Latest / The Mobilization Mindset / Episode 163 | The Legacy You Build Beyond Construction with Victor Bretting

Transcript

Episode 163 | The Legacy You Build Beyond Construction with Victor Bretting · The Mobilization Mindset

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: What what's this first thing I tell everybody that I mentor?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: What you build tomorrow, you never built today.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: What you build the next day, you never built the day after that.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: We constantly, constantly do something we've never done.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: So there's going to be issues and going to be problems.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: But the more you get out in front, try to understand, try to get the situation handled, the more you're going to be able to drive your ship.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome everybody to the next episode of the mobilization mindset.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Scott Pieper, CEO and founder of Mobilization Funding.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: And today we are going to be talking to a construction executive with 50 years experience, an avid hunter, an amazing human being, one who's built an amazing ranch.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to learn all about that.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so if you're into hunting and construction, this is going to be a great episode for you.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we're going to share some life stories and how construction and hunting and the ranch can all shape you for the better.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Victor Bredding, welcome to the show.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate this.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Great to be here with you, sir.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: You're welcome, man.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, you wrote a book, I love it, the The Man I Would Become, a memoir that started out as going to your grandchildren.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to touch on that too.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: But there's so many different things you've done now in your life and what you're focused on.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm excited to let our audience hear all about it.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I uh appreciate that.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, the the book, like you said, really wasn't about being an author.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was trying to let my grandkids and their kids understand who I was and you know what I went through.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I lost my mom, it's like you lose your legacy.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she might have told me who Uncle Charlie was right when I was four.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean I remember it now.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of changed.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: It it it had morphed basically into what we've got today.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's touch, let's touch on that.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you yeah, I know you you grew up very close to your mom.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Your father passed away early on when you were young, and then you got into the construction world, you watched your mom work really hard and raise you guys.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Talk a little bit about how that kind of guided you maybe into the construction industry and what you learned from your mom and how you carried that through your through 50 years, five full decades in construction.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, you you watch uh, you know, you watch your mom, and you know, my brother and sister were eight and ten years younger than me, so you have to step up all of a sudden and become a you know the man of the family.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you watch her, you know, she didn't she didn't complain.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um she always came hanging home.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: She always asked how we're doing, what we could do.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: She always kept me in sports, you know, and I was uh I was five.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was supposed to be six.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: She enrolled me in football.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: So she was leading me down a path I didn't know.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the team sports, the don't let anybody down, do your job, be a part of the you know, the success.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And and then she enrolled me in a faith-based school uh since I was in kindergarten up through sixth grade.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So she was planting seeds that I absolutely had no idea what those seeds were gonna do.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and I just followed basically the lead that she gave me in my life.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: Had your mom always been very close in her faith and passing on to you?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is that something she developed while you guys were growing up?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: She was she was always strong.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, even when her retirement years and she got older, she was um doing diapers for the kids in Africa or she was making dolls for the the kids in Mexico.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: She was always supporting some sort of mission or or Christian top-based cause.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: So she was always extremely strong in her faith.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: So as you grew up in that environment and you decided the field you wanted to get into and you you found your way into construction.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: What lessons learned there and from your upbringing did you carry into the construction world for one for yourself, and then as you started to lead teams and projects, how did you talk about that?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I think uh perseverance, you you you have got to continue down a path, and I'm not telling you it's the same path, right?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: As you well know, we started out with plan A and end up with Triple Z or quadruple Z or whatever it is.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So your perseverance, right, to be able to pick up and say, this didn't work, let's go here or let's try this.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I watched the perseverance, right?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: She never quit.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: There was no quitting her bone, right?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: She'd figure out how to make sure the store was taken care of so that she could be at my football games or any of my sporting events.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: So the perseverance to me was the most important thing that she taught me, you know, especially in construction, because we, you know, we handle a thousand problems a day.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing's perfect.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm gonna the engineers are gonna hate me when I say this, but the design because a CAD is not what it is.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you have a thousand RFIs instead of 20.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to have the perseverance and the drive to say, I'm gonna get through this and it's gonna be okay, but I have to get to the end.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, with your experience and what you just said, I'm curious of one thing.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in our business, we see and work with purely commercial construction contractors.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: And what you just said is exactly something that I hear many, many, many of them say.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that never comes out is about the finance aspects of construction.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: Now, when I say that, I mean they all everyone talks about the difficulty in getting paid and the cash flow cycle, all that is well documented and known.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: But what I mean is the perseverance to figure that out in a world where it's not necessarily part of the process.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, learning how to suffer and persevere through the heat, the cold, being at high altitudes, being at low altitudes, all the stuff where things are built, you know, heavy equipment, all that takes perseverance.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: But the financial aspects of it, in order to have a successful business and team, you have to ultimately figure out, or they become the demise of any business, especially it can happen in construction.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: How did you apply some of those principles to the in the office side, you know, or the back office side of things?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, it's it's kind of like you said.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I've I've been really a subcontractor probably 47 to 48 years of my 50.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just kind of now with a large GC kind of helping them on their self-perform side because they've they've been a self-performed concrete contractor for 70 years.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So especially on a subcontractor side, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: You're expelling uh 60 days worth of labor.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: You're expelling 30 days worth of material and equipment before sometimes you ever get paid in that cycle.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a very deep appreciation early on as a sub because we're the ones spending the money because you don't GC's not going to pay you till he gets paid.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So GC has a 5% or 6%, maybe 8% outlay of cash while we've got 100, you know, basically going into it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that side is critical mass, just like you talked about, because cash flow is is either the one thing I learned by by a good leader a long time ago, cash is king, right?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I know everybody hears it, but I'm sorry, cash is king.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you do not have enough cash in the bank to be able to fund and look ahead, knowing that your draw is going to be 45 to 60 days, you're not gonna make it no matter how much profit you think you're gonna make.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you hit on a really hard topic for a subcontractor that if they don't understand or make a cash flow model, be with somebody like yourself or a funding operation that can help them through some of the hard times, because you know, like I know, I'm gonna make a mistake, owner's gonna get mad, they're gonna hold the GC's money, the GC is gonna hold the sub's money, and now I don't have any money coming in.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you hit a really important topic if you're ever gonna succeed being a sub, even a GC.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, if you were to look, if you were to talk to that subcontractor now, the younger version of yourself or the ones you speak to today, who are doing well, you know, they got the trade down.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: They, you know, when everything's when they have the right, when labor's there, materials are there, I mean, they they build and make a phenomenal product, whatever trade they're in.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: What do you tell that contractor who's focused on revenue, growing their business, and they have that, you know, what do they call it, like spit and vinegar in them, they're they're excited, and they just don't know what's coming next.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: That and it usually in my world, I see that happening between a few million dollars of revenue on your way to 20, depending on how fast you're growing.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the spots where people start to a great contractor starts to die and they don't know it.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: What do you tell that person at that moment to protect them?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, number one, don't go at a boat, go buy a boat, don't go buy a sports car, don't go buy at a new house, you know, because as we all know, right, whether it's in our business or somebody else's, the first five years is critical mass.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, don't plan on making any money, just try to keep money within the bank.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Try to make sure you've got a reserve, make sure you have a backup plan.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll take it a step further, I think, in where you were going.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: You have to look ahead.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: You have to forecast, right?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So as a as a subcontractor, in the large-scale industrial projects that we did, I had about a six-month window.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: When I landed a job, it lasted for about six months.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a six-month window to figure out where was the next project or projects that we needed to do.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, as I know, Scott, uh you're not just responsible for the bottom line, you're responsible for all those families out there that are relying on you to make the right decisions.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I would tell you, you have to look ahead.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have to forecast, you've got to understand, I'm making a million today, but you could lose two million tomorrow.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you better have a little cash and a little foresight and look ahead about what's next and what's down the road.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: In your experience, where did you find the best pathways for you know, commercial contractors, subcontractors specifically, to take that initiative and shift from, okay, I'm gonna spend these dollars on the finance team, these reports, things that don't just show, they don't show up necessarily in the field putting concrete in the ground or removing dirt, you know, or whatever trade.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't happen.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I I've seen so much resistance to that, or they've just had a bad outcome or bad experience and they they just don't invest in that.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: So there's two answers to what you just said.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll start with the last one.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about, hey, they had a bad outcome.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you how many times in my life, right, things go wrong.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we got it.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna fix it.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: But but what they do is they take that pendulum that was basically straight up and down and they switch it all the way to the right.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So they instead of adjusting just a little to tweak it, they go, oh, but we're just not gonna do that anymore because it failed the first time.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, here's Victor's rule.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime you do anything the first time, it's how many zeros behind the one that you fail because you are going to fail because you didn't understand.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: But just tweak it a little bit.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then kind of back to where you're talking about on that that first subject matter, you know, I still believe that you've got to be able to understand that we may if it let's be honest, a construction for the risk that you take is a very small fee in value, right?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because we take on and think of it as a sub.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: We take on all the risk.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because all the contracts have a flow down requirement from the owner that was negotiated by the GC that really doesn't care because he flows it all down to the sub and says you're responsible.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to look at these risks versus rewards.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you handle that?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Without a good legal team, without without a good back-of-the-house legal team, without a good CEO, financial advisor, uh, accountant, whatever you want to call it, at whatever level you're at, that can keep you in charge.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you one of the most important things I've seen in most of my career.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Most subcontractors do not understand if they made money today or not.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: They don't understand their cost.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: There is no mechanism made for them that they can say, I had a dollar per linear foot in my unit and today I did a buck 10.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, not terrible.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, Fred, my superintendent, how are we going to adjust this?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about what we can do.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: All they look at is every month they'll pull up a set of financials and they'll go, ooh, I made money this month.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe it'd be really important to try to figure out why you made money, and then can I repeat the same process over and over again?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's interesting.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you hit the nail on the head because what happens a lot of times if you're not forecasting, then what happens is you start to move through and you're actually doing okay.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe you get some overbillings, you get a bill ahead a little bit.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: But if you don't know how much of the project, and I love what you said about the risk, and I think it ties directly with the investment you're gonna make.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: And they're always like, well, what's the my investment?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, your investment is how much of your cost in the bid do you actually have to put out on this project before the project is paying for itself, cash flow in itself, whatever term you want to use.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you can have the same project with the same 20% margin, and you have to invest 100% of that cash expense before you get paid or earn your money.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Or sometimes you might have the right lineup of terms and schedule and subs out of out of your way, and you might end up only having to invest 250,000 to make the same 20%.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And if you don't know the difference of when that's going to occur, that's what happens when you get midway out on a job and you got everyone asking you for money and you're totally upside down and you can't make payroll, and you're saying to yourself, if everyone would just pay me, I'd be fine.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's the difference maker.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like so the forecasting prevents you from that moment where everything was going smooth until pay up three and four, and you're not paid yet, and you're totally out of cash.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it it ties into being a good contractor, right?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a schedule is made as a roadmap, doesn't mean you're gonna follow it, but that's your roadmap.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody takes that schedule as their roadmap and then plugs it into a financial analysis that said, I'm expecting that my draw is gonna be 100,000 this month, 200,000 next month, right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: So you're forecasting your draws based on your schedule.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Then you're looking at that schedule based on the work you've got to do, and you're putting your cost in for your labor, your equipment, any subcontracts you might have.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where your financial analysis comes from.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I I can't tell you how many people don't take that time to look ahead so that they understand what cash crunch is gonna be.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because, like you said, it might be halfway through, it might be 90% through before you become positive.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on your terms and how the job's going.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna tell you a story.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: So when when um I started this business, we had some friends, me and a couple friends that started it.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: They've all like they all are not here anymore, but but that's a different story.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_02: But nonetheless, we were assuming that the contract would just pay out, just kind of like the contractor does.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you do the work, you get paid, everything's gonna work out.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: We learned really quickly through some pain that you have to understand the cash flow of the project if you're gonna effectively help a contractor execute the work.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: And what you just said, the bid and the schedule, and marrying the two together is the cash flow forecast.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: I you need all three things to really run a great job.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: But every what I love is everybody has the other, they have the two.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: They know the bid because you have to bid it in order to win it, and you have to have a schedule in order to keep it.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: We take that third part and said, okay, if we can do the third part, then we can actually show everybody in advance what that looks like.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what we learned, Victor, is that people don't, everyone gives contractors a bad rap that they make bad decisions and do stupid stuff.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's not really that.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's they're operating with the absence of information.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: And you just touched on that.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then we we I can confirm that that is accurate across thousands of different projects we've seen and done and built cash flows for.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: When you give a contractor the information, they actually are some of the best and most knowledgeable people of what to do to solve the problem, which touches on your very first point.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: As soon as they see it, and when we show those options to them and they see them, they know, you know what, I'm not gonna go to that supplier, I'm gonna go to this supplier.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna move my sub laborer to this mark, I'm gonna switch the schedule to this one.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's like it's not just like a whim.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they are real value tools.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it was so impressive to me because I sat in big giant corporations from in the medical device world prior to this business.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I'd watch, you know, on paper, really smart people have all the information and couldn't make a decision.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like didn't not only didn't know what, but couldn't make one.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: But construction contracts, not only are they good at making them, they they they execute on them.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like this information, and you've said this now three or four times already in our first 20 minutes.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's the key.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: It it absolutely is.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the when I'm teaching or mentoring, you know, somebody young in our field, you know, I'll I'll tell them, I said, you have to make a decision because procrastination costs us money.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: General conditions are flowing out the window, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I told my said, now that doesn't mean it's an uninformed decision.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: That means you talk to Fred, Pete, whoever's the expert.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you do Google it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, not my favorite thing, but maybe there's information.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Call your supplier.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Call who is supplying this product for you.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: They've got to be the expert.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to gather information, but what you said is true.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: We have to make a decision, you know, and hopefully it's right.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: If not, we're gonna tweak it and go down the road.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's so awesome.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I I love that part of it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let me transition for a second.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: So you've you've learned all these lessons from growing up.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Your mom had a big role in your life.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: She gave you some great foundational wisdom.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: You put yourself in an environment on a construction site and industry that that's only going to fine-tune that.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And now you're you've opened a ranch.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: You probably had the ranch for a long time, but you've opened the ranch and now you're giving back.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: You have a big heart, and I can see it on you.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And and you talked about this initially.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: You wanted, you know to give.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: And by giving, you'll be able to receive.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: How did you where did you learn that originally?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I this probably came from your mom, but but F, but how did you apply it to not only your work, but your when you were an individual contributor in construction, as a leader in construction, as a leader of your ranch, as as in writing your book, where did you learn that that is the path?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I I can't tell you that I realized it early, you know, because I started out technically on a nuclear power plant, uh delivering water to 10,000 people.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was a true water boy when I started out in construction, you know.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: So as you grow up in the construction, and especially, I would say, in the times that we did, you know, the shovel on the back of your butt saying, hey, you know, what are you doing?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: So those lessons taught me some things about is this the person that I want to be, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do, do I want to demand or do I want to understand?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like the very first question I think I remember asking the guys, well, what do you what do you want me to do?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: Just tell me.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want 10,000 linear foot done?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, just give me a dick.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: You just need to work harder, boy.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: So some of those lessons were grounded there.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: But it really, it really was probably, I don't know, 20 years into my career, which um great owner that I work for started out with nothing.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're 2.2 billion right now.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um he sent me to fails management.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: He sent me basically up to do the to do the you need to straighten your act up, Victor act, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you do all the 360s, right?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: You and and they start off with good.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a brainwashing.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: You you learn this after the fact, 10 o'clock at night when you fly in, right?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you learn, oh, Victor's gonna take the hill, I'll march with him anyway.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Then you start seeing the other stuff, which is Victor needs to understand he's got two ears and one mouth.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: He needs to understand that little Hitler doesn't rule the world.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it just beats you up, right?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So at that second in time, you only have two choices in your life they're liars or it's the truth, and you've got to do something about it.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I made that decision at that point in time that I had to change who I was.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh I would say another 10 years in the journey, um, I met a consultant um that actually had been with the company I was with for a while, kind of as a consultant off to the side, and he started teaching me servitude leadership.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I I give both of those two the credit for saying, Victor, you need to change.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: You need to understand what's going on.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say 30 years into my career as I started, you know, getting into an executive leadership and all that is is when I started changing.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Juan, I love that, and you're right.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: It takes a couple good experiences.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's with people, sometimes with a group of people, sometimes it's just in a problem that you can't handle yourself and you figure it out.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it is the path.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: I've learned that in um our business here too, um, in very similar ways.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you can you you get so much of what you're looking for in all the success by giving than you ever do taking.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it's until you can grasp that concept, um, even if you're winning, you're that's the reason why you're still miserable.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: But you're still, but you're even when you're on paper winning.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it's great to see that.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think construction contractors, I wish they would learn that as well.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like show up on that site and just focus on performing and do your best and be a solution-oriented person.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry if you're getting screwed or someone else is getting screwed.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, pay attention to that, but show up first to just provide and give, give solutions.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry if that's not my job, this is his, someone else's job.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: Just be the solution person, make everyone else's life easier.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the reason I always talk about that is in a world where expectations are lower, you have the opportunity now to shine faster, you know?
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_02: And and everyone's gonna recognize that subcontract and their team on a project that's out there just trying to help everybody.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: And do by helping everybody, they're doing great work too.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: You gotta perform.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you're gonna all of a sudden get how does that translate into better terms?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they're gonna want you on the job, you're gonna get better terms.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: How's that gonna get favoritism to schedules, to lifts, to cranes if you need them, to whatever?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: I promise you, it's gonna, you but.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: But you don't know that until you do it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I agree.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, every every general contractor is looking for a good sub.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And it's about a relationship, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I try to tell all the group too, you can't have 10 relationships.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, I can't have 10 suppliers, right, that are doing concrete.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe have three, maybe, because if I need a favor, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's the one thing I used to tell a um uh a salesperson to come in my door.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm gonna sit down and I want to have a conversation with you so you hear where I'm going really quick.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're not here just to sell me something, you're here when I need you.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: So when I call you and I've got a problem, you're gonna be there to solve my problem.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: You're just not here to sell me something.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that philosophy is about a partnership, right?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm a partner with you, you're a partner with me, I'm gonna help you, you're gonna help me.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: GCs have the same thing.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: They they cannot build anything without a good subcontractor.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And their name and their reputation is based upon how good they pick their trade partners.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So what you said is so true.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard, right?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: It is hard.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: It is hard when you get on a job site, you know, and everything's kind of going bad and the GC's got his foot on your throat.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as a good subcontractor, I've got several different rules.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: I always make sure that I suggest to the GC, and it's his idea, I don't care, but it's going to be your idea.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: Look ahead for him.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Don't wait until they pin you in a corner, and then they say, now you need to work overtime and figure it out.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the and it's the gold rule about the king.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: He who has the gold makes the rules, so get used to it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: If you just accept those things, you can have a lot more peace.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can't.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: You don't fight yourself anymore.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: You don't get mad about it.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: You just go to him and I add another one, which is I'm gonna give you 10 to get one.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: I got to give the general contractor 10 things to get the one thing that I need.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: I do that in the go now.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fixed to give away some secrets.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: I do that in my negotiation of contract for years.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: I might mark up a red line 30 things.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I really only want four.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm giving him 26 backs, he's gonna sometimes a little more lenient on me on the four that I want.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's very true.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: And and knowing what's important to you in those four is the key, too.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need everything, don't argue over everything.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you mentioned something about um the subcontractor GC relationship, and it's it's a dynamic that is, you know, one of the most fascinating in probably any relationship world you could compare.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: What do you tell the commercial subcontractor who has more of a scarcity mentality than a um than an optimist?
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, where they're so they're going to the GC like, oh, if I don't accept this, they're gonna throw me off the job.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: If I don't accept this, I won't get paid.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: If I don't accept this, I'll never get another job.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: All of that's not true.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's in their own mind.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: But how do you how do you talk to that contractor who wants that GC job, they really need that project and they're worried?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: What do you tell them that has that mindset to shift them out of it?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll start off with contracts.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think in 50 years I have not been able to negotiate one contract.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: That didn't mean I gave in.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: That means I negotiated the contract.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, to play the game, and it is a game, you have to understand which season it is.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: When work is scarce, right?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Then basically the GCs are on top.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: When there's a lot of work and the sub trades are busy, the subs are on top.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: So understand the seasons of the year helps you start with your negotiating tactics on what you're gonna do.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: But the other part is so true.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I remember when I was with a drilling company and all the drillers would just sign the contracts, right?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: The broad form indemnities and on and on and on, right?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I got them all in a meeting one time.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: I said, This is this is not coercion, gentlemen.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about price gouging, but we are gonna talk about.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let me teach you about a contract and what you're fixing to put your neck in the noose for your own company.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So some of it is education, educating that there are certain things most good GCs will negotiate with you.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that doesn't mean that you're gonna get rid of an indemnity clause.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna happen.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: But they'll take it from maybe a broad form to an intermediate that you can isolate your risk instead of everything that goes wrong on the contract is your fault, you could isolate it maybe just to death or problems or whatever.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I would tell them all the answer to any question is no if you don't answer it.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: You have got to try to negotiate because if I don't ask the question, it's an immediate no.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: So try.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if then they're gonna, some are gonna bully you.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll be honest with you, that's where you're gonna have to do the risk versus reward conversation with yourself.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: One of the good owners taught me as well I will never sign a contract or put one job that is so important to risk my company.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have to make those risk versus reward decisions.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they're not easy, right?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because we all understand that, you know, we still have to have the next job in a relevant term, right?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: In a relevant term for the cash to continue because your retainage is still hung out there for two or three years sometimes, right?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I do understand, but you have got to understand that everybody normally will negotiate with you at some point in time.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: You made a good point too.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: You can't just take the job to take it because the risk is too high, especially if you put your whole company out there.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: And when you go in, if you do all that, especially with a scarcity mindset attached to it, you're really setting yourself up for the first thing that goes wrong, you're gonna get hammered.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then your entire company can go go under.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: And now all those families are hurting.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_02: And on the flip side of that is walking away.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: But what I think is important to grasp, and you mentioned this, and we talked about this a little bit, when you go into those negotiations, though, with a history of performance, and your whole team focuses on making projects better and helping the project, regardless of what if it's your trade or someone else's, I'm just gonna solve problems and do a great job, it is way easier to negotiate than is if you are out there just getting work done and doing the bare minimum.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: Or even if you're doing just your job.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I'll I'll just add on to what you said.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you've done your due diligence, which is you've negotiated the contract the best way you could, and then you go do what you said.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm gonna do the best I job I can for them.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna look ahead, I'm gonna take care of the general contractor.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what happens to that contract?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Stays in a drawer.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody ever sees it, nobody ever brings it out, no threats.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: You get paid, you go down the road.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So what you said is extremely important.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: You you need to understand that rule again of who has the gold.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have the gold.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: The king has the gold, which is the GC.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: So you better understand it.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: You better work toward helping him, you better work toward being the best subcontractor you can for that GC.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then everything, like you said, starts falling in line.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Better terms.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I can get my uh retainage, you know, when I'm done instead of when the project is done.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many things you can get out of performing well for your general contractor.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you get a ton.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it works the exact opposite.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: If you are a risk on the job, they're gonna hold everything to the last minute because they've got to hedge their risk against of you against the the rest of the job.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the problem.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're the first to went in, like I've what I've done most of my life's concrete, right?
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: So between dirt and us and under underground utilities, right?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're the first in.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we're the first to get our money withheld.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if you keep screwing up because I pour that last curb two years later, right, then I'm not gonna get my money till another six months to a year after that.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: So right, yes, your due diligence and trying to be the best sub that you can, I think is exceptional.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: So let me let me uh change gears on now.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go to your book.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: What made you take all this great information that you've built on, your life's lessons, and say, you know what, I want to get this into a memoir for my grandchildren, which is now turned into a book.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: What, what, what, as you know, writing isn't easy, it's a big project.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: What made you want to do that?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was uh be honest with you, I was having to babysit a job in uh in South Dakota that they sent me up on.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you're sitting in a hotel room, you know, for four nights a week.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm sitting there kind of just going, like, okay, well, you know, I don't go to the bar, I don't drink, so what are you gonna do, Victor?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and then, you know, my kids and my grandkids, you know, and and I don't get to spend as much time as I'd like to since we moved out to the ranch because now I'm two hours away from them, you know.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it just the thing started running through my brain, my mom, you know, thinking of my mom.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll give you one that that why I I would say is a big part of it.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: I found out that I'm actually an eighth-generation Texan, that my family was one of the original 300 settlers that Stephen F.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: Austin gave land grants to back in the 1840s.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of started bringing something more in me, like there's a legacy here, and the legacy is really, you know, my family.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not what I've done.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the family, you know.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody needs to know that.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of rolled into that.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then as you're probably aware, well, back up a little bit too.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: So part of the nonprofits we support on the ranch is is veterans, right?
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: We uh guy named Gordon Melton, 20-year founder of Hunting with Soldiers, right?
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: So as I was talking to him, he's letting me know about PTSD and and uh you know 23, 22 to 23 suicide debts, you know, a year from from uh the veterans.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, construction has 50.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I had absolutely no earthly idea about that.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: So you now you start putting this into it, men's health.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I look at my transition because you could cut my neck off and I wasn't gonna cry, wasn't gonna happen.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's just not what a man does.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then my wife starts changing me, and you start realizing that you can't have empathy and be a man at the same time.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it all just started rolling out, you know, and it started making me think.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'll give you the other thing about what a memoir does to you.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: It makes you really understand you either lie or you tell the truth.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I probably had to confront some things in failed marriages and really say the truth instead of point a finger maybe to somebody else.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a lot of stuff going through my brain as I was starting to write this, like maybe I can make a difference.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And Victor, you're gonna have to acknowledge some things in your life.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's um you made a good point there.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: When you start writing things down, just writing it down, it's a it's like another level of you realize the story you've been telling yourself might not be so true when you put it down.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's easier to it's easiest to say in my head.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's harder to, it's a little harder to say out loud, but if I write it down, it's almost like the stopping point.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: You can't, it's like you can't do it.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's really cool.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be known as a liar, never do, you know.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that that really kind of hit me pretty hard where, well, then you're just gonna have to tell the truth and it's gonna have to be exactly the way it is.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: But you're right.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I and the things I realize, which back to men's mental health a little bit too, and I can't remember if it's a 10-step or a 12-step program now with like drugs or alcohol, but what's the first step you have to take?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: You got to admit, right?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have a problem.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that was like one of those confronting things for me, too.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Another, you know, life-changing thing of Victor.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: You you might have thought that's what the story was, but now here's the real truth.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: You need to confront it.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, sir, being an author is a whole lot tougher than what I thought it's gonna be.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's amazing sometimes how God works on your heart and uh what you thought you were doing for someone else, you end up really doing for yourself.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: True statement.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, one of the things about mental health and construction too is I think it goes entrepreneurship is tough.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, running business is tough, being leading teams is tough, military stuff.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_02: There are so many hard things to do.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Being a parent is tough.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's what people somehow believe, and then this I'm speaking for myself, is that you're you're all alone.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like you get this lonely feeling.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: And what what a good group does, and not just friends, but if you can find a good group, whether it's an entrepreneurial group, a business group, a friendship group, and and everyone's honest with each other, you realize you're you're all dealing with the same stuff.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: You just talk about it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then you once you feel normal, it's a lot easier to like admit to yourself that this is what I'm doing wrong.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not I'm not really all by myself.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're not nearly as bad as you think you are.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: You're also not nearly as good as you think you are.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: But you're not you're definitely not as bad as you think you are.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so, and you're not alone.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: And those things are so important.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that if you can get to that concept faster, you can save a lot of mental health um issues by not making people feel alone or going to pick them up when you can see it, especially guys that are um, especially for guys who are a little older.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm I turned 50, I'm gonna be 51, but you know, look back and grab the 35, 40-year-old, man.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know what he's thinking.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: You got three kids and that are under seven, you know, and you know what kind of anger is going on in his mind.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's there, you know, and if he's not there, he's gonna be there.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: So just share it, you know, like get it out.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think you touched on one of the biggest things about men's health.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you think about how we were raised, right?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: You fall down, ride five.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you ride your bicycle, you fall down, what's the first thing they say?
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Hut wipe your tears and get up, get going, right?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we've learned to suppress things, but but what we don't do is we don't talk.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing I found out too.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if you do talk and the one person you talk to shut you down, you're never going to talk again.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you talked about this circle of friends and somebody that you can talk to.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, what what did we talk about?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: I have to admit.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you can just get it out, I solve a lot of my problems just by having a conversation.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, did I say that?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, right?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to talk as men.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I laugh at my whole wife all the time.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what did you and Fred talk about?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: We were and you all were fishing.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't talk about nothing.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on, y'all talk, we talk about everything.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: The woman does have a point, right?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: If we would just talk a little bit to somebody you can trust and say, man, I'm just having some issues.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's just a sounding board, right?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to solve the problem, but we heard it in our head and we start working through those issues once we get it out.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have a mentor.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: I remember I was pouring something out to him one time, and I, of course, thought it was the most unique problem ever.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: And his response, he started kind of laughing.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he goes, Hey man, congratulations.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Sounds like you're on the perfect path.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: Totally normal.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: You're just like everybody else.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, it was, but it was like it was funny, but it was also like kind of for you sure.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what do you mean?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, yeah, that's that's normal.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's what happens.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what's gonna happen again next?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: This, this, this, and this.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, yeah.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: Of course they'll come too.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: None of it's good, but at least it's you don't think you're like it's when you know it's normal or it's something that is gonna happen for whatever it is you're doing.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Again, even if you're just a parent, you know, you're gonna have a teenager look at you and tell you that they don't like you and you're terrible.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're taking it too seriously, you're gonna, you're gonna, it's not gonna feel good.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, I just ruined my whole life.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: I've grazed this kid for 16 years.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_02: They just told me they hated me, I'm a failure.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like you don't get that out and you wear that for another two years, you know.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: You need somebody to tell you, you need somebody who has a 19 or 20 year old to be like, oh yeah, man, they said that to me too.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's if you just suffer through it two, three years, they'll come right back to you.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like you need, but guys don't do that all the time, but it's important.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: And just take that in every context: business, yeah, friendships, the work, all of it.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: Totally agree 100%.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Victor, I love talking to you, man.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: I I want to I want to ask you one last question.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: So if you think about the construction folks that are out there listening to right now, contractors, leaders, they're listening and they're grinding through all these hard years right now.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: What would you want them to understand about the difference between really building a business like we've talked about today and your legacy versus just grinding?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, just keep suffering.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like what would you what can we grow?
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: What would you want to tell them right now?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: The one thing that would be like, I want to build this business, build your legacy, break them out of it.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_02: What's the thing you could leave with them?
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_01: One, it's gonna be okay, but back to where we talked about, you know, a plan.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if financial is, I mean, it's just huge.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we uh we put 100% of our money on the line for somewhere between, it depends on the size of the companies, you well know, but somewhere between five and twelve percent uh return, you know.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a little smaller, maybe it's 20.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe, you know, if you're a million-dollar company, it's 50%.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you put your risk versus reward is extremely high, right, in in what we do.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: So one, it is gonna be okay.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Two, if you have a plan to be able to get through that.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the third one is try to get yourself surrounded by what you were saying, this team of people, right, that can help walk you through it, right?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: What's the first thing I tell everybody that I mentor?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: What you build tomorrow, you never built today.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: What you build the next day, you never built the day after that.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: We constantly, constantly do something we've never done.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: So there's going to be issues and going to be problems.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: But the more you get out in front, try to understand, try to get the situation handled, the more you're going to be able to drive your ship.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: If not, that ship's going to drive you into the into a rock, it's going to sink, and you're not even going to know what happened before it did.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: Man, it's so true.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, as you said that, the thought that came to my mind is as a leader of a construction company, a contractor, you sit there and you think, well, I don't know the finance stuff and I don't want to feel stupid.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a business owner, I should know it.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so you void it.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: And what I'm here to tell you is you never know what you don't know.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: There's a reason why there's an entire degree in college to be in finance or in accounting.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: You're not supposed to know everything, just like you can't know every job.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: And um, your job is just to, just like you go out and hire a great superintendent, a great foreman, a leader, and anything else, go just just go hire a great construction accountant, finance person, and lead them.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Let them be the expert, teach you, the ask them the questions.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's okay.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's what everyone else does.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone else is doing that, I promise.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: You can't know.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: But and it's hard, and I'll tell you this just from the you know, being the field side more than anything else, even though you know ran operations in both in and out house, right?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: But it's always hard because an accountant technically is supposed to be your check and balance, right?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: If you've got a good accountant, they're gonna say, Hey, did you know?
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, by the way, hey, how come the terms are this way?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times us on the outside are thinking, oh, hey, this is a person just getting in my business.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know what I do.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: They've never swung a hammer and busted their thumb.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you do you do have to have an understanding that an accountant doesn't run your business, but they are the best double check to your business that you're ever gonna have.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, 100%.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that and that's why you have to find someone in construction that does construction accounting and finance.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: Just don't go hire any accountant.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Hire that accountant that has a team of construction people and other businesses that they work.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: They've learned what these other construction owners, you can you can glean that knowledge off of them from the other 20 businesses that they work with that might be farther ahead of you, a little bit behind you, but you can use that um education and resource as not just creating your finance, your um also giving you great information and knowledge from everyone else.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: Totally agree.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, how can everyone find your book?
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Where can they buy it?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: How can they support you?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate that.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so one, if you would just Google Victor Bretting or the uh man that I would become.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's on Amazon, it's on Barnes and Nobles, it's on any of the major platforms.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: The other way to get to me is through our our website, which the book is on, which is BrettingTexanRanch.com.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you were to Google it, it'd be just B Hyphen Tex Ranch.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: Either way, you can get me through any of the social media platforms that we've got.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're on all of them.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I certainly appreciate you giving me the opportunity to spread the word.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely, man.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm gonna definitely go get a copy of your book.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love reading, uh, I love reading good memoirs, and anything you're gonna pull from 50 years in construction is gonna have many good nuggets in there.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I like to read, so I'll be I'll be on it, no doubt.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate that.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the one most important that I'm learning from one author to another, make sure you give me a review.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, those are important.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_02: Get on there and get a review.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Even a even a bad one probably helps.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: It does a review.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: I need a review.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: I love Victor.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, everybody, let's get out there.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: Find Victor.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: You can find him on LinkedIn, you can find him on the other social platforms.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely support his uh ranch, all of his causes.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: Grab a copy of the book.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: You can, of course, see us if you're listening on the audio platform.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: You can see this whole interview on uh video on our YouTube channel at Mobilization Funding.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: You can also find me on LinkedIn at mobilizationfunding.com.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: You can find this episode.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: In the meantime, everyone, I wish you all a great week and may God bless you.