EP 50 Dmitriy Tupikov: Leading a Business With Love

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:19

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Yes. God, it has been a while.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

It has.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

I mean, so much has happened.

SPEAKER_03 0:25

It r it so much happens if we're gone for like two weeks. It's been like two months. This is true. This is true. The whole life has been lived.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

All right. How so how's our how's how's Rourke? How's our? I mean, like with the World Cup and the comparisons to Holland

Catching Up On Family Life

SPEAKER_01 0:40

and Rourke. Uh I feel like we're on fire here.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

He is such a ball guy. He's so ball driven. He doesn't watch TV at all. But when the World Cup is on, he sits there and just like points and gets so excited. I really think that might be his calling. I don't know if it's because like his people are on the TV or if he just loves soccer.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Yeah, I mean that Viking row is a real thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Oh God, I've never felt so connected to a culture before. Because like we're so white, you know, that it's hard to understand that. But then I see my in my Nordic ancestors up there, and there's just like a fire burning.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

So it's funny and he's a year and a half fish.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

He's about to be 15 months. Yeah, three days away from 15 months. So he is a whole human. It's crazy to see the development.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

He's literally bouncing off walls, running.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Talking, he's running, he's just he's growing up, and it's fascinating to see him become a human. Yeah, it's really fun. We're in the fun stage right now. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, enjoying it.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

I always refer, people always said the terrible twos. And I was like, no, for me it was the threes. Like and I give the analogy, like a two-year-old can run full speed into a wall and bounce off the wall and get up laughing and giggling like it's the funniest thing in the world. A three-year-old will run into that wall and scream bloody murder because they have learned that the attention that they get is.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

I think it's called the three nature stage, is what the modern day vernacular is. But um, I don't know. He's so good that I'm just like I can't think of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

We love the wordplay on that three nature. The three major that's very good. I like that. I do like that. I do like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Yeah, so okay, and then you have had some big news too. Can we talk about Kaylee's excuse?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah. So um, so obviously we talk a lot on the pod about all the travel and running around the country I do chasing my daughter playing volleyball, and it's uh it's kind of finally come to fruition. She accepted a scholarship to Long Beach State University to play volleyball.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

And she's just now entering

Scholarship News And Handshake Deals

SPEAKER_03 2:37

her junior year.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

So yeah, so I mean that's the the kicker of it. It's like it's an 18-month handshake deal, right? Like, sh, so you know, we're we're trying to get a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

What happens if somebody's later comes along and try like offers a better deal?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

So, I mean, that's part of it. Um in my in my opinion, this is where like the integrity of people comes into it. Like, like in my family, we we truly do honor what we say and and we believe in that. We live that and we breathe that. And I it may or may not come up later on in this episode, but like that's really important to us. And we want to we want to feel the same way about people on the other side of of us making those commitments. So, so yeah, so we're in the we're in a place now where we have to trust them and they have to trust us. And you know, for for lack of a better term, you kind of hope cross your fingers and and hope it all works out. And you know, it's you know, there's always you know, there's the fear of injuries. It was it was a really cool experience. Um I got to sit in on on her call with Long Beach, and the things that they said were just very, very humbling.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

And um, you know, because Long Beach isn't a place I think of when I think of like cult collegiate basketball or volleyball.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Oh no, it's it's a volleyball school. Yeah, they um I mean Misty Mae Trainer, who's a who was Carrie Walsh's beach partner, played there. Um I didn't know that. It's a made their men's program, it's typically top five in the country. It they don't have football, so yeah, they are absolutely a volleyball school. Um so very, very cool. Very excited for her, very proud of her and the work that she's done. Um, you know, and and um matter of fact, we're going down, we're going down this weekend. We'll be down in Long Beach this weekend for uh she's got a camp that she's got to go to down there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Um that's gonna keep her busy on top of all the other stuff you guys are already.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I just you know, I'm just happy that it's relatively flat because I just still kind of drag my leg around and I don't want to have to climb a bunch of hills. Thank God it's not like USF, you know, where you're just constantly walking up hills and all that. So um well, enough about us because I I don't necessarily know if people love to get caught up on our lives as much as they think that they do.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

I mean, I'm gonna be a little bit hubris here and say they love to know about us, but that's okay. We're here for somebody else today, as usual. I'm very excited about our guests.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Our guest today, I'm super excited to have him on. He he's actually he's my boss. Um he's technically my boss too when I'm in here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's his space. It's his space for sure. He is the owner of Good Life Construction, Cutting Edge Home Solutions, um, and a multitude of other businesses that we're gonna kind of delve into. Um,

Meet The Builder Behind Good Life

SPEAKER_01 5:11

one of the most humble and also ambitious people I've ever met. So super, super excited to uh to have him on and him to make some time for us today. So we're gonna play him in.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

I feel like he chose this because it's got a little samba vibe to it.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Playing to my Brazilian ties.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Welcome. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

No, Steve for coming in here today. No, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Thanks for staying thanks for sitting through our mindless banter for the last few minutes.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

That was cool because I'm in a stage where my oldest kid is 13. So I've kind of been going through everything you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

The three major to teenager stage.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

And I have a two-year-old. Um and then we're not quite there where they're starting to think about college and stuff, so it was it was fun.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

The teenage the teenage years, I've I I'm not really a baby guy, so I am just loving the teenage. Like, like my daughter had a bunch of friends over last night, and we were just hanging out. It was Sunday night. My wife and I are just watching TV, and the kids are all out back in the pool playing around, roasting marshmallows and stuff like that. And I'm just like, it's so cool. Like they, you know, like I kind of have a reputation, like I make they they have to shake my hand, they have to say hello when they come to my house, and like that's just my rule. My daughter thinks it's weird, but I go, no, like if you can't shake my hand and look me in the eye, that is like I'm like, you can't, then you can't come take advantage of our stuff. Like, you know, like by the way, that's my daughter, and you need to know that I'm gonna give you a firm handshake and look you in the eye, and and that's all the feels about it. Yeah, yeah. So it was funny because one of them, like early on, like when I first started doing it, probably a year and a half, two years ago, like this kid gave me a dead fish. And I had to be like, hey man, we need we need to run that back. Like even as a woman, I do that. Like, that's not gonna fly. Like, that's not gonna fly. Because I don't want to have to go bail you out of the pool because you drowned, because you got a dead fish handshake, you know? So it didn't go over well.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

You know, but that's what you make it mean. Yeah, it didn't go. Dead fish handshake, you're drowning in my pool. 100%. That was the correlation.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Like, you know, you're weak, buddy. Like, come on, be better. You gotta bring it. So yeah. It mortified my wife and my daughter. You know, they're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Somebody's gotta do it. Someone's gotta have that conversation. You know, everybody's avoiding that conversation because everybody's gotta be some.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Your oldest is 13.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

My oldest is 13.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Is it boy or girl?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

He's a guy, and he's uh he acts like he's 18, though. How is his handshake? Oh, he's we I got an arm wrestling table at the house.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Oh, I a table specifically for arm wrestling?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

I do we I arm wrestle with all my kids every single day. How many kids? My kids, my girls beat all the guys in their classrooms because they arm wrestle with me every single day, and I teach them technique and I teach it so they're stronger. And when she comes back and goes, I beat all the boys in my classroom. Like he is. I love that. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

What's your uh surprise talent? Arm wrestling. I love that. The whole family could take it down.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, we just wiped out the whole middle section of this podcast.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Wait, so how many kids do you have?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

I have six children and we're expecting number seven.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:44

Wow. Okay, first of all, congratulations. Second of all, how do you do it? Well, how I like I know the the easy part is what you do. Um what I mean specifically. Well, when a man and a woman love each other. Um with with all that you juggle professionally, and then to have that many children and to, and I understand you're a very dedicated family man, you're a dedicated man of faith. Like, how have you found the balance and time to make sure that you feel like you're giving enough time to everything that's important to you?

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah, being a good dad and being a good husband are the biggest priorities. So business and everything else is secondary. I like to think of it as or the way I would preach at preach at a church or when I'm doing a

Delegation Without Losing The Standard

SPEAKER_00 9:34

mentorship program or teaching something is you can't serve out of an empty cup. So all of us are like a cup of vessel. So, you know, invest in yourself first, and when you're full and overflowing, take that abundance and serve everywhere else. So um, for me, I'm a big delegator. I'm a weird business guy because I'm ambitious for growth, I'm ambitious for um excellence. I, you know, and uh but I don't care for money. So what I I money's a result of what we do, it's not the goal of why we do it. And uh what that's always allowed me to do is as soon as I can afford somebody that I can hire to do some of my work, I immediately delegate.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

That's so brilliant though, because then it just attracts more money. Like when you're not focused on the money.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

And it attracts more money, yes. Um, so my my mornings when when we we got married with my wife, um, I had already started my business at that time. And I asked her for a little bit of grace. I was like, sweetie, I need a couple years to get things rolling enough to where I can hand off the responsibilities. And she she dealt with me. She gave me 16 hours a day of being gone from home doing what I do. And then eventually I, you know, my I love my mornings with the family, so we wake up together, we make breakfast together, I help prepare the kids for school, I'll drive them to school, which gives her a lot more freedom in the morning. Um, and she's not having to take that stress. Because if you're starting that day and it's just five kids, we have five kids going to school now.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

It's a lot of chaos.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Five backpacks, that's five lunches to pack, that's five homeworks to check. Yeah. And if she's doing it alone, like her day is ruined before it even starts.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Well, and it just starts, it just starts in the eye of the storm, right? Like it's just it's just chaos. And like we were talking earlier, joking, like, I mean, I've got two teenagers. Like, my daughter is so self-sufficient. Like, there was the meme like I saw a couple weeks ago, and it's like I've got one kid that is essentially the CEO of this family that keeps everything in order, and I've got another kid that I don't trust to light the stove. Yeah, you know, like but that and that's it, and and as they get older, you know, it's it's it's really cool. And my daughter started driving, like that was a whole different realm of emotions and fears and pride and all the things. All the things like you want to talk about, like we talk about in business having to let go of things, right? Like I think your example of delegating those is letting go. And when it's your children, it's so different, but you gotta do it because that's the only way they're gonna grow.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yep, yeah, for sure. So that's how I mostly do it is I try to find help. And um my work days, like what I I must be in the office maybe an hour or two a day. Okay. I still end up being here for six to seven hours a day because I run into conversations and you know, all the urgent stuff comes up, but like things scheduled are an hour or two a day.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

So yeah, delegation is such a superpower. For someone to be a high achiever, they have to understand that they can't do it on their own and that to be successful to get where you want to go, you need to find the right people who are better at doing those tasks than you are. And it's really hard for a lot of people who are high achievers to let go and give that control and trust that someone's gonna do it as well as you would, and that they are gonna do it right.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Um or better, and to have and to be humble and to be humble enough to be okay with them doing it better than you could have, right? Because a lot of times, especially with leadership, like there's egos involved and there's pride, and there's there's all these things. Um, I think it's just so important. Like, I mean, Dimitri's always in a good mood.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

I love running into an office like well, at least he you know that face days maybe not so much. I'll put it this way.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

I don't do a lot of closed door meetings in Dimitri's office, fortunately.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah, no, I think uh it's easier said than done because delegating seems easy. And when you give somebody, you know, a delegation and they do it better than you, it's easier to admit that somebody's better than you. What sucks was when you delegate something to somebody and they suck at it. And because you know, it's either a promotion within a company, take somebody from this position, like, all right, you're ready to step up, but they step up into this position and they're not good. And now you either have to have the difficult conversation of trying to train them up, and there's a 50-50 chance that they'll listen and actually accept. Right. Or then when you like lose all hope, you have to demote them. So there's like a painful process to get to it. And what was really good for me is from the very beginning, because I'm not money driven, and when I started my business, I didn't know I was starting a business. My very first hire was a guy from our church, his name is Oleg, and he came from a broken family, and he's this tall, handsome guy, kind of like Dan. Um, but he would never look you in the eye, he'd kind of look at the floor, and you can tell that he had a pretty difficult upbringing, and he wasn't really like I interviewed him. I'm like, if I could have your height, if I could have your dark hair, dude, I'd be walking around with my shoulders all back and you know, conquering the world. And and so I just felt so bad for him. I was like, dude, what do you do for a living? And he's like, I'm a welder. I'm like, what do they pay you? He's like 12 bucks an hour. And I was like, come work with me, I'll give you 15. This is 2009, right after the crash.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

So work is difficult. And um, and I didn't hire him because I needed him. I hired him because he needed me. And I really just wanted to show up, show up at my house in the morning. Here's a couple potatoes, go ahead and peel those. He thought he showed up for work, and I was like, Well, you're here to make a friend. You know, start peeling potatoes, I'm gonna cook the eggs, we'll make some hash browns, we'll make some coffee. All right, you know, and then we're heading out to job site, and we would just, you know, I was pouring into the relationship more than I was into employee. And I I didn't realize that at that point in time what I was doing.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

I was having your intention. I wasn't your intention was to develop an employee.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Uh well, no, my intention was just to make bring him out of his uh you know, his help him find some confidence, find himself. I didn't think he could make friends, and so I just wanted to be there for him. I didn't understand like the whole concept, but what ended up happening is I was sewing love and relationship into him, and I was kind of showing him you're stronger than you actually think you are, you're smarter than you actually think you are. And then because I was like the first time I bought him a set of tools, he was all excited. But later his mom told me, like, he came home and cried. He's like, I can't believe somebody bought me something. When I gave him keys to my truck, and I was like, All right, I want you to go to this address and do this, he came home later the day and cried. He's like, Mom, you won't believe this person trusted me with their car. And I didn't realize growing up in my family that's a big deal, but for him it was a huge deal. And so I invested into him and in exchange, like when you love on somebody, in exchange they love you back. So when I needed to delegate a piece of my job, and I had one employee and I delegated to him, the way he performed was exceeded my expectation and did it better than I would have done. Yeah. Because now he cares so much for he doesn't want to lose this as this new thing in his life. And so that kind of laid out the platform of building people. So, you know, if you think you're gonna go on, you know, ZipRecruiter or some whatever the websites are where you find employees and find the best resume and hire and delegate, it's gonna fail. I've never been able to successful to hire somebody from the internet and delegate and be totally excited with it.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

That's really profound. It it's obvious that you come from a place of like benevolent service and wanting to genuinely help and serve people. And when you create that culture in a professional environment, the type of loyalty and servitude you're gonna get back from pouring into those people far exceeds anything that you could train or hire or pay someone off the get. Like there's a unwavering, like tacit agreement between you and that person of like, I've got your back and you've got mine. And what we're building here is more than just like a professional partnership, like it's a lifelong way.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

That camaraderie, like the in-it-togetherness, you know, like the team, the team spirit, like and not in the cliche way, but like we're people going in the same direction with a with a common cause of the right.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

When they've come from a place where they never got that, yeah, which seems like a basic human right, but to give someone that clearly created a loyal and a and a gratitude for you to you that is he's still with you. I think it takes us.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

It takes us to it takes us to a great place because 100%. Because we want to hear the story. Like I know, I know, I know where it started. I've seen the pictures, it is a beautiful thing. I've shared it on LinkedIn. Like take us, take and and you can go 100 miles an hour, that's fine, but take us from like the beginning to now. Because I mean we're talking where's the beginning? The the red truck with the roof racks.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Okay. Yeah. So in 2009, I was working as a termite inspector and just got my certification as a home inspector for North American Home Services. Um five years before that, I was in the construction crew, so I knew I figured out how to do all construction works.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Um

From Layoff Court To First Jobs

SPEAKER_01 19:03

and um I knew you guys were a subcontractor.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

No, no, I was an employee for North American Home Services since I was 15 years old. You know, I was a crew helper, then a crew lead, then a supervisor, then a termite inspector, and my next jump was gonna be become a home inspection inspector. And so um this is 2009, market just crashed, the company laid off 50% of their employees. I'm still employed with the company because I was their best employee, of course.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Um He was like 17 at the time.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I made sure, like before I got hired onto the company, my dad was already a carpenter for them. He was the employee of the year for like two years before I came on. And from when I came on, I had to like I made sure that I was the employee of the year. Yeah, you gotta beat that. You can out hustle the old man. Um but um I quit the job. I actually asked my boss to lay me off. Charles, if you're watching this, thank you. I asked him to lay me off so I can get unemployment money, which was like 1,500 bucks a month, and like half the country was unemployed. Um, and uh so I could go volunteer at my church. Our church was building a new facility, and my dad was like, dude, you're 19 and a half years old. Take a year off from work because you're once you have bills and a family, like you'll never be able to take a year off from work. Right. You know, so do this now. You'll be proud of what you did for the rest of your life. It'll build, you know, awesome experience and relationships. And so I came to Charles and I was like, please lay me off. And uh so I can get unemployment, and that'll be my pocket money, and I'll just go work for free at the church for a year. We filled out a bunch of paperwork, I filed for unemployment, it got denied. So I drove back to the office and I was like, hey Charles, why'd you deny my unemployment? And he's like, Ah, you know, I think we made a mistake. Go ahead and appeal it with the court at EDD, and we'll just tell them we made a mistake and you'll get unemployment. And this is an important component of the story because I I actually think this is the best thing that ever happened to me. I file for, you know, I petitioned it. I petitioned it, they tell me to show up to court, I show up to court and his controller at the time, the accountant, showed up to court representing the business, and she had the paper that I signed that I terminated my employment willingly. So I'm not eligible for unemployment. And the judge told me to get the F out of the courtroom. Oh and I didn't know a judge could do that, but the judge was pretty pissed. She looked at me, she was like, There's a ton of people lost their jobs and they need unemployment, and you are quitting and trying to milk the system. Get the F out of here. And I was so shaken up.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

I walked down to the Well, what a parallel, right? Because you'd had a conversation and thought that you had, you know, a deal, right? Like the handshake deal, like I talked about. Like that, that's you know, my concern is like the reneging on the deal, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

I mean, I it's a little bit of a shady deal. And um and so, but whatever. I thought that was gonna be like my thing. And and um but it was the best thing that happened because I walked out in those court steps and I lifted my eyes up to the heavens and was like, God, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Helped me, and I went to work at church. I'm working for free at church. I had already bought my first house because I bought my first house at 18 years old. So I had a $600 mortgage and some insurance money and some gas. I needed like a thousand bucks to survive. So as a past term, I Inspector, I knew like 15 realtors that I felt comfortable enough that I could call. So I called a bunch of realtors and I was like, listen, I'm out of a job. I need a little bit of money. I can do whatever construction work you need me to do. If you've got a punch list item on the final nine yard of closing a deal, call me. And I started getting calls. Can you, you know, replace a window that's fogged up? Can you put in some smoke detectors? Can you put in a, you know, a spring on the garage door, the fire rated door? Can you fix some stucco? Can you replace some tile? And so I after after an eight-hour day at the church, um, I started going out and doing these side jobs. And by the time I was done with the church project, I had so much work rolling in that I had to hire Oleg, which I already talked about.

unknown 23:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

And so my father was still working for North American and he had a contractor license by that time. And so I took his contractor license, I started a corporation, put the license under the corporation, and good life construction was born.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Wow. So that's what you mean by you didn't know you were starting a business. You were just trying to make some money so you could keep serving the church.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

I was convinced that once I'm done with the church project, I was gonna come back in and work for Charles. That was my plan. I'm gonna come back and work for him. And uh, but because I had work so much work rolling in by that time, um I just started my own thing. And Charles ended up calling me a couple of months later and he's going, Hey, market's picking back up. It's like 2010. Can you come back? And I was like, uh, I don't really want to come back, but if you want to subcontract work to me, I'll take it. So he started subbing the work to me. And he had a couple of termite employees that stole out their termite inspectors that worked for him, like Glenn Herata, Steve Ross. Um, and so I worked for him for about six months, and they went to work for twin termite, and they told Kyle finally over to Intermite, hey Dimitri um is a subcontractor for North America and he's really good, we should use him. So um Kyle called me and I became a subcontractor to North America and to Twin, and then eventually Hard Rock Termite called me, and Rockland Termite called me, and United.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Everybody wanted you.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And at one point in time, I was working for 14 termite companies.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

So within like a year, I had 40 carpenters, and my deal was with the termite companies. You sell the job, um, you turn around, send the report to me, and I'll do it for a percentage. Um and so I had no admin, I had no salespeople, I had no marketing. It was the best thing I could have done. Um I just had 40 carpenters and a laptop and an email address, and we were doing about $200,000 work a month. So at that point in time, we we were in front of a lot of the real estate community um because the realtors had to come open the doors and close the doors after we were done with the work. But we did a lot of termite work through those years. Um and then within about a year later, I started realizing that I need to invest a little bit into Yelp and Google, build a website. And what I did, um, which now I know is brilliant. Back then, I just thought that, you know, just doing a normal thing. When I started building a website, and this is 2011, like most companies don't even

Niche SEO That Built Demand

SPEAKER_00 25:38

have a website. SEO is not really a thing. Um so the company that was building my website said, okay, you're a general contractor. Um, here's a bunch of general contractors' websites. All their keywords are the same: remodel, you know, kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, siding, painting, floors, additions, you know, there's like 15 and everybody uses the same. So essentially you have 5,000 contractors competing for these 15 keywords. So when then Kaylee and wants a bathroom remodel, and you go on Google and you're like bathroom model contractor, there's like 5,000 contractors in Sacramento trying to get your attention. And when I built my website, I was like, well, I kind of want to stick to the dry rot stuff. Yeah. I'm not a termite company, I'm a subcontractor to termite companies. So I held, held, had them build me a website with like my keywords were dry rot repair, rotted wood repair, rotted siding repair, you know, termite damage repair. And that was brilliant in a sense because no one else was keywords. So when somebody went up and said, you know, a homeowner walked around their house watering their roses and they saw dry rot and they were like dry rot contractor, the only company in town that came up without spending, spending zero dollars on ads was Good Life Construction. And so I got a hundred calls a month in addition to my subcontracting work from just regular homeowners. Um, and I would go out and they're like, You're the only guy that does this. And I'm like, no, there's like a bazillion other people to do this, but they don't market for this.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

I'm the only one who tells you on the internet that I do this. And there's and there's something to that, right? I mean, for the most part, dry out repair jobs are not as sexy or financially um profitable. Profitable.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Right deciding 100%. Yeah. And so I and then my you know, I tracked it and it was like a hundred owners a month. So I know that there's a hundred owners a month looking for this.

unknown 27:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Now that's no longer the case because I told everybody I did that. So now there's like 25 other contractors marketing for dry repair. God bless you. Um you're welcome. Um, but but that ended up building me a pretty solid Google and Yelp review, you know, because I reviews, because I would go out there and you know, sell the jobs myself. I would manage the jobs myself, especially for the homeowners. And then they would just be tickled pink from the work we did and the communication, and they'd leave me reviews. So by the time that became relevant, like 2015, where everybody's now looking online for a contractor, I had 100 plus reviews on each platform. And so then when we added a bathroom remodel or an addition or ADU as a service that we offer, like it gave us so much more credibility. So it gave us that platform. So that was like the technicality portion behind what we were doing. The um the more strategic stuff is as I already talked about, loving on Oleg. I ended up doing that with a lot of guys, hiring a lot of guys and investing. When I went on a mission trip to Honduras, I had seven employees, I bought tickets for all seven employees. They all went with me for a couple of weeks. We were building an orphanage out there in Port in the city of Puerto Cortes, and I just I fed them, I bought the material. Like I didn't think of my business as this business is here to make me money. Like I have $30,000. That's enough for seven of us to go to Honduras for a mission trip. We spent the whole $30,000. And so in that sense, you know, because I think of a business, it could, it's an organization, but it could be like a mechanism, kind of like a clock. And I'm sure you've talked about this before where it's just ever it's got all the necessary parts and it's ticking, but it doesn't have a soul, it doesn't have life in it. Or it could be like an organism where it's, you know, it's alive. And so when you got all the technicalities like the SEO, the website, the keywords, you need that. But then you also need that relationship portion. And I wasn't doing it strategically. It's not like I read a John Maxwell book or you know, and I knew what I was doing. It just felt right in the moment. Um, but that gave us a very strong platform to where our guys really cared for a company and the gals that worked for us.

unknown 29:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Um, and when they care, when you get an employee, when you get a carpenter that shows up to your house and they care, and their truck is dripping oil, they're not gonna park on your driveway and piss you off.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

They're they're gonna put a cardboard under there, they're gonna park on the street, they're gonna be respectful to you, and they're gonna say, is it okay if I set up my tools in your front yard? Is it okay if I use this outlet?

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Aaron Powell, but to take it one step further, like Dimitri, you're going to see that and you're gonna go, hey, let me fix that oil leak for get that oil leak fixed for you. Like it totally reciprocates, right? And like you would never say that. That's why I stepped in and said it. But like, like that that's that's that's what feeds back into that organism, you know, the living, breathing organism of a kind of a company.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

And they very much need each other. It's hard to have a really great, happy business. You can definitely have a successful business with one or the other, depending on your definition of success. But to build something that like what you have built here, you need both. Yeah, you definitely need both.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

And so it it started firing off, you know, and um in 2016, Charles, the owner of North American, called me and goes, Do you want to buy my business? So, and I was so excited to buy a termite company because I thought termite companies make an arm and a leg. Yeah, termite reports are so overpriced. If I could just get those jobs, I would be rich. And that was also a super powerful move.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Stefan and I really actually thought you were only buying it so you could get us.

unknown 31:38

That was kind of true.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

That was kind of true. Because Stefan Gilbert, who most of you in the real estate community know or should know, um, the older real estate is professional.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

The silver bank the silverback gorilla.

SPEAKER_00 31:53

But um he uh he hired me when I was 15 years old. Um, it was a little bit of a flex there. Like, I'm gonna I'm gonna buy company and employ the guy that hired me when I was 15.

unknown 32:05

That's a big flex.

SPEAKER_03 32:07

But so I have a question because you've been involved in so many projects, and now you're not as hands-on as you were. But is there a project that you worked on that you would say is like one of your all-time favorite projects?

SPEAKER_00 32:20

From a business perspective?

SPEAKER_03 32:22

It could be business, it could be personal. I mean, I know you've done a lot of missions helping build things in other areas.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Yeah, my favorite project is is definitely our mission, mission, our missionary, I don't mean a project, I guess you can call it. I got tr pulled in to go to Mozambique 12 years ago as like a ride-along. Hey, come with us. We're doing this missionary stuff in Mozambique. And I showed up to Mozambique,

Mozambique Wells And Long-Term Commitment

SPEAKER_00 32:46

donated like $2,000 so people can have some corn and maybe partake in a little bit of a well-funding project. Um, and they kind of threw me in. The the guys that invited me were like, hey, these people are here, they're interested in the gospel. Would you like go share the gospel with them? And I'm like, Well, I need somebody to share the gospel with me. I'm like, I'm not, you know, there, but I I have the basic idea. So I went and started like just having conversations, and I saw how people were broken and clueless and scared. Um, um, and so it was, you know, I started going back and going back. And so eventually with the coolest thing, the coolest project we did is for now for 12 years I've been going to Mozambique. We built a mission base, we've drilled over a hundred wells in this community around uh a village called Katema in a province called Tet in Mozambique. It's one of the poorest places in Africa. I mean, Africa's poor. Yeah. And then you find like the poorest, poorest, poorest of Africa. Um, and it's mainly because there's a lot of mining companies that mine coal in those areas, like coal and and and copper and other things. And when they find coal and there's like a village that's lived in this area where they have water, they've developed lands that are pretty, you know, fruitful. Um, and then the mining company relocates these people to like a desert.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

They're like, We'll build because there's no human rights, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Like there's they there's a little they might say there are, but when the rubber meets the road, it's it's totally horrible trade-off because what they're gonna do is they're gonna say, We're hey, we're gonna build you a concrete house with a metal roof, and you've always lived in a you know, a clay hut with a straw roof, you know, and we're gonna give you a thousand dollars and uh you're gonna live more in like a civilized world. Well, that's a horrible trade-off because in a hot Africa, a concrete house with a metal roof is 150 degrees. And a clay hut is actually cooling it down, it's like 80 degrees. And so now they're in a like a they they'll take little villages that have you know a thousand people, five hundred people living them, and put them into one area that's ten thousand people and give them a little bit of money. And then about a year later, all their money's spent and there's no water, and then there's no developed land, so they can't farm. And the hospital that they built, like a little medical clinic, you know, breaks down and the doctor, you know, gets arrested or something. Like it falls apart, and then they have no infrastructure. A bunch of people living in one place, they start robbing, they start hurting each other. And so we went into one of those villages and we built a mission base and we started preaching and helping and bringing in them seeds, like good corn seeds that they can plant that would produce the most, you know, um, ROI for their work. And um, we've been there for 12 years now, and we've planted 63 churches, we've drilled over 100 wells, we've baptized over two and a half thousand people. Um, and I go there a couple times a year, and um I can't stop going because I it's actually not I wouldn't say it's an addiction, I would just say that a lot of the folk that grew up, they're like there were boys that were 15 years old. When we were building a mission base, we hired like the 15-year-old boys to be helped like mix our cement, you know, or mortar, and now they're 25, 26, they're married and they're friends. So they would actually consider me like betraying them. Like, I like you came here, you've been with us for 10, 12 years, we're friends, we're family, and then you just stop showing up. Like, how do you do that? I don't know how to do that anymore. Right. So be careful when you start an issue trip. You can just show up and then buggy.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

These are the strings that nobody really prepares you for that are gonna keep you attached when when you build these relationships. I mean, that's again, it just really emphasizes the humanity of you and what you bring and the serve, the service that you lead with.

unknown 36:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

So that's my favorite project. I think it's the most well, what I was gonna say about the business concept is doing that in your business um fulfill you can make your money, you can, you know, have growth and be proud of what you're doing. But if you get to love on people, love on people, that actually fulfills your purpose. Right. So like for me as a Christian, I go to church for an hour on Sunday or two hours on Sunday. Um, and like, okay, that that's that part of your life is done. Now you got to go do work, now you got to do education, now you got to, you know,

Turning Love Into A Leadership Practice

SPEAKER_00 37:19

whatever. But you can actually bring that into your work life. Like you could be, and if as a Christian, your biggest commandment is to love thy neighbor, love God and love thy neighbor. So like you could do that. You could do that at school, you could do that at work. Um, you just have to be intentional about it. Um, and then you're like, so do you even work? It's like, no, I just I live a life of love. And although I don't like pushing the whole Christianity thing in the business, we have a um person here that works for us, Asia, who's our controller. Oh, she's now our CFO. And she's definitely not Christian. She's super, you know, atheist, you know, all that stuff. And when we started working together for a little while, she was like, Demetri, I don't think I can get behind this Jesus stuff because, you know, and then but I never brought it up. And a couple months later, there were some things that transpired. I'm gonna save you the story, but um, she was like, Why are you doing this? And I'm like, Well, this is because it's out of love, you know, we're supposed to love. And she said, I I don't know if I can get behind Jesus, but I can get behind love. I'm totally comfortable working with you. And so I think that also attracts people. Uh, because as human beings, we have a soul, we have a heart, we have a brain and a mind, and and I think you can touch people in all those ways. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Well, it's it's it's it's it's poetic, right? I mean, especially in today's world where you have so much strife, and we're not going to go down the political, you know, channel here, but it's just amazing when you step back and go, yeah, I mean, for the most part, religion is about love.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

That's all that's all it's about. And and people have misconstrued and taken certain lessons and certain, you know, thou shalt not do this. Or they pick and choose. And then they take it upon themselves to be the judge and to create the the feelings of you're different than me, you're not living in the image of God, or whatever it is. But you really bring to life what it means to be a true Christian. And I think that you you, the way that you live, can show so many people that the problem that people have with religion today is actually so isolated because there's so many of you out there that really just want to love. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Well, I've heard this many times when when people find out that I'm a Christian from either employees that are like hesitant, like, I don't know if I want to work for you, or sometimes it's customers that are like, I'm not really sure that I want to give you my business, because their experience with somebody in the past has been very different. Yeah. You know, and so um I've had people go, Well, Christians, they hate, they hate, you know, all these different groups of people, or they want to kill, or they have killed.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

It's every religion everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

But but I would what I would specifically say was like, well, they're supposed to love. So, like by definition, if you hate, you're not a Christian. And the best passage in the scripture, and now we're going to preaching, you invited a preacher, so uh you know, we're okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

This will be this will be the first episode. I don't have to click the uh exploit explicit, yeah. I don't have to censor this one at all when I post it.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Yeah, but chapter 13 of Corinthians, Apostle Paul writes, and he says, Love is patient. And you've seen this in people's houses, people have these flags all over their house. He says, Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, it doesn't seek its own, it always believes, and so on and so forth. There's 13 qualities of love, which for me was like a light bulb moment once at a particular situation, because I was like, listen, you can actually measure love so it becomes tangible. If you want to love on somebody, it literally says love is patient. Be patient with people. And and people piss us off all the time. And they people are annoying, people you know, like screw things up. And so if you exercise patience, if you show up and you're just patient, that is a form of projecting love. How do you project love on somebody that you want to love? Well, it's not just saying I have this warm, fuzzy feeling and butterflies and whatever, it's literally being patient with them. And then it says love is kind. So it turns out that just general kindness is a form of love, you know, and it doesn't boast. So you're not boasting about yourself, it doesn't envy. So, you know, you know, when when somebody makes a great sale, you know, like, guess what my company did? You literally give them the credit, you don't take other people's credit, and maybe you take your own credit and give it to somebody else. That's a form of love. And the amazing thing about love is that when you love people, people will love you back. And that's so powerful in a business environment because how do you recruit good talent today? How do you get people to follow guidelines and rules? And you know, and you could wave the stick of like you're not gonna get a promotion, you're not gonna get this raise or authoritative approach, which works, I guess, to a certain extent, but love is so much more powerful. If you just love people and people will love you back, they will do way more willingly than you know, you'll just get more out of it. And so you can say, Well, you're benefiting in your business sense. I am, but that's not why I'm doing it. And that's the perfect sense of going back to preaching of sowing and reaping. You know, you've you sow into somebody's life, harvest day is coming. You so you sow something bad, you're gonna get something bad coming for you, you know. And so um, I didn't realize it at the time, but those are very powerful business, I don't know, laws or guidelines or just you know practical application things.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Would you would you say that like like your beliefs and your your your your current passion is that are those feelings that have evolved and grown over the last 10 or 15 years with your business? Or and maybe not obviously one's not a byproduct of the other, but maybe they are.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Um I think they've always been there, or at least from the way I was raised, but I now I actually realize how they're applicable and I can articulate them.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

So, you know, like that maturity and understanding of conceptual.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

I had a guy that I was firing, and um, you know, and uh he's like, Why why are you letting me go? What's wrong with me? And he was a manager of people, and I said, Well, you don't know how to love people. Uh I can't have you work here because you're you know ruling with an iron fist, and he's like, Well, we pay the money to do a job and they're not doing their job, and what do you want me to do? And I'm like, I want you to be patient, and I want you to be kind and I want you to invest in them. And he just did not have that in him, and so we we had lunch, we drove back to the office, and me and him are sitting in his car, and he's I'm letting him go, so it's kind of a you know, bittersweet moment, I guess I don't know. And uh we sat there for like an awkward 30 seconds, and I looked over at him and I said, Listen, has anybody ever loved you? And this older man he shed a cry, a tear, you know. He was like, He's like, Demetri, I don't think anybody's ever loved me. You know, I came from a family where I didn't feel like my father loved me, and my mother always had these really, really high expectations. If I brought home an A, she's like, why is If I ran a five-minute mile, why isn't it four and a half? You know, and so then I started realizing that we have such a bigger impact on people around us than we think. Like, you know, we we always want somebody to be great and loving and kind, but maybe they haven't had anybody example that for them. And so when you have somebody broken in front of you, you could just fire them and say this was, you know, crappiest, most horrible human being I've ever met. Or you could choose to love on them and actually be like, hey, you know, you're hurting, you're snapping because something's hurting. Let's reel you in here and maybe get a and and some people don't want help.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

And you can't help somebody that don't want it. Right.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

You know, I love that you're bringing this to light because I think the stereotype and the bravado of a successful man is almost paradoxical to one that really emphasizes and embraces loving people. And that when we talk about love, especially in a professional environment, it can make a lot of people uncomfortable because we don't understand that to love someone isn't inappropriate. It doesn't make you weak. It doesn't mean anything less professional. It means that you see them as a human. It means that you respect them as a human. It means that you want for them all of the things that you have for yourself. And that's that's pretty much.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

And to conceptual to conceptualize love outside of like um an intimate relationship. An intimate relationship or a familial relationship. It's like, no, there's space for that too. And it does exist and it should exist everywhere. And more people need to lean into that.

SPEAKER_03 45:53

Yeah. And I love that you're bringing that to the modern world of business practice. And you're a successful man who's doing it because I it's a perfect example for all other men out there who have been told their whole lives that, you know, like men are you're strong, you don't show emotion, you go with this iron fist, you beat the chest, and that's what it means to be a man. But you're a perfect living example that to be softer, to show love, it actually can benefit you and be way like light year is more successful than that hard bravado exterior that men have.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Oh, don't worry, you should see him push weight on a bench press machine. It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

I mean, they do go hand in hand. Like it's okay to be one with the other.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

I'm lovingly, I'm lovingly terrified at the same time. Yeah. I mean, you it gives you a different purpose because when you have to be, you still have to be strong, right? But you're doing it out of service and love for somebody else, right? It's it's like I tell my kids this all the time. I said, it's somebody's picking at you at school, picking on you at school, just avoid them. Okay. Um, it's not your job to try to break everybody's jaw in the school. But if somebody's picking on somebody else, you see somebody bullying somebody else, I expect you to stand up. Um, you know, and that's different. I still expect you to be strong, but it's not to be the bully who now like forces everybody to bow down to him and give them the chocolate chip, all their chocolate chip cookies or chips, you know. That is toxic masculinity, you know. Um, I think proper strength or courage is when you do it out of love and service for somebody else.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

We had a we had a situation. We should just talk about this in my family the other day. Like my my children are close enough in age that they just don't particularly love each other's being. I mean, they're teenagers, right? Yeah. But my older one is constantly bothered by the younger one and the things that he does and the things that he says and the way that he says them. And, you know, I'm constantly trying to get them, hey, can you guys just just get along? Or just or just, you know, or just avoid each other. But there was a situation, we just talked about this the other day, where in elementary school, and it was during COVID, like was, you know, there was enough stress and tension in the world as it was. Um, but my son was kind of being bullied at school. And I think and my daughter, they're they're three grades apart, so three grades in between them. Um, and you know, we kind of we were talking about it at dinner as a family, and the next day my daughter stepped in and I was like, I was so proud because that was the end of it. Like, my son didn't get bullied anymore. Um, you know, she kind of put her foot down and it was like, okay, like that confirms that that you that you love him. Yeah. Most of the time you probably love to hate him, but the the love, the love is what will prevail, right? Like, but it was so cool. And I think that the, you know, it's it is. It's such a great example. I love that. Like you can avoid it in the in your own personal conflict situation, but when you're stepping up for somebody else, that's that's massively impactful. It's powerful. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

Love, it's bravery, it's all the things that we as a human, as a humanity, should want to emulate more than anything else. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

But let's let's change gears a little bit. I feel inspired right now.

SPEAKER_03 49:03

Maybe this is what it means to like sit down with a preacher. Yeah, I've never done this before, but I'm like, I'm all moved and inspired. Oh, yeah. I get this whole fight thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

You guys love coffee. Every every one-hour coffee meeting, I just gathered Dimitri's gone four hours. Um but let's change gears. So back to back to the business a little bit. Um where where do you see the and where do you see the next five, ten years? Like what's what is there a goal? Is it fluid?

SPEAKER_00 49:30

Um there is a goal. Um, you know, and I I hate to put numbers on things. Um and

Scaling Fast While Protecting Culture

SPEAKER_00 49:39

uh you know, I I call our uh growth organic. So what what that means for me is as doors and opportunities present themselves, we want to be ready and prepared to take advantage of those open doors. Right. But if a door is closed and we're not really ready to enter it, like I don't want us to try to break the door open and hurt our knuckles and elbows and beat up or for trying to open a door that's not open. And the best prediction of future success or future performance is somebody's past performance, right? Right? If somebody was organized and disciplined and you know, responsible the day before yesterday and for many years before that, what are the chances there are gonna be all those things tomorrow? A hundred percent. What if somebody was messy, chaotic, toxic, and then you had a prep talk with them, and you know, what's the chances they're gonna be responsible, organized, you know, trustworthy tomorrow, like close to zero. You know, so in a business sense, with as far as going forecasts and goals, you know, I tell all of our all of our employees, I said, okay, look, we've been growing at a rate of 49% for more than 10 years now. It's 11 years going. That's so insane and it's insane. It's crazy. It's so painful. And growth is painful. Yeah. And pain's the best teacher. And pain's good, lead into pain. But that's a whole other theological topic. But when you're talking about goals, um, you know, we've had massive growth from doing two million to four million to eight million to sixteen million to whatever. Last year we closed sixty-five million dollars in revenue between all of our companies together. And is if I plan it out and I look at the you know what's going forward, uh, you know, we we we're looking to hit about $250 million in total revenue if we're talking numbers. That's a 10-year goal, yeah. Yeah, from where we're at now. And so that's difficult because every year we're a different company than we were before last year. So we have to redesign the management structure, the admin structure. Everything has to be redesigned. So it's a little bit unsettling because we can't just relax and like like ideally we would stop growing for cash flow purposes, for me as a business owner for profitability purposes, because we'll make you know a couple million bucks, but then we've got to turn around and invest it into a building, invest that into more trucks, invest that into more equipment.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Um it's kind of that grow or die thing, too, right? You get too comfortable, you get complacent. Like that's that's a that's a major killer in the business world. So no, I mean you gotta keep you gotta keep kind of moving the target.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Yeah, it's 49% is actually uh a very unhealthy. That's massive, yeah. That's that's wrapped up. I have these two parts of me that one is like very conservative, very safe, you know, plan for tomorrow, and then very ambitious, very, you know, grow, don't stop growing, um, and just trying to hold the two of them together.

SPEAKER_03 52:39

But I'd say so far you're doing a great job based on the last 10 years of work.

SPEAKER_00 52:44

And growth is also very depending on the personnel and the people. So we're now at a stage. I told I tell our guys, like, listen, I can develop about three to five professionals every year. Like people I find in my community, and you know, just neighbors, somebody knows somebody knows somebody gets introduced to me, and then I start reeling them in, come work for me, and I give them the time of my life to invest in them and coach them and mentor them in personal life, professional life, and try to build them up into where they can be a great employee and like move one of our departments. Um and if we if if if the whole company, because we now have over 250 employees, if everybody waits for me to develop five new leaders so we can have another sales guy or marketing guy or manager guy or whatever, you know, estimator guy, then we're gonna grow very slow. We're now at a place where I need our managers and our leaders to develop and grow their own three, four, five people every year. So that's also gonna be very, you know, dependent. And in order for them to get there, they got to get to a place to where they feel very comfortable with themselves. Like when you're comfortable with yourself and you're like, you know what, I'm actually a decent human being.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

I figured a few things out, then you're ready to really So I have to ask, I'm so curious, do you support or encourage or even provide personal development opportunities for those people in leadership positions? Like send them on retreats or places where they can grow and become more of that person that you need them to be so they can pour into others.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Yeah. I mean, we've done multiple different things in the past. We've we've hired outside uh counselors and professional consultants that'll come in and you know, we've done our own things where we'll take like a Patrick Lugancioni book and you know, we'll have all the leaders read it and then we get together, discuss the chapter. Um we take our people on leadership summits. We've got one coming up next year. We love the Dave Ramsey Leadership Summit. They're very expensive. Um but um those also help. Um and then we once a year or so we have to get together and revisit our values and principles as a company. We just went through this last month, which is so helpful because when a company grows, it becomes it gets slower, more bureaucratic, more, you know, just more red tape, more obstacles, roadblocks, it's the mechanical side. Yeah, you gotta bring it back to the and and so like this was pretty awesome because last month we just sat down and we said, okay, let's answer this question, all the leaders in the room. What made us as what made good life successful from the beginning? Like, what were the things that we would have never been successful without? And it was like immediately, let's like hard work. We always worked harder than our competition. Okay, what does that mean? And we worked more hours, we worked faster. Okay, what else? We had a whatever it takes mindset. Okay, somebody needs something done and they need it done this Friday, and that's impossible. Well, our mindset is like, whatever it takes. We're gonna do whatever it takes to get you what you need. All right, you know, and then so we just started listing those off. Like we listened, we provided solutions that made us successful. Okay, are we doing that now? Um, some of our employees are doing that now. Okay, now we're hiring some people that are working slower, that you know, are not bringing 110% to the table. Okay, so they're changing the DNA of what actually made us successful. Yes. So, like, okay, so then we can start counting the backwards and going, This is this is the time when we're starting to die. Okay. Now you gotta love and be patient and be all these things, but at the same time, I don't want to change that culture. Like part of me loving my clients was I would go out at 9 p.m. and do something for them. Now I just hired an employee. Right? And and I'm like, hey, there's a water leak happening. We're like, we're modeling some houses and put uh pipe we put in is leaking. I need you to go out there and fix the pipe. And they're like, you can't expect that of me as an employee. You know, I'm off the clock, too, whatever you want. So what is love now towards this employee? Like, do I just let them implement these lower standards, these lower expectations, and hide behind the California employee laws and be like, well, I guess we're just gonna be this company that when a customer calls us, say we're gonna open up on Monday at 8 a.m., like you cannot stay in a business and do that. So um, so we got to go back and high, you know, elevate the expectation. And is it really me loving this person? Why am I looking at an employee and thinking I was totally capable of being this extra hard worker and whatever it takes mindset? Why am I looking at this person going, yeah, they're just not quite like me? I they're uh they're not as strong, they're not as smart, they're not that's not actually love. And so you have to find it in yourself, and that's the difficult part. I hate doing that part. But coming in and having those conversations, like, hey, going forward, we got to keep doing what made us successful to begin with. Here's what that means. And if you don't do it, we're gonna have to let you go. If you don't know how to do it, we're gonna teach you. But you're totally capable and you try to mentor them, and some people run off the ship and you're like, that's that's that it is what it is, but we got to keep that DNA. Um, and so you like when you're talking about being soft, you want to like cradle them and cuddle them. And then I realized over time that if I really want to help people like that, we can open up a rehab center from all the money we're making and work on them here. But as good life construction or good life restoration or good life inspections, we've got to provide excellence. And the people who have to be mature, they have to be and it can't be lip service.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

You can't just say you're willing to do it, you gotta actually step up and do it.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

Yeah, bring it in. And so that's a little bit of where I get torn apart because I see somebody and you're letting them go, but you love them, but you know, but yes, mentorship and and providing the resources, um, and I think just preaching that all the time, like, hey, here's what we are, we love. That is literally what we do. I mean, if you walk through our hallway, you'll see that, you know, yeah we love it. Love is patient kind, and so on. And and so um, who are we? We you know, what are we doing? We're here to love people through the God-given talents of gifts that gave us, which is like building houses, fakes in people's houses.

SPEAKER_03 59:02

You should write a book. Add it to the list of a hundred things that you're already doing, but I think that you would you would touch a lot of people through that. Um okay, I know we're we're this has been a great conversation. We have some fun questions that aren't so business oriented for you, and these are some of my favorite questions. Are how long have you lived in Sacramento?

SPEAKER_00 59:24

Since 1998.

SPEAKER_03 59:26

Where are you from originally?

SPEAKER_00 59:27

Ukraine.

SPEAKER_03 59:28

Ukraine. Yeah. Okay. Well, welcome to Sacramento. Um, okay. What are some of your favorite places to eat around Sacramento?

SPEAKER_00 59:40

The coonies.

Sacramento Favorites And Lightning Round

SPEAKER_00 59:43

That's your number one. Uh that's our go-to. What's our other go-to?

SPEAKER_01 59:48

Um something on anything off the beaten trail.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Like there's a really good Armenian restaurant called Yerivan off of Feroaks.

SPEAKER_01 59:56

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 59:57

Uh if you want to have a lot of meat, um Manzanita turns into Feroaks and then Feroaks takes off towards sunrise. So it's like kind of in that area.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:07

Oh, I know, right where that is. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

It's called Yerivan. I think they're open Tuesday through Sunday. Check them out.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:12

Wow. Okay. Uh favorite like recreational thing to do around Sacramento?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

Fishing, boating on Folsom Lake.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

Fishing. Are you a bait bass fisher or trout, or where are you going for?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

When salmon runs up the Sacramento River or American River, I'd like to go out there and floss the river a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:29

What is that? That starts like November typically.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

It's actually starting now. Really? But yeah, I I think the hottest time of the year is like November. That's when you get the most fish in the river.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

Some trout fishing up in uh Ice House. And I mean, we got so much stuff to do here. We love going to Tahoe. We love going to Monterey. We love camping. Um, our favorite camping spot is New Brighton Beach and Capitola, right next to Santa Cruz.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

Yeah, close to my family. Used to, we used to go to Sunset Beach. So it's not too far away from there. That was like our spot. It still is very much. It's beautiful out there. It's a nice little escape, especially from the heat sometimes. Um, okay. Coffee spot. I feel like there's like obviously we have to talk about your favorite coffee spot.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:10

So just to preface this, we used to have espresso machines on campus at Good Life, multiple, and it was amazing. I've heard. It was amazing. It's kind of a point of contention. Dimitri probably doesn't want to talk about it right now, so we're not going to push him on it. I miss him. We don't have them anymore. It's a tragedy, but it so goes, right? Well, let's not be the dead horse. But what is your what is your your go-to coffee spot here in in town? And I don't like my answer. I just go to Starbucks. I don't mind it. I mean, hey, like I'm I'm a guy on the run. Like the the Starbucks appeared to be a room. Yeah. The Starbucks app changed everything for me. Like I know I know where I can place an order from from this building and have it be ready by the time I get there so I can get back to the city. 10 mile vicinity, you know, extra. Yeah, I mean, I know that I know the Starbucks that if I'm leaving when I'm when I'm backing out of my driveway to come to work or go anywhere, if I need a cup of coffee or buy to eat, like the the Starbucks app, as generic as it is, I don't Starbucks coffee is probably not the greatest coffee in the world. I've definitely had way better.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

And I live in Antelope, and there's not a whole lot around there.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:12

Really? You know, I've actually so I'm a big go into I love the coffee house culture. I love my work meetings there, I love to work there, but I've also noticed that there is a huge crossover between the coffee culture and the faith culture. Like there are so many people.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

Like the is it pause? Is pause pause overload?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:30

Yeah, but I mean, any any any coffee house I go into, yeah, there's people like holy coffee right here.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:37

Yeah, yeah. Actually, that's a really good one. Holy's really good.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

It's like coffee and faith are go hand in hand, and there's always, and it's it seems to be like a younger demographic of people that are there doing their Bible study and talking about it, which I love to see. I'm not a person of faith, but I just love to see that that's what is encouraging the younger generation to go out and do, and it's it's a little bit um comforting, I guess. And that they're they're not all a lost cause sitting behind a screen somewhere. Um, but okay. What oh, so you already asked what's next. Um, outside of work passions, I think we talked about that quite a bit. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

We're on to the lightning round.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

We're on to the lightning round. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

So this is We're just gonna hit you with some this or that stuff. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:22

All right. So, first question Are you an early morning bird or a late night owl?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

Oh, geez, I'm 50-50.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:30

Split down the middle. I don't think I've ever heard that answer before.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

Well, he is both, because I mean you you've told me stories like people will show up at his house at 10 o'clock at night, and next thing you know, it's 2 a.m. and he's back in the office at six.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

I'm going to sleep at 1 a.m. every night. And depending on the level of urgency we have either in the business or some other part of life, if like if stuff is not going well, and we've got problems or a lawsuit under I'm up at like 5 30. Woof. Um, because I can't I just use your spin in the lean in, get it done, figure it out. But if things are flowing smooth and no one's calling me, I could sleep in until 7 or 7 30. Don't tell, don't tell the office, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:07

You'll never know. Okay, beach or mountains?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:11

Um beach.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:12

All right. We just talked about it, but coffee or tea?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:15

Coffee.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

Okay. Favorite genre of music.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

You know, that's a difficult one because I've never because I went to work at 14 years old, I was an immigrant, so for the first three, four years I was kind of assimilating to the cult American culture. Just getting the hang of and rap was the thing when I was in middle school. The very, you know, this 2001, 2002 type of rap.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:41

Yeah, that was the that was we were still kind of good back then.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:44

And then I went to work and I didn't really get into the whole country music thing or the rock thing or whatever. So I mean, I enjoy country music nowadays. Like if I had to pick for something to listen, it would be country music.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:58

Okay. Um oh what is the favorite app on your phone right now?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:04

Facebook. Yeah. I did not expect that.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

Yeah. Yeah. I um I stay connected to a lot of people, especially in the real estate community. I probably have like 30 really meaningful relationships. Like I've become friends with realtors or brokers to where we you know call each other up on birthdays and I'll go missionary trips with some people like the Moore team. And um, they invite me to so like and I'm not so much out there in the events or meetings, the MLS meetings, the associations, but I get to kind of still check out. Catch up on that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:41

Okay. Would you rather read a book or listen to a book? Read a book for sure.

unknown 1:05:44

Oh god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:45

Man after my own heart of that. I'm just not getting into Audible book. That's all I have so far. Those are those are my lightning questions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:52

That's it. I love it. Well, we have we have taken up an hour plus of your time. So we always very precious. We have we we you were kind of our guinea pig. This was a new structure for our podcast. I like this lightning round.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

I gotta get better at these lightning round questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

We've got we've got areas that we can improve on, but we will we will never go away from this one. It's it's it's it's our tried and true cool favorite question. Close out question. If you could be anybody for a day, dead or alive, who would you be and and what would you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

All right. Adam. I'd want to be Adam. You want to be Adam? Yeah. I'd want to be what is it like living in the Garden of Eden?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:29

Um with all the temptation.

Adam In Eden And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

See, there's two different signs of this, right? Like, I'm guessing Dimitri's not thinking about all the temptation, but Kaylee Mike. I as a woman. I as a woman. Yeah, she's biting the apple. I mean.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:59

That's amazing. We haven't heard that one before.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:02

Yeah, yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

Um What would you do in the Garden of Eden?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:06

I actually love gardening. Maybe that's why. Um, but it would be nice to see what the world was like before animals ate animals where you can hang out with a you know a tiger or a lion, and you know, because that's the idea before sin came, is that you know there was no there was no bloodshed. Interesting. That they say the first bloodshed happened is when um men and women realized they were naked. They were like, Oh, we're hiding from God because we're naked, and God killed a deer and gave them clothing. Uh so like in theology, we would say that that, you know, sin caused the very first the original sin. The original sin, yeah. Huh. So before before the corruption of the sinful nature, right? What would have been like? Free will.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:54

God, I don't know. I guess that really is paradise, huh? Oh no, I have a lot to say.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

Not all temptation.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:00

Thank you so much for crazing us. This was a really enlightening. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

Thank you guys for having me. It was a great comeback episode. We're expecting a lot of new followers.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:12

At least seven.