single job. And it's like, well, no, but when you set it up, when you equip people, when you train people around the standard you just described, well, now all of a sudden, instead of going through all 80 jobs on our whip, each person is coming to focus on the outliers that need to be discussed, that are out of compliance. They're either out of compliance in terms of cost versus collected, they're out of compliance on cycle times, the compliance on their GP. And then we focus our effort on that. And so instead of having a thing that creeps into a three-hour production meeting... That's right. which then reinforces the next time we don't have time for that meeting. Instead, we have an efficient touch point that keeps us on top of our work and keeps us in alignment with the objectives we have.

40:20 And, and I think too, what I experienced over time, because occasionally I would jump in on those production meetings. I wasn't there all the time back in the day, but, is that those meetings became so much more efficient instead of them being sometimes the three hours. It was like, man, sometimes they were get in, get out, cover the basics, move on. Let's go back to work. Yeah, yeah, let's go be with people. Nobody wants to hang in meetings longer than they have to. Any of us. Nor can we afford the time. No, right. And again, I think this idea, it's universal across the business. It applies to just about every strategy, every decision, every department, every team member that we're engaging.

41:02 I think this whole, again, starting with the end in mind, I think we build our... our training based on that. We think about what is it that we need to be done? What is it that we need to have accomplished for this to be a productive experience? And we train to that. And it doesn't always mean that... And again, I think this is... I'm trying to tie this back to this whole billiards table thing because I think it's a really great way to look at it is, even in our training process, you don't go from green to large loss mitigation project manager. Like, what are we doing? Right? There's phases to that. We go from green team member to a certified technician that's capable of really being a great supporting personnel.

41:46 Okay. All right. Let's set that shot up. Let's take that shot and make sure that at the end, they're primed to then move into the second phase of their training. Or we turn them more into a lead or a crew chief, depending on what kind of system that you're from. But again, and then you set that shot up. We lay that foundation. We take a nice shot. The ball's ready. And now we get them ready to deploy into the third tier of training. Whatever the case may be. But it's just this... I don't want to say plotting, but it is. It's not plotting, it's plotting. It's being intentional about when we take this action, it's going to return this kind of result. And then that result will set us up to go to the next stage, the next phase.

42:26 And I just think that we often forget this. We just get so integrated into reaction. Everything is firefighting. Everything is whack-a-mole. Everything is react, react, react, react. And then we just create this inevitable cycle. We can't stop. Yeah. It's just, you've set so many band-aids. There ain't a whole lot of good tissue left, right? Like we're not doing things very intentionally. Well, another area of the business and we're quickly approaching the end of year. It's so funny, man. The older I get, the more it's like year-end planning starts in August. Yeah. Because you just, you get past that half year mark and it's just, it feels as though the moon is accelerating around the sun.

43:07 Is that the right way to say it? Is that science-based? All in frigging butt. Right? It just, it seems to go faster. And I think particularly in our business, because hurricane season spools up here in the second half of the year and it's like... depending on where you live, that really drives kind of the company clock, so to speak. But pro formas, we're getting ready to do pro forma planning with all of our clients, right? And how many people out there that are listening to this, you've never done a pro forma? What is a pro forma, right? A pro forma is the very definition of beginning with the end in mind. It's preparing a pro forma here in Q4 of 2023 essentially helps you establish a roadmap, lots on the map, of what is 2024 going to look like?

43:50 And how do we take an intentional approach week in, week out, month in, month out? What's our playbook? Do you have a playbook? It's different from a business plan. You know, a business plan, right? And we've developed those and they're great. We advocate for business plans. But performance in a lot of ways are so much better than a business plan because it's really asking the question, not only what are we going to do, but how? How? Like, where are we going to spend money to do those things that we want to do, right? So it's like, hey, if we want to grow, we want to add two more locations. Okay, well, what kind of costs will be associated with that? How do we cover those costs? What is that going to look like? What are the support personnel are we going to have to hire for that and when?

44:32 And it's really thinking through and mapping out, what do I want 2024 to look like? And just imagine how much more strategic and efficient you can be if you've not just thought through, hey, we want to grow our sales by 25% this next year. And we want to grow commercial by 50%. A lot of times that's where people's business planning is. Yeah, that's where it stops. But we're going to hire two more sales reps and we're going to really dive into commercial and we're going to open a second location and I'm going to hire a GM. It's like, wow, okay. Well, you just identified a grip ton of expenses and we haven't explicitly shown what those expenses are and how they're going to get paid for.

45:14 You know what I mean? So it's like beginning with the end in mind, I think is just taking time in our cadence to step back and say, okay, what do I want this to look like? Yeah. And I think coming all the way back to the restoration checklist is that's what we did. We said, okay, what ultimately do we want this to look like at the end of the project? How can we facilitate this with this tool? How do we... That's right. What kind of experience do we want our customer to have? And then how can we facilitate that? And what kind of experience we want to have? How fast do we want to collect? That's right. When do we want to collect, right? Do we want a five-star review? How are we going to get that five-star review? All of that stuff.

45:54 And I think you're right. Just some clarification with the whole pro forma thing. I think what Chris is really talking about is it's using all the tools in that strategic planning session at the end of the year. It's a real pro forma that allows you to map out the financial ramifications of your decisions. It allows you to lay out when and where you're going to spend. And then you partner that up with some legitimate steps that would need to be taken in order for that to come to fruition. Some people use EOS as a management system. Some people just like us, it's a milestone document. We plot out what we're going to sprint from week in and week out to get towards these bigger quarterly objectives.

46:35 And I think that's what you're talking about. It's not just stopping at this 30,000 foot, hey, team, we're going to do 20 million this year. Cool. How are you going to get there? Yeah. How's it affect financial? Where's it going to come from? What pace are you going to be on? Who's going to sell it? Yeah, that's right. What quarter? How's it going to be supported? Who will do that? How do you sign it? You know, all these things. That's the rest of that starting with the end of mind. And maybe here's kind of maybe a place I think to kind of land the plane and draw this to a close is really what we're talking about is encouraging leaders to understand the value of them having bandwidth. I just watched so many teams and I was subject to this. I did it to myself. Sometimes out of just a lack of proactive engagement, sometimes out of being naive, sometimes out of, I don't know, just having to.

47:21 I just, I didn't always have enough leadership bandwidth in my teams. And so you're asking people to proactively manage your business, yet they don't have time to be proactive. They are freaking running from task to task, filling in this hole, plugging their finger into this hole of the dam. React, react, react, react. And there's no way they can create a strategy. There's no way they can set the stage from this shot to ensure the next shot has the highest chance of being successful. Yeah. Unless they have leadership bandwidth to be proactively engaging the business, whether it be at the department level, individual level, or company level, it's just mission critical.

48:04 So again, it's like this idea, guys. It's a billiards table, right? It's setting up your shot. It's beginning with the end in mind and understanding where we leave off, where we set the stage, where we leave the ball matters for the next shot, the next phase, the next push in our business and our strategy. I just want to give some other examples of this because this is part of your gifting. This is part of your CEO skill set. And I've just watched it for the last several years is you have a discipline around this. We have our own pro forma as an example. where you routinely bring us, hey, let's do a quick financial review.

48:45 Let's see where we're at. When we go to talk about one of our consultants, their book of business is full. And it's like, okay, let's go back to the pro forma. This means we're getting ready to hire this person that costs already been accounted for. Here's what we have. Here's and then, you know, in three months from now, then this thing, we're going to hit this level. And then, Like you, it requires, I think as leaders, what it requires us to do is to set a cadence of reflection for ourselves. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It's building some routine time, some checks, like you use Google Tasks. You have the, your task list inside Google. You set reminders for yourself. The way to manage it is, I mean, who cares? But that's something I've watched in you is that you have a personal internal cadence of circling back from time to time and saying, okay, let's go back to what was our plan and talking through that.

49:35 And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people, they have the shiny object syndrome and it is just so hard for them to do anything more than once. They'll go on a business retreat. They'll take a day off and go get an Airbnb at the coast and have their journal and do their thing. but they fail to really create a habit of personal accountability where they revisit that plan. It's like they take a fresh look at the end that they're trying to achieve. And I've just, props to you. I mean, it's one of the reasons why I appreciate having you as a business partner is that that's just a discipline you've developed and been committed to. You've been unwavering on it. In fact, again, it was one of the things that attracted me to you as a business partner.

50:17 But But you never skipped a beat. It's like the moment we finished our LLC, you're like, hey, I just want to show you this pro forma I put together. And I basically have the next five years lined out of how we're going to go from zero to empire. And then it's just been like clockwork. We come back to the document. We look, okay, what's the roadmap? Where are we at? Oop, we lost a little steam here. We need to make up for that. How are we going to do that? Well, we're going to put a little more money in here in our budget. And then we're going to delay this for another week or two. And like, that's, dude, it's discipline. Beginning with the end in mind is not clever. It's not a one and done kind of thing of me having a moment of meditation. It's a discipline that you never, ever stop doing.

51:01 Yeah, and I think what's really cool about just that reflection, that example is, developed. That's the key. And it's developing. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, you weren't born with it. No. Not even. Probably started with the military. Some elements of that, right? But you've. I mean, I think that's the important message for all of us is that when we hear about some of these things and we identify, hey, these could really move the needle or really change the shape of my business. Like you can do it. It's learned skills. It's the reminders, right? It's the mechanical things that we do to shift what we know now and move into some behaviors that are more optimal for the business. But it's a good talk, man. Cool, gang. If this has held value for you, the number one way that you could thank us if you desire to is to share this with your friends.

51:46 I mean, it's just, I can't tell you how many people have come up to us at conferences or messaged us and it's like, hey, my friend shared one of your podcasts and now I've listened to 20 of them. Yeah. Right. And I also think of my friend, Jason, who runs a construction company right here in town. I go to the same gym with him and he found our podcast. He saw me wearing one of the shirts one time. And then I find out later, another buddy from his company was like, yeah, Jason was telling me about how he's been listening to your podcast. I checked out a couple episodes. It was awesome. You know, blah, blah, blah. So the best way you can thank us is by sharing our podcast. But if you and your business really need a battle buddy, partner in your growth, holding the team and yourself accountable to what you know it's going to take to get your business to that next level and you want to partner, reach out to us.

52:33 Let's talk about Floodlights Consulting. That's another way that we potentially can help or if you know somebody that's trying to grow. Certainly, keep us in mind. Thank you for listening and we'll see you back here shortly. Later. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart & Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.