Ep 1 - MRM Pilot

0:02 Welcome back to another episode of the MRM Podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brandon. Join us as we discuss business, life, and legacy. It's business time. All right, man. So why the MRM Podcast? Why in the hell are we doing this? Yeah, great question. Well, I mean, this started three, four years ago. This was a hallway conversation. And I can't remember the specifics, but we had just dealt with some kind of wacky situation. I don't know if it was an employee deal or it was some, I don't know, got or lost a customer. I don't even remember. But I remember one of us turning to each other and just thinking, man, we need a podcast.

0:44 We have so many stories. We need to find out. There was more to it. It was like, we need to document these experiences. That's what it was. It wasn't just, hey, we need to tell people these stories. It actually came from a sense of there are so many amazing and terrifying and awesome and horrible experiences and we're going to forget this stuff. It started that way as an internal podcast idea. We need this just to document the history of our company as we're going through all of these motions, the trough of sorrow. We need a way to document this stuff. And literally, I think it was a few months later, you're like, hell yeah, we are.

1:25 We got to do this. Yeah, we got some microphones, we got an audio interface. And then of course, life took over and we didn't end up doing it then. Yeah. And things went dormant. Things went dormant for a little while. No, you're right on. I think that is the genesis of this. This is an idea that certainly did start years ago. It wasn't last night by any stretch of the imagination. And I think what we were recognizing in that moment... I mean, this is hard to put into words, but I think what we were recognizing in that moment is the whole person, the humanity portion of problem solving when you're an entrepreneur, when you're a business leader, like the emotional context, the ins and outs, all the different dimensions and the sides of the conversation when we're trying to lead people well.

2:06 And I think that's where some of that came from. And I think it's this idea that what we've experienced even working with people is that, yeah, we're pounding the pavement on these operational strategic items, these concepts, these tools. But man, there's this whole thing that's happening behind the scenes in this relationship with a client or with a business partner or whatever. Yeah. There's this whole world that's happening that often doesn't get talked about that honestly is so profound in its impact and its change. And so I think a big part of what our goal for this is to hang in that space, to take a look at that, to have more conversations. around these ideas, these life-altering, right?

2:47 These life-changing experiences that we can have, not only in our own businesses and relationships with people that we meet, certainly professionals and influencers from other industries or other categories of focus. And really just having an awesome adventure as we get to experience this stuff. I almost said shit. As we experience this stuff firsthand, right? So, and we have kind of categorized this. We've thrown it into some pillars, if you will, of the space that we want to hang out in. We're going to be bringing content. We're going to be talking to folks about stuff that's going to impact our business, right? That's going to grow our business. And we're going to focus on... Yeah, we definitely want to get into some tactical strategic stuff. Oh, yeah. You got it. You got it.

3:27 And I think we've picked up a lot of things along the way. Oh, yeah. And I think we've learned as much through failure as we have through successes and wins. If not more on the failure side. I mean, frankly... Yeah, right. That's where the real transformation has happened. But we definitely want to get tactical and strategic, but not just from our own perspective. I think we have kind of a wish list of guests that we want to bring in that can bring in their own best practices and learning experiences, without a doubt. The other big category, done, done, done, right? Business, life, man. This is the bottomless category, right? There's so much opportunity here. But we've got to unpack stuff. The stuff, the things, the opportunities, the experiences that are changing our lives or have the stored energy, the potential to change our lives.

4:14 That's got to be a space that we hang in. We just can't ignore it. Well, dude, isn't that the biggest force multiplier, right, as a business leader, is if you can get your life healthy and your role and your behavior and your business healthy, like when we can get there. And I don't think we're there all the time. No. Right? But if we're pursuing that. Yep. Yep. Because there is no separation. We've talked about this. Compartmentalization, like I'm one way at work as a boss and I'm another way at home with my family, like it does not work. No. Our kids see through it. Our spouses see through it. We ultimately know, and we just carry that stress and anxiety when we're not pursuing health in our day-to-day life. Yeah.

4:54 as well as our personal and professional growth. It's limited what we can do. Oh, it's undoubtedly. Dude, here's the reality. I think you and I have even had conversations where at times we could be killing it. Business was rocking and rolling. We had momentum. We had things, new relationships with a bunch of stored energy walking in the door. And I might have been in a three-month scenario where I was just struggling to communicate effectively with my kids. and you don't feel good. Like you just don't feel good. I don't care. You don't. The wins at work just do not feel as good. It's not the same. Yeah. It's not the same. You got to have both. So we got to hang there. We've got to unpack stuff that's going to have a positive impact.

5:36 And we've kind of talked about putting together a segment periodically called like family hour or something where we just camp out on that. Because the reality is most of us that are listening to this, certainly you and I, we're also fathers. Yeah. We're also spouses. We're somebody's uncle. We're somebody's aunt, you know, whatever. And so who knows where we'll go with that. It's not going to be every episode, you know, maybe once a month. We'll just camp out on kind of a family topic. There's specialists out there that we're going to reach out to that we're going to have come in and talk to us. And God knows there's going to be a ton of opportunities to learn. But anyways, legacy. Yeah, you're right. Where are we going there? What does that word even mean? I think it's, I feel like you and I are figuring out what legacy means. I think we are figuring out more what it's not.

6:16 It's not the money and it's not even the achievement because we've had that. Yeah. You and I have experienced both in this industry and it can give that in spades. But you get to a point and I don't even know it's that far down the road where you just realize the money's not what I was looking for. Oh, sure. The house, the boat, that kind of stuff. It's great. It's awesome. But it doesn't satisfy for very long. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like our mom told us this, right? We learned this in Sunday school, whatever, right? That money's not everything. And it, you know, but you figure that out pretty quickly. Yeah. That if it's not about more than that, and I think you and I too, man, the pleasure of help seeing other people grow, like you and I still have people in our wake that are different people because we worked with them.

6:59 And we are too. That's a key part. And we are too. And we are too. And that's legacy. Like we grew together. We grew together with our downline, which I think we forget about sometimes when it comes to legacy is that our people are impacting us as well. Well, and I think you even said this not that long ago. You use the term that you learn when you teach others. Because it just holds you responsible differently. Once you're taking that information that you acquire and you're doing something with it right away, it does change the intake of that information, how you assimilate it. Here's the other thing I just want to talk about with legacy is I want to get rid of some of the mis- maybe misnomer, I don't know if that's the right word, but this misconception, if you will, of legacy is, I think sometimes people hear that term and they want to turn that into, this is about me.

7:48 Oh, like reputation. Reputation, title, right? And obviously, if you have a great impact on people's lives, obviously some form of title or vision of you is going to be created. But I think what's really key here and what we're talking about, where we're going to focus our attention as we develop this podcast is, It's this idea of legacy being, what are you doing to leave others? Like, how are you leaving them? Yeah. And we're talking about everything from walking into a room to the end of our journey. Yeah. When you walk into a space, what is happening, not about you, but by the way you carry yourself, the standards that you follow, the way that you communicate, how much of that is thought about in a proactive way to ensure that the impact that you're having is as positive as possible, right?

8:34 Does the rising tide in your business lift all boats? Right. Or are you leaving people behind? Right. Oh man, that's huge. Is your ship sailing and everybody else is just sort of left to figure things out for themselves, right? Or are you building people up? You know, I mean, and that's, I think that's a question we always have to check in on ourselves with because boy, we've had seasons where we've been more focused. on our people. And we've had seasons where we've been less focused. We've gotten wrapped up in the numbers, the achievement, the everything else. And we all know the difference. We do. Everybody who's listening to this knows what we're talking about. It's easy to get things out of balance, but that's a focus for us. It is so much so that in a lot of ways, and this is for me personally, I'm not a focus I think part of my dream of stewarding a podcast like this has always been, is there an opportunity on scale to have impact like that?

9:24 To build this legacy, be in this space where we're being transparent enough, that we're being proactive enough, that we're challenging ourselves enough, that we can really share experiences with people. We can share information. We can share people, specialists, in such a way that people's lives really are changing. Yeah. And that we can get to the end of our race. And I mean, literally, when we can't run any longer and look back and say, are we proud of what we spent our days doing? And for me, this is part of that. I want to make sure that when we're recording a session, that we're thinking about it from this perspective of, will that be part of that journey that we took?

10:05 And can we look back and say, wow, that was an opportunity to have a really positive impact on someone, some team, some business somewhere. And I think that's massive for us. Let's talk a little bit more about the why behind this. Because I think there's another piece here that a lot of people even that know us, that we've worked with and stuff, may not fully know. That's sort of the backstory. But you and I have developed a special working relationship. I mean, we're going on seven or eight years that we've been working together in some capacity. And you and I have had a couple special... not a couple, lots of moments where we've been able to be that iron sharpening iron, you know, like I think the Bible says, right, about men really honing each other's character and craft.

10:50 Like it's important for us to kind of bump up against each other and great against each other because it helps us both become sharper and more effective. And you and I have experienced that a lot. I think that's part of what we're wanting to, one, just share, just openly share about what that's looked like working together. Because I think there's stuff there that people can do themselves within their own working relationships, whether an owner with their general manager or their general manager and somebody else on their leadership team. Yeah. Yeah. there's something there that's been really powerful for us. And I thought we should share a little bit of that. Yeah. I'll start with my example. I think back, this must have been four or five years ago. I was given a presentation at a all-company meeting.

11:31 There's probably 30, 40 people in the room. And I got to the end of the talk. And like all of us, when you've given a talk in front of a group, you're like... that was terrible. It must've been lame. People thought it was, you know, cause everybody's just staring at you blank. Right. All they want to do is just eat their donuts and the coffee. Right. But somehow as leaders, right. You want people to like pay attention, whatever. So I got down from that after the meeting, I said, Hey, how'd it go, man? How'd you think I did? Yeah. And you were like, dude, you're great at this. It was fine. It was good. But you said it in such a way that I'm like, oh no, there's more. There's more. Okay, well, what else, man? And you said, well, you know, this is just an observation. I don't know if this is dead on, but I feel like you have a really strong sense of self-confidence.

12:15 Like you're good at speaking in front of people. You know what to say. You're good at saying it. But there's this energy that you put off that I wonder, Chris, if there's... Like if you lack self-esteem. And that when you said that, it just hung there. I just remember no one had ever said that to me before. I grew up in a church environment, leading music and worship. And I did. I developed a lot of self-confidence from an early age, singing in front of people, playing the piano, all that kind of stuff. But when you said that, I realized there's something there... And it actually made me kind of emotional in the moment because I could just tell that it was obvious to me that you did see something and it felt true to me in that moment, but nobody had ever said that to me.

12:58 And so really, honestly, for the last three or four years, that's become something I'm just keenly aware of. And I think what you were pointing at was there was a neediness that I was giving off that was affecting my leadership. Yeah. Because I was needing people to react a certain way to what I was saying rather than just sitting in the strength of, this is what I feel like needs to be said. This is what I need from the team. And just being settled in that. Instead, there was this energy that you saw that I really needed people to like me. I needed them to like what I was saying. And it really was affecting my leadership. And I'll just never forget that, man. I took a lot of courage for you to say that. But it's something that I continue to work on today of just keeping that in check and noticing when I'm putting that out and giving myself a moment to pause.

13:46 What's this about? What am I feeling? I'm feeling kind of imposter syndrome. I'm in a room of people that I want to have like me. And what's going on there? Yeah. Whereas before, I think I was doing that really subconsciously. Yeah. Yeah. And likewise, man, I've experienced opportunities where even at times, we've had employee-employer relationships, right? Where I was in roles where... Yeah, you were senior to me. Technically, I was senior. And still, though, we had opportunities to experience that iron sharpened iron. Same kind of similar setting. I have an example that stuck with me. And in fact, we were talking about it again this morning. is I have eight years of military background. After that, I spent a number of years in different forms of construction.

14:30 One part of that being part of a team that built communication towers. So we're literally, you're hanging on sections of steel while a crane is dropping them in place, right? To be fully transparent there, I didn't do it terribly long, In my military career, I was jumping out of airplanes, right? I was part of the 82nd Airborne Division, which was a real honor. Anyways, where I'm going with this is that I had spent many years being in a position where whether the role or position required it, at least that was my perception, or building... As we grow up and we go through life situations, we develop these armors, right? These things, these behaviors that make us feel strong or that we feel has the appropriate level of influence that we want.

15:11 And I had developed and really consistently stayed in this place of respected fear. Yeah. And it was very effective. I was often winning in my work environments by being that. And I remember that that was obviously something that was brought to many situations and interactions as a leader of a growing restoration business. And even in all company meetings, right? Like there was definitely this vibe of, I did care about people. And I think people saw that. A hundred percent. Yeah. But more often than not, I was in this place of, this is a non-negotiable. This is how we're going to do it. Yeah. Kind of a default command and control posture. And by default, I think default's a great word there.

15:53 And I remember we got done with something. And I honestly, man, I don't even remember if I asked you for feedback. I think you literally were just like, Hey, I followed you back to your office. Yeah. You like follow me. Hey, can I tell you something? I'm thinking in my mind, Do I want to hear this right now? Yeah, probably, but I don't know if I want to hear what you're about to tell me. And you just very strategically and really professionally just said, hey, I think the team already has a respect for your command and control. I don't think that's an area that you need to spend more time and energy developing. But have you thought about doing more, you know, spending more time in this place of affirming the team, reminding them that you're proud of them and that you're in their corner?

16:36 And, you know, honestly, in the moment, I think it probably pissed me off, actually, in the moment, right? I remember that first interaction. It wasn't like rainbows and butterflies. Like... I've been waiting for this feedback, like somebody to help me understand it. Yeah. Yeah, no, you were pretty like just neutral. Yeah. And this is coming from a subordinate. Right? It's true. It is true. And I want to clarify because I think the words I used, and it may have been part of what hooked you, is I use the word anger. Yeah, I think you did. I think you're overusing your anger tool. Yeah. And you're not aware of how others are experiencing that. That like, before you even open your mouth, when you walk into that room of 40 people, you already have the command of that group.

17:21 Dude, you're the guy that signs off on their paychecks. Yeah. You already have, in some ways, the fear of God. Right. Any extra amount you heap in there. it's going to freak people out. Yeah. And I think that's what I was observing was there was a real angst in the room that I was feeling of, this is too much anger energy. Yeah. But I also, and then I said the love energy, which I think in the moment, anger, love, but it felt true. It's like we were a company that, and you led the charge on this. We want to be a company that changes people's lives. And that's both externally as we're helping clients recover from unexpected, you know, damage events to our internal people. This is what we want to be about.

18:02 And I think it was me just holding a mirror up and saying, hey, you say you want this. I know you do. I believe you. And instead, this is what's coming out more right now. Right. And what if you doubled down on the love, encouragement, affirmation? While you still, you're the boss. People know it. And people also know your capacity for righteous anger. They know it's back there when needed. Yeah, yeah. And it took balls. I mean, the fact that you stepped into that. But here's the reality, man. And this is part of what we were talking about this morning. It changed my life, right? And even in the moment, if I didn't... Because of course, my ego is flared up. I was going... Certainly using some angry energy. Like, how dare you? You know, like there's all these conversations.

18:43 Now, of course, at this time, you and I already had a respected professional relationship. So it wasn't completely left field. But there was this reality that that check-in... The willingness to say this looks out of alignment with what the vision is that we're casting for the company, it was an amazing stopping point for me to be reminded. And it really did change my life. It affected everything. It affected the way that I thought about the relationship with my wife. How often was I rolling into a conversation with my spouse... with that energy instead of the, hey, you're my partner, I believe in you and I love you. And that's the basis of where we're starting, right?

19:23 This engagement, this challenge, whatever. And it really was profound. And I will say this, and I won't use any examples for the sake of my son, but he and I have not always had really easy communication. And I do remember that having a profound impact on the way that I thought about the next time I was going to have a conversation with my son, what energy was I bringing to the table? Yeah. And how often had I in the past, and still do, bringing that command and control, that anger side, instead of this, hey, let's hit reset and make sure we're all starting from this place of, we're on the same team, I'm in your corner now, let's talk about this thing that's challenging me. And that's what we're seeing with this, is the opportunity with this podcast to have real conversations, to take off these presentation layers and really be honest about the shit that kicks our face in, And the things that happen, they motivate the crap out of us because they're so phenomenal.

20:21 The experience is so amazing. So having more conversations with people, with specialists, with folks that have spent their professional lives focusing on ideas and concepts that honestly can make us better. That's where we're going. That's what's motivating the creation of the MRM podcast. Yeah. Yeah, and that's a lot what people can expect a year between you and I and what we're going to try to draw out a guess. Yeah. Is this real organic, the real shit. Real. The real stuff, right? Yeah. I think kind of in closing to another perspective on that or another aspect of that is you and I really love looking outside the industry. I mean, you've got buddies that own all different kinds of businesses. Yeah.

21:01 We just went camping with one of your attorney buddies a while back and the conversations we get in inevitably benefit us in terms of our perspective, ideas or creativity in our own industry by pulling from outside. Absolutely. Right? And so, for example, I know eventually we're going to have a podcast about how we engage with Ritz-Carlton, the famous hotel group in helping us transform our customer experience process in restoration. Like who does that? Right. Right? Hotel business. Yeah. But there's a lot of value. And so we're really excited to explore some of that. And we hope you guys will come along for the ride. Absolutely. So let's do this. Okay. Okay. We are setting a tone.

21:41 We've committed to a wrap-up, if you will, a summary. This is Brandon's thing. And I'm just humoring him. This is just how my mind works. For those of you that it aligns with, awesome. For the rest of you, hang on. So here's what we're talking about, guys. We're going to hang out in concepts and ideas that are going to enhance our businesses. We're going to hang out in places and talk about ideas and concepts that have a positive impact on our life, that challenge us in such a way that we change. As a whole person. As a whole person. Business person, dad, husband, whatever. The whole person. It's the rest of the iceberg under the surface, right? And with this idea that we can all get towards the end of our race and look back and be really proud of the legacies that we built because we were willing to challenge one another and challenge ourselves to be different.

22:31 We want to provoke change in each other, in our audience. We want to encourage you guys. We want to fuel you. We want to motivate you to take on these challenges and stretch yourself so that you can be a different person at the end of your journey. One that you can be super proud of. That's where we're going. Okay. We hope you join us for the ride. We'll see you next time. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of the MRM podcast. And if you got something out of it, share it with a friend, hit subscribe, hit follow, leave us a five-star review. Thanks a lot.