Latest / Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing / 4X'd Revenue in 2 Years, Came Home to an Empty House — Then Won It All Back | Tim Elizer

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4X'd Revenue in 2 Years, Came Home to an Empty House — Then Won It All Back | Tim Elizer · Carson's Corner: Entrepreneurship & Investing

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: 30,000 doors at this point since 2016.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: In 10 years, 30,000 doors.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: We're in 20 states, 50 plus cities at this point.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is Tim Elizer, president and CEO of Magnitude.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: From sweeping floors in a sign shop to leading a multi-state branding company, you know, you ended up growing by like to 400% within a couple years.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, right out of the gate.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: I got all this money in the bank.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I wasn't prepared for the cycle of COVID.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: I knew what we were gonna do, I knew roughly what we were gonna grow, I knew what clients were coming and going.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was easy to predict pre-COVID.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Post-COVID, it's a different landscape now.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're a different company.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, post-COVID, we decided two main verticals, the vehicle fleets and apartments.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I brought on a good partner that could help me work through that.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've been around much bigger companies.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the things a couple years in I learned is surround myself with people way smarter than me, way more educated than me.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I always want to be the dumbest person in the room.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: In every room, I want to learn, learn, learn.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: You guys are in 20,000 square feet, is that correct?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: And you're looking to expand into more space.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Based off the trajectory, we'll probably double the size of the company in the next two or three years.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you guys definitely triple it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: But you've done that by pretty much just specializing in you know the multi-family and the vehicle rounds.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we went all in on those spaces and built teams around it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And let's say at this point we're running 30% capacity.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the book coming up and um, you know, what all's in it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: It talks about anything from starting from a broom in my hands to sweeping the floors to learning a craft to screwing it all up to basically ruining my family in the process and rebounding from that.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because I remember coming home to an empty house, turning my wife's heart back, watching my family reunite and be stronger than it's ever been, and then going through the hurdles of growing a business, nearly losing a business, losing key people, and anything in between.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's successes, there's wins, there's losses, it's all in there.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the Carsons Quarter.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Alrighty, I'm sitting here with Mr.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Tim Elizer.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: He is he has a book coming out, Signs of Success.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: He is the owner of Magnitude.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Magnitude specializes in doing multifamily signs and doing vehicle fleet wrap and other things.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we're gonna kind of walk through his journey.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's an interesting one from being shot down by banks to you know doing$30 million in business and being successful and just a roller coaster like any other business out there.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, Tim, how you doing, man?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good, man.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty good.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Tim is in Nashville, Tennessee, also.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: So doing business nationwide.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um so anyway, well what's going on, man?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Where you want to start?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, um, let's talk talk about what you guys specialize in right now.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's kind of interesting.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is kind of real estate oriented.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: We got an entrepreneur that's you know services the real estate business.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you what did you say you've done?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: 30,000 doors?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: 30,000 doors at this point since 2016.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: In 10 years, 30,000 doors.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're in 20 states, 50 plus cities cities at this point.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um we handle everything from the monument you see out front all the way to that unit ID.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing that makes us unique is our sales team was built around owner operators from that space.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Also joined a couple mastermind groups to learn more about the space, and that's where I met my sales guy.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: He was actually my coach in the space.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: So you are an investor in multifamily as well.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's awesome, man.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so so that gives understanding to um how you arrive there, and then you also are doing a lot of uh regional and nationwide uh fleet wraps where you're doing like, you know, what 20 vehicles at a time or you know 20 or 200 or up to 500.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: It really depends on the climate.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: So doing national and regional fleets, wrapping those and all that.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: So uh any type of sign though, you can you can uh take care of.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um so he has a book coming out, signs of success.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it hasn't all been roses, but they've done over$30 million in business over the years and growing.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, last time I talked to him, it was lower than that, so they're growing pretty rapidly.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: I like what y'all are doing.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So this um business started in 1991, and you know, you you started working in this business when you were 16 years old.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: You know, let's talk a little bit about that and then your process of buying it and what that was like and all that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so rewind to 91.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: The the store was established in a retail strip center.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was like 1,500 square feet.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was a husband and a wife started it, and they had one employee.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um fast forward 96.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was working in a grocery store and ended up breaking my wrist, and it's kind of hard to bag groceries when you have a broken wrist.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So my mom was selling insurance to this couple that had the sign company, and I was into art, like things like that, and she asked if they were hiring.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I would come here after school from 2 30 to 5 30 Monday through Friday and just kind of picked up the broom, started learning from Wayne, and learning the industry.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it kind of started pretty bare bones, stripped down version of it.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: So at some point you approached him about buying the business, and it sounds like you approached him many times and were shot down many times.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well what was that like?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: What made you what was going through your mind when you're like, you know, I think I want to buy this business?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: Was he talking about retirement or something like that that kind of gave you ins like he was?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: They basically became a second set of parents.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I ended up I had three kids by the time I ended up purchasing the company, and I needed to provide for them.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they're at retirement age and they're starting to dwindle it down, start pulling everything out of it, which rightfully so.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do the same thing one day.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it it was I have to figure out what my future holds.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we started having those conversations around what would it look like for me to buy it or take it over or run it or don't know what that looks like.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: He was never pure no.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was more of uh I think there was a lot of sentimental value in it at the time because it was this baby that he built.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I I was right there alongside him for almost the entire journey of building it.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a pretty good reputation in the marketplace and helping get it to where it was.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was 33, 34.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to figure out what's next, and that's where those conversations started happening.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's a lot of um, you know, people don't understand, like it's hard to get business away from business owners sometimes.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um I know when I was ready to sell, I'm very decisive.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm more decisive than most business owners, but I've had partners in a business where you almost had to get like the jaws of life and jerk it away from them.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's time to their baby.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you just I I think I was around the 10-year mark and I was like, you know, it's just time to time to go.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just, you know, want to explore other things.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: There's various reasons why people sell, but you know, when they have built it over that many years, whether it's five years or 20 or 10, it's really one of those things where it's, you know, I could see them kind of telling you no at first or kind of maybe not seeing why you're, you know, the one.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: I would I would think somebody that knows the business and running it right would be a you know a no-brainer.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody that's not gonna run it into the ground.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I had a restaurant that was open that I I ran and you know, 10 years after the fact it was still up and running.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a certain pride in that.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like whoever takes it over, I'd like to see it do well.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, you're you're still up and running, so that's uh they obviously picked the right guy.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: So um, so what was the first couple years I wouldn't say that, but yeah.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, since I bought it from them, I was the in-the-business guy.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know how to run the business guy.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was the one networking, shaking hands, making signs, but as far as the the book side of things, man, I had some ground to cover.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, you have the employees, there's a lot.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's a lot to kind of wrap your head around and get used to, you know.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so what was the lending situation back then?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: It w it was probably pretty tough to get financed, or was it?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, talk about that a little bit.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's probably the biggest challenge for most uh people that are trying to acquire a business, you know, is getting a lot of people.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: I guess for me, I didn't understand the the lending landscape because I'd never had to navigate it other than buying a house.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, buying an asset at that point, which has value, so it's easy for a bank to lend you money.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: When I was buying a business, it was a lot of word of mouth, good faith.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't a lot of equipment or anything in the business we were running at the time.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So no collateral to lend against.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I started going to all the banks that I networked with, showing them what I was doing, showing them the business plan.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And a week later I get the email, no, it's not not something we're gonna lend on.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was the 11th or 12th person I asked that I finally got a okay, we're gonna take a look at it.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I was unwilling to take the answer no, and it took months and months and months to finally figure out the path, and it wasn't a bank.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Traditional lending didn't work.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I at the time I wasn't exposed to alternative lending methods, and just recently I've learned more about more alternative lending methods that are out there.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: So you uh finally got financing, you took it over, and then you're like basically I don't know.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: They talk about the J curve that you don't most people don't realize like everything that can go wrong with a business, and it's not just you, it's everybody.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know at first it was great with intelligence level or anything like that, it's just it's business, stuff goes wrong, you know.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I had been locked arms with the previous owners for years working with them, and see I would see all those things, but never at the end of the day did it fall fully on my shoulders.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And when I first took it over, I mean the first year alone, I think we grew almost 200%.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just pure, pure chaos.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was fun.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was mine.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it was fun.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we're growing and having fun.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hiring people, um, watching the bank explode and making money.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't know anything about projections and planning and rainy day funds or any of those kinds of things.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Cause to me, this is the first time I've ever been around a business, and let alone running alongside somebody that's done it successfully.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing it alone at this point.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's when all the pain points started happening.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we got payroll to make.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um I gotta start figuring out more processes here.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm having to deal with disgruntled employees or pissed off clients.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: All that stuff falls on your plate, and the way we were structured at the time, there was no off.
• 11:24
  unknown: Yeah.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: So like I was on 24-7, and that was not a very joyous part of it.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I know.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, that's most people in the early times, it's you know, even if it's successful, it feels like you're being ran to death because you don't really understand the undertaking with the employees and stuff.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: I know for some, you know, when they first start their business, they've never had to fire anybody before.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, oh my God, I'm gonna have to fire somebody.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not it's not that it's not that hard, but it's just like something you've never had to experience.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, okay.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: You're basically ripping somebody's life out from under them.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it's the hardest part for me.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then like, you know, so for me, it was like after that, I just laid down guidelines.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: I said I when they started, I'd say, okay, you can you're free.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this is like a free country here.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: We just want you to work hard and have fun, and you won't get fired unless you do this, this, and this.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I will fire you.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, at least there's a how and why.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Here's how and why you get fired.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, the thing I learned was the hiring is much harder than firing.
• 12:35
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm taking a risk on the person I'm bringing in, but there's a reason I'm letting you go.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty cut and dry as to why I'm letting you go.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Finding finding good help isn't easy, especially nowadays.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: And most no, it's I think that's one thing, one thing most people underestimate about starting a business.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's never been easy to find people, but it's even harder now.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know what it is.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of it's the internet.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: People are used to just not working or for whatever reason.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just different.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: I know for me, the earlier times, you know, it was easier.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then as time went on, it got harder and harder to find help.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's like, okay, we kept having to raise wages, which is normal.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not complaining about that.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: Then I'm like, okay, let's just pay$25 an hour.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's like then you hit a certain point where it's not even really the money anymore.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, okay, you got to pick the right person, you know.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the money matters, but it's like, okay, we got to be better on the front end about who we select for this job, you know.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: So you go ahead.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: I can speak a little more to that too.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: With what we do, it's a craft, it's an like an artisan craft.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of like the trades are, but the trades have schools they can hire from.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: My industry does not.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's no there's no sign school out there for me to go have a pool of people to pull from.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we were hiring people from the industry that were rough around the edges, would be hard to work with clients.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: We finally decided a few years back we're we're done trying to hire people with experience.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: We started hiring talented people that we could get along with that had potential, and we invested in them.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was expensive, but it was worth it.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because our cult our culture is incredible now because of that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome, man.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: I could see like hiring somebody that's really good at design and art and stuff like that with no no experience, but you liked them and got along with them being a good fit, you know.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: That that's that's really sounds really tough.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: So so you a lot of like your journey is you grew really fast when you took it over.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of people have those headaches, they're not used to doing all these things, but you know, you ended up growing by like four four to four hundred percent within a couple years, you know, right out of the gate.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, describe that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was just like chaos with everything, you know, the employees and all that, you know, was it you know, did you get in trouble financially because you grew so fast?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard for some people to understand, but some people, some companies grow so fast and then they can't keep up with, you know, the accounts receivable and payables and all that because it's there's imbalance and other stuff, you know, it can lead to cash flow problems, you know, because you're ordering so many materials in advance and then you're not paying attention to you know the other side of that.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: Are you collecting and stuff?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So luckily I was taught pretty well on how to do that from the previous owners.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um that I'll talk about it to this day, his wife that handled the books, there we wouldn't be off by a penny at the end of the year.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, handled tight books.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I learned well how to keep tight reins on things and how to collect.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd never seen the caliber company we were running.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like yeah, we weren't even close to what we would do in a month, is what we were doing in a week.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah from before.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: So shifting the mindset there, all of a sudden I got all this money in the bank, we're profitable as all get out, but I wasn't prepared for the the cycle of COVID.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we I bought it in 2016.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: We grew rapidly in those first three, three and a half years.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Our our lease was coming up because they were gonna tear down the building, so we needed to move, so I ended up tripling the size of our building.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Only doubled the rent, so that was good.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: But we moved and two months later, COVID hit.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: You can't be prepared for that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care how hard you try, you're not prepared for that.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: I used to be able to I could project every month.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: I knew what we were gonna do, I knew roughly what we were gonna grow, I knew what clients were coming and going.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was easy to predict pre-COVID.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Post COVID, it's a different landscape now.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're a different company.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: We used to do everything for everyone.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So everyone was a client, which that's catastrophic.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Post-COVID, we decided two main verticals, the vehicle fleets and the apartments.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Plus new, new landscape, new territory, new payment terms, new cycles.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um debts different now, debt's more expensive now.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so all those things created cash flow crunches.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: Payment cycles became two, three times what they used to be from what I was used to being around.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that ended up basically catching us with our pants down.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: We were in a spot where it was like, uh oh, we've outrun the cash flow.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't have a good accountant at the time, ended up causing more problems.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was making decisions off inaccurate data.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: A year or two of that catches up, and you're like, oh no, we're not in a good spot.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I brought on a good partner that could help me work through that.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'd been around much bigger companies.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the things a couple years in, I learned is surround myself with people way smarter than me, way more educated than me.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I always want to be the dumbest person in the room, in every room.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: I want to learn, learn, learn.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I started doing mentorships, joining groups to learn how to run businesses, how to scale.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the one thing that I feel like saved us was finally getting around the right people that could see my vision and see my passion to be able to lock arms with us and help pull us up out of the trenches we were in to see what's possible.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we're on a whole new trajectory at this point.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think psychologically, I remember it kind of being chaotic during COVID.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I had a business and I remember calling my dad, which didn't live in the same city at me as me and asking him, are they allowed to shut this stuff down?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: And just like, what in the world's going on?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: What am I gonna do?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then they provide government money, which is kind of dependent on how much you get.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: There were winners and losers.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm a I'm a grown man.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not here to cry about some things being unfair, but you know, I just I don't know, it was just kind of a scary time, you know.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: It was wild.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, definitely every day I was fighting a new battle or a new war.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know people that had businesses going and they just completely stopped paying like any credit cards they had because they were like, I don't have any, if they're gonna shut it down and I don't have any revenue, then it hurt their credit, and then they got government money and they wish they would have paid it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because this I don't know what the right decisions were to make, but you know, there was a lot of people doing things that were just, you know, kind of like, what do you do?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, so they they comp did you you basically told everybody to get on unemployment and shut down, didn't you?
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, no, we stayed open.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: You did stay open.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: We were able to stay open, we were considered essential.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so the reason we were essential is we were providing a lot of the the shields to the government and to the schools, you know, all that you remember all the acrylic shields that were blocking from people don't sneeze on you.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we were doing this, we were doing the sneeze guards and then we were producing the social distancing dots that you saw on the ground.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Remember those stickers everywhere?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: We were producing those by the thousands.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: We still and the multifamily space didn't slow up during that time.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I remember.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it bent, yeah.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that kept us afloat.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we did lose all of our live event business overnight, so we lost 30% of our business overnight.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: We'd run split shifts to keep people separated, and found I was able to keep everyone employed during the time.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, government came through with a PPP, which helped save us, but there was it felt like there was something new every single day we were battling.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, this person now has COVID.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: We got to restrict access here.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: We were it was wild.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like PTSD when I think about it.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and then you know, the oh yeah, it's like you got PTSD from it.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was like you would hire people and there was such a conflict of interest because you know, when you were hiring people back then, they really were just what what they were doing is it was they had so most states to get unemployment, you have to show that you're applying for five jobs a week or something.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what the exact number is.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: So they when they applied with you, they were just trying to show that they were applying for jobs so they could get unemployment.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: They can get their free money.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: And they never wanted to work, but they showed up for their first shift and they were trying to get fired is what they were doing.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then they and then most of them forgot about that part.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: But but then it reached a point where most of their friends had already quitted another job and they didn't realize that it was federally backed unemployment, so the states did weren't like the states weren't investigating whether they quit or got fired.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: So as soon as they figured that out, they just quit.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you had to hire more people.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: It was just crazy.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: I remember the turnover rate, and you're just burning through like payroll money to keep people on the clock, is what I remember.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was just kind of and nobody that doesn't have a business really understands like the mentality of the level of employee you have you know and yeah it was it was nuts man I don't know I forgot about that you were more in the uh the service space than I was yeah we had our core group of people we had one or two that were doing that we were hiring we were hiring somebody during the time I remember that now of we were just simply a check on the the checklist it wasn't they never wanted the job and that went on three yeah did it go on for like three years oh I don't know it was it was I feel like it was never ending yeah but I was losing uh quite a bit of money every month so I closed that one down so anyway I sold one and long before that but yeah that one was closed down so I tried to do a lot of things to you know it was a profitable business for like 10 years though you know yeah but it just it ran its course and I was just done with it I I will I walked away without any debt you know I wasn't in debt and I was like you know I can walk away if I if I stick around and I keep losing money I'll be in debt again you know and I'm not gonna do that.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I just decided to walk away.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's either you know I don't know it's I I don't know what I would have done if I was in debt at the time you know do you stick with it and keep going deeper most people probably go deeper depending on how stubborn they are but you know that's kind of where I was I had too much on the line because I just bought it so I got a business loan.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I get the business loan from where I bought it and then I've got equipment leases from where we just moved into a new space.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so it was I had no choice but to just kind of dig my heels in and figure it out.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: So your operation right now you guys are in 2000 square feet is that correct?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes and you're looking to expand into more uh more space based off the trajectory we'll probably double the size of the company in the next two or three years.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow so you guys we triple it so and you've done that by that you've done that by pretty much just specializing in you know the multifamily and the vehicle wraps right yeah we went all in on those spaces and built teams around it and let's say at this point we're running 30% capacity.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow so we're ready to stress test the rest of the process.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: We've spent the last couple years building it and getting it ready and now we've built the sales team around it and basically pouring rocket fuel in it at this point and getting ready to see where it goes.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Is do you find it just easier because you I don't know I mean I I think when you stray off into all these other types of like signage and stuff like you know if you're designing for independent liquor stores it's like each one's so different.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: But when you kind of specialize in a space or just specialize in vehicle reps you can just do like one or two things and do it right versus doing something else mediocre you know and do it efficiently too you know I had an epiphany moment with that a couple years ago when just kept having all these issues and all these errors and throwing too much away and finally just kind of set back in my gym at the time was like we're doing too many things.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and I would look at the workload and almost every day the project manager and sales team they're learning something new.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah sales guy sold something different yeah than he sold the day before because everybody's a client.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's a client to the sales guy right yeah and even the sign company if you think about it everybody can use a sign.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah literally from a birthday party for sale sign to a new business opening there's so many different types of signs and I cut my teeth in the industry where anybody and everybody was a walk-in client.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and you're gonna service that model but when you get to a certain scale you're not successful and that's when we decided all right we've got to figure out what we're really good at what we're profitable at and let's start weeding out the stuff that's dragging us down and that's what we've been doing.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think at the end of the day it probably made your salespeople better because they go to the same place they know how to sell it.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like you know the apartments are a little bit different but at the same time they're the same.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like okay and you're doing you're getting into stuff what you don't just do the signage out front at the apartments.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: What do what else do you do when you do an apartment complex?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Currently we're only working in like the B and C class assets in the value ad space.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're not doing any new construction.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah we've specialized even further into that market and we'll do like you said the monument out front and say as soon as you pull in the complex you need to find the leasing center.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so you got directionals and wayfinding that are taking you to the leasing center.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Then you need amenities so where are the amenities we've got to find the amenities.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah doing all the rules and regulations at the amenities like pool signage um the building IDs that you see yeah some of that's code regulated with the fire departments um you've got the unit IDs that some of it has to be ADA compliant with braille and things of that nature and just recently we've added a new product to the mix that we're able to produce in-house and that's the ADA compliance our new printer is able to print that raised lettering that's on the the sign.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we're doing that in-house now.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh like the um for the blind where they can touch that oh wow that's awesome man it's fun stuff um so ADA compliance signage for apartment complexes and most of them are probably outdated to where they need that stuff and they don't know it you know when a new owner comes in or whatnot so or a new or an old owner kind of sobers up and says nobody can find a releasing office let's fix this or they hire a new property management that realizes that.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: So or even when they get our team we come on board and we don't ask them what signs they want.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: We actually come and do a comprehensive survey of the property and go, all right, you're weak here, you're strong in this area we'd recommend you do an XYZ on your property because being owner operators we understand what drives the value of the complex and that's tenant retention and leaseups.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_02: So we're good about going if you do XYZ your property is going to look way better than the one down the street and and that's why you crush it in this space is because you have owned and operated apartment complexes.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_02: You know and you understand like dude these people have no clue where your freaking leasing office is you know they're driving around lost when you could and then they if they if they're lost they're gonna get confused and just drive off you know it's it's kind of nuts man.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: But um no that sounds like a a sweet spot for you.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me about your apartment investing man.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you um do you still do it or kind of or a little bit uh I'd say kind of um I'm an LP in a couple deals I've been told that we're exiting one this quarter so I'm excited to get my money back.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: All right it's done it's done well so it looks like we're gonna get some nice returns on it.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well was down what I was getting at is there's just not a lot of deals at pencil.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like if you're able to find a deal you know yeah I mean so it's kind of like you know are you f able to find any good deals so you know I quit looking in the apartment space um especially the way the syndication model's been lately I just I'm not I've decided I don't like that investment.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'd rather protect my money in other areas yeah and actually got involved with somebody that started a fund and I'm helping raise capital with it.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're we're investing more in businesses like mine where we can come in and help recapitalize high interest debt we can protect it better um and also got a couple life saving opportunities that are going to be game changers.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it's better Yeah I actually like that medical advice you guys have.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I looked at that I think that's a really good uh product um it's with uh I can't talk about it so I was just gonna say yeah don't say it yeah and then I'm like okay yeah I can't talk about that yeah but I like it anyway it's a life changing opportunity that's gonna create an extension event extinction event in the marketplace and if anybody is interested I'd love to talk to them about it.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I love the passion behind what they're doing.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: But when we were doing due diligence I think I'm allowed to say four words about it until you sign the NDA so it's one of the things I I was about to I I was I was gonna keep it real high level and I was like I don't even know if I should I was like if I'm questioning if I should go there I was just gonna talk about you know what space and then I was like no I'm not even gonna go there.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's a great product though I think it's a great product I'm excited about it.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah but you know another thing is um positioning uh operating businesses like in opportunity zones like you know if you go into a medical device and you operate it out of a ship the product out of a warehouse and it's um sorry man all good on hold on we're gonna close the deal I'm just I was made sure my was a silent so I'm like I don't want that to happen yeah here we go hold on they're gonna they're gonna wire the money right now I'm just kidding we're live Tim got to come on the good podcast 10 million let's go this deal baby no uh I I was uh you know if you if you position some of these businesses like in an opportunity zone like put the warehouse and you know and you're 50% of the business is you know you're shipping it out of there and charging the money and all that um you know it's tax free on capital gains uh on the backside you know I'm not trying to give tax advice on my show but I can set you up with a tax advisor or own.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway it's just something to uh explore so um but yeah I I love what you guys are doing.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that's something I didn't know existed three years ago.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know this space was out there.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know there were companies that existed that help people the way they do I'd only known of traditional lending methods and I pie in the sky heard of this industry and that's something that's been really intriguing to me is how there are companies that are out there that can raise capital and can really help save people's businesses and save their lives and be vested more than just take take take.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something that I've really loved about this industry.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah I you the take take take gets old and then you sit there and you get in a take take take business and it doesn't take take take because you got in at the wrong time and you're like you know I should have just done something else but right you know it it's just the way you look at it's different when you're saving lives and making change and stuff like that.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: So one one thing that really has changed the way you operate and stuff like that is setting up systems in place.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, just utilizing not only AI but simple CRM and stuff like that.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well tell me a little bit about that you know and processes with employees and other things you know that have helped you a lot of one of the things we started implementing a couple years ago was you familiar with EOS was entrepreneur operating system.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah it's basically operating systems for the business we started we self-implemented that which creates structure yeah and started operating under that structure set meeting times set goals and have everybody on the same bus basically and that was a game changer for us um we have real strict guidelines on our culture we protect that at all costs yeah we hire and fire based off of it and now we got the team so bought in that if you come on board and you've lost a team there's nothing I can do to save you.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter you're gone.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah we've given the team the authority to we let them interview the new team player because if they don't fit well and don't play well in the sandbox, they're not going to do well in the company and that's something that we've done.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: Why is that is it just because it's such a process of dealing with the customer on the front end and the sales process and it goes behind the scenes and it's you know kind of a it's a process where it's kind of handed off to where if somebody somebody's cheating on the front end like the sales guy and he's a dick or whatever, you know, sorry to say it but you know or what and he's lying or something and then the back end they can't take care of the customer and they're like we can't deal with this you know it's you know they they're like we can't have this guy and it's and it makes the pro it probably quicker and easier for you when they're like all right get rid of this guy.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah because they usually come to you like we hear stuff like unsafe unpredictable aggressive and I won't go out with them and things like that.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: So when you start hearing those key words there's nothing I can do but a lot of the times what we see is the lack of accountability.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't take accountability for what you're doing in the space nobody has compassion for you but if you take accountability and go look man I screwed it up I thought I knew what I was doing but I don't everybody surrounds you and gets you helps you figure it out and because most of our employees and then and then blaming others instead of taking accountability and say hey I boogered it up man you know can y'all help me you know it's it people look at it different than you know they just throwing stuff on them.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know the other thing that's a little unique about us and what we do is my building is full of creatives.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: And creatives require a different kind of leadership because everybody is very they just think differently.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: So they're thinking outside the box craft you have to be really skilled at what you do and even we realized recently we can't just hire a salesperson I have to hire a creative salesperson.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah they have to be able to problem solve in the field with a client because they're not selling widgets they're actually selling a vision.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to be able to take the vision in the field hand that off to the next team member that could buy into the vision and then keep it going through the process.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where we're a little unique in what we're doing.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know it's um one of those things where you think about the way people operate and whether it's a restaurant or an HVAC company or a signed company like that empowerment your employees feel when you basically tell them you're the decision maker, it keeps them around longer.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_02: It leads to you know lower turnover it also you know probably helps in the hiring process because they're less likely to hire somebody that's not going to be a fit on the front end.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know um and with that the second round of our hiring they sit with their team that they're gonna work with and that team gets to interview that person.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's part of our hiring process is when you're coming on board you're not just interviewing with the the GM or the CEO.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: You're sitting down with a team you're gonna work with and if they're not bought in you're not getting home.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: I like it man.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty magical yeah but empowered employees is a huge thing where they're they have freedom to make decisions.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: They stay around so much longer they're happier you know where they feel they feel like they have ownership of the business and we allow that.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you know that's something that I had to struggle with as an owner is in the past I didn't have good systems in place.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I had a good culture and one of the things that navigated was people always wanted to know the numbers.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so I would share and based off the young team they thought I was taking all that money home.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like I wish yeah no but they didn't understand how the company ran and now what was really hard for me in the past year when we restructured everything was to trust the team we built trust that they need the numbers for a reason and get out of their way and let them do what they need to do with the numbers.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that has been the biggest thing for me to be able to step out and be owner and step into that role and go out and shake the hands of everybody I know and continue pushing the narrative forward.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now I come in here they're projecting out they're looking at the bell curves they're looking at cash flow and I'm seeing it written up on the boards where they're doing the exercises to figure out where we're at in the company and it's it took a while for me to feel confident enough with the team to go okay I trust you go.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's like a phenomenon man I mean you know it's pretty crazy to hear you talk about it.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: I you know I I had some mentors that you know 10 years ago where I went and watched their business and they basically said you know at certain levels of employment it's not all about money.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_02: You think it is but it's it's about empowerment and it's they say like 70 to 80% of the time when they leave it's not about money.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know if not I would say it's probably 90% of the time it's not about money.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's like one out of a hundred people I feel like that we've had here that it's about money.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah money's just an attraction object for recruiting it doesn't determine whether they're gonna be a good employee or if they'll stay so correct.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know a lot of it's culture.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah we spend equal amount of time here as we do at home so we treat this place like it's family.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if if we can't get along like family fight like family argue like family solve problems like family then it's never going to work and that's the cool thing here is we solve problems.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: When there's things happening we we create the the pathway for people to solve it and when we bring people in from outside our culture they're they hear the culture they say they understand it but when they're living it they they're really blown away that at the leadership level we allow things to happen we allow people to have a say we want feedback from every corner of the building from no matter what your position is we need to understand what you're doing and how you're doing it how you feel like we can do it better.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because we value that we can't be a better company if we don't get that feedback.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and a lot of times these people that aren't used to that that are used to more of a dictator type leadership come in here and they'll just sit in the corner like this like no that's not going to work.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you can't talk get out because we need to be able to hash these things out.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me about the book coming up and um you know what all's in it and you know I'm sure it covers your journey you know the culture you've created how you've transformed everything you know and it it talks about anything from starting from a broom in my hands to sweeping the floors to learning a craft to screwing it all up to basically ruining my family in the process and rebounding from that because I remember coming home to an empty house big beautiful home I built from this this business and it's not so beautiful anymore when it echoes when you walk in the house.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: And just the restorative story from that earning my wife's heart back watching my family reunite and be stronger than it's ever been and then going through the hurdles of growing a business nearly losing a business to losing key people and anything in between if there's successes, there's wins there's losses it's all in there.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think people realize the magnitude that's the name of your that business problems can have at home and the wreckage they can cause and knowing what you know now and allowing other people to learn from it through this book is great.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know um just the culture the financing the having something behind it set up and you know not overextending yourself in many different ways so you know I've never thought of myself as an author never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd write a book because I didn't finish in my whole life I didn't finish an entire book until last year.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Never read a book cover to cover is it hard I think it's really hard to write a book.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: Most people assume it's easy because of AI and it's not it's like you have to put your own individual thought into it AI can help you correct some things but it's yeah you know where I used AI is actually I loaded mine in there and I said okay where can I add a little content to make this a little more unique and it's you know told me hey go interview somebody to cover this part that you're talking about and that's how I used AI.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't use it to write it at all you know yeah my publisher was able to go okay these chapters don't flow how do we make a chapter flow you need some more depth here like stuff's not gelling so that was basically I did a brain dunk.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah and they tried to categorize it and then put more data into each chapter added filler changed names that kind of stuff and that's how I started I I just said I'm gonna just start fire typing and say what do I want in this and just just start typing you know and then try the scene for me was back about a year and a half two years ago before it started happening I was meeting with a guy they were at asking me to join the group and I just told him my story.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: He's like man you got to tell that more people need to hear that I was like I was like no I don't what are you talking about?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the more and more he'd introduce me to people the more and more I can see lights going off in people's heads and I was like well okay what's it gonna hurt me to put it in a book and man talking about getting raw and vulnerable that's the hardest part is knowing I just put this thing in print.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: Here's my life and here's where I've screwed up and but now I look at it as God using it to restore somebody else that maybe in the middle of it and I can lean in and lock arms and go, hey man, it's gonna be okay.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah you you don't know most people don't understand when a business starts going south or you know you don't know how to handle the stress and just the financial stuff.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: You're just you have so much going on and you speak about like COVID and I talked about you know the employee turnover on its own was so hard to manage that you don't you don't even have time to focus.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know if you zoom out and you're like okay you look at the bigger picture you're like oh duh I should have known that but you're still survival one you're like run into one fire and another one's starting behind you you know and you're like and it's just chaos.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: So your eyes twitching and your stress is through the roof.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah and then it's you know and then you can get into other things like you know drinking too much because you're stressed which I did you know I did I did it you know I'm I'm boozing way more than I normally would you know so not now but you know back then you know I'm like golly and it didn't help mechanism it didn't help the problems you know metamorse yep you know uh never did I I tried to drink myself out of it it didn't work you know uh I'm I'm not the first I'm not the first guy though to try that trick so um Tim great having you on I love your story you know looking forward to uh staying in touch you know um as you grow I'd kind of be interested in talking to you about maybe you know buying a building you know I I know some potential maybe sponsors you know co-invest with you or something but you know we whenever you know I know that stuff like that doesn't happen overnight you know I rate it I I I ran it by uh you know Eddie and some other people too so you know we'll we'll cross that those never ended things there's always a need for capital somewhere for great investments.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah we'll cross that bridge when we get there so um uh what's it what's a good way for people to get a hold of you more importantly you know your your company website what is that you know to because I have a lot of real estate um you know following for for your signage and all that so it's uh we are M-A-I W-E-A-R-E M A I dot com.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let me pull it up.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: Then I made it easy for the book the website's gonna be Timelizer.com.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_02: All right I'm gonna share my screen okay there's magnitude it's where we are M A I dot com.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: We are M A I dot com.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: We stands for we are manufacturing art and identity R I.com let me show you there's her uh multifamily portion right there so looks awesome man what's uh are you on LinkedIn or anything like that I'm sure you are Tim Eliza on LinkedIn and then again the book's gonna be TimElizer.com awesome awesome man I appreciate you stopping by so we appreciate me on appreciate you absolutely thank you sir