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The Power of Mentorship in Success: Q&A
79 Plays1 month ago
This episode of The Better Contractor Podcast dives into mentorship, leadership, and what it really takes to build a business without losing yourself in the process. Instead of chasing one perfect mentor, They teach how to learn from multiple people in different areas of life. The hosts also touch on employee management, emphasizing that owners must set the culture rather than relying on one key person to carry it. They change the idea of work life balance, reframing it as freedom. Episode 80 wraps up with the future of blue-collar industries, highlighting why they remain one of the most stable and human driven paths despite the rise of AI.
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Transcript
Setting Goals and Mentorship Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
employee evaluations, I would be doing some goal setting with those employees and asking, where do you want to be in a year, five years or whatever, and then see if there is that position within the company and then tell them what it takes to get there and tell them what they're not doing currently to not get there. yeah So that way they're at least aware. And then if you do, that position opens up and they aren't doing it,
00:00:22
Speaker
And they get mad, you tell them, hey, I told you two years ago, you need to work on this in order to do that position. You didn't do it. You didn't do it. Next time. Yeah. But that's direct honesty that I think goes a long way, and you can do it respectfully.
Impact of Mentorship on Personal and Business Growth
00:00:49
Speaker
Welcome back to another edition of the Better Contractor Podcast. I am joined by Alex again. Hello. What's up, guys? How's it going? Hi. Glad to have you back, man. What's new in your life?
00:01:01
Speaker
Not a whole lot. Yeah? Not a whole lot. It's been pretty boring. What you? Well, busy, but not boring. Busy, though. Super, super busy. So I think you got some questions for me today. I do. We're going to do a Q&A. This will be a shorter type podcast that we've done a few times. So if you're on a drive, you can tune in and listen to just a couple questions that will we'll hit Brent with.
00:01:23
Speaker
So first one, um This is actually a question from me because I see the power in mentorship. If you guys don't know, Brent has been a mentor to me for over a year now, year and a half. Almost two, think.
00:01:37
Speaker
Almost two. it's It's awesome and it's impacted my life.
Finding and Emulating Mentors
00:01:41
Speaker
incredibly and I have multiple mentors that have done that so I'm curious on Brent's take so mentorship is powerful on both sides whether you're the mentor the mentee how is having a mentor change the way you run your business you lead your family you walk in your life yeah so that's a good question um In a nutshell, I didn't have a mentor quite like our relationship, where it was someone I met with on a regular basis. And it wasn't structured.
00:02:09
Speaker
um But I did very much have people that I looked up to. And I'm a very like observant person of like behaviors. So like I will see this person seems to have it together in this aspect of life.
00:02:23
Speaker
And I will watch them and see, hey, they do this, this, this, and this extremely well. that is what led to this success here. I'm also a realist too that what I'm seeing in someone maybe this 60 years old or as your age, my age, you know, seeing someone this age and realizing that that is the result of probably a lifetime of pretty decent decisions. So What I have done over the years, and also this is me being a little realist too, is realizing that not necessarily is anyone perfect. So to have just like one mentor that may not be able to fit all of the bills.
00:03:05
Speaker
But so my mindset is find someone who you think is awesome at maybe their faith. someone and who can speak to in your life that way. Find someone who is awesome, maybe in like how they take care of their body, their health, fitness, whatever it is that you're into in that front.
00:03:22
Speaker
that maybe
Mentorship Benefits and Cultural Significance
00:03:23
Speaker
maybe they're 60 years old. I've had a few of those people over the years where just like, man, when I turn 40, want to look like that. When I turn 60, I want to look like that. um there's there's It's funny because we're 20 years apart-ish, and one of mine is 20 years older than me. So when I was your age, he was my age now. I'm like, man, he's an old man. I want to look like that when I get to be that age. yeah um But I think that's important too because as you get older, you have less time.
00:03:52
Speaker
It hurts a little bit more when you go to the gym. um But when you see someone who's at that stage of life, you're able to actually visualize. That's what that looks like with that consistency.
00:04:04
Speaker
So that's what that did for me. Then from the business front, same thing there. what What is driving that person and how did they achieve the level of success they have? So I think finding those different people in those different categories, and maybe you find one that emulates three of the four or all four.
00:04:21
Speaker
ah But maybe you find one that just nails number one of them. yeah And I think you can really dive in. Even if they don't want to meet with you, you can dive in and really observe and see what they're doing and emulate those behaviors that are working. And i you know people talk about that like with competition. The competition, like, hey, if you can find a competitor that's really, really knocking out of park, find what they're doing right, emulate some of those, change it up a little bit and make it you.
00:04:43
Speaker
The same thing works with this kind of stuff, whether mentorship or just observing people. Yeah. And then from the mentee mentor side, being the person doing the mentoring, it's been awesome. And I would encourage anyone my age or, well, you can be younger too, older, ah to do it.
00:04:59
Speaker
Because it's very, very fulfilling. And I think if you're not doing that, I think we should always be giving back. I people, when they say that, are always thinking, oh, I need to give back money or need to give, know, something like that.
00:05:13
Speaker
That's great, but that's easy, especially if you have a lot of it. Mm-hmm. It's not easy to give away your time. Your time is much more difficult, no matter who you are. So I think on that front, if you've become an expert or you've become successful in any of these areas, I think you owe it to people to give that back.
00:05:31
Speaker
So what you've learned, and the nice thing about that is, and I wish I would have had someone more one-on-one, like what we provide, yeah because then you can really get down to like details. Like, hey, I have this specific issue going on in my life.
00:05:46
Speaker
what what can you what would you advise at 40 when you were you know because you do have more life has happened you do have more stuff has happened your life and you do you're you're wiser and how I would do something now is different than probably how I would have done it at 22 23 25 and that is so valuable especially if you have someone willing willing to listen so but you know in certain cultures that is prized and valued more so than like going to college. Now, I'm not saying college by saying this, but I think that's one area where our education system has went wrong.
00:06:21
Speaker
is not placing enough value on that type of relationship, whether that's a craft, you know, like you're in a blue collar trade or whatever, working with someone who who has been there, done that that, that can train you up or, you know, whether it's mentorship, I think that's hugely valuable and it's not prioritized enough in our culture. So, but, and it actually is very fulfilling as
Modern Mentorship through Social Media and Online Coaching
00:06:42
Speaker
well. So. The one-on-one mentorship is so powerful and I got extremely lucky finding you and some of my other mentors.
00:06:49
Speaker
Um, but for some people that's just, it's tough to find. It's tough to find's tough to find people that were are willing to give that. Cause it is time consuming. Exactly. It is. And it's sad that it's tough to find because that means not many people are willing to give their time back. Yeah. Um, but a modern way to do that is what, ah as I've seen is who you follow on social media. You can look up to them. You can be mentored by them air quotes. Yeah. Um, but like,
00:07:16
Speaker
Whenever you're scrolling, you fill your feed with people you want to be like. That's almost like a mentor. It's not one-on-one. not as It's almost what I said where you're observing. yeah Exactly. So it's like a modern way. Yeah, I didn't even think about that until you said it. but yeah i mean And I know I've went through my feed over the years.
00:07:34
Speaker
and like unfollowed, not because I'm mad, yeah just because I don't find value in it anymore. yep And I'm trying to retrain the algorithm to put quality stuff back in my feed. yeah So you know, i'll I'll get rid of some but then when I do find those that are entertaining, but also very educational, or they're really just like teaching, I think those are huge. And I think that's why in the last five, maybe 10, but definitely five years, the whole thing is blown up online of like having these coaches. There's a sort coach for everything now. And I think on that front, I think that's very much why that's blowing up.
00:08:06
Speaker
It's because people are hungry for it. I agree. And. people realize you can make money doing that online. A lot of money. I don't necessarily love aspects of that community right now. And I think it's got a lot of issues that are, honestly, I think are correcting themselves as we speak. Yeah. um But if done right, I think that can also be hugely beneficial. Yeah. And it's a little bit easier to do. Yeah. Because you can do
Leadership and Feedback in Company Culture
00:08:28
Speaker
a group. Yes.
00:08:30
Speaker
I'm with you. So move on to the next question. um Completely switching gears about employees. So say you have a strong manager, leader, foreman, someone in your company that's in a leadership pro leadership position, um but they get a better job. They get a better job offer, and they go and take it.
00:08:51
Speaker
does that affect the company's culture how does that affect the company how does that affect the people under him and then how do you fill that position do you go and hire from within do you that's a good question hire someone else so i heard somebody a long time ago say i think it was actually at a mentor like conference i was at and they they said forget how they quoted it exactly but basically that you need to be the loudest person in the room as the owner of the company Because unless you die, you're there. You're going to be there. You're not going to quit. You may retire one day, but more likely you have a lot of years left to go. yep
00:09:24
Speaker
And you need to be that loudest voice because if you're not, someone else will be that for you. And they may not have the message or direction or values that you want to be your company's culture. So I would say that first.
00:09:35
Speaker
Another thing I would say to that is you should never hopefully have one or two or three employees that are, and I'll use the word mascot, that are the mascot to your company. Mm-hmm. because when they do leave, you're going to have some drama around it and maybe some other people leave or think the company's falling apart because that two or three people left or one person left. yeah um But I think the answer to the first question would be challenging owners or upper management to try to be that person. And that's not natural for everyone to to to want to do that. But I think in today's world, if you are owning a company, if you're running a company or you're fairly high up, or and honestly, if you're in any leadership position,
00:10:15
Speaker
you have to be aware that you're building culture and that culture matters. I think years ago, and maybe when I was even growing up, I don't know that the older generation cared as much about that as they did other stuff. yeah But I will say, I think my generation down, they really do care about the culture. They want to know who they work for, the company's values and stuff like that, more so than ever. so Especially if you're a leader, I think you have to realize that is important and you have to put in that work and time to value that as much as you do other stuff at work.
00:10:44
Speaker
um As far as hiring from within, we try to. um But sometimes we don't because the position that is open, well we we will always look there first.
00:10:58
Speaker
But if there's not someone that fits all the, you know, checks the boxes, then typically we will put it out for for hire. Now, there's a little bit of risk there involved, but also when you do your employee evaluations, I would be doing some goal setting with those employees and asking, where do you want to be in a year, five years or whatever?
00:11:16
Speaker
and then see if there is that position within the company and then tell them what it takes to get there and tell them what they're not doing currently to not get there. yeah So that way they're at least aware. And then if you do, if that position opens up and they aren't doing it,
00:11:31
Speaker
And they get mad, you tell them, hey, I told you two years ago you need to work on this in order to do that position. You didn't do it. You didn't do Next time. Yeah. But that's direct honesty that I think goes a long way, and you can do it respectfully. 100%. Yeah. I think employees respect that honesty. I mean, everybody has a different personality. Some people don't take criticism well. Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker
But I feel like at the end of the day, they're all going to respect if you are to The right person will respect it, as long as you're respectful about it. Exactly. yeah If you're respectful, down to earth, just tell them how it is. yeah I think that helps. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Moving on. um
Redefining Work-Life Balance and Freedom
00:12:10
Speaker
You're an entrepreneur and entrepreneurs, they they don't work normal hours.
00:12:15
Speaker
um So yeah how do you balance your work, family? I know you go to the gym every day. How do you fit all it in? You've got to make time for your family. You have to still get your work done and you still make time to go to the gym.
00:12:29
Speaker
Is there a certain way you balance that or what's your what's your technique with that? I don't love the word balance. Okay. Because- No balance. Well, I'll encourage you to reframe it as freedom.
00:12:43
Speaker
So the reason I don't like the word balance is I think in every part of your life, it and it doesn't necessarily have to do anything with age, it's just where you're at. There are certain things that are going to require a lot more from you for a period of time in order for you to become great.
00:12:59
Speaker
So I think if you, in your 20s, 30s especially, most of us are growing a business at that point or, you know, working up the ladder in our career, whatever it is.
00:13:10
Speaker
I think in that moment, because you don't have, like what I have right now is I have experience and knowledge. Still have a lot more to learn, but I have more of it now than i did in my 20s. In my 20s, I had grit. I had work ethic. Well, I had a little bit of grit. But I had a ton of work ethic and a ton of drive. Still do, but that's all I had to give then. So in in that moment, that is what I needed to do.
00:13:32
Speaker
And that needed to take priority over some other things. But I think in every aspect of life, whether you look at like, hey, I want to be a ballplayer, like NBA, whatever it is, if you want to be great at it, you can't do average. So if the average person works 35 to 40 hours a week, unfortunately, the way this law works, you're probably not go to be great doing average stuff. It's not going to get you there. So that's where I say with balance. Now, with that said, i do think you can make time for all of it. But I do think that balance is a shifting throughout throughout the year even. I can think even over the past year where I've had periods of time where I have been able to shift and say, you know what, I'm going to a lot more family time right now.
00:14:15
Speaker
Or I'm going to do little bit more gym time. or i want to my health the more serious. And it does ebb and flow. But the way I keep up with all of it, though, is every day, and I've done this for years, I do kind of set like this task list, usually night before, or I'll do it first thing when I wake up. And we've talked about in the podcast before, but You can call it non-negotiables. You can call it just must get done. Whatever you want to call it.
00:14:40
Speaker
But I do that in these different areas and it does change every day. but I try to do those things no matter what. And then then I try to get all four of those things in family, faith, fitness, work.
00:14:52
Speaker
I try to get all those in, and then I'll fill in as gaps open up throughout the day, other stuff that was not actually on that list to get other stuff done. But I think, but anyway, so the a lot of people use the word balance, but what I would try to think through it a little bit differently is I would view it as freedom. So what entrepreneurship has done for me is the ability to have freedom. And that's, to me, that is more important and more valuable than even the money that is made.
00:15:18
Speaker
Because that, my biggest fear is not being an entrepreneur and someone telling me someday, you have 10 days of vacation this year. Yeah. I don't want that at all. That sounds is terrible. I don't want another grown man telling me, that this is what you can do.
00:15:33
Speaker
um And that's not for everybody. You know, that ability to have that freedom comes with a whole lot of extra stress and headache. You know, so I've always said that is the positive. The negative nobody talks about is for the most part, especially for you in a blue collar world and you're buying a lot of equipment and stuff like that and you have debt.
00:15:52
Speaker
Nobody talks about, you know, all the debt that you sign or the fact that sometimes places want a personal guarantee, which means your house is now tied to it regardless of whether you're an S Corp or an LLC.
00:16:04
Speaker
That's the stuff people don't talk about enough, but that's actually part of the reality. So you have freedom, but you also are tied. you know like i think a Dave Ramsey talks about how debt like ties you to something. yes You do have that. So you have freedom of choice to go do things and have more ability to do stuff in life, yeah but you're still tied to stuff until you get to a point where maybe you're not you don't have to do the debt anymore. And hopefully you're able to do that some point in your business career. But that's not normally how you start out. So
Striving for Excellence and Delegation in Entrepreneurship
00:16:31
Speaker
um but anyway, so that's what I would say to that. And then I would really do that system of the non-negotiables must in each area and make sure you're knocking those out. And I know, too, like,
00:16:43
Speaker
especially here lately have been busy, so I've gotten up a lot earlier in order to make more time. yeah So there's some days of the week I'll work eight hour days. There's some that I'll work 12, 13. Now is that 12, 13 hours solid sitting in a chair? It's not. I'm not a lie and like I work literally nonstop. I don't. And most people don't.
00:17:03
Speaker
These people that both, I worked 80 hours last week. I don't know very many people that work actual 80 hours. yeah like It sounds good. It looks good in the internet. But I don't know very many people that actually do that nonstop. It's tough to do. Yeah. yeah they're They're taking a breaks. They're getting coffee. They're hitting the gym. They're doing something else. Maybe they started their day at 6 and they ended it at 9. They did other stuff. and that 15 hours yeah so that's a different take on that that i've never really heard that it's not really balanced it's whatever that season of your life and that's what you're putting in the most effort yeah i like that and like i said it's going to change um you're going to have a period depending upon when you have kids if you have kids in your mid-20s upper 20s your family's going to require a little bit more of you for that next 18 years 20 years um and it still might require a lot later you you may have grandkids that
00:17:51
Speaker
you know live in the same town and you're still very active yeah but it will ebb and flow some your faith hopefully that's pretty pretty solid yeah um so um but yeah a lot of it ebbs and flows but i think also you got determine what it is you want to be great at and how much that's worth to you i would never ever ask someone to ever so if you look at it as like four pots you're pulling from every day what i would never want someone and i don't want to sign that person like there's no balance ever What I'm saying as far as balance is I think every day you should be pouring into each pot. yep
00:18:25
Speaker
What I never want someone to do is I have this work pot that I'm putting 100 into, not putting zeros into all the others. Because the fact of the matter is when you're doing zeros here, eventually that that that that comes home to roost. That is going to bite you because you didn't do anything over here, whether that's a divorce, kids that like don't want anything to do with their dad or mom when they get older. yeah Or yeah, you're rich, but now you're fat and unhealthy as can be. Like you're giving up stuff. And so I would encourage you to always try to execute at a high level yeah in all fronts.
00:18:59
Speaker
And that's more, I guess, probably this point I want to make is I would try very hard to just be an overachiever. yeah and know that, you know, to where you can give 100% to all of those or almost 100%. That's not something somebody talks about a lot either.
00:19:16
Speaker
They want to do everything a little. But I think, yeah, it's going to add some more stress, but I think that's a life well lived is one that has where you've went as hard as you can all the time. and Maybe it kills you five years earlier, but the quality of your life is a whole lot better. agree. So it's a little different take, but that's my take on it. i like that. um And back to your freedom point, you said running your own business, you have the freedom to kind of work whenever and do what you want, which I agree with. But I think you're going to have a lot of people a lot of entrepreneurs disagreeing with you because, for example, when I owned my business, I didn't know how to delegate.
00:19:50
Speaker
I didn't know how to delegate. but Yeah. Everyone's story is different. There's doubt. I was 21 years old trying to run this business. I had zero freedom because I to work all the time. Yeah. I didn't know how to delegate. I didn't know how get people to do that. Yeah. So back to that point, you have freedom because you're delegating these employees. You're... Yeah.
00:20:07
Speaker
built this system where you're able to step away and have that freedom. Yeah. And keep in mind, this is 43 year old Brent yeah saying this. Yeah. So when we started the business, I was 24. I definitely worked a lot more hours then. yeah And the reason being, it was me. Well, for the first little bit, it was only me. And then I think by the end of year one, we had three or four employees something like that. And year two, we had 10.
00:20:33
Speaker
um But even when we had 10, I had no office staff. ye It was just still me. yeah um So those years looked a lot different. That goes back to that was the season I was in. yeah Either I put in that time then. Now at that age, my wife was in law school.
00:20:50
Speaker
in a different state. yeah So I didn't have the whole family thing this that was tying me down. So I was able to, think I only usually saw her once every other week on weekends. That's tough. Yeah, so that was tough, but it did allow all that time to be spent.
00:21:04
Speaker
So literally my day back then, i would get to a little office that my brother just let me use for free at around 7 a.m. I would do lunch and dinner with my parents. Mom was very kind. She'd let me maybe dinner and lunch if she she was around. Of course.
00:21:20
Speaker
And then ah usually I would go home and do dinner, go to the gym, then I would come back to the office usually around 7 or 8 and work until between 10 and midnight. And that was like five, six days a week. yeah um I loved it then because I'm not necessarily, especially at that age, I wasn't a super social person.
00:21:38
Speaker
So it didn't really bother me to not have a weekend free. yeah This was more fulfilling to me to chase this idea and this vision. yeah So
Industry Reflection and AI's Impact on Jobs
00:21:45
Speaker
it was very fulfilling to me. So in that moment, though, yeah, I was working those ton of hours. Yeah.
00:21:51
Speaker
So while we're on it, looking back to whenever you were 24, 25, if you were to restart today, if you were 24-year-old Brent looking to start a company, but knowing what you know now, would you step into this same industry or would you completely change directions?
00:22:11
Speaker
That is a very good question and a tough one to answer, to be honest. It is. The world has changed so much in those 17, 18 years. For example, this will date me a little, but I, so I was the generation that grew up without a lot of it.
00:22:29
Speaker
But by that time we were 18, we had a lot of what you see now, not to this version, to this extreme, but social media came on to the front. Like when I was in high school, starting college, obviously we had computers and stuff, but when I was a kid, none of that existed. So we grew up with without all of it. Yeah. Um,
00:22:50
Speaker
I would probably say i would probably still do blue collar. I have no regrets of doing this specific business in this specific industry. So there's no regrets there. That's good. But if I had to do over today, because today is a completely different environment.
00:23:04
Speaker
It is. So also back then, to advertise, because you didn't have social media, oil, you didn't have much of it. yeah um You were still doing newspaper ads and stuff like that. I remember running newspaper ads for help, you know, back then. That's what you did.
00:23:19
Speaker
Anyway, I would go back a little bit and maybe say maybe something more tech, and the only reason being is you can scale that so quickly. Yes. or blue collar is a little bit hard to scale. However, with the advent of ai I don't know that I would do tech unless I was embracing AI in order to do that. to use that tech. But AI is so new and fresh right now, I don't really have a take on it yet. Yeah.
00:23:45
Speaker
I think it's going to be hugely beneficial, um but I don't know... I don't know. It will have its place, even in blue collar, and we use it some. I try not to our our rule is make it use it to make things more efficient, but don't take away the customer experience yeah the or the human element. Totally fair. So that's kind of our approach to it so far, but where it makes sense, we use it.
00:24:08
Speaker
But I don't know. I would probably still do blue-collar because I think with AI, that's my point, with AI, I think it's going to take away a lot of white-collar jobs. Yeah. Especially as AI continues to become more and more advanced. we're just We're just in the beginning of it. Like, I remember when the internet came out, like...
00:24:23
Speaker
We had no idea it was going to be what it is today. yeah Back then, it was just what you like. Well, I think Yahoo or some search engines. It's just where you looked up stuff. And that's kind of what AI was in the beginning. For most people, was basically a glorified search engine. yeah It's not going to stay that way. And it's already not. So I don't know where that leads, but I do think it will kill white-collar some.
00:24:44
Speaker
So I do think blue-collar is a good industry to be in. I agree. so can't take a hard-working man away. There's parts of it, even with robotics, you can take away, but it's a lot more difficult. It is. It is. You can't take the grit and the want out of a blue-collar man. Yeah.
Community Support and Mentorship in Business
00:25:02
Speaker
That's the four questions I had for you today. Awesome, man. Those were good good four questions. so Guys, if you enjoyed those, please, please, please share this podcast with others. If you've not joined our Facebook group or if you know someone who would and should join it, please do share that with them. It's a great community. i think we're around, what, 3,000 members or so now?
00:25:21
Speaker
I think we just hit 3,000. Nice. So we should probably do a little shout-out on there for that. So not huge, but 3,000 members is a fair amount of people. And the likelihood that someone in that group is dealing with whatever it is that you're dealing with right now, and you should ask a question and see if they can help you.
00:25:35
Speaker
We talked about mentorship on here. That's a good place to start. So meet some people in there that can help you get through whatever it is you're going through. So join that, share the podcast, and, guys, we'll see you next time.