Latest / The Scene Projects / Dustin Young on Resilience, Entrepreneurship, and Life Balance

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Dustin Young on Resilience, Entrepreneurship, and Life Balance · The Scene Projects

• 0:03
  Welcome in to another exciting episode of Real Biz.
• 0:06
  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is the owner and operator, founder of Raven's
• 0:12
  CFO, Dustin Young.
• 0:14
  Dustin, welcome to the show.
• 0:15
  Hey, Bubba.
• 0:16
  How's going?
• 0:17
  It's going well, man.
• 0:18
  I I appreciate you taking some time for me today.
• 0:20
  We're gonna talk about your business, but you've also got an inspiring story to share.
• 0:25
  Before we get into that, I I want you to give us a little bit of your backstory, and then
• 0:29
  we're gonna pick it up, right around the time of your diagnosis and really get into the weeds
• 0:34
  there.
• 0:35
  So, the floor is yours, sir.
• 0:37
  K.
• 0:38
  Yeah.
• 0:38
  I'm, born and raised in Texas.
• 0:41
  I like to say that.
• 0:41
  I've actually been in Arizona most of my life, but, I was in Texas until I was junior high,
• 0:48
  high school age.
• 0:50
  You know, got out of high school and went to work for for my family in construction and real
• 0:54
  estate and did that for seven or eight years.
• 0:58
  Kind of a a little bit of a wild story, like you said.
• 1:04
  I just got to this point, you know, in in my career there.
• 1:07
  I was I was managing a lot.
• 1:09
  You know, I was VP of finance, so I was managing the whole the whole accounting and
• 1:13
  finance side of things.
• 1:14
  I was also over, IT and some marketing and doing a little bit in the field as well.
• 1:19
  So I've got a lot of a lot of different experience from that.
• 1:24
  But I got to this point where, you know, just wasn't feeling anymore.
• 1:30
  Wasn't super happy.
• 1:31
  I didn't feel like I was fulfilled.
• 1:33
  And so, you know, I sat down at dinner with my brother and was like, hey.
• 1:38
  I think I gotta be done here.
• 1:40
  And, this this is in July 2024 or or the June 2024.
• 1:46
  Just to give you some some perspective, the how the timeline works here is kinda nuts.
• 1:54
  So, you know, basically quit my job, kinda get fired at the same time.
• 1:58
  He's like, hey.
• 1:58
  If you're not happy, then get the heck out of here.
• 2:00
  You know?
• 2:00
  And I'm like, alright.
• 2:01
  I guess that's what's happening.
• 2:03
  And so fast forward a couple of days.
• 2:05
  It's like my last day in the office, and I had been having these migraines.
• 2:11
  Alright?
• 2:12
  Having migraines for a couple of months.
• 2:14
  I'd gone to an emergency room.
• 2:15
  They told me just take some ibuprofen.
• 2:17
  I was like, okay.
• 2:18
  That's kinda bull crap, but whatever.
• 2:21
  Finally get to a doctor that orders an MRI for me.
• 2:24
  I get the MRI.
• 2:28
  And while I'm in the tube, the technician is like, hey.
• 2:33
  Just stay there for a minute.
• 2:36
  We're done with the scan, but I gotta call your doctor.
• 2:38
  We're seeing something.
• 2:39
  I'm like, cool.
• 2:40
  That probably isn't a real good thing.
• 2:42
  But, honestly, my my mind is just pretty calm still.
• 2:45
  And so we they they take me out of the out of the tube.
• 2:50
  You know, I'm I'm face first for those that have never done, like, a a brain scan.
• 2:55
  You're in face first.
• 2:56
  Your head is kind of strapped to the table, so you really can't move at all.
• 3:00
  They call it the football helmet.
• 3:02
  And I get out and get on the phone with the doctor.
• 3:06
  Doctor's like, hey.
• 3:07
  You need to go straight to the emergency room right now.
• 3:09
  You're gonna have brain surgery.
• 3:11
  And I was like, excuse me?
• 3:15
  And, yeah, called my wife.
• 3:18
  You can imagine how that went.
• 3:20
  I actually called my brother who I was working for, you know, that I had just basically quit
• 3:26
  working for and said, hey.
• 3:28
  I need you to take me to the hospital right now.
• 3:29
  You know, we're we were super close.
• 3:31
  He was kind of you know, he's my big bro.
• 3:35
  And, yeah, I I ended up not actually having surgery that day.
• 3:40
  I had a hard time finding the right surgeon.
• 3:42
  Had had brain surgery two weeks later, for a baseball sized tumor, right here in my right
• 3:48
  frontal lobe.
• 3:49
  You can see the scar if you're watching this.
• 3:50
  But so that's that's a lot of detail.
• 3:55
  Couple weeks after surgery, I get diagnosed with grade four terminal brain cancer, called
• 4:02
  glioblastoma.
• 4:03
  My specific one is called astrocytoma grade four.
• 4:07
  They're, essentially the same because of the severity.
• 4:12
  And went straight into chemo and radiation for six weeks every day.
• 4:20
  I had to drive into a clinic.
• 4:23
  It's, yeah.
• 4:25
  That was kind of intense.
• 4:26
  I don't know.
• 4:27
  Most people aren't familiar with the radiation process when it involves the brain, but they
• 4:32
  make this mask that it's actually molded to your face.
• 4:35
  Okay?
• 4:35
  And so they take this boiling hot plastic material, mold it over your face, which is not
• 4:42
  very comfortable, and they attach that to a table for about twenty, thirty minutes while it
• 4:49
  dries.
• 4:50
  And that's how they create the mask for you to use every day.
• 4:53
  And so I go in every day, Monday through Friday for radiation, and they they take that mask.
• 5:00
  They it's it gets, like, buttoned onto the table.
• 5:04
  You can't really swallow.
• 5:06
  You can't talk.
• 5:07
  You can't move at all.
• 5:09
  And then they just have this X-ray looking machine that kind of, you know, moves around
• 5:16
  your head every day.
• 5:17
  It was pretty difficult for the first couple of weeks and then, you know, got got used to it
• 5:23
  after that.
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  So I was pretty lucky.
• 5:24
  But, yeah, fast forward to now, I I started my own business.
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  We had a GoFundMe and everything that we had to live live off of for for months.
• 5:35
  You know?
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  We we're still we're still young kids.
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  I I probably didn't mention that I had a I think I had a I think he was six months old, my
• 5:43
  son, when when I got diagnosed.
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  He was six or seven months old, and he's now two.
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  We have made it, you know, in terms of I'm alive.
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  We are together.
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  We are doing our best.
• 5:58
  We are traveling.
• 5:58
  We're trying to have fun and make the most of our time.
• 6:01
  And, now I I specifically work with with construction companies, because that's my
• 6:08
  background and that's what I know.
• 6:10
  And so I'm I'm pretty good at being able to take accounting and take operations and align
• 6:16
  those two things and make them work together in a way that actually makes sense.
• 6:20
  Most most guys in construction just like like you were saying, Bubba, earlier, you were
• 6:25
  telling me about, you're you're you're good at what you do.
• 6:28
  Right?
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  You know, you're you're good with the music and the media, but when it comes to accounting,
• 6:33
  you're like, screw this.
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  And, construction guys are the same.
• 6:38
  You know?
• 6:39
  Every everyone's good at what they know, but the second you add on, like, oh, crap.
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  The business aspect, you know, you've got you've got freaking accounting.
• 6:47
  You've got marketing.
• 6:48
  You've got legal crap to deal with.
• 6:50
  You've got technology.
• 6:51
  You know?
• 6:52
  And then you start adding employees, and you got freaking HR to add in there.
• 6:56
  It's like, nah.
• 6:57
  I don't wanna do that.
• 6:59
  So I Yeah.
• 7:01
  What a what a journey, Dustin.
• 7:04
  It just it it's mind blowing, and I'm so happy that you are here and that we get to have this
• 7:10
  conversation.
• 7:12
  You know, for most people, starting a business is the scariest thing they've ever done,
• 7:18
  leaving their job and probably for you as well that it was the scariest thing you'd ever done
• 7:25
  until, you know, later that week.
• 7:27
  And then having to go through everything that you've been through emergency surgery, the
• 7:33
  chemo, and radiation on top of that.
• 7:36
  And, I feel like now that experience that you have and the story that you have to offer
• 7:42
  people, it it makes, like, everything that these owner operators that you're dealing with,
• 7:47
  it really puts it into perspective, like, what they're having to do.
• 7:51
  Because I know for, you know, myself and others that are business owners, it can be scary to
• 7:57
  kinda give up a little bit of control.
• 7:59
  You feel that you have to do everything.
• 8:02
  Even if you're not good at it, you feel like you just have, like, having a stranglehold on
• 8:07
  everything, and that is somehow giving up a little bit of control, you know, makes you less
• 8:13
  of a man or less of an operator.
• 8:15
  You know?
• 8:15
  And it's actually the opposite.
• 8:19
  Right?
• 8:19
  To to give up a little bit of control and to get a little bit of your time back actually can
• 8:25
  make you a much better and stronger person.
• 8:28
  Absolutely.
• 8:29
  Yeah.
• 8:30
  I mean, delegating sucks.
• 8:32
  It's so hard to do.
• 8:33
  But if you can figure it out, like, it's it's the key to to growth and scaling.
• 8:40
  What do you find, now in in your experience of actually working now for the last I would say
• 8:46
  probably the last year or less of having your business now going.
• 8:51
  Right?
• 8:51
  Like, clean bill of health was obviously the first the first thing after kind of, you know,
• 8:57
  having quit your job and working, you know, with your brother and family business.
• 9:01
  And I know that, you know, we talked, preshow that, you know, your father was in the
• 9:07
  construction trades and running this business.
• 9:09
  So, you know, really, it was you know, I don't know if it was a continuation of the family
• 9:13
  business and your dad's company with your brother or not, but what is the hardest thing
• 9:18
  in, you know, your experience dealing with operators that is kind of that barrier?
• 9:25
  What's like that first barrier with everyone to get over?
• 9:29
  I think what we just talked about, you know, your first hire.
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  Like, trying to trust people to do what you know you're really good at, like, to have them
• 9:40
  do it for you is is so scary.
• 9:44
  You know, it's if if you're running an excavation or grading company, it's not as big
• 9:49
  of a deal.
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  Right?
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  Like, or a plumbing company, and you're just hiring a part time laborer.
• 9:52
  Okay.
• 9:53
  Whatever.
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  But if you're gonna hire a a salesman, someone that's going to be talking to your customers
• 9:59
  for you, or if you're gonna be hiring an estimator, someone that's gonna be pricing and
• 10:04
  bidding and winning jobs for you, like, you're you're handing them a lot.
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  And it those things really affect your business.
• 10:13
  Right?
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  Like, one of your sales guys says something dumb to a customer and and, you know, that
• 10:22
  could really hurt your reputation or or your estimator bids a job completely wrong and end
• 10:27
  up losing a $100,000 on one job and it kind of sinks you for a little bit, like, that's a big
• 10:31
  deal.
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  And those scenarios, I think, really just run through those guys' minds.
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  Like, they don't wanna see that happen, but they also don't know how to mitigate those
• 10:43
  issues.
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  What is the one thing that you are trying to help these, you know, these owners or CEOs or,
• 10:55
  you know, founders of companies mostly that you're working with?
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  What is the one thing that you're trying to give to them?
• 11:04
  Honestly, a little more time at home and a little less stress.
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  And that is, you know, that's from your lived experience having a father that was a founder
• 11:18
  and operator in his own right and very good, I think, at what he was doing and also maybe not
• 11:27
  being the best father that he could have been because he's just not committing time to his
• 11:32
  family.
• 11:34
  Yeah.
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  I mean, it's it's a big thing for me.
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  You know?
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  I I was doing the same thing back when I was at my job, just grinding as much as I could and
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  trying to make as much money as I could, and that kind of became the priority.
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  You know?
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  And that that was a thing in my family.
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  You know?
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  And it's not not even just my family.
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  Like, I see it everywhere.
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  People prioritize making money, having nice things, and and I guess that's okay, you know,
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  for some.
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  But for me, like, it all happened so fast, but I just went full one eighty.
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  And I think there's a lot of other people that actually want that as well.
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  They just don't really know how to get it.
• 12:21
  Did that shift in mentality for you, did it come before you left the job, or did that come
• 12:29
  with the perspective of your diagnosis and and subsequent treatment?
• 12:34
  It was starting to come before I quit.
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  I realized that I was not finding fulfillment in what I was doing, and part of that was
• 12:45
  because it was taking me away from the things that I really loved, you know, being at home
• 12:50
  and and spending time with my family and making memories with them.
• 12:54
  And, yeah, like, it it started.
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  But as soon as that diagnosis hit and I had surgery, it was just that was all I could think
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  about.
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  You know, there there there was nothing that was more important.
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  So I I had no choice but to just figure that out.
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  No.
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  The the perspective gained from seeing the maybe not the light at the end of the tunnel,
• 13:23
  but realizing that you are headlong in the tunnel right now and fighting for your life in
• 13:29
  so many ways.
• 13:31
  Anyone who receives that cancer diagnosis or or any real, you know, major, you know, health
• 13:37
  diagnosis that that puts the end much closer than the beginning and that the perspective
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  change is massive.
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  And I know that that has to help you in your daily, you know, working with these these
• 13:54
  founders now, of going, look.
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  I'm not just telling you these things.
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  I have been there.
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  I have I I am telling you that you're going to, in those moments, you're gonna wish that you
• 14:06
  spent more time at your kids' ball games or playing Barbies with your daughter or, you
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  know, because you don't get that time back.
• 14:14
  There's always more money to be made.
• 14:16
  There there's always another, problem to solve in the world.
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  But the problems at home, that maybe you can avoid and having been a child of a founder, I
• 14:28
  think, gives you a a unique perspective as well.
• 14:31
  But even that didn't stop you from running headlong into the same, you know, the same
• 14:39
  trouble.
• 14:39
  Right?
• 14:42
  Yeah.
• 14:44
  Like you said, it it it really is the only thing you can't give it.
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  And and there's guys that will come to me that wanna work with me, but if they are the type
• 14:55
  that just prioritizes money over everything else, I typically don't work with them.
• 14:59
  You know?
• 14:59
  Because I've gotta be able to still find fulfillment in what I'm doing, like, as in
• 15:06
  helping them do that thing as well, if that makes sense.
• 15:10
  And so a lot of times, there's not alignment there.
• 15:14
  You know?
• 15:15
  These some some people just wanna go make millions and millions of dollars, and that's
• 15:19
  great.
• 15:19
  Go make all the money.
• 15:20
  You know?
• 15:20
  I'm gonna help you do that too.
• 15:23
  But I really want people that that have something that they care about that's greater
• 15:29
  than than the money, really, which sounds ridiculous coming from a finance guy.
• 15:33
  You know?
• 15:34
  You'd expect me to just be talking numbers here, but it's just not how it goes.
• 15:38
  You there's so many other things that are involved, and I actually think the relationship
• 15:44
  there if if things are going better at home, they're probably going better at work.
• 15:49
  You're probably making more money.
• 15:51
  But if you're making a bunch of money and you're not you know, your relationships at home
• 15:56
  aren't good, then I think it just falls apart a lot easier.
• 16:00
  And so I I try to keep you know, a lot of people say there's no balance, and I get that.
• 16:04
  Like, it is that is a tough thing.
• 16:06
  Like, I'm not saying that there's a perfect balance between home and work.
• 16:13
  But there is attention to be given to both.
• 16:18
  And I think there is a right amount of attention to be given to both.
• 16:21
  And you can overdo it in one area and underdo it in the other.
• 16:26
  So that's that's some of the things we try to figure out.
• 16:29
  You know, as as I'm working with these guys, it's actually where I start.
• 16:34
  Where do you wanna be in ten years?
• 16:35
  You know?
• 16:36
  How much time do wanna spend with your family in ten years so that we can set this business
• 16:40
  up now so you can still be doing that instead of instead of, oh, well, I wanna make
• 16:48
  $30,000,000 in ten years.
• 16:49
  I'm like, okay.
• 16:50
  Cool.
• 16:52
  How does everything else fit into that?
• 16:54
  You know, we we kinda reverse engineer.
• 16:58
  Yeah.
• 16:58
  You're you're almost more executive life coach than than, than finance guy at times.
• 17:07
  And I think for you working with newer founders, it's nice to build that foundation of
• 17:14
  that to say, look.
• 17:15
  It's very easy to come in, and you're gonna listen to all the business coaches that, you
• 17:21
  know, tell you to grind, grind, grind, and you have to be maniacal about the business and
• 17:29
  sell, sell, sell, and, you know, just like all the very stereotypical kind of, you know, sales
• 17:36
  and and marketing ploys that you can get.
• 17:39
  But very few people talk about the sacrifices that you're going to make in your family and
• 17:45
  personal life to get there.
• 17:47
  And I'm not saying that you gotta be out with your friends every weekend or that you need to
• 17:51
  be taking vacations with the kids, once a month, but you do need to prioritize that time
• 17:58
  even if it's down to a daily regimen of, you know, making sure that you are, you know,
• 18:03
  tucking the kids in at night.
• 18:05
  And those moments, while they may not be a huge part of your day, you have to realize how much
• 18:13
  it is a part of their day.
• 18:15
  And and and missing those moments that you're going to, you're going to miss those big parts
• 18:21
  of your kid's life.
• 18:22
  And maybe it's not birthday parties and and, you know, big championship ball games.
• 18:29
  You can miss a few of those things, But it's really those early years that you're spending
• 18:35
  and that time that you're spending.
• 18:37
  Maybe it's taking those fifteen minutes of your morning and prioritizing taking the kids to
• 18:42
  school and dropping them off or picking them up from school that become more important and
• 18:48
  having those nonnegotiables rather than a a dollar amount or, you know, business meeting
• 18:55
  that you're prioritizing over that.
• 18:58
  Absolutely.
• 18:58
  Yeah.
• 18:59
  I mean, I'm definitely not saying, you know, spend five hours a day with your kid and try
• 19:04
  and try and work a little bit and build a business.
• 19:07
  Like, that's not gonna work.
• 19:08
  Right?
• 19:08
  There is grind.
• 19:10
  Definitely have to grind to to get it to happen.
• 19:13
  And, yeah, you you hit the nail on the head, you know, even if it's just fifteen minutes.
• 19:19
  And those first few years of their lives are what's most important.
• 19:22
  I missed I missed basically the first year of my son's life, you know, from from working the
• 19:31
  first six or seven months to being down from from brain surgery for a little bit after that.
• 19:36
  You know?
• 19:38
  But even then, after brain surgery, I was at least home.
• 19:40
  Right?
• 19:41
  Like, I I was home.
• 19:42
  I could see him.
• 19:43
  I could hug him and and talk to him.
• 19:44
  And, but when I'm at work, I just can't.
• 19:49
  And so just fitting in a little bit of time.
• 19:54
  When when I was in when I was in high school, this is kind of a funny story, and my parents
• 20:01
  may listen to this, but I was I was actually known as the kid with no parents.
• 20:06
  And part of me took a little pride in that because I could just do whatever I wanted.
• 20:11
  You know?
• 20:11
  And that was I had a lot of fun as a kid.
• 20:14
  I never did anything really dumb or stupid.
• 20:16
  But at the same time, I don't actually want that for my kids.
• 20:22
  You know?
• 20:22
  And I I don't know if I'll be here for when they're that age or not.
• 20:27
  I was the doctors originally told me I'd I'd live for twelve to eighteen months.
• 20:31
  I actually just hit 18 months, like, three days ago.
• 20:34
  And I'm I feel great right now.
• 20:36
  So Yeah.
• 20:37
  You're beating the odds already, Dustin.
• 20:39
  I'm I'm beating it, but at the same time, like, we have no idea.
• 20:42
  Right?
• 20:44
  And so but whether whether it's me or someone else, whatever, not the point of the story, I
• 20:50
  just don't I don't want that for my kids.
• 20:52
  And if I could go back in time, I would try harder to have been there for the first year of
• 20:59
  my son's life because I think that's just something such an important bonding time to
• 21:04
  have with them even if they're not gonna be able to recall those memories down the road.
• 21:09
  No doubt that they mean something.
• 21:12
  And I know a lot of us think that, oh, well, you know, we have them for eighteen years.
• 21:17
  You really don't.
• 21:17
  You maybe have them for ten.
• 21:19
  You know, you maybe have them for twelve, 13, fourteen.
• 21:23
  By the time they're teenagers, and I'm dealing with that now because my boy just turned 13, is
• 21:28
  that, they kind of you know, they're not fully fledged, but they are to a lot of degree, like,
• 21:35
  who they're going to be moving forward.
• 21:38
  And those teenage years, they're going to desire more freedom, and they're not going to
• 21:43
  want you around.
• 21:44
  So, especially people with young children, carving out little bits of time for them.
• 21:50
  And my kid I mean, I I'm the last person to criticize someone for grinding.
• 21:54
  I I work twelve, eighteen hour days sometimes.
• 21:57
  Right?
• 21:57
  Yeah.
• 21:57
  I'm out in my studio a lot, but I carve out that, you know, ten minutes in the morning.
• 22:03
  We're very lucky that, you know, we live very close to our school, small town.
• 22:06
  I get to walk them to school, and I get to walk them home.
• 22:09
  Their mother works at the school, so we're very fortunate that we get to spend a lot of time.
• 22:14
  But that was I didn't get to do that while I was working at the factory.
• 22:18
  Right?
• 22:19
  Like, I wasn't getting to do I wasn't there when they went to school.
• 22:22
  I was already gone.
• 22:23
  And and and when they came home, they were already here as well.
• 22:27
  And it was it was something that I was missing.
• 22:31
  And it was worth taking the pay cut to build something on our own so that I could be
• 22:39
  available to do those things and maybe living on less for a few years while we did build it.
• 22:45
  Now there was also an, you know, supernatural confidence in me that, like, I was going to
• 22:50
  build this business into something.
• 22:52
  I I don't know many people that, you know, quit quit the guaranteed, income, to be a podcaster.
• 22:59
  I I always had a much larger much larger vision of what this podcast and this network and
• 23:04
  everything was.
• 23:06
  In a lot of ways, you know, Dustin, two years ago when I quit my job, I saw these
• 23:10
  conversations happening.
• 23:12
  Right?
• 23:12
  I was having conversations like this with people.
• 23:15
  They just weren't on camera.
• 23:16
  And and I've realized now after, you know, 500 plus interviews or whatever it is now, I've
• 23:23
  never kept track, because it doesn't really matter.
• 23:27
  It's the impact that these conversations have had on my life, on my, you know, guests' lives,
• 23:34
  and then subsequently on all the people that get to listen to these.
• 23:39
  And that to me and the impact that it's going to have on my children's lives because dad's
• 23:43
  around a little bit more.
• 23:44
  And when he's home, he's a lot more present.
• 23:47
  And when I'm spending that time, I'm with them, mentally and physically and emotionally instead
• 23:54
  of kinda being checked out.
• 23:56
  And I I think that's what's important.
• 23:58
  It's not necessarily always the amount of time, but it's how invested you are into that time
• 24:06
  that you're spending as well.
• 24:08
  Yeah.
• 24:09
  Quality over quantity, man.
• 24:11
  That same concept applies pretty much everywhere in life and and in business.
• 24:15
  You know?
• 24:18
  Get picky with your clients if if you can and if you want to.
• 24:21
  Right?
• 24:21
  Like, if that makes sense.
• 24:22
  If you're not in the volume game, then consider yourself lucky because you can weed out the the
• 24:28
  customers that that you don't wanna be spending time with, that you want don't wanna surround
• 24:34
  yourself with.
• 24:35
  Spend more quality time with your kids.
• 24:37
  Yeah.
• 24:37
  I mean and there are days where where I do the same thing.
• 24:41
  You know?
• 24:42
  I I can't say I have as much energy as I used to, but if I go work a twelve hour day right
• 24:48
  now, I come home and I'm I'm dead.
• 24:50
  You know?
• 24:50
  I'm drained.
• 24:51
  And so there's definitely days where I'm not spending quality time with them.
• 24:56
  And it's just something that I'm continually trying to to get better at.
• 24:59
  That's all we can ask for.
• 25:00
  Right?
• 25:03
  Dustin, what's the most important thing that you would like people to get out of, you know,
• 25:09
  this conversation, out of working with you?
• 25:11
  What's your most important piece of advice having lived through what you have and moving
• 25:17
  forward?
• 25:18
  You know, be this a a legacy.
• 25:20
  You know, you're on borrowed time essentially at this point.
• 25:24
  Right?
• 25:24
  What's one piece of advice that you'd either like to leave for not just our listeners, but
• 25:29
  maybe your children as they listen to this in the future?
• 25:32
  Yeah.
• 25:34
  Honestly, don't wait to make change.
• 25:38
  If there's change you know that needs to happen, just get it done.
• 25:44
  The longer you wait, you really just don't know what's gonna happen in the future.
• 25:49
  I I it's funny because I listened to a podcast years ago.
• 25:57
  I don't remember who it was.
• 25:59
  I don't remember the exact person they were talking about, but it was about a police
• 26:02
  officer that kept saying, you know, once I retire from from being a cop, I'm gonna take
• 26:09
  this vacation with my family.
• 26:11
  You know?
• 26:12
  You can guess how that story went.
• 26:14
  Cop retires, dies within, like, a week, never gets to take that vacation, never gets to do
• 26:19
  anything with his retirement because they just put it off.
• 26:24
  And that's that's my advice for for anyone listening, you know, be it people in in the
• 26:32
  music industry or in just business or wherever you are in life.
• 26:39
  If you know there's change that needs to be made, just don't don't wait to do it.
• 26:44
  Whatever's in the way, figure it out.
• 26:47
  Make it now.
• 26:48
  If you know you need to be spending more time with your kids, figure it out now.
• 26:53
  You don't know what could happen to them.
• 26:55
  You don't know what could happen to you.
• 26:58
  That's that's it.
• 27:01
  Dustin, where can people get ahold of you to work with you and, you know, follow your
• 27:06
  journey as well?
• 27:08
  And, I just I I really appreciative of your time today.
• 27:13
  So go ahead and share whatever you need to and plug the business, and and I'll let you get out
• 27:18
  of here.
• 27:18
  Yeah.
• 27:19
  My website, ravencfo.com.
• 27:22
  If you are a construction business owner doing about 3 to $40,000,000 in annual revenue and
• 27:30
  and, you know, might have some issues with cash flow or profitability, or just need additional
• 27:35
  help on the finance and ops side, check out my website, ravencfo.com.
• 27:40
  You can also you can connect with me on LinkedIn as well.
• 27:43
  Dustin Young on LinkedIn.
• 27:46
  Dustin, I'm so glad that we got to take some time today.
• 27:49
  I was completely moved by your story when we got to chat, you know, off camera.
• 27:55
  And I I thought it was important to, at the very least, to make a little archive, for your
• 28:01
  for your children in the event that you aren't here in the future.
• 28:05
  Now I hope that you are, and I hope that the clean bill of health, is coming your way one
• 28:11
  day.
• 28:11
  I I know that it's it's a daily battle, I'm sure.
• 28:15
  But I think that you're inspiring.
• 28:17
  I think that you can inspire not just business owners, but anyone who's listening that feels
• 28:23
  overwhelmed and and anxious about their own futures, I think you've done a lot and brought
• 28:29
  a lot of value, not just to them, but also to me as well.
• 28:32
  So thank you for taking some time to be on RealBiz today, and thank you for being part of
• 28:37
  the scene.
• 28:39
  Thanks, Bubba.
• 28:39
  So good to be here.
• 28:41
  Good to good to talk to the audience.
• 28:43
  And, you know, I'm not I just wanna leave one last little thing if that's okay.
• 28:48
  I'm no expert speaker.
• 28:50
  Everyone here probably knows that.
• 28:53
  But, hopefully, you know, the things that I can share, can at least be of of benefit regardless
• 28:59
  regardless of that.