The Contractor Fight

Thank you to Ryan Englin for having me in his show 👊🏻

Join me in Denver 👊🏻 https://lnkd.in/gWzJD9Mv

Join me in Denver 👊🏻 https://lnkd.in/gWzJD9Mv

I Choose Optimism I Choose Optimism The voices can be overwhelming at times. "Are you crazy? Why would you try to do that?" "There's no way you can reach a goal that big!" "Here's a list of all the reasons why this won't work." Sometimes these messages come from those around us. Most times they're our own voice spewing negative self-talk at us. I choose optimism. I had a period of my life where I had fallen prey to these voices and it sucked! Instead of finding the reasons why something is possible, I focused on all the potential issues and obstacles as to why it wouldn't work. The result? I was not only miserable from a mental health point of view, but the results in my business took a hit. When you’re focused on the problems you’re less likely to do the damn work required to win‼️ I made a choice to be optimistic. Not foolish. Not careless. Just positive and confident that I could figure out how to win. Of course there will be challenges, but these didn't have to consume my head space. How about you? Where's your optimism? Are you focused more on what could be than your problems? This is an edge for your success. Optimistic people operate at a higher frequency. They have better energy. That energy is contagious and attractive to others. People want to work with optimistic people. Today, make it a point to see the possibilities. Make it a point to silence any negative self-talk that could hijack your success. Live Unafraid👊🏻

Mind Your Business Everywhere you look you're seeing so-called evidence of people winning all around you. You see posts on social media where people post their highlights. You see them post their cars and in some cases their jets. They seem to do nothing but travel and enjoy life, while you're grinding away each day trying to make it all work. It's easy to scratch your head and ask yourself "how they hell can they do it for amount?" when you lose a project to a cheaper contractor. All of these things can be frustrating and can make you second-guess yourself and wonder, "WTF am I doing wrong?" Mind your business. This is one key to winning at high levels. Stop comparing your blooper reels to everyones highlights. Stop giving a shit about what others charge. Stop giving attention to anything that takes your focus off of what you need to do each day. You do you. I've found through the past 25 years that I will never know the whole story behind someone else's "success." I've seen people on top of the world, sharing about how great their businesses are fall quickly. I've seen gurus running events and programs talking about how to be a great married couple get divorced out of nowhere. I've seen under the hood of many businesses that the world would think that all is well and I can tell you some stories of chaotic numbers, culture and struggle. Mind your business. Tell your story. Do your numbers. Be married in the way that serves both you and your spouse the most. Yes, learn from others. Imitate the mindsets and actions of people who are more successful than you are in whatever area of life or business that you want to improve. Just make sure you listen to your gut and understand that everyone has ugly shit going on. Every business has seasons of struggle when it comes to cash flow, lead flow, operations and employee problems. Every couple has their crap too. Nobody has it all together. I don't. You don't. They don't. Anyone telling you different is full of shit.

Stack Your Skills Winning in your business will be directly related to the skills you develop. How to generate leads... How to differentiate in the sales process... How to grow as a leader... How to recruit top talent... How to manage cash flow... How to estimate projects more accurately... You get the point. Each day, work on your skills. Put yourself in the environments that will improve those skills. Invest in your skills development. Winning will be the product of simply getting a little better each day. Every day you have a choice to compound your skills in the right or wrong direction. The choice is 100% YOURS. 

Give Vision The Bible says without vision the people will perish. I believe this. Without a vision of what we can become, what we can achieve and what we can have...we die. We die through sedation. We die through procrastination. We slowly kill ourselves with our lack of discipline, focus and willingness to fight for something greater. When you have a big vision of who you want to become you will tolerate almost anything. When your vision is big enough the work is nothing. The late nights, early mornings, tough conversations...they pale compared to your vision. Keep your eyes on your vision. Give it more attention than you give your problems. Do the work. 

Do it Now The longer you wait to do the things you need to do, the more problems you create. The tasks stack and stack due to your procrastination. This causes stress, overwhelm and jacks up the experience you provide your team and clients. You know that client who you're putting off calling back because you think they're upset with you? Call them NOW. That talk you keep telling yourself you need to have with an employee? Have it NOW. The lead that is waiting for you to call back... The Job Costing that is waiting for you so you can learn the truth about your numbers... The Change Order you need to write up before the client forgets they gave you approval.... Do it NOW. There is no better time than yesterday to do the things required of you. Since we can't go back in time, the next best time is... Now.👊🏻

What Could You Accomplish? What would happen if you made it a habit to get uncomfortable every day? What could you accomplish if you focused more on your vision and goals than on your problems? Where would you be at the end of the next 90 days if you refused to be a victim? What would your profit look like if you committed to leading your team? What could you accomplish if you stopped giving a shit about what "they" think? What would your bank account look like if you were consistent in building your brand and selling unafraid? How much more confidence would you walk with if you started honoring the commitments you make to yourself? What would happen if you truly went to war with your negative self-talk? What would've you accomplished already if you didn't procrastinate? What would happen if you did that one thing you've been blowing off and made it a habit? There is a next level waiting for you. It will require focus, discipline, discomfort and consistency. You say you want to accomplish certain things.... Prove it. 

Stop Negotiating Against Yourself It's 11pm and you've finally sat down to work up your proposals for the clients you met today. You start crunching your numbers that you're confident in and then it happens. "Damn. That's a lot of money for this job." You start telling yourself A story that sounds like this... "They'll never go for this. I need to figure out how to get this a little lower." The negotiation has begun! You start sharpening your pencil when nobody has asked you to do so. You squirm and tell yourself story after story and make revision after revision until you finally send the proposal that's way lower than it should be. It's far less than it should be for the value and the experience you provide. Instead, start telling yourself THE story. The real story. "I don't know what their financial situation is and it's not my job to find their money." This is the truth. You don't know what "a lot" of money is to someone else. Stop feeding yourself bullshit. Figure up your job costs. Add your profit margin. Hit send.