Mark Evans uses a mustard metaphor to explain "money goggles": how ordinary products contain layers of value in manufacturing, logistics, retail, and services. He discusses extreme ownership, unique abilities, and practical hiring tactics like two-week onboarding and daily core-value huddles with entrepreneurs Howie and Richard.
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Mark Evans, dm, we're gonna be asking questions and all that over in there. You can ask in there, bring your questions. Love to help you guys.
Yes. All right, so I just hit the live button as you said that we're live on all platforms. Just got a notification.
Awesome, man. And then, hey, guys, thank you for being here. It's your boy, Mark Evans, dm, with cigars and coffee. I. I got the cigar and I got the coffee. It's even hot. Today we're going to be talking about mustard. I'll explain here shortly. I promise you there's a reason behind it. Hey, so Beacon, guys, you don't have to get it right. You just got to get it going over here. Beacon. There's down on the bottom right as I'm watching this, you can post something where you can pin something. You got to pin it where we can allow people to see all the information on the bottom right hand side. So I don't have my phone with me. I'd snapshot it for you, but there's ways to pin certain things where people can. To allow them to, like, see that. So if you guys have questions. What's up, Nelson? What's up, Nick? Thank you guys for being here, guys. We're live on multiple platforms from Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and Periscope. I'm excited to be here, guys. Hope you had an amazing Easter weekend. A lot of candies, a lot of good stuff. I didn't touch one piece of candy. I might touch that. I didn't eat it. What's up, George? What's up, house connection? What's up, guys? So today I want to share with you guys what's up, Kris? I want to share something with you guys here today and gals about the thing called money goggles. Thank you, Joe. I want to talk to you guys about money goggles. And that's what this is about. You see this? It's a thing we all have. By the way, I like mustard. I hate ketchup. But the reason is by the way, story behind that is my. My old babysitter. I remain nameless. I used to have to eat baloney and ketchup sandwiches with chips every day. I hated it. I still hate it. Whatever. It is what it is. I'm not mad. It is what it is. But yellow mustard is my jam. And the reason today I'm sharing yellow mustard because you're like, dude, what are you talking about? What's up, Josh? What's up, guys? Money goggles. Do you guys know how many Millionaires are in this little bottle of yellow mustard that you just go about and grab and use every single day. And this could be anything, by the way. This could be the cell phone cover, it could be the cigar, it could be the ashtray. I mean, it's endless. And I know Friday we talked about this, and I just posted something on IGTV about this as well. But there's many, many, many, many, many, many millionaires in this bottle. So let me explain. See, we all know what we focus on grows. A lot of people right now are focused on fear. A lot of people right now are focused on lack of opportunity because they lost their job or whatever. And if you reposition your mind and realize that the world is endless, the opportunities are endless, it really allows you to pivot and start seeing the world in a different lens. So, for example, inside the shell of mustard, there's. There's a building that has to have like you have a building, right? Because if the manufacturers inside of a building. So someone made money and is making money on the real estate, someone's making money on the concrete that went into the real estate to get the floors, to get the walls, and also to do the roofs and the electric companies and the gas companies and the water companies and everyone else that works inside of that. And then you have the manufacturing materials, such as all the plastics, right, and the dyes. There's people making money in multiple layers in the plastic companies and the dye companies. And then you have these little label companies, right, that there's collar in that, right? So you have the people that are making the labels. You have the adhesive. That's the adhesive company that sticks to the labels. And it go. I mean, it's literally, it keeps going. You have the white cap, you have the top on it. Then you have the whole seller, the guy that gets the deal for a dollar and sells it to the. The local grocery store for a dollar quarter, and then they sell to us for $3. There's multiple people making money there. And then you have the accounting companies taking care of all the accounting for all of our companies, the wholesale company, the retail company, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then you have the QuickBooks Pro that the people the accounting companies are using that they're paying monthly fees for. Do you understand what I'm talking about when I say how much opportunity there is with everything you see? The question is, how is your brain programmed to see what you see? You see, I talk about this all the time. We grew up and Depending where you're at, I'll be 42 this year in June. We grew up, and at 18, if we made $15 an hour back then, it was $6 an hour for me. But let's say $15 an hour. We'd be rich. And then we turned 40, and now we won't even think about doing anything for less than, you know, say, $30 an hour. Making these numbers up. Well, what's changed? I got older. That doesn't mean anything. My brain got wiser. I started understanding my worth, my value. See, a lot of times I talk to people and let's say. And I'm not picking on janitors, by the way, but let's say if you're a janitor, the place looks amazing all the time. The going rate at the highest level for a janitor is 20 bucks an hour. They can't pay anymore, but you get paid 21 an hour. You've been there for 18 years. You busted your towel. You show up every day. You brag about not taking vacations. Right? Listen, that's awesome. It's very honorable. It's amazing. But the problem is, is in that janitorial position, you're tapped out. You can't go higher. You've. You're like, they're hiring people at your level, like, price level, because inflation's changed. Times change. That. That's how they need to be marketable to get someone in there to take over your job. And yet you're getting mad because you're not getting the raise. Well, you need to get mad at yourself because you need to raise yourself. You need to raise yourself inside of that company and become profitable at a different level. You need to go in there and fight for what you want more of. And I'm not saying pick a fight and say, hey, I'm a better janitor than so and so, because that's not going to serve anybody. That's actually going to get you fired, probably. But what you need to do is say, I have a different skill set. Now, I've been here for 18 years. I've seen your inefficiencies inside of this warehouse distribution center. I know exactly how I can take your company from X to xxx. Don't you think they would pay more money for that? Don't you think your value would be more than that? Again, we have to rise up. We have to see, we have to elevate, we have to grow. We have to expand. More importantly, we have to get uncomfortable because it is going to be an uncomfortable conversation. When you sit down with your boss and say, yo, I know you know me as a janitor, but for the last 18 years, I've been busting my ass behind the scenes and I've learned logistics at a whole nother level, Mr. I know it from upside and inside out and all the way around. And I can tell you right now, we're inefficient and 37% and like just boom, boom. Data. Not drama. Data, data, data, data. And I could reveal all to this, to this company when I sit down with the board members next week, Tuesday at 3 o' clock when they're in town. That's how you change the game of your financial future. You got to change. It's not the world, it's you. It's not the problem, it's the opportunity. See, the problem doesn't solve the problem, right? Let me say it again. The problem doesn't solve the problem. You have to grow. You have to think, you have to expand. What if you're in a union job? Howie says, what about it, dude? There's union jobs. Let me ask you a question. In the union, are there people making more money than you? The answer is yes. Absolutely yes. Love to talk to you. Jump online here. We'll do live video here, live conversations. But I want you to start putting the money goggles on. See the world in a different lens. Get excited about what's going on. Don't get mad. Remember what we focus on grows. You have to start reading. You have to start digging. You have to start understanding a different dynamic about life. You got to start understanding your worth. You've done it subconsciously. When I was in high school, I made six bucks an hour. I turned 22. Now I'm worth 10 bucks an hour when I turn 25. Now I'm worth 14 bucks an hour. When I turn 30. I need benefits, damn it. Why? Why do you need benefits? You're not doing anything different. It's because the subconscious growth level. You have become someone different. You have been developing, you have been growing a different skill set. The trap is when you stop learning. The trap is when you become a victim. The opportunities are endless, endless, endless. Money goggles. What do you see? You getting excited? Are you getting sad now you might be asking, Mark, this is awesome. I am excited. What do I do next? My manufacturing company, Am I wholesale company? Am I distributor company? Am I development company? Am I taste testing company? What do I do? Right? What do I do? It's a great question. The worst thing you can do is not do anything that would be a bad, that'd be bad. The best thing you can do is pick one thing and grow with it. Develop it out, understand it to a deeper level than the other person beside you and make it more profitable, make it more streamlined, make it more efficient and effective. That's what real successful people do. You do this all the time. How efficient are you taking a shower? How efficient are you getting ready in the morning? How efficient are you getting your job? How efficient are you making dinner? We all do this in different levels. It's just some are conscious levels and some are subconscious levels. See, when you start putting thought to paper, which by the way, every single person watching this video has time during quarantine to do this, you start realizing that you're in control. That's why people are sad right now. You're realizing you are in control. And a lot of you don't want to be in control. And if that's you, I'm probably not your guy to follow. Actually, I'm not your guy to follow. Every decision, every outcome is all your fault. The good, the bad, the ugly. And when you accept that, the world becomes your oyster. It's endless. So I want you to pick one thing and I want you to learn about it, about everything. And how do you do that? Well, maybe you have a unique ability. Well, you do. You got to expand your unique ability. So your unique ability is blah. And then you need to go all in on the unique ability. See, around me, my unique ability is big picture, not afraid to take action. And we'll figure it out as we grow. By the way, that's a unique ability for me. Not everyone has that. I know because I see it every day. So again, this took me a long time to discover this, by the way. Many, many. 15, 16 years. And then we have the guys on the team that are engineer style mindsets that are very structured. They can't go to C until B is figured out. They can't go to. Once they get to C, they can't go to D until A. B and C are very linked together. It's awesome. But it also holds them back. That's my unique ability. Seeing, hey, you're good here, not here. I would never give an engineer an opportunity to bring a huge win to me very quickly. That's just not the way their brain thinks. Their brain is very, you know, there's nothing wrong with that, by the way. That's. They're amazing to have on the team. I would never call my CFO or accounting team and say, hey, let's make some money. Because they're gonna be like, well, we could take off your $400,000 a month in marketing. We just saved you $5 million. They just don't get it. I'm not knocking them. It's just they're looking at numbers. They never look up and say, wow, this is what's going on. How do I know? Trust me. I have been in business 23 years. I've had many conversations. That's why I have to wear a hat. I don't have any hair left because of these people. I have to come with the big picture. I have to push and prime us as an individual leader in our life. We have to know which bottles to pull and pull back. We all know this. This is no secret you're doing this already, just in a different level. It's called pick your battles, right? With your spouse. They say something, you're like, oh, you want to scream and yell and fight, but you're like, pick your battles. Let them win that one and move on. Because this is not a big deal, but it's clearly a big deal for them. Isolate, pick the battle, move forward. Wait for your opportunity to pick your battle and address your battle. More importantly, stand up for what you believe in. And you don't have to do that and fight. You don't want to be the bickering bitch. You don't want to be the person that talks shit about everything and does nothing. That's what you don't want to be, right? So as we're growing and developing as individuals and learning ourselves, right? Really, really understanding what we're capable of. Guys, the quarantine, I think, I believe, is the best thing that's ever happened to anybody's life. I believe it. It's a very amazing thing. You have an opportunity to. Either you're going to be. Either going to be better off with this or. Or you're going to make an excuse that you're worse off because of this. And I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm just saying you're going to be a different person from this point forward. And do you want the good or do you want the bad? So pick your core ability. Unique Ability. There's a great book written by Dan Solomon called Unique Ability 2.0. It's a great book to help you navigate. Well, Mark, I don't know what my unique ability is. Read the book and work it, right? What's up, Richard? Thank you, buddy. Beacon, can we get some People on here, buddy, I don't see you connected. My man Beacon's device is not connected. Oh, Beacons here. I don't see him over there. Beacon's over there clowning around. What are you doing, sitting on the toilet or what? I'm here trying to, like.
I just pinned everybody a comment section. If you guys are trying to hop on and ask a question, please click on the link right there. I just dropped it. You guys should be seeing it in the chat. I'll go ahead and drop it again.
Cool. Hey, Beacon, what's cool, man? Guys, by the way, you're right in the middle of what we're great at. We're great at getting. You don't have to get it right. Just get it going. Beacon, I. You know, there's different things, like posting here. Like, hey, click here, do this. Not only that, you guys can see people's messages popping up. Beacon. So it's working, man. On Facebook, right? We got it opened up. It's working.
Yeah, Facebook's definitely working.
Nice, man. What questions you guys have about this topic? I know some people ask us some questions.
Yeah, let's see. Just get some questions in here. Rj, say he's passionate about it.
Very passionate about this topic. Awesome. Rj, what are you so passionate about? Let's get you in. It's a great question because, you know, we're all passionate about a lot of stuff, but the problem is passion doesn't necessarily meet, you know, your actions. And I'm not saying you, by the way. I'm just saying in general, dude, I'm passionate about eating Doritos. I'm passionate about eating Cheez Its. I'm passionate about watching TV sometimes, but that ain't gonna give me the results. Hey, what's your most. Howie, can you hop online, buddy? These are great questions you're asking, man. Talking about, you know, the union and then also top skill sets, because these are great topics. Guys, again, I'm all yours. Guys, if there's a question, if you have a question, and I might be able to shine some light on this, I'd love to, for all my success. Awesome, man. So, Howie, I'll answer. What's your most important skill set to have and how would you build upon that? My most important skill set. I have. I have a couple that I'm very, you know, conscious of. I think. I think conscious. Let me say it this way. One, I'm very real to myself. I know when I suck, I don't try to fib myself. I know that at the end of the day, it's all all on me. You know, I think this doesn't sound like a skill set, but being real with yourself is a skill set. What's up, Mitch? You know what I mean? So that, number one, if you're not real with yourself, everything else I'm going to share with you doesn't matter, because you have to be. You have to be very personal to yourself. Like, you have to talk like, yo, dude, step your game up. Quit being a fat ass. Quit being a lazy bum. Quit being a loser. Quit talking like that. Right? You got Howie. Hop them on there. What's up, Howie?
Hey, what's up, Mark?
How you doing, bud? How are you?
Very good.
Where you out of?
So I'm out of Connecticut, north central Connecticut. And yeah, I met you originally from the the Kingdom Real Estate Group, and I'm friends with Matt Motil and all those guys. So I've been kind of following you and watching you. So, yeah, I'm just trying to learn. I am a career firefighter. That's where I'm at right now. I'm actually at work, so that's why I asked the union job. But I am, you know, really, really passionate about real estate investing and learning more and trying to build upon that. I also do a couple other things. I have an online business where I manufacture some automotive restoration parts and sell to that market. And, you know, growing up, I'm a tradesman. I can do all kinds of trades and stuff, but more importantly, yeah, just trying to find my strength and really focus and kind of, you know, really structure myself and find a industry that aligns with my strengths and skills and just go all in on that. So I'm just trying to pick up what you're putting down.
No, Howie, first of all, thank you, man, for your service. I know it's a hard job over there. I know it's crazy. And you guys don't get, you know, it's awesome what you're doing over there, man, as a firefighter, but I don't think people realize how grueling it really is, not just physically, but emotionally tacky. Right. The stuff you guys deal with. So I think, you know, it's something that you'd be very aware of, guys, as you guys are, you know, hanging out with these guys, bringing them food and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, man, Howie, it sounds like you're looking, you're seeking something. One, I would assume you like to help people. If you didn't, wouldn't Be a firefighter. You know, it's a natural connection. Number two, it sounds like some of the stuff that you're saying you like. I like real estate. I have this automotive thing. I'm a tradesman, this and that. I've been there. What I was seeking is something that would actually make money to make me want to get more excited about it. What makes you excited? Is it the marketing? Is it the product? Is it the customers? Is it what are you chasing? I guess that's what I'm seeing. It's like I see a lot of people chasing stuff, which is fine, but we have to like figure out we can't chase multiple rabbits at the same time.
So I'll give you an example. You know, I truly do love helping people and serving people. I also did 13 years in the military. I am a third generation firefighter. So I've been around helping people and serving people around my whole life. You know, with that, you know, I kind of consider myself a problem solver. I am very mechanical, I am very engineer minded. And you know, I do love real estate. From the sense I grew up around contractors and fixing stuff and just doing interior design to. To all that stuff. So that's where a lot of my skills are around. But the problem I ran in over the last five, ten years is I did build this automotive business. It was a service business, it was geared into the restoration world and I had employees and all that. But what happened was I really tapped out as far as being able to scale within that industry. We were, you know, we were doing multiple six figures and everything else, but the vehicles were building, which were magazine vehicles only, really came to a certain clientele that, you know, could afford a six figure vehicle, which is great. But it was really hard to scale that. Especially being up in New England and Connecticut. I kind of tapped out. And it really is a specialty skill where it's an artistic expression. And what happened is a lot of customers came back, I got a lot of feedback is they wanted me to work on it, they wanted me to do the work because they wanted my personal touch. And really I just ran out of time having a family with kids. And I got to a point where I can't scale this business, which is why I went into the manufacturing side. But even that overall, I think that business in industry has a very, very small audience and I can't really gain traction. So I'm kind of contemplating just going in on real estate, which is, you know, my other passion and skills and kind of going down that route.
Are you doing it to make money? Are you doing it to create, like to do a passion? Are you trying to quit the fire department?
I have a 20 year pension, good and bad, but I have literally six years left in this career. So I'll be done retired at 44 with full benefits and a pension. So I'm really gearing up for my second career and you know, a different source of income. You know my schedule. One of the benefits of a firefighter is I do 24 hour shifts and I get two days off. I literally work nine days a month in the firehouse. So I really consider it a part time job. And that's why I'm always doing other businesses and everything else. Kind of like, you know, I like to, you know, be an entrepreneur, I guess and find multiple streams of income.
Well, I mean, listen man, at the end of the day, I think, I don't think you're going to discover what you really want until your six years is up. Because I think you're playing around, not really doing like. I hear what you're saying about tapping out. If you're not making many millions of dollars in one niche, you're not tapping out anything. You're tapping out on your capabilities of your mindset, which is real. That's a real thing, right? We hit a pressure point, we're like, okay. And we use this, this mechanism, say, okay, well it's not that big. We start looking for the reason why I'm not developing. Dude, there's many. I know many people have $100,000 cars. Many, many, many, many people like million dollar cars. So I think at the end of the day it's like, what are they doing? Where are they at? What's the acquisitions method? What's the like, could I sell the company? Could I build it to sell? Could I build it to grow? Can I acquire to grow? Can I bring people? Like there's so much we could do. It's just we have to become a different person and ask different questions. I don't think that's your passion of just talking to you. Maybe I'm wrong saying that, but maybe for you it's like, how do you build it to sell it? Get a big exit And a big exit could be a hundred grand. I don't know what the financials look like, but that could be a good exit and then you get your focus. I think we lack. Our focus is our biggest asset, dude. Like, you know what we focus on grows. And I think for you it's like real estate's awesome. But I don't like real estate. I like what real estate does for me. I use real estate. I look at business differently. I don't look at how can I serve the business. I look, how can the business serve me? I wish I had learned that a long time ago. By the way, I lost a lot of sleep trying to figure out how to do everything, be everything and just, you know, whatever. So once I discovered that the business is there to serve me, I can help it, and I'll serve it and grow it. This is the magician versus mule. I'll mule it out, but I have to have a destination where I get on top of the hill and I look around, say, okay, now it's time for the business to get back to me. Because if not, man, you're just caught in the cycle of always giving and over giving. And I was always disappointed, was always upset. I was always frustrated. I was always pissed off. I was never big enough. I was not like, so it's just really dialing in. What do you want the business to do for you? I think that's how I'd start restructuring my thought process. By the way, I have some great buddies that used to be in the fire business like you are, and as a firefighter and other full time real estate investors making many millions of dollars a year, you know.
Yeah.
So. And they quit. They're not firefighters anymore. Not because they didn't love it. It's because it wasn't serving them, you know, so it's like, do you want to be a servant to the process, which is fine, or do you want it the opposite way? Or have a little bit of mixture of both. And I think if you can find that piece, man, you could really just go all in. And really, it's awesome to me, like, you're the type of guy that might be able to help businesses because you're used to running to the fire, not running away from the fire, literally, Right? So in business, a lot of people hit a problem in their business, they run away or they shut down and move on. You literally could dive in and say, hey, you're very critical, thinking very fast. Right? That's how your brain. You've trained yourself to be a high level critical thinker in, like, very big moments. And that's something that you've developed over time. So I'd be trying to figure out how to maximize that in companies that will pay you big money for critical thinking. Big money, you know? So just a thought, but real estate's awesome, but I don't dude, the last thing you want to be doing is hanging out at Home Depot out doorknobs, you know.
Yeah.
So, like, what kind of business would you do in real estate?
Well, you know, you know, the biggest thing I'm after is, is time, freedom, you know, I want to be able to control my time. I want to be able to wake up with my kids. I want to be able to work out and stay healthy and do all those right things on top of, you know, serving people, you know, I do like real estate. Honestly, if you were to ask me, hey, what would you want to do within real estate? I would love to do real estate development. I truly love construction. I truly love looking at something and sitting back and say, yeah, I built that with my hands. It is really satisfying. Yeah. So really, you know, I'm trying to figure out all that out in a. In an environment where I can control my time but still leverage that time to the best of its ability.
Well, just be clear when you start building and rehabbing, because I've done it. You have no time. You have no time, man. It's a lot of work, especially if you want to be successful at it. If you're doing it as a hobby, that's a different story. Like, I always, you know, I worked with my dad. My dad did construction. He still does. I always would go to work with my dad. I loved it. Sweeping up, you know, cleaning. Tried to be very forward, thinking, a clean job's a happy job. He was, like, instilling these lessons in me through action, not talk. Right. And I love that. I love those memories of my life. Like, I used to get out of school, you know, and drive the bobcat at 10 years old, help my dad. That was fun. And I'd get picked on if I couldn't hit the spike in one slam with the hammer. And my dad's like, oh, you're a wimp. My uncle's like, come on, come on, quit being a pussy, Mark. You can do it. You know, And I got blisters everywhere. I'm screaming, I'm crying. It's hot. But I loved it, you know, it was the best. But we have to also remember what got us to where we're at isn't going to get us to where we want to go. We develop as individuals and we grow. So I love that piece and I love. I think it's a great starting point. But then, you know, you're saying, hey, I want time. I think you're going to get caught in the middle. I want Time freedom. But now I got to grind it out harder. You're going to get caught up in the middle. What's more important today? Time freedom, if you have young kids, is I think, way more important than a piece of real estate will ever be. In my opinion. For me anyways, it definitely is. So there's ways to do real estate without like you could be virtually time freedom doing virtual wholesaling, you know, do real estate, get in the groove of real estate deal making, like five grand, three grand, two grand. And you're hanging out the house, you're hanging out on vacation, wherever you're at, you can do that virtually. Then when the kids get a little bit older. Right. Phase two of life with kids. How old are your kids?
Three and five.
Yeah. I mean, dude, so you got 13 more years. 15 more years. Minimum. Minimum 15 more years. So I look at this as stage second or third. The business person that you're becoming through wholesaling and just deal cycling and deal making. What's going to happen is now you're having different understanding of who the real buyers are, who the local people are that you need to get the permit, just be in deal making Mode. So in 15 or 12 or whenever the kids start getting old enough where you don't need as necessarily as much time freedom with them, now all of a sudden you can go on. And more importantly, you have a pipeline full of opportunity. That's where I see the biggest opportunity there.
Yeah, I like that. I appreciate your time answering my question. I won't take too much of it, but thank you. And I look forward to more of your content.
Definitely, Howie. Thank you, buddy.
Thanks.
Keep me posted, man, please.
Will do.
Beacon. What do we got, buddy? I have service based business. Richard, Leon and I struggle to hire and train employees who represent our core values. I'd love Richard if he could hop on as I keep choking here. Coffee is hot. Bk, can you hear me? I can't hear you. Beacon, if you're talking. What's up guys? Any questions over on ig, we got a lot of people over on ig, Beacon, I can't hear you if you're talking. So guys, what we expand, grows, love. Focus on expands. Kelly Crosser. What's up, Kelly? Kelly, she's the one that hooked me up with this mug. Whoops. There we go. Thank you. Thank you again. Thank you, Howie, for your service, Buddy. Appreciate that. RJ said functional lets other team members set the standard. It doesn't rise to the situation bitches, but won't take action. Vital Raises the standards, speak with clarity, looks to grow the bottom line. Irreplaceable, High value, high return. You're the CEO of your brand and level and impact the business. You shatter your corporate mind. I love it, man. Yeah. I mean, RJ to that point, I always talk about the me economy. Just happens. My initials is Mark Evans. ME Mark Evans. Right. But the me economy is really as an individual. You are the CEO of your life. You are the decision maker. You are. I mean, you are responsible for everything. And unfortunately, most people are only like, hey, man, I did this and I earned that. They only talk about all the good stuff, and they accept responsibility for that when something big happens. But where people are messing up is when they don't take responsibilities for the bad shit, when they do the bad stuff, when they have a bad deal happen. When all this stuff happens, it's your fault. It's all your fault. Even if you think it's not, it's your fault. Right? So why? Because who else can you blame? You're the one that said yes to get in the deal. You're the one that said yes to. To get involved in the situation. It's all your fault. And when you really, really, really understand that and do that, more importantly, live by that, everything else gets better. Everything else gets better in life. Beacon, you hear? I see you. I don't see you unmuted, though. You there? Nope. I can't hear you, Beacon. So own it. That's it. He's asleep. I see him over there. He's always asleep, even when he's awake. So, guys, here's a side thing. Behind the scenes of a real entrepreneur, not a one, a preneur. Like behind the scenes as an entrepreneur, you guys understand the biggest thing. So behind the scenes, we're talking about, who do we talk to? No one understands us. They don't. How can I talk? I don't care about football. I don't care about baseball. I care about my life. I care about what I can do to make a better living. I. I care about what I can do to serve more clients. I care about my product. I care. Like, you know, our brains are always thinking about growth. Our brains are always. And we're never good enough. We'll never. Like, I'm not saying we don't celebrate, but we're not out celebrating getting stupid. We're out. Like, I might micro celebrate for like a nanosecond, and then I'm like, okay, I could have done this better. Could have done this better, could have done that. Better. Couldn't. Why didn't have more people on. Why didn't I do this? Just like we're doing right now. Truth is, there's what? There'll be a couple hundred people watch this. A thousand people initially out of the gate, and then it will start growing. But I'm not judging my success if there's one person or 5,000 people here. Because if there's one person, I'm asking how there are two. If there's 5,000, I'm asking how do I get 10,000? That's what we do as real entrepreneurs. That's what drives us. It drives us nuts, but it also drives us our direction. And if you're not feeling that motion, it's because it's not. I'm not saying you don't. You just don't have it. It's not. You haven't tapped into that yet. It will drive you crazy. It's annoying, trust me. But what's the alternative? I'm comfortable with everything, dude. Comfortability is the death of a real entrepreneur. We're never comfortable, ever. Like, as soon as we think we've made enough money, we start becoming scared that we're going to lose it all. As soon as we think we have our team figured out, we know we're getting ready to get ripped off or something bad is about to happen. That's how we operate. We're operating with real, like real stuff. And the me economy is real, folks. We'll talk more about that later. Beacon, are you there now? I hear you.
Yes. Can you hear me?
About time, man. I got you. Okay, cool. We got any other people in here?
I'm trying to reach out to people. I'm kind of getting a couple crickets people are kind of shy of hopping on, but we did.
They didn't want their makeup on and do their hair yet. You know, they're lazy.
Exactly.
Sleeping over there.
Oh, man, they're too busy just watching everybody else go instead of going themselves.
I'm sorry, Beacon. Hey, real quick, Manson, you've been with me for a minute. Yes. Someone was mentioning. I'd love to have him hop on Richard, but he's not here. He said, hey, I have a service based business. I struggle to hire and train employees who represent our core values. What's your opinion on growing a service based business versus a product based business in today's industry? First of all, they all work. The question is, what do you want to do? Secondly, Beacon, on the struggle to train employees and core values. You and I have had some Very passionate conversations about core values and expectations. Is that safe to say?
Oh, yeah. I mean core values and expectations is everything. And when it comes to expectations, you don't want to expect anything from everybody. But I mean, if you got the, if you found the right person with the right core values, the expectations usually follow suit. If someone says they're going to do something, they're going to do it. And that's the kind of core values that you want to keep around you when it comes to like hiring and service based, like when it comes to service based businesses versus product based businesses, I mean it's, it's all about the type of system you want to have.
Bacon you cut now. Yeah.
I would say some people aren't really.
People.
With numbers and product, which is perfectly fine. But I feel like for those that are people. Right, people oriented, very. Has leadership tendencies and love to, you know, I would say not even steer the ship, but steer. Steership of their own life. It's too easy to, I mean, if you replicate the right core values and you find the right people that resonate with you, it's too easy to form a formation of people leading in the right direction.
And that's something that Mark is. Richard said he wants to hop on. Can you get him in?
All right.
All right.
Yeah, let's get RJ Said. Hey, as an entrepreneur, you must contribute to a company beyond title, team or budget. You must make things happen by seeking and creating RJ. I agree 100%. So I remember back in the day, I was 16 or 17 years old. True story. Maybe 15. I was 16 because I was driving then I had this job. I was working at my mom's company then she was like working at. She was an assistant or so I forget what she did, like executive assistant. And anyways, they had retail stores, so I was at the retail store and it's all, you know, these are 30, 40, 50 year old men working at this job. And they're doing packaging and you know, they're doing warehousing and all that stuff. The break room was always disgusting. And I'm like, why don't we clean this break room up there? I'm not, I didn't make that mess. Steve made that mess, John made that mess. I'm like, but we're eating in the mess. Why don't we all chip in and contribute? I'm thinking this, more importantly, I'm saying this. And everyone's like talking smack about it. So one day I literally just clear out the whole break room and I do it myself. Like, you know, through warehousing, you know, there's usually two, three, four hour downtimes. On a lot of times once the trucks all go out, there's a lot of downtime waiting for the next shift or the next, next transactions to go down. To restock the. The gate, what is it? The fences, right? We got to put all the product in there, shut the fence, get it ready to go out. And I just went in there and cleaned it out. I mean, I made this thing look brand new. And everyone's like, who did this? Who did the. Oh my God. You know, we're gonna get trouble. People don't ship in. They're like, that's not my job. That's not my job, dude, listen, what if it was your job? Your job is to take care. Like, that's a core value problem. Not only that, I saw a lot of people was more worried about what other people would think. Don't get it twisted as a CEO, I'll pick up trash, I'll do. I'll clean the toilet seats with that, have piss on it. I'll do what. I'll. I'll scrub the toilet that has, you know, shit stains everywhere. That's what a CEO does. We don't have a title. Our title is to get shit done and make it right. That's what a CEO does. And you're CEO of your life. So the thing is, is these people that act like this, you need to one, if that's you change, or two, unfollow me because I can't serve you for sure. But in all seriousness, if you're hanging out with people like this, you've got to get them out of your life asap. Asap. Limit association. If they're family members, disconnect with them. If they're the king ding a lings, get them out of your life. They're not doing anything productive. They're actually allowing you to live below your means of your brain. And you're better than that. But in all seriousness, if people like, that's not my job, dude, it is your job. It is your job. If you see a shopping cart out in the parking lot because you're too lazy to take your fat ass over to the thing or just lazy, mentally lazy. It's your job. You know, this is serious stuff, guys. By the way, these are core values, individual core values I'm talking about. So the hiring question, which we'll talk about in a second, find people have individual core values before I train on my business. Core values if you're a thief, I don't want you working for me. You have bad core values if you don't think. You accept responsibility for anything in your life and you're a victim to everything, well, I don't have. I can't help you. So, for example, I've sold a lot of coaching. I've helped a lot of business owners create better lives. Individuals create better lives for their self and their families. And one thing we'd always do, I'd always qualify with a question. So, Steve, tell me why the other five products or the other five masterminds haven't worked for you? And then I sit back and I pay attention, because you know what? 80% of the people won't take responsibility. Well, you don't understand. They wouldn't pick up the phone when I had a real question because I had a deal I was about to make money on, and that's all their fault. Well, you don't understand, Mark, because this happened. That happened. Dude, you're not qualified. I can't accept you because they're gonna talk shit about me just like they are the other five people. You understand? A victim mindset is a victim, period. Until they realize, until they change, nothing will change. And I'm not here to change them. And I'm not doing it on my dime. I'm not doing it on my time. If they want to go do it, go do it. Until then, I'll be serving the other 20% of the world. See, when I realized that I'm for somebody, not for everybody, I became clear who I could serve and grow from there. What's up, Rich? Beacon, can you get him over here? What's up, my man? What's up, Rich?
How's it going, sir?
Good, man. How are you, buddy? Good.
Living dream, you know, Monday morning, man.
I hear you. Hey, it could be worse.
Always can be worse.
Someone could be delivering flowers to the funeral home for you right now, right?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the way this shit's going, who knows? Maybe they're already on their way.
Well, just a heads up, they're on their way eventually. We just don't know when, right?
Absolutely.
So what's going on, buddy?
So, yeah, no, I appreciate you taking the time to answer the question a little bit. I was able to listen to it. I just had a hard time getting on here, so. I definitely feel you. Like I said, my big struggle that I'm having right now is hiring employees and finding people that, like I said, that represent our core values. And I understand that. Obviously, hiring someone off the street, you might not find someone who necessarily represents those core values right out of the gate. But again, you try to coach them, whatever the case may be, lead them down the path, show them what's going on, and you know, some people are into it and some people aren't. I don't know if I said this already, but I got a plumbing company I started about four years ago and last year we did just over a million dollars in sales. Me, yeah, we got four full time employees, one part time employee, and again, you know, things have been good, but my biggest hurdle is again, finding skilled labor and finding people that want to come to work. And again, it's. I don't want to say it's tough because obviously everything's tough, but we're in an industry where again, I'm sending, I'm sending these guys into people's homes, you know, I mean, obviously I'm sure everyone here as a family, whatever the case may be, you, you know, you expect a certain level of service and a certain type of individual to show up at your house, you know, to perform plumbing, whatever the case may be. So again, I'm just battling with finding those people and kind of building those people.
Yeah, man, number one, congratulations on hitting the million dollar mark. That's always fun.
Thanks.
It was a good year.
Why didn't I think 5 million? I know it's wild how that works, but it's awesome. It's an awesome stepping stone of accomplishment. For some reason, we've all picked a million dollars as the first step. I don't know why, but that's just kind of what we've all done as a business owners. You know, one thing that Tony Hsieh does at Zappos, I don't know if you've ever read the book Delivering Happiness. That's a good book probably to read for this. But he talks about what you might want to do is get hired people and put them on the phones, hire people, put them in that shop over there for two weeks and see how they act, react, donact or whatever and really get to know who they are as a person before you stick them in the streets. This is easier said than done, especially in that industry because everyone's moving so fast. We're hiring. But this is the difference with hiring because you have to, as opposed to hiring because you want to. You know, being reactive, proactive. If you can get one or two people in that office for two weeks and let them understand the dynamics, what you like our cadence, right? The Way we walk, the way we talk, the way we think, the way we act. Put on the booties when you walk in the house, ask for permission to come in the door, hey, do you mind if I open the store? Like, there's so much things that we do, we don't even know we do it anymore. Honestly, man, we don't even know.
Soft skills.
Yeah. So you know that and then put them through a one week training. There's a company I know in Columbus, they would do siding and windows and all that because that's my world back in the day, where they would actually put you through a one week training. And it was literally, if you set in the training for guys like you and I were like, how don't people understand this? Like, common sense isn't so common. Right. It's kind of the gig. So what happened is they would train what words meant, what this meant, what that meant. And you know, hey, when you approach a house, here's how you should do it. Here's what you should think about.
Represent.
Hand on this paper first. Hand on this paper. Here's the exit. So the entry, the conversation, and then the exit. So I don't know if you're looking for people to do the work or get the job or both, but these are all different tactical strategies that you could help understand them. Plus, man, the core values. Dude, you know, I just hire great people. You know, I love. Like, I. I'm sure you're like this, but you're.
I'm Lost you for a second there, brother.
Can you hear me? All right, I'm here still. But, guys, Beacon, you can hear me. Gotta love technology. Okay, so I'm more looking for, like, Delivering happiness is a great. Richie, there's. All right, he's coming back home. I gave you all the gold during that second. You lost me. So I can't repeat it, though. I'm just messing.
Yeah, yeah, I'll go back and listen.
Yeah, no, like, the Delivering Happiness method. Put people in there for two weeks, I guess, is what I was saying. Not only that, man, it's like, if you can find someone. So I personally used to do this. This is the wrong approach. I used to make myself bigger than I was. That's an ego thing, right? I would run ads that said, you know, this is what I want, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then they'd meet me there and I'd be dressed in a suit, meeting at a nice. Like a Regency office space, and then I'd hire them and they come to my shitty office or Meet me at Starbucks and I'm wearing flip flops and shorts. And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute, what just happened? This can't be a real business, you know, and then it just freaks people out. I recommend knowing what I know now is just be genuinely authentic with people. You're a plumber. Clearly they know that. If they don't know that, then there's a problem. I, I would be writing ads, and this is what we do. I swear, I write ads with my personality in them. If you're at home watching Laverne and Shirley reruns, this job is clearly not for you or whatever. If you're not okay with having funny butt crack memes, this job is not for you. You know, because plumbing plumber crack, right? So I'm not like, I'm looking for personality types more than I am for professional types, if that makes sense. Because I can connect with them. I can train you. If you're funny, you like your job, you love what you do, and just some people just don't get you. Obviously, I'm going to teach you maybe a little bit more couth ways to do it, but the core values they're looking for, they're looking for guidance, man. Do you have a core value sheet up in the office and everything that you share with them?
Absolutely. I got, I got one right here.
What are they?
Can you see them?
Yeah, yeah. So extreme ownership. Go the extra mile. Okay. I like it. That's fantastic.
We got the definitions on the back.
Too, so I love it.
Obviously you can't read them. They're kind of small, but that's okay. Yeah, I keep it on my desk.
Are you doing daily Core Value Talk?
Not daily, no. We do a weekly meeting and I bring it up in the weekly meeting.
But yeah, just. Do Huddles have competitions? So one of our companies right now. One of them, actually, today, three o', clock, we're going over it, but we put teams together and we had them create something bigger for the company. You know, it's got to be more profitable, it's got to be more streamlined. It's got to be a mixture of both. And then what happens, you get these guys interacting, and what that's doing is culture, core values tightening up. Right. So every day called Core Value Talk, you know, pick one, talk about it, memorize it. Let's talk about it next week. Hey, guys, I'm going to give you a two dollar bill. I'm going to recognize you in front of everyone. If I call you out and you don't know it. Strike one if I call you out and you know, like, you got to teach them that, like you got to ingrain core values at such a deep level. From my experience, I love it, man. And by the way, all this stuff takes effort. I'm not saying this is easy. This takes effort and work for sure. Awesome. Cool. Rich.
Hey, thanks. I appreciate it. I mean I definitely see where you're coming from and I think that like you said, by creating that, creating those teams and having them do something for the company, that definitely allows them to have buy in, you know, so it's again, they're not just sitting here doing what I'm asking them to do, you know, they're creating it on their own. And then like, like we talked about, they have some kind of buy in.
Yeah. Where are you located at? Rich, I meant to ask you.
Yeah, so we're about 45 minutes south of Boston, Mass.
Okay. Awesome, man. What, what town?
We're in Raynham, Massachusetts.
Okay, cool, man. You got a website or anything you can share? A lot of people will be watching us.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean you can check us out on RCL mechanical.com or we actually pretty active on Facebook and Instagram @rcl mechanical.
Hey, also Richard, buddy of mine, he's very good at this kind of stuff. Teaching tradesmen's in your industry. His name's Mike Aguilaro. Are you familiar with him?
I'm not, no.
Yeah, I think it's called CEO Beacon. Remind me to get. It's CEO Warrior. That's what it's called, CEO Warrior.
Oh, that sounds familiar. I, I may have heard of that.
He's big in the tradesman world. He's out of Jersey area. He created very big heating and cooling company. Sold it for a lot of money. And now he trains guys in your industry and other industries like in the service based world, how to grow, develop, team build. He's a great team builder. Great, great, great. He had 25 guys, I think at the time of sell, which as you know, in that industry is not easy.
Oh, definitely not easy. I appreciate it. I'll definitely check them out.
Yeah, check him out. Yeah. CEO Warrior. Cool, man. Thank you, Rich. Appreciate your time, buddy.
Appreciate it guys. Thank you. Thanks.
Thank you, buddy. My mother's here so I gotta straighten up now. I gotta act like I know what I'm talking about. What's up, mom? Cool, Beacon. Anything else, buddy? Guys, if we have any other questions, I'd love to answer questions. I got, I got another 10 minutes. If not, it's all good. Also check out Larry Jansky, contractor nations. Okay. I'm not sure of him, Howie. Thank you for that. Cool. Guys. So real quick, the me economy, back to that way you guys are thinking about your questions or beacons trying to loop someone back in. Just remember, you know the biggest thing about me economy. You don't care what people think about you. You can't. Because if you do, you're going to pull from your old self. You're going to start developing and becoming someone new. Here's what's going to happen. Your friends, your circle and your circle of influence is going to change. It's okay. Change happens. You know, your first great friend isn't going to be there anymore like they used to be. You got to create limited connections, not because you don't like them. Actually, you're doing it because you like yourself. You love yourself. And once you start understanding like you know, and by the way, we all have a friend we can call and get in trouble with. We all have a friend we can call. We know they're going to talk bad about people. We all have a friend we can call that we know they're going to say something to us and make us mad because they telling us we're better. You're better than that, Mark. You're better than that. You can do better. Step your game up. We all know the people we can call to stimulate conversations. That's going to serve our ego the best at that moment. I promise you this. You always hear smart people. Excuse me, people that are progressing, they don't have to be smart. By the way, people that are growing financially, you always hear them say, be the dumbest person in the room. From my experience, people that are not getting to that next level are always the smartest or always think they're the smartest person in the room. And you don't want to be the king of the dipshits. Folks, that's not where it's at. I promise you that we'll talk about that conversation one day in future. But what you want to do is you want to get in a room where people are pushing you. Thought audit. Asking yourself questions that challenge your old thinking. Listen, if what got you to where you're at, typically it's not going to get you where you want to go. We have to change. Who do you need to become to get here? You already know how to get here because you're there. But who do you need to become? You got to build that bridge of conversation in your brain. You got to start listening to audiobooks, you got to start reading books. I mean, all this stuff is very powerful and will change your life. It sounds quirky and it sounds goofy, but in a promise it might even be. But whatever it is, it works. Your net worth is your network. Yes, possibly, if you understand how to use the network and how to bring value to the network. The reason a lot of times people, all the. What's this? All the cows. The reason a lot of people don't change their network is because they don't understand their value in their life. The truth is I'll be 42. Like I said, I love helping young people in business. It doesn't have to be a young individual, just young person in business. You know, they could be a 65 year old person one year in business. I love that. I love helping them. I see where they're at, I see where they're going. I know the path they got to take. It's going to be 10 years of hard work to get the results they're really seeking. You think you can do it in a year? It's going to take you 10 years. Don't let that discourage you, let that encourage you, knowing that you're going to wake up 10 years from now anyway, so you're going to be further ahead or further behind. It's real simple. And I'm talking like today I've already read what, 12 pages in a book. I've already listened to 32 minutes of an audio book. Tonight I'll read another 10 or 12 pages of a book. Like it doesn't have to be all in or all out. Just start, you know, 1%, 1% better, 1% better, 1% better. And you do that, that starts compounding over time and you start becoming a new person. Who would be the first hire if you want to grow a real estate company from a one man operation? Great question. I'd hire an assistant. I'd hire someone that's great at day to day paperwork. I would hire someone that's great at basic organization. And the reason is, is because they'll buy me back more time. I would not hire a salesperson. I would not hire a deal coordinator, I would not hire an acquisitions manager. I'd hire an assistant if that was my first hire. Why? Because an assistant is probably the easiest person to train. Because you're like, hey, help me with my daily life and help take this stuff off my plate. They're actually very structured. They like paperwork. They'll get you structured, they'll get you set they're going to help you set up to get this to. To step up. They're gonna get you a baseline of where you can grow and crank it up. Hey, we own an event staffing business, and I've been in business for three years. Awesome, man. Congrats. That's awesome. That's a tough biz right now, event staffing, I would think. Hopefully you're doing well and pivoting at a big level. Beacon, do we have any questions or any people coming in? Mark, check your Facebook. Oh, check your Facebook message. Cool. Can't hear you, Beacon. Can't hear you, my man. Yeah, all our weddings have been canceled or postponed. Well, good luck with that, man. I think there's a great opportunity in that space. I know we had an event in June. Malika, she's my lady. She's amazing at event planning. So I'm guessing October ish will probably be the first step up. Beacon, you're muted if you're still muted. But, guys, I gotta bounce. I gotta work over here. And I got some cool stuff I'm working on. But stay tuned. I would like you guys to write this date down. April 24th. April 24th, 12:34pm Eastern Standard Time. April 24th, 12:00pm 12:34-1233:04pm Eastern standard time. Not only is that my daughter's birthday, April 24, but I have something special happening on that day. I'd love for you. Thank you. Mediocre Mutter. However you say that, I'll mess that up. But that's the date. 4:24, 12:34pm Something big is going to happen. I look forward to sharing something amazing with you guys. Appreciate your time as well. If you guys need anything, keep me posted. I'll be here tomorrow, 8:30am with cigars and coffee. Have a great day, folks. Talk to you soon.
