The Truth After 18 Years in Business: There Is No Shortcut

Kyle Hunt: Thanks for tuning into the Remodelers on the Rise show. Whether you're listening or watching, I appreciate you being here. If this was helpful, make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss the next one. We're putting out new episodes every single week focused on helping you build a better remodeling business with real stories, practical ideas, and things you can actually take and use. If you're on YouTube, hit that like button and turn on notifications so you know when new episodes drop. Before we jump into today's episode, this is a conversation I had with another coach and consultant, Brad Huebner with Hammer and Grind. He invited me on his podcast recently. We got into some good areas, some good territory. We got into mindset, where your energy is going as a business owner and the importance of paying attention to that. A few of the traps that can keep you spinning your wheels. We also talked about focusing on your own business, tuning out the noise and getting down to what actually drives results. I kind of like being interviewed versus being the interviewer and enjoy this podcast. I think you'll get a lot out of it. Enjoy today's Remodelers on the Rise episode, which is a rebroadcast of the Hammer and Grind podcast. Enjoy, reach out anytime folks. If you're listening on a podcast app, a five-star review goes a long way and helps more remodelers find the show. We've got great links below or in the show notes where you can connect with us, check out our remodelers community and learn more about our coaching and resources. Appreciate you very much. See you on the next episode.

speaker-1: Hey, welcome back to the show. I have another very special guest with me today. I have Kyle Hunt with Remodelers on the Rise. Kyle, welcome to the show. Absolutely. We, ⁓ I've been wanting to this for a while. We actually ran into each other recently at the Job Tread Connect conference. Both of us were heading to the bathroom, probably the least ideal place to meet, but anyway, here we are. Kyle, welcome to the show.

speaker-0: Thank you for having me, Brad. I mean, not only were we heading to the bath, we were in the bathroom. We were in the bathroom and we had a nice little chit chat. then I don't think we chatted at the urinals. I think I was like, ⁓ I want to say hi to Brad. And we did it more during the hand washing portion. Because as everybody listening knows, nobody wants to talk during the urinal time. Stop doing it, people.

Kyle Hunt: Hey, let me take a quick break to say this. One of the biggest shifts I've seen in remodelers over the years happens when they get in a room with other growth-minded business owners. That's what the Rise Conference is all about. August 11th and 12th in Ann Arbor, Michigan, pricing, leadership, production, marketing, and most importantly, real conversations with people who understand your world. Hey, let me take a quick break to say this. One of the biggest shifts I've seen in remodelers over the years happens when they get in a room with other growth-minded business owners. That's what the Rise Conference is all about. August 11th and 12th in Ann Arbor, Michigan, pricing, leadership, production, marketing, and most importantly, real conversations with people who understand your world.

speaker-1: I did make sure you washed your hand though before I shook it after we part ways.

speaker-0: There we go, and I did.

speaker-1: Alright, well Kyle gave us a little intro about who you are and what it is that you do.

speaker-0: I am a lifelong Michigander up here in Brighton, Michigan, north of Ann Arbor. Born and raised up here. I had worked for a remodeling company after I graduated college and was helping them with their marketing, advertising, managing their showroom, they're for designers. I got involved in the financial side of the business and the year was 2008, so it's almost 18 years ago. I turned to my wife Sarah and I said, honey, we got one kid.

Kyle Hunt: If you want clarity and momentum heading into the next season of your business, this is a great place to get it. And it's a lot of fun. You can find all the info at remodelersontherise.com slash rise. Now let's keep going. If you want clarity and momentum heading into the next season of your business, this is a great place to get it. And it's a lot of fun. You can find all the info at remodelersontherise.com slash rise.

speaker-0: Another one on the way, it's a crappy economy here in Michigan. We got no money in the bank and I want to quit my job and start my own business. To which of course, what do think she said, Brad?

speaker-1: She said, yeah, let's do it. I trust you.

speaker-0: I trust you and you're just going to be the most amazing entrepreneur. ⁓ I think there's some revisionist history there, but to her credit, she did support it. I ended up turning my former employer into my first client and kind of weaned off of them, if you will, or it's going in three days a week, two days a week, ⁓ and kind of started my entrepreneurial journey. And shortly after I started it, I said, you know what, I'm going take some of my own medicine. Don't be all things to all people if you're listening to this. Don't be all things to all people. There's value and specializing in the types of services that you offer. And I put my flag in the ground and said, you know what? I'm just going to work with remodeling companies. And I've been doing that for all these years now. And ⁓ coach remodelers, kitchens, baths, additions is primarily the type of work that most of my clients do and do a lot around financials, marketing, sales, leadership, and that type of work. Some of you who listen to the Hammer and Grind podcast are going, wait a minute, is Brad having Kyle on this podcast? It sounds like he's a business coach. He's competition. And ⁓ to Brad's credit, he thinks like I think where there's plenty of room and there's plenty of voices and there's plenty of folks who need help. And I think it speaks a lot to Brad's approach to business and frankly, his character to have somebody that quote unquote could be competition. No, no, no, no. help each other. And I think if you're listening to this and you're all worked up about your local competition, the more you focus on them and what are they doing and what are they charging, all of that time and energy is not being spent fixing your own business. Competition can fuel us a little bit. It can also be the thief of joy and the thief of focus. So tread carefully with that.

speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. So you have the Remodellers on the Rise. That's your business. That's what you do to help Remodelers in their business and their coach or you coach them in their business to help them. said something interesting there though about the, you know, the energy and all that where you put it. I see all the time. I'm sure you're in a lot of the like Facebook groups and different community groups and you see someone post about, hey, I had this situation where someone's cheated me out of a thousand dollars and I'm going to take them to court and sue them. And I'm just like, why? Like you're gonna spend way more money and way more energy and really like hate your life during that time while you're doing that. When you could just go out and if you spent the exact same amount of time on your business, you'd probably make five, 10, 15, $20,000 versus trying to recoup that $1,000.

speaker-0: But Brad, they wronged me. But they wronged Brad, they wronged me.

speaker-1: You gotta get them back. It's crazy because when I, you said you started in 2008, I actually started my construction business 2009. I thought everyone's leaving the industry, there's no business, what a great time to start a construction company, right? I started out doing handyman stuff, because that was the easiest thing to get into, I didn't have any money. And then we started doing remodeling after that. But competition, I don't know where I got it from. I don't know if it was just, I read a book, heard somebody say, I never cared about competition. I really didn't, you know. I think when I first got started, I called one guy to see what his rates were and that was it. And then from that point on, I never checked. I never asked. I didn't care what they charged. I didn't care what they did. I just focused on me and my business and that was it. And I think it's a great way to approach things in life is like, you know, we can get stressed out on social media. I used to turn on social media for 10 minutes and you, you know, you need to go have a drink or something because it's all doom and gloom. But yeah, I mean, just, that reminded me of that. So,

speaker-0: Hold that tape for a second. I like whatever question you're about to ask, it doesn't mean that what the person is saying is like, I'm going to take them to court. Yeah, you have every right to do that. And then what you said of going, you know, if you took that same energy and you put it towards productive things, it's probably going to be more of a net positive. Yeah, but they deserve this and they wronged me. We do have to pay attention to where we are. putting our time and our energy and our focus, and it is either into life giving and improving and productive stuff, or it is into life draining stuff. We know, I know, that if I sit there and piddle away 30 minutes of my precious work time scrolling social media, that I will feel worse at the end of that. Now, we have to have a little escapism, like business is hard, life is hard, but pay attention to how you are dishing out your precious energy and time and make sure ⁓ that you are putting it towards productive things. And also work time is work time. I have to remind myself of that sometimes of like from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. lock in. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. lock in. Don't be distracted. You've got plenty of time to scroll and have a little downtime and recoup later in the day. Let's get some stuff done. There's things to do.

speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, I agree 100%. And I also like, used to, this was a few years ago, mean, it's not fairly recent. I would listen to, you know, like talk radio, some political stuff, you know, and I would, I was just like, I would get so engrossed into it. And then after the 2016 election and all the debacle that went down after that, I said, you know what, I'm not going to watch the news anymore. Like turn off all the radio shows, all that stuff, deleted news, everything. And you know what happened? I actually got happier, less stressed out, and I've never watched the news ever since then. I mean, of course, things pop up in social, like, hey, did you see this?

speaker-0: You're aware, right? We need to be aware. Yeah, I'm aware.

speaker-1: But I'm not like going and researching it and watching the news and what do they say about this and what's happening here? I'm like if it's if it's important enough somebody will tell me like I'll find out somehow right and so that yeah It's it's along the same lines of like don't don't focus on the negative stuff and you'll have a lot more energy a lot more You know effort that you can put towards your business, which is the positive stuff

speaker-0: Yeah, my wife and I did a marriage retreat last week. It's the second time we've done it. I've worked with a lot of husband wife teams over the years and I've had this idea for years of, man, it'd be so good to just bring together some couples who are married and in the remodeling world. And we did it 18 months ago and had seven couples come and decided to do it again. And we ended up with seven new couples last week. And one of the big takeaways from one of the participants, shout out Isaiah, was, you know, he's like, I just... I'm such a business person and self-development and improvement person that I'm always analyzing everything from how can I make it better? How can I make it better? And he's like, man, last week there were several, you just raise your hand? Yes, that's the ⁓ idea. Yeah. I'm feeling like you're attacking me right now, Kyle, what are you gonna say next? And I was talking to Isaiah this morning and he's like, there was something in last week that the guest speaker Josh shared and that you and Sarah talked about and that my wife and I were talking about of...

speaker-1: Yeah, you're talking about me.

speaker-0: I need to stop being so fixated on what to fix and what the negatives are and maybe just take a little bit of time and evaluate and go, holy cow. And he was talking about his marriage. Like there's so many things that are going well. We are so fortunate in so many ways and I need to stop fixating on the negativity. So a little bit of a theme of where we've gone so far even is just like, we've got to make sure we're not draining energy by trying to get revenge on that client or this or that, protect that. Focus on some more positives. What you focus on grows. And if you start to look for positives in your life, you're going to find more positives. When Brad turned off the news, literally rewind the tape, what he just said was, I was happier was the word you just used. And doggone it, business is stressful. Running a business is stressful. ⁓ you want to add on marriage and some kids and everything else on top of that? It is hard. And part of the antidote of that is to stop being so stinking negative constantly. Stop feeding your mind with every negative thought and every negative news article because it's already hard enough and frankly, it's making you a miserable person and it's making you a miserable employer and people don't want to be around somebody that's constantly negative. And you can flip that. You can flip that. Life is 90%, 10 % what happens to you and 90 % how you respond to it. And 42 % of all statistics are made up, Brad. I just kind of made up that 10 and 90. I don't care if it's 10 or 90 or 20 or 80. The point is, We need to focus on more positives. We need to protect that. We need to look at the blessings in our lives. We need to look at things that are going well. And yes, we are still entrepreneurial. And yes, we are still going to improve things. And yes, Brad is still going to raise his hand like I do when I'm like, yeah, I hear you. I'm going to continue to improve, but let's make sure it's balanced out.

speaker-1: Yeah, preach. I'll follow going to church there for a second Kyle. You're dropping some. Yeah.

speaker-0: Sometimes it gets like that, sorry.

speaker-1: There was a book, I love a book, you probably read it, The Gap and the Gain. I'm sure you have, if you read that book, The Gap and the Gain.

speaker-0: Hang on, let me pause there. I love to buy books. As far as reading the books, I struggle with that. I need to improve that. Now, I am familiar with the concept and I have heard of that book, yes.

speaker-1: I usually do audible. I don't like to read, like read a book. I listen to audible and I listened to a lot of audible books, but I think it's been Sullivan is his name, one of the authors, but it's the gap in the game. Basically it's like, you can focus on the gap, like where you haven't achieved or you can focus on the game, right? And like where you want to be like all of us to have ambitions, you know, I want to have this $10 million remodeling company by the time I'm 25 and I want to retire when I'm 40 and always, you know, And then when you're like 35 and you're like, man, I haven't even broke a million yet. And I, you know, I wanted to do it when I was 25 and my life sucks and look at me and everything's terrible. That's focusing on the gap, right? How far am I from where I want to go? But you look back and you're like, yeah, you don't, haven't hit, you know, 10 million or 50 million, but you got a $2 million business. That's not easy to do. Like congratulations. It'll take the time to recognize where, how far you've come. But if we spend all of our time in the gap. you're always going be miserable. And here's the most distinctive part about it. We always move the finish line, right? And so it's like, it's like looking at the horizon, like you're never going to reach the horizon. And so, I got the 1 million. If I get the 1 million, I'll be happy. Well, I'm here now, if I get the 5 million, if I can get the 10 million, if I can do this, if I can do that, and that's living in the gap. That's what we're talking about. It's good advice.

speaker-0: Yeah, it's hard to implement, it's hard to implement, but it is good advice that coaching, like you coach folks, I coach folks. So much of making progress in your business, of course, you gotta listen to Brad, you gotta listen to me, we gotta know our numbers. We're probably singing the same song with that, of you have to understand your revenue and cost of good soul and your girl's profit margin. You have to pay attention to your job cost and look at grippage and slippage. You have to understand how that... ties in with your overhead expenses and making sure you're kicking out a net profit. And yes, after you've paid yourself a reasonable owner's salary, you need to be sitting there at minimum 8 % net profit and let's go up from there because up from there is even funner, even more fun. You have to know the numbers. You have to have a marketing system. You have to have a sales process. Brad teaches good sales process side of things too. But so much of actual growth that I see in my clients over the years comes back to mindset, comes back to confidence comes back to the ability to lead and inspire and encourage others. And those are those softer skills. And there's a direct correlation from what we've already talked about when it comes to negativity, focusing on what's wrong, being kind of always just, yeah, this isn't good, yeah, whatever, so I sold another $50,000 project. But this went on today. ⁓ And when we start to be a little bit more positive, a little bit more optimistic, a little bit more pat yourself on the back. That confidence and that mindset and that leadership that starts to blend a little bit better. A lot of you need to hear this, crap's gonna happen today. I guarantee it. If you didn't wanna have a crappy day from time to time or things to pop up that you weren't expecting, maybe you shouldn't have got into contracting. Contracting is hard, stinking work, and there's a lot that can go wrong in it. We can't let a bad 15 minutes turn into a bad day. Things are gonna happen. Keep it in perspective, stomp around a little bit, throw a little hissy fit, and then let's get back into solving mode. And don't let that 15 minutes dictate the rest of your day. That might be a takeaway. I love people having takeaways from podcasts, right? Because that's why they're listening to this. I feel like you've given three takeaways, I've given three takeaways. We're killing it, man.

speaker-1: Yeah, we should charge for this episode. Yeah. I couldn't keep a straight face when I said it, sorry. ⁓ I say that because I had a review recently for the podcast and the person said, welcome to the funnel. know, welcome to the money funnel where Brad's just going to try and sell you everything on his service. And I'm like, what's the point of business if it's not to actually sell something?

speaker-0: Yeah. Fair slash that mindset sucks. Now, they're saying that because they see all the gurus and all the coaches and every new week there's a new coach saying this or that. So yes, you have to be discerning on who you follow. If you're listening to this podcast, it's because Brad has, yeah, he's put out free content that's been helpful for you. That's why you're listening to this. and you follow him on Facebook and he's giving you that free resource that's giving you some value. So yes, he's a coach, I'm a coach. And if we're doing it properly, we're giving a lot of value out free of charge. And yes, eventually you're going to go, I'm hearing some good stuff. I wonder what kind of paid services that would provide more clarity, more accountability and more progress for me. Sure. The person that left that review... has a lot to do with all of this mindset and positive thinking and perspective. That person is not running a business that is in control, that is making a healthy net profit. He's jaded or she's jaded and is always looking for the negative angle. Instead of looking for the positive thing in that episode and finding that he's look, he or she is looking at the negative and telling you that is stink, stinkin' thinkin'. I didn't make that up. think I heard, that sounds like a Zig Ziglar line. It is though, it's thinkin', thinkin' and pay attention to how you are navigating your day and how you're talking to people. I'm telling you, leadership and growth and all of that is gonna attract good team members as well.

speaker-1: Absolutely. And I know you agree with me on this. Yes, there are the gurus and the people out there that are going to scam you. And we hate them just as much as you do. It seems like every week there's a new business coach coming out, a new marketing company coming out. a of these times, a lot of them are good, don't get me wrong, but a lot of them are just there to make money. They don't care if you have success. So yes, it makes us look bad. It's no different. than the, you know, the meth head contractor down the street who's making you look bad as a contractor. It's the same thing in every industry and we don't like that as well. It's funny to me. had on TikTok. TikTok's where I go to learn all of the, to see all of the swamp, you know, thoughts that come on. I would say garbage in equals garbage out. Right. If you're constantly putting in that negative stuff, you're just always going to be thinking negative. And somebody had commented on a video, a TikTok video that I made and he said, ⁓ He's like, you don't need the coach and all this. You just got to work hard, you know, construction, just give it, you know, work hard grit and eventually you'll be successful. And I don't remember all the context, everything, but then I said something back to him about, you know, yeah, but you can hire a coach and like shortcut that process, you know, learn faster, not go through all the same, make the same mistakes. And then he responded and he said, well, I paid a local mentor $30,000 to help me. And he's really made a big difference in my business. and he's not on social media, he's not a guru. And I was just laughing to myself. One, just proved my point. You paid $30,000 to get help. Your definition of if he's not on social media, he's a mentor, but if he's on social media, he's a guru. How do you come up with that soundtrack?

speaker-0: Yeah, I think it comes back to either there are rooting for ⁓ Gary V. You know, some people hate him some people, you know, whatever he is, he is who he is. But you know, he's got a few phrases I like one, when people leave negative negativity. He's like, I just feel bad for him. Like what's going on in their life that that gentleman watched that piece of content and said, you know what, I need to write and throw Brad under the bus a little bit, even though what Brad is putting on here is probably he's trying to be helpful in help people improve their business, but I kind of feel bad for that guy. The other thing that Gary has that's resonated with me is like, he's like, I want to build the biggest building in town. Like I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a businessman. Like I want to build something here. I want to build something I'm proud of and that provides great, et cetera. But I want to build the biggest building and not tear down any other building around me. Like I'm for YouTube. Like I'm rooting for Brad. Like Brad, you know, years ago decided, you know what, I'm going to move into this coaching thing. He's got a heart to coach people, to help people. Like I could either be like, I hope Brad kind of sucks and he gets better. No, that's just so negative. And again, a little theme we've got going here, mindset. I'm not a preacher of like, hey, it's just all about positive thinking, then everything fits. No, no, but there's some truth in it. And yes, whatever I fixate on grows and whatever I fill my head with is gonna come out. I could reach there because... there's some good scripture and proverbs related to protecting your heart because everything flows through it, we're not gonna, that's all I'll preach unless you want me to preach more.

speaker-1: Yeah, I agree with you. I'm on the same page that true the reason I was bringing that up was because you were talking about mindset and You know, there's a saying in the coaching world It's like give them what they want and then are selling what they want and then give them what they need Right. And so a lot of these guys that come in need mindset. They need a healthier mindset I was the same person like it's funny everything that I helped my clients with I did like I am the poster child For everything wrong that you should do in your business. And so I come from from an experienced standpoint of like, don't do that, don't think that way, don't, you know, make this decision, don't undercharge, because this is the result, right? And I lived that for many years. But I wanna shift here real quick, because I wanna make sure we get into this. You've been doing this, you said 18 years? Is that right? 18? You've kind of dialed it all down into one thing that you've learned. Why don't you share with us what that one thing is that you learned?

speaker-0: ⁓ you heard this at Job Tread Connect, didn't you? Were you in the audience for this?

speaker-1: I wanted to but I didn't get to.

speaker-0: ⁓ see, I was wondering if you were in the room, if like, it was a tearjerker for you. And you're like, ⁓ that was just the most moving thing I've ever heard. But yeah, we touched on it. And it's something that I just wholeheartedly believe. Like if you boil it down, these hundreds of remodellers and 18 years, and what's this big lesson that we have? And I kind of like to build that up a lot. And then I kind of prepare people and go, you're not going to love the answer. you know, and the answer is, hey, there's no magic bullet. Stop looking for the magic pixie dust that you sprinkle on your business and poof, there's your $5 million, super profitable, beautiful team, great financials, marketing plan that just produces all these leads, a sales process that differentiates you, that just works beautifully, protects your time, et cetera. No, no, no. There's no magic bullet. The big thing that I've learned, the big lesson is It is a combination, running a successful contracting business, running a successful remodeling business is not a magic bullet. It's a combination of a lot of little things. It is the consistent and relentless doing and implementing of positive, smart, wise business decisions that compounds over time piece by piece by piece that turns your business into the business that you hopefully are kind of dreaming of it being. That's the one big lesson. It's a combination of a lot of little things. And for some people, that's kind of a depressing thing to hear of like, ⁓ I just wanted the easy button. For others, if we get the right perspective and we stop chasing the magic bullet, it's a very empowering thing. It is a little bit lame crap. So you mean I have to job cost every project? You mean I have to fight for the time to understand my P &L? You mean I have to do my bookkeeping and I can't be two months behind on my bookkeeping? You mean that I actually need to put my marketing hat on and care about it so I can build know, like, and trust with people. You mean that I can't just shoot from the hip on the sales process and I need a project discovery sheet that I use when I talk to a new prospect for the first time. You mean that that's a very important part of the process and I can't just be driving around in my truck asking some random questions as my first impression with a new client. I could go on and on and on. Correct. It's a combination of a lot of smart little things. That's the secret.

speaker-1: Hey, just a quick time out from the show. If you're a frustrated contractor who's dealing with low profit margins, stuck working on the tools every day, or doing free estimates for people who are never going to hire you in the first place, I invite you to my private contractor community, The Profit Club, where contractors just like you are adding two to three times more profit each year without producing any more jobs and finally getting completely off the tools to never do another free estimate again. So if you're ready to increase your profits, stop doing free estimates and get off to tools, then all you have to do is click the link in the show notes to learn more about the profit club and see how it can easily two to three times the cash in your pocket, give you a proven sales process that will convert more jobs with ease and get you off the tools once and for all. And the best part is you can do all of this without having to produce more jobs than you currently are. Click the link to learn more. Now let's get back to the show. Yeah, I mean. Did you ever listen to Ed Milett? You know what I'm talking about? No, maybe he's got some, he's got some good stuff. He talks about the 1%.

speaker-0: but he's not my cup of similar to Gary Vee like, oh, are you a big Gary? I mean, I like some, but yeah, similar.

speaker-1: Yeah, but he's got I think he's got a book called the 1 % rule or 1 % or something like that, but it's the same thing It's like it's just it's just the 1 % gradual improvement every day, right? Yeah, if there's no magic bullet It's just doing the right things at the right time and eventually one day you will wake up whether that's two years five years 20 years down the road and be like, How did I get here? How did I get how did I have this success? Okay, because of that constant and never-ending improvement what I call can I I don't know if you're Tony Robbins fan or not, but I still let from him many years ago, constant and never ending improvement. That's what it's all about. How do you, when you're working with a client and they come to you and they're like, how I want you to, you know, make me a bunch of money and save me a bunch of time. Like, how do you kind of set that expectation of like, this isn't going to happen overnight. Like this is going to take some effort from you.

speaker-0: That's good. Well, somebody that comes with that mindset, I like that we're talking about mindset, that comes with that mindset is still in the looking for the magic bullet mode. Like even the way you just phrased that is a perfect example of kind of what we were just talking about ⁓ versus somebody that comes that says, hey, I need your help and you've built enough know, like and trust with me through the podcast and through the content that and through a referral from so and so. that I reached out to you in the first place, and I'm wise enough to know that there's no magic bullet. I'm wise enough to know that a coach isn't going to just magically do all this for me. And I'm wise enough to know that it's gonna take me doing different things going forward than the things I've been doing. ⁓ now we've got fertile ground. So sometimes I do a little coaching. on the mindset and the expectation level before we even get started because if somebody's going, need you to help me with this, I need you to do this, and da-da-da-da, like, ⁓ that's code for I'm still looking for the easy button and I'm looking for excuses and I'm going to tell you why this isn't working and why that isn't working. Somebody that comes with humility and says, one, I've come a long ways, I will recognize that. From where I was three years ago to where I am now, I ought to acknowledge that I've made a lot of improvement. But Kyle, Brad, I'm looking at competition, I'm looking at other people. They have got a lot going on and I'm starting to pay attention. I'm like, there's so many holes in my business. There's so many things to work on. And I am committed to doing the little things to continue day in, day out, get 1 % better, if you want to use that acronym, that focus. To what was Tony's, what was it?

speaker-1: ⁓ can i say again constant never ending

speaker-0: You know, I'm ready for constant, constant and never ending improvement. I recognize that if I take an idea related to financials because I'm gonna recognize that's my biggest problem. I'm not going to avoid it anymore. I'm going to lean in and recognize that I need to know my numbers. It's confusing to me, it's embarrassing to me. I don't wanna talk about it and I'm gonna lean in and have healthy conflict with it and fix it because it's, listen, people listening, it's absolutely doable and it's also the most, if you're messed up financially, That's your top priority. Stop asking about social media. Stop asking about sales process improvement. Focus on understanding your financials. It's so important. But that's the kind of mindset. That's the kind of attitude a person needs to get in that mindset of it is about the little things. It is the combination of all of those things. It's not some magic bullet. And yeah, get ready to work. And if you, especially in a group-based coaching, which is like the profit club for you, in group-based coaching, if you sign up for the profit club, and you don't consume any of pre-recorded content, you show up for live calls occasionally, and you sometimes do everything, your ROI is gonna suck for it. And Brad's gonna continue to encourage you to do the work, ask me questions, it. Profit Club people, send me an email. I don't know if you do this or not, so sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth. But send me an email if you're stuck on something. We'll answer it on the next call, we'll do this. You'll get good ROI. If you won't get ... Good ROI. You will be six months in and go, well, this sucks. Why am I even paying this money? Hey Brad, I'm done with this. Okay, fair enough. If you show up and you do the work and you ask questions and you start implementing piece by piece and you don't have 20 hours a week to work on your business, you have two and you put more focus on the most important thing you need to fix in your business in those two hours and you're hyper focused on that and you're asking Brad questions and you're asking and you're watching the content and you're wrestling with it and you're listening to it. you will improve and that compound effect of improvement week in week out, you can absolutely build a kick butt business that is not consuming your life, that gives you decent work life integration, that makes you feel confident in control of your business. You can absolutely do it.

speaker-1: Absolutely. mean, I'll just hire you to do my promotion, promoting for me, Kyle. I don't need to do content anymore.

speaker-0: Listen to what Kyle Hunt says about Brad in the Prophet Club. Listen to this.

speaker-1: You talked about that and this is something that doesn't crack me out but it blows my mind. When you join the profit club which is a group coaching program you have unlimited access to me through a whatsapp channel. Like you could message me all day long, you could blow up my phone and ask me questions, talk about problems and the percentage of people that actually take advantage of that is like less than 1%. Like I mean that's how much I... You can message me at two o'clock in the morning. I'm not going to answer you at two o'clock in the morning. But if I wake up and I come in and I check my messages when I get to work, I'm going to respond to you. I'm going to give you feedback. One of the things that I, whenever someone does sign up, I do a, I have a code of conduct. It's like 11 things that I expect out of you if you're going to join my community, because you're not going to come into my community and make a, you'll cause a problem. And one of the things in there, which is what you just talked about is ⁓ be vulnerable. that's one of the code of conducts is you have to be vulnerable. You have to show up to yourself for yourself for your business. And this isn't about being a coach. This is just being an owner of a company. You have to be vulnerable enough to come in and say, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to do X. I'm not sure how we're going to get leads this week, team, whatever it is. It's like being vulnerable enough to say, I don't know and I need help. And when you do that, the amount of growth you will come that will come out of that is amazing. We do on our sales training calls with you, we'll do role plays and we do it live. You know, so there's like 10, 15, 20 people on this call and you're role playing in front of your peers. And it's one of the most nerve wracking things you can do, right? Cause they can call you out when you mess something up, but you will learn so much. You will get so much growth out of that. You can't even, I can't even describe it, that people are scared to death to put themselves out there and be vulnerable because they don't want people to think they don't know what they're doing. And that's an ego problem.

speaker-0: That's an ego problem, that is a fear problem, that is a scar that you had from eighth grade when so-and-so made fun of you. I mean, it goes deep. It can go deep sometimes. The whole part of this is like, how bad do want it? Because you can absolutely be currently in year six of your business and you're struggling, and you can be marginally better two years from now, still on the tools, still trying to figure this out. you know, it'd be two years later and you could be barely marginally better. You are a business owner in 2026. My grandpa was a contractor in the 50s and 60s. My other grandpa was a painting contractor in the 50s and 60s. What kind of training did they have at their disposal? If they, maybe they find a mentor down the road that actually had his crap together, right? You are a business owner in 2026. Yes, there's almost too much information out there, but you have no excuse not to get better. How bad do you want it? Are you ready to get uncomfortable and actually do, I call it batting practice instead of role playing. Like everybody, even all-stars, know, baseball, baseball started up, even Mickey Cabrera back in the day had to do some batting practice. But are you willing to be uncomfortable? That's a great question. Are you willing to be vulnerable? Because as soon as you raise your hand and say, I don't understand that, can you explain it again? The sky is the limit for you. But as long as you are ego and prideful and wanting to make excuses on this or that, again, all this mindset conversation, you're gonna stunt your ability to grow. The biggest growth I've had in my business is putting myself around other coaches, consultants, especially early on where I felt, one group in particular, I felt like I shouldn't have been in the room. Like, holy crap, these people, they're so experienced, they're so kind, but I almost wanna fib at how I'm doing, because I don't wanna embarrass myself. And once I got past that ego and that pride and was vulnerable and honest. That's where growth happens. And it's the same thing for people listening to this. If you're listening to this and you're part of the profit club and you're not taking advantage of the WhatsApp, come on, blow up. I hope one of your profit club listeners are listening to this and just blows the crap up out of your phone. And I say that sometimes to my groups too of like, I will let you know if you are overstepping my invitation to reach out. But to your point and to my point- It doesn't happen. Come on people, put these coaches to work. Make us sweat a little bit. Make us go, whew, another email. Okay, I got a live one here. They're working, they're implementing. Let's go baby. Do that and yeah, work on that. I love this mindset. Brad had an outline. He's a professional podcaster talking to another professional podcaster over here. He had a little outline of like, this is the direction we're going. And then he goes, we'll see also, we might go. And Brad took us down a little vein of the mindset side. And I love kind of the theme we've got here. We've come to this confidence and mindset and positive thinking and incremental growth. All of this is kind of wrapping around the same kind of theme, isn't it?

speaker-1: Absolutely. This is the exact reason why you need to be in some type of community. I don't even mean coaching. I mean a healthy, positive, growth-oriented community, whether it's a Facebook group or a local bunch of guys you're in. I don't care. But if you're in a community with people like you were saying, and I say this all the time, like if you're broke and I put you in a room with 20 millionaires or multimillionaires, There's no way you're not going to be successful. You're going to make some money. Maybe you don't make that much, but there's no way you can't win if you're in that group of people that are positive. My community in the Profco is one of the most important, it's like what I'm proud of the most. It's like my kids, we've grown this community, it's awesome. I'm sure you have the exact same thing in your group. You have a community of people that support each other and it's awesome. I can't stress enough how hard it is When you live on island and you're trying to run your business, it's almost impossible. ⁓ What's your thoughts on that?

speaker-0: I agree with that. When I bring groups together over the years and I've done it in a lot of different iterations, especially if it's something that it's the first time they're getting involved in it, one of the biggest pieces of of, all right, takeaway time, what's your takeaway? It is so nice to know I'm not the only one going through this. And once they taste that, they're like, oh, that's so reassuring. So I agree wholeheartedly. And similarly, like... It's a played out theme and it's been around for a while. You are the sum of the five people that are closest to you. Like we can roll our eyes at that slash there is absolutely truth in that. You want to improve your mindset, you want to improve your positivity, you want to improve this or that. You find people that are doing those things and watch how your mindset shifts. Again, I'm not preaching, but I've been in this Bible study group with five guys for, it's going on about 12 years. Talk about putting yourself in a room actually of people that are further down the stream than you. One, I'm a little worried because they're all like 15 years older than me. So I'm like, y'all are gonna go on to glory and I'm gonna be like 50. Like what am I gonna do then? But even from a faith dynamic, I remember getting in that room and they're like, Kyle, why you open us in prayer? And I'm like, ⁓ crap. I am like, ⁓ this is intimidating, know, young Kyle and whatnot. I look at that and I look at all the areas of my life, whether it be faith or marriage or family or business or just life. And I look at that and go, without those guys, I am not who I am right now. And I see that on the business side of going, know, get in a peer group, you get in a group, you get involved in a coach, I'm not who I am now. ⁓ I wouldn't be who I am now if it wasn't for getting involved in that two years ago. Yeah, so much lone wolf mentality. And that's tough, man, that's tough. So if you're listening to this, there's so many opportunities, whether it, like you said, locally. ⁓ whether it's online, whether it's putting up some hard-earned bucks. Yeah, give us some of your money because you put up some money, you take this stuff seriously, you start implementing.

speaker-1: Yeah, you were talking about the Bible study and kind of it reminded me of I was on I went on a mission trip one time and we would have like before the trip, you know, like six months away we would do like these every couple of weeks kind of get together, build, you know, team building things within our group. And we had this little ⁓ overnight stay at like a park. We rented a little one of those little cabins they have there, you know, it sleeps like 10 people. So we're in there and we're going to do the Lord's Supper and I was the co-leader of the group. So we had a leader and I was the co-leader and I had been on several group trips before and he goes, hey, would you lead us in the Lord's Supper, you know, for the bread? I didn't know the words. I've taken partaken in that thousands of times, but I didn't know like the actual words that you say. I didn't know. And I was like, can you say it one more time? He's like, yeah, can you do it? I'm like... say it one more time. What did you say? I screwed it up. I didn't even know the words to say. it just reminded me of that. You're going to make mistakes. We're going to make mistakes. You're going to look like an idiot sometimes in front of people. That's just human nature.

speaker-0: It means you're getting outside your comfort zone. If you've got a little bit of butterflies, you know, in the past I'd be like, ⁓ crap, I'm all anxious. This is not good. This is not good. I've come to learn like, no, I'm actually living. I'm actually doing stuff. I'm actually pushing myself a little bit. Butterflies are a good thing. It means I'm trying something new. And frankly, when you've been in business a long time and you've been through a lot of experiences, I don't get the butterflies as much anymore, but I'm hyper aware when I do of going, ⁓ this is something new. This is exciting. Again, reframing. Another way of saying everything we're saying is like reframe it. Reframe that of like, no, that's not, that is anxiousness. I'll call it what it is, but it means I'm doing something. And it's in doing role playing, doing batting practice, it's uncomfortable. But on the other side of it is growth. So continue to put yourself in rooms that are uncomfortable. Continue to, like some of you listening to this, there is somebody locally and you kind of know them or somebody you know is really close to them or they're part of your HBA and you kind of know them. get brave and invite them out to lunch and buy them lunch. That singular conversation could change the trajectory of how you're viewing things and they might teach you something or it could turn into a mentorship. Stop trying to go at it on your own. Continue to work on your mindset. Continue to work on positive thinking. Reframe piss poor thinking into more positive thinking. And especially as you grow your business, what you'll realize is when you get your financials in order, your marketing plan going, your sales process going, Your next big mountain you're gonna climb is to be a leader. you start to, even when you add your first person, you add your second person, now the complexity goes. Your big new mountain is gonna be leadership. And people like to be around inspiring leaders. People like to be around leaders that are mature, that have thought through the emotional intelligence, not just the intellectual, the IQ, but the EQ. People wanna be around people that are positive, that are forward thinking. So fixing your mindset early on as you continue to build your business, your next big mountain is leadership. It's gonna be even more important then.

speaker-1: Yeah, and that's something you can't start early enough and never stop learning, right? Leadership is just a lifelong endeavor. I don't care what you do. Like you have to improve your leadership throughout your whole life. So even if you're a one man show now, like get started on leadership. Cause when you do add people, you'll be ahead of the game. So agree. Awesome. I know we're getting a little tight on time here, Kyle. I want to respect your time. ⁓ Tell us a little bit where people can learn about your services, what you do, if they want to check you out and see if they want to join your group and if you can help them, where can they go to find that?

speaker-0: So if you type in Remodellers on the Rise, you're going to find us out there. So remodelersontherise.com. ⁓ is a Facebook group. Some people are like, ugh, Facebook groups. Remodelerscommunity.com. You could request to join that. Probably only about three out of 10 people I let in there. But it's actually a free group that is very high quality, caring people. It's something I'm pretty proud of. And then, you know, if you're a little further along in your journey, we have peer groups. So getting around 10 remodellers from around the country is something that could be real life-giving. And then we got the podcast. If you're like, I kind of like Brad's demeanor a little bit more. He's a little bit more relaxed and chill. This Kyle guy's a little nutty. ⁓ If you're taking that away, or some of you might be going, I need some more of that energy, go to the Remodellers on the Rise podcast, and you'll see me on there. Just don't listen to a lot of episodes because I only have so many good things I say and then I just repeat them all the time.

speaker-1: You mean you can't just keep coming up with new fresh ideas and content for me all the time.

speaker-0: ⁓ Sometimes I worry like somebody is like, ⁓ I listen to all your episodes. like, I could probably tell you my top 10 jokes and you're going to roll your eyes because you've probably heard them too many times.

speaker-1: How many, how long you been doing the podcast? How many episodes in are you? That is a good question.

speaker-0: question. We're well into the 300s or whatnot. know, that's one of those, I've got two full-time employees and we have three kind of long-time clients who are doing some coaching for us. And the podcast is really like, Bailey was managing it and producing it for a long time. Now Cassie on my team is doing it and she's fantastic at it. And so I don't know. I get to show up and prep for it. and then do my little dog and pony show, and then it magically gets a title and a description and it gets published because I've got a fantastic team.

speaker-1: Yeah, I know after a while it just blends together. You're like, I don't even know what episode we're on 250, 300.

speaker-0: Now, we do though, we do pause at the ... We did some planning and then we had some meetings around the podcast and going, all right, how do we keep this fresh? How do we not take it for granted? Are we tracking some of the metrics? Should we play with the titles a little bit more? That's that incremental improvement. That's that 1%. Business never ends. That's what's ... Like some of you are listening to this, you've got some major turning of some dials that you need to get in place. And okay, all right, I got my pricing right. Okay, I've got a good sales process. And then it's just this never-ending game of kind of tweaking and testing and measuring and ... you know, marketing and sales. So we're definitely active. We're definitely active and continue to improve and tweak it just like everybody listening to this. Continue to tweak. Don't get complacent. Continue to say, this working? What's working? What's not working? Do that in your sales. Do that in your marketing. Do that in your financials.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's great wisdom to end on. Kyle, I always ask all my guests this, what's a book that you're reading or one that you would recommend?

speaker-0: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. It's actually written by a pastor out in the Pacific Northwest and it's got a little Jesus in it, but it's also just got some good perspective on things. As I read it, I felt very attacked. I'm like, well, yes, I am the one who at the grocery store... ⁓ chooses as hyper analyzing the line to see which one's gonna be more optimistic. I do race the person off the line. ⁓ So it's a book that reminds me as somebody who is an entrepreneur, as somebody who is go, go, go to slow down a little bit. It ties in with a lot of the stuff we're talking about here. Slow down a little bit. Recognize all the good stuff that's going on in your life. Just, you don't have to be in such a hurry. Make sure that The work is gonna be there tomorrow. I've been in business 18 years. I'm still not at the end of my to-do list. The work is always gonna be there. Pay attention to your key relationships in your life, whether that's God, whether that's your friends, whether that's your spouse, whether that's your kids. We've gotta make sure business is not overtaking our life. And it's so easy for business to start to get its fangs into so many areas of our life. We need to push against that a little bit. So there's a lot of talk in there about that, but also just... The title says it all, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Take a breath, Kyle. Take a breath, Brad. Slow down a little bit. Pay attention to what's going on around you, how you're feeling and why you're feeling that way. Feel a little bit more in control of things. Last week at this marriage conference, I learned about the nervous system and there's the ventral, which is kind of calm and content. There's the fight or flight, which most all of us have heard of, anxiousness and always this and that. And then dorsal, which is shutdown mode. And my wife's elbowing me when the... The Dr. Joshua Straub is in the fight or flight mode. He's go, she's like, that's you. This is why I'm always telling you this. And for some reason it connected with me differently to hear it from this Dr. Josh. And I've been hyper aware that I live too often in fight or flight. I'm always thinking five steps ahead. I'm always worried about this. I'm always thinking about, okay, I need to set a reminder for this. Okay, Sarah's got this going. I need to help her with that. And I've been hyper aware and I have been so much more peaceful for the last nine days. of don't get worked up about the little things. Keep things in proper perspective. There's more joy in life to be found in that ventral mode. And you can absolutely, yeah, we're business owners, there's lot going on. We gotta get in fight or flight mode. We shouldn't live there though. So that ruthless elimination hurry, paying attention to that stuff ⁓ would be how I'd leave you with that.

speaker-1: That's a great book. I'll, I never heard of it. I'll definitely check that out. That's of the reasons I asked so I can get recommendations and then they can.

speaker-0: Hang on, need one too. Give me your top one right now.

speaker-1: There's a lot. You know, I could say, get my book, but that would be a Sangamist plug. ⁓

speaker-0: And you do crap like that and you're gonna get a review of like, ⁓ there's Brad all he wants is our money get me into the funnel That's why you're getting those reviews,

speaker-1: Yeah, I think it depends on what you're talking about, but I think a good book, what's the one I'm reading right now? I forgot. ⁓ I'm reading the one from, it was ⁓ Marcus Sheridan's book that he talked about at the. Endless Customers? Yes, Endless Customers. I'm reading that right now. That's a pretty good, interesting book. And I would recommend that. My favorite book of all time, probably, especially for someone starting out is the E-Myth. I recommend the E-Myth to everyone. Michael Gerber. good. It's just a great foundational book.

speaker-0: customer

speaker-1: Awesome. Kyle, thanks again for being on the show. Guys, if you want to check out Kyle and his work and he does his podcast, please go do that. Remodel is on the rise. He's been doing it for a long time, longer than I have. He's probably got a lot more information to share than I do. So go check out Kyle and I appreciate you hanging out with me. You know where to find me on the socials. You can just go look for the Hammer Grind podcast. ⁓ by the way, we'll put Kyle's information in the show notes too. So you can just go there and get, the links and stuff. But, ⁓ That's the end of the show guys. I appreciate you hanging out with me. Remember until next time, profit is not a dirty word.