[00:00:07.370] - Chris
Welcome back to the Head Heart and Boots Podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:00:10.810] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead.
[00:00:17.590] - Chris
Man, I love this industry.
[00:00:20.850] - Brandon
Brother. How are you?
[00:00:22.340] - Chris
I'll be honest. I could say awesome, man. How it's all? Good.
[00:00:27.610] - Brandon
There's been a bit of a cycle today.
[00:00:29.560] - Chris
I've had a bit of a cycle. I've had a bit of a cycle. Ask me.
[00:00:39.050] - Brandon
I'll ask you later. How are you now?
[00:00:42.670] - Chris
I'm feeling better. I'm better than I was 4 hours ago.
[00:00:46.300] - Brandon
We had to do a little bit of a walk, get our shit together.
[00:00:49.600] - Chris
A little coffee walk. That was necessary. Some outdoor therapy.
[00:00:55.530] - Brandon
Sometimes you just got to hit reboot on the old mind before you continue to run your head into a brick wall.
[00:01:01.860] - Chris
That's true.
[00:01:03.170] - Brandon
That is life. That's all.
[00:01:05.430] - Chris
He was listening carefully. Let's move on to something interesting.
[00:01:10.790] - Brandon
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All right. Hey, dude. So I got a topic first. Okay, so my wife okay, we're going to start there. Wow. That's the topic. My wife is our topic. So my wife a long time ago, and I'm not 100% where she heard it the first time or wherever the case may be, but she just has kind of repeatedly communicated to people the value in being for something rather than against something. And it's interesting. The last, I don't know, just kind of series of weeks, you and I have been traveling quite a bit, so I've been taking in a few more podcasts than usual, and honestly, there's been a bit of a repeated rhythm to kind of this concept, and it wasn't real specific. It didn't really get into it, but more like well, one of your favorite words that you like to introduce in sometimes the most awkward locations as possible is love. Right? You like to bring love into you said it our industry speak, and not everybody's prepared for that. But that's kind of what a lot of these podcasts were referencing, was this idea of love in the workplace, in professional relationships, and not love as associated with sexual activity, but just this kind of valuing of another human being at a level beyond just their utilitarian capacity or the resource that they bring.
[00:02:30.030] - Brandon
Anyways, I was just thinking about that a lot and I realized, going back to other topics, things like grit and things like longevity and things like, you know, sustainability and all these kinds of concepts, I think this idea has really been hanging with me of digging into what does it look like for us to kind of make it 180 from this? I just am afraid of this. I don't want to experience that I'm going this direction because I never want to be whatever versus I'm going hard into the paint because of my love or passion for what we're doing. And I know it can sound a little nuanced, but I think there's something to wrestle with there that has value to the folks that are going to listen to us. So that's where I want to go. Of course, we got to do we've got some friends to thank, right?
[00:03:20.530] - Chris
Yeah. It reminds me of yes, let's get into that. But what's that famous book by either Earl Nightingale or maybe it's Dale Carnegie, the Power of Positive Thinking.
[00:03:31.280] - Brandon
No, I'm not sure who that is.
[00:03:33.880] - Chris
Because it's kind of where my head goes. And of course, it sounds foo foo. I get it. We're going to talk about love in the Power Positive. Let's just let it hang.
[00:03:42.800] - Brandon
It's going to happen today.
[00:03:43.740] - Chris
We're going to talk about love in the Power Positive.
[00:03:45.660] - Brandon
Oh, baby, we're going to get in.
[00:03:47.530] - Chris
We just set the stage.
[00:03:48.690] - Brandon
We're getting into the before we do.
[00:03:50.110] - Chris
That, none of this would be possible without our loving sponsors.
[00:03:55.270] - Brandon
That's right, loving.
[00:03:57.290] - Chris
And we love it there, and we do love them. First I'll mention is Liftify, and you can tackle the other partner. Zach and his team are building something really special. And Brandon and I have experimented with different review gathering platforms over the years, and they can be expensive. And in general, we've never gotten awesome results out of those other platforms.
[00:04:19.630] - Brandon
Low numbers.
[00:04:20.320] - Chris
And of course, like many of you that are listening to this, we all say we ask for a Google review. But then when we look at people's Google profile, we're our own, and we realize, well, jeez, last year we did 1000 jobs and we still have 98 Google reviews on our profile. And it's like, hooray, we have five star review. But what happened to all those customers that we asked that never actually submitted a review? The reality is there's a lot of or didn't ask or whatever. We just don't know. But with Liftify, you know, because all you got to do is have your admin team add closed jobs to the list. On Liftify, everything else is automated. They go to work and they return a 20% to 25% conversion rate. So if you're doing 1000 jobs a year, you can expect that you are very likely going to grow your Google Profile by 200 plus reviews each year. So imagine the impact. And if you didn't hear the episode we did with Zach Garrett, he goes into just how important the impact in terms of organic lead gen from just your brand name and people finding you on Google just shoots to the moon.
[00:05:32.260] - Chris
Once you get this consistent drip of Google reviews happening week in, week out, that there's a lot of value that Google places on that. So anyways, if you don't have Liftify, you should check it out, like you'd be doing yourself and your team a favor. The cost is just very reasonable and Zach and his team are very easy to work with. So there you go. Go to lyftify. Comfloodlight. We've got some special little perks there. For you.
[00:05:59.160] - Brandon
Yeah, it's worth it. All right. CNR. Michelle it's funny, man. I'm kind of at the risk of sounding like a cheeseball, it's hard for me to refer to CNR as CNR because it's Michelle. It's like our friend, right? But anyway, CNR magazine, one of the oldest, largest media platforms for our industry, for sure. She's been driving the ship now for some time, has just done a massive job of just really changing the shape of it, I think, in general, and really expanding the resources that it is and what they bring to the table for us as our stores and our businesses. And obviously for those of us that serve the industry and aren't necessarily just the restorers. Anyway, long story short, it's a massive resource. It's free to you. There's really no reason for CNR Magazine to not have a place on the team in terms of being in your toolkit. So if you're not already a member of CNR, you're not already getting subscriber. Yeah. Subscribers the right word. Thank you. If you're not a subscriber, why just go subscribe? It's worth it. It's free.
[00:07:03.800] - Chris
And you'll see some of our stuff.
[00:07:05.020] - Brandon
It's free. We love to be a part of that magazine and part of her online platforms. Here's the thing. Between the podcast, between the online media platforms, between what she's doing live, between the actual print media, there's so much resource. And she's chasing hottest content. Totally front runner in terms of tech people influence on the industry. Change is coming. I mean, you name it, she's kind of involved in it. So do yourself a favor, check out CNR and subscribe to CNR. All right, dude, let's get into it. Love. I don't know. I'm not going to allow you to take over this episode into love.
[00:07:42.100] - Chris
Okay?
[00:07:42.370] - Brandon
I just want to warn you right now, there's going to be some loving. Yes, but it's not the whole premise.
[00:07:48.300] - Chris
Well, why don't you set the tone? Because I have some thoughts. It's funny because I have some notes. I have some ideas from earlier this week that I'm like. It kind of fits with what you're talking about. So let's see where you take it. And I may have some stuff to chip in.
[00:08:01.600] - Brandon
Okay. All right. So now the pressure. I feel pressure. All right, so here's a common thing for me. So you and I have talked about all sorts of different things, like CVI, Enneagram. There's all these different things that kind of categorize your kind of default wiring. And I'm an eight. If you're an Enneagram follower, I'm an Eight, which is basically driver, car, charge. Charger. Challenger is a term that Neogram uses. The point is, I tend to make a lot of personal adjustments or changes in my life or growth because I identify something I don't like. I'm very critical of myself right now. That hasn't always translated into me being the most awesome version of myself by any stretch of the imagination. But I have always been good at criticizing myself, let's put it that way. And again, another thing that my wife has kind of brought to my attention is her experience. She's been engaged in the environment where she's in constant connection with people. Her career path has always put her directly in face to face interaction with folks and for extended periods of time. And in that she's just learned over time when she's identified somebody in proximity to her that is very critical of themselves, in quotes, she's like, I can almost draw the connection every time to how they are very much so, others critical as well.
[00:09:30.810] - Brandon
And so there's a common theme for a lot of people that kind of fall into my natural wiring that I'm my own worst critic, which we all are to a certain extent, but the reality of it is that slips way outside of being directed at us all the time and commonly is spilled out on others. But in addition to that, another thing I've just been learning over the years as I've gotten a little bit better, of kind of stepping back and having a less biased perspective of how I'm acting. Right. Which we talk a lot about. It's like I'm trying to audit my behavior more as an after action review versus being ego connected to it. I'm just trying to assess how did you respond to that? Is that something you want to continue to do? And as part of that, what I've identified is that I almost take this self critical and others critical perspective and I've rolled it into what one of my primary motivators is running from this thing I don't like, that I don't want to do that. That I don't agree with. Which is all fine except for what I'm learning is that when I'm excitedly chasing something for the passion of it, for the love of it, or out of service to someone I love, the motivation the fuel in the tank seems to go longer than the kind of running from a demon kind of motivator that is common with just.
[00:11:01.040] - Brandon
I'm fearful of being broke, so I'm X. I never want to have a business that struggles for payroll. So because of that, I'm X does that 100%, right? It's a difference. I don't want to run from something. I want to try to do a better job of identifying the things that motivate me because I'm excited about it. Where I'm going and what's behind me are the things that I'm not consuming or chasing straight up. Who gives a shit? It's not the point. I'm motivated because I'm for something versus being motivated because I'm against something. And last preachy part here. I think the reason I'm thinking about this so much lately is I'm so frustrated by politics. You and I are so we're business owners. We work in an industry that I think is fairly safe to say, probably leans more to the conservative side in general strokes than not. Point is that I just want common sense to be used when we're talking about politics and making decisions as they affect us and the people in our communities. That seems hard to do right now because everyone is so against everything. There's no for. Like, even if you look at some of the most activated and loud groups, it's less about what they're for and it's far more about them promoting what they are, not what they're against, what they don't allow.
[00:12:29.040] - Brandon
Or like, in my mind, I think that's what's fueling this. It's like, how in the fuck have we gotten so wrapped up about what we aren't that we've lost the ability to communicate what we're for? Because my gut says in most cases, even if we identify social, political, economical differences, there's a lot of stuff that we could probably openly say that we agree in being four. Right. Not sameness equality, right, value in people versus not. Like, I think there's plenty of things that we can all look at and say, you know what? If we were all doing a better job being for something, we'd probably find out the line is a little more blurred than we think between parties and perspectives, right? So take that.
[00:13:18.990] - Chris
Or I think you start to see the sameness of all of us. We all want to have good health. We all want to have, I think, good relationships. Whether we can articulate that well or not. I think inside, all of us want to have healthy relationships. We want to be liked, we want to like other people, right? And I think we all want to improve the standard of living for ourselves and the people we love. So those are all things that we can all get behind.
[00:13:47.020] - Brandon
Can't we all unite?
[00:13:48.000] - Chris
We can all unite. Yeah. Absolutely. Man. The polarity in our world right now is, I've noticed, just a baseline kind of drumbeat of stress that I feel. And I've tried to just notice it. We've had these conversations about what I think amount to just mindfulness behaviors, like just noticing what's going on in my head. What am I feeling? What's that about? And sometimes I can trace it back to Facebook or stuff where I'm seeing friends, just conservative friends. We got liberal friends and just man, the vitriol and the pissed off interactions that people are having, it affects me even just seeing it. I try not to engage in it as best I can, but it almost drives you to you're supposed to take a side like, where do I land on this? And so I don't know. And part of me doesn't give a shit. It's part of it, but man, I can easily get sucked into it where my headspace is so negative. And of course, right now, a lot of the public conversation too is are we in a recession? Are we not? Is it Biden's fault? Is, it not what's going to happen.
[00:14:58.660] - Chris
I'm seeing even the word depression start to enter some of the headlines, and it's like, I don't know if anybody really knows what's going on, but I can't give my headspace over to this stuff. I have too many things that I want in my life that are important, and I can't have a material effect on all this other stuff. Yeah, we've talked about this with anger, and I think in general, anger seems to be a common I don't even know what to call it, like a struggle or something. For leaders, it seems like it's a common profile. Certainly eights are known for their anger. The dark side of eight is they can kind of be seen as an asshole figure when they get angry and upset and the way they tend to lash out. And I think a lot of us as leaders, we share those attributes. Anger is something that drives a lot of us. It motivates us to make change and so forth. And there is something powerful, and we've talked about it many times, of just developing a discipline to notice when you start to feel anger. I don't know if you have any recent stories about this, but God, I just feel like every single day, if I have young kids in the house, there's a lot of reasons to be angry.
[00:16:06.880] - Chris
Most days I've just noticed the power of saying, God, part of me is just feeling really pissed off right now. And even just noticing the art of noticing what's going on inside me causes it to loosen its grip on me. Because, man, and whether it's anger or it's like literally last night, my daughter's away on a ski trip thingy with her friends. So it was just me and Kara and the boys at the dinner table, and I was just in a funk. It was part of the funk I brought into this morning, because I woke up and I started my mind. All the stories in my head came back after my morning coffee, for whatever reason, but at the dinner table, we were just going around and, hey, how was your day? How was your day? And somebody asked me that question. I'm like, I had this one interaction that I was just really felt small. You have an interaction with a Downline employee or a colleague or a customer or something, and you just feel like a dipshit. You just feel crummy. And I was feeling that, and I was just told my wife and kids, and there was something powerful about just saying it out loud and just noticing what was going on, that they commiserated with me for a minute, and we talked it out, like, well, what do you mean?
[00:17:23.300] - Chris
And so I told them kind of the general story of this interaction with somebody, and they're like, that's crummy. There was something about it just kind of dislodged it in my head. Like that story, I just worked it through. I'm like, yeah, I feel pissed off. I feel crummy. I kind of felt there was a piece of I felt insulted. And by the time I kind of thought through it, I'm like, Well, I don't even know what that person's intent was. There's so many gaps in the story, and I've kind of got that out of my system. So I think I took this on a big rabbit trail there. But I think where you're going is noticing what our motivation is and what's going on inside of us, I think is the first step to this.
[00:18:07.020] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:18:07.360] - Chris
And the fact that you talked about you unpacked that whole thing of I tend to motivate myself to change by criticizing myself.
[00:18:14.640] - Brandon
Right.
[00:18:15.490] - Chris
And what does it look like to flip that script?
[00:18:19.310] - Brandon
Because here's maybe a little bit more reason why. Right? Because I think at first glance, I consider some of this and I go, okay, well, if not wanting to be XYZ or being a bit critical about yourself and being willing to highlight these areas that are weak or that need adaptation or updates or growth or whatever, yeah, there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. But I think what I'm trying to get better at identifying is what is that sticky residue, right? This particular type of motivation or default fuel that you use to motivate you towards change or adaptation. I think the same things apply just like Desmond would talk about in terms of leading above or below the line, those below the line, reactive kind of types of behaviors where the carrots in the sticks, right? It's the threatening, it's the whatever. It leaves a sticky residue. I think the way that I'm motivating myself on a consistent basis does as well. And one of the things I'm trying to work through as a leader, partially, is like, in our own business, of course, the scale doesn't feel exactly the same, but we're growing, too.
[00:19:30.200] - Brandon
Our little business is taking on team members, and we're going to be doing a lot more announcing of what that looks like this year. Point being, we're moving forward. We're growing, and in the context of our type of business, we're growing quickly. And there's a lot of stretching and navigating. One of the comments that you made today on our coffee walk was about the time I get dialed in on the skill level that I need. We freaking push the parameter out again, and then we're back to this place of feeling like I don't necessarily have the skill set for where we're going right now. Right. And that can get hard to keep up when everything that you're using to motivate yourself is coming from a negative place. So here's an example. There's a couple of things I can look at, right? Like, this is just for some people, this is going to sound so damn naval gaze, but here's an example. There's additional tools and resources that I want to create. I want to do that because really, our clients deserve it. This is something that we can do for them and create value for them.
[00:20:36.570] - Brandon
The headspace that I'm most often coming from is more like, are we doing enough?
[00:20:43.620] - Chris
You should do this, and you should have fucking done it four months ago.
[00:20:46.510] - Brandon
We should do this. It should already be done, right? Are you a pro or are you not a pro?
[00:20:50.900] - Chris
Like, all this crap that's wrong with me.
[00:20:52.840] - Brandon
Yeah. Versus, you know what? I really love my client, and I want to create the best experience for them I possibly can because I value them. That's an okay motivator. It doesn't need all the other bullshit, I guess, is maybe the thing where I'm going with this. And I think, again, sometimes you and I get on a topic and it's like, hey, I'm just going to kind of brain dump what I'm processing. And if somebody else in the audience is like, holy shit, I've been processing something similar. This is one of those I don't even know if we'll do a good summary. But the point is, I know there's a lot of leaders right now that are frustrated with their people, frustrated with the current state of their business, frustrated because sales aren't going the way that they want. Frustrated, frustrated, frustrated. Okay, you don't all of a sudden that doesn't go away. But as a leader leading ourselves, is there a turn that we could begin to try to make and say, okay, yes, all those things are true right now, but what's the value of running from something versus, can I run towards something?
[00:21:52.340] - Brandon
So if I could take the same situation you know what? I'm very frustrated with my technical staff right now. They really are struggling with documentation. I don't know. Pick a problem. Is there a way for me to look at that and say, look, I really value the experience my employee is going to have. I care deeply about my employees. Is there something that I can do with our process, our procedure, or in my hiring practices that will give me the highest chance or the best opportunity to create a real win for my employee or a real win for us as a team? Again, I know that maybe for some of us listening to that example, they're like, okay, dude, you just changed the wording, but I got to challenge you. If your knee jerk response when you hear that example is you're just fucking saying it with a different phrase. But ask yourself the mental and emotional impact if every single thing that you were chasing to fix in your business, you were doing it out of the motivation to be the best, to be elite, to provide extra value, to create win and relationship, to create excitement and engagement in your employees.
[00:23:00.010] - Brandon
My gut says if I spent more time in that space, the problem solving that I have to do as a leader and a business owner, the weight of that would just bear differently than when it's in constantly coming from the state of I can't I don't I should I could have. I would. I'm mad. I'm frustrated. We got to fix that. I'm afraid of that. I mean, how many of us make decisions and are motivated because of fear, really, if we're honest, right? And so, again, I don't have the answer. I just want to live in a state where I'm not constantly beating the shit out of myself and constantly running from the devil in the shadows. I'd rather just be running after the shit I'm motivated for. It'll probably create the same outcome, but I just think my soul will be happier when I get to the finish line, right?
[00:23:50.990] - Chris
Oh, yeah.
[00:23:51.800] - Brandon
I don't know. So that's where I'm at, man. I don't know, dude.
[00:23:54.910] - Chris
Our thoughts are incredibly powerful.
[00:23:56.850] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:23:57.260] - Chris
Our thoughts guide everything we do as humans. And a lot of times we're doing things out of bullshit thoughts. In fact, I'm trying to think what book I think it was Eckhart Tolle's New Earth. And he was talking about this just sort of the way that our brains function, how they've evolved to like Bernie Brown talks about this, how our brains have evolved to fill in all the gaps, to create these really vivid, rich stories about why somebody did this or what that sound means that I just heard, or how that person did that thing. And this is what it means and what the consequence is going to be. We just start filling in all the gaps, and a lot of times it's bullshit. Eckhart Tolley. One of the things he says, too, is that almost 90% of the thoughts we have are repetitive and nonsensical.
[00:24:45.810] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:24:46.540] - Chris
Monitor yourself. Talk for just, you know, you get home today, you're sitting down with a beer. You're sitting, you know, cooking dinner, whatever. You're in front of the barbecue, throwing a steak on, whatever it is. And just consider that the kinds of stuff that just repetitively run through our heads. And what are the repetitive stories that we have when we walk into our office, into our shop? What are the repetitive? And keep a special eye for the negative ones, obviously.
[00:25:11.540] - Brandon
Right.
[00:25:12.690] - Chris
So much of it is not serving us and instead it's causing us to react out of these what oftentimes are bullshit thoughts and stories where we've added in a lot of false information along with real information. And we started taking action and we started risking relationships based on how we're so it's like our thoughts drive everything we do. And so I think us putting a little more attention on it is a real thing and an important thing.
[00:25:39.500] - Brandon
Yeah. Hey, friends.
[00:25:42.240] - Chris
Hey, listeners. We're doing something a little bit different with our ads. So you've been accustomed to hearing some ads with our favorite partners and companies in the industry. Now we actually have a product page, our partners page, on our website. So floodlightgrp.com partners. I want to give you a quick rundown, though, of the people that we're partnering with and we believe in, as really goto resources in the industry. The first one is restoration erp.com, right? ERPs are an important part of our sales process, our customer development process. And why reinvent the wheel? The restoration ERP platform is awesome. It can be customized to your business, branding and all that kind of stuff, and has all the components to really create a value add for your commercial client. Accelerate job Management Software everybody needs job management software. And we have just found Accelerate. Not only is their team just really great to work with, when they get ideas from customers, they throw it into the product roadmap and they implement it. They're really advocating for the contractor and trying to create a software solution that works for them. Actionable Insights. We recommend actionable Insights all the time, right?
[00:26:46.160] - Chris
All of us as restoration operators, are looking for turnkey resources and training solutions that we can take our team to the next level. And AI, when it comes to estimating and matterport and a lot of the other essential tools we're using, they're an awesome resource and they're always coming out with new great stuff.
[00:27:04.360] - Brandon
Super influential in the industry. Super Tech University. Soft Skills Development training for your technicians, for your Frontline personnel. Let's face it, frontline personnel are the heartbeat of our company. They are the ones that connect with our clients and create the customer experience. There's no better investment than investing in the ability for those individuals to represent themselves, our clients and our brands well. So super. Tech University? Surety. They essentially are cutting down this life cycle between delivering service and then getting paid, stepping in, removing the middleman in terms of mortgage companies, refining that pipeline, making sure that there's at least friction as possible so we can go out and do a great job, and then our businesses don't suffer while we're waiting to get paid. The money is coming and it's coming quickly. And then the last one, guys, is Liftify. It's kind of a newer entry to the industry. They're driving Google reviews, so they're a turnkey partner that we can literally go out, provide a great customer experience, hand that name off to our trusted partner in Liftify and have them go chase that.
[00:28:08.090] - Chris
Google Review 25% conversion rate, which is industry wide, people tend to average 5% of the people you ask for review. Actually convert lift. If I bumps that to 25, we were such a big believer. We're a customer and they've been generating all of our floodlight reviews. And in a matter of a week and a half, we're up to, I don't know, close to 15 reviews in just a short period of time.
[00:28:27.410] - Brandon
And I think people just underestimate what happens organically. With your SEO search activity when you're getting these new and active five star reviews from our clients. And we just can't let the pedal up on that because of the effect on our businesses long term.
[00:28:40.960] - Chris
Big deal. So check it out. Check out our partners page. Do business with them. You won't regret it. We're confident in that floodlightgrp.com partners.
[00:28:49.680] - Brandon
Thanks, guys.
[00:28:53.130] - Chris
I think the other thing you're feeling, and I feel it, is we started with this. All of media is incredibly negative right now, right? It's just it's everywhere. And it's one of the reasons why I almost overwhelmingly, nearly 90% of my social media, like, viewing right now is comedians.
[00:29:10.870] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:29:11.540] - Chris
Like, I have gotten really into stand up comedy. I love it. I think there's a lot to learn for those of us who do any kind of public speaking training, being in front of people. I think it's a fun way to learn and really perceiving and perceiving all the things. I just freaking love stand up comedy. But also part of that is I just get depressed with all the negativity and and I didn't notice it for a long time because social media is so addicting. You just find yourself scrolling through all the shit. And I just started to notice, god, I just feel crummy. And so I started watching more comedy. It's funny. My wife and I are like, hey, do you want to go to bed early? Let's watch some funnies. Just because it makes you feel good versus makes you feel like shit.
[00:29:52.710] - Brandon
With travel, that's kind of our normal operation. At the end of a long day of training, often we'll go back to the hotel door, dash our food, fire up some comedy, fire up some YouTube.
[00:30:05.550] - Chris
And watch a comedy special on Netflix or something like that. Yeah, it's a healthy place for me. And I think people are hungry all around us, including ourselves, for positivity. Here's just a really dumb simple example. Okay, so I was at my CrossFit gym Monday morning. It's 05:30, a.m. Not a very positive time of day for most of us. It's like, I I force myself certainly.
[00:30:33.600] - Brandon
Not the easiest to be positive.
[00:30:35.550] - Chris
I forced myself to get there. But anyways, there's this other dude, and I can't even remember his name. He's brand new and whatever it was layman to ask him. But we were doing front rack squats, which are very challenging, those of you that have been in the gym for most people, very challenging. I don't put a ton of plates on my bar when I'm doing front squats. Anyway, I walked by this dude, and he is a full rack of weights on the bar, like two or three forty five S and a significant amount of weight.
[00:31:01.820] - Brandon
Anyway, and he's front squatting.
[00:31:03.660] - Chris
And I don't know, this guy might be his first workout. Anyway, and I hadn't formally introduced myself yet, but I just walked past and I'm like, holy shit, dude. Full rack, man, you know? Right on. This is how I talk when I'm not on the microphone.
[00:31:17.200] - Brandon
You talk like that on yeah, it's true.
[00:31:20.480] - Chris
And he smiled and he was like, yeah, rock on. Anyway, I went back to work and then two minutes later he's like, hey, by the way, dude, fucking awesome mustache. And I felt good. I know this seems I don't know, whatever. In that moment, I just observed how powerful in this is and how contagious it is, and I had several other examples of that and it's just something I've been trying to lean into is to say the kind things that I think in my head. So I think maybe I even mentioned it on a previous podcast. I was at church a few weeks ago and we had a new worship leader singing and playing guitar or whatever up front. I sing and I play piano. I have an ear for that stuff. And he was awesome. And I thought, I'm going to go tell him. I'm going to go tell him how great he did. And it just created this rad moment where I could tell it was gratifying to me. One, it was for him, but it felt really gratifying to encourage him. It was obvious, it was an encouragement. Like the look in his eyes, the conversation that we had subsequently, it was like, man, okay, this kindness is powerful.
[00:32:37.010] - Chris
And I think part of it too is being kind toward ourselves, which I think especially in the trades I say this a lot because I'm from outside the trade. I didn't grow up I didn't grow up in the trades. And what I see a lot and what I saw when I first got in is there's just this just pull yourself up by your bootstraps quick, complain and don't talk about your feelings. There's just like a get shit done. And part of that's necessary. And I admire it. I like it. I'm drawn to it. Sort of the hustle of our industry, and it's fucking toxic if we don't manage it, if it goes unbalanced. I think all of us have either worked in a team or we're in a team. Or maybe you're a leader and you've created this. Hell yeah, get our shit together. Go rock people's. Face off. You've established your entire culture around that. Quit you're complaining, and I think you know what I'm talking about. There's a cost to that kind of culture.
[00:33:42.730] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:33:43.160] - Chris
You know what I mean?
[00:33:44.040] - Brandon
Yeah. I think ultimately it creates environments at times where people can't communicate. They're not willing to share what's really going on. You're not effectively working with truth a lot of the time. You're working either with posturing or compartmentalization with not truth, which really limits our ability to affect the healthy kind of sustainable change in our business.
[00:34:05.890] - Chris
It's contagious anger and frustration and sadness and loneliness and all those things they're contagious just like kindness.
[00:34:15.470] - Brandon
Yeah. I was going to say. I think almost in a way, I think this is what's interesting, that we don't often most of us don't recognize this. I actually think that positivity is far more contagious. Yes, it's almost like all day you were just running and gunning. Maybe you were definitely hit the coffee all day. You'd grabbed a Coke Zero at some point, but you just haven't done a good job of taking in water. And then later that afternoon or evening or whatever, you take a glass, a cold glass of water and those first full Gulfs, it almost feels like you can feel it go through your entire body or your feet. I literally just felt water go into my entire system. Sometimes when I experienced somebody doing something out of kindness or caring or they share something positive, it's like the soil is so excited for water that it's the contagious level is ten acts. All the other shit that we're used to being influenced by that negative side. So it's like for teams that start deploying more focus on the positive spin of why we're doing something or what the value is or why we're passionate about this outcome, I think that the teams absorb it so much faster because they're so desperate for it.
[00:35:38.260] - Brandon
Whereas I feel like the negative stuff, the sticks, these other kind of negative, more negative based influences or motivational factors, you're just dumping that shit in an already full cup. So it's like it's landing. Obviously, it's not allowing that level to deplete in any way. So they're just kind of in a constant state of fed up by negativity versus kind of doing this 180 or this engineering a different path, I guess. I don't know.
[00:36:08.600] - Chris
I talk a lot about marriage and family and kids and all that stuff. I've been really trying to hang on. It's funny you brought this up and I realized we've kind of gone hit on a few topics here. But this theme of kindness and positivity, it touches so many things. And as a parent, one of the things I'm noticing is just the power of me noticing. Like I said, I'm really trying. When I have an encouraging thought or an appreciation for something, I'm really trying to verbalize it in the moment just to say the thing. Even at grocery stores, there's a natural grocery store that I go to to get some. Whatever, dude.
[00:36:48.460] - Brandon
There's such a hippy dippy.
[00:36:50.060] - Chris
I totally am.
[00:36:51.120] - Brandon
Natural grocery store?
[00:36:52.470] - Chris
I know, it's ridiculous. I had to go pick up some grass fed pastured beef. Of course you did. Yeah. And some organic dried mangoes. Whatever. Don't make fun of me. Leave me alone. And there's this checker who's always there and she's just a cool person and she's fun. She's like an artsy fartsy person. She's going to art school. And every single time I see her, she's got like this crazy makeup. And I'm talking like movie set kind of makeup. Like, she just has these different colors, and it looks cool. It's not weird. It's just like, Whoa, man, that's incredible. And so I'll compliment her every time I see her. I'm like, wow. Oh, my God, that looks amazing. That thing, that pink and purple and blue hair that you did. I'm like, oh, my God. It looks like a My Little Pony hair. She's like, oh, yeah, that's totally what.
[00:37:36.550] - Brandon
Inspired it such a weird conversation pony, man. That is it.
[00:37:40.470] - Chris
My sister had them.
[00:37:41.270] - Brandon
That's a dating game.
[00:37:42.450] - Chris
It's like the rainbow hair and shoes. Yeah. And so I told her that. She's like, oh, my God, that was part of the inspiration or whatever. And it's just such a I feel good when I do that, and I can see it in her eyes. She feels lifted up as I say this. I'm like I think I'm generally a fairly kind person, but I'm also very driven. And one of the things that comes to mind here, I'm judging myself, but one of the regrets I have is I often just I am so zoned in my objective. I missed all those opportunities, and it's like, how much encouragement and building up of my team because I've owned different businesses, and you and I have built teams together and stuff like that, and it's like there are so many missed opportunities in my wake. So many. And I can also think, too. My first ten years of having kids, I struggled to figure out all this stuff, like how to build businesses and still manage my anger and my mental health and stuff with kids. And now I'm tuned in, I think of all the missed opportunities of just encouraging my kids and saying positive things, because with my kids, I've noticed this over and over and over and over again.
[00:38:56.560] - Chris
Particularly my boy, my middle boy. Like, when I'm regularly complimenting him on stuff, I see, when I'm regularly giving him the fist bump of like, hey, dude, I saw that. I was cool, man. When I'm listening to him play guitar in his room, and I just go poke my head in, and I make it a point like, dude, that riff was awesome, man. Is this a new song? Is this, like, a new thing? When I'm conscious enough to do that stuff, everything else gets better. And I've actually noticed it's even deeper than my relationship with my boy, because we don't have a giant McMansion we live in. You hear stuff. Like, when you're home and stuff in the evenings, we're all hearing what's going on, the interactions with each other and the other family. And it's like, when I'm tuned in to what's going well and things that I like and I'm complimentary and stuff with my wife and my kids and everything else, it affects the whole rest of the house. Like, my daughter, who's in her room chatting on whatever, she still hears that stuff. Like, it creates a positive energy in our house to where all of us like to be home more.
[00:40:05.940] - Brandon
Right.
[00:40:06.790] - Chris
Whereas I don't know if any of you have teenagers, but I feel funny. I had this conversation with a client. He's like, Dude, do you ever feel like you just wish your kids would leave and move far away? And I'm like, because I feel like a bad person when I say that. I'm like, Are you kidding me? I have teenagers right now. And I've thought about boarding school about every third day for the last two years.
[00:40:28.310] - Brandon
My wife likes to reference, hey, I love you all the time, but sometimes I don't like you. Yeah, that's how I feel about my kids, and I'm sure they feel the same way about me from time to time.
[00:40:38.960] - Chris
It's real life. But part of the reason why I feel so negative is because I'm focused on the negative. When I'm focused on what's pissing me off about my kid or my employee or a client, that's not, whatever, responding the way I want. When I'm focused on how pissed off I am, I don't see any of the good shit. And I think it comes back to that whole love tank. It's all about that, and it also is about ourselves. It's like when I'm constantly criticizing myself, I'm making withdrawal after withdrawal after withdrawal, and then I get home, I feel like, shit. I'm at the dinner table. I feel crummy. It's because I've been bashing myself the whole day.
[00:41:17.280] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:41:17.790] - Chris
I've been regurgitating that interaction with whomever that made me feel small. And I'm also assessing, what did I do wrong? How did I screw that up? How did I contribute to them treating me that way or saying, that thing I'm locked up in it.
[00:41:36.980] - Brandon
Yeah. It's not necessarily yielding any kind of outcome you can work with. No, I think that's the part of us or part of me that's been wrestling with this. I'm just asking myself the question, is that methodology giving me what I want, what I want to experience, moving the needle, whatever you want to call it. And I think more times than not, when I do a bit of a detached, as best as you can review of that, I'm just not seeing what I wanted to anyway. So it's not even that it's actually working all that well. It just tends to perpetuate itself in this negative perspective.
[00:42:14.740] - Chris
Listen, man, I'm feeling a little self conscious and vulnerable right now. All of this personal sharing of feelings and love and kindness conversation.
[00:42:23.880] - Brandon
We need to get back to the surface. Or what do we do?
[00:42:26.060] - Chris
I think we should land the plan.
[00:42:27.140] - Brandon
We need to get back to the surface. Okay. All right. So here's kind of where we started. I think this is kind of a summary. There's a natural tendency for us to get really hyper focused on the things that aren't working and using that either fear or I'm against that. I'm against this competitor. I'm against that company, whatever the case may be. When we get stuck in the cycle where everything is from judgment, guilt, shame, fear, I mean, you name it, you guys can come up with your own thing that you believe is your category. The reality of it is we all have them. We probably all could call it the same thing, but we won't. Whatever that thing is, when you get stuck in that and that is the primary motivator, there's something not sustainable about it. There is negativity. There's some kind of sticky residue that's coming from that. And I think there's more health and longevity when we're motivating ourselves and our teams from a place of what are you for? What is it that you are after? Who are you not, what you're not? Like, everybody is very good at saying what they're not and what they're against, and none of us tend to be very good at very clearly articulating.
[00:43:43.210] - Brandon
But what are you? Who are you? What are you for? Where are you going? And it's interesting, too, because I don't want to spin this back up, but there's this reality that our teams and our employees thrive in an environment where they have a clean vision of where they're headed. Well, think about that. What is a clear vision of where we're headed? It has nothing to do what we're not, what we're afraid of, what we're running from. Everyone, if they ask themselves that question, they're going to default to want to be a $4 million company. We want to be an $80 million company. We want to be an elite restoration outfit. We want to be XYZ. Stay in that pocket.
[00:44:22.440] - Chris
What do we want?
[00:44:23.360] - Brandon
What do you want? Who are you? What do you want to be aspirational? Where are you headed? Stay in that pocket. And I don't know how this all applies. I think if anything, it's just like, ask yourself some questions. Like, when you're in this place where every comment in your mind is about, this is not working. I'm frustrated with this. I'm sick of this. We've got to fix this because of XYZ. Do a little bit of an exercise. Is there a way for us to re spin that and be like, okay, I started frustrated. What am I excited about?
[00:44:58.990] - Chris
Okay, I don't like that word.
[00:45:01.550] - Brandon
Which one?
[00:45:05.410] - Chris
I don't know that you mean it this way, but when I hear spin, it takes me back to my car sales days. Actually, way back, like 1516 years ago, when I sold cars, because car sales, it doesn't have. To be this way, but it's just very it can be kind of slimy and spin doctoring and like oh, yeah.
[00:45:24.740] - Brandon
I see what you're saying.
[00:45:25.430] - Chris
That whole deceptive kind of thing, and it sounds fake, spinning, faking it or whatever. Whereas I think what you're talking about and what we're talking about is shifting. Yeah, it's choosing to look at the other side of the coin. Yeah, I'm focusing on the negatives. And because of that, I can't see the positive. I can't see what I'm grateful for in this situation because I'm so fucking hyper focused on the negative. And if I just pause and turn the coin over, I have that opportunity to be like, oh, shit. Yeah, we have this other stuff going on.
[00:46:03.410] - Brandon
It's really amazing. Yeah. Anyway, no, I think you're right on it. That is it's the shifting. It's being intentional. I think that's a good point. It is intentional.
[00:46:15.050] - Chris
It's not polishing a turd is what I'm saying.
[00:46:17.120] - Brandon
Exactly. Yeah. It is not a fake trying to look faking positivity. No. It's legitimately stopping your lizard brain from controlling the cycle that you're spinning in so that you can get focused and oriented on the other aspects of the truth and reality that you live in that you can do. So stuff is happening. There's a lot of positive things happening in our businesses, in our relationships, in our homes. It's funny. I know we want to wrap this conversation up, but it's very interesting to me, man. For all intents and purposes, we can look at our business and there is thing after thing after thing that lines up. I'm going to give you a cheesy example that just hit me this last couple of days. So you and I right now are interviewing consultants, right? And we're also onboarding for the first time additional media, social media, support staff and things like that. And for those of you that aren't religious, the point will still be the same here. So hang in the pocket. I literally started yesterday in a dumb head space, and I started getting very frustrated. We're doing some transferring of using certain software systems right now that have created more hassle than I was anticipating, of course, right?
[00:47:28.690] - Brandon
Surprise, surprise. We're stressed out about the fact that there's some pretty key things that we need to do as we onboard. New team members to be good leaders to them, all this stuff, right? And I'm starting from this place of I'm frustrated I have to do these things. I've got the weight of this other thing that I need to do. And this is my episode for my wife. My wife is literally showing me via text message things like our new team member saying something like, man, it was really great to meet everybody today. I've been praying for this for a long time. Right? Or if we think about the caliber of people that we're talking to right now that want to look at what it would be like to be a part of our team, there's so much positive weight in those things. And somehow I spent the bulk of my day being totally drilled in on the negative aspects of some of the stuff you got to fucking wrestle with. Like, it just is what it is, right?
[00:48:26.050] - Chris
Dude. Speaking of that, I could see you did a great job running our first staff meeting. That's good.
[00:48:30.920] - Brandon
Yesterday, we have our own like, we've.
[00:48:33.180] - Chris
Had staff meetings, but it's been a small group and that group is getting bigger now. And I could also see just the light in Brandon's eyes, like, with multiple people up on our zoom screen for this meeting. It's just like all of us have been really hungry to grow and expand the team and get back to have because we've always had big teams around us and it's really fun. And you're exactly right, man. It's like amidst all of the normal bullshit that's going to keep coming, you step back and you're like, wow, there's some really important things we can be grateful for.
[00:49:08.980] - Brandon
That's it, man. That's it. So let's sign off with this guy. Look around. Look around at your business. Look around at your family. Look around your sphere of influence. Look around peers. Think about your friendships. Think about other business owners that you know and have some kind of camaraderie with. What are you for? What's pause, right? Like, what is it in your business that is dialed in? What do you have to be thankful for? What can your team be chasing because of the passion for it? Because of the love for it? Because of the excitement around it? Because it's aspirational versus I'm running from something, right? Let's stop being focused on what we're against and really hammer down on what are we for. What are we for?
[00:49:55.310] - Chris
And like always, we try to close out the show. If you love the Headhart Boots podcast, if you enjoy Brandon and I and the guests we bring on, if you're getting something out of it the best way, it's free. Yeah, it's free. It's free to you. But there is a cost. And the cost is we'd love for you to help us build our audience and build the community here at Headharten Boots, we do hear that it's helping people. People appreciate it, and we're committed to that. But if you can help us make it more sustainable, you can do that by sharing the podcast, telling your friends about it on LinkedIn. Certainly becoming a subscriber yourself. If you've just kind of been intermittently popping in, be a subscriber so you get all of our newest episodes if you need one on one consulting. Our team is growing. Our capacity to serve the industry is going to significantly ramp up this year. And so if you're looking for a partner if you're looking for a partner to help your company grow and adapt to the changing environment, we would certainly love to chat. You can find [email protected]. You can also message Brandon and I both on LinkedIn, and I'd recommend if you're not already, please follow us on LinkedIn.
[00:51:00.760] - Chris
Follow floodlight for all of our stuff. Watch for more videos. We've got some cool stuff that's going to be coming out on LinkedIn and Facebook. We have a full time social media manager now. How fancy is that? Anyway, until next time.
[00:51:13.800] - Brandon
Thanks. We'll see you. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart and Boots.
[00:51:21.200] - Chris
And if you're joined the show or you love this episode, please hit follow. Formally known as subscribe, write us a review or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.
