Live From The Construction Expo

Ty Cobb Backer 0:02

And we are live. Welcome back everybody to episode three fifty-four behind a tool belt. We are coming to you live today from the South Central Construction Expo. That's a mouthful.

Chris Baker 0:17

I think that's South Central Construction Expo.

Ty Cobb Backer 0:19

South Central Construction Expo.

Chris Baker 0:20

Hosted by the York Builders Association.

Ty Cobb Backer 0:22

Yep. York County. Lori Lori, big shout out to her. We got the entire team here today. Got a nice little setup booth. If you haven't made it to one of these, I think this year is the actual third annual South Central construction expo. It's free administration. There were some keynote speakers this morning. I think there's going to be some seminars. They're serving munchies. I believe lunch will be served today too at some point in time around 12 o'clock. The expo floor is open from 10 a.m. this morning to 3 p.m. this afternoon. So if you are in the area, please. And if you're in the trades, I mean, not necessarily I don't think you necessarily have to be in the trades.

Chris Baker 1:10

Yeah.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:10

To come back to the case.

Chris Baker 1:11

There's benefit here for a lot, for a lot of different choice, honestly.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:15

Yeah, I think there is. I feel like I look very uncomfortable. I don't know what to do with my hands right now.

Chris Baker 1:19

I know, man. I I'm

Why The Expo Is Worth It

Chris Baker 1:20

seeing myself up there, and it's normally like from here up.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:22

Oh man, it smells good to sit here though.

Chris Baker 1:24

Yeah.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:25

So anyhow, Bake, it's been a minute since you've been on the show. You've been very busy. Busy, busy, busy. Why don't you I don't know, give us break it down for us a little bit here. But what what have you been bottling up since the last time you were on the little nuggets or things and tidbits?

Chris Baker 1:46

So I mean, work has been really good. Work has been really good, man. We've we've gotten through a lot of a lot of challenges and struggles with with everything going on in the the climate.

Ty Cobb Backer 1:57

Yeah.

Chris Baker 1:58

The team is growing, the team is flourishing right now, man. We've we've come to a point where it's like I feel like we've always had a really good process. We've been really good at putting the right the people in the right seats on the bus.

Ty Cobb Backer 2:11

Yeah.

Chris Baker 2:12

But now it's like, you know, fine-tuning everything and getting all the little bugs out. And you know, see seeing a lot of growth from a lot of the team members. And that's that's basically been it, man. I mean, it's it's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. And I can see us coming up over the hump of some of our challenges that we've been facing with. And we're busier than ever, man. So I got no complaints, bro.

Ty Cobb Backer 2:37

No doubt. No doubt.

Chris Baker 2:38

The team, the yeah, the team is great.

Ty Cobb Backer 2:39

No, it's

Work Wins And Team Growth

Ty Cobb Backer 2:40

good. No, it's a good topic in there. I, you know, as far as you know, everybody knows we we kind of just wing it and free ball it. And I like, I think I like the topic of uh overcoming adversity. Yeah. Because I think the moment that most people start to feel a little bit of pain, okay. Let's let's rewind that a little bit. I think a lot of people won't even get started due to the fear of failure. I don't know what that like they won't even they won't even start, okay? And then and now let's say they they get the courage to to to try something new, you know, start something, and then then there's a little bit of adversity, there's there's a little bit of resistance, there's a little bit of pain, and then a lot of people quit. And and you were talking about you know overcoming you know life's challenges. I mean, and this can be personally, this can be professionally, but I it it most of the time I think they work con they work simultaneously or I was gonna use the word conduitly, which yeah, they work in the same channel, you know, where we all are faced with challenges, okay. And if we can muster up enough courage to to get through that challenge, you know, and like you were talking about, you know, the things that we've learned and the challenges we've overcome, but there is no growth without pain. And and I think that would be a that would be a good topic for us today is to to talk about enduring the pain long enough until we we we sense the maybe I don't even want to use the word comfort, but like start start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and and and watching the things start to come to fruition when so many people told us that maybe we were crazy, yeah, you know, or that you're going to fail, all the doubters and the haters, and and everybody's like, Oh, you're crazy, man. Why are why are you doing this and why are you doing that? And it's like, or you should just quit. You should just stop. And and thankfully, and you've been riding shotgun with me for a long freaking time through personal challenges that I've overcame and I've watched you overcome them.

Chris Baker 4:57

And professionally, the challenges that we faced, whether it could be from COVID to price increases to price gouging, to you know, yeah, everything in between labor shortages and everything, many recessions, you know, the housing market, you know, and it's it's funny because we we always tell our team that you know we're not we're not necessarily a roofing company, man. Like there for a while there, we're like a marketing company. Um, you know, we have our hands in so many different things, and our brand sells us. It really does, man. It's it's it's the people that we have out there representing us. You know, you mentioned something about overcoming and not quitting and everything. I think it's really important to to know that number one, it's it's it's never supposed to be personal. It's supposed to always be business, but it is always personal. You know what I mean? We we put a lot of a lot of our our blood, sweat, and tears into this, man. We have a lot of people that that rely on us to show up every day, not just in our own homes, but you know, the people that come to work with us and the people in their homes and the people that they're affected by. And I think it's really important to for people to understand that the good stuff isn't gonna be easy. You know, it's it the the the fruit worth picking is gonna be hard to pick. If you give up, that's that's when you fail. You know, the best thing to do is is you know go through the challenges, go through the pains, and learn from them. You know, grow from them. Those are those are growth opportunities. And you know, one of our favorite sayings, Ty, is why is this happening for us? You know, it's not you know, boohoo me, why'd this happen to me? It's let me find the reason that this is happening for me. Yeah, let's figure out why this happened for me and what I can learn from it to be a better husband, father, man, co-worker, leader, whatever you want to call it. Right.

Ty Cobb Backer 6:45

So yeah, no, no, and that's that's a good point too. You know, it's so hard to see why this is happening for us, you know, right away sometimes, I think. But I think we've gone through enough together as a team to know that, you know, we we had a a little circumstance that that we we were all working, you know, really hard on, that we got some information last night that that the deal didn't come through for us. But I think I the right away, you know, right away I didn't get negative whatsoever, and and neither did our partners that were were actually helping us find the finish line on this deal that we were trying to come to fruition the other day for the past, I don't know, a couple months that we've all been working on trying to trying to get push this thing across the line. It had nothing to we we didn't achieve it, but what I think what happened was is we we were able to plant some seeds. Absolutely, right, that we could water at a later date. And and long story short, I guess it didn't turn out to be actually our fault. It was the it was the uh the other party's fault by hesitating a little too long. And and it was kind of it was I think I think that in itself, them owning it themselves was kind of a a breath of fresh air to know that we didn't necessarily do anything wrong. We did all the right things and provided all the right information. It was just the timing and and see that's a whole nother topic too, timing, you know, of things, you know, and I think that a lot of times that's why we have to face these challenges. Like, yes, that was a little bit of a challenge for us, and and we still have to overcome it, okay, because I think we were riding on that to to fill a hole that we were trying to fill at that time, but we both know that like when that one little door closed, that two more doors are gonna open up. Yes, and I can't see what that is right this second, but we've been down this road so many times that I'm actually excited to see what other doors will be open because of the one that may have closed just it just it didn't, I don't even I don't even feel like it closed the whole way. It's still there's still a crack there, right? So I don't know. That's that's kind of yeah.

Chris Baker 8:52

I I I agree, man. You know, on as far as the the deal goes, it stings today. You know what I mean? It it stung last night, it stings today. But in a matter of hours here, it's gonna be on to the next thing. We got we got a lot of stuff cooking, and like you said, I mean we've we've dealt with this I don't know how many times. I mean, even since since I've been here in my career, we've we've dealt with challenges, we've dealt with failures, and obviously it's gonna sting because I don't like losing. No, you know what I mean? I I honestly I hate losing more than I like winning. So but with that said, there's something that we can learn from this. I know why it's happening for us. It's gonna open up more opportunities for us in other avenues. And you know, we planted seeds, man. Yeah, you know, when when do you ever in life plant a seed and pick the fruit the same day? Yeah, you know, it just it doesn't happen. So we're gonna continue working on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The the team is not discouraged. I look around at all my co-workers, man, and and all the people that are in my department, and it's like they're ready, man. They're hungry. They are, they're hungry, they're ready to rock and roll. But it's it's life.

Ty Cobb Backer 10:03

It is nice, it's nice to actually look

When A Big Deal Falls Through

Ty Cobb Backer 10:05

around and see a lot of our our team members here with us supporting us and and building this and us growing together as a unit and as a team. You know, I was talking to somebody the other day, I'm gonna change, change topic here a little bit, and I actually used you as a as an example of what I actually get to see, and you've been here long enough to to get to actually experience what I'm what I'm getting ready to mention here is that you know, as as now I I wish we could come up with a different word than leader all the time. I know it we use it so much, but as a leader to be able to lead people, you know, when when you when you first got here, okay, one of the greatest uh successes of my career, okay, has been and will be, and it this didn't hit me until probably a few months ago, seriously. And I might have thought about it, but not as deeply as I think about it today and feel it. I really feel it. Like it's more than me just saying it, but one of my greatest successes has been able to watch who you were to what people get to see now when they come to our office and you.

Chris Baker 11:17

Yeah.

Ty Cobb Backer 11:18

And not saying that I had a hand, it was me and Chris's. It no, no, no. Did did I did I push? Was there days that I pushed? Yes, of course. I pushed you into probably a lot of uncomfortable, you know, positions and situations. No, we were never uncomfortable, Tyler. Never. But to see where we all came, not just me, not just you, but all of us, to see, but it's easier for me to watch your growth than it is my own. And and I'm sure for for just about everybody else. But you know, Kim, when she got here, she was she was a waitress, I think, or something at Cheddar's okay, and restaurant, and and to see uh what people see when they come to the office today. And I say to myself, God, if they would only knew who she was. No, I'm just kidding. If they thought that, they'd probably think that about it. They only knew who I was. But it's that's one of I think one of my greatest rewards is to to actually sit back, look around, and know that there's been people on the team long enough that that to see who they were and who they become today should be all of our greatest rewards at at the end of the week, at the end of the year, at the end of the quarter, you know, and to sit back and look at Vic. Look where he was, okay, and I'm not saying it was in a bad place, but who he is personally today, right human being that Vic has grown into and matured into, you know, it's almost like watching my children grow. It literally literally, that's what it's like. And that that I had a little something to do with that. You know what I mean? Not just in the bedroom, you know, the night that we can see, you know, but to watch him turn into the man, the the prettiest young man.

Chris Baker 13:07

Look at that flowing hair over there.

Ty Cobb Backer 13:08

I know he's a he is that shit was blowing in the wind on Monday, man. The prettiest young man that I've ever met. And I just say that because he's mine. But anyhow.

Chris Baker 13:17

Yeah. No, it's it's it's great, man. It's great. And and I think a lot of number one, thank you. I appreciate that. No doubt. I've put a lot of work into me as a person since I came here, for sure. But a lot of it just has to do with wanting wanting better for yourself, man.

Ty Cobb Backer 13:33

Yeah.

Chris Baker 13:33

When you you go you are who you surround yourself with, plain and simple. And like if you're gonna if you're gonna be the smartest person and the most successful and whatever person in the room, then you're in the wrong room, man. You know, you gotta get around people that are gonna make you uncomfortable, they're gonna push you, they're gonna want more from you.

Ty Cobb Backer 13:51

Amen.

Chris Baker 13:52

And that's basically what this has been about. That's what our journey has been about, man. We've gotten to we've gotten to do this right here with a lot of really cool people from around the country, bro. Yeah, we did. We've gotten to chat it up with with really, really good

Leadership That Grows People

Chris Baker 14:05

men and women. Um I've learned a lot of stuff, you know, uh about being a good husband, a good father, a good friend, a good human being, just a good, just a good human being in general, I've learned from working at this place. And it's like, it's crazy to say that because like I work at a roofing company, right? But like it's more than that, man. It's more than that. You know, we we do self-help books, we you know, we focus really, really hard on leadership. And you you have a group of people that have collected together and have come together to fight one common goal and want better for themselves and want better for each other, yeah, right? So like, you know, you you talking, I've heard you talk on the podcast before about like, you know, we don't have start times.

Ty Cobb Backer 14:47

Yeah, right.

Chris Baker 14:48

Like there's no there's no schedule hanging up on in the break room that says, you know, we work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. There's nothing like that. I know what time I need to get to work to get my shit done, and I know that if I don't show up on time, I'm letting someone in my office down, someone on my team down. Someone is gonna be looking for me to do something to make a decision to make a call, and I'm not gonna be there. And I'm not worried about you yelling at me. You're right, you've never yelled at me for not being for not being on time or anything. I feel bad for letting for letting my team down. Yeah, right. And that's that's the collective achievement that we have gotten here of people. You know, they just they all strive for that same thing, they have that same goal in mind, that same mentality.

Ty Cobb Backer 15:27

And I was I was I was just sitting there thinking too, like you feel it, you know when you're screwing up. Like, I don't have to come upstairs and tell you, nor does anyone necessarily have to call you out on that. Like you feel that we've built, we've built an environment that, you know, I was gonna say that it's not always perfect, and we we you know what we're talking about right now is very fluid. Okay, like it's not it's not all peaches and cream or you know, the easy street when when you walk into the doors of T C Backer. It's not it's not it's not always like that. And do we fall off the rail sometimes? Of course we do. I think as a company, there's ebbs and flows of our culture. Okay, it's not it's not I screw up sometimes and I there might be some personal things going on in my life where I might lose the clarity and the vision. I might lose me right sometimes. Okay, you go through things, Vic's going through things or has gone through things, you know, and we we go through these things, but you know, here I think we're you know, we're we're we're coming out of that season. Like we go the company goes through seasons, as individuals we go through seasons, and I feel like we're we're coming back into a really good season, but you know, life life is nothing but resistance. I don't care if you're in a gym working out, I don't care if you're trying to diet and lose weight, anything good comes with resistance. Okay, comes with difficulty, comes with with I don't want to use the word failure, but comes with challenges. Okay. Anything worth fighting that's good is going to come with pain and resistance and roadblocks and deterrence, distractions, and shiny objects, and you know, bad decision making and you know, falling down and getting back up. And I think that's what it's about is is getting back up and being around those those groups of people, okay, that may have continued when you're doing well and I'm not doing so well, whether it's by example I want to get back up, or it's you cheering me on from the sidelines that helps me get back up, right? Okay, that's that's what it is, and that's what it's about. You know what I'm saying? Like sometimes we leave mentally, sometimes we check out mentally, yeah. Right? But the cool thing is it's like we're still here, right? The thing that started all of this is still here. We forget sometimes, right? I've forgotten sometimes, you know. I'll be the first one to admit, I'll get distracted. You know, the golden goose starts laying golden eggs, bro, and I get distracted on an egg. You know, and and you know, but that's again, how much have we learned from the eggs that that spoiled? Right, you know, and realize that the hen was getting ill. Yeah, you know, and and that I needed to get back to the hen and tend to the hen, you know, and that could be just personally tend to myself, making sure I'm eating right, yeah, making sure I'm sleeping right, making sure I'm I'm hanging back out with those groups of people again that I strayed away from. Yeah, that could be individuals at work, it could be individuals in my personal life, you know. Maybe I'm not listening to the books on

Seasons, Culture, And Resistance

Ty Cobb Backer 18:55

the way to work anymore. What have I strayed away from that got me where I know I felt really good? Yeah, what have I been feeding my head with? Is it Fox News? Is it CNN? Did I fall back into that that trap? Or do I got an Ed Milette podcast playing automatically as soon as my phone picks it up on iTunes, you know, boom, you know, or is it, you know, or is it just silence, which isn't a bad thing either. You know what I mean? And I I started doing that on the way to work. There's a good 12-minute drive. I thought, you know, because I I had a podcast a couple weeks ago. I was talking about all the distractions we have today, and we never we never get to shut it off. You know, today, and it's like, well, we need to start finding 15 minutes a day.

Chris Baker 19:40

Yeah.

Ty Cobb Backer 19:40

With with zero technology, zero distractions. You know, and and I I found on the way to work it's 12 minutes on the way to work with no no podcast, right, no radio, no, no, no, anything, which is also a good time to to listen to a good podcast, too. But I I found with it just being quiet, still dark out, there's not many people on the road. So driving's not very stressful at that time of day, you know, where I can kind of do something similar.

Chris Baker 20:11

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I ride silent. Mondays and Fridays, I ride, I play usually some crazy trap music or something. Nothing wrong. Something wild and obscene just to kind of get me pumped up and ready.

unknown 20:23

Right.

Chris Baker 20:23

Because Monday and Friday, you know what I mean? But you know, the good thing about Monday is, you know, we I don't I don't remember who it was. Who was it that we had on the podcast at one time that was like, you're thinking about Monday wrong. Was like we get we we had we are privileged to go to work today and start a fresh week. Like that, like Monday, Monday is the start of the brand new week. Yeah, we're gonna be. So like you go in there, you go in there gloomy and grumpy and uh it's Monday, then that's gonna be the tone for the rest of your week.

Ty Cobb Backer 20:54

Yeah, I don't remember who that was.

Chris Baker 20:55

You remember that.

Ty Cobb Backer 20:56

There was a couple people, I think. There was the we were on that kick for a minute.

Chris Baker 21:00

Yeah.

Ty Cobb Backer 21:00

I don't know if it was something we were listening to or if it was somebody that actually came on the podcast, or both, probably both. It's a nugget. Yeah.

Chris Baker 21:08

I mean, yeah, that's one of those many nuggets that we've gotten doing this and running into the people that we do. You know, the dad gets home, he sets the tone. Yep. That's something that I play in my head literally every, every time.

Ty Cobb Backer 21:19

I still sit in the driveway from five to fifteen minutes, clean up my inbox, and do what I gotta do before I walk, or just sit there and get my shit right before I walk in the door and spoil everybody. I get a decision. I have a decision. Yes, you know, do I go in here and how is my night gonna go? Right, yeah, right, spoil everybody else's night, or do I go up here, you know, right? Get myself right to go up there and be present, whether it's five minutes or for the next five hours. You know, whatever, whatever's required of me, you know. Yeah, I've definitely gotten better about that too. I still do it, I still sit in the driveway. And sometimes I just need to turn the music up really loud. Yeah. They all know I'm home. They'll know I'm home. They're just like, all right, dad's out in the driveway. You know. Yeah. No, it's good. It's like you said, we've we've most of this stuff we've been able to pick up. We've been so fortunate to have the guest that we've had to be on the show to to be examples for us. You know, and we hand select I hate to say that, but we have really hand selected. I I don't have any regrets. I've learned something from everybody that has ever come on the show.

Chris Baker 22:28

Yeah. I agree.

Ty Cobb Backer 22:30

Yeah, everybody. I agree. All right. Well, is there any anything else you want to review? I think we're about 30, 30-ish minutes into this, close enough to 30 minutes. Is anybody, James, you want to you want to come in here? Or Chana? Rachel, you guys want to toast behind

Quiet Commutes And Monday Mindset

Ty Cobb Backer 22:50

a tool belt?

Chris Baker 22:51

They said, oh hell no. You wanna be scared?

Ty Cobb Backer 22:58

I think you are. Rocket. Rocky, you want to talk about your hair products?

Chris Baker 23:03

The hair products.

Ty Cobb Backer 23:08

He is pretty. Pretty young man. Alright, well, I guess that's it. Thank you.

Chris Baker 23:14

Anyone local, make sure you guys get down here to the Windham Garden. Yes. Um, in York here, check out the YBA. There's a lot of people here that have put a lot of work into this. YBA is a great, great foundation. It is. Organization. Yeah, probably organization, right? Not foundation.

Ty Cobb Backer 23:28

It's a it's a foundation. I think it's a nonprofit organization. Yeah, it's an organization. So and if you haven't, if you're in the trades, I don't even think you necessarily like if you're a bank, if you're anybody that's that works with people within the trades, or if you're in the trades, we're looking for members. We're number two in the state of Pennsylvania right now. York Builder Association is one of the best in the country. Truly, hands down, because of Lori Lori. We are looking for members. It I think it's like four or five hundred bucks a year. You get access to so many different things and individuals. There's networking events. Like this thing is free today. To be here today is free. You get to meet all of the other members, non-members that are also vendors here today. The organization has done, I mean, free free notary. We had to get some things notarized the other week. Went down there. They notarized it. We have our health insurance through group plan through YBA. I mean, there's so many benefits, perks to why you should become a member at the York Builder Association, not just because it's the best one in the country. Maybe I'm a little biased, but that has done so much for us as a company, as a community, and we become we get to be the who's who of construction in York County. So if you're interested, hit me up. If not, that's okay too. It's no big deal. We still stop down and see everybody that's down here today and meet Lori, Lori, and her team over at the York Builders Association. We will be doing a few more of these today, but we will not be going live till probably next Wednesday. And we should be back in the studio. So, anyhow, till next week. You guys have a good week. I know we're going to. We'll see you next Wednesday.

unknown 25:28

Thanks to our sponsors, TC Backer Construction, Hook Roofing Marketing, Roofle, and 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.