Ep 31 - Is This What Makes You Happy? with Gerrett Stier

0:02 I think third time's the charm. So for those of you that haven't, you followed the podcast, you've learned that we have our guests on, we do the interviews, and then we record the introduction later because we found out all about them and whatever. And so that's why we're laughing because... It took us three times to record this. Yeah. Thanks for joining us for the ride. Thank you very much. Yeah. So Jarrett Steer... Yeah. Yeah. GMS Distribution. So a lot of you are familiar with Jarrett's G-Unit, which we found the history. I love it. We learned the history of that product name, which was a fun little surprise. We'll save that for the show. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think what I really enjoyed about Jarrett is...

0:43 He is so chill, man. There's a little bit of a surfer vibe there, but we found out it's more of a hunting vibe. I like so. The dude is really thoughtful about the way he approaches his business and very intentional. That laid back vibe was engineered. Yeah. Not in a fake way. way or false way? Just wanting to be true to himself. Yeah. Setting up the business in a way that creates the least amount of stress and anxiety and the most enjoyment for him, which I'm like, man, isn't that what all of us business owners want? So even though he's got a very different kind of business than a lot of us I think there's something really cool that all of us can take away from this in terms of how we set up our life. Yep. And how we set up our role in our business.

1:24 Yeah, absolutely. I kind of walked away from the show wanting to equate him to something like a sleeper. The custom cars, but on the outside, you don't quite understand what's completely happening underneath the hood, right? Right. Yeah. But there's a custom exhaust and there's a new printed engine under the hood. That's right. Jarrett is for sure very intentional, very thought through, very proactive. Man, he's just a great guy, but he's a sleeper. He'll catch you off guard if you underestimate his capacity. It was a really good show. It was fun. Yeah, we had a lot of fun. Welcome back to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast.

2:05 I'm Chris. And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. I don't know. What'd you think? I don't know. I was kind of serious. Should we laugh? Yeah. Hey, brother, we're really excited to hang out with you. So thanks for jumping on the show and spending a little time with us today. Yeah, absolutely, man. Thanks for having me. This is going to be fun. I'm looking forward to it. One of the things that was motivating me to get you on the show is just everything that I've listened to, you participate in is like you bring this element of down to earth and not in some really lame way, but just in a lot of fun. You keep everybody grounded, you keep things real, and that's pretty exciting.

2:47 Hopefully that comes out in the show today. We're certainly going to cover some... serious territory. Yeah, I hope I don't come across lame in this show. Yeah. Well, if anybody's going to come across lame, it could have been me before we hit record where we were calling you Garrett. And you're like, oh yeah, the name's Jarrett. So hopefully this is sort of a PSA for everybody else in the industry that's seen your name all over the place. And you're like, oh yeah, Garrett Steyer. Everybody, it's Jarrett. It's Jarrett. Everybody loves to hear their name and it pronounced properly. And Steer. Jarrett Steer. Jarrett Steer. Okay. I did and I said it wrong. Gosh, okay. Well, we're certainly off to a strong start. So that's good. Everybody who's listening is now totally at ease, which is great. That's the point. Hey, easy name.

3:28 Oh yeah. That's true. If you signed us up with like Dan Smith or something, we're probably pretty close. Before we get in any kind of seriousness, I think Chris has a question. You know, this is just really... Sometimes the bar is high intellectually and sometimes the bar is low. Yeah, we're going to start out with the bar very low and work our way in. Yeah, so your G unit... Yes. Okay, I get it. Your name starts with G, and so you've got GMS Distribution, the G unit. Or you're a 50 Cent fan. Yeah, there's a real rapper, hip hop kind of feel to that. Where'd that name come from? Did your wife name your G unit? How did this come about?

4:08 So I'll tell you. So we're looking at it and it's the GMS Portable Power Distribution Unit. That's the UL term for the product that I have. It's a portable power distribution unit. I was trying to come up with something a little smaller, a little shorter. I am a huge 50 cent fan. I'm listening to 50 cents while I'm trying to come up with it. Legitimately. Oh yeah, absolutely. So I called it. Yeah. Huge fan. I mean, especially... I mean, you're talking 12 years ago. go. And I still listen to 50 Cent. So huge fan. And I'm sure I'll call it G-Unit. That's what I'll call it. So yeah, I had some people that were like, you probably shouldn't do that. But I was like, I'm going for it. I'm doing it. Oh, I love it. That's me. That's who I am. And we're going to roll with it. We're going with G-Unit. And it's been great. There's probably about half the customers don't know who 50 Cent is and the other customers go up to me and they're like, G-G-G-Unit.

4:52 So yeah. That's awesome, man. He's an interesting guy, man. Have you followed 50 Cent? Have you followed some of his work? Have you followed what he did with Robert Green, the guy who wrote 48 Laws of Power? I did not. No. Everybody's like, say what? I'm more just a music fan. But he trolls so many people and causes so many problems. It's like, come on, man. But no, I go back to the get rich or die trying. Right on. That was it. That was the question. Yeah. We're G-ing it. We were excited to find out. No, I'm talking about the 48 hours. Oh, yeah. So anyway, so Robert Greene writes these books like the 48 Laws of Power, the 48 Laws of Mastery. He has this whole series. Really great. New York Times bestsellers. Well, anyway, he did a collaboration with 50 Cent. And I think it was basically an updated version of his 48 Laws of Power where 50 Cent, he's done a bunch of business deals.

5:38 He's gone bankrupt. He's become a billionaire. All these things. Did he invest in LifeWater or something? Like some huge... Got like $50 million. Vitamin Water. Vitamin Water, right? Vitamin Water. Like a 100K investment, he turned into like 40 million or something crazy. Anyway, I'll link to it. I'll send you a link. And the whole get rich or die trying, he's certainly succeeding in the get rich portion. He tried to die a couple of times, but apparently he wasn't ready to go. Made it through. All right. Well, thanks for filling us in on the G unit. I got to tell you, the 14-year-old school kid in me certainly went rounds with the name, which is, I think, awesome. I think it's why people are not going to forget that particular tool, which is rad. I love it. I do have kind of a serious question for you.

6:19 I got a FedEx delivery. Just a second. All right. We got it. Is that a bow hanging up in the background or am I... Yes. I never shoot my bow enough. And I was listening to, I think it's Remy Warren. If it wasn't Remy Warren, I'm just going to give a shout out to him. Anyway, he's my favorite hunter ever. I love watching and listening to him. But no, it definitely was him. But he said, hang your bow by your door. And then whenever you walk past the door, just grab it, fire three shots off and move on. So yeah, I have my bow hanging there. And I got a target. It's 18 yards the back of the shop and I'll just rip arrows off all day long. And it's really helped out from not shooting at all and regretting it to I probably fire off 60 arrows a day now. Right on. Is that guy an Oregonian?

7:00 Isn't there a huge hunter that's based out of Oregon somewhere? Like a real famous... No, I think he's... Well, I don't know where he's from, but he lives in Montana now. Oh, yeah. Well, I think probably if you hunt, everybody makes their way there. I don't know who it is. I'm talking out the side of my neck, clearly, from the depth of my knowledge here. But there's a gentleman, I think, based out of Oregon that's really well-known in the hunting scene. And I think he's a bow hunter. Okay. You know how all the sports tend to go through these phases where they get almost refueled by the right personality becoming fairly famous inside that particular sport or genre? I think this is one of the guys that really propelled that bow hunting scene again.

7:42 You know what I mean? Kind of gave it new life. I think Joe Rogan really propelled the bow hunting scene. He's another one. Industry too, right? I mean, Joe's a fanatic in the last five years. So he's... Yeah, now he is. Yeah. I would say, I think for me, and I don't know how many other people, for me, it was Steve Rinella at Meat Eater. Oh, yeah. Brilliant. One that got me interested in Western hunting. And Joe hunted with Steve. And yeah, Joe's really big into it. And then Cam Haynes. That's the guy. There's so many people. Is Cam Haynes from Oregon? I think he lives in Oregon because he also works with a company like Kiwi Outdoors or he's got... There's another hunting specific tech brand that he's involved with. It seems like they're all either sponsored, but they rotate sponsors too.

8:26 Now I want to know if Cam Haynes is from Oregon. Yeah. If my laptop was closer, I'd be looking it up. Okay, dude, I got a serious question for you. We're about to open Pandora's box with this one. I don't know if that's true, but I got a question for you. All right. So when I met you the first time, virtually, you and I were having a conversation and something stuck out to me in that conversation. You were just talking about the way that you designed your company. It's growth strategy, where you wanted to be in your business. And I am certainly not going to go into any of those specific details unless that's something you want to share. But I think what struck me was how intentional you were about the specific size of organization that you wanted to build and how that related to the lifestyle that you wanted to have.

9:07 And I think what was very interesting about that for me is it caught me off guard because Chris and I are essentially building a brand right now. We're in some of those initial years of lift. And we struggle to say yes to certain things and say no probably is our biggest struggle. And I just really admired the clarity that you had. Do you mind just unpacking that a little bit for us? No, yeah, we can talk about that. Through the life of the company so far, I think it's probably also important to feel like I never meant to own a company. It just happened and I just kept up with it. But then you go through some phases and... Well, let me back up. So basically, the reason I tell you I didn't want to own a company, I wasn't educated to own a company. I didn't come out with a business degree.

9:48 I wasn't trying to be an entrepreneur. I'm not studying anything. It's just like it happened. So if you're in as an electrician with a manufacturing company, you're going to be So immediately, I go to books and any other resource that I can get to try to get information on how to run a company, how to grow a company. And through all of that, you always hear about growth, about culture, about employees, finding people that are better than you to do certain projects and look at your markets and open up into other markets. And then once you get distribution, that's the hard part. Now, come up with new products and new products so that you can keep growing. And I went through all of those phases in the last 10 years. them. I went through them. I spent a lot of money doing it. And at the end of that journey, I was having some conversations with some people.

10:30 I guess at the end of it, I wasn't happy. So many times, I'll tell you. So I'm talking with some people that go, you need to forget what everyone else says. Forget what everyone else is doing, what anyone else is telling you. You need to look at your situation and decide what you want. You have to decide what you want. And then you put your vision together for what you want. You may not even want to be in this business. But sit down, figure out what you want and put that vision together. And I found out basically when I'm the happiest is when I'm in my shop, when I'm shooting my bow, when I'm building power boxes, when I get a couple phone calls a day and get to do some customer service, and when I'm shipping products.

11:11 That's when I'm the happiest. I'm not the happiest making flyers. I'm not the happiest when I'm marketing. I'm not the happiest selling. There's a lot of those kinds of things that maybe you could say lack in my business. But at the same time, we have enough business and we've been around and established long enough that it keeps me 100% busy. I love coming to work every single day. I'm so happy. It does everything that I want it to do for me. And then also it gives me the freedom to enjoy my most favorite things to do, which is travel with my wife and go hunting. And at any point, if I want to take off two weeks, I can take off two weeks and I can go do those things. I don't have to worry. I don't worry about anything. And I think that's the big thing. When I say happiness, I think it's stress.

11:52 There was a lot of stress. I don't like stress. I'm not that guy. I don't enjoy it. So for me, just been doing it for this long and being where I'm at now in my life, it was making that vision and just and then just sticking to it, it's offered such a peace of mind too, just to be able to commit to that and say, I don't care what everyone else is doing, what everyone else thinks, what they think I should be doing. This is what I want to do, and it's working for me, and I'm happy. That's where I'm at right now. in a lot of ways, I might be reading into this a little bit, but I think people see that on you. They experience it. I think that's part of the reason that when you... We've heard versions of your show when you have guests on or you're participating as a guest on other people's show, there is an element that you bring that's just like, Yeah, it's just easy.

12:36 It's good. And I think that a lot of that must come from this stress management by you just being really clear on what kind of company and business that you want to have and building it to that layer. I respect the hell out of that, man. I really do. I think there's a lot happening there. It says a lot about your self-awareness. It says a lot about maturity in terms of control of ego. And to be able to make those kinds of decisions and keep those things in check is pretty impressive, dude. How'd you get there? I mean, you went through 10 years of building the company in different ways and shapes and forms. And you followed some of these book guidelines and stuff that you were getting. Where did the Can you talk us through that a little bit?

13:18 Were you making money and still unhappy while making money? Or was it part of the struggle to just make ends meet as well as part of the process? Or you were making money and you still weren't happy? I was making money and still wasn't happy. Yeah, there wasn't the struggle in that sense. I was making money and just wasn't happy. And I think it was trial and error. It's make a mistake and you learn from it kind of thing. And it was just over the years of just trying the next thing. That's the other thing about me. I'm not scared to try something. I mean, that was with the podcast two years ago when we launched that. And I've talked about it before because I decided to do a podcast and I just went, I'm going to do one a week for six months. And I dropped three grand on equipment and I went all in. I'll try it. I'll see what happens. And so business, over the last 10 years, a lot of that kind of thing has happened.

13:58 And it was like, when I would do something that didn't work, well, we're gonna try something different. We're gonna move on pretty quickly and try something different. But we're just going to keep plugging through it. And I think to your question, we went through a lot of things to where when I get to this point where now I'm 40, I moved my shop from Indiana to Seattle. So it's almost like I got a fresh start. And it was then when I sat down, I was like, okay, when this business gets to Seattle, what do we want it to look like? Once we get it out here, what is it going to look like? And then it was going... And then it was just realizing and having some conversation with people where they said, make it what you want. And then going back and revisiting all of those steps through business where I was doing different things. And it was like, when was I the happiest?

14:40 And it was like, this is what I want. This is what I want. This is what I want. And then just pick those things and do them. And I'm at a point now where I'm fortunate to where the customer base is large enough that it can support those five happy things that I want to do. That's where my focus is. That's what I'm doing. And I'm not being arrogant, but there's distributors that'll... We're not taking new distributors right now. I'm busy. Actually, I'm backordered right now. But I have just what I want, just what I need, and I'm happy. And we're not deviating from that. At least... I also look at the podcast. Six months and this is a one-year thing. I'm going to reassess in one year. But for one year, I'm going to 100% stick to, is this what I want? Is this what makes me happy? but I'm going to stick to it for a year. And so far, it's working out pretty well.

15:21 I feel good. I like that. I like the strategy of being really crystal clear on where you're going to put your effort, but then also giving yourself the freedom that, hey, I'm a person. I'm going to be changing as the years go by. And my evaluation of this needs to be redone. I need to take the time to reassess, see where I'm at. If I need to change it or want to change it, I got the freedom to do that. I like that decision-making process. I think it's super healthy. Yeah. One of the things I'm hearing when you talk about that is discipline. There's a level of discipline there. I'm going to make this change. I'm going to do it for a year. Which maybe some people hearing that are like, well, yeah, it's just a year. But I think for most business owners, making a change and committing to that change...

16:02 for a full year to really see it through is not easy for a lot of people. The moment they encounter some hardships, like, oh, maybe this wasn't the right idea and they waffle. But that mindset of, I'm going to give this a year, re-evaluate, do something different. Have you always been geared that way? Or has that been a growing edge for you? No, I think that's coming with experience. The one thing you said, it's like where something doesn't go right and maybe that wasn't the right decision I want to change. I mean, you can do that every other day with anything if you want to. So I think that comes with experience. When I was younger, I'm chasing everything and second guessing everything. But then I think as you get older and you start looking back at that stuff where we can all look back at our lives either personal or business and go at this point, oh my gosh, this was the most important decision in my entire life.

16:45 I was putting all of my energy into it. And five years later, it didn't matter at all. Not at all. So I think it's with experience and with that growth that you can come this many years later and go, even if I did it wrong, maybe even if this is the wrong decision for the year, it's not going to change anything. It's not going to devastate anything to where it's going to put me back. even if you are wrong. But the only way you're going to see if you're right is if you can stick to it, hold to it, and put in that longevity at the end and see if it worked out. Because there's going to be days in this journey where it's not going to work out 100%, but it'll work out over the year. And that's what you have to look at. You have to look at the length of it and have that commitment.

17:26 If you don't have that commitment and that time to put into it and the dedication and the discipline, then you're never going to know if it worked. You didn't give it the time to work. I feel like too, in a lot of ways, that behavior builds on itself. If you can get really good at... What would we call that? Maybe iterations of planning out and operating in these iterations for a prolonged period of time. I think everything that you do and experience, it's not like you start over at the end of that experience. You get to add to it. It's exponential in terms of what lessons are learned and what you can deploy next time, it seems like. Well, even if you're wrong, you still learn something at the end. You're better for it. As long as you can learn from your mistakes, I think that's something else that we kind of... Well, maybe for me, I take for granted because that's just how I operate.

18:10 You got to be able to learn from your mistakes in order to even start doing any of these things. Again, I'm always careful with details. I leave that on our guests to deliver what level of detail they want. But another exchange that you and I had not that long ago was just the fact that you've been pursuing some peer groups in some different formats that you've wanted to participate in. What drives that? What benefit are you seeking from that? And how has that influenced what you've been doing? This change in this vision that I'm talking about is coming directly out of those peer groups. For me, one of the biggest... Well, I think for anybody, the biggest problem in your company is you. That's pretty much standard. I've heard it from a lot of different people. And you guys are consultants. I'm sure you've said it. Biggest problem in your business is you. I can sit here in my shop by myself and talk myself into anything.

18:51 It's one of a great idea when it really wasn't. I talked to one person and it's like, Oh no, I didn't think of it that way. I know I shouldn't do that. So I think getting around... So two things. One, there's that. The second thing is thinking that there's some master plan where everything in business is just this perfect detailed list or it's like there's some living document that shows you exactly how to do everything. And when you get into these peer groups, I'm on the smaller end with no employees and then we have people with some, people with a lot, people with hundreds. We're all in the same room, we're all talking, they have the same problems I have. They're still asking the same questions I'm asking. So I think then that kind of gives you some clarity.

19:33 One, that there isn't some magic secret out there that we're all just working together. And then two, now it's really, where are you at in your business? Where are you at in yours? And how did you get there? And how can you help me get to where I want to go? And now it's that networking. But it's people of a like mind that have businesses. I don't have anybody in my personal friends or in my family where I can go have a business conversation and they're like-minded like me. Even my wife, I have a hard time even communicating with her. She gets her paycheck at the end of the week and deposits. She doesn't understand why sometimes I make some really good money in a month and sometimes I have a really bad... She's like, just pay yourself. It doesn't really work that way. But it's been getting around people that have the same problems, have the same goals, and have the same mindset and are like you.

20:19 Getting around people that are like you so that you can then communicate with them. I don't know about you, but I've been in this experience so many times where I want to listen to someone's advice from going, you have no idea... but you have no idea where I'm coming from. I don't know if that's happened to you guys. It's like no context. Yeah, and now when you get into these groups, not every group is created equal, but when you find a good group, now you're talking to people that get you. They understand what you were going through. They understand those struggles. They understand those successes. They understand the questions. And when they provide feedback, you want to listen. You take it in, you absorb it. Even if I would have got some vision instruction, I could have got it from somebody else and I wouldn't believe them at all.

21:00 But now I get into this group and someone says it and I believe them. And I think it's about putting yourself in those situations where you're like-minded people, where you can respect the things that are being said in the groups, the decisions that are being made, and you can grow from that. Is that always been how you've been wired? Did this whole pursuit experience and more knowledge and getting some self-checks from time to time, what brought that on? I mean, it wasn't always like that. I mean, when I was younger, I was probably a know-it-all and you couldn't tell me anything. And obviously, with the growth of the business and things that happen, I mean, there's some very obvious mistakes that I made. And I think for me, when you learn from mistakes, there's something that in the electrical world, when you're wiring a house, okay? And I'm working for my dad. Now, let's say I'm like 14 years old, but I'm working for my dad And we're running Romex wire through studs through a house.

21:46 And you get to the corner and you have two studs that butt up against each other at a parallel to make a 90 degree angle. And you drill a hole in each one. Now you got to get the wire from one side and around and out the other side. Does that make sense? You go around the corner with a wire. That would go out and drill the holes. I come through and start pushing the wire. And you get to a corner. I'd be working on it for two minutes, three minutes, four minutes. And in my head, like, this is impossible. You can't do it. And then I'd go, Dad, you have to redrill that one. It's impossible. And he would come over and he would have it done in three seconds. Like literally, he's like, there you go. And I think that making that realization that I had convinced myself mentally that something was impossible, where somebody else, it wasn't even a challenge. It wasn't even on their radar as a challenge.

22:27 I was convinced it was impossible. So I think once you realize that happens in the world, and you can accept that, that you don't know everything. There's challenges and things you're going to run into, but they may not be a challenge for anybody else. Now it's just a matter of finding the right people to network with, to communicate with, and have the right conversations with that'll help you overcome these impossibilities because there's a lot of other people out there that these things aren't even challenges for. God, I love that. Yeah. I can relate to that big time. Wow. I like that analogy. We could probably just hang up now and be just fine. So that was the nugget right there, gang. That was so funny. Going along those lines, going back to something you said, just the importance of leading ourselves, I think, or you said some version of that of leadership or...

23:11 business really starts with us understanding ourselves and leading ourselves. Well, over the last 10 years, so much has changed in your business since you left being an electrician. What's that growth curve been like for you? I mean, what have been some of the major growing edges for you as a person? You're not thinking about just the nuts and bolts of business, but what has that looked like for you in terms of learning and behavior change, that kind of stuff? I don't know if there's any one thing that sticks out. Maybe if I had some time to think about it, I could probably come up with something. But I think with the growth and with the challenges, it's just about overcoming. It's just about getting to the next thing. Once we were established, once we were really set in the market... Because there were years that I was just fighting to get my product into the market. Where now I think we've got a good spot.

23:52 People are asking for us. They know who we are. And that's good. So I think it was probably the first storm season. I never had a storm season before. Let's say I was in business for five years before I had a storm season. When that storm season came through, it wiped me out. I wasn't ready for it and I missed out on a ton of sales because I didn't have the stock. and have a stock ready for storms. So I think that was probably in the business and personally, one of those things in the business that really stands out where it's like, you have to be prepared for this. And then even going ahead of that, it's like, now, what are the other things that we also need to prepare for? We thought we had a good... We thought we were running just fine. And now, boom, this thing comes in and it completely devastated the business in a sense of just wiping us out of stock and putting us in a pinch of getting things out and orders and cash flow and those kinds of things.

24:39 And it was like, we need to be more prepared. We need to be more ready to do something. Now, I say that with, now we just had a supply chain issue. And anybody listening to this who's waiting on a power box and has been for the last three months, they're gonna be like, yeah, dude, you were really prepared. But we need to fall victim to the supply chain issue. And we're gonna learn something from that too. Or, you know, I am. I'm gonna learn something from that. And we are taking steps, but that's not going to happen again. But I think it's that you always have to be ready. You always have to expect the unexpected. Just be ready to handle it day to day and then learn from it, make changes and grow to the next time. All right, let's take a minute to recognize and thank our MitResto Mastery sponsor, Accelerate Restoration Software.

25:22 And I'm fully aware by the way, that when I say those last two words, restoration software, that that instantly creates heartburn for some of you out there, right? Because we probably all fall into one of two camps when it comes to software. We've either cobbled together kind of a version of free website tools and spreadsheets just to make our business work Or we're in the camp where we've adopted one of these existing restoration platforms, you know, one that has all the bells and whistles and supposedly does it all. But we can't get our team to consistently adopt it and input information to it. Yeah, and that's really where Accelerate has honed their focus. They've created a system that's simple, right?

26:04 It's intuitive, and it focuses on the most mission-critical information, i.e., guys, your team will actually use it. Let's talk about sales, right? After years of leading sales and marketing teams, the biggest trick is getting them to consistently update notes about their interactions with referral partners and clients. And the essential piece there is there's got to be a mobile app experience. And in our experience... the solutions that were previously out there were just too cumbersome and tricky to use. Yeah. Imagine guys, how your business would change if your entire team was actually consistently using the system. Do yourself a favor, go check these guys out at xlrestorationsoftware.com forward slash MRM and check out the special offers they're providing to MRM listeners.

26:56 All right, let's talk about actionable insights. Owners, GMs, you can't be your business's expert on all things estimating. You might have been three years ago when you were writing sheets in the field, but the industry is always changing, and so are the tools. If you're the smartest person in the room when it comes to Xactimate and Matterport, how does that scale? You're the bottleneck. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but this is where actionable insights comes in. They're a technical partner that can equip your team with the latest bleeding edge information and best practices and then update them with webinars and training resources when the game inevitably changes again. For this reason, we recommend actual insights to all of our clients.

27:36 Yeah, three of the kind of big things that stuck out to me when being introduced to AI and their team. First off is this consistently updated training. I mean, at the end of the day, these guys are the experts. They're out front all the time. They're constantly learning new trade secrets and ensuring that your team's got access to those things. A 3,700 plus page database of Xactimate templates. I don't know what else to say here other than don't reinvent the wheel. It's already available. Download it, copy it, use it, bam. database of commonly missed items. I think this is huge. So many of us can change the numbers by just moving the needle a couple points and those commonly missed items can make all the difference in the world.

28:20 So go check them out at value.getinsights.org backslash fcg. Brandon and I, we've been talking recently. We actually did a podcast just he and I chatting about how there's these moments that every business person faces where it's like, okay, there's this new phase I'm entering into and there's new demands. There's a new way I have to think or a new skill that I need. And that's a difficult jump for some people. It's like some business people may have encountered that storm season and just been totally knocked off balance. Like, okay, well, they would just stay a little tiny mom and pop shop. Instead of trying to figure out how to navigate those huge influxes of business and planning ahead like you're talking about, they would shrink back and be like, I don't know how to do this.

29:08 And they would just stay this little tiny shopkeeper rather than going through it. So yeah, no, it's good. So one of the things you touched base earlier was this traveling with your wife. Talk to us a little bit about that. What do you guys prioritize? What are you guys doing? Well, before COVID, we haven't done a lot of travel recently. But before COVID, we basically committed that we were going to go overseas at least once a year. And we don't know where, but just... out of the country. Our first trip, mine and hers, out of the country was for our honeymoon. We went to Paris, we went to London, we went to Versailles. It was amazing. We loved it. Had a great time. And it was when we came back from that, it was like, you know what? We should do that again. And I think as far as travel, I've been fortunate in my business that I've been able to travel a lot and go see a lot of places with trade shows and open houses a lot of the US.

29:54 And then when I was traveling, I always took the opportunity. I always stayed an extra day or two days to go to the site, go see some stuff, go enjoy some food. That's the thing that I enjoy to do. Go into a new city, find that little dive and little gem somewhere, talk to some locals and go there and enjoy that. Enjoy a brewery, enjoy a barbecue, whatever. Go and do those things. And my wife, with her work, she was traveling a lot. So when we went overseas, that was a completely a new experience for us. It was awesome. We had the greatest time. And so that was one thing. Make the commitment that we're going to go overseas at least once a year on some trip. But like I said, with COVID, we haven't been able to do that yet. That was one of the things. And then we always try to get away for a little three-day weekend whenever we can or go something outdoor in the Pacific Northwest, go hiking, go camping.

30:38 She loves to get one of those camper vans and go to a winery or something like that. Just go out, go explore, see stuff, see new stuff. How do you guys keep that fun? My personal experience, obviously, is, When you're either leading a company or you're growing a business, it is hard to not have your mind in that thing 24-7. It's like finding that time to be present and really stop what you're doing and be clued in on your partner and those exchanges of those times together is hard, man. How do you guys manage that? Her and I are both so independent and business-driven. I mean, she's very career-driven. We made the move out here for her career. I'm very business-driven.

31:18 So I think a lot of... Even in our personal time for us is still talking about business and goals and careers and where we're heading and are we getting there and are we on track. A lot of those conversations that bring us close together are still about business. At the same time, you do have to turn it off. I think for me, when I turn it off is when I go hunting, when I can just turn the cell phone off, I put a do not disturb on, my voicemail already says I don't listen to voicemails. And I can just put that away, go up on a mountain somewhere and just forget about everything. And I think with her too, when we do get together, me and her on a personal level, when we go out like that, exploring new things, seeing new things, that's going to keep our minds occupied, eating new foods and that kind of thing, meeting new people.

32:03 I think that for both of us keeps us occupied enough that we can step out of that business for a minute. Yeah, that's cool. Is that all pretty intentional or does it just happen that way? Do you guys talk about like, here's a priority that we want to have, let's try to protect this or is it pretty natural between the two of you? We talk about it. We're very intentional with our time, who we spend it with, where we spend it, what we do. It's all very much talked about and planned. And then we go do it. Thinking that looks like the business. Like, well, we'll just go try it. If we don't like it, we won't do it again. If we do like it, we'll put it on the list for next year and do it again. But it's like, let's go try stuff. But it's very intentional. And we sit down, we know when we're going to take vacations and we force ourselves to. I mean, it's like, hey, it's coming up on this month and we haven't done this yet.

32:43 We need to get it scheduled. We have those things to look forward to, to have those experiences outside of business. It can't be work all the time. And I think so many people too get caught up in, I have work to do. I can't leave. I can't take off. That work will be there when you get back. I've never come back to work and it hasn't been here. You didn't lose it. and just allowing yourself to go, this is my time, I'm gonna go do this, and it's going to happen. It's mental, it's preparation, it's planning, and then execution, you just have to go do it. One of the things I really appreciate about a lot of the conversation that we've had today, dude, is this idea of, you're a down-to-earth guy, you're a blue-collar guy, came up in the trades, your trade industry now that you focus on is really surrounded by and serving the blue-collar working force.

33:34 And I hate to say this, but your intellectual capacity is so high, bro. Like in terms of your self-awareness, the way that you think about your business, the way that you think about your relationships. Here's where I'm going with that. I think one of our biggest struggles and one of the things that we just get honestly heartbroken about is how little... our current younger generations, how little they know about trade environments and blue collar environments and the fact that we have really done ourselves a disservice of beating down and devaluing the kind of people that do what you do, that do what we do. Anyways, I just want to take note of is like, you're the kind of guy that I want more young people to be hearing.

34:17 Because you are so relatable and real, but yet at the same time, man, there is so much happening in your mind that you're not only executing on, but that you can communicate and articulate so well for people to understand and hold on to. It's like, we need more people to hear guys like you. Because there's so much potential. The stuff that you're building, the type of companies that you work with and partner with. What an awesome experience. And so much more than I think in a lot of ways what we've said is available to those that pursue careers or industries like you have. I don't know. How do you feel about that? What have you been wrestling with in regards to that? I just, as far as more people coming up in the trades, younger people, I don't know.

35:00 When we start talking about the younger generation and the younger workforce, that's one of the decisions why I decided to work alone, because that's what makes me happy. It doesn't make me happy to work with other people on the bench. I don't know, I think there's a difference name, but basically he was talking about the mentorship rather than leadership. Yeah. Talking about that and I'll be honest, I was listening to that and I was just cringing. I was like, I could not imagine if I had to come to work and be a mentor for four people. I just want to come in and get my work done. And I want you to realize that I'm the old school guy, man. I just want you to realize that I appreciate you and that's why you get a paycheck. I share my money with you. I created an opportunity for you and then I pay you to help me with that opportunity. That should be enough. I don't understand how that's not enough.

35:41 I think that that mentality is what's also hurting you. why maybe the trades aren't sexy, but maybe also the kind of guys that are in the trades right now are guys like me. We're just old school. I don't know that we as leaders in the trades, the owners of trade companies... I mean, I know my dad owns an electrical company. He doesn't mentor anyone. He's like, he ever has to work. That's what I pay you for. I think it may be too that some of the new people coming in trade. The trades aren't offering them what they need to succeed in work, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to say one person's bad, one person's good. It's just that I don't know that they're going to get what they need. I don't know that the trades even are available to offer this whole other side, this whole mentorship, this whole other side of employees and employee relationships.

36:25 I don't know if it's there. And I don't know if it'll take a generation to pick that up. But from my experience and everybody I've worked with in the trades, it's very, very simple. Put your phone down, go to work. Well, and I think it does lend itself to the fact that that own personal drive. Because at the end of the day, it's like companies can work really hard to connect the dots for a prospect or for an employee. But there is some self-reporting. vision that's required by someone in order for them to progress and grow and move forward at a reasonable pace. And so I think that no matter what, we're certainly going to see, I guess, limitations on someone's career path if there's really no ability to look a corner or two down the road and have some idea or vision of what could be.

37:07 Seeing the opportunity versus what's right here ready right now, I think that is challenging. Yeah. I think that's a human problem right now in general. I know too many adults too that have been around too many trips around the track, if you will, that still, if it's not spelled out A through Z, they just do not have the ability to see what lies in front of them. I mean, that's certainly a limited factor for anyone. Clearly not something you've wrestled with, man. God, it sounds like you've always had a pretty clear idea of what to try next. I love it. Yeah, right. There's something else that hit me when I was thinking about you. I've really watched the way that you've interacted with some of the names in our industry. I was going back to that podcast series that you did with Rachel, which I really dug how you guys swapped roles depending on whose show it was.

37:52 Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was so great, man. And I didn't catch all the folks that you had mentioned on your side. But if you don't mind, that one person that you feel like has really had the most impact on... It doesn't even need to be career. I'm thinking, man, who you are. Who had the biggest influence on that? What was it? My dad, for sure. And you can go back to that podcast, it was Who Did What. That was one of the most fun podcasts I've done and recorded. It was such a good time. But yeah, it was Who Did What. My dad, for me, for sure, is the biggest influence. So to kind of piggyback, like I said, he owns an electrical company. I was working with my dad when I was a dad. 13 years old. The summer of 13, and I'm very money-driven too.

38:33 So I'm getting paid to go to work. That's all I want to do. So summer when I'm 13, I'm working 8 to 10 hours a day with my dad. I'm around him all the time. Probably the biggest takeaway, and it even goes back to that story with the wire in the corner and the studs, dad, I can't do this. He's like, don't say can't. I don't know how many times, as soon as the word can't comes out of your mouth around my dad, he goes, don't say can't. Don't say can't. And I know so many times where something that I thought was impossible and then it wasn't even a challenge, this one can't be done. We can't do this. need to think about it from a different angle. He's the one that opened things up to where you weren't just stuck in this bubble of like, well, I can't do it, so it's not going to get done. If you can't do it now, then let's figure out a way to get it done.

39:13 And so working with him and in that atmosphere for so long, and then even in my job, we did a lot of remodels. And my dad's very, very good at bathroom remodels, kitchen remodels, because for somebody else come and just cut a notch all the way around, drill holes and run the wire and have a bunch of patchwork to do. My dad would sit there and figure out, well, if we drop that vent out of the ceiling, then we can get a hole over here and then we can push that up to the attic. He would figure out how to maneuver and get things done without making holes everywhere. And so being on jobs with him, learning that you just walk into a job and it's like, this thing's a puzzle. We just have to figure it out. It's like, we just have to figure it out. Yes, we will harder, but at the end of the day, we're going to have a better job. And so definitely working with him.

39:55 And when I say work with my dad, I'm working with my dad eight to 10 hours a day, but for years. When I finished my junior year in high school, I was in the truck full time. I had another guy that was working with me. By the time it came around my senior year, I tried to convince my mom to let me drop out, get my GED. That way I could just work all the time. She didn't go for it. So I ended up doing this work program where I went to school the first two and a half hours and I was out by 10 o'clock. So, as soon as I would get off work, I'd drive to the job site and I was there and work with the guys and then set up the next day and then I'd be back in school. I was pretty much working full time since my junior year summer. It's just a lot of time and a lot of hours spent with my dad and just having this reinforcement from him that pretty much you can do anything you want to do.

40:42 He taught me about hard work. He taught me if you want something, you go work hard for it. And I know what hard work is. I've done those things. before. I've done plenty of them just to figure things out. My dad, for sure. I think what's so cool about that is that it's really an apprenticeship. It's just a non-formalized apprenticeship that you experience that I think is really cool. And I think there's something to be said about the value of those kinds of relationships and the way they change us and the way that they change our perspective. Your dad taught you a new way to think about what your capacities are and what you're capable of. Look how many doors that opened for you. I mean, that's huge, man. I don't know how many times in business, you're like, Hey, can you guys do this? For instance, can you guys build this generator system?

41:24 I'm like, don't say can't. Yeah, I'll figure it out. I'll figure out how to build it. Or we had losses. I mean, in the industry, it's emergency stuff. We've got a guy that calls me from St. Louis. Hey, can you get me 20 boxes down here by tomorrow? And I'm like... Don't say can't. That's going to be very, very difficult, but don't say can't. And we did it. So there's a lot of things in my business too, where probably I maybe should have said can't or someone else would have. And I didn't. And I just put my head down. I just did the hard work. And I thought about it a little harder. And I put some things together and made it work. So even that don't say can't, that still applies to today. I may get on the phone later today. I would pop into my head. Don't say can't. Figure it out. Get it done. He sounds like a mentor.

42:05 I'm revisiting that Clint Pulver, my notes right here. The 5Cs of mentorship. Confident. The person has to be confident. Credible to know what the hell they're talking about. Competent. Able to do the thing that they're mentoring. And they're candid. And then they care. Right? As the last piece. Sounds like most, if not all those elements, your dad brought to that experience. That relationship you had with your dad. Absolutely. That's neat. That's cool, man. Clearly, it was a trajectory setter for you and played a big role in that. That's pretty rad. I have another question for you. What was the largest, most effed up mistake that you've made in your 10-year path with building your business? The one that you're like, ugh, that one hurt.

42:47 So we had... I don't even know if I want to talk about it. It would have been in the time I had distribution, it was like, all right, now GMS needs to make a new product. We only make one product. We need to make something else and get that into the industry. And started looking around and finding some people, and I'll call them out. Chris Laney, really good friend of mine, he has this idea, we ended up calling it ElectraDry. And it works, it does work, but I'll tell you, When you're trying to dry out a wall or doing some custom drying behind cabinets, you pop the faceplates off of the outlets. And then we had a plastic boot that would attach to the outlet through the plate screw. So it would fasten to the wall and you'd attach your hose to it and pull on the outlet because there's enough air and gaps around those boxes where you could pull the wet air out of the wall that way.

43:32 We thought it was the greatest idea ever. His company used it. We went through full production of it. I think we made like 5,000 of them and I think we sold 300. And we marketed the crap out of it. We tried to get it into distribution, gave it away. And yeah, at the end of the day, it was like, It hurts so bad too. So the other lesson I learned was with margins. So my product was called $1,000. My product sells for $1,000. There's a lot of money in that $1,000 for profits, for margin for other distributors. There's a lot. When you're talking about the Electrodrine, it's a little piece of plastic, and I was using the same model, the same percentage margin model.

44:16 This is our cost, this is what we need to charge to make money. This thing was like $100. There wasn't even enough money with. And then if you did want to charge what it would take, if you were going to charge what it would take to actually care about it and make money, well, now no one's going to buy it anyway. So not only was there a mistake in misreading the market and how they would react to the product, there was also a huge, huge mistake in understanding the profitability of that product and how to apply percentages and margins to make money on something. It was a complete wreck. How long did it take you to recover from that, Bruce? I don't know if we are recovered. Ask Chris. We're still just like, ugh. It's still painful over the IPAs on a Saturday.

45:00 That's wild. Yeah. All right, dude. I feel like we could probably just keep going and keep going. But I want to be conscious of your time. And clearly, you prioritize that. And so we don't want to take advantage of that. But dude, thanks for hanging out with us, man. That was fun, man. I appreciate it. I want to tell you guys that I've had a great time. I've been on a lot of podcasts. I do a podcast. I think for me, I say, if you can get on a podcast and then forget your recording and forget your podcasting, that's when it was good. This one was really good, guys. Awesome, man. We appreciate that. We actually want to plant the seed, bro. We're excited to maybe try to meet up with you this year at an event somewhere. So offline, let's chat a little bit about where you're going to end up being. And then let's try to circle the wagons maybe with you.

45:42 And we really liked hanging out with the blue collar guys too. They're a hoot. I think it's just been fun. Oh, they're a whole bunch of fun. They're rad. Yeah, they were really fun. I think a future combined podcast with a whole bunch of us would be cool. I think so. It'd be rad. Yeah. Oh, that would be awesome. I love it. All right, brother. Thanks again, man. We'll catch up with you real soon. All right. Sounds good. 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.