No.1 Essential Craftsman

Scott Mr Wadsworth essential Craftsman what do you prefer Scott please please Scott all right I mean you can rub in this other stuff if you want but it's just rubbing it in okay sounds good let's go we'll stick with Scott no problem um I I again personally big fan I love what you do thank you on a lot of levels um give us just kind of you know I don't know the short or long version your journey your story how did you because everyone starts somewhere has to learn something you weren't born knowing all these things why aren't you on Wall Street trading numbers why are you doing this how did this even happen was it your dad was it just life you know what's kind of the the story The Journey there um big question so born here in this little town in 1958 went to school 12 years in the Glide School District I somewhat facetiously follow that up with but I'm recovering okay but Glide was good to me I mean it was a good place to go to school it was great um was interested in math and science and did okay I thought I did really good but I found out right away when I went to Oregon State that I was a big fish in a little bitty pond in the high school classes you know when I got up there and thought man I don't I can't really keep up with these guys but grew up here hunting and fishing and building tree houses and we moved up into the Cascade Mountains I part of my growing up until I was in sixth grade was within two miles of where we're sitting down here in the lowlands you know far kind of sheep and agrarian and and then we moved up into the Cascades into the into the timber my dad had been a logger and then went to work for Roseburg Lumber Company in one of their big Mills so I grew up smelling that smell of Douglas fir having been cut this is the 60s 70s yes yep um I remember I so I would I imprinted on my dad's lager and Sawmill experience um he liked to he like to try to build things but he wasn't much of a carpenter but I could tell it was important to him so it became important to me he had a friend who had a little Sawmill and dad helped him on that and I could tell that was important and somehow worth doing so that imprinted on me um I met Kelly to whom I married when we were 15 years old on the school bus it's awesome it is awesome um and she is the chief explanation of my journey okay and whatever whatever it is that I've learned and whatever it is that has continued to have significance to me as largely because you know I think it's in Matthew or where the Savior says for this cause shall a man leave his mother and a woman leave her home and the twain shall be uh one flesh I paraphrased badly C.S Lewis said that Jesus wasn't talking about sexual intercourse there although that's part of marriage he was talking about two people becoming a single organism so good and so so Kelly and I have approximated that and we're getting closer to that and so the whole journey is because of the mutual responsibility that we had to our family but I I went to Oregon come out of high school I was playing with the Jazz Band so music was a big thing um I drove up to Eugene every weekend for my Junior and Senior year rehearsing with the Jazz miners went to Oregon State never got a hold of the campus life because I was always gone playing music we ended up going back and playing for President Carter on the White House lawn and doing a tour and they went to work in Disneyland and I realized I can't really live the life that I've learned that I need to live as a professional musician so I left that but music made a big impact and so I had to raise a family and because I had determined I was going to marry that girl and we did and I said I'm going to be a carpenter I'm going to build houses so I started going to work for different people the things I've learned about Construction I've learned because I've worked with hundreds of different people I'll say hundreds of men they've all been men yeah and everybody can teach you something so I kept my eyes open yep I grew up logging with Dad I logged a little bit in high school for some of a couple of the local logging companies so I learned that kind of uh soon after we got married moved back here I built that Sawmill that had belonged to my wife's Granddad we made a video about that so circular sawmilling um in Wyoming I worked for Wade Welch commercial uh residential home builder good guy like to really make a nice house and I watched him struggle to figure out how to make any money building custom houses and it's hard but I learned and I learned and I learned and then that economy tanked and I went to Las Vegas and my construction education ramped up because in Las Vegas and Los Angeles have possibly the most high production construction culture maybe in the world I don't know but the American southwest Phoenix all of that have taken um construction productivity to the next level and so I got this great education there in in commercial concrete and production piecework Framing and and then back here and logging and I mostly I'll just say it's the people I've met that I've learned from and the things I've read and just oh and then the blacksmithing you know 17 years ago bill van gave me the entire contents of a railroad roundhouse blacksmith shop wow and so I had to learn to be a blacksmith and then I met Sai Swan and got a 20-year jump start into the craft wow and so yeah there you go kind of sounds like one thing led to another led to another led to another yeah you just have this you know this plethora of just experiences and meeting all these people and that's like that's amazing um I mean Dare I ask are you still learning you think you've learned it all oh man I have not scratched the surface wow okay um you know so I'm learning a lot from the comments on the channel yeah and one comment recently and is it every day is a school day that's right now it's easy to forget that right but if you just even try a little bit just a little bit to keep your eyes open you're gonna pick something up yeah 100 are you seeing do you think you're more humble than you've ever been I hoped so I hope so I'm continually and I trust Kelly to this trying to monitor myself because this whole uh artificial YouTube flattery culture yeah you know she when we when this started and I'd be reading the comments she would say get away from that computer don't you let this wreck you yeah and so people don't realize you didn't so are you familiar with the story of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz I mean as much as any other kid would be yeah so when people who have met me on the channel come to the shop so this this is for you yeah yeah so Dorothy and the tint man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion they all end up together and they've all got these big problems and somehow they're convinced that The Wizard of Oz can help them with their problems so they go down the road and they don't let anything stop them I mean they are not dissuaded and they overcome and they work together and when they finally get to Oz they can't find the wizard and they look around and they ask and they for directions and they finally what do they find they find this Stumpy little irritable semi-disabled disagreeable Soul pulling levers and issuing billowing clouds of smoke he's a faker yeah he's a charlatan and they never think of Oz or the wizard in the same way again and the same things just happen to you because you show up in this shop that's just a redneck Carpenter no that's just a redneck Carpenter you've wrecked the channel for yourself it's so funny I ruined the experience yeah geez Louise that's so funny that's so funny now you know that that principle is great but I see I see value and and I find gold in things that maybe other people don't see because ultimately even though I'm very young still so much to learn I I feel like I relate and understand a part a portion of your journey building something building a brand and going through stuff again being kind of a victim not a victim but being a you know an attendee in the court of public opinion yeah and understanding that and feeling that and you're in your your parents were victims that refused to be victims that's right that's exactly correct you know coming from where they came from and that's yeah that's a really really good way to say it you know they're not the only ones that immigrated right in America right and there are people that did immigrate but did not have the the mentality to assimilate and didn't fall in love with what is going on in this great country interesting you know and they're strong and it's it you know it would have been better that they stayed boy now that's a mouthful yeah it would have been better if they had stayed where they were comfortable because you can't come here and I feel like I I understand this because I've seen it so many times like okay in our in our church in our Slavic Community you know just in spoken in other cities Scott I can't tell you how many people have been here for 20 25 years and they still don't speak English interesting at that point it's a choice they just refused they just refuse and and over what over over some sense of you know weird Pride it's kind of strange almost you know and so I I thank God and I honor my parents and respect them that they had the wisdom and the and the progressive mentality and they're just they're just smart people and humility and humility yes good way yes absolutely very humble to say Hey listen where I came from it had a lot of good things but it had a lot of bad things sure and what I see here is just so great and so much better I'm gonna make the choice it's not about Pride it's not about oh you know Homeland Heritage it's just about this culture is incredible and amazing this is an opportunity this is like a god-given chance and I'm gonna bite onto this you know wholeheartedly and I'm gonna see that my kids are able to embrace this there you go I think in the same same way that you know you are working with your son with this thing you guys understand that my dad working with us us kids you know he understands that Legacy leaving something Generations you know ultimately your grandkids and your great grandkids you know hopefully I think you know YouTube and stuff is still going to be around at that time what you've done what you've built the knowledge the the culture the the home bread Heritage it's gonna it's gonna live on past you and that's something that I think my dad was always intentional about was this principle of Legacy are you intentional about that is that just happening naturally well so Kelly and I have tried to live and parent intentionally yeah to that end because if see I I'm big on sort of sound bites and colloquialisms and I hear them and they stick in my mind but one of them is that um life is what happens while we're making other plans that's a good one and it is so easy to make all these plans and not notice that your life is rocketing by and your chance to intentionally parent or grandparent is past and you want to talk about hell hell would be to recognize that I had all those opportunities to make a difference for these people that I love and I spent that time and that interest on myself instead wow and so so yes um that drives a lot of of what what you're doing what we're doing when we're thinking of titles when we're thinking of stories when we're thinking of what we want to show or not show is does this have lasting value and it will will is there any chance at all that it might actually do some good now that's not the only criteria it's not as Noble as all that I agree I mean it's a business too yeah ultimately right yeah but that that's an underlying principle and it's actually more it's it's bigger it's bigger than a business or a YouTube channel or a brand okay I I have this you know and I'd like you to speak on this too because again I I look to you for you you have you carry more wisdom than I do ultimately I'm seeing that business and anything that you're building it's just an extension and an exposure of what's actually going on in here or within your family for example with us with our family we are a family first and then and then we just do business together in other words if the if you strip the business away we would still be a family together and still genuinely love each other and want to be together and be around and so business money success all that it does and what I've seen is it just exposes what's already going on outside yeah I've just I feel like I've seen that time and time again I've heard this you know colloquialism I guess but it's kind of a negative one I don't I don't I don't I don't agree with it for this reason that oh um Money Changes people or success changes people whatever verb you want to put in there you know I don't I don't believe that I don't agree with that I think it can affect you know but I don't believe I believe that it's just exposes it uncovers it uncovers yeah so ultimately I've seen people who poor they were generous and Wealthy they are generous and I've seen people who poor they are stingy and wealthier stingy yeah and it just exposes it just increases you know 50 50 something years in the workforce 40 something years in the workforce is that true have you seen that I think it I think it is in almost every case true and I think it goes back to what uh in The Sermon on the Mount he said and I won't get this quite right but he said a man can't serve two masters either you love the one and hold of the other hate the one and love the other you cannot serve God and Mammon yeah and in my religious experience Mammon is usually it's a Hebrew word okay and there's a particular scholar that I love and he pointed out to me his name's Hugh Nibley and he pointed out in one of his books that the word Mammon is an Hebrew word of ancient origin and he said he claimed that Abraham would still would recognize it and Menachem begin then the Prime Minister would recognize it okay so I read that and but his takeaway was that Mammon did not just mean treasure or money or worldly concerns the way it's often understood his contention was and it goes straight to your point what you just said that Mammon means business dealings of any kind now that's a much more Global way to understand that word much more broad way to understand that word and challenging way yeah if you think about it yeah and what here's what I think so here first of all here's how I tried to decide if that was true um Kelly had at that time well I guess she knows that the divorce happened in that marriage a stepsister who married a man who was from Tel Aviv okay Moshe was a great guy a great guy this is in Las Vegas 10 years older than we were he was uh Jewish spoke Hebrew had a clothing store in um Caesar's Palace mall I think and so at a Thanksgiving dinner I I just read this and I said Moshe yeah Scott how you doing we've pleasantries I said hey I got a question in Hebrew is there a word Mammon and does it mean business dealings of any kind and he went oh he said you must mean yeah that's about right it's business so now think about what the Savior was saying yeah that you can't live your life according to the laws of business and according to the laws of God you have to decide am I going to try to serve God according to the rules of business or am I going to try to do business according to the laws of God you have to pick one or the other and so what you were just saying was that your family is of the makeup where you're doing business and trying to do it according to the laws of God so that if the business part went away you would still have that god-ordained family relationship that makes everything sweeter or everything more bitter depending on whether or not it's working ultimately everything we do our life is kingdom and then now it's just an extension of all those things um you know it also says to seek first the kingdom all that seems to be added sometimes I would you know I grew up in the church all this stuff and I would all that sometimes people say put God first and then family second and and the principle there is good and I don't disagree with that but I think that what I've learned and what I've seen is that it doesn't it's not it's not like that okay God number one then your wife and your kids number two is God is in all of those things you know he's he's it's not like you only give him this piece and then only this piece and only or only this piece but this piece is for myself now I've invited him into all things and so now when I'm when I'm making boots I'm doing Ministry I'm serving with a spirit of Excellence building my business Spirit of Excellence doing Ministry with my family with my with honoring my parents us doing Church work whatever I go up you know out to dinner I'm not just like okay well this I'm dedicating to the Lord only right or like okay I'm gonna dedicate an hour right now read the word kind of freely but then I'm gonna turn that off right and then go do other things it doesn't work that way that is like this old Covenant kind of like almost like paganistic understanding that like you have to okay you go to the temple God's only there no no he says I come to make a home in you I now do all things it's it's it's in my entire life and so it puts you in this it puts you in this corner it's in this decision and so like if there's you know Christian business people who are hearing this if if if we believe that he lives in us okay we Holy Spirit lives in us the spirit of Excellence well then dang it our businesses are our systems our service it better be to the level of the spirit of Excellence it better my brother and I I my brother's the great one of the greatest men I've ever met in my life amazing guy I look up to him and every older brother will he he does this really really better than I do when something doesn't work out some mistake is made not get emotional about it analyze figure it out create the solution implement it move on to the next thing don't waste your time casting blame exactly it's like and I'm I'm trying to learn and be better at that we're not perfect you know and no I don't think there's a company that is I don't think there's you know any system organization But ultimately it's like when when a mistake does happen make it right figure it out move on to them move ahead you know move ahead and like we're always on this Relentless pursuit to get better and this is a motivating factor it's like I want to be the best because I believe I'm I'm called to that level and I'm worthy of that and I need to catch up to that level I need to I need to get there like that's a healthy healthy perspective from from any whether a person's coming at this with a religious perspective or not that's healthy yeah that is healthy and as sustainable as anything anybody could could imagine and Scott there are people who have never been to church in their life maybe they even call themselves agnostics or atheists but they still just you know whether they like it or not they're living by these principles they might just not even know it you know who Jordan Peterson is of course okay so I've read a lot about Jordan I think I would take a bullet for Jordan Peterson probably that's hyperbole okay but not entirely right okay he does so he's done so much good he's had so many problems but Doug got it yeah what a guy but there's been a group of young people probably about your age young men I think who are called atheist Christians or Christian you know an oxymoron yeah but they recognize whatever Peterson's talking about really is the way for life to be better it works and so they're not going to attach any sort of a foundational cause or effect yeah but so anyway I I agree you know he has a book uh 12 rules for life yeah I got a copy of that that's awesome yeah so let me ask you this I mean what are your rules what's your version of that you know there's young guys listening to this I'm sure that there's a lot of guys contractor guys Carpenters all this stuff our customers wear our boots similar thing like you you know do you have that do you have some rules for life things that you've just seen his maybe come from maybe with a more academic yeah yeah side of things man what is it on this side and I so I I I don't want to just [Music] reflectively wave the piety flag all right but it's hard to beat the Golden Rule it's really hard to be treating your neighbor the way you would like to be treated now you probably know that there was a silver rule that was articulated by Confucius and thales of my leader and somebody else about 600 years before Jesus articulated the Golden Rule and the silver rule was do not unto others what you don't want others to do unto you that's pretty good yeah but it's not the same as do unto others as you would have others do unto you yeah so that's item one okay item two is this thing that uh you cannot order your life according to the Ironclad rules of property and profit which is how it's described in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens what we're just talking about Mammon the rules of business it's just business I hate that I hate that it's just business um so you got to decide who you got to decide what team you're playing on and then you gotta ride for the brand right you got to decide what brand you're riding for and always ride for the brand which is pretty much what you just said yeah um you have to no nobody's asked me about what rules would I uh I think you're just doing it naturally it could be you've got to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay and you know what if you're not getting an honest day's pay you better go find some place that you will that's good um yeah if at work just at work always do a little more than your share always do a little more than your share and you're always going to have a job um I refer to my wife as my bride and the reason for that is I want to continually remind myself that that she is the first focus of my efforts okay and it's easy for a bride to become a wife now why a wife is a wonderful and is a gift from God a gift but and Kelly's uncomfortable with me referring to her in public as my bride but I think that's a continual reminder to me and I think every man who's married and every man should be married should think of his wife as his bride with the hope that you do not let familiarity read contempt because if you do you have doomed yourself that's really good you've doomed yourself yeah uh I don't know I I'm full I'm full of these kinds of things so there's there's a thumbnail sketch but but the main one is do unto others you would have under do others do unto you and show to show up to work 10 minutes early okay how about that you know do you believe in this principle of so oftentimes when we hire I I do a lot of the interviews because I want to be involved with everybody on our team um I always I always let them know that your success here at this company you are in control of it meaning that it's in your hands if you perform and do well and exceed expectations we reward we we we bless we promote quickly I always say and actually we'll introduce this principle there's a great guy I really like name Ray dalio who he is a you know multi-billionaire hedge fund investor he's very successful um I think he's in his 70s now um he's up on Wall Street but he's not like a classic kind of Wall Street kind of guy he really came from the ground up on his own he's written a lot of books and now he's devoted a large portion of his life to just sharing wisdom he teaches on economics and money and all these things and he taught on this subject of a meritocracy in your team in your company the best idea wins I mean that's what a meritocracy is it's not the the strongest person the fastest person it's not you know Authority or you know position per se even though that plays a role in just in leadership it's the best idea wins so I always tell people that we're a meritocracy that the best idea wins the best performance the most value and so I always tell people that that your success here depends on you like you don't need to worry that you're going to be working really hard and doing a lot and the company would neglect well notice it we'll notice it that will never happen what will happen is you are in control of how far you go and that's true and will and I and our leaders we are on top of that all the time always watching always giving opportunities always trying I want our team to just go to the Moon you know I that that's kind of what we're about do you believe in this principle that your success is in your hands and I I'm not saying from the perspective you know like the Lord directs and blesses and guides this I understand but how much of it do you believe is in the responsibility in the hands of a man for his destiny a lot um you know if you want to have tomatoes in the fall in the summer you've got to put the plants in the ground last week of May around here you've just got to and you got to see that they're watered and you got to keep some of the weeds down and when they're ripe enough you better be out there picking them or you're not going to have any tomatoes and it is the same in life that yes God has intentions for us but those intentions are more eternal intentions than just the mundane things that are of burning interest to us and probably not that interesting to him but having said that a man is absolutely in control of what he is interested in turning himself into I mean nobody nobody can convince us to turn us into anything other than what we want to become right right and so we have to be very careful about what we want to become because beware the desire of your heart ye shall surely have it and and so I I think I think that that is the biggest thing what it is that we want I mean really want not what we may think we want maybe not even what we tell our friends that we want but what really in the middle of us is that we want we're responsible for that because buddy it's coming yeah it is coming now not everyone gets the same opportunities there's Injustice you know the rug can be jerked out from underneath our feet I mean your heroic parents may not have for some number of reasons been able to get on that plane yeah okay and their stars and yours would have been different yeah but still at I have to believe at the foundation level a mom and dad like that who came here and were able to assimilate would have found a way to raise you and will and the others in a way so that you were forward-leaning and making the best of it that's correct and in any case um yeah I believe that if you want Tomatoes You by golly gotta plant them and that goes for the outcome of our life I I 100 there's a balance to it as well with the thing with opportunity I I also I mean ultimately like I have friends who you know I have this one friend his parents drugs that he you know young age flown to drugs his father died his mother is you know not in his life at all and right if anyone had any excuses to kind of just whatever you know with life he would but but he's not he's not a victim he's not a victim he's married he's got a business like he's moving forward in life I know others that have great parents as you know great like my parents and they've gone down the other road yeah and so ultimately the opportunity thing does exist but I agree with you I have to believe at the end of the day it is still in control like I don't believe that there's this kind of this well you're dealt the cards you're dealt and right that's it I believe that your adult cards you know I'm so I'm so fortunate I I don't take any credit like I I think I have the best parents in the world and I'm so blessed that they they did what they did and all these things and I resonate that every day but ultimately I have to believe that I still had to make and it's true I still had to make a decision to be on that be on that boat be on board you know when I when I was growing up at a young age I didn't always want to to do this business with my with my parents but I just loved my dad and it was because of that that he won my heart yeah he could have been blacksmithing he could have been a builder he could have been a truck a truck driver whatever I would have been with him building that business it's not about boots it's more than it's bigger you know the handicap that I think may be hardest to come back from for a young man is to not have a dad I mean you just talked about a friend yeah who had that but you talk about a setback now so my dad like every dad had his limitations right but dog on it he was there he was steady as a ticking clock and I learned a lot from him mostly put your boots on every morning and go to work yeah you know and if you don't get that it's like faith if you don't get Faith as a at a young age it's really hard to get it later yeah and if you get it at a young age man it can flourish so I don't know I'm just glad that God is going to be responsible for judging me and everyone else at the end of the day to see what we did with what we had I agree you know and I think that that's why we need men okay we've got to have men amen we do have a shortage like being a father you you don't you don't have to just be a father to your biological children that's right it's it's carrying the heart of a father my dad carries the heart of a father very well not only to me but he ultimately fathers a lot of other people whether he knows it or not directly or indirectly and I've just seen that principle time and time again I'm I'm young I don't have children my own children but I can still carry this I don't want to say heart of a father because it almost feels weird but like this heart of like this care and like an older brother mentality to the ones that are younger performing it's not something that okay you have a biological child and now you're a dad right no it's a heart and it's a mentality and it's like a spirit it's a it's it's a sole position to be in and um yeah I've I've just seen it so much like you know growing up um in our local church I mean he he fathered people that he didn't even really know that he was fathering but he was just doing life yep you know and I think that the same goes for my my brother will is a few years older than me you know he fathered an older brother you know so to speak so many younger guys I don't think he even really directly thought that he was doing it but just by doing life yeah and yeah we we need men and it's not fair for the kid who is born into a family that his dad is not there it's I agree with you it's not fair but I think that's why great men need to rise up because you got to fill in those gaps yeah you know and so what ultimately you know I don't want to be like you said be too Noble about it but like that's one of the things that excites me about being successful growing having Financial opportunities like I can do good things with this yeah you know I can if you have a good heart and a good Vision the Lord's giving you Vision you have resources like you feel so much more I can actually make a change I can make an impact and our accountability goes up I agree I mean the people who have nothing to share are not expected to share much that's right you know but the people who have those resources and opportunities those the resources Will Conquer our souls if we don't find some way to share it and do the good that those resources can do that's what we're intended to do that's right you know they just do yeah that's right I mean you know with with what you guys are doing is there because I was talking I need a little bit about this and it can be challenging sometimes because YouTube and kind of this this social media world I don't really know if anybody has a serious grasp right on it exactly right is there I'm sure there is you know can you give us The Insider view like a little bit like Vision heartbeat behind it what do you what do you what is what are you seeing what is this so Nate had a really good perspective instinctively right off the bat when he said dad so I I kind of have the heart of a teacher I think that that um that would have been a path I could have taken probably absolutely um and so I would want to drill down on some of the trivia or minutia or details about the why of what I'm doing dead that's not interesting that's not interesting what do you mean it's not interesting it took me 30 years to learn this I know I know but they'll click away and I finally realized he's right that YouTube is first and foremost entertainment because if they're not entertained their click away and if they click away you didn't get a chance to teach them what you were going to hope to teach them later on in the video so so that's one piece that in the social media YouTube World there has to be a reason for them to remain because they have every opportunity at the click of that right index finger to be anywhere else yeah so you have to be continually whether it's with scene changes or music or in I engage in with the camera whatever it is you have to be continually giving them a reason to stay um so I I have just about finished memorizing Rudyard Kipling's poem If okay it's so powerful and I don't know if I'm going to try to spool that out here I might because it answers a lot of just give me a little bit Yeah okay it starts like this and then I'll I'll go to the stanza that speaks to what we're talking about the Temptation the Temptation in social media in YouTube is to violate what is going on in the uh third stanza of the poem where it says if you can speak with crowds and not lose your virtue or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch okay and then it goes on but speaking with crowds and hanging onto your virtue that is being honest and authentic and speaking the amount of the truth that's important to you that you can convey in the moment and not have them click off and take a chance on getting some pushback in the comments yeah and in this day in this day and age of a cancel culture it's a real risk and you have to balance okay how forthright am I going to be because if I'm canceled if we're canceled there goes the opportunity to do anything good unless you're of statue like Jordan Peterson right you have you have a thick armor and enough of a following and you know you're not worried about ruffling feathers right yeah yeah and and so speaking with crowds and keeping your virtue is um a big deal that's tough that requires wisdom it does a lot of wisdom it does um to be weighing the effect of what you're saying but not just on the scale of what is this going to pay because if that's all that's on the other side of the scale you already lost it so you you and I are in slightly different boats there I'll explain with us our Focus with with with the business and with a product and with a service is it's not about any of the I don't know what the word would be but like you know atmospheric things maybe is the right word but it's more about the the function so product quality on time uh deliver on expectations if you make a promise keep it good service all the things so it's very like robotic in a sense now the customer service side is personable obviously but even that you need a system you need to flow with that and so for us like we try to make all of our Focus about it's about the job it's about the product it's about the job this even like this podcast this is this is different a little bit this is more about we're going after mentality thinking it's not not a war of words but it's a it's and it's not a war but it's more the the the journey or kind of the the the focus and goal is more about extremities and it's it's a it's a mentality game it's a principles game it's that's more the focus and so there's a bit of a difference there sure I I come to work in the morning and I think about how do we get more efficient how do we be faster with what we're making delivering better having better service smarter systems solving our problems make a mistake fix it make sure it never happens again you know and what you mentioned honestly reminds me a little bit about so I was I was a youth pastor for like two and a half years and that reminds me of that because that kind of thinking is how do I influence this culture how I influence and mentality how do I instill principles and how do I like it's a it's a bit of a not I want to say burden but there isn't a large accountability to it because there's a fear of like God forbid that you're wrong about something but then you you want to die on that hill and then later you realize that I was actually wrong about that I died for nothing yeah the lives that I took with me yeah I made worse yeah so it really kicks you into this gear of high accountability and I don't want to say stress because you shouldn't be stressed but instead a high sense of responsibility and now now the pressure's on me to make sure that I'm I'm walking down the right path I think that guys like I'm gonna put Joe Rogan in that in that Community too because I really honor that I like what he's doing he's phenomenal I'm telling you if if Joe Rogan like wow I mean the influence that he has is a separate top but the influence has Jordan Peterson Ben Shapiro these guys the influence that they have is so huge and that's like a different realm than owning a business because you're now not even dealing with a product and a service you're dealing with like life yep with heart things you know really good I think way that you broke that down and I just share the difference because and you know you're in business too but my my thinking about our business is so much more strategic and so much more like system function and that has its own slew of you know issues too and troubles that we get over and now getting into this Arena of communication relationship influence like you know podcast things like that I I go back a little bit to that mentality that I had like when I was youth pastoring but I'm approaching a different animal and it's a different way of talking it's a it's a it's a different way of thinking of solving the problems and I'm not saying one is necessarily harder or easier than the other they're just two different worlds yes they are and I don't want to mix them yeah you know what I mean I want to make JK boots about JK boots and I want to make anything else that I'm doing about that see that's that's the challenge of what I've got going here yeah because this social media YouTube business sure is inextricably tangled up with my life there's no subdividing this that's tough and I've tried hard yeah um and there have been some unanticipated costs I I spent decades doing my work and on a good day at work there's a Zen you know what I mean the tool jumps into your hand the piece you need happens to be laying right there because you dropped it there 10 minutes ago and it jumps up and it fits or you clip the end off and it goes in there and the nail gun never runs out of nails there's a flow yeah and to use the Eastern religion word of Zen okay I'll tell you what the camera drives the Zen from the job site yeah the Zen's gone the camera so pornate staring through the lens of a camera day after day after week after month getting terabytes of data of his dad working then having to go home and grind through it again multiple times So that's its own exhaustion but I equate a camera pointed at you when you're working to a security guard with an M16 now you know he's probably not going to shoot you but you can never forget that he's standing there so like on that house that we built I would be getting deep into some calculations about beam Heights and rafter lengths and peace count and then bam the camera would shift my attention back to oh man everybody who's gonna what do I want them to see uh they would say Dad Dad I can edit that out but still I could never just lean back and and recapture the Zen of the previous 40 years because the camera was it's a difference between singing in the shower and singing into a microphone where you know 60 or 70 or 80 or a million people are going to be listening to it you know do you think that that is connected to maybe I I don't I don't want to say insecurity because I don't think you're inside oh say it say it there's a huge insecurity incredible camera okay okay I mean yeah I do you have anything to be insecure about I mean ultimately you know confidence is not built by shouting you know Alex Alex hermosi I don't know if you've seen this guy I love this guy he said a great quote he said uh confidence is not built by shouting affirmations in the mirror but by doing something enough times that you know you're not going to get it wrong or you know about there right right how you know can I say 40 years of experience I mean yeah more than that I'm 65 and I went to work when I was 17 so that's yeah 45 years yeah experience like so yeah yeah I've got I've got a pretty good confidence level yeah you know maybe that that needs to maybe your viewers actually want to see more of that but maybe they want to see more mistakes because the fact is if you're not making mistakes you're not getting anything done okay okay but man I don't want to show all the mistakes on the on the channel we show some sure you know because you got to you've just got to I mean if it's like talking with clouds crowds and keeping your virtue if you mess up and if it's an interesting mess up darn it you owe it to those people to let them see it sure but that doesn't mean it's easy to do that and it doesn't mean that it doesn't trigger some insecurity so if you'll indulge me I'd like to Circle back to your question about Journey sure two things that I didn't mention that just have to be mentioned first is authors books yeah okay there were some authors that were my companions yeah okay um that made a world of difference because the value of reading books is you get a window into the way another person thinks you get a front row seat to their thought process and you can learn not just from what they're saying but from how they're thinking and whatever facility I have with words now yeah and Expression A lot of it came from reading the words of other people who were putting their words down in as careful away as they could yep and so you read how someone who can think orders their words carefully boom and you can own it plus the knowledge the wisdom yes so the companionship of good authors yes and mentors um there have been people I told you I've worked with hundreds of men a small fraction were mentors okay but that that people the people the person the 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 or two mentors that you can find and cultivate and enter into a give and take relationship with will put your journey on a trajectory to happiness quicker and to fulfillment using Peterson's words quicker and less painfully than a lot of other influences absolutely will will do so mentors and authors yeah absolutely that's huge wow I think that that never stops I hope so yeah I think it never stops I've learned and something that I'm learning at least I pray that I'm learning is this principle of humility um the lower you go the higher you go bingo Bingo you know and pride being the antithesis of that the higher you raise yourself up the Greater your fall yeah and actually I don't even think that there's even like a you know it might look that way that oh you know someone's getting prideful and then they fall later I think it's right away it's yeah I think because when you when you immediately start getting in this position of arrogance you close yourself to receive from others this is a really powerful principle yes something that I've learned and I'm learning okay so um I just share this as a friend no way you're trying to teach just please just share as a friend so I I learned this from a from a minister Chris Valentin I respect a lot he's in in Redding California he brought up he he choosed on this principle you know how the Bible says that the oil flowed from Aaron's head down his beard this principle of Honor when you honor somebody when you sit at someone's feet so to speak this is awesome and you honor them you put yourself in a position to receive whatever's on their life and in that moment when you do that it's not even about the person like giving it to you or something like that the Lord already steps in and says wow like look how humble this guy is this is a highlight to me I'm gonna open up the valve for whatever blessing or or whatever you want to call is on this person's life that he's honoring and it's gonna flow down to you because you put yourself in a position of humility and honor what is honor honor is humility and action so if you can have the carry the humility to sit at someone's feet and just honor them listen to them respect them be in that humble position you will start to open up valves from all over things that you didn't even think were there yeah you're just gonna start flowing into your life that sounded like a little bit spiritual but like in Practical terms what does that mean when someone's arrogant and prideful there's scales over their eyes and plugs in their ears they don't see that down here they only see themselves when someone is humble and selfless the scales are off their eyes the plugs are off their ears it's almost like they're they're just opened another valve in their mind and they they see they hear they understand they listen and you're so much susceptible so quickly to learn and grow this this is humility I believe that the most successful people on the planet are actually the most humble people on the planet I would have to agree I I think that humility and teachability are synonyms absolutely okay absolutely and I think that that pride and ignorance unteachability so so arrogance is certainly the easiest part of Pride to identify I mean we can smell arrogance on a person yes I in my experience and opinion the fundamental sort of characteristic of the pride that really stops us from learning is enmity resentment yes hostility opposition no thank you yeah you know I'm not changing you change I'm not changing that's the worst band the plugs in the ears the scales on the eyes and there's no one quite so blind you know cliches somebody that just doesn't want to see you know that is true blindness right I think that's you can't really say it better also I even think furthermore pride is the one thing that I think God can't work with that's right yeah you know because if you don't want like he's not gonna force him he's not gonna force himself and so if you don't want to work or change okay well then we're gonna pause here until you so maybe you maybe yeah maybe you think I'm just seeing this in business too like I'm ultimately you know your journey you're you have been on a journey and are on a journey you know my journey is much shorter than yours at the time but like even in this short Journey that I've been on like I've changed so much and I'm still changing and I'm still I feel like I'm getting exposed every day of still things that need to change in my thinking and in my heart and in my mentality on things and you you have to carry human you have to be so willing to be wrong it's not about being right it's about it's about doing the right thing that's right you know what I mean I don't care if I'm ultimately wrong and I need to change or apologize like I don't it doesn't bother me power in that yeah that's right and it's because most people would rather be right than happy yeah you know yeah you give me a choice between being seen as being right or living a happy life yeah I'm gonna be right yeah no matter how bad it hurts yeah like man that's dumb yeah 100 and like this thing even like I'll say um with with our way that we do the customer experience and customer service you know will and I was sharing this with Nate earlier will and I are very logical Fair honest guys at the core meaning like a plus b equals c one one is two like very very this way and so we we set up our policy systems customer so in in that way unfortunate not unfortunately that the reality is that not everyone is that one that's right and so what's what's the goal is the goal to be again right or is the goal to make people happy have a good customer service experience so if the goal is have a good customer service experience you have to be wrong a lot there you go you know and so that wow that was a that was a good way to say it yeah you have to be wrong a lot in order to make people happy you have to be wrong yeah and be able to accept that yeah and just be okay with it yeah and also it's it's double hard now because this is my father's business yeah yeah and his initials are our logo yeah and so there's a sense of Pride and emotionalism but that's him that's it's not immaturity it's immature to make that the hill that you die on it's human it's human to do that and it's better to have a bigger vision and a wiser understanding it's about the bigger goal so that's personally the journey that I'm on right now over the last like I would say really heavily the last couple weeks letting go of that and just understanding listen you know Scott customers there's all kinds of people most of them are awesome most of them are great but not all of all of them and some of them really just it doesn't matter how many rules or signs or Warnings or you know um reason you try to you know instill it just doesn't work and for lack of a better term sometimes you just have to let people walk over you yes because it's just about doing whatever good to make them happy because the worst thing is when someone who's upset goes and and and it doesn't want to talk to you anymore and then they they vent all of this upsettiness and it's just a mess I I so don't want that and that doesn't even just feel good for me as as a business because we want to be successful we want to have successful sure interactions so you know it's just about do whatever you got to do to to have a good experience over and over and over over and over and over again and so you know back to your point about humility that requires humility because I have to be open to the fact that this is not the way it's it's not working like this we gotta change do it better and so will and I are super super humble in this area we are willing to change on a dime we're willing to change this on a dime fix this correct this I think that's ultimately if not the only path to success one of the only paths to success the only path to fulfillment and happiness I I like that it is I like that I mean there's lots of paths to success but not many like yeah one straight and narrow right okay so I heard that one you know to this point um so we're coming out here I don't know in a month or two how to be more confident um no we already did that one oh how do how to be more motivated at work yeah okay yeah and I had an opportunity in that monologue to talk about another wonderful C.S Lewis quote that humility this is not exactly the way framed it for our conversation humility does not mean thinking less of ourselves it means thinking of ourselves less yes how huge is that huge you know it's so huge just think of one of oneself less yeah so at first the troll comments on the channel were hard to take yeah you're hard to take and finally nah it's all right well I don't know what motivated that person right then yeah it just doesn't matter yeah also you know some hope and reassurances you know maybe there's other small businesses that are hearing this and you know you're doing something and you want to grow you know um if you made a mistake or something didn't work out someone's unhappy whatever it's never the end of the world figure it out make sure it doesn't happen again yeah and and continue yeah you know the world is Big America is big and also I've seen like you know maybe there was an unsuccessful customer time goes by they they'll they they come back they remember they remember in their heart they knew they were unreasonable yeah and they will remember that they were treated or even if even if we were unreasonable in some area you know and and we okay I I agree you know it's like listen I I you know I'm totally we're changing we're growing I've just seen that like it's never it's it's this is just hope you know it's never the in the world don't make it emotional it's not about the personal side it's not about the personal attachment what is the issue pinpoint why did this happen was it a communication problem was it a system problem was it your sales you know point of sale system was it a production error whatever whatever whatever go dig find it clip it solve it fix it yeah do your best to apologize and do whatever you need to do for that particular situation and move on to the next thing the problem problem really bad problems come when you ignore don't fix the root but like ultimately prove that just keep going don't give up don't stop and again this is this is for five maybe ten percent the overwhelming majority of our customers 90 to 95 great experiences very happy good products and and you know you sometimes you feel like you know not everybody needs a paragraph email um answering a question most people they maybe just didn't catch something have a question or need something resolved and they just want okay quick answer solution and and move this one yeah just yeah exactly you know and so uh it's a growth it's there's no formula for it it's just principles which are do your absolute best continue to improve try to always get faster try to always have the right expectations and communicate those expectations and really like everything else kind of just figures itself out and will and I are just on this Relentless journey and I was you know we're talking about this with Nate earlier we just want to get better yeah in every way I just want to get better well then you will yeah then you you certainly will because that that is the desire of your heart yeah and you're gonna get it that's right no whether you soon or late you're gonna get it that's right I like it that's good yeah yeah just just want to know I have a technical question about your boot business sure you got a lot of old cool old sewing machines yeah yeah oh yeah oh yeah where you get the parts for those when they break so that's tough big deal that's a big deal so anytime that we are able to scoop up a machine we do and I've got a good a good stash you know of just machines back there but yes you can get parts so here's what's happening um the suppliers those parts there's less and less of them there are still a few around and what they'll do is they'll go and get it custom machined for us oh I see they can get it made they can get it made and then you know they'll Supply to us what I've been doing recently like I had a screw break on a on a trimming machine and it was you know some kind of special I don't even know oh the braiding was a was uh was reverse you know the the threads was reversed exactly you know and the head was was not a normal size it was something strange I don't remember the details and we have this great great machine shop in Spokane it's a father and a son he's probably in his 80s the sun is in his maybe you know late 50s and they have employees and stuff this is like their thing yeah yeah you know I brought it to him he looked at it looked at it looked at it looked at it he's like that's not standard I gotta make that looked at it looked at it looked at it yeah I can make that cool come come back two hours later he made it there it was you know there it was yeah so doing that I've been doing you know branching out doing that and also there has to be a bit of wisdom with just like technology if there's a a new machine that can do the same thing if not better you better be getting that you better be getting that machine because that machine is going to have support and parts and all that stuff yeah so it's it's a balance of both there is good stuff that they don't make anymore and there is stuff that they are making that is better there you go know sometimes like it's kind of this classic thing you could have oh well if it's old then it's the best right new stuff is crap that's not true it's true sometimes yeah it's not true all the time and so you know my my we have a really good balance my dad's in his 50s will and I are in our 20s my dad's super Progressive thinking but like sometimes you know the three of us will get in a room and it's nice to have this like okay well I think this way okay but I see it this way and I see this way we always 99 of the time come to the same conclusion but it's good to have these differences of opinions vital importance and we are we're able to kind of like you know figure out a good a good solution but we're very Progressive thinking we're very like Hey listen just because they've been doing it this way for 100 years that doesn't mean that it's the best way to do it or even that it's the right way to do it we're open to different methods we're open to whatever gets the best answer you know there you go now I will say confidently there are some things that they've been doing the same way for 100 years that I don't think you can make it any better that's true the way to do it that's real that exists that's the way to do it like um you know the old saying don't reinvent the wheel that's real that's true I I believe in that in the same sentence Scott I'm sure you can you know voice on this wow there are some things that are done that it's just like they don't even know why they're doing them they just do it because that's always the way it's been yeah that's it that is so I'm sorry that's so foolish it is foolish it is and so will and I thankfully and my dad are are progressive enough to identify that see the difference figure it out make it better move on so that was a long answer but mainly it's buying those old Machinery to have as a backup and then you know having those sources to machine you stuff yeah having good relationships with that one or two suppliers and then always just trying to get the new best a better updated version yeah yeah and honestly yes the the fact that the industry in America has died down yes it's harder to find but thankfully it's not that bad it's not that bad like our our main stitching machine are are um that Stitch through the souls you know they have updated versions of that this one that we use they don't make any more we use it because we're really comfortable with it and I've been stitching on it since I was 15. I know the machine really really well anytime we find one we try to we try to buy one you know I've got like 10 of them there you go you know that's there's some security in there yeah 10 of these things exactly and they're built I mean I can see that in the video you know it's all cast iron yeah you know it's one cam it's one camshaft is spinning I mean like the worst thing that can happen is it's already like these small parts that can break but I mean come on I mean those you know it's this one single Revolution these these you know spinning um gears inside I mean come on for that to break I don't know how many hun you know gotta run for 100 years you know it's like it's it's a cast time it's like an anvil yeah it's like how are you gonna break an ad it's like how are you gonna break well there are guys that can do it or at least that's the joke right so that's how our approach you know what about you I mean blacksmithing I don't think it's is it is it is it growing is it upgrading is it oh yeah is it really it is yeah the craft was rediscovered in the 60s and 70s it just about passed out of existence because of arc welders and lathes and Milling machines you know and a lot of anvils were scrapped World War II you know just scrap iron like a lot but then the artist community as artists do always looking for new ways to express their their gift that will maybe I can sculpt with steel well how do I make steel conform to the shapes I'm thinking of oh wait a minute blacksmiths used to make and so just before the last of the old blacksmiths died out these artists got a hold of them started picking their brains and there was a Resurgence and now it's one of the fastest growing Hobbies there is largely driven for the last 10 years by forged in fire very good show right very cool but uh cool yeah I mean there are induction forges now you know what an induction forward yeah I've seen that yeah you can put a piece of Steel in there in 30 seconds it's hot yep but the induction Forge remains cold you know and so and of course there's yeah yeah so blacksmithing uses the successful blacksmiths use every new innovation so my great grandfather was was a blacksmith yep yep so that that you know craft craftsmanship with your hands is yes it's in it's in it's in the DNA it's in the DNA heart hard to get away that's terrific and I think that you know doing what we're doing with building building a business in a company and doing this crap it's so it's Unique because how can you take this old world craft but now turn it into something Sleek sharp efficient good you know it's a challenge yeah there it is that's Sleek that's Sleek that's sharp there you go and I'll bet it's efficient there you go I gotta put my foot in there and see if it fits that's right you know so that's that's always part of the challenge and then you know furthermore I mean I maybe I should I shouldn't say it but pleasing people yeah please you're in the retail business buddy pleasing people it's a hard business retail's hard if if I was selling boots to people who only like which most of our customers do but like they don't really care about the details they just need the function awesome right but then you have customers that they're they're not only about function they're about this and that too form and function form and function form has to follow function but some people don't see it that way at all right right and I want to say too like I don't want to make it seem like our customers are difficult we have great people let me let me tell you Scott like the the major major like I said that that 95 you know kind of a customer there they're good honest hard-working yeah quality people yeah and their customers because they recognize a quality product Yep they're drawn you know and that's what what an honor what a pleasure the overwhelming majority are great awesome wonderful people that we feel a pride to to do stuff for yeah I've gotten people have bought us lunch people have bought us pizza people have sent us Christmas cards and Christmas gifts and sweets and and I've had cases of beer sent to me and um you know people write us nice emails all the time and it's always so nice to get that stuff that's so encouraging it's energizing it's 100 the the unfortunate flip side of that is that sometimes it feels like the negative stuff hits you harder than the good stuff hits you these things come in Cycles yeah but just you know focus on the good and the good gets better and I'm so proud of of what we've done and what we've built and I'm excited to keep going and I'm I feel an overwhelming sense of Pride to build quality stuff or quality people who honor it value it and you feel needed you feel wanted you feel desired and also I feel was good like I'm not selling you know spidget finners sure yeah you know I mean excuse me fidget fidget we know what you meant yeah you know fidget Spinners you know it's it's it's simple but it's it's profound and everybody needs it and everybody everybody can't really get away from it can you no you can't I think you probably experienced similar feelings doing the Contracting doing the carpentry you know building a home for somebody everybody needs very rewarding everybody needs you know and you also I'm sure have dealt with the flip side of it too you know oh yeah yeah better not to talk about it better not to talk about it just kind of Let It Fade You Can Let It Fade that's good right um so you know Nate told me are you so are you still taking on Contracting work not really not right now I'm building no it YouTube has grown to where the people call me to do stuff and I only have one criteria is it content yeah if it's content maybe but in Oregon without my contractor's license is on inactive status I see that means I cannot I can't do improvements to real property like legally Legally yeah can't do it yeah and and when I say and be paid for it that means if they buy me lunch yeah I'm in violation and I could I could end up paying a fine wow so occasionally I take something but it's some usually it's just a blacksmith for instance we've got a a table base to Smith and a chandelier to Smith but I'm not going to install it in the property I'll make it right here and then they will just take it with them so I do that for the content I see and uh and I'm building a building for my a map for Amanda my daughter and her family because it's my pleasure to do that for them you know and nobody can get you for that right well if they were paying me they could give me you know but they're not paying me that's right I couldn't take money from my kiddos for doing that that's right you know so yeah that's really nice so let me see if I can recite my poem yeah okay let me see if I can do that go for it and that you can cut this out of course I don't know if we will I think you might um If by Rudyard Kipling if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it upon you if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you and yet make allowance for their doubting too if you can wait and not be tired by waiting if being lied about you cannot deal in lies if being hated you cannot give way to hating and yet not look too good nor talk too wise if you can dream and not make make dreams your master if you can think and not make thoughts your aim if you can meet with Triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools or see the things you gave your life to broken and stoop and build them up with worn out tools if you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone and so hold on with nothing in you accept the will which says to them hold on if you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you if all men count with you but none too much if you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run yours is the Earth and everything that's in it and which is more you'll be a man my son well is that a beautiful thing I called for a shot of water that does call for a shot wow that was something yeah yeah wow anyway I didn't I didn't expect that out of essential grasp well there you go that was good thank you that was really good thanks for coming down here Scott thank you for taking the time I'm going so far out of your way it's a pleasure seriously it's a pleasure yeah I I I've enjoyed it a lot you know I there's so much honor respect keep doing what you're doing as a fan let me just throw some encouragement out it's awesome thank you we love it thank you don't quit I'll try run the race I'm trapped by my own byline of keeping up the good work I love it I love it cool okay thanks guys for tuning in we'll see on the next one bye-bye bye