Welcome And What We Are Building

Ty Cobb Backer 0:00

Awesome. And we are live building a company from the ground up. The grind, the growth, the marketing, the brand, the systems, and AI.

Speaker 0:09

We have a kind of a belief system that either we're gonna push you up or gonna push you out.

Ty Cobb Backer 0:14

I don't want to be around five other people that aren't pushing themselves to feet. That isn't about taking, but giving value first.

Speaker 0:23

Compensation follows contribution always. This is true authenticity. This is true. Every week, this is our story. We share with you our journey, we share with you our scars. Please welcome your host, Ty Cobb Backer.

Ty Cobb Backer 0:36

We are joined by Adam McChesney, founder of Builders of Authority, someone who has built businesses from the ground up, sold an autoglass company, and is now involved in the roofing space. Hopefully, I'm not divulging too much information here. But uh today we're gonna talk about talk about what it really takes to build something from zero, the hours, the sacrifice, the marketing, the brand, the systems, and how AI might fit into all of that. So, Adam, my man, how are you?

Adam 1:10

I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on again and uh grateful to be here.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:15

Yeah, no doubt, man. We're grateful to have you on the show for sure. It's been two, maybe three years. It's been a minute. It's been a minute. Lots lots happened. Yeah, same. Same, same here, same with us. I think we were getting ready to pack up and head on like the roofing convention tour. We actually at that time, I remember we were in a warehouse, like a big ass warehouse that we had to rent. Unfortunately, we had to rent the whole thing out to pack all of our equipment in that we were taking on the road with us because for two solid roofing conference seasons, um, we traveled to every single roofing conference with our podcast. And so it was just easier for us to lease out a warehouse, set everything up, fix what was broken, because you know, hauling everything to all these shows, and and we had a pretty good setup then. But we actually were were live with you at at that warehouse, and we ended up hosting like a company party there, I think maybe the day before or even during. I think we did like a uh a live broadcast in studio audience type of uh party for our company, and and you were what we were going live with you while that was all going on in the background. So that was pretty cool.

Adam 2:28

That's awesome.

Sacrifice Required To Start From Zero

Ty Cobb Backer 2:29

Yeah, yeah, man. So it's good. So I'm sure a lot of things have changed. We talked briefly yesterday about some of your up-and-coming things that you got going on. I'm super excited to to talk to you about some of that. So so let's let's dive right back in. Let's dive right into all of this. So, you know, when when people hear, you know, um I want to build a business from the ground up, they usually picture you know, freedom. They they you usually picture like success, but but when you lived it, what did what did what did it actually demand of you? Okay, and and and and from the beginning, like what give us from the beginning, like what did it demand of you and the sacrifice that you had to go through?

Adam 3:16

Yeah, I mean, I think the word sacrifice is the best way to explain it is you have to sacrifice the life you previously had in order to get the life that you want. And so since we've last talked, I've rebuilt a second marketing agency after exiting my first one um back in 2024. Uh, we sold our auto glass company that I literally built from scratch from a simple Weebly website I built in 2018 that I was originally selling the leads for uh to a local guy, and then there were so many leads he didn't want to pay me uh what it was worth. And I own the asset. So I just said, hey, I'm gonna go get in the autoglass space. And then since then, uh we've uh we sold that company on October 1 of 2025, and on the same day launched our roofing company that we're uh equity partners up in in Long Island, New York. So um, a lot of people, right, they want something, but they're not necessarily always willing to pay the price required. And so sacrifice, I think, is the best way that I can explain it of that old version of who you previously were, in order to be required to actually be the person that is needed to run the new company or run multiple companies or play a role inside of uh being a business owner and having equity in multiple companies.

Ty Cobb Backer 4:35

Yeah, man. Wow, you nailed that, man, for sure. Because man, I've done I've done a lot of the same things. And that's why I use the word strategically, you know, uh sacrifice, because you you're sacrificing, you know, your time um away from your family, you know, uh a lot of times you don't know which direction to to go in and you're working on the wrong things, and you know, trying to navigate through, you know, those early stages of entrepreneurship, you know, it's it I know for me it was it wasn't easy. And I was afraid to ask a lot of questions because I wanted people to think that I knew all the all the right answers and and and I didn't, however. Um, but when when you think back to to that stage, was it was it more exciting or or more overwhelming for you back then?

Adam 5:25

I think probably excitement over the overwhelming part because anytime you have a new thing, right, you have no idea how it's gonna go, but you are so full of energy and so full of optimism that you have all the answers, you think so, at least, right? And then when you're in the midst of it, that's when it becomes you know overwhelming. Right now, our our agency, 100 clients, 42 team members, that's all been grown in the last 18 months. We sell the autoglass company, that was like my baby project, and then I become uh you know an equity partner in a roofing company that's up in Long Island, New York, and I'm in St. Louis, and so you see kind of the other side of the coin in the contracting space, which is typically most of our clients in the marketing agency, and you just are constantly learning, but you're constantly having to be overwhelmed a little bit and evolve because everything you're doing, like I wake up every single day right now, and I'm at a new level than I've ever been at before. So you're gonna have that overwhelming aspect, and it's about how you can control your mindset, how you control your body, how you control how you show up on a daily basis and control the uh the uh the controllables.

Ty Cobb Backer 6:39

Yeah, yeah. Early on, you had mentioned uh becoming uh how did you say it, becoming something that you didn't realize you had to become. I some something like that. And and that that that resonates with me because there were skills and and mindsets and and things that I didn't even know existed, and I didn't even know who I needed to become at that time. So let's unpack that a little bit. So give us give us some description of like like some of the early um struggles um in the beginning where like you you had to learn something new about yourself and and or some type of technology or tools or or techniques that that you had to go through in order to to get through that hump.

Delegation Without Losing Control

Adam 7:25

Yeah, and I think uh a lot of it comes back down to, and I can't remember where I saw this quote. A bunch of business owners were sharing this quote maybe like a month or two months ago. Uh, and it might have been Sarah Blakely uh that shared it. It was something along the lines of business ownership is going to highlight your weaknesses or your trauma or all of your you know pitfalls, right? And I couldn't, I don't think that there's a better way to explain all of that. And so as you grow the business, you add more team members, you add more clients, you add more overhead, you add more revenue, you add all of those things, and then you have multiple businesses now that you're involved in. It does require you, if you want to be a business owner, to actually delegate and trust other people. And then if you don't do that, right, it will showcase and highlight and bring to the forefront your weaknesses. And so, in doing that the first time, go around building businesses. I really struggled to delegate and to trust other people, not because I knew that I was necessarily the best at everything inside the business, but I was scared to relinquish control and then give up that control and then delegate properly. So I've kind of been forced into doing it now because I've learned some of those hard lessons building uh uh an agency the second time, but it's also just been that aspect of uh learning from my mistakes and learning that hey, you need to offload some of these things from your plate sooner rather than later, because one, I know what I enjoy and don't enjoy, and two, I know what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. The quicker you can learn those things and then take action on them is probably the biggest piece of advice that I'd share to somebody. And I see it a lot with contractors where they don't want to move themselves too far away from certain aspects of the business, and it's not necessarily because they love doing it, it's that they struggle to delegate and relinquish the control because they're trying to be perfect. Well, when you do that, you're gonna reach a ceiling because you can't be everywhere inside the business. And if something happens to you, you want to take a vacation, you want to go to a trade show or an event to level up your life and business. Well, the business doesn't necessarily run without you, and you've kind of just created a job for yourself.

Ty Cobb Backer 9:46

Yeah, amen to that. And I think a lot of us struggle with that, you know, learning how to delegate because for me, I thought, you know, nobody can do it as well as I can. You know, and I don't know if that was just fear or arrogance or ego, probably all of it for me. And I think the biggest thing after I had learned that, you know, I needed to start delegating. My mom actually said something to me. She she had lived with us right up to the to the day that she passed. We were taking care of her. My wife was actually taking care of her mostly. And uh, we were out to eat one night, and this was she had passed, I think this past February was 14 years. So going back, man, 14 plus years ago, when she was still with us, we were sitting at uh, I think a Texas Roadhouse, and my phone was was everything that was the business. It was like I had all the calls came through it, everything, all the all the issues, all the wins, the losses, the stresses, everything came through my cell phone. And I was always on my phone and it rang. We were sitting at dinner, and I at that moment I was beating myself up like bad because here's my wife who's exhausted from you know helping take care of my mom. And at that time, Jana was with me full-time in the business, and uh, we decided, you know, around that same time, my son, my oldest son, uh just had um our first grandchild. And my mom, we decided, hey, come live with us. So Jana removed herself from the business and became like a caretaker for my mom and and a stay-at-home grandmother. So I was feeling bad for her. I wasn't spending enough time with my mom, and and just I felt like I was feeling at everything at work. Like I was spread so thin, and I was I was doing 15 different jobs, literally 15 different jobs that created, you know, um 12 full-time jobs once I once the light bulb went off. But she said to me two things. The phone rang. I I looked at her, I looked at Janet, I looked at my phone, I was like, shit, do I actually get up and answer the phone? I elected to hit the red button, which I never did back then. And she looked at me and she said, Tyrus, that's my full name, Tyrus. Only only my mom calls me that. Um, you need some help. And man, she had no idea how much help I really needed between mental health, physical, spiritual, I mean, all of it. And she said, the second thing that she came that came out of her mouth was is that life is entirely too short. So at that point in time, I went on a mission, and I guess my question for you out of all that, so I went on a mission to find the right people to delegate things to. So when you were talking, it made me think my next question to you, but I didn't want to cut you off, was is how did you know that you were delegating to the right people? Because I know for me, I went to the ringer at first. So, how did how did you know you had the right people around you to start delegating stuff to?

Adam 12:46

Man, I think we've all go through the ringer. You you don't know, and so and I think that's a hard thing, too, is because you do, you know, you're you're hiring somebody and you're hiring multiple people to take different things off your plate, and you're like, I want it to be perfect because um this the only other person that's really touched it has been me or somebody close to me. And so there is gonna be trial and error, there are gonna be people that you have to fire or that they leave, or you just need to part ways with for whatever that reason might be. Um, and so part of it is just knowing that that is still a possibility. Like you can interview the greatest person and they can tell you all the things that uh you want to hear, and then they could even be good for a period of time and it not work out. And so part of it is that was my mindset the first time is like I thought, oh my gosh, it's gotta be perfect. And I got lucky with some early hires, but then I had some not so good hires. And so now I just go into it knowing that hey, I'm gonna try to make the best decision with the information that I have to put those right people in the right places, but that it still might not work out, and so I think changing my mindset on that has come from the lessons, the mistakes, and the money that's been um, you know, expend, uh, you know, invested, if you will, um, in some of those wrong places. But I think that that's entirely like normal and okay. What's not okay is waiting too long or waiting for a perfect time or thinking that it's gonna go perfect, um, and and doing it. Like that, that's the part that I think a lot of people struggle with.

Ty Cobb Backer 14:15

So, what safety nets do you put in place if it doesn't work out?

Adam 14:19

Yeah. So I think now it's easier than ever before to build out SOPs, processing systems, checks and balances, KPIs with all the technology that's out there. So I always look at it as I'm building with this person, but I'm really building whatever it is behind the scenes. So in that way, I still know what's going on. The rest of the team still knows what's going on. And if somebody, I mean, we had somebody that had to have uh surgery a couple weeks ago and they were out for two weeks. Well, they're not gone forever, but they had the surgery that we weren't anticipating doing that. If we didn't have those SOPs, if we didn't have guidance, if we didn't have structure, you know, that would have sucked too. So I think part of it is just building the system behind the business so that the business can operate like no differently than you're building out your business as a business owner to make sure it can run without you as the CEO. You need to have those checks and balances, those processes and systems in place for any position inside of your company.

Getting Traction With Consistent Marketing

Ty Cobb Backer 15:20

Yeah, for sure. For sure. That was definitely something we went from real quick, I should say no, it forever took forever. We went from, you know, hearsay training. I call it hearsay, where somebody comes in and tell them what to do, and then that's it. And then you come back and they didn't do what you asked them to do, and they're like, Well, you didn't tell me that. And it's like, well, yeah, I did, but you just didn't listen to me. We document everything, document, document, document, document, document. I mean, as if they're four-year-old. You know, you you gotta you gotta write things out, do videos, looms, whatever you have to do to document everything. And like you had mentioned, SOPs, KPIs, and and core values, you know, those are our three pillars, our three, three, three, three legs on our stool, you know, and that's something that took me a long time to to to create, was, you know, because once you go down that rabbit hole of SOPs, man, it just doesn't, it never stops. They're never static to begin with. You know, it's just like you gotta start someplace. So if anybody's out there listening right now, and you get overwhelmed. And and I know I did, I got overwhelmed. Like, where do I start with the SOPs? You know what I mean? Like everything needs an SOP. And I mean, from higher onboarding SOP to offboarding SOPs to to um handling complaints over the phone, you know, I mean, every and everything in between, like from the sales process to the I mean, there's so many different things. And we I'll be honest with you, I think I drug my feet for the longest time because I didn't really know where to start. And and once we started, it it started going then. And then we realized that we needed an SOP on how to create an SOP. And it was just like, I mean, there was so much, and it still is, it's very fluid, you know, as as you know, what we did last year is not the same as what we're doing this year kind of thing. And and um, you know, because things evolve, things change, technology gets smarter, you know. Um, we need less people to do things faster. It's just that all these things change and stuff. So so once once you were putting, you know, getting back to the the to the early days, um so you know, you were putting in the hours and and you were surviving that early grind. The I guess the next question becomes, you know, how how did you actually start to get traction in your business?

Adam 17:38

Yeah. Um, so I think when it comes to getting traction in the business, it was I had to get very, very uncomfortable about putting myself out there. So my background is in medical device sales, and I sold CPAP equipment, devices, masks, ventilators before they were super popular in COVID. And I managed a $25 million a year territory in the state of Missouri. And so, with that, though, in the CPAP space, there's one competitor that I have on CPAPs, there's two or three competitors on masks, and then like a couple of different competitors on ventilators. So, my whole goal was I needed to go grow my book of business. A lot of it was meeting with physicians, upselling people, getting them to script our stuff, and then trying to get durable medical equipment companies to switch over to us, but people already knew who we were, right? And so they had to also buy from one of those options. It wasn't like there's 10 options, even. And so when I went out uh back in 2020 and started to really push uh me being a full-time entrepreneur doing digital marketing, there's hundreds of thousands of options that people could go when they're they're hiring somebody for marketing, right? And some people don't have anybody doing marketing, so it's not like everybody needs what I offer too. And so I had to get on social media. And for the last five and a half years, I've been posting nearly every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. I have my own podcast, my own YouTube channel. I do a lot of different content, and so it required me to step outside of my comfort zone because I nobody knew who I was, right? And so that's where I got a lot of growth and traction early on, but I just didn't quit. A lot of people get seduced by success, right? It doesn't matter if it's marketing, it doesn't matter if it's sales, it doesn't matter what aspect of the business is in. You have a little bit of success, and you're like, Well, do I really need to keep doing this? Like, I'm at a good spot now. And I just had the mindset from day one is like, I'm gonna keep doing this time and time again, no matter how many times I don't want to do it, no matter how many times I make a post and it gets very few likes or generates no business, I'm gonna keep doing it because I have enough data to know that if I keep doing it, whatever I'm looking to accomplish in the future is gonna be a big component of that personal brand, business branding aspect.

Ty Cobb Backer 20:00

No, I love that. That's so good. And you talked about consistency and and and the the not overnight success of putting yourself out there continuously for five years straight, you know, because I think a lot of people, you know, ask that question like, well, how long do I have to do this? And it's like forever. You know, this is kind of what you signed up for. And if if that's not what you signed up for, maybe this isn't for you. So, you know, and that's where things start to get really interesting because you know, once once you get a little bit of a of traction or attraction, I guess, marketing stops feeling optional and starts to become the engine. And I want to unpack, I want to unpack that a little bit with you, you know, what what actually drives attention and trust. Um, you know, when you know, when you're looking at building a company today, how important is marketing compared to um like operations and sales? Yeah.

Adam 20:58

Well, I think today in it in its day and age, it's easier to get traction with marketing than ever before if you stay consistent, put enough money to it, uh, give it enough time and runway. Like there's enough attention to still be had out there. But on the flip side of that, right, people have been in their ways for a very long period of time. I'm not gonna invest in this, I'm not gonna post on social media, I'm not gonna go do that. But you're seeing companies now, and I think you've seen it between all the different private equity stuff and all the different ways people start businesses now, whether that's franchises, again, private equity buying up businesses, people that have no experience in an industry starting a roofing company, it's really more marketing and sales organizations, marketing first, typically, or sales first, that then add in all the other layers that just so happen to be in the roofing industry, in the deck building space, whatever that might be. And so um, it used to be you had to be so good at the craft. And an expert at the craft in order to build the business and be successful. Now it's kind of the other uh side of the coin where people are going into markets and just doing really good marketing, and then they're able to sell from there to make everything else worth it.

Personal Brand That Builds Trust

Ty Cobb Backer 22:16

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. A long time ago, someone said to me, You're no longer a roofing company, you know, that that does marketing. You you're a marketing company that does roofing. And that really clicked with me because we really have had to become, you know, especially in our industry, the our market is so saturated with roofing contractors. And everybody's got the same message, the same, you know, logo looking house over their name. And unfortunately, I'm guilty of that too. However, I probably have been in business much longer than everybody else. And I do got some regrets about the logo and stuff. And we did rebrand a little bit several years ago, but I didn't want to get too far away from it because it works. Um, but we really had to put ourselves out there and and figure out a way to separate ourselves, you know, to to break through all that noise and static out there and differentiate ourselves. And and I and I think uh there's a lot of technology out there that that's helped us along the way, you know, to be able to do that, um, you know, to get through. And like you said, we stayed consistent with it. And we still do, you know, stay consistent. And, you know, I've created, I didn't realize how important, excuse me, um, you know, personal brand versus um, you know, the company brand. Um, I didn't realize how important that was till, you know, several years ago and putting myself out there and and continuously putting myself in uncomfortable situations, like, you know, just as simple as like doing the podcast, you know, how uncomfortable that was for me for the longest time. And and sometimes, quite frankly, it still is, but that's why I still do it because it like I'm continuously putting myself in uncomfortable uncomfortable, you know, situations. Um, you know, whether it's an interview, not not knowing anything about that person, doing my due diligence, doing my research, doing my, you know, it's it's work. Like I can't just plug and play. And but but the the payoff to that is is you know, we're we're on YouTube, which is connected to our company brand, and that gives a lot of video, a lot of content, a lot of things, and it actually gives us the authority in our space over just about anybody in our market. It's like, wow, they Google us. You can Google my name, and it it outranks Ty Cobb the baseball player, literally does. When you Google Ty Cobb, at least in our area, I don't know what it is around the world or the country, but in our area, if you Google Ty Cobb or Tyrus or TC Backer, you know, Ty Cobb doesn't even show up for like 15 pages, and he he was like the world's greatest baseball player, you know. So that that tells you something, but he didn't do as many live videos as I have either. You know, he didn't have that technology back then, but anyhow, um, that would that was good. So I guess moving over to personal brand versus um, you know, is is personal brand moving faster today than than a company brand?

Adam 25:13

Yeah, I mean, I think I tell people all the time it'll take you about 90 days of consistency building out your personal brand, and it'll take about 18 months to do that on the business branding side. Now, a lot of that has to go down to the algorithms on social media, Facebook, trying to eventually get you as a business to get frustrated and say, hey, I'm just gonna pay ad dollars. Uh, so that that's kind of the behind the scenes there. Now, there's some outliers to that. If you have something that goes viral or you're just uh a kind of a diamond in the rough type of unique business or situation, but in reality, like people still, especially with all the AI stuff that's out there, people still buy from people in businesses that they know, like, and trust. And so when they can connect to the person behind the business and the person that's creating content, you have an unlimited amount of potential there. And so I gave uh one of my roofing clients here in St. Louis, I presented to their sales team um on Wednesday this week. And with that, right, we do all their digital marketing, so we do their website stuff, SEO, paid ads, the fun stuff, right? But I told their sales reps, I said, Hey, you guys as a company, right, have 700 plus Google reviews. You're working at a company that has an incredible brand, and some of you aren't posting at all on social media. You have people that you're friends with, family members, people that you've been maybe friends with on Facebook for 10 years that don't even know what you do, and so the more consistent you can post, right? You're not just gonna eventually probably earn their business, but when they know what you do, and somebody else in their network posts on Facebook in a Facebook group, whatever, and says, Hey, I need X, Y, and Z done with my roof, you're likely gonna have a chance that they're gonna think of you and then go tag you. So it's about creating that ever-evolving flywheel that it's not people ask me all the time, business branding or personal branding? What's better? Say both. You know, you kind of have both of them if you want to build something, especially as a business owner, that's worthwhile beyond just who you are, but the low-hanging fruit is in your personal brand and your reputation.

Ty Cobb Backer 27:29

Yeah, yeah. No, that's good. So, what what kind of what kind of actual content builds trust?

Adam 27:37

So, I think it's not gotta it can't be all about the business, right? So, I typically tell people if you're gonna post a couple times a week, make sure like 80 to 90 percent of it is not necessarily you just posting a picture of a project you just completed and saying, Hey, here, come buy my stuff. But it's about tying in the personal aspect of who you are, what you're doing in business, going out, highlighting other businesses, getting people to know who you are beyond the business is extremely important. And then you weave in 10 to 20 percent of the time, hey, here's cool stuff that we're working on, here's what we do, here's why we're the best. But then, in that, right, you got to make sure that you're continuing to show up and provide value, right? So, education, not selling, storytelling, not selling, uh answering questions that are frequently asked from your customers, not selling, being active in the local community, giving back in ways that don't necessarily on paper look like you're selling anything, but you're getting your brand out there so more people know I can trust you.

Ty Cobb Backer 28:44

Right on. No, I love that. I love that so much. And and I was hoping you were gonna say something along those lines because I know when we did our first um fearless 44 challenge, I'm sure you're familiar with that. Um, that requires us to go live for two minutes for 44 straight days. And I I still hate it. I still like, oh my god, what am I gonna talk about for like 44 days? But not even knowing what that was actually doing for not just me personally, but for my brand and for the company in itself. And I wasn't there selling myself, I was just I was with my grandchildren. If we were on vacation, if we were wherever we were, was usually my topic of like, yeah, we're here chilling out with da da. And and so many people just loved that raw, authentic, you know, it wasn't prescripted, it wasn't, it was just in my wife, and she is so adorable too. And she's like, Oh man, she she can't stand doing it, but she doesn't know how authentic it is because she usually still watches our grandchildren almost uh with three. We got three, two more on the way, five total. Um, so she's kind of grandfathered, no pun intended, into the uh um stay-at-home grandmother now. Um, but um, so she was a lot of the times with our oldest, or actually our third, our third grandchild, and those two were just a freaking riot. And people would love it. Like people were like, Oh my god, you guys are done tomorrow. No, please do another one. She was getting more traction from them than I was because those two were just so hysterical and so unscripted and so real. And I think people can really relate to that, where you know, a grandmother struggles, a mother struggles, um, you know, the cuteness of a grandchild, the the just the family life, and they want to know who you are, you know, that's because for the longest time I I posted only business stuff, nobody even knew anything about me. You know, and it's like, yeah, you can trust a brand, but man, you can go so much deeper when you're actually posting, you know, family pictures, pictures of your dog, you know, things like that. But like video content, I think for me, at least from my experience, you know, like the fearless 44 or going live on a roof, you know, literally going live. Like I've gotten so much, you know, attention or attraction from going live. And of course, you know, posting pictures, you know, on your website and stuff like that. That's all good stuff, and it's and and hopefully it's organic stuff. Um, but I think the more organic that you can keep things, I think the more real that you keep it, I think the more traction you're gonna get.

Speaker 3 31:30

Absolutely. It's all about it. Well, and again, even more so today, now with all the AI slot that's out there, is authenticity is going to be at some point the differentiator. And it's always kind of been the differentiator, but it was like, oh, hey, now everybody's you know showing up on camera, everybody's doing it. Well, now there's so much AI stuff that's out there, the AI was kind of the secret sauce in the beginning, and now it's like so overwhelming that it's gonna go back to the human interaction and then go back to the authenticity.

What Breaks When You Grow Fast

Ty Cobb Backer 32:01

Absolutely, absolutely. Yep, I I agree, I agree, I agree for sure. Um, I do have some AI questions for you, but I don't want to get there yet. I want to, I wanna, I want to shift from lead gen to to company building first. Um, you know, because that you know, your your name and and every just that brand, yeah. I love brand, I've always been a brand kind of guy and and versus uh marketing. But anyhow, so I want to shift from from lead gen to to company building. What so what what trends um would would break a company first? Um I mean, what what tends? I'm sorry, what what tends to to break uh first when a company starts to grow, like from your experience? Like what was breaking?

Adam 32:47

Yeah, you I mean, usually the operations and the client experience, because people can get excited, right? Hey, we're bringing in more leads, we're selling more, we're doing all that, but if the production side can't keep up, uh or the operation side can't keep up, that's where things tend to break. And then even before that, typically is like lead handling. So if people get more leads in, right, but you're not responding to them, yeah, the the numbers might look great on the marketing side, but if you're not actually able to answer the phone, send out uh estimates, do all that stuff, that's gonna be equally as uh as you know negative to the to the company. So usually as that happens, something breaks, and it's usually the back end of the business.

Ty Cobb Backer 33:31

For sure, for sure. So, what what what was the first hire that really changed things for you?

Adam 33:38

So the the first time in business, it was somebody that became my director of operations that started to take off a lot of the familiar with the EOS, the the integrator aspects of the business. Um, so that was running my first agency, first key hire over there. And then this time around, the first person I hired was just an executive assistant, and so that was super impactful. It was almost what you get out of a an integrator or somebody in uh director of operations role or a uh COO type role, uh obviously without all of those responsibilities, but just starting to delegate the little things that were taking up my time to be able to go do what I do best, and so um I read uh Dan Martell's book, Buy Back Your Time, and that kind of changed my thought process around everything. So, two different kind of angles I've taken, and and uh you know they both worked out.

Ty Cobb Backer 34:31

No doubt, no doubt. Where do you think most business owners wait too long to delegate?

Adam 34:37

I think in the the sales side, um, especially if somebody's been um selling their entire life, right? And that's something that was the last thing I delegated really this time around to is one, I like selling, I'm good at it. Uh, and it's also comfortable for me. So a lot of business owners are sales-oriented individuals, and so it's usually the last thing that they take off of their plate, and some people still do it. Uh again, it kind of goes back to the aspect of if you go away, vacation, something happens to you, you get sick, even if the operations is good, you have a project manager, you have all your crews, et cetera, the marketing's working fine, but you're the one that has to close the deal, that can be difficult as well. So I'd say that aspect of it, and then the first thing that they usually struggle uh to do, but a lot pe a lot of people are easier to let go of that is the actual work itself. Like you got to get away from that in order to truly grow a business, and then eventually you got to stop selling.

Ty Cobb Backer 35:37

Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I know I I I agree. Sales, sales for me was tough. Like I said, everything went through my phone, and and uh there was a lot of clients that would only want to deal with me too.

Adam 35:49

Yep.

Ty Cobb Backer 35:49

There early on, it was really hard to get them away from me and and get them to trust, you know, my right-hand man or or whoever at that time that I had hired to to kind of fill my shoes in a couple of different aspects of things, and and uh, you know, and I didn't realize how many bottlenecks that I created within within the company. And and so what where where do you where how I guess um how do I want to say this? How how do you know whether um a bottleneck is is a people problem or a system problem?

People Problems Versus System Problems

Adam 36:29

Yeah, I mean, I it's a great question. I think when you realize it's a people problem, and as the business owner, you're typically creating a lot of those bottlenecks, as you mentioned. Um usually when you bring somebody else in. So we found a whole slew of bottlenecks in our sales process. Once I brought a salesperson in, that's hey, this is all I'm doing all day long. You're getting in my way here, you're doing this wrong. We have a process for this, and you're the owner and you're not even following it. Because as the owner, we're like, I've been doing it this way all along. It works just fine. Let's figure out the rest later. So, usually it's when you you figure out it's a system problem when you bring another person into it, you realize it's a problem when you have that system ready to go. You put somebody in that system, you have clear and defined KPIs, and they're just not meeting it. So, usually that's where you find it's a people problem where you give them all the tools and resources to be successful and they're still not hitting their numbers. Um, so those are kind of the two different aspects there.

Ty Cobb Backer 37:31

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I never knew if it was a you know a people problem until we had systems and processes in place, you know, and with having systems and processes in place, now you know if either the system and process might need tweaked, or if it's if it's a people problem, you know, in a in a you know, a person's pro, you know, people problem can be anything from incompetence to lack of training to, you know, and it helped us identify, especially early on, like, is my training crappy? Am I not training well enough? Are they not getting it? Because I'm not I'm not one apt to, you know, fire or let go people right away, you know, but but I never knew what the issue was until at least we started to document something, whether it was right or wrong, like just document things. And that's I'm saying that to anybody out here listening that might be thinking about starting a business or somebody that's early on in business, not you know, wondering why they can't grow. And it's one first and foremost, one, you're probably not delegating enough stuff, surrounding yourself around smarter people in your business, okay, that are better at you know certain certain aspects and and tasks, you know. And I always revert back to you know, website design. Could I design our own website? Yes, I could definitely do that. But why would I do that when it would probably take me 30 days when I can hire a company or an individual within the company that would probably take three days and we could start getting Google reviews? You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, I can do all of these things, but I'm not very good at it, and it takes me twice as long. And I think when I really started to identify those things, where it was like, you know, I stopped looking at how I am going to do all of this and started looking at it in terms of like who am I going to get to do all of this for me? Yep. Essentially, and then all of a sudden, then I started realizing I went from solopreneur to entrepreneur because now I'm employing all of these people and I'm giving them an opportunity to grow, you know, and I and sometimes I find myself getting in the mix of things and I find it very selfish. I found it to be very selfish because okay, I'm gonna use snow plowing as an example. In the winter winter months, we we do snow plowing. Well, I get all geared up and I'm like, yeah, no, I'll do it. I want to do it. And it's kind of like, well, that's kind of messed up when I know Denny needs the hours. Yep, yep. You know what I mean? So it's kind of like now I actually get to step back and say, you know what, Denny, go and plow some snow. And I know it's not very technical or anything like that, but but but it it's me, I don't want to take away from anybody. And it's like today I have I get to empower other people and give them responsibility, and they hold me accountable because I got to make sure I'm providing enough work for everybody. So I I I I love business. Business is is such an amazing thing, and and entrepreneurship is has been one of the greatest things that I've ever got to experience. A lot of ebbs, a lot of flows, a lot of learning experiences, a lot of stepping into very uncomfortable situations and and and growing. Growing has been a continuous journey that I've been on and becoming somebody that I never even knew I could be, you know, or had to be if I wanted to sustain the longevity of a company. And and God forbid, I would hire somebody else smarter than me. Um, you know, so I gotta stay sharp so I can at least be as equally as smart and so I can speak intelligently to them about certain situations that might pop off every now and then. But anyhow, um, so if a business owner gets stuck because everything is still ran through them, what what do you think the first thing is that that they they they need to fix? Usually themselves. I was gonna say the same damn thing.

Adam 41:20

And so that that kind of goes through an audit process, right? Like even Dan Martell talks about it in that book. You hire a business coach, join a mastermind, they're gonna tell you a lot of the same things, right? So you have to be writing down right a list of things and putting pen to paper and naming it so you can then tame it of what is holding you back, things that you tangibly know, right, that are doing that. And that could be you know habits that you have personally, that could be habits or things that you're doing inside the business. And I always ask, I always tell people it's like, ask other people that know you well, like people that are inside of your company. Where am I making your life and job more difficult? And it's not maybe things you're adamantly doing on purpose, but they know, right? Things that you could be doing differently, or allowing them to take things off your plate so you can be better as the business owner and the business can run more efficiently. The second thing to that is asking for help. Go find somebody that's doing what you want to do and ask them. Most people don't have the courage to do that, or they're ashamed, or there's ego associated to that. I joined my first mastermind a month in to being an entrepreneur full-time because I knew that I wanted to condense the amount of time it was going to take me to go get some of these other places, and so you have to be willing, vulnerable, and uh you know, opportunistic about doing the work required to get to that next level. But it starts with you.

AI For Efficiency Not Replacement

Ty Cobb Backer 42:48

Yeah, no, great, great response. That's exactly what was going through my mind when I asked you that question because I think I know, I don't think I know for a fact I was the first thing that needed to be fixed. Yep, for sure. I had to I had to get humble or be humbled, and I think I was more so getting humbled, um, you know, by being tumbled most of the time, you know. Um yeah, and I still do sometimes. I I definitely get in the way and and need to learn to get out of the way. And you know, great leaders know how now how to also follow too. And um, you know, and I and again, I love nerding, nerding out on entrepreneurship and leadership and stuff like that. But um, anyhow, so I I I also think this is where um the conversation changes um a little bit into 2026, you know, because of um today's technology and and I hear a lot of business owners not liking um AI, you know, they're afraid of it and and things like that. Um so it it it's forcing, I think, owners to to rethink how they need to operate. So um I guess digging into

Adam 44:00

uh with you because i know you nerd out on on ai quite a bit um at least i hope you do but i know you do because you're just you're that kind of person and being on the marketing and brand awareness forefront um where where where do you see ai um you know creating the most practical leverage uh for business owners right now so the mindset behind it needs to be efficiency versus replacement and so what i mean by that is find what again is taking up the most of your time where there's the bottlenecks ask your team the same thing and then go put that actual issue with tangible things that AI can then interpret and allow it to spit back ways in which you can become more efficient so we're talking about SOPs before a lot of times right you're sitting there and you're like man I got to write out this SOP I got to go do this thing talk into any one of the AI things and say hey I'm needing an SOP with this desired outcome here's our business where we're at who the team members are involved and just talk into it it's gonna spit it out in 90 seconds or less and it's gonna be way better than you would ever do yourself and somebody else is going to be able to go look at that and say okay that makes sense from there right a lot of people are trying to get the shiny object what can I go replace? Can I have it do my bookkeeping can I have it do my marketing have it create all my my social media posts can I have it be my business coach can I have it be my lawyer right can I have it like that's where everybody's going but there is a whole slew of things people aren't utilizing it for to become more efficient in the behind the scenes stuff. So in our company right now all three companies that we have uh either full ownership in like the marketing company or some of the contracting companies that we have equity in it's all about how can we empower our team to go do more with technology and information that's out there to make it more efficient so that that way they can have more time doing the things that they actually need to be doing not how can I go replace people to just go do all of the stuff that otherwise people would do. Yeah no doubt do you think that um people are overusing AI I think a lot of people are wasting time right so they're like man I got to go get all these different AI like all these different AI softwares I got to go test this out I got to go test this out and then they spend hours and hours and hours and hours with all these ideas right so entrepreneurs are typically visionaries. We have no shortage of business ideas what are ways to go change this and ways to go change that AI is making that worse because we're sitting there and going oh my gosh how could I do this or this this but we're not actually taking a look at hey what can I make better today that I go build or or um interpret or whatever with AI to go buy me back time right now. We're trying entrepreneurs are trying to solve all the world's problems with AI and it's allowing people to be louder because they're building out this random workflow that's never going to be implemented inside their business they're making a loom video they're saying hey this just saved me a bunch of time made me a bunch of money and people like oh that sounds really cool yeah for sure for sure what what what do you think should never be you know handled by AI man that's a uh a great question um I still think and and we have a lot of clients that have tested out the AI agents for answering calls and then also have clients that have done that and are now kind of reverting back to humans answering the phone again because they were getting so many complaints and they were getting all this different backlash and we're listening to the calls and we're saying hey like your customers are not very happy right now. Now if it's after hours or all those different things like you would not have somebody there to begin with yeah it's a nice layer to be able to have there I think most consumers are are aware that that's going to be a thing. But trying to replace some of the most impactful things on client experience on sales and answering the phone with AI 100% I think a lot of people are going to have to course correct after getting bash backlash a negative reputation and all those things. So getting back to that authenticity piece whether it's the content the marketing the sales that's still what makes you unique if you AI all of that's doing that. So you're gonna be lumped in with all the other people that are doing that too and not have kind of that unique brand um company differentiator if that makes sense.

Ty Cobb Backer 48:41

Yeah for sure for sure no great response that it that was a tough question because there's not much you can't use AI for or with so that was that was great. And I do agree with you wholeheartedly about you know I think I think we need that that personal connection you know with somebody answering the phone and we we use actually VAs to answer our phone. And sometimes that's even a struggle but um you know but but I think that that personal connection because I think I get annoy I know I get annoyed you know when I call something whether it's a credit card company or or whatever and it's like I know it's AI on the other end. You know um it's like I just need to speak to the operator please and it's like they don't they don't recognize my prompt like dude somebody human please human you know so I and I think you know but that's where the world's going and a lot of people are using it and I and it's getting smarter and at some point in time I'm sure it will be able to and I know it is you know at you know at this moment now able to speak intelligently back and have a conversation with somebody but but um you know so getting to um you know does do you think AI um makes trust in brand even more important than before I think it just amplifies what was already super important.

Adam 49:58

So I think some people were like well I don't really do I really need to build a brand whether it's personal or business do I really need to do this do I really need to do that it's bringing to the forefront what I think was always a differentiator. There's just now more eyeballs and attention on it.

Ty Cobb Backer 50:12

Yeah for sure for sure no I I I agree I agree wholeheartedly and I I really think if anybody out there is listening to this and and they're on the fence about using AI just know that your competition is already using it and has been for a while. I mean I we have people in this office that use ai for everything and like you said SOPs creating the KPIs uh man the the marketing the the content the the reels the the everything so speaking of which how how do you keep how do you keep um from sounding I guess robotic you know when when um you know there's so many companies out there that's using AI for marketing right now but but how how can a company use ai for marketing and not sound robotic?

Adam 51:07

Don't rely solely on it. So like even for my personal brand and our business brand I'm brain dumping ideas or feedback anything in there I'm saying hey go give me some framework here and it'll write a whole post if you want to but then I'm like okay I'm gonna take this first part maybe the hook is really good maybe the ending is really good but I'm gonna go put my own twist on it throughout so leverage it to ideate and help you kind of formulate what you're trying to do but don't replicate it because it's gonna sound AI and easy to pick up on those things. So allow it to guide you not drive you great no that's good that's that's so good.

Building Again After Selling Companies

Ty Cobb Backer 51:49

That was a great response to that yeah for sure because I see a lot of stuff out there there was um I don't know a company I've never even heard of and again our our market's pretty saturated with uh the roofing contractors and stuff like that and there was this I'm not going to mention any names but it went onto their Facebook page and it was all AI I mean there was no personal connection whatsoever. It was horrible AI generated pictures of construction workers wearing hard hats. I mean it it was it was just bad and then you can tell they were spending a lot of time on there by posting whatever content that they were putting on there but it just the content wasn't very good. And that's kind of where I came up with that question because you can obviously tell that a computer is generating all of that content and um I had realized that we were we I feel like I feel like we're in a pretty good place right now as far as being educated and moving you know as quickly as we can to to stay up on the whole AI thing right now because it's you know um roofing's a little bit barbaric. But we are trying to bring the professionalism to it too you know at the same time. So anyhow um you you've built sold um stepped into you know new ventures so I want to talk to you about you know what what changes when you're building again this time I would I would say um with with more experience so after you know you you sold what you sold the glass company you sold a a marketing company so you've actually got to sell two businesses so after selling um one company what did what did you see differently you know this time around yeah so on the marketing company side as I exited that and the partnership that I was in I had no intentions originally like when I went to them and said I want out that I was going to start another marketing agency.

Adam 53:52

But eight months went by and I was doing some coaching consulting CMO stuff you know whatever you want to call it I ended up getting so many people reaching out saying hey like I want to work directly with you again and so with that lapse in time I kind of started to think like if I was to go rebuild this what are all the things I would continue to do that I liked and what are all the things that I would do differently and so I had some time off from doing it and I just had a game plan from the get go and it's why we've been successful and growing and doing all that stuff way quicker more efficiently more profitable than I had it before because it was kind of my thing doing it the way in which I wanted to do so that's been my biggest thing is just getting super clear on what I want and don't want and then going from it and running there. Now on the other side exiting the the autoglass company right when I originally launched that I was the CEO in that company having never replaced or repaired auto glass and making all the decisions in that while also running the marketing company back then. And so eventually I got to a point in the autoglass company where I brought in my uncle to partner with me on that company and then we hired a manager to run that kind of like we were talking about before delegation knowing what you're good at knowing your strengths knowing your weaknesses and so that opened up my eyes to what would be possible when we eventually would get something like this again. So as we were exiting the autoglass company we had the opportunity to get equity in a roofing company and I'm really just playing the CMO seat inside of that company and then our team is doing the behind the scenes marketing branding advertising all of that stuff where I'm not physically running that company on a day-to-day basis. I'm not located there either I know my role I knew if I was going to open up another company in the future in the contracting or service business space it wasn't going to be me as the CEO but being a business owner and playing my role has allowed me to kind of focus on what I'm good at and our team to bring our unique twist to it. Yeah I love that I love that would you say it got easier the second time on the marketing side yeah yeah what what what would you say is still just as hard I mean just as hard as the evolution of being a business owner at every new stage so it took me about 15 months to hit a million dollars um of total revenue last time when I launched it which in the marketing agency space is still quick it took me about eight months to do it this time so I cut it down by about half but in the 2025 calendar year we surpassed a million dollars for the first time and we surpassed two million dollars so there's all these big milestones and growth things that are happening in a small period of time that requires me to evolutionalize at a quicker rate as the business owner and as the CEO. Yeah I love that congratulations on that too what what's one yeah you're welcome man that that's a heck of a freaking goal to accomplish there um what would you say is one mistake that you'll never repeat going into business with the wrong people amen I mean a lot of times you don't ask enough questions on the front end and that's some a lesson that I've learned you trust people that you thought that you know you could trust etc but a lot of it comes down to not asking the right questions or or seeing red flags and then ignoring them. But at the end of the day it comes down to you so like I needed to go through that and learn from those lessons very expensive lessons um because I wasn't at a point that I needed to be to do what I needed to do. So yes I mean there's all the different aspects and you everybody can blame everybody but you need to take complete ownership of your life and the decisions that you make and learn from those things so you can be better off which is what I've done.

Ty Cobb Backer 57:52

Amen to that man I've been through a couple couple situations myself and each time um I learned so much learned so much about myself I've learned to ask better questions I've learned to read the fine print I've learned so many different things to that and it's you know it's funny you know it's just one of those things with with being an entrepreneur you know we have to go through situations in order to become a better human being a better business owner you know better leader and all those things and at least for me that's how I grow and like you had mentioned man it's sometimes it's very very expensive a very expensive lesson that that we have to go through sometimes so but no we have to do it we have to go through it but partnership is definitely a it it is a tough one and I've I've learned that you know if if I if I'm getting in bed with somebody I need to ask better questions and they they have to be I know I need to know that they're they're a good fit because I'm you know I I'm not a good partner um you know especially if uh I don't if I don't have clarity I need I need a lot of clarity on uh responsibilities and accountability and and expectations I think was a big one that um I put on them and I put on myself and they didn't align.

Mindset Shifts For Real Ownership

Adam 59:12

So anyhow um all right so so to to wrap this up I want I want to bring it back to the audience um you know to to the owner in the trenches trying to build something real right now if if if someone is building from from zero right now what what should they what what do you think they should focus on first so I'm gonna say two things is one just know that it's likely going to take longer than you expect to achieve a desired outcome whether that's a revenue goal profit goal or whatever and it's gonna be more expensive than you originally thought to whether that's time sacrifices or actual money and resources a lot of people have a business plan right they have goals they want to set and then they get discouraged because it doesn't happen when they said it was going to happen. Very rarely does a plan come fully 100% to fruition when you thought or at the associated cost you were thought it was going to happen. And you have to be okay about pivoting and making those changes and making those moves. But from there right is just control what you can actually control and take it one day at a time. Again you have the big yearly goal well if you're not doing on a daily basis 365 days a year what's required to hit that yearly goal you're chasing a massive goal but not focusing on one day at a time yeah good response good good good good answer man that that's definitely so true so true and so what what do you think the biggest mind mindset shift required you know to go from self-employed to to true business owner is that somebody has to go through the uncertainty and the uncomfortableness but like being okay in that and and I struggle in the beginning like freaking out I don't have all the answers or this day sucked I lost money made a bad investment I hired the wrong person I did all that stuff it's about controlling your ecosystem and controlling your emotions when the bad things happen not if the bad things happen bad things are going to happen but it's about how you respond to that on the other end. So I think it's the mindset of being able to sit in that uncomfortableness and not just try to get through it because a lot of times when a situation's came up and I'm like man this sucks I never want to go through this again you try to rush through that you don't learn the lesson fully and then eventually that same thing that happened ends up circumventing on the surface again at some point if you don't actually fix and sit in that issue.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:01:58

Yeah for sure for sure getting getting through the hard times and and learning how to respond opposed to react I think was one of the biggest things and and not showing the poor side of myself when things would go down you know and and I think how I learned that was was watching other leaders or business owners re react to something very poorly you know and it's like wow you know I actually got to see myself and somebody else one time and it was like man I I don't I don't want to react or respond like that. I don't want to treat other people like that because of something that is out of our control. I think you know trying to keep a cool head even if you can't at least removing yourself from the situation for a minute to to try to clear your thoughts and and come back and be able to handle it you know uh more composed was was probably one of the biggest things and not making it worse by by my behavior. And I've done that unfortunately I've done that a lot where I've I've made a lot of a lot of situations that didn't have to be as bad as they were because of my behavior and how I responded to them whether it was you know homeowner owing us money to I don't know a lot of a lot of things I handled poorly especially early on that I had to I had to get through and and you know you learn you live and you learn um what are you gonna do you know yep well cool we're in this over an hour now um Adam this was awesome man I I appreciate you coming back on and and and really breaking down you know what what it takes you know to build from the ground up you know and and not just sharing your wins with us but you know the hours the pressure the systems and and the marketing and everything that you shared with us um and especially how AI you know fits into you know the future of business and that that we could have probably had a podcast on just AI alone.

Adam 1:03:58

Is there any final thoughts or anything that you want to leave our audience with man I think the this is another great episode so I appreciate you having me back on and and I love what you're doing. I love all the content that you create. I think the the biggest thing is is that um the if there was one piece that I could leave with everybody is just that hey if somebody else did it you can do it too. And and and just because I I say that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be easy doesn't necessarily mean that it's gonna happen tomorrow but look at again I kind of referenced it before look at people and the lives that they built or the businesses that they built and maybe sold or whatever like whatever your goals are look at that and just know it's possible. They may have had a different situation with potentially more money uh more resources or whatever but it doesn't mean it's unattainable and I think a lot of people say oh well they had this I can't replicate that it's all replicatable but you have to be willing to go do the work associated with what they did in order to get there and and to that because you're comparing yourself to somebody else or you're looking at that it doesn't mean that you know everything that that they had to do in order to get there. There's a whole story behind the scenes with chapters that are days long that you have no idea what they had to go through in order to go do that. So don't compare yourself but but know that it's possible because they did it and go figure out what success looks like to you.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:05:25

Absolutely do the work that nobody else wants to do and and don't judge your insides that everybody else's outside and just say this if I can do this anybody can do this. So yes sir cool good stuff man thank you for coming on the show and thank you everyone for joining us on this episode of Behind a tool belt don't forget to share like love subscribe and if you got anything out of this like I did please let us know. And we will see you next week for episode two twenty nine of Behind a tool belt thanks to our sponsors TC Backer construction hook roofing marketing roofful and pro

Speaker 2 1:06:00

Project Map It. And thank you for watching. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook. We are streaming on all major platforms. See you next week for another episode of Behind the Tool Belt.