Building Relationships is Key!

So we've talked about a lot of the good stuff, right? Like how things grew and the amount of time you invest in yourself and in others and how much care you give towards your people. What have been some of the challenges or obstacles on this road over the last 13 years that you might say, hey, if I shared this, it might help somebody else avoid it. People, people, people is where it starts, right?

Yeah, it's like, you know, so at one point I had about 12, 14 residential roofing outside salesman. And we try to go and put this process together and, you know, we tried to provide everything, and it just. It didn't work out. You know, just one bad. You know, Apple just ruined the bunch, you know, and I. I was really disheartened by it. But it's just. I think really taking the time to find the right people is super, super important, and being able to vet them properly and ensure that you made the right decision or the best possible decision to bring somebody on. You know, we. One of the biggest things that. The problems that we've had that we've recognized is just bringing somebody on to try to see if they're going to work out. Well, you know what, we need to really put a little bit more time and effort into the hiring process. And that's one of the things that has really been difficult, especially on the residential side. That's why we lacked some on the residential side. We still do good business on the residential side, but we're about to do a whole lot better because we're about to truly focus on it. And it is a big. It's the. It's the number one thing on my list to do right now is to truly build a residential sales division, not just a team. We're not just hiring on everybody. We want somebody that's going to be at the helm and lead properly. And then hopefully not. Hopefully, we're going to give these people opportunity and show them how to generate and make sure that we support that.

I'd rather. I'd much rather have five superstars than 20 role players.

Right? So people have been difficult, but I would say that it was probably on us. We did not give the proper attention. We felt that we were. We were putting a lot of time and effort into it, but it still just wasn't right. So, you know, getting with somebody like you and your company that can actually consult and, you know, and that's been around, you know, over a thousand contractors, I think is super important. And that's what I'm doing, you know, so I'M trying to build that side of my business and I have to see. I've sought out, you know, professional, you know, consultation because just in, in me by myself, I mean, I don't have the time to do it now.

Now we just pray we don't have another storm hit us right now so we can get things finished that we're working on.

It already happened. We just had two storms. I'm not worried about it because this time is going to be right. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna waste any more time and going down the road and just not that changed for you.

Right. Like when we first met, I felt you were passionate about what you were doing and you were very invested in it and you had all the passion in the world. But something a little bit deeper this time around this, like, hey, I just want to do what's motivating that.

I just don't have any more time to waste. You know, I'm 43 years old. I know I'm not old, but I'm not young either at the same time. Right. But I have an opportunity right now to do something that's on another level and I've learned a lot. You know, I have, I have a unique situation where we have income coming in, we have good, strong relationships. I have a commercial, you know, vice president, I have an executive vice president. I have, you know, my business partner. I have a good admin staff. I have production manager, I have account managers and then I have salesman on top of that. Then I have estimators as well. Then we have our own in house technicians. We have a shop foreman. We have all these people that, that are part of our infrastructure that help us do what we need to do. And I'm just not going down that road and just slapping it together ever again. I don't have do that.

I think that was awesome. Like you, you, you nailed it. You're like, I have all the foundation I need to actually the thing I want now, which is super cool. Like I think so many miss. I think so many have to kind of go through the experience to kind of come to the realization of it. There's also this thing of like sometimes we can be a little too nice. Especially people are big relationship builders. Like whenever I get invested with somebody, man, I'm invested 100% and I want to see them succeed. And sometimes that can change my empathy into sympathy sometimes. And I tend to be a little too kind. I see that a lot in our industry. Have you experienced anything like that?

That's a good point. I'm glad that you said that because that's been a real big thing about. I think I've been too nice. Me and my business partner have been too nice. I mean, we're an interest free bank basically. Right? Because we've helped out pretty much every last person since the time that we've started to now every person with something or another. And we, I guess you could almost call us an enabler. We've enabled people to not push because we've enabled, you know, and I think that's a big downfall. I think, you know, there was something that you told me the other day is that, you know, we, you ha. It has to be black and white and you have to, you cannot enable somebody. And I don't remember the exact words that you said, but you know, it's.

Well, if you enable them, they become dependent.

Dependent. Yeah.

And when they become dependent on you providing for them, that's the opposite of what a business should be. They're, they're the providers and they need to understand that, especially as salespeople, that they're providing for everybody else. So we have to kind of hold them to these standards and, and if we actually love them, like truly, like the heart of somebody like you and me, if we really love somebody, it'll be hard on them too. I mean, I've been hard on my kids because I want them to be successful. Why wouldn't I apply that same logic to the people that work on me? Because I look back at all the people that have had an impact on me, man, they were the hardest people on me. They're the ones that put the most effort into me, pushed me the hardest, believed in me the most, didn't allow me to have excuses and those type of things pushed me to master and be better at what I do. Those are the ones I actually have. There was lots of folks that were enablers and entitlers of me too. And I was like, okay, I can take advantage of that if I want to. But it didn't work out.

Right?

Yeah.

Another, you know, just point to that. That's why I hired an executive vice president to be that buffer between me and everybody else because I'm too nice and somebody comes and asks, it's like I'm enabling them and I got, I got to stop this, right? So that's one of the reasons why, you know, in the, the company and infrastructure that we have, I just couldn't take on that role. And I can't, I couldn't take On a residential sales manager role, of course. I mean, I have too much stuff going on first and foremost, but I'm just, I'm too nice, I guess, if you will. And a lot of times people take your, your kindness for weakness and they take advantage of that. And that's been one of the hardest things that we've had to deal with is we, we've just overly helped people and it's, it's enabled them to a point to where it's almost like we're a crutch. So I think that's been a big downfall on our residential side of our thing, of our company.

Well, I have no doubt the experience you've gone through, the person that you are, who you attract and what you've learned here over the last few years, you guys are going to kick some tail. Is going to be pretty awesome to watch. You've already kicked tail pretty awesome on the commercial side, the new construction side. Now it's time to like hone in. And now we got these three divisions right. This company becomes valuable thing that you talked about. You said this is my retirement plan. That's what you're building towards. It's super awesome to watch. Glad to play a small part in it. But really you guys are the ones that do the hard work. We just give the advice as you need it and the tools when you need them. And it's been cool to watch. Mark, if you were going to give somebody one piece of advice, like they're new, they're trying to make that first leap, take that next step in growth. Maybe they're pushing up against a million dollars trying to take that next step. What would you give them the advice to do?

Just really look at your. The people that you surround yourself with, the team that you build. One of the things that took us to the next level was, you know, really building a team to in processes and procedures. And then of course, right after that would be the relationships. Be real to yourself. Don't overextend yourself. Don't take on too much and take it slow. Because I think in that slow growth, you're, you're going to get more out of it than if you just try to completely jam a whole bunch. And you know, and it's just not going to. From my perspective anyways, I think the slow growth has been good. And I'll tell you this much right now, we're projected to almost double our revenue this year and probably almost triple our revenue in the next year. The next two years of my business are going to be the most impactful, but it didn't come overnight. So just trying to really look at things very closely, to build those processes, procedures, and put the right people in place is probably one of the biggest things that I can. That I can say. And. And be honest with yourself and be. Be honest with the people that. That work with you and for you, because, you know, those are the people that are going to help you build your business, and you don't want to lose them.

Well, we're. We're bumping up against the clock here. I know you've got an important meeting that you got to get to. You actually handled a text right before we hop. I want to make sure that we. We help you keep that meaning, because that's your word. Super cool to have you on, Martin. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being who you are and can't wait to work with you some more. Work with you early on. Did some good there. Now let's. Let's take it home.

Well, I'm excited too, so I appreciate you, Jim. Thank you very much.

All right, brother, we'll let you go and we'll see you, I think, this coming week. So we're in good shape. All right. And I'm excited to have Jason. We're gonna have Jason. We're gonna talk to him about something completely different. But, yeah, that's awesome.

He's got some good things to say for sure.

Awesome. Yeah, people will not want to miss that one.

Yeah. All right.

Hey, thanks, Martin. Have a good one. Go kick butt. Go build that relationship even deeper. And we'll talk to you later this week.

All right, Jim, thank you for everything. Appreciate it.

All right, everybody, that was Martin Morales with First choice roofing and construction. What an amazing interview. This idea of being a question asker, asking lots of questions so that you can start to master something. When you become a master of something and you apply this idea of building relationships and building them deep, not wide. It's not how many you have, it's how good they are. Watching him do that over these years has been awesome to watch. That's why I wanted to get him on the show. Wanted you guys to see how important that is, to see this growth that they've done and how they've grown each aspect of their business. Very intentional, not half cognot. Just running out there going crazy. Tried that once, didn't go so hot. And back to do it again and do it right on the residential side. Super great. That's our episode for today. I hope you got something out of it. If you're a contractor and you're trying to figure this stuff out and you need somebody to walk beside you to help guide you along so that you build that business that you are after and you know that you can do, you're just missing a bit of knowledge. That's where we come in. Go to our website, contractorcoachpro.com, scroll down a little bit on the page and click Take assessment or in the show notes. The assessment should be there as well. Take that assessment, fill it out. That'll give us some good insight into you. It's not a joke or anything like that. It's not a real simple thing. It takes 15, 20 minutes. We're going to learn a lot about you. Once we can have an understanding of who you are and what you're about, we're going to actually get on a free coaching call with you. It won't cost you a dime. And we'll do some coaching with you to help you level up, take those next couple of steps with your business. If you like coaching, great. And you want to work with us, that's awesome. If not, we hope we helped you that day, helped you take that next step with your business. We're here to serve this industry and we're here to serve you. You and help you find that freedom you're looking for so you can work on your business instead of in it. Thanks for checking us out here at Contractor Radio and we'll see you on our next episode.