Episode 20: Profitability and Leadership with Darryl Lyons

From the studios of Fractal Recording, this is the Profit first podcast episode.

Good and 20 good and plenty. Good and 20 good and plenty. Good and 20 good and plenty. Good and plenty. Good and plenty. Good and plenty. Like that, dude. What's up, my brother?

Have you. Did you ever contemplate a rap career?

No, I never have. I didn't know. Good and 20 good and plenty. Good and 20 good and plenty. It's all about the rhythm.

I'm Mike Michalowicz. Eminem.

Yeah. That's why. That's why I can't be a rapper. That last name, Michalowicz.

Yeah. They're like, what?

Dude, you should see when I go. I did a speaking gig. I got paid handsomely for this, like a five figure deal, which for me is handsome, by the way. Not upper five figures, lower, as low as you can go in the five figure scale. And that's with decimals. No, I'm kidding. So I go on and I'm the opening keynote to this event. There's 400, 500 people in the room, Breakfast is served and so forth. Host comes up. We want to welcome everyone to this event. I won't say their name. And we're really proud. We have the author of the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, the Pumpkin Plan. With no further ado, I want to introduce Mr. Mike. Ah, Mike, Mike Michelle at Nitz. And you hear like the one clap.

You hear from the side of the stage.

Yeah. Oh, dude, the sound effects are here. Yeah. Oh, God. I did a double shot. I did the first shot. Mr.

I'm trying to stop it.

Yeah. Stop that gun.

So welcome everyone, to the Profit first podcast.

We are pumped to have you here.

This is awesome that you're here. I'm Chris Curran, the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalowicz. I already introduced myself.

Yes. The author of three awesome books. And this podcast is all about profit.

Yeah. So what we do here is talk about all different aspects of business, but get to the bottom line component. We're going to talk about numbers. And how we like to do it though, is by having fun. We got a call and I told you this off the air. Someone's like, this is like the morning zoo for business finances. Thank God it's here. And so that's, that's how we do things here. Yeah.

So we're available as a podcast on itunes and stitcher and also profitfirstpodcast.com. that's the URL. And what have you been up to, man?

Oh, I, I, well, I've been up to a lot of things, traveling like crazy, Traveling so much. And this. This frustrates me. I get to the airport, right? Listen to this. Get to the airport. I'm working my laptop, sending emails. I'm sending you an email saying, dude, you know, here we got to get ready for Daryl. We have this interview coming up. Yeah, I'm all on it. Then I hear the notice, like, we'll be boarding the plane in five minutes. You know, find the gate, right? So I'm like, shut down computer, and then, boop. Please do not turn off 17. Updates are necessary, right? And I have a Mongo laptop. Like, it's. It's this big old Toshiba clunky thing, like, massive.

Wow.

So I'm like, okay, okay. How long does it take? A minute? Like. Like a minute later, people start five minutes later. It's like, one update done, 16 more to go. It's like, holy cow. So now I'm carrying a bag, like a backpack and an open laptop on the plane. And, you know, that's considered three items now. And, like, sir, you can only carry two items. Would you please put that. Stow that away in one of your bags. I'm like, I can't. Like, I can't power this off. I had to wait till the last person was on the plane. Yeah, this is American Airlines. They can vouch for this until I could board. And I still didn't finish the updates, and I finally said, I just close this clamshell and get on. So that's my update. Yeah.

So if I could picture you walking.

In with this thing, it's so big, it requires its own seat, this thing. What have you been up to, my brother?

Yeah. My new mixing board had a problem, so I tried to return it, and they're like, it's been more than one month. I couldn't exchange it, and so I went to get it fixed. I bring it to the shop, right?

Yeah.

The guy, when he took it out of the box, he wrote down the serial number and, you know, getting some paperwork done. He's putting it back in the box, and he puts it in the wrong way, and he snaps off the master fader and bends the master fader. And I was standing there like. I mean, you know me. I'm an audio guy. Any equipment is.

Oh, my God. That is like watching your dog raped in front of you. You know what I'm saying? I know. I know that was inappropriate, but I'm just saying it's brutal. We lost Daryl.

I think he Said, yeah, I think our guest is gone.

He's gone. But, I mean, that's hard.

Yeah, but, you know, I went into some other world. I was like, you know what? I'm leaving this one to the universe. Not getting upset.

I. Dude, dude, that's not.

It was 10 years ago. I would have been like, what the. You know, I would have went off.

But you have been out of sorts ever since I got here tonight. Like, no one can see the studio. This place, I'm telling you, is usually meticulous. There is crap everywhere. It's just like. I don't know what that drink is right there. Like, this purple orange mush, and it's kind of, like, knocked over. There's some earphones with earwax and crap on.

I mean, couches in the middle of the room.

What's this couch doing here? And there's crap everywhere. Like this.

Cables everywhere. Yeah.

I don't know. You're out of sorts, and you're pissed. I've never seen you angry.

No, I'm not pissed. I wouldn't say pissed.

No, you were.

Well, I came in.

You're dropping the F bomb.

You're like, dude, I didn't drop an F bomb, did I?

Oh, no, I was on your behalf.

I see. I have people drop F bombs on my behalf. It's easier that way.

Dude, we got a great guest.

Let's talk about our guests, and then we'll. Right. We interview, introduce our guests. Then we.

Oh, we.

Then we put them on hold.

Talk about the sponsors. Oh, my God. Oh, we didn't talk about the sponsors. I got to go real fast because we're already cutting the time. Yeah. Let me talk about sponsors. T Sheets, Fundera, and nextiva. We'll talk about them a little later on. But they're awesome.

Yes.

We gotta buzz through. We're not gonna put down mute, but let me just introduce him. Yeah. Daryl Lyons is the author of Small Business, Big Pressure. I mean, does he nail that one on the head? I mean, that is what business is, right? Small business, big pressure. He is the founder of multiple companies. He founded PAX Financial Group, investment firm, private equity. You know, anything that has to do with numbers. He's based out of San Antonio, Texas, and listen to this dude. He has a park named after him. The Darrell W. Lyons Park. With no further ado, it's Mr. Darrell Lyons. Oh, my God.

Welcome. Welcome to the show. God.

Crackers wild.

Thanks for having me.

They love you.

Yeah. Wow.

They do.

Shh.

Settle down.

Those are all San Antonio fans, right? Yeah, that clip is from a Spurs game. They won't.

And you can mute the crowd, too, at will.

I know.

Shut up, people.

How did you get a park named after you, Darrell?

That's kind of crazy. I was doing some redevelopment for the city of San Antonio. There was a part of the city that was being bracked that's called base realignment enclosure. So the Air Force was leaving, and we needed to bring in private industry and redevelop this part of the city that was high density but low income. And so we just successfully executed that plan. And so that part of the city's thriving now.

Do you go to that park more often than any other park ever?

I go to clean it.

I could picture you walking into the park, like, with this, you know, Superman swagger.

Just like, hey, I would if I was you, Darrell. I go up to every person there and say, what's the name of this park?

Where are we?

Where are we? What's the name of it?

You know, you're laughing, but I've done that, I suspect.

Yeah. So what's that like?

It's a little bit of an ego brush. Whenever I have a bad day, I'll go down there and kind of stroll.

Through it and ask people, now, how many people are there usually? Is it a crowded park?

No, in all reality, it's not a huge park. I mean, it has some playgrounds, and it's a nice piece of property next to nice church on a historical campus. But, you know, there's about, you know, 10 people there.

When I go, okay, well, that's cool. So I go up there. The thing is, you can't go up to the children because then everyone's like, who's this guy? You know, you can walk up to.

People, hi, this is my park to meet you.

Yeah, that's what I would say. I would say, what's the name of this park? And then they say it, and you're like, do you know who I am?

Here's my card.

Yeah, here's my card. I have other parks in the works, you know. So tell us about your book about small business, Big Pressure.

Yes, I wrote the book, really, as a result of just having some success as a business owner. And I was getting phone calls from small business owners across the country as we were getting a few awards from the relationships that we have. We have some relationships in the investment world. And with Dave Ramsey, who's a national syndicated radio host, they would send business owners our way. And I would field these questions. As I started to field these Questions. I thought, there's a need for leadership, peer to peer leadership. And so I started teaching classes in the community and I just was teaching them for free and they would fill up and I looked at the content of my classes and the research I had done and I thought, man, I've got a book here. So I just started firing away and I enjoyed the writing process and it took me about two years. Because I'm a small business owner, I don't know where commas go. So I had to have about 25 edits and a publisher and an editor really helped me through all that stuff. But the end result is a product I'm pretty proud of.

Yeah, commas are critical. There's that T shirt that says let's eat comma grandma. And then right below it says, let's eat grandma. There's no.

Wow.

You never seen that?

No.

Big difference.

That's cool. Yeah, I've seen it.

You've seen that, right?

That's me. Yeah, I figure all that stuff out.

What's the premise of the book?

So the idea behind the book originally was just to have some practical application, because when I look on the Internet, we have information and many of the blogs are opinions, but there was a lack of peer to peer leadership. So a lot of it was just practical application of how we've become one of the best places to work in one of the fastest growing companies in our community. As I was writing this, I was writing down stuff. We've actually done things that was, in theory, things that have worked and weaving into that are experiences. As I was writing, I put together the manuscript and I gave it to my business partner and he looked at it and he said, this is not you. And I said, what do you mean it's not me? He goes, your faith is kind of dribbled in here, but you walk around with a lot more faith than what's expressed in this book. So ultimately what I did is I reworded it. And so it doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone, but it's at least authentic. I've woven in my journey of faith throughout this business experience.

Dave Ramsey is a big faith based guy. Have you ever listened to any of his shows? He does a podcast, Chris. He's always talking about his Christian faith. Are you Christian?

I assume I am, yes.

How come the word faith is always used with Christianity and not Judaism and other religions?

Yeah, it's a good question. It's a big part of who we are, I think as a body of believers, because we have hope in Something that you can't tangibly see. And what we believe is that when, when Jesus died, then he deposited in us the spirit that we can lean on for peace and love and hope and joy and some of the things that we even search for as people like, I know, I think, Mike, you meditate, right?

Chris is the big one though. Chris is the big one.

So the meditation and that peace that you get with meditation, you can't really like, you really can't quantify how you get that, but you have faith that you're going to get that through that process. And that's a big part of the, the Christian experience.

And so when it comes to putting out there that you're faith based, it seems like that's the big, the danger point right now. They say, oh, if you mention Jesus, if you mention faith, if you mention religion, people are going to avoid you. What is your. Because you're the guy putting it out there. What's your experience around that?

Well, that was a big deal for me. And when I put that down on paper, I mean, I had to wrestle with that internally because I knew that would set a different standard to different people across the world, really. And so, and obviously it's kind of strange how Jesus is an unsettling word or name, and I don't understand that necessarily, but it just is. It just kind of provokes something. And it's almost mysterious how it provokes something. But here's the deal. I think at the end of the day, when I'm being authentic in who I am and what I believe in, I think just people of all religions and faith just appreciate that. Authentic, actually living it out. And I'm not critically judging others that aren't willing to live it out. I'm just trying to live it out myself, day to day and moment by moment. And I think that authentic lifestyle is appreciated. I think that what bothers people is some people expressing the Jesus or whatever faith and then living contrary to that. That's what really rubs people the wrong way.

Yeah. And I think also when we place judgment on someone else, that's not, does not have the same beliefs as us, that that makes people feel uncomfortable. And when someone hears, oh, you're faith based, that means you're gonna place a judgment on me if I'm not or if I have different beliefs.

Yeah. And I have a lot of clients, we have 1500 clients of all different faiths and backgrounds. And I found out through some research that I have a strong Jewish lineage. So I talked to my Jewish client And he's become a friend. And I said, hey, I just found out I've got this Jewish lineage. And he goes, I knew it. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, you're in. I go, whoa.

Judgment. I was once walking Darrell through Times Square, and this was around a Jewish holiday, I think was Yom Kippur or something. And these Hasidic Jews are in prayer or doing something. I'm literally just walking by, and one of them looks over and goes, excuse me? I go, yeah. He goes, are you a Jew? And I said, no. And I like to joke around. So I start walking. I turn around, I'm like, should I be? And he looks at me, goes, you sure as hell look like one. He did say that. I was like, oh, my God. And he was acidic. Yeah. I don't know if he said, hell, maybe I had that for flair. But he did say, you do look like one. I was like, oh, maybe I am. Maybe I am. So, all right, so let's go on to the subject of best places to work. Your office is recognized for that. How did you get that? What does that mean?

Yeah, so it was. The city of San Antonio is, believe it or not, the seventh largest city in the country in pretty competitive market, marketplace, and very conducive for small business. I suggest it's really one of the up and coming marketplaces. We've got a little oil patch just south of us and good economic climate with the military bases here. The small business world is really not only a competitive one, but one that a lot of people take pride in. There's an organization, the San Antonio Business Journal, that facilitates a competition among business owners for them to do. Business owners do anonymous surveys to their employees, and it's facilitated very well. I don't think it can be tampered with. I haven't figured that out yet. But the employees take a survey on if they enjoy their job, and all these detailed questions. As a result of that, we have been recognized for several years now as one of the best places to work, just based on the environment and the culture that we have.

Yeah, but give me some juicy tips here. What are you doing specifically that results in that?

Yeah, so there are some very practical applications. One, I think we start with a standard that I think most people appreciate if it's executed. No gossip. I mean, I know that sounds silly and practical, but you have to, as a leader, set a standard that no gossip. Gossip is not acceptable. And you have to pull people aside if they even remotely gossip. And so we got to get rid of gossip right away because that kills most organizations. So from a leadership perspective, we set aside about 41 principles when we first started that we abide by. We didn't have any money, so we didn't have an employee manual. There were several of us that started it together. Now there's more owners because I've given out ownership. But at the time, we just had 41 principles and said, these are the principles that we're going to live by. That's really been the framework of the company.

Yeah, but 41 principles, you pull someone aside and say, uh, oh, Principle 32, no, no, no. How do you enforce so many rules?

It's really, you know, it really doesn't feel binding so much as freedom. And what I do is I set up some specific events to remind people. For example, we have normal meetings. Like most companies, we do it once a month. But we also do a. We don't do retreats. We advance. And so we'll have an advance where we'll go out away from the office and we'll actually wrestle with all of these principles and we'll. And we've exhausted this and people are tired of hearing it. But at the same time, it's also something we truly believe in. And it's again, simple ones, like no gossip or another one might be robust conversation surfaces reality. And so when somebody fights, we don't consider that a fight because people do get, you know, even people of faith, they get upset at each other. But we recognize that that's just an opportunity for us to surface reality. So we do acknowledge that and we come back to those principles. But it's my job as a leader to constantly remind them. So yeah, sometimes I consider myself a chief reminding officer of these principles, a CRO.

How many people got down at your office?

18.

And when did you start the business? How long ago?

Nine years ago.

Okay, now you. I love that size company, Chris. Smaller companies, you have much more of a family environment. Is everyone from Texas your office? I assume so. Or is anyone out of state being military city?

We've got people from all over the country, so we have people from California and Colorado. But most of the people. People have been around Texas for a little while.

And you yourself, we were talking off air. I think you grew up in Texas. Are you from the San Antonio area?

Born in Dallas, but I've lived all across Texas. I've lived from Dallas as high as Dallas, down next to the border where I was a minority. I'm a white guy, but I was a minority. In that community.

Wow. You've set yourself up here because we did some research on you. We learned or understood that you're from all over Texas and you're a Texan throughout. So we have a couple questions we'd like to ask you about Texas. I don't know if you knew this, Darrell, but one of the biggest sources of American rock bands, or actually all kinds of musical genres, comes from Texas.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. So here's the test. And you're a big music lover too, right?

Yeah, I love music, but now I'm setting myself. Now, wait, you can't. You could have fed Canada, but I don't know about offending Texas.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not gonna mess with Texas snowstorms. Take care of that part.

By the way, Canada loves us now.

Yeah, We've won over some Canadians.

Yeah. We've been approached by Canadian dignitaries and.

Yes, absolutely, three of them.

You're good.

All right, so, okay, so here's the little break we want to give you, is we're going to give you maybe three or four, maybe even five sound bites of different, very famous bands or musicians out of Texas. You're going to listen to 5 seconds and you tell us who they are. Okay?

I'm ready when you are.

All right, we're ready. All right. Who's that, Jerry?

Jeff Walker.

No, just a little more. Come on. Come on.

I know who it is.

You know that lick?

Yeah, it's the guitarist. I don't. His name is Escaping Me.

Starts with S. He starts singing in a second.

Here's voice.

You're gonna kill me. I'm killing myself.

Okay.

I just.

I was sorry. Forever causing you pain. You showed you. Come on, darl.

I know. You know what? Craziest thing.

So the most famous Texas musician, I think Maybe in the U.S. he's like one of the top 10, right?

Yeah, definitely.

All right.

And it's killing me because just the name I forget.

This is going to go down the toilet. It's that Stevie Ray Vaughn. Yeah. All right. All right, you're good. How about this one?

That's on me. That's on me. I just.

Listen up. This is a faith based band.

Yeah, that's. Gosh, who is that? No, that's Metallica.

Close. Pantera.

Oh, Pantera. That's Walt.

Does that name song Walt?

I don't know.

No, Is that Walk?

Walk?

Oh, I don't know.

Oh, yeah, that's Walk.

Oh, dude, he just up dust. All right, give us another Texas band.

Well, that's a weird one.

The whole flashback to high school. How old are you, Darryl?

I'm 38.

Oh, this is in high school? First girlfriend. You were listening to this music?

No, that one.

That one for dinner.

I'm not gonna get that one.

Okay. All right, so we're gonna. That's meatloaf.

Oh, yeah. I'm not gonna get meatloaf.

What?

I'm not gonna get meatloaf. I. I had much better chance on Stevie Ray Vaughan than meatloaf.

All right, we'll give you a classic song, though, right?

I know, I know, but that's just.

I was a varsity tackle in the. Whatever. That's paradise by the Dashboard Light, isn't it?

No, it's a different song. But that's Meatloop.

It's a battle of hell. I know that.

It might be. I. I can't remember.

Okay. I don't know. You notice every song has the word hell in it. We're talking with Daryl, Faith based, and, like, Bad out of Hell.

Really?

Well, it has an element. Yeah. Pantera.

How about this? This is the next one.

All right. What do you think, D?

Is that a band called the Wonders?

No. Who is it? You're so into the music.

Chris, you want to say who is Steve Miller Band?

Oh, my God, that Steve Miller Band. Yeah. I wouldn't have gotten that.

I'm with Darrow on that one. Even if. Yeah, yeah. Even if you were born in Steve Miller's house, you would not recognize that song. You got to play one of his other ones, like, was the magic one, the magician one.

Oh, God.

Okay, get one last one, then we'll wrap it up. Oh, my gosh.

Johnny Cash.

No, no. What is it, Tom?

He's gonna start singing. As if that would give it away. Yeah, that's Bind Lemon Jefferson. And last one, you'll get this.

Blind Lemon. That's Blind Lemon.

Yes.

Yes.

Hey, Jay Z's not from Texas.

Oh, all right.

Who is that?

Did you show his.

From Texas?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Oh, we have a winner.

He wins. Thanks for playing.

Oh, man. So that. That was a disaster. So.

No, I. I enjoyed it. I just, you know. That was good.

No, you did well.

I could actually do that. I could actually do that all day, even if I embarrassed myself. It was fun.

No, you did well. You know, we were trying to make it from easy to harder and an end on Blind. Blind Lemon, and it just flopped.

Is it Blind Lemon or Blind Melon?

No, no. Oh, I love that band. Blind Melon. They were great. They had that weird. That Guy would do those weird things.

I think he died.

He did pass away. Drug overdose. Surprise, surprise.

It was a good band. I mean, they were one hit wonder, but they had some good music.

Yeah, Yeah. I think they had like three or four pretty popular hits. But there was that one, like when the. Oh, I can't. It's gonna be stuck in my mind now. All right, let's get back to stuff that people care about now. I lost all my notes. This is. So you're also the fastest growing company you mentioned in San Antonio, or at least you were recognized that for that during certain period of time or how did that come about? Yeah.

So what's interesting, being a profit show, they really judge it on several factors. They have employee growth and revenue. I could just increase my revenue and never make any profit and get that award. We have done both. In fact, last year, I think on our revenue side, we had about a 60% increase in revenue last year. And so on average, in the past nine years, I think we've grown on average about 20, 25% on the revenue side. And on the income side, we typically, on the profitability side, we typically run about 20% profit margins. We try to stay in that area because we find that if we go, if we have a 30% profit margin or a 35% profit margin, we find that we need to reinvest in the growth. We try to maintain 15 to typically 25 in our profit margins. But to answer your question, in the fastest growing companies, it's basically in revenue and employees.

Okay, this is interesting. That profit, when you say you take a 20% profit, that's after you as an owner and other people are taking pay, right?

Yeah, but I take pay not as an owner. I take pay as an executive of the company. Right. So my ownership, the reward for my risk is from the profit.

Okay, so you're like an S corp or some kind of corporation that cuts an actual paycheck to the. You and the other owners, if there's other equity guys. And then on a quarterly basis or an annual basis, you're taking some kind of profit.

Yeah, quarterly basis. If we hit hurdles, then we'll take a profit. We take profit as long as our emergency reserves is adequate because it ebbs and flows just like any other small business. So we want to make sure we always have three times our operating expenses. And if we're there, then we're allowed to take 80% of our profit, and then we put the other 20% back in.

Okay. Blind Lemon was big on this. Chris was the operating expense multiple.

He pioneered that.

He pioneered that. He pioneered it. But you said three times opex. But what's your opex? A monthly operating expenses.

Yeah, monthly.

Okay, so you have three months of reserves. What were you going to say something?

I was just going to say different businesses have a different way of doing that. We do three times because we have some predictable revenue streams. Some companies that are just really heavily transactional, that you don't have a predictable revenue, they'll probably need six times, but we're comfortable with three.

Okay, three times means if no revenue comes in, $0 comes in for three consecutive months, you have the money there to cover your operating expenses in its entirety.

Correct.

Okay, now that's smart. How long did it take you to get to that point where you had that kind of reserve? Was that right out of the gate, or did it take some time to build to that?

No, no. Getting started, as you know, it was difficult. I mean, I was at the pawn shop, I was knocking on doors, doing whatever I could to survive. So having reserves, forget about that. I was just trying to feed my family. And that took years to get through. So nine years ago, and then it was a couple years after that where actually was able to pay my mortgage on time. Then when you do that, then there's another stage where you have to pay back some debt for just trying to survive. We paid down that debt. Then after that, then you can start thinking, okay, now I can build my reserves. It took us probably about six years into the business to get to the point where we can actually have some reserves. The idea before that was, man, just to survive.

I assume your lifestyle is relatively comfortable now, you're achieving what you want. Is that true?

It is.

So when did you get to that level where you said, ah, I've achieved at least the baseline for my lifestyle that I want to have?

Yeah, it was probably about three or four years ago.

You know, so interesting. Darrel and Chris maybe experience this too, is that when I hear, as an outsider, you're an entrepreneur, you're successful, I'm like, oh, my God, this guy's 20 years just walking the life, living the life. And a lot of people don't necessarily are aware of the struggles that. That have gone into this business. Do you experience that, Darrell, that people that meet you or come across you, they think you've been walking a very successful, financially successful life, the entirety of your business?

Yeah. So there's been a couple seasons. I remember when the. The guy first introduced me to my wife, which was a College buddy. He told my wife, good buddy you.

Got or in bad buddy? I don't know.

Well, no, she's great.

Okay, he's a good buddy.

He told her that I was rich and at that time I was completely broke. But, you know, I had been putting on a facade that with the car I drove and the stuff I did, that I had money. Then I got to a point, guys, where I just didn't care about what other people thought anymore. I just wanted to do the right thing with my money. If you didn't like me because my car wasn't nice, I could at least afford the car or do things that if I said no sometimes because I didn't have the money, I wasn't embarrassed anymore. It got to the point of authenticity where for a season people thought I was wealthy and I was completely broke. And now I've got to tell you, I still have those habits of being frugal and being wise with money and every dollar I'm careful of. And I know there's people that assume that still trying to make ends meet and we're actually doing pretty good, but they see that I'm frugal in the money and I like those habits. That's healthy for me.

What was the trigger moment where you realize I'm gonna stop putting a facade of wealth and just live who I really am?

You know, that's. It happened. I'll never forget when it happened. I was. I was completely broke and I couldn't pay the mortgage at all. And we had our one year old and I had my BMW convertible. It was beautiful. I had to sell it. My wife would drop me off at work and pick me up in the evening with our one year old. And knowing I couldn't pay the mortgage this particular morning, I decided to take the car to work. And I got there early. I mean, 5 o' clock, 4 o' clock, I think it was 4:30. And I'm going to work my way through the financial challenges. And I stuck the key in the door and it didn't work. And so I was very frustrated by getting there early. So I just sat in my car and probably more than you need to know, but, you know, I just cried. I mean, I'm a grown man and I was just. I was done. And I remember at that moment I just. And again, me being a praying guy said, God, what are you doing here? You know, I'm not a bad guy, but this is killing me. I'm broke. And I don't remember, like, as a Christian, this is just kind of how we are. Like, God has imprints or maybe he talks through our conscience or something. But it wasn't any, like, a man in the sky or anything. But, you know, it was like a conversation that was really real for me. And at that point in my life, I started giving. I started making a commitment to give the first dollar of everything I made. In fact, it was $0.10 out of every dollar. And when I made that commitment, broke. I've continued that commitment to this day. And not to say that I haven't had financial volatility, but in the interim, that giving has given me an awareness of those around me that are hurting more so than me. So I've had perspective, and so I've had people in my life that are really struggling. And so it makes my little petty stuff petty. And I think it's perspective that's changed me in a lot of ways.

Nice. I actually had a question earlier. You mentioned that the 20% profit margin, but then you said if your profit margin gets too high, like 30 or 35%, then you reinvest. What does that mean?

Well, we need to recognize that we might be underpaying some key employees. I mean, we just need to ask ourselves some questions. We have a target profit margin, 15 to 25%. And if we hit 30 or 35, then I take a good look at all of our expenses and say, is there a place here where I'm not investing in people? Mainly I look at our employees and I do benchmarking studies of their compensation relative to others in the community and in our industry. If they're underpaid, then I'll reinvest into those people. If our employees, if the customers fees and cost are. They're not getting as much benefit as they should, I'll reinvest into some added benefits to them. Maybe some Social Security workshops or some additional services, maybe some tax services. I'll invest there. But by doing that, I'm not just going to reap the rewards and have a bigger truck or a bigger vehicle. I'm actually going to try to invest it in employees. And so that just keeps me honest.

Darrell, we gotta rock and roll. If people wanna find out more about you, where should they get started?

Yeah, you can just go to the website. Small business, big pressure. And you can just learn more about me there. And then, of course, you can always go to Amazon and grab the book that way.

Oh, hey, heck yeah. Pick up the book. And also, if you want to follow Darrell on Twitter, he's Errell Wlions. Darrell, it's a pleasure talking with you. We're wishing you continued success. And next time in San Antonio, hope we can grab a beer together.

You got it.

Thanks, Darrell.

Thanks, guys.

All right, take care, dude.

So.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah.

You know what wowed me?

Yeah.

Was he didn't know songs.

I didn't.

That. That threw me off. That. That didn't go as well as I had planned it to go.

We'll tighten it up in the edit course. We edit things.

We don't. This show is probably the most edited show in existence.

We probably say the word edit like 20 times in episode. We never edit. So we're gonna get into our. Our thoughts about what we learned.

But first, our sponsors.

Baby, please. I gotta hear about the sponsors.

All right, so good news. This is episode. What we're episode 20. 20 episodes in. You know who number one sponsor is. Nextiva.

Nextiva.

Nextiva. Sticking with us. Nextiva is a voiceover IP phone system. We have got confirmations. People are buying or at least contacting nextiva because of this podcast. It's worth the time I use it. You're more than familiar with it, Chris. You don't need it because you use my phones all the time. But it's a very sophisticated phone system. We now have, I think, seven or eight phones and growing on this phone system. It's voiceover ip, cheaper and better. That's what it is. It's cheaper than the traditional phone systems. It's better functionality and stuff. Fundera, one stop shopping for funding. So if you need loans or money to grow your business, you're looking to make a capital investment, go to Fundera. You know, when Disney was trying to make money for raise money for Disneyland, he went to, like, 80 banks and got rejected. It was the 81st bank you've heard that story. Well, guess what? He should have gone to Fundera. He could have got this done in, like, 10 seconds. They do it for him. So. Gosh, he should have known that. Jeez. And then the last one's T sheets. Who. If you were listening to last week's episode, was that awesome? With Matt Rizzle. That guy. The best guy ever.

So funny.

Yeah, he's so funny and the world loves him. So tsheets is a time tracking system if you want to track the time of your employees, if you need to report accountability of what projects you're spending what time on or what time you're spending on what projects. Matt's software, tsheets, does that.

Nice.

What'd you learn from today's Episode Brother.

Well, I learned quite a bit, actually. I like the fact that Darrell has a park named after him. I mean, seriously, who could say that?

Yeah. Besides, usually you have to be dead. Yeah, Right.

Or if your name is, you know, Joe Denali or something.

Right.

Or anyway. But no, I thought, you know, his book seems interesting. Small Business, Big pressure. It's all about the practical application, which is what I like that he talks from experience.

Yeah.

And I also like his authenticity. I mean, to be able to talk about his faith or religion that way.

Yeah.

I mean, hey, good for him.

No, own who you are. Right, Right. So I love the authenticity. I go, how many employees you have? He says, I have 18. You know, I asked other people how many employees you have. Like, oh, we have about 25. We have about 40. It's inauthentic. Right from the get go, he was just very matter of fact about who he is and what his business is. I love it. Faith based by saying that, you may be turning people off, but you are absolutely turning people on. But either way, you're true to yourself, and that's a big deal. So I love that. I love the no gossip rule. Like, I understand that must be difficult to enforce, but that's enforced by you as a leader, following the rule yourself. One thing I also loved. Forget retreats. I go on a business retreat all the time. Forget retreats. Do advances. Just the names we use and assign to things changes our mindset. So I'm going to ask the business group I'm in that we start doing annual advances as opposed to retreats.

Right?

Yeah.

There you go. Well, Patton said, or who said, we're not retreating, we're advancing in another direction.

That's a genius move.

I don't know who that was, but. And I thought about the profit margin, too. When he starts making too much money, he starts looking around about where to invest in his people. That's pretty cool.

Yeah. Yeah.

That must be natural, though. Is that sort of a natural reaction to that scenario, would you think?

No. Right. So. So I know a lot of employers that say, you know, I wanted to cut some more. Some more overhead and treating people just like it's a piece of equipment. And then there's some leaders. Sounds like Darrell's absolutely one of them. Who says people are the grease between the equipment. Yeah. The computers and all that. All the systems that are. But the people that make it flow. The things that make it flow are the people themselves. They're kind of the grease between the wheels. That's the most important Part of your car. If I took out the oil and the grease, your car would not run even with all the machinery invested in. It's a small little last piece that makes everything work. Well, people are the same way. If you treat people that they are the lubricant for the entire company. Yeah. Every time I use the word lubricant, you smile. So I don't know what your background's like, but clearly it was a good time. Yeah, you gotta treat people that way. Great leaders do that, so. I loved hearing that.

That's so cool, dude.

One last thing for the fortune cookie before we gotta wrap things up.

Yeah, we do.

You wanna crack it open? The vendor well, baby, here's my last tip for you. The biggest growth opportunity in your business, my business. Everyone listening. So listen closely, listener. Just put. You're real close to the speed. Listen closely. Don't mess with me. Put your ear real close. Oh, no. Here's what you got to do. It's the vendor. Well, now listen to me. It's the vendor. Well, you have the biggest opportunity to business more business by identifying the other vendors that serve your best client. Find out who your best client is. You already know their name. If I say your best client, it pops right in your head. Now here's what you got to do. Ask your best client what other vendors they work with. Build relationships with those vendors, because those vendors are already serving your best client. Which also means, bucko, they're serving other best clients like them. It's the biggest opportunity to grow. There it is.

There you go.

It's no longer be the fortune cookie. It's going to be me getting pissed at our podcast list, right?

You're like winning them over with anger.

Listen to me. I love you. I love you. Now shut up and listen to me.

You're like the drill sergeant.

I know. It's tough love. All right, you had your tough love, listeners. We got to get out of here, Chris. I got a lot to do.

And quick little prelude to future episodes.

Oh, my God. Next week, we're taking a hostage. Tune in.

Oh, man.

Right, Dude, I always have a blast hanging out with you, man.

This is so cool. The Profit first podcast. Thanks, everybody, for listening. You can find us on itunes and Stitcher as the video clip starts looping. That's awesome. By the way, if you. If you listen to us through itunes or Stitcher, give us a rating or review.

We need that.

That'd be awesome. So profit first podcast dot com. I'm Chris Curran.

Chris Curran. And he owns by the way. Fractal Studios. If you want a podcast just like the one we're doing here, you got to call Chris. And if you are an accountant or bookkeeper or you need one that knows how to drive profit in your business, please reach out to me at profit first professionals dot com.

That's it. We're out. See you guys.

See you guys. Sam.