Latest / Callis Mindset with Kannon Callis / Ep. 10 Leading Multi-Million Dollar Projects: Pressure, Ego and Mentorship

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Ep. 10 Leading Multi-Million Dollar Projects: Pressure, Ego and Mentorship · Callis Mindset with Kannon Callis

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to callous mindset where discipline meets growth and average
0:04
Speaker 1: simply isn't an option. I'm cannon Challous. Each episode we
0:08
Speaker 1: sit down with leaders, builders, operators who think differently and
0:12
Speaker 1: just to execute relentlessly. People who've built from the ground up,
0:17
Speaker 1: taken hits, adapted, and just kept moving forward. You're here
0:20
Speaker 1: to sharpen your edge, build stronger systems, and think at
0:22
Speaker 1: a higher level. You're in the right place. Today's guest
0:30
Speaker 1: is Austin.
0:31
Speaker 2: Gary.
0:32
Speaker 1: Austin has built his career in the world of large
0:34
Speaker 1: scale construction and project management, leading multimillion dollar projects, managing
0:40
Speaker 1: high pressure execution, and understanding what it takes to deliver
0:44
Speaker 1: when there's not room for any erbor Beyond the job
0:47
Speaker 1: sites and operations, Austin also invests in the next generation,
0:51
Speaker 1: serving as a mentor in a program at Texas A
0:53
Speaker 1: and M, helping develop future leaders in his construction industry
0:57
Speaker 1: and passing down lessons from real world experience that can
1:01
Speaker 1: teach others. He understands leadership isn't just about building projects,
1:05
Speaker 1: It's about building people. Austin, thank you for being on today.
1:09
Speaker 2: It was a fantastic introduction. I in flight, my ego
1:12
Speaker 2: a little bit.
1:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well it's cool with the projects that you're working
1:16
Speaker 1: on in one of the you know, most populated states
1:20
Speaker 1: for some of the biggest you level, volume to size,
1:24
Speaker 1: you know, the team sizes and everything that comes behind
1:27
Speaker 1: the infrastructure.
1:28
Speaker 2: Texas is growing, but I see Idaho is growing as well, So.
1:32
Speaker 1: It is Yeah, we're we're growing extremely fast. You know.
1:35
Speaker 1: Being from Texas myself, I have watched that growth on
1:38
Speaker 1: such a high scale. It just continues in Texas, it's
1:41
Speaker 1: not going to stop. But Idaho, it's so evident that
1:46
Speaker 1: per capita and for the size of things, just the
1:49
Speaker 1: growth is so explosive that you could really see the
1:52
Speaker 1: difference because it's a small place to begin with compared
1:55
Speaker 1: to where I'm used to and you know, to bring
1:58
Speaker 1: the mindset that I have for being in a big
2:00
Speaker 1: city to an emerging, emerging market, it's really exciting to
2:05
Speaker 1: see the opportunity here. And I think I want to
2:07
Speaker 1: also discuss a little bit about your identity and your foundation,
2:10
Speaker 1: because you know, you don't just get into operating at
2:13
Speaker 1: that high level. You have to get a mindset and
2:17
Speaker 1: you know, find your identity in order to qualify for
2:20
Speaker 1: those types of projects. So how did you become you know,
2:23
Speaker 1: a lead to multimillion dollar projects.
2:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, my foundation started at sixteen when my
2:31
Speaker 2: parents said, hey, you got to get a job, and
2:37
Speaker 2: I went and started running pools. Actually I was a
2:39
Speaker 2: lifeguard and learned early on when I just enjoyed people.
2:43
Speaker 2: I had a passion for people, and I just enjoyed
2:49
Speaker 2: feeding off of other people's energy, sharing that energy. So
2:53
Speaker 2: at seventeen, I actually began managing pools and managing teams,
2:59
Speaker 2: and it was kind of just a natural growth. You know,
3:05
Speaker 2: I was an emerging leader. I didn't really do any
3:08
Speaker 2: sports growing up. You know, there were none of those
3:10
Speaker 2: activities as a kid where I could say, Man, you
3:12
Speaker 2: know I'm going to be a you know, a leader
3:15
Speaker 2: on a soccer team or definitely not football if you've
3:18
Speaker 2: met me in person, I don't have the build for that.
3:23
Speaker 2: But you know, that was the foundation, and I really
3:27
Speaker 2: just leaned into this interest in people and learning about
3:31
Speaker 2: stories and individuals and figuring out how to motivate other
3:36
Speaker 2: people and how to share the interview that I bring.
3:39
Speaker 2: And you know, I think everybody's got a certain amount
3:42
Speaker 2: of energy in them. You've just got to figure out
3:44
Speaker 2: what they're passionate about and so you know, my foundation
3:48
Speaker 2: started at sixteen seventeen when I was you know, working
3:51
Speaker 2: with at the time my peers, and then as I
3:54
Speaker 2: progressed graduating college, I was running one of the largest
3:59
Speaker 2: pools in the Greater Houston area with a staff of
4:02
Speaker 2: one hundred plus individuals, and that you know that those
4:06
Speaker 2: were ages ranging from sixteen to my I think my
4:09
Speaker 2: oldest employee at at one point was eighty two. She
4:13
Speaker 2: did water aerobics and was fantastic. But you know, as
4:19
Speaker 2: a twenty three to twenty four year old kid out
4:21
Speaker 2: of school figuring out how to lead not just different personalities,
4:27
Speaker 2: but if different age groups, it was a great experience.
4:32
Speaker 2: And from there I realized that I wanted to get
4:36
Speaker 2: into something bigger. I enjoyed building, always been a fan
4:40
Speaker 2: of just watching construction, and so.
4:43
Speaker 1: I made the shift.
4:44
Speaker 2: I started out doing labor in construction. Took the same
4:48
Speaker 2: kind of mentality I had from pools of you know,
4:50
Speaker 2: starting out just you know, grunt greenhorn sweeping streets in
4:56
Speaker 2: downtown Houston and just a fuel for learning. Gimme, gimme, gimme.
5:01
Speaker 2: My boss at the time probably was annoyed with you know,
5:04
Speaker 2: my weekly emails of this is what I did, this
5:06
Speaker 2: is what I think I can do, give me more.
5:09
Speaker 2: But that was kind of the fuel, that was the foundation.
5:13
Speaker 2: I really just fed into that energy through my twenties
5:16
Speaker 2: and continued to lean into people and from there moved
5:21
Speaker 2: my way up, worked my way up into project management,
5:24
Speaker 2: did various projects, move from Houston to Austin back in
5:28
Speaker 2: Houston now. And but one of the consistencies, if you
5:33
Speaker 2: can't tell already, as people and people makes the world
5:37
Speaker 2: go round. And you know, one of my sayings is
5:42
Speaker 2: we may be in construction, but where are people business
5:44
Speaker 2: that happens to build things? And I take that energy
5:47
Speaker 2: and that's that's how I teach my interns and my
5:51
Speaker 2: entry level engineers as well as you know now the
5:54
Speaker 2: high schoolers that I'm getting ready to mento.
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Speaker 1: So that's great, Yeah, thank you for sharing. That's it
6:00
Speaker 1: sounds like it started when you're a teenager and you
6:03
Speaker 1: had an opportunity you identified that you are pulled towards
6:07
Speaker 1: understanding people, the psychology, the behaviors, maybe the relationship element
6:11
Speaker 1: to it, what motivates them, and then how to manage
6:14
Speaker 1: them kind of came as a result of that. Yep,
6:18
Speaker 1: and then keeping the mindset of opportunistic when opportunity is knocking,
6:23
Speaker 1: answering the door, having the confidence to ask for more,
6:26
Speaker 1: and also let them know what you've already done, which
6:29
Speaker 1: is so important. I think a lot of people they
6:33
Speaker 1: do the job to the bare minimum, and then they
6:36
Speaker 1: wonder why they're not getting a promotion or why they're
6:38
Speaker 1: not getting an opportunity when they haven't given anything of
6:43
Speaker 1: value for free. And so when you know, ask and
6:48
Speaker 1: you ask for it to go above and beyond. You
6:50
Speaker 1: ask for that opportunity. That shows leadership within yourself. But
6:53
Speaker 1: also sometimes people that are in positions of power can
6:56
Speaker 1: see that and say, Okay, this guy's going to be
6:58
Speaker 1: great influence on other peopleeople around him and the team
7:01
Speaker 1: that he runs. So that's awesome, Thanks for sharing. Then, yeah,
7:05
Speaker 1: how how did you decide your major when you went
7:09
Speaker 1: to Texas A and M.
7:11
Speaker 2: So great question for those that I'm sure I'm gonna
7:15
Speaker 2: have some interns and perhaps some colleagues that'll listen in
7:18
Speaker 2: and and so I I come from a little bit
7:21
Speaker 2: of a different background getting into construction. I have an
7:23
Speaker 2: undergrad in business management. I really enjoyed business I think
7:28
Speaker 2: at the time in college, I didn't really understand the
7:30
Speaker 2: people aspect of business. But now that I've grown into,
7:34
Speaker 2: you know, my role, I understand the importance of business
7:37
Speaker 2: and people and integrating all that. So it all makes
7:39
Speaker 2: sense looking back now why I enjoyed business. And so
7:44
Speaker 2: I did my undergrad at Texas State. I did about
7:48
Speaker 2: ten years in the industry and decided I'm going to
7:52
Speaker 2: go for something else. I'm gonna get a master's and
7:56
Speaker 2: you know, progress my learning. And I had looked at
8:00
Speaker 2: an NBA, but I already had an undergrad and business,
8:04
Speaker 2: and so an NBA would would essentially kind of be
8:06
Speaker 2: an extension of my undergrad just a little bit more
8:09
Speaker 2: focused and probably a little bit more in the weeds.
8:13
Speaker 2: But I thought, let me compliment the undergrad with a
8:16
Speaker 2: technical approach, and so A and M has A. I
8:20
Speaker 2: think it's a six year old program now, so still
8:22
Speaker 2: relatively new, but it's a Master of Engineering Technical Management degree.
8:27
Speaker 2: So basically it's it's taking a technical minded individual type,
8:34
Speaker 2: a engineering type, and excelling them into more of a
8:39
Speaker 2: leadership type role. I was an odd ball. I was
8:43
Speaker 2: I think one of two construction guys in the whole program.
8:46
Speaker 2: Out of like I think eighty eighty people in my
8:49
Speaker 2: graduating class. So we brought a different perspective, different mindset
8:53
Speaker 2: to it. But that was that was really what drew
8:57
Speaker 2: me to it and said, let me, let me compliment.
8:59
Speaker 2: I'm always thinking of contrast, comparing contrast, and so everything
9:03
Speaker 2: that I do, I want to make sure that I'm
9:06
Speaker 2: complimenting a skill or a talent that I already have
9:09
Speaker 2: in place. And so, you know, hard skills versus soft skills.
9:12
Speaker 2: I'm always trying to figure out what's the next soft
9:14
Speaker 2: skill that I need to work on, what's the emotional
9:16
Speaker 2: intelligence piece of my life that I haven't figured out yet,
9:21
Speaker 2: what's the hard skill in this? You know, what's the
9:24
Speaker 2: data that I'm not understanding? And you know, naturally building
9:28
Speaker 2: those And I'm showing my hands here because it's you know,
9:31
Speaker 2: it's it's going up one and then etioning up another
9:34
Speaker 2: and you keep doing this And that's just kind of
9:36
Speaker 2: how I continue my progression, is the slow grind, just
9:42
Speaker 2: focusing on those skills, honing in and moving forward.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm having the wherewithal to continue a path that
9:50
Speaker 1: you've already started building that foundation being able to continuously
9:56
Speaker 1: IQ versus EQ it's kind of what you know. What
9:58
Speaker 1: I took from that is some people say IQ is
10:01
Speaker 1: fixed and EQ has learned, and I think there's a
10:05
Speaker 1: little bit of both. I think you can have a
10:07
Speaker 1: high IQ or a low IQ, and you can increase
10:09
Speaker 1: it as long as you take discipline, habits and learn
10:13
Speaker 1: how to learn better. There is on the EQ side,
10:17
Speaker 1: some people are born with the ability to connect with
10:19
Speaker 1: others and be extremely intuitive very early on. But if
10:24
Speaker 1: you don't refine that and put that skill towards the direction,
10:28
Speaker 1: you're not truly going to reach that potential or see
10:30
Speaker 1: the results that you could. And so I continuously gradually,
10:33
Speaker 1: you know, leveling up on both sides. You're polishing yourself
10:37
Speaker 1: as a person and as a leader that can then
10:39
Speaker 1: influence and scale programs, teams, operational structures, things like that.
10:46
Speaker 1: So it's cool to see your perspective from a construction side.
10:49
Speaker 1: Also getting a master's degree and that, you know, you know,
10:52
Speaker 1: any advanced degree is going to have certain disciplines within it,
10:54
Speaker 1: and especially within business and management and people. Especially with
10:59
Speaker 1: the direction you went, so I wanted to ask was
11:02
Speaker 1: there any moments that you were managing teams where you
11:04
Speaker 1: just felt overwhelmed. You're like, Okay, this is just way
11:07
Speaker 1: too much I have.
11:11
Speaker 2: You know, it's weird sometimes. I was joking with a
11:15
Speaker 2: colleague today, we were laughing. You know, we're in in
11:18
Speaker 2: my later thirties now, but it's got to the point
11:21
Speaker 2: where I can kind of see the last ten years
11:23
Speaker 2: and really reflect on some seasons in my life. And
11:27
Speaker 2: I've had some very difficult seasons that I would never
11:32
Speaker 2: take back. They've been coming out of those seasons, although
11:36
Speaker 2: difficult in the moment, have been severe gross furts for me.
11:41
Speaker 2: And so you know, particularly, I think I think at
11:44
Speaker 2: about year five and six of my construction career, and
11:48
Speaker 2: I say construction, I'm a little off of I started
11:51
Speaker 2: out running pools, so you know, when you're looking at that,
11:55
Speaker 2: you add in probably another three to four years of
11:57
Speaker 2: management for that, but specifically construction of five to six
12:00
Speaker 2: years in. I reached a point where I think I
12:04
Speaker 2: was I was on that on that low point of
12:10
Speaker 2: I'm gonna learn something in this. I don't know what
12:12
Speaker 2: it is yet, but there was just a grind of
12:16
Speaker 2: everything was coming at me. Uh, situations I hadn't dealt
12:19
Speaker 2: with as far as project issues, situations I hadn't dealt
12:23
Speaker 2: with people issues up the food chain, down the food chain,
12:28
Speaker 2: you know, bosses U direct reports. It seemed like everything
12:33
Speaker 2: was kind of firing on all cylinders and I was
12:35
Speaker 2: in the middle with that pressure and in the moment,
12:40
Speaker 2: it's kind of hard to find clarity, especially when you
12:45
Speaker 2: know it's your job and you've got a paycheck you're
12:49
Speaker 2: trying to worry about.
12:49
Speaker 1: You've got a career.
12:50
Speaker 2: For me, I've always thought about what's my five ten
12:52
Speaker 2: year plan, and so specifically I'll focus on the team
12:57
Speaker 2: aspect of it. I was in a role where I
13:00
Speaker 2: wasn't a essentially a leader on paper, and what I
13:06
Speaker 2: mean by that is, you know, companies have their hierarchies
13:09
Speaker 2: things like that, so I didn't have a group of
13:11
Speaker 2: direct reports that directly came to me. But I was
13:14
Speaker 2: in a position of influence and I felt like, you know,
13:19
Speaker 2: there was a time, there was a place I needed
13:21
Speaker 2: to lead, and I was having a hard time figuring
13:22
Speaker 2: out how to lead that team. And ultimately we had
13:26
Speaker 2: a lot of failures in that season of my life.
13:29
Speaker 2: And probably some people may listen to this and they'll
13:32
Speaker 2: know what season I'm talking about, and we all look back,
13:36
Speaker 2: we still have a group chat me and the guys
13:38
Speaker 2: that were in that season, and we were in that
13:40
Speaker 2: fire and none of us would take it back, maybe
13:45
Speaker 2: not want to go through it again, but it was
13:48
Speaker 2: one of those moments where we couldn't really see ten
13:50
Speaker 2: feet in front of us. Now looking back, everything looks
13:54
Speaker 2: clear in the mirror, but that was one of those
13:57
Speaker 2: grit and determination moments of man, I don't know what
14:02
Speaker 2: I'm going to learn out of this, but I'm going
14:03
Speaker 2: to learn something. And for that it was a lot
14:07
Speaker 2: of emotional intelligence. It was how to regulate my emotions.
14:10
Speaker 2: It was how to just kind of control my temper.
14:14
Speaker 2: I was definitely a little bit of a hothead back
14:16
Speaker 2: then and probably said things and did things in rooted
14:19
Speaker 2: emotion and fear and anxiety from just situations where looking
14:24
Speaker 2: back that was probably four five years ago, now I
14:29
Speaker 2: would handle that a lot differently. But again, you're going
14:32
Speaker 2: to have those moments. Everybody's going to have those moments
14:35
Speaker 2: in their career, five year, ten year. If you're not uncomfortable,
14:40
Speaker 2: you're not growing. And so generally, when I start getting
14:43
Speaker 2: too comfortable, I got to change something up because otherwise
14:47
Speaker 2: I'm going to get complacent and you know, those are
14:50
Speaker 2: those moments where you look back, you learn, you grow.
14:53
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with that, and life is lived
14:58
Speaker 1: forward but understood backward.
15:01
Speaker 2: I like that.
15:02
Speaker 1: You know, we go through challenges that in the moment
15:05
Speaker 1: it's hard to compute what's actually going on, but in hindsight,
15:09
Speaker 1: once we get through the up and the down and
15:11
Speaker 1: the up again, or the stabilization of whatever the impact was,
15:15
Speaker 1: we can look back and say, you know what, now
15:17
Speaker 1: that I've been through it, if that came again, here's
15:18
Speaker 1: what I would do this time. And that's that's what
15:21
Speaker 1: resilience is, and that's what you know forward thinking is
15:24
Speaker 1: and failing forward. I love all those terms, including the
15:27
Speaker 1: one you mentioned. I think the construction is very unforgiving.
15:32
Speaker 1: And there are certain things you know, that are legal, regulatory,
15:37
Speaker 1: safety sensitive things that if there's a mistake that's made
15:41
Speaker 1: under pressure and it's the wrong decision, it could have
15:44
Speaker 1: a serious, serious impact, not just on the revenue the money,
15:47
Speaker 1: but on lives. And you know, it takes it takes
15:51
Speaker 1: a certain aptitude for pressure, and with time, you grow,
15:56
Speaker 1: you know, through those experiences, and I think, you know,
15:58
Speaker 1: it's cool that you can look back and say, even
16:00
Speaker 1: five years ago. There's situations that I was challenged in
16:03
Speaker 1: that today would probably be easier or you would know
16:07
Speaker 1: how to go about them in a way. You know,
16:09
Speaker 1: there's there's always unpredictables. But I'm the same way. You know,
16:14
Speaker 1: I went from sales and almost every role I've been
16:17
Speaker 1: at for the last ten years or longer into business ownership,
16:22
Speaker 1: and there's a whole different set of problems that come
16:24
Speaker 1: with that. When you're the one taking the risk, you know,
16:27
Speaker 1: you're the one that's ultimately responsible for the good and
16:31
Speaker 1: the bad decisions of what the business has become or
16:33
Speaker 1: done or not doing. And it's part of maturity and growing.
16:37
Speaker 1: But also to be able to look back from experiences
16:40
Speaker 1: and then to help others by mentoring them. That's that's
16:45
Speaker 1: a blessing, you know, that's that's using your skill set,
16:48
Speaker 1: the ability that you can communicate, recollect on and you know,
16:52
Speaker 1: really look at back at experiences and pave the way
16:55
Speaker 1: for others so they could maybe miss those mistakes or
16:59
Speaker 1: avoid those challenges. And that's one of the reasons I
17:02
Speaker 1: started this podcast is just to share stories like this
17:05
Speaker 1: with other people.
17:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, go ahead, go ahead, let me I'll
17:10
Speaker 2: bring that full circle. You know, I wrote down on
17:14
Speaker 2: a piece of paper right about I think August will
17:17
Speaker 2: be about ten years where when I was trying to
17:21
Speaker 2: get into construction, I couldn't find somebody to give me
17:24
Speaker 2: a give me an opportunity. And partially it was because
17:27
Speaker 2: I've been running pools and so people were having a
17:30
Speaker 2: hard time connecting the dots. But there was a guy
17:33
Speaker 2: that I think I had to call the guy for
17:35
Speaker 2: like three weeks, just every other day until he finally answered.
17:38
Speaker 2: But he gave me an opportunity and he let me
17:41
Speaker 2: run with it. And I wrote down ten years ago
17:44
Speaker 2: a ten year gold and I said, in ten years,
17:46
Speaker 2: I want to be in a position where I can
17:48
Speaker 2: impact somebody's life the way that this guy did for me.
17:52
Speaker 2: And you know, so full circle to what you were
17:55
Speaker 2: getting at is, you know, penue down the road here,
17:59
Speaker 2: I am. I reached a point where I influenced a
18:02
Speaker 2: lot sooner than that. But I really think that's that's
18:05
Speaker 2: what makes the world tick, man. It's it's helping other people,
18:09
Speaker 2: it's connecting, collaborating. That's where the value comes in everything
18:15
Speaker 2: we do.
18:16
Speaker 1: Absolutely being able to pay it forward, being able to
18:19
Speaker 1: help someone the way that you wish you could have
18:21
Speaker 1: gotten help, or the way that you did get you
18:24
Speaker 1: an extended hand. And I think that people underestimate what
18:29
Speaker 1: they can do in ten years. They overestimate what they
18:32
Speaker 1: can do in one year. That's usually how it goes.
18:34
Speaker 1: And so I'm very much in line with that setting goals,
18:39
Speaker 1: writing them down and externalizing them and then reverse engineering
18:43
Speaker 1: how to get to them by the steps that go
18:46
Speaker 1: to weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, two, three, five, ten, There
18:50
Speaker 1: you are and then boom, you're just like, how do
18:52
Speaker 1: we even get here?
18:53
Speaker 2: Yep?
18:54
Speaker 1: Wow, And it's cool to see, you know, you have
18:58
Speaker 1: like a similar mindset on that, and I think that
19:01
Speaker 1: it does make people stand out where they have intentionality
19:05
Speaker 1: and where they have purpose and a direction that they're
19:08
Speaker 1: actually working towards, rather than I hope something changes when
19:12
Speaker 1: I'm not, you know. And so do you think that leaders?
19:18
Speaker 1: I mean the leaders that I know, they've chosen standards
19:21
Speaker 1: above comfort, They've chosen challenge over you know, sedation. It's
19:27
Speaker 1: the same way with me leaving a very I don't
19:31
Speaker 1: want to say super cushy because it wasn't the best
19:33
Speaker 1: sales job in the world, but it was a very
19:35
Speaker 1: good earning position in tech and I could work from home,
19:38
Speaker 1: and I could travel when I wanted and things like that.
19:41
Speaker 1: But I went from that to I have to replace
19:45
Speaker 1: my income completely on my own through commissions in real
19:48
Speaker 1: estate and through winning contracts where I'm working for free
19:52
Speaker 1: ahead of time. It's given me a totally different perspective
19:56
Speaker 1: on going from a full time job to starting a
19:59
Speaker 1: business and seeing the challenges, and it gives me a
20:01
Speaker 1: different respect for people that start new things, whether it
20:05
Speaker 1: be a business or a team or a construction project
20:09
Speaker 1: or you know, it's it's risk adverse, but it shows
20:13
Speaker 1: that the risk takers are really the people that are
20:17
Speaker 1: paving the path. You know, like if if everyone says
20:20
Speaker 1: with the status quo, nothing changes exactly, so that that challenge,
20:25
Speaker 1: you know, like what you mentioned about challenging yourself and
20:28
Speaker 1: you know, being comfortable is kind of the end all.
20:32
Speaker 1: I do agree with that, and I think that's kind
20:34
Speaker 1: of leads into the next thing, is that pressure and
20:36
Speaker 1: emotional control is something you touched on when you when
20:41
Speaker 1: you say you know you've been through a lot of
20:42
Speaker 1: pressure and managing hundreds of people. I could only imagine
20:45
Speaker 1: I've never managed teams that big. What do you think
20:48
Speaker 1: pressure exposes in people.
20:51
Speaker 2: MM, good question. You know, I think I think pressure,
20:57
Speaker 2: the exposure that you see from pressure is going to
21:01
Speaker 2: vary depending on the season that individual's in. You know,
21:06
Speaker 2: I think about I've got interns that I manage at
21:10
Speaker 2: the moment, and they're very fresh, you know, some of
21:13
Speaker 2: them are only juniors in college, seniors maybe, and so
21:20
Speaker 2: I strategically apply some pressure in certain ways. Now, in
21:23
Speaker 2: my mind, it's pretty light pressure, you know, It's it's nothing,
21:28
Speaker 2: nothing like they're going to deal with ten years into
21:30
Speaker 2: their career. But I generally generally use that pressure to
21:38
Speaker 2: see their reaction, their timing of that. So how quickly
21:42
Speaker 2: can they react and how quickly can they pivot? And
21:46
Speaker 2: then within that pivot also how quickly can they come back?
21:52
Speaker 2: And So a lot of times with interns and even
21:57
Speaker 2: my first, second, third year employees, applying some of that
22:02
Speaker 2: pressure in a very forgiving environment gives them opportunity to
22:09
Speaker 2: learn how to pivot, to learn how to transition, and
22:12
Speaker 2: that in that moment, I can gauge is that individual
22:16
Speaker 2: going to be able to come back? And so I've
22:20
Speaker 2: had some interns that I've given them some pressure they've
22:25
Speaker 2: kind of fallen off the cliff and they haven't been
22:28
Speaker 2: able to come back, and that's that means I need
22:33
Speaker 2: to meet them where they're at. And maybe they're not
22:34
Speaker 2: where I need them at at that moment. And sometimes
22:37
Speaker 2: that means that we don't progress in the internship program
22:40
Speaker 2: if they're not where I need them at that point.
22:43
Speaker 2: But that's a perfect example of teaching and mentoring and
22:49
Speaker 2: giving them the opportunity to grow from that. And some
22:54
Speaker 2: people don't, you know it. It was eye opening to
23:00
Speaker 2: me within the first three or four years out of
23:01
Speaker 2: college where I met people and I realized, like, wait
23:03
Speaker 2: a minute, this person's been in the in the industry
23:07
Speaker 2: for like twenty five years and they're comfortable right here.
23:10
Speaker 2: I was like, man, I want to like pass that
23:12
Speaker 2: person in five years. One of the things I've realized, though,
23:17
Speaker 2: is some people are happy with that, and that's that's
23:20
Speaker 2: totally cool. You've got to have individuals that are comfortable
23:25
Speaker 2: and you know, we call them sm s subject matter experts,
23:30
Speaker 2: and so some people really dig deep into something and
23:33
Speaker 2: they get so good at, you know, this one thing,
23:36
Speaker 2: and they love that. I'm a little bit more of
23:38
Speaker 2: a guy where I want to get my hands on
23:40
Speaker 2: everything and and so flip it to the the other
23:44
Speaker 2: end of the spectrum. Now, when when you see pressure
23:47
Speaker 2: applied to you know, an executive, a vice president at
23:50
Speaker 2: their level, oftentimes it exposes the same things I've I've
23:56
Speaker 2: seen some execs where under pressure they respond I wanted
24:00
Speaker 2: similar to like an intern that I've had, no But
24:05
Speaker 2: on the flip side, you see some of these executives
24:09
Speaker 2: and you know, man, they've been through these seasons and
24:12
Speaker 2: they're just they're so regiment to where the pressure comes
24:17
Speaker 2: at them, and they're they're calm, cool, collected, And those
24:21
Speaker 2: are the executives that I really watch and say, Okay,
24:23
Speaker 2: I've got to get to a point where i can
24:25
Speaker 2: regulate at that level. I'm definitely not there yet. You know,
24:29
Speaker 2: I'm only ten years in the industry. I'm hoping in
24:33
Speaker 2: the next five years I can really hone that in.
24:35
Speaker 2: That's the season of life I'm in right now, is
24:38
Speaker 2: regulating so I can better manage and influence my teams.
24:43
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think that's the two spectrums of pressure
24:46
Speaker 2: and what it exposes.
24:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely agree with that. And you know, pressure
24:52
Speaker 1: reveals your identity and a business if you create one,
24:56
Speaker 1: and if you're under pressure. In your position, a lot
24:59
Speaker 1: of your personal identity is going to be exposed in
25:04
Speaker 1: moments that are high stakes, and they have a lot
25:07
Speaker 1: of pressure because you are you, no matter what business
25:11
Speaker 1: you're working in, you know, no matter what team you're on,
25:14
Speaker 1: you're going to react based on how you are feeling,
25:18
Speaker 1: what's feelings, And like you said, regulation be able to
25:21
Speaker 1: identify what feelings are fear and insecurity and anxiety, and
25:27
Speaker 1: then what feelings are you're going to be able to
25:31
Speaker 1: ignore basically to push through and be able to still achieve.
25:36
Speaker 1: But you don't want to ignore them all either, because
25:38
Speaker 1: sometimes our feelings are telling us something for a reason.
25:42
Speaker 1: And like you said, some people, no matter what season
25:45
Speaker 1: of life they're in, they're going to react the same
25:47
Speaker 1: way as you know, maybe they would react twenty twenty
25:50
Speaker 1: five years ago, where others they're able to evolve to
25:54
Speaker 1: that level of you know, just precision and absolute discipline
26:00
Speaker 1: and being so calculated and understand the entirety of the
26:05
Speaker 1: equation that they're not going to crumble under pressure or
26:09
Speaker 1: you know, being questioned. They're going to cutch out and
26:10
Speaker 1: they're going to you know, do the job that they earned.
26:13
Speaker 1: And so that's That's one of the things that I've
26:17
Speaker 1: noticed in my personal life. Usually when I'm under pressure,
26:20
Speaker 1: I grow and I when I'm under pressure, I find
26:23
Speaker 1: a way to hit that next level or hit that
26:26
Speaker 1: next gear to where because I'm so terrified of failure
26:29
Speaker 1: or not being able to perform that I will do
26:32
Speaker 1: whatever it takes, you know, to get to that next level.
26:35
Speaker 1: But even you know, even me today, I'm in my
26:37
Speaker 1: mid thirties, and I've noticed, you know, compared to ten
26:40
Speaker 1: years ago, I'm in a better place mentally, but at
26:43
Speaker 1: the same time, I have a lot more to lose today.
26:47
Speaker 1: I have a wife, I have a family. I have
26:49
Speaker 1: a you know, dog cat for a family right now
26:53
Speaker 1: in a house, and you know, if I mess up
26:55
Speaker 1: with these businesses, I could lose all of that. Whereas
27:00
Speaker 1: ten years ago, I had what was in my car,
27:02
Speaker 1: you know when I moved to Denver, and that was
27:05
Speaker 1: about it, you know, just much of an ambition. So
27:09
Speaker 1: it also depends on the season, Like you mentioned, the
27:11
Speaker 1: season that you're at in the life and the person
27:12
Speaker 1: that you're managing and understanding all the different circumstances around that.
27:16
Speaker 1: But there's some things where you know, there's there's things
27:21
Speaker 1: that you can be systematic about and there's things you
27:24
Speaker 1: can't be you know, it's more emotional, it's more relational.
27:29
Speaker 1: Have you seen where ego has been a problem, you know,
27:33
Speaker 1: preventing someone from getting a result?
27:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I can't speak too much about other industries.
27:41
Speaker 2: Construction is kind of my gig now it's probably where
27:44
Speaker 2: I'm going to retire. But construction, there is a lot
27:47
Speaker 2: of ego and you know, historically constructure construction is a
27:51
Speaker 2: male dominated environment. We've made a lot of strides in
27:56
Speaker 2: the last decade, even longer than that of you know,
28:00
Speaker 2: more of a female presence, which I think is great
28:04
Speaker 2: because it's it's adding a whole different dynamic that I
28:08
Speaker 2: think is better for the industry. But you know, we
28:11
Speaker 2: we still have those individuals and you know, myself and included,
28:16
Speaker 2: there are moments of ego where uh, you know, I'll
28:20
Speaker 2: give you an example. If we've got we've got a
28:23
Speaker 2: job situation that involves risk, uh, and it turns into
28:27
Speaker 2: a safety situation. You know, a couple of factors that
28:31
Speaker 2: are at play. There is financial impact and so generally
28:35
Speaker 2: me as a project manager, I've got to think about
28:38
Speaker 2: financial impact. That's you know, upfront foremost in my brain.
28:42
Speaker 2: But also we've got to think about the safety situation.
28:45
Speaker 2: And uh, there are occasions where you run into some
28:48
Speaker 2: guys that have a really hard time walking that line
28:51
Speaker 2: of you know, man, this is this is my job.
28:54
Speaker 2: There's not going to be any any safety issues, and
28:57
Speaker 2: they're just blowing past, uh blatantly obvious safety issues. But
29:05
Speaker 2: it's it's twofold. You know that you've got that ego
29:09
Speaker 2: in there where it's like, man, you know I've been
29:11
Speaker 2: doing this, I know what I'm doing. You get a
29:13
Speaker 2: little complacent, you almost get get blinders on because you
29:16
Speaker 2: know you've been successful. You you've not had injuries on
29:19
Speaker 2: your project, and that's where things get dangerous. Now on
29:25
Speaker 2: the flip side, you know, sometimes you get that just
29:28
Speaker 2: from just pure adrenaline, especially in our industry when it's
29:33
Speaker 2: when we're production focused. Uh, you know, there are times
29:36
Speaker 2: where you know production, production, production, and as much as
29:40
Speaker 2: anybody says safety is you know first and foremost, if
29:46
Speaker 2: you're not driving that line every day of yes, production
29:50
Speaker 2: and safety, it's not production, but safety it's and if
29:57
Speaker 2: we don't break down those silos and say these are
29:59
Speaker 2: these connected and they got to work together and really
30:02
Speaker 2: focus on the individuals that might have that inflated ego.
30:06
Speaker 2: That's when things start to go awry on a project.
30:08
Speaker 2: And so generally I use humor as a way to
30:13
Speaker 2: diffuse things, have done things. My entire life. Sometimes goes
30:18
Speaker 2: well on the job site, sometimes doesn't. But most of
30:21
Speaker 2: the time, when I run into guys that I feel like, man,
30:23
Speaker 2: there's an ego issue, I'm gonna flip it around. I'm
30:25
Speaker 2: gonna bring some humor in there. I'm gonna drop them
30:27
Speaker 2: down a level and figure out, Okay, how do we
30:29
Speaker 2: get this back in perspective and maybe drop the ego
30:34
Speaker 2: without fully deflating the head because we still need to
30:39
Speaker 2: produce and move things along. But it is a struggle
30:44
Speaker 2: in this industry. I'm sure in other industries as well.
30:48
Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure you can probably pendpoint some times
30:50
Speaker 2: you've had a little bit of ego in your career.
30:53
Speaker 1: As well as I absolutely yeah, especially in sales when
30:57
Speaker 1: you close a huge deal or you're working on a
31:00
Speaker 1: huge deal and it doesn't close, and you've already talked
31:03
Speaker 1: smack to all of your teammates because this is very competitive,
31:06
Speaker 1: It's like you want to ring, you want to ring
31:08
Speaker 1: the bell, hit the dong, whatever you want to call it.
31:10
Speaker 1: You know, put your name on the board, be able
31:12
Speaker 1: to you know, leader boards, stuff like that. And I've
31:16
Speaker 1: seen people you know, cut ethics, professionality, you know, take
31:23
Speaker 1: shortcuts to where they didn't do the full qualification discovery
31:28
Speaker 1: just to close the deal. And like that's the ultimate goal,
31:31
Speaker 1: is just to close the deal and to do the transaction.
31:33
Speaker 1: But it might not might not have even been the
31:36
Speaker 1: right product for someone, and then they end up turning,
31:38
Speaker 1: they end up canceling, they get a refund or whatever
31:40
Speaker 1: it might be. And so I think it's it kind
31:43
Speaker 1: of aligns with safety and production. Same thing with the
31:47
Speaker 1: standards and other industries, you know, like food quality versus profits,
31:52
Speaker 1: health care quality, things like that. And that's that's actually
31:57
Speaker 1: a really good segue to you know, financial controls. They happen,
32:03
Speaker 1: you know in America, especially where it's capitalism, capitalism like
32:07
Speaker 1: short term thinking versus what's ultimately going to be better
32:12
Speaker 1: In you know, twenty fifties, one hundred years, do you
32:15
Speaker 1: see where projects bleed quietly where you know, maybe they're
32:19
Speaker 1: they're planning for something short sighted or they're trying to
32:23
Speaker 1: just get the project done so they can move on
32:24
Speaker 1: to the next one. And you know, in the background
32:28
Speaker 1: they didn't do something correct, and now it's leading money
32:30
Speaker 1: because you're gonna have to go back and redo the
32:31
Speaker 1: project again. You know, break what's already been built. If
32:34
Speaker 1: it's not built. I don't have a lot of construction
32:37
Speaker 1: experience that could happen.
32:40
Speaker 2: For sure. Unfortunately, it happens more often than I would like.
32:47
Speaker 2: I think most people can say that. In the industry.
32:50
Speaker 2: You know, there's there's so many variables nowadays that come
32:53
Speaker 2: and do coming into the business, and it's it's clients
32:57
Speaker 2: from owners. You've got owners reps, You've got finance saying
33:00
Speaker 2: that they've got to work through. You've got design teams
33:03
Speaker 2: that are all under a crunch. You know, it's it's
33:06
Speaker 2: a waterfall effect starting from you know, the owners, they
33:09
Speaker 2: got to get their capital in place, they gotta get
33:11
Speaker 2: their financing, and generally that lags. And once that's in place,
33:15
Speaker 2: then you know, the engineers are said, okay, go and
33:20
Speaker 2: everybody's under a crunch. Starting with the owner financing. Everything
33:23
Speaker 2: gets delayed. So you get down to the project base
33:26
Speaker 2: where it's like execution time, it's go time. And uh,
33:31
Speaker 2: then in that moment. Everybody's in that crunch, and the
33:36
Speaker 2: last thing to to really go out the door is
33:39
Speaker 2: developing your team and your people, because ultimately you're under
33:44
Speaker 2: a crunch. You've got you've got a timeline. Oftentimes you
33:47
Speaker 2: have liquidated damages, which is, you know, a hefty bill
33:50
Speaker 2: if you don't meet your schedule. But then you're also
33:54
Speaker 2: managing the fact that you've got people, and as we
33:57
Speaker 2: talked earlier, on people is what drives what we do.
34:01
Speaker 2: And so it's this balancing act of I've got some
34:06
Speaker 2: people on a project I want to develop, but i
34:08
Speaker 2: also know we're behind schedule, and I've seen individuals that say,
34:12
Speaker 2: you know what, I don't have time to teach. That's
34:14
Speaker 2: not my job. I don't I've had people tell me that,
34:18
Speaker 2: and quite frankly, I've tried to move away from those
34:20
Speaker 2: individuals because that's just that's not the room I want
34:23
Speaker 2: to be a part of. But what happens is that
34:29
Speaker 2: there's an indirect cost for not building your people and
34:33
Speaker 2: not focusing on some of those people aspects, and the
34:37
Speaker 2: direct cost is what everybody focuses on. It's in my opinion,
34:42
Speaker 2: it's the easiest thing to focus on because the data
34:45
Speaker 2: shows it. You can look on a spreadsheet, you can
34:47
Speaker 2: see this is the quantitative information. Generally, I've I've gotten
34:54
Speaker 2: into spats with people because I focus a lot on
34:56
Speaker 2: qualitative because in my opinion, that indirect cost might bleed
35:03
Speaker 2: the project more than the direct costs. But if you're
35:07
Speaker 2: only focusing on the direct costs, oftentimes you miss what's
35:12
Speaker 2: happening behind the scenes, and that's you've got maybe a
35:15
Speaker 2: team morale issue, you've got a development issue. You know,
35:20
Speaker 2: construction is so booming right now. Every company is hiring
35:26
Speaker 2: right so if you're not developing somebody in the way
35:29
Speaker 2: that they want to be developed, there's a good chance
35:31
Speaker 2: somebody else is knocking at the door and they're going
35:33
Speaker 2: to do it for you. And I've seen it happen
35:36
Speaker 2: on my projects, and I'm been blessed enough to get
35:39
Speaker 2: to a point where I can really help them mentor
35:41
Speaker 2: that team.
35:41
Speaker 1: But that's a.
35:43
Speaker 2: Perfect example of kind of the bleed where everybody's in
35:46
Speaker 2: crunch time, everybody's hyper focused on what's the schedule, what's
35:51
Speaker 2: the data show on the spreadsheet, and they forget about
35:54
Speaker 2: the fact that man, everybody out here, they're just people
35:58
Speaker 2: and they want to go home safe. But a lot
36:02
Speaker 2: of times they just want to learn and they want
36:04
Speaker 2: to grow and they want to be part of the team,
36:07
Speaker 2: and sometimes that's missed on the project, and sometimes that's
36:10
Speaker 2: a more costly mistake in the long run than looking
36:14
Speaker 2: at what's this week's production going to look like.
36:17
Speaker 1: So, yeah, that actually leads perfectly into the next point
36:21
Speaker 1: about mentorship and legacy. When I started this podcast, it
36:27
Speaker 1: was a double meaning behind the name. Obviously personal branding
36:32
Speaker 1: for my last name, but it's also a word that
36:34
Speaker 1: means tough and hardened, you know, has gone through you know, weather,
36:38
Speaker 1: things like that, and callous mindset isn't just performance, it's
36:41
Speaker 1: multiplication through sharing a mindset, And that leads me to
36:46
Speaker 1: the next point of you know, you mentioned mentorship and
36:49
Speaker 1: leading teams. Can you tell me more about the ACE
36:51
Speaker 1: mentor program.
36:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm actually pretty agreeing to that. I just
36:57
Speaker 2: made the connection with their executive director, probably a couple
37:00
Speaker 2: of weeks ago, so I could probably give a brief overview. Actually,
37:05
Speaker 2: next week is going to be my first interaction with
37:07
Speaker 2: the group, But essentially I'm heavily involved in recruiting. I've
37:14
Speaker 2: been that way for most of my career. In construction
37:17
Speaker 2: just because I just enjoy people and I have a
37:19
Speaker 2: passion and I want to build things. I want to
37:22
Speaker 2: build buildings, but I also want to build teams and people.
37:25
Speaker 2: And we've reached a point in construction where and you've
37:30
Speaker 2: probably seen the data and you're probably seeing it a
37:32
Speaker 2: little bit inn item now with the construction boom where
37:35
Speaker 2: there's a huge suck for people and people are going
37:39
Speaker 2: to get sucked to where the volume is. And so
37:43
Speaker 2: the newest trend for construction is data centers. All these
37:46
Speaker 2: data centers are just scooping people up. And so the
37:50
Speaker 2: talk now is how do we get people back involved
37:53
Speaker 2: in the trades. And my personal opinion is that needs
37:56
Speaker 2: to start in high school. And so I do a
37:59
Speaker 2: lot of recruiting colleges. I was at U of H
38:02
Speaker 2: and Texas State last week meeting a lot of the
38:05
Speaker 2: college kids that have, you know, got their undergrad they're
38:08
Speaker 2: getting ready to enter the world. But I really said, Okay,
38:11
Speaker 2: how do I how do I get a hold of
38:13
Speaker 2: the high school kids and find the kids that maybe
38:17
Speaker 2: don't want to go to college and there's a path
38:21
Speaker 2: for them. You and I when we were when we
38:25
Speaker 2: were kind of in high school you might have been
38:27
Speaker 2: a little bit different, but for me, it was like,
38:29
Speaker 2: you go to college, that was what you do. The
38:33
Speaker 2: trades was not a thing for me. Actually, I wanted
38:37
Speaker 2: to go I wanted to be a welder, and you know,
38:39
Speaker 2: but uh, I'm not unhappy with my path. You know,
38:43
Speaker 2: I went to school, great, but there are some individuals
38:46
Speaker 2: in high school that they need to understand there's a
38:50
Speaker 2: different path. And so the ACE Mentor program is essentially
38:53
Speaker 2: an opportunity for me to get involved with the high
38:56
Speaker 2: school kids to mentor that path. And whether that path
39:00
Speaker 2: is college for them, great, but hey, let's let's show
39:03
Speaker 2: you how to get into construction through the college path.
39:07
Speaker 2: But my personal hope as well as I can really
39:10
Speaker 2: tap in and understand what kind of talent is coming
39:14
Speaker 2: out of high school. I can see the talent level,
39:19
Speaker 2: you know, the EQ, the IQ, all that stuff. I
39:21
Speaker 2: can see where they're at coming out of college. But
39:25
Speaker 2: I want to take it a step further and go, Okay,
39:27
Speaker 2: I'm going to look at this pipeline not just you know,
39:31
Speaker 2: ten years back. What am I looking at fifteen years back?
39:36
Speaker 2: What does this kid right now? What do they look like?
39:39
Speaker 2: And how am I going to be able to lead
39:40
Speaker 2: them when they're in their mid twenties. And so that's
39:45
Speaker 2: really for me personally, it's an opportunity to mentor, but
39:48
Speaker 2: it's it's an opportunity to kind of understand high schoolers
39:51
Speaker 2: because they're not like high schoolers, you know, of our generation.
39:55
Speaker 2: It's a completely different generation.
39:57
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's true, true, and I think looking further
40:02
Speaker 1: back gives you a bigger opportunity to get them when
40:06
Speaker 1: they're young enough to be still open to learning more
40:11
Speaker 1: and not already set in whatever collegees told them. Yeah,
40:16
Speaker 1: college is great and for you, and I was expected,
40:19
Speaker 1: you know, like you go, But for me, it also
40:23
Speaker 1: showed me an opportunity to learn who I was during
40:26
Speaker 1: that time. And I think if I would have been
40:29
Speaker 1: in real estate a little bit more in high school,
40:31
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have gone to college.
40:34
Speaker 1: And I don't need my degree for what I do today,
40:38
Speaker 1: and I don't remember a single job that's ever asked
40:41
Speaker 1: me for it, and so it's like I even need it,
40:44
Speaker 1: but I did because it was the growth and the
40:46
Speaker 1: learning and the leadership and everything that came with it.
40:48
Speaker 1: But I think there's just there's a different path today
40:51
Speaker 1: for for a lot of young Americans. And I think
40:54
Speaker 1: that if I was going to redo it again today,
40:55
Speaker 1: I would definitely go into the trades, or I would
40:57
Speaker 1: go into real estate right off the bat, you know,
41:00
Speaker 1: just get a license. You know, that's how it works.
41:03
Speaker 1: And so I think that when you're a leader and
41:07
Speaker 1: you have experience, and you have a certain personality type,
41:10
Speaker 1: you almost have an obligation to help other people, and
41:14
Speaker 1: if you're not, you're wasting your own talents. You know.
41:18
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, I don't know, it's just an objective way,
41:21
Speaker 1: I think, but I've always thought that way is you know,
41:23
Speaker 1: if you've walked a path, someone else walked it before you,
41:27
Speaker 1: most likely, and there was probably someone there that helped
41:29
Speaker 1: you get there at some way, even if it was
41:31
Speaker 1: just a good word of advice, support verbally, you know,
41:34
Speaker 1: whatever it was, and it doesn't take a lot. It
41:39
Speaker 1: just takes your time, you know, And I think that's
41:42
Speaker 1: it's a really admirable thing that you're doing and helping
41:44
Speaker 1: mentor and lead the next generation. You know. I've got
41:48
Speaker 1: a young sister who's looking at architecture. She's looking at
41:51
Speaker 1: college right now in different programs, and I can tell,
41:54
Speaker 1: you know, if we had if we didn't have the
41:56
Speaker 1: schools that we had out here in the programs, she's
41:59
Speaker 1: got like an advanced school that she goes and does
42:02
Speaker 1: architecture classes in high school, which we didn't have in
42:05
Speaker 1: my public school. So it's cool to see just what
42:08
Speaker 1: technology has opened for, you know, younger minds and the
42:11
Speaker 1: path that they're going to be taking. And I'm definitely
42:13
Speaker 1: on board with that. So I wanted to know next
42:17
Speaker 1: talk about an identity shift question, and it's just going
42:22
Speaker 1: to be like, maybe if you think about a moment
42:24
Speaker 1: specifically that you remember you did mention there was a
42:27
Speaker 1: phase or a time where you had some other people
42:29
Speaker 1: on your team, and you all look back to that.
42:32
Speaker 1: But if someone wants to operate on a really high level,
42:35
Speaker 1: you know, bigger projects, bigger teams, what identity shift do
42:39
Speaker 1: they need to internally make to get them there?
42:42
Speaker 2: For sure? So a word comes to mind when you
42:46
Speaker 2: say that, And so I think of redefining myself and
42:52
Speaker 2: when I when I look at my career. Funny, I
42:56
Speaker 2: was literally talking to somebody about this this morning, about
42:59
Speaker 2: how I've evaluated the seasons of my life, and I
43:05
Speaker 2: think for individuals looking to grow, you've got to get
43:08
Speaker 2: comfortable with redefining yourself. And you know, a pivotal redefining
43:13
Speaker 2: moment for me was I went from managing pools and
43:18
Speaker 2: great opportunity. Loved what I did, really enjoyed the people.
43:22
Speaker 2: But I had to redefine myself once I got into construction,
43:25
Speaker 2: and I had to relearn who I was. And I say,
43:29
Speaker 2: relearn who I was. I think we're always molding ourselves
43:32
Speaker 2: and changing, but really the redefining one is the best
43:39
Speaker 2: way to kind of level yourself up. And I always
43:43
Speaker 2: like to look at things on a multi layer. I
43:46
Speaker 2: probably overanalyzed make things more difficult than probably most my
43:50
Speaker 2: bosses have ever wanted. But I generally try to find
43:56
Speaker 2: a way of what I do now, how can it
43:58
Speaker 2: relate to somebody else and or some some other roles,
44:02
Speaker 2: some other positions, some other project. There's a connection somehow,
44:08
Speaker 2: some way, uh, you know, I use I'll use real
44:11
Speaker 2: estate as an example. It's always been on my mind
44:13
Speaker 2: that I one of these days I maybe want to
44:15
Speaker 2: tap into real estate. So you know, I've followed you
44:18
Speaker 2: for for several years. I think we met on the
44:20
Speaker 2: ski slope back at Keystone, and I knew I was
44:23
Speaker 2: like man this this guy. You know, he's got the energy.
44:28
Speaker 2: But I'm always evaluating, Okay, what are my skills right now?
44:31
Speaker 2: How can those skills parlay into real estate or how
44:34
Speaker 2: do those parlay into sales? Another thing that I've always
44:38
Speaker 2: felt like I wanted to try sales of some sort.
44:42
Speaker 2: I think I'm better at selling myself. I don't necessarily
44:45
Speaker 2: lot a product that I've ever sold, but I sell myself.
44:48
Speaker 2: I sell, you know, change orders and things like that
44:50
Speaker 2: to to clients. But that's really kind of the the
44:56
Speaker 2: grassroots of redefining an individual. Leveling yourself up. You've got
45:03
Speaker 2: to hone in those skills, You've got to improve those skills,
45:05
Speaker 2: but you've got to understand that you put yourself in
45:10
Speaker 2: your own box. And so if you create a box
45:13
Speaker 2: and you want to fit in that box, great, But
45:16
Speaker 2: if you start understanding how you can intermingle those skills
45:22
Speaker 2: across divisions, across industries, across teams, groups, any which way
45:30
Speaker 2: you want to look at it, you can redefine yourself
45:32
Speaker 2: however you want. You know, who knows, in thirty years,
45:36
Speaker 2: I might redefine myself as an entrepreneur, which is something
45:40
Speaker 2: that excites me. I'm a little risk averse, which you know,
45:44
Speaker 2: kudos to you for taking that jump, but that might
45:48
Speaker 2: be a redefining moment in my life as well, where
45:50
Speaker 2: I take some of these skills and translate them.
45:52
Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's very well said, you know, redefining yourself
45:57
Speaker 1: and wishing on boundaries that maybe you thought you had,
46:03
Speaker 1: making yourself uncomfortable in the pursuit of growth and evolution
46:08
Speaker 1: to becoming a better not not necessarily better, but a
46:11
Speaker 1: different person that has the skills that you know, maybe
46:15
Speaker 1: you didn't think you could have. Yeah. I've met a
46:18
Speaker 1: lot of people that they didn't think they would be
46:21
Speaker 1: good at something, they never tried it, and then they
46:24
Speaker 1: tried it much later in life and they're like, holy cow,
46:27
Speaker 1: I wish I would have done this twenty years ago
46:29
Speaker 1: because this is my specialty now. Yeah. And the average
46:32
Speaker 1: entrepreneur is like in their high fifties or maybe sixties,
46:36
Speaker 1: and the average millionaire is like in their fifties or sixties. Yes,
46:40
Speaker 1: and their money aside, like money is changing, you know,
46:43
Speaker 1: in our country, it's becoming worth less daily. But the
46:46
Speaker 1: fact is that you have to set yourself aside as
46:50
Speaker 1: a leader or someone who can multiply or replicate something,
46:55
Speaker 1: whether it's ideas, products, services, you know, cis, stems, operational tracts,
47:02
Speaker 1: things like that. And I think that if you do
47:05
Speaker 1: box yourself in, you for sure have an answer. You know,
47:09
Speaker 1: whether you're right or wrong, you're right right. So I
47:15
Speaker 1: think that, you know, redefinition is a really it's a
47:19
Speaker 1: really good hot word or keyword for that, and it
47:21
Speaker 1: makes sense to me. And you know, you do that
47:23
Speaker 1: through changing your habits. You do that through changing the
47:26
Speaker 1: way that you think, the way that you talk, and
47:29
Speaker 1: the way that you live. And that's been you know
47:32
Speaker 1: something for me, as I've had to realize in order
47:35
Speaker 1: to get there, I've got to first get here, you know,
47:40
Speaker 1: get where I want to go. I've got to fix
47:42
Speaker 1: You've got to get my mind and in my heart
47:43
Speaker 1: and my soul and make sure I'm right there. Then
47:46
Speaker 1: I can make incremental changes to become you know, whatever
47:50
Speaker 1: that goal is, whatever that place that you think is,
47:53
Speaker 1: you know, the success, whatever that might mean to you,
47:56
Speaker 1: because it changes and people they move the you know,
48:00
Speaker 1: once you make a field goal and the gold post
48:01
Speaker 1: move right like, they get bigger. And it's about using,
48:06
Speaker 1: like you said, what you've already experienced, the skills and
48:11
Speaker 1: the experience that you've created through maybe a small job,
48:14
Speaker 1: like my first job was pushing carts and cleaning toilets
48:17
Speaker 1: and sweeping floors at Albertines. Like it was crazy to
48:21
Speaker 1: think just two years ago. I did an evaluation of
48:25
Speaker 1: myself when I was, like over two years ago when
48:28
Speaker 1: I turned thirty, and I look back to when I
48:31
Speaker 1: was twenty, and I compared to like what I was
48:32
Speaker 1: making financially, and it was like such a big difference
48:37
Speaker 1: that it didn't seem like it made sense. And it
48:40
Speaker 1: made me question, well, how did I create this value?
48:44
Speaker 1: Like like why today am I worth thirty of what
48:47
Speaker 1: I was when I was making you know, minimum wage
48:49
Speaker 1: back in my high school years, when minimum wage is
48:52
Speaker 1: five bucks or whatever that might you know was back then.
48:54
Speaker 1: But it's through incremental changes and shifting your mindset and
48:58
Speaker 1: being open to growth. I think you're an exemplary example
49:02
Speaker 1: of that. And you know, I just want to say
49:04
Speaker 1: thanks for sharing your story today. And if anyone wants
49:08
Speaker 1: to go connect with Austin, find him on LinkedIn, you know,
49:12
Speaker 1: connect with him on socials. Do you have any any
49:16
Speaker 1: place you want to send anyone or anything like that.
49:19
Speaker 2: You check out my LinkedIn, Austin Gary, feel free to
49:22
Speaker 2: look me up. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. I generally
49:25
Speaker 2: share boring articles from the Harvard Business Review and maybe
49:30
Speaker 2: occasional commentary, but happy to connect on LinkedIn and like
49:34
Speaker 2: minded people want to share the energy bring it my way.
49:38
Speaker 1: Amazing. Well, thanks again for listening to the callous mindset
49:42
Speaker 1: and if this episode gave you clarity, perspective, or just
49:47
Speaker 1: an idea of what disciplined execution looks like in the
49:49
Speaker 1: real world, where leadership isn't theoretical, it's tested daily, keep
49:54
Speaker 1: following us. You know you can connect with Austin on LinkedIn.
49:56
Speaker 1: Like I mentioned, you can check out other mentor programs
49:59
Speaker 1: if you feel that calling where you're at. And remember
50:02
Speaker 1: pressure doesn't build character, it reveals it. Keep leading yourself,
50:05
Speaker 1: keep raising your standards, and keep choosing discipline. We'll see
50:08
Speaker 1: you next time.