Ty Cobb Backer: 0:00

Oh, we're live. Welcome back everybody to episode 258, behind the Tool Belt. Thank you for joining us on this morning edition. Today we have another awesome I'm going to consider Chris co-host this morning on Behind the Tool Belt, episode 258, stay tuned. We will be back after our short intro from our sponsors. Welcome to Behind the Toolbelt. Tc Backer TC Backer.

Speaker 2: 0:46

Welcome to Behind the Tool Belt, where the stories are bold, the conversations are real and the insights come to you live, raw and uncut. Every week, host Ty Cobb Backer sits down with game changers, trailblazers and industry leaders who aren't afraid to tell it like it is no filters, no scripts, scripts, just the truth.

Speaker 3: 1:09

please welcome your host of behind the tool belt, ty cobb backer the fifth annual 21 turkey salute took place in the heart of downtown york. Volunteers and businesses got to work at seven this morning, aiming to feed close to 1,000 people. South Penn Street closes down from West Market Street to Mason Avenue. There's a tent for cooking and tables for serving and seating. 21 Turkey Salute was started in 2020. Tc Backer Construction was deemed an essential business and allowed to stay open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:42

We felt like we needed to give back. There was a lot of food insecurity going on at the time in York County.

Speaker 3: 1:49

Every year, the goal is to feed more people at this event. This year, 25 turkeys are being deep fried at one time. They started with 21 fryers and added one more every year. That makes for a grand total of 100 turkeys for people to gratefully gobble up.

Ty Cobb Backer: 2:06

We're going to have Thanksgiving dinner and we almost never get to get.

Speaker 3: 2:10

Thanksgiving dinner. It's an annual event of giving thanks and giving those in need something to be thankful for.

Ty Cobb Backer: 2:19

And we're back. You did a good job on that, buddy. Yeah, that was good, and we're back. You did a good job on that, buddy. Yeah, that was good. God, that was so good. Oh shit, that was good. If I had ever forgotten why we did that. Yeah, oh shit, fuck Chris.

Chris Baker: 2:55

Shoot. That was good. That's that was about, bro. Um, I, I have I'm having trouble putting it in words um, we get to experience this every year. Um, you know, through the hustle and bustle and all that kind of stuff, and, yeah, in the back of our minds you know, through the hustle and bustle and all that kind of stuff, and, yeah, in the back of our minds, you know we, we understand why we do this and and we understand the impact that we have.

Chris Baker: 3:11

But even even all of us that have been doing this for so long, man like I, still don't really think that we grasp the importance of this and the impact that we have, not only on the people that unfortunately don't get to have Thanksgiving some years, the people that you know are forced to sleep outside in this weather, the you know all the ways that you know someone can be impacted, that this could help.

Chris Baker: 3:35

But if you also look at the other side of it, you know the people on our team, our families, the people that we do business with that come down and support us, their kids that they bring like the impact that that has. Man, you know, I know I seen all the kids on there. Everyone has their kids down there and, like everyone is, is, you know, just they want to help. You know what I mean, and this is something that that our kids are not going to forget. And you know, ty, I know a big reason that you do this stuff is because of your mom. You know we could be having generational impact on our kids. You know our kids could be growing up and seeing the stuff that we do and you know they want to carry the torch too. So, like this could be having generational impact even within our team and the people that support us.

Ty Cobb Backer: 4:29

Yeah, no, it's so good. Chris, you're right, absolutely. You know, the first year that we did it, you know I, I know we knew we made an impact, but until Vic actually captivated it and gave us the thousand foot view because we're in the trenches, you know, just getting it done, pulling it off, putting it together, that content is invaluable. I mean, we can't, we couldn't put a monetary value on the content that Vic just shared with us. Really, I think, put it, not that it hasn't been in perspective, but that really just put it into perspective. And I thought, you know, even if there's a few of us that may not see eye to eye over the course of the 12 months at work, right, where, where we had our differences or disagreements or agreed to disagrees, whatever, whatever the case might be, but at that moment where we pulled together and I was looking at a man and I didn't see anybody in that content, where it was like man, you know. Okay, I'm just going to use this as an example, chris, I know we don't talk or hang out like we, like we used to, but at that moment that brought the entire team together. A lot of us that don't co-mingle work side by side with each other. You know, on a day to day, because of the expansion and growth of the company, we all have our roles that we have to play. Because of that, because of that role, right, we're able to perform that where you know, we get together that one day, the day before Thanksgiving every year, and pull that off where you know, I see you and I see what you're doing and I know the impact that you're having on the company as a whole. I see Amanda, I see Tam, I see Lauren, you know, but because of everybody doing their part and it's just an example of everybody doing their part, like Amanda, she documented every single thing during, during the process of, of hosting a 21 Turkey salute. So now we have an SOP for that, right? So then it, you know, unless if any of us were here next year, it will happen, it's going to happen. She documented it. But, man, I don't even know what the hell I'm trying to say, just the.

Ty Cobb Backer: 6:43

It took all of us to do that and I was like it was our vision, right, and I don't know if we knew what it exactly looked like at the time. We just knew we wanted to feed people during, you know, a crisis. There was a crisis. We're in the midst of a crisis and, you know, for us to remove ourself from self and pour into other people. That's how we got through that. If anyone ever wanted to know, like, how did you guys get through? You know, the pandemic and supply shortages and price increases and all those things, that's how we did it. We won.

Ty Cobb Backer: 7:14

First and foremost, we unified as a team. We didn't think of ourselves. We poured into other people for that entire year and have sensed that and poured into each other and lifted each other up and, you know, selfishly, it has helped our fellowship, our culture, our camaraderie to levels that I don't think anyone could ever fathom, unless you actually got to experience the 21 Turkey Salute. I was going to add an F-bomb in there because it was amazing. I wanted to emphasize yeah, you know, the 21 turkey salute is has impacted me um more probably than the people that we've impacted. Just like when we went to uganda. Everybody's like, oh, thank you for coming. It's like, no, thank you for allowing us to come and do something like this. And and same for the 21 turkey. Like, thank you, york county, for allowing us to do something like this. Because, whether they know it or not, it has impacted us as much, if not more, as people. And then that poor, sweet little girl during that interview, you know, she looked at her mom, where she, I think she knew at that moment she kind of stepped on her toe, her own foot, when she said we don't get to have Thanksgiving dinner very often. You know, I don't know how that, but of course we were able to offer that for them and looking forward to doing it again at a much higher level next year, whether it's two locations, I'm pretty sure that's what we're going to try to pursue that and have affect the east side and the west side and stuff like that. So you know, I guess that's what this is all about.

Ty Cobb Backer: 8:52

You know, and this is how the Behind the Tool Belt got started. Right, it was our way of reaching out to the community, letting them know you know what community event you know that we had coming up, and now it's turned into this where not only are we impacting our community, local communities, but we're impacting communities across the country now Our industry, distribution, manufacturing. I mean we talk about this all the time. We've had people on here from GAF to Certainty, to local contractors, to contractors across the country. It has just gone to leaps and bounds, man.

Ty Cobb Backer: 9:30

So, chris, thank you. I know I don't tell you enough. Thank you for everything. I'll give you some public notoriety. Without you this couldn't happen. Whether you're on the show or not, you're one of the founding, one of the founding members of behind the tool belt and uh, 21 turkey salute and uh, because of what you do on a day-to-day basis, we're working, we're able to continue to carry this torch across the freaking country. Now you know the world. Here I am in st martin today unplugging, unwinding a little bit because of the hard work that you put in, and hopefully I've reciprocated that to you and everyone else at tc baxter to allow them to get some time off. Unplug, um have, have a life. Um, not necessarily all the time beyond your wildest dreams, but um just to provide a good, wholesome um life for everybody there, and you've played a big, huge part in watching people create families, buy homes, cars, houses, um, you know just you know making the dream big enough for their dreams to fit in yeah I I got a lot to follow up on there.

Chris Baker: 10:44

I mean, you just, you just said a lot of really really good stuff. First, thank you. Um, I, uh it's, it's been a hell of a ride, man. Um, it's been a hell of a ride. I have, um, I've been by your side for quite some time here. Um, we've gone through some victories. We've gone through some um learn learning, lessons learned um, and and I was going to say failures, but it's not a failure. Um, you know, we've learned a lot, we've grown a lot um, and we've done some dude, we've done some really really cool um stuff that, um, you know is is gonna have permanent impacts on both of our lives, our, our family's lives, uh, the people that are around us, the that surround themselves with us, um, it's, it's been a heck of a ride, man, and, like, I'm super excited to see exactly where this is going to go.

Chris Baker: 11:41

Um, this, this isn't just this, isn't just a job, man, you know we, you, you touched on, you know the, the camaraderie and bringing people together and like throughout the year, yeah, sometimes people don't see eye to eye and it's not like a dislike or anything like that, but, like you know, work happens, man, you know, and anyone, anyone watching this, whether you're live watching right now or you're watching on the replay I know a lot of people in the industry watch this. It is no secret in the construction industry that it is usually the field guys versus the office guys. Those are two different worlds. Those are two completely different worlds. Ty me and you are one of the few fortunate people that have gotten to experience both sides of that fence. So we have empathy for the field guys. We understand what's going on. I also have empathy for the office people, as do you. We know what goes on behind the scenes, what it takes to actually run this beast, man, there's a lot of stuff that people don't always see eye to eye for. But, like you said, man, when we do these events, that doesn't matter. Like all egos are aside, everyone comes together and it is a very healthy family atmosphere. Man, everyone, everyone just has so much love for each other. We pull off some pretty epic shit. Everyone just has so much love for each other. We pull off some pretty epic shit. It is really, really cool and, you know, it gives an opportunity for people that don't get to see each other every day. You know what I mean. It's very rarely do I get to see, you know, a lot of the field guys. It's very rarely that a lot of the field guys get to get to see you or get to see Sammy or Lauren, or you know what I mean. Like everyone wants to come together and do that stuff. We get to bring our kids, people bring their wives or girlfriends. We have all of our, you know, mark Jones. Mark Jones brings his family. He's a, he's been a big supporter. We have all the, all the local people that that do business with us, that support us in any way, shape or form, usually try to stop out, um, help out, and you know the the, the part of that interview where that little girl um, that that is why we do this man.

Chris Baker: 14:05

I have some stats up on my screen here that I wanted to read to people about hunger in the United States and how real this actually is. Since 2023, it's been an average of 13.5% of US households are food insecure. That translates to 18 million homes in the United States are food insecure and basically what that means is food isn't guaranteed every day. It's not guaranteed that you're going to get three square meals a day. There's a lot of people out there in our country. This is the land of the free, this is the land of opportunity. But just like anywhere else, man, we have people in here that you know. There's people that are getting up right now going to work, that they don't know how they're going to feed their kids tonight. That is real life. It's one in four, one in three households of single parents. Um, don't have guaranteed food. Which, dude, that's a huge number, man, that's a huge number.

Chris Baker: 15:15

So, to to see to, to hear that from that little girl, like you know, I I was taking a moment when we were under the tent and um, the and the kids that come in, they always end up taking over that pie station. You know what I mean. They're always handing out the pies and like, their energy is just great. Everyone smiles and like, and the people coming through the line love to get the pies from the kids because the kids are all happy and excited and you know, every person that went through that line had a smile on their face and, and you know we talked about this on on the day of the turkey salute. You know, for all. We know, man, like that, that moment, right, there could be the only time that they're going to smile this year. You know what I mean. Like that, it, it, it is, it is a true moment of happiness. Um, that's what. That's what this is about.

Chris Baker: 16:06

Um and I, I it's it's hard to put it in words um, how it makes me feel Um, I just love being a part of it. I love, I love that. You know the universe has brought me and you together. Um has allowed me to um be a part of this. Um, right, wrong or indifferent, no matter what the hell we go through, you know, throughout the year with business, um, I know that you got my back. I know that you got all of our backs, um, and I know that all the people that surround me every day have my back, have your back.

Chris Baker: 16:41

Um, and that's that's what it's about. Man, um, we, we could, you know we could easily be those people that you know. Just, uh, come to work, collect our paycheck, go home and not share the wealth with the, with the community. But I truly, truly, truly believe in karma. I believe in um making those those positive um deposits into the bank and, dude, we make a ton of them. Um as a company and, um, I truly believe that that has been one of the underlying reasons as to our success. You know what I mean? Because, because we are so quick just to give that shit away.

Ty Cobb Backer: 17:23

Totally, totally makes sense, man. You got to give it away to keep it, you know, and that's whether it's knowledge, whether that's success, whether that's allowing others to participate in the success. And you know, we measure success a little bit differently and that's based upon the impact that you know, the lives that we impact is how we measure our success on a day-to-day basis. And when you were talking, chris, I thought how cool is it to come up with some wild ideas and bring a lot of cool people with us to have impact on our community, and how fun that has actually been. And nobody said that we couldn't do the things that we're doing. It just we were crazy enough to come up with a, with a badass idea, ideas. You know that we do. We do multiple things throughout the course of the year and it's we we get to bring. You know, even even the beginning of tc backer, when, when we, when we founded it, uh, july, july 17, 2008 um, you know, I had no idea the impact that we were going to have. Fortunately, it was more about everyone else that decided to come with me and everybody else that we did work for, more so than me worrying about. It was just crazy, crazy times back then it was, you know, I was. I was more concerned. I wasn't even worried about if I was going to lose my house or or anything like that. I think, like you said, karma plays a big part in a lot of this and in the universe, the energy uh in in the universe, like if you know, the more that you give, uh, the more it gives to you. And I remember most of my worries over the years has been how are we going to get all of this work done? Not necessarily, you know, how are we going to pay the bills and and how am I going to get paid? It was always, it was always oh man, like we got so much work. Like what? How are we? How are we going to get all this stuff done, which is a lot better than laying in bed worrying about and don't get me wrong, we've had financial struggles. What business doesn't, what household doesn't at times overextend themselves? Uh, gamble on a venture that that may or may not pay off, you know, whatever the case might be, but but the universe has, has always blessed us and those that came through TC backer most stay. Thank God for that, um, that come through. But if, if you don't stay. I know they leave different people, um, and do tend to leave, tend to come back at times or want to come back, you know, and sometimes we have room for them, sometimes we don't have room for them to come back, but it's just that's.

Ty Cobb Backer: 20:14

If anyone ever questioned success, like, why aren't I successful, I think a lot of it has to do with mindset. Has it always been about me, me, me, me, I, I, I. How can I help? Where am I needed? Not necessarily, what am I taking off the table, but it's necessary about what am I bringing and putting on the table? What am I giving? How am I helping out? Where can I lend a hand? It's shit and sometimes just listening to somebody you know, and having empathy and putting yourself.

Ty Cobb Backer: 20:53

And fortunately, like you said, chris, we've been on both sides of of the construction spectrum. We've been out in the field, we've been in the office, we've been down and out, we've we've lived our best lives ever and have lost it and it has been given back. And you know we've, we've been able to. And I think, until you've had enough learning lessons, like you had mentioned, you know, when you've had enough setbacks not necessarily failures I think that's when true success happens, if you can grind through those down times and keep your head high and and ask yourself the question why is this happening for me?

Ty Cobb Backer: 21:35

And not necessarily woe is me. Why is this happening to me? I think, if you can keep a positive, open mind and look at any situation we just had a situation not that long ago come up and what it created was it created another process, right? Somebody came into my office or like, hey, this happened, okay, cool, I think they were expecting a different reaction. I was like, okay, the first thing that came out of my mouth was is why, why? Okay, why did this happen for us? I started thinking. I was like, all right, well, there's definitely something that we need to change here and now, unfortunately, we've got put in the work.

Ty Cobb Backer: 22:13

Fortunately, we have to put in the work to create an SOP, another process, and SSOP are standards, systems, operational processes is what I call it. I came up with that a couple of weeks ago an SSOP because standards, standards. We have to set the standard right, we have to set the mindset, we have to set the tempo, we have to set, you know, all of the bar, the bar and, every now and then the bar, that bar up there. Sometimes that bar needs to be raised a little higher. You know, as time goes on and our mindsets have to shift and positions change, and it creates and this is what's so crazy about it all it's like it has impacted everyone positively. Maybe at the moment they don't realize it, but as time goes on it created another opportunity, another position, another SOP, another process that has made the quality of our lives, the quality of the business, by continuously just trying to do the next right thing and looking for the silver lining in any and all situations that might happen to us.

Ty Cobb Backer: 23:24

I don't know why I went down that little rabbit hole, but you know I, just after watching that video, you know that got started because of a bad situation. Okay, the 21 turkey was created due to a bad situation that happened for us and has created opportunities for and for people. I mean, okay, amanda is now our events coordinator. We didn't know five years ago that when we started the 21 Turkey Salute, that we were going to need an events coordinator, right, right, I think. To sum it up, that was my point. Like all of these things, right, like why did the pandemic happen for us? I mean I could go on. Just that could be a whole nother podcast on the, the financial, uh, eye openers, the man, I mean just so many things that that you know that's why that happened for us, the things that we learned through that, what we do business a different way now, because of that, yeah, totally, completely, like.

Chris Baker: 24:34

Everything about this business is different based on that situation and we, we won't be affected by it ever again no, not in that way, nope no, shut the shit down.

Chris Baker: 24:50

But you can't shut this shit down. You know what I mean. Like this, yeah, it's um, it's benefited, like said man, it's benefited us in so many different ways where, you know, we've had aha moments and you know it. We didn't even realize that we were doing it, we didn't even realize that you know the, the moves that we were making and how it was going to benefit us, until you know, now we're ahead of the, we're ahead of the curve.

Chris Baker: 25:16

Now you know what I mean. Like we, we act, um, and we plan out and and are prepared for these things If anything were to happen. You know what I mean. We, we, the meetings that we have, the, the, the committees that we formed and everything inside this company, and even something as simple as you know, an events coordinator. Like we, we've we've grown and we've learned through all these things and we've developed processes and we have protocols in place to make sure that it doesn't. It doesn't matter what's thrown at us. If we do our jobs and we show up and we come here and do it for the right reasons, we're not going to be affected by this stuff.

Ty Cobb Backer: 25:57

We're going to continue to grow from it for sure, definitely, there's always something to be learned in any and all, even in good times. Right, we can't become complacent, and I think with with these events that have happened in our lives even before. Five years ago, we've been able to monitor the good times and the bad times Like. What have we learned from these good times? How can we continue to keep the good times coming? How can we avoid something bad happening in the future? By trying to stay five, at least five steps ahead, and how is this going to affect us?

Ty Cobb Backer: 26:38

You know, three months from now, three years from now, and when you get an amazing group of individuals together, like-minded, in the same room, together, like you were talking about committees and stuff like that, we have an events committee. We have each department has, you know, their own meetings, weekly, sometimes daily, and and to keep the vision, you know, and empowering people to allow them to, to, to have or create positions, have their own meetings and things like that, and not be held back. You know, from the ideas, the creativity that comes from allowing people to do things like that and forming groups, friendships. You know, like you said, at work it's a lot more than just work, it's a lot of relationships have been developed on different levels that I think most of us didn't know existed, you know, inside of work, outside of work. And I think what has allowed us to find that dimension, that different dimension of relationship, is the community events that we host and the traveling that we get to do, sometimes, you know, whether it's RoofCon or SRC we'll bring a couple people to that this year to see how other people are doing it and I think, our experiences along the way too, of either working for other people or the experiences that we've had working here, we always, we always look for the lesson to be learned, you know. And the personal development let's talk about personal development for a second, where we encourage personal development and and whether it's reading books or going to events and stuff like that, and, and you know, it's just that's where it really starts. It starts, it starts in here, right, like what you know and and I what?

Ty Cobb Backer: 28:31

The one thing that's been sticking out to me and I think Eric Brewer post a good bit of stuff about, you know, working as hard on your relationships at home as you do at work, right, that is, that has been something big for me, um, over the past. I don't know. I've been, I've always been trying to work on that. I've never been able to find the thelife blend balance, whatever you want to call it. But you know, I think when right now I feel like I'm banging on all eight cylinders with all three kids, all three grandkids, and that in itself when I leave for work in the morning and I've had a really cool conversation with Rocket in the morning there's not much throughout the course of the day that can set me back in something because of the mood that I left in at the house. And there's a couple other things that I do in the morning too to prepare myself for the day. I read a couple of books and I have some quiet time and I get to spend at least 15, 20, sometimes 30 minutes with Rocket in the morning and stuff like that. And now we're playing golf together and added that into our workout regimen where we swing the club at least I don't know how many a couple hundred times, probably every day. And you know has brought our. You know I got a 16-year-old kid that wants to hang out with me every day. You know, yeah, and I didn't have that necessarily with my first two kids.

Ty Cobb Backer: 29:56

I've gotten better over the years at at, you know, uh, their love languages and what, what, what really means a lot to them and and that in itself has helped me learn other people's languages too. Like, whether it's a public recognition, um, you know, behind closed doors, look recognition. You know, behind closed doors, recognition money, whatever, whatever inspires other people. You know, that's kind of what I'm where I'm at right now. It's just kind of trying to, not trying to be a people pleaser. You know, I've done that, been there, did that, and typically I end up putting myself in a bad situation where I end up getting hurt because of going over and beyond and then setting expectations and an expectation is just a premeditated resentment.

Ty Cobb Backer: 30:38

I've learned to put boundaries up a little bit. Not become cold, but try to put boundaries up and stuff like that and a lot of that stuff I've learned at home. I've learned it from Jana. I've learned it from my kids. I've learned where I screwed up with my kids and you know I try to apply those same principles in everything that I touch and any person that I come in contact with on a day-to-day basis and I'm not perfect at it. I still fail, I still don't have enough time to get up into your office like I did the other morning.

Ty Cobb Backer: 31:10

It was like, hey, dude, before my day gets started, man, I just want to tell you basically I love you and that I didn't forget you're up here, you know, um kind of thing like that, and I'm trying to get better at that because, honestly, that's my job today and all of our jobs is to encourage and inspire and empower everybody um work and and make sure that they feel that they feel trusted, right, and they feel comfortable and they feel safe and and, honestly, that's just what they and again, that started at home.

Ty Cobb Backer: 31:38

When I look at Rocket and he's sleeping, he doesn't have a worry in the world. I want to look at everybody at work the same way too. I want to look at them and know that they you know I'm sure they have problems at home and things like that, but as long as they're at work, they know they can feel safe and because of their job, hopefully, they feel safe at home and that's that's that's my career. That's that's my career today. That's my career path, that's the one I chose today is to have the mission, the vision and and and the goals that we're, all you know rowing in the same direction and and it's pretty cool to have have you along for the ride on that dude.

Chris Baker: 32:15

It's really cool to be able to be here and experience all these things, man, and like when I said earlier about you know, the amount of growth that we've experienced. I wasn't even talking about, like you know, revenue or anything like that. It has absolutely nothing to do with that, because if Ty, out of all of our personal developments and all of our growth that we've experienced as human beings, one thing that is 100% for sure that if you're doing stuff for the right reasons, the money comes, success comes, all that kind of stuff that you know we're, we, we live in a world that we're measured by success, by wealth. You know what I mean stuff that you know we live in a world that we're measured by success, by wealth. You know what I mean. But, like you know, we were having a conversation the other week in your office. Me and you were talking and you know I don't consider myself materialistic driven.

Chris Baker: 33:09

I don't think that you're materialistic driven. It's nice to have nice things, it's nice to not to not wonder where I'm going to get my meal tonight. You know what I mean. Like I have a roof over my head, my family's secure and everything you know. But I have dreams, you have dreams. We all have dreams, we all have goals. Money is a tool to get those. But at the same time, man like the things that, the things that I, that I have that are important to me they don't cost money.

Chris Baker: 33:42

You know what I mean.

Chris Baker: 33:43

Like, I got to have 20 some people at my house on Thanksgiving. You know what I mean. I got to, I got to get everyone in one room together. I got to get everyone in one room together kids, you know, brothers, sisters, moms, dads from me, and Sam's family, like everyone, you know, two families all together for Thanksgiving. That's the kind of stuff that I care about. You know what I mean. Like the stuff that really, really matters. You know you can't buy it with money.

Chris Baker: 34:17

Um, no matter how successful I am at work, um, the things that that truly, truly matter to me, um, that that make me put my head on my pillow and and sleep without a worry, um, I can't, I can't make enough money to make those things happen. Um, I have to be a good dad. I have to be a good person. I have to be a good teammate. I have to be a good dad. I have to be a good person. I have to be a good teammate. I have to be a good friend. I have to. You know, I have to do what I have to do and learn the lessons that I, that I learned in order to understand that you know what I mean because, like you, like you said, man, like I, I haven't always done it right. You know, I've lived a portion of my life where I was selfish, where I thought that I needed to do this in order to get that, and like, unfortunately, it takes time to understand these things. I truly don't think that I would be the person that I am today had I not come here, had I not gotten to experience these things and just, you know, just being able to come here and be a part of the team, you know, being in a leadership position is very difficult, man. It's it's you kind of touched on it earlier just trying to understand, understand people, um, and understand you know what that, having empathy and understanding what they could be going through. You know what drives them, what motivates them, um, and being able to mesh all that stuff together. You know you have to do it on an extreme level because you're sitting at the top with all these junior leaders and and all the people that they lead underneath them, that are all looking up at you. You know what I mean. I have a small department that I that I get to, you know, be be a, a co-leader in um and you know, watching all the, all the growth and everything.

Chris Baker: 36:15

But like understanding that every person in this company is different man, like everyone, from a different walk of life, and, like you know, we have what? Maybe? 150 people that work for TC backer, that's 150 different realities of this world. You know what I mean. The world is the world, but everyone's um upbringings and experiences and the things that they're going through make their, their vision of the world different. You know what I mean. You have a, you have 150 different version visions of this world and, like you know, what might not be a big deal to me could be the end of the world for somebody. You know and and I don't know exactly where I was going with that, but like I beat me, like what matters to me isn't, it's not like my, my success today isn't measured by financial, materialistic, any of that kind of stuff.

Chris Baker: 37:10

Like, like you said, man, like you, you you're firing on all eight cylinders with, with, with Jana, with, you know, with your kids, with your grandkids, with work, all that kind of stuff, and like that's the stuff that matters, man, like when, when I'm not here anymore, I want to make sure that, um, my, my kids have the right work ethic, they're doing it for the right reasons. They're they're empathetic and they care about people, um, because, at the end of the day, bro, like you know ed mylet, what does he say? People just want to be loved, bro, like people, people want to know that you genuinely care about them, um, for no financial gain, for no reason other than they're a human being and they matter, man, and like that is that's why we do these things. You know what I mean. There is, there is some days that we get our guts kicked in at work.

Chris Baker: 38:02

Man, like you know, poor us, we have all these things like how are we going to get this work done?

Chris Baker: 38:08

How are we going to do this? You know, you know there's some days that it just feels like we can't do anything right and like we're our biggest critics, but like, at the end of the day, man, like it could, we're lucky that we get to come here and experience that. Man Like um, I know that, at the end of the day, if I, if I come in and I do my best, um, and I do it for the right reasons, I'm going to have success, and it's not and I don't mean money. You know what I mean. I'm going to have success because I'm, I'm, I'm putting the right message out there, um, to my team, to my family, um, and all that stuff. And, bro, how hard is it to get lost in that, like to lose that vision sometimes. And, and you know, we, we have these community events and everything, and where it really brings it back into perspective on why we do these things and the message that we're truly, truly trying to pass off to the community and to our families.

Ty Cobb Backer: 39:03

No, it's good. That's so good, chris, you touched on it, and that's why it's important that we continue to do our community events Right. Sometimes it smacks us back into reality. I think Zach Fisher mentioned something in the comments there about, you know, when we think we have it so bad right, we put ourselves in a situation where we're downtown handing out plates of food. It puts it in perspective, especially with the content that Vic captured. You know what I'm saying, right there. It humbles you quickly.

Ty Cobb Backer: 39:34

Sometimes you think you got it bad, till you see some of the other struggle right and uh, to have a, a place where we can all call home a tc backer to to, you know, and that's the thing, man, like, we were just trying to just try to keep it where. The sky is the limit, chris. We talked about that a thousand times, you know, and that's one of the first things I still, to this day, tell people when I, when I do an interview with them. It's like look this, like the sky's the limit here. Man, we can take this as far as you guys want to take this within reason, you know, right, I've I've learned to have to try to bring things back in sometimes, um but, um, realistically, I mean, the sky's the limit and we have so many other things. I can truly state right now that you know we are just getting started. We're still just getting started, like there's so many other things coming on the horizon right now that's going to create so much more impact and more opportunities for growth at the company personally and professionally, different departments, different facets of the company and I can't wait to come home and share a lot of these new ventures that we have. There's a couple I mentioned earlier, but there's some other things that have come to fruition a lot quicker than I thought they were going to.

Ty Cobb Backer: 40:51

And it really comes down to the core group of people that are being placed in my life today. And you know, from doing the next right thing, and people want to be around good people, right, and I know I want to be around good people and that's the cool thing too we actually get to. We kind of get to pick and choose who we allow in our circles and hopefully we make the right judgment call and bring in those people into our circle and, you know, that way we can continue to keep growing. Nothing's holding us back, nothing hinders us in that growth that that we so love to be in that growth mode, right, personally, that personal development growth mode, and I like the challenge I was thinking this morning about, um, you know it's not, it's not a struggle anymore, it's just I enjoy the, the, the challenge, right, like it's like what's our next challenge?

Ty Cobb Backer: 41:43

A couple of weeks ago I was still having a conversation with Vic, you know it's like, okay, what's next? Like I'm starting to feel comfortable, you know what I mean Like what, what's next here? What's next for behind the tool belt? What's next for TC backer? You know I'm starting to feel not complacent whatsoever, like I, I, I, I usually see that red flag coming a mile away pretty quickly. Um, but, uh, but I'm starting to feel comfortable in in a couple areas here and it's like, okay, what's, what's the next big thing? What's the you know for for behind the tool belt? Um, you know, is it the type of gas that we have come on? Is it? Um, you know some other things and and we do have some things in the works too for, uh, behind the tool belt, we got brick by brick that's going to be like a podcast.

Ty Cobb Backer: 42:26

Within the podcast there'll be, you know, some little 5, 10, 15 minute clips of some recordings. That that I started to do by myself, um, sitting in my office, sitting at home. Uh, sitting in my office sitting at home, sitting in my bedroom, wherever I was at that moment where I had moments of clarity that I just want to really share with people. Some of the deep shit, that some of it's not very sugar-coated, like not saying that Behind the Tool Belt is sugar-coated, but just my opinions and thoughts and visions, chris, the things that you get to hear on a day to day basis of of the predictions or you know things, the thoughts, cause I'm always five moves ahead, I'm always thinking, I'm continuously thinking, and why I've been able to do that is because I've surrounded myself around really smart people.

Ty Cobb Backer: 43:14

I listened to the content that I choose to listen to and I come up with my own conclusions a lot of times and I kind of put pieces together and I just really want to get some of that message out to some people, whether it's managers, ceos, you know someone, just start starting out as a, as a gutterman, right, like your head up, like that's not a bad place to start either, especially where we're at right. Um, you know it's, it's more than um, it's more than a job. Right, it's this, this, this is, uh, impact. We're having impact and we we get to show up every day and impact our you know co-workers and the person sitting next to us and and not just you know homeowners, and man, it's just man. What a good time of year. You know we're coming into Christmas and I can't believe it's going to be here in a couple weeks.

Ty Cobb Backer: 44:08

This year yeah, this year things are a little bit different. At the Backer household we're going to be in Bluffton next week with Mike and their team, like that, and probably for the whole week I'm going to see Brian down in Greenville and stuff, and really, while we're doing it, it would be so much easier for me to just stay home to the first of the year, but I've got to make sure that we're having the impact. The message, the image, the standard is the same down there, you know, so we can continuously impact people's lives in in a non less stressful way. Right, and I don't know, it's just, it's good, man, I wanted to read something. It's kind of off. It's kind of off topic here a little bit, but I had a conversation with my business coach last week, I think it was, and we were talking about the podcast and I'm real big on consistency and I think he posted something that I think inspired him to post this on social and he calls it entrepreneurship.

Ty Cobb Backer: 45:25

Burnout is real, is a real thing, and I blame it mostly on one thing, that's goal addiction. Right, and this is not just for entrepreneurs, this is for anybody in a leadership position and a TC backer Everybody's in a leadership position because we are all co-leaders. So if I use the word entrepreneurship, I mean I mean for for us leaders and co-leaders and co-workers. So you'll set business goals, pursue them relentlessly, achieve them and then think what's next? That sounds like me, right. You're always pushing yourself to think bigger and work harder, all the while being your own worst critic. Carry the weight of shame of not being where you should be by now. You'll create an identity around being consistent or being the hardest worker in the room. This cycle repeats itself forever. The only two options to break this cycle are one literally die, or two become aware of the patterns and make conclusions.

Ty Cobb Backer: 46:28

Make conscious changes. The personal development space has created a vacuum where logic cannot breathe due to an overabundance of inputs telling you to pursue things based on the emotion of feeling lack. The intentions behind this motivational message are good, but they never consider the sacrifice and damage that occurs as a result. And damage that occurs as a result. Entrepreneurs, leaders, co-workers, co-leaders have a long history of pursuing success by sacrificing their relationships or getting divorced, by losing their physical health and fitness, but struggle with mental health and cope with drugs or booze. So what are the required changes? Learn to feel gratitude for this present moment, which is what I'm trying to do right now, and not think too much about work and be present here with Jana. Don't get caught up in the future. Be present. Work with a therapist or a coach that will challenge you to ensure you're doing things for valid reasons rather than because of your ego or fear.

Ty Cobb Backer: 47:39

Create a list of non-negotiable rules your personal core values. These rules will navigate every decision in your life. Do not ever violate your own rules. This is where confidence disappears.

Ty Cobb Backer: 47:56

Do not allow labels like consistency to define you. When there isn't a net positive or happiness that comes as a result of being consistent, it's okay to skip once in a while, especially on vacation. We each deserve a pause, so stop fearing judgment from others just because you take a break from something. Use technology to make your business more efficient, gaining back more valuable time. Do not backfill this newly found time with more work Guilty. Use that time for yourself, doing things that make you happy and fulfilled. Continue to set goals, but also make time to celebrate and savor them. Reward yourself instead of always thinking what's next. Remember this you won't care about what critics said while you're in your grave. Nobody cares who worked the hardest in your grave. Living a rich life has nothing to do with money or status. The world will be a better place if the best you existed, if that made sense, that last part there.

Ty Cobb Backer: 49:04

So anyhow, I just wanted to throw that in there because that's kind of the mindset that that I'm in right now consistency. I was telling him yeah, we got to do behind the tool belt, live on the boat. He's like why don't you just record one? I was like because we can't do that one. I was like cause we can't do that. It's like well, I mean, you can't like skip a day, skip a week. I was like, no, we can't do that. But anyhow, all of the other stuff put a lot of stuff in perspective for me when it comes to, you know and and I'm not trying to say it's okay to skip, you know, you know I don't know a day in the gym or whatever like that. But you know, when people say zero days off, for me what that means is like okay. So I read my daily reflections. This morning I read my daily dad by Ryan Holiday.

Ty Cobb Backer: 49:52

You know there are certain things in my non-negotiables that I can't skip and that's what I'm getting out of this message right. There are some non-negotiables that I just I can't skip, nor I won't skip and we talked about standards last week, chris, and it's like I myself do not want to lower my standards for a situation in an individual or whatever the case might be, and I I've I've lowered my standards a little bit Right, and that doesn't mean I have to start being a dick or or anything like that. But there are certain non-negotiables that we have to set for ourselves personally and that we have to set for our work environment and things like that, if we want to continue to succeed and have impact on other people's lives. And if we don't do these things and have our non-negotiables, this will diminish. And that's probably my biggest fear is that the culture, the camaraderie, the fellowship, my relationships at home, my relationships at work, my relationships outside of work will diminish the moment I start to lower my standards and lower or not do the things I have to do on a daily basis my non-negotiables right.

Ty Cobb Backer: 51:08

So create your non-negotiables right, create your own personal core values and don't be afraid of other people judging you because you may not go to a certain place or you choose not to associate yourself with certain individuals or companies or whatever the case might be, or whatever the situation is your belief. Whatever your belief is, stand by your belief and and create non-negotiables and personal core values. I guess is the message that I've received from that Plus. There's a couple other things in there too, but I just wanted to share that with everybody.

Chris Baker: 51:42

Yeah, no, that's good man and um, at the beginning of the show you you said you know about how it's important to to not put yourself. What put your, put your personal needs and all that kind of stuff. When it comes to business and all that kind of stuff, um, it's not about self, right, it's, it's about everyone else. But there is certain aspects of life where you need to be selfish. Um, you know, be being a people pleaser. Um, by nature. It's tough because a lot of times, man, um, I can speak personally on this because I have literally put myself through hell trying to just be the person that's always saying yes, and I got you. I was always the one that growing up, I always had the license, I always did the driving. If a friend doesn't have it and we're going out, I got you. I'll pay for your drinks, I'll pay for your food, I'll pay, like I was always that guy man and like, even in relationships and like all that kind of stuff, like it's always putting everyone else before my own needs and like, um, we can't do, we can't be ourselves and be what we need to be, um, in our professional lives, um, for our families and all that kind of stuff. We're not a little selfish sometimes, um, when it comes to you know, your non-negotiables, when you're, when you're building your core values, when you're, um, trying to figure out what you need to do personally to to have that growth, to have that clarity and all that kind of stuff, it's, it's you have to be selfish sometimes. You have to make sure, like you said man, like you, you wake. Make sure, like you said man, like you, you wake up and you do your your things in the morning. You know, I, um, I have things that that are non-negotiable for me too, and unfortunately, ty, um, I think that you can, you can attest to this too. Um, it took some really painful lessons in my life to realize what those things are for me.

Chris Baker: 53:40

Um, there's, there's certain things that I just can't do. There's certain people that I just can't be around. There's there's, um, you know, there's there's things that I enjoy, um, that that I would love to do, but, um, at the end of the day, like, that's, that's not, that's not what I'm about anymore. You know, um, and if, if we want to do this thing right, if we want to be consistent and we want to put the right message onto the team to to our families, um, to my kids, especially man like I I can't stress how important that is um to me personally on making sure that my kids understand um the lengths that I'm willing to go um, the things that I'm willing to do to make sure that they're good. You know what I mean. Like I, it's um we, we have to make sure that we're holding, that we're holding ourselves accountable and and and that we are selfish in those things.

Chris Baker: 54:32

Um, when it comes to those, those that are important to us, um, there's a lot of people that fit under my umbrella these days, um on people that I care about. Um, but you know my family sits, sit at the top of that. You know what I mean. There is and I know that you can agree with that man, like there is, there is literally nothing on this earth that I would not do to make sure that they're good.

Chris Baker: 54:55

Um, and you know, fortunately, um, because of the consistent acts and the consistent mentality and all that kind of stuff that I've had over the past, you know, year to two years here, I don't really have to do too much to maintain that it doesn't feel like work. It doesn't feel like, oh man, I got to do this, I got you know what I mean. Like it's, it's it's just become a natural habit of of acts and actions and, um, you know, mindsets and that kind of stuff. Like it's, it's a lot easier, um, but you know, we, we still have days that it's that it's tough. You know, there there's still days that, um, whether, whether your personal goal is even for people out there that don't have kids, that don't have all that kind of stuff, there's, there's nothing wrong with that. You know some people don't care to have kids. You know they, they, they want to, they want to live how they want to live, but guaranteed, you know, people, people still have goals, they still have things that you know taking care of yourself, um, all that kind of stuff.

Chris Baker: 55:59

And like, like you said, man, it's okay to take a day off, but there is some things that you can't take a day off with. You know what I mean. And a lot of that stuff has to do with mindsets and, like your, your, your core values and that kind of stuff. Like you can't take a day off of your core values. Something is important to you, then it needs to be important to you, and if you're able to take a day off of your core values. Something is important to you, then it needs to be important to you, and if you're able to take a day off from that, then it's not important to you. And that's just being real with yourself. You know what I mean and unfortunately sometimes we got to have some really, really tough conversations inside and it takes a lot of vulnerability and sometimes some bad situations and bad experiences to realize that what actually is truly important to you yeah, they'll happen for you, Right, right.

Chris Baker: 56:52

It's hard to see that sometimes you know why this is happening for me, because it's very easy to finger somewhere else and be like why did you do this? Why did you know this was your fault? Or you follow, you trace that back. Why did you do this? Why did you know this was your fault? Or you follow, you trace that back enough, man, a lot of times. You know your actions and the things that you say, how you respond to things. I had a conversation with someone I think it was like last week and the point of my conversation was you know people. People are going to do things. You have no control over what people do. You have. You have a hundred percent control of your reaction to have what they do.

Chris Baker: 57:30

You can't let other people's actions dictate your own character. And, at the end of the day, me personally, one of my core values is how I treat people. Um, you know, I, I, I want to, no matter what, no matter how somebody treats me, I want to put respect back because I want my kids to be that way. I want my kids to be respectful, contributing members of society. And, um, dude, can you, can you imagine how easy it would be just to be a shithead to everyone, because if you're, every time you know something doesn't go your way or someone does you wrong, you're just give negative energy back, like you would literally be miserable. You would just walk around and be miserable all the time because I don't know about you, todd, but there's a lot of things that I can get angry about on a daily basis. There's a lot of things that don't necessarily go exactly how I planned.

Chris Baker: 58:14

But at the end of the day, man, you have full control over you know the energy that you output. You have no control over the input what comes to you but you have 100 percent control of your output. So just maintain that, man, and be consistent.

Ty Cobb Backer: 58:30

Yeah, no, I like that. That's good perspective, man. It's all. It's our perspective. Plus, this is the other thing too. We don't know what other people are going through to that. You know what I mean, and that's where I think empathy, you know, cause I I'm guilty of taking shit out on people that are the wrong people due to stuffing things and not dealing with things immediately Right, letting them fester and stuff like that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 58:54

But there's that's a that could definitely be a whole nother podcast on on self mastery, right, and and try and take yourself so damn serious at times, you know, and this is the thing too man, uh, life is so short. I mean it is so damn short, and to be miserable in a short period of time that we're on this earth, right, is just not the way that I choose to live today, man, I try to live life to its fullest. I try not to get hemmed up in that 5% right and and stay focused on the 95% of the, the positive energy and and and positive things that are going on in our lives. And fortunately, you know, food insecurity isn't one of those things that we have to deal with today, and and, but we do know other people do suffer from that and for us to get out of our own way. That was one of the things that we've chose to focus on is other people's food insecurity, and that's probably why we don't suffer from that today, and that's been one of the lessons within the lessons that that I've learned and I'm sure you've learned too from just doing the 21 Turkey Salute and putting yourself in other people's shoes, and there was a time where I did suffer from food insecurity, and it's not a good place to be.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:00:11

It's hard to think and, like you talked about earlier, putting a smile on somebody's face. That could have been the energy, the uplifting that they needed to go out and put in three more applications, the uplifting that they needed to go out and put in three more applications or to carry them through another day where they were contemplating suicide or whatever the case might be Right, like I think. I think that's a good message, chris, that we should leave everybody with. Is is like make it your job to put a smile on somebody else's face today, because that might be the only smile that they see.

Chris Baker: 1:00:39

Yes, yes. If everyone had that mentality, man um, every day, if everyone on this earth just made it a goal to put a smile on one person's face, can you understand the impact and the ripple effect that that would have? Bro Um, it just goes back to you know, I'm going to. I'm going to repeat it again what Ed Milet said man, people just want to be cared about.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:01:02

They want to know, that people care.

Chris Baker: 1:01:04

Um, you know he always used the analogy like, um, mcdonald's happy meal, you know it, it sells people that they're selling smiles, man it? Um, people just want to smile, they want to be happy. It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe in, what's your race, what you know, anything your political views, like all that shit doesn't matter at all. Um, at the end of the day, there is not a single person on this earth that can honestly say that they don't enjoy to be happy. Like, they don't enjoy smiling.

Chris Baker: 1:01:38

Um, and one of the big, one of the biggest things that brings smile to people's faces random acts of kindness. You know it's. It's much easier to be put in a situation like it. For me personally Okay, I can speak on me personally it is a lot like I get the warm fuzzies a lot easier from a random act of kindness than a person that I see on a daily basis that, like, is close in my household. Now, don't get that twisted. I absolutely love the people that are in my household. I love them to death, I love them everything.

Chris Baker: 1:02:17

But you know, a random act of kindness from from my significant other, okay, yes, it makes me happy, but I'm not gonna like gush and be like, oh, that was so sweet. You know what I mean. As much as like it's just some, some stranger comes up to you and does something kind for you. You know what I mean. Like that, that you get left with that for for a little while more and it's, it's contagious. You know what I mean? Um, you know, you, if you go out of your way just to be a good person to people and put a smile on someone's face, man, it would have. It would have a huge impact. It would have a huge impact.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:02:49

It really would. I think they did a study I watched this thing a long time ago where random acts of kindness it does have a ripple effect. Like someone is more likely to pose a random act of kindness onto someone else if somebody did so to them. You know what I mean. Like this thing on the street where they were showing people doing nice things for other people and then that person walking away doing something nice for somebody else as well. So, like you said, it is contagious something nice for somebody else as well. So, like you said, it is contagious, um and uh. Maybe we should all take this as a lesson this morning to to perform random acts of kindness, um, not necessarily, uh, for yourself, but for them and the person that they're going to impact after you've impacted them.

Chris Baker: 1:03:36

Yeah, that's a good goal for everyone. Everyone watching live or everyone watching on the replay Good shit to somebody random for no, for no reason. Good goal for everyone Everyone watching live or everyone watching on the replay go do some live shit to somebody random for no reason, nothing in return.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:03:46

Exactly, that's good. It's good stuff. We're about an hour and six minutes into this. Thank you everybody for bearing with us and getting up early to tune in with us. I'm not exactly sure how many people have watched this yet. I'm sure a lot of people will have time to watch it throughout the course of the day today and tomorrow and for the rest of the week. But thank you, guys, our loyal listeners, for tuning in. I see David Bruno's on here. Big shout out to him and ABC 27,. Zach Fisher, Vic, jay Bradley the list goes on of people that have commented in here. Colin, thank you for everything you've done. You also have helped build our family here at TC Backer Construction. So thank you for everything.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:04:28

James Knob, brad Whitlock, brad, I'll let you know if I get any scuba in while we're here. I am now scuba certified, so I definitely know we're going in January, vic and I wanted to put that out there too. I think January 15th we'll be live in Cayman, um, and then I have a special speaking engagement coming up at a hook agency, tim Brown's office in Minnesota. We'll be heading from Cayman to Minnesota that week, um, january 17th, uh, we'll be in Minnesota, probably live that Friday in Minnesota. Cash Flow Kings is the name of his event out there in Minnesota, so that should be pretty cool to participate in that with some of the biggest, heaviest hitters in our industry. David Carroll will be there, I think, mike Goldenstein, ty Meredith with MHI Roofing Ugly Roof out there in Pittsburgh. He'll be there in Pittsburgh. He'll be there in Minnesota with us. So, anyhow, another fantastic episode. Chris, thank you for coming on. Thank you for everything that you do. Hold the fort down for us until we get back. Jana says only call us if the building's on fire.

Chris Baker: 1:05:39

I'm calling the fire department.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:05:44

Call the cops, then call us. You know, you know you can I'm. We're only a phone call away, always.

Chris Baker: 1:05:51

So, yeah, we got that Love you guys.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:05:54

Thank you so much. I'm still choked up from that video. I think my eyes are falling from it. But anyhow, I love you guys. Thank you till next week. Take care of each other. Um, next week will be episode two 59. In two weeks will be our episode two 60, which will be our five year mark. I think Vic's got some things in the works for our fifth year anniversary behind tool belt. Um, he won't let me see what's what's going on or let me see what he's doing back there, but I'm sure if I took a peek I could find it. It's kind of like Christmas Kids go snooping around their parents' closet trying to figure out what they got for Christmas. I wouldn't do that to him. Anyhow, I love you guys. Thank you so much. Until next week, we will take care of each other and take care of.