REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 919. Q&AF: Accountability With Team Members, Dealing With Loss & Finding Good Employees

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

On today’s episode, Andy answers live call-in questions on creating accountability as a young leader, bouncing back after a major setback, and finding the right team members for your mission.

What's sleeping on the floor now my jury box froze fuck a bowl fuck a stole counted millions in a cold bad bitch booted swole got a own bankro can't fold just a no headshot case close close what is up guys it's Andy for selling this is the show for the realist's sake goodbye to the lies to fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality guys today we have Q and a F that's where you submit the questions and we give you the answers. Now, you can submit your questions to be answered on the show a few different ways. The first way is, guys, email these questions into Ask Andy and Andy Fasela.com. Or you go on YouTube on the Q&AF episodes and click that link right underneath the, uh, in the bio there, and you can be on the show yourself. You call right in and talk to us. We'll answer all your problems. Well, we'll try to answer all your problems. Some of y'all really fucked your shit up. All right.

We also have real talk throughout the week. That's where we give you 5, 20 minutes of real talk. We'll have CTI tomorrow. That stands for Cruz, the Internet. We have a new live chat option on the CTI. So you can actually listen in as we cut the show. DJ will have more information on how to be a part of that. And then we have 75 hard verses, 75 hard verses

where people who have completed the 75 hard program come on the show They talk about how their life was before 75 hard, how their life is now, and how they use that program to transform their existence. If you're unfamiliar with 75 hard, it is the initial phase of the live hard program. The live hard program is the world's most popular mental transformation program ever, and it is free at episode 208. Again, that's 208 on the audio feed. you can also buy the book it's called the book on mental toughness it's available at andyfercella dot com it'll give you the entire live hard program plus a whole bunch of other chapters on mental toughness how to cultivate it how to use it uh to become the best version of yourself all right uh also

we have this little deal we make with you guys it's very simple um we ask that you please help us grow the show all right we put a lot of work a lot of effort into this this show and uh we just ask very simply that you help us share it around if it makes you think if it makes you laugh if it gives you a new perspective if you think it's worth hearing if it helped you in any way do us a favor and don't be a hoe and share the show yeah yeah yeah and guys if you are interested to being a part of the show um you guys can click the link in the description below as well um you guys can uh fill out that little well thing we're keeping it exclusive though we're not we're not you know we're testing small small groups we're testing we're

So you might have a chance. The goal is to eventually move into a live broadcast. All right. So we're testing that over the next 30 days or so. But you guys should definitely jump in because we will bring people on to CTI to talk about the topics with us. You know, kind of like an all-American town hall. That's right. All the time.

It's live audience. It's what you think, not what these dumbasses think. That's right. Because we're smarter and everybody. Uneniable. Yes. Better looking. That's right.

And you guys can, you know, see my reading displays on full effect. Yeah. Uncut. Uncumcumcised. Uncumcised. Yeah, man. What's going on with you though, man? You good?

Yeah. Always getting me to check in. Yeah, man. I got like dry needling done all across my traps and neck. I was getting these cramps done in my neck real bad. So I had Taylor hit me with the dry needles. Fuck. Yeah.

I feel like I got beat with a baseball bat, bro. Oh, yeah. I forgot. I haven't had that done since I had. had my shoulder rehab and i forgot like how that stuff makes you pretty sore i like taylor's mean bro oh she gets in there i mean sweet as girl ever i don't think she's mean i think she's just she'll beat your ass of what she does yeah listen i've worked with a lot of people dude a lot of pts a lot of uh if if you if you don't if you need pt here in in st louis and you don't consider taylor summers

you're not going to get as good service that's real it's the truth it's absolutely i mean i've been an athlete my whole life i've had a hundred fucking different people work on me bro she knows what the fuck she's doing yeah no doubt about that man no not about that man but yeah it's uh it's q and a if you guys know how this works uh we got some calls got some write-ins and uh let's make some people better to yeah i got some good ones for you all right i bet you do let's uh we're gonna start off with a call let's get west west on the phone let's give west a call Hello. Wes, what's going on, my man?

Hey, what's going on? What's going on with you, brother? Where are you at right now? I'm in Arizona. Ooh. All right, Arizona's not bad, A-Z. Yeah, it's not too bad, northern Arizona. It's my 28th birthday today, too.

Oh, dude. Yeah, look at that, man. Happy birthday. You want to say like sing happy birthday to you or something? Happy birthday to Wes. What's up, bro? Awesome. Good.

How you doing? We're doing good, man. 28, huh? Awesome. 28, yeah, 28, big 28. It's awesome. I'm so excited to get this call on my birthday, too. Hey, DJ's going to give you the happy ending too, you know what I'm saying?

All right. For your birthday. He just volunteered. He's sign language it too. Yeah, I got you, bro. I got you. all right west what's going on man what's your question how can how can we how can you get helped today uh let's see so i give you a little bit of background um i recently became a team later last

november i worked for a well-known grocery retail store um we've been doing great you know we've been hitting kpIs you guys carry form energy yeah um i'm not saying we're about to be a problem there Russ. An opportunity I've really had is with accountability with team members, you know. It's just been, it's been kind of a struggle with certain team members. Some team members be really great. I feel like we have a really good team. It's just opportunities as a team leader. Definitely being a new team leader. Having those conversations. I tried, tried some positive reinforcement but some some team members are just really hard-headed me being 28 a lot of my team members are older in their 40s and 50s I've had one team team member tell me like you know what

I have a personal problem with taking direction from younger guys I'm like dude honestly that's a personal problem I'm doing my best I can as your team leader to work together as a team and get us to this common goal but that's just a big opportunity I've had is just how to hold team members accountable and um guide the team and in the direction that I want us to go cool yeah bro uh first of all leadership of people is the hardest job on the planet management leadership these things are difficult and to become effective at these things is a lifelong journey so you shouldn't be down on yourself that it's a struggle your first time doing it um it's it's very hard okay Let's see.

Where do I want to start this? Because I got a lot to say here. I can very much so relate to the older people not wanting to take you seriously and not wanting to listen. You know, I started my business when I was 19 and by the time, you know, I was 25, I was leading people that were in their 30s, mid, late 30s that didn't, you know, want to take me seriously. because they were 10 years older than me. And unfortunately, that is the mentality of lower skill people sometimes. They believe that there's some sort of seniority based around other things besides skill set. They think that if they've been there a long time, that they get some sort of preference.

Or they think that because they're older, they know more. And these things just simply aren't the ways of the world. So I wouldn't pay any mind to that, bro. And if you have the ability to start to work people like that out, you will do better and move faster with younger people for a couple reasons. One, they'll listen to you better. Two, they're probably hungry. Three, they haven't grown to accept the.

reality of their life, meaning a lot of these guys that you're probably dealing with are in a situation where they think, man, this is as good as it's going to be. So I don't really give a fuck. I'm not going to listen to West tell me what I can and can't do. I'm just going to do my shit and be left alone. And so getting rid of those people over the course of time is important if you want to develop an effective team because those people create cancer in the in the group. They will undermine you. They will talk shit. about you when you walk away, they will tell the other team members not to listen to you and that you don't know what you're talking about. And that stuff will kill your ability to

create an effective offensive front with your team. And so I would start making a list of the people that you think can be saved and the people you know cannot be saved and start working to replace those people moving forward. Now, with all that being said, let's focus on how do I get the team to execute with a positive attitude, me being an inexperienced leader, having these conversations. We'll start with the group and then I'll get to the conversations. Okay. With the group, this is going to require you to sit down with the group, paint a detailed vision, of not just what you're trying to accomplish,

but what will happen if you accomplishment and what that means to them in their career path. So at the end of the day, most people are pretty selfish, which is fine. But you have to understand as a leader how to utilize their selfishness. And I don't even want to say it's selfishness. I just think it's human nature, right?

We have to look after ourselves. So you have to be effective at leveraging that want and need for them to the team's benefit. And the way that you do that is by understanding that they are only going to work at their best when they are inspired to be their best, not motivated to be their best, not commanded to be their best, inspired to be their best. And the difference being is that when they are inspired to be their best, that is coming from themselves. That is their own idea. That is their own conclusion. I want to do great because it will lead to this. And your job as a leader is to create the path and make the path understood not just once, but consistently. Okay. And that would sound something like this. hey guys look i know that you think this is just another grocery job but here's the thing it's

not here's what we're trying to do long term here's what we have to do now and if we do this now here's where it will lead to you potentially upgrading your life if we win together as a team and so that needs to be a fundamental foundation of the communication that you have between you and your team on a consistent basis. When you meet with them, every single time, that should be communicated in one way or another, all right? And then, you know, you mix in the other issues that need to be addressed into that talk. But everything should be always connected back to what we're trying to accomplish as a team and what that's going to mean for them. And if you do that, you'll have enough of the team, like you already said, I've got some great people.

those people will get super excited. And when those people get super excited, just like the negative people are a cancer, the positive people will spread goodwill and inspiration throughout your team. And then, you know, it's important that you do the first part, I said,

by cutting out the bad people eventually. So that is the gist of how you can lead a team attitude-wise. Now, dude, this could be a whole day, I can sit with you for a whole week and go through the nuances of this, but I'm giving you what I think is the cliff notes that we can answer within the time frame of this show. Now, having those conversations, and by the way, you're welcome to ask any follow-up questions after this. Having the conversations is usually difficult because we frame it as difficult.

Okay. We as a leader will say, man, I got to go, you know, get on to DJ because DJ is not doing his job. And you need to reframe that in your mind. I'm not going to get on to DJ because DJ is not doing his job. I'm going to point out to DJ that DJ is not doing his job. And then I'm going to make him understand what that's going to do to his vision long term. Okay. So it's it's not by force. It's by. clarity. That's correct. So and then that way, just like with the inspiration, the ability to correct the path comes from inside. It's all. The only is on them. Yeah, bro, because people respond best to their own ideas. Okay. So our job as leadership is to say, hey, if you do a great job, here's how you do a great job. If you do a great job, this is what the team will do. And if the team does this, this is what it'll mean to you. And then when they're fucking off, you reverse engineer that back to,

hey, this is what this is going to mean for you. It's going to mean that you don't have a fucking place here, bro, and you're going to go from thing to thing to thing, and you're going to end up bitter like Tony over there who's 55 years old and fucking hates it here, right? So the conversation, that's the gist of the framework of the conversation, but the conversation, to make it easy,

you have to remember that you're doing them a favor. You are doing them a favor by showing them where they're messing up and how they're going to improve. And a lot of people that lead assume that people don't want to get better. So when they talk to them, they're very abrasive about it. When in reality, most people do want to get better. They just don't know how to get better. better and they're not aware. So reframing the hard talk into a talk of, I actually really care

about DJ and his family, dude, I don't want him to fucking lose. So DJ, come here, man. I need to talk to you, dude. Here's a deal. This sucks. This sucks and this sucks. I appreciate all you do here. Okay. This is fucking amazing. You do great here. You do great here. But if you can't clean up these things, dude, we're not going to be able to win as a team. if we can't win as a team, all the things that you're trying to do within this organization will not happen. They're not going to happen. And look at Tony over there. He's 55 years old. It didn't just happen for him. You have to make it happen. So having a conversation that's framed, you know, you've probably heard of like the positivity sandwich, you know, where you tell them what

they did good, then you tell them what they suck at and how to fix it. And then you close the meeting with what they did good again. And that generally works pretty good. for getting people to hear the information. You know, everybody likes to be reminded and valued for the things that they do good. But, you know, you have to be able to critique them and coach them. And I think a lot of people that struggle with leadership and management, the reason they struggle with it's so hard is because they're not realizing that our job as leaders is to develop the people and serve our people not just to get our goal like our team won you know

15 games that's that's okay you know but if your motivation is just for yourself to win the 15 games and you're not pouring into players players aren't going to want to work for you they're not going to want to sweat for you they're not going to want to fight for you and so it's this it's this very synergistic reality. You know, if you care about them and you help them and you're honest with them,

they will reciprocate that with giving their best. And that's how great teams work. You know, the hardest coaches that I've ever had in my life were actually the ones I'm most thankful for.

I fucking hated them at the time. But when I look back of my life, I'm like, I'm glad that guy was straight with me because it helped me straighten out a lot faster. So. When you learned who they cared the most? That's right. And dude, as a leader, even if it's of a team, a sports team, a charity organization, whatever, and business, it's all the same. It's all the same.

So, yeah, bro, look, just start reframing these conversations as you're actually helping them and you're helping their family and that will help you want to have them more. but that whole i mean i just unloaded a lot of shit but this whole thing that we're talking about here um is an art and it's something that you're not going to master at 28 years old it's you will never master it i will never master it okay we will we will be 70 years old and we will say fuck i still have so much to learn about being a leader and that's that's the reality of leading people but the framework is usually the same so big mission what their role is in the mission what it means for them if you win the mission of the team and then you know having the conversations with the the mindset that you're improving their skill set improving their future improving their

family which takes away the edge of confrontation and replaces it with an obligation to tell them the truth. And then when you execute the conversation, positive, critique, positive. And, you know, if it's a hard critique, you might have to come back an hour later or the next day and say, hey, you know, you know why I'm fucking telling you this, bro. I'm telling you this because I want you to fucking win. And dude, you know, that's, that's it. That's about as quickly as I can explain something that will help you immediately. So what do you think, bro? great something i'm definitely going to be doing um i'm starting i've been starting to implement more huddles with my team um just make sure we're all on the same page have the same goal yeah um

definitely definitely something i'm definitely something i'm doing more going forward so i really appreciate that how often do you meet with them so i do a lot more one-on-ones okay with my team members feel today um i think a lot gets missed when i don't do huddles as well as too. We have a lot of small things here and there. When we have walks going on, um, safety briefings we need to do a lot of it's kind of one on one on. And I'll do those check-ins with one-on-one. They're like, hey, how are you doing today? Um, this is what this is what our plan is going to be for today. But that's good. That's good. That's good. But here's when you got you have to collectively get them together if you want them to function as a team. Yeah. Okay. Right. Like you got to

paint the pick look dude people will execute at like a level fucking six for themselves but they'll execute a level 50 for the person next to them okay so if you build a cohesive team where everybody cares about the person to the left and the person to the right like they should the execution level and the standard level will rise so i would definitely encourage you to do more full team uh breakdowns you call them huddles that's that's yeah yeah i would definitely be doing that okay awesome we'll do anything else no that'll be that's kind of really it um no yeah it was a stressful week for sure i had two big back-to-back walks well you know what they went they went super super good so i'm

super proud of that i think my team's been a great job that's kind of the only real opportunity i see for myself at the moment it's just the accountability part and having those tough conversations And like you said, I'm not going to learn it, definitely being a new team leader right away. But down the line, I'll definitely get it. Yeah, bro, you listen, if you keep their interest at the top of your mind, if you always operate as a servant leader, meaning I'm going to help improve my team's career path. I'm going to help develop my people to be more successful. It's really kind of hard to fuck up leadership. It really is.

if you're living the standard and you're doing your job and then they know that you're working to help them get better it kind of works itself out bro but it's got to be real they'll know if you're fucking full of shit yeah can't just hear it you know that's real man yeah it's saying it's real so yeah don't get down on yourself dude this is brand new shit and it's really fucking hard i would say out of all the aspects of things that you could do as a human being the most mentally tax taxing and hard job that you will do it's not you know it's not physically demanding but it is very mentally

stressful is leading other people and it's really fucking hard when you care about them bro it's really yeah so yeah sick man well we appreciate you bro thanks for calling in west yeah hey bro happy birthday man yeah happy birthday awesome thank you guys all right thanks brother i hit you up a little later for that uh the happy ending all right see you bro um all right thank you guys Thanks, bro. Yeah, dude, that's a tough thing. Like, I had to get over that, too, just in my mental, like, you know, with me leading my group that I lead, right?

It's like, bro, I've been working on that for fucking six years. I still, like, heavily criticize myself if I'm doing a good job as a quote-unquote leader. You should. The best leaders do that. But it takes a long... The best leaders audit themselves after every motherfucking conversation they have with their team, after every meeting, after every... Fuck, bro.

Every time I give a talk, I walk off the stage. What do I say? How do I do? What do you think? What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you fucking crushed it.

What do I say? I said, I could have done this. I could have done this. I already know where I fucked up when I walked off, when I, when I walk out of a meeting, you know? So the best leaders, the ones that continue to develop are ones that audit themselves and understand that when it comes to leadership, there is no finish line. You're not going to like, there's always room to grow. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. that's real man it's a balance like you have you can't be a pussy bro you can't just sit there and be like like you have to have that ability to say this is what the fuck we're doing okay like i don't want this to sound very soft this isn't soft this is this is what the fuck we're doing this is what the team's going to do and this is what you need to do to be a part of the team and to progress here but this is happening yeah right right Right. This is the line.

Yes. And it can't be like a convincing thing like, oh, well, you know, can you guys just do this for me? That won't work. If you guys want to do it, can you do this? There has to be fucking confident leadership and coaching that happens. And the standard of where you're going is non-negotiable. Oh, I love that, man. I love it.

Guys, Andy, let's get question number two going. We got a right in on this one. Guys, Andy, question number two. Hi, Andy. Andy, I lost my dog one month ago. I know where your thoughts may have gone, time to move on and stop being a fucking pussy. No one more than I want that more, but I'm stuck. I have no kids.

My dogs were a big part of my life. This last dog had a stroke and it's just gone. We had no warning. Not that life always gives you that. But anyway, I'm lost. Every morning I get up saying that I'm going to get out and get my workout in. Every morning I sit like a sad sack of shit. and my sadness and grief.

I know grief is a motherfucker and we all process it differently. I just don't feel like I am. As a day moves on from the morning, I get better, and by the end of the day, I have at least gotten in a five-mile walk. All day, I get pissed at myself for wasting my morning routine with this grief. I carry the anger and the sadness like a rucksack on my back. Then I listen to your podcast and your TED talk post and social media,

and I feel like I'm really, I really am that sad sack of shit, that I'm that dumb fuck that you talk about who, wishes for shit not knowing you can't wish you must achieve how do i move on from this dealing with tough shit man grief specifically well i mean look dude it's a part of life it's unavoidable and whether it comes in the loss of a pet or a loved one or a diagnosis or like you're gonna get fucking hit bro and i think that's the that's the thing that people live not saying this person but a lot of people live in this ignorant state of it's not going to happen to me it's not going to happen to me and it does happen to you and it's a fundamental reality of life there are going

to be unexpected very difficult circumstances that you are going to have to deal with which is why it's so important to develop mental fortitude and mental toughness inside of yourself it's not something that people are born with. It's something they develop. And so when it comes specifically to going through very difficult times, the answer to getting through those times is often the opposite answer of what almost everybody else will tell you. Because what will everybody else tell you? They will tell you, hey, take it easy, man. You're going through a lot, relax, process it. The reality of getting past very difficult things is to take action towards where you would like to be.

And you've already said that you don't like feeling like a sad sack of shit. And you are a sad sack of shit right now. And guess what? I'm a sad sack of shit sometimes. DJ is a sad sack of shit sometimes. Everybody is a, it's called being fucking human, bro. There's nothing wrong with what you're going

through. And to be honest, I get it, bro. I had, I had my duck get killed last year. And everybody like, well, it's just a fucking duck. Well, yeah, to you, not to me. Like, to me, I don't have kids. I go there every morning. I see the duck. I go there every night. I see the duck. The duck gets happy when it sees me. You know, she follows me around. She thinks like that, to me, that's a big deal. and so I was fucked up and when my dog Oscar died in 2012 or 2013

he died in my fucking arms he was seven years old it was a day before his eighth birthday dude I was playing guitar I fucking heard him breathing weird I looked at him and I could tell he was scared shitless

and he got up and he ran and tried to crawl under the bed and hide which is what dogs do when they're dying they try to hide I pick him up I take him he's fucking dead 10 minutes later bro like everything was fine and then he was dead and bro that i've never gotten over that i still fucking think about that all the time still he's still the screensaver on my fucking phone okay

we all go through hard things bro but to get out of the hard cycle we have to bite the bullet and start taking fucking action and this isn't some plug for live hard or 75 hard but this is the time when you need that kind of thing you need a mission You need a purpose. You need something to accomplish and recalibrate you into someone who can make the decisions even when they don't feel like doing the thing. And that's the power of the program. Okay.

We talk about the program not being a fitness program because it isn't. It is you get fit as a result of the mental toughness that you have to develop along the way. And so, bro, real talk. I would start 75 hard and I would fucking do the program and I would do it perfectly and it will be enough to force you where you cannot complete the program while you're sitting there feeling sorry and you just have to accept the fact that bro you're not going to be the same after losing one of your dogs bro like every time I was talking to my father-in-law about this a couple years ago and he was like he's like dude it's got to be hard to have dogs you know because he's not a dog guy like they have a dog he lives out in the um you know their dogs live outside and shit they're not like a farm dog yeah they're not very warm uh it's different than like what i grew up with about dogs and he we he was we were talking and uh he was like he was like uh you know it's got to be hard to have dogs man because it's like they

only last 10 years and it's like losing a kid every time and i'm like yeah that's fucking exactly what people will say oh it's not the same it's not the same for you if you have kids but if you don't have kids you're you're an asshole for saying that yeah right you know like these motherfuckers who do this every year who say oh you fucking it's mother's day being a dog mom doesn't count or being a dog dad doesn't count you know how fucked up you sound saying that shit some people that's all the fuck they have they weren't able to have kids okay and that's all they got and because you're a fucking douchebag you go on the internet and say some fucked up shit anyway we know it's not the same but it's the same for us okay so don't be a fucking

fuck yeah but at the end of the day bro you got to step the fuck up and realize that if you continue down this path you're gonna you are going to be a literal sack of shit you have to get yourself past these hard things and it is very real and very normal and very human to work through these things and you know you got to take action bro you got to start doing things that

you know take your mind off of it you got to start doing things that force you to get up and move otherwise you can't get them done you know one of the most powerful things about 75 hard and live hard is that there's so much shit to do like if you fucking lay in bed

till 1 o'clock in the afternoon bro you ain't getting it done yeah okay so by default you have to move on and um you know and then the other thing i'll tell you dude like the other thing uh from one animal lover to another like uh i don't think people really realize how animals how important they are to me um but when i lost oscar i didn't know what to do and we ended up getting Otis, our bulldog now, is the best thing I ever did

was to get another one. Yeah. And we got him like a month later and it was the best thing I ever did, dude. Like, it didn't make me feel any less about Oscar, but it made me like

feel good. You know what I'm saying? Well, put your mind on something else. Now you got this little puppy, you got potty training. You got to take care of him and he loves you too, you know, and like it's, I would recommend get another dog if if that's um where you're at bro so yeah it's hard bro it's this is hard shit and society doesn't

make it any harder because they don't try to understand people that fucking don't have kids they're total fucking fucks about it i think there's something to be said too just so your point of like dude it's life things are gonna happen wouldn't you rather be able to have like come out of that yeah bro that's exactly the point okay we're competing against of people on this planet and a lot of people will say oh there's not you're not competing against anybody except your version of yourself yesterday well those people are broke okay here's the reality if you want to win if you want to become create build anything real you have to learn how to operate through the hard times that is the separator between people who win and people who

fucking don't okay people who don't win every time they get a hangnail they say oh i need three days off in a fucking year of therapy to get better that's those people lose because anything that happens along the way throws them off track okay if you can become the kind of person that it doesn't matter what gets thrown your way no matter how hard it is no matter how frustrating it is no matter how pissed off you are or any of these shit if you can operate and execute in those times you are executing at least double the rate of everybody else and if you understand math like I'm sure you do

you will know that double the execution puts you twice as far ahead as everybody else if everybody else runs two fucking laps and you're running four who's going to get where they want to go faster, okay? And the difference between this is being able to execute when you don't fucking feel like it. It makes you legitimately unbeatable. So it's very important that when things happen, that are hard, which we all have to deal with. It's very important that you don't let it consume your life to the point where it throws you completely off track

because that's what most people do. And you're not trying to be most people. so this is a tremendous opportunity and as cold-hearted as that may sound no because that's what people are going to call it i don't care yeah it's reality bro this isn't called be nice this isn't called idealism this is called real as fuck and the reality is is when bad things happen like they happen to all of us most people get thrown off track very very far off track okay and then to create the momentum again, it could take years. Okay. So one fucking tragedy happens and then it costs you five years of your life. Is that really worth it for something that happens to literally

everybody? It's not. Okay. So if you can become the kind of person that will execute no matter what's going on around them, you can't be fucking beat, bro. It's literally impossible to be a person like that you can't beat them okay and and what here's what happens when you start to learn that you can do this and you start to learn that you can execute versus the other people that can't you know like when you're out in the middle of you know the 18 inches of snow when it's when it's minus fucking 20 degrees and you're doing shit that no one else can do it instills and builds a level of self belief and confidence in yourself that cannot be fucked with cannot be fucked with it doesn't fucking matter what the world throws at you you are still going

to win imagine feeling like that imagine knowing no matter what the fuck happens i'm going to still win and that's the kind of confidence that pushing through the hard times creates some powerful shit right there man yeah absolutely man i love it let's get uh we got one final question got another call in Vince let's get our boy Vince on the phone okay that's a good strong name. Vince. Vince. Let's give Vince a call.

Vince, what's up, dude? This is DJ. Vince, what's up, bro? It's Andy. What's up, Andy? How are you, dude? How are you guys? I'm good.

What you have? to today uh i was working on a fence and now i'm working on estimates all right so i assume that you own a construction or fencing company i do i'm a general contractor all right cool cool how long you been doing that uh four years by myself now oh that's awesome bro how old are you but he's down young 37 oh shit got a young voice he is young 37 still young bro that's true listen at 30 fucking 6 i was 350 pounds didn't know shit okay i got i mean i did do the same things as i was 19 i was doing okay but i think i evolved yeah some evolution there yeah for sure so what's up bro what can we help you with oh well i am currently booked into the next

year and I'm building 580 linear feet of fence by myself right now because I can't get people to show up and wake up to their long clocks or whatever excuse they're going to have. And I'm trying to find a way to incentivize and find some good employees. Well, did you have employees before? What's up? Have you had employees before? I've had a couple. Longest one lasted about three months.

Okay. And what happened in that situation? Explain to me your general experience with employees thus far. I've had a couple pretty decent ones that would show up and were pretty timely and pretty decent. But the last one, I asked him, he was having a bad day already with his wife and I knew that. but I asked him to, like, shovel three shovelfuls worth of dirt out of some holes, and he said he wasn't going to do it and squared up, and I told him he needed to go home. So he quit over that.

I wasn't trying to get him to quit or anything. I was just, if you're not going to listen to me and you're having troubles at home, you need to go take care of that. Yeah. The other guy just kind of ghosted me after a while. Where do you live? I live in Dewey, Arizona. Is that a rural place or what is I don't know where that is it's a little south of Prescott

Yeah, I still don't know where fuck that is it's a about an hour north of Phoenix God okay there you got that so somewhat rural-ish area area Yes, okay, yes. All right. Well, how are you paying those people were you paying them fair i try to start my guys at 20 an hour okay and and what do people get normally in that area for that kind of work other posts that i've seen from other contractors they're starting at about 18 to 20 okay and then okay lead guy were running about 30 okay and had a retired guy working for me I was paying him $25 an hour he was pretty good but he's having having some health issues so okay um how have you tried to recruit employees so far uh in all

honestly i haven't tried really hard too hard usually it's just like a facebook post of basically what we're doing jobs we do and the hourly start okay when you when you have employees are they expected to just show up, clock in, do the work, go home? Pretty much, yeah. And then sometimes I'll even, depending on where they live, I'll try to meet them to pick them up because some of my jobs are an hour away. So I try to pick them up to take them there. Okay.

All right. Here's the deal, bro. you're graduating from the callous hand worker to actually operating a small company, which will likely move into a bigger company. Is that your goal? Is your goal to expand the company or is your goal to kind of just you do the work and have three or four dudes to help you with it? That's kind of where I'm looking to.

be at. I do enjoy doing the work. I don't want to, I'm not looking to get huge. I really like one-on-one with my customers and being there to do the work. Okay. So I was thinking that maybe three guys and then ultimately doing some more general contracting subcontractor type work and maybe building some homes eventually. Okay. All right. Look, you any, all right. For you to get where you're trying to go from where you are, you are going to have to treat it as an aggressive building of a company. Okay. Here's what I mean by that.

Business is ultra competitive. It's the most competitive fucking thing in the world. It's more competitive than any sport than any game than anything. It's the most competitive thing. And when people say, in fit so i'm in a fitness industry as you know so people will say shit like this they'll say i want to start working out but i don't want to look like you know Arnold Schwarzenegger or something like that and it's like bro you could work out every motherfucking day all fucking day

for your entire life you could take every steroid you could take every supplement and you'll never fucking look like that okay and when business owners say hey i just kind of want to maintain where I'm at, that creates a very comfortable attitude amongst your company, which makes it very hard to build an effective team for what you're trying to get to. So what I'm saying here is that you have to go at this every single day as if you are trying to build the best construction company ever. and that's the effort that it's going to take for you to survive long term. That's reality.

So you have to flip your mindset from, I just want to do the work. You can do the work. You can have three guys. But the attitude of what you need to have cannot be, hey, I'm good where I'm at. And the reason is because you can't get anybody inspired to want to work for you with that attitude. For you to get where you're trying to go. where you're looking to have two or three guys, four guys, and then eventually maybe a dozen guys that want to build homes, all right?

You're going to have to frame it and build it as a real company. And you're going through a process that is very critical to your future in this business. Let me explain to you what that is. You can either say to yourself right now, well, I'm good where I'm at. I just need a helper, all right? and you'll continue to have this situation happen over and over again. Right. They're going to show up.

They're going to get pissed off one day because their wife yelled at them. And they're going to say, I'll kick your ass if you make me move the dirt. And you're going to have to deal with this shit over and over again. You don't want to deal with that shit. So you have to say to the guys, you have to say, when you look to hire someone, you've got to be able to say to them, look, this is what I'm doing. This is what I have. done. I've worked as a GC on my own for the last four years. My goal for this is to build a company that does this and this and this. We want to build homes. We're going to get there.

I'm booked out all the way till next year with these kind of jobs. But once we get through this, we're going to start moving towards that. And you have to get, it's funny because I just answered a question right before this. It's very much similar to what you're asking. The point here is, is that you have to inspire these people to work on the big vision that you are creating for the company, all right? What's going to be the differentiator between someone who shows up for 20 bucks an hour and then eventually tells you to eat shit because they're having a bad day? And the person who values their position in your company is going to be what's on the line

for them in the future, all right? So you are going to have to get really good. The first thing you're going to have to do is define what exactly do I want to do. And it can't be like this. You know, I think I'd like to have three dudes. And, you know, I'd like to still do that. That's not a certain vision. People won't believe in that.

Okay. You've got to give them certainty. I've been doing this four years. I love doing this. This is what I love about it. This is what I'm going to do. And I'm looking to build this. with people like you, but this is what's going to be expected.

And that allows you to instead to say to them, hey, man, I need you to show up and dig some fucking holes to say, hey, look, bro, if you don't dig those holes, we're never going to get where to fuck we want to go. You're never going to get to this place. Okay. So you are going through a transitionary period of leadership. You're leading yourself.

You're able to get up every day. You're able to do the work. You're able to build the fences and build the decks and do the repairs and do the additions, but I want to do this at a bigger scale. And so, you know, this is less about you attracting people and more about you getting them committed once they're there. I don't think it's going to be very hard to find people that want to be a part of a mission like this, especially with the emergence of AI and technology where like dude a lot of the jobs are just drying up so if you're able to say to a young man uh or a young woman hey you come here i'm going to teach you this i'm going to teach you that you're going to know how to do these things you're going to have job security we're going to build one of

the greatest home builders in arizona and you know that is something to believe in because remember bro there's a big difference between someone showing up for $20 an hour to dig holes and help you and someone who's showing up for $20 an hour to help you build the best company that's ever fucking existed. Okay? And you have to learn how to present that properly. So I need you to get clear on your vision, very clear,

no matter what it is. It doesn't have to be this huge vision either. It can be, hey, I want to be a small boutique, custom home builder that builds amazing shit. And here's the opportunity for you in that plan if you help me do this and you're you know and you lay out the expectations of what that is um go ahead that's what i was thinking the other day is i kind of haven't been i've just been looking out of my as employees instead of like the way i look at my customers and trying to help my customers

and build what they want and need and meet their or go above their expectations i want to do that now for my employees and their families and if I can do that for two or three of them and we can just crush it I'd be happy with that but yeah but you're saying no you're hit go for a hundred brother you're hitting on the fucking you're hitting the nail on the head there bro how how you care about your employees is how they will care about your customers okay if you care about them and their families And by the way, that's not letting them have seven days off because they stubbed their fucking toe. That's reminding them, hey, bro, we got this to do because we're building this. And that's what's going to help your fucking family.

And it's basically becoming a coach, bro, for a bunch of young people. And there's, I think that the fact that you thought of that on your own shows me that you're on the right track anyway. And let me tell you something else, dude. And this is just, this is. the truth from someone who's been doing something and become very financially successful personally i fucking love seeing my people grow develop earn more money succeed have families that is the coolest part of my entire existence there's no question and it's if i think it's the most rewarding part of entrepreneurship that kind of gets left in the fucking trash by

most leaders. And so you sound like you're a pretty good dude, bro. Like it sounds like you do care about people. And, uh, you know, not ever talking to you before. I don't want to act like I know you and shit. But like you, you sound like a good dude. And I, I think you sound like the kind of person that would get a lot of fulfillment and satisfaction, um, not just about, you know, what you.

built, but how you built it and who you built it with. And, um, and dude, like, that's just a framework shift from you saying, you know, uh, I need you show, like I said, I need to show up and move these boards to, I need to show up and move these boards so that we can build these, this amazing company. And, uh, there's a, there's a famous analogy. And I, I can't remember what book it was that I read, but I read it very early on. And I cannot remember the analogy, but exactly but basically the analogy was this there's a big difference uh in a stone mason who has to build and it's funny because you're building 5,000 feet of fence the analogy they use is there is a massive difference between a stone mason who is told that they have to build a five mile three

foot high wall and the stone mason who's told we're going to build the most beautiful cathedral that's ever existed in human history. The person who is inspired by the bigger vision is going to do better work, they're going to care more, they're going to be more invested, you're going to like being around them more, they're going to value their career more,

and they're probably not going to try to square up with you when you told them to do something real simple. You know what I'm saying? Because they value what we're building together. You know what I mean? So it's tough, bro. Leadership and where you're at in your business is the toughest part.

part of business when you're going from working and doing the work to work you know you're working in the business to then shifting to working on the business meaning handling leads handling your employees handling all the shit that goes with it you're marketing all of this shit that's that's a transition that that is difficult for people it was very difficult for me I've never met someone who was like oh yeah that was fucking so easy to do it's just you have have to do it if you're going to go from where you are. Otherwise, you're basically going to be doing what you do forever. So you have to look at it like this, dude. You know, lawyers go to law school, right? That doesn't mean they know how to operate a business. This is why so many lawyers

switch professions after they graduate law school because they don't know how to run the business. This is why so many doctors go broke trying to run businesses. They go out. They get their medical degree they make a little money they start opening these fucking restaurants or all this other shit they don't know about and they lose and the reality of what you've done here dude is you've went to school for construction you i don't know if you actually went to school for it but you did it in the real world you know what you're an expert all right and you have to understand that your expertise now has to be trained and shifted in a a different direction towards actually learning how to run a business. Running a business is its own

skill set aside from, you know, driving nails. You know what I'm saying? And if you look at it like that, you'll be much more successful. Like my skill set is great over here at doing the actual labor and I can build great staircases and I'm an artist with my fences. That doesn't mean shit when it comes to running a business. And so you have to start looking at that as a different skill set that you're a brand new rookie at because up until now you haven't really been running a company and now you have to so I would start consuming everything that you can about how to do this and learning everything that you can about how to structure it getting around other construction guys who are who have done these things you know maybe

talking to them getting some mentorship for some guys who are where you want to be in your specific industry these are all things that will help you a lot, brother. And, and, uh, and, and, and, and dude, you know, I have no doubts that you're going to be able to do everything that you want to do here. It's just a, it's just a little flip of, uh, perspective switch that you need to make on, on where your role is. Okay. Yeah. So like another kind of question I had is, um, I want to, after I started thinking about more towards than employees and obviously the construction world, we end up pretty crippled when we're older is implementing like

trying to pay or help pay for their supplements or like chiropractor adjustments once a month or massages like every quarter stuff to try to help with their health like even boot gift certificates how soon should I try to implement something like that should I do it right? Well, work into it.

It depends on what you can afford to do bro but here's what you can afford to do. do for free. And this is the most important thing that you can do. I would try to organize group activities that are difficult with you and the three or four other guys, like doing an outdoor workout or, you know, meeting up on a Saturday and trying to do a run, even if some of the dudes are fat, you know, like the mutual suffering creates teamwork bonds, all right?

And if you think of any great team that's ever existed, the reason that they're great is because they've all witnessed each other, work, sweat, bleed, and suffer and be bad at shit together. And that creates an unbreakable team bond. And it costs nothing. It's one workout a month, you know, where you go out and you're fucking, you get in the park or wherever it is that you guys do and you run sprints. And then, you know, you do some pushups and shit. And instead of just sitting on a tailgate drinking some beer. Yeah, that doesn't bond people the way that people think it does. That's a different kind of bond.

Like there is a bond to that. Yeah, it's beneficial. But a real fucking like, I'm going to pick this motherfucker up if he's on the ground, that comes from mutual suffering. And so I like all those ideas you have. I think that's great. I think that would help for sure. But I don't think that's going to replace.

I'm not saying anything. I know it won't replace the work that it's going to take to bond. people, which you can do for fucking free, bro. So I think those are good ideas, though, for sure. Okay. Appreciate it. Love it, yeah, brother. Well, Vince, appreciate you calling in, brother.

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate all your guys with insight. I've been listening to you guys for a couple of years now. So it's cool to actually talk to you guys. Thank you for everything you do. You're welcome, bro. Thank you for going out there and doing the best that you can do. All right.

All right. You guys have a good weekend. You too, man. You too, bro. you know i was thinking because i've heard you say this a few times too it's like you know people always come to one p and they're like man where'd you guys find all these good people yeah like we picked them off a fucking employee tree yeah right right you got to build them yeah it has to be some investment into that well and then once the culture starts to once like

it starts to materialize and gel the culture becomes the filter okay so like once then those good people do come yeah yeah good people it attracts good people but it also filters out the people that won't make it here. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So in the beginning, it's a little more difficult. And when it gets bigger, it becomes like an organism that is self-sustaining for the most part.

You still have to pour a lot of effort into it, but it's just a little bit different way. But where Vince is, you know, that's a difficult situation to any small business owner's career. You know, they're good at their skill set, but they don't. don't quite understand how to operate a team or the business. I give him a lot of fucking credit for, you know, the fact that he's like, well, I was thinking, you know, I need to look at him like this. That's exactly right. Exactly right. And, you know, my goal for a long time, I ran businesses like he's kind of running him now, where I just wanted you to show up, do your

shit, go the fuck home. And when I, when I started to understand, And here's what made me understand it. You are asking that person to trade a large amount of their life for something. It's got to be bigger than money. You see what I'm saying? And the great thing about this is that people love building big ass shit. the bigger the thing the harder the thing the more inspired people are to take it on and um the greatest part of my life a lot of people think like oh it's probably that he gets to drive

these cool cars and fly private planes and know all these fucking you know people and shit like yeah that's all cool the coolest fucking part of my life is being able to say that we built something that not only benefited our customers, but allowed our team members to have a great life. Fulfill their goals. Yeah. It's the fucking coolest thing ever, dude. And it's the thing I'm most proud of.

You know, it's not, it's not, it's, you know, all the other shit is cool. I'm not going to lie. Okay. Yeah, it's fucking cool. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool.

But what the coolest thing is, is that when you, when you see, the people who have traded their time for this big vision winning as well, that's, that's the shit, bro. Yeah, bro. New house, new car. Yes. It's fucking awesome, bro. Yeah.

It's the fucking best shit ever. Yeah. That's real, man. I love it, man. Guys, Andy, that was three. Well, they went a hell of a way to start on Monday. Yeah. All right.

Let's get out there. Let's make some shit happen. We'll see you guys tomorrow with a little cruise, the internet action. And don't be a hoe. Shut up. Went from sleeping on the floor. Now my jury box froze. Fuck a pole.

Fuck a stole. Counted millions in a cold. Bad bitch, booted swow. Got her on bank row. Can't fold. Just a no. Headshot case closed.