Business RadioX ®

Aaron Edewards with Evergreen Engineering

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BRX National
Aaron Edewards with Evergreen Engineering
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Business RadioX® was live at the 2022 GEDA Annual Conference in Savannah, GA.  The conference is designed to give you a glimpse of what is here now, what the future looks like and the tools to help you implement strategies and tactics now to pay off years down the road.

Aaron-Edewards-Evergreen-EngineeringAaron Edewards is the Business Development Director at Evergreen Engineering. We serve our industrial clients with complete multi-discipline engineering for the development of new production facilities, process improvement projects, field services, and maintenance project engineering.

We work in the forestry products industry, pulp and paper, alternative energy, recycling, specialty chemical, and investment casting. “Our mission is to provide customized support to move our client’s vision to reality by delivering practical engineering solutions, displaying project leadership and contributing technical expertise.”

Responsible for growing revenue opportunities through new and ongoing business development engagements and negotiations. Skilled at identifying potential business collaborations and partnerships fitting within the overall corporate strategy, business plan and product portfolio. Lead business development engagements and lead negotiations focusing on Evergreen’s multi-discipline engineering offerings with an emphasis in industrial facility development.

Manages and coordinates cross-functional team through evaluation of opportunities and interactions with potential partners. Develops and negotiates term sheets and identifies solutions when needed to reach agreement on key deal terms. Identification, communication and management of opportunities with new and existing partnerships, clients, and strategic alliances.

Key contributor to all aspects of business development and strategy.Aaron is responsible for growing revenue opportunities through new and ongoing business development engagements and negotiations. He is skilled at identifying potential business collaborations and partnerships fitting within the overall corporate strategy, business plan and product portfolio.

Connect with Aaron on LinkedIn.

BRX Pro Tip: Break That Big Goal Down

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Break That Big Goal Down
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BRX Pro Tip: Break That Big Goal Down

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this morning. Lee, we have to consistently set the mark, establish goals. Sometimes they’re really big, as they should be. But if we’re getting stuck, if we’re having a challenge, your advice is, often, break that big goal down into smaller ones. Yeah?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] Absolutely. I think, a lot of times, you get stuck on the big goal because it just is too overwhelming and you don’t know where to begin. I think it’s worth the time to kind of look at that big goal, and then just break it down into smaller goals. And then, once you do that and have these smaller goals, then you can create the action steps to just solve that first step. What does it take to kind of achieve that first step? And then, just slowly and methodically create the movement you need to keep that ball rolling. That will get you eventually to your big goal.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] But sometimes, big goals are just too big in the sense that you don’t know where to begin. So, the best thing is break it down into smaller goals, create the movement that begets more movement, start doing something, see where that goes, what you learned, where can we adjust, where can we take one more action. Then, you’ll find that easier path. And then, by taking that path, then you’re going to get to where you want to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:21] But make sure you’re checking to see if you’re making progress every day on that goal once you get some momentum because momentum is the key. You cannot just, every day, have this big goal on the wall and not do anything towards it. It’s going to frustrate your team; it’s going to frustrate you. So, break the goal down, take some action, and move the ball a little bit each day and you’ll eventually get there.

Marianne Butler, Kala Wetzel, Nicole Thomas and Michael McNeely

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Cherokee Business Radio
Marianne Butler, Kala Wetzel, Nicole Thomas and Michael McNeely
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Sponsored by Business RadioX ® Main Street Warriors

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Marianne-ButlerMarianne Butler was selected to serve as the Homeless Coalition Cherokee County’s first Director. She brings to this role over 20 years of diverse experience serving people in need from a professional and spiritual perspective. She has hands on experience working with vulnerable populations ranging from special needs children to aging veterans in the VA Hospital system.

Her background, which includes a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The University of Southern Mississippi, lends to the Coalition her knowledge and ability to fully understand the needs of individuals with a broad range of physical, behavioral, and emotional issues from severe psychiatric conditions to those facing urgent financial and quality of life circumstances.

While her background is vast, her heart is even bigger. It is her compassion for connecting individuals and families with both professional and spiritual guidance that makes her uniquely gifted and qualified to serve in this capacity. Marianne resides in Woodstock, Georgia along with her husband, two daughters, and various pets.

Kala-WetzelKala Wetzel is the publisher of Bradshaw Lake Living and Best Version Media. It can be described as a fun community led magazine that goes to the homeowners of the Bradshaw Farm area, right here in Holly Springs. Bringing the community together is a passion of Kala’s and she loves that she has the opportunity to meet new people every day.

Every month we meet with a new family, smack ’em on the cover, and tell the community their story. It could range anywhere from that soldier that just came home from overseas, to the high school grad who just received a full ride to a big college. Everyone has a story and if you’re willing to tell it, we’re willing to share it.

This magazine is unique as it gives local businesses the opportunity to have a voice. Unlike traditional magazines that give companies ad space and *fingers crossed* hope they do well, we find experts in the field, and allow them to write educational material regarding their nature of business. Who doesn’t love free education? This also gives our community a chance to learn who our local business leaders are. Remember, we are more likely to do business with those we know!

Connect with Kala on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Michael-McNeelyMichael McNeely is Associate Publisher at Best Version Media. Michael is a former head bowling coach at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, Ga.

He completed his undergraduate coursework at Bethel University in McKenzie, TN where he obtained his Bachelor of Science in Physical Education. At Bethel, Michael was also a Resident Assistant of two years and the Grand Scribe of the Tau-Xi chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity for one year.

On February 21, 2014 Michael was honored by the Mid-South Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics(NAIA) as a Champion of Character. According to the NAIA, a Champion of Character reflects the five core values that the NAIA promotes; Responsibility, Integrity, Sportsmanship, Servant Leadership, and Respect.

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

Nicole-ThomasNicole Thomas graduated with a Mass Communications degree from Piedmont College in 2020. She wanted to start her own business, ConnextSocial, because she loved the community, helping businesses and marketing.

ConnextSocial’s services include social media management and content creation, flyer design, business card design, brochure design, and website design.

Connect with Nicole on Facebook.

 

WBENC 2022: Teresa Williams and Re’Nauta Bell with Cushman & Wakefield

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GWBC Radio
WBENC 2022: Teresa Williams and Re'Nauta Bell with Cushman & Wakefield
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Re-Nauta-Bell-Teresa-Williams-GWBC-WBENC-National-ConferenceTeresa Williams and Re’Nauta Bell,  Cushman & Wakefield

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here. Here we are live at WBENC’s National Conference and we’re inside the booth of GWBC, at booth 1812, if you want to come by and check us out. Right now, we have Re’Nauta Bell and Teresa Williams with Cushman Wakefield. Welcome, ladies.

Teresa Williams: [00:00:33] Thank you.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:00:34] Thank you for having us.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:35] Well, I’m so excited. For the one person out there who doesn’t know about Cushman Wakefield, why don’t one of you give a little bit of an elevator pitch of how you’re serving folks?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:00:44] We are a commercial real estate company and we are here to support the Greater Women’s Business Council with finding diverse vendors.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:53] And how did you guys get into this line of work? Were you always working in diversity or HR, or how did that come about?

Teresa Williams: [00:01:02] Well, I’ll dive in. I kind of fell into the industry. Maybe more appropriately, I think I kicked my way into the industry. I basically took a leap of faith. I sold my business and I decided that I wanted to do commercial real estate after being exposed to it. And I have had my husband set up some meetings for me and I basically crashed a couple of them, and this is where I landed. And it’s been a beautiful, beautiful experience. And I’m here today, because of an amazing woman, Kayla Dang, who is the CEO of GMI Group, who’s also a member of the Greater Women’s Business Council. So, so happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:39] So, now, did you start in residential real estate and move to commercial or?

Teresa Williams: [00:01:44] So, actually, I started—I was in the residential sector, but on the finance side, so I was doing home mortgages, and then we ventured off into commercial mortgages, and that’s when things got interesting.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:57] It’s a different world, right?

Teresa Williams: [00:01:58] Yeah. Yeah. I really loved it. And it was just—it made sense to me. So, doing what I do today, representing occupiers who are looking for office space made a lot of sense.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:09] Now, in residential, a lot of women are involved in that. Is that the same in commercial or is that a more male-dominated industry?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:02:18] Very, very good call out. It is at some point in time, so that’s why we would like to change that footprint, right? So, we’re here at this conference and we’re looking for diverse suppliers, not just women, but all genres, of course.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:33] Well, because it’s such an opportunity for folks. I would think that this is something that there’s a lot of people that if they would just open their mind to it and become aware of the opportunity, there would be a lot of people flocking to you.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:02:44] Very much so. And actually, that’s why we’re here. So, with Cushman & Wakefield, we want to expand our diversity within all of our—sorry, with all of our business lines. So, if there are companies out there that do any type of roofing, electrical maintenance, anything within that building envelope, we need those suppliers.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:06] Right. And you have to become aware of them and they have to become aware of you. Now, it’s fascinating to me because people may not be aware of all the different kind of ways that Cushman Wakefield serves a market. Can you talk about, like you mentioned, some of the services, but there’s a whole plethora of services that address this market, right? It’s not the obvious ones. oh, I’m going to rent somebody’s space. There are lots of people that touch a building.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:03:30] Like janitorial services. Move and change, so that’s like moving services. We also janitorial, already said that, landscape and snow removal. Anybody who does any HVAC, we have so many different categories and we need the diversity throughout. And it can even be a sub. They don’t have to be the first tier.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:57] So, any service that touches any of the work done in the building is somebody you want to get to know, right?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:04:05] Exactly.

Teresa Williams: [00:04:06] Inside and outside the building.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:07] Right. It’s not just the person, like I said, that rents the space.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:04:11] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:12] And I think that people—I think some small businesses sell themselves short. They think too small. They’re not kind of expanding their mindset of, well, I do this one thing, but there’s lots and lots of people that might benefit from knowing that I do that.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:04:26] Exactly. And I don’t know how this is going to be broadcast, but if they can find us as we’re walking through this conference today, what they can do is we’ll allow them, we’ll scan our barcode, and then they can go into our database.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:44] And so, they can add their name to a directory, so that-

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:04:46] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:48] And then, let people know that Cushman Wakefield’s all over the place. There’s not just one office right there.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:04:54] We’re national. We’re actually global.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:55] Global, right.

Teresa Williams: [00:04:56] Yes. We have over 450 employees. Shoot, I can’t remember how many offices we have, but we are located in 60 different countries. Actually, that was 450 offices, 53,000 employees, 60 countries.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:12] Yeah. So, you have—the world is really your oyster when it comes to this. And if I—like say I’m a janitorial service provider, and I partner with Cushman Wakefield, and say I’m in Minneapolis, is that something that, now, I’m in the database, so if somebody needs me in an adjoining market, they might call me as well, right?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:05:31] They will search for that region, they’ll search for that service, and it’ll connect us to the right folks, the managers that lead that.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:39] Right. So, there’s really no reason not to put your name in the hat.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:05:43] Exactly.

Teresa Williams: [00:05:44] It’s a great opportunity for you to expand your business as well. Say you serve just the Atlanta market, you’re interested in expanding, contracts can afford you that opportunities.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:54] Now, how do you attack an event like this WBENC National Conference? Are you just kind of walking around meeting people? Are you doing those kind of things?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:06:04] Actually, we have clients here.

Teresa Williams: [00:06:04] Yeah, it’s very targeted.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:06:06] Very targeted, right. So, it is speed dating. If someone sees our brand or our name on our-

Lee Kantor: [00:06:12] You want to meet people.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:06:13] Exactly, we do, right? But we also have clients here that we are working with. And so, we’ll be at their booth and we’ll speak to people as they come up as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:23] Right. So, are you divide and conquer, or you are a team here?

Teresa Williams: [00:06:27] We divide, we conquer, we come back together, and then we do it all over again, so yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:33] Now, it’s been a minute since these conferences have happened. Everything’s been virtual. How has that been for you to kind of go around? And I’m sure there’s been a lot more hugging today there’s been in probably months.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:06:43] I know.

Teresa Williams: [00:06:44] Yeah. I saw some people I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, and it’s been a huge love fest, so I’m so happy to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:52] Right. It’s like the world has opened up. It’s wild. So, if somebody wants to learn more about Cushman Wakefield, what’s the website, what’s the best coordinates to kind of learn about this program?

Teresa Williams: [00:07:03] You can reach us at www.cushmanwakefield.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:08] And then, kind of drill down to supplier diversity, where would they go in the website, do you know?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:07:12] I would say supplier diversity or category management. That will lead you to our category managers for each category that I named earlier in the program, janitorial services.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:25] Right. So, you can put your information in the appropriate place?

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:07:29] Exactly.

Teresa Williams: [00:07:30] And we do have champions for our partners, so it’s not a situation where our partners sign up and-

Lee Kantor: [00:07:37] I know, forgotten, right?

Teresa Williams: [00:07:38] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:38] There’s somebody on the team that’s going to come back behind there and really help them be successful.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:07:43] Absolutely. Exactly.

Teresa Williams: [00:07:44] And that’s the whole point.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:46] Well, thank you both for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Teresa Williams: [00:07:50] Thank you.

Re’Nauta Bell: [00:07:50] Thank you for having us. We appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:52] Alright. This is Lee Kantor. We’re broadcasting live from the WBENC National Conference 2022 inside the GWBC booth. We’ll be back in a few.

About WBENC

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping women-owned businesses thrive.WBENC-Logo

We believe diversity promotes innovation, opens doors, and creates partnerships that fuel the economy. That’s why we not only provide the most relied upon certification standard for women-owned businesses, but we also offer the tools to help them succeed.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business. GWBC-Logo

GWBC® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

BRX Pro Tip: Get Crystal Clear on Value

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BRX Pro Tips
BRX Pro Tip: Get Crystal Clear on Value
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BRX Pro Tip: Get Crystal Clear on Value

Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, you and I have talked a lot offline more recently about the value of clarity. But one of the things we’ve got to get real clear about is the value. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Lee Kantor: Sure. In our business, it’s easy to get confused around the value we provide. Like, the value we provide at Business RadioX is, we help our clients get into relationships with new or existing people that matter the most to them. And the tool we use is radio, and podcasting, and audio, and sometimes it’s face-to-face, and sometimes it’s over Zoom, sometimes it’s the trade show.

Lee Kantor: But what our bottom line value we deliver is having a tool for our clients to meet new people that are important to them, to nurture existing relationships that are important to them, and to separate themselves from everybody else in the industry, and to elevate their business into being indispensable. That’s what we do.

Lee Kantor: If our client doesn’t really understand that and they think, “Oh, I’m sponsoring a radio show,” then it’s incongruent. They’re not going to be happy if they go, “Woah. Where’s all the listeners? How come I don’t have more listeners?” So, they think they bought one thing. You delivered a different thing. You’re happy because you’re like, “See, how good I did at delivering this thing?” And they’re like, “Well, that’s great. But I wanted a million listeners.” So then, there’s a disconnect.

Lee Kantor: So, if they are out of sync on what benefits your service provides, then you’re not going to deliver the outcome that they desire. And you got to get clear on that. And you got to be kind of on top of it. And remind them over and over that this is what they’re getting, this is why they picked us, and this is why we picked them.

Lee Kantor: So, at the start of any client relationship, you better make sure you’re on the same page on what you do, what they are expected to do, and the value you’re going to deliver if you want to have any chance of having this customer be a customer for life. So, clarity on the value you deliver is critical. You have to be able to articulate it and they have to really understand what they’re going to get if this relationship is going to work.

Justin Allen with Redtail Plumbing

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Cherokee Business Radio
Justin Allen with Redtail Plumbing
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Redtail Plumbing is a locally owned and full-service plumbing service located in Woodstock, GA servicing Woodstock, GA and the Northwest Atlanta metropolitan area.

Our plumbers are fully licensed and insured.  You can call us with confidence and rest assured that we have the knowledge and experience to handle your plumbing and plumbing related repairs.

Justin-Allen-headshot-bwJustin Allen is a Master Plumber with Redtail Plumbing and has over fifteen years of experience.  And that’s not just a title.

Master Plumbers must complete extensive training, up to five years, and pass a state licensing and certification exam.

Follow Redtail Plumbing on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:10] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Cherokee Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:26] Hello. It is a happy, fearless formula Friday on Cherokee Radio X, where we talk about the ups and downs of the business world and offer words of wisdom for business success. I’m your host, Sharon Cline. And our guest in the studio today is a master plumber with over 15 years experience, which I love. He’s from Kansas City originally, but here in Woodstock now he is owner of Redtail Plumbing. Please welcome to the show. Justin Allen. Hello.

Justin Allen: [00:00:53] Hello. How are you doing? It’s great to be here today. I absolutely love this.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:59] Yeah, I’m so happy. It’s always nice to have a happy guest here on the show. All right. So you’re from Kansas City, but is.

Justin Allen: [00:01:05] That.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:05] Please forgive me because I’m not a sports fan like I pretend to be. Redtail plumbing. Where does the name come from?

Justin Allen: [00:01:11] Redtail. Okay, so with Kansas City? No. Oh, no. The only thing is the color is. So I’m a big Chiefs fan and red and white are part of the Chiefs color. So I did decide to go with that, besides the fact of a red tailed hawk. So why did I choose Red Tail? So I wanted to be kind of a classy style logo plumber, so not like, you know, you know, these gimmicky names. So I wanted to be classy and. Yeah, yeah. So, so being in Atlanta, there’s a lot of red tail hawks. The Atlanta Hawks is a red tail. And then there’s the the old southern like air fighter group was called the Red Tails.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:46] So you really thought this out?

Justin Allen: [00:01:48] I did. I wanted to be part of the community, but kind of like camouflage myself and just.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:52] Oh, that is so smart. Yeah. It’s funny because if you were thinking about a plumber, it’s always like like I was saying a wrench or something. I don’t know.

Justin Allen: [00:01:58] Sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:59] I don’t know. It’s nice to have something that’s sort of, like, completely different. Yeah. Yeah. But, like, I get the feeling of being kind of classy and having a little homage to your hometown.

Justin Allen: [00:02:07] Sure. Yeah, totally. And as you see, like, my logo does have a hawk carrying a pipe wrench this close. So the symbol goes a little bit in. There it is. Right.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:17] What did you do before you were a plumber?

Justin Allen: [00:02:21] Okay. So I went to to college for about a year. I failed out, and.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:26] I just I honestly.

Justin Allen: [00:02:28] I decided, all right, I got to get a real job. My my dad was a plumber back in the day, so I saw a truck that said now hiring. So I decided to become an apprentice in Kansas City before I moved here. And then I got to Atlanta when I was 24 and couldn’t find a job immediately as an apprentice. So I worked in a bar for about seven years. Wow. Before I got back on to plumbing and got my journeyman license and started doing it that way and became a master later.

Sharon Cline: [00:02:56] So, all right. So we explained to me what a master plumber is as opposed to like a regular.

Justin Allen: [00:03:01] Sure. So you’ve got yeah. So definitely you go from an apprentice and then after here in Georgia, it’s three years and then after that you can test to be a journeyman. A journeyman means I can come into your house legally by George and do plumbing. And then two years of a journeyman, you test to be a master. And a master means you can own your own business. Basically, a master plumber means you can take money. So as a journeyman, I have to have a master above me saying I can take money as a business. Got you. So and as an unrestricted master, that means that basically the gist is you cannot outrank me as a plumber, although you might. There’s a lot of people no more. But but as the plumbing goes, that’s the highest level here in Georgia is unrestricted and master plumber.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:44] Well, there are a lot of terms I’ve not heard before.

Justin Allen: [00:03:45] Yeah, right. It gets pretty boring, but like, I’m legit. It’s basically what that means.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:51] Are you a restricted plumber?

Justin Allen: [00:03:52] Yeah, right. There can be, yes. Really restricted. Like you can’t do hospitals and things like that. You can’t do big time.

Sharon Cline: [00:03:59] Oh, I didn’t think of that. So there’s a whole I mean, there’s a lot I don’t know. So that’s why you’re I’m going to kind of understand a little bit more about this industry and kind of what it’s like for you to be in it. All right. So so here you were being a you were a bartender. Was it a bar bartender?

Justin Allen: [00:04:14] Yeah. Serving in bartending.

Sharon Cline: [00:04:15] Covering and bartending. So how did you like that? What was it about it where you were like, That’s it, I’m out.

Justin Allen: [00:04:19] Oh, I mean, to get out of it and get back into plumbing. Oh, wow. So this is you’re into my story. Okay, so. So I started going down that path of like, yeah, bartending and it becomes a little family of a restaurant there. Yeah. And then I got, I just got to into it, let some, some things get a little overwhelming me. And then so I decided, all right, I got to clean myself up, I got to get out of this. And so I put my foot down on my look. I’m getting back into a trade that I wanted to do and I really went for it. And yeah, then I worked for a company here locally, started doing excavation plumbing, which is outside, and then just worked my way up to another bigger company and then did my own thing. But yeah, I love the restaurant world. I think it’s fun, it’s great money and it’s hard to get out of just because the money’s good and the family feeling is so there. But yeah, I had to go. It was kind of ruining my life. And I decided like, Look, I got to get out of this. I got to find a wife and find some kids and stuff like that. That’s right.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:18] Well, you know, it’s kind of a cool take on what you’re saying is that you and I think it’s everybody’s journey. Where sometimes you’re on a path that you think feels right to yourself, and then it really just doesn’t. And, you know, some people don’t get out. Yeah. You know, so I really admire that you had sort of the tenacity with yourself. I’m going to get out of here. I’m going to do what it takes.

Justin Allen: [00:05:37] Sure. Yeah, definitely.

Sharon Cline: [00:05:38] So did you tell your dad, guess what I’m doing?

Justin Allen: [00:05:40] So. Okay, so my dad passed when I was 15. Oh, no, this was a terrible question. It’s all right. Part of the deal. Oh, no, it’s good. No, it’s good. So that’s why he couldn’t train me. But it was in my story. I was like, Okay, I guess I’ll start with plumbing. My dad did it. Why not try it?

Sharon Cline: [00:05:58] All right. So was it a huge change for your life? Did you feel like it was a huge change and sort of had to be more disciplined and and sort of always be eye on the ball straight ahead?

Justin Allen: [00:06:09] Well, you mean when I went from the restaurant? Yes, I did. Yes. It took like I started the bottom of this plumbing company and so I would work do an excavation. You just sometimes get on stuck on something. I’d be out there for 26 straight hours. I’m like digging job at that point. You’re like, I am done like. But that was the bottom of the totem pole. And I worked up to lead excavation and and stuff like that. But the hardest like personality switch, I guess would be I was still as a restaurant, I could still be a kid, you know, like, hey, stay up all night and whatever sleep in this meant, you know, day to day, get up, do your job no more, you know, having fun and not I mean, you can still have fun, but within parameters, right? So it was a big switch, especially because I waited so long to stop being a kid, I would say for my own life.

Sharon Cline: [00:06:54] Well, I understand that. So my son is going to school now. He’s going to chat to his he wants to own his own like mechanic. Sure, company business at some point. And so but this past year he’s he’s like slept a lot it’s after high school in between college. Like he took a year off. And it’s interesting to see him kind of go through a change of having to have that discipline, whereas before it was just kind of fun. You know, he got he’s just working a little bit and it was a girlfriend and all that. And anyway, it’s just kind of but it’s interesting to see what that discipline is done for him though. Like, I see a change in him and I imagine you must have felt it for yourself. Yeah, you know, totally.

Justin Allen: [00:07:29] Yeah. Yeah. There was a big change in like, I mean, look, I, I credit so we’re going to step into this door of my life, do it. So I accredit a lot of this to God. All right, so I’m a follower of Jesus. So I really went and I opened that door of like, look, I’m getting back into this and I’m going to give credit to God. I’m just going to go for it. And and it really I mean, I tell you what, for for me, it paid off because I got back into my church hardcore and my wife came shortly after. Oh, my goodness. So I love that story. It was a it’s really a glorious story from my life that I like. All right, dude, I’m taking the turn and I’m doing this, and I just got rewarded. And then more money came just, you know, from, I guess, kind of just serving and whatnot. But then my life has been such a whirlwind since then of like, great. Just it’s been good. It’s been that move from restaurant, although there was a lot of people that I made good friends with, I’m not saying anything like that. But but that turn into this, you know, this plumbing career, it’s been nothing but greatness. Step, step, step, step, step.

Sharon Cline: [00:08:29] So it’s interesting, I think, that the effect of living a life that doesn’t feel authentic to you, what that does to all areas of your life. Sure. And how hard it is to kind of put yourself in an alignment with what you think you want your life to look like. It’s it’s huge and difficult and it can be very daunting. And I imagine, too, if you had friends that are like, hey, when are you coming back? Or When are you coming by? Or all of that. But, but it’s such a testament to your being willing to commit and kind of see where, where it takes you because, you know, you were doing something for yourself, right? Like that you really wanted to do for your life.

Justin Allen: [00:09:05] Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, totally. No, I totally agree. And like, yeah, when you throw that whatever it is out there and then you just start going for it. Yeah, it is, it’s, I don’t know, it’s amazing thing.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:17] So I mean, it’s kind of fun actually to talk to someone who’s kind of decided that their life really needs to go through something different because there are people listening right now who potentially aren’t happy with the way that things are. So I love that you can kind of give them sort of like a happy, a happy story of what it’s like. And it’s not all happy, I’m sure. But still it shows that you’ve got almost like a support, but it’s an unseen support. Do you know what I mean?

Justin Allen: [00:09:46] Oh, I totally.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:46] Get out there. Yeah, yeah. So nice. And your life kind of unfolds as it.

Justin Allen: [00:09:50] Yeah, that’s right. I’m not going for it on my own. Yeah, that’s right. Like it was support. No, I totally agree. Yep. That’s exactly what happened.

Sharon Cline: [00:09:56] All right, so you’re working with this other company? Yep. You become a journeyman.

Justin Allen: [00:10:00] Yep. That’s right. I got it.

Sharon Cline: [00:10:02] And then? And then. Then after that, you’re a master. That’s right. And then you started your business.

Justin Allen: [00:10:09] Yeah. So? So I worked at one, you know, I was telling you, I was working a long hours as an excavation lead or whatnot. Then I got my journeyman and I was like, just the progression of plumbing here in Atlanta is sometimes you move off to a company that pays more and like gives you more for your knowledge. So I did. That. And then within that company, I was there seven years until I, you know, decided to take my master license test, did that. And then I sat with that master license for two years just trying to figure out what’s the best way to do this. And then, you know, I have three kids, so like COVID happened, right? Oh, so so COVID, you know, the the you know, the president, the governments, you know, throwing money at me with all my kids and say, hey, go spend this money. So we’re like, all right, let’s spend it. Let’s do it on a company. So I have to think about. Right. Yeah. Right. A positive. That’s right. Yeah, they did that. So we decided, you know, to put our our money into like starting a company. And that’s how we did it. And it’s I think a lot of people were kind of spawned out of COVID entrepreneurs and another just another great step of like, what a move. And we are so happy we did it.

Sharon Cline: [00:11:11] So you didn’t really have to go through. Here’s what my company is like now, COVID hits, and now I have to change everything or potentially lose my company. Did it all during.

Justin Allen: [00:11:19] Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we did that and I just went blank on that.

Sharon Cline: [00:11:24] That’s okay. My brain is playing nine times.

Justin Allen: [00:11:26] That’s right.

Sharon Cline: [00:11:28] I’m like a list in front of me. A question in case my first. Go ahead. All right. So what have you found is the most challenging to set up your business? Because imagine someone out there right now who’s like, I would really love to do this, but I don’t know what are some of the things that you wish you could tell yourself in the beginning that would have been helpful to you.

Justin Allen: [00:11:45] That, you know, I get let me see if I can come up with like three things popped in my head. So one was a really good buddy of mine who’s good financially and stuff. He told me he’s like, Whatever you do now for marketing advertising, six months from now, you’ll see if it worked or not. So he’s like, plant it and see. And so that that actually did pay off because I started off with a billboard on Bills Ferry out here in here in Georgia and whatever wherever we are, Woodstock or something. So you put a billboard up? Yeah, I bet I did. I know it went down after about three months because I was like because we were like, all right, let’s start putting money into that. And and I started networking. So I built this. This company’s been built off of networking alone. So.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:23] And that is amazing about that.

Justin Allen: [00:12:25] Yeah, it really has. So, I mean, the people out there that would listen to that, like there’s networking clubs around and that is solely what I did. And there was another guy at a club and he said he was like, You know, I’ve met a lot of people around here, but he’s like, You’re the only one that’s a pure trade and all you do is network to get your business. He’s like, I’ve never seen that before. Some trades will come in and throw their name around, you know, to kind of get sparked up some, some, you know, whatever.

Sharon Cline: [00:12:50] But then they don’t stay either.

Justin Allen: [00:12:51] They don’t, yeah. Something go. Yeah, but he’s like, you invested in it and it’s paid off and it truly has. That’s been the best thing that I ever did was network because I’m built it on relationship, didn’t I? Not on the fact of, you know, my logo or my right.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:05] Or you heard you on the radio or whatever.

Justin Allen: [00:13:06] Yeah, exactly. Yeah, totally.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:07] You know, that’s huge, right? Yeah. Because really, I always talk about this business being a relationship. It’s building relationships. It’s kind of everybody wins, you know, I get my sink to stop.

Justin Allen: [00:13:18] That’s right. That’s right. Yeah, you get. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. I feel good about you’re totally right. And I like when I go to like somebody’s house like like your house or somebody’s house, I would they’re I’m less interested. I mean, I want to fix their plumbing and I want to fix why I’m there. I feel like kind of I’m like, gifted as a plumber, but I’d rather just talk to you about what’s going on. And instead of like, Hey, this is the how plumbing works and this is what’s happened and this is how much it’s going to cost. I’ll do that, but I’ll intermix it and more about like, Hey, you’re a person on this world and you’re important. Like, I’m important. So that’s how I like to deal with people. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:49] No, I mean, that’s a huge because I feel like now you’ve got someone that will come back to you because you’re not just interested in their money. Sure. Or fixing, like you said, the problem. You really want to know what’s their journey like?

Justin Allen: [00:14:00] Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, I’d like to hear it. Yeah, totally. That’s exactly what I like to do.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:03] Yeah. So how how long did it take you before you put your billboard up that you started to get some calls? Was it like immediate?

Justin Allen: [00:14:11] Oh.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:13] I’m kind of wondering if I were to put a billboard of my voice over work up there. Not I mean, not that I think that would really work if people are driving.

Justin Allen: [00:14:19] They’re not.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:20] Yeah, I’m just saying, how long would it take before someone would be like, Hey, I saw your billboard.

Justin Allen: [00:14:24] I don’t know how many people. I don’t think I ever got one person to say, I know people said they saw it, but I don’t know anybody that said, Hey, I’m calling you because I saw your billboard or whatever it more was. The the word of mouth was more of, yeah, what happened.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:38] But that’s interesting to note because if someone didn’t want to spend the money, it doesn’t have to be the money like that. Sure, it could come in and go to what are some of the best networking meetings that you’ve been to.

Justin Allen: [00:14:49] So I started with Wipeout, which is the one here in Woodstock. Well, I think me and you met there, didn’t we? Right. Okay.

Sharon Cline: [00:14:56] Young professionals.

Justin Allen: [00:14:56] Of Woodstock. So we met there and then so I went to Woodstock Business Club, which would have been my second one. So those were my dedicated ones. Then Woodstock started getting bigger and then I went to Canton as it was smaller Canton Business Club and then ball ground. So those are the ones and I’m still going to all those.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:15] That’s awesome. So it’s a huge commitment.

Justin Allen: [00:15:18] It is. Yeah, that’s right. I’m basically if you do that, you’re saying I’m going to give up making money and these hours, three or four. Times a week to put my, you know, roots in the ground here. And that’s I mean, I did it and it really works.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:31] So but what’s kind of cool is you can go to each of those communities and find people that you know.

Justin Allen: [00:15:35] Yeah, right. That’s right. Yes, totally. Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:37] No, no. Town feels like a stranger.

Justin Allen: [00:15:39] Yeah, that’s right. No, I totally. That’s right. And people throw your name and I’m like, okay, that’s great. You and somebody from Jasper is like, Hey, I’ve heard about you, and I’d like you to come out and look at my waterline. I’m like, I would love to say, yes, I will. Yeah, right. Totally. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:15:54] Best though. Yeah. But you know what? I don’t know how many times I’ve had someone come and do something for me where I really didn’t love their work or you were just like happy that they were able to fix it because you really just needed in a pinch or whatever, but not really feeling like a sense of security or a sense of I would I feel like I’m going to have them come back. Like I like the feeling of when you have a relationship with someone, you kind of know that they’re going to be there for you if you really need them. Yeah, that’s what they’re building their business off.

Justin Allen: [00:16:17] Yes, exactly.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:18] Just huge, though. Not everybody has that mindset, I guess.

Justin Allen: [00:16:21] And I thought you do you remember that show, The Andy Griffith Show? Yeah. Okay. So when I was a kid, I used to watch it like when I’d be home sick because it was always a rerun. But but I remember like, you know, there’s the barber and the mail guy, and all these people were so, like, knitted into that small little town. And that’s what I when I came to Woodstock, that was my mindset here. Like, I don’t want to blow up and make all the money in the world. I want to be a kind of a fixture here in Woodstock that if I left one day, they would be like, What in the world happened to that company? That was such a good dude in this community. Yeah, you.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:49] Wouldn’t. You’d be missed.

Justin Allen: [00:16:50] Yeah, exactly. That’s what I try. Yeah, that’s right. And that’s what my goal is. And still so.

Sharon Cline: [00:16:56] So do you have. All right, wait. No, I have my list of questions right here. Who who are your mentors? Do you have mentors as you’re going along?

Justin Allen: [00:17:04] Yes. So the guy let’s see here, the last company I worked for, is it okay to say names or not? Is it is it okay with you? He’s a good yeah, he’s a really good dude. And so I worked for Jay Cunningham, who owns a big plumbing company here in the town. And just the way he ran his company was so I don’t know, it was respectful and in a way to to people and treating employees. Right. And and the customers right. And he always wanted to integrate and be part of the community, whichever way he could help. And so, like, whenever I decided to leave, he was very adhering to me doing that. And he was he gave me tips and pointers and stuff. But I just think back to the way that when I worked for him for seven years, how he did it. So he’s definitely a mentor, even though I don’t call him to do anything. Just the thought of what I learned from his company is very, very valuable to me. Anybody else? I mean, just regular plumbers that I’ve met. I think a lot of plumbers. They think they know everything you’re going to if you ever met a plumber, a lot of plumbers, I think they know everything about plumbing. And I’m a guy who’s like, look, I don’t know everything, but I’ve been doing it for a long time, so I’ve seen a lot and I know who to call if I don’t know what I’m doing. So I feel like I could call many, many plumbers that are very grounded in what they do. So.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:18] So you’re still a relatively new company. So have you had many setbacks or ups and downs or things that are sort of been challenging for you, that you think that someone else that might have some words of wisdom for as well. So in other words, like you were talking about how you didn’t need to to do a whole lot of marketing for yourself, but like building relationships. So are there some other things that you feel like have been the most helpful to you that you would think would be great for someone?

Justin Allen: [00:18:44] So sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:45] What would you say?

Justin Allen: [00:18:47] Okay, so this is one of those hidden gems that I think you should know before you open a company because it really helped me is budgeting. So we budget and we learned budgeting in my life probably about, I don’t know, five or seven, six or seven years ago, but so hard core budgeting that we knew where everything was going. So when I started the company, every dollar I would spend, I would I would allotted around. So I knew how much money we had running it every exact second, you know. And I think just by that, taking budgeting into other forms of like, you know, rental things or anything, you can put it in a slot. And I think that really helps you in it keeps everything concise, you know, where your company is at and you know where your receipts are. You know all these things to keep legit. And I’ve said that to other younger people and they try to do I’m like, make sure you understand how to budget because it’ll help you in your business in a big way.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:36] So that’s huge. I don’t really do a great.

Justin Allen: [00:19:38] Job, but a lot of people don’t.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:41] Do you use a program in particular?

Justin Allen: [00:19:42] Yes, I use an app called Wine. Ab, you need a budget. It’s very basic, but it links to your bank account so it lets you divvy it up as you want to. It’s very easy after that.

Sharon Cline: [00:19:52] So wow, that’s kind of amazing. I mean, there are I know several different ones. I used to have an Excel spreadsheet that if I just made the wrong one, wrong digit, the whole thing would be off, you know.

Justin Allen: [00:20:00] What I mean? Yeah, it’s really specific.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:02] And there people have like seriously like degrees or something like that.

Justin Allen: [00:20:05] Totally. Right. I have no idea how to excel.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:08] Well, if you’re just joining us, I’m speaking with Justin Allen, owner of Redtail Plumbing here in Woodstock. So. All right. I know this is relatively new company, right. But where would you like to see it go?

Justin Allen: [00:20:20] Oh, man, I’m still trying to figure that one out. A year and a half, I’m like, All right. So I could take on an employee or two employees. But how how big do I want to do? I want to stay Andy Griffith plumber or do I? Well, that’s true.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:33] Let’s talk about that, because seriously, if you’re thinking about expanding like that, you would lose that one.

Justin Allen: [00:20:38] That’s right.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:38] However, if the right person came along who had the right energy.

Justin Allen: [00:20:41] That’s right. Yeah. Come see me. Seriously, if you’re out there.

Sharon Cline: [00:20:47] No problems. No, but you’re right. So do you think that if you hired another person, that you’d be able to grow and grow and grow?

Justin Allen: [00:20:54] I do. Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Not everybody, you know, everybody’s got their own personality and their own niches. And there’s so many different plumbers I’ve met that, like, they’d be perfect for. You know, some people like to just go out and work hard and make money. Some people like to be on the creative side and like, All right, I’d like to run this side of the show or this type of thing, and all those would be on board for me. I just I kind of hold back because I’ve never wanted the aspect of a lot of money to to dictate which way I’m going to go. So I’m filtering myself to be like, look, I’m going to make sure I’m making the right decision before I just blow open a floodgate to do something.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:28] Well, let’s let’s talk about that side, because I imagine if you were to go into someone’s house and you see that it’s just a very small something to fix.

Justin Allen: [00:21:35] Sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:35] But, you know, how would anyone know how much this is really to fix?

Justin Allen: [00:21:39] Yeah. Right.

Sharon Cline: [00:21:39] So is that a challenge? Not for everyone, but maybe in the industry. Do you see that? Generally speaking, you have to really be careful about the line that you’re crossing as far as your own ethics or like you said, almost not wanting to serve two different kind of masters.

Justin Allen: [00:21:52] Yeah, right. That’s right. Yeah. So, like, you mean like if I walk in and it’s an easy fix and I’m like, okay, so I got to be I have to be really basic. And I had to build a guideline in the beginning because I could easily walk into somebody’s house and be like, All right, you turn this wrench, do this thing, and then you’re going to be fine. And I used to do that a lot more then to a point of like, you know, gas and all this stuff. And I’m like, all right, I’ve got to remember that I am a master plumber. I am a tradesman. I’ve done it for so many years that I have to charge a minimum. So like if I’m going to show up at your house and a lot of times I don’t do a dispatch for you unless you’re farther away or whatever, or if you’re on my way home, I’m fine with, Hey, I’ll check it out. I’ll just run in there and see what God give you an estimate or whatever, but. Let’s see what was going with that.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:33] So you’re talking about like.

Justin Allen: [00:22:34] Oh, yeah, people. Yeah. So yeah, I keep a minimum and and oftentimes if you’re on the phone with me and you’re like, Hey, this is where I live, I don’t think it’s a big deal or whatever. Then I’ll be like, Hey, look, the minimum I’m going to charge you for doing something. Is this price? Do you want? I don’t want to waste your time and don’t waste mine. So do you want to do that or not? So I give them an up hand or, you know, an easy thing.

Sharon Cline: [00:22:52] Excuse me. Do they usually say yes?

Justin Allen: [00:22:54] Yeah, they do. I figured. So they’ll be like, Hey, look, I kind of trust what you’re saying, and you seem honest over the phone and stuff like that. So I’m like, Yeah, I’ll come over and I do it. And like, you do have to watch though, because that’s one thing that I’ve really tried to hone in on is like as a plumber, they get a bad name of like, why is their value so high of the hourly rates and all this stuff? And and so I tried to hone in on like, look, I’m going to be reasonable, but I am a plumber and I’m not going to kill the market for all plumbers just because I’m trying to be the nice guy, because I’m not a handyman. I am a master plumber who’s got insurance and everything in case a disaster would happen. That do.

Sharon Cline: [00:23:29] You think that’s the biggest misconception of your industry is that it’s not worth what you need to.

Justin Allen: [00:23:34] Charge? I think so. I hear it so often or like, hey, I can do a YouTube or my husband wants to do or like, you know, all these different things and a lot of things are simple. I agree. They are a lot of things. You can turn a wrench and do this thing. Of course I know all these things because I’ve been doing it so long, but there is a lot of simple simplicity to these things. But the thing is, if your house flooded because you because your husband did it, what are you going to do? You’re going to go for your stuff. But if it because I did it, you’re going to come for me. And so that’s why I’ve got to be, you know, that’s just part of the trade.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:04] So here’s here’s a little story. I had a problem with my shower dripping and I thought that I could fix it. I did You Tube, but I’m like, oh, I see.

Justin Allen: [00:24:13] Okay, sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:15] So I did go get the part and then was having trouble taking off like the handle of my shower. So I did call someone and had them come and he was like, So what were you going to do? I said, I was just going to take this off. He’s like, Well, were you going to okay, don’t laugh. But like, were you going to shut them? Were you going to shut the water off? And I was like, What do you mean? He said, In about 5 minutes, your whole upstairs would have been flooded, you know. So then, I mean, it’s not that I didn’t have a respect, but like I got a really huge respect for the fact that I can replace not without too much difficulty, my garbage disposal like I did that.

Justin Allen: [00:24:50] Oh, awesome. Good job. Yes.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:52] Good job. But that didn’t involve, like, running water so much as just making sure I hooked it up correctly.

Justin Allen: [00:24:57] Sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:24:57] I’m just saying, I thought, well, if I can do that, you know, then me and my rent can go try to fix things. But no, I realized. Right. And plus he had a blowtorch and had to do something with that. Did. Yeah. Freak me out.

Justin Allen: [00:25:07] Yeah, right. You never do that. You would never touch that.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:10] No, I’d be calling Justin with Redtail Plumbing.

Justin Allen: [00:25:12] Right.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:12] You and your blowtorch thing, right?

Justin Allen: [00:25:15] Yeah, totally.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:17] So I was wanting to ask you, are you are you sort of on the business side? Do you have like books that you read or podcasts that you listen to that kind of help you along that way? I know a lot of people kind of talk about different podcasts and people that inspire them like that.

Justin Allen: [00:25:30] Sure. I’m not not I guess kind of a little bit. So there’s a I’m in a part of a book club now. It’s called and I guess it’s called Just Can’t Business called I’m sorry who’s ever out there and can’t remember the name but like we just read a book called The Atomic Habit, which was so good. You know that book? I do.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:47] I haven’t read it. I’ve heard great.

Justin Allen: [00:25:49] Things. So good. Yes, definitely. So what’s.

Sharon Cline: [00:25:51] Something in atomic habits that.

Justin Allen: [00:25:53] So like it’s just a it’s one you basically here’s the story I remember. So there was a British bicycling group and they were horrible for years and years and then they got a new coach and he decided to like, look, I’m going to let them sleep on pillows. They like, I’m going to like give them warm shorts to wear all these tiny little things he would fix for months. And then they ended up winning everything. They ended up winning the gold like the gold medals, the whatever, what Lance Armstrong used to win. What was that thing called?

Sharon Cline: [00:26:21] The Tour de France?

Justin Allen: [00:26:22] Yes. Yes. Thank God. I think that was going to come out at all. So they ended up being so good, but it was all by tiny little percentages of making changes throughout time and it paid off to make a huge difference the habitual things they did in their life.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:35] So the notion that you’re making and you’re consistently making small changes, right?

Justin Allen: [00:26:40] Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:41] I need this discipline.

Justin Allen: [00:26:42] Oh, it’s hard to just start one. Yeah, but it’s one tiny thing a day.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:45] Did you do one tiny thing a day?

Justin Allen: [00:26:47] Yes, I started reading more. Oh, that’s it. Yeah, that’s discipline. So start reading more and getting into a couple other books. And let’s see, there’s another book. It’s called The Emotional, Emotional, Spiritual. I can’t remember what it is, but it’s a book, a Christian book. So I do dive into those things so that.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:05] You weren’t really reading consistently.

Justin Allen: [00:27:06] Before. No, no, no, no. And I mean, just to I did it just whether I’m reading that book, Atomic Habit or something else, just to start learning knowledge of things is what I was trying to do.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:16] But look at what it’s done.

Justin Allen: [00:27:18] Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. And that was only a month ago. So it’s not like I’m a veteran yet.

Sharon Cline: [00:27:24] But you know what I like about when I when I get into a very disciplined mindset, which I’m just now kind of getting back to a disciplined mindset is that I have a. The end of the day, a true sense of like peace, about my life in certain certain parts of my life, you know, where there are days where I’ll go to bed and be like, I didn’t do the this, the this or this, that I thought I was going to do. Oh, that’s fine. But when I kind of put that discipline in my mind of no, like you made a promise to yourself, you need to keep it. Yeah, it’s just something about that that gives me a yeah. A sense of peace I guess is the first thing. I think so. So having like I didn’t even know I did a tiny atomic habit, like, the last three days.

Justin Allen: [00:28:01] You did? Oh, cool.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:02] Okay, cool. Yeah, I know. I’ve been working out again. I’m, like, really? And actually makes me so happy, and I forgot how happy that kind of thing can make me because it bleeds out into other parts of my life.

Justin Allen: [00:28:12] Sure.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:13] So everyone. Everyone wins. Everyone around me and.

Justin Allen: [00:28:16] Myself, you’re happier. And yeah, that joy is going to hell. Yeah, I agree.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:19] All right, so if people wanted to contact you. What would. What’s the best way that can get in touch with you?

Justin Allen: [00:28:26] So the phone? Yeah. Really? All right. What’s it like? What are you asking?

Sharon Cline: [00:28:30] Like, what’s your way? Like if people want to find you. Okay, so is there is your website the best way or.

Justin Allen: [00:28:36] Yes. Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:28:38] I think there’s so many.

Justin Allen: [00:28:39] I don’t know. I think so. One of my biggest contributors, how people get a hold of me is Cherokee Connect, which is like I think it’s 80,000 people. Yeah, that’s right. Facebook is. Yeah, because that’s where a lot of these people that I network are and they’ll throw out my name when somebody is like, Hey, I got a water leak or I’ve got who do you know? And so they’ll throw my name out there. So that’s one big avenue. Yeah. My, my plumbing web page, Redtail plumbing dot com or let’s see. Yeah. Just in that those avenues lead to my phone number. But I do have my, what is my, my logo. Is that what’s called a tagline or logo.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:13] Yeah, maybe it is. Yeah. You know what it tagline. No.

Justin Allen: [00:29:15] What is it? Oh, come on. So what it is, is plumbing fail. Call the red tail. So, like, that was my hashtag or whatever. And that’s what that billboard said. It said Plumbing Fail, call the red tail. And then it had a logo and my phone number and all that saying Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:30] Well that’s a great tagline.

Justin Allen: [00:29:32] That works.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:32] Right? Right. Yeah. Are you on social media too? Like, do you have a good Instagram or any of that stuff?

Justin Allen: [00:29:38] I do have the I have Facebook page, but I am not good at that.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:42] No. Like I just had someone on the show who that’s like what they do.

Justin Allen: [00:29:45] Oh, it.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:45] Is. Yeah. And so how, how important that is for business. And I resist it at all costs. I don’t know why, but I do know that it’s it’s huge. Although another gentleman I had on the show had just put a very small ad on Facebook.

Justin Allen: [00:29:59] Yeah.

Sharon Cline: [00:29:59] And he’s just very successful. Hasn’t made it to yeah. Hasn’t really needed to invest a whole lot in terms of ways. But what would you do. You’d be in someone’s house, like with, you know, a little video of yourself.

Justin Allen: [00:30:12] Yeah. What would I do?

Sharon Cline: [00:30:13] I know. How necessary is that? I don’t know. So do you drive around town and you’re just, like, worked on that house, worked on that place?

Justin Allen: [00:30:19] Oh, that’s what my wife says. So we drive by this one place over here on Dupree Road all the time. She’s like, Did you work a lot? Oh, yeah, I did explain what I did down to the different nuts it is. I think that’s a service guy, though, because, you know, being that what have I done? Plumbing here just specifically in Atlanta for so many years that like that’s one thing you learn the city so well. So I know this city really well, like roads and everything. So that’s one thing about a service guy is you you learn the direction very well because you’re so, so many places all the time. So, you know.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:53] But that’s kind of cool. Like I was saying, each town doesn’t feel like a stranger town. No. Right. You feel like you know.

Justin Allen: [00:30:58] That’s right. Totally.

Sharon Cline: [00:30:59] And you feel like you can call on someone with all of your different business clubs, right? Like if you needed someone to paint, you could.

Justin Allen: [00:31:05] Find a paint in.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:06] A second. But that’s what I kind of like about the networking, is that if I were to call you to come to my house, I know that you care about whether you fixed my house.

Justin Allen: [00:31:15] Well. Oh, I told you, because we’re.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:16] Going to see each.

Justin Allen: [00:31:17] Other. That’s right. That’s right. You know, just not talk to you anymore. Sorry about that, right?

Sharon Cline: [00:31:23] Sorry about that mishap, right?

Justin Allen: [00:31:25] Oh, yeah, totally.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:26] No, but I mean, that’s kind of what the relationships are all about is like not just this moment, but like future moments. And then I can tell people about you, which I have, which is kind of cool too. I think I have put you on Facebook.

Justin Allen: [00:31:35] Oh, cool. Oh, awesome. Thank you so.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:36] Much. Oh, you’re welcome. Glad it worked.

Justin Allen: [00:31:38] Out.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:39] Totally well. Justin, if there’s any, like sort of, I don’t know, an ending words of wisdom. You think you could give to some business owners out there? What would you say? I know it’s kind of a broad question.

Justin Allen: [00:31:52] Shoot.

Sharon Cline: [00:31:52] I know a lot of people talk about like don’t give up things like that. But and that is important, I think. But it’s very easy for me to get overwhelmed with starting anything. Sure. So and I think if someone were out there wanting to get involved in the same industry you’re in, what would you tell them?

Justin Allen: [00:32:08] Hey, I would just so like as I run this, I mean, I guess this would lose itself as I got bigger company and stuff like that. But like, I guess it’s me who kind of runs the company and it’s just known as Red Tail. So like I would put yourself out there as to, to run it lead by yourself alone until you need to grab hold of people, you know what I mean? But and just go for it. I mean, that’s all you can do. You go for it and you see what happens. And then you take the punches. And like I always think to myself, so I was thinking that they ask a business club question and I don’t know how it went over and I don’t know how we’ll go over here today, but I’m good for awkward stuff. That’s how I live. Awkward. Like somebody was like, what are you going to do if something in business fails or it doesn’t? And I’m like, Well, if it if it truly fails, the worst thing that could possibly ever happen to me is I die. Right. So here’s my parting words. And good. This kind of throws into myself in with God, too, right? But like, because I’m a follower of God and if I die, that means that I know my destination and I am okay with it. I know that I my my destination is heaven and I am okay with the worst thing that could ever happen. So parting words is the worst thing. Probably not going to happen to you. So go for it, guys. I would tell you, just go for it and I think you’re going to win.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:21] So I love it. I always come down to, Oh no, I’m going to die. Like that is the number one. Right?

Justin Allen: [00:33:25] Right. Yeah. That’s like people can’t beat death. Right. But the one who did. Sorry. Right now you mind? That’s what I go with, you know what I mean?

Sharon Cline: [00:33:31] So. Yeah, but the one who can’t be. But you really don’t.

Justin Allen: [00:33:33] Yeah, that’s right.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:35] You really don’t.

Justin Allen: [00:33:36] That’s right. That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. Because he beat death. Yeah, right.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:39] That’s I don’t put that together until just now. Well, that’s a really great, great way to look at it and I appreciate you sharing. That’s something I’ll be thinking about later as well. You might. My tendency is to not want to do things because I’m like, no, no, no, I could fail. But, you know, it’s like there is an element of faith to all of it.

Justin Allen: [00:33:55] Sure. No, that’s right. Yeah. Whichever way you go. That’s right. You’re exactly right.

Sharon Cline: [00:33:58] Yeah, right on that quickly.

Justin Allen: [00:34:02] Yeah, you got it. You win.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:05] That’s all I care about. So, Justin, thank you so much for coming on the show. I’m so grateful that you spent the afternoon over here and kind of gave us some fun things to think about.

Justin Allen: [00:34:15] Oh, I’ve had a total pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Sharon. I love this. This is a blast to me.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:20] You have to come back. We’ll talk more more about deep things.

Justin Allen: [00:34:22] Oh, definitely.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:23] And thank you all for listening to Fearless Formula. I’m Business RadioX and this is Sharon Klein again, reminding you with knowledge and understanding, you can have your own fearless formula. Have a great day.

 

Patrick Lange with Business Modificaton Group

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Buy a Business Near Me
Patrick Lange with Business Modificaton Group
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Patrick-Lange-Business-Modification-Group-bwPatrick Lange with Business Modification Group specializes in the sale and acquisition of heating and air companies. Patrick has been an entrepreneur his entire life buying, growing, and selling businesses in multiple industries, including owning a residential heating and air company.

Patrick is considered an expert in the field of business brokerage having earned multiple awards for transactions and dollar volume of businesses sold. Patrick decided several years ago to focus exclusively on heating and air companies after seeing a need for someone with specific knowledge of the industry as well as the ability to market these businesses in an effective manner to help his clients achieve predictable results.

Since he made that transition, he has sold more heating and air companies than any other broker. In addition to facilitating the sale of heating and air companies, Patrick also provides valuations for those who are interested in learning the current value of their business in the market as well as strategies to increase the potential selling price.

If you are looking to partner with someone to help you buy or sell a heating and air business, or looking to see what your company may be worth, reach out to Patrick on his website at www.businessmodificationgroup.com, by phone at 352-440-4604, or by email at patrick@businessmodificationgroup.com. All conversations are completely confidential.

Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn and follow Business Modification Group on Facebook.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me. Brought to you by the Business Radio X Ambassador Program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:32] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buying a Business Near Me. Stone Payton here with you this morning. This is going to be a good one. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Business Modification Group Mr. Patrick Lang. Good morning, sir.

Patrick Lange: [00:00:50] Good morning, Stone. Thank you so much for having me on.

Stone Payton: [00:00:52] Yeah, we’re excited about having you on the show. Man, I got a ton of questions. We won’t get to them all, but maybe a good place to start is if you could just share with us mission purpose. What are you and your team out there really trying to do for folks now?

Patrick Lange: [00:01:08] Yeah, absolutely. We specialize in the sale of heating and air companies around the country. And so kind of to that mission, I find that there’s on in the trades, there’s plenty of buyers lining up for the guys doing ten, 20, $30 million in sales, but most of the country’s doing $5 Million in less. And I found that there was nobody really helping them. And so five years ago, I switched my entire business. I was selling, you name it, gas stations, convenience stores, bars, restaurants, flower shops. And five years ago, I made the decision to exclusively just sell heating and air. And we’ve been blessed and fortunate to stay busy ever since.

Stone Payton: [00:01:45] So yeah, let’s back up even a little further. If you don’t, if you don’t mind. What compelled you to get into this line of work of buying and selling businesses in the first place?

Patrick Lange: [00:01:56] Yeah, I came from a financial planning background, so I had a financial planning company and I sold it in 2008 and I bought a small service company, so I bought a swimming pool service company and we grew that over the next five years, probably buying, selling, growing, trading, doing a little bit of everything. And I went to a beanie meeting and I met a guy who told me he was a business broker and I’d never heard of one. And he told me what he did. And I thought, Well, I’ve been doing that for myself for the last few years. I didn’t know you could make a living doing it. You could and told me what I had to do to get started. And I did. So that it kind of ended up here by chance, but have been fortunate. I’ve been a broker for probably 15 years now, 14 years, something like that.

Stone Payton: [00:02:41] So if an investor, an entrepreneur, is looking to at least entertain the idea of purchasing a heating and air business, what are some of the things that they should look for? Green flags and red flags, I guess would be a good way to frame that.

Patrick Lange: [00:02:57] Yeah, absolutely. One of the biggest things misconception that people don’t realize is the first part is many look at doing it through SBA funding, which is an incredible option. But most states require you to have a license and heating and air, and the SBA doesn’t want the seller remaining around to to be that license holder. So biggest red flags, if you don’t have a license, you need to find a license holder, be a cash buyer. That’s where a lot of people call me and get derailed. At the onset, they didn’t realize that. So addressing the licensing issue up front. The other thing is, is buying a business that’s built on service and repair. New construction can be a dangerous business in the trades quite often. A lot of times it’s a race to the bottom. It’s all about volume and low margins. And so buying a business that’s built on service repair and has a good reputation of first kind of key things I stress looking for.

Stone Payton: [00:03:52] Well, I got to tell you, my only real frame of reference for the heating and air business I went to to college, got a marketing degree, and I do find I’m very blessed. But my best friend growing up, he went in and learned to trade and did a heating and air work for the school system and always had his own business. And Curt can buy and sell me three times over. So it’s a it’s a very lucrative business. Right.

Patrick Lange: [00:04:17] And, you know, and I never do that. I’m completely I was completely ignorant to the trades and how I kind of got on the trade side is I, I listed a heating and air company for sale where I live and bought it. I love businesses with barriers to entry and it was a small business and I bought it and I ran it for a little over two years. And when I went to sell it, I realized once again, as I mentioned, there was nobody kind of helping the small guy and started learning about the trades. And I was blown away. I mean, I sell a lot of companies doing ten, 15, $20 Million a year. So I had no clue what could be made. And I see a lot of multimillionaires because of the trades.

Stone Payton: [00:04:59] So when someone’s getting ready on the other side of the equation for on the selling side, it occurs to me and I’ve had an opportunity to to interview some business brokers as well. There’s some you’ve got to get some ducks in a row, right? If you want to get a good market price, you got to get your books. And what are some some things you’ve got to start thinking about when you’re when you’re trying to get ready to sell?

Patrick Lange: [00:05:23] Yeah, there’s really four things I tell people to focus on. And the first one you mention is your books in order. Many people treat their business like it’s their personal checking account. And and everybody is always trying to reduce taxes. And and we have a saying that’s kind of a joke and not a joke is you can’t get paid to steal twice. You can’t hide hide everything from the federal government and then expect somebody to write you a check for it. So so that that’s the first thing is making sure your numbers are in order. The second thing is I stress people specifically in heating and air is get yourself out of the van. If you’re the best technician, the best installer, the best salesman, the best bookkeeper, the best front desk person that your company has, you’re wearing all those hats. You don’t have a business, you have a high paying job. And nobody calls me and says, Hey, I want to buy a business where I work in the sun for 15 hours and then go home and do paperwork for 5 hours. And so getting some separation you in the business, the second building up back on the service base and buyers really don’t like the new construction component so so focusing focusing your business on on service and repair as opposed to that new construction and and then building a good reputation for yourself out there. So that would be the four things that I, I kind of get people to focus on right away. And that typically leads to a higher dollar figure.

Stone Payton: [00:06:53] So what’s the most rewarding for you, man? What do you enjoy the most about the work?

Patrick Lange: [00:06:59] You know, the people? I think a lot of people say that is kind of a marketing thing, but I get to help so many incredible people that 25 years ago didn’t like. Their boss started a little business and for the last 25 years they’ve been employing the community. They’ve been taking care of oftentimes second and third generation customers. They’re supporting the local little league, the high school football team, just great people, great blue collar. To me, it’s it’s kind of small town America, you know, that just somebody who started with nothing but a truck and a dream and many of them and turn them into incredible businesses, wherever that is on the spectrum. For them, it doesn’t need to be a $20 Million company, it could be a $2 Million company. And so so the people I get to work with, the the dreams I get to continue keeping on and the legacy I get to keep helping to continue on.

Stone Payton: [00:07:54] So what’s the toughest part? What’s the most challenging is is it finding the sellers, finding the buyers, getting them to meet in the middle? What’s the toughest part?

Patrick Lange: [00:08:08] You know, the market has been strong in the last few years. There’s been a big private equity push into the market. So it’s not really it’s it’s not really the deal. It’s it’s having finding the sellers with realistic expectations. So unfortunately and I and I say this jokingly only as a way for me to deal with it, I get to tell a lot of people their babies ugly, you know. And what I mean by that is, you know, most small business owners, myself included, their families. Their family was raised in their business. Husband and wife team, late nights, no vacations, and their business becomes their baby. And many people don’t go to somebody soon enough about what does it take to build value in their business. They just go to work and then they come to me 30 years later and say, Hey, I want to sell my business and there’s no real value to it. And so it’s heartbreaking to sit with somebody and say, hey, nobody’s going to want your business because the way you built it. So that for me is the hardest part of my job is is kind of telling somebody that, hey, you’ve done it wrong, and which is why now I spend all the time I can public speaking, doing podcasts like this, writing articles for industry publications to say, here’s what you need to focus on to build value. And once again, I’m not saying every business needs to be a 20, 30, $50 Million corporation, but you should get compensated for what you’ve spent the last 20 or 30 years building and and doing some things right is what does that. And so that really would be the hardest part of my job right now.

Stone Payton: [00:09:35] I think you may have just answered this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. I’m curious, how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for for you as someone who’s putting these deals together, is it that education and it’s getting out there and yeah, how how do you get your new buyers and sellers kind of into your circle?

Patrick Lange: [00:09:59] So from a seller side, absolutely. Outreach in education, I speak any opportunity I can. I write articles for four or five industry publications. I leave as an example. Tomorrow I fly to Texas to to be at an industry trade show event. So I try to be out there giving out as much information as I can. So that would be on the seller side. From a buyers perspective, we’re extremely strategic in our marketing and we track data, we track information and we’ve accumulated buyer list. So we market it not only to other heating and air companies, but buyers that we’ve worked with online articles. I spend a ridiculous amount on marketing to try to get somebody’s business in front of as many eyes as I can. And the hardest part of the job, obviously, is letting everybody know your business is for sale and nobody knowing it’s your business, right? I mean, everything needs to be confidential. And so so we do everything we can to have a big platform, because I believe the more people that are looking at it, the better price we’re able to get from a selling perspective. And so it’s a combination of those methods.

Stone Payton: [00:11:10] Well, you just touched on something that I’ve been curious about, this confidentiality thing. How do you how do you navigate that, that landscape where you’ve got all this confidential information, but you’re out there trying to help them market their business? I’m operating under the impression there must be some distinct methodology or process that you’ve got to use because you’ve got to maintain the confidentiality, but you’ve got to get the word out there to the buyers, right?

Patrick Lange: [00:11:35] Yeah, absolutely. So it is a fine line to walk and really a great question and one many sellers often worry about. And so, you know, we do that when we market our listings, what we call blind listings. So if it’s a heating and air company, we’ll use somewhere you’re familiar with in Atlanta, I can say ten year old heating an air company in Atlanta. You’re not going to know who that is. But if I say in Thomasville, Georgia, 50 year old heating an air company, well, it’s not a big enough town that has a lot of 50 year old heating and air companies with it. So people are going to know. So so we’re the wording we use the location we use a buyer is going to want to know a general location. But if it’s a small town, we may say southwest Georgia and or or northeast Georgia or, you know, depending on what state you happen to be. And so that’s the first part. And then when a buyer reaches out to me, we have them sign a nondisclosure agreement that basically says if they say anything to anybody, we’re going to sue them, that it’s confidential information and they need to understand that before we give them that information. And and so we have them sign documents that basically say they’re not going to say anything to anybody. And we also try to vet our buyers. So it takes a little longer to get a buyer into our system. But we want to know, are they local competitor? Are they somebody down the street who just happens to be fishing to see who’s available? So so we try to do everything we can to maintain that confidential nature until they’ve already signed something that promises they won’t say anything to anybody.

Stone Payton: [00:13:03] So let’s talk about deal structure for a moment because. It doesn’t always have to be. Here’s your check. Thank you for the business. Right. It can it can look a little different than that, right?

Patrick Lange: [00:13:14] Yeah, absolutely. And so it really depends on who the buyer and who the seller is and what they’re looking for. There’s lots of buyers out there currently looking for some seller financing that can help them often get over the licensing hurdle that SBA may provide an issue with. And so sometimes there’s a seller note involved that once again, the market specifically the last two years in the trades has been super strong. So most of the deals that we’ve done don’t involve any type of seller. Note two years previous. You’d see a lot of seller notes and I think those days will certainly come back. Like anything, it goes up and down and the market’s no different in buying and selling businesses. And so so I think you’ll see that come back. And oftentimes for a seller, there’s tax advantageous or tax haven. It’s advantageous tax. I thought it was easy for me to say that there’s there’s good reasons for them maybe to consider holding a note. The real downside in a business like heating and air is there’s typically not a lot of assets involved. So the risk to the seller becomes a little bigger than a business that had a lot of assets that you would come back and let’s say repo if the buyer doesn’t doesn’t make payments in a heating and air company kind of the blessing and the curse is the the low asset. So when you own it, you don’t have to have a lot of capital because you’ve got some vans, some ladders, some vacuum pumps and really that’s it. So if you hold the note and that seller doesn’t pay, you’re only recourse is now to go get some used fans back. Chances are the employees are gone and now you’re starting back at square one. So for for many people, that makes them nervous or apprehensive about holding.

Stone Payton: [00:14:55] All right. So what about timeline? And I’m interested for both sides of the equation as an investor, someone who might be thinking about doing this, how far out do I need to reach out and start having a conversation with you? And as a seller, how far out do I need to be building a real relationship with someone that has your specialized knowledge and expertise to get me ready?

Patrick Lange: [00:15:19] So let’s take the seller first. And so to me, there’s yesterday for a seller, it’s always as soon as you can. In my opinion, it’s making sure you’re getting your ducks in a row. The market’s going to change, and what people are looking for may change and staying on top of those changes. So most people don’t know where to go to get that information. They are incredible at fixing an air conditioner, but they don’t know anything about selling a business. And that’s for most people in most industries across the country. So the sooner you get that information, the sooner you can start making sure things are lined up properly and you’re focusing on those things. So so that answer is always sooner rather than later. On the buyer side, I think doing as much education as you can ahead of time is beneficial, but really each deal is going to be different and the market is always going to be different and interest rates are always going to be different. Right now, SBA loves heating and air, so if you’re already in that space, it’s very easy for you to buy somebody else with no money down and often cases so. So when the time is right for you is when I start focusing on it. Because many people look at say, I want to buy three years from now. Well, the reality is the market’s going to change so much in the next three years. What you learn today may not be extremely beneficial when it’s time to write that check.

Stone Payton: [00:16:41] Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. All right. If our listeners would like to reach out and have a conversation with you or somebody on your team, what’s the best way? Whatever you feel like is an appropriate is appropriate. You know, a website, phone number. I just want to make sure they can connect with you, man.

Patrick Lange: [00:16:56] Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that. And so my website is Business Modification Group. Once again, my name is Patrick Lang and I’m all over social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, connect with me anywhere you can and you can call me directly. 3524404604. That’s 3524404604. I’d love an opportunity to help out any way that I can.

Stone Payton: [00:17:22] Well, Patrick, thank you so much for joining us today. Man, you’re doing important work. We appreciate you. And yeah, just as I promised when we opened a conversation, exciting and informative. Thank you so much.

Patrick Lange: [00:17:37] Hey, I really appreciate the opportunity to come on with you today. I’ve had a great time.

Stone Payton: [00:17:41] All right. Until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Patrick Lang with Business Modification Group and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business Near Me.

 

BRX Pro Tip: How to Move From Idea to Action

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BRX Pro Tip: How to Move From Idea to Action
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BRX Pro Tip: How to Move From Idea to Action

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And, we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, let’s visit, if we can, this process of going from simply having an idea to taking action.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:16] Yeah. If people are like me, they have tons of ideas but they don’t execute anywhere near the amount that they could if they really wanted to do this, this is an experiment you can try. It takes an hour to do this experiment from start to finish. So, this is a way that if you want to really narrow down and make hard choices and actually execute a plan, you can do this in one hour.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:41] So, here is the plan. Set a timer, 15 minutes, and then start listing ideas. That’s it, 15 minutes start listing your ideas, then pick, at the end of the 15 minutes, pick your top three ideas. Okay. Once you’ve done that, set a timer for 30 minutes and then sketch out a rough outline, a one-page action plan for each of your three ideas. And, all you have to do is include in this action plan the pros and cons of taking that action. That’s it. So, 10 minutes each, you got your three ideas. Ten minutes each for each one of them. Write a one-page plan. These are the pros and cons of doing each one of these things.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:25] Then, finally, the last thing you do. Now, you have three pages, three mini business plans of three different ideas. Now, send those three pages to three business colleagues, friends that you trust their opinion, you respect their opinion, and ask them to read through each of those three and to choose the best ideas/plan for you. And, you tell them that look, whatever you pick – you know, I’m sending this out to three people. Whatever the consensus picks, that’s what I’m going to be starting on Monday and then just do it.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:03] And, this way you have a structure. You have things you can execute. You can get the idea out of your head. You’re going to kind of play out some scenarios, some trade-offs, and you’re going to send it to somebody who’s going to help you make a decision and you’re going to take action. So, in one hour, you can move three of your ideas from in your head to into the real world if you kind of do this plan.

GACC South Unplugged – Lars Oltmanns with Up To Good Energy Drink

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GACC South
GACC South Unplugged - Lars Oltmanns with Up To Good Energy Drink
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We conducted this podcast in the conference room at the GACC South offices in Atlanta, Georgia. Our guest Lars Oltmanns with Up To Good Energy drink, and our host Matthias Hoffman of the GACC South, are sitting in a Strandkorb. You may be able to take this beach cabana home from an upcoming fundraiser. Find out more by listening to the show!

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