In episode 75 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden interviews Justin Smarte, to discuss the ins and outs of building a successful office and the importance of leadership and maintaining a positive attitude.
Tune in to gain valuable insights into the behind-the-scenes work that goes into growing a business.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:29] Providing value in podcast interviews.
[00:06:38] Building office and providing value.
[00:07:48] Entrepreneurial challenges in solar industry.
[00:11:51] Problematic social media personas.
[00:16:00] Unlikely successful sales team member.
[00:19:48] Finding purpose in work.
[00:22:17] Leading with Atomic Appreciation.
[00:29:14] Finding Inner Peace.
[00:31:40] Qualities of a leader.
[00:33:22] Leadership and showing you care.
[00:39:37] The power within your mind.
[00:41:46] Focusing on gratitude and goals.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkenbaden
Justin Smarte
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justin_smarte/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justin.smarte/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-smarte-7bb83b241/
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.
All right. Welcome back to another episode of the kitchen table podcast. Today. We have one of our own assistant to the regional manager. I'm just kidding. I just made an office joke, but that's going to get edited out. So you're not going to understand what the hell we're talking about, but, um, this is our, our, my good friend and one of our own Justin smart, Justin, thank you for taking the time with us today, even though you've got to drive all the way back to Delaware. So good. I kind of sprung this on him and he was already planning on coming on the show, but we actually did some content earlier once way back when you first came on, but I wanted to do a full on episode and we've spent the last six months, seven months building the Delaware office. And most of what you've done, I mean, I've definitely been, I think somewhat involved, but you've really built that office out. mostly on your own. And so I think we've got a really unique opportunity to talk about the ins and outs of like what all goes into that. Sure. You know, I'm trying to make sure that like, you know, sometimes the whole premise of this show was originally like, we got some big names on here recently, which is awesome. Like Tommy Mello, Andy Elliott, Ryan Steumann, some of my, are the roof strategist. And that's amazing. Um, but, That's not a but, but has a negative connotation. And the original purpose of the show was to provide value though. And I know Tommy like really went in on, he took an hour. The dude's time is not cheap. You know what I mean? And he took a whole hour to just make sure that he provided value. And I appreciated that so much. And it made me think kind of about the original, like, why was I doing this in the first place? You know what I mean? Who's listening and how can we help? So, On that note, apparently I've been moping around for the last year because I've had a couple people reach out. They're like, well, I know you've been down in the dumps. I had a buddy reach out to tell us that we had hail, which I haven't seen any hail. I don't know if you've seen any hail, but I haven't seen any hail, but we get all these hail reports. So I think I know what he's talking about. Cause if we've, if we've gone by the reports we've gotten in the last few days, you've seen those, right? Oh yeah. You'd think our cup runneth over as it relates to hail and wind and storms. And it's just, I don't know, maybe there was like some, some obscure place somewhere, but nothing of any, nothing of any consequence, unfortunately. But the point was, was when he reached out and like, I'm almost, and I wasn't trying to bust his tops too much. Cause I could tell it was genuine. And I know him personally. He's a good guy. And he's like, look, you know, I said, it's almost as if you're thinking that like, I wouldn't know. You know what I mean? If there was hail in our area where we pay all this money for all these softwares and services. And we're always, every day we're talking about like, where's this, where's that? Hey, there was a report of something. Is it real? And he's like, He sent over and it was one of the ones in Cecil County of like one inch and whatever, wherever it hit, we had been out there. But the point was he was like, man, you know, I know you've been down in the dumps. I just figured this could help. And I was like, down in the dumps, dude, what are you talking about? You know what I mean? Like it got me like, this was only a couple of weeks ago. So I was like, okay, I think I told you that. So I was like, all right, down in the dumps, I guess I got to make more content, less down in the dumps. So I think what he was perceiving was just life, dude, you know, so we've spent the last seven months building an office that we thought I thought, and I probably had you convinced that we were going to build, have up and running and return on investment. I think the plan was originally quite literally 90 days, but I'm talking 90 days from like, here's the keys to And that was the plan, man. Like, and the plan had all kinds of variables and, and no facts, no experience, you know, you had run. So first of all, Justin said all like two seconds worth of words, but he's not got been given a chance to say anything yet. But I mean, you come from solar, right? Yeah. And you run, you've run an office before. That's how all of this, like we got introduced by someone who worked here very briefly, but still he had worked here and introduced me to a lot of other guys that he had worked with in solar. Some still worked out some haven't, and that's okay. I mean, that's the nature of the beast, but I'm very thankful that you did because it connected us, took us what? Six interviews before we actually, at the very least. Yeah. And I mean, I knew that was, first of all, that was like necessary because it was so important to me.
Ken Baden
And full transparency and disclosure on that, the reason it took so much, it had nothing really to do with you, it was more so just past experiences. Because the company I was coming from, you put all this effort in and just, again, bird's eye view of what it was, I quit my job of three years and I moved from Delaware to Colorado to live and traveled all over the country doing blitzes for this solar company to come back to Delaware, only to create a generated team of like six or seven closers and a total of 23. The rest were canvassers only to learn that You know, this was all just smoke and mirrors. The company was going, I guess, out of business, bankrupt, whatever. And nobody was getting paid, still on commissions. But that's really what the reasoning was for that. I mean, if I was young and dumb like I was then, I would have just, you know, very candidly, yeah, that sounds like everything, you know, the world essentially to me. Um, nothing against you or whatever is more. So just, you know, you got, you just get out of a bad relationship.
You kind of want to, you know, wait around before you go on a, you know, another, get into another, you know, and I thought that I actually, to me that made it, made it, that made it more comfortable in that. Like I knew that whoever it was, we were going to pick, if it wasn't someone, it was always internally, or it was always planned. to be someone internal, you know what I mean? And then we've also found ourselves. So getting back to what I was originally talking about, like focusing on what can we do to provide value? I think this is it. Having very open, honest, candid conversations about our experiences, what we've been through, what it took to build the office, you know, working with salespeople. I mean, if you listen to this podcast, you're either in sales or entrepreneur, prospective entrepreneur, like I think this is a great conversation to have because we've been, you know, in the, in the trenches the last six, seven months building this and what did it take to get someone of Justin's caliber, right? Like I knew he had run a solar office, but I also knew he had had a, I knew that he had a bad experience. So I knew that was going to be, and he's not the first, sadly, you know what I mean? I've known, Probably most, unfortunately, of the guys in solar.
There's a lot, a lot of people, a lot of companies, different industries.
And roofing, right. And I've known, and I've been in there, like, honestly, the reason why I went out on my own was I would have done the entrepreneur route. I was running the company with my buddy, Sean. We were all excited. We put everything into it, you know, and, you know, not years and years, but still a lot of effort, a lot of time. And I didn't get paid what I was promised. And that's a really quick way to be like, well, cool. I've lost all faith and you've lost all credibility. So I knew that six interviews was a good thing and it was necessary in that. We had to iron everything out, make sure we had the right person. And, uh, fortunately we did, we had two people, then it whittled down to one person and it was just what was necessary, man. Like we thought, frankly, I think we didn't think we needed to, but there was two of you that ran the original office. So it was like, well, if we get these two and they know they have, I know they have experience. Um, it just kind of worked out to where we ended up with yourself and, That's exactly what was necessary. Cause you did it. You did everything that was necessary. So I guess I could speak on first and you've already touched on it. Like why, like, like how does one find someone like adjusting to run an office if you're not, so my original plan would have been to bring someone up. Just, just let's talk about the scale here, right? Like anybody can build a business in my opinion, to a certain size, especially an insurance restoration. I mean, um, know, the barrier for entry, I think the roof strategist talks about all the time, like is what, you know what I mean? I got a truck and a ladder, especially if I'm willing to go up there and just do all kinds of crazy stuff, which most folks that we've known that we've seen go off and they are, they're willing to do whatever and figure, well, yeah, give me money. And when I say crazy stuff, I mean like nefarious just tear someone's roof up and act like a storm came through. That's of no use to us. And ultimately, what we're trying to build. So that's like building a house with no foundation, with no real. So we're trying to build a business to build, scale, and exit. You've got to have something real. So that was never, if anything, it was trying to get ourselves as far away from that as possible. And I knew you, with your background, wouldn't be interested in doing anything like that. I knew you didn't know anything about any of that. And so for me, it was refreshing. You know, I took a look around with the guys I had, and this is where this is all relevant was they're very young guys. They had been with me from day one. And like I said, most can get from like that zero to five mark. with just a group of buddies here on this side of town, right? And turn the East coast, because depending on where you're at, you can do way more damage. And I don't mean that literally or even metaphor. I'm just, you can do a lot more work with, because there's more work, there's just more storms, right? So here zero to five marks, you know, definitely obtainable with a group of guys willing to go out and work and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not saying you have to do things like that, but I was saying that we've seen a lot of that. You know what I mean? We've seen some good companies too, but my point is I was worried about the lack of leadership that I felt that I had. I had a bunch of young guys that I had known for years, but I looked around the room and was like, is there anybody in here that I feel like I can currently or in the very near future could count on to run an entire office. You know what I mean? And it was, the answer was no. And so I had done all this traveling and coaching and I don't know, man. I mean, I look about, I look back now and I'm like, should I have cut this person? Should I have cut this from here? It is what it is. You either did, you didn't, it's what we did and right or wrong. Several of them were core value things. So I don't regret that at all. But you know, and then you see these guys working somewhere else. You're like, that kind of pisses me off. You know what I mean? Cause they're making money for somebody else, but you have to remember like, well, what do they come with?
Yeah. And with that perception too of it is what are they putting that company in or through?
Right. And you don't remember that part. Yeah, that's true.
It's a double edged sword, you know, consider.
Well, and we're specifically talking about problem. people, right. That look great on social media because they're posting all their accolades and stuff. And when you make, like you've been in sales a long time, right? So you've recently put together a sales team that's been doing great. So, so you guys know, we thought what, zero to 90, that wasn't realistic. It took us about that long just to get the office going. You know what I mean? Just to get like, stuff in the office, you know, him comfortable, get a person or two. I mean, just all the things that you forget about, you know what I mean? Like we need furniture in there. We need to go up there and help him. We need to get stocked. We need to get the licenses. And we had done a lot of that stuff already before, but there's stuff you forget, you know? And so by the time we had gone through the stuff we forgot, then it's 90 days in, but by then we start recruiting. Or we had been a little bit. And since then, man, in 90 days, gone from zero to six, seven guys now?
Seven. Yeah, seven people.
And our goal, by the way, was seven people. Now, 10 reps to equal seven, though. All of our numbers are based on seven people, the production of seven people. The recruiting standard is like, well, in order to maintain seven, we should probably have 10. That's the thought process. Similar here. Excuse me. In order to maintain 16, which was the goal for Maryland, we need to have 20, you know, you're just constantly recruiting, you know, the deal. So it was a very high attrition rate in sales, especially in the door to door sales shelf life, a door to door is not too great. I mean, the best you can be, it's still like difficult, you know what I mean? And so, um, you know, we'll take us through like kind of what your approach is or was and piecing these guys together because dude, we had, Not, we didn't have the training we have now. And even that's been like, they had very little to work with. And so I'd be curious to hear like how you kind of made it all work, you know, with, with what you did, because now we've got some great guys that have done great things with very little, you know, formal training other than like the PCRU, the stuff that we gave them. And it's interesting to see now, right? Like people probably want to know, how'd you do that? Yeah.
I guess a very large portion of it could potentially go to luck, because you're starting out, you're in an empty room, you have no staff. And quite frankly, you're a little bit desperate when you're going through your hiring process. So, you know, the people that you bring on are not always extremely qualified and, you know, wasting time. And, but, you know, in, in certain circumstances, it's very, you'd be surprised because, you know, some of those, you know, day one hires that you were like, ah, is this, is this really going to work out? Like a living, breathing, breathing example of that is one of our guys, he used to be a, he was in the educational system his whole life. He's retiring from educational systems. He was a math teacher, then he was a principal. And it's like, just never had a second of a sales experience. He's still around and he's sold retail jobs. I mean, he's second on the board as far as contracts. One tool we had at our disposal for making these hiring choices starting out was And we were, when interviewing and hiring, we were taking these disk assessment results, and we were looking for very specific matrices, very specific, you know, personality traits in certain areas. Another original hire was, you know, someone with that sales experience, with construction experience that essentially had done it his whole life, owned a business. And his results were, with what we were looking at, where we were valuing, what we were considering, some of the lowest that we've seen. It was like, I remember when I had that conversation with you about him, I'm like, Hey, you know, interviewed really well, but, you know, these are the disc assessment results. Like, I mean, we're looking for this. I was like, I don't know. I think we're just gonna, you know, take a chance and, you know, you could attribute it to lock. You could attribute it to really anything. But at the end of the day. He's done very well too. He's our, he's our top salesman. He's done and he's collected in this month alone, 170,000 plus. That's what the CRM says. He's about to get on one of these plaques right here. Um, but, uh, you know, on top of that, you know, cause quite frankly, when you're starting an office, it's, uh, it can be like somewhat hectic. There's a lot that goes into it. Uh, I guess you just grit and putting in the hours necessary. Cause you're not just hiring. You're not just doing this. You're organizing your, getting furniture and putting it together and you're doing a floor plan and trying to figure out where everything is going to go. And it's, you know, just being somewhat, I guess, obsessed with that while also still trying to balance like being out in the field and generating sales that way. In-person training, which I say the word training with a grain of salt, because quite frankly, we brought a lot of guys on in a very short period of time and some stayed, some fell off and training in the beginning was not as formal as it is now or as organized, which kind of. paying the price per se for those types of like wheel and deal decisions that you were just kind of forced to make with starting an office. But, you know, we're getting things caught back up and better organized and flowing in the right direction. And we're just in a really like sweet spot when it comes to the direction we're headed, you know, where we're going and what we have and what we're going to have and what we're bringing in. It was really exciting. So I would just say, those are probably some of the key components there is just sheer luck, but then just work, just doing the actual work and shutting up and just getting it done, essentially.
How important do you think it is? Because I know you're the type, and that's why I was telling my wife, you know, you're just like me in that. I totally expect, I don't think it's weird at all if when I go to leave or even after I've left, you're still in the office. You know what I mean? And same thing on Saturday or whatever. And you treat it like you own it. You know, that's your office. You treat it that way. And how important do you think it is for your guys to see that optics? I think it's really important. I'm curious what you think is. Because you're right, you're out in the field, you're doing, you're always involved in something.
Well, I, to your point, yes, it's extremely important because, and I can only attribute this to just past experiences being a sales representative, like not being in a managerial light and just perceiving my managers and I don't know, you just kind of felt like you were alone on the battlefield for the most part, like you didn't really have any support, like they don't know what you're going through. But if you're leading from the front there, that just completely eliminates that potential argument there. But, you know, quite frankly, I don't know, like staying late. I mean, that's just that just comes with the job. I don't need them to see me doing that. It's just, again, what is necessary. And I think what that can. essentially be boiled down to is just appreciation. And I've said this to you recently, is you can't train someone to care about their job or the opportunity they've been given. And at the end of the day, this is something I truly appreciate, because when I had that solar team that we were previously discussing, I felt like I was just I don't know, it's a lot of the same work, like field training, like back office type of work, but then also like out in the field. And that was when I truly felt like when my life had the most purpose, essentially. And when I lost that for reasons outside of my control, I just scrambled to try to find that purpose again. I'll be honest with you, Ken, a couple of months before you reached out to me, The individual that worked here had made the connection. But just a couple of months before that, I was literally praying for God. My life had the most meaning when I was leading men. When I had this, I can't go back to where I was, which was the car industry before solar. If any of you out there listening or in the car industry, you know exactly what I'm talking about, the hours, the people, I don't know, I would do anything to keep from going back there. And, you know, I was getting really close to, you know, going back because, you know, I was doing my solar thing like on my own. I made some bad like marketing partnerships and spent a lot of wasted a lot of money. And, you know, I was not at that point, but I was like starting to like have conversations and lining stuff up for, you know, three, four, whatever months in the future. And then, I got the text, you know, and it just felt like in that moment, my prayers had been answered, but, you know, I was very careful about the decision, you know, made sure that completely vetted. Um, and it's just been everything that I asked for everything that I've prayed for. And, you know, uh, it can be difficult at times because of, you know, you ask for these things and you try to manifest things into your life and receive them. And it's like, it's not there, but you know, as long as you just keep working and believing, It's already happened for you. The timeline just essentially is not caught up. But I say all that to say that because of my perception, because of my past, because of what I've gone through and what I've asked for and what I've received, my appreciation factor is atomic, essentially. And I think that's very important because when it comes to leading a team, if your team sees or they can sense that you don't care, why would they even care? When you have somebody that would do anything then I truly believe that you can surround yourself with people that would do anything for you.
When they're just seeing you just punch an o'clock, come in, come out, treating like just another nine to five, well then don't be surprised when everyone in the office treats it that way.
Exactly.
It's funny you say that because I get, I still to this day, I get worried when I'm, you know, like, ah man, I need to be the first one in. I'm usually the last one here. That's just, You know, I'm a night hour. My wife and I have schedules where, you know, during the first three days of the week, she's got to go into D.C. So she's like, hey, go in, whatever, as long as you come home early. But those days I need you to do you need to do the dog duty, you know. But I worry like, you know, because it's just something that I don't mind staying late. I'll stay till tomorrow. But, you know, being like the guy coming in like six, seven and then staying till like eight, nine, like, I did that for a while and I've been doing that for like the last six years, but I do still worry about the optics. You know what I mean? I still think about that. I'm like, man, I don't know, you know, are these guys going to see, because it's such a big part, you know, it's such a big part. If you want guys coming early, you got to come in early, at least set the tone, you know, but then it's like, eventually I would hope at some point I can put like somebody in places, perhaps even yourself, where it's like, Or don't worry about what I'm doing, man.
What about that guy's doing?
This guy's running stuff. I just, I'm out. You know what I mean? Like... Yeah.
Well, while optics do exist, I mean, at the end of the day, it's a different position. It's a different, you know, list of responsibilities. So, I mean, you're a business owner, you know, so quite frankly, there's different things that you have to do and take care of that are outside of the scope of what a sales rep or a production manager or a operations manager or AR, you know what I mean? Everyone has their own specific role. Yeah, you're right.
Or in their own specific duty. What did Tony said, Tommy Mello said, in order for the CEO to thrive or be born, the hustler had to die. And so this idea of, oh, I'm just going to outwork. And it's like, bro, that's not your role anymore. You know what I mean? Who are you doing that for? Who are you trying to show that to? I don't know. I thought that was really impactful, man. I don't know. I don't know if I still see I think a lot of the things I think last year I was really riding high I was loving the travel and like I enjoyed a lot a lot of fun They're still stressors. It felt very similar to this but like in reality we ended up up 20 20% up year over year and which was not even close to our goal very similar this year, but you know, even where we're tracking now, you know, uh, we have very high goals and how do you, you know, maintaining faith or maintaining like good attitudes and just that stick to itiveness, even when like things don't go your way in our whole first six months, it's just been like one learning experience after another, but we had super ambitious goals. I mean, it's important to look at that, you know, cause I look back now and I'm like, Man, no one's harder on us than us. We are always the most, it's just a fact, you know, like no one had a gun to my head and like, Hey, if this doesn't happen, by the way, you fail, you lose the game or whatever. But I treated it like it was literally like everything hinged on this year, this number. And we can obsess, especially guys like myself in recovery or in, you know, with addiction background, you know what I mean? We can get a little caught up in things like that. And, you know, how do you find yourself? when you have constant, just like, just keep staying positive. I mean, it's so important in this game, especially with reps, especially with leading folks that do door-to-door or canvassing. If you're in the door-to-door industry, canvassing industry, call center industry, already on a day-to-day basis, folks are like getting their butts kicked. So what are some of the things you found that have helped you kind of keep people's spirits up and just kind of keep, I know you're not perfect. I'm not perfect. We fall victim to that, but you know what I mean?
Well, I'm not perfect by any means, you know, I still have faults and I still get down on myself at times, but quite frankly, the majority of the time is what you see is level headed and positive attitude and. Quite frankly, to get to a point like this in my life, I had to go through a lot of negativity, a lot of hurt, a lot of pain, a lot of anger, even. And, you know, you can never have your yin without your yang. And I've just been through so much of the latter. or of the negative side of things. But at the end of the day, man, what really changed for me, if I can dissect my life and look at it under a microscope, and if I can try to figure one point where everything changed for me is when I came back to my faith and started trying to rebuild my spiritual relationship with God. And again, I can't say that I'm perfect. Cause I'm not, cause I still screw up all the time. And I think that's expected because we're human. We're not perfect, but you know, by the grace of God, you know, that's, that's okay. You know, and, and just, there's, there's such an unexplainable peace that you experience when you have that, And, you know, when I first experienced it, it just made me obsess over it and want more of it. And so I've just been diving deeper and getting more intimate with it and just inputting a lot more things into my life that drives me closer to it. So, you know, when I'm dealing with Mr. Personality Sales Guy or if I'm dealing with this stress or that stress or You know, I'm not getting home later and, you know, that's, you know, creating stress at home or, you know, whatever it may be. You know, and at the end of the day, I have, in my opinion, one of the best coping mechanisms for, you know, those types of negative experiences because, you know, Quite frankly, that's, uh, like I said, it's just an unexplainable piece. And sometimes all you gotta do is ask for it. But, uh, if I can go to one thing, uh, specifically, you know, you're, I'm sure you're familiar with the law of attraction and, you know, uh, what is, uh, if you can remain positive, you can only attract more positivity into your life. You know, and I don't know, it's just I've taken these things very seriously and they've been able to reflect into my life in all aspects.
So you found the more you, you sort of doubled down on your relationship with God, focusing on being positive, focusing on things like the law of attraction, the more it's kind of helped keep things in an even keel in an office where otherwise people are losing.
Yeah. At the end of the day, he gets all the glory, but, uh, you know, uh, I don't know, just, just, yeah, all of those, all of those things combined.
I mean, it's interesting because it's very similar to, myself included, if I, um, you know, if I don't invest in myself, if I don't, and for me, that requires me doing things with my recovery, nothing else is going to matter. So I'm losing my mind. You know what I mean? Even recently where I was down in the dumps, like we were talking about what I really think he was seeing was me trying to control everything. We talked about this. I'm going to tell you my sponsor pulled me. I was like, dude, what are you doing? And you're miserable. And I was, and I'm probably God willing, that won't happen, but Knowing me, it's possible, you know, latch back onto something, try to take over the wheel. And it's, it's ironic in that the less I try to control and the more I just focus on like, dude, look, I just want to be the best person I can be help somebody have the best. Okay. I have a business, so I can't ignore that. I can't just like, Oh, whatever. Peace and love, dude. You know, but. I can focus on being the best business I can be for the sake of our people and our customers and just do right by people. You know what I mean? And not just like, we got to do 50 million. You know what I mean? Like that is a by-product of setting goals and doing things the right way. But it makes sense, man. Staying calm, especially in an otherwise chaotic like.
And then just really just trusting that everything's going to be fine and work out. I mean, that's never, and again, like when I'm, when I face adversity, it's not like I'm, you know, indestructible. I still like, Oh man, is this like, Oh gosh, like I've got to deal with this, got to deal with that. Or like, what's going to happen here? What's going to happen there? It's like, no, it's okay. It's all going to work out.
You know? What do you think are the biggest, like got to have the most redeeming qualities of a leader or just musts? Like you, you want to be a leader. You want to run an office. You want to build, you want to lead men. Cause you said that was something that you just like, that's what you feel like is your calling. Like, what do you think? I mean, that's about, you know what I mean? Just like you feel like, I mean, not, not just what do you think that's about, but what do you think is required in order to lead men? And cause people are listening and they want to, I wrote, I made a post about that today. Didn't get a whole lot of love. Speaking of which, We got to get the missus involved. I don't know if he told you, but we, but whatever people don't like hearing stuff. The nature of the post today was about the things I had learned over the last few years, but mostly leading. You know what I mean? People want to learn how to lead people. People don't know that it's like tech and all this other stuff, people in there and they're just people. The ability to work with people is such an art And it's a learned skill, you know, some people just have people skills, right? Like, and they're just apt to like being able to, they're just natural leaders, you know, but it can also be learned. But I mean, like, I don't know, I think it's such a powerful, powerful ability to be able to build and mold people. And it's also super rewarding, but What would you say if you had to put your finger on like, what are the mainstays in order to a be able to do that? Why do you think that's so important to you?
Well, I would say, uh, you know, the subject of leading, leading successfully, especially in a sales setting like this. showing them that you care. Because I'll go back to my days in the car industry, and I worked for one of the larger dealership groups on the East Coast at one of their smaller stores, and yet I still maintain top five of gross sales and units sold on a yearly basis. But one of the main components, one of the key factors, and I was making good money there. I was making like, well, good money, define good money. But one of the reasons I left is I didn't feel appreciated. I didn't feel like my voice was heard. And not that I would complain or whine. If I ever had anything to say, it was usually very relevant and fair in my mind. So showing somebody that you care. And I've already kind of touched on this, but this is, I guess, how intimately I feel about this portion of leadership itself. You know, my guys, they'll call me very consistently throughout the day. I mean, I'll get anywhere from like 50 plus phone calls, texts, emails, whatever it might be, but I always answer right away. Or if I'm on the phone with somebody else and I can't answer, I'll call you right back and I'll call them right back immediately after that. I'll take calls. in the car, on a roof, like anywhere and everywhere. You know what I mean? If you need me, I will be there because I care. But the contingency on that is I am going to care, but I expect you to care too. Don't, you know, just being there, showing that you care. And then just, I don't know. I really feel like that is a main component of it. I'll give you an example of it. One of my guys, Sundays is like church and family days. I found out that he had to do something work-related on Sunday. I'm like, dude, no, stop. Like, there's more to life than just work. So, like, Sundays is, like, our complete shut-off day. Like, they know to not schedule meetings for Sundays. Like, you can if you want to, but, like, why would you work seven days a week? Again, I go back to previous industries, I feel guilted or pressured to work on my days off and like, oh, why aren't you, you know what I mean? Like, why aren't you coming in? There's more to life than just that. Again, it falls under the context and components of, you know, don't worry about something because, quite frankly, if your heart's in the right place, you're doing the right thing, it's going to come to you anyway. The more you worry about results or money or whatever, worry about not having it, not having results, not having money, not having, you know, the further it gets from you. But if you just approach everything, and it's hard to do, but approach everything with You know, just very level head and just confidence that it's going to work out, but, you know, contingent on you putting in, doing the work, everything that you're supposed to, because quite frankly, you can affirm, affirm, affirm, but affirmation without action is only illusion. So if you can do all of those things while still maintaining a level head, not getting too high and definitely not getting too low, but just steady, straight, firm with your heart in the right place, everything just seems to kind of lay down in front of you.
I love it, man. I know you're going to get all the way back to Delaware. I would say, what do you think the, what are you most, what are you most excited about for the rest of this year?
Well, I'm excited about seeing where the year ends out, uh, seeing how much more we grow. Um, cause I, I'll be honest with you. Gotta keep my top, uh, 10 goals for the year as my screensaver. And I have the most successful PCR office by end of 2024. I look forward to achieving that goal by the end of the year. So I look forward to seeing what all of this work, all of the time, all of the effort, the extra hours. I look forward to seeing what all that looks like in a package at the end of the year. I look forward in watching this side of the bridge grow. I look forward in seeing us tap into the Virginia market and growing that team. I look forward to tapping into the Pennsylvania market more. I look forward to a lot of things, but inevitably I look forward mostly to seeing the fruits of my labor, personally speaking. Because, you know, like I said, I prayed for this and I received it. And now I'm going to appreciate it to the extent of I will not accept failure and I will only accept the best. And as long as I can look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day and said, I did absolutely everything I could. That's all I can really ask of myself.
Hell yeah, man. It's actually an awesome story. I prayed for it and then look at where we're at now, man. I love that. And I love that dynamic. And I'm glad you're a part of the team, man. Seriously, it worked out exactly how it was supposed to. I mean, it really did. I'm excited for the future with you, man. We'll have to get you back. We'll have to get you back towards the end of the year and see where you're at. See if you're the most successful or not by the end of the year.
Here he is, number three. I have the most successful PCR office in 2024. It will happen.
I hear that. I love the goals, the affirmations on top. That's why, you know, see, he's got those written in his notes in his phone. I've got them written down in a book at the house. That little corny stuff is, you know, they're common. common things and actions that people that are really serious about kicking ass do.
Big stuff. People don't understand the power that's within their own mind, quite frankly.
Dude, honestly, we can do a whole episode on that because I truly like... your brain is a supercomputer. And I'm just now like re tapping back in because dude, again, I'm human. Okay. Yeah. It's been a, it was a harder job to, by the way, my wife and I were trying to build a family. Like there's been a lot of variables outside of just work, which work is work. So, you know, I don't know, I guess I'm hung up on like the whole sad, whatever the hell he said, saying I was Mopi or something. I'm like, well, you know, I know I haven't been, I went all in on this year in terms of PCR, which I love this company. Trust me. It's just, I think I did things inherently like. I think I shifted from the way I normally am and try to control everything, even as much as to like sell this, sell that, do all this. And it's going to happen right now because I did those things. Now I control them almost, you know what I mean? As opposed to just being like, I normally am like what you said earlier, that's exactly what I normally do. It's abundance. I wouldn't have sold anything. I would've been like, yeah, I just, I always look at, okay, well I got this now and I've always been able to afford it. Like it's never slowed me down. And then if I want something more than that, I just look at, okay, well, what do I need to do to get it? If I can't get it now, what do I need to do to get it? And I'm just gonna, I just, I've done, I've purchased things or prepped for purchasing things just as you said, just to push myself to like, okay, well, it's time to level up. You know what I mean? Like the people are like, that's fucking nuts. That's probably not sound financial advice. And it's probably not, but it's always worked out for me. It's always forced me like to go to the next step. Like, you know, I don't know. Uh, I like yours a little better and that you're like, build it. So what he was suggesting was like, Hey, build the car. And then, you know, in six months it'll be ready and it'll force you to, it's a law of attraction. You'll tell the universe you want it and you'll make it happen. I would just like go buy it, dude. You know what I mean? I couldn't even afford it yet. I'm like, I don't care. I'm going to go buy it now. I'll figure it out. And I did now I've since like stopped doing that extreme and I'll put it more like a vision board or something. Uh, But I just like stopped all that this year. It was just like, there was only one thing that mattered and that was reaching a number goal and exiting. I didn't even think about any of the ones, the whys or anything. It was just that, that one goal. I don't know. Very foreign to how I normally am. So. You know, again, like getting things back to basics and focusing on stuff the way that just being grateful, gratitude, gratitude, for sure.
Gratitude's very essential.
Yeah.
Quite frankly, you can't, you know, appreciate the things you don't have if you don't appreciate the things you already have.
what's, you know, what's God or the universe or, or, you know, the law of attraction or any of those things going to give you, if you're not already appreciating what you have, you know what I mean? So love the way you think, man, I'm looking forward to getting you on by the end of the year, close to the end of the year. We'll see where he's at. We'll get you guys an update. He's half asleep right now because I kept him. I kept him way longer than he was supposed to be here. And I was going to go dry. He's going to, hopefully he doesn't fall asleep. I'm going to fill him up with a five hour before he takes off out of here.
My truck essentially drives itself. Got a couple of little buttons you press and it just does its own thing.
Well, it's a Ford, so I don't know, man. I wouldn't trust that, but you know. All right. All love. We'll see you guys next time. I hope this was helpful guys. And don't forget to like, subscribe, leave a review, do all the things that help people know we exist because you know, people work really hard to make these shows and my content. It'd be great for a couple of people to see it, but we love you very much and we'll see you next time.
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