Speaker 1: 0:11

welcome to it's personal and entrepreneurs podcast, episode 10. We've got a super special guest with us today david jones 850 company. Um, david, we're really happy to have you here. Appreciate you guys, appreciate you coming on. Um, one of the things we really like to start with on all of our shows because it is about business but also the personal side of it is just talking a little bit about the start of your business journey entrepreneurship, non-entrepreneurship, kind of all the stuff, little things. Read your digest version you did in between and how you ended up to what you're doing now For sure.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Thanks for having me first off. Yeah, absolutely, it's funny. I feel like we know each other so well that you know y'all have kind of heard this story before, but I'll make it long story short. So, yeah, I finished college in 2014, graduated from Floridaida state and I got a big boy job in corporate america and uh got to work with my dad. He'd been with the company 35 years and really cool experience but I hated the job. It was terrible. Yep, um learned a lot from it, though, very thankful for that opportunity, and um just decided that it wasn't for me, and so, uh, after that move, after I finished college and did that for a couple years, what was that job.

Speaker 2: 1:27

So I was in sales, okay, um, selling commodities, corduroy boxes, stretch wrap, stuff like that and um, uh, national company, birmingham, south florida, atlanta and uh, just wasn't for me, just quarter miracle wasn't for me. Um, while was in college, I rented jet skis on the beach for a guy named Doug Mills and, um, got to kind of see that, you know just, it was a laid back job. You're in college, you're working on the beach with your buddies and it was a lot of fun. But I was working that job and I said, you know the hell with it, man, I'll just go ingest communal company. So that had to be in 2016. And, um, you know the whole, that was the first time in my life where I'd actually had to start a business from nothing.

Speaker 2: 2:12

Growing up, I always did odd and in stuff you know, like when I was younger, back when iPhones were affordable, I'd buy iPhones off Craigslist and sell them on eBay, right, yeah, making an extra buck. Or working in a bike shop and buy motorcycles and flipping those. Um, I always love the idea of being able to generate something and cultivate. You know, business, I guess. But yeah, before I get yapping on that. So I went back to the beach and I started my own thing. In 2018, hurricane Michael hit we're all familiar with that and I found out real quick that I needed to find a new profession. Hit we're all familiar with that, and I found out real quick that I needed to find a new profession. Um and so in that meantime, that was what?

Speaker 3: 2:49

october 10th 2018 yep, um, you know, down to the day, huh, yeah, yeah, that big, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so, uh, october it gets slow.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Anyways, you get off the beach and you got a couple months off. So, um, I got on with a debris cleanup company here in town as a project manager over the big grapple trucks. Everybody remembers those.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Had you really done anything like that?

Speaker 2: 3:10

at that point, no, so that's the funny thing is like I was just a kid on the beach. Long hair.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Because now, when I think David Jones, manual labor and owning manual labor companies comes to mind. But that wasn't what you were really doing back then, was it?

Speaker 2: 3:23

yeah, so you know the jeskies manual labor. But like when, when you envision that for the face value of yeah, you're hanging out on the beach, yeah, like beach bum, yeah right like you don't want, no shit yeah, I mean, I was an

Speaker 1: 3:34

ocean lifeguard growing up so again.

Speaker 2: 3:36

Yeah, I'm living with two buddies. Life's good, you know. You don't really have the worries of, you know, a marriage or kids or really any idea about what life is you know health insurance and all this stuff when you're young, yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:53

So I got on with that company and at the time I had a buddy that worked for another one and we kind of saw the writing on the wall with like the numbers it was doing. And so he convinced me to go get some roll-off dumpsters. And I didn't want to do it at first. I was kind of scared about it, right, because it's a new thing and you know I didn't have that much free money. Like you know, you're kind of paycheck to paycheck. And so finally he convinced me, so we drove to Louisiana overnight, got some dumpsters and you know, at that time with the hurricane you're just rocking and rolling Everyone needed a dumpster. You couldn't get them fast enough. So a week after that we went and doubled it and bought another set and some more cans and you know, fast forward to where we're at now.

Speaker 2: 4:37

That's where it started was roll-off dumpsters. And then I kind of got burned out on that. I, I got burnout on that. I got my first employee and me and my partner split up and the trials and tribulations of where we're going with this business. And so it kind of led into this landscape, dirt work, hardscapes. We're there on site. How can we provide a service to these people that we're providing dumpsters for, and so anyways, here we are. Now we're five years into it. I feel like it's 10 from all the overtime we work, right, but yeah, I guess. To sum it up, how many employees do you have now? So full-time guys? I oversee about 16 guys, and that fluctuates between 14 to 18, depending on you know.

Speaker 1: 5:21

And so you started with basically one roll-off right, right, and you and a partner, yes, and now you got 16 employees. And how many roll-offs pieces of equipment trucks.

Speaker 2: 5:30

Yeah, so I could bore you with all the details, right, but we got a lot of vehicles and a lot of pieces of equipment. I know you did A lot of maintenance bills, yeah, a lot of calling, sick days and all that you know. But uh, we're super blessed and super, super thankful for every opportunity that's been, you know, um hand not handed to us, but it's come about, you know. So it's kind of surreal to look back um where we started and where we're at now, and the journey has just been a really, really fun one.

Speaker 1: 6:01

Yeah, that's a a. It's a really, really cool story because, um, it's got all the all the elements. Um, if you talk to enough people who have owned a business, it's got all those same elements in it. Um, as far as you almost didn't want to do it at first, it was scary, you didn't have the money. But you, you just started doing it and opportunity kind of met with some circumstances, even though the storm wasn't a good circumstance at life is funny that way opportunity and circumstance sometime align and when they do, uh, if you do the right things and you look at it the right way, you can really kind of take flight with it. It doesn't mean it's easy, but when you know you're onto something and you stick with it really can pay dividends.

Speaker 2: 6:44

Yeah, for sure, and we were kind of talking about it beforehand, about like you look back and influences in your life and people weighing in on things and when I was a kid my dad works with me now, which is super cool, yeah, and it's all full circle.

Speaker 2: 7:01

That's the beautiful thing is it's all full circle. But when I worked with him, he was showing me his business and how things were conducted and you know, I was just a young kid out of college, I didn't care about, you know, three mil trash bags and you know, whatever, I'm just trying to get a job, sell something, right, you know what I mean. And you know fast forward to where we're at now. And you know fast forward to where we're at now. And he's retired recently and working for me full time. But when I was young he would always say things. You know that I thought at the time you don't know what you're talking about, meant nothing, yeah. Yeah, you're just a kid, you know. You think you know it all. We all can relate to that. But you know, to your point, you just put legs on it and make it happen, yeah, yeah, and kind of form it up as you go. Right, whether you win, lose or draw, what'd you take away from it?

Speaker 3: 7:46

Yeah when I always say, like, fall forward, who cares If you fall forward? If it didn't work out, at least you can, you know, try again, give it another shot, learn from it and maybe pivot however you feel necessary.

Speaker 1: 7:56

but you won't know unless you fall and Andrew and I talk about this all the time Like I think it's a healthy practice to do. It's almost become a bit of a game. But when we do something very quickly or handle a situation in our business now very easily, we try to identify where we learned that from in all the shit we failed at beforehand and that's why it was easy. And that kind of gives yourself a little bit of grace to your past a little bit too, because you're like okay, that's why I had to deal with that, because now I'm able to deal with this like that. And I think that's the truth is, as you get older or maybe more wise if you will you can kind of reflect on all the things that were tough, and I'm not looking forward to things that are tough happening. But I do know my frame on when something difficult happens or doesn't go my way is different. So it's easier to deal with because I know I can take something away from it To your point.

Speaker 2: 8:47

So the other day something happened with my fiance, Ashley, and her car's acting up. Yeah, and she was freaking out about it. Yep, and to me that's a normal day between trucks and trailers and like something's gonna go wrong.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Hey, we were over on our lot the other day. The piece of equipment over there had an oil leak on it.

Speaker 2: 9:09

Yeah, john was out there doing something on there, yeah. So he texts me, right, and I'm like man, just fix it, yeah, or just go buy some more coolant and we'll get it back to the shop and we'll fix it. But that's normal right? So when Ashley, you know not that she got emotional, but you could tell that she was just kind of taken back and, bless her heart, she's the sweetest human being I've ever met. But she's not adapted to those situations like we are because we've been in those situations.

Speaker 2: 9:36

Now there's things that I stress about that she doesn't. And that's the cool thing about these relationships and these dynamics is that Balancing Right, what I may be good at she may not, and vice versa. But I did have to laugh a little bit, you know cause I said hey, you know I got you can come drive one of the trucks, it'll be fine, yeah, like it's all good that you're going to have solutions you know, being a business owner or entrepreneur of any kind, though, you kind of learn even a leader in corporate America, like if you manage a lot of people in corporate, it's the same thing.

Speaker 1: 10:03

You're going to wake up, and I used to always tell my team when I was a corporate manager we wake up and eat problems for breakfast. There's got to be problems. If you think there's not, you woke up incorrect, because there will be problems every morning when we wake up in your office, in our region, in our division, and it's how, something that everyone deals with necessarily.

Speaker 2: 10:33

So sometimes people ask me. They say what do you do? And I say I'm a firefighter.

Speaker 3: 10:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:37

We just put out fires, you know, and that's the truth of it. You know, whether it's, you know, in real estate or land management or construction, or if you're baking cookies at a bakery, right, you have problems. How do you handle those problems? I think you're a fire marshal more than you are a firefighter. Well, you could classify it a few different ways. Either way, there's fires and we got to put them out. Yeah, you got to deal with them, and if you don't, it's going to burn the house down.

Speaker 2: 11:03

So, you know, just trying to keep a calm, cool and collected mindset about you know, we know it's going to go wrong, yeah, we know something's going to happen. How do we and that's for life in general Right, struggles of day to day life, you know, everybody has sick kids and everybody has things that come up, but trying to not get too emotional about those things, and really I, I lately I've, I've been in this, this thing where I just remind myself we're on a floating rock in the middle of the universe, you know and all the little stuff that we stress ourselves out about, you know really is kind of irrelevant.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Yeah, true, monday's going to come. You know really is kind of irrelevant. Yeah, true, monday's gonna come. You know, the weekend's gonna come.

Speaker 1: 11:49

The sun's gonna rise the next day, um, but yeah, I mean that's the exciting part about what we do is that it's always something new so I guess that leads me into like a good question too is uh, obviously, like you know, personally, professionally, we're all at varying ages here, but I know, you know, you have a child on the way, you're engaged, you have a business owner. How do you manage, like fear, day to day, and how has that changed, do you think, from when, like maybe you were younger, to now?

Speaker 2: 12:16

Well it's, we still have it right. We still have fear, Um, so I, I guess, to answer your question, how do I handle that? It's just diving head first, right, Like you remember being a kid and and jumping into a pool, like being scared to jump into a pool and you got some people that just throw their kids in, yeah Right, Um, I think that's a good example of like just go and do it, you know, within reason. Now there's, there's things that that are out of your control, that you know we, we worry about, and that's okay. But from a business standpoint, I'm in the mindset now where I believe in my ability, right, and I know that I'm going to do the right thing and whatever happens happens.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Yep, you can only control so much.

Speaker 2: 13:04

You can only control so much. And there's nights where you know you don't get to sleep as well because you have these stresses or anxieties or whatever it may be. But then a week goes by and everything's okay, right? Yeah, giving it time sometimes. Giving it time, right, giving it time. There was a time when I worked in corporate America where I was trying to figure out who I was as a person.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Yeah, Right, which is stressful time.

Speaker 2: 13:31

And really diving in. You know you're at the age where you don't know who you are. You know you go from a carefree college kid you know to and taxes and just all the stuff of adulthood.

Speaker 1: 13:43

And you start thinking about kind of like the long term of what is the mark that I'm going to leave, and how am I going to leave it, and does it mean something, and all those kind of questions too, for sure.

Speaker 2: 13:56

But you know, it's just day by day and I hate to be repetitive in that aspect, but like you know, I battled anxiety and depression and all that stuff and until you go through that you don't really know. Like I used to think that was fake, somebody said, oh, I have depression. I think, oh, you're just in a bad mood, right. And then you go through and you think, wow, that's.

Speaker 1: 14:14

It really affects you in a different way than what you thought of it was beforehand. Yeah, I agree, and I've been very transparent with a lot of people, like when we were running the restaurant. Um, you know, for the first time in a long time, I definitely found myself in a place where I was you become well, you can become. Woe is me. Um, you know, I've lost all this money I've I've made all these bad decisions. I'm an idiot, you know, but it's that inner dialogue to a degree that gets you to that place. So I it leads me to saying, I think that when you get that confidence in yourself, no matter if you make a mistake or not, fear kind of can go away to a degree because you know that you know how to figure it out. Even if you went back to zero, like if I went back to zero today, I still know that the tools I have, that I've learned, the people I have around me, I I have, that I've learned the people I have around me. I won't be there for long.

Speaker 3: 15:04

The experience is just like we were talking about that right before we started. From what we've been through to this point, tomorrow everything falls off the office burns down.

Speaker 1: 15:13

I'm not afraid of zero, because I know I can figure it out.

Speaker 2: 15:17

So I think we've all had this conversation in some degree of like what would you rather have? Would you rather go back 10 years and know what you know now, or fast forward 10 years and have $10 million or whatever? That number is right, because we're all. What it boils down to is we're all trying to grow these businesses, make money, buy our time. We all want free time. I think that's what it boils down to. But if you ask that question, I think most people would say let me go back in time 10 years. Yeah, knowing what I know now and being able to do something maybe not so much different, but approach the situation in a different way. And you know, that kind of leads to the time versus money thing, where for me, in the past I don't know two years time is so important, time is so important.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Well it's. You know, there was one day I would say this was probably like a year ago or something and we were sitting in this conference room back here and I was just having like a very beat down day. Lots of deals fell apart, lots of things we've been working on for a long time fell apart. You know, I just recently paid to get out of my lease at the restaurant. So money out, money not coming in, having some struggles, and, uh, anyway, long story short, I was being the negative Nancy in the room.

Speaker 1: 16:34

And one of the things that our business coach said and I think about this on a regular basis, as cheesy as it sounds is you know, how excited would you be if I offered you $10 million, you know, would you be excited? And I was like, well, yeah, I'd be, I'd be super excited. He's like how excited would you be if I told you, you, if I gave it to you, you would die tomorrow? And I was like, nah, I don't want it. Then you know like, obviously I want to wake up and be alive tomorrow. He's like so, dude, you already have something worth more than $10 million. Just get over it. Great analogy.

Speaker 2: 17:03

Just get over it. It's a great analogy.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Yeah, right, and I think about that all the time. It seems like kind of a common sense thing, but it's like man, I'm just alive, like I've got people, good people that I'm around. That should be enough and, if you can. Happiness is really like, I think, in here and in here, and sometimes it takes having a lot and losing it or not having a lot, or going through different things to realize that none of those things will ever satisfy that. Those are subsets of happiness, and I think that's part of getting older is realizing you're in control of that, but no material thing, business or other, is going to do it. And when you get to a point too where, at least for me, businesses are a way of interacting and connecting with people and serving other people, and when you really start realizing that I think your business does a lot better too when it doesn't become so self-serving.

Speaker 2: 17:55

For sure, absolutely, and that's what it boils down to really. You know, this idea of starting a business, which you know is what we're talking about in this, is to make money. But soon you get to a point where you know you hear when you're a kid, um, more money, more problems. And I found when I was a kid, no way.

Speaker 3: 18:19

That's not true. We did all the money right we did all the money right.

Speaker 2: 18:28

I'm doing eight work trucks and 10 pieces of equipment and you got breakdowns and and it all. You all.

Speaker 1: 18:31

You sit back and you say maybe they were right it even translates to personal relationships to a degree too, sometimes, because it's not that people mean wrong, but when, when you have more, sometimes people want more from you yeah, uh, even people close to you. So it just, money changes things, you know, and it changes how you, how you handle situations and people and what people will ask you for and, um, how you carry yourself may bother some people and things like that. So it's just, it's a it's a whole different way of living that you have to navigate it when you start accumulating some things Not in a bad way, but it's definitely it's different.

Speaker 3: 19:09

It's. It is very valid. It's funny Cause that makes me think of a video I was watching the other day a set of parents. They won $20 million in the lottery $20 million, you know. Obviously that's life-changing, generationally life-changing. They didn't tell anyone. No, they didn't tell their parent. These are grown-ups. They didn't tell their parents, they didn't tell their kids. They had 14 year old kid to 14 and 15 year old kids. They were saying they didn't tell them. They said because we don't want our babies to be lottery babies when they're adults and have figured out where they're going to go in life, sure we'll tell them we'll help them out, yeah we'll help them out, we'll, we'll give them the benefit of this later in life.

Speaker 3: 19:43

But right now that's not the point. Right now they need to figure out life and $20 million. They could have. Just gave both of those kids $3 million a piece and said go, you're set. But instead they said it's a secret, it's in a bank account hidden, we're not going to tell anybody.

Speaker 1: 20:00

And they felt good about that, yeah, and I think that's true. Good about that, yeah, and I think that's true. I mean something I way undervalued growing up is, uh, you know, my grandfather and my dad were pretty successful, but they lived super humble about humbly and conservatively. Like to the point where and I've told this story, andrew's heard me tell the story before my grandpa would wear, like you know, like bleached and like shirts into their like super nice office and be like, why are you wearing that? He'd be like it's 80 and he's like just sold a tech company for, like you know, whatever.

Speaker 1: 20:27

And uh and I'm like that makes no sense to me Like he's got like a sticker on his Acura from like oh wait, like blocking a blinking light so he doesn't have to look at it. I'm like dude, that's what I want to be. I want to be the guy who has it. No one knows. I want to be humble and do good things for other people. You know, and I just way undervalued that, I guess to a degree too. I didn't get it um back then, but there is something to that, I think.

Speaker 2: 20:58

Yeah, you know, business, money, time, all this, you know it's it's all. It's all just the next thing. You know what I mean? Like you're all just, we're all in the pursuit of happiness, yeah, whatever that means, and everybody's different. We all go through different stages of life, but, um, I think, like track back to what you were saying about, like fear and business and all that we're all just trying to figure it out. We all have fears, we all have concerns, we all have problems, but one thing that's always stayed true to me is like that's what I enjoy, right Is the business. Yeah, cultivating relationships, same. Doing something new, learning something new. I'm on this kick now where I'm trying to learn Spanish, right?

Speaker 1: 21:39

Really. Yeah, I'm trying to learn.

Speaker 2: 21:40

Spanish Make your job sites more efficient. Yeah, so I've got some Hispanic guys that speak very good English, you know, very fluent, but something about being able to connect with them in Spanish, you know it's. That's pretty cool. It's not that you gain a new level of respect, but you gain a new level of respect, right, because you're trying to learn their culture.

Speaker 1: 22:00

When they learned how to speak English good.

Speaker 2: 22:02

Right, you know why not make the effort to try to speak Spanish? For sure, yeah, but you know, always trying to learn something new and grow, whether it's, you know, like I said, a new business, or a new language, or a new hobby, or whatever. But yeah, man, you got to continue to do something.

Speaker 1: 22:21

I think when you get stagnant is when you really start to run into issues. If you could go back to, uh, to when you were first starting let's, let's call it the jet skis, like cause that was the first business you kind of started right Ground up like a full blown business, like and and and talk to that David, or even just any entrepreneur like that wants to be an entrepreneur, or young, or starting out like what's the? Like? Two or three bullet points of advice that sounded like bullshit then that you just wish you had believed were true y'all are gonna laugh at this.

Speaker 2: 22:49

This is so corny. Okay, follow your heart, yeah, right, whatever that means to you. Follow your heart deep down. We know as people I think most people, that's inner voice what's right and what's wrong. What. What do I need to do to be happy? Take the money out of it, take all that out of it. Where do I want to be right now? Okay, that's the number one point, and it took me a long time to realize that, but that'd be your number one thing. Number two is do what you say you're going to do, right. People don't expect you to, you know, end world hunger, but they do expect you to be there if you say you're going to be there, right. So that's to follow your heart. Do what you say. Yeah, that I agree, you know.

Speaker 1: 23:34

Yeah, um I was gonna say uh to the first thing, the the following your heart. I think I think we discount you. You hit on something there which is that you already know, and I think that's true for a lot of pieces of our life. Like if I sit around and I'm tired all the time and I feel like I'm just using this as an example I'm overweight. Well, what do you? Are you eating better? Are you working out? I want to own a business. Are you trying to? You know, I think we, we have that inner voice and it took me a long time. Even working corporate, I knew these things that I wanted to do, whether it was working out or starting my own business, but I wasn't listening to that. I was listening to what was safe and comfortable.

Speaker 3: 24:17

Um, and that's all. That's why all of us ended up in corporate America, right, right Cause. Would you say that following your heart led you to corporate america, or would you say that the expectation of society?

Speaker 2: 24:28

the right thing to do in college is what pushed you to corporate america you know you think about and and I and this is a conversation for another time but you think about society and what society wants you to do. Go to college, yeah, get a corporate, a corporate job, get the benefits, get the retirement account and all that's fine and dandy. But you don't have to do that. I got a college degree and I work in construction and I love it.

Speaker 1: 24:54

And you do probably better than a lot of people that don't work in construction.

Speaker 2: 24:59

We have good months and we have bad months right, but it took me a long time to realize that you have to make your own way.

Speaker 1: 25:06

Yeah, not what somebody else's and not what someone, what you think it looks like either 22 year old david, 22 year old kurt, 22 year old andrew.

Speaker 3: 25:16

did any of us truly believe, when we went to corporate america, that that was us following our heart?

Speaker 1: 25:22

No, absolutely not, yeah, now there.

Speaker 1: 25:26

So there was this huge part of me from my upbringing that always wanted to be uh, manage people, you know, uh, uh, be an executive of some kind.

Speaker 1: 25:40

But I realized very quickly the image of that that I had in my head was of my, my grandpa, dad, which were business owners, and so that when I got into corporate America and I was having very good results and I had good relationships with my employees, but I didn't have good relationships with my bosses. I was very confused by that like wait, I'm the, I'm the top performer, my employee reviews are excellent, but it's because in in corporate america a lot of times things are politicized and I was a threat because I went against the grain, even if that mean I had results and that lack of efficiency that like, well, we don't care, you have results, you're a threat to our, our position and our status here. That made me instantly, after four years in corporate america, just just disengage the next two years that I worked in any corporate job. I was just existing there and I knew it wasn't for me at that point in time.

Speaker 3: 26:31

You either fit in the box or you don't. Corporate America. I learned that pretty quick, at least in my.

Speaker 2: 26:35

But the day you realize that is the day that you can take a step in the right direction, right, and put some legs on it.

Speaker 1: 26:40

And some people fit in that box. Not all corporations are like that. There's a lot of great companies that you can work at and W2 employees, entrepreneurs, are. I know some entrepreneurs that I have a ton of respect for, bosses and people I've had at different jobs. I just knew that, like it wasn't for me and I was not political enough, not political enough, genuine relationships were of too much value to me to be able to toe that line, I guess.

Speaker 2: 27:11

So I think it goes back to follow your heart. Like you said, it worked for some people. Some people like working Monday through Friday and getting weekends off, monday through Thursday.

Speaker 3: 27:20

They get to leave the headache at home.

Speaker 2: 27:23

That's the beautiful part about you know life. Life is that everybody's pursuit of happiness is different. How many nights?

Speaker 3: 27:30

would you say you fall asleep in bed with something 850 company spinning through your head Probably every night. When you were in corporate America, how many nights did you fall asleep worried about that appointment you had the next day I think I was more worried about not having a panic attack.

Speaker 1: 27:47

Yeah, you know, because I hated what I did and I just hated my life, you know I suffered from that same thing like and it's kind of like what we talked about with dave claire or even chris chris comey it's like when you're, when you fall outside of your purpose, uh, it does something inside of you, feel it, and, um, when you're outside of your purpose, it does something inside of you, you feel it. And when you're aligned with your purpose, whatever that may mean, it means different things for different people. You thrive, I think, as people, and it doesn't always even mean monetarily. I think it just means your purpose, following your heart is very similar to that.

Speaker 2: 28:21

So you know, we're not the best at what we do. We're not the worst, you know, I don't. I don't try and compare myself to other people, as hard as that is sometimes with the presence of social media, and you know the flashiness of all that, but we just try and be the best that we can be and I think that's a common trait for all business owners and entrepreneurs and, honestly, you know, like the word entrepreneur to me in 2024 is almost like overplayed. I feel like everybody wants to have the label of being a entrepreneur yeah, right, and there's nothing wrong with that, um, but they don't see the behind the scenes of a business owner. You know, they, they want the social media presence and it's more than just about that, and I think that's the facade that you know. We battle, like you know, with everything going on, is that people just want that label and they take the customer, the consumer, out of it and it becomes more about them than it does about their business.

Speaker 1: 29:31

Absolutely. I agree with that, 100%. Yeah. And even even it takes the employee out of it. It takes the team out of it to a degree like no successful entrepreneur uh, that's on social media like blasting out I did this and close this and did all this and that doesn't have people helping him.

Speaker 2: 29:49

I just wish that people would be more transparent about their trials and tribulations.

Speaker 3: 29:54

How did you get to the success?

Speaker 2: 29:55

So, like you know, I've got buddies, that you know, and I don't want to sound like I'm taking credit for it. But guys that work good jobs, um, and I don't want to, I don't want to sound like I'm taking credit for it but guys that work good jobs, and you know, I've been doing this my own businesses for um, I don't know seven years, now eight years. You know I've been doing my own stuff since I was a kid. But they would always ask how did you get started? What did you do? Right? And? And not to just keep hammering but just put legs on it, I would say hey, look, worst case scenario, this is what happens. Worst case scenario You're a good person, you have good work ethic, you know a little bit about a few things. If it fails, go back to the job you worked or go back to similar to it, right, but you got to start.

Speaker 1: 30:37

It's an age old exercise which is, um, write down. So they they say, psychologically acknowledging things takes fear away from it. So they actually tell people to write down when you want to do something new in your business, start a business, something that you should just go through and write down. The absolute worst thing that could happen, like, what would it do to your finances? What would it do to your relationships? Like, what do you picture if all this stuff I'm anxious about, worrying about, went wrong?

Speaker 1: 31:07

I'm just gonna put it all out there, detail it, and then you know, give it a day or two, read it, um, and and you'll realize, like man, I'm like, wait, it probably wouldn't be that bad. You know that's pretty over embellished. And then you're like, and if that did happen, I could do x, x and x. And then you're kind of like, if that did happen, I could do X, x and X. And then you're kind of like, well, that's not that bad. You know I could do that and we've, I've literally done that for a lot of things that I started doing. Because once you've acknowledged it and you know what the contingency plan is, even though you don't want to exercise it, there's not much to be afraid of you know? Hey, that could happen.

Speaker 2: 31:46

So you know, know, that's what I tell these guys that, like you know, just try it, dude. Yeah, there's, there's gonna be hard times, for sure, but you're not gonna know unless you try it right. So, like we just started a window tint company, where did I get that idea? There was an opportunity I had a couple years ago to buy into one and I didn't have the capital. I regret it. I had some childhood friends move back into town. We got chit-chatting about it. I said, hey, man, let's get it going right.

Speaker 2: 32:08

The fear of it not being a thing was definitely a thought that I had. Yeah, but if it fails, it fails. Yeah. And now that idea that shoulda, coulda, woulda, that's gone. I learned that it wasn't a thing that I I couldn't do this right. Trials and tribulations you got to try it. Just put legs on it. Pursuit of happiness Follow your heart. The third thing I was going to say is don't be scared of change. Don't be scared of change, and that's you know. I think this whole conversation is more than just about business, but life, but they all tie in together. Is that?

Speaker 3: 32:46

change is not always a bad thing together is that change is not always a bad thing. I agree with that. Step out of your comfort zone.

Speaker 2: 32:49

It's not always easy, but it's not always bad. Step out of your comfort zone. You look at anybody that's, you know, ever done something. You know I hate to be cliche, but everybody knows the name elon musk, jeff bezos. Right, jeff bezos was selling.

Speaker 3: 33:02

Literally, They've poured an oil.

Speaker 2: 33:06

I mean some of these, all these guys Right like back in what 2000?

Speaker 1: 33:09

Yeah, I mean, yeah, the early 90s late 90s, His business sign was made with spray paint.

Speaker 2: 33:14

You know, and um yeah, look at what it turned into. We all use Amazon.

Speaker 1: 33:29

Well, I think back all the time to um and we were talking about this earlier today, actually, and yesterday afternoon to like how many businesses that people start Not I'm even me with all my stuff that I've started, that's worked, that hasn't worked. Where I'm at now the wisdom I have that I didn't use to have I'll even look at some. Sometimes I fall victim to it. Somebody starts I'm like man, that's stupid man, like what is that? And then, like you know, a year later, I really see how they had thought it through differently and how it's working. And I'm like man, that's super smart, you know. And it's like there's how many businesses, even like netflix, amazon, all these big businesses. When they started people were like that is dumb, like that is a really bad idea.

Speaker 1: 34:01

We were too busy going to red box at the gas station parking lot when Netflix was preparing, and Blockbuster, like laughed them out of the room right and so, but and those, so even an idea that other people don't understand. And I'm not saying, go just start anything and be haphazard, but I think you really got to learn when, when you want to do something different or start something, you got to be able to block out, kind of like the naysayers. At the same time I think that's something I've learned too is you got to filter yourself because you don't want to do stuff. That's just completely stupid. But if you really believe in something and see where it could go, sometimes you just have to be the only person that believes in it too, which is difficult at times.

Speaker 2: 34:40

It is, it is, but I think I think it all boils back to your circle, right, surround yourself with good people. We were talking about our folks and everything, and when we were kids, our folks would tell us stuff. I told you all. My dad would always tell me if you sleep with dogs, you're going to wake up with fleas. What do you mean? Surround yourself with good people, right, but you look at the face value and the Jeff Bezos thing, that's an outlier, right, like that's a .0001. But you know, I think about our business. We didn't reinvent the

Speaker 2: 35:08

wheel. In construction, the stuff that we do, people have been laying brick pavers since the Romans, right, but providing a service to people, providing value, it's got to be mutually beneficial. Yeah, we got to make a couple bucks to operate, but what do we provide to the consumer? Financially beneficial, yeah, we got to make a couple of bucks to operate, um, but what? What do we provide to the consumer? So, in y'all scenario, y'all got projects that y'all have included us on. Y'all could probably find it cheaper, y'all could probably find it more expensive. Right Time, you know, we get to it in a timely manner. It's done professionally. There's value in that, there's communication and that goes for y'all's customers and that goes for your customers' customers, right? So yeah, like I said, just if you say you're going to do something, do something.

Speaker 1: 35:54

What would you say? And so to go back to your point, obviously you know land moving, landscaping, hardscaping it's not, that hasn't ever been done before. What is it that you feel like you guys do differently, consistently. That has really helped you build your business. Show up.

Speaker 2: 36:16

Show up. So simple, yeah. Like you know, as I'm sitting here thinking about like how do I answer that?

Speaker 3: 36:22

What's the social media answer?

Speaker 2: 36:24

I feel like people sometimes look for the secret, right, and you see these gurus online and these courses, and you know I've got guys that I consider mentors, right, but people want to get rich quick and there's really no secret other than just show up, be truthful, be, even if you don't know 100 what you're doing, figure it out. But you got to be there to do that right. And so, um, again, I never want to compare myself to competition, never, never, once, and there's times that we're all guilty of that. Um, you don't want to make it about what they don't do. You got to make it about what you do do, and your consumer has to recognize that without you telling them.

Speaker 3: 37:02

Without being the person that says well them and this.

Speaker 2: 37:05

Right, because then you're just a point. So you take our hardscape business right and not toot my own horn. We're ICPI certified. What does that mean? Bricks, masonry certified, nationally recognized, whatever there's all sorts of different companies those certifications do hold some sort of weight, but you can't go around and put that in your customer's face and say, hey, this is what we do. Yeah, right, we're qualified and they're not. You can't do that. Just be true to who you are, it's off-putting, yeah, it's off-putting, just be true to who you are. Provide value to your customers, continue to show up, and you know, at this point we've been super blessed to have continual work. I mean like I, that you know, and we're not even a I wouldn't consider us a big operation, but we're an efficient operation, and so you know, that's what matters, that's what matters, right, there's no secret to it.

Speaker 2: 38:18

But I see guys that start into it and I'm a big, big fan of guys trying something new and getting into it, because I truly believe that I don't necessarily have direct competitors. I got people that do the same stuff right, but they're not me and they're not my crews and they have pros and they have cons, vice versa. I mean, I agree with that. Yeah, you know, but we get, we get lost in that sometimes. Yeah, we do try and Comparison. Yeah, and the thing about it is Panama City is such a small town you learn this as you grow your business that it's better to work with people than against people. Yeah Right, I don't want to be at our supply house and see somebody and say they stole a job from me. There's that David guy. No, they got the job and that's all that matters. Yeah, and if the customer's happy, then hey, hats off to you. Yeah Right, sometimes the customer's not happy. Sometimes I get customers that are not happy with me. For whatever reason that may be, you're going to have customers.

Speaker 2: 39:20

When I was in college, I had a professor. Dr Debra Owned multiple businesses. He was an entrepreneur. The class he taught was entrepreneurship. Okay, I was thinking about how to word that. Yeah, he had his doctorate in whatever communications. Anyways, one of the things that stuck with me was it's okay to fire customers sometimes.

Speaker 3: 39:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:44

Right of the things that stuck with me was it's okay to fire customers sometimes, yeah, right. It's not socially acceptable to say, hey, there's some customers that you don't want, right, but there are signs that you, when you speak to somebody, you say I'm not the guy for you we.

Speaker 1: 39:55

I was just talking to someone about this this morning and last week or earlier this week actually. Uh, you know, our business coach said a while ago um, you guys need to start, as you ramp up, choosing who you want to do business with, which seemed really weird to me at the time. But there's actually been several instances recently where this person has told me they're talking to this other realtor or that or whatever. And I followed up and did the regular thing. But it started to become this like um, well, they said they do this, what do you do? And then, and eventually, I just started waking up in the morning and really nice to say, hey, you know what sounds like.

Speaker 1: 40:30

You trust them and, uh, because they're in the in the race, you need to get your house sold. We don't need to bicker about this, just use them. I'll take myself out of it, cause I knew where that situation was heading. Um, and I think it's not always, that's not always what I do, but I think there's times you do have to pick and choose. Not to put yourself I would have just taken any business at all at one point in time, but I think you have to choose to a degree sometimes because you know that it's going to be turning your wheels or not. Not everyone's the right fit for each other.

Speaker 2: 41:01

But it took experience to get to that point, to learn that, yeah, it's hard to say no to doing business. It's hard to say no, yeah, you know, especially you know you got bills and you got all this stuff, but you know there's an analogy, something else always comes around. There's an analogy and.

Speaker 3: 41:27

I tell myself this all the music on I just think, yeah, I just talked.

Speaker 2: 41:29

Some people probably think I'm crazy, right, but you may be the sweetest peach on the tree and somebody may not like peaches. You can't be everything, that's true. You can't be everything for everybody, and I love that that. That's that's hard to realize sometimes, because you know, between trying to make payroll and make sure that guys are, you know, working and equipment's not sitting around, you worry about okay, well, we're a month out, or two months out or two weeks out. You got to always, you know, have something going on instead of trying to, you know, reach for everything. Sometimes it's okay to say no, sometimes it's okay to fire a customer, yep, and you shouldn't feel bad for that. I've had to work on lately not being so emotional, right, in any aspect of business.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Um cause you do start the way that you read a text from somebody.

Speaker 2: 42:08

right, you can, you can misinterpret that in a lot of ways, um, but those are things that, as time goes on, you realize how to handle it, right, um, but yeah, man, I mean, you know there's. No, there's no secret to what we do. There's no secret to it. Now I will say this you gotta have the right tools, right, you gotta have the right tools, gotta have the right equipment, gotta have the right equipment. There was a lot of days where I would try and save a dollar by not by not buying something or doing something. And now time, just get it done. Done, let's just get what we need. Let's get it done, because go buy it, fix it. We're gonna be back in two weeks, or we're gonna be back in a month, or we're gonna be back in a year.

Speaker 1: 42:51

just do it right the first time and be done with it that man that that's something my dad used to say all the time. Uh, I think it came from running businesses and manufacturing facilities and stuff like that. But it's just it translated to everything. Personally, like even when I think the first thing broke on my car and I didn't want to go pay for it, he's like I don't care if it takes every dollar you got. You better go fix it the way it needs to be fixed, otherwise you're going to be dealing with it for for months, years.

Speaker 2: 43:16

You know I've got and I've got a buddy shout out sean, little, you you know Sean. Oh yeah, sean would ask me. I've got my mechanic and he's a fantastic man. Any of my personal stuff, like any of my toys or whatever, he don't touch it, he'll get to it when he can get to it. But my work trucks he knows that I've got to operate. I can't operate without them. He'll get them done. Sean, little, my buddy, he would call me. He's like hey man, how do you get Adam to work on your stuff so fast? Right, I said what do you mean? He's like anytime you go up there, he gets it done like that, you know, and I'm like, dude, you got to support these guys. Right, just get it done, adam, just get it done.

Speaker 2: 43:56

He would try and save money with tires online and this and I'll bring you this right you know, you know, stepping over dollars to pick up pennies and and, uh, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, you know what I mean. And you just, if you need a new set of tires, go get a new set of tires from people that that know what to do, are in your community. Yeah, right, and um, anyways, now sean goes to him or whatever, but it makes sense. But it took me a long time to realize that, and at one point I was Sean trying to save a penny, but you lost a penny the next day. Right, it's just time, right, because my truck's out for three days and you know it's just a snowball effect of issues. You know what I mean. So, yeah, man, invest in yourself, invest in your company.

Speaker 1: 44:55

Invest in your company, invest in your guys. That's what you end up losing is time and efficiency. Obviously, the restaurant didn't turn out the way it wanted to, but something we would say all the time is this is out of stock or that food-wise, or you got to order from here and it's twice as expensive. But in the end, we were just like, well, we should just focus on selling more bowls today and tomorrow and this week and next week, because we can't change that. But what I can change is how many bowls I sell, and I think that's the same for, like you know, any, any business really is, if you're doing revenue and you're controlling what you can control, then you can roll with those punches a little bit better. Anyway, you just got to go get it done.

Speaker 2: 45:33

So we could get into the nitty gritty of P and L and cashflow and all that stuff, right, but every business is different and, um, um, you know, you got to figure out what works for you. Yeah, exactly, you got to figure out what works for you. So, um, yeah, man, it's a unique thing. You know, business is a lot of fun. There's days that I lay awake and I think let me just go be a project manager for somebody. Yeah, yeah, let me just hate be a project manager for somebody. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 46:02

You'd hate it though.

Speaker 2: 46:03

I'd hate it. I was a terrible employee. Yeah, hey, man, we need you here at 530. There was one time I worked for the debris cleanup company and we had safety meetings. I don't remember it was Tuesdays or whatever. Let's just say, and you know, I'm a kid that has no idea about debris cleanup and grapple trucks and osha and you know fema, and they got me out there with a hard hat and a safety vest trying to lead 50 guys driving grapple trucks you know that are truckers their whole life I ain't got a clue.

Speaker 2: 46:33

One day I overslept. I didn't show up. My boss called me hey man, how'd the safety meeting go? Yeah, man, it was good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said well, it's funny, because I didn't see you there. I had to lead it, right. My point of that is I was a terrible employee, yeah. So I think like maybe I should go work somebody. I've done that. It's not for me, yeah, you know, but but again, you got to figure out where you need to be at in life, what you need to do, what you need to be doing.

Speaker 2: 46:57

Yeah, you'll find out really quick what you don't need to be doing, yeah in that case, that's, I don't need to be leading 50 truckers at safety meetings at 5 30 in the morning. My heart wasn't in it. I didn't have any desire to be there, right? Um, yeah, I mean, I think at the end of the day, you know, people over complicate this stuff and and people are hard on themselves. I'm hard on myself and trying to trying to get into a mind space where, you know, just just be yourself. You know, just be yourself and enjoy the steps and enjoy the process, enjoy the climb. You know, I look back five years from now. If I could see where we were at as a company and my guys and the growth as a whole, I'd be blown away 100%.

Speaker 1: 47:41

Yeah, sometimes you have to take that step back to look at where you're at from a high level.

Speaker 2: 47:44

We get jaded, yeah, we get jaded, and it's all about perspective and it's all relative too. But yeah, just show up, do a good job, say what you, you know, do what you say you're going to do. Don't be scared of change it's, don't be scared to change. It's the simple stuff it really is.

Speaker 1: 48:04

And and it sounds so corny for me hearing myself talk um, but not a lot of people are doing it and I can tell you that just from us being on the side of construction, where we're hiring a lot of the subs and the vendors and dealing with the like, the managing our own stuff not a lot of people. We've boiled it down to those who do. I mean, I guess I would put it that way so, like the people we're still working with, the people are working on these, um, new builds with us. They're all the people that, over the course of renovating homes, we eliminated, who we did and didn't want to work with. Right, they care and they they did. They're all the people who did the simple things, like they cared enough to actually be willing to have regular conversations with us, to follow up, to show up on time, to give us fair pricing and know we weren't going to bicker on it if it was already fair. All that good stuff.

Speaker 3: 48:49

So it is the 5.0, company being the first subcontractor on the job. Yeah right.

Speaker 1: 48:54

My man, yeah, and the fastest. So far too, job's done, job's done.

Speaker 3: 48:58

We're moving.

Speaker 1: 49:01

Let's do the million dollar question yes, let me wrap up with this question and you've kind of already answered it to a degree, but I'm sure there's a variation in there somewhere is we always ask everybody this question, whether it's like personal or professional? Just, I call it kind of the legacy question. So you know not to be morbid, but if you were gone tomorrow, what is the one piece of advice personal or or like a kind of a roundabout piece of advice that you would want to leave with people that you've learned up to this stage in your life that you think is you wish you could have heard or is impactful for someone else to hear at this stage?

Speaker 2: 49:35

So I think I've covered my bases there. But just to reiterate that, and I'll try and think of something on the fly but um, um, don't eat lunch at gas stations, right?

Speaker 3: 49:53

no, uh, on a real note, that's in fact you know, on a real note, it'll be a hard afternoon yeah, especially if they didn't drop one at the job site again, you know, we've kind of made this conversation about it.

Speaker 2: 50:00

But, you know, follow your own pursuit of happiness. Yeah, don't be influenced by, you know, outside voices or social media. Do what's right for you and whatever that, whether it's business or life. Do what's right for you, even if society tells you it's not. Even if society or people or even friends tell you, hey man, that's crazy. If that's what you want to do, do it.

Speaker 1: 50:27

You know, in that everyone has that internal voice that tells them what is right or wrong for them.

Speaker 2: 50:32

I think people just need that one. You know you think about, like, if you're driving down the road in the morning, yeah, and a random person walking waves at you, what that does for you. It lights you up. Oh man, that was nice. You know that little act of kindness, yeah, you know. You see somebody. Hey, good to see you. You know just the little things. Just you know if, if, if you're on this, if you're on this goal, or or you know you're on this path and somebody says, hey man, you know I wouldn't do that, okay, well, all you need is that one, just that one person. Hey man, you can do it. So follow your pursuit of happiness that's what I would say and try not to eat lunch at gas stations. Every day Actually gets on me a lot. I drink too many energy drinks and gas station food and all that.

Speaker 3: 51:15

I can probably do a better job. This Dodge is chicken Working on the I got we got these water.

Speaker 2: 51:20

They got some good stuff right in the truck.

Speaker 3: 51:22

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1: 51:24

So working in like regional sales, forever in the car and then real estate, man, we, we talk about that all the time. You just pop in here and eat one of those crusty sandwiches from a corner box. Man, I gotta work on, that's my worst trait.

Speaker 2: 51:38

Yeah, that's my worst, yeah, yeah so anyways.

Speaker 1: 51:41

Well, listen, man, I really, really can't stress enough how much we appreciate you taking the time to come on and also the business relationship that we have and we plan to continue having with you, and we really value you as a person and a partner in our business too. Absolutely, and that's episode 10 of it's Personal, an entrepreneur's podcast, tune in for episode 11. We got Arlen from Destined Dreamers. Absolutely, and that's episode 10 of it's Personal, an entrepreneur's podcast, tune in for episode 11. We got Arlen from Destined Dreamers. That's one you definitely won't want to miss. Thanks, guys.

Speaker 3: 52:11

David Jones A50 Company. My man Appreciate you yes sir, thank y'all.