0:00 Hey, quick intro to the show we're about to jump into. Chris, my battle buddy, he's on the road getting ready to hang out with some friends in the Arizona area. But anyways, we've got a really cool show. We've got a longtime friend, gentleman that's been in the industry or with us for a long time. I think we calculated sometime around 2013 or 14 is when we met the first time. He's got an amazing story. He now owns and operates Wolf Construction and Restoration. Just a great journey professionally from a young stud trying to find his way in the trades and the home services space to that journey that he had maturing, coming up in the ranks, getting married, having kids, and all those life lessons that come along the way that ultimately culminated into him being just a very good, good young entrepreneur building a really great business that anybody would be proud of.

0:51 And I think every single one of us during this episode is going to be able to find these moments in time where we've experienced what it is that he's sharing. And we can absolutely relate to both the good times and the bad times associated with this entrepreneurial journey. So really excited to have our very first in-house guest with the new studio. And then of course, it being a friend is all the more rich. So thanks for hanging out with us. Let's jump into the show. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart & Boots podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Brennan. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead.

1:32 This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours. I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose. No, I don't. I didn't. And I am not happy with it. Wow. So this is us pretending this was our first take. It's actually our second take. Now, the point of pretending is to not let the cat out of the bag immediately while you're still pretending. So I do believe we kind of failed on that. We failed on that task. Yeah. Welcome to the studio, Freddie Boss. Thank you. Thank you. This is an exciting episode because it's our first live in-studio guest. That's right. First of many. And you and I have got a history with Freddie. We're going to talk about that and a whole bunch else, but this is fun.

2:16 Yeah, I'll do a little tiny stage setting. So the reason we were excited to get Freddie in-house, one is Freddie, you're going to see if he lets any of it out. Oftentimes what happens, Freddie, is everybody gets hella nervous. And then we'll only get about 50% of their personality. So try to chill and give us all of it. Don't know what to do with your hand. Yeah, that's right. Like, what do I do when you're dancing? So Freddie's got a fun personality that if he lets it out of the bag, it's going to add a lot to the conversation. I think we'll probably drum up a few stories from the day of things that he spearheaded inside the businesses we were a part of together. But I think the other thing too is, and we just pulled it up yesterday, we were talking about a specific example of...

2:56 Since you went out and started your own company, you've leaned into social media a lot. Yeah. And you're slinging some hilarious content. So again, it's like, you're just kind of doing some things, I think, a little out of the ordinary. And I think that's always fun to share with people. And so anyways, yeah. How many years has it been now? Do you know? Do you remember? Oh, man. I don't know. Like it was early on, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it had to be like, you think 2013-ish? Does that sound close? Yeah. 2013-14, I think. Which is crazy. Yeah. A little bit of history. I had more hair back then. Yeah. Me too. You have fully a race. You're like Spider-Man.

3:37 Brandon was the front runner. And then we all just fell in line behind him. Yeah, I was the one went down swinging first. Yeah, this is a choice, by the way. Yeah, of course it is. I don't like the way mine comes in anymore. That's why I keep it low. It's more like a screen covering than a closed door nowadays. Well, Freddie, dude, let's hear your story, man. Take us back. I think we always want to start with how people get into the blue collar trades. And for you, it started with restoration. I'm guessing. But anyway, take us back though from childhood, Freddie. Start with childhood, Freddie. Give us a little sense of what family culture was like, what your situation was you grew up into, and then take us past high school and work.

4:21 Yeah. So we grew up lower middle class for sure. Hardworking parents, father worked at a manufacturing company. So he was always there doing that stuff. And then he got promoted to basically they you're kind of like a subcontractor for that. And they send you out to set the homes once they're. purchase, they get set on the plot of the land. He'd put them together, drywall everything up, just basically make it so the house looks like A half, B half, C half, or one again. And he did that for the longest of time. And then we kind of followed, you know, wherever we moved. The plant would kind of shift a bit where they would send them.

5:04 So we kind of, depending on the seasons, you know, We'd have money for rent here, money for, and not money for it anymore. And then we'd go live with grandma. You know, so it was definitely a struggle. As you're a kid, you're aware that you're not a rich kid. Yeah. When you're a poor kid. Now, we weren't poor. You know, we always had food. We always had clothes. But there is definitely a struggle. So growing up, the middle child syndrome definitely hit me. I didn't want to do those things that would cost the parents money. And how my brother and sister didn't think like that. They were both sports kids. So they played football, cheerleading, volleyball. I would look at the little paper when it gets sent to you in the class, how much the sport was going to cost. And I wanted to play football so bad with my buddies.

5:46 But it just wasn't in the cards for me. I just knew that was going to be tough for them. I didn't want to do that to them. So I stayed away from sports. I think I played a season of basketball. So you didn't even, I mean, you filtered yourself. You're like, I'm not even going to ask. I'm not going to do it. I've always had that about me. That's why to this day, I still struggle with that. It's a good thing to struggle with in this right situation, but it's a struggle that you always feel like, I shouldn't want more for myself. Like give it to them type of thing, you know? And so that's something I've always dealt with. But because of that, I ended up, getting into music. I had a PlayStation at the time and I sold that to get a pawn shop bass guitar.

6:27 And I, a buddy of mine played drums. And so we started a band and we were funk rockers and then learn alternative and then learn. And then we, we got to be fairly good at it. We were on 94, seven NRK a couple of times, you know, with some other bands I was in, we'd play big shows. That was cool. That was like, did you know this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was really cool. Because every once in a while, he would drop some, he would play around people at the shop. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah. It was fun. You know, I still have that stuff in my shop right now, just in the corner. Once in a while, I'll play it. But that was definitely something I wanted to pursue. And then the band just kind of, we all kind of got a little bit older.

7:10 Things slowed down. Kind of what was the time frame we're talking about? Oh, man. Definitely early 20s, early, early 20s. Okay. And then I had my first son and I was working at a manufacturing company at that time too. And then that was around the time of like that last recession we had where all the homes and everything just shut down. Oh, yeah. And so they had layoffs. Now, I was, I started in interior doors. And then I progressed into forklift driver. And then from then they progressed me into shipping and receivings where I was like the youngest guy running a shipping and receiving warehouse, just shipping out stuff to all these other contractors and homeowners that needed stuff. It was very cool.

7:50 I learned a lot quickly. And then it, you know, the- So 08, like 09? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Around that time, it crashed. And I was stressing out because I just had my first son and the relationship I was in was very much dependent on me bringing in the money. And then I remember looking on Craigslist back then. And I don't think it was on the paper back then. Maybe it was. I don't know. Back in my day. Yeah, yeah. There was this paper. So it was like a Craigslist thing. I remember that. And it was for restoration technician needed. And it listed out what it was. And one of the main things was trauma scene cleanup and then this and that.

8:30 And I was like, well, that's kind of interesting. And then so I went into the Salem West branch that was in not too far from my house, actually. and kind of just presented myself, hey, I'm looking for a job. It was a serve pro, right? It was a serve pro, yeah. And little did I know, Kay, the owner, was sitting in the corner, which I thought was maybe just a receptionist lady. When you rolled in. Yeah, and then the actual front desk lady was there, and she took my information. I think Kay was kind of watching me out the side of her eye. And, Then one of the managers came out and was like, looking for a job. Serpro's hungry for workers. So like me being scared if I was even going to get to someone, they were like, got somebody today. He's a breather.

9:10 Yeah. We're going to use him. But he gave me a little test. He's like, I want you to sketch out this office and I'll be back. He was just moving forward. I was like, okay. And I didn't know how to sketch out a building back then. Also, I was from doing the interior doors at the manufacturing company. I was used to doing everything in like inches, you know. Yeah. So I did my sketch in different versus like feet in inches, you know. So he thought that was funny, but he's like, well, he knows that he's a tape measure, I guess. So there's something there. And he's still breathing. Yeah. So then he took me into the back office and said, here's what we do. Showed me some pictures of a job that they had been working on.

9:52 Probably not something you should do also, because he showed me some of the trauma scene cleanups, you know, like, is this really what you would want? I was like, wow, that's crazy that I just saw that. But also, I mean, there's a there's a interesting factor to it. Like you're like. would be something I think I would want to see. Like I would want to experience what that would be like to be on a site like that because we only see it from movies and stuff like that. So your brain is unaware of what reality is until you're actually there later on. You know, I start to do the majority of all the traumas and cleanups for them later on. And that turned into a whole nother thing. A whole nother side story. But from there, I was hooked.

10:32 You know, I started coming in. I was hired like the next day could show up. And I didn't know, you know, what to do with my hands as soon as I walk in there. And they're just like, start cleaning this. You know, that's the thing about the restoration industry that I try to stop in my own is like direction. Like... The owners, the operators, the managers know what to do, but the people on site that are going to do it don't know what to do. And so, you know, for us, not to jump ahead, but like our mornings, the guys just wanted to get to the trucks and get to the shop and start moving things. But why? What are you doing? You're just wanting to move. Let's sit down. Here's the jobs. This is what I expect. This is what's going on.

11:13 Until everybody gives me a yes, you understand. Then we can leave the office store. I love that. We're locked in here till everybody's aware because or else all four of us are going to go in four different directions when we open that door. And that's what happens. So that's what it was like going there is just chaos. And pretty high volume. Yeah. A shop, really. Always kind of had been a fairly high end. Yeah. And not to say that they didn't know what they were doing, but it was just like so much, you know, like how can you capture being 100% on each project? Yeah. That's impossible without having high players. And obviously they were in need of people. So...

11:54 So when you think about it, we go to these, you know, my first missions, we go and I was trailing some kid that was just a little bit older than me. And we're in like, you know, million dollar home. And he's like, this is what we're going to do. And I'm like, how does he know we need to do that? Like, how is he confident that we can just tear up this hardwood? It goes all over, you know, and you're just mind is just like, man, these young kids are like in control of some pretty. Lord of the flies. Yeah. Like, doesn't he need to call the office before we start? I'm going to go get the thingy request, but. Well, and it's interesting too, because I can see how that ties back to your personality. Yeah, yeah. So like you were already the kid looking at the fact sheet about baseball season.

12:35 Yeah, yeah. And going, oh my gosh, that's going to be 80 bucks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now you're in a million dollar home with like ongoing hardwood floor and you're doing this mental calculation of holy crap. The husband, where is he at? I wasn't aware of insurance, how that process worked. You know, you don't know anything other than like, one's lunch. Yeah. Like, a long till lunch. So that's pretty much, that's how I got introduced to it. So it was always chaotic. But like, then... When you start to learn more, you start to realize it's not as chaotic. You were the chaotic person. Like you just didn't understand where everybody was going, like moving up in there, why he was over there, why they were talking about it.

13:18 And then you start to learn. Like, oh, there's a pace here that if you keep up with the pace, you can really find what needs to happen. Oh, he knows it has to get removed because that little beeping thing that he's holding. Yeah. There's no way around it. So you were starting to see then firsthand that technically the team does have rhyme and rhythm to what's happening. You were just essentially overwhelmed by the lack of experience. Okay. Okay. Or, you know, and like in my business, like just nobody's speaking out loud. Yeah. I've done this thing lately with my crew where I just talk out loud. I try not to just sit there in silence thinking about the problem. Oh, yeah. I have to even have the dinner table with my family.

13:59 I'm like just eating my food thinking about it. I have to stop myself and just... Maybe not have a conversation about their day, but just let them know what I'm thinking about. Helps the conversations just start again, you know, like with the wife, because she's under the impression that, oh, he's thinking about something. Let me just think with it. But like, I need her back and forth to help me. And then I need my kids to feel present in the moment. And then, okay, I got that done. Okay, hey, how's, you know, what? Maybe later we should rearrange your room. What would be a crazy way we could rearrange it? You know, get their brains sparked up and talking again. But that was a really thing I struggled with in the beginning of the business, was just staying in my head.

14:39 And, you know, I've always kind of been like that too. But I see that in a lot of young males in the industry. They're just in their head the entire time. They're not really speaking to a manager or anybody about that. Because you kind of feel annoying sometimes. When you start, well, why are we doing that? Why are we doing that? And some of us that don't have the teaching quality, it is annoying. Yeah. Like, there's 50 steps. Like, do you want me to explain all 50 or I could just get it done? And then maybe on the drive home, I'll explain it to you. But I forgot, you know, how. So there's that as a young person in it. You either ask a lot of questions. and then you retain that information or you ask a lot of questions just, just to talk.

15:22 Yeah. That was one thing that was like, I never knew that fine line for it. But yeah. So, you know, I progressed into serve pro and then I, I stayed there for quite a while, just learning and doing and learning, doing a lot of just after hour calls, you know, because I was just available. There was a want. I always wanted to be the guy to check it out first or to be there first and to feel like I can map it out, to feel like I can. Why? What drove that? You know, that was the thing that it's like, for sure ego, you know, for sure ego. But a lot of it was like, I felt like I was the most capable and I didn't want somebody to not get the best service, you know.

16:09 And that is a lot of ego. But it's also like, I didn't want somebody to mess it up and then we have to fix it, you know. It was always like a fixing thing with me. Like, I would have to fix it if they just... If they wouldn't have done that, it just would have been easier. And I just understood that I understood it better because I gave so many hours of grinding nights. I just understood it better. And it was just easier for me to drive versus be the passenger. Maybe you cared a little bit more. I cared a little bit more. And being a passenger is hard for me. to just sit there and watch. I gotta be moving. I understand why people move the way they move. Because if you sit still for too long, for me too, you know, the brain just starts, you know, doing things.

16:52 And I hate, I hate that feeling of not being productive, you know, And the other thing that I'm avoid saying is the reason I wanted to do those was because it would help me not have to worry about my life, my personal life. Oh, yeah. And, you know, me and Brandon had some conversations, you know, when I worked under him. about my personal life affecting the work life. And that was a lot of it too, is like, if I can fix this house, that makes me feel good about not being able to fix my relationship or my drinking problem or whatever it have been. There was a lot of things, but like young males in that industry The type of person that wants to help usually needs the help the most.

17:37 And that person really, you can see that they want to help and they do everything. They grind. But if you talk to them about their personal lives, they're going through something that kind of hides that. And so that was the mask I wore was work. What was going on? Do you mind sharing? You know, as a young male, I definitely had a problem with alcohol. I don't have a problem with alcohol anymore because I choose not to. But back then, I was not choosing to accept that problem, you know. And so there was a lot of things that led to the traumas in cleanups. You know, you'd go there and you'd see, you know, a child that was, you know, murdered and you're having to clean it up.

18:21 And then you go home. Like, it was just like bonkers to me. So I didn't want to go home with that. So I would go to the bar with a coworker or a friend. And then just, I would think of it as like cooling down. Like, let me just cool it down. Let me just drink and not think about it. I don't want to take this home with me. Well, what I learned later in life from a trauma-sing instructor was that you have to talk about it to them. They're not seeing. So you feel like you're putting that burden on them of seeing what you've just seen or just spent the day cleaning up. They don't see it. They just hear you talking about it. You talking about it is the helpful part for them.

19:03 They feel like they can help you. You're releasing that. It's like a whole process for you. But they're not necessarily taking on the emotional burden because they actually didn't get the physical exposure is what you're saying. Yeah. I've never thought about it that way. And it's the same with work. You know, like if you had a bad day, you talk about a bad day and it kind of helps relieve the bad day and somebody helps you through it. But like they're not in the crawl space with you. You know, they're not seeing all that. So they don't see or feel all the emotion. But you let that emotion out is so important, especially as, you know, a young male, which I never did. I just held it in there. Just held it.

19:43 And then the next day I'd show up angry. Because I was angry that a little kid got, you know, but I showed up angry, you know, and I'd be a problem in the morning or, and then you're, you just kind of have to forget that you did that. And then you push it out and then you go to another one. You go to, you get numb to it and you get numb to it. But I remember the, the trauma scenes were the ones that like, then I was so attached to them. Like I need to be the one that. that cleans it. Cause I don't want somebody else to leave some blood splatter. And then the family sees that. And then, you know, like I was, I didn't want them to see what I had to see. You know, you, you kind of take that on. So, you know, the, the, the people that do the trauma scene can kind of relate to that feeling.

20:25 And if you're not like, Oh wow, this is crazy. It's like, man, I got to make sure that the mom doesn't walk in here. Because especially as you get family, you start to realize like, the implications of everything that's involved. You know, it's not just like a job anymore. It is like a whole emotional service for everybody. Dude, do you, was it you and I that responded to the, this is probably something you've seen more than once, but it was a young girl. I think she was probably 13 or 14. And when we walked into the house, the house was like a shrine to her accomplishments, academic and sports.

21:06 Was that you and me? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember that one. Dude, so we did this loss. I mean, technically. Her name was Anna Hannibal. Dude, you remember the last name. Because it was Hannibal. Yeah. Her name was Anna Hannibal. Dude, we walked into this home and it was very, like, I think at first glance you would just think, oh, that's a proud parents. It was different. Like there was a worshiping. And again, I'm not trying to like turn this into something spiritual, but there was a worshiping of the child's accomplishments and that child committed suicide. So under the pressure... of all these accolades, which is not a unique story. Like there's a lot of professional sports people that say they walk this line at some point.

21:50 So she takes her life in her own room. And I believe it was the mother for the next, the whole time we were doing the job, the mom was in bed in the home and just crushed under what just happened. So just to provide... For those that aren't first responders in our audience, especially those that maybe are not super connected to the industry that we came from on restoration and understanding what a true quote first responder can look like inside that field... Like that's the kind of stuff our guys and gals are dealing with. And so to add some depth to what you're saying about the sense of responsibility then to the family, like imagine our crew was having trouble communicating with the homeowner because she was literally in her own bedroom.

22:43 Right. Suffering. Yeah. Yeah. And our team's trying to clean up that environment and work through this process. Or worse, you're like, she's in there. I can't get a, I can't ask her these questions. We're just going to come back tomorrow. Yeah. And I remember, I think on that one specifically, for example, there was days where Like we couldn't do anything. Yeah, yeah. And it was not strategy. It wasn't tactics. It wasn't insurance payments. It was emotional nuts, like lostness. And on that one, I actually found her note, you know, under the bed. And so like, what do you do with that book? Have to, you have to preserve it. You have to take care that you have.

23:23 And then, man, it's just like, you know, you're the person handing that. Who do you hand it to? Sure. Do you hand it to your mom? Do you hand it to the next family member? Do you hand it to the manager? There's all those things that just come into play with those that... One thing, you know, it's hard with those, but that I learned later from the instructor was to not relate to it while you're there. Because then you start getting angry, you know... there was a scenario he talks about where a tech was so angry, he threw a chair through a window because- Wow. You just get slapped up in the moment. Yeah. I could see that. You think, I would never do that. I could see that happen. There's those flash of anger that you get from something that you're a part of because you are a part of it once you step on site.

24:06 Yeah. And just making sure that You're, you know, there's pictures on the wall, things like that. We were instructed, don't look at those. Not that you don't want to put a face to it, but not yet, not then. You have a task, follow the task. But if you start looking at the photos and the awards and you start, man, there's a swell of emotion that could come up. You know, I had one scenario where I had to go clean another child murder that the father had committed. And you walk in there in the pool of, you know, blood is the little boy's pants, the little Levi jeans.

24:48 The night before, I literally just changed my son the same age out of those same, you know, because the Target brands are all this. Oh, yeah. You know, I just just had changed his pants out of those. I remember folding them, putting them off the side, changing him, putting him to bed. And then I walk into that and it was like a it was like a simulation. You know, you're like. You just got dropped into like, how are you going to handle this situation? You're just like, oh my gosh, the guy I was with, the technician, the guy I was with, Immediately starts to puke and I'm like, Hey, control yourself. Let's put you out in the box truck, get you some water. I know you're going through something, but I cannot have the homeowner, the husband, the wife, see you reacting this way.

25:33 We are their only help on getting this out of there for them. And if we are not physically able to do it, they're going to feel so drained that they know they have to do it and Luckily, one of the marketers I was with at the time, Steve Yerger, he stepped up, came in, was like, yeah, what are we going to do? And he came in and we got- He was a hammer. Yeah. He knew, he understood. He used to be around those situations a lot. So he came in, we knocked it out, got it cleaned up. The only thing we can do, that's just clean it up. Yeah. And then the chaplain, Todd Pinch, really good. friend and help source, he came out, deals with the family, got things on his end that he knows he can do.

26:17 What tool can you provide is always the thing in every job. What tool are you? Okay. Maybe you're just a skill saw. Maybe you're just a hammer. Maybe you're just the nail. But just do that. Don't try to be another tool unless you're capable. And that's how I treat all of our jobs too. What tool do we have? What tool can we use? We don't have that tool. Somebody else has that tool. It's got to come. Another contractor, another person can come in and take it over. But I don't really like the fake it till you make it. even though I've done that many times but I don't like that because that part in me feels like ah the guilt because of what if we faked it we don't make it and then it's on me yeah that's the shame that you live with on some of these projects if you don't have them correctly you know there's consequences.

27:07 There's there, the, the, one of the jobs that has had pushed me to be better was I went in on a cat three claim for an adjuster that scared me. She was so ruthless and she was just like the principal of the adjuster. Safe farm. Yeah. She scared me. And share a first name. I I don't know. I don't know. She might hunt you down. I will say though that she became my, she was one of my personally top referring adjusters. Later on, I beat the level. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But to there, it was, it was bad.

27:49 And she got me on a claim and I was not the potential I should have been because of the drinking, because of the late nights, because of, the cockiness because of that. I slipped up on something that I should have understood the protocols and started cleaning things. But I also did the mistake of putting the wrong equipment and turning on the wrong equipment and things like that, causing technically more damage to the environment. And she caught me on it. And I think she saw that I was broken from it because I was so embarrassed and I couldn't believe that she gave me some helpful tips and she was like, it is what it is, but you guys are just going to have to do this.

28:30 And so that broke me. And then that sparked me to like pay attention a little bit more, a little bit more, but because of the drinking house, but I learned, you know, like I always ask, tell the guys, you know, like, Hey, don't do that. Ask me how I know. Yeah. Because I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not because it's just a Freddie thing that I want you to do. No, it was because a Freddie did that once and this was the outcome. I don't want that to happen to you. Dude, can I, are you okay if I do some Q&A with you? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You cool with that? All right. So you opened Pandora's box here, Freddie, just so you know, this is absolutely your fault. So I'm thinking about our time working together under a same flag.

29:13 And it's funny because in a lot of ways, I felt like you and I always had good communication. I felt like most of the time I had a pretty decent sense of where you were coming from. But, and, like, as we're starting to hear a more mature telling of your story, because obviously now you're using, you know, several decades, couple decades of experience to look back on. Now it's like, oh, I didn't totally understand what was going on. So I'm going to share, if you're okay with it, I would like to share some scenarios, types of scenarios I had with you often. Mm-hmm. And I would love to hear kind of your perspective on what was happening at the time.

29:53 And now looking back, I know you're running into similar frustrations as you develop people now. This is going to be fun. Right? Okay. So we'll just, and again, I want to be clear that this is for learning. Like, Freddie, you're a man's man now, dude. Like, okay. So back in the day. It's the green. Yeah, it's right. It's like the experience is paying off. These battle scars have created lessons that were learned. But okay, so I'm thinking back in the day, and I'm thinking how many times I wanted, and I'm going to use some kind of language that our listeners, I think, are used to listening to. But I wanted a force multiplier out of you. You were capable of being the force multiplier because by the time you came over to our team and started working with us, you were already hands down, had so many more losses under your belt compared to anybody in our roster.

30:45 But then on top of that, I've made this comment before. I can tell a lot about a recruit when they come in based on how they carry themselves in their uniform. So the guy that comes in and either has his glasses over the back of his neck or turned upside down on the bill of his hat, the hat's straight and clean, shirt's tucked in, probably has a knife on his hip somewhere. That tells me this is a dude that takes his work seriously. Like I can just make that judgment. I've been right probably 9.9% out of 10 times, right? You were one of those dudes. So when you came in, like you care, was in your uniform, the way you carried yourself, you have a system and a process to almost everything that you touch.

31:26 And it was really obvious to our team at all times. That's Freddie's system. He's operating from his system. Am I okay so far? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But then I couldn't, and I'm going to kind of shit on you a little bit here, but I could not get you for the life of me then to make more of you. Yeah, yeah. And that's all I wanted. As a leader, I'm like, this guy's the avatar when he's on. If I could get Freddy's eight cylinders to fire at the same time, the guy's unstoppable. And so then as a leader, I'm thinking to myself from my own experience, when I became responsible for other people, it helped me keep my shit together. Yeah. Right? It's like some layer of accountability.

32:08 So I'm like, okay, inevitably that's what will happen. Okay. And you know our chain of command at that time. You know there were several personalities in it, but I'm like, just give him responsibility because it'll help him keep his shit together. And it would in bouts. Like you would have these moments where you're at the top and you're crushing. And then when you fucking fell, dude, it was a good one. Yeah. Yeah. What's happening? Like, you know, in those scenarios, like, and you know what I'm talking about, like, what were you experiencing personally in those moments of time? And now looking back, what would you say was going on? Does that make sense? Yeah, no, 100%. It's what I try to tell my young crew about.

32:49 That Freddie back there only cared about to get to the end of the shift and being really good at it. I had no five-year plan. I had no goals. I had no strategy of how Freddie could go from being in apartments to a homeowner. As that person, I would never, ever dream or imagine I would be a homeowner or have a nice vehicle. It was, man, this is how much my check is going to be. This is how much I need to pay the bills. That was it. Just living in that everything else is the problem, not me mentality. And so that was a lot of it is just not having a structure or goals.

33:32 Not having a plan out, man. That was something that I never thought about in my early 20s is just... As corny as it's sounding, goals, just like a great goal. And then a monthly goal, just anything. And, you know, there was people that tried to convey that to me, but I couldn't hear it. Because I was just so stuck of living for the weekend. You know, what am I going to do this weekend? You know, and. I see that, my guys, you say that. And I'm like, you know, it's funny you say that because when they come and they look a little hungover, they look a little like you didn't get the sleep you should have.

34:13 I'm like... You saw me. You saw what I looked like when I should, me thinking, oh, I'm here. I'm here though. Yeah. I'm here. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. But you saw what I looked like showing up. How embarrassing, you know? So that was those things where I just didn't have that, you know, accountability. You didn't have the motivation to be a better version of yourself because it just, it didn't apply to you. Why would it apply to you back then? Yeah. So not having real sense of needing a mentor and utilizing a mentor, because as some of us, we don't want to talk about our problems. We don't want to embarrass ourselves, but we don't want also you to know the real me because I don't like the real me.

35:00 I hide it from myself throughout the day. Definitely going to hide it from everybody else. You know what I mean? And so that was a lot of the thing I went through with, With working, just not enjoying the ride, getting myself somewhere. I was just trying to get to the end of the day to start my little weekend to hide from my other problems. Are you a business that's under 5 million in sales, and you're just now getting ready to try and scale your company up and hit some of those targets you've always wanted to hit, but now you've got to build a sales team? Or maybe you just hired your first sales rep, but you don't really know how to manage them. Like, how do you manage, lead, train, develop a sales rep? Floodlight has a solution for you now.

35:40 So we can actually assign your sales rep a turnkey VP of sales that will help them create a sales blueprint, their own personal sales plan for your market, They'll have weekly one-on-ones with that sales rep to coach, mentor them, hold them accountable to the plan. And they'll also have a monthly owner's meeting where they'll meet with you or your general manager and review the progress of that sales rep. Their plan to actual results, what kind of performance improvement they're working on with them. Also let them know, hey, you might, they're doing really well. Maybe we should think of hiring a second sales rep. They're going to have that one-to-one advice for you as an owner or senior leader on the team as well. How great would that be to have a bolt-on sales manager for your one sales rep and it's only $2,500 a month?

36:23 If you're interested in talking more about that, reach out. Let's grab some time and let's talk shop. Our floodlight clients this last year in 2024 generated over 250 million in revenue. Supported by, advised by, an industry expert who's owned and operated a business just like you. So take action. Don't kick the can down the road. Start with our business health and value assessment. And let's unlock the next chapter of your success story. Dude, your comment of, I didn't like myself, so I certainly wasn't going to share that. That's super insightful. It's interesting because it makes me think about these applications where I've had more direct reports.

37:06 It's a little bit different here at Floodlight because our team members are like ex-business owners. They're all in like phase two of careers. So it's not like we're, it's a different conversation. Yeah. But one of the opportunities that we have in the blue collar space is that so many of our team members are young and in the first phases of any kind of formal career development whatsoever. But I don't think I ever thought about it that way. I'm just thinking about all the interactions I've had with team members and I have kind of a gut feeling. thing that I've always leaned into where I'll just get kind of a vibe. I need to say something or I have the opportunity to push back kind of hard and they're going to be able to take it well.

37:49 But that's not the same though. Like that's still kind of operating by accident. A little like the gut instinct just happened to work a lot. But that's different than an intentional strategy. And I think part of what I'm hearing you say is if leaders understand potentially that a lot of times this frustrating behavior or a lack of experiencing something that they know this person should be able to produce... could be based on that, like that they're not happy with themselves about things and that they're playing a game of hiding that from themselves. Well, then what would give me any perception that somehow I would then get that from them?

38:31 Right. Like if, if you're so, so anyways, I'm not even sure what, what you would do with that per se, but it does kind of change where the ownership of that is. So like at the end of the day, I couldn't make you do anything. Yeah. But, and, like, if I had known at the time that Freddie just basically is massively disappointed with himself, it might have changed the approach. For sure. Yeah. You know, and it could have been maybe at the time more effective more, like, earlier on. And so I think part of, like, me hearing you, I'm kind of going, hmm, there's an opportunity for those of us that now have younger teams. Mm-hmm. that, okay, there's something interesting there that you're getting a first-person perspective on that could equip us as leaders to get a different experience and maybe have an effect faster.

39:18 Because I think my approach, and obviously you'd be able to say this, I think my approach at the time is, A little bit of, I know you're better than that, which has value, but it's not a one size fits all. Yeah. And the problem is, it's like the individual isn't going to change other than for themselves. You know, same with like my drinking. I didn't stop until I just wanted to stop. And I just stopped. But with my attitude back there, I didn't turn into this version of me until I wanted to turn into this version of me. And then there was people that, like my wife, she's the one that started the business for us.

40:01 And I say that by she saw me working at another franchise and just doing it. And she kind of started to realize that I was like aware of all the things in the business. what we didn't know that we were just so stupid today. But, you know, she was like, oh, you know how to do all this. Why don't you just do it for yourself? And I was like, that's a lot of work. Like, no, thank you. I don't want to have to do that. Like these people have shops and employees like no way. But she knows the thing that drives and makes me go to the next level is force. If I'm just forced into it, I will get out of it.

40:41 Like if I'm forced to clean up a murder scene, forced to tackle crawl space, I'm terrified of spiders. Crawl spaces to me are like freaking fear factory. And I just put on the suit and I feel like I just pretend that the suit is armor and I go in and there's a big spider and I'm just, you know. So she knows if I'm just forced into it, I'm going to do it. So she goes, gets the contractor's license, look at it and you do it online and the course. And then I come home the next day and she's like, so I got it. It's going to be here. Here's the book. I already paid for it. Yeah. I already paid for it. It's here. I hate homework. I hate things like that. I, you know, she's a super smart. She's got her masters and teachers.

41:23 That's where she, she's from her. It's easy. And I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? I would plan in on, you know. going fishing or doing this, you know, and now I got to do this. But my ego is like, well, I can't let my girl do this. Now I have to get my contractor's license so I can show it to her that I can do it. And then, and then it starts and then she's, you know, so she's the reason, the push for sure. But like now we've reached that point where we're stagnant in the business and, And now I'm looking and hoping for another push. You know what I mean? And I think she's in the same thing too. Like this is not what she wanted to do, but she did it for us.

42:06 And she obviously seen the return that it came from it versus teaching. But I know for her, there's not a purpose for her, like a purpose that she drove out to here. And for me, it's a skill that I've had that I've just held on to. And I'm like, that's, I'm equipped with this. I have to use it if I want the family to later benefit from it. But definitely going back to what you said is like, I wouldn't have done that without a push from the right person. Definitely takes, you know, because you could have a bunch of people saying you're messing up, you're messing up, get better. I need this from you. Until the right person points the finger at that individual, they won't. You know, maybe it's grandpa, maybe it's mom, maybe it's brother that just came back.

42:50 You know, whatever. Maybe it is the manager that you look up to. But I definitely see that with young guys that I bring on into my business is... This kid wants to be here. He's present, but he is on the weekend. I don't know if he's coming back Monday. Yeah. But when he's there, he's showing up. You know, I have one of those individuals right now and I've sent him to the class. He's gotten certified. He's doing all the things. He's OSHA certified now, all these things. And he knows how to do all these things that he never thought he was going to be able to do. But I see that young Freddie in him in there. And I'm just like, that's the part of me to my next level of as a business owner is, how can I get that young Freddie out of him to make a better version of himself?

43:34 Not like me, but like just a better version of himself, whatever that is, you know? And that's why I love, you know, that our brand is the wolf because that's definitely what I felt like as a young male is like, I could either be a protector or I could be a hunter and that hunter is hungry for just, Destroying his life, you know, just taking, just being rageful and just not caring where he goes or what he does. Or he can, you know, protect his pack. And then, you know, that's kind of like the origin story of like the wolf, you know, because I've always been my lone wolf. Never really held on to teams. Yeah. Like it was hard for me to work with teams because in a team, you get to a point where you work with somebody and you don't have to speak.

44:18 I love that. You know, you can just work together. It's like a song. You're just going to the rhythm and you're doing things. But if you're not and somebody's out of tune, that really bothers me. It's so hard to keep up with somebody that just isn't in tune, isn't in keeping pace. It's very rare that you find the person that has the same rhythm as you. And then that person finds something else too. And then they go somewhere else or they find a different job. So for me, teams have always been hard because I'm just so stubborn about my process. Yeah, and you would cycle. You would have these times where for a moment, we would be seeing a healthy Freddie.

44:58 What is now, I do believe wholeheartedly that your crew's experience now from you. Because you do have that character. You have the charisma. You have the ability to communicate at the level that you're sharing with us today. Which, by the way, dude, hats off. Thank you for us and our listeners. But I'm having a really great fucking time. But it's like you would have these moments where that version of you would come out. And that's what we would get so excited about. It's like, man, if he stays in that zone, our team... will be a force to be reckoned with because of Freddie's standard that he holds himself to, the quality, the output, the considerations, the proactiveness, and the way that you're thinking about how this job needs to be produced, why, at what cycle.

45:41 We wanted the whole team to have that same level of independence and ability to adapt and overcome by leveraging a known skill into multiple scenarios. That was your gift. You are just naturally gifted at that. But then it would be like, at times, it felt like probably if I did, you know, ratios, 60 to 65% of the time, you just wanted nothing to fucking do with everybody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there was probably about 15% of the time where I think this missional version of you would start coming out. And I think you kind of caught a fire when someone would receive your guidance the right way is probably what would happen if my guts are, you know, are serving me.

46:24 Is that Freddie would have an audience member. He would speak to them and they would respond the way and he's like, oh, this is somebody I can teach how to play guitar. Yeah. And then you are in. And then the next day, if you went out with the crew that was made up of the teams that haven't struck that for you, it was like you just came back and everything was fucked again. Yeah. And I guarantee you, I did all the work that day. Yeah. Because I didn't want them to touch anything. Yeah. And they felt it. So it's like you would swing from these moments of being a force multiplier. But it was such a short period of time in comparison to the kind of the sorry, like the cancer that you brought because you were so put off by everybody and you had zero filter.

47:06 So like the team knew how disgusted you were. Like I remember several team meetings where your behavior told the rest of them, they are second class citizens. Like you literally don't have the time of day for them. So, and again, like I warned you. But also just to affirm you and be clear, this was years ago, years and years ago. And you've learned so much since then. But so, okay, within that scenario, like how do you look back on that now? And how are you leveraging that to be so different? Because you are now with your existing team. Yeah, so, because I can remember, you know, being like that with these guys, like almost the belittling, it's more than hazing, you know, because hazing is kind of a little bit different.

47:52 But like, there is that, you know, to it that I remember just being like, like that, like, just simple tasks, you know, you don't know what that is. Like, come on, dude, keep up. Just follow me. Just bag behind me. You know, like, you're just a bad guy. You know, being like that. Because my goal is to get it done, get out, then go and try to enjoy a weekend or the night. I wanted to get there. But these guys needed to be on my rhythm. Now I'm like, slow down, make sure everybody's got PPE. We got to wear it, man. Trust me, put the knee pads on. Trust me, put the goggles on. I'm really big about the PPE.

48:34 really big about the guys. You don't need to rush that. We have eight hours here we need. We don't need to rush this job. I'm really big on the guys about, not that we have endless amount of monies, but I don't care about the money. If you need something, let's get it. If we need something here, let's get it. Let's make sure we're doing the right things. We're Testing for lead in asbestos. We're doing all the protocols that we need to do. So let's slow down and do that because if we rush past that, one of you guys are going to get hurt. And I'm going to have to fold up a wolf flag and present it to you. Yeah, right. The wolf flag. I love it. But there's that.

49:15 It was just like now I can slow down. I'm not rushing anymore. Back then I was rushing. Now I can slow it down. We can talk about the process. And making them feel comfortable with the process. Like, you want to, you know, some of the other things that we do is we remove athletic trucks from high schools and colleges during our down season. You want to drive the excavator? Okay. Like, let me show you how to drive the excavator. Let's, you want to take a picture of you driving it and send it to your girlfriend? Heck yeah, dude. Like, I'll do it. Here, let me get you. Okay. So there's that of just letting other people drive and me being okay, being the passenger now, because I drove for so long that nobody was capable of driving because I always held on to the steering wheel.

50:00 And so now letting them, you know, steer the boat and be helping paddle is like what I want to just make sure they're aware of, but also that they're teaching the next guy that maybe I don't have time to teach and spend. Cause I'm not going to be, in their vehicle with them every job. Eventually, they've got to do it on their own. And they do now. And just stopping that belittling. That's one of the things when I, hey guys, let's not talk to each other like that. I had an employee that was related to one of our employees. And so when they're on job sites, they talk to each other like family members.

50:42 And their skin color was different. So the homeowner doesn't know that they're related, you know, and the way that they would talk to each other. Was like, yo, dude, stop. Like you cannot, for one, like, dude, you can't talk to a person like that. But for two, the homeowner cannot hear that you guys communicate like that in their home. Maybe that's a trigger for them. Maybe that is going to cause them to be like negative star review, you know, whatever. They just argued. They're not mad at each other. They're just fine. But like what people perceive of them is ultimately what we also care about in the company.

51:25 So I want the guys to also know that this is not going to be the environment that we just allow each other to belittle or make fun. If you don't know what a screwdriver is, I've had a guy come work and he didn't know what a Phillips versus a screwdriver. And all of, you know, everybody wanted to make, hey, hey, hey, hey. You felt it coming. The cannon fodder. Grab one and show him the difference. Just show him that if you've never held, you know, it's hard to say. If you've never held one, you don't know. Yeah. I don't know how a freaking phone works. But if I went and talked to a guy and that's in the manufacturer of a phone, he'd probably think I'm an idiot for not knowing the simple processes in there.

52:09 Yeah. It's the same thing, you know, with the tools and the processes and stuff, just making it so he can feel comfortable for asking the next time he doesn't know what another thing is. So it doesn't slip into him being like, why didn't I want to ask him? You know, like, Just tell me, just talk to me. What shifted though? Like what, cause you've taught, you've said several times, like it requires these little internal catalysts to make that thing a lived out. What can you recall a specific scenario or event that kind of flipped you into this new mode? I think I just, and maybe it is true, maybe it isn't. But like when I had my daughter, I just got a little bit more less manly, you know, about the everything.

52:51 Yeah. Because I wasn't going to yell at her about putting a dress on. You know what I mean? Like, you just kind of tone down a little bit. And there's other things too. Like, my eldest son, I lost connection and, you know, just access to him because of that old Freddie. You know, so there's that that I just like, you just hold on to. Like, that's the reason why. Because you're like that. So change it now. You know, now that I'm older, you realize how easy it would have been to just slow down. And so that's why it just stands out to me to just like not belittle somebody just because they weren't aware of it. And just giving that assurance that they can speak freely without being judged by something they just don't know.

53:40 Yeah. Man, that's really insightful. And I think... I mean, I think that's my lived experience is I feel like my kids, our kids have been... Big catalyst. Just the... Yeah. Yeah. It's like as Jana and I started having these little monsters, you just realize, I don't know, you just get forced to deploy different tools. Yeah. I have to be so different. Yeah. I think the biggest thing for me with kids is I had to get a handle on my anger. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, I think especially in the blue collar trades, there's just the, it's a little more expected. People are going to yell and holler and cuss and like anger is just sort of ever present in our space.

54:21 I think that's changing. Like there's more people like you and I, and we're like learning as we get older, but yeah. But yeah, that was the thing. It was kids and marriage. It starts to shave off those rough edges. You realize, hey, this isn't going to work. I can't show up this way anymore. Well, and you're motivated, I think, in a different way to get a different result. It's hard. And it makes sense. It's hard for me to get super motivated by JoJo, who's just as secretly self-centered as I am. And I see a few hours a day at work. And at the end of the day, he's not paying my mortgage or really has no long-term effect on my life. that is a harder catalyst to lean in and be like objectively, gosh, I could really approach this differently.

55:07 Well, when you get married or you start having children, it's like, well, This is a lifelong scenario. Like this isn't going to end soon and it's not over on Friday. So you just have a different level of motivation to engage in the battle, I think, which is it's the forced environmental thing, like you said. This is sort of a perfect segue to ask the question. You know, your wife is integrated into the business. Some may not realize from the recent social media post that office manager is your partner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's jump to like, so how long has Wolf been around? We're in year six. If you're my wife. Yeah, yeah. But it could be either one. That's right. No, we're year six.

55:48 We started in 2020, right at like the end of the year of 2020. Okay. November, we got our, so we're six years into it now. Which to me, I'm like, so freaking. You're a COVID launch. Yeah, we are. And our daughter's COVID baby. Yeah. She was born in that time too. So we're so behind, but yeah, we've done so much. And this fire still in the business, which is great. But yeah, she definitely pushed us to launch. You guys seem to really like each other. We seem to. You're great at conveying that in your social media. But like we are so opposite.

56:30 And that's why we attract. But we are so opposite. She's a busybody. Always doing stuff. And she has checklists and all these things. I'm more of a get forced into it. Oh, we got to go do that. All right. Let's go do it. Get it done. I'm not planning to do anything like it's just happening. I'm there. I got to finish. But she's like, what time was the start? And then how are we going? And then what time are we going to, you know, I'm like, it's like exhausted from it. But because of that, that's why we've, We work so well as she holds me accountable. I'm forcing myself to get the things done. The thing that we lack, though, that we've really been working on this year is just communicating.

57:15 Because you can get so wrapped up in your day and that the kids are fed. We're good. Everybody's awesome. And then we just kind of scroll away from each other. So this year we've been really working. Way to put it. Yeah, we've been really working on talking more about the business. Because before I was like, I'm so tired of talking about the business. But then I'm like, we need to talk about the business. So now we talk about the business in a positive way. Not the things that are stressing us out about. We'll save that for when we're on the clock. Oh, this is interesting. Okay. We're talking about the positive things. And I'm always like, what's our goal? What's our, you know, like, what's our goal?

57:55 She's very in her head as well, but in a calculated way that she wants to give the right answer. She's not just going to spit ball. Yeah. She lands on a right answer. She's very calculated in that way. So she really is your analyst. Yeah. In terms of natural wiring. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and. So when we are having our conversations, I have to pull out of her. And there was a lot of time in our beginning of the business where I was so angry at her for not doing enough in the business. I was very macho about it. Like, I'm freaking working all day. I get home and now I've got to look over this. What are you doing? And really what I found out and we... came to terms with is that I just felt alone in the business because she just wasn't telling me all the things that she was doing.

58:46 Or thinking about her process. And if I just looked at all the things that she accomplished, even just the QuickBooks and all the billings that she's going through, I would be like, oh, dang. you did that. But I don't know, you don't know what, what somebody's doing with their time when you're out, you know, working in the field. And so really showing each other what we're bringing to the table has really changed our, the way we feel about the business. Cause it was kind of like, well, if you're not doing this and I'm doing this, then why are we doing this? Like, you know i i don't want to do this alone i can't for one there's no way we're we're up against teams there are teams that are just doing this better all day every day and if we cannot have the drive to compete with michael jordan then why are we playing you know and and so like that i think also was like for her, oh, this is how he, he just needs to have the reinsurance.

59:48 I'm just like, I just need to get pet. Just pet me. And so I'm good. I can wag my tail again. Let's go. But that was really difficult for us to find out. Nobody's coaching us. Nobody's telling telling us how to be a business, how to be a husband and wife. You know, I like steps to something. And if I don't know those steps, it's just like chaotic in my brain. Like what are the steps? How are other people doing this? I want to know how they're doing it. So on things like that, like raising a family and being a father, there's no, you just have to learn it. And it took a toll, you know, our second year, last year actually was our worst year we ever had in business.

1:00:32 Layoffs, just money wasn't there. And it was a sense of like... Me not doing enough for the company, you know, and I felt like I was just nonstop. And there was no reward. And then on her end, she's doing all the things, but no reward. And we're like, this is not working. What is it? Well, what we didn't know was we were grinding all the way to that reward. And then the next year, everything paid off. And all that year's worth of doing the things that we just held as reps paid off. And it just boom, boom, boom, boom. It added up. But that's very difficult, as you guys know, as business owners.

1:01:12 To grind and not see a reward. And it's not that you can't be like, oh, well, in six months, it'll be here. You just have no idea when it's going to happen. Yeah. People keep telling you, but it's like, you don't know. The rent is due. That is an actual payment that's required on that date. I know when that's going to happen. In the midst of that, you talk about being a husband and a wife, like in the midst of all that stress, when times are good or bad, there's a certain level of stress that every business kind of carries, right? How do you guys manage the marriage part? Because you have young kids too. Like have you guys learned any kind of rhythms or a strategy for that?

1:01:55 Romance. Yeah, the romance is hard because, you know, I'll get home from work and I'll just be dirty. Toast. Just dirty from whatever it be. And I'll enter the door and she wants to hug me and I'm like, stop, hold on. I'm sweaty. I just don't. But I'm also like, but don't think that I don't want you to hug me after I get out of the shower. I have to say these things because if you don't hear me say these things, you're going to be like, oh, he just keeps pushing me off. Why doesn't he want to touch me before he takes a shower? You know, there's all those little things. And then same thing with her. Hey, hold on. I got to do this. And then I'm like, but don't. But give me a hug after, you know. And so we just the constant reinsurance of things. And she knows she has to put me in a situation.

1:02:35 I don't like going on vacation. I think it's a burden. It's a waste of money. I can't stand it. I don't like it at all until I'm there. Then I'm like, then you're like, damn. But leading up to it, I'm stressed. I feel guilty. I've got to make sure that the crew is good. I got to make sure the jobs are good. And she's the planner. So she takes care of everything. And then I'm like, but she knows she can't get mad at me because I'm driving the company. I know I can't get mad at her for booking this when we're in the middle of our busiest season because she wants family time. And so there's that, you know, that we have to just realize it's for the greater good. And then when we're there, we're like, yeah, it's fun.

1:03:17 But, I think that's a real, real approach though. Like in the sense of, I think sometimes when we talk about these things that make things survivable and really go beyond that to where there's an opportunity to thrive a bit, is that we want it to feel like the movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody is so in love that they couldn't act out of alignment if they tried. Right. And the reality of it is that's not true. Yeah. That so much of succeeding in a relationship or in a business, like you said, we were putting the reps in. It felt crappy. There was nothing sexy about it. Yeah. But we did it anyways. And thankfully, now this year, we're reaping the benefit of those reps. Yeah.

1:03:58 Yeah. That's the same shit that happens. For everybody. Like you, like having to, it seems like a pain in the ass. Or are you any less in love because you have to say out loud? Now look, I do want to hug you. I just am gross. So just give me 10 minutes. I think people hear that stuff and they go, well, if it was real love or if you're really in awe with each other, that's not required. And that's what destroys marriages because you end up not ever experiencing the raw self-love. fueling of being this epic person to your partner. Right. And then you act as if, if you went for outside of your marriage, that somehow you're going to find that relationship's going to feel like that and won't require any mechanical, you know, reminders or whatever.

1:04:41 And that's what happens. Like that's kind of the false bullshit. You know, I feel like that we buy into. Yeah, I think what I'm hearing a theme from you is you've really learned over the last 10 years or however long, like the importance of getting out of your head. Yes. And communicating what's in your head with the people around you, including your wife. This is like a thing between both of you. She's got to do the same. The more you guys share, the more aware you are. Yeah. Of each other. Yes. The more aware you are of your crew, where they're at. Seems like, because that was the question that kept, as you were talking, I'm like, God, this is a different... ready than I... Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's not even... From the summit days, I'm like, man, what was the instigator?

1:05:22 But it's just like... Because a lot of that communication was just like, I know what answer you want to hear, so I'm just going to tell you that answer. I can just get out of here. You know, and that's one thing that I tell my wife to. I don't want to give you a yes or a no to whatever that you want to hear. Let me tell you how I really feel. I don't want to go on this vacation. I don't want to do these things. But I can assure you, once we're there, I'm going to enjoy it. So, yes. Let's do it. I need you to understand that. That you're going to talk to, you're going to bring it up to me and be like, just know that when we're there, I'm good. But you got to allow me to, I can't feel excited about it because I have the weight right now of the company.

1:06:07 And when you're holding so much weight, man, you don't want to let go until you're ready to let go of it. I mean, you can really crumble under that pressure. But if you can hold on to it and drop it safely, you can pick it up again. That's what our biggest thing is like. Just let me deal with it how I deal with it. You know, I'm not a superhuman being. I'm not a David Goggins. I'm not just a regular dude that I'm having to navigate through my own emotions. I know you have your set of emotions. Let's communicate about those. And then it will work. But I can't like... Tell you, yeah, I'm so excited to go. And so excited. And then I slip up and say something and you're like, oh, so he doesn't want to go.

1:06:51 And then we have this conversation about that, you know? So, you know, when you go like beast mode into the company, I talked with this a lot of people. You like forget your family when you're trying to like build it. Your vision is just that there is no time for the family. If you really want to like progress, there's no way I can check in and check out. Like being Peter Parker in Spider-Man, you got to put the mask on to be Spider-Man. Yeah. I take it off to be Parker. Yeah. You're building that business.

1:07:31 I had to come to terms and I told her to like, I have to check out like, I have to just get all this stuff dialed in. I'm going to have to be out of town to get this project. I'm going to have to do this, you know, and it turned into where it was really hard when my kids would see me in, in my wolf construction clothes, they knew dad was going out that day. And I had to just like, You almost like hide putting on the clothes to leave because the daughter would be like, hey, I thought we were going to go to the park later. Mom's going to take you to the park. I just got to go do this thing really quick. And then there's that struggle of a father leaving to go do this. But man, the bills, you got to get paid.

1:08:12 I got to get the homeowner is going to sign the check today. They have it. There's all these excuses. But it's because the business and you know the family… For me, I'm still figuring out how to make Peter Parker and Spider-Man coexist. I only say that because I just saw the movie recently. But like, dude, now I'm so emotional as an adult. I see… I'm just like… And my son's like, are you great? I'm like, yes, sir. Because you're like, dude, you have no idea, man. Like, I see the message here. You know, you see the messages and you see the things now as an experienced person, as an adult, as a father, like, crap. Now I know when my dad was just tired all the time, you know, like.

1:08:55 I see why, you know, we were so poor and struggling because my parents didn't have a vision. They just didn't. I'm not holding that against them. Yeah. But they just didn't. And I want to make sure I have that as the foundation for my kids later because, you know, I told my wife, basically, I'm sacrificing my body. I'm giving it all so that they can have a platform later. If I can be the origin story for them, that's my goal is to just get them there because it took me so long to get here today that I don't want them to have to.

1:09:35 I could not imagine them having to go through my struggle for them like that. Like, yeah, same with my family, you know. the struggle they went through to get, to just get me where I was. Like that, that's pretty much the driver, I think, with a lot of young, or even just later entrepreneurs that just figure it out. They're like, fuck, I wasted so much time just to get here. Yeah. If we could cut that down. Yeah. You know, how old are your, your kids now? What's the spread? So I got one half, six and nine. And then my oldest is 17. Okay. So here's, this is something that I feel like I've witnessed firsthand recently that I like sharing because I think it gives parents in the middle of the fight some level of reality check and affirmation at the same time.

1:10:27 So sharing this with you, again, this isn't a holier than thou. It's just like I'm a decade and a half in front of you. Yeah. Your kids in the moment, it's weird. Like Jana and I were just actually talking about this where, you know, our kids are privileged, dude, hands down. Like when you look at their youth versus my wife and I's youth, and we had, you know, we actually didn't have the most horrible stories either. they had a good life. And in our protecting, in our wanting to do it differently, in our effort to give them a different shot, we also accidentally created an experience that, for lack of a better way to describe it, and this would probably be off-putting to both of them, it's made them soft.

1:11:12 So then what happens is, as a parent, is it's hard to look back and say, well, we should have made it hard. We should have been harder. We should have made it harder. I think we've messed it up. We've made them soft. And the reality of it is, hang with me, is that now my son and my daughter are mid-20s. And my son is getting exposed to this idea of being a parent now for the first time. He's married to a woman who has a daughter, so our grandbaby, Bebe. But she was like an already created individual by the time he rolled in. So he doesn't even, and this is probably a beer conversation for another time with him, but he thinks he understands what being a parent is.

1:11:53 But he doesn't know from Jamie's perspective because she was there from the beginning. And it's a very different path. But in the exposure that he's having, he's recognizing, like you said, like, oh my gosh, like the fact that all my friends came over and hung out in our game room above the garage was very unique and different and not normal. The fact that our home was a place that invited all of our kids' friends because we wanted to be the singular most influential parent group was different. The neighborhood they grew up in, the house that they grew up in, the access to schools that they grew up in. All of a sudden now, my son is recognizing because he's experiencing his own decision-making hardships...

1:12:40 He's starting to recognize what he's had. So here's my point, is that you're going to go through this arc where when your kids are young, they still have no... You could be the most communicative parent on the planet. They don't have the context because you're not exposing them to the bullshit that you were exposed to. So it's like they have head knowledge, but until you experience it in your guts, you don't really know. Mm-hmm. And so they shit on it. They don't give you the feedback loop that makes you feel empowered by this hard path that you're walking as a parent because these sacrifices that you're making and providing are being received well. Then they go through a phase where they begin to blame you for all the shit that you didn't do.

1:13:21 So then as a parent, you're frustrated because like, kid, your mom and I busted our ass and made every sacrifice under the sun to get you where you're at. And then all of a sudden though, brother, if you hang in the pocket long enough, like don't, don't give up, like hang, be positive and understand that then when they begin to get exposed to these things that they're forced, like you said, the outside catalyst, they makes them make a decision. And then all of a sudden they go, oh my gosh. And so it's like, I think the encouragement to parents is, and sometimes we get those miracle families where you're just like, you hate them because their kids are like, come out amazing somehow. But for the rest of the normal world, like you're going to go through this cycle and it's very hard not to give up on all the effort and stuff that you put in.

1:14:06 But man, when your kids recognize it, even though it may be a 15 year gap from when you made the sacrifice, you're going to go through this cycle. you feel so honored and rewarded for that thing that you did 15 years ago because your kids now are recognizing it. So my encouragement to you as you go through this cycle is you're fighting the right fight. Don't give up. It could be 15 years before you hear that from your own kid. Yeah, yeah. But when you do, dude, there is no sweeter song. It's worth it. Yeah. No, I totally appreciate that because that's definitely the sacrifice we hope for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They could have a totally different father.

1:14:47 Yeah. And so I am thankful that I'm at least giving him this version of my father because- Man. Yeah. Yeah. It sucks. Like you say- hate that it took me so long to be this version of it. But I'm thankful that I eventually ended up there. And I'm not, and there's so much more to grow and become and learn. And they'll teach me along the way as well and other people. But my biggest thing that I always try to, you know, explain to people is just, especially the younger males in this industry and the women too, but I can only speak from males. Yeah.

1:15:28 Is that like not having a purpose when you're in blue collar? Yeah. Just do your, your grinding, you're giving your body away for so many days and hours and months and years. And no, no clear way of, giving yourself any, no way out. You know, you're just like, you know, why I'm just going to go, this other contractor is going to give me a little bit more money. Now I'm going to go there. And there's another four years there. Oh, this other contractor, you know, going to offer me a vehicle if I go there. And then there's another four years there. If that's what you want to do, great. But like not exposing yourself to other riches is something, you know, I tell my guys, if you ever find a better opportunity, please tell me.

1:16:15 I will be a reference for you. Like, do it. That's great. You are taking a chance on me being motivated enough to continue doing this every day. So if you ever find a better opportunity to do it, but I would love to see what that opportunity is that you're thinking is an opportunity. If you're going to like, not to crap on it, but if you're going to like McDonald's versus from here. Because it feels easier. Yeah. I've got something wrong for you. But you know, it's really hard when I see, you know, like other Sometimes I'll meet another competitor at a job and we'll be working alongside or looking at it. And I just see the crew and you can see potential.

1:16:59 I can see potential in people fairly quickly when I meet them, you know, like that gut feeling. Yeah. And I'm just like, man, you know, like. Is he getting taken care of here? You know, what does that look like for him? Or is he just another body that they're going to just kick out of this? He's just going to, you know, lose three or four years. Yeah. He'll end up back at the bottom of somebody's pyramid somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Listen, dude, like we got to put a cap on this. Otherwise I think this will be a three hour Joe Rogan episode, five minutes. Help us understand. I mean, cause I think everybody's gotten a really clear picture. I know I have of, who you were, what you're becoming, current state. But I also am getting this perspective from you that you're also now thinking about the future more than ever.

1:17:45 Yeah. Give me like three buckets, personal. So as a dad, as a husband, what's on the horizon for you that's got you excited that you want to lean in and invest your time and energy and maturity into? And then same with the business. And then is there any non-family business-related hobbies or excitements that you have? Those are the three buckets. Yeah. So trying to find more ways to make more time for the family is obviously a big one. My mother, she just recently had a mild heart attack. Calls me in the middle of the night. I'm like, what's going on? My dad suffers from vertigo. So I thought it was from him because he's wheelchair bound right now.

1:18:27 It was for her. Yeah. Never crossed my mind that it would be for her. And I'm just like, crap. I'm out the truck. I'm on the way to her, take her to the hospital. We're there till like four in the morning. I'm not leaving her. It's that role, that switch. She did everything when I was a kid. Now I got to do it for her. And I'm definitely not going to let my mom be there by herself. It's so late in the night. I can't really tell brother and sister yet. Just seeing how that happened and just knowing that I need to be present everywhere for even to my mother, to my brother, my sister, my family, having to focus more time to them is like, is definitely hard for me to figure out how to do, you know, like I, it's so hard to like, sometimes I have a hard time having a conversation with my daughter.

1:19:20 I'm thinking about this and she's, you know, she's still on Cocomelon time. You know what I mean? Like, so really trying to do more just family stuff where we shut everything down. It sounds so basic, but man, it's like, it has to happen. Yeah. And I have to force us to do it. Just getting together. Like we... We're building a playground on our property for the kids, you know, just so we can be out there. Even if we are working, at least we can be out there watching them on the playground and we're home doing what matters with them. Checking in with the parents every day, every day, you know, just checking in, visiting, going over.

1:20:02 But I definitely want to allocate myself more for that time and do less of the beast mode version of myself and focus more on that because you could lose it at any moment. Yeah. Would I rather lose the business or family? You know, that's a big weight. Yeah. Rather give the business up any day. But I got to do both right now. Yeah. Got to do both. Sure. Yeah. And then the other question. Business. The business. You know, I was talking to Chris about this earlier. We're looking into possibly starting another business. So I would love to start an excavating company. That's just more dialed into the commercial side of things that we do.

1:20:44 The restoration is our bread and butter, fire and water mold. We love that. But there's this also this other want that we're finding that people want us to do. And I would love to start doing that more as well for the business, only because I feel like there's this... I was explaining to you that residential, you really learn how to take care of people's houses and homes and the job site. In commercial, when you go to these big commercial sites, they don't care. There's just no sense of care for the property. But when we work on those properties... GCs and other people see how much effort we're putting in the care.

1:21:27 And they're like, we want those guys to come back and do this. Let's give them that. Well, you can't. I don't want to do both. I don't want Wolf Construction to be a, we do everything. I want us to just be that. But I would love to have something that does that, that I could hand off to somebody to do that. And, you know, I've got a buddy, Corey, that also is starting to do things like that too. And I think between me and him, we have enough capability and manpower to build. Both let that build without giving all of all your time. Yeah. Yeah. Especially with two people with the same type of mentality towards it. Yeah.

1:22:08 Because yeah, like I said, it'd be great to do that. It's not necessary that I would do that, but that is something that I would love to have as a goal. Yeah. I need another push. I need a goal. And then who knows doing that? I learned something more about this. Yeah. This really work. And then I realized this is where I should be or, that we can do both because there's people that do both. Yeah, for sure. You know? Yeah. That might be a, it might almost be a reward as you lean more into not having to drive all things. Yes. One of the remorse or, you know, rewards you may reap is, wow, I can actually pursue more than I thought I was capable of. Yeah. Cause there is a lot of work. And that we've built, we've installed playgrounds.

1:22:48 We've done the track. We've done concrete. We've done, we've done all these things that I never really thought we would do. Yeah. And then we do them and then we're getting really good at them. I got to put reps in it to be the best at it. Yeah. And if we could be the best, that's great. Yeah. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, but if I don't get started now, it'll never happen. Love it. So yeah. Love that. Yeah. Are you going to have any time for a hobby? I love fishing. And that's our biggest thing that I would love to do. Because you all do it, right? Like your whole little crew? No, but I force them to be doing it. Hey, I'll keep you on the clock if you go with me. All right. So we just recently won that Best of North.

1:23:29 Yeah. Best of Willamette thing. Yeah, congratulations. Never thought that would happen. I told the guys, if we place, I'll pay for a fishing trip for us. Well, we won the gold in it. I was like, damn. So now the local bass pond is probably not good enough. And so I've had some contractor buddies that have boats and stuff. They're like, yeah, let's go salmon fishing. I'm like, I got to figure that out because I want these guys to know that that was not just something that was being said. Like, get the reward. And you can't let them shave your head or anything. Yeah. That's Dundee. Yeah, they can't. So I want to do that. They're excited about doing that. And it's just one of those things that... in the company, I want to be able to do those building things with them.

1:24:11 And some of them have never been fishing or caught a fish. So like, cool, like, let's do that. Let's, let's give you that. Better catch one first. I'll get you hooked up. So yeah, the, the hobbies is that, and, and, you know, with the social media thing, it is kind of turned into like just something I get kind of excited about. Like, you know, I'm trying to, the guys are more excited about it now too. Yeah. We just had our first spiral video, like 1.3 million views. Wow. It was like a video that filmed at the end of our day. We didn't even set the props correctly. So the comments were just eating us. One person was literally like, you're a loser. I'm just like.

1:24:52 But that's something we enjoy and they get excited. So it is kind of like making the job environment a little bit more fun. Yeah. Because when you're scrolling, I'm like, whatever you laugh at, that's what we should do because that's what it is. I got really bored about like, here's our demo. Yes. Yeah. You've probably seen this everywhere. Yeah. But if I do a skit inside that, then it becomes a little bit more fun for us. So we're trying to do more skits. And so it's technically, it's like mandatory. A half an hour after lunch, we do a video or two. Wow. And if it needs to be done in the morning because of certain things or at the end of the day, we do that. But every day we got to pump out two pieces of content.

1:25:33 I love it. And it's just become rep. So now like when I'm editing it in the design. It doesn't have to be a commercial. It doesn't have to be. We don't even, I don't even think I sell in any of our videos. Like I'm not. You rarely, yeah. I don't think you've ever, I think maybe sometimes like a zipper brand or something. And your last one is so epic, dude. Okay, so I want to point people towards you, obviously. One, because I think people have a lot to learn from what you're doing on social media. We didn't even have a chance to get into that. We may actually have you back on at some point, just to unpack that. Because you guys are having a lot of fun. You're doing great stuff with it. So where do I point people to find you, both to learn from you on the social media side, and then obviously as you being a restorer, there's a lot of single trades and companies that need a restoration partner here in Oregon and would like to seek you out that way.

1:26:23 So where do we- Or they need their high school or university track. That's right. That's right. Renovated. Use it before you lose it. Money goes away quick. Yeah. So Instagram, we are Wolf Construction Restoration and on TikTok, on Facebook. On TikTok, we've grown in some followers. We don't have many followers, but we've grown. I have a couple of videos on there where I'm like, hey, you need exact met codes. Here they are. I just, you know, like, here's what I use. And I've had a lot of people just reach out. I will pay you for that. I'm like, I don't really know how that's going to work. I don't really want to deal with all that. Here's my chit sheet. Use it. Easy. And so we've had a lot of people that just have supported us because of my willingness to just like. To share. To share. And then like when I have a new tool that I like, like our buddies at ReuZip, people are like, whoa, magnet doors and all these things.

1:27:09 That's crazy. Yeah. Just use them. I mean, like. Like try it out. Yeah. Get a little commission off of it. So it's awesome. Other little tools, you know, that I've picked up through other recently just got into 3D printing. My brain now too is just like, what have I been using that has just been a struggle for me and I want it to be different. I'm going to start. Equipment, like every technician knows, is just the people that invented or come up with it, they just don't understand how we use it. They think they do. They don't. You know, you've seen the little metal tabs that hold the ducting and you turn it on and you're putting tape over it. It looks trashy. Yeah. You know, that's where my brain's at next to another little side quest is to start or creating attachments and things like that, learning how to use the process and then 3D rendering stuff and just seeing how it looks.

1:27:59 Yeah. I would love to be. And also just like personalizing GIFs. Like, not to... Yeah, yeah. But like personalizing little gifts for homeowners, you know, or we work for the VA building downtown. So I printed off a couple of little VA guys that have their logo and to give to them and just making things, you know, which I got from you from the Ritz-Carlton thing. It was just like a little extra step. Rich medallions. Yeah. To just show that you're thinking about them off the job. Yeah. You know, like, I'm not just here to, you know, finish it and... get a Google review. Like I took some time out of my night and, you know, design this and hopefully that you can remember the work that we put on here by or toss it.

1:28:45 Filament was cheap. So, but there's that extra push that I've always wanted to do. Like, you know, like, Are you okay? In our contracts, we say, are you okay with us posting on social media? So if someone says no, then I don't. Yeah. I take our company cam photos for sure. Like I don't make a video at their house if they're not comfortable with it. Yeah. If they're comfortable with it, hey, cool. Yeah. I would love to get the confidence to be like, would you like to be in it? Yeah. But that's real hard to do. Yeah. It'll come. Yeah. But yeah. Because you're getting a huge, you're starting to get a following of people that... are paying attention to what you're doing. Well, and the biggest thing is like, none of our competitors are doing it. Yeah. You know, the marketers are posting their Happy Foods July. Yep.

1:29:26 And, you know, we're doing stuff daily just in the real important thing. And it's not just because I like seeing my face and stuff. The real important thing is I'm flooding Google with so much content, up to date content, the date stamp, the everything, the keywords that when people go to look for a service, I immediately pop up Facebook and Instagram that are all one. Oh yeah. Google integrated that. So like it's there for them to just see. And then I, We're always in red. We're always have the same type of gear. We always have our two savage sunglasses. So we stand out a little bit more. And so people just start to see that.

1:30:08 And recognize and trust it. Like that's the Wolfgang. Yeah. That's who that. Yeah. I love it, dude. And then they see the guy, like we had our recent job. We just went to an insurance claim. The guy called me cause he's seen our videos. He knew we could help when we go there. And he's like, which one of you is Ruben? Oh, that's Ruben right there. The guys as characters. And they were like, yo. And I'm like, you see, like, it's fun. Yeah. It's fun for them. And it's like, It allows the homeowner to know that we're, we're like real, like we are really going to show up. Man. Going to be a temp agency guy. Yeah. He shows up and doesn't understand what he's doing that day. Great example. Yeah. You know, it's just like, oh, I've seen these guys work.

1:30:49 I know this guy's capable. Have fun. I'll check him. Yeah. Big trust builder. Big trust builder. Yeah. We, you know, you don't want somebody hovering over you. Yeah. When they seen a, just a catalog of who you are and they can just, Just trust that you're going to take care of the house and they can go do their shopping list for that day. I love it. Okay. We got a closed shop. I got to get this guy in an airplane. San Diego. We're doing a little workshop for restorers. Teach some sales. Road warrior action. Bro, this was super fun. Very fun. Yeah, very fun. I'm really thankful that you chose to take time with us. I think we do want to get you back out at some point, maybe early next year and kind of chat more about the tactics and techniques that you're deploying in your business.

1:31:37 For those that didn't really get a vibe for this, Freddie's team at Wolf has been growing very quickly. They are succeeding. The social media is paying off. The reps that Freddie said, that would be fun to hear what those were. Because I think that people will have more questions about that. But dude, I mean, we tip our hat to you. We respect you and your wife and what you guys are doing so much. And bro, you have, I mean, you're a totally different man. Yeah. You know, than the years ago when we first met. So thanks for hanging out with us, dude. Yeah. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend.

1:32:21 Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.