Ty Cobb Backer: 0:00

And we are live. Welcome back everybody to Behind the Tool Belt, episode 298. I am your host, ty Cobb-Backer. Thank you for joining us and stay tuned. We will be back after our short intro from our sponsors.

Speaker 2: 0:32

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: 0:58

Hey, hey, hey, welcome back everybody. What a wonderful day. It is Wednesday, wednesday, september 10th, and I think, before I forget, I think I'm going to plug real quick the uh. Next week's, next week's episode is episode 299 behind the tool belt. We are two weeks away from our 300th, 300th, 300th episode. I'll be on Toolbelt, but next week we will be streaming live on Friday, probably around the same time, 12 o'clock.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:36

There is a scheduling conflict and I believe we'll do it Friday after I get back from an event that I was asked to speak at and I am most looking forward to recharging, charging my batteries, picking up some good stuff from some other business owners and things like that, and then I actually have the opportunity to pour into them as well, into them as well. But I think it's it's sometimes, it's not, it's not always about me in terms of you know, when I speak and when I share, I really want to focus on pouring into people, but not just that, but I want to take something from this event as well. My coach is is hosting my business. I guess he's no more than business, but my coach, my mentor, tony Watley big shout out to Tony and the team over there at 360 Driven for helping navigate me through some tough times and stuff like that and giving me some rich and fresh ideas on keeping things on the rail. So, but anyhow, welcome back to Beyond the Tool Belt. I am your host, ty Backer, and you know if you've been tuning in.

Ty Cobb Backer: 2:53

You know you know by now that you know we, we talk a lot about leadership. We try not to sugarcoat it. I try to give you my experiences to the best of my ability and and I know I'm not perfect, by no means and all of this is like a work in progress. You know, as we, as we dig deeper into ourselves and and and try to develop. You know ourselves and and and the experiences that we have through this journey. You know it's pretty rad, it's pretty cool, you know, if you go into it with an open mind and eyes wide open and and uh, a learning. You know, uh, capability of, of, of continuous learning and educating yourself and pushing yourself.

Ty Cobb Backer: 3:36

You know, for for the past couple of weeks, I've had the, I've had the opportunity to do some a lot of, you know, reflecting and, personally and professionally, just just got a lot of reflection. Some, a lot of things have been lifted off my chest and and I removed and and you know a lot of you have heard me talk about, you know, removing people, places, things and situations that just aren't conducive to your mental health, your spiritual health, your physical health. And I yeah, it was, that was my new year's resolution. This year was to remove things instead of adding more goals and and piling more shit on top of those broken promises that I never kept. From the year before, I decided to take a different approach and and and I think you know I could be wrong, but I think Tony might, might have actually planted that seed with something that he just said and, and I probably misinterpreted it, because I always that's, I always do that. I always I don't hear things for some reason. I I'm listening, but for some reason I don't hear the. The meaning behind it or the definition just just seems different to me. But but that's part of my uniqueness and and, uh, kind of how I grow and I need to experience things on my own right. All all people can do is kind of plant seeds and and, uh, I have to navigate through it myself and stuff.

Ty Cobb Backer: 4:59

So a lot of this podcast has been um, this particular podcast, episode two, 98 is is going to be a lot about my self-reflection and a work in progress, and I've really been thinking about how we did it right, because we recently celebrated 17 years and some of this stuff you guys may have heard before, but some of you may not have heard it and maybe you didn't hear it the way that it was intended to be heard. So I don't really mind repeating myself because I actually enjoy listening to you know podcast over and over and over and over the same one, over and, and some of those podcast hosts always talk about the same thing and I don't quite hear it the first time around. So, um, I've learned to repeat myself and not fear repeating myself or or even coming at it in a different angle and things like that. So, you know, so typically, you know it's, it's, it's about personal development, right, I mean, that's, that's what this is all about. I'm hoping that somebody can get something, you know, out of this, like this is what this really all about, and it's pushing me to be better and it's pushing me to dive into me, um, and and find my, my character defects, my flaws, my shortcomings and get better at it and and and I. I really feel like the podcast for me has become an accountability tool. Um to you know, cash that check that my ass has been writing every week that I'm on this thing Right, and I know a lot of eyes are on Vic too, because Vic is my you know, my shotgun on most projects that we're working on.

Ty Cobb Backer: 6:39

It's not very seldom he doesn't travel with me and I know just as many eyes are on him and we had that conversation the other day, so he knows that he's got to also cash that check that our ass is up here writing week in and week out, whether it's, you know, the first ones there, last ones to leave, or or personal development, like taking, taking care of ourselves. You know, personally, spiritually and I want to forget about the spiritual part of it, the spiritual aspect of things and having that conscious contact for strength and courage and wisdom at times when we least expect it, having that open, that channel open. So today's topic is simple man, if you want better people, you've got to be a better leader, and I'm saying that with ears wide open, you know. So I guess let's dig into it. A lot of you know that in my email signature I sign my emails with a CEO that stands for chief executive officer, and that's not intended to be cute. That's just not like some cute little line. It's actually a reminder to me that my job is to set the tone, set the pace and the standard that our team feels every day, and I mean every day. Even when I don't want to, I have to suit up, I have to show up, I have to do all those things. I'm going to start with the moment that changed everything for me.

Ty Cobb Backer: 8:15

Some of you, like I said, may have heard bits and pieces of this story of early on in my career, where it literally almost took me four years and almost dying, killing myself, not not because I wanted to, but just because of my behaviors and the way that I was acting in, as hard as I was working and and the things that I was fixated on. I was fixated on the wrong things and this goes back to 2011, 2012,. You know, my family and I were we're under a lot of pressure and we had a lot of people at home counting on us, and we had a lot of people at work counting on us. Around that time, my mom had moved in with us while she was battling with cancer. Like I said, a lot of you might might know that story, may or may not. She moved in with us and Jana took care of her for the most part, and that's when we decided to Jana to start easing her way out of the day-to-day TC Backer stuff and not that. She's still not a huge part of this and the decision-making, and I'm just going to give her a big plug too, because I don't know if she actually gets the respect that she properly deserves, especially when she walks into the building.

Ty Cobb Backer: 9:29

Kara TC backer that you know that you know who do you think is my sounding board outside of Vic and and a handful of other people on the decision-making and the day-to-day things that that occur here and and changes and and and things like that. But she's always been my rock and we, we truly, I truly believe that we wouldn't be here today. Yeah, I think your significant other I mean that could be a whole nother topic for beyond a toll belt is having the right significant other in your life, one that encourages you and supports you and even is is bold enough to call you out on your shit when you're wrong especially behind closed doors and not in front of people and validity and make you feel like a piece of shit and hold you back and tell you that you're working too many hours and blah, blah, blah all that shit that I'm sure a lot of us have dealt with in the past, and I'm very grateful and blessed for that. But, anyhow, that season made made one thing crystal freaking clear for me, culture isn't posters, it isn't those cute little slogans that you put up on your wall or those one little words. You know those words that when you walk into people's places, money doesn't sleep. You know all that whatever monopoly stuff that you see on when you're scrolling Facebook. All that stuff. It's way deeper than that. It's the hard choices you make and the habits you keep. That's what creates a culture. And here at TC Backer, I'm going to use us as an example. This whole thing, this whole reflective time, this reflection time that I'm going through here and I'm glad, I'm grateful for the clarity here lately, um, it's been a while. I feel like that. I've had a lot of clarity, man. I feel like the dust is starting to settle and the smoke is starting to clear and things are really starting to crystallize for me.

Ty Cobb Backer: 11:16

But, um, here at tc backer, we made. We made one of those hard choices, right right From you know, um, moving everybody from 1099 over to W2. And, uh, that was a pretty significant decision. I mean, it might not sound like a big deal and this isn't something that you know we, we promote, we don't promote it, and I can almost guarantee it. You know I didn't, we don't, we don't brag or become you know about that, but I can almost guarantee it. There's 90% of you know roofing contractors out there don't operate like that. I'm pretty sure they still have 1099 sales reps and people like that.

Ty Cobb Backer: 11:58

But we at that time decided to go legit and we knew it was going to cost more money in in the short term, however, it allowed us to offer benefits, stability and in a real career path, and that one decision set the foundation for the future and culture I'm going to share with you today. And who would have thought? You know it's taken me this many years to really reflect back. That one hard decision galvanized the trajectory, the path that you know, and changed my paradigm. You know, on why, the why. You know why we're doing this, why it should be the way. I should be thinking about this and and and, not trying to just outwork everybody to just make my ends meet. So our culture is built on three pillars and, like I said, I've been working on this, so this might evolve and change a little bit, but this is just kind of where I'm at right now.

Ty Cobb Backer: 12:56

On these three pillars is purpose ownership and I was going to call it poo, like Winnie the Pooh, but like winning the poo would be purpose ownership and organizational health. That's P-O-O-H poo, right, and that's how I'm going to remember it. I have to do little weird things like that. I had to do that through school too. I had to connect things to things and I had to come up with acronyms, and I had to do that through school too. I had to connect things to things and I had to come up with acronyms and I had to do all things. So, anyhow, purpose ownership and organizational health, and I'm going to try to articulate this, not exactly, I'm sure, on how we're turning those ideas into our daily habits that anyone can really copy. If you choose so, choose so. But I'm going to start with pillar one. Pillar one purpose.

Ty Cobb Backer: 13:54

You know, purpose was created, I think, back when we made that decision, but it has taken us a long time to actually write out and articulate our core values. So our, our, our core values has become you know our purpose or vice versa, our purpose is our core values. I guess people don't buy what we do right, we're a roofing company, people but people do buy into why we do it. Okay, so we, we we're trying to to define our why this way and I'm not going to run down through, especially if you want to retain people like people who start here may not fully understand, like the, the community involvement and how we give back and how we take care of each other and we give back to each other and we hold each other accountable and we hold each other to a certain standard. Like they may not fully grasp that. But I can guarantee you one thing the reason why they stay is because of our purpose.

Ty Cobb Backer: 14:56

Okay, and if you hang out with us long enough and it's kind of like vick's story a little bit, like he hung out with us long enough, like he didn't have to come work here because he was actually hanging out with us long enough and helping us with a lot of these projects for the community that that we're involved with but to sum up, to sum up our core values, it pretty much is like we protect families and grow people Right, and if you can buy into that and if you fully understand that and you read through our core values and really study it, it's kind of you know, cause there's a lot of metaphors there that you can apply to many different areas and avenues of your life your personal life, your professional life and and maybe we'll do a podcast that that is just reviewing our core values. That way people can kind of see how we did it, how we're doing it and and by all means copy it. That's that's you. You have my, um, I guess my, my permission to take whatever you guys need and uh leave the rest in and hopefully apply this to your personal and professional lives to uh improve the quality of not just your life but those that are around you. So but that one sentence guides, guides the way that we hire, we train, we build, we bid jobs and make tough calls, and one of a few ways that we keep that alive is, you know, right from the get-go.

Ty Cobb Backer: 16:18

We just got back from Greenville and we reviewed those things, we reviewed the KPIs and it's like the new hires, the first thing that they hear is our why story before they even hear our policies. And if they do start to hear our policies, it's not very long afterwards that they will hear the core values and our why. But they'll hear our core values. They'll meet our team leaders and we talk about our community involvement and then we'll review our SOPs and our KPIs. And, yes, we do have most of those things documented our KPIs, our SOPs and we most definitely have our core values documented, which we just came up with Another one. We have six total KPIs. We have a mission statement with another one. We have six total kpis. We have a mission statement. We have why we have core values and I need to share our core value number six with the team. I got to put that in a google doc, hopefully right after the show, because brian just asked me for it that he needs a copy of it to put in the new hire packets. But how?

Ty Cobb Backer: 17:30

One of the one of the ways that we we keep this alive, like on a weekly basis, like in our weekly meetings and not just, like you know, a town hall kind of meeting, but but our finance meeting, administrative meeting, our operations meeting, our production meetings. They, they read our mission statement and somebody has to review one of our core values at every single meeting. At those meetings, we also share wins. We shout out team members for going over and beyond moments where a team member protected a homeowner, helped a coworker grow, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Before the meeting even gets started, work or grow, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Before the meeting you would get started, we review these things, we give shout outs and we give props where props are needed.

Ty Cobb Backer: 18:13

And our Y-aligned decisions all started with the switch from W-2, investing in training, and we said it out loud. Basically, this decision protects families and grows people. You know, at the end of the day, that's that's, that's that's summing it up. And I got, I got a, I got a, an example, and some of you listening that that that work with us. You know our team, they, they might remember the situation, but you know we had a crew, crew of ours had had an opportunity to to cut corners that they thought nobody would notice and they probably wouldn't have noticed. But the problem was is that they, they noticed it and they, they decided not to cut corners, they called it out, they fixed it, they finished late. Why, and I'm going to say it again. It's because they know that right, that that we protect families and we grow people, because that's our standard, that that's our standard it's.

Ty Cobb Backer: 19:14

I don't think it's an unrealistic standard. I don't think we're asking anybody to do anything. That's impossible. I don't think we're. I don't think it's an unrealistic expectation to make sure that we're protecting those families, that we do work for protecting our families and that we're growing each other. I really think that I wish somebody would have taught me that a lot sooner. I wish it wouldn't have taken four years in business for me to to finally pick up that concept.

Ty Cobb Backer: 19:45

And, trust me, this, this thing, has been a learning process for me over the past 17 years of doing this. You know and I didn't act that way I didn't have. I don't think I've ever had a leader or a boss. I had bosses in the past. I've had managers, that people who managed me you know, but I don't know if I've ever actually outside of my father. He's always been in a leadership position and the way that he led, I've taken bits and pieces from it. The way that my mother led her teams and crews, I've taken bits and pieces from that and, of course, I've taken bits and pieces from the bosses and managers that I've had over the years and have turned them into. You know, I guess some of like my, my thought process on how to handle situations and how I behave. And you know, and don't want to see myself, um, and a lot of those situations behave the way that I've seen the behavior. But there's also been times that I've seen a lot of uh stuff too where I I do want to make sure that I can behave or react to situations. Again, all all experiences.

Ty Cobb Backer: 20:57

But you know, hopefully this message is getting out to the entire team. You know what I mean and I know the larger we get, the harder that it becomes. And you know, nobody said that this was going to be easy. And it's like, when you sign up to be in a position with any kind of leadership position, you have to understand it's. It's not because you've been appointed and that you have been, you have arrived and now that gives me the right to work less. No, when you sign up for a leadership position, any position, I don't give a shit what it is. I don't care if you are the crosswalk guard at in front of school, I don't care what it is, I don't care, I don't care what it is when you sign up for a leadership position and everybody can be a leader right, it's, it's. It's not easy and I think that's why there's there there's there's as many followers out there.

Ty Cobb Backer: 21:55

But if we can help change the way that people lead organizations, I guess that's our mission is to change the way people lead their organizations. That's, that's one of our missions here. So it means you actually you have to work harder. It doesn't mean you get to work less. And man, there are so many different tentacles off of that, that, you know. And for me and this is reflecting back to me Okay, if I want to continue to have people around me grow, if I want the organization to grow in order to create more and better opportunities for those people within the organization, that means there's a lot more personal development that I have to do.

Ty Cobb Backer: 22:42

There's a lot more uncomfortable things that I have to do. Whether I have to educate myself I mean AI is out right now, I mean chat. Whether I have to educate myself I mean AI is out right now. I mean chat, chat, gpt. Do I want to learn how to do it? No, it's very uncomfortable, right, I don't know anything about it. Most things that I don't know, most things that I'm not familiar with, scare me. Why? Because I don't understand it. I don't take time to understand it, but until I get to understand it, I'm just kind of using that as an example to to elevate myself, and I was talking I think it was last week or I don't know what week it was but we were just talking about like the, with the 1.5 version of myself and a 2.5 version of myself and finding that next gear and like what does that actually mean? Like, defining, like.

Ty Cobb Backer: 23:29

Okay, unfortunately for me, I am a creature of habit and somewhere along the way I was told contentment is happiness and man I, I, the more that I think about that and actually saying that out loud, I thought man, shoot we. It does sound great to be comfortable, it does sound great to be content and it does sound like happiness. Not for me, though. Unfortunately. I don't want to say that I'm a very uncontent person, but I do know that there's more out there. I do know that there's another level in me, but I also know too it's going to require a lot of work.

Ty Cobb Backer: 24:13

I do know that there's going to probably be a lot of pain, that I'm going to experience some pain through this growth. And am I? I guess the question I have to ask myself am I willing? Am I willing to experience this pain? And I think now that I'm in a place where I feel like I've gone through a bunch of pain, okay, but I couldn't really identify the pains I could, but I couldn't, or why it lasted so long, maybe, but I'm on the back end of that and it's kind of like, okay, now there's not much I can't handle. If I have not learned anything else outside of like what I have personally experienced over the past 12 months is that something has showed me that there is nothing okay that I can't get through, and how great our team is, how great my family is, the support our team, how great my family is, the support our team, and I could keep going on.

Ty Cobb Backer: 25:15

I know I got off on a tangent there, a little bit about self-development and leadership and signing up. If you're going to sign up for leadership, make sure your motives are right and make sure you're willing to put in the work, because that doesn't mean you get to work less. That means you actually have to work harder and probably work on things that you've never worked on before, I guess. To sum that up in a nutshell, pillar number two ownership, ownership. We train ownership as a daily mindset. No bad teams, only leaders who need to lead better.

Ty Cobb Backer: 25:44

And I'll start with what did I miss? I messed up, and what that does is is that that creates trust If I can own something. I just had a phone conversation today. Somebody called me. Somebody called me. I didn't hear from somebody else. I didn't review an invoice. That gave me sticker shock and was like why are we paying for something twice, you know, and then doing some digging? Somebody actually called me today and owned up to some shit, and it was an expensive mistake. I'm not going to mention any names.

Ty Cobb Backer: 26:23

And the first thing out of his mouth and it was kind of cool was he's like I'm about to have an uncomfortable conversation with you and of course, my mind goes in a million different directions. We're like oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, what? Okay? Well, they commence to tell me their mistake and right away, the anxiety, the uncertainty, the questioning, whatever, all dissipates all starts to dissolve. Certainty, the questioning, whatever, all dissipates all starts to dissolve. And how can I possibly be frustrated, upset, angry, mother F them when the first thing out of their mouth is what I just said.

Ty Cobb Backer: 27:04

And then the second thing that came out was is I screwed up? Really bad? And I was like, okay, what, what, what is is it? And they started to explain to me what happened and I could see how it could happen to anybody, even me and I've made bigger mistakes, my damn self and uh, so I'm, I'm bouncing, you know, resolutions, solutions, maybe some options and, of course, being the good co-leader that they are, they've already exhausted all those resources because obviously they wanted to come to me with a solution, right, a good solution, and unfortunately there wasn't many outside of. It just needs to be replaced, it needs to be taken care of immediately.

Ty Cobb Backer: 27:52

Okay, thank you, I thank them, thank you, because I know it takes balls. Nobody, nobody, wants to own up to to a mistake, especially a costly one. Now, I do know for a fact that that will never happen again, that that mistake won't happen again by that particular individual. I can guarantee you they're going to cross their T's, doctorize and do whatever research that they're going to have to do, or education, or training, or whatever reminders set on their phone, whatever the case might be. Okay, I know that that's not going to happen again and unfortunately, we talked about this before in the podcast too. You know, we have to give enough room for error, because within that error is where those lessons get learned the greatest, the biggest, the longest, lifelong lessons are learned.

Ty Cobb Backer: 28:40

And in those trials, those, those errors, when we're tried, when we're true, when we're tested. You know, and I was tested, okay, I was tested, the old ty told me would have lost his shit and unfortunately, or fortunately for this person, they know me well enough and I'm sure that's why they said I'm getting ready to have a very uncomfortable conversation with you. Uncomfortable for them, right, because they, they didn't know, like, it's today just a bad day to call the man, unfortunately for them, I was in a very good headspace, um, but I, I, I was grateful, listen, I'm so grateful that, um, they had the courage enough to call me and, uh, because that also says a lot about them, the grit and the tenacity that they have when they're making mistakes out there, the small mistakes that I don't need to know about, how they're dealing with them, how they're suiting up, showing up, manning up, and there's something that I was thinking about this the other day, we hear all these other catchphrases grit, tenacity, resiliency. No one talks enough about courage and bravery, the old school, just courage, right, and uh, I know this. What we do is not easy, and I know the amount of volume that we do and mistakes and errors are going to happen. And and uh, I'd like to think that we always come out of the end of this, always, you know, shining like a diamond and if anything else, there was a lesson to be learned. Um, you know, and I have to lead by example, right, only leaders. You know there's no bad teams. I have to lead by example. And if I lose my shit, that means he's probably going to lose his shit on his teams out there too, but maybe he'll give somebody a little grace today because he's realized again that we're only human, right, and shit happens and all that good stuff, you know, but okay. So, getting back to the ownership part of it, you know what has helped us do that. Okay, why? Why did that happen? I'm going to tell you right now.

Ty Cobb Backer: 30:39

We have clear and simple core values, plain language. We have KPIs and we have SOPs. It's our checklist, it's our guide rails on how we communicate, how we train, how we fire, how we bid stuff, how we build stuff, how we treat others. Okay, it's real simple. Okay, in the chaos, okay, especially in the chaos. You know what I mean? That's where, that's where these policies really, really shine is in the chaos. We're always going to have storms, we're always going to have backlogs, we're always going to have supply issues.

Ty Cobb Backer: 31:14

Okay, and the thing that I've learned is that we need to figure out what can we control. We can't control the uncontrollables. You got to pick, pick the highest impact, pick the highest priority. Figure it out. What can we control and hopefully, within that moment of, okay, the controllables, we can control this. We can't control that, but if we control this, that will help damper that, that will help buffer this. This will help avoid that later. Okay, and when you can think solution, opposed to staying stuck in the problem.

Ty Cobb Backer: 31:55

And right away, when he started to tell me what was going on, right away my head started going straight to. I didn't say to myself, which is very unusual why is this happening for us? I think we know that. I think we know the answer to that is that it'll probably never happen again. Okay, if anything else, that's why it happened to us. Usually we don't find those things out till later could be months, um, but um, shoot, I've completely lost my train of thought there for a second, but anyhow, I'll keep. I'll keep moving on, um, uh, we probably oh, during, during the chaos of things, and and controlling the the controllables, and not being fixated, I guess, on the on the non-controllables. Right, we figured out what's the highest impact, what's our next action done? Next move on, right, okay.

Ty Cobb Backer: 32:47

Second part of that is is that we empower decision making, and one of one of two, two things are my favorite. One I got from Craig Rochelle a couple of years ago was one of his famous lines when somebody comes to him with a problem or they don't have an answer to something, he, he, he tells them you decide. And I've added onto that what do you think? What do you think? And when you do that, when you can do that, you're empowering them. You're asking them what do you think? How do you think we should handle this situation? And not being sarcastic, not being an asshole, not being annoyed because they're knocking on your door, but if you're in a position, if you're a business owner or manager, you know, or or team leader in that this goes for anybody here. If you get the shits of people knocking on your door, it's because we've been telling them what to think instead of encouraging them on how to think. Okay, it's because we haven't asked them the question enough. What do you think? Go ahead, you decide. I'll let you decide, I trust you enough, okay. And when you're learning from your team and I talk about this a lot too when you're learning from your team just as much as what they've learned from you over the years, that's when you know you have a true, authentic, genuine culture.

Ty Cobb Backer: 34:10

If everyone knows the company's intent and what I mean by intent, I mean by the three-legged stool. Our three-legged stool is our core values, our SOPs and our KPIs. If everybody in the company knows our intent, the person closest to the work should be able to make those decisions. They shouldn't necessarily always have to be running it up the chain, because I've noticed over the years too, if they're waiting for answers or waiting for responses, people don't answer the phone. People don't reply back to text messages, people don't get their emails, okay. So now the complete, the entire job comes to a standstill, because either somebody's going to get pissed off if they do something wrong, they're not allowed to make decisions.

Ty Cobb Backer: 34:58

We, we, we taught them to wait outside our door and wait for us to tell them what direction to go, in opposed to allowing them to make a mistake and not freak out and allowing them to learn from that mistake and empowering them, giving them the trust, creating a true culture right by letting them decide, make the decisions, they make the decisions. This saves time and builds trust. Trust is, trust is the only way to build a high performing team. If I didn't trust the amount of people in this building that that that we trust, that I trust, dude, we wouldn't be, we wouldn't even be a blip on the radar. I mean, it would be so pathetic.

Ty Cobb Backer: 35:46

You know, and I watch companies that think that are going to grow quick, they're going to grow fast and they blow up dude, I probably did. To grow quick, they're going to grow fast and they blow up dude, I probably did. I'm not even going to say numbers. I was going to say our, our revenue at one point in time where I was like, if I tell people that maybe I'll do a one-on-one with somebody, let them know like I killed myself and I was screaming why aren't we growing? Go, go, go, grow, grow, grow. I've talked about that before when I had three fingers pointing back at me. When I'm pointing at everybody else, that was the blame game.

Ty Cobb Backer: 36:28

Anyhow, I got a story fortunately or unfortunately where this was a perfect example of allowing people to make decisions at the forefront, allowing people to make decisions out in the field, to having trust, having a good culture and everyone knowing the intent. So we, we opened up a roof and, uh, storm come rolling through. I mean got, we got slammed. I it might have been like 10, maybe 15 chance of rain that day and it was a coastal storm come rolling in and the roof was cracked wide open, phones blew up, tensions were high. I mean it was a freaking disaster, but the old us would have stumbled and we would have started blaming, we would have started pointing fingers, it would have been crazy.

Ty Cobb Backer: 37:11

But instead we prioritized and we executed, stabilized safety, covered the roof with tarps, communicated with the homeowner and we protected the valuables. The team on the ground went into action and, because every person knows the company's intent, decisions were made on site. We didn't save the day with heroics, okay, but what we did do is we saved it with the ownership and a system and I don't know what other perfect, most beautiful example of what it is that we've built, what we've cultivated Because that's any roofing person's nightmare outside of installing the wrong person's roof, which we've done, we've installed the wrong colored shingles on people's roof, which we've done and those are all stories that I know for a fact that we just did it instead of running from it and not answering the phone or turning it over to the insurance or whatever. We've taken so many things on the chin, to the insurance or whatever. We've taken so many things on the chin.

Ty Cobb Backer: 38:16

But what we have been able to do through those times, though, is reflect on what did go right, what went wrong, what went right, what can we do better next time, and that's like the three-step process. You know what I mean Like okay, we checked the weather, that was good. You know what I mean. Should we have more tarps on backup? You know what I mean. Should we have more TARPs on backup? Should we? You know what I mean. It's just reviewing what went wrong, what actually went right and what can we do better next time. So that leads me to pillar three organizational health. Healthy teams outperform smart teams that are unhealthy, and here's how I believe we've been able to manage that right.

Ty Cobb Backer: 38:58

And it's five habits, and I'm still kind of working through the five habits, but I have put a name to the habits. And the habits is first. One is vulnerability. Okay, vulnerability creates trust. Eaters go first. I messed up. Here's my fix empowerment. Trust is the only way to build high performing team.

Ty Cobb Backer: 39:21

Okay, and I'm reviewing the things. Basically I'm summing them up into words of everything I basically reviewed already okay, it's vulnerability, empowerment, commitment, peer accountability and result. Okay, so commitment, commitment to each other and always doing the next right thing, no matter how painful it might be. That's our commitment, that's our commitment to each other, that's our commitment to our community. I don't really need to say any more about that commitment. Okay, peer accountability we hold each other accountable to the standard.

Ty Cobb Backer: 39:59

Our three-legged stool and we try to remove our feelings from it. We try to remove our decision making based upon somebody's short-term emotions. That's going to hinder the long-term goal, emotions that's going to hinder the long-term goal. And we're we're not necessarily results driven, but you know how. What I mean by results is is is our sr, sops and our kpis. We're tracking. We're tracking the results. Why? Not because we're micromanaging people, it's because so we can improve managing people. It's because so we can improve, we can speed the lead. We can get estimates done quicker, we can knock more doors, we can produce more jobs each week. We can get them done quicker, there's less callbacks, people are happier, our team's happier, homeowners are happier, which the ripple effect turns into relevancy. We will be relevant for a long time Along with the clarity playbook.

Ty Cobb Backer: 41:03

The clarity playbook is pretty much simple. It's like why do we exist? Okay, there's six competencies. Why do we exist? How do we behave? What do we do? How will we behave? What do we do? How will we succeed? What's most important right now and who must do what? So why do we exist? We protect families and grow people. Simple, right. We don't have to add the six core values to that, as long as you already know what they are. That pretty much sums it up. How do we behave? Humble, hungry and smart? Okay, that's how we hire. We hire smart people. Okay, not that skill sets matter, but character carries. Okay, what do we do? We do roofing exteriors right. Roofing exteriors craftsmanship that outlasts any storm and I'm using storm in terms of whatever shit show storm. Not necessarily mother nature, you know, but that's what we do. We do roofing and exteriors and craftsmanship, integrity and loyalty that will outlast any storm, right, and the commitment that we make to each other right, Going up to the five habits, the commitment that we have to each other, and all that good stuff. Will we succeed? Craftsmanship, ownership, humility as strategic anchors, craftsmanship and ownership right, that's what we do. We're a construction company and I think sometimes we forget that construction first right, quality and safety, quality and safety, quality and safety. I can't I can't express that enough. How will we succeed through craftsmanship, ownership, humility as a strategic anchor? So, what's most important right now? One company-wide priority everyone must be rowing in the same direction. Everybody needs to be on the same page, everyone needs to hear the core values, everybody needs to understand the core values and the way that they interpret it and they have to reach that destination. However, they reach that destination at least that that's my experience with that. And who must do what? Clear rolls and handoffs. Okay, clear rolls and handoffs, and that's definitely something that you know we've been working on. You know it's always something is breaking. Why? Because we're always moving, always growing. Shit's happening, man, we're making shit happen around here. So you know I could review a bunch of other stuff, but I was thinking about also the. You know, if anybody ever wanted to try to do this and how would they do it? Okay, by not just listening to this podcast. I started to lay out a 90-day sprint on how, unfortunately, it's taken me 17 years but I'm not saying your culture is going to change in 90 days. But it's definitely a good step in the right direction. But, like weeks one and two, draft your clarity playbook. Pick three behavioral non-negotiables and define what they look like on the job. Pretty simple, right. Draft a clarity playbook. Pick three behavioral non-negotiables okay and define what they look like on the job, which is definitely something that I know we need to work on as well. Right, and hopefully I can share this with somebody else and somebody who's listening.

Ty Cobb Backer: 44:53

Weeks three to six launch daily huddles. Right, we do daily meetings. I know everybody comes and meets lauren and and uh, glenn in the morning and and jeremy and everybody trying to figure out. So it's the, it's, it's the daily huddles, right, giving them direction. Weekly, we do our weekly meetings on, you know, and we do our monthly meeting. Right, and we review the company's intent. Right, we review mission statements. We review a core value. Somebody gets to read a core value and then explain to us how they have either used it in order, an example, or what it means to them, you know, and that kind of keeps everybody on the same page and thinking about the core values and stuff.

Ty Cobb Backer: 45:42

So, week seven through nine, you know, install a simple scoreboard, right, the five numbers that matter, you know. Start, start humble, hungry and do smart interviews. Weeks 10 through 13, run a half day off site for trust and strategy. Announce one, one number, one priority for the next quarter and cascade it. Right, we're not trying to boil the ocean here, right? We're just trying to change the rhythm on how things have been flowing, organized, you know, and this that's this good thing.

Ty Cobb Backer: 46:17

Okay, and I'm not trying to give anybody a loophole. Culture isn't static, it doesn't stay in one place. It kind of kind of goes. It's fluid, unfortunately, but that's good, because we grow and sometimes we need to experience pain and I can't express that enough. It kind of gets everywhere. Oh shit, gotta get back on the whoa, whoa, you know. So, um, it it's, it's fluid. So this isn't going to happen overnight, it's not going to happen in 90 days for anybody.

Ty Cobb Backer: 46:48

But it's a good start and as things start to crystallize for you, like they have for me over the years and I'm in, I'm in a good, pretty good headspace right now to to hit that next level, right, that next gear that I know the company has, that I know that I have. But again, I talked about me most, mostly on the personal development. If I want the company to reach and exceed or succeed to that next level, then it starts right here. What am I willing? What pain, what uncomfortability am I willing to put myself in? Under what lengths am I willing to go? I know I can go pretty deep on some shit and I'm ready. I'm ready, I'm ready to go to that next level, okay.

Ty Cobb Backer: 47:35

So we're not trying to boil the ocean here, we're just trying to change the rhythm. The rhythm will change the culture. Okay, at TC Backer, we don't just build roofs, we build people who build roofs. Okay, and when you build people, they build your business right, this way, bigger than I am, and that's where my paradigm started to shift, back in 2011,. 2012 was like whoa, whoa. This isn't just about me making ends meet Now, it's about everybody else making ends meet, you know, and then maybe a little extra right, a little more um and and having their goals reached and all that good stuff. So, if you don't take anything else from this, take this One decision three pillars, five habits, 90 days. Make one hard decision that proves your values. Okay, run on purpose, lead with ownership, protect organizational health, do the five habits and give it 90 days. So I believe that will conclude our podcast for today.

Ty Cobb Backer: 48:33

You guys have a great rest of your week. Man, I know I'm going to crush it. I'm going to kick ass, take names and I only wish the best for everybody out there. If you know anybody that might get something out of this, please, like love, share this with them. And if you haven't yet, give us a review. I don't even know if we've gotten any reviews yet on YouTube, facebook, whatever. Who's going to be the first? Who's going to be the first to give us a review? And, honest, the whole goodness freaking Beyond the Tool Belt review. Anyhow, I love you guys. Stop slacking slackers Till next week. You guys, keep it cool and enjoy this fall weather that's upon us. Peace.