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Home Revisions
134 Plays10 months ago
In this episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, hosts Phillip Ramsey and Arron Cramer delve into the extraordinary journey of entrepreneur Nick Darland, the founder of the construction company HomeRevisions, LLC. The episode is a treasure trove of insights into how Nick confronted his adversities, starting a business at a young age, experiencing failure, and rising again with renewed vigor to create a venture that is a testament to quality craftsmanship and dedication.
Nick's spellbinding narrative encompasses the inception of his business, the trials faced during its nascent stages, including dealing with debt and personal life challenges. The conversation also touches upon the significance of having strong support systems such as his wife Taylor, who played an instrumental role in Home Revisions' success. Furthermore, Nick shares transformative experiences related to his faith and how it has impacted both his personal and professional life.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast where I'm your host, Phillip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. Thanks for tuning in. As you know, we like to empower other people to step into what they're passionate about. Do what they love to do. Yes. And every day you get to wake up and get challenged and you get to get...
00:00:43
Speaker
Yeah, all of the fields. Take your uncommon path. Yes, so take your uncommon path. That's what two advisors we are excited about. That's what our company is about. That's why we're called Uncommon Wealth Partners.
Nick Darland's Journey
00:00:53
Speaker
And today we have Nick Darland with us, a fellow uncommoner, business owner, and awesome entrepreneur himself. Thank you for being here, Nick. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. So first off, tell us about your company, Home Revisions.
00:01:12
Speaker
where you are at currently. That's what I want the listeners to hear. I don't feel like I do a good job because you and I talked before this and I know a little bit, but we had a lot of done rap here. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about home revisions. Uh, home revisions is a, uh, construction company. We're based out of Ankeny. Uh, you know, we emphasize on historical custom craftsmanship, uh, really the nitty gritty of woodworking and bringing
00:01:38
Speaker
What was once a normal prominent solution for people 150 years ago, we want to bring that back to life. We do do custom homes. We built a custom lake house in Missouri and then we do kind of higher end custom remodels. We're really your Rolls Royce package of a company if you're looking for a service. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that. I like that.
00:02:05
Speaker
something that I feel like we've kind of lost as a culture is like good quality stuff. Yeah. And you think about that when you go to get a new appliance and they're like, well, that'll probably last five years. And you're like, like, yeah, how much is this? Like, and you're just going to last five years. Like, that's a problem. So I think what you're doing is super needed. Tell us about how you got into this. Yeah. So hold on. We got back up. Oh, Aaron Kramer. I know. So when I first heard about this, I'm like, this is so exciting. I got goosebumps because we're sitting in his living room and he's telling me about it. The first, um,
00:02:35
Speaker
Um, when did you first get this idea that you wanted to be a business owner?
Early Failures and Lessons Learned
00:02:40
Speaker
Uh, so it happened when I was younger. I tried to start a company, uh, construction and it was just the worst experience of my life. Um, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know what an LLC was. I didn't know what insurance was. How old were you? Nick, how old are you now? You're not that old. I'm 28. Yeah. Okay.
00:03:03
Speaker
At that time I was maybe 21. I had a 03 Honda Civic that just had a trunk full of tools and it ended miserably. My six months into it and I'm like, I don't know how to sell jobs. I don't know how to network. I was audited by the IRS because I didn't understand taxes. Why now? Yeah, and so I'm like, well, maybe not right now, but down the road I'll give it another shot. Wow.
00:03:33
Speaker
Okay. I now are on this talk track. I feel like this is way different than what I wanted to talk about, but oh, my bad. That's okay. I'm excited. That's okay. That's good. So how do you feel like you got that entrepreneurial spirit? Like is your parents entrepreneurial? You just, how did that happen?
00:03:48
Speaker
How do I instill that in my kids? That's basically my question. You know, to be completely honest with you, without going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, I think it was just different scenarios in my life that I decided to step through. I created the person who I am today and I became that person of rather than sulking in my own chaos, I want to go out and I want to make something great.
00:04:17
Speaker
And so that's, that's really how home origins was born. Um, through failure, through failure. Yeah. Phoenix. Yeah. I said from the ashes. Yeah. Okay. Now, like we are like, let the listeners know, like, wait, so you failed once. Yeah. Let's talk about the second try.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah. The second try was, uh, it was more of me being stuck in my own chaos. Uh, I was really letting the, the fear of failure from the first time, uh, enable my decision-making skills. 21 years old first. Okay. All right. I got a question before that. Well, I want to hear that it's important, but like, what did you do after you failed the first time?
00:04:55
Speaker
Uh, I was consumed by chaos. I, my whole life was unraveled. It, uh, it was really, I look back on it and I laugh because in the moment I'm like, not laughing at war. I
00:05:13
Speaker
I was homeless. What? It was bad. It was really bad. No job. You didn't have any job. No. No, I went back to a construction company. Pretty much all I've ever done was construction, but I had consumed so much debt. Yeah. I mean, I got to know collection agencies very well to the point where I thought about
00:05:37
Speaker
applying at one because every time they call me I would live there they're saying hi this is so and so no I'm calling on a line this is attempt to collect the debt and I'm like you know we've talked like five times can you just get to the part of the money that I owe you and we can come up with a payment plan right right and so so 21 you just start going into debt because you're going to start a business.
00:06:03
Speaker
Or what happens it's a lot deeper than that. Yeah, you know for the purposes of the podcast We'll we'll leave it at that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, but it's it's it's much deeper than that. You know, I I actually left home at 17 I grew up in a very broken home and my senior year I slept on some
00:06:27
Speaker
by the grace of God, some family. I slept on their couch and I deemed myself homeless. No. Yeah. Where'd you go to school? Where'd you go? Growing up, I went to a small school called Twin Cedars outside of Bussey, Iowa. What? No idea. Usually, I haven't heard of it. And at 17, when I chose to leave home, I ended up at Grinnell. So I tell everybody that I'm from Grinnell. Really, I'm from south of 92. OK.
00:06:56
Speaker
the sticks, but, uh, you know, Grinnell is my encompassing. That's the people that to this day I still talk to. That's right. That's my friend group, you know? Wow. So Nick, this is fascinating. Okay. So like, we don't have enough time in 45 minutes to unpack all this, but
00:07:14
Speaker
I think it's just interesting to at least hear a backstory because I think a lot of times, you know, we get somebody on the podcast and it's like, Oh yeah. And we could have not got into that, but I think it's a part of who you are. You've, you know, I own my own chaos. That's right. And so my power and chaos.
00:07:30
Speaker
That's good. I'm glad I kind of dove into that. So 21 started business, didn't know what you're doing, but you had the Honda Civic and some tools. Let's rock. Yeah, it was a five speed. Okay. All right. Says a lot. All right. And then, and then that went away. That didn't go well. And then you were just living off of credit cards and debt until you're 23. Okay. Now we're there. Sorry. And so that's good. I'm
Turning Point at Pella Corp
00:07:53
Speaker
glad you didn't pack that. I just learned a bunch more.
00:07:55
Speaker
So yeah, I was working for a small construction company out of Waukee and the owner. He's no longer with us, but his name is Mike, and he would become a very good friend of mine. He actually fired me in the best way possible. He knew what I was going through. He saw my struggle. And unfortunately, with the size of his company,
00:08:21
Speaker
He just couldn't pay me enough money to ever get out, right? And I'll never forget it. We were working downtown off the South side gutting out a home and he walks in and he goes, Nick, I need to talk to you. So I take my tool belt off and we go outside and he's sitting on his tailgate and he asked me to sit down and he goes,
00:08:49
Speaker
I'm never going to be able to pay you what you're worth. It's not the size of my company. I'm sorry. And he hands me a Pella Corp flyer. Yeah. And he says- What's a Pella Corp flyer? Pella Corporation. Pella Windows? Oh, okay. He hands me a Pella Corporation, Pella Windows and Doors flyer that says that they're hiring.
00:09:12
Speaker
He says, I know it's not what you want, but sometimes you have to make hard decisions to get to a better spot.
00:09:20
Speaker
So this is your two week notice. I'm firing you. Uh, whether you apply or not is up to you, but at least I gave you an option. Yeah. Right. And so I care enough about you to like really give you one, two weeks. And then another just be like, Hey, I've thought about this and this is maybe a good fat path. And, uh, and so I, uh, I applied and, and, and, uh, I was hired, uh, learned immediately that the factory life is not the life for me. Yeah.
00:09:47
Speaker
It's good to know though. But it did put me into a position for the first time in my life where I'm like legit making money, you know? Right. It's so funny because I talk to kids nowadays that want a job and you can't hire a kid with zero experience for anything less than $20 an hour. That's right. Where, and I can't believe I'm saying this because I know I'm young, but when I was
00:10:08
Speaker
Back in my day, you know, I, we, I made $12 at max 15. Right. Yeah. And that's good money. It's good for somebody who's not, uh, consumed in chaos, but for me, you know, $300 paychecks a week.
00:10:28
Speaker
was in and out. I understood cashflow without understanding cashflow. School of hard knocks. I tell my wife, I'm like, yeah, I graduated at the top of my class. That's right. Okay, so do you let go from Waukee?
00:10:45
Speaker
Right now, the Waukee job, thanks Mike, and then you tried the factory job, that's not for you Nick, and then what age is that, and then is this now when you jump into your second try? Yeah, so I was at Pella for a year and a handful of months, so I would have been
00:11:04
Speaker
21, going on 22 in that timeframe. And, you know, that conversation with Mike, it enveloped a voice in my head of like, take this opportunity, go through the suck and get out debt. Yeah. Right. Pay what, do what you need to do.
00:11:19
Speaker
And I did. I just wrote a book actually.
Personal Life and New Beginnings
00:11:27
Speaker
It's called Power and Chaos. It's inspirational autobiography. I'm working with Palmetto Publishing right now to publish it. It's in the editing phase.
00:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, if anybody ever wants to learn more, that book was an emotional roller coaster for me, but it was just such a release. Yeah, probably therapeutic to unpack it. It was. It very much was.
00:12:00
Speaker
And so, you know, my time at Pella, I worked just the dumbest hours that anybody can ever think of. I worked, uh, uh, three 40 in the afternoon to two 10 in the morning. Um, and I just, any chance of overtime, I took it. The, the factory shut down. No, I'm working and every week. Wow.
00:12:25
Speaker
all of my money would go to debt or, or, or collections collections first. I, I followed a little bit of the Dave Ramsey, you know, snowball effect. And now I am where I am. And I'm like, you know, that advice is great for somebody who doesn't want to step into something larger. That's right. That's right. And so, uh, you know, it was funny cause it is like when you don't have, you don't even know which way's up. It's a good,
00:12:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's something to follow. It's a foundation. You know, and I met this this gentleman while I worked at Pella Corp. His name was Jeff. He unfortunately is no longer with us, you know, and he was.
00:13:07
Speaker
An older guy in almost 50 and he'd spent a life being consumed in his own Scenarios right? Yeah his own his own his own chaos And so we really connected quick Because broken people attract broken people And I one day we were sitting in his car
00:13:31
Speaker
And at this time I couldn't afford anything but to pay bills and pay for food to feed my dog. So I would eat ramen noodles and I would crunch them up and I would put chicken flavoring in them and I wouldn't even warm them up or cook them because our lunch was only 30 minutes.
00:13:54
Speaker
Well, and uh, yeah, yeah, and uh, you know, Jeff, one day we're sitting and I'm eating my ramen and he goes, dude, do you eat anything else? And I was like, why? I can't afford anything right now. You know, and he, he looks at me and he looks out his windshield and he goes,
00:14:13
Speaker
man, you're stronger than I'll ever be because I'd go to Hardee's every night. Wow. That's actually really fascinating his observation. Yeah. That's what I would do it like, well, that's discipline, man. Like, yeah, it was, you know, in the moment it sucked and the moment it was just like, when is it going to end? And now I look back and I'm like, I wouldn't trade it. That's right. I wouldn't, that's right. The grind. Yeah. You know, like I, like I write in my, like I wrote in my book,
00:14:41
Speaker
I wrote about my wife and my daughter and I ended the chapter with, I would go through all of that 10 times over, all over again, if that meant that the outcome was done.
00:14:57
Speaker
My daughter is, I heard her name's Andy and I had absolutely zero say in the first name when we found out that it was going to be a girl. But my wife gave me the ability to give her the second, her, her middle name. And so I, I, I wanted it to be grace. Sure. And the reason why is because she's the grace that God put in my life. Right. She's the, she is the result of everything that I ever endured. Right. Dude, I love that.
00:15:27
Speaker
When my daughter was the same thing, I really got to pick the first name, but I got to pick my daughter's second name. I picked faith, between grace and faith. I knew that immediately. We were sitting in the doctor's office and I'm like, grace. This is why I love you.
00:15:42
Speaker
Okay, so 23 now your second business. Let's go. Yeah. So, you know, I got back to a point of at the time what I would have considered normalcy, you know, collections were dwindling accounts were paid and now on time and
00:16:00
Speaker
You know, I had a, I had a Dodge Dart at the time. It was the first car I ever bought, uh, with on my own utilizing credit. You know, thankfully I got it before everything fell apart. Right. Shit. But, um,
00:16:16
Speaker
I had a 15% interest rate on that thing. What? Yeah, dude. And I'll never forget the first statement that I got. I really figured out quick what's principal and what's capital. Yeah, especially at first. A lot more interest than principal. And I called, my payment was $447 a month.
00:16:37
Speaker
and 320 something of that went towards the interest. And I called them and I'm like, you guys can come get this thing right now. And they're like, Oh, you want to do a voluntary repo? And I'm like, well, I got like 11 collections accounts. What's one more, right? But then I'm like, I don't, then I don't have a car. So wow. Right.
00:17:02
Speaker
Yeah, I really got to like that car too. When I traded it in for my 2020 Silverado, I was like, man, we have so many memories. Yeah. So yeah, we, uh, I ended up, I left Pella because I took a job back in Urbandale at this time. I knew that I wanted to come back to Des Moines.
00:17:24
Speaker
but my first go around in the Metro didn't work very well. So I also understood after talking to Mike that there are things that I need to do to get back to that point. And so an opportunity arose to be a maintenance supervisor at BH management.
00:17:42
Speaker
which is a property management company in the Metro and that opportunity fell on me because when I worked for Mike, we did a lot of apartment turnovers for this company and I got to know money green who is actually to my knowledge. He's still a maintenance supervisor here in.
00:18:01
Speaker
So he calls me and he's like, hey, you know, there's this opportunity and I think you'd be a great fit. Um, and I applied and I got it and it opened the door for me to come back to Des Moines and kind of reestablished myself. Nice. So it was while I was working there that I.
00:18:23
Speaker
was like, okay, well, I'm gonna start another company and I'm gonna do things on the side. And God, I say the name now and it's just so dumb. Cause again, there was no LLC or nothing. I still was learning life, but I call it blue ladder.
00:18:45
Speaker
And you know, I just did little odd jobs here and there and but I was very reserved and I was very You know, hey Nick, you're you're getting out of your own self-induced chaos here like right. Let's just pump the brakes. Yeah, right and So it never went anywhere
00:19:06
Speaker
It was after other events, uh, and then meeting my wife that I decided to start home revisions. And so more chaos, more consumption. Um, but all of it led me to being right here today. And so I'm thankful. Right. Okay. So tell me, how'd you meet your wife? What's your wife's name?
00:19:29
Speaker
My wife's name is Taylor. Yeah, it's funny because I tell everybody that we met when I was in the midst of chaos. I'm a huge on chaos, by the way. And yeah, our first date was at Buzzard Billy's. Yeah, I remember she ordered the chicken strips and I ordered the gumbo and I'm just
00:19:51
Speaker
I'm just deep throating this bowl of gumbo and talking about like, just just inhaling this bowl of gumbo and they all in the midst of bites. I'm like, yeah, I want to do this and I want to travel the world and then blah, blah, blah. And then she looks at me and she goes, um, you know, I just kind of want a nice house in a small town with a white pig offense.
00:20:17
Speaker
Okay. And in that moment, I was like, I could give you that. Huh. And I did. I did. Aaron's been to my house. Yep. Uh, you know, like I write in my book, uh, you know, I couldn't, uh, I couldn't get the wrap around front porch and nor do I want to deal with the fence and the weeds cause I would go insane. But, uh, that's what marriage is. It's compromised, right? So, so how'd you guys meet before your first date?
00:20:41
Speaker
Um, she was going to Iowa state and, uh, well it's in the books. I'll just tell everybody we met on Tinder. Okay. We matched on Tinder. Um, I used to tell everybody that, Oh, we met at Starbucks, you know, but it's so normalized to meet people like Tinder now that I'm just going to own it. That's right. That's right. Welcome to the show. You know, that's cool. Okay. So home revisions, you start it this time. You probably do an LLC. Am I right? Yes.
00:21:06
Speaker
And this time when I start Homer Visions, it's funny because I started Homer Visions when my life was the best it could have possibly been. I ended up leaving BH and I'm working full time now for the military camp dodge.
00:21:24
Speaker
basically to give you guys and the listeners an understanding as my job role was facilities maintenance, working with civilian contractors on government work. I was basically the middle man between Jensen Builders and the military side. It was a great job and not only that, it was active duty.
Entrepreneurial Challenges and Faith
00:21:52
Speaker
23 now and I'm like, I'm making $2,000 every two weeks and seven to 800 of that is tax-free because of BAA since allowance. I'm like, man, I'm never leaving. This is it. Yeah. This is it. I made it. Nick has figured it out. Yeah. Well, I did. Controlled chaos. Yeah.
00:22:12
Speaker
And at this point, I'm just not happy because everything is the same. Everything is mundane and monotonous. You'd think I was crazy because I left a job of $75,000 a year and any time off that I wanted, I could go to the gym because PT is really big and military.
00:22:35
Speaker
to i'm going to start a company and i'm going to completely restart and uh i was a taylor philip but it was actually her idea oh okay yeah yeah it was it was we were at uh you know like i write my book i i explain it you know we were in home depot and and she told me she was like you know i i could see that you're just not engaged like
00:22:58
Speaker
It's not who you are. You're not meant to work for somebody and I see that. And she was like, I want you to start a company and if it's easier for you than when you start it, I'll take care of everything. I'll pay the bills. And she did. The first year I had home revisions, I didn't pay myself a dime. I just had this mentality of I'm gonna pour as much back into the company as I can.
00:23:24
Speaker
And I learned also that it is hard to live on a teacher's salary. Yes, it is. Amen. High five. Yeah. But it can be done. It can be done. Right. It can. And the sacrifice is worth it. Absolutely. That's the huge thing. I just think there's a lot of people who start businesses
00:23:44
Speaker
One, this has been an overarching theme of the show is like how supportive their spouse has been. Yeah. Always. Yeah. Like that's been so first, if you're a listener and you're like, I want to try something and your spouse is not there, just don't dismiss. Try it again. But for the people who do have their spouses support, it's been a huge encouragement because of just sometimes it's the consistency of cashflow. Yeah.
00:24:07
Speaker
But also just think about what if you had to take money out of home revisions that first year, like you would see how a business would fail pretty quick. Yeah, I will. I'll never forget. And I want people to understand that, yes, the support was always there, but keep in mind that the sport will be up and down.
00:24:23
Speaker
Absolutely. There were many times where Taylor was very discouraged and I'll never forget the time. It was maybe six months going into me doing it full time. The one employee that I had was just going back to college so I found myself
00:24:41
Speaker
doing all the jobs by myself, which is fine. Not a big deal. But when you're slow on your job efficiency, you slow down your cashflow and cash is king when it comes to business. That's the greatest advice I think I ever got in the beginning is don't worry about your profits. Your profits will come. Keep your cashflow consistent because if you don't have money to pay your bills, then you're screwed.
00:25:07
Speaker
And there was one point in time where my controller now, he was my contracted accountant. He now works for me. He processed a tax payment and didn't realize that we didn't have any money.
00:25:23
Speaker
And so I remember I got off a ladder and I'm covered in dirt from working on this old Victorian. And I checked my bank account and it's negative $700, which you would think for me. Kind of normal. That's okay. We can figure this out. Yeah. A hundred percent. You know, like I told Taylor and she's like in meltdown mode and she was like, how are you so calm? And I'm like, listen, $700. I've had my bank account negative $1,900 before. So this is a,
00:25:57
Speaker
I had to pay my employee for that week, because he still worked part time, and I had to take money out of Taylor and I's personal account, not only to satisfy the negative account, but then pay the employee. You're already scratching it over on the other side. Yeah, and in that moment, it was a moment of defeat for me, because at the end of the day, I'm fine living in chaos.
00:26:19
Speaker
This is good. Walking apart. Right.
00:26:26
Speaker
but i don't want my trailer to go through that right you know and so i did never again i was like never again this this will never happen again and uh...
00:26:36
Speaker
It's just moments like that where you just gotta keep going. You gotta keep pushing on and stepping up and showing up. Just show up. One next step. Yes. One more day. Chop wood, carry water. That's right. Tell me about your faith in this whole thing. Like from younger, has that been a...
00:26:57
Speaker
Oh yeah. Overarching theme or like how does that step in? I didn't realize the faith until after the chaos, right? Yeah, let's, can we hold up? That's a big, that's a big event. Yeah. Yeah. You know, in my book that I wrote, I really attribute everything to like the grace of God, like the strength that I had. It's funny cause Aaron, you know, Aaron's my financial advisor and
00:27:24
Speaker
Uh, we had a meeting probably six months ago or so and he goes, Hey, do you believe in God? And I'm like, you know, Aaron, uh, I'm at the point of my life where I really don't, uh, much enjoy conversations that just end in speculation, you know, and he's like, you know, and, uh,
00:27:45
Speaker
Which valid honest response, like I get it. Yeah. You know, I'm a very, I'm a critical thinker. I'm a calculated, I'm very big on education. I'm going to Harvard now. So I'm attending Harvard business school. So just to give you a kind of a foundation of like, okay, this is this guy's mentality. He, he wants facts and he wants to an unreasonable doubt, right? Yeah. And you know,
00:28:15
Speaker
Looking back now, I attribute everything to maybe not recognizing it in the moment, but everything was that I've gone through the strength that I had that I didn't realize that I had. I definitely attribute that to God. Yeah, grace. It's like,
00:28:36
Speaker
Like we're on this track, so we just got to finish it quick. So how, how did you come to that conclusion? Cause I love this story. Yeah. So, so I would say that you said after the chaos has happened and then you and Aaron didn't meet until like, like six months ago, if that, right? Like it has about a year ago. Yeah. So that conversation was a year ago, but as the listeners have heard, like you've been in chaos your whole life. Yeah.
00:29:04
Speaker
And then just, so a year ago, you were kind of like, listen, I don't get it. I don't get this faith thing. I can't put two and two together here. And then, all right, here we go.
00:29:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's December 18th. My general manager, we were at a training event for another company that I now own. And he suffered a heart attack out in the middle of the cornfield. He had 100% blockage in his front aorta and
00:29:35
Speaker
He was not to be too morbid here, but he was dead for hit the ground. Yeah. Yeah. It was a hundred percent blockage. Yeah. Not a lot works. I was, I was from me to probably your stairway there just a 10 feet away. And by the time I got to him, he lives on his side and just staring out into the field. Oh my. If you've ever been involved in a scenario
00:29:58
Speaker
I hope that you haven't, but if you have, uh, you can tell when somebody's gone immediately just by looking at their eyes, you know, it's just nobody's there. Yeah. And, um, you know, and so I performed CPR on him for 10 minutes.
00:30:15
Speaker
almost until the emergency services got there. And it was an hour and 13 minutes from the time that Nate dropped to the time that he was at the hospital in quality care. So to think about that, that's a long time. Oh, man. We had the American Heart Association come to our office two days ago because they want us to come and speak at their Heart Walk.
00:30:44
Speaker
And, uh, you know, even the Kaylee, the, the lady that came and met with us, she was like, wow, an hour and 13 minutes is a long time. Let's, cause I'm going to ask the question of the listeners are probably thinking right now. When's the last time you like refreshed on your CPR? Uh, basic training.
00:31:02
Speaker
Okay, so how long ago was that before you ended up 12 years ago? Okay. Yep. I feel the same way. So I don't want to say that because you know, a lot of times you're like, you get in this moment and you're like, I wouldn't know what to do here. But like there is something that kicks in. Like, well, you got to do something. Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:18
Speaker
You know, when you get into a critical moment like that, there's fight flight or freeze, right? And luckily I've always fought. And so, you know, when, and it wasn't just me, by the way, there were other people there that played a critical role. Matt did CPR first while Reese and AJ and I were on the phone with 911. Reese was doing breaths. Um, AJ was.
00:31:44
Speaker
Compression coordinating the, the, the location and everything. I mean, everybody played a critical role. Wow. You know, it just, that's cool. When Matt was tired because CPR is a violent, oh, it's violent event. Yeah. I mean, it's taxing. Yeah. Like you, you told me that you broke all of this.
00:32:03
Speaker
Yes. And that's all I was focused on is that's the only thing I could remember from my CLS training was if you're breaking the ribs, you're doing it right and you're going about a two inch compression, you're doing it right. Yeah. And so I just would count out loud as I said, there's rib number one and Reese was like, just keep going. And, you know, um,
00:32:23
Speaker
But yeah, he Nate, this week was his first week back and he's, he's doing good. You know what? Okay. So, so hour and 13 minutes, he gets to the hospital and then they, they revive him.
00:32:37
Speaker
So they lost him. So by us doing CPR and then they brought the Lucas device out when he was in the field. It's a CPR machine. Okay. And I told Nate, I was like, dude, if you think I broke your ribs, that thing finished you off. Like that thing was in the back of your spine, bro. Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
And so it was funny because when we got to the hospital, they couldn't, they never discredited that it was a heart attack, but his heart was pumping and they couldn't find a blockage. They did EKG. Shut up. No joke. It took a nuclear heart scan for them to find that he had 100% blockage in his front aorta.
00:33:17
Speaker
And within like 20 minutes, this entire cardiology team is consulting us like, Hey, we have to do an angiogram right now. If we don't, he's not going to make it. Right. And so, you know, I can't explain it the way that they explained it, but basically after the angiogram, they put a stint in and the cardiologist comes in that performed the surgery and he goes,
00:33:43
Speaker
He says my pick line was 14 thousandths of an inch thick which is thinner than a human hair and I couldn't push through it.
00:33:51
Speaker
Holy cow. Yeah. Okay. And, uh, and so the, the angiogram was successful. Nate got a stint. He's up in ICU in the cardiology room, uh, under treatment. Well, then we start getting consulting on brain damage because it was such a long time. Yeah. Cause real quick though, before you get into the brain, it was like, cause you've out set it like they lost them. Like they brought them back in the field and then they lost them again in the helicopter. Oh, good.
00:34:19
Speaker
And so he flatlined twice, technically. And so once all that was done, okay, hey, we're out of the woods on the heart attack, we'll put a stent in, that's gonna last forever. Let's start talking about Nate when he wakes up. Because medically speaking, his brain went a long time without oxygen and it's very, very likely that he will not be the same Nate he was.
00:34:48
Speaker
And, uh, so that was Monday. Everything happened on a Monday. This was Tuesday morning. They, I get a phone call from his brother. Hey, they're going to take Nate off the meds. They're going to wake him up. They're going to see kind of what's going on. And, uh, so we're all there and, uh, they take Nate off the meds. He starts to come to and he wakes up and, uh, his brother hands him a pen and paper.
00:35:14
Speaker
because the doctors wanna see how you're gonna react. Are you angry? They want you to be in kind of a fight mode. Yeah, they wanna push him. Yes. And so when Nate wakes up, he's aggressive, all good signs. He calms down and then they give him a pen and paper and Nate writes, what happened?
00:35:33
Speaker
Wow. And the doctors are in there and they just are floored. They're like, Oh, miracle. And the doctors like, we actually have a video of it. The doctors like, do you know your name? And Nate goes, yeah. He shakes his head and he says, do you know what day it is? And he,
00:35:53
Speaker
And the doctor looks leans into him and he goes, you died twice. Yeah. And, uh, his brother, uh, shows him a picture of the helicopter landing on the helipad. And Nate just writes on the paper. Fuck.
00:36:10
Speaker
Wow, so holy cow. So yeah, he he spent He spent he was out of the hospital that Thursday or Friday. I don't remember exactly Unbelievable he has 32 weeks of cardiac rehab three times a week But he's he's back. He's back cuz this week was his first week back. He's okay So what did that do to your faith? There were I get the best phone call this I love this. Yeah, so I you know
00:36:39
Speaker
Cause you two had the conversation, you're like, listen, I don't, this isn't, I don't really like to have these conversations because it always ends in like, well, you have to have faith. Okay. Yeah, it, uh, you know, I did, I didn't write about Nate in my book, um, for a multitude of reasons, but, um, uh, you know, I, I called Aaron and, and I'm like, you know, I was thinking a lot about our conversation lately, uh, when we were at main street and you asked me if I believed in God.
00:37:06
Speaker
And he was like, yeah. I was like, well, I'll tell you why he exists. I said, I saw God work on December 18th. I said, there are things going on within time and space and outside of time and space that we just cannot comprehend.
00:37:23
Speaker
Unbelievable, gives me goosebumps. Because when Nate was laying in that cornfield dead, I mean, I tell people he just had one tear. When we were doing CPR, just one single tear that came down. Unreal. And the fact that he went so long without oxygen to his brain,
00:37:43
Speaker
and that he's fine. He's functioning at all. He's Nate. He's bitchin' about his ribs every day. Did you have to break all of them? And I'm like, you sure did buddy. I'll do it again. The machine did it mostly. And he's just, it's a miracle. Wow, Nick, that is fascinating how God used that specific thing.
00:38:08
Speaker
Yeah, a hundred percent. And then as I'm writing my book, I tell Aaron like, yeah, God exists. Yay. I started talking about all of my traumas from my early childhood, throughout my childhood, my teenage years, my early adulthood. And I'm like, wow. I played a role in all of that, dude. Like not even knowing it at the time until I wrote my book of like,
00:38:37
Speaker
My work was done through God. My work, it was my decision, but it was God's guidance. And I never realized that until recently. That was the best phone climber guy. Wow. It was very impactful.
00:38:57
Speaker
I just am like shaking my head. I'm super grateful for that. And like just how God revealed himself to you, but also the realization of going back. And there's a lot of times people can live through the chaos and never put two and two together, right? And, but you now know and see it very clear of what and how he's done it. And so, so tell us where, where you're at now. So home revisions, Taylor, Andy, what's the next phase for you? And
00:39:26
Speaker
Yeah, you know I I'm always doing something You know, like I said, I I I enrolled in the Harvard I was accepted in the Harvard Business School. So I'm doing that online Started another company and it's so funny because The thing that I get approached with by everybody is oh god, I
00:39:51
Speaker
Dude, do you think you're doing too much? You know, and I'm like, it's not fair for you to ask me that because it's not too much for me. That's right. It might be for you. Yeah, it might be for you. But like, I'm, I live in my best life. Yeah.
00:40:06
Speaker
strive in coming up with scenarios that are going to demand that I step into a greater version of myself. That's what I choose to do. Yeah. That's where my power is. And if you have a problem with that, then just keep it to yourself because I'm not going to change. Yeah. That's right.
Home Revisions' Growth and Impact
00:40:24
Speaker
Right. So Blake, I want to like our listeners to know because we were talking about your chaos, the Blake, how many employees you have now? Um, at home revisions full time. We have,
00:40:34
Speaker
10, and then as a collective, we have 15. Yeah. We're going on year number four, August will be year four. Wow. I went full time into it, May of 29, no, May of 2020.
00:40:49
Speaker
It really came down to I was doing side jobs. I had the LLC. I had the insurance. And the other thing is Home Revisions is a referral-based company. Other than Facebook, I don't do any marketing.
00:41:05
Speaker
And so, you know, and it's evolved, right? Like in the beginning when it was just me doing office desks and office chairs and hanging pictures, just anything that I could do to create relationships and find work evolved into, can you finish a basement? And then they evolved into
00:41:27
Speaker
Can you redo a kitchen? Can you lay carpet? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I can do that. I'm in. Yeah. Yeah. And then it just evolved from there, from doing the small, what I now consider handyman jobs to building a custom home. And my first home I ever built was in another state.
00:41:50
Speaker
And my wife was like, what are you thinking? And I'm like, if I can build a house in another state, I can definitely do it in Grinnell. Do it anywhere in Iowa. Yeah, that's right. And it was a logistical nightmare. You know, Harvard did a study a couple years ago of there are two types of businesses in the world. There is a business that stays with the status quo with what they know, and they base their cash flow and profitability and workflow off that.
00:42:18
Speaker
is kind of the yes business and then they figure it out as they go. And I'm definitely the yes business and then we're gonna figure it out as we go. Yeah. Not only the yes business, but also like I'm gonna make sure that you're satisfied business. Absolutely. Like even if it's something I've never done before, I'm gonna make sure. Absolutely. It's like that yes business of breaking it down. It's like, I'm here to serve others. If they're asking me to do this,
00:42:41
Speaker
and if you want me to do it, I'm gonna do it, but I'm not just gonna do it, I'm gonna do it well, because I'm serving you. Yeah, you know, one of our company cores is protect and provide. Protect homeowners from unworkmanship like craftsmanship, but then also provide a premium quality service. Yeah. You know, I tell everybody, and you can ask anybody in my company, we don't sell a job, we create a relationship with people. Because that level of trust,
00:43:08
Speaker
Makes it the sales pitch that much easier. Yeah, right. Absolutely. And and the fortunate reality is in my industry anyway is people have pretty much set the bar pretty low. And I learned that's good and bad. Yeah. Like if you just follow up with people show up when you say you're going to show up and be empathetic about their concerns because homeowners don't know. Yeah. That's why they're talking to you.
00:43:33
Speaker
Right. And I've been in companies where a homeowner has an idea and then the project manager or the superintendent at that time is like, uh, you know, it's just the way they approach the response. It's they take it as aggressive and belittling. And so just being empathetic and saying, you know, Hey, I hear your idea. And I'm not saying that it wouldn't work, but from an efficiency standpoint and a cost standpoint, it would be much better if we went this route.
00:44:00
Speaker
you know, it validates the homeowner and it makes them feel warm and fuzzy about what they had, but also doesn't make you look like an asshole. Like you're a know at all. Yeah. Right. It's like, cause with that, like how more visions don't want our listeners know like how you built this in that time from how it's just exploded with your mentality of how you serve others. You've been approached like,
00:44:20
Speaker
You have a TV show on you guys now. Yeah. Yeah. We have a TV show. Uh, you know, it's a quirky, dorky little super low budget, but it's fun. Yeah. Right. I enjoy it. Good. Um, uh, you know, we, uh,
00:44:34
Speaker
from the evolution of the jobs comes the evolution of the cost, right? Like my very first job that I ever did for home revisions was 1300 bucks. Yeah. When I went out full time into it. And you know, I wrote about this in my book, actually, that that first homeowner, it was a garage gable and rake in Colfax, a tree fell over and broke it. And this guy was just,
00:44:59
Speaker
crushed because no company would come help him. And if they did, they wanted like 10 grand because it was just so small and monotonous that it's not worth their time, right? And so when I went out and I was like, you know, I'll take care of it. And when I finished, I'll never forget this day, we still have the tools. He pulls me into the garage and he goes, you know, you are gonna be somebody.
00:45:23
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. I get, Oh man. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. He's like, I, I want you to have this. And he had an, a whole stall of his garage, brand new DeWalt tools. Shut up. Table saw, Cirque saw my, I mean, different clamps, the basic starter package for calling a tractor. And he's like, you're going to be somebody you're going to, I know it. I can see it.
00:45:48
Speaker
I want you to have all this. Wow. That's a good thing. To our latest client, Jenny B, I write about her in my book. She's such an impactful person and her job started as a front porch.
00:46:03
Speaker
Right. It started as, uh, Hey, I want a front porch. Uh, nobody really wants to work on my house, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we can do that. We'll take care of you to a $2 million, uh, entire inside and out historical restoration. Wow. You know, it's, uh, there's no job too small. Yeah, because it always can, it produces relationship, which relationships are priceless. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, it's uncommon.
00:46:33
Speaker
And the unfortunate thing is as we're doing our house, it's big and it's beautiful and it's custom and then back in May, she's diagnosed with ALS. Oh wow. Given less than two years to live. No. No joke. So as a company, if you ever come to our office in our conference room, we have our wall of fame. I'm really big on pictures and memories and we have
00:46:58
Speaker
Jenny B's house, they made the newspaper, so we've got that. And then as a company, we banded together and did the ALS walk with Jennifer. Oh, that's cool. And then back in October, Jennifer has this piano that was a family heirloom.
00:47:14
Speaker
in New York that she always wanted to bring back home, but at the time her house wouldn't be able to support it. I mean, this thing is a monster baby grand piano, beautiful piano. And so as a company, we orchestrated a trip and took her out to New York and we brought her, we brought her piano back, brought her back. That's awesome. It's sitting in our, uh, our front showroom right now. We're waiting for
00:47:43
Speaker
it to be prepped to get moved into the house. That's great. What a cool thing. Yeah. Nick, you're doing great things. Thank you for being on the show. I love just the whole story and how it wove in their faith, but also your wife and the support and then all the other people that have been mentoring you.
00:48:01
Speaker
It's been encouraging to me. I love it. I love this story. I was excited about this, about you getting your story out there to help motivate others. Yeah, it's awesome. This is one of my favorite podcasts. Great job, Nick. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah. You've been listening to Uncomable Podcasts. I've been your host, Philip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. Until next time, go be in common.
00:48:18
Speaker
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