Ty Cobb Backer: 0:00

And we are live. Welcome back everybody to Behind the Tool Belt, episode 283. I'm your host, ty Cobb-Backer. Thank you for joining us on this Wednesday edition. We will be back after our short intro from our sponsors.

Speaker 2: 0:30

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 to bring you the stories, the struggles, the lessons learned and the wins. No filters, no scripts, just the truth. Please welcome your host of Behind the Tool Belt, ty Cobb-Backer.

Ty Cobb Backer: 0:56

Hey, welcome back everybody to Wednesday's edition of Behind the Tool Belt, episode 283. Of Behind the Tool Belt, episode 283. This is the podcast where we dive deep into the minds of our industry leaders who are changing the game in construction, contracting and beyond. We got to throw that beyond in there because we do get a lot of people on here that don't necessarily work in our industry but do work for our industry if that makes any sense, like we might hire a chiropractor, we might hire a t-shirt design person, we might hire a marketing company, right, but in any case they all affect those of us within our industry. So we got to throw the beyond thing in there and maybe we'll rebrand the name beyond the tool belt, something like that. Who knows, food for thought planted that seed. Maybe we'll water it later, but anyhow, I was, uh, you know, digging through the archives and came up with a couple things to talk about today and most of which I didn't come up on my own, uh, just notes, things like that I've jotted down over the years that actually meant something to me totally different than what it means to me today. A lot of this stuff. I was kind of reviewing my why, and, for those of you that have heard me mention my why. I talk about my why. It's an area where I put notes. I just kind of titled it my why.

Ty Cobb Backer: 2:27

But I think, before we dive into that, I just want to give a big shout out to our team here at TC Backer Construction. You know, mike Torrio down there at the Bluffton location and Jonathan, those guys down south, they're crushing it, they're doing an amazing job. And the team up here in New York and obviously the team down in Delaware, they're're doing an amazing job. And and the team up here in New York and obviously the team down in Delaware they're they're also doing a good, great job. And you know, but I'm I'm feeling very inspired by the type of communication that we are having with our team, amongst our team members and and things like that. Hold on one sec, I feel like my throat's dry, got to get my veg vitamins in me here and um, but feeling inspired by our team and the communication and the changes. There's been a lot of changes over the past several months and I think a lot of us have discovered that what got us here won't keep us here and where we want to go and if we want to grow. There's changes, which that should have been, that should have been the topic. Maybe it will, maybe I'll touch on that a little bit more, but I'm just feeling super.

Ty Cobb Backer: 3:41

You know, I had a meeting, very inspiring meeting, this morning with, you know, operations and production team and sales, and the communication amongst those group of men watch, each and every one of them, you know, grow into the, the professionals that they are today is just super inspiring for me. And as a leader, um, that, that is one of my goals is to help teach and train and mentor and sit back and keep my mouth shut. All all in the same sentence, all in the same meeting, right, and? And not to hold a meeting hostage. And it's not none of this about me or I, I, I, me, me, me, me, it's. It's definitely a, a wee thing. And, and you know, I think that's probably what inspired me to to come up with the conversation that I wanted to talk about.

Ty Cobb Backer: 4:42

So I kind of dug through some of my archives, some of the stuff we might've talked about before, and it really starts with entrepreneurship, the journey of entrepreneurship and why a lot of people get involved with entrepreneurship, and I read, I read, oh man, patrick, patrick, that, david's you know, one of my favorite all time. You know, I read it at least once a year. She's just such a good book and I highly recommend to anybody. But he talks about the four levels of why most people become entrepreneurs and so, of course, my my ears perked up. I was like, oh shit, man, I gotta dive into this a little deeper.

Ty Cobb Backer: 5:21

And one of the first things he talks about is survival. Right, you're kind of in survival mode and and, um, you know, you got bills to pay, you got mouths to feed and you got all this stuff, like you. Just, you know, and you know that and I'm thinking about this and that's kind of been my, that was my journey. Right, it was. It was out of complete survival and I knew I had talent, I knew I had skills. I'm a roofer by trade.

Ty Cobb Backer: 5:48

I grew up, you know, on the production side of things and and came, came from a background of entrepreneurship. And big shout out to my mom and dad, who, who have been my, my biggest mentors and coaches. My dad's still an amazing coach to me today, but you know, but I think a lot of people get stuck in that survival mode. You know where they're just out for themselves. They're, you know, pretty much really started for all the wrong reasons. Same as myself, whether it be a resentment. They put their two week notice in and got fired and decided they were going to go out and buy a truck and throw a ladder rack on. And that's the great thing about this country. Like, nobody said that we can't go out and put a ladder rack on our truck. And you know, consider ourselves a contractor. And you know some states vary where you got to have licenses and things like that, and I know the state of Maryland is pretty, pretty strict on things like that. And PA not so much Texas, not so much Florida is is the big dog down there, where you got to pass all kinds of rules and and take all kinds of tests and stuff like that, which I think, in fact, you know it, it helps level the playing field and and things like that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 6:57

But, like I said, a lot of people kind of just stay stuck in that survival mode, right, you know where they're just trying to make ends meet and and they're no-transcript, and I think that's why I hold this book so dear, dear my heart. Um, and he came out with another great book to choose your enemies wisely, and it was perfect, perfect timing when he he released that book too. And by no means am I getting paid to market Patrick David, which I wish that we were, but we're not. And again, I guess my point of sharing this with you one point is that remaining a student and remain teachable is paramount over everything. The moment that I start to feel like I know everything and I think that's why a lot of people get stuck in that survival mode because you know.

Ty Cobb Backer: 8:12

And then that status mode, right, it's because they, they feel like they, they have arrived, they got this now, right, they got a couple, a couple of dineros in the bank and, and you know, it's, it's not there for very long and they haven't achieved that final phase which I'll talk about here shortly. But the whole status is, it's proving your haters wrong, resentment, fear. And then comes the nice house keeping up with the genesis, et cetera, et cetera, and it's all about status. You're building a big deck on the back of your house because your neighbor built a deck, so you got to build a bigger deck, right?

Ty Cobb Backer: 8:52

And I'm sure we can all relate to that, whether you know you're into entrepreneurship or not, and I think a lot of people start to slow down. You know, and over the years I've watched businesses, you know, come out of the woodwork, bam, bam, bam, you know, and it's like then they just kind of hit this plateau and they start to slow down and and, uh, they kind of settle in at that level where they're kind of, um, you know, just stuck between like that survival and that status mode. And then there and I think a lot of people want to get involved with it too there's there's that freedom stage. Right. I think they think you know what I mean Like all three of the first stages kind of coincide with each other.

Ty Cobb Backer: 9:31

It's like, yeah, I want to start my own business so I can spend more time at home with my family and go on vacations and all these things, all these dreams, the American dream that we all hear about and watch on TV, and the vacations and the and the cruises and the jet planes and all these things, and it's like I think that's kind of putting a cart before the horse a little bit. It's a great goal, it's great dream, you know, to have that. And, um, you know, I think they, everybody wants to make enough money so they can, they can feel comfortable, and but that takes time. That doesn't happen, you know, in like 12 months sometimes. You know, I heard something I read a long time ago.

Ty Cobb Backer: 10:12

It's like and I think this goes for any business where it takes, you know, the first five years work before you even start to break, even if you're doing it right. And you know, and going back as, as you know, as I'm thinking back to my my journey here, I money left over, whether it was because of buying new equipment, investing in the team, investing in myself, marketing all these overhead expenses that I'm navigating through have zero experience with. It wasn't even that long ago where I actually bought myself my first brand new vehicle. I mean financed it. Everything was built through cash. We grew as fast as the cash would allow us to go, and which you know. There's. There's pros and cons to that and an argument for both sides of using other people's money, which I've learned a lot about over the years as well too and leveraging banks and distribution and manufacturing and and things like, things like that. You know.

Ty Cobb Backer: 11:27

But that was mainly through trial and error and really not giving up and having the the tenacity and resiliency of bouncing back each time something didn't quite go my way, but to come to find out it actually worked out the way that it was supposed to work out and it worked out for the better, you know, and there's a lot of fear, a lot of fear that drove me particularly. You know I didn't want to fail. You know what I mean. I was in that status, you know where, like I can't and I'm not saying that I still don't suffer from fear today. It's just a different type of fear, I think you know I'm not necessarily fearful of getting pulled over or the red and blue lights in my rearview mirror, kind of fear stuff. You know what I mean.

Ty Cobb Backer: 12:15

My fears today, I would say and, vic, you and I have talked about this for years is the difference between between um, healthy fears and not healthy fears, right, um? And? And my fears today, my healthy fears is, you know, letting my family down, letting my team down, letting the company down, um, you know, getting myself out of bed, not because I'm going to be late for school, you know, um, but but getting my feet on the ground, um, and thanking God that I'm able to take a breath this morning and I opened my eyes. My priorities are just different. You know 180,.

Ty Cobb Backer: 12:54

You know where I'm driven by different things today, you know, not out of fear, unhealthy fears and resentments and things like that and I'm not saying that I'm perfect and I still don't suffer from unhealthy fears and and things like that but, um, and resentment, I can cover resentment, and Vic and I have talked about this a lot too. You know, um, I'm not who I used to be. Um, I'm not who I want to be, but I'm definitely not who I used to be and how I handle situations today is much differently than the way it was when I first started on this journey. I'm still not perfect. I can still be a doormat. I still go off the deep end.

Ty Cobb Backer: 13:36

You know I have a magic magnifying mind. You know that tells me things that isn't necessarily true. You're right, and I think we all suffer from that, whether we know it or not. But knowing that and having great advisors around you to bounce crazy ass ideas off of people or thoughts and fears and things like that and I think that's where you know having a good significant other can play a big role into that. Having a good significant other can play a big role into that. Having a best friend that you know, that you can confide in and knows that you're not crazy. And I think half of that reason why they don't think you're crazy is because they're just as crazy as you are, right, whether it be your significant other or your best friend or whoever it is that you choose to confide in. And you know, and I can't talk enough about you know, problem shared is a talk enough about. You know problem shared is a problem cut in half. Right, but you got to be careful on who you're sharing your problems with.

Ty Cobb Backer: 14:31

Right and and and don't make it where it's so annoying, where it's like every time you see that person that you're just crying and bitching and moaning, because people get the shits of that too, because nobody wants that negativity in their life. Right and, and I've been on that side of the spectrum both, actually both sides of that spectrum where it's like, oh God, here he comes again, or shit. I'm. All I've been doing is complaining, right, every time we see each other, I am so sorry, you know, and I think once you identify that, it's kind of like, okay, now I need to do something about this. Right, and if you got good friends, good significant other, they're going to call you out on that shit, like, okay, what are you going to do different this time? What have you learned from this? You know how did you put yourself in this situation again? Or why do we keep going down this rabbit hole? You know what I mean? Because I think they would much rather want to step on my toes than my grave, right, because stress will kill you, right?

Ty Cobb Backer: 15:24

Stress affects me in ways that I never thought were imaginable, right? Not just in the stomach, but, like you know, I get rashes, I get back pain, I get headaches, I get blurry vision, I get all kinds of crazy shit that I don't know why it's happening to me. And then I realized, well, I'm worrying about something that I probably have no control over, um, something that never belonged to me, that I thought belonged to me, right? Or losing things that do belong to me, right, and it's like there's nothing at this moment, one I can do about it. Usually, or sometimes a lot of times, there is, I guess, but, but what I wanted to say, which really didn't fit in there was, is that I also heard a long time ago with what, what's wrong with right here and right now? You know, and I want to throw that out there.

Ty Cobb Backer: 16:09

I don't know if we shared a much about that. You know, if you really think about that, that, that small little comment, that short little phrase, what's wrong with, right here and right now? You know absolutely nothing. I'm warm, right, I'm hydrated, got a roof over my head. You know family's good. You know, okay, outside of any of that, what really matters right and what reps am I putting in to avoid things tomorrow? You know what can I do today to avoid not necessarily avoid, but correct or take care of.

Ty Cobb Backer: 16:46

You know what I mean, because I think a lot of times we procrastinate, but the final phase to this journey of entrepreneurship why, I think you know, people get started in is its purpose Right, the purpose my why, and I love this. This is my favorite favorite part, this is my favorite part of the entrepreneurial journey, and you don't have to be an entrepreneur to have purpose. I think we all have purpose right. Purpose to be a dick, purpose to be kind, whatever right it's, however you choose to twist this thing up and smoke it. But um, you know, um, you know um purpose for me. You know, um, a lot of what starts with legacy right, like, how do I want to be remembered, how do I want to make an impact on other people's lives? Um, and and realizing why. You know, I was put on this earth and I, I tend to say that I've been given that extended warranty, you know.

Ty Cobb Backer: 17:46

And what am I going to do that? Am I going to take it for granted? Am I going to take advantage of it? Right, and I don't want to take that for um, I don't want to take advantage of it, or, I'm sorry, um, I don't want to waste it. I want to, I want to take advantage of the, the, the, the second chance that I've been given, and it's like so many of us man take that for granted. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of things that Fisher's on here right now. I'm sure he's putting himself in a lot, of, a lot of bad situations, probably, you know, most likely in his his younger days, where a lot of us could say that, you know, we shouldn't be here today.

Ty Cobb Backer: 18:24

And, vic, you and I were talking about this last night, man, you know, um, I just don't think I don't. I don't know why and I don't want to say I'm the chosen one, I've been chosen, you know, but I do feel kind of special um and not special ed some days maybe, but um, you know, and not special ed some days maybe. But you know, rare, I guess, a rare breed of of the threshold of pain that I can tolerate and and things like that. But you know, just remembering, you know why I was put on this earth and pushing the limits of being the best version of myself. You know, operating at the highest level of the pyramid and doing things that no one has ever done before, you know, and that drives me. I want. I want to surround myself with a group of men and women that want to achieve the same thing, that are bought into, you know, this vision and and help push them at times that where they're feeling weak or they they think they're not good enough, and and and I enjoy doing that, and I think that's why I felt so inspired.

Ty Cobb Backer: 19:29

You know Lauren, who is our you know pretty much our operations manager. I mean, there is not a job that that girl does not touch and she came from the medical field and and she's been here, you know, I want to say close to six years now, five, six years, something. Four, four, four, five, six years now. I should probably know that. I'm sure it's on my calendar someplace, but when she first started here it was before COVID, so it's over five years, probably close to six years.

Ty Cobb Backer: 19:57

Um, so, before COVID, lauren started with us and she, she had the privilege or I should say, unfair advantage, not necessarily the privilege um to ride with me every single day, every day, to get up on roofs, to measure roofs, to have me explain to her how things you know are built and and our accessories and different parts, pieces and components to to building out a roof. And we were talking about that this morning, how it was. Like we were the dynamic duo, right, like we would go visit homeowners and she'd be in the driveway explaining stuff to them. I'd be up on the roof measuring things up and gathering the data while I was up there, and we'd get down and and I'd get off the roof and and, you know, join them in the driveway and and we'd get down and and I'd get off the roof and and, um, you know, join them in the driveway and and we, just, we were, we were just a great team. But most importantly, it was, it was, it was hands-on, real world, out in the field experience with, with lauren, who, who now handles thousands of projects a year I mean from the smallest to repairs, to a blown-off tab shingle, to full-blown projects of remodeled homes, you know and to watch her grow and blossom into the professional that she is today.

Ty Cobb Backer: 21:19

And Ben, you know, taking on the sales management role. And Jeremy Bender shout out to Jeremy Bender, who we've known for a long, long, long, long time, who finally came to work for us. And then, of course, glenn. There's Glenn, you know, and Zach, my nephew, zach who, who's growing into his, his position and and you know it's it just amazes me to watch everybody.

Ty Cobb Backer: 21:42

But that doesn't happen without good leadership, right? Just because we have the right people on the team in the bus in their seats, doesn't mean that they don't need lead, and that was a learning curve for me. That's probably one of the biggest things I learned this past winter, right? Like, my leadership style has to change. The level that I need to lead at is different today, and those who I'm leading are probably different people, um, where they're at in their career, how they need to be handled, and things like that. It helped me identify a lot of different, a lot of different things this past winter.

Ty Cobb Backer: 22:21

Actually, I'd say that, starting back probably fourth quarter of last year, so there was probably a good six months of me really deep diving into myself, right, like if I wanted to be and I started talking about it last year right, if I, if I want to be an XYZ monetarily CEO, um, then I'm going to have to change, because getting back to what got us here is not going to, it's not going to keep us here, especially at the pace that we're moving at right now. But all the while, you know we're hoping others, you know having a lot making, making a lasting impact, you know, coming to realize that money is, is only a tool at this point in time, right, the ones that that keep fighting are driven, at least for me, by something much different. Today, I'm, I'm just much, much more money, because it has to be more than money, you know, because this shit's not easy. You know what I mean, and it's like I had to almost get clear on my purpose. I had to reinvent a little bit of my, of my purpose, and kind of broaden my paradigm, my, my, my, my line of sight. I had to broaden that up but then also dial it in at the same time on how and who, if we're going to get this thing rolling in the right direction, or not necessarily even a different direction. But anyhow, you know this all starts with great leadership. There's no secret sauce to doing what we've been able to do here. I think really a lot of it had started out with me managing myself right, leading myself, taking care of myself and if I can't take care of myself, then how the heck am I supposed to take care of anyone else or anything else? And then also, you know, to be a great leader, you must know how to serve others, and I can't express that enough, especially when you don't have it.

Ty Cobb Backer: 24:33

I had a little podcast with Tim Brown and he's asked me questions about if you're just starting out in the roofing industry, if you're doing a million to five million bucks, what type of charitable things should someone do to be successful? And I answered a couple of questions some of my thoughts and stuff like that because a lot of this stuff doesn't cost the company. You know what I mean. I think he was speaking in terms of revenue, because they can't afford the things that we do today, which is totally understandable. But you could also partner with somebody else on some other things that they do.

Ty Cobb Backer: 25:12

But the most important thing and I think this goes back to the status and survival mode, like when we first start out in entrepreneurship entrepreneurship is because we don't have anything right. So we go into this survival mode the survival of the fetus and like we're making bad calls, we're making bad decisions, we're cutting corners, we're just trying to turn and burn some cash here so we can survive, right, and it's like there's no way that I can give back to my community. That's like the furthest thing from my mindset at that time is is giving something away that I don't even have. Right, but how, how false. That is how false thinking. That's the story I'm telling myself. Right, and that is the exact time that you need to give is, especially when you don't have it, to give. Right. That if, if anybody ever wanted to know the secret to success, okay, why, why are certain people so successful and other people aren't so successful? Well, it's because you're not serving. That's the bottom line. That is the silver bullet to success. Okay, that that is.

Ty Cobb Backer: 26:26

I don't care how much marketing you do, you're not going to keep it, okay. I don't care how great your brand is, I don't care how big anything is. I was going to go off on a tangent of big things there for a minute, off on a tangent of big things there for a minute, but I won't, you won't keep it. You, you have to give it away to keep it. And a lot of what I'm talking about giving away is your time, your time to your children, time to your spouse, your time to your friends, your time dedicating your time, giving your time to your community. There are so many things that you could do to get your team involved, get your family involved. There's soup kitchens, okay, every holiday. You don't have to be, don't have to do this big, great, grandiose 21 Turkey Salute, which we've been very blessed to be able to, to be able to do that, and that's what.

Ty Cobb Backer: 27:24

That's what I'm saying. You know and I'm not saying that our cup has been overflowing to the point where we have access. You know, assess, excess I think it's the word I'm looking for you know amounts of stuff to give away. What I'm saying is it doesn't matter if you do or not, especially if you, if your cup is overflowing, you better be giving, give away. What I'm saying is it doesn't matter if you do or not, especially if you, if your cup is overflowing, you better be giving shit away, right, and I'm not saying you go to the bank and start pulling a hundred dollars, a hundred dollar bills out of the ATM machine or anything like that. Maybe, maybe, maybe that's what it is. I don't know. I don't think that's what they're talking about. I don't think that's what I'm talking about, where you sell the farm and just give it away.

Ty Cobb Backer: 28:04

You know, obviously you got to be smart, you got to be strategic about it, but I think the more that you give away I know for a fact the more I've watched my mom go through it. I've watched my, my, my dad go through it. I've watched it, not not, you know, I've watched it from a distance with other very, very, very successful business owners. I can guarantee you, and you don't hear a lot about it, and that's how humble these people probably are, and I think a lot of people like Warren Buffett. You can't tell me he doesn't have nonprofit. You can't tell me that he doesn't probably have multiple nonprofits. You know what I'm saying.

Ty Cobb Backer: 28:39

Now, I don't fully understand all of his business practices to speak intelligently enough to know if he's. You know, and I'm sure there's a lot of people out there thinking he's greedy and selfish and self-centered, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Um, the thing I do know is he's very smart, right, and but I can, I can also assure you. I can assure you that that man probably has given more way than most people probably make in an entire year, but he's not. You don't see it all over social media, you don't. And that's the thing. You don't, you don't have to.

Ty Cobb Backer: 29:11

And to get off subject here just a little bit, is probably why I think we don't advertise it as much as we probably should have and thought that we were being humble, like, oh, we don't have to, but we come to find out that, um, we want the team to celebrate these wins and victories and charitable events and things that we've done, so we're gonna do a better job at that. You know, expressing our gratitude to the community and thank you for the awards is, whether you know, and we received the biggest award that we've ever received this year. I want to mention this, I want to bring this up. So every year, we enter into what's called the Peak Achievement Awards and hosted by the York Builders Association, which I actually have two meetings I have to attend. Shortly after this, today, after this today, and so about five years ago, we were presented with an award that was called community involvement Totally unexpected, it's not why we did what we do, and several years after that we've received that Now, the first year that we received that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 30:23

I remember looking back at Chris Baker and I said to him and Vic, you might have been present too when I said this, I'll tell you here in a second. Why I mentioned Chris Is because the thing I said to him was is the real victory would be if and when somebody takes this award from us. Mission accomplished, the minute. And I think we've talked about this before, like I wish somebody would come and get this award from us. Okay, well, guess what happened this year? Somebody stepped up Penwaste, big trash removal company here in York, pennsylvania. Obviously Penwaste. I don't know how many bicycles they built, but they must I thousands. They had built thousands and and gave away bicycles for some christmas thing that they did. I should probably look into it a little deeper.

Ty Cobb Backer: 31:19

Um, and unfortunately I don't even know if anybody was there to to receive the award this year for this, but we lost it, we, we didn't. We didn't lose it, we, we just didn't. We didn't get the award this year and chris baker looked over at me during the ceremony and he said victory. It's giving me goosebumps right now, um, and I think this. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I think this award was created for us.

Ty Cobb Backer: 31:50

They didn't have one until we came along and I think they just noticed the association noticed the amount of charity that we do Almost there for a minute. It was almost too much and distracting a lot of people from the jobs that they're actually supposed to perform on a daily basis here. So we had to. We had to reel some things in um, but the amount of community involvement that that we we somebody noticed it and we weren't posting shit on social. We'd come home that night, we'd take some group photos and some selfies and stuff like that, and maybe a few people were posting it, but we weren't going all in on that, which is a shame. But we did it enough and I think enough people knew because and this is what I was talking to, tim about it's been one of the greatest recruiting tools that we've had unintentionally, totally unintentional retaining tools, recruiting, retaining and, of course, same with with customers. It's been one of our greatest tools for marketing our brand without even marketing it or branding.

Ty Cobb Backer: 33:00

It's like oh yeah, we saw that there was, you know, 2000 people down there on a corner of Penn and market street that was closed down. Was that? You guys saw it on the news. Next thing we know the news is showing up right, all just because we wanted to help with the food insecurity here in York County.

Ty Cobb Backer: 33:16

Um, so that's an amazing thing, and I know we talk about that a lot and I don't really give a shit because I'm very proud of my team, because we wouldn't be able to do that without our team. So big shout out to the team. You know everybody, seriously, kim McKenzie, you know they're up there crushing it. Sam Sam, that little girl has grown leaps and bounds, not just as a professional but into, you know, a beautiful young lady, her and Tyler, pumping babies out. Yeah, better be your last one. We're not giving you any more time off. Just kidding, you know I love you.

Ty Cobb Backer: 33:57

So, anyhow, um, you know I just talking about serving, not just serving others here. You know, this is the other thing that we haven't talked about for a while and again I I kind of pulled this stuff out of the archives and I've missed leadership and entrepreneurship, probably one of my most favorite topics of all. But you know the impact that we have on our families, our organization, our community, our industry, distribution and manufacturing. It is our solemn oath to make this a better place than it was when we found it. So I just, you know, wanted to talk about that. But you know there's other attributes too, and that's the ability to inspire trust and to cast a vision and a sense of direction, to make hard decisions and see that they are carried out, and to develop the art of delegating instead of trying to do everything myself. Right? And I'm just touching on a few key points here that I've learned and have read and read, and read, and none of it probably made any sense to me as much as it does today. And I'm sure in six months or six years from today, a lot of this stuff will mean something totally different to me at the place that I'm in.

Ty Cobb Backer: 35:11

But you know, making those hard decisions right, that's that's the hard thing, because when I got into this Vic, all I wanted is everybody like me. You know I could hate people, but you can't hate me. I'm going to do whatever I can do, you know. You know, and that was what was twisted, especially I'm I'm going back a couple of few years here and I don't want to show my age. You know. Now is what was twisted, especially I'm I'm going back a couple of few years here and I don't want to show my age. But, man God, I could hate someone. I could hate you Like no one's ever hated you before. I was the best hater, you know, judgmental, and and all those things you know.

Ty Cobb Backer: 35:47

Today I got a different, different respect for our industry, those that are in it. You know anybody that's out there doing this thing. I know it's not easy. I know it's not kudos kudos to anybody locally that's in our area, that's been in business longer than four years. You know that that has other people under their watch. You know big, big shout out to everybody out there kicking ass and taking names. You know, and and making those hard decisions out there and learning how to delegate, and sifting through all this shit, that I've had the, the, the privilege right Riding on my borrowed time right now, over the past seven, this year will be 17 years. July, july 17, 17 years and that's who would ever thought? You know what I mean We've exceeded the four year mark, we've exceeded the 10 year mark. We've been through a lot of shit over the years and I've made a lot of bad decisions. I've done, you know, made some real bad choices and um, and leadership and the way my behavior and things like that and and now I get to see myself in a lot of other people at times and it's like, ooh, that I will.

Ty Cobb Backer: 36:53

I was ugly, you know, and that, and how sharp the tongue really is, it doesn't. I don't necessarily have to grab a hold of somebody and punch them in the face 15 times, right, to hurt somebody. And that's what I used to think. I used to think it was just words. It's just words, get over it. I mean, be a man, all those crazy things, you know, that went through my head and couldn't understand why people wouldn't forgive me, and until I've had it happen to me several times, right, and it's like, ooh, shit, is that how I made people feel? No wonder they still act weird around me or no wonder they're no longer in my life. You know, like I said, I was just sitting there reading Zach's you can't be, can't be King, shit, without venturing through Fit Creek. You got that right, paul Got that right, you know. So.

Ty Cobb Backer: 37:42

You know getting back to the delegating instead of trying to do everything ourselves, you know this in turn means picking capable people right, making sure you got a good picker right. I had a bad picker still do sometimes. You know whether it's who I'm teaming up with or you know those I'm surrounding myself with, and we talk about this. Every episode is we are the sum of those that we surround ourselves with, and this is so true, is so true in so many ways, on so many levels. You know, if you take a look at your friends, take a look at your friends Hopefully that group is small, so you don't have to look too far right and look at their bank accounts, look at their lifestyle, look at their relationship with their significant others, and then look at you, look at yourself, and that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that. Okay, look at one more thing. Look at when you were growing up and those that you hung out with. You spoke like them, you dressed like them, you acted out like them. All that stuff. Dressed like them, you acted out like them, all all that stuff. So, anyhow, um, you know picking, you know the right people, uh, for carrying out the particular task, and, and continuously and this is I I fail miserably here's evaluating their performances.

Ty Cobb Backer: 39:09

I was guilty, I've been guilty of, of delegating, and delegating doesn't mean necessarily, you know, just giving someone something to do without any form of direction or framework first, and and handing it off to them with no direction whatsoever, and now coming back and following up so you know they're doing, or falling back up and asking, you know, trying to figure out like, why isn't anything done? When all three fingers are pointing back at me, it's like one, I didn't necessarily give you any type of framework to start with, and two, I gave you very little direction to start from right, and usually it's not a whole lot that you need to give somebody, just just, you know, a little bit of information, a little bit of clarity, a little bit of insight, foresight, and watch them run with it. Because you know and that's the thing about delegation is, you know, you're, you're also helping them, you're also pushing them, but you got to give them enough information and the right tools and resources around them, right, and then watch that unfold and watch them grow and watch them, you know, build and create, you know that's the other thing about leadership too, like you can build anything as long as you're okay with not taking the credit for it, and I think that's where a lot of people get hemmed up. I've been around people, I've partnered with people where they just can't stand not getting the credit for something. It's all me, me, me, me, it's all I, I, I, I and knowing the difference of like when taking the backseat, when maybe just to ask questions, when not to run the entire meeting or cut people off, and I struggle, I still struggle, with cutting people off mid-sentence and finishing their sentences and things like that. But I see it, I know I just did it. Damn it, I just did, I'm sorry and I would say I'm sorry, I'm sorry for cutting you off. Go ahead and finish, then finish Right. You know it's pretty cool, you know it's been, it's been a, it's been a joy and it's been. It's not been easy, right, it's not hard, hasn't been hard, but it's not been easy. You know, kind of getting where we're at today and getting where I'm at, because really it all starts right here. You know, understanding not just my strengths but also understanding their strengths right and limitations is critical too. And once you've discovered their strengths and certain people's you know limitations and things like that, and being able to push those boundaries for them a little bit.

Ty Cobb Backer: 41:48

I remember there was this guy, keith, who worked for us for a long, long, long, long, long time and he was probably one of my first I'm going to call him a project maybe and he was with me, for even when I worked for my previous company that I worked for, he worked with me there as well and you know, when we decided to start TC Backer, he came with me and I remember pushing him to points where he never even knew existed. You know, he he no longer works with us but uh, he, he took some of the tools that that in resources, that that we gave him and taught him and educating education. Uh, we sent him to vo-tech inspection license. We had a garage, we were inspecting all of our own tools and stuff like that. But, um, he, he took, and he different person through, coming through here and it wasn't easy with him, especially because I was, you know, much, much younger than I was, but he was where my eyes, I think, really started opening up as being able to push him to. Man, I can't do it. I'm not going to be able to do this, but convincing him that it was a good idea to try it and watching him accomplish the dreams and goals, not just for me, but but some that he had for himself.

Ty Cobb Backer: 43:05

And you know, sometimes his great leaders were crisis managers, right, which means having to deal with problems for which there's no playbook. There's no playbook for dealing with the crisis. Sometimes I'm a marriage counselor, sometimes I'm a fricking electrician and a TV repair guy and everything in between, right and, but I got to fix stuff. That's. People lean on me at times and and you know I'm always here for that. You know, most of the time I try to be here. I may not be there, but I'm there, you know, mentally and inevitably, mistakes, mistakes will happen, mistakes will be made.

Ty Cobb Backer: 43:46

Great leaders learn how to rebound right and and move on. And that's probably one of the biggest lessons, right there before we wrap this up, is being able to rebound from mistakes that not just that I made, but mistakes that a team member or a client or whatever. But being able to rebound from that mistake, I think, has been one of the biggest learning curves for a lot of our team members. Because, let's face it, whether, whether it's involved homeowners, the general public mistakes are going to happen, whether it's on our side, whether we can prove that it wasn't or was um, it's not even in question. We just got to take care of it and make sure, make sure that it's done right. But, um, you know, at some point in time we've been working well, we have.

Ty Cobb Backer: 44:44

I started on this thing it's called 12 steps of leadership and and a lot of this stuff came, came out of that and and again that that was just mostly some of the stuff that's on the surface, but I get a little deeper, a little deeper not that we didn't get pretty deep today. I kind of just kind of breezed over and and, honestly, as as the days and weeks and years and months go by on this stuff, I I'm unpacking more and more and more and more of this stuff as, as time goes on and a lot of it's starting to to come to fruition and and understanding of what true leadership means and and what it's about and the purpose. So, anyhow, I think that's all I'm going to have for today. We've about 46, 47 minutes into this. I truly enjoy this.

Ty Cobb Backer: 45:37

Thank you everybody for for always joining us on this, on this journey. You know, and again it's the same thing here I'm learning more and more about myself, on how to speak and things like that. Not that I'm very good speaker, but I enjoy this. I enjoy sharing my, my, my experiences I don't want to say my knowledge and all that good shit, but anyhow, we'll see you guys next week. Thank you for joining us again, and we appreciate everybody. If you think there's somebody out there that could gain something from this today, please share it with them. Until then, you guys have a good week and I'll see you next week.