Ep. 101 - Slow Down To Speed Up | Charlie Gindele

That would be a tragedy if all the busy work happens and we're taking all this risk and really working our butts off and not making money.

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.

All right, everybody, welcome to another episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. This is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. And today I have got another awesome return guest, my longtime client and longtime friend, Mr. Charlie Gindel from Renewal by Andersen of Orange County. Welcome, Charlie. Thank you for, thank you for being here.

Yeah, Brian, thank you. Nice to be with you again and always enjoy spending time with you. Cool.

Me too. Um, just want to let everybody know before we get in here that you could still go and get a free copy of the 7 Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor. You can get that at thewealthycontractor.com. I have committed to another 1,000 books, so there are plenty there to get. So I just ask you to pay a small shipping and handling fee. So again, just go to thewealthycontractor.com. So, Mr. Charlie Gundel, we are in weird times. You've been— we actually had a conversation And all of this stuff started. So that was back, I think, in March was when we had— you were the first person I reached out to. It was like, what the hell does this all mean? Where are we going? And if anybody wants to listen to that, you can go back and they can listen to, to that. Well, now we're 5 months into it. And every person I talk to in the business is as busy as busy can get. So unbelievably, this has been a blessing for all of us in the home improvement business. May not seem like it, but it has been. And maybe that's not the most politically correct thing to say, but it is what it is. And so I thought that it would be interesting to now have another conversation with Charlie about how he is dealing with the realities of today's environment, which is big backlogs, you know, how it's impacting profitability, because Charlie does not do business unless it is profitable, and it is very profitable. And then finally, I want to kind of see what he thinks or kind of where we go from here. Before we do that, Charlie, would you mind again, just giving just a refresher, just give us the 60-second backstory on who you are and a little bit about your business.

Yeah, well, I grew up in Philadelphia and got into the home improvement business at a very early age. My dad was a fire captain and all the policemen and firemen back then had second jobs because they didn't pay them a whole lot of money. So my dad worked for a contractor and I was 10, 12, 14 years old, I'd go out with them on the weekends and during the summer. And then when I got into college, I started my own home improvement business and did that for a few years after college. Then I felt like I was wasting my college career or college education. I went to work for Alcoa Building Products, which was a building products manufacturer. I worked for them for 6 years and they got me traveling all over the country. And about 1980, I had come to Southern California for the first time and, uh, just fell in love with the weather out here and a lot of things that Southern California has to offer. And ultimately, a few years later, decided that I wanted to get back into business for myself. And so, at the age of 29, I walked away from a very secure job with a big company and moved to Southern California and didn't really know anybody here and started in the home improvement business and had a roofing division, had a seamless trim division. In 1989, started a window and door division. Eventually, in about the year 2000, phased out of the roofing business and just focused on windows and doors. And in 2004, I signed a contract with Renewal by Andersen to be the exclusive Renewal by Andersen dealer here in Orange County and did that for a number of years. And then actually in January of 2019, about 18, 19 months ago, Andersen bought me out. So now my company is a company-owned location of Renewal by Andersen, and I went from being the owner to the general manager. Essentially, I do the same things I do every day. I just got a little more money in my bank account, and people at Andersen are treating me very well. And I still love the business, love the action, love the give and take and the yin and yang of it. And so this is what I'm doing. That's kind of how I got here.

Yeah, that's awesome. And you're still, for all intents and purposes, you still act like an entrepreneur.

Yeah, no, I, I, like, that's the way I'm wired. That's the way I'm wired. I can't think of it any differently. I mean, even though I don't own the business anymore, my thought process hasn't changed a bit. I get up every day and I'm thinking about it morning, noon, and night, and I have a lot of autonomy, which is a good thing. I mean, I got a lot of support from the corporate folks at Renewal by Andersen, but I also have a lot of autonomy. And I think, you know, they know I know what I'm doing and they pretty much leave me alone, but I do have a lot of resources that I didn't have before also. So it's, it's, it's kind of the best of both worlds. Great. All right.

So 2020. We were talking a little bit before I turned on the recording. It's been a little bit of a crazy year, but been good for home improvement. And so a lot of my clients, Charlie included, have backlogs. And for some, they're pretty significant. I think yours is pretty significant. So that's, you know, I guess backlog is always an issue, but when it gets past a certain point, it becomes a problem. And so I'm wondering, how are you dealing with the backlog? First off, how is business compared to this time last year?

We're ahead of last year. You know, this year's— give you a little backstory on 2020. Going into this year, it's an election year. We believe that the biggest headwinds we face would be because of the election and all the focus on the election and, you know, all the political campaign buying newspaper and TV space and things like that. So we were really focusing on what we call our non-traditional marketing, which is canvassing and events. We have a pretty robust canvassing program. We have a pretty robust events program. And that they were accounting for about 25, 26, 27% of our business. And we felt this year that we were going to have to really blow, grow those programs and get more. We wanted to get about a third of our business through canvassing and events. So we were focusing on that and we were counting on that to offset the drain from, you know, direct mail and newspaper and television. That the political campaigns would suck up starting about now. So that was the plan, and the plan was about 22% growth. So everything was going fine in January and February, we're hitting our plan, we're exceeding it a little bit, and then we got into middle March and we know what happened, you know, so, and, you know, I remember it was around the 15th or 16th of March sitting home on, my couch watching the TV and California Governor Newsom came on and he said something like, well, we're shutting the state down, you know, and yada, yada, yada. And, and, you know, I didn't know what that meant. We were making plans in case they did. We didn't know that they would, but we had a contingency plan in case they did shut things down, communicating with employees, communicating with customers, securing the building, the equipment. And so as it turned out, I'm sitting there on, I think it was a Thursday night and the guy that I report to back in Minnesota called me and he says, well, it looks like we're shutting down. I said, well, I guess, I don't know. So, you know, and they were, Pennsylvania was dealing with it, you know, the location in Pittsburgh. So he said, just go to work tomorrow. We'll see what happens. So I went to work that Friday morning. Everybody's looking at me and I said, well, just keep working. We don't know, keep working.

Keep it going.

Yeah. You know, that's what I did too. And, you know, so about 1 o'clock that afternoon, I got the phone call that the— 'cause it now is out of my control, right? I mean, it's the state of California and it's the Anderson Corporation. Well, we got a phone call around 1 o'clock that afternoon said that the Anderson executive committee and the legal department have, you know, they've interpreted the ruling of the governor that we are an essential business. And as an essential business, we will keep operating. So we kept operating and we haven't stopped. And, you know, we, I know a lot of companies are working from home, working remotely. We've, we've not stopped. We've been coming into work every day. And obviously initially then we saw a big down, you know, the weekend before all the events were canceled and a decision was made that it didn't make sense to knock on people's doors when there's this virus going around. So we, we laid off our canvassers for 3 weeks initially. And, and we laid— and we— and all the events that we were all scheduled to be in just all dried up and went away. There were no events. So right away, we saw about a 25% hit to our lead flow just from canvassing and events going away. And then with all the other concern in the marketplace, you know, the phones just really slowed down. So, for 2 or 3, maybe 4 weeks, we're kind of now in a what's going to happen mode. We started looking at some potential layoffs. We weeded out a few of our sales reps that weren't performing and thinking we're going to downscale and right-size the business. And, you know, at that time, no one knew how long this was going to last. We're thinking maybe, maybe in May or June, maybe even July. So, but then a funny thing happened about a month into it. The marketing folks figured out that they could generate leads using social media, using Facebook and things like that at a much more cost-effective rate than anything we've been doing. So even though we lost our canvassing and events, within about 5 or 6 weeks, we had replaced the volume of leads from, from that we lost there with much less expensive leads from social media. And now all of a sudden the thing's starting to ramp back up and, uh, and we're desperate for sales reps. I think at the time when it first hit, we had about 23 reps. We went down to about 16 or 17. I mean, now we're back up to 25 or 26. And if I could hire 10 more tomorrow, I would. So the thing was, it would hit the bottom, but it bounced straight back up. So we had about a 4 or 5 week low where we weren't hitting our plan. And now we're right back to hitting our plan and exceeding it. And, you know, we're very close to hitting our plan for the— at this point in the year. And so, so the result of that, you know, we were part of our plan too, was not only to grow to the sales and marketing end, but then you got to backfill it on the production end, right? So that really took a big pause, you know, and then we had, well, I'm sure a lot of people had the situation where you have jobs on the books and customers don't want you coming out to their house to install them, you know, so you got warehouse, in our case, warehouse full of windows and doors and, you know, people say, well, call me back in a month or two, we'll see what happens. So we kept selling jobs, we kept ordering jobs, they kept shipping product, Some of it would go out, but some of it wouldn't go out. So for a while, our warehouse was kind of bursting at the seams, but then we got that back on schedule and got, you know, got jobs being installed. And now we're back in a growth mode. I think at the time we had 17 or 18 crews. I now have 22 crews. We were adding 2 more crews in the next month or so. So the, So right now we have about an $11 million backlog, and that equates to about 10 weeks worth of work. And we're working through it, and we're just setting expectations. The other dynamic we experienced was that the factory never backordered anything. All of a sudden they started backordering because they had outbreaks of coronavirus in the factory. An employee gets sick and they shut the factory down, and they Send everybody home and they come in and sanitize it and then they bring everybody back and test them the next day. So there have been 4 or 5 disruptions to the production cycle with that that caused backorders. So now we're installing some jobs but we didn't have all the windows for the jobs. And then there's been some breakdowns in the supply chain. But that seems like it's all kind of fixing itself. So here we are, you know, we have no canvassing, we have no non-traditional, you know, we have no events. We had the downturn in business, but I've got a bigger backlog now than I've had ever. You know, it's manageable because it's at about 9 to 10 weeks. So the jobs, you know, today's August, what, 11th? The jobs we're selling today, we'll be putting in towards the end of October. Not so many people have us holding up on installations anymore. Because of the coronavirus.

Yeah.

But, uh, you know, so all in all, we were, we should get, if we don't hit our plan, we're going to get very, very close to it this year. And we're going to be much better for it because when this thing does go away, parked in our garage is we have events and canvassing that we can now add another 25% to our lead flow. You know, as soon as we flip the switch back on.

Let's stop here and take a quick break. Now more than ever, you need a steady stream of profitable leads that are going to close easily and quickly with as little hassle as possible. Repeat and referral leads are the absolute best way to do that. But how do you go about generating more of these profitable leads systematically? At G4 Marketing Group, we have the whole process down to a science. And we have it all written out for you in the Referral Success Blueprint. We're making this blueprint free to you as a listener of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast, so you can start generating more profitable leads for your business today. Just go to www.g4marketing.com/blueprint. That's G4Marketing.com/blueprint. Fourmarketing.com/blueprint and download your Referral Success Blueprint for free. Now let's get back to this episode. Charlie, I want to ask you about— because I know a lot of people are struggling with backlog and they're struggling with getting the work installed. You said you went from 17 crews to 22 or 18 to 22.

Yeah.

How are you, how are you finding new crews?

Well, something that I've done over the years, and, uh, it is, I've only, you know, the old story, it's hard to teach a new dog, an old dog new tricks, right? So, so what something we've done, and I think we've done it well over the years, is We've had success hiring young people that have little or no experience. They might have some mechanical aptitude. They might have a little carpentry experience, or, and they might've even installed windows for another company, but the way we, our product is different and the way we do it is different. And the way we do it is, you know, a very processed and systemized way of doing it. So we've had great success bringing younger people in and teaching and training them and grooming them. So we have a training center where we have a wall with window and door openings where we'll bring it— when we hire a guy, we'll bring him in there the first week or 10 days he's working there. He's not out on a customer's job. He's setting windows, he's shimming them, he's adjusting them, he's trimming them on the outside, he's doing extensions and casings on the inside, he's leveling doors and shimming doors and racking doors to get the reveals straight. And we invest that. So when now, when the guy steps foot on the job, and that's what, that's whether he came in with no experience or, you know, he says he's God's gift to the replacement window world, we still put them through there to see what he really has. And then sometimes we can accelerate someone's progress and we can, you know, we can get a guy running a crew sooner, but if not, we get them out on a crew and then we, you use that as on-the-job training and keep training them. And we're, you know, we're pushing it too. We're not letting it just happen organically. We're pushing it. We're trying to identify town and trying to identify people that can move up, you know, and over the years, you know, we very seldom have people leave here to go to a better opportunity, but we do have people leave here. They move out of the area or, you know, they get married or, you know, something in their life changes. So, So you're always looking to grow, groom, and grow. So just like on the sales end, we have realized that we're on a journey where we never arrive at our destination. We have to constantly be hiring, recruiting, hiring, and training sales reps. We have to be constantly recruiting, hiring, and training installation people. The minute we think, well, we've we've gotten to where we need to get to, that's a fallacy. That's gonna hurt you. So when you're doing that constantly, and it's a change of mindset for a lot of people, but when you're doing that constantly, it just becomes part of who you are. And, you know, and we don't hire everybody that comes along, obviously. So we're looking for certain characteristics on the sales end, certain characteristics on the installation end, and And then we're critiquing their progress along the way. And we're trying to create an environment where they can grow as a sales rep or as an installer. So that's been our single biggest thing over the years is manufacturing our own in-house talent. And not only do they learn to do things the way we want to do them, but they understand, they learn the culture of the company, the focus on the red carpet experience, taking care of the customer. You know, there's a lot more than just installing a window. You're working in and around somebody's home, around their worldly possessions, and so protecting their property and being polite and courteous and cleaning up and doing all those other intangibles are as important as your ability to put a window in a hole.

So are you, are you only able to do that because of your size?

Well, I mean, some people may think so now, but quite frankly, when I started in business in 1984, I left Alcoa Building Products and I started a business to install Alcoa aluminum roofing in Southern California. I was the only guy that knew how to do it. So I sold the job and I was up there on the roof installing it. And I realized that for me to grow a business, I couldn't keep doing that. So I had to teach and train. And I've said this before, you have to sometimes slow down to go fast. You know, you have to go backwards to go forward. And if you're not willing to do that, you know, you're not gonna be able to grow. So, I realized early on that for me to grow my roofing business, I had to teach and train. And I had to be willing to, quite frankly, let people make mistakes. I had to let sales reps run sales appointments and blow appointments that I would have sold. and I had to let installers, you know, flash a chimney that was going to leak so they could learn to do it the right way. Or I'd have to be there and have them do it the second time because the first time wasn't the way I thought it should be done. So that definitely slows you down initially. But, but so you can do it with— if, if you're a one-man band, as far as I'm concerned, yeah. But you have to be willing to do that.

Well, I, I, you know, and I, you know, I've known you for a very, very long time, and I knew that that's what your answer was going to be because a lot of people think, well, I'm a small company. I've only got 2 salespeople. I've only got 3. How am I possibly going to create these training programs? Well, look, there's a lot to unpack here, but just at a high level, what's very interesting about the business— most of my clients are in either windows, they're roofing, they're siding, or they're one-day bath. Very specific, very targeted. And some of them do multiples. You know, of those very specific products, right? And so like with Charlie, Windows, you can create a quote-unquote training center. So he calls it a center. Yours could be a training corner or training wall, a training board, right? And you could start small and have that. And, you know, the— and the same thing with the sales reps, but it's about having an underlying process. Right. This is the way that we do it here. Right. And then you're like you said, you're looking for people with, with a certain aptitude, a certain attitude about things. And then you bring them in and you show them this is how we do it here and you grow them organically. I think that one of the mistakes that a lot of people make in this business is that they are stuck on this idea that I have to hire people that are already doing it. I have to hire sales reps that already know about windows or that already know about roofing or whatever it is that you sell. And Charlie will tell you, you're probably better off not doing that.

I mean, look, I've had success hiring veterans that come in and hit the ground running. But the challenge there is a lot of times, like I said, you're trying to teach an old dog new tricks. We have the sales process and a sales methodology that we teach. We've had success bringing people in that have never sold a window or door in their life before. We have a success hiring people that never sold anything before. And we teach them and train them, and if they follow the process, we certainly coach them and help them, and they have success. The same thing on the installation end. Like I said, we've had success taking young people, and I'm talking like people that are 19, 20, 21, 22 years old, don't have a lot of life experiences. They want, you know, and not all of them are willing to work hard, but those that are, we teach them a trade. We teach them a skill. The other thing is that they understand the culture of the company and they, you know, we treat them with respect. We provide them with benefits, 401k plan, health insurance, things like that. And then what you find is these people become very loyal to the company and the company's certainly loyal to them. And some of these people then start getting married. They start having babies. They start buying houses. They start buying— I mean, I love to come into work on a Monday morning and see a brand new shiny Ford or Chevy pickup there that some guy just bought that weekend. It's got the new dealer tag in the window because, you know, he feels like he can afford a $400, $500, $600 a month payment, his job's secure, and he becomes a little bit obligated and he wants to work that much harder, you know? And I've had success. I mean, I've got, you know, a couple guys worked, have worked for me for over 33 years. I've had guys that worked for me for over 20 years. They're making a career here. And, uh, and, you know, and it's part of the culture that we have. And so you bring a new guy in who— and he sees this and sees guys driving nice vehicles and guys talking about the company and how much money they got in their 401(k) plan. And, you know, guy, boy, I bought a house last year, you know. And then that's enticing to other younger people that have not thought about that, or it kind of pulls them ahead sometimes in their maturity level, and it becomes aspirational. And that's, to me, that's what the business can do for people. You know, so it's not just what we do for our customers, but it's what we can do for our internal customers, our employees, by providing opportunities for them. And it's very gratifying to see that. I mean, my whole middle management team now is in their mid to late 30s, early 40s. You know, I'm the old fogey now, but I still get a kick out of mentoring and grooming them and seeing them. Grow. And like I said, so I'm a big believer of growing your own talent, grow it internally. And I don't care if you're a one-man band, you can do it. And if you're, you know, got 150 employees, you should be doing it. But you got to be willing to slow down and maybe lose a little bit of productivity and have people make mistakes so that they can learn. And then they're teaching moments too, to teach them the right way to do it. And And ultimately, you know, you can multiply yourself and, uh, and create more opportunities. So, so the coronavirus this year just kind of put a halt in that because we didn't know what we were entering into. We paused things for about 6 or 7 weeks and then we re-engaged. So if the coronavirus hadn't come along, we'd be a lot further ahead, obviously, but we're still getting back on track and we're growing and I want to finish the year at about 27, 28 sales reps and finish the year at about 24 to 26 crews. Wow. And then we'll just next year, we'll keep the pedal to the metal, you know, and, you know, and if this coronavirus, they get a vaccine and this all goes away, we're going to be able to flip a switch and within a matter of weeks, be able to, you know, events will come back and people will be willing to have you knock on their door. And I think we can add another 25% to our lead volume just by bringing those two programs back because we know how to do it. It's just that the times weren't right to keep doing it. Right.

Now, um, you are— we've— and we've talked about this before, so again, you could probably go back and, and, and listen to Charlie and I talking about about profitability. Charlie is the first person that ever showed me a budget, a projection. This is our plan for the year. Now, I was a big dork. I was 27 years old. I tell this story all the time because I don't want you guys to be a dork like I was. But he showed me all of this and it was— and we're talking 25 years ago, I think. And to this day, um, Charlie's business is all run with spreadsheets, numbers, and he wasn't anywhere near as big as he is now. I mean, you were a fraction of the size— still a nice-sized company, but you were a fraction of the size. So for those of you listening, look, you don't have to be a $5 million, a $10 million, or a $20 million company to do the things that Charlie is, is suggesting here. But, um, Profitability, have you been able this year to maintain your profitability or are you doing something different? Has it been impacted?

Well, I mean, we're close to our plan on profitability. I'll be honest, we're a couple hundred thousand behind where we should be, but actually I think we will make that up this month, by the end of this month. We're putting a lot of work in this month. We're gonna put in, in August we'll put in a little over $4 million, about $4.2, $4.3 million. And when you know your break-even point, I mean, I know that when we do $4 million, we're gonna drop about probably $800,000 or $900,000 to the bottom line. And we should do it, I mean, the work's scheduled, unless a meteor hits Southern California or something, we should do it.

[Speaker] Hey, it's 2020, don't say things like that. Things like that.

It could happen.

Don't say things like that.

But no, no. So, you know, here's the thing. If you know your numbers and you run your business by the numbers, then it's very formulaic. You know, 1 and 1 is 2 and 2 and 2 is 4. And then all of a sudden the numbers just have more zeros behind them, but it's very formulaic. If you're, you know, if you're selling the job at the right price, and in my opinion, if you're selling the job at the right price, you're going to be the highest or one of the highest price companies in your market because there's so many yahoos that are out there giving work away and chasing dollars and don't know how to run a business that, you know, you're going to be more expensive, uh, and you're going to have the overhead and the benefits and the employee retention programs and things like that. So they're going to add well, and you pay people what they're worth. So, you know, you're not trying to cheat people You're not trying to get a bargain on your most valuable asset, which is your employees. So when you do all those things, you're gonna be the more expensive. And if you wanna drop 10 to 15% to the bottom line, which is what you should be, plus paying your— and that's not, that's in addition to paying yourself what you're worth for the work you do in the business. The profit is the reward for the risk of running the business. The compensation you take out of the business is for being the president or general manager or sales manager, whatever title you give yourself. But we should pay ourselves for what we work for in the business. And then we should pay ourselves for the profit. The operating profit is the return on our investment from the risk we undertake in running the business. And it should be in the 10 to 15% range, minimum, in my opinion.

Yeah, yeah. So you started to answer— I'm looking at the clock here— and you, you started to answer this a little bit. So I wanted to talk to you or just kind of ask you about, you know, where do we go from here? And what's kind of interesting and what I heard you say was, okay, business is really good right now, but the minute this thing goes away, you have this other you have this whole other plan that you, you want to put into place that's going to take you even bigger than where you are today. Do you see anything, um, macro— not micro, not within the business— but do you see anything macro outside of, of you that may prevent that from happening or changing your opinion or attitude about where we go from here in 2021?

Well, yeah, I mean, I think the results of the upcoming election are gonna— let's face it, we can bury our heads in the sand and try to ignore it, but I think, you know, it's gonna make a major impact on financial folks and how people feel about the strength and future of our company, the solidarity of our country going forward. And I think if they're going to raise taxes a whole lot to pay for all these social programs and more freebies and giveaways, and the stock market reacts negatively to that and interest rates start popping up, I mean, there are things outside of our control, but things we still may have to deal with or deal with the repercussions of those things. So, you know, but I mean, I heard a long time ago, you know, control the controllable. And that made a lot of sense to me. You know, people talk about the weather, they talk about the competition, they talk about the economy. That's fine. But, you know, they're going to do what they're going to do. They aren't asking Charlie Gundel what they should do. But it's up to Charlie Gundel to run his business and to continue to make the right decisions and capitalize on the great times. And actually, I think you can capitalize on the bad times too, if you're financially strong. And I know there's a lot— business is good for a lot of people now, but they also probably acquired some debt during this downturn and they took got some advantage of these government programs or whatever, or they borrowed money to stay afloat for 2 or 3 months when things were uncertain. So again, here's the tragedy. The tragedy in my opinion is if everybody's busy now doing work and they're confusing activity with productivity, if they're not making a lot of money right now because you work your butt off from now through the end of the year, you got this backlog and you're doing a lot of work for a lot of people. Employees are getting paid and customers are getting work done and suppliers are getting paid. But as the owner, if you're not benefiting from that and putting money aside, you know, then you're missing a golden opportunity. And, uh, and I'm talking serious money, not, you know, a couple thousand dollars here or there, but to put tens or 20 or 30 or 50 or 100 or 200 or $300,000 in the bank in the next couple of months, depending upon the size of the business. But that would be a tragedy if all the busy work happens and we're taking all this risk and really working our butts off and not making money because we're not charging the right price or we're not controlling the expenses of our business. And we're not running the business, we're letting the business run us. That would be the tragedy if people on this call are not paying attention to that and adjusting things properly to take advantage of it.

I got nothing to add to that. That was very well said. I hope everybody back up, listen to that, because that is, you know, very wise advice from, very wise and very good man. Well, Charlie, um, again, can't thank you enough, my friend. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being a great, uh, client, our very first client. I know you're probably sick and tired of me saying that, but every chance I get, I, I have to, uh— you are one of the people that makes my life possible, and my life has been, you know, very good lately, and it's A lot of it, you know, believe it or not, comes down to you making a decision and you believing in me and Addy 11 years ago. And so I'm always, always, always, always going to be grateful to you for that and all of the great advice that you give. So thank you.

Well, it's my pleasure, Brian. You know, and I would say this, if there's anybody on the call that has a question or concern or wants to dig a little deeper into this, I'm happy to talk to anybody, give you my phone number, give you my email, whatever. But I love helping people. And here's the thing, I've learned a lot of lessons over life, over the course of my life. And a lot of the lessons that I've learned the hard way.

Yeah, me too.

And sometimes we have to learn them the hard way because we're knuckleheads and we gotta learn the hard way. We don't want to take somebody else's advice, you know.

That's me.

But if I can compress anybody's learning curve, you know, or maybe fix their head, you know, I had a mentor of mine, Richard Kaler, years ago, and Richard had this thing about fixing people's head. He had a t-shirt, had a little stick figure on it, but the head was upside down, you know, and he said, and the shirt said, "Fix my head." Sometimes we need to have our heads fixed. You know, sometimes we need to have a tough discussion because we're so close to the forest that we can't see the trees. You know, sometimes we have to step back and look at this wonderful opportunity we have. Are we really taking advantage of it? You know, and the reason to be in business is to make a profit and provide a lifestyle for yourself and your family and security and things like that, greater than you could ever do if you were working for someone else. Yet many of us have all that liability and responsibility, but because we're not making the right decisions or because our heads aren't fixed, we're working our tails off and taking all the risk, but we're really not working for ourselves. We're working for the business. The business owns us. And when your life gets that way, that's not a fun place to be. It's like being that hamster in that wheel, you know, and you can't get off of it. And life is too short. So, if I can help anybody with that, it would be my pleasure to do so because this is a wonderful business that we're in and it creates wonderful opportunities. But as that sand drains from the top of the hourglass to the bottom, you know, we're never getting those days and minutes and hours back. So, we want to maximize it and have, you know, use these businesses as the fulcrum to provide the lifestyles that we should be and the future security that is available. You know, my favorite quote of all, you've heard me say this before, but Henry Ford, if you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't. Either way, you're right. So everybody on the call has a decision to make. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you can't. You're right. So anyway, thanks for the time, Brian. It's been great talking.

No, thank you. And I just want to remind everybody, you know, so much of what Charlie was just talking about for getting your head straight is in here, The Seven Secrets to Becoming a Wealthy Contractor. I buy them myself for you. All you have to do is pay shipping and handling. So go to thewealthycontractor.com, grab a copy of, of the book, and we are happy to get one out to you. So, um, to, uh, everybody that is listening, uh, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group. This is the Wealthy Contractor Podcast. And until next time. All right. So that's it for today's episode of the Wealthy Contractor Podcast.

Let me ask you, did it help you look at your business in a new way? Did it spark an idea or ideas 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. Now, 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. And a favor, I'd really appreciate it if you'd go to iTunes and post a review of this podcast. Let us know how we're doing. The Wealthy Contractor Podcast is brought to you by G4 Marketing Group, where we help contractors of all kinds create customers, keep customers, and multiply their customers and profits. If you're interested in reaching new levels of success for your company, visit www.g4marketinggroup.com. Gfourmarketing.com, or just call us at 305-856-8788 to schedule your free, no-obligation Wealthy Contractor Strategy Session. Now, during this strategy session, we're going to look at 8 key performance factors in your business and we're gonna help you uncover opportunities for growth, for leads, for sales, and for profit. And finally, we started The Wealthy Contractor as a resource to help you, the home improvement entrepreneur, regardless of where you are on the wealthy scale, get where you want to go. We want to provide you with the motivation, the confidence, the resources, and the tools so you too can live the life of the wealthy contractor. Now, the wealthy contractor is a place where it's okay for you to want it all. In fact, it's not only okay, it's encouraged. So until next time, this is Brian Kaskavalciyan with G4 Marketing Group.