Hey guys, welcome back to the Homework Assignment podcast.
I'm your host, like always, don't think it's ever going to change.
Ardrey Petino.
Today, we are going to kind of attack a question that we got on one of our, I guess, a comment
which still is a question.
They asked, how are you getting all of these people, all these different guest speakers
who have accomplished so many things, how we're meeting them, kind of, I guess, more
about the relationships is probably what they're asking about.
So, figured I kind of tackle it.
Our very first episode of the Homework Assignment, we kind of gave a little bit of a background.
It was a terrible episode.
I highly recommend you do not watch it.
We had just a crappy little setup.
We just wanted to get something going.
And actually, I have my wife on that episode.
I should probably bring her back and talk a little bit more about our history now that
we have an actual following.
But all in all, the experience I've had on this entire entrepreneurship journey just
goes so far back.
It's kind of insane.
I think what I want to talk about today is mostly about just kind of the many failures
along the way that I don't think I've shared with very many people just because they're
not important.
They're irrelevant.
They've come.
They've gone.
And honestly, I don't ever focus on the failures.
But I do think it's important to, every now and then, be able to look back and appreciate
those failures and really have those wow moments.
Even if you're not where you're wanting to go or where you want to be, to be able to
look back and see how far you've come.
And I truly believe it doesn't matter who you are, what you do, where you're at in life.
Everybody can do this.
There are some, they were at one point in a worse position in their lives.
I don't care if you think you're at rock bottom and this is the worst thing that's
ever happened to you.
You can take a look back and you can find growth.
Period.
It doesn't matter.
And I say that because I've been one of those people in the worst positions.
I think I could have ever been in in my life and I've been able to do that.
So I guess starting out is what I think a lot of people don't know about me unless they
know me personally is that my father, so I grew up in a loving home, two great parents.
And some of you guys know my story about my parents and how they came and came to be drug
addicts and I don't really have a really strong relationship with them anymore.
But growing up, my dad had a tire mechanic shop.
It was known very well locally.
It was staged in Mesa.
It was called Race Tires.
My dad has the same name as me, Ramon, but he went by Ray and his dad actually started
at my grandpa, my grandpa, my dhata.
And it was successful.
My dhata was a very successful man.
He had built several different companies, made millions of dollars and growing up, my
dad was kind of born into that.
So my dad worked there over the summers, learned the family company and he was the younger
brother and my older, or I guess not my older, but his older brother, my uncle, Billy, he
had a drug issue, just kind of went off the rails.
So the family coming I handed down to my dad.
And so growing up from a young age, I was kind of brought up in that.
It was more of a family environment at the tire shop that he was in.
And so we would go over there all the time.
We'd stop by.
The summers were great.
We'd always stop by.
My mom was always picking up money for something every single summer.
We did a lot of cool stuff on a lot of vacations.
I mean, I had a pretty awesome life.
And didn't know anything really about struggle.
What I'm glad though is that I'm glad my dad taught me some work ethics.
So he, my dad bought me everything he could, everything I ever needed for sports.
He got me a, you know, help me build my first truck, all this kind of stuff.
So I had that, I had those great experiences and opportunities, those blessings that many
people don't get.
But he also taught me how to work hard.
And I think in hindsight, if I actually look back all these great things I got, I actually
do feel like I earned them because I worked really hard every winter break, spring break,
any break from school.
If I wasn't doing a sport, I was over there working.
I was wanting to make money.
I liked making money.
It got to a point at 16 when my dad would have to go out of state or something for work.
You know, I had uncles and people that were the thirties, you know, that would work with
my dad were his right hand man, but he trusted me more than anybody.
I knew the family business a lot.
Well, I was really good at it.
And so I would have the keys to register.
I would, I would be in control of the cells and everything like that.
And so I didn't get paid very much.
And I think that's because, you know, my dad reciprocated that and some of the stuff that
he was buying me, all the sports I was doing, the travel and stuff like that.
So, you know, to me that this was all just extra cash anyways, because everything was
paid for.
Um, yeah, that taught me a lot about I think business and it really sparked that love for
entrepreneurship and being able to kind of dictate and control my life, my future, the
freedom that everybody yearns to have.
Of course, I didn't understand the true effects or I guess the downfalls of entrepreneurship
at that age.
That was all that all rested on my dad, which he ended up, you know, in 2008 economy dropped,
business got bad.
He didn't know a thing about business running a business running like that.
Everything was kind of sent in stone from my, my grandpa.
And so he ran into the ground, took out loans on our house and equity on the business.
They didn't pay taxes and anyways, he ended up losing everything.
But kind of looking back that truly, truly taught me a lot about entrepreneurship.
So over the years, as I was in high school and stuff, there were so many different businesses
that I tried to develop and create with friends, pretty much with all with friends.
I don't think I ever did one by myself at that point.
Um, but Kyle was a part of a few, uh, Mike is part of a few.
Actually, I think, I think them two are a part of all of them.
Before I remember, um, straight, we had like low, loyal apparel, old pine.
Uh, we were trying to help our friend do long boards.
We were out of everything.
The only one that got any kind of traction with our loyal apparel.
The logo is awesome.
People love the shirts we were driving to houses to deliver orders.
Honestly, it had a ton of potential, but there were seven people in it and we didn't know
anything about business and anything about money.
And also we want to live in the best or doing stuff we shouldn't be doing, spending money
on stuff we shouldn't be spending on.
And so the other thing was we were giving out shirts for free, like candy to everybody.
Yeah, we were like all of our friends and family stuff, which, you know, that can work
if you're able to afford to do that.
Um, you know, to kind of get the brandy and stuff out there, but when you can't afford
to do that, you know, no, I think we even got a loan to be honest.
I mean, we were 18 or 17 or maybe even 16 at that point.
I remember during a photo shoot, uh, we went to a park and we were doing a photo shoot.
And so I have a, my driving record isn't the best guys.
Um, I spent a lot growing up, like to go fast and, uh, I had my license spending a few times.
And so I remember I was with Mikey for a little apparel.
We had just got our new, our new shirts.
And so we went to this park out in off like Lindsay and baseline or something like that,
um, right over this freeway crossover.
And we parked by this park and we were taking pictures, took pictures, got back in the car
and we're editing them.
And I remember looking, you know, we're editing stuff, looking, I look up and I see this kid
just down on the end of the block and he's sitting on this like electrical box.
And, um, I know I said that kind of like, I didn't know what it was.
I do know what it is.
I'm a construction.
It was an electrical box.
So, um, but he, uh, he was just sitting there kind of looking weird.
I don't know.
And he kept looking over at us and I'm like, tell him, Mike, I'm like, dude, what, what's
this guy looking at?
I have no idea what he's looking at.
And he got up after about 30 minutes and went away.
And then all of a sudden cops come behind me and Mikey turn the lights on.
We're just sitting there parked.
And, you know, I'm sure we'll get a lot of feedback of like, oh, you shouldn't have done
this.
You shouldn't have said anything.
You should, you know, we had rides.
I probably didn't know about whatever, but anyways, his cops, you know, they're like,
hey, sit by the car, blah, blah, blah.
He's like that kid over there, you know, he is.
And we're like, no.
So kind of looking back, I think this was all a setup.
I think this guy, this kid was trying to basically work to maybe he got caught up in
something and he was acting like we were selling him drugs.
And, uh, cause you know, just really the cops knew he was.
I have no idea.
It was really interesting.
And so they're, they accuse us of that buying drugs from this kid.
And we're like, we don't even know who that kid is.
We're literally showing them like we're editing pictures of our new clothing brand.
Like, but lo and behold, I had a warrant for, um, skipping court on a suspended license
ticket or maybe it was a speeding ticket.
I don't know.
So anyways, I got arrested and that was, uh, not very fun.
I felt like it was really, really unfair.
I was like, I finally was trying to do stuff a little bit right in my life.
We're trying to start a little bit of a company and I was actually not doing anything bad
at a park for once.
So, um, and then I got arrested anyways.
So it was really, really irritating.
So I've been arrested a few times.
Um, mostly, I mean, pretty much everything on speeding charges and crap.
Like I said, I drove fast.
I had a little fast truck growing up, but, and it was pink.
I wish I had a picture.
I try.
Yeah.
What kind of truck was it?
It was a 19.
Yeah.
It was a Chevy.
It was a 1970 Chevy, um, short bed C 10 pickup.
Um, I've had, I had two different engines and I had a 350 small block than I had a LS
one in it, um, with a 350 turbo tranny and a Camaro.
Um, I don't think it was an SS.
I think it was a zero one, but I had a Camaro rear end, which allowed for me to actually
withstand the force of all the torque that my truck was pulling.
It was really fun.
You know, speaking of that truck and all, we got to see if we can find a picture.
Maybe we could make that the headline of the picture is that picture of that truck, but
it was an awesome truck.
Um, my dad had old, he was in old trucks.
I've been in old trucks.
I have an old truck in my house right now that I need to spend some money on actually
get built up, but that truck was awesome.
I had a great stereo system.
I had the subwoofer under the seat.
Um, and it was awesome.
I had a lot of issues with it cause old trucks, you just always did.
And, um, I think I was learning how to take care of it, but, um, it was fun.
And I remember one time I was driving with it with a friend named Tony in the, in the
passenger seat and I was whipping around in a neighborhood and I hit the gas and I turn
around this corner and for some reason my door always had a hard time shutting on the
passenger side and I didn't even think about it and it wasn't shut fully.
So the door swung open and I remember looking over laughing cause I whipped it so hard and
like kind of skirted around and Tony was gone.
I'm like, I look behind me.
He's rolling on the street, got thrown out of my vehicle, was all scraped up.
That kid always was getting hurt somehow, but man that, yes, that was, that was, yes,
that is, I don't know if I actually had seat belts in there.
I think I did, but all in all that is why you wear seat belts.
So that was a pretty funny story.
But anyways, um, yeah, we got a wild time, um, try to start a bunch of different businesses.
And I think in the reality, like going, looking back, comparing the businesses that I've started
and failed with my head on my shoulders versus the ones I've started and failed without my
head on my shoulders.
The one difference truly was the drive and the consistency.
Um, I think we had a great idea with a lot of different companies, um, growing up that
we tried to start, but we just weren't consistent enough.
We were always trying to do stuff the easy way, never the hard way, trying to figure
out the, you know, the quickest way to make money.
And it was always about the money rather.
I mean, we loved the brand like loyal apparel.
We loved the brand, but I mean, it was truly just was money.
We wanted to make money.
We wanted to, um, and at least for me, I can't speak for everybody else, but the consistency
wasn't there.
And I think that's truly what the issue was.
And now when I look over to the ones that I failed with my head on my shoulders and the
one, the one company or the few companies that kind of gone off the, off the feet, you
know, running, um, it's just was a consistency.
And, um, but all in all, you know, like through everything, all the stuff I learned growing
up, um, it was just, it was just a seed and it was, you know, my responsibility to really
dig in deep and figure out how to grow that seed.
So that seed was planted at an early age and, um, I had tasted the, you know, the rewards
of it, the fruits of it, um, a little bit, but I never, I never understood the actual
grind that it took to, to start a company.
And I'm still learning and understanding things.
And, um, you know, we're still growing.
So I've paint growing pains that we deal with, but it definitely, definitely was kind of awesome
to, to be able to have that seed planted in me and, um, yeah, it was pretty cool.
So, you know, in high school through football and stuff like that, you know, and after we
graduated high school and trying to start all these different businesses, um, we ended
up us and our friends, we ended up moving in together.
Cause at that time we were trying to start loyal.
I think we were kind of like some of us were like living at friends houses, hopping house
to house, just kind of being dumb.
And then we ended up moving into what we call the condo and the condo was a place not for
the righteous, so to speak.
Um, and I'm not going to go in a lot of detail about it cause I just won't, but, uh, it wasn't
the best time of our, it wasn't the best decision making time of our lives.
I'll put it that way.
We still, even through, even through that hard time as we were kind of living through
all that, we were still trying to start stuff and still failing.
Um, I, I got different jobs.
Me and Mikey work at Costco at one point where we were, you know, and even looking back at
Costco, like, you know, what's interesting is when you start working with different people
and you start getting workers under you and you start building your team and you start
realizing, you know, who's really in it to win it and who's not, who's really invested.
You know, I look back at Costco.
You know, right now I, I try to teach and I try to tell people like, Hey, no matter
what you do, um, even if it's something you don't care for, you need to give it 110%.
And looking back, I mean, even at jobs that I had, I worked at big old tires.
I was a mechanic at several different tire shops.
Um, cause obviously that's what I grew up doing.
I worked for several different restoration companies.
Um, and, uh, I actually lived with, you know, an owner of one of the biggest restoration
companies in Arizona at the time.
They're in a few different states.
And, um, so I worked with him a lot.
And then I worked, um, at Costco and Mikey where we were the guys who would get samples
from every Saturday or whatever.
And, um, looking back at all those jobs, man, I really didn't give it 110%.
And I never made anything of myself.
And I always like in my head, I was like, man, I want to be something great.
I want to be something great.
But then my actions where I want to be something mediocre, I want to be something average.
And I never noticed that until literally now when I look back and realized, wow, I wonder
what would have happened if I would have gave 110%.
Even if it wasn't something that I liked to do, I didn't want to be handing out, handing
out samples, working for some insanely overweight guy who never got out of this chair and just
yelled the whole time.
And it was just like, Oh, you're not selling enough, blah, blah, blah.
And, you know, but there I was serving samples, playing Star Wars galaxy on my iPhone, you
know, spending all my paycheck on this stupid game and then going home and freaking going
to the movies and doing just stupid stuff.
Um, that's why nothing ever worked out.
And so I guess, you know, kind of tie this into like a little bit of a lesson, life lesson
of me is like, even if you truly don't like what you're doing, when you give 110%, that's
how you grow and that's how you become successful, not necessarily in that trade or whatever
it is that you're doing.
You know, we have people here at our company that like, you know, like I've said many
times, construction is not my passion.
Now I always have to say this clients, I do care.
Like I do have a passion about what we're doing, but construction isn't like, Hey, I
want to be the best home builder in the state.
I want to build the best home building company and there is truly or, you know, whatever,
that's just an example.
We don't necessarily specialize in home building, but I want to build this successful company
and not so much, you know, the trade.
I feel like if I had a passion for construction, I'd be more into architecture and all these
like different things and how they look.
I, you know, have a passion for going to a job and seeing it completed and seeing how
that came to fruition, seeing how it started in design and our team worked on it.
We all put our heads together and then watching our team execute and plan and schedule and
get all the materials together and then watch that be built and then the final product.
That's my passion now in a nutshell.
Yes, that's construction, but mine's not so much the building part.
It's the everything behind the scenes of the actual build that happens that I have a passion
for.
And so sometimes it's important to understand that the things you don't enjoy doing, if
you have a job that you don't like, that you're not excited to wake up and go get or go to
a simple mindset change to understand that, Hey, this is just a stepping stone to get
to where you want to be.
If you can understand that you can give 110% you can be excited going to work knowing that
every day you push and you give it at your all and you make, you know, yourself better
at what you're doing and gain all these other skills.
That is just getting you closer to the final, the final stop where you actually want to
be.
And so if you're, you know, if we have someone here who their passion is, Oh, well, I want
to start, you know, an addiction rehabilitation center.
Okay, well, guess what?
This can be a stepping stone to that that meaning that give it your all do great, make a ton
of money, build relationships because what do you need to start a real big real addiction
rehabilitation center?
You probably need a doctor, someone that's licensed, right?
You didn't go to med school.
Well now through this, maybe, you know, we do TIs for like we're working on a contract
right now for an eye surgery company right now.
You know, that that is a stepping stone or a relationship that can lead to another relationship
plus the money and that can get inevitably get you there with that focus in mind.
And just because you don't enjoy, let's say project management or, you know, whatever
it is here, that doesn't mean that's not getting you closer to to what you're really
trying to achieve.
That mindset alone changes everything.
Because like I said, for me, what I'm trying to achieve doesn't necessarily have anything
to do with construction, but this is what the cars were laid out.
These are the resources that I had.
This is how it turned out.
I had to make money.
I had to figure out what I had to do to make money.
And I started here.
It turned into something because I was consistent and because I had my vision in mind.
And I knew that all these things that were going to happen are just stepping stones for
me to get there.
Right.
My passion is helping people grow.
Not so much coaching, but just being involved, sharing my experiences, helping people get
through stuff, helping people succeed and be successful at what they're doing.
And this is going to be a stepping stone because, you know, after building homes and building
a company and building a team and making some money, now we have a podcast.
Now this podcast is, you know, getting the opportunity to be sponsored by one of our
vendors who's one of the biggest, largest production companies for building materials
in the entire nation, MZertile, which we'll talk about them.
You know, later on, and then all these relationships that I'm bringing in and all these different
coaches on me, all these different people that have built so many great things that
are now sharing with the world.
And now they're, you know, introducing me to the pathways to actually do that.
Like, that's what this is all about.
So like, if I would have focused when I started elder and I was working out an hour away in
the middle of nowhere, building a bathroom for my grandpa, my wife's grandpa.
He is my grandpa, but it's just kind of important to know that based on the story.
But like, if I would have been like, Oh man, this isn't what I want to do.
And so I'm going to give it, you know, 50%.
I wouldn't be here right now.
I probably wouldn't be in construction.
I know I wouldn't be in construction.
I'd probably be doing something completely different.
I probably hate myself because I gave up on what I was, you know, what I was trying to
do or maybe I went and tried to do what I wanted to do.
That's a possibility as well.
But at the end of the day, I was consistent.
I had my vision in mind and I just knew like, Hey, this is what I have to do at the moment.
I'm going to make this turn into something of what I want to do.
And so like I said, that mindset, I feel like I've met a lot of people that have that mindset
of like, well, this isn't what I want to do.
So like, I just, you know, this is just a stop for me.
Okay.
So what you're telling me is you're just wasting time.
Like, why not just go do what you want to do then?
Well, I can't because I need to make money right now.
Okay.
So, well, how are you going to make money when you're sitting here telling me that you're
don't care enough about this job?
Like, I don't know if I want you to work.
If you guys kind of get the point, right?
Like of how that kind of correlates and something I think that people fail to remember is that
no matter where you are, whether it's the restaurant industry, Costco, whatever, like
if you bust your ass, eventually you're going to go to where you want to go and references
matter, your previous boss is going to get a call if it's a big enough job and they're
going to talk about you.
If you weren't doing good, then you're probably not getting hired by guy.
Yeah.
So bust your ass where you're at, show that you care and that will be go into the next
job that you want to do.
Yep.
No, it's 100% true.
And like I said, people get stuck at that one part is like, well, like, hey, I want to,
I'm trying to think of a good example, but like, hey, I want to do this and therefore
I'm going to miss out on all these opportunities to grow because I want the one path that's
going to take me there.
It doesn't necessarily work like that.
It works well like that when you're talking about, I feel like there's a word for this
like scholar, like a scholar job or I don't know what I'm looking for.
But like, hey, if you want to be a doctor, guess what?
There's truly one path to be a doctor, like a surgeon, like a medical surgeon, right?
Working on the body organs, that is going to school.
You need to go to med school.
There is no other way for you to do that unless you're going to go sell livers on the black
market, right?
So and end up on the blacklist or whatever.
But there's only one path to that.
But when you separate yourself from the scholar type stuff, the stuff that requires these
certain degrees, right?
You start to realize like, hey, and you know, being a business owner, well, if you want
to be a business owner, what business are you going to start?
There's a million different options, right?
You want to, you want to, you know, be a coach, a life coach, okay?
Well, what are you going to focus on?
You know, I mean, there's so many other places to go.
And so when you're like, okay, well, I'm just going to wait for the right moment, the right
path and the right place to go in order to get to where I'm going to go.
And all of a sudden there's these eight.
You know what I'm thinking of?
There's this story that I'm sure many people have heard.
It's faith based and it's basically, there's several different versions because that's
just how the world works like the telephone game.
But there's that story that like, Hey, this guy, you know, he was out, I see on a boat,
the boat sink and he was praying to God to save him.
So he's praying to God to save him, praying to God to save him.
Please send someone to save me or no, praying that God would save him.
And so after a day or so, a boat came, Hey man, you know, here we're, you know, here's
a floaty.
Come on, let's go.
We'll save you.
And guys like, no, I'm waiting for God to save me.
And I'm sure the people are like, obviously the story, but like, this guy's crazy.
They jet off in their boat next day, a helicopter comes, Hey man, we're here to save you.
And he's like, no, God's God's going to save me.
Again, this guy's crazy.
He's going to die.
They dip out their day.
Another boat comes.
Hey, we're here to save you.
You know, we got a call.
Maybe it's the Coast Guard.
No, I'm waiting for God to save me.
God's going to save me.
My savior is going to save me.
So they jet off, right?
Lo and behold, the guy dies, goes to heaven.
God, why didn't you save me?
And God's like, dude, I literally sent three different rescue teams to come and save you.
Two boats and a helicopter and you didn't take them.
And so I've heard that a lot and I like that story because that lesson kind of applies here.
Like if you're too focused on the vision, you can also be blinded.
You have to have an open mind.
You have to be coachable.
You have to be able to adapt and go where sometimes life is taking you in those areas
that you can't control and learn how to deal with them and learn how to use them to your
advantage.
Okay.
And that could be anything if you have a family death, okay.
You have the option to mourn over it, which everybody would, right?
But how long are you going to let that consume you for five months and miss out on all the
opportunities that could take you where you want to go, right?
It's the opportunity cost.
You'll hear a lot about that in business school and stuff like the opportunity costs, the
lost opportunities.
Me doing a podcast right now, how many opportunities am I missing?
How many contracts or estimates or just being in the right place at the right time, relationships
am I missing because I'm here doing a podcast?
That's what you really have to think about.
And it's hard to think about that because it's like, well, you know, if you don't know,
you don't know, but it's a real thing.
I'll give you an example.
And Kyle, if I'm getting off track here, you're going to have to bring me back.
But we had a contract.
I think I talked about it maybe, but we had the biggest contract signed that we've ever
had signed at this moment.
So I've always, I've had a goal recently to sign a million plus contract.
We've had several contracts that have gotten close to a million, but it just never broke
that million dollars right off the bat.
And I'm not talking a contract plus change orders.
We had some of those.
I'm talking about a six figure or seven figure contract signed right off the back before
the project starts.
That was my goal.
And we ended up destroying that by signing, getting a two over $2 million contract signed
for a development.
And the interesting thing about this contract is it was really weird.
I'm not going to go into too many details, but the negotiations were brutal.
This company was out of California.
I really don't think they knew what they were doing.
Their dad's built the company and it just seemed like they didn't know very much about
business or I'll tell you what, they didn't handle business very professionally.
And it was, it was just an nightmare.
And I spent weeks and weeks and weeks changing my bids, going back and forth.
They flew in, they met me and we kept changing stuff.
And finally we came to an agreement.
They verbally said, yeah, we're good, good on this price.
We'll sign the contract on Monday.
And you know, obviously we're celebrating.
We were actually at a coaching event for Jason Payne who's been on our podcast and you know,
super exciting, super great.
And then they signed the contract on Monday.
I send them the, you know, the first payment based on the terms.
And they're like, oh, we're not doing that.
And I'm like, well, did you, I mean, like this is the contract you guys signed it.
Oh, well, we didn't read the contract.
That should say everything about these people.
Okay.
Who signs a two million plus contract without reading the contract?
Dude, I don't even do that on very much anything except for when I buy vehicles and insurance
and stuff because it's like, what are you going to change your screw to the way?
But anyways, I'm not a big reader.
So yeah, I mean, those are like 50 pages.
My contract was 15 bullet points, one page.
It's pretty bulletproof.
It protects me.
It protects the client.
And I'm not into this 18 page contract unless it's like a $10 million build.
Custom homes are a little bit different, but this was just a development for semi truck
logistics company was super simple.
So and they didn't read it and they weren't okay with the payment terms.
And so I spent another three, four, five weeks going back and forth negotiating payment terms
and how they want to do this and, you know, holding my ground on some stuff, bending at
other stuff.
And then finally we came to terms and he's like, okay, draft this contract.
And at this point I stood back.
I looked at the last several months that we were just dealing with all this stuff of these
guys who were giving the word, taking it back, changing stuff and just how difficult it was.
I'm like, I don't want to do this job.
I don't feel good about it.
So I made one of the hardest decision business decisions I've made thus far.
And I was like, okay, write them an email and say, guys, I'm actually not going to amend
the contract.
You know, we're just going to part ways here and I let go of a $2 million contract.
I still get updates from the architect who brought us in on that, like on who they're
hiring and stuff.
And I do hope it works out.
I really do.
But it just wasn't for me.
And that was really difficult because the beginning of this year, we spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars on our company, fixing systems, hiring people, bringing in consultant
firms to help us fix stuff internally because we've just grown so fast, faster than I think
many companies do.
And it was just an investment.
So our sales went down because I was tied up.
My other sales guy, we were tied up and just we're all our whole team was just tied up
on really investing our company and making things better and preparing our foundation
for a bigger, a bigger revenue and company.
And so that it was even more dire to land that contract because that brought us not
only to bring us up to speed on our goal for this year and what we're trying to accomplish,
but then it also gave us a cushion for the next quarter.
And so I'm like, this is perfect.
This is perfect.
Now we get to put these, you actually utilize these new systems, make sure they're working
well with the good cushion on sales, good cash flow, right?
For that quarter.
And I had to let it go.
But what I'll tell you is this.
Those few months, which during those, those few months of consulting, I was also doing
this contract.
So that also is why many estimates and it happened to sales and it happened and marketing
wasn't doing too hot because I wasn't focused.
I was focused on the company, but then this, this contract was consuming so much of my
time.
And when I finally let it go, when I finally gave in to, you know, am I doing this and
I hit send on that email, the amount of opportunities that were executed that started coming in
and that were probably coming in the whole time.
I just wasn't paying attention and the amount of contracts we got sold.
Like I couldn't help but think, man, if I wasn't so focused on that one contract, how
many opportunities with some of, you know, with amazing clients that I miss, how many
opportunities, how much money did I miss out on, how much stress that I caused myself
that I wouldn't have needed to because I wasn't solely focused on this one apple, you know,
when there was a whole tree to harvest, like that was the opportunity cost.
And I can tell you, I'll never make that mistake again.
And so kind of tying this together is like when you guys are focused on that one thing
and you're, you have a narrow mindset to it and you're going down that path, all of these
great opportunities, all of these stepping stones to get you closer to that goal are
passing you by and you're getting one every couple of feet, one every three feet.
And in reality, if you open up that mindset and that view, you're now getting three or
two every step you get, you take and you don't notice it until you actually look back and
you actually get there.
So that was definitely a crazy learning lesson for me.
But yeah, that was a pretty big tangent.
But I felt like that was like just crazy to kind of reminisce on that lesson that I learned
just recently because it was hard.
It was hard.
I mean, if I actually look back at like some of the hardest lessons I've learned personally
and growth and I guess like business is, you know, I went on a mission, I started a mission
in Chile.
So many people know that.
But in this mission, like this wasn't a mission, like things nowadays for people who know about
our faith like elders, you know, missionaries go out for two years and they serve.
Literally, they pay to go out.
We save money, we pay to go out and live for two years to basically preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And so nowadays, you know, you got missionaries that are, you know, they're driving cars.
And they were to when I was on a mission, but there's a lot more a lot more car driving.
A lot of people have bikes here, right?
But they also have smartphones and they're able to go on social media and spread the word
that way.
Well, on my mission, we didn't have bikes, vehicles, and I had a Nokia phone from like
1990, like literally had a couple ringtones on it.
And I like MP3 player, you know, I had some church music down there onto, but it just
was this little thing.
No, it wasn't.
It was one of those bricks.
Yeah, it was terrible.
And I'll tell you what, though, dude, I think not be destroyed.
The legend lives on.
So, but it's so I walked everywhere.
I walk.
I literally would have holes in the soles of my shoes from how much we walked and walked
and walked rain, shine, snow.
It did snow like two days when I was in Chile.
They hadn't seen snow like 30 years and it was like a blizzard.
I remember it was pretty cool.
And that mission, again, going back to being all in given 150 percent, the first year of
my mission, I was not 100 percent.
And I mean, so I was there.
I was invested.
I wanted to be the best mission I could be.
I wanted to help people.
And it wasn't just about preaching the gospel, but it was serving others, helping people,
you know, cleaning gutters, doing yard work for people, all that kind of stuff.
And I really did enjoy it.
I would do that all day and then internally behind the doors, there were certain things
that I wasn't fixing about myself when I had the opportunity to like maybe it was my language
or, you know, I'd be writing emails back and forth with Mikey, talking about stuff.
Maybe I shouldn't have been talking about it.
Not that it wasn't OK to talk about it, but it was not what I was supposed to be focusing
on.
We had these crazy insane rules on our mission.
A lot of people don't like them, but I understand why they were that way because I was sacrificed
for two years of my life.
Not going to school, not working, not building a career.
I saved money.
I paid to go live here for two years just to focus on other people.
And so there were so many things I was still doing that was more about me, all about me.
And I was missing this great opportunity to really immerse myself into helping and serving
others, which was such a huge joy.
And so something happened about a year on my mission, I had this friend who's not a
friend anymore, but long story short, I got accused of doing something on my mission based
on some emails that were sent that I mean, I don't know how that got misconstrued.
I mean, we looked up the email.
I mean, it was just stupid.
But anyways, and so it caused this review with my mission president and I about how I
was living my life, what I was doing behind the doors, how I was talking to my friends
and family, the words I was using or the language and all that kind of stuff.
And it was a good audit to realize like, dude, I am doing about 70% of the things that I'm
doing at about 70%.
And so I got, I got to talk to figure some stuff out about how I could be better, realize
what I was doing.
And I changed those things.
And so about halfway on my mission, I was now 100% immersed into my mission.
And I cannot tell you how insane the transition was the, you know, apart from faith and miracles
and the joy I was feeling just how proud of myself, I can pinpoint one time and it goes
in my head all the time because I've kind of regressed now that I've been back home.
But I remember about a month before I came on my mission.
I've always been kind of impatient.
I've always gone in, you know, it was quick to anger a lot of times I was in sports, my
dad was pretty aggressive.
So I just had this aggressive gene in me, right?
Just naturally, which kind of raised that way.
And I'm just aggressive with a lot of stuff.
I'm very obsessive about, about things.
If you know me, once I try a drink for the first time and I like it, I'll drink this
drink every single day for about four months, get sick of it and then go to another drink
and be obsessed with that.
Or maybe I'll get obsessed with this brand and want this brand everywhere.
You know, I'm like a brand guy.
So I do have obsession about some stuff, but I remember I was really focusing on working
on myself and about a month before I was about to go home from a mission.
Me and my companion, we were crossing the street and this guy didn't see us.
And, you know, he literally almost hit us and stopped.
And this happened multiple times on my mission.
I was always getting like so mad and I wouldn't like flip them off or anything.
But like I just internally was just like, what an idiot dude.
Like, can you not see?
Like what the heck is your problem?
And I remember in this certain instance, you know, I looked and my first reaction wasn't
anger.
It was, hey, no worries.
And I remember feeling so proud of myself.
Like, dude, I finally did like, I didn't have to think about it.
I didn't have to control myself.
It was a natural like forgiving like, dude, don't worry about it like instantly.
And I felt like I literally completed my mission at that point.
I felt like I completely fixed every bad thing about myself.
I was so happy.
I was so proud of myself.
I was ready to go home, get my life started.
Like, I was the best, finally the best version of myself.
And it was literally all because of understanding when I wasn't 100% immersed.
And when I was 100% immersed, I was consistent and I was doing my all.
And I did want to be there, but my, my life goal has always been to build a company and
be an entrepreneur and, and do what I've talked about a million times.
And I still wanted all of that.
I would literally walk to a park every morning and sit at the park and pray and think about
what I wanted to do and ask for help on how I was going to achieve all that.
And it's been the same ever since it's been the same goal.
And I can tell you serving two years, you know, I did not think that was going to help
me achieve the goal.
I thought I was going to come home.
I thought I was going to be behind, you know, I was about to come home for my mission.
I was getting emails from friends that were graduating ASU, getting great jobs out in
California for some amazing companies.
And I'm sitting here like, dude, I'm 24 years old when I get home.
I'm not married.
I have nothing to my name.
I have whatever's in my suitcase.
And that's how it literally was.
I got off the plane, went to dinner with my family.
It was one of the most.
It was, I did not like or not dinner.
It was like lunch or something, but like it was just dumb.
Everyone was fighting because my parents were still jacked up and got home and everybody
literally went and took nap time.
Parents went up to the room, siblings went and did their thing.
And I literally within 10 minutes of walking through the door was sitting in a living room
by myself and I had just got off a plane from out of the country and hadn't seen any of
them for two years.
And it was lonely and it was heartbreaking.
And I'm sitting here like, bro, nobody's seen me.
And they're just like, okay, hey, we had 45 minutes an hour with you.
Peace out.
Like, and I had nothing.
My mom threw everything away.
I had no trophies, nothing from school, nothing that was important that I was trying to keep
and all the sentimental stuff.
I had no clothes to throw in my clothes.
I literally had shoes that were about to wear through.
I had holes in my pants that I was wearing and I had a suit in my suitcase.
And that was literally all I had.
And I was just like, okay, like I felt so far behind.
But due to that experience, right before I got home, I had that like helped me realize,
okay, I did one of the hardest things I thought I could never do.
And that was overcome myself.
If I could do that, I can do something.
I can do something I can do anything I want.
Okay, cool.
Went to sleep that night next morning.
I don't know if it was the next morning, me and Kyle started working out, but I think
I started working out with my stepfather, but I was doing like two to three days.
I think what happened is I had cultural shock.
I didn't have cultural shock going to Chile.
I actually had cultural shock coming back from Chile and just being a part of America
again, and I didn't realize it and just not having a schedule, having nothing to do.
And I just, yeah, kind of had a little bit of a shock.
So I lost like 50 pounds.
I feel like I was a twig, wasn't eating, going to the gym three times a day.
I don't even know how I did it.
But anyways, but that same week, couple of days, you know, I built cards on staples.
I ordered them.
I went to church that week.
So I got home on a Wednesday, ordered my cards.
My stepfather had some like landscaping tools.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to just start landscaping.
For those of you that don't know, I actually was going to go to LDS Business College out
in Utah as soon as I got home, class super about a star.
I was enrolled.
So it was still trying to figure out where to live, but I had an impression of feeling
that I needed to go home.
Long story short, I'm glad I did.
I got my mom in rehab realized she was still, I mean, she was the worst when I left and
I didn't know because everybody was painting a great picture on, you know, over email.
But yeah, I did that, you know, stay by us.
I came in and just started landscaping company that Sunday went to church.
So I love my life, my wife, we can have later or whatever we were starting a day.
But that Monday after church, my cards ready, picked them up and I would go to every house
as many, so I had like a thousand cards.
It's like, okay, I'm going to send, I'm going to go put a hundred cards a day in the home.
So that morning, that Monday morning, I'm like, hey, today my life begins.
So I had those cards.
I woke up and set a prayer, walked out my door and started going house to house, knocking
doors, putting cards in the door.
I did a hundred a day, did that for two, three hours, came home, prayed over my work that
I had just put in and then started, you know, went to the gym, flirting with my wife, trying
to figure out what I wanted to do and really just kind of building some game plans and
stuff and I did that every day.
And here's what I'll tell you, I passed out probably thousands of cards in a matter of
weeks.
A few weeks later, after, you know, a few, probably a few thousand cards, I got my first
job and it was my aunt who didn't live in my neighborhood and she hired me 350, I charged
her 150, she gave me $200 extra, which I'm, she probably doesn't know this, but I just,
I'm still so grateful for it.
It was literally just the feeling something of a support.
I had support from my stepfather, but nobody that I had known for years, I had met my stepfather
for the first time of getting off that plane.
My mom got together with him like a year on my mission, saw him a couple of times when
I, you know, Mother's Day and Christmas, we were able to like FaceTime home or whatever
video call and those were the only two times I saw him besides actually getting off the
plane.
And so being able to have that little bit of support from somebody I cared about, somebody
I knew that knew me was just, it was everything at that moment.
And what's crazy is like literally thousands of homes in my neighborhood, people from my
church that I've, I mean, literally I was leaving cards of people that I knew from church
that I figured we're going to be like, yeah, come on my lawn for 20 bucks or whatever.
My aunt was my first job.
And to this day I've never gotten one job out of any of those homes I put cards in,
whether it's in construction or landscape, I'm especially landscape, I never got one
job.
And it's just kind of crazy because after my aunt hired me, I got another job and another
job and I was no longer door knocking.
I was, you know, Facebook social media and so like looking back, it's kind of crazy to
look at the effort I put in and how I bore no fruits of that effort.
But when because of that, you know, this job that I got, like it, I don't know, I don't
know how to explain it was just, it was just crazy.
And then that ended up turning into the landscaping company had a lot of monthly bi-weekly clients.
I was doing good.
I was, you know, it was working, you know, from to about noon knocking down my entire
routes and then marketing and trying to get more jobs going to estimates and then also
hanging out with my girlfriend at the time, which is my wife now.
And you know, investing my time into her because I know I wanted to marry the crap out of her.
And it was just, you know, one thing after another and it built so quick and then I met
my first partner and that didn't go very well.
And anyways, and then I got into construction and then construction, I failed the first
time I did that, got hired by my uncle to build a restoration company, failed at that
and then started elder and then elder is what it is today.
And so kind of looking back, I mean, my story is there's so much more detail and so many
more experiences, but like the consistency, which I guess is the theme of this of just
going and going.
And I had my vision of being where I wanted to be and I'm on the right path still.
And I can tell you the path is not a direct path to that.
It's all these different stepping stones and all these different milestones that are happening
and things that I'm doing that don't correlate necessarily with what I truly want to do.
But that's really getting me there at an expedited rate.
I can tell you from 24 years old to feeling like literally everybody in the world was
ahead of me, I can guarantee you I am ahead of about 95% of those people that I thought
about every day of who was ahead of me.
And that's not a, Hey, I'm better than you.
That is, I realized that through consistency and through self development and truly, truly
pushing through every obstacle and variable that came my way and not giving up.
I am now where I am today.
And with that being said, I still got obstacles.
I still got variables.
My business isn't perfect.
My team isn't perfect.
I'm not perfect.
We still make mistakes.
We saw upset clients and we still are bettering our systems and we're still working on ourselves.
And so, but we're consistent.
We continually keep going and we continually are trying to fix every problem that we run
into understanding that more failures come in our way.
And that's why we're succeeding.
And I bring that up because I feel like there are just so many people that I have come to
know that want to be this great, great person or own this great company.
And yet they're 70% immersed and they're not going to get there because they're 70% immersed.
Like you have to give it your all.
So guys, if there is something that you're doing that is holding you back from being
120%, you have to figure out what that is.
You have to audit yourself and you have to let it go.
Speaking of audits and kind of going into this even more is, you know, last was the
last week we dropped Derek Price.
That episode with Derek Price was the week before.
Yeah.
So Derek Price, you know, we had him on our podcast.
I was really sick that day.
So it wasn't my best podcast.
I thought I had gotten better.
I was sick the whole week before and that day I just was not feeling very well.
So I apologize to him and we'll have him back on here to kind of, you know, help myself
recover from that.
But we joined the Faction Foundation.
I joined it.
And, you know, he sold me on the podcast.
I joined it and it's been really great.
And one of the focuses is, so there's four focuses, right?
There's family, finance, fitness and faith.
And so, you know, it's the first program that I've been a part of and this is kind of selling
him, which I think everybody should join it.
But what I love about this program is I've been a part of a lot of programs and there's
always been, it's kind of like religion.
And here's why I say this.
I've been guys, yes, I'm a member of the church use cross-lattery saints, but I have been
to many different churches.
I've been to Christian churches.
I've been to Catholic churches.
I've been to Jehovah's Witness.
I've been to Baptist.
I've been to, I mean, just so many different churches.
And so, like, what I noticed about all these churches, and this is actually something we
teach in our churches, like all these different churches, they have like, you know, some focus
solely on baptism and some focus solely on, you know, the Holy Ghost and some focus solely
on Jesus Christ and others focus solely on Heavenly Father and, or maybe it's the Trinity
and the whatever it is.
And am I saying anything about that?
But they all kind of have these different focal points.
Well, what's interesting, you know, through this program is like, I've been a part of
all these different programs.
There is this program that focuses on everything.
And it's finally, I'm like, wow, finally, there's something to where I'm not just getting better
at finances.
I'm not just getting better at running the business or I'm not just getting better at
branding.
I'm not just getting better at self development.
I am getting better now at family, faith, finance and fitness.
Like I'm hitting all four corners of the quadrant and it's, and it's great.
And I've really enjoyed it.
And, you know, a lot of this stuff, there's a point system.
Again, it's all about the consistency.
And I'm already, I'm already seeing some amazing progress in myself, but I just, I encourage
everybody that no matter what you're doing, take a step back, do an audit and ask yourself,
am I a hundred percent?
Because if you're 80%, 90%, you're just slowing yourself down.
And you know what?
There's some people that will get there at 60%.
Some people get lucky like the people that win the fricking lottery.
Okay.
So you can, you can get lucky, but it's not as fulfilling.
It is not as fulfilling.
And that fulfillment is what provides purpose.
You know, it's like, it's like children.
I compare it to that because, you know, there's, having children is hard.
I've just had my third child, obviously.
And, you know, I am the legal guardian of both my siblings, my brother and I live with
my sister.
You know, they were, my sister stood with me.
He's going to come back at some point, but he was only gone for a little while.
But you know, I have these two siblings.
So I have like five kids at the moment, technically.
And, and it's hard, but it's so fulfilling.
And I think the one thing with that is because I don't get the option to not be consistent
with my kids.
And so you're kind of natural, like you're forced to be consistent.
And maybe it is an option.
I know there's some crappy parents out there.
And if I offend you, I'm sorry, but I had some crappy parents.
I know they exist.
But you know, when you're consistent and you show up and you're there, it means the world
to your children, right?
And it's the same thing with business.
When you show up and you're consistent, things happen.
Things happen.
And so at the end of the day, I, you know, where we are now kind of all these experiences
that tied, tied everything together.
And now things are like kind of finally making sense.
It's been, it's been awesome.
It's been fun.
And all these relationships that I've built, kind of going back to that beginning, you
know, hey, well, how did you meet these people?
That is because I just haven't stopped, right?
And I have gone out of my way.
I've made it uncomfortable to meet certain people.
I have made it uncomfortable.
I've literally given away money to build relationships with people.
And I've been looked at crazy, you know, I've, I've, you know, everything I feel like I do
is with the sole purpose of growth.
And so even if I don't get a reward, like a monetary reward necessarily, like that growth
is the true reward because it leads to all these other things that, like I said, are
stepping stones to give me to that final vision.
So when you guys have your vision and you make sure your team, the people you're working
with and yourself, most importantly, you get everybody to understand that your vision is
accomplished through all these different stepping stones or your team's life visions of their
personal lives and all these goals they have can be accomplished through your vision of
this, of your company or what you're trying to do.
When everybody knows that and everybody understands that you get 100%, you get success and you
grow at a rapid rate.
This company, I mean, RLLC started in, you know, we, this, yeah, this was elder supply
code, which under elder supply code was loyal apparel, right?
And then everybody kind of did their own thing.
I took the LLC because it was open for 10 years and I'm like, great, we're going to
change the name, blah, blah, blah.
We've been open for four years and we have grown over, I don't know the exact percentage
I figure where it is, like over 150% every single year.
And you know, it's truly insane.
And honestly, we almost destroyed our company because we grew so fast and we were just growing
and not focusing on the foundation.
Our foundation wasn't strong enough.
So it was like cracking.
And so we had to set back, fix the foundation, blah, blah, blah.
You guys get the point, but that is because everybody in this team has been consistent
and the consistency is, I mean, it matters.
It's everything, no matter what you guys are going through, no matter what you're trying
to build, if you just show up every day and you do your tasks, you do what you're supposed
to do and you're consistent in doing that, you are 100% going to succeed.
If you have a hard time reading, if you get a headache every time you read, if you show
up and you read and you, I mean, you may need a glass or whatever, but the point is, if
you show up and you read every single day, you get, you're going to be able to read without
that headache.
And I say that out of an experience because my mother-in-law, she just always had a hard
time reading and then she did a challenge where she had to read every day and she was
consistent and now she can refine.
It's anything with my wife.
My wife hated reading.
She had a hard time reading.
Now she, I walk out of the room and she's reading and she does it so easily now because
of consistency, she did it every day, she practiced over and over and I think we forget
that after, you know, we were raised as kids and we do all these sports, we forget that
practice truly makes perfect and it can, it can be done.
Guys, I'm telling you, it can be done.
Whatever you think can be done, it can be done.
You are in full control.
You can make it happen and that is by showing up and being consistent.
So I didn't quite know what we were really going to talk about today, which I've been
liking this kind of like free flow of our podcast itself, especially with our guest
speakers, but it's interesting how there's always a lesson, I guess that comes out as
we start talking and consistency is that lesson.
So yeah, Mikey had to miss this one, but he really wanted to be in on it.
Yeah.
He just tried calling me.
So he missed me.
He missed it so bad.
He knew we were recording and decided to call us anyway.
So anyways, so yeah.
So guys, if you have any other questions, this one was a kind of a great question that
sparked a bit of a conversation, which is kind of how we, how this company came to be,
how this podcast got here, how we kind of built some relationships and really what the
key, the key to all of that was, was consistency.
And here's what I'll tell you, 30 years from now, when we reach our goals, our, you know,
longterm goals, when we're worth more money and I have more money in my pocket and we're
doing whatever we're dreaming of doing.
I'm probably going to have the same lesson.
Consistency, consistency is, is the path to winning.
So we appreciate you guys.
Every single one of you, our podcast has grown quite a bit.
We're getting a lot more subscribers and viewers.
We're really excited to bring on our new sponsor, Emzur tile.
So Emzur is, I built this vendor relationship with them by going to a, a event out in Texas
with, with AFT construction, Brad Levitt's a great event.
If you guys are in construction, this is a great event to go to.
It's kind of like a mentorship, you know, some of the best builders in the nation are
sharing how they're doing stuff and how their company is running operate systems, procedures,
et cetera.
And I ended up meeting the VP of, of Emzur out there and awesome guy, Mike is just so
awesome.
You just feel so loved by him, but you know, we built this relationship and now that's,
you know, they're the one vendor we go to for everything that are, they provide absolutely
amazing stuff.
You know, if you guys are looking for one of a kind material, one of a kind stone card
of a mound that's never been touched before in a good timeframe, like that's where we
go to.
And we have been working on getting them to, to kind of sponsor with us and they're, they're
finally on board.
So we're getting all that figured out and we're really excited to work with them.
One, because we believe in their mission, they believe in us and we're trying to make
the world a better place, make construction and contracting an easier place to be in and
better for the clientele because everybody has a nightmare story about a GC or materials
not showing up, especially during COVID, but even way before then.
And we're trying to fix that together as a team.
So we're really excited and we're really grateful just to be here and be able to share our story
and learn alongside you guys and be able to share, share our life lessons and experiences.
So any questions you guys may have, drop them below, email them to us, comments, we're going
to drop, you know, our, we have our blog and everything in our elder contracting website.
We'll put below.
So guys, check us out, follow us on all of our social media.
We've got some awesome content.
Kyle's great at it as well as our entire team.
And we really appreciate you guys joining us.
So till next week.
Bye.