Lend Me Your Ears
In my 7 short years of being a business owner I have had a lot of success, but I also made a lot of mistakes and overcame a lot of hurdles to get to this point. I am still growing and learning every day and I would love to be able to use some of my experiences and ideas to help other new business owners as we navigate this minefield together.
Episodes
50 episodes
#50 - How to LIFT Your Employees and SAVE Your Customers - Part 2
In this follow up to last week I explain how to Lead, Inspire, Fuel, and Train your employees. You won't want to miss this one.
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1:00:31
#49 - How to LIFT Your Employees and SAVE Your Customers - Part 1
To have a truly great company you need two things: happy employees and happy customers. Lend me your ears as I explain how I strive for both.
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42:31
#48 - What Happened To Us?
I used to brag about how different this industry was from other trades. We used to help each other. Now it seems we would rather argue. Lend me your ears as I wonder about what happened to us.
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31:44
#47 - OSHA
I have already talked about the need for putting safety first in our industry. Lend me your ears as I explain what happens when you have a run-in with OSHA.
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41:29
#46 - Department of Labor
Two years ago my company was the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor. The case was finally finished in December. Lend me your ears as I explain how it all went down and how you can learn from it.
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55:13
#44 - Special Guest: Anthony Valerio
It was such an honor to sit down and chat with Anthony. Watching his company grow and thrive over the last few years has been a pleasure. His story and advice is something everyone in this business should hear.
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1:22:46
#43 - Who's The Boss?
To have a well-oiled machine of a company you need to build a team so strong that anyone who sees it won't be able to tell who the boss is.
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48:56
#42 - No One Wants to Work
This statement might be one of the most ignorant things I hear people say, and here is why I think that.
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58:42
#41 - Safety Needs To Be First!
I'm back and I'm coming out swinging! This industry is dangerous, and we need to start acting like it. The same week that pictures of dangerous activity are getting proudly shared one of our own fell off a roof and is in the hospital. Let's sma...
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50:45
#40 - Mini Business Owners
The key to taking your technicians to the next level is not just delegating tasks, but giving responsibility, too. In order to achieve greatness you have to remove their "employee mindset" and turn them into Mini Business Owners.
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48:36
#39 - Adventures in Advertising
This is my favorite topic and much needed. Lend me your ears as I explain my journey through advertising and what I have learned.
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1:13:34
#38 - Competition
I love competition. I think too many people are fearful of it when they shouldn't be. In my opinion, competition is not just good, but necessary.
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56:53
#37 - Quality Control
If you want to have a company of any size, you have to have quality control. More importantly, you need to learn how to control the quality of the work that gets done. I know they sound like they same thing, but they are not. Lend me your ears ...
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42:10
#36 - Burnout
Seems like a weird time to be burned out, but I am. Mostly of my own doing. But I figured this would be the perfect time to talk about it. Lend me your ears as I discuss why we get burned out.
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48:18
#35 - Stay In Your Lane
I think too many of us business owners try to do too much and end up frustrated with the process or the results. I learned early not to attempt things I wasn't good at, and that my is my advice this week to you: find your lane and stay in it.
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53:34
#34 - Don't Confuse Your Customers
When you talk to your customers, don't confuse them with code language or chimney jargon. Explain everything to them in words they will understand. A confused customer won't make any decisions. An educated customer will.
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54:03
#33 - Hire Slow and Fire Fast
I have a ton of stories about toxic employees, but they all share one common theme: they were only toxic because I hired them too fast and waited too long to fire them.
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52:43
#32 - Level Up
The secret to life and business can be found in video games. That's right. Lend me your ears as I explain how.
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49:42
#31 - We're Not In The Chimney Business w/ Tommy Nelms
This week I have a special guest - my friend, Tommy Nelms. The more I have gotten to know Tommy, I have realized we share a lot of similarities when it comes to running our businesses. Liners and bricks and caps are not the most important thing...
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1:28:37
#30 - Make It Work
Problem solving is a huge part of our job, but how good are we at actually solving problems? More importantly, how do we react when a problem arises? One of my favorite sayings is to just say "make it work - figure it out" but what does that me...
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50:48
#29 - How do you become a good Chimney Sweep?
So if certification doesn't make you an expert, what will? You may not like the answer, but it's the truth.
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49:32
#28 - Certifications
This topic is near and dear to my heart. I have put off recording it for a long time but I think this is the time for it. Please listen and take my words seriously. We can make this industry great again.
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43:43