In episode 74 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden opens up about his struggles and mindset shift in the first half of the year. He shares his journey from feeling down to finding gratitude and focusing on what truly matters.
Tune in to learn more about the importance of perspective, gratitude, and helping others in business and life.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:03:26] Business focus on insurance roofing.
[00:06:19] Mindset and Financial Decisions.
[00:08:16] Visualizing personal growth through style.
[00:13:03] Overcoming challenges in business.
[00:17:18] Setting high goals for success.
[00:20:55] Belief in a higher power.
[00:25:23] Gratitude and Blessings.
[00:31:53] Pursuing greatness and success.
QUOTES
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Ken Baden
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WEBSITES:
The Kitchen Table Podcast: https://thekitchentablepodcast.net/
Blue Collar Ballers Union: https://bluecollarballersunion.com/
Welcome to the Kitchen Table, a podcast about where business is done. So pull up a chair and join your host, Ken Baden.
What's up, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Kitchen Table podcast. I am your host, Ken Baden, and I am here all by myself, solo dolo in the house by myself, me, you, my mouth, your ears. And, you know, really, The reason usually is that it's usually a holiday or one of those in-between points, and that's the case here where we're right after the fourth. And I was on vacation the week before the fourth with my family and the other banks. So we're kind of in like a, an awkward go between of new guests, awesome guests. We just had Tommy Mello on. We just had the Tommy Mello episode drop. So that got pushed out real quick. But, uh, and then, you know, the upcoming guests that we have to look forward to. But, uh, I really wanted to take this chance to really sit down and talk with you all about that halfway point that we find ourselves at right now. It's July quarter two or well, excuse me, quarter two is up and we're going into the third and fourth quarter. And we find ourselves literally at that halfway point where it's six months left. Um, How do you feel? What's the check-in temp? Where are you at? How do you feel? How was your first half of the year? If you're anything like me or probably the most of American entrepreneurs, not everybody, but a lot of us are feeling the sting of a socioeconomic crisis. I don't know, man, downturn, struggle, whatever you want to call it. It's a little bit, it's not sunshine and rainbows out there currently. And, uh, as it, as it pertains to most things, I would say, I'm not trying to be a pessimist. I'm just saying as a business owner is not super easy right now. Um, and that's not to be political or anything like that, man. It's just factual. It's, been a little bit more difficult than it usually is. Uh, that being said, I can tell you where I've been and how I'm feeling and my check in. And I just wanted to kind of take the time to be authentic with you all. I think that I do a pretty good job being that way, but I've been told as of recent, uh, What did he say? He said something like, Hey man, I'm just checking in on you. You've been a little down in the dumps. That's what it was. So whatever content I've been putting out is making people perceive me as down in the dumps. So I want to, I want to do something to dispel those, uh, dispel those rumors so to speak but reality is man is sometimes I do find myself just like anybody where life kicks you in the ass and it doesn't feel amazing and The first half of this year has been, let's just start right there. What has this first half of the year been for us in business? So what we did was we decided at PCR to focus solely on the roofing and only roofing, specifically insurance and how that business model works. And Eliminate really any other distractions, any other divisions, anything that wasn't to do with the insurance-based roofing angle. Retail we have coming down the pipeline, but we wanted to really focus on what was moving this machine the most. So we changed a whole lot of things. And I think that speaking to you all from a 100% place of authenticity, especially you business owners or future business owners, I can give you guys some really solid pointers and really solid, authentic advice, you know? So just by telling you where I'm at, what lessons I've learned and the things that I've gone through through the first half of the year. So first and foremost, like I said, we focused, wanted to focus strategically on What we knew was the main thing, what our goals were based around, which were, look, we know that private equity is currently clamoring for roofing companies. And so we wanted to focus on what we knew was working and what we knew PE was buying. So that's what we did. We eliminated the bathroom division, we eliminated the small little retail division we had, and then solar. But then we decided, okay, now we need to make this our scale year. And in doing so, we only had the winter, which is the time that you really get in this industry to make major changes, lest you do those changes in the middle of your busy season. But that put me and my CFO at odds because really, I mean, that would then, That would mean we've got to try to grow, which costs money, money, time and effort, in a time of the year when we know we don't make as much money. So we were going to, you know, strategically operate in the red to then make more money in the future, which is, you know, it's business, man. So, uh, that's what we did. Sold off some of my assets, my cars, my watches, just things that I could quickly liquidate and kind of throw back into the business. It was, you know, a nice gesture, but I gotta say, I don't know, man, I don't know if it did what I was hoping it was gonna do, you know what I mean? And what I mean by that is sure, you're paid, you know, those things weren't so much that they could have a major impact, it was a nice gesture, but like, you know, we're talking hundreds of thousands that would have to be, you know, there to like make a real impact. I almost feel like by doing those things, It started to put me in like a mindset of, what's the word I'm looking for, man? Scarcity, you know what I mean? Like it started to put me in more of a scarcity mindset than an abundance mindset. And I'm not saying it just like, here's what I can tell you. Last year I'm flying around, I'm traveling every week. Not every week, but I'm traveling every month, sometimes twice a month, going to all these different business meetings. I'm doing all these different podcasts. I'm probably not the best with spending money, but we're doing pretty good. the end of the year, you know, everything just kind of worked out, right. And as it always seems to, I felt like there was a much more effective way to go about that. You know what I mean? And I'm, and I'm, I'm sure there is, but at the end of the day, man, like you can have all the systems and the numbers and the things, but like mindset is so important. And For me, having a mindset of abundance is just who I am. You can put plans into place and you can try and control everything, but my wife said this about me in an interview and she was like, I don't really worry if like Kim was to just lose everything because he would just make it again and quick. I know he would. And like, and that meant a lot to me that she said that, but it also was like, you know, she's right. That is, I've never worried about that. I've never worried about money and sobriety in that. Like I've always been confident in myself. And in my faith that like things would just work out and that I'm in sales and we would just, you know, regardless of what needed to happen, I'd sell a different product to go to a different company. I'd start a different company, whatever had to happen, wherever I was at, I always was willing to bet on the fact that I could change the outcome. And, you know, I'm big on like dressing the part, looking the part, right? You know, I'm not saying put yourself in debt to try to become a version of yourself that you see as the top version of yourself and really step into that. But I do believe in that. I believe in visualizing and then taking action on creating that best you, right? It's, you know, a big part of why I started dressing the way I dress and taking care of myself and like, You know, I had several watches, things I didn't need. And again, I'm not promoting frivolous nonsense spending. I'm just telling you my experience. I'm trying to be authentic and give you an accounting of my last six months. And you do with that what you will. But I have to say, man, like I definitely have a hang up over What was it about that? Was it the mindset? Was it the way I started behaving when I liquidated those things, started living differently, doing what I thought seemed like the right thing to do, but like almost shifted my mindset into this scarcity mindset. And now I'm trying to control everything. And now I'm trying to control outcomes. And you get miserable real quick when you're focused on numbers and trying to force things to happen. force goals to happen, force numbers to happen, force people to hit goals. You know, culture takes a hit. You know, a few years back, this whole place was just so tight. Everybody knew everybody. Everybody was, was so tight. And, you know, we, we worked, we worked hard to build that. I, I let a lot of those folks go. And I'm not saying that that wasn't the right move. What gets you here wasn't necessarily gonna get us there. But instead of focusing on rebuilding that and cultivating that internal tight relationship, unit, I was more focused on the goals and just like trying to like hammer those goals into and not understanding like why, why would you not want to make, you know, the most money? Why would you not want to do the most and succeed and build the best you? And I didn't really have a lot of compassion. And I'm telling you guys, man, like I really just found myself obsessing about a goal. And our goal went from December 31st, 2026 to try to be at a certain number goal, which is good. That's great. But like, it's hard to get people bought in on that. It's a lot getting, it's a lot easier to get a group of folks bought in on. We want to be number one in our market. We want to be the best roofing company. We want to be the fastest growing roofing company. We want to be the highest customer rated company. Like that is something that you can rally behind. Like we want to be the top company in our market this year or next year. You know, the, we want to be at 50 million gross by three years for this purpose. It's cool for leadership, but really I stopped focusing on that and started focusing on, we want to be at this crazy $35 million goal this year. And in order to do that, we'd have to 5X and get in three new markets and have those markets produce. And if we do every single thing right in 90 days, we'll see a return on investment from each one of those. And it was just like so horribly unrealistic. And now I know that, and I should have known that then, but you know, you live and you learn, right? Now we know like 90 days, more like six months, right? We started our first new office, and instead of taking 90 days, we learned that now we know we need to at the very least anticipate, it could very well be six months easy before we see that thing turn any kind of investment, return on investment. So we need to be prepared for the what if, right? That's a terrifying feeling when you see that account stop yielding the returns that you're used to and start dwindling below what you're used to. But instead of just being how I always have been and just like, all right, whatever, we'll figure it out. Right. The more obsessed I got with it, the more I tried to control it, the further away from our goals we got. So the more I tried to control everything, the further away from getting to our end result I got, right? The tighter I tried to squeeze the water, the faster it would squirt out of my hands. So the less in control I felt. And I'm driving in the driver's seat and I'm ramming us into all kinds of guardrails and I'm just angry and I'm miserable. And my wife and I, we're trying to create a family and that's just been more work than I thought it was gonna be. And it sounds like a whole lot of fun, but it's just been a lot more work than I thought. And it's just the new one year mark, not even in August, we'll have our first year. Her father passed away and just a lot of stuff, man, life. That's all happened in the last six months. And then, oh, by the way, one of the worst markets we've seen in a long time, man. So yeah, it's been an interesting first half of the year. Where we thought we were going to be, we're behind. So what have we done recently? What have we done to like boohoo, right? And I'm getting into, by the way, trust me, I'm aware of where I came from, because mind you, this same guy was like, this quarter was real tough. It was fucking homeless six years ago, right? Seven years ago. But I forget that, man. It's funny how quickly we forget where we come from, right? I get so caught up in like, we're not gonna do $35 million this year. You were homeless seven years ago, sleeping outside, bro. You were homeless seven years ago. You're not gonna do 35 million this year. Poor you. You have a company, a wonderful company with wonderful people. You just started a new office that's doing really, really well. Amazing. Yeah, it took three more months than we anticipated to get going, but it still really only took about 90 days to ramp up. Once it got going, it just took longer than we thought, you know? to initially get going, to get all the things and the licenses and the staffing and the people. And we still have things to learn, but it's just, you know, that lesson takes us into, okay, now we can have that for the next market, right? So we revamped all of our numbers, first and foremost. We revamped our numbers. So we stopped living in this delusion of like, we're gonna make it all up this month. Fuck that. Where can we realistically expect to be with what we have, and be happy, right? I'm over like, you know, so I'm in recovery. I've caught myself just feeling so freaking miserable and that's how we work, right? We get miserable enough that we're finally like, all right, I gotta do something. That's just the way I am and probably most. men, but certainly most men I think in recovery, like I'm probably just most type A men, right? We run ourselves and run ourselves and run ourselves until we finally experience enough pain that we'll actually do something about whatever it is we're feeling one way or the other, right? Pain is the ultimate motivator. So I experienced enough pain. I was like, all right, man, you know, uh, I don't know what I'm doing. And that's usually one of the most powerful statements in my life. I've found that one of the most powerful statements that I can make are three words. I don't know that. I don't know. Statement has saved my life more than once. So, uh, I'm in recovery. I see my sponsor and I'm just like, bro, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You know, so he tells me to come meet him and we go talk. It's beautiful home by the water. He's hyper successful, but he's still completely devoted day or excuse me. He's completely devoted to a 12 step fellowship and our Nan anonymity is important, but, uh, And he's just like, man, you need balance. Why do you want to hit this goal? Why do you want to hit 35 this year? At least we can exit. Why? What are you gonna do with the money? Are you serving people? God gave you a 15th chance. Are you helping people now? Are you serving people now? What are you going to do with that when you do that? What's going to change? I didn't have a whole lot of good answers, man. I mean, for the first several years, and even when I wanted to exit, my thing was like, look, this opportunity to exit provides us an opportunity to take our chips off the table, really have a secure financial future, both for myself, my family, and our people and their family. And we're going to change some lives. We're going to help some people. I just kind of got more obsessed with just the idea of doing it for ego's sake, because other people did it. And if they can do it, I can do it. I can do it better and faster. We're in different markets with different things and different variables, and it's okay. How we get there is how we get there. You know what I mean? I can't continuously compare myself with this guy, this guy, or this guy, right? And when you live like... I either do this extraordinary thing here and like hit this nearly unattainable goal or everything below that is an utter failure. That's like asking to crash out. You know what I mean? In some ways too, you know, it's great to set these goals that are, that are crazy high, really buy into them. And then if you land a little short, you're still well above expectations. Uh, and, and make no mistake about it. Like now our reworking of the numbers and where we'll realistically find ourselves at the end of the year is still 50% up year over year. It's not like, well, you know, we tried and, and you know, we'll, we'll get them next time. You know what I mean? Like we're still aiming and completely I mean, easily could be, easily probably not the right word. We absolutely doably and should do that to where we're 50% off. We should, we really should. And I'm not going to dismiss and say it's easy, but it's just, it's, it's doable more than doable, especially with our recruiting efforts and the things we're doing. It's, it's absolutely doable. And 50%, 50%, that's a freaking win. So that's my point. It's all perspective. So what's changed now in the last few weeks that I'm not ready to like, I don't know, have a panic attack, completely meltdown. What's changed is my mindset, my perspective. And that's so powerful. The things that I was sitting in and I allowed, I opened up the door to negativity and the floodgates just came in, right? And I focused on things in numbers, not for how I could help people, which has to be, someone like me, man, like that's what we have to, that's our focus has to be on something really, truly sustainable. aren't it? Money, it's not it. It's what can it do for me? What can it do for my people, right? The financial freedom and the independence and security it provides, wonderful, right? but I gotta focus on helping people, man. So we shifted our focus back to, so first thing we did was shift our focus back to, I just want to have a company where everyone wants to work, everyone feels safe, everyone feels loved and appreciated, everyone wants to work here. A company everybody wants to work at, right? Everybody loves working, everybody wants to work here. A company that's focused on its people. and a company that's focused on its people as its clients. So it's people as its employees and its people, its clients, right? Customer centric, the customer experience, going above and beyond, making sure we get to know our people, just being there for our clients. So focusing on our clients, focusing on helping our people and building them up and how can we can invest in them and how can we invest in their futures and what can you, what do you want to build here? And focusing on our clients, like those two things, And just really just like, I don't care about the rest, dude. I don't care. We've had much better collection weeks in the last few weeks. Our collections have been significantly better. Recruiting has been worlds better. I mean, almost immediately, almost overnight. To the point where I'm like catching myself making excuses and this is the last thing. You know, I'm definitely somebody who considers themselves spiritual. You know, I don't know about religious, but I do absolutely believe in a higher power. I do absolutely, you know, believe that there's something out there. I don't care. I catch myself making excuses for that and I'm overdoing that. I'm overdoing that. I don't know why I do that. I think it's like, I worry people are gonna think that's weird. Brother, I've done a lot weirder shit than that, right? So I do believe that God had something to do with that. I think it has to do with all of it, you know? I don't know who, what, how, I don't care. I know somebody who's got my back. And I know that when I focus on how I can, you know, sort of live that way, you know what I mean? Like in gratitude for getting another opportunity and help people, everything seems to work out. So my perspective shifted back to, bro, you were homeless seven years ago, you're over here, bitching, and so unthankful. Because you're headed towards still being up in a down economy. But you're not going to do your 35 million. Like, get the fuck out of here, brother. You know what I mean? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you helping? Who are you helping? How's your wife? Is she happy? Treat her good? Or are you just fucking miserable all the time? And you make everybody else miserable being like that. It's amazing the impact we have on the people around us, especially when you're a leader or type A or... Yeah, you call yourself a leader, man. I mean, you do that, then what, you gotta be careful, right? Because if you got big energy and you call yourself a leader or a... You know, somebody who, even if you don't, man, the energy you bring around people, you gotta be careful what you do with that, but you damn sure have to if you call yourself a leader, because what you bring into your place and your people is palpable. I think for a while I was bringing stress, anxiety, and misery, man. And we're like, all should be like, dude, this is amazing. We have this great opportunity. It's the same opportunity we have. We have these wonderful people. No one said it was going to be easy, but like, instead of focusing on the great things we had and the great things we've done, the great things we were doing, it's always just, we're falling short of the numbers. We're falling short on this. It's just always focusing on what we're not doing. And that's just so unhealthy. So a mindset shift in focusing as best we can on what we're doing right. And of course what we can do better, but like making sure to point out like, but we're still doing this right, man. And this is going great. And focusing on our people and focusing on our clients, customer centric, employee centric, and focusing on my wife and my family and being a good husband as best I can and being present and being grateful. So the main thing was an attitude of gratitude, as cheesy as that sounds. So being grateful for what I have. If you're not grateful for what you have, why in the world would God or the universe or any sort of higher power give you more to be grateful for if you are not currently grateful for what you have. You know what I mean? And like, for some reason that just clicked. My homie Brandon Jay was like, yeah, you know, I always thought if God, why would God bless me with 10,000 if I didn't know what to do with a thousand? And that just clicked for me, man. And it's just like, dude, why would God give me more to be grateful for when I'm not grateful for what I have, right? When I'm being a spoiled little shit, when I've been given a 20th opportunity, when I had no bank account, when I had no hope in life at all. I had no girlfriend, no bank account, no future, no job, no home, no place to sleep, no food, no nothing. And then seven years later, I've got three companies, an awesome podcast. I've had the last year, I've had Andy Elliott, Ryan Stumann, the roof strategist, Todd Price, And most recently, Tommy Mello, Lance Bachman, some awesome guests on the podcast. And it's just crazy, man. And I was listening to Tommy's podcast. You'd cut two years ago just thinking like, man, this is a really great podcast. I'd love to be like that guy. Now I can text and be like, hey, man, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for being a good friend. I mean, I think friends a little bit of a stretch, but certainly somebody I can, I can call a mentor, nothing else, man. And that's crazy, man. I am so beyond blessed. It's sad that we get so consumed in the day-to-day rat race that sometimes it can pull even someone like me out of that gratitude, but it's possible if you let it. If you focus on the negative and you focus on what's not going on, you can find yourself really lacking gratitude and in real trouble. So again, in the last six months, man, really in the last three weeks, I'm going to be real with you guys, man. The last three weeks, we've really turned it around. Things are really looking up. I'm really excited. I feel good. I got back from vacation. I went out and saw my nieces and I spent real time with my family and I felt amazing when I came back and I felt a sense of gratitude that I was able to do that. And like everything worked out exactly how it had to for me to have just a little bit of peace. And then, you know, this hire, this person, this recruit at this time. And it just, you know, I don't know. And then going and sitting with my sponsor and just kind of like, you know what, you're right, man. I let go of the wheel, focus on customer first, employee first. Recruits have been jamming. People are showing up again to want to work here just from watching the show or just from knowing somebody or just popping out of nowhere, man. And it's such a blessing. And that's what a good culture will do for you. And just, you know, focusing on what we know and not worrying about the rest. You know what I mean? Like we're blessed to have a company. We're blessed to have a company in the green. We're blessed to, you know, have a future and a million other things, man. So in the last three weeks, I've been feeling really good. And I wanted to share that with you guys, because I was not. I was not. I was not OK. It was not all right. I was not feeling good. I was down in the dumps, like my buddy was saying. But it was all self-inflicted, man. And it was obsessing on things, on numbers, and stuff that I can't control. But I wanted to really bad, really bad. And I'll tell you why I can't control it. A lot of our stuff hinges on storms. Some does and some doesn't, but if you expect to like a six X, you would have to almost have some kind of freak storm or to have the ability to get three offices going and producing to the millions of dollars tune, you know, in under your year. And at the end of this year, we'll have started another office. and we'll hopefully have Virginia established. So really we'll have started two offices, one that's already successful. Maryland ideally will also be up. That's the goal is for Maryland to be up. Not about a crazy amount, but Maryland be up from where it was last year. Delaware doing great. Hopefully Virginia established at all. That's a freaking win, man. That's a huge win. It's a lot in one year, you know, especially in a down economy, man. I don't know. My perspective has been so huge in this. It's... I don't know about you guys. I don't suffer well. You know what I mean? So... I did start meditating again. That's been a big help. I don't know if you guys do that, but meditation for me has been such a big deal. It's so hard for me to sit still, but like a five minute guided even, you know what I mean? That's focusing on gratitude. I have this thing called Insight Timer, which is like a meditation app that works really well for me. And you can like work your way up from like two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes, you know, reading something positive in the morning, prayer. But the meditation has been a big one, man, a big one. and just gratitude, gratitude, and going back to basics and focusing on what we know, keeping things simple, relinquishing control, focusing on, dude, I don't, I just, I don't care, right? Like focusing on helping people and just being the best company for my people and my customer's sakes and, you know, stepping aside and just being grateful and controlling and focusing on what I can control. And the rest has just been, it's been good, man. It's been really good. So good that I wanted to take this episode to share with you all where I was, where we were and where we're going and watch. I'm telling you, God willing, man, we keep this, we keep this attitude. We keep giving the glory to God, man. And to even saying that I catch myself like, ah, should I say this again, man? I'm tired of doing that. I really am. I mean, I believe that's the deal. If you went through what I went through and you were still sitting here at all and you've done the things that I've done and lived the way that I lived, you'd be saying that too. Somebody's got my back. It's God, my grandmother probably. And whenever I focus on living that way and helping people, things just seem to work out. Sometimes that's just all I got. but it's going to be an awesome six months. I'm really excited about the future. I'm really excited about the people that are here. If you are listening to this and you're in Maryland, DC, Virginia, or Delaware, or even PA, and you want to come be a part of a team, a brotherhood, a sisterhood, a rapidly growing group of folks that are looking to level up, better themselves, be extraordinary, and just be around like-minded individuals that wanna pursue greatness, that's what we're looking for here. Those are the people that we wanna be around. Click, how can you get ahold of us? Go to potomaccustomermodeling.com, click careers, reach out, let us know that you watch the podcast, you listen to the podcast, whatever, just reach out, come holler at us. We wanna get to know you, you know? That's what this is all about. We want to be around like-minded people. We want to kick absolute ass together. You know, if you're listening to this and your business is struggling and you need some help, right, reach out. Ken Baden motivation or Ken Baden. Let's see, what is it? Ken Baden on YouTube. I don't even know what my own Instagram is, man. I should know this, but. I don't even, it's Kenny Baden on Facebook and on Insta, it is official Ken Baden. Of course it is. Official Ken Baden with the blue check. DM, DM me or someone from me and my team and just say, hey man, we need some help. Hey man, we heard your podcast, we need some help. We are looking to take on at least one client between now and the end of the year. Baden Consulting is. We're feeling good, I'm feeling good. I've got my time kind of bought back. I feel like I'm in a really good placement, spiritually, physically. We're really excited about the back half of the year, both with this company, and I feel like we have something to offer, depending on where you're at. And if it's just like, hey man, I just don't think we're a good fit, we'll tell you. But if you're like year one through five, or maybe even a little later, man, and depending on where you're at. I think we could be a good fit to help, depending on what your issue is. So if you need help there, reach out. But guess what? Even if it's not a situation where we end up doing business together, just reach out. If I can help you, and it doesn't take a ton of time or anything crazy like that, guess what? I'm going to help. That's what it's all about. It's helping each other out. It's us lifting each other up and wanting to see each other succeed, man. This like crabs in a barrel bullshit attitude is just so lame. Like I want to see everybody do well. I want to see everybody succeed. You know, um, lets me know it's possible. I love you guys. I cannot wait for the next six months. I cannot wait to see where this company goes, where my people go, where you go. And I hope that you take the bull by the horns, practice gratitude, and absolutely dominate the next six months and enjoy these guests that we have coming up. And I'll check in with you guys at the end of the quarter. Love you guys.
Ken Baden
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show, wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. It is how new people find the show. Until next time, remember, there's always a seat at the table for business.