In episode 83 of The Kitchen Table, Ken Baden interviews Nick Zarachowics, as they reminisce about their journey from working out of Ken's kitchen table to building a successful business in the insurance restoration and roofing industry.
Tune in as they discuss the challenges of 2024, the impact of COVID-19 on their operations, and the importance of adaptability in entrepreneurship.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:06:08] Kitchen table office beginnings.
[00:09:32] Insurance industry challenges.
[00:12:46] Adapting in challenging times.
[00:17:36] Starting a second company.
[00:22:34] Journey from uncertainty to success.
[00:23:13] Business partnership challenges.
[00:26:36] Abandonment during training process.
[00:30:48] Overcoming adversity in business.
[00:36:48] COVID testing drive-through innovation.
[00:39:09] Loyalty and team retention strategies.
[00:43:04] Business ownership and risk assessment.
[00:45:13] Great idea, bad timing.
[00:49:17] Dealing with adversity in business.
[00:53:44] Hiring and leadership challenges.
[00:55:21] Trusting your gut in business.
[00:58:36] Importance of keeping your word.
[01:01:57] Keeping your word as a leader.
[01:06:38] Struggles of 2024 and resilience.
[01:09:03] Breakthrough Through Adversity.
QUOTES
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Ken Baden
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialkenbaden/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/officialkenbaden
Nick Zarachowics
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholas_zarachowicz/
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, guys, welcome back to the kitchen table podcast or business gets done. I'm your host, Ken Baden. And today we have one Nicholas Zarakowicz. Nick Z, because you're not gonna be able to say that ever again. Or spell it. I actually can spell it, but that's because Nick's been with me now for how many years?
Ken Baden
Four and a half, I'd say. Yeah, four and a half, going on five.
Nick Zarachowics
Since this company's inception and since my first company's inception. So Nick has been with me since, so there was Baden Consulting and then another company who shall not be named. And then Potomac, right? Yeah. So Nick's been with me since the very, very, very beginning. And I thought, what more fitting person could I pull on? You know, I like pulling people in from the company every once in a while, because I think that gives us a nice little like, you know, another person's take on kind of what's going on. This is a podcast where I have been branching out and doing more I don't know, just shit that I want to talk about. That's not always business. Uh, like when I had my brother on, but we still tie it in. I do understand that most of my demographic is sales folks, entrepreneurs, uh, CEOs, you know, intellectuals somehow found themselves watching this and were tricked into thinking that that's what I was. I'm just kidding. But uh in all seriousness Nick's got some good insight. So I don't know I wanted to have Nicholas on I literally just dragged him in like Come on, Nick. You're gonna be on the podcast. So pretty much He's really excited about if you can't tell but we've had bread on and now Brett's doing his own thing. We've had Justin on and so really I think Nick were you here before Justin yeet? Oh
Ken Baden
about, I think he came on Saturday. I came on Monday and yeah, he's got me by like two days.
And Yates is my cousin. So, I mean, there was like, you know, there was some familial, like he was one where he's like, I don't, I'm not coming out today.
I'm like, that was that Saturday. That was that Saturday.
I'll be there in two minutes. You know what I mean? I didn't say it as nicely as that, but Well, I remember when I picked Nick up, you had longer hair back then. You were a lot skinnier. You looked like... James Franco. Yeah, pretty much, man. I was going to say you looked like a stoner James Franco.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah. James Franco looks like a stoner. So all I ever think about is James Franco and Pineapple Express. Can you see it? A little bit. He's got weight on him now, back then. I found some pictures of you.
I dressed up like him one Halloween, actually. Yeah? Yeah.
Yeah. That actually makes sense. So he didn't have the, I don't think you had like the beard or whatever. You had like a little goatee or something.
When I was actually in high school, I did have the long, sterner hair, of course, but yeah.
So yeah. Needless to say, my hopes weren't high that he was going to be one that I would retain, but Here he is what almost five years later. So when he was originally hired at that time, so it's just, it's cool to talk about and reminisce because in all seriousness, I was thinking back, uh, I did a post on Monday and just 2024 has been an ass kick of a year. I keep talking about it and it annoys the shit out of me to keep talking about it. But frankly, if you're listening to this and you're anywhere in you know, the DMV area, especially if you are in our industry, you know, exactly what I'm talking about. Like, unless you're in Florida now, probably Tallahassee and Tennessee and all the spots that the hurricane just got hit with, uh, Missouri or Texas or Louisiana, somewhere where a major natural disaster hurricane or massive weather event hit, you know, exactly what the F I'm talking about. Yeah. The storms we dream of. Yeah, well, they just don't happen here in this market. Which I suppose is why I was always so pessimistic about doing the insurance restoration deal and roofing. But the reality is, to be fair, insurance carriers were paying for storm damage, real storm damage, that I just would have never considered like storm damage. You know what I mean? I'm like, really? That's all it is? Yeah, it's all it takes, yeah. And since then, in that very short amount of time, only a few years, they've completely like changed the whole scope. Like what was originally like, all right, as long as you have a couple of these, you know, on one slope has become like, all right, well you need like 60% of the roof completely smoked in order for us to consider this. And even then we're going to make sure that you have to like fight. So at any rate, we're not going to dwell on that. Let's talk about specifics because not everyone listening to this show is an insurance restoration or in roofing for that matter, or even in remodeling. I would hope God help you if you are. Um, no, but seriously, man, you know, I think talking about Nick having been here for so long, he's had a firsthand experience and what it is to be a part of a company coming up from absolutely nothing.
Literally. We started off and our office was literally your kitchen table, ironic enough.
Yeah, the literal kitchen table. I was picking him up. And that's the other thing, picking him up, I was picking everybody up. The office was my apartment, the kitchen table. And it was right around the time, a couple of months before COVID hit. And then it was like, forget an office, you know what I mean? Not that we could have afforded one anyways. But it worked out in some ways because, excuse me, it's worked out in some ways because we were able to use, remember we were able to use the apartment complex as like a conference room and we just like basically, we were the only ones that ever used it. And so we just like perpetually rented it like every Monday for like 10 a.m. All the ladies working there, I got to know all the guys and everything. I mean, It worked out well, man. We got the distributors and stuff that came there. It was fine for what it was. And although now that I look back, you know, I wonder like with the manufacturers and stuff like Genesis is like, Oh, I thought you were full of shit. I rep for a shingle. She was like, yeah, I thought you were fake. Like she showed up one day and it was like, I don't know. I was sick and I'm never sick. And so like she called and I was just like in bed and it was just like, Mr. And I felt so bad, but she was like this dude's full of shit. This is fake apartment complex, right? And then now she's, you know, fastest to achieve their platinum designation. So we've come a long way, but I'd like to focus on a few specifics, but I just wanted to give you guys some, some background into his James Franco past. And now his little mini muscle man present, but in all seriousness, Nick's been a staple of loyalty and growth. He's, he's grown a whole lot. You know, Nick's learned just about just about everything that I could hope he would. And so like having someone like that is so powerful. So I can talk about it from my side of like what it's like to have brought somebody up and knowing that they know the things that I need them to know to pass on to someone else. And then to get his perspective of what it's like to have been a part of building something to where we're at so far. But you know, kind of getting back to like when we first got started and working out of the apartment. Do you remember? Cause this is what I was getting at. And I was talking about a story and my ADHD just took off, but talking about a post I made and the story I was talking about was because I was thinking about 2024 being a kick in the nuts. And the reason I was thinking about it as I talked to, I'm not going to mention him by name, uh, but one of my mentors, And that particular mentor, I was like bitching about the situation with these adjusters and like, possibly even like, you know, we should go to the, Becca's on fire right now. My wife's an attorney and she's like, this is bullshit. Like everything that's going on, it's obvious, such obvious bullshit. The insurance carriers are so obviously, like for instance, all of the laws were adopted across all the states at the same time, which tell you, basically one thing, which is, you know, the lobbyists all got together and just were like, Hey, this is what we're doing. And just because the States all decide on that shit themselves. So for that all to happen the same time across all the different States, you know what I mean? Clearly people are in people's pockets, but that's not shocking, right? Like these are billion dollar year ends to industries that do whatever the hell they want. Uh, and they certainly, from my Opinion do not give a shit about they're not about helping their carriers You know, I mean like they're about to get ransacked in Florida, but because of that very same thing The rates for insurance is like more than mortgages now in Florida So like you can't even afford to insure your property and you gotta have property insurance. So but I digress I was talking to my mentor about that situation and he was like, dude, I haven't even had time to think about shit like that, right? Like, yes, I want to roast them. Yes, I want to, you know, pursue them and let's all get together and go to the state supreme court and fight back. But he was like, dude, I'm just trying to keep us above water. And they're very, they're arguably the biggest that I know of around here. So that was like, Eye-opening for me like fuck, you know It's not good And we've made moves I mean God the amount of changes we made in just the last year. I think you were here I know you were in and out but like we had Solar bathrooms, you know, we had I had an assistant. I've had multiple assistants, but an office manager at a call center I mean this office was like five times the size. They were still more profitable. But you know, we were jamming and The irony is we nixed those two departments because they were like, oh, they're not, they're not going to be profitable in the timeline that we need. And then to be fair, the current timeline then it, they weren't right. So we nixed everything to focus on insurance, restoration, insurance, roofing, the thing that we wanted to be the best at. And then we were going to add in retail and then focus on, you know, the main thing that we are looking to build, scale and sell. Uh, And it's just been a kick in the nuts all year, all year. But the reason I'm bringing that up really is because that post COVID, remember that fucking COVID test thing we did? So I was talking about like the ability to adapt, the ability, so thank you for keeping up with my ADHD, by the way. If you've got ADHD, maybe you're like, equally like following along. But if you don't, you're like, what the fuck is this guy talking about? Sorry. Can't take medicine. Stone sober. And they just won't let me do it. Yeah. So unless I'm like, if you'll notice most of the time when I'm sitting in here, it's like the end of the day and I'm like trying to keep my eyes open, but at least I can like hold a conversation. And that's like the only time I can like talk slowly. And, but if I've got any kind of caffeine and stuff, I'm like, Nope. I just drank a five hour, so we'll do our best. But see like that technically counts as a deviation from the story and ADHD moment. But so back to the story. Bottom line is 2024 has sucked. My mentors and companies much bigger than our own are really feeling it even more so than I thought. And I wanted to focus on adapting the need to be able to kind of one of the key things behind being an entrepreneur or a business, especially where we're at, is the ability to move and move quick. You know what I mean? I think for any entrepreneur or high level executive, you have to be in a position where you got to just like, sometimes you just have to act like you don't have the luxury of being able to sit and weigh decisions. In fact, the same day that I made that post, I read another post that was, uh, and it was all just all the same day. This other post I read said something to the effect of I win so often because I'm quick to take action by the time Everyone else has analyzed everything. I've failed three times and figured out a better way. The best solution to it, yeah. And I was like, dude, I couldn't agree more, you know? And it just made me think about like, not just 2024, but like 2020. So for instance, when we first started, now this gets me right back to the beginning. When we first started, COVID hit. Yep. And we had no office, no nothing, no capital. In fact, this business was started in combination with another business, the one that shall not be named, uh, where we had put two plus years going into our third year to build that business.
That was going to be retail. And this one was going to be insurance.
That business was full retail. So what I mean by that is like, we didn't touch insurance. We didn't know what to do with insurance. We just built that model the way I knew to build that. And it was successful. I mean, we had built it, it was successful. You know, we had a setter closer model. We had setters go get leads. That's where Nick and all those guys basically set everything. And at the time, in the very beginning, Nick would, Nick, Justin, and then one other guy would go set a couple of leads. I'd go sell them. I'd go pick Nick up. Sometimes it'd just be me and Nick. I'd pick him up. I'd drop him off. I'd go run a lead, sell it, don't sell it. He'd be up the street or in a couple of neighborhoods up the street. Pick him up. we would make it work, man. Like whatever it did. So one, whatever the fuck it takes, what it is right now looks podcast, the business, even though in a room in a, in a, in a, excuse me, in an office that we rent and we want to own, uh, that's all I can focus on is like, well, we're not in the building that we want. You know, our goal was to have owned, to have owned a building by In reality, we should be freaking thankful that we have an office and that we went from no office, an apartment, to a very small office, to a bigger office, to even thinking about owning an office. And frankly, given the circumstances this year, the ability to pull back, cut some payroll, and find ourselves where we're like, we better be up by the end of the year. Our goals, we gotta be up by the end of the year. And like, be up and be profitable. Not everybody even has that choice. much bigger businesses find themselves in a position where they're like, dude, we're just trying to fucking stay up afloat. You know, we're, we are consistently pulling 75 million. And so our business, our overhead is set up to run a $75 million a year company consistently. And it stays the same, whether we bring in 75 or 45, you know what I mean? And so bills say the same. inflated overhead, like there's a problem. And so I was like, wow, you know, and we made some, some moves recently to react to prep for the winter and to make sure we, you know, focus on profitability and being up at the end of the year. And, you know, just how fortunate we are to be able to do that. But again, it really just made me focus on the action, like the necessity of just as a high level exec or entrepreneur, just taking an asset of action. And so back then when the COVID hit, we didn't know. And like I said, we were just bopping around. I'm dropping him off.
We had our PCR COVID mask. You remember those? Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah.
Yeah, because we had almost a year's experience of, in fact, that September, we had a damn good September. The September before that was the canvas van's best production month. It was like 500, 600. thousand gross from one little van with like four or five guys. Bunch of knuckleheads that were like, none of them had licenses.
None of us. I don't even think, I think Alex was the only one that even did sales before, before that.
A bunch of guys that I met in the freaking rooms of 12 step programs and piece them together one by one, like the Avengers. Uh, and it was exhausting, dude. It really was, it was a mental taxing thing for me because I tried to sponsor and like half the guys And Nick had a lot of success, but I was just way too close, but it was like imperative that, that work. It was more of a point of contention for me because me and my old partner, he was just like, didn't think it could be done. And I'm like, oh, it's going to be done like tomorrow. So I made sure it did, but these guys did all the hard work. And we had a great fall. And then of course, at the end of that year, started a second company in my name. And that second company was really just to explore the insurance market, insurance restoration market. But honestly, man, now that all that stuff and the division between me and my old partner was a big part of that. You know what I mean? Like, otherwise, I mean, even though some of it was him, like, suggesting I get my own license and stuff. I think both of us were like, knowing that there was a good possibility where that could go. A huge point of contention for him was the fact that I was doing insurance and not retail, which I just didn't understand. Like, it doesn't matter. So we started. And I hired this kid to run it. And the kid now owns his own company, smart kid. I had been canvassing this kid for like canvassing. I had been courting this kid for like a year, so to speak, get him over. And then my partner and he start, I don't know, commiserating and scheming. And then like, next thing you know, they're doing insurance stuff for the other company. And We're left kind of holding the bag for the company in my name, and it's me, it's Nick, and one other guy, Brett, who's been on here. And we don't know the first thing about insurance at all. We pretty much trained ourselves. The kid, who I still like and talk to frequently, he didn't know any better, man. He was a kid that was hired and getting pulled in different directions and arguably being manipulated. You know, I'm responsible for, at the time, the other company, because I had built the other company, and I'm the only one. Mind you, the guy that was a partner of mine was a full-time union worker who had never done a freaking anything to do with any of this industry ever. He was just somebody I approached, because he was a good friend of mine, and frankly, I thought he had his license that I needed, and he didn't. But he went and got it. That's neither here nor there. Point is, is... tying this all back together, taking massive action, not, not letting analysis paralysis, like when the moment strikes and just having to just figure it the fuck out. That was one of those moments. This company wouldn't exist if we didn't get past that first initial one, which was we had built this up. It's in my name. It's a, it's a, it's a, a business model I'm unfamiliar with. I didn't know anything about insurance. The kid I hired to run it, albeit however, I don't know what's what I'm looking for. Like however foolish that may or may not have been, the deal was my old partner was going to look after and run my company. I would look after and run his company, so to speak. But again, I had built the other one. He didn't know the first thing about retail. So, and really in doing so instead of him building and running mine, he learns insurance and starts having him do it for his, which I'm supposed to be. You see what I'm saying? So there was some problems there. The bottom line is we recognized pretty early on that we had this 20 jobs or so that we had gotten and they were just weren't being attended to. And the fact is, is this is in my name, you know, however stupid all that arrangement was, this business was in my name. So the reality is, is like, if this goes down, I'm in trouble, right? Like literally I'm attached to this business. So like, clearly you guys don't give a shit by you guys and me and my old partner and this young man, Bottom line is me, Nick, and Brett are like, fuck them. We'll figure it out, you know?
And he and Brett did their research and- Yeah, and at that time, I didn't even, I remember looking at you, we were sitting at the little conference room in your old apartment complex and you're talking about supplements and I'm like, What's a supplement and you looked at me you're like because we didn't get you know, we didn't get trained properly so like and then you were just talking about like, you know looking back on everything and do whatever it takes and like Honestly, like we came a long way like going from all the way from you know canvassing for retail to just getting thrown into insurance to now You know, we just got to look back at how grateful we should be. Now we have, you know, we didn't, we weren't that blessed to have, have all this that we have now that we have, you know, training modules. We have PCR university and the guys that come on, you know, the organization and everything and being able to, to give these guys everything they need based off of, you know, learning and putting it all together ourselves. Like just looking back on it, I mean, we've came, we've came a really long way. Yeah.
That is actually a really good point. And that's only like what, four years away then?
Yeah.
Not even four years this January. So yeah. And I mean, in that time you could look at those things as all right, that didn't work out. That could be a failure, right? Like that original partnership, whatever failure. But like, that's my point. Like fail, fail, fail, win, fail, fail, fail, win. Like, was it a failure? Business is doing fine. Right? Like, you know, okay, I gave up almost three years of my life, but I gained a lot of experience. All the guys came with me anyhow, outside of one idiot that ended up coming with me anyhow. You know what I mean? God rest his soul. And I love the kid, but you know what I mean? Like the guy was his own, he's got the guy's his own worst enemy. Right. So, but that's neither here nor there. What really is important is when the moment counted and it was like, holy shit, My partner doesn't give a shit about me. He's not the guy I thought he was. And if anybody's listening to this and you go through a partnership, first of all, don't ever get into any partnerships ever in business ever. And if you do, you sure as shit better make sure before you do, you have a very clear operating agreement and you don't do anything without that signed completely clear with a what happens if contingency, whatever, needs to all be spelled out like a prenup effectively. Like, no matter how uncomfortable it is, it's only gonna be way worse when inevitably, like- Something happens. Something happens, right? Like, what's the expectation on me? What's the expectation on you? What happens if? But anyhow, you know, going through that, that was like going through a divorce. These guys, I'm trying to keep it together, you know, and still be, you know, a leader for these guys that are like, what the hell's going on, dude? And we don't know what's what with insurance, but I can't let them know too much of that. I mean, they had to know some, of course, but, but ultimately what was, what was, what was I had 20 some odd names on the board, which either this was all going to implode. I mean, that was really what I was looking at. It was just like, dude, this isn't my name. I never thought I could even get a license. That's the whole reason I had a partner. full of fear, never thought they would give it to me because my record or whatever. They finally, I finally get it. It takes me a year to get it. I trust this kid and I trust, of course, my partner. We get all these jobs that I didn't, I didn't get them. This kid and Brett and this other did, you know, these other guys did to start with. And then that's just the start. Then there's taking them all the way through, which I had no idea how to do. Now I'm looking at a board, a whiteboard in my apartment complex of 20 plus names that have been sitting there for over a month. And people are like, what the fuck's going on? And that's when I was like, I have to do something, man. I mean, you can either, you know, I can either let this completely implode by like kidding myself to think that like he or the young man, the young man's name is Sam. I got no problem with Sam. I love Sam to death. Again, he was just being manipulated. But the other guy, my old partner, either just kid myself into thinking that I knew that wasn't going to happen. They didn't give a shit. At least the one guy didn't give a shit. The other kid was just being played. If I left it in their hands, clearly they didn't care because we had 20 plus jobs that were just sitting there. Just sitting there. no action, no nothing, Brett and Nick are complaining to me constantly like, dude, what the fuck's going on?
Like, what are we doing? You know what I mean? What do we do really?
And we just got abandoned halfway through training. You know what I mean? That's literally, we just got left, you know, and this is supposed to be my partner. And it really felt like, kind of wanted to set me up to fail. You know what I mean? Like, dude, all this shit's in my name and you're kind of like, leaving here, me here with a bag of 20 some odd jobs. And it's just like, figure it out, dude. And that's exactly what I did. Exactly what we did. Again, I remember looking at that whiteboard. I was like, dude, fuck it. We got to figure it out. So I called every single one of those clients, every single one. I pretended for lack of a better word, like I worked in the office. I was the project manager and I knew they needed to get some semblance of security. You know what I mean? Because they had only experienced so far, like, dude, what is going on where I can't get a hold of this kid. This kid looks like he's 17 years old and he does. You know what I mean? Like my only experience with this company. And apparently he was going around telling everybody like, Hey, I own the company and all this crazy stuff, but whatever, man, I'm sure there was some misunderstandings there, but either way, they were like, what? Like this kid looks like he's 12 says he's like owns a company or whatever. you know, or maybe he's the president, whatever. Yeah. I did give him a business card that said that. So, I mean, that could be my problem, but I've had a whole lot of business cards. Like, you know what that's called? It's called an Irish promotion. I learned that the long time ago, right? Like, sure. You want a business card that says you're fucking super CEO of the company, but it means absolutely nothing but a business card. Here you go. And only children and kids. will ever be like, yeah, you know, and that was me. Cause I was like, yeah, and I got nothing with it. And I learned that real quick. So at any rate, I called all these clients and I instilled in them what they were missing, which was confidence and security. Because at this point they were like, what is going on? This brand new, I never heard of this company. We had no real, um, we had a website and that's pretty much it. We had no past, we had no really references. We had no, Reviews or anything.
Reviews or anything.
Right. And they're all like ready to bail. So called every single one of those 20. Um, and I did stuff like, Hey, look, I'm going to call you every Tuesday, every Thursday. That's when we call for updates. And I called them every Tuesday and Thursday to instill in them a system and systematic, like, Hey, they're the okay so far, but maybe that was the rep. And as far as the internal components of this company, these guys got their shit together. You know what I mean? And doing that every Tuesday and Thursday, you know, Hey, I'll call you Tuesday at this time. We call every Tuesday and Thursday, regardless of whether we have anything to talk about. Does it matter? I told him I'd call every Tuesday and Thursday. So I called every Tuesday and Thursday and that was enough to instill confidence in them that they were missing, get them reeled back in. And then I go back out there and I start meeting with them and I show up on the jobs and I, You know, I'm making, I'm going above and beyond and lo and behold, man, we ended up getting, I think we got damn near every single one of those. Then I'm like forcibly learning the nuances of like what I can, what I can't do, how to argue, all this stuff. Mario Phoenix's job ends up getting OMP and it gets up being like, you know, he stopped paying on his checks. He's all pissed off. And I'm like, And not at us, but the insurance carrier is just learning, man. Like we just got, quite literally it was sink or swim. And so in those moments of like, I just feel like that's been so much, like this whole time, there's just many moments of like that.
You know what I mean? Yeah. Just different instances throughout the last couple of years. Several instances of sink or swim every fucking time. Yeah.
We swam every time. And that's what I tell people. I'm like, dude, you know what, man? I wouldn't want to be the guy betting against us. You know? I used to say that a lot back when I was with Dickhead and say, betting against me is a bad bet. And now I can say betting against us is a bad bet because a lot of the guys have been here. Alex, yourself, and Justin have been here since then. So anyhow, obviously, that was a happy outcome. We ended up doing every roof in that neighborhood, by the way. So it went from people that were like, what the fuck? What is this company? Is this a scam? Are you even a company? To saving them. to doing every single roof that could be done in that neighborhood, including the two that couldn't get done through insurance, two or three that just got, that's just bought through retail, multiple referrals. And that neighborhood was the catalyst of starting a good, a great year.
Fantastic.
And then, but a couple months in, on top of everything, as if that wasn't enough, We have freaking COVID, dude, COVID, COVID outbreak. So now again, like, it's just, what are you going to do? You know, like, great. What the fuck are we going to do? You know what I mean? Like, can we work? Can we not? I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Got a brand new company. And that's what we did. So my doctor friend was like, look, I want to do some tests. because everybody who was anybody back then was doing tests. You know what I'm saying? There was COVID tests everywhere. Everywhere you went, there was COVID tests. And my doctor buddy was like, look, I met him when I was in rehab. And he's like, Baden, I want you to help me. I want you to consult for me and help me put this together. I'm like, dude, I don't know the first fucking thing about any of this. Like, I don't do that kind of consulting, man. You're the doctor. He's like, yeah, but I don't know. just like how to put all that together. Like I can do the tests. So long story short, we needed income and I needed to keep these guys busy. So I didn't lose these dudes. I just spent a year like fighting to keep and now splitting off from, I knew that was kind of happening. Like it was like towards the beginning of that. So, you know, it was imperative. I kept these guys working. So I was like, screw it, man. Let's go sell some freaking COVID test, dude. Baden Consulting is now in the business of finding locations for COVID testing, I guess, right? And that's what we did. We found, through networking, the guys that worked on my car. That's the thing, man. I was talking about it in training today. Strategic communication, strategic networking, strategic relationships. put that word strategy in front of relationships, communication, right? Um, networking, like, and it's a whole different viewpoint on, oh shit. Yeah, you're right. Like networking is such a powerful tool. Relationships are arguably your most powerful tool and communication is the catalyst to fostering and maintaining and developing and all of the above with those relationships. Like, you just gotta, like, why would you not think about it from a strategic standpoint? So at any rate, like, networking for me has always been, like, such a big thing, but I also can't help but, like, talk to the guy at the fucking gas station for, like, 20 minutes. Like, it's across from me pumping gas. You went to get your five hour. Yeah, exactly. I can't help it. So, but when you use that and turn it into a way to make money, But um, now I'm lost. No, I'm okay. So networking, hold on Mo, Paulo cut and pick back up. So we, uh, we found a gas station through, you know, networking through the guys that worked on my, uh, Corvette and their dad owned a shell. So I go and I see him and I'm like, listen, um, this is a perfect site location for a drive through testing. It's like, what the. What is this guy talking about? You know what I mean? He's Indian. He's like, speaks good enough English, but he's just like, what the fuck are you talking about? Like COVID testing site? I'm like, hold on, hear me out. We'll drive business through your location. Get gas, get supplies, you know, get food and all that. And he's like, all right, all right, all right. How many people you think? So it was a scratch my back, scratch your location situation, didn't charge us. Just make sure you get people inside, you know, push some ICs, whatever. So we definitely made sure we did that, but. Got all the signs, the tents and all that shit, man. And I found those videos Monday of like a show told you it was, I think it was either you or Justin. It was out there in the middle of the freaking highway with a sign like, yeah, we rotated. I remember pointing like this way, COVID testing this way in a bright green, like construction signs, bright green construction shirts, which technically we're still advertising for the company. But, uh, Made it work, man. These guys who were, these guys who a year before I'd picked up guys like Nick, didn't think he was even going to make it. Looks like a stoned out James Franco ended up being my main canvas. right-hand man, really, when it comes to that. All those guys, though, like they ended up, they never had any experience. Nick had only ever done what, flooring?
For your uncle? That's pretty much it. And the construction industry, yeah, that's about it. And he did... Bartending, bar back, yeah.
Which was definitely a good service as soon as you translate, bro. Translate. But all these guys that didn't have any experience doing any of this, they all ended up doing really, really well. They all got their shit together, most of them. And then some of them went back and came back and went back and came back. But that original group is all I think doing really, really well today. Most of them. But they now are fucking nursing assistants and I don't know, marketing signs and shit like the, I don't know. We ended up doing something we had absolutely no business or experience doing because A, we didn't let fear dictate our movements and B, we took massive action. And again, by the time everyone else was analyzing, what are we going to do? How are we going to do it? What are the rules? How are we going to do all these things? We said, okay, well, what can, what do we know we can do? We can definitely do COVID testing, right? So we can definitely take our marketers and apply them to COVID testing if that's possible. And it was, right? Who would have thought about doing COVID testing as a drive-through spot or something? But in a state of emergency, man, you can make things work. So the doctor did all the doctor stuff, got all the tests, got all the things. We had a really nice turnout the first weekend. These guys were handing out clipboards and running lines. Yeah, we got their insurance cards. Nick and them are running out and getting insurance cards and licenses and filling out paperwork and bringing them back. We had a great little system, dude. And I paid these guys every weekend for their stuff. And I didn't make a damn dime.
And at the time that really like helped us, like you said, it was COVID and you know, we weren't able to really work and knock people's doors. Cause that's when it was really serious at the time. And, and you know, he took care of us. So yeah, we weren't allowed to, yeah.
At least that we could know of. Right. So literally our main thing was go knock doors. That's how we made money. And then the result of that knock door was go to someone's home, go in their home and consult on Possibly selling them a roof or whatever the remodeling product was at the time. So like We didn't think we could do any of that and for a while you couldn't at least for a couple weeks So that month was big. Yeah, and like you said man, I mean I would imagine that was Yeah, I could. I probably would have lost that whole team. I mean, could you have survived?
No. And that's, I mean, and that's part of the reason, like, you know, I've stayed with you throughout everything because you always made sure that, you know, We had a position, we were getting paid no matter, you know, from the lows of, you know, having to get split up between the other company and either going this way or this way. We got to choose, like, it was up to us. Like, hey, you either go with him or you come with me. And, you know, I feel like I made the right choice of sticking it out and riding with Kenny. I think at first we were, what, we could only install what? One roof a day, I mean, one roof a week. One or two a week. One or two a week. No more than two a week. No more than two a week, and then we worked our way up, and then we had five, five in a week, and we worked our way all the way four and a half years later to this, so.
Not even, it'd be four years in January. Yeah, yep. And no time flat, because I didn't have the credit or anything. I thought I needed all these things, but was it a pain in the ass? Sure. We could only do two a week, we'd only do this, they'll build your credit up quick and you pay your bills. They being the distributors. But it was, you know, we had, we had to be very careful, but I mean, that just goes to show you from his perspective, man, from like, uh, having someone like being able to find a Nick, a diamond in the rough. And a lot of these guys are like this man, but how to maintain them, how to retain them, how to keep someone like that. And constantly like, you know, is giving that, you receive what you get in terms of loyalty and taking care of your people. And I think that's something like, you know, NLP talks about it, where it's like, is it a hierarchy of needs? That's Laszlo's hierarchy of needs, right? That's a whole different thing. But levels, Yeah. Levels levels training where it's like you're either in level one, two, three, and four tells you about basically like where you're at. Like I'm an entrepreneur, which is like level four or five, or you're like the one right before that, which is like, eh, I'm looking for independence, but I really liked the consistency more. So I value, but I need to be, I need to be heard. I need to be taken care of. Right. Like I need to be, I need to feel like I'm secure or I got to go do that on my own. That's ultimately what drove me out. It was like, I was all about the entrepreneur route. I was fine with that. I was fine with building up a company. I had a good buddy that was willing to help me build up that company, but the owner got in the way and he just fucked it all up. And I was like, well, if the guy at the very top is the biggest and most weak, the weakest link, that's a problem, right? So I was tired of being lied to. I was tired of, and I vowed to that. I was like, I will never do that. You know what I mean? Like, Not having my paycheck on Friday was just so wild to me. You know what I mean? I'd have a lot of things happen and I'd done a lot of shit in my addiction. But like in the professional world, having a job and working the hours and it's just like, oh man. Just not there. Can't pay this week. It was just so bizarre to me. I'm like, oh no, that'll never happen again. You know, that'll, I'll never be a part of something. I watched this man have three different crews of these poor Spanish guys, man, come in and look and they're like, he didn't kill his ass. Three different crews to the tune of probably like 20, 30 grand a piece. You know what I mean? Come in on Friday and just wait and wait and wait. And I knew I knew he wasn't, he didn't have it. You know what I mean? So I knew it was only a matter of time before it was me again. And I should have left before that, but fear will screw you up, man. But fortunately, it was only once or twice before I was like, no, we're not doing this again. You know what I mean? Like, shame, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on you. Right? So the first time my check wasn't there, I was like, no, we ain't doing this. I started putting the affairs in order. to get the license. And that's the other thing though. That's why I didn't get my, because I knew like this fool is going to see my license. He's going to freaking sue me or whatever. I didn't know the rules. I didn't know what I could and couldn't do. And now I do and I would've been fine, but whatever. So I guess the main, uh, the reason I'm talking about this is with everything going on, man, like, you know, it can be easy to panic. It can be easy to like, shit, let's, let's look at this thing. You know what I mean? And sometimes you've got to have the, you know, I'm talking to you, you don't have to have to be a business owner. You can be, you know, somebody who works somewhere and it's like, shit, man, over here, it looks way better. But in times like this, it's like so imperative that you do a quick assessment of like, all right, what's really what, and we're not just, you know, it's not just knee jerk, but once it's all right, cool, this is it. That's it. Boom. Action. You know what I mean? Like we don't, we don't, We get involved in analysis paralysis. We don't overthink. We just, and sometimes it doesn't work. But again, by the time I failed two, three times and figured out a better way, you're still analyzing data. And so like, shit, you know, thank God. But you know what? Here's the other thing. When it's had to work, it's worked. And by all intents and purposes, that COVID testing site location experiment, I failed. I didn't make any money. Did I fail? Because I did that. Retain your employees? Retain my people, you know. And out of that, two or three of them are still here. And one of them's in North Carolina doing great, married, just sent me another rep. The rep didn't work out, but still trying to, would still work for me today. And is like, wants to do business together in Carolina. You know what I mean? Like, because of shit like that, I would believe. You know what I mean, Justin? Definitely.
Oh, now you're talking about it.
And so he's like, and I would imagine it's because of stuff like that. And it's not just that one thing, but they knew I didn't make any money. You know what I mean? And I'm making sure that they got paid. And you know, I just never got, I just never got paid. The doctor didn't get paid either.
Yeah, not only did you pay us, but you had to, you bought all those signs, all the, all the different things that were needed to put that in motion.
It was a situation with the insurance. And so this is timing, dude. Timing was bad. Had we jumped on it earlier, And we didn't, we didn't jump on it. So that's another lesson. Great idea, bad timing. You know what I mean? Like too little, too late. We jumped on it when everybody else had already gone in there and cleaned up and insurance was like, nah, man. Election happened and it was like, yeah, we're not paying anymore. So it is what it is. Yeah, it figures. But- Lesson learned. Lesson learned. But like I said, man, that quote unquote failure got me lifelong folks. And it wasn't just that one thing. made sure those guys could eat, then we could get back out and do our thing. And we made shit, you know, we had guys ready to ride or die. And, uh, and like you said, even when we split, you know, as much as I was pissed at that other guy, I didn't want to involve them in it. I didn't want to, wasn't going to disparage anybody. Just look, this is what it is. You know, this is what we're doing. And it's literally how I handled it.
Yeah. Oh, it was. I know it was. Yeah. Contrary to what I'm sure he would hope. Yeah. Cause at the time we didn't know anything that was going on really. It just was, Hey, we're splitting up. You go here or you come with me. And you know, glad I made that, that decision for sure.
Yeah. On the one, uh, on the one hand, you know, it was, very difficult to navigate and it's still unfortunate because that particular individual is just absolutely miserable. Like cares probably more about what we've got going on or what I got going on and frankly what other people have going on now too because he's made other enemies like than what is going on within his own existence. I wouldn't know personally but like just from unfortunate interactions that I've had to continue to deal with but I don't know man what a miserable existence.
Plus aside from all that like like you said you You've essentially built out our company. You hired us all. Like what? You know what I mean? We barely knew who that person was. We worked for you. You hired us. You picked us out individually. You trained us. You know what I mean? So it was kind of an easy decision. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I think that was a big part of the problem, by the way. I think he felt threatened by that because there was a lot of like that was started at the beginning of the end, by the way, if you guys want to know, cause I've never mentioned who it was and I never will, but the big part of the problem, just so you guys can like, if you guys have partnerships and stuff out there and red flags for me, this guy had a gig where I essentially went and built an entire fucking company where this guy was still a full-time union worker and just picked up the phone. And I'm not, I'm sure there was a lot of phone calls and stuff, but it wasn't that damn much to where you hadn't didn't have to quit your union job, right? So you had the union benefits, union alley rate, making great money doing that. And oh, by the way, in the background, having a seven figure remodeling business built on my back, my skillset, my experience, my hires, my systems, you know what I mean? Like how you could argue anything else is beyond me because you were a union guy that had nothing. You did an elevator union guy that had a full-time gig. But damn, that's a sweet gig, bro. That was a sweet gig you had. But I think he just felt so threatened because he didn't know anyone. Every single person was hired through me. Every single person was hired through me. Then the profits started coming and then it started being like things like Hey man, he sent me like a grand and told me not to tell you. And I'm like, what? For what? No, God. Yeah. Oh my God. He did to everybody but you, I think.
Yeah. He knew you. I think he knew better.
He knew you. I think maybe, no, he did, he did Brett. And Brett told me.
He was one of the last ones, I think, that he tried. I was like, dude. Gave up.
Yeah. In fact, that was one of the last, that was the last straw.
Yeah. One time he did, we were driving by and then we seen his truck and he flashed like, I think like $10,000 at the window and was like, basically like, Hey, come work for me. Yeah. No, dude.
Yeah. Oh, they all called me and told me immediately. So I'm sure he thought that was really cool. But they were like, they all immediately called me. They're like, this fucking guy. You know what I mean? I hate his guts. But at any rate, man, this isn't a show just about that. It's a show about dealing with adversity. But really, when life kicks you in the fucking nuts, when you have no choice but to make it work and take action, we have done it every time. And I think that is so important because every time You get through one of those instances, you get more and more powerful. You know what I mean? And so we started, we had no office, no nothing, didn't know what we were, didn't even know how to do this insurance stuff. But I did know how to do retail. And I would argue retail is a much harder deal. I mean, insurance is much more complex in terms of what's involved. But as far as like getting someone to say yes, I mean, that's easy. The retail deal is traditional sales. And that's a lot harder. you know, you can mess up insurance funds easily. And so at any rate, you know, we, we, we, we tried trudged along and here we find ourselves in the next, by January will be four years and we have four X year one, uh, excuse me, year two, we six decks. Yeah. Six X. And then last year we were up 20 points year over year. which I wasn't saying much, but considering we nixed two departments, I think that was pretty damn good. And then this year, man, we were, that's my whole point is here we are this year and we're fighting our freaking asses off just to be up. We start a new office, which we're like, oh hell yeah. I'm gonna start this new office. And in 90 days, that office is going to yield a return on investment. And by the end of the year, we'll have two producing offices. And we will be more than that, you know, cause I figured Virginia PA would be producing as well. Uh, and it's taken till like two months ago to get Delaware fully, completely established, much less the other two States. So needless to say, I completely underestimated exactly what was involved, how long, how much money, how much effort. But you know what also dude is I misunderstood the amount of people that you can really trust to do these things. How important it is to have people like Nick and groom them and build them. You know, I just learned that lesson. We just learned that lesson. We let all those folks go last fall because we wanted to scale in preparation for this, this, this winter, last winter. And we're like, all right, well, we need some leadership. And we looked around the room and it was just a bunch of kids, man, good kids, but kids. And it's like, and they weren't meeting their number of goals. It's like, all right, man, now it's now or never. And so we let them go and. you know, brought in some outside hires that we thought were leadership. And I had no resumes on any of these guys. I had one, you know, one guy that had met me on Facebook that talked a good game. And then within 60 days ended up being an absolute fucking liability with the emotional maturity of like a seven year old. You know what I mean? Like can definitely present well, but, And I mean, the irony is he brought like six, seven people over, but when someone like that brings six or seven people over, it's like, well, what are the quality of these folks? And again, a group of folks that also present well, but. This guy is a freaking complete and utter head case in liability. This guy's another head case in liability, but hides it a little better. And also closet, I think alcoholic and other mess, you know what I mean? Whatever, dude, just one thing after another. It's just, oh, you know, okay. You got to go, you got to go. That was a huge mistake, right? Like it just taught me because I've done all this content. How many times have you heard me say, You know, we don't do, we don't hire retreads. We don't, we don't hire, you know, we, we build and grow from within.
That's the best way to do it. But yeah, for a million times.
Yeah. And I make fun of folks like my old partner who just, he can't hire, he can't recruit. He's not a leader. If you're not a leader, man, you can't fake it.
Yeah. You're not going to attract that. Building on.
And I mean, even the guys like that I'm talking about now, like a couple of them went off, did their own thing. And it's like, you'll never build anything because you don't have the ability to attract, build and grow. Men, like you just don't. So then your only hope is to steal and recruit from other companies. And if that's your model, dude, you'll never retain anybody. You just won't. It's like cheating, right? It's like dating the girl that you cheated with and then being surprised when she cheats on you. You know what I'm saying? Genuine did a song on that.
Telling me it's different. What the hell is different? How was I to know that you would do it to me?
Y'all are too young for that. Ginuwine was the shit, dude. Nick's younger than me. Ginuwine's from, fun fact, Ginuwine's from Brandywine, Maryland, I believe. And I saw him one time at a little hole-in-the-wall gas station or country store in Brandywine. He's tall. You guys even know what I'm talking about? No. He did.
I don't. I really don't. I heard that song.
Recently, he's been in the news for trying to dance like he used to, but he's like older now. He can't do it. Dang. Yeah. You'll see who I'm talking about when you look it up, but dude, honestly, he used to be the, but anyhow. Um, so yeah, it's like trying to, we don't hire retreads. We hired a bunch of freaking retreads or at least a couple of them. And it didn't work out, man. It was a disaster, right? At least, though, out of that, we got one. So out of 10 folks, we got one that was worth a shit. But that one that was worth a shit hit. And that one that was worth a shit was able to run Delaware. Took six recruiting efforts, six meetings, six interviews just to try to land that guy. And he's still here. He's a big piece. And I say all that to say, like, huge piece. The amount of time, effort, energy, the amount of failures. Six failures right there to get that one win. But that one win, runs Delaware, arguably better than Maryland, right? And now he's being brought in to integrate. And I'm not saying like, it's just Maryland by looking over and diverting my attention or our attention to Delaware. Inevitably there were oversights in Maryland, especially when we hired folks that were outside hires to run Maryland and they just didn't do a good job. You know, we go back four months later, You know, two of the guys are working for another company, but the reality is, is like, these guys were all written up in the first quarter of the year for like complete and utter lack of production before we ever switched to W2. So they can't use that in his excuse. They were just on some bum shit period. Uh, my problem is I kept them till the second quarter and then in, in, in some one instance, even longer, you know what I mean? And so if there's any lessons to be learned and any entrepreneurs out there listening to this one, you're thinking of firing someone and you have all the numbers in your face for all the reasons in your face, you're probably three months too late. I should have done it three to six months before. That's one. Two, if you know in your gut and eventually you learn through experiences to trust your gut, especially when it comes to taking massive action, like see an opportunity and you jump on it. Can I afford to be wrong on that opportunity? Yes. Okay. Take it. Take it. I didn't go bankrupt by trying that other, you know, the COVID testing and it made sure my guys ate, you know, showed them that I wanted to make sure I put them first and they would eat first, literally. And yeah, I mean, it got me a great team and a lot of them are still here today. What about you? What do you, what is your overall thought process on kind of having watched and been a part of Everything from where it was to where it is now and knowing where we're going because that's the cool thing is like Right now we're fighting our ass off to be up by the end of the year But still we know we can do we know what we will do we know by the end of the year will be in two more states One thing I will say that I respect and I appreciate from Nick is Nick backs me up in terms of like I can say this that or whatever But I know if someone's new they're like, yeah, right, but it seems it really helps to have guys that once you leave the room, it's like, look, dude, I've been with this guy for four years now across three companies. And if he says he's going to do it, he's going to do it. Yeah.
I've had, I mean, I've had to, I've had to say that a few different times. You know what I mean? It's not, it's not always in the timing, you know, that you're going to say, cause you can't just like the Delaware office, like it wasn't in the exact time that you said, but when you say you're going to do something, I think that's so important when you say you're going to do something to do it, whether it's in the right timing or not. And then some guys, they come on. And if Kenny says something, like you said, when he leaves the room, I might have to jump in and just say, you know, I've been with him for this long, you know. When he says he's going to do something, he's going to do it. Whether, if he says he's going to get an office running in Virginia, he's going to do it. It might not have been this year, but it's damn well going to be next year. Just like in Delaware, you know, you said you were going to start an office in Delaware.
To be clear, I'm not going to get an office. I'm going to get people in Virginia.
Yeah, people in Virginia.
That's not the plan anymore. I will get somebody in Virginia. I do have to take the test. But no, I will. I will. And I mean, like the priorities, I definitely have been bojangling on that. But to be fair, that test is a motherfucker, man. And I don't have anybody, like, I've just been like, dude, it's 11, it is 11 open books for someone like me, ADHD to the max, dude, it's 11 open books. I don't mind studying and taking the test. 11 open books, two minutes per question, but you got to go through 11 books to find the answers. And I had to pay for this class and the class is great because it really is like, all right, here's your main book, but it's just fucking painful. So, but now I got a kid finally that's worth a shit. That's in Virginia. That's counting on me. So I will get it done. Now I will get it done because I have to get it done. Exactly. And I thought I was done. Honestly, I thought I was done. And then we applied and they're like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. You got one more test, pal. So like, to be fair, we've hit some ringer on that. Virginia is an absolute bitch when it comes to that, but PA we're in, um, got a race for one rep in there. So technically speaking, we have one rep in PA. We've got another one coming down from PA on Monday. Technically could have our two reps in PA and be that's as much as we're do we're not you know The offices aren't Delaware was an amazing lesson this year like huge expense And it's not just the office. It's all the things that come with it. You know, I mean, whereas Virginia and PA will get a couple reps ideally through those couple reps or even in Maryland we get a team lead the team leads go out there and then You know, they're kind of like the Marines, man. They go out first, and they get it going. But we will. By the end of the year, we will be, at the very least, on a point of principle. We'll have a couple reps selling completely legitly in Virginia and PA. Really, the last one is Virginia. But honestly, we really need to get ourselves in a store market. Retail, all those things, man. I mean, like, but it does really help to have been a, if one thing, I think I've hopefully done right is like, if I give my word on something, it's just always been so important because that I keep it. I know I'm terrible at like, I'll throw a bonus thing out there, like cash one. But if I know I did it and I know I mean me enough to know that I like, I forgot. And someone like Nick's like, yo, you said it. And I'm like, well, did I do it? You know what I mean? So other than that though, I've been really, really, it's imperative as a leader And when you're trying to build something and you give your word that you have got to be like, I've got to keep that. Cause the second you break it, you lose people lose everybody. You know what I mean? I mean, how important would you say that is?
I think it's one of the most important things, especially I'm the, I'm not a business owner, but I know on the other side of it, like if. you know, throughout the last couple of years, if there was one thing that you said, like a big thing and you didn't keep your word on it, I knew that would have made me doubt you. And that's why I think that I've stayed for so long and I've always, you know, stayed with PCR because when you said you're going to do something, you did it. And if you, to be on the opposite end of that and not keep your word, I think that would definitely, like you said, it would, you know, push people away. And eventually maybe not that first time, but the second time you don't keep your word, people are going to leave. So it's very important.
especially when you're trying to build and sell people in a dream, like we're going to do all these things. And then two years go by and say, we haven't done any of those things. We can honestly say we've done all of them. You know what I mean? Outside of like, you know, definitely this year, the thing was, Oh, we're going to have all, like we got Delaware completely. Like that was just way more of an undertaking than we thought. But technically speaking, by the end of the year, we will technically be in all four of those States. It was a fucking mass undertaking, mass undertaking. I completely, underestimated what was involved in that. I mean, completely, which don't we always, but man, I mean, but from just a standpoint of keeping my word, we will be in Virginia. As God is my witness, we will be in Virginia. Again, I just don't point a principle. We'll be licensed and have a couple of people in Virginia. We'll be in PA and we'll be poised to really go out and crush it next year here locally. But we're also getting retail going again. But because of that, it's important that you watch what you say and you know you can deliver on that. You know what I mean? As visionaries and leaders and just the kind of characteristics we have. We tend to throw a whole shit ton of ideas. I mean, that's literally, if you look at the EOS model, it's like visionary. 26 new ideas a day, of which two might be worth a shit. And that's where the integrator role is so important to take and figure out like what two are good, right? But Nick compliments me very well in terms of like, he's a lot more detail oriented and so on, as is Justin. And so having a guy like Nick to be able to rely on and having him been with me from the beginning, I don't have to sell him all the time. I mean, I know.
Knowing how you think, knowing how you like people to be trained, different stuff like that thing helps too.
I know too, like, I feel like anyhow, if I say like, look, man, we're going to do, we're going to go do this, you know, it helps me to sell other people on the vision. When you have people who've been here from the get go to be like, yeah, man, you know, that's, he's done everything else he said he was going to do, you know, and there's guys that have come and gone and, and, but I can say this factually, I don't care. God love them, I do, all of them. But we've never lost one person ever that we were like, actually there's one person that comes to mind. We have never lost one person that we were like, man, we can't have that guy go. You know what I mean? Not one. I mean, reps coming, go dude, please. You know what I mean? That might've done good at one point and they think they're like something special and they go somewhere and it's like, dude, you were about to be fired. I guess you don't know that, but like you got written up and like we were just waiting for you to leave, you know, cause it was easier that way. Or frankly, because I was trying to be nice and let you finish out your jobs. But you know how reps are, man. I mean, they think they're like, they get to think and there's something and they think there's something, but. We've never actually lost like one person that we were like, we can't lose that guy. Brian Castillo is one exception that comes to mind. I say his name because love the hell of the kid, he and his brother, but you know, they had real estate dreams and tried to make it work. And you know, I don't want to stand in the way of the kid's genes, but outside of him, not one, not one. So in the last four years, so If you're getting your ass kicked in 2024, I guess I would say, keep your eyes open. No, I'd say two things. One, I was talking to a peer of mine and I was like, yo, I want to start doing a couple more things like consulting and some stuff with the coaching and, you know, even like pursuing that more like organically on my own. And maybe I'll do like a, thing here and maybe I will do that if I really think I have the time but I've devoted my full time this year to everything PCR and I was thinking maybe I'll I'll switch that back up like I used to because things were better when I when I was focusing on like everything which is a it's just doesn't make any sense I mean but I convinced myself real quick like oh well I was better last year when I was traveling once a month and I was I had a consulting client, plus I was doing coaching, plus, plus, plus. It's just like, it just doesn't make sense. Reality is, is 2024 has just been a hard year, man. And I can't imagine doing any better, having less time and ability to do it. You know what I mean? And I'm not the only one. I mean, dude, anybody that I talk to is like, like I said, we're over here bitching about like working our butts off to make sure we're up at the end of the year. There are much bigger companies that are just trying to stay afloat. So like, thank you God for that, for sure. If that's you and whatever you do, you're struggling this year because everybody is, man. It's a fucking election year. Everything out there right now is negative. Everything's really fucking expensive. Everything's overpriced. You know, they're putting fucking poison in the food. Everything's just fucked up right now.
You know what I mean?
There's like no good news ever. And it's just like, Great. You know what I mean? And everybody's just like waiting on the fate of the world to hang in the balance on a little, you know, on a freaking cliff's edge. That's like teetering off a brink of World War III, you know, things like that. Little things like that. Complete and utter impossible financial collapse. Just all these things that get thrown out there like, all right, sweet. So if you're stressed and if you're worried about that stuff, I'd say, fuck it, because if it really does come down to that, we're all going to have to deal with it, right? And then faith is just something I've been really tapping back into. Like, dude, I was so much stronger. And I was like, you know what, dude, no matter what, we've been through so much worse. We've done whatever we had to. We've never not gotten out of it. We're always been resourceful. We've always made it work. Even if we got to do COVID testing, it doesn't matter. Whatever we got to do, we will do whatever it takes to make it work. And we've proven that over and over again. So that's what we'll do. But we're going to finish up. We're going to finish up, right? Because that's what we do. And we're going to be ready to kick ass. But my point with what I was just getting at is my peer who was like listening to me drone on about like, I think I'm going to start doing like everything again, consulting and this and this and this. And because I was just more effective that way. It was like, or, or hear me out. Or what if on the other side of all this adversity and dumb shit and bullshit is like, you're just like just waiting on your breakthrough. Like if you just dig in and focus on the main thing a little bit longer, like, and you don't give up just before the miracle happens, just before the breakthrough, just before all this bullshit gets wrapped up and you're poised with four offices or whatever, ready to fucking kick ass. You got some retail going and you're investing into an insurance, an actual insurance store and market. What if you're ready to like blow up, you know, you got two years left in your plan. What if, you know, and I'm like, son of a bitch, dude. You know what I mean? Son of a bitch.
As soon as you said it, I was like. Reeled you back in and you're like, yep.
Yeah. Well, you know, entrepreneurs, we get shiny object syndrome and we're, you know, we're reactive, but anyhow, if that sounds like you, what if on the other side, or, or what if you dig in, you tighten up, you push through, and you see what you got going on through and on the other side of that, just don't, you're just, you're, you're this close to breaking through. You know what I mean? Like a lot of people give up and they didn't even know they had like this, this much left rock to chip through before they got to the goal. You know what I mean? And it's like a mountain of fucking gold. But if they just, they just gave up and if they had a couple more swings in them, they'd hit pay dirt, you know? And I was like, Fair enough. Fair enough. You know, so that's what we'll focus on. We'll keep doing that. Keep getting Nick, Nick's now, you know, head trainer and helping me in management and stuff here. And, you know, titles and arbitrary this and that the bottom line is his right hand of mine that will continue to be that. And we'll just continue to jump into different roles and bigger roles and bigger roles and bigger roles, because we'll continue to elevate and elevate and elevate. It's really fun to see you grow, man, and see you become the man that you are. And really just, you know, Nick comes from a similar background of my own, you know, and he hasn't always been perfect. Thank God he's still here. We've lost some folks, but to see you go and come back and keep fighting and to be where you're at now is awesome. I mean, I'm really proud of you. Keep doing your thing, man. And thank you for coming on, even though most of it was me droning on and on and on. It ended up being a super long fucking episode.
I was about to say, it's good to do.
Really? What? All right. Well, that's it. Maybe we'll break it into two episodes, but love you guys. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Thank you for coming on, Nick. And we'll see you guys next time.
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