Lighting for Profits - Episode 159

Jonathan Maynard is an entrepreneur, husband, and father of three. Formerly in IT, he transitioned to building and scaling three successful home service companies, generating multiple seven-figure annual sales. With over 20 years of leadership experience, Jonathan now helps business owners overcome challenges and achieve their goals. As a professional keynote speaker, he offers insights on personal efficiency, time management, and business development to enhance organizational performance.

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We discuss everything you need to know to start and grow a successful landscape lighting business

Welcome to lighting for profits. All Light, All Light, All Light. Powered by Emery Allen. Get rid of your excuses. Your number one source for all things landscape lighting. That's where the magic can happen. You can really scale a business.

We really had to show up for each other.

From lighting design, install, sales, and marketing.

You're a scaredy cat salesman, Kurt.

We discuss everything you need to know to start and grow a successful landscape lighting business.

What do you think a hippo has to do with your business, Ryan?

Usually it's some weird childhood thing, some bullying kicks your butt. I think the key factor here is trust.

Ryan Lee hosts the number one landscape lighting show in Fredericksburg, Virginia

Here is your host, Ryan Lee. A, lot, a lot of light. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the number one show. I guess I should just say the number one landscape lighting show in Fredericks. Fredericksburg, Virginia. It's lighting for profits. Check out that new t shirt, lighting for profits. Powered by Emery Allen. Trying to flex. When you don't have muscle, it's hard to flex. but, yeah, powered by Emery Allen. Check out these new t shirts. In fact, later today, I think we're gonna give it away. There are limited edition shirts. We're gonna give one away. If you. If you answer one question correctly about the show or about something. I don't know. I gotta figure something out. But, guys, I'm excited to be with you today. we've got an amazing show lined up. We got Jonathan Maynard, red Door lighting company, actually owns several companies. And, just an awesome dude. I did a video, late, earlier today on my, social, on Facebook, and it was like I was trying to think, okay, how do I tell people who Jonathan Maynard is and he's kind of like Superman? Because he kind of just looks like this regular guy that you just, like, walk down past the street. But he's not a regular guy. He's kind of a business stud. So, lots to talk about, and I'm excited to have him on to kind, of pill back and see what's in that, Superman brain of his. And so it's going to be awesome.

It's not too late to join landscape lighting secrets

By the way, if you haven't noticed, I've been, asking for more five star reviews. I'm in a competition with my good friend Chris Applestadt to see who can get to 100 reviews first. Now, I don't go for Google reviews. He is trying to, get 100 Google reviews for light up Columbus. So if you want to help him out, then go give him a five star review. If you want to help me out, then go to Apple. and if you don't have Apple, I'll take it on Spotify, too. But Apple's kind of good because, you can write something nice and stuff, too. So if you've gotten value out of the show, give me that five star review and help me win, or help us both win and give us, both a review. So we definitely appreciate that. And, you know, just, a reminder, it's not too late to join landscape lighting secrets. And the reason why you might want to do it now is because next month is our secret summit event. Now, we're coming really close to some deadlines for hotels and different stuff for discounts and whatnot. But it's not too late. So if you want to. If you're thinking, yeah, ah, maybe I should join that program. Yes, now is the time, because we got our event coming up here in park city next month. you could just. Just go to landscape lighting secrets. com, click start here, and schedule an appointment with me from there.

Set yourself apart from others in the lighting industry by installing Emery Allen lamps

So, that's pretty much it for there. And, of course, want to thank Emery Allen. I. What's the best way to stand out of the crowd? Well, playing music like this, being different, playing different music. And, you know, when you do a podcast, you can't just play any music you want, so you got to go get that, like, unlicensed stuff. So be different. Set yourself apart from others in the lighting industry and impress your customers by installing Emery Allen lamps. In your next project, you'll discover a higher level of quality across the board, from the lamps themselves to the top tier customer support you can expect to get. If you have any issues or questions, right now is the best time to make a switch. and what do you have to lose? Just try them out. Email tom garyallen. com dot Tom is the man. He will get you, set up with everything. He'll get you that discounted contractor price. Just remember to tell you, tell him that you heard about him here on lighting for profits and that you saw that cool new t shirt that's powered by Emery Allen. So really, really excited about these shirts. We're going to give one away later on in the show. So if you want one, they're so, they're just so soft. You just want to sleep in them, and live in them, and just snuggle with them. But check out Emory Allen. Just email tom g. At emory allen. com and, get your account set up. They got that crisps, crisp, clean, single source led.

A lot of people are struggling with their business right now

All right, so guys, in just a minute. Again, we got Jonathan maynard coming on, and, this is going to be a great show if you're looking to level up your business, which right now, I'm telling you, a lot of people are struggling. And, in fact, that's one of the things I want to talk about before we have. Jonathan, come on. I want to go over two things. I might only have time for one because I tend to, take, a long time to tell things sometimes. But if I have time, we'll go over two. But for sure one. And the first one is, listen, you're in control of way more than you think, okay? So I've got clients all over the United States, and even Canada. We don't want to leave off Canada. and some of them actually are, like. Are having their best. Like, July was, like, their best month ever. And I'm, like, saying ever even better than, like, the COVID easy, downhill coasting days a couple years ago. Right? And, Why is that? Right? Because then I have other clients that are, like, having their worst month ever. And they're like, oh, my gosh, you know how it is. Kids going back to school and vacations. And then I don't know if you watch the news, but, like, the, stock market sucks. Like, they're. They're. They're. They're having some challenges, and then I've got even more friends and people that are. They're. They're not even in my program, just friends in the industry, that they're. They're facing some major challenges. Major difficulties right now, and tons of challenges. So people are having less leads than. Than normal. People are telling me that they're not closing as many deals as they used to. people are telling me they can't charge the prices that they used to. people are telling me that there's wars, going on, hurricanes, ah, the stock market crashing. Right? and you know what I say, so what? All right, and that sounds like m. What it sounds like, whatever it sounds like to you, your reality is your reality. But even when I hear that is my self sound like, oh, that sounds like, I don't know, egotistical, whatever. But I. Here's the thing. Turn off the news and get to work, you know, because it's not like the world hasn't gone through hard times before. Like, we still live in a pretty epic world, okay? And it's true that you don't get to control a lot of things, okay? But you do get to control the way that you think. Right. Your attitude is the one thing that when you wake up every day, you get to control, how you react to the conditions around you are 100% in your control. You may not be able to control the condition around you. Sometimes you can. You're in a bad environment, leave. Right. But sometimes you can't. Like, you've been dealt these cards. Now it's your attitude. It's your time to play them. Okay? And, I'm, hoping I can do this on here. I, you know, I'm, I'm really optimistic person. I'm always trying to be a light to the world and trying to keep everyone's spirits up.

Several landscape lighting professionals are missing from an upcoming Utah summit

But if I can just for a minute be vulnerable and share with you something that's kind of happening right now in real time in my life. there's a, there's a. There's a handful of people, quite a few, actually, that, they're members of landscape lighting secrets. And I just assumed, because they're, active in the group, and I see them and I know them. Like, I just assumed they were going to be at secret summit. That's our members only event coming up next month here in Utah. And I. Turns out they're not coming. And I was like, what? Like, man, if you knew, like, how that made me feel inside and still does. I'm still processing this, but I spoke to a few of them on the phone, and I heard similar things. Okay. bad timing. You know, I've got a vacation planned right before. Right after it, or, you know, I got, some xyz going on. some people just had to let some, some people go. And now they're worried that they're, they're going to have to, like, do this work. And they have. They have a hard time leaving their business for a couple days. other people were actually the opposite. Like, well, and some were like, you know, I just can't afford it. I'm like, what? You can't be in my program and not afford to do things, right? And so, other people were like, well, I'm so busy, I don't even know how I'm going to do this. Like, it's not necessarily a bad excuse, right? Not all of them were, like, bad, excuses. But the truth is, this, and this is why it hurts, is like, you are 100% control of your future. Like, you don't always get to control and decide the consequences, but you certainly have more control of your situation than you think. Okay? And so, like, this, if they, if they really wanted to be here. Like, they would be here. And that's why it hurts. that's why I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, I. Those are just excuses. Like, they just don't want to be here, right? And so either they don't want to be here or they don't understand the value that they're going to be missing. But either way, it's a problem, all right? Because I know if they show up here, how we're going to transform their life, how we're going to give them, them that extra spark in their business, in their personal relationships with their family, like, how we're going to really be able to invest into them and pour into them. Like, I know what they're going to get. And the reason I'm sharing this with you, and I want to be vulnerable with you, is because, like, where, where in your business can you learn from this so that you, you don't go through what I'm going through right now. Like, where have you not communicated enough value to your clients? because the next time that you want to do something but can't do it, or maybe it's something you've already done or tried. So let's say, well, I want to get to a million in sales this year, okay? Or I want to hire some help, or I want to hire another installer, or I want to hire an office manager or purchase a truck. I want to spend 15 grand a month on advertising, and you're like, I can't do it. I've tried it. I'm not going to be able to make it. Whatever the excuse is. Ask yourself this question. What would have to be true for you able for you to be able to do that? What would have to be true for you to be able to do that? So what has to be true for you to hit those numbers? If you want to do a million dollars, what has to be true? If you want to come to the Utah event, what has to be true? If you're saying, like, well, I can't come because of this, this and this, well, then what would have to be true is you'd have to solve those problems, right? And this is how you continually level up in your life. And the problem is most people aren't intentional enough about growing their business, and they're so busy and consumed being busy that they're not productive working on the things and solving the problem. So they actually get to live their dream life. And you can apply this in so many different ways, but I want to kind of push back on you a little bit and have you ask yourself that question every single day, like, if you're not happy in life right now with your personal relationships, if you're not happy in life with your business or with your, your team members, whatever it is, well, what would have to be true for you to be happy with them or with that, that situation, whatever it is. Right? And so let's say as an example, well, I want to hire someone, but I don't have an extra $5,000 a month to pay them. So your problem is you need $5,000 a month more than what you have now, right? So there's actually several different ways to do it. And some are easy, and I would start with the easy ways. so let's say you're doing like, ten jobs per month. If you're doing ten jobs a month and you need to make an extra $5,000, then let your clients finance your success, let them finance your progression in business. So if you, if you're doing ten jobs per month and you need an extra 5000, then you need to make an extra $500 profit per job. So how hard would it be to just charge $500 more per job? And now you just solved a problem that you have been complaining about for the last two or three years, right? So you're going to just charge $500 more per job and you're going to let your clients finance your problem. If you're like, well, I'm going to make an excuse and I've tried that and it doesn't work. And whatever. Here's another idea. So if you make an average of, again, plug in your own numbers here, guys. If you make an average two k per job, per profit per job, and you need five grand, then you need to figure out and focus on getting two and a half more jobs per month, right? That's your five grand. So even better is combine them both, raise your price by $500 and get 2.5 jobs per month, and you turbo boost your profits. So again, like, you, you get to pick the solution, but you have to focus on the solution. If you just keep complaining and keep turning on the news and listening to excuses as to why July and August is slow and why this and that, like, you're not going to get out of the ruthenous, you're going to be in the same position a year from now than you are today. or maybe even worse. This is why most businesses fail, right? So you've got to reverse engineer your life. You got to reverse engineer your business and figure out, and it's usually comes down to math, like, what has to be true in order for you to succeed. Okay? So if you need 2.5 more jobs per month, what are you going? That is the problem. Okay? That is the problem. It's not that you can't afford it. The problem is you just need two and a half more jobs because that solves the problem. So how do you get two and a half more jobs? Right? And, don't tell me you've tried this and it doesn't work, because it doesn't work the way you've tried it.

You can choose to be negative or you can be positive about this economy

Okay? You see how it's like a different way of saying the same thing. so say something different. Try another way. Iterate. Try another angle. Okay. It works. I went through this in 2008 when the huge economy crashed and everything else. It was right after I started my business. Guess what the news was telling me I wasn't going to succeed. It was doom. It was despair. Friends and family, oh, my gosh. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? You, can choose to listen to the naysayers and let negativity in your life, or you can choose to be positive and figure out a way, because there's always a way. There's always a way. So if you have tried these things and it didn't work well, you didn't practice enough, you haven't put in enough reps, okay? You just don't have enough experience. Even if you've been doing it ten years, you don't have enough experience because you haven't tried it enough times. You haven't practiced enough times. You haven't figured out what doesn't work yet to figure out what does work. So ask yourself, what are you going to do right now? What are you going to do today to take action? You're going to either make excuses or you're going to make it happen. So here's my five or six things that you can do right now. And these are, there's a lot more. I, literally, I just wrote these things down 15 minutes before the show. So spend some time and get creative here. But what if you were to call every single one of your clients? Like literally call them on the phone, right? and if you are not going to do that, voicemail bonds. Super simple. Record one message, send it out to everybody at the same time. Email all your clients. Okay. Maybe people didn't answer the phone. Maybe they didn't get your voicemail email them, text them. What if you called all your old leads that didn't move forward? Okay, do you think that if you had 100 leads in the last year that didn't move forward? Do you think they all went with somebody else? Like, no, they. They didn't go with anybody. They just need a reason to say yes. So call them, give them a reason to say yes. Create an incentive program for referrals. Okay? So think, like, credits toward future work with your company. Okay. so many. There's so many angles, iterations. You can, like, go on top of this. Like, hey, every time you post on social media about our company and tag us and send us a screenshot, we're gonna give you a $100 credit toward future work with us. Right? every job that you land for us, that you. Every referral you give us, that we get, we're gonna give you a $1,000. Okay? Are you willing. Are you doing. Are you really doing everything in your power to make sure that you stay on top of the game? What if you just stopped by that job site that you've been driving by for months now, that's building a pool. Talk to whoever's in charge, right? What if you knocked and talked to the homeowner and said, hey, we do lighting, right? What if you called, the AV company whose van you saw working in the same neighborhood you were working in? Like, are you relentless? Are you doing all these things? And then it's really not working? Or have you not really tried everything in your power? Right? Because I know that this stuff works. You just have to keep trying new angles, saying new things, trying new scripts, calling new people, staying on top of it. So that's my short list. That was six things that you can do right now to, to grow your business and not just survive, but thrive in this economy. So we're not going to have time for my second one, which means we'll talk about it next week. But, that's my major message today, is you can keep moving forward. You are in control of your future. So control the controllables and don't worry about everything else. Like, who cares? I'm just focus on what you can control, and everything else is going to happen regardless of whether you're thinking about it or not. So stop worrying about what might not happen and control the controllables.

Brian: I think it's time to get Jonathan on here

All right, guys, that's it for me. I think it's time to get Jonathan on here. I'm excited for this conversation. As soon as we find the buttons, we're going to get them. Coming in. Let's go. That's not the button. When we find the right button, we're bringing them on. That's it, that's it. There he is. Mister Jonathan Maynard. Welcome to the show, buddy.

Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me, man. This is going to be fun.

Really excited to have you on here. You know, it's a long time coming. I got to know you over the last few years, we were in the same mastermind together and then just running in similar circles, seeing you at home shows and things like that. So, thanks for taking the time to be on here.

Heck, yeah, it's going to be fun.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur, and what's your biggest breakthrough

So, I guess, as we get started, if you want to just introduce, yourself, you know, I don't think you were born an entrepreneur, and so maybe tell us a little bit about how you got started, as your. As an entrepreneur.

Yeah, absolutely. I had a regular nine to five for years until I was in my early forties. and I always knew that I wanted to have a business, and I've, started and sold a couple of those. currently I own, red door prowash and red Door lighting company. Two separate companies. Do a couple different functions. And, those are kind of my pride and joy, my platform companies. I've, got investments in some other places, but these are the ones that I started from the ground up and, you know, poured my heart and soul into it. I was, working nine to five when I was starting the companies, had some golden handcuffs, finally had to shed those, which was a process in of itself. had started growing the company, and then I started running into issues like everybody else does. Like, what do I do for marketing? How do I do this? You know, the normal, just how I do business operations and really, sought out mentors, folks like yourself. like, I remember coming to you, I was like, hey, we do Christmas lights, but I love to do landscape lighting, and I've got a, you know, guy that's running the thing, help. And so it was like, yes, here's the program, here's landscape lighting secrets, and let's get your guy in there and see how we can level up. So, in that iteration, it's always been finding those coaches, mentors, people that can guide me along the way, and also working on myself. And we were talking just before the show. That's probably been my biggest breakthrough is over the past few years, figuring that portion out in the mindset portion, in your, segue at the beginning talking about those mind shift changes that we have to make in order to excel. Because whether you want to do something or don't do it, you're going to make an excuse either way. And if you want to go someplace, you're going to make an excuse to go. If you don't want to be there, you're going to make an excuse not to go. So it's really, what's your mindset look like and how do you ship those things? And that's kind of been my journey from 2016 when I started red, door up until today.

Very cool. Well, it's interesting because, you know, I got my start. Nothing, not pressure washing, but window cleaning. And then it's. I never really realized. I thought it was like, I thought I was so special. But it's like there's this natural progression, I think, because of, like, barriers to entry and stuff like that. But it's fairly easy for someone to start a cleaning business, you know, or, And I don't know that it's easy. It's easy to start. I don't know that it's easy to scale and grow, but a lot of people get into that.

Why did you go from washing into holiday lighting

Is, that is, was it the high ticket that attracted to you and kind of the time, like, why did you go from washing into holiday lighting?

Well, for, for me, the, the transition was trying to find something that I could keep my guys busy during the wintertime. We're in Fredericksburg, Virginia, so we get a, bit of winter. So between November and March, we had nothing, and I had great employees. And I'm like, how can I keep these guys? And so that's how I ventured into the holiday lighting and eventually grew so big that I was like, okay, it's got to be two separate companies. We still crossed, you know, with the employees. So we bring on our guys. We also bring on guys from the outside, but we also have full, time lighting, you know, tech that does the landscape lighting during the year. And now we're getting into the, you know, permanent install lighting and whatnot. So that was kind of the progression on the lighting side.

Yeah, it's, it's pretty cool because I feel like there's a, there's a lot of people that are like, they get started in the wash because it's like, well, just go watch some videos and buy a pressure wash or whatever. And then you have to start leveling up, of course, and there's a, you know, commercial equipment, all that. Then they keep their guys busy, and then it's like, wait a minute, like, that's really good money in just a few months. And then you had to hire extra people. So now how do I keep those people busy year round?

You transitioned from holiday lighting to landscape lighting. What were some of the challenges

Talk about some of those challenges, maybe of, maybe implementing from holiday lighting to landscape lighting because it sounds magical, but it's also not just like easy, you know, it's like, well, we, we still have challenges. What were some of the hiccups? What were some of the challenges you faced as you were ahead building your lighting only business?

Yeah. The, the biggest challenge between, you know, holiday lighting, every, it's a magical experience. Everybody, it's very visual, to everybody, and everybody's kind of familiar with holiday lighting and they get into the Christmas spirit and it's something that they can do and it's festive. And then landscape lighting is, is not something that is as, you know, magical from the outside. Now, once you install them and you show that the customers are wowed and they love the final product, but it's really kind of, one, educating them, on, you know, why we do what we do, and then two, showing them. So demos and things like that. you know, you don't do demos for holiday lighting. You just show them some pictures and it's good. But for landscape lighting, there's a little bit more nuance and there's a little bit more design to it and design elements, and there's a lot of things that you have to know. And that's where landscape lighting secrets really excels, because it teaches you, okay, on this sort of house, you need a 45 or 20, whatever the lighting things are. That's a learning curve that we really had to adjust through where it's not. Okay, we're just going to do some garland wreaths and, ridge lines and things like that. There's not a lot of nuance to it. There's some. But landscape lighting is a completely different animal. It's permanent install. So you have to, you know, have different equipment, things like that. So it, there were some learning curves, but it wasn't unsurmountable. It was, after our first, you know, three or four jobs is like, okay, we got this, now we know how to sell it. Now we know how to install it.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like one of the challenges I've seen is because holiday, I think it is the Christmas spirit that takes over because people go crazy. They'll spend like a few thousand bucks and then like, you go to try to sell them m like $10,000 landscape lighting and they're like that much. And you're like, you just spent $3,000 for six weeks. Are you kidding me? This is a ten year system for three times. Like this doesn't even make sense. But people have, people have a harder time getting leads because you could just drive around with a truck that doesn't even say holiday lighting, and you're going to get leads for holiday lighting. that's not going to happen with landscape lighting. It is a little bit different beast to keep those leads flowing in. Right.

The biggest thing for us was cross marketing. So we've got our wash company

So, is there anything that you guys did? Was it just targeting your client base? What were some of the tips you did to get started?

The biggest thing for us was cross marketing. So we've got our wash company, which we probably wash 1000, 502,000 homes a year somewhere in there, if my numbers are correct. and we've been doing this for nine years. So building up, that database of customers that know, like, and trust us, that's the big thing. So, us, our real core focus is creating legendary experiences, legendary service experiences for our clients. So we're doing that for wash. It's almost a natural progression. You know, whenever we offered holiday lighting, they were like, will you knock it out of the park for us here? Yeah, let's go ahead and do holiday lighting. And then the same thing for landscape lighting. now, it hasn't been an easy road. We're still in the process, and I think this is our second year of doing landscape lighting, and permanent install lighting. So it's still that progression of, okay, how are we getting the leads? How are we nurturing these? Because the sale, it's the sales cycle. So Christmas light, sales cycle super short. We only have a narrow window and they're going to make a decision or not make a decision. Landscape lighting is one of those things that like, you may have to, you may show up to a house and yeah, they're going to sign the contract. Right. Then other people, you need to nurture through that. So you're going to have to warm them up and get them to get you to come out and do a demo. And then after that, it could be a while before you, you close a deal if you don't do the things that you're supposed to do in the sales process. So sales cycles a little bit longer. That was another obstacle that we found.

Yeah, yeah, well said. I think that's, that's one of the reasons why you gotta create, I mean, just marketing in general, it's like you gotta create scarcity and urgency. And what's kind of cool about holiday lighting, even though I hope no one from holiday lighting, like the industry leaders are listening, but I hate it because you have to, you have to get it done in six weeks. There's just like that pressure, right? Anyway, I got that out, but everything else is awesome about it, but it has the scarcity and urgency built in. Like God created it. Like there's an actual holiday where it will end and then there's literally only so many homes you can get done because it, like, no one wants to start putting it up in January. So like, it has built in. So with landscape lighting, you've, what is it? That's what if you find out, asked really good questions, like, okay, sometimes it's a party, it's like an eight year old's party. You're like, what? They're going to be in bed before the lights go on. But I'm not going to ask questions about that. Let's just, let's just go with that. Right? But you got to find ways and maybe it's a creative offer or like, hey, we're doing this one time only. It ends this Friday. You know, if you can, if you can build your own scarcity and urgency, that, that will definitely help. But those people that don't move forward follow back up. And most people suck at following up. So if you, if you can get a really good system, and now we've got automations and softwares that help with stuff, but if you can keep them in your pipeline and nurture them, it might take eleven months, it might take two years, you're going to land that client. And instead of looking at it as an expense two years ago, now it's an investment that paid off two years later.

Yeah, you've already paid for that lead. Why would you not nurture that lead? Why would you not put them in your newsletter or something like that? Like, that's what we do. We've got a monthly newsletter that goes out, they're automatically in that they get our sales stuff and in our newsletter and all that, it's not salesy, it's, hey, here's what's happening in Fredericksburg. and you know, we, we don't get in there, like, buy from us, buy from us. It's education. And at the bottom, you know, they know how to get in contact with us. But it's that top of mind that you always keep them there so when they're ready, there's nobody else that they call. You've nurtured that lead. You've already paid for it. Send them emails. That's nearly free. It's a no brainer.

You know, you just reminded me of this story because it's. You're so spot on. And unfortunately, I would say, like, literally 90%, maybe even higher, of, people, they just pay for that lead and, like, they get it or they don't, and then it's done. And I'm like, dude, you just generated. You just like, again, you mentioned earlier, a lot of people don't know what landscape lighting is. They don't know the value. You just spent time and money generating interest, building value, that someone like me is going to end up scooping in and landing that client with a Google Ad, a yard sign, a something of the email list. And so it's like, thank you, thank you. Thank you for your service.

Yeah, I can't tell you how many times we've picked up jobs from somebody who's like, oh, yeah, we got a quote from them. We never heard from them again.

That's crazy.

It's like, thanks, man. I appreciate you warming them up. and the other thing that we really learned was figuring out the why behind why they want landscape lighting. Now, for some people, it's a safety issue. for other people, it's an aesthetic issue. but if you don't know your customer and you don't take the time to ask the questions, then you're not even going to be able to sell to them. and that's the sad part, is that, and I was guilty of this, is if I couldn't just go take the order and whatnot, then I would be like, oh, well, they're just. They don't want it. Instead of going, well, hang on, sale starts at your first. No. You know, when they give that first objection, now your job begins. It's like, okay, well, let's. Let's uncover that. Because if you believe in the product that you're selling and you believe it is a good fit for them, if you're not doing everything you can to basically take the objections and overcome them, then you're really missing out on a treasure trove of business that you could have if you just don't know how to sell.

I love that so much. What. What are some of the things you say? Because I'm, agreeing 100%. Like, you get to that thing, and they're like, well, you know, we got to think about it. That's it.

A lot of people get that wrong when trying to sell landscape lighting jobs

I love, you know, I love hearing that one. Because if they say, we think. We got to think about it. What's cool about that is they're together, which a lot of people get that wrong, and they're trying to sell a $50,000 landscape lighting job to one spouse. Like, okay, good luck. but when they're, when they're together, are there some things that you do or say? If they say, we got to think about it, or it's just a lot more than we thought it would be, or kind of the traditional objections.

Yeah. So nine times out of, and I'm upfront with them, I tell them if they go, oh, we have to think about it, or, you know, let's do this. I always, I said, look, I've been doing this long enough. It's probably the, a pricing issue. And if it's a pricing issue, that tells me that I haven't fully explained and provided you enough value, that this is an absolute no brainer for you. when we talked earlier, you said you wanted this, this, this. I basically just mirror back to them the reasons why they called me in the first place, and then I paint a picture for them. You know, just imagine this is what it's going to look like. And when you paint the picture, when you answer their, their initial wise back to them again, then, then they start to break down, especially if you're not high pressure. Like, I'm a, I'm a, like a very low pressure kind of person. I'm not going. I'm not going to make them feel icky when I leave. You know, it's, it's going to be a very collaborative, hey, we just, we're just trying to get to the bottom of this and then make the sale. But if you don't confront those objections, and a lot of it is mindset going into it, and it's what. And I'm not going to get too woo woo. But it's like, really, what, what are, what's going on internally? Because what's going on internally is coming out, whether you like it or not. because communication is, is 5% of it is. Is the verbal what's going on. A lot of it is the body language, the physiology. that. That's a full picture of communication. And if you are worried about, oh, you know, they don't, they're not going to buy. You're really projecting this onto them and they're subconsciously are going, nope, this, this isn't, you know, I don't want to do this because you have either one. What I used to call commission breath. Like, you're just like, I just need to make this sale. I'm going to die. And so they're just like, ugh, gosh. It's just too, it's too aggressive, or you're just flippant, nonchalant about it. Hey, take it or leave it. And they're just like, well, that guy's not committed.

Doesn't even seem he cares.

Yeah, yeah. Or it could be, hey, I genuinely want to help you. I'm here to help you have a problem. Whatever that problem is, whether it's completely dark at your house or, you want to invoke a certain feeling when you get home, that's. That's your why, and you have to go back. And I want to help you solve that. And you look at it from the perspective of, if I can't help you solve it, I want to find somebody who can help you solve this problem.

Love it.

Collaboratively. People open up. They don't feel like they're going to get taken advantage of. and I tell people this all the time. I'm like, go get a couple more quotes. Please do. If that's, if that's, you know, what you want to do. If it's a pricing, if you think that I'm taking advantage, and I don't say those words, you know, you never want to project those kind of words, but you really frame it in that way that it's, hey, we're here to make sure that you are absolutely satisfied, and here's what we can provide that nobody else can. And with that, they go, oh, okay, it makes sense. And then they're. They're going to buy from you if as long as you, they know, like, and trust you, you know?

Yeah.

If, if they. If you are a decent human being, a business that can be trusted, that, that's, that's how you make sales.

Love it.

Many people struggle with sales, and I think if they just convert their mentality

Well, you mentioned, you mentioned a lot of good things, and by the way, we don't mind if you go all woo woo on us. We're, we're trying to get the woo woo. So, the commission breath, you know, if you're in there to make a buck, like, I stole this from the world, like, people can identify as what they want now. Like, that's just, you can be who you want, right? And so I'm like, I don't identify as a salesperson. I don't identify as a. As a commission breath hungry business owner. Like, I just identify as a helper. Like, what if I'm a guide what if I'm their trusted advisor to help them make the right decision for them? Holy cow. Just like, put yourself in that. Like, what would that be like if you're the trusted advisor? Like, it's easy at that point. People make sales so hard, it's not a sell. You're not selling them anything. Remember, they called you. They need help, they need advice, they need a guide. So when you identify as that guide and you're genuinely there to help them make the right decision, it's easy, because then, you don't mind asking those overcoming objection questions like, man, tell me more. What's holding you back? What can I do today? Where. Where did we fall short? What can I do to help you make the right decision today? You're genuinely helping them, because the only reason they didn't say us is because there's confusion, you know, like, you just haven't overcome all their objections, which means you have a hole in your sales process, or they weren't paying attention, which is normal. People are checking their phones or stuff. So, like, we just got to get to the bottom of it, like you said. And when you genuinely care about people, they sense that if you're like, dude, come on, I got it. Like, I got to feed a family this and that. Like, that's desperation. And people do not like that. You know, they want someone who's confident, they want someone who's hungry. They want someone who is willing to go to bat for them and earn their business. You can be passionate and. And still compassionate, you know? And that's the key is, like, how. How do you manage those things? So I think that's great, man. There's so many people that struggle with sales, and I think if they just convert their mentality a little bit to like, okay, how can I close this cell to, how can I help this person? They're going to win a lot more opportunities.

Yeah, that, for me, that was the biggest thing. That that is what added an additional seven figures to my business was the mind shift change. It really was, was realizing that I had a lot of inner work to do a couple years ago, you know, and digging through that and figuring out how. How I can be present for my. Well, obviously for my employees, but also for my customers and not projecting all of this negativity onto them, which is what happens whenever we are insecure in our sales process, when we don't believe in our product, really, when we're in it just for money, all of these things come out, and that really hampers your sales process, mate.

Can we talk about that for a minute? Because I always say, work on your business. And then sometimes people are like, I don't know what that means. And so it means, like, okay, schedule time to, like, instead of whatever the fire that you keep putting out every single week, just take Wednesday and don't work, and then figure out the SoP, figure out the process, the training, whatever it's going to do to solve that. So you're preventing the fire instead of putting it out. Right. But you've got a different philosophy on that. And not that. That's not your philosophy, but this internal work. And, like, instead of working on your business, like, work on yourself, can you share some of the things that you've learned or that you're doing to do that?

Yeah, absolutely.

Ryan got stuck in his business because he had self limiting beliefs

So the real crux of the issue is, I got to a point to where I was stuck, and I was confused internally. I was like, what am I even doing here? What is. Do I need to continue on, with this business? What's my direction? why aren't these things working? And. And I started to really, look at kind of the way that I thought about things, and honestly, I was a. I was a really negative person, and I didn't realize it. Like, if you were to ask me, oh, a negative person, you talk to other people and they go, yeah, no, he's not negative. But, If somebody cut me off in traffic, that sent me into a spiral for 30 minutes or an hour or if something bad happened, it, you know, I was always, like. I was always reactive, and I was.

Angry, and I hope my wife's not listening to this. Cause she's gonna be like, that's Ryan. You think he's positive? He's a negative person.

But, yeah, but that was the big thing for me.

Okay. I like it.

I had all this internalized stuff, and so I began working with a coach that was somebody that really unlocks some things for me and has taught me how to help other people unlock those things within them. Because until you've been through the process, you really can't teach it. It's kind of like this. If I read a book on. On landscape lighting, and then I tried to teach somebody how to do it, I would fail miserably because I didn't do the work myself. I didn't, you know, go in there and actually physically, you know, do the work, and you'll get to a point. the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. The first law is law. The lid, that's you. That's your capacity. So you're going to be able to take your business to a certain point. For some people, that's $200,000 a year. For some people, that's $200 million a year. Everybody has a certain limit. You can't compare yourself to anybody else. It's just your limit. That's your lip. And then you get to a point that you get stuck. And I got stuck, I think in, like, my power washing business, I was stuck at like 750 grand. For a little while, I was making incremental change, but there was nothing that was, like, humongous. And that's when I recognize, I was like, okay, I've got to do something different. Because if you just keep doing the same thing and expect a different results. Insanity, right? Everybody knows that. But, when you come up against this, you start, you know, you're searching, you're a seeker, you're looking, you're listening to every podcast. And then I always heard this, and I'm sure you've heard it around, too, and our listeners have heard it. Oh, it's just self limiting beliefs. And I'm like, yes, I do have self limiting beliefs, but then nobody could tell me how to not have those. My coach helped me not have those anymore. I found somebody that was like, here's how you unlock that key. And I was like, this is worth it now. Literally worth millions to me. To have somebody go, this is the process that you do to unlock those self limiting beliefs. The self doubt, the fear, the childhood trauma, just all the stuff that we have that really impedes us, that keeps us from being the person that we need to be. And once you unlock that, then everything else falls into place. Marketing seems to work. You know, when you go on a sales call, people are just like, oh, yeah, not a problem. I'll give you all my money, just solve this problem for me. Because you're exuding that confidence, a radiance that they can't quite understand, but they're like, I like that guy. I trust that guy. I don't know why. It's because you're. You got all your demons out, man. You just, you, you've let go of the. The stuff that has held you back in the past.

Mojo, baby.

And it's all mindset.

That's so cool, man. We should have talked before, because if you had, like, a buy now link, that's like, yes, I want to be unlocked. Like, that would be a cool button on a sales page. So we'll do this again, and we'll sell this thing that you've got. I don't even know if you have it, but, this is awesome. Good stuff.

Yeah. But I know that's been my passion. Like, my, two companies now, I probably spend 10 hours a week. I've got an amazing team that just. They're running at just 100% efficiency now. They are just locked in, loaded systems, processes in place. And honestly, it was my work, my internal work, that then helped get that over the hurdle. That that was a thing that really unlocked it for me. more than anything, was the stuff that I did with myself, with my coach.

Can you give us a step? one. So someone's out there, they're listening. They're like, okay, I want that. But, like, where do I start? It's not necessarily like they're like, I don't have time or money to hire a coach. Is, there a book? Is there a concept? Can they. Is it meditating for five minutes a day? Like, is there. Is there something that they could just start with to at least prepare themselves to start changing?

The first thing you need to start reading is Buddhism and the badass

Yeah. So the. The first thing you need to start reading, like, I read about two, or, on average, about two books a week.

Wow.

On audible now, I say read. It's audible. So while I'm driving, I'm listening to this. the. The first book is probably letting go by doctor David Hawkinse.

Fantastic.

book. that's going to be. That. I say that's the first book. Let me back that up. That book is a little intense. but there is one called Buddha and the badass by Vishen lakiani. that one is great. And then, the code of the extraordinary mind also vishanlaqiani. Those two books were very pivotal for me because basically, it. It opened a world that I was very close to. from the age of 16 through my adulthood, I was involved in, the protestant church and really started getting some mindsets around that. And so I didn't fully investigate other things because I was always afraid. It was fear. It was fearing me because I didn't, you know, a book that had even Buddha in the title, I would have, you know, years ago not been like, no, I'm. I don't want that. I don't want that crazy stuff in my head. And there's nothing really about Buddha in the book. It's. It's really about just having inner peace and using that inner peace to change yourself into a, you know, into a badass. And that's really the book. so if you don't have m money, that that's fine. if people want to find me on social media, just ask me. I've got a list of ten books that changed my life, and really, that's where you start. I'm not saying you need to hire, a mindset or a performance coach, right now, but you're going to find that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. That's an old saying, until you've had enough and you get angry. And anger, you know, people go, anger. Anger is bad. No, anger. Anger can. There's not good or bad. Anger can be good, because what anger does is it spurs you to change until you have the Popeye syndrome. And, you know, I stand all I can stand, and I can't stand anymore. Something's got to change. You have that category cataclysmic event in your life that then spurs change. There's nothing I can say. Nothing you can say, ryan, nothing that Tony Robbins, Joe dispenser, anybody can say that's going to make this person go, you know what I am? I am a jerk. I am messed up on the inside. I really need to change this. No, they're. They're not going to do it. It comes inside when you finally have a realization that I don't know the answers, and I need to find somebody who can help. Just guide me.

Love it. You know, it's, gosh, it's so good, because I look at my life, and that's usually. I do get angry. I get pissed. I'm like, why can I not figure this out? Like, why can that person figure it out? And I can't figure this out. I know we're not supposed to compare ourselves to people, but I do. And I'm like. And then I'm just like, oh, my gosh, what is it going to take? And I'm like, I've proven to myself that I'm not competent. I cannot solve this thing. And then I'm willing, I will hire someone. I will pay them whatever. I will read the books. I will do the things. You have to get to that point where you're fed up, like, rock bottom almost, because otherwise, like you said, like, you could tell them exactly what they're going to do. This just doesn't hurt enough for them to actually take the action and do the thing.

Yeah. Do you know what the most expensive experience is? Experiencing something yourself. If you have a coach. Basically, if I said, ryan, I have something that's going to add a million dollars in personal income to your, life within the next five years. And I've got this thing and it's going to. It takes my time, so it's going to cost you, say, $15,000 a year. It would be a no brainer, sure. To go, okay, get this done, because what I can do is I can give you 20 years of my mistakes and the things that I learned and help you shortcut these things. It's the difference between walking and taking a bullet train. Walking is free. A bullet train is expensive, but God dang, that bullet train is going to get you there a lot faster.

When people look at investments, they look at it as a cost, not an investment

And when you talked earlier about investments, kind of like your, program, that you're putting together right now, where you're going to have the secret summit, and of course, there's a cost to it. When people look at it, they look at it as a cost, not an investment. because they don't understand the value of the knowledge that they're going to get, and they look at it like, I can't afford that. Well, that's one way to look at it. Or you could go, I can't afford not to go because there's going to be one thing, somebody's going to say one thing that's going to change my life. They're going to do. There's going to be one nugget that I pull from this that is going to dramatically change my life and say, if it costs me $5,000 to be at that summit with travel and cost of everything and missed work or whatever it is, then if it costs $5,000, it's. No, it's a $5,000 investment, and you're going to give me $100,000 in value because I'm going to be able to take something, learn it. You've given me a shortcut that I can then apply to my life.

No, I hear you. What I'm going to do, just so you know, is because I do like to blame others at first. It's just easier to like, what's matter with you. But I'm looking at it like, what can we do internally to make sure that we're doing a better value proposition? What can we do to show people that, like, you'd be. You'd be dumb to not come to this? You know, like, so I. I take it upon myself as like, okay, where did we fail? Where did we have a gap of, like, what can we do to create more value and show more value? even though I do start with blaming others, it's always, more fun that way. Yeah.

Ah, yeah. And that's, that is a normal course of action. And that's why earlier you were talking about the economy and stuff like that. this will blow a lot of people's minds. Do you know, during the great Depression, it was easy to get a job. Everybody thought it's unemployment is rampant and whatever. If you look at historical records and accounts of the great Depression, anybody that wanted a job could find one. However, there was this mass hysteria of it's the great Depression. Nobody has worked and they bought into it. I choose not to participate in this economy, in this economic downturn. I refuse to participate in it because. Yeah. Is there something going on with the stock market? I guess so. Somebody texted me earlier. They're like, don't look at the stock market. And I was like, good. I never do, so who cares?

The, only reason I knew is because of social media, because I don't watch the news either. I'm like, no, I'm not watching it. But now the news is social media. I'm like, come on, you guys.

The news of social media, they don't call it programming for a reason, you know? Yeah, let's talk about it, guys.

They were obvious before. Now they're like, well, we should, we shouldn't tell them.

Yeah. And that's, that's really what it is. And if you buy into that lie, then, I mean, that, that's already going to set you back. If you have so much fear that what's going to happen? Like a lot of people, oh, it's an election year. And I agree it's election year. It, it is what it is. But, you have to have the mindset that I'm going to continue on business as usual. We're going to keep selling. I'm not going to have that fear. Because as soon as you have that fear, you're going to project that fear.

Yep.

The world's a mirror. Everything that happens on the inside is happening on the outside. So if you're scared of, of people coming and getting your stuff, people are going to come and get your stuff. If you're afraid of this, it's, it's kind of like a kid. If you have a child that is, in a parking lot and they're learning to ride the bike, right? And there's one light pole. Gosh dang, that kid's going to hit that light pole. Why? Because that's what they're focused on. So if you're focused on the negativity, if you're focused on the fear, if you're focused on why you cannot do this, you're right.

Yeah. We talk about that concept when we're, like, riding mountain bike. Riding mountain bikes, dirt bikes. I was, riding mountain bikes with Max a couple weeks ago, but literally, this was last year, we were flying his air, his new. We got him at, like, an RC airplane, and there's a huge parking lot, but there is a light pole. It's like, we literally hit the light pole. I don't know how this was possible. It was this effect. Like, don't hit. I'm like. And I'm steering. I'm flying. I'm like, don't hit the light pole. Don't hit the light pole. I hit it dead center. Like, I couldn't have done a better job. It was right dead. So it bounced back, and then somehow it flew out. We still talk about it to this day. We're like, do you remember when we hit the light pole? It's because we didn't want to hit the light pole. We were focusing on it. So, so true.

And people don't realize that if they were to take a second and just think about that, what are you focusing on? Because what you focus on, you hit. And if you go, well, you know, I want to do a million dollars, but, you know, you get what you focus on.

Positive or negative. Yep.

Your subconscious interprets negative words as positive, so it internalizes that

Yep. Because your subconscious doesn't care. Your subconscious doesn't see positive and negative. And here, if you want to get a little crazy, we'll get a little deep on this.

Let's go.

Even you. You talking negative about somebody else. Your subconscious, interprets you talking negative about yourself, so it internalizes that because it doesn't know the difference.

Hey, I got to give away a t shirt real quick. Can we. Can we give away a t shirt?

Let's do that.

Let me. Let me play this. We haven't. We used to do gift card giveaway. We haven't done it, but let me play this noise. Here it is. T shirt giveaway. It used to be called gift card giveaway, but we're doing a t shirt giveaway. Guys, I'm so excited about our new lighting for profits t shirts powered by Emery Allen. I'm trying to flex. Come on. yeah. We are gonna give you guys this, and all you have to do answer this question. I wrote down one question. Is there a question that you want to ask that you think listeners might know. It could be about anything, really. I was going to be like. It was going to be about like, who was the author of a certain book, but it could be lighting. It could be anything.

Oh, that is, that is tough.

we can't make it too hard because sometimes it is. And I'm like, oh, who are we going to give this to? So,

Whoever guesses who wrote the e myth will win a free t shirt

All right, I'll just ask it. So, who wrote the book? Who's the author of the book? The e myth. E myth. So whoever's the first person right now to post in the comments, and we're on a bunch of different platforms, so whichever one that I think is first, that comes through first on my end, you will win a free t shirt. whoever, if you can tell me who wrote, who wrote, who authored the book the Emyth, we will hook you up with one of our brand new, very limited edition because we don't have many of them lighting for profit shirts powered by Emery Allen. So put that in the comments and we will hook you up and, then we can keep moving.

Let's talk about competition for a second. To get the most bang for your buck is collaboration

So that's our t shirt giveaway. You got.

You had the best t shirts, man. They are, they are super soft.

I know, I'm like, when are people going to catch on? Because people are doing events, they always give out t shirts, whatever the businesses. I mean, I get t shirts all the time and I'm like, dude, ain't nobody want to wear this hundred percent cotton. That was the nineties, bro. Like, give the cotton up.

T shirt.

Give the cotton up. Okay, dude, what's up? We got a winner. Mister James Kluhr, Michael Gerber. Yes, sir.

James. James is actually same, town as I am. Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Oh, that's right.

yeah, so they've got, I'll screw up the name. I know elf pros is the Christmas light company. I think it's aspired lighting. You would know.

I would know. But don't since you put me on the spot. Listen, I'm just giving away t shirts right now. I'm not naming people's companies.

Yeah, no, but, yeah, they're, Paul is, is the owner of elf Pros. I've known Paul for. For a while now. Good.

Ignite. Is it ignite?

Ignite. That's what it is. It's ignite. And let me talk about competition for a second.

Competition,

Is low vibrational. It is, it is. The bottom of the barrel. Collaboration is at the top. That's where you're going. To get the most bang for your buck is collaboration. And when. When you can look at people who are doing the same thing as you, not as the enemy. Hey, James, if you. If you look at them as not the enemy, James isn't my enemy. You know, he's. He's a competitor, but he's not my enemy. And we bid on the same jobs, we compete on the same stuff, but at the end of the day, you know, he's a person, I'm a person. He's got a family to feed. I got a family to feed. And I can't. I can't be negative about competitors. And a lot of people, that's a big, mind block for them, is they look at their competitors as enemies. And when you do that, what do you do with enemies? You fight your enemies, and when you're fighting your enemies, you're wasting your energy.

Well said.

and if you look at. As a collaboration now, I don't know if we'll ever work on any projects together now, we could have that opportunity, but I have. Oh, yeah. Christina. Oh, christina is awesome. Christina is my general manager. and, yeah, she's terrific. And when you. When you look at a competitor, in that light, then something, you know, that. That's putting out that negative energy, and you may need them. Like, even in the wash space, there's been guys that, at a guy, he's a solo. He's like, owner, owner, operator, and he got hurt, and he ended up calling us, and he was like, hey, man, can you cover these jobs for this week? And we're like, heck, yeah, man. So, covered them and took care of them, because that's what you do to somebody that you care about. That is a competitor.

We had, Eric Holmgren on a few weeks ago. He ended up purchasing, investing in his competitor. You know, like, what an opportunity, you know? And so, yeah, dude, I've told this before, and I think people screw this up when they're evaluating. And, like, you know, let's look at market share and all this stuff. Like, when I started, majestic in Texas, like, I just started it, which was awesome because I was so ignorant, but I was so passionate at the same time that, was, like, my formula for success. Because if I would have done my research like my mba told me to do, dude, I would have been like, hell. no. Like, there was companies that have been around for, at the time, 30 years, so now they've been around that much longer. Right? There was everybody. I mean, you find out like this, that guy does landscape lighting one time. The, the, the big h vac company that you see on the news, okay, the big dog in town. We see a full page spread in a magazine. We now offer landscape lighting. I'm like, why did I do this? Why did I do this? Right? Because it doesn't matter.

James: Competition over collaboration over competition, for sure

In fact, the, more good competition, you have, even bad competition, the more that you have people promoting outdoor lighting. Like, there was a bad competitor who was, like, terrible at design, terrible at install. All the stuff. I loved him. I loved it when he would go bid right before us because he was always late. He always asked to use the bathroom. It was like the same thing every single time. It's like, dude, all I got to do is show up and I could just got a job, you know? So I, Trust me, I've gone through all the phases of love and hate and all these things, but you're totally right. Competition over collaboration over competition, for sure.

Yeah.

well, that's cool. James, send me a message and, get us your address, and t shirt size, and Darcy will, send that out. So. That's awesome, man. You got the first lighting for profits t shirt giveaway.

Nice.

okay, well, I have a couple. You got some more time?

I do.

I've learned a lot from you about being a better business leader

I want to ask you something else, because, to me, I've learned a lot from you about, a lot of things, actually, just being a better business leader and stuff like that. and I've also discovered that the problems that are thrown in front of us now that we're like, I got to solve this, it's usually a few steps ahead of that. And so one thing I wanna pick your brain on is, you know, a lot of, a lot of business owners, they don't get a lot of traction. It's because they don't have good team members. Okay? And they're, they're always complaining, you know, like, it doesn't matter. They're always, like, in this economy. But, like, you could say in this economy, any year of any century, they're gonna say the same thing, and they can't find anyone to work for them. And when they do find someone, it rarely works out. And everything else, I feel like maybe, you know, I kind of want some coaching. I want some mentorship here. To me, that's actually a byproduct of bad leadership. And I feel like they're not like, and myself included, I'm going to include, I'm going to say, we entrepreneurs, we aren't born necessarily natural leaders. Like, I sometimes, like, dude, why do I suck at that? Right? So what are some, what are some things that we can do to be better leaders that can then help us attract better talent, keep more talent, and just run a better organization because of our leadership?

Yeah, there's, there's a few things. one I would suggest is know, your disc style or any kind of, thing that you can do that's going to tell you about your personality type because there's disc, there's integrand, there's a bunch that are out there. But what that does is it gives you kind of a peek behind the curtain on how you see yourself. And then as far as leadership goes, there's so many books out there that you need to start consuming because most of the time when somebody starts a business, they're really a technician that really just goes out on their own and then wants to do this thing. Or they may not be that case, but that way that happens a lot of times. They're not people that had corporate leadership training. They don't have these things. So, free resources, LinkedIn learning, is available, that you can really start digging into that and then obviously leadership podcasts. But I think the biggest thing that you could do is just love your employees where they're at and know that they are doing the best that they can with what they've got. and for me, that has been the biggest transformation that I've seen. And the biggest lesson that I learned is genuinely caring for your people, being that servant leadership, being that servant leader, and caring about their progress, the other stuff comes naturally. Employees will do things that frustrate you to no end, but you really have to look at it from the perspective of they probably did not do that intentionally. And when you look at it from there and you start asking yourself, okay, what in our systems caused this issue? And when you start looking at it that way, instead of blaming and going, well, that employee, he's just useless, you go, okay, no, what could I have done differently to help prevent this? And there are times, there are times when an employee does something and you're just like, I don't. There, there was nothing I could have done.

I would. I do agree with that. But most of the time, people say that there's, quite a bit that could have been done. And I, and that's why I like your, your first answer of, like, we'll understand your disk profile and understand your team members disk profiles, because the challenge that I went through was I expected people to have what I call common sense. But the thing is, my common sense is completely different than everybody else's common sense because I have a different life, I have a different, I'm on a different track than other people. I'm on a different track than you. Like, we're all, we've all learned different things at different times. And so what you assume is common sense, I promise, is nothing. Somebody else, you're always chapter behind, a chapter ahead, whatever it is. And so when you understand your different profiles, you're like, oh, wait, when I say, like, what the hell are you doing? That just so you know that, that's just like, what are you doing? I just say hell or whatever, like, but they hear that as like, oh my gosh, I'm going to get fired. And that's because their disk profile is different. So you got to really take a step back. And you can't do this if you're so busy putting out fires. But I, really like that because then you can understand yourself, you can understand other people, what their behaviors are. And it's, it's magical because then you can know, like, oh, here's the disconnect, you know, I thought you knew this and you don't. So what we're going to do is we're going to build a procedure. We're going to, we're going to put this in place. So every day when I ask you this question, these are the answers I need. And now the common sense will become common sense for everyone on the team.

Yeah, communication, I think that's the biggest thing. And it's knowing that when you're having a conversation with somebody, there's actually eight conversations happening because you're thinking about what to say next. You're interpreting. There's four conversations going on in your head. Four conversations going on the other person's head is you're receiving and then interpreting information and things like that. And if somebody has, an internal thing that causes them to hear something completely different from what you said. Now how many times have you said something to somebody and they hear it completely differently? And it's, later that you find out, they go, well, I told you to, you know, do this, and they go, well, I heard this.

Well, I can tell you, well, I can't tell you the number of times, but I've been married 22 years, so you can do the math.

27 years? I think so, yeah.

Basically everything I've ever said has not been interpreted the same way that I thought I said it. That's like marriage 101.

Yeah. And so, that's. That's why text messaging and emails and things like that are absolutely the worst. Like, lowest form of communication, because you can't. There's no body language, and 70 some odd percent of communication is nonverbal. It's. It's physiological. It's, And then you have also the intonation and things like that that you lose, in a text message or something like that. So even when you're having these conversations, if you're dealing with an employee, I love the. Okay, I'm going to explain, and then I want you to explain it back to me. So, we have that acknowledgement in computer language. It's synx in. So I'm going to send this thing. You're going to acknowledge it, and then you're going to send it back to me. So I know that you completely understand this love that. And those are small things that you just have to learn, is when. When you're being a leader, it. It's, you know, it's difficult and takes practice. And unfortunately, there are bodies scattered throughout my past of my poor leadership and me learning, and I want to just, you know, go into all those people and go, I'm sorry. I was practicing.

Yeah.

I was broken.

Had to practice on somebody.

Yeah. And so, you learn, and you learn by doing, and you learn by progressing, not getting stuck, not going well. I'm just a terrible leader, and that's how I am. I dislike those words so much. That's how I am.

Communication changes when people stop resenting each other, he says

That tells me that you're incapable of change. And if you're incapable of change, that means you're dead.

Yeah. Well said. Yeah, man, I went through. I remember. So, like, when I. When I discovered that, like, it was literally, I was like, why is it that, like, this keeps happening? Like we say, you know, on the way back to the shop, you know, call us and, you know, take care of this, whatever. And then. And we. We just kind of stumbled upon it. They're like, no, you said this. And we're like, so every time we say this, you tell me what you think that we say. You. Every time we say this, you think we're saying that? Yeah. Wow, I had no idea. So that's when we're like, hey, we're going to do exactly what you said. Like, what we say what I say. I just want you to mirror back to me. Just say it right after. Like, so you want me to do this? And we were. We were off. Like, we were disconnected. Like, nine times out of ten, on very basic, simple communications about what to do, when to do it, how to do it. And, like, that changed so much. Now, all of a sudden, you have a healthy, organization that's communicating, and then you don't get to those places of resentment. And what's the matter with this person? I can't believe they don't get it. You just don't even. You're just down the middle. You're not even on the fringe on those things anymore.

Nope.

Well said, man. Well, man, I loved having you on here. I feel like we got to, some of the meat of the bone on some of this stuff, so really appreciate you sharing your insights and, your experience with this stuff.

Heck, yeah, man. It's fun.

Jonathan Maynard: Social media is probably the best way to reach me

All right, guys, well, if you want to reach out to, Jonathan, find, it on, what, Facebook or where do you prefer people to contact you?

Yeah, everything. It's, Whatever it is, it's. I am Jonathan Maynard is the tagline, so you can find me there. and that's probably the best way to get in contact with me. Social media, Facebook, Instagram.

Awesome.

If you do that thing.

Okay. Thanks for coming on the show, man. Really appreciate you guys. Don't forget, keep moving forward. It's one step at a time. 1% better every single day. You got this.

Awesome.