Loading summary
Transcript279 lines
- [00:05]
A
Welcome to this week's episode of the Molder Life podcast, a live show featuring your questions about all things landscaping, equipment, business and life. Join our live show weekly on Instagram Older outdoors, Monday nights, 8:30pm Central Standard Time to ask your questions or tune in here for the replay.
- [00:23]
B
And now, from the Incon Studios Incon, a world leading manufacturer of tilt rotators and attachments enhancing your business, here's your host, Andy Mulder.
- [00:41]
A
What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Motor Life podcast. We are here live for the first time in 2026 and we are off to another season of the podcast. And we're in the Encon Studios today and we have a special guest with us, Weston from Synced up. Probably the third time you've been on the podcast. Yeah. So huge supporter of our podcast Synced up. And so thank you to them for their sponsorship and support of the podcast, what we're doing here, and also CMP attachments for being a sponsor this week. Go check them out. CMP attachments.com and guys, I'm excited to be with you guys for another season. I don't, I don't think we're going into 150some episodes. And we were talking, we had dinner before this and we were talking about this is like year three or four, I think it might even be year four now of the podcast. I need to look back, but it's just cool to have the support of companies like Synced up and Weston. And we were just talking about how this podcast doesn't happen without the companies that support the podcast and help it to keep going out to the listeners. And so Weston, I'm really grateful for your partnership in the podcast and it helps a lot of contractors and I hope that this season is a continuation of what we've been doing. And, and if, if you're, if you're new to the podcast or you have never listened to it before, we record it live here on Instagram like we're on right now. Or if you're listening to the podcast, we record live and you can ask questions live of whatever you want to talk about. We obviously I own a landscape company, Mulder Outdoors, but I like equipment and we talk about business, life, really whatever you guys want to talk about. And so it's a show that can it can the conversation go wherever the listener wants it to go. And I think that's something unique about our podcast and it keeps me coming back week after week and I hope same to the listeners. So Wes and I appreciate you being on with us this week, and if there's anybody out there that wants to ask questions about job costing or estimating or Synced up specifically, you're no stranger to the show. And I'm sure a lot of people listening know what Synced up is, but in case they don't, I think it. It's only right that you kind of say who. Who you are and what the company is, and. Yeah. So, okay.
- [03:05]
B
Yeah.
- [03:06]
A
Thanks for being here.
- [03:06]
C
Absolutely. And thanks for the opportunity. I think you're right. What you do here is pretty unique in that, like, the listener kind of drives the conversation. Yeah. You know, so it's really cool. It's. It's kind of got its own culture.
- [03:19]
A
Yeah, totally.
- [03:20]
C
But Synced up is a estimating and job tracking app for landscape and hardscape and lawn maintenance companies. Essentially, the story of how Synced up came to be is I worked for a company called Tussey Landscaping in Central Pennsylvania for 15 years. Started there in 2007 and just started there as a crew member on the crew and worked my way up. Eventually started doing all the marketing stuff, got into getting into some business and office and optimization stuff. And really, long story short, got frustrated with just managing all of our operations on a plethora of different systems and had this light bulb moment where we're like, man, my dad was involved in the technology industry, and I saw what he was doing. I was like, man, we could just build this thing. It was a naive moment, but here we are years later, and we're serving contractors all over North America, helping them with budgeting, estimating job costing. And really, if you want to boil it down into simple terms as possible, it's just making sure that their jobs are using the correct rates to recover their overhead, and then track those jobs to make sure that whatever labor and material, et cetera, you had estimated into that job is actually on point. And if it's not, you learn from it and course correct for the next one. So it's really just an app to kind of run your business on and make sure that you're actually pricing it and making a profit in your company.
- [04:44]
A
Yeah. And so you spend a lot of time this time of the year going around the country to trade shows and training events. And it's a very busy time of the year for you. So thank you for driving two hours to come and do this from where you were. He's been part of a cruise line. What his.
- [05:04]
C
The cruise cruise line. Hardscape Boot Camp.
- [05:06]
A
Yeah, Hardscape Boot Camp. So he was in town for that. And so we thought this would be a good opportunity to come down and do a live show. It's not often that you can do that. So I appreciate you doing that.
- [05:15]
C
Thank you.
- [05:16]
A
I had a. Something I, I was wondering, like, do you notice. Do what do you notice right now? Like, what are you seeing trend wise as far as like companies that you're meeting with or some of these teaching things that you're going to or shows or are there things that you're noticing? Is, is similar wise, contractor wise, or are you, are you meeting a lot of new companies or companies that are. You know what I mean? Like, do you feel like you're seeing a lot of companies start up now or.
- [05:43]
C
No, not, not like it was. I would say the things that are still the same are people there. There seems to be always people out there, contractors out there that are just looking to their left to see what their competitors charging down the street, looking to their right and seeing what they're charging up there and just kind of like plopping their rate into the middle instead of actually using a budgeting tool to calculate their overhead and stuff. So that, that seems to be a. Probably a problem that will exist in the marketplace as long as there's contractors joining the market, you know? Yeah. Things that are different would say there's. This is totally intuitions or gut feel. So I have no data to back this up. But what I feel I'm seeing is less people actually starting up than what they were, you know, five years ago post Covid. It seemed like five years ago, post Covid, everybody was going into business for themselves and credit was easy to come by. So they were, you know, they had financing equipment or whatever. And some people did well, others definitely overextended themselves. I would say I've seen more people close up shop, go work for somebody in the last year or two than I've seen in the first three or four years of synced up. And I would say the labor market continues to become what seemingly a bigger and a bigger challenge. Like it's not going away. You know, it takes, it takes a lot to attract good people and keep them. Yeah, because, you know, like we've had conversations like if you do find good people, then the, then the challenge is, is to make it good enough for them that they don't want to go out there and do their own thing. Right. Because like often the good people are also entrepreneurial minded and you know, one, you know, that kind of control over their life. Yeah, I would also say that what are some things that are different are I think more and more contractors that would have said I don't use technology. Like the whole Chat GPT AI thing is changing that. Like people that quote, never use software, never use technology. Like they're using chat GPT, they're using it like Google and they're like oh wow, this is amazing. I can. And then there's also the Dunning Kruger effect where they believe everything it says and.
- [07:48]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [07:50]
C
Like I've, I've literally seen some guys like ask Chat GP to estimate this job for them and then literally take the number and run with it. Like.
- [07:58]
A
Yeah, that's interesting. I've never tried that with it, like to see what kind of information it gives you.
- [08:03]
C
Yeah.
- [08:04]
A
Sometimes I feel like I'll get into conversations with it and I'm like, what, like what are we even doing here? Like, you know what I mean?
- [08:10]
C
Like it starts hallucinating.
- [08:12]
A
Yeah. I don't know. Like it, it's obviously incredible. Just.
- [08:16]
C
It is, yeah. It's changing it. It's definitely changing the game and it's. I think it's accelerating the rate at which the blue collar trades is adopting or having a technical like they look at like, oh dude, I could just do this with an app or with technology as opposed to. No, I'm a pen and paper guy, you know, I text and I email and that's about all I do with tech, you know. Yeah, that's changing, that's changing at a, at a faster and faster pace.
- [08:43]
A
Yeah. Are you, I guess with synced up, are you working on things that will utilize AI?
- [08:50]
C
Yeah.
- [08:51]
A
Okay.
- [08:51]
C
Yeah. So we've, we're, we're, we've already been for the last six, eight months been doing prototypes where we're toying with proof of concepts. Like we do this, what if we did that and we've built some and thrown them away already just, just to kind of experiment with like what. What would actually be useful and meaningful.
- [09:09]
A
I think that's very important. Yeah. Because I think like anybody can throw an AI chat into something. Yeah. I'm assuming.
- [09:16]
C
Yeah.
- [09:17]
A
And like for what? Like you. I think that's really important is like what are you putting out there and what is it actually going to do for the person.
- [09:25]
C
Yeah. Because it's actually solving a problem.
- [09:27]
A
Yeah. And like you still want, you need to teach people to think for themselves too. Right. So.
- [09:32]
C
Well, they need to know enough to be able to validate like is, is whatever the AI thing is telling. Giving me it back as A response, is it correct or not? They need to be to know enough to be able to validate that.
- [09:41]
A
Yeah.
- [09:42]
C
And that's why you can't just take it like gospel. If it's a topic you don't know a lot about or doesn't give you
- [09:47]
B
its source, you sweat, you struggle. You're the first one there in the morning, the last one out at night. You don't need another issue to deal with. In fact, if someone or something could pull a few things off your plate, that'd be amazing, right? That's what Synced up is for. How about we take care of the knowing your numbers part and streamline your operation for your cruise while we're at it? How would it sound to have every job priced for profit? Synced up does invoicing, scheduling, time tracking, and syncs with QuickBooks Online. All job info, notes, photos and lists are easily available to your cruise. Even work hours are tracked for automatic payroll. And the big one, every job is job costed automatically. Visit syncedup.coms y n K-E-U-U-P.com and book a demo today.
- [10:39]
A
On the topic of new things that you've come out with, this isn't not meant to be like a sales thing. We. You didn't want it to be. But yeah, what, like what are some new things that you've come out with or recently I know you've had, you're doing some more things with maintenance and that's something that I don't think people know that it. It is you're doing more of that. So it'd probably be good to share some of that if. Yeah, I'm sure people would like to hear that. There's a lot of guys that will ask me about different softwares or different things and how is it geared towards maintenance. I see that a lot on Facebook, different Facebook groups actually, and that's usually a lot of the conversation as well. This one's good for maintenance or this one isn't. So. Yeah.
- [11:17]
C
Yeah. So in the beginning when we launched Synced up, it was definitely stronger for design, build, installation jobs than it was for recurring maintenance. The candid truth is we kind of hard coded too many of Tussie's way of operating into the maintenance side instead of making it flexible for all the different ways people operate with their maintenance, with per visit and quota, you know, all that. So that was what. When we initially went to the market back in 2020, 2021, that was kind of the challenge. And so over those first two, three Years we kind of got the reputation that hey, it's great for design build, not so great for maintenance, which was true. So over the years, over the last two years, we've been investing extremely hard into making the platform serve both reoccurring maintenance services like lawn mowing, property maintenance, snow removal. Just as good like it. Make it like, you know. My goal is to make synced up serve. There's so many people in here that start with maintenance and then end up doing start. I want to start doing some, some patios or starting some backyards and they end up having a business that does both. Sometimes people will shut the one down and do all, all the other. But by and large there's a lot of people out there that do both. And I want Syncto to be able to serve those people. I don't want it to be a one trick pony where it's great for design build, but not maintenance or vice versa.
- [12:37]
A
Right.
- [12:37]
C
So some things that we've done for the maintenance type of work is we built a whole brand new routing and scheduling tool which makes it really easy to build your routes and optimize them and drag and drop them and dispatch them onto a cruise day. The crew can even search those routes and drop them onto their own day if the office hadn't caught up on the scheduling, you know, before. One of the things we did is called on demand routes, which is really nice for snow. So you can build all your routes for. If you have. If you have multiple snow routes, you can build all your snow routes and optimize the drive time and then just have them kind of like sitting there in a parking lot ready for an event. So your crew can just search those on demand routes and drop them onto their day and just go down through the list of, you know, start, stop, start, stop all day or all night on their.
- [13:23]
A
That's cool.
- [13:23]
C
Because one of the things with snow is it's so unpredictable that the battle is a lot of systems not just synced up, but a lot of systems kind of were tied to the office really hard. And so somebody had to be ahead of the game. Well, it's snowing, so 11 o' clock the night before. Let me go throw all these routes onto people's schedules from the office so they can clock into them the next morning, 3p 3am when they're out there,
- [13:43]
A
you know, so that's. Yep, I know exactly what you're talking about.
- [13:47]
C
Y so with. We wanted to kind of delete that whole challenge with the on demand routes where you do all the planning optimization ahead of time. They're just sitting there. Anybody can grab them at any time to throw them on their day.
- [13:56]
A
Hmm, that's cool.
- [13:57]
C
So a lot of scheduling and routing stuff. Really, really like flexible too. Like if you wanted. If, you know, three stops got missed last night because it was too wet, you can drag them in the next day. Re optimize. Because now whatever was optimized for the next day is no longer means nothing.
- [14:12]
A
Right.
- [14:12]
C
You know, so we also did a bunch of stuff on invoicing. So we just launched synced up payments which allows you to do card on file. Ach on file for maintenance contracts or really any job. It doesn't have to be a maintenance contract, but that's usually where people are using it. And we're working on bringing out just automated invoicing. So now that we have synced up payments so that we can just sell a maintenance contract and set it. Forget it. You know, it's just runs the.
- [14:38]
A
You are handling the payment itself. Not like you're not a. And then. And then you then synced up is moving the money into QuickBooks or how to.
- [14:49]
C
Yeah. So we'll still sync the transactions over to QuickBooks.
- [14:51]
A
Okay.
- [14:52]
C
Yeah. I've actually talked to Stephanie quite a bit about just getting her input as tickets. My goal with that is like I want it to be the. I want it to be that the accountants love it.
- [15:01]
A
Yeah. Right.
- [15:02]
C
I don't want it to be a thing where the landscaper and the accountant are going back and forth trying to figure out what's going on.
- [15:07]
A
Yeah.
- [15:07]
C
Right.
- [15:07]
A
It's got to be super clean if you're going to.
- [15:09]
C
I don't want them to anybody to have to touch it. It's just automated.
- [15:13]
A
So it's like. It's like taking the place of a Venmo or a Stripe or something like that. You are the stripe or whatever.
- [15:19]
C
Correct.
- [15:20]
A
Like I. I get that a lot on different. I just did something the other day that was through stripe or whatever.
- [15:24]
C
Yep.
- [15:25]
A
Interesting.
- [15:26]
C
Which what that allows us to do, being that we are now the payment processor, it allows us to like those credit card processing fees. We get a tiny, tiny cut of those credit card processing fees. Which actually is a pretty meaningful. You know, when you're talking about million dollar businesses. It's pretty meaningful amount of money, which is nice because it helps us accelerate the amount of cash that synced up can pull in to accelerate reinvesting back into the product without raising prices.
- [15:53]
A
Yeah, right. You know, interesting. So and how many people do you have in using this new. Is it. It was a new update for everybody.
- [16:00]
C
Yeah. Anybody can access it now. So we have. We just launched it a couple weeks ago. Like, we just pushed it live a couple weeks ago. At this point, about 10% of our user base are. Are on it. And yeah, money's flowing.
- [16:14]
A
So that's really cool.
- [16:15]
C
Exciting.
- [16:16]
A
Yeah. Interesting axe to grind. Firewood. What's going on? Ledge Hill landscaping. How are the roads? If you ever know why that. You ever see me post that on
- [16:28]
C
Facebook, I've seen that. I never knew what the inside joke was.
- [16:32]
A
So the inside joke is for years, you would see people. I just. It's kind of an annoying thing that I have created something funny for myself and now enough people know about it that it's funny. So I would. I just get so annoyed. Like, I'm obviously out there doing snow removal. We've been doing snow removal for years. And you get these. Like, you have a snowstorm coming in, Right. We live in northwest Indiana. We know what happens when it snows. Right. The roads are terrible most of the time. And then you get these people that, like, how are the roads? How do you think the roads are? I mean, like, they're probably snow covered. Like, it's. It's like it's surprising. Or they think that Bob over here drove through this road 10 minutes ago, and that's going to change everything by having his information. And I just think it's just super. The question of how are the roads when it's snowing out to me is the most ridiculous question ever. So now, anytime it snows, others be like, how are the roads? And then. And then like 50%. Now I'm getting to the point where like 50% of the people know that I'm just trolling. But then there's always that one other person that takes me super serious. And you're like, oh, this road over here is really bad. So then this is hilarious. The other day, somebody shared with me, he's like, did you know that there's a northwest Indiana Howard of the Roads Facebook page?
- [17:55]
C
What?
- [17:56]
A
And I'm like, no, there isn't. Immediately, I go over there immediately, join the group. And within one hour, I'm like, I am going to shoot someone. Like, the questions on this Facebook page are just unbelievable.
- [18:13]
C
So is people being serious?
- [18:14]
A
Oh, it's just dead serious. I'm driving from Couch to South Bend at 10:52 this morning. On the Facebook group, most of the time it's. I'm not going to stereotype who it is. I'M you know, I'm not going to say anything. All I'm saying is it's 90% of the time the same type of people answering, asking the same question about this one stretch of road that they're about to drive on. And it's, you know, it's 12 hours after a snowstorm or it's the next day, or it's just like, I don't
- [18:45]
C
know, like, what's going to change about your day based on whoever.
- [18:50]
A
And like, and then when it's snowing, like, I was part of this Facebook group for the last two weeks or whatever. My page is just, it's just question after question. It literally, it's like 50 posts a day about how are the roads about this specific whatever road in northwest Indiana they want to know. And it's just, it drives. I don't. I need to un. I need to unfollow the page because I think it's so ridiculous.
- [19:17]
C
I just, I think your blood pressure is a little.
- [19:19]
A
It is. It's just like, if you read this, you'd be like, wow. People are just, they're scared to leave their houses. It's. And another thing I always say is, like, if anybody asked me how the roads are, I just always say, stay home, stay safe. It's too risky. Don't risk it. It's too dangerous. So, like, I, I, like, sometimes through the winter, I'll go through, like, memories on Facebook, you know?
- [19:40]
C
Yeah.
- [19:40]
A
And I'll just have, like, I'll just see when I started saying like, how are the roads? And just, it's just hilarious. So now if you see me put how are the roads?
- [19:48]
C
I know the inside joke.
- [19:49]
A
It's just a troll. I did not want to know at all. But somebody will be like, I'm going to tag you. You'll. You'll see it. So anyways, I'm sure if anybody else has a town Facebook page, they probably have one that's just for how are the roads? And Nancy in her, in her living room is wanting to know if she can drive her minivan to, you know, go get coffee if it's safe enough.
- [20:14]
B
The Molder Life podcast continues. In just a moment, Andy asked me to highlight a company that enables you to truly work smarter with their hydraulics over hands philosophy, enabling you to operate at a high level of efficiency. Obviously, I'm talking about CMP attachments. They make all kinds of attachments and buckets. Andy loves and uses their Hydra grapples and Hydra buckets circumstances. CMP attachments is 100% made in America and has some of the industry's highest quality attachments for excavators, skid loaders, mini skid loaders, tractors and more. CMP can take on any custom project to help make your business more efficient and profitable. Visit them at cmpattachments.com or click the link that we've provided in the podcast description.
- [20:58]
A
These products are amazing. They're both to last and they'll help you make more Money. Again, that's cmpattachments.com landscaping says I know you mentioned that you charge hourly for fall cleanups and snow removal. How do you get to the hourly number from your LMN account and how do you convey that to the preten? I can't read so I'm just a landscaper. So prospective client. So my hourly cleanup for fall cleanups or for snow removal different hourly rate because like for snow removal I'm including the man hour and I'm including the truck hour. Yeah, it's the same. It's the same thing. You have a cost for the truck and a cost for the plow and how much your all the stuff it takes to get to your hourly rate for that and then the same thing for how much do you need for your man hour rate. And I, I, when I'm doing snow removal, it's combined. I don't have like driver and snowplow. It's I, it's too confusing for people, especially for the contracts that I've bid. They just want to know what does it cost for a truck plow. And so we have like truck plow, we have loader with push box, we have track machine with push box, we have salter. All of those include an operator. So it's the same difference of what you would be doing for anything hourly. You have to break if for me, if you're going to be breaking out, if you're going to have, you're going to have your trucks and your plow or whatever and then you're going to have your operator. I will combine the two to have one hourly road. And sometimes you got to gauge your market a little bit too. I find with snow plowing, I don't know how I, I've just gained knowledge through different things as far as like what is some of the going rates. What, what, what is possible. You need to know what you need to charge obviously to be able to recoup your, your overhead. Of course. But snow removal is very hard to it's not guaranteed. So like it's hard to like project how much snow plowing you're going to be doing to work into that.
- [22:59]
C
Yeah.
- [22:59]
A
But as far as my fall cleanup hours, we have an hourly rate for the guys and then we have hourly rates for, for our equipment or our landscape trailer or whatever. And we've backed that out into a hourly rate to put on our. Because most of our, most of our landscape work is like labor, equipment and materials. Now we don't show all of that broken out, but that's how we ultimately get to our number. But on cleanups, it's. We have some equipment and we have, you know, your blowers or whatever, and then we have a debris and your labor and then we have a debris hallway charge. That's what we usually charge for. And that's. We will only do that as like a, we do like a quarter truck, half truck or full truck, loads of hallway for. And that's all like spelled out on our contracts to people. And then if they want to, if we have a new person that calls in and wants to fall cleanup, I tell them this is what our man hour rate is with a two hour minimum per guy. And this is our hallway charge. And that's how we charge. I don't, I don't. Almost never will quote fall cleanups as a lump sum price. So because it's too r. It's too, there's too volatile. You could have a windy day on Mrs. Smith's house and it could take you an hour or it take you four hours and on a sunny day it's not. It takes you an hour. Well, we got to get the work done. And sometimes you don't know how many, sometimes you don't know how many leaves are, you know, how much, how much work is going to be there when you get there. Yeah, that's why I do everything by the hour for that. And some of our snow work is. Our Snow work is. 80% of our snow work is hourly. The rest of it is all or is per push. But that's just by chance. There's a lot of people that don't do that. But.
- [24:40]
C
So you have no contracts, like no fixed contracts?
- [24:44]
A
No.
- [24:44]
C
Wow.
- [24:44]
A
I don't have anything like that. Where it's like a set amount of money per month. No, no, I don't. I, I mean we don't. We only plow for four people. Four companies.
- [24:52]
C
Yeah.
- [24:53]
A
But I, the, the big one that we do, I, it's all hourly. They wanted it like that. I wanted it like that. And I think there was companies that wanted to bid on it, but wouldn't bid it like that. They didn't want it to be hourly. But it makes the most sense for this specific account based on how the needs are of the building. The building that we're snow plowing is gigantic. So like you could have. This is no exaggeration. We could have one day where the whole place gets say 6 inches of snow on the whole thing and so we plow it. That's fine. But then the next day, because the wind is from the west, the building is like 15 acres. Just the footprint of the roof. So you can get all that snow blowing off the roof going to the east side of the building. You have two feet of snow on the east side. So we're coming back to do that. Well, how are you supposed to bid that on a contract? How are you supposed to bid that on a per push like, oh, the east side of the building. That's all we plowed. Well, how are you going to bill for that? You're going to bake. You almost would have to break up the building into like sides of the building like to plow it. You know what I mean? So it just makes sense to be hourly for.
- [25:58]
C
That's pretty unique.
- [25:59]
A
You just. It is unique. And there's some other things that I negotiated inside of that contract to kind of make it make sense for me and for my company. Like I don't want to do an account like that for just one year. It's just there's too much investment in equipment and all these different things to do that. So.
- [26:17]
C
So what do you do if it doesn't snow at all?
- [26:20]
A
Pray it snows, I guess. Yeah.
- [26:22]
C
I don't know because I usually, I usually recommend people that they split like have some contracts and have some pertinem.
- [26:29]
A
I could, I could see that.
- [26:30]
C
So that the risk is.
- [26:33]
A
Yeah.
- [26:33]
C
Is minimized.
- [26:34]
A
Yeah, that would help a lot.
- [26:35]
C
Yeah.
- [26:36]
A
But I, when I took on this account, I knew I wouldn't have to buy any equipment for it. I wasn't. Yeah, I bought a snow. I bought one plow for it.
- [26:44]
C
You weren't really extending yourself.
- [26:46]
A
No, we had all the equipment and I was like, you know what if we get this equip. If we get this contract, I'm gonna go for it. If we don't get this contract, I'm not looking for another one. It just. I wanted that one.
- [26:56]
C
Well, in a winter like this winter.
- [26:57]
A
And it worked out. So if the next. I have a multi year contract. That was, that was one of my stipulations was I wanted a multi year contract because I wasn't going to sign up for that deal unless I knew I had a, you know, a three or five year window to hopefully get snow.
- [27:12]
C
Right.
- [27:13]
A
Whatever.
- [27:13]
C
Right.
- [27:13]
A
And we got snow. So it's a good year. Yeah, it's just been a crazy. I think there's probably a lot of people that would relate to. It's just been a winter that we haven't had in a long time. Yeah, it's been a. No, it's been like a normal winter of what we used to have all the time. Like. Yeah, we shut down right after Thanksgiving or maybe. Well, we got a big snow before Thanksgiving, but. And then we haven't really worked on a, on a job site at all. And that's how it used to be. We would, we would just only work till Thanksgiving.
- [27:47]
C
Yeah.
- [27:47]
A
And then be done until March. Literally end of March.
- [27:51]
C
Yeah, I remember.
- [27:53]
A
But so many years now I, I've booked work up until, you know, I don't know, as long as I could or. And really the last three years I'm like, man, I wish I would have had more work because like the weather was good. Well, it's really hard to sell work in December. Like you're. Nobody's calling you so you need to like, you need to book it before. And so last year we had work that went through the winter. We stopped for maybe a month and a half. We stopped at Christmas and we started again beginning of February I think. But we have a foot of frost in the ground right now and it's just a, it's a real winter. Just been so different.
- [28:28]
C
Yeah, it has been.
- [28:29]
A
I don't know. How do you. Do you deal with a lot of people that are doing snow removal? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [28:36]
C
There's a fair, there's a fair amount of our customers that do snow removal and you have, on this topic, you have it all across the board from TNM to per push. To quote a contract. Some people do all quota contract. Others do all per push. I usually like I was saying like, I usually encourage people to like have some of both so that whatever, if you have a completely warm year that you at least have something coming in on that. But you can also get burned like on a winter, like this winter. If you had only contracts that you could.
- [29:09]
A
Oh my goodness.
- [29:10]
C
Bad.
- [29:11]
A
Yeah. And I'm pretty sure. And maybe this isn't standard. I don't know enough about. I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm a snow plowing genius because I'm Not. But I would imagine that if anybody's doing these contracts, like, they have like a minimum, like a maximum pushes.
- [29:26]
C
Yeah, usually. Yeah, usually there's stipulations on the contract of like, hey, it's. The contract covers up to this and after that it goes to proportion.
- [29:34]
A
Right.
- [29:34]
C
Yeah.
- [29:34]
A
I don't know. Sometimes it's like, well, why bother then? Why bother doing that? Except I'm assuming the company likes to see that. That you're working for. They want the. As much as they can. They want the even amount of money.
- [29:46]
C
Yeah. The cash flow.
- [29:47]
A
Yeah. Another thing that I think I thought a lot about with this winter and like, why I wasn't really worried about if it didn't snow, because we have a lot of other work. Like, if it wasn't snowing, we would just move the equipment back to the job site and we'd go and work there. So, like, I, I didn't really, like, I mean, you asking me, like, that was a big risk at the time. I just did it, I guess. Like, I. Yeah, it is a big. It is a risk. I mean, snow in general is the ultimate risk. There's a lot of guys, I think, that have it figured out more than me, but if it doesn't snow, they kill it. And if it does, they do. So I don't know. But. But I just, I knew that if we weren't going to be. If the weather was bad and we. And we were getting snow, we have this work over here to go do with the equipment. And if it was good and it wasn't snowing or whatever, we'll be back over here with the same equipment working.
- [30:42]
C
Yeah.
- [30:42]
A
So I don't know if that's the right way to look at it, but I mean.
- [30:44]
C
Yeah, if it, if it's. As long as it's not a cold winter with no snow, that, that would be.
- [30:50]
A
Could be. And we have had those before. Yeah, that's. Absolutely. But typically by us, with being south of Lake Michigan, like, if it's cold and you're going to get moisture, it's. Yeah, it's going to come down the lake and get you at some point.
- [31:04]
C
Yeah.
- [31:05]
A
But no, you could go weeks and not have snow and be terrible. So I don't know. I don't know if. I don't know if we've just. I don't really worry about if we were to get snow or not get snow. I guess, like, if. And even if we didn't work, I. I've tried to work ourselves into a spot within the business and retain earnings and stuff to where, like, I'm not relying on the snow income. I'm not.
- [31:31]
C
Yeah, you don't need it.
- [31:33]
A
No, like, I, Yeah, I think that's, it's. I would stress so much more. I just would. And I've, I've said that really, from when we started the company. And like, I didn't want to. Going to winter thinking that I have to. It has to snow.
- [31:51]
C
Well, a lot of people are in those situations.
- [31:53]
A
Absolutely.
- [31:54]
C
It's kind of shocking. We see all kinds and it's, it's amazing how many people are literally hanging by a thread from a cash flow perspective and there's every scenario and story under the sun, you know, but like,
- [32:08]
A
about why or whatever.
- [32:09]
C
Yeah, but it's, There's a lot of people out there that needed to snow, if that's what they're doing.
- [32:16]
A
Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I think it's just something you really. If you can work your way out of that because, like, exactly, man.
- [32:24]
C
Like, that's a stressful place to be.
- [32:27]
A
Yeah. And the piece I feel going into winter, I mean, now we're to the point where I have, I have five core guys. Four. Four or five. I mean, I just hired a couple more. I'm going to have more going into next winter. I'm sure we're like, I want to make sure that they have work through the winter. And if, and if we don't have work, like, I'm going to take care of them because I, I, it's my responsibility. I want to do that. And so, like, being able to go into winter, we have some reserves. I mean, this is our 12th year in business now, so it's like, it's taken us a long time to get to the point where we have the right amount of retained earnings. And I've built up a. Just a winter spring payroll account that helps with. Potentially could help with payroll if we needed to, if the winner was terrible and we had no income from coming in from anywhere. Now since we built that payroll account, I have never had to touch it ever. It's been. Well, it's been two years now since I've had this payroll account. Basically what I do is I add up what potential payroll could be for four or five guys through the winter, and this is what I want to save and save that money. And it sits over there and I just leave it there all summer. I don't. Now that I have it saved and we haven't used it, like. Yeah. Because it took, it was hard to get it There and now it's like, and if we don't need it, it's not hurting anybody to sit there. Now if I need it, fine, I need it. But it's just something that is, is the more that you can work towards some kind of retained earnings account.
- [33:56]
C
Yeah.
- [33:57]
A
Well, it's huge.
- [33:59]
C
Well, exactly. And it really helps you switch from making decisions based on urgency to strategical. Like, you do the right thing for the long haul, not the right thing for the next payroll cycle.
- [34:10]
A
100%.
- [34:11]
C
And that makes such a big difference.
- [34:13]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And I think even people that are out there that this has been a good winter. Right. So if you're a snow contractor out there and you've been in the snow where we've been getting snow, you've definitely made money. Hopefully if you didn't make money through this winter, you probably should just not do it anymore because it was a great winner. Yeah. So instead of like, and I've had to think through some of this myself, there's, I've been shopping some loaders and different things for the shop and trying to decide like, what, what is the next thing for us equipment wise. And like, I don't know, I've just been looking at different things, demoing equipment and sometimes like, I, I, you need to think more than just we made money and now I want to blow it. And like, this could be a great time for if you've made, you know, to me, I don't want to plan on snow, but if, if you had to, fine. But like, it's a great time to sack some money away and save it for the next winter or whatever because it may not be good next winter.
- [35:16]
C
Yeah.
- [35:17]
A
And so they're just different times like that where if, if, you know, in my opinion, God's blessed us with a great winner and it's been a blessing to our family, it's been blessing to my team, blessing to the business. That's wonderful. But you want to be wise with that, with that money.
- [35:31]
C
Yeah. 100. Like, I, I agree with what you're saying about like, too often when you get your first ten grand or your first hundred grand, whatever scale you're at.
- [35:40]
A
Yeah, exactly.
- [35:41]
C
You know, it just feels like in cash, it feels like, oh my goodness, I could go do something I've never done before. Right. And maybe you have to go get it out of your system. But the point is, is if you can, if you can use that to what you're saying about retained earnings to be able to survive through, say, worst case scenario on a Winter or on a season or on a whatever. It just prevents the crisis or urgency based fear based fear induced reactionary decision making. And you know, clients can feel it when you're in that state of mind. Your team can feel when you're in that State of mind 100 it affects you as a business owner in that state. In that state of mind. And hey, you know, we all have our own stories. We all have our, you know, valley that we've had to climb up out of. But it shouldn't be a place of permanent like you. You should climb out of it. There is a way to figure out how to win and if it's not working, we'll figure out what part of it isn't working. And it's not normal is what I'm trying to say. It shouldn't be something you just stay in for 10 years.
- [36:55]
A
No, no, it's too hard. This, running your own business is too hard to not. You have to make money and you have to be able to. You can't be. There's no point in my opinion to scrape by constantly running your own business because most of the, and I've said this a thousand times, most of the time the guys that are running, they're trying to run a business or whatever, they have a lot of skills and those skills are valuable to a lot of people. But if business ownership may not, if it's not for you, like you could be very valuable for somebody else too if you don't want to. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, but there's, there's you, you got to work. Like that's why what you offer and, and the how to price my job.com is something that me and you had put together. Like those are simple ways to like just get your feet wet and learning how to price your job. And then, then you can, once you're getting that right, then you can learn how to manage the money that's coming in. Like, I know I don't know how that's all tying together, but you know what I'm saying, Like I really think like a winter like this from a business standpoint can be a great leap forward for somebody that potentially has in the past struggled to get ahead or whatever. Like, don't just don't immediately go blow it. I guess what I'm saying.
- [38:12]
C
Yeah. Use it wisely.
- [38:13]
A
Yeah. Because like when we first started the business and I've told the story before but for, I mean, I don't know how long ago I've told, haven't how Long ago. I've talked about it. But when we started the business, the main thing, the first year in business was we wanted to make sure it was like, okay, well what are we going to do in the winter? Because initially I didn't want to do snow removal, but now, 12 years in, I'm more snow removal than I've ever been before. My wife questioned me big time. The first, when we had the first big snow this fall in November, he's like, I thought we were getting out of this because I had to go. So I'll go back to the story. But I had worked my way out of having to. I don't, I didn't have. The last three years, I haven't gone in to do snow at all. Like, I don't know. And so I took on this big account. I'm like, okay, well, we just went big. I didn't know if I was going to get it. I'm like, well, I'm going to try. Well, I get it. I was like, okay, we're going into snow. Like, we're going to do this. And so the first snow, 14 inches. We haven't had 14 inches is 10 years. So like, all of my guys, even my guys that have been with me, my one guy, Zach, has been with me for. Since the day I started, he's never plowed that much snow before. No experience. Nobody has experience with this kind of a storm. And so I'm like, I'm out there like the first storm the whole time. Like, it took everybody because it was. We tripled or quadrupled the amount of snow we were doing. And then we had the biggest snowstorm in 10 years. A week after I got my signed contract. It was crazy. So I'm out there like, like I used to be. And I'm. I come home after, I'm like, I am not as young as I once was. Like, just being up that much or whatever.
- [39:55]
C
Yeah.
- [39:55]
A
And so then two weeks later, we got another 8 or 10 inch snow. Like, right after that. It was nuts. And like, and my wife's like looking at me like, why, why are you doing this? I thought we, I thought we were gonna do this. I'm like, it's gonna. I gotta get the guys going. Like, it just took time to like, get everybody in the same page and like, train. And now I don't go in anymore. So within, within three storms, I didn't go in anymore. We had it. They were, we were doing it. And it, it just took a little bit of like learning the process and like, who's gonna be in charge? And not who's gonna be in charge, but like, how is it all going to work? Like who's going to do what? And then kind of getting kind of some of our core people because we hire a lot of temporary people for snow or whatever. And I don't know where I'm going with that. But anyways, I just, I wasn't. My wife tells me I wasn't going to go back into snow, but now we're in the snow. And I was like, well, it's a three year contract, so we're in it now. But anyways, when we first were, when we first went in business, I wasn't going to do any snow. And so the goal was the first year was. The biggest goal I had the first year was I needed to make enough money to save enough money to pay myself through the winter. That was the first goal. So I think at that time it was like I need like 15 grand or something or like 10 grand. I don't know what it was. Like what was the bare minimum I needed to have in the bank before we get to winter. That was the first goal. Before we did anything else, obviously we were, we needed to like buy some stuff as we needed to go, but ever so that we did that and I don't know if it took us till September or something to save up that extra money while growing the business. And it just sat there so that when I got to winter, I didn't have to worry about making any money. And snow. We did a little bit of. We had like one account that we did some. And we did some driveways and stuff, but. And so basically I did that every year. And then we pulled from that account through the, through that first winter. And then every year we did that until. I think we did that until we paid off our house. And then at that point after paying off the house, we had gotten ourselves to a point financially, personally, where I didn't, if I didn't, I didn't have to take a paycheck through the winter. So then I didn't need that account personally. And so that took, I don't know if it was like six years or something, seven years to get to that point. And then I changed that account to what we're doing today with the employees. So that way I'm kind of doing the same thing for them, you know what I'm saying? Like, I just.
- [42:22]
C
Please, payroll.
- [42:23]
A
Yeah, basically. But if we need it. Yeah. And so like it. It's a huge What I'm saying is, like, it started small. Like this mentality of like planning ahead or like storing up food for the. For when you need it. Right. And we were, we did that from the beginning in a small, much smaller scale. I had one employee, he didn't work in the winter. He was, it was, Everything was so much simpler.
- [42:46]
C
Yeah. The point is, is whether you have a dollar or a hundred thousand dollars.
- [42:50]
A
That's what I'm saying.
- [42:51]
C
Principle matters.
- [42:52]
A
That's what I'm saying. Like, we've started this literally the first year. And it was really for my wife's like, peace of mind. She would, she felt better knowing that before I was going to go buy this or buy that or whatever, it was going to be the fan. Our family was taken care of before that. And now 11 or 12 years later, my family will be fine. But I want, now I'm like, I want my team's family to be okay through the winter. And so like, I'm still always storing up food for them, but not literally, but you know what I'm saying, in this side war chest over here so that they don't have to worry that they're not going to get paid. And I just, I think it's important for people to know that like, it doesn't. It everything in business, it's not gonna happen overnight. You're not gonna get rich quick.
- [43:47]
C
No.
- [43:47]
A
And you're not gonna like this. I don't know. It's the same thing. I know I've been saying it for years, but like, this stuff takes time and you ha. And it's discipline. Like, I don't know, like, we're building this gorgeous building right now and sometimes I'm self conscious of this building that I'm building. I'm like, it's, it's really cool and it's awesome and it's, it's, it's everything I ever hoped for. But like, it's taken a long time to get there. And so like people. And it's the same thing. Like everything is. The start of your podcast is like things are really fancy on Instagram or whatever. Right. But like it takes, there's people out there that it's all shiny and it's not what you think it is. But like, if you really want to do it right, you have to start from the beginning. And it takes a long time.
- [44:31]
C
Yeah.
- [44:32]
A
To get the piece.
- [44:33]
C
And, and, and the other thing that makes me think of is the Dave Ramsey thing of choose your hard. Because, like saving that up.
- [44:40]
A
Yeah. It's Hard, dude. It's so hard because I Especially the first year in business, like, I didn't want to save five or ten grand in the bank. I wanted to go buy the next thing that I needed to grow my
- [44:49]
C
business and legitimate things.
- [44:51]
A
No. Yeah. You know, we were running out of my garage and Craigslist equipment. Like, that's just what it was. And that's fine. I was borrowing my dad's truck. Like, it was the biggest pain in the rear. We'd have to go to my dad's house to get his truck to use it for the day because we only had one truck at the time. So, like, yep, whatever. Stuff I would never do today, but 12 years later, I know I wouldn't do that today. But people, you have to do that stuff in the beginning.
- [45:18]
C
And that discipline is hard. It really, really is. But then the. The it pretending I'm not just. Just not dealing with the discipline be like, fine, I'm just gonna go build. I'm just gonna go do whatever I need to do. I buy the next piece of equipment and not do the cash reserves thing. Well, that's hard too, when it doesn't snow and now you need the cash and you overextended yourself.
- [45:43]
A
Like, exactly.
- [45:43]
C
So choose your hard.
- [45:45]
A
That's exactly right. Gls boss says snow should be treated as an extra bonus, not a big piece of your bottom line. I agree with
- [45:54]
C
no gummy bears tonight.
- [45:55]
A
No gummy bears tonight. Hopefully they will be coming soon.
- [45:58]
C
Oh, my goodness.
- [46:00]
A
I know, I know. I don't even know I drove two
- [46:01]
C
hours for the gummy bears, not for the podcast.
- [46:04]
A
They're. If I would have known that, I should have just got, like, a box of. I just dumped them on your head. I don't even know if I have any in here because usually I have, like, leftovers or whatever, but I'm pretty sure, like, typically what happens is at the end of a season of the podcast, like, I'll have. Albany's would supply me with gummies to show on the podcast. Right. That's normal. Well, it's not like I'm sitting here eating these things. Like, I. I can't sit here and I'm trying to lose weight. Right. So the kids will come here through the winter. Then when I'm not podcasting and they know that I'm not podcasting, and so then it's just ransoc. They just. I don't even know where they go, frankly. I don't want to know. I don't want to know how many they eat. I. If I see it, I'm like, ah, don't eat those. But I know they're eating them when I'm not looking. So anyways, yeah, soon, hopefully the gummy bears will be coming back soon. Gene, I know you. I know you love them, Gene. I know you do.
- [47:01]
B
You're listening to the Molder Life podcast because you want to get better at your craft. Andy is always working hard to improve himself and pass on that knowledge to you. He's even improved his molder outdoors.com website to make it make it easier to use and to give you several ways to support the podcast. When you visit moulderoutdoors.com click on the shop link to pick up some of the coolest merch around. Choose from camo hats and beanies to fluorescent work shirts and super warm hoodies. While on that page, scroll down and check out the video courses, contracts and worksheets. To make you and your company highly effective and profitable. I recommend the Everything bundle which gives you access to all the training and free forms while saving you money. If you need to book a one on one consultation, you can do that as well@molder outdoors.com support the show while growing your business. There's also a link you can use
- [47:52]
A
in the show description how to Hardscape Mike what's going on buddy? I hope you're doing well. Have you guys had an I quit moment or I don't think I'm going to make this work moment in business. What was it and how did you make it work? Who's going first?
- [48:13]
C
Yeah, slay chicken here.
- [48:17]
A
I. I don't know if I've had an I quit moment. I'm just being fully transparent. I've definitely had. I have been in tears too many times for my business. A hun like too many times. I don't think that I've ever thought to myself I'm going to quit. I don't want to do this anymore. And I don't know why that is. I think maybe it has to do with I just love doing this. I just love landscaping now. I think I really do feel that it was one of the biggest blessings I've received. Received, I guess or God's given me is finding my passion early in life. I don't think that that does not happen for a lot of people and I don't know why that happened. I just found something that I loved and just, it just worked. And I think that that is a huge part of why I've never said like I, I quit Like, I can't do this. I've just. I just love it.
- [49:15]
C
You just find another way.
- [49:16]
A
Yeah, I just. There's always another way. And like, I always. I'm always gonna love doing what I do now. There's a lot of days when it sucks or I don't want to get out of bed or whatever. But I also was raised by a man that never quit either. And my dad was the hardest worker I've ever met. And the longer he's gone, the more I think about what he used to do. Like work wise, like getting up early or he would. Sometimes I'm like. He was a truck driver for basically his whole life. So three in the morning was most of the time when he would be getting up for work. He drove a garbage truck. He had his own trucking company. Different things with trucking almost always. But like he would. It would always be 3 and 3 or 4 in the morning. That's when dad got up to go to work. And he would still do. Do everything with us in the evening the same that I do. But like, how was he? That's why he would fall asleep everywhere because he was exhausted all the time. But like. Or like we would always joke. He would always fall asleep in church or whatever. Like me and my brother, we. There's a whole thing that we would watch him do and we know he was about to fall asleep or whatever. Well, that's because he was so tired. You know, four hours of sleep. Yeah. Like six days a week. Like he always. And I'm not saying like, the only way to success is to that. I don't, I don't. I have different thoughts on that.
- [50:39]
C
Like the whole getting up early thing.
- [50:41]
A
No, just like, I don't think you have to literally kill yourself your entire life to get ahead.
- [50:47]
C
Yeah, it's.
- [50:48]
A
I think it's different times now than I think it used to be. I don't know, I. There. I guess there's different ways to do that. I guess I haven't put my thoughts together obviously on that topic, but I just think that he never quit doing what he needed to do. He always did what he had to do to get it done. And so like, I think that's just part of it for me. I'm just like, no, if it's hard, I'm just sorry. This is what it's going to be today. And it's not all sunshine and rainbows and there's a lot of other harder things in life to do than what I'm doing right now. And I just do it. I don't know. I really think my dad's work ethic and really both of my grandparents, both of my grandpas, they all were hard workers and not even men. I mean even the women in my life, very hardworking, very. No one's gonna hand this to you, right? If it's hard today, like, too bad, so sad. I think that's lost big time in our society.
- [51:50]
C
I agree.
- [51:50]
A
Terrible.
- [51:51]
C
It's a way. Well, the way you grew up is a way of life.
- [51:55]
A
You know, for me it was.
- [51:56]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [51:57]
A
I mean, my grandpa, my one grandpa started. He was a principal of different schools. He helped start and grow a Christian. The same school that I went to and that my kids go to now. That was obviously very hard. Lots of leadership, lots of different things like that. And then my other grandpa owned different businesses and, and even literally we would joke when we always he owned a scrap yard garbage company, different things like that, sold them to waste management. And then him and my grandma traveled for many, many years. And then when, when they weren't traveling as much, he would still, he had a pickup with a dump body, like a, like a simple insert, dump insert. And he would scrap. He would go around scrapping. This guy didn't need to scrap, but like he just wanted to do something. He was always working. And I would go originally, that's really where I started was I would go with him mowing. He would go and volunteer at a local Christian camp that he just had a heart for. And he would mow all their grass. Like he just did it, all of it. He would have a nice, he always had like a nicest John Deere tractor. And so he would take me with on Saturdays to mow and weed, whack. And then we'd go to McDonald's and he'd take me home and he had to go for nap time at 2 o' clock or whatever. And so that's initially what really started my love for, I think being outside was him.
- [53:16]
C
That's really cool.
- [53:17]
A
Yeah. But like, so again, like just a long line of hard working people that don't quit or because it's hard. And I, I, I don't, I'm not going to quit.
- [53:29]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [53:30]
A
I, I may have to change what I'm doing. I may have to, you know, do something completely different. I don't know. There's oftentimes like I get in my head and I'd be like, okay, well if landscaping doesn't work out this year, what am I going to do? Well, There's a lot of things we can do. There's a lot of different things we could do if like for some reason this year we got zero landscape jobs. I sometimes I get in my head like that. It's absurd, but I do that.
- [53:55]
C
Well, there we go. Everybody. Even Annie Mortar has even.
- [53:58]
A
Oh my goodness. All the time. Like whatever Mike says. I don't think I'm gonna make this work. I know. I don't think if you're a business owner, I don't think you can have that attitude. You have to.
- [54:11]
C
That makes me think of a post I saw recently. It's like the moment you start thinking you might fail is basically when you're probably gonna doom yourself to failing.
- [54:23]
A
Yeah.
- [54:23]
C
It's like. Cause it starts. You just start up. See. Yeah. That's why I can't. And it just turns into a self defeating cycle.
- [54:34]
A
Right. I think our society nowadays is a lot like that because of the comparison stuff. You're always looking at what the next guy has or the next guy is doing or I think that's a super slippery slope that if you're getting down on yourself about things that are happening to you, the first thing you do is shut off all Internet or social media and quit comparing yourself to other people. Because like there is. Everybody out there is going through something that they don't want to show you. They. They're just. Because it's not cool to show you that. There's a lot of stuff that I show a lot of my life online. A lot. And I'm very much an open book. But there's also times when I don't show the stuff that sucks.
- [55:20]
C
Yeah.
- [55:20]
A
I mean that's. Who wants to see that? I mean, I guess I could show that, but like.
- [55:24]
C
Well, there's a fine line between like, I don't know, building in the open or being transparent.
- [55:28]
A
And there's some things I can't share online. Yeah. Because it's not appropriate. Whatever. Or it's. Or it's client or client confidentiality or whatever. Like the stuff that I've dealt with, even last year I had all kinds of weird stuff or client stuff that was super hard or whatever. I mean, I would say almost every time I've cried over my business is over some kind of client situation that was a disaster or how I was treated by somebody or a mistake we made or maybe it was an employee issue that I don't know what to do with. But at the end of the day, like I never, I never say I'm never at the Point, like, I'm not,
- [56:06]
C
I can't do this anymore for myself. Like, I don't remember having a moment where I'm like, I'm done. I quit. I have absolutely have moment. I would rephrase it a little. He said, have you had a moment where I don't think I'm gonna make this work? I've definitely had moments where I'm like, I don't know how. Oh, for sure I'm gonna make this work.
- [56:28]
A
100 and maybe that.
- [56:29]
C
Yeah. And, and maybe I've had some. I don't think I'm gonna make this work. No. I, I never felt like the end was here.
- [56:37]
A
No.
- [56:38]
C
And I give credit to God for that. Like, there were. I just. On the way here, I got a reminder on my phone. You have your photos, your Google Photos or whatever.
- [56:47]
A
Yeah.
- [56:48]
C
Like it's like five years ago or whatever. On the way here, I got this thing on my phone and it was a dinner that I had done in Kansas City with some synced up customers out there. And it was like a year or two after we started. And I remember that dinner because I literally did. I wanted to pay for everybody and I literally didn't have the money to do it. And these were some of the very first synced up customers that have become very close friends over the years and they knew the struggle and, you know, one of them picked up the tab and it's just like, man, and, and I wanted to so badly. Since then I've actually had the opportunity to go back again. And, you know, but, but those are there. There's another story one time where we went to a show and this was like a year and a half after starting and we were still trying to scrap, scrap, you know, pool funds together to pay our own bills every, every month. Because Tussie had kind of like funded the thing and it was, yeah, Tassie's gotta stop putting money into this thing.
- [57:46]
A
Right? Yeah.
- [57:47]
C
And I remember going to that show and be like, dude, if, if we don't get something out of this, like, I, I, I don't, I have to go back. I have to go beg or go, you know, whatever. And that day we got people signing up at the show. Almost never happens. It's too much of an, it's, it's not an impulse buy, you know what I'm saying?
- [58:10]
A
Yeah.
- [58:10]
C
But that day, three people signed up and they all bought an annual plan.
- [58:15]
A
I, I, I, that is a God thing. And I, I, I have seen that happen in our business time and time again. Throughout the, I mean, literally all the time, there's different things where I've been like, I don't know what, I don't know what to do next. I, literally two weeks ago, me and Stephanie, my finance manager, we were emailing back and forth about something that I want to do this year. And I, these, I, I just, I just kind of brain dumped on her. And I said, I don't, these are the things that I think are going on. This is what I, I don't know what the right decision is. I don't know where the way. Which, which path do I need to go? And I said, I said, frankly, whenever I've had. I said this in the email. I said, anytime I have these situations, if I wait long enough, God usually gives me the answer. Just, it just does every time, I swear. And I've just waited. And literally last week, it kind of like I had clarity finally. Like, I made a couple moves, something else came and dropped in my lap. Whatever. Like, it wasn't like a million dollars fell from the sky, but I had clarity to make the right decision because I waited and I prayed and I, I, I trust that he's always in control of what I'm doing and, and that there's, that's a piece that I, you know, not everybody understands. I understand that but. And maybe that's why I have a no quit attitude. I just know that it's all going to be okay and he, it's in his plan, ultimately.
- [59:41]
C
Yeah. Yeah. I think to some degree we probably have. Well, I don't know. I feel very fortunate in that, like, I feel like what I'm doing with synced up now is like, it's like, it's like, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a I'll grow a business and flip it idea. It's a calling. Right. Like, and make you look at it differently when it feels that way to you. And I'm sure that many people out there in the industry feel the same way about their own business.
- [60:11]
A
Absolutely.
- [60:13]
C
And it, you just look at it differently, maybe sometimes you get too emotionally wrapped up into it or maybe, maybe you can't think, distance yourself enough from it to think rationally or clearly. But another thing that what you were saying reminded me of is somebody called Cody Sanchez that I watch online. They were saying a lot of people pray to get to the next level of the game, but then are flabbergasted or blindsided when what you get is pressure, back against the wall situations, hard Things and you know, given enough of time, whether It's a year, five years, 10 years, you're like, well, the thing I prayed for the next level of the game.
- [61:03]
A
Well.
- [61:04]
C
And then God sent me pressure. Well, that was to get you to the next level. Because you are not going to get to that next level if you can't withstand the storms or the battle of that level. Right. And so often I think, like you said, the million dollars falling from the sky. So often I think we feel like, man, if my prayers were just answered, these challenges would go away and this thing would take care of itself and these solutions would just appear and it's, it's the exact opposite, right?
- [61:33]
A
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think, I think it's important to put things into perspective when you're going through a hard time or whatever. I've said this before. Like, I often think like this is, this is just landscaping. This is not life or death. Like in the moment I may think it is hopefully one day. It's never actually something like that. You know what I'm saying? But like I'm very often a class half full kind of person.
- [62:00]
C
Yeah.
- [62:00]
A
I can usually, like, if I'm having a bad day, I can usually flip flop my attitude pretty quickly. I get over things quickly. That's just the way that God's designed me and that's a blessing. But I've also found a big help in finding good peers, people to bounce ideas off of. I've, you know, social media has been really a blessing in that for me. Finding a lot of other business owners that are true friends now. I mean, to think we're out to dinner tonight with another guy.
- [62:32]
C
Yeah.
- [62:33]
A
And like it's only because of the Internet.
- [62:35]
C
Yeah.
- [62:35]
A
I've never met, I would have never met him 20 years ago.
- [62:38]
C
That would have never happened.
- [62:38]
A
Never. And like that. So we can sit there and have a conversation about business and different things that are going on in our life that relate to what we're all doing. And you don't. You can find that anywhere.
- [62:50]
C
Yeah.
- [62:50]
A
You got, and you just got to put yourself out there because you're not nobody. You're not the only one going through whatever you're going through.
- [62:56]
C
And there's something, I don't know. Misery loves company. That's kind of the dark way of saying it, but there's something about knowing that I'm not the only one and there's nothing wrong with me. Like this is this. These kind of struggles and situations are, quote, normal, you know.
- [63:10]
A
Right.
- [63:11]
C
But you know, to think about The Internet.
- [63:13]
A
Yeah.
- [63:14]
C
On the. On the not so great side, it creates a lot of comparison, which creates a lot of negative energy. On the good side, it does exactly what we just did tonight, where you make a connection that you would have never made any other way, and you draw a peer or a mentorship or a brotherhood or a friendship or whatever out of that. That is, frankly, encouraging.
- [63:32]
A
Yeah. I think it's really important if you're spending time with other people in your industry or trying to find peers or whatever. I do think it's really important to learn to listen. I've really tried to do that. Doesn't matter who I'm with. Don't control the conversation the whole time. It's not about you. You never know what you're gonna pick up from somebody else and just listen. I'm not there to flex on anyone. I could literally, I don't need to say anything, and most of the time, like, I just always pick something up. Like, it doesn't matter who I'm with. Like, I don't want to be the one in this platform. I am the one talking all the time. But it's. I don't. I don't do that. I don't. I don't want to come and dominate your conversation. It's not. You need to be humble enough to listen and to. To anyone that is doing what you're doing, or you just never know. So never be, you know, too afraid to just shut up and listen, because
- [64:32]
C
it takes work and energy.
- [64:33]
A
It's very hard to just. Just listen and make them be the more important part of the conversation. I don't know. I just think all that stuff helps. All these different things that we're talking about help with not getting to a place where I want to quit, in my opinion.
- [64:50]
C
Yeah.
- [64:51]
A
Yeah.
- [64:51]
C
So I. I mean, when I think of the. The valleys and the storms that we've gone through, like, there's definitely been moments where sometimes I. I sit here now and like, man, why didn't I want to quit? And.
- [65:02]
A
Yeah, I don't.
- [65:03]
C
I don't know. It's just like, you talked about your family and your dad and what you learned from that, and I also had those. That strong foundation, like, I came from. Like, my dad was an incredibly hard worker today. He would say he was. He spent too much time working.
- [65:17]
A
Yeah.
- [65:18]
C
I actually think there's probably. As his son, I kind of think. I don't know. There were some good things that I learned from that, you know?
- [65:24]
A
Yeah.
- [65:25]
C
And, you know, all of his brothers, they were all very entrepreneurial minded. So all my life, even as a little five, six year old kid, you know, I was around business. It was just the way and it was. Yeah, it's a tremendous blessing, you know, like a lot of one one things I, One of the things I've noticed, good traveling, doing all these shows with contractors is a lot of these people are lonely. Like they are the only person in their family or whatever that took the risk, went out to go do their own thing. And they are lonely, you know, or they feel alone in the battles are fighting, which is kind of.
- [65:55]
A
I don't. I think the family dynamic you and I are talking about is very rare.
- [66:02]
C
Yeah, it is actually. And I wasn't really aware of it actually.
- [66:05]
A
The older I get, the more I see that. Especially when you have like, people that are losing someone else or medically have medical issues or whatever and they don't have anyone. Like, I'm like, what do you mean? Like, if I had a medical issue, I'd have to tell people to stop coming to the hospital because, like there'd be. Just. Because we have so much family.
- [66:24]
C
Yeah.
- [66:24]
A
And it's not like that for everybody. I, it's such a blessing I, that I, I. It's not. It's just different for a lot of. It's just. I don't know why it is like that.
- [66:34]
C
But, you know, I bet you if I wouldn't have had the support network that I did, I bet you I would have ran into I quit moments. Yeah.
- [66:40]
A
Yeah.
- [66:41]
C
So that actually is a. I'm just thinking that's just hitting me right here is like, how important, like the same circumstances could have turned into I quit moments had it not been for those support networks people. Like, dude, I don't know where to go from here. Like, we just have a. You have a 90 minute conversation, you come out the other side feeling like, okay, I got some direction.
- [66:59]
A
Yeah. I mean, I also have. My biggest cheerleader ever is at home right now. And she's been my biggest cheerleader forever. And I know you can relate.
- [67:07]
C
Yep.
- [67:08]
A
And so like, if I was having a bad day, she would not let me. I mean, she would just, let's figure it out. Or, you know, whatever. I also could look at her and be like, hey, Andy, suck it up. You got to win for her or win for them. You know what I mean? I don't know. Yeah, I think, I guess. Yeah. Ultimately there's people that don't have that kind of a support system and, and I don't know how to fix that. I'm not here to fix that issue, I guess. I don't know. But that it's. Hopefully you can find that. Yeah.
- [67:38]
C
Well, that's the one nice thing about the Internet and the groups that we have and all that is like, you can go out there and find people if you put yourself to it.
- [67:46]
A
Yeah, totally.
- [67:47]
C
It's definitely much more accessible than it used to be.
- [67:49]
A
Yeah. Well, we are past an hour here. Weston, I appreciate you being on. I appreciate everybody that tuned in this week for the first episode. I think it was a great conversation and I'm excited for the 2026 podcast season.
- [68:05]
C
Yeah.
- [68:06]
A
And spending more time with you guys. I will not be on the show next week, but the week after. I will be. It'll be kind of every other week for the next couple of weeks. Just for different traveling things. Con expos coming up. A lot of different things like that. So big thanks to C and P attachments. Cnp attachments.com Go check them out. Synced up syncedup.com thank you, S for being here.
- [68:27]
C
You're welcome.
- [68:27]
A
I really appreciate it. You're going to Aquascape tomorrow. Awesome. I hope you have fun over there. I haven't been there in a long time. I need to go there again soon, but. Yeah. So this is the Motor Life podcast from the ENCON Studios and we'll catch you on the next one. Thanks.
- [68:51]
B
This has been a molder outdoors and Mr. Producer production.