Sharing a Vision With Your Spouse | Podcast Ep. 105 | Toolbox for the Trades

Leslie Harpole, you are the co owner of Champion Plumbing. Welcome to the Toolbox for the Trades podcast.

Thank you, Jackie. I'm so excited to be here.

I am so excited for you to be here as well. You spoke at Service Titan's last user conference, pantheon in April 2022, I believe it was. And you've got such an amazing story. I can't wait to dive into it. But the first thing I'm going to ask you is how did you get into the trades?

Well, it was not on purpose. I never could have dreamed this is the direction my professional life would have taken. But Brent, my husband, the other owner of Champion Plumbing, he is a master plumber and he came by that because he lost his job working for the local gas company here. It was right when we got married and he had a really good job. He thought that's where he was going to stay and life had another plan. So he ended up going back to school. He went to the local votech and started his apprenticeship and training and the rest is kind of history. He immediately got a job as a new construction plumber. And he did that for about four years till he could test for his journeyman. Then we started our own gig in new construction plumbing. We realized that that wasn't very profitable and we kind of hit rock bottom in our business. Hired a coach and rebranded and just started over in residential service plumbing here in Oklahoma City.

Got it. Yeah. We're going to get into all the details of that story, which is a crazy one, but also an incredible one at the same time. I would love to know, at what point did you decide to go into business with Brent?

Well, so about the time he. Thinking back on this, it really is a crazy story. So right before he got. He ended up getting laid off from the company he was working with that was new construction plumbing. And I had just had a baby and I had gotten laid off from my job in oil and gas while I was pregnant, big pregnant. And Romy was like eight weeks old. And I had started interviewing for jobs and it was breaking my heart. And I got a job and I kept pushing, I kept pushing the timeline of when I was going to start. And about a week before I was supposed to start, I just told him, I said, I can't do this again where I take one of my kids to daycare. It broke my heart with my oldest. I did what I had to do. And we were really not in a position for me to not be working. I mean, we were not. So I said, why don't we start our own business, right? Don't take financial advice from us, but we, why don't we start our own business? You know, I will find the builders, you build the crew. We'll, we'll go down that route. So that's what we did for about three years and it was a scary time. I mean, we just didn't have, we had direction and that. We knew we wanted to be our own boss and be a business owner, but really no one tells you how to run a business successfully. We, we did the best that we could. New construction again, was not profitable for us. It's just not a good model for most of these guys out there who don't have a lot of working capital. That was, that was our experience. And so after we had done that, we found a coach and we just started all over. So you. I just never could have guessed that this is the direction I guess our life would have taken.

I'm so happy I asked that question. Because if I listening back to what you just said, what really inspired the start of you joining the trades was because you are a mother and you wanted to be with your child right after they were born. And if I work with my husband, if I work at from home trying to find building contracts for him, that will enable me to stay at home with my children.

And that is absolutely the truth. It was, it was just a gut instinct. It was, I no longer, no longer what I had done in the past was acceptable to me and there wasn't going to be another time that I was willing to take that risk. Because once you usually start a job and you get comfortable and you get used to the day to day, you get used to the negativity of that job and you build your life around that. So, so grateful for both of us. I mean, thinking back on that time, we had just moved into a brand new house too. So it was like a perfect storm of things that happened. It was not the time for us to be starting a business. No business plan, no one we could really ask. We just, we didn't know. It was just Brent knew. He was a good plumber, he knew how to plumb a house. He was smart. So that's what we went on, you know, and ultimately we just had, we have the same goals for our family. So we just had to be really scrappy and I mean, we've had to be really scrappy even in the rebrand and in service and you know, my strengths are not his and his are not mine. And it's just been A compliment to each other and for Champion.

I love that. And we're going to get into how you both co own and co run the business, which I think is really great. I just cannot get over the fact that the company was essentially started based on you being a parent. I have for complete reference. So you mentioned you were eight weeks pregnant. Getting starting to interview again. My best friend in the world, she has a nine week old. I hung out with her yesterday and we were talking about this exact same thing, which is what happens after you give birth and you all of a sudden have to leave this little thing that you grew in your belly for nine months and go off to work. It's such a hard thing and something that I don't think a lot of people in business really think about. I mean women who have children obviously think about it, but maybe some men don't. And so I'm just really happy to have that perspective here on the show, which is I got into business because I wanted to stay at home and be present with my children. And it wasn't the smartest decision, it wasn't the best financial decision, but we were able to work our way out of it because we had that unified vision of where we wanted our family to go. So I'm just so happy to have that perspective here on Toolbox.

Well, and you. I never thought, you know, as a young woman and after I got married, I thought I'm always going to be a working mom. I'm never going to stay at home with my kids. You know, they're going to be fine. And that is fine. If that is your choice, that is fine. Everyone has different direction. But then of course, when the babies got here, my heart changed. I just had a total heart change. And I'm just, I'm so grateful now for what at the time was just a. It felt like a hopeless season and not seeing light at the end of the tunnel. How God really used that to bring about something amazing. And. And I. I like looking back. I will never regret that time that I had with my littlest. And it's true. It really was born out of that. And I've never even thought about it being that way till you just said that. But that's absolutely right. It was really. It was something that was so strong on. It weighed so heavily on me that when I brought it to Brent, you know, there was no pushback. He was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's try it. You know, let's see what happens.

That's great. And we're going to talk a little bit more about how to get more women in the trades. And obviously this is a giant component which is women or mothers who give birth to children and are very connected with their children, especially in the first year of their life. And how can you acknowledge that and make work something that. Especially for women who want to continue working. But there's also going to be women who have to work. Right? How can you make that as equal to and accepting and flexible of a place as you can for them? Because it is so hard. But before we even get into that, I would love if you could just tell us a bit about where Champion Plumbing is today. What's your business focus? How many employees do you have? All that good stuff.

So we are in. I actually just had to pull all of our financial reports yesterday. We are in our fourth year of residential service since we rebranded and turned into Champion. And it has been a ride. You know, our, our first year was Brent in a beat up truck that had a bullet hole in it and it was like a sticker slapped on the side of it and he was running calls, you know, that very first year we made our, our first hire. So we had two guys in the truck. Our next year we hit a million. The year after that we hit three. We will hit close to four this year. Our growth this year hasn't been as strong as previous because we really focused on operations. We joined nexstar and instead of just focusing on growth, it was operations, operations, operations. Finding where the weaknesses are, where the holes are in the business. And that stuff is not fun to work on. I mean, both of us are visionaries. And I'll be honest, I don't want to ever pull a financial report or talk to anyone about numbers. It just, I immediately zone out. But we've had to really overcome that and push through on a lot of stuff. So that's really what our focus has been in 22 is just implementing Nextar best practices and scaling, you know, so that really we have a blue, a better blueprint. Because the first three years it was just the, it was just the two of us going, let's just keep adding trucks. And we did because I feel like we've built like a phenomenal marketing team where we have leads. So it was easy for me. I mean, there would be times that I'd go, hey babe, I. I bought two vans today. You need to go find two people to put in on. And that was how we worked, you know, because that was fun and it was fun to see the growth but we had to really start focusing on the operations. So that's where we're at now. We have 20 full time employees. I'm trying to think what are the details? I just hired a marketing assistant to kind of take some of the marketing stuff off of me. We have a service manager, a call center manager. Right now we're really building out drains differently than what we did before. And then our goal is by the end of 23 is we will have a general manager in place and we'll be adding H Vac and electrical. So nice.

That's awesome. I'm happy that I caught you at this point in your business because as you said, you did new construction for a few years and then you pivoted to residential sr. So tell me about why that switch happened. Tell me about that kind of aha moment and how you were able to learn from the new construction side of the business to really focus on the foundation it sounds like for the residential side.

So, you know, initially when Brent started new construction plumbing, you could have never told him he would be a service plumber. He would meet them at the part house and talk crap about them and he. You just couldn't have told him. We just got into a really bad place with new construction where we just weren't making money and we couldn't figure out why. And it wasn't until we brought in a consultant that he was like, look, you're never really going to make money in new construction. It's not a model that is profitable for the small guy. And we did the best that we could, but we could not make it work. And Brent was just getting really, really beat up about the stress and his body was getting beat up. And it was at that point I could kind of see this happening from the outside and I started reaching out, trying to find people to help us and kind of speak some life into us. And that's really what brought us to that. And I think it had to be perfect timing because if it had been a year before, Brent would not have even been open to the idea. So I think it just got to a point where he was so desperate for a change and he couldn't, you know, we just couldn't understand why can't we make this work in new construction? You know, in hindsight, it's 2020 now that we understand what we, what we see now. But we didn't know then and it wasn't one of those things that we could push through. It just it wasn't working anymore. So we really didn't have a choice. We just. We either had to pivot or get out of the business.

Yeah. And was getting out of the business, did you guys consider that, or did you always. Were you really focused on pivoting? So I would love to hear the honesty of that conversation, because we. I talk about this on the podcast.

To be honest, we are just not quitters, and we have learned to take a lot of hits and get back up. And I don't think at that time, I wanted to do whatever I could, could to support Brent, but I also wanted to be able to give him options and say, hey, I'm a researcher by nature. I will reach out to people on Facebook and ask questions. And I had done a little research, and so I just, you know, I had to. I had to say it at the right time. Here's what I found. Here's an idea. Would you be willing to talk to this guy what he has to say? So ultimately, we always knew we wanted. We wanted to be in business for ourselves.

Got it. So there was kind of like a no turning back moment.

Pretty much, yeah.

So we've talked a lot about being in business with your spouse before on this podcast and the challenges that come with it. I'd love to hear about your experience with this. What challenges did you and Brent have to overcome, and what are some major lessons you learned in the process?

Well, I always like to joke that spouses that are in business together, we really need our own support group, because a lot of these other best practice groups, you can't always apply the same techniques. You would if you were just doing it yourself as if you were working with your spouse. And it's very. It's hard. I mean, it's very hard. But really working with your spouse, if you have any weakness in your marriage, it's just exacerbated in your business. And everything that you struggle with personally in your marriage shows up in your business. It's just bigger because there's more people involved. But although that's challenging, it's also a blessing because you are really forced to examine yourself, your own ego, and your part of the situation. And that's really how we've had to look at it. And it has not been easy. And I would never, ever pretend that it. That it was. I think it's not talked about enough. And I always really like to encourage other women who are in the trades who are working with their spouse, if I can. Hey, if you need to call me, let's talk. You know, just to have A sounding board, but we've learned a lot. I feel like we have. We have been through it all in our business and personally. And so it's really just having a self awareness of where you're at and getting the help that you need to get through it. But it's hard to work with your spouse. You know, like I said, you're dealing with this person at home on home issues and family issues, and then you're dealing with them at work and there's other people involved. So we've had to get help in how we even communicate with each other. And we've gone through really tough seasons, but we both have the same goals and we both want the same thing for our family and for Champion. And there's times where I have to sit back and go, he can. He's gonna take care of this. It may not be the way that I do it, but I know his goal is the same as mine, so this is his and vice versa.

Wow. Yeah. It's such an interesting dynamic. You've mentioned this actually a couple times already. But the fact that you and Brent share the same goals and it sounds like you communicate about those goals fairly frequently. Am I right in that assumption?

We have to. Yeah, because we fight. You know, we both. I'm like, I always tell people there's two alpha males in this relationship, so I have to keep myself in check. But we will fight about small things. Well, you know, small things in the business or I don't want to say fight that. It's a fight. Okay, whatever, like whatever the term is we want to call it, we can get after each other on things at home and in the business. But really when you step back and you, you gain perspective, it's like we really have the same goals. So you, you need to pick your battles. You know, it's just like with your kids. You can't just be upset all the time about everything. And I have to tell myself that because I can be really controlling, you know, and I've had to delegate things that I'm not. You know, someone else is doing this now. He's going to take care of this now in the business. And if I find myself getting triggered or start questioning him, I have to remember we have the same goals and we work differently. And, you know, that's, that's the beauty of it.

I love that. I think that's such a great foundation for growth and trust. Not just growth, I should say trust in the foundation of a relationship, whether it be a marriage, whether it be a Business partnership with a spouse or a business partnership with not a spouse. Constantly communicating. We're on the same side, we're fighting for the same goal. We may have different opinions as to how we're going to get to that goal, but we trust that the other one is doing what they believe is in their best interest. And real quick, how have you and Brent delegated responsibilities within Champion? Because I know you said he focuses on this thing, I focus on that thing. Could you clear that up?

So it didn't start out that way. You know, especially when you're an owner or co owner, you wear a ton of hats and it's just been really, in the past six months we hired a productivity expert and one of the things that she. So I just can't say enough about her. She's amazing. She has worked so well with me and keeping me focused and she's just amazing. But one other thing that she has experience in and I don't think she calls herself this is she has worked with business owners in the past who not married, have no relation, but have had huge falling outs and no longer even speak to each other. Been able to kind of mediate and get them back on the same track just with her processes that she puts in place. So we started working with her about six months ago. She outlined some really simple things that we could do. Now it is simple on paper or whatever she's saying and then we had to be really intentional about following through. And so one of the things was, is just clearly defining our roles and sticking to that. Meaning if I'm over finances and I am, then I stick to that and he can't jump in. It's my lane and I'm staying in my lane. And so is it a hundred percent all the time? No, but we really try to stay on track with the, with the tasks we've been given and as we've grown, you know, at and we're trying to scale is just putting the right people in the right place and that's just an ongoing battle for anyone in business. But it's really been defining our roles as co owners and just staying in our lanes. And then of course if there's issues, we do a 30 minute meeting each week, we go over our rocks. Issues. Are we on track, off track and we try to just really keep it short and simple and you know, we write it down. One thing we did start doing, which I found to be hugely benefit, hugely beneficial to me. I never would have thought this, this would have worked, but we started using A task management software. This was her idea. She taught us how to use it. But anytime we have a question about the business, I have to go into that software and address them that way. And it has to be in just, It's. He gets a notification or whatever, but then he has to respond to it and it kind of keeps it separate. And it, it's just really worked for us. I don't know. But I, I recommend, I recommend her. I recommend everything that she's done for us. It's really been a game changer for me personally and honestly in our marriage.

That's incredible. Would you mind sharing her name and also the software that you use?

So the software is Cool ClickUp and her name is AD Cleavet. And I am happy to pass on. I've given her information in the Lady Titans group before and a couple people just reached out because I, you know, I started using her. Well, I found her because I have ADHD and it's a, it's a blessing for me and a curse, but I have to really stay on task and not overwhelm myself. And again, she does not market herself that that's even what she's doing. But I, I am just able to really vibe with her because I, I'm a visionary. I have a ton of things happening. I'll say everything I want to say and she'll go. And she's just so calm. She just has this best demeanor about her and she'll just break it down for me and she'll go, okay, this is what we're going to do. And it, and it's just like a sigh of relief every time. Talk to her.

That's awesome. I'm so happy you brought up the productivity coach because when we first spoke before this interview, you mentioned before you can show up for your team, you have to show up for yourself. And finding this productivity coach was such a big thing for you because it sounds like you identified. I really need to get a handle on my ADHD and really focus on this business if I want to scale.

Well, absolutely. And I think, you know, we don't take lightly the responsibility we have to our team and the impact on their families and the decisions we make. And it's amazing. But it's a huge responsibility. You know, it's hard to. And it is hard to explain to people who maybe don't have that responsibility how you, you go to sleep at night and you're not thinking about your family, you're thinking about your team and their families. Right. So the number One thing I think you really have to be aware of as an owner or anyone in leadership is just your own self awareness and having humility and going, why is this my reaction? Why am I getting angry? Why aren't they responding? Like real. I, I really have to look at myself all the time, go, why am I not getting the response that I should be getting out of this? And you know, Adee has helped me with that. She's like, leslie, these are leadership skulls you really need to work on, but basically just having an awareness of weaknesses that you need to focus on in yourself, you know. And Brent, Brent can say the same thing. He put a couch in his office and all the guys come in there the mornings and they would just lay on his couch and start talking to him about their struggles in life, struggles in their fam, you know, with their spouse, with their kids. And I think because he has been through a lot and you know, been on a self healing journey and our whole family's in counseling, like, bless his heart, we have two little girls and all three of the ladies in his house are in counseling learning how to express their feelings. So Brent has not had a choice, right? But just he had to go through that so that he could minister to them. One thing that we really do that has been really cool that we started is we are bringing in leadership training once a month to our, to all of our employees where the topics are parenting or marriage or financial literacy, just to help them in their life when it doesn't have anything to do with their employment. Because we really want our people to feel good. We really want them to be happy. We want it, we want it. We want to minister to the whole person because they're not just a body to us. You know, we want them to have a happy marriage, you know, feel like good parents, make good decisions. Because a lot of us don't know how to do that. You know, we don't grow up in an environment that teaches us how to be those things. So anything that we've done for ourselves that has been incredibly helpful, I always think of a way, okay, how can we do this for our team? How do I bring this into our team?

That's beautiful. Now I've mentioned before on the show, I'm a total psychology therapy nerd. And when you say that the productivity coach said you have to learn these leadership skills, I'm like, she was teaching you emotional regulation and she was teaching you how to recognize in yourself and increase that self awareness and say, I'm feeling really frustrated and Angry right now because, for example, an employee isn't operating the way I want them to. What? How can I adjust? How can I work towards and not work towards, turn towards this employee and really communicate expectations, all of these things. And it sounds like it's had a ripple effect on your family. It sounds like it's had a ripple effect on the business and I'm sure on the guys that work for you. I absolutely love that Brent has a couch in his office. I know.

And sometimes he falls asleep on it too. I mean, it's multipurpose.

I mean, I'm an advocate for the midday naps if you can make them happen. So God bless. But so great. Sometimes I have moments on the podcast where I'm like, this is so wonderful. And if anyone's listening to this, who's an aspiring technician, if they aren't already googling champion plumbing because they want to work for you, I would be surprised. So you name dropped Lady Titans. And you know, one of the reasons I want to talk to you is because you, you're very, you're very involved in that organization. Talk to me a little bit about Lady Titans and how you found community within there. And then I would love to know, in your opinion, as a successful woman in the trades, how do we get more women in the trades?

So I love Lady Titans and I was introduced to it. We're on Service Titan and I was introduced to it through Sarah Gerardo. And honestly, I just love the ladies. Next month we're going. Or yeah, it is next month. I can't believe it's October. I'm doing the Women in H Vac event in Phoenix and Lady Titans will be there. And honestly, of all the conferences, I'm not really a conference girl. We can be honest that I am most excited about this because of all the ladies. And we definitely need to have our own community and fellowship because it's all. I mean, it's obvious to me. But you want to be around like minded women and you need to be around people that can encourage you. There is a bias, definitely. I want, I don't want to say I have experienced it, not any more than what I experienced in my previous job. So it wasn't too much of an issue. I think the getting women in, we need men and women. I think it's just the traits in general are not talked about in the school system. So the parents of these kids don't even know that it's a viable option. You know, I know growing up it was just pushed on me to Go to college and get a degree. And that's what I did. And my parents thought that was the best thing. That's. That was the thought. That was the line of thought. You just go to college and you get a degree. I degree in general studies. Okay. My fourth year, the year I was graduating, my class was over, like the food in Italy, which was a fun class for me, but you know what I'm saying, I can't say that's really prepared me in life at all. I just think it has to be talked about, and it can't, obviously, not just to males, but to females too, that this is a viable option of them. It has to be talked about. It even. Like it really could start at the elementary level. I really think you need to. You have to start preparing people because it's not the students, it's the parents of the students who have to understand this is a really good career path. I think it's getting better, but really it's. The local businesses have to be involved in that, you know, and toward both. Toward both genders.

Totally. Yeah. I love what you said with that. You haven't personally experienced bias, but it's so important to have a fellowship of women that can speak to issues that uniquely impact women, not like in your industry. And so whether or not anyone listening can say, oh, yeah, I'm a woman in the trades and I've experienced bias, which I know they're totally there is, or your woman in the trades who has not being able to get together and have a safe space where you can talk about it or identify male allies that are willing to listen about that is just so important. I mean, going back to the pregnancy thing, too, that we kind of inadvertently kicked off this episode with. I don't have children myself, I can empathize, but my empathy only goes to a certain extent, you know, And I think it's important for you to find other people that have gone through the same stuff. You can. So they can really, really understand what that sound, what that feels like, what. All of those, all the juggling that. That is involved in child rearing, especially within this industry, and what that looks.

Like, you know, And I do want to clarify. I have. I have experienced bias, but I want to say I don't want to compare myself to the female technicians that are out in the field because that's two totally separate scenarios where they would experience it more than me. And I will say that on some level, I'm used to the comments I get, and I will be honest, it's never anyone in our industry or on Facebook or the Facebook groups that would typically make comments about being a woman or not being a woman. It's going to be people out in the community that are more surprised when they hear that I'm the owner. But there's a. There's a lot to overcome there. So I do want to clarify. I think that the female technicians out there, they do have it rough. I'm in a. I'm in a different position where most people don't. I don't have to experience it on a daily basis because I'm insulated because of what I'm doing. And that's just. That's the battle. I can't imagine. I think it's changing. I love to see. Gosh, I would love to see. I would love to have a female plumber apply. We haven't really had any. It could be just our location or whatever, but I think they would just kill it. And I would be so excited to have a female plumber. So I do want to make that clarification. It is out there. It's happening, but I feel like I'm probably more insulated from it than the females out in the field experiencing it. You know, the other stuff that I deal with is I can deal with it from vendors or local in the community, and it's more just. I just kind of brush it off. But, yeah, I do want to make that clarification. I think it. I think it's different if you're out in the field. For sure.

I'm so happy you made that clarification. Sometimes when I summarize, we do broad strokes and it is really important. We have an episode. I believe she's somewhere around episode 60 or 70 something. Samantha Salazar, who came on the show, she was a feature. She's a female gm, female tech. And she spoke pretty candidly about some of the stuff she would hear from customers, especially from people just out there. So I think it's definitely an important listen for anyone who wants to get the idea of what it's like to be a female tech in the industry and call out to any female techs who may be listening. I would like to interview you, so please, please find me.

That's right.

So I would love to talk to you about a couple more things before I let you go. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. I love what you're doing with the champion plumbing TikTok. We've talked about TikTok on this show before, but it's still very New. I don't see many trade companies on it. So tell me about how you're using that channel to showcase the brand.

Well, it's so fun, right? And we started on Tick Tock. Gosh, was it the end of 2020? Beginning of 21. And I. People always, you know, talk about our Tick Tock channel and I cannot take the credit for that. I have an amazing social media strategy strategist and she just kills it for us. She's kind of a Tick Tock guru and I just listen to her and we started, which is actually a sidebar. We just got an email that Tick Tock Impact, which is their small business version, reached out to us and they want to feature us in their small business channel for Oklahoma. So that was a really cool thing that happened over the weekend. We just really used it in a way and I think the best way to use it and social media is for branding and we really just want people in our area to get a sense of who we are before we ever show up to their door. I think there's a level of comfort when they get to see behind the scenes. They see the technicians, they see us being silly. There's a level of comfort there for them. Not to mention, you know, Tick Tock is not the younger generation. I thought when we first got on. My dad is on TikTok, so there's really all ages there and there's. That's where all the eyes are. So we have really just used it to just develop our branding more in our area and it's been really fun and the feedback has been really funny as well. But our customers love it.

That's great. Do you hear that on calls with csrs or do your technicians pass that feedback along that they just love your TikTok?

Yes. You know, we've just gotten a ton of feedback from customers and other business owners in the area because we used to do like a Thursday feature where we would shout out to local businesses that we use and then in turn we would tag them in our posts and then they would start tagging us. So it's been really fun to see other businesses start doing it. And there are, you know, there has been an influx in the past six months of other other businesses in the trade getting on because some somehow they always show up on my fyp and I just love it. It's great. And I think they're all doing such a good job and it's really been fun to see that.

That's awesome. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I love when Your videos show up on my fyp, although I have to say, I am in the trades. So I try to cure my FYP to be trades, but sometimes it just listens.

You can't help it.

I do love seeing your tactics. You can't help it. They're like, we know you host a podcast for the trades here. Here you go. So, I mean, we've talked about so many things today. You've been such an incredible interview, Leslie. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about or share? Industry.

This is always a hard question, right? And I always want to be, like, really transparent and not say what I think everyone would want me to say. I would just, you know, if I could give advice to anyone that's in the industry, starting out because we're still so new is, you know, one of the best things we ever did for ourselves was to hire a coach. And I would really consider doing that. If you haven't done it already, find a coach that. That you can receive their information. Because one thing about coaching is what worked for someone else might not work for you because they might be really good at what they're doing. But if you can't receive their information for whatever reason, that's not the one for you. So I would say consider hiring a coach. And because it's going to be really hard and you need to find. You need to find the fellowship of a group, you know, like lady titans or another group, and have people that you can talk to that are kind of in the same place. And you need someone smarter than you, which would be the coach, if you're really serious about it. I think that's the best thing that we've ever done, is really focused on investing in ourselves first so that we could invest in our business.

I agree. I think that is such an integral part of running a business successfully and not getting distracted. Because every other contractor you talk to, their business is going to look slightly different than yours. They're actually most likely the episode that's going to air before yours. I'm speaking with a gentleman who has done great with commercial, you know, and new construction as well. And so that's all dependent on where you are, what kind of market you're operating in. And it's easy to see, to hear this is the one thing you need to do to supercharge your business. But it's so nuanced, and I think a coach can really give that objective point of view.

You're absolutely right. There's. And, you know, there's a ton of distractions out there, especially in all of our groups, of everyone coaching now or providing advice. And you just have to be really, really careful, and you have to stay laser focused, and you cannot listen to everything everyone else is saying.

Yeah, 100%. It's hard to stay focused in that moment, but I. Because I struggle with it personally myself, so I can only imagine what it's like as a business owner with dozens of families, paychecks, being on the line whenever you make a decision.

Right.

All right, I have one final question for you. If you had to choose a song to be the soundtrack of your life, what would it be?

It would probably be trick daddy. Let's go by Trick Daddy. He's a rapper.

This is like Trick Daddy, rapper, let's go.

That's kind of my pump up song. That's what it. When I need to, like, get myself going, that would be the song. Now this you isn't gonna be the song for everybody. Don't put that. You need this. That needs to come with a disclaimer. Okay. Maybe you don't air this part. I don't know. Okay. You might need to listen to the song first, Jackie, before you decide to air this part.

No, I definitely will air this part, but I wanted an honest reaction, and I certainly got one, and I look forward to listening to it myself when we get off this. When we get off this interview.

Perfect.

Leslie, thank you so much for being such an open and wonderful guest on today's show. It was great to have you on toolbox for the trades.

Thank you so much for having me.