Latest / Forget The Noise / 4. Business Talk | Featuring EJR Electric

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4. Business Talk | Featuring EJR Electric · Forget The Noise

• Tharun Binu: They say motivation is something you want. Discipline is something you need. Obsession is something you have to have. I'm gonna show you what I wanted, how I got it, and how I was obsessed to get there. Forget the noise podcast, another episode this week. I toned down my notes a little bit this week because last week we got long-winded with Kasha. But I was gonna do a solo episode and last minute our schedules aligned. Today we have Eric Ratsky from EJR Electric. It's gonna be a cool episode. Like between the two of us, we've grown so much together. We've kind of scaled through businesses, we've got to know each other on a personal level, personal development. ⁓ like we're always on the phone, we're always kind of shooting the shit with each other. Talking about a problem, stuff like that. I love that he jumped on the opportunity. A lot of people were scared to kind of come on the podcast. So I reach out to them and he was like, Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it tomorrow. So he is a perfect guest to have today. When we dive into business as our first topic, we've done a little bit about me. We've done a little bit with Kasha. We have some solo episodes coming up. So like having a business one in here is gonna be perfect for the whole series of forget the noise. So he like I said, he owns. EJR Electric, he's a father, he's a husband, he's a personal friend. ⁓ we live down the street from each other. Actually, we've gone out for like walks to shoot the shit. ⁓ we've met up. Like, it's really cool to have someone in your community that's growing with you at the same scale, at the same pace, and having someone to relate to. You guys will hear a lot of me talking about being in rooms that people you can relate with. Like, that's Eric right here. Like, literally, that's my buddy right there. We're also in a mastermind together. So the whole networking thing. Our I believe the mastermind has kind of changed us, our mindset, and stuff. And being in the same mastermind and being able to collaborate and talk about the topics that week or the calls we have, that's really cool because like a lot of our members in the mastermind are down in the states. We have no one local and they're always meeting up locally. We're the only two guys up in Canada. So that's the cool part about that mastermind. But aside from the mastermind, like you get so much out of it. But we're gonna like dive right into business and With the business, we see wins, we see losses, we see guys come and go. Eric has gone through all that over the course of a couple years now. And now he recently just opened an office. So everybody I find has business ideas. And like I feel that muscle works a lot harder when you actually have a business. Then once you have the business, like the ideas are always rolling in. So I heard a quote the other day, and it was like, ideas are easy, implementation is hard. So we're gonna get Eric's all. Stat on that verse. Mm-hmm. Your thoughts about it? Yeah, I mean you always have things rolling in your head. It's it's learning to pull the trigger and figuring out how to do that. There's no right way, I don't think, at the end of the day. ⁓ you just kinda gotta do it. ⁓ like business itself. You just gotta dive in and go for it, right? You have a dream, you gotta follow that. And you yourself with your business. Yeah. What's been the hardest thing for you to implement? Ooh. Told you just getting blindside. Yeah, yeah. Catch you off guard. He got no notes before the meeting. Like it was so last minute. It was just kind of like I threw us together in like an hour. So like well, I think the hardest thing for me to implement is becoming a business owner, right? I'm a tradesman. I'm comfortable on the tools, I'm comfortable in the field. ⁓ making that transition to, you know, being on the computer, doing quotes, providing customers with that customer care, understanding numbers, understanding, you know, how business works. That's Beast all himself. Have you got to backpedal back to day one? Yeah, I love this question because when I'm like chopping up with another business owner, like this one always kind of hits home and everyone always has that like aha moment where they're like, Yes, I I w I I wish I knew that first. Like if you got to start back at day one, what would you have implemented first? Looking back, and now you have guys on the road, you have multiple you have 20 Give me like 20 trucks. Every time I drive by your guys' house, you guys have another new truck outside. Power of advertising, I guess, right? You know what I mean? Like you have your wife helping own the office, you have an office, you have custom homes, commercial work, you do fire, and all that's kind of rolled in. And now you're rolling in like administration, the back end. But if you got to go back to day one, like what would be your first step? My first step, I would probably have to go to not doing it myself. Hiring somebody, I think, off the get-go to you know take a little bit of that weight off your shoulders and allow you that time to kind of okay, this is it, this is real. It's happening. Right. Like, you know, you get that first paycheck, you're like, holy shit, we we made some money, but now what do you do? Right. So again, finding that balance between owning a business, being on the tools, ⁓ it's really hard to figure that out when you're by yourself. You need to have guys out in the field doing that work so you can s you know step back and look at the grander view of things, I think. So what you're saying is the whole scheme of it is like you would implement support on the front end and back end, not just front forward thinking you'd have support behind you too in case you fall back. Yeah. You know you you already know you can push forward is what I'm getting. So like being able to fall back and have something to lean on would be the first point of implementation. Yeah, I think that Lack of better word. Yeah. Yeah. Lack of better word. and I I love that because like you know my business and the first thing I did was implement support stuff. Right. I implemented the business end of it instead of the front end of it to make money. And it did suck at the beginning, but now that we're steamrolling, it's like the systems are there. So anything that's thrown at us kind of can help us and get us through it because we have a way to handle it before we get out in the field and kind of like pulling a hair out saying, Hey, how do we do this? Right. Yeah. And then what do you find the most beneficial part of business that you've implemented so far? Ooh. ⁓ so far I would have to say ⁓ money making. Money yeah, money making, right? ⁓ just just honing in on on some of those those processes that require you to keep things rolling, right? You know, you got, you know, obviously you go in, you make money, well what how do you how do you ⁓ do things with that, right? Like you gotta you gotta have that process of, okay, we got the customer now How do we go through keeping them happy, keeping the contractors happy, making sure that we got materials on the job, making sure that we got our guys organized, that kind of stuff. I think implementing those systems has helped us to move that project along. Obviously there's gonna be faults, you know, as as much as I do that thing staggered. We gotta adapt and overcome. But I think, you know, ⁓ Taking that time and going through those processes with the customer, with the contractor, you kind of make sure that everybody's on track. Now, you and I both know, like we just said, it doesn't always work, right? So you have to adjust and and make do sometimes. But yeah, I think that's that's the number one thing that I've enjoyed implementing is is being on top of that. Yeah. Now With the implementation, I find a lot of business owners kind of fall off the bandwagon. So, like, there's a whole juggle we have to do, right? Because we figure it out as we go. Like, that's what we do. We literally, what's the same? Like you jump on a plane, build a parachute on the way down. Yeah. Right. And how do you feel about work life balance with that? Like, because there's a lot of front end work when you start a business. Yeah. So how do you feel about work life balance? And what do you believe is actual work life balance, or is there actually work-life balance? I feel like everyone's got different perspective on this. So I like getting people either in the grind, getting out of the grind, not in the grind yet. And everyone has a different idea. Like it I was talking to a friend and he's like, ⁓ I mean I work perfect work life balance. Or run my business, I know how much I have to make an hour and he's gonna bring home a paycheck and I'm like, Well then you're just gonna employ your own business, right? I don't think there's work life balance. I think that's bullshit, but Yeah, I I think you know, it becomes a point where you own a job and not a business. So you gotta work on that too, right? That's that's one of the hardest things. I don't think there is a true work life balance at all. You know, it's all how you kind of look at it and implement things like for me, I wanna be home with my family at the end of every day for dinner. That's important to us. I want to be able to go to sports, you know, ⁓ enjoy that th those things with my kids. I got four of them, right? So we're we're all over the place, right? With ⁓ with things during the summer and stuff like that. Taking time to be with my wife, you know, go fishing, doing our thing like that. We we really like to have those moments. You did that yesterday. I did that yesterday. Shh, don't tell anybody. you know, I I think the work doesn't stop, and that's the hardest thing is learning to shut that off. Like for me, my phone goes off. I'm like, Okay, I gotta answer this email immediately because it's gonna change the world. It'll be there tomorrow. Just learn to shut it off. I I still find it hard to do that every single day, but You know, you gotta remind yourself or have your spouse remind you, hey, we're here too. You gotta you gotta be there for us, right? So I think for me that's been that's been the nice thing is being able to, okay, work is here, we'll deal with that stuff tomorrow. Let's focus on our family right now. Now I had someone ask me a question and it completely fucked me up. So they were asking about work life balance. I'm like, there's no such thing as work life balance. There's work or there's balance, it's 70 30, 60 40, 90, 10 some days. And then they turned to me and said, What happens if you love what you do? Because people I find have this, I guess, projection in their head where it's like work life balance, because work is hard hustle. Go, go, go, go, takes everything out of you. Then life balance is where it's like family time, downtime, reset time. But if you love what you do, do you need balance? And like when they asked me that, I was like, I don't know. I'm like, it really screwed me up because I'm like getting into like, you know, like with the consulting stuff. Like I'm loving doing that. And I'm like, I'll work on that till midnight. And I'm like, but I don't have work life balance. I go, but my life is now doing a passion like my podcast. I love doing the podcast. I love doing the personal branding stuff. I'm like, well then it's not work life. It's just kind of passion life. And isn't life about pass like it got me into like a dirty wormhole. Like it got me like really thinking that and I got I get in some like Weird like wormholes. Last night I asked my wife we can get a cheetah. I just found out cheetahs have actually never killed a human on record. So those are the wormholes I get into. So when this guy asked me that, like just imagine the wormhole I really got into, right? Like it was a stoic wormhole. So, like, if you love what you do, do you believe there needs to be a work-life balance? Everyone aims for it, like you said. But if you have that passion behind you, like, do you need to even worry about work-life balance? No, I don't think so. I think like you said, if you're loving it and it's b passion of yours, then why why do you need to do that? I think we all get caught up in that, you know, nine to five or whatever it is that we gotta work, work, work to make things come together and you know, the pressures of the world make that a little harder every single day too. But if you're able to take that time and focus on it and you see that growth in whatever it is that you're doing, that's such a reward in itself too, right? You're you're it's like your own baby. Your own baby. Exactly. And then With other business owners, you know, w I know you have conversations like me and you have all the time. What do find falls off the wagon first for business owners, especially new ones, when they lose that work life balance? Like is it relationships, is it kids, is it health? Is it fine? Like, what do you what do you find is the trending thing to fall? I find is health. I know I find guys just fall apart and they just don't do anything healthy or anything like that. But Yeah, I mean, I'm guilty of that, right? You want to take care of yourself and you start doing things for a couple of days as a New Year's resolution or whatever and then you're back out. I don't got time to do that or whatever. You know, you've been doing well for yourself doing that stuff, which has been great. Kudos to you. But I think, yeah, we kind of throw throw our own health aside. you know, we do s I'm guilty of it, you know, you kinda take advantage of, you know, having your wonderful spouse there to take care and manage those things where you're like, I'm working, sorry. you know, it's all on you tonight and you feel bad about that stuff, but that's the difference between having somebody that supports you and somebody that doesn't too. Right. So I think our health personally falls off is one of the is one of the first things. That that's what I find is the first thing that falls off. Physically, mentally, whatever, because again you go down those rabbit holes. Mentally, right? Boom. Like this guy just killed it. Like I was just thinking health, like physical, but yeah, mental ⁓ It's such a it's such a mind fuck every single day. Like you said to me on the phone, you're in your head while you're at dinner worrying about, you know, how am I gonna do this? How am I gonna do that? What flow of money's coming in, where are these customers getting this material from or whatever? You're constantly thinking about that stuff, right? And that's a mental drain on you as well. So having those people to help you out too makes a big difference. Take some of that load. I like that mental health aspect because I like I always thought health as a whole, but like yeah, some guys might still be head down like going to the gym or doing a run or whatever they do. But like mentally they're just like torn apart. And like I I feel like it was both for me. Like to me personally, I feel like both just kind of fell off a cliff and like finding the pieces to pick them up was like a long road. Sure. But like it can be just to find that beginning, right? Like where do you start? Yeah. And I that's a battle for me all the time. I s how do I get how do I get to this point where I want to be? What step do I need to take? And then you're like, ⁓ I'll do it tomorrow. Whatever, you do it tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Just gotta start. But you're also caught up in the grind, right? Like you're going every day, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week mentally. Like you tend to burn out. It is, yeah. Yeah, you definitely have that happen for sure. And then unfortunately family suffers and all that kind of stuff too, right? Because when you're a gruppy asshole, nobody wants to be around ya. But you know You got a lot on your brain. So how about this? How about burnout is not a badge of honor? Mm-hmm. Like that one? That's a good one too. Right? Yeah. Yeah, I heard that the other day. I was like, burnout is not a badge of honor. And it's amazing how many us business owners like think it is a badge of honor, right? Like it's like what same thing as when you're working a blue-collar job, you cut your finger for an electrical tape. I don't need no band. I don't need no band-aid. Like it's like a badge of honor, an injury, right? Like it's stupid, but it is, right? And I don't know why business owners have this like Shut up and work harder mentality, sweep it under the rug, which I think there's a time and place for it. Sure. Absolutely. But like, do you not agree that like there's so many guys that think that's what successful is? It's like the busier I am, the more successful I am and they burn out. It's kinda, ⁓ you know, I had to you know, I've been going twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. I'm like, what do you want it? Like a badge? Literally a badge. That's what we feel like we'd have to do though too, especially in startup phases. You gotta you gotta You know, put the pedal to metal, you can't stop until it works. But you forget that sometimes is hey, things are working. I can step back and actually enjoy it a little bit too, right? So now I find myself very like I get the burnout thing. I've been that in that phase, I've been through that stage. When I put my head into something, it's very like, I'm gonna do it. Like that's what I'm gonna do. And I'm like all burners on kind of guy. Like, are you the same way or is it one of those like are you more strategic kind of saying, okay, these are five steps I need to get to where I want to be? I'm like head down just like grabbing stuff off shelves. And I'm like, I'm just gonna make a meal of whatever lands in the cart kind of guy. You know, as I get older, I'm starting to be a little more strategic, but I still know my personality. Like, how do find yourself? Deal with all that. I'm the same way. I think you know it's stubbornness, hardheadedness, you just you're like a bull in a China shop. You just gotta go, right? You have a goal in your mind. You're gonna get to it no matter what's in your way. You're gonna trudge right through and it's gonna happen. Right. You know, should we be more strategic? Absolutely, because maybe we would reduce those mistakes, but you learn from those and become better too, right? So yeah, I feel like my head down and goal like all burners on. It has streamlined me along the way. So I feel like I did get further along in the years I've been in business than I would have if I strategically paced myself. Sure. Now my mistakes were bigger, which might have set me back more. But I feel like when I'm moving forward, I'm moving forward faster. But do you say it's worth it doing like the way same you said you're the same way. So do you think it's worth it doing that way? Where it's like you get bigger steps forward, but when you get setbacks, they're bigger, or do you just have smaller, consistent steps forward? With smaller steps back with scheduling or like just everything in life. Like, you what mean? Like, I'm gonna start a business and like I'm the type of guy where it's like sell the business or we're buying a new truck. Like there's no in between. Like you know, when when I started, it was ⁓ I was working for another company in town, so I really just wanted to go. Right. We were we were in the middle of getting married, having a baby, you know, we had it was a lot of stuff going on that year. My wife said to me, like, hey, dum dum. Slow it down a little bit. Let's work with your other company for a year. S you know, start doing things slowly, right? So I'm thankful she did that because if it was up to me, I would have just gone after it. And maybe that would have been the right way. But I'm thankful that I listened to her too because it allowed me to step back and, you know, look at what I was doing and how I was doing it. I still had way more things that I could have prepared for, but at the end of the day I'm going with the knowledge that I have, the skill set that I have and trudging forward, right? But I feel a lot of that knowledge is like an unteachable lesson. Like I can drill into somebody as many times as I want about shiny object syndromes and like the like imposter syndrome and all the buzz phrases and words and stuff. But like unless someone goes through it, like you know what I mean? You can't teach them. Like you can't. Like you gotta there's certain things in business that thickens your skin that like you just have to go through it because I think that's part of it. Yep. Well it i it humbles you too, right? Like s you know, you're not not as good as you thought. Slow down. Yeah. figure it out and let's do it properly. You know, I tell that to the guys when they're on on job sites too is, you know, it's okay for you to make mistakes. I don't care that something got broken or we gotta go back and fix things or whatever. You know, it keeps you reminded that you're human. Yeah. And what you do with that lesson that that's gonna bring you out on top. Hundred percent. Yeah. And I think being organized and documenting those mistakes, learning from them, like even in life. Like I I journal, right? So like I look back on my journal all the time. Life That was the worst problem of my life. Like I wish. I'll take that all day. Like you know what I mean? But like being organized, like I think that allows you to like have a platform and have stepping stones to look back at. Like it's like imagine steps to like the top of a temple or something like that. Like every step along the way, there was a new pebble or stone that you had step over. Right. And by the being able to turn around and like look back at that, it's like those are all accumulated. Right. Like imagine you picked all those up. How big your bag would be of like No knowledge receipts and everything like that. I th I think we forget to look at that too a lot of times is how far we've actually come. Right? You're like, ⁓ shit, I got so much more to do or so so much, you know, higher to get with all these obstacles in my way, how am I gonna do it? Well, how'd you get to where you are now? Same thing. And I think that's the problem with like personal growth and like development is that as you develop, if you're eager to get better and you're actually like driven to go that way, you start being around other people. And then those people drive you to be better because you're like, well, like I'm average here. I'm not like excelling. And I I talked about that an episode where it's kind of like, I'm like, ⁓ I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm doing that with my chest pop. I went to like a meetup and I was like, whoa. Like, ⁓ God, all that. Like I no one even knows my name in this video, right? Like these guys are like, I did that, like I bounced off what I did all week and they're like My 27 staff did that by Monday morning at 10 a.m. I'm like, all right. Like can't die. Can't put you in a check. Just shoot that ego down. It made me it honestly made me really rigid, right? Like it was kind of like that was a big factor for me. Like what developed in myself was like, I am human, but like there's so much more to do. I gotta look back at what I did. Right. Like it's so hard to like look at your accomplishments because like as you become more and more successful. You start to see things that were a high achieving goal as average. So, like when you succeed that, you look back and saying, Well, that's not really something to be proud of because it's average. So it's almost like your mindset raises, your standard changes, and it's like it's almost something that you can't be proud of. Like you're not proud of what you did before because it's just something you should have done or sh can do or an average thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so it's like it's hard because like Your bars get raised. So like technically, you look back, it's kind of like, well, that was easy. I did I did that regular my book. It's like, well, now I'm struggling to like publish my book with time, like actually do the final proofread and everything. Yeah. But when's like, I can't sit down, write my book. I can't sit down. I'm like, one weekend, I was like, I got 30,000 words. I'm like, I'm done. Like, that's it, bro. I'm done. And now looking back at it, like I hate to downplay it. I'm proud of someone if they write a book. Sure. But it's one of those like I did it in the weekend. You know what I mean? It's not like a competition thing or anything. I'm like. But why are you just setting that standard of writing a book as the top line? You know what I mean? You wrote a book, now what are you gonna do with it? Now what? Now are you gonna publish it? Yeah. Are you gonna become bestseller? Yeah. Are you gonna hand it out to local bookstores and sell a bunch of are you gonna hand them out to friends and impact their lives? Like that's now like the lower level. So like you said, like looking back at those accomplishments, I find for myself it's hard because I don't look at them as accomplishments anymore. I look at them as just things I had to step over. To get to where I want to go. Does that make sense? Yep. Yeah, it does. I mean, like we we need to remind ourselves to to take those moments and look at those small victories for sure. It's it's hard to do that though sometimes. Like you said. Well it's hard to distinguish what a victory is. Like I know the smallest things in life. Like I'm sure you made a home for dinner, but I'm like, now I'm at the point where I'm like, I should be home for dinner. Like it it's become like a non negotiable. I'm like, yeah, but look at that. Now it's non negotiable. You're there. I know. And it's like it's not accomplishment anymore. We can just something you do. It's like breathe. Right? ⁓ yeah. I was breathing all day today. It's like, well, you kind of have to like Yeah, you know what I mean? Like that. So so with all that, like hold on, I I gotta look at my notes. I'm horrible at this. So you so have you found like now being able to look back, like acknowledging you gotta look back at your goals and patting yourself on the back and everything. Has it changed your mentality towards other stuff? Like going forward into a goal. Like, do you say, okay, when I hit this, I'm going to turn around and pat myself on the back. Rather than before it was like go, go, go, go, go. It's like, ⁓ shoot, look at how this is a cover. Now it's kind of like, okay, I'm going to get to this point, then I'm going to embrace it. Like I want to hire two new guys and put a new truck on the road. When you get to that point, you're like, you know what, Eric? I'm proud of myself. I don't take that time. It's like what's next? Yeah. What's next? What are we going to do? So it's changing mentality. Yeah, it is totally right. I mean, you know, I I I do a little bit of business coaching and stuff like that. And they constantly s you know, ask you to provide you or provide them with wins, right? So it gives you an opportunity to reflect on that. I think taking a chance to do that yourself is probably a good thing. ⁓ but you forget to because you want to go to the next level and how do you get there? Right. So you're always looking at that. Yeah. And if you can give anyone in any advice on When they should do that. Do you think there's benchmarks when you should do that, or should you just make it a conscious decision to like when you're saying when you're stressed out? I'm stressed out. You know what? I gotta need to sit down, think about what I've done. Because that's why I do like when I feel like I'm at like rock bottom, everything's falling apart. Where's that reminder? And I'm like, I go back to my journal and I'm like, that was my worst problem six months ago. I'm like, I'll take it all day, right? Like you know what I mean? So, like, that's my benchmark personally, and I don't know if I've never actually asked anyone if they have a benchmark when they go back and reflect on. It's like, ⁓ what did do this year? Right. And yeah, I mean, I don't think I've ever really stopped to look at it. I I last year I had a lot of ⁓ goals and everything set out on a whiteboard right in front of my computer. So, you know, you sit there and look at it, you're fuck, how am I gonna get here? How am I gonna get there? And then at the end of the year, you look at it, you're like, Holy shit. I did three-quarters of this list without even thinking about it. Yeah. Right. So I think that's a solid reminder for me every day, is looking at that and seeing. You know, where we were to where we are. You know, having something like that as a continual reminder, as a visual in front of you, is a good way to to do that, I think. Or, you know, if the hard time comes, look at your journal. Whatever. That's yeah, everybody's gonna have their way. But yeah, if you can slow down just to remind yourself a little bit of where you've come from, then I think that's gonna keep you going and give you that momentum to go to the next level. Do you feel As you progress and you grow your business, and I know we're talking a lot about business, but even like personal goals. Do you think the small ones are still just like is it better to reflect every other day, every week, every month, and say, Hey, this is why I did this month. Good for me. Or as you grow and your goals become bigger, should you celebrate just the bigger ones and neglect the small ones at a certain point? Or is it like because like I said, like Make it home for dinner every day with your family. Yeah. Right. To me that was a goal when I first started my business because like I literally pulled all nighters. Right. Building out like an SOP for something stupid new that I knew nothing about. And I'm like, I had to figure this out. So making home for dinner was like a huge goal for me. Now it's just like a non negotiable. So like at our level, should we turn around and say, you know, like I'm still proud that I'm making home for dinner kind of thing, right? Yeah, I think I think focusing on those little things, makes a big impact, right? It's it's all of those little things that get you up here, so that's just that one big thing. That one big thing's great to look at too, but look at all you've done. But when you get to that big thing, do you yeah, like are you concentrating on that? Or do you like surpass it without even knowing? Sometimes you surpass it without even knowing it, like, ⁓ shit. I don't know if I just don't like that. You're talking about the whiteboard, right? You gotta look up, it's like, ⁓ yeah, look at that. I forgot I was gonna do that. Like it's awesome. Yeah. ⁓ no, those little things are just as important as that that one big thing for sure. ⁓ I think you need to stack up those small wins too. It's important. Yeah, I think a lot of people need to resonate on stacking up those big wins or those small wins because They do stack up, man. Like honestly, like I after I looked at well, you know me, 2026, I'm like, all burners on. Like I went all in, everything I want to do, I'm gonna do this here. Yeah. And I did stack those small ones for the first time. I was like, Wow. Like it's crazy what I've done in five, six years. And I'm like, I didn't even expect to do this. Like it it's crazy that, you know, you built almost like I feel like with the business, you almost build out like a whole ecosystem. You know, that's where I feel like I'm at. Like, I don't know how you feel, but it's like You're providing for other people. They're creating jobs. You've built relationships with suppliers. Like yeah. It's a world in itself. Like if you're really dialed into your business, you can almost survive just within your business, I guess, circle. Yeah. Like it's creating ⁓ creating it you know creating it ⁓ to a point where it's better for whoever's involved. Yeah. It's gonna grow. You know, y you've done it, you've brought certain people in from your First business to help you with your second, third, fourth fucking businesses. Podcast is ruined a third business idea. I thought podcast studio coming soon. ⁓ there you go. Yeah. We can we can build that, right? Yeah. now I'm off off track just thinking about all these confidence, right? Like e yeah, i it's important to be able to do that too. And it gives you a bigger picture view. Like your guys you're always gonna want to take care of. You know, you're you're out there. Busting your ass, but you're also doing that for them to provide for them, to provide for their families. You know, you gotta take care of your suppliers so they can take care of you, that kind of thing too, right? Take care of your podcast. I was like, Yeah, yeah. Here, swag, swag him in. You're on my podcast and want swag on something, like I need a gift. Sorry to set that precedent. I know he just set the standard now. He walked in and go, Here's a hat. I'm like, This isn't a bad idea. We're gonna do the best, right? No, that's cool because like I feel like this episode we're getting a personal feel of it and like The one I did before with cash was like real deep and personal. But this one is like business oriented with someone at the same scale. It's not like I'm chopping it up with someone that's, you know, a hundred million dollar business, but I'm also not chopping it up with someone that's just starting a business. I feel like you and I have both grown pretty much at pace with each other, where it's kind of like we're always facing the same problems. We're always like overcoming the same things. It's always like Yeah, every phone call was ⁓ fuck, man, this happened or that happened. But also this happened, which was fucking great. Yeah, like I really it's relatable for sure. And I think you w we've been buddies for what now, two or three years, right? Well, yeah, Jesus Christ. you see that and you you know, you grow as friends, you grow as, you know, contractors and business ⁓ business owners, which is awesome. but forgive I was going with that. We're developing together and Yeah, watching that happen, you know, is fantastic to see for a buddy, for you know, a fellow local business owner too, right? And then, you know, we go through those growing pains too, where you lose a guy or you know, a contract goes bad, right? Like we fucking we now we know okay, we're not operating under those standards. We're going here and this is what it's gonna be going forward, right? So we make those bounce ideas like, hey man, like This happened to me. I'm like, literally that happened to me last month. Right. Literally last month. So let's figure this out. This is what I did. Or I'll come to you and you're right. This is what I'm doing. I'm like, you know, like you had that big team meeting a few months ago, and you're like, I'm just gonna lay it all on the table. I'm like, yeah, that's not a bad idea. I might do the same thing, right? But it gives them a s a sense of accountability too when you're able to do this. Guys, and you know, we need to be doing this, you know, set that that KPI or KPA for them and let them roll with it too. Right? Yeah, and I find what was the quote? It was like As the owner, it's not your fault, but it's always your problem. Mm-hmm. And like starts and stops with you at the end of the day too. Yeah. So you gotta look at that too. And I I got that lesson from a previous owner as well. He would say that all the time, like, what the fuck you talking about? Now you're in the trenches. Yeah, you're facing that. It does. It starts stops with you. Right. It just you always still walk to you. Like I have support staff and everything that deal with ninety nine percent of the problem, but now I just deal with one bigger problem that I do ten little ones or Issues. I'm just those problems grow too, don't they? It's time passed. But do you find yourself becoming better at decision making? Because I find like I'm very like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And I'm like, and I've really been like relating to this a lot where it's like a lot of input and not a lot of output. Like I have a lot coming into me in a day in a regular day. Like before I'd be on the tools and be like head down, okay, I gotta get to this point, and today's a good day. Now it's like I'm blindfolded going through my day. I don't even know what's gonna come at me. Right. And I've never realized how important the executive calls I make are for the business. And it comes almost as second nature now where my thought process is different. It's like, you know, like our core values. what's our reputation gonna be? What's the customer service gonna be like, what's the revenue gonna be affected? And like it's like a okay, this is the way we're gonna go. And amazing how quick I can make a decision before versus when before I was like, ⁓ my god, like This can be a five hundred dollar problem. And now I'm like, okay, now it's only a five hundred dollar problem. Let's go. Like you know what I mean? Like so how do you find your decision making over the course of five years being in business? Four years. Four years. No, I mean, yeah, it comes with time, right? Like you before you were you were leading, I mean, you still lead with your heart, right? But you y you know, you're more logical thinking. Like you said, you break it all down, check all those boxes, what impact is it gonna have on the guys, on the people? I communication is the biggest thing with with the customers or or the the contractors and stuff like that too, to make sure you're clear on on everything that you're doing. How about life? What's life? You find yourself I I find myself a lot snapp not snappier, just very black and white. Like if I have a conversation with someone, it's like I walk in and someone if someone turns to me and say, You don't ask how my day is, I'm like I don't care how your day is because I don't wanna waste your time and I don't want you wasting my time. It sounds rude, but it's kinda like This is my time. Like if I'm gonna ask you a question, I generally wanna if you look at it from my perspective, it's like if I ask you a question, I wanna care. I wanna know the answer. I wanna listen to you. Yeah, and I wanna give you the respected like feedback that you deserve. So I'm not gonna ask you a question for no reason. Right. Because I feel like I'm just being fake to you and I'm wasting your time. Yeah. A lot of people look at it as like, well, you're just being rude. And I'm like, actually you're the one being rude by just Dilly dallying around a stupid question you don't care about. Like, you I mean? And some people are like, why'd you only care? I'm like, then ask the question. But like for me, it's like in life, like everything's a quick point, right? Get to the point, quick decisions. Like, even at home, it's like, you want to do this? And I'll talk to my wife. And she's like, hey, we're gonna do this. I'm like, sure. And I won't Do you just say yes? I'm like, because it it doesn't immediately affect me. And right, she's thought it through, she has a plan, I'm good with it. Like, you what I mean? Like, I have two or three things I gotta check off. If we're good, like, am I available? Can we afford it? And how long is it gonna take? Like, you what I What else is gonna affect? Like kind of thing. If none of those three things matter. I'm like, sure, you want to make plans? Let's go make a plan, right? Or my kids will ask me something, I'm like, do this. And they're like, Are you sure? I'm like, what's the worst that can happen? Right. Just figure it out. Like just do it. Yeah. Over the best. Yeah, two options. You want them to learn the lessons too, right? Whether whether it's the hard way or the easy way. But yeah, I think you know, my wife's really good at that stuff. Scheduling, making sure we're on we're on things, and I rely on her. for that home stuff because you feel overwhelmed with the business or whatever. But same thing. You know, how much is it going to cost? What's it going to affect? And can I be there? Right? It's you know, it's an easy yes for me if you've got it all done. Exactly, right? Kind of figured out. Yeah. yeah, I mean, you don't want to waste time beating around the bush with a lot of a lot of things, especially when you got job to do or places to go, people to see, right? Yeah. Ask those questions, make it important and meaningful conversation. Yeah. And I want to where I'm already want to have a conversation. I want it to impact people, right? Like with like Thurun, a videographer. Like when we go for a drive, dude, like me and him have some great conversations. Yeah. Like we've created like words of I think they're called Words of Wisdom. Yeah. Where he he's over there nodding. He's like, yeah, words of Wisdom. I know what's called. It's good fire. That's all I need. ⁓ okay, so the point of the podcast though is getting to know people I want to have on a podcast. It's gonna be conversations, self-development, rants. We're also gonna talk about forgetting the noise because think that's a huge thing for so many people out there with development. Is forgetting all the nonsense out there and the stuff we get told. Like there's so much stuff out there that we get told. And I feel like we talked about earlier, like there's so many unteachable lessons. Do it your way, do it what you think is best, because I think a hard lesson learned, you're gonna go a lot further than listening to someone else's advice that doesn't I guess count with you. Yeah. Right. But I think there's certain times where you need to take advice from other people. And that like I'm I always say, and I think I've said on every podcast, you want to know what's top of the mountain, ask someone on the way down. Sure. Right? But they need to align with you. But I think there's so much noise out there with so many other people that aren't aligning with you that like it distracts people. It pulls people off target, puts them in the wrong directions and everything. So like what do you find is making a lot of noise right now? Like either it could be personal, it be your sector, your line of work. It could be physical health, like anything that bugs you. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. yeah, finding that time, you know, for myself a little bit for that personal development. You know, you've done a great job going to the gym, doing that thing, working on yourself. I ⁓ you know, I you know, you make a goal to do it and you hit that snooze button and that's it, right? So finding that those moments to do that and take care of yourself is kind of one of those things that kinda eats away at you a little bit. you know, I do some journaling and take some time and do some reading and all that stuff for myself too. But ⁓ physically, you know, you kind of let yourself go when you're focusing on business, right? So that's, you know, one thing that definitely ⁓ is always in my always in my head. ⁓ and then starting the business too, everybody's like, don't do it, man. You know, this, this, this is gonna happen. I had to deal with this, I had to deal with that. That's cool. Go figure it out for yourself. How else you gotta learn? Right? Yeah. I think it comes down to that strategical talk that we were talking about too. You can be strategic or you can just fucking wing it. Yeah. That's good, yeah, because the noise like I find starting business with with noise, like there's no one in the middle. No one kind of just saying, sure. Like it's either they're telling you don't do it or send it. Do it. You know what I mean? Like And that's a big thing with noise is like I feel bad for almost people that want to start a business because they're at the point where it's like, do I do it, do I not? And I find until you grow that thick skin with those unteachable lessons, you're influenced easily. And I hate seeing people not take the gamble because they don't think they can. Yeah. Right? And listening to the noise of either spectrum, it's like that's just their personal Opinion and personal perspective. They're not looking at you as a whole. They're looking at their their experience and telling you what's best for you based on the way they made it work. Yeah. Now you could have someone like us who's head down, bowl in a China shop, go, go, go, go, go, saying, yeah, start a business. That works for someone like us. If you have someone that's strategic and everything, they're gonna jump into that and say, Well, this is not what they explain because like naturally that's who we are. We're good with dealing like On the fly, fast movers, stuff like that. Yeah. But that person's not. They need to think things through. So sure, starting a business might be the best move for them, but it's not listening to the noise we're making to start business. So, like a lot of people need to find what aligns with them and listen to that noise. Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, listen to that. Listen to yourself, man. Follow those goals. thankfully it had a good support system in the sense of other electricians in town too, which made it a lot you know, more reassuring for me to do that. At the end of the day, we have a ticket, we have a a trade under our belts. We're employable anywhere we go. Take the risk if you're gonna do it, do it. Figure it out. somebody's always gonna have something to say to you about it, whether it's buying a new pair of shoes or fucking buying a new truck. There's always gonna be negative things to say about it. But what do you want? Wow. I think you just ended the podcast. That was like a monologue. That was great. That was good content. ⁓ my God. I love that. All right. So we have to get the noise podcast date. We had Eric. You wanna give any socials, followings, anything you're up to next? Like, yeah, you can ⁓ you can give us a follow on Instagram, ⁓ at EJR Electric. ⁓ you know, we're present here in the Orangeville area. Electrical fire protection. We want to take care of you, take care of your business. People's safety, that comes comes at our number one concern. we're here. You know, we we wanna help, we wanna grow. our community's close, as you know, right? ⁓ locals, you know, keep it local. Let's help each other out. And then there's a little surprise. I wanna have recurring guests on. So give us your sixth, one year, and three year goal. Because when you come back on the podcast, we're gonna hold you to it. We're literally gonna say, like, bro, where are you at? Six, one, and three? Yeah, let's do that. ⁓ man. I literally just made that up right now. But it's a good idea. I think it's great idea. So yeah, I think ⁓ six months. Six months. Let's look at it. ⁓ I would like to have another journeyman on staff. So right now we've got a journeyman, an apprentice, and a fire alarm technician, plus myself. I want to have another journeyman on staff to help that. fire alarm technician attain his apprenticeship, which will then lead us to having four electrical ⁓ you know, four electricians on staff able to help serve our crew or our customers. ⁓ I think one year ⁓ I'd like to be settled in my shop fully. We're not in our office just yet. We've got a lot of work to do in there. ⁓ there like six months. Yeah, it took it took forever. Anyways we we'd like to be in that shop fully operational. You know, obviously with that six month hire comes another truck on the go. You know, maybe even toying with the ideas, and this is something that I've always wanted to do is to build our own unit. You know, ten ten ⁓ ten unit building with one for myself and the other units available for ⁓ for the other people to rent. I'd put that in our three-year mark for sure. Next three years. 'Cause that'll bring us to seven years. So goal seven seven years to ten years was to be able to do that. So And anything else you wanna just leave behind. You wanna leave on the table I can call you out on next time? ⁓ shit. Let's let's go with the fitness goal. Let's be let's be hidden hidden in the gym and taking care of ourselves a little bit better than we are this year for sure. Okay, so we're back. We're gonna have one more employee. We're gonna have the shop set up. Yep. We're gonna have a building being built and we're gonna have an ab check. Cool. Sweet. Gone. All right. Forget the noise podcast. This one has been fun. Honestly. It was cool having someone close to me on the podcast as our first kind of business one because we've aligned the business. We've grown together, we've scaled together, we've gone through problems together, we work together. So I appreciate being on Eric. ⁓ thanks, man. It's been an awesome episode. I've had a great chat. Got all the answers I wanted and now we have something to hold them accountable for. So forget to play this podcast. Stay tuned for next week.