Going Big by Starting Small (ft. Kalvin Weathersby) | #10

podcast. I have a great guest today, an entrepreneur, a business owner, and now runs a very successful company. And he's still on just getting started, in my opinion. Calvin Weathersby Welcome to the show. Calvin You doing all right. Yeah, man. Any questions or anything? How this will go are quite just stuffer is you're good to go? Good. I mean, it's pretty much impromptu. I mean, I will assume. Yeah, whatever comes to the brain I'll speak about and I'm looking forward to some

exciting questions. So I can learn to well, by the way, contrary to what others might think that's exactly how I do this. I'm way better natural than I am trying to like over engineers. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll be in trouble to know more like on top of my head, whatever feels good. All right, cool. Well, the big thing I want to focus on with you is your story. Like your story is great.

And what I want people to take from this afterwards is understanding like, I want them to watch this and be like, you know, I can do that, too. Yeah. You know, that's funny, because I just had a Monday, one of my Monday morning meetings with the guys. And I told him almost the exact same thing. I had, like, probably 2024 guys around, I said, Hey, you guys can be in this position. Oh, man, just take the first step.

Okay, a lot of people don't know how they're going to do it, they look at the bigger picture, instead of making it small and easy. They look at the finish line, oh, wow, that's too big. How the hell am I gonna do that? With me, I just one step at a time, I just needed to start. And when I started, I just keep going, just keep going, keep going, keep going. And it's, uh, I told my guys and these guys can do what I do. It's not like I'm a rocket scientist, I was just in construction, just like

those guys are there. That's where I started. So just just have an idea, and then want to execute on it. And when I say execute, I think a lot of guys in the construction here, execute, oh, man, I gotta do

this, you know. So I put I broke it down to him a little simpler, and say, hey, just write write with down you want to do and just take the first step, write on a piece of paper, take it off the list, write on a piece of paper, take it off the list, no matter if it's, I guess, going from buying a house to starting a business to starting a side business. Just gonna take that first step. And that first checklist to start working off of what you just said

is brilliant. By the way, taking something big like that, and breaking it down into small checklist. It's so critical and so important and how that goes. And the fact that you've learned that and you've implemented it is is a great gift. Like that's, that's amazing. Did you get a chance in your conversations with them, you know, where they want to be you the entrepreneur and the risk taker taking on the

big picture? Did you talk to any of them about how they can do that inside your own company, though, and do all those things with Excel within? Definitely, definitely, I told them as well. So, you know, a lot of guys want to move up to a construction manager or cruelly, and I say, hey, it's all up to you guys. You know, you got to take that first step and take initiative to learn, you know, we can't take time out of the business to sit down, you know,

a whole week and teach. So a lot of things is going to be on them to be self motivated to start learning. Whatever they want to do is try to move up in the company. Like I said before, it just takes that first step. Okay, write your goals. Now, what do you really want to do within this company, and then just go for? And I tell them, Don't be afraid to call me ask me and say, How can I get to this level? Because I will give you the details on how you can get there. This is gonna take

you to get there. I love that. I love putting it in their hands, where do you want to be, and I love you thing, like my doors open, talk to me about how you, I'll tell you how you get there. But you have to do it. It's all in their hands on how they want to proceed in their

life. And I told him that a lot of times when we have meetings, we just talk about the business, the business, the business, and these guys don't really, they really don't feel like at home if you're just hammering about the business and hammered by the

business. So I talk about things outside of business and you know, okay, your kids, but what kind of goals you want to set with your kids, what kind of goals you want to set with your family, what kind of goals you want to set with, you know, property or buying houses and so forth. Just so they don't feel like it's so old. This doesn't work lace, it's more like a family. You know, how can we help you get to those places? I told you guys I said have you

probably got bad credit. And I said this in the Monday morning meeting, but it takes steps to get the good credit to get where you want to get. I said call me I've had to file bankruptcy before because I've made some mistakes and trusted the wrong people and I built my credit back up to where it's really good. Now I've done that process if you want to if you want to learn call, keep it that simple. It's not always about where you want Make the atmosphere feel like his, like his home

cow. And what you're talking about what you're doing right now is so it has so much wisdom in it. And like if no one's ever told you before, what you've learned and what you're implementing, and all those things you just said and stated, like people pay a fortune to watch and learn those lessons, and then not execute on the fact that you've like, got them, learn them on your own, from

your own experiences. And this is what you've taken from those, and you've implemented them is a huge, huge gift that you have, man, it really it's like, I gotta give you a ton of credit for that. Thank you. Yeah, I'm a full believer on, learn from your mistakes, and learn from what you don't do wrong. You know, you do things right. Learn from that as well. Yeah, I'm a huge believer in that.

And the biggest gift you could give people is education and teaching them teach someone before that enables them to have a better outcome. It's something that's important to them, or better with their families or whatever. Or in this case, avoid a scenario or bad outcome or problem mistake, there will be so endeared to you. And they're going to come back for more. Yeah, definitely, definitely. And then sometimes, I think, oh, man, a more simple life, I guess this going on is going on is

going on. I just want to fall back a little bit. So it's overwhelming. And sometimes I guess you can use that word. But at the same time, it's like, okay, I get up the next day, or let's go what's next. But you know, that's not for everyone. Right? Which is fine, too. However, you want to live your life, your life is your life. That's what's so my god to your life is your life, this what you want to do for your life. Go for

it. But I encourage everybody to learn and keep moving forward in their life and try and make themselves better with family and work. Couldn't agree more man. Speaking of work, tell us how you even got involved in the construction industry. So I grew up in Freeport, Illinois, and I moved to Florida when I was 20. And my father lived here and he was in

construction. So I start working with him digging ditches, I started digging ditches, and I didn't even know how to use a drill when I started working with him. You know, because my mom pretty much raised me my father, they separated when I was young, my father lived in Florida. So he said some of you graduate you come live with me. So I can now move down and I

just started construction. And you know, I was messing up tremendously guys cussed me out every day used to for us to you know, back in old day, and he didn't know something else might happen, but might get lost. But But I grew up. I grew up in an industry with all the tough guys, you know, you call quote unquote, tough guys. But yeah, basically, I got an industry in 2006, six years after I started us, I was like, You know what I can do as myself. So I got my GC

license. And I started working about two or three years after that, Oh, Mom, you know, and that's not easy to get by itself either. GG lice is not easy to get in the state of Florida. Not at all. So that's another that's another thing that I kind of point out to the guys. It's like, if you want it, you get to get it. So as first of all, it's not easy. And I was working full time traveling and work because I travel across across the

United States. So I would just take my books to the hotel, I will go to a local library and study as much as possible. It definitely was not easy. I pretty much memorize every book frontwards backwards. That's when I had a younger brain couldn't do it now. But yeah, it was tough. It was tough. But I did it. I did it at age 26. And I had a younger, smarter brain, I guess, not as much wisdom, but it was definitely much more book smart.

That takes a tremendous amount of grit, the story you're telling right now, I'm curious, what compelled you to keep going like what what fuels that grit inside you going when you're working a full time job and studying for your GC license? I think it's a combination of a couple things. I think I get ADHD, I can't sit still. He's gotta be doing Lesson number one for teaching. How do you take your weaknesses and turn them into strengths by the way, right?

Exactly. So that's one thing I just got, I just got a natural ability to want to do more, I always want to do more. So it's always me, I can't hardly can't sit still always want to do more. And sometimes it gets me in trouble. You know, I made some bad decisions. And I didn't know better doing to doing too much at one time. That was another thing. You know, it wasn't pointing towards anyone else. It was more pointing towards myself. Okay, how am I gonna live my life and do more with my life

better? You know, this industry and construction. It has a lot of toxic culture in it that people talk about whether it's the prime verse, the sub sub verse, the prime or maybe it's outside people's perceptions of construction as a place to go if you don't go to college or construction sort of like means you might have failed and you ended up there, which we all know is not true. Like look at your story. Look at the team you're creating, what everybody's doing, what things

can occur. struction industry and the people in it do to make sure that that's not that that perception and Persona is just negated. A lot of a lot of people need to open their eyes. So like, sometimes you'll see someone go to college for four years and not even use their degree. A lot of times, you'll see guys go to a trade school, they'll come out and learn to trade, they know all the construction and start a business. So construction can

lead to different avenues. Even if it's being handy around the house, or just doing more yourself. It always seems like to me just look around. And the downside, you look at downtown machines named built that men did this when you look at tall buildings or, or subdivisions, and the seat machines didn't do that men did. So to answer your question. I think that a lot of people had to start asking the question to okay, how can I get in this industry? Or a certain

industry? Because when I was 20, I had no, you see cell phone towers all the time and no clue how I didn't know anyone that worked on them. I didn't. I didn't see anybody working on them. It's like sometimes they have taken initiative to say, I wonder what this about let me go and call this phone number on the gate? Or ask What is this company hiring? I would like to know more about about what's going on with the business. But construction is definitely not a dead end job. Definitely not

dead end job. No, no. Is there anything you think if if you are running a large general contracting shop, or even a large subcontractor, and you know, there's labor shortages, you're struggling to have the employees retention, or bringing new talent to your organization to do all the work you have? What's one of the things you would do if you were running one of those larger companies looking at bring on more talent, more construction workers or keep and retain the

talent you have? What would you do? Calvin? That's a good question. At one point, I started going through a phase like that. So I start asking what I initially did start asking guys, so Kay, you know, I was looking for a job that was my initial and then I started going to certain labor companies and saying, Hey, you guys have this this certain employee, certain type of employee we're looking for and then you know, you would get 10 or so and you might get one or

two other bunch. But I think if you if we start working more closely with the unemployment offices, you know, because there are a lot of people apply for unemployment looking for work, those will be probably avenues I will go and looking, you know, looking for more like, quote unquote Headhunters, to see if they can bring some talent through. And you know, you might get one out of 10, or one out of

20. But it doesn't be a route to go, what do you say to the to the high schoolers who are being, you know, being bombarded with images of how much how much fun colleges but also like how important college is like you have to get a four year degree, or you're going to be digging ditches like that's the exact phrase I love that you said I started digging ditches. And they never hear the story of, but I ended up owning my own business. Right? Like that's, you just end up digging ditches

forever. Um, so what do you what what would you say to those, those high school students about construction? Oh, look at both both avenues of schooling. That's the way I look at it. Okay, you got to learn in construction, you can also learn at school. School is not for everyone construction might not be for everyone. But with with construction, you will learn something that you can always keep with you forever, you can

always use forever. Schooling you'll learn a lot that stuff that might fall off, you're not even using a day to day whatever job you go to, you might use a eight that information that you learned in high school, unless you go into you know, getting the lawyers degree or doctorate. But I definitely encourage men and women boys and girls to learn trades and learn it see if they like it, you know, because a lot of people, a lot of high school was going to college, they don't have a clue what

they're going to do. Still not a clue. They don't know if they're gonna like it. So if I would try you know construction, a see if you like it, if you like it, you can run with it, you can start your own business, you can move up in a company, you can learn how the world really operates in construction, because it's not it doesn't it doesn't just end with digging ditches. If you if you start off with the mentality, you can start off with a mentality I'll be digging ditches for 10 years. That's

like what you got to do. You know, if you start off with the mentality of, okay, I can do this XYZ, I can go from digging ditches to learn how to install it to learn how to pull wire to learn how to terminate, to learn how to wire generators, to learn how to pour concrete, look at look at the vast amount of work around you that needs that. There's not just one industry. So yeah, I would definitely say that to a high school.

I'll tell you what people want to go to places regardless whether it's in construction or anywhere else they want to go where there's a leader doing what you did Monday, and what are you every day, trying to teach more than just work skills. You know, I want to life skills how you can live your life happy. I told my guys this too is not I don't think I'm just put on this earth just to work all the time. That's it,

I just don't feel that way. So I feel like we have to divide our time with definitely quality time with a family and friends and our children. Work is just so make sure we fed and clothed and have the luxuries that we want to have. So I don't push work or work on guys, even though I used to do it. Now just did it naturally, I just worked at work. Seven, I used to work two months straight, but I'll take the day off, like every day. But that was just my

mentality. I don't I wouldn't tell someone you got to do this to get here. But at anything that you do in life, if you want to be good at it, initially, you have to put in the effort to get it going. It's like one of those old carousels that you used to play on these kids. You push each other around, you know, first start, and it's real hard to get started, right. But once it's gone, you can just touch it and keep going. So it gets easier. It gets easier over

time. Oh my gosh, we're gonna we're gonna sign Calvin up as a great American teaching speaker to travel around Florida. As a kid, that's that's a good segue. You know, you recently talking about working hard and getting things accomplished. You were recently accepted into the minority business accelerator cohort of 2023. Tell us a little bit about that. What is that program? How does our accelerator program work? One of my friends introduced me

to it. And he initially said, Hey, you gotta get with this cohort. Everybody get together and we learn. And I'm like, Man, I'm like, going to meet and greets. I can't stand me Greece a waste of time. He was like, no, no, no. You gotta listen. Listen to me. So this is one of the one of the other questions that you asked, you know, how do people get involved, you have to listen, listen to what somebody else the advice they're giving, you know, because he's telling me you need to go check it out.

And I'm, I'm against them. I'm not doing that on it. So eventually, I gave in, and he explained to me a little more No, they give you you know, they'll start working with your business, they'll look at your financials and start working with you on things you want to improve in your business. So I say okay, I'll go check it out. Check it out. I did have a case online, it was a ton of interview questions, a ton of information that you had to submit to the board to be accepted. So I went in for the

interview. And it is like 15 people in the room and set up in desk Oh, wow, this series I didn't even know. You know, they you know, they say dress up the tire. And now everyone's dressed to a tee suits and business suits. And they interview you. And they ask you a ton of questions about your business where you come in where where you think you want to go? That little mass me a bunch of questions, and they're overly

impressed. So I walked out and the leader, she said, We thoroughly enjoyed your comment. And I was like, You know what, let me go back in here. And that is it. Okay, can I go ask them some questions? Because they asked me questions the whole time. So I went back in no 30 minutes, I'm asking questions. The person was your involvement? How did this? How did this help you? What did you see? How did you see any businesses flourish through this program, and then

they were just ecstatic. And they just gave you a round of applause just for coming back in. And like I said, I'm the type of person I want to know more, you know, I want to know more. So basically, the program is they'll give you a coach and they'll sit down with you for a year and work with you on areas you can improve the business.

They'll work with your marketing branding, your your behind the scenes office, your field employees, your client retention, your employee retention, on everything that has to do with business and, and that's what I needed to know you and I talked before, and it's like, I need a I need help. I'm raising my hand I need help because I'm a construction guy running a business. I've never

took a business class. I don't know how to operate behind the scenes or you know, I told you before I used to climb cell phone towers, I'm on the towers on my phone, phone sending invoices from QuickBooks, like I'm doing everything tighten this down. send an invoice checking all the money Hey, Did

y'all send a check yet? You know, I'm doing everything from the get go cuz I had to you know, so with this with this cohort accepted me into the program, and it was over 200 And I want to say 250 applicants and seven get accepted. So I feel like Wow, that's impressive. That is impressive. Congratulations. You deserve it.

Thank you. Thank you. So but did they interview they did like a ton of background checks calling my references two or three times see they could say and store what it was uh, I mean, I'm excited about getting started we I had my first coaching meeting last week. You know, I'm doing around 3 million now. They my goal was 5 million, 6 million. That's the goal. We're setting towards it get a year. That's awesome. isn't only construction companies.

There are different types of businesses a think there was technology, business and cabinet business. It was there. I think the majority is it may be construction, because there's a gap in construction minority owners, a lot of construction minority owners, they'll start something they won't, they won't

grow to fruition. So think that's what the point of it is the cohort to be able to give us the tools that we need to be able to grow and be successful, and sustain that success over years to come and not just come in, by Fly By Night company, and say, Okay, I can make a million this year, and then just shut the doors, you know, they want to be able to sustain us. So is this something I could pass on to my children, their children, their children? We gonna put it to where? If I go the business

still there? Yeah. It's so smart to you. One of the things you said I want to make sure we call it out is you talked about it's it's not just about making more money, right? Right. It's not just about going from two or 3 million to five or 10. It's about having a purpose behind that money. You said it really nicely about you know, it's about being able to have that free capital, so I can do more education, so I can pour into my guys, that's Scott talks

a lot about that. And his his speech on being a purpose driven company, it's not about having a money goal. It's about what that money will do for my best fry dry. Right, right. And I think those, I think that extra income, that's where you would place the extra income to, to another position to be able to rate employees, like that's a full time position, we'll be able to watch employees and grade them accordingly. So that the year a year is always fair.

It's not this guy, look next to the next guy, say I'm doing the same amount of work as him, why

am I getting less? You know, I need to be aware, he looked at the next guy say, you know, what, what score did you get on your test, and your eval, to put you in a position pay rate that you're at, like I said, the money isn't just about the money, it's about putting it back in and making it grow to a better company, because that's what we want, we want a better company, we want, we want people to come and stay because every time somebody comes, you know, you have initial investment of

training. So it's not like is cheap, you know, and they're just their desks, the overhead costs at the time when they come in. So we don't want to keep turning, turn and burn and guys want to keep you guys here. And then at the same time, had a sheet of paper, that no, we're gonna be on his on his rate and say, Okay, I need to learn this, this this. So I get this position and to get this amount

of money. So I'll topic is just one of those things I'm working with the cohort to be able to do, I mean, just as one of many, and I'm so excited that. So one of the things that we see a lot is in the industry pain points also is firsthand experiences of relationship between general contractors and subcontractors.

And some of those stereotypes and preconceived notions and narratives that are we've talked about today, they really impact a general contractor or a prime contractor and the subcontractors relationship before it even gets a chance to start. Yeah, and a lot of times it can create an adversarial relationship. For one otherwise, it's really two partners that are on a project trying to complete it together. Right?

What are some of the things that you see in Have you seen those relationships, things you can do to fix them? And how the industry as a whole can impact that? My first thing is that a bill of build more relationships with my my subs, a build more of a trust relationship with a sub the below trust them and say, Okay, I'm gonna say you do his job, and you can trust they're gonna

get it done. The other hand, you know, it's the pay, you know, how many days are we going to get paid in 1015 2030 30 days, the quicker you pay yourself, the more serve you can get. I mean, that's, that's what I found even working with you, you know, I've got a ton of subs now. Because I'm able to pay them quicker, and get and get get it done. So that's another kind of relationship building. They can trust us to pay him

early than they expect it. So thing one, like I said, is do pay him early on time, and then just having a relationship that you can trust, because I've been burned in the past where I've paid a deposit and they disappear. So I gotta bring somebody in to finish the work. So I'm paying twice as much. And it's just it happens not that all selves are bad. I mean, you

have it. You just know next time you try to stick with the people you trusted know, or are you though, you know, I didn't bet a person before but I started using them. I should have read them because I made phone calls after that. say so. Yeah, so So Berman before, you know, that's one thing I could have dodged the bullet. It's funny you bring up because we have where we've initiated a campaign this year called do

your part campaign. We sit in a unique position where we hear from both contractors, subs and general contractors, labor only subs, suppliers, people in charge of the project all kinds of What we've learned is that all these stigmas and the or these past experiences that you just outlined, and I love the way you said it, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be like that for everybody. But it does shape your guidance and your viewpoint on the next

occasion. So if you have been burned by yourself, or you did give a deposit to Assam, well, you might not be wanting to do that again. Right. And that that but in the other thing I thought is, even though you have been burned, you mentioned already, you still listen, and you create an environment where the sun can come to you and tell you what they need, can they stretch to 30 days? No, they can't need to be 10. So you've found a

solution to do that. Yeah. And you figured out a way to do that inside your organization and impacted your business and your customers. And you created a value around that and then measured it to see if it was worth your success or not. Yeah, definitely. What's key is what you did first you you create an environment to hear what they need it, you found a solution for it. And now you just said you're thriving for you have all the subs you need. Here we are

in a major labor shortage. And you have also Ginny also the you know, it's just, you know, trying to think of different ways how to how to make make things happen overall in the business. And that was one of them, you know, if I could pay my subs like that quicker, I can have more subs.

And it's just been very helpful, very helpful and what we do, and so allow me to grow and allow me to, instead of my in house, guys, I'm tired of doing certain projects, be able to go tackle bigger projects, making more profit, and then send a sub here, you know, the profit might not be as much, but we know we can get the job done. Can you talk a little bit about some of the other things you did along with that, though? Because some people think, Oh, I just

borrowed money. If someone that didn't know you, well, they might have heard what you just said, so I just borrowed money, I pay my subs quicker. And that's the answer. And I know from talking to you that that's one part of the answer. There's a lot of other things you did in streamlining your efficiencies, the way you decided to pay people how you've empowered and

incentivize. And can you talk to some of those things, because without that, I don't want someone to hear what you just said and think it's just Barbie. And they know, not that definitely not that. So we've created a platform to where it gives the sub and my customers visibility on one level. So the visibility of the sub knowing, okay, I don't need to make a ton of phone calls is streamlined to them, they can see exactly what they need to do by logging into

this app. So it kind of streamline that way as well. That's one thing I implemented in my brother, Melvin, he handles a lot of that, to where I mean some sub to us and to the customer is visibility across the board. So everyone knows what's going on with that

project. So that's, that's one thing to help us actually get the subs on board, because they can see, oh, this isn't a dead end, I'm not going to get paid into the job, you know, they can see that the customers involved, they can see that we're involved in the project. And we're not just sitting them out to the wolves in them hoping they get paid in the project.

And to summarize it, that's transparency, you know, you've removed those those thoughts that a sub might have, where they're being bamboozled or something negatives happen, you by being so transparent and humble to do, you've allowed the subs to feel comfortable, and then they flourished in that

environment. Right? You know, and, and to your credit, you're not worried about your customer trying to take your subs or cheat you, you're humble enough to realize like, I'm pouring enough value into my customer that I'm working for somebody that I can trust. And I'm just going to create transparency, which is now benefited everyone, including your customer, you and the subcontract everyone, everyone, and even for

my subs. If I if I have a good sub and they're having issues with maybe financing a truck or, or trailer or something like that, I will always help get help to a certain set of data, that trust and be able to get vehicles and trailers and tools to be able to go out and do the job because everyone needs help. I need help when I started, you know, a good friend of mine, Sean Sims, he assisted me when I very first started the business. He said, Okay, I'll give you this is that's the company I

used to work for. Before I started my own business and he was a an amazing, amazing leader. He helped me and then in turn, I helped a lot of people to to be able to develop their businesses, because he helped me so much and then I see like everyone needs help. No matter who you are, you need help. You need help, maybe a babysitter, you need help paying cutting

grass, everyone needs help. So it's just about you know, giving the person the right help to be able to let let them grow, you know, because they they don't make they may not have money for a truck. Okay, let me get them a truck and help him grow, you know, and help him develop himself. And that's exactly what that's not exactly what Shawn did for me. But he helped he gave me a lot of tools. be able to grow. So I want to do that to

two subs. Because I see a lot of people with potential, they just might not be in a position to be able to go buy a truck, build, buy a tool, be able to front money for hotels, we got to stay in a hotel. So I'll help them out in that way. And they've been loyal, very loyal. Because of that.

I need more people like Galvin in the industry, in the whole world, we want our people to good person that don't really try to come naturally, I can't think of bad things to do, you know, people say, Oh, this guy's scheme scheme, the person doing this, I'm gonna have the hell even think of it, I can't think of a ski is like, I'll just naturally this person naturally like to help I naturally want to work hard and naturally want to do the best I can life period. And that's a real enough for right.

Now you're creating ways to do that. Exactly. For other people. And that's what's great about that, for sure. You know, and like I said, everyone's not the same. I mean, you might have a sub, you might help that way, and they burn you. I've had that happen, too. But I just limit the risk. You know, if I'm doesn't limit the risk. But if I see a guy that really got potential, and they're loyal, I'll help them anyway, I can.

Anyway, I can. Sean, Shawn, he gave me so much opportunity gave me so much advice, a comp advice, hey, I got this situation, what do I do? You know, because I always raise my hand, I always need help. I don't, you know, I may, I may act like I know it all sometimes because I'm, if I do know it, I'm kind of forceful with it. But I don't know everything. You know, if I need help, I need help, hey, raise my hand hi to hire or raise any help. So I just, I'm always the guy, I want

to learn more. And I need help I need that person to talk to to get advice, I think and honestly, everyone in business, I think need that person, they can call this outside of the business it because sometimes we were in the business, we know the solution, but we can't see it because we're in it. And the person outside of the business can see quite clearly than we can and say, hey, you need to do this, as if I knew that it wasn't in front in front of my brain. I just didn't do it yet.

So everyone in business needs is somewhat of a mentor, to help them through certain questions and certain things, and not be afraid to ask for help. That's the main thing. Don't be don't be scared of embarrassed to ask for help. You know, I was gonna ask you, what's the one thing that you could you would offer as advice to general contractors and subcontractors to improve their communication and collaboration? But honestly, I think what you just said is that is the answer.

Ask for help. And don't be afraid. And don't be afraid to say what you do know and be assertive about it. And don't be afraid to say what you don't know and be assertive about that, too. Right. If you have another answer for that, I'd love to hear how you add to that. But I think what you said there is is is awesome all by itself. Yeah, I mean, like you said earlier is not, it's not always

about giving money. It's about giving, giving health advice, as a lot, a lot of times about giving suggestions on how you should do some, it's going to be much more valuable than the money much more valuable than money because over the long term, they can start developing certain habits to keep the money coming. So the bias is huge for me, huge cow and I have three questions for you. I'm gonna shoot them out at you real quick. We like to call this maybe like our lightning round, so to speak.

But um, what is the one thing that you believe determines a business's success or failure? So like I told you earlier, I'm kind of the person that see the good and the bad. So if, if a business fails, I can see the good I can see. What what do I need to do different next time? You know? So the question there is, like, I see the good at all, so, but to answer your question, a lot of times, honestly, it's the people, it's the people that you hire, and that you can

maintain the good ones. And if they're destructive in bed almost a long time ago, this is one of the things I did learn. If they're not working out, you got to cut it quick. You know, you can't hold on until hoping it's gonna change. You're hoping they'll adapt to your culture. If they're in and you see a lot of issues. Man, I've been so decisive as of late to make sure I cut that quick. So I would say probably the employees will help you get to where businesses are

successful or not. That'd be one of them. And then also, as far as my level, make sure you're getting the right jobs, make sure you're getting what you're worth. Don't cheat yourself. Don't undercut don't short yourself on jobs just to get the work. And if you don't, if you're not skilled enough, and you're not you don't feel like your skill level is where it needs to be get better. So that you that you can get the money that you were and understand

that too. And a lot of guys don't understand they're not worth it. They don't know they're subpar. Sometimes we go through stents where I have average guys, and I know that and I got to open my eyes to that Say, Okay, I gotta have these guys right here. We need to do better. You said a lot there, but I'm gonna unpack it for a second because that was all really good. I mean, people, culture, those are the key. Yeah. Being a lifetime learner learning from what you do. Unbelievable.

implementing it, seeing the good and all the lessons that these things are happening. You know, as a mentor of mine, a guy named Ed, my let says all the time things happen for you not to you know, what you're saying is exactly what he means by those is like these things happen. Why is it happening for you, not to you right now, you want to listen from there, that's a gift. See, perspective is so important. I'm hearing you say

like that. There's a lot to take from that, then, you know, again, I give you a lot of credit for that, that was more than just one thing, but aggregated together as one really great thing to learn. What's one piece of advice you wish you had at the beginning of your career? Our friend saw he used to tell me, Kavita nice to nice, had the advice, but I didn't use it. I was too nice to people let

people do what they want. That's how I got into a situation where I had a guy still a ton of money from me have been roasting the company. I was too nice. So with that being said, I would I would kind of rein that back a little bit. As far as being so trustworthy, you know, let them pretty much earn their trust. And that will probably be one of them not be be nice. And don't be a pushover. That's a great distinction too.

You can be the nicest person in the world, and then still know your value will still know what you can and cannot tolerate in a situation. You got to be nice to yourself, too. Right? Yeah. And I've learned that over time, and I do a lot better now. Because I actually reflected on him telling me that years ago, and now it's like, Okay, I am who I am. But I'm not

gonna be a pushover. I'm not gonna get you what you want just because you asked for like, Look, kid during tension chanter, a couple guys a bad fire recently, and they and they call me a jerk. aihole all this and that when I know I'm not, you know, it was situations where they earned yourself a pink slip. And I just had to take care of the situation.

That's me being more if two things being cutting off, quit when you see a problem, an employee, and then being more assertive when, when things like that happen. Oh, and knowing my worth to the company. I know what I have to do for my company has made sure that I keep those type of people with what you're doing as you'd be nice for the rest of your team. Exactly. Because they don't need to be exposed to that. Exactly,

exactly. Well, Kalyn, I gotta tell you, man, I'm really, really glad you spent the time with us. I appreciate it. I'm really grateful that you spent and were willing to give us your guidance, your wisdom and share with the audience. I know a lot of people are going to take things from this, that they're going to help them right away in their business. I know they're going to be inspired and

motivated. And I'm really, really just want to say thank you very much for helping you're really a special person in the construction world that people can really emulate and learn a lot from. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. Like I said before, when you first asked me first question, just take that first step. A lot of people just need to take the first step. Even like you, you know, when you start your

business. You just took the first steps, do what you had to do make it happen, and you know where you would go on but you go and try to write your head. We've talked about that. That's awesome. Thank you. Calvin, thank you so much for joining us. This was so much fun. No problem. Well, everybody, I really appreciate everyone joining us. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our podcast, and we appreciate you. Thank you everybody. Hey, everyone, thanks for

listening. If you enjoyed the show, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review. reviews help more people find the show. If you'd like to learn more about mobilization funding, visit us at mobilization funding.com Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next one.