Hey guys, welcome back to the Homework Assignment Podcast.
I'm your host, RJ Patino, and yet again, we are going to talk about things that we need
to do on a daily basis to be able to balance our home life and our work life.
We missed a few weeks of recording, which I apologize to all of you who look forward
to our podcast.
We had a lot of things going on and I learned a valuable lesson that podcasting definitely
takes time and it takes dedication and it definitely needs to be a priority or else
it's going to get lost in all the chaos.
So with those adjustments that are being made to ensure that we do record, we're going to
make sure to have a recording every single week, post new content weekly, if not more
if we can, to be able to provide everything that you guys are looking for in the education
part of business and just following our experiences and all the people we're going to be interviewing.
So I kind of just wanted to give you guys a recap of the last couple of weeks.
It's been outrageously insane the last few, two weeks because we had a couple of cool
things going on.
Number one, I've been out of town due to jobs and stuff and building some relationships
with some clients that's panning out and that is fantastic.
Which to touch base on that sometimes in business at least we have to do things to establish
a relationship and I've done that a few times.
I've done a few things where people needed some last minute things that maybe I don't
do on a normal basis.
That's either smaller than what I usually do or maybe something special that I've never
done and I've gone out of my way to accomplish these things for certain clients that I wanted
to build a relationship with and that's led into a great relationship, work that I actually
do and has built a trust with the client.
So don't be afraid to take that leap if it's something like hey I don't normally do this
or this is too small of a project, whatever the case is, jump into it if you believe that
relationship has potential and you have the vision to be able to see that.
Apart from that we had an amazing opportunity to be part of a contractor coalition summit
hosted by AFT, Brad Levitt and NS Builders as well as Contractor to Style, Construction to Style.
They hosted an amazing event, it was in Austin Texas so it was fantastic.
We actually did something a little fun because it was my birthday over this last Friday so
I dragged my wife and my daughters with me so instead of flying from Phoenix to Austin
we thought it would be fun to go to Vegas, hop on a flight there so went to Vegas, missed
my flight and so we ended up having a stay a day in Vegas and made the best of it, we
had a bunch of fun and went the next morning, made our flight but that ended us up a little
bit late to the summit which is totally fine.
We still learned a ton of stuff, made some great relationships and built you know just great knowledge
and relationships that are going to help propel our company forward.
For those of you that don't know because I'm not sure if I ever talked about it, the vision
here at Elder Contracting is to provide a luxurious experience while building a dream
home or bringing a dream to life specifically in new construction and remodeling, renovating.
For me it's been really important to establish these relationships not just with other local
companies but companies from all over the nation, some of the top builders, top performing
companies and be able to establish relationships and learn what they're doing in their company,
their structure, how they're being able to provide that A plus experience to their customers
and this summit allowed me to do that so it was fantastic.
Like I said I met a lot of great people and I learned a lot of great things and it's interesting
to see like oh, you know they present something and you're like oh you know what I've been doing
that, that's what it's called?
Okay fantastic, no wonder it's working and now that you recognize it and know it you're
able to dive into it deeper and take out all the kinks and make it even perform even better.
So it was fantastic and I didn't have a certain topic I was going to talk about today but
I just wanted to get on here and wanted to talk and wanted to be able to provide and
dedicate myself to the podcast and so I just wanted to share a little bit of the things
that I've learned and some of the insights that took place in my head while listening
to some of these amazing people who built these companies over several years and became
some of the best in the nation.
One of the things that really graphs me is that just like we've talked about before,
the life that we live can get very crazy and so it's really important to have time to yourself.
The last couple months if not longer I've been going through a little bit of a headspin
to where things haven't gone necessarily the way I wanted it to and we've all faced disappointment
and sometimes especially in my position which I may be speaking for many people, sometimes
I can feel like I have the world weighted on my shoulders.
When you're an entrepreneur, you own a company, you have a lot of people that rely on you,
not only your clients rely on you but so do your employees and the people who work for
you and sometimes that can be a lot of weight to hold and if you don't find a way to release
that it builds up, it builds up and then when things go wrong or things don't go as planned
on a day which is a daily occurrence, things never go the way we want it to, sometimes
things will go good but there's always problems and there was a podcast a while ago we talked
about expecting the unexpected and so even with that mindset, if you let these things
build up and this weight really just grow over time, it's going to come down to a point
where you're just having a day and something doesn't go right, that weight just crushes
you and that is a normal occurrence to a lot of people.
And in this industry that I'm in, in entrepreneurship in general and so it's really important to
take that time and be able to clear your mind and so some of the changes that we're making
especially in our work life is we're adjusting our hours of operation, we're adjusting our
hours of communication with our clients so that we can dedicate after hours and weekends
to ourselves to rejuvenate, to spend time with our family and be able to balance that
a little bit more.
So that was kind of one of the cool lessons that I learned is that I hear this all the
time like hey you need to hustle, you need to do this, it's nonstop 24-7 and it is.
The mindset never dies, the hunger never dies but you have to take time to rebalance yourself,
to rejuvenate and gain that energy that you need.
If you just go, go, go, go, go and you're not taking care of yourself, at some point
you're going to collapse and when that collapse happens, it could be a career ending collapse,
it could be even a life ending collapse and so take that time for yourselves. Okay.
It's okay to understand that hey, I may not be working in this moment, I may be sitting
on the couch talking to my wife, I may be playing with my kids, I may be out at Disneyland
for a vacation, it's okay to do that.
Take the time that you need because nothing's going anywhere and you're going to be able
to operate at a higher capacity, you're going to be able to operate better by taking that
time for yourself and I do think that's one of the big misconceptions in entrepreneurship
or the hustle in general is that people, they think the minute that you stop, you're not
dedicated, don't feel that way.
It's okay to be dedicated to your work as well as your home life and yourself so you
can perform better and you can be at your A game, your peak 24-7 for the people that
you're surrounding yourself with, the people that you're providing for, the people that
you're working with that are collaborating with you, right?
So take that time, take a deep breath, breathe and be able to spend the time that you need
to focus on yourself.
Thinking about that, I know we interviewed Blake on our last podcast and I remember talking
to him and asking him like hey, why do you get up at 3 AM and he said hey, those hours
are for me because after a certain time in the day, everybody's calling me, the world
needs me and so whatever works for you guys, find that time, definitely readjust yourself,
center yourself and get a good ground so that you can start explosive every single day and
it's going to be different for everybody, right?
Another important lesson that I learned was that you're never, how do I put this, don't
let your feeling of not being big enough, good enough or being able to provide enough,
hold you back from going where you want to go.
So it's been interesting for me because we've jumped into a couple of coaching programs
over this last year and the programs that we've been a part of, we're a very blessed
company, I think we're more blessed than we deserve because we just keep growing even
through all the mistakes we're making, there's just something we're doing right and it may
just be the pure you know love of Christ that's kind of carrying us along but we've been blessed
to be a decent sized company and have a decent amount of revenue coming in and so we're a
little bit bigger than some of the companies that have been a part of these coaching programs
that we're in and so it's been interesting to be there, be in that position and listen
to things being taught and then it's awesome to go to like this seminar I went to and be
the smallest company there, be the company that's doing the least amount of revenue,
be the company that's maybe even been in business the least amount of time and have the least
amount of employees and so that's, I'm not going to say it was a humbling experience,
you know what I will because the knowledge definitely was, I mean I don't ever, we never, I don't
think anybody on our team is very boastful and prideful about where we are, we're all
very grateful and understand that we make a lot of mistakes and we're still learning
a ton but it definitely was an interesting experience to be surrounded by these people
that are 10 times bigger, that have spent so much more time or have done it right and
made less mistakes because they learned the right way to do it before they started and
kind of be in that environment and it made me feel like oh man I'm inadequate, like what
am I doing here, should I even be here, like why was I invited, why did I qualify to come
to the summit and one of the things I learned is that you know what, we may have been the
smallest but we're not too, we're not, we're enough to go where we want to go and so one
of the biggest takes that I had from that was that you know I've had this plan of going
a certain way in my company and in my life and my career and I always thought I was a
little bit further away than how I felt at this conference, I felt like you know what,
it's going to be a step by step process which it is but I felt like I had a hundred steps
to get to where I needed to go and this made me realize no, I can go, I can do this now,
I can dive into this now and so I think you know taking that and looking back, I can pinpoint
exact moments where I did feel inadequate, I felt inadequate with what I was doing in
my life, I felt inadequate myself, I asked my questions, can I do this, am I equipped
for this, did they choose the right person, did my clients choose the right contractor,
I know I felt that a ton and I still feel that when I get jobs that are bigger than
my you know my biggest job that we've ever done, we're you know about to sign on one
right now and it's like okay, big property, you know 7,000 square feet, you know we're
going to do an addition and it's like you know this, you know and can I provide my client
the experience they're paying us for right and it's all talk until you're actually in
the situation and the answer to that is yes, you can, we can and that little voice in our
head that's telling us we're not good enough or inadequate, that voice is nothing but negative
and we need to fight that because if we don't, we miss all these amazing opportunities and
we've all succumbed to this in our life, we've all been a victim to that voice in our head
that says hey, you can't do this, this isn't going to work, you're not good enough or even
maybe a little bit less negative like hey, you just got to wait a little bit longer.
Like I said, I was feeling like oh, I have a hundred more steps, you know I've been making
progress but we're just not there quite yet when in reality, I am there, it's time to
go now.
So like what was holding back?
What was that feeling of inadequacy?
Was that feeling that you know I don't have this system just right or you know what, because
of this one thing, I may not be able to provide the best experience for my client and in reality,
I have all the tools, I have all the resources and I have all the wit and the grit to be
able to get what I need to get done and provide that for my client and that pressure, that
anxiety, that comes with the territory, right?
And so it's easy to also mistake that for the same thing, that little voice in your
head that tells you you're not good enough just because you're feeling the anxiety of
something unknown, something new, the nervousness and the feeling of inadequacy, that's always
going to come time and time again as you go bigger and bigger and bigger and you grow
and grow and grow.
I can correlate that with becoming a dad when I found out my wife was pregnant and it's
like you're so excited in the beginning and then I laid down on that and I was like am
I ready to be a dad?
Like I'm going to have to provide for this little child, I'm going to have to, it's not
just me that is going to get hurt if I do something wrong or if I make a mistake, it's
going to affect my child now and I've got to protect her and make sure they're safe
and now when we go out of town on trips, I'm going to be on a crazy dad mode, am I going
to be able to protect her?
Am I big enough, am I strong enough if somebody wants to hurt my family?
There's just all these things that were going through my head and I felt that feeling again
right there, the feeling of inadequacy, I'm not good enough yet, I should have waited,
I should have had a better career or been further in my career before I had a kid or
I should have made more money or I should have got bigger, I should have worked on me
and my wife's marriage more but in reality, I was ready and now I'm having my third kid
and that's after adopting two kids and I feel this time around, ready.
Now guess what, I still kind of make more money, I'm still growing the business, I'm
still doing all the same things I was doing with my first kid and now I can look back
and see that track record of like okay, I succeeded, I succeeded and I'm going to succeed
again and so I do still face that inadequacy feeling even with having my third child, even
having gone through it a couple of times but it's not as strong and I'm more confident
now, I'm more confident.
Maybe it's going to get today when I have my sixth or eighth kid because yes, we're
crazy, me and my wife want eight kids, maybe I'm going to get to eighth kid and maybe not
even feel that but I highly doubt it because we're human and we want to be the best version
of ourselves, we want to reach our utmost potential and with that we're always going
to feel at times we're not good enough and we're especially going to feel that when we
fail, okay you know when maybe your kid falls off a bed or you backed up and hurt your child on accident
or you saw something happening and you could have avoided it, you didn't or you made a
wrong business decision or you took on the wrong job.
Those moments of failure, those battles that we lost and or will lose, those are going
to provide those feelings again so we're going to come into contact with it time and time
again but as you probably know where I'm going with this is that that doesn't mean the war
is over.
You lost a couple of battles but that's fine, you can conquer the war.
Those were probably the two biggest takes I had from this summit and it's caused me
to do a few things.
Adjust the structure of my company, adjust the vision a little bit, adjust the steps
that we're taking to get to where we want to go to implement things I've been waiting
to implement because I think I thought I needed to wait a little bit longer to be a little
bit bigger when in reality I know who we are, I know what we can do and I know our potential
and that potential can be implemented now and so for any of you out there that have
that feeling of inequity and inadequacy, fight that voice, fight it.
Trust yourselves, trust your gut, follow who you are and who you want to be and don't stop
even if other people or yourself are telling you that you can't do it because I'm here
to tell you you definitely can and the difference between the people who make it and succeed
and the people who don't are the people who listen to that voice or other people and the
people who don't.
Time and time again, I can't think of one success story that I've listened to where
somebody told them or people didn't tell them that hey you can't do this or you're not going
to do this or they didn't feel that they could do this.
Like I said it's all part of the game so listen to those around you that have gone through
it and understand and be prepared that you're going to go through it and it's okay because
if you push through it you're going to succeed and you're going to get to where you're wanting
to go and guess what you're going to face it again and you're going to push through
again and you're going to face it again and then you're going to push through but it's
going to be step by step more success and it's going to be easier and easier as time
goes on and the more you face it.
So all in all guys, you know it's fun, it's hard, it's exhausting to try and find the balance
between home and work life and trying to make sure that you're being successful not only
on the battlefield but also at home with your family and not only being the best employee
or the best business owner but also trying to be the best dad, the best brother, the
best nephew, we all have families so wherever you're at in your life it's definitely possible
to do both but it takes time and it takes understanding and so I hope you guys get enough
out of this podcast as we continue to go to be able to implement these little things and
remember these things as the days go on that you're doing it, keep with it, implement all
the things we're talking about, listen to the experience from all these other people,
ask family members, ask other people in your industries or your careers what they're doing,
people that are more successful than you and what they're doing to balance that life and
how they're coping with it and how they're pushing themselves and what they do to work
out and get more exercise, you know they're all most successful people are going to have all the same principles
because they're universal and they've existed for thousands of years and they work, that's
the most important concept to understand is that they work.
This is the Homework Assignment Podcast, tune in next week, we're going to have a great
show for you guys, we've got more guest speakers on our way and if you haven't liked or follow
us click the link below, the Linktree link, you can follow all of our social media, it's
also going to have our social media for Elder Contracting, we're going to be pounding amazing
content out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, not only of you know the Homework Assignment Podcast
but all the stuff that we're doing in our company, I think it's really important that
you guys are going to be able to see the stuff that we're talking about here actually being
implemented in our company and you're going to be able to see all the amazing things that
come from it so tune in and make sure you like and share the show.