Marketing Podcast

Chuck Staszkiewicz's Advice for Scaling Your Contractor Business

By
26 Minute Read
In this podcast episode, Chuck Statskiewicz, entrepreneur and coach, shares his journey from being recruited into plumbing 25 years ago to building a successful business projected to hit $20 million in revenue with a successful exit.

Chuck emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and overcoming self-doubt, reflecting on pivotal moments during the COVID-19 pandemic that led him to seek improvement in his business.

This conversation highlights the significance of humility, with Chuck stressing the need for entrepreneurs to find mentors aligned with their values. Balancing personal and professional life is explored, shedding light on Chuck's experiences as a husband and father.

Tune in to garner more understanding in the nuances of entrepreneurship, personal growth, and the challenges of maintaining a fulfilling life amidst business success.

 
 
Topics Discussed
  1. Chuck's Entrepreneurial Journey: Explore Chuck Staszkiewicz's rise from a plumbing recruit to a business owner with $20M in revenue and a successful exit.

  2. Overcoming Doubts and Continuous Learning: Discuss Chuck's challenges, including coaching without a degree, and his emphasis on continuous learning and personal development.

  3. Authenticity in Business: Examine Chuck's genuine intentions in business, contrasting them with profit-driven mindsets and addressing the current economic landscape for contractors.

  4. Internal Struggles of Entrepreneurs: Uncover Chuck's reflections on entrepreneurs' internal battles, navigating self-doubt, and experiencing a transformative shift during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  5. Choosing the Right Mentor and Balancing Life: Understand Chuck's perspective on mentorship, emphasizing the importance of researching mentors and balancing success in business with a fulfilling personal life.

Audio Transcription

 Hey there. Welcome to another episode of Your Concrete Success podcast. I'm here with Mady Barrera today. Mady, how's your morning going? It's nice and chilly today in, in South Florida. And by that I mean it's 60 degrees outside, so for us it's very, very cold. But it's very nice. It's nice. It's, it's a great, beautiful day outside.

It's a great day to have a podcast, and I'm super excited because today's gonna be a really, really good podcast. Yes, today is gonna be about growth and scalability and scaling yourself as the contractor, the owner of your business. We have an amazing, incredible human being and incredible entrepreneur, investor, coach.

Chuck, I always struggle with his last name and I, you know, I don't wanna say it wrong, Mady, will you help me? I'll say it and watch me say it wrong, and I know. Chuck Staszkiewicz in the house. Perfect. What's going on Chuck? Welcome aboard. How's your day going so far? Hey, great man. Thank you.

Honored to be here and I appreciate that. Beautiful. Chuck, let's, let's go back to the beginnings. I know you ran a plumbing company for 12 years, give or take. Just gimme a quick. You know, one minute summary of how you even got into plumbing business. How do you go from like doing whatever you were doing before to running a business and then last year you weren't paced to $20 million?

Give us a little bit of a recap here.  Yeah. A quick one is you know, always be recruiting, right? Because there was a guy  twenty-five years ago that used to come into a deli that I worked at. Right. And he came in every day and got coffee and he was a plumber. He eventually recruited me and here we are 25 years later, right?

And I wasn't always the greatest employee, but I feel I worked hard for people when I worked for him, right? So you never know who that next. Best employee's gonna be. And it might not be the guy that you're thinking of. It could be the guy that's behind the counter serving you coffee. Incredible.

I love that man. I was also I used to work at a bagel store. One of my goals here used to get a bagel store here. Right, right. In South Florida. Some of the best. But you came from, so that was your background. Someone recruited you when you were working at, at a deli. What were you doing there?  Well, I went to New York Restaurant School just outta high school.

Okay. And I didn't you know, when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, right. Mm-Hmm. So I dabbled in food and then Nice. I, I'd worked in delis throughout high school. Mm-Hmm. So it was easy to get a job. Like in, in Jersey there's a deli on every corner, right? Yeah. So it, it was really easy for me to get a job.

It was great money, you know? Yeah. It was 60 hours a week. Mm-Hmm. You know at the time. I think I was making 17 or $18 an hour. Wow. And I actually took a, a pay cut to $10 an hour to go to plumbing. But I saw, because I saw what the future could be. Incredible. So you went to work for this individual.

And then what got you into this the mindset of opening up your own, your own plumbing business, your own contractor business? What happened there? Well. You know, in, man,  I was always a hustler, right? Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. In six months I was doing side work. I was changing. I, I'll never forget, I changed the faucet for one of my mom's friends, and it took me like two and a half hours.

There was no space behind the sink. It was such a pain in the butt. And,  and I charged her 50 bucks and I was like, man, I'm rich. Right? Like, I thought that was.  And you know, I, I, no, I just always had that hustler mentality.  I liked to work with my hands and I liked getting out there and I liked meeting people.

I liked, you know appreciating their homes. Mm-Hmm. You know, I seen a lot of things in, in people's homes that I eventually put into my own home when I bought it. But yeah, it was, it was really just that man, like I didn't grow up with a whole lot. So I wanted more for myself and in life, and I just went to work. 

So I, I always like to ask this question, especially to successful business owners, successful entrepreneurs, successful individuals. Overall success is measured in a variety of ways,  how you're showing up at home, but the dollar amount that you've been able to, to grow yourself into and, and manifest.  You know, it is, is quite of an achievement.

So going from a daily person to building a company on track to 20 million a year there, there must have been so many breakthroughs that things that you had to break through patterns, belief systems that took you to, to where you got and then exited your company.  Had a successful exit. Could you talk a little bit about that and what you're encountering in this day-to-Day conversations as you're talking with, with other contractors? 

Yeah. You know what Danny like I, I, I love one of your core values is be real, right? Mm-Hmm. Like, I'm, I'm probably the most real guy, you know? Amazing story that you can get, right? And I, I'm not saying that to pat myself on the back, but I tell you like. I barely made it through high school. Wow. Right. I don't have a college degree.

I worked in a deli Right, right after, right after college. So, you know, it, it was, it's still challenging, right? Like, how can I coach businesses without a college degree? I, I face that all the time, right? Like, I, I, I looked my myself in the mirror and I'm like, yeah, but look what you've done. Yeah. Mm-Hmm.

Yeah. You know, and I, and I continue to learn, right? Like, I didn't like to learn in, in school. I like to learn now, like it fills me up, right? Like it is so fun and, and I want to continuously learn so I can improve myself, but also improve and help my clients and the people that are around me.

You know? That's, that's really what it is, right? Is like there,  there, there, there was that challenge I think most people say to themselves, right? Is.  Well how could I do 20 million? There's a thousand other companies like me out there. Mm. Well, there's a thousand other plumbing companies. How could I do it?

Mm-Hmm.  Right. Like, so, you know, I, I mean, I feel that that's probably, I.  One of the, the secret sauces, right? Like, to get up every day and push through when you have those moments, and then when, when that voice or that saying is coming into your head where it tries to creep in that fear, that doubt that tries to creep in, stare at it and, and tell it.

No. Mm-Hmm.  Right? Like, own it, right? Like. Look back at what you've done, how far you've come, right? Yeah, yeah. Coming from a deli,  making $17 an hour, taking a pay cut to owning a company on my own I'd say 20 or 15 years later, growing that company to 20 million with 130 employees. That's pretty  good.

That's incredible, man. That's incredible. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna put that down, but that, that helps me push through when that little voice comes in and says, well, you don't have a college degree so you can't do this. Well, I did it  right. And look at what you did yesterday to propel you for today.

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. So this is incredible story. It's like a, a real. You know, American success story, you came from nothing. And you put yourself through the process. And I personally believe that  your ego is the only thing really standing on the way of the growth and success that you desire.

Because you're gonna have to challenge it every single day. And sometimes it's like moments every other minute. You have to continue to break through and convince yourself.  Which is an interesting, interesting dilemma. What, what are you seeing contractors like right now in this economic environment?

And I love, we, we run in similar circles and there's a lot of personal development. You know, you are one of the most involved students of the game of personal development and growths and and your genuine. You know, in, in other words, your intentions are pure. That's the way you come across when, when we've had conversations.

You're very real in the moment. You're very pure. I can't say that a lot about that, about everyone that I meet in business sometimes. It's all about the bottom dollar and it's just the mechanics, you know which is needed. You need that portion.  Tell me a little bit about what got you into personal growth.

And personal development, what that's done to you and help you in this business journey.  Well, you know, Danny, there, there's a couple things, right? I can tell you this, like, don't we, we talk about that little voice in your head of you can't do it. Mm-Hmm. Right. But then there becomes a voice when you are, when you have some success.

Yeah. It's like, well, I can do anything. Mm-Hmm.  And, and that ego that he talked about, right? Mm-Hmm. And, and I got there, right? I was nine years of business doing $12 million a year. And I thought I was on top of the world. Wow. Right. And nothing could touch me. I knew everything. Right. And this was, this was probably the biggest breakthrough that I had.

Mm-Hmm. Covid hit. Mm,  yep. Mm-Hmm. And I realized, I realized, oh s--.  Okay. And the first thing I did, right. And again. Barely made it through high school, not educated in college and, and stuff like that. But the first thing I did, I said, okay, we're gonna double down on marketing and we're gonna, we're gonna find a trainer, we're gonna find a coach, a mentor.

Mm-Hmm. That's good. And yeah, and that's literally within  two weeks I was, I had sought out two and I, I found CEO Warrior Okay. You know, Mike Aguilera. And literally I went through a three-day training with him.  And by by day two, I realized, oh, I don't know. s---. Yeah,  I like, I was running my business and, and it was.

It was working, but I was watching the bank account go up and then come down, go up and then come down. That's how I tracked my numbers.  Hmm. Interesting. Right At 12 million. At 12 million. At 12 million. We were still winging it. Yep. I was still winging it. Man, I, I say I was the Tom Brady of home service companies 'cause I threw a lot of Hail Marys and they stop.

Right. And, and literally when I, that second day like. That was a huge wake up for me, and I swallowed my pride and I swallowed my ego and I went all in. Yeah. And, and I'm gonna tell you right now, like, I don't, I don't care who you are. And even, even today, like I look forward to finding the next thing that I can learn.

Yeah. Where, but that guy before Kovat was not looking for what he could learn.  He was just looking to do what was next. Right. And you know, so that started the personal growth right there. Yes, it was for business and I believe you can do Mike does a really good job of incorporating personal and business together.

Yeah. So I was blessed by having a great mentor there. I feel that you can find that right mentor elsewhere.  But you, you gotta look right. Like it's not, don't just go get a coach because everybody else says, Hey, this guy's great. Mm-Hmm. Like, do your research. Find somebody that's for you, right? Yeah. And and I'm not saying it's me.

It could be me if I fit your values, great. But  I can tell you this, like there are so many people out there that are claiming to be a coach and claiming to be a consultant. And you know, all this stuff. But when, when, when I meet with one of 'em, what I wanna know is what went wrong, not what they did great.

Right? Mm-Hmm. That's good. Like I told you, nine years I was throwing Hail Marys. Mm-Hmm. At nine years I almost went bankrupt. Yeah, right. I wanna know that s---. And how you overcame that.  I don't wanna know how great you are in 20 million in sales and exit and all that stuff. I wanna know the deepest, darkest secrets because I'm probably having those same things and the, the guys that talk about that I find are  just like, you guys real and wrong?

Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm.  Man, that, that's amazing. That is good. I love that. What went wrong? You're looking for help. You're looking for. Hey, who should I be connected with that can help me go to that next level instead of being sold? And this is, this is what we're about here. We're on a mission to bring transparency even to the marketing space.

Like there's no hype in the game. There is in, in what we do here in our company. There is no hype. Like we're not gonna hype it up. Actually, we, a lot of times we dissuade people from making the investments.  And it may look like we're turning away money and revenue and potential that I know for a fact if we give people the real data, the real facts of that, what they need to work on in their business is not perhaps.

The marketing side of things or improving the sales, but rather internal operational chaos that they have going on. Let me tell you like that's, that's one thing that sets us apart and we continue to chime in. Mady, what are you hearing in this conversation here? What's standing out to you? I mean, I one, some of the things, it's interesting 'cause some of the things, the questions that I have about that I wanted to ask Chuck were things like, you know, oh, what's the next step?

Or whatever like, but I'm hearing so much deeper and so much more like it's more like substance. Like it's not about who you're next hire. It's not who you're gonna hire. Are you gonna hire a sales guy? Are you gonna hire a start? No, it's about go, like actually facing and like learning and growing and, and looking within and, and asking people what.

Went wrong in your business so that I can make it right in mine. And I think that's such an interesting way to see where to go next in terms of like your business. You're not like looking for like a checklist of what I need to, you know, check off the box. You are looking for like a different kind of like growth just altogether, which is very, very, it's a very cool and interesting just way of seeing things.

Yeah, I'm, I'm really liking that. Well, so I want you to touch on this Chuck here. The checklists Methodology here, where you could just go to chat GPT and ask it for advice. Boom, you're gonna get advice.  But on the other side, I see the Chuck that's been married. Mm-Hmm. Has children.  Is enjoying life. Mm-Hmm.

Like you've enjoyed your life. When I look up to entrepreneurs and business owners, I'm like, how much between the, the joy and the passion that they have in life, plus what they've accomplished, who are on the top of the game, I'm like, wow, that's awesome. That's amazing. 

Like, for example, I love to play drums. I love to, like, one of the things I wanna do is tour playing drums and have an amazing time. I get to serve at church. But when I look at you, man, you, you have a great lifestyle and you've been able to incorporate all those things there. You're not gonna learn that from chat GPT,  right?

So you've been able to scale yourself Chuck and I, I like, I like to hear from your end, what was it like? Yeah. Going through the business growth and the different cycles in your business, you might have gone through the struggles. What was it like at home? How did that affect the relationship with your children and how do you get it together to, to the point that, man, you overcame all those things and last year you decided to exit and, and go into your next chapter in life.

Yeah. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. You know, it's interesting that, that you asked that, you know, I'm still working on it, Danny  we had a training this weekend, three days, very involved. And, I reflected on, on some of that stuff that you just brought up.

And it's interesting because. I always say, look, it's easy to grow a business. It's easy to get up and go do the work. It's easy to go change a water heater. It's easy to go do a boiler system. The hard stuff is coming home and  being a husband. Yeah,  being a father, right? Yes. I could do the other stuff that's easy.

The hard stuff's coming home and, and, and putting on that dad hat and, and husband hat. Right. You know. I, I didn't have a lot of great examples either, right? Like my, my family, I come from a broken family and I, I, for me it was.  My wife runs a business too. Mm-Hmm. So we had this mutual understanding of like, that's what it takes.

But we always talked about, okay, when I get to this level, this is what it will be. Right? Mm-Hmm. And when I get here, this is what it'll be. And she, you know, I didn't, we didn't mix our businesses. She wasn't a part of my business and I wasn't a part of her business. But we bounced ideas off each other when.

When and that was some of the greatest times and memories, is just sitting on the couch before kids saying, Hey, I'm gonna do this with my business and I'm gonna do that with my business and I'm gonna do that with my employee. So it was, it was a common interest for me and my wife, right? She wanted to grow a business.

I wanted to grow a business. Both of us last year sold, sold a company. I sold two companies. So again, it's. We had common, common interest, common values, common goals and achievements. Now is it  all rainbows and butterflies? No. No. Yeah, no. We have those moments. Yeah. But I can tell you now because of the personal development that I've done we now communicate a lot better.

We still have our moments where  you probably wouldn't want to be in the room with us, but, it's, it goes, it's a lot smoother  getting out of it, right? Mm-Hmm. Like before we used to have these big blow ups, and each person would go to their corner and be steaming and ready to get back in there and fight again.

Now it's, it's, it goes, it, it, it, it  dissipates a lot faster, right? Because we know we, sometimes we just gotta say what we need to say and then come back. With a different mindset, like, like a switch like that and say, okay, now I'm ready to really hear you. I let the emotions go. Mm-hmm. Now I'm ready to really hear you, and how can I be there for you now?

Because before when I was reacting, it was based on emotions. Now that I've come back, okay, now I'm ready to move forward. How can I can, how can I be there for you?  Right, right. That's, that's something that Mike talks a lot about too. That alignment piece between your, your spouses. Like, you know, if you guys are not aligned regardless of where you're heading, like Danny and I are, have to be aligned because we're running a business together.

But if we're not aligned in, in where we're going, then it's almost like it, it slows us down in everything else. So we. Always have to find like that homeostasis like alignment so that we can, you know, move, move quicker almost in the things, our goals and stuff that we're looking forward to.  Yeah. That, that's, yeah,  and I'll have one thing to that, you know I heard this a while ago, and it's like, the things that you're afraid of you should be running towards, right?

Mm-Hmm. That's good. I'm, I'm, I'm.  I'm afraid of being a dad. Sometimes I'm afraid of being a husband. So now I find myself running towards that more, and it's not the last thing that I focus on. Again, we tend to focus on what's comfortable and what's easy. Right. At least I did because growing a business working out in the field, all that stuff, that was comfortable and easy.

Yeah. Coming home and having a discussion with your wife on something major.  It may not be easy right now, but as you do it more and more, it's gonna get easier and easier. And I can tell you by having those hard conversations that I just don't want to, I'd rather go do a water eater, has ma has improved my relationship  a hundred times.

Easy. I agree. I agree. This is one practice we do. I do with Mady and she does with me. It's like, Hey, where are you at right now? And I just want to hear the real, real version. And the other thing is like, am I in a position to receive what you're about to say? Mm-Hmm. Or do I need to shield myself or do I need to take a moment for myself before that person, before she delivers the message?

Or I tell her, Hey, what I'm about to just brace yourself for a moment because I need to share where I'm at and I need you to hear me out. There's sometimes like there's no immediate resolution to whatever dilemma and chaos. How has that impacted our relationship be because we came from, man, we came from a, a divorce.

Mm-Hmm. Our, our ex-partners. I mean, the way we used to do things was night and day. You might have gotten into fights, but I want to hear a little bit, some, a little bit more about that. Because there's so much power in that if you find certainty at home, you will perform better in business. That is a reality.

If you have stability at home. You go into business now, if you're running away from home which is something I did in my past marriage, man, I would work my a-- off twenty-four, seven sometimes, you know? Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate knowing where you're at, and I appreciate you almost like warning me, Hey, this is gonna be a conversation.

That's not gonna be an easy one. And you do, you, you brace yourself, you shield yourself, and you're ready to listen to what you know. Do you like when, when we're having those conversations. Well, no, but at the same time I do because they're necessary. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But I don't, I don't like them.

But I think that having that, almost like for me, that frame where you tell me, Hey, this is where we're gonna, this is the where we're going. This is what's gonna happen, this is what we're gonna talk about. Tell me when you're ready. It puts me in different mindset to receive in a curious way, which is something else that I've learned through.

You know, Jen it. You have to be a curious listener. So at that point. When you frame it, it, it, we can have the hard conversation and frankly it does get easier. Like Chuck says, it does get easier and you can almost like put, okay, this is a tough conversation hat, let's, let's have it, let's move on with it and then let's, let's keep going forward and let's solve whatever problem there may be.

So it does get easier the more you do them. And I think that when the emotion comes in of not preparing and not framing the actual conversation comes into play, into the conversation, that's when things blow up. And it's like. A complete waste of like energy and time and because there's no, there's no like resolution.

We did our, our yearly planning. On getaway, like we had, we started off Chuck. We started off the getaway. We didn't have kids for Christmas this year, so we decided to go go to this place, mini retreat and plan out our year, go through our agendas. When we got there, we were so distant from each other. There was high friction moments like, and I said, okay, we're we gotta have this conversation?

No, I don't want to have it right now. This is not the time I need. I said. If we're gonna start this out this way, we only have a couple of days here. What are we gonna accomplish? So this is one of those moments about being real and real and, and look, I'm, I'm with you for life. That is my commitment. I.

To you, but I cannot force you to do it. Right. How would I feel if I'm pouring and trying and working on it? And I don't get that reciprocal Right. You know, buying from, from you. And it's interesting when you run towards the hard stuff That's so good. Run towards, towards the things that you've been avoiding, the conversations.

And let's move this over to, to the business side of conversations Chuck. What, what have been some of the biggest struggles in, in the business side of things? Has it been people, has it been scaling? Has it been marketing? Has it been, what, what's it, what's it been for you?  I, I, I mean, I went through the challenge.

You know, I probably went through challenges in every area. I didn't, you know, definitely at times, right? You know, I,  I would say the biggest  would've been systems and processes. I, I feel, because.  I did, I did it backwards, right? Mm-Hmm. Where I look, there's a whole new breed coming out and, and I'm really excited about this 'cause I get to work with some of these people and they're putting in systems and processes and they have the availability like ChatGPT and these other resources and great mentors and people that have done it before them that are out there and putting themselves in the market like us.

But there's plenty more. The, the, the new, the new breed that's coming through right now. Watch out Danny. I'm excited about this because I'm watching guys in their first year that understand their numbers, putting in systems and processes, have a hiring, onboarding process. I. Like our understanding marketing at a deeper level and it's like, holy cow.

Yeah. Like watch what these guys are gonna do in the next 10 years. And that's what lights me up and excites me. So I would say for me it was systems and processes. Now, because  I was winging it for nine years, I didn't have a lot of those and then I woke up, right? Mm-Hmm. I covid hit, woke up and, I find myself with 130 employees in no systems and processes.

No way. That was challenging. Wow. Wow. Right? And And I feel a lot of businesses run like that. Mm-Hmm. You just go out, do the work, collect the check, book the next job. Right. Sell the next job. Right. But if you start to dial in the systems and processes, this will actually buy you more time. Right? Yes. And for me.

When I started to put those into place, it was like a relief inside me and a relief inside my head because I knew that I didn't have to be there to tell someone to do it. There was a system in place that showed them how to do it, and I could go home. And not that I ever really shut off because I don't think many business owners ever really shut off.

Yeah. But I was able to shut off more than I was before I had them in place.  Systems and processes. That's good.  Numbers and people like, that's the name of the game. Systems, process numbers and people. To run the systems and processes though, you need top  caliber individuals. Can you speak about the people that you surrounded yourself with that you. 

That helped you scale your business faster, better and move in the right direction. What positions and seats were those in the company?  They were all pain in the a---, Danny. Wow. They were all pain in the a---. No, I was the pain in the a--. Yeah, I was. Yeah. Right. And, and until I realized that I was the pain in the a--, I couldn't find good people. 

It is not that I had good people around. Mm-Hmm. I just didn't bring, they weren't allowed to bring their talent out because I wasn't a letting, I wasn't allowing them to, I wasn't the leader that they deserved, you know? And, and I hope none of 'em listen. No, actually, I, you know, I hope they do listen to this because I couldn't have done it without my people.

Right. We had an amazing team. You know, and someone else said this this last week and it brings it up for me is, you know, believe in them  more than they believe in themselves. Mm. And I think the person that said it this weekend is want you know, want for them to achieve their goals more than they want to.

Right. But to know them, right, to know that they wanna buy a house, to know that they want to go on that dream vacation, to know that they wanna, you know, have another, a baby, or, you know, to know all those things is super important, right? It's not always about the company's revenue. It's about what's what, what do your individual people want?

Hmm. Right? And it's not always money.  It is not always money. I had a lot of high level. Managers I had 11 managers and they all could have went and went to another company and made more money. Mm-Hmm. And I feel that it really was because I cared about what was going on outside of work with them.

Mm-Hmm. And I asked 'em about it all the time. All the time. How's your wife? How's your husband? How are the kids? What are you, what are you accomplishing next? Yeah. What's your next goal? Like, what do you want? Right.  Whatever that may be.  If it's more time at home, okay, let's build a career path and get you more time at home.

Mm-Hmm? You don't wanna be in the field anymore. Okay. What else can we get? What else could you do? Is it a management position? Is it, you know, whatever it is. Too many people  ask those questions too late. Mm mm-Hmm? When people are on their way out the door. Yeah. So  why not ask every single day like you?

Look, we spend more time at work than we do with our families at home.  It's important to have  a, a relationship there and not just, Hey, you go do a job, I give you a paycheck.  You gotta have some sort of communication and bond. I'm not saying be best friends with your employees. That's not it. You can't do that either, but there is, there is a middle ground.

Mm-Hmm. And by understanding those things, you know, when, when you're asking your employee, Hey, how's things going? And they're, they're not so great, you can correlate it with what's happening at work too. Mm-Hmm. They're not achieving what they, they want at home. How do you think their production at work's gonna be?

Yeah. And vice versa. How do you think their home life's gonna be if they're not achieving their goals at work?  Yeah, yeah. So it brings it to culture. So it seems like you had a great culture. We had the best culture, the best culture. Give us one nugget on, on culture. What was your biggest lesson in culture? 

Wow, that's a, that's a good one. Probably that it's not expensive to do the things. It's expensive to not do the things. Wow.  Right. That's probably the biggest lesson. You know, you take out 130 people to a, to dinner or to a game or a family night or whatever it may be. That's, that's a big, that's a big check.

Mm-Hmm. Right. But what, what if I didn't do that? How would my culture.  Have been. Mm-Hmm. Yeah, that's, that's what I'm really looking at. And like, look man, they deserve it. Sometimes I didn't have the money to do it, and I said, Nope.  I mean, I, I gave my word. I'm keeping my commitments. That's the other thing.

That's probably the biggest lesson. Danny. Mm-Hmm. I would say, and I had a conversation with a past employee yesterday.  95% of the guys that came through my office, guys, gals. People that worked for me. And I would ask them, Hey, why? Why do you wanna leave where you're at?  It was because of false promises.

Mm.  Your commitment be your word. You say something, you better deliver it. And I used to, my managers used to fight me on this all the time, and they say, why are you doing this? Why are you so being so nice with this? Mm-Hmm. I said, give my word. Yeah. When I give my word, I keep it. Yes. And I believe that's probably. 

I, I, I like, I don't wanna say probably it is what my culture thrived on. They knew if I said something, it was gonna happen.  Incredible.  Yeah. Incredible. Now you are in a different stage of the game and you are helping other business owners out. Are you industry specific? Are you only plumbing or are you working with contractors?

Home improvement contractors, yeah. Yeah, so I'm right now I'm currently working with a roofer, water damage company, HVAC  contractors a detail car detailing place. You know, we'll, we'll look at anything and see if we we're, we can be a fit dating just like you. Like, I don't want to take someone's money.

I don't do this because I have to work. I do this because I want to help people grow. Yeah. Mm. And I, I like, if, if you're not a fit, I'm gonna tell you like, look. Do this, this, and this. Mm-Hmm. Maybe somebody else is out there that could help you. I would help them find someone. Mm-Hmm. But sometimes it's not a fit for everybody, right?

Yeah. And that, and that's okay. Yeah. They're just, you know, we've worked with startup companies and we've gotten them a lot of, a lot of traction. Right. But sometimes. It may not be a fit, and that's, that's totally fine. We will, we will meet with anyone and make sure that they are a fit for us. And the last thing we wanna do is take people's money and waste their time.

We, we just, that's, we're not in the business to do that. It's not, it's not a numbers game for us. It's quality. Mm-Hmm. And, and it's like we have a cap of how many people we're gonna work with. We're three quarters of the way, or we're a quarter of the way to our cap already. Mm-Hmm. And we started in November.

Like, we're gonna keep it small and like, it's not to the ma---. Right. So, you know, if you feel like you'd be a good fit, please reach out. I, I'll have a conversation with anyone, Danny. It doesn't matter. Concrete, you know, like I said, water damage, roofing.  Trade services outside of Utah. I can't do home services in Utah for the next four and a half years.

But you know, I've talked to attorneys, car detailers, auto mechanics it, it doesn't, business is business. Mm-Hmm. Right there, there, there's, there's certain fundamentals that it all correlates. Right. And if I could do this in home services, I could do it in detailing, I can do it with an attorney's office, actually, attorneys, it's funny.

They're really book smart. They have no idea how to run a business.  Like seriously, they don't know. Oh gosh. They s--- about marketing. Yeah. They don't know s--- about hiring, but they're really good when they get in front of a judge and they can recite all the codes from the book of, of the test that they took.

Right. Oh gosh. So, you know, any, any business Danny, I just want to, me and my sister, we just want to help and, and serve people like it. It's not. Right now is probably  the craziest time I've seen in my life with, with everything that's going on. Mm-Hmm. And I don't think people wanna do this alone anymore.

No. You know, even, even when my ego told me I knew everything Mm-Hmm. Deep down inside, I didn't wanna do it alone. Yeah, yeah. Right. And that's what I feel that you know, why we started doing this is because we're, we're already helping. Seven companies, right. Go to the next level. And we've seen in a short amount of time their progress.

So like when you Yeah, that's why we got into it. We wanna see the success and we wanna see other people hold up their hands in victory. Right. It's not just about us. Like that's the super win, right? Like yeah, it's great to do it yourself, but that saying of it's lonely at the top.  It's true, you know, when you do it alongside someone else. 

It's even, it's, it's amazing something you mentioned and then we're getting ready to wrap it up here, which is very important, is you don't have the time and the luxury to do it slow anymore. You don't, you, you really don't. Mm-Hmm. Between the economical constraints, the shifts, if it's happening, technology, the pace that things are moving, AI and the newcomers that understand business fundamentals at a higher level.

Like the gap is getting so much wider that if you don't partner up with individuals that are playing at a bigger level and got the game already nailed down, I mean you're, you're really gonna be pushed down and forced down. And this is a big effort where can people find you and learn and connect with you Chuck. 

Yeah. So you can reach out to us at opusgolds.com. That's O-P-U-S-G-O-L-D-S dot com. You can put a chuck at Opusgolds.com to get me directly. Mm-Hmm. I'll throw my cell phone number on here. Sure. Just in case anybody wants to reach out. It's 2 0 1 2 9 4 5 2 8 7 2 0 1 2 9 4 5 2 8 7. Shoot me a text. Happy to talk to anybody.

We offer a free one hour session with us. Come on and talk to us. Mm-Hmm. We'll see if, if you're a fit, if you're not, that's great. We'll help you find someone. Yeah. But don't, don't go it alone. You don't have to. Suffering alone is, is, is a choice. There are so many options out there now, and whether it's me or someone else, find someone.

Yes. Find someone that you can, can really grow and scale with, but find the right one. Mm-Hmm. Don't just find anyone. Find the right one. Do your research. Beautiful. Thank you for coming on board here. Chuck, I really do appreciate, and I just wanna clarify what Chuck has been saying here. He doesn't need to do this.

He's very well off financially. He doesn't need to work another day in his life for the rest of his life and probably another two generations. That being said here, thank you very much for your willingness to come on onto the show Chuck. Really appreciate it. It's been a great time. And anyone listening, make sure that you tune into your Conquer Success podcast.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Spotify, apple, wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, make sure you subscribe, give us your feedback, and we'll see you on the next one. Thanks for watching. 

Danny Barrera

Danny Barrera

Founder of Concrete Marketing Crew. Author of the up-and-coming book, "Sell More Garage Floors". Contributor to the Concrete Decor Magazine. Host of Your Concrete Success Podcast. We're on a mission to elevate the concrete coating & decorative concrete industry.

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