What is the Single Biggest Factor to Success?

So, okay, we get our first sales guy. We've got our admin gal. But now today, if I, if I read things yet, 52 employees, you guys do about a million.

Yeah, we've actually, we've actually cut back a little bit over the last couple of years. Maybe Covid has something to do with that, but really our revenue hasn't dropped, just our model has changed a little bit. But yeah, we have 52 employees today. The majority of those are sales and admin. We still employ quite a few technicians. I would say total of about 20. But you know, the world has changed a lot. In fact, we dealt with that a little bit today in our business. You know, we have to adapt. I like the old fashioned way of business where everything is under one roof. You know, we've got, you know, finances, the sales and the production, it's all there. You know, everything happens there. We've got all the equipment, all this. We put our guys through, you know, certified trainings and on and on. But I have discovered, and I've had to come to the model today where, you know, we have to rely on subcontractors. There's such a shortage, you know, the technicians are not knocking out doors down, you know, that.

Yeah, it has changed a little bit.

Yeah.

And I see it done both ways. You know, people that want to stick with having technicians, we got to build a pretty strong training program. We got to go recruit pretty hard at the high schools and technical schools and really almost build like an old, their own education thing. The thing I've noticed is that for doing the trades, the money has gotten a lot better. And so there, there's been a shift in the last two years of people getting. It was always going down, down, down. People getting into the trades. The last two years, the first two years, in 17 years that it has gone up, getting into the trades. So what that tells me is that the income is validating what the effort is. So it's good to see. I hope it continues. It's not this big, huge shift, but it's at least going the right direction. So if you were to go back and do it all over again, or you are a mentor to another person that's getting into it today, what would be the two or three things of advice that you would, you would give them when they're first starting up?

Yeah, probably some of the things we've already discussed like, you know, what are you good at? And you keep doing that, then hire people to do what you cannot do. I think if I was to restart A company today, I wouldn't be so heavy on trying to build my own in house crews because there are plenty of crews out there that you can get to skilled people and then just learn how to oversee them. But yeah, I would tell a young entrepreneur, you know, you yourself need to understand finance as much as you possibly can. You know, what a P and L looks like and what a balance sheet is all about. You should know those things. But then hire people to take care of that for you as quickly as you possibly can, and then be as much as a people person as you could possibly be. Build as many relationships in your community as you could possibly build. I think I lacked in that some, you know, not going out as much as I should. I do now, but I think one should. In your early years, you know, join the chamber, join every networking group you possibly can, visit with every insurance agent in town, visit with all the realtors in town, Go to all of those things and make yourself visible and be confident about that. I think that's a big, big part of landing the right kind of work.

I couldn't agree with you more. Building that strong network of relationships that there's value back and forth, right? Chamber of Commerce. You just went with them to Billings, Montana, right?

Yeah. How valuable, man? Yeah, yeah.

Like, you didn't have to do that, but you, you willingly did. And so there's this, wow, that guy stepped up and did some nice stuff for us. I want to help him out. There's that kind of a feel that goes in to.

Absolutely.

Reciprocity, right?

Yep, yep. What is it?

What do you think has been the single biggest factor in. In your success? And I mean, you've been doing this for 30 years. Nobody does this for 30 years without being at least some level of success. What is, what's been the number one reason for that, do you think?

Well, I want to. I want to. I think I'll ascribe it to at least two things. One, In my early 20s, I had a friend that was very generous. He gave to charity a lot and very easily. And I saw that and I was attracted to that. And then after I came to faith, I realized that this is part of our relationship with God. And so I've tried to be very generous through the years. And so, you know, we don't give so God would give back to us. But I will say that, you know, I feel like a lot of my. If what is perceived as success is, you know, I try to just be a channel. So that's definitely, for me, it's number one. But from more of a human standpoint, I would say that between reading and a willingness to grab a hammer if I need to, and everybody that works for me knows that, that they know that I, I read and they know that if there's work that needs to be done and nobody's gonna do it, that I will physically go and do it and I will sweep the floor. If I, if the floor doesn't get swept and I do it, I gladly do it. So I think those are some things. Factors, probably the two big factors for me.

You know, I find it like you said, because I heard you earlier, when you're talking like it was ministry and this, you were just kind of doing two things at once. Then when you moved to Texas really became the business. And then you said, you don't give to get back. You. You do it because that's what we're asked to do. Like there's actually scripture that backs that up, right? If somebody. And you have it, give it. There's this general. But you said something that really caught my attention. You saw somebody being very generous and it attracted you. Why is that?

Well, I think it just matched. It just matched what I was learning in my face, you know, so here I was seeing an example of somebody that wasn't holding on and hoarding their wealth. They, you know, for them to give everything away that they just earned today was not a big deal at all. I'll just get. God will provide again tomorrow. So why, why hold on? And, and, and so when I, you know, seeing that this guy was almost like a father figure or an older brother to me, I'm like, man, this is the way to live. Why, why, why not go for it? You know?

And it's scary though, isn't it? When you got a family, you're responsible, you got people working for you. Yeah. Okay, so this money, I mean, I'm gonna give it away. You have it, and it causes a bit of worry and anxiety, even though we're not supposed to. We're not supposed to feel that we're supposed to trust God's going to provide the next day. Like you said before, it has been such an amazing journey for me because I've gone through this thing too, where I saw some examples of it, and it was attractive to me. I don't think it's attractive to everybody. I think it's more rare than we might assume. I think most people are like, well, we see the guy with all the money and he's got all the fancy stuff. And the planes and the cars and all that. But, um. And I want that. But what we don't see is the guy that's, like, giving away, like, he's not announcing it out loud. You usually have this influence, this person that you were close to.

Right, right.

You see that? I think it's the coolest thing is really what I was hoping.

Yeah, it's really, you know, it's really very humbling, man, I tell you, you know. You know, I run a nonprofit as well, and here recently especially, some people have come alongside and partnered with us. And, man, it's so humbling. And that just inspires me to. To just, like, want to work harder and, you know, get more people on board. So, I mean, you know, it's. It's. It's a lot of fun.

Yeah, you've sucked me in.

It's a lot of fun, I'm telling you. It's just. It's so incredible, you know? So incredible. Last year, last year, last week, in fact, the guy is still there in Malawi, Africa, where there was a huge cyclone that caused a lot of flooding. Lots of people, Lives were taken and people's villages destroyed and just the whole livelihood gone. And I just happened to kind of stumble on this because I was in Malawi for a well drilling project, and this guy that was hosting us, who's kind of acting as a representative for us, said, man, next week when you guys leave, I'm coming back over here to help these flood victims, you know, which was further south in the country. But anyway, I kind of told a few friends about it, man, and so we helped him that next week. And then he comes back and I called him and I said, david, you won't believe this, man. Somebody just gave a whole lot of money and they want you to go back, buy all the food you can buy, distribute all the food you can, distribute all the Bibles you can distribute. And sure enough, you know, he just got himself ready, turned right back around, you know, drove 600 miles into Malawi with his truck and back and forth to the market, getting to people that otherwise would never have been helped, you know. And so, yeah, so this just snowballs. People see that and say, man, I can help. You know, good heavens. You know, we pay six bucks for a cup of coffee and we have no problem with it. But six bucks, you can feed somebody for a week sometimes, you know, So I.

Something that just stuck out, stuck out to me.

Yeah.

So we talked all about the roofing stuff, growth and success, and, you know, 52 people work for you a million dollars a month. All that was great. None of that was even close to the smile you just had. You can see joy in your face like that. You're making a difference. And all these things just line up to allow for it. I think it's amazing.