Latest / Big Talk About Small Business / Ep. 46 - Failures to Stepping Stones: Tanner Bassett on Learning and Innovation

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Ep. 46 - Failures to Stepping Stones: Tanner Bassett on Learning and Innovation · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to another episode of Big Talk about small business and, as you can probably hear that my main host, mr Mark Cieswag, is not available today.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: I think he's actually enjoying some time with his family on some vacation, which is a much well-earned scenario.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Sorry, we missed you, mark.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we did miss you.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know how this is going to go, other than the fact that I got a great guest today, so in his shoes we're bringing in Tanner Bassett.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Hello, yep, and so Tanner is actually my longest friend ever.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We grew up together in Jonesboro, arkansas, next door neighbors, but after growing up and all that kind of stuff, getting in the professional world, he is very much a hard-hitting entrepreneur I guess we would call you like a serial entrepreneur in a way and has a lot of great experience to share with the audience and whatnot.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So, tanner, tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey from the entrepreneurial side.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Sure, I went to school.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I got my degree in landscape architecture.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: That led me to doing an internship in Dallas.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: When I got out of school I worked in Tulsa for various design firms in Dallas and Tulsa and really kind of got a better understanding of the A&E business and what the pitfalls potentials of that you know would possibly be.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: And at the time I was dating someone who was here in Northwest Arkansas and she was finishing law school and I ended up moving back here looking for a temporary job because we were potentially going to go somewhere else.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: So I responded to an ad in the paper and went to work for a local irrigation contractor so that I could learn more about that side of the business.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: The construction side.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: The construction side, yeah, because you had a degree in landscape architecture, so you're kind of on that soft side skills Very much trapped in the box and the cubicle, not, you know, landscape architecture is a little more outside time.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: but yeah, you know, blueprints, line revisions, design, design work.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: So I wanted to learn a little more about the, the hands on the field side, and I just really loved it.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I enjoyed it and I got an opportunity.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I didn't tell them that I was a landscape architecture graduate and I went in there and just actually was like Joe Blow off the street.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So that's not.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: You didn't leverage, I guess, that to get a job.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Like you were literally just trying to Work for a short time period, got it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Cool, yeah, we were living together then.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, at that time I remember you getting that job.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that's how you.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had small offers in Dallas, Kansas City that I could take advantage of if I wanted to get back into that, but I was comfortable being close to my girlfriend and trying to learn more about my craft.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: The company that hired me once they discovered that I actually was more than just a guy off the street, I guess, or had a little more knowledge Maybe.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I wasn't much more than that Sure.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Because you were how old at this time?
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: 22?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were young man Young, yeah, yeah and.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: But they just so happened to have a big hospital project, the northwest health in bentonville, that had a uh, a five acre wetland associated with that project, that had a mandatory uh or not contractual design build element to the award of that contract and they did not have a designer on staff or, you know, knew nothing about wetland design and, coincidentally enough, my thesis when I graduated architecture school was hospital campus master planning are you serious?
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And I also took one of the only wetland construction courses that the university has ever offered from a guest professor from LSU.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Wow, that was his specialty.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: So I had wetland construction experience and hospital campus master plan experience.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Wow, Perfect fit man.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: So they offered me a job.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: I took it and I worked man.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: So they offered me a job.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I took it and I worked on that project for almost four years.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Um, so what does that mean?
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: You worked on that project for almost four years, Like so you designed it and I guess you're managing and overseeing the construction of it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a significant project.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Sure, you're a freaking project, man.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, uh, I did, it was a five year uh, uh monitoring with the core of engineers.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: So what they do is, every year after the construction is done, they, you know, you, write a report and evaluate how the fauna and ecosystems performing, based on the design intent.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Uh, and so the real, you know, I guess, uh, success of that is to make it through that five-year monitoring period with a successful project, cause that's hard to do.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Sure, it's hard to build wetlands with, you know, constant development, stormwater changes and, uh, you know, obviously rainfall effects wetlands quite a bit.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: But then incorporating that into the hospital campus environment.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: So there was, you know, one of the things I found in my research and doing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: My thesis was most of the need within a hospital campus for horticultural therapy or passive therapy in the landscape is for the staff and not the patients.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: So patients obviously need John Hopkins did a study.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Johns Hopkins did a study in the early 1900s about the therapeutic benefits to patients being inside versus outside, being in a sterile environment versus being in a visually stimulating environment or being in nature.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: And at the time they found that the success rates for treating tuberculosis to treating mental health disorders, treating skin disorders there are many things that benefit from taking the patient from inside the hospital room to outside the hospital walls.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And they actually designed the very first open-air hospital to start treating tuberculosis patients Really, and until that point the process was cram all these people in a room, yeah, and it was just constant reinfection, yeah, and lots of issues.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: So that really was just eye-opening to me of hey, there's something to this.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're talking about Washington Regional down in Fayetteville Is that right.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Northwest Health in Bentonville.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Northwest Health in Bentonville.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, gotcha, my bad, that's a beautiful campus man.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did my thesis.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Washington Regional was part of my thesis, okay, gotcha, and then Northwest Health was the actual project that I got to work on.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: That's awesome, yeah.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: So after that, I mean from that project, though you continued working with I did for a number of years, right?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I was there for almost 11 years uh gosh you know, with maybe 100 million dollars worth of construction in 11 years.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Wow, uh, maybe 500 million dollars worth of estimating and bid work wow so I've read through a lot of plans in one day.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Sure, I've installed a lot of different designers' projects, which I thought was really interesting because my very first foray into the construction world was my own design, so I was able to have a lot of leeway on decision making.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: But, as you know, the industry of the commercial landscape contracting business goes, you do a lot of what's called bid build, which the difference in bid build and design build is this bid build is you're using someone else's design to come up with a proposal for the implementation of that work.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: You know on on the project and turn it in your, your bid and you, if you get chosen, or your company selected, and you're awarded the project and then you implement someone else's design from those plans, got it.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: So my company was using, I guess, my knowledge or expertise to help them do that across their project portfolio.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: So we obviously took the 2008 kind of crash here had a huge impact in the whole industry, had a huge impact in the whole industry.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: We uh, at that time had to really increase our, our radius to be able to, you know, kind of keep things going.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: So we were in five different States.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: At one time I was working at Oklahoma city, uh, Columbia, Missouri, Little Rock, uh, just broadening out in reaction to the local I mean you had to go get.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you had to go get more business.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Now this now we had 110 employees I think wow, and so at some point, though you were a part, became a partner in that for correct yes yeah, so that after the hospital project okay gave me a chance to great, to kind of become a partner, and I took advantage of that and that really was my first foray into being an owner.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Now I would say I've had some experience and been around lots of mentors throughout my life that were owner entrepreneurs and I understood the personality, the character, the mentality and I was attracted to that, but I won't say that I understood it well, but your, your dad, who I know know really well as well, was an accountant, so you kind of always a cpa, excuse me right, because there is a difference.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, that's when my mom that's just how I grew up knowing right.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: He was my CPA for quite some time too.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: So you always grew up in numbers, right.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I've always known you.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, I remember back in high school I might have looked at your test paper in order to pass a math test or two.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll tell you.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: But you were really gifted in a number standpoint man.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, like you could—.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Math always came easy to me, yeah yeah, and so I just think that that's interesting right, because I mean our audience out there, a lot of different personalities, but you got kind of more math-oriented folks, numbers.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: You got folks like myself that are more just I don't know no idea vision type folks, more just, I don't know no idea vision type folks, you know, and.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: But I just think that that's kind of an interesting nugget there for somebody that's listening.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: That is more.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Well, to take that a little further, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: So many aspects go in to being successful as an entrepreneur and I can say that what really has made me successful is not just my vast knowledge of landscape architecture, or it was all the periphery knowledge of.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I sold knobs door to door in high school.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Cut go yeah, and from a marketing and a sales standpoint, that was not opening.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: I had a sales trainer who opened my eyes when I was 17 years old.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but with one comment.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: He said Tanner, how would you like to have a comma in your paycheck?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Ooh, and I had never even thought about that.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: That's a good question.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: So I had never even thought about that, that's a good question.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: So he had me hooked from that point and I wanted to really figure that out and we worked really hard that summer.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: That was the summer before I went to college, when I was 17, 18.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And I got into the aspect of sales and marketing and there's not a lot of that.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: It's actually kind of like attorneys they don't let you advertise it's the same for architects.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: They're real stringent on how you can't like solicit kind of yeah because you're supposed to be an agent for, for the public good.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: In some way it's like a code of ethics associated with it?
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: No.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I wasn't carrying licensure so I was just basically a designer.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I wasn't trying to carry off or pass off the title of architect, but I think that experience.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: I did telemarketing to pay the bills in college For the police right, the fraternal order of firefighters, firefighters, we won't go into that, don't want to get anybody in trouble, right, but the experience was good.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: The experience was great because I mean, like this was great process oriented sales yes, right, and it's it's about numbers, it's about more calls you make, the more you can if you want to develop thick skin fast, I would suggest everybody do a little telemarketing for a few months and you'll no longer be have any fear of rejection.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: You know, like when you're talking about this, I'm glad you're saying these things because, like you and I working together in entrepreneurship, you know we two different realms.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: But we were never like, just like you took that job, as in the construction, like you were wanting to get your hands dirty.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I mean, entrepreneurship requires a very high sense of humility and you just got to do what you got to do.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Like you know, I mean, I'm not afraid to do anything in this business, it's just got to get done.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: The bug stops with you.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: You know, the journey didn't stop.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: From an education standpoint, I feel like my mindset was I never will know enough.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: If you ever think that you have arrived, that will be the point where you fall off your mount, it's true.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: So I learned, you know, a process of continual education and learning was going to be the key to success and development.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: So I was thirsty for knowledge.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is so key.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: It doesn't just happen for you because you're there.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: One thing that's also a key, I feel like to any successful entrepreneur, is to find your niche, to find what differentiates you from your competition.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Now, if you're innovative, then there may not be very much competition, but if you're successful, someone will come along and start to copy your idea.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: So unless you're constantly innovating, you're going to get left behind.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I, as just an individual, was fortunate enough to have somewhat of a niche because I started off in structural architecture.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: So I was one of the few architects that understood the math side of architecture.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: I had some structural training, I had some concrete and steel education.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: I had a lot of physics education.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: That the landscape architecture program would lend more towards geology and botany, yeah, whereas I was more versed in physics and you know structural mechanics.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: So that gave me a little bit of a leg up in the construction world, because I was able to do things that my competition wasn't able to do from a build standpoint.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that helped, I think, yeah, it helped me quite a bit, but you don't know it at the time.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, how various things will help you.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Uh, after 20 years in hindsight, you can look back and go wow, I sold that deal because I sold knobs when I was 17 yeah yeah, and I would have never sold that deal had I not prepared myself years ago.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, with that experience, I think the message there is especially to like young folks, right.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Like you know, my oldest girl's working here right now and and I mean, does she have anything to do with podcast videos right, when you know, in 10 years from now, but she this might be some things within what she's doing today, just like helping get things set up and talking with clients.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: That's right, you know you got to be able to dive in.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think the biggest thing that you know, young folks and we were actually talking about this in the last podcast young people not being aggressive in their early young years and they're in their fast when they can, yeah and you try to fast forward 10 years and and be this professional, but you really all those little, small, little skills like are so important you're very, very right, and I feel like I had two daughters as well
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: and uh, you know, with today's young people, I know that they're battling a lot of the same things that that we battled I, I don't.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: I'd like to think that we were maybe a little more fearless that you know.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I guess every parent likes to say that they walk 12 miles in the rain and snow uphill to get to school every day and you young whippersnappers got it way easier than we did.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: But I would say the fear of rejection is a little more prevalent today in our youth than it was.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: We were less afraid to fail and I didn't realize how important that was until I got older.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And you know there's so many adages you fall down 99 times, get up 100.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fail your way up, yeah, iron sharpens iron.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: All those are saying the same thing and it's basically you're not going to learn unless you try and do and fail.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Failure is a good thing if you use it for your growth, and the more you grow, the less you'll fail.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You know, mark and I talk about this quite a bit because I think that there can be a misunderstanding with that right that where it's okay to fail long.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: But that's not what we did as entrepreneurs, we would never fail from a long-term sense.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: But you have micro failures along the way and you pick yourself up and keep going right.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: What do you remember more?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, totally dude, I remember some good things.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: What sticks out in your remember more?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, totally dude, I remember some good things, what sticks out in your head more.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: What do you think it is like right now with the younger, like just, I mean, we have daughters same age, right, and we can kind of see that right In this mention of fear of rejection, you know, and how maybe it's a little bit more prevalent.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously we're not knocking them, but actually we're concerned, to be honest with you, because we want them to be successful.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: And what do you think that is a little bit of the catalyst to this younger generation and how can they maybe break through that?
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: You know that's a very good question.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Obviously, there's advice that we could talk about that would be from a parental standpoint, and there's advice that we could talk about that would be from an individual standpoint, the kid's standpoint, because those are going to be two very different things.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I feel like, as a parent, you have to avoid being the helicopter parent and you have to avoid being the helicopter parent and you have to focus more on being a counselor and a guide as opposed to being the bodyguard.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: You have to let your kid experience life and experience failure so that they can navigate through some of those obstacles themselves, so that they can navigate through some of those obstacles themselves.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: And I've seen lots of successful kids in every different circumstance.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I've seen kids succeed that you wonder how in the world they ever made it.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: And I've seen kids succeed.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Or I've seen kids that didn't succeed that you thought how could they not have made it Right?
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: So there's no rule book or golden.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: You know instructions that you can follow that will guarantee your success.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: There just isn't, and even successful people have a hard time staying there.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: You know, like what we were talking about before.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: You know success is not a destination or an arrival point.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: You know, it's really more of a state of mind and I define success as setting a goal and achieving that goal.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: But you better not relish in that success for too long because it's you got to get back to work.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Those are just small, those aren't points to to hang your hat on and stop doing what you do or you'll become unsuccessful that's really good you know, the innovation I feel like for any business is so key, especially today.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: We got got so much technology being interjected into all industry.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: You can see kind of a mad rush with the whole AI, the people trying to learn how to integrate that into their business models.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about some of the changes in the future.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about some of the changes in the future and I've been encouraging my kids to try to recognize some of these trends, these headwinds that we're seeing, such as artificial intelligence, to maybe pursue some of those industries, because I think that will be a bigger future in those areas that are innovating and are bringing in these new technologies to help them do what they do.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: So that for the young generation I would say don't be afraid to try anything.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Get out wait tables yes.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Get in the service industry 100.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Learn how to talk to people yes, or unhappy, you know.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Learn how to navigate through someone who isn't happy with you uh.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Those were all such big life skills that you you will not make it as an entrepreneur if you don't have some of those skills, no doubt.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Boom.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: You've got to, you know, even with the advent of all the tech and you know the seemingly vision of where everything's being handled robotically mostly.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, like you know, our age we lived through before internet and e-com and we've been able to live through all the a lot of these technological advances, I mean since the mid 90s.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, like we were, we graduated high school, graduated 95 in high school.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: You were 96, right, and you know we.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: We saw the first iphone, the first ipod come out.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I mean all these things that have happened.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: We were the first iPod come out.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I mean all these things that have happened.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: We were the first architecture class at the University of Arkansas to be required to have a computer Really In 1996.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy?
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Well, what's even more crazy is none of the instructors even knew what to do with it.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: And that was some intimidating evolution, right it?
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: was.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: They learned quickly that we were transitioning from a non-computer world to a computer world and that was revolutionary.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: It really wasn't until I got to my internship that I really understood how that was being utilized.
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: And drafting technology, rendering technologies, scheduling, estimating we really just kind of did everything old school at the U of A, although they did, and I'm not going to, they're one of the most technologically advanced architecture programs in the nation, so I don't want to present them like they're, like they're not we the windows 95.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I think everyone can remember how, how, that, when you know, yeah, you couldn't do much on the old dial-up.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: No, I mean, the thing is is growing up and starting careers all through that.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, the whole AI conversation and all the things that are happening now is basically like a, you know, a recycle, in a way, of some of the fears that would strike a lot of the workforce right, some of the fears that were that would strike a lot of the workforce right and people of where you know.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: But what we, I can say, what I experienced, is those people skills and being able to talk to unhappy people and being able to coordinate, you know, make good resolving conflict, being able to negotiate right, being able to sell, being able to negotiate right, being able to sell, being able to price things, being able to quote things From the very basic level.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: It's almost.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: You don't want to get thrown into the really complex, tough fire while you're learning how to do those things and you don't want your livelihood at stake when you're trying to learn how to do those things.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: So, when you're young and you have the ability to fail and it not impact your life in such a negative way.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: No kids, no mortgage, you know, yes, uh, I I strongly encourage you know the, the younger generation to just get out there, just do something.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: You don't have to know perfectly what it is you're gonna spend the rest of your life doing, but't have to.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: You don't have to know perfectly what it is you're going to spend the rest of your life doing, but you have to take action.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you do, and that action will start to build a snowball of momentum for you you know, yeah, and I think a good encouragement there as well is you don't have any idea what you're going to be doing, right, right, but a good area to your point that you could start working in, that's going to give you excellent building blocks, to give you competitive advantage, is working in service-based industries, like waiting tables to where you can talk to people.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Waiting tables is such a good one, I mean.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I mean I did it growing up.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: But I mean, like you get a table and it's like this turn of these clients that come in and you've got to.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: You've got to and you could.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: There's a hundred steps in there that where, if you can start mastering those, like how to keep them happy when they first sit down, get them drinks, or your pre-busing, you know, to get them their check at the end.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Is their food good?
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Get the order in right.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: I mean there's profiling Profiling.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Is their food good?
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Get the order in right.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: I mean there's Profiling Profiling.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I remember walking up to tables and I could Knew how it was going to go, knew how it was going to go and how I needed to behave.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Sure, that was good stuff, oh, yeah.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: So I think it's such a good point man, like encouragement too, so you don't have to know.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: But there's a lot of industries to where, like learning people's skills and becoming better at that, even if you're uncomfortable with it.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: The good thing about working is is that you kind of get pushed into those scenarios and you find out if you're, if you're an introvert and you and you and you work in a people environment.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: It helps build your confidence.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: No doubt it helps build your confidence a lot.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: So let's all right, going back to your story, you're at this company, your partner, but then you started your own.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: We left that company after kind of the market.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: It's 2012.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: The market had kind of started to rebound a little bit and we had an opportunity that kind of kept fit.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: For me.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: A lot of my motivation was at that time I had a wife and two kids and I was on the road in five states all week long.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: It was hard to be away from your family, sure.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: So I was very much excited about trying to get back in northwest Arkansas and just building a real stable base.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: I felt like we had kind of built I'll call it the overhead monster and once, once you get to a certain point, depending on obviously you know margins, a book of work, you kind of have to feed the monster to survive.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: So you take top end R of a company and reduce top-end R 40%.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Well, that leaves you with revenue.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: So that leaves you with your net off of 40% less revenue.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Is that enough to cover your capital expenses?
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: on your balance sheet.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Is that enough to invest for the future, to cover your capital expenses?
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: on your balance sheet.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Is that enough to invest for the future?
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: So even if your margin was I mean I'm throwing this out there she's 10%.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: So say you were doing a million dollars in revenue and a 10% net margin and out of that 10% that's where honors get paid, that's where equipment notes, mortgages, you know, capital expenses.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Lots of expenses are on that part of the balance sheet and not the income statement from a business account standpoint.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: But those expenses will really pile up on you when you start to lose revenue.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter how good you're doing the work, and when the market crashed we had obviously many employees that we can reduce that direct cost, the direct labor cost, the direct labor costs.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: But in the middle of a downturn in economy you can't quickly reduce your capital expenditures because those are illiquid.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: You have to sell assets, you have to divulge interest to be able to reduce that debt service aspect of your cash outlay and that catches up to you in a big company.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: So it's like innovate or die.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: And that was one of the reasons why we decided to look at a bigger radius, because we felt like we weren't going to survive if we just took the revenue, the 40% loss of revenue.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: That would not sustain that company.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: So we were successful in that, but at the expense of, I felt like, my physical and mental health.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: My reason for even being in the business to begin with.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: It wasn't to be away from my family and live outside of the place where I wanted to call home.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: So at that point, for my family, and live outside of the place where I wanted to call home, so sure, at that point I wanted to pursue building a company that fit more of my long term goals.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: So, uh, I left that company, um, with another person that worked there as well, and we started a similar company doing smaller projects.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: We had less employees, more of a niche kind of customer group, and did that for another 11, 12 years.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: So that was nice and I think at this point in my career I'm fully experienced with the landscape contracting business and I'm kind of ready to do something else.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I got you.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say I'll never get back into it, but I'm excited.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: I have since parted that business down.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: My previous partner is still continuing on, but I'm kind of getting out of the industry and looking forward to doing some new things.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: I have a lot of different ideas in the fire, but I'm trying to take it slow.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: I don't want to jump into anything too quickly.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Do a little bit of farming.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: I've been consulting with the Carving Chicken Project.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: So there is a group that's combining an ancient technology.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever heard of Terra Prada.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Well, that sounds familiar.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever heard of terra preta that sounds familiar.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Terra preta is an engineered soil, an ancient soil that was discovered in the rainforest and all over South America, and it's believed that potentially the Mayans, the Aztecs, had this technology where they knew how to engineer soil, and that's what they're finding in all of these ancient run landscapes.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Wow, well, that is basically come to today's time, and there's a product called biochar.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: Are you familiar with biochar?
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: No, so biochar is like a carbon, uh, they could think of like wood burning in a fire okay, but you pull it out before it gets to ash, where it's okay, but just still has some organic structure to it.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: But it's kind of been charred yeah that's very unsophisticated way to explain it.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: They're taking that and combining it with chicken litter to make an organic fertilizer.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Now, the advantage to doing that is you have, uh, the ability, through the, the product, to uptake carbon in the soil.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: You also are removing that waste product and the chicken industry from being dispersed out on the ground and find its way into our water systems.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, so it's repurposing a waste product, combining it with an ancient technology and using it as a substitute for what we currently use today, which is fertilizer, which is much less benign and much harder to to manufacture, uh, much less expensive, and and an organic product that is not currently offered anywhere on the market.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: So one of the things we haven't talked about is the win-win.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: So the key, in my mind, to a sustainable business is it needs to be mutually beneficial for all parties.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: If one party is getting over on the other, then it will be short-lived.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: Is getting over on the other, then it will be short-lived.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: I've seen many relationships go sour because they didn't know how much money the other person was making or their perception of that.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: But their true win-win aspect is providing a value proposition to someone, creating a niche for yourself.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: So they come to you and they win because they're getting the best value for their dollar.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: Right, and you win because you're gaining a customer.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the win-win.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: That's the win-win.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: So if you approach business from what can I do for my customer that will help them and that will help me.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: That is, in my opinion, how you build something that's sustainable.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: If your angle of business is how do I help me with my customer, it will be short-lived, I agree.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: I agree, customer, it will be short-lived, I agree.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I agree that and and I would also say that way to start.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: And then as you're growing because the growth mode like as you experience right, like you get a lot of opinions competitors come into play and so you start feeling this pressure to kind of become more self-focused versus just relentlessly putting out value in a niche way like you're talking about.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I mean I've often said it's pretty easy to start a business.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, I would say easy, I mean very lightly there.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: It's not greatly complicated.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: It's not greatly complicated, but it's really hard to grow a business, very, very hard to grow and scale that business.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of reasons is because you start having so much.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Things become so complicated.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: You get a lot of opinions and then you stop focusing on the fundamentals.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: You start kind of getting into these realms of all these other things matter, right, I mean, I think that they do, but it becomes analysis, paralysis a lot of times.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely agree.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: But to your point that fundamental of providing value, a win-win value, to your customer, I mean, if you can stick on that puppy, yeah it needs to be mutually beneficial.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: It does, it does, and you know there's lots of projects that involve more than two parties.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Maybe it involves three or four parties that have interests right, right.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: So if you can come up with a solution that benefits all four parties, that's not a tough sell.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Well, and I mean I think you're speaking from really great experience, especially in that industry that you've been in right, where you client investors, a lot of other construction parties that are involved in these massive projects that you're designing and building, and in the landscape side, you guys were usually the first to ground right.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: It depends.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: So you have the site work.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: So if you're involved in that part of it, yes, yeah, but if you can win all the way around for everyone, I mean.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: I'll give you an example, if you will.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we were working on the Sioux Anglin Soccer Complex in Solemn Springs.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: That was a project that my company installed gosh 2013.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: We took a set of plans that was designed by mcclellan engineering you know they're very good engineers and they had under drainage on six soccer fields, which is a pretty good size area, I think it's.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: I might be wrong about that, but they had French drain, uh systems designed into the project.
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: And you know you say French drain that means a lot of different things to people, but what an actual French drain is is, uh, basically a conveyance pipe that's perforated, that's surrounded by free-draining aggregate.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: So they had thousands and thousands of feet of this trench that all had to be dug out, filled a perforated pipe, put in lined with fabric and then filled up full of gravel.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Well, that aspect of the project was very, very expensive of the project.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: You know was very, very expensive.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: So we proposed a value engineer of that aspect of the job to be converted to a new technology that a company, nds, which is a drainage manufacturing company.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: They make polyethylene, they make that black corrugated drainage pipe that you see in Lowe's and Home Depot.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: They had a product, product called easy flow, and it was brand new at the time.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: That was basically French drain technology built into a much lighter weight unit.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: They use styrofoam instead of limestone rock.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: To hold form in the trench and to let water drain.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was basically a conveyance pipe surrounded with styrofoam peanuts and netting instead of conveyance pipe surrounded by limestone rock.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: So it reduced enough cost out of the project where we were able to present that as an option to both the city of Salem Springs.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: Mcclellan Engineering obviously had to sign off on the performance of that product.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: We had assistance from NDS with that.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: We were under contract with another general contractor who had hired us.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: It helped us because from our standpoint it was a much more difficult install.
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it has design just from a method of application, labor and every equipment moving, dirt, moving, gravel my gosh the weight, yeah, okay so there we had a win-win that we were able to present to all the parties, and it was a slam dunk and the the.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: The thing that you did there, just to kind of put the nail on it, is you came up with a solution that provided value to all party.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Is not a solution that reduced your cost, where you can make more margin?
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: on the project.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, the savings were passed along, dude.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: I'm such an advocate of that right and I get so frustrated when I don't like.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: There's not many people out there that think that way.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Honestly, tanner, we may not have been awarded the project otherwise, because we were the only ones that presented a viable and they encourage that, like you see, ones that presented a viable and they encouraged that.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: Like you see, if you have a viable alternative, present it right.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: And you know municipalities, they're working on tight budgets.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I had worked with the city of Solemn Springs on some other projects and I really just kind of had just become familiar with that product and when I first opened up the plans and I thought you know what, this is a perfect application for this new technology.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: You know what I think a lot of folks forget, and if they would just spend some time and put themselves in their own shoes.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Honestly.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: But like, the same principle in business is happening when you have the person with the money that's investing in the project whoever that is, who's whoever's forking out the cash is, you can relate to that in the same way as if you are getting a pool installed in your house right, and I, as a homeowner, and I paying $50,000 to get this pool installed, all I want to have happen.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: It's very simple I just want the pool to get installed on the right budget If you can save me money, that's even better and to get it done right and to get it done on time in a reasonable time period.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: But the problem starts happening whenever you have all these other people that get involved and they're trying to just how do I make more money?
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: How do I make more money?
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: It gets really messy, quick and becomes frustrating, and people don't have good referrals and a lot of these entrepreneurs don't think long-term.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: They're thinking about just this project how can I capitalize the most on this one thing?
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: And then they're not thinking about the referral, the word of mouth, the brand of their company, because if I can build a company that where every client, majority of every client I got, when they're walking around they're talking to people about my business, business that they're saying, man, they, they, they really live up to, they provide great service.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: They always, you know, I feel the value.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: The value is there every time well, let me give you an engineering axiom for construction okay, good, fast or cheap, built too right, right, and it's kind of you know the the law of conservation of energy when you think about it, because you can't have all three or somebody's losing, more or less.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: So in the construction world, you can present a project or a proposal for a project.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: You can do it good and cheap, but it won't be fast, right.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: You can do it fast and cheap, but it won't be fast, right, you can do it fast and cheap, but it won't be good, right.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: So those are different pricing scenarios and methods of installation, and once you really have a better handle on your business, you understand how to approach projects with those different aspects.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: But it's key to obviously communicate.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: But it's key to obviously communicate.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: It's too easy for contractors which is why they have architects to decide for their clients during the build, like what you just talked about.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: So architect in Latin means orchestrator, and I would say that that skill was developed from the program and in my situation, and I very much understood my role, like which it wasn't, I wasn't the one who was in charge or supposed to do it, I was the one who was supposed to orchestrate the team together to accomplish the goal.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: So that aspect of management and running a project was something learned and that I think is really more to the curriculum.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Not a lot of people get that kind of training, I guess you think in the A&E industry.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Engineers like straight lines, they don't like curves, they don't like organic shapes.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Artists tend to like those things but be very impractical.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Well, the architect's job and the owner likes things to to not cost very much right yeah, but they don't want their project to be ugly sure, to not be inviting or to have be sterile or, uh, not accomplish their goals.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: So it's it's our job to bring all that together with these different forces that all have their own kind of agendas, not in a bad way, but just with their discipline, yeah.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: So that orchestration of the team to build a successful project is, I think, translates into all industries.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Is, I think, translates into all industries?
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: Now you're starting to see the term architect being used in web design and software infrastructure A lot more applications.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: We've got a few minutes left.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I mean time goes by quick when we have these converse and you're going to definitely need to come back, and I mean this is just the first of many.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: I want to, I want to hang out with something for the last few minutes.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: I want you to kind of kind of go on a roll with this.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: I think that a common thread we've been talking about today is a little bit about the young, young, uh folks, entrepreneurs that are out there.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: But the other common thread is this kind of this, this value driven mindset as an entrepreneur, and how and how important that is.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Can you, can you maybe go down that road?
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Just a little bit more about how significant that is, because I think that you think that I've been and I still get swallowed up in this scenario of where, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, there's millions of books out there.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, you should read as many as you can.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Great advice?
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Seriously, yes, I have five books right now that I would recommend Throw them out the E-Myth, the Entrepreneurial Myth, yep.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: And the second book, the follow-up to E-Myth, revisited Such a key, oh my gosh.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: It's so eye-opening where he talks about the technician, the manager and the dreamer.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: And every entrepreneur is some combination of those three and every entrepreneur is some combination of those three.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: He gives the analogy of the hairdresser who, she's very good at cutting hair, has all these clients.
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: She's a great technician at cutting hair, but now she wants to open her own salon.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Well, now she's managing other chairs with other people who are cutting hair.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Is she a good manager?
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: Is she a good dream?
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Is she a good dreamer?
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: Does she have a plan for after that?
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Is she going to expand?
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Is she?
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: Yep, so understanding what you are, who you are and where you need help, and that helps you to get there on your own or to hire the right people.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: That was a great book.
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: Another book the Goal Elijah Goldratt people.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: Uh, that, that was a great book.
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: Another uh book the goal, uh, elijah gold rat.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: It's a business novel.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, it's one of the first uh business novels ever written and it talks a lot about the theory of constraints and six sigma on them, you've ever studied any of that, but that was an eye-opening to me.
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: It pertained a lot to manufacturing and whatnot.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: But one of the best books I've read, um benjamin graham, the intelligent investor.
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: Really.
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: That's warren buffett mentor.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Uh, this is an old book too.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: This is from the 30s, sure, but still applicable.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, value investing is what that whole book is about.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it parlays into all business.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: You know the way Mr Graham goes and analyzes the stock and the companies behind the stock.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's how you analyze your own business.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: So that was really eye-opening and helped me understand more about what I was doing, to study about what other people were doing and analysis another analyst's interpretation of what they were doing.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: So that was very informative.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: I really got into the theory of constraints books.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: There's several different things on that.
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: But if you're in anything construction manufacturing I would highly encourage that.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of material out there, there's a lot of opinions, there's a lot of perspectives, there's a lot of directions that people can get, and if I'm working in a company, I'm nervous about breaking out as an entrepreneur, or if I'm young and I'm aspiring to be an entrepreneur.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: I think, though, with this podcast, that we did today your common three theme of providing that value.
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: Oh sorry, one more.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Sorry.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: You're Dale Carnegie.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: How to win friends and Influence People.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: One of the best books I'd have one.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: My favorite is Thinking Real Rich.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, napoleon Hill, Napoleon Hill, bro it's like it's, but so that there's this essence.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: There's, just like your value, the value proposition you were talking about earlier At the core of all these tactical things that you can do.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: And all this value proposition you're talking about earlier, at the core of all these tactical things that you can do and all this learning that you can go about and you got books and spreadsheets and P and L's and all this stuff and you got sales.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: But there's a core, in essence, at the heart of an entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur and I think you're kind of tapping into a little bit.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: I'm like I'm wanting to go down and discover that a little bit more, because it's satisfying for me to think about it as well.
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: But there's something in that value that you're just driven in your heart to find for somebody.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: It's just like when you said waiting tables, I remember being waiting tables and I actually wanted to give that customer a value, and that was the difference between me and a lot of the other servers that were there.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: If you walk in, you're just trying to get a job and trying to get a tip.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: But I didn't approach it that way.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: I approached it as how can I make this experience the best for?
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: that person.
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: When you work anywhere, even though they have to pay you for being there, you're rewarded for your effort.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: You don't get a job so that you can have a paycheck.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: If that is your goal, then it's going to be tough on you.
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: You get a job because you want to help someone with their vision.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: Because you want to help someone with their vision, that's right.
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: And as an entrepreneur this is a Ronnie Floyd quote that's your job, baby.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: I just need to have the vision.
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: And he was so good about knowing when to let the people that do what they do do their thing, especially when it came to design stuff.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: He was in tune with uh with that part of it.
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: But the key really is to uh, find that value proposition you can present to the person you're trying to help, whether that's your employer, your partner, your client.
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: So you really need to learn empathy and how to dive deep into why does this person need me or how can I help this person?
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: A great question for young people trying to figure out.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: You know, where to go is find people you look up to that you see as successful and ask them what do you need help with right now, what are your biggest problems facing you?
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: And you might be able to find a solution in the background and come back to them and say I think I may have something for you.
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: Would you have some time to sit down and talk about it and whether or not that turns anything or not, maybe that's a door that will open up for you later or maybe that's a door that opens up for you right then.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: But it's those kind of meetings and come about as a result of your personal goals, your drive, your ambition.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: But if you're out there doing nothing and waiting for everything to be perfect before you take that action, then you're not.
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: You're going to miss out on those kind of things.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: So you have to be willing to put yourself out there and communicate and network and you'll find those people and those types scenarios and everybody has problems.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, there's not, as you take, the most successful person that you perceive around you, and they have problems too.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: So if if you're building a business or you want to go into any specific business or industry, you should find other people that are successful in those industries and you should go to them and try to find a mentor group or try to analyze how they did it and learn from some of their mistakes so that you don't repeat them, or present a value proposition and start doing business with them.
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: Uh, there's several avenues to to get going.
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's just really a matter of you getting out there and doing the work.
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: Boom.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Let's.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: We have to end on that mic drop.
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: Fantastic conversation, man.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: I mean I can't wait to have you back in and I'd love to keep digging in that, because there's something so fundamental about that part of entrepreneurship and you don't have to.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: We can catastrophize what's required, but at the end of the day, if you are relentlessly interested in providing value in your trade and you're trying to solve that problem, you're going to get there.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: You're going to get there, and don't try to make your timeline, don't try to make a lot of money and all that kind of stuff.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: Focus on that and the money will come.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: And soak in the failure.
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: Soak in the small, minor pitfalls and use those to propel yourself.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: Learn from your own mistakes.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, if you aren't learning from other people's, at least learn from your own yeah, experience is the best teacher.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Well, this is uh tanner, how people get a hold of you.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: If say there's some aspiring entrepreneurs out there, is there a way that they can get a hold of you?
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Or?
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: uh, you could email.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: Could email me at Tanner Bassett at yahoocom.
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: Sweet.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: Just old school bro.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Some old school email.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Tanner Bassett is T A N N E R B A S S E T T at yahoocom.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: And I would encourage everyone uh, check into the carbon chicken project.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: I'm, I'm, uh, I'm not an investor in that, but I really like the project and I've been helping them do some R&D, but I think that's one of those.
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: It has such a win-win for all of the major, major implications that it could have.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: I think the word needs to get out on that.
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: Carbon chicken.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: I like it, man.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Carbon chicken's.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Your project Should be a good logo associated with that.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I meant to bring the hat.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is folks.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining us today.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate you.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: As always, it means a lot to us.
• 59:37
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• 59:49
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• 59:53
  Speaker 1: This has been another fantastic episode of Big Talk about small business.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: You're welcome.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: We'll have you back again.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you, brother.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk about small business.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: If you have any questions or ideas for upcoming shows, be sure to head over to our website, wwwbigtalkaboutsmallbusinesscom and click on the ask the host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show.
• 1:00:28
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