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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.
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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.
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What's going on? Welcome back to another episode of the Motorlife podcast. We are live here in the N Con Studios. Thank you to NCON for being our studio sponsor this week. Also synced up project management software synced up.com go check them out, let them know that we sent you as well as Pave tool innovators pavement pavetool.com use the coupon code molder outdoors50 and save yourself some money at checkout. Today we were using their ES machine package for laying a bunch of pavers and it's typically not actually meant for that but it's been working really well for these pavers because they have such a tight surface and they're pre sealed from the factory. And so it actually has worked out really well. And it's very quiet and there's a remote for the excavator to turn it on or off. It's just awesome. So if you guys are checking out or looking for any suction equipment please, or clamps or edging all the kind of amazing products that Pave Tool sells, go check them out@pave tool.com and use our coupon code. And you can see in front of us we have a bag of albanese. True to fruit gummies, they are amazing. We'll give them a few. We'll give a few a try. They're amazing. They're so good. And what was that one I just had? Those are really good. I want to say that was like a mandarin orange flavor. Very good. Guys, I did start early tonight. I personally needed to start a little earlier for a few different reasons, but here we are. And guys, I want to talk. I have a kind of a topic that I thought that might be a good thing to talk about tonight. We'll ask, we'll take questions like we do live every single week. In the comments section there Calco Partners. What up? What up dude? Hope you're doing well. Thanks for tuning in. But before we do that, I want to again, I'm gonna probably do this weekly. Let everybody know that the Molder Outdoors open house and Encon demo day is coming up July 25th at our brand new shop. It is going to be open in time. We should have occupancy this week. And yeah, it's. It's coming quick. July 25th, there's going to be bounce houses, a bunch of awesome giveaways, guys. Like, it's gonna be kind of ridiculous. A bunch of food, tacos, burgers, Italian ice. There's gonna be a coffee truck in the morning. There's gonna be. It's just. It's gonna be sick. So we have like a big obstacle course bounce house for the kids. I'm making a sandbox with like remote control stuff. It's just going to be a really awesome day. So I encourage you guys to go on mulder outdoors.com and RSVP. You go to Mulder Outdoors, you can scroll down a little bit and you'll see the RSVP link and you can go there and sign up. And if you sign up and rsvp, you and anybody else you sign up with, you will get a free T shirt and an awesome swag bag. The swag bags alone are gonna be epic. So there may be something inside from Albany's even So stay tuned for that. A ton of companies are going to be a part of this. I'll list them off right now. I need to pull up the list. So don't forget anyone because that's not fair. If I were to forget anybody. But we have Eden Stone, McCullough implement or McCullough equipment. The great Escape, which is like. They are a, like pool company and outdoor patio furniture and pool tables and hot tubs and all kinds of stuff. Anyways, they're gonna. They're gonna. They're a sponsor. Advanced Equipment Services, which is our mobile mechanic. Tilt Tech, which is a. They sell different kinds of attachments and buckets and rakes for tilt rotators. Niemeyer's Landscape Supply, which is one of our local. One of my main local suppliers. C and P attachments. Unilock synced up. As you can see behind me, Ozenga Concrete. They're going to have a big concrete truck there that people can check out. Precision truck equipment. They make all of our trucks and they will be their pave tool innovators. We already talked about them. They're going to be there. Cowser Consulting Ad Equipment, Heritage Landscape Supply, Vermeer Midwest west side, John Deere and of course ncon Tilt Rotators. Guys, it's going to be an absolutely epic day and I'm really excited. The whole thing is free for anybody that wants to come and we would love to have you just go on our website, like I said@mulder outdoors.com and sign up. It's. It helps us plan for food and of course to ensure that you will get a free T shirt. Signature Landscape Court Corp. What up, dude? He says, woot Woot. Open house. Yeah, dude, excited to see there. Calico partner says I'm undefeated in bounce house wrestling. Dude, that'd be sick if you flew out here for that, bro. You should come. Nathan says, have you tried out a Hydra bucket before? I have actually, Nathan. I own two hydro buckets. I have one for our full size machines. I believe it's a 84 inch wide or 80 inch wide. And then I also have one for our ditch witch 1550, the one that I think that the one that I have for my ditch, which in my opinion is too small for the machine. It's. It would be better on a, like a Vermeer CTX100 or a Bobcat MT100, I would say. I think if I were to do it again, I would get a wider, a wider hydro bucket for our Ditch Witch. But Nathan, they are phenomenal buckets. And the way that the wheel and the, the drum in the back with the carbide teeth and how it spins and how it, it cuts things up and it's just phenomenal. So definitely don't sleep on the Hydra bucket. I think they're awesome. So. So guys, I, I was thinking about a topic for tonight and just something that is maybe something that we haven't really talked about a bunch before. And I guess that's the thing that I'm trying to find is things that maybe I would want to listen to and then things that I feel like we haven't spent a lot of time covering on the podcast. And so one of the topics that I came up with is would you hire yourself? Would you hire yourself? And that is, I believe that will end up being the title of this podcast. Would you hire yourself? And I think that has a lot of different things that we could talk about with that. And of course, anybody that's listening, if you want to, if you want to ask questions or give your input on that or what you think about that. I, I think I have kind of a unique perspective on that topic because I've worked for someone else before. There's people out, some people out there that own a business, that they've always owned a business or maybe they've always worked for family inside of the business, inside of the family business. And I think that's unique and that's something that we can talk about. I actually wish I had someone that I could have on the podcast that I. I know people and I don't know if they would be willing to be on the podcast to talk about it, but I'd love to have somebody on the podcast that is a second generation business owner and they came up in their younger years in the business, in their, their parents business or whatever. And now either they are becoming an owner or there it's being transferred or there's a plan or whatever. I think that would just be really interesting to ask questions about that. But on the topic of would you hire yourself? So I, for those of you that don't know my story, I worked for another landscaper for about 13 years before I went full time with Mulder Outdoors. And so I started when I was about 15, if I remember right. Which saying that out loud now is kind of crazy to me because I. My son recently turned 14 and that's crazy to me because that means I was a year older than him and I was starting to do something that at that time, of course I didn't know that I ended up loving so much. And now, and frankly, it's like the grace of God that I was able to find something that I loved so early on in my life. I think it is so rare that people find what they love so early in life. I guess it's just, it's rare and I'm very grateful that, that I did. And so at 15, I started working part time, mostly on Saturdays and then some in the summers working for another landscaper. And he on Saturdays most of the time, he owned, he owned a bunch of buildings that he stored people's boats and RVs and cars in. And so on Saturdays most of the time I would help him get out or put away vehicles, boats, campers, whatever, and then mow grass and just do stuff around his property and. And then in the summer then I started landscaping. I also at the time was helping my grandpa. It might have been before that that I was helping my grandpa at a local camp where he was. He would volunteer his time and I would go and mow with him. He would really do a lot of mowing there. And so that was where I started working outdoors. Of course my dad owned my dad, not of course my dad. I don't remember the exact timeline. There was definitely a time in my life where my dad did not own his own business. He definitely worked for somebody else. And. But then there was other times when he did own his own business at different times of my time, times of my childhood. And so there was times when I definitely had to help my father in the shop. And he, my dad, for a good majority of his life, he drove a semi truck. Sometimes he drove garbage trucks, and that's when he worked for other people. But then he owned his own semi trucking company and they would haul either flatbed stuff or over the road stuff. And he hauled mulch for a while. When I was younger, we used to sell mulch out of our yard. So anyways, I'm just kind of giving you a background of my history in, in my. In my work and then my work ethic, right? Because one big part of me answering the question, would I work for myself or would you work for yourself? Is one of those big topics is work ethic. And where does work ethic come from? I think that work ethic is. I think it's one of those things that's caught and taught. I think there's a saying that goes around, more is caught than taught. And I completely agree with that statement on a lot of things, and it definitely does apply to work ethic. But I also think that you can teach work ethic. I would say that the non work ethic of people is something that they. Man, I don't know if I could say that. I haven't like, wrote and written down a lot of these things. So as it comes to me, I'm talking about it. But I guess sometimes I would say, like, if somebody grows up in a home where there's no example for how to work hard, then they would be catching that they don't know how to work hard. Right? So I think there's some people that just don't get it. They haven't had a good example of it because there's an example and then there's teaching it. Maybe it all plays together. I think it does all play together. I mean, ultimately for my boys, I want them to see. I want them to see what hard work looks like and teach them about working smart and the. When you. You know what it's like, what it's like to sacrifice to win, right?
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50 and I think as a child, I, you know, even as a teenager, I, I knew what hard work was because I my family lineage is full of hard workers. My grandpa on my mom's side, he owned a couple different businesses, trucking, garbage, recycling, those types of things. My grandpa on my dad's side was a school principal. And so he was in a sense, owned a business, but didn't own it. I mean, he led it. And really what I'm talking about is things that I notice in more of my formative years. My, my grandpa on my dad's side, on my mom's side retired very young from selling a business. Of course, at the time I didn't know much about that. I just knew that grandpa is retired and he's not that old. And they traveled a lot and we got to do a lot of fun things with them. I, I went to the grade school that my grandpa Mulder was the principal of, so that'd be my dad's dad. And so of course I knew I was spent a lot of time with my grandpa there sometimes in his office quite often because I was a troublemaker. That was in grade school. And then later in life, of course, he retired. And then both of my grandpas have since passed. So they were both a good example of hard workers. They were diligent in their work. They were honest. They, they put in the effort as needed. Of course, getting up early, staying late, not being lazy. I think as Christians, my grand both of my grandparents were Christians. And as Christians, I was taught that Christians work hard, right? We have a higher calling to our work than just going out there to make a bunch of money. That's not what it's about. There's a lot of value in hard work. There's. We're called to do that as believers and our work is good. And you don't have to be a pastor or work in the ministry to have your work be your ministry. That's not on topic. I'm just trying to explain to you where my work ethic has come from and why I think that I have a good work ethic. And where did that come from? Also I think work ethic comes not always from your father or your grandfather, whoever you are. I think that from your mother can teach you about work ethic. My mom always was a hard worker in the home. She in our former years was, in our younger years was a stay at home mom most of the time. It was later in life that she started to work when we got older and those kinds of things. And so again a good example of working hard and being diligent and trying your best and showing up on time and not taking advantage of your work and not stealing time and not wasting time and all of these different things, you know, working through the job until the job is over. All of those different things teach work ethic. And so I just don't come from a line of lazy people is what I'm saying. On my mom's side or my dad's side at all, then both of my grand, my great grandpas, same thing. I don't ever remember there ever being a time when somebody said that so and so was lazy or whatever. I think it's literally just part of our culture is hard work. Right. And so anyways, I think that, that your work ethic is something that you watch. You get your work ethic from what you watched when you grew up. And of course as a child. I don't want to get up early, I don't want to go help you dad. I don't want to go do that. Right. Like you have some of those attitudes, of course. But your parents are trying to teach you what hard work looks like. And then what is the reward for your hard work? Right. It's not always money either. Like I feel so much better when I get up early and I go and get a bunch of things done before I spend the rest of the day resting or whatever. Like I have no problem napping. I have no problem, you know, but, but I feel so fulfilled by working hard and by giving it my all and being honest and being a man of integrity. And I mean that's all of this kind of works together. And this is the way that God has Designed us, in my opinion. And that's what I believe. And that's why I get so, so much fulfillment from what I do, because I know that. That it's his plan for my life. And I know that by. I know that by how I'm using the talents he's given me to do what I do. And so I want to do those that to the best of my ability, I want to. I want to work as hard as I can. That doesn't mean that you have to be a workaholic. You have to learn to have balance. You have to learn to keep your priorities straight. And I screw that up all the time. So do not let me. Do not sit here and think that I don't screw up my priorities or whatever. It's easy to get caught up in. In. It's. It's easy to wrap workaholicism. It's not. I don't think that's a word in. In, you know, working hard. I think there's. I think there's a fine line, and you really got to watch it. You got to remember that, you know, for me, my family is my first priority, right? Raising my children, being a good husband. Those kinds of things are a priority. Part of that priority is, of course, working hard and supply and. And providing for my family. That's something that I'm called to do as a man, is provide for my family. And I'm out there to do that, right? I'm out there to. To do that, to provide a better life for my family, to be able to give more to others. It's not all about me. The money that we make is not all about me to. To give my team members a good living, um, that they can surprise. Support their family. So, anyways, all of these things that I'm talking about is how. Is how I have developed my work ethic. I. And since my dad died. My dad died about. I think it's coming up on five years now. Is it coming up on six? Five years? I think this year is five years, which is crazy to think about. It really is crazy. And I would say the. You know, my dad was a really good dad. He taught me how to be a good dad, and he taught me how to be a good husband to my wife because he was a good husband to my mom. And I think that, you know, those things are core things that I take away from the things that my dad taught me. He taught me a lot of things. And actually, as a side note, I may share this next week. Monday, I have A list. I. I've talked about this before. I have a list of my dad died when he was 60. Okay. And at his funeral, me and my brother spoke at his funeral. And one of the. What I spoke about was I wrote a list of 60 things that my dad taught me, and I read it at his funeral. And I have considered sharing those 60 things on the podcast for years now. And every time I think I'm gonna do it, I don't do it because it's hard to read that list because I know where I wrote that list and I know why I wrote that list, and then I know where I had to read that list. But. So maybe I'll do that for Father's Day next week. Father's Day is this coming Sunday, I believe. And I was blessed with a really good dad. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us and he is in heaven and he is perfect and healed. He wasn't, as far as we know, he wasn't sick when he died. He died of a heart attack. And that's it. It wasn't like he had an ongoing thing. But anyways, sorry. So the things that I said, my dad taught me a lot of things, right? But that I would say that among many other things. And I don't want to diminish anything else that he had taught me. Right. But the three or four main things that I would say that are core to what my dad taught me are, number one, to love Jesus and to follow him. And number two would be how to love my wife really well. And number three would be how to raise my children. And number four would be to work really hard and have a really good work ethic. And the older I get, the more that I realize how valuable those four things are. I have known that they're valuable for a long time, but I guess the longer he's gone, the more that I value what he taught me about those things. And even as my boys get older, it's hard. I mean, parenting is hard. But back to the topic of would I hired myself? The first thing that we talked about was if we're talking about work ethic is would I hire someone like me with my work ethic? The answer is yes. And that's my. How do you find people? Or how do you get people that have that work ethic? It's hard. It's hard to find them, and it's not. I mean, I don't know if you can teach someone at the age of 18 or 21, can you teach someone work ethic? I mean, sometimes I wonder if by then it's too late. I don't know. I don't know what other people's opinions are on that. I don't have a 21 year old. I don't know. I have hired people of different age ranges and it's pretty darn clear within the first two days if they have a good work ethic. It really doesn't take me long. It almost could take me like three hours sometimes to find out what their work ethic is. And I just think it's a lost. It's not an art, but it's a lost skill. I think like hard work in a world of iPhones and ChatGPT and Amazon and everything happens fast, right? Like fast. And I am not saying that I don't utilize all of these things because I do and I love getting things fast and doing things fast and. But I think it's a problem in our culture because people don't want to put in the work because they think that their career and climbing to the top is going to happen fast and it's not the case. And it's hard to communicate that with people and tell them, you're going to have to work here for the next 20 years to get to where I'm at or to get to where so and so is at that or to do what you want to do. You're just not gonna immediately show up in the job site and immediately jump in the excavator and run the till rotator. Like you need to work at the end of the business, end of a shovel for a while before you do that. Like, I'm all about getting people on equipment and trust me, I have lots of equipment and it's phenomenal for our business. But there's times when like you just have to get on the business end of a shovel and do the work right. And I'm not above, I'm still, I've been doing this for 26 years landscaping and I am definitely not above using a shovel or doing the hand the hard work because that's just what it takes. I'm. I, that's. I guess that's something else too that my dad and my grandparents and whatever, my mom, you ha. Sometimes you just have to do the hard work and it's not going to happen by itself. It's not just because something is hard and you want to go choose to do this over here because this is hard. That hard thing is still there waiting for you. So might as well just get over there and get it over with and do it. And the older I get, I think that the more I, I have caught myself not doing the hard thing because I don't want to do the hard thing. And I've personally been like, no, I need to go do the hard thing first because I'll be happy that hard thing is over. And so yeah. Would I hire myself based on my work ethic? I think yes. Not, I think I know I would hire myself. John Amborn says it's hard to teach a strong work ethic. Also hard to teach a positive attitude. And that's an interesting point. And I think that also would apply to would I hire myself? Would be. Or why would I hire myself or whatever would be one, obviously strong work ethic, that's important. And I would hire myself because I have a strong work ethic. Two, I really like that John, and I would completely agree with you is a positive attitude. I am very much a cup half full person. I can definitely though at times get down in the dumps and be a worrier. My mom always says that we have a long line of worriers. She, my mom worries. My grandma is a worrier. My uncle has told me that as well, which is my mom's brother. And I definitely have caught myself at times being a worrier. But I would say for the most part I am a positive thinker and I am usually in it. I have a good attitude and I just have like, if we're looking at a problem that's hard, like, okay, this is gonna stink but let's just get it done right? Like, I just, I don't get down on myself very much. I don't have a lot of anxiety. I think there's definitely times when I do have it, but it's not something that I struggle with. And again, I know this is not the case for everyone. So this is not like what's expected because of me. I'm just explaining to you, I'm just explaining to you how I am because I'm talking about the topic of would you hire yourself? And on the strong work ethic, having a positive attitude, all super important things. The other thing that I think is important is reliability. Reliability is very important in the trades industry, I would say and I understand every industry, but it's, I've been very grateful for my team, all of my team members because they're very reliable, all of them. Right now I have a very, very reliable crew. It has not always been like that. And I will tell you, I don't care if the Employee is the best operator, the best bricklayer, the best whatever you want to fill in the blank with. If they don't show up every day on time, I don't care. You know what I'm saying? So like the reliability immediately comes over the top of talent every day of the week. A friend of mine, Dean Ritchie, told me one time that hard work beats out talent when talent chooses to not work hard. And I always thought that was really a good line. And it's very true. And you could say, you know, reliability beats out hard work when hard work decides not to be sorry. Reliability beats talent when talent chooses not to be reliable. Again, very true. And so I just think it's important to, to be reliable. And even as an employer, I want to be a reliable employer. And what does that look like? It looks like making sure that you're selling enough work and your business is making money and you're not blowing it on stupid stuff and you have a retained earnings account and you're reliable as an employer. Right? Your team is relying on you and so get your rear end out of bed. Don't blow all your money on personal things that mean nothing just because you want a new fancy pickup. How about give your team a raise before you go buy the pickup or whatever you're going to do. I just think it's really important to keep that stuff in check and be a reliable employer for your team and I, and I'm very grateful for 12 years of business now where I have always been there with payroll for the team, always. I have never, knock on wood, I have never struggled with making payroll and I'm, I, frankly I don't think I ever will. Just based on how we have set up our business, where we are at currently with our business and what things I have put in place to make sure that I never have a problem making payroll because my team relies on me and I want to be reliable. Brilliant Gardens says my crew consists of 20 year olds and two 24 year olds. Unbelievably blessed for how hard they work day in and day out. Respectful, detail oriented. I thank them and give the praise and encouragement regularly because they also, because they also say regularly. It is because of the standard and leadership I show them on our sites. Leadership and explaining why we hold the standards we do so they actually understand why it's so crucial. That's awesome dude. Thanks for sharing that. I think that's great and good for you. Keep the, keep your team around. I think that's awesome. Andrew Chema says, how do you practice delayed gratification specifically when it comes to business growth and equipment? That's a really good question. You could almost have an entire podcast on that specific question. I am going to write that down. I'm not saying I don't know how much I'm going to answer that, but I'm writing that down because I think that'd be a phenomenal podcast. How do you practice delayed gratification specifically when it comes to business growth? Equipment? Man, I really want to dive into that, but we're gonna immediately go off topic.
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That is. Man, it's a really good question. Let me see if I can get through the next couple of things and then maybe I'll come back to that. Andrew, really great question. Yeah, I would love if you want to send me a DM with more specific or a longer question, whatever. I think that's a really good topic and I. I don't. That's like something like I almost need to think about because I would definitely say that it's not something that I. I would say that there are times when I struggle with delayed gratification inside of my business. But I have a thought on that as well. But anyways, we'll see if we can get to that. Really appreciate the question. Another thing about why I would hire myself would be good communication. I think that that is a really big part of being a team member for an employer is being a good communicator. Just sharing the details. I think that I could be a better communicator inside of my business. I try to do a good job. I the bigger that we've grown, the more I've realized how important good communication is. And then also like thinking about how your team needs to hear that communication. I have some people on my team that I feel like giving communication with, something that they can replay, like a video or a voice message or something that is. Or a actual list. I have somebody on my team that I think a list always works amazing for them. While on the other hand, I have other team members that I feel like I can tell something, tell them something one time and they will hear it. But then I have some team members that it's not the case and I need to make sure that it's written down. And so like as an employer, I need to pay attention to how, how I communicate and which, what are the best ways for that communication with who I'm communicating to. But if I was working for someone else, even now with the 10 year, 10, with the 12 years experience, working for myself and having employers, if I were to go back and work for somebody else now, I would have even better communication and I would, I guess I now value how having good communication, providing your leadership, good communication about a job site or whatever, like, it's really valuable to me. I like to hear it, I like to see it. I like pictures, I like to know where things are at. I like to have an update of where we are at and what's left for that day and whatever. And that's something that I have communicated with the guys, but it's also something that I need to keep following up on with the team because it's something that I think you can kind of get relaxed and not do it anymore. So communication is super important to being someone that I would want to hire. I guess somebody just said my mic is not working. Promo landscape. Anybody else listening that says the mic is not working? Nobody has set anything up until this point. If I have to get up and re plug it in, I had to do that. I've had to do that before and it's super annoying. And so the other thing that I think, I guess one of the last things about would I hire myself is just frankly, leadership. I guess leadership is a. Is a big topic, is a big thing. It's something that I definitely don't have all the answers to leadership. I don't know if anybody does. I think that the more, the longer that I'm in business, the more I learn about my style of leadership and try to better myself. Whether that's through reading or listening to others or listen to podcasts about leadership. I would say the one thing that I really have to keep in check for myself is treating others how I want to be treated and how I react to things. I think my. Sometimes I feel like I can respond too harshly to things from time to time. I literally did it today and I after apologized to one of my guys about it because I got, I kind of came down on him. Came down on him too hard on something and later I regretted it and it wasn't really fair to do that and it wasn't necessary because it wasn't. I wasn't screaming or yelling. I just felt like my, my, my attitude and my response and my tone was not necessary for what we were doing. And so, And I think typically when I've done that looking back is I have too many things going on at once and I then get flustered and then I have, I overreact or I say something that I shouldn't or I just have a tone that is condescending or I'm just self reflecting right now. And so I need to watch that. It's not respectful to the guys and it's just something that I personally need to get better at. So treating others how you want to be treated I think is a really. It sounds so simple, but like it's so hard, especially when there's a lot of things going on and you get frustrated about things or. Because really, I mean, in business nothing is ever going to go the way you think it's going to go. It's always going to be some way different and you have to be so flexible and make quick decisions all the time and. But when it comes to your team, you need to stop because you know they don't have all that going on in their head. The 15 things that are going on in my head are not going on in my foreman's head or somebody else's head in the business. They're worrying about what they're worrying about for that day and that's fine. So I needed to like check myself and take a breath before I respond to an issue that arose. And don't respond with the frustration from another thing that's going on in my head, which they know nothing about, nor do they need to know anything about. And don't take that and bring it into this and make it their problem or have to deal with your attitude because this problem over here is what's got your attention and has potentially frustrated you or whatever. That's not fair. And so from a leadership standpoint, I have to make sure that I'm watching that and controlling myself. But as just as far as leadership, I think it's important to be able to make decisions and to be confident about what you're doing and to show people where we're going and why we're going here. And I'm. These are things that I know are really good, but they're not always things that I'm super good at. I also think leadership is you lay yourself down for your team, it's important to serve them. John Amborg said, wow, that's better. Even though I could hear you before, I don't get why it does that. What I just did to this plug, to this stream, I do every single time. And for some reason half the time it doesn't work. And then I have to do this. And this whole time it hasn't apparently been plugged in correctly. So now it's working. Good for you guys on this, on the live stream. I'm sorry about that. I know the audio will be good through the board for the actual podcast, but super frustrating. No, I just. The topic of leadership. I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm a genius in the topic of leadership. I'm learning every day, like so many of you, but ultimately, like all of the things we've already talked about, those things then they work together to make you a good leader. You have a strong work ethic, you are reliable, you have good communication, you're trustworthy, and you. Good communication. I think I already talked about that. Maybe not. Anyways, all of those things help you become a better leader. And I'm not a master at all of those things, but I would say I'm really good at having a really good work ethic and having a good attitude and being reliable. I really could my. The things that I could work on the most would be communication, being a better communicator, and then being better at casting the vision of the company. We're at a really interesting spot in the business. We're at a spot in the business where we're reaching. We're getting ready to basically move into our new shop, which, by the way, I think I already talked about. We should have occupancy this week. And that's unbelievable. I think we may have a whole episode on the shop at some point. Just the shop and that it's done and, you know, whatever. But anyways, we're getting ready to finish up. The biggest goal of my career is this property and this building in, like, now I really need to work on myself as far as, like, what is next? Right? What. What are we. What are we doing? What do we want to do? Where do we Want to go? Why do we, if we want to go here, why? And then showing that to the team and those are things that I'm, I, admittedly I'm not good at. I'm good at working really hard and selling landscape jobs and installing landscapes, but I need to get better at leading and casting the vision and showing the team where we're going and then taking them there. Right. So it's just, I guess this whole episode was more of a self reflection. But that's okay. From time to time I hope that it encourages you all to think. I think that it's very easy to be very busy in your business career and in the day to day and putting out fires because I do the same thing a lot of you do. I'm not just sitting up in this office, this beautiful office that we now have and just sitting there and watching everything just happen. Right? That's not how it works. Like I'm down, I'm getting it done tomorrow. I'm going to be up at 5:30, I got to go get a bunch of tree stakes to stake a bunch of trees. I'm doing the same stuff a lot of you are doing day in and day out and you guys can all understand that. But you have to at some point stand back and be like, okay, this is all good and I've been working really hard but like what does this all mean and why do I want to do it and why, what is next and does my team know what's next and have I done a good job of explaining them or communicating it to them? I just think about that stuff because I'm, I'm certainly thinking about it right now. These next five years for our business are going to be a very formative. I mean it's going to be formative. I, that's not the right word I'm looking for. It's very important and things are going to change. And what does that look like and why and what do I want? You know, what is the right thing? These are things that I'm praying about, things that I'm seeking God's guidance on and trying to decide like where are we going and why are we going there and who do we need to go there with and you know, what is it going to take? And for me, sometimes the big question for me is why? Because like I could have the biggest landscaping company in the world, but like why, right? Why do I want that? I don't know. And those are, you know, if that was, if that's what I wanted, if I wanted to do $500 million a year and have, you know, a thousand employees or whatever. Like, for me, I would be asking why the what and the how? Like, fine, that's doable and, you know, you can work through that. But for me, I really need. I always ask, like, that's. I always end up asking myself, like, why do I want this? Why are we doing this? What is it about? What is it for? Who am I doing it for? You know, I don't. I don't. This business ultimately is not about me. Right. So anyways, just a lot of things, I guess, to think about and I hope this episode made you think a little bit. And maybe the next time we'll talk about what Andrew Chema asked, which is how do you practice delayed gratification, specifically when in business growth and equipment? I think that's a really good question and I'm gonna think about that. I wrote it down and maybe we'll talk about it next week. Maybe we won't, but maybe in two weeks, next week I might talk about my father and read that list and maybe expand on that list next week. And maybe this is the year I do it. We'll see. But guys, we're gonna wrap this one up. Thanks for. Thanks for tuning in to the podcast, Tanner. Real quick, says Andy, are the pavers on the. For the large project you were on Beacon Hill Smooth. It is Beacon Hill Smooth and it is in the oat beige, which I don't. Is it still called that? I thought they changed it, but whatever, that's what it is. Anyways, thanks for tuning in this week to the Modelife podcast in the NCON Studios. Thanks to synced up project management software, Pave Tool Innovators and Albany's Candy Factory for being our sponsors this week. Guys, be sure to go check out these companies, go on their website, place orders, ask questions, let them know that you heard about them on the Molded Life podcast. And don't forget to RSVP feed for our open house. It's coming up, guys. Yeah, thanks for watching, guys, and we'll catch you on the next one.
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This has been a molder outdoors and Mr. Producer production.