Hey, welcome back to another H V A C Success Secrets Revealed with Thaddeus and Evan. Today we got none other than Steve Akian on the show. Steve runs a company called Akian Plumbing, Heating and Air 6 million outfit in the Boston area in Waterton. To be specific, he's crushing it not only as a business owner, but as a real true leader in his organization. Thad, what was your favorite part of this episode?
We went deep on a lot of different conversations and a lot of different topics. phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal conversation. First and foremost, I think one of the things that I really liked was the idea of how your nighttime routine and how your morning routine can really set you up in your business and in just not your business, your own personal head space to be able to really win your day. Phenomenal, phenomenal phenomenon conversation. Steve, how about you? What was your top takeaway?
I would say looking at yourself for the answer to every single problem that you're experiencing in your personal and professional life. definitely will empower you.
That's huge. The idiot that you shave with every morning love that concept.
Shave our beard some, save our head.
Some both. honestly, this whole conversation today was absolute fire lit, if you will. dude, Steve, you dropped some bombs on some nuggets on this show. My favorite part, definitely the mindset around setbacks. We all face shit on a daily basis. We all get punched in the mouth. What are you gonna do about it? Loved what you did. Loved your story, dude, I think everyone needs to tune into this episode, but definitely hit us up and leave a comment down below.
Let us know what your favorite part of this episode was, and tune in live next week because you're gonna love joining the live show and pitching in with your comments during the show. Cheers. Hey, welcome back to another H V A C Success Secrets Revealed With Thaddeus and Evan, where we have good conversations with good people and any good conversation worth having. It's worth having drunk. Cheers. Good to see you. Yeah, buddy. I've been jacked for this episode for a long fucking time.
I know you haven't I remember I got off the phone with Steve. We did a little pre-call. I was dude, five minutes. Like I just wanna make sure that you're not gonna be a dot of a guest and you got a little bit of personality. He's okay, great. We ended up chatting for an hour and a half about everything from business and his history and his journey to fucking coffee.
It was an incredible, that was off limits I'm not saying we're gonna get into it, I'm just saying that's where the conversation went. It was phenomenal. I'm super jacked to this episode. I mean,
Nobody that tell me he hooped tequila once.
That's interesting. Yep. yeah. No, we're not gonna get into that. All right. So Steve, Steve Akian and he's with Akian Plumbing, Heating, and Air they are in the Boston, Massachusetts area from Boston. he's been in the industry for 14 years now. He's a master plumber, certified plumber and designer. But the thing that fascinates me about Steve is his, his, honestly, addiction to leadership and wanting to create better leaders within the trades.
And I'm super jacked to get into these conversations here today.
Perfect. I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I told him that we're not allowed to go full Tony Robins all day long. so we'll have to talk the show. I can just sit there and listen and the other half we can get into all things business. So, but of course without our show wouldn't be possible without our sponsors. Of course, us On Purpose Media but also Sera Systems, field management, field service management software.
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All right, well, you ready to get into. Let's do it. Wow. Let's go.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Welcome to HVAC Success Secrets reveals a show where we interview industry leaders and disruptors revealing the success secrets to create and unleash the ultimate HVAC business. Now, your host Thaddeus and Evan
Steve, welcome to the show, brother
Evan. It's an honor being here, man. Thank you. Awesome.
Awesome. No worries. My pleasure. Our pleasure. I should say, but really, it's all mine. Dude, let's talk to your story. Let's get into how you got to where you're at now, your journey into the trades journey as an owner. How did you get started? All of that go.
Okay. Well, yeah, so 14 years ago, I was 19. I was like working part-time at a car wash. Just like going to the gym and partying with friends. And that really, really wasn't me. I had always been like a hardworking individual, a go-getter. And I had a conversation with I was living with my grandparents at the time and I had a conversation with neighbor across the street and he was kid, why don't you try plumbing?
And I went to him and actually asked these questions Joe, I really don't know what to do with my life, and they said, try plumbing. And he had everything that people you think people would want, right? He had a couple vacation homes, he raised a couple kids. And so I put a thing up on Craigslist. I don't know if like you guys are familiar with what that is or if anybody under the age of 30 knows what Craigslist. I put a, I put an ad up on Craigslist, like 19 year old strong.
Like you might have thought that bad ad was in another section of Craigslist, but I was looking for a job Right. But I got a response from somebody that was doing residential new construction in Boston. Took the job, did that for a year and a half. Yeah, there were a few issues working for that person. So we decided to split ways and by decided, I mean, like I would show up to his door and he wouldn't answer.
And after three days of showing up and getting a text message, like there's no work today, I got the picture Moved on, did commercial installations and some service for about a year and a half. But again, like just being the go-getter type personality that I am. I advanced really quickly there.
I was still going to night class so that I could obtain my license as a license plumber, and that was becoming an issue with the workload that they were there, the responsibilities that they were putting on me.
So before I really realized what awareness and leadership of self was, I fucking blew a gasket on project manager at the time and got fired which was one of the best things to ever happen to me because shortly after that I got an entry level position as a piping estimator for like a large mechanical contractor out here in Boston. And within three months they could see that I was anything but entry level.
First job I sold in three months was a three and a half million dollar plumbing project over at middle school and high school here in Massachusetts. And then a week after that, my second sale, which was a 3 million pharmaceutical build out in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And so I was there for five years. And after five years decided to part ways and I started eating and air conditioning.
And now we've been in business for a little over five years and where gonna do just a little under 6 million this year. So super proud of the team and being able to accomplish that.
Right. I love it, dude. One of the things you said there, Around getting fired and getting let go. Definitely reminds me of a Tony Robbins lesson. There you go, Thad. Hi everybody. It's Tony robbins
Everything is Tony Robbins. Everything.
So little backstory. Part of that initial conversation that Steve and I had, we realized that we both attended U P W, which is a Tony Robbins event, and we both did it, like on Zoom, there's 30,000 people on there. There's no way that we would ever have known that we were on there together. But we both did it. I did it with my family and it was a blast and. The event's fucking incredible. Like just go check it out. Anyways your setback being your greatest gift.
Part of the backstory of why this is also funny is there's a little bit of an internal thing that Evan, pretty much every single show references Tony Robbins quotes. At least once a show I
book right here. That's the part of it. I got the workbook right here. Ah, this is empty. Yeah. Your setback becoming your greatest gift, right? Like in the moment it's so easy to get caught up and hung up on, oh, whoa is me, and why did this happen to me? And it's really, really difficult to see the other side of that when you're in it.
What did you do to get through that shit of, feeling bad, feeling like you're a failure, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, whatever story you were telling yourself in that moment to then go out and get that job, which eventually became one of your greatest gifts.
I think it's the fact that I've always seen, like the goal, it may not have always been as clear as it is today, but that wasn't a fucking option then. Like being what? Sit around, like who am I to fucking sit around and complain? Mm-hmm. you know what I mean? Like some people say there's always another level up. Well guess what? There's always another level down too. Yep. I've always been aware of that.
And some people have said, Hey, that's not really the greatest way to look at things like cause I would always say, Hey, it could always be worse. Dude, three months into starting the business, we lit someone's house on fire. Right. Okay. And let me tell you something, because of my outlook on things, I got a five star Yelp review. Out of that client. Okay. And that client became a friend in the five years we've been in business, we've kept in touch. You know why?
It's because the shit is gonna happen. Mistakes are gonna happen. How you respond to those fucking things is what counts. Mm-hmm. when I say we became friends, I'm talking to the extent where like we did a participated in like Fair on the Square, which is like a little town event that they do here. I'm in Watertown, which is like a kind of like a suburb, like right outside of Austin. Boston's like literally 10 minutes from me.
but in our little city here we have this fair on Square and his wife came by to introduce their newborn child to me, right? And to remind you, the story lit their house on fire again fucking four years prior, or whatever it was at the time, right? What are you gonna do, man? Like it's shit's gonna happen. Get up, keep fucking going.
A hundred percent.
So I'm curious on that because I've been listening to the Gap in the Game by Dan Sullivan and he, well he's the, the guy behind, I forget the actual guy who wrote Dr. Ben, I think is his name. And they talk a lot about that mindset, about what is your gain versus what is your gap and how to be able to get there. But I mean, you're, you're saying of could always be worse. Was that something that was inherently always in you or is that a mindset that you've had to work on?
And if it's something that you've had to work on, if somebody is in this, stuck in this thought process of this gap mentality that they're always looking at the other side of things, what are some, what's some advice that you would give them?
That's tough because for me, I'm, I've been this way, but not as refined. And what I mean by that is like things happen in your life. Like there's nature and nurture, right? But things happen in your life. And I think I may have like adapted like this really young as sort of like a survival mechanism like way of coping with just the, just the way things are in life. It's like a very stoic way of looking at things before I even knew what that stoicism was and what that meant.
But I'm someone who loves connecting with other people and that doesn't always mean like being able to see the great things that are inside of people, but also seeing like all the bad shit that's out in the world that people experience, right? Like my father always used to say to me Hey look real quick story, when my parents divorced, right? My dad was the worst fucking cook like ever. Right.
So when I'd, when he'd have us, my, my brother and I on the weekends, he would always his default was these like boxed like powdered mashed potatoes that you'd mix with like water, right. And me. Yeah. And these dry, dry meatball. I'm having PTSD just talking about this. So right. But these dry meatballs and it was and he would reason I'm sharing this is cause he would be no, they're starving children in Africa. I'd be they wouldn't even eat this shit. Right.
It's so, but like just to go back to that like whole like upbringing thing that could have very been, but again, like just being. That's, that's my brother Alex there, who's a phon, by the way. He he runs this, team with me and he's like just someone who when you sit down and have a conversation with him, and he's dialed in like brilliant mind. But the meatballs were that bad. He just was too young to remember.
I love it. Makes sense.
Yeah. I mean, I wish, I had like the recipe for that. I mean, I guess the thing is, is just work on awareness of yourself. Like why you're feeling that way. Like why do you see what, what I call is, why don't you see the free bagels? You see the line, you have to wait in and I don't know if anybody, if anyone hearing this or, or listen to this podcast, that's a Simon Sinek story that he shared. Right. So I always tell people, leaders help people see the free bagels. Right.
And for those that aren't aware of what I'm saying, look, tell Yeah. Well, I was gonna say, give the full reference. So it's been a while since I saw the videos. You might have to help me on the seven, but it's Simon and his friend, they're, they're going for a run in, in in Central Park. I like in New York City. And the run was sponsored by some, some local ba bagel shop. And at the end of the run they were treating all the runner to the bagels.
And Simon said to his friend, he's Hey, let's let's go get a free bagel over there. And his friend's yeah, bagel would be nice, but I don't wanna wait in the line. And Simon was free bagel. And his friend was yeah, but I don't wanna wait. And Simon was again, Free bagel. Right? And he had a aha moment, I believe, right Evan? And in that moment he realized that there are two types of people in the world those that see what it is that they want, and they go and they get it.
And that those that only see what's in the way from getting what they want. And, I've never shared, I've never said that out loud. It's such a great story, man.
Well, and it's interesting, I had a similar experience come up when I was traveling this, I don't know, one of the 17 trips that we took in the last five weeks. But I was at the airport and I showed up and it was literally five minutes till I was supposed to be boarding. Stupid mistake. I was only flying carryon. So I was ah, fuck it. I've been through it so many times in the last three weeks. Like it'll be fine, show up, massive line, easily an hour and a half wait just to get through security.
And so I walked to the front of the line and I looked at the guy that was working there. I was wow, this is nuts. You, you guys are doing a great job right now. And he looked at me and he is oh, thanks. I was I know you're probably putting up with a lot of shit right now. And like just wanted to say thanks. And he's wow, yeah, thank you. I was I do have a favorite ask. I'm boarding in five minutes. Is there any way that you can help me get around this that I can get through to make my plane?
He's yes. There's this QR code. It's this new thing. It's for an express pass. Scan the code, pick any flight that's on there cuz it doesn't matter, and it'll give you a code. I'll scan it, you'll write on through. It was like done. Other people came up right behind me as I was doing that and they came up and they scan the code guy tells them the exact same thing and they get all puzzled and they're well, why do I have to book a, why can't I just pick my flight? He's it's not gonna be an option.
They're but then how am I gonna make my plane if it's not an option on here? And they just kept asking questions and asking questions, constantly looking at the obstacle, what's in the way, what's preventing me from getting what I want? I scanned the code, boom right through, walked right onto the plane, made the flight. It was great. They were still standing at security. Ooh. You read that The obstacle is the Way, is that what it says? That's it. I love it. That's great.
When you just said it as you were sharing that story. Yeah. And there's, there's so much value in what you just shared because you led with love and that's why you were loved back and you were helped by someone. that's the reading, all this leadership stuff, because there was a point in my, in my career as a the CBO here at Akian and how do you lead people? How do you grow a business? And, I was over fucking complicating it.
Lead with love that simple, like love, be genuine care for people and I did, I do right. But there was like as the company grew first year, 750,000, next year, 2 million, 3 million and 4 million, and, and, and now just a little under six this year, right? You get caught up in all the bullshit and you sort of lose yourself. I did for a very, for a period there, I lost myself, dude, for a period there. I should say I was 80 pounds fucking heavier than I am today, right?
About a week or two before Covid Okay. Started, right? Talk about lose yourself, but again, like in the chaos of it all, you lose yourself. And I came back around to that like symbol lead with love in anything and everything you do.
So walk us back to what, you said you were lost in it, so you were overweight. What else was going on? Oh man, there's a whole wheel of shit that's happening.
I wanna, before leading into this, I wanna say all this was is was on me, right? Yep. But I was in a really toxic relationship. Mm-hmm. probably binge eating to help with that. I was dealing with anxiety issues and all this stuff. And when I started pressing into really digging into that leadership journey, you start picking up things and it all fucking just comes back to you, right? It all comes back to you.
And today, just to the evolution that occurred was I am proud of going to the boxing club in the morning, taking care of myself, understanding that waking up and business owners that are out there that are doing this, right? If you take anything from this, take this. Do not be the type of person with your phone next to your bed.
You wake up and before you even say, I love you, or Good morning to your spouse next to you, or, or doing anything positive like you're grabbing your phone and you're, looking at your emails and, and I know that it's probably because you're a little anxious and you wanna catch something before it happens. Hey, listen, if you're getting an email, it's already fucking happened. Like take care of yourself in the morning. Right?
That, with that whole morning thing, like I've been a big proponent of this is disable notifications. I can't remember the name of the app. I'd have to look it up. There's many different ones. I think it's actually my head space or head space or something like that, where from, at a certain point at the night in all the way until whatever time, an hour after you wake up, you can disable all your notifications on your. So when you wake up, you're not tempted to see a popup notification.
Cause soon as you see it, then you're gonna get lost in it, right? But the conversely, what are you also doing before you go to bed? What is the last thing that you're doing? when we're optimizing ourselves for our mindset the human brain is designed to think of the last things in your day things that happen last in your day first, right? So are you scrolling through social media and creating unhealthy habit, comparing yourself to others, and, Hmm, I'm gonna go to bed now.
And now when throughout your night, you're dreaming of the inadequacies, comparing yourself to others. Well, no, you are running your own race, right? Like you said, it starts internally with yourself before anything else. And that's a big focus on the personal side of things. So, great point.
Thanks for sharing that, that is like the impact of paying attention to what you're feeding into your mind before it goes into that rest state, if you're waking up anxious, if you're having trouble sleeping, it's very much because you're putting shit in your head that you shouldn't be. Right? I mean, I'm not, I don't mean to say that as a parent, don't do this, but your mind processes your last thought several hundred times. Okay. Your last thought several hundred times.
So, you know when that saying, I'm gonna sleep on it. Right. That's a real thing. If anyone here has ever woken up and gone you're eating your fucking cereal, and you go, oh shit. That thing I couldn't figure out yesterday. You, you didn't fucking magically just think of it there. Right. But your body, your eyes may be closed when you're asleep, but your brain, there's still much a lot of activity that's going on. Mm-hmm. So being aware of that is you.
Crucial to someone not just running a successful business. That's a fucking result. Lead a successful life, all that other shit that you want will happen, I promise. Mm-hmm. but definitely tha is about what you're shutting down in the evening thinking about, and then what you're waking up and starting with, right? These are crucial, like parts of your, of your day.
Well, and when you think about it, like these are the only things that you can really control. Darren Hardy talks about this in the compound effect, right? He, he calls it book ending your day. All you can control is the how you start your day and how you finish your day. Everything else, like constant distraction. That's the world that we live in today, is everyone's trying to grab our attention, pull us away from this.
There's 60,000 pieces of information trying to grab our attention on a daily basis. So what is it that you're doing to guard your mind so that you can effectively start your day and effectively finish your day? Cuz those are the only two things that you can control.
Couple things that you said on our initial phone call, which I wanted to touch on, which you, you referenced here, one, you said that you can't lead others when you don't have anything to give, and I think you've hit that point pretty hard already. I'm curious if there's anything else you wanted to touch on with that.
Your team's only gonna rise at the rate of which you do uhhuh, Like when I say dig into it, dig into your own shit before you start opening up other people's closets. Yep. Right. or working on having that conversation with others. Right? A hundred percent. Understanding, like the depth of that though, like as a whole other level, right? Like mm-hmm. that all of this is an infinite game.
Yep. Okay. Again, referring back to Simon Sinek and like it's it's all, when you, when you start digging into this journey of awareness, self-awareness and leadership. All the paths lead back to the same place, like care for others, but care for yourself first. And I think that's hard for some people to really understand. For a long time I was putting others before myself mm-hmm. and I was killing myself doing it. Mm-hmm. and I was trying to be all macho and oh, it's not a problem.
And fucking it brought me to a really, really dark place during one time in my life. and just understanding that if you want to be there for others, right, if you truly do care about other people, you truly do have to care about yourself. Right. It's not, it's not selfish.
Well, it's, it's how you have more of yourself to give. Right. And I, we just did all the travel. So another travel analogy, which I. Every time that they're, they're doing this safety demonstration at the beginning of the flight, what do they tell you? Right. Put your own mask on first before you help others, because you can't help others if you're dead.
And it's but I feel so many people struggle with that. So many, so many people who have family. And I get it. You have kids I a wife or a husband, and I totally, I totally get it. Mm-hmm. when I was younger, my, mother got came down with pretty aggressive cancer. And funny thing, I hope I don't offend anyone saying this, but we were at her friend's house because she was planning on dying, right? Not like hoping for it, but like she was prepping for the worst.
So she was bringing to her family's house, Hey, listen, if this happens, these are the things I want done. She just wanted to make sure that my brother and I were cared for. And her friend says to her, Look, Tina she might be listening to this. I love you, mom. Tina and only good people die young. You're a bitch, you'll live forever, And that was, 20 years ago I think she was diagnosed with that and she's still kicking ass today. So I'm thankful for that. But I'm sorry.
How, how do we get here again,
sometimes I don't even know how it got there, but like that the whole know, when you see planning on dying, I'm putting it on a t-shirt, there go, he, he want royalties on that. But the whole planning on dying part, like I an old business coach of mine and personal coach, life coach, whatever you wanna call it, a gentleman, he's an author with the me Born and great human being. And
he also the one that taught me about coffee animus, by the way.
So you were the one that brought it up. It wasn't me,
Getting a coffee but the, whole point. I know. So he was hit head on by Drunk Driver and pronounced that on the scene and they revived him and gone back to life, was in a coma for a long time, and they told him that you're never gonna walk again. And he's no, I'm gonna walk. And just had this mentality inside of himself that he was gonna just overcome every obstacle. Sure. Shit, he started walking again. Right.
that story goes really, really deep. Yeah.
I'm not doing it as good of a justice, I'm giving a superficial example just for the, aspect of the show. Right. But Right. he goes a lot deeper in, different stories, and maybe we should reach out and have him on. But he also had cancer, life threatening cancer. And the, I don't, Evan, you know the, the numbers better than I do, but the success rate was not good. He's well, no, I'm for my family. I'm living, I'm, beating cancer.
And just had it in his mindset that it's okay to be negative, but only for five seconds. And then it's switching to positive. How can you overcome it? That information that you self-feed yourself is what's gonna get you through those dark times, through those dark moments, through those anything in life. It's how you have those self conversations. which as a business owner, as a leader, you have a lot of. A fuck ton of 'em. But how do you answer those questions, right?
In making sure that you have that positive aspect. And that goes, again, back to that gap in the game. Are you measuring yourself of where you've came from? Are you measuring yourself of where you're gonna go? Cause guess what? When you're always measuring yourself and where you're gonna go, you're never gonna get there and you're always going to be unhappy. You're always gonna be unsatisfied. Biggest example of that is driving a car into the horizon.
Great, I'm gonna get in my car, I'm gonna hit, I'm gonna drive and I'm gonna hit the horizon. Well, guess what? You never fucking hit the horizon. But if you pause and you look back and you say, Hey, this is how far I've driven. Now you have something that's a lot more measurable and you can actually help yourself overcome and see those, those gains in your life. So one question that I did want to ask and then we'll get into the random question generator.
You talked about loving your people to death, and we heard that from an old business coach. An old, mentor of ours. Love your people, love your people, love your people. And then even when you can't love them, continue to love your people. In what ways can you show up as a leader? In what ways can you do that for your team to constantly show them the love that they need?
It's another great question and another great, another question that's gonna be difficult for me to answer because one thing that my brother has said about me a few, quite a few times is that I'm a genuine person. And I think just being genuine and like caring for people, caring about like what's going on at home. Like if they're fucking up at work, there's probably something going on, right? Like people don't want to screw up.
they like to be part of winning teams, like so just having conversations. This morning, for example, I was driving on the way to the office. I saw one of our Installers. Tony Tony, if you listen to this, what's up buddy? He was pumping gas at a gas station. I hadn't talked to him in a few weeks, so I pulled into the gas station and had a 10 minute conversation with him. It's that fucking simple. This shit's not rocket science, right? It's like just talk to people, care about them.
Like I know, I know there are some business owners that don't want that, and that's fine. That's you, but that's gonna reflect on your culture. Well, so culture's not, it's not like culture's not the fucking popcorn machine that you put in the employee lounge. It's not, it's not the video games that, that or even the company outings or the rap trucks and all that shit. Like culture, like starts with you, the leader.
For the guys who afraid to love on their people because they're scared of getting walked all over, what would you say to them?
Oh man. Now that's a question I can definitely I definitely have an answer to. Being the person that I am definitely had people walk on me. It's part of the fucking process. Like it's part of becoming aware of yourself and I don't want to offend him. And I, and believe me, that, going through that and, the, dysfunction that it breeds within the company, it's okay, right? It's better to love than to, than to not, because that creates a, entirely worse problem for yourself, right?
I built a 6 million profitable company. We've had issues in the past with these things cause of these things, right? But what happens is you grow as a person, you learn to have crucial conversations, right? If you're scared to love, read that book. Crucial Conversations. If you're scared to love your people because you're afraid of the conversations that you may need to have to, create those boundaries, right? I met w at half out in Vegas.
I really was looking forward and I was hoping to meet him out in Vegas, and I got to. and one of the reasons that I was looking forward to meet him specifically is because he said something that resonated with me on another podcast that he built his company with family and friends. And what do you hear? Don't mix friends with business or family of business. Bullshit. Bullshit. If you have good intentions, you could do that all day, right? I work with my brother daily. I have friends.
I had someone come in for an interview today who I've known since the fucking sixth grade. Okay. Like he came in for a position as an installer, and he's an animal. And I have other people here our controller, I played in a fucking band with his brother. We grew up together, like it was a great band. By the way. Plato children fucking awesome but uh, children. Playto Children. Yeah. Playto children. That our logo was the you guys remember the Playto kid?
Like on the, it would be that kid with crosses on his eyes. That was our, logo. Like metal or what was
it? Was it like
death metal or what? It was punk. It was like pot punk, like really definitely influenced by like Blink 182 and Green Day type stuff. Nice. The
bands good old school bands.
Anyways. Old school, oh my god. right? Something like that. I think I heard you guys mentioned something. No, Evan turned 20. Well, I'm not 25.
I was, but that was my 25th birthday, but that was 10 years ago, so. Oh,
damn. All right. See you got, this is what an HVAC business owner looks like at 33. Just old and I've. He's been through some shit, man. But, but going back to the answer, it's, it's like learn to have conversations create boundaries. Love. Yep. Love that. I
Actually, when we, you were talking, I added crucial conversations to my wishlist for Amazon. So to listen to that guy next. So you're glowing Steven
thanks shreya
says you're glowing, Steven, although that might just be the glare coming off your forehead. I, I don't know.
It is. There was a light just like strategically here. It has a halo effect at a certain time of the day. It's just we didn't plan it right. So, sorry guys. Gotcha. Makes sense. I got to meet up in Vegas. She's an animal. That girl is a fucking genius. Okay. So anyone, if you ever enter a sales proposition with her, be careful. I'm just kidding. but because she just she just gets people. She's another person that just gonna, she gets people I was making Joe Crisara and service mvp.
They're big on the magic moment. And I think that's one thing that's great about, about that team over there. They're just. Really, really talented group of people.
Well, and ironically enough, she's coming on the show next week. Perfect. Oh, exciting.
Yeah. Yeah.
Fun. All right, let's get into the random question generator, because that's a great part of the show where we ask a random question that has nothing to do with anything. Of course, the random question generator is brought to you by On Purpose Media. So if you are struggling with your digital marketing in an HVAC business, reach out to On Purpose Media. Do ca slash book call and get in touch with us. Cause that's our business. We're gonna shameless bug ourselves, right?
Random question generator. Do you want you don't get to know the questions. Question one, question two or question three, three. Can you name five things you wouldn't do for a million dollars? Go
rate it all too Right.
That's fucking easy. Second thing I'm trying to like gauge how I feel as these words are coming. I'm I wouldn't kill someone, but sometimes it depends on the person. I wouldn't oh man. Kinda like harder question that you'd expect. It's I don't know if there's just too many thoughts coming into my head or if it's just like I wouldn't I wouldn't go streaking until like April 6th because that's on my vision board. That's when I'll have abs. So maybe I would then, right.
But I wouldn't go streaking now. Right. What else? I, I wouldn't I wouldn't let those I care about down. That's something that is like very near and dear to me in regards to just like protecting those people that are part of, part of my team that I care about. And I'm not just talking like team, like company. I'm talking like that team that extends. It's like a circle. I have to do two more. Can we go to another question?
I think I was done to be honest.
I thought you said five things that you wouldn't do for,
it was supposed to be five, but that was a great list right there. So interesting thing that you talked about, like not letting people. And one of the other things that you mentioned on our initial call was the shit that you ran into around taxes and how you had a similar experience to Mr. Ken Goodrich not quite as bad, a similar experience of your own dealing with some tax issues and, having a massive debt that you had to face and your attitude around that was very unique.
So I was wondering if you could share that story. Yeah. So I think it was about a year and a half into the business and kept having cash flow issues. And the office was my mom, my brother, and. And I was focused on sales, making sure like installs were being done and all that kind of stuff. And run the business. And my brother and mom were doing the books and trying to stay on top of receivables and payables and all this stuff.
And I was just tired of getting phone calls from vendors being Hey, we're about to freeze your account. I'm okay, well here's some money. Sorry, won't happen again. It did happen again. So finally I'm okay, we need to bring, like going and doing our taxes once a year is like clearly not doing us justice. We need to have like something more frequent like with like an accounting professional. So I went on Google, found Jonathan Bellow with one eight Solutions, guy's, a fucking animal.
Okay. Come, we schedule like a free consult. He comes into our office. Again, this is like pre covid like comes into our office and It's so funny how we like talk pre covid. It's like a thing now. Pc, sorry, bc
pc pre Covid. It's like a new fucking era in time. But within like an hour, two hours, he was he looked at me and he was Hey, look, so I got some bad news for you. He goes I'm estimating that you owe about half a million dollars in payroll taxes. Right? Wow. And she said, on top of that there are fines and penalties for owing that money. You probably owe another half. So I'm wow, A million debt. Holy shit.
And like we're, I don't know, at the time, thinking back, like doing less than like 2 million a years, I don't, like it was something around that. Right. Something fucking crazy. And I'm okay. First thought that came to my fucking head was we have work to do. and those were also the first words that came out of his mouth. Right. And we put a plan together, and we had that paid off within six months. Okay? Now, it wasn't half a million, it ended up being 380,000.
And then the penalties ended up being like a hundred thousand. Okay. Which by the way, we didn't pay the penalties. We went to the irs, they didn't come knocking on our door. We went to them and we said, Hey, uncle Sam, sorry, but we kind of owe you this money. And they then started sending us the penalties after and, we didn't, the penalties, we didn't, we get it, but like we came to you, right?
Yeah. So we did go through the abatement Pro process with getting those penalties abated, and, and actually it was about a month ago. My lawyer calls me. It was a Friday, which was great. Like I said, right now I'm not drinking right. But if I was, I definitely would've gotten hammered that night. And he's Steve, I've got great news and it's close to the end of the day. I'm what's up Ronnie? He goes, they're baiting $78,000 baby. I'm oh yeah, nice. Great, awesome.
He's so what do you wanna do now? I was get the other $22,000. Right. clean this fucking bill, buddy. And he's great too. Ronnie with tax resolution partners, he's. Like such a phenomenal job. Like talk about someone who's passion. I love people that are fucking passionate about what they do, and it's because I'm passionate about what I do.
And that's very much so because a friend of my grand, another friend of my grandparents, dude, my grandparents are Greek, so they're around very wise people Greek said, well, they were once upon a timelines, all the philosophers and stuff, but this friend of there said, Hey, if you're cleaning toilets for a living, be the best at it. Right? And that fucking rang with me, man. It's yeah. Like be the best at what you do.
And Ronnie's one of those people and everyone that I like to surround myself with, at least I like to think are the best at what they do.
I love that. Which, so to summarize that $500,000 is essentially what you're facing. Between $380,000 in tax debt plus a hundred thousand dollars in penalties and having cash flow issues within the business at the time, basically owing a quarter of your annual revenue, not income, revenue in taxes. And your response was, I guess we got work to do,
what's the other option? Roll over.
Exactly. Right. And but that is, the majority of people, right? Mm-hmm. it's, that's the easy road. Well, we'll just close out the business. And I guess it didn't work out I don't know how we can do this. This feels insurmountable. Better option. And it, I didn't say question that it was easier.
No, I, I know, but that's, that's like I'm talking to like anybody who has that view, right? How is that the better option? Ask yourself that fucking question right. Like ask yourself, closing it down, fuck, go for it. Go for it. Come back. Come back and fucking win. Right? I had a friend who was, who was struggling with, with his business for the past few months, and I told him, I'm jealous of you, man. She's why are you jealous of me?
I go, because your comeback story's gonna be better than mine. That's the fucking way to be, man. And he's killing it. Turning things around. Well, that
goes back, that goes back to the initial part of, of making sure that your own mental health is house is in order that you love yourself, that you give yourself the mental. Tools that it takes to succeed in business. it's funny doing this podcast and having these real conversations and hearing some of the stories from the lives that we did down in Phoenix with some of the amazing badass women in the industry. And similar stories, like everybody is faced with shit in their business.
It's how do you react to it? How do you adjust, how do you make the changes to be able to continue to push forward? And sometimes you just figure it out on the fly, right? Or you find other people who have been there, done that, because guess what? All these stories that we're hearing, while they're different in some way, shape or form, they've all got similar commonalities to it. You just have to overcome and make the decision, make the choice that you're gonna be great to overcome it.
And that's the thing right there. The choice is yours. Yes. Mm-hmm. going back to like focusing on what, like you want, you want to get in the right mind frame. Read Victor Frankl's shit. Mm-hmm. right? I'm drawing a blank on the book, but Victor, Victor Frankel was a Holocaust survivor. Okay? Yep. This man being put through family being fucking killed. Okay. Witnessing that, being put through the things physically that they put him through. Right. Starving him, all this shit. Right. He still.
Acknowledge that he had a choice to choose, the way that they would make him feel with the actions that they were doing. I think, I believe he called it like Man's Last Choice or something like that. Man. Search for Meaning. Man, search for Meaning is
the, I'm assuming that's, there's a, there's a couple of
on there, but there's a couple of them. Man, search for Meaning will change your fucking life, right? Talk about, perspective. that's one of the best things you could do as a business owner, as a leader, as a person. Seek first to understand, right? See through the eyes of others, check out other perspectives. And, and fortunately for whatever reason that's been something that's been somewhat easy for me, right? Just like feeling others, understanding others.
The reason why I feel like I'm, I'm drawn to Tony Robbins stuff is because he's a person who's, who's very much able to connect like easily with other people. It's incredible. It's like before, before words, before words are spoken because we communicate in all these other ways that most people don't understand. Mm-hmm. but I would say, what you were share sharing, Thad is saying that these, all this shit, like the mistakes I made, nobody else has to go through. Right?
You can fucking call or text me and I'll tell you exactly how to avoid those mistakes. Right. and I think that's the great thing about our industry today. There's so many groups that you can join and podcasts like this one, guys like you understand the magnitude you guys have putting on like podcasts, like this, sharing information, making it so available to people. So that they can learn, so they can struggle, like impacting people's lives. It's like fucking amazing.
It's why I said like it really is an honor to be on this show. I really appreciate Evan, you reaching out and Phil for just one of our team members here for, reaching out to you and, nominating me to be on the show. He's a special person.
Absolutely. Well, and originally our good friend TJ Hartnett, who had come out and done an onsite with you guys, he does some coaching with you guys. And so that was the original connection. And then Phil reached out and was get Steve on the show. I was well, this is now two people that have said this, dude. He's legendary. So they weren't wrong.
It's been all Thanks man. Wow. It's probably, you're probably overshooting with, saying that, but I, appreciate it,
You're on, you're on the path. You're on the path. Couple interesting thoughts around that, and Robert Kiyosaki talks about this and, and this goes back to your rant here. Most people think there's only two sides to a coin. And there isn't. There's three, and when you're able to live on that edge, which is the third side of the coin, you're able to see both sides and get that perspective of both sides, and then make a decision as to where it is that you sit.
The other thing is most people don't make decisions. They make preferences. I would prefer not to smoke anymore, which is why they continue to go back to it. I would prefer not to drink anymore, which is why they go back to it to make a real decision, is to burn the ships and to cut off from any other opportunity. To go back to that way. You're saying, that's it. No more. I've had it enough. This is the direction I'm going, and there's no other choice.
Yeah. That's the reason why you got out of that debt.
Thank you. Yeah. Hey, very much it. Look, success doesn't wait for the beginning of the week. Right. If you want to get into the fucking gym, right, go right now. Right. If you wanna read a book, read one tonight. Mm-hmm. Setting up the I'm gonna do it Monday. You're putting it off. Right? You're giving yourself time to convince yourself not to do it.
That's, that's, that's what it's has been times where I've made decisions and like jumping off the side of a cliff and oh fuck, maybe this wasn't a good idea. Look, it always works out. You're gonna be okay, right? But, but exactly what you said, Evan is fuck man. No wonder why we connected so well on the phone there. It's seriously, man, we're gonna hang out someday. All right.
With, whether it's at an industry event or something, we're gonna hang out that you could third wheel, but it's Oh, good Oh, what I'm hope for these days. But dude, like yeah. The, the things that, you know, that you guys are both sharing, like Yeah, it just rings so fucking true and it resonates, like you know what I mean? When you just connect with people, it's like one of the most beautiful things I think. Right.
Well, and something interesting that you just shared too around most people, wait we're coming up on the new year. We're 31 days away from January 1st when most people set a New Year's resolution. Do you know what the, the average, like the, the day that most people will give up on their New Year's resolution? January
2nd? Nope. I'm gonna guess probably three weeks.
No, probably January 1st. I'm gonna work so January 1st, but they're too hungover to even get up and then get outta bed to go work.
The average day is January 19th, 19 days before people will give up on their New Year's resolution. That habit, that one thing that they were committed to, and again, it comes back. Are you interested or committed?
I'm going crazy in my seat over here because like the thing that most people gotta understand is if you went that fucking 20th day, you got it. You did it right? that day that you gave up was the day like before that you were gonna have your fucking breakthrough. Yep.
Let's book the power of one more. And you hear this message in Vegas, right? He's just one more day. I just gotta do it one more day. I just gotta do it one more day. And if you just take it one day at a time with some of these goals, you're gonna break that down. But it's funny that you mentioned January 1st, Evan, cuz I also wrote down January 1st. When you're talking about people wait for their goals. Well if you have a New Year's resolution, Fucking do it now.
Yep. Yeah. You
wanna, oh, I'm not gonna drink for 30 days. Great. Fucking do it now. Right?
Do it now. Here's the bigger problem. The bigger problem is your New Year's resolution, right? That's a big thing. It's the beginning of the year, right? you can see it in a beautiful way, is like like coming out of like a cocoon, if you will, or like shedding skin, becoming a new person. You can see that as renewal as a symbol.
But if you don't have the habit of being uncomfortable already instilled in you, if you haven't done it in some small fucking way, I don't know, not eating a cheeseburger every fucking night, or something like that. If you haven't done it in some small way, you think all of a sudden on January 1st, you're gonna take on this big, daunting task of changing your fucking life. You're wrong, right? Like 1, little thing that I do, and I, and I shared this with you, but when I did U p w Evan, right?
I shared with you that. they're long days, they're like 12 plus hour days Right. And four of them consecutive. Right. I thought to myself before U p w started, okay. I'm how can I make this a little more challenging? And so I fasted through all four days. I had nothing but celery juice. Right. Ah, this is how we got into the coffee outta conversation. So let's go Ryan but I had celery juice, I had celery juice those four days. Right. I made it a little harder on myself. Why?
Cause strengthen this muscle. Okay. Making it just a little more difficult. Makes it easier next time. Mm-hmm. and, and I, that is one thing that, I do, I guess another piece of advice is whenever I'm doing something challenging, I just make it a little bit more challenging. Right. I'll just do one more rep at the gym. Right. I'll just run one more mile. Right. Or plank for another five seconds or something like that. Right.
And that alone has such a profound impact because anything you do is everything you do. So when you're able to start doing it physiological ways, like all the other stuff starts to just kind of align. It Makes sense? Yep.
How you doing? Anything? How you do everything. I love it. Practice. not the game. He's from Philly though, so that's why he fucks up. Right? He's not from Boston. You're from Boston. You get shit done. I wanted to
comment. Do you have a great accent? You would fit right in if you came out here. Boston's a fun city. I've been
there. I spent five days and I, that was one of my worst plane ride experiences coming from Boston on the way home. Cause I was so hungover, It was the only time that the, the flight attends had let somebody that I've ever witnessed have their tray down. Cuz I was white knuckling on it. Deep breathing while sweat was dripping off my face, trying not to throw up on the dissent of Chicago. It was a short flight. I had two flies. It was, that was, that's how good was to me.
Oh,
Something else you talked about on that original phone call was building a relationship with pain. And how you're using that morning routine and boxing to do that, which ties in really nice with, what you just shared. That idea of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and what can you do daily to do that? It is what, what's the temperature of right now? Minus 19 Celsius, which is
three degrees
Fahrenheit. Three
degrees
mine. Zero. Yeah, mine zero.
Right.
It was minus 17 Fahrenheit with the windshield this morning when I walked the dog, by the way.
Yeah, Canada. Right. A to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. The cold is a great way to do that. I'm a big believer in ice baths and, and doing cryotherapy and things like that. And it's interesting, I was having a conversation with a friend this week and I had just watched a video from Wim Hof talking about ice bath and the question was asked to him, how long does it take for your body to reach that state where it's, it's now beneficial for the body? What is that, limit?
He said, two minutes. That's all you need two minutes to completely re ize all of your blood, cuz it, it draws all your blood to your internal organs to keep your internal organs alive and it will take him out of your extremities. So it's extremely healthy. It's like after two minutes, it's no longer about your body. It is a hundred percent about your mind and that ability to push yourself beyond what is comfortable and it's so incredibly powerful. Right. To two minutes in a cold shower.
Yeah. If anybody listening doesn't know who Wim Hof is, look that guy up. YouTube, that motherfucker. I wake up every morning. Yeah. I wake up every morning and I do his breath exercise. Okay. It's the second thing I do in, my morning routine. Okay. 10 minute of breath of of breath work. Okay. He is. Talk about like a, like crazy in a good way, right? Yeah. Like I am so glad that, that I was able to find that person.
Yeah. What's the first thing you do in your morning routine?
The first thing is read.
I thought you were gonna go with open your eyes, but that's okay. How long you read for how long do you read? For in curiosity, is there like a set amount of
time or pages 15 to 30 minutes. 15 to 30 minutes. I'll, get through a chapter section in a book. It's just really to get the brain going, get me thinking. I'll typically read something on like mind power or sales like. And the reason I say sales is because I feel like sales and communi, like I'm reading a book inside the mind of sales, dude. Like the book doesn't mention anything about selling. It's all fucking mind shit. Right?
And it all comes back again to, to the shit that you gotta figure out and work on within yourself. Which is like incredible book, really good book. But that's the first thing. Yeah. Is read 15, 30 minutes and then into my breath work, read
breath words. What else? Well
before you get to that next part just cuz it, it actually isn't in, in actual order of this, but I made the joke of opening your eyes, but you know that the average person hits snooze twice and it takes them 24 minutes to get outta bed. Mm-hmm.
do you know why that's so bad for you? Like for your mental health, your physical health hitting snooze?
Well, you're delaying the start of your day. You're, telling your mind, I don't want to get outta bed. I don't want to go achieve, I don't want to get after my goals. I don't want to do this. I want to delay everything.
That's part of it. The bigger part that actually really that happens back in your fucking brain is when you hit snooze and you put your head back on the pillow, your body starts to fall back into the sleep cycle. It fucks your Exactly. Your whole day's fucked up because now you've disrupted your sleep pattern. Right? Cause it's going back from awake and it's trying to get back to rem.
Okay, so you hit that snooze button, you're again, I, I hope, I do hope that people pick up, there's some juicy grapes on this that we're dropping here, right? Pick some of these up. And just, if you're hitting snooze, don't you are fucking ruining your whole day. And if you're stressed and if you're in a high anxious state, you might be able to get rid of that just by not hitting that snooze button tomorrow morning. Mm-hmm. so,
All right, so, so don't, don't hit snooze. Get up right away. You read for 15 to 30 minutes. You do? Wim.
I don't even, I don't even not, I don't even not hit snooze. I wake up before the fucking alarm. Man. That alarm's there as a, it's an insurance policy, right? Four 15 mile alarm is set. 4:00 AM I am awake, right? Sometimes early. What time you go bed? Between eight and 10. Typically between eight and 10. So you're not
one of those one and 12,000 freaks that can go on like four hours with, of sleep a night. Evan? Alright.
In bed at last night. In bed at one, up at four, no, sorry. Five
is is that your typical schedule, Evan?
No. Usually I'm about six hours. Sleep is like the most beyond that, I get stiff. Interesting. I don't feel good.
Yeah. See,
I'm, seven hours, like if I get seven, I'm usually good. Other people are my wife is usually eight and a half, nine. That's her, that's her sweet spot. Right. So some people are four. The myth, here's a myth is that one in 12,000 people can function on less than the, the recommended seven to nine hours, one in 12,000 scientifically proven that you cannot go on limited amount of sleeps unless you're one of those freaks.
So anyways going back to the morning routine, so reading 15, 30 minutes whim, h breathing exercises 10 minutes. What else do you do before you get going into your day?
That I'm at the boxing gym 5:30 AM for 45 minutes. And talk about a powerful way to start the day. And I think this is where the pain kind of came in because when you first start going, you start dealing with things like pain in your wrists, pain in your knuckles and, especially pain in your, in your body, your core, your legs, your, your shoulders. You're keeping your fucking right, your arms up for 45 minutes and, and going at it with a a hundred pound bag.
And yeah, so that's, how I start the day. But the, pain thing was like I was hitting the bag. I was dealing with some real serious knuckle pain and I said to myself, you're not in pain, you're fine. And I hit the bag harder, right? And the pain got a little worse. And I said, again, you're not in pain. You're fine. And I hit the back harder and it went away. Right? It went away because most of the time your shit is making it seem worse than it really is. I'm my fucking hand's not broken.
I know that much. Okay. so just, coming back, like coming back to like mindfulness and mindpower and, awareness, man. You can do that. You can do anything. You can do anything. David, David Goggins special. David Goggins. He is, he's a little man. Know, like he's, a special human being now. Yeah,
his book is phenomenal. That's one of the I'm not a big reader. I'm a big, I mean, I've read most of those books in the back, but I'm a big audio book fan. I listened to the book when I walked the dog, but I was one of the ones when I was driving around, I got back home and I be, oh, what's next? Oh, what's next? Oh, and I literally sat I outside my house for like an hour listening to his book on the edge of my team. Fuck, this guy tells a compelling story. And it was just a phenomenal book.
So anyways, I digress. It hurt me. Can't hurt me. Is that what you Yeah, it's with the second one. December 6th I think is, the pre-order so, or when it drops? I don't know what it's really, I think it's next level stories, but. Which I'll see. So after the gym then at what point, cuz we talked about cell phones earlier. At what point do you even look at your phone, check your emails, look at work?
After the gym, when I get home, yeah, start a shower and bathe, I'll like glance at it respond to a few emails, send some emails out. I'm really big on doing scheduled send now, like from my phone. So most of my outgoing emails are like pre-planned and a lot of them are set up like over the weekend. but I'll, I'll do that and then walk my dog, feed him. I got a pit bull named Tyson, right? What kind of dog do you have? That is black lab
mixed with a whole bunch of other shit. She's a rescue,
aren't they? Tyson was a rescue too, but I don't remember life before. And then best thing, one of the best things I've ever done was rescue that dog.
Wanna, you wanna remove yourself from all the shit that's going in your mind. Go for a dog, walk at a dog park and just watch your dog. Be silly. Greatest thing ever. If I just want a mental break, I'm serious, there's sometimes I'll go and I won't listen to shit. And I want that scheduled thinking time and wanna think through things. And you just, you want, you wanna break from the minutia. You go out in nature.
Your phone's, especially in Canada, it's fucking, my phone's buried underneath seven layers of clothes. I'm not getting my phone out to fucking look at it, right? And you're away from it. But then watch your dog just be stupid and silly. It is hilarious and entertaining and so fulfilling at the same time.
They're the best. But yeah, I mean that's when I'm doing like email stuff. It's that part of the day, get to the office around like between seven and eight and start, start my day, and it's such a great way to just start. I am, that is something I'm proud of, right? Like by the time I'm done with that, like six 15 hits, it's damn, I've already read, I've already done some breath work or read my breath work. got to the gym. It's amazing work out in, it's fuck it.
I did more before 7:00 AM than most people do their entire day. So like going out to anyone that says you don't have time, make that time. And like the other thing is like I've, people have said, hey, like I want a work life balance and like I have a work life balance. Right. Like I don't not have it, right? Like I still visit my family. I don't have kids or a wife. I have a beautiful, amazing girlfriend who I think is listening to this.
She might have tear you out because you didn't mention her for an hour and seven minutes.
She might have, fuck, have we been talking for an hour and seven minutes? So far, what we do get Evan and I together, we fall into a time more
Third wheel again. Fuck. I do wanna touch on that work life balance thing for, because I just, I completed a series of three day interviews for executive assistants for us to be able to free up our time to be able to focus more on the business versus in the business. And one of the questions well, how many hours a week do you work? That's what one of the executive assistants asked me. I'm well, 45. She's really? I'm well, yeah, because we value family time.
It's like could I, could we have a bigger, more successful business if we worked 80 hour weeks? Yes. But then I wouldn't have a family life. So what's your importance? Right. Would you have some bigger, would no. I mean, well, the business would be there, but what's my home life? Right? What's your values? What's important to you? Right. Can you be and heaven usually says this one, so I might butcher this, but do you want to be a family man with a business or a businessman with a family?
Nailed that, right? I'd rather be a businessman with a family than a family man with a business. Because if you don't have a, that's, to me, that's my why. That's why. Freedom of time, freedom of money. Okay. Whatever. I said it right the first time. Yeah. I said it right the first time. So but that's the idea, right? Is like looking at your own in like what motivates you? What's your values? How do you want to do things, right? Stop comparing.
And this is, this is something that again, goes back to the gap in the game. Bring it full circle. Stop comparing yourself to other people's businesses. Yeah. What do you want in your business? What do you, you want in your life? Go after those things that are important to you, not what's important to somebody else.
And, like well said, there's so much that could be drawn from what you just said, like that message. Right. I feel a lot of people say it and so many people need to hear it because I've met so many business people that like Yeah. Like they're successful. They fucking kids don't talk to 'em. Right. Wife left them. Right. They're in an empty, she of a relationship now. You get what you attract, right?
Like if you're all about the dollar, you're gonna get someone that only cares about the dollar and they're not gonna fulfill like those needs that we have for like conversation and connection and, you know what I mean? So it's like Absolutely, man. So on all, well
Here's a real story on this. One of my, one of my friends his growing up, he has a kid and his grandfather actually, I don't think he watches my podcast. I'm probably safe to say it, but in his name, but I won't. But his kid doesn't have relationship with his dad, with his mom and dad, because guess why? Cuz his dad decide he wanted to work six days a week and fine, you wanna work six days a week, what do you do on the Sunday? He wanted to clean his house, didn't spend time with his own sons.
Yeah. And now he doesn't have a relationship with his son or his grandkid because that was his choice that he made. He wanted to build a big business. Yeah, he's, he's successful by all measures in terms of a monetary value and all the nice houses that you can have. But I bet his life is empty.
Yeah.
That's the difference between achievement and fulfillment, right? Like achievement is, being able to do a whole lot of things. Fulfillment is what it is that lights you up inside. And I mean, maybe for that guy, he is fully fulfilled because he just doesn't value family, right? Yeah, he's, well, I'm, I'm, I'm using it as an example, right? To, to say that, that someone isn't just because of your outside perspective, it, it doesn't meet the needs for you, but could it for them maybe.
But that's where it's so important to check in with yourself and realize what it is that's important for you.
Yeah. Getting your core values down, your fucking personal mission statement down. Super important, right? Like the thing, the thing is Evan, and that is a lot of those people, they say I'm doing it for them. It's dude, those are the people. Like you if you're one of those out there that are I'm doing it for my family, it's like they don't need all that money. They need your love. And attention and care and support More than that, man. Definitely.
Like I've had, I've, I've lost, I've lost friends that were, were raised that way, like fed with a golden spoon and like they, they didn't have parents that, they had parents that were there financially, they wanted something, they got it and they grew to be just disabled children cuz they didn't know how to fend for themselves. Right, right. They always got everything they wanted. And they didn't have a relationship. It's it's yeah, I understand.
Like people wanna set up, like you hear it all the time in the industry now people are selling their businesses for record multiples and all these things, all those beautiful things are happening. But to, to your guys' point. Don't pay attention to those other people. Pay attention to yourself, right? Like the, that 10 minutes on Facebook that you were paying attention to the Lamborghinis and, and, and all this fancy stuff, right?
10 minutes that you could have given to your son or your mom, or your girlfriend or your wife or your husband or, or like yourself, right? Like that's 10 minutes you could have fucking read, right? Mm-hmm. like I remember I asked someone one time, like we were talking and they, they were, they were looking for advice. So they, they said that real openly and I asked for their phone. And I went, cuz you know, bringing up all these things my daily routine.
And they're yeah, see, that's great, but I just don't have the time that you have. It's motherfucker, I operate a multimillion dollar fucking business dude. Like like I have a great relationship with my family, with my girlfriend. I see my friends, like I do things so guess what I found? What, what do you think I looked for on their phone?
What apps were open on their phone? The usage that they had on those apps?
Motherfucker picked up a whole day of his week, man,
Yo, I'm not joking. I'm yo, you spent fucking 16 hours on
TikTok, man. And you're not even posting contents, like mm-hmm. You know what I mean? If you were posting con, I guess, you know what I mean? But, but don't fucking say I get a little heated here. I'm gonna digress. Right? No, no, no. Don't fucking say that. You don't have the fucking time, right. You're just not making the fucking time. Right. Not a priority. because you're not prioritizing yourself.
You're prioritizing others and others being those that you are admiring or those that you're saying you want to care for, but you're not taking care of you. Mm-hmm. it's as simple as that man. Like everybody has 24 hours in a day. We all deal with the same fucking pressures. It's why there's Bill Gates of the world, there's Steve Jobs's, and the Elon Musks and all the, the Titans in our fucking industry. Right? They all have the same amount of minutes in the day. All right. 24. That's it.
That's it.
Yep.
Well, and that's, this is, this is rolling into like a Joe Rogan asks like a podcast, Evan. I like this. Right? This is No, bro.
Well, and A couple thoughts. One, Jim said if I had known what going for some of those early girl goals would've cost me, I never would've paid the price. So being very self-aware of what it is that you're going after mm-hmm. need to throw that in there. Cause I just, I love that quote. And I forgot about the second one cuz my whiskey's gone.
If I may, right? Yeah. It's going off that quote. Right. Like so, so me chasing the, the dollar early in the career, not getting aligned, right? Like when I was multimillion dollar salesperson for that commercial company, right? And I'm not saying a few million a year. I'm saying a few million by the fucking job that I was selling, right? And there was a couple of those happening weekly, right? I was fucking dead inside, right? I was addicted to drugs.
Okay. Because I wasn't really paying attention to myself. I was justifying everything. Oh, I'm doing okay. I'm making six figures. Like I'm, this isn't rock bottom like motherfucker, this is pretty rock bottom, man. You're, you, you're, you're justifying all this shit that you're doing, right? And this is what a lot of people do, right? Yeah, I'm not there in time for dinner with my family, but. I have this, I have this business and I'm doing it for them. It's yo, like take care.
Like take care of yourself, because I'm lucky to fucking be alive. And I know that. And that's one of the reasons that fucking propels me, man. Life is so beautiful. It's so great. And, and so many, so many take it for granted, just the opportunities like that that, that we have on a daily fucking basis.
There's people in the world waking up and they, yeah, they do have choice but it's, it's nothing compared to like probably anyone listening to this podcast and the ability to choose what, what, what, what they have.
if you live in North America today and you have food on your table, you are in the 1% of the world. Mm-hmm. and I can't remember the exact number. It's 1.8 billion. I believe people live on less than a dollar a day.
Take that in.
Yeah. The amount of gratitude that, anyone listening to this show should have for the life that they've been given and the opportunities that are in front of them is absolutely immense. it's remarkable. And it's also very easy to get sucked into comparison, to get sucked into judgements on yourself. The negative self-talk, all the bullshit that, that we live with today, because that's what we're conditioned to believe, and that's that fear and scarcity mindset that exists.
I do remember those things that I wanted to say. And this kind of ties back to even the story you told early on around stopping at the gas station to go meet your installer. And Canada's in North America. Someone commented on YouTube and they're just ignore Japan. Netherlands, Germany, England, Canada, Canada's in North America, so that's part of it. Anyway, just totally discredited. Squirrel. How do you spell love? And it's t i m e. It makes all the difference in, in everything.
That quality of time that you spend with people, the quality of time that you spend with your significant other, your team members, everything. It's incredibly important and
that this is not spending time. Oh, hey, what's up guys? Right. Being like fucking present. Yep.
Well it look at the going, circling back to the family, right? How many families have dinner with maybe TV on? Mm-hmm. or their, their cell phones out. Or you go to a restaurant and you see that couple that is sitting there and they know you have communication with each other. They're fucking texting each other or texting somebody else. They're on their phones the whole time. Be present with where you're at.
I mean, these things have been a gift, but I mean, I grew up, I was 18 by the time I first had my cell phone, maybe 17. Cause that's when I got my first. And I got a cell phone. Seven. Though, so it's, I'm old though, but I don't quite have as much, I'm older than Josh Crouch and he has more gray hair than me. So and he's got a head like Steve, so I'll tell him that too. Say that to him all the time. But so, greatest gift.
Greatest curse at the same time, because this, we are such a connected world, and so we can connect to anybody at any point in time with this thing here, but you know what most people don't do. Connect with people.
But is it a curse though?
It can be because, well, because here, why can be a curse. Look at the apps that are on your phone. Go back to Steve's point about the guy that he's, he freed up an whole entire day, the guy that is wasting time on a cell phone. So that's why this can be a curse, because if you don't use it the right way, now it's a detriment to you. Now it's a detriment to your life. It's a detriment to those people around you. So is that. No, that's your own, that's your own fault. Right.
That's why I said it can be blessing and a curse. Right. That goes back to even still your own internal thing, but it still goes back to how do you control your yourself?
Hundred percent. And now he's skipping no, a hundred percent. And that's, I mean, I had this conversation this week with someone around time management. They're talking about, oh, I, I, I just need to be better at managing my time. And I challenge 'em on that. Cause I'm you, you can't manage time. We all have the same 24. Can't manage it. What do you manage? You manage your decisions on a day to day basis. What is it that I'm gonna do on an hourly basis?
What is it that I'm gonna prioritize on a minute to minute basis? A moment to moment basis? What is it that matters the most right now?
You just shared, by the way, people need to really listen and hear and understand what. The questions that you ask yourself dictate the quality of the life that you're going to live. Right? The fact that the fact that, Evan, that you ask yourself, what is it? How am I gonna do this? Right? Again, breaking out of breaking out of addiction, getting out of the debt with the irs, right? Fucking well. I wasn't oh fuck, it's over. How am I going to overcome this? Mm-hmm.
and what happens by asking yourself that question, and it is that fucking simple. Ask yourself that question. Your brain will start figuring it out. Mm-hmm. not on a conscious level at first, especially when you're dealing with a big challenge. You're not going to be dealing with it really on a conscious level at first, but subconsciously, your mind starts looking for ways. Okay. Your mind starts working for ways and that that, that, that eventually works into your conscious mind and.
Boom. It, it, it happens. Ask yourself those questions. Like you have a challenge. Ask how to fucking overcome it.
What if versus how can I, yeah.
Your words frame your reality, right? That's the difference between someone who sees themselves as, right. Why me? Right? Instead of just asking why, like like talk about search for your why, right? We talk about that a lot here at Akian. Searching for your why, right? Instead of why me? One word, world of a difference.
Well, well, and even changing that to why not me? Why not now? Yeah.
Right? Yeah. Steve, this has
been lit. This has been, did you seriously just say this has been lit? I did. I fucking did. I went straight Millennial and I did
it's fire thaddeus
we just went downhill and he said, this has been lit. That just ruin the entire,
I, I didn't know how else to describe it. It's been absolutely incredible.
That's a better way to describe it.
Thanks buddy.
It's been, Hey, listen, Thaddeus it's, it's the intent that matters, right? Absolutely. a for effort.
I am curious though, Steve, what's one question that you wish people would asked you more, but they don't?
Why I do what I
do? Why is it you do what you do?
The best gift that I get from being a leader in this company is when someone comes up to me and is like thanking me for a milestone that they've achieved. And I tell them, you do not have to thank me, like you put in that work. And I put that in that context because just like seeing people grow, which like I have the honor of doing on a daily basis and the position that I'm in is why I do what I do. Alright. That, that's, yeah, that's why I do what I do.
Think more people need to connect with their why on a daily basis. Remember why they started, what it is that they did or what it is that they do. Cause it's very easy to get stuck in the mundane, to get trapped in the daily minutia of running a business, of being a sales tech, of being an installer, being a csr, it's very easy to get sucked into that. And it's again, how can you push yourself, how can you get comfortable being uncomfortable, connect with your why on a daily basis.
There's a book too, like there's the start with Why Workbook. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. If, if you are listening to this and you have trouble, like there with, with figuring out the why, because that was an, that was a journey that took me. A year to figure out. I read Simon Sinek, start with Why, and I'm journaling, and I'm fucking highlighting, I'm listening to the audio book while I'm driving, while at the same time reading it in the morning and in the evening.
And, and, and, and really had to do some digging, right? Why? And I, I came up with this. When you first ask yourself why you do what you do, and you come with an answer, right? Ask yourself why three more times? And it's like an onion you peel away and really get to the fucking center of why you do what you do. Like if, if, if you say, why, my why is my children, why? And then when you get that answer, ask why again. And it, it takes you back.
And sometimes it'll take you back to a specific moment in your life. And when, when, when you experience that. Like you go from like this to being fully aligned, like you are you're aligned. When you find that alignment, like choices are so much easier, like you have an understanding of what core values mean, right? Mm-hmm. yeah.
Steve a Kean. You are one of a kind, my friend.
Thank you. A Thas. You guys are fucking incredible as well. I cherish this relationship in ways that Evan, I know you understand tha is you're not as spoke.
It's cause I'm older than both you guys, so technically I'm born in the millennial age year, but I don't identify as millennials. Where you two, fucks.
I mean, that's very millennial of you.
Like you don't call a guest a fuck. What the fuck?
I was calling Evan that
it's funny. So I. Tj when we were at his event, constantly referred to that as his second favorite, maybe 36000000th favorite Canadian, and that I was always his favorite.
So dude, TJ's the fucking man.
Although I think recently, Evan, you've, you've downgraded yourself quite substantial. I
I did insult TJ a little bit, and I, I got downgraded a little bit, but I'll be, I'll be back. That'll, that'll screw it up somehow. So most likely, most likely. But Steve, dude, this has been unreal. We appreciate the time. Thank you so much for chilling out with two crazy Canadians, sharing your story, sharing your background, sharing your knowledge, and your wisdom. Truly appreciate you, brother.
You are making a massive, massive impact on your team, and it's just gonna continue to spread out throughout the northeast and across the entire nation. So thank you so much, dude.
Wow. Thank you. Thad Thank you, Evan.
There it is Thaddeus
Cheers Steve. Wow, what a fantastic episode with Steve Akene. Steve, first off, dude, thank you so much for joining us in the show. It was phenomenal to dive in with you and unpack some unbelievable nuggets in this. I mean, we got into the head space, we got into mindset, we got into setbacks, we got into, life is an infinite game, dude. What was your favorite nugget from this
episode? Favorite? I don't know. I don't have one. Man. The whole episode was just lit, as you said. millennial of you. Mines have to start off. You know, it can always be worse. Right. Inherent or learn. Right. You know, what advice can you give somebody that's struggling with that? Like that was, that was a deep topic because so much of what we do as business owners and or techs or selling techs or sales people, or CSRs or anybody in the office, is so much between the ears.
And if you don't tell yourself the right story, if you don't tell yourself, Words, if you don't ask yourself the right questions, I don't think you're ever gonna be the greatest that you can be. And that was just, that was unpacked deeply.
Yep. A hundred percent. Steve's on a journey of no other that we've had on this show. I truly believe that, he is gonna be, An incredible moment maker for his team and his organization, and it's gonna spread like wildfire and I'm so, so jacked for this dude.
it's a new way of running a business. One of our other mentors, and I alluded in the show love your pup to death. Yep. When, and, and he's young too, right? Like he's, he's gonna be a firecracker on the East coast and building something phenomenal and just, it's not, culture isn't, you know, he said the popcorn machine, I was gonna say the Beam Bay chairs, right? That's part of it. But it's about the connections that you can make. And I think that resonated
quite a bit. Big time. for me, I'm gonna go into, Simply what was talked about in the show, but almost something that was not talked about and it was around that New Year's resolution thing. And don't wait. Take action. Do something now. Start getting comfortable, being uncomfortable. And I, my challenge to everyone that's listening to this show is what is the one habit that you are gonna implement starting tomorrow that is gonna change the way that you operate on a daily basis? So I'm curious.
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Well, that's a wrap on another episode of HVAC Success Secrets Revealed. Before you Go, two quick things. First off, join our Facebook group, facebook.com/groups/hvacrevealed. The other thing, if you took one tiny bit of information outta this show, no matter how big, no matter how small, all we ask is for you to introduce this to one person in your contacts list. That's it. That's all one person, so they too can unleash the ultimate HVAC business. Until next time, cheers.