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- [00:04]
Eric Triplett
Welcome to the deep end with Eric Triplett, the pond digger. This is the show for contractors, tradesmen, and entrepreneurs who want more from their business and from themselves. Eric brings decades of experience as a seven figure contractor with expertise in leadership, sales systems, and the discipline it takes to build something real. Shaped by years in the aquatics world, his insights are rooted in precision, craftsmanship, and performance. If you're done skimming the surface and ready to go deeper, it's time to dive in.
- [00:46]
Welcome back to the deep End. It's triplet here. This one's going to be fun for me because there's a story about a government that tried to solve a cobra problem that we talk about today. You know, like, talking about government's not always a whole lot of fun, but this one is one that's gonna hit you. Okay, so imagine the government in India trying to solve a cobra problem, but ended up creating more cobras than when they started. Okay, so if you're a contractor listening to this right now, I'm willing to bet you've got a few cobras in your business too.
- [01:23]
Sam
You know, not the kind that bite
- [01:24]
Eric Triplett
and kill you like these king cobras and stuff, but the kind that bleed you out slowly. And it could be your pricing, in your team, in your sales process. And it could be a problem that you've created on your own, much like this one that we're talking about in India. Because sometimes the systems that we create to fix problems are the exact reasons the problems don't go away or they even get worse. Today's episode's pulled straight out of a live compass call we do on Fridays inside the train with triplet contractor circle in Facebook. Link is in the show notes if you want to join me. One Friday and we break it all down. It's what I'm calling the contractor cobra effect.
- [02:05]
Sam
Okay?
- [02:06]
Eric Triplett
How your incentives might be screwing you, how you train your team to fail.
- [02:12]
Sam
Why would you do that?
- [02:13]
Eric Triplett
I know you didn't do it intentionally, but why? 48% of contractors never follow up on their sales calls. They actually ghost their prospects and they lose the jobs that they actually should have won. This one's gonna sting a little bit, but if you're serious about leveling up, you're in the right place. Welcome to the deep end.
- [02:39]
Sam
Today the topic is called the cobra effect or the cobra conundrum. You could say I heard about this, this whole story, and it kind of blew my mind. I'm a reptile guy, a fish guy, outdoors kind of thing, and there was something going on in India. I don't know the time frame or the timeline, but all I can tell you is the government decided to pay people to bring them cobras because the cobras were kind of out of control, right? So the government says, hey, bring us the cobras. We're going to give you money. And then so this deployment happened, and so people started bringing the cobras to the government, and they would kill them and do whatever they did with them. And then those seemed to be working out really well. But then some people decided to start breeding them. So let's think about it. You know, now you got all these people in India, you know, collecting cobras and setting them up and breeding them, and then waiting till they had like a hundred cobras at once and they'd come in with the cobras, and then the government will be paying out all this money. And then the government figured it out, like, hey, this is. This is not. This is not working out. They're. They've kind of duped us, and this is not a good thing anymore. So they. They crushed the plan. They're like, we're not going to do this anymore. It's not working out for us. So then, as you can imagine, all the people that were breeding the cobras were like, well, shit, I got to feed them. There's so many mouths to feed. And then I got to clean them. And there's kind of some danger involved with me cleaning them. There's a lot of risk for. But got all the money, so it made sense. So everyone releases the cobras back into society, and their cobra problem got worse. And, you know, things like this go on and on. I know there's a giant toad in Australia that they brought in this giant toad to help combat some kind of problem that they were having there with an insect or something like that. And now those frogs have taken over. And, you know, you just think about these things on and on, and this is. This is not. This is much different than what's going on in the Everglades of Florida where, you know, these. The anacondas and the boa constrictors are kind of going crazy, right? And the. Even the. You know, the iguanas and things of that nature. You hear about all that stuff, right? But those. Those weren't released as a problem. Those were released as, like, just human negligence and stupidity and ignorance or whatever. I just let my snake go. It's, you know, it's too much work for me. It got too big. If you've ever played with an anaconda, you Know, they get too big. But so that was done out of ignorance and stupidity, but this is done out of, hey, the government said, hey, let's solve this problem by paying people for cobras. Hey, let's solve this problem by bringing in this giant toad to help with this. And then they overpopulated. And so there's, there's examples of this that, you know, certainly could go on and on and on. And I just thought this framework would be kind of important for us to talk about in our business, because sometimes as entrepreneurs and business owners, what we're doing to solve problems in our business, we think that we're helping things out, but in fact, we could be creating other problems along the way that are holding us back from moving forward. And so I kind of wanted to go over a couple of those things. But before I would do this, I want to give you one more example of the government thing, right? So. And you know, China used to have this. You know, they were just having babies like crazy. You know, the population was exploding and they were having problems with overpopulation. And so they came up with the one child policy. You know, like, you can't have more than one child or, you know, we'll just kill all you guys, right? So like the communist country, they're really strict. You have one child, that's it. Otherwise you're in big trouble. So they went to one child in China. And if you're studying anything about, you know, the population and the way our culture works and all this, their, their birth rate is so low that, you know, in the next 50 years, their culture will be gone. Talk to Elon about it. I don't know, it's a little bit above my pay grade, but all I know is their, their birth rate is so low that they can't sustain themselves as a, as a human culture. So imagine the Chinese, you know, Chinese people would be gone in 50 years. It's hard for me to fathom that, but people much smarter than me have already done the calculations and the math on that. But there's not enough young people coming up to actually take care of the older people along the way. So now they said, hey, we kind of changed our mind. Let's have babies again. Everyone, let's go, let's have some kids. But the fact is now the people in China don't want to have more than one kid anymore. That would became the new norm. So it's something that the government did. It's kind of like the cobra effect. It's something the government implemented to Solve a problem and incentivize people to do something a certain way. And then it backfired and it made things worse. And this can happen in our businesses a lot. I know of lots of contractors. One contractor comes to mind just like vividly. He's cheap contractor, okay? You know, he wants, he wants to get more jobs. He wants to outbid people. He'll bid jobs low certain times a year because he wants to keep his guys busy. You know, I got to keep work on the board to keep my guys busy, right? And so it's the contractor that is always under bidding because he has a scarcity mindset, because maybe he's not training it, doesn't have the skill set to sell jobs at higher jobs and sell his company on the value that they provide. So it's always he's a price guy, right? But what happens is as becoming the low price guy, you know, he runs into trouble with low margin margins. His jobs are stressful. He's robbing Peter to pay Paul. He's constantly in negotiations and by default, he becomes that negotiator. He negotiates with himself. Even with clients that are not really interested in negotiating, they're more than welcome to pay you your price. And then you're like, hey, if you pay me cash, I'll give you a discount. They're like, oh, cool, I'll take a discount. But like, that person is constantly creating that issue within their business. So, you know, their workmanship gets worse. Their employees don't stick around because they can't pay the employees, right? So, like, he solves this problem to keep his guys busy during the winter, but he doesn't solve the problem of having the right profit margins to take care of people, to get shirts to take care of, you know, buy proper vehicles and tools, and it becomes a shit show.
- [09:14]
Eric Triplett
Attention all pond professionals. Are you looking to elevate your business? Connect with industry leaders and stay ahead of the curve? The Pond Professionals alliance is your gateway to a thriving community dedicated to excellence in the pond and water feature industry. The PPA offers exclusive networking and training events designed to help contractors like you level up your business with a heavy focus on community education and support, ensuring you have the resources needed to succeed with your water feature business. If you're a pond professional, get active in the PPA's vibrant Facebook group, where hundreds of water feature specialists share insights, advice and opportunities to help your business. Don't miss out on the chance to be a part of a community that values integrity, innovation and and collaboration. Visit pond professionalsalliance.org today to learn more and become a member the Pond Professionals alliance, where community meets opportunity.
- [10:18]
Sam
Guys that I know that pop out in my brain, they've been doing this for decades. It's not, you know, it's like we've talked about 97% of contractors will never make it past a decade, and then a great percentage of this that make it. Never make it past a million. Well, imagine this guy in his own purgatory of, you know, never having a proper business, always fighting to pay taxes, always, you know, trying to fight a. A claim on his contractor's license board because he cut corners and then showing up to his customers, and then they're complaining, and then he's getting the Yelp reviews, and it's just like this constant battle. So while in his head, he thinks he's solving a problem by keeping his guys busy and being the, you know, the contractor that is awarded all the jobs because he's the. You know, he's the. He can beat everyone's price. He's creating these massive problems for himself, and here he is. It became the definition of who he is in his whole entire career. So, you know, like, let's talk about. Let's talk about solving problems for your employees. So as. As business owners, I'm very proud, man. I. I'm super efficient. I see things that I think a lot of people don't see. Like, from the way you should, the wheelbarrow should be positioned on the job site so you can get out faster and efficiently and. And. And not work as hard on your body. Like, little simple things like that. Where to place the tools, where to stage the materials, where to, you know, like, what decisions to make, who to send to what particular project, because, you know, they are more capable and get the job. Little factors that I see. And so if. If I don't create an environment where I can teach my employees or let them fail in certain areas and not ridicule them, I mean, I can push back and say, hey, don't do that again. And if they do it again, then I'm a little bit harder, a little bit meaner, a little bit more sarcastic, and a little bit more talk shit on them. But. But, like, there's a way where I have shown them the way where a lot of. A lot of contractors just ridicule and, like, give me that. I'll show you how to do it. And they just do it. And then they never really give the employee a chance to blossom and get better. Right? And so it comes down to not Only like that. That's what keeps contractors like a pond builder in, in the trenches, in the field all the time. I know a contractor who's, he's probably been doing it 18 or 20 years. He's the only one that can drive the machines. Like he'll, he'll be the only guy in the machine. He's like, I'm on the excavator, you know, like, because I don't know why he hasn't just like given the responsibility to someone else to take that so he can do other things like help us grow his business. I know another contractor that I remember touring his facility. He's retired now. And I remember he was like, oh, I do all the water seals on all the, you know, face plates of the waterfalls and centers. And it just like. I was like, you do? He's like, yeah, I do. I do them all. It's too, it's too important. It's too, it's. It's like one of the most important things on the whole job. And if it doesn't get done right then the pond leaks. And it's so easy to train. It's so easy to do, you know, like literally my fucking five year old daughter did it on a job site. When I did an event, I had my 5 year old daughter do the face plate seal to show the people how simple it is if they wanted to do it themselves. Or you could hire me to do it and me and my 5 year old daughter will come in and do it and you'll pay us handsomely, right? You know what I mean? Like, I literally looked at him like in disbelief. And his entire career he did all the face plates on his job sites. So as you can imagine, he hit a ceiling and he was never able to go past that ceiling. And I don't know him well enough to even share with you that he was stuck, you know, and he wanted to get more but he didn't know how to break through. And you know, this was, this was probably about 12 years ago, maybe, maybe a little bit more. So I wasn't even in a position until, I mean, I push back. I'm like, why, dude? My, my daughter does this. You should have someone else do this. I haven't done a faceplate seal in a decade. Are you kidding me? So these are the kind of conversations that we should be having with ourselves about our businesses and sometimes we just don't even know what we don't know. Right? I want to talk about when I came into. I'm 57 this year when I was 17, so 40 years ago, I came into construction and piecework was on its way out. There's still a little bit of piecework happening. I became a framer and all the framers that I learned from and all the framers that I learned from came from the piecework days. They were fast, they're efficient, they kicked ass, they didn't take any, you know, they were very quick. And around that time, 40 years ago, piecework in California became like, I don't know if it became illegal or frowned upon or, you know, the, the somehow like the way you could get paid was different. You know, the employee laws that from EDD in California, they just move them around and then like, you know, you got to pay for drive time. All these things kind of factor in, but they made it to where peace work was not going to be happening anymore. But back then they would be like, they would pay you for your efficiency and your speed on a job. So be like, hey, you know, get all these walls framed and we'll pay you this much money, I'll pay you this much per wall or this much per stud or whatever what it was. They would pay by the amount of work you got done. And so while the guys that I was learning from, they were just the baddest contractors that I ever knew. And they weren't even contractors, they were just like, they were just journeymen, right? And they would go out and just bang out stuff and get paid really well. But what happened is people would come through. And so while the construction industry was incentivizing people for speed, what happened was instead of having two nails on each side of the stud, you got an eight foot stud, you got two nails in the bottom plate and two nails in the top plate. And then you have the staggering nails inside that second top plate in, you could skip by the inspector and you could put two nails in the bottom plate and one nail in the top plate and then the second top plate would cover up the nails. So you couldn't see that there was not the proper amount of nails in the job. So visually you could see that it looked like it was okay, but it wasn't. And so simple corners that were being cut like that made it to where piece work was not. They didn't do piecework anymore. It's frowned upon because the people took the incentive and they took advantage of it and they did shitty work. And that was a real that. I mean, that's always stuck with me because the guys I learned from were very speed oriented. And so when I came up, I never got a chance to do the speed work, get paid, you know, in that, in that kind of fashion. But I did learn all those efficiencies from those guys who started in that trade. And so that was one of the reasons why I think I came up fairly quick as a, as a framer. And if you know my story, you know, I was in my early 20s, I was like 22 years old and I was running crews up on roof and I was, I was, you know, the boss of guys in their 50s and 60s. And that was something that flipped in my mind. It's like I don't want to be an old, burnt, old, used up guy on a roof being yelled at by a 22 year old kid with me down his back who goes surfing every weekend. Like I don't want to deal with that. So I, I quit being a framer and became a fish head.
- [18:10]
Eric Triplett
Hey, it's Tripla here. Let's be real. In a world of reels, swipes and virtual trends, it's easy to forget what really moves the needle. Pond Trade magazine isn't chasing clicks. It's preserving the craft of water features, arguably the last stronghold of long form education in our industry. Where real pond builders, koi pros and innovators share their knowledge unfiltered and unrushed. You won't find gimmicks or clickbait in pawn trade. You'll find depth, detail, strategy, story. From advanced filtration systems and aquatic plant care to retail strategies and contractor spotlights, pond trade is where the best in the business speak freely and where the next generation of pond builders learn what it really takes. If you build ponds for land living, maintain them, design them, or dream about doing it all better, this is your magazine. Delivered free, written by professionals, respected by the entire industry. This isn't just content for the algorithm, it's content for legacy. Subscribe now@pond trademag.com Stay connected to the heart of the pond.
- [19:20]
Sam
Now back to the show. There's another example of how things go. So we should evaluate our businesses and the thing I was going to talk about in that leadership skill, back to our employees. You know, if you're still doing all the face plates because you feel like, you know, there's no one that can do it as important, or if you're such an artist and you're doing all the work on the ponds and you feel like no one can do as pretty of work as you and so the last thing you want to do is have you know, your crew chief, you know, build the waterfall and then pictures go of it online and it's not as good as you could have built. And so, you know, I was acting the feel, right? So like, all sudden, you know, your mind keep. Keeps you in that position where you're constantly on the job, you're constantly doing the waterfall, so you never grow. Grow. Scale your business past that point. So while a lot of. A lot of people can get stuck in that fashion, I was thinking about. I was thinking about the 131 system in that leadership spot that I was talking about, something I learned from Dan Martell. His book Buy back. Your time is, you know, when. When a. When someone comes to you in your company with a problem and you just tell them the solution and you don't even ask them, hey, I got this problem. You're like, okay, do this. And then they go, okay, boss. They turn and they leave. What you're doing is you're training that employee to come to you for the problems, right? And then come to you for the solutions to their problems, I should say. So what happens is you get another employee, and that that original employee teaches the other employee. You think, like, this guy's going to eventually get it because I've given him the answers to the questions so many times, he's eventually going to get it. But by default, if you get on someone too hard for screwing something up, then they're afraid of getting yelled at by you and maybe losing their position or something. Or if you fired someone because they screwed up and you didn't train them well enough, then you train your entire team to come to you for this. And so Austin's on the phone right now, and he probably could be a testimony to the fact that he's fucked up a lot. And I coach him and I train him and I teach him and I teach him the one three one. And there's been times where I just make quick decisions and this is how it's going to go. But when I am more calm, I am more thoughtful. I'm like, how do you want to solve this? What are you going to do? Right? And things like that happen. Like one time you flipped a machine on a job. Is anyone dead? No. Are you guys all right? Yes. I'm like, okay, well, how are you going to get it fixed? He's like, I don't know. I'm like, well, why don't you figure it out, let me know. I mean, I can get Pat Casey there if we have to, but why don't you figure it out, right? And then 15 minutes later I get a phone call. He's like, you don't need to call Pat. We got it done. So, you know, instead of just saying you need to go home, like freaking out, you know, you're an idiot, you know, freaking. Then I gave him a chance to learn from that, that experience, right? So when you creating an environment in a leadership environment like that, where you're the leader, it's a supreme leader and no one can make decisions as good as you, then everyone's going to come to you for decisions. So you know the 131 method. If you don't know which one that is, call, you know, you ask them, what's the one problem we need to solve? I don't want to solve 12 problems at once. What's the one problem we need to solve? Hey, this is the problem. Then what's the three potential solutions that you have in your mind? Have you come up with three different ways to solve the problem? And once you share those three problems with us, I mean those three solutions to your one problem, then why don't you tell me what you think is the best solution to that problem? So it creates an environment where they're solving these problems. And in the cobra effect or the cobra conundrum is you as the supreme leader, you are the government of your business or however you want to look at it, you're just making the decisions and solving problems for people and never giving them the chance or the opportunity to solve. And that will eventually just hold your business back. And so once they share with you that one solution that they think will solve the problem the fastest and most efficient, if you feel like there's one that they haven't thought of yet, then you can have a discussion about that. But in the meantime, they've already thought up three other potential possibilities to solve the problem. And then you can discuss on something that maybe they overlooked and then maybe it becomes a training issue and you figure out you have a training problem and then you fix that and move on. So I want to, I want to move this to sales. And again, I'll have a, I'll have a hard stop at 9:40 and I'll. I want to just touch this on sales for a minute so you guys can like hang up the phone and maybe something I tell you right now, not only you can become a better leader when you go back to your team, but you can hopefully make better sales and, and make better profits in your business immediately for after the call. So in a Sales environment. I think that we tell our brains and we've talked about conspiracy, you know, conspiracy theories that we create in our own mind as contractors. We talked about that a lot. But there's something interesting that happens that I've done from the studying that I've done is that contractors don't follow up. And it, I mean, you know, it, because I know a lot of contractors, even on this call that ghost their customers, right? Oh, I'm not going to call them back. I mean, I've already called them and left a message and then you ghost your customers. But how many times do you get on a phone call with someone and they say, hey, yeah, I didn't even get a call back. I called four guys and no one called me. You're the first person that called me. That's why I'm talking to you, right? I mean that's part of our sales training and our pre qualification calls. We go, I kind of dig this information out in the customer. But the Studies show that 48% of contractors, they never follow up either. The call comes in and the lead comes across their desk and they're too busy. Maybe they're too busy because they sold their last job for way too cheap and they're putting out fires and trying to solve problems and getting out there. How can I cut corners and still not get a ding on my contractor's license? And so they never follow up that original lead. But then sometimes you'll get, you'll call the person and leave a message and you'll never follow up with them. They never call you back. Or sometimes you might call them or, and you talk to them for a minute and then you, you know, you set up another appointment, you don't call them back or you send them an email and at the most you might touch them two, three times. If you're really a pro, you know, an above average contractor, you might touch them four times, right? But remember, 48%, half of the half of all the contractors that you know don't follow up their leads, right? So would you be surprised if I told you? I think we've talked about it before, but most of the sales, most of the sales between the fifth and the 12th touch. So like seven, eight, nine touches. This is kind of a sweet spot where you should be going for. If the customer's a real buyer and they're ready to go, you're going to land them in that one to five touch. Pretty easy, right? If you do your job even, you know, even as an artist, there's a lot of pond guys on here. There's not that many artists out there that, that are in your backyard. So they're like, well, he's the best guy in the neighborhood. I guess I'll wait for him, right? But what if 10, like go to New Jersey, bro, New Jersey. There's like 10 badass, beautiful, awesome artists, contractors, you know, I dare you to try and not call people back in New Jersey. They'll just call someone else. So, you know, I've gotten away with this myself and that's why I can even share this with you. But most of that magic happens in the fifth to 12th touch. And so, you know, this is an effect that we have on ourself to where we just say, hey, you know, like it's, it's a brain thing. The effect, I don't know how to totally explain this. Explain this effect is because, you know, we are so caught up in the stuff that we do, we are wearing too many hats. We're out there solving problems for our employees instead of, you know, helping them to create the solutions, to create more space for us that we can talk to more people and sell more things. Right? So this is kind of the effect that's just snowballing into your business that you've created yourself.
- [27:35]
Eric Triplett
Are you a contractor looking for growth training and to level up your contracting business? If so, join the TWT Contractor Circle. It's our free Facebook group where like minded professionals go to share insights of success, strategies for growth and a place
- [27:52]
Sam
to find some accountability.
- [27:54]
Eric Triplett
In fact, we have a powerful accountability call every Friday with a live Q
- [27:58]
Sam
and A session at the end.
- [28:00]
Eric Triplett
And whether you're seeking advice, collaboration, or just a supportive community, this is a place for you request to join today and start building a valuable connection with me as well as our amazing network of contractors. Tango Whiskey Tango. That's TWT Contractor Circle on Facebook. I'll see you on the inside.
- [28:19]
Sam
Now back to the show. Too many contractors get into that assumption thing. We talk terribly, you know, we talk tremendously about the terrible assumptions that contractors make. You know, like you feel like, oh, they just can't afford us. You know, they're not that interested. You know, they're not my kind of customer. Maybe they're going to be a pain in the ass. And so you just stop following up. You create the old conspiracy in your head. You stop following these people up. But I'm not telling you to follow them up. I still want you to pre qualify and make sure you get the right jobs. I want you to Be confident enough to be able to walk away from jobs that you think aren't going to work for you. But I would challenge you to call your leads back, you know, for, you know, 812 times till they tell you stop calling, you know, and you need to do the sales training so you know even how to approach it. In eighth call. Here's what's really interesting is because I think by the, by the eighth call, you're thinking like, I'm just being annoying. And you pick up the phone like I'm being annoying and like, it comes off of you in your vibe. But if you have, if you're smiling and you're like, I'm providing a service, this person needs my help. They've requested service from me. They have a desire, they have a problem. I have the solution. And I want to make sure I serve them at the highest level. And I know through statistics, people get busy. I'm not just being annoying and they don't want to talk to me and they just keep ignoring me. That's not really what's happening. They were on vacation the week that I called them three times. They came back and they had a lot of, you know, they had a lot of catch up to do and they keep going, oh, I want to call that pond guy back. I just don't have time right now. I got to play catch up because I was gone for a week. And you're like, I already called three times, four times, I'm done. But you know, this stuff happens if, if you feel like you're going to be annoying them by the phone call. It comes out of your voice, it comes out of your tone, it comes out in your smile. But if you, if you, if you are really a service salesperson, like we train around here, when you call them, like, what is the word that you're going to say? What is the word track that you're going to go like, you know, hey, I, I'm reaching back out to you. Are you saying that, Are you saying, hey, the reason for my call today is this, you know, you giving them a, like, hey, the reason for the call today is you reached out and you filled out that form and I understand you have a big, big passion for waterfall. I can solve that for you. Do you have a minute to talk about this? Is this a bad time? Like, these are the kind of conversations and the word tracks that make up the opportunity for you to have more time with them. Instead of being like, hey, I'm just following up from you doing this. No one Wants to talk to someone who's just following up, but someone wants to talk to. Hey, the reason for my call, this is my big claim, and I'd love to talk to you about it at. Is this a bad to do that? When you come in there with that approach, you have such a better opportunity to sell. So keep that in mind. But just think about this. And it's so hard because, you know, if you didn't read the book, buy back your time, you might not realize that you're an idiot. And I'm talking to myself right now, not you. You might not realize you're an idiot that have just trained your employees to always come to you for anything, right? So it's like, you know, think about all the specific ways you're running your business, the spec ways you're doing your lead processing, the specific ways you are doing your callbacks. Do you have a plan for your callbacks? And so do you even have a CRM that you've navigated efficiently? Right. That you really put time into? And then are you hiring? Right? So, like right now, I know I wear too many hats. I know I need help with design. I know I need help with, you know, managing our CRM and that pipeline. And then once the pipeline gets into production, what happens next? And how. How does that customer get served at the highest level? And that's what I want to do as the business CEO, as the entrepreneur, the contractor. I want to stand back and I want to look at the customer's journey through my business from when the phone call comes in the first time. You know, how does the phone get answered if it's after hours, what kind of message is being left to them? And then how it gets into the CRM and then who touches them next? And do they get an email? Do they get. Do they get some kind of homework to do before talking to us? Like, hey, check out these videos. Hey, I know you came in late last night on the phone. Boom. Here's some videos of some of our work. If you haven't checked out our website anymore, check this out. We'll call you in an hour or we'll call you tomorrow morning. You know, all these little factors for me, I know part of my client journey and their experience. It takes them quite a long time to get to me. Way too long. Long. And I want. I'm trying to figure out how to shorten that whole process. And so what I've created as the COBRA effect in my business is a lot of, like, when I talk to people, they Go, oh, you're so busy. You know, I've, I've trained my public, my brand. I know, I know my brand looks like they're very busy now. To some people, busy means they think I'm rich. So some people busy might think I'm just spinning my wheels and running my ass off. Other people might be like, oh, he's doing really well, you know, like, but. But the fact of the matter is whether people think I'm rich or that I think I'm running my ass off, my, my clients think I'm really busy. They. That's what I portrayed to them. So that's, that's a cobra effect that I've created that I have to address. And I don't want to address it in a fact where like the culture of China is going to be gone in 50 years. I don't want that to happen to my business. So I'm trying to like, navigate that and get in front of it right now. So hopefully you learned something from that. The closing thought is like, as a leader, it's, it's not just about creating solutions to problems, but it's about creating the right incentives so the solutions stay solid and help you grow your business. Hope that helps. So let me open it up. I got about 10 minutes, then I gotta run.
- [34:29]
DJ
Eric.
- [34:31]
Sam
Hey. Hey.
- [34:32]
DJ
That the part where you spoke about, you noticed things like which way the wheelbarrow is facing, stuff like that, like being very lean and efficient. We just went, came back from a conference in Florida and Paul Aers, he's one of like the grandfathers of Lean, was there and gave a speech like, basically.
- [34:54]
Sam
Is he the 2 second lean guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [34:58]
DJ
He, he trains all his employees to think outside the box and he empowers them. It doesn't matter, whatever it takes. But if they see something that's wasting time, basically stop what you're doing. No matter how busy you are, figure out a better way. And if it make an improvement, even if it saves a second, it's a great culture. Yeah, it's. It's basically taken from like the Japanese. It was invented here in America, but the Japanese have perfected it, especially in like automobile manufacturers.
- [35:33]
Sam
We perfected it first and then gave it to Japan and then they kicked around. Yeah, yeah.
- [35:37]
DJ
Because we have fan lazy and basically. Yeah, after the, after World War II too. But yeah, he gave a great talk. So if anybody wants to look at Lean, Paul acres, he's on YouTube and all of his content's free and stuff and it's just a Different way to treat your employees and let empower them to make decisions no matter what it takes to save. Shave off seconds here and there. Just get a little better every day.
- [36:04]
Sam
So yeah, the Kaizen Kaizen methodology. I love it.
- [36:10]
Eric Triplett
Hey, it's triplet here.
- [36:11]
Sam
Listen.
- [36:12]
Eric Triplett
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- [37:48]
Sam
So I want to talk about Phillips right here. He says him and Tracy feel like they're the only ones that can tow the equipment around. And I get it, I get it, it's. It's dangerous, it's expensive. But that really traps you. It takes so much time to move equipment around. I, I don't, I hate moving equipment around. You can ask Austin. I'm like, here's the keys to my truck. Load the, load the excavator. Load this. Take it to the job site. I'll bring the van. I'll come by and see you guys in a little bit. And I'll bring my truck. You know, I just somehow you have to get over it. It's terrifying.
- [38:27]
Austin
Yeah, it's just a. Something that, hearing you say that, I just realized it's something I haven't let go. It's not even a. I haven't even put down on paper, how do I solve that problem? I guess that's what my brain was doing. Like, what are the next solutions? Because I know it's a problem. So it's like I gotta figure out the options and start working different angles.
- [38:53]
Sam
Well, it's scary because I mean, you got 200 grand driving down the road, right? You know? Yeah. You got a hundred thousand dollar machine, a twenty thousand dollar trailer, plus all the, you know, all your rigging. So Paul Akers from Two Second Lean, he, he videos almost everything that he does for Two Second Lean. Like, so he'll do a video, he'll be like, here's where we keep the top tie downs. Here's how, here's where we keep the chains. So this is where they belong and this is how you stack them and that becomes the sop. And this is, this is really interesting because I'm working on SOPs right now for the company. But you know, then he's like, this is, this is a, this is where we tie him down. You know, some trailers have like, I'm just, I'm just riffing off the top of my head, but on my, on my flatbed there's like several different tie downs, right? There's like all different spots. And if there's a certain machine that I'm doing all the time, like when we load the Mini X, I'm always using the same tie down spots, same pocket spots, right? And so it should be like, you could paint those ones yellow. Like, hey, when we tie down the Mini X, it's in the yellow. When we tie down the skitty, it's in the blue. You know, this is, these are the tie downs that we use and then the video of how to get it done, you know, so that, that would be one way to start the whole process off. Because once you train something, someone, and like if I train Austin and then Austin and I'm guilty of this, I train Austin how to do it and then Austin trains D.J. how to do it and I come D.J. tied it down. I'm like, hey, how come this is tied down this way? You know, like if it happened that way, this is too loose. It's because things get lost in translation along the way. That's why the SOP and or the video SOP is really the way. Hey, watch this. And if you find out, if I go out there, like right now, if I go out there and DJ has my maniacs strapped down inappropriately, I don't have anything to fall back on except Austin, you need to train this Guy better. And then I got to go leave, right? But if I'm like, hey, what happened? Let's. Let's watch the video together and let's make sure, you know, if DJs like, I. I didn't even know you had a video. They'll be like, austin, what the. You know, how come you didn't train him through the sop through the video? Like, so these are all the things that we can constantly get better on.
- [41:02]
DJ
Okay.
- [41:03]
Sam
But, yeah, and then, of course, it's got to go back to recruiting. I mean, are you doing drug testing on your guys? Are you doing background checks on your guys? Guys? And, you know, have you. Have you even made sure that they have a valid driver's license before they start to work for you? Like that has to be accustomed to. I remember hiring a guy and I'm like, hey, you know, you have. You have a clean driver record. He's like, yeah. I'm like, okay, cool. I hire him and then two weeks later, I'm getting him set up on our. On our insurance, and he's got three DUIs. And I'm like, what the. He said you had clean driving record, dude. Like, I can't even. I can't even insure you. Like, you're supposed to be driving materials. And like, dude, you know, so like, we have to follow up, you know? Do you have a clean driving record? Yes. Okay, I need to print out of your. Of your DMV report. Can you take a piss test and can I do a background check on you? If they say oh, then they're out, you know. Otherwise, you and Trace are going to be dragging around those machines until you fucking. And retire.
- [42:06]
Austin
For real?
- [42:07]
Sam
Yeah.
- [42:08]
Austin
Yeah. I like the video SOP idea. And then of course, the hiring process. We've been learning a lot on what you've been doing this whole year, adding so many levels of protection to your business, but also it makes you more successful once they do arrive.
- [42:25]
Sam
Yeah, thanks, man. I still don't have a great onboarding process, but. But normally it's just throw them to the fire. Go, go. Push rock with the boys today. Good luck. I gotta get better at that. What else you guys got?
- [42:42]
Austin
Austin? What? How your sale go? Did you get them lights?
- [42:47]
Sam
I actually have to call them today, dude. I didn't get a chance yesterday. I was running all over the place,
- [42:51]
Austin
so I didn't really do it. I was running my guys, making sure
- [42:54]
Sam
they were doing the job right. And I had a new guy on
- [42:57]
Austin
a machine yesterday that was kind of nerve wracking. For me on a job site. So I'm actually going to call him after this call.
- [43:04]
Sam
Okay, Good luck, dude. Yeah, thank you, man. I appreciate a great question. All right, any final thoughts? I got. I got time for just one or two more things because I gotta. I gotta get on the road.
- [43:14]
Austin
The job we're about to do, I have never met the person or seen the place and sold everything only because of our Brandon's social media presence. Just. Tracy just ran around the corner. So you gotta tell them all because it's pretty exciting that that's how it got locked down.
- [43:30]
Sam
Yeah, it's amazing, dude. Actually, on my 4x4, I've been wearing your orange hat the whole time.
- [43:36]
Austin
Yes.
- [43:37]
Sam
It holds my light just perfect in the middle. Two in the morning and I got my light on, so. All right, guys, I'm gonna cut out. I gotta go back. I appreciate you guys have a good day. I hope you learned something. Something contractors.
- [43:50]
Eric Triplett
If you're sick and tired of not making enough money, you might suck at
- [43:54]
Sam
sales and you don't even know it.
- [43:56]
Eric Triplett
Or worse, you suck at sales and you actually think you're good. Before you get upset with me, I sucked at sales too.
- [44:04]
Sam
And for a long time.
- [44:05]
Eric Triplett
Here's the difference. I pulled my head out of the sand and I forced the change. That's why I know what you're up against and how you too can turn
- [44:14]
Sam
things around around for you and your family. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
- [44:17]
Eric Triplett
I got really uncomfortable. I trained hard. I studied books and podcasts, videos, courses, role playing, and I took guidance from mentors and coaches while spending thousands of dollars.
- [44:30]
Sam
But trust me, it was all worth it.
- [44:32]
Eric Triplett
I mean, I turned my struggling company into a profitable seven figure construction business. I put together a list of the critical sales technique techniques that I use to flip my business from surviving to thriving. And I call it my contractor sales secrets. I want to share the list with you with no, no expense. Just to get you moving in the right direction. It's my way of contributing and giving back to my community and the construction
- [44:56]
Sam
industry that I know and I love.
- [44:58]
Eric Triplett
The list is available to you@contractorsalesecrets.com I promise you, with these sales secrets, some grit, discipline.
- [45:07]
Sam
I know you can dramatically change your life. So stop what you're doing right now
- [45:11]
Eric Triplett
and go to contractorssalesecrets.com that's contractorsalesecrets.com. hey, triple here again. Listen, if this episode hit you, don't just nod your head and move on. Take a really hard look at your business and ask yourself, where am I accidentally breeding the cobras? What problems keep showing up that might actually be rewarding? Think about that. Because awareness is step one, but ownership is where everything changes. If you want to go deeper on this stuff, please join us live on one of these weekly compass calls. You just got to jump inside the TWT contractor circle over on Facebook. And if you've got value from this episode, please share it with another contractor. Who's out there grinding? Who's out there stuck? And maybe they're stuck in a system
- [46:02]
Sam
that's working against them.
- [46:04]
Eric Triplett
That's it until next time. Stay sharp, stay relentless, and stop feeding the cobras.
- [46:23]
Sam
Sam.