S2-E48: The Mission Only Grows as Fast as the People Do - w/ Mike Garvey of The Side Hustle Squad Podcast

Summary

---

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Deep End with Eric Triplett

Episode: S2-E48 – “The Mission Only Grows as Fast as the People Do”

Guest: Mike Garvey (Host of The Side Hustle Squad Podcast)

Release Date: July 13, 2026

---

Overview

In this episode, Eric Triplett is joined by Mike Garvey to explore why the most ambitious business visions only expand as quickly as the people advancing them. Together, they discuss practical strategies for scaling teams, avoiding owner bottlenecks, raising standards, and empowering team members in the trades and contracting worlds. The conversation is grounded in real experience—from Eric’s aquatic business to Mike’s entrepreneurial journey—offering relatable stories, actionable advice, and tools for building a mission-driven, growth-oriented company.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shifting the Mission: From Building Ponds to Building People

• Timestamps: [00:42]–[05:48]
• Eric shares his evolution from focusing on building beautiful aquatic ecosystems to realizing his real mission is developing his people.
  • “My people are the mission… every new apprentice who learns to care about the craftsmanship… I’m not just employing them, I’m multiplying my impact through them.” – Eric Triplett [03:39]
• Insight: Lasting brand impact is achieved by empowering a team who can extend your vision further than you can alone.

2. The Evolution of Building a Team

• Timestamps: [05:48]–[10:38]
• Eric describes hiring his first apprentice out of necessity when he was “maxed out,” and how each new hire addressed specific business bottlenecks—first in operations, then in admin/bookkeeping.
  • Memorable moment: Discovering a client (Mrs. Johnson) hadn’t paid in 9 months because Eric was overextended and unnoticed. [08:23]
• Insight: Effective growth happens when you continually hire to fill your weakest points—not just more people, but the right people for the right gaps.

3. Empowering the Team with Sales & Communication

• Timestamps: [10:38]–[15:13]
• Eric explains that he’s teaching sales and communication skills to his whole team, not just traditional “salespeople,” resulting in better service and faster client responses.
  • “Sales is such a sticky, gross word… No, I made them service people.” – Eric Triplett [13:12]
• Employees now earn commissions, leading to more motivated and empowered staff.
• Learning from mistakes: When the team slips up, it’s discussed openly and used as a chance to grow.

4. Bottlenecks: The Owner’s Dilemma

• Timestamps: [15:13]–[17:56]
• Many owners stall growth by assuming no one can do things “as well as I can” and letting ego or perfectionism create barriers.
  • “No one can do it as good as me… That becomes the bottleneck that is really hard to overcome.” – Eric Triplett [15:20]
• Insight: Letting go and trusting well-trained people is essential to avoid stagnation.

5. Daily Rituals: The All-Team Meeting

• Timestamps: [17:56]–[23:14]
• Eric details his company’s daily 15-minute virtual meetings for all departments—focused on wins, accountability, and energy (music included).
  • “If they’re not excited to be at work, then maybe they don’t need to be there… If they’re not excited, maybe something’s wrong with their family. I want to catch them and go: ‘Hey, are you OK?’” – Eric Triplett [19:38]
• Notable moment: Uplifting culture where teams share wins, support each other, and learn together—contrasted with the “just another day, another dollar” attitude.

6. Blueprint for Scaling: You Don’t Scale Businesses, You Scale People

• Timestamps: [23:14]–[25:48]
• Discussion of how every business’ #1 problem is people—not marketing or cash flow.
  • “Our number one problem… It’s not marketing. It’s not cash flow. It’s people. Number one problem is people.” – Eric Triplett [23:55]
• If you focus on scaling people, everything else follows; for employees, top concern is money, so the owner’s job is to make earning enjoyable and meaningful.

7. Mindful Hiring: Gut Instinct vs. Process

• Timestamps: [25:48]–[33:16]
• Mike reflects on hiring in both his business and his unit in the state police—how putting the right people in the right seats is satisfying and critical.
  • “I love putting people in places… He’s really good at that, I want to put him there because I don’t like that at all…” – Mike Garvey [25:24]
• Eric describes evolving from “hiring by gut” (friend’s kids, acquaintances) to running a structured, multi-step interview process to ensure cultural and technical fit.
  • “In the past three to four months, I’ve interviewed close to 150, 200 people to work for us…” – Eric Triplett [31:11]
  • Process: First interview for culture and values, second for technical skills, third for deeper alignment.

8. Raising Standards and Letting Go

• Timestamps: [33:16]–[38:32]
• Eric discusses instituting higher operating standards, warning (via advice from Brandon Dawson, Cardone Ventures) that raising standards inevitably leads to turnover as the team aligns to new expectations.
  • “When you raise your standards, someone’s gonna quit and you will have to fire someone… Both of them had been with me more than eight years.” – Eric Triplett [36:01]
• Standardizing performance, holding people to account, and rewarding those who rise to the occasion strengthens the whole company and creates renewed energy.

9. The Payoff: Scalable, Purposeful Growth

• Timestamps: [38:32]–[39:03]
• If leaders stop striving and growing, the whole team becomes stagnant.
  • “If you stop scaling, you’ll lose the people. You have to start over.” – Eric Triplett [38:34]
• End message is clear: Build a business where people see a career, feel empowered, and share the owner’s vision—and everything else (growth, client impact, fulfillment) follows.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “My people are the mission.” – Eric Triplett [03:39]
• “Sales is such a sticky, gross word… No, I made them service people.” – Eric Triplett [13:12]
• “No one can do it as good as me… That becomes the bottleneck that is really hard to overcome.” – Eric Triplett [15:20]
• “If they’re not excited to be at work, then maybe they don’t need to be there… If they’re not excited, maybe something’s wrong with their family. I want to catch them and go: ‘Hey, are you OK?’” – Eric Triplett [19:38]
• “Our number one problem… It’s not marketing. It’s not cash flow. It’s people. Number one problem is people.” – Eric Triplett [23:55]
• “I love putting people in places… He’s really good at that, I want to put him there because I don’t like that at all…” – Mike Garvey [25:24]
• “When you raise your standards, someone’s gonna quit and you will have to fire someone… Both of them had been with me more than eight years.” – Eric Triplett [36:01]
• “If you stop scaling, you’ll lose the people. You have to start over.” – Eric Triplett [38:34]

---

Major Takeaways

• Growth = People: Your mission, vision, and ultimate business expansion are driven by the growth and development of your PEOPLE—not just your output.
• Structure Empowers: Move beyond instinctual, gut-driven hiring to build systematic, repeatable ways to find, train, and elevate your team.
• Transparency & Culture: Daily, meaningful communication (even virtually) aligns teams and energizes culture.
• Standards Transform: Raising expectations even at the cost of turnover creates stronger foundations and loyalty among your best people.
• Leaders Must Evolve: Owners who fail to let go or raise their sights risk stalling personal, team, and business growth.

---

Useful for

Anyone running a construction, contracting, or trades-based business (and beyond)—especially those looking to scale, develop a powerful culture, or escape the “owner bottleneck” trap.

---

Closing Insight:
“At the Pond Digger, we’re not just building ponds. We’re building people who build experiences that reconnect families with nature.” – Eric Triplett [39:03]

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Deep End with Eric Triplett, the pond digger and inventor of Helix Life Support Pond Filtration. For over three decades, Eric and his team have been in the field designing, building and protecting breathtaking aquatic ecosystems that reconnect people with nature right in their own backyards. Ponds, koi, craftsmanship, culture, business. This is where we dive deep into building a wild, successful brand rooted in nature. Let's dig in.

[B]

Welcome back to the Deep End. I'm Eric Triplett, founder of the Pondagar Waterscape design and construction company. And we have a big vision over here. The vision, let's call it simple, okay? Because words are important, the way we say them, the way we use them, but the vision is simple. We want to build a $50 million brand powered by 100 world class employees, people who reconnect families with nature through aquatic ecosystems, education and wildlife stewardship. And that's this big vision, right? And underneath that needs to become your mission, your vision, and then your mission carries that through. And on today's episode, I have a conversation with a good friend of mine, Mike Garvey from the side Hustle Squad podc. He owns multiple businesses and we talked about, you know, the mission will only grow as fast as the people grow who are carrying it, right? And so what I've learned today is something interesting because I have this mission, the mission statement that we've been kind of going on and it's been developing, right? But the mission is, you know, to design and build, service and protect wildly beautiful aquatic ecosystems, reconnecting, discerning homeowners to nature in their very own backyard. And I thought a lot about that today as I was coming up with this intro for today's podcast with Mike Garvey. And you know, I've already done that. It's already done like the mission accomplished because there's no number here, right? I've already, we already have done that. There's, there's a plural on the end. We've done lots of them, but there's not a total number. And I think that's a problem that I'm going to resolve today as I'm talking to you, getting ready to share this other podcast with, with Mike. So with, with the title of the podcast being that the mission only grows as fast as the people that are carrying got me thinking about the mission just isn't designing and building and beautiful, wildly awesome aquatic ecosystems, but the mission is my people, right? So that's how we scale it. That's how it becomes scalable. The people are the Mission. And the mission needs to be more like we need to impact and inspire millions of people through designing, building, servicing, and protecting wildly beautiful aquatic ecosystems and reconnecting the discerning owners with backyard Oasis. Right? And the only way to really do that is to multiply, is to have that impact is through multiplication. So that can be done through social media and what have you. But I still can't do it myself. I need a team to do it. I need to build this big, powerful team. I need to be powered by a hundred high end, you know, top tier members. So it got me thinking today that my people are the mission. So think about that. You know, everyone on my team, Austin is the mission. Josh is the mission. My daughter April is the mission. Melody and Kathy Jo, they are the mission. My wife, Leslie, the mission. Because every new apprentice who learns to care about the craftsmanship behind what it takes to build these beautiful waterfalls, I'm not just employing them, I'm multiplying my impact through them. And the more that they can take over spots of that, you know, mission for me, I can use my time to develop the media side of our business, the social media aspect, right? And that's a massive shift. It's a massive shift. So in thinking about how I'm going to introduce Garvey, my buddy, to and this podcast got me thinking about my mission. And that's what's cool about the podcast. Because every time I get together with other contractors and business owners and hobbyists and people, it helps me determine how I can become better, how I can help them become better, how I can be better through their company. Right. So I'm very pleased to announce and share with you my good friend Mike Garvey from side Hustle Squad podcast, because we're talking about one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make. They spend years investing in themselves. Meanwhile, they don't try and help their employees or their team members level up. They think that magically they just expect the, you know, the team members to just rise up and bring all the cream to the top and hit the mission. But we really talk about what it looks like to develop them. All right, let's dive in. This is amazing.

[A]

Do you remember hiring, like, your first employee?

[B]

I do.

[A]

What was that like?

[B]

It was. It was interesting because I hired my first employee. He was just an apprentice. I was kind of maxed out. I was mainly doing aquariums, doctors and lawyers offices. I'll go around, do all this stuff, and I was just maxed out. I was working a lot of hours and I didn't have time to do, like, sort of like heavier service calls or work orders. Like, change out complete filters. You know, like, normally you'd go in and change the decorations, clean the glass, do the stuff. And then if I needed some major work underneath the tank or the aquarium, you know, I'd be like, oh, that's going to take two hours. I can't do it today. I got seven more aquariums to clean.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So I was like, I hired an apprentice. It was just someone I knew who was like a friend's son kind of deal. And I was like, hey, you want to work a couple days a week? And then I just used them to help me get in front of the day, get out of jobs faster. So then I'd have a Friday clear and I'd do some work. And then it was actually really cool because it happened fairly quick to where I was just like, you could go do these aquariums by yourself. These are the easy ones. And they weren't super high end. He could really screw up and wouldn't hurt me that bad.

[A]

He could fall over. Yeah.

[B]

And. And then I have a whole day to myself to go and do these repairs and stuff. And so it kind of just kept snowballing from there. It was actually really cool.

[A]

So then from there, I mean, you have how many employees?

[B]

15.

[A]

15?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it's kind of followed that. Did it follow that model? Like. Okay.

[B]

Foundationally?

[A]

Yeah, foundationally. Okay. I'm maxed out at admin. Okay. I need to. I'm maxed out at scheduling. Okay.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I'm maxed out at construction. I need, like.

[B]

Like, you're gonna love this. So I was max. Then I maxed out with him. And then. Because then I would have to come home and do the building, and I have to go to the mailbox and. And the checks would come in the mail. This is good for Jobber. I'd have to go walk into the bank and do this.

[A]

Wait in the line.

[B]

Yeah. And everything was receipts and just. I had boxes and receipts. And so I remember I was maxed out with, like, that now. And I was like, I. I don't. I can't go home and do books anymore. I can't go to the bank. I just. I can't. I hired this girl, and we met her through our pet shop, and she was just going to work four hours a day. I'm like, that's perfect. I probably couldn't afford.

[A]

I don't want to get paid for eight. Yeah.

[B]

And so she starts going through my boxes of receipts and like that. It was terrible, man. And then I'm like, hey, she could see the board, like, we're going to go see the Johnson residence or whatever. And she's like. She's like started to do the money and the books and the paychecks, and then she's like, you're going to the Johnsons? I said, yeah. She's like, you know, they haven't paid you in nine months. And I was like, what, are you kidding me? She's like, I didn't know. You have not. They have not paid you in nine months. I'm like, that bitch. Why is she always so happy when I show up?

[A]

Fucking Kathy,

[B]

dude. I literally. I show up to there and they're like, oh, hi, Eric. You know, they're all like, you want to talk?

[A]

He doesn't know.

[B]

Here's your cocoa.

[A]

You maxed out. He doesn't even know.

[B]

He's so nice. He's been taking care of my aquarium for free for nine months. I love him. Oh, my God. So, like, it's just. It's incredible where you're behind missing and things are falling through the cracks. So that was my third hire, but now I think it's been cool because I feel like wherever I have a deficiency or overburden of work, I'm always hiring to fill that gap. Right?

[A]

Yeah. You always have to be looking for the next, you know, not necessarily have, like, people always right there, like, I'm going to hire somebody tomorrow, but, like, all right, what's my next steps? Where. Where am I going to need to be in six months, a year, five years?

[B]

Yeah. I'm starting to look at. I'm starting to have better forecasting things of that nature, you know, And I'm to a point right now. Exactly. Today in the business right now, I just hired 15. That includes me. Fifteen on staff. That includes me. I hire one more August 1st. And now I'm actually. I'm actually a little nervous. Like, wow, I really have to start pulling levers on marketing. The phones definitely have to ring more. It's like I have to move a part of the business that I haven't had to move. It just happens naturally. The phones ring, we get jobs. But now it's like, hey, I need to really put the foot on the gas in certain parts of the business.

[A]

Question was, would part of a hire ever be like a straight. Straight, like, sales?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Besides you like, yes. Yeah. Not. You're not it anymore. It's like, hey, you're just going tracking leads, generating Leads. Mm. And. And just like meeting with the customers and doing like, all that.

[B]

I don't remember the number, but there's a number that you'll hit of employees. Like when you hit a certain number of employees. And if you have your revenue per employee working well, there's a time where you hit a certain number. You have someone who only thing they do all day long is to. To track your metrics. How many calls when I came in, how many calls went out? How many quotes came in approved, how many quotes went out? Like, that's all they do all day is just like this. Met the numbers in their brain, bro. Some people love that. I wouldn't, but.

[A]

No, but that would that be a part of almost your marketing having like that.

[B]

It's just the data they just.

[A]

They give, you know, I'm saying that hiring that salesperson like you say, hey, I better get the phone to start ringing is part of that maybe like having having somebody generate those that higher being generating the leads. No.

[B]

Well, where I'm at currently right now, I am teaching sales or communications to my team. And so 10 of my people right now can actually sell something where in all the past, it's like, hey, Eric, you know, they'd go do their jobs, and they go, hey, Eric, Mrs. Johnson needs a UV and I'm like, okay, cool. Different Mrs. Johnson.

[A]

So she's got to pay up first.

[B]

So then I got a call Mrs. Johnson, and then I got to tell her about the uv and I gotta tell her what the quote, the price is, you know, like. And so now. Now it's been really empowering to just go like, dude, you guys. You guys know what UVs cost? You know how to install them? How long is it going to take? Is it an easy UV stall or is a hard one? Is that electricity close by? Like, you guys know how to do all that stuff. So what I've spent since January, so since March, back in that realm. Hit this really hard. My whole team is prepared to be able to do those things, and I would just, like, oversee them a little bit. So clearly that's my best move now. So my. All. My whole team, it actually serves my customers better. You know, sales is such a sticky, gross word. Like, oh, you made all your guys salespeople? Like, no, I made them service people.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, because if my client needs a UV and it takes me a week to even get to them, and then I got to talk to them, and then their calendar doesn't work out, and then it's been a month and then, like, they just need the product for their pond to get better.

[A]

Right. Where they could. Where the call could come in at 9am By 10am they have the quote back. It's already done, and then it's approved and it's ordered.

[B]

It's gone to my scheduler, and the scheduler's putting it on the board. And like, so I've empowered my guys to service our clients at a higher level and be able to sell the product. Doesn't have to come through me. So that's already in motion. It's working out brilliantly. My customers are happy, my customers are thanking me.

[A]

And it frees you up to do.

[B]

Frees me up to do more stuff. And then, you know, I empower my team to get a commission off of it. Like, hey, you sold it. I didn't have to touch it. Let me just pay you some.

[A]

I don't think about it.

[B]

Yeah. And then they're living a better life. And so gas is $8 a gallon out there. Like, they need. They. They're motivated to sell things. Or I should say they're motivated to serve their people at a higher level. Because put it this way, if. If they sell a uv, let's just say it's a thousand dollars. Because sometimes it is.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Let's just say it's a thousand dollars to sell the UV to Mrs. Johnson. If my team sells that to her and serves her with that, and then I reward them with money, they're excited to take care of that customer at a deeper level. Right?

[A]

Absolutely. There's a connection.

[B]

Yeah. So everyone does better for it. And then their kids go to dance lessons because they can afford it now. It's just a brilliant thing. So empowering those people is paramount. And for years, for years and years, I didn't have that figured out yet because I was too nervous to be able to. To make sure it got done right or whatever. We don't make everything perfect. Sometimes we screw something up, but we learn from it. We have a meeting about it. Hey, this is what went wrong. This is how we make it better. Let's go.

[A]

Why are. Why do you think so many business owners are the bottleneck of their business?

[B]

Well, just like, you know, we were talking about another contractor that we know that it's like, no one can do it as good as me. No one can know. No one can talk to the clients like I can. No one can forecast things as well. It's just. I don't know.

[A]

I think it's personality. I think it's Ego. Somewhat.

[B]

Sure. For sure. Some personality types definitely have their more tendency, you know, like, like an enneagram one style person. They, they battle with it a lot. They're on their own. Personal critic. And so since they're so hard on themselves, they by default can be hard on other people.

[A]

Other people?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. And then why did you do it like that? I would have done it like this.

[B]

And if the other, if the other people don't even see it because they're not this, they're not there, they're not their style, or maybe it seems like they don't care, then that person gets more upset and then it validates him more like no one else can do it as good as me. And then that's just. That becomes the bottleneck that is really hard to overcome. Hey, it's Triplett here. Listen. In a world where quality is often overlooked, Helix Life Support stands proud. Bringing you American made excellence for your koi ponds and water gardens. And I want you to know I worked in the field for over 15 years and had professionally built nearly a thousand ponds before I designed my own proprietary filtration equipment. So trust and believe when I say that. Helix Life Support is a product line that was crafted for those who demand durability, advanced technology and a deep commitment to fish friendly designs. Now at the heart of the product line is our patented award winning Helix pond skimmer. Built with the safety for your koi and other fish as our top priority. No sharp edges, no unnecessary risks. Just an innovative fish friendly skimmer you can trust. And every piece of Helix equipment that's made is with high quality materials so you can get a filtration system that's as tough and reliable as it is efficient. Whether you're a first time pond builder or a professional contractor looking to elevate your game, my team and I are ready to help you realize that vision for personalized pond design assistance assistance or to get your hands on Helix Life Support filtration equipment. Give us a call today at 800-522-5043. That's 800-522-5043. Support American craftsmanship and choose Helix Life support for your pond. Built for koi. Built for life. Built for you.

[A]

How have you seen the growth of your team in the last three months?

[B]

It's been tremendous and I'm going to talk about this tomorrow. We have an all team meeting. Every day I meet with my everybody in person. We do it over at Zoom because you know, I got teams that start at 6. Yeah, I got girls that start at 7, 7:30. I got my production managers in there at 6. We have our ranch hands. The guy that's shoveling manure at our fucking property right now, he's on that meeting every morning. 8:45. Okay, so we do 8:45. Our retail center opens at 9am so customers are coming in. We want to service them. So we have it at 8:45 before it kicks off.

[A]

15 minutes.

[B]

15 minutes. 15 minutes fast. In and out, burn. This is not a phone call.

[A]

That's like stuck strategy, right?

[B]

No, it's not strategy. It's not like, hey, we need more fish bags in the fish room so we can sell fish. And rubber bands. Don't forget the rubber band. This is not this kind of conversation that happens. All it's part of their job, right? The all team meeting is all about wins and each department's metrics because every department has a metric. So like how many phone calls came in? How many? What's going on in the sales department? Who's, what's, how much money are we making in production today? Like I'm going to go deep with it tomorrow. It's going to be cool. So it's like, hey, what, what's, how much money are we getting in today? Are we hitting our goals? What's the targets? And then someone, you know, like, so the team is locked in. They're all excited about it. And like so about five minutes before, about eight, 8:35. 8:40, I'll put on some music that's like gets you jacked.

[A]

Awesome.

[B]

Like I got like on Monday, I put on Kickstart My Heart from Motley Crue. You know, it's just like it's on and like everyone gets on five minutes early because they want to hear the song. And then they're like bobbing their head and stuff like this, you know, and then I'll open the call up and I was like, hey, I have a big win today. I want to make sure you, everyone knows that. I saw this from, from this department and I came in and I didn't even know. And then this, all this magic happened. And then so I might be complimenting a big win, sharing a win with one of my departments. And you see their face light up on the camera. Everyone's got their cameras on because I want to make sure everyone on my team is engaged. If they're not excited to be at work, then maybe they don't need to be there. Or if they're not excited, maybe something's wrong with their family. I want to catch them and go, hey, are you okay? What's going on? It's just like we're really locked in with our people. So back to that point is to be able to have that level of communications and passion and sharing wins with the team members. They're so excited about it. And so I try and do really well to recognize each department, but it's also an opportunity for a department to share a win that I didn't know about and that the counting didn't know about and then the retail department didn't know about. So they're like, hey, I had a big win yesterday. This happened and the customer came in, we solved their problem and then we got a new Google review and everyone's like, sick, that's dope. And then so we just go through that and then we'll do a little bit of training on a little sales training, communications training, and I'll read a quote from a book, like a motivational quote about sales or about follow up or anything like that. And then we're like, have a great day, man. I'll see you tomorrow.

[A]

We clock out, everyone goes, does it

[B]

and everyone, everyone's pumped about it.

[A]

And that's really, there's a couple layers to that. It's like people are buying in, people are being held accountable, people are empowered. Right. To do better, to grow the business, to have a win, to share. Right?

[B]

Yeah, it's, it's. Think about all those years in any business that you've been involved in where it's just another day, it's another dollar, I'm just another day. I got another paycheck, I get, you know, if I work late, I make a little more. If I work less, I make a little less. If I'm sick today, I lose a day. Another day, another dollar. And there's so many people that live their life that way. So many people, right?

[A]

Just getting to get to the weekend.

[B]

Yeah, Another day, bro. My team is excited to come to work. I know that from the bottom of my heart. My team is excited and that separates our company from any of my competitors because, you know, so many people are like, ah, I gotta go work today. Monday, I gotta go. Get back to that, back at it. You know, they know our mission, they know our vision, they know we're serving our customers at the highest level and it's exciting to be around. And so that's how I see now that I've built from this foundation in the past three, four months. And it's, it's transformed so quickly that I can see the vision for growing Helix and building Helix in that fashion and from foundationally, from the bottom up, you know, so Helix is very small. We just, we build on demand. We don't have a lot of stock. We don't have a lot of distribution. We build on demand. And so it's cool because now I can go like, okay, cool. Like, imagine you're starting over because it's. The sky's the limit.

[A]

You already have the playbook.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is awesome.

[B]

Yeah. And all my whole team and my whole staff is versatile enough to where the office can still count the money and send up the bills and do all the paperwork and do all the accounting. They can do all that. And then almost everyone on my team can fabricate. So it's easy for us to, like, line things up like that. This is the, I think this is the blueprint for any business, whether it's roped or coastal or anything that you touch, it has to be built through people. So I want to talk about this for sure. What are we calling this podcast again? It's something to the effect of that

[A]

you don't scale businesses, you scale people.

[B]

Yes. So let's stick to that because, look, as a business owner, our number one problem. Number one, it's not marketing. It's not cash flow, it's people. Number one problem is people. You hear it all the time. I can't find good help.

[A]

No one wants to work.

[B]

Yeah. And I think the number one problem for an employee is money. And we can solve that if we're done. Well. And then if I can make it enjoyable to make that money, then, dude, it's a home run. So I really believe it's all through scaling those people 100%. Yeah. And the problem is finding those people. You go totally off of gut right now pretty much. You went through your buddy Andrew, and he's going to come in. You're going to make him.

[A]

Yeah, I go through, I think I can recognize people and where I think they can excel. And I do it in the state police, too, with my job. I like, hey, this guy's really good at doing this type of work. I'm gonna put him in charge of that. This guy's really good at this or driving or whatever. Like, he's gonna do this. Like, I, I, it's just something that I can really sense. Sense.

[B]

Look at your Spidey sense.

[A]

Yeah. This person, they get really excited about doing this type of work. Let's put them there. You know what I mean? Just, hey, they're Better at it than me. I love it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I literally love putting people in places, even in my businesses or work. And he's really good at that. I want to put him there because I don't like that at all. I don't like doing that type of work at all. But I carried it this far, but now it's like, let them run with it. I want smart people around me. I look for people that have better SAT scores than I did because mine was that high. I'm not that smart. You know what I mean?

[B]

It's easy to be better than me on that.

[A]

Yeah. Like, I want smart freaking people that like, like, can advise me and be like, hey, I think, like, you should do this.

[B]

It's interesting because as a state trooper, someone else is hiring people and they're putting them in you. And like, it's almost like, you know, you, you have to fill these people in the roster. You can make some advice on where they go. But they've already been hired, right?

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Especially too, you know, like, I do the. I've run the hiring, you know, for my unit. Yeah. So I've done that as well.

[B]

What does that look like? I mean, are you in the interview process?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. On a panel and. Oh, wow. Yeah. Ranking and all that stuff. I've done it multiple times.

[B]

Tell me about that. That sounds amazing.

[A]

So in, in my unit. Well, in the state police, you. There's 120 different jobs in the state police besides being on the road. So the goal is to, for some people, they want to stay on the road, but some people want to get off. So you apply for a job, a specialist job that you want to, whether it be on the SWAT team or boats or anything, and then you. You end up having to interview with the panel of the people in that unit when the panel changes year to year. But I did it for probably three years in a row. I was on the panel and I got, I really, I got a passion for finding the right people for my unit. And I found that I like the guys that have like two to five years on. They're younger, they're hungry, they're like, they want to learn. They're teachable. So I developed a program where my unit went out to into the troops, into the different road stations, and anyone was interested in what we did, come learn about it. And it got us a chance to, like, get some FaceTime with you before and meet with you and before you even come to that process. And, like, it was a good turnout. It's like, we had, like, 50 guys or so that want girls that wanted to, you know, had some interest in it and also weeded out people, you know, that they came and they're like, oh, they do that. I don't really want to do that. So it's a little thing that I came up with, and it worked pretty well. But I'm, like, finding that. It's like finding your ideal customer. I'm, like, trying to find my ideal person that I want to hire. So I take some of that stuff from the state police into the business world, into my business. Oh, I want to put that person in the right position that I think they'll excel at.

[B]

Were you trained on what questions to ask or are you like, how did that work? Because clearly, there's hr. You can't ask what's your favorite customer?

[A]

Correct. Yeah. I mean, there's standard sets of questions that we have to ask and stuff like that. And there's a lot of. It comes off a reputation, too. So we do a lot of. How is this? He's given us all the right answers, but how is he really? Yeah, I mean, like, can I be with this person for 18 hours? Can I? Yeah, Can I, you know, give them a lot of responsibility and. And no direction, you know what I mean? And they're going to be able to figure, you know, get the job done, so some of it crosses over, you know, I mean, it's like just getting those people into the right. Empowering them. Like, if I get a task and I'm like, hey, hey, man. Like, I want you to do this. Like, can you run with this for me? I need and, you know, recognizing a problem and giving it to somebody that wants to solve that problem for you, and call me and be like, hey, boss, it's done. We're good.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, that's. Thank you. Awesome. That's what I love.

[B]

That's cool. It's fascinating. I didn't know that you were part of that hiring process. That. That explains a lot of who you are and the way you think about things. For me now, okay, that. That makes a lot of clarity for me. That's really, really cool.

[A]

Yeah. That's awesome.

[B]

So in the past, as far as hiring goes, because it's all scalable through people, like, you run into trouble. That first apprentice, he was one of our neighbor's kids. Okay. He needs a job. I'm like, okay, he's hired.

[A]

Let's go.

[B]

Yeah. Can he walk?

[A]

All he needs to do is walk.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, like, not even Talk.

[B]

Yeah. And. And like, I hired that, like, everything happened by happenstance. Right? So, like, I just think back to years ago that's like, you, you. You might meet someone and get a feel for them. It's off your gut.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, street smart stuff. You're like, okay, cool, okay, hire them. And then, then you're like, if they're not working out, I don't necessarily want to fire them because then the rest of the people that I know will think that I made a bad choice. And I don't want them to think I made a bad choice. I'm a good decision maker. So I'm going to work with them a little harder. I'll train them a little bit more. And then it doesn't work and you keep them around too long.

[A]

It's like a shoe that doesn't fit.

[B]

Oh, God. Yeah.

[A]

You know what I mean? It's something you just know that. It's not like, it's like, I don't know, I equate it to. It's like when you're looking for houses or something, you're like, ah, like, we could make this work, but it only has two bedrooms. You know what I mean? Like, it's like you're forcing it.

[B]

So the interesting thing that maybe I told you about it, maybe you don't know, but in the past, probably three to four months, I've interviewed close to 150, 200 people to work for us.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

We've put out these hiring, job fairs, job fairs, all this stuff. But by now it's about like that. And it's incredible how just the right questions and that environment where you and. Dude, there's been a couple people that we've had back for their second interview. We have three interview process. So, like, hey, we like the vibe. This is cool. Set them up for the second interview. They don't show up or they show up late. You showed up late to an interview. That's. This is kind of rough, bro. I don't know if this is gonna work. You know, you learn a lot about that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And. And when you running with your gut feeling, you're like, this guy's gonna make it. I'm just gonna hire him. But when you go, hey, I need

[A]

the second, you give it that second and third.

[B]

Yeah. And the second one, you know, the first one's just about the last one's values. The second one's technical. The first one is just cultural. Like, culturally, are they gonna align with us?

[A]

Right.

[B]

Where do they want to be in Life. What are they gonna do? Have they done any research about your company? Like, does it fit the culture of your company? The second one's technical. Can you do this? We need someone to work on marketing. Can you create a quick ad for us?

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then they put together an ad and you're like, oh, that's not good. It's really bad. It's terrible.

[A]

Right where they said, oh yeah, I could do that, no problem. Off the first one. Then you're like, okay, you're hired.

[B]

Like, we've done that, We've done that. I've done that.

[A]

Yeah. I'm like, and you're. I'm super pumped about this person. I'm like, oh my God, this is gonna change my business. It's a total flop.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I found too, it's like I rather look at, especially with fertilization, weed control stuff. It's like I was going off resumes like, oh my God, this guy has 20 years experience of, of at this one, at this couple companies, a couple different companies, but he's got a lot of experience. Yeah, he knows everything. And I'm like, oh, let's hire him. We hire him. And it's like, oh my God, now I know why he's not at any of those companies anymore. So I rather take somebody that I can train how we want it to be done and with no experience and mold them how we want. I've had more success that way than hiring with experience.

[B]

Hey, it's triple A 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 a living, maintain them, design them, or dream about doing it all better, this is your magazine. Delivered free, written by professionals, received, expected 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. Now back to the show. So it's interesting scaling people. Scaling people to scale your business. So, you know, when I, when I started, when I re. Pivoted my focus to just purely the pond Digger brand earlier this year, I, I raised certain standards and a standard operating procedure. This is how we do it. If, if you don't want to do it this way, it's as simple as, like, you'll bring your truck back at the end of the day with minimum half tank of fuel, period, no matter what, right? I don't care about no matter what. Like this is. And once a month, this truck gets washed. Like just these simple little things. So I'm like, this is our new standard and you'll be graded on the standard. And a number three, like a scale from one to five, right? Five is like, I mean, a one is like you're not doing it right. Five is like you're hitting a home run. But a three is you're hitting our standard. And a lot of times if I run people through our standard, they're hitting threes because that's the standard. I don't want to be like, oh, thanks, Johnny. You brought back the truck. A half tank. Let me give you a five. You don't get a five star for just doing the standard. Like, yeah, bring back full tank. And it's. And it's. And the tires are clean. Like you wash the tires and you ran through the car wash. That would be like over the top.

[A]

That's a. Yeah, right.

[B]

My expectations. But our minimum standard is this. So, so like, I raised the standards and, you know, I was working with Brandon Dawson from Cardone Ventures and I, I gave a little resistance because he told me, he said, when you raise your standards, someone's going to quit and you will have to fire someone. Just so I don't care how long you've been doing this, that's going to happen.

[A]

That's what's happening.

[B]

And I was like, oh, my God, who's going to quit? Who am I going to fire? Who's going to quit? Who am I going to fire? And I'll be damned if he wasn't spot on. Exactly correct. I raised standards and like, this is how it is. And you'll get written up if we don't at least stay here. Within three weeks, someone quits. And with six weeks, I fire someone. All based on standards of excellence.

[A]

And that's hard. That's hard to write that.

[B]

Super hard. Both of them have been with me more than eight years.

[A]

Both of those characters you lost both in six weeks.

[B]

Six weeks. And they're integral parts of the business, right.

[A]

That you have now. If they're in a place.

[B]

Yeah, they're already replaced though. But so here's the thing.

[A]

But with the, with the standards.

[B]

With the standard. Yeah. But not only that, like everyone raised to the standard and a lot of the guys rate went above the standard when the person quit and when, when the other person was fired because they're like, oh, oh, he really means no because.

[A]

Not joking.

[B]

I knew so and so was not going to make it. And I knew so and so wasn't going to be. Right. But you know, we'll see if he follows through with it. And lo and behold, everything falls into place, you know, and that takes. That takes. First, it took six weeks to get things organized and then six weeks for those two guys to leave. So this, there's two, there's three months. Three months has gone by and you're working your butt off every day. And it's not changed yet. And it's not. You're not scaling up yet. But you know, now here it is six months later and it's like things are pretty good.

[A]

I mean and the whole team sees it and the whole team is like, we're moving forward. We are at a different standard.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We're empowered.

[B]

And look, my business is still very small. Like we're still a very intimate team. Like it's a very family oriented business and the people that have been with me all these years, there's a new

[A]

glow in their eye then to rejuvenate and dude, incredible for them, it's going to. It's a career.

[B]

Yeah. Well, that's the thing too is like you better be looking at your business and trying to develop it in such a fashion to have it big enough to where these people are growing with you and then they have to be able to continue to grow if you just go, I'm pretty sad, bro. I'm doing pretty well. You know, I got a nice truck and I got a little vacation place. Well, I got. I don't have to push anymore. You will lose your team.

[A]

Yeah. Because I don't really care about them and you know, whatever. It's a job for them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Well, this was good.

[B]

If you stop scaling, you'll lose the people. You have to start over. So it's.

[A]

What's it all for?

[B]

Literally have to continue to climb. Yeah. So great. I'm super excited about my position and building the Pond Acre brand right now where it's at I have him in this.

[A]

Can't wait to see it.

[B]

Psyched about it and a long, long time.

[A]

Awesome.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Anything? I'm leaving now.

[B]

I don't think so, man. I really enjoyed the conversation.

[A]

This was great.

[B]

Thanks for your ears and attention to the podcast today. At the deep end. If there's one big takeaway from today's conversation, I hope that it is. If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, that your people should be your mission. Every system you build, every leader that you develop, every difficult conversation you have in every hour you spend coaching your team either expands your mission or it limits it. So at the Pond Digger, we're not just building ponds. We're building people who build experiences that reconnect families with nature. And if this episode challenged you, if it opened your mind a little bit, if it got you excited in your and you maybe love our brand just a little bit more because of the vision and the mission behind who we are, please share it with someone. Please share it with another business or someone who's into Ponds, a business owner, whoever, who's trying to build something bigger than themselves. Okay, until next time, keep building something that's worth believing in. And I hope you dig Ponds as much as I do. Sam.