Ep 159. Growth: What does it mean? With Special Guest Alex Bulow from Inca Stone

Summary

The Mulder Life Podcast — Ep 159: "Growth: What Does It Mean?"

With Special Guest: Alex Bulow from Inca Stone
Date: February 25, 2026
Host: Andy Mulder

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Mulder Life Podcast features a candid, live discussion with Alex Bulow of Inca Stone. Andy and Alex explore meaningful topics surrounding the landscaping business, business growth, craftsmanship, and personal values. The episode blends practical business operations, sophisticated stonework insights, and honest reflections on leadership, team building, and defining success in life and business.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Alex's Background and Inca Stone Origins ([03:43–5:19])

• Alex’s journey:
  • Started in landscaping in 2006, working as a dedicated employee for over a decade.
  • Never aspired to own a business but shifted course after leaving a toxic workplace.
  • Enforced non-compete led to two years out of his local industry.
  • Eventually formed a partnership (“that didn’t end well,” Alex notes).
  • Founded Inca Stone LLC in July 2021 — not a planned move but a “massive leap of faith” that turned out successful through strong relationships.
  • Emphasizes the importance of perspective and learning from every stage.

“I never wanted to own my own business. I just liked building stuff… But it was pretty clear I had to do this.” — Alex [03:43]

2. Team Size, Structure, and Philosophy ([07:08–08:31], [22:56–24:46])

• Operates with a tight-knit team of 5, all experienced, focused on craftsmanship and interest-driven projects.
• Team culture values quality over quantity.
• Workflow: Leapfrog scheduling with single-crew mentality — generally handling one job at a time but overlapping as needed.
• Strong emphasis on working with people he likes and keeping the team together long-term.

3. Specialization in Natural Stone ([07:46–09:14])

• Inca Stone’s niche: High-end, artistic natural stonework.
• The team gravitates towards projects that are custom, challenging, and rewarding.
• Preference for local Pennsylvania limestone and sandstone for reliability and quality.

"Every project's different, and every stone is different, and it's really art. So, yeah, we gravitate towards that." — Alex [07:46]

4. Artistic Process and Challenges of Creativity ([09:14–10:05])

• Adapting designs as materials arrive — letting the stone “lead” the process.
• Building for artistry, not just speed or profit.
• Alex and Andy agree on the “timelessness” and “forgiveness” of natural stone.

“It may lead us a different way, because it just does… Just make sure you have enough man hours in it. Figure it out.” — Andy [09:24]

5. Material Selection and Avoiding Product Failures ([10:17–13:15])

• Vigilance regarding climate suitability (Zone 6): Avoiding poor-performing imports.
• Firsthand experience with product failures; strict about vendor due diligence.
• Preference for local quarries and well-tested materials.

“You kind of have to be your own advocate and make sure what you’re using is suitable.” — Alex [11:46]

6. Water Features and Iconic Projects ([18:01–21:24])

• Natural pools and integrated stone features, inspired by Tussie Landscape.
• Story of building a unique fiberglass pool project (with Teco Block floor and walls) that was both thrilling and stressful.

“There is no more stressful time in business than building one of those.” — Alex [19:24]

7. Business Development: Word of Mouth & Team Retention ([21:39–24:43])

• No paid advertising; all work comes via referrals.
• Emphasis on relationships, reputation, and trust.
• Team largely reunited from past business phases; desires to keep the same group together long-term.

“It took almost four years to get everybody back here, but we're all back here, and it's pretty cool.” — Alex [23:03]

8. Project Management and Commercial Work Realities ([24:46–29:41])

• Alex acts as a foreman’s support; gives credit to his on-site leaders.
• Recent large-scale projects (e.g., Pittsburgh Zoo) are complex and fraught with challenges: materials changes, scheduling nightmares.
• Candid discussion on commercial project headaches versus their glamorous appearances online.

“Instagram only shows you... a highlight reel... the other 90% is sometimes war.” — Alex [27:04]

9. Profitability, Growth, and What Growth Actually Means ([30:50–34:09])

• Profitability starts with accurate costing and charging (“charge the correct amount. End of story.”).
• Separates “improvement” from “growth” — improvement is continual learning, growth can mean many things beyond revenue and headcount (margins, tenure, quality of life, zero turnover, etc.)
• Warns against equating growth solely with expansion.

“Be careful where you take advice from when people start talking about [growth].” — Alex [33:56]

10. Building for Fulfillment & Freedom ([34:09–38:51])

• Both host and guest emphasize prioritizing personal and team freedom over relentless scaling.
• Alex: Flexible, family-friendly workplace; most staff on salary with a “gentleman’s agreement” to ensure everyone’s work-life balance.

“Don't grow yourself out of freedom.” — Alex [36:39]
“The only reason I’d consider [growing] is for my team, if I need to find more places for them to grow their careers.” — Andy [36:52]

11. Mechanization and Equipment Philosophy ([41:11–47:19])

• Mechanizing as much as possible to preserve health as the team ages.
• Favorite tool: Tilt rotator (“Tilt rotator — and it’s all your fault,” Alex jokingly tells Andy) [43:31].
• CMP attachments get a shoutout for efficiency and value.
• Relationship with Bobcat mentioned as key to business starting up with limited capital.

12. Lessons from Adversity ([49:36–54:45])

• Alex recounts a major business betrayal (partner stole hundreds of thousands) and the hard decision to let go of legal battles and focus on moving forward.
• Wisdom in prioritizing energy over vengeance; stresses the value of forgiveness and acceptance.

“You have to walk through that fire to get to where you're at. I wouldn’t change a thing.” — Alex [52:48]

13. Family and Support ([53:07–54:45])

• Alex credits his wife, Beth, with their company’s survival and success; she took on the CFO role despite no prior experience.
• The importance of trust, accountability, and support at home and work.

“There’s no one else I would have trusted to do it. Sure. Which wouldn’t have happened.” — Alex [56:04]

14. Legacy and What Really Matters ([56:23–59:47])

• Deep reflection prompted by Andy about legacy — inspired by his own family experiences with loss.
• Alex’s aspiration for how he’ll be remembered:

“When I’m gone, I would want people to know where I am, and I want them to go there too.” — Alex [59:15]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On company vision & growth:

  “Pick what you think is valuable and make that your growth... None of those have to do with how much money's in the bank.” — Alex [33:54]

• On leadership:

  “When I'm on the job, I answer to [the foreman]. That's the goal.” — Alex [24:43]

• On work-life balance:

  “A benefit to being small is freedom. So don't grow yourself out of freedom.” — Alex [36:39]

• On the agony of big custom builds:

  "There is no more stressful time in business than building one of those [natural pools]... when the water came out of this pipe, he'd give me a thumbs up and I'd go. He did that for like, like two hours. It was like a, like a two hour panic attack." — Alex [21:24]

• On moving past betrayal:

  “I let it go. I just walked away completely. Just walked away and focused 100 on this.” — Alex [52:05]

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Timestamps for Major Sections

• [03:43] — Alex’s background, Inca Stone formation
• [07:08] — Team size, work structure, niche in natural stone
• [10:17] — Avoiding problem natural stone products
• [17:27] — Water features, natural pools, project stories
• [21:39] — Word of mouth and team loyalty
• [24:46] — Project management, role clarity
• [27:04] — Realities behind high-profile jobs
• [30:50] — Profitability and growth philosophy
• [34:46] — Balancing business and family life
• [41:11] — Mechanization and favorite tools
• [49:36] — Hardest decisions and their long-term value
• [53:07] — The pivotal role of Beth, Alex’s wife
• [56:23] — Reflections on legacy

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Closing Thoughts

This episode offers listeners profound insights into the real challenges and rewards of building a specialized landscaping business. Andy and Alex model humility, honesty, and intentional leadership grounded in craftsmanship and personal values. Their perspectives remind us that “growth” is multidimensional — and that legacy, relationships, and freedom can matter more than endless expansion.

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Transcript

[A]

Headed to Con Expo Con AG this March, visit NCon at booth F39004 and see the world's leading tilt rotators in action. Discover how Incon boosts productivity, efficiency and safety on every job site. Test the machines, talk to the experts. March 3rd through the 7th in Las Vegas. Working Smarter starts here.

[B]

Welcome to this week's episode of the MoldedLife podcast. A live show featuring your questions about all things landscaping, equipment, business and life. Join our live show weekly on Instagramlderoutdoors Monday nights 8:30pm Central Standard Time to ask your questions or tune in here for the replay.

[A]

And now from the Incon Studios Incon, a world leading manufacturer of tow rotators and attachments enhancing your business. Here's your host, Andy Mulder.

[B]

What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Motorlife podcast. We are live here Monday night February 23rd and we are joined today by Alex from Inca Stone and he is joining us in the NCON studios. And so before we get talking to Alex, I want to thank our sponsors this week. Synced up, synced up project management software. Go checked out Joe, check out syncedup.com, huge thank you to them for being a sponsor this week. Also ad equipment, they are where we bought our roadastar screening bucket from and they sell crushing buckets and other things. They wanted us to let you know that they will be at Con Expo next week in Las Vegas and you be sure to check them out in their outdoor booth. They might even have an indoor booth. I don't know for sure but I'm sure they'll have some screening buckets and other tilt rotator stuff there and different things that they sell. So be sure to check out ad equipment and let them know that you heard about them on the Molder Life podcast. And so thank you to these companies for being a sponsor this week. And as I said before, we are welcoming Alex. Is it Bulow right?

[C]

Beulou be low.

[B]

Sorry. Welcome Alex to the podcast. So Alex, thanks for being with us man.

[C]

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

[B]

Yeah. So we wanted to have some more guests on the podcast this year and so Alex, I guess we did have west than last week but two weeks ago but I wanted to have Alex on because I've gotten to know Alex over the last couple of years initially from Instagram, then spent some time together at the Hardscape Mastery and then ultimately have just got to know each other through different events and now on different text threads that we're a part of. And I'VE just really come to respect Alex and his company and the things that they're building and the things that he stands for. And I thought it'd be cool to have him on. And we're going to take. This is still going to be the same format. So we're going to take questions live. Anything you guys want to talk about. Ultimately I'm going to have Alex tell a little bit about his company, maybe some of his background. But ultimately I still want to take questions either for Alex or for me or for both of us. And so Alex, why don't you, like I said, just introduce yourself and a little bit about your past. I honestly, I don't know your past really that much. So I'm excited to hear it and, and just how you got in the industry and what you are doing today.

[C]

Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for having me on. And the past is, is, is the past. Thank goodness. But it's long. So I guess the, the past that matters most here is I started landscaping in 2006, worked for a company and was a company man employee for about a decade. Never wanted to own my own business. Just wanted to be that number one right hand man and just, you know, just get out there every day and kill it. And there were, you know, God had different plans for me and through some radical changes I left there and you know, had a partnership for a little while and that didn't work out. And so basically 20 was it, 2021. In July, we started the LLC of Inca Stone. And it never really was my goal. I'm not an entrepreneur. I don't really love being a business owner. I just like building stuff, you know what I mean? That's pretty much it. But it was pretty clear that I had to do this. And it was kind of a massive leap of faith and with the right people, you know, success was pretty much instant. So there's, there's a lot there in that time frame. And I'm totally open book about any of it because a lot of it gave me perspective and that is such a valuable thing to have in any facet of life is just perspective of different, you know, avenues and you know, different vantage points of our industry and anything really.

[B]

Yeah, that's for sure. So you were a partner with another company before you started Inkin Stone. So did that company close completely or how did that go?

[C]

So I worked for this company in 2006 and I thought I was gonna retire there and the environment for me was just, it became toxic. So, so I just, I You know, one day I just. I was. I was done. I just. I walked out. It was not professional. It was not the right thing to do, but I just couldn't be there anymore. And this is after, you know, over a decade of just working really hard. And I was so involved in that company. I had a no compete clause, which they enforced. So I wasn't really allowed to landscape. I wasn't allowed to landscape in Pittsburgh for two years and 50 miles or some ridiculous thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I kind of lay. I laid low for a little bit. Just did 1099 work. Just the only thing I know how to do is landscape. So that's what I did. And the opportunity present itself to partner with somebody. And I thought, okay, I'll do that because I'm not the owner. Well, partnership. And that sounded good. And it just. It was. It was a. It was a great year. Covid hit, but we still did well. I think everybody did well in the industry.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then, you know, you know what Dave Ramsey says about partners, for sure. So we could just leave it there. That. That entity. That entity is still in business.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And he got the money and I got the team. And that was the best deal that ever could have happened.

[B]

Oh, wow. There you go. And so how. What. How big is quote unquote? How big? I guess how. How many you. Is it one crew? Two crews. How many people do you have?

[C]

Right now is just five people. Myself is one of them. I'm obviously an employee of the company. It's an S corp. And then we have a part time. One of our employees, son helps us in the summertime. So I would say it's solid. Five guys and it's a one crew mentality. But we kind of start new projects as other projects are finishing. We kind of leapfrog. And we don't usually run two full projects at the same time.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, gotcha. That's cool. And you kind of found your niche in a lot of natural stone, correct?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So the team that we have here is just basically, I mean, we're all in our late 30s, early 40s. We've been doing this for a long time. And we just want to do the fun stuff, to be honest with you. Now, obviously you have to do. You have to pay the bills, so you have to do whatever. But we get to write the story this time. And we're just going to do the stuff that we want to do or at least try to do it, you know, try to get that kind of work. And obviously natural Stone is something that's just, to me, really cool. And it's. Every project's different, and every stone is different, and it's really art. So, yeah, we gravitate towards that. Yeah. So.

[B]

And so did you, in your background in the industry, did you work with a lot of natural stone or how did that kind of come about?

[C]

Not really. I would say we were more of a. When I was working for that company for that, you know, decade period, it was more of like a production landscape. Same three pavers, same border, you know, eight plant palette, blah, blah, blah. And that just. I mean, that gets boring after a while. And anytime you had a chance at a natural stone, like a water feature or something, it just, you know, it's just cool. So usually it was more about making money and putting work in the ground than the art artist side of it, because, let's face it, that takes time, and, you know, you're not always profitable.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So when we. We decided to do this, it was. Yeah. I don't really care how long it takes to scribe it, we're gonna scribe it. You know what? I may not make a penny on it, but I want to do it because it looks cool, and that's what we want to do.

[B]

Yeah. And you're in. I mean, you love what you do. And I think we're the same in that there's a lot of things that we've done, like, specifically with natural stone, where, like, when you're working with it, like, I tell customers this a lot. I'm like, this is kind of what we're gonna do, but I'm just gonna tell you, like, once the material gets here, like, it may lead us a different way, because it just does. I don't know how to explain it. It just does. And you just make sure you have enough man hours in it. Figure it out. Make sure you just put the extra 10% that you think you don't. You. You shouldn't need, but you're gonna.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Natural stone is forgiving, but it always. It can surprise you, and not in good ways.

[B]

Yeah. And there was a question, actually. I mean, we might as well take this one. While you're saying that, somebody asked, what are. What are. Are there natural stone products that you avoid and why?

[A]

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[B]

and equipment.com are there natural stone products that you avoid?

[C]

And why not really? I mean I'll tell you that there are natural stone vendors that do push products that aren't great in our zone six climate and we have had to replace entire patios on their dime luckily. But it's just not a good look. So you just have to do your due diligence. Just because a vendor says yeah, this paver or the stone will work and your freeze thaw isn't always the case. You kind of have to be your own advocate and make sure what you're using is suitable. Yeah, we've used there was a travertine that failed and then there was a like a course based sandstone that failed like three years ago. Luckily you know, the vendors definitely took care of it and it was not an issue. But who wants to rip out all the work you just did the year before? One winter of this is demoralizing.

[B]

Right? Well and it doesn't matter what you tell the client like, like you know, we didn't know or our supplier didn't say or the stone fell like some it still get leaves a, you know, it can leave a bad taste in their mouth. You know, whether you want to or not.

[C]

I say my, my preference. We have natural, I have limestone and sandstone here in Pennsylvania. There's a quarry three miles from my house that produces sandstone and we have a great relationship with them and that's a stone that we're familiar with. We use a lot of. Anytime you get an imported stuff, good luck. Yeah. The quality control overseas. Who knows, you know.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Who knows what you're Getting.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I'll try to stick to local stuff that's here.

[B]

Yeah. Right. So you. It's very rare that you're bringing something in from out of state then.

[C]

Yeah. Trying to think past. Yeah, I would say. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. We'll use Indiana limestone. We use PA sandstone. Those are our go to natural stone products. You know, there are coarse based sandstones from India that are very hard and they're, they're good, they're solid, but we don't use them as much.

[B]

Yeah. Brilliant. Garden says, I love natural stone. It's on every product, every project we do. Nice, dude. I will say, like I am. The more I work with it, the more I push my clients towards that. And I think that's something. Just that sentence alone is something that I learned a lot from Jeremy Swihart and listening to how he sells and not, not always like showing every single option there is out there and that our clients are coming to us for our expertise and our knowledge and our design ability and these types of things. And I really took that to heart when I'm selling now. And like he always said, like, you want to sell per for profit. Now you can't always be scribing every patio and say that you're selling for profit because there's a lot of custom work to that. But there are customers that appreciate that and value that and will pay for that. But I've took that to heart as to how I'm designing and what I want to work with. Like, if I want to work with natural stone, I put it in my design and explain to the customer why we want to use it and why it's timeless and why it will always look good and, and just so many different things like that. And then we, we. They will go towards that because they trust us. Right. I'm sure you find the same thing.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. And then timeless is definitely a big component of it too. Like the only thing that goes out of style are patterns and layout. The actual material, I mean, it, it's truly timeless and it's also forgiving. You know, if you get a concrete coping, you can chip those pretty easily. If you dip a piece of limestone or sandstone, you can clean up with a chisel in a few seconds and it's not a big deal. So there, there are definitely a lot of pros to natural stone other than the timeless and the look.

[B]

Yeah, I would say the more I work with specifically natural stone coping, that's. I do realize a lot more of the forgivability with that how you can create your own edges and your own ends and whatever. Like I haven't even scratched a surface on. On like stone work like that where you're. What is it? Thermal thermaling or thermal finishing it or whatever it's called. Or like creating your own rock face. Like I'm. We're just starting to scratch the surface of that, but there's so many things you can do with it then just cut it, you know?

[C]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely.

[B]

Vine. Vine and Compass on. On Instagram says. I feel like we all have. All we have around us is Indiana limestone and aggregate. I don't know where you're from, vine and compass, but I am, I am. I live about 45 minutes from. I don't know if it's still true, but I used to be told that it was the biggest limestone quarry in the world. I don't know if that's still the case, but lots. That's all of our. All of our aggregate, all of our limestone or, you know, road mix. Any kind of limestone comes from the quarry, which is the big quarry now there's a couple that are like literally 20 minutes south and they're starting to mine in other places. But. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know where this guy's from, but. Brilliant Garden says we used sandstone and I was amazed by the irregularity on. In the mill quality arch slabs. Thin, milled. Could have been a bad batch. I don't know. How do you deal with calcium stains on natural stone with water features

[C]

and calcium stain. I can't. Honestly, I can't say that we've ever had calcium stains on water features.

[B]

Yeah, I don't know.

[C]

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever had that.

[B]

I mean, we have a guy that does all of our water, all of our big water features with us. He would probably know about that. He knows so much about water features and the effects of natural stone or. Or whatever we're using even the type.

[C]

I mean, we've done a ton of water fusion. Not a calcium. So what could it be? A. Something from a batch of stone or. I'm not sure.

[B]

Yeah, Alex, I'd love for you to explain. Or. I don't know. I talk about these swim pools, like these. What are you calling them where like, it's a natural stone, natural pool. I mean, what do you even call that? It's the most incredible thing ever.

[C]

And we're just copying Tussie landscape. That's all it is.

[B]

Aren't we all? I mean really?

[C]

Yep. That's pretty much shameless plug to them. So, you know, I have a natural one in my backyard which has a cob thorn paper bottom. It's not huge, but it's a pretty cool place. We have fish in it. And we built that wild techo block one probably two years ago.

[B]

That's the one sent me. Right, that I shared.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that, that one that's got everything that has like a two different types of limestone Teco block, floor and walls. It's got a lot going on there.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

But I mean, yeah, that was literally a fiberglass pole. We painted it out pretty much. The job was sold and the homeowner, the wife was just kind of like, little sigh of I guess we'll do this. And it was. She wasn't like pumped and she said, I just want something wild and different. And I literally said, well, I showed her a picture of Tussie's pool and that's how that one happened. Yep.

[B]

Really?

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that. Figured out we went up and visited Tussie on a couple of job sites just to see in the middle, like pre. Like middle of one of their large projects to pick their brains and. Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you what, there is no more stressful time in business than building one of those. So if you're going to do it, my word, why? I mean, it's a liner and it's all being buried by hundreds of tons of stone and you know, you can do your due diligence and take care of it and protect it and you know, everything, but at the end of the day, that sucker is built when you put the water in it and when it's filling up, I'll tell you right now,

[B]

it's something I can't imagine, honestly. I guess the more I think about that, the more I can imagine how it's terrible. Like when we built. When we built the landscape masterpiece with that massive wall around the pond.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

The night before they were gonna.

[C]

The.

[B]

The excavator was coming into. Basically we had pumps going keeping the pond from filling while we were building that. And then the night that they turned that off and then the excavator excavated the rest of the. I remember like I have never been so nervous in my life. Just thinking like, you know, did we build it right? Is it strong enough? What if it falls in? You like the whole thing?

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So that, that, that build. The day the water trucks came, I couldn't even Go over there. So I was spreading dirt like 100 yards away and I told our foreman Mike, I said, just check it every 10 minutes. You know, we have a. It's kind of like over a slope and it's a French drain underneath it. So if there was an issue, we'd know instantly. Oh, when the water came out of this pipe over the. He, he would like walk though. He'd walk over and look at it and I, like, I'd make eye contact, he'd give me a thumbs up and I go. And he did that for like, like two hours. It was like a, like a two hour panic attack.

[B]

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Wow. That's.

[C]

It was crazy.

[B]

And how. Have you done two of those since then or.

[C]

No, that's the.

[B]

Oh, is that the only one?

[C]

Yeah, that's the only one we did. Yep. Yep.

[B]

And is all your work like these kinds of jobs? Obviously ultra custom, large scale projects, are they all referral based? I mean, they're just people, they're. These people are finding you, right?

[C]

Yeah, we, we're 100% word of mouth.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Which, I mean, it's, it's. I struggle paying for advertising. Just because you don't know where that money's going and how the return is going to come in. That's just my fault. Yeah. But you know, word of mouth obviously is the best way in my opinion, to generate leads. You're already steps ahead of your competition and it served us well. It's definitely a slow path. It's not a high volume of calls coming in, but when they come in and it's a referral, I mean, I think it's your job to lose. So, yeah, we're, we're word of mouth only.

[B]

Yeah. I would agree. All of our bigger projects that are more customer or whatever, they all are connected somehow. They just, they just are. I could literally make like a tree on a wall and just like write the names and how they're connected.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

It's really, really quite cool. That's awesome. And so you got your team of five. You are pretty much for the most part, one job at a time, right?

[C]

Yeah, pretty much.

[B]

And, and the guys that are with you have been with you from the beginning, right?

[C]

Yeah. Well, so when we had our implosion of partnership, we. It was just me and one guy and everybody kind of scattered to get him get employment until we could get Inca Stone up and running to, you know, support everybody. And it took a solid two years. So from the beginning it was Mike and myself and you know, we did what we had to do, and after, you know, we started gaining traction. We brought Dan back, and then a friend of mine came from Maine to help us with sales. And then last year, we got the last piece of the puzzle back from that original team from our partnership. So it took. I mean, really, it took almost four years to get everybody back here, but we're all back here, and it's pretty cool.

[B]

Wow. I bet you that is really cool. That's awesome. What's. What's your work flow or work schedule? I mean, you're on the job every day with the guys,

[C]

if they have their wishes. No, but I like to be out there, so. Yes. Yeah. Most time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not, you know, Mike is our foreman, and Mike runs the show. So when I show up, you know, there are certain aspects of projects that, you know, we're doing the Pittsburgh Zoo right now, and there's a water feature there, and that's. It's all in my head. So I'm just gonna take that aspect of it, and Mike's over doing something else. Yeah, but Mike runs the show, and when I'm on the job, I answer to him pretty much is, you know, that's the goal.

[B]

That's fantastic.

[C]

Yeah, I love that.

[B]

So this.

[C]

Like to go out there.

[B]

No, go ahead.

[C]

Just build. I just like to build. You know what I mean? So, you know, being the owner on a job can distract you from putting your hands on the tools. And, you know, I try to create time so that I can just do work, if that makes sense.

[B]

Yeah, it's very hard to do that. I. I find it hard to, like, when I want to get involved in something, like, I have to almost just. I don't do it, but I. I almost have to am. To the point where I need to just put my phone in my truck and not even have it on me because it's just. It's a constant distraction. And, like, I'll just have days with a hundred phone calls, and there's no way I can be productive on the job site. And I want to be there so bad, but there's. I just. I'm a distraction to everyone else.

[C]

Amen.

[B]

Yeah, it's very hard, but it's really. I mean, what a blessing for you to have a team that when you're there, you're like, you know, what can I do? What. What can I. How can I be the most helpful instead of coming up and saying, why aren't. You know, we need to do this, this, and this? You're just asking, like, where can I fit in? And if I, if, if, if this isn't the right time, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. It's almost like you're coming there be like, can I be of help or am I going to be in the way kind of a thing. Right.

[C]

That is the goal. Now, I don't always achieve the goal. There are definitely. I come in and start, I start chirping off and giving my opinion on everything.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But the honest truth of the goal is to be like, what do you want me to do? Give me the worst job, best job. And then. Yeah, there are sometimes there are certain phases of jobs that I just want to do that part because I think it's cool and it's in my head and I just like, we're building this water feature now and it's gonna be pretty wild and we've never done anything like it. So I, I want to do it selfishly. I want to chisel every single rock that we're stacking.

[B]

So that's so cool.

[C]

It's one of the benefits, I guess.

[B]

So what's this? Pick? Pittsburgh Zoo. That's sounds amazing.

[C]

Sounds amazing.

[B]

I mean, are you creating, Are you creating like, Are you creating like animal exhibits? Like, what are we doing here?

[C]

No, it's a fun entrance.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

You know, like timeout real quick to all the listeners. You know, Instagram only shows you. For me, at least it's a highlight reel. It's like my photo album I like to look back on and it looks awesome and everything seems awesome. All the projects are cool and all the details are cool. But that's 10% of what happens. The other 90% is sometimes war.

[B]

That's right.

[C]

100%. Yeah. So we're, we, we, we literally contracted to do this in 2024 is when this contract signed to do 14,000 square feet of unilock hex pavers, some natural stone work, this water feature, some walls for the Pittsburgh Zoo. And it has been nothing but a commercial. Kick the can down the road. Scheduling nightmare. Just a. I don't even know how to describe it. It's been a zoo, you know, it's been something. And so it's cool. It's a high profile job, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. You know, we're going to build some cool stuff, but we're dealing with major issues. Like, we have 144 pallets of pavers on the ground. They want to return because they want to do Concrete now. So yeah, that's fun.

[B]

Classic commercial job.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. So while you're like in your you know, having fun chiseling stuff in the back of your mind's like what. How are we going to like how are we gonna deal with this?

[B]

Yeah. And you're doing this with the same size crew, right. You didn't add anybody to do this.

[C]

We. So we have. I got a few friends that have their own companies. Some are one man band, some are two man band and some projects I just need to call for help. Last year we had a. And we were that job for like five and a half months and we're getting towards the end of it and we're up against a hard deadline to start the Pittsburgh Zoo. So I you know reached out to some friends and the last two weeks we two or three weeks we kind of all tag teamed the planting part of it just to hurry up and find out that they do punted again for two more months.

[B]

So. Oh my goodness, that stuff is so hard to schedule with. Oh my goodness. I've been there.

[C]

Yeah, it's brutal. Yep. So last year was a wild year of scheduling. I mean I definitely learned the value to control your schedule is. It's a lot like it's a lot. The things we had to do to keep things moving and jumping around and rescheduling and shuffling cost us, you know, for 50 grand probably. And just hiring subs and downtime and.

[B]

Right.

[C]

You know, just a mess.

[B]

Right. Oh man, that's rough.

[C]

So yes, you will see a cool picture of a water feature one day. But let me tell you, the story behind it isn't awesome. Right.

[B]

So many photos like that. Right. Where at the. It looks cool but man, if you knew the story.

[C]

Yeah, totally.

[A]

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. 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.

[B]

How do you make your business profitable and continue to improve year over year? I don't know if it was. I mean, that's what I wrote, that's what it said. But I don't know if he. This person's asking it, like, you can't have both. I don't know. What do you think about that?

[C]

How do you make your business profitable

[B]

and improve and continue to improve each year? I don't know if they mean like by growing, like growing your company. I don't think you and I are going to be the guys that tell someone to grow really fast. And that's the key to success. But I'll let you talk.

[C]

Yeah. So the first part of it is, will be a plug for your Weston. How do you make your business profitable? You charge the correct amount. End of story. That's it. You have to know your numbers and you have to apply a budget and you have to charge the correct amount and do the work and the amount of time you think you can do it in that right there will give you profit. That's all you have to do is make sure you're charging accordingly. And then about improving in growth year over year, those are two different things. So improving is natural, I think, you know, I'm 46 years old, I've been doing this for a long time, and I still, every single day is something kind of new or super new. So it's just lessons all the time. And that, that will improve because you'll see, have new experiences, gain new knowledge, and apply them the next time they turn around. So I think improvement is just that happens naturally. Growth, that's if you want it to be. And I'm glad this question kind of came up because, you know, it. I'm pretty passionate about the term growth and what it doesn't mean and shouldn't mean, it doesn't have to mean, you know, I think growth doesn't mean more bodies. It doesn't mean more top line. It doesn't mean more trucks. It can, if that's what you want, it can be that. But growth can also be margins, free time, you know, other metrics. Like that's for anybody to decide. It's their company to decide what growth means, you know, so pick. Pick what you think is valuable and make that your. Your growth. You know, what you want to grow towards. It could be anything. It really could. It doesn't have to be more of stuff or people or things or volume or any of that. Stuff. So I think growth for us is opportunity for everybody that's here to be providers for their family. I think growth for us is doing new things. I think growth for us is. Tenure and zero turnover. I think that's a huge thing for us.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Stability, depth, none of those have to do with how much money's in the bank. So I think growth is something that just be careful where you take advice from when people start talking about it.

[B]

Yeah. Alex, how do you have a. Are you married, you have kids?

[C]

Yep, I've married, two kids. One's about to be 16, 13 or 12. The other one.

[B]

Wow. And I would say I, I guess by asking that, I, I'm assuming that you've found a lot of fulfillment in growing your company in a way where you have more freedom or time, including all of your team.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

To be able to spend more time with family.

[C]

100.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that, that is, that's important to me. And obviously, you know, they're so. Inca Stone is where. It's only our five year anniversary coming up here this year or not very old. So we're still in a curve of getting things calmed down. You know, we're still like trudging away. We are quote, unquote growing. And we haven't, you know, hit our goals or peaks or anything yet, but that's fine. So there's still sacrifices that are made. There's still all that still happening.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

But that being said, it is very important that everybody here has freedom to, you know, take time off, be with our family. We need almost. There's only one person that's not on salary. Everybody's on salary. And it is a kind of a gentleman's agreement. We need to do X amount a year. But if you need to take off, you need to take off. And if you got to go take your kid to a sporting event or a dentist or you're going on vacation, just fill it out. And it's never been not approved. It's always given. We all have a common goal. We have a, you know, a budget we have to make. We have X amount of work we have to put in the ground. But at the end of the day, like, freedom is very important. And, you know, when I was an employee, you know, I didn't love filling out time off request forms for a half a day to, you know, it's just, it's a mentality thing and you can't do that kind of stuff when you have a huge company. You're dealing with way too many people and issues and stuff like that. So a benefit to being small is, is freedom. So don't grow yourself out of freedom would be definitely something I would advise people to do.

[B]

That's a good line. Don't grow yourself out of freedom. My goodness. I think a lot about what we're building, this building, and I'm like, now I have space. In the past, the company never got any bigger because I physically couldn't park anyone else at my house. Well, now it's like, okay, now we have all this space to do whatever we want, really. And what do I really want? Right. I can tell you that I don't want to grow myself out of freedom. I don't. Because for what, what am I, what would I be doing it for? The only reason that I would consider it is, I guess, for my team if I need to find more places for them to grow their careers. What are your thoughts on that? I guess

[C]

so. We actually had some talks about that, you know, recently. You know, we do like an end of year review of every single project, tear everything apart financially, look at, analyze absolutely everything, you know, sum up the year and then focus on the next year. And let's face it, we're 30s and 40s. My back hurts, a couple other guys, backs hurts. Like, this isn't an old man's game. So there, I guess there's two ways to increase, you know, long longevity in this industry is to move to a management position. We're not abusing your body or change what you do. So we, we chose to change what we do. You know, we're a lathe and pull installer now, so we're gonna shift slowly away from paverwork. We'll still do it. We have all the suction tools and equipment. We can lay slabs, no big deal. But we're gonna start getting rid of the heavy labor stuff and move into machine set walls, swimming pools and that kind of work. You know, my personal goal is to keep this team together as long as possible. I want to. I would, you know, how. What a, what a dream it would be to have everybody retire here and, and if it's not adding one more person to the mix, so be it. That's great. To me, that's a win. So, yeah, when I think about, you know, opportunity, we're going to offer it in work that can be done when we're 50, 60 years old.

[B]

And that kind of comes back to like you're in the driver's seat when you're selling something, right? Like, you know, you don't have to sell, you know, 2,000 square foot patios of town hall. You know what I mean? Like, you know, so that's what you're saying. You're going to sell your jobs to where you're either subbing out the paperwork or you're. Someone else is doing that. But you're doing the pool and you're doing the walls and you're doing machine set only walls. Like that's. Yeah, I completely agree with that. It's the more that's again another pro to like the natural stone work is so much of where it can be done with a machine depending on what you're working with. But that's, that's, that's a good way to look at it. I guess. It's just these are a lot of questions that I'm asking myself as we get closer to moving into our shop and like starting to utilize the space. And I've told my wife like I like sometimes I come to work and I'm now and I'm like, like what now? Like because I've. I've worked so hard to get, you know, the last 11 years to get up to where we're currently at and now I have to decide like what are we, what, where are we going? What are we. You know, this was the goal and now the goal is literally happening in front of my eyes. You know, what, what is next? And I need to, I need to clarify that. I don't. Probably not everything but I need to, I need to find some clarity and then I need to give that clarity to my team so they can, they can be part of it, you know.

[C]

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[B]

It's just a lot of stuff that.

[C]

The roadbag roadmap in the future. Yeah. The roadmap to the future must be shared.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Everybody has to see the, see the destination and the plan to get there. And it may not always go as planned, but if everybody's focused on the same end game or outcome then it's a, it's a much, much better driving force to it for sure.

[B]

Amborn stone says mechanize as much as possible to reduce fatigue and wear on bodies as you get older. It really helps.

[C]

For sure. You don't have to tell these two guys that.

[B]

That's for sure. For sure. You know, speaking of mechanizing, you got a new excavator this year.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

A big one. How? It was a big.

[C]

It's a big er one. The previous year we thought we bought a big one.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But then this year we bought a big. How.

[B]

How how bunches away

[C]

35, 000 pounds. So it's not, like, huge. It's the biggest one on rubber tracks. It's. Yeah. It sells under the name Bobcat, but it's a doosan.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

They just. They paint it white, which is sweet

[B]

because it matches everything else you have.

[C]

So.

[B]

That's amazing.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. We have a great relationship with Bobcat. When we started, you know, this company literally had like 500 bucks. Like, $000. It was not a great time, and we had to get to work and basically put out a million bucks our first year just to make sure everybody's taken care of and no one really skipped a beat. So we talked to a few companies, and Bobcat was the only one that would give us machines with, like, no money, no credit.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

And it's been. It's been a great relationship ever since.

[B]

So. Yeah, that's awesome.

[C]

But anyways, that machine is awesome. I have not even, like, ran it yet because. Too cold. It's just sitting there. But supposed to get moved next week to Maryland where we're gonna start, you know, digging up our own stone forever and kind of exploring a new opportunity.

[B]

That's awesome. Super cool. So I want to. It's already. You know, we only got 20 minutes left, but I want to. I have. I don't know if I'm gonna officially call it this, but I have three questions that I want to ask every. And the reason I want to go into this, because the first question has to do with equipment. But I'm gonna have three questions that I ask every person that I have on the podcast and these same three questions. And I'm gonna call it the Molder 3. Now. My wife was like, I don't really like that name, but that's currently what we're going with until I come up with something better. So the first question is, what's your favorite tool or equipment that has made the biggest difference in your company? And the reason I want to ask it now is because I know that you like Tilt Rotators, specifically. You have a few. You also have the CMP Tilt Rotator. But anyways, that's the first question.

[C]

Yeah. Well, that's easy. Tilt Rotator. And it's all your fault.

[B]

Is it really my fault? Is that why you bought 100%?

[C]

100% your fault. Here's the. I'll remember the day we. It was early on and we had an E35 and a T66. Those are two machines. And, you know, we're starting to get into Some bigger walls. And we needed a, you know, maybe a bigger machine. Wasn't sure. And obviously I'd seen the tail rotators. Like, dude, who can spend 50 grand on attachment? That's completely insane. We're doing just fine with the thumb. We're doing just fine with the thumb. Screw that gu. Older. I don't want to hear it. So one day Mike comes in and he says, dude, did you see that Moore guy take the trees off the flat bed with that till rotator? Yes, I did. And he said, I'll take a pay cut if you buy it. I did the math already. If you. If you. If you take four bucks an hour off me, we can afford it.

[B]

He did not.

[C]

100%. 100%.

[B]

I'll take a.

[C]

What am I supposed to. What am I supposed to do? Yeah, that's. That's literally. It's like, okay, well, like, there's your sign. I mean, there's the value. It takes the heavy labor part out of everything. So.

[B]

Yeah, especially if you had an employee that was on board that fast. Like, because you have to have, like, when you get into one of those for the first time, you have to have a good attitude because it's going to be a little annoying in the beginning.

[C]

Yep. Well, they just say, like, hey, it makes hard work, easy work, you know, save your back. That's literally the simplest thing. And then the whole efficiencies and workflow and all that stuff comes later. But right out of the gate, everybody can see that, you know, geez. Oh, man, those cassette pinchers, like, everything about it is. Is wild. So, yeah, I think in our. In our business, the best tool would be a tilt rotator. And I'll, you know, cmp. My word, we're an incredible company with incredible products. But that, that tilt rotator is, I would almost say a better bang for the buck. For under ten grand, you can tilt and rotate. With a grading bucket, you can do. And then, sure, you still have your thumb. It's not a big deal. Yeah, but it is the cheapest way to get in there and do all the things. I mean, you don't. You can't switch bucket. You can switch buckets, but it's a little different. But my word, I. I won't put a tilt rotator on our, you know, 8,000pound machine because that CMP bucket, it does everything that machine needs to do, and we can just take it off and sell it and upgrade, which we did last year. Or, you know, that's. That's a no Brainer. I'm a very big advocate for that bucket also.

[B]

That's cool. I have not seen one of them in person. I just obviously see the videos and different things. And that's, that's a cool. That's cool.

[C]

I mean, it does the exactly the same thing as an. Like, it's, you know, like a 38 degree tilt. I mean, it does everything.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it's less than $10,000 for, for most machines, like, and it's plug and play. You don't change joint sticks. You don't do anything. You just have auxiliary, auxiliary lines. Plug it in and you're off to the races.

[B]

Yeah, that's cool. Did you put an N con on your new machine?

[C]

No, not, not yet. So the plan for that machine is to go to Maryland. It's going to do a lot of digging stone off the side of a mountain. It's going to take some abuse for the first year of its life. And it's four acres. Hopefully I can chew through the whole thing in the first year. And if, depending on how that venture goes, if we're going to keep doing that once that property's developed, then we probably just won't put an end con on it because we don't need it to load triaxles and pull rock off a hill.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But if it seems like that, you know, fizzles out or, you know, the pools were. Like I said, we're doing fiberglass pools now. We're going to use that machine to set all of our pools. And if that, whichever one takes off more. Yeah, the pools take off. It'll go Nankon for sure. If the quarry, you know, boulder work takes off, it'll just stay the way it is.

[B]

That's cool. Awesome. I, I'm. This Friday, I'm getting. I'm renting a John Deere 135 with an N con for a month.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Because I just got. I got a big natural stone job and my 80 has to be at another job. And so the, my. I didn't know this, but my John Deere, I had gotten a demo on a mini loader from them. And then he's like, hey, I don't, I don't know if you know this, but we do have excavators with N console in our rental fleet. And I'm like, just in there. What do you mean? He goes, yeah, we have, you know, we have a 250 or they had four different sizes. They had like an 80 size and then the 135 and then two sizes bigger than the 135. You can get all, with any attack, all the N con attachments, anything you want, they would rent. They rent it out. And so I, yeah, I was like, really? I wasn't even really. I was just trying to figure out a way to like, get my 80 at this job and like, somehow manage it where, you know, we just figure it out. Right. I just always do because I, I, I, I knew I needed a grapple for, to do this job, so I was just going to get my 80 over there. And then when he said this, I'm like, wait a minute. You can get me the N con with an N con grapple. And I said, will you put teeth on the grapple, because I'm going to need teeth. And he goes, yeah, dude, we'll do whatever you want. And I'm like, okay. So I worked out a deal with him and they're dropping it off Friday with a, all the attachments and, and a grapple with teeth and, and we'll have it for a month and do this job. And so I'm very excited about that. So I'm hoping that I don't like it too much where I want to find out if I could buy it,

[C]

but no, you'll, you'll do the same thing I do. So how many jobs I do last year where I can fit this machine.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And justify it. What happens.

[B]

Yeah, I know. I'm, I'm, I'm hoping to not be in the machine very much where that's what I end up thinking. So.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

But anyways, the next question that I will be asking is, what is it? What is a decision that you had to make that hurt in the, in the immediate but positioned you to for to win in the long term.

[A]

You're listening to the Molder Life podcast because you want to get better at your craft. Andy is always working hard, hard to improve himself and pass on that knowledge to you. He's even improved his molderoutdoors.com website to make it easier to use and to give you several ways to support the podcast. When you visit molderoutdoors.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. To make you and your company highly effective and profitable, I recommend the Everything bundle, which gives you access to all the training and forms while Saving you money. If you need to book a one on one consultation, you can do that as [e-mail] support the show while growing your business. There's also a link you can use in the show description.

[C]

This is real talk here. And because I can't think of anything other in business, when I had a falling out with my partner, basically he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from our company. And I have a friend who's a forensic attorney or a forensic accountant. It looked at the books and there was evidence, there's proof, there's a paper trail. And I had to make a choice to go to, you know, go to court and try to litigate this thing out and spend a lot of money suing to try to reclaim or take my energy and just go to work. And the best advice I got was from my friend who's the accountant and he said, you know, this is going to take a long time. It's going to be ugly and you're probably going to win, but at the end of it, you probably have less money. If you just go to work and just work it, you know, for a few years, you'll be better off in the long run. So I made that choice at I was angry about it and it took a long time to get over it. Yeah, I let it go. I just walked away completely. Just walked away and focused 100 on this. And obviously it was the right choice, the best choice. It ended up like everybody's better off. But man, did I have to swallow my pride. And that was hard.

[B]

I bet you it was hard just mentally to let go of that. I mean, I've had people not pay me two times and like, I know exactly who the people are. Not, not that I don't dwell on it anymore, but like just that little thing was like something that I had to like men I had to like emotionally let go of.

[C]

Oh yeah, you go to church, you're like, what's that forgiveness thing again? What are the bullet points of that? I'm not there yet. Nope. Not there yet. Not there yet. Year after year.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then, then one year you're just like, you know what? I'm there. It's, you know, it's over.

[B]

Wow. That had to been super hard. But ultimately you.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

You're glad that you did that 100%.

[C]

Yep. And as. As hard as it was, I wouldn't change it because changing it would change our trajectory. And you have to do you have to walk through that fire to get to where you're at. So I wouldn't change a thing. It would be the same amount of pain. But to get where we're at today, that had to happen.

[B]

I commend you for that. I'm sure that was really rough. This is not one of the questions, but is your wife involved in your company at all?

[C]

She's the reason we exist.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

So when we started this, I just know how to build things. I don't know QuickBooks, I don't know accounting, I don't know payroll, I don't know hr. I don't know business. I don't know any of that stuff. And it was kind of like, if we're going to do this, like, like, Beth, I need, I need you to just own this. Own, you know, the accounting in the CFO role in our company. And I don't even know what that is. And she didn't know what that was. But we're, we have to figure it out. And so, yes, she is like, she plays a very, very key role because our QuickBooks is perfect. Our accounting is up to date. Our job costing is done every week. Everybody's paid. Our vendors are paid immediately, and everything is straight.

[B]

So that's wonderful.

[C]

Knowing your number, you know, is, is huge. You know, I can, I don't have to wonder how much money in the bank is actually ours, you know. You know, I know our charter of accounts is accurate and you know, I know operating budget. That money's mine because it's updated all the time.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So, yeah, very, very huge role in our company. You know, unsung hero, you know, just. But totally vital to survival.

[B]

And did she have a background in that?

[C]

Nope.

[B]

No kidding.

[C]

No. No.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

No. When you have to figure things out, you have to figure things out.

[B]

That's right. And she was invested in it as much as you. So that's, that's fantastic because I, when you were telling me that story, I just, I'm sure you had a lot of, a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of deep conversation with your wife about those kinds of decisions you were making. And I, I often talk about how my wife doesn't work in my company at all. Never really has, but at the same time, she's been a part of every single decision in some way, shape or form and is my biggest supporter. So it's, it's. I, I don't know any statistics on this, but I would imagine that having the support, supportive spouse or a good marriage is a very big key to success in business. But I don't Know any statistics. Statistics on that, But I'm sure there are, for sure.

[C]

And then if, you know, when it comes to the finance side of the business, that you have to trust that person, you know, whoever's taking care of your books. I mean, if you're all in with that person, whoever it is. So.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. Well. And you are ultra sensitive to that, walking out of that situation.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So absolutely.

[B]

You needed her to do that. So. What a blessing. That's cool.

[C]

Yeah. There's no one else. There's no one else I would have trusted to do it. Sure. Which wouldn't have happened.

[B]

Right, right. So the third question is, I guess a little bit deeper when it's all said and done, what do you want people or the people that are closest to you to say about how you built your life?

[C]

Oh, man.

[B]

This is why I didn't want you to prepare, because I just needed you to think.

[C]

Want me to write my eulogy? Yeah.

[B]

You know, I don't know. And you know, while you're thinking about that, I've. My grandma recently passed away, like, would have been last week, Saturday. She was 91 and had a eight year battle with dementia. And so ultimately it was a blessing and she's healed and perfect now. But I went and saw her about a month ago in the home that she was staying at. And it's been kind of something that's like, kind of not haunted me, but something that I keep thinking about because when I was there, I looked around the room and I mean, the way that my grandma was when she died was not who my grandma was. You know, like she's had dementia for eight years. You know, we've lost her slowly for the last eight years and didn't really know who anyone was anymore. And anyways, I sat in the room with her and she was sleeping and I look around the room and there's, you know, a dresser and, you know, family pictures and, and that was in a couple. And a chair and a tv. Right. There was, There was nothing. It's. You don't. None of this stuff. You don't, you don't take any of this stuff with you. And, and I don't know why, like, I keep thinking about it and that doesn't mean it's not good to push really hard and, and, and enjoy things of this world and different things that God's created and, and. But it's just made me think more about that. And I think a lot of people, you know, I don't know, when you lose Someone you think about the, the, you know, what really matters in life, I guess. And so that's kind of like. And then, of course, at her wake or her funeral, we talk about her legacy and, and my grandpa's been gone now for four years, but her and my grandpa's legacy and with her grandkids and their grandkids and, and what that means and what they stood for and not what they accomplished or not what. How big of a business my grandpa grew or not. None. None of that stuff. Right. It's. So I guess that's, you know, I, I don't, I don't. I don't know. I just. That question is kind of where, where that kind of came from, I guess. Can you hear me, Alex?

[C]

Yeah, I got you.

[B]

Okay. I don't know why it's not coming through my board anymore, but I'll just put it on speakerphone.

[C]

Yeah. So I guess to answer your question, I mean, I feel like what I want would be when I'm gone, I would want people to know where I am, and I want them to go there, too.

[B]

Amen to that,

[C]

man. Is that a tough thing? To always try to project and act and follow and be. But that's, that's the goal. Everything else is just temporary. And there are, there are many days I mess that up.

[B]

Yeah, we all do.

[C]

Yeah. But if there's one thing that has to be it for me.

[B]

That has to be it for sure, man. Well, I appreciate that. Thanks for sharing that.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

Well, I think we're going to wrap this one up. It's about an hour. And Alex, I can't thank you enough for being on the show today. I know it's probably 10:30 by you, right?

[C]

Something like that, but who's counting?

[B]

Okay, well, I appreciate you staying up late and, and doing this podcast and I want us a. Yeah, I, I. Thanks for sharing what you do and I appreciate your friendship and likewise. Yeah. So. But yeah, everybody, thanks for tuning in to the N Con Studios and be sure to go check out ad equipment at the Con Expo next week. And thanks to them for being a sponsor this week. And also thanks to synced up project management software for being our sponsor this week. Syncedup.com Go check it out and get to know your numbers. We will see you guys on the next one. Thanks.

[A]

This has been a molder outdoors and Mr. Producer production.