1- The 360-Degree Sales Professional, with Matt Esler of Renewal by Andersen and Esler Companies

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Hello, hello, and welcome to the initial, the inaugural, the first, the maiden voyage of the selling in the dwelling podcast. I am your host, Alan Langer, and I can't tell you how excited I am to kick this off because I have been thinking about doing this podcast for years now and finally got my crap together. I got a production company, I got some sponsors, and most importantly, I got some terrific guests lined up. And I am so excited to get started with Selling in the Dwelling. Thanks for joining me today. And before we get going, and I introduce to you my amazing first guest, I did mention we do have sponsors, and there is a title sponsor for Selling in the Dwelling, and that company is called Paradigm Vendo. They are a digital resource for the in-home selling world from first appointment to final contract. Check out Paradigm Vendo and more on that later. So as I was planning this podcast, as I was putting it together, the one thought that I had was I gotta have good guests. I have to have some good guests because you can't just have filler guests, and I want to really blow some people away. And I think I did that. I think I nailed a whale on the first one, if they as they say. I want to introduce to you folks who you've probably already heard of, but Matt Esler from Esler Co. and Renewal by Anderson. Matthew, thank you for joining me on the first edition of Sailing in the Dwelling. How are you? I'm doing all right, Al.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

I'm honored. I had no idea I was the first.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Uh you are the very first one, and and I had my eye on you because obviously you know you and I go back, God, it's probably 20 years now, or pretty close to it. Uh so we're good friends. Is it safe to say that I was first or first or second sales rep you ever hired?

SPEAKER_03 2:09

Yeah, very, very safe. Uh, we brought Southern New England. Uh, and I don't know if you remember, but on the very first day that we met, when I was in front of our eight-person sales force, maybe seven and a half. I think we're able to sell service appointments and running leads on weekends. Uh, and I had to introduce myself as your new owner. You had only found out 24 hours before about the sale, and uh let you all know about our 20% price increase you'd be getting that day. And explaining why that wasn't going to matter. You and I, I picked you because you were the top sales rep in the room, and you and I roleplayed. I don't know if you remember that, but uh I rolled out, we had a new pricing calculator.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh, I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Yeah, and you and I roleplayed. So not only were you my first uh project consultant, but uh you were top dog then. And and I I said, Well, I gotta show the room uh how this can work with the top guy. So so yeah, we got a little bit of history.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

We got a little bit of history. So to to expand on that history for folks that don't know, I guess it was what was the year, Matt? 2000 and what when you purchased the 2012. 2012, Matt purchased Renewal by Anderson of Southern New England. It was his first dealership for RBA. And I don't know if you know, Matt, but I was actually ready to leave that job. I I had two interviews lined up that afternoon. I may have told you that. Yeah. Uh because there were not enough leads at that company that I was that that had the Renewal by Anderson dealership prior to you. So anyway, Matt bought that dealership. We went from seven and a half sales reps to when I left, I think there were over 80 in the room. And you now currently have nine. Is it nine dealerships or ten?

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Uh nine operating territories in 18 states, uh, 3,000 teammates across those 18 states. And uh probably I think we're just north of 500 project consultants.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

500 project consultants in 18 states. It's just it's just amazing from that first day when we met and to see where you have come now. I'm I'm just, you know, I'm honored to be your friend. I'm proud of you. I think it's been an amazing journey in watching that, being part of it for so many years, and then moving on to do my own thing, but still keeping in touch. So I just want to formally say congratulations. It's been it's been pretty awesome watching that whole that whole uh success that you've had.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Thanks, Al. I appreciate that. Uh and obviously you were a big part of it, and thousands of amazing people like yourself are the biggest part of it. It's been the my life's work, the most rewarding thing I've done. Yes, that includes having kids and all that. Anybody can have kids. Like this is this is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

And grandkids now too, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Yeah, I just had my seventh. So seven.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Oh my god, I thought I I I thought it was four, so I lost a few along the way. They're an industrious little lot. So yeah, seven.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Um I think we might get two more. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Amazing, amazing. Yeah. So Matt went on to, you know, the success in purchasing one dealership after another. And now, for the folks that don't know the Renewal by Anderson Network, it's obviously owned by Anderson Corporation. It's the replacement division of Anderson, and there's dealerships all over the country, but Matt owns it's called Esler Co. And Estler Co. has the all of the dealerships. And I believe you were the number one company under the RBA network last year as far as volume, correct?

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Correct. As far as affiliates go, there are now there's 97 uh territories, I believe, I think maybe 50-ish ownership groups.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

And we're we are the largest affiliate of uh renewable by Anderson. And I'm gonna say this, I know you're you're a little shy and you know you want to stay under the radar, but you did a billion in revenue last year, right? With a B, not an M. You did a billion, am I correct? And that's the first time that's ever happened.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Yes, and you weren't supposed to out me like that, but yeah, yeah. Uh so yeah, we we did. Uh we installed a billion, so we actually had a billion in revenue two years ago, but uh in one of those wonky home improvement things, we had sold just under a billion. Oh, okay, interesting. Although it's never bad to install more than you sell. That's when the that's when the PL gets really good. But uh but yes, last year we sold uh we were just over 1.1 uh billion, and yeah, I won't kid you, that was an exciting moment, but to be sure, and as as you remember, the message has always been and remains uh better, not bigger. And that has been so we spend a very small amount of time talking about the the number, and uh as I said in my state of state video this year, be the B word's fun to say, but that's that's not what we're here for. And and it it's pretty important to me that the focus always remains on the work ahead of us and the ultimate goal, which is to be the best customer experience company in the home improvement space, not the biggest.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

And you know, that takes me to what I remember vividly. So let let's let's uh bring in your brother John for a second, because John owned the uh the Boston dealership, and that's kind of how you got involved with our Boston N-Philly, yeah. Boston N Philly, right. And then uh Boston, I guess he sent back to corporate, or that that had to go back to corporate, and then he eventually retired. But I remember when you guys were partners, he came up with the slogan a billion with love. And that was when we did 200 million, maybe. I mean that year or something like that. Maybe maybe 300, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah, I'll back it up further than that. John is the uh the the sinequa non, you would say, the that without which doesn't happen. You know, John, you I was I was not in the home improvement space, and when John so graciously opened his door and said, sure, if you want to learn the business, there might be an opportunity here for you. And we merged our businesses in 2016, uh, maybe 17 was when Esler Companies was actually born. But yeah, about a year or two later, John did coin that phrase. He relatively quickly exited the business after that and said, Here, bro, it's up to you now to deliver. It's up to you to get to the B. Yeah, no, good luck with that. Uh, we we were doing maybe 300 million, I think, at the time. But uh, but yes, it's been fun. And I I will tell you that the billion was the part that we very quickly dropped. And most folks, they weren't aware of that. You gotta remember that was now, well, that was eight years ago, nine years ago when that was coined. And from those days, there's maybe 10-15% of our population around that even met my brother ever. So I I very quickly shied away from the billion part. And to me, that was something that I uh I it was hard for me. I just want us to focus on the with love part. And to me, that that was very that was who we were, and that coincided with with better, with uh if you remember our old mantra of everybody's gotta win, you know, that that was really what I wanted to make sure we were anchored to. So we kind of dropped the billion pretty quickly, but yeah, here we are years later we got there.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

And I I remember I'll tell you a quick story, you know, when that phrase was first came out and introduced to the sales team, you know, you know how sales guys chat be, you know, behind the scenes. We were like, what the freak? What are they nuts? Like a billionaire? They're out of their freaking minds. Are they crazy? And and here you are, whatever it was, how many years later you hit it. So uh it was pretty cool to have that memory. And and but I remember the billion with love, and then I also remember everybody wins very vividly, because that was something that you like, you're right. You did focus on that. Like this was a it was the the first, you know, I've been in home improvement for a while, and you were really the for me, the pioneer of it's the customer experience. It it's it's how we're delivering the experience, not just, you know, let's sell as many damn jobs as we can. You know, obviously you want to sell as many jobs as you can, but you s you had that focus as the owner, which I appreciate as the sales rep because that's how I operated. I didn't I was not, as you know, I wasn't the sales rep that wanted to rake people over the coals either.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

So yeah, I think I had the benefit of uh, you know, I got into this business a little later on in life. So you know, I was 45 when we when we started. So I had had enough life experience and was secure enough in what I was really interested in doing with this next chapter that you know, you know, us our boys were men of immense vision. So it's not like we weren't always thinking I was I always had a dis a point in the in the dissenter that was, you know, we were gonna do big things, but I also knew that if it wasn't something I was proud of, it wasn't something that you know I was comfortable putting my head on the pillow every night with, then it wasn't worth doing for me. So how we treat the the customer experience, which which for me and for us are companies starts with how we treat our internal. We have two customers. We have our teammates, customer number one, and we're hoping as as well as we treat them, they will turn around and do the same to our paying customers. So, yeah, a slavish, maniacal dedication and commitment to the customer experience is is absolutely the foundation that's a company's been built on.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

Did you uh as you were building the company, did you run into because the home improvement world has been and still is to to to a large degree, you know, uh an industry that's not focused on that. So when you were hiring people, did you run into people like that didn't have that mindset, you know, like customer focus? Was that a struggle for you? Did you run into quite a few that you had to turn away, even though they had, you know, maybe they were good salespeople or whatever, but they didn't have that mindset?

SPEAKER_03 12:15

Oh, a hundred percent. I mean, this industry, uh, just in the 15 years, 14 years I've been involved, the overall mentality I'm very happy, very proud and happy of the industry and how it has progressed down. When we first got involved, it was it was uh gritty is generous. It was not it was not uh above board. It wasn't what I was I wanted to be a part of. There were business practices, there were how we were selling in the home. We knew that there were things happening in the house that that we weren't uh necessarily proud of. And it took a while uh for us to really be committed to to changing that and just to changing different things along the way. It was not something I remember in the very beginning being, geez, is this would I be proud to refer one of my sales reps, now project consultants, to one of my friends, thinking about what that experience was like in the home. And we were still aways from the consultative sale, from the okay, how can we help a homeowner solve a problem? How can we help them with the project as opposed to how can we get them to sign on the line that is dotted? I again couldn't be proud of where we are today. You know, we're part of uh of a trade group or two, and a few years back I was like, okay, we gotta get our exposure a little outside of our network, uh the renewable by industry network. And then SR companies now with its wingspan, one of the pitfalls is it can be a network unto itself, so we can kind of we can spend too much time looking at ourselves as we benchmark against ourselves. You have nine different offices, right? All disparate geographies, and and so you know, we push ourselves to get outside and be in some trade groups, and I I still attend conferences. When I hear some of the practices that are still in place out there, I I cringe. I'm it's amazing. I I'm like, wait, that's illegal. Like, yeah, like you can't do that. What do you mean you're selling on par? What do you can't do that? So yeah. If you rip the customer off, you make more commission. Is that it was just I couldn't even believe it when I heard that that was a thing all those years ago, and all those years ago, yeah, and that there are still places out there that are encouraging that kind of listen again, less and less super proud of of our space and and think we've we are continue to move in the right direction. It's definitely the history of our space is there's some stuff not to be proud of there.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Absolutely. The one of the things I remember vividly as a sales rep and working for you is how you eventually changed how you looked at sales reps. Because I remember when I was there, and you first of all, I will say this publicly, you're definitely one of the most generous guys I've ever met. You know, what you do with your teams and with the people that work for you, and then you know, the trips that you have for your sales teams. But I was just so I thought it was so cool when you started these trips, you still invited people from the office and and people that helped, you know, you just didn't have just the sales guys go. But it used to be based on all these trips, and many are still are, or just based on volume. How much you sell, you're the top guy. And that was the way it was for a few years. And then you finally started to change that. You started to add, you know, how many referrals we got, how many self-generated appointments. And then the medalli scores got involved. And you're like, how are you treating the customer? And now the top guy wasn't necessarily number one anymore because you had that metric. And I absolutely loved it because, as you know, I was that sales rep who tried to do all of those things as opposed to just selling as much as I possibly could. So kudos to that. But that was like, do you remember that shift or maybe that conversation? Say, how are we going to change how we yeah, 100%?

SPEAKER_03 16:05

And I also want to back up and answer because I didn't answer your previous question. You said was it a challenge to find people that fit uh the culture? Yeah. A challenge? No, but did you have to be intentional about it? Yes. And as you were talking, I was trying to remember, I can't remember the gentleman's name, but it was early days when when you you know, when you only have a sales force of 13, 14 uh project consultants, and a couple of them are the heavy hitters, you can feel like you're beholden to production and to to performance. And I remember having a he had just started with us, but he was knocking it out of the park. And I'm sure you remember we had at the time our CRM that uh had uh once you resulted a job, then a measure tech would go out, and there were issues in how the job was sold that would be resolved through a process called the measure summary process. And this would be how the I still have PTSD from the measure summaries, by the way. The measure tech would put in his notes, customer thought this, contract says this, and you know how folks get with the keyboard in their hand as opposed to when they're facing each other. And so that that measure summary was that was the first page that opened on my CRM every day. And I would monitor how we were doing, but through part of the reason was through that, I got to see how a project consultant resulted a job. I got to see how the install manager, or rather, at the time, MeasureTech looked at it, and how they communicated with each other. And there was this project consultant who he had sold back then, I think he had sold 150,000 in a month, which was big deal. Big time back then. Big deal back then. Now we have guys selling five, six hundred in a month. But 150 in a month, and his responses in the measure summary process were just rude. And I had him in my office before one of the sales meetings and talking about that. I said, I don't this is not how we talk to people here. Like this, that's not the way. Have you ever seen me put anything like that in a brain? Have you ever heard me speak to anybody like that? I said, that's just not behavior we'll have. And he couldn't get his head around, and he left that office not a part of our team that that day. And oh wow, okay. Yeah, and and that was so early days. I saw how valuable that was. It wasn't why I did it, by the way. I did it because I'm like, well, I can't have you. If that's the way you you think you're entitled to act, uh simply because you're uh performing well as a project consultant, then it's probably not gonna be a good long-term fit. But I also noticed the ancillary benefits of the the attention that got in the sales room that went, oh, so so it you mean I I have to be in this now to tie back into what you were just talking about. Well, it took me a while to put a a phrase to it, and but what you're hinting at is a 360-degree professional. What we're interested in is not just a project consultant that can go out and put up big numbers, we're interested in a project consultant that treat their customers and their homes and their time with respect, and net promoter score is how we measure that. So, you know, every sales appointment, whether that you are a buyer or not, gets surveyed. And how did that sales appointment go? When I got involved, uh I did a ride-along uh in Philadelphia 2012, and it was rough at the end there, and the sales app out at the car as we were debriefing. I said, So is that how you like that's a normal end view if they don't buy? And he said, No, if you weren't here, it would have been worse. He goes, 'Cause because back then they weren't worried about online reviews, they weren't worried about they're like, you know what, we'll never see this homeowner again, and uh I can be as as rude as I wish. We are looking for project consultants that understand that their first job is to be helpful to a homeowner, to represent the the company properly, as you were talking about, nurture their own business, repeat business, referral business, uh revenue per appointment. Volume is now is not even, I don't even think it's the most heavily weighted of the five uh qualifications that we look at. When we guess a company sends out every uh month it's the a top 100 list, and you know, that's a stack rank balanced uh by all these metrics. But volume is is not even the most heavily weighted uh of all those. We're looking for true professionals that are again are gonna represent uh our beliefs and and we think the best interests of the homeowner. And if you're just interested in being what we call a lead baby sitting around with your hand out saying, What do you have for me? Then you know, we're probably not the right place for you.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

You know, when I do my training and I say the sentence, you know, I talk about the customer experience, and I said, You have to leave the customer with a great experience. And then I say whether they buy or not. And when I say that, oh some of the old-time owners are or the the the thought processes that are from the 90s, they're like, What do you mean? You know, if they buy, what what why? But now you you you hit the nail on the head. It's it's all about you can get online and get killed if they don't buy and you leave them in a in a in a bad situation. So, but you were thinking about that so many years ago. So I consider it.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Let's say they didn't even get online. If you're interested in being in this business for the long haul, and if you're just interested in in again, being able to look yourself in the mirror, everybody you you have to treat everybody the same. Or you're hoping that we don't call them the not buyer, we call them a not yet buyer. We're hoping that down the road that they will buy from us. So you know we we understand not everybody can make a decision on the first night. So wouldn't you wouldn't you want to leave that good so that maybe down the road they might when the they feel uh more of a need or whether they have a neighbor or a friend. I I just can't get my head around how it's in anybody's best interest to leave a bad taste in a in a not yet buyer's mouth when you're done after they gave you more an hour or two of their time in their in their home.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

In their home right in their home hey dwellers let's take a quick break and tell you about Paradigm Vendo the title sponsor for selling in the dwelling and I got to tell you this is some of the best software I've ever seen in the in-home selling industry. It's a one-stop shop for everything you need to do in the house from initial appointment right to final contract from presentation to pricing to financing this platform does it all. So if you want to have your sales rep sell better and not be jumping back and forth from platform to platform in the house you got to visit paradigmvendo.com forward slash dwelling get a free demo check it out you will not be sorry it's some of the best software I've seen in the industry so let let's back up a second Matt because I I want I want to talk about you have a fascinating background even prior to renewal you talked about many times when we were working together about how you started a t-shirt business in Saratoga during the during the racing days right in the summers and that was when you realized that the entrepreneur world was for you can you expand on that a little bit yeah for sure yeah again my brother and I started and and again similar to Esiko's he exited after a couple years and I and I quadrupled it but uh but I I always give him props for for getting the things started and yeah so that was for sure in our formative years so I'm gonna let everybody know how old I am now it was early 80s.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

I we grew up in I grew up in upstate New York Albany New York and 25 miles north of that is the Saratoga uh racetrack that's thoroughbred racing similar same horses that run in the Kentucky Derby run there it's uh a gorgeous town think of it as Newport with only horses instead of sailboats and yeah those of you out west or wherever else these are you know towns that were built by Vanderbilts and Whitneys and the Victorian boulevards and it's a beautiful place. So the track was only open one month during the summer back then it was just August. I have lots of our friends that would go out to Cape Cod or Mark the Vineyard to work for the summer and we would stay up at the track and we would rent a house and employ our friends and we say a t-shirt sand so you gotta, you know, there's maybe 20, 30,000 people going in the track each day and we're catching them on their way in and on their way out. And it's not just uh one T-shirt this was a line of teachers we would have four or five designs we would have embroidered goods we would have hats we would have kids shirts sweatshirts you it was a full line for sure many of the lessons that I learned there on how to treat people on pricing on what moves product what doesn't on treating employees or teammates as we now call them and properly motivating them all that came a lot of that came from those early days that's how I paid for college is how I bought my first house I was went to state school in upstate New York when I had friends who were on loans and eating government cheese and I was rolling into school with 30 grand of 50s and hundreds of my t-shirt money. It was a ton of fun but it was absolutely once you get a taste of that you see the world differently. And you were a hockey coach too right you which you've mentioned to me that also helped with you said when we were chatting or one of the things we've we sent back and forth about many of your leadership skills you still employ today came from your hockey coaching day when you were younger right yeah no question I have three children three adult children my youngest my son was uh hockey player we played hockey my brothers and I growing up Albany you better play hockey right what's that growing up in Albany you better play hockey well yeah I mean listen again engineer dad we were lucky he put a rink in our backyard rigged up lights and the rule was you could be out there to as long as you were in the backyard on the rink you could stay out there all night if you wanted there was never that's awesome it was never hey you have to come in and go to bed so it was you can't get much better than that but as my son uh got involved in hockey and as I got tapped on the shoulder to coach and you know the the lunacy of of uh kids sports these days and uh it was kind of getting there then we we played very high level uh you know triple a travel hockey but anyhow I I learned uh number one you know how much something about parenting too how much kids can absorb and by extension how much anybody can absorb if you're willing to challenge them and part of the managing to the top and not to the bottom which is tricky when you're coaching you also learn you know my son uh I was blessed may he maybe not so much to uh you know pure coach's kid I could have my foot all the way up his ass and he was like yes coach let's go he was hard working could take it you look at another kid sideways and you're gonna have a meeting you're gonna have a meeting with his mother at the uh so learning how how do I build a team how do I bring disparate personalities together around a common goal I learned a ton from that community on how do you put together a game plan that's not altogether different than how are you going to put together a business plan. What's your what are your approach to strategy but always how are we motivating people how are we elevating people I I I always say I think some of my finest work was done on the on the bench uh before I got before I got into this seat.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

It's it's amazing you know I'm not putting myself anywhere near your experience but I coach my daughter's softball rec team it's a it's a softball rec team I mean you know it's it's about as low pressure as you can but it's it's amazing the mark you can make as a coach on young people but also I believe you mark you can make as a mentor as adults you know when especially when you're younger in life like the things the decisions you make you have to realize make that imprint on that person and they never forget they you know you you I'm sure your kids have said I remember when you did this dad and you have no idea you did it but you're like wow that that really made an impression so it's a definite correlation from you know sports and business I don't think there are a few more powerful the impact a good coach can have the the damage a bad coach can have and you know time back into you know what are you interested in a the kind of person you want to work with the kind of teammate I'm looking for at SOCO.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

And again let that get it twisted I was not a high level coach we were right it was coaching very competitive youth hockey but right right uh but by the way from the we I would have a conversation with parents again this was 15 20 years ago they were spending 20 grand a year on their kids hockey and they all had visions of where little Johnny and and Julie were going and and I say Julie intentionally because two of uh the players we had at the younger uh uh ages were were both girls who both went on and I would tell all the parents you do know that Courtney and Jordan are the ones that are going to get the scholarships not your kids right and sure enough it was both of them one full one full riot at BU and one full riot at Wisconsin but anyhow we would have a meeting with the team parents where I would tell them at the beginning of the season listen uh yep tryouts are you know are an intense period for these teams and you know if you're here because you think I'm getting your kid to the NHL I'm not your guy and if you're you're here because you think I'm getting your kid division one I'm not your guy but one of my favorite nights of the week is still Sunday nights when I lace them up with with my friends and we skate. And my hope is that when the kids are my age they still want to play this game. So if that's not going to work for you, then we might not be that this might not be the right place for you. And I was so proud of how you know I had teams as I was then running the league and I had a team a few years ahead of my son's age that they went through three coaches in a season. I had to ban the parents from the hockey rank at one point. So you give you can drop your kids off but you can't enter the ring to call their so what does it all have to do with anything here it's setting the tone for culture for what what is allowable and what isn't if you if you get that right at the beginning I think you set yourself up for a whole bunch I think a lot of other things become easier because everybody understands what the what we're all about what we're built on. Everything else follows that um if you if you don't start with that then I I think you're always pushing that stone uphill and uh you're just putting out fires.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Well and you know I can safely say since I've known you for a while that you started well at the beginning. You did the right thing at the beginning you started that culture and and and now look where you are and what you've built. So really great stuff. And it's amazing we've already gone through I think almost 40 minutes. So um really yeah so we're gonna start wrapping up but one of the segments in this podcast that I'm really excited about is called the ask Alan segment. And uh once we get going people are going to send in questions to ask my guest. Since it's the first podcast I will come up with the first question in the ask Alan segment and I'm gonna ask you Matt the question and then we'll start we'll start wrapping it up. So that so the question is a simple one someone as successful as you let's say you spoke to a 25 year old entrepreneur who wants to start his or her own business. If there's one piece of advice and I know this is a tough question but if there's one piece of advice what would you say to them if if I could narrow it down to one thing?

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Oh that one piece is but the tricky one but listen what do I tell young people all the time that sit I'll get uh really bright young people and by the way just a word about folks who oh you know this next generation they don't want to work they don't want to baloney like you there are amazing young people out there they are amazingly smart I love working with them but you get one sitting at your desk and hey how do I get where you were there's no skipping any steps. You have to you have to embrace the grind you have to understand that where you are today is essential to where you're going where you want to get even if it doesn't look like they are uh there's a direct you know linear correlation between them and I often tell folks whatever you're doing right now you have to just absolutely dominate that thing be the absolute best at that thing. Even if you're sure this thing is not what I'm going to be doing down the road but you will be amazed at how each of those little pit stops experiences along the way come back to you. You'll be amazed at the good things that will come your way when you just put your head down and do really good work people find you they tap you on the shoulder you won't have to raise your hand quite so often going hey I I want to do this just go earn it and you'll there's lots of folks take notice if you're willing to outwork and and that would be the other thing. Yeah I said embrace the grind yeah I had a friend when I you know as you know did some a fair amount of real estate development over the years and an early partner who was a$600 million dollar year contractor at the time but he started as a Mason and we were building a hotel together and he had said listen it's it's no it's not brain surgery he goes you just you lay one more course of brick than the guy next to you and then a month or two later you're finished with that job a lot sooner than that you apply that to life just do a couple more do a little more and you will end up at a at a different place.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

It's like it's like the the story of the two lumberjacks the young lumberjack and the old lumberjack and they have a contest and who can cut down the amount of trees in a certain amount of time and they go to different parts of the forest but they could hear each other so the young lumberjack is chopping and chopping and chopping and he would hear the older one stop and take breaks and he's thinking I got this I got this this whole time I'm you know I'm I'm gonna kick this guy's butt. And then they get done and then the the contest coordinator counts all the trees and the old guy beat him by like 20 trees and he's like how's that possible you kept taking breaks because I wasn't taking my breaks I was sharpening my axe. And it's like not only do the work but also be intentional with your time like know what you're doing and and be really smart about it. And you know that's what I saw in you and and I loved working for you. I loved my time at at renewal by Anderson and and even when I left you were so gracious and and supportive of me starting my own consulting business and and here I am I think it's what six years five or six years later we're talking on my podcast. So very cool for me to have you and I really enjoyed this.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

So any final words for the for the for the audience on again no pressure the inaugural selling in the dwelling podcast no I know but I I will tell you it's uh you said I was gracious when I left yeah that's it's all of our jobs to help people get to a a another place a better place provide a good opportunity for them while you're they're with you but I always want nothing but if somebody wants to go do something else more power to them and I always try to to help them out with it. I love seeing your journey I love what you've done with it. I often refer to your journey to when we're when I'm speaking of project consultants and and a year when you had made the the decision to I'm going to run 50% as many leads because I'm gonna write this book which was a seven secrets of selling a great book and that year you were still project consultant of the year and your production had gone up while you ran 50% as much. Final words this is a this is an amazing space we're in it's a privilege that we have to earn every day to be invited into people's homes to help them out with their projects and it's a privilege that we get to have teammates put their trust in us the same as those homeowners to to provide a good environment for them to work in and I don't ever take it lightly and I I hope uh the I I hope and I know others in my position uh feel the same way.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

Well I'm sure they do and uh again I can't thank you enough Matt for joining me uh and kicking off this podcast it's been very it's been an honor for me it's been exciting and I want to thank you for doing this and I want to thank you the audience for joining in on the very first edition of Selling in the dwelling remember to visit my sponsor Paradigm Vendo it's myparadigm.com check them out you will not be sorry that you did thanks again everyone for joining and we will see you next time on Selling in the dwelling take care of the