Contractor Evolution – Details, episodes & analysis

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/EP206

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You may be thinking:

Is this an episode of Contractor Evolution…

…on a FRIDAY?

Yup.

After over 200 episodes, we thought it was time to introduce a new face—our co-founder and visionary Danny Kerr.

And what better way to do that than by bringing you some BONUS content you can enjoy alongside our regular releases?

Starting with a bit of a throwback.

Today, we’re re-releasing an episode we made back in 2021, hosted by Danny and his fellow co-founders Igor and James, covering all things strategic planning.

Oddly enough, it has become one of our most popular episodes.

If you’ve never given it a listen, now’s your chance.

Episode Highlights:

• In this BONUS episode, take it back to 2021 with us and delve in to strategic planning with Danny, Igor and James.
• Understand why you SHOULDN’T be planning in a boardroom with whiteboards and laptops - and where to go instead
• Learn the 3 things you should come away with once you’ve completed your Annual Strategic Plan

00:00-Intro

01:56-Why is Strategic Planning important?

15:02-What are you trying to achieve with your strategic planning?

17:27-What is the step-by-step process for annual strategic planning?

42:36-What do you do after you've got a strategic plan?

45:13-Sharing your plan with your team

53:56-Purpose of quarterly reviews

58:05-Wrap up

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/EP205

To learn more about Todd, check out https://toddherman.me/

Whether we realize it or not, we all play characters in our lives. The idea that we should unashamedly show up as the “best” version of ourselves in all settings sounds good, but in reality, it is a gross oversimplification of the truth.

Think about it….

There’s:

• You the CEO
• You the friend
• You the salesperson
• You the mum or you the dad
• There’s you the amateur train collector or video game enthusiast

We have different versions of ourselves. Does that make you disingenuous or inauthentic? Not at all. We’re all multifaceted beings, and if you can’t see that, you’re not paying attention.

Our guest today is Todd Herman. His book The Alter Ego Effect explains WHY understanding and investing in these different archetypes of the self is one of the most powerful performance cheat codes available to us. Today’s conversation is about how to harness it.

Episode Highlights:

• Understand the Alter Ego Effect and how it can be used to exponentially improve your performance in every aspect of your life.
• Learn how to identify the different versions of you, their strengths, and how to harness them at the right time to achieve the right results.
• Get tips from Todd Herman, performance coach to billionaires and elite athletes, on creating your own alter ego, designed to help you succeed in whichever area of your life is lacking.

00:00-Intro

01:48-Clark Kent vs. Superman: Understanding the Alter Ego

05:14-Where does the term "Alter Ego" come from?

07:40-Using the Alter Ego to improve performance

10:19-Why everything is a performance

19:42-How to create an Alter Ego

30:36-Alter Ego examples

34:15-How to get started on your Alter Ego(s)

41:17-Activating your Alter Ego

47:18-What business people can learn from athletes

51:42-Connect with Todd

Grab your free "goodie bag" of financial management templates here: https://trybta.com/DL196 

To learn more about Breakthrough Academy, click here: https://trybta.com/EP196 

If you’ve made it this far in business, I probably don’t need to tell you that need to budget, track your overhead, and do job costing.

The problem is: nobody ever shows you HOW.

A few weeks back, we co-hosted a webinar with our friend Bob Gauvreau from Gauvreau Accounting Tax Law Advisory to teach 7-figure contractors everything they need to know about managing their finances. We talked about budgeting, job costing, avoiding cash crunches and more.

And today, we’re replaying it here on the podcast so more contractors can benefit from the insights.

This is a must-listen for anyone whose New Year’s Resolution is to get better at financial management.

Episode Highlights:

00:00-Intro02:34-About the session03:47-About our free templates (link in description)05:24-Why talk cash flow and budgeting?06:50-About Benji & Bob08:05-Purpose, Outcomes & Agenda10:59-Why is staying on top of your numbers so hard?13:41-Common challenges with financial management21:41-3 Core Systems of Financial Management36:23-Industry Benchmarks - Profit Margins41:20-Margins as you evolve46:21-Signs you should be worried about your cash flow51:04-Five Cash Flow Destroyers59:33-How to implement change01:07:18-Q&A

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Use The Scrollers To See Dan’s Brand Transformations (srsly cool): https://www.kickcharge.com/portfolio/small-business-rebranding-before-after/

Dan’s Book “Branded, Not Blanded:” https://www.amazon.com/Branded-Not-Blanded-KickChargeTM-Service-ebook/dp/B0BBL1CCJ9

If you’ve ever wondered whether wrapping your fleet of vehicles is worth the cost, this episode is a must-listen.  We’re suuuper lucky to have the “G.O.A.T.” of vehicle wraps, Dan Antonelli, on the show today.  

His agency KickCharge Creative has built brands for some of the biggest home service companies in North America: A1 Garage, Goettl Air Conditioning, and Absolute Airflow, just to name a few.  

Today’s conversation is about outdoor advertising in general but, more specifically, the 5 rules that all contractors and home service business owners need to follow when designing a vehicle wrap that pops and drives results.  We also talk about his new book Branded, Not Blanded. It’s the best book I’ve ever read on branding for our niche.  We’ll link it in the description.

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Matt’s Build Show Network: https://buildshownetwork.com/

Risinger Build: https://risingerbuild.com/

The Build Show Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-build-show-podcast/id1560010348

My guest on the show today is Matt Risinger.  

Matt is one of the most recognizable thought leaders in the construction space. His Youtube channel, which has over a million subscribers, is dedicated to all things building science, and he’s parlayed that into the creation of an entirely new platform called Build Show Network - Picture Netflix, but all the content is for construction nerds. Pretty awesome! His actual construction company, Risinger Build, is one of the most sought-after in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his family.  

Today’s conversation is about his entrepreneurial journey… Why he chose this industry, how he built his construction empire, and became the household name he is today. He shares some of the life-altering mistakes he made along the way, plus I get his take on the future of residential construction in North America.

I really look up to Matt and deeply admire everything he’s built but, more importantly, the values he embodies. For all his success, he’s one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met. We need guys like Matt, and I consider myself blessed to have gotten to know him a bit over the last year.

Listen to this episode to hear the full Matt Risinger story.

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Learn More About Jeff’s Work And His Book Here: https://www.jeffskipperconsulting.com/

Ideas are the easy part.  

The truth is getting implementation projects across the finish line is ALWAYS harder in reality than it is in your mind's eye.    

You’ve, no doubt, fantasized about the business efficiencies made available by new technology, the rollout of SOPs, a new sales methodology, whatever… and then been met with blank stares from your team when you excitedly announce these grand visions:

• “Why do we need to do this?”
• “This seems complicated!”
• “What's wrong with what we're doing right now?”

As today’s guest, Jeff Skipper, says: the easiest thing for an employee to do when confronted with change is NOTHING.  Jeff is a Change Management consultant and just authored a new book called Dancing With Disruption (definitely check it out).  

If you need to get your people doing things a new way, adopting a new system, or dropping an old one, the fundamentals of Change Management can help.  At its core Change Management is about guiding organizational changes all the way from conception through to implementation.  

Jeff gets hired by companies like IBM, Suncor, Cenovus, Bayer, Molson, and Sport Chek to help them make monumental internal changes, and he’s here today to help us do the same.

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If you’ve ever wondered: 

• How do I set up performance based pay for my Production Managers?
• Is it possible to effectively interview for “coachability”?  (cuz saying “I’m great with feedback” and actually taking it are two different things)
• Or, how do I make my field staff accountable for quality without my direct supervision?

In Today’s episode of Contractor Evolution Igor and I tackle five tricky listener questions head on.  

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To register for BTA's Staff Accountability Secrets Masterclass, CLICK HERE

The late and great Arnold Palmer asserted that golf was a game “predominantly played in the 6 inches between the ears.”

Business and life are no different.  

Your mental game - what happens inside that head of yours - influences reality to such a profound degree it's difficult to measure.  Where you set your sights, how you feel about yourself and your work, what you think is possible for you and your team, and how you handle massive setbacks; all of this and more are 100% dictated by the thoughts you allow (or do not allow) through your mind.  

The contractor’s formula for a high-performance mindset exists, and Shawn Feurer (Shawn Feurer Consulting) is here to break it down for us.  Shawn has built a mindset framework specifically for contractors and actively coaches about 60 individuals through it. 

On today’s episode, you can expect to learn:

• The most common self-limiting beliefs contractors struggle with and where they come from
• How to distinguish “what you truly want” from “what you think you can have”
• A 3-step daily mindset routine that magnetizes your brain for prosperity (I’ve already started it and am loving it)

So if you’ve been looking for the fluff-free, non “woo-woo” approach to disrupting your thoughts and reprogramming your mind for success and abundance, watch this episode. 

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To Download Contractor Dynamics Testimonial Guidelines, click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP101

If you, like me, are always looking for inexpensive but effective brand upgrades, look no further than client testimonials.  Simple videos of your happy clients talking about how pleased they were with the experience they had with your company are one of the best assets to start collecting, and here’s why.

The modern homeowner doesn’t put much weight on what you have to say about your own business or service.  And why should they?  You’re biased.  It’s your business, after all!  Of course, you’re gonna say how amazing it is.  Fifty years of constant bombardment from advertisers and brands have made today’s consumers a bit more scrupulous and a bit less gullible.  

This is why getting clients to sing your praises is orders of magnitude more effective than singing your own.  It’s just that simple.

Here’s what I love about client testimonials:

• They’re cheap
• They’re versatile as hell (you can put them on your website, social media, in your sales process, and about eight other places too)
• People watch video content more than they read
• Social Proof from actual customers is way more persuasive

Today on the show Joseph Hughes, founder of Contractor Dynamics, is here to unpack why they work, how to capture them, and where to put them.  

Listen to this episode to get these low-cost, high-conversion videos working for you!

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To download Benji & Igor's 10 Commandments of Contractor Success, click here: https://trybta.com/PCDLEP100

We want to hear your feedback after 100 episodes, click this link to complete the survey (3 min): https://trybta.com/100

Yeehaw! That’s 100 episodes down (and goodness knows how many more to go!)

We’re blessed and humbled to have spoken to some incredibly smart people over the past two years and have noticed some fundamental commonalities among them. Belief systems, habits, and tactics the best of the best all seem to share.  

Today’s episode is an amalgamation of the 10 things we’ve observed about success in the contracting and home service space after 100 episodes of Contractor Evolution. Huge thanks to both our guests and you listeners. We couldn’t do it without you!

Tune in to find out why:

1. No one at the top of their game is a ___________.
2. The labor market is a challenge, but___________.
3. ___________ matters more than working hard.

Listen to this episode to fill in the blanks on these three and the remaining seven!

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