131. Would You Rather Be Right Or Rich | Brian Kaskavalciyan

This is the Wealthy Contractor Podcast brought to you by G4 Marketing. Interviews with today's top home improvement entrepreneurs about marketing, sales, money, mindset, and lifestyle. Now here's your host, Brian Kaskavalciyan.

Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. This is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. So years ago when I first met my good friend and now client, Jer Ronan from Yankee Home, he said to me, Brian, I'd rather be rich than be right. It stopped me in my tracks and made me think. I'd rather be rich than be right. That's a pretty deep advanced thinking. But what does it mean? If you ask Jere, he'll say that if you want to be successful, the simplest strategy of all is just replicate success. This means to go and look at what the most successful people are doing and just do that. Many, if not most, of the wealthy contractors I know have used this strategy to grow their business. Including Jer, who in just a few short years has created a business that basically works without him. In fact, late last year, Jer bought a beautiful house in Florida and is now spending most of his time there. This is really cool because his business is in Massachusetts. So why try and reinvent the wheel when there are plenty of other people that have been there and done that? Now this is a simple concept, not easy, but simple. So why don't more people do it? Well, let's look a little deeper. Too many of us feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. We have to be the one to always figure out the solutions to every problem in our business. We feel like we always have to be the smartest person in the room. We have to feel in control of everyone and everything because That's what makes our business work. There is the need to be the hero, the need to always be right. Well, from my experience, the most successful and wealthiest contractors I know feel and act quite the opposite. We come across people every day that have a strong need to be right. Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying you aren't right. I'm just saying to be careful with the need to be right. The need is tied to the ego, and running a business purely on ego is not always a good formula for success. Taken further, people who always need to be right tend to have fragile egos, says therapist Carol McBride. She goes on to say, when they feel as if their self-image has been threatened They want to make themselves look bigger or smarter, so they blame others. It's a coping mechanism to deal with insecurity. The need to be right can be insidious. It can cloud judgment, cause us to make bad decisions, and have us spinning our wheels for months, years, even decades. Now, you may not think you're doing this, but let's take a closer look. A good way of uncovering where you might be holding on to being right is likely where you are stuck in your business. Are you getting enough leads, converting enough sales, installing the right number of jobs? Are you getting your customers to leave 5-star reviews on Google, send referrals? Do you have a profit model that consistently produces at least a 10% net pre-tax profit, ideally 15-20%? Do you have a good team of people around you that share your vision, are accountable for results, and allow you to leave for a 2-4 week vacation? Where you are stuck may be where you have a need to be right. How about the way you think about or talk about your business? For example, Do you ever catch yourself having thoughts like, or saying things like, I can't charge that much, my customers will never pay, or there just aren't any good people to hire, or I just can't see how I can make any more than a 5% profit. This can all be traced back to the need to be right. Make no mistakes. There are other companies in your market that charge more than you do. And guess what? You're probably losing jobs to them. There are companies in your market with great people that would rather work for a competitor than work for you. There are companies that have an abundance of leads and a system for consistently bringing them in. There are companies that earn profits in excess of 20% net, and on and on. What this says is, if just one other person is doing it in your market, then you can too. The problem just might be in your thinking. I say it all the time, success leaves clues. This business we're in is not rocket science. It is about creating interest in the product you sell, converting that interest into a contract, fulfilling that contract, getting paid, and making a profit. Are there nuances to the business that are different from, say, a restaurant business or a dental practice? Of course there are, but the fundamentals are the same. So instead of staying stuck in your problem or challenge, why not be open to the idea that whatever you are facing right now has already been solved somewhere by someone? Why not be open to the idea that you don't have all the answers? Why not be open to the idea that you can replicate Success. One of the big themes at our Accelerate live event this year was Who, Not How. By the way, this is a great book by Dan Sullivan. The basic theme is that for every challenge or opportunity you face, there is a who that can help you get through it. It's a very similar concept as replicate success. Your job as the owner is not to figure everything out yourself. But to surround yourself with a team of people who get things done. There's a great story about Henry Ford. During the World War, Chicago newspaper ran an article questioning Henry Ford's intelligence because he was not formally educated. When the Chicago paper printed that Ford was an ignorant pacifist, Ford brought a lawsuit against the paper. During the proceedings, The paper was so confident in their statement that they brought Ford to the witness stand. They started to ask Ford many questions on history and philosophy. After the questions became a bit too much, Ford finally replies to an offensive question by saying, "If I should really want to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me," Let me remind you that I have a row of electric push buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer any question I desire concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me why I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge for the purpose of being able to answer questions when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require. That's a pretty powerful statement, and it says a lot about Henry Ford. It also says a lot about us and who we should strive to be. Right? Needless to say, that shut up the lawyer pretty quick, and everyone knew that this was not the answer of an ignorant man. The point is, as a business owner, you don't have to know everything. You just need to know where to go get the right answers. Now, here are some ways you can overcome the need to be right so you can get unstuck from whatever's holding you back in your business. 1. Join or form a mastermind group. A mastermind is one of the most powerful strategies for wealth and success ever created. In fact, in Napoleon Hill's 17 Principles of Personal Achievement, the mastermind alliance is principle number 2. The key to a good mastermind is, of course, the people you surround yourself with. In our highest-level Wealthy Contractor Mastermind group, none of the owners of the 12 companies pretend to be or are actually the smartest people in the room. What this allows is open, honest, and helpful dialogue and problem-solving and support. The minute someone rises up to the thinking of, "I'm the smartest person in the room," 2 immediate things happen. One, the group starts to fall apart from the inside out, kind of like a cancer. And two, the integrity of the group is damaged until the person is removed. Now look, I don't know about you, but I don't ever want to be the smartest person in the room. I just want to be in a room of really smart people, right? Number 2, reach out to your manufacturer reps. This is a great source of information. Specifically, ask your reps for introductions to other business owners that sell the same products you do. Usually it's better to approach people in markets far away from yours so there's not that fear of competition. Look for contractors that are where you want to be, then reach out to them. Take them to lunch or take them to coffee. Ask them how they do things. One important caveat here is, and it's, it's a biggie, Many business owners are actually a lot less successful and wealthy than they may appear to be. So don't get caught up in the hype. Ask specific questions and look for specific answers, and then implement. Third, colleagues and/or competitors. I know many business owners that are actually friendly with their competition, but it's rare. However, you've got to have colleagues or friends in the industry you can reach out to. If not, go try and make friends with people that are in similar businesses to yours. There is no shame in asking for help. Finally, industry events. There are a lot of great industry events coming up. We're planning right now for, uh, Top 500 in November. There's a Dave Yoho event as I'm recording this coming up. And of course there's our Accelerate Live happening in February of 2022. This is an incredible opportunity for you to meet others in the industry. I always say that what you get from the stage is valuable, it's valuable, but what you get from the breaks and the networking can be priceless. Being rich doesn't mean being wrong. It means you start with the end in mind, which is one of the core concepts in my book, The 7 Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor. So what do you need to know right now? Where are you stuck? What problem could you solve by using this principle? Once you identify the problem, reach out to someone that's already there and ask them for help. There's nothing wrong with shortcuts. And in the end, in the end, Jare is right. I would rather be rich than be right. I don't need to know everything. I don't need to have all of the answers, but I do need to know where to go get the answers. And I do need to surround myself with an incredible group of whos that can get done the things that need to get done. I hope this message has been helpful. I hope it causes you to think about things maybe in your business a little different. And until next time, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. and this is the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. Let me ask you, did it help you look at your business in a different way? Did it spark an idea or ideas that you hadn't thought of before? Do you have a list of action items that you can take and implement into your business or your life today? I really hope so. If it did, I'd like to ask you a favor. Would you leave a 5-star review of the podcast? By doing so, you'll help other contractors find the podcast more easily so that we can help them achieve more success, wealth, and freedom. And before you go, make sure you subscribe to The Wealthy Contractor Podcast so you get access to the latest episodes as soon as they're available. We're always striving to provide you with great content, so you don't want to miss what's coming up. In fact, if you haven't already, make sure you go to thewealthycontractor.com and get your free copy of my latest book, The 7 Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor. Just pay shipping and handling and I'll take care of the cost of the book. So until next time, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan.