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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Robert Smigel with Canada's podcast where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in Alberta.
[00:13] SPEAKER_00: Today, our guest is Brad Warren from Calgary, Alberta.
[00:17] SPEAKER_00: Brad started his first business at the age of 32 years old during the heart and center of the pandemic.
[00:24] SPEAKER_00: Fast forward to today, he has founded more than six startup companies in a quiet and majority or minority equity in eight more.
[00:33] SPEAKER_00: He is involved in automotive construction, real estate, e-commerce, sportswear, accounting and the list goes on.
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: Most of the time he is spent at our invisible empire, which is his company, but also spends a lot of time working in other companies and respected industries.
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: Brad and his wife have two children and we're closely together running their businesses.
[00:55] SPEAKER_00: They don't have a flashy lifestyle, but do live a very busy life and he wouldn't want to have it any other way.
[01:04] SPEAKER_00: Brad, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[01:07] SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you taking the time to share your entrepreneurial journey with all our listeners.
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: I absolutely know. I appreciate you having me on.
[01:15] SPEAKER_00: Great. Okay, let's get started here.
[01:18] SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit more about yourself and your current business. I know you've got a lot going on, but maybe give us a real short version of what exactly do you do with all these companies?
[01:27] SPEAKER_00: And how can you spread yourself so vast to doing a lot of different things with a lot of different companies? How do you do all that?
[01:33] SPEAKER_01: I have a talented wife, very, very blessed to have some amazing staff and you know, background and experience of large scale management, delegation, structure, process.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: And if you stay within that, it doesn't mean we're perfect all the time.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: We probably make more mistakes than anyone and spread thin, but yeah, you can you can make it happen.
[01:57] SPEAKER_01: You just you have to be very disciplined and you have to have very, very good support staff and make sure you have all the people that are very strong in areas that you're very weak.
[02:06] SPEAKER_00: Okay, what inspired you and motivated you to be an entrepreneur? I imagine you've had jobs in the past and so forth.
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: What was that moment or time? I was you say, you know what? I think I can do this on my own.
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, that's that's a good question. I I will always say I think even from high school, I've always wanted to start my own business.
[02:26] SPEAKER_01: We started even doing a business plan, me and a buddy of mine and you know, and it would have been grade 12, I left school early and got into the workforce.
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: So I don't recommend that to anybody now, but it seemed to work out for me. But I think when I was 18 years old, me and my buddy started a business plan, went to the banks, met with BDC.
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: Like we were very close to actually getting our own thing going back then. So I can remember wanting to do that from even 1617.
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: And then I got on the tools, kind of found a trade, did what people did and paid the bills and party and was young and whatever.
[02:59] SPEAKER_01: And then I was blessed to hook up with my mentor and the founder of a retail service business at the time.
[03:06] SPEAKER_01: And I think that job, I worked in that job, grew within the company, became a shareholder, got on the board of directors eventually when it became public.
[03:15] SPEAKER_01: And to be honest, I think that job gave me the insight as close to an entrepreneur as I could be like I was commissions, very heavy bonus.
[03:24] SPEAKER_01: My bonuses were rated much more heavier to my salary. So I was in so much control of my income, depending on performance. I mean, how many different clients, how many different businesses, did you bring on?
[03:36] SPEAKER_01: How many different stores and provinces and cities did we scale to? And I think I fell in love with the hustle in that area.
[03:43] SPEAKER_01: So I actually think that job kept me from starting my own business for a very long time.
[03:50] SPEAKER_01: So I think that decade and that job was probably as close to it. And then as soon as we were kind of done with that and I moved on from that situation, it was just a, it was a given. There was really no other thought.
[04:01] SPEAKER_01: So it was just kind of picking up where I guess my thought process was when I was younger before I found that career that I sunk my teeth into.
[04:09] SPEAKER_01: And there was no thought process coming out of that, going to work for somebody else and not even 1%.
[04:14] SPEAKER_00: Right. So you said, obviously, this, you're going on on your own, you need financing.
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: How did you get the financing and how do you currently make money in the business now since you've got all these different things going on?
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: Obviously, break it down for me.
[04:30] SPEAKER_01: We didn't, we got financing for we did our very first startup company June 1st of 2020, which was Boulevard Auto Glass.
[04:38] SPEAKER_01: I always had the idea of invisible empire being a small business kind of my main company that supports all the companies, a small business and entrepreneur support center.
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: I always had that idea. I kind of visioned it right from the beginning, but you needed to start somewhere. Probably some of the biggest mistakes I made was doing too much too quick of the gate.
[04:56] SPEAKER_01: Probably should have focused on some of the startup companies instead of trailing off, but so we founded Boulevard Auto Glass and that financing we got from a government startup loan through a bank and then past that not.
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: I would even what I say due to intelligence, I'm not sure now, but me and my wife actually financed the majority of everything moving forward.
[05:20] SPEAKER_01: My wife owns and we started together a credited accounting firm. So my wife owns White Raven Accounting, which is one of our more profitable companies.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: So that was able to back a lot of some of the other companies during the startup time.
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: And we also were blessed to have high earnings at a young age. We worked very hard in our job.
[05:41] SPEAKER_01: So we had, I wouldn't say we had lots of money, but I would say we had lots of open debt. And so for the course of the first couple of years, not maybe as educated as we should be, we leveraged that open debt much more than we profitfully should have.
[05:58] SPEAKER_01: So we probably financed a lot more of it than we would have liked at the time.
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want you to give me one piece of knowledge or information about your industry that you can share that would benefit our listeners.
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: I know that you've got a lot of industries, but maybe narrow it down to the invisible empire.
[06:15] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean auto glass accounting sportswear promotional products that stuff's pretty pretty neat. I mean, not it might not benefit, but with White Raven accounting and invisible empire.
[06:29] SPEAKER_01: Who network and shop who you're dealing with.
[06:32] SPEAKER_01: We have come a cro, like if it could, if I could say anything with any businesses out there, don't get complacent with the people that are either providing your services or your subcontractors, if you're using a bookkeeper or an accounting firm, meet with a different one once a year.
[06:48] SPEAKER_01: If you're using a business consultant to a business coach or a bank, meet with different banks, do meet for using RBC meet with a TV.
[06:57] SPEAKER_01: That's one big thing we learn is especially with the accounting in the bookkeeping area.
[07:02] SPEAKER_01: We come across so many accountants and bookkeepers that are not looking out for the business is a big difference from just coding things and inputting data and sending billable hours versus actually looking out for the profitability of the small business.
[07:18] SPEAKER_01: So if you're using a marketing firm, meet with a different marketing firm. Don't get complacent and just think that everybody knows what they're doing because we're all in the same boat, whether we have fancy logos, websites, bricks and mortar office buildings.
[07:32] SPEAKER_01: We all make mistakes and there are people better out there than others. So I was one thing that I've learned is we consistently across 15, 16 companies now we shop suppliers, we shop.
[07:44] SPEAKER_01: Everybody that provides a services all our vendors we meet with at least once or twice a year.
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: And I think the biggest thing we've come across is that anything in business that are invisible empire we have such a wide range of services and we've changed things within businesses with just simple, simple things and it's these people's and professionals job to enlighten these businesses on changing these things and sometimes they just don't.
[08:10] SPEAKER_00: Okay, what is the long term vision of your company? Do you see your company expanding into other areas beyond Calgary Alberta or even Canada?
[08:20] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We focus quite a bit on Alberta right now. We're from Alberta, we've done business in Alberta for so long. So a lot of our branding is Alberta based and Alberta and operated. But yeah, once we get that under control and get that situated and get caught up with the demand.
[08:35] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, we won't stop, we'll go west, we'll go east and we'll try and put a rocket on Mars if we can and do whatever we can keep going.
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: My wife or just kind of like that we find the passion in creating and scaling and growing and believe it or not the bigger you get I find easier to get sometimes.
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're going to talk a little bit. You did mention Alberta and put that looks like we want to kind of dive into, you know, you're from Alberta, you're doing business Alberta.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: From someone outside who hasn't been to Alberta but maybe wants to come to Alberta, start a business with it that looks like has Alberta served you well as a business owner and entrepreneur.
[09:19] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I you know what I would say it has. I mean, we with invisible empire in our companies, we know no difference in operating in a pandemic, not strategy.
[09:28] SPEAKER_01: It just happened that way. We've got back into it and so.
[09:34] SPEAKER_01: But we even passed that in our careers. We've never really had issues finding jobs and then even the Alberta economy since we don't know any different than operating in a pandemic.
[09:45] SPEAKER_01: We don't know what it's like operating in a boom. We don't so it has served us well.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: The employee base is good. The one thing it's fast. It's very fast paced. It's very competitive.
[09:58] SPEAKER_01: And it's a competitive market in, you know, just in auto glass alone. I think there's 60, 70 auto glass.
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: You know, place is just here.
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: With big add budget. I imagine, right?
[10:09] SPEAKER_01: Some of them bigger than others. I mean, the main the main players absolutely have big add budgets and you know, it's kind of a little secret thing like Alberta.
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: We drop so much rocks on the road that auto glass is kind of that little area that, you know, people don't really think but then once they say, oh wow, yeah, there's a ton of rocks on the road. It makes sense to people.
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: But no, it has. I mean, it's tough in certain industries with construction and different things. The winters definitely kind of slow down.
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: But as long as you're running your forecast and your financials and your cash flow and stuff, all that stuff you can plan for.
[10:37] SPEAKER_01: So I would say Alberta served us very well, especially in my career or even prior to being an entrepreneur went through booms went through downs and Alberta's down time seem to be just less invasive than other down times in other areas.
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: So when you talked about downtime, how do you deal with beer and doubt like, you know, when you know, especially with code and when you guys started, you know,
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: during time to get started and how do you overcome that when it's like, okay, the odds might be stocked against us and the fear and doubt is creeping in and how do you overcome that?
[11:09] SPEAKER_01: We overcame it by lack of choice. We, we planned a couple businesses for almost six months to a year and then right around open date COVID hit.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: So we bought a commercial building February 26th signed the paperwork on it and then the pandemic was announced a week later.
[11:27] SPEAKER_01: And then we were going to start a big construction project on that building and then the lockdowns were announced a week later.
[11:32] SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was, it was definitely scary, but you know, resilience, I guess, I've always been, I guess I've always been that character that probably doesn't recognize the level of risks I do take.
[11:47] SPEAKER_01: So that probably helps just within my personality, but tightness, I mean, you plan things, be proactive, make sure you're managing your cash flow, your forecast.
[11:57] SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's so many businesses that we meet with on a regular basis that don't know whether the revenue is this per year or this per year, know your numbers.
[12:06] SPEAKER_01: If you know your numbers, that can limit some of the risks because you can plan for everything, whether you cut programs, whether you do this, whether you do that.
[12:15] SPEAKER_01: But you know, I don't know if I could share a big secret to it. I think we just, we got back into it.
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: It was a really bad circumstance with a lot of planning and we were kind of like, well, let's just, let's just fight our way through it.
[12:29] SPEAKER_01: And we've kind of been doing it ever since. So partly personality and then probably a lot of proactive planning, a ton of proactive planning.
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you sound like you're you're keen on delegation and trusting employees or people to take that earlier.
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: How do you how you bridge that and say I could trust you and run it because you've got a lot of different companies kind of, you know, that you got your hands in.
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: And where's that trust factor of delegation? And can you find good people and Alberta that you can really kind of say, hey, take, take the reins.
[13:01] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it's it's the culture we've created, I think it's hard for me. I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to swear on this podcast, but we'll throw it out there.
[13:13] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the smoke and the bullshit is kind of like our tagline with things like I just can't work with that.
[13:20] SPEAKER_01: If you're going to call in sick and you're going to lie about it, you're probably going to be removed from our organization.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: We hold a ridiculously high standard, hold people's feet to the fire on their commitments.
[13:32] SPEAKER_01: If they make a deadline and they can't hit it, communicate, communicate openly.
[13:37] SPEAKER_01: But you also have to be able to hire slow and fire fast.
[13:44] SPEAKER_01: It's it's kind of one of those things that you hear a lot, but it's waited true.
[13:49] SPEAKER_01: If an employee lies to you about something and you're 100% sure they're lying, move on.
[13:55] SPEAKER_01: And it's everybody gets caught in the fact of like, oh, I can't find another chef or oh, I can't hire another person.
[14:01] SPEAKER_01: And if you need hiring help, it's it's not hard to come to us.
[14:04] SPEAKER_01: We'll help you.
[14:05] SPEAKER_01: But keeping that person in the organization, keeping them affecting your other employee base.
[14:10] SPEAKER_01: And if you think that the other employees don't look at that person and say, why is he still here or she's still here, they are.
[14:18] SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I think we hold a very high standard.
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: We kind of make a career at a holding people's feet to the fire.
[14:24] SPEAKER_01: If they make a commitment, do it. We don't expect people to be perfect.
[14:27] SPEAKER_01: But I think it's the culture we create.
[14:29] SPEAKER_01: I probably admit to more mistakes than any of my staff combined.
[14:33] SPEAKER_01: I take more risks than any of my staff combined.
[14:35] SPEAKER_01: And I'm the person that'll come and say shit, sorry guys.
[14:40] SPEAKER_01: You know, I, or in my French, I fucked that up.
[14:42] SPEAKER_01: I'll learn from it. We'll move forward.
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: That's not on you guys. That's on leadership and direction.
[14:48] SPEAKER_01: And that was my error.
[14:50] SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I make errors for six months at a time.
[14:52] SPEAKER_01: I mean, direct things over to websites that shouldn't be worked on or you should be focusing on different areas.
[14:56] SPEAKER_01: And if when your staff can work for somebody that can acknowledge that they make mistakes and they aren't perfect and they don't go blame their staff or everything that's happening within the business.
[15:09] SPEAKER_01: I tell my staff all the time if you're not going to work for me, work for somebody that can admit their mistakes and doesn't put the businesses fault on the staff.
[15:18] SPEAKER_01: Because it's very rarely staff. It's going to be the leadership.
[15:21] SPEAKER_01: It's going to be the direction. It's going to be the structure.
[15:23] SPEAKER_01: It's going to be the vision of the company. It's very rarely staff.
[15:28] SPEAKER_01: The staff want to do a good job.
[15:29] SPEAKER_01: And if you have untrustworthy people in your organization, move on.
[15:33] SPEAKER_01: Move on. Don't don't sit and think about it for three months. Don't think you can't find somebody else because every time we've moved on from somebody that we've known is untrustworthy,
[15:44] SPEAKER_01: everything has gotten astronomically better very quickly.
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: Because you start realizing they weren't doing their job anyways and it actually creates more work within the organization on the other people.
[15:54] SPEAKER_01: So anytime we've been worried about moving on from somebody that doesn't is not a fit, everything's just magically aligned itself right after that.
[16:01] SPEAKER_01: And it just seems to happen that way.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about Alberta.
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: You're a very, very busy guy. You work with your wife.
[16:10] SPEAKER_00: How do you balance your life with?
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: I mean, you guys are obviously working together, but where do you kind of step away from it?
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: Maybe not even talk about work. Is there a kind of a after six o'clock?
[16:22] SPEAKER_00: Let's get back to our lies or is it constantly dragging it around the house?
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: Or what do you guys? How do you manage that?
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: You know, great question. I think my surprise to people, my wife would probably be more inclined to talk about business outside of business than even I am.
[16:41] SPEAKER_01: But you know, a lot of it lies within our relationship and what drives our passion.
[16:47] SPEAKER_01: Like our passion really is helping people.
[16:49] SPEAKER_01: You need to make money to keep your businesses going, but creation, passion, helping people.
[16:54] SPEAKER_01: And then like our kids are our life. Like we, I'm that dad that just is upset that if I'm not home for dinner.
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: So I mean, we love spending time with our kids. We love taking off and we'd both rather work.
[17:06] SPEAKER_01: You know, the old saying goes, we'd rather work 80 to 100 hours a week for ourselves than 40 or 50 hours a week for somebody else because me and my daughter will take off to can more on a Thursday because we feel like it.
[17:18] SPEAKER_01: Or my wife will just take a day on a Tuesday to take our son to the mall.
[17:22] SPEAKER_01: And we definitely balance that out. The staff in the delegation helps. We're both very good at that.
[17:27] SPEAKER_01: But within our personal life, we communicate a ton.
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: We're very equal. Like I mean, there is no, my wife does laundry and I don't.
[17:35] SPEAKER_01: We, we tag team pretty much everything from business to personal as well.
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: So a lot of its communication, a lot of its making time.
[17:44] SPEAKER_01: We try and clear both of our systems, clear our schedules on Fridays.
[17:47] SPEAKER_01: And we drive around together and visit small businesses and Calgary and try and bring awareness to them.
[17:53] SPEAKER_01: Or we decide to take our kids to Edmonton on Friday. And we really try and it's not that we get every Friday off, but we try and schedule it.
[18:01] SPEAKER_01: Like we try and actually schedule it. We schedule dinners together twice a month on Wednesday nights.
[18:06] SPEAKER_01: And it takes a lot of work and we're very busy.
[18:10] SPEAKER_01: But I don't really think we do it any other way. I think it works very well for us.
[18:14] SPEAKER_01: So at communication, schedule, structure, and just the passion were not those parents that want to, you know, not spend time with our kids or do that stuff.
[18:24] SPEAKER_01: So it's pretty easy within our personalities. One of our favorite thing to do is spend time as a family.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: Part of being much clearer is staying physically fit. Do you have a routine exercise routine that keeps you copier game?
[18:39] SPEAKER_01: I love to say yes, but you take in the smoke and the bullshit with it. Yes. I mean, me and my wife exercise pretty regularly.
[18:47] SPEAKER_01: We're up very early. So I'm kind of a 5 am to 5 30 kind of riser. I like the quiet.
[18:55] SPEAKER_01: I don't find I can do much past 8, 9 o'clock at night anyways. So, you know, if we're in bed at 9 30 10 gives us the ability to get up early.
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: I give me a wife sleep till 6 30 in the kid wakes us up. It's sheer panic.
[19:07] SPEAKER_01: Because then we haven't gotten an hour or two into our work day. I love nothing more than getting up at 5 and getting to all my emails.
[19:13] SPEAKER_01: Like by the time the rest of the world wakes up, I'm caught up on anything that I've got going in that morning.
[19:18] SPEAKER_01: So we exercise pretty regularly, whether it be at the wire, you know, I don't like exercising.
[19:24] SPEAKER_01: I mean, if people have, I love going to the gym. It's like, wow, teaching me how to love going to the gym.
[19:31] SPEAKER_01: It's a chore. It's a chore. It's a chore. I'm the guy that goes and exercises three times a day for three weeks before we go to colonis.
[19:38] SPEAKER_01: So I don't feel bad about it. Yeah. Yeah. I know a lot of home. Like my wife does a lot of Pilates at home and then my daughter is fell in love with it.
[19:45] SPEAKER_01: So now my daughter does it and she keeps us almost. But we go, we without a membership to the Y, that's been huge.
[19:51] SPEAKER_01: Because like we take the kids swimming all the time or basketball or pickle ball.
[19:55] SPEAKER_01: Like I'm that guy that has to mix interest in with exercise. So one of the and the buddy system helps.
[20:00] SPEAKER_01: Like when you load up the family and go to the Y and it's like, hey, we're going to go to the Y and I'm like, oh shit, okay, fine. All exercise.
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. So yeah, we have a little bit of routine, but waking up early is a big thing.
[20:10] SPEAKER_01: We get a couple hours in our day before anybody else. So.
[20:13] SPEAKER_00: Okay. If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession?
[20:17] SPEAKER_00: If everything just changed for you and money was not a factor and you could do it.
[20:22] SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're like, what would you do? Or be like something that you can say something outside of what you're doing now?
[20:28] SPEAKER_01: Probably outside sales.
[20:30] SPEAKER_01: Like power persuasion I find is one of the key skill sets in the world.
[20:35] SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you can master power persuasion, you can pretty much do anything and learn anything past that.
[20:41] SPEAKER_01: Maybe something in real estate or VRBOs. I mean, we love traveling with the kids and go into little neat towns and Kimberly BC and stuff like that and see a little house as we could renovate and have fun.
[20:51] SPEAKER_01: We have VRBOs there. We've always talked about doing that.
[20:54] SPEAKER_01: So maybe something in VRBO get a little bit of a less hectic schedule and, you know, maybe move out to 20 acres and start building little cottages that you can rent out.
[21:05] SPEAKER_01: But yes, our outside sales. I mean outside sales I've always loved.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of a cool little world because most people are afraid of it.
[21:13] SPEAKER_01: Not judgmental. They just are public speaking. I think it's number two or number three worst fear in the world.
[21:18] SPEAKER_01: I've always loved public speaking. So maybe public speaking. Not that I want to be a Tony Robbins or anything like that.
[21:24] SPEAKER_01: I like to open it myself. But yeah, helping people. Something in the area of outside sales. But it would be tough.
[21:30] SPEAKER_01: I don't know. I love what I'm doing right now so much that that's actually an interesting question. I haven't been asked that in a long time.
[21:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I touch on an interesting part of power persuasion. And I think that's one of the things that a lot of entrepreneurs don't really kind of turn so it because they may have their widget or software or app.
[21:47] SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is. But being able to sell that I think you know, is watching an interview with Mark Cuban. And he said, you know, if you're not sure your salesman.
[21:56] SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in that 100%?
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: Oh, 100%.
[22:01] SPEAKER_01: My, me and my wife, I was, I, I, people say I was born with a gift for gab. And I don't know if that's true or not.
[22:07] SPEAKER_01: But my mental kind of figured out, hey, stop working with your hands, start working with your brain and your voice. And that was the opportunity I got at a young age to do that.
[22:15] SPEAKER_01: And then when you spend time with people who are very good at it, I was blessed to spend time with a lot of older people when I was younger and I don't mean older, but in their mid 30s, like early 40s and they were very good talkers.
[22:27] SPEAKER_01: And you pick up on it. And my wife spending so much time with me, she's, she's phenomenal at that.
[22:33] SPEAKER_01: But she's picked up on a lot of my tendencies in my area of sales and I've picked up on her softness as well. But yeah, I believe that 100%.
[22:41] SPEAKER_01: If someone came to me and said, what would be the number one skill set an entrepreneur should have?
[22:46] SPEAKER_01: Sales ability, power persuasion. And it's not, not sales when you walk into a brick furniture store and you get bombarded by salespeople trying to do it.
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: No, no, just today.
[22:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And it's like, I'll feed it.
[22:58] SPEAKER_01: You know, no, it's, how do you sit and have conversations with banks?
[23:02] SPEAKER_01: How do you make sure lawyers aren't trying to just billable hours? How do you express your concerns with your accountant?
[23:08] SPEAKER_01: How do you lead your team? How do you communicate to them openly?
[23:12] SPEAKER_01: It power persuasion goes into so many areas that it's not just trying to convince people to buy a product or trying to convince people to renovate their house.
[23:20] SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's a lot of that is done by computer programs and good branding and software now.
[23:25] SPEAKER_01: It's much more about being able to carry an intellectual or non-intellectual conversation with anybody from any level of things.
[23:32] SPEAKER_01: It helps your business on every angle. If people have trouble communicating, I truly believe entrepreneurship will be, they will have more difficulty in their own business than they need to be.
[23:46] SPEAKER_01: If they're scared of communication or have trouble with it, absolutely.
[23:49] SPEAKER_00: So you are to advise an entrepreneur who's starting out, you would probably tell them sales and communication ability is key.
[23:57] SPEAKER_01: 100%. It's so key.
[24:00] SPEAKER_01: You know, knowing your numbers, but you can hire people for that if you hire someone.
[24:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. There's a lot.
[24:05] SPEAKER_01: You know, I learned a lot in the digital world and you can hire people for that.
[24:10] SPEAKER_01: There's you can you hire salespeople?
[24:12] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[24:13] SPEAKER_01: But if you're not a good salesperson, how do you number one know that they're doing a good job or how do you lead them moving forward?
[24:20] SPEAKER_01: I would say it's number one.
[24:22] SPEAKER_01: In my opinion, I might be biased to it, but oh, absolutely.
[24:27] SPEAKER_01: Read as many books as you can.
[24:28] SPEAKER_01: Repetition.
[24:30] SPEAKER_01: Repetition.
[24:30] SPEAKER_01: I mean, networking.
[24:31] SPEAKER_01: I mean, even if you're a bad communicator, go get an outsider.
[24:34] SPEAKER_01: Go work at McDonald's or a retail place like you got to get experience communicating with people.
[24:40] SPEAKER_01: It's huge.
[24:41] SPEAKER_01: Are you?
[24:42] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[24:43] SPEAKER_00: Are you a big reader?
[24:44] SPEAKER_00: Do you have any books you could recommend?
[24:46] SPEAKER_01: I go.
[24:47] SPEAKER_01: Wow.
[24:48] SPEAKER_01: I think I to be completely honest, I've probably read actual flip pages, read five or less books in my life.
[24:56] SPEAKER_01: But I listen to audiobooks.
[24:58] SPEAKER_01: It readings not my thing, but I will listen to audiobooks quite a bit.
[25:03] SPEAKER_01: Listen to a lot of podcasts from a lot of good people, but Carnegie has some really good books on people.
[25:11] SPEAKER_01: And I mean, there's so many good audiobooks out there right now, but I would say extreme ownership would be.
[25:20] SPEAKER_01: We make our staff read extreme ownership and not that we make it part of when they're start, but I wasn't that, but that's a book written by the Navy Seals.
[25:27] SPEAKER_01: 100%.
[25:28] SPEAKER_01: It's got to be I would say it's hands down not only my favorite book that I've ever read or listened to, but also the most effective in confirming the culture we create and confirming how diligent we are holding that standard.
[25:46] SPEAKER_01: It's unmatched.
[25:47] SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you, if you possess the power of extreme ownership and acknowledgement and self awareness, wow, your life is so much easier in every single relationship you have.
[25:55] SPEAKER_01: So I think it's extreme ownership every human that resides in the country should either listen to it or read it.
[26:01] SPEAKER_00: I think we have our society would change immediately, especially if you're an entrepreneur, I guess that would be like a must or you embark upon your own business.
[26:11] SPEAKER_01: If you're absolutely not only holding yourself accountable, but if you plan on having any staff or growing extreme owner.
[26:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, best, best book out there.
[26:19] SPEAKER_01: I would recommend it to everybody.
[26:20] SPEAKER_00: Do you have any two words that would describe yourself if someone said describe yourself into words, what would it be?
[26:29] SPEAKER_01: Oh, relentless in a good way.
[26:37] SPEAKER_01: Persistent.
[26:38] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, which I guess are kind of the same.
[26:41] SPEAKER_01: So maybe a slash of persistent and relentless.
[26:45] SPEAKER_01: And then I'd probably throw creative in there, even to a point of detriment with extreme ownership.
[26:51] SPEAKER_01: I don't give a shit about it.
[26:52] SPEAKER_01: I'm hitting my faults, but I have a very creative mind.
[26:55] SPEAKER_01: I love creating whether it be processes, whether it be financials, whether it be new logos, new companies, new websites, new platforms.
[27:03] SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the sometimes the operations and the money need to come ahead of the creativity.
[27:08] SPEAKER_01: And I've gotten caught definitely in the first three, four years, putting the creativity ahead of the operations, which then you need the persistence to power through your fuck ups when you put the creative ahead of that.
[27:20] SPEAKER_01: So I really, I'm mixture between those three words.
[27:24] SPEAKER_00: Good.
[27:25] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[27:26] SPEAKER_00: You did mention earlier mentors, people that obviously have guided you along away in some way, shape or form.
[27:33] SPEAKER_00: As any mentor or anyone has given you advice, you've received that you can pass on to our commercial account.
[27:40] SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that someone has told you that resonated with you that said, you know what?
[27:44] SPEAKER_00: We've mentioned a lot of things here, but anything that kind of stood out as saying or something that you say, you know what?
[27:51] SPEAKER_00: This is great advice.
[27:54] SPEAKER_01: Mickey Mouse can never have a bad day.
[27:57] SPEAKER_01: The owner of the company I worked for at the time, he founded that company and I was lucky to be a part of the scale and the growth of that business.
[28:06] SPEAKER_01: And that he gave me a lot of those interesting quotes and a lot of the far from perfect, there's mentors that pay you to tolerate them.
[28:14] SPEAKER_01: And then there's mentors you choose and there's all sorts of different mentors.
[28:18] SPEAKER_01: You have to take the good with the bad, but Mickey Mouse can never have a bad day.
[28:21] SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
[28:23] SPEAKER_01: Mickey Mouse shows up to Disneyland and he's stumbling and he's grumpy and he's tired and he isn't slept for an hour and he just doesn't feel like communicating with the kids or he doesn't feel like walking around and being bubbly.
[28:35] SPEAKER_01: Mickey Mouse is just not allowed to have a bad day.
[28:38] SPEAKER_01: He has to show up to his job every single day and be Mickey Mouse because there's kids and there's hundreds of thousands of people rolling into that place.
[28:46] SPEAKER_01: If you own a company, you start a company and you have one staff member, you have four staff members, you have 20 staff members, it's not your staff's problem with what's going on.
[28:57] SPEAKER_01: You have to be as consistent as you can.
[28:59] SPEAKER_01: If you're falling apart over here, your marriage is on the rocks and you're fine, you can't put that burden on your staff because as much as you want to be close to them and include them and I'm friends with numerous of my staff and I'm very close.
[29:10] SPEAKER_01: I come in here, I try to, I'm not perfect, but I would hope my staff would say that I come in here with the same smile, the same tone, the same voice, no matter what.
[29:21] SPEAKER_01: If we're not being paid for a big construction project, if we just lost and couldn't open a new location, I don't come in here and put that on them, you have to be consistent.
[29:31] SPEAKER_01: The direction has to be consistent and your image and not so much your image, but the perception of the owner has to always display a positive moving forward.
[29:41] SPEAKER_01: So I mean, that's one that's always stuck to me because I actually find I practice that pretty heavily every day. I'm the same.
[29:46] SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, how's it going and everything's the same with me regardless of what I have going on outside the business.
[29:52] SPEAKER_01: So Mickey Mouse can never have a bad day, owners can't have a bad day.
[29:55] SPEAKER_01: Sounds harsh, but it's very, very true.
[29:58] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's kind of funny because you know, you're human, you have everyday problems, but you would you come to the stage of your business, you've got to put on a good show and make sure that everyone's part of the vision and because you're the one driving the ship, right?
[30:14] SPEAKER_00: And if you're looking like everything's falling apart and then oh my god drama, you can't you know, portray that because it's the steady steady keel.
[30:26] SPEAKER_00: I think that it is again.
[30:28] SPEAKER_01: It is an aid, a special staff turnover, staff retention, like staff do a good job when they believe in the direction that they're going in the direction of the business.
[30:36] SPEAKER_01: And I'm not saying you can't have bad days. I have bad days all the time. I have stressful stuff like interest rates go up, interest rates don't go up in one company for us.
[30:46] SPEAKER_01: They go up in 16. So of course it affected us. Of course it hurt us and but I don't come in here for an hour and have a meeting and take out my stress and some big meeting.
[30:55] SPEAKER_01: Everybody needs to sell more because interest rates are going up. You know, you have to stay consistent.
[31:00] SPEAKER_01: And if you're having that bad of a day where you just don't feel like you can put on that face, I work from home that day.
[31:08] SPEAKER_01: I go do outside sales calls that day. I go do site visits. I put a lot of effort in trying to structure my life so that that doesn't bleed onto your staff because it's not that you can't.
[31:19] SPEAKER_01: It's not that you have to be perfect. It's that your business has to come first.
[31:23] SPEAKER_01: And staff retention is one of the most difficult things that small business owners deal with like a staff member quits. It's just it's a big deal.
[31:31] SPEAKER_01: And that helps a lot with staff retention. If they believe in the positive direction of the business staff don't want to work in a place where it's all bad news all the time.
[31:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Brad, we're going to wrap things up. How can your listeners get hold of you? Is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[31:48] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. I mean, they check out our website, www.rinvisibleempire.com like our OUR. We have all our social channels. You can find those through the website.
[31:58] SPEAKER_01: And you know, I mean, the biggest thing I would say is if you're struggling, if the biggest thing we meet with entrepreneurs and we take pitch meetings and we help them and get involved in business.
[32:08] SPEAKER_01: And I would say the number one thing is that they don't want to be doing it by themselves anymore. And they feel like if they get support, you can get support from a marketing firm or an accounting firm or all these different things.
[32:20] SPEAKER_01: But it's hard. Are you paying these people to support you? And are they supporting you or are they racking up billables?
[32:26] SPEAKER_01: So I mean, the biggest thing is people don't want to be by themselves. And there's no shame in them. Come in, you know, if you want to come see us and come chat like it.
[32:33] SPEAKER_01: That's the biggest thing we're getting involved in is people just want to be a part of more of a team. And that's what our invisible empire provides like we just provide a support center where they can be rest assured that they're not just getting dinged on retainers every month or different things.
[32:48] SPEAKER_01: We align themself with them. And we really honestly are just here to help. We love helping people and we probably should have made a lot more money than we should.
[32:55] SPEAKER_01: But we've helped a lot of businesses in the process. So if you're struggling and you think you got three months left or you're doing good and you want to scale and you just are tired of going at it by yourself and need someone, you know, give us a call.
[33:06] SPEAKER_01: And we'd be happy to meet and talk business with anybody. We're not those suit and ties all this that people see our website. And it's just that's not the case with us. We run around and track pants and just chat business and see how we can do good things.
[33:18] SPEAKER_00: Good. Okay. Brad, thanks for coming on the show. I've learned a lot about you. And I'm sure our listeners have as well.
[33:25] SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate you having me. Absolutely.
[33:27] SPEAKER_01: Great. We'll see you next time.
