American Builders Ep 26 - Brent Garrett (Sirius Plumbing) | From $1M Debt to a Better Business

SPEAKER_01:American builders have to raise a dream. One brick, one beam, building the American.

SPEAKER_00:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of American Builders. Today I am here with Brent Garrett, founder of the skilled trades coach and serious plumbing and air conditioning, as well as the author of 30 Days to a Better Business. Brent, thank you so much for coming on.

SPEAKER_01:Thanks for having me on, Garrett. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00:So we're gonna really use today as um a way to kind of go through the main framework of your book and you how you kind of break it down into weeks. But before we dive into the book, which does talk a lot about your history and your backstory, let's kind of start with just a little bit of background on you and take us up to the point where you started your first business. I don't even know if it was your first business, actually, but uh Canyon Creek specifically. Um just walk me through, give us the audience a little context and uh try to finish off with you know how Canyon Creek came about.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my dad was a plumbing and air conditioning contractor in the Midwest. I grew up in the Midwest and um uh was the youngest of four, and he retired early and moved uh south into Arkansas, um, northern Arkansas and and retired there. And um so, but at the age of 12, before we moved, I started my education in the trades on the end of a shovel. Um, I'm a college graduate, um, first generation graduate. All four of his kids went to school. My background was marketing and accounting, and I uh broke my dad's heart because um he asked me what I was gonna do when I got out of college. And I told him that I wanted to start my own business and and I wanted to start a plumbing and air cuchine business. And he just for the life of him could not figure out why after going to school that I would choose that.

And um, you know, it it was it didn't go well in the first conversation, but he came back to

SPEAKER_01:me two weeks later and he said, Look, he said, if you're gonna start your own business, he said, I really don't support this. I don't understand why you do it, but would you do me a favor? And um, at the time I said, sure. Um, and he said, Well, I did some research. He said, I want you to go to work for one of these three companies. And one of those three companies were New York Life, Northwestern Mutual, and Mutual of New York. He had done some research on their sales training. And he said, Look, if you want to get an example of what it's like to own your own business, um, you know, I think the term he said was eat what you kill. I, you know, to your listeners out there a little squeamish, I'm sorry for sharing that. He was uh he was a drill sergeant. Uh he was in the Korean War and and um and uh was never afraid to share some some uh analogies and metaphors with me.

But um it was the best

SPEAKER_01:advice I ever got. I went to work for New York Life and uh man had a great time. I didn't realize how much I'd enjoy it, um uh was with New York Life and in the insurance business for about two years. And he was right. And what he what he told me later was he said, if I had just learned a little more how about how to sell, um, I think I could have grown my business a lot bigger. I I work and coach with skilled trades business owners and um and you know he he my dad always had like two or three trucks. He he never really grew it beyond him working in the business, provided a great um, you know, financial future for all of us in the family, but he never grew out of that level. But um, so I had a 50-page business plan and 5,000 bucks. I did do a little bit of research. I was gonna start a plumbing air cuchine business, so I chose Dallas, Texas because of the heat.

And uh I chose plumbing because

SPEAKER_01:it's less seasonal than HVAC. And so I bought an Astro van and I was the first technician in six months, and I was about 26 then. Um I was the first technician, but I was out of the truck within six to 12 months. I still did a lot of the work, but um, that's how we started Canyon Creek. Um, I uh sold that five years later, and I'm gonna stop there. But um that that takes you up to Canyon Creek.

SPEAKER_00:I mean, I feel like we could spend a lot like we this conversation could be two hours, just touching on some of the things you mentioned there. Um, but let's dig let's dive into the sale of the first business. You mentioned five years in, you sold the first business. How old were you at the time? Um I was 31. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_01:Sorry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:And what did that process look like? And you know, like how did you know, okay, this is the time to do it? Just walk me through through that story a little bit because it really kind of sets up the foundation for the book and sort of the rest of the questions we'll go through here.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Uh so Canning Creek was growing. We had about 15 employees. Um we back then, I think we were doing about a million and a half in revenue. Um, I had completely moved out of the field. I was I was certainly not working in the business, but I was working in the office. And so um, and I would tell you that I was at that point where I talk about a messy middle where I wasn't swirling the drain, but I knew that there were more things I needed to learn. And I I realized that I had kind of capped out on what I could learn. Um, and I had already read Gerber's uh book, uh EMyth and Stephen Covey. And I was starting to go. Um, I spent three years with uh a gentleman named Dan Sullivan, the strategic coach. I was trying to get as much education as could. I will tell you that leaders are readers, and I'm always a big proponent on people working harder on themselves than they do their job.

And they

SPEAKER_01:they can only grow, um, or I should say that differently, they have to grow at a rate faster than the growth of their company. And I just saw the sale of the company as I was able to join an executive team with Service Master. They I think they hired, they they bought my business. Um certainly it was great to get a check, and and but I think they were were strategically hiring me for my accounting and marketing background. But I got to join at the executive level. I did mergers and acquisitions, I was involved in operations, and I got all that um, I don't want to call it corporate polish, but management experience that just wasn't gonna learn um on my own. And um and so that's what that looked like. Um at the closing table, I I realized a lot of things. I had built a business and I had built a community and a culture.

Um, and I sat there at the closing table, and uh you didn't ask me this,

SPEAKER_01:but I want to share this. Is to everybody who's thinking about selling their business, make sure you know what you're doing and why you're doing it because it's I got a I got a nice big check and I had a great future and it was right for me. But this reality hit me that I don't I don't own this business anymore. I'm a W-2 employee, and I have just sold away every working relationship that I've been involved in the last five years. And um, it was it just kind of hit me right in the face. Um, and so you asked about that moment and what that was like and what it led up to it. So that's what I can best recall. I traded a check for something I really loved doing.

SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. And I mean, looking back on it, was it the right decision? Obviously, you know, it's led to a good place today, but looking back, what would you have done anything differently?

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think I think there were times over the next 10 to 15 years. I'm sure we'll talk about a little moment in my life where I really hit um reality on in many different ways. But I kind of second guessed that along the way. But now that I look back, though my main reason was to get that experience and polish. It would have never led to me being the CEO of a 2500 employee company, getting that experience and then starting another one. Um, yeah, no, I made the right decision.

SPEAKER_00:Love that. Um, so now let's get into what you mentioned there, which is you know, you kind of have this arc where you sell the business, everything's doing great, and at some point you end up nearly a million dollars in debt and one missed payroll away from everything collapsing. How did that happen? What are the details of that? And just walk us through through that journey on sort of the other side of the mountain.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I'll I'll try to make it as concise as I can, but um I uh I actually was starting to head back into private ownership. I had left the corporate world. Um, I I moved my wife and I and and uh our kids, we moved to Phoenix, Arizona to um to be a part of a partnership there in a plumbing nairkishing business. I was actually called by the owner who had three sons in the business, and their business was in trouble. It was struggling, and he asked me to come in and be a part of that and do a turnaround. I told him I'd give him two or three years. And so while I was out there, I ran into uh a gentleman that I had known from the past. His name was Steve Howard, and he had a training and workshop company, and he needed somebody to go teach and train a couple workshops. And I did that.

And so um one day turned into one day a month turned into three or four, and before you know it, I'm on the

SPEAKER_01:road 120 days a year, and and doing a little bit like what I'm doing now, and that's coaching, developing, training people in the skilled business. Well, I had this idea. We finally moved back to Dallas. Our family was here. That was always a part of the plan. So we left Phoenix. Um, I learned a lot about family businesses, though, and next that experience and working together with family and the dynamics and the effect of what it makes it has on the employees trying to function in that sometimes dysfunctional environment of a family business. That's a side note. But I uh come back to Dallas and I had this idea, you know what, I I had the capital to invest. I will just go and I'll keep doing the training speaking on Tuesday through Thursday. And you know what?

I'm gonna start a business and I'm just gonna hire the right team members and let them grow the business, invest in it, coach them,

SPEAKER_01:and things would be great. And so um, first part of the book, because I want to connect with your listeners and the readers, is that it hasn't been all cherry pie and ice cream for me. That's not the life of an entrepreneur. Um, I actually came back to the office at one point, that business would have been running for about a year. And um I'm sitting in the office on a Friday coming back off the road, and the lights go off in the office, and I think it's a brownout or a blackout. And um story short, the accountant and the the people on the team that I relied on for the accuracy of the numbers and the numbers I was seeing, um we were about six months behind in bills and and debt. And I was about a million dollars in debt. And I'll I'll let you read the book, but but I found myself right there being inches from bankruptcy.

Now that's bankruptcy in the company, not personally, but but it still

SPEAKER_01:was a huge shock, a huge hit to my pride. Um, but something happened in that moment, and we all have these things in our lives where we think it's about this, but really it's about that. I had been, I had a four and a six-year-old at the time, and I had been tugging, something had been tugging at me about being on the road and being a suitcase dad. And I know a lot of people out there have to make a living on the road, and I don't have any judgment about that. But for me personally, it was bothering me. And so, you know, I met with my wife the next day and I said, look, we can get out of this, but I'm putting the bags on the floor. I'm not speaking, doing workshop training or coaching. I'm choosing my family and this business. And um, you know, as I look back on it, it's the best decision I've ever made.

SPEAKER_00:I think that's probably common for a lot of people who have the entrepreneurial spirit, if you will, where you know you have a desire to build lots of different things. Ideas are constantly flowing in your head, and you like to be engaged in multiple activities. But sometimes that comes in this exact story at the detriment of kind of the thing that really matters. And I think it just kind of highlights the importance of focus on, you know, let the main thing be the main thing. Um, and that's it's a great story, especially the actual visualization of the lights literally going out as you return. Um, so now let's get into what happens from there, right? And this is kind of sets up the stages of the book. But the thing I think you realized very quickly was the importance of dialing in the sales, which is kind of stage one of the book.

Um, and what I want to do here, there's all sorts of different

SPEAKER_00:places we can go, but I want to kind of touch on the main frameworks of the book with the first one regarding the sales being kind of needs-based selling. What exactly does that mean? And you know, why is it so important? And then we'll we'll dig into that a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, um what I found was is when I delegated the business to those folks, I hadn't made it clear what the culture of the business was. And so um, needs-based selling is it's a process built inside of a client experience. So um there's an introduction, there's a definition of the problem by asking questions, by asking as an expert or as a physician would, a patient. Where does it hurt? What can I do to help you? Let's not do any harm, and ask really good questions, listen really well, and listen most importantly with your pen and write down what the customer says. Make sure that you got what it was that they're communicating. It's radically different than what our industry does. Then the third step is to provide solutions through a Harvard business study that's so old we'd have to dust it off, called good, better, best. And just provide some. We use the word must, sugar, could, um,

SPEAKER_01:but it still means the same. Hey, look, if we've got a whatever your most immediate need is, something's broken in your home, we have to do this. We must do this. You might want to think or should consider doing this. And you know what? To make your house healthier, safer, cleaner, we could do this. You basically act in needs-based selling as the expert, not a salesman, and insist that the customer have what they want. The minute you start selling is the time the customer quits buying and starts feeling like they're being sold. We all love to buy things. We hate to be sold. So it and then so that fourth, the fourth phase is just confirming with the customer, hey, let me make sure I got this right. This is what's important most important to you. This is what you said you wanted. Do we we need to move ahead with that?

You know, and and there are there are those sales tools like checking questions,

SPEAKER_01:you know, is this look like what what you're looking for? You know, is this is this in the zip code? And and we're just coaching the customer through a process, then we go and do the work. But what's interesting in skilled skilled trades is you don't get to do the work unless you do a good job on the front end of building rapport, connecting through understanding the problem together with the customer, providing good solutions and options, and helping them buy. And that's needs-based selling. I will tell you this though, the reason the first week of the book is sales, because sales covers a multitude of sins. Okay. And man, did I have a lot of sins to overcome? And that's what got us out of out of the problem.

And I will tell you, as I coach skilled trades business owners, I would say almost every business problem is solved or leads to some solution around growing revenue or making sales.

SPEAKER_00:The the questions you mentioned there, the check-in questions, I was going to touch on that as well, but you kind of just hit it on the nail there. You know, I think what it allows you to do is, you know, you know, somebody says something. One way to frame it that I've heard is um basically repeat what they say, essentially. And then at the end, you know, does that sound right? Is that what you're trying, you know, is that what you're trying to get across? What that allows you to do almost is climb up that uh good, better, best scale, right? So okay, it sounds like what you need is this. And then by asking them that question, it prompts them to almost say more and climb themselves up the ladder of good, better, and best. Is that a good way to think about it?

SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Um, you know, everything is a variation of you said, right? And kids learn it. Even when I came home off the road, my kids knew it. They they had it built in their system. Hey, dad, you said when you came home we would do this. They're closing me, right? Right. And so, you know, there are variations to uh uh of saying that. Hey, what I hear you saying is this. Is that accurate? Is that right? Am I hearing that correctly? You're just politely confirming am I in the zip code of what it is you're looking for? And if not, I don't want to do any harm. You know, it is exactly like being a physician. Can you imagine going to the doctor with an ankle problem? And I talked to my clients this way, because some resist. They go, you mean you don't you don't want me to close them seven times? I said, absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Can you imagine a doctor coming into the office or into an

SPEAKER_01:exam room with you? Nurse hadn't seen you. All they did was sit you down in the room, they didn't take any vitals, they didn't ask what was going on. Doctor walks in and says, Hey, I've got your heart transplant set up for tomorrow. I mean, that's what selling looks like, you know, and then I'm gonna close you a bunch of times to tell you why you need a heart transplant. No, they don't do that. They get your vitals, they look at what's going on, they ask where it hurts. They do a lot of things and ask a lot of questions before they even examine you. That's what we need to do. We need to be seen as experts helping homeowners pick and choose the things that they want for their home to keep it healthy, clean, and safe. It's that simple. That's needs-based selling.

SPEAKER_00:Another thing you mentioned within that section is kind of Maslow's hierarchy as a tool for reading the customers. Um, you know, you got the basic, the safety, the belonging, the self-esteem. How do you utilize that? And you know, what does that look like in practice?

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so um we're in a B2C model, business to consumer, right? And so in that model, that is all about building value. The higher we get on Maslow's hierarchy of need, the more value we're building. You know, our most basic needs are air, water, and food. And and you can live a certain amount of time on each one of those. I think you can live two weeks without food. I think you can live two days without water and about two minutes without air before your body's compromised, right? Well, that next level is shelter. Um, and then and then I might get a little lost because I don't have the diagram in front of me. I might get a little out of out of place, but but um the next are our belonging needs, you know, connection, relationships, those types of things. And so as we start to go up high the hierarchy of needs, not only are we building value, but we're strengthening trust.

And and I don't I

SPEAKER_01:I I'm gonna give the credit to where I read this first, and that's Stephen Covey. Um, he said, look, when trust is high, communication is fast. There's this, there's this trust, right? Yeah, I get it. I get it. Yep, here we go, here we go. When trust is very low, it's very slow. Now, what do you mean by when you say this? Because I'm not sure if I'm ready to do that. That's it's it's just human dynamics. So Maslow not only is about so if if we add more value we're moving from that must hey we gotta have air water and food to live that's a must belonging and and connection and relationship you know what that's a little bit above shelter i gotta i gotta make sure i have my head i keep my head dry right and here's the thing maslow says that the next level of need is not of concern to the person until that lower level's met I can't think about water until I can until I have air right I can't

SPEAKER_01:think about food until I have water I can't think about shelter until my belly's full and so it's the same thing in human dynamics as we go higher up that hierarchy of needs value has to increase but there's something else going on I like to put on the other side of the triangle but trust is going up too because there are three things that have to be in place before somebody will buy first of all value's got to exceed price here's the one that people forget you have to be likable they have to like you they have to want you for their problems and then the third thing is you got to make it affordable doesn't necessarily mean the price too high we just got to find the money to pay for it but if you don't have those three things and that's the connection and it's all kind of it's it kind of fits together like this but Maslow's hierarchy hierarchy of needs helps us understand what the consumer

SPEAKER_01:and what the service provider is are trying to achieve together and that is to hit what level of needs do you have? Peppered in with that uh option sheet because 66% of consumers will pick the better option all the time if you just present it that way. And it helps you eliminate competition.

SPEAKER_00:The options is huge. That's something um I don't know if you're familiar with with Alex Hormozy but he kind of calls it the the menu strategy if you will as opposed to just saying here's the thing to buy you know it's the good better best. You have a menu of options to choose from um all of which are good and you know it it gives as opposed to just having a rejection it's like okay well maybe I don't want the the best one but I'll go with the middle one. And so you end up ultimately getting more than if you would have just presented uh one option. So let's move to the leaderships or no you got something else to add there? Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:Well just one more thing. I guess I'm on a uh Stephen Covey kick today but um Stephen Covey says there's your idea my idea and a better idea when we start focusing together on a better idea it's not binary right all kinds of options are available now right when you offer one solution to anybody whether it's in negotiations or diplomacy or sales all kinds of possibilities become possible but if you only offer one solution for a problem then it's binary and it's yes no for the consumer why would you ever do that?

SPEAKER_00:Absolutely doesn't make sense so leadership this is week two of the book um you name sort of three traits of every great leader integrity empathy communication just speak to the importance of these a little bit I don't know if there's a a specific time or event or happenstance that made you realize that these were the traits that matter but touch on these a little bit yeah so um integrity to me is can you live what you believe to be true and once you know what for you is true people will follow you if you live that and and so another word for that is out of integrity I believe and when we work with our clients to say hey what is it you really believe to be true you are defining the culture of your company because if you if you believe it to be true your mind really really can't work against that it's something that you know or believe to be true.

SPEAKER_01:Now these things can change over time or they could feel stronger right but that's integrity for me.

SPEAKER_00:Which one did you want to hear next um I mean I think empathy because it kind of touches on on the the next part just around general emotional intelligence and and the importance of that in leadership. I think empathy is interesting because you hear you know there's often stories of kind of the the aggressive boss or the hard leader who's who's not the nicest guy in the world but he you know he makes people work harder than they would have maybe on the other side.

SPEAKER_01:So I'm curious why you think empathy is uh you know one of the most important traits of leadership I I I come from a belief system of hope. And I come from a belief system that we can all turn around um if we need to make changes in our life. So when I talk about empathy the key word there for me is grace. And I have had grace introduced to me and shared with me. And quite simply for me grace is defined and it's my own personal definition but it's not getting what you deserve. It's in those moments when whether maybe it's with a parent or a mentor or a coach where you really knew you had something coming and it didn't happen.

That is something that is a pretty amazing thing that can happen between two people or or or in any scenario empathy is clearly just understanding that we all need grace that we all need understanding that we all need to try our and do our best to see it from somebody

SPEAKER_01:else's perspective it is it is one of the core pieces to leadership that helps you connect with other people um emotional or EQ a little different um in in the sense that we all may have certain levels of empathy some people just have a higher degree of being able to talk and I'm reading your nonverbals and I'm adjusting in my what I'm saying based on whether you are connecting with me or I'm going to try and do that a little differently. There are people that come with that gift and it's oozing out of their fingertips. And you probably in your circle you know who they are we just all get different sets and abilities but we can all show empathy or we can all connect with people and see it from their view.

Doesn't mean we have to agree with it but it is a way for us to connect and it's a way for us to work out and share our ethics or our values and come to an understanding where we can work

SPEAKER_01:together.

SPEAKER_00:Or sometimes we have to decide maybe we can't work together is there a way because everybody knows as just inherently it's like yeah these are three great attributes that a good leader would have and emotional intelligence is important but what do you do to actually help people instill this and become better leaders you know any tactical tips for that whether it's you know writing it down on a sticky note and putting it on your desk the three the three traits that you need to try to exhibit every day whether it's you know recapping at the end of the day how did you perform on on these things how do you help people you know you provide this great advice um any additional advice on how you actually live it out well and and I uh I'm not selling here I'm just gonna use as an example I work with a community I choose to work with a community of skilled trades business owners that want to grow and

SPEAKER_00:scale their business without compromising their values they there are plenty of business owners that don't adopt or want may they don't choose that value system right and so um I'm probably not the best person to be their coach um because I'm here to say that you can own a business without abandoning your belief system they can work together and and guess what you'll attract people who believe in that as well okay and and let me make my point and I don't want to date myself but I I've said this too many times so I'm gonna use him as an example everybody has a culture everybody has a belief system I have one Al Capone had a belief system he had a culture right that was his it was his belief system it's his understanding and connection with the way the world works I talk in the book about natural law and I have some thoughts about maybe why Al didn't get along as well as maybe he could have

SPEAKER_00:um but I I believe that there's a natural order to the world and you know maybe we can talk about that more but but I think for right now where we are in this segment I think I'll just leave it at that. I mean I'd like to talk about it a little bit let's expand on that just just a tidbit. I mean what are your thoughts where were you going to take that?

SPEAKER_01:Okay because I think it's I think it's a connection with um with integrity I think I think it's I think it's a connection with leadership but I want to make the distinction there are many different types of leaders in the world that have different belief systems and are extremely effective and attract people who line up with that belief system. Okay I personally believe that in my life that there's an order to the world much like gravity okay that's a natural law that's in the physical that we can see and if you if you want to defy gravity both Garrett and I are are willing to step back let you climb up on a two-story building and prove us wrong that gravity doesn't exist here okay just go ahead and jump off the building let's look at it right and so natural law says that there's an order of the world people who tend to do good things and let's just go ahead and use the example they seek

SPEAKER_01:a win-win agreement or no deal okay people who tend to choose the good thing or the right thing they don't do it because they're gonna get something for it it's they do it because it's the way they're choosing to live their lives but over time people who choose that consistently tend to do better than those who choose something different than that. You know if we want to go dark we can say they choose something that's evil or one-sided or I win you lose okay or or or deceit is involved or something like that. They might get ahead a little bit in monetary gain or they might make some advances um in the short term but in the long term they just they go man I was so close or I just I had this or but it just never does really seem to work out. I think that natural law is at work in our world. And so it's my belief system you don't have to believe it um but I'm certainly going to share it.

And

SPEAKER_01:I'm always looking for those people who want to own their own business that believe in that process as well. And typically those are the folks I work with because I'm gonna tell you um if you if you gain everything you're looking for in your life okay um but connections and relationships and you look back and and and you you're kind of alone in your thoughts and in your relationships there's probably a message there probably a message there.

SPEAKER_00:So that's natural law to me I think some of the best leaders you'll find are ones who whisper and nudge they don't they don't shove and yell no I think that's a great way to kind of wrap up the the leadership section of it and you know you attract the kind of people that you are and that just is only going to make you a better leader and help you build a better team. But let's go to the next week which is plan your work your plan um you know you talked about the the 50 page business plan at the start of this whereas this section is a little bit different. Touch on that section um and just kind of the contrast there and just the overall importance of plan your work work your plan yeah I think um you know the 50 page business plan or the um the business plan maybe to seek private equity or a loan or things that are in the standard that a bank looks for or maybe a private investor looks for

SPEAKER_00:um there's a component there's a there's a there's a table of contents with that right and and I have migrated over time to what I call a one page business plan.

SPEAKER_01:And one is it it starts with your what's your company history and what's your mission vision vision and strategy. And then we break that down from there into from your vision that should be somewhere between a seven to 20 year plan of where you want to be what I do with my clients is I want to take them from what I call the messy middle and I want to move them to a stage of coaching coaches and then owning a business then building a legacy and deciding what they really want to do with that business. But I would tell you that a one-page business plan really the meat of it is the annual budget the five year forecast and the the leader's top three objectives for that year. And in any budget you can boil down and say hey look and it's the job of the leader.

It's the job of the owner to communicate so that you are crystal clear everybody you coach is crystal clear they're communicating I I hate

SPEAKER_01:to say down the line but through their teams I'm gonna say it that way because I don't like if I were going to org chart it wouldn't be the classic because we all serve each other in a service business. But they have to understand at the most basic level in the company what we're trying to do this year. And those three objectives get broken down into goals and and tasks. And then we break that down to a 90 day plan and we're working on those three objectives and we might have different people doing different things but everybody is aligned with those three objectives for the year right it might be you know I can just tell you right now our three objectives is that we're holding our teams accountable for the KPIs in the business. It's no longer um the and we get that all the way out to the truck they know what their KPIs are on a daily weekly monthly basis. It's just critically important.

SPEAKER_01:So um the other thing is we're leveraging technology as you know there are a lot of things going on right now that we need to be out in front of and we're at a stage in our business we're about ready to jump and you know that our our next mission is to get to 10 million and the the team that's running this right on the other side of that wall and 30 really hardworking people I set those objectives with the leadership team.

And so and that's the one page and you could get that on one page and it the one page business plan is not for your banker to decide to give you money it's it's the one page to communicate to every team member who we are what we're about what our why is what our culture what are the three things we're trying to get done today how do you get yourself involved in that and if you have a career plan and you want to be somewhere better tomorrow than you are today we've got to

SPEAKER_01:do these things. And if we do we want to promote from within what are you doing as an individual to tool yourself to be ready for that growth so we don't have to look outside the company. That's the one page business plan.

SPEAKER_00:It it kind of goes back to something we mentioned at the top of this which is the importance of focus right you have a if you have 50 pages that's fit if you got 50 pages worth of goals and plans it's it's hard to distill that into what actually matters. And so I think the one page really just helps get super clear on here's the actual things that that we are going to focus on, which makes it obviously easier to make those things a reality especially when you have you know the strategy of making sure it's implemented and distilled throughout the whole team you know if if just the leader knows about it, it's not actually going to happen.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And on this one, that's what we do in our three day retreats. I you know we learned from COVID we can have virtual retreats it's it's awesome. I have anywhere from 10 to 20 business owners on a virtual retreat. Guess what we're talking about first day is about sales second day is about leadership third day is about business planning.

SPEAKER_00:You get a 90 day plan based on where you want to go with the company you have the tools because the 90 day plan are four little one pagers inside every year that line up with your objectives let's you know I want to I want to touch on on two more things first one being kind of pulling it all together and creating what you call kind of a turnkey business. And then I want to touch on the last section of the book before we close out but let's start with with pulling it all together. Everything we've talked about is you know strategies, tips, tactical ways to really make this like you said, a turnkey business. What is the value of that? And I think it is something you touch on profit versus equity. Just touch to that piece a little bit and how operating in this way creates a much more valuable asset as opposed to just uh you know a hobby.

SPEAKER_01:Let me see if I can get there uh by describing the stages of of scale in your business. You start out as a solopreneur you then go to the teaming phase. And these these are really exciting stages because it's everything's really really cool.

You're very connected with the people you're working with you're excited things are growing you're putting money in the bank and and you're starting to have this liberty um and this freedom inside of you that hey I can do this um right around the corner and about 80% of my industry are a million and a half or less and when they start getting to that million and a half level they start in a in a little dinghy or a boat and they're in a whirlpool and this is what it looks like for them they're working twice as much as they were as in the teaming phase but they're making half the profit they were making when they were just two or three trucks kind of like

SPEAKER_01:what my dad was the big piece is is that and that's where my that's where I do my heavy coaching and where I'm looking for clients is those folks that are stuck. They may be inches from bankruptcy they may may have um problems at home because they're never home most entrepreneurs have a mistress and they're not they're not cheating on their wife what they're doing um is they're in love with their business and it gets all their energy and attention and they're exhausted when they get home and it just doesn't have to be that way. So how we push through that with my clients it's a lot of fun because the first the first phase is hey what do you what do you hate doing in the business?

It's a great conversation right kind of back to the let let's there's your idea my idea and the better idea you feel stuck I think I think there are some things to do I'm not your not your doctor in the sense that

SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna ask you questions about where it hurts. Well I would say about 80% of the time I hate accounting I hate HR I hate payroll I hate I would say great let's take that hat off. How much time is that going to add to your day and I go well probably 20% I said great we're gonna fill that up with what you love. And they usually tell me and I try to get them to understand that nobody sells their business better than the owner. Nobody buys from anybody with more excitement than the owner right they're talking to the owner we're gonna fill that 20% up with sales activities. You're gonna go out and be the face and you're gonna grow the business and that growth is going to pay for some other things but our next move or our next Bend in the river. Our 90-day plan is to get that off of your shoulders. And what we immediately start doing is adding sales.

Then we start looking at sales and marketing.

SPEAKER_01:We're looking at the culture. We're getting all of the team lined up with that client experience we're talking about. So now we've got three or four or five trucks with the same client experience embedded with this needs-based selling. And all the while I'm working with that, that skilled owner to start talking about and developing leadership, culture, and coaching. Because the next exciting phase for them is coaching the coaches. You start identifying, hey, who's who's a leader in your company? Who do you want to work with and help them develop so they can take care of two or three other people? Now, what are we going to do that extra time? Well, we're going to take a long weekend and we're going to go on a vacation.

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:And we're not going to think about work. But our goal is for you to be able to coach the coaches, leave the business for a week, and it's still be there. Don't worry about if we lose any money, but just still be there. Because now, guess what? When we leave, don't be surprised if we still make money, if we did a good job of coaching. But if we didn't, don't get upset. It's telling you where we need to go to work. Let's go fix those things. And guess what we're going to do after we get those fixed? Garrett, we're going to take another week vacation and see how it goes. Right? And it's so excited when they get out of that whirlpool and they start seeing, hey, um, I've got two or three hours and I don't know what to do with it. Well, that's our goal. It's like a Lycos office. Say, wait a minute, the difference between profit is what you make and stick in your pocket.

Equity is how much is this

SPEAKER_01:business worth? And this worth this business isn't as worth, is not worth as much if you're the answer to every question. It's worth and has equity if it can grow and develop and build without you being the key person for every question. And quite honestly, private equity or anybody that's going to buy that business is going to look at your balance sheet, not your PL. And when they look at the balance sheet, they're going to say, okay, how much cash do we have in the bank? Can we meet our obligations? How much are you involved? If you're not involved, they will pay you more for the business because they're not, they don't want to buy you. They want to buy a business model that works. And you go, well, wait a minute. If I get to that point, why would I sell it? We're in a business that that makes really, really good profit and we earn it. What do you want to do with that?

Have any charities?

SPEAKER_01:You want to set up a foundation? Let's look at retirement. Let's diversify our money. Let's start getting work money working for us. You know, it and so that's and now we're off and running, right? Right. So hopefully, in that, I described profit is how we keep score on the health of the business, the fundamentals of the business. The balance sheet is what is the business doing over time and what would somebody pay for it? Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:Now, balance sheet, there's more on the balance sheet. I know we you didn't tell it ask me to take you into the financials, but we can't talk about scaling the business without somewhere hitting on the budget and the and the financials, the KPIs, because that's how we start to keep score on whether we're doing well or not. Is that simple? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I think at the end of the day, like you said, when you have that equity, you have optionality, right? If the if you love the business and you want to keep it, great, it runs without you. If you want to sell it and get a you know a payday today, great. You have that optionality when you build a turnkey business that can run without you. Let's finish with kind of the last section of the book, kind of the the road less traveled, if you will. There, there's all sorts of different areas we can touch on. So I'll just kind of throw out a couple options and and you can leave the audience with some closing messages. But there's the you know, the fact that you had a hard upbringing and you know that didn't let you or make you see yourself as a victim. And I think that's a really important topic, you know, having an empowered mindset. Um, you know, the the how the turnaround triggered

SPEAKER_00:something deeper in you as opposed to just the the business evolution, but also the personal side of things. And then you mentioned here, you know, what happened what happens to me matters far less than what happens in me. Um, so there, you know, that's the general idea of and and take that that where you take that where you will, and we'll close on that.

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the book's been out long enough. And and uh, I don't know if you know this, but um most books people don't read past the third chapter, okay? You know, we have 30 chapters in the book. I put the epilogue in the back, and I think that's what you're talking about. Uh I put it in the back um for a purpose. And if if you read all the way through the book, then maybe you read the epilogue. But I've I've been long enough now that I've had the book out, and some people have asked me and said, Are you a Christian? And um, and I said, Well, I am, and I have a belief system. Why are you asking that question? And and I try to get to a bigger conversation, but the book has a theme that's going through it. And and and if if you have a sense of it while you're reading, that's something, hey, there's something else being said here. Throughout the book is this idea about natural law.

I mean, just doing

SPEAKER_01:the right thing, putting my bags on the floor, making the right choices for the right things. Um, I was raised by a drill sergeant. Um, I pretty much did not have a relationship with my mother after the age of three. Um, my father returned um as a drill sergeant, and he had one paradigm on how to parent. And so um I've learned that there are many great lessons that he taught me. There are also some things that I chose to erase and not share with my own kids. And so when I say my dad worked really hard, he built um characteristics of personal responsibility, hard work, um, his methods might have been a little rough, okay? And I am glossing over that. Um, but we can either look at those things and feel like, gosh, because we didn't have a lot of money. I mean, I I played sports in college to pay for my school.

Um but we can look at things that happen to us, and we can have a mindset of gosh,

SPEAKER_01:that really sucks. How could that happen to me? Or we could have a mindset of what am I learning from this? What is it that I like about this? What don't I like about this? How am I going to turn that into something positive? And that's what I mean by not being a victim to that. Okay. And so I think for people, it's a lot of work. It's hard. It's not, I don't want to tell anybody that's out there listening, saying, you know, oh man, this guy just he's read one too many self-help books. That's not what I'm talking about, guys. I've I've had some real lows in my life. But when we tend to understand that there's an order to the world like gravity, there's also an order to the things that are unseen that we just don't understand yet. And man, we're learning things and things are being revealed to us at light speed right now. It's a great play time to be alive.

But we can have a choice to look

SPEAKER_01:at something as it's happening to me, or everything can be its own adventure. And that does not mean that I'm smiling and whistling Dixie all the way through it. But there's something from that, and that's what I'm saying. Over time, I was introduced to a lot of mentors, and and I was I was very blessed. I'll use that word. Um, and and I was blessed. And over time, I started to realize that that ordered to the world and this understanding and concept of grace is that grace is freely given to us. And we can make a choice, just like to be a victim or look at something as an adventure. We have a choice to accept that and not offend whoever gave that to us or the people who might have shared things with you. We can also turn around and share that with others. And I've just found that that's a better way to live my life.

And um, you know, I I I will tell you that that um I don't know, it's been

SPEAKER_01:I'm 61 and I can look back, and I made some decisions in my life early to follow a certain path, and that path is why I say I chose the road less traveled. And um Robert Farrost's poem says that made all the difference, and for me, that made all the difference. So got me a little emotional. Um, so follow up with a question right now. Maybe I can close myself a little bit. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00:No, that was uh that's a heck of an ending there. Brent, this has been a fantastic conversation. We really kind of covered the whole journey of your life and tried to frame it around this fantastic book. So, you know, give a little shout out to the book. Um, you know, sell to the people right now because I'm sure if you're still listening, you want to learn a little bit more. So, where can people find you? And and I guess who do you want to reach?

SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I love the fact that you said I shared my life, but my life's not over. I'm 61. I've got another 20-year plan. My plan is to help and coach folks that are in skilled trades or small business. And and like I said, if you're somebody who wants to grow and scale your business without compromising your values, and you can. I if if if there's anybody that can tell you you can, it's me because I did and I have and I still am. Okay. It may be simple, but it's not easy, but there's a path to success. And for me, the way that works is with uh what I call a meaningful conversation. Go to the skilledtradescoach.com. I won't charge you a dime. We'll talk for 30, 40 minutes. I promise you two things.

You will get a free ebook of 30 days to a better business, and I will give you two or three things that you can go to work on in your business right when you hang up the phone with me or when we um

SPEAKER_01:fold our laptop down from a virtual call. And it won't cost you a dime. I sure I'll tell you a little bit about how I do it, what I do. We have retreats and workshops and masterminds. And that just gets in the way of me helping people. But that's what I'm gonna do for the next 20 years of my life. I'm gonna keep writing books and I'm gonna keep helping people. That's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much, Britt. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Garrett. Take care.